[gig reviews] Youthless live at Musicbox 31th March 2010

Last night I attended [for FREE] a rad gig: Youthless played at Musicbox, in Lisboa, along with friends like some members from PAUS. Also, spiderman decided to get along and play drums. Nice, isn't it?
Fortunately, there were there some kids that kept a good vibe all along their performance. Otherwise, the crowd would drop dead, they seemed like a bunch of old people bored and hanging at a random concert. Youthless kept a good setlist, covered a TV On The Radio Song (Playhouses, to be more specific), tried to crowdsurf, made good efforts to entertain the crowd and gave a rad show.
You can check some videos and photos on MyPortugal's (myspace page for Portugal, in case you didn't comprehend) page.
Here are some links to the photos: photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4, photo 5, photo 6, photo 7, photo 8.

Merzbow "Kuja kubato"

I think it's legitimate to entitle Merzbow as the father of noise music. Basically, he was one of the first artists in this genre and who developed it since its start.
This album can be considered more audible than most of his work, because it features drums, that define a rhythm and give emphasis to Masami Akita's computer-produced noise.
The track list is the following:
1.Wind of Pain
2.Pigeon Walk Part 1
3.Pigeon Walk Part 2
4.Dove Festival
5.Bird Droppings on your head
The album has around 50 minutes of intense noise music, that promises to wash your thoughts.
It can be downloaded here.

[poll] Cotonete Golden Blog

Currently, Serotonin Sounds is one of the blogs featured in a poll held on Cotonete, entitled "Golden Blog". The other blogs that are competing against us are: Indie Cindy, Zepelim, Isto não é uma festa Indie and Independanças. You can see how the other blogs are by clicking on the following ones you want to go to.
If you think my blog deserves your vote, then click here and just vote for Serotonin Sounds.

PS: You can vote as many times as you want to.

Wave Machines "Wave if you're really there"

Wave Machines started around 2007, in Liverpool. They've released this album since then, entitled "Wave if you're really there". Receiving good reviews, this work has got lots of great tracks to choose from, each of them, peculiar, but with Wave Machines' characteristics within it. They use synthesizers, samplers, drums, guitars, basses, vocals, blending them in their own way: the product is surely marvelous.
The tracks are:

1. You say the Stupidest Things
2.I go I go I go
3. Keep the Lights on
4. Punk Spirit
5. The Greatest Escape We Ever Made
6. Wave If You're Really There
7. The Line
8. I Joined a Union
9. Carry me Back to My Home
10. Dead Houses

The album's lenght is around 40 minutes, I believe. My favourite tracks are: "Punk Spirit", "You Say the Stupidest Things", "Dead Houses" and "Carry me Back to My Home".
To get this album, click here.

Below is "Punk Spirit"'s official videoclip:

[gig reviews] Epic Randomness at Gala dos Maristas and Os Passos Em Volta at Padaria do Povo

Yesterday I saw two good gigs: Epic Randomness' first gig (at Gala dos Maristas) and Os Passos Em Volta gig at Padaria do Povo.
First I'll talk about Epic Randomness' show: they only played one song, which was a cover of "Paradise City" (Guns 'n Roses song, in case you didn't know). It went really well, since it was, basically, their first gig. They were also in front of a big crowd, around more or less 725 people. They behaved really well, I must say... Now it's time they give more shows and make some EP's or merch. While playing, the drummer, Abreu, made some remarkable efforts on improvisations to accompain the guitarrist when he was "showing off".
These are some photographs I took from this event: photograph 1, photograph 2, photograph 3, photograph 4, photograph 5, photograph 6, photograph 7, photograph 8, photograph 9, photograph 10 and photograph 11.

Next was Os Passos em Volta concert, held at Padaria do Povo, located at Campo de Ourique, in Lisbon, Portugal. It was one hell of a show, one of the best I've seen from this band. They played well, synchronized in their own way, with their distinct sound. I couldn't take any pictures, because I didn't have my camera's batteries loaded. At this gig, there was even a crowdsurf, which was funny and at the same time cool. There was also some mosh held along some songs. These photographs were taken by a friend of mine and are available on Os Passos em Volta's myspace:

Biosphere "Substrata"

Geir Jenssen, the mind behind all of this celestial musical brilliance, hails from Norway. It's a fact that this country's landscapes have influenced him as an artist and sound producer. If you still didn't know his "Biosphere" project, you should: take this in count, this album was elected as a classic ambient album, consistently in the top 5 in surveys on the Hyperreal ambient mailing list.
According to Wikipedia: "Biosphere's first truly ambient album, it has a theme of cold, of mountains and glaciers and running water. Sounds of howling wind and creaking wood, although infrequently employed, create a chilling soundscape interrupted by sonorous but quietly suspenseful music."
His music is hauntingly beautiful to me.
The songs featured in this album are:

1. "As the Sun Kissed the Horizon" – 1:47
2. "Poa Alpina" – 4:10
3. "Chukhung" – 7:34
4. "The Things I Tell You" – 6:28
5. "Times When I Know You'll Be Sad" – 3:44
6. "Hyperborea" – 5:45
7. "Kobresia" – 7:12
8. "Antennaria" – 5:05
9. "Uva-Ursi" – 3:00
10. "Sphere of No-Form" – 5:47
11. "Silene" – 7:54

My favourite ones are: "Poa Alpina", "Hyperborea", "Antennaria" and "Sphere of No-Form". However, this album is peculiar and each song whispers stories to one's mind. Creativity stimulation, is what this is.
You can get the album here, if you want too... I strongly recommend this ambient album to any person who's willing for some "thought-stimulant"or just to relax.

Below is an unnoficial video of the song "Antennaria":

[gig reviews] Super Bock em Stock (day 5 of December]

Now it's 5th December's gigs turn to be reviewed here on the blog. The bands I got to see were, by the following order: Os Golpes, Beach House, Little Joy, Kap Bambino, DR Ramos (with the collaboration of Ramesh Srivastava - Voxtrot's singer) and Zé Pedro DJ.

The first concert, which was Os Golpes', I only got to hear around 3 of their songs, since afterwards I ran to the waiting line for Beach House's gig in Tivoli. Os Golpes' gig was in Cinema São Jorge Sala 1.
However, from what I got to see, they did a fine performance, nothing that was that remarkable either. I'll leave below some videos of their performance (these weren't filmed by me, take that in count):

Here are some more videos: video 1, video 2 and video 3.

Beach House's concert was the kind of thing I expected from them: it was filled with their sweet nostalgic and psychedelic sounds, gently embracing the crowd along their songs. Nothing that would make it a memorable gig among this festival however. I filmed a lot of their songs and [I think] I uploaded all of my footage onto youtube. It was their first step on the portuguese soil. They are returning to Lisbon on 17th of March of 2010, to play on Lux (a local disco).
Below is one of my films of their concert (it's part 2):

Here are some more videos: part 1, part 3, part 4 and part 5.

Then it was Little Joy's turn to appear on Tivoli's stage. I got to know that this band formed in 2006 on the portuguese festival Lisboa Soundz. Bands like You Should Go Ahead, Los Hermanos, She Wants Revenge, Isobel Campbell, Dirty Pretty Things and The Strokes played at this festival. It was due to this festival that Little Joy were born: Los Hermanos' singer, Rodrigo Amarante, met with Fabrizzio Moretti of The Strokes and then they decided to form Little Joy.
Little Joy's gig was kind of soft, with a good environment among the crowd and the band. I didn't like it that much, since I'm not that fond of Little Joy's music, however, it was a good gig. We left a bit before it ended, to see Kap Bambino.
Here is a video [I didn't film it]. When I upload Little Joy's videos, I'll post the links right away.

Kap Bambino was the last "real" concert, before the DJ set at Underground / Garagens do Marquês do Pombal. Noisy, as expected, full of energy: there was a nucleus of fans that continuously, all the time, jumped and moshed. I even had a chance to do some crowdsurf. Kap Bambino had a very good setlist with songs like "Kaos Killer", "Hey" and "New Breath" among many others (their themes included songs from their first records to "Blacklist").
I couldn't film this gig since I was all the time jumping around and enjoying it, has everyone was. Take this is count: this band's gigs are always memorable.
Like I said before, everyone was dancing around, but, still, I found 2 videos. There's one of them below. The other one can be viewed here.


Afterwards, people relaxed a bit, with some more soft music playing. I got a chance to take a picture with Caroline, from Kap Bambino too.
Suddenly, an alarm sounded: it was DR Ramos' performance beggining. He included some themes ranging from Motörhead to Queens of the Stone Age, mainly mainstream things, compared to the whole festival's purpose. DR Ramos also works on radio RADAR and on Antena 3, I think. He invited Ramesh [Voxtrot's singer] to DJ a bit.
Below is a video of Ramesh' on stage:


Finally, came Xutos e Pontapés' Zé Pedro, starring as a DJ. I'll upload a video I have of his performance. He wasn't bad, however he surelly fits more as a guitarrist / rocker than a DJ. He remixed some tunes like U2's "Elevation".

Blog of the Week at Cotonete

Serotonin Sounds was elected "Blog of the Week" by Cotonete, a famous portuguese website that strongly promotes music in many ways.
You can see the "Blog of the Week" section by clicking in this link.
Later, this month, my blog will be on a poll entitled "Golden Blog", that features the blogs elected during the weeks of December.
Once again, thank you Cotonete!...

Threshold Houseboys Choir "The Threshold Houseboys Choir Amulet Edition"

Do you like COIL? Do you like Throbbing Gristle? Do you like COUM Transmissions? Do you like Psychic TV? Do you like Soisong? Do you think I'm starting to get boring?
I asked you these questions because a former member of all these bands, Peter Christopherson, decided to create a new project after COIL's end. Threshold Houseboys Choir was the name chosen by Peter. It can be labeled as experimental electronic composition, along with some noise, oriental-ish sounds, etc. Wiki also entitles it as "Post-Industrial Exotica". When performing live, this project evolves to a different stage: videos of some rituals occuring in Thailand, morbid, gore and violent clips along and mind-warping at the same time are added to the performance of Threshold Houseboys Choir. THBC's myspace can be viewed by clicking here.
"The Threshold HouseBoys Choir is a musical guise for Peter Christopherson, announced in 2005 as a follow up endeavor to his former group Coil. Despite the name, it is a solo project which relies heavily on computer generated vocals, of which he is formally credited as the "director." The name was derived from a play on words, combining the terms houseboy, house of boys, boys' choir, and Threshold House.[1] THBC is stationed in Krung Thep, Thailand."

The Amulet Edition was sold on THBC's tour and now can be bought on the official merchandise website, here, or on eBay or Amazon at astonishingly high prices. It comes on a fine velvet pocket, I think, which over 3 cd's.
The track list is the following:
1.Be Happy 16: 12
2.Distonto 23: 16
3.Ikoreek 22: 15
4.The Hangman's Ball 19: 31
5.As X is to Geff 10: 20
6.Khun Cap Taxi 18: 03
7.Lowly Low 13: 42
8.There and Back 5:09
9.The Day Moon Died 15:51

Next, if you want to, you can hear some samples of the songs: "The Day the Moon Died", "The Hangman's Ball" and "Distonto". My favourite tracks are: "Be Happy", "Distonto", "Lowly Low" and "There and Back".
If you want to buy the album go to Threshold House's official website and find some THBC merchandise.
If you want to hear the part 1 (which features the first 4 songs) click here and/or the part 2 (which has the last tracks and the track from the 3rd CD, which is the last one) click here.


"Be happy" can be heard below:

Jellowaste "Jellowaste at Whiskey Fit"

According to this musician, Jellowaste, he got his looks due to: "...this transformation [due to the fact Tom Cruise injected him with Biotoxin 45 ~ a chemical that was supposed to kill him) was so incredible, the 10 foot radiotransformative aura emitted during the changes turned his car into a neon yellow Firebird ~ complete with a radiation symbol on the hood."

I got to know this artist thanks to Drop Dead Festival... I saw some info about his earlier D.D.F. shows and he sure knows how to entertain a crowd and produce eccentric [and simultaneously good] music / sounds.
The track list is the following:
1. Conveyorbelt Supremeincinerator 1:55
2. Dirtpires 2:40
3. Dokytrsle 2:50
4. Dump Slump 2:05
5. Jellybeanery FT The Zodworths 2:37
6. Sludgeplant 1:58
7. Steamengineering 3:03

My favourite songs are: "Dokytrsle", "Dump Slump" and also "Jellybeanery FT The Zodworths" (this one has a collab with one of the members of the band, that is now extinct, Din Glorious). The record's lenght is around 24 minutes and 55 seconds.
Jellowaste's myspace can be accessed here.
You can get it here (it has around 25 megabytes by the way).

"Dump Slump" song below:

Big Black "Atomizer"

Big Black's career started around 1982. They didn't found much mainstream success, however they've influenced the early industrial rock scene and have been remarked as a "must" for any person who's into noise. Their use of provocative lyrics garnered much attention.
This album entitled "Atomizer" (which is their debut album), as received good reviews .Take this into consideration: All Music gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. Their brutal slashing guitars and great use of drum machines were widely influencial. This album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I know this sounds awkward, but the singer's [Steve Albini] voice of Gray Matter's vocals.
The track list for this album is:

1. "Jordan, Minnesota"
2. "Passing Complexion"
3. "Big Money"
4. "Kerosene"
5. "Bad Houses"
6. "Fists of Love"
7. "Stinking Drunk"
8. "Bazooka Joe"
9. "Strange Things"
10. "Cables" (live)

My favourite ones are: "Passing Complexion", "Stinking Drunk", "Big Money" and also "Kerosene". The album's lenght is 37 minutes and 37 seconds. The whole album is really dense and has a lot of cohesion along the song's transitions. Some people who aren't into "noise" should think about this fact: this work has more thoughts behind than it seems.
You can get the album here too.

Below is "Passing Complexion":

Kap Bambino "Zero Life, Night Vision"

Kap Bambino formed around 2001 and nowadays they even have their own independent label. Kap Bambino are Caroline Martial and Orion Bouvier. Released in 2006, this album features awesome synth-ish tunes from a great electro group that hails from Bordeaux, France. Their music is characterised by wild distorted female vocals and mind-twisting electronic mixes. This album is no exception and has received positives reviews.
The track list is the following:

1.		Zero Life	1:53
2.		New Breath	2:09
3.		Save	3:11
4.		Took Life	2:10
5.		Hunger Texas	2:29
6.		Seed	3:15
7.		Mess In The Ruins	2:03
8.		Hey !	2:07
9.		Night Vision Ocean	2:31
10.		Kaos Killer	2:46
11.		Warriors	2:10
12.		More Machine	4:09

My favourite tracks are: "Hey!", "Mess In The Ruins", "New Breath" and "Seed". But, as kind of usual, I advise you to hear the entire album.
You can get this album here or promote the artist by buying it on some eBay vultures or on their label's official website here.

Below I'll leave an youtube video of the song "Seed":

My Bloody Valentine "Loveless"

My Bloody Valentine, my bloody valentine... What can we say about how paradoxal sometimes love gets? This album is like a potion of all the antagonic feelings there are in a romantic relationship. All of its atonality and a cacophonic indeterminancy caracterize romance. There's a reason for My Bloody Valentine's debut album to be named "Loveless".
The track list is the following:

1. "Only Shallow" (Bilinda Butcher, Shields) – 4:17
2. "Loomer" (Butcher, Shields) – 2:38
3. "Touched" (Colm Ó Cíosóig) – 0:56
4. "To Here Knows When" (Butcher, Shields) – 5:31
5. "When You Sleep" – 4:11
6. "I Only Said" – 5:34
7. "Come in Alone" – 3:58
8. "Sometimes" – 5:19
9. "Blown a Wish" (Butcher, Shields) – 3:36
10. "What You Want" – 5:33
11. "Soon" – 6:58

The songs "Only Shallow" and "Sometimes" are the ones I advise you to hear. "Sometimes" has an ambiguous sense of a shallow happiness, if that's possible at all: the person who hears it doesn't know if it is proposed to make you cry or to make you feel good, kind of in a nostalgic way.
When this album came out, there were many music critics and melomaniacs that immediately recognized the importance of this work in contemporary music, particularly in the developing of the "shoegaze" genre and as inspiration for many bands. All music, Rolling Stone, Robert Christgau, NME, Popmatters, The Quietus and many other entities said marvelous things about this album.

-The band.

You can hear below the song "Sometimes":

[musical instrument] Cacophonator II

Ok, today I was seing DJ Scotch Egg's myspace (one of the best 8bit and glitch DJ's I currently know of) and I found a post on his page about a strange thing called "Cacophonator II". What's that? It's kind of an instrument you link to another musical instrument (or whatever can be linked to) and it simply mutilates in many ways the sounds you produce. It's really interesting, it can make some good noisy combinations. It has a high price, yeah, it's 250 euros (around 325 dollars). For more info, check out the official website here.

There's also a good video about this instrument and how it works:

[upcoming bands] CFCF

CFCF is a great promise within genres like electro. He has done awesome remixes and has some of them on his myspace. He introduces himself by modestly saying: "Hi, I am CFCF and I make music". Some of his influences are: Boredoms, Goblin, The Durutti Column, Madonna, Fleetwood Mac & Vangelis.
He released his first EP on January of 2009, being a great start, I say.
Next month he'll release his first album entitled "Continent" (don't miss this one!).
Check out his myspace.

Below you can hear one great song of his, named "Panesian Nights":

CFCF 'Crystal Mines' from the EP 'Panesian Nights' from Paper Bag Records on Vimeo.

Oh, and please hear this awesome remix of HEALTH's "Before tigers" (it's brilliantly smooth and relaxing):

Crystal Antlers "Tentacles"

Formed in 2006, this American indie rock band from Long Beach [in California], have been releasing awesome inventive songs on rad EP's. This debut album called "Tentacles", released in early 2009 was relatively well evaluated by many music critics (like NME, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork) and some hype-bloggers.
However, according to what I've heard in this work, I can assure that it isn't that bad as Pitchfork evaluates it [6.7 out of 10...]. As a matter of fact, it's catchy, a cheerful psych-punk band doing their own music, being [as many bands of nowadays are trying] difficult to be inserted in a particular music genre.
The track list is the following:

1. "Painless Sleep" - 2:16
2. "Dust" - 2:27
3. "Time Erased" - 3:37
4. "Andrew" - 3:34
5. "Vapour Trail" - 2:18
6. "Tentacles" - 1:54
7. "Until the Sun Dies (Part 1)" - 2:50
8. "Memorized" - 3:53
9. "Glacier" - 3:01
10. "Foot of the Mountain" - 0:25
11. "Your Spears" - 2:24
12. "Swollen Sky" - 4:12
13. "Several Tongues" - 7:11
    

The whole album is worth hearing, however I advise you to hear the song "Andrew".
You can view their myspace and current tour on their myspace.
You can get the album right here too.

Below you can hear and view "Andrew", one of their best songs:

SPK "Zamie Lehmanni: Songs of Byzantine Flowers"

SPK formed in 1978 in Sydney, Australia, was a 1980s and early 1990s industrial music and noise music group. SPK stands for many names. Probably, the most important of them all, that influenced two members of the band, Graeme Revell and Neil Hill, was Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv. This album that I'm reviewing is about the post-industrial SPK, more commercially oriented (however, I consider this album to be an exception, since it isn't as synthpop-ish as "Machine Age Voodoo", the previous album). This one is more about electronic orchestral work: it can also be labeled as contemporary classical ambient.
The track list is the following:

1. "Invocation (to Secular Heresies)" - 5:16
2. "Palms Crossed in Sorrow" - 5:05
3. "Romanz in Moll (Romance in a Minor Key)" - 4:15
4. "In the Dying Moments" - 6:41
5. "In Flagrante Delicto" - 7:31
6. "Alocasia Metallica" - 6:07
7. "Necropolis" - 5:29
8. "The Garden of Earthly Delights" - 3:18
9. "The Doctrine of Eternal Ice" - 4:25

My favourite tracks are: "In the Dying Moments", "In Flagrante Delicto", "Necropolis" and "The Garden of Earthly Delights". The album's lenght is 48 minutes and 10 seconds.
The song "In Flagrante Delicto" is marvelous and features angelic vocals, backed up by haunting and obscure dark ambient sounds.
You can get the album here.

As a preview to this album, try hearing "In Flagrante Delicto" below:

Burzum "Hlidskjalf"

This album was composed by Varg Vikernes, Burzum's frontman, while he was in prison due to: the murder of Euronymous, former guitarist of Mayhem; and the arson of several churches in Norway. It was released in 1999. He made this entire album only by using synths. It's marvelous, seriously...
The track list is the following:

1.	"Tuistos Herz" (Tuisto's Heart)	6:13
2.	"Der Tod Wuotans" (The Death of Wotan)	6:43
3.	"Ansuzgardaraiwô" (Warriors of Asgard)	4:28
4.	"Die Liebe Nerþus'" (Nerthus' Love)	2:14
5.	"Frijôs einsames Trauern" (The Lonesome Mourning of Frigg)	6:15
6.	"Einfühlungsvermögen" (The Power of Empathy)	3:55
7.	"Frijôs goldene Tränen" (Frigg's Golden Tears)	2:38
8.	"Der weinende Hadnur" (The Crying Höðr)	1:16

My favourite tracks are: "Ansuzgardaraiwô", "Der Tod Wuotans" and also "Frijôs goldene Tränen". The album's lenght is 33 minutes and 42 seconds. It was released on the label entitled Misanthropy.
The album can be downloaded here. This is a great album, one of the best dark ambient albums I've heard lately.

Below, as a preview, you can hear "Ansuzgardaraiwô":

Designer Drugs "Datamix 05"

Designer Drugs are a duo from New York. Their genre is electro. Recognized as one of the best upcoming electro groups, these guys make awesome remixes and fine tunes, teaching people a lesson about nightclubbing.
They recently produced a free compilation for all you electro fans and it's available for free on their myspace. It's called "Datamix 05".
You can download it here.

The duo, as you can see.

You can hear one of their best tracks "Zombies" right below this text:

[upcoming bands] Crisis

CRISIS are from Porto (in Portugal). Their music is somewhere in between hardcore and electro. Pure electro nihilism, it makes you want to rave until you're dead meat. Their members are: the Nihilist (vocals), Jack Diamond (vocals + noise instructor) and last, but not least, Anacobra (audiovisual machines). If you're into bands/musicians/artists like: Crystal Castles, The Prodigy, Kap Bambino, Ratatat, Gallows and Hot Cross, you'll seriously enjoy these people.
Their songs feature some stuff like: samples from a video of 12-year-old pre-teens talking about acid trips (a classic 60s video on youtube, Black Lips also sampled this stuff, haha), Nirvana samples, 8bit mixed tunes, hardcore vocals, kap bambino-ish vocals sometimes. Well, you guess that this seems to be a cool combo, that struggles and shows us that anger is also a different form of energy.
They'll release pretty soon their debut EP (so you better get focused on this band).
Check them out on their myspace here.