New Music

Well, not strictly brand new. But it’s new to me. Some of these bands/collaborations have been around for years. I always was late to the party when it came to music! I’m a fan of what’s been described variously as darkcore/darkwave music – brooding, bass-filled music to be listened to in a darkened room. And one of the bands I stumbled across recently are called “Collide”, and they’re based in Hollywood, California (where they make all the movies ‘n shit).

The Secret Meeting - Ultrashiver

Initially I was really only interested in their collaboration with a guy called Dean Garcia, who’s awesomeness I’ve been following since the days of “Curve” in 1991. If you’ve never listened to “Curve”, go find a CD copy of their album Cuckoo, whack it on your CD player, turn up the volume, turn out the lights, and enjoy. But I digress! The collaboration between Dean & Collide was named “The Secret Meeting” – and the result is an album called Ultrashiver. Not to put too fine a point on it, the album is great – anyone familiar with Dean’s work in Curve and elsewhere (I’m talking about things like “Headcase”), or those who have heard his solo tracks that were available from the now-disappeared deangarcia.com will love it. They may even recognise some of the tracks, with added vocals from KaRIN.

Clicking on the album cover should take you to Collide’s noiseplus music store, where they sell all of their own albums, along with those of a number of other bands. On the site you can also hear clips from the various albums. Or if you’re not ready to buy on my recommendation alone, try looking for Collide at last.fm, where you can hear a lot of their tracks for free.

Anyway, the point I’m getting to is that despite initially only being interested in the “Secret Meeting” stuff, I thought I’d take a bit of a punt on a Collide album, and bought Chasing The Ghost. And ever since then, I can’t shake the third track from my head. And now, to try and get the tune in your head as well…. take a look at the video… 😉

Since then I’ve moved on to buying more “Collide” albums (Some Kind Of Strange and Two Headed Monster), along with another Dean Garcia collaboration, this time as “SPC ECO”. The album 3-D features Dean’s daughter Rose Berlin’s vocals as well as the guitars of Joey Levinson, and it’s definitely worth listening to.

And last but by no means least, I’m listening to the latest “Placebo” album – Battle For The Sun, and trying to work my way through their back catalogue. I was always vaguely aware of the band, but it wasn’t really until Meds that I sat down and really paid them some attention. Battle For The Sun hasn’t grown on me quite as much as Meds did, although that was a bit of a slow-burn too.

In all, I’d recommend every single one of the bands & albums mentioned above, either as a listen on whatever music service you subscribe to (last.fm, spotify, comes with music, napster, zune, etc.), as a download, or by the old-fashoined method of buying the CDs. If anyone’s listened to the albums, I’d be interested to hear what you think of them in the comments…and whether you can shift “Razor Sharp” from your head yet…! 🙂

~ by richiebabee on July 11, 2009.