Need music recommendations | 1 year challenge

[freakysnots]

Pokemon 2.B.A. Master - Various Artists

[Tibbers]

Originally Posted by noname219

Day Twenty-Four - December 24th, 2013
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Skelethon by Aesop Rock (recommended by Tibbers)

1. Leisureforce
2. ZZZ Top
3. Cycles to Gehenna
4. Zero Dark Thirty
5. Fryerstarter
6. Ruby '81
7. Crows 1
8. Crows 2
9. Racing Stripes
10. 1,000 O'Clock
11. Homemade Mummy
12. Grace
13. Saturn Missiles
14. Tetra
15. Gopher Guts

My first incursion into hip hop territory (second if we count Mindless Self Indulgence) is an album by well-known producer Aesop Rock who started recording in the mid 90s. Skelethon is his 6th LP, released in 2012.

I can't talk much about the lyrics, I didn't give them a lot of attention as I was working on something else at the same time. From the little I've heard and read, he puts a lot of time in them. To a point where I feel like a lazy listener because I'm not even trying to understand his lyrics at all. Full of references, varied, large vocabulary. The exact opposite of my writing.His flow is aggressive and harsh, maybe too much.

I love the beats. Weird, gripping and a good dose of variety. Sometimes gloomy. Several unconventional sounds and influences. It's the reason why I find this kind of hip hop immensily interesting. I think I can like the instrumental version more.

Excepting the start and end of Ruby '81, there's no room to breathe. I took a break in the middle (got hungry) so it was an slightly easier listen than I was expecting, but it was still exhausting. 15 songs feels long.

My rating : ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Yeah, his style took me a while to get used to but its kind of grown on me.

I actually ended up listening to the Leisureforce instrumental on repeat for an entire day a while back, it just didn't get old

[omega_grunt666]

Ah, forgot to reply because I was keeping my 666th post up for awhile. Glad you enjoyed BabyMetal! I can't remember the first time I heard them but they were very memorable because of their unique style. Catchy stuff.

[Ohaider]

Sora - re.sort

[noname219]

I'm so late for this :

Day Twenty-Six - December 26th, 2013
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209: Blurred With Tears and Suffering Beyond Hope by Bull of Heaven (recommended by t-rogdor)

1. Blurred With Tears and Suffering Beyond Hope

Bull of Heaven is a project by Clayton Counts and Neil Keener (ex Planes Mistaken for Stars) who started producing music in 2008. Since then, they have made over 300 "music" "pieces". I mentioned them at some point in 2012, about the same time they went on hiatus. They have returned in 2013 and have released some psychedelic rock stuff. You can check Wikipedia for more nice information about the project.

This last about 197 days (more exactly 196 days, 19 hours, 54 minutes and 37 seconds), so I didn't bother listening to this in its entierity. I'm sure nobody would ever want to do that anyway. I listened to about 10-15 minutes from each excerpt, because, frankly, it is just the same thing repeated over and over. Excerpt A is wobbling noise. Has potential for 60 seconds, then it's boring to death. Excerpt B is mostly the same, with a different tempo, slight variations in intonation or pitch. Excerpt C is a 5 seconds industrial-type loop repeated for over an hour. Can't stand it for more than 2 minutes. Excerpt D offers another weird mix of unsettling reverberation. Could be used in a horror movie but on its own, it doesn't stand well.

In the end, the album isn't interesting for the music but for the excessively long length. You remain with an uneasy cold feeling, like staring at a giant blank wall. It's devoid of life.

Kudos to them for having a relatively fast website.

My rating : ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[trumaestro]

Originally Posted by noname219

This last about 197 days (more exactly 196 days, 19 hours, 54 minutes and 37 seconds), so I didn't bother listening to this in its entierity.

weak

[Arkuski]

LOL is that real

[AlexDest]

Originally Posted by Arkuski

LOL is that real

very real http://bullofheaven.com/

[Trogdor!!!!]

Blackmill - Miracle
Blitz Lunar - Triptunes
Death Grips - Exmilitary
Emotional Joystick - Bellicose Pacific
Love Through Cannibalism - Magic Island
Protest the Hero - Volition
Savant - Ninur
A-Remix Nation vol.7 Disk 1
Drumcorps - Grist
Periphery - Periphery

[noname219]

Day Twenty-Seven - December 27th, 2013
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Plume by Loscil (recommended by AlexDest)

1. Motoc
2. Rorschach
3. Zephyr
4. Steam
5. Chinook
6. Bellows
7. Halcyon
8. Charlie
9. Mistral

A surprise for me. Loscil was the drummer of the band Destroyer, a band well-known in the indie community that I've already heard about them two years ago. He has a lengthy solo career and he's quite known for its thematic albums : Triple Point (sub-atomic level), Submers (aquatic depths), First Narrows (shallow waters) and Plume (sky). Plume was released in 2006.

I'm a bit in a rush right now, so ambient albums are really what I'm looking for. If you're really looking for a relaxing mood, there's barely no other genre that rivals ambient. This album is extremely moody and perfect as background music. It reminds me at times at the Moon original soundtrack by Clint Mansell with its vast and desolate sounorities. No strong influences apart from minimal techno and glitch (and it's a bit of a stretch to me, might be the subtlest glitch music I've come across). The percussions (xylophone) bring a nice warm touch.

Nothing extraordinary amazingly unique, but it's done almost flawlessly. Somewhat hard to pinpoint anything wrong with it because it hides its defaults well. Some of the songs feel too long (Rorschach notably), bass on Steam is a bit too heavy, overall a bit unmemorable. Like most ambient, it would require additional listens for me to get into the album more.

My rating : ★★★★★★★★☆☆

[noname219]

Day Twenty-Eigth - December 28th, 2013
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Isolate by Circus Maximus (recommended by Fission)

1. A Darkened Mind
2. Abyss
3. Wither
4. Sane No More
5. Arrival of Love
6. Zero
7. Mouth of Madness
8. From Childhood's Hour
9. Ultimate Sacrifice

I'm always up for some Norwegian progressive metal. Been listening to Leprous' Coal recently and I love Arcturus (particularly The Sham Mirrors), have also some Green Carnation, Borknagar and In Vain on my iTunes and Enslaved is easily one of the best metal band from the last years. So I was expecting something. Circus Maximus is one of many bands I've heard of before but never actually bother to listen. They are around since the year 2000 and have produced so far 3 LPs. Isolate is their second album and went out in 2007.

Dream Theater meets Angra with Queensrÿche and Orphaned Land in the backstage. Not really what I was hoping for. Firstly, I'm not into the super-clean high pitch type of vocals here. It's so pristine that it lefts me indifferent. Secondly, the more I listened to it, the more I realized I'm not a huge fan of power metal anymore. So, when it's leaning on the progressive side, that's where I found the most pleasure. Thirdly, ballads are cliché (hear Zero). They never sound sincere to me and they probably never will.

The voice at the beginning of A Darkened Mind reminded me of Roy Khan (ex-Kamelot). Guitar work is amazing. I could get without the 80s heavy metal chorus, same with Abyss. Sane No More, the only instrumental song, starts with an extremely bizarre chugging sequence. Rest of the song is decent and showcase the musicianship of the band finely. Introduction of Arrival of Love is absolutely tacky and sounds like a relic of the past. Mouth of Madness, on the other hand, is the hightlight of the album. Around 6 minutes in, it turns into an awesome strong symphonic choral. Too bad I didn't see any of that elsewhere. Ultimate Sacrifice is another interesting song with a very nice orchestral ending.

I found few moments I liked in this. It ends up as a middle-of-the-road progressive album.

My rating : ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

[Fission]

tbh i'm not a fan of the songs you mentioned either but i feel like the gems that it has which is basically everything you bolded make up for it (sane no more is so good you h8r !!)

[noname219]

Lol, the beginning of Sane No More threw me off so much that I felt like I shouldn't bold it. It's so easy to rank the songs on this album, it would come at position 5 :

1. Mouth of Madness
2. Ultimate Sacrifice
3. A Darkened Mind
4. Abyss
5. Sane No More
6. From Childhood's Hour
7. Wither
8. Arrival of Love
9. Zero

[Fission]

i agree with that list and review. some of the tracks are really dull, i won't deny that. hopefully you'll like reset your soul better -- i think it's a lot more solid throughout than isolate is.

[ninjaKIWI]

What the fuck kind of rating is "Correct"

also are we still allowed to make recommendations 'cause I have some

Ultramarine - Young Galaxy
The Bones of What You Believe - CHVRCHES
YT//ST - YAMANTAKA//SONIC TITAN

[noname219]

Correct : medium, average, ordinary. Albums I can listen to with no effort, but they don't do much for me.

Recommendations are open until I say the contrary (will ask a mod to change the title when that happens). There's 114 spots left on the shortlist to fill up. Eventually, I will listen to everything on the wishlist too and give out a rating/highlights but not a complete review.

[ninjaKIWI]

Yeah it's just a super weird word to use. Also cool I'll probably come back with more.

like right now

Birthmarks - Born Ruffians

[noname219]

I don't like that term either, and I sure don't want to use "average" because most of my ratings are 6-7. (median is 6.17 as of now)
I changed it to medium.

[Coolboyrulez0]

Bonus Recommendations that are some of personal faves since I already recommended 10/10:

XXYYXX - XXYYXX
Venetian Snares - Cubist Reggae
Clonepa - Courroux
Squarepusher - Big Loada (Nothing Records edition)
The Tuss - Rushup Edge
Terminal 11 - Kaleidoscope Eyes
Kids & Explosions - Shit Computer
The Glitch Mob - Drink the Sea
Wisp - humpelndenBEATS
Ronald Jenkees - Days Away

All of these albums feature (a few) songs that I would personally rate 9 or even 10 but I'd like to see your opinions of the whole works.

(sorry if any are repeats and no problem if you dont get to these, but I'd rather give more and have a chance to see your opinion than not enough )

PS: Mediocre is the term you are looking for... maybe.

[noname219]

Mediocre is too pejorative imo. I always used that word negatively when something is poor or lacking substance. It would fit for 4/10.