I won’t host it here, but there’s a new Beastie Boys track circulating on the net:

http://rapradar.com/2011/04/06/new-music-beastie-boys-make-some-noise/

Hello to all our new readers.  Reviews coming this week!

/brian

I want to see this documentary, I can’t bring myself to go on the “Gothic Cruise” to do so, but I will get it soon, and review it. Have you seen it? Give me your thoughts!

More info here: http://eurotrashproductions.com/Site_2/Synthnation.html

/brian

Album: “Sucksess”

Artist: Slick Idiot

Label: Itchy Records

Released: September 2009

http://www.slickidiot.com

In honor of their impending show here in Albuquerque, I’m dropping a review of Slick Idiot’s latest CD, “Sucksess”.  The band was kind enough to drop it to me, and I’ve got my thoughts, here.

Slick Idiot is the brainchild of En Esch and Guenter Schulz – En Esch is one of the founding members of KMFDM, and Schulz is well-known for his prominent guitar work on many of KMFDM’s releases, including “NIHIL” and “Symbols”.  After KMFDM’s breakup in 1999, the two went on to form Slick Idiot, and have been working hard and releasing albums since.

“Sucksess” is the third studio album from Slick Idiot, and finds them riding the line between the funky industrial rhythms that Esch and Schulz have been known for, and some more noisy, experimental tracks.

The album opens with “Imago”, a noisy introduction to IIWII, which kicks right into some classic industrial drums and guitar with Esch’s signature growl as he sings, “I wish I never would have met you…” Backing vocals are provided by Erica Dilanjian, adding a nice contrast to Esch in the choruses.

“Daydreams” has a funk Drum N’ Bass rhythm to it and an uplifting funk to it that gets things moving, and features Guitar work from another KMFDM alum, Mark Durante, which I found very cool.  Erica’s vocals are again a nice contrast to Esch’s, and the song leads into the band’s cover of “Everyone’s a winner”, which most will know from Errol Brown (who is more well-known for “You Sexy Thing” off of Hot Chocolate’s 1975 self-titled release ).  This is one of my favorite tracks on the album, with a LFO’d, bouncy synth bouncing off of a well-looped Schulz guitar lick as Esch sings, “Everyone’s a winner baby, that’s the truth, that’s the truth”.  This is the album’s best dance entry, and should find its way to plenty of club floors.

“Silly” keeps the industrial funk going with a four on the floor grinder that features Erica’s vocals as she sings “Nothing, nothing stays the same…” and more Schulz guitar work reminiscent of earlier KMFDM.  The instrumentation on this song is quite enjoyable, with a number of blippy keyboard loops that sound like they were actually played by hand (scandalous!), and some noisy grunge tossed in for good measure.

“Inshallah” sounds like a track by the Prodigy on half speed, with a filtered drum loop laid on top of chunky guitars and arpeggiated synths.  ”Dipso” has a tinge of minimal techno in it, with a repeating chant of, “STOP. GO. YES. NO.” and hi-hats that’ll remind you of early 90′s house.  ”Ill prepared” again sounds like a house party had a collision with an industrial tour bus; the synth work is again quite enjoyable, with lots of filters and worbles to keep things interesting.  Not a club stomper, but an enjoyable track nonetheless.

“Burn for me” brings the heavy four on the floor back, with chunky guitar chords and classic industrial kickdrum, and features vocals by Hope Nicholls, who has worked with Pigface and Snagglepuss in the past.  Esch’s programming and vocals make for a good, energetic listen. I especially liked the song’s around 2:20, that kicks right back into “Touch me, on TV”.

“Wer Bist Du?” has a bit of neo-industrial vangard-synthiness to it, but done with much more class than most of the usage I hear of this now well-known synth.  It’s a german-lyric stomper that’ll kick you in the ass and get you chanting “WIER BIST DU!” with Esch as you jam out to it.

“Last Kiss” really is a drum n’bass asskicker, making good usage of the classic Amen Break and filtering everything thru what sounds like a distortion filter fed into a bullhorn.  Not so much a drum n’ bass roller, but more an industrial drum n’ bass song, which leads into “Elle Te Prendra La Vie”, a noisy, almost ambient entry into the album.  It’s got a sound that reminds me of Aphex Twin’s “Selected ambient works vol. 1″, as it drones thru a creepy 4/4 6 and a half minutes.

“Haller” sounds like a post-apocalyptic spoken word piece and serves to be the album’s most experimental and noisy.  At this point the album has made its way through a number of sounds, when it frantically kicks into “Hot Stuff (Hardwire Tekno Vulva Mix)”, which is definitely one of my other favorite tracks on the album, a hard-hitting, EBM stomper that delivers on the ultra heavy beat.  The album closes with “De Shabe (Halb Und Halb) Mona Mur Remix”, a slowly evolving, minimal drum creeper that nicely shows of Mur’s programming skills (Mona is currently on tour with Slick Idiot, and is a frequent collaborator with En Esch).

Overall, the programming on this album by the band’s four members is impeccable, and the mastering (by En Esch) is punchy and powerful.

Slick Idiot has sound that’s still hanging onto the heyday of Industrial music, but also making use of some of the newer production techniques that I do enjoy in new industrial/techno/electronic music.  It’s obvious that Slick Idiot doesn’t plan on being ignored, nor to stand in the shadow of the band they were once formerly part of.  I always felt that Esch and Schulz brought the funk to KMFDM, as well as much of the power that was indeed the ultra heavy beat; they carry this over into Slick Idiot, but add their own unique sounds and personality to the project which I truly respect.

I personally can’t wait to see the band live again; this time, I will have the luck to see them with Guenter on guitars, as in their previous live incarnation, Guenter was not able to tour the US with the band.

Check out the latest songs at http://www.slickidiot.com

/brian

Artist: Psy’Aviah

Title: Eclectric

Label: Alfa Matrix

Released: March 19th, 2010

http://www.alfa-matrix.com

“Eclectric” is the most recent outing by Belgium-based Psy’Aviah (their third outing so far), having been released on March 19th on Industrial/electronic label Alfa Matrix.   In physical release, the album spans two CDs in a limited edition 2 CD boxset.  I was given then mp3 release with CD 1, comprised of fifteen tracks.

Psy’Aviah was recently banned from Youtube for their video “Moments” for being “too erotic” (way to go, Youtube), and is riding a definite wave of popularity via the internet and live performances.

The album opens with “No Excuse”, a hard hitting EBM stomper lead by singer Emélie Nicolaï’s  moody and powerful vocals.  ”Keep hope alive”, despite sharing its name with the Crystal Method track of the same name, is not a breakbeat anthem, but more a true EBM anthem, with energy that’s sure to get things moving on dancefloor.  I truly love Emélie’s vocals, growly and powerful, yet with a soothing tone that puts you at ease, only to kick you in the teeth in the next verse.

“Anger Management”, by contrast, is a breakbeat stomper with vocals by Yves Schelpe, the band’s primary programmer/arranger, and stands out as one of the album’s best tracks.

“Ophelie” features Jean Luc De Meyer of Front 242 fame, and boy howdy, does he make himself known.  Angsty french vocals with EBM slamminess abound, this was also one of my favorite tracks on the record.

“Sweet hard revenge” is a dominatrix’s wet dream, with Emélie growling, “I’ll hunt you down, I’ll fuck you up, and make you crawl”.  A nice revenge tune, here.

The album closes with “Rivotril Nights”, evoking a neo-noir technopunk ambience.  I’d like to see this piece in a film, with it’s dark, moody drones making the perfect backing to a film of said genres.

I enjoyed Eclectric very much, on a whole.  I have to give Psy’Aviah some serious respect for bringing Jean Luc De Meyer onto the album.  The entire outing is very well-produced and engineered, and it’s clear that the band took their time making this record, which is a great entry into the EBM/Rivet Rock genres.

Check out the band’s other releases and more at http://www.myspace.com/psyaviah

/brian

Autechre has released a new track via Soundcloud from their upcoming “move of ten” release.   It’s noisy, filled with lots of filter bleeps, and has lots of nice stereo usage.

“move of ten” will be released on July 12th.  You can hear “y7″ here:

http://autechre.ws/move-of-ten/

The album can be purchased here:

http://bleep.com/index.php?page=release_details&releaseid=25108

Special vinyl releases will coincide with the Album’s release.

Many of you know that I don’t care too much for Trent Reznor.  If you don’t, then you know now.  In his latter years, he’s turned into a musician who despite great talent, has let his own ego go so beyond himself, that he’s actually affecting other musicians with it (adversely, might I add).  I simply can’t condone someone who stands on a stage in front of thousands of people and tells his fans that musicians don’t need to get paid, and that they should steal all of his music off the internet (update: I’ll rebuke on “musicians don’t need to get paid”, simply because Trent didn’t say that – but his words in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ5iHaV0dP4 hit pretty close to that, for me).  That kind of bullshit simply reinforces the kind of rampant pirating of music that is currently wrecking independent artists and labels left and right.  For a musician who made his money being ON a relatively large label to decry labels and everything in the music industry is the kind of blatant self-absorbed bullshit that reminds me why I sold all my NIN records years ago.

So, it goes without saying that I’ll probably be critical of almost anything he does.  Live with it.

Trent’s latest outing is the theme song for an upcoming film, “Tetsuo – The Bullet Man”.  The story goes that Trent was contracted to do the song, and as time went on (over 9 months), he hadn’t delivered anything to the producers, who had decided that they weren’t getting a song by this time.  Then, magically, POW! Trent sends them a song, and everyone kisses his ass.

Look, I get it, Trent Reznor makes well programmed music, and he’s a great musician; but Trent is FAR from an industrial musician anymore (update #2: since some people seem to get annoyed that I would state that Trent is industrial when he’s “never coined himself as such”, I’ll point out that while he hasn’t, thousands of others have, and think that he is an Industrial musician.  In addition, by his own admission, his influences are many industrial musicians.  I could care less if Trent thinks he is or not, the rest of the world says yes, and I don’t agree), and I’m tired of hearing people hail him as an iconoclast of the genre.  Trent Reznor makes pop music under the guise of industrial and experimental rock.  That he gives it away free on the internet now doesn’t make me think he’s any better than anyone else, not when there’s so many industrial bands out there still working to make it happen.

Anyway, about the track.  It sounds like “With Teeth” mashed up with “The Fragile”, which basically means it has lame attempts at noise (I’m pretty sure I know about ten guys who could show Trent what REAL noise music is) coupled with boring Piano breaks, put together in an A/B form.

Boring.

This mp3 is bouncing around the internet, I found it here and here. I make no claims as to it’s validity or anything else, but hey, Trent himself said that everyone should steal his music, right?

Red Elvises w/ Vertigo Venus, 5/17 @ Corazon (Santa Fe, NM)

Having never seen the Red Elvises, (which is sad, considering how often they make their way through Albuquerque), I was pretty psyched to get to finally catch a set by them (much less open for them!)  I wasn’t let down in any way shape or form, that’s for damn sure.  The last time a band got me this jazzed up was The Gluey Brothers reunion at Launchpad in December of ’09, and before that, I can’t even remember.  I’ve rarely seen a band with this kind of energy and awesome skill on a stage at once.  Igor’s one of the finest frontmen you could ask for, with a distinct ability to control a crowd.  Oleg’s giant bass is actually outshined by his giant smile he flashes constantly while playing.  Milka, on backup guitar/vocals, had a voice that you would never have expected to come out of her frame – like Tom Waits mashed up with an army of gospel singers, this girl delivered.  Elena on keyboards was officially one of the most awesome keyboard players I’ve ever seen, with so much energy it almost hurt, I have no idea how she was able to do what she did in high heels.  Finally, Kyle on drums held it down like a fucking metronome, and his drum solo was by far one of the most expressive and original I’ve ever seen.

In the two (yes, two) sets that the band played, they did everything from “Your love is better than Cocaine”, to “I wanna see you Bellydance”, and even the most amazing cover of Chris Iasaak’s “Wicked Game” I’ve ever heard.

I can’t wait to see this band again, they’re obviously hardworking and deserve all the success they’ve had.  My only regret of the night? Forgetting my “Six String Samurai” movie poster to have the band sign

I should also make a mention of Corazon, which is officially one of my favorite venues in New Mexico.  Mikey Baker is a man who knows how to run a quality space, with great staff and sound.  This is a great club that I hope has much success.

I do understand that they’ll be back in September, though, so when they are, I urge you to see this band.

There’s been a ton of great shows in ABQ recently…

On April 30th I got to see Albuquerque metal rockers BLACK MARIA release their much awaited CD, with great sets by World on Fyre and The Old Main.  Sadly, I lost my CD, but when I get another, I’ll review it.

On May first, ABQ psych rockers Shoulder Voices released their CD, “In space”, at Burt’s Tiki Lounge (ABQ’s best Dive bar).   A fucking great show, awesome sets by World on Fyre, yaya and of course, Shoulder Voices  Sadly, I missed Sabertooth Cavity this night, thanks to a late night recording session fuckup SV killed about twenty stuffed animals, smashed the ever loving shit out of a keyboard, and their new drummer Jesus held it down, along with new vocalist Marie. I got five shirts for six bucks, and some CDs.

Nice job !

On May 4th I got to open for Nico Vega with my band, Vertigo Venus, to a fairly good crowd.   On May 6th, I did it again, opening for Shoulder Voices at their all ages CD release at REVLIS gallery in ABQ.  We hosted INTERNATIONAL ESPIONAGE, an amazing Spy Rock band (literally) from Minneapolis, MN – I picked up both of their CDs and their 7″, and will be reviewing them all. Suffice to say, these guys came out in black body suits, and rocked out while red siren lights went off all around them.  Truly a memorable set.

ABQ proves, once again, that it can bring it when it comes to the music scene, and it only continues.

/brian

Any 3 of the below for $12,free shipping.
Paypal, money order, or cash in the mail.
Limited supply of all. Local as fuck!

-The Scrams – s/t 7″
-Free Pop – In Cool Time 7″
-Yoda’s House/Black Guys – split 7″
-Boar Worship – The Decline and Fall of the Christian Empire Cdr.
-Christ With Braces – Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles 3″cdr
-Raven Chacon – Black Streaked Hum 3″cdr.
-Grand Canyon – The Hits -cassette

questions/paypal to kindertotenleader-at-hotmail.com