:: Friday, June 16, 2006

THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING

welcome kiddies to yet another week of CD reviews, where I dug up the all the farting odds and ends that this musical world burps up for my amusement, give it a few spins and then review it for you in the most unprofessionally shoddy of ways..

yup.. dunno if anyone seriously reads this guff.. but wot the hey, dive on in :)


APHEX TWIN - CHOSEN LORDS
in brief: 2 tone aphex minimalism
rating: 2 / 5

fans of APHEX TWIN are usually split into 2 seperate and distinct groups - oldskool fans of his more gentle ambient works who gush on endlessly about how beautifully sparse and delicate his soundscapes are.. and the newskool fans who much prefer his uttery schitzoid chopped up spastic junglist work, most especially the RICHARD D JAMES album.. which, to experience for the first time, sounds very much like wot you'd hear if you threw 5000 pieces of metal cutlery into a room filled with loaded mousetraps.. and then decided to wire the whole place with explosives and triggered everything off in a mass calamatity of metal chunks flying this way and that at highspeed.. APHEX TWIN really isn't the easiest to listen to.. and is even more difficult to review..

so here we have his latest offering "CHOSEN LORDS".. apparently a selection of songs previously only made available as rare vinyl release under various of his pseudonyms.. and now for the first time collected within this album.. and the question is, wot the HELL do I make of all this? well.. firstly.. it's hard to say whether this'd appeal more to the AMBIENT fans or the SPASTIC JUNGLISTS.. as this stuff mixes and matches both in equal measure.. and yet in doing so, effectivily dilutes the impact of both extremes.. to produce something, which in APHEX TWIN's terms would actually be considered quite SAFE and CONSERVATIVE.. think of this as being APHEX LITE.. or DIET TWIN..

most songs begin with a simple 2 tone metronome beat, quite alarmingly simple and spiky (considering what I've come to expect) before he dives in and out of his usual trademark chaos - with mixes of gentle bubbling acid, smooth synth pads and light skittering beats.. the overall feeling here is quite laid back for the most part.. and weirder yet, some songs almost even veer towards the damn near danceable..

it's definitely not his best work, nowhere near his craziest, or his most atmospherically potent.. but, on the flipside.. it does make for his most accessible release yet.. so, if you've never witnessed the APHEX, and need a nice beginner course, this may be worth your while.. but, for all you hardcore fans.. don't expect too much.. ;)

highlights: REUNION 2, PW.Steal.Ldpinch.D


LADYTRON - WITCHING HOUR
in brief: stadium sized electroclash
rating: 4 / 5

most ELECTROCLASH could easily be considered quite "disposable" and punk in it's delivery (especially if yer crazy enough to like a band like CHICKS ON SPEED, or the nuttiness of PEACHES) and yet, LADYTRON here have gone far and above the cliche 80's electro beats, the ice cold synths and the "too cool for artskool" lyrics that pervade most of their peers.. and have instead gone for the more refined and evolved path.. creating wot could be considered the first epic STADIUM ROCK electroclash..

everything here is cranked up the highest level of grandeur.. from the cascading sounds of the rising and falling walls of sound, the concert hall style reverb textures, the driven synth, bass and drums that sound reminiscent of 80's new romantics, the ghostly and ethereal vocal treatment.. it all feels so vast and cinematic, like 3AM, on a rainy night in a large brooding metropolis.. mixing equal levels cold detachment with soaring urgency.. and yet.. despite it's artistic pretense.. it's sense of "beautiful alienation".. it also feels quite immediate and effortlessly accessible so you can't help but be drawn into it..

so, if you want a really sublime haunting experience on a cold and bleak winter's night.. give this a spin, you might just like it.. :)

highlights: DESTROY EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH, SUGAR, FIGHTING IN BUILT UP AREAS, BEAUTY


well.. that's it for this week kiddies,
stay tuned next week for more reviews..

(oh, and if you have any new artists or weird releases or wot'not you want me to check out.. lemme know, I'm all ears for new shit to pollute me brain with.. cheers :)

:: Spoz 5:19 AM |
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DELETED SCENES AND OUTTAKES

these days, SPOZ's RANT likes to think of itself primarily as a quasi professional music blog (hahaha.. yeah riight!) - as each and every week it showcases the best that the Adelaide live scene has to offer thru the medium of exceptionally arty live performance photography and by taking the absolute piss out've all the bands involved via SPOZ's exceptionally retarded and substandard gonzo journalism.. yup.. it's a hard life.. but someone's gotta do it :)

but of course, the tale I tell each and every weekend is never the entire story.. often details are left out.. often these details are trivial and the story could easily do without 'em.. sometimes I leave out perfectly good photo's because the detract from the flow of the story.. sometimes they are left out by request as they may embarass certain people.. sometimes I leave them out because they embarass ME..

and usually these bits never amount to much, just one or two stray photo's that nobody will miss.. the sorta sublime sillyness that would only appeal to a few people.. but this weekend.. due to a convergeance of all sorts of insane events I was damn near inundated with a ridiculous flood of silly photo's.. photo's I was itching to publish.. but for sake of length (and the time it takes to write these damn blogs these days) I had to leave out..

until now :)

presenting, for one time only - DELETED SCENES and OUTTAKES from SPOZ's weekend.. witness all the insanity, the horror, the sublime and retarded comedy in all it's beer fueled technicolour glory.. oh yes.. be afraid.. be very afraid.. this shit's about to get reaaaally messy..


DUMB FUN WITH THE BLARNEY HAT
you may recognise this first photo from the weekend blog.. MEL on Friday Night wearing a silly hat.. but, wot I failed to mention was that this wasn't the ONLY silly hat photo we took.. as is often our habit when it comes to silly hats we decide to make a bit of a game of it by seeing just how many victims we could get to wear this hat on camera.. often with silly results..



so here I am, making an absolute twit of myself for the camera..



here's the other idiot responsible for the prank..



a whole selection of our other friends getting in on the act..

featuring, DAN..



one of LAURA's friend's..



GEDDY from MUNCHKIN..



SCOTTY from THE BLACK DOVES (looking waay too much at home in this hat)



MARIO from THE BLACK DOVES (duuuude.. that's freaaaky..)



and um.. nope.. dunno who'ever the hell THIS freak is..



SALLYCAT makes for a stylish fashion statement..



whilst others damn near make it look respectable..



EZZA, aka: BEANIE GIRL gives it a spin..



and METAL MONKEY attempts to bust it out large..



we rope in a whole stack of other idiots for cheap laughs..



this one just looks wrong..



this one looks like my alcoholic year 10 english teacher in highschool..



whilst some are suitably horrified by the madness we're unleashing..



(more so than others)



others are strangely more than happy to oblige.. aaaaah :)



and here's the guitarist from REALIST FEW, looking like the spitting image of that IRAQI INSURGENT leader the US military had wiped out recently (whoooaaaa.. scary)



some of the bar staff also fell victim to our prank (many went into hiding.. hi TAM!)



whilst others weren't terribly all that fussed..



this just scares us by how well it matches the REST of her outfit..



whilst this one looks like she doesn't even remember what planet she's on..



and finally ANDREAS from SOFT WHITE MACHINE sends all us idiots off into the night..



and no, I have NO freaking clue where the hell this hat originally came from either.. but thanks whoever you are (I think we returned the hat to you eventually, riight? ;)


ANGELIK FREE FOR ALL
in taking live photo's of this band on Saturday night.. one moment I failed to capture was when I accidently ended up on stage near the end of their live set with about 10 other people going nuts.. obviously I didn't take any photo's since I wuz too busy jumping around like a retarded loon.. but thankfully, some other freaks out there DID take some photo's and have since forwarded them to me (cheers to NICK HADLEY and LAKEN from ANGELIK for sending these down.. you guys rock :)

if yer looking for which one's me.. I'm the hairy idiot in the black stripy shirt, just to the left of lead singer LAKEN, going nuts..



makes me wonder tho'.. is this the new gimmick peeps are doing at gigs now? now that moshing and crowd surfing are sooooo last decade? get everyone up on stage instead? damn.. first it wuz IGGY POP at the BIG DAY OUT, then THE PRESETS just 2 weeks ago.. and now this? when will the madness ever cease?



speaking of madness.. fucked up drunken duets anyone?



um no.. perhaps not.. ;)



things got even messier after the gig.. I don't even KNOW who the hell this guy is..



um.. yeaaaah.. moving on.. shall we?



and funny to think I still left out photo's even WORSE than these.. ;)


THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TIBOR
aaaah yes, TIBOR - bass player from Melbourne band JIKA, deranged fan of MAYNARD from TOOL, insane beer fueled party animal.. and here on holidays for the weekend looking to go beserk on the Adelaide party circuit.. a few of the photo's of his antics made it to the weekend blog.. but, here's the full scope of his drunken rampage..

and no.. I don't have ANY freaking clue who 1/2 of all these people are..



and yet, I took photo's of 'em regardless, go figure..



yup.. you begin to sense a bit of a theme here..



with occassional variations..



as TIBOR brings the METAL to the masses..



um.. yup..



he just kept on going and going doesn't he?



perhaps in effort to teach nasal hygiene to the masses?



TIBOR, SIMONE and TIMMY THE MONKEY..



TIMMY steals the spotlight..



only to reunite with his long lost brother, VLAD the freaky 7ft tall guitarist from JIKA..



phew.. this shit just kept on going huh?



um.. yup..



errrrr..



now this is just getting messier..



and messier..



just so I don't feel left out, I get in on the act..



as this shit continues well into the night..



phew.. you'd think he'd get bored of this wouldn't ya?



and yet.. after enough of this stupidity..



it all pays off in the end.. ROOOOCK!



(aaaaaah, I never get sick of posting this photo! :)


so, there ya go..
all the bits I didn't publish from this weekend..
(and likely for good reasons too.. hahahaaha)

Previously on Spoz's Rant: Red Flags And Long Nights

:: Spoz 10:44 PM |
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