Machine

Basically the idea for this is every album I have not heard before I will go track by track and give my thoughts on it. Kind like the old Love and Hate threads from back in the day, but instead of waiting around for everyone to rec me **** I'm just gonna listen to whatever I want. Although if people want to rec me **** I'll put aside Friday to review a couple albums that people rec me. I'll also listen to any personal projects and review those as well. Everything is fair game, I just want to listen to a ton of music and have people feed my ego. This journal will probably eventually be used for other **** as well, but I have no ideas at the moment.

Rating System
Black = 1/10
Brown = 2/10
Red = 3/10
Pink = 4/10
White = 5/10
LightGreen = 6/10
Green = 7/10
Blue = 8/10
Purple = 9/10
Indigo = 10/10

__________________
boost my ego

listen to me stroke my delay pedal

ever wanted to hear death grips songs... but they're acoustic? me neither.

grindy

This was my unreviewed rec from your other thread, so...

https://www.discogs.com/%D0%9B%D0%B5...elease/1657980

__________________
A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Paedantic Basterd

This is ambitious. Good for you.

Machine

ENTRY 1

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Gumboot Soup
Genre: Garage Rock, Neo-Psych, Jazz Rock, Heavy Psych



So at this point I'll assume that everyone knows this band and has heard at least one album they've put out in the last year.Personally I think all 4 so far have been good to great, with an outstanding amount of quality control for a band putting out an album every 2 to 3 months. I figured what better way to start off this journal when I found out that the 5th and final album of the year was released this morning. All I know about the album so far is that it is a re-recorded collection of tracks that didn't make the other four albums. I've heard a couple singles and thought they were good. Without further ado let's start.

Track 1: Beginner's Luck
Alright we're starting off with one of their more jazz-pop songs. I always thought they should explore this style more than their usual psych stylings. Strange chords on this song, I'm not entirely sure they all work and the chorus is a little irritating. I can see why this was left off of Sketches, but it's not really bad, just nothing special. The little flute solo was nice with the psych'd out backing vocals.

Track 2: Greenhouse Heat Death
This is one of the song's I've already heard. So this was pretty obviously left off of Flying Microtonal Banana, but in sound it really comes closer to sounding like a fusion of the FMB sound and the Murder sound. It's a little heavier and less krautrock than anything from Banana. This one is pretty damn catchy the only thing that bothers me are the throat growled vocals that are way too high in the mix.

Track 3: Barefoot Desert
Strange riff to start off on. Oh **** this is straight up psych pop, haven't heard this style from them on any of their albums this year, so I'm not sure where exactly this would have landed. I always liked Ambrose's vocals over Stu's in all honesty, I'm glad he was given more time to shine here. At around the 2 minute mark there's there's an awesome little breakdown.The song is proggier than you would think for such a short song, goes through a lot of changes for it being so short and poppy. Yeah that one was pretty alright.

Track 4: Muddy Water
Back into psych rock like THAT all right this one is really cool. Sounds like their usual riff orientated style, but with all acoustic guitars and just proggier instrumentation overall. This one is actually the best on the album so far. Great mix of the Nonagon sound with the Polygondwanaland sound. I don't care what anyone says about them overdoing the whole "garage rock based in riffs" it fits them and I've never heard anyone do it as well as these guys. Oh lord that sax trio was wonderful. Easily one of their best songs this year.

Track 5: Superposition
Before I even start this one I already know, just on the track title alone, that this was left off of Polygondwanaland, so I'm pretty excited to hear this one. I was right. Woah this is actually quite a lot different for them. It's all based around synths ad a heavily autotuned vocal. I was not expecting this out of a King Gizzard album, ever. Hm, not too much to say in the song itself it has a cool droning chords progression and it relies on mode mixture over actual chord changes, and ah a free jazz breakdown out of nowhere, nice touch. Production is something else on this one.

Track 6: Down The Sink
This one's a little funky. They need to keep this sax going on their next album, it adds a lot to their music and I don't knowhow they just they of using the instrument. This one I can tell was LEFT OFF an album, it feels a bit unfinished and the song itself is a bit weak. The production is wonderful, but that has gone for every King Gizzard album I've ever listened to, even the more lo-fi ones. I'm a bit sad they wasted such a great groove on a weak song. It's got cool sections, but overall pretty skippable.

Track 7: The Great Chain of Being
I love the title of this one lmfao. OH THANK THE ****ING LORD HEAVY GIZZ! I want to personally ask Stu when he's giving us the heavy psych/doom metal I've been wanting from them for a year now. This is ridiculous, the guitars are so damn crunchy and bluesy in the most Electric Wizardy way. That's my favorite sound out of a guitar. Damn this song just kicks ass, it's not just a sludge fest either, they brought the catchy songwriting as well. Why did they leave this off an album?!?! I do not understand the logic behind that decision. OH the ending part of this is just too much.

Track 8: The Last Oasis
Ah the other track I heard before this came out. This is pure jazzy beauty. Easily the best in this style I've heard from them and this is coming from someone who actually liked Sketches quite a bit. Not too much to say beyond that though, the chord progression is pretty great despite not knowing what it actually is. Not too big on the wash over production that happens about half way through the track at all though, the vocals also sound a little weird with all the autotune they have on them.

Track 9: All Is Known
More Microtonal Banana ****. Just based on these outtakes you could tell these were written a little later in the recording process because they sound like a mix between FMB and Murder like I said earlier. This song is a little bit generically "them". It's cool, but you can only listen to this tune so many times, luckily they're not a one trick pony and you can usually bet on them changing things up quite a lot by the next album. Bit boring.

Track 10: I'm Sleepin' In
This is almost Radioheady, this is beautiful. There's actually quite a lot going on here, so I'll point out a few points of production I think are interesting. So the recording is clean, except for the drums which are overloaded and in the front of the mix. There is a constant barrage of synths over this lightly strummed acoustic guitar line. So short tho... Alright if there are tracks to list to from this, listen to this one, The Great Chain of Being, and Muddy Water.

Track 11: The Wheel
Alright final track of this incredibly inconsistent album. Seems to be more jazz rock, wow they really recorded a lot for Sketches that didn't make it on the record. Why do I get the feeling in the future they're going to go down this chilled out jazz rock road a lot more than I'm personally comfortable with. This one is a little sleepy for me, too chill for it's own good. There's just not much to say about it. Yeah whatever, boring.

OVERALL
Pretty good outing, wildly inconsistent, but it also has some of their best tracks ever put to recording, so I can't really complain.
6/10

__________________
boost my ego

listen to me stroke my delay pedal

ever wanted to hear death grips songs... but they're acoustic? me neither.

Machine

ENTRY 2

Magrudergrind - Magrudergrind
Genre: Grindcore, Powerviolence



So my friend showed me a song by these guys and while initially I was amused by their name the intense sludge and groove of the track quickly won my heart over as I was jamming in the back of a diner a bit to hard. beyond that I'm going into this more or less blind. I'm prepared for about 26 minutes of non stop in your face sludge and grind.

Track 1: The Protocols of Anti-Sound
Right off the bat I'm enthralled in nothing but pure distortion from guitars revving up. Holy **** this sounds great. I KNEW IT, pure ****ing sludge man. Possibly the simplest riff I've ever heard, but it does not matter. All right now we're in full throttle grind. This is absolutely powerful in every sense of the world. The riff is unrelenting and supremely heavy, when it gets too fast it never breaks in clarity.

Track 2: Pulverizing Hate Mongers
This definitely more on the punk. Heavy as all hell though. The riff is nowhere near as crushing unfortunately, at least the vocals have been completely kicking the entire time, and **** the drummer is kicking it.

Track 3: Rejecting The Militant Promise
Loving these near chromatic riffing on display here. Ooo and we're getting out of the low tones on the guitar on this one. More of the same kickass **** from the last two tracks as to be expected with a powerviolence record. And just like that the next track has started lmao.

Track 4: Assimilated Pollutants
Another 40 second track. Oh I'm loving the riff in the intro there. This one is the best so far, easily the guitar sounds like nothing I've ever heard before. And it's over.

Track 5: Abuse of Philanthropic Self Gain
These tracks are too damn short to review. What in the hell is this, jesus christ that kicked my ass, and the track hadn't even come in fully yet. Damn I see why people love this. Wish that was like 2 minutes longer, although I guess I'll be going back to this a lot.

Track 6: Fools of Contradiction
This one is about 1 minute long, so obviously that means punk time? Well either way that's what I'm getting. Love the d-beat energy in the first half of the track before it moves back into more familiar powervioence territory. Oh now I'm getting lectured about gentrification? Yeah alright bud.

Track 7: Heretics
That's just a fun sounding riff. I'm not sure how to describe this one beyond really fun grindcore. It feels very juvenile in a way, not even pure anger like kids who want to act angry, but are secretly having a really good time. That's the feeling I get on this one. GUYS THESE SONGS ARE NOT LONG ENOUGH FOR YOU TO JUSTIFY THESE 20 SECOND SAMPLES AT THE END OF YOUR TRACKS!

Track 8: Bridge Burner
Oh okay a 3 minute track les go. I believe this is the song that my friend showed me. Yes it is, I recognize that distortion intro anywhere. GOD ****ING DAMN this groove is out of this world man. If there's a track anyone takes away from this album let it be this one. There's some other tracks I think have been just as good, but wow this one gets you right away. I was half hoping the entire record would be like this, instead I got something just as good, but I am a little disappointed by the lack of groove on the rest of this because they are just so good at it. And the hook is god tier.

Track 9: Cranial Media Parasite
Oh **** is this half of the record gonna be groovier? If so sign me the **** up, oh never mind back into the fire. The discordant riff is absolutely killer though, makes me feel like I'm listening to Converge or something. NO YOU DID NOT JUST TAKE UP HALF OF THE TRACK WITH A SAMPLE!

Track 10: Excommunicated
More of the same really at least in the intro here. I do like the interplay between the two vocalists in the chorus to this one, that's kinda fun. This riff in the "breakdown" is pretty great despite how damn simple it is. Cool stuff going on in this track, but nothing hasn't been heard on the record already. That's not really a complaint don't worry.

Track 11: The Price of Living By Delinquent Ideals
Gotta love Spotify ads before your song will start. Stop. With. The. Damn. Samples. Please. Pure cacophony, despite how insane the music gets the production stays clear, big ups to the producer and studio engineer on this one. Oh that sludge riff is ungodly, that's just too ****ing much man. Great track. D U M B A S S S A M P L E S

Track 12: Built To Blast
Love the almost melodic opening riff. Felt almost like the intro to some sort of dark pop punk record. More spastic drumming and riffing as per usual. The mid section feels pretty uninspired, and the sample is so ****ing dumb jfc.

Track 13: Lyrical Ammunition For Scene Warfare
Back to the realllly short tracks. Alright more d-beat I see. Riff is pretty meh unfortunately. Just not much doing anything for me in this track, it simplifies what was already a really simple formula. Riffing near the end kind saves this one though.

Track 14: Rise and Fall of Empires Past
Easily the most grindcore of the tracklist so far. Nothing on this album has really felt true grindcore until now. It's also easily the shortest track on the album.

Track 15: Heavier Bombing
Huh so this starts with some sort of grindy hip-hop sample. Or... this is the whole track. So first half of the track is a powerviolence inspired piece of boom bap and then it just shoots into regular powerviolence. Okay and we have another boom bap track at the end... Yeah that was a bit confusing, the last little beat at the end was cool, but that was not structured well at all.

Track 16: Martyrs of the Shoah
Back to the mother****in groove, thank you Magrudergrind. not quite as damn powerful as Bridge Burner, but still damn good. Little fast for this style imo, but overall I love this one. It's also around 3 minutes, so there's a little bit more to chew on as this entire album should be. I still want to hear a band who only does the slow parts of death metal, grindcore, and powerviolence. Those sections are always my favorite parts of the respective genres.

Track 17: Untitled
So this seems to be a bit of dark ambient with lots of political samples flying by with very vague intention, although with the general politics of the album I can take a wild guess. I actually quite enjoy the ambience this track creates, much better than the sloppy samples places around the beginnings and ends of all the other tracks.

OVERALL
Despite some lackluster structuring and general idiocy in its political overtones. The music itself kicks so much ass none of those problems really matter. In fact the last track, one of the most blatantly political, was one of my favorites. I don't really care about motives if the music great, and the music IS great. I'll more than definitely check out more by these guys in the future.
7/10

__________________
boost my ego

listen to me stroke my delay pedal

ever wanted to hear death grips songs... but they're acoustic? me neither.

The Batlord

Here have even more ****ed up powerviolence.

__________________

Trollheart

Very good reviews, Machine.
Just a tiny bit of advice: I'd explain the colour-coded keys for your track ratings, as not everyone is familiar with my system from "Love or Hate?" and as well as that, you seem to have (though that might be an error) some tracks marked in different shades of green? Then there's purple? Maybe just throw a key into the OP so people know what the colours mean?

Other than that, very impressive. Keep it up!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Ol’ Qwerty Bastard

magrudergrind ****ing roooock

try this album tho

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Music Blog / RYM / Last.fm / Qwertyy's Journal of Music Reviews and Other Assorted Ramblings

Machine

Good advice thank ya, everything is explained in OP now

__________________
boost my ego

listen to me stroke my delay pedal

ever wanted to hear death grips songs... but they're acoustic? me neither.

Machine

ENTRY 3

Jeff Rosenstock - POST-
Genre: Power Pop, Indie Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Prog Pop



So one of my favorite artists of all time has decided to drop a new album out of absolutely nowhere once again. I hear this one is quite a bit more strange than then anything else he's ever recorded and just looking at the tracklisting I see a 7 minute song and an 11 minute song, so I'm not expecting just the usual power punk affair. I don't really have patience to write any more of an intro because I just want to hear this album, so without further ado.

Track 1 & 2: Mornin' and USA
Mornin' is a 5 second track, so I'm including it with the first actual track USA. Alright this has come in incredibly strong, the chord progression is classic Jeff, but the tempo has been slowed a lot than usual. Some great lead guitar work here as usual. About 1 minute in and we're already going through some sort of interlude/build up. Yeah I can see why this is strange for him. And suddenly this heaven-high crescendo out of absolutely nowhere. The song almost feels like it's ending, but there's at least 4 minutes left. OH finally, Jeff has given into his electronic impulses, this is pure chiptune goodness. Really beautiful atmospheric synth stuff, just looping on these two beautiful major 7th chords. Alright seem to be building back into some more uptempo, oh I see. So the angelic crescendo I was talking about earlier is back, so it seems to almost act as chorus in this song. This is absolutely ridiculous, this outro. Okay stop reading this review now and just go listen to the album this is nuts man.

Track 3: Yr Throat
Alright back into more familiar territory song length wise. Really liking the galloping drums here in the beginning and raw recording quality of SOME of the instruments. Alright this feels like something off of WORRY, but a bit more interesting chord-wise. Apparently Jeff is now afraid of the verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure because I have yet to hear it on this album yet. He's instead adopting a "I will write and structure songs however I damn please" method.

Track 4: All This Useless Energy
Wow that is some weird production on that acoustic guitar. Strange production choices on this whole album, but not in way that cheapens the record or makes it worse. Really cool tune on this one, and is this a normal pop structure I'm hearing???? If this kind of quality keeps up this might do the impossible and beat out WORRY. In love with the "so in the background synths you can barely make them out". Man I could talk about the chords Jeff uses all day man, so strange.

Track 5: Powerlessness
This is the first track that even remotely has a punk feel to it, but the way is mixed it doesn't really feel like a punk track, more like a sped up singer/songwriter thing at least here. Alright here's all the instruments. Another good tune, but easily the worst I've heard on this album. By no means does that mean bad, it just means something I've heard many a time listening to Jeff Rosenstock records. The chorus is pretty damn sticky though, can't get enough of that.

Track 6: TV Star
Absolutely beautiful start up from this synth and piano. Dream-like feel to this one. I like the transition into more standard singer/songwriter with the "generic" drum fill. Loving the instrumentation on this record quite strange even for a Jeff Rosenstock. This is a wonderful song through and through. I love this little acoustic guitar run through some sort of synth to give it this wash over sound that feels so out of place, but it works somehow. This track is giving me flashbacks to When You're A Ghost, but it definitely has its own identity.

Track 7: Melba
Alright I believe I heard some sort of version of this song went I went to see Jeff live, I'm not entirely sure, but I feel like I've heard this song at least in demo form... somewhere. I at least recognize the title. YES HE PLAYED THIS LIVE! This is a damn great song, pretty basic power pop ****, but that in no way is an insult. When listening to Jeff you have to remember his most generic ranks up with the absolute best of any other power pop artist. Great bridge here. Loving the subtle organ that pops in and out of the background. Love this one.

Track 8: Beating My Head Against The Wall
So I have heard this one already, Jeff released it on some compilation last year and while I loved the song I did not think it would be on his next album. From the demo version I heard it seems like a more standard punk/power pop song than I'm used to hearing from him. It's also a very short song, so hopefully this new version kicks my ass. Alright it seems about the same except everything is actually recorded properly. The synth actually adds a lot to this one, gives it some more harmony in general and makes the song a bit more interesting. Great little song.

Track 9: 9/10
Second to last song, and last before the 11 minute epic. Another synth start to this one. Kinda feels like a synthpop song right now, that's not something I've ever felt I could say with a Jeff Rosenstock song. The vocal melody in the chorus is so damn nice. Wow this genuine beauty, there's a lot going on in the prod that I can't really properly describe. Really beautiful near-jazzy guitar solo. Jeff I'm glad you've finally indulged yourself in some more experimental production again, it's been a while. Yeah this one is blowing me away.

Track 10: Let Them Win
Here we go. Loving the double tracked bass here, gives this a really heavy feel to it. This is the kind of production I'm always looking in records, production that feels like a sonic experience as much as the songs themselves. Love the stop start rhythm in the A section here. This is the first album where I'm hearing a lot of jazz influence in the rhythms and some of the guitar playing. This record just feels absolutely massive compared to his other records, for whatever reason this also feels like his first truly proper album if that makes sense? This is the first time everything has felt entirely professional in sound and presentation. Also this guitar solo is absolutely kicking, holy **** man. The entire is just building and going to war with itself while this lone guitar just soars on top of everything. Man this is only halfway through the song too. That acoustic guitar just sounds beautiful... now a lone synth? Uh is this about to become a progressive electronic piece? It seems to be... This is actually really spacey and beautiful. I'd like to hear him really indulge in his more electronic side like this some day. Idk I feel like we could get a power pop Kid A out of this man. So this is really the rest of the track... I'm completely digging this. Amazing song, amazing closer.

OVERALL
I mean... damn Jeff really good job. Really good job...This is his best yet.
8/10

__________________
boost my ego

listen to me stroke my delay pedal

ever wanted to hear death grips songs... but they're acoustic? me neither.