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rayword45 03-11-2015 10:04 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 117: Analord 05 by AFX

Maybe I'll just do one of these per day. Maybe more maybe less. It's better than doing his Soundcloud collection I don't have the 2 years necessary for that.

The use of stereo panning on Reunion 2 is so fucking horrible that I almost want to skip this track. Does anyone actually enjoy the first half of this song? That effect is so abused it makes this song nothing but grating. I can't even focus on the (boring) melodies of the song because that effect is just way too irritating. The second song is okay. As is the third.

But man that first song is grating, it probably beats out Analord 158b for most annoying Aphex Twin song.

Best Track: Cilonen
Rating: 4/10

rayword45 03-12-2015 07:09 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 118: Analord 06 by AFX

Notice, I am upping my rating of The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun to a 9/10. A whopping half-point, but that's within less than two weeks and I'm generally a pretty obstinate guy. Maybe this will end up my first 10/10 other than Here Comes Tiny Tim. MAYBE.

38 minutes does not constitute an EP for christ's sake. Also, I have a precalculus presentation to finish, a research paper due at 6AM and the SATs on Saturday. Why am I still reviewing music? Because electronic music helps me focus, it's my Adderall.

The first 3 songs are okay for the most part, nothing special nor nothing terribly annoying. The Bodmins are equally average.

Anything with "Anal" within its title is a complete waste of time.

Best Track: I'm Self Employed
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 03-12-2015 11:58 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 119: Analord 07 by AFX

I'm tired as hell and this album nearly put me to sleep.

Best Track: Pitcard
Rating: 4/10

rayword45 03-15-2015 10:20 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 120: Analord 08 by AFX

Gonna try to finish these all EPs before Tuesday so I can review The Powers That B on release.

Then again, I may end up choosing to watch Eraserhead instead. Who knows?

Anyways, PWSteal.Ldpinch.D and W32.Deadcode.A are both great songs, especially the former with its catchy drum track. The other 3 songs (2 not counting the remix that sounds exactly the same as the original mix) kinda suck. Also, naming songs like viruses may be the most pathetic attempt at anti-piracy I've ever seen.

Best Track: PWSteal.Ldpinch.D
Rating: 5/10

rayword45 03-15-2015 10:44 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 121: Analord 09 by AFX

Okay this one just SUCKS.

Best Track: No.
Rating: 2/10

Deadlyx39 03-16-2015 07:06 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
You can just sense the degeneration of these reviews over time

rayword45 03-16-2015 07:42 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
It's hard to keep motivation for writing, though I still enjoy listening to new, alien music.

Wait till I listen to something I can actually find words to write about. These anal lord reviews are only because I need filler to bump closer to 365.

rayword45 03-16-2015 02:33 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 122: Analord 11 by AFX

Last Analord! Now I can move onto bigger and hopefully better things! Not that this wasn't a choice. Think I'm gonna listen to To Pimp A Butterfly tonight.

What started off ridiculously promising with two of the best AFX songs (under that pseudonym) ending up being yet another exercise in pointlessness. The last track is decent enough I guess.

Best Track: VBS.Redlof.B
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 03-17-2015 10:13 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 123: To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar

All aboard the early release hype train! The Internet is busting a nut for this album, with a 96 on Metacritic and an RYM score that started at 4.41 or something but depreciated quite quickly. Now it seems to be fluctuating between 4.06 and 4.07. Let's see where it lay after I listen.

My bias is that I prefer the catchy song structures of Section.80 to the overt storytelling of good kid, m.A.A.d city. Now let's listen, I need my dinner.

It's pretty clear that Kendrick isn't the stay-still, pigeonholed, let's-release-the-same-bloated-rap-album artist that way too many rappers are today (Eminem and Jay Z come to mind as examples that were at least good ONCE). Whereas I felt that GKMC was rather conventional beatwise but stronger lyrically, this album is almost the polar opposite. Not saying the lyricism isn't good or great persay, but it's clearly taking second hand to the schizophrenic song structures and grooves. This album is funky as hell, and all the better for it. The flow here is incredibly energetic and passionate, compared to the often apathetic tones of both his prior albums. Listen to u, admire the overblown voice cracks and falsetto jumps, and then listen to The Art Of Peer Pressure and think about how boring that song is, and how you could just read a good book and listen to The Jesus Lizard instead.

I really wish I could write more, but anyways, the hype train was right this time. The beats on this album are simply fantastic, as is the song order and the rapping. The seeming lack of a narrative replaced with overarching theme makes for a slightly less obtuse listen than Good Kid which sometimes got a bit boring, and any depth that is lost with the omission of a story is gained back by the crazy beats and much more energetic flow. The jazz and soul aesthetics also breathe life into this album, not that it really needs more.

This album was 78 minutes and felt much shorter than that. It ends with 8 minutes of pointless banter and even this stupid dialogue seems shorter than it is. A damn good album, one that I wonder how my opinion will change over time.

Best Track: u
Rating: 9/10

rayword45 03-18-2015 08:06 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 124: Fantasy Empire by Lightning Bolt

Does anybody ever wish that stand-up bits from Louie would just go away? They're not necessarily bad but I much prefer the show parts. Hopefully if the show goes into syndication they'll do a better job cutting up the show than the Seinfeld people. Anyways, Lightning Bolt. I dig.

Nice to know that Lightning Bolt still sounds like Lightning Bolt.

I wrote that review four songs in and posted it on RYM. Now I have finished the album and can say that that sentence still utterly, totally, completely applies to this album.

I guess the recording quality is a bit better.

Best Track: Snow White (And The 7 Dwarves Fans)
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 03-19-2015 10:46 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 125: The Powers That B by Death Grips

Meme-y meme meme /mu/ me/mu/ /mu/me /mu/meme /mu/me-y /mu/.

Ever have a problem with a show where the theme song is so ridiculously gorgeous and amazing that you just keep repeating it and then you don't have time for the actual show? Yeah, it's taken 3 tries to finish the second episode of Twin Peaks for me.

I've put *****s On The Moon and Jenny Death back to back so I can listen to the entire album in one piece. Let's see how this goes. As I've stated many times before, I am not a Death Grips superfreak but I can dig a few of their cuts. No Love Deep Web is my favorite of their albums though I haven't listened to Exmilitary. Here we go while I do some homework... My life sucks, I'ma listen to some sad folk songs because prom talk got me down.

What sucks more than prom talk eavesdropping is the fact that I actually LIKE one song by Bright Eyes. Musical shame.

Up My Sleeves certainly SOUNDS like the start to a double album, or at least an album longer than 30 minutes. Whatever I mean by that I don't know.

This first disc seems pretty cohesive. Many of the songs flow into each other, and admittedly kinda blend into each other (partially due to the glitchy nature of the album). This isn't a rag on the album, just an observation.

*****s On The Moon was pretty decent, I liked the more bleep-bloop sound. Jenny Death sounds like the start of a new album, or rather I Break Mirrors With My Face In The United States does. And indeed, this is a much more rock disc, with guitars on several tracks. I can't honestly say which side I prefer. Jenny Death has some better cuts, but *****s On The Moon is a bit more consistent. It's actually not consistent at ALL, it just didn't feel drawn out the way Jenny does.

This album ended rather anti-climatically, with 3 minutes of breakbeats. Either way, not a bad 80 minutes, but a slightly tiresome 80 minutes and certainly overhyped. Still will return in the future.

/mu/mu/meme meme me/mu/ mu/me/ /mu/fantano

Best Track: On GP
Rating: 6/10 for both discs.

rayword45 03-21-2015 10:20 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 126: The Man-Machine by Kraftwerk

I'm now upping The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun to a 10/10. Yes, I succumb. That's a REALLY good album. Congrats to EzExZeRo7497 for recommending my first 10.

I've got a song stuck in my head at all times. At this moment, that song would be the Big Black cover of The Model.

Heh, "The Big Black Cover" could be an album title or something.

But yeah, that right there is my sole motivation for listening to this 37-year-old electronic album. It probably sounds horribly dated and I'll be ultra judgmental with my young, modernized ears but who cares? Let's see how this sounds, via laptop speakers because I have no headphones available.

Actually, now that I think about it, I do enjoy Silver Apples and I was quite fond of The United States of America's self-titled, both of these are a full decade older than Kraftwerk. Maybe it won't be so awkwardly dated.

The first song on this album has aged like an opened gallon of pasteurized whole milk over the course of 20 years. Luckily, first impressions are wrong. The soundscapes of Spacelab and Metropolis still sound futuristic if slightly corny, and are warm (ironically enough... is that irony?) and gorgeously written.

The second half of the album is more involved with pop song structures, and less on gorgeous environments of music. The Model is vastly inferior here to the Big Black cover, although still a catchy pop ditty. Neon Lights is great for the first 4 minutes then delves into 5 minutes drone, which would be okay if the drone wasn't so boring. Repeating the same bars for 5 minutes on what is now dumb old equipment just makes for a waste of time.

Now, The Man Machine, that is a wonderful track, straying away from the pop sides of the band and going back to sonic exploration. It's the aural equivalent of walking through a vectorized world.

Here's an album where the singles sound, for the most part that is, like ASS, while the non-album tracks are absolutely wonderful. The Model is cool but has better versions elsewhere, and Neon Lights suffers from a lack of editing. This album is 50% dated, and that 50% is the more famous half. The good half is good enough to warrant a good score, so good enough I guess. I'll be exploring these guys at least enough to make a playlist of songs as good as the non-singles of this album.

Best Track: The Man Machine
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 03-23-2015 09:33 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 127: I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside by Earl Sweatshirt

Easily my most hyped album of March 2015, one of the best months ever for music this decade thus far. My expectations for this album are high, but I'm also positively biased towards the sweatman. Pretty concise album we're looking at, might listen to another after this.

Wiki? Dash? Na'Kel? Who the hell are these people? I'm not bolding them because they don't deserve to be bolded. Whoever they are, THEY SUCK. This is the exact same problem that plagued Doris. Earl is talented enough to carry his own, so why does he choose these awful, awful features?

From all other standpoints this album is pretty much on par with Doris. Wonderful lyricism with a lazy flow (and cry some more people, MF Doom gets zero disrespect for his monotonous spitting because his lyrics are quality) and dark, murky beats. Like Doris, this is a very nocturnal rap album, and a 30 minute length is pretty much perfect here.

Unfortunately, Earl prevents himself from greatness due to awful features, and a tendency to stick to the same tired Odd Future topics of daddy and bitches. He's not as willfully self-indulgent as Tyler and surely he's better than, say, Domo Genesis but Jesus Christ, nobody cares about your daddy issues, it was better when you rapped about your dead grandmother.

I think that once Earl gets the hell out of Odd Future and takes some time to think of new subject matter, he'll have a masterpiece on his hands. He already has the lyricism, flow and his own little niche for atmosphere. Just stop being so goddamn repetitive, and get more talented friends.

Best Track: DNA, in spite of that horrendous guest verse
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 03-25-2015 02:52 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 128: That new GY!BE album

Just kidding, I can't review that until I review the first reunion album, order is important!

Day 128: The reunion album

Well, actually, can't do this yet lol. Need to listen to Yanqui X.O... I am 99 percent sure I got the title wrong but I don't feel like looking it up

Day 128: The album where they had a song titled Motherfucker-Redeemer and worked briefly with Steve Albini

Uh... Nope. Screw all this.

Day 128: Shmurda She Wrote by Bobby Shmurda

There we go. As I've probably said before, Hot ***** is my jam. It's literally the only song in English that I don't feel like a completely isolated ass dancing to. Rather, I look like I'm part of a collective of asses. Which is good.

Yeah I'm giving this a fair chance with little-to-no mockery. Bite me nine times for it, I don't care.

Worldwide ***** uses autotune. Who the hell thought that was a smart idea?

And.. The only good songs are the singles. There are 5 songs, 3 of them are absolute crap, 2 of them are AUTOTUNED. This is a disappointment.

Best Track: Guess, I've said it many times and will say it many times more in the future.
Rating: 4/10

rayword45 03-26-2015 10:50 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 129: Yanqui U.X.O by Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Yeah I misspelled the title. Anways, when it comes to Godspeed, Storm may be one of the most gorgeous and emotionally captivating songs I've ever heard (in terms of instrumentals I'd rank it alongside Girl/Boy Song and d|p 1.1) but I'm not huge on the rest of their discography, mainly because I rarely have time for them. My personal favorite release that I've heard from them is Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada because that's all good stuff, whereas F♯ A♯ ∞ is just too damn long. Expect concision because I have an assload of work to do.

09-15-00 is great.
Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls was horrible for the first two-thirds but redeemed itself with a great crescendo.
Motherfucker-Redeemer is good enough for me. The abrupt ending is cool.

This album I find to be more consistent than Lift Yr Skinny Fists but the highs are not one-tenth as high. Oh well.

Best Track: Both parts of 09-15-00
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 03-28-2015 08:12 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 130: 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! by Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Making my way there to the new one.

This album is a lot less dynamic than the previous 3, with a lot more droning and only two tracks with any real crescendoing at all. That's okay with me, I can get behind the more hypnotic nature of this album, plus it's 20 or 30 minutes shorter than the last 3 albums, and more than a few tracks have seemed bloated in the past. The main two tracks are not quite as great as Storm but up there with the likes of F# A# Infinity, the shorter drones are decent enough. A satisfying 50 minutes.

Best Track: Mladic
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 03-29-2015 07:32 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 131: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit by Courtney Barnett

I'm doing this one because I liked her performance for A.V. Club Undercover. That and I wanna explore as much of March 2015 as possible without subjecting myself to stuff that I think will make me cry, like Rebel Heart. I'll listen to this one with spaghetti.

This album is better than spaghetti, but I find pasta to generally be a mediocre dish. Great pasta is pretty rare.

Anyways, this album was decent. Courtney Barnett is a pretty great lyricist who's wit never becomes groan-inducing, I like her voice, and the instruments sounded good, often reminding me of Silver Jews. Like Silver Jews my complaint with a full album is that things can get pretty samey. But whatever.

Best Track: Pedestrian At Best
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 03-29-2015 08:50 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 132: Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens

My hipster cred is going to sink below zero once I admit that I've never listened to a Sufjan Stevens album.

I've never listened to a Sufjan Stevens album.

And I never really wanted to but I guess this is a convenient time to start. Maybe I'll like the guy.

At first, the fingerpicking and ultra-pretty voice was enjoyable. Eventually though, it started putting bad thoughts in my head. No joke, this music makes me irrationally ANGRY. I need to stop and meditate if I'm going to finish this album holy crap.

Well, I didn't meditate, but I did take some deep breaths to clear my mind. Now let's hit that play button.

Starting again, I actually have no idea why this music made me angry. That may have been one of the most bizarre reactions I've ever had to music. This music isn't really offensive, it's just basic arpeggio-heavy indie folk. Really... Not that interesting, I don't get it why is this so fantastic? It's pretty and all, but nothing here makes me think I wanna come back to this. The whole mood of the album is funeral dirge, but it's too repetitive and distant to really evoke any emotions other than boredom, and apparently anger.

Half of this album pissed me off, and half of it just bored me. Not impressed.

Best Track: Whatever the name of the first track is, though that's because it had yet to have any collective impact on me when I listened to it.
Rating: 4/10

rayword45 03-30-2015 10:29 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 133: Electronic Music by Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan

First off, I'm raising my rating of Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit to a solid 8 because Pedestrian At Best is easily one of my favorite songs this year and because I've become completely enamored with Barnett's voice. Anyways, this album is a re-release (with new title and song titles) of what is, according to RYM, the first electronic music album ever released. And that is why I decided to listen to it. It can't be any more dated than them early Beatles albums.

Holy crap, this first has hands down the WORST usage of stereo panning I've ever heard, and I've listened to all the Jimi Hendrix Experience remasters. It actually makes me feel like my left ear is clogged or something half the time holy crap that's bizarre. When the left ear isn't in shock, this music mostly sounds like PBS vanity plate rejects.

Wow, I'm really proud of that comparison. PBS vanity plate rejects. I originally said WGBH vanity plate rejects then I realized that's a Boston thing.

And by the end of the album, the songs slowly transition from dated bleeps and bloops from a no-budget network card, to weird, atonal jazz with early synths on top.

Space Age Pop my ass. There's nothing pop about this, that was hands down one of the weirdest albums I've heard in my life. It's like John Zorn meets Silver Apples meets Conlon Nancarrow meets Black Dice meets so many other things. This album is a complete mess, completely inaccessible minus a few melodies here and there, this album is primitive yet blatantly ahead of its time, this album is GLORIOUS.

Also sounds like it would be a great soundtrack to psychedelics.

Best Track: Sonik Re-Entry
Rating: 7.5/10

rayword45 03-31-2015 08:36 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 134: Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress by Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Current condition: Standing in the stall of a musty ass public bathroom, worrying about the money I owe to too many people, trying to get loans to pay off my debts, headphones stained with salad dressing, needing water but unable to leave the bathroom, and to top it all off studying for AP Biology of which I know absolutely nothing thanks to my super useless old hunchback of a teacher. So, onto the album.

This seems a lot less crescendo based than previous GY!BE albums, being more in the vein of straight up post-rock, and it's around half as long as their pre-breakup albums. I'm conflicted, because I can't say I thought the 80 minute run times were justified, but damn this album is just BORING. The first track sounds like the band is trying to skip the buildup and go straight to climax, but that just doesn't work. You may as well listen to Mogwai. I'm saying that and I don't even like Mogwai.

And actually that whole first paragraph was based on the crappy first song. The next two songs aren't even songs so much as buildup as Lambs' Breath is just clipped bass and ambient whereas Asunder, Sweet is feedback and ambient. The horrendously titled Piss Crowns Are Trebled is a satisfying climax. If this album combined the last 3 tracks it would consist of one awful 10 minute song and one satisfying half hour song, if too unfocused to be truly great.

Overall, this album was meh. Now I'm gonna continue freaking out about my debts.

Also olive oil in the hair is a horrible feeling.

Best Track: Doesn't really apply here
Rating: 6/10


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