Albums I have listened to lately

I have always enjoyed The Chameleons; they were one of the first bands that really got me into post-punk once I had run through the obvious entry points like Joy Division and Television (although the latter does still remain one of all-time favorite bands).

Having not really kept up much with them after 2001's Why Call It Anythjng, though, I was surprised to see that they had just come out with a new release. The songs on this EP are all new versions of older songs but apparently they are also working on a new album.

I am generally pretty ambivalent toward the trend of bands from twenty or thirty years ago reconvening to tour and maybe write new music. I don't begrudge most of them any of it—the music industry not being well known for its generous retirement benefits—but the thought that most bands stop making music and break up for a reason is never that far off in my mind.

Having said all that, I quite enjoyed this EP on the first listen. There is nothing super-groundbreaking here but the band sounds good and I appreciate that they went back and updated some really old songs from their back-catalog. It makes me look forward to their new album next year (which I suspect is the point of this outing).

I have gone back and forth on Four Tet over the years. While I don't think I have ever outright disliked any of his stuff, I found a lot of his work through the 2000s to be overly hectic for my tastes. As a result, I think I kind of wrote him off as not for me.

Maybe I listened to this album when it came out back in March? I can't really remember—if I did, apparently it did not make much of an impression at the time.

It popped up in my recommendations this morning, though, and lacking any better ideas at the moment, I put it on.

I'm really glad I did, because I am really enjoying it this time around. I don't know if maybe I wasn't paying attention when I first listened, but I feel a little bad about that. And now I kind of want to go back and listen to the older albums to see if my feelings about them have changed.

These guys used to play around town a lot when I lived in Cleveland in the 1990s. I honestly can't remember if I ever saw them live but if I did, it was probably some show at the Euclid Tavern or Peabody's Down Under. Mostly my recollection of them at the time was seeing the band's name on Derek Hess posters stapled to utility poles.

I tend to put them in the same category as bands like Craw and The Jesus Lizard, although they are heavier and more focused on instrumentals than either of those bands. I have their first two albums on CD and I like them quite a bit. This one does not break any particularly new ground for the band but it is still a good listen.

I always love minimalist techno and few people do it better than these guys. While Detroit techno—especially Carl Craig and Juan Atkins—remains my favorite, Basic Channel and some of the other Berlin DJs were pretty great too.

It is crazy to think that this album goes all the way back to 1995. I wish that I could say I appreciated this style of techno at the time, but it seemed weird and alien to me back then. I preferred the really fast, intense stuff. Over the years, though, this more stripped-down style has become my far-and-away favorite.

I am pretty much all here for any cosmic death metal or black metal, so I was probably predisposed to like this one when Cory recommended it yesterday.

I know nothing about the band, but this album is fantastic. There are faint strains of Nothingface-era Voivod (which is never a bad thing) and while there are a ton of different sounds, dynamics, and moods on this album, it never veers into the prog realm.

In my regular Friday perusal of the heavy metal new releases, I saw that Flotsam & Jetsam has a new album out. I will admit that that main thing I know about Flotsam & Jetsam is that Jason Newsted was in the band before he joined Metallica.

I will also admit that I passed over the album a few times before I finally put it on.

When I finally did give it a listen, wow—what a pleasant surprise! This album rocks.