Monotonix

I first saw Israel's most prominent musical export a few years ago at ATP '08. A quick afternoon nap that overran slightly resulted in a mad dash back to the reds stage where they would be playing. I thought I'd made it with time to spare when I arrived to a large crowd and an empty stage; but the stage was only empty because Monotonix had set up right in the middle of the large crowd. As a result, the first glimpse I got of any of the band was when the singer, resplendent in his giant moustache and bright orange hotpants, came sailing over the top of the crowd in a plastic bin. This was within the first minute. After ten minutes of sweaty bouncing around I felt a great thump on my shin, which turned out to be the drummer relocating to the other side of the crowd, still hitting the drums as he went... and after another ten minutes of euphoric anarchy, it was all over.

It was pretty bloody awesome, and I promised myself that if I ever got the chance to experience their scuzzy garage rock, crazy hair and tight sweaty pants again, I definitely would.

And I should have done just that last week when they played at the Croft; but unfortunately my gig buddy came down with a dose of lameness. Foolishly, I decided against being Billy-No-Mates for the evening, and so missed a gig that ended in the street with the singer and some other guy leaping into each other from the shoulders of the crowd.

Damn.

Website: http://www.monotonix.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/monotonix

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotonix

Meshuggah

It is by fairly indirect means that these guys became the greatest band in the world ever this week. It started with the most recent issue of Rocksound, my periodical of choice for when I need to be told what to think. The cover CD had a track on it by Canadian deathcore types Ion Dissonance, called "We Like To Call This One... Fuck Off." Here it is.

I quite liked it, but the review of the album in the magazine was more disparaging. "It's hard to see why this is necessary while Meshuggah are still a going concern" it said. Or at least, something like that.

A tad harsh, perhaps, but quite fair. Why bother with a band that sounds a bit like Meshuggah, when there's Meshuggah? Who, let's face it, sound exactly like Meshuggah (if not more so)?

Meshuggah are a progmathcyberjazzdeathmetal band from Sweden, whose earliest albums were a bit bonk.

They now sound as though a bunch of insane scientists decided to create the most brutal and technical metal band in the world; starting with The Dillinger Escape Plan and precisely one quarter of Converge, they first stripped them of all their catchy melodies and pop sensibilities before rebuilding them as flame-spitting atomic robots with deathvalves turned up to eleven and guitars tuned down to frequencies below the human range of hearing. But it still wasn't brutal and technical enough, so they just got the guys from Meshuggah instead.

Website: http://www.meshuggah.net/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/meshuggah

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshuggah

Echobelly

Those with functioning memories might recall that last week, I described Echobelly as being "offensively inoffensive". On the face of it, describing them as the greatest band in the world ever a mere six days later may seem like a U-turn of neck snapping magnitude. So consider the following.

• I did also describe them as quite brilliant.
• Their second album On (which is what I've been mostly listening to this week) is something of a grower; and has some astonishingly good songs on it.
• I've been in curiously good spirits lately, so inoffensive will do me just fine thank you.
• The greatest band in the world ever changes each week for a reason; I'm nothing if not fickle.
• I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you. Fuck you, internets.

I'm glad we've got that cleared up. I can now get back to ordering the rest of Echobelly's no doubt stellar back catalogue, secure in the knowledge that my integrity remains untarnished.

Website: http://www.echobelly.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/echobellymusic

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echobelly

Elastica

As has already been well documented, I've been on a bit of mid-nineties girl fronted indie kick of late; and have now reached the following conclusions.

• Sleeper have a bit of sass, but lack swagger.
• Echobelly, whilst actually quite brilliant, are at the same time almost offensively inoffensive.
• Lush were the most disappointing of all, all too frequently descending into navel-gazing angst.
• Kenickie... well actually, I forgot about Kenickie.

All of which confirms something that I had hitherto only suspected; that Elastica were fucking great, and their self-titled debut is one of the very best records of the last twenty years.

Website: http://www.elasticated.org/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/stutterconnection

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elastica

Amon Tobin

The earlier records from this Brazilian lunatic had titles like "Permutations" and "Supermodified", because the songs were composed of many bits of other songs - like a great audio collage. His most recent work, "Foley Room", is the first where he feels (in his own words) as though he has actually created the music, instead of chopping other bits together.

Thing is, the way he created this music was to go out with teams of people and a billion microphones, make field recordings of anything and everything - insects, radio telescopes, that sort of thing - and then chopping it all together with original compositions recorded in the studio.

As far as I can tell, there's not much of a difference in approach; it's still the same glorious mosaic of odd noises and found sounds, and you would still need to be some kind of insane genius to produce the oddly stuttering works of art that fall out the other end. Amon Tobin is that insane genius.

Website: http://www.amontobin.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tobinamon

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amon_Tobin

The Breeders

So as I mentioned last week, I recently purchased a heap of second hand 90's alt-rock; and Last Splash by The Breeders seems to have floated to the top.

It seems odd that I shouldn't have picked this up the first time around; lead single and floppy-haired pogo shoegaze anthem Cannonball was a regular spin at my local rock club The Agincourt (which is, tragically, still open). I always thought it was a pretty cool song; though in retrospect I may have been slightly embarrassed about this, being the necksnappingly brutal metal kid that I was.

In any case, I am now making up for lost time by fully immersing myself in this early nineties alternative masterpiece. By which I mean I'm driving around with the windows down and playing it very loud. Cannonball is just as good as I remember, with its groovy verse, bouncy chorus and that bassline. But I'm also very taken with the rest of the album, full as it is with surf twangs and shoegaze droning; and of course a somewhat inevitable (but far from unwelcome) Pixies-ness.

Smashing.

Website: http://breedersdigest.net/2008/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thebreeders

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Breeders

Mustard Allegro

I was a bit stuck as to which was the greatest band in the world this week. My most recent CD binge yielded a near insurmountable heap of alt-rock from the 90's, suggesting more of a greatest genre in the world. Meanwhile, I finally picked up Diamond Eyes by Deftones; and rather predictably it's completely awesome, but I've already done them once this year...

But then I got suckered into going to a bar gig, where I saw these splendid chaps. As it turns out, it was guitarist Alex's birthday; which meant that all of the handful of people in attendance had to sign a card for him. It also meant that he had down a shot at the very start of their set, and then another after every three songs played. Unfortunately for him, Mustard Allegro songs tend to be frantic blasts of surf guitar seldom lasting more than a minute, and they played a lot of them. On the plus side, the music all has a somewhat room-spinning quality to it anyway, so nothing seemed out of place.

Merch was available from the Asda bag that the drummer kept with him.

My only complaint about the otherwise very excellent mini album Dwarf Shortage that I purchased is the title; if they had only called it Shortage of Dwarves, there might be a possibility of 'shortage' becoming the collective noun for dwarves.

Website: http://www.p4ft.co.uk/mustardallegro.htm

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mustardallegro

Wikipedia: nope