Xzibit "At The Speed Of Life" (1996)

Seemingly always in the mood for 90s Hip Hop, It occurred to me Xzibit would be a great artist to dive into. I've always been fond of the famed MTV Pimp My Ride rapper, his features with Dr. Dre and Eminem were fantastic back in the day. At The Speed Of Life is the West Coast artists debut and one I actually got into a decade or so ago when really binging into the scene. The single hit Paparazzi holds up well over time but its not much of a surprise that the rest of the record doesn't have the same stick.

Xzibit has a very firm grip on the mic. Aggressive, coherent and articulate, he stands boldly. His vocal tone has a little flavor similar to the looseness of East Coast rappers Redman and Eric Sermon but he stays firmly on track with his rhymes. A steady flow with plenty of sensible word play he almost lacks a spark or flair of sorts. In the wake of weaker lyrics he can be unremarkable but for the most part the story telling and train of through is powerful enough to affirm himself with some serious credibility.

All these years later his more personal oriented rhymes really stuck in the mind but where the record falls short is production. Often gloomy and urban toned beats, swaying between some more rugged bouncy tracks, are all a tough thin and stiff. Somewhere in its composition a little oomph is missing. The ideas are great, the atmospheres forged make much sense but it can't help but feel sparse. The into and interludes also bloat the records pace with a lack of purpose or conception.

This debut record is a good platform to get moving as an artist, he shows his promise, puts together plenty of solid story telling as his explains his life journey to this point. The features are a little varied, he lets a handful of compadres on the mic and they often make for duller moments in the albums flow. Hurricane G on the other hand brings a lot of excitable energy that compliments X well. Its enjoyable, a fun handful of listens can be had but lacks a spark to make it memorable.

Favorite Tracks: At The Speed Of Life, Paparazzi, Carry The Weight

Rating: 5/10

Austra "Hirudin" (2020)

After a steady decline from their debut Feel It Break, Austra return with their fourth effort, Hirdudin. Its a resurgence of inspiration spearheaded by heartbroken pains that ripple through the warm mix of soft pianos and electronic instruments tinged in melancholy. As they do, simple song structures and short looping melodies create a glossy and modern, yet 80s Synthpop inspired setting for Stelmanis to flex her remarkable voice, becoming the beacon that makes it all work. Its opening songs remark on this stasis of hurt, after going through a brutal parting. The juxtaposition with playful, uplifting melodies is entrancing as her words walk a dark path.

 Growing past its powerful opening, the album plays with some sparse instrumentals to emphasize the power of Katie's stunning vibrato, almost robotic and inhuman at times, mesmerizer! On the track Risk It she again surprises with chipmunk high pitched singing thats surprisingly catchy, fun and not annoying. The mid-tempo dance groove below livens up the mood and after a couple more songs Mountain Baby is another ear catcher with its stiff yet charming nursery piano melody leading the tone. Not doubt this inclination is played up by the choir of kids singing sweetly in the intro.

On the very first play few I knew the album had come to an end with the arrival of Messiah. It reminded me of The Beast, a very powerful closing song from their debut. The piano and Katie's singing build up this oozing suspense that gets suspended and dissipated as the chords hammer away as airy reverberations and subtle cosmic synths sweep it all up and away. A stunning finale to a reasonable record that's far from perfect but has plenty of emotional out-pour to be embraced.

Rating: 7/10

Favorite Tracks: Anywayz, All I Wanted, How Did You Know, Mountain Baby, Messiah

Oranssi Pazuzu "Mestarin Kynsi" (2020)

Returning from a cosmic darkness of maddening psychedelic infused in the Black Metal abyss, Finish outfit Oranssi Pazuzu serve up another engrossing slice of darkly paranoid wonder. Four years on from Värähtelijä, the group return with six lengthy tracks of mystic torture and devine black magics. Atmosphere is ripe, the music brimming with thick busying layers of sound decorated with whirls of cosmic ambience between its pounding baselines, thick distortion guitars and aggressive instruments.

Toying with the listener through repetition, tension and menace brood as simple arrangements loop with a hypnotic persuasion. Between the cracks an eeriness lurks, croaks and groans are heard deepening the bleak persuasion as the music lunges into upheavals of spite and hate with the most harrow and distressing of tones amending its peaks. It does find balance however with a glorious sense of galactic mystique emerging through stunning synths. It gives balance to a challenging listen.

Every track feels fleshed out with a concept. Some central idea hinges and holds together an intense journey through the mental madness this band explore. In its best moment, Kuulen Ääniä Maan Alta deploys an utterly snappy groove to underpin its spat with the heavens. It births a strange dance of demons you could almost move your feet too. Followed by Taivaan Portti, my least favorite, abrasion is dialed up on an incessant drone that stiffens all the weird yet wonderful progression behind it.

The rest of the record is remarkable, a progressive journey with many a bizarre and curious assemblies of sound that suck the nectar dry on this psychedelic horror they incur. Front man Ontto deserves a nod for the utterly foul vocal performance. Regurgitating guttural groans are wrenched from within, delivered with a spite and hate heard through the bleak textures tortured from his chords. Its a style Ive grown bored of but when done right, its a treat. Great record, they have a finger on the pulse.

Favorite Tracks: Ilmestys, Kuulen Ääniä maan alta

Rating: 7/10

Loathe "I Let It In And It Took Everything" (2020)

Its my first record with the Liverpool based five man outfit. Six years together, their sophomore album gave me an initial impression that hasn't shook after a plethora of listens. I Let It In And It Took Everything strikes me as the collision of three bold ideas converging with little cohesion on behalf of its heaviest aspect that cuts with a blunt soreness I'm yet to along with. Disjointed barrages of dirty guitar distortion, pounded in through bleak Hardcore grooves and Djent polyrhythms make a despairing gap open between the beauty on the opposing side. I'm sure its conceptual but not for one moment does it feel like a natural progression for me, the listener.

Its key counterpart is the sombre yet blissful, soaked in beautiful sadness uplift of melodic tinged Metal, deeply in the vein of Deftones and Fightstar. Its a gorgeous execution of moody Shoegazng guitar noise and soaring vocals that is a pleasure to indulge with. Its arrival often comes parallel to the third axis, serine and meditative temporal synths, brilliant tonal work on the keys that have an uncanny resemblance to the spiritual magic of Steve Roach. They often slide into play with ambient environment sampling, building a curious tension for the next thread to unravel.

The album plays with a jarring sense of pace, routinely lunging from a warm, flowing, wall of melodic noise into upheavals of dispersing rhythmic tension. Slabs of gritty guitar, Industrial noise and gristly shouts interrupt routinely. On occasion it does have merit, finding a groove or weight to deliver, its just rather inorganic. A track in the middle, New Faces In The Dark, is perhaps best suited to melding these opposing sounds, finding some elasticity between sides where its more often, simply abrupt.

My take away from the many spins Ive endured is a record that feels like two simultaneously hashed together. I enjoy both aspects however they don't meld well. The colossal abrasiveness of the metallic ambushes dispels the sombre magic of Chino inspired vocals over colorful Metal and in a way, vise versa. Perhaps it is my own expectations that get in the way but I just wish it would stay in one place when I'm listening. Despite being hung up on all this, its got cracking songs and plenty to return too but as an album experience its a mess!

Rating: 7/10

Favorite Tracks: Theme, 451 Days, Scream, Is It Really You, Gored

Grimes "Geidi Primes" (2010)

Time alone justifies these ten years of evolution leading to Miss Anthropocene. Its practically unrecognizable in this infantile form, even the gap between Geidi Primes and Halfaxa is remarkable with just nine months between them. A DIY enthusiast and bedroom producer arrives at a raw inception with some peculiar parallels with whats to come. As a first impression, I may not have perused this discovery further but luck luckily reputation and repetitious listens yields a strange charm emanating from this low fidelity affair of narrow dingy production and Etheral voices. Despite being a little stark in comparison to its follow up, I like Geidi Primes for its simplicity more so.

Every track deploys a thin, distant and monotone percussive beat on a short loop. It holds tempo, contributing to the aparent starkness of style. Other dingy, muddy instruments chime in with a lack of clarity. The lack of punch or reach for fidelity gives it all strange shyness. A fondness is birthed by Grimes's voice who starts of with basic echos on her voice, then progresses along with the record, layering up, becoming central to the music. Avi is a good track where she surpasses the production, her singing becomes a wash of dreamy, ghostly wonder over sheltered instrumentals.

A track like Gambang with its choked up acoustic guitar sample gives a sense of intention to the low fidelity aspect, yet on the other hand it seems almost amateurish, wandering in through lack of knowing any better. Its eleven tracks bumble through this strange dimension with their short repetitions droning into obscurity. Innocent, dreamy and flirting with a lonely darkness, strange just doesn't seem to justify the actualization. Is it accidental brilliance or focused vision? Either way I feel this record, despite seeming simple, has depth and with each session I enjoy it more so.

Favorite Tracks: Rosa, Avi, Venus In Fleurs

Rating: 7/10

Enter Shikari "Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible" (2020)

Reeling back upon The Spark's softening shift in tone, Enter Shikari return with a spicy self historical mix up. Nothing Is True has rolled up a little bit of everything tried so far in their five records leading to this sixth installment. The four lads have been together since their teenage years, forging a unique identity that can be felt through the chemistry. I have a deep affinity for their music. Ive seen them go from local pubs, clubs and schools to headlining festivals. Its been simply magical and I will always have a soft spot for them, making it hard to not enjoy anything they do!

The albums sentiment comments on our technology driven age haunted by science denial, trolls, bots, fake news and social media hysteria. Its a finger on a pulse that has been pounding for a while, the perspectives often shaped through a dystopian lens seem second fiddle to the groups excellent song writing. The power of hooks and catchy lyrics are better felt through the passion Rou delivers them with than there content. That may just depend on how deep you've dove into these topics beforehand.

Its fifteen songs are cracking, a constant roll out of fun, energy and passion with a retroactive array of aesthetics, keenly from the synths that pull from the best of electronic oriented sounds experimented in the past. Its a framework around songwriting that periodically dips into trendy Alternative Pop stylings. Despite all being good songs, Crossing The Rubicon, The Pressure's On & Satellites reek off imitation with a direction clearly emulating others, rather than perusing that Shikari purism.

The rest of the record has that uniqueness intact with a fair spread of experimentation that occasionally gets a little wild. Elegy For Extinction breaks things up with a moment of pure symphonic wonder as a dense orchestral composition builds a fiery intensity to propel the music into its most bipolar moment with rave synths and dirty pounding dance floor percussion firing off under modulated vocals. Its a wild treat that shows the band still have a knack to pull together all aspects of influences.

If their is anything left to be desired, perhaps the group didn't do anything unexpected. As fantastic as their endlessly youthful and exuberant style is, this unifying sound of all attempted before misses an opertunity to surprise which is something each record has had to it before, a new territory to uncover. Despite that, its familiarity plays like a group of old friends returning to give you new stories you'll cherish. Nothing Is True is loaded with songs to subtly slip alongside the best of their setlists.

Favorite Tracks: The Great Unknown, The Dreamers Hotel, Apocaholics, T.I.N.A, Elegy For Extinction

Rating: 8/10

Plini "Birds / Surfers" (2020)

Inspired by two accidental photographs of quite literally birds and surfers, forward thinking Australian multi instrumentalist Plini has delivered us with a pair interlude tracks. Both numbers clock in under two minutes but as the artists does with his main releases, Handmade Cities & Sunhead, so does this miniature record naturally possess quality over quantity. Its first half Birds toys with dense Post-Rock atmospheres with bright sombre melodies gleaming over soft synths and pattering percussive claps as a deep and gritty acoustic low string guitar plays with Djent ideals in a completely non-metallic way. Its a textural treat with an inviting tone to be enjoyed in its brief arrival.

Surfers has a similar temperament, its atmosphere bruised by a bold murmuring bassline that bleeds a contained deep fuzzy warmness. It leads to an ascension as pumping rave synths are mustered in the fog of its beautiful hazy atmosphere. They never take control but somehow propel the music on despite the polar relation it has to Plini's colorful acoustics. As it fizzles out and ends the record its obviously all to little but the nature of both songs departure has one wondering if these songs could of been more? They are sublime experiments that perhaps the artist couldn't quite figure out where to go with them.

Rating: 3/10

Sarah Longfield "Dusk" (2020)

With its moments of subtle disorientation and off kilt percussive transitioning, Dusk was initially hard to love at first. The pitched down, lightly synthesized vocal styling too played as a distraction from the beautifully calming fragrance of colors drifting by as electronic and guitar instruments dance in this blissful limbo. Its five songs make a brief experience but a cohesive one with vision and inspiration melding into warm, melty fifteen minutes of lightly ambiguous but loftily interwoven music.

Sarah uses her voice with refreshing creativity, it dawns on me now how reminiscent of Grimes this may be. Utilizing reverberations, delays and echos, she sounds caught between dimensions, the words often blurring out of focus as glitches and reverbs take over. Some airy background synths catch you off guard when realizing they her chords at work. The range of temperaments has her dancing from back to foreground at times, its a treat and suits the melding of instruments woven between.

The percussion has a crucial roll, its spacious and subdued presence of fast attack claps snaps and snares play loosely defined rhythms that explore the gaps. It takes moments to lapse and sway but comes back around to its subtle glitched persona, imploring soft grooves in the process. The guitar work and electronic melodies play off this foundation with a similar elasticity, often wading in with bursts of beautiful color and tapestries of jilted, intricate melodies, oozing organically with oddities rolled in.

It is so many things, and together it has a breezy uplift that feels oddly ambiguous but that is what is so wonderful about her music. Its brimming with experimentation and creativity, the production really shows whats possible when utilizing the tools available. The opening song Cycles has a gorgeous lead guitar solo, would of been nice to hear more of that shred! Dusk is wonderful, Its just a shame the record is so short and brief, I would like to visit this odd and curious place for much longer.

Rating: 6/10

The Black Dahlia Murder "Verminous" (2020)

These darlings of Deathcore from back in the day have fallen far from my radar as I intentionally avoid the less appetizing bands within the plethora of Metal Ive listened to in decades past. The American outfit always had a stronger leaning towards traditional styles of extremity, however in current form it seems they have shed all Metalcore influence in favor of a classic reminiscent of old school and Melodic Death Metal. 

Verminous is a fair, thirty five minute ride, clocking ten tracks all around the three to four minute mark. Its fast, momentous and too the point. A clattering of technical and intense drumming gives it a gritty edge alongside the singers snarling howls and throaty gasps of aggressive shouting. The guitar and bass have a solid warmness, consistently throwing in melodic inflections and tunes from the flavorful lead guitar. They provide much of what is memorable as bursts of color give these songs identity.

It resonates well over a rhythm guitar which leaves much to be desired. Its arsenal of power chords and palm mute chugging fails to excite. Shifting into grinds and moments of intensity, its mostly the hammering of blast beats and double pedals that carry the music forward to the next melody. The records best songs come in its closing, drawing out some serious Carcass vibes in moments but with little original going on here it could remind you of plenty of bands from within the scene.

Favorite Tracks: The Wereworm's Feast, Dawn Of Rats

Rating: 5/10

Old Tower "The Last Eidolon" (2020)

The evolution of Old Tower has been a fascinating journey to follow. Always showing much promise the Dutch musician know as The Scepter has reached a peak. After the wondrous and deathly "dark alchemy" trilogy of mini records, the Last Eidolon arrives as a natural extension to those dark temporal and meditative sounds previously explored. Its three tracks, all lengthy epics feel like a mastery of structure, scale and aesthetic molded to command a chilling immersion within the listener.

The sense of scale and grandeur gets of to an almighty start. Lonely cries of a desolate synth call out across the vastness. Thunderous quakes and rumbles, gong strikes with an utterly devastating reverbs paint a impending sense of might and mystery. It steadily calms across the minutes to suddenly erupt with a deep pounding drum and ceremonial melody of ritualistic fever. Its swaying between these ideas in the closing stage will let the imagination run wild as this baron world finds density.

Reading the albums footnotes, one can see this vision of a world set ablaze by the corruption of mysterious magics and ancient rituals really come to life in the music. The minimalism in composure is oozing in this depth of tone and the mystique that comes with it is simply a dark delight. It revels and embellishes these lonely, ancient alluring synths and gothic choir voicing with a timeless quality as its long passages meander and break down the sense of forward momentum. It is a world unraveling.

Most of these record have been immersive in the moment but I have not frequented one like this. The experience is engulfing and I think the producer may of had a hand. I was surprised to read The Scepter had teamed up with talent Arthur Rizk, producer of Cavalera Conspiracy, Code Orange and Power Trip. To what extent he played a roll in bringing this incredibly deep and foreboding sound to the table, I don't know but this has been a giant leap forward for the Old Tower project and the best album to date.

Rating: 8/10

IGORRR "Spirituality And Distortion" (2020)

Its been a wild discovery that has teetered on the border of novelty at times. The cluster bomb of cultural, historic and extreme genres colliding in the melting pot that is IGORRR has put French musician Gautier Serre on the ones to watch list. A few years back I caught a live show on the Savage Sinusoid tour and their expansion into a live band showed a promise I believe has carried over onto this newest record.

Beautifully crisp and blisteringly punchy, the percussion holds like a precision drill pounding away with menace as rapid bursts of drums hold everything locked in place with a dynamic magnetism. Inching further away from the break beats and sampling of past, the tone and compositions have a far stronger framework for all the wacky, Baroque and Black Metal inspired musical madness that takes places within these choppy, dizzying assaults of rhythmic battering. Its not a constant haze however, the temperaments change and flow with the music with great understanding.

As a whole Spirituality And Distortion tones down the manic in favor of good song writing. Many of the structures and paths it wanders feel meaningful and satisfying. The balance of polar extremes have cohesion. With more purpose in mind, they work together to flow with the drastic shifts, from calm and serine to slabs of meaty crushing guitar and brutal break beats. It all has direction forging far more gratifying music.

In brief moments where its extremes are not obvious, one might mistake this for a more conventional Metal band. Its a good thing, this eclectic identity has found balance that prevails with authority. The recurring voices of Laurent and Laure let the screams and cultural singing take on an identity where once random sampling showed its stitched nature. Now things are far more inspired. Corpsegrinder of Cannibal Corpse also lends his thunderous death growls on Parpaing for a pleasant tale of rot an ruin in the house of corpses. Its not a bad song but probably my least favorite as they try to hash together conventional Death Metal with this far more flavorful sound.

Favorite Tracks: Downgrade Desert, Very Noise, Hollow Tree, Lost In Introspection, Overweight Posey, Polyphonic Rust

Rating: 8/10

Grimes "Halfaxa" (2010)

Moving back another record from Visions we hear a distinctive shift in tone and composition that signifies the scaling evolution of Grimes as an artist. Halfaxa has the bedroom experimenter sound intact at an embryonic stage of development. The songs feel further from design, embedded as exercises, each track offering up various textural experiments between the dingy synths and her performative voice. At this stage she has her distinct charm but is yet to channel them into an impactful avenue.

For the most part it is her voice, dressed up in ambiguous reverb and echoes that dazzles. Constantly dancing in layers of arrangement around narrow, tempo keeping percussive drives, Grimes forges a constantly curious and peculiar environment. Its unsettled, yet lavish with an Ethereal quality. A couple moments of cohesion appear where more standard expectations of music create convention but on the whole its a wacky ride through quirky, advantageous experiments that land on something seemingly distant from other forms, approaching an illusive feeling of uniqueness.

Its fifteen songs at fifty two minutes tend to drone on, from one to the next without many peaks or valleys. Occasionally big slabs of keyboard synth tone drop in, creating a deja vu between other music I've heard them before. Its a fun listen but with most the songs just playing through a series of ideas with little direction, it pales in comparison of whats to come. Definitely worth but unable to shake the embryonic feeling.

Rating: 5/10

Ocean Grove "Black Label" (2015)

In light of whats to come on their debut record The Rhapsody Tapes, the Australian group can be heard here at the crossroads, steadily shedding their Metalcore roots and bringing about the Nu Metal elements to their sound. Black Label strangely parallels this trajectory as some Deathcore elements in the opening tracks gets weened out as more Nu Metal ideas inch in. Guitar tones, vocal stylings, syncopated riffs and the classic creepy Korn high pitched guitar noises all tend to mirror the genre that peaked twenty years ago. Although Ocean Grove pull it off with an enjoyable presence of expression, at times some of these ideas undoubtedly pull from the smellier side of Nu Metal, which there was a lot of back at its peak.

They are yet to land on the right arrangement of elements that will forge the gold to come, however Luke Holmes unleashes his clean vocals for the first time here and they are fantastic, pretty much the best moments by far. It feels a little uncohesive with the downtrodden glumness this breed of Nu Metal has baked into it and the arsenal of riffs, the booming slams or quirky melodies, fail to reach any particular summits. Its descent into this sound even has some classic DJ scratches cropping up in the final song, something I'm glad they didn't pursue in the same vein. An interesting record, really glad they were able to work out all the kinks reviving this old style.

Rating: 5/10

Myrkur "Folkesange" (2020)

Stripping out all Black Metal elements and purifying her Nordic folk inspiration, singer and multi-instrumentalist Amalie Bruun has forged a stunning, timely slice of naturalist music, devoid of an all to common "nostalgia". It feels present, spiritual and deeply rooted in tradition. This folk music conjures images of a simpler life, immersed in mother natures beautiful found among the fjords. It does so with a blissful clarity and heart that has each musical piece feeling as far from our modern world as could be. I've always been fond of folk elements but this has flawed me, It might be the most authentic experience Ive had in sometime, its a truly transformational experience.

A fine line is tread between simplicity and purpose as a masterful production captures Amalie's serine and soft voice and accompanying instruments in a gorgeous ambience of natural echo and reverberation. Its touch lets gentle and minimal melodies soak up their potential in atmosphere, resulting in a cold and pure indulgence for our imaginations. The array of obscure instruments, by modern standards, the nyckelharpa, lyre and mandala enrich this ancestral experience with a deep connection to traditions. A skeletal approach to percussion too carries this feeling forward with most songs receiving a measured muster of momentum from the power of one simple lone and deep drum striking with spacious intent.

The songs have varying retirements swaying from the dark to light and despite being rather different in these moods, all land a stark sense of connection. Her Nordic tounge is mesmerizing in its ambiguity, a beautiful voice with feeling felt beyond verbal comprehension. It makes the song House Carpenter perk up with English lyrics talking of Tennessee, a cover of a Joan Baez song. She brings a light to this unknown gem and the closing song Vinter, with its seasonal snowy piano too has an uncanny feeling of similarity. It is the most beautiful song on the whole project with its soft and gentle approach and stands aside from the folk narrative. Strangely it makes me think of the redemptive scene in Home Alone with the caretaker. Beautiful record, simply wonderful.

Favorite Tracks: Frager Som En Ros, Reiar, Gudernes Vilje, Vinter

Rating: 9/10

Ocean Grove "Outsider" (2013)

Having been floored by The Rhapsody Tapes and more so Flip Phone Fantasy, I owed it to the Australian band to go back and investigate their Metalcore roots. Outsider is a short seventeen minute, six track affair of generic scene music with little to distinguish itself in the wake of the Architects take on this sound. A similar intensity takes hold with booming Djent tone guitars fraying up assaults of chunky guitar noise between hazardous throaty screams and a sprinkling of vulnerable clean vocals intended to expressive the emotive side where introspective melodies intervene.

The sound itself has never drew me in however I'll give credit to the band for making it an enjoyable listen. Their performance is capable with a few notable hiccups in its more complex arrangements. Production is solid and in one or two moments they show a little sensibility for groove that might just be early manifestations of their progression as a band into Nu Metal territory. At this point though they are firmly part of the trend and given I was never too keen on it, I don't really know to what extent you'd say this is original or not but at least it makes for a good listen!

Rating: 4/10