vongut "Vongut" (jujufrootcoop)

[[$5 // Edition of 10 // https://jujufrootcoop.bandcamp.com/album/vongut ]]

At the time of my writing this, there are only four copies remaining but I expect them to go quickly.    These are two songs from Canadian noise maker vongut and I'm not sure why I've heard the name jujufrootcoop before but it does ring a bell with me also.

Each of these songs (and thus side of the cassette) is around a minute and a half of harsh noise.  It's distorted static that keeps blasting right until it cuts off at the very end.   I can hear words at times either being spoken or screamed but they are muffled behind the cloud of it all.

Even though this is something that I will probably not be able to get on cassette (By the time I get the money and all the stars align they'll be sold out for sure) there are two other cassette releases from vongut, though the "Demo" lets you order it but has a footnote that it is sold out so I'm not sure what's going on there.

If nothing else, this is a nice sampling of what vongut can do as I hope to hear more of this and hopefully at least one of the next reviews I do ("BitchSlitter" most likely) will be as a cassette.

Additional Links: vongut Bandcamp

Missiles of October "Don't Panic (2014)"

[Name Your Price Download // http://missilesofoctober.bandcamp.com/album/dont-panic-2014]

This is available as a CD or LP as well as a digital download but whatever medium you choose to listen to it on you must play these songs LOUD.    This is a cross between Motorhead, Rise Against and We Were Promised Jet Packs.    It's that mix of older AFI with Mudhoney as it is heavily distorted and very much on the verge of metal.

I'm not sure if I'd consider it a pure sense of metal, though it does tend to lean that way, but there are those elements as well of hardcore.   As much as this is A Perfect Murder it can be Sick Of It All or Suicidal Tendencies.  

Perhaps one of my biggest problems with this genre of music that combines metal and hardcore is that too many bands in it end up sounding the same and they all just sort of blend together.     The good bands- the best ones in this genre- always find a way to stand out.   Missiles of October has found that way to stand out and if I had to pinpoint what it is exactly that makes them stand out to me it's just that this music is so raw.

Collection "Late in the night" [VIDEO]

The video for "Late in the night" by Collection reminds me a bit of something I would have seen on Mtv from the Smashing Pumpkins, though the two bands aren't really that similar otherwise.  

The song itself is also the first track on a four song EP which is available now to download for free from their Bandcamp page here: http://wearecollection.bandcamp.com/

While the first song is in the video it also appears as the fourth track but with the label of "old school" behind it.    The songs themselves are somewhere between Modest Mouse and Cage the Elephant but I really can't compare them with anything else because I just haven't heard anything else like this sort of whispering indie rock with elements of strings from an orchestra.

This all serves as a prelude to an eventual full length due out in May 2015 and I couldn't be more excited.  

Lunivers "Happy Route"

[http://lunivers.bandcamp.com/]

In March of 2013 these four songs were released as a record, compact disc and digitally outside of the United States but on February 16th (which happens to be my sister's birthday) these songs will be released worldwide on record as an edition of 500.    So if you are into collecting records, then be on the look out for this one to come a bit closer to you than the previous release of it.

It's kind of funny though because these four songs have been sitting on Bandcamp for almost two years now and they have a record to go with them so it's not just some sort of free download hidden in the sea of digital reviews I might encounter, so why has it taken me this long to find Lunivers?     If this wasn't going to be released worldwide I doubt I'd ever hear of Lunivers (Okay, one day I inevitably would) and so I am happy it is getting that because I got to hear it.

These four songs are electro techno synth powered bliss that channel Ladytron and Polly Scattergood.   Lyrics like "the sun is made out of kisses" recall Polly Scattergood and this is just overall pleasant and melodic.    There are beats and laser screeches in the songs, but it can also be a little bit of Kimbra.      With audio clips in French, spliced up and served fresh, there are also greater moments when the singing can remind me of Corrine Bailey Rae.

The best way to undoubtedly describe this is an electronic madness and I love it.    As I jot down notes about these songs all I can think when reading them back is that this seems like it might be too in your face, too obnoxious.    The fact of the matter is though that despite the fact that this can be described with a certain bit of madness there is also a calm reserve to it and I really enjoy that mix.    Don't get me wrong, this is high energy but it is the perfect amount of it.

QuiVive "Astral Gatecrashing"

[Name Your Price Download // http://quivive.bandcamp.com/album/astral-gatecrashing]

This is my first time hearing QuiVive not on cassette and it's the first release after the cassette I reviewed, so with all of the statistics out of the way let's get into the music.    It begins with these dark sort of rock n roll guitars and then drums come in as well.   The first song just has this overall tribal feel to it as there are ahh's and what also sounds like bongos and steel drum rhythms.     The second song changes it up into these bell tone patterns that skip and then the drum machine kicks in with them.

Within the second song that is this certain rhythm that although instrumental makes you want to sing still.   It goes do-do-do-doo-do-do-doot-doo and unless you hear it then it might not make sense to you.    This is key because the next song has female vocals of sorts over it as hip hop beats are spliced into it as well.    The hip hop beats do become a theme during some of the other songs as well, so it's hard for me to say that this is a specific genre but rather an exploration of several genres.

Really slick guitar notes come out on a song that is fittingly called "fast.cars" while some sort of frequency changes groove with the beats on the last track.    I have different perceptions of what vaporwave is but I can tell you that this is probably not that.   It could be chillwave, but that seems like such a broad term to me and I only want to use it because a) this music is chill and b) I feel like it should be in a genre that ends in "wave".

      As much as I always tend to think about how that is that and this is this, I want to sit around one day and really get a true understanding of not only what all of these different genre names mean (look at the tags on Bandcamp if you genre search) but just how if we take a certain number of them and cross them over into one another what that could be.   (What is chillwave + hip hop + the guitars + etc.)    The trouble is I simply don't have time because instead of attempting anything of that sort I would much rather listen to music such as this.  

Until The Ribbon Breaks "A Lesson Unlearnt"

The overall feeling that you can get from "A Lesson Unlearnt" is one of smoov electro rhythms.    There are some bits of funk, such as on the third track, but for the most part this maintains that synth-something feel with hip hop occasionally thrown in for fun.   Yes, the old school hip hop beats do eventually lead to an appearance by Run the Jewels and really your mind should just make the connection: If Run the Jewels will be on it, then obviously it is good.

Through bits of Blue October's "Into the Ocean" vibe there is a song called "Romeo" in which he states more than once "I would have killed Romeo and saved Juliet / But I don't write stories that time won't forget".    This is strange to me because, yeah, I get that you don't want to compare yourself to Shakespeare and all that but don't you want to try and write songs that time won't forget?    Isn't that the point of this all?

Time has gone on for so long and will continue to go on long after we're gone.    Our individual existences are such small blips on the grand radar that I wonder why someone wouldn't want to do something that creates a lasting impression in a positive way.  (Say, invent the internet)

Regardless, this is one of the few artists who isn't strictly hip hop but has a song named after the artist name and it even is said in the lyrics.    The song itself references something breaking "like your favorite old tape" and that obviously wins points with me, so you should listen to this at least once in your life.   You owe yourself that much.

Enter Shikari "The Mindsweep" (Hopeless / Ambush Reality)

When I first heard Enter Shikari it was 2007 and their debut album, "Take to the Skies", was about to come out.    I often wonder whether or not I still have that advanced CD with no artwork in my collection or if it was lost in one of my many moves since that time.    It doesn't really matter I suppose because I haven't really listened to that album in the eight years or so now that it's been out since back then but to see Enter Shikari still around and putting out one of the first new albums of 2015 got me interested enough to give it a listen.

All I remember about Enter Shikari is that they were a hardcore band- the singing and screaming kind- that encorporated bits of electronic music into their sound and while that might seem more common place now it was actually not as much when I first heard them.    This music still stays true to those roots as there are elements of screaming that bring out the inner Reach the Sky or Shut Down and at other times it's just overall dreamy.

I did expect some elements of Linkin Park to come out, as that seemed somewhat inevitable, but this electronic hardcore music also sounds like The Prodigy at times and I'm not sure how that happened but it's cool.   There are also moments of "Paranoid Android" era Radiohead which is just enough depth to make it so that you don't have to be ashamed to listen to this one.

Due to time restraints I am by no means saying that I'm going to go back and listen to every album by Enter Shikari but I am more likely to do that now than I was before I heard "The Mindsweep".     I'm actually also pretty likely to search for some live videos of Enter Shikari on YouTube now because I want to witness the sea of people moving in unison to the music.