facetiousa wit so dryit shits sandRegistered Userregular
I listened to fun. - Some Nights.
@Grey Ghost pretty much hit it spot on. After a while the album just starts to become really forgettable. Still, well, fun but no great hooks or anything that really stands out - the tracks blend together. And it feels overproduced in places.
I enjoyed it though, and those first few tracks were killer.
And I guess I'm just going to succumb to being a day behind, so I'll check out Agalloch tomorrow.
"I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
Should we consider the weekends a break? I've always noticed the forums being far less populated than during the week, and I wouldn't want someone's selection to get ignored.
This sounds like a thing I would like to do, but I've already got around 10-15 albums in mind and I'm really indecisive.
Fuckit, I got plenty of time to narrow it down, and if all else fails I could always just randomly pick.
My favorite part about The Mantle is the density that comes out of layering so many simplistic guitar parts. I can play like the first 20 minutes of the album by muscle memory, but I probably haven't actually listened to it in like 6 years or more.
All right, @NeoToma, go ahead and be thinking about your selection for tomorrow.
@Uriel, I hope you don't feel cheated since you got the first weekend. I did listen to the album, but I want to hear it again and post more impressions when I get a better grasp on it. At least you got both Saturday and Sunday!
By the way, I updated the OP with the new turn rules. Just so you don't have to skip back and look:
This thread goes Monday through Friday. Too many people are busy having lives/not posting at work to do this on the weekends, so we'll use the weekends to talk about all of the selections for the week and allow people to catch up on anything they missed.
The Mantle is an awesome Agalloch album, I have talked to John multiple times about how him and Jason considered it their "favorite" Agalloch album for quite some time. This was before the release of The Marrow of the Spirit, but a few years ago when they first came down to LA we had a huge talk on The Mantle. They called it "a slice of Portland, with some mystery thrown in."
I love The Mantle, it sounds like a campfire that last forever and smells like incense. The acoustic tone is perfect with plenty of depth and John and Don's many pedals and effects are masterly used. As for the guitars, I find them a little too compressed and could've used more room to breathe. But the riffs themselves are very solid and can be anywhere from the doomed Shadow of Our Pale Companion to the very American rendition of Scandinavian tremolo found in I Am The Wooden Doors.
This is also an album they have done many "remixes" of, The Lode getting a particularly awesome new skin.
Tons of snow, oak, communing with nature via hikes and a good measure of genuine paganism. That is The Mantle.
Personally though I will quickly admit that I consider Pale Folklore to be Agalloch's strongest point to this date. But that is a story for another time perhaps. If anyone is new to Agalloch here and enjoys The Mantle, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Pale Folklore. It is divine.
Coffee on
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facetiousa wit so dryit shits sandRegistered Userregular
Listening to The Mantle now, don't intend to do another track-by-track thing but I really dig this intro. Don't really know what I'm in for coming up, but I love this vibe.
"I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
facetiousa wit so dryit shits sandRegistered Userregular
So that wasn't really what I was expecting at all and I kinda loved it.
When it comes to my very most favourite music, I'm emphatically a vocals/lyrics guy (partly because I derive a great deal of pleasure from singing along obnoxiously loudly as an outlet for my passion), but I still love pure instrumentation too and that was great. Very ambient, and though the sound was layered it never felt unnecessarily convoluted. There was a kind of purity to the sound I really dug. In fact, I particularly enjoyed that the vocals, when they appeared, were downplayed in the mix - I didn't even attempt to follow the lyrics, just let it join the cacophony of sound and blend in as though it were simply another instrument. It all just worked for me.
Also I loved the last track. I really really like accordions, and was that a dulcimer??? Plus that acoustic guitar at the end was sweet.
"I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
Okay after much deliberation I decided on these dudes
Das Racist
mainly because they are different enough from everything else posted so far, and checking my last fm they are apparently one of the few bands where I listen to the whole album instead of just picking bits and pieces. Their latest album Relax is on Spotify.
By the way, @facetious, if you want to you can PM me your selection and I'll post it in the morning here. It seems like you're usually on at night (central time).
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facetiousa wit so dryit shits sandRegistered Userregular
I can PM you, but I figured I'd just post it myself since I'll probably be up later than everyone else. They can see it when they wake up.
"I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
Hmm, I'll give them the fact that their tempos and beats are infinitely more creative then many of their peers in the genre but unfortunately they still fail to impress me.
The following should be taken with a grain of salt, I'm just a silly goose;
Hip Hop and its related genres have never caught my attention. Writing music solely for the purpose of dancing, singing along, or phatbeats just isn't my thing. I don't think less of people for enjoying it but I just can't help feeling like it's best suited as background music or dancing music rather then deep listening or what not.
Hmm, I'll give them the fact that their tempos and beats are infinitely more creative then many of their peers in the genre but unfortunately they still fail to impress me.
The following should be taken with a grain of salt, I'm just a silly goose;
Hip Hop and its related genres have never caught my attention. Writing music solely for the purpose of dancing, singing along, or phatbeats just isn't my thing. I don't think less of people for enjoying it but I just can't help feeling like it's best suited as background music or dancing music rather then deep listening or what not.
i think that's kind of a weird sentiment, especially applied to das racist. their lyrics are absolutely not just white noise, and their music is infrequently suited to the club. i consider them, while funny and not always serious, in more of the lyrically lyrical vein. writing it off as just "phatbeats" comes off a little... well...
not liking rap is not a big deal. diff'rent strokes and all. i just bristle a bit when it gets written off as 'phatbeats,' both because of word choice and tenor. rap is as diverse a genre as anything else; there is rap for dancing to, yes, but there is also rap for deep listening. i think DR is in a kind of in between point.
Here's the good: I liked parts of it. I feel like maybe that's because I sat down and listened to a rap album instead of hearing it on the radio and immediately switching the channel.
Here's the bad: I still didn't like the whole thing enough to listen to it on a regular basis. If there's a rap album that will make me a convert, this isn't it. But at least I'm open to being converted, now.
Here's the good: I liked parts of it. I feel like maybe that's because I sat down and listened to a rap album instead of hearing it on the radio and immediately switching the channel.
Here's the bad: I still didn't like the whole thing enough to listen to it on a regular basis. If there's a rap album that will make me a convert, this isn't it. But at least I'm open to being converted, now.
Yay! I consider that a victory! I broadened a horizon.
i think that's kind of a weird sentiment, especially applied to das racist. their lyrics are absolutely not just white noise, and their music is infrequently suited to the club. i consider them, while funny and not always serious, in more of the lyrically lyrical vein. writing it off as just "phatbeats" comes off a little... well...
I didn't mean to be offensive with phatbeats, I was just trying to word something I didn't have the patience to elaborate on. But I did spend a little more time with Das Racist and can see where you are coming from, they have a tinge of exotic sounds and structure to them that does separate them from the club sound or dance sound. But I still can't help but feel it's just a different approach to the same end which is to create beats and tempos, which they are honestly great at!
As for lyrics, they are usually the last thing I pay attention to musically. There are exceptions to the rule but my mind focuses on the instruments out of sheer habit.
Also if you could point me to deep listening rap I would really appreciate it, I am intrigued. I am not really learned on the genre.
facetiousa wit so dryit shits sandRegistered Userregular
edited April 2012
So I kinda dug Relax, but it only reinforced my confusion about Das Racist from having heard a few tracks before this. I think they have moments of transcendant brilliance, but then sometimes I wonder if it's a giant joke. I don't "get" their whole.. stage personas, I guess. Generally the hip hop I'm into has an overarching point whereas sometimes DR just kinda drifts from subject to subject with seemingly no purpose. But then, that said, that tends to be when they're most brilliant, so.. god, I don't even know. I liked it! I'm just confused! :P
But yeah, there's some great stuff in there. Their flows are neat, and I think it's cool they switch them up to suit the song - was that Kool A.D. doing some pretty nice singing on Girl? - and some of their rhymes are really impressive even if the actual lyrical content is kinda nonsensical.
Also, I'd been waffling back and forth all day about what album I'd pick (I've considered around a dozen in total, and throughout work tonight there were at least four that were "THE album" I was going to pick at various points in the evening*), but the reference to Jeff Mangum in Rainbow In the Dark kinda settled it for me.
It feels like a totally cliché pick in the "cool albums people might not know about" sweepstakes but I don't care, it's awesome.
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
*if you're curious:
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
Blitzen Trapper - Furr, which was my copout pick because I was going to do a spiel about how 'in the spirit of this thread' I was choosing an album I'd only heard a couple songs from so that I could experience it for the first time with you guys. But man I really really really fucking love the title track which my friend played for me on a roadtrip in November and I keep wanting to check out more. I think I'll listen to it tomorrow since I have the day "off".
facetious on
"I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
i think that's kind of a weird sentiment, especially applied to das racist. their lyrics are absolutely not just white noise, and their music is infrequently suited to the club. i consider them, while funny and not always serious, in more of the lyrically lyrical vein. writing it off as just "phatbeats" comes off a little... well...
I didn't mean to be offensive with phatbeats, I was just trying to word something I didn't have the patience to elaborate on. But I did spend a little more time with Das Racist and can see where you are coming from, they have a tinge of exotic sounds and structure to them that does separate them from the club sound or dance sound. But I still can't help but feel it's just a different approach to the same end which is to create beats and tempos, which they are honestly great at!
As for lyrics, they are usually the last thing I pay attention to musically. There are exceptions to the rule but my mind focuses on the instruments out of sheer habit.
Also if you could point me to deep listening rap I would really appreciate it, I am intrigued. I am not really learned on the genre.
I imagine this really depends on what you're looking for in "deep listening". I mean I'd say Mos Def's Black on Both Sides, specifically Mr N- is something I would recommend just about everybody listen to, or in a totally different vein J-Live's One For The Griot is great funny story-telling rap, but if you're sort of dismissive of "beats" and you don't listen to lyrics rap is a bit of a tough sell in my personal, probably wrong opinion.
I'll check out the mantle at work, from others comments I am already predisposed to like it, I like stuff like Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, even extra weird stuff like Earth and Andrew Dryblatts Orchestra of Excited Strings.
I have never made it through a das racist album before, we will have to see if this one changes me. Though I do love the pizzahut/tacobell remix.
Oh man, NMH. This is among my favorite albums of all time. Thanks for picking this one for me, facetious, otherwise it was going to come up eventually.
I've listened to it a billion times, but I guess one more can't hurt. And I'll post some comments about it later on, too.
I've never listened to any NMH before! I've always been aware they existed, I just never listened to it. Stylistically it's the sort of thing I enjoy listening to on occasion, and it reminds me of Wes Anderson movies. It's the musical equivalent of a Wes Anderson movie, and I really like it.
The only suggestion so far I haven't favorited a song or two from is the Agalloch album... I'm not a big fan of mellow, soothing music and it was a bit too much like metal-trance for me to stay awake while listening to it.
Aeroplane over the sea is a greatttt greattt album. Except, well, I do not love Jesus Christ. And I really, really would cut those 10 seconds out of the album. The rest is gold though. Lyrics that give me chills, a distinct vocal style and some varied instrumentals to back it up. The album also works well as a cohesive whole, songs flowing into one another pretty naturally.
Posts
@Grey Ghost pretty much hit it spot on. After a while the album just starts to become really forgettable. Still, well, fun but no great hooks or anything that really stands out - the tracks blend together. And it feels overproduced in places.
I enjoyed it though, and those first few tracks were killer.
And I guess I'm just going to succumb to being a day behind, so I'll check out Agalloch tomorrow.
Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
I'll give this a listen at some point today.
Steam
Fuckit, I got plenty of time to narrow it down, and if all else fails I could always just randomly pick.
!checkthisout
@Uriel, I hope you don't feel cheated since you got the first weekend. I did listen to the album, but I want to hear it again and post more impressions when I get a better grasp on it. At least you got both Saturday and Sunday!
This thread goes Monday through Friday. Too many people are busy having lives/not posting at work to do this on the weekends, so we'll use the weekends to talk about all of the selections for the week and allow people to catch up on anything they missed.
The Mantle is an awesome Agalloch album, I have talked to John multiple times about how him and Jason considered it their "favorite" Agalloch album for quite some time. This was before the release of The Marrow of the Spirit, but a few years ago when they first came down to LA we had a huge talk on The Mantle. They called it "a slice of Portland, with some mystery thrown in."
I love The Mantle, it sounds like a campfire that last forever and smells like incense. The acoustic tone is perfect with plenty of depth and John and Don's many pedals and effects are masterly used. As for the guitars, I find them a little too compressed and could've used more room to breathe. But the riffs themselves are very solid and can be anywhere from the doomed Shadow of Our Pale Companion to the very American rendition of Scandinavian tremolo found in I Am The Wooden Doors.
This is also an album they have done many "remixes" of, The Lode getting a particularly awesome new skin.
Tons of snow, oak, communing with nature via hikes and a good measure of genuine paganism. That is The Mantle.
Personally though I will quickly admit that I consider Pale Folklore to be Agalloch's strongest point to this date. But that is a story for another time perhaps. If anyone is new to Agalloch here and enjoys The Mantle, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Pale Folklore. It is divine.
Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
When it comes to my very most favourite music, I'm emphatically a vocals/lyrics guy (partly because I derive a great deal of pleasure from singing along obnoxiously loudly as an outlet for my passion), but I still love pure instrumentation too and that was great. Very ambient, and though the sound was layered it never felt unnecessarily convoluted. There was a kind of purity to the sound I really dug. In fact, I particularly enjoyed that the vocals, when they appeared, were downplayed in the mix - I didn't even attempt to follow the lyrics, just let it join the cacophony of sound and blend in as though it were simply another instrument. It all just worked for me.
Also I loved the last track. I really really like accordions, and was that a dulcimer??? Plus that acoustic guitar at the end was sweet.
Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
nevertheless, I will !checkthisout and get to listening to these agalloch characters
They had a large deer skull and they recorded the sound they'd get when they would strike the skull with the antlers.
Oh shit it's my turn
Uhhh
I'll just listen in when I can.
Das Racist
mainly because they are different enough from everything else posted so far, and checking my last fm they are apparently one of the few bands where I listen to the whole album instead of just picking bits and pieces. Their latest album Relax is on Spotify.
!checkthisout
I'll listen to that and Agalloch eventually (little time on my hands)
Steam
By the way, @facetious, if you want to you can PM me your selection and I'll post it in the morning here. It seems like you're usually on at night (central time).
Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
Hmm, I'll give them the fact that their tempos and beats are infinitely more creative then many of their peers in the genre but unfortunately they still fail to impress me.
The following should be taken with a grain of salt, I'm just a silly goose;
Hip Hop and its related genres have never caught my attention. Writing music solely for the purpose of dancing, singing along, or phatbeats just isn't my thing. I don't think less of people for enjoying it but I just can't help feeling like it's best suited as background music or dancing music rather then deep listening or what not.
Okay, cool!
i think that's kind of a weird sentiment, especially applied to das racist. their lyrics are absolutely not just white noise, and their music is infrequently suited to the club. i consider them, while funny and not always serious, in more of the lyrically lyrical vein. writing it off as just "phatbeats" comes off a little... well...
not liking rap is not a big deal. diff'rent strokes and all. i just bristle a bit when it gets written off as 'phatbeats,' both because of word choice and tenor. rap is as diverse a genre as anything else; there is rap for dancing to, yes, but there is also rap for deep listening. i think DR is in a kind of in between point.
Here's the good: I liked parts of it. I feel like maybe that's because I sat down and listened to a rap album instead of hearing it on the radio and immediately switching the channel.
Here's the bad: I still didn't like the whole thing enough to listen to it on a regular basis. If there's a rap album that will make me a convert, this isn't it. But at least I'm open to being converted, now.
I didn't mean to be offensive with phatbeats, I was just trying to word something I didn't have the patience to elaborate on. But I did spend a little more time with Das Racist and can see where you are coming from, they have a tinge of exotic sounds and structure to them that does separate them from the club sound or dance sound. But I still can't help but feel it's just a different approach to the same end which is to create beats and tempos, which they are honestly great at!
As for lyrics, they are usually the last thing I pay attention to musically. There are exceptions to the rule but my mind focuses on the instruments out of sheer habit.
Also if you could point me to deep listening rap I would really appreciate it, I am intrigued. I am not really learned on the genre.
But yeah, there's some great stuff in there. Their flows are neat, and I think it's cool they switch them up to suit the song - was that Kool A.D. doing some pretty nice singing on Girl? - and some of their rhymes are really impressive even if the actual lyrical content is kinda nonsensical.
Also, I'd been waffling back and forth all day about what album I'd pick (I've considered around a dozen in total, and throughout work tonight there were at least four that were "THE album" I was going to pick at various points in the evening*), but the reference to Jeff Mangum in Rainbow In the Dark kinda settled it for me.
It feels like a totally cliché pick in the "cool albums people might not know about" sweepstakes but I don't care, it's awesome.
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
*if you're curious:
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
Blitzen Trapper - Furr, which was my copout pick because I was going to do a spiel about how 'in the spirit of this thread' I was choosing an album I'd only heard a couple songs from so that I could experience it for the first time with you guys. But man I really really really fucking love the title track which my friend played for me on a roadtrip in November and I keep wanting to check out more. I think I'll listen to it tomorrow since I have the day "off".
Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
I imagine this really depends on what you're looking for in "deep listening". I mean I'd say Mos Def's Black on Both Sides, specifically Mr N- is something I would recommend just about everybody listen to, or in a totally different vein J-Live's One For The Griot is great funny story-telling rap, but if you're sort of dismissive of "beats" and you don't listen to lyrics rap is a bit of a tough sell in my personal, probably wrong opinion.
I'll check out the mantle at work, from others comments I am already predisposed to like it, I like stuff like Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, even extra weird stuff like Earth and Andrew Dryblatts Orchestra of Excited Strings.
I have never made it through a das racist album before, we will have to see if this one changes me. Though I do love the pizzahut/tacobell remix.
I've listened to it a billion times, but I guess one more can't hurt. And I'll post some comments about it later on, too.
The only suggestion so far I haven't favorited a song or two from is the Agalloch album... I'm not a big fan of mellow, soothing music and it was a bit too much like metal-trance for me to stay awake while listening to it.
my usual system is not to listen to music and not do anything else, but I am trying to stay faithful to the spirit of the thread