Random musical stuff

[mrph]

I was a bit surprised to see that Pihr get a review in the new Meltdown - so either they finally finished "v2" of Reborn, or Paul finally decided to bite the bullet and send out v1 to some reviewers. Whichever, Meltdown's 'I Troutindrag' seems to like them. Go Paul & Nasha!

Currently listening to Libitina's "A Closer Communion", and I'm pleasantly surprised to rediscover how good it is. That's not to say that the follow-up, "Weltanschauung", is in any way bad, just hat it's been a looong time (over five years!) since the first album, and the only tracks that stuck in my mind after I played it to death and then banished it to the bottom of the CD heap were Painted Whiter Than White and Gothic People. According to their website, they're now a quartet and they're busily working on a third album (so hopefully we won't be waiting another five years...). Yay.

Sulpher's You Ruined Everything, on the other hand, is definitely a bit better than I remember - maybe it works better through my PC's speakers. Or possibly I'm just in the right mood for Ministry/NIN-style shoutiness now, whereas I wasn't when the single first arrived - and the dire sound for their performance supporting VNV didn't exactly encourage me to revisit them.

Time for a change of pace now, anyway. I'm digging out the "Seventh Harmonic vs. Interlock" CD and settling down to that for a bit before I do the last bit of proofreading.

Comments

[rat-bastard.livejournal.com]

There are at least a few tracks on "A Closer Communion" in which the vocalist invokes Rozz Williams a bit too heavily for my tastes (There is one track in particular that I'm thinking of, somewhere midway through the album... "Ephemeral Bed of Fire", I think).

Anyways, I think that "Weltanschauung" is stronger in every way. (though, "Virgins", which seems to be a cross between EBM and deathmetal, is just odd ;) ).

[mrph.livejournal.com]

There are at least a few tracks on "A Closer Communion" in which the vocalist invokes Rozz Williams a bit too heavily for my tastes

Ah. I probably wouldn't pick up on that, as I've never paid an awful lot of attention to Christian Death. (Yes, I know, I'll surrender my goth card now...)

Anyways, I think that "Weltanschauung" is stronger in every way.

I'll agree with that, but I think it's also a little less accessible. I'm a little disappointed that it hasn't re-established Libitina's position in the UK scene - it got very little club play (Thalatta Thalatta and Samskara got a regular airing at Dave Exile's nights for a few months after the album release, but...), and although the launch tour was quite extensive, it seemed to be a little jinxed (several dates were cancelled due to venue problems) and didn't gather an awful lot of press (they didn't seem to do a big London show, which can't have helped). The couple of shows I caught weren't bad at all, but lacked the fire of the old days - I was watching a video of their Whitby show (which is what prompted me to unearth the album) the other day, and it had so much more intensity.

Hopefully the new one will see them 'back in style', with the attention they deserve.

[rat-bastard.livejournal.com]

That's unfortunate, as "Thalatta Thalatta" and "War Paint" are both very catchy. Granted, I haven't listened to the album in quite a while, but I can instantly remember the melodies and beats of those two songs in particular.