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Abrasively industrial, only to evolve into a cathartic chant backed by an electronic pulse, Pure Reason Revolution’s newest record begins with a bang. “Fight Fire With Fire” is what every PRR fan had hoped for as a follow up to Amor Vincit Omnia. Chloe Alper’s vocals punch through the carefully laid plain made by guitars and synthesizer. Her defiance is palpable. It is a fitting start to what will be, without a doubt, the turning point for this band, as they break for good with their respectable, prog-rock origins. They took a new route with last year’s album and took a small amount of criticism for it as well. However, the fans they won over seem to have encouraged them to forge even further into this electro-industrial territory. The glorious result, Hammer and Anvil, due out October 18 in Europe and October 25 here in North America, is even wider in scope and purpose than its predecessor.
This is an immense sounding album. Layer upon layer of guitar and keyboard and vocals play out loudly. Don’t fear that this is all studio magic either. Their live show is reported to be just as convincing and powerful as what I’ve got streaming into my headphones. But hear for yourself, “Black Mourning,” which you can have for the cost of a tweet or facebook post, features Johnathan Courtney’s characteristically detached vocals, accompanied by Chloe’s dreamy backing and a sweeping instrumentation. “Patriarch” exemplifies what PRR does particularly well; they have perfected the balance between moments of quiet, harmonized, space and intense, multi-layered blocks of sound (set to a dance-able beat, thanks to Paul Glover on drums and Chloe’s always funky bass.) Even in those soft, sweet moments, dancing is completely feasible. Hammer and Anvil brings a really big story forward; a story of war and defeat and trust and love. And appropriately, it sounds just that big. Jamie Willcox’s guitar lines saw and soar into the air as vocals end on harsh words. Keys are struck with intention as the buzzing and soaring begins again and the song swirls together into a mass of humming noise. “Valour” is another song of this type, these four people sound as if an entire chorus is singing eight or ten parts.
If, like me, you fell in love with this band through their last album, through their songs about love and desire, don’t fear. Hammer and Anvil’s “Never Divide” is more than enough to satisfy any lover of love songs. With it’s epic chorus, this is a song that could have easily been included on Amor Vincint Omnia. It fits here perfectly, making me wonder if Hammer and Anvil should be considered more as AVO part II? Immediately I’m struck in the face with the answer, “no,” as track eight begins, “Blitzkreig” a pastiche of sound bites and music in the vein of The Thrill Kill Kult. We are firmly in industrial house music territory here, and Pure Reason Revolution are making themselves at home. It’s a good place to be.
I hope listeners hear how much Pure Reason Revolution have incorporated the best of more than a few genres into their sound and made a thing of their own. Their press release lists such diverse influences as ELO, the Smashing Pumpkins, The Beach Boys, Soulwax and Depeche Mode. I’ve given you bands like The Thrill Kill Kult and should add Ayria and Jesus on Extasy to your homework. Familiarize yourself with some of this musical history and see how THIS band has taken the genre further, into more melodic, more musically complex and lyrically meaningful ground. Hammer and Anvil, as a whole package, will be the prod that American audiences need to shake them out of their unfamiliarity of Pure Reason Revolution and its history of incredible talent. Pre-0rder it now! Get this band to us now! xoxo
Oh my are we getting snow here or what? Lots of it is falling, more on the way and I’m out in it all day today, ugh. So, comfort yourselves in the knowledge that you work in cozy little office cubicles or at home, you lucky little drones. I’ve been slaving away on a mixtape which you will soon find over on the pages of Slowcoustic, a fantastic blog by the wonderful Sandy! So, I’m exhausted and not entirely ready for all this nasty weather, but I’m still thinking of you, darlings and thank you for stopping by! And enjoy this grab bag of SNOW tunes, with love, from the Tart, it’s not often I dig into my crazy and vast music collection for you, xoxo ….
(click on the album titles to purchase them and support these artists!)
Let It Snow (Bit Shifter on Gameboy) mp3 by the 8bitpeoples from 8bits of Christmas it’s free! I love, love, love chiptune, blip blop, whatever you want to call it and this little gem is from a few years ago. I was ecstatic to see that they have performed with one of my favorite bands, The Depreciation Guild who use the Famicom in their music to great effect.
Snowmen Have Hearts mp3 Provo/Howl, from Suburban Sprawl Xmas #5, their free holiday compilation! This is by Provo/Howl, which as far as I can tell isn’t a band as much as it is Julian from Javelins, an indie band out of Detroit. I love this experimental/noise/ambient song.
You know the routine by now… The Contrast Podcast, the weekly hotspot wherein bloggers and other internet whackjobs (haha good pun for this week, eh?) record personal introductions to songs on a predetermined theme. The theme of the week is “self-love” and you know I had to contribute But why be obvious, eh? I took it as an opportunity to subject you all to some real industrial music, not the commercial stuff that it’s become, but the original industrial music, the source if you will. So here is Throbbing Gristle, from 1975 on the subject of masturbation, “Five Knuckle Shuffle” and take it easy, ok? It’s six minutes long, don’t go hurting yourselves. xoxo
Go here to listen to the podcast and hear the awesome and often funny introductions to songs about masturbation, including mine.
picture blatantly stolen from Tim Young’s filthy mind/site
Damn, I missed another new release! Did you know the Tart has a special place in her heart for industrial, dark, gothic rock? Yes, as much as I love sweet gooey love songs, I really need a jolt of this on a regular basis. Legion Within is just the shot we all need in times like these. Their fourth album, Mouth of Madness came out on June 16 and I’m listening to it now with great curiosity. Give “Mouth Of Madness” a listen; be drawn into their synthy goodness, their bleak, dramatic vocals.
This is a band that wears their influences on their sleeve. You can hear David Bowie, Bauhaus, Gary Numan, Love & Rockets, The Chameleons, Brian Eno, and Pink Floyd in these songs. Yet none mirror any particular influence. William Wilson, the creative force behind the lyrics of Mouth of Madness, gives these songs a darkly political immediacy, fitting for the recent economic downturn and resulting collective despair. The band’s bio describes him as “graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a double major in Political Science and Film/Media Studies. The double major was borne from his inability to escape awareness of the manipulation and control via The Media that feeds into political corruption and oppression. Wilson expresses these frustrations and passions fluidly thru Legion Within’s music.” Indeed, these are not pointless lyrics, though they might be a bit tongue in cheek.
Mall Cops of Freedom
Take off your shoes, step right this way
There’s no need to panic, just be very afraid
We are the knee-jerk Gestapo, too little too late
We are the window dressing for your Draconian state
We are the Mall Cops of Freedom, so do as we say
We are here to protect you, you are here to obey
The airport Stasis, the TSA
We are the hall monitors for the USA
With 10 tracks, Legion Within presents a variety of tracks on Mouth of Madness within which to lose yourself on a cool, dark evening. “Memories of You” is perhaps, my favorite song. It blends soaring synthesized sound with Wilson’s droning, deep voice into a velvety love song. Yeah, I guess even with my self-confessed need to escape them, I can’t tear myself away from love songs. But it’s really “Mall Cops of Freedom” that catches my attention with it’s quasi-rockabilly riffs and that smooth deep voice delivering biting sarcasm in a perfectly Cruella De Vil way. Opening track, “Someone’s Speaking” will find its way onto dancefloors this year, no doubt. It’s everything there is to love about techno/goth music.
Five Knuckle Shuffle
Throbbing Gristle are not a band. They are a force of interruption to your consciousness. They also happen to be the grandparents of Industrial music, which if you are playing the above track* while reading this review you will understand to be either a lot of noise or the genius merging of the sounds of industry/factories and non-chordal music without traditional boundaries. Now of course today’s industrial music is more melodic than much of this, but it owes a debt of gratitude to Throbbing Gristle. *(The picture on the left is from the single, released in 1979, the tag on the mp3 above is from D.o.A. The Third And Final Report released in 1991, and that is track 14, accredited to be from that 1979 single)
Last night I experienced the reunion of this force, I’m still a little shell-shocked, I’ll admit. so please go over here to this review…. it so accurately sums up the visceral experience, right down to the flutter of loose clothing that the reverberations of noise caused from the tremendous sound emitted by this band. Loud does not begin to describe the thing I felt.
But loud was not all. This is what it was like when Genesis P-Orridge wasn’t singing/chanting/reciting. Only you have to imagine that you’re standing in the large, moving crowd and you can’t really see them doing this (and had been standing for 4+ hours, already through the first part of the show – a viewing of Derek Jarman’s 60min alchemical film ‘In The Shadow of The Sun’ with live soundtrack performed by the band and an hour and a half break.) You feel them doing this and it’s art and it’s an experience and it’s something you don’t understand, but you think you might want to. And this song is 7 minutes long.
Most blog reports bitch and complain about how it wasn’t a “concert,” meaning that you couldn’t dance all the way through, that the security worked the crowd aggressively, that the house lights were blazing bright throughout the show and that killed their buzz. Throbbing Gristle aren’t in the show business business as Genesis declared when a man in the audience yelled loudly “turn the fucking lights down.” This was always about making a statement that said the current music scene, the entertainment industry of music was the enemy.
Lots of people last night got that, knew that, were there for that. It was a memorable experience, I don’t think I will ever be affected by music in that way again. Even with earplugs (very necessary, believe me) the incredible force of sound produced and the intentional barrage of confusion of it all was depleting and twisted. That’s not to say that it was all chaotic, many parts were rhythmic and very melodic, and had the room dancing and sweaty. Cosey Fanni-Tutti, on a very hyped up guitar slid and plucked and yes, made it screech at times throughout.
Towards the end, Genesis approached the microphone, pulled up the sleeve of his right arm and kissed the tattoo on the inside of it. I knew immediately that this would be his new song, “Almost A Kiss,” an homage to his recently departed wife and it had me standing still for the first time that night, tears streaming down my cheeks. I was not alone in this reaction. As with all of the US shows I’ve heard about, Throbbing Gristle ended with an amazing performance of “Discipline” and then grasped hands, took a bow and left the stage. The night was over, and the ending was simply perfect in it’s simplicity.
I leave you with this statement by Industrial Records, the DIY label founded in 1978 by Throbbing Gristle. It’s thought provoking and something I want to return to and dissect, but you can’t hear their “music” without knowing this theory behind it.
So this DJ I met gave me a CD of some House music he plays. He doesn’t mix himself, but he’s made a great compilation of about an hour of music he plays at the club where he has a regular gig every week. I’m flattered that he’d think I’d be interested after a few conversations about music, as you all know what a dilletantte I am. I guess I bluffed bullshitted delved into my limited knowledge of House music enough to make him think I’d appreciate it. And I do, it’s cool stuff! I was honest with him about how my real love is in industrial music, and told him about Ayria, whose latest album was in my top 10 for 2008. Clearly a reciprocal mix tap is necessary.
Well making a mix tape is addictive. (ok, it’s a CD but “mix CD” just doesn’t trip off the tongue does it?) You really want to share it. With everyone. Thank god I’ve got a blog or I’d be foisting it on all my friends and the cute girl who works down at the corner coffee shop and that adorable butcher at Costco who keeps flirting with me. What is it about butchers? They all love me, honest. Something about raw meat and me….
Anyway, here’s my “Ayria and Stuff” mix, enjoy! …. oh and these won’t be up here long, go buy these great albums and support the artists.
(and my DJ friend, if you find this post and put two and two together I trust you to keep my identity secret as I will yours, xx)
Love ThrillsXymox Headclouds CuttingAyria Flicker The Gun SongAyria Hearts For Bullets – (go stream it on allmusic.com) Suck It UpAyria Hearts For Bullets – (go stream it on allmusic.com) Queen B (Narcovice Mix)Puscifer V is for Viagra – The Remixes Post Apocalyptic Girl Ayria Flicker (CD2) ShiftAyria Debris FLooRi.D.A. (Three A. M.’s A Dub For Strangeways) Rabbit In The MoonFLooRi.D.A. Just Another Long Shot (Glis Mix – Epsilon Minus)Ayria Hearts For Bullets It’s Your LifeXymox Headclouds
Whooo do I have two fun tracks for you today! One of my regular readers, Paul, has been emailing with me for a bit and today he made a request for this song on the blog. It’s such a nice feeling to be asked, thanks! And I accepted right away thinking I must have this song. I’m a huge fan of My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult (TKK). Alas, no. However, Puppet Show came through for us, I knew he’d have it and sure enough… he not only produced it from his vaults, but also another special dance track as well. He’s a huge Tori Amos fan and this, my dears, is a promo-only track, a mix by Andy Gray that he’s been sitting on for quite a while. So enjoy it! Read about it here. It’s got a super long intro and then some voice overs by Tori, not exactly singing, and it’s chock full of outtakes from her songs. If you’re a fan, you’ll dig it. If not, enjoy the goofy goodness of TKK’s “Devil Bunnies.” And remember, “I’ll give you a tune up you’ll never forget!”
Devil Bunnies mp3 My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Kooler Than Jesus….. buy it
Let’s Do It Again mp3 Tori Amos vs. Andy Gray, Lets Do It Again (12″, Promo)
pssst, that first picture is a flyer from my local hangout when I was in my twenties, a great dance club called Berlin. I’ve no idea when it’s from, but we all danced there, gay, straight, bi, whatever, and as far as I know everyone still does even after all these years.
Here’s my year end list… of my faves, and it’s just that dear readers. You’ll find an eclectic mix here, what else should you expect from a musical dilettante? It reflects my love of three major genres; indie/pop, folk, punk/industrial. All of them are on heavy rotation here at chez Tart and please do go out and support these artists! I have many, many bloggers to thank for turning me on to these fine artists, you all know who you are, xoxoxo!
Meursault Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing with Tongues. I reviewed this amazing Indie album recently here, find two tracks to listen to and support this great band put out by Song by Toad records.
The Duke SpiritNeptune. A review of their gig is here but this album has proved to be worthy of play after play. Hard hitting indie rock, with lead singer Leila Moss’ beautiful throaty vocals, and a great band, I can’t say enough about this group. This Ship Was Built To Last mp3 Buy it here.
Trapt Only Through The Pain. Mainstream industrial/alternative rock, anticipated here. Curiosity Kills mp3 What can I say? When you love a certain sound you don’t need a reason why. I’m hooked on Trapt. Buy it here.
Samantha Crain The Confiscation EP . I saw her live after falling for her folk-inspired voice on this EP, she’s even better than I hoped. Completley amazing and coming out with a new album in 2009 – someone to watch for, people! Unique and beautiful, you must listen to this. The River mp3 Buy it here.
Arizona Glowing Bird. Reviewed here with mp3 to listen to as well. All indie, sound of an angel, organically flowing creative band that scratches that itch you never knew you even had. Buy it here.
Sigur RosMed Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust. This should be on everyone’s list, completely unique and there’s no reason at all why I should like this but I absolutely do adore it very much! Góðan daginn mp3 I usually describe this kind of music as “movie music” but with an indie twist.
Frightened RabbitThe Midnight Organ Fight. Old Old Fashioned mp3This album has been on constant rotation, I mean constant. It’s so Scottish, so danceable, so alternative/indie and the sound is just so right for 2008. Buy it here.
The Loved OnesBuild and Burn. This is another anticipated album for me. I loved the Loved Ones raw melodic punk sound. They reminded me of old skool punk, back when punk bands didn’t sing so damn fast and in that awful growly way that you couldn’t understand the words, remember? These kids whine about love and being broke and life in the general punk way that we all felt when we were young. I really love this album and just couldn’t keep it off my top ten even if it’s not the greatest punk music of all time. I Swear mp3 Buy it here.
Lightspeed ChampionFalling Off The Lavender Bridge. This guy’s voice just KILLS me… it’s unique, it’s full of locality, his songs are angsty, humours, gutsy and instantaneously recongnizable. Listen to Lightspeed Champion’s indie/freak/folk style and you’ll agree with me, I swear. Let The Bitches Die mp3 Buy it here.
Robin GreyI Love Leonard Cohen EP. I’m way behind in my review of this EP of a wonderful folk singer who I found on a blog nearby. He’s a Leonard Cohen fan, has a beautiful voice, and well… check back soon for more of why I love this record! I Love Leonard Cohen mp3and you can download the EP on Jamendo … maybe give Mr. Grey a donation there too, eh?
The Poison Arrows Casual Wave EP. Reviewed their gig here, as they opened for Holy Fuck. I’ve listened to this moody, dark EP quite a lot since then and they surely deserve more air space and a major signing in 2009. Here’s hoping! Frozen Human Satellite mp3 buy it here.
The Midway State Holes. Recently reviewed this band here. I still can’t get these songs out of my head. Definitely, this is a band to watch, mp3 on that review for ya.
Rolo TomassiHysterics. This album is so interesting. I keep listening to it because I can’t catergorize it. It’s punk/experimental/synth/just plain mental. And the fact that it’s a woman doing all that screetching is even more intriguing and amazing. It’s also near impossible to pick one track off it to give you, the whole album should be listened to through, as a whole. But try this Oh Hello Ghost mp3, and go buy it here.
Jesus on ExtasyBeloved Enemy. I never got around to reviewing this album, but although it’s not as great as their last, I still love it.Lies mp3. Industrial/dance music doesn’t get much better than this, buy it here.
Jennifer Parkin is the brainchild behind Ayria. Ayria makes amazingly good dance/electro/industrial music. Listen to Hearts for Bullets and try to not want to either dance or fuck or both. I dare ya.
And no I’m not making a “best of 2008″ list as I’ve not been blogging that long and I’m not quite a “real” music blogger yet. But I will inflict on you a little series of my favorite albums this year, starting with this one. It’s so refreshing to hear a female voice in this type of music.
I’ve danced to Ayria. I’ve fucked to Ayria. I’ll let you decide what’s better
Hearts For Bullets mp3Ayria from Hearts For Bullets – Her voice is well suited to this genre, she uses distorting effects to avoid all those Madonna and Gwen Stephani comparisons, thankfully! The lyrics are intriguing, the melodies are catchy without being earworms. As a title track, Heart For Bullets is a very good one. It’s pure Ayria.
Hurting You Is Good For Me (Aiboforcen mix) Ayria from Hearts For Bullets This track features some complex layering with the Belgian dark techno group, Aiboforcen. Pure dance energy, Ayria really adds some bad kitty-ness to this favorite of mine. How can you hate a woman who wants to hurt you so deliciously?
There’s a time and place for being really pissed off about politics and economies and newscasters and pundits and television. And today I’m deciding that time is now and that place is here. So scoot off to another happy blog if you want some cheery trip down memory lane about a great pop song from the 90s cause it ain’t gonna be here folks.
See, the thing that gets me about this mess is that it’s nothing new. It’s nothing that no one with their eye on the financial markets didn’t see coming. It’s nothing that your average real estate broker didn’t know about two or five years ago. It’s nothing that anyone in the business of predicting retail sales didn’t know, in the business of advising college students on future careers didn’t know, many of us knew that we were living in a bubble. And without blame, we forgot. Like the wife with the cheating husband who brought home a great bouquet of flowers every Friday night and remembered all the kids’ birthdays and was there for every holiday, we “forgot” about the indiscretions. We see what we want to when times are good folks, admit it. We see what we want to when we live lives that are privileged enough to allow us to do so.
Now, those of us who don’t have that privilege, (I can’t truthfully count myself in that class any longer, I have been fortunate and have benefited from others’ wealth) can’t choose to see life the way we want. And it becomes impossible to turn the other way when that husband cheats or it becomes impossible a lot sooner for us than for those who live in privilege. So, who’s noticing that $700 Billion right now? Students whose loans aren’t going through, people who soon won’t get food stamps, folks who need to move to take a job in another locale and can’t get a mortgage or can’t get a buyer who can get one, or find their house devalued so much that they take a serious hit. That cheating husband becomes a real bastard mighty quick.
And that cheating husband is us. It’s all of us who have lived with clean drinking water and free elementary and secondary public education, and a relatively safe air traffic control system, and an expectation that the food we eat won’t kill us… while at the same time AND AT THE EXPENSE OF other countries (whose labor we import to maintain our privilege) who live without these standards of living. Did I lose you there? Do you feel blamed? I’m sorry, but I mean it. It’s my rant, remember? We live with these standards of living because we make them live without them. Yeah, I’m making it be that simple. Politically, economically, morally, it’s a zero sum game on the big capitalistic scorecard because individual competition mandates that I win at your expense. Collaboration reduces profit.
Yes, our politicians have done it to us, for us. No, it’s not just an American (no — strike that, make that US because ya know what? There’s a whole continent down there that’s called Central and South AMERICA and we’re just the United States up here), problem/issue. It’s all of the industrialized world who live at the expense of the “emerging” countries. Well they’ve emerged to some extent now.
This “crisis” is in most ways a realignment of financial and economic and credit markets that simply reflects the fact that we can no longer enjoy our position as a buyer of credit and a buyer of imported labor and goods at a cheap rate. We are jockeying for position and have little to no capital spend. The masses are beginning to realize that we are now in the passenger seat, we’re the sellers and what product will we offer?
McCain, and his flying monkey, Caribou Barbie, hopes to sell the public on our patriotic duty of “rooting out terrorism and killing the enemy” which is an age-0ld trope, using nationalism to unify and strengthen morale and thereby increase consumer confidence as well as confidence abroad in our markets. Too bad it’s a 20th century strategy in a 21th century world. And every poll (from 2005 to today) shows that the majority of people in the US want out of the war business.
Obama and Biden hopes to sell the public on our technological ability to transform our world ecologically and industrially in order to become independent of oil, and to preserve our environment. Perhaps with our country’s resources they will enable us to sell that technology to the world. I support the Democratic party in this, it’s the lesser of two evils right now. And I’ve put my money and my time where my mouth is on this. I encourage you to do the same.
As you might have guessed, I’m no Democrat, I’m no supporter of the capitalist system, and what I see happening right now is a whole lot of economists running about trying to figure out how to run most wisely, head long, into a long dark tunnel and that’s all they know — it’s a long dark tunnel. Look to Social Scientists for help here, see what historians, Political Scientists, Sociologists and other people who read and study how Japan and Sweden and Russian dealt with and are dealing with financial crises. Consider why England has nationalized 8 major banks yesterday and why Russia’s RTS index is down 67% year-to-date. China is also cutting interest rates on one year loans and yet the average Joe thinks Russia and China will bail us out? I’m mystified. No one will put money in our market when there’s no hope of getting something back, no matter how many times McCain bellows “The American workers are the best in the world!”
The theme of this rant: people get educated. Ask some fucking questions. Don’t pull your money out of the market if you are lucky enough to have any. Sit tight, and ask why these supposed answers are answers in the first place?
Oh, and have a good day, xoxo
regular Tart posting resumes tomorrow, rant over. That Ministry track has been going through my head for about two weeks, I hope this exorcism helps, it’s pure, industrial genius, let it seep into your psyche and then let Rage take over