*BC Series* Review: Cloudkicker - Beacons

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Album

Back to the Bandcamp releases. This was the album that made me aware of the site, having been recommended by some site that I found in a random search for free music. Clearly, I was impressed enough to take great interest in the site, so it would seem I owe a lot to this album.

Cloudkicker is a one-man, instrumental progressive rock/metal project out of Columbus, Ohio. While my preferences in prog-rock are typically based on high-quality instrumentation, I generally lean toward acts with talented vocalists and interesting lyrical themes. It's a genre in which instrumental projects are usually very pretentious, and often boring. Cloudkicker doesn't come off that way to me.

Upcoming Release: Dragonfly Lingo - Flux

I don't intend to make a habit of coming back to an artist after only one other review, but with the release of Dragonfly Lingo's highly anticipated EP Flux just around the corner (scheduled to drop on Valentine's Day), I think I've waited long enough.

*BC series* New Release: Sanxion7 - red01.ruby

For this one, I'm going to start by focusing on the latest release, and get a little bit into the most recent prior ones.

I'm always happy to give an artist a chance when he's a fellow Wisconsinite. The music scene in Madison is often overlooked for reasons I can't understand. For years, I've heard from a diverse assortment of very talented artists that fail to gain the exposure they deserve. Hopefully, the Bandcamp model is giving artists like Sanxion7 an opportunity they might not otherwise have.

*BC series* New Release: Dragonfly Lingo - Offscreen

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Album

I'm starting off my series of Bandcamp reviews with what is so far my favorite work amongst the electronic stuff I've checked out.

Having designed sound for stage productions and at least one piece for an independent film (which unfortunately didn't make the final cut) gives Dragonfly Lingo's Mitia Wexler a bit of an edge in implementing the concept for his debut album, Offscreen.

Website: Bandcamp

Every now and then, a music-oriented website comes to my attention and really impresses me. MySpace started out as a nifty idea for the independent artist, but the potential for abuse and shift in direction was obvious from the get-go. When I first found mp3.com over a decade ago, it was a fantastic site for discovering lesser-known artists, but they whored themselves out pretty quickly.

I finally found the perfect spiritual successor to mp3.com, and it looks like they've implemented a solid model with great potential. It's the perfect example for the direction the music industry should be taking in the age of the Internet. The name of the site is Bandcamp, and when I first discovered it about two months ago, I decided right away that it should be the subject of my first website review. After giving it some time and thought, here are my observations.

New Release: Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (remastered)

It's been a while since I posted a review. A long while. I guess new releases just haven't been impressing me a whole lot lately. There are some things that have grabbed my interest and given me some ideas for new directions to go with a blog. Until those are fully-formed, though, I really must wax ecstatic about what I got in the mail today.

New Release: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Yay, indie pop. Any group of bands that willfully accepts the placement of the label "twee" on their genre has no right to complain if no one ever listens to them. Especially if they suck like this band.

New Release: Muse - The Resistance

Muse is just plain awesome. I loved 2006's Black Holes And Revelations, so I was a little psyched about the new album. The band refuses to disappoint.

New Release: Gnaw Their Tongues - All The Dread Magnificence Of Perversity

Originally posted 9/15/09

I saw this album on a new release list; having never heard of the band, I thought I'd give it a shot. Turned out to be noise metal. That would have discouraged me from even trying it if I'd known beforehand. But it wasn't all bad...

New Release: Ensiferum - From Afar

Finnish metalists Ensiferum released their first album in 2001, and I hadn't heard of them until their 4th album was released just 2 days ago. Upon reading up a little, I discovered that they are considered to be "folk metal" or "viking metal," fusion metal genres I've only recently obtained more familiarity with than the simple knowledge of their existence. It sounded interesting, but I was merely expecting something similar to Amon Amarth or other bands of the genre. Not exactly so...

Retro Review: Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

I have a very difficult time beginning to write about something so important to me. I think that's why I chose to review this one first--not because it's almost definitely my favorite album of all time, but because it will be the hardest one to write about.