Honig - Duze Zwierze

Honig - Duze Zwierze (Yrusmtsim)

This time we are record reviewing a seven inch record by German heavy metal band Honig. The reason I am doing this record is because Martin and Christoph who are the two people in Honig came to the Gate (the arts centre where I do these reviews) to do a concert and to be in an episode of Video Drama (You can see the video below) and while they were here they gave me a record so I thought I could write a review of it.

Honig @ the Gate 20.11.12

          The concert was a very good night indeed  and really great fun, the band played their heavy rock music and lots of the people from the centre got up to sing with them - I didn't though because I was just listening and watching instead. I thought Martin and Christoph were very good people and that it was very nice of them to come and play music for us because they are a very good band.

  

               The record that Honig gave me is a seven-inch single but instead of having two songs on it like other seven-inch records it has eight songs, they are very short songs though and it is a bit weird because the songs on it don't have any titles.

               The first song on side one of the record is 39 seconds long and starts of with Christoph singing "mozamy, mozamy" or something over and over and then the guitars and drums come in and it is very rocking but then it slows down a bit - I think it is very funny that this is such a short song but that that's ok; I thought it was a nice way to start the record off.
                The next song is a bit longer because it is 1 minute 37 seconds long. This one starts off with guitar that sounds a bit russian to me and then the drums come in and a voice that goes "argh, argh" like someone getting stabbed. Then the guitars come in and noises like a monkey in the jungle - I liked this one a lot because I thought it was funny.
                The next one is a minute long and this one reminded me a bit of The Who or another sixties rock group except with screaming instead of singing, I liked this one too.

Peter mit Honig.

                After this is the longest song on the record which is 2 minutes 23 seconds which is still a very short song. This one goes and then stops and then starts again all different and is quite a fast song that sounds very modern to me. I thought it was very interesting how the song kept changing and that this was a very nice song to listen to.
                  The last song on this side of the record is 1 minute 15 seconds long and had a nice shouty bit that reminded me a bit of a nutter shouting in the street; this made me laugh.
                   The first song on side two of the record is just over two minutes long and it is another shouty one that is very rocking indeed and very noisy and I liked it a lot and then after that is a song that is just under 2 minutes which was a bit less rocking at the beginning and reminded me again of sixties bands from around 1968 or 1969 but after a bit it gets very noisy indeed.
                     When the last song on the record on the record started off it reminded me very much of the start of Honky Tonk Woman by The Rolling Stones - here is a video of The Stones doing that song in Hyde Park so you can see what I mean.

The rest of the song doesn't sound like Honky Tonk Woman though because it is another heavy rock song with shouting in it - it is a very good song though and I thought it was a very good song to end the record.

           Overall I would say that I think Honig are a very good band and very nice people and it was lovely to meet them and see them play, hopefully I will see them again sometime if they ever come to the gate again. I would give this record 10 out of 10.

Scott Walker - Bish Bosch

Scott Walker - Bish Bosch (4AD)

This time in my record review I am doing Scott Walker's new record that is called Bish Bosch. I have been a fan of Scott Walker since 1965 when my brother first played me Love Her by the Walker Brothers which is the band that Scott Walker was singing in then. Other songs that I like by The Walker Brothers are No Regrets, The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More and Make it Easy on Yourself - I have a compilation record with lots of songs on but I have never listened to his modern stuff; I thought he'd stopped making music ages ago but he hadn't he just started making different music on his own without the other Walker Brothers. Here is a video for No Regrets so you can hear what he used to sound like.  This record Bish Bosch though is very different to the records he made with the Walker Brothers records and I guess this is because he got a bit older and wanted to do different things which I think is a good thing because anyone would get bored of doing the same type of thing all the time and want to do different things. The main differences are that he doesn't really sing soft anymore and the music is a lot different too and not really pop songs like he used to sing and I don't even know what I would call this type of music because it's not really like other music i've heard before, it's not really rock and it's not really pop and it's not really classical or anything else though maybe it sounds a bit like the sort of music you hear in a play in the theatre but it would have to be a very strange play to have music like this in it.

             The first song on the first record (there are two records because it is a double) is called "See You Don't Bump His Head" and it starts off with very fast drumming a bit like a machine in a factory and over the top then Scott starts singing about "plucking feathers from a swansong"and some other stuff that I couldn't really make out. After a while of this guitars start but not for long and mostly it's just the hammering drum and Scott singing and I thought this was quite interesting but a bit mournful and scary - I liked it though and it made me very interested to hear the rest of the record.

              Corps De Blah is the next song and this one starts off with just Scott singing on his own - I think Scott has a very nice voice even if he doesn't sing soft anymore. After a bit of singing on his own other noises and instruments start to come like violins and dogs barking and banging and then there is a very funny bit with farting on it, I have never heard farting in a song before and I thought it was very funny. After the farting the music gets a bit more chaotic and it sounds to me like the sky is falling in but then it gets quieter again with soft guitar and more dogs barking and then the guitars get louder and there are noises like it is pouring with rain and ships coming in to port. I think it is very interesting how many different sounds there are in this music and how it changes all the time. The end of the song I thought was especially interesting because it ends with a sound which sounded to me like swords being sharpened. I liked this song too.

              The next song is called Phrasing and it starts with Scott singing "pain is not allowed" over and over again with not much going on in the background. I thought it was a bit strange that he was singing about pain because with his new voice he does sound a little bit like he is in pain. This song I thought was a bit more normal than the other songs and sounded to me a bit more like a normal rock song with normal drums and guitars - it is still a bit strange though. At the end of the song he sings "here's to a lousy life" and it made me think maybe he isn't that happy which i think would be a shame because I think life is ok really and that it is a shame to be unhappy and I hope Scott isn't really unhappy and is just pretending. I think it's ok to have unhappy music though because it's good to have all sorts of music.

Shipwreck Kelly, A Flagpole Sitter.

           SDSS14+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter) is next which is a long song that takes up up the whole of the side of the record. At the beginning of this one there is lots of quiet and then every so often Scott sings funny stuff like in a voice that sounds like he has just lost his girlfriend or his friend - there are bits in this song where he sounds like he's gone a bit mad. The music is a bit mad sounding too and sometimes it sounds like a swarm of bees and sometimes like party music and sometimes like a phone ringing and sometimes like sad sounding classical music and sometimes like a crowd of people. When we were doing this song we looked up what a flagpole sitter was and it is someone who sits on top of a flagpole for a long time which I think is an alright thing to do but it might get a bit boring after a while, I wouldn't mind a go though but I'd probably fall off.
             The next song is Epizootics! and there is a video you can see for this one, the video is very good and I liked it all very much especially the couple dancing and the Hawaiian lady with the funny teeth and the maggots on the rose. Here is the video:

          I liked this song a lot though like all the other songs it sounds a bit sad and I think it might make you cry if you listened to it too much but I think that's okay and that it's alright to cry because after a cry you always feel a bit better than you did before. At the end of the song it doesn't sound sad though because it ends on a nice bit of ukelele which I thought was a nice way to end the song.
           The next song is called Dimples and this one sounds quite eerie like Scott is walking through a bad snowstorm while singing - it is a nice song though because it has a voice like an echo in it that I liked a lot and it's not really as noisy as the other songs so it was nice to have a change from all the noisier stuff.
            After Dimples is a song called Tar and this one starts of with a steam whistle and sounds like knives being sharpened. It seems to be a religious song because Scott is singing about God - I'm a very religious man and go to church every sunday morning because I think it's important, I like the people there because they are nice and friendly and I like singing the songs. I thought that it was quite a strange song because you don't get many songs where people are singing over knives being sharpened so I liked this song a lot.
             Pilgrim is next and this starts off with rattling drums and singing that is a bit like a red indian's singing, this is a short song so there is not much more to say about it though other than that.
             The last song on the whole record is called The Day the "Conducator" Died (An Xmas Song) and it a song that sounds a bit more normal than the rest of the record because it has normal instruments in it like guitars and bells, the bells are on it I suppose because it is a christmas song and that's a good thing because it's near christmas now and it's good to have music for christmas because then you can play it at parties but i'm not sure this would be a good christmas party song and it would probably be best to listen to it if you were on your own for christmas.
            Overall I would say that I thought this was a very good record and I thought it was very nice to hear what Scott Walker is up to these days because I have liked him for so long. I would give this record 10 out of 10 but if it was out of twenty I would give it 20 out of 20 because it is that good.

Cutthroat Convention - Gunfight@The Gates

Cutthroat Convention - Gunfight @ The Gates (Doubleedgescissor)

This time we are reviewing a very good CD from a 3-piece strange electronic rock band from London called Cutthroat Convention who got in touch with me after reading my reviews and asked me to review their latest release which they sent me in a lovely handmade envolope which they had printed pictures of scissors on. I like it very much when people get in touch and send me new music to review because I like to listen to different kinds of music and I get sent all sorts of stuff that I might not of heard otherwise.

The homemade envolope
with scissors on it.

           The cd is called Gunfight@The Gates and this is interesting to me because the arts centre where I do these reviews is called the Gate - we've never had any gunfights here though because we are different kinds of people than people who have guns; I wouldn't mind carrying a gun round but I wouldn't use on people unless they tried to threaten me, this doesn't happen to me though so I don't suppose I really need a gun.

            The music on the CD is kind of like punk rock but with synthesisers instead of guitars and I thought this was a very good idea and I liked listening to it very much. It is also very strange music and I thought this was good about it too because it mad me laugh.

             The first song on the CD is called G and it starts off with a noise like a door buzzer and then someone shouts out "This is madness." and then it all starts up and it is a bit mad so the person who shouted that was right. The reason that it sounds a bit mad is because there is lots going on in the song and it doesn't stay the same and it is very fast and there is lots of shouting and when I think of the band making this music  I imagine them jumping about and throwing their instruments around - I don't know if they really do this but it would be good if they did. I liked this first song a lot.

              The next song after this is called Ec=Mc Cow which made me think of a lion in a car crash, it is strange music that sounds a bit like 80's disco and a bit like crazy heavy metal  - this is only a short song and then the next one is called E in Disgust but I didn't think it was that disgusting and that it was probably a nicer tune and more tuneful than the others have been up to now but I still thought it was a bit strange - good strange though and I liked this one a lot.
              B Rip is the next song and this one is the most heavy metal sounding so far and reminded me a bit of Black Sabbath who I like a lot especially Paranoid which you can see in a video below. I liked B Rip a lot but I thought it could be a bit longer because it was only a minute and a half.

              

              Eb/flo/hate is after B Rip and this one is very mad indeed with backwards bits and noisy keyboards and screaming and fairground noises, it is a very noisy song but I liked it a lot because it was good fun.

               ABCDivorce is next so I suppose it is about divorce, maybe it is about a man going to the ABC cinema in Shepherds Bush (which isn't there anymore) after his divorce. If I got divorced I would probably walk around the streets being a bit sad for a bit but I would probably get over it. This is a bit slower than the other songs and also longer and a bit calmer but it is still a bit mad and strange - the strangest bit is the singing because it sounds in some parts like a robot singing.
                After ABCDivorce is DBase no pzlaens which I think are made up words but I could be wrong and maybe it's a foreign language but I don't think it matters because I think Cutthroat Convention can call their songs whatever they want even if they do make up words. This song is another quieter one and the singer on it sounds like he has just got up and is still a bit groggy, the music on this is very strange indeed and I couldn't really make out what the instruments were.
                Next is DC/Superunconducter and this one is quite noisy and very strange and then after that is Haol which sounds like a riot after a football match where they are all shouting in the street and banging stuff, this is a short one two. I liked both these songs.
                CC is after those and this one sounds a bit like a BBC newsreader from the BBC studios, which are also in Shepherds Bush, reading the news in the middle of some roadworks where people are drilling the road so you can't hear him properly, it is quite a funny song and I liked it a lot.
                  The last song on this CD is Ba dishonored and this one is very noisy indeed and songs like a violent computer game with lots of shouting and noise in it. I've never really played computer games because I can't work them but I used to watch my cousin Keith play them in the arcades and used to enjoy watching him. I liked this one a lot because it was so noisy and mad and I thought it was a good way to end the record.
                  Overall I would say that I liked this band a lot because they are funny and mad and noisy and I think if I ever went to see them in concert it could drive me a bit mad but I think it's ok to be a bit mad because you get over it. I am glad that they got in touch with me because I wouldn't have heard of them otherwise - I would give this CD 10 out of 10.

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. - IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O - IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out (Riot Season)
This time we are reviewing a record called IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out by a band of Japanese hippies called Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. The reason I am calling them hippies is because by the looks of them on the back of the record they are hippies because they have long hair and beards like the hippies from the sixties and their record cover looks like a record from the sixties because it has a sixties pattern on it - I've never been a hippie because I've always kept my hair short but I wouldn't mind growing my hair a bit.
             This record is funny because when you take it out of the cover it's not black because it is red with white splashes on it and I thought this was very interesting because I've never seen a record like that before.
           This record is also interesting because even though it is an album it only really has one song on it called IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out U.F.O. with part one on side one and part two on side two. It only has one song on it because it is a very long song and you can only fit so much on a record.

Acid Mothers Temple:
"Japanese Hippies."

            The music on side one starts off with a long noise and then the guitars and drums and some strange keyboard noises and some singing all starts off together after a bit and it's very loud and very rocking indeed. I tried to make out what they were singing but I couldn't even though they were repeating it over and over but I suppose they could be singing in Japanese and sometimes it is hard to hear the voices anyway because the guitars are so loud. The music keeps doing the same thing over and over again and I think this is a very interesting way to make music and would be very good to listen to if you were a hippie. The music doesn't carry on the same forever though because it changes and the singing stops and there is more guitars later on which I think are played very well and they're also lots of great science fiction noises from a keyboard that I liked a lot. Near the end of this side of the record everything starts getting faster and faster and a bit mad and they sound like they're having a lot of fun and then it all comes to an end with all sorts of different things going on - I liked this very much.
              On the other side which is part two of IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out U.F.O. and it starts off with long guitar noises and voices which sound a bit like throat singing which is a type of singing you sing by going AAAAAAHHHHHHH. The guitars all get a bit noisier and there are also noises which sounds like metal being chucked about and also a noise that sounds a bit like a donkey. After a bit of this messy type music the guitars and drums start up again proper all of a sudden and it is the same tune as was on the beginning of the other side of the record except maybe a bit noisier, this goes on for a while and at one point I thought it might go on for ever but it didn't because what it did was get noisier and noisier and more mad-sounding and then stopped with a bit long noise - I liked this side of the record too and think it is very interesting to have a big long song getting noisier and noisier and going mad because it makes a nice change from shorter, more normal songs.
               Overall I would say that I liked this record very much; I thought it was interesting, noisy, a bit weird and good fun, I would give it 10 out of 10.

Mindspan - The Second Cycle.

Mindspan - The Second Cycle (Silent Season)
And now we are doing a CD from a Canadian label Called Silent Season. The CD is by a guy called Mindspan and is called The Second Cycle, it is called The Second Cycle because it is the second CD that Mindspan has released though he has also made lots of other records and CDs where he calls himself ASC.
           Mindspan makes quiet, slow, relaxing electronic music that is very interesting to listen to and I think it would be very nice to hear when you are in bed so that you could fall asleep while you were listening to it, it would probably make you have interesting dreams if you did this.
           The first song is called Dying Embers and it starts off softy with a soft drum beat that sounds like a heart beat and other spooky sounds at the back of that which made me think of being stuck in a sandstorm in the middle of the desert. I liked this one a lot as I have never heard music this slow before and I always like hearing new things, I thought this was a great way to start the CD.
           The next song after this is called Exothermic and I didn't know what this meant so we looked it up and it said something about energy and heat and light but I didn't really understand this either. At the start of the tune I thought this song sounded like a street parade in a rain shower because the drums reminded me a bit of a marching band and the noises in the background sound a bit like a rain shower. Later on in the song an organ comes in that sounds like a church organ and there are also noises that reminded me of scaffold pipes being banged. I thought this tune was very good too if a bit spooky but I think it's ok to have spooky music.
           Awakening is next, so I suppose the tune might be about waking up in the morning and it does sound a bit like when you wake up in the morning and your head feels a bit fuzzy - I always feel a bit fuzzy in the morning until i've had a coffee and a cigarette but after that i'm usually alright for the day. The music on this one has more quiet drums which again sounds like a heart beat but maybe a stronger heartbeat than in Dying Embers. Over the top of this there are noises like electricity crackling and whooshing noises like the wind makes, it is a very interesting tune and it made me think of all sorts of different things.
           Cyan Relay is the song after this and this one starts with a sound like water crashing on the rocks at the sea shore, I think a lot of the CD sounds like big storms and so it also makes me think of the end of the world where everyone is dead and the world just stands still and all the houses and land have no people and all you hear is the weather. I think it would be a shame if all the people in the world were gone but that it might happen because we have too many wars and we don't look after the world very well because people can't be bothered.
           Conscience is a bit of a change because there is more drum sounds in it and these sound a bit tribal, there are also wooshing noises again which reminds me of the seas again - It is a very relaxing tune and I liked it a lot.
           The next song is called Propulsion and this one reminded me a bit of a factory or a building site because there are noises like metal machines working, It is a bit faster than the other tunes have been so far and I think this is a good thing because although I like the slower ones it's always nice to have a bit of a change.
            After Propulsion is another faster one which made me think of a night time train journey in a horror film and after that is a song called Snowflake which is not quite so fast and which did remind me of snow I suppose, but not just a snowflake more like a big snowstorm where ploughs have to come out or people wouldn't be able to go anywhere; I liked these two tunes very much.
             The next song is Subdued which means calm but I think there are calmer songs on this CD because it is another fairly fast one with lots of funny noises like a far away siren and
 banging wood and lots of other things all mashed up so it is hard to make out what they sound like but that's ok and I did like it.
               The last track is called Flotsom and it is another fast one but with a different beat so it sounds different and I think that overall this CD though it sounded all the same to me at first when I listened to it close I heard all different things but I had to listen really hard. I really liked listening though and I think other people should listen to it because it might be quite different from what they are used to and they would probably enjoy it. I would give this CD 10 out of 10.
           

       
           

Petals - Whether to Drown.

Petals - Whether to Drown (Sheepscar Light Industrial)
This week we are listening to some very good electronic noise music by a man from Huddersfield who calls himself Petals when he makes music. Petal's real name though is Kevin Sanders and I got to hear about him because he is a friend of Stewart who is a support worker where I live; Stewart is a very nice person and I went to a football match with him yesterday on Wormwood Scrubs and we talked about these reviews and his friends strange music. The reason this music is strange is that it doesn't really sound much like most music because it doesn't have a beat in it and instead is lots of long noises - it isn't really like much music i've heard before but I think that's okay because it's just different and I think it's good to listen to different things because it makes a nice change. You can see how strange Kevin's music is and see what he looks like here on this video that he sent us where he is making music by throwing a cymbal on the floor and smashing it with a stick. I liked this video very much.

              The first song on this CD is called Calm (Before a Storm) and it is a  very long track because it is over fifteen minutes long. It starts off with a slow noise a bit like a church organ which is quite quiet but then it gets louder (but still very slow) and starts sounding a bit like a factory where they are working on big machines or like an airport when all the planes are taking off. This noise keeps getting louder and bigger until it is very loud indeed and it seems like there are lots of different noises making one big noise and I thought this was very interesting. About half way through you start hearing the organ playing again and some noise like a detuned radio and even though it is noisy music I thought it was quite relaxing and I sat back in the comfy chair at the Gate and closed my eyes when we were listening to it. I think this would be a good song to listen to on earphones so you could turn it up really loud because I think that loud would be the best way to listen to it. The sounds on this track all quieten down at the end and as it got quieter it made me think of sheep grazing in a field, I liked this track a lot.

Holborn Viaduct in the past.

Holborn Viaduct now.

         The next track - which is also the last one because there are only two on this CD - is called Viaduct for Two and this made me think of the Holborn Viaduct which is an old big bridge in London which I like a lot. This one is shorter than the last one because it is only five minutes long and it starts off noisy with lots of noises which reminded me a bit of traffic noise or maybe the sound of ships coming in blowing their funnels. The song is like the last one because it gets noisier and noisier as it goes on and I think it might even be noisier than the last one though it also goes all soft again at the end. I liked this one two.
         Overall I enjoyed this CD very much and thought it was very good to listen too because it is very strange. I think that it's good to listen to strange music though because then you get to hear things that you've never heard before. If you want to listen to this CD yourself you can listen to it on this thing below and I think people should because they might like it. I would give this CD 10 out of 10.

Barbaros - "000"

Barbaros - "000" (Human Feather)
This time I am record reviewing a new record by a funny looking band from Liverpool, the reason they are funny looking is because they wear skin-tight masks and suits and look a bit like naked creatures from outer space. Barbaros are a band with three people in it, two drummers and a synthesiser player and they make music that is a bit like rock and a bit like electronic music and I like them a lot. Here is a video of Barbaros so you can see what they look like and hear the music they play:

          The first song on the "000" record is called Hot Squash which is what you call orange cordial when you make it with hot water which I suppose would be a nice drink though I wouldn't know because the only hot drinks I have are coffee and occasionally hot chocolate. The song starts of with the drums playing quietly and then after that the synthesiser comes in and the drums get more louder and quick, there are no vocals on it though because it is an instrumental and it doesn't need any because it is good as it is. I liked this song a lot because it is very loud and noisy and it made me think of a crazy party where everyone is having a good time. If I was to have a party this would be the sort of band I would like to play it.

"000"

           The second tune on the record is called Accent and it is another crazy tune like the last one because it is also very noisy  and fast and good to listen to. On this one the keyboards reminded me a bit of a church organ but this isn't really music like you would have in a church though because it's probably a bit too loud. My favourite bit in this song is in the middle where it stops and then starts up again with the drums going really quick and then some strange gospel type singing and very noisy synthesiser sounds - I thought this tune was excellent and I liked how it kept changing.
           After Accent the next song is called Les Noisettes which means the hazelnuts in french which is a strange thing to call a song and after that there is a song called Colin and Cindy. These two songs are both loud and quick instrumentals which reminded me of one of those bands that bang their guitars on the floor, it is very fun music because of how noisy and chaotic it is and I really like it.
             Moon Boots is the last song on the record and this one is another crazy instrumental which reminded me of music improvisation sessions we have here at the Gate on a monday afternoon. The reason it reminds me of our improvisation sessions is that we have keyboards and lots of drums here too but we also have guitars and lots of singing so maybe it's not so similar after all. I thought this was another really good song and a good way to end the record.
            Overall I would say that this was a very good record to listen to and like I said earlier I think they would be a good band to have at a party because they are very energetic and I think everyone would like them. I would give this record 10 out of 10.