The Dancing Thumb (aka: music recommendations)

[Nachimir]

New Villager.

Mux Mool

Yes yes yes, ace stuff!

Recently, I've picked up a fair bit of ambient. I used to listen to a lot of stuff like Tim Hecker, until I realised it was making (or perhaps helping me to stay) pretty depressive. Recently I've picked up Stars of the Lid (advise ignoring trippy psychedelic video):

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and Machinefabriek:

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Which have a much more beautiful mood to them.

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I also used to absolutely fucking loathe dubstep. My boss would play it on trips in the car, and I'd be thinking "What the fuck is this?". Then I ended up in a club playing it with mates and tried dancing to it. Ever since it's made me wriggle. Dubstep is for dancing to!

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[Patters]

A few I have only just listened to:

Future of the Left, kind of like a spazzier version of early biffy

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Pulled apart by horses, think heavy southern US riffs, then make the singer an angry british guy

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Also seeing as my favourite band (Anthrax) have finally got back on track and got themselves a singer again, Joey Belladonna is back and he's doing a new album! In the past 5 years they have had 4 singers: Joey Belladona, Dan Nelson, John Bush and not Belladonna again.

Belladonna has one of the best voices in metal by a long shot.

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[James]

Future of the Left

Hey, it's Falco from mclusky's new (as in non-defunct) band! I'm pretty fond of mclusky.

[Snooglebum]

Yes yes yes, ace stuff!

Recently, I've picked up a fair bit of ambient. I used to listen to a lot of stuff like Tim Hecker, until I realised it was making (or perhaps helping me to stay) pretty depressive. Recently I've picked up Stars of the Lid (advise ignoring trippy psychedelic video):

w_kHO7M7Bzc

and Machinefabriek:

Lzjt5hHp9VE

Which have a much more beautiful mood to them.

------

I also used to absolutely fucking loathe dubstep. My boss would play it on trips in the car, and I'd be thinking "What the fuck is this?". Then I ended up in a club playing it with mates and tried dancing to it. Ever since it's made me wriggle. Dubstep is for dancing to!

CoIZ3jWoGPA

If you play the Machinefabirek song, and the dubstep song at the same time, it actually sounds really good, amusingly.

[James]

Recently I've picked up Stars of the Lid

Oh shit, how did I miss this? I love Stars of the Lid! They make me excited about music in a way that few artists manage. I used one of their pieces in one of my stupid Left 4 Dead videos:

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The silly juxtaposition is probably an insult to a wonderful piece of music. Anyway, here are two of my favourite ever album openers. Video content is incidental:

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I'm tempted to post more, but I guess by this stage if anybody's interested, they've heard enough to investigate on their own. It's a shame I couldn't find a full version of December Hunting for Vegetarian Fuckface, though. That's another favourite. It used to be on Last.fm, but they seem only to have a preview now.

Anyway, yeah, they're great. Good on you, Nachimir!

[Snooglebum]

If I could return to New Villager for a second, I've found some videos on the Tube of them performing a bunch of new songs live, but they aren't on iTunes or any of the digital download services. Is this a UK thing? Because if their album is already out there, I'm so jealous.

[Patters]

This is most definitely not a recommendation, but here goes.

I used to like Pendulum a lot, particularly around 2008, when I saw them. But Jesus Fucking Christ have the lost their direction completely, there is one song I have heard from their new album which I enjoyed, which I will get to. The entire thing is a mess, they seem to be doing everything at once yet only at competent levels. Both of their previous albums had some coherent structure. For a Drum and Bass/Electro Rock band the transferral to somehow doing a Metal song is absolutely bizzarre, it's pretty comepetent for being a Metal song, but I suspect that is due to the it involving Swedish Metal band In Flames, this being the only song I have enjoyed:

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[Snooglebum]

This is most definitely not a recommendation, but here goes.

I used to like Pendulum a lot, particularly around 2008, when I saw them. But Jesus Fucking Christ have the lost their direction completely, there is one song I have heard from their new album which I enjoyed, which I will get to. The entire thing is a mess, they seem to be doing everything at once yet only at competent levels. Both of their previous albums had some coherent structure. For a Drum and Bass/Electro Rock band the transferral to somehow doing a Metal song is absolutely bizzarre, it's pretty comepetent for being a Metal song, but I suspect that is due to the it involving Swedish Metal band In Flames, this being the only song I have enjoyed:

Well, it does make a modicum of sense, they have been moving towards that style. In Silico had some of the trappings of the various genres of rock, and even Hold You Colour had a couple of rock elements, although they were subtle.

I still agree with you, though. Hold your Colour is one of my favorite songs ever, and I'm sad that they diverged from that style so wildly.

[Patters]

Well, it does make a modicum of sense, they have been moving towards that style. In Silico had some of the trappings of the various genres of rock, and even Hold You Colour had a couple of rock elements, although they were subtle.

I still agree with you, though. Hold your Colour is one of my favorite songs ever, and I'm sad that they diverged from that style so wildly.

My main problem is that the album hasn't got any direction, Watercolour sounds like an imitation of a classic Pendulum song. The new drummer just isn't as good as Kodish, he sounds sterile like a drumbox. A lot of the album sounds like generic dance music. Their style seems to be diverging, which is affecting the overall quality of the music.

Also I am definitely not against merging of genres, I stand by the Anthrax Public Enemy version of Bring the Noise is one of the best songs ever. If you haven't heard it:

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Edited May 30, 2010 by Patters

[Armchair General]

I am amused that the video shows a heavy metal, testosterone filled masculine band along with a bunch of 'manly' rappers, singing a song mistitled 'bring the nosie'.

It's the little things...

[Patters]

8hwMCPche5E

Really cool electronic/pop musician, who I kind of know.

[Sleepdance]

Not mine, but still great(does count that I was sitting two lines behind him?). I have some of the songs too, althow would prefer not to upload them to Youtube(because of fucking Sony). O.K., Maybe I'll post amazing version of Blind Willie McTell.

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[Sleepdance]

Oh, as it looks someone has already posted it.

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[Nachimir]

I think I found this on a Prefuse 73 album; it's by Doseone, also of cLOUDDEAD and Boom Bip:

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[James]

Doseone, also of cLOUDDEAD and Boom Bip

And Subtle and Themselves and 13&God and probably a billion other projects I've forgotten or never heard of. The man keeps busy!

Themselves:

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13&God (stick with this one – it picks up quite dramatically through the course):

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And a Boom Bip track because it's one of the better concert openers I've seen (not in person, sadly):

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He also guests on a load of stuff, like this Fog song, which is where I first encountered him (weirdly enough, I think it was Dose who was responsible for Ninja Tune picking Fog up, so perhaps my path was kind of backwards):

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And this Hood track that sounds a bit like the CD is fucked, but is nevertheless quite appealing:

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(He and Why? actually appear on several tracks on that album.)

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Finally, and completely unrelated, this an excellent Eels cover by Moog Cookbook, who do or did many excellent covers of things with analogue synthesizers:

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EDIT: Sorry if this is too many embedded videos for one post.

[Nachimir]

Wow, thanks. That 13&God track is incredible

[Patters]

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Robert Ashley continues to make rad music for A life well wasted, and I'm in it.

[Thompson]

I literally couldn't find this anywhere else but it's totally worth a listen:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8164097387121297782#docid=7000388365624569620

[juv3nal]

Voodoo Funk has hours of mixes that are the results of 3 years of crate diving in Africa. It helps if you like funk, soul, and/or disco.

[gdf]

For about ten weeks, all I listened to was Kraftwerk. First Minimum-Maximum, then The Man Machine and Trans-Europe Express on rotation. Radioactvity live is unbelievable, and Europe Endless may be the greatest song ever made.

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I've also been listening to a load of Lil Wayne recently, mostly Tha Carter III. Fantastic album, when he's on his shit he's unbeatable but he needs to stop being so damned inconsistent. One of my favourites:

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In other news I've been preparing for T in the Park with some Frightened Rabbit. Never given them a properly good listen before but I like what I'm hearing. First and second albums on Spotify, but I may grab The Winter of Mixed Drinks in the next couple of days.

[doodle_robot]

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have fun trying to sleep...

[Thyroid]

Songs from people I've been listening to lately.

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[Orv]

Richard Ashcroft

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[syntheticgerbil]

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"Ski bi di bi di do bap do
Do bam do

Bada bwi ba ba bada bo
Baba ba da bo
Bwi ba ba ba do

Bada bwi ba ba bada bo
Baba ba da bo
Bwi ba ba ba do"

[Sleepdance]

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