HELLION SOUNDS crimson nightmare

prog-metal video game music covers? absolutely rad even though it sounds lame as fuck. one of the funnest albums i've heard in a long time! 2006.

PIERRE LUNAIRE gudrun

this record is very difficult to put into words, so i will use someone else's:

"With their masterpiece "Gudrun", Pierrot Lunaire surely belongs to Italy's most experimental and original prog bands, along with Orchestra Njervudarov, La 1919 and Opus Avantra. Of course there are avant-garde and musique concrète influences, specifically on the title track and "Gallia", but when I really think of it, avant-garde or experimental aren't really the first words that come to mind, nor is avant-prog for that matter. First of all, the album pretty much defines the words "unique" and "original" in my view. There's literally nothing else quite like it, even though Arturo Stalteri's "Andre Sulla Luna" deserves to be mentioned for the obvious reasons. I think it's the exceptional level of uniqueness and creativity what has always appealed to me the most in this album. It's one of those truly rare albums that create its own little universe. After a good number of listens, it also appears to be undeniably beautiful, even in its most free-form and out-threre places.

The title track starts off relatively conventional, but suddenly turns into something that could be my favourite piece of progressive electronic ever, if you can call it as such. Folk/ambient/opera/experimental electronic/musique concrète/prog rock would be a decent description for this stupendous work of art. The operatic vocal plays a very important role here; I personally find the vocalless version (included as a bonus) a whole lot less compelling. Some tracks are very much minimalism-influenced ("Dietro il silenzio"), others are a bit more in the prog rock vein ("Giovane madre"). "Plaisir d'amour" is an interesting experiment - while the harmonical basis couldn't be more cliché, the distorted arrangement creates an unusual contrast that eventually works well. It's easy to write off "Gallia", the most free-form track on the album, as a filler, but for me it works just as great as the rest of the album. "Morella" with its unexpected twist at end is another highlight. Add to that various spoken word and retro interludes, and all tracks being separated by a special effect which I fail to recognise."

gudrun defies classification, but for the hell of it here are some of the tags it has received over at rym: avant-prog, experimental, musique concrete, opera, modern classical, progressive electronic. easily one of the best works of the 70s. highest recommendation! 1977.

IPSWICH living in a stranger's home

super-rad little ep of (post-)punk/noise rock tunes from new zealand. reminds me of a punkier version of something like hot snakes or young widows. pretty fucking cool! 2011.