EDIT - Actually, instead of just listing it, I'll copy out my descriptions of them too since I already wrote this up for another forum:


1. The Flashbulb - Soundtrack to a Vacant Life | Instrumental | 4.5/5

Simply put, a seamless, sweeping epic of genres that dabbles in everything from sombre piano ballads, to upbeat flamenco, caustic electronica, serene ambience, rhythmic percussive tribal drum sections and haunting string sections, imposing every possible emotion on the listener. If anything, the sole weakness is that the rough 2-3 minute length of each of the 31 songs means they don't work so effectively as standalone compositions but as verses in a protracted poem, making the idea of listening to the entirety of it a tad daunting.


2. Protest The Hero - Fortress | Progressive Metal | 4.5/5

Metal that while relatively intricate yet melodic enough and hell, catchy enough to avoid divulging into incomprehensible technical wankery. Lyrics abound with references to goddesses and dethroned kings but it's decidedly tongue in cheek. Perhaps the biggest weaknesses resides in a lack of coherence, a tendency for the album to mesh together as a string of riffs, with little sense of a recurring chorus or verses within songs, but then you can take that as a plus depending on how you look at it. Besides that and a couple of immensely obnoxious vocal lines it's a pretty solid effort all around.


3. Blue Sky Black Death - Late Night Cinema | Instrumental Trip-hop | 4.5/5

One of the least expected surprises this year for me, partly because I generally despise anything that relates in any way to hip-hop or remixes yet I was sold on first listen. It’s just such a supremely chilled out but simultaneously melodically multilayered album which weaves hip-hop/trip-hop styling with a fairly significant utilisation of violins, trumpets, keyboards and an organ, capping it off with a distinct jazz tinge.


4. In Mourning - Shrowded Divine | Melodic Death Metal | 4/5

Genre-wise they’re probably best described as melodic death metal based but with progressive and doom influenced sections, reminiscent of Opeth, but not exactly the same. I initially junked this when I first picked it up but it’s grown on me immensely since then. There’s nothing immediately about them that sticks out as particularly impressive, the riffs aren’t all too complex, the melody isn’t overly diverse. If anything the drumming is quite good and both the harsh and clean vocals are solid. Nevertheless they clearly have a knack for creating memorable melody lines, and many minor touches such as the use juxtaposed clean and harsh vocals of essentially the same lines, coupled with a number of sexy breakdowns and a consistently bleak and permeating tone really make this album memorable in some indescribable way.


5. Transcending Bizarre? - The Serpent's Manifolds | Avant-Garde Black Metal | 4/5

Typical black metal brain mashing, but nicely broken up by violin sections to prevent migraines! Again it really feels like this band just clicks, but that not to say they can’t put out some impressively melodic riffs, and solos or bring it intensity-wise. In terms of criticism, there’s probably too much reliance on violin for a metal album, but that’s a very subjective disparagement, also a select few sections drag a bit ... oh and the intro is obnoxious and highly skipable. Oh and keyboards, oh the humanity! Run for the hills!


6. Thrice - The Alchemy Index - Vol.3 & 4 Air & Earth | Experimental Rock | 4/5

Partially successful but suffers from issues strangely distinct from the first two volumes. Whereas the first two could perhaps be argued to have taken the element concepts too literally both melodically and lyric-wise, this time around there are fairly tentative connections to the elements. With Air there’s simply a heavy use of reverb and echo to create the impression of an expansive soundscape, among a number of other tricks; whereas Earth is merely embodied by heavy use of stripped back and stark acoustic guitar with an American folk grounding. In all, neither really captures the concept as effectively as the haphazard, chaotic, distorting Fire; and if anything the biggest weakness of Air is it doesn’t distance it enough from the seeping smoothness that characterised Water to offer anything particularly distinctive. All in all it still remains an intriguing unconventional attempt with a number of standout songs, particularly the sonnets that outro each of the volumes oddly enough, led by consistently strong vocals.


7. Bar Kokhba Sextet - Lucifer The Book of Angels - Vol. 10 | Jazz | 4/5

I'm not really qualified to comment on or critique jazz as I'm very much a neophyte to it, but this is some excellent stuff.


8. Lights Out Asia - Eyes Like Brontide | Post Rock | 4/5

To me the main element any post rock effort needs to really be effective is a pervasive, consistent atmosphere, which this album abounds with. It doesn't fall into clichés such as blasting you into submission by badgering you with volume changes, or an over reliance on monotonous arpeggios, but builds upon subtle layers of sound to create a vast, rich soundscape of echoing guitars, staccato electronica beats and fleeting vocals.


9. Opeth - Watershed | Progressive Death Metal | 4/5

Disappointingly inconsistent by their standards, but still a pretty solid album all around. Some songs definitely drag massively, and certain parts sound technically overindulging and tiresome particularly the outro to Burden. On the other hand in my humble opinion it also has some of the best songs they have written, the way the progressive acoustic guitar section fades in and out in Porcelain Heart for example is seamlessly mesmerising, Hessian Peel is almost equally memorable. Regardless this is no Blackwater Park unfortunately.


10. Mutyumu - Ilya | Post Rock | 4/5

Post rock doesn't really give this band justice. It's like an odd mix of opera and hardcore Japanese vocals, with heavily piano reliant post rock grounding. Awesome? Somewhat. Half the time its carried by stirring complex but seemingly effortless piano and string sections unfolding at a blistering pace coupled with occasional strangely effective hushed murmurs, yet the other half of the time it cascades into almost unbearable droning repetition. Now given that, Prayer is damn well one of the best post rock songs I have ever heard and it really is a pity that the rest of the album wasn’t equally brilliant. I probably overrate this a tad too but well ... goshdarnit it’s all gotta be about job creation and shoring up our economy.

From his website:
Yamaha SLG-100NW

This is called "Silent Guitar". I use this for late night or hotel room practicing. It has a standard phone jack and a mini stereo head phone jack. Two levels of reverb can be applied to the output sound. Operate with 9V battery or with AC adapter. The bottom half of the frame is de-touchable for easy carrying. Acoutic sound is weak but it's there.

Pretty cool tech indeed, but also shows that it needs a talented user to use it well, I'm sure lots of people with poor knowledge go and heal stuff you'd want to keep, and leave those residual reverbs and the like to confuse people on the playback.

Nice demo

Between the annoying editing and the reverb on the audio I wish I had not upvoted this.

Right again,
Nothing but delay and reverb. No loops.

Neat-O. There's really not a lot of effects on there, are there? Just heavy delay and some reverb? Loop stations have become popular, or at least more accepted recently, but that's not what this is. It's much more dynamic. I bet there are a lot of guitar heads out there saying "that's easy" though, right?

sounds like it's just reverb on the vocals. granted it's a lot of verb, it adds a nice layer to the performance i think.

>> ^schmawy:
The sound guy messed up there. He obviously had no idea Thom was going to banter at the beginning, and he had the vocal effects on for his singing. Makes you realize how much he actually uses.

Nice tone, reverb and tenor... a 7/10 from me. And from the Russian judge?

I just kind of play guitar and sing, got a band together this year. No videos since I don't have a camera, and the only recording equipment I have is a pirated copy of audition and a cheap 15 buck microphone, so I don't really have any recordings worth mentioning, lol. I just enjoy playing and writing music, mainly. I could send you a song or two if you want, I guess.

In reply to this comment by SilentDilemma:
Thanks man. You mentioned that you're an amateur musician yourself - what sort of stuff do you do? Do you have any recordings or videos?

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Haha, awesome, thanks. I figured it might be a little bit of reverb (just a touch of that can make a huge difference in vocal sound ) and overdubbing. Nice harmonies in there by the way, I enjoyed that video.

In reply to this comment by SilentDilemma:
Hey JAPR,

Thanks for the comment! My recording/videoing method is usually along these lines:

1) Record a live take with guitar and lead vocals. In this video, all the verses and the first chorus are just that.
2) Overdub vocal harmonies for certain parts. Occasionally, also double some vocals if I want to beef it up a bit.

In this one, for the last two choruses, I doubled the lead vocal, and added two vocal harmony parts (both doubled also). No vocal processing is used, except for a touch of reverb.

Hope that answers your question!

- Steve

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Oh, awesome. I'm a bit of an amateur musician myself, so it'd be interesting to hear what program he uses and how he utilizes it.

In reply to this comment by my15minutes:
you'll get to ask him, yourself, when he gets here. he's one of the people i recently endorsed the sift to.

presumably, he'll have the same login here, as at youtube.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
wow, great voice. i wonder how much he played with that on his music editing program and how much of it is just his voice.

Thanks man. You mentioned that you're an amateur musician yourself - what sort of stuff do you do? Do you have any recordings or videos?

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Haha, awesome, thanks. I figured it might be a little bit of reverb (just a touch of that can make a huge difference in vocal sound ) and overdubbing. Nice harmonies in there by the way, I enjoyed that video.

In reply to this comment by SilentDilemma:
Hey JAPR,

Thanks for the comment! My recording/videoing method is usually along these lines:

1) Record a live take with guitar and lead vocals. In this video, all the verses and the first chorus are just that.
2) Overdub vocal harmonies for certain parts. Occasionally, also double some vocals if I want to beef it up a bit.

In this one, for the last two choruses, I doubled the lead vocal, and added two vocal harmony parts (both doubled also). No vocal processing is used, except for a touch of reverb.

Hope that answers your question!

- Steve

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Oh, awesome. I'm a bit of an amateur musician myself, so it'd be interesting to hear what program he uses and how he utilizes it.

In reply to this comment by my15minutes:
you'll get to ask him, yourself, when he gets here. he's one of the people i recently endorsed the sift to.

presumably, he'll have the same login here, as at youtube.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
wow, great voice. i wonder how much he played with that on his music editing program and how much of it is just his voice.

Haha, awesome, thanks. I figured it might be a little bit of reverb (just a touch of that can make a huge difference in vocal sound ) and overdubbing. Nice harmonies in there by the way, I enjoyed that video.

In reply to this comment by SilentDilemma:
Hey JAPR,

Thanks for the comment! My recording/videoing method is usually along these lines:

1) Record a live take with guitar and lead vocals. In this video, all the verses and the first chorus are just that.
2) Overdub vocal harmonies for certain parts. Occasionally, also double some vocals if I want to beef it up a bit.

In this one, for the last two choruses, I doubled the lead vocal, and added two vocal harmony parts (both doubled also). No vocal processing is used, except for a touch of reverb.

Hope that answers your question!

- Steve

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Oh, awesome. I'm a bit of an amateur musician myself, so it'd be interesting to hear what program he uses and how he utilizes it.

In reply to this comment by my15minutes:
you'll get to ask him, yourself, when he gets here. he's one of the people i recently endorsed the sift to.

presumably, he'll have the same login here, as at youtube.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
wow, great voice. i wonder how much he played with that on his music editing program and how much of it is just his voice.

Hey JAPR,

Thanks for the comment! My recording/videoing method is usually along these lines:

1) Record a live take with guitar and lead vocals. In this video, all the verses and the first chorus are just that.
2) Overdub vocal harmonies for certain parts. Occasionally, also double some vocals if I want to beef it up a bit.

In this one, for the last two choruses, I doubled the lead vocal, and added two vocal harmony parts (both doubled also). No vocal processing is used, except for a touch of reverb.

Hope that answers your question!

- Steve

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Oh, awesome. I'm a bit of an amateur musician myself, so it'd be interesting to hear what program he uses and how he utilizes it.

In reply to this comment by my15minutes:
you'll get to ask him, yourself, when he gets here. he's one of the people i recently endorsed the sift to.

presumably, he'll have the same login here, as at youtube.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
wow, great voice. i wonder how much he played with that on his music editing program and how much of it is just his voice.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

A bit rough around the edges - but Plant sounds pretty good on this one. Amazing what happens when you set reverb to "11".

http://www.silophone.net/ not "com." Go edit that son of a gun.


That silo is rigged with microphones and wires and artificial reverb. I've never heard of a place that has more than 10 seconds reverberation to the naked ear without electronics.

Word.


In reply to this comment by djsunkid:
SURELY that isn't even CLOSE to the most reverb in Europe. I mean, really?

There is an abandoned grain silo outside of Montreal that has a 29 second reverb. You used to be able to play with it at http://www.silophone.com but that site seems a bit broken atm.

SURELY that isn't even CLOSE to the most reverb in Europe. I mean, really?

There is an abandoned grain silo outside of Montreal that has a 29 second reverb. You used to be able to play with it at http://www.silophone.com http://www.silophone.net but that site seems a bit broken atm.