Notable Artists... V

The erraticness of this blog is definitely a defining aspect of its character in my eyes, but then that's implied by the name. After all this blog is meant to be a "Malfunctioning" guide to the world of music. Anyway, I feel that an article that praised the majesty and talent of one of my favourite bands was long overdue.

Tool are an American rock band who specialise in a type of metal that is as unique as it is astonishing. Forming in 1990 they have so far released four full albums:

• Undertow- 1994
• Aenima- 1996
• Lateralus- 2001
• 10,000 Days- 2006

As well as these four albums they also released an EP in 1992 entitled Opiate. In my opinion each of these albums is phenomenal and choosing a favourite was tough. It was always going to be a contest between Lateralus and 10,000 Days.

Lateralus:

A smorgasbord of fantastic tracks that, as with all Tool's albums, contribute towards an overall piece that is greater than the sum of its parts. The title track Lateralus is definitely the best track on the album for me, the introduction's buildup is masterful before leading into a crushing riff. However Lateralus is by no means the only good song on the album; the tracks Parabol and Parabola. These tracks cannot be played individually as the former leads seamlessly into the latter, the slight pause in between the two placing emphasis on the power of the riff that follows. There are so many great tracks on this album, it's impossible to pick any to be described as "filler".

10,000 Days:

As with Lateralus this album is full of amazing songs which form an overall album that is greater than all its individual elements. The album kicks off with the sheer might of Vicarious with lyrics that really speak to the listener, drawing them in. If I'm forced to pick a highlight from the album, which I admit is very difficult, I'd have to say that Vicarious is one of my two favourite tracks from the album. Following this the listener is then thrown into the powerful introduction to Jambi another track that adds a dose of sheer power to the album. My other highlight is the title song: 10,000 Days (Wings Part 2). This song speaks of suffering and this is brought strongly across by the intensity of Maynard James Keenan's vocals. The reason that it has the suffix (Wings Part 2) is that if played at exactly the same time as the song that comes before it in the album (Wings for Marie (Part 1)) a whole new track is formed. I could go on about this album for a very long time; talking about tracks like Lost Keys (Blame Hoffman) and Rosetta Stoned and even if I mentioned those two I'd be skipping out others that deserve a mention. In short this album is a masterpiece.

So overall I finally managed to ascertain that by a tiny amount 10,000 Days takes the title as my favourite Tool album, but I cannot stress enough how difficult that decision was to make. Lateralus is a phenomenal piece of artistic creation and the others are the same. Tool are definitely in my top 5 bands (a decision made by me, how novel) and are very near the top of my "Bands to see" list.

Cheers,

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Top Shelf Records

Greetings all. I recently downloaded a selection of albums for free from Top Shelf Records, it's their fifth anniversary and to mark the occasion they were offering a bundle of albums and EPs from their label for free. Their website can be found here: http://www.topshelfrecords.org/

I'm part way through perusing the collection from the zip file I downloaded from their site. It's a nice mix, not everything in it is "my thing" but then it wouldn't be a collection would it? I have a varied music taste but it doesn't quite encompass the entire world of musical diversity.

Anyway, so the bands in the bundle. I'll begin with the first and end with the finale. Actually I'll just find them from the folder in some semblence of coherent cohesion. With the alliteration out of the way I'll move onto the bands. In the bundle are:

• Caravels
• Into It. Over It.
• Castevet
• Lion Club
• Stand Up. Get Down.
• The Clippers
• The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die
• Us Against the Archers
• Aeroplane, 1929

It's a very varied bunch. Ugh, no more alliteration, must not use to much rhetoric in these posts. Of the ones that I've listened to my two favourites are Caravels and Stand Up. Get Down. They've got a great sound and energy to them. I also think Us Against the Archers are ok as well. Although in one of their tracks they used a fake clap effect, and it made me cringe. I don't know why but I've discovered I find fake clap effects terribly annoying. However a fake clap track was used in another track from the bundle, this time from a different band, and somehow I was able to tolerate it. It wasn’t quite as garish, slightly more subtle. Mind you it still annoyed me, and I was pleased when the ten seconds of its use were over. So I think this is a conclusion, it may be the first I’ve come to since this blog began back in 2009. I don’t like fake clap sounds. At all.

Cheers,

big_friendly_letters

Followup to "Musical Binges"

This is just a short update on the previous post. In the last entry I discussed the idea of "musical binges", and how I was having an Iron Maiden binge at the time of writing it. Since then the mass listening turned into a full marathon. By this I mean that I listen to all 15 studio albums in just 5 days. I could have done it quicker but I was out one of the evenings preventing me from listening to much.

Anyway the reason I thought this was interesting was the fact that even after listening to all those albums in 5 days of basically listening to nothing else I'm still not bored of Maiden. I realised when the marathon was drawing to close on Friday that this was a sign of just how much I like them. There aren't many bands that I could intensively listen to without getting sick of them after a while. In fact I can't think of any other bands that I could do that for.

Should you wish to, leave me a comment saying what bands you could listen to in a marathon, if you could, and why.

That's all for now, the as promised regular post that actually talks about something is coming. Soon...

Thanks,

big_friendly_letters

Musical Binges

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this particular habit, the listening to one band over and over again in a short period of time. I thought I'd bring it up since I'm having a musical "binge" at the moment. The band that I'm overindulging in (although I would argue this point) is Iron Maiden. I doubt you're surprised since they're my favourite band but there you go. In the last three days I've listened to four of their studio albums all the way through as well as other bits and pieces. As I type this I'm on my fifth. The currently completed albums in this binge are:

• Dance of Death
• Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
• Somewhere in Time
• Piece of Mind

The album I'm playing now is A Matter of Life and Death. Anyway, so I'm enjoying that. But Iron Maiden aren't the only band that I've seen fit to listen to in superabundance. Many times I've done the same with HIM. However there's a problem with this one: last time I couldn't listen to any of their songs for several months. I very much wanted to, but every time I tried starting one I had to turn it off after a few seconds. So there are dangers to this drug, take heed.

The moral of this story? Use music responsibly and in a safe environment...

Cheers,

big_friendly_letters.