Another new month, so time for a rundown of my favourite tracks of the past month. I’m on the lookout for new things right now, stuff I may not have heard. Doesn’t matter what it is, send me links!
A quick explanation for new readers (hi there!): my Tuesday Ten series has been running since March 2007, and each month features at least ten new songs you should hear – and in between those monthly posts, I feature songs on a variety of subjects, with some of the songs featured coming from suggestion threads on Facebook.
Feel free to get involved with these – the more the merrier, and the breadth of suggestions that I get continues to astound. Otherwise, as usual, if you’ve got something you want me to hear, something I should be writing about, or even a gig I should be attending, e-mail me, or drop me a line on Facebook (details below).
This is just great – not many bands make rock music without trying to be something else nowadays. QOTSA is just one of those bands, and do it very well. This is just dirty – the vocals, the squalling guitars and rumbling bass all contribute. The clever video (with sexy female preparing the band to eat them as the centrepiece of a huge banquet) just makes it all the more so.
/Battles
/Atlas
/Mirrored
This is post-rock musos performing some bastardised form of techno, but with instruments – aided by electronics and a whole shedload of effects pedals. Oh, and a pulsating drum beat taken directly from the era of Glam Rock. It’s mental, brilliant, and catchy as fuck. Don’t believe me? Watch the video…
/Akercocke
/Summon The Antichrist
/Antichrist
Extreme Metal’s best-dressed Satanists have returned with new album Antichrist, and this is the lead track from it. Not exactly subtle, but did you expect it to be? While there is some real pushing of the boundaries on the rest of the album, this is just English Black Metal at it’s best. They also made a fascinating appearance on a BBC NI show recently answering some Christian leaders questions, where the band appeared rather more eloquent in their defence than the attacks from the other members of the panel…
/Paradise Lost
/The Enemy
/In Requiem
So after a good few albums worth of experiments, losing a fair proportion of the fanbase…we end up back in the territory of Draconian Times. Gothic Metal of the highest order and the video ain’t bad either…
/Red Harvest
/Warthemes
/A Greater Darkness
After the so-so last album, Red Harvest has descended even deeper into the intense darkness – A Greater Darkness indeed. One of the few bands to properly fuse the mechanized fury of industrial with pitch-dark Black Metal, this track stands out as something even stranger. A military-march is beaten out by the drums, there are orchestral sweeps, as well as the dark sweeps of metallic rage.
/Download
/bEll Ringoor
/FiXer
After the seriously disappointing Mythmaker, it makes it all the more frustrating to find that the new Download album is simply brilliant, suggesting that Cevin Key’s attention was focussed here rather than SP. This is the opening track, all twisting robotic rhythms and bleeps that sounds very little like the dark, forbidding Download output of before.
/KMFDM
/Son Of A Gun
/XTORT [remastered]
I’ve suddenly got back into this song, perhaps because now I finally have a listenable version since it has been remastered. One of the very best of KMFDM’s tracks, it’s fast, furious and really kinda catchy. It has an amazing video, too.
/Caustic
/Booze Up and Riot
/Booze Up and Riot
Nice to see an act that is loosely, at least, part of the industrial noise genre, have a sense of humour. And it’s not just the genius track titles, either – the samples, the bouncy fun of most of the tracks…and this is a perfect example. This is noise with lyrics – essentially about going out and getting lashed and having a great time. Should work well on dancefloors, too – and I’m willing to bet he will split opinion at Infest.
/3ulogy
/Carbonise
/What You Don’t Want To Hear
I reviewed this CD recently, so I won’t say too much more other than that this track is still brilliant, and something of a departure from their usual form of industrial. As noted before, you can buy the CD direct from the band…
/The Chemical Brothers
/Do It Again
/We Are The Night
They are back, and this just kicks ass. Yet another five minutes of bouncing, roof-raising electro, as only The Chems appear capable of. Big Beat may have gone out of fashion years ago, but these guys appear way ahead of the curve – still. Yet another great video, as well…