Sunday, February 28, 2010

[upcoming bands] Black Shape of Nexus


Black Shape of Nexus are a band from Germany. They added me on myspace saying that it was cool to find people who also enjoy SPK's music: they sure have a fine musical taste too.
They started around 2005. Their genre is doom metal, I'd say.
Here it is their myspace (or click on the image). Their official website can be accessed here. Soon there will be an interview with them.

Below is a video of the band on one of their gigs:

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

[gig reviews] Lydia Lunch & Big Sexy Noise at Galeria Zé dos Bois, 20th February 2010


Last saturday night I saw a contemporary music legend: that's right, I'm speaking of Lydia Lunch. Since not long ago, she formed this band, entitled Big Sexy Noise. They're good, they fit Lydia's new musical approach perfectly.
She's in fit, maintaining her rad attitude.


Here are some of the videos I filmed:



Sunday, February 21, 2010

[upcoming bands] Mamute

Recently formed (in 2009, I presume), Mamute are a portuguese heavy rock band that has influences ranging from genres like Classic Rock 70's, Delta Blues and British Psych. The band members are: Pedro Madeira [guitar] and Carlos Ferreira [drums].
The band myspace can be viewed through this link.

Below is a video of one of their live performances:

A Storm of Light "And We Wept the Black Ocean Within"

A recent band (they started around 2007), they are sometimes labeled as post-metal and other times as doom metal. From Brooklyn, not all this trendy hype bands are born: this band is a fine argument.
This record has a more doomy approach, according to my ears. Their music features slow and dense rhythms, with guitars raging the air with their high distorted notes. Blend despair with music and you get A Storm of Light.
The tracklist is:
  1. Adrift (the albatross I)
  2. Vast and Endless
  3. Black Ocean
  4. Thunderhead
  5. Undertow (the albatross II)
  6. Mass
  7. Leaden Tide
  8. Breach (the albatross III)
  9. Descent
  10. Iron Heart

My favourite tracks are: "Black Ocean", "Mass" and "Iron Heart". The whole album is great though: and it's the band's debut record, don't forget this. Since then, they've released 2 more albums.
Their myspace can be accessed here.
The album is available here.

Below is the third track, "Black Ocean":

Sunday, February 14, 2010

[gig reviews] Panda Bear at Lux Frágil in Lisbon, 13 February

Last night, I got the opportunity to see the "second round" (because Noah played the night before at the same place, which was Lux, a disco in Lisbon) of Panda Bear's show.
I got really surprised with the songs that'll probably be on his upcoming album, "Tomboy". I don't know their names, unfortunately, so it'll be a bit more difficult to review this gig.
One thing that I've noticed is that this time, Noah Lennox gives even more use to loops and adds more distortion and reverbs to his sounds and beats. The fourth song he played, with his guitar, had an awesome distortion and it somewhat reminded me of Sun Araw's hypnagogic pop.
The first song, was slow and was a perfect intro to his gig: with a mind-warping loop, that slowly grew, backed up by the Danny Perez' awesome video work, felt smooth like hot butter. Then Panda Bear's voice appeared and the music got even better. After 5 minutes, a beat echoed and looped until the music ended.
Below, I've filmed the performance of this song:



Moreover, the second song is also original and more energetic, I'd say: more vocals, a faster bpm (although always kind of slow in its entegrity) and with more defined and distorted guitars.


This is the third song:

Saturday, February 6, 2010

[interview] Dazzle Ships


I enjoyed Dazzle Ships music so much that some weeks ago I decided to interview them. Here it is the final product:

1. Why did you start making music?;
TYLER: Sheer boredom. I borrowed my sister's bass that she didn't play in like 6th grade, but didn't know how to play it. I would just make weird noises with the built in effects on the amp and put the pickups to the speaker making it feed back, I loved that shit. I eventually figured out how to route the amp into my sound card and record it. I had tons of recordings of me just talking with effects on my voice and weird shit like that. and that eventually turned into playing guitar and recording 15 second songs with drum machine and guitar. It wasn't until I started to play music with my friend Travis that I took it semi seriously. We started our first band when we were 15 and he's been in pretty much every band I've been in since. Actually I think Dazzle Ships is the only one he isn't a part of..
HATII: I feel like music was already in my blood because of my family. I started making music because I was constantly surrounded by family members doing some from of it. I grew up with all my brothers in several bands and at least a good 5 instruments just lying around the house. I feel like it really clicked with me when I was around 7. My brother was a huge fan of Led Zeppelin and constantly played Stairway to Heaven; I remember using one of his acoustic guitars and teaching myself the opening guitar part by ear. From then on music has been like a second habit, so far I've learned to play guitar, bass, trumpet, cello and am a beginner at piano and drums.


2. When did the band start (and is this your first band? if it isn't, please mention the bands you had before);
TYLER: The band started on December 27th, 2009. Hatii and I were bored one day and jammed and wrote a cool song and then recorded it. and that was that..
I've been in and currently in many bands. including Rapid Youth, Twin Lion, and Norse Horse.
HATII: Dazzle Ships is my first band, it's not my first attempt at making a band though. I've tried several times with friends who knew how to play at least one instrument or another. Nothing ever worked out though. Tyler is the first person who fits my style of playing so far.



3. What are your influences?; TYLER: I know that we both want to write energetic, dreamy, catchy, pop songs. But I'm not sure of direct influences, really. We both really like the Cocteau Twins, Atlas Sound, Broadcast, New Order stuff like that. Also bands like Felt, Talking Heads, Wire and a lot of kraut rock bands, guitar wise. We defiantly have a lot of electronic music influence too, there will definatly be a lot more keyboard heavy songs in the future. Hatii listens to a lot of classical music too, I really want her to play some cello on some of the new songs. I am not sure how she feels about that. HATII: When it comes to my vocals I am influenced by Faye Wong and Maaya Sakamoto. Both women have such delicate yet mature voices, and a style all their own. I aim to be somewhere near that category.

4. Have you considered your vocals a bit similar to The Only Ones' (in a good way, of course) ?;
I, honestly, haven't listened to enough of that band to tell you if we do or not...I have only heard the "another girl, another planet" song. I will have to look more into that band now, for sure.

5. Have you given many shows up to date?;
We haven't played any shows yet, there will be a bunch soon. We want our shows to be very visual also so we are still working out the technical aspect of that at the moment.


-Left: A band photo;
-Right: An image which seems to resemble a tunnel [found on their myspace too];

6. If you could choose a band/artist to tour with, who would it be?;
This is a tough question......David Bowie. He would have to play all the songs from the labyrinth and let us be his backing band, though.

7. Are you aiming to release an EP or album soon?;
Yeah we want to have an album out maybe before the end of this year. We need to find a label first, but we will defiantly have an album written.

8. What country would you like your band to play?;
Anywhere in Europe. We would love to play England, France, Spain, Belgium, all those wonderful countries we've never been to. Oh! and Ireland.

9. If you could pick a label which one would you pick?;
hmmm This is a tough question.....4AD.


Once again, thank you Dazzle Ships for your time! I'm anxious to hear your upcoming album.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

[Random records selection of the Week] part 2



Once a week someone will choose various records from many musical genres, so that you can check them out for yourself... That person will only specify the genre, the band's name and the respective record. If you want to download them, click on the album cover. This time, our guest was Filipe Martins.


Artist:Nature & Organisation
Record:Beauty Reaps The Blood Of Solitude
Genre:Neofolk
(released in1994)


Artist:Diamanda Galás
Record:The Divine Punishment
Genre: Experimental
(released in 1986)


Artist:Fad Gadget
Record: The Best Of (CD 2 here)
Genre:New Wave / Early Industrial
(released in 2001)


Artist:London After Midnight
Record:Selected Scenes from the End of the World
Genre: Goth Rock
(released in1995)


Artist:Peste Noire
Record:Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor
Genre: Black Metal
(released in 2009)


Artist:Alan Vega (with Alex Chilton & Ben Vaughn)
Record:Cubist Blues
Genre:Proto-punk / Jazz / Blues
(released in 1996)


Artist:Skinny Puppy
Record: Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse
Genre: Industrial Rock
(released in1986)


Artist:Burzum
Record:Daudi Baldrs
Genre: Black Metal
(released in 1997)


Artist: Andromeda Complex
Record: Last Traces of Forsaken Worships
Genre: Darkwave
(released in 1998)


Artist: Raison d'Être
Record: The Emoty Hollow Unfolds (only in FLAC format)
Genre: Dark Ambient
(released in 2000)

Monday, February 1, 2010

[Poll of the Month] January


The musician who won the poll of January was B Fachada, with 6 votes. Now it's time for February's poll.
Keep voting!

[upcoming bands] Mob of God


Fortunately, I got to know this band because one of the members sent me a message over on youtube, saying that he saw a comment I made on a Gogol Bordello video and thought I got a fine musical taste.
Mob of God are a portuguese band that fuses genres like alternative rock, jazz and metal (awkward, isn't it?). They also like Fado (a portuguese traditional musical genre).
The band members are: M.ª João Oliveira on lead vocals; Nuno Tavares on guitar andvocals; Ricardo Penedo on keyboards; Pedro Torradas playing bass; Bruno Gaspar on drums.
Their influences are, according to what they've written on their myspace page: " The flavors of our world - the grunge scene, the metal scene, the blues meet jazz and soul, the 60's, the 70's and early 90's plus world music". Bands that to me they resemble sometimes are: Doors (specially on keyboards and ocasionally on guitars), Jefferson Airplane (specially on vocals) and Shocking Blue (particularly on vocals and kind of similar to the guitars Shocking Blue played on some songs).
Their myspace can be accessed here. To download some songs they offer for free, click here.


Below is a video of one of their songs entitled "Lion of Judah":

[upcoming bands] A Way to Disappear

Formed up in 2009, this band has 6 members: Ricardo Gonçalves on vocals, Nuno Rodrigues on vocals, Daniel Figueiredo on guitars, João Duque on guitars, Francisco Fontes is the drummer and Alexandre Aparício as the bassist. They all come from Castelo de Branco, in Portugal.
What do they sound like, you ask? They sound like themselves, according to them. According to me, their influences could range from Pearl Jam to Nirvana [mostly grunge influenced bands]. But they also like some other bands, like Metallica, for example.
Their myspace can be accessed by clicking both images or here.

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