Tera Melos - Tera Melos (2005)

I really can't put my thoughts about this CD into words. I love experimental music and I love this CD but I honestly don't know what to say to convince you that it's a good album, and I've spent a few days trying to think of something to say about it. Each song is great, except for Melody 8 which is 30 minutes of pure noise so it's pretty much a novelty track but 1-7 are quality math rock songs, and definitely worth a listen or 2.

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Vendetta Red- Sisters of The Red Death (2005)

Here's the funny story about how I discovered Vendetta Red. Video Games. Yes, it was Saints Row, the GTA clone for Xbox 360 that made me discover this band. On the Saints Row soundtrack was a song called Silhouette Serenade. This song was performed by Vendetta Red.

I fell in love with the song from the orchestrated intro to the main chorus to the lyrics. It was just amazing. It was probably my favorite song for quite awhile. And it was my love for this song that made me seek out the album from which it came. What I discovered was Sisters of The Red Death. The Albums from which Silhouette Serenade came from. Now I honestly just got the album for that song but I ended up loving pretty much the whole damn album.

Now this was Vendetta Red's last album. They broke up in 2006 after various line up changes and disputes. Vendetta Red are an alternative rock band from Seattle, Washington. This album was a concept album. The concept being about a woman named Gloria, after a nuclear war engulfs the earth, she is born as a half medusa, half harpy. She blames mankind for her disfigurement and she takes over the world. This album is what happens when she falls in love.

Now be warned this album is very dark (a growing theme with some of my postings). One song being called Vendetta Red cried Rape on their date with Destiny. Some highlights of this album include the songs The Body and Blood, A Dark Heart Silhouette, Silhouette Serenade and Run.

This is a solid, and I mean solid alternative rock album. The lyrics are dark for the most part but the style is flawless. If only Vendetta Red were still together, they really were an excellent band.

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Cyne - Evolution Fight (2005)

Cyne are a conscious hip hop foursome hailing from Gainesville, Florida. They are consisted of two emcees and two producers: Cise Starr and Akin, and Speck and Enoch, respectively. Cise Starr is a great rapper, he has a distinctive flow and delivery and good lyrics to boot. Akin leaves something to be desired but he doesn't get as much mic time as Cise, and as such doesn't really detract from the album. The production is the real highlight though. The album is very cohesive, but all the songs would work by themselves as well. The songs, and especially the beats, have a habit where I tend to forget what they sound like, but when I actually listen to the album it feels like I've known them for years. The main exception to this is Automaton, which is more aggressive and forward than the rest of the beats. There's an extremely prominent vocal sample which I love, and Cise Starr raps about a dystopian future with a lot of social insight. Despite getting off to somewhat of a slow start, the album quickly picks up the pace, and really gets into gear by the time Haze (track 4) comes around, and every song after that is excellent, with the possible exception of Fuck America.

And in case I never post Water for Mars on this blog, I'm going to go ahead and post a song from that album, the best hip hop song to come out in the last few years, with amazing production from the late Nujabes.

Pretty Apollo

Back to Evolution Fight:

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Alarm Will Sound - Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin (2005)

A sterling, ambitious effort from an adventurous avant-garde ensemble.

Most of the tracks covered are from the Drukqs album, tackling some of his most complex works head-on. Alarm Will Sound does a fine, fine job on just about all of these works, an obvious standout being the incendiary version of "Cock/Ver10" which serves as the album's opener.

The highlights of this album fall between his melodically-rich drill n' bass and his drifty ambient music. "Blue Calx", "Gwely Mernans", "Fingerbib", and "4".
Even when the ensemble renders a couple cuts unrecognizable, the result is usually very interesting.

The remixes don't hold my attention much, but all in all this is not your average "String Quartet Plays" type of orchestral cover album. In fact, calling these covers almost seems like a disservice to Alarm Will Sound: they treat Richard D. James like a composer and provide creative orchestration solutions with their imaginative interpretations, done completely acoustically (save the electric bass on "Meltphace 6").


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Matt Elliott - Drinking Songs (2005)

"One of the most supremely melancholic albums I've ever heard, complete with songs about mass deaths, watery graves, suicides, meaningless wars and a world where nobody cares and nobody smiles. And for a few poisonous moments, you might almost believe Elliott's nihilistic worldview. The final track is the best electronica track of Elliott's career (including as Third Eye Corporation) and one of the most accomplished tracks in the genre, making 20 minutes shrink into 3 or 4. Elsewhere, The Guilty Party swims with European folk stylings and is possibly Elliott's best dabbling with the style, whilst Waste Of Blood turns 1950s dancehall on its head, turning the warm genre into something rather more gruesome and, well, bloody, before literally turning it on its head by reversing the entire track.

Overall, this is Matt Elliott's one great statement and probably one of the most depressing albums of all time- but it's no worse for it. That it manages to be all of this without losing listen-ability is testament to both its strength as an album and the odd addictiveness it holds to everyone who listens to it."

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