Category: Reviews – Audio
Glorious metal in all its earthly forms, compressed onto shiny plastic discs or into digital files. Which ones will become the soundtrack to your life?
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The Dwarves – Concept Album LP
The Dwarves Concept Album LP (Greedy Media) To say that The Dwarves have been around and weathered a lot of pop cultural storms is an understatement. Since forming in Chicago in the mid-Eighties, The Dwarves have reinvented the concept of the revolving door; they’ve gone through band members (dozens of them – but guitarist Pete…
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Pierre Omer’s Swing Revue – Tropical Breakdown LP
Pierre Omer’s Swing Revue Tropical Breakdown LP (Voodoo Rhythm Records) Ever since Swing Kids came out in 1993 featuring a cast of very talented dancers, hipsters have wanted to revive swing music and dancing and make it their own. The reasoning for that desire is really easy to understand; the music is wildly infectious even…
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Ice-T – The Legend of Ice-T 3LP
Ice-T The Legend of Ice-T: Crime Stories (3LP) (Rhyme Syndicate Productions/Ruffnation Entertainment/MVD) It’s hard to know what to make of The Legend of Ice-T: Crime Stories exactly, in part because what the album wants to be isn’t particularly clear. A very solid argument could be made for the possibility that, in fact, this 3LP set…
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Volores – Ages LP
Volores Ages LP (Broken Stag Records) It may come as a surprise, but there’s a reason that I elected to review Ace Of Wands’ newest LP and Ages by Volores back-to-back: the albums feel like the work of two bands who could easily share a stage or a tour together. Both bands’ sounds feature a…
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Ace Of Wands – Desiring LP
Ace Of Wands Desiring LP (Fortune Stellar Records) It’s hard to articulate how cool this is and how much this statement means but, from moment one of listening to Ace Of Wands’ new album, there is a direct artistic and creative line which connects Ace Of Wands to Heart. Of course, making comparisons between other…
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SLIP-ons – Heavy Machinery EP
SLIP-ons Heavy Machinery EP (Scamindy Records) There aren’t many ways for a band to write songs which sound unmistakably similar to the work of another group without sounding derivative. The only way that it’s possible to walk such a narrow and treacherous line is to be completely ignorant of it; the band in question just…
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Guest Directors – Interference Patterns LP
Guest Directors Interference Patterns LP (Snappy Little Numbers/Topsy Records) While the idea of well-known musicians reappearing in new bands with some new musical ideas isn’t particularly new at this point (OFF! revived Keith Morris’ stake in hardcore, Kathleen Hanna’s comeback with The Julie Ruin has been spectacular and Paul Leary’s appearance with The Melvins was…
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Psychic Temple – Plays Music For Airports LP
Psychic Temple Plays Music For Airports LP (Big Ego Records) Whatever you think you should expect from the Plays Music For Airports LP – Psychic Temple’s third album, chronologically – you’re going to discover that you’re wrong. First, the recently released vinyl record is a limited-press reissue; Plays Music For Airports originally came out on…
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Kirkby Kiss – Ouroboros EP
Kirkby Kiss Ouroboros EP (Council Records) It might sound unlikely, but working in the music press can be surprisingly frustrating. The reason for that is simple, really – most bands believe that what they’re doing is unique enough that they couldn’t possibly be forgettable or mistaken for any other band. The problem is that, at…
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Wrong War – On Further Reflection EP
Wrong War On Further Reflection 7” EP (Council Records) At this point, now decades since hardcore reshaped the face of punk rock, it would be easy for someone who isn’t a part of the punk community (isn’t a fan) to not understand how anyone could get excited about “another punk 7”.” Really, that there’s a…