Jesu - Silver EP

Jesu is the post metal droneage of Justin Broadrick, former member of industrial band Godflesh. After suffering a nervous breakdown in 2002, Broadrick disbanded Godflesh and formed the one man band Jesu, taking on all guitar, bass and programming duties. Silver EP is a wonderful journey through some seriously loud metal drones and occassional crunching electronics. Silver EP, considered to be one of Broadricks' more melodic releases, has gained comparisons to MBV and bands such as Pelican and ISIS. This music, however, more than speaks for itself. Enjoy.

Tracklist:
1.Silver
2. Star
3. Wolves
4. Dead Eyes

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Banjo Or Freakout - Bootlegz

Banjo Or Freakout is the solo psychedelic fuzz folk of Alessio Natalizia, an Italian based in London. I'm really excited about this guy.....instead of gloomy shoegaze we have ambitious bedroom swathes of guitar and optimism. It's pretty incredible for one guy, and even more incredible given the code by which he records: everything must be done in one take. I'm still trying to get a hold of his latest Upside Down E.P., but these tracks should be enough to keep us going. He also has a penchant for covering other people's songs....I've taken two officially released songs, (Mr. No and the DFA approved cover of LCD's Someone Great) and a handful of cover versions that I could find.

1. All I Need (Radiohead Cover)
2. Archangel (Burial Cover)
3. Atlas (Battles Cover)
4. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Vampire Weekend Cover)
5. Mr. No
6. Someone Great

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This is soaring stuff. Archangel in particular is turned from the moody, rainy at 3am sounding twostep shuffle into a humble fuzz folk effort, and his psychedelic tendencies translate especially well on Atlas. Nothing really compares to the last two tracks however, and I would urge you to listen to them first. I'm waiting frustratedly to get a hold of his latest E.P. Until then, this should tide you over, and one thing's for sure; we should be seeing a lot more of this fellow in the future.

Mastodon invade Yank's homes

Whilst not really showing off the boy's vocal abilities, this performance of Oblivion from Letterman really, really makes me want to see these guys live. Whether that's a testament to their music or the fact that this isn't all that good, is another matter.

They frighten an old man though, so that can't be bad.

New Modest Mouse Video - Satellite Skin

Following on the age old MM tradition of truely.....terrible videos, Satellite Skin arrives as the upcoming A side from the new E.P., a collection of B sides. ABCD LOL.

Satellite Skin

Anamanamadness

Some new/old tracks from dose chiptune freeks. First is a cover of lo-fi star Wavves tune, So Bored. The second is a minute long cover of Mariah Carey's, All I Want For Christmas Is You. Absolutely daft, and refreshingly inappropriate for the middle of May. Right click to download. Enjoy.

So Bored
All I Want 4 Xmas is U

Future of the Left - Travels with Myself and Another

Travels with Myself and Another

Last.fm
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1. Arming Eritrea
2. Chin Music
3. The Hope That House Built
4. Throwing Bricks At Trains
5. I Am Civil Service
6. Land Of My Formers
7. You Need Satan More Than He Needs You
8. That Damned Fly
9. Stand By / Your Manatee
10. Yin / Post-Yin
11. Drink Nike
12. Lapsed Catholics

Wooooeuuughharrrgh. I dismissed these guys as long haired beer swilling louts (lol hypocriseez) back when I saw them at Belsonic. They had a few decent tunes, but more often than not it just appeared noise. A bassist that terrorizes the audience is all very well....but music's good, too. This album however, is a stomper. Arming Eritrea grabs you from the offset and doesn't let up, it's snarl of "Come on Rick, i'm not a prize/I'm not a cynical one of those guys" will probably cause me to associate it with my da, but it's a fucking beast. The arrogance of the verse splurges into the At The Drive In style chorus/rest of the song, it's truly wonderful. Instead of dumb ballsy rock there's some actual emotion here, and it's a tune as well. Off to a good start.

The Hope That House Built is pretty much a damned march into hell, "Come join come join our lost cause". Class. It's one of those ones that slowly but surely gets into your head, maybe not on first listen.....but it'll happen.
Another indication that this isn't just another letspickupguitargokk album is the sense of humour throughout. I can't imagine someone running these lyrics past bandmates. Throwing Bricks At Trains, for example; "Slight/bowel movements/preceeded/the bloodless coup" Indeed.
You Need Satan More Than He Needs You builds up tension and angst like a group of youngsters being told they can't go into Indianaland juuuust yet. FUCK. Genuinely menacing, with a Jesus Lizard style bassline and atmosphere, it's....distburbing. Great fun.

Drink Nike takes the energy of bands like Drive Like Jehu and At The Drive In and adds red bull. It's tense and jittery, and a tuuune. It's always on the brink of being noise, but it's actually very clever rock. It's all delivered in 2 or 3 minutes bites of catchiness, and before you can linger on the last one, the next one's begun. You're being sonically raped, but i'm sure you've been sonically raped before. You whore.

Lapsed Catholics.....haha. This is genuinely funny. It isn't particularly contrived, it's just very random and funny. Hands up who was busting to correct him at the Morgan Freeman bit....(you need to listen for this to make sense). Also, the line, "A Justice of sorts if you listen to fools who have dressed in the dark for a bet" has to be one of the lines of the year so far. It's not very deep or meaningful....it's just funny. And not cheesy, and before the witty bant has outstayed its welcome, we get some more razor sharp guitar lines to see us out.

Travels with Myself and Another is brief at 12 songs in 32 minutes, but it ensures that Future of the Left don't outstay their welcome. The only downside of this may be that this will take a few listens for particular songs to sink into your head, one listen will usually leave you going "Wow, this first song's class" and not absorbing much else. It's great fun though, some pretty arrogant rock in a pretty short space of time.

In the end, everybody wins.

8.4/10

It's the beef.

Just an update.....andy beef is going legit! Well, sort of. I shall now be devoting portions of my sarcastic bastard time to Pinpoint Music, writing about musicky things. So, updates here may be less frequent than they once were (Who am I kidding......i'll still have time for both). So yeah....have a look at that site, check me out, but i'll still be writing on this one. Cos i'm still beef from the block.