In Jaci’s post asking for comments, one of the visitors of this blog asked for more indications for listening stuff and, eventually, buying stuff, i.e., not solely sterile download but acquaintance with a band and support.
That’s a very good attitude especially for the final result, support.
Btw, with such attitude I’m encouraged also in writing a bit more of the few lines I normally write on here (those of you who follow the Swamp know that I can flood the blog with words, hahaha ... ). But if people feel like having some info, I’m glad to gather them and pass them on. But I promise I won’t flood here as I do in the Swamp …
Going back to how this post started, if you don’t like myspace because it jumps if the connection is not working well, etc., you may then appreciate what some bands and some labels do, i.e., giving away a few tracks and substantial samples in mp3 to let the people listen to the stuff in adequate conditions. This is the case of a finest label precious for the underground, true underground music where open-minded attitude and experimentations among genres of heavy music are welcome: label Crucial Blast.
If you go and visit Crucial Blast’s webpage you get some tracks and samples from some of the coolest, creative and in various cases, I would say, most extreme bands around, if you think about what the label’s roster has been during its ten years of activiy: Genghis Tron, Monarch!, Gnaw their Tongues, Subarachnoid Space, Nadja, Skullflower, etc.
Well, in this period some cool albums are about to be released (tomorrow, 9th November 2010) by eclectic acts Theologian and Ehnahre.
Theologian may appeal to those of you who like weird, grim heavy tunes “poisoned” with electronics.
Theologian is a New York-based project by Leech, previously in Navicon Torture Technologies, that creates a dreary blend of blackened industrial drone ambient noise heaviness. As described in the release notes, the debut album, The Further I Get from Your Star, the Less Light I Feel on My Face, and the accompanying digital EP Charting The Schism, are a descent into roaring, cosmic drone, howling electronics, colossal industrial soundscapes and grim, low-end heaviness. Leech elaborates, strains and mixes extreme music genres such as Swedish death industrial, classic power electronics, dark ambient, etc., on a base of melodic presence; the music is harsh, often hellish, but retains an icy, desolate beauty.
The other release of extreme heaviness as well as charm is Taming The Cannibals, the new album by Boston trio Ehnahre, that recently inked an agreement with Crucial Blast.
The band has a “stable” line-up including Ryan McGuire (Bass, Double Bass, Vocals, Percussion), John Carchia (Guitar, Vocals) and Ricardo Donoso (drums). Btw, Ryan McGuire and John Carchia are members of the avant-garde metal band Kayo Dot. Additional fellow musicians crafted in all sorts of instruments and from other cool bands, such as Maudlin of the Well, Milligram and Castevet, etc., contribute(d) to create the evil music produced by this bunch.
You may know their killer debut album, The Man Closing Up, released in 2008 when the band was on Sound Devastation Records. In that debut album they experimented their overly distressing, mind-melting, powerful, obscure, crazy metal, which has been defined as “untraditional” in rhythm and chromatic/disharmonic in tonal interaction, speaking drum-, guitar- and bass-wise.
If you want a simplified tag for Ehnahre’s, you can call it "avant-garde doom death metal". In more detail, Ehnahre combine atonal contemporary classical music (they studied Arnold Schoenberg) and "vicious blackened death laced with shots of free-jazz horns, stretches of intense choral ambience, and blasts of calcifying glacial doom".
Definitely a difficult, ruthless and absolutely heavy way of playing that does create a bleak, restless, menacing and chaotic atmosphere, which is what, at the end, gives us the thrills. But, incredibly, there are melodies dragging you through this chaotic darkness. The result is fascinating …
If you feel like for more and far better “literature”, you may appreciate the brand new and very well made interview to Ryan McGuire on Doommantia.
So go to the label’s webpage to get your mp3 sample tracks for Theologian and Ehnahre releases: here, here and here
6 comments:
fantastico! posted the e.p. here as well
i love your long posts! i find that i'm way more interested in hearing a band when i have background info and 'sounds like....' comparisons.
thanks mari :)
Thanks j!
Sometimes I feel I'm exaggerating a bit.
It's funny because as a "physical" person, I don't speak so much, hahaha ...
thanks mari, glad my comment actually meant something! hahaha.
I like when there's a description or RIYL. I mean, surprise, maybe not everyone knows who sleep or EW is or whatever. you never know. but putting people in the ballpark with genres or RIYL totally helps out.
and if you simply said 'this band features people from kayo dot,' I'd totally know what you meant. but to someone else, maybe not. but you gave a concise definition of what to expect, and that's HUGE. not only that, but you pushed buying the material if you're into it.
I think the reason a lot of great blogs get shut down is that labels think you're just out to pirate their music and then take it down if they ask. but when you go 'here's where you can hear it, but here's where you can buy it' [which you guys do often], I think labels should be cognizant that 'lost sales' aren't going to come from people who don't ever buy music, but if the effort is there to let people buy shit they like, they should be proud someone's talking about ____ band for them. never hurts.
Desklazer,
thanks for the comment!
Hahah, yes, it's your fault if I flooded this blog as well ... :-)
Well, it's nice if someone is willing to loose some time reading what one has put together with some effort.
Because writing a sort of presentation of the band/album, although not a real proper review, does take some time and effort.
One may like the band of the post, but when you have to gather ideas and put them down in order you realize that it's not like chatting freely with friends.
So finding/adding infos and writing a bit more means less posts - and probably less visitors. But, yes, it's always doing advert to bands and make people aware about them.
Many blogs just put tens of download links every other day and bye bye to even a minimal support to the bands.
Some guys I know who play in underground bands and run a business of underground music distro, here in Italy, wrote me that if it were not for the blogosphere their (fine) band would have not been known as it has been, and also their business would not so good.
So the people do support the bands, by knowing about them, going to their concerts and also buying their albums even if they are downloadable through the net.
Of course, there are many many leeches too.
Anyway, I must say that while searching infos about the bands I like(d) I happened to discover much else (and even new bands), that I wouldn't have maybe never discovered. This is a big push to do this activity.
mari, I told jaci the same thing. had it not been for the internet, torrents, blogs, etc. my band wouldn't have sold as many records as it has.
it's important to realize that you shouldn't alienate the fanbase by shutting it all down. the pirates will always find a way to get your music free regardless. the ones who will buy it will often be those who download it first. why fight them? maybe they won't buy your CD, but next time you're playing in their town, they might come see you and buy a shirt. or not. who cares. if you're doing it solely for $$$, you're obviously in the wrong business. I'm naive enough to think that music is art and people should do it because it's a means of creative expression rather than something to fund their drinking/drug/food/shelter habits. if it DOES fund their drinking/drug/food/shelter habits, kudos! that means they're better than the rest of the dreck out there. but it's a bonus, not the primary goal.
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