Harkonen

I can't quite remember how I first heard these guys. It was either the very excellent split EP that they released with the very excellent and sorely missed These Arms Are Snakes, or it was another, earlier EP called Charge! which I found tucked away in a second hand shop somewhere.

It doesn't really matter though, does it? What matters is that for the short time they were together, Harkonen made an incredible racket. Hard drums, fuzzy bass, guttural howls and guitars that were post-rock, space rock and noise rock - all at the same time.

They also wrote a song for their final EP Dancing called "I'm Taking The Hydraplane To Bellingham". Quite apart from being a great song, the title itself has recently become my most favouritist phrase; and I intend to use it as frequently and inconsistently as possible. This is not important in the slightest.

Website: nope

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

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harkonen_(band)

We Are Knuckle Dragger

We Are Knuckle Dragger's debut EP, Doors To Rooms, is a quite recent addition to my collection. It combines daft song titles ("Massive When Flaccid", "I Was A Teenage Mr Bean") with jarring, angular, crunching rhythms seemingly devoid of stellar musicianship, and a raw production with all the squeaks and whistles of feedback left in. It is as brutal, simplistic and Neanderthal as their moniker implies.

For these reasons and many others, it has remained welded into my CD player all week.

Website: nope

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

Wikipedia: nope

TV On The Radio

I was first introduced to these guys by a friend of mine, the infamous Jeff "Cock Will Set You Free" McDeath - ultimate arbiter of all things indie. At the time Jeff was one of my loyal minions in the nerd emporium that I lorded over. During the day we had to put up with the insipid mix of emo and alt-pop that filled the company-sanctioned compilation CDs; but once the store was closed we could play what we wanted, which was typically ear-splitting violence anthems (me) or desperately trendy minimalist European shoegaze techno (him). Generally, we didn't see eye-to-eye - musically speaking, at least. But every so often a little gem would turn up.

Return To Cookie Mountain, TVotR's second full-length, was one of those gems - although I didn't immediately take to it. The vocal style was a bit weird, and stylistically the album never quite seemed to settle down. But working late one night to meet a fast approaching deadline, I was left with a choice between listening to that or the radio-friendly shop CDs; which was really no choice at all. Incidentally, this is also why listening to this album always reminds me of building Dwarf mountain fortresses.

After repeated listens, Cookie Mountain began to grow on me. It slowly dawned that the style wasn't randomly jumping about, but that each song featured whatever instrumentation was most appropriate; sometimes guitars, sometimes electronica, sometimes tribal drumming, sometimes whistling. And the vocals that had seemed so out of place at first were what gave it all a sense of cohesiveness, in all their quirky and soulful brilliance. It all sounded like nothing I had ever heard before, and it was bloody brilliant.

Bizarrely, it was TVotR's obvious flair for experimentation that put me off getting any of their other records; they were clearly capable of anything, and there was no way of knowing what the rest of their output might sound like. Of course, I shouldn't have worried - it's all the same mix of jazz, soul, electronica and indie as before - though for me they're at their best when it's all driving rhythms and great walls of rich and luscious electronica.

Website: http://www.tvontheradio.com/

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

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

Taint

Sadly this is more of a tribute than a celebration, as South Wales' finest have decided that they can bear my rabid fanaticism no longer and are calling it a day.

I first heard them some years ago, when I picked up a split EP they did with noisy Welsh bastards Black Eye Riot; and although it was the Black Eye Riot half of the split that I was most interested in initially, it was the three songs that Taint contributed that I found myself listening to over and over again. I still struggle to define exactly how they sound; there's nothing really fancy about their brand of hard rock. They just write damn fine songs, all groove and hefty riffs.

And they play well, too. I've seen them live more times than any other band, and they have never been anything less than stellar; not just great musicians, but a great band.

Sigh...

Bye chaps.

Website: http://www.taint.co.uk/

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

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taint_(band)

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