Hmm....I should win some kind of prize for taking so long to comment on these mixes...let alone the delay on my own ones.
Anyway...I liked this one a lot, it was mostly stuff that was totally new to me, which is always a fun journey.
Das Ich were always very hit-and-miss for me, this one is a hit though - it doesn't sound terribly different from most Das Ich stuff to me, but I guess the Atrocity chugging guitars and vocals make it that bit more interesting.
I'd come across Lebanon Hanover before, "Gallowdance" and one or two other tracks whose names escape me, and thought they sounded interesting in an old-school kind of way - I wouldn't call them ground-breaking, but they do what they do very well, which is rare enough in the "die-hard goth" camp these days.
Have to agree about Silence, for the most part - much as I understand their obvious desire to experiment and perhaps explore the more avant-garde end of the spectrum, part of me really wishes they'd write another album like "Vain", with some more recognisable melodies, and even (God forbid) one or two tracks you could conceivably play in a club. Benko's voice is still a wonderful instrument though, regardless of the setting.
Listening to "15 Step" made me go back to "In Rainbows" with fresh ears, it'd been so long since I heard it. Still not my favourite Radiohead album, but a lot better overall than I remembered.
"Politicians In My Eyes" is one of the best songs I've never heard before, and definite standout on the mix. I can't honestly say if I was ever aware of Death, but I'm certainly going to be checking out more of their stuff...that song is like the first time you hear Black Sabbath or The Stooges or something...epic stuff.
The Soviettes track is a nice blast of good clean fun, too.
Wire is a band I always admired, but found it hard to actually like, for some reason. I definiteledgyy enjoyed Time Lock Fog more than I expected to, there's a kind of organic warmth to the sound that wasn't there before, or at least not that I'd noticed.
Also, well done for something suitable to follow "Benjamite Bloodline"...I've heard a few Kite tracks, but always mentally put them in the "pleasant but harmless synth-pop that won't offend anybody, but equally not very exciting" category - "Wishful Summer Night" is much more edgy than I expected, has an almost Young Gods feel to it, still very melodic but with a bit of bite, very nice.
Anyway, another good one, comments on your December mix (and following ones) still in progress but on the way.
You do win the slow-comment race! It's fun, actually, to go back and listen to an older mix in light of your comments. There are always advantages to tardiness.
If you can track down that Death documentary, I think you'd like it a lot. Their story is every bit as amazing as their music, and the movie does a mostly solid job of telling it.
Wire is a band that took me a lot of effort to learn to like, but I'm glad I did. The first three albums pay off big time, and once I was finally able to hear that, it made it much easier to hear the good parts in their hit-or-miss later stuff. If you ever decide to lay siege to Pink Flag, there's a 33 1/3 book by Wilson Neate that helped me get a foot in the door. More than a foot in the door, really-- I listened to the tracks one at a time on repeat while reading his commentary on them, and by the end of the book I super liked the album.
(And you're right about "Time Lock Fog" being warmer, more open/less alienating than their early stuff. The whole Change Becomes Us album is that way. It's good stuff.)
The little bit of Kite I've listened to mostly reminds me of a call-back to the super-glossy melodic synthpop out of Sweden I used to listen to circa Y2K. "Wishful Summer Night" was the standout for me, and now that you mention it, I think you're right that it has just enough dissonance to call to mind grittier stuff.
Anyway...I liked this one a lot, it was mostly stuff that was totally new to me, which is always a fun journey.
Das Ich were always very hit-and-miss for me, this one is a hit though - it doesn't sound terribly different from most Das Ich stuff to me, but I guess the Atrocity chugging guitars and vocals make it that bit more interesting.
I'd come across Lebanon Hanover before, "Gallowdance" and one or two other tracks whose names escape me, and thought they sounded interesting in an old-school kind of way - I wouldn't call them ground-breaking, but they do what they do very well, which is rare enough in the "die-hard goth" camp these days.
Have to agree about Silence, for the most part - much as I understand their obvious desire to experiment and perhaps explore the more avant-garde end of the spectrum, part of me really wishes they'd write another album like "Vain", with some more recognisable melodies, and even (God forbid) one or two tracks you could conceivably play in a club.
Benko's voice is still a wonderful instrument though, regardless of the setting.
Listening to "15 Step" made me go back to "In Rainbows" with fresh ears, it'd been so long since I heard it. Still not my favourite Radiohead album, but a lot better overall than I remembered.
"Politicians In My Eyes" is one of the best songs I've never heard before, and definite standout on the mix. I can't honestly say if I was ever aware of Death, but I'm certainly going to be checking out more of their stuff...that song is like the first time you hear Black Sabbath or The Stooges or something...epic stuff.
The Soviettes track is a nice blast of good clean fun, too.
Wire is a band I always admired, but found it hard to actually like, for some reason. I definiteledgyy enjoyed Time Lock Fog more than I expected to, there's a kind of organic warmth to the sound that wasn't there before, or at least not that I'd noticed.
Also, well done for something suitable to follow "Benjamite Bloodline"...I've heard a few Kite tracks, but always mentally put them in the "pleasant but harmless synth-pop that won't offend anybody, but equally not very exciting" category - "Wishful Summer Night" is much more edgy than I expected, has an almost Young Gods feel to it, still very melodic but with a bit of bite, very nice.
Anyway, another good one, comments on your December mix (and following ones) still in progress but on the way.
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If you can track down that Death documentary, I think you'd like it a lot. Their story is every bit as amazing as their music, and the movie does a mostly solid job of telling it.
Wire is a band that took me a lot of effort to learn to like, but I'm glad I did. The first three albums pay off big time, and once I was finally able to hear that, it made it much easier to hear the good parts in their hit-or-miss later stuff. If you ever decide to lay siege to Pink Flag, there's a 33 1/3 book by Wilson Neate that helped me get a foot in the door. More than a foot in the door, really-- I listened to the tracks one at a time on repeat while reading his commentary on them, and by the end of the book I super liked the album.
(And you're right about "Time Lock Fog" being warmer, more open/less alienating than their early stuff. The whole Change Becomes Us album is that way. It's good stuff.)
The little bit of Kite I've listened to mostly reminds me of a call-back to the super-glossy melodic synthpop out of Sweden I used to listen to circa Y2K. "Wishful Summer Night" was the standout for me, and now that you mention it, I think you're right that it has just enough dissonance to call to mind grittier stuff.
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