Right, sorry for the delay and slightly shorter writeups this time, but the whole 'back to school, let's set tons of work!' ethic from the teachers has kicked in, but still, I'll try and remain prompt from now on. Still, here we go, some very interesting picks/results this time:
1st Place – 6 PointsJamesman
Cloudkicker - Genesis Device
I knew this was gonna be the song to beat this round as soon as I finished my first listen, despite feeling basically shellshocked. I’m a bit of a wimp in my music tastes, so normally I wouldn’t go for stuff quite this heavy, but it was just, for lack of a better phrase, balls to the wall heavy from the get go in an amazing way that basically felt like getting pummelled in the head repeatedly.
I can’t wait to hear more of this artist now, although I feel I’ll have to take breaks between each track as I was basically breathless after this. I love how there are occasional breaks of like half a second where you just have time to think ‘is this it?’ before it just goes WHAM and into another amazing riff/section. To sum up my feelings on this, I’ll quote the commenter on the vid Jamesman linked me to, ErikMcLennan: ‘What a fucking epic way to start an album!’
2nd Place - 5 PointsKari
The Jesus and Mary Chain – Just Like Honey
I was one of ‘those people’ that still didn’t really know what the hell shoegaze was, but I guess after hearing this track I do. And I love it. Kari’s detailed message really helped me in terms of enjoying this track the way it was meant to, and after trying it through speakers loudly as he suggested I was blown away. I then tried it with headphones just out of curiosity and it lost a lot of the effect, so there you go.
I do remember thinking ‘I have to get this song!’ at the end of Lost In Translation, but I guess I never did, and I’m so glad that Kari sent this so I can finally start getting into some shoegaze. The female vocals at the end are also just perfect. Awesome awesome track.
3rd Place – 4 PointsKingshmegland
Umphrey's McGee – Cemetery Walk
Well this was epic. The intro threw me off completely (but was still great) before the song ‘properly’ started and became really funky. I really enjoyed the vocals here a lot; the guy’s delivery was just really cool and fit the music perfectly. The break in the middle led into a really cool Pink Floydian guitar solo that climaxed awesomely with the return of the piano from before and a general buildup of EVERYTHING in the song up to that point, before completely blue balling me with the ending.
Great song, I’ll have to check this band out more.
4th Place – 4 PointsDTVT
Redemption – Memory
Despite the pure rage I could feel emanating from DTVT in his message to me with this, I hope he’ll be reconciled by the fact that I loved it.
I’m gonna be a noob and say that the whole thing massively reminded me of I&W era DT, which is no bad thing as that’s my favourite DT album. The intro was very interesting, and would ironically have made great late night music too.
I really liked the vocals in this, and the numerous instrumental breaks worked really nicely as inserts between the verses. The string parts the keyboards were doing throughout the track were excellent too, and really added to the all round epic feel. The break at around 5 minutes in reminded me ridiculously strongly of Metropolis as well, which again is a good thing. Best thing in the track: the very end. And I mean that in a completely non snarky way, the way there was the break before the ‘your name’ was just so damn cool. I’ll definitely be checking this band out after the roulette’s done!
5th Place – 3 PointsPortucci
Crippled Black Phoenix - Troublemaker
Wow, I’ve really dismissed 2010 as a year for music based on this kind of thing being undiscovered by me up until now! This was very very cool metal-y post rock, and just sounded badass as soon as the foreboding intro was over. This is the kind of music I’ve been wanting to get into for ages, it’s so seamless with the way it integrates the heaviness into the more ‘wandering’ bits, for lack of a better word. The vocals were also very interesting; the fact that they were even there at all surprised me, but it was a welcome surprise for sure. This band has shot up my list of ‘to check out’s, and I can’t wait to hear more.
6th Place -3 PointsZxlkho
Buckethead – Population Override
Wow, this was very unexpected! I knew Buckethead covered basically every genre but this still surprised me with how jazzy/funky it was right from the start. The song doesn’t seem to drag at all despite it’s length, and it’s not just Buckethead who shines here, the whole band have awesome parts and it’s just a really fun, cool song overall. It can best be summed up by me linking it to a friend who only knows ‘Jordan,’ and he then said ‘WTF is he doing?!’ which I thought was great. And yes please Letters, based on that amount of studio work I might need some guidance.
7th Place – 2 PointsSonatafanica
Bjork – Possibly Maybe
This just reinforces my opinion on Bjork; I have no idea about her. I’ve loved about half of the songs I’ve heard from her, and equally hated the other half. Luckily, this was in the first camp.
The ‘riff’ or whatever you wish to call it is immediately appealing, and this is one of the times where I really enjoyed her vocals. The lyrics were also really interesting after a few listens, and I can see where Sonata gets inspiration for his long posts from now.
Not much to say here, except that I’d be willing to get into more Bjork of this kind fo’ sho.’
8th Place – 2 PointsFluffy Lothario
Jacky Tar – Roving Journeyman
Based on Fluffy’s mysterious description, I had no idea what I was in for here. The intro didn’t help my overall confusion.
I actually really enjoyed this though, it had a great modern folksy feel and the vocals were, although largely unintelligible to me, great. The ‘verse’ was hilarious but so cool, and every new thing I heard in the song just made me appreciate it even more. This was way out of left field, but very interesting and enjoyable as a result.
9th Place – 1 PointSpace Invader
Telfer – Sync This Rock
I knew within the first 10 seconds of this song that I’d really like all of it. It’s infectiously funky, with a great and catchy guitar part that I immediately learnt, it’s so fun to play. My only mild complaint is at points the vocals are a bit weak, but that’s only in around one line per verse where it’s noticeable, and the backing vocals more than made up for this. The acoustic break at the middle was surprising, and then it led into an AMAZING guitar solo that floored me. Very cool song. I’m also insanely jealous of you for having such awesome neighbours.
10th Place – 1 PointGorille85
KARKWA - Echapper au Sort
Sadly I think a lot of this went over my head, but other than the lyrics, I really enjoyed all of this. Comparisons with Arcade Fire immediately sprang up in my head as it started, which is no bad thing. The video was also really interesting. It was just a shame I couldn’t understand it!
The music was really good overall though, and the piano was surprisingly my favourite thing in it. I feel I can’t really say too much about this, as I feel the lyrics are a large part of it, but it was still really good.
Fluffy Lothario – 16 Points
Kari – 15 Points
Jamesman - 15 Points
Kingshmegland – 14 Points
Gorille85 – 14 Points
Space Invader – 12 Points
Portucci – 12 Points
Zxlkho – 11 Points
Sonatafanica – 9 Points
DTVT – 9 Points
My idea for the next round seems like it'll be a breeze for some of you but a difficult one for others. The theme is:
non-guitar music. I hope that's a little less ambiguous than late night music proved for some, but should still be just as interesting.
Topic: Marvellous G's Song Roulette - Round 8 Resuuuuults! (Read 41383 times)
