Carbon Based Lifeforms
Regardless of
your musical tastes, you’ll probably like CBL. Their music is classified as
Ambient, but is a little more complicated than that. Some tracks feature
thumping tribal beats with sweeping electronic arrangements over the top of
that. It is the perfect music to relax to, read to, write to, pretty much
anything. It’s fantastic as background music, foreground music, again, pretty
much anything. Here’s a sampling of tracks that I feel represent their sound the
best, as an added bonus the videos are extremely enjoyable.
World of Sleepers
MOS 6581
Photosynthesis
Arecibo
Similar Artists: Sync 24, Aes Dana, HUVA Network, Solar
Fields, Cell, Asura, Human Blue
Stendeck
Stendeck is a mixture of ambient and noise. While also
relaxing, it strays into territories that Carbon Based Lifeforms doesn’t go.
Stendeck carefully blends static with engaging bass lines and droning
undercurrents to create something pretty unique.
Catch The Midnight Girl
Like Falling Crystals
Waiting For A New Day
Similar Artists: Ginormous, Ab Ovo, Ah Cama-Sotz, Flint
Glass
Alestorm
I don’t care if you like metal or not, if you like pirates (who doesn’t?) then you owe it to yourself to listen to Alestorm. Go ahead and get over the fact that yes, they dress like pirates, sing songs about pirates, and perhaps have silly videos. Now that those are out of the way, take a good listen. There is an extremely talented and entertaining band lurking here. Blending several different genres of metal into one and making it extremely accessible isn’t easy, but Alestorm prevails! The music is fun with lyrics that you’ll be singing along to by the third listen even if you’ve taken a broadside of rum to the belly. (As an added bonus, they’re also Scottish, which increases their awesomeness by 11)
I don’t care if you like metal or not, if you like pirates (who doesn’t?) then you owe it to yourself to listen to Alestorm. Go ahead and get over the fact that yes, they dress like pirates, sing songs about pirates, and perhaps have silly videos. Now that those are out of the way, take a good listen. There is an extremely talented and entertaining band lurking here. Blending several different genres of metal into one and making it extremely accessible isn’t easy, but Alestorm prevails! The music is fun with lyrics that you’ll be singing along to by the third listen even if you’ve taken a broadside of rum to the belly. (As an added bonus, they’re also Scottish, which increases their awesomeness by 11)
Shipwrecked
Keelhauled
Captain Morgan’s Revenge
That Famous Ol’ Spiced
Similar Artists: Uhh…..? Gloryhammer features Chris Bowes,
the maniac on keyboards that sings the songs. His other band is coming soon and
is described as “Heroic Fantasy Power Metal.”
Pig
Before Trent Reznor was making Industrial music accessible to a broader audience, there was Raymond Watts. Raymond is an unsung Industrial pioneer, his music is really damn good and he’s been making it for nearly thirty years. When he wasn’t working on his own stuff as Pig, he was co-founding KMFDM and appeared on some of their (in my opinion) best albums such as Nihil and Anger. If you like Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM or Marilyn Manson, you need to hear Raymond Watts’ work. His music isn’t too harsh for non-Industrial music fans and he has one of the best singing voices in music. He also doesn’t care about genre as he has been known to dive into merengue and other styles.
Flesh Fest
The Only Good One’s A Dead One
God Rod
Hello Hooray (Alice Cooper cover)
Similar Artists: KMFDM, Schaft, Cubanate, Schwein, Slick
Idiot, MDFMK, Hellbent, Foetus
Puscifer
You’ve probably heard of Maynard James Keenan, lead singer for Tool and A Perfect Circle. Things have been quiet on the Tool/APC fronts while MJK has been making wine and music as Puscifer. The band started out as a joke when they appeared many years ago on HBO’s Mr. Show. A mock interview featured Maynard muttering about something with the name “Puscifer” emblazoned below them. Fast forward a few years and Puscifer has a couple of albums out, really damn good ones. Albums that completely ignore the concept of “genre” as each track shifts seamlessly from style to style. For my money, Puscifer is better than both Tool and A Perfect Circle.
You’ve probably heard of Maynard James Keenan, lead singer for Tool and A Perfect Circle. Things have been quiet on the Tool/APC fronts while MJK has been making wine and music as Puscifer. The band started out as a joke when they appeared many years ago on HBO’s Mr. Show. A mock interview featured Maynard muttering about something with the name “Puscifer” emblazoned below them. Fast forward a few years and Puscifer has a couple of albums out, really damn good ones. Albums that completely ignore the concept of “genre” as each track shifts seamlessly from style to style. For my money, Puscifer is better than both Tool and A Perfect Circle.
Man Overboard
Telling Ghosts
Momma Sed
Potions (Deliverance Mix) (Co-written by Trent Reznor)
Similar Artists: Tool, A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails,
Carina Round
Negative Format
Negative Format is one of those artists that walks the line between genres and ends up falling through and never getting the recognition they deserve. Alex Matheu is easily one of the most talented artists to ever work in the scene. His music is a progressive blend of synthpop, EBM and trance that is extremely accessible and very, very good. Slow builds lead to fantastic climaxes and sweeping arrangements carry the flow of the entire song from point A to point B without realizing you left A. When he isn’t making really damn good music as Negative Format, Lexsine or The Parallel Project, Alex is hard at work making bad ass iPhone and iPad apps such as Glitchbreaks, which allows you to make music from your phone. You can check out his apps here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glitchbreaks/id520451538?ls=1&mt=8
Negative Format is one of those artists that walks the line between genres and ends up falling through and never getting the recognition they deserve. Alex Matheu is easily one of the most talented artists to ever work in the scene. His music is a progressive blend of synthpop, EBM and trance that is extremely accessible and very, very good. Slow builds lead to fantastic climaxes and sweeping arrangements carry the flow of the entire song from point A to point B without realizing you left A. When he isn’t making really damn good music as Negative Format, Lexsine or The Parallel Project, Alex is hard at work making bad ass iPhone and iPad apps such as Glitchbreaks, which allows you to make music from your phone. You can check out his apps here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glitchbreaks/id520451538?ls=1&mt=8
Echo Chamber
Hues of Grey
Translucent
Deleted Scenes featuring Mark Jackson (VNV Nation) by The
Parallel Project
Similar Artists: The Parallel Project, Lexsine, VNV Nation,
Haujobb, Covenant.
Faderhead
A fairly new arrival on the EBM scene, Faderhead is yet another artist that really doesn’t care about changing genres from song to song. Faderhead is very in your face and not for the faint of heart. From stomping EBM to dance tracks comfortable in just about any kind of club, Faderhead is really damn good.
A fairly new arrival on the EBM scene, Faderhead is yet another artist that really doesn’t care about changing genres from song to song. Faderhead is very in your face and not for the faint of heart. From stomping EBM to dance tracks comfortable in just about any kind of club, Faderhead is really damn good.
Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois Featuring Ultimate MC
The Way to Fuck God
Horizon Born
Sexyback (Justin Timberlake cover)
Similar Artists: Combichrist, Eisenfunk, Caustic, Haujobb
Hopefully you have some new music to listen to, if not, I
hope you were at least entertained.
