Another busy few days and weeks and I haven’t had as much time as I’ve wanted to really get stuck into my blogging. Hopefully when I have all my coursework in, I’ll be able to focus on contacting bands and featuring them and maybe getting interviews. After all, I like to think I’m an amiable young man.
Last Monday, I got to see one of my heroes, Jamie Lenman in practice and the doctor of jazz-folk-core was just as incredible as I imagined him to be. Especially when he dropped No One Wins The War, which, by the way, was populated (heavily) by grinning moshers and Reuben fans.
I’ve also been playing lots of Dark Souls II, but I’m a scrub so I’m progressing at a snails not so eager pace.
As usual, if bands do still want to get in contact with me, for reason x, y, or even z, just drop me a line at musicgleaner@gmail.com. I bite.
Here is a picture of my current wallpaper, downsized, ofc. 1980×1080 master-arse/race!
Thought I’d forgotten about my new feature? Not a chance. This week, we’re leaving the strange odd-strumental stylings of Can Can Heads and we’re taking a louder approach to things.
This week I’m featuring the stoner metal-heads from Denmark, Pet The Preacher. These guys released their second full length album last Friday (April 25th), titled The Cave & The Sunlight and it has to be said, it’s a rather kickass release.
Band: Pet The Preacher Album: The Cave & The Sunlight Genre: Stoner-metal Social Media: Facebook/Napalm Records ( I couldn’t find anywhere else to buy the album, so I’ve just linked it here)
This album is an incredibly strong and powerful release; as with all good stoner-metal band releases you have heavy drumming, loud vocals and proud guitars. When listening to this album, I couldn’t help but feel this sense of power, especially when listening to Let Your Dragon fly. You just can’t help but feel that desire to do anything.
However, again, like all great stoner-metal bands, they must show versatility and these guys do. There are slower rock out sessions which rely more-so on this drawn out guitar solos that burn over the rest of the track. And when these guys push the gear up and bring out a surprising riffing session during one of these slower moments, it’s just mental.
What I’m trying to get across, is that this is a killer second album and brings back memories of bands like The Melvins and Red Fang. If you like either of those bands, give these guys a listen, if not, give them a harder listen.
Band: Fargo EP: Yaron Genre: Post-rock, instrumental Social Media: Facebook/Bandcamp
Fargo is an instrumental post-rock band from Germany that have recently put out a name your price EP, called, Yaron. The guys all stick to what they know with spacious guitars, tight beats and smooth bass to hold everything together. Initially, I was worried that everything would sound a little crescendo-core for me, but thankfully the lads stay away from that messiest of crescendos by keeping the listener guessing with their instrumentation.
Königsberg is a seaport city and also the bands first song on this EP, as you’d expect, the song builds itself around the quiets and the silences that the band utilise to create a very wide-open space of sound. The song does eventually gain power and when it does, it’s best heard through a loud set of speakers, just so you can hear every layer of sound lapping over itself to reign supreme.
The second, and final tune, Leipzig, which is also a city in Germany (starting to see the theme here), meanders a lot more, but feels a lot more intense. It relies on a some lightly distorted guitars to build these incredibly textured riffs around the desperate drums, and thick bass, that sound off prominently in the background. All I can imagine when the song finally comes to an end, is how tired the drummer must be; the drums are fierce and proud throughout the entire piece.
This second EP is a safe second release by the German post-rockers and I’m looking forward to hearing them experiment a bit more. Maybe chuck some tasteless synths in there and see what you can do, who knows? Music is fun. Remember, the EP is name your price, so why not pay a spell, every little helps for these bands; these bands that spend all their time and effort making music and releasing it to the wolves of name your price.
Band: Obsidian Kingdom Album: Mantiis Genre: Experimental metal Social Media: Facebook/Bandcamp/Twitter
Obsidian Kingdom have had a difficult past of not being allowed into genre specific parties, simply because it’s not been easy to classify their sound. Although a lot of people would dub them, experimental, which is the lazy mans (and the best answer) for music that escapes us.
Obsidian Kingdom are having a reissue of their debut LP, Mantiis, released at the bum end of this year. This album received very little spotlight time during it’s initial release, which is a shame, because the concept of the album was very interesting. Very similar to GodSpeed You! Black Emperor, the band took a single song and divided it into 14 tracks, all of which showcase an massive amount of emotion and genres.
Last week, the band released a video for their song, Fingers In Anguish, an unsettling track off of Mantiis that slows everything down and, to be honest, almost feels uncomfortable to listen to. The vocals are murmured and the instrumentation is minimally grim; there’s atmosphere aplenty as the smaller sounds, like the flutters of drums and the strums of a guitar dance around the track.
The video itself looks like a compilation of selfies taken with an iPad or similar device, which seems to be a growing trend for music videos, but again, it adds to the effect. The vocalist looks equally as miserable in every shot, even if he is cleaning up that hair, but it works with the overall sound.
Not to mention that every sound on this track sounds incredible. A shape of things to come if you’ve never heard Mantiis in it’s entirety before. In other words, take the hint and listen to the whole album, or just wait for the re-release of this incredibly eerie and unique musical trip.
Band: From The Petrified Forest EP: Mostly Mort Genre: Space-rock, post-rock, post-metal, shoegaze Social Media: Facebook/Bandcamp
From The Petrified Forest are a four-piece band from Oregon, Portland, that play a mixture of post-rock and post-metal, all welded together with magical hints of shoegaze and convention. The attraction behind this band is their use of the deceptively simple and their exploration of the not so simple.
The band has released two other EPs on Bandcamp, both are, like EP we’ll be looking at today, Mostly Mort, very short. However the tracks that are on these EPs all encompass more movement and progression than most bands’ full length releases.
I really enjoyed the trickery at the start of this album; the pleasing reverb guitar that just potters around like a lonely mouth until, wham. The drums start exploding and the distortion kicks the door in, rounding housing all occupants.
Mostly Mort seems to be giving off a very similar sound, I think to instrumentation of Deaf Heaven’s most recent album, Sunbather. There are these moments of heavenly calm bars that are contrasted so well with the devilish distortions. The EP has very loud and at time uplifting moments, but at the same time, it can also be incredibly brutal. Take for example the angry and abrasive riffing at the end of the tune Make Beautiful Things, Nothing Else, it shows that this band can not only work the chill moments, but also the extreme.
That Old Gold, starts with some tricky bass glides along, soon enough, with some cute guitars and in this moment, everything all feels very space-rock, or even space-opera(ish); everything is massive, spacious and over-the-top. This song glows with atmosphere and beauty, especially when the speed is kicked up a gear or two and everything starts caving in around you; it does it in a way that feels magnificent.
This EP is a fun day at the fair with distortion pedals and fleeting moments on the merry-go-round with spacious clean guitars; great from from the opening chord to the closing fade-out. No bombastic tarty ending, just a final chord that quickly fades out. Proper delight.
If you’ve enjoyed any of the tunes you’ve heard, you may as well head over to their Bandcamp and download the album, it is free and any support these lot can get, is good support.
Another new feature where I will try my best to find a new band that I’ve never heard before and place them at the top. Odds are I’ll bitch out and pick some other band that I’ve heard beforehand, but more often than not, I’ll put a band I’ve never heard before, that have impressed me, at the top.
This week, we have the incredible odd-strumental rockers, Can Can Heads.
Band: Can Can Heads Album: Butter Life Genre: Crazy
Social Media: Bandcamp/Facebook
Can Can Heads and their album Butter Life, released on the bum end of last month have made it to my band o’ the week, simply because their stuff is strange as dicks! This long, 19 track album will control all the peculiar things in your life as it alternates from strange to stranger in strum of a single chord.
Every song is a short, punchy attack on everything you believed to be simple and right with music.
Very much reminiscent of when I first saw Kong, live. They challenged me with unshaven crotches and ball-sack lights.
I wish that was just some drunken allusion, but it’s not.
You can pick up this mental in the face EP for relative cheaps from their Bandcamp and enjoy never feeling the same way about music ever again. Just click the bandcamp page above!
Almost forgot I’ve done one of these before. Been kinda regressing to music that I haven’t heard in ages this month. Got some heavy stuff, got some less heavy stuff and there’s also some ass-shaking stuff for all you booty-shakers out there. Like me.
Jamie Lenman again? Absolutely! I’m off to see him in London on the 21st and I couldn’t be more excited, I tell ya. For Easter, I’m going to be missing in action around the UK for abit, but again, I (should) have a few posts lined up for any readers out there.
Here’s a picture of some nice graffiti I saw on the trek to work the other day. The day was not lovely, but it’s the thought that counts kind artist!
Raum Kingdom is a heavy prog-metal band, of sorts, from Ireland and has recently dropped their newest, self-released and self-titled EP. On a side note here, I may stop giving bands genres, I find it really difficult unless it’s painfully obvious and a lot of the time (to me), and it just feels pointless. Raum Kingdom released this album on the 15th Of April, for free and it just seemed a shame that I was aware of them (thank you Post Engineering) and not reviewing something they had the decency to release for free.
For a free album, you can tell that a lot of work has gone into this album. The production is solid; it’s grand and pleases my heavy bone (try saying that out loud and NOT laughing). I spent a lot of the time listening to this album thinking, ‘There’s gotta be some Old Man Gloom or Isis, inspirations going on here.’ Much to my dismay, I couldn’t find any information about inspirations online, although, in my opinion, it can sound very similar.
Unlike Isis, Raum Kingdom only has one guitarist and mange to create an expansive sound without the need for more guitars. I mean the track, Wounds, has this exceptional guitar hook that sounds big and memorable without requiring multiple guitars to double up the chords. It’s also impressive to see that the band can set up such a brooding atmosphere in such a short space of time. The band plods through the tracks at a snail’s pace, rarely accelerating to fast and heavy, but it works for the crushing experience this EP shoots for.
The vocals that lead singer, Dave Lee, are a moody and exceptional mix of cleans and some filthy screams and shouts; again, at times, strikingly similar to Aaron Turner of Isis. I think the best way to get to grips with the sort of vocals you can expect from these guys, is to listen to the track These Open Arms. It shows Lee’s differing vocal techniques and has a frickin’ heavy as fuck riff at the end.
There are moments during this EP where it would be nice to hear another guitar or something else plodding away in the darkness. Just to vary up the soundscape a bit. I think this is most obvious on the closer, This Sullen Hope, which is just short of 10 minutes long. This is in no way a bad thing and it doesn’t become dull, but some texturing could not go away at the mid ‘build-up’ point of the tune. That being said, Lee drops some ferocious vocals after this moment, so everything feels fine. Then there’s some sweet jamming between the band to see us on our merry way; all sludgy eyed. Fuckin’ nice.
As a whole Raum Kingdom’s debut EP is a killer that houses a plethora of sludge and darkly moments that will have you head banging and shouting for ‘one more’ at the end of every listen.
Band: Post War Glamour Girls Album: Pink Fur Genre: Music Social Media: Facebook/Bandcamp/Twitter
Post War Glamour Girls are an exciting new, rock, post-punk, progressive-rock, band that I came across through Twitter, completely by accident. It really is that easy to stumble across fantastic music through social media recommendations. Thank you Twitter! Today we’re going to be taking a look at their February release, Pink Fur, which so far seems to have flown beneath the radar. After hearing Pink Fur, I just can’t understand why.
The sound of PWGG is incredibly hard to nail down to just one genre; every part of the band screams versatility. That being said, it ‘s plain to see that we have some jilted metal guitars, some jagged basses and some drumming that is all over the shop (as it must be for this sort of band). Both singers are incredibly talented and deliver incredibly unique vocals. One of the best examples of the versatility of their voices resides in the track Stolen Flowers Rust. The rest of the band also move in and out of the serene to the brutality with ease. It’s a good fun track that shows off just how versatile this band is.
There are moments where I think they have something like Kill It Kid going, but a lot less bluesy. And then there are other times when I think Nick Cave, but again, it’s hard to pin down, especially when they rock out tracks like Jazz Funerals or Black Dolphin. Both tracks set the band apart from what they’ve been doing with the majority of the album, which is becoming increasingly off the chain and down right rude. But moments like Black Dolphin, cut up the album and show that these guys are more than over-the-top anger-core.
The over-the-top moments are fun though. There’s something there that just says ‘you can get into this and you should get others into it’. Sestra smacks around with kooky hooks and vocals that holler and holler until the end of time, but the bassists heavenly vox split this thing apart and add some really nice pacing to the track. These guys really seem to get their pacing, right on target as they move through the quiet moments and the louder movements, but you could speculate that they seem to follow a similar formula; granted, said formula has awesome hooks and vocals, but there isn’t much changing beyond that. Hardly a complaint really.
I think their track Brat, really does it for me the most. They drop some radio sample in there and we get some nice drops of accent in there and when accent comes through in just the right way, it’s a real belter for a singer. There’s also this brassy overzealous chorus choir thing going on that is so exaggerated, it’s just massive and brilliant. Then there’s also this moment of immense intensity as the band builds to their final outro. After that everyone seems to be shouting ‘pink fur’ and then I’m shouting it while running around and then I’m accused of never making love and everything is over.
Is Pink Fur a good album? Yes. Is Pink Fur something more unique and interesting than you could know unless you actually give them a go? Hell fucking yes.
Robbie released this album in November last year and as Wikipedia says, received ‘mixed to positive reviews’, why this doesn’t read ‘unanimously favourable reviews’, I will never know. To me, Robbie Williams is the embodiment of the glutinous, glorious and gutsy stars that inhabit the television and sound-waves and no one does it better.
This album, Swings Both Ways, illustrates this in the clearest terms possible and whether or not this is part of some act or not, isn’t clear, but either way, I love this album; doesn’t matter if just under half the songs are covers, it’s still the tits.
Like a lot of Robbie’s previous releases, this album takes a unique and Robbie way of looking at things. One of my favourite examples of this is the title track Swings Both Ways. This song dances with Robbie’s sexuality in the most indecent and fun way possible. It’s also insanely catchy and will have you singing along in front of anyone, much to your dismay. It’s a similar story with Soda Pop, which features everyone’s favourite modern day swing hunk, Michael Buble. Insanely catchyand it has that signature overactive mood.
Shine My Shoes also adopts this very ‘I don’t really care that you don’t like me and that’s kind hot’ vibe and he talks about how it doesn’t matter if you like him or not, but he just doesn’t care. If anything, keep giving the abuse, he kinda likes it. It would be interesting to see more stars pick up on this, as opposed to getting offended by every little thing.
Robbie really pulls out a few grand steps on this album showing off how emotional he can be, probably part of the act, who knows? But these tracks are really incredibly well written. Take, No On Likes a Fat Pop Star, it deals with how we’re almost forced fed these incredibly and unbelievably fit, attractive stars and how in reality, what it can do to the stars. A clever perspective; instead of spitting on this idea, Robbie flips it and it works well, especially with lyrics like: ‘If I could eat my own words, I’d tear through the verbs/But nobody pays me to speak’. Very clever Mr Williams! Snowblind also pulls the same vulnerability card and again, it works well in Robbie’s favour.
The covers on this album are all rather neat, while Robbie doesn’t exactly bring anything new to them, he does breathe a very specific sort of life into them with his active singing style. Best example is I Wan’na Be Like You, which features Olly Murs, who is also not as bad as people seem to think. The track itself is magnificent, it retains all of the liveliness that you’d expect it to and both Williams and Murs have some fun singing on this track and why shouldn’t they?
Swings Both Ways is one of my favourite albums from last year, take that as you want, but I really enjoyed how fun and active the album was.It didn’t try to be anything it wasn’t and what more could you ask for? Some soda pop? Featuring Michael Buble.
Music Gleaner 
