Topic: The Music Thread

@Jimmer-jammer Thanks, man, as I say I am not the biggest rock fan any more, actually find rock and metal quite difficult to listen to nowadays - I didn't listen to those Iced Earth tracks myself, more just remembered them from my youth and the effect they had on me at the time. I think the music you listen to definitely affects you as a person and I feel like I have changed along with my listening habits. But based on what I listened to I have maximum respect for August Burns Red as a band and for what they do as musicians.

If you ever come across any hip hop that you think I might like, feel free to send them my way, I quite liked that Canadian group with the female singer (hip hop group) that you sent my way a few months ago, that was quite good.

@Jimmer-jammer And yeah, they are very influenced by Iron Maiden. They covered 'Transylvania' and 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' which I loved hearing in my youth.

@Black_Swordsman Fair enough! If you liked that recommendation, it may be worthwhile checking out Swollen Members. Prevail and Rob the Viking both come from the group.

@Jimmer-jammer Thanks for sharing that man, I'll definitely listen to more of their stuff. Which album would you say is the best? Really liked the beat and I thought the lyrics were really intelligent.

@Black_Swordsman Glad you liked it! I swing back and forth between ‘Bad Dreams’ and ‘Black Magic’ as their best album. I think ‘Bad Dreams’ is like lightning in a bottle but ‘Black Magic’ is more cohesive and more tonally consistent and contains some of my absolute favourite songs of theirs, such as ‘Heart’ and ‘Massacre’. I don’t think you can go wrong starting with either one.

@Jimmer-jammer I listened to about half of 'Bad Dreams' this morning, usually do albums in halves unless I am feeling particularly patient, and really enjoyed what I heard. I will listen to more of it later and 'Black Magic' of course, thanks a lot for those recommendations! The hip hop community in Canada must be really strong?

Now here is a band I like a lot, particularly for the guitar-work, they are a jazz-rock band but still definitely a rock band, yet so unusual and incorporating of other musical influences that I really enjoy listening to them, plus it's closer to something like blues or classic rock when they are not experimenting all over the place - they know how to handle/milk a good riff! plus the guitarist's solos are amazing! (the guitarist said that he identifies as a blues-rock guitarist, but has also said that he plays progressive metal at times in this band, despite not listening to the genre as a whole, himself).

Man, Steve Albini was super important to music in general. Not always the most liked man in the world but you can’t deny his impact on the industry. Seems to have come out of nowhere.

@nessisonett Woah that is pretty freaky, I was thinking about him earlier while working and then went on the internet and seen the news. Gobsmacked! Might have to dig out my boiler suit R.I.P.

@Bundersvessel It’s crazy, he had a hand in so many great albums but I never really thought about him being that old. Apparently he just had a heart attack in his studio.

@nessisonett A real shame and one of the greats, my youth was littered with albums he worked on. Always thought his approach to fees was spot on and his ability to work with anyone admirable considering his stature.

@Black_Swordsman Oh man, got wiped out by a wicked stomach bug for a few days there…not fun. Yeah, I think Canada has had a pretty healthy hip-hop scene over the years. I’m more familiar with the west coast output but I know there have been some real hip-hop legends to have come from here, or at least, I think they’re legends 😂 They are here anyway. K-os and Maestro spring to mind. If you haven’t heard of them, definitely worth looking into.

I’m absolutely loving The Aristocrats, by the way! Thanks for that one. They’re really speaking my language. …Sittin’ with a duck on a bay is genius songwriting. The whole album’s great and I’ll definitely be looking into the rest of their portfolio. Cheers!

since Wednesday or Thursday I've been listening nonstop to the song Welcome to Love Now Go Home by Danielle Briseboi from the 1996 movie Invasion of Privacy. Recorded that movie off of HBO back then on an old VHS recording tape

@Jimmer-jammer Oh no, definitely sorry to hear about that, but glad you're better now, man! .On the music front, thanks ,I will definitely check out K-os and Maestro. The Canadian Legends 😉😂 No, but seriously, I am sure I will enjoy their work if you say they are good.

Glad you enjoyed The Aristocrats, I would highly recommend the albums Tres Caballeros and You Know What?by them as they are the closest in sound to Duck,their first album is jazzier so I don't know if you would enjoy it as much, and their second album is kind of all over the place, not my favourite of theirs, but anyway you can explore for yourself 😃

Happy hunting!

Edit: Boing! We'll Do It Live is a collection of live performances from their first album, but done in a heavier and more aggressive style, the studio versions are comparatively jazzier and more laid-back, so if you are interested in hearing the songs from their first album I'd say the live versions are better.

@Black_Swordsman Awesome, I’ll check them out, thanks! And for the sake of clarity, that’s Maestro Fresh Wes. Here’s what he’s about

And a classic K-os tune from the classic album, ‘Joyful Rebellion’

Probably not the most popular genre in this thread, but J-pop is my go to music genre. I can’t understand most of the lyrics as English is the only language I can fluently speak and understand, but I like it so much for the unique beat and the wide range of subject matter songs in the genre tend to cover. Vocaloid is also one of my favorite genres too, and out of the 30 songs on my On Repeat playlist on Spotify, 24 of them are Vocaloid songs. I pretty much listen to that type of music on a daily basis. I have two favorite artists regarding that genre.

MARETU is a well-known name in the Vocaloid scene. His song genre is psychological thriller, though some older songs from him have rock instrumentals and elements, as well as having 8-bit chiptune music. His songs are known for being catchy but mysterious and sometimes creepy with the dark subject matter they cover. I can handle most songs he makes (also because I can’t understand Japanese) but there are a couple that have extremely concerning and disturbing lyrics that give me the chills… There was this song he made months ago that I listened to, and once I read an English subbed version, I got creeped out from how graphic the lyrics were. Most songs he makes are vague or have a meaning that is hard to decipher from how many metaphors and synonyms he uses, but the aforementioned song was very straightforward with what it was about. A few of my favorite tracks from him are Before I was born, Miseenen, SIU, Pink, IYAIYAYO, and Magical Doctor. I absolutely love the singing and instrumentals, but some of the lyrics are dark and pretty negative.

Sasuke Haraguchi is a newer song producer, but he has been popular in Japan recently. I really like the minimalistic visuals of his songs and the robotic sounds and voices in them. It gives off a sort of futuristic feel to me, and I really like it. My favorite tracks from him are HITO Mania, Igaku, and hontono. However, I have heard some of his non-Vocaloid tracks and I really like the sound of those as well.

@Jimmer-jammer I listened to some more of 'Bad Dreams' and some of 'Exit' by K-os, from what I've read about the artists (including Maestro Fresh Wes) and based on the lyrics I've listened to I would say that you're more into positive/socially conscious hip hop than the gangsta stuff? It's all good though, the more variety that there is in hip hop or any genre, then the less susceptible it is to stagnation.

@Black_Swordsman To me, hip-hop is socially conscious by nature. I can appreciate some of the gangsta stuff, for various reasons, but it generally doesn’t speak to me on a personal level (After reading ‘Monster’ by Sanyika Shakur as a teen, gangsta life lost any romanticism and just became a social issue to me). I’ve been around hip-hop my whole life, have friends who are artists and really just love the wordplay and raw means of communicating complex ideas. I won’t shy away from darker material (Swollen Members’ songs are full of violent and dark imagery after all), but I do generally align myself with more positive messages and energies these days. But that’s all fairly subjective, isn’t it? I totally agree that variety in all genres of music should be encouraged and welcomed.

I saw the Nikki Iles Jazz Orchestra yesterday afternoon w/ Mike Walker on guitar. Two amazing sets. Fantastic musicians but Mike stood out to me for obvious reasons as we play the same instrument, when I got home I tried out a few of his licks that I remembered from the gig. Great guitarist, in a similar neck of the woods, musically speaking, to John Scofield and the late John Abercrombie.

Cyclone

I think Rob Luft is the jazz guitar equivalent of Bone Thugs N Harmony. So fast you can't really discern every phrase but you love the overall feeling of the song.