A daily dose of vinyl from my personal record collection (and CDs and online albums). A little history, a couple jokes, and some personal anectdotes about the stuff i'm actually slapping on the turntable every night.
CHVCHES - Screen Violence
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I can't lie, i have no idea how to review a 2021 Scottish Synthpop album, but Screen Violence by CHVCHES is really growing on me.
Tonight's compilation has probably the most interesting back story. As you might have noticed, these labels were formed by musicians from actual bands and published stuff from their fellow bands (and that will keep being true for most of the rest). Junk Records is the bedroom label of Katon de Pena. Of course you've never heard of him, but it's actually kind of insane that you haven't. He's the lead singer of thrash metal band Hirax (their most recent album was in 2014, that's 30 years after they formed, for anybody interested in that sort of thing). They were a legit part of the early thrash scene with Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, and Megadeth . He also formed the band Phantasm with Ron McGovney and Gene Hoglan. He's got a real Bruce Dickenson-like dramatic singing style (but with a healthy dose of play it up sillyness) above a seriously thrashing ensemble. He doesn't do the high screachy falsetto stuff, and that's just fine. Oh yeah, he's als...
And now (to keep the Monty Python references going) for something completely different... ... as much as i love electronic (synths and sequencers) music in general, i have surprisingly little of it in my collection. It's just not one of my go to genres like rock and metal, 'cause (big shock) i'm not made of money. I do however have the second compilation from English ex-pat ambient dub label Waveform Records, Two A.D. "Ambient dub" doesn't mean anything over here, so they adopted the phrase "exotic electronica" for the steadfastly downtempo, liquid sunshine, aliens and wildlife type soundscape music they broadcast out into the radiosphere. I used to listen to Forest himself dj Musical Starstreams late at night as a teenager on i don't even remember what station. This is hour-long attention span, eyes-closed, pretty colors on the back of your eyelids type music. It's sole purpose is to make you feel fantastic, calm, relaxed; assuming of ...
Today would have been David Lamb's 42nd birthday, so i'm listening to Salt for Salt by Brown Bird. I've pointed my facebook friends to it several times in the past, but this is just superb dark neo-folk. They had been a full band, but scaled down to a husband/wife duo with Morgan playing violin/cello/bass and Dave playing everything else, one-man band style. It's surprising how full and energetic they can make such a small, intimate duo sound. Songwise, the album focuses heavily on nature, the ocean, and the idea of meeting the oncoming storm (whatever form it may take) with the determination to embrace/accept the fight and persevere. The two sides are subtitled flesh and blood, and i can't think of a better analogy. It's a melancholic, at times angry sounding, album but it's so damned good that you end up feeling a real sense of catharsis in spite of knowing you'll lose the fight in the end. MorganEve Swain is still out there performing as ...
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