Album: The Ghost Dance Movement - Commonwealth Tracks (EP)

Artist: The Ghost Dance Movement
Album: Commonwealth Tracks
Label: Self Released
Year: 2007




Tracklist
01.An Introduction To The Study of T(w)ogetherness
02.Something Hypnotic In The Kennedy Funeral Procession
03.If She Is Jacques Cousteau, I'm The Ocean
04.Redshift (What Is The Color Of The Void)
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The Ghost Dance refers to a type of messianic movement (1870-1878) that arose among the Indians of the western Great Basin and later (1898-1895) spread to the Plains. It expressed a desperate longing for the restoration of the past. A return to a life free of hunger, epidemic disease and the bitter warring and divisiveness that accompanied the Indians' subjugation by whites.

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Album: Long Distance Calling - Satellite Bay

Artist: Long Distance Calling
Album: Satellite Bay
Label: Viva Hate Records
Year: 2007






Tracklist
01.Jungfernflug
02.Fire In The Mountain
03.Aurora
04.Horizon
05.The Very Last Day
06.Built Without Hands (feat.Peter Dolving from The Haunted)
07.Swallow The Water
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Nearly a year after releasing their first demo, the German post-rock ensemble Long Distance Calling has returned to the scene with a fiery debut that more than exceeds expectations. Experimental as well as accessible, Satellite Bay shows the band taking a more sophisticated approach to their songwriting, elaborating upon their unique blend of progressive rock, ambient instrumentals and hard-edged metal. The album features five brand new songs plus two completely redone tracks from last year’s demo, providing a near-60-minute epic journey through some of the best modern instrumental rock music this year has seen.

Having progressed beyond the somewhat undeveloped and inconsistent nature of their demo material, Satellite Bay shows the band delivering their sounds in a way that is as cohesive as it is diverse. This time around, Long Distance Calling seem to have successfully combined their various influences into one solid identity, seamlessly blending layered instrumental movements with their own special dash of edgy rock-based riffs. Typical “post-rock” techniques are quite dominant but delivered with skillful precision—interwoven guitar melodies, bold percussion and soft-to-loud transitions are all implemented in familiar but engaging ways. The real key to this album’s success though comes from tracks such as “Horizon,” which definitely stick out a bit from the rest with a groovier attitude and up-beat pace, giving the album just enough variation to keep things interesting without throwing off the flow.

In sum, what we can see on Satellite Bay is a band that has harnessed its artistic vision and found the perfect balance between experimentation and discipline, making for an exciting and engaging listen from start to finish. That said, one could also say that a lot of the stuff on this release has been done many times before, and perhaps for some of the genre's enthusiasts that might be enough to make this album less than amazing. Nevertheless, an album doesn't necessarily have to be completely ground-breaking to be good—it is the sheer quality and integrity of their music which makes Long Distance Calling so entertaining.

Those seeking a wholesome serving of some of the newest instrumental rock to hit the scene should definitely check out this release. Fans of groups such as ISIS, Tides, and Caspian will likely find Satellite Bay to be a refreshing and enjoyable addition to their rotation. -sonicfrontiers.net

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Album: Tusk - The Resisting Dreamer

Artist: Tusk
Album: The Resisting Dreamer
Label: Hydrahead Records
Year: 2007





Tracklist
01. The Everlasting Taste of Disguise
02. Cold Twisted Aisle
03. Life's Denial
04. The Lewdness and Frenzy of Surrender
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This is the latest CD from Tusk, which includes three members of Pelican (guitarist Trevor de Brauw, bassist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec and drummer Larry Herwig) along with new co-vocalists Evan Patterson (Breather Resist) and Toby Driver (Kayo Dot).

The Resisting Dreamer finds Tusk moving away from the "avant-grind" of their last album into a little different, but still very unique territory. It's one of those albums that's hard to describe, a diverse and eclectic mix of genres that includes noise, doom, space rock, stoner metal and a few others. The music ranges from slow, simple dirges to fast, complex songs to unusual and experimental tracks that are sometimes noisy and dissonant, other times subdued and groovy.

The album is one long song divided into 4 tracks, and the last one clocks in at 16 minutes and is all instrumental. The different genres, styles and moods described above are all packed into a relatively short album. The Resisting Dreamer is an avant-garde CD that is aggressive, complex, and always interesting.

Recorded and mixed by Tusk alumn Greg Norman at Electrical Audio studios (during Pelican's "Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw" sessions from midnight to five am) and Studio Greg Studios II, the album has a sound and style unlike anything they have attempted in the past. Occasionally groove-laden, occasionally spastic, and often unnerving, "The Resisting Dreamer" is the sound of a band that has absolutely no interest in proving anything to anyone.

Avant, progged out, psych’, helicopter grind -- Tusk’s aural barrage has been categorized with some random appellations. Truth of the matter is, the more out-there the genre description, the more obvious this fact: It’s fucking out there. Amidst surgically precise blasts, frenzied vocals and fret board savagery to make devout fans of all matters of harshness raise a horned-hand salute, you’ll find a willingness to experiment: sitar, slide guitar, mandolin, swirling keyboard passages.

Basically, they’re to bedrooms in Chicago suburbs what Lightning Bolt and Arab on Radar are to Providence, R.I. Get it? No? Try this on for size: It’s Discordance Axis by way of Yes’ "Close to the Edge" or a German-schooled Acme maelstrom played by fans of This Heat and Don Caballero. And a singer who professes his lyrical "chaos bordering on collapse" owes a debt of gratitude to Tom Waits, though he sounds more like a strangled banshee or the Germs’ Darby Crash.
Tusk formed in the summer of ’98. In 2001 they unleashed their first record, a split with Hewhocorrupts, which apparently "sold well in Japan" and garnered them the honor of being described by several German distros as "completely crazy." With Black Man, White Man, Dead Man, they toured in summer ‘01, supporting said record -- impairing hearing and imposing structural damage in Midwest and East Coast basements.

Armed with a new singer -- sailor by day, inconspicuous madman by night -- Tusk recorded this first full length (9 songs) in March 2002 with Greg Norman, who engineers at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio. The CD is on Hewhocorrupts Inc.; the vinyl is soon to come from elsewhere. Tusk toured the Midwest and West Coast last summer with Hewhocorrupts and La Mantra De Fhiqria, both respected Chicago luminaries, in their respective frenzied metal and screamo niches.

Live in your town? Expect 15 minutes of pent-up nervous tension let loose by way of broken mikes, Lombardo fills, tossed monitors, flailing mike stands aimed at the bass player’s knees, coyote yelps and shit fits.

Current members are in Pelican (Hydra Head Records) and previously did time in Hinckley, Disembodied and Long Live Nothing.

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Album: Rosetta - Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift

Artist: Rosetta
Album: Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift
Label: Translation Loss Records
Year: 2007




Tracklist
01. I
02. II
03. III
04. IV
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This component disc, entitled The Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift, was released alongside Wake/Lift. It contains a collection of ambient samples used by Armine. It is, however, not meant to be synchronized with Wake/Lift (as The Galilean Satellites was); Armine "purposely designed The Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift to make Wake/Lift sound terrible if played together".

"This CD is composed of every sample collected and manipulated between the years of 2000 and 2007. For purposes of vision, craftsmanship and composition, no sound on this disk will ever br reused in future material. I am starting over" - Mike Armine

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Album: MGR - Wavering on the Cresting Heft

Artist: MGR
Album: Wavering on the Cresting Heft
Label: Conspiracy Records
Year: 2007




Tracklist
01. Allusions
02. It Darkens His Door
03. Ruminations of Before
04. Equilibrium
05. The Night Spills, Wide and Open
06. And It Falls By The Gallons
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With MGR guitarist Mike Gallagher -of renowned dirge architects ISIS- unveils a compendium of sparse ruminations culled from years of underground musical experience. Gallagher has developed a style characterized by dense, sustained textures coupled with a penchant for the subtle melodicism associated with the post-Sabbath riff. MGR's effectiveness stems from how fluidly Gallagher is able to gradually add texture upon texture, building up the intensity of the tracks until they reach a tragic momentum. Imagine Isis with much of the bombast stripped away, leaving only dark, moody and melancholic soundscapes… MGR (the acronym for Mustard Gas and Roses, which Gallagher has borrowed from a line of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five), is an emotionally charged amalgamation of sounds that, much to its credit, refuses to fit neatly into any particular category.

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Album: Lent0 - Earthen

Artist: Lent0
Album: Earthen
Label: Supernatural Cat
Year: 2007






Tracklist
01.Hadrons
02.Need
03.Subterrestrial
04.Currents
05.Emersion Of The Islands
06.Earth
07.Leave
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Earthen is the title of the debut album of Lent0, who already have a collaboration album with Ufomammut.Seven incredible songs create a massive atmosphere mixing ambient with hardcore, post-rock with psychedelia, all under unbelievable concrete riffs. Under a wide range of influences including seminal bands such as Neurosis, Earth, Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor, Lent0 create a personal sound we could define as "heavy ambient".
"Earthen" has been recorded in Roma at Locomotore Studio (Dalek, Zu, Ardecore, Nobukazu Takemura, Mats Gustaffson, Original Silence, Xabier Iriondo, Michael Zerang, Dogon and many more...).
Lento is an instrumental five piece act, 3 guitars, bass and a drumkit and their tone is a blend of heavily down tuned guitars, apocalyptic slow tempos, systematic drones and resonant feedbacks, their live sets alternate from hardcore assaults to intimate collapses of the signals.

Earthen is out in a first limited edition run of 500 cd handmade printed by Malleus Rock Art Lab.

Official Site
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You can buy both editions here.

Album: Latitudes - Bleak Epiphany In Slow Motion (EP)

Artist: Latitudes
Album: Bleak Epiphany In Slow Motion (EP)
Label: Shelsmusic
Year: 2007




Tracklist
01.Dreamland Precipice
02.A Falling Mute
03.Bleak Epiphany In Slow Motion
04.Your Death-Mask Became Mine
05.We Met Today & Will Never Meet Again
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In a genre many would claim is over-saturated with sound-a-like bands, there are few who can convey such epic yet destructive beauty as UK quartet Latitudes. Intense, crushing melodies ebb and flow through carefully structured movements as insurmountably destructive as ocean waves, while sharp feedback and commanding bass lines tear into the landscape with rabid yet precise ferocity. Downbeat, dark and enchantingly melancholic, this is a superb debut that is as inspirationally ethereal as it is haunting. In a not too distant future, when images of the last great war to rock this planet are projected on to classroom walls to teach the surviving infants our terrible history, Latitudes could well provide the soundtrack. - Rocksound (8/10)
For fans of: Isis, Pelican, Battle Of Mice, Bossk

Latitudes@MySpace
Buy the album here.