Memory keeper. Mostly music and movies, plus some series and video games. Obscure darkness meets pop culture glow.
It’s industrial metal with a heavy electronic drag. And most of all, even though it’s presented as a neo-noir cyberpunk aesthetic, I still feel a positive vibe in there. It’s not like one of those doomed self-deprecating whiners who suck all your willingness to live but this one rather pushes you to go go go and if there’s something in your way just crush through it. It has energy and fun.
This is easily one of my most influential albums that I came across in 2020. Modern technoid EBM with bubbling analog synths and tight industrial beats. It has all the dark beauty of any oldschool EBM but without the spotlight mainstreamism of some retro abusing modern electronic music. They are to EBM what Led Er Est was to post-punk goth rock—something new that understands the roots and fully lives in the present. Wonderful, fantastic music, soundtrack of my life material.
Tripping melodic mid-tempo techno and tech-house.
I have a feeling that I became a sucker for something that’s too mainstream with listening to all these Koletzki and Township releases. But I feel like it’s 2008 again and Kalkbrenner is new. Although these releases are from 2016-17, so I’m late to this party. Well, like I was late to the Kalkbrenner party, too, by just stumbling upon him after Berlin Calling came out. And there was Kah-Lo just recently as well. It shows that I’m usually a late adopter for dance music. Except that I’m getting more and more fond of trance, that has to be something different being in a revival time frame. You cannot be late by a few decades. (Or can you?)
I just finished the 2020 long player of Sub Focus and decided not to put it up here when this record followed and I thought, so this is the one that was meant to be. The same kind of accessible, easy to listen drum and bass electronic dance music but with just a little bit more sophistication and less sugarcoat. Although it’s still fluffy and light like a smokey Saturday afternoon. I feel so good that this is released by Ninja Tune: I could also say this is drum and bass through the Ninja’s lens, as in that being quality assurance.
Breakbeat in its truest form with tone and tempo ranging from nu skool breaks to trip hop.
Hypnotic ambient, great for focused work.
This has been at the top of my Play Later list for three months now. This happens to a few albums that I keep relistening and I know after removing from there I’ll get back more rarely to them, so I want to give them more time to sink in my brain. I feel now that this record has sank its rock and roll girl power fangs well enough, the name Girlschool will stay with me all right.
They are usually referenced as contemporaries with Motörhead, but I can even say that they are good to be called the women version of Motörhead. This is powerful hard rock and heavy metal at its best. I would love to see a full movie using only this album for a soundtrack.
It has a post-rock atmosphere with prog-rock elements but a metal sound. Apparently this is post-metal or prog-metal, which I’m not too familiar with as a genre, probably should be. But then again I guess Tool could fall in this category, too, I’ve just never thought of them this way. And thinking about it this way I ralize the difference between post-metal and prog-metal. Tool is more on the prock-metal side essentially coming from a prog-rock/art-rock angle just adding more metal weight to instrumentation. While The Ocean is more heavy on the post-rock vibe with epic instrumental spaces where massive and rhythm-heavy riffs bridge calm and sorrow melodic sections.
In any case, this is a fantastic record, takes me on a journey, and I definitely want to follow it up with its successor Phanerozoic II right away.
Tripping techno continued today on a long player record format and with some occassional house beats. It’s interesting to hear how the tracks and the whole structure of music is changing when it is intended for an album release. It doesn’t feel like an assembly of single tracks but rather one coherent atmosphere and flow of music. Also, motivational brain juice work music for the day.
Definitely one of the best dreamy techno records that I’ve heard this year. It is tripping but still fits a dance floor just fine. Makes me ache for that neon-pierced pitch black box of techno club that we love so much. I miss it badly.