A Place to Bury Strangers "Transfixiation" (Dead Oceans Records)

I've reviewed A Place to Bury Strangers twice before but both times have been brief and comments about them on the whole rather than the specific album I think.   So I felt that this was as good a place as any to give A Place to Bury Strangers a sort of proper review if only because this is that type of album that makes me want to give it a proper review.  (I could say that they've grown or evolved since I started listening to them but I'm not going to get into something that cliche)

With fuzzy guitars APTBS lands somewhere between garage and psychedelic rock n roll.    They remind me a lot of The Doors at times, yet on a song like "Deeper" they can get even darker and bring out a Marilyn Manson influence.     As other songs can have the static trembling in the guitar notes, "Deeper" also breaks down into sheer pandamonium by the end.

On a song such as "I'm so Clean" the Priests influence definitely comes out.   I also really like "We've Come So Far" if only because the way that the chorus is broken up into "I feel / right now / we've come / so far".     It' just another demonstration of how A Place to Bury Strangers manages to walk that fine line between commercial appeal and not.

Whether you listen to something on the modern rock radio charts or "college radio" (which seems to take on its own genre) or even if you're like me and are all over the place with what you happen to listen to musically (and how) then I still think there is something within these songs you can come to appreciate.  

Now the question is whether or not this is the first time that I've been able to write such a review about this music simply because it is the first time that I've heard it become this good.   Either way, this could be one of my favorite albums not just of 2015 but of all time.

California X "Nights in the Dark" (Don Giovanni)

California X are a band that makes you think about California and the wonderful weather of the west coast.    I don't know myself why it is exactly, but I've had this conversation with a number of people before (some of them as band interviews) and there is just something about growing up on the east coast and dreaming of moving to California because it's all bright and sunny skies and not... Well, if you're in New England look out your window.

The big guitar rock sound of California X reminds me of something between Weezer and Piebald but also has that similar Featherface appeal which I do enjoy so much.     It's fuzzy, yet it's rock n roll at its finest.     Some Replacements come out but I also like to think of this as from that same sort of genre that made Bill and Ted want to save the universe.  (Wyld Stallyns rule!!)

A perfect fit on the "Mallrats" soundtrack or just out in the sun California X is the feeling we all long for of perfect weather and even those who do have still want to sing about it.   Snow might be taking over outside right now as I type this, but you can at least have a warmer weather state of mind by listening to "Nights in the Dark".

Desperate Journalist "Desperate Journalist" (Fierce Panda / Minty Fresh)

[£12 // Edition of 250 // http://desperatejournalist.bandcamp.com/merch/desperate-journalist-12-album]

Falling somewhere between the 1980's and the present, Desperate Journalist combines a good number of sounds to craft one their own.   From Duran Duran, Blondie, Concrete Blonde and R.E.M. to The Cranberries, The Box Tiger, Heart, Thursday and The Cure these songs are somewhere between punk and not because they can be fast paced at times while other times not as much.

It's a musical complexity as there are guitar notes galore and precision drumming and bass lines combined to make something that you might not otherwise think possible.   The songs have this appeal to them where the choruses tend to have hooks that get stuck in your head so in that way I'd also say they're a little pop but I can get metal riffs stuck in my head just as easily so don't quote me on the pop part.

I became a fan of Desperate Journalist listening to this album and hearing the various influence of other artists that I like, and even those which I don't like I can think of this as being a better version of them.    I only truly began to appreciate this though when I realized that for all of its influences I can name this still just stands tallest on its own merits.

RVNES+MASS "ALL MEN ARE PREY TO THE SAME BEAST"

[€5 to download //€12 for record // Edition of 100 // http://rvnes.bandcamp.com/album/all-men-are-prey-to-the-same-beast]

While I have previously heard and reviewed RVNES I'm not sure I've ever heard MASS before.   As I looked at these tracks I was trying to figure out which one went with which artist before remembering it was a collaboration (duh!) so that does make it a bit more interesting I'd say.

Right away this begins with some quieter background static and then the screams come out and random times.    The background tones of some aura do manage to pick up, as if to send us up and into the heavens, and I'm being reminded of I Like You, Go Home because of the screaming.    This takes on an almost eerie feeling, like a cemetary, as it drones on through.     We've gone from something in that uplifting sense to more of a realization and the screams do come back again after a short break as well.

As the first track gets closer to the end it does come out a bit heavier as well.   It's not so much that everything is falling apart or coming crashing down it's just the fact that it's all happening so quickly and all at once it would seem.    Everything you were feeling before about either dying or fear is just being escalated.

The second side begins like the first only without the screaming.    It's that foggy type of basement feel like you might find yourself stuck in during video game play.    Eventually, yes, the screams do come back but they seem muted at first, as if in the distance rather than at the forefront they were before.    As the music grows louder it almost becomes industrial, mechanical.

Interestingly enough this was put out as a record by An Out Recordings who also happen to have released the cassette I do like ever so much by Anna Vo called "The Condition".   Small world, eh?   Whether or not you're a fan of vinyl you should be looking for this one to own in a physical sense because, well, RVNES, you know?

Sylvia Monnier / Class of 69 split (supermalprodelica)

[€5 for Cassette // €7 to Download // https://supermalprodelica.bandcamp.com/album/sylvia-monnier-class-of-69-split]

I was a big fan of Sylvia Monnier's cassette "Lucinda's River" and as such I wanted to hear this one.    It's on a label from Paris though, so I'm sort of okay with just hearing the digital for now but eventually I will probably buy this on cassette if I can because it is rather good.

Sylvia Monnier has two tracks and the first begins with a ringing bowl hum.   There is guitar distortion in the background and then tones like a dialtone begin to beep as well.   Is it cliche to call it tone drone?    How about electronic ambient?   With space laser whirrs come record scratches and then tones begin to drop like gems, to borrow a phrase.     There is an eerie mystique to the next set of tones which come through will full on beats.

From here, Monnier shifts into a long stretch of drone which can only ever remind me of the opening to The Who's "Baba O'Riley" (just sit back, close your eyes and think about it)   Some whirrs come in with sonic lasers before it's over and then it ends on some banging for good measure.

This is my first time hearing Class of 69 and while I was in this split for Sylvia Monnier I must say that Class of 69 is more than just filler.    There is a lot of sharp ringing on repeat, cymbal rim taps and then it just seemingly grows louder until that Jay Peele bowl playing feel comes out.    It's somewhere between angels and ghosts before the change to sonar which reminds me of a submarine.    My point is only further proved by the beeping that presents itself as the sounds begin to come through in waves.

The beeping becomes more distant as the signal is seemingly growing lost and then the sounds of Jay Peele come back before all is said and done.    This split really had me because of the involvement of Sylvia Monnier but Class of 69 makes this a must have cassette.

Breakfast in Fur "Flyaway Garden" (Bar/None Records)

When I was first introduced to Breakfast in Fur it was because of a split record they did with Shana Falana, the poster of which is still on my wall, reminding me of them every day.   I instantly fell in love with them when I bought that record and now they have released their first proper full length and I'm glad to be listening to it.  

For the most part, the songs found on "Flyaway Garden" are dreamy like something from the "Juno" soundtrack but then there is also something else to them where they're not quite from the 1980's or 1990's in that new wave sense but along those same lines.    The first song is fast paced but then throughout the rest of the album they can be moderately paced or slower.

With whispy vocals ala Smashing Pumpkins or Silversun Picksups there are moments where the vocals project sound rather than actual words and at other times they are simply not there.   Woodwinds come into play to set the tone for this feeling like Jim Morrison lost in the desert so, yes, you could also say it has a bit of classic rock/psychedelic appeal to it.

To be fair, the title track is 1:11 with meditated breathing exercises for vocals as opposed to something catchy where the title is sung in the chorus or just once so when you hear it you go, "Ooooh!  That's the name of the record!!" and as such this isn't too much traditional about "Flyaway Garden" but I wouldn't have it any other way.

The Dreaming "Rise Again"

I loved Stabbing Westward and still do to this very day.    The Dreaming is "former members" of Stabbing Westward but, yeah, this sounds exactly like them so I think it's only different in its name.     The thing about Stabbing Westward though is that they haven't had new music since 2001 which was fourteen years ago.   i see them as a 1990's band (even though their last release came in early 21st century) and having them take that break between then and new music (though under a new name) leaves this questionable.

Don't get me wrong: I love these songs.   They are the shot of adrenaline that music needs right now.   For a new generation, a younger bunch of music listeners who have perhaps not heard of Stabbing Westward before, this will be great for them.   But any time an aritst puts out a new album it's always a question of why listen to the new one when I have the old one which I've grown fond of and have had for so long already.

For The Dreaming they're working at an uphill battle because I've had some of those Stabbing Westward albums for longer than most people who might need to hear this one have been alive.    So, yes, I might go to Stabbing Westward more than not but sometimes I will try and slip "Rise Again" into the mix because I still see it as a Stabbing Westward album.