Abogix (J.K.), the - "George Bush's great adventure between war and horror"

Great electronic tunes with unnecessary speeches (7/10) Ok...this album i don't like it! But other poeple love it...so i leave it here! I love the melodies on this album. What a pity they are spoiled by mumbling of that moron George of the Jungle. All these speeches are completely unnecessary and spoil all the fun one could have from listening to this album. I understand the reason for that, but it just doesn't appeal to me. If I was keen on GWB or just wanted to listen to talking heads, I would turn the TV on. But I wanted to listen to beautiful music. So my rating is 7, while it could have been 10. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation on this page - use the button "Donate" in the upper left corner. [mirror @ archive.org] | [Artist's Myspace]

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Diablo Swing Orchestra - "Butcher's Ballroom, the"

Sell your souls, people - it really pays off (10/10) The Diablo Swing Orchestra dates back to 1501 in Sweden, where history tells the tale of an orchestra that played like no other. With music so seductive and divine that the ensemble overwhelmed audiences all over the country, and people from all social classes took them to their hearts. Their performances rapidly earned a reputation of being feral and vigorous and gained the orchestra a devoted crowd that followed them around. [Read more --->] Some time ago I decided to check out some albums from one of the Jamendo's popularity ranking lists. A disclaimer: I am fully aware of the fact that due to the constantly broken stats these lists do not tell a thing about true popularity of the albums - it's more or less just a random list. Still, some popularity is required to get there, so I was curious what else can be found there quality-wise, as I know one really terrible record that haunt these lists. I probably shouldn't bother writing this review, as others wrote everything before me. But I just have to write how totally amazed I am; I can't keep it to myself - it's unbearable. I chose Diablo Swing Orchestra's "The Butcher's Ballroom" mainly because of the great cover and because it said it's metal and you don't find many good metal albums here, so I became tired of all these electronic tunes.

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And metal it is. But what kind of metal! Not some rusty iron but true gold. First of all, these guys spice up their mainly heavy metal music with influences coming from each musical genre known to man (and several more coming straight from outer space). A recipe for disaster? Yes Sir! So, do they fail? No! I don't know how they do it (selling souls to the devil obviously comes to mind), but they succeed. They can include opera singing, ethnic instruments, classical instruments, nature sounds, growling, electronic samples, super-heavy guitars and jazzy passages within one track and it all works. You don't feel it's too eclectic, you don't feel it's chaotic. You don't feel some elements don't fit. Instead, you think: "I never thought metal could sound like that but it is perfect". And it is true. Everything is perfect on this album - singing, skills of the musicians, professional production, ability to write super-catchy and powerful tunes. The level of awesomeness of this work is inhuman (the devil comes to mind - again). It is unbelievable that such recording is given here for free. Diablo Swing Orchestra should receive a highest praise for that. Because the place of this album is right beside Metallica on the shelf labeled "thrash metal" (OK, now Metallica plays pop, but their old albums should still be there), right beside Apocalyptica under "classical metal" label and replace Nightwish in the "best of opera metal" ranking. Speaking of Nightwish - I was never a fan of combining metal with opera singing, as it usually doesn't work. The band plays their part, the poor woman screams for her life in the front and their efforts don't correspond in any way. It almost always sounds like two radio stations trying to jam each other on the same band - one with opera music and one with heavy metal. The result is embarrassing chaos. And here we have a miracle (or the devil's work) - I suddenly realized I love opera metal! Under condition that it's played by Diablo Swing Orchestra. To summarize - it doesn't matter whether you're a metalhead or a fan of opera or classical music. If only you like good music - you just have to check out this recording, because it is a landmark album that should be praised as one of the greatest works in the history of heavy metal, being at the same time surprisingly accessible for people that don't listen to this genre. PS. Considering the quality of this album, they had to sell not only their own souls, but also those belonging to their families and friends (maybe even some of the neighbors). The devil that signed the deal obviously must have got a big raise from the Satan with month-long all-inclusive vacation in Heaven. [Artist's Myspace]

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by buying it on CDBaby website. Do not buy it through Amazon or iTunes - not only are they evil, but the artist won't see a single penny from your purchase.

terenNowy.live - "Ambientnosc"

Impressive ambient (10/10) Project terenNowy it's an opened collective of creators that spontaneously develop motto: Creation through recreation, or the other way round. Multi-plot and differentiation of artistic statements become an basis for free multiplication of the idea of organics, meaning: each in self direction, but fun is for all. Co-influences and inspirations evolve into unexpected scenography-sound sets, creating the genuine sections such as terennowy.live, terennowy.kids, terennowy.movie and terennowy.art. There is no place for trials, or scenarios - each meeting generates own climate naturally adopted both to space and public, because these two elements are as vital to the project, as the collective itself. We say: interaction is an initiation of the creation. Or the other way round. Ambientnosc (Ambiency) is the ambivalence of the aesthetic tendencies. The oldest instruments of the humankind embraced in the improvisation process with newest technology create the indifferented music.

It is not a secret that ambient is not my favourite genre. Ambient works are often totally boring, because of the false apparent easiness of this genre. Some people think it is enough to break a constant drone with single notes once in two minutes to produce an ambient masterpiece. And in fact, it's quite the opposite. It is very easy to make a bad ambient recording. But it requires plenty of talent to make a good - not boring - ambient work.

The second cause of my somewhat ambivalent feelings for ambient is that these days the majority of ambient recordings are made on a computer, using only electronic sounds. There is nothing wrong with it generally, only that it becomes slightly boring after hearing a hundredth album with similar recycled sounds. One just starts to long for some decent guitar or real drums.

So it feels great to come across such album as this one. Such works convince me that with enough talent, you can make a masterpiece in every musical genre.

This is truly an outstanding recording. It contains improvised ambient music played on real instruments by a live band of very skilled musicians. The songs are full of mysterious strange sounds; very diverse, but never chaotic. All this improvised mess is in fact well thought-out and form a cohesive whole, despite including such different elements as synthetic sounds, reverbed human whispers and folk instruments. So much is happening throughout each track that you are never bored. So if you like ambient and/or experimental music, you cannot miss this one!

The album has been released by MegaTotal.pl, a social financing website similar to Sellaband. You can listen to the full album here or buy a CD for mere 5 euros. Unfortunately, they don't have English version of their website, but there is a Google Translate interface on the bottom of the page. I don't know if it is enough to really use this site without any knowledge of Polish, but I can assure you this album is worth trying. You can always drop me a line in case of any troubles and I will be glad to help you.

[Artist's Website / Myspace]

Skala - "Skalkulator"

Sitting on a fence, looking good (8/10) The debut album of team the Skala "Skalkulator” saw the day light 5 years ago. Given by Underwater Music assembled on portal good reviews, m.in. Alternativepop.pl. Plate was given in traditional form only cd- r, she never was have throwed open in net.This good moment to garages "Skalkulator” in somewhat refreshed version settled in net. All has his beginning and end. We on end propose beginning this time. Roger: all music & productions. Sady: acustic drums. Very good post rock, that is a cross-over between instrumental rock and electronica. Some tracks are more rock-based, some are more influenced by electronica, but each and every is creative, well recorded and has a nice melody. How would you classify it, depends heavily on a point of view, because all these songs are based on real instruments with addition of electronic sounds. Some could be even labeled as downtempo or even breakbeat, still belonging to rock genre, if seen from another perspective. Really quality blend - come taste it now. BTW, nice use of my favorite didgeridoo.

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