Black mountain - Wilderness heart (Jagjaguwar, 13/10/2010) www.myspace.com/blackmountain
Just as Uza reaches in conciliation to the mainstream it spits in her face and says fuck you. How on earth has this not been a huge hit and the governor of all indie lists? BM's third album finds them in such a strong shape that they should be ruling the airwaves by now instead of watching shitty acts like King of Leon ride tsunamis of success with pale and sickly versions of the real thing. Wilderness heart is a celebration of psyched-out, droned-out, greasy stonerism. This album is the first one produced not by BM, and the presence of Randall Dunn (Boris) and D. Sardy (NIN, Spoon, LCD SS) is felt across the board. Heavily fuzzed guitar showers are accompanied by trippy instrumentation but not in a trashy mundane 60's way: BM would have blown Woodstock out of the water, not because they offer anything new, but because this time around they do it better than anyone else does today.
My gold mask - A thousand voices EP (Bandcamp, 09/01/2010) http://mygoldmask.bandcamp.com/
Minimalism galore! A drum-guitar duo that makes it sounds so much more. This is by no means lo-fi, bedroom recording or any other hermitic form of asceticism. This is carefully and meticulously produced and arranged piece of bare-knuckled rock. Watching them live brings to mind a one-man-band on acid. A thousand voices is as raw as rock can (and should) be.
Men among animals - Run ego (Tapete, 12/03/2010) www.myspace.com/menamonganimals
This is a Danish witch's cauldron of sheer balagan. Think XTC meets The cardiacs and then you're only on the first step there. Pop? Check. Late 70's British Punk? Check. 80's pop trash? Check. Cranky angular math rock? Double check. How on earth do these elements coexist? Only Lurpak has the answer.
Street sweeper social club - The ghetto blaster EP (Self released, 10/08/2010) www.myspace.com/streetsweepersocialclub
I'm not sure Tom Morello and Boots Riley had this EP in mind when they first started SSSC. Their 2009 debut showed case a band with a strong social agenda, an attempt to continue the political drenched texts of The coup and the like-minded angst-driven days of Rage against the machine. The debut worked – big time. However, the EP works, but not so big. Somewhere along the way, social awareness was replaced by fun. Don’t get me wrong: this is good, as fun is a noble cause just as fighting social injustice. However, SSSC try to hold the stick at both ends here. More often than not it doesn't take, and I think they know it. This album, is rife with good lyrics, but when you choose to (horribly) cover (the even more horrible) Paper planes and follow with a cover to Mama said knock you out and wrap things up with a new version of Promenade, clearly your focus has widely shifted somewhere along the road. But since music is what we are concerned with here, then I just gotta hand it to SSSC: this is fucking fun!!! Capital F bitches. Simple repetitive hooks that deliver the crunchiest and dirtiest rawwwk and the razor sharp humor of Riley. Don’t think too much here, this may just be the best riot music ever. So maybe SSSC achieved their goal after all?
First blood - Silence is betrayal (Bullet tooth, 09/11/2010) www.myspace.com/firstblood
Just like many other genres, hardcore is WAAAY over its peak, but – unlike other genres – it is not dead. Perhaps it will always be around due to its social bedrock and its high appeal to angry and bored youth, but musically it is done. Some would argue (justifiably so) that there never has been any music to talk about in this genre, yet in some rare cases few bands were able to melt into their wrath some good music. Again, this hasn't happened in eons. First blood is part of the new-new wave of west coast hardcore and their latest effort brought some happiness to the Uza's soar ears. Old-school hardcore, the way it is meant to be played and written. Sheer in-your-face urban assault that keeps on pounding and going for the jugular. Nothing new here, just a cool, light breeze of mayhem that did not come our way in a long time. If SSSC make riots fun, first blood make them terrifying (the way they outta be).
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