La información y el circo de Wikileaks

Wikileaks está chido, pero afrontémoslo, los secretos que se guardan los paises no es algo nuevo. Estratégicamente, es importante no hacer público todo lo que se hace o dice para poderse defender de los enemigos mejor y esto es una práctica que se hace desde que existen las formas gubernamentales, por más primitivas. En general, estos secretos se hacen, primeramente para que no lo sepan otros gobiernos.

Ahora Wikileaks ha publicado varios documentos para el uso de cualquier persona bajo un manto de igualdad, enfocada a que el público en general tiene derecho de conocer lo que sus gobiernos planean y su relación con otros paises. Por eso digo que está bien pero no son los únicos que se enteran de estos datos.

Que los hagan públicos no es simplemente "¡¡Conocimiento a la gente!!", no es una causa social ni un cambio de la modernindad donde la música, el cine y los libros son grátis. Esta situación implica un cambio geopolítico con posibles consecuencias bélicas; consecuencias culeras, no para los gobernantes ni los paises en sí, si no a la gente.

Ahora, son públicos estos conocimientos, ya no hay vuelta atrás ¿Qué pretenden hacer con esta información? ¿Nada más decir "nos los chingamos"? ¿Sentirse que le dimos en la madre al gobierno por una sensación juvenil de desprecio a la autoridad, como aventarle un globo de agua a un patrullero? "¡¡¡Pinche Calderon y Obama nos la pelan porque sabemos lo que ustedes no!!!" ¿Eso de qué les sirve? Si sirve para el bien de la gente, chingon, eso sería verdaderamente histórico, que se ocupen estos conocimientos en la vida real (admito, esa sensación de "nos los chingamos" se siente bien pero ¿Cuantos años tienen? ¿14? ¿Con eso se conforman?)

Para empezar ¿No piensan que hay otros documentos, mucho más cabrones, que los de Wikileaks ni idea tienen que existen? Neta que inocentes si lo piensan. Más allá, en el caso de México y otros países, no dijeron nada que no se pueda ver a simple vista, pero claro, la mayoría no lo ve; así que ¿En verdad que peligro existe? ¿Qué revolución?

Por otro lado, pienso que está muy mal que PayPal se haya desafanado de Wikileaks y que les hayan congelado las cuentas de banco. Si apoyan esta causa, no deberían tener broncas para no hacerlo, si alguien no está de acuerdo, pues simplemente que no done, pero esto solo despunta más el dramatismo de la situación, volviéndolo telenovela (abajo expando en esto). Como dijeron, ¿Puedes donar al KKK pero no a Wikileaks? (Por supuesto, PayPal está tomando una decisión de negocios así, y tienen el mismo derecho de negar su servicio que el de ustedes apoyar a Wikileaks).

En segunda ¿Están 100% seguros que los Wikileaks son totalmente verídicos? Porque ya parece circo de medios. Simplemente, les conviene a los gobiernos tener un chivo expiatorio por cualquier razón y Julian Assange dijo "YO!! YO QUIERO!!", aunque no hubiera sido su intención; sin embargo lo hace y se está regocijando en su papel de victima.

Digamos que los cables de Wikileaks son completamente verdaderos, la atención ya no es hacia lo que están dando a conocer; ahora va con Assange y su "causa". Ahora no es una cuestión de informar la verdad a la gente, es de libertad de expresión. Válido, pero no es el punto de Wikileaks, neutraliza cualquier poder e influencia a cambiar las cosas.

Ahora, existe la posibilidad que parte de la información no sea completamente verdadera (no al grado de que sea falsa, pero por lo menos desproporcionada), esto solo nos trae otro ejercicio más del "bueno contra el malo", donde el rebelde se enfrenta al gigante y se vuelve entretenimiento. Se vuelve la telenovela del noticiero y hace un daño más grande: El daño de la desinformación.

Por desgracia, la mayor parte de la gente seguirá viviendo su vida como si nada, el mundo permanecerá igual y la memoria de Wikileaks quedará como una efeméride más que tanto nos vale madres. Si hay un punto positivo, una verdadera revolución aquí, es saber como utilizar la información, al igual que no creerse todo lo que nos dicen. Se debe de informar uno, pero también crearse su propia opinión, cuestionarse y hacer algo al respecto, no nada más ponerle "Like" en Facebook, RT y ponerle estrellita de Favorito. No me refiero a armar una revolución, me refiero a aprender a tener criterio y, buscar como beneficiarnos de lo que sabemos y aprendemos, por más mínimo que se pueda.

El conocimiento es poder, pero si no se hace nada con él, es poder malgastado.

The Impact Of A Full Collapse

They will never be a cool band, no matter what they do, they will never be seen as innovative artists and favorites.

A few years ago, there was not a band any more scorching in a sentimental way like Thursday, i say “a few years” but it might as well be a lifetime past, in another time and another place it almost seems; sure there were bands that were a lot more scorching with anger and regret (Saetia, Usurp Synapse) and more emotionally sad and desperate (Xiu Xiu for starters), but Thursday was something that was bigger, bolder and more earnest, something that made them both real and at the same time like the ol’ rock bands of yore, full of a mysticism and detachment. They were like few others.

Of course, that was a long time ago.

Thursday will always be the band that tries too hard, the band that are way too brash in their sentimentalism, too poetic in their lyrical approach and just over the top enough not to be considered cool; sometime in 2004 the band became immersed in a lot of pressure for being in a major label, and many of their members mentioned the possibility of breaking up. Then they released City By The Light Divided, an unabashed poppy rock album that chased for a hit single and easy listening, betraying their best assets, making them seem like a dumb band at long last. Not that many people didn’t consider Thursday dumb before, casting them as crybabies who just whinned and whinned through their music that wasn’t savvy enough to be considered truly punk and not arty and pretentious enough to be considered truly indie, people in both sides of the critical frame considered the band another emo bunch who got dumped by their girlfriends and decided to bitch all the way to the bank and Myspace. For the most part, it’s their loss, since their early output is worth at the very least an occasional listen.

If there was a band that underlined the word “post” in their sound, it’s definitely them; the guitar lines and fractured rhythms did reference hardcore but broke through it for grander pastures while they also retained another post, this one with the suffix “punk”, by namechecking “Ian Curtis” in a song and voicechecking Robert Smith in some of the more anguished tones by throater Geoff Rickly, with lyrics full of existentialist quotes and insufferable feelings; hardly anybody mentioned Thursday along with then emo stalwarts Dashboard Confessional or Saves The Day, since their music was more dissonant, more universal and mature.













One of the band’s best talents, it turned out, was the ability to craft well-thought out albums, to the point of almost seeming like concept albums; Full Collapse featured many songs that were not only labyrinth-esque in their arrangments, but also hard hitting and going for the heart. “Understanding In A Car Crash” has poetically charged lyrics, but also parts that make it both a fist pumping hardcore number and a sad narrative to be sung by yourself, at different moments in the same song; “I Am The Killer” screams for most of the song, and confesses that it still hides it’s face in the coming days. But it’s “Paris In Flames” that defines the band and it’s moment in time and space, about intolerance for a big chunk of the song but having a chorus that’s memorable for pointing that “we all sing these songs of separation...”, refering to fellow emotional hardcore and not so hardcore bands that treasured sincerity in their feelings (or faking that) as badges of honor and artistic proclamations; the band looked beyond it’s short comings, while still homaging At The Drive-In in a big way, and created some challenging yet very well written songs about more complex emotions than lost love and nostalgia.

One undeniable thing about them, though, is that they are of their time, reflecting their surroundings in a way that might seem a bit misplaced if heard today as new music by unexperienced ears; and it’s more evidently on their 2003 record, War All The Time, which reflects the time like few albums without addressing world events directly. While it’s easy to write it off a record that uses the backdrop of 9/11 and the wars in the middle east as more universal emotional fodder, that's hardly the case, as most songs don’t really talk about those events, only the opening lines, “Falling from the top floor, your lungs filled like parachutes, windows come rushing by. People inside are dressed for the funeral in black and white...” and the title track point to the sentiments of the people in the U.S., where pride is either needed to save yourself from drowning or enough to be put to sleep, listening to the lullaby. Elsewhere, Rickly uses the metaphor of being “Asleep In The Chapel” for fundamentalist religious thoughts of revenge, taken by both sides of combatants in the “war on terror”, leaving spirituality out of religion to use it as an excuse, and "Signals Over The Air" talks about attraction and seduction; musically, the band leaves their fondness for ATDI a bit to let themselves flourish in their own style, making each song different from one another yet stringing them together so they can complement each other.

Perhaps the problem with Thursday is that they are such an early ’00s band that it’s hard for them to get out of that time period; because now it’s 2009 and they are about to release Common Existance, which seems very confused to me, like they can’t fit anywhere because they don’t know who they want to be. Are they trying to sound like At The Drive In again? Do they want to do an AFI type song? Do they think they need to approach a sort of My Chemical Romance sound? Do they have to chase their audience? It seems like something really insecure from their part, trying on different things so the kids today can like them, instead of doing their own thing, documenting the way they try to relate to an ever collapsing world, but mostly what they achieve is demonstrating how low do you have to be to appreciate the real impact of a full collapse.

Richard Clayderman Is Not Dead/”The Life Of Repo Man Is Always Intense”

I never in my life though i would be searching in Wikipedia for Richard Clayderman, the patron saint of every annoying bar pianist that dare give us the dullest and blandest versions of the most well known piano pieces in existance.

In an event that turned out to be an urban legend, it was said during the late 90’s that Mr. Clayderman was dead, unable to join Yanni and Kenny G to reap the fruits of supermarket music and yuppie poseuring stardom, which seemed quite odd and out of character for such an artist; then, it’s 2009 and lo and behold, i gaze at a giant billboard on top of a building announcing Mr. Clayderman’s show for February 14, Valentines Day. So i think a ghost will be playing for true and pretend lovebirds, one which takes all the soul out of the piano and gives us back a very well mannered corpse to consume.

















And guess what else? The ghost’s name is not even Richard Fucking Clayderman, it’s Philippe Pagès; that doesn’t make him sound like a sensitive wrestler at all!!...by the way, stop acting as if Mickey Rourke just crawled out of his own grave, he was amazing as The Cook in Spun.



























Not many people can really brag that they got their title as “Prince Of Romance” from Nancy Reagan, and i never thought RC fans really cared about original pressings and reissues, but thanks to Wiki-wiki-wild i know...isn’t technology great?!













But, to make this post worthwhile, let me tell you about Repo Man; weird, B movie-ish but surreal and at times incredibly hilarious and all around entertaining piece of cinema that you can watch over and over again, also quotable as fuck. Iggy sings the title song, the Circle Jerks play in a bar scene, polyesther suits and everything, a sort of loungy version of “When The Shit Hits The Fan” (and it’s the Earl Liberty & Chuck Biscuit lineup, no less!), dude from the Plugz scores the movie; fucking classic fun weird trip, and i looooooove it.







PS: Does Richard Clayderman have any album cover where he isn’t leaning over his piano and resting his elbow in it? He's like the Immortal of the new age shit, always on the cover of his own records.

Monosodic: Grevecht 3 (Fuzz On, 2008/Dec/26) Pt. II

Monosodic: Grevecht 3 (Fuzz On, 2008/Dec/26)

New On Kiddieriot

KRR035: Robe. - Glacial cd-r
Drone that's dark, melancholic and envolving; inspired by the atmosphere generated by doom bands like Earth, Sunn O))), The Goslings and Asva, yet Robe. avoids distortion and chords mostly to concentrate on the ambience of real doom, of hopelessness.

Comes in half sized slim DVD case with insert (featuring a short story by Marcos Hassan) and discs are stenciled. Edition of 50.
Listen: http://www.last.fm/music/Robe./Glacial


KRR019: Rubbish - ¡Disturbio! cd-r
Frequency abuse, audio collages and harsh as shit noise blasts make up the over-an-hour material that is ¡Disturbio!; yet the way it's cut up and arranged, presents a very particular and quite annoying way of doing sounds that may cause even noise fanatics to turn it off before it's over.

Comes in half sized slim DVD case with insert and discs are stenciled. Edition of 50.
Listen to excerpts and downloads two tracks: (check label site soon for link, solving problem as i type)


KRR037: I/C/O/C - Hammer For My Riches cd-r
First I/C/O/C on KR since the label's first release, I/C/O/C returns with a hardened, merciless assault that's harsh yet trying different things throughout. At 40-plus minutes, one of the project's longest discs.

Comes in half sized slim DVD case and discs are stenciled. Edition of 50.
Listen to excerpts and download a track: http://www.last.fm/music/I%252FC%252FO% ... +My+Riches

PRICES:
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Write or PM for trades, wholesale prices and questions.

STILL AVAILABLE (very few copies left):
METEK - 31 cd-r
REVERSE MOUTH - Harsher Fist cd-r
BUZZARDHAWK - Observations Of Your Proportion 3" cd-r
HYBRID FREQUENCY - Transgression Of Human Dignity cd-r

DISTRO found at the KR Store:
*SLOW LISTENER - I Like The Idea Of People, I Just Don't Like People cd-r
*TERRORTANK - Filling Empty Spaces With Nothing CD-R
*ARMENIA - Diez Sangrantes Piezas Metafóricas CD-R
*I/C/O/C - Weesick EP cd-r
*AMNIOSIS - Amniosis 2xCD-R
*I/C/O/C & AMNIOSIS - Doppelganger c-60
*THE NEW PARALLELOGRAMMERS - Series Of Snakes CD-R
*VA - Beauty Of A Dead Dog C-60 (feat: VIKI, BAD PARTY, PISCIS, MONOSODIC, AMNIOSIS, LAPATENTEPENDIENTE, MARIO DE VEGA, and more)
*HYBRID FREQUENCY - Ñ [Hispano Hablante] CD-R
*HYBRID FREQUENCY - A Family Portrait CD-R
*HYBRID FREQUENCY - America: Land Of The Free CD-R
*HYBRID FREQUENCY & MAGGOTRIBE, split CD-R
*TIMBRE MARGINAL fanzine

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NEXT: Loopool, Scissor Shock/Bubblegum Octopus split cassette, RedSK, Towering Breaker, BBBlood, Arklight and more.

Soon On Kiddieriot

Details coming.

Go Fuck Yourself David Keenan! And A Farewell To A Stooge

Today i got an email from Amazon, a notice on an order i placed but hadn’t shipped yet; i thought “Finally!!! I can’t believe it’s actually coming my way now!!”. For a few seconds while the email opened, i was giddy with thoughts.

Turns out, giddiness can be a fleeting thing.

Upon reading the email i learned they had cancelled my order for David Keenan’s England's Hidden Reverse, the paperback edition of a biography of three of the most inspired and important bands coming from the industrial music revolution, namely Coil, Nurse With Wound and Current 93. The order was placed many months ago when a release date was set but then it disappeared, pushed back until even Amazon gave up on them.

The hardcover version, released some years ago, has been out of print for a long time and second hand copies demand quite a few hundreds of dollars.

Why? Why keep a book out of print? The fact that it’s sold on eBay and the like means there’s an audience for it, so why hold it?

But, considering the subject matter, i bet Mr. Keenan enjoys the fact that it’s out of print and commanding quite the pretty pennies, making his tome worthy of such rarities as C93’s Dogs Blood Rising (Mi-Mort tape version), an original pressing of Coil’s How To Destroy Angels 12” or one of the hand-drawned and signed copies of NWW’s Insect And Individual Silenced. If only...

Or are you a cunt like Julian Cope who, by letting his books become rarer, cultivates a bigger cult figure, subject matter or writing skills be damned? Gawd i hope not, what the world needs is less of the likes of him.

So Mr. “Most Everything I Review For The Wire Is Either Sub-Par Or A Work Of Genius”, release the motherfucking book!! i want to read about John Balance, Steven Stapleton, David Tibet and all the people and places they crossed paths with. Release the paperback edition because i can’t pay 200-or-so dollars for a hardcover version, not only because i don’t have that kind of money at the moment but because i don’t want to be disappointed by it and feeling like an idiot for spending so much on something i might not love.

And once i get my hand on a copy, you better not be a Simon Reynolds or a Julian Cope, i don’t want to read your pretentious opinions, i want to read about the music and the bands!

So, if you have something to do with the delay of your book, go fuck yourself David Keenan!

*********************************





















Unrelatedly, Ron Asheton, guitar extraordinaire for not only the amazing Stooges but also collaborator of Destroy All Monsters among other projects, was found dead today.

It’s really sad because he was one of the very greats, the author of the imposibly-simple-yet-orgasmic riffs for “I Wanna Be Your Dog” or “TV Eye”, one of the noisiest and most steady rhythm players in rock (so much that, when the band reformed with James Williamson on guitar, Ron was relegated to bass and he was incredibly solid and forefronting in the sonic excess of the songs...in other words, he wouldn't let himself be in the back, you had to notice his sound and he locked himself up in the rhythm tight as fuck); his solos were wild, free and bluesy, stripping it of it’s past in the hands of black folk players but having as much sentiment; thousands of guitarists still try to blend the recklessness with tradition the way he did.

Sunday i saw a mini-doc about Iggy and also listened to Metallic K.O., not having the slightest idea that something was wrong; it’s a sad day for someone that might not have smeared peanut butter or slashed his chest onstage but delivered something as brutal and exciting as that from his guitar when standing onstage.






























Go listen to The Stooges and Fun House like right now, any chance is as good to listen to those immortal records. Farewell Ron.

The 100 or so Best Albums Of 2007 As Enjoyed By Me

100. Thurston Moore - Trees Outside The Academy
Acoustic over the top freak out rock from Sonic Youth icon.

99. Clockcleaner - Babylon Rules
Garage rock craziness and the best release on Load this year.

98. Religious Knives - Remains
Droning soundscapes from 2 Double Leopards and half of Mouthus.

97. Pig Destroyer - Phantom Limb
Thrash influenced fast grindcore, giving us one of their most dynamic releases.

96. Behemoth - The Apostasy
Experimental tones with unusual elements to their blackened death metal shit.

95. The Bark Haze - Total Joke Era
The Bark Haze
Free guitar improvs that defy expectations.

94. Eluvium - Copia
Ambient tones with just enough dramatic connotations.

93. Weedeater - Godluck And Goodspeed
Slow and filthy metal from these Eyehategod disciples.

92. Burning Star Core - Blood Lightning
Operator Dead...Post Abandoned
Total ambience from albums that experiment with mood and technology.

91. Destroyer Destroyer - Littered With Arrows
A hateful, fast moving and brutal promise.

90. Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound
Quieter and varied songs, some of which give more melody to their jerky angular guitar rock.

89. RTX - Western Xterminator
80's hair metal gets treatment from heroin noise heiress.

88. Job For A Cowboy - Genesis
Classic death metal yet with enough of their own take on the genre to make for a good album.

87. Carlos Giffoni - Arrogance
Overdriven synth tones for this reinvented noiser.

86. Orthodox - Gran Poder
Slow and brutally low ended, with unorganized drumming and flamenco-inspired vocals...i know it's 2006 but i had to include it.

85. Astral Social Club - Super Grease
Neon Pibroch
Ambient, droning and electronic from one of the best in the Brit scene.

84. Zozobra - Harmonic Tremors
Ex-Cave In members bring a heavy, sludgy album.

83. The Fall - Reformation Post TLC
Mark E. Smith embraces krautrock more than usual, and entertains the shit out of us.

82. Gallhammer - Ill Innocense
Mixing the crusty overtones of Amebix with the ugly yet far reaching metallic stomp of Celtic Frost, these japanese ladies give us a very charismatic album.

81. Antigama - Resonance
Eastern bloc grincore that's fast and technical and a good example of one of the biggest scenes in the world.

80. Pre - Epic Fits
Spazztic and rocking, girl singer screeches along the band's tight yet chaotic songwriting.

79. Armenia + Cornucopia - Un Infierno Total
Two giants of latinamerican noise collaborate and speaker hell ensues.

78. Jessica Rylan - Interior Design
The Artist Known As Can't takes a stab at sound artistry and results in one of her best releases.

77. 108 - A New Beat From A Dead Heart
One of hardcore's harshest bands returns with an incredibly solid album.

76. BBBlood - Experiment 50
Britain noiser delivering one of his finer releases.

75. Xiu Xiu Larsen - ¿Spicchiology?
Second chapter between both band's collaborations, more soundscapy than before.

74. Meat Puppets - Rise To Your Knees
Country punk's finest return with a calm psychedelic affair with long and really well written songs.

73. Death Ambient - Drunken Forest
Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, et al, improvise a downward, dark but envolving storm of mood music.

72. Battles - Mirrored
Mathy supergroup discover the art of the song and fight with it until both are one.

71. Astro - Astral Orange Sunshine
Galax - Never Ending Space Trackin'
Hiroshi Hasegawa uses his synth to conjure spacey calmness of black holes of pure horrible sound.

70. Watain - Sworn To The Dark
Black metal that stomps with pronounciation on the metal and deliver an album of dark hymns.

69. Prurient - Adam Tied To Stone
Dom Fernow gives way to harsh and ugly noise.

68. Bloody Panda - Pheromone
Combing the snail stomp of Khanate with the drama and melancholy of My Dying Bride, the structures and vocals remain in a land of experimentation while the songs deal with despair.

67. Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light
Returning to their power pop sound of early in this decade, the band deliver heartfelt songs like only they know.

66. Rubbish - Vexanation, The Great American Outhouse
Awful and punishing, harsh noise that's different yet unforgivable.

65. Mayhem - Ordo Ad Chao
Attila returns to the band and his experimental streak rubs off Hellhammer, Necrobutcher and company for their best post-Euronymous album.

64. Taint - Sex Sick
Real life depravity and extreme frequency manipulation from veteran U.S. P.E.-er Keith Brewer.

63. Circle - Panic
Katapult
Sunburned Circle - The Blaze Game
Pharaoh Overlord - Live In Suomi Finland
Finland's rock alchemists and warriors, Panic gives way to synth explorations and heavy as shit rock, Katapult conjures up a mescaline-soaked Venom, while jamming with Sunburned Hand Of The Man makes them explore their mutual love for krautrock, giving more focus and magic to their improvisation; while side band P.O. starts a motorik rhythm and an hour later, they are destroying the p.a.

62. Boris With Michio Kurihara - Rainbow
The Tokyo Terrible Three roll back their sonic maelstrom, invite White Heaven/Cosmic Invention/Ghost guitar virtuoso of emotion and deliver one of their most daring releases.

61. Sigh - Hangman's Hymn
Thrash metal meets fast paced, pseudo-orchestral elements, reinventing themselves yet again.

60. Vibracathedral Orchestra - Wisdom Thunderbolt
Michael Flower and whoever else was around recorded yet again some of the most trascendental long notes of the year.

59. Silverchair - Young Modern
Van Dyke Parks returns to arrange the strings for Australia's underestimated pop-alchemists, this time extending his influences more to give Daniel Johns' songs a more whimsical feel, and it works.

58. Pan Sonic - Kathodivaihe
Still combining the early Industrial Records sensitivities in sound with IDM-approved beats, Kathodivaihe resonanted like few electronica albums.

57. Bongripper - Hippie Killer
Instrumental metal that's not pussy or a direct rip from Neurosis, not afraid to go to quiet, vulnerable places without sounding corny and playing slow, tuned down riffs like they mean business, noisy and fucked.

56. Darkthrone - F.O.A.D.
Ferniz and Nocturno put on their "Meat Is Murder"-scrawled leather jackets and deliver a love note from black metal to Discharge and the rest of the crust punk nation, with some of the bm's funniest songs, period.

55. Hentai Lacerator - Covered In Fun
40 songs in 14 minutes; fast, unrelentless and with full personality, more than grind, this is a nod to the Gerogerigegege from the gabber/breakcore/harsh noise heart.

54. Angels Of Light - We Are Him
Michael Gira brings his career full circle with these collection of mostly cyclical, repetitive songs, like the devastating dirges of early Swans going to heaven for salvation.

53. Heavy Winged - Feel Inside
A free jazz metal noise demolition course in three movements, few records were as crushing as this one.

52. Wold - Screeching Owl
Black metal without much use of quiet space, bringing guitar noise to a whole new level for these blastbeated nods to the dark.

51. James Blackshaw - The Cloud Of Knowing
American primitive guitar had no better exponent than Mr. Blackshaw, who strums and fingerpicks his 12-string guitar into worlds known and unknown.

50. Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO - Crystal Pyramid Rainbow In The Sky
Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo
Crystal Pyramid... brings the band closer to Gong/Mahavishnu/Bitches Brew with sax explosions of netherworld journeys, Nam Myo... proclaims a new order of monks who vocalize themselves into nirvana.

49. The Angelic Process - Weighting Souls In Sand
Equal parts beautiful and brutal, the duo manage to give us their definitive statement of polar opposites.

48. Om - Pilgrimage
Al and Chris, before breaking one of metal's best rhythm sections, combine equal amounts of the heavy parts of their Variations On A Theme album with the quiter parts of the Conference Of Birds to give us probably the quintessential Om album.

47. Yellow Swans - At All Ends
Gabe and Pete wave goodbye with a psychedelic, free forming mutant sound that goes to electronic to punishing, ending their career in style.

46. Mammal - Lonesome Drifter
One of U.S. noise's best artists, Mammal returns from the drum machine explorations to giving us a more experimental work that succeeds in it's sum.

45. Zoroaster - Dog Magic
Painfully heavy, slow as fuck and violent in it's delivery, the long songs compromising Dog Magic deliver on the promise the band had made.

44. Kenji Siratori - Survival Mind
Prolific? Yes. Spotty? No doubt. Dada/Sci-Fi writer Siratori nonetheless has the ability to really bring a unique perspective to harsh noise when he wants to.

43. Benighted - Icon
Death metal that dares go where it usually doesn't dare to go, following up an incredibly tight album with one even more innovative is no small feat.

42. Boredoms - Super Roots 9
Eye and Yoshimi celebrate Christmas by playing with a full blown professional choir, resulting in music that's 100% Bore.

41. Sir Richard Bishop - While My Guitar Violently Bleeds
Former Sun City Girl Bishop let's his inner Django Reinhardt loose, as seen filtered through the murky, quirky and often scary worldview of the Sir with the undeniable guitar skills and originality of few.

40. Hild Sofie Tafjord - Kama
The quieter half of Fe-Mail demonstrate that she's not so quiet after all, giving us one of the harshest and most inventive noise releases of the year, via electronics and french horn.

39. Stars Of The Lid - And Their Refinement Of The Decline
Droning for 2 and a half hours and 6 sides of vinyl or so, SOTL reminds us of the bliss and fragility of sound.

38. Original Silence - The First Original Silence
Thurston Moore, Paal Nilssen-Love, Mats Gustaffson and members of Zu, among others, bring the skronk punk to free jazz for a much needed electrification the likes of Last Exit once did, giving their own take on it.

37. PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Polly Jean abbandons her guitar and sits on the piano, leaving her blues succubus self for her more delicate side to shine on one of her best albums.

36. Unsane - Visqueen
Noise metal legends return with a bluesier edge to regain their merciless sound.

35. Suishou No Fune - The Light Of Dark Night
Live testament of the dark, melancholic psych duo from Japan, mesmerizing onstage in a slightly different way than they do on record.

34. Baroness - Red Album
Country rock metal meets prog rock tendencies and amazingly well written, epic songs. More than heirs of Mastodon and/or Eyehategod, a whole other way to play Southern heavy shit.

33. Pita - A Bas La Culture Marchande
Peter Rehberg leaves his drum machine home mostly, and decides to explore more sides to his highly experimental and uncontrollable style.

32. Polysics - Karate House
Probably their most varied effort, fractured rhythms, pitch-shifted synth pop singalongs and the expected quirkiness make for a strong effort that makes you go from dancing to jumping to slamming in the most fun you probably could get from an album.

31. LSD Pond - LSD Pond
Alasehir - Sharing The Sacred
Alasehir - The Stone Sentinels
Alumbrados - A Generation Of Vipers
Baikal - Baikal
Bardo Pond as such didn't release anything this year, but these prove how great they are; their collaboration with Tokyo's LSD March gives them a way to quiet improvisation, at moments becoming something otherworldly, the Alasehir trio bring guitar psychedelic while the same line up, as Alumbrados, strip the rock out of it for something more abstract. Finally, Bardo becomes Baikal when they go without Isobel's woman touch for a heavy and fucked jam.

30. Wooden Shjips - Wooden Shjips
Garagey yet psychedelic in song context.

29. Trap Them - Sleepwell Deconstructor
Destructive extreme metal-infused hardcore that one-ups Converge's own excesses with something that approaches death metal brutal riffing and black metal's ultra bleak atmosphere.

28. To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie - The Patron
Quiet and melancholic, the songs on this lo-fi document are as pretty as music can get.

27. Múm - Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy
Their electro-soundscapes adorn songs that are well written and feel complete.

26. Hot Cross - Risk Survival
Screamo without the screaming, Hot Cross had a pedigree of screaming, mathy, Gravity Records-influenced hardcore; for their swan song, the band decides to stop screaming and use melody in unmelodic ways for a set of fulfilling experimental yet well rounded songs.


















25. Smegma - 33 1/3
Veterans of noise and free rock or whatever, the band pays tribute to the vinyl album the way they know best, by playing their chaotic, quirky yet messy brand of sound with the occasional skewed garage rave up. Not a whole lot different from their old stuff, but in this case, it's a good thing.

















24. Islaja - Ulual Yyy
Merja Kokkonen, a.k.a. Islaja, brings forth a delicate, folky and intimate collection of songs that, while not as out there as those by fellow countrymen Jan Anderzen or Keijo (after all, this is an album that ends in bird song), demonstrate that sentiment and delivery are still powerful tools.


















23. Einstürzende Neubauten - Alles Wieder Offen
Almost thirty years after putting hammer to anvil and anguished screaming to jackhammer, the Collapsing New Buildings give way to a powerful yet quieter and well-composed sound, more satisfying than their last couple of long players and not as out there as their private releases, that completes their range of sounds and feels as well laboured as their power tools n' junk metal past.


















22. Oxbow - The Narcotic Story
Apocalyptic cabaret rock, as exemplified by the Birthday Party and contemporaries The Jesus Lizard, comes full circle with Oxbow, whose use of decadent rhythms and dissonance comes forth to life via more acoustic instruments on their latest, demonstrating the power emanates from depravity, not distortion; and at the center of it all is Eugene Robinson, whose Bukowski in briefs lyrics and delivery stand second to few in this day and age, which is something much needed.


















21. Bad Brains - Build A Nation
HR, Dr. Know, Daryl Jennifer and Earl Hudson reunite for a new album and did the impossible, they recorded a fast, heavy and incredibly inspired album that makes it the right sonic succesor to 1982's s/t a.k.a. as the ROIR Tape. After years and album after album of mediocre shit, the band returns to demonstrate they can still bring the kind of fast fucked up hardcore they originated. That this is their reunion album and first in 12 years, is an admirable feat.


















20. Zelienople - His/Hers
Quiet, restrained, yet beautiful; words defy an album so complete.


















19. Oren Ambarchi - In The Pendulum's Embrace
Between his formative years as a noise merchant from Australia, to his tenure as stalwart of the Touch label and, ultimately, to his adoption as drone metal's godfather with his darker and heavier releases, not to mention his association with Sunn O))) and Southern Lord, there's no telling what Oren Ambarchi might come up with after all. Pendulum embraces the wide eyed optimistic drones of his Touch releases like Grapes From The Estate but with a pronounced bottom that suggest darker things lurking beneath. Probably Oren's most definitive statement.


















18. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Funeral brought the attention to Win Butler and company, and the hype surrounding their debut might be hard to follow in these hipper-than-thou ages, but the band has delivered an album twice as ambitious and profound as their previous one, with songs that can be hushed while others are celebrations of life with better arrangements and more feeling. They'll probably be remembered better for Funeral, but Neon Bible is the better record.


















17. Wolves In The Throne Room - Two Hunters
Coming from the Northwestern backwoods, these three metalheads have adopted the deep in the ancient woods atmospherics of Scandinavian black metal and injected not only with some well deserved barbaric lumberjack sensitivity but otherwise real sensitivity coming from swirling guitars that give more dimension and complicated emotions than pessimism and misery often associated with bm. At times somber, at times hopeful and never letting itself up for a second, the four extra long tracks on Two Hunters show not only considerable growth since their debut LP but also that bm can be trve even if it steps away from it's usual sounds.


















16. Lasse Marhaug - The Great Silence
Member of Jaz(z)kam(m)er, Testicle Hazard, Origami Replika, et al. serial collaborator of the stars and all around noise badass, Lasse Marhaug celebrated a big year, coming off from 2006's enormous Metal Music Machine and starting his new label with a (highly recommended) box set of his solo work released on tape in the 90's. Impecable credentials aside, Lasse's business is noise and he delivers it like few, making destructing wave after wave of frequency abuse but never getting purity get in the way of variety of experimentation, The Great Silence is anything but silent, exploring much of the opposite in a great way.
















15. Li Jianhong - San Sheng Shi
China might not be the hot bed for fuck-my-head-in guitarists like Japan is, but as this album is any indication of it, it's has nothing to do with nationality; Jianhong, member of the hard as fuck noise jazz group D!O!D!O!D!, presents here a guitar only concert that takes the listener from familiar sounds to punishing and destructive, having us questioning if a guitar can possibly make that much of a racket. While it does remind one of the work of Les Ralizes Denudes' Mizutani, Keiji Haino and Jutok Kaneko, among others, Mr. Jianhong projects enough personality making his six string explorations sound like coming from no one but himself.


















14. Alcest - Souvenir D'un Autre Monde
Coming as a side project from France's black metal scene, Alcest's sound bears more similarities to My Bloody Valentine than Deathspell Omega; while "shoegazer metal" isn't something exactly new (it's actually the sound of '07 probably), Souvenir... stands head and shoulders above most soundalikes by delivering more emotion and well written songs than sonic excess and it works to their favor. Many avant-metallers might have used dream pop sounds, but few, like Alcest, dared to dream and expose those dreams on wax.


















13. Ghost - In Stormy Nights
Masaki Batoh and company give us one of their most pastoral releases under the name of his psych collective; while most of the album is devoted to psychedelic and folky sounds with some overreaching sentiments, the song "Hemicyclic Anthelion" balances all by being half as long as the album, as well as being introspective and darker than the other half, evenning all for a very complete listening experience.


















12. Los Llamarada - The Exploding Now!
Monterrey, former 90's fertile ground for commercial rock here in Mexico, now gives us a bastard child that attempts to break on through audio; armed with the very rudimentary of instruments and recording equipment, Los Llamarada channel krautrock via The Fall and trascendental enlightment via punk rock's fuck everything except what we're doing; sound and band becomes one and, on the riff cycles played by them, lurks something big, scary and essential.


















11. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
For their latest act, the four acid-washed animals attempted to throw away their lenghty instrumental improvisations and folky singer-songwriter sensibilities, saving just enough writing skills and trippy instrumental experimentation to compose the best batch of pop songs they can, and come out of this act as a fresh, reinvented front without really changing. "For Reverend Green" celebrates something or another while "Fireworks" let's love rule; everywhere in between, the first true song oriented AnCo album presents us a party.


















10. Municipal Waste - The Art Of Partying
Of course, if you aren't a fan of old Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, Anthrax, etc (not to mention D.R.I., Suicidal Tendencies and the like crossover bands), it's very probable that this album might not sound like top ten material; but for us who still headbang to the old riffs of thrash metal, Municipal Waste played our song; a brash, uncompromising heavy n' fast songfest of vaguely metaphorical references to partying, and a soundtrack (by the way of the "Municipal Waste is gonna fuck-you-up!!" chant) to bashing the hard and heavy way.

















9. Descartes A Kant - Paper Dolls
Coming off as the bastard child of Mr Bungle and Deerhoof, Guadalajara's multi-costumed ones didn't succeeded by being original (which they aren't) or by proving they can play many musical styles on the same song (which they can but, then again, others have done it better); the reason Paper Dolls is such an irresistable album is because they prove they can write memorable songs in ever-shifting sounds and still feel like they do what they like, in the styles that they like. While their influences show, most of the songs here are so fun and hard (although the lyrical content might not be as euphoric), one can't deny their skills as songwriters or the energetic delivery they perform them with.












8. Kousokuya - Echoes From Deep Underground
Ray Night 2006.10.18
Jutok Kaneko's passing left a hole within japanese psych no one will fill; and, more than an epitaph, these two concerts showcase Jutok's mastery not only in his instrument, but also as a band leader, guiding his bandmates over free passages, melancholic sections, heavy breaks and music that overall doesn't feel improvised as much as transmitted from somewhere deep in the soul and unto our ears. A testament to a great.


















7. Sutcliffe Jügend - This Is The Truth
Power electronics, extreme industrial and harsh noise in general are having some sort of big appreciation period at the moment, as artist old and new are active and fighting for their limited edition runs to sell out first; and while most P.E. performers worships at the altar of Come Org/Broken Flag/Tesco, few really go beyond that altar in their executions. So leave it to these true pioneers and experts in extremism, Kevin Tomkins and Paul Taylor, to re-draw the map and attempt something else to make p.e. more powerful, by giving silence and whispering as much space as screaming and blasting. This Is The Truth might not become a quintessential document of noise, but it surely will be one of the few to blame for shifting perspectives within it.




















6. Melt-Banana - Bambi's Dilemma
Continuing with their more song-oriented material, Melt-Ba decide to use their hyper-fast attack only where it counts on the main songs of this album, resulting in some of their most memorable in their whole career, while still have the balls to give us a whole section of sub-minute songs AND two synth blasting space truckers. Yako, Agata and Rika don't really change approach but evolve into something, making Bambi's not only the great record it is, but an invitation to expect something else whenever these genius chipmunks decide to drop a follow up.



















5. Nadja - Radiance Of Shadows
Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker have made good if not great albums before this one, but Radiance Of Shadows delivers everything the duo has been making since Nadja was a pseudonym for Baker's solo explorations: deep bass rumbling underneat, samples and effects giving wave after wave of light and long pieces that surround the listener with something beautiful yet terrifying that's difficult to put into words. On Radiance..., they deliver all this into some of their best written and arranged pieces to bring us probably their definitive and more rounded album, one whose emotional context is so tidal, one wonders how the speakers don't break to let all those sounds loose in the room.



















4. Kemialliset Ystävät - Untitled
Jan Anderzen and associates have many releases, not only as KY but also in many nicknames and configurations, many of those being some of Finland's best avant-whatever artists and groups; still, for this Untitled album, Anderzen and co-conspirators use everything they are known for: random sounds, electric instruments, homemade sound generators, well arranged songs and improvisation to build one of the best, most psychedelic albums ever. Where nothing is what it seems, it could only mean that it invites for multiple listens to be transported somewhere else.


3. Neurosis - Given To The Rising
After wandering out into somber and less metallic regions with their last two albums, the mighty Neurosis probably would be expected to deliver another introspective collection of songs; that they did, but they also returned to playing their brand of heavy, punishing music. That a band can successfully retake their old, signature sound and progress into another with the accumulation of experiments and the atmosphere of their recent albums is something that is not seen everyday, especially when said album is as solid as Through Silver In Blood or Enemy Of The Sun, more than ten years apart, is something only Neurosis could have done.


2. Jesu - Conqueror
Justin Broadrick doesn't have to prove anything to anyone, his latest vehicule Jesu has already demonstrated that it can conjure up sounds both destructive and contemplative, often at the same time; instead of doing just another album of swirling, doomy guitars and face being snobbed over Nadja, Alcest, The Angelic Process, etc. Justin decides to use his sonic powers to perfect his songwriting skills (as left by the last Godflesh album) and give out way for pure emotion to flow through it all. Contemplating life by it's sorrow and it's ecstasy, a song like stand out "Transfigure" explores feeling like crap in such a way that by the time the first verse is repeated, it's more of a celebration instead of a lament, finding hope in loss being a contradiction worthy of the sound within Conqueror.

















1. Rhys Chatham - A Crimson Grail (For 400 Electric Guitars)
The composer delivers to Paris a concert like no other could have been done; multi-guitar compositions are nothing new and Glenn Branca can tell you they can be limiting, so when Rhys Chatham, master minimalist, wrote a piece for 400 six stringers, one could only imagining another Guitar Trio or an Ascension Part II even; but, in fact, the sound ended up being something different. While i can only imagine how amazing it would have been to witness the performance live, the recorded version is something that shines on it's own and proves the power of the piece easier; when played at a low volume, A Crimson Grail becomes a meditative ambient piece of sublime and delicate detail, but when the volume is cranked, the weight of so much would and steel wires comes over you and you are crushed by it's intensity; in other words, this work is as ethereal, envolving and profound as any of the very best drone, instrumental/post rock or ambient albums and as pulverizing, dark and challenging as any of the top avant-metal, noise or heavy psych records released this year. A true work of art.