Monday, July 29, 2013

Last Chance To Reason - Level 3 - Review

Last Chance To Reason - Level 3
(r) 08/06/2013

Last Chance To Reason - Level 3 (Bandcamp)

I got the chance to see Last Chance To Reason in 2011 during the Obscura tour, and what I was immediately struck by is how compact, and concentrated their power is.

The dimension and variation vocalist Mike Lessard employs. He has this intensely focused energy which gives a positive variation to a new breed of upcoming 'metal'.

The players around Mike showcase a style that sets themselves apart from a genre that is still trying to invoke a new direction as it were. I was really impressed just by what I saw, and heard and immediately set out to check out their work.

I find this band interesting, and I like where they are going. The first release harnessed a metalcore texture, whereas the Level 2 pushed them outside of that sameness field and really captured a curiosity not really seen in sometime.

Based in large part around video game code, Level 2 meanders a little bit, but pulls together after repeated listens. The only quibble I may have is the record feels very short, and maybe its because I've got an eclectic point of view to the 'journey' of sorts.

Level 3 takes a much more directed approach and branches outward to give me the listener something to chew on. I'm not even really sure this record fits in the 'djent' style as there are a lot of little elements going on. Yet, this is a record that has to be listened to in a very direct and non-confrontational aspect.

I feel as though the machine code has now become self aware, and yearns to branch and breakout of the confines of just being game code as it were. The layers upon layers of subtext can be looked at in the current state of our society and world. Using the premise of man's often deluded sense of will or purpose, and realizing its time to wake up from a long sleep.

No matter, I will continue to marvel at this release. I cannot wait to see these guys again. They put on a great show, check them out, you will be disappointed if you miss them. Thanks for reading.

B.

American Head Charge - Shoot EP - Review

American Head Charge Shoot EP
(r) 07/23/2013

Probably the most interesting return for a band that I've followed in the last ten or so years.  Shoot encapsulates prior achievements that are recorded in this short and compact release.

The band remind me of disenfranchisement to the current ills of our time. Channeling what irks, the addictions, the haphazardness, all while eliciting forth a kind of ethos of indifference all while solidly forging ahead.

The gist is as focused and honest. I will continue to listen long after the year is over. There are many good tracks, being the cover of Patti Smith. Aptly and concretely they do great justice with recreating the song to their own brand of style.

I am hopeful that AHC will stick around for awhile, thanks for reading.

B


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Helmet - 90's Body Of Work (90's Era)

Helmet - 90's Body of Work 


Helmet is a band I have a love/hate relationship with. A lot of what drives me bonkers about this band is they seem pompous, arrogant, and aloof. Yet, they also annoyed me because of the rather obtuse interviews of frontman Page Hamilton.

Yes I get he is a jazz purist (first and foremost), but underneath that exterior, I feel he enjoys pissing off anyone who is expecting something similar, but doesn't get the underlying artistic merit he is breathing out. I feel Helmet likes to be pick at these specific scabs. To get underneath the skin just enough to irritate. There are a few records that do this (mostly their later), as their early material gelled with me.

Strap It On(1990) starts Helmet off right. Though I was late in getting a solid copy, this record really has piss and bite throughout. Taking last remnants of the initial first wave of 1980's Alternative style and turning it on its literal ear. 


Strap It On pushes everything outside of the compact, giving a grindish, and meatier intensity. This record definitely sets them apart from a lot of the sameness that started piling up in the early 90s. 

I wouldn't necessarily agree that this came out of nowhere, it fits in the next evolution of a gruff, and despotic aggression that was more or less refined by Prong, Biohazard, and Pro-Pain. Those are in very good company to be around.

Whereas (1992)Meantime takes this and re-arranges a slight expectation as to shrunt a unprepared and from my vantage point unaware audience. I picked this up when it was released. I still love and frequent this record quite a bit.

I like this record because it harnesses structure, texture, but gives me as the intended listener something to wrap my busy mind around. Meantime feels busy in a most basic sense, but don't let that be the deciding factor here.

Its absurd in a more compressed fashion. There are intended layers (of course), but also picks up a refined manner from their Strap It On release which employed a rawness.

A lot of bands during this time were going full on studio trickery. Though it is straight ahead, some of the performance itself falters about midway through, and that is my honest take with the record.

Betty (1994) flips the switch and goes into more palatable and friendlier territory. There are capable, and catchier songs here, but many of the songs are in short duration.  


Betty elicits a more Led Zepplin vibe, pushing catchier groove front and center. I'd look at this as an evolution from both Meantime and Strap It On. 

This record forces the listener into mellower territories. While understanding nuances going forth, as a way to acknowledge a sort of graduation of what was to where they were about to go.


Once Aftertaste(1997) was released, what was as recognizable for polished, and produced Betty, Aftertaste returns them into a ravenous animal. Essentially doing a total 180 from accessible songwriting back to an obscureness.

This record scraped my mind, and rubbed my perception in the wrong way. I wasn't prepared for its opposite spatial expression. I also began to believe the audience wallowed around a kind of apathetic who cares conscription.

I think part of the reason was that the industry had moved away from the brutal, and gnarly tones. The biggest problem for Helmet (I felt) was they were a 90's niche band, not really getting support from their (then) label Interscope records.

Part of the problem also was the label really didn't know how to market said acts. The era that I was part of was already in the waning recesses of its popularity. Hence this was why Page and company took a step back from the grind, and worked on other avenues, a sort of hiatus was in store.

Once Helmet took sometime off after the Aftertaste tour, the band from my vantage point stepped away letting a kind of gestation occur, and percolate for a while.

Page and co regrouped, and came back in 2004 with Size Matters. It was a record to return with. Helmet is and will always be known for: Goliath monster power riffs, tons of wavelength feedback, groove, nice and tight rhythm, and very strange oddball lyrics.

Though the band would release Monochrome, and Seeing Eye Dog to close out the last decade, this band often has been kind of hit or miss with its newer material for me. I've kept interested to see what I will hear next. I suspect that what was won't happen again. I am extremely proud to continue to support his work even though I feel he is enigmatic. I marvel that Page has taken this route of infrequent releases, punctuating where his thought processes are. It is also nice to have a different perspective every so many years. Thanks for reading.

B.



Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Technology Tribulations: The Advent of the Cloud - Games/Phones/Media

The Advent of the Cloud - Games/Phones/Media (My take)

I hail from a time where owning what you purchased was as important to holding books, records, cassette tapes, compact discs, DVD's, concert tickets, and band t-shirts. The fact when one owned something they worked for, it gave a sense of physical connection.

Today this component in current terms is becoming outdated. Though there are occasional winks and nods to yesteryear with regards to early technology, the fact is future generations aren't going to enjoy what I and so many older computer/gamer/tech chaps experienced with turning something tactile to transfer our energies into.

I am not saying I dislike what has transformed in what I call a heavily controlled distant apparatus. Far from it, I have to use this form of distance because of my business. Yet I've also begun employing a very crucial criticism of how this new paradigm shift to the Cloud, and this aspect which has transformed how people gain, exchange information. In a nutshell?

You must pay for it. All of it.

Gone is that ability to find technological something with great care, and researching various options. There isn't exactly a kind of freedom today in pushing forward because of how limited the scope or targeted audience. In this case young teens. This isn't an indoctrination, more in line with less connection to the very component of 'things' into 'invisible' but always there.

They aren't free from various types of speculative manipulation either. Most are unaware of being able to piece together research with weighing pros and cons of cloud like services. What takes real skill is being able to discern who is selling a lie versus truth. That in itself takes keen skill to deduce. Yet even that construction has been whittled down into very dumb description, where companies are clever in hiding out critical details.

Between innovation, and consumerism with technology today, the computer industry currently has become a broken cog of software algorithm litigation. What is broadcasted tempers those who have big dreams and are deflated by ego-maniacal monster mergers, and tight lipped corporate executives who could give to shits whether you or I expired.

As the old saying goes as long as they get paid i.e holding everyone hostage including the right to free flowing information. Which brings me to games, and the one last real vestige I will continue holding a death firm grip on.

Yes I concur game companies are fighting a piracy battle because of price. Smartphones now dictate the terms of an archaic and slow to keep up industry that still thinks people have disposable incomes. Of all the various titles in the recent years, in my estimation hasn't provided a decent interest since the last decade, first person shooter sequels do not count.

I can also talk about the telephone morphing into a mobile aspect where your always connected. I am thankful to have lived through knowing and being anonymous. Now I'm as networked into a world with news disguised as infotainment, unrecognizable computer culture, games, and everything else. There is no off switch, because it never stops.

Gamers especially are feeling the pinch with this apparatus because of a very real idealism with profitability. Gamers were a commodity once listened to by game companies. Gamers made the industry into what it became. The reality now is that companies could give a damn about what a gamer wants.

This goes for cellphones, computers, and portable electronics. We all have seen this concerted effort to shift control away from the user, into a tightly controlled component of corporate interference. The lines of being a free spirit are now heavily regulated, and often monitored.

With the releases of Sony's Playstation 4, and Xbox One, the circle is now complete. As Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft all are in favor of micro-transactions, mostly by these companies whom align themselves toward shareholders, profitability is completely singular to that narrative.

Users have no control over the right to their own information. I value holding onto my information. I don't want to have what I own carry stigma, or give rise to some unknown supposed ethical issues. I enjoy having the ability to not be sucked into what the 'supposed' industry wants. I've elected to back away, and watch as the lines become drawn. 

I am definitely more concerned of how this will translate for those of us on the outside of the youth circle. Seeing from a distance while observing with open eyes is very concerning to the overall picture.

I am but one man, who feels that there is a form of legalized extortion happening. Data plans, cloud services, music streaming, etc. Ownership of anything is now passing into a realm of an uncool and dated obscure 1970's exploitation film. With technology breaking society in ways of information control, who has it, and the ability to take what we do in our spare time to monetize that bothers me greatly. Thanks for reading.

B.

Front Line Assembly - Echogenetic - Review

Front Line Assembly - Echogenetic
(r) 07/09/2013

Since 1991, I have followed FLA. Electronic music can be something that one can get if they are open to it. I've been pretty lucky considering that I lean more into the loud, gruff, and angry sounding material. Though I didn't follow as close as I would have liked with FLA during the mid to latter part of the 90's, yet they've been a constant friend I've sought out to see what they've been up to.

FLA definitely started me out with ambient electronic textures. There is no denying their mark in my music journey. Their material really gives me a unearthly, out of body space faring vibe. With Echogenetic, FLA have evolved with integrating current staple 'dubstep', into their brand of industrial technique.  Skrillex comes to mind, yet let that comparison end right there, as there is that distinct FLA persona evident throughout. Bill Leeb still sounds as distorted, and distant as ever.  The flow of this record reminds me of Caustic Grip with regards to electrobeat style throws me off a bit, but the overall package is a curious entry into prior knowledge of FLA

My liking of industrial music goes back 25 years with modern music coined by KJQ. From Skinny Puppy, Throbbing Gristle, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, InSoc(Don't Be Afraid), Ministry, Pigface, Kraftwerk and others I'm currently spacing on. In a nutshell? I'm pretty well versed with this material.

What I've always liked about FLA is their dark thrombotic textures. The mixtures of both guitars, and keyboards, along with very atmospheric pieces complement the work. I feel as though Echogenetic extends on, and pushes new areas of exploration. Echogenetic doesn't disappoint in this area, what is different will give one something to ponder. I believe one has to be open to that fact. Front Line Assembly have returned, I'm always and pleasantly happy to hear their new material. Thanks for reading.

B.