December 30, 2007

Shotmaker - Complete Discography 1993-1996

Shotmaker was a mid-90s band that blended together the more chaotic style of the emerging California screamo scene with more traditional emo and post-hardcore. They favor a lot of dense chord voicings and rhythmic patterns though they trend towards having melodic vocals and lead guitar lines. The bass is particularly dynamic being riff-based, harmonically important, and also rhythmically pounding. Apparently members are now in a band called Three Penny Opera.

Complete Discography 1993-1996 (2000) - Download - Review

December 18, 2007

Venetian Snares - My Downfall

Venetian Snares managed to release his most recent LP My Downfall, somewhat under the radar. Venetian Snares, who usually gets reviewed by sites like Pop Matters and tiny mix tapes, just hasn't been given a seat on the hype train for this album. It's hard to see why not because My Downfall is a logical continuation from his most critically acclaimed album Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett. On this album, VS, trades in his typical, highly electronic breakbeat in favor for the sake of exploring the atonal soundscape of modern classical music. As opposed to Rossz..., which was about a 50-50 mix of breakbeat and sampling of modern classical artists, My Downfall almost drops breakbeat entirely. The album isn't as likable in the traditional VS sense (the album doesn't have any electronic blips or video game noises), but the tracks are still intelligently composed and show off a new, subdued, and fairly sophisticated side of VS' eclectic sensibility.

My Downfall (2007) - Download - Review

December 13, 2007

Drowning With Our Anchors - Demo

Really good emo from the Bay Area. They've only released this demo and I don't know if anything else is going to come of it. They have ex-members of the other great band Makanda who may also make an appearance here.

Demo (2007) - Download - Mini-Review