Toon Hop

[digitaldiscipline]

Courtesy of donwaughesq and xany_hellion, I've listened to a bunch of new-to-me stuff this week.


New NIN: I was unimpressed by the track(s) that have gotten radio play. DWE hooked me up with five more tracks, but he only one that didn't make me actively reach for the skip-forward button was Hyperpower, which is, unfortunately, only 101 seconds of instrumental.

You know how Filter's second album got sensitive and acoustic (and sucked in an epic manner) after the sonic fist to the teeth that their debut was? NIN's fallen into a similar bucket of floppy wire shavings and can't seem to extricate itself - I don't tend to play well with concept albums, as a rule, and this foray into dystopian futurism doesn't work for me. Floppy does not go well with clanky and crunchy, especially when none of them have the balls to claim ascendancy.

A23's new stuff sounds... like Fiction 8 on quaaludes. Which is to say, "I like it, and nobody will work up a sweat dancing to it." In the main, it's the soundtrack for the side room of a club, the one with the comfortable seating surfaces and conversation and perhaps some strangers snogging in the corners. The exception is Binary (Club Mix) & Dirt which will be inescapable anywhere EBM is played for the next five years. I can't say they leap out from anything else, but certainly holds their own among other club hits in that generalized Apop Beborn Nation milieu - a lot like their good stuff from previous albums, which has a lot to recommend it.

XH gave me a copy of one of his workout mixes, and I found myself in 1996 all over again. It's not that heavy metal hasn't evolved, except that is almost exactly it. I'd never heard of most of these bands before (Slayer and Rage Against The Machine were the exceptions), but as soon as the first track (Soilwork's Stabbing the Drama) came on, it was as if I'd never shelved my Testament and Pantera CDs. That's not to say it's unpleasant - I certainly enjoy most of it - but, as with a lot of things taste-based, when it's good, it's damn good, but when it isn't... yeeargh). I will probably retaliate with a metal mix of my own at some point, most of which probably -is- from 1996. *laugh*

More later - there's VNV, Client & FLA stuff tucked in here, too.

Comments

[xany.livejournal.com]

I will probably retaliate with a metal mix of my own at some point, most of which probably -is- from 1996.

I look forward to it. :-D

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I don't think I can actually claim authorship for that particular phrase, because it's been in my lexicon for years at this point, but I can't remember who first said it to/near me.

[inyou.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to the new VNV Nation. Though depending my wife and I might be in Japan when they come back around PDX again.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

It sounds.... like all their other stuff.

Which, if you're a VNV fan, is all you really need, I guess.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

I like VNV OK, and they're very danceable, but as far as I can tell from everything I've heard over the years, they only have two songs.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

They added a third, where the beat is slow and Ronan talks even more slowly.

But otherwise... yeah, it's SWOOOOOOOOOORDS and BATTLEFIELD METAPHORS and WANT SANDWICH.

[ms-cantrell.livejournal.com]

i have only really enjoyed NINs first cd, which is apparently the one he liked least, and which he says is least representative of what he's aiming for. too bad.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much in agreement, though I enjoy Broken/Fixed, too.

[razerwolfe.livejournal.com]

With Teeth is completely missing from my music collection and the omission is 100% intentional. In the same theme, the newest TOOL offering is also not around for nearly identical reasons: I have better versions of all the songs you buys put on these albums scattered throughout all your other albums so why should I listen to a complete album of derivitive schlock.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Tool lost me when they refused to play "Sober" at a concert I attended. I mean, it's one thing to have a naked guy suspended by his ankles over the stage for most of the show (which resembled a three-hour, hundred decibel screen saver), but to omit the song that is, like it or not, the only reason you guys made the big time at all?

Sorry, Maynard, I'm not a big enough fan of your weirdness or pretention to deal with you anymore. I don't think the new album is bad (especially compared to the last one), but I'm not feeling all that compelled to shell out industry-bloated price for it. I haven't even been interested enough to look for a torrent.