Ask Moka

Well, let's see:

Lyrics are not that important to me as english is not my first language. This means instrumental music is ok.

I love dancing or head-bobbing when listening to music so I definitely appreciate some "groove". Drums and bass over guitars and vocals. I like listening to hip hop per example even though I don't really get like 70% of the lyrics which is one of the main strenghts and arguably the purpose of hip hop, I know, but if the beat is doing something weird or grooving I don't mind. I'm more a fan about the production of hip hop and sampling culture, then.

Production is important depending on the context... so in that aspect anything goes as long as it enhances the sound. If a lo-fi, demo sound fits the sound of the band I don't care but if you have a great musician in the band and the production keeps sending him to the background then I just get frustrated.

I don't mind 30 second or 30 minute songs.

Textures are nice too, I very rarely do drugs but I love weird, slightly psychedelic details in a song.

Does that help?

try the new oranssi pazuzu

https://oranssipazuzu.bandcamp.com/ ?
Lol xp!

Thirded!

Maybe also Nachtmystium's Assassins: Black Meddle, Part I, if you don't know it? One of my favourite metal albums.

Hahaha ok scratch what I said about metal fans not reaching consensus. thank you, will listen when I get home.

Also if you're into groove, I would say Sepultura's Roots has some of the best swingin' non-mook grooves

cant help but think that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transilvanian_Hunger

is a really good place to start if you want lofi that actually works and enhances the sound.

the oranssi pazuzu is defo the album id recommend from 2016 that could appeal to a non-metalhead who doesnt just want a pop metal album.

I also think you might like Mesarthim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTH96p56Fsg

Thank you! Also if it helps here's the few metal albums I own (some of them on vinyl yes!)

Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Sunn O)) - black one
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Burzum - hvis lyset tar oss
Om - Conference of the birds
Evoken - Quietus
Shape of Despair - angels of distress

A very sad and brief collection I know... there's probably others which I'm forgetting...I also have wolfheart by moonspell although that one was a gift, I like it but it's not my favorite, I do like the deep voice of the vocalist tho. Almost bought Baroness ok vinyl because the artwork was beautiful but I don't really know their music or if they're good.

records everyone should own so a good collection (though id not buy burzum as i wont gove him money so i pirate that stuff)

Baroness are great

The Burzum one was given to me by a friend as a joke gift for secret santa... he expected me to hate it but I actually enjoyed it!

Why wouldn't you give him money? I do not know anything about burzum.

Oh wait I just read the wikipedia article, damn that's fucked up.

Some groove, bass and drums over guitars, vocals 100% indecipherable. Lots of psychedelic details, occasional samples, 30 minute songs, not nazis: Ufomammut does things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLHR8BrU5B0

Thank you! Keep em coming I will listen to every recommendation.

what did you think of that Mesarthim track?

I still haven't listened! Want to get home and listen on headphones... I'm on my cellphone now and it's a huge disservice to listen to any album on iphone speakers.

Everyone should listen to Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

Ohhhh and my very favourite recent (ish) metal album is Akhlys - The Dreaming I

I don't know if it's something to do with the cover but...
http://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Akhys-The-Dreaming-I-01-300x300.jpg

Something about it makes me think of a short section in The Picture of Dorian Grey where (if I recall correctly) he wonders about a bunch of seedy opium dens.

Ok finished listening to your recommendations! Quick opinions

Nachtmystium's Assassins - Black Meddle, Part I

I really like what's going on musically on this one... Meddle is my favorite Pink Floyd album so the reference piqued my interest.. it even opens with a Pink Floyd 'cover' so you know from the start this will be a mix of hard + psychedelic+ metal. Ghosts of Grace was my favorite one in here on first listen. I'm not a fan of the prominent black metal vocals tbh but I can see myself going back to this one.

Sepultura - Roots
Yeah I'm familiar with this one.. I was the bass player in a sort of post-punk band back in highschool and the drummer was a big fan of Sepultura. I can see why a drummer would love this, the drumming sounds really good. Impressive this comes from Brazil and in 1996... it sounds like 'nu metal' but you know, good (it was probably a big influence on many nu-metal bands?).

Oranssi Pazuzu - Varahtelija
Whoa! Saturaatio is a banger... I really like this mix of space rock + black metal. Also the vocals are only there for like 3 minutes out of 12. There's tribal beats and a vibraphone on the next track! Oh I really like this one... it sounds like some of the best songs out of Grails - Black Tar Prophecies. There's vocals in the middle but then they continue doing that sort of hypnotic dark jam session. Title track has a nice bass. Hypnotisoitu sounds like Krautrock at its maddest... it's the most epic track so far... ok , yes I really like this thank you for the recommendation!

Mesarthim - Orbiting
This has some hints of 80's guitar riffs and even some synthpop melody... it kind of reminds me of Policy of Truth by Depeche Mode? but, you know mixed with hard rock guitars and death metal vocals in space.... I don't know what to make of it because it's very alien to me hahaha yet but it is very interesting! I kind of like it, still undecided. Need to take time to digest this one.

Ufomammut
Ah yes! What do you call this kind of metal? Is it Sludge metal? Stoner metal? Doom? Heavy Psych? Whatever it is this is right up my alley, Dopethrone is one of my favorite albums of the 00's and this sounds close to it so I love it. Heard the top songs on spotify: Lacrimosa, Stigma and Somnium. All three are excellent. I specially liked Stigma, there's some weird vibrato sound in the closing minute and the whole song sounds like a Black Sabbath tape slowed down. I don't know what metal fans think about it but this is awesome to me.

Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk
I'm sorry I do not like this. It kind of has some medieval + 80's style in the riffing and some flutes and violins and fantasy themes and I don't really like that sort of metal, maybe toned down but this one is definitely not toned down hahaha it sounds dorky to me and not in the cool way. Terribly sorry :s... I have a friend who will love this though, tho I'm sure he knows them already.

Akhlys - The Dreaming I
This sounds very well produced! It's very busy obviously with all the metal going on so it's hard to tell but there's some many textures and ideas going on. Also wow, that drummer is insane! It sounds like a chopper from time to time, is that a double pedal or a synth or what? I'm not a fan of music this 'extreme' but the production really helps making this stand out from most metal I've heard in this style. I really like this one too.

Overall nice recommendations everyone! Really enjoyed listening to those.

I'm partial to Ufomammut's Eve for it's Catholic iconography made audible. All their albums are very good - at some point each one has a huge, simple gut-punching riff where minutes of tension resolve. I'd rank Snailking and Oro: Opus Alter right up there. Those weird vibrato sounds are generally recordings of synth oscillators, which they play along to live, kinda like Who's Next.

nice write-ups Moka

the medieval+80s description of Emperor is spot-on I guess. it is a fairly old album (early-90s) and they were barely out of their teens when they made it. it's probably aged a little since then. Glad you liked Akhlys though- yeah its the textures I like best. long ambient parts and followed by impressively extreme outbursts

I liked the UFOMammut album I heard, but also it made me think I was listening to an extended version of 'Battle' by Blur

Also if you're into groove, I would say Sepultura's Roots has some of the best swingin' non-mook grooves

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Thursday, 15 December 2016 17:24 (four weeks ago) Permalink

yooo not my thread but i've been jamming since reading this post. thx

http://rs136.pbsrc.com/albums/q165/zhorn11/Headbang-1.gif~c200

hey Moka, do you feel safe living/working in Mexico? some say it's rather violent but maybe that's mostly (certain areas in) the capital?

I live by the belly of the country in a city called Aguascalientes. 1M population and it’s pretty safe, most common crime is robbery I suppose, we don’t really have narco problems in this city. There are many parts of Mexico which are pretty much narcostates though. Of the big cities Mexico City and Monterrey are safe in that regard, Guadalajara is a fucking mess right now as it has been pretty much hijacked by the cartel nueva generacion and has had escalating violence for 5+ years but it’s still somewhat safe. Cartels operate in non-touristic spots (or at least they stopped being touristic due to the cartels’ short-sighted stupidity like Colima or Acapulco)

It’s a big country, as long as you steer clear from certain hot areas you’ll be fine. Are you planning a visit? which places are you planning to visit?

no plans, was just thinking about it

thanks for yr kind answer :)

do you know this song Mrs. Moka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWIVntoOPFk

I didn’t! I bought Pure Guava and Chocolate and Cheese back in the 90’s and I love them but my version of the album did not have any outtakes. Cool song from a cool band.

moka what was yer first record

First casette bought by my parents was La Onda Vaselina. A popular kid’s band in Mexico that made covers of 50’s and 60’s rocknroll, doo wop, r&b hits in Spanish

https://www.discogs.com/es/La-Onda-Vaselina-La-Onda-Vaselina/master/731981

First time seeing the music video for this one before, I’m speechless: https://youtu.be/yvXmsKzKFlE

First cassette I bought for myself with my allowance was the Lion King soundtrack. I must’ve played it until my parents ears were numb.

First cd I bought was Mezzanine by Massive Attack. It makes me sound cooler than what I was. I watched the singing phoetus video of Teardrop on MTV and both the video and the song were mindblowing for me... I was around 12 or 13 I think. Bought the cd, played “teardrop” for the better part of a year but didn’t really care about the rest lf the album until I heard it a couple of years later. Felt like an idiot for dismissing the album earlier.

First mp3 I downloaded was Bolero Falaz by Aterciopelados. I didn’t know the song before downloading I just liked the name of the band and the title of the song after reading about them in a magazine (translates as The Velvets - Bolero of Lies) and said why not? This was before the youtube days, in the obscure internet days when you could spend 5 hours downloading a song in Napster and sometimes get trolled with another song.

https://youtu.be/GEe-G4w0ifc

First song I streamed... I’ve no idea.

The video for Aterciopelados is actually kind of cool.

Hey everyone. As I’ve mentioned before April/ May in Aguascalientes is the national fair and I usually run a latin club and a bar in there. This time I’ll be running three places, one of them will be on an old, really big colonnial house fits around 1,800 people and we’ll be having djs all month.

Claptone, Guy Gerber, Popof, Nic Fanciulli, Archie Hamilton, Bufi, Nobu, Zombies in Miami + several national djs and a couple of more international ones to be confirmed (crossing fingers for Kolsch). I’ll be associated with bar americas which have been working hard on promoting the electronic scene in mx for almost two decades.

More info here:

https://m.facebook.com/baramericas/

Anyhoo if you have plans to visit Mexico around this month, send me a line.

?

Question for Mexicans: if there was to be a music festival in Mexico at a resort featuring your favourite bands, would you consider going? Do you know any good places? This is an innocent question btw.😉

— stuart murdoch (@nee_massey) August 25, 2019

Yup, this is why I’m asking. The point of doing a thing in Mexico would be to do it for Mexicans.. or in Brazil for Brazilians. There’s no point otherwise. 👍🏽 https://t.co/fhKQhLWjlt

— stuart murdoch (@nee_massey) August 25, 2019

The only resorts that can hold a festival are all in beach areas. I’d consider Melody Maker hotel in Cancun (actually specializes in doing massive music events inside the resort) or Vidanta in Nuevo Vallarta (huge area, thousands of rooms and great production value, they’re even making a Cirque du Soleil amusement park inside the hotel grounds)

Feel free to forward the answer to stuart as I don’t have a twitter account :)