Louis Korom IV

Louis Korom IV is a writer and designer living in Denton, Texas.

 

Free Download Friday
Listen to this.

Pequeña Fiera!: Mountains were Monsters
2010, Error! Lo-Fi Recordings
This album is available as a free download here.

I am intrigued by the bigfoot-looking cartoon character on the cover of Pequeña Fiera!’s record, Mountains were Monsters.  I’m intrigued because I wonder whether it is the inspiration for this whimsical collection of lo-fi recordings or whether the character was created out of listening to the music.  His story certainly seems to be for me the story of this record. …Continue reading this entry

 

Free Music Friday.
Best New Music
Diego Bernal: Besides…
2010, Exponential Records
This album is available as a free download here.

This album just might be the coolest thing I’ve heard all year.  This is the kind of music you would imagine rolling through Danny Trejo’s head while he’s walking into the grocery store or something.  And yet, despite this “cool” feeling, there’s something warm and familiar about what’s going on here that makes this record special. …Continue reading this entry

 

Free Music Friday

Johan Lundin contacted me a couple weeks ago via last.fm about a release from his label by Azoora.

You can’t really know the netlabel world without knowing about 23 Seconds.  The label features a diverse set of musicians that doesn’t fit regularly into the electronic-music type mold that usually gets assigned to netlabels.  There is a wealth of genres represented, and this round-up of 23 Seconds’ most recent releases shares a fraction of what they have to offer. …Continue reading this entry

 

Free Release Friday
Best New Music.
Power und Beauty: The Gnome E.P.
2010, Peppermill Records

This album is available as a free download here.

The netlabel world is typically a world of ambient electronica experimentalism.  This is not a bad thing, but finding a brilliant little exhuberant acoustic-based E.P. like Power und Beauty’s The Gnome E.P. …Continue reading this entry

 

Best New Music
Hanalei: One Big Night
2010, Big Scary Monsters Recording Company/Brick Gun

In the early 2000s, Chicago was a haven for Jawbreaker-esque punk rock bands that rocked.  Out of the scene came no less than the Alkaline Trio and the Lawrence Arms.

People forget the contributions of the other bands affiliated with the scene.  One of the contributing acts was Brian Moss’ ‘The Ghost.’ That band, as I remember it, was better known for the band that it came from, San Francisco’s ‘The Wunder Years.’ I had seen The Wunder Years on several cheap-o compilations throughout that late 90s and always liked what they did.  Brian never gained a huge following like Matt Skiba, the Alkaline Trio’s lead singer.  He never really had the cult following that Brendan Kelly, the lead singer of the Lawrence Arms, did either. …Continue reading this entry

 

Free Release Friday.
Best New Music.

The Strait of Anain: This Wandering Winter
2010, Qunabu
This album is available for free download here.

Precision is the logical complement to delicacy.  It is the choice to be precise that reveals sensitivity to environment, which reveals what the artist is delicate about.  It is only in environment that truly delicate choices come through, because the delicate choices are the most emotionally effectual. …Continue reading this entry

 



Free Release Friday
Listen to this.

Socket Science: Ephedra
2010, Astor Bell

Free Download

Socket Science’s second release, Ephedra, is a study in themes and hooks.  Each of the album’s three tracks study similar territory–poppy, danceable, moderate-speed electronic music that begs to be in rotation in most people’s iPods.

There are few complaints that I have with this record, other than the criminally small track number.  Socket Science’s studies of pop hooks and melodic themes sound short despite their anthemic time span.  The tracks are probably too long for the casual listener, certainly far too long for any kind of radio play, however the hooks are so solid you will want to hear their repetition constantly. …Continue reading this entry

 

Listen to this.
Samantha Crain: You (Understood)
2010, Ramseur Records / Thirty Tigers

Samantha Crain’s voice is a star.  She doesn’t sing in your typical Billie Holiday-faked warble, though she does have a throatiness that might remind you of that cliché.  She also doesn’t bubble and brim with bubbly glee, the other major trend for most female singer-songwriters at the moment.  What she offers is earnest songwriting with a rustic flair that is indicative of her Oklahoma roots, yet doesn’t pander to VH1 or the former staff writers of No Depression.  These are songs that are real and it shows. …Continue reading this entry

 


Free Release Friday
Suns: The Howl and the Many & Close Calls in the U.S. Space Program
2010, Self-Released
Available as a free download here.

Rating: 8.3 / 7.5

The only appropriate adjective for Suns would be ‘savage.’ And while the term is appropriate enough, it wouldn’t do justice to the absolute immensity that embodies the intensity of the band on these two releases.  This set of free EPs, The Howl and the Many and Close Calls in the U.S. …Continue reading this entry

 

Best New Music
How to Destroy Angels: How to Destroy Angels
Self-Released
Available as a Free Download Here

Rating: 8.8

I am of the opinion that Trent Reznor is and remains a genius.  At the same time, I believe him to be an auteur, an artist with a highly developed aesthetic that essentially defines his work. …Continue reading this entry

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