Reviews by deksametazon

Les Razilles Denudes and Boris have a baby, and the postman is Tangerine Dream, if you catch my drift.

Surprisingly good, especially since Sky Hundred sounds... weak. Really dense stuff that showcases talent, dare I say! Beautiful blend of progressive metal, ambient, noise rock and a pinch of psychedelic fuckery.

My fav is probably part 3 with its folk undertones and the drum workout in there. It's as if Ginger Baker got transported to nuclear wastleland east Asia and created a spiritual commune that worships Max Roach.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2024: #12 A lolicore album (44th album)

The key to enjoying an album for this entry is to find an album that provides variety in its execution. Pure lolicore is too saccharine and almost of a "thick honey with sprinkled sugar on it" quality that makes it hard to listen to without questioning why should you even bother.

So having some part of the album explore different electronic styles is a must when tackling an example like this. It does elevate it slightly, but it's still as OK of an album as it can get, really. There are better electro albums I can put on, but there are also albums that are a lot worse. I wouldn't mind this album being played as a means of torture to my ears.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2026: #8 An album by an artist featured on the cover of Mojo (34th Album)

Howlin Wolf is, pardon my words, one scary-looking motherfucker. He radiates the devilish aura you would see in movies: 6ft3, 300 pounds, either in a suit or in a ragged shirt, much different from the shine of Muddy Waters.

And while his nickname originally came because of him chasing his grandma's chickens like a wolf, I think it's much more fitting that his style of raw singing and playing demeanor contributed to it. Much like a wolf, he's howling around this record and snarling with his hoarse, worn-down voice.

The atmosphere of Moanin' in the Moonlight is a ramshackle bar, or more appropriately, a juke joint. Lo-fi and stripped down. Ike Turner even turns up on piano on "How Many More Years," of all people, and when the tempo jumps on "All Night Boogie," the guitars go at a raw, faster tempo that would be a basis for rock n' roll and modern shredding. But underneath all of it is broken-down love, or a desperate howl into the night. This is Wolf at his most unvarnished, and the blues-in-transition at its roughest. Definitely worth checking out.

Very nice post-hardcore with tinges of emo and math rock. Anonymous Cave is favorite. The slow brooding rhythm is great.

After several years devoted to crafting an album steeped in classical influences and composing a film soundtrack, Julia Holter makes a return to the studio, picking up where she left off with her acclaimed 2018 release, ''.

Let me dive straight and say it's the first release of the year that has captivated me from the opening notes to the closing track. Holter's unique blend of mystique pop songwriting prowess, coupled with her knack for conjuring atmospheric soundscapes reminiscent of' debut or the solo works of, is what immediately drew me in. There's an enigmatic quality to the music, a sense of mystery that washes over you.

Each track on the album contributes to a larger, cohesive narrative—a palette of sound that paints a vivid portrait. It's like traversing through an impenetrable jungle, where every step is filled with the feeling of being watched from the shadows, yet whatever lurks remains out of sight, cautiously waiting, never to appear.

I won't say I was surprised by the quality of this album, because it's Julia Holter for crying out loud, but I'd be lying if a part of me didn't think this was going to bomb. Thank God I was wrong.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2026: #45. A rockabilly album (21st Album)

There's nothing musically to write about here. I mean, I could rave about his vocal tone, and the guitars being a bit ahead of its time, but that feels farfetched 68(!) years later. It's good, but it definitely shows its age.

I'm glad I listened to it, from a historical aspect, plus it's probably in the 1001 albums somewhere, so I'll probably have a day off when that day comes. On top of all that, it's over before it really began. Lots of wins here, sadly not many on the musical aspect.

Mark Hollis three-peats! After he silently retreats from the public eye in the early 90s, he just as silently comes back up, records this masterpiece, and silently disappears as he returned.

One of the aspects of the album is the souvenir that was brought from the Talk Talk journey that was not present in the Talk Talk albums themselves, and that is jazz. From what little press and interview scraps he gave us, we can see that he liked what Coltrane and Davis had done decades before him, which is apparent by the subtle spiritual jazz grooves on "The Gift", "The Daily Planet" and on "A Life (1895-1915)", which was Hollis' way of giving us something of a storytelling piece.

As for my favorites, I'd have to go with "The Colour of Spring", "The Watershed", "Inside Looking Out" and "A New Jerusalem", all of which use elements of Talk Talk music which I personally loved: the sparse instrumentals with the added pizzazz of hurt, cryptic lyricism sung in a special way by Mark himself.

If is about asking for forgiveness for yourself and those around you, and if is about the ascension, then Mark Hollis' self-titled masterpiece has to be about the post-mortem world, sparse, desolate, and with one less soul wandering on the Earth.

I just wish the recording process was more public because I'd love to see the atmosphere in which the album was recorded. But then again, we probably wouldn't have gotten the same results if that was the case.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2025: #17. An album wherein the singer didn't write any of the songs. (31st Album)

Might be a bit of a cheat to choose an album full of standards, but rules are rules.

Overall, a decent collection of melancholic standards sung by the queen of the bluesy jazz. I can't really say there are standouts, since all of them follow the same pattern of a smoky lounge bar sing along. But this one is different from that Frank Sinatra, or the black blues kind. This is much heavier, with the accent being Billie's alcohol shot vocals, which are akin to a haunting ghost in a theater. Worth checking out, if anything for the historical importance it carries.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2024: #45 An album composed/made by artificial intelligence (6th album)

It's bad, but it's not that bad because there is some semblance of talent here, and not just mindlessly relying on AI to carry the album all the way through (even though the whole album is carried by the idea that it's an implementation of AI as a driving force).

It basically reinforces the idea that AI doesn't have a soul and shouldn't be used to create art whatsoever (beyond the modus operandi that it's just for laughs and giggles)

Listening to this album, you'll fall into one of these categories:

1. Jimi Hendrix sold out and made the worst album in his lifetime, trading the hard, acidic grooves for funky rhythms and Miles' yapping and screaming

2. Hendrix reinvents himself and gives us a fleeting glimpse into what territory he might've gone into as a mature musician, incorporating, innovating, and mixing black soul and funk music with the electric feel of rock (that would be to some extent a trademark of early Funkadelic)

I firmly fall into the second category. There's just no denying that this album is good. I don't get how people can just straight-up say this album is bad! The only flaw I realistically could find, which might be more of a matter of preference than a flaw, is that sometimes the vocals are drowned in reverb and fuzz. Now that I write this out, that might be the intended effect lol.

Anyhow, the high point is obviously "Machine Gun" which is the only track everyone can agree is amazing, astonishing and every other word that conveys beauty in one way or another. The rest of the album does fall short, but what doesn't compare to Machine Gun? They all have this perfect mixture of Hendrix being Hendrix, and Miles laying down jammy funk rhythms which some people find to be lazy and disorganized, but I just find that nitpicking. He did a mighty job.

After the 3 studio albums, this is the one you should go with as your next choice.

Space Herbie with the mysteriousness of Sun Ra and fusion-era Miles Davis. An underrated gem that sounds like a huge trip down acid-land (not like I would know what that sounds like) with synths that sound like slithering snakes, laser beams and going through tens of dimensions, drums that sound like aliens plotting a scheme in a futuristic downtown New York, and the trumpet giving that “down to ground” concrete jungle feel of the Earth's most downtrodden metropoles. At moments, it sounds like a journey through space, while at other it sounds like a journey through god given planes.

Radiohead if they did drugs and were into Pavement and also ever so slightly less of a bore.

Pretty standard indie rock with noisy undertones. Frente has beautiful vocals, and she uses it to the best of her abilities to create pleasant soundscapes. Shame nothing sticks though.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2023: #48 A concept album (26th album)

Takes a hit from a blunt

"So you know there's this album where this guy takes an AI and makes it recite poetry about being a cold ass person, but y'know that robots are cold mechanical beings and the robot sounds almost like a real human so we're slowly becoming robots and that really fucks up my shit yo. But also the album is an underlying trip-hop masterpiece which is a dystopian genre that describes what the world will sound like in twenty years. It's a piece of art really. You just don't understand what it means to be misunderstood. You'll see how this becomes a thing for the art museums in due time..."

Commit thyself to a mental institution.

I found this album deep inside my record collection as I was rummaging for some albums to sell off. It was supposed to go into a lot with some other albums like Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming, or some Allman Brothers reunion album. Still, after listening to it, I quickly realized this album is not even near the consensus.

Side A is disco jamming, with the entire side being occupied by two songs, and side B goes into territory Isaac was most comfortable with: ethereal slow soul. The first two songs are good for a mindless listen when doing chores around the house, but Side B takes the cake with the emotional "Don't Take Your Love Away".

The only gripe I have with this album is that the producers should've given him full reigns earlier. This soul masterpiece can be talked about ad nauseam. Walk On By is an amazing, progressive masterpiece, which combines the essence of soul with the grandiose boom of an orchestral backing and the perfect use of turning down the sound just enough for it to be noticeable, but then slowly returning to the front.

Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic is what sensual sounding, baby-making music should sound like: playful, hard-nosed, not afraid to go in deep and most importantly, a whole deal impressive when you isolate each instrument and then eventually add them together only to realize how infectious each bar and each passage sounds. One Woman puts the man and his smooth baritone voice in front with a lot of sampleable moments all throughout.

And closing it all out, By The Time I Get To Phoenix is a masterclass. It's hard to call it a song even, because it plays out like a movie. I remember hearing it for the first time on my record player, and hearing Isaac through the crackle walking me through the story of love and heartbreak. It's a moment I won't ever forget, especially when it goes all over the place by the end. Like sex in the dark, this song touches you, but your imagination takes you where you need to go. The subtle yet hypnotizing hi-hat has such a head-bangable quality, which is what Isaac intended to do, especially with the emotional story behind the song, and when the song starts to expand, so does everything around you. The sex does magic things.

So in short, this thing is a juxtaposed, "stone-cold warm and hot" masterpiece. A lot of other soul artists got the raw sensual feeling right, but none got close to matching Isaac's ability to bring together the burning feeling of heartbreak and loss.

Good stuff done by one of the kings of sexual soul. The slower pace might seem a detriment to enjoyment at first, but once you get the hang of it (or hang of your woman), it flows seamlessly.

It's kinda wishy washy, so to say.

The side A is great, with beautiful balladry like Can I Hold You?, the sophisticated Looking for Jack and Master of Crime, but side B is a miss, with regular old pop rock, other than the melancholic and relatively sparse, I Don't Need You Anymore, which is the only thing you really need (no pun intended) from this side. Overall, okay release.

But it's weird that Colin put Hold Me and the immediately follows it up with Can I Hold You. An artistique concept.

For much of the 2000s. Richard Hawley churned out some, fine, baroqueish and sophisticated pop albums which culminated in this dark late night beauty.

This one most closely sounds like a modern take on the pop classic, In The Wee Hours of The Night by Ol' Blue Eyes, in which Richard croons his way into the hearts of the downtrodden and lonely. It's mostly a sparse arrangement foray, with only a smidgen of orchestration.

It's hard to pinpoint an exact attribute which makes this album stand out. The whole project just hovers around the air minimalistically, that you can't quite even make out each song, let alone pinpoint the moments that make them worth what they are. But they are there, no doubt.

Recorded after their first album, in their longish hiatus between 1981 and 1984, but only released after their disbandment, Ulje je na Vodi (Oil is On The Water) is an OK representation of that early new wave period. It's nothing overly good and to write home about, though.

One of the first things to keep in mind is that Haustor, at this point, had only an album's worth of music, so they had to improvise, but they did so in a very weird way. I'm aware of live performance having a medley here and there, but here, Haustor plays a part of the song, starts a few others, return to that song, and then returns to another song inside the previous medley, making a cool interwoven mess inside. It also includes some songs you'll not find anywhere else in their discography, too, and some songs which couldn't get released right now, but found their way on later albums.

The playing is good, even though I'm not generally a fan of the flatter sound, and the quieter crowd, the cabaret new wave atmosphere makes you wish you were at Kulusic (the venue) in the 80s when a lot of popular bands played there.

It's a bit weak, in its entirety. An hour and some more of Haustor playing the tad weaker side of discography, with a lot of reruns and returns of songs, gets boring after a while, and I found myself wanting to turn it off somewheree around the tenth song, but I pressed on. And honsetly, it's the last time I'll probably be pressed to complete this album