Back From The Fire

It's been a long month or two of silence, but it was much needed. While my summer was nothing near dreadful, it was impossible to keep up with the outside world. Fire Island is an interesting place, and the particular neighborhood I found myself in was incredibly insular, isolated from the rest of the world. An Internet connection alone wasn't enough, so I hung up my coat and sat on the beach for a month (and worked my ass of in a restaurant, to boot).

But now the pieces are being picked up exactly where they left off, and already the wheels are in considerable motion. You can expect to see much more on NoiseCreep and Resident Advisor, and I have some big plans for the coming fall. This also includes a move to Brooklyn, which, after much thought, turned out to be the wisest option for everything that I am wanting to do...which is, as always, a wide variety of things.

Jeff Mills for Resident Advisor & Fuck The Facts for NoiseCreep

One of my highest priorities is to post my writings right about the time they're published, but from time to time it's difficult to stay on point. I'm still living on a fantasy summer island, but have been keeping myself plugged into my two favorite genres: metal and techno. Before I left for Fire Island, I spent my final, epic weekend with a string of memorable nights. On Wednesday, my friend Mattis and I drove up to Boston for a RBMA Thomas Oberheim workshop and Le Loup at Midweek Techno. Thursday was Raster-Noton at Make It New, and Friday - the day the up button broke on my car stereo's volume - we drove back to Brooklyn with a full car for Bunker, which featured R-N and Insideout (I think Grant is my new hero) and an epic 6hour tagteam between Jan Krueger and Derek Plaslaiko. The following night was Jeff Mills at the Sullivan Room, topped with a Cadenza party on the Bar 13 rooftop the following afternoon. Easily one of the best (and longest) weekends of my life. My review of Mills was a feat - making sense of one night amongst all of that can be difficult when you consider how much one event will blend into another. It was truly a weekend of loving life, and Mills' set (especially when he played "The Bells") was the opposite of a heartbreak.

True love?

Secondly, I'm on the verge of digging into new metal, and I have big plans with NoiseCreep that hit on a very personal level in the near future. Still, we wanted to know what Fuck The Facts couldn't leave home without - aside from, of course, instruments and merch - because they are just an awesome band. Please go see them if they're coming to your town.

You can read the reviews, posted here:
Jeff Mills @ Sullivan Room for Resident Advisor
Fuck the Facts Hit the Road With Five Essential Items

Audion - "Look At The Moon" for Resident Advisor

Audion reviews are sparse on the Internet, and in my world he is a rather big deal. I'm happy to have reviewed the latest single, "Look At The Moon," which I've been hearing often and loving every second. I'm hoping to hear It's Full Of Blinding Light soon - the limited 12" that ran at a mere 50 copies and was only available via the Ghostly store and a small shop in Berlin. I know a lot of people, but I imagine I'll have to do a decent amount of digging just to lay eyes on the vinyl. Nevertheless, I'm always looking forward to more from Audion. "I Am The Car" and "Look At The Moon" are two pieces of what looks like a much larger puzzle, and I think this will be Dear's strongest alias yet.

You can read the review, posted here: Audion - Look At The Moon

Mumakil & Linkin Park for NoiseCreep

Mumakil + Linkin Park = probably two of the most unexpected pairings of bands you'd think to see in a blog title, but in this case it's catch up for me and my recently postings. I really feel that Mumakil - the Swiss "blastcore" band that named themselves after the large elephant-like creatures in The Two Towers (so cool, I'm such a nerd) - lives up to its brutal declarations, and their live footage from Le Romandie further the point. As for Linkin Park, I'm going to bare all: I saw the second Transformers movie with a motley crew yesterday, and between writing about the video and then seeing the film - in which Jablonsky definitely borrows heavily from the LP single to compose the score during explosive peaks - the song has officially grown on me. It's definitely better than some of their singles from the past, despite how big it grew their nu-metal empire.

You can read the reviews, posted here:
Mumakil -- Video Footage From Le Romandie
Linkin Park 'New Divide' -- Video

Spinal Tap for NoiseCreep

Holy christ am I busy! While there are countless grammatical errors in that statement, it is wildly appropriate. The added stress of getting flu symptoms on Day 1 of my new full-time dayjob - one which is completely unrelated to music journalism and for the next three months - certainly didn't help, but to be posting about a piece that went up well over 2 days ago just seems so...late. Nevertheless, I'm happy to be writing more and more about the forthcoming Spinal Tap relaunch. The band is at it again and in such a meta-world it's nice to see some of the pioneers of entertaining, tongue-in-cheek genius give it another go.

You can read the review, posted here: Spinal Tap 'Back From The Dead' -- Full Album Stream

GAS @ Miller Theater for Resident Advisor

I've always appreciated ambient music, but my love always rested with IDM. In the earliest part of this decade, Autechre, Squarepusher, Jega and sometimes Funkstorung were in heavy rotation, and Chris Clark's Clarence Park is one of my all-time favorite albums. Ambient music is definitely a cerebral kind, with its most base use being to simply "chill out." Much like other genres, though, there are so many offerings to choose from...many of which suck. On the opposite end of the spectrum sits Wolfgang Voigt, who dominates the ambient realm with his GAS project from the turn of the last decade. I'm still so impressed by his performance at the Miller Theater, which was the closest I was able to get to Mutek this year.

You can read the review, posted here: GAS @ Miller Theater for Resident Advisor

Movement 2009 In Review for Resident Advisor

I've already mentioned several times here how Detroit was an incredibly enriching experience for me. In fact, I called it before I even went, but it was a bit of a give-in. Myself and a handful of other Resident Advisor contributors covered most of the festival, and I was lucky enough to be assigned all of my favorite highlights. I'm most thrilled that Monty Luke was pleased with the Mothership review, as he and everyone else from the San Francisco-based community conscious label had a blast that night. The other major point for me was Cassy, a female DJ who's come blasting through the doors and taken a seat at the table of my favorite DJs. I'd seen her before, but her set at House 'n Home at Oslo is the first thing I've been mentioning when people ask me what I liked the most. I can only hope that dubbing her "the Sophia Loren of DJs" goes viral and she gets properly appointed. Damian Lazarus wins Breakthrough Artist in my own personal awards ceremony, and I still watch YouTube videos of Adam Beyer's set on a regular basis. Viva la Beatport stage!

You can read the review, posted here: Movement 2009 in review

Incubus for NoiseCreep

"Pardon Me" is a great song. There's so much music from the late 90s that I'd rather forget, but this one stays afloat. You might not hear me cranking this from my car stereo at all times (lately, it's been the Cassy Resident Advisor podcast from way back), but it's a definitive piece that captures the mainstream progress of nu-metal moving away from aggro/anti-parent whining and towards a much wider audience. Brandon Boyd also impresses me very much - he can be a good lyricist and is a strong singer, visual/fine artist and author. It's difficult enough to be good in any of those fields, let alone three. I'm also looking forward to checking out this yet-to-be titled documentary because the clip of "Pardon Me's" history is told really well. Overall, I think this greatest hits collection has very good timing.

You can read the review, posted here: Incubus Set to Release 'Monuments and Melodies' and Documentary

Vanna & PsyOpus for NoiseCreep

During my wonderful time spent in Detroit for Movement, there was plenty of action still going on at NoiseCreep. Vanna, who hail from my former city of Boston, and PsyOpus had videos posted. The latter can really put on one hell of a show, and is one of my MetalBlade favorites. They're on tour, of course, and will be in New York on July 12th. Can you wait until then? There's a new song up on their MySpace page.

You can read the reviews, posted here:
Vanna 'Safe To Say' -- Video
PsyOpus 'The Burning Halo' -- Video

Voodeux - "The Paranormal" for Resident Advisor

This was an exceptionally challenging review for me. While I've been writing about music for a long time, I can't say that writing about techno is one of my older trades. Facing any genre is difficult, but while I've spent many years as a lover of electronic music I've only been personally invested - and fairly dedicated - to techno for about two years. There's so much more at risk, much like a romantic relationship you truly stand behind because you believe in it.

Mothership is one of my favorite record labels. Resident Advisor is one of my favorite sources of music journalism. Tanner Ross, who comprises one half of Voodeux, is a producer and DJ from the Boston scene, and I've had the pleasure to watch this particular project cook slowly. The end result is the forthcoming release of The Paranormal and Voo's debut live performance, which just kicked off my DEMF experience at the C-Pop Gallery in Detroit. You can imagine there was a lot riding on this - it only helped that after several sit-down meals of ingesting the entirety of the album I found a copious amount of positive reflections to put in order.

I'd only be repeating myself to say more, but I'm particularly proud of this, so I hope you enjoy it. Purchasing the Voodeux album is highly recommended, and they have a pretty sweet deal going on.

You can read the review, posted here: Voodeux - The Paranormal