staff picks - marty

13/01/2012: "We come from the land of the ice and snow..."

"Hey, so I'm back on here quicker than I thought I'd be -- yay!

Christmas and New Years certainly weren't up to much weather wise, huh? Still, the near constant rain did afford much grooving to music and playing of 'Xevious' on my 3DS. And so, full of fresh inspiration, I present to you here another exceptional selection of albums, mainly released during the last quarter of 2011, with 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' from the one and only Trent Reznor (and Atticus Ross) being brand spanking new out this month.

Ah yes, Mr. Reznor...

Trent's been incredibly prolific over the last few years with Nine Inch Nails, and then since their hiatus, How to Destroy Angels and his soundtrack work with Atticus. This new triple-disc recording for the David Fincher remake of 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' carries on where the duo's previous offering 'The Social Network' left off, apart from a strident cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" (featuring Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on vocals), with much eerie and brooding sonic malevolence being the order of the day. At over three hours in length you certainly get your money's worth if nothing else.

Speaking of Trent and NIN, the man has in the past recognised Gary Numan as being a strong influence on his style. The irony is that much of Gary's recent work has sounded increasingly like NIN and 'Dead Son Rising' is no exception; full as it is with gloomy industrialisms that will invoke memories of the first time you heard such classics as 'Pretty Hate Machine' and 'The Downward Spiral', just not as aggressive.

Another man whose work is always worth checking out is progressive rock's prolific everyman Steven Wilson and his many projects. The pertinent one here is Bass Communion and in particular their eleventh(?) full-length disc, 'Cenotaph'. This is a four track suite of ambient-electronica that clearly draws much inspiration from the likes of Klaus Schulze, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and Theo Travis, so naturally I think it's pretty gosh darn wonderful. Plus, there's a really nice 'Obscured by Clouds' type vibe about it that is most agreeable to an old prog-head like moi.

Whilst not ambient per se but similarly atmospheric in the extreme, 'Invisible Rays' from virtuosos Morgan Agren, Henry Kaiser and Trey Gunn should certainly appeal to anyone even remotely interested in some of the other things mentioned here in this blog. It's fully instrumental, letting the musicians' minds, hands and fingers do the talking via staccato fret board tip-toeing, synapse frying tonal excursions and general fusional tapestries of cosmic jamming. None of that really makes sense does it but then this sort of music can't easily be pigeonholed... thankfully. ;-)

Okay, so where are we? What? The Cure released a double live album? Shit, I was certainly surprised although pleasantly so I must say. 'Bestival Live 2011' = 30+ tracks of classic Goth pop from the masters -- can't moan at that can we. No real surprises, but it's The Cure, you either like them or don't (and I do).

Another favourite of mine is Skip McDonald's Little Axe who've, since the mid 1990s, had a number of futuristic and funky cybernetic-blues albums issued on such esteemed labels as Real World and now On U Sound. You'll know Skip from his work with Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System, The Barmy Army, Strange Parcels, and more besides, and his guitar sound is instantly recognisable on 'If You Want Loyalty Buy a Dog' as is co-creator Adrian Sherwood's legendary production skills. This isn't dub by numbers; indeed this is possibly Skip and Adrian's finest work to date.

Better go I suppose but I'll return soon enough. Stay tuned."