"I Prefer Their Old Stuff"

Time for another end of month round up and this month sees I Prefer Their Old Stuff turn one year old and as a birthday present I have given it its own domain name, now the URL reflects the name of the blog! Altogether now; Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear IPTOS, Happy Birthday to you!

Ok, now that’s out of the way let’s see what’s been good this month.

I have been giving Wolves in the Throne Room’s album “Celestial Lineage” a good hammering over the last few weeks but as I have literally just done a review of that we’ll skip it and move on to…

Mastodon – The Hunter

Mastodon’s newie is an instant toe tapping, head nodding winner, moving away from the prog leanings of previous album “Crack The Skye”, “The Hunter” returns to more straight up heavy rock indicated by the lack of any song going over five minutes in length (bar the title track at 5:18!). I was planning on writing a review of this while I was on holiday the other week but I have found on repeated listens that, although still a corking rock album, my immediate awe was reduced and although it will still ride high come end of the year I have found the urge to review it has lessened.

Amebix – Sonic Mass

Thanks to Monkey Defies Gravity for introducing me to these guys. I’d never heard of them before even though they have apparently been in existence since the eighties. Although this is their first album in twenty four years so it’s not as if you have to be living in a cave to miss them! Despite their name sounding like a new breakfast cereal, their sound is much more like latter era Killing Joke, to my ears his voice at times is the spit of Jaz Coleman’s. There’s a bit more metal than post-punk in here though and although I need to give it a couple more listens it has definite promise.

Zola Jesus – Conatus

Last year’s Stridulum II introduced us to Nika Rosa Danilova’s goth tinged operatics, the cover showing her being drenched in a black oily looking substance (chocolate sauce apparently!). This year, her new album “Conatus” sees her bathed in white lace with blonde hair replacing the goth black. The music on the album also has a lighter more electronic feel to it, verging into electro pop the likes of which we normally see bands such as Ladytron.

Half Man Half Biscuit – 90 Bisodol (Crimond)

Another year, another HMHB album, always the same, always completely different! I only got this last week off emusic and only gave it its first listen this morning but I had to include it so I could share this song that made me laugh out loud!