IN ROTATION: Our most played albums in May 2020

TOM BOATMAN’S MAY IN ROTATION LIST

So, May in Prague, Czech Republic, perhaps not too dissimilar from wherever you spent your month. Here face-masks became mandatory in public a long time ago (only now things are relaxed a little). All coffee shops and restaurants were shut (that’s also relaxed a bit now). I’ve been one of the lucky ones that haven’t really been hugely impacted. My day job is an English teacher, so I’ve been teaching online. I’ve been working less, but it’s enough. Cabin fever has mostly been avoided, as I can go out walking or running and to be honest, I’m not that sociable these days anyway. You might expect that I’d be using all this free time to listen to music 24/7, but to be honest a lot of the time I just want some peace and quiet. When I was working out what I’d been listening to in May I realised how often I don’t have music on. Nonetheless it’s all relative, I still listened to my fair share. Here’s what I found myself reaching for more often than not…

Candiria – 300 Percent Density
Century Media Records – May 2001

I discovered CANDIRIA many years ago and from what I remember at the time I wasn’t quite ready for the whirlwind of sudden time-signature shifts and jazz interludes. I was more after straight ahead pounding metal. Since then though I’ve grown to appreciate more head-melting flavours of metal. What got me back into the band first of all is an appreciation for how awesome the drummer Ken Schalk is. When the band wants to go hard, they absolutely slam and when they want to explore the outer realms they’ll go wherever they want; a little jazz, a little hip-hop, hardcore, no sweat. You might feel like calling this math-rock or math-metal, but it’s just one aspect of the CANDIRIA palette. They’ve gone through a few transitions, but everything they’ve done is worth checking out. This is as good a place as any to start though.

Oxbow – The Narcotic Story
Hydra Head Records – June 2007

I’m sure I’ve written about OXBOW in so many In Rotation pieces by now that I’m just going to be repeating myself at this stage. Though the band have strayed into more overtly “metal” terrain (see “An Evil Heat”), for the most part that’s not really what they’re about. “The Narcotic Story” might be the band’s most lush sounding album (I think the producer won a grammy), but strip away the strings and other orchestral instrumentation and the core is always wirely aggressive, angular guitars, jazzy drums and bass lines and a frontman in Eugen S. Robinson that you could never mistake for any other. OXBOW bring 100% intensity and they do it without having to resort to overdriven guitars or double bass pedals. An acquired taste for sure, but give them a shot and you might come to appreciate why it’s rare that more than a couple of days ever go by without me listening to this band (and none of their albums are anything less than inspired).

Skin – Shame, Humility, Revenge
Product Inc. – 1988

The musical career of Michael Gira has taken a good few twists and turns, often dark and abrasive in one way or another. In 1987 his main musical vehicle SWANS were entering into an understated folk-infused phase and came out with what could be their greatest musical statement “Children of God”. While a lot of the band’s albums went out of print, most (including COG) have been reissued. However from around the same time, an offshoot of Gira and collaborator (and former partner) Jarboe called SKIN released two excellent albums “Blood, Women, Roses” (with Jarboe as the lead vocalist) and “Shame, Humility, Revenge” (with Gira taking the lead). These three albums have become my absolute favourite material by Gira and this album in particular has such a blackly, seductive darkness to it. Dispensing with percussion, the droning baritone of Gira is accompanied by keyboards, piano and acoustic guitars and on the wonderful “Breathing Water” oboe, viola, cello and violins, to create something almost ambient that’s seedy, mysterious and sounds like it might be heard in a smokey Moroccon cafe at 2am. 

Sonic Youth – Sister
SST – June 1987

Coincidentally a band that used to play shows with SWANS back when both bands were starting out (apparently SONIC YOUTH would play first and then SWANS would go on stage and clear the room), I was listening to SONIC YOUTH in my teens, many years before I ever heard of SWANS. The band had been out of my mind for years, but when I was given a record player for a birthday present last year I decided I’d pick up a vinyl copy of this. One of the band’s best I think. Abrasive and yet full of catchy hooks. SONIC YOUTH are always identifiable by their chaotic guitar experimentation, but the talents of drummer Steve Shelley to hold it all together should not be overlooked. Strange, experimental rock music, in an age where it could just happily be weird in its own little corner before everything became so self-conscious. And NAPALM DEATH just recently covered “White Cross” by the way. They know what’s up.

Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals – Walk Through Exits Only
Seasons of Mist – July 2013

Maybe it’s in part because I’ve listened to the classic PANTERA and DOWN albums so much in the past, but when I want some Phil Anselmo action these days this is the album I reach for more often than not. It took a couple of listens before these songs emerged from what seemed like one chaotic mess in the beginning, but I’ll put it on the record that I consider this one of the best metal albums of the last 10 years. It’s heavy, wild, inventive, dangerous. I love it. I’m glad that I saw THE ILLEGALS before they moved into playing a full PANTERA set. Getting to see the band play a few PANTERA tracks was awesome, but the material from this and the follow-up album should not be overlooked (though I do prefer this to the next album). If you listened to this once and thought it sounded like a mess, give it another go. It’s worth it.

Tom Boatman