It's a good time to be a fan Amon Amarth, the Melodic Death Metal band hailing from Sweden. Metal Blade Records has posted all of the major Amon Amarth albums to their YouTube channel! Commonly known as Viking Metal, this band has embraced their heritage with a fervor dropping albums such as Twilight Of The Thunder Gods,With Odin On Our Side, and Jomsviking.
It's refreshing to see a band that has been kicking around so long (started in 1992 as a Grindcore band called Scum) to gain the recognition they deserve. It wasn't until their 2008 album Twilight Of The Thunder Gods did this band become a household name (at least, in the area I'm from). It takes a herculean effort to push through 16 years before really finding success. If you're not familiar with Amon Amarth, you should do yourself a favor and check out Twilight Of The Thunder Gods linked below. If it's your jam, check out their other ten albums at the Medal Blades Records YouTube Channel. You can find more info about the band on their web page. You won't be disappointed.
To further my understanding of Jazz, I'm listening through Jazzwise Magazine's "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World". Each album is presented with my stream-of-consciousness thoughts for each track, my general thoughts of the album as a whole, and any relevant information I can capture about the album. Also included is my drink of choice while taking the album in. Thank you for joining me on my journey to [partial] Jazz enlightenment.
Album 86 Steps Ahead - Steps Ahead Drinking: Budweiser Copper Lager with Jim Beam
"Pools": This song has a very mellow opening. One of the things that immediately jumps out to me is the layers of tone contained on this track. Everyone is operating in their own space like they're occupying their own layers. In my head, I see a bird's eye view of traffic, or a big restaurant opening up and prepping for the day. While my brain is painting this picture I dial into the bass-tone, it's very reminiscent of Jaco Pastorius, or perhaps it should be the other way around. The saxophone in one of these sections is super slick! It's greasy almost, with these lines and runs, it's amazing how he pulls it off. The bass solo starting ~2:56 is very conversational, which is something I love in any solo. It's like if you zone out while listening to your friend talk and you're just registering the noise and notes of their voice. After a vibraphone solo, it pops into my brain that this song is like Bebop, and Funk was put into a blender and given a good frothy mix. I'm now focusing on the drums and piano, just how time mixes in. Hot damn, they're holding this groove down so it doesn't fly away, while still letting it strut around feeling good. I get the feeling that I'm looking inside the brains of a jazz performer when I listen to this. Each movement and moment is a different synapse firing off with an idea. It's crazy but contained, like a daydream. An excellent track to start the album.
"Islands": I'm loving this intro, it's got a great rhythm, though I wish it kept this moment for longer instead of switching to this flowing passage. This particular part is a little too easy-listening for my tastes. As of ~1:08, it takes on a cool twist that is more in line with my taste. The music certainly achieves an island feel to it. I feel like they're capturing the sound of a soul sailing quickly by an island taking in the sights and sounds. I found my ear honing in mostly on the bass performance. It's tight, and a strong backbone to the songs. Soon, my focus also starts taking in the drums. Together they're deep in the pocket and holding this track down. Regardless, I'm not in love with this track, even though it returns to the beginning passage, which does salvage it a bit.
"Loxodrome": I love the name of this track. the solemn opening is pretty great. It's like the opening to a Bogart film if it was made in the '80s. It sounds like a biopic following the life of an entry-level mobster going about his daily life with all the hustle and bustle that would come with that lifestyle. The piano solo is sharp and cutting, love it! The following bass solo is just as excellent. My only wish is that the solo didn't slow the pace of the song. Still, this person's chops are hard to critique. The section starting at ~4:25 is simply awesome! It's like beautiful chaos, the tension is heated. It clears the five-minute mark just in time for the song to come to a close.
"Both Sides Of The Coin": This track has a little sass to it. The saxophone brings a sense of welcome to the song as well. I'm enjoying the intro quite a bit. At ~0:50 there is a weird trilling section that confuses me, but what do I really know? I'm lost that's for sure. This song is one of my least favorite tracks on this album. This song seems saxophone focused. Ultimately, "Both Sides Of the Coin" didn't do much for me.
"Skyward Bound": An excellent open and delightful intro. Loving the bass work happening behind these moments. Something is happening on this track, and I can't quite put my finger on it. All I know is I'm getting goose-pimples listening to this song. The vibraphone solo at ~2:04 is captivating. It's slaying me with how good it is. I wonder if this was a song to remember someone, like a memorial song, as I'm getting that feeling. This track is a strong contender for my favorite song on this album.
"Northern Cross": An interesting opening, it's quite busy. Sounds like a busy intersection in a city. Something is at a rolling boil and is about to hot-break all over the place. Stormy is a good word for it. I'm feeling lost trying to follow everyone as they play, though, it's holding my attention. I'm loving the bass-line at ~3:50, it's got some funky qualities to it. I do wish I had more to say about this track, I think I want to go back and give it a few more listens to wrap my brain around it.
"Trio (An Improvisation)": This track features a somber opening by the saxophone. I thoroughly enjoy the bowed bass, it's a sound I greatly enjoy. I love how everyone slowly joins in by ~1:20. It sounds like a forest, or a town starting to wake up. The bass takes on a quiet menacing tone at ~2:50 which brings us to a moment I quite enjoy at ~3:13, it's so dark! There are moments where I'm taken back to Holtz's The Planets, strangely. Perhaps it's not a town or a forest that inspires this piece but the brilliance, darkness, and vastness of our cosmos. The bowed bass at ~5:04 melts my heart with its beauty. I also see in my mind this grand conference between the philosophers of the ages, a long-held debate about humanity while they all struggle to get their words in. Truly a strange yet inspiring piece, and an excellent choice to end the album.
Overall Thoughts: I quite enjoyed this album, although some tracks lost me periodically. I blame my ear more than anything. The highs were really high, and I loved the journey getting there. Cohesively, I'm thoroughly impressed with how this band performs.
Info: This album was released in 1983 through the Elektra/Musician record label, and was produced by Don Grolnick. Steps Ahead, at this point, was helmed by the following musicians: Michael Brecker on tenor saxophone, Mike Mainieri on vibraphone, synthesizer vibes, marimba, synthesizer, and percussion, Elaine Elias on piano, Eddie Gomez on bass, and Peter Erskine on drums.
Canadian band Unleash The Archers has dropped another track from their new album Abyss which was released through Napalm Records on August 21st, 2020. Unleash The Archers walk a fine line between Progressive Metal, Power Metal, moments of Black Metal and Death Metal, and standard Heavy Metal fare, and they do it skillfully. Forming in 2007, this band hails from Victoria, British Columbia. The new track is titled "Legacy" and they debuted it with a lyric video through Napalm Record's YouTube channel.
"Legacy" opens with this delightful and subdued clean Prog opening with some clean vocal melodies before kicking in the door with a crushing Black Metal-like moment at ~0:29. Shortly after there is some wickedly enjoyable solo full of sweep picking, or an arpeggio synth part. Either way, it's quite excellent. We enter the meat of the song at ~1:14 as the verse/vocals rejoin the music. The mix is excellent, and the dynamic range of the moments leading up to here is impressive. The pre-chorus/chorus moments remind me of moments of mid-career/Retinal Circus Devin Townsend, while still feeling very original to this band.
The interlude at ~3:52 takes us back to the opening and provides a nice break from the pummeling pace of this song. Just as quickly, the Black Metal moment returns with a searing solo over it. What's surprising is their ability to switch through these styles without feeling gimmicky, or cut-and-paste in their approach. We return to the standard verse and chorus moments and they bring the song to a close.
I do find that I'm pulled out of the musical narrative with the line "No more hiding away in your apex again. Not when your spending your days as a slave is near an end." It feels weird to hear as a combination of words, and doesn't make much sense as an apex is, according to Merriam-Webster, "the uppermost point, or the highest culminating point." Why would the end of your days as a slave require you to step away from the uppermost point of your life, or your residence, or whatever the term "apex" is supposed to mean here. This, however, is me just being nitpicky.
That aside, I think this is a great track. The vocal performance is excellent, the instrumentation is masterful, the mix is honestly great. I think they knocked it out of the park and I look forward to listening to more of their music. If you're stoked about what you hear, you should pick up their album here! If you want to find more of their music, you should hit up your favorite streaming service or check out the Napalm Records YouTube channel found here!
Thank you for stopping by, and have a great rest of your Monday folks!
Having just finished the Django Reinhardt write up, I took to the internet to see what's new out there in the world. It didn't take long to find something that grabbed my attention! Scanning through the Prosthetic Records digital catalog I saw a trio called Four Stroke Baron with a new music video out. I had to check out what this band sounded like considering the bizarre name. I wasn't disappointed, and I look forward to their offerings coming down the line.
"Cyborg Pt. II: The City" is a groove machine that pairs some prog based tight, crunchy riffs, with 80's pop vocals. I know, this sounds weird, but it's like Tears For Fears was singing over some groovy tech riffs. And I love it! It gives it this weird juxtaposition of intensity and sensitivity that pops, even if it shouldn't on paper. The music video is footage from a bad/low budget sci-fi movie, which makes the experience that much better. The drums are locked in, and the guitars are dialed into some excellent tone. There's even a passage that uses a Vocoder/Talk-box to spice up the experience.
The moral of the story is that you should check this track out. Will it be my new favorite band? Probably not, but it's catchy and novel, and the riffs are punchy and fun. Even if you're only into the cheese factor of the music video, I doubt you'll leave disappointed. If you liked the tunes you can pick up the 2018 album Planet Silver Screenhere, and you can also pick up their new offering Monoqueen Split EPhere. Additionally, there's a great bio of the band on the Prosthetic Records page located here. Lastly, if you want to check out more music, there's a live performance that opens with "Cyborg Pt. II: The City" located below.
To further my understanding of Jazz, I'm listening through Jazzwise Magazine's "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World". Each album is presented with my stream-of-consciousness thoughts for each track, my general thoughts of the album as a whole, and any relevant information I can capture about the album. Also included is my drink of choice while taking the album in. Thank you for joining me on my journey to [partial] Jazz enlightenment.
Album 87.5 Django Reinhardt - The Best of Django Reinhardt Vol. 1 Drinking: Seltzer
I need to make a quick note in this particular entry. I couldn't track down the actual 87th album, Django Reinhardt: Retrospective 1934-53, which was unfortunate. After some research, the closest I could get with the resources available was The Best Of Django Reinhardt Vol. 1". Being 35 tracks in length, I truly believe this is an acceptable substitute, and I hope you enjoy my track-by-track look at this record.
"Griserie": To start, I'm a tad shocked to hear an accordion at the start of a volume of music dedicated to a famous guitar player. That aside, the music sounds good. It's a shame Reinhardt wasn't around for modern recording practices to capture his playing, more fidelity would only enhance the experience. I suspect he's playing in the back behind the accordion as there are some tasty licks peppered in.
"Si j'aime Suzy": A cute, romantic song. Django is holding the rhythm incredibly well, and his ability to knock out these hammer-on and pull-off licks is incredible. Additionally, I'm floored by his tremolo picking technique. This was a fun track!
"Blue Moon": I love the big band sound this song provides. Django has a cool swagger in his playing on this track. Again, I wish he was more in the center of the music and the overall track.
"What A Difference A Day Made": A classic song, and classic performance. Over these few tracks, Reinhardt shows a very particular playing technique while playing behind the band. A great track!
"Rosetta": This has got that Django sound I was hearing about! Those chord changes are smoking! The little flourishes here and there are amazing! That picking hand is a beast! A great track, and a memorable one.
"The Object Of My Affection": I love the swing of this track. Django's percussive playing provides a great shuffle that keeps this song toe-tapping. The piano playing has some great flavor as well! The solo featured in this song has a great amount of attitude, though the following trumpet solo isn't my favorite. Right at the end, we get a moment of Reinhardt flair that is excellent!
"I Can't Give You Anything But Love": The guitar playing is incredible! This is what I've been waiting for this whole album. I love how it switches from vibrato filled soloing to blisteringly fast shred. I wish his playing was more forward in the mix because it's just so good. The singer in this track is also great, especially her scatting technique, it doesn't throw all these syllables in your face all the time. The violin solo was a delightful surprise.
"After You Gone": This song features the best violin solo over a jazz intro that this listener has ever heard. Django holds the track up with this rhythmic backbone like a beast! The song definitely has swing to it. Another great guitar solo on this track. Reinhardt's playing complements violins so well.
"Limehouse Blues": First, I love the name of this track. This has a real Roma vibe to it. I really like what this song provides. Why it took so long on this album to get to this type of playing is beyond me. His picking technique is out of this world!
"Swing Guitars": The title of this song excited me, and there is a swing to this song. The violin is laying some stuff down in a delightful way, and it reminds me of an announcer at a fight. The first solo has lots of class behind it, and then the song gets funkier and weirder as it goes on. I dig this track a lot. With what seems like a key change, the violin carries the song out.
"Shine": After 11 tracks, I still cannot wrap my brain around how he plays at this pace so consistently, it's insane. That aside, I was not wowed by this track, but it does contain some great virtuosity.
"Sweet Chorus": I like how off-kilter the intro is. The tempo allows Django to let that guitar work wail! I'll be revisiting this song later as this song just swings in all the right ways.
"Charleston": Given the sound of the song, I can only guess this is about the dance, not the city. With seemingly little effort, Django gets this song to pop with that shuffle strumming pattern he utilizes. A smoking track.
"Solitude": This intro spoke to me, all these little flairs from Django grabs your ear and holds the attention. It sounds like someone trying to capture all the sounds one experiences living a quiet life. Birds singing, houses creaking, and the sadness of living alone.
"Hot Lips": "Hot Lips" has some swing to it! This track has attitude! I'd say given what little knowledge I have Django Reinhardt, this would currently be the track I'd pass to someone so they could get a taste of what he offers.
"When Day Is Done": That intro! WOW! I loved it. The somber feeling of his tone as the song progresses past the intro is incredible. I'm utterly in awe of his ability. Sadly, when the whole band joins in, this atmosphere the intro has created dissipates into something less dramatic. Oh well, I guess it makes sense in the way that coming home from work would help you ease up and be happier. It's a shame though because the beginning was an enrapturing moment.
"Chicago": I found this shuffle to be quite attractive. A good head-bobbing track. Not much else to say about this song.
"Miss Annabelle Lee": I'm discovering I prefer the endpoints of the Django spectrum, fast and slow. The tempo and pace of this song are excellent! The mid-tempo offerings so far have been bland, even dull to me. Thankfully, this song has some spunk to it. Loved it.
"Mistery Pacific": The intro is pretty great, almost tribal! How he can hold that ferocious pace so consistently is beyond me. The offset beat this one possesses is inspiring. How one couldn't dance where you stand while listening to this song is beyond me.
"The Sheik of Araby": Another mid-tempo song that leaves me feeling bored. There is a blistering solo in the middle that's redeeming and worth hearing. Don't skip to the solo, the rest is skip-worthy.
"Parfum": A touching intro. His vibrato technique is so good. I need more soloing Django in my life. On top of that, his understanding of rhythm is amazing. We find Django blending jazz and more traditional styles very successfully on this track. This currently lives in the top three favorite Reinhardt songs.
"Alabamy Bound": Not a bad track in this giant spread of songs. It doesn't wow me after "Parfum," but we all be a "Parfum" all the time now can we? The violin solo is excellent (this is a trend in the Django catalog it appears). About midway through the tempo picks up and takes off. Stick around for that middle section, it's very worth it.
"Crazy Rhythm": This song has some great flavor to it. The brass section swings and feels fresh. I'd play this music at a dinner party. I'd love to hear Django and the sax player solo-dual, I bet it'd get heated.
"Out Of Nowhere": "Out Of Nowhere" only reaffirms my suspicion that I'm only into slow and fast Django. This feels like a cool autumn day for me. The sax solo is excellent. I'm loving this song.
"Sweet Georgia Brown": The intro features a great percussion part. I'm not loving this track, but it has a great party aspect to it. There are a lot of voices holding the floor for a brief moment and exchanging turns right up to the sax solo. I do feel the trumpet is too muted and doesn't shine in its moment.
"Sweet Sue": I love the trombone solo, we need more trombone solos as a people. These songs have been moving away from Django's virtuosity and it saddens me, though his chord work is impeccable.
"Japanese Sandman": This is a strutting song! Django's guitar playing has tons of attitude and I'm loving it. More slide trombone too, what a treat! It isn't my favorite Django solo, but it kept my attention. Don't skip this one.
"Saint Louis Blues": I feel like I should be sipping a mint julep on a porch in the south when I hear this song. It transports me to a life I don't get to live, which is pretty cool. I liked the solo best, but the rest of this song was alright too.
"Bouncin' Around": I liked this song right out from the get-go. It's got swagger and it feels like you're following someone around who's up to no good. Django's playing at the end has a lot of sass to it, and I enjoyed this one.
"Lady Be Good": Django's playing here feels very conversational. It works for the song, perhaps the guitar is begging the violin to be good. Ultimately the song didn't wow me.
"Daphne": The song starts with the violins saying Daphne with the way they play, very cool. This song has some pluck to it. I dig it. the pace feels right for what the violin is playing. It's more musical than the last piece. Django's solo feels perfect for this song. Surprisingly enjoyable song.
"I've Found A New Baby": I think that was the most metal intro yet! That dissonance! It wowed me. This song has some good tone to it. The drama helps it stick out! I think this is some of my favorite chord work.
"Baby Won't You Please Come Home": I can imagine having this is an old-time bar as it's just starting to open. It's daylight and you can still smell the sweat from the night before.
"Avalon": This must be an old recording or a live recording. Everything bleeds together. The music is good, but the product is meh at best. You can barely hear Django in the back of the mix over the bass. I would have dropped this track from the list.
Overall Thoughts: I wanted to love this more than I did because of Reinhardt's status in the music scene. Hell, he influenced one of my favorite guitar players, Tony Iommi. Unfortunately, a lot of it was his being part of a band and forgoing the guitar as the focus of the piece, given that he was a bandleader though, this makes sense. I'll come back to many of these tracks, but not the album as a whole.
Info: It makes sense why there is so much violin player considering he spent a good chunk of his career playing violinist Stephane Grappelli. Django was born on January 23rd, 1910 in Belgium and died of a stroke on May 16th, 1953 at the age of 43 in France. His recording career was immense, and his impact on the world is inescapable. Part of his legacy is due to the fact that he performed all this music with two functioning fingers on his fretting hand after an accident rendered his ring and pinky fingers paralyzed.
If you want to listen to some Django Reinhardt, you can check on out another compilation featuring many of these songs here. Additionally, if this sounds like your jam, you can pick up the above album here!
I wanted to take a quick minute and share my deepest condolences the family and Friends of Eddie Van Halen, who passed away today from a battle with cancer at the age of 65. It's truly a great loss for the community. Rest in Peace Eddie, you changed the world, we will never forget you.
Departing from some of the usual fare found here on Mainly Tuning Out, I wanted to spend some time talking about Kurt Vile's new extended play. I'm relatively new to the Kurt Vile scene having gotten on the train with his album Bottle It In and a few live projects performed on NPR's Tiny Desk series. At first, I was a little put-off by his loose performance approach and his general musical aesthetics, but something about it kept drawing me back into the mix. Now I'm a pretty big fan.
I'm currently working through Neil Young's discography (which has been a bit of a journey, holy smokes does he have a lot of albums), and there's something very similar to Kurt's offerings, yet, it still sounds wholly like Kurt's own music. I'm sure I'm not the first person to draw those two together in such a way, but there's a beautiful honesty to their musical and lyrical approach that is magnetic, even if off-kilter now and again.
Vile digitally dropped Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep) on October 2nd, 2020, and it features five songs with a total runtime of ~22 minutes. The biggest surprise on this album is the duet on the song "How Lucky" that features the late John Prine (RIP), which was a delightful and perfect track. The album was released on Matador Records, and physical copies are available for pre-order now, slated to arrive around mid-January, 2021.
What about the music? Well, that's the meat of this place of business, isn't it? Super short story: It's great. Fear not, we'll be going track by track like we always do here, but honestly "It's great," is the moral of the story and you should go listen to this EP right now. I'll be here when you get back.
The album starts with the song "Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness." It sounds like classic Kurt Vile, picked rock/country chords, backed by some piano that interplay with the guitar in a cheery way. Vile sings in his best early Neil Young inspired voice bouncing between contrary ideas, "You come home late, and you come home early. You come home big when you're feeling small. You come home straight and you come home curly, sometimes you just don't come at all." It moves right into the chorus, "What in the world has come over you? What in heaven's name have you done? You've broken the speed of the sound of loneliness, you're out there running just to be on the run." The chorus and the next verse are bridged by a delightful mandolin lick. The lyrics continue painting a relationship that's on the rocks in an odd calm self-reflective moment, "How can a love that'll last forever get left so far behind?" What a great way to set the mood for the album, reflecting on life, with some classic Americana music backing these moments of awareness.
Next up is the song "Gone Girl". This track opens with a country vibe with that classic one-two, one-two bass line holding the beat, and finger-picked guitars. The solo after the chorus sounds like it's being played on a resonator guitar which I thoroughly enjoy, but it could also be an electric guitar through some effect-pedals. Lyrically, this song is about lost love, "she's deliciously tall, sort of long girl. She's delightfully small, sort of song girl... That's nothing compared to the fact that she's a gone girl, gone like a knock on the door, gone with yesterday and before, gone with the wind forevermore." A pleasant-sounding song, which is a great juxtaposition to the lyrics.
The third track is my least favorite song on this EP, and it happens to be the longest one at six minutes and thirty-four seconds. It feels like a leftover track from Bottle It In, especially in the basic song structure and vocal performance. It's still a good song though. It's a dreamy sounding song, very well layered. One of the verses resonated with me as far as the topic matter of the song, " I like the feeling of being sentimental, and also a little mental. I don't mind crying, but I prefer them be tears of joy over rage. Anything over rage, anything over mind, and everything over age, I'm over that." If you enjoyed Bottle It In, especially the single "Bassackwards," You'll enjoy this track.
Next is "How Lucky." John Prine's performance was an enrapturing treat on this song. Originally by John Prine, it feels like the torch being handed off from one generation to another, though I'm sure that's not the intent. It feels natural, and the two vocalists mix together will. How lucky can one man get? For Kurt, quite, and honestly, if we all think about how amazing it is that we managed to get a chance at life in this world, I think we are all pretty lucky. This track is a gem. The only bad thing I have to say about it is that I wish it was longer than three minutes and twenty-three seconds.
The track finishes up with a song titled "Pearl." The chord that is picked that starts off this song is a great choice, and Vile's vocals are hit with a touch of reverb that layers nicely with the music. The lyrics feel like they're talking about some of the challenges and reflections of a parent watching their child start exploring the world, "where you been now, little girl? Where you been now, little girl? Why'd you come back looking stoned? ... I can see your eyes all filled with sand, I can see you in there up to your chin, tell me girl, now where you been?" This is a close second as far as favorite tracks. The guitar licks and overall vibe of this song really strikes a chord with me (no pun intended).
This EP was a delightful surprise to see come down the pipeline, and I will probably spin it two or three more times before the day is out. Check it out, and send me your thoughts! You can listen to the album here, and you can pre-order a physical copy here.
