What Music are you listening to? Discussions Welcome!


Living the lockdown life with 60gb of old Coast to Coast AM shows. Can things ever go back to how they were?
 
Living the lockdown life with 60gb of old Coast to Coast AM shows. Can things ever go back to how they were?

Not really music either, but I listen to Old Time Radio detective shows from the 40's and 50's every night on my wifi internet tabletop radio I have on my nightstand. I turn it on when I get in bed and fall asleep listening to half-hour private eye shows with the likes of Richard Diamond, Johnny Dollar, The Saint, Philip Marlow, Sam Spade, Barry Craig, The Falcon, Dragnet, Box 13, and dozens more gumshoe series from that era. I usually wake up early in the morning and get a few more episodes in before I get up for work - which now entails just a short slog in my PJs down to the basement to work from home on two company laptops across VPN.
 
New Crossfaith ep is out today (Species) and it's great. 5 songs that are at the heavier end of their sound and that's fine by me.
 
Peter Hook & The Light's "So This is Permanent" live album, in which the band played every single song Joy Division ever wrote. The performance was originaly held on the 35th anniversary of Ian Curtis's death in 2015, at the church in Macclesfield that Curtis went to as a boy, and has been re-released to mark the 40th anniversary. A DVD of the show is soon to come out, raising money for the Epilepsy Society.
 
Just listened to "Abyss", the new album from Blacklab, an all-women Japanese doom metal duo. Better than the first album I think.
 
Also that (K)NoW_NAME soundtrack is fantastic.
I thought I'd check to see if they had appeared on Spotify yet (they weren't when looking for the Fairy Gone and Sakura Quest OPs/EDs last year) as they've also done Dorohedoro and they have appeared. They also did stuff for Grimgar.
 
I thought I'd check to see if they had appeared on Spotify yet (they weren't when looking for the Fairy Gone and Sakura Quest OPs/EDs last year) as they've also done Dorohedoro and they have appeared. They also did stuff for Grimgar.

Grimgar is where I was first introduced to them! Loved their work on that show :)
 
The new Ghost Inside album dropped today and it is amazing! More of the same in a way of their melodic hardcore/metalcore but the weight of their tragic bus accident really comes through in the lyrics and vocals!
 
Had a listen to the first album from a new Japanese band called Zutomayo:

I found them through one of the AniTubers I follow, he also does videos on Japanese music, and they combine both elements as all their videos are animated:


It's a very good album, the track I kept thinking of most when I was listening was the Domestic Girlfriend OP:

PS The Denki Groove single containing the Devilman Crybaby OP and ED is back on Spotify:
 
Got a number of CD albums recently, most which were a little hard to get due to COVID-19 shipping restrictions and abysmal independent record label distribution.

The Ray album finally came out. Ray are an underground idol group who sing over backing tracks by Japanese shoegaze bands such as Cruyff in the Bedroom and For Tracy Hyde. Elliott Frazier of Ringo Deathstarr also contributes a track. The album, "Pink", is pretty damn good considering a lot of idol stuff is pretty disposable. They also cover two ・・・・・・・・・ (Dots) tracks, which was their much artier predecessor group. The album also veers into electronica at times.


Also finally got the new Grimes album, but the Japanese version which includes the previously released single "We Appreciate Power" as a bonus track, which for some reason she's decided to delete from other country's physical copies of the album. The obi explicitly states that CD is not to be exported. It's really dark and industrial sounding but I quite like it.


For some reason I bought Perfume's "Perfume The Best "P Cubed"" which as it sounds is a three CD, one blu-ray set of their greatest hits over the last 15 years or so plus two new tracks (blu-ray is recent music videos and NHK performances though). I am along time fan of the group, but some of the latter material has tested me. I find a lot of the B-sides and albums tracks vastly superior to the singles. Anyway, the two new tracks on this album aren't worth it. The remainder have been remastered and given a few very minor tweaks in the process. I suspect a lot of the tracks have been given new mixes. Listening to the album reminded me of what a great group they are. Their first four albums in particular veer track to track from almost bubblegum electro pop to outright dance music you'd never expect a pop outfit to release.


One of my favourite punk bands, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, has made a triumphant return after no touring or releases for about eight years. Had no idea that they had released an album last year until I accidentally saw it in a record shop. It's from a US label and didn't get an Australian release for some reason. Lyrically they have sort of matured, but they still sound the same and the recordings are still live and lo-fi.


Due to Ray and ・・・・・・・・・, I have come across numerous Japanese shoegaze bands. It seems that the genre never died out there. Four piece Spool, who are an independent group, are current favourites.

 
I heard the Meanies new album on a digital radio station I listen to a lot recently and decided to go though the releases on their old (and sadly defunct) independent label they were on in the 1990's, Au Go Go. Man, I really wish I had ventured down to Melbourne in the 1990's so I could go to the label's fantastic store. I did a lot of mail order from the shop but never physically went there. Anyway, I forgot Magic Dirt were signed to them and ended up going through their back catalogue. Back in the 1990's, they sort of veered from Sonic Youth-like noise jams to raucous Babes in Toyland style songs. I've had "She Riff" stuck in my head for about a week.


The video copies key scenes from "Picnic At Hanging Rock". It's sort of hilarious as lead singer Adalita Srsen is playing a character that is polar opposite to her then on stage persona. For the very next single, Magic Dirt did a 180 that gave every one whiplash ("Dirty Jeans") and Adalita's look and personality changed completely. She was so vampy compared to grungy persona she had before. Her vocal range had changed too and it was bloody amazing. I really liked Magic Dirt's material from this era, but her solo track, a cover of 1960's country/rock and roller Hoyt Axton's "Double Dare" for the "Suburban Mayhem" soundtrack was also excellent;


Another track I'm been into lately is from a UK producer called Wilma Archer. Never head of the guy before, but the track "Cheater" had been on fairly high rotation on the digital station I listen to.


I was intrigued by the featured artist on the track, who goes by the name Sudan Archives. I looked her up and wasn't disappointed; a crazy violinist from Los Angeles with a pet snake who makes fantastic music;

 
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