AN ASSHOLE’S LIST PT III: SYNTH AND SYNTH ACCESSORIES

 LISTMANIA 2021  No Responses »
Dec 232021
 

 

(Today we present Part III of a five-part series of year-end lists from Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood).)

I guess I’ve talked about my waning interest in dungeon synth every time I’ve written about it for the last few years, which has been frequent, so that makes me either dishonest with myself or an idiot. I’m sure the internet will provide a measured response to such an existential question so while I wait patiently for the polite and measured response I’ll walk you through the synth pieces I’ve really enjoyed in 2021.

As a note: not everything is dungeon synth or even remotely linked to it, the music here just shares the common thread of being ambient, electronic or synth-driven in nature. And like every year I tend to stick to the same few labels so I’m sure I’ve missed a few great recordings elsewhere (and probably a few hundred not so great ones). This is one genre that I’m always willing to listen to recommendations in, so if you have any then shoot your shot. Continue reading »

AN ASSHOLE’S LIST PT II: SHIT THAT’S ON CASSETTE

 LISTMANIA 2021  3 Responses »
Dec 222021
 

 

(Our friend Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood) has joined us again with year-end lists as 2021 draws to a close, and today we have Part Two of a five-part series.)

2021 was an outstanding year for the cassette, at least until the last few months of it because the little screws that are used to hold the fucking things together were apparently stuck on one of those boats that contained 80% of the country’s supply chain. Even still there were a ton of releases that were pushed through, some of them were even good.

This was probably the most difficult part of this year’s trophy parade because there were so many killer tapes that I left off this list but I really had to cut the fat, otherwise this would be a thirty-band list and nobody wants that. Continue reading »

AN ASSHOLE’S 2021 LIST PT I: EPs and LPs

 LISTMANIA 2021  2 Responses »
Dec 212021
 

 

(Our friend Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood) has joined us again with year-end lists as 2021 draws to a close, beginning with this selection of EPs and LPs.)

It felt like I blinked and this year was over. When I did these lists last year I was at various hotels traveling while I trained for a new job. Now I just celebrated a year without anyone (either customer or upper management) calling me hurtful names that make me sad. I found that I’ve kept most of my 2020 picks in rotation (and still a good chunk of 2019’s as well) and I don’t really have a dour tone to strike this year, unlike the mess my 2018 list was. I don’t think I listen to anything except Extinction of Mankind from that list at all anymore.

I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seats to hear more about my personal life and that’s all well and good but I’m here to deliver what I thought were the most interesting musical moments of the past 12 or so months. Like the previous two years there were a lot of really worthwhile recordings that came out, especially in the category of splits and demos. For this first list I’m going to touch on a few LPs that I didn’t go into detail with elsewhere as well as the EPs, just to start off slowly since I’m trying to romance you into paying attention for a few thousand more words.

And with that, we’re off: Continue reading »

DIRTY BLACK SUMMER III: SUMMER DYING FAST

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Jul 272021
 

 

(We’ve previously published (here and here) two installments of a “dirty black summer” playlist compiled and written by Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood), and now we’re happy that he’s followed that with a third set of recommendations for your summer listening, presented below.)

I hadn’t really planned on revisiting this series quite so soon but there were a few releases I missed last time and a few coming up that I wanted to shed a little light on, so here we are. There’s a few gloomier bits and some hints of the upcoming autumn in here which should help those of you who get a pumpkin spiced hard-on right after the Fourth of July get a bit of a fix in. Continue reading »

DIRTY BLACK SUMMER PT. II

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jul 082021
 

 

(A couple months ago we published (here) a “dirty black summer” playlist compiled and written by Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood), and now we’re happy that he’s followed that with a second installment of recommendations for your summer listening, presented below.)

Normally for me summer means a change of listening habits to old Swedish death metal, Danzig I-IV, and early Queens of the Stone Age, but this year’s been a little different; seasonal listening hasn’t really come into play for me in the way that it has in years past. I understand there’s a bit of a stigma attached to the idea of seasonal listening anyway but that’s the sort of shit boring people with boring existences have to come up with to shit on people with richer emotional lives. Anyway, if you’ve got a moment here’s another list of things I’m listening to.

You’ll see a batch of Death Kvlt Productions releases in nearly any list I put together these days, which I understand can be a little frustrating if you’re into owning physical releases since the label tends to sell out within minutes only to be flipped to kids who won’t actually listen to the fucking records but post pictures of them incessantly on their social media feeds, almost like a roadmap to letting people know they’re assholes without actually getting to know them, saving everyone a lot of time. Continue reading »

A YEAR DUMBER PLAYLIST: DIRTY BLACK SUMMER

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
May 172021
 

 

(Here we are, a solid year into the pandemic and maybe you see some signs of hope on the roadside, but if you’re still as confused, haunted, and angry as ever, this playlist compiled and written by Neill Jameson may improve your dark moods, or further darken them. Either way, we’re delighted to present it.)

I was planning on putting together something to mark the year anniversary of the few-part playlist series I did last year that began when everyone was stuck inside, a piece of fabric on your face wasn’t yet considered to be the master’s whip, and taking a shit in the halls of Congress wasn’t a patriotic act, just something the older members of Congress did naturally, but then I had a child and the best-laid plans etc etc.

My initial impetus for it was the same as the listicles (gross word) I did on this very same site starting in 2016(?) where I went genre by genre and that’s because I enjoy shedding light on music I enjoy and I’m an attention-seeking asshole and by reading these you are indulging me. Anyway, here’s some things that have been keeping my interest the last few months: Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2020: NEILL JAMESON’S YEAR END EGO FEEDING BULLSHIT PT. V: BEST OF THE BEST

 LISTMANIA 2020  4 Responses »
Dec 212020
 

 

(We have reached the end of the 2020 lists prepared by Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood), and he closes with the cream of the crop, a lucky 13. We’re again very grateful to have had the chance to share these lists with you.)

And now, friends, we’ve come to the end of an unusually (for me) long list of “best of’s”. In any given year I tend to challenge people who post top 40 to see if they actually listen to any of the dreck they swear made their year a few weeks after list season is over, so I guess in twelve months I’ll report back. I stand by my initial assertion that industry types are mostly full of shit and don’t actually pay attention to what they put on these lists, save that they want to promote some (usually awful) record or try to appear important on some esoteric scale.

Which one am I? Probably the latter except I don’t have anything to hock this year. I still think people that do top 50 or more lists each year are fucking liars, though.

Here’s the best of the year: Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2020: NEILL JAMESON’S YEAR END EGO FEEDING BULLSHIT PT. IV: ALBUMS

 LISTMANIA 2020  4 Responses »
Dec 182020
 

 

(We’ve reached the penultimate Part in the 2020 year-end lists by Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood) that we’ve been fortunate to share with you. The focus of this one is Albums (10 of them). The preceding installments can be found behind these links: Part I, Part II, Part III.)

It hasn’t just been because 2020 turned into whatever you want to call it that we’ve seen a massive surge in quality, captivating music, but rather we’re at one of those rare points in time where there’s  an overflowing of talented and creative people who’ve all somehow climaxed at once. I’m sure there’s some kind of joke there but I’m sure most of you were sick of my shit two paragraphs in on Part I (if not earlier) so I’ll just get into the meat of this piece.

Probably a joke there, too. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2020: NEILL JAMESON’S YEAR END EGO FEEDING BULLSHIT PT. III: MORE DEMOS, EPS, AND SPLITS

 LISTMANIA 2020  1 Response »
Dec 162020
 

 

(We continue rolling out a series of year-end lists compiled by Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood). You can (and should) find Part I here (which was also devoted to EPs, Demos, and Splits) and Part II here (which was devoted to dungeon synth).

I don’t have very much of an eye for detail, no matter how much I bullshit about it on my resume, and because of that I constantly miss things when I do lists like this, plus the first two lists (did you read them? You should, they’re remarkable.) were pretty long and attention spans are short.

Really it’s just because I rushed through it like everything else in life, which is why my chapter in the USBM book stops around 2001. Anyway here’s more EPs, demos, and splits. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2020: NEILL JAMESON’S YEAR END EGO FEEDING BULLSHIT PT. II: DUNGEON SYNTH

 LISTMANIA 2020  2 Responses »
Dec 152020
 

 

(We are grateful once again to be able to share year-end lists compiled by Neill Jameson (Krieg, Poison Blood), which this year comes in multiples parts, of which this is the second one. Part I is here.)

As foretold in the first chapter of these lists (I’m trying to get into character), this part in our 2020 journey will be solely dungeon synth releases, of which there have been 16 released just since I typed that first sentence.

This genre has become fucking overwhelming, especially with people being stuck at home, so it feels like there’s a glut of new projects clogging the drain, causing a sewage overflow of forgettable cassettes that are selling out simply because people like buying shit that’s “limited”. And the culture that’s grown up around dungeon synth? That’s another article someone will bitch about that I don’t need to write.

That’s not to say there aren’t great things being released and I know I missed a great deal of them, so this is more just a list of my favorite releases this year and very obviously limited in scope. Enjoy. Continue reading »

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