Frippism's Spectacular Middle Eastern Blog Zone

So this is what's gonna happen. I think. I, being the one with the greatest music taste IN THE UNIVERSE am going to share some of the music that I think I find interesting with you puny commoners, possibly rant about the current state of prog, what I like about it and what I don't like about it, talk about shows I've been to, and possibly talk about unrelated stuff like life in the Middle East and such and share some stuff from Israel, my HQ.

I'll also probably just drool over anything Cardiacs and Cardiacs-related, just because I'm the biggest fanboy in the world and really can't help it.  

So I'll start with what I'm generally just listening to at the mo:

I've just started really getting into Book Of Knot's 2011 album "Garden Of Fainting Stars". For anyone not in the cool crowd, Book Of Knots are a freaky avant-rock-sludge-folk-americana outfit consisting of two former Sleepytime Gorilla Museum members and husband and wife Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi, along with Tony Mamoine and Joel Hamilton (who also play music and stuff). The group has recorded 3 albums which have included a million billion guest artists. In the new album we can "big" names from the Californian avant-rock-metal scene like Nils Frykdahl, Mike Patton (damn he kicks ass in his guest track), Trey Spruance (biggest musical genius of the 21st century honestly), Dawn McCArthy and other people. 

The album carries in the very heavy, sort of lush waves of this amazing distortion and heaviness. It's so thick at times you really feel like you can eat it. The guests provide disturbing appearances as they should with freaky narrations and awesome singing by Mike Patton (I ain't his biggest fan but the dude can sing). So far I like it as much as their second album, the absolute deranged and powerful "Traineater"- an album all about the American Rustbelt. The only problem I feel the album has is that its missing some flow- I can't really explain why, maybe just the order of the songs, but all of them are fab. 

Have a listen: 

Enjoy!

And now to a very big event important to any Israeli that might be reading this:

Last night it has been decided by the Israeli gov't and the Hammas, the freedom organization, or terrorist organization (depends really from which side you look at it) have came to agree to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. 

Now I think this deal looks a bit extreme in many ways. One soldier for 1,027 prisoners, some of them responsible for the deaths of many innocent Israelis looks a bit extreme to me but I can't help support the decision. This one soldier has been in captivity for more than 5 years, probably suffered some extreme psychological damage. On the other hand, the freedom of many of these prisoners might put Israel in the same spot again, when Hammas might try kidnap more Israelis- as you can see it has been pretty valuable for them so far. 

I know the whole Israeli-Palestinian subject is a tinny-tiny controversial, but y'know just though it's important to share this and also I want to hear some other opinions.

So first post, woohoo! Enjoy the music!

 

Ditto.

I'm not going to make it a political thread, but this is a pretty deal at least in Israel, like one of the most historic days in the last decade, so I wanted to share it.

And so sorry I don't really know you but you can always tell me about yourself!

This doesn't really have anything to do with being pro-Palestine, you'll find most Israelis are pro-Palestine in one way or another. But yeah forget I brought up the subject it was a mistake to do so.

I've already listened to all of them, SGM  being a favorite. 

They're kinda very hard to define but I think that they could be described as electronic-ambient-experimental math/post-rock. They're a trio from London that was founded in 2007 and have 3 EPs and their debut LP came out in 2011. I have to say the while the LP has some really really great moments, it might drags at times and the intense loud parts by far trump the quiet bits. The EPs are where the real good stuff is at. The EPs are all just numbered (you know songs are just called 1 or 2 or whatever comes after that), and so are the songs. I suggest EP2 most, but all 3 are great and the LP is also worth checking out though definitely I am expecting to see how they can improve on their next LP.

Some stuff and other stuff:

Also big thanks to PA user AdyRandom who introduced me to the band.

Lucky! I've been dying to, the live footage I saw was spectacular. The drummer is the sh*t.

So I think whenever my ears come in contact with the word screamo/ post-hardcore my face becomes something similar to a rotten prune on LSD. But once again I have found out that any band and any music style is listenable at least by me if it sounds weird... in a good way. 

The band I'm talking about is Michigan's "La Dispute":

Don't they look adorable........... 

But hey! Their music's not bad at all! I guess you can call it experimental indie post-hardcore. Prominent bass (always a good thing!), twin guitars, a rather wild drummer, and a vocalist who randomly goes from shrieking to singing. The thing that scares me I guess most about post-hardcore is the lyrics: super whiny I-hate-my-life bla-bla-bla-boom-I-shot-myself. Well I guess the lyrics are sort of very much about suffering and hate and suicide, but I think the thing that makes me like their lyrics so much is that they don't use these general, general, vague, and melodramatic statements. The best example I think is from the best song from the album "King Park", where the vocalist describes a shooting with so much detail, that you more feel like get a complete disturbing image in your head. It makes you shake your head more because you just understand what he's talking about, not because you relate yourself to the situation.

I can't completely explain what's so different about "La Dispute" from other post-hardcore bands I've had the unfortunate fate of listening to. But I think it's their brutal honesty. They feel very real, not polished and poppy and gross. Also there's the technical characteristics, like the math-rockish guitars, and great bass, and the generally different song structures which I think separates them from the average screamo guys...

Listen with an open mind, and enjoy!

Some links: