I like Bishop when he's silent, I don't like Bishop when he acts vocally capable. For fans of The Residents
"Pain Stretcher" seems to me like a bunch of sketches/demos and live improvisational sessions (i.e. not fleshed out ideas) thrown together without rhyme nor reason in one unnecessarily massive album. I mean, I love monstrously gargantuan records as much as the next guy (Nine Inch Nail's "Ghosts I-IV", Today Is the Day's "Sadness Will Prevail", death's dynamic shroud.wmv's "DERELICTメガタワー", The Caretaker's ... read more
It may sound a tad naïve here and there, but I guess that's exactly what makes it charming and endearing: doom metal's baby steps, which now I realized could've easily been called just blues metal, if the metalhaeds weren't too edgy. "Planet Caravan" and "Rat Salad" are amazing deep cuts
Had no idea how amazing of an MC she is! Far from a brilliant lyricist, though
Every track follows the same pattern of being this same repetitive "ambient" noise soundscape broken off by a couple of seconds of harsher noise in the second half of the runtime (either close to the end or around the middle), with that former segment continuing abruptly right away. For fans of Prurient's "Troubled Sleep"
![サイ [Sigh] - Heir to Despair](https://cdn2.albumoftheyear.org/100x0/album/123073-heir-to-despair.jpg)
Sigh, indeed; totally not surprised that this dad metal-adjacent record is in the AOTY's top 5 avant-metal records according to the critics
A solo wind instrument playing/improvising over a rhythm section?! Never been done before, so revolutionary!
Came here after the Grammys performance and I hate to admit that these original studio numbers have nothing to do with the energy she served live. Real feel: 67 minutes
The field recording source material is not too exciting, but the second track is typically marvelous Matmos by the numbers
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Recent Review Comments
On 🌺 Rise165's review of Charli xcx - BRAT
"Ended up rating that snooze fest higher than this... Sigh"
On Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
"@SpejsNigrutin, немам поим што друго би било."
On witchofswag's review of Животни [Životni] - На Балкан, сам [Na Balkan, sam]
"@witchofswag, nebe brat daleku od vistinskoto ne6to ime bolji 6otie"
On Teddy_Picker's review of Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows - Death & Flamingos
"@Teddy_Picker, I realized that... Nevermind, keep them to yourself then!"
On Teddy_Picker's review of Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows - Death & Flamingos
"To which ones are you referring here?"
On Cromagnon - Cave Rock
"@Ciwal, it's the same album reissued under a different title"
On Pink Siifu - ONYX'!
"@soileater - that's just, like - your opinion, man..."
On Pink Siifu - ONYX'!
"@esanblocks, EDM needed more than 20 years to become what I wanna hear in its non-mainstream styles"
On Gab-Hugo's review of Zheani - LONG LIVE THE OLD DEAD GODS
"TS so flattery, feels like the artist themselves wrote it"
On mvxyy's review of underscores - skin purifying treatment
"It's probably too dIsJoInTeD and qUiAnT for the majority... At least it's not in the red!"
On Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85–92
"@RoboRizz95, I was very sad when I learned they're horrible people (allegedly)"
On Silent's review of Gamelan Sekar Tunjung - The Music of K.R.T. Wasitodiningrat
"@Silent - I have this saved already, but thanks anyway!"
On Silent's review of Gamelan Sekar Tunjung - The Music of K.R.T. Wasitodiningrat
"What are better gamelan records, in your opinion? I am going through the most highly rated gamelan releases on RYM and this was one of them, but I'm always curious for more gamelan - it might be my favourite traditional music out there (not to mention that I based my artistic alter-ego on a fictitious person from Yogyakarta)"
On MrNoodleMan's review of Од вратот надолу [Od vratot nadolu] - Жива [Živa]
"You might wanna check out some other projects fronted by the same person:
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/1490028--stagnator--cena-na-nezavisnost.php
https://angza.bandcamp.com/album/impulse-of-morbid-self
I swear, that gut rarely has a dud (if any)"
On astrojmmm's review of Taylor Swift - The Life of A Showgirl (Track By Track Edition)
"I think Charli released BRAT in several colours, but that's less than what she's doing AFAIK"
On witchofswag's review of Addison Rae - Addison
"@paldoshadyfacts, is this a joke about OK Go? I don't get it"
On Dreamyreviews's review of The Residents - Eskimo
"For more ambient by The Residents, check out their soundtracks "Postcards from Patmos" and "Strange Culture / Haeckel's Tale / The Rivers of Hades""
On IreviewMerzbow's review of Merzbow - 抜刀隊 With Memorial Gadgets
"A huge difference between the 1986 version (which, apparently, still aren't the original recordings, but remixes by the label RRRec themselves) and the 1993 re-issue is the bonus disc "Loop Panic Limited".
The original tracks were released in 2024 "with bonus songs from the same time" (https://kontaktaudio.bandcamp.com/album/batztoutai-with-memorial-gadgets)"
On malicious power's review of Merzbow - 抜刀隊 With Memorial Gadgets
"Hold up, they re-issued this last year and clarified that the 1986 version are "remixes" by RRRec?! What a mess, indeed... Thank You for this info, appreciate it!"
On John Cage - 4’33”
"@BenParker, I listen to MY own environment either way. This is just lazy "generate silence for 4 minutes and 33 seconds" operation, not even noise from a recording device or anything"
On Gaspurga87's review of Yann Tiersen - Les retrouvailles
"+1, his songs with vocals are generally weak always"
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