Covering all the Music You Didn't Know About Since '96

Cascading loops with dark soundscapes and Latin-influences and velvety melodies, “Pequenas Canciones de Amor” reminds me of something off of Acuarela Discos out of Spain. Inflected indie rock noodles throughout this stirring experimental album. Exploring a variety of styles, O Paradis deploys a king’s ransom worth of diverse instrumentation. But the one all encompassing common denominator is heady vocals and a knack for crafty a finely tuned song. There’s seventeen tracks here that bridge the gap between Euro-pop, indie-pop, electronica, experimental, and abstract. I love it. Thank you Tourette Records!

Interesting remix of the original tracks from Species of Fishes albums “Songs of a Dumb World” and “Trip Trap” were utilized throughout this rather lengthy 56 minute jaunt into experimental music land. Muslimgauze is known for their Arabic influences and brooding electronica with an interesting mixing technique. They shed some of that here with shimmering electronic stabs and manic looping techniques that have sometimes only percolated in the backdrop of past endeavors. I found this remix album to be fantastic and totally fascinating. Worth a deep dive for the adventuresome music listener for sure.

This almost seems like a throw-back, back-to-the-basics album for the Deftones. “White Diamonds” features druggy and sludgy guitar tones that shred with stoner rock ferocity amid Chino Moreno’s trademark out-of-this-world lyrical content delivered via screechy screams, fast spitting almost-raps, and softly sung spoken words. Still as atmospheric as their past releases, each tune seems to build off of one another delivering a true ‘album’ feel that the iTunes geeks won’t understand unless their playlist is the entire album beginning to end. Love the low-end bass tone on this album too; which is a great nod towards Chi who suffered a debilitating brain injury who sadly was absent but everyone is pulling for him to have a full recovery. I almost think that losing one of their brethren for this long-standing band is what helped craft such a fun, enlightening, and engaging album. “Rocket Skates” sounds like it was just lifted from a b-side from “Around the Fur” with its chunky guitar riffs that are perfectly fit for Mastodon fans. “White Diamonds” is at once dreamy and steamy with sultry vocals whispered and crooned by Chino and then counters all of that with caustic screams and yelps of dismay amid churning guitar distortion, weird sample atmospherics from their turntablist, and crisp rhythms and crashing cymbals. It’s not what I was prepared to hear from one of my favorite bands who I thought were on an unfortunate downswing and yet again proved me wrong. Love it.

Featuring seven remixes of their “Filmezza” adventuresome album, Delicate Noise’s latest remix album casts its net wide across the globe in search of artists to re-rub their music. With young-and-upcoming electronic musical groups reaching far and wide from such places as France, Japan, Iceland, Canada, Italy, Spain, and the U.K., “Filmezza Remixes” has repaved the highways that the original concreted. Throughout the album there are elements of bleak and stripped down electro house, minimal soundtrack and psychedelic art, art-noise, atmospherics, and synthetic electro. Eclectic and essential.

311 – Love Song

The Cure’s original track bled emotion on “Love Song”, a beautiful anthem that was supposedly written about Robert Smith’s beau. While I’d never be mistaken to be a 311 fan (and who should?), this song seemed destined to be covered by the group who added their reggae and ska guitar influences with heavily reverbed vocals.

Alien Ant Farm – Smooth Criminal

Michael Jackson left us in 2009 but his music was revisited by younger fans after this great Californian crossover unit unearthed one of his best hits and made it their own complete with a quirky video.

Keane – Enjoy the Silence
Anberlin – Enjoy the Silence

Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” was such a great original tune that tons of bands covered it and we figured we’d span those vast borders by showcasing a pop band’s take and a pop-punk’s band’s version. Both are special for sure.

Nouvelle Vague – Love Will Tear Us Apart

Of course sad gothic pop artists Joy Division should be revisited bossa nova style. And that’s just what French cover outfit Nouvelle Vague does.

Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night

Kurt Cobain and the grunge juggernauts unleashed one of the best sets from the now defunct MTV series, “Unplugged”. The song was a folk classic by Leadbelly, still a relative unknown especially among the fan boys and fan girls who coveted this legendary group.

Stabbing Westward – Bizarre Love Triangle

New Order along with Depeche Mode and Joy Division are probably some of the most covered ‘80s artists and their “Bizarre Love Triangle” is the litmus test for anyone doing a good ‘80s cover. Stabbing Westward nailed it. No surprise there.

Youth Group – Forever Young

Alphaville’s classic single “Forever Young” had numerous dance remixes and a few European punk rerubs but it was when an Australian rock band was approached by the producers of “The O.C.” to remix it that it finally got its rightful due in the hallowed halls of cover fame.

The Braids – Bohemian Rhapsody

It takes balls to cover Queen. Or maybe it doesn’t. This female hip-hop duo tackles one of rock opera’s best with gusto. The music video doesn’t really fit the lyrics so much but whatever.

Oleander – Boys Don’t Cry

The Cure again? I know what am I thinking?!? Well these alternative rock misfits do the song justice and then some.

Saul Williams – Sunday Bloody Sunday

Take one of hip-hop’s biggest stars who doesn’t get his due coverage, and then have him cover the biggest pop band since the Beatles to come from the U.K.’s big hit “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and you have a gold mine of awesome. Oh and did I mention that Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails helps out on this U2 cover? Make that a platinum mine.

Another dark industrial EBM and dance album by one of best up-and-comers this past decade has seen in this genre, Suicide Commando. “Implements of Hell” smashes your skull against hard concrete drum loops, techno acid synths, and distorted vocals that could only be heralded by people who have a sinister desire of the dark gothic underworld. The album populates each banging beat with gyrating club-friendly melodies that while harsh are still undeniably catchy. To date Suicide Commando had yet to release such a compelling stroke of genius that was across the board fantastic but “Implements of Hell” does just that and much more raising the bar for everyone else in a very dominated EBM genre.

Remixes of KMFDM’s latest album released in 2009, “Blitz”; “Krieg” is a body-crushing dance nightmare with some of scene’s bravest and best innovators tapped to revision the music into something distinct and even more intriguing than the original track. The album opens with a bang with Combichrist’s “All 4 One Mix” of “Bait & Switch”, sounding like a rave held at an abandoned east European factory.  Then “Strut” is rerubbed by Andy Selway whose “Disco Balls” mix is dirty and reminds one of Lords of Acid. Seismologist offers up a darkened “Potz Blitz!” that bleeds old school industrial dance. Prong grabs their distortion pedals and pounds on your eardrums with their rendition of “Bait & Switch”. Skinny Puppy contributor and engineer Dave “Rave” Ogilvie brokers his take on “Never Say Never” with a mix that’s surprisingly very Yo Gabba Gabba with its sun-soaked synths and pleasant melodies. Other notable contributors are Komor Kommando, Assemblage 23, tweaker, Koichi Fukuda, and Vile Evils (Pop Will Eat Itself).

The group featuring Mrs. Miller and Mccabe, neither of which is the real name of either of the duo whom are properly referred to as Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom) and Alison Faith Levey (The Loud Family, The Sippy Cups), performs stirring indie pop with an Americana twist. But refusing to be slipped into a specific genre cabinet, the group delves into Southern blues, folk, pop ballads, roots-rock, jazz, and pleasant acoustic. It’s foot-stomping fun that refuses to succumb to any industry pressure to sound like this or that. I love that. And you will too. Looking for the next big thing that none of your hipster friends have heard yet? Pick up “Time for Leaving” and you won’t be disappointed.

Peep a video for these indie pop rockers for the title track:

Yet another notch in the holy belt of engineer and musician Kurt Ballou (Converge), “The God Complex” was recorded in his den of awesome, God City Studios in Massachusetts and boasts annihilating aggressive hardcore that strays from conventions. Another Breath was formed in 2003 by a bunch of friends that grew up in “The City with a Future”, also known as Fulton, New York – yeah I know, that’s a misnomer, no one has heard of it…but maybe in the future? Anyway, this eleven-song masterpiece churns out perfected lyrical writing by singer Ted Winkworth (doesn’t his last name sound like some Golden Ticket winner from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”)? Okay I digress. The guitars are aggressive blending harmony with dissonance. Each song seems to build off the last and by the end of the LP, you feel like you just experience a 12-round slug fest with the best boxer in the sport. Isn’t it awesome that at this point in the realm of hardcore, there are still bands reinventing the genre?

Check them out on MySpace.

Plus peep some footage of their record release show:

Balmorhea is an acoustic quartet from Austin (where else?) releases yet another brilliant and stunning array of surreal music. Their ’09 album “All is Wild, All is Silent” received rave reviews and “Constellations” won’t settle to just ride on its coattails; instead the group reinvigorates itself with meditations on cosmos and the metaphysical worlds beyond our mental grasp. Beautiful piano tinkling that tickles the ear drum and serenades you with a wild array of emotions.

Balmorhea – Constellations

Obviously the album title tilts the subject matter on its collective axis, wondering what is out there amid the chaos. Colorful melodies harmonize with a core of musical accolades that easily put Balmorhea among some of today’s biggest rising stars. At times you’ll find yourself almost worn thin because each track is that daunting but once you deconstruct it, your mind and ears find yourself reinvigorated to the Nth degree. It boggles my mind that this group is still somewhat of an unheard of entity in the music world. They are clearly one of most inventive, talented, and cerebral groups to come out of the Austin, Texas scene, which is like saying someone is the best Rhodes scholar.

Sometimes cinematic soundscapes can seem elemental, almost dire and borderline snoozing – this is absolutely never the case with “Constellations” which constantly engages the listener in a new fashion as each tune progresses. Daunting, brilliant, and stirring – oh and did I mention, acoustic? Jaw dropping to say the least. Just watch their live performance on KEXP during SXSW for further proof:

KEXP live @ SXSW: Balmorhea – Coahuila from KEXP RADIO on Vimeo.

Or watch a short film…I mean is there anything Balmorhea can’t do? Dodge bullets comes to mind, but I think they could lull violent acts into submission!