'08's Music to Love More Than Music: Love, Pt. 8

Love (<)
Boris - Smile (there are 2 versions, I've got the Diwphalanx version)
Certainly it could be said that I was not expecting this when I first popped it in. I wouldn't exactly say it's Post Metal, but it certainly fits a little bit in the "Post" something area. Hell it's slower and more ambient than Doom metal at times. If anything I'd say they fit more in Drone Metal than anything. There must be something in the water over there in Japan, because you can definitely draw some lines between Boris and The Boredoms' sounds. Not as experimental, I feel, Boris makes a great shot at crafting a masterpiece. I would be willing to bet that once I spend more time with this album, it'll grow more and more on me.
Boris - Messeeji (メッセージ, Message)

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House
I loved Genghis Tron's first few releases because they were out of control weirdness that lived in the same genre as The Locust and The Number 12 Looks Like You, but more electro. Screamy, tempo-changey weirdness. This album kind of lets down in that sense. Most of the songs stay mostly within the same tempo and rhythm. Before they would go from a trip-hop beat to straight up grindcore. Now they're less interesting, but certainly more talented. A strange trade off. I would prefer it if they brought back the awkward, but maybe they're done with that, and that's cool I guess. Maybe I just have to get used to the new stuff.
Genghis Tron - I Won't Come Back Alive

Beck - Modern Guilt
I remember the first time I heard anything off this album. My housemate Joe was listening to it, and I asked him if it was Mogwai, and he said it was Beck. Well, needless to say I was taken a back. I didn't get around to listening to it until waaaay later, but once I did I had completely forgotten what made me think it was Mogwai. All that aside, I think this is one of the smoothest Beck albums he's ever done. All the levels seem perfect, and even when there are strange transitions in the songs, it still flows smoothly. It's almost twee-ish come to think of it. I think the real heir to the Bowie throne is Beck. Hands down.
Beck - Chem Trails

Daniël Lohues - Allennig II
Commercial pop folk BS, but since it's in another language, I'm just mystified by it. I would imagine that if it were in my own language, I would scoff at it. But hey, sometimes you just have to follow your gut. my gut says I like this, so I'm going with it. listen to it's ridiculousness:
Daniël Lohues - Tik Tak

Rome - Masse Mensch Material
This album reminds me so much of what I used to listen to in High School that it's scary. The album sounds like VNV Nation and Apoptygma Berzerk at times, and goth folky when it doesn't. Bands that sound like those bands are instantly going to win a place in my heart, be it big or small. I feel like the album makes fun of the Gothic culture, a culture that stereotypically idolizes death and darkness, and I think that's hilarious, because I don't know very many people outside of the goth culture who could really attach to this album. I think it's noble, if that's the point of the album, because it's like he's trying to get the goth culture to realize they're being foolish. Either way, I enjoyed the album quite a bit.
Rome - Neue Erinnerung

The Twilight Sad - Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did
For some reason I have this mental link between The Twilight Sad and Great Northern (maybe because of the title of Great Northern's first record?), and, as I've said before, I have a bias towards anything by Great Northern, so The Twilight Sad is dragged along to. That said, they're certainly their own artists with their own ideals and all that jazz, though they, like Great Northern, make fairly ethereal and spacey ... maybe wintery music. This album is the kind of project that I just have to respect. Four of the six songs are off of their first LP, but they've been completely re-worked and re-imagined. I just love the idea of that, and, thankfully, it worked well.
The Twilight Sad - Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did