...or how I learned to stop worrying and love the troll.
[No album art.]
Unsigned, No Release Date
I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism are a bit of an enigma. Little is known about them, except that they hail from Antioch, California, and they are a four-piece. Their only known recordings are collected on the unofficially-titled 8 Song Demo, a simply stunning collection of screamo mini-masterpieces taken from their myspace page. Now, this is not your typical Hot Topic-core band; this is not My Chemical Romance; this is legitimate emo music. However, Haikus stray away from the formulaic, vapid garbage that makes up the majority of their genre. They take screamo songs, and sort of tint them through a jazz-and-ambient filter. Instead of simple power chords or double-bass drum blasts, I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism opt to use unusual jazz chords and short ambient segues. This is especially apparent in Untitled 4; beginning with what may be the greatest ten seconds of music ever, three simply stunning chords, and followed by a wall of hardcore for perhaps twenty seconds. Then enters a sparse, perhaps minimalist section using those beautiful chords, which in turn transitions into a sort of bridge section. All this happens in two minutes exactly, and they are two incredible minutes indeed. These are not long songs by any means; the longest, Untitled 8, is a mere 2:54, the shortest (Untitled 2) is 1:09. The entire demo/EP is probably under 20 minutes. Overall, this is a unique and wonderful piece of screamo-jazz goodness. 8.5/10
Review by Jake
Track List:
1. Untitled 1 (2:53)
2. Untitled 2 (1:09)
3. Untitled 3 (1:45)
4. Untitled 4 (2:00)
5. Untitled 5 (1:57)
6. Untitled 6 (2:40)
7. Untitled 7 (2:05)
8. Untitled 8 (2:54)
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Hannibal, 1991
This one’s for all you lovers out there. That’s right, you. Take the time and stop your love making to check out Ivo Papasov and his Bulgarian Wedding Band. Ivo and his boys are masters of Bulgarian wedding music (that’s right, you heard it, Bulgarian wedding music) and on this album they have no problem showing off their their style and control, all in the name of love.
Essentially, these guys are out of their minds; they play with the oddest time signatures, offbeat syncopations, quick glissandos all over the place, and an overall frenetic intensity that doesn’t stop. Even when the songs slow down, the energy stays. It takes you on a wild roller coaster ride at breakneck speed and then proceeds to make you cry at your long lost buddy’s funeral, staying oh so stylish all along the way.
Although the music is highly complex, it still feels natural. All the techniques that are alien to western music are somewhat filtered out by a jazzy, sometimes even funky, rhythm section, along with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flourishes. While some might say these modal tendencies detract from the authenticity of the music, it makes it extremely listenable and gives it some major eclectic points.
So fuck it, next time you feel the need to spice up your love life, try your hand at getting down to Ivo Papasov’s Balkanology.
330° out of 2π
Review by Quiroz
Track List:
1 Mladeshki Dance (6:17)
2 Hristianova Kopanitsa (3:26)
3 Istoria Na Edna Lyubov (4:17)
4 Ivo’s Ruchenitsa (9:42)
5 Song For Baba Nedelya (3:30)
6 Ergenski Dance (3:36)
7 Mominsko Horo (8:48)
8 Tziganska Ballada (5:24)
9 Veseli Zborni (4:19)
10 Proleten Dance (2:38)
11 Kasapsko Horo (2:15)
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Cuneiform Records, 2005
I’ve listened to a couple of tracks here and there on Pandora stations, and that’s what got me into them enough to buy this album. So after a few weeks of waiting for another iTunes gift certificate, I finally bought Semi-Formal.
All I have to say is that this albums is so tight, conceptually engaging, utterly unclassifiable by genre to such a point so that I’m… left almost completely wordless save for the pseudo-pitchfork like ramblings of elevated language typed in awe and utter praise of John Hollenbeck’s gift to the old world of jazz, nay music itself!
This album, like other Claudia masterworks, is a magnum opus unto itself while remaining consistent near the point of repetition (but not quite) in comparison to their other albums.
I can only liken this experience of listening to them to the first time I was truly captivated by the first time I really listened to Frank Zappa. Yes, this group/album is THAT good and THAT unique, ladies and gentlemen.
With all my musical credentials, I implore that anyone who loves, TRULY loves jazz, or music in general, to at least listen to a track or two from this wonderful album.
And now in what has become the tradition of these reviews, sort of;
I bestow upon this wonder, Semi-Formal by The Claudia Quintet a 5 out of 5.
Review by Squishy
Track List:
1 Major Nelson (3:35)
2 Drewslate (7:33)
3 Kord (3:09)
4 They Point… Glance… Whisper… Then Snicker… (9:32)
5 Bindi Binder (1:41)
6 Susan (5:18)
7 Two Teachers (6:07)
8 Growth (2:22)
9 Limp Mint (7:52)
10 Guarana (8:12)
11 Where’s My Mint? [Mint=President] (2:55)
12 Boy With A Bag And His Guardian Elephant (2:44)
13 Minor Nelson (3:43)
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