NIN Lashes Out with "Hesitation Marks"

Trent Reznor released his latest album on September 3rd titled "Hesitation Marks".  In Hesitation Marks, you can hear the culmination of Trent's 24 years of experimentation with music and sounds.  Some tracks stay true to the NIN dark, industrial sounds and background artifacts, while other tracks stray radically from Trent's signature sounds.  However, if you're a devout NIN listener, you'll realize this is what makes NIN, NIN.  It seems like he tries to reinvent himself in many ways with each new album or collaboration.

Hesitation Marks is Trent's re-emmergence into NIN after the hiatus when he collaborated with Atticus Ross for multiple scores such as "The Social Network" and the theme song for "Call of Duty Black Ops II", and also formed the group "How to Destroy Angels" with his new wife Mariqeen Maandig.  Hat's off to you Trent for staying very busy and still tacking time to come back to your roots.

Time to rip it up!:

Killer Tracks:

Track #12 - "In Two" - It begins with haunting sounds reminiscent from "Further Down the Spiral" and thrusts right into hard hitting bass sounds that bring back memories of his "Slip" album and also conjure up the good old days of rhythms from KMFDM.  You don't have to wait long to also catch glimpses of the signature flat note muted guitar rifts.

Track #8 - "Satellite" - Continuing with the "Year Zero" album theme, NIN again exercises his angst with the federal government and its every-increasing encroachment on civil liberties and survelance.  As with Year Zero, Satellite has more of a story to tell with the lyrics than trying to evoke emotions through the sounds.  The beat is simple and catchy.

Track #5 - "All Time Low"  - This is a faster and more-bluesy version of his "Good Soldier" from Year Zero album.  Like "Satellite", All Time Low has a simple beat and focuses more on the lyrics.

Track #2 - "Copy of A" - Don't listen to this track unless you have access to some good subwoofers with low frequency responses.  The intermittent 8th-note bass beat will make your brain cells rattle.  For lyrics, Trent again makes good use of his stutter-clipped repeating vocals, that I personally think he mastered in his "Star Fuckers Inc." song.

Track #4 - "Find My Way" -  This slower song is perfectly placed in the album to give the listener a break from Trent's busier tracks.  Also the gentle lyrics remind me of TweakerRay's remix of NIN's "Perfect Drug" song.

Others:

Track #7 - "Everything" - When I first listened to this track I thought "WTF!", "Good for you Trent!", "Wow!", "Are you out of your fucking mind!", all at the same time.  I really don't know what Trent was thinking when he came up with this song.  It's just too pop-ish for me.  But then again, Trent was never in the business of pleasing everybody.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this album to those who appreciate NIN's versatility in the music industry.

BT Delivers Again with "A Song Across Wires"

Wow, where to start...  BT (Brian Transeau) is one of those electronic artists that produces nothing but brilliance.  When I mention "produces", 95% of his works are originally created by him.  Too many electronic musicians these days remix others' work and call it good.  Not BT.

BT is a truly humbling experience to electronica.  He has inspired so many aspects of it; created "stutter edit" and built an industry around it, won academy awards, holds world records, and at the end of the day, does not flaunt it.  This is a testament to his moral compass that keeps him grounded while still delivering what his fans love.

"A Song Across Wires".  begins where his "These Hopeful Machines" album left off.  Released August 16th 2013, ASAW continues with his crisp and hi-fidelity progressions but also introduces some familiar sounds of the Dubstep style and Zedd's new signature sound affects.  Also aparant in ASAW is BT's subtle "touchy" lyrics.  Although some electronica fans may not find this appealing, try to focus on the tight coupling of synths and affects that truely bring out the meaning of each song that can only be experienced individually.

To truly appreciate ASAW, you need to purchase the extended exclusive album from BeatPort.com  This version also contains the continuous album track that captures the transitions between titles.

Time for brass tax;

Hot Tracks

Track #1 - Skylarking - It's starts slow to get you in a comfortable place and gradually builds into a fast-paced instrumental progressive immersion of serenity.  It includes repetitive patterns but these are selectively spaced throughout the 10min 45sec track so that it doesn't become monotonous.

Track #3 - Tomahawk - This has a little bit for every style for the electronica lover out there.  At times this track seems like it's all over the map and could easily have lost it's way if not for the extended time.  The always-loved synthpad instrument begins you on your journey until the track's featuring artist, Adam K, gently introduces the heavy 8th-note bass coupled with a 4th-noted alternating arpeggio.  These two items, together with the perfect amount of reverb, give the track it's heart.

However, about 1/3 through the song, it takes a dramatic shift from the easy flowing progressive fealing to the break-stepping style and sound affects reminiscent of Zedd.

At the end, the energy is so high you feel as if you're in a rave. BT did a wonderful job on Tomahawk by blending many conventional and bleeding edge styles along with alternating energies.

Track #8 - Surrounded - The flow of this track brings me back to the days of BT's "Emotional Technology" album.  He uses simple but affective styles and synths along with rich lyrics from Aqualung.  The length of the track is also short enough I could easily see this being included in mash-ups on your local songs-that-are-played-too-much radio stations.


Other Great Tracks

Track #5 - Stem the Tides

Track #6 - Tonight


Disappointments

Track #4 - City Life - Sorry I just can't get into songs with oriental lyrics.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this album to any lover of easy-listening electronica.

Sirah, amassing the C.U.L.T

Indie rapper Sirah release her latest album titled C.U.L.T.  (available for free download via her website).  I first discovered Sirah via Skrillex when searching YouTube and came across her "Double Yellow Lines" song.

Self-claimed "part-time rapper, full-time friend", Sirah does her own thing by not following the mainstream entertainment B.S. that is spoon-fed to the masses. CULT is the definition of want Sirah believes in.

Hot songs:

• "Up and Down" - a true testament to her time collaborating with Skrillex and using many aspects of the popular, but over-hyped, Dubstep genre.  All said it's possibly the best example of indie, rap, and cleaner dubstep.  The music video is based around dancers throwing colored chalk at each other, which does not impress me, but the video has many excellent timed cuts that compliment the music (especially at time: 2:40)
• "Made It" - Rhythm-wise, mix "Stand by Me" and "Killing Me Softly" (Lauryn Hill version).  When I first listened to CULT, I replayed this song probably 20 time in a row.  A great mixture of lyrics and rhythm.
• "When I'm Gone" - A pissed-off, middle finger-flinging, "I'll do what I f@$king want", pissed at modern society,... Goodness ;)

Unimpressed songs:

• "Blew Your Mind" - Too Britney Spears-ish during the chorus.
• "Like Me Now" - Too monotonous.

Overall CULT is a great accomplishment for Sirah that proves people can do what they love and be proud of it.  Sirah, keep following your dream and don't ever sell out!

Knife Party is Playing with Power!

The two guys that gave you +Pendulum have followed their true calling and created the new drum and bass group called +Knife Party [Pendulum] .  They've been around for a couple years with their three EPs (No Modern Talking, Rage Valley, and most recently, Haunted House).

Recently on their Haunted House tour they released their latest track "Power Glove".  Add this track to your kicking-ass club songs list.  Power Glove holds no punches right out of the gate with KP's hard hitting low bass 8th note and a rave-ish version of a sound effect I can only describe as reverbed Mortal Kombat.   Even under KP, you can still detect those signature distortions reminiscent of Pendulum.  I wish I had this song back in the days  when my buddies held all day Tekken tournaments.

No matter what state of mind you're in when you listen to Power Glove, you will experience the uncontrollable head bobbing.  KP kicked off their Ultra Music Festival show in Miami with Power Glove.  A very good choice.  KP's UMF full HD video featuring Power Glove can be found on their website or here.  For the actual song, YouTube has it here.