Recent Rad Musical Discoveries

Persefone - Fall To Rise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm4EbeNjKdA

I put this song on my ipod a while ago while perusing a list of albums coming out in 2010 - some fellow on the internet recommended it. I'd listened to some of their stuff ("Core", maybe? or is that another band?) a while ago and didn't find it super appealing, but hey, new music. I'm willing to give it a shot all day.

And man, this is exactly what I was looking for! It's spastic, heavy, and melodic...and made by a band from Andorra - I bet that it's the first and last time you'll ever hear death metal from there. It's kind of strange that they decided to pick a Japanese theme for their album, but it's such a strong song that the small weird touches just blend into the whole.

The album is called Shin-Ken, by the way - I'm probably going to have to add it on my stack of 'to purchase soon.'

Dream Theater - The Count of Tuscany

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbuCNSm3Tb0 (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Og1j7EKElE (part 2)

Probably one of the favorite songs I have listened to in...the past couple years. I'm a sucker for really long songs, but sometimes I just don't get around to listening to them for quite a while. Thus, the Dream Theater album this song is from is from 2009 - just randomly heard it while driving back home from a race on Sunday.

It's long and maybe a little meandering in the middle, but stick around for the ending. I didn't know what was coming, and found myself doing about 90 mph by the end of the song unintentionally. It's good. Trust me.

Gorillaz - Stylo
  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9vAOzYz-Qs

I haven't ever really listened to Gorillaz - I think my cousin Ben played me something of theirs off their debut album a few years ago, but it didn't really make an impression, which probably meant I didn't think it was that good. By all accounts, their latest effort ("Plastic Beach," wherein Stylo is contained) is a good deal more poppy and accessible than anything they've done before.

Crack recap: Gorillaz is a virtual hip hop group, nominally composed of four members who don't really exist, but really mostly cobbled together by some guy from England who drags in a lot of guest artists. Yeah, I'm not sure I get the idea behind it either, but the beat and Mos Def work really well together on this one. I tend to get it stuck in my head during interval workouts, which I'm pretty sure is a good thing.

Solution .45 - Lethean Tears

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6W7wNlUxyM

Solution .45 is Christian Alvestam's new project (after leaving Scar Symmetry after "Holographic Universe"). I'm not sure if the music measures up to what Scar Symmetry was writing, but the vocal lines in this song are pretty boss. Sadly, it's not really representative of the rest of the album.

As an aside, I'm a little disappointed in the lyrics - Mikael Stanne wrote them and they are BAD! And I quote...
"A can of worms / incisive burns / of the dark."

What?

Crime In Stereo - I Am Everything I Am Not

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pe62mqrMGI
 
I hadn't ever heard of Crime In Stereo before; the album cover of "I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone" caught my eye, I read some reviews, and voila - here I am. They're a slightly experimental hardcore band - they have some moments here and there where they don't sound anything like their more traditional counterparts. This song does a pretty good job of showcasing what I think they're about - some really good melodies mixed with some really good, new ideas of what you can shove into a hardcore song and still have it be cohesive.

Turin Brakes - Sea Change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fawhVcprjDA

Another band I'm not really familiar with at all - evidently they've been around since 1999. I'm not huge on folk rock, but this song is really solid. The rest of the songs on the album don't tickle me the way this one does - the driving beat and the string instruments coming in about halfway through adds a lot.

DM Stith - A Braid of Voices

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGNYc5xkHP0

DM Stith is sort of like Sufjan Stevens, except I don't like Sufjan Stevens, and I like DM Stith. Something about the cornucopia of musical instruments in Stevens' music...it just feels abrasive and over the top. If I am listening to a singer-songwriter, I don't want over the top. So if you feel like Sufjan is an excessive loon...you should probably listen to this song.

Stith doesn't have a very intense voice, but the echoing repetition of his musical phrases is really eerie, haunting, and powerful. Definitely a case where less becomes more.