/r/RABM/

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Граница - "Знамя цвета ночи" (2012)

ГРАНИЦА "Знамя цвета ночи"

Year: 2012
Genre: Folk-Rock
Country: Ukraine 

Track List:
  1. Лютая погодка
  2. Знамя цвета ночи
  3. Кони вёрсты рвут намётом
  4. Ой, по коням сіли хлопці
  5. Ехали козаки домой
  6. Любо
  7. Батьку степ
  8. Чёрная шляпа
  9. Я в бой бросался с головой
  10. У полі жито
DOWNLOAD

In the wake of ongoing protests in Ukraine, it's time to remind that the history of protest movements in Ukraine isn't limited to "orange-ism". Since I already have posted a lot of non-metal folk albums, this folk-rock release would fit in too.

"Знамя цвета ночи" is a concept work about the story of Nestor Makhno's army. Some of the lyrics (tracks #1, #2, #7 and #9, for example) are actualy poetry of Makhno and his close associates. Tracks #4, #5, #6, #8, #10 are authentic folk, anarchist, & cossack songs (of course I mean real cossacks with their traditions of independence and self-governance, and not Putin-loving clowns in ridiculous pseudo-historical outfits that call themselves "cossacks" nowadays). The lyrics for track #3 were written by a modern anarchist author, V.Platonenko.

The band members themselves are from Donetsk (Donbass, Easten Ukraine - which isn't that far from Gulay-Pole, historical Makhno's headquarters). The music is very rich and interesting, definitely recommended to those who are interested in more "punk-ish" side of folk rock... and of course to everyone who's interested in the history of one of the greatest attempts of struggle for human liberation, which is Russian civil war in general, and the story of Makhno's Black Army in particular (the second greatest example of such struggle being Spanish civil war, and the third one is currently ongoing in Syrian Kurdistan).


Arxi Tou Telous - "Ptosi" (2013)

ARXI TOU TELOUS "Ptosi"

Year: 2013
Genre: Post-Punk, Noise Rock
Country: Greece 

Track List:
  1. Πόλεις (Cities) 
  2. Μονάδα μέτρησης άγχους (Stress counting unit) 
  3. Ξυπνάω στο σκοτάδι (Wake up in the dark) 
  4. Λαβύρινθος (Labyrinth) 
  5. Άφιξη (Arrival) 
  6. Οδύσσεια (Odyssey) 
  7. Θεοί και αφέντες (Gods and masters) 
  8. Πόλεμος Α.Ε. (War Inc.) 
  9. Χωρίς πρόσωπο (Without face)
DOWNLOAD

ATT is a non-metal project of the members of  Kil.Disneyland and Mother Disobedience, formed in 2000 in Athens and released several albums so far. Here's their newest full-length album called "Ptosi" ("Downfall"). To be honest, I don't fully understand this kind of music: it's pretty far from both punk and metal, rather no-wave/post-punk with darkwave/industrial elements, with (mostly) spoken word lyrics. However, if you like DIY experimental post-punk sound from the 80's (Swans etc.), you may find this album interesting.

blog

Friday, November 29, 2013

Sparrowhawk - "Harvest" (2013)

SPARROWHAWK "Harvest"

Year: 2013
Genre: Neofolk
Country: USA 

Track List:
  1. Siskiyou Malaise
  2. Starlit Fires, Surrender the Equinox
bandcamp

 One more Cascadian acoustic folk project, maybe not as good as Disemballerina, but still very decent. Sparrowhawk is a 3-piece project of Rowan, Zacharias and Ursula (members of Nuwisha and Plantrae), started in the autumn of 2013.

Disemballerina - s/t (2010)

DISEMBALLERINA "Disemballerina"

Year: 2010
Genre: Neofolk, Outsider Classical
Country: USA 

Track List:
  1. Saturn Return
  2. Thieves' Oil
  3. The Walking Dead
  4. Drown
  5. Hex
DOWNLOAD

"Disemballerina’s core commiserated and lit their first floor candles in 2009 with a friendship sparked between guitarist Ayla Holland and violist/harpist Myles Donovan. Veterans of many louder bands over the years in the D.I.Y. Metal scene on both coasts, the two bonded over a shared love of chamber music, funereal doom and ritualistic ceremony as well as a mutual estrangement in their participating subcultures due to being out, freakish and queer. Originally a 3 piece joined by cellist Melissa Collins, the band has gone through a number of other string players over the years, most recently last collaborating with Lost Lockets violinist Fiona Petra and currently Marit Schmidt of Vradiazei"

Even though it isn't metal at all, I think it should be here, as it's very beautiful music from Cascadia (namely Portland, OR) whose performers apparently share a lot of our views. As mentioned above, Disemballerina started as a 3-piece band, but now they have 4 members in their lineup:
  • Ayla Holland - guitar, bajo quinto, bandola
  • Myles Donovan - viola, harp, mandola
  • Jennifer Christensen (Møllehøj) - cello
  • Marit Schmidt - viola
They describe their style as "outsider classical / acoustic doom-metal / goth chamber music". While it's certainly not metal, they're definitely influenced by atmospheric BM and funeral doom (just like in case with another similar project, Hex Pertners). Anyway, this album is great, and I strongly recommend it for everyone.

Rintrah - "Messages from the Deep" (2011)

RINTRAH "Messages from the Deep"

Year: 2007-2011
Genre: Experimental
Country: USA 

Track List:
  1. Death Rattles
  2. Plum Creek Warning
  3. Into the Depths
  4. Revenge of the Beasts
"The Dark Wizard Rintrah has recorded one message each year since 2001. Sent to human beings from his cave home deep within the earth, the recordings seem to serve as warnings that humanity must cease its abuse and exploitation of the earth and its creatures or risk imminent extinction. The Message retrieval team has come to believe that the Dark Wizard Rintrah is himself a former human being"

Now, are you prepared for some really unusual stuff? Even though Rintrah's music is mostly influenced by black metal, it defies any genre categorization:  it has acoustic guitar, microtonal organ, and electronics/drum machine. Definitely not for everyone's liking, and even a lot of "unorthodox" metal fans may find this EP way too strange, but if you aren't sure whether to download it or not, you can listen to it first on bandcamp. Rintrah is from Maine / New England, and "Messages from the Deep" is a collection of four single-song demos from 2007-2011. Ideologically, Rintrah can be roughly described as anarcho-primitivist.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Haven't posted anything here for a long time due to serious problems with my internet connection. Right now the only option for me is to post via 3g modem, which is pretty slow, so I doubt I'd be able to upload much. Hope my co-editors will help me, though.

And right now I want to post this song, which is dedicated to various Kurdish resistance movements - including the YPG, which currently the last hope for Syria and the only significant armed group in the modern world that's heavily influenced by anarchist ideas (namely Murray Bookchin's anarcho-federalism):


Most people in this video aren't members of YPG, though - mostly HPG and other groups related to the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). Personally I don't know much about PKK, but the opinion of Kurdish anarchists on them (judging from the interviews I've read) is pretty low. YPG, on the other side, are a completely legit rebel group that has a lot of anarchist qualities, and they're doing very good in the recent few months - for example, they have completely defeated the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq & Levant in the whole region of Ras al-Ayn (northern Syria) with very little losses, and also took over the strategic town of Tel-Kojar (al-Yarubiya) near the border crossing with Iraq. With more than 40000 militants on their side (not only Kurds, but also Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians), YPG is currently one of the most powerful rebel armies in Syria.

Of course Cihan Kilic's song is hardly metal, but unfortunately there's not much Kurdish rock & metal at all - most of their political music is folk and rap. Check out this band from Turkish Kurdistan, though:


That'll be enough for today, I think. Hope I'd be able to post at least some more music in the next few weeks (I have a lot of submissions, but i definitely don't think I'd be able to post all of it on my own...)