Emeritus
Reviews 107 Approval 98%
Soundoffs 43 Album Ratings 429 Objectivity 63%
Last Active 11-27-20 3:47 am Joined 04-14-17
Review Comments 2,492
| My End of Year List
nothing coming out for the rest of the year tickles my fancy very much so i'm getting in early here. no particular order. | 1 | | Tropical Fuck Storm A Laughing Death in Meatspace
And lo the Lord said unto thee “giveth the people what they so desire: something that sneers and rattles and buzzes and self-destructs for fun”. And Lo A Laughing Death In Meatspace descended drunkenly from the heavens, and the people fell to their knees in submission, transfixed by the absence of a paradigm, the ugliness of what fell before them. The scene tremored with irony and finally the heretics felt at home standing beside the pious. And lo it was indeed an absurd unison – those who prostrated to the silence forming treatises with the noise, and those who would wake up with their ears ringing accepting the quiet ones as one of their own. As the celestial form settled itself amongst the dust, one heretic spoke words that would usher in a new epoch, of political corruption and rebellion: “woah..this shit slaps my guys lol”. | 2 | | colourblind Move Like You
For a myriad of reasons I will always feel a little at home with this EP. Colourblind heralds in a most uncertain summer for me by pitting shouts and yells and the tenets of modern punk/emo against more traditional forms of therapy, and by the end of the record if feels like the former has a stranglehold on the latter. Normally the phrase ‘these guys have potential’ is reserved in order to be used in conjunction with a much weaker release but, even though this is a gem, I feel like this band is still to wring tr00 rock ‘n’ roll out of that stage in one’s emotional development where it would feel unfairly condescending to label their sadness and frustration as “’teenage angst”. | 3 | | Drug Church CHEER
The genetic make-up of a band that, despite finding its way to greener pastures, are stuck in the mindset of a struggling group of 20-somethings that can barely afford a rehearsal space from week-to-week. What I like most about this album is Kindlon’s delivery – it fronts as sardonic but he can’t help but let the strained and desperate sincerity seep through. White collar punk. | 4 | | Grouper Grid of Points
The bittersweet nature of decay captured in vignettes that try their best to float by without anyone noticing. The most heartbreaking thing about this record is the sense of alienation engendered by “Thanksgiving Song” and “Birthday Song”, with Harris spelling out the cruel irony in feeling inconsequential and alone on days apocryphally defined by communion, togetherness. All with a song title and a few fading piano melodies. | 5 | | Cursive Vitriola
A dark tunnel of a rock record pulled together with histrionics and sardonic grins. The fact that it’s so stunning and so ugly at the same time feels like a deliberate ploy by Kasher and co. to weed out listeners that like their indie music to exist solely unto them. Vitriola is bigger than me, you, and it’s sure as hell bigger than the musicians who wrote it – like an AI that’s become sentient and turned on its creators. Frankenstinian is a word that exists I think. | 6 | | Foxing Nearer My God
ME: “THIS ALBUM IS TRULY FOXING’S OK COMPU-“ *gets shot in the fucking face* | 7 | | Horrendous Idol
Death metal often escapes me but this album manages to showcase its technicality without being rote and I think that balance is one that’s normally overlooked by extreme musicians. Here I find some kind of comfort in the untouchable as I realise that my relationship with Horrendous is one maintained from afar. The bass leers, the guitars perforate, and the vocals shriek the type that beckons subservience in both the listener and the host of inferior death metal bands attempting to scale the same heights. | 8 | | Raime We Can't Be That Far From The Beginning
Experimental electronic, clocking in at under twenty minutes, that feels like a walk through a room of mirrors. Spliced together from pieces of humanity and cold steel, We Can’t Be… is a shoddy stained-glass mosaic, playing out like demos polished so pristine that they vaguely resemble finished compositions. The result resembles a dystopian future, presenting a shiny veneer that’s long since given up hiding the blackened underbelly that represents the bulk of its content. | 9 | | Yves Tumor Safe in the Hands of Love
Yves Tumor, at least here, has two defining characteristics: complete faith in his ability as a deft and versatile producer, and complete lack thereof in the prevailing socio-political climate of the western world. Safe In the Hands of Love straddles lines I didn’t know existed to present a struggle between the bleakness of the outside world and the absolute explosion of colour that is one’s identity (see: cultural identity, blackness, queerness; i.e. the parts that Bowie presents himself and the parts that our political world directs its attention towards). In this a world manifests – one in which individualism wins and partisan issues are filed under the same category as humanitarian issues. | 10 | | Elysia Crampton Elysia Crampton
This record is like sleeping in the pile of unwashed clothes on your bedroom floor instead of cleaning it up. Crampton makes a home inside the clutter and chaos of everyday life and the portrait is endearing and very pretty. | 11 | | mewithoutYou [Untitled]
Mewithouyou cutting the brakes? Weiss wailing like a banshee? In 2018? Hmm I don’t know. I love this album lots but not for the reasons cited on comment threads across the indienet. Bringing back the hardcore mwY was a smart idea and it never fails to get my head banging but the highlights here are in finer details lost in the muck and mire. Like Weiss breaking the fourth wall in Another Head For Hydra, or the choir being buried in smoke and debris in [dormhouse sighs], all chills are rendered by that which will never make it to the surface. Here, it feels like the band are making a statement about the futility of enduring struggles against the inevitable: aging, consequence, retribution, losing meaning in whatever once meant the most. Andavanay. | 12 | | ITEM Sad Light
Album of the year pulling a Steven Bradbury (google it) to find its place as a mainstay in my personal canon. The album is modest and suspended in a haze. Couched in apathy but also rich as an argentine, Sad Light is melancholic but holding on to a sliver of optimism and that’s what lends it its catchiness and absurdist humour. I’m annoying and this is what it looks like when I’m at a loss for words. | 13 | | Pemberton Maybe I'm a friend that stuck around too long.
*BONUS ROUND*
lol, PRANKED | 14 | | DJ Healer Nothing 2 Loose
Ask the friends I've left on read for days, I always end up forgetting the things I care about the most. *extremely sunglasses emoji* | |
verdant
12.04.18 | some honorable mentions: earl's new one, manor of infinite forms, konoyo, blood loss by remote viewing, room inside the world.
what are yourfavourites?? ? ? lets get some discawss going | rabidfish
12.04.18 | Elysia crampton was dope yea, i just wish it was a little longer. | Conmaniac
12.04.18 | but dudeeeeeeeeeeee we got like 27 more daysssss plus a new Bay Faction album in a week
but good list either way, I checked 12 yesterday and really dug it. need to finish 9 but the songs I heard were incredible...6 is prob my 1 | NorthernSkylark
12.04.18 | and so
it begins | Deez
12.04.18 | 'Quarter Turns Over a Living Line' came out 6 years ago!! | BlushfulHippocrene
12.04.18 | Wo ist Haley? Beautiful list, beautiful write-ups. | verdant
12.04.18 | oh nooooo i missed ittttt that is definitely up there i'm sorry : (
@cone lol Bay Faction
@deezer please do a read of the entry thanks | Conmaniac
12.04.18 | bay faction is bae, hyped for their new shit | Sowing
12.04.18 | Outstanding list and write-ups. There's a lot of these I still need to check.
"“THIS ALBUM IS TRULY FOXING’S OK COMPU-“ *gets shot in the fucking face*"
I died laughing. | verdant
12.04.18 | thank you :~) | guitarded_chuck
12.04.18 | no hip hip reee | Sniff
12.04.18 | did not expect to see Raime on here. Cool choice... | verdant
12.04.18 | sorry chuck lad, there was a few that could've made it on (i.e. milo, saba, etc) but it wasn't a strong year for hip hop imo | Sniff
12.04.18 | i'll add it to the db for you babe | verdant
12.04.18 | < 3 | Sniff
12.04.18 | There you go. Gonna jam it soon myself and 3.5 it | verdant
12.04.18 | thank you so heaps | Deez
12.04.18 | @deezer please do a read of the entry thanks
Sniff doing youre dirty work. I bet youre unemployed.
Also i didnt even know they had a new album out so even better.
Great write ups man too. | verdant
12.04.18 | thank you my man | Chortles
12.04.18 | I love these write ups (esp for Yves and Grouper) | Frivolous
12.04.18 | Very Good List, 10 is one of my favs from this year!! | Papa Universe
12.04.18 | u want...
...sum recs? | Sniff
12.04.18 | okay that raime record owns | verdant
12.05.18 | hello thanks friends | butcherboy
12.05.18 | we got 1 in common.. much weaker year than 2017.. | SteakByrnes
12.05.18 | JACK NICE LIST :3 | Archelirion
12.05.18 | Yeah Tropical Fuck Storm was something else. Not a perfect album but mah gawd it's nice to hear something that makes me go 'wait what the fuck that's cool'. It's a bizarre mixture of an album but it largely works. | BigLofty
12.05.18 | while i must commend your awful taste for somehow managing to be the THING that tipped snox over the edge, there is nothing else defensible
if i were stuck with this shit to listen to in 2016/17, my suicide attempts would've been much more forceful (and, dare i say, successful) | verdant
12.05.18 | excellent bit | BigLofty
12.05.18 | if i made it more self-deprecating i'd prob cop a staff badge like yours lol | verdant
12.05.18 | probably!! you're a very good writer and you know lots of good niche music songs!! hope you're well Lad | BigLofty
12.05.18 | sincerely dreading christmas as it threatens to drive me to another dissociated episode of attempted (or potentially successful) self-emancipation from this grip that binds | BigLofty
12.05.18 | so... at about 7/10 for wellbeing
hope you're well too homeslice-9000 | verdant
12.05.18 | ah yes christmas is the day for dashed hopes but keep at it my man. 7/10 is better than the 6 digits that precede it | WatchItExplode
12.05.18 | Your headspace would be an interesting place to visit. | verdant
12.06.18 | thank you but it's very boring and i get frustrated with it a lot |
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