Posts Tagged ‘BBC Music’

Album of the day: Mastodon – Live at the Aragon

Posted on Friday, March 18th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from BBC Music: Released in 2009, Mastodon’s fourth album Crack the Skye was a mind-meltingly ambitious offering, melding significant rock chops with proggy themes and digit-busting fret-work. It was a perfect album for Guitar Hero kids and old-school metalheads alike, and rightly ate up critical acclaim. Not that its makers weren’t used to being on the receiving end of top-marks write-ups – yours truly awarded their 2006 LP, Blood Mountain, a perfect 10 (and I’ll stand by that score today). They are, in short, the most phenomenal metal outfit to break free of the underground since the turn of the millennium.

This is the Atlanta-based four-piece’s first live album, and comes complete with a DVD featuring every video projected behind the band as they tore through Crack the Skye at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom back in October 2009. Played in the same order as their studio brothers, these tracks tell a story – as every Mastodon long-player has – that is more Final Fantasy than Spinal Tap, in this case touching upon astral travel, out-of-body experiences and the dark matter that resides out there in the great unknown. But, mercifully, you needn’t pay super close attention to the concept behind the cacophony – if it suits, simply put your head down and rock the heck out. Be you fair-weather fan or hardcore follower, the results are the same: a warm fuzziness around the temples and a stiff neck the next day.

Continue reading: BBC – Music – Review of Mastodon – Live at the Aragon.

Tags: Album of the day, BBC Music, Live at the Aragon, mastodon, Mike Diver
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Album of the day: Cluster – Cluster 71

Posted on Saturday, February 5th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from BBC Music: Monolithic particle generators emit insect chat to the skies, while adjacent cloud territories lie pregnant with oscillating womb throb. Welcome to the sound of Berlin 1971: transcendental proto-techno conjured by Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conny Plank (who’d only be on board for this album). ...read more