Fives on Friday, 2/2/2024
bandcamp friiiiiiidaaaaayyyyy + the limits of content creation (lol)
Happy Friday! Congratulations on making it to the end of the week. As you head into your weekend, here are five recommendations, five track reviews, and five album micro reviews. Access to these curated links and tunes will only cost you your time and five pieces of self-promotion. Maybe you’ll find something new to read, listen to, or do this weekend. See you next week!
» » » » » GET REC’D « « « « «
People who aren’t already knee deep in heavy metal might think that the phrase “melodic death metal” is a contradiction in terms. Don’t worry, plenty of metalheads think so too. Calder Hannan’s recent video on Arsis suggests that the subgenre’s name isn’t quite accurate, what actually holds the style together is its harmony and its choice of scale rather than the mere presence of melody. As always Hannan goes the extra mile by demonstrating his examples personally, which in this case is as impressive as the analysis itself!
As I said last week, winter is for prog rock. And what could be more wintery than prog rock from our northern friends in Norway? Since most of my favorite prog bands are either from the Anglophone world or, increasingly, from Latin America, this recent survey of the Norwegian scene from Brad Sanders at Bandcamp put me onto a bunch of new music. Plus, what a nice reminder that at least for now there are still good writers doing good work at recently gutted media outlets. Keep fighting the good fight while you can!
If you’re worn out from fighting the good fight, you might be interested in this piece from Cody Davis’ Heal ‘Em All Substack about recovering from soft tissue injuries. Apparently you shouldn’t use ice, fascinating!
A few of my subscribers have asked me privately about the recent hubbub about Substack’s content moderation. Because those questions were asked privately I answered them privately. I got the sense that most of my subscribers were not following along on Notes where most of the discourse on the subject was going down. Reading someone relay the drama of a social media app that you aren’t on is about as interesting as hearing about someone’s fantasy sports team, so I decided to wait until the dust settled before chiming in. My patience was rewarded in the form of someone else writing something better. Max Read’s take on the subject is pretty much what I would have liked to say, although all of the numbers would be much smaller in my case. At the end of the day, I don’t think of Substack as place where I hang out. It’s a tube that I send stuff through. This is also why I point to other ways for my readers to support my work, namely through my music.
Speaking of second hand social media drama, have you heard about these YouTubers calling it quits lately? To be honest, I was only dimly aware that this was happening until I watched this quick video from Adam Neely about the limits of the creator economy. Artists that find success on new media platforms like YouTube have a difficult time parlaying that success into the older, traditional centers of power in the industry. Neely argues that the reason is economic: blowing up as a YouTuber makes money for Google, not the music industry. I think Neely’s conclusion to focus more on playing and writing music than on maintaining the content-grind is the right one. The tunes will always come first. All of this *gestures at the rest of the newsletter* is just to direct you, yes you, toward Lamniformes. And with that in mind let’s head on to…
# # # # # The Self Promo Zone # # # # #
Tonight, Laughing Stock makes our Manhattan debut at Cafe Melo in Harlem. We’re trying out a different kind of set this time around, focusing on the band’s softer side. Tickets are only available at the door and space is limited, so come by early!
Beware the Ides of March, when Bellows return to the stage to open for Frog at Knitting Factory along with Sister. If you live in the NYC area don’t come out to this one it’ll feel like a real stab in the back. Et tu, reader? Et tu?
If you liked the Calder Hannan video I posted above, check out my interview with him on Lamniformes Radio. Considering that Hannan has another Florid Ekstasis record out I should probably ask him to come back on, huh?
ICYMI: This Monday I published the latest entry of Drumming Upstream. DU#41 covers High on Fire’s “Cometh Down Hessian”, the band’s role as the quintessential American heavy metal band, and the consequences of being a lifer. I spent more time learning this tune than any other in the series thus far, so it’s no surprise that I also had a lot to say about this band. This essay, and the rest of the Drumming Upstream archives, are available to my paying subscribers for $5 a month.
You may have noticed that it is the first Friday of February. How astute! What you may not have noticed is that it is BANDCAMP FRIDAY. Yes, despite being a husk of its former self, Bandcamp still lets artists take the full cut of any sales on the first Friday on the month. I would certainly appreciate it if you decided that today is the day to buy a Lamniformes album, or a Lamniformes shirt. You can (and should!) explore the full catalog here. And, if you’re feeling extra generous, consider purchasing one of the fine records linked below!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Listening Diary ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Here are five songs that I enjoyed listening to recently! You can find a playlist with all of this year’s tracks at the bottom of this section.
“Spirit 2.0” by Sampha (Lahai, 2023)
Sampha’s 2017 album Process is one of my favorite records of the late 2010s. I haven’t quite clicked with his recent follow up, but this track is a treat. Absolutely nasty drumming, not quite D’n’B but in the same spirit of quick, percolating beats with a light touch. The rest of the instrumental bed sounds like one of the more subdued tunes from the Final Fantasy X score. File this under songs that would play during ads for the Blitzball playoffs. Gorgeous stuff.
“Polygon” by Galya Bisengalieva (Polygon, 2023)
If you’ve read half as many reflections on Pitchfork’s legacy as I have, you’ve probably seen the sentiment that despite the general slide toward the musical center, the site still regularly covered artists further out on the peripheral. Here’s a good example. Without Matthew Blackwell’s review, I doubt I would have heard of Galya Bisengalieva’s Polygon. Creepy, distressing modern classical with pulsing electronic sound design.
“Afternoon Sun” by Fielded (Plus One, 2023)
Big thanks to Cabbages for pointing me in the direction of this Fielded record. The elevator pitch is the dusty production of the Buffalo rap scene repurposed for R&B. Beat-hounds will definitely get a kick out of this, I’m especially fond of the off-kilter ride pattern, but the real draw is Fielded’s excellent vocal melody. Always good to see a new Felicia Douglass feature too!
“Act II: Sea and Sky” by Tristan Allen (Tin Iso and the Dawn, 2023)
I had the chance to see Tristan Allen’s Tin Iso and the Dawn puppet show live last winter. I’m admittedly no expert on the puppetry scene, I’ve never seen anything quite like the combination of multi-layered shadow puppetry, live piano, and pre-recorded music that Allen weaves together. Based on a conversation that we had after the performance, Allen starts music first and constructed the whole performance with the symphonic form in mind, so while the music-only version can’t compare to the full experience it’s more than worth a listen. This movement in particular reminded me of the some of the best early Silver Mount Zion material.
“Ocean Man” by Ween (The Mollusk, 1997)
This song has haunted the recesses of my mind for the last few months. Someone put it on in the background one night in the apartment, probably as a joke, and it has not left me since. Every day I wake up and fight the urge to say “ooooCEAN MAN” to everyone I see. ~*My girlfriend*~ had to endure and entire weekend of me singing made up lyrics to this song based on that old potion seller video (“Potion man, won’t you lend a hand? Going into battle is a real trip” etc). I’ve never understood Ween before, always found them too smug, but I can’t deny it. They got me here. This song is simply WAY TOO CATCHY.
\ \ \ \ \ Micro Reviews / / / / /
Now, onto the five micro reviews. Long time Lamniformes Instagram followers will recognize these from my stories back in late 2020, however they’ve been re-edited and spruced up with links so that you can actually hear the music instead of just taking my word for it.
( ) by Sigur Ros (2002) - Post-Rock
Another iconic 00s music forum record, and the most clear bridge between Radiohead fans and post-rock fans. Eight untitled tracks with lyrics in a fake “language” that amounts to about six syllables. I loved this in high school, but I’m less impressed by it now. It’s a pleasant listen, but its kinda samey and overly sweet. I think their next record is better than this one.
Animals by Pink Floyd (1977) - Progressive Rock
*Reads Orwell once* the album. An acidic listen in a different sense than usual for Floyd. Roger Waters taking a shot at social commentary, a contrast to the inwardly focused albums that preceded it. These are, imo, the best rock tunes that Pink Floyd wrote. Great solos. A real sense of drama. “Dogs” is the gem, but the relentless cowbell on “Pigs” is fun too.
Amputechture by The Mars Volta (2006) - Progressive Rock
The first Mars Volta album I bought, in part on the recommendation of one of the stoners I was friendly with in high school. Had no idea what to think of it at first. Might have been my first prog record? For a solid 22 minutes straight this is maybe the best this band has ever sounded (“Viscera Eyes” - “Day of the Baphomets”), and for the rest of the record… uh, mixed bag. They go really deep into studio manipulation on this album, which makes it hard to disentangle the good ideas from bad ones.
In The Absence of Truth by Isis (2006) - Post-Metal
From what I’ve read, the band don’t hold this album in high esteem. It’s the first album they recorded digitally and has some radical stylistic departures from their previous work. Fans are split too, the ones that like it LOVE IT, but most don’t. I credit this record with sparking my interest in post-modern literature, and with pushing my drumming to another level through my attempts to learn Aaron Harris’s parts. The good songs are among the band’s best, but there are also long stretches where it feels like nothing is happening.
Images & Words by Dream Theater (1992) - Progressive Metal
Dream Theater’s breakthrough record. My copy is signed by bassist John Myung. There’s a large contingent of prog metal fans that think of this as their Illmatic, aka a peak they’ve failed to reach again. As a teen contrarian I argued against that take at any opportunity. Time has flipped my position. Despite being dated as hell to the late 80s/early 90s, this has the highest concentration of good Dream Theater tunes of any record, and concise ones that. They hadn’t yet settled on a formula, so this record still has a spontaneous feeling of mutual discovery between the band and audience.