{"id":7742,"date":"2015-05-04T05:30:19","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T09:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=7742"},"modified":"2015-05-04T05:30:19","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T09:30:19","slug":"hundred-word-reviews-for-may-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/05\/04\/hundred-word-reviews-for-may-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred Word Reviews for May 2015, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Once again, it&#8217;s time for me to review several handfuls of CDs. Today&#8217;s five all fall (more or less) into the progressive rock bag, and are decidedly European in sensibility. Here we go.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/mtob.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><strong>Metallic Taste of Blood \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Doctoring the Dead<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nPerhaps the first thing you should know about this international collective is that it counts Australian bassist <strong>Colin Edwin<\/strong> as a member; he&#8217;s the eternally-bemused looking bassist from the still-on-hiatus <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=323\"><strong>Porcupine Tree<\/strong><\/a>. The other three musicians are from Italy, the USA, and Great Britain. This instrumental quartet crafts brooding yet melodic soundscapes. Very much on the accessible end of the progressive\/art rock scale, Metallic Taste of Blood might be better served by a less gothic moniker; don&#8217;t let the name (or the impossibly gruesome cover art) scare you off. The group&#8217;s music is super-heavy yet soaring and full of grandeur.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/obscured_echoes.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><strong>Obscured by Echoes \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Avidonia Part 1: The Escape<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nNever let it be said that this space\/psych unit doesn&#8217;t make their influences clear: with a band name that references works by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musoscribe.com\/essays\/pink_floyd.shtml\"><strong>Pink Floyd<\/strong><\/a> (those being the 1972 LP <em>Obscured By Clouds<\/em> and the epic \u201cEchoes\u201d from 1971&#8217;s <em>Meddle<\/em>). Based \u2013 like so many current psych bands \u2013 in Austin TX, the group aims for the multi-part suite approach favored in the early 70s. Their sound leans closer to <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=5203\"><strong>Hawkwind<\/strong> <\/a>than Pink Floyd, though, with a plodding (in a good way!) and menacing approach that leaves plenty of room for bone-crushing riffage, bloopy synth fills and the like. Excellent stuff.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/mollmaskin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: right; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B00RZVBNNU&amp;asins=B00RZVBNNU&amp;linkId=CE7TQQM43SKSPLRM&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mollmaskin \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Heartbreak in ((Stereo))<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nWhen the average 21<sup>st<\/sup> century rock fan thinks of Norway, the first subgenre that springs to mind is black metal. That particularly Scandinavian style is foreboding and \u2013 in its own way \u2013 evokes the bleak and endless night that is Winter. But Mollmaskin is actually a solo project featuring only <strong>Anders Bjermland<\/strong>, member of psychedelic outfit <strong>Flashback Caruso<\/strong>. The sound is closer to the softer, dreamy side of <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=340\"><strong>Dungen<\/strong><\/a>&#8216;s best works. The impressionistic tunes are beautiful, and Bjermland sings variously in Norwegian and English. The sprawling 2CD set will thrill lovers of Mellotron, Fender Rhodes and yearning vocal harmonies.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/kaukasis.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: right; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B00KRPK6U2&amp;asins=B00KRPK6U2&amp;linkId=64FDFJFBIMFI2O5N&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kaukasis \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>I<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nHeavier and more foreboding than the previously-mentioned disc, this Norwegian group featuring <strong>Rhys Marsh<\/strong> on vocals, very much in a <strong>Jim Morrison<\/strong> \/ <strong>Ian Astbury<\/strong> vibe. Which is to say that while it&#8217;s metal-leaning progressive rock, it&#8217;s very much song-based. Full of melodrama, the hypnotic songs approach symphonic prog in their scope and arrangement, and there&#8217;s a strong middle eastern flavor along the lines of <strong>Led Zeppelin<\/strong>&#8216;s \u201cKashmir.\u201d Fans of <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=242\"><strong>Steve Hackett<\/strong><\/a>-era <strong>Genesis<\/strong> will find a lot to like here as well. Theirs is a big sound, considering that the group is a trio. This is a disc worth settling into.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/e_gone.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/center><strong>E Gone \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>All the Suns of the Earth<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nAnother solo effort, E Gone is Sweden&#8217;s <strong>Daniel Westerlund<\/strong>. As at home with trip-hop and electronica as he is with psychedelic and garage styles, Westerlund crafts intricate, highly hooky songs that employ a kitchen sink approach. In the first two minutes you&#8217;ll hear sitar, bouzouki, banjo, sampled beats, and analog synth. Some pieces are songs, while others are ambient works. I&#8217;m behind the curve on this one, having been meaning to review it long ago; the follow-up (<em>Where I&#8217;ve Been Is Places and What I&#8217;ve Seen Is Things<\/em>) came out this week. This disc (available on vinyl) is highly recommended.<\/p>\n<p>More to come.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\">Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on <\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/icon_twitter_small.jpg\" alt=\"\" name=\"graphics3\" width=\"18\" height=\"18\" align=\"BOTTOM\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"1\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\"> Twitter<\/a> and get notified<br \/>\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once again, it&#8217;s time for me to review several handfuls of CDs. Today&#8217;s five all fall (more or less) into the progressive rock bag, and are decidedly European in sensibility. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,56,62,65],"tags":[738,1232,1456,1504,1612],"class_list":["post-7742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-release","category-prog","category-rawk","category-review","tag-e-gone","tag-kaukasis","tag-metallic-taste-of-blood","tag-mollmaskin","tag-obscured-by-echoes","cat-49-id","cat-56-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}