ASS: Find A Partner!

Share and discuss music, artists, and the audiophile culture.
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Postby aids » 2012.03.30 (19:24)

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What is the ASS you say? It's just a bunch of guys who swap albums with each other. If you'd like to join, there are a few things you should know. First, no matter how awesome they are, albums longer than 80 minutes won't be accepted. We're busy men you know. Middle, you'll have a week to listen to your album and write a quick review about it. You're not going for a Pulitzer, but you're not writing Twilight fanfic either. Make it well-written, preferably honest. And last, anything goes. From the bowels of Mexican metal to the sheer nothingness of prog ambient, music is music, and we don't discriminate.

Most transactions will be taking place in irc://irc.mountai.net/#music, so if you're having trouble finding an album or just want to talk to Colgate, come join us.

Last.fm ::
|| Aidiera || bobaganuesh_2 || Donfuy || flag || gloomp || kuri || mediate || miasmata || ortsz || PALEMOON || RandomDigits || Rhekatou || Rose || Sen || sidke || spoon || Stephen || TommyWiseau || trance || Tunco || Uzi || xwd || Yahoozy ||
NOTICE
Here's an acceptable template to use:
ASS Review Template wrote:Album by Artist [via Recommender]

{review}

>> Reviewer

website (if you want me to include a link to a profile or site of yours, Last.fm used by default)
An example of a review that used this template.

Last edited by aids on 2014.08.21 (08:20), edited 110 times in total.
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Postby xwd » 2012.03.30 (19:50)

I'm in, and I promise not to throw in a psytrance album or the latest fun. album.

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Postby Rose » 2012.03.30 (20:31)

Aidiera wrote:And last, anything goes. From the bowels of Mexican metal...
Challenge accepted, I'm in.
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Postby Tunco » 2012.03.30 (21:16)

I'm in.
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Postby unoriginal name » 2012.03.31 (02:04)

first time i get you i'm showing you what the real outer reaches of sound fall under aids

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Postby otters~1 » 2012.03.31 (08:41)

xwd wrote:I'm in, and I promise not to throw in a psytrance album or the latest fun. album.
some nights i stay up cashin' in my baaaaaaaaaad luck
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Postby sidke » 2012.03.31 (20:38)

you have my skill in naming things. i am like a proud father
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Postby 乳头的早餐谷物 » 2012.04.01 (05:38)

I'm not really an ass man, but in this case I'll make an exception.
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Postby Universezero » 2012.04.01 (09:49)

Je vais rejoindre.
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Postby Tanner » 2012.04.01 (16:25)

Aidiera, do you want to appropriate http://metanetreviews.tumblr.com/ since you're doing basically the same thing as I was doing with The Metanet Weekly Music Trading Thread?
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Postby aids » 2012.04.01 (17:01)

Duchess of Awesome wrote:Aidiera, do you want to appropriate http://metanetreviews.tumblr.com/ since you're doing basically the same thing as I was doing with The Metanet Weekly Music Trading Thread?
I was fo shizzle going to ask to use it. ^.^ PM me the deets.
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Postby Seneschal » 2012.04.01 (18:33)

This sounds interesting and I just went on holiday so I have plenty of time on my hands. Sign me up! (That reminds me, I haven't been on irc in ages, I'll drop in next time I remember).

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Postby aids » 2012.04.01 (20:53)

PM me here or on IRC with your album and artist if you'd be so kind.

EDIT: No, I'm stupid. Pairs are forthcoming.
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Postby PALEMOON » 2012.04.01 (22:47)

hi, i'd love to do this next week or whatever please yeah :D

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Postby Rhekatou » 2012.04.02 (04:28)

next week or whenever the next is I'd like to do this
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Postby xwd » 2012.04.04 (01:30)

Rose gave me this pretty cool ambient album from above the Arctic Circle, Substrata by Biosphere. I appear to have gotten the remastered version but any differences are probably psychological. I was a bit concerned because, well, ambient isn't exactly a genre you can say a lot about, it doesn't have traditional song structure or breakdowns or sick drops or anything like that, but this was good.

The album's full of cold and wet sounds, with lots of echo and reverb. There's sort of a warm analog sound to it all that keeps it from being too much, as well as some interesting rhythms. The strings, electronic sounds, environmental recordings, and occasional vocal samples all work nicely together to get this mood of coldness. You get this mood like it's midnight in the dead of winter, with piles of snow and ice all around you. Sometimes it's snowing, blowing over everything, sometimes it's perfectly still and clear and you can see the stars. Maybe there's some guy tooling around on a snowmobile in the distance, you can't really see that far. Maybe it's that old tape machine you hauled out here to record the wind, it's a toss-up. It's good music to sit and be contemplative to. It's not particlarly demanding listening, though there are plenty of moments that will grab your attention.

Tracks don't last too long, usually by the time you think you might be getting bored with one it ends and the next one starts. Find a way to listen to this with gapless playback on a system with plenty of bass, you'll need it. Rose said his favorite tracks were Sphere of No-Form and The Things I Tell You, I'm inclined to agree. The Things I Tell You develops pretty nicely into a kind of dream-like sound, assuming you also have electronic twerps in your dreams. Sphere of No-Form has an angry bass sound that gradually gives way to a very fragile soundscape.

Basically, at the end of the day, it does what it's supposed to. You can chill out to it very nicely and it makes good background sounds for doing low-intensive sounds.

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Postby Donfuy » 2012.04.05 (02:18)

I want in next week.
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Postby Seneschal » 2012.04.06 (12:53)

Artist: Erik Enocksson
Album: Farväl Falkenberg
Recommend by: Tunco

One of the things I love about the Taxi Driver soundtrack is that, although it sounds equally gorgeous in isolation, when combined with the images of the sordid nightlife of New York and Travis Bickle’s jaded narration it elevates the film to a level of greatness that it otherwise would not have reached. I mention this for two reasons: firstly, I saw this film for the first time last night and so it’s still fresh in my memory, and secondly because I think it illustrates the power of the soundtrack in shaping a film. Farväl Falkenberg is a film that I had never previously heard of and will probably never see, so it’s hard for me to evaluate it in the same way as I would the score of Taxi Driver, for example. I don’t know how the soundtrack relates to the film and I can’t tell whether certain moments in the score reflect what’s happening on screen. However, despite feeling at times like only one half of a whole, I still found the score to be greatly evocative, even if what I’m imagining has little to do with the film itself, which I think is one of the best things a soundtrack can do.

The opening track, ‘The Joy of D.H. Lawrence’, begins simply and develops into a rather beautiful acoustic piece with several different tunes drifting in and out of the mix, including a sweet whistling melody and an insistent piano led section that adds a degree of urgency to the piece. By contrast, the next track, ‘Dusk Settles In’, is a slow-burning atmospheric number led by a pipe organ that helps to establish a definite mood that is carried on into track three, entitled ‘The Breaking of Waves’, an experimental sound collage of sorts. Here disjointed guitar notes and electronic noises knock about indiscriminately until a xylophone melody and a rippling piano tune grant the piece a more defined structure. Unfortunately, about three and a half minutes in a jarring and mercifully brief choral blast brings the track screeching to a halt and threatens to undo the carefully developed atmosphere of these two tracks.

The song titles themselves are quite helpful in creating a starting point from which to imagine the world that the music seeks to create. ‘What drove her shivering into the cold, cold sea’ and ‘The State the sea left me in’ seem to provide a fairly literal description of events and emotional states, and one can’t help imagining something akin to a small, Nordic village by the sea that has been the scene of some sort of tragedy. Whereas the first of these maintains the moody atmosphere of ‘Dusk Settles In’, the latter is altogether more positive, perhaps indicating redemption of a sort. I’m still unconvinced by the strength of the choral section here, but it at least fits better than on ‘The Breaking of Waves’.

Not every track works – ‘Thru Thick Night’ is a rather light-hearted folk number that might serve well as an interlude, but isn’t memorable enough to stand comparison with the atmospheric tracks that it’s sandwiched between. The two ‘waltz’ pieces are likewise pleasant enough, but can’t quite match the rest of the album’s ability to evoke such a clear mood of despondency.

Lastly we come to ‘The Lingering Procession’, which perfectly demonstrates how to use a chorus within the context of all these gloomy instrumental pieces. The voices ascend gloriously, and even without having seen the film the listener is left feeling that something meaningful has occurred. It’s a fittingly hopeful resolution to an album that, for the most part, offers precious little other than sorrow to behold (however musically gorgeous that may be) and trumps everything that has gone before in terms of sheer beauty of sound.

Verdict: A-

As an addendum, I’d like to say that I’m really grateful for Tunco for this suggestion because I haven’t really listened to many whole soundtracks outside of their cinematic settings before, so this was a relatively new (and pleasant) experience. Cheers!

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Postby Tunco » 2012.04.06 (20:41)

LP4 by Ratatat, recommended by xwd

It's not a common thing for me to listen to listen to pop-influenced instrumental rhythms; I am very picky when it comes to this sort of music, I try to make sure it's something I can like, but, I wasn't stressed about having a bad time when I learned which album I was getting. I am affiliated with two albums Ratatat had done before and enjoyed them throughout; I already knew what I was expecting when I was getting this album: catchy IDM-ish rhythms that are apt to be buoyant in my mind for the following day or two.

I was not wrong, the first track 'Bilar' starts off with a slow build-up and climaxing with what appears to be the sort of sound I can't help but move my body accordingly, the same pace is kept up with the track 'Drugs', albeit the track starts slowly with a talking sample in German and a more cozy rhythm in a slower pace, it follows to what appears to be the most memorable part of the whole album. 'Drugs' being the highlight of the album, the next track keeps up with the high expectancy the first two produces, which could be only described as 'groovy'.

Unfortunately, the next 8 tracks felt like a placefiller and a really long interlude to the final track of the album. They were relatively worse and although enjoyable as a collective, were more repetitive and felt like a failed attempt to give that 'cozy' feeling I already mentioned. The final track, 'Alps', has a more recognizable tune and is a reminiscent of the first three, although feeling less squished and makes me imagine a vista of a suburb.

Nonetheless, it's good album that would feel much better if songs were rearranged.
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Postby unoriginal name » 2012.04.07 (18:21)

Jeff Buckley - Grace
Rec'd by: flagmyidol

You know, quite often I hate that the idea of a canon ever came about. Obviously, given the context, I'm referring to the musical canon, more specifically the rock canon. But I feel similarly with regards to film, literature, furniture, etc. A canon essentially gives you a list of examples from its given field and says, these are the best out there. Love them. In doing so, it automatically places a wealth of expectations upon its choices, and when one does eventually give one a try, the experience has been tarnished.

Now, I understand that's not an especially promising lead-in, but hear me out. I actually like Grace quite a bit. It's a beautiful album. But it's also one of the most heavily canonized albums of the '90s. It's on a massive amount of lists, big and small, has had a book written about it, and has been issued at least seven times. All of this I was well aware of heading into the ghostly opening strums of "Mojo Pin". Do you see the problem here? No one can go into an album truly unbiased, true, but Grace suffers an obscenely heavy load of bias. Positive bias, yes, but that's not really much better than negative. If an album has been shoved in my face repeatedly along with proclamations of life-changingness and supremitude, when it inevitably falls short of that and is merely quite good, I don't feel so much glad that I've discovered something quite good, as I do disappointed I haven't discovered a paragon of rock.

But again, don't misunderstand me. Grace is a special album, of beauty and sorrow and a sort of quiet grandeur, and Buckley has a gorgeous voice (although not as impressive as that of his father). I just didn't find it as special as the world says.

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Postby otters~1 » 2012.04.08 (06:33)

no canada wrote:If an album has been shoved in my face repeatedly along with proclamations of life-changingness and supremitude, when it inevitably falls short of that and is merely quite good, I don't feel so much glad that I've discovered something quite good, as I do disappointed I haven't discovered a paragon of rock.
I agree! That's why I challenged you to listen to it.
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Postby otters~1 » 2012.04.08 (08:56)

:: well i've had some rum and now i'm going to liveblog my album sort of like they liveblog the masters

:: it's 72 minutes of fame by c418 and universezero sent it me

3:24 it has no lyrics but has these ambient styles to it, very chill beats on the first track which is entitled timelapse kingdom, which makes me think of a mario level

3:25 so i googled this and apparently it is the soundtrack to minecraft or something, i hope it doens't get scary like when the spiders show up and stuff

3:31 i put socks on my hands

3:35 roommate assists flag in bed making whilst sick beats wake up everyone within 200 meters

3:41 am really enjoying the eery compositional effects of turning this up too loud for my laptop speakers to adequately reproduce

3:57 forgot about this tab, also have been playing album backwards - will reattempt tomorrow
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Postby 乳头的早餐谷物 » 2012.04.08 (17:38)

Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World, as recommended by the lovely Seneschal.

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Right from the opening track, a spacious and languid number where strings swell around a compressed beat, plinking piano, and meandering resonant synths and guitars before making way for odd processed vocals, I'm struck by the similarities between Rings Around the World and the work of a certain band from Oklahoma. Now, in writing this review, I didn't want to over-emphasise the Flaming Lips comparison, since more than anything it is simply a product of them being the only other band in this style I'm familiar with, but then I saw a photo of Super Furry Animals's frontman. He has clearly stolen Wayne Coyne's beard.

This album certainly has more of an alternative rock feel than anything from The Flaming Lips post-Clouds Taste Metallic, but not to the extent I would have liked. I say this not out of any particular affection for alternative rock but rather because this album could have done with a few more up-tempo songs. As it is, Rings Around the World suffers from a lack of energy, exacerbated by a sequencing which places the few truly rockish numbers all in the first twenty minutes of the album. A couple more songs in the vein of Sidewalk Serfer Girl, which opens with acoustic guitar and saccharine vocals punctuated by very welcome blasts of electric guitar, would have gone a long way to balance out the many slower songs. This would have also helped draw some attention away from the frequently unfortunate lyrics (representative lines: "turn all the hate in the world / into a mockingbird / make it fly away / yet as our hair turns grey / it's far from a-OK").

It's easy to criticise (fun, too, to quote Homer Simpson), and the bottom line is that Rings Around the World is an enjoyable album with a few tracks in particular that I'll be coming back to, and I will be looking into the rest of Super Furry Animals's discography. If you're into The Flaming Lips or neo-psychedelia in general—well, you're probably already well familiar with this band, but if not—you should certainly give this album a listen. However, the promise shown by the first half-dozen tracks—whose eclectic and playful mix of alternative rock, sixties pop, and experimental electronica also reminded me a little of the more rock-oriented side of the Shibuya-kei movement—was unfortunately undermined by the rather wearisome second half.
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Postby Universezero » 2012.04.09 (02:24)

Tourist History by Two Door Cinema Club
Recommended by Aidiera
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It is only occasionally that I listen to indie rock of this type, but when I do there are a few things that I listen for. The first is good melody, which this album certainly delivers. The songs are extremely catchy and memorable, especially the singer, who has a strange appealing quality. It's not the kind of voice you would forget.

The second would be in the general composition of the songs. A lot rock bands disappoint me when they have a great drummer, but the drums get put in the background over the guitar and bass. Same goes for any of the other instruments. Two Door Cinema Club doesn't disappoint, in that the songs are tailored to show off their skills. The bass is never put on the back-burner, and is used to have a great impact on the overall sound of the song. The percussion is also very well mastered and definitely adds to the excitement of the songs.

The third would be originality. When listening to a band, I like to able to hear their style coming through their music. This is certainly present in all their songs, especially through their great lead guitarist. The subtle electronica-esque effects in their intros and such also adds extra flair, making it even more memorable.
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Postby aids » 2012.04.09 (07:46)

Artist: Beulah
Album: Yoko
Recommended by: ortsz

I like my pop the same way I like my Jones: indie. (Horrible pun is horrible.) I'd heard of Beulah only once before getting this album, and I had accidentally called them Beluga. But I was lucky enough to get a mix made for me which featured two Beulah songs. Landslide Baby was incredibly catchy and piqued my interest. After doing some recon on Wikipedia, I'm not surprised that they're part of Elephant 6. The overall mood of the album is rather foreboding, signaling an unsettling future.

I really liked the intricacy of some of the songs, like the piano and uke on Me And Jesus Don't Talk Anymore and the outro for My Side Of The City. The only song I wasn't fond of was the first one. It didn't do much for me Some of the imagery and rhymes in the lyrics were fantastic, such as "and that lazy eye won't budge /cuz you're praying way too much" and "all I need is a brand new heart / it's old and it's cold and it's no longer golden." I wish I could compare it to another album, any other album, but I've never liked listening to a lot of one artist at a time, so albums aren't really my thing. But I would recommend it if you happen to enjoy ominous music.
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