FEBRUARY - LUKE LONGARMS (AKA LUKE LYNCH)

1. TOOL - Lateralus                                  (Parabola)
2. Godspeed You Black Emperor - Raise Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna To Heaven
3. Naive Ted - The Inevitable Heel Turn
4. Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Underworld Strike
5. Primus - Frizzle Fry

To be absolutely fair, I don't think I was in the mood for some new music this month, and not too much grabbed me in the way the top two did the month previous.

Luke, in a nutshell, is a hippy.
Not the rabid vegan type of hippy, the sound sort.
He does eat meat (good!), and doesn't try to push political beliefs down your throat as fact off the basis of some random survey that appeared on a site of dubious nature that week.
He eats good food, enjoys the bounty that nature has to offer, loves music and revolves his life around that. And streetfighter. At least it appears. Well it seems like it to me.
Laid back is probably not an adequate description, he's as a cool as a cucumber lying on it's back in the snow.
When I first met him he was trying to get off the ground building guitars, and he has made one or two esquisite instruments of which I'm in awe, but I guess that particular venture didn't work out in his favor.
I expected some ecletic technical music, and that's pretty much what I got.
Some of this stuff I think I may have to be stoned, drunk, or both to appreciate, but none the less the month was soldiered through and everything got a reasonable amount of playtime.

TOOL - Lateralus

This is growing on me, it's like jazz. Metal jazz. And prog rock. That is a good thing, quite a good thing.
Favorite track is probably Parabola.
Awful lot of "I can't hear anything, is the thing playing" at the beginning of tracks, I guess it's all about creating that contrast.
I just saw one of their music videos on YouTube, and it's making me think twice about heaping any further praise, but that aside I can definitely see myself listening to this album again.
I get the bad feeling there's some big political or philosphical meaning behind the lyrics, but they were sufficently quiet and mumbly (pretty sure that's not a word but I couldn't be bothered to think of another) that I could quite easily ignore and appreciate the techincality of the music.
Almost like the opposite of Primus.
I suppose this month summed up would be "Thomas didn't like Primus".

Godspeed You Black Emperor - Raise Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna To Heaven

Someone got 10 guys high in a room with a Pink Floyd record for company, and anyone else who dropped by was free to contribute as they saw fit.
Same phrase played over and over for 20 minutes.
It feels like I'm listening to a jam session, sometimes I could be in the mood for that, but I think all good songs should have a structure, one of those components is an ending.
If you're playing the same thing over and over for 20 minutes it can get a wee bit old.
However, in certain scenarios I've found it to work for me.
It excels as background music, as they're playing the same phrase for so long I feel no need to give it full attention, maybe we've found the elevator music of the future?
More than once I found myself driving and getting a little drawn in.
Not all music is going to blow you away the first time you hear it, and Godspeed Yada Yada is definitely in the category of requiring more than one listen to get the feel for it.
That, or a large amount of pot.
It feels like if Pink Floyd decided "Hey, instead of making this really sweet tight 5 minute track and moving into something totally different, let's grind on it for 20 minutes, put in some random old guy talking about ye good old days, and then do a second track. Sure we'll be down the pub for lunch!"
I may revisit this again in the future however, it's just weird that I can't seem to come up with anything to actually recommend it, but I would not dissuade anyone from listening to it and would (probably) not think any less of them for liking it.

Naive Ted - The Inevitable Heel Turn

I'm not sure what to make of this album, there seems to be some decent tracks on it,ut somethings leaves me a little cold, it's almost a bit souless?
I'm not sure that's a fair critque, I think the combination of electronic beats with traditional instruments is throwing me off something wierd.
But hey, it's got the Bullet Club theme, and that single track is possibly the best track of the month.
I'm probably not been sufficiently versed in the subleties of the electronic scene, as everyone I've met who's heard of this album (and I'm pretty sure it was more than two) loves it, and says it was great live.
I would not be adverse to giving Niave Ted a shot if he was playing live, not sure this album captured me to the point of listening again though.

Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Underworld Strike

I said sounds like the Pogues.
Mike said it sounds like Ramones.
Neither of those things are a neccessarily a negative vibe at all.
It does also remind me a lot of what I dislike in Irish folk music - it's like five guys in a pub all fighting with each other for sound.
Yes it's refreshing for a few minutes, but then it just all starts to become noise in slightly different arrangements.
The vocals are pretty much just shouting, which is fine if it's what you're in to, but even the Ramones had a few slow ones in between.
I could really see listening to some tracks in between something else, but an entire album is a little bit much of the same shouty loud acoustic battling between the performers.
On the whole it doesn't feel like anything particularly unique, I've been exposed to a lot of folk rock for geographical reasons and it really all sounds the same, these guys are little different.

Primus - Frizzle Fry

Some people shouldn't sing in public. I think Les Claypool is one of them.
Not matter how much I listen to it, his voices grates on me like few I've experienced before.
There'll be a thundering bass line and intro to a song, my head starts nodding in appreciation, and then he starts to sing.
The example I always think of is "Too Many Puppies".
Dear Lord, there cannot surely be anyone else in that band who could not make a better attempt at vocals, what dirt does he have on them?
I actually really wanted to like this album, and listened to it far too much for my sanity in the hope I could drown out those lyrical attempts.
And understanding English as a mother tongue only worsens the effect, at least if it was in Spanish I'd have little idea as to the gibberish he's spouting.
He's got nothing useful or interesting to say, he doesn't have the tools to do it in a way that doesn't make me want to puncture my eardrums, but by god, that's not gonna stop him trying.
The instrumentation is fantastic, some great rippling riffs between the group, but those sounds that are called vocals....

JANUARY - JIMMY THE HIDEOUS PENGUIN (AKA THE DRAMA IN PYJAMAS)

1    D-Styles - Phantazmagorea                    (Won't You Be My Neighbor)
2    Siekiera - Nowa Aleksandria
3    DJ Shadow - Entroducing
4    Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol.1
5    System Of A Down - Hypnotize

Jimmy is a friend of mine I only made in recent years, but I have a tremendous degree of respect for him that built up so fast I can't quite believe it.
We don't see each other as often as I'd please, but he's one of the few people I know I feel I can relate to on such a basic level, really surprising considering our polar opposite lifestyles !
He's one of the most intelligent, questioning and dedicated guys I know, dependable, and will always do what he can to help a friend in ways that always amazes me.
I've always felt that we clicked in some way, he has great respect for everyone who tries their best at anything, regardless of what it is, more so than I ever could.
I feel I can speak to him about anything, and there's very few people I can say that about in my life.

As you may get from the list above, Jimmy is a skratch DJ.
A pretty damn good one from all accounts I've been given, having beaten World Champion scratchers in competitions, that must surely make him world class I'd guess?
And true to form, he provided me with a tour de force of DJ music others have since informed me.

So, let's rattle through in my approximate order of preference.....

Top of the list has to be D-Styles - Phantazmagorea.

My first comments were "little wacky and inconsistent".
After listening through this album, I've come to the opinion that a better description is "fucking epic"
The flow of this album in incredible, dark, moody and menacing.
Reminds me a lot of the recent stuff I've heard from Carpenter Brut.
But it's so much more, it flows the whole way through, tracks do have distinct seperations but merge together in to one long musical journey.
I think the first half of the album is stronger than the second, and I take a little offence at the 2 minutes of silence on the last track (if I want silence for 2 minutes I will turn off my radio dammit), but it is an incredible album that has soared up the list of the best albums I've ever listened to.
I had a girl break it off with me and this album has been listened to at least 10 times in the last week of January alone.
I've come back to this one in the gym several times on extremely high volume, and that only makes it all the sweeter.
This one album alone makes the entire month worthwhile, if not the entire year, but thankfully is not the only jewel in Jimmy's musical selection.

Siekiera - Nowa Aleksandria

Polish punk from the eighties. I'm gonna have to get the answer where he even picked this one out of, but this really is something special.
I have no idea what these guys are saying, but I'm sure they have something to say.
And to be fair, when you've had to deal with communisim, you probably have something to say.
The drumming in this album is incredible, driving, rhytmnic and forceful.
I love jazz myself, Art Blakey in particular, so whenever people mention drums in modern music I generally ignore them and hum Evidence to myself.
But this stuff in amazing - if someone wants a lesson in what drumming in rock and punk needs to sound like, THIS is the album you need to hear.
Raw, driving, with force, feeling and message.

DJ Shadow - Entroducing

I heard this album before Phantazmagorea, and it was what I expected a scratch DJ album to sound like.
It's great in that respect, but it by no means blew me away.
Having listened to it several times, I'm just after realising I can't remember much about it right now.
It flows great though, real steady all the way through, not entirely sure I'd ever come back to it ?
I blame D-Styles, he just totally overshadowed Entroducing.

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85 - 92

I will openly admit, I hated this album the first time I heard it through.
It felt all over the place, and I guess one of my failings in music of recent years is my inability to appreciate sublety.
Jimmy told me this was one of the defining musicians of his youth, inspired him to pick up decks, and was totally unlike anyone else in that era.
However, about the forth time through I started to appreciate this one.
I can leave this on in the background whilst I'm doing other things now, I guess that's an improvement to me saying "Jesus Christ, this ambient shit sucks".
That probably sounds harsh, it's possible I'm not mellow or relaxed enough to appreciate it, but despite that it did grow on me a little.
We can't all like the same things, otherwise we'd all drive Toyotas.

System Of A Down - Hypnotize

I'll be straight, I'm not sure SOAD got a fair shot in this month.
It was a last week substitution, and I only got to listen to it 3 times, but it didn't really resonate with me.
I'm not a lyrical person when it comes to music.
The voice just sounds like an instrument to me, I find it extremely difficult to pick out the words as they go along, and even when I get to the point where I know words, I rarely pay any attention to the MEANING behind those.
The drive, the rhytmn, timbre, these are all things I pick up on in the voice, I love a good singing voice.
In that respect, I'm probably not a great person to listen to bands such as SOAD.
I greatly appreciate that they have a relatively "unique" sound, I can't quite pick out another band that sounds like them.
I really enjoyed the song "Lonely Day" in particular, which is quite amusing as a SOAD fan (Luke, who is February's pick) commented that Hypnotise is usually the most hated SOAD album, and Lonely Day the most despised song on it !
Using that particular nugget of information, I may not be a SOAD fan.
I also have this feeling that at 33, I'm about 15 years too late to hear this music for the first time.

A Muscial Blog Journey Type Thing

A couple of weeks ago it came up when I was over at the famous Jimmy's as to my "2016 musical resolution" as I've called it, and a girl there started saying I should blog it.
Blog ?
Why would I do such a thing ?
I'm doing this for me, not to be some attention whore plastered all over the internet.
Then tonight, in the same bat cave, I was told the notion came up several times since.
My response was "who the fuck would give a shit".
Luke assured me he'd read a few hundred words each month on some idiot listening to random music and giving his blunt opinion on it.

So I guess this in the intro, Luke is getting his prologue and month one, and I'm a fucking attention whore hypocrite.
Whoop de fucking do.

I remember having a discussion back in November over at my buddy Jimmy's place.
He happened to say how one of his other friends couldn't rememeber the last time he listened to an album, as in sat down and listened to one with the attention due to it.
I guess that sowed the seeds for my little musical adventure.

I am not a musician myself, but I have a tremendous respect for music accross a vast array of genres.
I have phases, lately there's been a lot of jazz.
In January 2015, I came to the notion to listen to all of Bowie's recorded works in chronological order.
Seems quite prophetic now (and a few people told me "don't do that for him/her/the other this year or you'll kill him too"), I still can't quite believe the Thin White Duke has left us all !
The Bowie project was almost 60 recordings worth, all albums, live albums, a few of the noted bootlegs, Tin Machine and all the soundtracks.
Took me about till July if I recall correctly.
I don't listen to radio, I only listen to my own music.
And to make that crystal clear, if I don't have my music player on in the car, I leave the radio off.
It drives everyone I know a little mad, but I'd rather drive for 30 minutes in silence sometimes than listen to the radio.
I reckon I haven't listened to the radio in any regular capacity in about 7 or 8 years at this stage.
To each his own I say....

So whilst over at Jimmy's, discussing albums and the like, the seed was planted originally that I may listen to one new album every week.
I ran through a Mirwais album, and the Electric Six discography over a week in late December, and when I was about to partake on a particular road trip early January, I was on to Jimmy for just one album reccomendation.....

Then came the key question:

Jimmy, What album inspired YOU to become a DJ ??

Which quickly became 5 albums (there was a substition along the way), which comprised the January listening.

I thought to myself this is great, getting other people to nominate albums that mean something to them, makes my album list all the easier.
It's also a little like the musical equivilant of walking in a man's shoes.
So then I decided that each of the albums needed several listens, so it made sense to change it to 5 albums a month, that I would listen to a minimum of five times each.
11 months would mean 55 albums this year, then I'm gonna pick my favorite track from each month, and at the end of the year make a compilation to give to all those who nominated.