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!

But you already made it by posting that. To avoid further off-topic discussions you should edit that part out. 

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.

 

@ HP - Your point about this section is valid, why not make a suggestion in the "Help us improve the site" area?

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.

I chose the louder songs in general, just because I dig them more. Listen to the LP and you'll see what I mean. It's not full on ambient songs, just these spacious atmospheres and sounds.

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:

I haven't posted for almost a week now because I was in the southernmost city in Israel: Eilat. It is located in most Northern part of the Red Sea, and ends at the border with Sinai. Scuba diving and sleeping on the beach with the desert wind on your face is always a blast. Also you get to wake up to this:

What you're seeing is Aqaba in Jordan (though the fog and the fact the sun is directly behind the mountains is why you can't see any buildings) and probably somewhere there's also the border with Saudi Arabia. This was around 6 a.m. Not the worst view in the world.

Eilat itself though is really a dreadful city. Disgusting and dirty. So if you ever go to the Red Sea desert, either go to Sinai or to Aqaba or Saudi Arabia. If you want to go to Eilat stay away from the city itself and keep it to the coast line. I'm sorry I just hate that city with a fiery passion.

But anyway back to music!!

So anyway being in the desert for 4 days I had to hear some very desert-y style music. Dry distortion, dissonance, Arab scales. And what country says desert better than... Norway.....

Yep! I'm talking about the most un-black metal Norwegian metal band: Virus

This honestly more or less the only good official picture I could find of the band. It's pretty epic nonetheless.

They've just released a new album which I bought about a month ago and am yet to give it a proper listen. Instead I have been coming back to their masterpiece debut "Carheart" again and again and again until it has finally sunk in. The songs aren't that insanely complex, but have such a creepy atmosphere to them that it keeps attracting you back and listening to every tiny detail. When I finally conquered it I found myself with an album that would stay with me long after every listen. 

The band can't be categorized. The only tag I could tag it is "Metal" but that to isn't completely true. It's a unique sound, though it feels almost cozy and recognizable, until it stabs me in the back. 

It's almost I guess post-metal I would call it. The heavy and eerie guitar sounds slapped to yo face by Czarl (that's his stage name I suppose) is just as much there at times to build the atmosphere as it is to give the song melody. The fact that his guitar is in drop-C tuning also really, really, adds to the heaviness. The bass by Plenum is what actually drives the songs forward. A lot of spastic lines at times, upbeat at other times keep this album from sinking in complete mellowness. The drumming is so dry... not in a bad way. More like literally dry. Lots of this very tight snare sound, crisp ride cymbals and such. 

In the end you have the feeling as if you're a hermit in the middle of the Saharan Desert trying to cope with not completely losing it. 

The vocals are also some of the best I've heard. Czarl sound like a freaky biblical prophet, and provides such classic lines such as "my armor is sticky/ with the semen of god"- pretty freaking cool...

Have ye some listens:

Probably my favorite or one of my favorite finds in 2011. I'll probably talk about their new album sometime in the future. 

Enjoy!!!!

hm yeah I'm yet to listen to the second album, but listening to the third I can't say I hear much progression, though the tracks are at times more upbeat than anything on "Carheart". I still enjoyed it, I have to give it more listens.

And I'll remember your advice when I'm strolling around the Red Sea desert in my free time 

PLUS they're building a freaking Star-Trek Theme Park in Aqaba (apparently the king even made a cameo appearance sometime in the 60s), so yeah... Any scuba diving Trekkies?

Welcome to the forum, sort of!

I haven't posted a new band for almost a week because I'm gonna do a big post now featuring two very lovely bands who performed a show yesterday the 27th in the OzenBar- the venue that is owned by Tel Aviv's (possibly best) CD store- The Third Ear (Ozen is ear in Hebrew so that's why the venue's called what it's called).

The first band is undoubtedly the coolest Israeli band today and possibly ever: Kruzenshtern & Parohod!!!!

Look at their beautiful faces!!!!

They are what could be called... Klezmer-hardcore-death-jazz-oriental rock. f**k yeah. Every time they have a show is a sign for mass celebration (the mass being about 50 people...) to rejoice with wonderful experimental music and compliment each other on their T-shirts of some obscure band ("Residents T-Shirt, right on man! *epic freeze frame high five*). They have one of the weirdest most entertaining and hilarious shows around. The band's bassist and main composer Igor Krutogolov (the one on the left) plays like a drunk Russian 5,000 year old dragon being released from its cage.

Observe some epic faces from yesterday's show (sorry for the crappy quality the camera sucks and I'm a terribly photographer):

Epic faces observed? Good!

The band hasn't released any new album since 2004's "Songs" (which is very recommended if you like being a good person), but the band has plenty of new material which it's currently playing in shows. As good as the early first two albums are, the new material sounds GODLY. A lot of the new stuff features much heavier blast beats and funky klezmer and there's not one song where I explode from laughter just from the sheer joyous weirdness. There's one part in the show where Igor rocked too hard (and was probably somewhat drunk) and he just sorta tripped backwards into the crowd (your's truly almost got a bass to the face), and continued playing from the crowd. Eventually when the band went into this weird improv he went into the middle of the crowd, and played this simple groove just over and over. I would've taken a pic but the flash would've completely ruined the epicness. Eventually he just started singing (like he always does) in this eccentric gibberish. It was so hilarious yet so powerful. One of the most memorable moments I had from any gig.

Overall K&P did what they always do. BE. f**kING. AWESOME. Every time they play a show I get excited. 

And now some snippets of them (just for you <3) from youtube. Honestly they don't really do justice to how good this gig was, but they're still awesome vids:

This last one is a great quality vid of their joint show with French avant-freak-math-folk rock duo Vialka. That was truly one of the best gigs ever!!!

Enjoy K&P!! Hopefully if you're ever in Israel you'll check them out.

Yeah I though to split up the posts on the two bands just for it to be less clunky.

Second band! One that has made a comeback in my music library to become one of the top played in the last few months. I'm talking of the Czech Uz Jsme Doma!!!! 

This band's been around for 27 years. Started to play While the Czech Republic was still Czechoslovakia and the Communist regime banned most rock bands, and so they played many secret shows until the fall of Eastern European Communism. They are I guess in essence a punk band with many freaky proggy elements. The also have these awesome Gregorian chanting style vocals at many places and it's always a treat. I think this is their first time in Israel, and with addition to the Tel Aviv show they're also playing in Haifa and Jerusalem (shows unfortunately I probably won't make considering there's no public transportation in most Israeli cities during the Shabbat... Damn). I was really excited about this show and even the late time couldn't dumb down my expectations.

The band started out with one of the songs from their 2010 album "Caves" (I'm not gonna use the Czech names just because I can hardly remember how to pronounce their first name), and with the first song the crowd all of a sudden became half-Czech and I was hearing Czech all over the place. Honestly there's something very Czech in Uz Jsme Doma that makes me also curious about the Czech culture as well as the music. 

The sound was a little off in the first songs but it really picked up after the 3rd songs. The guys looked like they were enjoying themselves! 

The guys played absolutely fabulous, particularly the drummer and the bassist, who were just on freaking fire. The band went through most of their songs off of "Caves", which really is a great album. They also did the "classic" (well sort of a classic) "Jassica", which more or less only me and my brother knew the actual melody to from the crowd and sang along. Come to think about it I think me and my brother were the only ones who knew anything about Uz Jsme Doma it seems from the crowd, even the Czech crowd didn't seem to go "wooooooooooooh" when some kind of well known song was played. 

By the time show was over I was extremely pleased with the whole night and considering the late time I was also tired as hell. I went over to Miloslav Wanek (the singer and guitarist) thanked him for an awesome show, shaked his incredibly sweaty hand (wow... I didn't know a person was capable of sweating so much) and went off my way home. 

Check out some Uz Jsme Doma:

It was a wonderful night and I want to thank both bands for being nice people and awesome musicians. The progressive scene is alive and well :).

Bye and stuff.

No problem! They're just too good it's a shame no one really knows of their existence. Is it prog? Um debatable. But it's really some of the most unique stuff there is out there, and so for that alone they worthy of laudation. 

So I didn't post this week at all honestly because I was actually thinking whether or not I should share this group. But f**k it I'm doing it! 

In my epic quest to find hip-hop I can enjoy, this one group has shown it's beautiful face to me: them call "Death Grips"!!

Quite honestly some of the strangest most awesome sh*t I've come across in a while! I'm legitimately very excited to listen to this thing over and over and over again!!!! The only one group member whose name is actually said is drummer is Zach Hill (who you might now if you're into spazz-core style stuff. He was in bands like Hella and other insane ohzphzdpojhazdpgadf math rock. It's not easy stuff at all but some of it is worth checking out). There aren't really any drums on this record though, so I guess Zach was just producing or arranging what is essentially a mix-tape. 

The group is displays a demented, dark style, spastic, crazy style of hip-hop. The rapper more or less screams the lyrics the whole way through. When I first heard him scream "I AM THE BEAST I WORSHIP" in the first song "Beware" (which by the way, starts with a sample of Charles Manson) I knew I finally found hip-hop that I can not only like and respect, but really love and delve myself into. There are many insane samples on this, like Arthur Brown's "Fire", or Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine", or Black Flag samples and stuff like that. The beats are always these incredibly intense, dense, glitchy, grooves which make you move in the most messed up ways (ever danced the "crack-addict-waffle"? I think it's time you learned the moves). 

The heat's bearable if you're ALWAYS in the shade, because of the dry desert air, for me at least. In the city itself there's nothing. Really nothing. It's a huge waste dump. But hell if you like scuba diving there's plenty to do. I never really go there for the city itself. 

The beaches in Gush Dan are better, but you don't get to see all the wonderful fishies in the pond in the Mediterranean!

Woah you actually made a whole 4 part radio show on Israeli Prog? I'm surprised there's so much to talk about! 

And yes Ktzat Acheret along with Kaveret and Sheshet are really well-known and celebrated here. So you can't say Israelis don't like prog (as long as you don't explain to them that the music is prog). I've seen Eggroll in concert once, it was pretty cool :). 

Plus I was delving into many new bands and albums, so this month has really been a big breath of fresh air for me. Plenty of John Zorn and Tzadik related recommendations will come in the future...

But now for Cardiacs-related recommendations!!

I've been constantly motivating myself to buy this album for the last 6 months or so, until the Hemulen's blog finally gave me the final push to actually buy it (By the it's an excellent blog). 

The album is William D. Drake's "The Rising Of Lights". 

Bill Drake, the beautiful man pictured below

is probably most known for being the Cardiacs' keyboard player through the years 1983 to 1991. He appeared on their first four albums and was a pretty vital, key figure to the Cardiacs' early sound and song-writing. Bill displays some of the most complex, yet heart-wrenching and heart-warming playing I've ever heard. His ability to combine all different these different forms of popular music with complex arrangements make his sound easily recognizable. On his new album, you can hear a lot of proggy elements (Gentle Giants-ish vocals in many spots and complex songs and all that jazz) incorporated with the old psychedelic pop tunes Bill is just so great at churning out.

Bill isn't the only great musician on the album. Bill's band really brings a lot of character to the album. The clarinet is really a power instrument here, bringing some beautiful classical-tinged moments, but the sound in general is from all over the place. Bits of weird synthesizers, jazz, classical, Celtic music, psychedelia, prog, you name it, all packaged by a lovely pop tune. 

The album can be streamed from Bill's bandcamp right here:  http://williamddrake.bandcamp.com/album/the-rising-of-the-lights" rel="nofollow - http://williamddrake.bandcamp.com/album/the-rising-of-the-lights

I'd say the big highlight are "Super Altar", "Ornamental Hermit", and the beautiful "Homesweet Homestead Hideaway". 

Enjoy!!!

Thanks! I do have a lot of stuff I'm going to put on here. Just kinda needed a break from the stuff I've been listening to and I'm busy still finding out new stuff. Unfortunately I can't say I know much about what's going on with SC3 album-wise. I do know they're still touring. Never seem to come to Israel again unfortunately  :(.

Well, new stuff's been listened to, old stuff's been listened to. Plenty of bizarre black metal, for instance. And lots of interesting rap/ hip-hop. All in good time.

 Two whole new moons brought with them plenty of material. But I feel like I really need to make note of this duo, as they deserve it. I'm talking of Israeli synth pop duo Bney Hama (בני המה):

This duo, of musicians who already have quite a name here, Ohad Fishof and Ishai Adar, are known here as members of short-lived but quite famous (and actually, also rather excellent) alternative rock band "The Top Hat Carriers" (Nosei Ha-Migba'at  נושאי המגבעת), who dismantled long ago in 1992. Since then, they have been working together doing music, video art, and soundtrack stuff. Ohad Fishof has become this sorta all can do guy- and is notable for doing some interesting stuff with modern dance (which has only become an interest of mine recently).

http://bneyhama.bandcamp.com/album/bney-hama" rel="nofollow - http://bneyhama.bandcamp.com/album/bney-hama