Red Ruin - Exploring the world through sight and s

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3

Bandwagon - What Went Wrong!!
2006-12-01 14:07:04
  Artist: Band wagon Song: What Went Wrong !! From album: The Eternal Allergy Genre: Guitarmony Rock [Buy CD|Mp3s][Website] Here’s some almost feelgoody upbeatish rockiness. I’m going to use it to say bubye to summer even though it may not be particularly appropriate. It is now cold in the DC area, to say nothing of the rest of the world.
More About: Hat , Wagon

Climb the Mind - Chikyuu no kaori
2006-12-01 14:07:04
  Artist: Climb the Mind Song: ????? (Chikyuu no kaori [Fragrance of the earth]) From album: Denaturization Genre: Hotwind Rock [Buy CD][Website] Climb the Mind is a Japanese three-piece that makes songs of sonorous richness and scope. The guitars come in emotive waves of intensity somewhere between kicking down a door and setting a forest fire, and change mood and target like a restless sandstorm in open expanses. Feels something like walking into a storm while safely wrapped in a warm, purposeful resolve.
More About: The Mind , Limb

Muddy World - Lilac
2006-12-01 14:07:04
  Artist: Muddy World Song: Lila c From album: Finery of the Storm Genre: Pinprick lightstorm [Buy CD][Website][Live Video] Muddy World is my first treasure find from Mixi, the Japanese myspace equivalent. These guys make music that sounds somehow extremely different. It’s hard to explain, something about the sound of the instruments makes it seem that the notes are coming from ethereal counterparts not entirely rooted in the musical world of our experience. Maybe I’m just overreacting; maybe I winced when I saw the name beginning with Mudd and the discovery that they were excellent made the relief more palpable. In any case, this album is great, fiery in that hazy way that feels like it’s floating in steam, and very, very talented.

101A - Aerial
2006-12-01 14:07:04
  Artist: 101A Song: Aerial From album: one day Genre: Spacegoth [Buy CD][Website] 101A’s albums remind me at different times of a strangely wide range of artists –anyone from Hooverphonic to Switchblade Symphony– but through it all they are propelled by very personal emotional engines and a nebulous sense of inevitability. This song sounds like some kind of shadowy epiphany after long gazing into the depths of the cosmic ocean from our insignificant shores. Something of mixed inspiration and abandon, awestruck resignation. It seems a natural reaction to a sudden realization of an enormous and hopelessly infinite beauty.
More About: Rial

More Japanese Ruins
2006-12-01 14:07:04
  Ran across another nice Japan ese page of urban ruins images today. They are all taken with a very perceptive eye for composition and a marked warmth of expression. Click on “?????” (gallery) on the left for the photos. And click “???” (link/s) for a huge list of other great jp ruins sites. I should probably make some image posts with my own shots of various places, but I’ll have to come up with a nice format for that type of thing first… Update: 11/29/06 Added more links from other sites, great stuff. [Link][Link 2][Link 3][Link 4][Link 5][Link 6][Link 7][Link 8][Link 9]
More About: Japanese , Pane , More , Ruin

Chad VanGaalen - Red Hot Drops
2006-09-08 20:27:04
  Artist: Chad VanGaalen Song: Red Hot Drop s Album: Skelliconnection I guess that contest is a bit of a tall order, so I’ll just put a link on the sidebar and keep on trucking. Here is a video from the man whose handiwork is the prize for the contest below. He animates his various videos personally, and even some for other bands. The least I can say is that they are pretty clearly not inspired by a life of austere sobriety, and also that they are pretty clearly pretty. In other news, I took down the ads for the time being because ads sorta suck, and at the current rate I am going it will take about 5 years of ads to pay off one year of hosting, so the choice seems clear. Super busy as usual, but I’m thinking of posting a series of more “edgy” stuff, meaning noisier and rougher around the edges in general. We’ll see how that goes.

Oh, a Contest of Skill!
2006-09-03 20:21:01
  All my creative energy is going into work at the moment, and having co-won a recent contest at StG I thought it might be beneficial to re-invest my winnings in a contest here. I have been meaning for a while to come up with some interesting interview questions to submit to bands, finding the traditional gamut of queries to be rather dull and moth-eaten so to speak: “So, who are your musical influences?” “Well, um.. we pretty much create music purely from the ether… b-but we do like the Cure and Iron Maiden.” “Wow, so do I! O-ok, how did you guys meet?” “Well, we met in highschool… and just uh, decided to play music… from boredom.” “Great!… Highschool!… Wow…” “Yeah.” “Well… thanks for coming out guys! Great talking to you!” “Word.” So the object of this contest is to come up with a list of interesting interview questions that...
More About: Contest , Test , Skill , Contes , Kill

Kaki King - Yellowcake
2006-08-24 20:09:03
  Artist: Kaki King Song: Yell ow cake From album: …Until We Felt Red Genre: Gossamer Acoustic Core [Buy Until We Felt Red|Itunes Mp3s][Website] The voice here is from the ghost of a baby bird, and the music is her afterlife-song about a dimly-recalled tragedy of life. To be fair though, she doesn’t remember it as tragic. In fact, with the haziness of the ethereal curtain it seems almost a blissful memory. The earth was giant golden waves of grain, and the sky a brilliant burst of indigo. There was warmth and comfort and a gentle slide into oblivion. Soon everything melts together in a glowing orange hum. Now she goes around to other ghosts to tell them that there is another world out there, of indescribable beauty, maybe someday they will be able to see it. Kaki King is apparently rather famous, if appearing on Letterman or Conan is a measure of anything, but I’m slow ok. One thing you should notice when you listen to this...
More About: Cake , Yello

The Great Rollingflower - Yogi Tea
2006-08-23 20:06:02
  Artist: The Great Roll ingflower Song: Yogi Tea From album: Pop Cuts In Sensations Genre: Rolling Jam Wave [Buy CD|Mp3s][Website] Since I’ve never been surfing I can imagine The Great Rollingflower is like riding a smooth blue, crystal-clear wave that never ends. Well eventually it ends, but not with a mouthful of saltwater; and it probably won’t give you much of a tan either. This song undulates like a wave though, like a series of waves really, peaks and troughs. It seems to work particularly well if you aren’t concentrating on it, seeping like salt air into your surroundings. You will also find quite a few mp3s from live jam sessions on their website.
More About: Flower , Lower

Takagi Masakatsu
2006-08-20 20:00:39
  Artist: Takagi Masakatsu Song: Girls [Buy CDs/DVDs|itunes][Artist’s Site] Found via “Film. Music. Philosophy.”, Takagi Masakatsu has instantly become one of my top favorite multimedia artists. He paints with video, over it, through it, around and into it. Watching his incredible moving paintings is like seeing into a world of true forms. In his world, everything is literally burning with life and color and emotional essence; the sky, the wind, everything. It’s all more real than one could imagine. The miraculous movement and flow of his works is wrapped up in what he calls the missing color of sound; the expressive ambient musical compositions he writes for each piece. The song in this post is “girls” from his album “Coieda”. Despite the Macsturbatory propaganda, the Apple Pro video piece on him is of a very good quality, and shows some excellent samples of his work. In this Po...
More About: Katsu , Kats

Maps & Atlases - Every Place is a House
2006-08-20 20:00:39
  Artist: Maps & Atlases Song: Ever y Place is a House From album: Tree, Swallows, Houses Genre: Prodigy Taprock [Buy CD $7.99|Mp3s][Website] Maps & Atlases is what I might consider a very promising band, which I say probably because I like every one of their songs. There’s virtuoso guitar workmanship, creative melodic phrasing, unique vocal style, impeccable mathish and indieward sensibilities, a penchant for occasional employment of artful restraint, and all that other jargony blah blah. What it boils down to is that they are consistently interesting; their songs are individual to an extent that hints at a large available reservoir of creativity. I’m definitely looking forward to more from these guys. Also, you should listen to “The Ongoing Horrible” on their myspace page if you want to get an idea of the variety that they are capable of, even now in their first release.
More About: A House

zOoOoOm - Rumble Bush
2006-08-18 20:00:30
  Artist: zOoOoOm Song: Rumble Bush From album: Eight My Heart Genre: Twitterfrolica [Buy CD|Mp3s][Website] It seems that this song could have been recorded live over the course of a day, through the woods and streams of some sunny make-believe world. The sound crew would have followed the singer, this adorably frisky woodland nymphish creature, as she gallivanted and cavorted, cartwheeled and marched around her hilly countryside domain. Sounds and words burst out spontaneously as little yelps and yells of discovery and curiosity, with occasional meandering musings on general jubilation. The overall result is a mood of frivolously innocent intensity and inescapable glow.

Hearts of Black Science - Empty City Lights
2006-08-12 19:54:08
  Artist: Hear ts of Black Science Song: Empty City Lights From album: Promo 2006 Genre: “Pure Electro Gonzo” [Buy CD|Mp3s][Website] This song reminds me of the feeling of waking up before sunrise. It’s a brisk autumn morning with a quick breakfast and an early start on a road trip in the imminent future. It’s a quiet inkling somewhere in your chest that there’s new excitement brewing. You hit the road in the golden hour, and colors look more real than ever, as if the world was newly washed during the night. Falling leaves seem frozen with fire; everything drips with electricity and a feeling of anticipation tinged with melancholy. The wind whipping past you is cool and filled with abandon; and it floods the car with memories. Heart s of Black Science is another good myspace find. The songs are lacquered with a restrained but deeply-present darkish sheen. It may be elusive at first glance, so you might have to l...
More About: Arts

Kurekure Takora (???????)
2006-08-06 19:48:14
  The samples used in that Gellers song reminded me of the voices in Kurekure Takora, (Gimme Gimme Octopus [and pals,]) a bizarre 60’s Japanese children’s show in whose first episode the main character, (a bipedal red octopus): assaults a police officer, (a badger?), steals his uniform and gun, uses it to threaten someone, (a dragon-rat?), steals said someone’s girlfriend, (a walrus-saur?), assaults his best buddy Chombo, (a pear? gourd?), gets chased by a water-spraying conical vampire ghost, and more! It must be a subtle use of reverse psychology to show kids what never ever to do, because the many short episodes depict gratuitous anti-social behaviour, violence, lawlessness and depravity in general! Good times!
More About: ?????? , ???????

Dhal - Algebra
2006-08-06 19:48:14
  Artist: Dhal Song: Algebra From album: Cacophony Genre: Darktronica [Buy CD|Mp3s][Website] Hey, I need your help with testing this new streaming mp3 player I made. It seems to work fine for me, but we all know that’s never the end of it. If you would be so kind as to try it out and let me know if everything works for you: fast forward, rewind, volume, pause/play, and the draggable playhead, (which should appear when the song is fully loaded) I would appreciate it greatly! If something doesn’t work or doesn’t work correctly, please leave a comment about it! This is Dhal, the current band of Downy’s Aoki Robin. I’m not sure why it has taken me so long to post a song of theirs, but I’m using it to christen the new streaming player. I used this song to test during the course of creating, coding, and debugging the mp3 player; so I have listened to different bits of it probably thousands of times in the past ...

Sparta Locals - Boku wa Lion
2006-08-06 19:48:14
  Artist: Sparta Local s Song: Boku wa Lion (??????) From album: Dreamer Genre: Gutrock [Buy CD|Mp3s][Website][Interview] When I heard this song on Rock Sick I had to have it. Sparta Locals are a very well known band in Japanese indieish circles but somehow I never gave them a chance, filing them away in the “all sound the same” category. If I had heard this song first it would have been a different story altogether. This song can stand alone completely on its own merit, and the chorus can stand alone in the song, and the vocals stand at the heart of it all. This is the kind of feeling that got me into genres ending in “core” in my youth. It’s powerful and forceful in the way that you can feel him pushing sound out with every muscle in his body; every cell is strained to the limit. It’s that utterness that inspires. At times it sounds like he’s putting parts of his life into it, condensing memories, a...
More About: Part , Arta

Tokyo Police Club - Shoulders and Arms
2006-08-06 19:48:14
  Artist: Tokyo Police Club Song: Should ers and Arms From album: A Lesson in Crime Genre: Indie Romp [Buy CD from Insound|Mp3s][Website] Sweet, I was trying to fix the site and I end up losing this whole post, and I forget what I wrote so or now the review= “These guys are pretty darn good, listen to their music, and support them monetarily if you think they deserve it.” Yeesh…

?Click to activate and use this control? or ?Embedding Media
2006-08-06 19:48:14
  So basically Microsoft lost a lawsuit against a company called Eolas a long time ago; and now, unless you change your code and upload a certain script to your root directory, your Interactive Flash won’t work and will just look like a static image. Of course, if you hold your mouse over it for 2 seconds you’ll get a little “Clic k to activate and use this control” message, which effectively murders the convenience of the single click concept. This pleases me to no end, since it means I must change the code in every one of my music posts, and in doing so, manage to lose the review for Tokyo Police Club! Apparently I missed the early warnings, so this issue seems to have only taken effect for me recently, like today? I have been able to use single clicks when checking in other browsers until recently. I did update Opera yesterday, so that might have kicked it in, but suddenly the problem is showing up in Firefox and IE as well, and on oth...
More About: Media , Control