Following a behind the scenes major website change, lack of access and forgotten reset passwords Fighting Boredom is back! A brand new album reviews page is finally ready! Here’s what the various PR emails and oress releases said about the featured artists this time…Mari Kattman gives you ‘hook-laden, irresistibly catchy electronic songs tailor-made for the dance floor.’ Rival Pack give us ‘a release of years of rage packed into ten precise hardcore strikes, channeling the wild, unfiltered energy of the late ’90s and early 2000s scene.’ The Black Watch with ‘a darkly poppy, brightly moody, many-splendored take on a number of the great themes: Death and Sex, Memory and Lament and Hope and Love.’ Caspar Brotzmann Massaker who ‘in view of the current world situation, … decided to make a clear statement with “All This Violence”.’ qrauer & Tape Shifter who ‘merge modular experimentation with the warmth of analogue tape to create complex electronic compositions’ The brilliant Score with a ’round of trippy and melodic groovers for the heart and mind.’ Frankie Cosmos who give us ‘a collection of fragments and memories, remembered places, and reinterpreted feelings that adds up to a lucent, humming whole: a sturdy, worldly indie-rock record about aging and the passage of time that nonetheless manages to feel sharply current.’ Model Release who ‘mixes a dissonant form of noise rock with frequent tangents into dark ambient, noise and drone.’ The Colour Of Madness album ‘is an exploration of the electric guitar within the post-ambient and post-noise landscapes.’ Finally this time we have Thisquietarmy x otay:onii who give us ‘a dialogue between ethereal dissonance and visceral emotion, a powerful convergence of post-industrial ambience and emotionally charged experimentation—capturing the tension, intimacy, and unpredictability of their evolving creative partnership.’ That’s what has been sent out to us, read what we think below and have alisten then start an arguement with us….
Mari Kattman – Year of the Katt
Metropolis Records
This is better when it goes all sleazy and synthy, sexy and sweaty. Glitching and skipping as the lights reflect off the chrome around the dancefloor. It loses me when the Electronic Dance beat comes in and makes it just more generic sheep fodder. I would say half of this is ace, the other I don’t need. Check it out and see what you think..
Rival Pack – Burn
Thrash Out Records
An angry galloping hard core punk record with a grunty, angry, rough vocal to match the angry shuddering, lurching rough music. It does get faster and slower but the spitting hatred behind the music stays the same. Built for punching your friends in the middle of the floor and exorcising your demons, this is great.
The Black Watch – For All The World
ATOM RECORDS
This is an epic indie album, it doesn’t seem an hour long, it just flows along with panache and style. Think the massive left field pop records by the likes of Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes and The 1975. How it feels effortless, emotional and luscious. There are big guitars, strings and drums but for every moment of overblown grandeur there’s a spate of delicacy and regret. The vocals match the music as they move around and tell us stories in a whiney but solid voice. If the bands I’ve mentioned are your thing then give this a go.
Caspar Brotzmann Massaker – It’s A Love Song
Exile On Mainstream
‘It’s a Love Song’ uses silence as much as sound on their first creation and it resonates. The second and third pieces are the same creation but performed live at two different locations, subtly different but much the same. An ode to soot blackened brick, chaos and pressure, doom infused jazz and layers upon layers of sound. An interesting and recommended achievement.
qrauer & Tape Shifter – Herzblatt
This is an organic squelchy sounding dance EP, layers of samples compete with the straightforward beats and synths to create an enjoyable danceable groove collection.
Score – Original Copy
Cruel Nature
I think the last few Score albums have made my albums of the year so I was looking forward to this. I’m not disappointed at all, this is another perfectly formed musical adventure. Sometimes I need electronic, slightly twisted warm weirdness. It’s bright like sunshine in a clear sky and it travels forward with just a hint of mystery regarding destination and route. My favourite moments are the dubby basslines and further on, the disco chopping guitar. An album made all the better for finishing off the incessant dancing with a slow melancholy walk home in the dark and then coming back in with another big brash wonderful track that is epic sounding and hugely building. What can make this more epic? Trombones! Throw them in! Violins! And so on… Possibly my album of the year.
Frankie Cosmos – Different Talking
Sub Pop
Lots of little songs, perfectly made and produced but all with the insulated small sound that befits an indie rock album. It goes from slow and dreamy to poppy and sad, with slow burning torch songs and harder shuffling pop too. Whatever you think of indie pop in general I defy you to listen to this and not feel a tiny part of your cold, stone like heart melt at its indie perfection.
Model Release – If Only You Can Find It
Cruel Nature
The first thing you realise is that the pace here is glacial, as is the tightness and dense guitars that build up over and over, whether drenched in static with doom filled percussion or humming like a broken bass guitar its all as slow as a block of ice slowly obliterating everything in its path. The whole thing is majestic and menacing but the huge doom/hard core jazz freak out for five and a half minutes that is ‘Lanercost Railroad Missionary’ really has to be experienced first hand…
The Colour Of Madness – Sundowning
Cruel Nature
An album built on drones, loud, soft and layered alongside guitars, loud, tiny, messed about with and distorted to Mars and back. It’s sound, intricate and strange sculptures built with noise, it avoids any conventions of music that I can bring to mind and makes you concentrate on whats going on, which sometimes is exactly what your brain needs.
Thisquietarmy x otay:onii – Howl And Tell
Cruel Nature
This is the sound of industry ruined. Twisted tortured metal, buzzing mutant insects and synthetic waves washing against a beach made of static outside a blasted, decaying factory. Alien noise, desperate layers of impenetrable sound and free jazz madness. On top of this glorious, unmanageable music there’s a magnificent, otherworldly voice singing and creating its own path through the jagged steel and concrete shards capturing us and dragging us into the very heart of it. Just listen to it.
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Mari Kattman is on Facebook and Instagram.
Rival Pack’s website is rivalpackhc.nl they are also on Instagram and Facebook.
The Black Watch are on Facebook.
Caspar Brotzmann Massaker is on Instagram.
qrauer is on Facebook and Instagram.
Tape Shifter is on Instagram.
Score are on Bandcamp.
Frankie Cosmos’ website is frankiecosmosband.com they are also on Facebook and Instagram.
Model Release are on Bandcamp.
The Colour Of Madness are on Bandcamp.
Thisquietarmy are on Facebook and Instagram.
otay:onii are on Facebook and Instagram.
All words by Adrian Bloxham.
