The Godspeed people prove, once again, that everything they touch becomes gold.

A little side project meant to teach GY!BE guitarist Efrim Menuck how to score music ended becoming something much bigger. The classic feeling that permeates their other records is still here, and so are the obnoxiously long album / song titles, but this time around, they abandon the more traditional rock elements and replace them fully with chamber / classical instruments. The formula is different, but the ... read more

Shoegaze ground zero.

What else can I say? Everyone agrees that this is THE shoegaze album. You may not think it's the best shoegaze album, but this is THE shoegaze album. This record grabs its noise/dream pop roots and sends everything into overdrive. Louder, denser, and more emotional, like grabbing all your favourite pop rock songs and literally condensing them. All things considered, mixing this must've been a nightmare, with all its layers and complexities, but the end result ... read more

Easily his most iconic release.

To me, this is THE jpegmafia album. I think every artist has one of these, an album that summarizes their style and their music. This is from a time when peggy actually stood for something (before he became rich), and this thing just, for lack of better terms, exudes swag and confidence. As with any other peggy releases, the rapping isn't weak, but the production aspect is absolutely mind-blowing, especially with all the bold choices he makes when creating ... read more

Batshit insane.

"An epic action film [...] if Cavalcade was a drama". And that pretty much sums it up. black midi have consistently outdone themselves when it comes to musical craziness, and it's a shame they broke up after this one. But damn, what a high note to go out on. After the stylistic switch-up on Cavalcade (compared to Schlagenheim), this release doubles down on its predecessor. And I feel like it also perfects the formula they were using on Cavalcade, with the boys ... read more

I've nothing to say that hasn't alreadyd been said. The greatest rap album of all time. The greatest rapper of all time.

A hard reset to my music taste.

There is something that differentiates Death Grips from other experimental hip hop outfits. All things considered, this album isn't all that experimental compared to other things I've seen. But what really makes them sound different is that, within their sound, you can tell these guys just fucking love crack. I swear to god, every member in this group is either an addict or a recovering addict. Whatever they make, it's always there. You can just ... read more

It's nice.

This feels as if it's trying to impress me, which pisses me off immensely. That is one of my musical cardinal sins, and Quadeca is breaking the fucking scale when it comes to indulging in it. I'm pretty sure this is the most common sentiment with people who weren't all that impressed with the album (like me). I really don't want to hate, but I can't help it. Which is a very weird feeling, because when I say this is a 7 to me, I really mean it. But ... read more

What the fuck did I just listen to.

For starters, the cover works very well, because that is EXACTLY how the album feels. This may be the saddest thing my ears have ever heard. And I don't mean it in a Deathconsicousness way, because when I listen to that record, at least I feel like I have clothes on. This thing is just pathetic, self-obsessed. It's like crying and sobbing on stage in front of hundreds of spectators, all of this while butt fucking naked, and the thing you're ... read more

One-man boy band.

Greep's talent truly knows no bounds. Back when he was with black midi, I thought that the madness conveyed on those albums were the product of every member giving it their absolute all. But now here we stand, an album just as insane and borderline schizophrenic as any other black midi release, but made by only one of the members (although with some contributions from past acquaintances, and some old blueprints from his black midi days). Some material here was recorded ... read more

Proving that, even after 10, they still had it in them.

This was their first album in a very long while after Yanqui U.X.O, so its natural that expectatins were high. They fucking killed it. Right off the bat, "Mladic" is one of the best Godspeed songs of all time. The only thing I can compare it to is "World Police and Friendly Fire" from Skinny Fists, but with even less classical elements. Just wall-to-wall noisy protest music that truly proves they've perfected the ... read more

The blueprint for their magnum opus.

This thing is very brief, at least by Godspeed standards. I find it incredibly curious how you can see them experimenting with some elements that they would later use in LYSFLATH, be it the screwdriver-as-a-slide guitar playing or the vox pop interview. Moya is the quintessential GY!BE song, with its flawless blend of classical and contemporary elements, they take Górecki's Symphony No. 3 and they absolutely run with it. Definitly one of their ... read more

Not bad at all. A friend suggested this to me (I think we were talking about black midi?) with the claim that this was also a cool prog album, albeit different. Being the great buddy I am, I decided to give this a spin DESPITE SAID FRIEND NOT HAVING YET LISTENED TO EFF SHARP AY SHARP INFINITY AS I ALSO SUGGESTED TO HIM and I got more or less what I was expecting.

The album kicks off strong, with the first two tracks being my favorites, but I feel like it loses some momentum towards the ... read more

Bizarre album, but I find it weirdly uplifting. Before this, my only contact with the IDM genre was a little bit of Aphex Twin, which I ended up liking a lot. I think what got me into this album in particular was the cover, which would probably be the image that appears when you search for "Uncanny Valley". Weirdly enough, this album does feel very cyan. And weirdly enough, this album and the cover look strangely warm, in a way. Sure, I'd probably shit myself If I saw a bunch of ... read more

These guys were around my age when they wrote 953. And that's alright. I'm happy for them, I really am. There is no point in being jealous.

But it does hurt me a little bit.

I could force myself into thinking about every little thing I like about this album but its honestly easier to say that this just hits the spot. I can't explain. The guitars just sound so fucking good all around, no matter what particular tone they are going for. And I don't think there is a logical ... read more

Everyone has a Swans 10/10, this is mine. The group takes a slight turn in direction with this one, switching out that menacing miasma that permeated TBK for a transcendental, floating-in-the-clouds feeling throughout this release, especially the first half. The Cloud songs really feel like a single unit to me, with its various ups and downs. The chanting in "The World Looks Red/ The World Looks Black" is absolutely hypnotic, and leaves me wandering who the fuck the sleeper man is? ... read more

Weird, but it sure gets me moving. Also why can James Murphy sing so well? It took a little bit of time, but I fully came around to loving this. The songs on this sound very paradoxical to me, in the sense that they manage to sound so incredibly simple and complex at the same time. I guess that is one of the strengths of the album. Other than that, everything is so catchy its unreal. Murphy, aside from having a great voice, has that special delivery that makes everything just stick to your ... read more

I knew about Clipse before listening, but never checked out any of their music (I didn't even know they were brothers), but with all the hype around this, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get into them, and I was not disappointed. From vulnerability to luxury, this album does really have a bit of everything, including that godsent Kendrick feature that really feels like a sequel to what he did on "Nosetalgia", and maybe its just an acute case of recency bias, but I ... read more

This seemed really up my alley and I turned out to be right. Is this the saddest album of all time? I wouldn't know. That's a really big claim to make, I don't think its up for any single person to decide. But it really feels like falling down a hole, and when you think you're about to hit the bottom, it just keeps on going down. I adore how the intro really feels like the calm before the storm, with its very serene presentation. I think I read on a youtube comment that it ... read more

This feels like the better version of the early TTC albums, mostly Bastard and Goblin. Very bare production, consisting of some dark sounding synths and hard hitting drums, with both albums talking about heavy handed topics, although with some key differences. One of those being that Danny's lyrics aren't fiction, and that certainly makes listening to this album a different experience, since with Tyler you know he was mostly just an edgy teenager writing shit for shock value, whereas ... read more

Music to make you sweat.

"Intense" really is the best word to describe this. With Michael Gira sounding younger than ever, him and the boys don't stop for a single moment. There is basically no room for breathing in this album. You are either stuck waiting for an absolute fucking nuclear bomb of sound or you're getting hit by said absolute fucking nuclear bomb of sound. Things almost never die down, they just grow and swell. And if they do die down, it's because ... read more