What are you currently listening to?

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BIL
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by BIL »

system11 wrote:I found this recently, might appeal to some people here who like Tool, prog metal and that kind of thing. The subject matter is pretty rough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxIq6TY ... heReticent
50 minutes in, this is damn good. Yeah, could definitely see Lateralus fans digging this, on multiple levels. Melancholic, punishing, twisting and turning... yet compact, agile, and sparingly beautiful. Distinctly recalling Opeth's Watershed too, very autumnal in its more contemplative passages. Hard concept indeed, that's a hell of a title. A necessarily upsetting record, though never luridly so. Thanks for the recommendation!

EDIT: sort of instantly likable, low-fat prog LP I immediately want to replay in full (edit2: and indeed just did). Only a handful of screamo turns in the first half dint the otherwise authoritative work. Surprised these guys have so few subscribers.
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Obiwanshinobi
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by Obiwanshinobi »

Mass for double chorus & double orchestra* by Henry Desmarest, Jordi Savall conducting etc. Super-humane if I say so, even by the Baroque music standards. Never-mind Baroque Masses.
No, really. Everyone who's into music-making themselves should lend it an ear. That "double chorus" technique of sorta canon, sorta "false echo" effect, is a thing to be aware of.
You see, at least some people back then were a tad smarter than - let's face it - most of us are these days. Humankind hasn't really evolved at all since the times we have any historical sources from.

*) Messe à deux chœurs et deux orchestres, apparently.

It is jolly rad, darn pretty. Hosanna, Benedictus and so on.

P.S. I mean this recoding of it, for what it's worth. The glorious In Excelsis Deo double CD album.
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scrilla4rella
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by scrilla4rella »

system11 wrote:I found this recently, might appeal to some people here who like Tool, prog metal and that kind of thing. The subject matter is pretty rough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxIq6TY ... heReticent
I'm feeling this. It has some really interesting time signatures and unpredictable jazzy interludes.

Rando, IMO all the Tool albums are good. Lateralusis my favorite but then again I don't know a whole lot about metal.
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Obiwanshinobi
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by Obiwanshinobi »

Eurgh, Ænima and that's about it. Nowadays, I'm pretty alergic to the bands who take themselves THIS seriously (such as Pearl Jam).
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Randorama
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by Randorama »

Thanks lads, I will try to answer in order of post/poster.

Stevens: DT fall in the same category for me, so I skipped on giving them a try for decades on end.
Agreed on Tool's first two albums, but then I lost track of them. This comment leads to...

OmegaFlareX: As a kid who grew up with prog parents, both bands offer relatively familiar styles that however never lured me in too deeply.
Tool's approach to signatures is fine for me, as I also like some types of Jazz (and generally musicians playing time signatures, yes).

System11: I am behind a firewall (currently working in China). Could you please post the name's band?

scrilla4rella: Got it. I remember listening to Undertow quite a bit and I have been listening to their other works right now.
I think that I agree with Herr Shatten's comment from the other topic: you need the right frame of mind to appreciate them, but some aspects are resonating with me right now (the numerically odd time signatures? My knowledge of music is really sloppy, sorry).
Last edited by Randorama on Sun May 30, 2021 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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BIL
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by BIL »

Randorama wrote:System11: I am behind a firewall (currently working in China). Could you please post the name's band?
It's "The Oubliette," by US band The Reticent. Blasting it as I type this, third loop (couldn't play it too loud last night, can't bear to disturb nice ol' granny next door, even though she's cheerfully informed me she DGAF). Really good stuff.

Concept album following a dementia sufferer - it's very sensitively observed, but also absolutely blunt about the toll of the disease. Not wishing to reveal my power level (as the kids say), but my mom's family has a history of early onset dementia. Even though all my grandparents made it to their 90s/100s in relatively good health, she and I have always had a slight gallows humour about it (killed an aunt of hers at ~50). So I appreciate how straightforward it is, lyrically. Not a cheerful listen, but it shouldn't be. Mortality blows. Image Although sometimes I think, what's the best thing a red giant ever felt in its unfathomable lifespan? God willing, may the good times make up for being imprisoned in a doomed meat golem. Image
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by vol.2 »

BIL wrote:God willing, may the good times make up for being imprisoned in a doomed meat golem. Image
Sounds almost purgatorial the way you put it. Perhaps it is.

Sucks though. There are many advances recently into the mechanisms of dementia and there may yet be some good treatments for it going forward. I understand that diet and activity also play a huge role as exercising the brain can help to stave it off. People who have active hobbies (my gram played bridge) that continue to challenge critical thinking and promote hand eye coordination seem to have the best effect.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by Herr Schatten »

I'm not totally sure if the Metal/Hard Rawk thread isn't the more appropriate place to post this, but I figure that my fellow metal heads appreciate as wide a range of genres as I do, so I'll just leave this here.

I recently found out that Lake of Tears have released a new album called Ominous after a 10 year hiatus. There's always been something special about the band, and this new record is no exception. It's a bleak and dark album. If you listen to any of its songs (bar maybe the bonus track) individually, they appear fragmented and strange, but if played in context, they create a maelstrom that drags you in.


The album made me re-visit their back-catalogue, too. Here's my little retrospective:

Greater Art (1994): A debut of a band very much in search of itself. Single tracks like Under the Crescent allow for a glimpse of what's to come, but overall, this album is largely forgettable. Skip this if you're not already into the band.

Headstones (1995): With this album the band really hit their stride, establishing their unique brand of simplistic, yet highly effective, songwriting. With maybe the exception of the overly-long last track, the album is all killer and offers a wide range of styles and moods, from the magnificent title track to the energetic Burn, Fire, Burn.

A Crimson Cosmos (1997): A fantastic follow-up. The band introduces some hippie-esque new elements into their sound that work surprisingly well and push some of the songs almost into Pink Floyd territory. The aptly named Cosmic Weed is probably the song that sums up the album best.

Forever Autumn (1999): Probably my favorite LoT album. The hippie stuff is dialed down and makes room for full-on melancholy. Singling out certain songs doesn't make a lot of sense, as they all feel like parts of a bigger opus.

The Neonai (2002): This album only came to be to fulfill the contract with their label that forced them to deliver one last record. As a result, the songs vary wildly. The quality is up there, though, and the album has some real standout tracks like the intriguing Nathalie and the Fireflies.

Black Brick Road (2004): A great reunion album that has all the qualities of the earlier records. The opener The Greymen sets the tone perfectly.

Moons and Mushrooms (2007): A weird album with a bit of a punk-y attitude that, sadly, suffers from a less than stellar sound production.

Illwill (2011): A complete change in style that only makes sense retrospectively, now that Ominous kind of marries it with Forever Autum. Illwill is a ghastly and desperate album full of rage and despair, spiked with mild Black Metal influences, even. A total outlier, but fascinating nevertheless.
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vol.2
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by vol.2 »

America

By Dan Deacon. It's the culmination of 2010s Baltimore warehouse music. Epic, layered modular synth with a full band including two drummers. It's both sensory overload and comfort food.


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The album is a mixture of instrumentals and songs with lyrics.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by Marc »

Seeing as it turned 30 last week ( :shock: :shock: ), I spent the weekend blasting the Smashing Pumkins' 'Gish'. Brilliant album, I'm puzzled by folk that prefer Siamese Dream, it's a bit overblown for me that one. I know he used a stupid number of guitar tracks to get the sounds of it, but damn it still sounds thick and heavy to this day.
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vol.2
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by vol.2 »

I agree. Gish is the better album. The band is still grunge at that point. Siamese Dream is when they completed the transition to a Boston cover band.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by scrilla4rella »

of course the guy from Baltimore recommends Dan Deacon :)

I saw him perform when my wife was going to school in Providence. He had this trippy marching band with him. Good stuff, will def check out this modular sounding record.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by vol.2 »

scrilla4rella wrote:of course the guy from Baltimore recommends Dan Deacon :)
lol. I'm actually not from Baltimore, just got stuck there for awhile, prolonged by covid. But, yeah, I have been haunting it for a few years now.
I saw him perform when my wife was going to school in Providence. He had this trippy marching band with him. Good stuff, will def check out this modular sounding record.
Is the typical live show for him since, eh, 2014 I think. Trippy is the right word.


Dan Deacon is the most representative of the 2010 era Baltimore warehouse scene, but my favorite from that stuff is Moss Of Aura.

It Gerrit Welmers solo project (the keyboard player from Future Islands). It's nothing at all like FI, but you can recognize the tones he uses on his synths obviously. It's all total instrumental, vaguely Caribbean sounding, vaguely Vaporwave, 80s-inspired awesomeness. I think it's way better than anything else out of Bmore in that time and is criminally passed-over. Of course, it doesn't help that the albums are mostly cassette only.

I recommend Still Parade, March and Wading. The rest of his stuff is a different beast and more Aphex Twin and less pop.

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Re: What are you currently listening to?

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Marc
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by Marc »

Anyone that thinks they would like an eclectic mixture of prog/stoner/metal should stop what they're doing, go check out Boss Keloid's 'Family the Smiling Thrush', and thank me later. Genuinely original sounding records like this don't come around too often.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by Herr Schatten »

Steamflogger Boss wrote:New Helloween 8)
Been listening to this almost exclusively since release. As I said in the other thread, I'm enjoying it far more than I expected. It's no match for the genre-defining classics from their early days, but it's the best album they've released in over 20 years, since Better Than Raw to be precise. The Band earns extra points in my book for resisting the temptation of riding the nostalgia train full-on and instead making something more akin to a "best-of with new songs" spanning the whole range of styles from various points in their career.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

Herr Schatten wrote:
Steamflogger Boss wrote:New Helloween 8)
Been listening to this almost exclusively since release. As I said in the other thread, I'm enjoying it far more than I expected. It's no match for the genre-defining classics from their early days, but it's the best album they've released in over 20 years, since Better Than Raw to be precise. The Band earns extra points in my book for resisting the temptation of riding the nostalgia train full-on and instead making something more akin to a "best-of with new songs" spanning the whole range of styles from various points in their career.
Other thread?

And yeah I am enjoying it a lot. Getting caught up with some other bands as well.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by vol.2 »

Steamflogger Boss wrote: Other thread?

And yeah I am enjoying it a lot. Getting caught up with some other bands as well.
There's now a hard rock and metal specific music thread viewtopic.php?f=3&t=66877
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by Obiwanshinobi »

Heard Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber on the radio yesterday. Live retransmission from, I think, Munich? Or wherether that was. Performed without audience, not so long ago, as you may guess. Remember the Schwarzwald stage from any Sonic Wings/Aero Fighters game? So, it gave me an impression similar to that.
Apparently Frederic Chopin was a great fan of it, and you can totally hear the idiom throughout all of Romantic music.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

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Sammy00 wrote:I’m listening to my favorite song In the air tonight – Judith Hill. It’s the soundtrack from the series "Little fires everywhere". I just love this song. When I hear it, I immediately relax, disconnect from the outside world. I don't know how it works, before that no soundtrack from the movie or series affected me like that. Sometimes I want to watch this series again just because there is this song.
This account is so bizarre. On March 31st, we also got the same post:

"I’m listening to my favorite song In the air tonight – Judith Hill. It’s the soundtrack from the series "Little fires everywhere". I just love this song. When I hear it, I immediately relax, disconnect from the outside world. I don't know how it works, before that no soundtrack from the movie or series affected me like that. Sometimes I want to watch this series again just because there is this song."

What say you, witch!
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vol.2
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

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i guess you scared em off, drauch
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by neorichieb1971 »

I just recently bought 4 SACD's.

The matrix soundtrack
Notting hill soundtrack
Bon Jovi Greatest hits
Enigma.
This industry has become 2 dimensional as it transcended into a 3D world.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by vol.2 »

interesting. don't hear much about SACD these days.

have you ever heard a good MASH (Multi-stAge noiSe-sHaping PWM) system playing a regular CD? it's a pretty neat system that basically translates the 16bit 44.1K stream into a 1-bit PDM stream in order to push the noise into the MHz range. basically gives you SACD results from a CD. the players that did it well were as expensive as SACD players, but with the benefit that you can play any old CD.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by Obiwanshinobi »

I purchase hybrid SACDs now and then, as it is just the way certain labels (Alia Vox) release their things. Sound jolly good played on ye olde CD player. My understanding is that their main goal was to employ more channels than two, which I effectively don't benefit from.
It has to be said, I'm not nearly done with stereo as such. While it's weird how Sony removed SACD support from PS3, I don't have surround sound gear at home anyways. Nor do I feel I should have it, badly.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by vol.2 »

The purpose of the SACD was to essentially eliminate ADC quantization error by trading bit-depth for frequency. With a higher frequency, you can use noise shaping to push the quantization error into the frequency region that is far above the level of human hearing. It's still there, but it's at something in the megahertz range where it does no harm to us.

"Noise shaping is a technique typically used in digital audio, image, and video processing, usually in combination with dithering, as part of the process of quantization or bit-depth reduction of a digital signal. Its purpose is to increase the apparent signal-to-noise ratio of the resultant signal. It does this by altering the spectral shape of the error that is introduced by dithering and quantization; such that the noise power is at a lower level in frequency bands at which noise is considered to be less desirable and at a correspondingly higher level in bands where it is considered to be more desirable. "

This is accomplished by using PDM (pulse density modulation) as opposed to PCM like CD does. Some version of Delta-Sigma modulation is employed in PDM, and is also used in the MASH systems to convert CD audio into PDM as part of the DAC process.
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by guigui »

Write and play a good song ? Jinjer did it again :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiaOSGZTwtY
Damn I love those guitars and snare drums, and I challenge you not to headbang inside the vortex.

The same live in "Hellfest", the full concert is very good too. Almost Gojira-quality live band :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZq6TlLfDAQ
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by scrilla4rella »

Any of you guys heard this record (Lewis - L'Amour)?

Some really unique ambient/chill out music from 1983. the backstory is interesting but not as notable as the actual music IMO. I was listening this heavily back when it was reissued in 2014. It's lingered in my head since then. I had to pull the trigger when I finally found a copy on wax at Amoeba records last week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DANx_SHeiWk
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vol.2
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by vol.2 »

scrilla4rella wrote:Any of you guys heard this record (Lewis - L'Amour)?
that sounds great. i'm in totally too intense a headspace rn to hit it, but thank you for sharing. i will for sure revisit in a month or so
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by shooteraddict »

Recently discovered Schranz (I'm a keen EDM fan), so have been kicking this genre lately. It has been making me want ridiculously powerful subs.

Currently listening to: Viper XXL - Hardtechno Anthem
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Re: What are you currently listening to?

Post by scrilla4rella »

vol.2 wrote:that sounds great. i'm in totally too intense a headspace rn to hit it, but thank you for sharing. i will for sure revisit in a month or so
Cool, glad you like it so far. Yeah I hear you, good music can be devastating when in certain frames of mind. Take it easy
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