Up-Tight - Lucrezia (2004)

| Noise Rock | Psychedelic Rock | Space Rock |
| Stoner Rock |

Up-tight is one of the most impressive bands emerging from the japanese so-called "second wave" of psychedelic rock (bands highly influenced by psychedelic rock bands such as Fushitsusha). Instead of taking a more experimental/avant-garde approach, Up-tight focus on doing primary what they do best: blending the well-known japanese psychedelic-noise rock with the best of the progressive and alternative rock. Still, comparisons with Fushitsusha and Les Rallizes Dénudés are all worthy, since the band borrows most of its elements from them (but without feeling like a rip-off). Strong drumming, highly structured-but-improvised jams filled with lightning-like noise strikes, shimmering guitars and howling bass, all together with garage-like cold vocals that reminds me a lot of Mizutani (from Les Rallizes Dénudés). Up-Tight is one of those bands that after listening to the first track, you get up and think: "Holy shit! this shit is..! holy shit, this is fucking awesome!". And I must add, Up-Tight owns nothing to the "first wave". In fact, they're as creative and powerful as only a few bands from that time managed to be.

Lucrezia is undoubtedly one of the group's most well-known works, and for a good reason - It's hell awesome. From the opener to the closer, the listener gets stunned-frozen by its awesomeness. Opening with one of the most impressive noise-rock songs that I've ever head since Fushitsusha, Song For Lucrezia I. 10mins of screaming guitar, metal-influenced drums and loud bass - put together in the best way I can possibly imagine. The album then follows with Cool Eyes, a ballad-inspired songs filled with noisy guitars and cold vocals, what reminds me even more of LRD. Daydream Believer follows almost the same pattern, but with a more stoner-rock approach and a more melancholic feeling (with a mind-blowing ending). Long Goodbye is maybe the most space-rock-ish song in the whole album, with a very dense atmosphere provided by the feedback drone, and filled with a mix of stoner-drums, prog/shoegaze-like guitars and a tribalistic/stoner repetitive bass behind it all. The album, which already feels perfect in everyway, gets even more intense with the closer - Song For Lucrezia II, the perfect achievement of everything the band was pursuing during the rest of this CD. 22min of all this elements together, with even more feeling and experimentation. This album really puts Up-Tight as one of the most amazing bands coming out from Japan EVER.

Catalog: ARCD-157 (Alchemy Records)
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Chokebore - Black Black (1998)

| Sadcore | Indie Rock | Noise Rock |

Innovators of the then-emerging ‘sadcore’ movement in indie rock in the 1990s, with influences from shoegaze, post-punk and noise rock, Chokebore were (and now IS) one of the most unique and amazing bands from the alternative scene. Their sound is mostly slow, fragile, dissonant and intense, conjuring mostly darker atmospheres and textures. Troy von Balthasar sings channelling his pain and suffering, and the songs irregular and down-tempo structures often reinforce the melancholic feeling. The band is responsible for at least two masterpieces of the 90s indie rock, and Black Black is for sure one of them.

Black Black is the absolute high point in the development of the band, a portrait of the band’s darker side; loneliness, depression, death and sadness being recurring themes. The feeling and power behind this masterpiece is pure and genuine - a perfect combination of strength, subtleness and versatility. The album has a handful of great moments - from the anguished opener, Speed of Sound, to the lonely and hopeless closer, The Rest of Your Evening. Black Black moods shifts from desperately sad songs - Never Feel Sorry Again, Where Is the Assassin?, The Sweetness - and anger-driven howls - Alaska, Every Move a Picture, You Are the Sunshine of My Life -, always keeping the depressive, afflicted and painful atmosphere. On this album, Chokebore goes as deep as any band could possibly go. Suffice it to say, Black Black is a very personal record. This is not only music to listen to, it's something to identify with - something to FEEL.

Catalog: Boomba 008-2 (Boomba Rec)
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Aeolian String Ensemble - Lassithi/Elysium (1998)

| Ambient | Experimental | Drone |

The Aeolian String Ensemble is a group that creates all of their sound through the use and electronic modification of the ancient Aeolian harp (which is, as the name suggests, an harp played by the wind). The result is a formless whirlpool of ambient sounds. There are little melodies and little to grasp onto; instead they release a flood of swirling tones that engage the deeper parts of the mind. This bypasses the residing mind and works on the subconscious directly. The First song, Lassithi, is an hour long surreal travel through the deeps of subconsciousness. Elysium, now only 14mins longs, is a more kind of straight-ambient track, but it still achieves to touch the depths of human perception. I don't have enough words to describe how beautiful is to experience this album, so feel it yourself.

Catalog: RR-16 (Robot Records)
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akaaka - Transitional (A Mutagenic Ambient Experience) (2010)

| Ambient | Electronica | Drone |

Transitional is the follow-up of Life≤ - by the Brazillian musician, Lucas Aka - and while it feels a lot less psychedelic and the sound goes pretty much more straight, the album overall is much more consistent. The whole album keeps the same atmosphere - despite feeling kind of dark at some points -, and not a single song feels out of place or incongruous. Also, it feels more melancholic than the previous works. The perfect soundtrack for a sad day. This is how a perfect Ambient album should sound like.

While Transitional doesn't really relies on separate songs - but as the whole structure -, it has some great moments. The album opener and the follower, Tautomerism and Depurination, are one of the most interesting tracks in it, full of catchy percussion and delicate synths. Insertions is maybe the most psychedelic track, a real ambient trip, and Transversion is maybe the most well-crafted - and maybe the darkest. In overall, the whole album is amazing and I must admit - this one is one of the bests Ambient albums I've ever heard.

Catalog: VB-09 (Velvet Blue Records)
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Stjerneheimen - Forgotten Mountains (2010)

| Drone Doom | Free-Prog | Doom Metal |

Forgotten Mountains is the enhancement of everything Stjerneheimen were up to. Now a two-man band - with the addition of a guitarrist - Stjern grows strong from the simple lo-fi free-prog into a whole new dimension of Drone and Doom Metal. Heavy as fuck, the band manages to gather the most important elements in each of these genres. The album is influenced by Noise and Stoner Rock as well, but the Drone Doom and Progressive elements always prevail. With 35min, Forgotten Mountains keeps the heavy and giant atmosphere from beginning to end and rarely drags itself or becomes boring - as only a few of Doom records do. A wondrous listening for fans of the style or of extreme music, and an astonishing journey for even the ones who never listened to Drone music.

The album starts off with two of its bests songs. Water Realms is maybe the album's hugest song - and the longest too, with 7:30min. The droning is so intense that it can be felt at even low volumes, and the improvisation is sharp as a razorblade. Alluvium calls more the free-prog side, and, while it feels strange sometimes, it is stunning. The fast solo contrasts with the low-walk drone, making this song a big blend of dimensions. Blue Sphere - Journey of Berzerker and Unutterable Onslaught are another examples of this perfect mix of prog and drone. Rise of Poseidon drives the same road of the opening track, by huge waves of sound. The guitar maintains the loud barrage of droning chords while the bass dives into a dimension of thunder-like improvisation. Irrevocable Thoughts sounds like a war on slowmotion and the albums closer - Veil of Tears - recalls everything on the album and rushes as an whole and huge impetuous army. Put your best headphone on and the volume on maximum and prepare yourself to confront this tremendous album.

Catalog: VB-08 (Velvet Blue Records)
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Albert Ayler - Spirits Rejoice (1965)

| Avant-Garde | Free-Jazz |

Recorded live at New York's Judson Hall in 1965, Spirits Rejoice is one of Albert Ayler's wildest, noisiest albums, partly because it's one of the very few that teams him with another saxophonist, altoist Charles Tyler. It's also one of the earliest recordings to feature Ayler's brother Don playing an amateurish but expressive trumpet, and the ensemble is further expanded by using bassists Henry Grimes and Gary Peacock together on three of the five tracks; plus, the rubato "Angels" finds Ayler interacting with Call Cobbs' harpsichord in an odd, twinkling evocation of the spiritual spheres. Aside from that more spacious reflection, most of the album is given over to furious ensemble interaction and hard-blowing solos that always place in-the-moment passion above standard jazz technique. Freed up by the presence of the trumpet and alto, Ayler's playing concentrates on the rich lower register of his horn and all the honks and growls that go with it; his already thick, huge tone has rarely seemed more monolithic. Spirits Rejoice also provides an opportunity to hear the sources of Ayler's simple, traditional melodies becoming more eclectic. The nearly 12-minute title track has a pronounced New Orleans marching band feel, switching between two themes reminiscent of a hymn and a hunting bugle call, and the brief "Holy Family" is downright R&B-flavored. "Prophet" touches on a different side of Ayler's old-time march influence, with machine-gun cracks and militaristic cadences from drummer Sunny Murray driving the raggedly energetic ensemble themes. For all its apparent chaos, Spirits Rejoice is often surprisingly pre-arranged -- witness all the careening harmony passages that accompany the theme statements, and the seamless transitions of the title track. Spirits Rejoice is proof that there was an underlying logic even to Ayler's most extreme moments, and that's why it remains a tremendously inspiring recording.

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John Zorn - Naked City (1990)

| Avant-Garde | Avant-Jazz | Experimental Rock |
| Grindcore |

By looking at the grim album art, you would probably expect ‘Naked City’ to be a violent grindcore album. You would only be party right. There is grindcore here, but there aren’t many genres Zorn doesn’t explore in ’Naked City’. Mostly the album is full of short, quirky and catchy jazz songs which twist and turn in unpredictable ways. Mike Patton himself once said ‘Naked City makes all other bands look fat and lazy’, which sums them up pretty well. It’s hardly a dark album either as the cover implies. Even when it’s at it’s noisiest it still keeps it’s humour. In fact, it’s hard to tell exactly how seriously Zorn is taking this, as even though the songs are obviously very well written and memorable they’re also completely bizarre. Sometimes they change direction in unexpected frenzies of noise, switching genre completely. There are punk sections, metal sections, classical, even country and reggae sections; though don’t expect much of them, these genres enter and leave again before you even notice they’re there. Despite the weird song structures the songs remain accessible and catchy enough to listen to, even if it may take a few listens to ‘get’ some of them. There’s even a huge amount of variety in the ‘normal’ jazz tracks. Mostly of the jazz is chaotic, fast paced free jazz but sometimes it slows down, becoming much more orderly cool jazz.

As well as the insane original compositions, ‘Naked City’ contains seven covers of film soundtrack songs and jazz standards, such as Ennio Morricone’s ‘The Sicilian Clan’ and Jerry Goldsmith‘s ‘Chinatown’. The covers vary from livelier versions of the originals to completely new takes on the songs, often straying away and ending up completely differently. A highlight is the cover of Ornette Coleman’s ‘Lonely Woman’ which makes the original seem boring and ordinary in comparison. When the original came out it was criticised for being too weird, God knows what those criticising it would think of John Zorn! Another is his fantastic version of the James Bond theme which explodes into random noises in the middle.

The album gets to its noisiest half way through, with a series of short grindcore songs which rarely go over half a minute. Yamantaka Eye makes a guest contribution on vocals during this part, his demented screams fitting the frantic music perfectly. This part of the album is the most difficult to listen to as the catchy melodies are gone and it instead focuses on little more than noise. However, this part of the album rushes past in only a few minutes to separate the more ‘ordinary’ songs, so it doesn‘t really get in the way if you don‘t like it. The musicians playing on Naked City are all superb, even in the ‘noisier’ parts. John Zorn himself is an excellent saxophonist, with a unique tone and signature high-pitched sax squeals that litter the album. Joey Baron’ drumming is brilliant, easily handling the sudden changes in tempo.

Catalog: 9 79238-2 (Nonesuch)
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John Zorn - The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone (1986) [15th Anniversary Special Edition/2000]

| Avant-Garde | Avant-Jazz | Experimental Rock |

Considered by many one of the most essential Zorn albums, The Big Gundown is full of jazz, rock, and a somewhat mix of them. Opening with a resonant piano and growing drums, the album turns into a whole new world of improvisation. Unusual percussion, repetitive keyboards, free-form Sax, guitars and every kind of vocals from conversations to glorious choir-like chants. On this intriguing concept album, altoist John Zorn (who also "sings" and plays harpsichord, piano, and musical saw) utilizes an odd assortment of open-minded avant-garde players (with a couple of ringers) on nine themes originally written for Italian films by Ennio Morricone, plus his own "Tre Nel 5000." These often-radical interpretations (which Morricone endorsed) keep the melodies in mind while getting very adventurous. Among the musicians heard on the colorful and very eccentric set (which utilizes different personnel and instrumentation on each track) are guitarists Bill Frisell and Vernon Reid, percussionist Bobby Previte, keyboardist Anthony Coleman, altoist Tim Berne, pianist Wayne Horvitz, organist Big John Patton, and even Toots Thielemans on harmonica and whistling among many others. There are certainly no dull moments on this often-riotous program and surely one of the most intriguing and beautiful albums ever made.

Catalog: TZ 7328 (Tzadik)
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Karlheinz Stockhausen - Mantra (1990)

| Avant-Garde | Electro-Acoustic |
| Experimental Electronic |

Karlheinz Stockhausen emerged early on as one of the most influential and unique voices in the post-WWII European musical avant-garde and his prominence continued throughout the rest of the twentieth century and into the twenty first. Combining a keen sensitivity to the acoustical realities and possibilities of sound, rigorous and sophisticated compositional methods expanded from integral serialism, innovative theatricality, and a penchant for the mystical, Stockhausen remains one of the most innovative musical personalities to span the turn of this century.

Mantra (1970) is a work for two pianos, two sine-wave generators, and two ring modulators. This piece represents a synthesis or "sublation" of the earlier serial method of composition and the emerging post-serial methodology, with its surrealistic or collage tendencies, and its post-modern anachronistic flair. Mantra is based on a thirteen-note series, beginning and ending with A natural. This series is quite complex, expanding from intervals as precise as a minor second, to a simple perfect fourth, always "spurred on" by the artificially introduced tonalities of the ring modulators and wave generators. Both pianists utilize a piece of equipment, placed near the left hand section of the piano, consisting of a microphone amplifier, a sound compressor and filter, a ring modulator, and a scaled sine-wave generator with volume controls. Behind both players are situated loudspeakers, which reproduce the various and sundry effects produced by the lefthand apparati. The purpose of this complex array of notes and effects is the production and exploration of a musical mantra: a precise repetition of certain sounds intended to place the producer (as well as the hearer) in a state of consciousness that is related directly to the musical sounds being produced. We witness here a typical "compositional" methodology of Stockhausen -- that of allowing the listener to participate in the musical moment in such a manner that any boundary separating the listener from the producer is removed, transforming the act of listening into an interpretative event. However, in Mantra the correspondence between producer and hearer is taken to a new and different level; for the purpose of a mantra, in Indian religious practice, is to bring the three principles of thought, expression, and breath into consonance, with the resultant unification of the mind and body with the meaning to which it is always attempting to relate itself. Therefore, by creating a "mirroring effect" between the acoustically produced piano sounds and their electronically produced counterparts, Stockhausen achieves a tension between the direct effect of the humanly-derived cause of the sounds (the actual piano performance) and the "altered repetition" of these sounds in and by an external modulator (the electronic apparatus, which exceeds the control of the performer), identified with the external meaning toward which human consciousness is always tending. Halfway though this piece, the original thirteen-note row is repeated (with alterations, of course), and a new level of dissonance is introduced, by the persistent presence of the electronic devices. It soon becomes clear to the listener that the source of this dissonance is the wave generator, which at certain intervals ceases to reproduce or "mirror" the acoustic sounds faithfully. This produces a tension in the music that is only overcome by the intelligent response of the performer to the sounds that s/he is unwittingly producing through the interaction of the piano with the electronic equipment. When the performers, equipment, and the sound produced finally achieve a unity or synthesis, the musical expression may be said to have reached completion. The persistent repetition of the initial form of the mantra (the original thirteen-note row) amidst all the electronically produced alterations, and the consequent dialogue, occurring as a result of this interaction, brings into being a synthesized and ordered musical expression that exceeds any individual consciousness or musical ideal.

Catalog: NA 025 CD (New Albion)
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The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole (1997)

| Electronica | Big Beat | Trip-Hop | Techno | IDM |

The act with the first arena-sized sound in the electronica movement, the Chemical Brothers united such varying influences as Public Enemy, Cabaret Voltaire, Kraftwerk, The Smiths, Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine to create a dance-rock-rap fusion which rivaled the best old-school DJs on their own terms -- keeping a crowd of people on the floor by working through any number of groove-oriented styles featuring unmissable samples, from familiar guitar riffs to vocal tags to various sound effects. And when the duo (Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons) decided to supplement their DJ careers by turning their bedrooms into recording studios, they pioneered a style of music (later termed big beat) remarkable for its lack of energy loss from the dancefloor to the radio. Chemical Brothers albums were less collections of songs and more hourlong journeys, chock-full of deep bomb-studded beats, percussive breakdowns, and effects borrowed from a host of sources. All in all, the duo proved one of the few exceptions to the rule that intelligent dance music could never be bombastic or truly satisfying to the seasoned rock fan; it's hardly surprising that they were one of the few dance acts to enjoy simultaneous success in the British/American mainstream and in critical quarters.

Taking the swirling eclecticism of their post-techno debut, Exit Planet Dust, to the extreme, the Chemical Brothers blow all stylistic boundaries down with their second album, Dig Your Own Hole. Bigger, bolder, and more adventurous than Exit Planet Dust, Dig Your Own Hole opens with the slamming cacophony of "Block Rockin' Beats," where hip-hop meets hardcore techno, complete with a Schoolly D sample and an elastic bass riff. Everything is going on at once in "Block Rockin' Beats," and it sets the pace for the rest of the record, where songs and styles blur into a continuous kaleidoscope of sound. It rocks hard enough for the pop audience, but it doesn't compromise either the Chemicals' sound or the adventurous, futuristic spirit of electronica — even "Setting Sun," with its sly homages to the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" and Noel Gallagher's twisting, catchy melody, doesn't sound like retro psychedelia; it sounds vibrant, unexpected, and utterly contemporary. There are no distinctions between different styles, and the Chemicals sound as if they're having fun, building Dig Your Own Hole from fragments of the past, distorting the rhythms and samples, and pushing it forward with an intoxicating rush of synthesizers, electronics, and layered drum machines. The Chemical Brothers might not push forward into self-consciously arty territories like some of their electronic peers, but they have more style and focus, constructing a blindingly innovative and relentlessly propulsive album that's an exhilarating listen — one that sounds positively new but utterly inviting at the same time.

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Les Rallizes Dénudés - December's Black Children (2003)

| Avant-Garde | Noise Rock | Psychedelic Rock |
| Experimental Rock |

To start with, it's pretty hard to gather information about LRD's releases. Mainly because of the hell bunch of bootlegs that simply provides no info. By chance, I found out that December's Black Children is part of the unofficial box 1980 Live & Soundboard - It's the 9th and the 10th cd (Live 13-December-1980). Some sources says it may be a Soundboard recording, but none of them are sure enough. So that's pretty much it, two cds of another unofficial Rallizes live. I must say that this one stands out from most of the unofficial stuff. The sound quality is pretty good during most of the album and there are parts of some songs in which the feedback is almost unnoticeable (like the beginning of the Romance of the Black Grief). The bass presence is always strong - as on most of their stuff - , but the drums suffered a little with the mix and are pushed hardly to the back of all the distortion. Still, it's a recording of high quality. Some songs even manage to cover itself in a dark and foggy atmosphere (like on Night of the Assassins) and some others are great example of LRD's best folkish stuff. Overall, it's a pretty good album and a kind of essential in any LRD's library.

Catalog: IAL01 (Illegal-Alien Records) - Discs 09-10
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Mastodon - Crack the Skye (2009)

| Progressive Metal | Sludge Metal | Alternative Metal |

First off, a warning: the best way to encounter Mastodon's Crack the Skye for the first time is with headphones. Reported to be a mystical -- if crunchy -- concept record about Tsarist Russia, this is actually the most involved set of tracks, both in terms of music and production, the band has ever recorded. "Ambitious" is a word that regularly greets Mastodon -- after all, they did an entire album based on Moby Dick -- but until now, that adjective may have been an understatement. There is so much going on in these seven tracks that it's difficult to get it all in a listen or two (one of the reasons that close encounters of the headphone kind are recommended). It may seem strange that the band worked with Bruce Springsteen producer Brendan O'Brien this time out, but it turns out to be a boon for both parties: for the band because O'Brien is obsessive about sounds, textures, and finding spaces in just the right places; for O'Brien because in his work with the Boss he's all but forgotten what the sounds of big roaring electric guitars and overdriven thudding drums can sound like. The guitar arrangements on tracks like "Divinations" and "The Czar," while wildly different from one another, are the most intricate, melodically complex things the band has ever recorded. There are also more subtle moments such as the menacing, brooding, and ultimately downer cuts such as "The Last Baron," where tempos are slowed and keyboards enter the fray and stretch the time, adding a much more multidimensional sense of atmosphere and texture. Still, Crack the Skye rocks, and hard! Its shifting tempos and key structures are far more meaty and forceful than most prog metal, and menace and cosmological speculation exist in equal measure, providing for a spot-on sense of balance. Some of the hardcore death metal conservatives may have trouble with this set, but the album wasn't recorded for them -- or anybody else. Crack the Skye is the sound of a band stretching itself to its limits and exploring the depth of its collective musical identity as a series of possibilities rather than as signatures. And yes, that is a good thing.

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John Zorn - Moonchild: Songs Without Words (2006)

| Avant-Garde | Noise Rock | Avant-Metal |
| Experimental Rock |

The one word virtually everyone can agree on in any discussion of the work of composer John Zorn is "prolific," in the strictest sense of the definition. Though he didn't begin making records until 1980, the recordings under his own name number well over 100, and the sheer number of works he has performed on, composed, or produced easily doubles that number. Though now an internationally renowned musician and the founder and owner of the wildly successful and equally prolific Tzadik imprint, Zorn is a cornerstone of New York's fabled and influential downtown scene. In addition, he has played with musicians of every stripe. He is also a musical gadfly: genre purity, and pursuing the ends by which it is defined, is meaningless in Zorn's sound world, hence making him a quintessential mirror for 21st century culture. He has mentored countless musicians in the U.S., Europe, and Asia and has given exposure stateside via his Tzadik label to many others. His compositions have been performed by hundreds of artists, including the Kronos Quartet and Medeski, Martin & Wood. In addition, he has composed literally dozens of film scores. He has been the subject of books and documentary films as well.

Let's take away John Zorn's ecstatic hyperbole in the sleeve notes for a bit and look at the trio here: vocalist Mike Patton, drummer Joey Baron, and bassist Trevor Dunn. Given their individual and collective résumés, the possibilities are nearly endless. These three offer Moonchild, Zorn's "contemporary song cycle," the feel of something that for the most part doesn't quite feel like song in any way we currently recognize -- even in hardcore punk and metal genres which this set gets its inspiration from -- but it's far more than mere improvisation. In his notes Zorn claims to have been "combining the hypnotic intensity of ritual (composition) the spontaneity of magick (improvisation) and in a modern musical format (rock)." Good enough, but what it seems like in a simplistic sense is that he's interested in the power dynamic of rock to change certain elements of both. And changed they are. He claims his spiritual inspiration from the mad genius of French letters in the early 20th century, Antonin Artaud, magician and proto "new age" theorist Aleister Crowley, and the brilliant vanguard composer Edgard Varèse. Moonchild "touches upon" magick, mysticism, ritual shamanism, and decadence" among other things. Throw that stuff out the window, and the music one is left with is disturbing, dynamically brilliant, taut, and full of surprise and delight. These tracks feel like guided improvisations in ways that seem to come out of the conceptual ideas for the second Masada book, "Book of Angels." But it most certainly is rock -- in scope, power, feel, and shattering intensity. "Possession" would not have been out of place on one of the last two Captain Beefheart albums, the title track is a slow, evil-sounding creep through the basement of modern song; "Summoning" would not have been estranged from the later Burzum catalog; and some of this music -- "Part Maudite," "Abraxas," "Caligula" -- could be covered by San Francisco's late, great black metal band Weakling. At just over 45 minutes in length, it is staggering how exhausted yet fulfilled the listener is after encountering this music. For jazz fans, run away as fast as possible. For Zorn fans of the aforementioned works, this is for you, or for those who follow Patton and Dunn. For those looking for a new and brutally exciting form of rock music, Moonchild is the only thing that does the trick.

Catalog: TZ 7357 (Tzadik)
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John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1965) [2002 Deluxe Edition]

| Avant-Garde Jazz | Free-Jazz | Hard Bop |

Easily one of the most important records ever made, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme was his pinnacle studio outing that at once compiled all of his innovations from his past, spoke of his current deep spirituality, and also gave a glimpse into the next two and a half years (sadly, those would be his last). Recorded at the end of 1964, Trane's classic quartet of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison stepped into the studio and created one of the most thought-provoking, concise, and technically pleasing albums of their bountiful relationship (not to mention his best-selling to date). From the undulatory (and classic) bassline at the intro to the last breathy notes, Trane is at the peak of his logical yet emotionally varied soloing while the rest of the group is remarkably in tune with Coltrane's spiritual vibe. Composed of four parts, each has a thematic progression leading to an understanding of spirituality through meditation. From the beginning, "Acknowledgement" is the awakening of sorts that trails off to the famous chanting of the theme at the end, which yields to the second act, "Resolution," an amazingly beautiful piece about the fury of dedication to a new path of understanding. "Persuance" is a search for that understanding, and "Psalm" is the enlightenment. Although he is at times aggressive and atonal, this isn't Trane at his most adventurous (pretty much everything recorded from here on out progressively becomes much more free, and live recordings from this period are extremely spirited), but it certainly is his best attempt at the realization of concept — as the spiritual journey is made amazingly clear. A Love Supreme clocks in at just over 30 minutes, but if it had been any longer it could have turned into a laborious listen. As it stands, just enough is conveyed. It is almost impossible to imagine a world without A Love Supreme having been made, and it is equally impossible to imagine any jazz collection without it.

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High Rise - Desperado (1998)

| Psychedelic Rock | Noise Rock | Garage Rock |

Desperado is one of the few studio records by the group headed by Asahito Nanjo. To a group that works basicaly live, this studio album sounds as great as it could - it really captures the 'live-gig' feeling. Besides, Desperado is one of High Rise's most ecletic records. While albums like Durophet were basically noise rock and Dispersion were purely psychedelic, Desperado gathers the best of both styles and mix it into one of their best albums.

The album opens up with a screaming-guitar short track, Git, before entering into a fast-noise-freak song in high Rise's best way, the title track - Desperado. The albums best song follows up - Right On. 12 fucking minutes of pure loud rock and instrumental destruction. After it, the record enters into a psychedelic-garage rock medley. Flam, which starts with a hugely cool guitar solo before being joined by the most amazing percussion work I've ever seen yet on any High Rise track. I said I've ever seen YET because the next one is even more amazing. Effing kicks off with a completely stunning bass+drums psychedelic work before being followed by one of High Rise's characteristic guitar shredding. It's surely the album's peak, aside from Right On. Mind Bending, another fast and electrical song, opens way to the final one, Skive - the perfect blend of everything on the album. Experimental drumming, strong bass riffs and loud guitar improvisation. Deperado is such a great album that it owns nothing to High Rise's classics. The only thing someone might miss are the vocals, which appear only occasionally.

Catalog: PSFD-99 (P.S.F. Records)
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Hijokaidan ( 非常階段 ) - Polar Nights Live (2008)

| Harsh Noise |

Polar Nights Live is one of Hijokaidan's most recent records. Though the group isn't fully gathered in here - only two members in each track -, all three performances are as good as the older stuff. The album was recorded live during a 2006 festival on Norway, with only Junko and Jojo from the original line-up. It's pretty decent, all tracks with about 25min of pure harsh noise. Not everything that someone would expect from Hijokaidan, and not very close to their most classic material's bursting sound, but it's still an excellent record from a band that has being "on" for 30 years. I mean, not just a band, but the Noise Kings.

The first track is surely the best and completely outstands the other two. It's also the only "true" Hijokaidan - it's the only one in which both Junko and Jojo are playing together. It sounds pretty classic - Jojo's guitar puts everything on fire and Junko provides those well-known high-pitched mad harsh screams. The second song follows up in a good way - a two guitar noise duel between Jojo Hiroshige and Per Gisle Galåen. The third is the weakest - an average electronics-based noise song provided by Sten Ove Toft with Jojo accompaniment on the voca... i mean, the shouts. I don't even know how the hell she still manages to scream that way after all these years.

Catalog: PICA005 (Pica Disk)
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Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (1970)

| Heavy Metal | Hard Rock | Stoner Rock |

Black Sabbath has been so influential in the development of heavy metal rock music as to be a defining force in the style. The group took the blues-rock sound of late '60s acts like Cream, Blue Cheer, and Vanilla Fudge to its logical conclusion, slowing the tempo, accentuating the bass, and emphasizing screaming guitar solos and howled vocals full of lyrics expressing mental anguish and macabre fantasies. If their predecessors clearly came out of an electrified blues tradition, Black Sabbath took that tradition in a new direction, and in so doing helped give birth to a musical style that continued to attract millions of fans decades later.

Black Sabbath's debut album is given over to lengthy songs and suite-like pieces where individual songs blur together and riffs pound away one after another, frequently under extended jams. There isn't much variety in tempo, mood, or the band's simple, blues-derived musical vocabulary, but that's not the point; Sabbath's slowed-down, murky guitar rock bludgeons the listener in an almost hallucinatory fashion, reveling in its own dazed, druggy state of consciousness. Songs like the apocalyptic title track, "N.I.B.," and "The Wizard" make their obsessions with evil and black magic seem like more than just stereotypical heavy metal posturing because of the dim, suffocating musical atmosphere the band frames them in. This blueprint would be refined and occasionally elaborated upon over the band's next few albums, but there are plenty of metal classics already here.

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Bauhaus - Mask (1981)

| Gothic Rock | Post-Punk | Alternative Rock |

Bauhaus are the founding fathers of goth rock, creating a minimalistic, overbearingly gloomy style of post-punk rock driven by jagged guitar chords and cold, distant synthesizers. Throughout their brief career, the band explored all the variations on their bleak musical ideas, adding elements of glam rock, experimental electronic rock, funk, and heavy metal. While their following has never expanded beyond a cult, they kept their cult alive well into the '90s, a full decade after they disbanded.

Managing the sometimes hard-to-negotiate trick of expanding their sound while retaining all the qualities which got them attention to begin with, on Mask the members of Bauhaus consciously stretched themselves into newer areas of music and performance, resulting in an album that was arguably even better than the band's almost flawless debut. More familiar sides of the band were apparent from the get-go; opening number "Hair of the Dog," one of the band's best songs, starts with a double-tracked squalling guitar solo before turning into a stomping, surging flow, carefully paced by sudden silences and equally sudden returns to the music, while Murphy details cases of mental addictions in pithy phrases. The energy wasn't all just explosive angst and despair, though; the one-two punches of "Kick in the Eye" and "In Fear of Fear" have as much hip-shaking groove and upbeat swing to them as portentous gloom (Ash's sax skronk on the latter, as well as on the similarly sharp "Dancing," is a particularly nice touch). Elsewhere, numerous flashes of the band's quirky sense of humor -- something often missed by both fanatical followers and negative critics both -- make an appearance; perhaps most amusing is the dry spoken-word lyric beginning "Of Lillies and Remains," as David J details a goofily grotesque situation as much Edward Gorey as Edgar Allen Poe. Add to that three of the most dramatic things the band ever recorded -- the charging, keyboard-accompanied "The Passion of Lovers," the slow, dark fairy-tale-gone-wrong "Hollow Hills," and the wracked, trudging title track, where the sudden appearance of an acoustic guitar turns a great song into a near-perfect blend of ugliness and sheer beauty -- and the end result was a perfect trouncing of the sophomore-slump myth.

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John Coltrane - Blue Train (1957)

| Avant-Garde Jazz | Hard Bop | Free-Jazz |

"Blue Train", released in 1957, was John Coltrane's first attempt on making it as the leader and composer of his own group. He had started out working with Dizzy Gillespie in big bands and smaller groups on alto saxophone, the first sax that he learned how to play. He also played clarinet among other instruments. His first "big break" was when he asked to join Miles Davis' "first quintet". His work on Davis' albums "Milestones", "'Round About Midnight", and, most famously, "Kind of Blue" showed that he was becoming a virtuoso on his tenor sax and creating his signature playing style that was later called "sheets of sound" by jazz critic Ira Gitler. This first outing with Coltrane as a frontman included Miles' bassist and occasional drummer. This album is also unique in that a trombone is used, a rarity in jazz of this nature. Here is the track-by-track review.

1) Blue Train - Let's face it, everyone who knows at least a little bit about jazz knows the opening to this song. It's an established classic. Every instrument gets it moment to shine. Lee Morgan's trumpet in particular is spectacular in addition to 'Trane's solo. He undeniably put together a group of great musicians playing great material.

2) Moment's Notice - This song has a lot of great interplay between all of the instruments. You can just tell from listening that they are completely complementing each other. Coltrane's intro shows off his incredible tone and his solo shows his ability to master his instrument. The name of the song comes from the situation in which it was recorded. The story was that Coltrane wrote and recorded this song in a matter of an hour. Despite the lack of ease of playing up-tempo jazz pieces on trombone, Curtis Fuller covers the entire range of his horn and shows that the trombone is just as versatile and can groove just as hard as any other horn. Morgan's trumpet is also dominant again and Jones always keeps perfect time like a metronome while adding tasteful phrases to add color to the songs. Chambers also shows his soloing skills with a bowed bass solo. Kenny Drew's piano isn't shabby either. : )

3) Locomotion - This fast-paced blues-based tune comes in with the thunder of Philly Joe's drums and leads to the full band stating the main theme. Coltrane also lends some cool phrases at the V chord of the I-IV-V progression. This fast-paced tune is what Coltrane plays best on, starting out with the sometimes 300 or 400 beat per minute bebop compositions of Dizzy Gillespie. His solo on this song is a slower, more melodic version of his earth-shattering song "Countdown" from "Giant Steps". Everyone shines on this track.

4) I'm Old Fashioned - This is the only cover track from Coltrane's solo debut album. This ballad was composed by Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer, but Coltrane proves that he can play beautifully on ballads such as this and make it his own just as much as any fast bebop tune.

5) Lazy Bird - Another awesome song turned jazz classic. This one starts out with the piano. Morgan and Fuller are wonderful on their solos in this song. The responses from the entire band are reminiscent of "Moment's Notice". Jones keeps it swinging to keep you grooving and tapping your feet the whole time.

Summary - "Blue Train" is the best thing that could have possibly come out of Coltrane's first attempt at leading and composing his own group. His later works such as "Giant Steps" and "A Love Supreme" may be well-known, but this album is on the same scale if not greater considering his inexperience as a leader and a composer. Its influence on jazz is extraordinary. This band's and this album's sound is different from most of jazz and revolutionary and the title track is commonly used as an audition piece. Highly recommended for anyone who even remotely likes jazz.

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akaaka - Life≤ (2010)

| Electronica | Ambient | Drone |

As the symbols-words-games suggests since from the title, Life≤ is a highly electronica-style album - combined with, as always, elements from both ambient and drone music. The 9-tracks full-length album is based on hallucinogenic experiences merged in a high-style way with a lonely midnight feeling. The album is full of dark, strange and ironic sounds and the way the songs are put together within its melody and progression are just as bizarre. The album holds a very psychedelic and non-standard sensing from the beginning to the end, but it's made in a such sublime way that it becomes a more thrilling and beautiful experience with every past song.

The album starts with the amazing 3-songs suite Madrugada - which starts with an electronic drone-style, goes through some beautiful ambient soundscapes and turns into an outlandish mix of musical hallucination. A fucking complete musical hallucination. Early Morning Trip and Back In Mindless Trails are the second highlights - two strangely terrifying and at the same time incredibly touching songs. But the masterpiece here is Slowing Dawn. I don't even know how to describe that. It's beautiful, glowing, horrorful, dark, thoughtfully emotional and completely touching. The strangeness is so intense and at the same time so stirring that words can do it no justice. Close your eyes, open your mind and dive into a whole dimension of awareness, swim into a whole new ocean of sound-experience. Furthermore, the album contains the full Light On Dunhill Lake single and closes with the astonishing I Can't Sleep ≤ Nevermind.

"And I was there... And it was beautiful. Can you imagine? I was alone at the street and it was barely illuminated. It was dark, and I was there, and I wasn't there. I was just a watcher. I was just watching, fearlessly watching. I think that's why I called it "Madrugada". "Madrugada"... Alone through the deep night." - akaaka

Catalog: VB-05 (Velvet Blue Records)
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Lost Aaraaff - Lost Aaraaff (1991)

| Avant-Garde | Noise Rock | Free-Jazz |

Back we go to the very beginning of Keiji Haino’s “professional” career: 1971 and his first group, Lost Aaraaff. This free jazz-inspired ensemble scarved out a vicious splash of crazed piano, slop-o drumming (credits are not given) and Haino’s most toasted, gargled, feedback microphone vocals ever: groaning, growling, shrieking, screaming and kicking his way through 64 minutes over three long tracks. Ah, youth. Someone additionally squawks away on sax for a bit near the end of the 38-minute track two, plus Haino performs some low key pick-to-string guitar hits in the first part of track three, as well.

Although the band does get kind of “bluesy” at times, this music is definitely the sort of thing that makes most people perk up and politely request, “Turn that crap off!” From explosive, acoustic improv with screeching voice to ambient tinkling and ghostly vocal murmurs, it’s amazing that someone had a tape recorder rolling—especially then and there and for this kind of thing. All in all, it’s a very impressive set of pushed rawness. A vintage, color cover photo shows a blurry, youthful Haino onstage shaking a guitar around. It’s probably not from the same session, but who knows for sure?

Catalog: PSFD-18 (P.S.F. Records)
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Ride - Nowhere (1990) [remastered/2001]

| Shoegaze | Dream Pop | Indie Rock | Noise Rock |

With their first records, Ride created a unique wall of sound that relied on massive, trembling distortion in the vein of My Bloody Valentine but with a simpler, more direct melodic approach. The shatteringly loud, droning neo-psychedelia the band performed was dubbed shoegazing by the British press because the bandmembers stared at the stage while they performed. Along with their initial influence, My Bloody Valentine, Ride stood apart from the shoegazing pack, primarily because of their keen sense of songcraft and dynamics. For a while, the band was proclaimed the last great hope of British rock, but they fell from the spotlight nearly as quickly as they entered it.

Nowhere seems to hold consensus as the second-best record of the shoegaze era, and with very good reason. All of the common words, phrases, and adjectives commonly used with the short-lived subgenre fit properly here, and they're all positive, every one of them. Whir, whoosh, haze, swirl, ad nauseum -- this record holds all of these elements at their most exciting and mastered. But in the end, great pop records necessitate quality songs, which Nowhere delivers throughout. Undeniably, it's Ride's zenith -- dense, tight, hypnotic. "Seagull" serves as a dynamic opener; after a couple seconds of light feedback, bassist Steve Queralt kicks in with a rubbery, elliptical line (reminiscent of a certain Beatles song), which is soon followed by Andy Bell and Mark Gardener's guitar twists and Loz Colbert's alternately gentle and punishing drumming. After the upbeat "Kaleidoscope," the record falls into a tempo lull that initially seems impenetrable and meandering. However, patience reveals a five-song suite of sorts, full of lovely instrumental passages that are punctuated with violent jabs of manic guitars. The endlessly escalating "Polar Bear" is a high point, featuring expertly placed tom rolls from Colbert. The tempo picks up for the closing "Vapour Trail," a wistful pop song with chiming background guitars galore and mournful strings to close it out. The U.S. version was bolstered significantly with the remainder of the Fall EP ("Dreams Burn Down" having reappeared earlier in the record). "Taste" is one of their finest pure pop numbers; the moody/driving "Here and Now" rates well, and the five-minute "Nowhere" is a nasty distorto-freakout. [Nowhere was remastered and reissued by Ignition U.K. in 2001. Added to the 11 tracks featured on Sire's U.S. edition are the four selections from the equally wondrous Today Forever.]

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Achromatic Cold - Despair (2010)

| Dark Ambient | Drone | Noise |

Despair is the first proper solo release by Achromatic Cold. It shows the enhancement from the earlier drone works into a complete conceptual and atmospheric blend of Ambient, Noise and Drone affairs. The album consists of 14 songs, some standard songs and some just conceptual, ranging around 40 minutes. Four tracks were previously released on the demo EP Lacerate (The Horror And The Suffering, Losing Mind, Wreckage of a Once Happy Life, Unstable Sanity (Suicide)), while the other tracks were recorded completely live and without the use of overdub.

I divide the album in four essential parts. The first is the Drone part, consisting mostly of the Demo tracks. The second is the Ambient part, which highlights are the low-volume A Hundred Silent Mountains, the keyboards-led Dark Fortress and the highly conceptual No Hope (Refugee Shelter At The Sewers). The third part is the Noise one, but unfortunately it's the shortest, with just a few songs. Despite, it's the most amazing part, and the songs The Resistance, a completely arrhythmical and harsh work on percussion, and The Complete Destruction of Hometown, a guitar+drums noise affair, are doubtlessly the high points of the album. The fourth part is essentially the conceptual part, and it's the only non-musical part. Besides the lack of lyrics, the album and the songs holds a story themselves, which can be perceived since the artwork and the titles through the own song structures that shows the progress of the concept.

I think that, besides the whole conceptual part, the album is still good enough to hold itself as separate songs, since only a few are concept-only and most were recorded before the whole conceptual part was built. Some might still find the split with akaaka, Insubstancial/Smoke, a better album, but Despair shows a very visible progress from the works on the demo. In overall, it's a pretty decent album - although mostly for fans of ambient/drone/noise music, of course - and the whole conceptual work makes it even more special.

Artwork by Zdzisław Beksiński
Catalog: VB-04 (Velvet Blue Records)
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