March 2017 review

Hey, look. I'm sorry. I know I've mentioned the character string "Omar Rodriguez-Lopez" so much on this blog that the words have lost all meaning, and that he's released about 4 million albums in the past year, but honest to goodness the two OR-L records from March are good enough for the top spots they've been given. Azul, Mis Dientes is quite an accessible release, a kind of edgy-goth version of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Gorilla Preacher Cartel meanwhile, is nothing short of magnificent.

I was just gonna make it a top 5 this month, but I didn't want to put the Soulwax records in the doldrums with the rest of the mush. It's too good. So it's another bumper top 6 list. In the end, it was easy - March's albums brought 6 distinctly average records to go along with my top picks, and I chose the ranking in minutes. Also, I'm happy to finally put a Metal album as my top spot. Metallica's effort from last year nearly got a #1, but I wanted to save it up for something that really kicks you hard in the balls.


The Rest:


Jamiroquai - Automaton - C

Sleaford Mods - English Tapas - C

Temples - Volcano - C

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Damage and Joy - C

Pulled Apart By Horses - The Haze - B


The Best:


01: Mastodon - Emperor of Sand - A

One thing about this album that caught me straight away was how, even in the midst of long progressive instrumental sections and brutal riff-shredding, there is still room for acres of hooks, vocal and otherwise. Emperor Of Sand, Mastodon's 7th studio album, has a lot to offer in terms of an easy experience for the casual listener. It's a good introduction to a band that are known for their uncompromising complexity. Pieces such as Precious Stones, Andromeda, and the epic closing track Jaguar God easily stand up to the rest of Mastodon's back catalogue, and will likely be touted as classic moments in years to come. One other thing I get out of this record is how easy the grooves and melodies come - The band are still happy in one another's company, and with the direction they're going in, even after almost 2 decades together.

This one will not ultimately please the purist fans, who will long for the heavier sound of the bands early output. They'll point to the 3 Doors Down sound from Show Yourself - To be fair the song is a total clanger - and say that Mastodon have lost their edge. But there is nothing on the rest of the album that isn't able to stand up to proper scrutiny, and while it's certainly exciting and impressive for a band to put together a 4 album concept project, eventually there will have to be a change in direction. With Emperor, Mastodon have mixed up elements of hard rock, alternative rock and progressive metal and come out with something very special. They continue to evolve and grow, and they are still one of the finest Metal bands to come out of the past 25 years.

02: Omar Rodríguez-López - Gorilla Preacher Cartel - A

This is exactly what I like from OR-L. It's one of those crazy albums of his where you don't know what's coming next. This is due to the scrapbook nature of the album, as it takes in material from across his entire solo output, and even before - Some of the material is understood to have been written or at least conceived around 2000. OR-L has chopped and fiddled with multiple cuts from his previous records on and come out with an album that defines his own idiosyncrasy, and he's called it Gorilla Preacher Cartel, of course.

The outro suite Loveless//Interceptions/Of Pride is by far the finest moment on Cartel, and represents the pure randomness of the album. It's an extended version of Upon Golden Ice, a song from the earlier 2017 release Roman Lips. This now has an extended middle instrumental section that was jammed live by The Mars Volta around 5 years ago. It's wonderful stuff. Usually I'm turned off by OR-L's flagrant frankensteinism, but this speaks to me. I'd still say that Sworn Virgins is the best of the Ipecac series, but Cartel breaches the top 5 for sure. It's a wide-ranging album that buzzes with ideas and visions, far beyond its 40 minutes.

03: Blanck Mass - World Eater - A

Blanck Mass is the blackened alias of Benjamin Power, one half of the drone duo Fuck Buttons, in which he explores a dancey, industrial-Techno sound, with plenty of noise thrown in for good measure. His album Dumb Flesh from a couple of years back made this writer's top 10, which has now been followed by the enigmatic World Eater.

Nothing on here bangs as hard as Dead Format, the single from the afore-mentioned 2015 release, but that seems to be the point - This is not a straight-up club anthems record. World Eater is to be digested in one go. There are several tracks on the record that don't make sense on their own, but because of their position and timing on the album, really resonate when they come up on the playlist.

The beats are hard, the noise is noisey, and those industrial late-90's Nine Inch Nails sensibilities are all hallmarks of the sound Power is making into his signature style. I dig the niche he's made for himself with this project; there's so much depth and space to explore in the sound. World Eater is a rung above the last release, with more progressive song structures and longer noise sections. It's not something you'd put on in the car with your mum, but it's blistering hot if you like that sort of thing. And I do. I really do.

04: Raekwon - The Wild - A

With Raekwon being the most vocal of RZA's detractors in the Wu-Tang inner circle from the past few years, it's unsurprising to see that he is not among the army of producers and guest spots on The Wild. Indeed, no-one from the dozens of Wu-denizens that once so heavily populated solo albums of this ilk are to be found. This probably isn't much of a statement, but it's an indication of the era. The Chef is carving his own turkey now, at the head of his own table. And a good job he makes of it, too. Raekwon manages to create a classic, simple sound with the tools at his disposal, which makes The Wild a smooth ride from front to back.

After Fly International Luxurious Art, his failed mainstream experiment of 2015, Raekwon needed to truly hit it out of the park with his next release to get him back on track. With The Wild, he's done that. Back to basics, and back to the beats that made him and the Wu so loved. I'm not saying he's incapable of more radio-friendly mid-10's style tunes, he's just not comfortable in that mode. This is the man responsible for Only Built 4  Cuban Linx, for chrissakes. He needs to be edgy and dirty. The Wild is far from a mid-career curio for the Wu-completists. It's a strong album in it's own right.

05: Omar Rodríguez-López - Azul, Mis Dientes - B

06: Soulwax - FROM DEEWEE - B