Ashes Against the Grain

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I get shit for liking this band, but Agalloch's Ashes Against the Grain is a solid album combining many styles I enjoy from black metal to post-rock to even neo-folk influence at time. Hailing from Portland Oregon, Ashes Against the Grain captures the feeling of the woods with catchy melodic guitar hooks, black metal vocals with the occasional sung chorus and lengthy songs bringing an epic feel to the record. Not re-eventing the wheel or anything but Ashes Against the Grain is certainly an album I enjoy, hope you do too.

Mothers & Fathers &

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Frode Gjerstad is one of the most important characters in the Scandinavian jazz scene. The Frode Gjerstad trio consists of Frode on alto sax, Øyvind Storesund on bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. The trio manages to create a "very free and spacious environment, yet with a strong unity, focus and internal logic, with sufficient variation, changes of tempo and high energy." Mothers & Fathers & is a solid example of the continuing modern free jazz scene. Enjoy!

Small Craft on a Milk Sea

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Brian Eno's 2010 release Small Craft on a Milk Sea on Warp records, brings back an Eno style similar to Ambient 1 & 2 and Music for Films, in which many of the songs on the album were intended for film scores as well as some heavy hitting heavy electronic beat and Kraut vibes. Eno creates yet another beautiful soundscape that he is known to deliver. Enjoy!

Sterile

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Philadelphia's exciting hardcore outfit Leather 7" release on Jade Tree Records, Sterile. A second 7" is coming later this month on Fan Death Records called Wretch. Think a grittier, drugged out, Cro-Mag's that only Philly would provide. Four ripping songs clocking in under 10 minutes with awesome album art. Highly recommend the purchase.

"With only a hard to find cassette demo, one sold out 7”, a smattering of blog posts and some messageboard banter in their wake, Philadelphia’s Leather have just begun to emerge from an existence unknown to all but those “in the know.” Sterile is surely not the first adjective that crosses one’s mind when confronted with the noisy hardcore on this 4 song EP, aptly described by compatriot and Clockcleaner frontman John Sharkey as the likely result “...if Tad Doyle had owned Age Of Quarrel and actually listened to it.” It’s safe to say that picking up this vinyl will mean reliving these ten minutes hundreds of times over while waiting for the next recorded dose or a chance to witness a live show (likely to be in a dilapidated warehouse or a basement as grimy as their sound)."-Jade Tree. Enjoy!

Dauði Baldrs

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Burzum's Dauði Baldrs is a dark ambient album, recorded by Varg Vikernes while in prison using synths and a tape recorder. The album is about the legacy of Baldr, one of Odin's sons in Norse mythology, who fought the battle of Ragnarok, which ended of the world in Norse mythology. Very different from Burzum's classic black metal sound, but enjoyable for fans of ambient synth music, Norse mythology and the history of black metal. Enjoy!

The Vanishing World Within

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Expo '70's The Vanishing World Within CS. One of my favorite releases from Expo '70, 20-minute drones into mixed with banging riffs. Enjoy!

"Comprised of skeletal recordings started over a year ago, finally finished. "The Vanishing World Within" presented in five phases, cultivates a body of sounds new and familiar for Expo '70. "Phase I" is a lesson in meditation with reverberating organ drones cascades into "Phase II" where things get weird with pulsating synths and textured tonal waves of electronics, the Goblin vibe is heavy on this. "Phase III" closes side A with a heavy locked guitar riff summoning Hawkwind backed by Neu! syncopated drumming by David Williams (Sounding the Deep), looped guitar echoes intertwine layered guitar lines alongside a thick doomed-out guitar riff.

Side B opens to "Phase IV", bringing us back to to pulsing electronics with soft haunting melodic synth parts causing cosmic reverberations that are accompanied by analog drum machine leads to "Phase V", full of sine waves, leading into serine delicate guitar work."-Solid Melts

Roman Holiday

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Dark Goth industrial/Post punk from Houston, Balaclavas may currently be the most mysterious and all around best act in town. Roman Holiday is a true breakthrough for the band. Filled with dancey yet dark polyrhythmic drum beats, dub bass lines, and reverb drenched drones, Balaclavas have a sound completely of their own that keeps you coming back from more. Enjoy!