Brijačnica ’19 (Tvornica kulture, 15.03.2019.) or Sexagenarian (Punk) Rock
Valter svira Paraf (Rijeka)
A večer je tako lijepo počela. It started with brief and energetic warming up under command of 60 year old punk rocker Valter Kocijančić shouting the repertoire of the earliest Croatian punk-rock songbook (Živjela Jugoslavija, Goli otok, Visoki propisi, etc.) written by his 20 year old self. Original Paraf rhythm section could not join him for this senior gathering so he reassembled backing band of younger friends / colleagues from “the biggest hole in Juga” or the most beautiful (post-industrial) port town in Croatia: Rijeka. Something better change. For the better, please. Forza Fiume!
Pankrti (Ljubljana)
The classic line-up (early 1980s) of sexagenarian punk-rockers Pankrti dressed in black followed. They were recalling tempi passati with a grin. Good bad old times when they were often playing rock ‘n’ roll concerts, chasing girls and drinking beer all over Yugoslavia. Pankrti were great and delivered the goods (Lepi in prazni, Sedamnajst, Anarhist, Metka, etc.). Songs from overproduced albums “Državni ljubimci” (slightly) and “Sexpok” (overtly) sound so much better live, even today. Povera “Bandiera rossa” was echoing throughout Veliki pogon Tvornice kulture too. “Vogliamo fabbriche, vogliamo terra!! Ma senza guerra, ma senza guerra…”
Partibrejkers (Beograd)
Then followed injection of timeless rhythm & blues hits honed in Belgrade garages over the decades and spiced with Cane’s gospel. Partibrejkers have always been dear friends of Zagreb, so I suspect that most of the people in public last night came to see primarily them. Partibrejkers were excellent as well, no doubt about that. Anton is a beast of guitar player. Great performance and loyal response.
Trobecove krušne peći (Zagreb)
Trobecove krušne peći climbed the stage after midnight, post r’n’r climax. They were sax less, but not headless at all. Actually, last night they were surprisingly well-balanced and focused. TKP shepherd priests on fire! Purifying fire. Maybe their best show I ever saw. As impressive as KSET ’17, a gig in smaller jazz club space. Once again TKP demolished trad rock in front of the congregation of fans (aka “pastva”) & curious spectators that remained in half-emptied hall. Then they invited all present for the closing number of the long evening of entertainment: Badel Badel Tanz. A cool ending for a great night out. Đavo je bio vruć.
…
Nostalgia? No, no way. An occasion for (alive & kicking) celebration? Yes, for sure.
…
Long time ago, in the year 1985, all four of these groups (in one form or another) were playing concerts across the country and promoting recently issued albums or recorded material: Pankrti (“Pesmi sprave”), Partibrejkers (“Partibrejkers”), Trobecove krušne peći (“85” aka “S mukom žvaču trubadurov vrat”) & Paraf II (“Zastave”). 1985. Not a bad year at all. Cheers.
Spring. March Hare is out of his winter lair and on the streets again. Still aimlessly wandering all around Italia. Last month he was ruining his sensitive hearing in hard-core circles which resulted in today’s Declino / Peggio Punx split blogpost. It would be unfair to have a quick (super fast!) look back at Italia ’84 without mentioning phenomenon of local HC punk. I could have picked anarcho Milanesi Wretched and their seven inch EP “Finirá Mai?” that preceded excellent debut LP “Libero Di Vivere / Libero Di Morire”. Yeah, there were quite a lot of bands that managed to issue worthy plastic (in relative terms). Negazione were on the way to become the most popular name of them all, slowly building the European connections. While Raw Power were gigging across the pond in USA, etc. Ascoltate!
Peggio Punx – La città è quieta… ombre parlano (1984)
Guerra
Noia
Linea diritta
Solitudine
La mia vita
Credi di…
Declino – Declino (1984)
Rivolta e negazione
Scelte imposte
Mortale tristezza
Terra bruciata
Coscienza distruttiva
Nessuna fiducia
This blogpost would not be possible without the history lessons / source materials coming from metal-head Erich (defunct ‘Bad Good Music from Bad Bad Times’ blog) & rude boys of ‘Killed By Death’ old school punk site.
In our neck of the woods hard-core punk didn’t catch on so impressively. UK influenced Skölcould be worthy of passing mention when we speak about Zagreb. Not only early phase of the band but trajectory of the band leader Tomislav Peterlić Fix: Sköl – Blitzkrieg – Sköl II. Unfortunately Sköl didn’t leave behind qualitatively recorded material. HC punk was bigger deal in SR Slovenia & SR Serbia at the beginning of the decade.
From Italodisco to hard-core punk and back, I am off the middle path of purity and righteousness… The decline and fall.
Pop consumer confession again: I am not well versed in Diaframma’s work. It wasn’t destined for export, like Italian hard-core punk. Diaframma remained inside their homeland boundaries.
“Siberia” is recognized as capolavoro of Italian new wave / postpunk. Upon initial listening I wasn’t impressed but once I started to recognize signs of life underneath thin copertina of icy reverb the picture fell into place. Eight songs in half an hour, quite fitting for a Sunday afternoon indoors in allegedly depressive month of January. (Finally with some snow and chill in the air outside, as proper winter should bring. Where have all the seasons gone? You can have six months of fake summer. I want quatro stagioni back!) But as I said, “Siberia” isn’t immediate listening experience and an impulsive savage/naturalist in me wished for the rough mixes or 8-track garage recording of instrumental tracks. The studio recording gives aura of the group scattered across a large freezing empty space with the strongest echoes emanating from the singer. Synthscapes are very tasty but barely audible on few tracks. Bass slaps I dig, as usually. The leader in the band, prolific songwriter / guitarist (in later line-ups on vocals as well), Federico Fiumani, decided to suppress the rock ego and toned down the role of guitar in this arty stage of Diaframma. And although the songs gathered for their debut LP have wintry pace, the group energy captured on other recordings generally reveals lively and forward oriented shape-shifting dynamic. I wouldn’t say that Diaframma were bunch of depressed Italian youth thou. First and foremost, their main muse seems to have been Venus. Followed over the span of the decade, they can be valued as Italian contemporaries of Echo and The Bunnymen, The Cure, Simple Minds and The Wedding Present. I suspect that they were cherished on a local level. Early Diaframma shares some common ground with Pingvinovo potpalublje too. In mid 1980s their vocalist was very distinctive Miro Sassolini who gave Diaframma touch of romantic glamour. But for the purpose of “Siberia” even he was a bit down. (on songs like “Elena” or radio friendly “Tre volte lacrime” which followed after “Siberia”, he flies despite the heartache, and pulls the band higher off the ground). I will check other albums by Diaframma some day. I hope I won’t be disappointed by overtly populist moves. Diaframma = drama.
A bittersweet tribute to synth makeover and aural decline of The Stranglers. They couldn’t fall from grace anyhow.
Manifesto
Aural Sculpture Manifesto
Feline (1982-83)
It’s A Small World
All Roads Lead To Rome
Paradise
European Female
Savage Breast
Ships That Pass In The Night
Aural Sculpture (1983-85)
No Mercy
Here And There
Laughing
Let Me Down Easy
Souls
North Winds Blowing
…
Through the looking-glass, and what they found there…
Meninblack in USSR
Vladimir and Olga*
Vladimir and the Beast
Hot Club
Vladimir Goes to Havana
*The strange circumstances which lead to Vladimir and Olga requesting rehabilitation in a Siberian health resort as a result of stress in furthering The People’s Policies
…
Summer of ’78 – The Stranglers in Ljubljana & Zagreb
Sunday morning in a commune house in the outskirts of Reggio Emilia with communist art-punks CCCP-Fedeli alla linea. Listening to Italian punk filosovietici. Drinking black coffee and daydreaming in gray.
CCCP-Fedeli alla linea
CCCP-Fedeli Alla Linea – Ortodossia II° (12″) Attack Punk Records 1985
Live In Pankow
Mi Ami?
Spara Jurij
Punk Islam
I like this red 12” and all CCCP-Fedeli alla linea records that I’ve heard so far. “Ortodossia II°” is thrilling art-punk achievement, recommended for all lost cases who dig rhythm machine postpunk in the frontlines, side by side with The Three Johns, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and Italo-American band Grande Nero among the other comrades. I wasn’t aware of CCCP-Fedeli alla linea existence back in the 1980s. Their music wasn’t spread on tapes and listened in my hometown. Perhaps few copies of original LPs still could be found in record collections of older punks from Ljubljana, Pula or Rijeka. As a side note, in 1984 the same small label Attack Punk Records issued hard-core punk EP “Corpus Delicti” by U.B.R. from Ljubljana and made it part of international HC community even more.
Live in Mosca, live in Budapest
Live in Varsavia
Live in Praga, live in Sofia
Live in Pankow
Haupstadt der D.D.R
Haupstadt der D.D.R
Haupstadt der D.D.R
Compagni est-europei
Uno sforzo ancora
Dalle sale da ballo
Un po’ più che di merda
Un’opinione pubblica
Un poco meno stupida
Dalle sale da ballo
Un po’ più che di merda
Voglio rifugiarmi
Sotto il piano di Varsavia
Voglio un piano quinquennale
La stabilità
Live in Mosca, live in Budapest
Live in Varsavia
Live in Praga, live in Sofia
Live in Pankow
Ost Berlin, West Berlin
Ost Berlin, West Berlin
Ost Berlin, West Berlin
Ost Berlin, West Berlin
Trance Europa express
Trance Europa express
Trance Europa express
Trance Europa express
Qua e di là dal muro
L’Europa è persa e in trance
In Alexander-Platz come
In piazza del Duomo
Europa persa in trance ultimamente
I miei amici anche
I miei amici anche
Sotto la N.A.T.O. e il patto di Varsavia
Provate a rifugiarvi
Sotto il Patto di Varsavia
Con un piano quinquennale
La stabilità
Live in Mosca, live in Budapest
Live in Varsavia
Live in Praga, live in Sofia
Live in Pankow
Hauptstadt der D.D.R
Un pezzo di Berlino
Hauptstadt der D.D.R
Un pezzo di Berlino
Live in Punkow
I am glad that there isn’t a line “live in Belgrado”. I did appreciate having a passport. At the age of 16 I could hop on a bus and go to Trieste (window) shopping for records without problems. In addition to that, I am thankful for all the modest products of Socialism available at home – licensed new wave and punk rock albums from US/UK major labels which were generally well pressed by Jugoton label. Those days I’d look in any direction but cold and frightening north-east. Today: Voglio un piano quinquennale. La stabilità. Trance Europa indeed. Tanz debil / ganz debil.
Saturday night in a discotheque in Bologna, Italia.
Italo Disco d/evolution of Gaznevada? Non mi frega niente. Mi piacciono i sintetizzatori italiani.
Psicopatico Party (1983) Italian Records
Whispers
Fashion Crime
I.C. Love Affair
A. Perkins
Psicopatico Party
Sick Soundtrack (1980) Italian Records
An important New Wave recording for Bella Italia, I’d say (as a casual retro listener / onlooker). There is only one cardinal sin – Gaznevada gave up on the mother tongue entirely on their debut album which leaves me a bit heartbroken everytime I listen to “Sick Soundtrack”. During the time of finding their own voce dadaistico, the band were trying out new sounds arriving from USA so one can hear traces of Devo, Talking Heads, Ramones, James Chance & The Contortions, Blondie etc.
Going Underground
Shock Antistatico
Pordenone UFO Attack
Japanese Girl
Now I Want To Kill You
Nevadagaz / Blue TV Set (1980)
A great single.
Blue TV Set
Gaznevada (1979) Harpo’s Music (tape)
The opening number “Everybody Enjoy The Reggae Music” could be an obstacle because they couldn’t pull off white reggae nor make fun of it properly. It’s simply a warming up track for wild Gaznevada ride. Dada punk-rock bolognese presented on this tape was already quite competent. Plus Gaznevada here sang in Italian, la lingua di popolo!
Until “La voce del padrone” Franco Battiato was an eccentric solo artist surrounded with il rock progressivo di Italia. Superior Viaduct recently re-issued his early art-rock / avant-garde albums. Invece, “La voce del padrone” is pure synth pop bliss for all people.
Maybe it’s worth mentioning that I got acquainted with the art work of Dino Buzzati in 2018. That was a very nice discovery.
Although I rarely read non-fiction I can easily recommend three books which are not products of imagination entirely. All of them are about the future, more or less.
I’ll derail my thoughts once again and leave (bombastic) introduction to Nomeansno. (hopefully happily pensioned somewhere in Canada)
Nomeansno were premier foreign band on Zagreb’s punk-rock club circuit for more than 20 years, beloved by younger and respected by older generations interested in heritage (or evolution) of punk-rock music. I may be wrong but the first time the band ventured in this inflamed appendix of Europe was in 1988. They played at student campus of University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). Then the next year it was again concert in Ljubljana, followed by their first concert in Zagreb in 1990. Nomeansno returned very soon after the war and started long-lasting friendly relationship with the most important independent music promoters in Zagreb: “Žedno uho”. Without “Žedno uho” enthusiasts the 1990s and the 2000s night-life and rock entertainment in Zagreb would have been less exciting.
Fatalism in modern / postmodern rock music is also present in work of two other great bands from West Coast of North America: Wipers & Unwound; both of them more inward-oriented and less resilient to outside world than very robust Nomeansno. (Who were the premiere fatalists then? Joy Division?)
“New Dark Age” by James Bridle
The subjects that James Bridle covered in his scary collection of essays are familiar. However, since the great acceleration there isn’t enough time left to think about, deal with, and adapt to… the consequences of technological development on present times and the future. Recommended.
“Mars by 1980” by David Stubbs
I love story telling and this is a story of electronic music. I enjoyed “Mars by 1980” very much. As much as Simon Reynolds’ “Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984”. Recommended.
All the way up to year 1980 (Part II and Part III) I can agree with Mr. Stubbs on the subject matter easily, but from the year 1980 onward we definitely hear things differently. After all, electronic music is field of his love and expertise. He was already on the electronic highway, full speed into digital domain when I barely started listening to pop and rock music. As a young listener I was quickly lured on the narrow path of seemingly dying rock music pushed back in the small clubs and garage spaces.
( The Membranes, unsung protagonists of the 1980s, hated trad rock so much they called their music noise pop)
Therefore, contemporary rock music was revealed to me with its ugliest apparition, during the final phase (raging dying animal) of the cycle, which was also its re-birth: noise rock of the 1980s.
White glitch
A white glitch there
Pluto interruptus
A sonorous flare
Black shape
A black shape
There are undeveloped holes
In returned glare
Thought we were looking at stars
When in fact we’re seeing noise
The sky scanner’s coffee marked panel
Gets the brunt of it again
Misread
Mistook that song
Gathered my facts
And read happily wrong
Screaming
Imperfectly bored
Reversing ejaculation like
“AAAAHHHHHH”
Thought we were looking at noise
When in fact we’re seeing the stars
Atop the coffee marked panel
(Thought we were looking at noise, when in fact…)
I’ll show you my endzone dance
(Thought we were looking at noise, when in fact…)
Turn up that stare I’ll take off my shoes & shake it
(Thought we were looking at noise, when in fact…)
Noise/Star (Sing the Troubled Beast, 1990) by Bastro
Then happened Nirvana. The mid-1990s were already beginning of the post-rock age.
It’s obvious that I like or even love various types of pop music from the 1980s but I could never enjoy sound aesthetic of all those bombastic Frankie Goes to Hollywood steroid hits from Trevor Horn / Paul Morley POP manufacture or grasp importance of Scritti Politti II meta synth-pop (if I could not fancy repulsive sound gloss in the first place). There’s nothing there but the context, the essence fully subordinated to form. All the blood and phlegm from Suicide’s second studio album were washed down the drain by the middle of decade and pure synthetic universe opened up.
In the chapters over the closing part (Part IV) of the book I was reading about music I’ve had limited exposure to or never listened to consciously / intently (house, techno and other more recent club music variations which usually don’t move me one inch). I know very little about vanguard electronic music described in the opening chapters (Part I) as well.
Actually, I would like to hear all these pioneering works of electronic music that were recorded up to mid-1960s. I believe I could find moving music inside various strains of digital electronic music too but due to overflow there’s no space left for it.
“Future Days” by David Stubbs
(Future in the Past)
The third book is an overview of “Krautrock” which I enjoyed great deal in the fall of this year. It’s a perfect companion for superb rock and pop music from Germany. The themes from great European cities: München – Köln – Düsseldorf – Hamburg – Berlin. Recommended.
In parallel with reading I was revisiting stuff accumulated over the years, following the chapters in the book. In the end the whole month of October ’18 was dedicated to German music.
While Krautrock bands were sound-tracking Modern Germany in the very late 1960s and 1970s, many a gastarbeiter parent from Yugoslavia, amongst other work seeking immigrants, were taking part in the building of Modern Germany. Indirectly they were modernizing Yugoslavia with shiny elaborate products of capitalism too. Kebabträume! The new wave of economical emigration is here again.
Here is a list of all the albums issued in 2018 which I’ve managed to listen to carefully. No ranking applied. Albums are listed chronologically, as they were dropping in my digital folder through illegal channels during the year. Don’t worry, I’ve already purchased few vinyls (some of them colored edition, all of them more or less warped & often pressed off-center using vinyl raw material of questionable quality). I bought one of them even on CD! Actually I would have bought most of them on CD for less money if it weren’t for loud / heavily compressed mastering with crushed dynamics (which for some reason, unfathomable to me, has been happening in the usually more reasonable and less trendy independent sector all these years as well). What a shame.
Superchunk – What a Time to Be Alive
Yeah, me too. What a time to be alive! Any time. Short and swift barrage of concise pop-rock songs bordering on punk-rock from a super band whose albums I don’t like that much (exceptions would be their not-really-appreciated “college rock” issues: “Indoor Living” and “Come Pick Me Up” & lovely collections of early singles, b-sides and throwaway tracks). Reagan Youth! Thatcher Youth. Tito Youth. OK, in case of ex-YU the political icon wasn’t alive anymore. The youth of YU (at least some of them) were haunted by Tito’s ghost, annoying mythology of failed Communism and uncertain future.
What a Time to Be Alive
Break the Glass
Reagan Youth
Hot Snakes – Jericho Sirens
“Jericho Sirens” is a great return album by a veteran band in a long line of excellent return albums by veteran bands that happened this year. What can I say, judging on the level of kinetic energy only, these old dudes probably don’t need sports to stay fit. When it comes to guitar sound, I still love to hear guitar strings and manic strumming a bit more than powerful heavy metal riffing. Hot Snakes are experts in that field. Yahweh is angry. The sirens are giving off loud sound alarm and I don’t hear it. It’s clear that I need a doctor too.
I Need a Doctor
Jericho Sirens
Death of a Sportsman
The Breeders – All Nerve
Here‘s another very nice band that never spoke to me on a personal level. I liked “Pod” when it came out and it still holds very well. That’s it. Hence I approached The Breeders’ new album as an accidental listener, without great expectations. I am glad I gave them a chance in the end. A couple of unconventional pop rock songs from “All Nerve” can really tranquilize raw nerves. There is also a cover version of “Archangels Thunderbird” from the early psychedelic repertoire of drugged-out Amon Düüll II. Geil!
All Nerve
Walking With a Killer
Dawn: Making an Effort
And there is also one song that I’ll dedicate to all the ghosts of this website:
MetaGoth
Preoccupations – New Material
Being preoccupied with the past isn’t good for mental health. Neither is headless rushing into the future which has been approaching the speed of light in recent times. Fuck off, future! Disarray. Disarray. Disarray. Preoccupations dropped their original band name “Viet Cong” just like that (principle of non-attachment to win over tiresome political correctness?), adopted a new moniker and moved on. “New Material” turned out to be upgrade on previous self-titled record & a well-rounded album with lots of angular guitar playing. They have finally won me over.
Espionage
Disarray
Antidote
Solace
The Ex – 27 Passports
For my quasi review of The Ex’s new album see the blogpost from merry month of May. I didn’t mention Andy Ex (ex Dog Faced Hermans; a great band, by the way) in there so here is an appreciation for his furious guitar playing and persistent activity. Cheers Andy.
The Messthetics – The Messthetics
“The Messthetics” is instrumental jazz-rock album that SST record label could have put out in 1987. Expertly played and nicely recorded by DC senior punk-rockers. I mean the rhythm section comes from Fugazi. However, spotlight is on lead guitarist Anthony Pirog who proved that vocals and words are not always needed. No mess to be found on this pedantic album. I’ve always loved surprises from Dischord.
Mythomania
Serpent Tongue
The Inner Ocean
Once Upon a Time (Sonny Sharrock)
Sleep – The Sciences
Sleep woke up from marijuana induced coma, went into studio with their new drummer and old friend from Neurosis, and recorded a new gatefold album using tube technology from the mid 1970s, those orange & brown seventies of my childhood. And it worked out!
Sonic Titan
Giza Butler
The Botanist
E – Negative Work
“Negative Work” is as good as E’s exceptional debut issued less than two years ago. The songwriting angle didn’t change one bit because there was no reason for it. E are fit and working. It surprises me that I still don’t miss bass guitar. But I missed reportedly great show in Zagreb last summer, played for two dozen people in audience.
The Projectionist
A House Inside
Cannibal Chatroom
The Chills – Snow Bound
Martin Phillipps’s music channeled through unstable and unlucky The Chills will always be welcomed here. On “Snow Bound” his soul-searching is matched with baroque style of songwriting. Due to slightly more complex and ornate use of keyboards, the album can sound stodgy, especially when moodiness takes over me. In that frame of mind “Snow Bound” reminds me of an album by a prog-rock band on the New Wave bandwagon or maybe of a tribute to Split Enz clowns circa ’78. Living ain’t easy. Thank God I like keyboards a lot.
The Greatest Guide
Complex
Deep Belief
Gnod – Chapel Perilous
“Chapel Perilous” is one more noise-rock album that underwent subtle dub sound treatment by Gnod. Clattering train of trebly sound on the collision course with near future is deafening. It hits hard. All the noiseniks of this world should get it. Turn it up, mate!
Donovan’s Daughters
Europa
Uncle Frank Says Turn It Down
Low – Double Negative
For a triple negative person like me, who stopped following Low releases religiously after “Trust”, “Double Negative” comes like a surprise. OK, I heard “Drums & Guns” in passing, nudged by friends on more than a few occasions. I recalled it while I was listening to “Double Negative” because they seem to be cut from the similar cloth. So, what is then confusing about new Low album? (Watch out! Here I go again.) Filling up empty space with post-production effects to compensate for shortage of fully developed new songs? “Flowers of Romance” syndrome turned into modus operandi? Is this album really Low’s crown achievement? Actually I appreciate changes that Low undertook after “Trust” to move on, straying away from the trodden path of righteousness and opting for variations in sound production since the drastic changes in songwriting are almost impossible. For what is worth, the new approach brought unpleasant side effects too. It truly bugs me to hear a couple of really beautiful songs ruined on purpose with dubious choice aesthetic that mimics recent trends in POP production. (= digital rubbish bin effects: sound of deteriorated diskettes, hard disks with burnt sections, scratched skipping CDs infested with CD rot, glitches all over FLAC downloads, bitcrusher, etc. ) Well, it isn’t like Jamaican dub studio treatment from the 1970s which will always sound otherworldly. Electronic demolishing of rhythm tracks on “Double Negative” sounds cheap and ugly to a pair of average rock ears but probably that was the point, to connect Low and something desperately modern like… Burial. (pardon my ignorance of digital electronic music, my capacity for consuming is limited). On the other hand, those minimal songs without distorted beat / percussion in the background, which hover and chime in the darkest digital chasm, are arresting. Lurid too. “Double Negative” is saved by pop-art context of imminent decay. Sound imprint of a degenerative brain disease.
Always Up
The Son, The Sun
Dancing and Fire
Disarray
Viagra Boys – Street Worms
Thanks, The Quietus! A very good pick indeed. Viagra Boys, Swedish “scum” rock group of sorts, play post-punk influenced garage-rock with sax whose filthy echoes and mocking blare won’t reach clean-shaven and respected high cultured Swedish society but they do resonate well over here, in ex lumpenproletariat areas. Since I don’t dig death / black metal (corpses), this entertaining Swedish import of another kind will suffice for the sake of global balance. Slow learner, he is relaxed.
Down in the Basement
Slow Learner
Just Like You
The Body – I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer
Is The Body’s music metal? Not quite, but certainly it is HEAVY. “I Have Fought Against It…” has some things in common with Low’s “Double Negative” as well. “Digital garbage” sound effects have been integral part of The Body’s work of art for some time now, perhaps even from their earliest days. Truth be told, I am not very familiar with their prolific output. On several occasions I stumbled upon a very moving recording from their already broad discography. Listening to The Body can be healing experience when applied in moderate doses. Audio homeopathy of sorts. I was deeply impressed with “I Shall Die Here” few years ago. If Low circle in limbo like moths, then these two guys reside in a truly hellish place on Earth.
Partly Alive
The West Has Failed
The Last Form of Loving
High On Fire – Electric Messiah
Yet another return to form. High On Fire are not flogging tired horse on “Electric Messiah”. They are indeed on fire with malocchio gestures high in the air. Not all the songs are precious enough to be included on double LP, in my humble opinion, and better impression would give regular album length. In other words, I am too feeble to endure this merciless album in one listening session. HOF’s Thanatos force tramples over my Pathos. The sound formula accomplished together with Converge’s guitarist seems to be optimal solution for forward motion of High On Fire’s style of metal. But I will always return to the odd one produced by Jack Endino – “Death Is This Communion” – a firm favorite to this very day.
Spewn From the Earth
The Pallid Mask
Steps of the Ziggurat / House of Enlil
Drowning Dog
Mudhoney – Digital Garbage
“Digital Garbage” is kinda funny and sad trad rock album. It’s easier to deal with this world reading comics and listening to rock music. Digital garbage will ruin my hearing and my mind. Corporate garbage will mess with my source of income and affect my material existence. Here comes Mudhoney. (I missed the show in November)
Prosperity Gospel
Paranoid Core
Nerve Attack
Next Mass Extinction
Portal – Ion
The trap-door that leads to big black nothingness has been unchained by Portal for almost a decade now. Just like the things in life that come when (and where) least expected, the key moment of entering a parallel universe didn’t happen in a cottage in wooded Nordic hinterlands but down under, in sun-scorched Australia. Portal’s audacious art-rock take on death metal / black metal pummeling is so good and weird that some artfags (including me) might try to claim them from metal hordes.
ESP ION AGE
Crone
Phantom
Spores
Šumski – Ostrvo ledenog kita
Izvrstan povratnički album grupe Šumski za sve fanove iz Zagreba, Hrvatske, šire jugoistočne regije te za ponekog slučajnog međunarodnog slušatelja. Šumski se ipak nisu zgubili. Vrnuli su se jači i profinjeniji nego ikad prije. Sveprisutni zagrebački gitarist Franjo Glušac je novi član.
Javor
Jednog dana
Prijatelji se sele na selo
A note for an intrigued foreign visitor:
Ostrvo ledenog kita, the long awaited new album from the incredible Šumski is out now! Described as a kaleidoscopic blend of kraut, pop, afro, psycho and comic-strip sounds from the heart of the Balkans. Check it out!
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – King Of Cowards
Over three decades of listening I’ve heard more than enough rock music based on Ramones template (updated mid-1960s US garage-rock). I am still not bored or fed up with sudden surge of bands that took Black Sabbath as a role model (but I might be soon). I am not sorry that nothing seems new or original anymore. I don’t care. Malevolent Sabbath spirit cannot be exorcised easily.
GNT
Thumbsucker
Gloamer
The Sea and Cake – Any Day
The sea (Adriatic Sea!) and cake (with less sugar, please!) for me any day. (hmmm, maybe not at the peak summer season and during winter months). I can see it clearly in my mind’s eye – a cup of good quality coffee while sitting at peace on a terrace in the sun overlooking the secluded inlet & enjoying autistic American blue-eyed soul songs by jazz-pop group The Sea and Cake. Perfect background for leisure and drifting off… Cluttered storage space I am going to leave behind… I will. It’s gonna be escapism par excellence. Any day now. Ciao.
