Weekly Album: Week of 09/24 - 09/30 - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

This week I listened to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Karl Bartos. This is a soundtrack for the film of the same name written and performed by Karl Bartos who is a former member of Kraftwerk. This is such an interesting intersection of interests for me, as it is involves silent films and German Kosmische Musik, which are both things I love very much. I will say though, I did not discover it through Karl Bartos, but rather by seeing what came up on Spotify when typing in names of silent films I enjoy*. To start things off, I think listening to this on its own does not really serve the music justice. After all this is a somewhat avant-garde sounding soundtrack for an avant-garde film, so listening to it without the visuals of the film are not what it is designed for. It helps for me that I can picture most of the movie in my head after seeing it several times by this point, but I think if I were to ever listen to this again it would be in conjunction with the film. Much like silent films need music to be properly watched, this needs to the silent film to be properly listened to. With that out of the way, I can actually talk about the music. In comparison to other soundtracks I have heard for this movie, it stays much more consonant musically. The main contemporary soundtrack that I hear for the film is very dissonant and can be very droning at times. Bartos' score here sounds much closer to other film scores I've heard, but not really like most other silent film scores. This is due to the fact that, to my knowledge, all the instruments here are electronic in some way. Which is expected of Bartos knowing his background, but it can be quite strange at times. Some of these instruments sound like very basic midi instruments; I swear some of the songs have the distorted guitar from the Roland SC-55 which is most well known for being the distorted guitar in the original Doom soundtracks (think E1M1 from Doom 1). The music can sound very video game-y at times due to this. I would've much preferred more of the analog sounding synthesized instruments, which do appear on the soundtrack but in shockingly spare amounts. At the very least, the music is interesting to listen to, and it is very cool hearing the repeated motifs throughout the soundtrack especially when knowing what scenes are behind them. I can't say I'll ever listen to this by itself again, I'd have to see how good of a soundtrack it actually is and sync it up to the film. 6.5/10

*Expect a Stavi Rants post about silent films in the near future 

Weekly Album - Week of 09/17 - 09/23 - The Third Age

This week I listened to The Third Age by Ottawa. Ottawa is a hardcore/grindcore offshoot of early '90s emo band Current, who I hold in very high regard. The story goes that Current was tired of being disliked by the hardcore scene for being emo (remember that being emo at the time was still somewhat of an insult) so they set out to make some really aggressive and thrashy hardcore. And aggressive and thrashy hardcore they did make. The whole album comes running at you like it is about to assault your ears. I'm quite impressed by the musicianship on this album; not because it is very technically challenging (Although some of it certainly is. I think if I tried drumming to this album I'd be panting from exhaustion) but coming from the context of the band's work as Current. The contrast from Current's more calmer sound in comparison to Ottawa's raging instrumentals shows that the band has incredible range as musicians. Even the vocalists screams are that much more aggressive, and he was already screaming quite aggressively, his poor vocal cords. The songs themselves are nothing particularly special, just some very good hardcore that bordering on grindcore. This is also I think the shortest album I've ever listened to, clocking in at 13 minutes and 55 seconds. That is right, this album doesn't even hit 20 minutes! It makes it quite fun to listen to, as you don't even realize that the album ends until you hear the spoken word clips at the start. This is another thing to mention; throughout the album are these clips of spoken word taken from various media. I think most of it comes from some version of the Lord of the Rings, although I'm unsure if it is from some audio book or Ralph Bakshi's animated version. Either way it came as quite the fun suprise to me on a first listen. This is a fun album to listen to due to the short length. It is certainly one I am going to put on if I ever need some high energy music while doing something. 8/10

Weekly Album: Week of 09/10 - 09/16 - You're Weird Now

This week I listened to You're Weird Now by Guerilla Toss. I am no stranger to Guerilla Toss. Some years back, when I was really into psychedelic rock, I was recommended their album Twisted Crystal and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I've since listened to their album GT Ultra, but I started to fall off of psychedelic rock after then so they fell off my radar. Jump to last week when I was on Spotify looking at music and I saw under the new releases section that there was a new Guerilla Toss album. Right then and there I decided to make it my album for this week. The album itself is more of what Guerilla Toss is good at; a funky, psychedelic, weird, noisy brand of rock that is just a great time to listen to. Compared to the other Guerilla Toss albums I've heard, this has a much higher energy overall where even the slower songs just have this driving feeling to them. I do think this slightly hurts the album though, as even though all the songs are great and distinct from each other, there is not a moment of brevity on the album which is something I liked on the other albums of theirs I have heard. The album is produced pretty well, featuring this kind of mix of punk low fidelity and an 80s synthpop sheen which is kind of the sound of the band based on the other 2 albums I have heard. Overall this is a good album featuring more music of a band that I should really listen to more. 8.5/10 album

Weekly Album: Week of 09/03 - 09/09 - Vehicle

This week I listened to Vehicle by the Clean. This is a very straight to the point album, only being 28 and a half minutes. It does not waste a single second, blasting your ears with jangly guitars. Bright and jangly are the most apt adjectives for this album. All of the guitars on here are very bright and the album has a lot of reverb on it. This is where the slight lo-fi quality in the production shines through, making the album not sound too sterile and overproduced. The songs themselves are pretty good as well. Just some pretty standard late 80s/early 90s jangly alternative/indie rock. There is some punkish qualities to the songs, but they stay pretty tame overall. What really shines here are the guitars, with the album acting as almost a showcase for some great chops and fantastic tones that the guitarists on here are able to produce. This is certainly an album worth revisiting, aided by its short length. 8/10

Weekly Album: Week of 08/27 - 09/02 - Music Makes Me Think of You

This week I listened to Music Makes Me Think of You by Mad Planets. This album was brought to my attention by a friend of mine. This is such a pretty sounding album. I have such a soft spot for twee indie/alternative rock such as this album, and it certainly does not disappoint in being twee. The guitars are very jangly and sparkly, and the contrasting male and female vocalists sing amazingly. The songs on here are also produced wonderfully as well. It sounds quite polished but still has a bit of a lofi edge to the production, showing the band's independent roots and making the album not sound too sterile. I especially love how compressed the guitars get when they are distorted, amazing contrast to the very full and wide sounding clean guitar sound. My one issue with this album is that is a compilation, and the last 5 songs are from Mad Planets' first release. While the songs are not bad at all, far from it, they sound quite different to the rest of the songs production-wise on here and I feel that is makes the album a little too long when listening in one sitting. Once again, these are still good songs, they just sound less polished. Overall, this is a great album and I wish this band had some more music to listen to, for this is some good stuff. 8/10

Weekly Album DELAYED

Once again I apologize for not having the Weekly Album out late, but I had the foresight to at least mention it. I'm quite disappointed in myself for being late on these last few, but it is just the way life is kind of going for me right now. I have no plans to stop doing the weekly albums, but it is likely that for the time being that they probably won't consistently come out on Tuesdays like they were prior to this.