God Damn is a 3-piece noise band from Wolverhampton who make, according to the press release, “rock music for degenerates”. After listening to the new single, which is more a 4-track EP, I can only come to the conclusion that I must be a degenerate person, as I really like what I’m hearing. The 4 tracks on this release are full of lots of heavy and filthy riffs, combined with plenty of melodic touches. And that is something I just love.

If I have to describe the music Thom (guitar/vocals), Dave (guitar/vocals) and Ash (drums) make in more detail, I think I’ll come up with something like filthy bluesy grunge guitar noise rock metal, because I find all these genres back on this EP. Whilst listening to this release classic guitar noise bands such as Pissed Jeans, The Jesus Lizard and Melvins come to mind. There is not much new going on here, but God Damn does the job more than satisfactory.

The tracks all follow a fairly similar formula, with lots of distorted grunge guitar riffs, heavy, and sometimes nicely melodic bass lines, but all have their individual touches that make them stand out from each other. Thom and Dave share the vocal duties from one song to the other, which provides some nice change in the sound. Most of all, this EP is noisy and filthy, but also pleasantly catchy and slightly addictive. The songs are on the shorter side, no endless repeats of riffs, verses and choruses, which are totally unnecessary when writing a good pop song really.

The main single ‘I’m a Lazer, You’re a Radar’ kicks off with a nice up-tempo noisy drum beat and some heavy guitar riffing followed quickly with quite screaming vocals. The bass is adding a lot of nice touches by playing various higher melodic notes. Mid-way through the track there is a bit of a turn-around as it drops to a more down-tempo almost sludge-like riff in the chorus, with the singer repeatedly singing the line “I’m a lazer, you’re a radar”.  Very catchy indeed and this song is a great single, which no doubt will do nicely on various alternative radio shows.

The next track ‘Fought in the Mirror’ is slightly longer (it hits the 3 minutes mark!), and changes singers and thereby demonstrates a lot more melody in the vocals, almost giving the impression Jello Biafra has joined the band. A nice little build up after around 1 minute is followed by a heavy, almost metal-like riff. The song ends with a minute more of heavy riffing after a deadly sounding scream by one of the vocalists. It really is good stuff.

In the next track ‘Dead on the Wall’ there is the short introduction of an organ whilst the main riff continues throughout the song, with various guitar and vocal parts providing the change in structure in this song. The chorus is catchy again, this time using a simple “Woohoohoo”.

We end this EP with the track ‘Double Negative’, which has a lot more slower elements and is pure metal if you ask me. It is melodic groove metal, again with those Jello Biafra sounding vocals. After a little breather we are thrown back into the heavy riffing with the singer shouting the lyrics “I got no soul, I got no soul” and “All I said and all I done is meant to freak out everyone”.

All in all, this nicely produced 4-track single release is a must have for any fan of noisy guitar grunge rock. You don’t need to be degenerate to be able to enjoy God Damn, but it sure helps you moshing away through your living room while you’re doing Beavis and Butthead styled air guitar playing stage dives of the sofa.

The single is a split label release through Distorted Tapes and Gravy Records and will be released on February 11^th.

While they work on their next studio album, the San-Francisco based dream-pop/shoe-gazing specialists Echodrone have recorded a six-track covers album which takes in Louis Armstrong, Gary Numan and George Michael among others.

The title is fitting (although the identity of “Duckie” remains unknown) as the band’s hypnotic sound echoes back to a time when mix tapes were lovingly crafted and passed on to friends. From the first note of this tribute, a similar care is evident and each of these tracks come together to form a sum greater than their parts.

It kicks off with The Alan Parson’s Project’s ‘Time’ – beginning with a synthesised beat that lush guitars build around. The pace remains controlled, rising to a harmonic chorus that reminds us just how well Eugene Suh and Meredith Gibbons’ voice complement each other.

Gary Numan’s ‘Are Friends Electric’ is instantly recognisable by its bass line yet soon becomes immersed in a haze of feedback and fuzz. Christopher Cross’ ‘Sailing’ sounds as if Gribbon’s voice is the wind itself ushering us across an ocean. ‘Cry Little Sister’ by Gerard McMann (which featured on the glorious The Lost Boys soundtrack (greatest soundtrack ever! – Ed.)) follows in similar fashion. Each track builds slowly before lifting euphorically in the chorus as walls of guitars fill every aural space available.

It’s the San Francisco-based band’s take on ‘We Have All the Time in the World’ (the only non-80s track included) that stands out though. It sounds as if The Flaming Lips and The Cocteau Twins had a baby that was raised by Kevin Shields. If old Satchmo himself heard it, his beaming smile would surely break out wider than ever.

And where did ‘Praying For Time’ come from? Suh assumes lead here and the vocal sways from channel to channel like George Michael behind the wheel of his 4x4. It creates a warbling effect that is truly mesmerising.

Covers should never be karaoke recreations of songs in the style they were written in a la Cowell Creations, but a band’s own take on a piece of music they feel strongly enough about to pay homage to. To that end this album sounds like Echodrone and no one else.

Muddy Miles are a heavy progressive metal  band from London who released their debut “Another Headache” back in September 2012. When spinning their 6 song, 39 minute opus one thing becomes abundantly clear… they listen to Tool, lots of Tool and when they are not listening to Tool they are chilling out to a little A Perfect Circle. Even their cover art is reminiscent of ‘Lateralus’, Tool’s finest work. Not that this is too much of a bad thing, Tool are one of the most amazing bands on the planet so a great platform to launch yourself off on your debut album.

‘Demur’ kicks off with soft guitar noises, before firing into some crunching riffs and is a solid little opener. Like the rest of the album, the vocals come in and are exclusive to the break downs… and you before ask, yes the vocalist Muhebur sounds like Maynard James Keynan. He starts off soft but briefly gets aggressive just as the band fire back into heavy riffery. Tool influences aside, it’s pretty hypnotic stuff.

 

 

Without warning we’re suddenly hearing a subtle yet speedy riff and Muddy Miles are hammering into the title track ‘Another Headache’. At this point you can tell the band have conjured a consistent vibe across the album, they come across an album band, which is obviously an impressive and vital quality. Unfortunately the lyrics are pretty uninspired, the chorus cries “Someone Open My Eyes”, which is tame and won’t live long in the memory.

We’re then taken into ‘Embryo’, which is jam packed full of sublime riffs and stunning layered guitars. The vocals are few and far between to make way for instrumental intensity.  It’s prog metal executed very neatly.

We’re then encouraged to have a tea break with ‘How About A Nice Cup of Tea’.  A real life tea break would be beneficial here as it gets a little sloppy. At this point we should be firing on all cylinders but the album gets a little unfocussed, maybe even a little dull. As with all good progressive metal there is a rescue attempt by the return of some decent riffs towards the end and even spirals into chaos but it’s not enough to save the track from a touch of mediocrity.

The rest of the album takes a very similar stance to rest, quiet break down parts for the soft vocals and then a build up for some heavy jamming. The album cries out for the aggressive vocals to run alongside the hard metal sections but it never happens. The band really know how to play their instruments, some of the guitar parts are mind melting and they manage to deliver a layered sound which really give the heavy parts some depth. The main problem with this band is the age old ‘Bands that sound like Tool’ problem, they are NEVER as good as Tool. However, with a little originality and courage to get the vocals in sync with the more hostile patches, we could be looking at quite an exciting little progressive metal prospect.

My house is definitely a house divided, at least when it comes to the age-old, fundamental question: TV or Music? My wife definitely likes to have the TV on, although it seems like she has it more for noise than for actually sitting and watching with any sort of real attention. I write this because a while back, I decided that we were going to listen to music where we would normally have the TV on. I ended up putting on Arms of Tripoli's EP from the back end of 2012, "All the Fallen Embers".

To clarify, the wife is about 50/50 when it comes to my music: She tolerates half, and hates the other half!

Arms of Tripoli, I am happy to share, is in the tolerated half.

I have to make a confession though: I had a really hard time sitting and listening without doing something else (reading, etc). Now, I am not 'That Guy', Mister Master Multi-Tasker, Smartphone always at hand. I am, in fact, quite the single-tasker. Then I had a striking realization: I have been listening to Arms of Tripoli at work and have actually trained myself using this EP to focus and be productive when it's playing.

Since my first listen to "All the Fallen Embers", it has become my go-to working music. At 6 tracks and 29 minutes, it's a really quick and easy listen, and as I was explaining, is really easy to listen to while engaging in tasks that require my full (or most of my) attention and brain power. There's nothing that I could call musically groundbreaking here, as is the case with most of the really solid, enjoyable music I am drawn to; "Embers" is tight, melodic without being twee or boring, and is Math-y enough, with texture and character, that I can listen without being distracted or annoyed by it.

Track 1, 'Vikings in the Attic', is repetitive at times (as pointed out by my wife), but has some build-up and time changes to add drama, and I really dig the sort of muted splash of the cymbals. Lurking just under the surface, you can tell that these musicians could probably shred us up with their chops if they wanted, but that's not the character here. They seem to be more about setting moods with atmosphere than trying to prove anything.

Track 2 is considerably more downbeat, a little melancholy even. Entitled 'City Speak', it's got a series of tight guitar strum notes, which remind me of parts in some of Dredg's earlier tunes, that I just love. For whatever reason, this tune evokes a little bit of the feeling of regret and maybe loss, and if you have ever read any of my reviews, you will know that I am a total sucker for grayish tunes like this one.

'Sectioned by Brooks' is slightly grittier in the faster parts, with a little fuzz on guitar; the slide-guitar sounding parts remind me ever so slightly of Keith Richards back in the olden days, and for whatever reason make me think of one of those marker buoys that you might hear, bell ringing through a fog. I wonder if Brooks are bodies of water or a person?

Next, 'Waking Eyes' is the longest track at just about 6 minutes, and showcases the guitar most prominently. Following that is 'Cliff Dwellings', which has some pretty deep layering - you can most easily hear the sort of jangling lead, but there is a lot going on between the deeper-throated guitar bridges. Last but not least, 'Radio Silence' brings it home with the quickest tempo, complete with jazzy snare rolls.

Arms of Tripoli, of Los Angeles, California, is something of an instrumental post-rock supergroup, with members coming from a number of other instrumental bands, and these folks are the real deal.

I mean, this is really good music, and I am sure that a wider audience would appreciate it, but realistically, it doesn't usually reach them. That means that these musicians do it for the love of making music, and to me, there is no beating that.

I first heard of Encircling Sea when (((o))) scribe Down Under, Gilbert, mentioned the band to myself (and others, more than once) and given he knows his stuff and has directed me to other great Australian music, I had to check them out.

Although a lot of us share similar tastes, music is often an individual opinion. Turns out in this case though Gilbert's opinion was spot on! Encircling Sea are a special band, "Ecru" their previous 37 minute 1 track release was an excellent introduction into their world for me. "A Forgotten Land" takes us further into their realm.

Musically "A Forgotten Land" is a dense, dark journey through various facets of extreme heavy music. There are elements of the likes of Deafheaven's blackened rage, progressive black metal, textured post-metal and more than a hint of folk.

The themes and lyrics of Encircling Sea address the decline of the natural world and a desire to embrace it. Guitarist/Vocalist Rob Allen recently revealed in an interview with Gilbert how the beauty and tranquillity of the natural world inspires him. It translates on "A Forgotten Land" as musically it shifts dynamics and evokes feelings of the Earth's natural power and beauty. At times crushing, relentless and heavy like an avalanche of boulders and mud sweeping all in its path. Other points are serene and ethereal like standing barefoot in a forest, earth between the toes, wind whistling through the trees.

Consisting of just four songs, its not short however with three at around 20 minutes and the (short) one at ten minutes. 'Transcend' sees a brief appearance of a female vocal, adding to the shifting atmospherics and pile-driving rhythms.

I later learnt the female singer is Rob Allen's own wife, Ramanee and the two combine with beautiful results on 'Become'. Essentially a folk duet it comes as a surprise around halfway through, but fits the theme of the album so well. Acoustic strumming, and layers of ambience, give way to the two singers. Their voices entwined like the roots of the trees they sing of. The lyrics tell of "coming home" and a "new day, will be upon us soon". Its a moving tale of returning to the more natural environment they live in now (Rob is an organic farmer), and leaving the grey and steel of city life behind. Chilling and mesmerising, like a musical equivalent of lying on-top a mountain staring at the night sky and views.

'Return' closes the album in more typical metallic style, a 20 minute trek through Encircling Sea's sound. Gripping guitar and layered electronics fill out the track, shifting from slower parts with soaring vocals to break-neck drumming and harsher feel. It continues to flow, featuring more acoustic moments and never dragging despite its length.

"A Forgotten Land" is a must hear for fans of extreme heavy music and Encircling Sea should be a name to remember.