ASS: Find A Partner!

[aids]

round ii

• Tunco >> Aidiera
• Sen >> Rose
• Uzi >> xwd
• Donfuy >> Tunco
• Rhekatou >> gloomp
• PALEMOON >> flag
• flag >> ortsz
• sidke >> Uzi
• Rose >> Sen
• gloomp >> PALEMOON
• xwd >> sidke
• ortsz >> Rheka
• Aidiera >> Donfuy

Also, just to help me out a bit, follow the review format in the OP. :)

[Rose]

Late review is late. And I think I'm following the OP format, let me know if I'm not.

Heavier than a Death in the Family by Les Rallizes Dénudés [via gloomp]

Well, it's a noise rock album recommended by gloomp, so you know it's either going to be really good or really bad. Or so I thought. First of all, this is a live bootleg, so the sound quality is less than ideal. Secondly, the songs themselves weren't terrible, but they were just... boring. I had a really hard time keeping my attention on it because it just sounded like the singer moaned into the microphone sporadically and the music was chaotic without being attention-grabbing. Don't get me wrong; like I said earlier, this wasn't terrible. But it's not really something I'll be listening to again either. The occasional cool moments just don't save the album as a whole.

That said, it does not surprise me in the least that gloomp likes this. Totally his thing. ;D

>> Rose

[ENT474]

so that's what ass means

[noops]

I think I'd like to join next week's.

[Rose]

Decided to do my review early this time.

Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age [via Sen]

When I saw the "stoner rock" and "hard rock" tags coupled with the band's popular status, I honestly expected it to be very straightforward, "radio-friendly" music. But no, I was pleasantly surprised by the relative complexity of some of the songs. One song in the second half of the album (don't remember which) switched between 4/4 and 5/4 time, which isn't all that special in essence but still caught me off-guard in a good way. The little radio clips were generally entertaining too, but I don't know if that will hold up on repeated listens. But hey, I'm talking about repeated listens, so that's a sign I liked it. Fairly enjoyable overall.

>> Rose

[xwd]

Further by The Chemical Brothers [via UniverseZero]

Alright. The Chemical Brothers. Legends of big beat. Part of the reason the word "electronica" exists. This is their latest album. Is it good? Not really. I dunno. Maybe I just came into this from the wrong perspective, expecting interesting break-heavy jams that got my ass moving. This isn't that kind of album at all. It doesn't have much in the way of loud beats at all, and it goes for long stretches without any beats, letting things float in psychedelia-flavored synths. Or maybe there'll be really really long and intense builds to "progressive" "house" beats. Or maybe things will go right back to the 90's and you'll have horse samples to drive home the fact that the title of this track is "Horse Power" because the vocal samples weren't enough.

What I'm getting to is that this album is kind of boring and stupid. I know, aren't all of my favorite electronic albums boring and stupid? No, they're not. They're interesting and stupid. If it's gonna be stupid, at least make it fun. This just feels like it's a bunch of weird sounds backed up by boring beats arranged in tried-and-tested crowd-pumping sequences. There's plenty of energy in most of the tracks, and if all those builds actually went someplace interesting that would be awesome, but they really don't. It's kind of a letdown, really. I guess I'm just conditioned to expect things to be harder, so subdued steady beats don't cut it for me. There are some pretty good parts when the beat meshes with the fuzz enough to make an atmosphere suitable for dancing, but they're not long enough. The floaty stuff is okay but I've heard better, my personal favorite for electronic psych rock is Caribou's Andorra which has much more interesting beats.

So yeah, somewhat interesting psychedelic sounds backed up by sometimes interesting beats. It's nothing terrible offensive, but nothing to get out of your seat for. Maybe it's more fun when you have crazy visuals to stare at.

PS: the bonus track on the Japanese version has loud beats and squelchy basslines and is therefore my favorite track on the album, in that you could drop a minute or two of it into a mix and it'd totally kill. Party!

>> xwd

http://ilovecopyleft.tumblr.com/

[Universezero]

By the way, I had an attempt at making a tumblr icon for us. Let me know what you think.

http://i.imgur.com/1qkzG.jpg

[unoriginal name]

By the way, I had an attempt at making a tumblr icon for us. Let me know what you think.

http://i.imgur.com/1qkzG.jpg

i recognize all of those albums and they are all entirely terrible; i won't be associated with such trash

[乳头的早餐谷物]

By the way, I had an attempt at making a tumblr icon for us. Let me know what you think.

http://i.imgur.com/1qkzG.jpg

i recognize all of those albums and they are all entirely terrible; i won't be associated with such trash

Clearly you missed Wowee Zowee and Brighten the Corners. Also Darts of Pleasure. And Turn on the Bright Lights.

What I'm saying is that it's only 98% terrible.

[Universezero]

Feel free to make a better montage of albums, and I will gladly use it.

[Tanner]

By the way, I had an attempt at making a tumblr icon for us. Let me know what you think.

http://i.imgur.com/1qkzG.jpg

i recognize all of those albums and they are all entirely terrible; i won't be associated with such trash

SAW 85-92 is front and center, douche.

[unoriginal name]

By the way, I had an attempt at making a tumblr icon for us. Let me know what you think.

http://i.imgur.com/1qkzG.jpg

i recognize all of those albums and they are all entirely terrible; i won't be associated with such trash

SAW 85-92 is front and center, douche.

Haha, I was really hoping you'd notice that.

also as if pavement isn't terrible

[Seneschal]

Movements by Solar Fields [via Rose]

I don’t listen to much ambient music on the whole. I’ve generally found that, while it’s usually enjoyable enough to have on in the background, most of it isn’t too memorable and I could probably listen to most ambient pieces more than once without realising I’d heard them before. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and I must admit that I find it pretty hard to dislike ambient music when it’s so unobtrusive, but I’ve yet to come across an ambient album that really stuck in my memory. I don’t think ‘Movements’ has changed my mind on that front, but it’s still a mostly pleasant listen nonetheless.

The opening track, ‘Sol’, establishes the lush, atmospheric sound that permeates the whole album. Like every track of the album, it’s peppered with sound effects and brief melodies that ensure that the music never really becomes boring, but often disappear too quickly to make much of an impression. The boundaries between tracks often seem fairly arbitrary since the album itself is essentially one long piece of music, and at approximately 80 minutes in length it does drag on a bit in places.

At times I felt that the album could have benefitted from a more experimental approach. ‘The Stones Are Not Too Busy’ was a step in the right direction, being somewhat darker and more subdued that the tracks that precede it, as was ‘Das Bungalow’, which tinkered with the formula slightly by adding a bouncy refrain, but neither was the radical departure that I felt the album could have done with. Although I realise that this kind of adventurousness is not really a part of the ambient blueprint, I think I could have engaged with the album more if it had been more willing to step outside of its comfort zone and have a crack at a few other genres.

Overall I found this to be an enjoyable enough album to listen to on its own terms, but it suffered from a lack of variation which, combined with its inordinate length, never really engaged me.

Verdict: C+

>>Seneschal

[Rose]

By the way, I had an attempt at making a tumblr icon for us. Let me know what you think.

http://i.imgur.com/1qkzG.jpg

i recognize all of those albums and they are all entirely terrible; i won't be associated with such trash

SAW 85-92 is front and center, douche.

This.

Also Californication is overrated but it's not terrible.

[乳头的早餐谷物]

Requiem for a Dream (soundtrack) by Clint Mansell

[via flag]

It is very, very clear that this collection of music was never intended to be heard on its own as a standalone album. There is little of substance contained within its fifty-one minute, thirty-three track length. Setting aside the worthless ambient sections and the truly appalling industrial electronic excursions (also there are congas), there are perhaps three unique pieces of music on this entire soundtrack, each appearing in various slightly different arrangements.

There could well be value in the idea of an album made out of recurring themes and motifs in various permutations, if it were properly explored, but clearly that was neither the intention nor the case here. These pieces are at best forgettably average string quartet soundtrack fare and are not interesting or substantial enough to warrant this sort of treatment.

This music may work well as a soundtrack to the film, and so it feels unfair to rate it harshly simply because it fails at a purpose it was never intended for. Still, I listened to this as a standalone work, and I am reviewing it as such, and so I must pull no punches: as an album, the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack is of very, very little merit.

>> ortsz

http://ortsz.tumblr.com/

[Universezero]

i recognize all of those albums and they are all entirely terrible; i won't be associated with such trash

FUCK YOU NORA JONES IS GORGEOUS

[Tunco]

Glass Eights by John Roberts, recommended by Donfuy

Glass Eights is an album that you can play in a party where people dress in smart-casual. This is the initial impression the album creates and it does not change much up until 4th track of the album or so, Josh Roberts adds a spice of variety in the songs with little tweaks and makes everything a bit more athmospheric. The album has a cozy feeling to it from beginning to end, it has that 'warm' sound that is present in 20 kbps releases. It is not the type of the thing you would want to listen without tapping your fingers or indulging yourself to the rhythm, and certainly not the type of thing that you can dance with.

It certainly isn't boring but there isn't much to it either.

[Donfuy]

Miike Snow by Miike Snow
recommended by Aidiera

---

Except for the awful "Animal" song, the the album sounds good, except for the god-awful voice. The voice is really the major failure on this album. It doesn't fit the crisp, occasionally dreamy sounds, sounding like it would fit perfectly in a new David Guetta song.

Good, catchy basslines, melodies, and synths. A good example of this is "Song For No One", which is one of my favorites.

But yeah, "Sans Soleil" is boring, "A Horse Is Not A Home" is bad faux- arcade fire, "Black & Blue" only gets kinda good between ~2:05 and 2:40, "Cult Logic" made my head bob (that's a good thing)...and the other three passed by me unnoticed.

"Silvia" is my favorite, "Song For No One" is a close second, and the rest except "Animal" and "A Horse Is Not A Home" are average.

3 ~ 4/5

[aids]

http://albumswapping.tumblr.com/post/21145783294

[aids]

round iii

• Aidiera >> xwd
• Rose >> flag
• xwd >> spoon
• Tunco >> ortsz
• flag >> Aidiera
• ortsz >> Donfuy
• Sen >> Tunco
• Donfuy >> Sen
• spoon >> Rose

um

you forgot someone

[Rhekatou]

I thought I pm'd you but I might have forgot to, I don't really have the time/regular visitation of the forums.

[unoriginal name]

round iii

• Aidiera >> xwd
• Rose >> flag
• xwd >> spoon
• Tunco >> ortsz
• flag >> Aidiera
• ortsz >> Donfuy
• Sen >> Tunco
• Donfuy >> Sen
• spoon >> Rose

um

you forgot someone

whoops pressed edit instead of quote

i got my album on like saturday and it's not even totally official so yeah you forgot someone

[aids]

http://albumswapping.tumblr.com/post/21324858440

All At Once by The Airborne Toxic Event [via flagmyidol]

I’m somewhat familiar with The Airborne Toxic Event, and I was even lucky enough to see them play a song live. My older sister also recommended this album when it was released, but I forgot about it until now.

It starts off with three excellent songs: All At Once, Numb, and Changing. Strings and vibrato are distinct motifs, and while they almost all sound the same, I was okay with that. Changing was super catchy and my personal favorite. The singer’s voice had the tendency to sometimes overthrow his range, but not so much that it was irritating. These were followed by four average songs. I didn’t take anything away from them.

Then came the excellent songs Half Of Something Else and Strange Girl. Half Of Something Else featured some great synth and a female vocalist, and the two singers paired very well. And I just found the second very relatable. (Because I’m a strange girl, obv.) Two more decent songs closed the album. The last one was an a acoustic guitar melody, which might’ve originally been a bonus track, but was tacked on to the end to make the CD longer.

At times they tried a bit too hard to be like MCR’s latest album (which I only know by proxy) and at other times they tried to be almost pop punky. Scatterbrained is one way to describe it, but I did like how all the songs transitioned well enough not to give me a headache. (In case you were wondering, I walked into a wall at one point, which /did/ give me a headache.) I’d say it’s worth a listen if you’re a fan of rock. Music. Yeah.

PS: Isn’t that a badass album cover? Much respect.

» Aidiera

[xwd]

The Bravery by The Bravery [via Aidiera]

This album's cool. It takes a bunch of things I like from various genres and puts them together in a relatively cohesive whole. Well, it's mostly indie rock. But it has disco basslines! Those funky, steadily-churning basslines that sometimes jump up and down an octave. I'm a massive sucker for basslines like that, and it gives the songs a playful vibe. Also making an apperance are synthtron / electroclash / "synthpop with updated equipment" synths. I'm not entirely a sucker for those, but I like the weird bleepy and rumbly sounds. They're used well here.

Those get joined with the usual indie rock staples of guitar riffs (and solos!), catchy hooks, high energy, and ever-so-slightly whiny vocals. Let me talk about those vocals, actually. There's usually some kind of effect on them take takes the edge off of them and makes them blend in with the rest of the song pretty nicely. But when the effects are off or add reverb or whatever, it just sets me off and I get annoyed. Kind of a personal thing. A bit distracting, but it doesn't happen often enough to be much of a problem. I'm not able to make out the lyrics the entire time, but they seem to be mostly goofy things that sound neat, so it's fine.

Overall, this is cool stuff. Perfectly competent, doesn't really falter. There are no slow songs, so nothing drags and the whole vibe of the album keeps up. I don't think the beat actually drops except during the intros and outros of songs. Which is good, because there's "dance music" that has breakdowns every 2 minutes and I hate that, totally kills the mood. The tracks are all pretty good, but standout ones (that I might play if I still had my college radio show) were An Honest Mistake, Fearless, Swollen Summer, Public Service Announcement (maximum disco), and Out of Line. The bonus track Hot Pursuit is okay, depending on how you feel about hoovers, so it's worth looking out for that version of it.

Aidiera remains my go-to guy for mostly-inoffensive indie rock.

>> xwd

http://ilovecopyleft.tumblr.com

[乳头的早餐谷物]

just an fyi that I have not been able to give donfuy a rec yet but I remain committed-ish to ass and i hope the same can be said for other members who have not yet posted their reviews for this round

update: rec delivered; crisis averted