God's Weird/Obscure Music Reviews

[Pallantides]

Sigur Ros makes beautiful and haunting music...


one of the best bands out there in my opinion!

[Pra]

Exuma is an awesome group! Kudos for that review.

I agree with the Last Emperor assessment. Good points raised-lots of filler material.

[God]

Exuma is an awesome group! Kudos for that review.

I have Exuma II now as well, might review that next. I found something else really interesting - the 2 songs I posted with that review, 'Dambala' and 'The Obeah Man', were covered by Nina Simone(!) on her album 'It Is Finished'. Great covers but they lack the voodoo atmosphere.

[God]

Exuma ~ Exuma II (1970)
folk/world

The second Exuma album, ‘Exuma II’, was released in 1970, the same year as Exuma’s self-titled debut album and closely follows the same sound and themes. Like the debut, ‘Exuma II’ is a very unique album that can best be described as ‘folk’.

Exuma, the alias of Tony McKay once again composes all of the music and plays nearly all of the instruments with the help of numerous male and female backing vocalists. ‘Exuma II’ continues with the debut’s Afro-Caribbean tribal sound influenced by Exuma’s homeland in the Bahamas (he was actually later given the British Empire Medal by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to Bahamian culture). The whole album is mainly percussion-orientated with complex and hypnotic bongo drumming and all sorts of chimes, bells and traditional percussion instruments adding to it. It is the percussion that really drives the album forward with the acoustic guitar only occasionally making an appearance.

Like the debut, ‘Exuma II’ focuses on creating a strong tribal voodoo atmosphere. While many bands advertise their music as ‘atmospheric’, it is hard to find something that really does seem to transport you to another place as well as Exuma does. With it’s chanting backing vocals, dense bongos and sometimes very dark lyrics mainly concerning voodoo, religion and Caribbean and African culture, ‘Exuma II’ brings forth images of tribes dancing round fires and at it’s darkest, séances and voodoo rituals.

Despite the emphasis on percussion, ‘Exuma II’ is slightly more melodic than the debut, with more acoustic guitar melodies. ‘Exuma II’ focuses more on making the songs catchy and slightly more ‘dancey’ without compromising the overall atmosphere. Apart from a few extra more melodic songs though, ‘Exuma II’ is almost the same as the debut.

That is the biggest problem with ‘Exuma II’. The structure of the album is exactly the same. The album opens with a very tribal-sounding song, followed by a pretty folk song, then an almost completely percussion-led ‘scary’ spoken word song with dark lyrics about summoning souls from the dead. This is the exact same pattern that was used in the debut and is followed throughout the album, with just a few more melodic songs thrown in near the end. While this does solve some problems of the debut like the short length and adds more melodic sections there are still certain spoken word parts that can get boring on repeat listens, though there are less of them and it ends up sounding like a poor imitation as most of the songs are weaker than their debut album’s counterparts.

There is some experimentation, but it doesn’t often work very well. On the first song for example, Exuma tries singing in a more melodic higher-pitched tone to his normally low-pitched raspy and bluesy delivery, but it ends up just sounding awkward. Luckily he abandons this style of singing after the one song. The use of harmonica in ‘Paul Simon Nontooth’ is a welcome addition though, making the spoken word with sparse percussion song much more interesting than the one on the debut. Exuma also attempts to expand his lyrical themes, adding to the religious themes with more political songs which he manages to fit into the music’s atmosphere remarkably well. His political songs are very pessimistic and negative - on ‘Fire In The Hole’ he claims that the president is walking hand in hand with the devil.

However, despite the experimentation with his sound he doesn’t really go far enough for ‘Exuma II’ to escape sounding like a slightly poor clone of the debut, so if you are new to Exuma this really can’t be recommended as a starting point, but it is still a good quality addition if you have the debut and want more.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Damn Fool

Fire In The Hole

If I can find one I'll review a later Exuma album sometime. From a listen on his Myspace it sounds like he changed completely, and replaced the voodoo sound with a much more modern 'pop' sound. 'Monkberry Moon Delight' is a great song though.

[bomberboy]

Nice review God.

[God]

Thanks.

Bad Religion ~ Into the Unknown (1983)
progressive rock

‘Into the Unknown’ is the only Bad Religion album not to have been re-released and according to the band, never will be. Only 10,000 copies were distributed and nearly all were quickly sent back. Bad Religion don’t go as far as denying that the album exists but if asked about it they will say no more than ‘listen to it yourself and you will see why we hate it so much.’

The aptly named ‘Into the Unknown’ was released in 1983, a year after their immensely popular hardcore punk debut album, ‘How Could Hell Be Any Worse’. Instead of creating another punk album though, Bad Religion went in the complete opposite direction and made exactly what punk was meant to be rebelling against, a progressive rock album. Obviously this wasn’t exactly a popular choice with their fanbase, but ‘Into the Unknown’, despite it’s numerous flaws, certainly isn’t as bad as many of them make it out to be.

The fast-paced stripped down guitar riffs that Bad Religion is known for are here substituted by overblown synthesisers and guitar effects. Most of the time, this very upbeat, bright and quirky 70’s prog style works quite well. There are plenty of catchy synthesiser hooks and melodies throughout the album with sing-along choruses in many of the songs. There are also some decent guitar and keyboard solos thrown in. While sometimes the long song-lengths seem a bit forced, they rarely become boring and the album finishes after just half an hour, long before it overstays it’s welcome. Acoustic guitars sometimes make appearances, giving certain songs a slightly folky sound. Some sections are actually surprisingly dark, contrasting the cheerful feel of the rest of the album well.

However, most of the album’s problems lie in it’s execution rather than the songwriting. During the recording of the first song, bassist Jay Bentley and drummer Pete Finestone left the band. They were replaced with Paul Dedona and Davy Goldman respectively, and neither of which are nearly as good musicians. The drumming in particular is very poor and slapdash. The hi-hats end up creating little more than an annoying wall of fuzz in the background. The bass is pretty average and is very prominent throughout. Even Gregg Graffin’s usually excellent singing is weak here and often off-key. His lyrics here are also very inconsistent, reaching the quality of his later work in certain songs like ‘Chasing the Wild Goose’, but sometimes sounding much more simplistic than usual.

The production especially is a huge problem. The album sounds sloppy and sludgy, with none of the instruments standing out amongst each other at all, giving the album a very dense sound. ‘Into the Unknown’ is also covered in laughably cheesy synth effects that would have sounded dated and out of place on a ‘60s psychedelic rock album, let alone an album from the 1980’s.

Despite it’s many flaws though, it is refreshing to hear Bad Religion, who are all too often accused of never doing anything new, create an album that is such a radical change it would make Ulver proud, even if it is probably one of the reasons they are now so afraid of deviating from their familiar sound. If you’re a Bad Religion fan and want to hear them do something completely different than usual this is a must, especially as the band state that they don’t care how you acquire it. If you can overlook it’s many flaws, there’s an enjoyable album hidden underneath.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Chasing the Wild Goose


It's Only Over When...

[bomberboy]

This band sounds like post-gabriel genesis.

[God]

This band sounds like post-gabriel genesis.

Well, that album at least. everything else they've done is 100% punk:



They were my all time favourite band for a long time, before I discovered King Crimson/prog rock. Don't listen to them as much now.

[bomberboy]

They are very punk in this.

[God]

This one should be.... interesting.

Charles Manson ~ Lie (1970)
folk/psychedelia

Charles Manson is obviously known more for his murders than for his music, so it is hard to be objective when listening to ‘Lie’. While many people instantly disregard it as just a collection of poor folk songs with only novelty worth, others claim that Manson could have become famous as a musician had things turned out differently - Neil Young and Dennis Wilson themselves were both fans of his music before he gained the notoriety. The Beach Boys actually went as far as recording a Manson song, ‘Cease to Exist’ with slightly altered lyrics, as ‘Never Learn Not To Love’.

‘Lie’ contains a mixture of folk and psychedelia, but with most of the emphasis on the folk side. Many of the songs feature just Manson and his acoustic guitar, though occasionally other instruments such as sitar and flute appear, giving the album it’s psychedelic/acid folk feel. When percussion is introduced it is light and stays in the background, putting most of the focus on Manson and his guitar playing. Backing vocals are occasionally provided by members of the Manson family.

Manson’s guitar playing is very simplistic, with him often playing doing little more than repeatedly strumming a few simple chords. Despite this simple approach he does manage to create some nice melodies and hooks, and it gives the album it’s moody atmosphere. It doesn’t always work well however. While songs like ‘Look At Your Game, Girl’ have strong catchy hooks that drive them forward, sometimes the overly-sparse playing style gets slightly tedious and boring, and there are a number of filler tracks in the middle of the album. Even at only just over 30 minutes long, it is quite easy to get bored of the album quickly.

Manson himself is definitely a very good vocalist. The singing has a warm and pleasant tone, and a slightly haunting quality that fits right in with the lo-fi melancholic mood of the music perfectly. Many of the lyrics are delivered spoken word, but the parts where Manson is singing work the best. His lyrics which are on the topics of society and ironically ‘peace and love’ are decent, if sometimes slightly simplistic.

‘Lie’ also contains a number of more experimental psychedelic songs. Some of these work well, like the truly bizarre ‘Mechanical Man’ with it’s strange mumbling backing vocals, frantic sitar, and odd lyrics and the dark and gloomy ‘Ego’. These songs give the album more variety and keeping it interesting, but mostly the experiments do not work so well and end up breaking the flow of the album unnecessarily. Many of the songs in the middle of the album are little more than boring spoken word sections, but as they’re so short it doesn’t become as much of a problem as it could be.

So is ‘Lie’ more than just being a simple gimmick? The truth is, if you were to play it, or at least some of the better tracks, to people without saying who the singer is they’d probably like it. Then you can tell them who they’ve been listening to and watch them grimace in disgust. While a pleasant listen though, apart from a select few songs, it’s nothing really special and little more than a nice folk album.

1/2 / 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Look At Your Game, Girl

[bomberboy]

I didn't know Manson recorded an album, even though I knew he could play guitar. Its quite an uplifting song 'look at your game, girl'. Have you found any of the psychedelic sings yet?

[Pallantides]

Garbage Dump is an awesome song!

[God]

I didn't know Manson recorded an album, even though I knew he could play guitar.

I think he learnt it in prison for an earlier crime.

Its quite an uplifting song 'look at your game, girl'. Have you found any of the psychedelic sings yet?

Mechanical Man

[bomberboy]

Now thats a bad song.

[God]

Scald ~ Will of the Gods is Great Power (1996)
doom metal/'viking metal'

‘Epic’ has become a bit overused in the world of metal with hundreds of bands often completely wrongly being tagged with the term. It’s a pity really, because often bands that truly do deserve the tag get completely buried, and ‘Will of the Gods is Great Power’ from Russia’s Scald is one album that really does in every way qualify as one of the most ‘epic’ sounding albums ever.

The album features a fantastic mixture of the majestic grand riffs and vivid imagery of Bathory’s Viking metal style albums such as ’Hammerheart’ which it is clearly hugely influenced by and the crushing slow tempos and down tuned guitars of traditional doom bands like Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus. Every riff is equally powerful, and combined with the Viking-themed lyrics can conjure up images of ancient lands and Viking warriors that most so-called ‘Viking metal’ bands can only dream of doing.

While the music isn’t particularly complex, the instrumentation is superb throughout and the music is structured and composed perfectly with a perfect mix of heavy riffs and melody, staying completely gripping through the long song lengths. The guitar work in particular is amazing. As well as the great riffs there are with plenty of sweeping guitar solos, all of which are well composed and sometimes breathtakingly beautiful and emotional. All of the music is played on just guitar, bass and drums apart from waves and wind sound effects used to enhance the atmosphere and chimes playing a hypnotic melody on ‘Ragnaradi Eve’.

Released first only on tape, it survived only because of the quality of the music to be remastered on CD. The remastering didn’t do much though, because the production is still awful. While the bass is clear, the guitars are thin and the drums are ridiculously weak. The thing is, while some may be put off, the production in many ways actually helps the music. While taking away some of the power that most doom contains, the production makes the atmosphere sound completely natural and believable, in a way similar to good quality black metal that gets the production ‘right’ like Ulver’s ‘Bergtatt’. The production can take a while to get used to however, and may not be immediately appealing. The more you get used to it though, the less noticeable it becomes.

The vocals are most affected by the production, which is one of the album’s biggest problems. Maxim "Agyl" Adrianov, who sadly passed away in 1997 leading to the band’s break-up, was clearly an incredible singer, with a range that seemingly effortlessly managed to go from a low growl to an ethereal high pitched wail. Agyl could definitely rival the very best of epic doom metal singers such as Messiah Marcolin, though his singing is unfortunately very restricted by the production. The vocals sound distant and unclear, buried under the instruments. This does help the atmosphere somewhat, but it makes his singing seem a lot less impressive, especially when he sings the higher notes. It also makes it very hard to understand the lyrics which are well-written for a non-Native speaker and fit the atmosphere perfectly.

‘Will of the Gods is Great Power’ is overall an incredible album with the only real flaw being certain parts in the production. Scald borrow from Bathory and Candlemass, and manage to reach the same quality, arguably even surpassing them. A must for any fan of epic doom metal.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It sounds better listening to the full album to get the whole atmosphere, but here're some songs:

A Tumulus


Eternal Stone

[bomberboy]

Those are a good band shame about the production.

[God]

I was put off by it at first, but it's really grown on me a lot.

[God]

Organized Konfusion ~ Stress: The Extinction Agenda (1994)
hip-hop

Despite huge critical acclaim, Organized Konfusion’s second album, Stress: The Extinction Agenda, was unfortunately buried under a myriad of other great hip-hop albums released that year, especially Nas’ classic Illmatic.

Stress is slightly darker and less light-hearted than Organized Konfusion’s 1991 self-titled debut, removing the more poppy songs with a more down-tempo sound. That’s not to say that this is completely bleak and depressing; there is plenty of variety here with plenty of fantastic upbeat bass lines and jazzy samples, but the production and a lot of snare gives it a very bass-heavy dark sound. The mixture works incredibly well, combining a grimy atmosphere similar to that found on Illmatic with a jazzy sound found in groups like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. As a result, Stress sounds like A Tribe Called Quest’s darker, slightly paranoid cousin.

Much like Illmatic, Stress relies on this atmosphere to stay gripping, and atmosphere is one thing it contains plenty of. At times it sounds incredibly tense, like on ’Stray Bullet’, which details gang violence in terrifying detail, complete with gunshots, and at times like on ‘3-2-1’ in stark contrast sounds almost completely calm and relaxing. The album never sounds completely ‘happy’ though, you won’t hear anything as upbeat and cheerful as ‘Who Stole My Last Piece of Chicken?’ from the debut here. The lack of obviously catchy hooks helps in bands favour however, stopping the songs from getting stale after a few listens.

Despite the wide variety of themes and moods explored in Stress it never sounds at all disjointed though. The consistently brilliant production holds it all together, giving the whole album a familiar unique sound. Most of the production is done by the two band members, Pharoahe Monch and Prince Po, with a few songs from Buckwild and Roickwilder. For hip-hop it is surprisingly complex, with sometimes densely layered samples and odd time-signature changes.

Of course, good hip-hop is nothing without quality rapping to back up the music and Stress contains some of the very best. Pharoahe Monch in particular is incredible, rapping at a ridiculously fast pace with complex rhymes and a huge variety of styles but always with complete precision and with every single word totally clear. It truly is some of the most impressive rapping ever recorded. Prince Po is fantastic too, but seems shadowed by Monch. His rapping adds to Monch’s perfectly though, and is definitely a very underrated rapper. Apart from very minimal contributions from O.C. and A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip in ‘Let’s Organize’, these two do all the rapping on the album.

The lyrics are equally impressive, with intricate multi-syllabic rhyme schemes and complex metaphors. Many of the songs explore typical hip-hop themes, detailing gang violence, but never glorifying it at all. The album deals with ambitious concepts but pulls them all off fantastically, thanks to the excellent rapping.

Overall, Stress is one of the most underrated hip-hop albums ever released; almost completely flawless except for a slightly dated production and Pharoahe Monche shadowing Prince Po’s performance so much. These are all very minor complaints though, and this should definitely be one of the first albums anyone interested in hip-hop should get.

/ 5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Let's Organize

Stray Bullet

[bomberboy]

Nice review. I've listened to these a bit longer than Nas and turned it off.

[God]

I promise I'll stop doing rap reviews after this one bomberboy

Dr. Octagon ~ Dr. Octagonecologyst (1996)
hip-hop/acid rap

In 2000, hip-hop group Deltron 3030 became moderately well-known with their critically acclaimed self-titled sci-fi themed concept album. What many people don’t realise though is that this was not a totally original idea, and many of the ideas were influenced by 1996’s influential ‘Dr. Octagonecologyst’, a pioneering ‘acid rap’ album, and the debut of Dr. Octagon, one of Kool Keith’s aliases.

Unlike ‘Deltron 3030’ which has a rich, densely layered and cinematic sound, ‘Dr. Octagonecologyst’ is dark and low-key. The concept of the album focuses on the character of Dr. Octagon, an evil time travelling surgeon from Jupiter who pretends to be a gynaecologist and molests women. Despite the grim subject matter, it is done in a light-hearted tongue-in-cheek way. If horror punk band The Misfits were to make a rap album it would probably sound something like this. At times it can sound terrifying, with screeching horror film style violins and sinister demented lyrics, but straight after sound completely cheesy and funny: ‘Think about it, if you was there standing looking at me / What would you do, if I hit your face with dog doodoo?’

Dr. Octagon is not the most technically impressive of rappers, but he definitely has a unique style his slightly high-pitched raspy delivery always sounds slightly paranoid and insane, fitting the music and character of Dr. Octagon perfectly.

Of course, this would mean nothing without the beats and production to back it up. Luckily Dr. Octagon is backed up by the immense talents of Dan the Automator (who would go on to work in the aforementioned Deltron 3030) who produces, and the DJing of DJ Q-Bert. Dan the Automator’s gloomy downbeat production gives the album it’s unique atmosphere; you can almost picture yourself in Dr. Octagon’s grimy surgery as you listen to it. While these beats, based mainly on hypnotic basslines and obscure jazz and soul samples are quite minimalistic, they create fantastic unorthodox creepy melodies and bring the haunting, nightmarish and futuristic atmosphere to life perfectly.

DJ Q-Bert fills the spaces with incredibly frantic and inventive scratches, that are always a joy to listen to and also add well to the creepy music. DJ Shadow makes an appearance for one track, ‘Waiting List’, where he co-produces with Dan the Automator. This fantastic production, and the music’s twisted bizarre melodies and obscure psychedelic sound effects bridge the gap between the complex atmospheric sound of trip-hop and regular hip-hop, creating a sound that still sounds unique today that has been described as ‘acid rap’.

Live music adds to the samples with Kool Keith himself playing upright bass, and the inclusion of electric guitars on certain tracks. Numerous backing vocalists also appear at times. This makes a nice change from most hip-hop that relies totally on samples.

‘Dr. Octagonecologyst’ is not without its flaws though. The strangeness of the music can make it quite difficult to listen to, especially if you’re used to more conventional hip-hop. Also, at over an hour long, ‘Dr. Octagonecologyst’ is slightly too long and inconsistent, with a few tracks that could easily have been removed. Kool Keith’s raspy rapping has also been criticised by some for being slightly grating and he relies a bit too much on repetitive vocal hooks slightly though this isn’t really that noticeable.

Overall, ‘Dr. Octagonecologyst’ is a great album though. It’s certainly not for everyone, but anyone interested in weird music (Comus fans should love it) or rap that covers a different topic than your stereotypical guns, bling and es may probably be interested.

/ 5


Dr. Octagon

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Because of the similarities, I'll also post some songs from Deltron 3030's self-titled album. A more accessable album with amazing production and a rich cinematic sound. Much less 'scary' though:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: