Blog — Page 32 of 277

Welcome back to another playlist.

As usual when I'm the one behind this piece, this list contains 10 songs that have hit me in various ways, all connected to working at Scene Point Blank.

The majority were things I've reviewed, but some it's not just that. We're currently transcribing an interview with one of these bands. A couple others simply sent us their records but we never formally covered them because time is limited but we enjoyed what we heard.

So give a listen and maybe find something new to enjoy (or complain about).

Liam Gallagher
Aware Super Theatre
Sydney, Australia
23 July 2022

Other than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, there are few British bands that have altered my perception of music and felt instinctively empowering like the Gallagher brothers’ approach to channelling their art. 

With their musical emissions, meaningful gibberish and overall outlook on the world they managed to instantaneously establish themselves as one of my favourite bands as a juvenile delinquent. 

The cultural significance and strength of what was created by them in the mid-1990s not only pervaded my world but hogging the airwaves with their tunes, also every facet of music and fashion agnostic of boundaries and classes, with the implications of their legacy still reverberating to this day.

Having recently pulled off a triumphant return to Knebworth by himself and with a new album under his belt, it was about time to witness parka clad Liam Gallagher again swaggering around on stage to deliver the goods. 

With a setlist dominated by timeless, generationally loved escapist Oasis classics, the tested and tried was complemented by an eclectic melange known from his solo work, including an unearthed Beady Eye song and tracks from his lyrically more positively centred, vulnerable and empathetic third album, i.e. C’mon You Know.

Framed and set in scene against a backdrop of bombastic visuals and backed by a duo of gospel singers along with a tight six piece band, LG sounded better than ever as he effortlessly and vocally in finest form meandered through a powerful and focussed set that apart from the usual abrasive, insouciant bravado and display of playful arrogance felt like a cathartic and life-affirming jubilation, rather than an exercise in nostalgia.
 
As Liam lingered on stage after the band had left as the anthemic “Give the people what they want” by The O’Jays came on, there could have not been a more fitting outro to bookend an evening that saw one of the more enduring figures in British music do exactly that with a flawless victory lap of classics that only deepened the pleasure that was had the first time around.

The Formative Years - Bolt Thrower

Claiming that Bolt Thrower is an influential death metal band would be an understatement par excellence as with their own brand of  their uncompromising, grim sound, there is a myriad of bands that have been influenced by them.

Bolt Thrower was one of the metal bands that instantaneously clicked with me due to them being as much inspired by early crust punk as by Bay Area thrash and Black Sabbath, thereby seamlessly bridging the divide between scenes with their hectic, refreshingly chaotic energy and confrontational onslaughts.

Their early emissions on Earache Records differed from the other cliché-ridden apolitical death metal acts on the label’s roster as Bolt Thrower lyrically focussed on politics and frustrations with the status quo, along with thinly hidden Warhammer fantasy worship, rather than gory and satanic themes that started to become en vogue.

Apart from their punk mentality and ethos, especially their early recordings from their Peel Sessions sound like they started off as band in the vein of Discharge, before they evolved with their classic and unique sounding album In Battle There Is No Law from 1988, which constituted a release that still honoured their punk roots but infused them with the frenzy and speed that should later on become the trademark of grind core without ever running danger of losing their groove.

Realm Of Chaos from 1989 is an album that saw Bolt Thrower getting darker, dirtier and tighter – in essence more deliberate and clearly defined – as they seem to have grown comfortable with their own style and pace and it is an album that will always stand the test of time.

Water of Life – EtOh Spirits

Within the confines of this spirit-centric series, we have covered whiskies, gins, tequilas, mezcals and vodkas from all corners of this earthround yet if you think that the geographic location of the entity known as EtOh, i.e. Denmark, is the most exotic thing about their operations, think again.

Having set out with the ambition to innovate and challenge the status quo of how the spirits industry has traditionally functioned, EtOh approaches the ageing of spirits scientifically by utilizing ultrasound along with a range of other techniques (e.g. heat and oxygen)  to artificially accelerate the process and condense the timeframe from years to days. 
Instead of barrels, EtOh uses a custom-built reactor, which allows them to calibrate the finer nuances in the creation of their interesting flavour profiles.

The result is that after a period of experimentation, EtOH is now able to create spirits from scratch in mere weeks rather than years.

Needless to say, I was both intrigued and sceptical as to the quality of the final product.

The first EtOh emission I tried was Arbejd, the nose of which won me over straight away with its peaty, slightly maritime and medicinal aromas, delicate coffee notes and the faintest hint of sherry.
What materialized on the top of the mouth was a delicious melange of charred wood, saline notes and stone fruits dancing against a backdrop of delicious smokiness, reminiscent of a young peated cask strength Bunnahabhain.

The medium finish reverberates with oaky flavours that culminate in an elegant smokiness flanked by slightly tart highlights, leaving one lusting for another dram.

Given the complexity of Arbejd, it is astonishing that it was created within less than two weeks and clocking in at 47% ABV, it is a delicious yet exotic expression that earns a place close to some of my beloved Islay whiskies. 

Next up was EtOh’s Hafnium, which takes us into territory that some would lovingly describe as characterized by detonated sherry bombs if it was a whisky, as upon approach the nostrils are tickled by aromas of sultanas and honeyed dates, accentuated by a hint of ginger and counterpointed by sweet coffee notes.

On the palate, orange marmalade is married with cinnamon, oak and maple syrup, dancing on a foundation of a bucketload of dried fruits.

The finish is dominated by milk chocolate, raisins, booming with sherried notes from all angles.

With the way EtOh manages to preserve the complexity, I would bet that in a blind tasting only the most seasoned would taste a difference in nuances between traditionally aged whiskies and EtOh’s mere days old spirits.

The Formative Years – Godflesh

I vividly remember when I was first introduced to the visceral sonic aggression that is being emitted once the needle hits Godflesh’s Streetcleaner debut album.

The way the album was mixed felt like a veritable wall of sound with the agitated, guttural growls and at times echoing vocals seamlessly blending in and becoming a mere enhancement of the instrumental onslaught.

Intentionally repetitive, stiff and artificial, the pounding rhythm section and drum machines are complemented by thudding bass lines  and lingering, jagged and nuanced doom metal guitars to create an industrial alienating yet meditative foundation on which samples are projected, the grand total atmosphere of which results in something much more than what the mere sum of the individual components would suggest.

The rhythm based Streetcleaner took the essence of what was perceived to be industrial and noise music in 1989 from bands like Whitehouse and Throbbing Gristle and mixed it with influences from bands like Black Sabbath, Big Black, et cetera, to create a new lane that was a continuation of post-punk in that they furthered the sounds of bands like Killing Joke to the extreme.

Thirty-three years on, the haunting masterpiece that is Streetcleaner has stood the test of time and remains a ridiculously heavy, monumental album that inspired a myriad of epigones and still manages to evoke vivid, perception altering nightmares.