Posts Tagged ‘Cover’

Watch: ‘Cymbeline’ by Terzo

Posted: 26 February 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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‘Terzo’ : an Italian word translating as ‘the third’, it represents an additional presence that new darkwave/shoegaze/post-rock duo Terzo sensed inhabiting their most creative moments when they began working together.

Karl Clinton (former bassist in post-punk act Diskoteket, plus co-founder of improvisational project Tsantsa) and Billie Lindahl (lead singer and guitarist in dream pop/dark folk act Promise and the Monster) share a mutual penchant for dark sounding music in all its forms. They have also both been itching to free the shackles binding them to strict timelines; not only those of the music industry, but society in general. “Terzo was born out of a discussion about songs we mutually liked and a wish to try a different work process to our then current projects,” they state. “We wanted to do whatever we wanted without restrictions, using our obsession and gut feeling as guidance.”

Their preference for music and art that embodies a degree of doom and gloom is evident on their upcoming self-titled debut album, with its central theme of ‘love and death’ linking all six tracks. Their very first studio session yielded the 10+ minute post-rock epic ‘Cymbeline’ (available now as a debut single), while in the midst of recording it they both had the sensation that a third presence was keeping them company. Intrigued by the thought, “we started talking about the appearance of a third element, in sleep and in dreams,” they explain. “Terzo is about acknowledging this, the swirl that light in the darkness generates, opening ourselves out toward our own weaknesses.”

‘Cymbeline’ is actually a unique cover of a 1991 song by the Celtic/world music singer-songwriter and composer Loreena McKennit, which has a lyric lifted from the William Shakespeare play of the same name. “We had a feeling that we could make something interesting with it,” says Lindahl. “Karl did most of the instrumental work, guitars and programming, while I recorded my vocal in one take. This song means so much to us because it was the first thing we did as a duo and I think we just sort of understood that we could do great things together.”

Terzo travelled to New York in the summer of 2022 to play their first live shows, with the video maker and photographer Johan Lundsten accompanying them to document the trip. Footage from this can be seen in the video for ‘Cymbeline’, with Lindahl adding that “we always pictured something in documentary style for this song. Johan filmed everything that we did, even just hanging around. It is very raw, but it feels right.”

Watch the captivating video to this immense song here:

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TERZO | photography by Johan Lundsten

MuddiBrooke – You Don’t Own Me

Posted: 13 June 2022 in Singles and EPs
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Christopher Nosnibor

Somehow, despite being in the business almost literally forever, and having played live and supported artists such as The Beautiful South, Scouting For Girls, Luka Bloom and Dr and The Medics, MuddiBrooke has bypassed me. Perhaps it’s because of playing with the aforementioned artists.

Anyway: ‘You Don’t Own Me’, written by Philadelphia songwriters John Madara and David White and recorded by Lesley Gore in 1963, has become established as something of a classic, and it’s a good fit for Derby’s all-female alternative rockers, who know how to use a distortion pedal to optimal effect.

It’s a thumping riff-driven blast that explodes in under two and a half minutes and it perfect. To be fair, some songs are pretty much impossible to fail with – you simply can’t go wrong with some songs, and this is one of them. It’s a strong signature of female empowerment, and MuddiBrooke absolutely run with the sentiment and crank the amps up full-tilt to slam the point home in a fuck-you, taking-no-shit fashion that’s on a par with L7, Hole, and The Nymphs. Big lungs, big sass, big guitars… Yes.

Brooke, Anna and Mary may all be in their mid-twenties, but know how to channel that grunge vibe, and how not to take any shit. It may be a cover, but it feels like a manifesto.

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Christian Death – Quicksand

Posted: 12 January 2022 in Reviews
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Christian Death – Quicksand

10th January 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

Christian Death have long shown a love of Bowie, which has subtly permeated their work but was rendered concrete with their version of ‘Panic in Detroit’ in the Rage of Angels album. But anyone who would think that the Bowie fandom was specific to the Rozz Williams era of the band would be mistaken: Valor has long embraced androgynous elements in his style, and never shied away from pop / art rock elements within the music itself.

There have, of course been numerous covers of ‘Quicksand’, and the one thing that’s apparent from all of them is that a great song is a great song, whoever’s playing it, even Seal. If Dinosaur Jr’s cover was a brilliant example of reconfiguring the song into a slacker anthem, Christian Death’s take, which stretches the original five-minute song well past the seven-minute mark is remarkably faithful to the original and doesn’t goth it up in the slightest. This isn’t a complete surprise: their previous covers, from Garyn Numan’s ‘Down in the Park’ to Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Angel’, which appeared on All the Love, were straight and sensitive, even reverent in their approach.

Performed by Valor and Maitri, it’s predominantly acoustic guitar and piano, but there’s a full backing with drums, bass, and sweeping string sounds, making for a take that’s bold, theatrical, and yet, at the same time, intimate, and fitting at a time when Bowie covers and links to his songs are proliferating on social media: it may be the fifth anniversary of his death, but the week also marks what would have been his 75th birthday, and it’s fair to say few, if any artists have had quite the impact he did. Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones, may have all broken immense ground, but Bowie was an entirely different proposition, on so many levels, and it’s clear the shock and grief are still strong for so many. This, then, is a fitting and well-executed, heartfelt tribute.

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Chelsea Wolfe shares unreleased music from Birth Of Violence sessions & releases tour documentary

Posted: 21 September 2021 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Renowned songstress Chelsea Wolfe has revealed two unreleased songs from her Birth of Violence sessions during which she masterfully returned to her folk roots. Her stunning spin on Joni Mitchell’s eminent single, “Woodstock” and the never before heard, “Green Altar” display Wolfe’s experimental approach as she deliberately ties together her discoveries in rich textures and haunting melodies.

Wolfe recounts, “While preparing for the Birth of Violence tour, I was watching a lot of Joni Mitchell videos. A 1966 Canadian performance that I found of hers ended up inspiring the video for my song ‘Highway.’ One night after working on the live set, Ben and I were hanging out and I was just letting the Joni videos roll.. ‘Woodstock’ came on and I started singing along. After that I simply asked Ben if he’d be into covering it with me for the tour, and we just went back into the studio and started working it out. The cover came together quite naturally and it was a treat to play on stage every night. Joni is obviously such a big inspiration to this side of my music, so it felt right to pay tribute to her.”

“‘Green Altar’ is a cherished song that unfortunately didn’t make it onto the album. It’s a love song I wrote after finding out that my dear friends (artist) Bill Crisafi and (designer) Hogan McLaughlin were engaged. I envisioned them getting married in a lush, green outdoor space outside of some majestic castle ruins.”

Wolfe has also shared an official documentary of her 2019 Birth of Violence Tour which unfortunately came to a halt with the onset of the pandemic. The piece is beautifully shot by photographer/director Bobby Cochran who joined Wolfe at the tail end of the North American leg. Cochran documents the show, stage, and captures moments behind the scenes. The two also sat down to discuss the creation of the album, Birth of Violence, about what it’s like being on tour and her rituals.

Wolfe tells, “It’s not my natural inclination to want cameras around when I’m in my head or doing vocal warmups before a show, or when I’m with friends or family backstage, but Bobby asked, and in the spirit of pushing myself to document that era of my musical life, I welcomed him along. Then, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit and I had to fly home from the European acoustic tour before I got to play a single show of it, I was so grateful that he had this footage and was putting it together. I wanted to share this documentary for that reason as well, for those who had tickets to cancelled shows (I love you!), and as a sort of wave goodbye to the time I spent focused on ‘Birth of Violence’, as I’m now making plans for and in the headspace of the next new album.”

“Woodstock” / “Green Altar” and the Birth of Violence 2019 Tour Documentary are available today via Sargent House.

Check the documentary here:

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Watch: ‘Loss of Control’ by Mr Bungle

Posted: 19 May 2021 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Mr. Bungle have released “Loss of Control,” a Van Halen cover that the band debuted during their Halloween 2020 streaming special, “The Night They Came Home” (June 11th, Ipecac Recordings). The single is available now, while a live performance video of the song was unveiled via Guitar World.

"Mr. Bungle tried to play this song in the ’90s and we scrapped it because we sucked at it,” explains Trey Spruance. “I think it worked this time for a lot of reasons. My own is that, thanks to the new Raging Wrath era, I’ve had to re-approach the guitar like I did when I was 13 and 14. It was all about Eddie Van Halen for me back then, so circling back at this moment felt really natural. Those riffs and lead parts at least are super fun! I’m just glad Scott took the palm-mute breaks. Jesus!"

Scott Ian adds, "I generally don’t get nervous about learning someone else’s riffs. When it’s an EVH riff it’s a whole different story! I was terrified! With "Loss of Control" I did my best to just hold on and go for the ride. What a riff!!! As a fan I’d have to say it’s a PERFECT SONG for Mr. Bungle to cover. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I did getting to play it."

“The Night They Came Home,” which was directed by Jack Bennett, finds the Northern California-born band performing songs from their recently released album, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo. The two-hour film is available on CD + Blu-Ray, CD + DVD, VHS, and digitally. The film portion features Bungle’s performance, Neil Hamburger’s opening set, three official music videos (“Raping Your Mind,” “Eracist,” and “Sudden Death”), as well as extended behind-the-scenes footage including several surprise cameos. The VHS release, limited to 1000 collectible copies, is an edited, performance-only portion of the film.

Watch the vid here:

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Videostore – Roses in the Hospital

Posted: 28 June 2020 in Singles and EPs
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26th June 2020

Christopher Nosnibor

Aural Aggro’s favourite DIY indie duo Videostore keep crankin’ ‘em out, and a week after the belter that is ‘Your Mind’, they take a step to the left to deliver a cover of Manic Street Preachers’ ‘Roses In the Hospital’, which in context of their their previous releases, comes as something of a surprise.

Their take brings a twist – they definitely ‘make it their own’ as judges are so keen on saying on ‘The Voice’ and shit. That is to say, it sounds way more like Videostore than The Manics, and that’s a positive: so many acts are overly cautious and reverential in their approach to covers, especially when it comes to bands who are ‘canon’ and have acquired a status of being largely untouchable.

Lorna takes the vocal lead here, and Nathan gives a gargled backing vocal: the drum machine is whacked up in the mix and the guitar is stripped to a choppy, Metal Urbain fizz, and it’s a buzz.

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Watch: ‘Every Day is Exactly the Same’ by Sky Valley Mistress

Posted: 17 June 2020 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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“It seemed to make a lot of sense to strip it back of all the industrial electronic sounds and leave it with just a guitar that sounds like it’s lost in an empty void, because that’s pretty much what’s happening to every town and city around the world right now”

For Sky Valley Mistress the lockdown couldn’t have come at a more challenging time, you see March 20th was the release date of their debut album Faithless Rituals an album that had already had a rocky road to get to the finish line and as momentum grew and everything started to fall into place the reality that the world would soon be standing still and for a period of time the band would have to sit back and not be the centre of the universe albeit for a short time has been testing. With all promotional duties and tour commitments shelved and working out the challenges of lockdown Sky Valley Mistress have simply just got on with it.

Seeing the band live is a sight to behold and the real frustration is that the “Faithless Rituals Tour” and the preparation that went into it hasn’t happened and when it does it can’t help but be different from the Pre-Covid version, we know venues and live music arenas won’t be the same, but we also know as a band Sky Valley Mistress won’t be the same, they haven’t really took to or got the luxury of performing streamed shows but instead have been putting together enough material for a second album and even though its all been done from a distance the band have never been closer and when the time is right they’ll be working in the studio.

To begin their lockdown endeavours and armed with Trent Reznor’s Tambourine which Max & Kayley required live from a Nine Inch Nails Scala show in 2013 they have recorded a version of ‘Everyday Is Exactly The Same’, each part has been performed, recorded and mixed remotely and strips back their usual sound to create a sombre version of this 2005 NIN classic, accompanied by a video created, directed, edited and featuring Kayley filmed in Isolation.  

Watch the video here:

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Hull Doomsters The Parasitic Twins Release Babylon Zoo Cover For Charity

Posted: 31 March 2019 in Previews and Editorial
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Some press releases are special and uplifting and make our day when they land in the Aural Aggro inbox. This is one of those. Because news doesn’t get much better than this.

Hull Doom merchants, The Parasitic Twins today announce a lo-fi heavy cover of the 90s classic ‘Spaceman’ by Babylon Zoo, out on Friday, April 5, 2019 with all proceeds going to The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). The single is taken from a split EP with York-based hardcore punks, The Carnival Rejects (released via Bandcamp on May 31st in association with Man Demolish Records). Artwork for the piece was made by Jess Zchorn.

Of the decision to record the cover, drummer Dom Smith comments: "Man, we love Babylon Zoo. This is a classic track that was way ahead of its time, and we just wanted to mess with it, and we’ll probably stress a lot of people out, but use it as a way to bring attention to an incredible cause in CALM."

Of CALM’s importance on a national scale, Dom adds: "Male mental health is becoming more spotlighted every day, and myself and Max [guitars and vocals] want to offer any support we can to spread the word."

For those interested in donating to CALM can do so here:

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The Parasitic Twins will also head out to Europe and across the UK for a run of shows this April with grindcore mates, Boycott The Baptist and Clunge Destroyer:

APRIL TOUR DATES

19th – The Morgue, Leeuwarden – Holland

20th – Muggefug EV, Cottbus – Germany

23 – Bird’s Nest, London – UK

24 – The Parish, Huddersfield- UK

25 – Paradiddles, Worcester- UK

26 – The Bobbin, Lancaster- UK

27 – The Old England, Bristol- UK

28 – Secret Show, Carlisle- UK

For more information visit:

https://www.facebook.com/ParasiticTwinsBand/

Ulver – Sic Transit Gloria Mundi EP

Posted: 27 November 2018 in Albums
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House Of Mythology – 7th December 2018

Christopher Nosnibor

Having unveiled the Sic Transit Gloria Mundi EP via their Bandcamp page last November – and subsequently on all of the usual digital platforms, Ulver are finally giving the EP a physical release. The initial release was somewhat hurried as the band were about to embark on a lengthy tour to support the album The Assassination of Julius Caesar – so now, in addition to the three studio tracks (two originals which had lain dormant, incomplete for a time, and a cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘The Power of Love’) – they’re giving fans four live tracks recoded on the aforementioned tour as an added bonus.

The studio material – offcuts from The Assassination of Julius Caesar – continue the band’s pop-orientated evolution, and as with the material from album which spawned them, there’s a very mid-80s synth-rock style in evidence. Now, some aspects of 80s revivalism make sense: the dark times in which we find ourselves seems to demand bleak post-punk inspired sounds. But is there anything that can truly justify the revisitation and recreation of radio-friendly pop-rock, the overproduced sound of mullets, hair gel and rolled jacket sleeves? Ulver have fully made the transition into purveyors of sleek, slick and ultimately overtly commercial. I’ve no objection to pop per se, but let’s not pretend that sonically or lyrically, Ulver 2018 are any more challenging than Bastille. Then again, there are shades of darkness in a lot of 80s chart music that are often overlooked, and Ulver still brood, with hints of Depeche Mode and Disintegration-era Cure in the many-layered mix. And the cover – a song that feels somewhat underrated in the FGTH discography – is done justice with an extremely faithful rendition.

The live tracks are, as one would expect, pristine in both performance and production. It’s perhaps easier to marvel at the fidelity and the quality than it is the dynamics and the passion, and there’s nothing that connects the silent scream of pain of Francis Bacon’s ‘Study After Velasquez’ used on the cover art, but music where synths are dominant tends to sound a lot cleaner and more polished live anyway.

The Assassination of Julius Caesar opener, ‘Nemoralia’, is presented here in extended form, its dreamy disco on sedatives groove stretching past the six-minute mark, and ‘Rolling Stone’ is allowed to breathe in all its epic glory. ‘Southern Gothic’ (which does bring some atmosphere and emotion to the partly) ‘Transverberation’, both recorded at Labirinto Della Masone, Fontanellato showcase the band’s stadium-filling, reverb-soaked sound to optimal effect. And the fact of the matter is, I can’t fault it. I’m just not really feeling it, either.

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Ulver – Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Watch: ‘That’s The Way (I Like It)’ by PIG & Sasha Grey

Posted: 1 September 2018 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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With the release of their collaboration ‘That’s The Way (I Like It)’, out today via Metropolis Records, industrial-rock act PIG and author/singer/actress Sasha Grey have premiered the video for it via Pornhub before making it more widely available.

"I think it’s about time that people stop being ashamed and furtive in their relationship with PIG,” says band mastermind Raymond Watts about the song – a cover of the perennial classic by KC & the Sunshine Band – and video. "Being on Pornhub puts us in the mainstream and will stop the stigma that has been attached to the secret and underground world of listening to PIG. People can stop listening to us in darkened basements in constant fear of being exposed….our fans have lived in the fear of discovery for too long!"

Directed by Gabriel Edvy, the sexually-charged black and white video is a dark disco romp, shot intimately and playfully with disco balls, light BDSM and sweat. "The idea behind the video was how to bring a darker, more sinister overtone and texture to what seems to be an initially ‘upbeat’ song," says Watts. "The foreboding nature of the video is despite of rather than because of the bright shiny disco elements in the song. Although we use some imagery that suggests a good time is being had….all is maybe not as it seems, possibly a reflection on the current situation we see when looking around at what is happening today in the world. Who is it telling us that everything is better than we could possibly imagine and we are drowning in delusions and force fed lies? But whose lies? Which side of the mirror is looking through a broken lens?”

Watch the video here:

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