The Rare Sound Machine - Beauty Machines

The Spanish band The Rare Sound Machine released their first recording "Beauty Machines" (downloadable from their My Space site) an EP with six splendid pieces of instrumental progressive rock, powerful and determined, in which they don't beat around the bush and from beginning make it clear what they do: progressive hard-rock, with guitar always at front and clear references to bands like Dream Theater and Tool. With power chords and great solos, enough to let clear the technical soundness of Alvaro Diez and company, but avoiding cloying virtuosity, this guys from Madrid makes intense and dynamic music, maybe a little austere for progressive standards, that over 40 minutes gives no truce nor rest with songs like "Temazo", vigorous and sharp, "N", with metal and Tooleans flashes, or the masterful "Jorge's", dedicated to disastrous George W. Bush who "participate" with fragments of his extremists speeches. Besides being an excellent presentation and overwhelming sample of what The Rare Sound Machine can do, "Beauty Machines" is one of those progressive rock albums that, from time to time, assert the "rock" part to "progressive rock" label. -CORANNIEIT-

The Rare Sound Machine, Beauty Machines
TRSM-Indie, 2009

Links:
Official Site
My Space Site

The Paper Chase - Someday This Could All Be Yours Vol.1

Third album, first of two conceptual albums that have planned from this cult's band, makers of impossible melodies, in which they play 10 songs, each with the name of a catastrophe, ranging from conventional indie rock to avant-garde ballads. Capricious music that from chord to chord moves from anxiety to sweetness, from dissonance to catchy ditties, and from tenebrous to innocence. Although at first listen "Someday All This Could Be Yours Vol.1" may sound a little bit dispersed, in the end the Texan quartet manages to make the combination of wandering pianos, incidental noise, changing rhythms and strange but strongly melodic lines, becomes in some kind of indie/noise-pop with a little touch of experimental music. Captivating and slightly freaky. -CORANNIEIT-

The Paper Chase, Someday This Could All Be Yours Vol.1

Kill Rock Stars Records, 2009

Links:
Official Site
My Space Site

The Woodlands - Self Titled

Another record to the American indie folk inventory courtesy of the Portland (where else?) based husband-wife duo The Woodlands, who debuted with this self-titled album produced and published by themselves, making 10 pieces of bucolic and austere folk/pop. While Samuel is in charge of music, unplugged, and lyrics, almost poetics, Hanna contributes with her so sweet (i mean really sweet) voice, sometimes barely whispering, creating songs that moves between oppressive melancholy and levity moments in which the couple allow themselves a little joy. Despite the limited instrumentation and extremely honeyed Hanna interpretations may cause after some tracks the album falls into monotony and cloying sweetness, this is not a bad record; it is saved by a few "bon iverean" touches and good moments on tracks like "We Can Stay", "Anymore" or "In The Dark Of Monday" that, at the end, makes of "The Woodlands" a pretty record. Ideal for "Grey's Anatomy" soundtrack. -CORANNIEIT-

The Woodlands, Self-Titled
The Woodlands-Indie, 2009

Links:
My Space Site

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Summer Of Fear

Miles Anthony Benjamin Robinson debuted a couple of years ago with a magnificent album that in someway was overshadowed by the legend that accompanied him (homeless, junkie and dealer in New York, later discovered by Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear and Kyp Malone from TV On The Radio). Leaving behind the morbid about this period of his life, Robinson delivers his second album "Summer Of Fear", an album honest, sober, in every meaning of the word, free of any indie smugness, in which he makes warm, refined rock/pop that's flows smoothly, as he sings lyrics trying to revive the lost innocence by recalling "I remember seventeen / I remember being honest, horny, healthy, and clean / I remember briefly believing / That I 'd been born to be the one" ("Always An Anchor"), though ultimately there's no illusions and he knows that nothing is easy "And it's not that bad / to be bored and sad / When the dreams you've had / are just bets gone bad" ("Hard Row"). Despite the stormy and dark his inspiration can be, Robinson makes of "Summer Of Fear" a nitid and shiny record. A true gem. -CORANNIEIT-

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Summer Of Fear
Saddle Creek Records, 2009

Links:
My Space Site

Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back

On the premise of "no guitars, no drums," the maestro Peter Gabriel introduced his new album "Scratch My Back", a covers album which, however, is so interesting for two reasons: the first one is the spectrum of artists and bands of which Gabriel select songs, ranging from contemporaries, such as David Bowie or Lou Reed, to "new values" such as The Arcade Fire or Bon Iver, without missing consolidated bands that are right in the generational middle, as Radiohead or Elbow. The second reason is that Gabriel, accompanied only by piano and classical orchestra, practically re-invented each song through versions in which an introspective and serene tone predominates, even dark sometimes, making each piece barely recognizable. Maybe "Scratch My Back" is not the most exciting or innovative album from Peter Gabriel, at least not in the usual sense, but it is certainly an album worth to listening enjoyment. -CORANNIEIT-

Links:
Official Site
My Space Site

Diablo Swing Orchestra - Sing-Along Songs For The Damned And Delirious

Combining extreme metal with symphonic arrangements is not exactly something new. If besides we're talking about a Nordic band the thing seems really predictable. However, this is not the case of "Sing-Along Songs For The Damned and Delirious", second album from the Swedish band Diablo Swing Orchestra who deliver 10 amazing songs in which they manage to meet all symphonic metal canons (from demonic voices to string arrangements, and from crushing riffs to the "break-a-glass" soprano voice) while at the same time they pass through swing, Balkans music and even some Latin touches. Thus, while most of their colleagues look for the operatic exquisiteness and grandiloquent classical arrangements, Diablo Swing Orchestra goes trough burlesque, theatricality and joy, with songs like the opener "A Tapdancer's Dilema", in which power chords engage to swing jazz, or "Lucy Fear The Morning Star", a song with afro-latin percussion in which we just don't know whether to make some headbanging or to shout "Azucarrrr!" while (Oh! gothic-metalhead sacrilege!) dancing deliciously. Demonstrating that there is always an exception that proves the rule, Diablo Swing Orchestra delivers a very good symphonic metal disc. Anti-solemn and exuberant. Sabor! -CORANNIEIT-

Diablo Swing Orchestra, Sing-Along Songs For The Damned And Delirious

Sensory Records, 2009

Links:
Official Site
My Space Site

madhatteR - Universal Thinking Stops Time

In a so fucking arid scene, as the national rock is (i'm talking about mexican rock scene), an effort like "Universal Time Stops Thinking", from the Queretaro's band madhatteR, should be, at least, a remarkable occasion. Unfortunately works like this, away from commercial standards and which did not originate in Mexico City, Guadalajara or Monterrey, often go almost completely unnoticed. Moving between post-rock, progressive rock and post-metal accents, "Universal Time Stops Thinking" (by the way, it can be downloaded from the band's site on last.fm) is a record composed by 7 pieces, almost all of them instrumental, in which madhatteR runs over the same roads of bands like Mogwai or Indukti making music in which a punchy and intricate bass is guiding powerful guitars, that in songs like "God Hates Ugly Music", acquires a dark and sinister touch, approaching, keeping all proportions, to the style of the masters of Tool. On the other hand, the quartet also shows its friendly face in light themes such as "Anderson Council" while in "Daemonieke Reprise" they experiment with electronic music. Perhaps just with vocals as weak point, and despite the limited studio production, madhatteR delivers a cerebral, well done and full of good moments record. -CORANNIEIT-

madhatteR, Universal Thinking Stops Time

madhatteR-Indie, 2007

Links:
My Space Site

Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring

Asserting itself as one of the most prolific bands nowadays, Los Campesinos! presents "Romance Is Boring", their third album in just 2 years (plus a couple of EPs), which includes, for if this were not enough, 15 tracks. While the quantity and, it is fair to say, the quality has never been problem for this guys from Wales, perhaps some thing that is beginning to be noticed is the lack of variety. Though "The Sea Is a Good Place To Think Of The Future", an excellent song that was published on their website in October last year, led us to expect a record a little bit more "profound" and ambitious, "Romance Is Boring " still maintains intact the style of the band featuring, once again, funny, energetic, partying music. Spontaneous and effusive rock/pop with accelerated rhythm guitars here and there, splashed with some violin and the pampered interpretations of Gareth Campesino!. Plenty of catchy & irresistible melodies, almost with a single on every theme, "Romance Is Boring" does not contain any innovation but, in some way, it patent the "Campesino" sound which, after all, is not bad...not at all. -CORANNIEIT-

Los Campesinos!, Romance Is Boring
Arts & Crafts, 2010

Links:
Official Site
My Space Site

The Flaming Lips - The Dark Side Of The Moon

The (often over-rated) Flaming Lips have fulfilled his threat and present their version of one of the Pink Floyd's masterpieces. Signed in conjunction with Stardeath and White Dwarfs, Wayne Coyne's nephew band, and with the participation of Peaches and the iconic punk Henry Rollins, who practically opens the album (perhaps some kind of reconciliation between the punks and Floyd?). Somehow Wayne Coyne and company shown them selves conservative and in a general way they respects almost entirely the original version changing just some things that "lighten" the sound of the work. So, the relaxed and trippy tone of "Speak To Me / Breathe" is now presented as an accelerated introduction with a frenetic bass and spectral guitars, "Time", with the unforgivable omission of gilmourean solo, becomes a sweetened interlude between "On The Run" and a reprise of "Breathe" which follows "The Great Gig In The Sky" in which Peaches, keep the hot style of Clare Torris, but adds a gritty, visceral tone. It is from "Any Color You Like" when the Lips take a little "risk" to close the album with flashes of psychedelia and funk touches. Without the trippy sound of "Dub Side Of The Moon" or the originality of "Dark Side Of The Moon A Capella", this "Dark Side ..." sounds too cautious and is saved more by greatness of the original version than by the Coyne and company work. A plain good version. -CORANNIEIT-

The Flaming Lips, The Dark Side Of The Moon
Warner Music, 2009

Links:
Official Site
My Space Site

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

When you see the cover of "Sigh No More" the first thing that comes to your mind is: Does the world need another Felice Brothers clone?. But is enough to listen "Sigh No More" and "The Cave", the songs that open the album, to immediately change your mind. Practically with an unplugged sound, this British band has the sensitivity to capture, even better than many of their American colleagues, the essence of folk, country and bluegrass (which, considering they coming from the urban-London, is something not to be ignored) to make 12 crafted pieces of clear, intimate and extraordinary warm folk/rock. From emotion, between melancholy and celebratory, of "The Cave" or "Roll Away Your Stone", in which Winston Marshall happily untie his banjo, to the introspection and severity of minor keys in "I Gave You All " or " Thistle And Weeds ", the quartet, beside let us clear that they definitely are not a Felice Brothers clone, give us music as simple as brilliant. A joyful and cordial record. -CORANNIEIT-

Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More
Island Records, 2009

Links:
Official Site
My Space Site

Baroness - Blue Record

There are times we want our ears to be drilled without mercy. That's when we listen to heavy artillery from bands like Lamb Of God. But there are times when we want to hear good metal, hard and strong but without risk of permanent hearing damage. That's when a record like "Blue Record," the second album by American band Baroness, enters the picture. This quartet formed in Georgia, included, by the way, in the next Coachella Festival lineup, features 12 hymns, heavies, energetics, theatricals, with hard guitars always galloping (although not necessarily aggressive) and old school melodic solos. Heavy metal, pompous and raw at the same time, which intersects with alternative rock, doom metal and, following the path of bands like Mastodon, touches of progressive metal perhaps with not much complexity but in pieces like "A Horse Called Golgotha" or "War, Wisdom And Rhyme ", with textures, instrumental passages and rhythmic changes, is enough to give another level to their sound while songs like "Jake Leg" or "The Sweetest Curse ", rude and direct, maintains the metal rage in the album. A magnificent metal disk: epic, vital and noisy. -CORANNIEIT-

Baroness, Blue Record
Relapse Records, 2009

Links:
Official Site
My Space Site

Willowz - Everyone

"Everyone" is the latest material from American band Willowz in which they play spontaneous and lively music that combine the visceral and urgent nature of punk and garage with a casual and supposedly candid so Californian attitude. The quartet presents 10 fast songs (mostly shorter than 3 minutes) in which, except for a couple of seventies flavored ballads, they go from obvious allusion to the raw & pure White Stripes garage in pieces like "Repetition" and "You Do ", to The Strokes melodic garage evocation in songs like "Destruction" or "I Know ". So, "Everyone" is not an album that will change rock history but it gives us a bit of fresh music. Fun and enjoyable. Is not that enough?. -CORANNIEIT-

Willowz, Everyone
Dim Mak Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site

That Fucking Tank - Tanknology

When a band proclaims that works "challenging the assumption that 'good' music has to be made 'professionally' " and also has songs with names like "Keanu Reef", "Dave Grolsch" or "Bruce Springstonehenge" is not unusual not being taken seriously. Fortunately this seems not to be a concern for That Fucking Tank, English duo formed by Andy Abbott on guitar and James Islip on drums, who in "Tanknology" delivered 10 songs of instrumental psycho-hard rock with touches of stoner and progressive rock, so close of bands like Monkey 3 or, nowadays disappeared, The USA Is A Monster. By combining progressive structures, of some complexity, with catchy, almost metal, riffs, the couple link up pieces to create long passages that sometimes sounds as if Abbott is playing in his living room testing his new effects processor while Islip drums sounds impetuous and ease. Taking the do-it-yourself philosophy for a fun and carefree (but not careless) road, That Fucking Tank delivers a record with playful, powerful and imaginative music. -CORANNIEIT-

That Fucking Tank, Tanknology
Gringo Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site

Noah And The Whale - The First Days Of Spring

Noah And The Whale debuted last year with "Peaceful The World Lays Me Down" a good album but not more than the average dozens of records from indie bands with a semi-low fi acoustic folk /rock that included, but of course, some violin. Something really interesting must have happened so that now they can deliver a record as "The First Days Of Spring", an ambitious and sophisticated work conceived as a sort of accompaniment (or vice versa) to the homonym film created by guitarist and vocalist Charlie Fink. Curiously, although Fink and ex-band mate Laura Marling break up seems to be the inspiration and guiding line of the album, "The First Days Of Spring" has a joyful spirit even though has moments of fully melancholy. Combining gentle & introspective folk/pop with nice orchestral arrangements that are used either, give a twist to songs like "The First Days Of Spring", which opens the album in a majestic way, or to create a divertimento, choirs included, in "Instrumental I"/"Love Of An Orchestra”, Noah And The Whale have given a turn of the screw that has led them a big step forward. -CORANNIEIT-

Noah And The Whale, The First Days Of Spring
Cherry Tree Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site

Pelican - What We All Come To Need

Pelican is one of those bands that hardly make a bad record. His discography is probably one of the most consistent of the post-metal scene and "What We All Need To Come," their fourth album, is not exception. In it, these young masters of metal plays long pieces of heavy music full of chiaroscuros in which Trevor de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec guitars continue alternating distorted riffs and chords, full of power, with moments of lightness and, if we can use the term, a certain delicacy, playing an instrumental heavy metal that at times approaches to progressive rock, post-rock and stoner rock. For some tracks the band includes Greg Anderson (Sunn o)))) and Aaron Turner (Isis) in addition to Allen Epley (Shiner) vocals in "Final Breath", first non-instrumental song recorded by the quartet (although actually this does not improves the sound of the band). Perhaps slightly more relaxed (so to say) than "City Of Echoes" or "The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw", "What We All Need To Come" stay at the same level as their predecessors but specially keeps the well known Pelican´s dark power. -CORANNIEIT-

Pelican, What We All Come To Need
Southern Lord Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site

Joaquín Sabina - Vinagre y Rosas

Sabina breaks a 4-year silence with "Vinagre y Rosas" a generous album that includes 14 tracks with the classic "Sabina stamp": elaborate, poetic and smart lyrics. Songs full of sensibility but also with touches of cynicism and black humor. Musically, accompanied by his inseparables pals "Pancho" Varona and Antonio Garcia de Diego, Sabina walks on several roads from ballads to blues and from disguised "rancheras" to New Orleans sound and even 2 or 3 rock songs that he was debt us for a long time. So, along about an hour we're found in "Vinagre y Rosas" the different faces of Sabina: the eternal love's outsider in "Tiramisú de Limón" and "Agua Pasada", the incorrigible in-his-sixties, and picky father in law, in "Viudita de Clicquot" and "Oh! Carmela ", the bard of the times in "Crisis" (surprisingly rocker) and the lifetime rebel in "Violetas Para Violeta", some kind of adaptation of chilean songwriter Violeta Parra song "La Carta", converted by Sabina and company in an exquisite blues that the pace of military drums close the album with Sabina singing "Preguntale a los milicos/Que hicieron en La Moneda" (Ask the milicos (militaries)/What have they done in "La Moneda"). So, showing a great shape, Sabina deliver his fifteen album. A great album. Long life to "El Flaco". -CORANNIEIT-

Joaquín Sabina, Vinagre y Rosas
Sony BMG, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site

Soulsavers - Broken

Third album from English musicians and producers Rich Machin and Ian Glover who have created an exceptional album, musically sophisticated but emotionally raw, in which they composed all the music and for vocals called for a multitude of partners led by Mark Lanegan (ex-Queen Of The Stone Age) and Australian Rosa Agostino (best known as "Red Ghost") but which also involve Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantomas, etc..), Jason Pierce (Spiritualized) and Richard Hawley. "Broken" is a brilliant and thrilling album that walks rock, soul and some blues giving us over an hour of dense, sensual and dark music, with a delicacy that contrasts, and is complements at the same time, with Lanegan's rough and slummy voice (perhaps one of the best kept secrets, and wasted talents, of the American scene) reaching moments of absolute beauty and emotion. From the poignant desolation of "You Will Miss Me When I Burn" (original by Bonnie "Prince" Billy) to the hopeful "By My Side", "Broken" is a profound and luminous record. A masterpiece. -CORANNIEIT-

Soulsavers, Broken
V2 Records, 2009

Links:
Official Website
My Space Website

Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg

Wolfmother broke out loudly in 2005 with a superb debut album, in which they exploited their power-trio formation playing an impetuous hard rock, strong and with a remarkable freshness despite its obvious references to the seventies sound of bands such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. After 4 years, an internal fight that left Andrew Stockdale, guitarist and singer, as the only original member of the band, and a change of lineup that includes a second guitar in the hands of Aidan Nemeth, the nowadays quartet presents "Cosmic Egg", their second album, in which they maintain the direct evocations to 70's hard sound but it seems that on this occasion Stockdale bets for a simpler and raw sound leaving aside the elaborated and semi-progressive passages of his previous record going now more to stoner and hard rock in its purest form. With a first part with a lot of punch but without any transcendent, "Cosmic Egg" go better from the second half with solid songs in which they recover some of the freshness and vitality of "Wolfmother" album doing songs like "In The Castle", "Phoenix", "10,000 Feet", which flirt with heavy metal (including a riff that evokes "Kashmir" by Led Zep) and even "Far Away", some kind of power-ballad. At the end, "Cosmic Egg" is a just good enough to muddle through but without the brilliance of its predecessor. -CORANNIEIT-

Wolfmother, Cosmic Egg
Interscope Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site

We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls

Imagine Los Campesinos! becoming profound and melancholic. Or perhaps Frightened Rabbit with double power. It would probably be something similar to what the Scottish band We Were Promised Jetpacks does in "These Four Walls", their first album, in which, without any leaks, delivers 11 songs that combine frenetic attacks of rhythm guitars, evoking in someway Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah first album, with some of The Arcade Fire melodic drama doing music that by moments reach an impressive force. Through compelling harmonies and some energy that borders on punk, the quartet constructs in crescendo songs, stretching the rope slowly until blow up, going from intimacy and sweetness of plucks and softly chords, to moments of explosive catharsis in which the guitars of Adam Thompson and Michael Palmer, coupled with the intense Thompson performances that, just like music, goes from shyness to euphoria, transform songs like "It's It's Thunder and Lightning", "Short Bursts" and "Keeping Warm" into truly anthems. "These Four Walls" is an album effusive and intense. A fortunate debut for these Scots. -CORANNIEIT-

We Were Promised Jetpacks, These Four Walls
Fatcat Records, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site

Rammstein - Liebe ist für alle da

The good thing about being a band like Rammstein is that no one expects that each album sounds different. With a sound practically patented what we expect in every Rammstein album is furious music. Hostile music. And this is precisely what these industrial metal veterans does in "Liebe Ist Für Alle Da" their sixth studio album, which, considering what they did in very regular (not to say mediocre) "Reise, Reise "(2004) and" Rosenront "(2005), is not to be overlooked. It seems that this 4 years pause has enable these Germans to recalibrate the gears of the machinery that produced records like "Sehnsucht" or "Matter" and deliver 11 songs (15 in the special edition of the album) of aggressive and tense metal, with the guitars of Richard Kruspe and Paul Landers bringing back their impetuosity with sharp and overwhelming riffs, while Christian Lorenz left electro adornments to do arrangements a little bit more complex and symphonic that together with the always threatening and theatrical performances of Till Lindemann gives the music a slightly sinister touch. Although at times the sextet drops his guard to make themes with semi-acoustic and melodic touches as "Roter Sand", quiet and dispensable, or "Frühling in Paris", a power-ballad in which Lindemann shows that sometimes even him has a "sweet-heart" by singing "softly" (for his standard) a few lines in French, "Liebe ist für alle da" is equilibrate by pieces like "Rammlied", "Ich Tu Dir Weh" or "Wiener Blut" with the classic "Rammstein sound": hard, crushing, unsuitable for delicate ears. Not the best record from Rammstein but the more decent that the band has delivered this decade. -CORANNIEIT-

Rammstein, Liebe ist für alle da
Universal Music, 2009

Links:
Official Web Site
My Space Web Site