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Wednesday 3 April 2024

SONIC YOUTH

"the eternal"

Year: 2009

Label: Matador

Format: CD, 2 x LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Avantgarde Rock

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"a thousand leaves"

Year: 1998

Label: Universal

Format: CD, 2 x LP

Tracks: 11

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Alternative Rock

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"washing machine"

Year: 1995

Label: Universal

Format: CD, 2 x LP

Tracks: 11

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Alternative Rock

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"experimental jet set, trash and no star"

Year: 1994

Label: Universal

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 14

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Alternative Rock

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"dirty"

Year: 1992

Country: US

City: New York

Label: Universal

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time. 60 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Alternative Rock

Sonic Youth were formed in New York in 1981. A product of the No-Wave music scene of the late 1970s, the group had their roots in abrasive, experimental music, with Moore and Ranaldo having previously worked with the experimental composer Glenn Branca. The band were joined in 1985 by drummer Steve Shelley, and recorded 15 albums together, as well as many side and solo projects. Their work has been consistently challenging and innovative, and they are widely regarded as one of the most intriguing and influential bands of their time. This view has been added to by the strength of their record "Sonic Nurse", which also featured the talents of Jim O'Rourke. O'Rourke left the band in 2005. In 2006, Mark Ibold joined the group.

In September 2011, Sonic Youth went on "indefinite hiatus" following the separation of Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore (the couple had been married since 1984).

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"goo"

Year: 1990

Label: Universal

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 11

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Alternative Rock

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"daydream nation"

Year: 1988

Label: Blast first

Format: CD, 2 x P

Tracks: 11

Time. 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Alternative Rock

In terms of status within the dense annals of alternative rock history, you’d struggle to find an LP as hallowed and influential as Sonic Youth’s fifth outing, 1988’s Daydream Nation. Released by Enigma records, it is an arty, noise-rock double album — seventy glorious minutes of Sonic Youth showing the world why they were the foremost group in breaking down the barriers of musical possibility. Within its composition, they redefined alternative culture ad infinitum.

Daydream Nation is one of those rare moments in alternative rock that forced change. It formed a segment of the elaborate patchwork of influences that occupied Kurt Cobain’s head. In fact, the late Nirvana frontman listed it as one of his top 50 albums of all time. Nirvana were just one of the droves of bands influenced by Sonic Youth and Daydream Nation. This is ironic, as Nevermind is possibly the most influential alternative album ever, with Daydream Nation not far behind in influence. Sonic Youth and Nirvana were also great friends, but that is a story for another day. Regardless, it isn’t unreasonable to postulate that Daydream Nation was the album that forced the door open, and that Nevermind followed suit and blew it off its hinges.

The album was recorded between July and August 1988 at Green St. Recording in New York City. It was so effective that it earned the band a major label deal with Geffen, who would also put out Nevermind in 1991. It has since been considered one of the greatest albums of all time. Appropriately, in 2005, it was chosen by the Library of Congress to be conserved in the National Recording Registry.

The band spent several months fashioning frontman and guitarist Thurston Moore‘s ideas into full-length songs. Instead of stripping back the numbers as they had done in the past, the writing process resulted in extended jams, with some lasting over the half-hour mark. This change in style came after multiple friends of the band, including former Black Flag frontman, Henry Rollins, praised the lengthy improvisations the band played at shows but admitting that their records never truly captured the band’s true essence. Subsequently, Moore went on a prolific writing spree, which culminated in the basis of the double album.

Daydream Nation is also interesting as it was not recorded by or in a traditional alternative environment. The producer, Nick Sansano, was accustomed to working with hip-hop artists and prior to meeting the band, he knew very little about them but was acutely aware of their aggressive sound. Acting as a bridge between the two inherently similar genres, Sansano showed the group records he had previously worked on. These included Public Enemy’s ‘Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos’ and Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock’s ‘It Takes Two’.

Sonic Youth embraced the sound of Sansano’s records and booked three weeks of time in Green Street, commencing in mid-July ’88. At this point, it is important to note what a groundbreaking decision it was to hire Sansano. Rock and rap had barely crossed paths in 1988. Run-DMC and Aerosmith released megahit mashup ‘Walk This Way’ in 1986, and Beastie Boys released debut album Licence to Ill that same year, which has since become a classic in the rap-rock genre. Together, these three details were key factors in the mainstream realising that seemingly disparate genres could be interwoven to great success. The marriage of rap and rock would go on to have era-defining effects from the ’90s onwards. Linkin Park’s 2000 debut, Hybrid Theory, anyone?

The band paid $1,000 per day of studio time which, during this period, was the most they had ever paid to record an album. Ultimately, it cost $30,000, with Moore later labelling it: “Our first non-econo record”. However, there is another reason why Daydream Nation is iconic; the album artwork. The enduring front cover is a painting by esteemed visual artist Gerhard Richter, titled, Kerze (Candle). Richter went on to sell the 1983 painting for $16.6 million in 2011, a hefty sum for a classic piece. The reverse image also features a similar Richter painting of a blurred candle from 1982.

The album’s title is taken from the lyric in the song ‘Hyperstation’, section B of the album’s closing piece ‘Trilogy’: “Daydreaming days in a daydream nation”. Before settling on Daydream Nation, the band also toyed with the title ‘Tonight’s the Day’, taken from track nine ‘Candle’: “Candle, tonight’s the day, candle”. In fact, this lyric makes a direct reference to Neil Young’s 1975 album Tonight’s the Night.

This would not be the end of Sonic Youth referencing iconic rockers. The four sides of the vinyl version and the CD inner tray contain four symbols representing each member of the band. Sound familiar? It cannot be said for sure if this was a homage or parody of the artwork of Led Zeppelin’s iconic 1971 album, Led Zeppelin IV, but it is equally as memorable. The symbols are infinity, female, uppercase omega, and a sketch of demon/angel holding drumstic. What the latter says about drummer Steve Shelley we will let you form your own opinion on.

All in all, Daydream Nation is an undisputed classic, with an equally iconic artwork to boot. Both the songs and the album cover are cemented in pop culture history and carry on inspiring to this day. So why not jump back into this classic and enjoy it in all its pioneering glory (*Review by Arun Starkey ).

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"sister"

Year: 1987

Label: SST

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 10

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Alternaive Rock

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"confusion is sex"

Year: 1983

Label: SST

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 9

Time: 20 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Alternative Rock

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Saturday 30 March 2024

TERRITORIES

"colder now"

Year: 2023

Country: Canada

City: Calgary

Label: Pirate Press

Format: LP

Tracks: 11

Time: 24 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk

It’s been five years since the Calgary punk band Territories last put out a full album, but their evolution as a tighter, more mature band could be heard in the EP, split and singles that were sprinkled out over the past few years.

Their latest, Colder Now, is an extraordinary practice in smart, tight melodic punk rock in the vein of The Clash, Social Distortion and Stiff Little Fingers, not only in sound—mixing solid hooks and sing-along choruses with loud guitars—but in writing thoughtful lyrics about important social issues. The album mixes in larger societal themes—like those posing as experts online and spewing misinformation or the impact on communities when factories close—to much more personal issues and experiences.

The album opens on “Pacific Ghost,” a near-perfect, two-minute, modern punk number that starts with a loop of fast distorted guitars and builds quickly with powerful vocals before the jackhammer drumming is layered in. And almost everything that follows carries that same sense of intense urgency. In classic punk fashion, the average song length hovers on the two-minute mark, giving a ‘hit hard and quick, and get out of there’ vibe. Musically, “Powder Keg,” a song that keeps the powerful guitars but that starts with a slightly slower tempo before, appropriately enough, building up louder and faster, is one of the most compelling songs here on a record brimming with great songs.

(*Review by John Moore ).

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"when the day is done"

Year: 2020

Label: Pirates Press

Format: LP

Tracks: 6

Time: 16 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk

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"idem"

Year: 2018

Label: Pirate Press

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 28 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk

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Monday 25 March 2024

TURBOSTAAT

"uthlande"

Year: 2020

Country: Germany

City: Husum

Label: PIAS

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 36 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Emo Punk

Let's not kid ourselves, let's just keep it short: the new Turbostaat album Uthlande is a masterpiece. Actually the review could stop here, what else can you say? Well, one could point out that this time it's not a concept album like Abalonia and its predecessor. One could point out that the album is much harder and rougher than its predecessor. But one could also point out that the choruses are more melodic.

A lot of the album has to be seen in the context of the Northern Lights, after all, it's not for nothing that the album is called Uthlande, an old term for islands, halls and marshes off the North Frisian mainland (see also Uthlande). The opening piece, Rat Line North, is very good. Anyone who knows the video already knows what it's about. The Rat Line North was an escape route for the Nazis, who did not go south, but first up to Flensburg. Statements from the Nuremberg Trials are incorporated into the song. And it's hard to hear the language of the perpetrators in a song that is also about the fact that it could soon happen again. An important song and perhaps that's why it's a more successful opening to the album than any other.

But the other songs are also tough. There are Luzi and Stormi, who share a few lines of text, which you only notice after several listens because they are delivered completely differently. Both probably also refer to Theodor Storm or Luzi is probably a great-grandson of Theodor Storm, a city or island original. One song is upbeat, the other is melancholic, diffuse, with strange, overlapping parts towards the end.

And so there are many parts on the album that are surprising. Night terrors are so hard that they could have been on the band's first albums. Schwienholt inspires with his anthemic refrain. Meisengeige is based on the work of Louis Soutter, a Swiss Art Brut artist.

Then I still have to praise the wonderful vinyl edition, which unfortunately I don't own. Uthlande comes on 180 gr. vinyl including CD. The album is also released in digipak and as an MC. These two editions are also lovingly designed with a booklet and all texts. Maybe I'll order another version of this...

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"schwan"

Year: 2003

Label: Schiffen

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time. 36 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Emo Punk

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"vormann leis"

Year: 2007

Label: none

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 11

Time. 34 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Emo Punk

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SLAPSHOT

"make america hate again"

Year: 2018

Country: US

City: Boston

Label: Bridge Nine

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 11

Time: 18 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Hardcore

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"olde tyme hardcore"

Year: 1996

Label: Century Media

Format: CD

Tracks: 10

Time: 15 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Hardcore

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"16 valve hate"

Year: 1995

Label: Lost and Found

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 13

Time: 18 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Hardcore

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Friday 15 March 2024

JOY DIVISION

"unknown pleasures"

Year: 1979

Country: UK

City: London

Label: Factory

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 10

Time: 36 min.

Genre. rock

Style: Post-Punk

Rock history is jammed with messy, stupid, and tragic ends to promising starts -- plane crashes, overdoses, gunshots -- but Ian Curtis' death is still striking. Sometime early on the morning of May 18, 1980, Ian Curtis, at the age of 23, watched Werner Herzog's Stroszek, played Iggy Pop's The Idiot, and hung himself in the kitchen.

It's easy to say, in retrospect, that people should have seen it coming. His marriage was falling apart, his epilesy was worsening, and at their most uplifting, his band's lyrics set new benchmarks for melodrama, paranoia, and depression. "This is the way, step inside," intones Curtis at the start of the group's posthumous sophomore release Closer, an album title whose double meaning imparts almost as much menace as the fact that Curtis already sounds like he's singing from beyond the grave on the sepulchral lead track "Atrocity Exhibition".

On the other hand, Joy Division's popularity was on the rise. The group was about to embark on a U.S. tour with the Buzzcocks. A month after Curtis' death, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" would become the group's first hit. And unlike such dead-before-their-time predecessors as Nick Drake and Chris Bell, Ian Curtis was a bona fide star in the making whose impact was already being felt throughout the underground, and whose presence was being picked up on by such prescient mimics as Bono. ( "A Day Without Me", a single from U2's 1980 LP Boy, was allegedly inspired by Curtis' suicide.)

And then there's the music, a conflation of tribal primitivism and sophisticated art-rock that set the template for those twin poles of post-punk. A lot of credit goes to eccentric producer Martin Hannett, and it's the production-- not Curtis's well-parsed words or the band's suddenly ubiquitous biopic cachet-- that benefits most extensively from cleaned-up deluxe reissues of the band's two utterly essential albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer. Simply put, the group's debut full-length Unknown Pleasures, released in 1979, sounds like little that came before it. At its most familiar, it vaguely approximates the cold claustrophobia of Iggy's The Idiot or David Bowie's Low, but from the first notes of "Disorder" on, the music is almost as alien as its iconic cover art.

It's one of the most perfect pairings of artist and producer in rock history, but that shouldn't undersell the band's input. Joy Division, like many of their Manchester peers, were inspired by the DIY anti-ethos of the Sex Pistols; they just didn't know what to do with it at first. So, shaped and prodded by notorious provocateur Hannett (who would turn the heat in the studio down low enough for everyone to see their breath), the group embraced space, ambience, and an imposing austerity. It's noteworthy how many songs on Unknown Pleasures fade in like something emerging from the shadows. It's also worth noting how heavy songs such as "Day of the Lords", "New Dawn Fades", "Shadowplay", and "Interzone" are, while sinewy anthem "Disorder" and the discordant anti-funk of "She's Lost Control" are glorious anomalies in both their precision and concision.

Closer is even more austere, more claustrophobic, more inventive, more beautiful, and more haunting than its predecessor. It's also Joy Division's start-to-finish masterpiece, a flawless encapsulation of everything the group sought to achieve. The hypnotically abrasive "Atrocity Exhibition" leads to the relentless yet somehow still economical "Isolation", the group more capable in its playing and confident in the arrangements. The dirge "Passover" implies that the band is every bit aware of its morbid power, while "Colony" marks a return to the heavy riffage of Unknown Pleasures.

Then, after such an auspicious start, Closer really clicks into gear. "Means to an End" is death disco before the fact, buoyed by a surprisingly rousing (and wordless) chorus. "Heart and Soul" is a remarkable collision of atmosphere and minimalism, the stuttering drum beat, synth and Peter Hook's melodic bass lead linked to one of Curtis' most subdued performances. "Heart and soul," he sings, as the stark instruments intertwine and twist together. "One will burn."

"Twenty Four Hours" briefly tries to pry free from the album's looming inevitability before "The Eternal" and "Decades" draw the music back down and the listener back in to Curtis' world. "The Eternal" is the bleakest thing the band ever recorded, and if "Decades" comes off a relative respite in comparison, the lyrics quickly quash that idea. "We knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chamber," moans Curtis. "Pushed to the limit, we dragged ourselves in."

The re-release of the collection Still is a little more frustrating, especially considering the singles collection Substance-- the only single disc on which you can find "Love Will Tear Us Apart", "Atmosphere", "Transmission", as well as several early tracks, some of Joy Division's most beautiful and brutal work-- is not included in this slate of reissues. (Perhaps the assumption is that older fans already have the awesomely comprehensive Heart and Soul box.) Still, originally released in 1981, a month before the surviving Joy Division members issued their first New Order album, Movement, is a ragged, enigmatic coda, an uneven odds-and-ends collection of lost tracks that fills in some gaps in Joy Division's history and legacy. Yet for a band that recorded so little, it's hard to quibble with the availability of more, especially when that means such songs as the actually uptempo "Ice Age", "The Kill", "Glass" (B-side to "Digital"), the metallic "The Sound of Music", and the immortal "Dead Souls".

The rest of Still is Joy Division live, for better and for worse-- captured mostly at the group's final appearance in Birmingham High Hall. Most notable is the presence of "Ceremony", eventually issued as New Order's first single. As tempting as it may be to project parallels with Joy Division's near-future incarnation as New Order, they're really not there, at least not beyond the most vague and nascent of stylistic precursors. As the band progresses, more synths make their way into the soundscape, and Peter Hook's bass creeps higher and higher, but there's otherwise little from Joy Division that ports over to New Order (though in a pinch, "Decades", which concludes Closer, could be the missing link between Power, Corruption and Lies and a track like "Elegia" from Low-Life).

In true "deluxe" fashion, each of these reissues is packaged with live disc that, while hardly pristine recordings, serve an important purpose. In fact, the furious sets documented-- 7/13/79, 2/8/80, 2/20/80-- prove that, free from the constraints but also the polish of the studio, Joy Division could be a decidedly aggressive beast. In these recordings, their chilly veneer melted away with visceral guitar slashing, Hook's no-nonsense bass, and Stephen Morris' spastic drums. The group also proves itself ruthlessly effective despite the conspicuous lack of proficiency. In the studio, Joy Division and Hannett could meticulously craft the album, note by note. Live and unleashed, they were undeniably powerful-- especially Curtis, whose Mancunian Jim Morrison croon fills each respective hall with foreboding-- but also pretty sloppy (it's no wonder the surviving members of the band later hitched themselves to drum machines and sequencers).

Yet the live sets are vital reminders that these purveyors of almost indomitable gloom were also human. Lest one forget, these were just young men caught up in the excitement of punk. They covered "Sister Ray" and "Louie Louie". They tried out then-new songs and trotted out staples for their growing legion of fans. They were making it up as they went along, and to an extent, still are. Only Curtis knows how the story really ends, and he's not talking ( Review by Joshua Klein ).

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"closer"

Year: 1981

Label: Factory

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 9

Time: 30 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Post-Punk

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Friday 8 March 2024

SOVIET SOVIET

"endless"

Year: 2016

Label: Felte

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 9

Time: 30 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Post-Punk

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"fate"

Year: 2012

Label: Felte

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 10

Time: 25 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Post-Punk

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"summer, Jesus"

Year: 2011

Label: Tannen

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 9

Time: 27 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Post-Punk

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Thursday 15 February 2024

GBH

"leather, bristles, studs and acne"

Year: 1981

Country: UK

City: Birmingham

Label: Clay

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 30 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk Hardcore

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"city baby attacked by rats"

Year: 1982

Label: Clay

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 14

Time: 36 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk Hardcore

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"city baby's revenge"

Year: 1983

Label: Clay

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 14

Time: 36 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk Hardcore

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"midnight madness and beyond"

Year: 1986

Label: Rough Justice

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 36 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk Hardcore

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"a fridge too far"

Year: 1988

Label: Rough Justice

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk Hardcore

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"from here to reality"

Year: 1990

Label: Rough Justice

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk Hardcore

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"punk junkies"

Year: 1997

Label: We Bite

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 15

Time: 47 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk

The mid-'90s was a time of tribulation for GBH, having in quick succession been dropped by their label, fired their manager, and seen their drummer deported. Thus, when the German indie label We Bite offered them a deal, the group bit quick. The resulting album refracts much of this turbulence, ferocious in sound and delivery, and echoing with the band's frustration and fury. It's also longer, by four tracks, than their previous sets, a reflection of the extra time they'd been saddled with between full-lengths. And so across 16 numbers, GBH seethe, boil and roil, in an aural exorcism to finally conquer the demons that were dogging their lives. In times like these, even everyday annoyances can become overwhelming, as the raging "Impounded" makes clear, the angriest song ever written about having one's car towed. And the band's bitter mood permeates everything, even the delights of "Tokyo After Dark" quickly sour, with a "Damn Good Time" to be had by none. That latter number is a dire warning about casual sex in the age of AIDS; the making of a child murderer, life in death row, and sleazy politicians also raise their wrath, while life itself is mostly misery. But it's this sheer fury that makes the album so compelling, along with the band's vociferous sound. "We had a great time making this record," they claim in the sleeve notes. Not surprising, having finally been able to put their fury to bed. And although Punk Junkies was released in 1996, it was available only briefly, thus this reissue is welcome, as are the inclusion of three bonus tracks (Review by Jo-Ann Greene ).

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"ha ha"

Year: 2002

Label: Go Kart

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 17

Time: 48 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk

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"perfume and piss"

Year: 2010

Label: HellCat

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 13

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk

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"momentum"

Year: 2017

Label: HellCat

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Punk

The 12th studio long-player from the British punk stalwarts, and their first outing since 2010's Perfume and Piss, Momentum finds G.B.H. both raging against the machine and taking in the scenery. Recorded in Birmingham with engineer Michael Rosen and producer Lars Frederiksen (Rancid), the 12-track set opens with the fiery "Birmingham Smiles," a heartfelt ode to the band's industrial stomping ground that muses "Everybody's got a hometown/Not everybody's got a home." "Tripwire Strange" continues to mine nostalgia and the banality/weirdness of a life spent on the road, but that maverick benevolence is quickly dispelled via combustive, old-school pit offerings like "No News," "The Perfect Storm," and "Population Bomb." The band addresses their longevity on the feisty title cut, and again on the surprisingly sultry (sounding), groove metal-laced "Fifty What," the latter of which manages to lament the socio-political aimlessness of the 2010s musical zeitgeist -- "If we borrowed and we stole/well at least we had a goal" -- without coming off like a gang of addled, lager-headed ex-hooligans defending their lawns. Late album cuts like "I Never Asked for Any of This," the Give 'Em Enough Rope-era Clash-inspired "Blue Sky Thinking," and the boozy "Liquid Paradise" deliver the goods as well, confirming that even after nearly 40 years together, G.B.H. have plenty of petrol left in the tank ( Review by James Christopher Monger ).

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