The Rock Blogger

Photo by Sorina Dragusanu

Today marks the end of my summer and my last day here in Toronto. By tomorrow morning I’ll be on the road to Windsor to study law, far removed from everyone I know and everything I’ve done. Moving out to academia is probably the biggest step I’ve taken in my life so far, seeing that I’ve never lived on my own before. I’m not really sad, nervous or uncertain, I’m just trying to get focused on the next phase of my journey. There are plenty of projects I’m planning on doing, as well as those that are currently underway, that are going to receive greater attention with the change in scenery. This summer has been one of the most productive seasons ever for me, having completed a television pilot with my good friend (and Rock Blogger contributor) Tyson Stewart, a 20 minute EP for The War Upstairs with Clayton Needham (soon to be posted here) and of course the many reviews and articles on this blog.

I guess the purpose of this post is to just give a sense of where I am right now and to reassure you that The Rock Blogger will continue on, full steam ahead. I’m not sure how long it will take to get settled over there - I could be back posting here in a day or week depending on the arrangements. I’m very excited about the response I’ve been getting from this site, the traffic has been strong, and although comments are usually sparse, I get the feeling that there is an audience for all the strange and wonderful things I’m finding. So with this, I leave the Isle of Summer behind, with much thanks and gratitude.

I’ll talk to you soon.

From their upcoming album The Hawk is Howling .
They’re definitely going for something darker and heavier with this one. I thought I was watching a Tool video at first. Some of these images also have a Pans Labyrinth feel to them, capturing the surreal nightmares of a child.

You’ll be able to find this song on both The Hawk is Howling (September 23) and on the BatCat EP (September 8). This album is going to kill.

Falkenbach. Heralding the Fire Blade. 2005. 4 stars.

A rather majestic viking metal album from Germany that is full of adventurous sentiment and powerful musicianship. Some stylistic elements from folk metal and black metal blend together nicely, as sweeping symphonic tones meet battle-ready drumming and aggressive. thrashing riffs. The vocals are quite good as well, switching between bellowing, cleanly song odes to conquest (”Heathen’s Foray” to snarling, vitriolic rasps. The contrast is lively and inspired, darting across that fine line between heroism and inconsolable madness.

Heralding the Fire Blade is an impressive showcase for Vratyas Vakyas’ multi-instrumental abilities and his keen ear for melody. Its hard to believe that such a well produced and composed record was put togehter by a one man show, but here it is, in all its shore-storming glory. While this is probably my favorite Viking Metal album I’ve come across so far, it still suffers from some of the common ailments of the genre, like some overlong songs and repetiitve vocals. Luckily, the shfiting of aesthetics, from traditional folk sounds to modern black metal, keeps things interesting. Heralding the Fire Blade has a strong gravity to it, and it draws you into its landscape quite violently. Entertaining and epic, a victirious, ocean-charging campaign.

Falkenbach - “Laeknishendr”

Jesu . Why Are We Not Perfect EP. 2008. 3.5 stars .

Yet another Jesu release, though this latest EP is actually just a collection of Justin Broadrick’s contributions to the Jesu/Eluvium vinyl split they put out last year. Consisting of three full songs and two remixes, "Why Are We Not Perfect" sees Broadrick going deeper into the shoegaze territory he has mapped out before, scaling back on the crushing guitar drones for dreamy ambiance and refined digital percussion. His vocal presence is also more prominent, with soft speak-singing gliding across the slow-moving psychedelic haze. Broadrick often sounds like a dead ringer for Trent Reznor on these tracks, with his calm and drifting style conveying the same sad detachment found on "Hurt" and "The Day the World Went Away".

We are certainly seeing more of the blissful side of Jesu here, as the omnipresent sludge of "Friends are Evil" or "Old Year" is no where to found on this disc. While this may upset some purists longing for the good old days of Godflesh or even the first Jesu album, keep Justin Broadrick’s prolificness in mind. He has put out more material in the last 5 years than most bands can create in a decade, so his catalog is bound to diverge in many different directions, broadening the scope of his song craft. As a hybrid between doom and ambient styles, Why Are We Not Perfect works really well despite its reluctance to push the envelope any further from where Jesu has already been. It is deeply relaxing to listen to, an odd thing considering the crushing heaviness of Jesu’s more industrial sounding material. Very cool and well produced, though I’ll be more likely to listen to Conquerer or the Silver EP for my next Jesu fix.

Robert Rich & B. Lustmord. Stalker 1995. 4.5 stars.

A few months ago I wrote a post about Andrei Tarkovsky’s surreal sci-fi film Stalker and its meditative soundtrack, which I had tracked down thanks to a few intrepid readers of this blog. Now I’ve discovered an alternative score to that mind-bending film courtesy of ambient artists Robert Rich and B Lustmord who painstakingly create a haunted soundscape with the same spiritual energy as Tarkovsky’s masterpiece.

Like any great dark-ambient record, Stalker is rich with detail. Natural sound samples like dripping water, gusts of wind and disemboidend vocies fill the estranged spaces of the record. The compsoitons are not just rough collections of found sounds however, as they are driven by subtle rythms, synthesied loops, drones and unsual percussiive elements. While these densely layered compositions are as slow moving and hypnotic as the film’s images, they are still highly engaging, capturing one’s attentions in a ghostly ebb and flow.

Whether its taken in as a companion peice to Tarkovsky’s work or on its own merit, Stalker is a powerful work of art that is full of mystery. While its fullest spirtual thrust comes towards the latter end of the record, as beautiful choral voices make their way through the labryith of sounds, Stalker remains consistently powerful and immersive across its entire duration. If you have any interest in ambient music, or are simply looking for something to think or meditate to, you owe it to yourself to find this album.

Mark Kozelek. Little Drummer Boy Live . 2006. 4.5 stars .

Yes, I do realize I’ve reviewed two Sun Kil Moon albums on my blog already, but since Mark Kozelek’s blend of folk and slowcore styles is so exquisite and moving, I feel he deserves all the praise he can get, so the mentions continue. What drew me to this double disc set is the inclusion of not only songs from Kozelek’s Sun Kil Moon period (also featuring early incarnations of pieces from 2008’s April ), but also the acoustic renditions of some Red House Painters material had that sparked his songwriting career.

Among the highlights is the haunting "Katy Song" and the slow burning "Cruiser" which find their way into his sets (compiled from shows across North America and Finland), with heart-wrenching vigor. In performances such as these, it feels as if Mark Kozelek is not just pouring his heart out to the crowd, but to every piercing moment that has touched his life. Love and distance, fading faces, cascading light and oceanic mystery are part of his aesthetic language, all spoken with a distinctive, reverberating voice that rings with unflinching emotional clarity.

As a compilation, Little Drummer Boy Live is a stunning illustration of Kozelek’s detailed, poetic lyricism, his quiet but honest guitar playing and the unshakable sadness of his vocals. There are some notable surprises as well, including a cover of Neil Young’s "Rock ‘n’ Roll Singer" and the surprisingly powerful version of "Little Drummer Boy", the classic Christmas song. The collection is not without its faults though, as many of these songs do sound barren, desolate and overlong without any backing instrumentation. The album’s incredible length, in addition to the melancholic air that hangs over it all, is simply intimidating. If you are new to Kozelek’s music, I would recommend picking up this year’s April , which features a full band to flesh out the songs. If you are a seasoned fan however, then Little Drummer is essential and captivating. Even with just a slight introduction to the source material, as I received this summer, the work of Mark Kozelek leaves a lasting impression, and these performances reinforces it all the more.

Mark Kozelek - Cruiser [live]

Svarte Greiner . Knive . 2006. 4 stars .

This is a spine chilling dark-ambient album from Norway that strives to create a disturbing cinematic experience. Strange rustling, creaks, unsettling drones and haunting choral vocals make subtle exchanges in the black spaces of this record, creating an enveloping atmosphere that has been described as ‘acoustic doom’.

Like avant-garde contemporaries Set Fire to Flames and Northaunt, Svarte Greiner’s disc is difficult to get into but immensely rewarding once you let it slowly seep in under your skin. While there are some meandering sections that just sound like someone clumsily dropping a microphone repeatedly, the later numbers are completely absorbing, as the ghostly, wordless vocals glide across the primal percussion and field recordings. The more refined numbers like "The Black Dress" sound like lost tracks form a David Lynch movie, drawing you into moaning corridors and passageways with no clear direction or aim. All that leads you along is an inescapable sense of dread and unease, the fear of the unknown.

Despite the album’s unevenness, the later half of Knive is engrossing enough to deserve an attentive listen. The level of detail in these soundscapes will be sure to fascinate, as each creeping synth line, shimmering chime and estranged clang pulls you towards a deeper psychic plane. Organic and ethereal, the sounds of Knive will be etched in mind for some time.

This is a great short explaining and critiquing the cycles and consequences of our consumerist economy. Its historical origins, political interests and the dire threats it imposes on our planet our explored clearly and concisely. Entertaining and alarming at the same time. Check out the video and the accompanying website for more valuable information. http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Turning on the left indicator:
On Up the Yangtze’s politics in the chicken-in-the-corner doc mode

By Tyson Stewart

A cabin boy working on the ship tells a joke early on that goes something like this: the Chinese and American presidents are driving along the road of life. They arrive at a crossroads. A left turn means Communism. Right is Capitalism. The American president says let’s go right and the Chinese president says sure, but let’s turn on the left indicator. There is one thing in common with all the subtle moments tied together so effortlessly in Yung Chang’s film. The outer appearance of something surely doesn’t say everything there is to say about the thing’s function. Whether that thing is the political system, poverty, education, job protocol, or nature. Layered contradictions are everywhere. And when the cabin boy tells the joke, the film cuts to a shot of the back of ship going down the Yangtze River with a Chinese flag waving in the wind, denoting Communism. Then, to signify Capitalism, a shot of two Western tourists sitting in a lounge on the boat not paying a second’s thought to the two humongous Cosco containers that go by. The biggest political adversaries are intricately bound to the same vision of industry. The joke’s not-so-apparent, second hypocrisy has to do with the beginning. The US is riding in the same boat with China.
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Venetian Snares. Detrimentalist. 2008. 3.5 stars.

As the slick cover art demonstrates, the latest album from Winnipeg’s Venetian Snares is a symposium of space age sounds, robotic chatter and futuristic breaks. While Venetian Snares’ previous albums My Downfall and Rossz csillag alatt született were rooted in neoclassical compositions, the busy electronica found here leans closer to trip-hop and the caustic sounds of Aphex Twin. With the shift in aesthetics, Detrimentalist is more of a ‘fun’ record that rides sliding oscillations and pitches to all kinds of crazy.

The use of soul, blues and film samples keeps the human element intact amid the technological mayhem, although their use can become somewhat repetitive, acting like a crutch for the wild, drilling beats to fall back on. Aside from these somewhat forced moments, most of Detrimentalist is addictive and hypnotic.

Aaron Funk’s painstaking attention to detail is remarkable, compiling layers upon layers of blips and squawks and squeaks unto each other to form hyperactive bursts of energy. From the chaos comes a compositional consistency that keeps up with the rapid tempo and envelopes you in the strange, video game atmosphere that never lets up. Detrimentalist sounds like the alternative soundtrack to some forgotten Sonic title, or even an episode of Futurama, seen through the bloodshot eyes of an acid fiend. Even though I prefer the darker, more classically inspired VS, longtime fans will surely welcome the lighter side of this album. Look for this if you want a taste of something really different.

Venetian Snares “Gentleman” - set to ‘Death Wish 3′ (lol)