retouch

ASMODEUS
IMPERIUM DAMNATUM
Yay scary black metal. Brutal, terrifying, gorgeous. Those blastbeats are dramatic! "On the Inflammatory March." And it's cool that they saved the ghouly sound effects intro piece for the end.

ATTACKER
THE UNKNOWN
Good god, that voice. It sounds like the dude from Overkill in the 80s. Like, high, melodic & untrained. That's how it sounds anyway. The music is kind of like Overkill too. Adequate, non-fluffy, heavy metal. It's not thrash & it's not glam.

KENNETH BAGER
FRAMENTS FROM A SPACE CADET
With all those guest vocalists, this sounds like a mellow/dub version of the Junkie XL albums of recent vintage.

FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER & PETER DUIMELINKS
FFLUX
Monotonous/minimalistic electronica that practically isn't even there. Shit is quiet, repetetive & of almost no use to me as a listener! So there!

D.A.D.
SCARE YOURSELF
The first song reminds me of Nirvana. The second one reminds me of Foo Fighters. None remind me of Probot though, so I can't call them Grohl-ites. So, I dunno, melodic hard rock with a hint of alternativeness?

DNA
KICK ME UP
Generic instrumental trance.


FILUR
INTO THE WASTELAND
Awwwwwwww yeah. The first song is downtempo electronica with awesome vocals from the hawt hawt hawtie Stina Nordenstam. The second is uptempo & just as rad. "Avoid Disgrace" adds dude-vox. "Kid Retouch". "What I Long", is that the one with the Gus Gus singer female? It's nice too. "Right Said Frog", "Boredom Threshold". This album is the undisputed springtime jam!

HIM
PEOPLES
Potentially neato downtempo jazzy loungey dance rock thing. Then again "In These Times" strays a bit too close to Santana ground for my liking.

HOWE GELB
'SNO ANGEL LIKE YOU
Guitar, singing, drums, weirdness. Lots of weirdness.

IDLE SONS
SIXTEEN SEASONS
Emo punk pop rock.

LAURA MICHELLE KELLY
THE STORM INSIDE
It's just confusing that this otherwise nondescript young female singer songwriter piano pop album opens with a gorgeous cover of Nick Drake's "Riverman".

MADS LANGER
ATTENTION PLEASE
Who's this guy singing these generic pop songs. Nevermind, don't answer. Turns out I don't care.

NORTHAUNT
HORIZONS
Ooooh, ghoulyambience.

OPPOSITE8
HARD ENOUGH
Pleasant enough dance music.

PALACE
BLACK SUN
Wow, who else writes songs called "Women In Leather" in this day and age, I ask you. I have to give this one points just for that. Melodic power metal. I'm reminded of Pretty Maids. Aw, but "Rock Soldiers" isn't a Frehley's Comet cover. Darn.

PET SHOP BOYS
FUNDAMENTAL
I liked "West End Girls" when it came out because I heard it all over London the first time I went there. I was 13. Since then the only other thing I liked was the first Electronic single. The technology may be updated but it's still just synth pop, innit.

PORTUGAL THE MAN
WAITER: "YOU VULTURES!"
All that punctuation on the album title. I already hate this band. Song titles so snarky I'm not even going to bother relating ("Horse Warming Party"). Offputting combination of indie pop, prog rock & big budget emo. Bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh. Puke all over myself.

SHINJUKU THIEF
DEVOLUTION
Strangely-mixed uh, sonic experimentation. Some quite gruesome.

SILENT CIVILIAN
REBIRTH OF THE TEMPLE
Melodic progressive death metal. With screechy AND clean vocals. Something for everyone but me.

SNAKE EYE
RITUAL INSTINCTS
"Queen of the Night". Hm. This is hard rockin', high pitched voice hard rock metal stuff. The singing is okay, it reminds me of the fake band on the movie Rock Star.

STEREO FUSE
ALL THAT REMAINS
Fucking boring modern emo grunge. And the vocals are almost like country.



TIGER BABY
NOISE AROUND ME
Awesome band name (only Spider Baby could be better), great dance synth pop, hot-voiced female vocalist, fun songs. Soundtrack of the summer. Almost. Top five anyway.

URSULA 1000
HERE COMES TOMORROW
NOW yer talkin'. FUN dance pop big beat. & it's funky.

CARL MICHAEL VON HAUSSWOLFF
LEECH
Sounds like he spent the first 2.5 minutes trying to plug in the synth. Track two, 20 minutes of almost nothing. Track three, loops of clicks & static. Track four, 12.5 minutes of... even less. Heavily reverbed drum hits every 30 seconds or so.