Mini Album Review: Queens Of The Stone Age - ..Like Clockwork

So Queens of the Stone Age is a bit of an odd band for me to review compared to my usual suspects of Electronic, Hip Hop and 8 Bit esque stuff, but in all fairness I was very into my rock/metal as a teen.

Queens of the stone age were a band that I got into a bit later into my rock time, probably not until my early twenties. I wouldn't normally by their albums, I'd usually wait until they found me, that said, I've only got one, and heard two in total (Rated R & Songs for the deaf), but I'd heard a song of the new album, and really liked it, and as I was a bit glum today thought I'd buy it for myself.

The album starts of with quite a clunky song, a good opener, but not particularly to my taste, after that it all picks up and leads into a really good album.

"I sat by the ocean" is song number two on the album and has that really distinguishable Queens of the Stone Age balance between vocals and guitars we all know and love, this is a great song, well worth a listen.

My favourite song on the album I still think has to be the one that prompted me to buy it in the first place it reminds of a lighter "First it Giveth" but I can't quite put my finger on why.

Anyway overall I would say that the album is a great addition to the collection of any QOTSA fans, maybe a bit more mature and tame than previous albums I've heard, but then I'm coming back to them after a 2 or 3 album break, and I'm sure they've probably matured a bit since then, are the cock in sock days behind them?

Mini album review: Niveau Zero - Jasmine

Niveau Zero's not someone I've reviewed before, but I've heard tunes from him in passing, mostly what seems to be termed 'filthstep' on youtube, which is bollocks, its just metal influenced dubstep, and doesn't need a 'label'

Anyway Jasmine by Niveau Zero has to be one of the only dubstep albums I've found myself able to listen to all the way through without becoming a bit bored. Its got some real heavy riffs that wouldn't sound out of place in a black metal song, but then some really uplifting mellow tunes on it too. To say its a really well produced album would be an understand, easily one of my favourites this year too, even the album artwork is cool.

It comes with 7 of his own tunes, and 2 remixes, so its definately not a long album, but if you like it you'll really like it, if not you really won't like it, I don't think there's any middle ground on this one.

Favourite tunes have to be 'The cross (ft Aucan)', complete with American Psycho quotes, middle of the road dubstep beat, but amazing uplifting samples, this is one I reckon will be appearing in a mix soon (I'm determined to actually make the next mix good).

Distorted rules (Niveau Zero Remix). Death metal couple with worb worbs, all about the furious drums and screaming in this one.....

This release is out on ad noiseam, priced at 9 euros (adn161)

Mini Album review: Death Grips - No Love Deep Web

It seems like Death Grips have been churning out material at the rate of knots, no complaints from me as they're one of my favourite emerging artists over the last couple of years.

Their latest offering 'No Love Deep Web' is a free download of their website, and comes complete with a photo of a cock (as in an actual erect penis) as the front cover. One the first listen, I really struggled with this album, it was one of those I couldn't decide whether it was genius, or they'd just gone mental. The album has that real death grips 'sound' to it, but over the 3 albums I've heard the production quality has changed beyond belief. Im now on my 4th or 5th listen, and I have to say its well on its way to getting into my top 5 spot for favourite albums at the end of this year now. Some of the tunes are exceptionally discordant to the point I literally couldn't work out the beat to start off with, but this chaos couple with some forward thinking ideas and proper death grips brutality really makes this album into a nicely rounded one.

Stand out tracks for me have to be:

Black Dice: I particularly like the driving bass contrasting the highs in this tune, something that death grips do repeatedly well.

And: Bass rattles stars out the sky - Again contrasting bass and highs working well, but a dream beat and samples that really give a feeling of panic to the tune..... Banging!

You can download the album for free at the death grips home page http://thirdworlds.net/

Mini Album review: Ruby my dear - Remains of shapes to come

Well this is an album I've been waiting for, having loved two of Ruby my dear's previous EP's (gingko and the dreaming tree), I've been frothing at the mouth for this album, only made worse by the fact the release date seems to have been pushed back a couple of times too.

Ruby my dear is someone who manages to make music the switches between beautiful melody to head trashing breakcore drums effortlessly, and this album is no exception. I will admit it has taken me a couple of listens to get into the flow of this album, but now its got me hooked, im totally in it. One thing that really caught my attention was the introduction of some 'bang bang bang' techno style beats, which is not something I'd heard on the EP's, and its definately a benefit to this album.

Standout songs have to be 'Karoshi': A very well written, reasonably chilled breakcore tune, that still keeps you on the edge of your seat. I particularly like the 'twangy' sounds, which I get the impression are an eastern string instrument (maybe a sitar?)

Secondly the tune on the album that follows karoshi called 'Uken' which uses samples from 'They call it murder' by Damien Marley, this manages to somehow retain the reggae feel of the original whilst sound like someone's having lots of fun with drum programming in the background.

The third tune is called 'A monks dream', the drum beats in this remind me of what is still my favourite Ruby my dear tune (7C0 on the EP Gingko), but monks dream as some nice boom boom boom elements, whilst remaining complex and driving at the same time.

Overall I have to say I love this album, and imagine it will be on my car stereo for a very long time. I'd recomend it to any breakcore fan and add that it was well worth the wait. Definately give this album a listen, its available to order on Adnoiseam with plenty of tunes to preview.

For more info about ruby my dear, here's his myspace and his soundcloud, he also seems to be quite active on facebook too so you can check him out there aswell