BeatRoute Magazine [AB] print e-edition - [September 2017]

Tricky
Queens of the Stone Age
Villains
Matador Records
Perhaps Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh
Homme’s most underrated talent is his ability
to make anything that he works on sound like
a QOTSA record, no matter the personnel involved.
That’s been true for the past six QOTSA
albums, and even with pop producer Mark
Ronson, it’s true for Villains.
While bringing Ronson, whose past credits include
Amy Winehouse and Bruno Mars, aboard
may seem like a leftfield move, the results are
almost disappointingly similar to 2015’s …Like
Clockwork, because, after all, to quote Josh
Homme himself on “Make It Wit Chu,” “Sometimes
the same is different, but mostly it’s the
same.”
Villains explodes out of the gate with “Feet
Don’t Fail Me,” a desert-noir foot stomper that
blends Ronson’s penchant for pop-funk with
QOTSA’s bong-ripping stoner rock. It’s not the
last time that blend of influences pays off well:
“The Evil Has Landed,” “Hideaway,” and “Un-Reborn
Again” all exude pomp and swagger while
still sounding like textbook QOTSA.
Album highlight “Domesticated Animals” is a
chugging, mixed-meter melee that builds to one
of the best rock choruses in recent memory and
a thrilling conclusion that finds bassist Michael
Schuman unleashing a bloodcurdling yell not
heard on a QOSTA album since Songs for the
Deaf.
It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but throughout
its runtime, Villains serves to cement QOSTA’s
reputation as one of the most consistently enjoyable
bands in modern rock music.
• Jamie McNamara
RALEIGH
Powerhouse Bloom
Independent
RALEIGH kind of rips. Powerhouse Bloom opens
with a short hit of percussion, followed by a
glimmering guitar voicing. What follows is a
meditative intro, a slow drum pattern, a bubbling
bass line, and a warm cello set the scene.
It isn’t until the first chorus, where a legitimate
guitar riff cuts through the bustling mix, where
it becomes clear that this is a bigger and more
mature RALEIGH than Sun Grenades and Grenadine
Skies.
It’s their third full-length release of bumpy
dream pop, but this time with sharper edges,
and a keen ear for pacing. RALEIGH has always
played with quick starts and stops, and stabbing
transitions, but mostly within the spectrum of
playfulness. Powerhouse Bloom cuts parts in
and out with precision, and with a completeness
of vision. The experimental but deliberate
studio production work here invites a tonal and
musical cohesiveness, filling in dead space with
ambient sounds and long reverb trails, and adding
texture with a grimey compression or phaser
on the vocals.
There is so much viscera and effect to
Powerhouse Bloom, it reeks of deliberation and
experimentation like we’ve come to expect from
RALEIGH, but with a force and dynamism that
transcends anything that’s come before.
• Liam Prost
the record to all-night dance party proportion.
The production is crisp, layered, full of tight,
hard hitting drums, unique sonic samples and
never ending drive. It’s easy to imagine that in a
decade or two from now that any track on this
album will push the volume up and soak a sun
filled drive with joyful nostalgia.
• Andrew R. Mott
Tchornobog
Tchornobog
I, Voidhanger Records
The murky, churning waters of the debut Tchornobog
album are not waters to be traversed
lightly. The riffs and production are clouded
in a thick haze, where the music can be heard,
but the delivery of the riffs sounds booming,
cavernous and epic. The listening experience
of the album is one that feels akin to being lost
in a vast underground cavern, hearing sounds
moving through the blackness but not quite
being able to parse where they are coming from.
The album sounds dissonant, hostile, and full of
ideas.
Even as far as simple metal structure goes,
the guitar playing is always strong and always
driving but never flashy; things drift from
moving at breakneck speeds to crunching to a
halt and moving into slower, heavier passages.
The way the songs are structured allows for a
huge wealth of ideas to be displayed over the
course of their epic runtimes, featuring both
heavy, memorable riffs and quieter moments
featuring saxophone and piano from time to
time as well. One negative that the album has is
that there seems to be little consistency through
any of the its four tracks. Although the album is
very consistent in tone, once the band finishes
playing a riff, they seem more or less done with
it. The album cycles ideas so many times over
the course of any of its songs that there seems
to be little reason the album couldn’t have been
one giant piece of music. That being said, all the
ideas presented on the album work very well,
and Tchornobog’s debut is easily one of the
strongest and most memorably alternative pieces
of extreme metal to be released this year.
• Greg Grose
The Royal Foundry
Lost in Your Head
Independent
Tricky
Ununiform
False Idols/!k7 Music
After putting out numerous singles and getting
heavy rotation on the terrestrial airwaves, the
quartet known as The Royal Foundry has finally
released its breakout album, Lost In Your Head.
First coming onto the Edmonton music scene
in 2013 as a newly-married alternative folk
duo, Jared Salte and Bethany Schumacher have
completely reinvented themselves with a solid
and well-defined electro-pop sound. Drawing
inspiration from the latest trends as well as
movements from ‘90s Brit pop and ‘70s progressive
rock, Salte and Schumacher dive deep into
the exploration of love and relationship on a
13-track explosion of youthful expression and
experimentation.
Salte’s vocals hold the consistent lead on
the record while Schumacher provides a subtle
harmonic reinforcement that sits just right
in the mix. Sprinkled like candy throughout
the LP, Schumacher’s timbre takes the fore in
anthemic elements that elevate the intensity of
I wonder, when you’re a dozen albums into a
storied career in the trip-hop game, is there still
enough creative gas in the tank? Apparently so,
if your name is Adrian Thaws.
The iconoclastic beat-maker and producer
still has a lot of issues to get off his chest and
he has some top-notch talent to help him out.
Biding his time between grime-swathed and
trap-infused tracks such as “Same As It Ever
Was, “It’s Your Day,” and “Bang Boogie” (with
Russian hip hop homie Scriptonite), the master
of melancholy plays it cool. Elsewhere, Tricky
glides around genres from some signature R&B
sultriness from the likes of labelmate Francesca
Belmonte (“New Stole”), to the slashing guitar
fuelled electro-banger of “Dark Days” (featuring
rising dub-pop princess Mina Rose), to a breathy
and sparse cover of Hole’s “Doll Parts” (from
avant-garde artist and former AA-model Avalon
Lurks). Of course, no Tricky oeuvre is complete
without a contribution from his most influen-
50 | SEPTEMBER 2017 • BEATROUTE