Collecting…connecting... cultivating... the band’s antenna always seemed to be searching out ways to bend modernity back on itself, prey to an older consciousness. As such, Gold Is The Metal has got me re-playing, dot-joining its many components to so much of Coil’s discography, seeing where the contents have leaked into future use beyond the obvious connections of this track being the demo of that.
reviews
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..transplants a familiar SF / horror trope on to the gym-toned body of the superhero movie, and although it musters a few insights into the ugliness of human vanity, it’s chomping at the bit to unleash its malleable anti-hero so he can wreak his revenge.
For me there is something in the melodic approach, the ringing guitars and personal lyrics that reminds me of the halcyon days of nineties guitar bands but with a modern twist, and with the addition of fiddle from Sophia Bartlett and banjo from Michael Rea pushing things in a slightly more countrified direction.
So when An Undying Love For A Burning World dropped, it was an incredible surprise, but one that gave rise to the usual uncertainty of a band returning from hiatus -- what it they’re shit now? Fortunately, they aren’t. As
...they use the mellow side of jazz as a starting off point, but happily mix it with classical, pop and a more progressive leanings to lead the listener gently down unexpected side streets.
Over sixteen tracks and a little under an hour, their insistent distorted guitars and brutal, thuggish drums revel in a sort of set construction that feels as though they are squeezing too much sound into too small a space that the guitars and drums seem to take it in turns to add a brick or slide in a block and watch the edifice gradually grow.
...there’s the summery wonderosa of the title track "Autosmile" that’s got to be one of the best sonic uplifts / natural evolves I’ve taken in all year. Honestly, this collection of songs taps into something special, showing the acoustic guitar / singer songwriter schtick has more to offer than certain stadium-fillers would have you believe.
The way the oud steps sprightly around the treacherous tracks and narrow passes like a mountain goat is a delight to follow; and as it moves, there are times where the electronics scatter like birds causing a whirling dance in the dust swirls.
...a gripping and unobtrusively intelligent thriller whose conflation of sublime drama and ridiculous comedy is a balancing act worthy of the New Hollywood greats to whom it brandishes its artistic and thematic debt like it’s an American Express card.
Although only coming in at a little under half an hour, their third album conjoins numerous guest vocalists from all around the world with generally rhythmic but extraordinarily varied musical soundscapes to produce a journey that never lets up.
...Some sounds just find themselves fitting a mood in combination with a moment and an environmental space. Which is perfectly okay, despite what less nuanced opinion holders might decree. Enter then, two albums that best fit the listening niche for Sunday mornings bathed in a blaze of autumn sunshine… which is handy given their close seasonally-aligned arrival.
..things haven’t changed much with the way the album is structured in relation to the band’s previous studio offerings. We have four shorter tracks on (the virtual in my case) side one, followed by a much longer track filling out side two. The album is supposedly themed on ghosts and things that seem to exist but don’t..
...weaving textural space-laden soundscapes from varied electronic means to concoct a series of pieces that describe journeys of vast distances, but experienced from some sense of womb-like calm.
In a moment of darkly comic madness, a primary school teacher gets so frustrated with the one endlessly disruptive pupil in her class that she decides to lock him up in her basement until either he calms down enough to learn, or they forge some kind of ersatz emotional bond.
Stitched together with lots of intricate instrumental details and vocal layers, The Counting Game generously reveals its shrewdly crafted strengths over successive spins, to make it one of Antietam’s most adventurous and most accessible go-to long-players.
In this hackneyed psychological thriller, a struggling writer (Dakota Johnson) is contracted to complete the latest novel by a reclusive bestselling author (Anne Hathaway) following her mysterious accident. But when she moves in, and gets sidetracked into researching her employer’s difficult family life, she finds far more than she bargained for.
...thanks to the enthusiasm of Rothko's Mark Beazley, a collection of the poems has been given suitable soundscape backings and with that the opportunity to escape back into the vibrant, grimy streets from whence the initial inspiration sprung.
An open marriage turns out to be more closed than its participants thought when a third wheel screws himself on to their conjoined chassis in this refreshingly sophisticated sex comedy. With gleefully heavy-handed metaphor, the plot is kicked into gear by a literal car crash that brings two couples together and flings their combined marital problems all over the highway.