Sannhet Known Flood
(Sacrament Music)
March 15, 2013
Grade: A
Verdict: Known Flood sounds more like a movie soundtrack serving as the backdrop to some dismal post-apocalyptic wasteland then an album, and it’s made all the stronger for it.
The phrase “thinking man’s” metal is one that’s thrown around anytime a new metal band breaks the mold of “playing the same scales at breakneck speed over and over again”. But oftentimes, many a band uses this tag as an excuse for making boring music, protected from criticism but an established wall of pretensions. For these reasons ”thinking man's’ metal” , otherwise known as post-metal ( or ambiance metal for the music label sticklers) has been a tough sale to the metal community whom by their very nature are suspicious of change. But every so often when these prejudices are pushed aside, some truly innovated metal bands emerge, combining complex ideas with good ol’ fashioned brutality. And the Brooklyn trio of Sannhet are one of those bands.
Known Flood sounds more like a movie soundtrack serving as the backdrop to some dismal post-apocalyptic wasteland then an album, and it’s made all the stronger for it. The frantic drumming creates a nicely claustrophobic atmosphere. The guitar riffing shifts from eerie and melodic to heavy and distorted at the drop of a hat. Sannhet utilize the wall of sound approach but do so it in a sophisticated way that doesn’t forsake creative by burying everything in all encompassing drone. The albums more intense moments (“ Safe Passage” and “Haunches”) are paired beautifully with the sparse sounding swells of “Endless Walls” and “Flatlands”.
Known Flood demonstrates some higher ideas beyond the tried and true staples of metal but never lets up on the brutality. Whether it’s chugging along ominously to the sounds of dying static or screaming violently behind a wall of guitars, at no point does it sound overdone. Sannhet have an equal amount of muscle and mind in their arsenal.
Verdict: A dream pop/chillwave road trip that goes about everywhere but never lingers in one place long enough to become attached
Youth Lagoon AKA California native Trevor Powers (aka yet another one man indie pop outfit with a keyboard ), gained more than he should have for his debut album in 2011 (The Year Of Hibernation). It was a nice enough sounding debut but in a world where anyone can now record an album of material by twirling a few dials and hitting a few buttons, you have to do a whole lot more to stand out. And Youth Lagoon just got lost in the shuffle of all the countless other bands in the dream pop/chillwave movement that the underground music scene seems to have fallen in love with lately. The Year Of Hibernation sounded like a good psychedelic, dream pop haze but was ultimately forgettable. There are only so many beach themed chillwave synth one can be expected to take if you’re actually listening to the music (which I suspect many fans from this genre don’t. They're far too busy”feeling”). But Youth Lagoon’s sophomore attempt, Wondrous Bughouse, comes as a pleasant surprise and proves that Powers may have some originality in him yet.
The album opener “Through Mind And Black” sets the tone right out of the gate for a much more experimental affair. While
Hibernation was content to mull around in the same droning beach hum, Bughouse otps to take you straight to the edge of space. The opening track is an eerie, disquieting intro complete with an ever present deathly hum and faded beeping. Youth Lagoon plays with the space theme for a bit, combing lush sounding melodies with a wave of howling space drone but that’s only one of the far out terrains Youth Lagoon takes you. Each song brings in it’s own texture and transports you to a new place. From the sci-fi landscapes at the beginning of the album, to a demented carnival with “Attic Doctor”, to a windswept desolate plain with “The Path”, to what sounds like the set of a trippy Christmas special in “Dropla” (the effect is slightly offset by the repeated chorus of “You’ll never die”).
If it sounds like the album’s all over the place that’s because it is. And this is both it’s biggest strength and weakness. On one hand each track offers a wholly different blend of sounds and Powers demonstrates a good ear for experimentation and melody. On the other hand there’s almost no real theme to be found. As soon as a song feels like it’s dragging (which happens more then it should) another new gimmick enters the fray as a last minute bid to grab your attention. Youth Lagoon throw everything but the kitchen sink into each song; form pianos, strings, an organ grinder, space static, or an echoey drum. There are a few too many ideas running rampant and no cohesion to hold them together.
Wondrous Bughouse is a step in the right direction for Youth Lagoon and proves that he isn’t just some hack burying his music in ambient haze to make up for the fact it doesn’t sound original. It does sound original but he’s going to have to turn down the ADHD if he’s hoping to sound memorable one day.
One of the great things about working in retail is getting to enjoy the best of top 40 radio until closing time. Wait, what's the opposite for great? Oh right horrible. That's one of the many horrible things about working in retail.
See the thing is what passes for top 40 radio, regardless of what city you're in, isn't very good. At it's best, it's songs that you don't initially hate and may even actually kinda like until they begin to get overplayed. At it's worst, it's back to back banal artists, singing the exact same songs written by a handful of songwriters to make an easy buck. It's popularity is easily explained as the byproduct of jaded radio station programmers content to play whatever songs are big three cites over, ensuring the wave of suck is never restricted to just one time zone. But there's nothing that irks me more then the asshats who announce with a devilish glee that the next songs are the most requested songs in [Insert city name here]
Either they're lying and radio is controlled by only a few individuals who are in bed with the big record labels ensuring their artists continue to supply them with coke money or the majority of people who listen to terrestrial radio are bottom feeding idiots. Neither reality is a pretty picture.
So without further ado I present to you the first edition in my monthly series of top 40 radio analysis The following are this month's grossest offenders that managed to find a way to be bad enough to pierce through work induced carpal tunnel.
#5) Maroon 5 - Daylight
I'll let you in on a little secrete about Maroon 5. They're actual not that bad. As far as pop music goes, they occasionally bring some creative ideas to the other wise dull "white guys with guitars" genera in top 40 radio. In a world of grays they're the slightly edge shade of beige. But with their latest album they did the one thing that should be technically impossible for them to ever do; sell out. Bored of his own baffling success, Levine realized he didn't need to work as hard at maintaining the illusion of this "band thing" with his gig as judge on The Voice secured. So he simply hired a ton of outside song writers, wailed over the tunes he liked, and called it a day."Daylight" commits the cardinal sin of begin a 3 minute song that feels like it lasts for 6. Even Adam sounds like he's barley stifling a yawn as he mopes about how hard it is to have tons of beautiful women wanting to have sex with you and having to to leave them in the morning for someone else; a sentiment that no doubt speaks strongly to Adam Levine but alienates everyone else.
#4) Taylor Swift - "I Knew You Were Trouble"
Remember when Taylor Swift made shitty "barely" country music for preteens? Well an older, more mature Taylor has decided to take her career into a completely new direction by no longer concerning herself with the "barely country" tag. "Trouble" represents her latest flirtation with dub step and awful chorus choices. Someone in her camp must have finally told her that no one really cares that she can't sing and that they've been covering it up on the records for years, because she makes sure she leaves no doubt left that she absolutely can't. The worse thing is she briefly toys with the previously unexplored idea that maybe, just maybe she really does have bad taste in men and that maybe she's to blame for the fact that her relationships have shorter life spans then most houseflies. That is until she proudly belts out in the self-assured sing-song way. "I knew YOU were trouble when you walked in!" Ah bait and switch you clever girl.
#3) Rihanna - "Stay"
These days Rihanna's working almost over time to push her bad girl image well past the point of self parody, but she still sprinkles out a gem like this every now and then to let us know that deep down she's still the same boring pop star we all know. "Stay" walks the fine line between being an offensively bad song and a cruel joke at her expense. Keep in mind that sh doesn't write any of these chart toppers and even the most deceptively simply songs (The chorus of "Where Have You Been" is a repetition of the song title no less than ten times) require a think tank of a dozen or so writers. On one hand, "Stay" is boring and dominated by a monotonous piano paired with the cartwauling Rihanna confuses for singing. On the other, well without drawing to many obvious comparisons "Stay" is a song about a women who's in a desperate situation with an abusive lover, she believes she'd be better without him but is too insecure to admit it, wants him to stay, (or "Staaaaaaaaaaaay" as she puts it), and- you know what I'm just going to stop right there.
#2) Bruno Mars - "When I Was Your Man"
All the problems of Rihanna's "Stay" are clashed with the lack of self awareness Adam Levine displayed in "Daylight". Bruno Mars waxes poetically about how he "should have bought you flowers" and other such gestures otherwise you'd still be dancing with him; Bruno Mars and not some jerk that isn't Bruno Mars. But unlike Adam Levine who goes all out to flaunt his total lack of sincerity in a refreshingly honest way, Bruno hints at a more subtle kind of doucheiness. "When I Was Your Man" is the song of a guy faking sincerity so hard that he wares it proudly on his sleeve. See, Bruno Mars doesn't mind if he comes across as the obvious "desperate to get laid" guy by laying it on thick with the bullshit sincerity. He knows that you don't have to fool everyone all of the time into sleeping with you. Just some of them some of the time. Coincidentally, the working title for the album was Songs To Convince Women That Deep Down The Really Want To Sleep With Me, Bruno Mars. Follow up songs, "I Swear I'm Not A Jerk", "I Love You For Your Mind", "You've Got A Great Personality Girl" , "Why Do Girls Always Want The Bad Boys?", and "Lesbian (I Bet She's A)" were wisely left off.
#1) Wil-I-am (Fet. Brittney Spears) - "Scream And Shout"
In "Scream And Shout" Wil-I-Am managed to churn out a 5 minute party anthem which makes you want to do anything but that, a Brittney Spears performance that sounds equal parts "bored sex bot" and "Russian crossing guard", and an irritating loop of sound that reeks of half ass. Most fascinating of all is that he manged to pen out this song in no less than 3 minutes. Wil I Am: The man who when the world says you can't , he manages to find a mannish voiced woman and Macbook just in time to prove them wrong. It's a formula that may appear bizarre to anyone not named Wil-I-am but the results speak for themselves.
*blows off the dust* Well hey you! It's been a while. School and work has been keeping most of my writing hostage. This is the jailbreak."Wait a minute!", I realized, "I love writing about music on my blog. Aww but I gotta write about music for my job. Boo!...wait a minute!" And so the second greatets idea ever was born! (The first being Netflix because I didn't need a social life anyway)
I'm gonna start hosting some of my content on this blog, float some material that may not be published in the GSU Signal (Not to toot my own horn but rewarding winning college journalism , and just generally voice my opinions when I can't be bothered to stay on hold and bitch to midday DJ's that I've heard this Maroon 5 song FIVE MINUTES AGO.
So, my anger issues out of the way! In case anyone missed this little nugget from the print edition, The Lovely Bad Things are some lovely good things! (sorry) from California. They bring a unique bit of 60's bubblegum swagger to the already crowded garage rock/surf rock revival scene, helping them standout. And I remember not hating their debut.
The Lovely Bad Things The Late Great Whatever (Burger Records) February 26, 2013
Grade: B-
Verdict: Garage rock with a splash of sugary surf pop;think a less narcoleptic Best Coast with a punk rock edge.
California quartet, The Lovely Bad Things are relative newcomers to the music scene and, as expected, really haven’t had a lot time to fully develop their sound; A fact that shows on their debut full length The Late Great Whatever. So yes, they do sound green on this record at times, and fall into some of the many pitfalls starting bands with little attention in an over exposed scene tend to usually make with their debut LP. The scene in this case being of the garage rock revival variety and The Lovely Bad Things just happen to be band #276 to pick up the torch. But while the temptation is there to write them off from the get go as having nothing new to contribute and resigning yourself to a predicted “guitar fuzz” gimmick that will wear out it’s welcome quickly, The Lovely Bad Things are worth a second listen and do show shards of creativity.
For starters, the decision to mix garage rock with a splash of sugary surf pop is a nice creative touch. Think a less narcoleptic Best Coast with a punk rock edge. The first half of the album rides on a high wave of washed out sounding guitars paired up with lovely male/female vocal harmonies that sound at once too pop to be punk but too punk to be pop. And the frantic drumming fills lend each song the energy of a swelling wave just before it breaks over the shore. It’s kinda impossible to NOT use surfing metaphors when describe the group's sound. The downside is that as enjoyable as it all sounds at first, the never stopping wave of noise starts to feel a little too encompassing and veers into generic territory when the melodies aren’t as tight. The first 4 tracks are great toe tappers but the ideas taper off after that leading to a middle that just drags. There is a bit a resurgence near the end of the album on “Honeycomb Cocoon” (one of the best songs on the album) but the momentum never really recovers.The Lovely Bad’s don’t seem to know what they want to sound like. “Darth Lauren” and Randle The Savage” are undeniably screaming punk rockers while “Rope Swing” could easily be a Beach Boys B-side. But they get the best results when they harmonize both approaches and create an atmosphere that’s equal parts as charming and aggressive as fast spinning ferris wheel.
As it stands, The Late Great Whatever is the sound of a band trying out it’s training wheels. They take a few bumps along the way, but they’re going to let a little thing like inexperience stop them from having a good time.
