INSPECTAH DECK, 7L & ESOTERIC / Czarface [2013]

Wu-Tang Clan's Inspectah Deck and hip-hop duo 7L & Esoteric join forces to form the superhero inspired  2013 concept album Czarface.
Heavily inspired by the gritty, menacing '90's East Coast sound, Czarface can't be taken seriously with it's large use of cheesy cartoon samples and nerdy comic book references galore.  7L's production is bouncy, clean and shining with confidence whereas Deck & Esoteric's vocals, while good, don't really differentiate from each other from song to song and eventually gets a little too samesy after 6 or 7 tracks.
A solid and fun album with just a few minor quips that shouldn't take away from the listening enjoyment.

3½ activated Wonder Twin powers out of 5

Songs Of Note: Cement 3's [feat. Roc Marciano]; Savagely Attack [feat. Ghostface Killah]

KATE BUSH / Director’s Cut (2011)

If we must have an album of reworked Kate Bush songs, then who better than Kate herself to do it? There's a valid reason for the genesis of the idea that I don't have room to explain, so you'll need to google it if you're interested.
The result is less appalling and pointless than most of the other re-recordings by other artists that I've heard over the years; that's not bias talking.
The songs, taken from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993) are all great songs, and Kate's lower key gives many of them a significantly different feeling, as does the new arrangements on some, but in most cases the originals are still superior; that may well be bias talking, because it's difficult not to directly compare them when you're in love with the originals as much as I am.

Songs of Note: Flower of the Mountain; Deeper Understanding

3½ analogue hugs out of 5

PIGFACE / A New High in Low (1997)

ANHiL is a double album. Given its extra length (easy, tiger), it would be natural to assume that it contains even more collaborations than usual, but the opposite is true, it has very few contributors. It almost seems more like a Martin Atkins solo work (with a handful of guests) than a typical Pigface release.
The first disc has twelve tracks spread over fifty+ minutes. There are some half-decent efforts, but overall it's not up to the usual standard.
The second disc is either more interesting or less bearable, depending on your opinion of professional boundary-breaker Genesis P-Orridge, because it's the work of just s/he and Atkins. It's seventy+ minutes of meandering musical self-indulgence that's split over just three tracks.

Songs of Note: Nutopia (w/ Meg Lee Chin); Methylated (w/ The Girl Bros)

3 grotesque attenuations out of 5

JESU / Jesu (2005)

The eponymous release was the first full length album from Jesu, released a year after the début E.P., Heart Ache. It took the crushing industrial drone that Broadrick is known for and hollowed it out. It's a slow process, but once achieved he was free to fill the gap with something new. Over the course of the album he changed the nature of what industrial music had to offer, opening it up to the beginnings of something that—dare I say it—resembles a kind of uplifting optimism.
It's well known that there’s beauty in darkness; Jesu fans know also that there's beauty in distortion, in minimalism and in purposeful drone.

Songs of Note: Tired of Me; We All Faulter

4 paths to divinity out of 5

SUZANNE VEGA / Days of Open Hand (1990)

The Folk beginnings can still be heard as influences in Suzanne's third album but the singer/songwriter has moved onto new plateaus musically; not necessarily higher or lower, just different. It's not Folk, Rock or Pop, it's simply music from the heart played in an understated way. I can well imagine it being someone's favourite SV album for that reason alone.
The obvious singles will likely be the thing that entice many people in, but the beautifully serene and occasionally mysterious poetry on the quieter tracks will keep them there; it may take longer to appreciate that aspect of the work, but for my money it's where the album's true strengths lie.

Songs of Note: Tired of Sleeping; Book of Dreams

3½ magic markers out of 5

CARCASS / Surgical Steel (2013)

They disbanded in 1996 but they're back! And look at the cover. Is it a sign of the Carcass we know and love? Yes, if you were a fan of Necroticism (1991) and Heartwork (1993) because, like every review written says, it sounds like a bridge between those two albums (which is another way of saying it's fucking awesome).
The first half serves up an aggressive dual guitar assault on a bloodstained platter that reminds us just how influential the guys were back in the day. The second half is more focussed on bone crunching mid-tempo riffs that are friendlier on the ear but still extreme enough to make my brain tingle with perverted joy.
It was mixed by Andy Sneap, so you know you're in good hands even before you slip the disc into your player.

Songs of Note: Thrasher's Abattoir; Captive Bolt Pistol

4 congealed blood clots out of 5

KATATONIA / Dethroned and Uncrowned (2013)

An interesting reworking of the previous year's Dead End Kings album. It's not a typical acoustic album, although there are acoustic guitars heard. Instead, it's an album designed to accentuate the ambient and percussion aspects of the band's sound. It strips away the heavy guitar and bass, but doesn't detract from the paradoxical warm/cold beauty of the originals. Some tracks are almost too close to their source, while others are like new works entirely. It's not as stripped-back and naked as I'd have liked, but it's still a hugely enjoyable experience that I'd be happy to see continued, preferably with material from some of the earlier albums, because the softness of Jonas' vocals is perfectly suited to this kind of thing.

Songs of Note: Hypnone; Buildings

4 songs that make the hours go out of 5

KATE BUSH / Aerial (2005)

Kate took some time off after The Red Shoes (1993); it ended up being twelve years, but she came back with a double album that's structured similar to her masterpiece, Hounds of Love (1985), in that it's split into two distinct halves.
Disc One (A Sea of Honey) is a collection of eclectic and mesmerising songs about life and people. It's often cryptic and has many hidden depths. Contrast that structure with the simplicity and beauty of Kate's slightly deepened vocal delivery and you'll discover one of the album's great strengths.
Disc Two (A Sky of Honey) has nine tracks but needs to be experienced and appraised as a whole piece, like The Ninth Wave. It's a complex and multi-layered arrangement that tells the story of one twenty-four hour period, a single summer's day, which may take months or even years to fully appreciate.

Songs of Note: King of the Mountain; How to be Invisible

4½ spiders of time out of 5

NINE INCH NAILS / The Slip (2008)

The Slip does what the majority of NIN albums do: it mixes the angry and the serene, and after repeated listens it's the serene tracks that prove to have the most depth musically and emotionally. It adheres to a mostly paint-by-numbers formula, but at least none of those numbers are (Year) Zero.
It should satisfy fans temporarily, but there are a few stand-out tracks that make owning it very worthwhile. Get it for FREE at the official site.

Songs of note: Echoplex; Lights in the Sky

3 that got away out of 5

ABDOUJAPAROV / Cycle Riot History Gang (2007)

Cycle Riot is the second full-length album from the trio with the difficult name fronted by Les 'Fruitbat' Carter. It's a collection of retro-sounding guitar-driven post-punk anthems that should strike a chord with the matured generation of students that embraced Carter U.S.M in their heyday.
It's a lot tamer than I expected and to be honest I was mildly disappointed on first listen, but after repeated spins it settled into the correct parts of my brain. Plus, it makes me happy to know that Fruitbat is still making music.

Songs of Note: Do It Myself; Hit Her With the Pig

3 Led times out of 5

BATHORY / Jubileum volume II (1993)

Vol II suffers from the same thing Vol I did: the songs are structured oddly, meaning the progression that Quorthon's music underwent is lost.
But as before there are some rare and previously unreleased tracks to ensure existing fans double-dip for content they already have. If the music wasn't so damn good, then I'd be hating heavily on the compilation, but I can't score it any less than it deserves. At least Black Mark ended the album with the Twilight of the Gods (1991) material; it works better that way.

Songs of Note: The Return of the Darkness and Evil; One Rode to Asa Bay

4 trips to foreign shores out of 5

TYPE O NEGATIVE / Life is Killing Me (2003)

Happy gloom that conjures mood and atmosphere in the familiar Type O Neg way. Peter Steele knew that you don't need to sacrifice melody in order to add distortion, and while the guitar sound hasn't changed — it still conjures images of an angry wasp on morphine, carrying a tiny shiv — it's broken up occasionally with lighter moments. The humour is still there, too.
It's an album that takes time to fully appreciate. If I'd rated it when it came out, I'd have scored it lower, but it has characteristics that improve with age, like barrelled whisky. It would've benefited from being shorter, but happily there's none of the usual filler between tracks to drag the overall experience down - the trip to Mockingbird Lane doesn't count, because it's great.

Songs of Note: I Don't Wanna Be Me; Angry Inch

3½ celebratory mourns out of 5

QUORTHON / When Our Day is Through E.P. (1997)

Quorthon had the good sense to not release it under the Bathory name.
If only he'd had the good sense to not release it at all.~

Songs of Note: There aren't any.

0 out of 5

VARIOUS ARTISTS / The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)

A soundtrack album that collects together good old Country music songs from the good old comedy film of the same name, which was itself an adaptation of a stage musical. The big draw is that it features the wonderful Dolly Parton, who lends her vocal talents to a number of tracks. She even does a duet with the moustachioed Burt Reynolds! That alone should be reason to check it out.

Songs of Note: A Lil' Ole Bitty Pissant Country Place; Sneakin' Around

3 wipes with soap and water out of 5

CURRENT 93 / Horsey (1997)

An album that brings together many of the facets that C93 have explored over the years since their conception: the experimental, the acoustic, the abrasive industrial guitar drone, the neo-folk pastoralism, beauty and horror, and Tibet's unique, esoteric poetics that are delivered like some kind of informed, unconscious voice that guides the listener through a chaotic dream state. If you've ever had a dream spiral out of control, you'll understand what I mean.

Note: four of the six tracks on offer were originally released on a triple album (split release with Sol Invictus and NWW) that was limited to just 2000 copies. The two additional tracks are live recordings.

Songs of Note: The Death of the Corn; The Tree

4 breaking sounds out of 5