Roger Waters, former frontman of Pink Floyd, releases his own version of the classic album, The Dark Side of The Moon Redux, for better or worse

Roger Waters - The Dark Side of The Moon Redux Analysis and Review

Introduction

For the past 50 years we've been graced with one of the most defining albums of all time. One would think that any attempt to "redo" or remake an album of this magnitude, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of The Moon, which we reviewed a few weeks ago, would be a foolish task, but the world's been shown that there are creative ways to honor and cover the original material. Back in 2003, reggae collective Easy Star All-Stars released their marijuana smoke-infused Dub Side of The Moon, and then in 2010, Dubber Side of The Moon. The Flaming Lips did their own take with Stardeath and White Dwarfs, giving their remake the same name to a more mixed reception. Overall it shows the appreciation and influence these talented artists have felt from the 1973 masterpiece so much so that paying tribute is mostly a badge of honor.

Animal Collective's second album in a year and a half, Isn't It Now?, proves the group is in top neopsychedelic form

Animal Collective - Isn't It Now? Review

Animal Collective, a band formed from a small group of childhood friends, are a class all their own. Whether you love them or hate them, there can be no in between. This is how deeply committed they are to their songs. From their rather small and humble beginnings making music from their debut Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished, the playful melodies were always there, either prominent or buried under their experimental avant-garde well of sounds.

Masterpiece Crate #5: Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of The Moon

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon 50th Anniversary Analysis and Review

Update: our review of Roger Waters’ The Dark Side of The Moon Redux is now live for those who want a comparison review of this classic album.

Time keeps on changing, but what is timeless remains the true feat of human and artistic achievement. When it comes to our Masterpiece Crate series, there is one guiding principle through each of these albums: they are undisputed, stone-cold classics. Nothing can be more true then for this album we have been gifted 50 years ago by one of the most forward-thinking bands of their time, Pink Floyd, with arguably the most successful worldwide album in modern music history, The Dark Side of The Moon.

The Beach Boys - Sail on Sailor - 1972 Boxset drives home the brilliance of this magical and underrated period of Beach Boys history

The Beach Boys - Sail On Sailor - 1972 Boxset Review

 

We live in a time where the excess of everything in media can feel overwhelming; that there's so much music, film, and entertainment to consume that nothing feels sacred anymore and nearly everything that's made has been touched upon before. The question of deep and soulful music that stands out in the sea of music past and present can be answered with the many greats who have graced our collective culture, however, none of them have had as varied and tumultuous of a career as the brilliant yet personally flawed Beach Boys. Their latest archival boxset of unreleased live and studio recordings focuses on a time when the magic of music made them and changed them for the better. 

My Top 100 All-Time Albums

My Top 100 Music Albums

After stumbling across an excellent website, neverendingchartrendering.org, I realized that I could take a crack at putting together a top 100 album list. The resulting list is my top 100 albums of all time from my own personal music journey. 

Transatlantic duo Configa and Hastyle unleash The ConfigHas Crates, setting hip-hop ablaze!

Configa Presents: The ConfigHas Crates Review

Hip-hop has been through many trends over the years. As the founding hip-hop genre has inevitably morphed into subgenres such as east and west coast hip-hop, underground, gangsta rap, conscious rap, crunk, southern rap, trap, mumble rap, etc., the prevailing sound has always been real hip-hop. Old heads remind the younger generations of aspiring artists and avid fans, while newer players help by keeping the style alive. The ConfigHas Crates is no different, as transatlantic duo Configa (beats) and Hastyle (rhymes) prove that no "body" can keep these two talented artists apart for this compilation, exhumed, electrified, and brought back to life. 

Earth’s Full Upon Her Burning Lips (2019) is an awesome showcase of doom metal, and probably the ultimate example of metal you can chill to

Earth - Full Upon Her Burning Lips Review

Earth, a group that helped to define and form the genre of ambient metal, doom, drone, or stoner metal, has had multiple releases since the early 1990s. Taking elements from grunge and other forms of heavy metal music, Earth's founding member Dylan Carlson was notably friends with Kurt Cobain. Earth's origins in Seattle also explain this emerging hub of hard rock music that continues to be a haven of major and independent music to this day. Their latest release was last year's Full Upon Her Burning Lips, and while I am guilty of sleeping on this instrumental album, Earth has remained a personal favorite of mine, as they defined the perfect form of metal that you can relax to. Full Upon Her Burning Lips builds upon their previous releases and makes for an engrossing showcase of strong and steady guitar riffs and atmospheric drums and percussion. 

Long Island artists Thomas Coppola and Fendii release their collaborative album, Fendii Flannel!

Thomas Coppola - Fendii Flannel Review

Amid the bleak worldwide pandemic, both major and independent music has been thumping and more alive than ever. Artists’ projects that have been cooking for the majority of 2020 and some of 2019 show that the perseverance to survive and thrive is strong in artists. We have covered Thomas Coppola's previous album releases, Dusty and Cold Cuts, and have even featured him in our first ever interview! Suffice it to say, Coppola has come a long way, and releasing just on Halloween is Coppola's entirely produced collaborative album with rapper Fendii, Fendii Flannel! 

Amorphous and constantly reinventing heavy metal-alternative rock group Obsidian Kingdom drop their third genre-smashing album, MEAT MACHINE - Album Review

Obsidian Kingdom - MEAT MACHINE Review

Obsidian Kingdom are no strangers to change, as we have seen from our exclusive interview with them. By their third full-length LP, they have proven themselves as masters of reinvention with a talent for displaying a wide swath of genre sensibilities. It all started with their debut maxi-single, Matter, a 5-track black-metal ode to the elements. Their follow-up EP, 3:11, showed a tighter production quality with 3 massive songs, but still treading familiar waters. What really set Obsidian Kingdom apart was their full-length debut, Mantiis, a sprawling single song concept album subdivided into 14 tracks that go from theatrical, to hard rock, to heavy black metal, and back, all with elements of electronic music and other styles. What it did essentially was take the overarching genre of heavy metal and lit it on fire. A Year With No Summer was no different. Released in 2016, the group blended more elements of drone metal, electronic atmospheres, and alternative rock. Now, just a month ago, MEAT MACHINE defines Obsidian Kingdom as their own trailblazers. 

Masterpiece Crate #4: Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral Analysis and Review

Alternative and grunge rock were left for dead in the wake of Alice In Chains' punishing grunge-metal-hybrid album, Dirt, which we covered in our Masterpiece Crate #2. It was an album that ignited mainstream culture in a way that no other heavy metal act could do at the time, and there was almost no way another album could top the sheer aggressive tones and tonal density caught on tape and pressed into their sophomore record. However, another challenger approached, just two years later, and this time, it brought another genre with it into the worldwide spotlight. To call this album mainstream (despite its worldwide commercial success) would be a disservice to its ultimate goal, which was to peel back the skin of superficiality, but its overall effect on mainstream culture still reverberates to this day. This album shook the world with its naked honesty in its final track, while still showing the world how sexy, dirty, and seductive it feels getting closer to God. That album became known as The Downward Spiral, released in 1994 by studio mastermind, visionary, and musician, Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails.

Sunn O)))'s twin album releases, Life Metal and Pyroclasts (2019), are a fantastic entry point into drone metal - Album reviews

Sun O))) - Life Metal and Pyroclasts Reviews

Two releases that have escaped me over the past year were from drone metal gods, Sunn O))) (pronounced just Sun, and aptly named after the popular Sunn amplifiers which ceased operation in 2002), with their half-improvised, half-composed twin albums, Life Metal, and Pyroclasts. For any newcomers to this genre of mammoth sounds and drastically slowed reverberations, these two (relatively) new releases cement this duo's legacy as drone metal pioneers and an awesome entry point for anyone interested in pulling back the veil of the eternal void.

Life Metal

Sufjan Stevens releases his 8th mainline studio album, the lush, electronic, and heartfelt The Ascension - Album Review

Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension Review

As an accomplished and fan-favorite indie musician marching to the beat of his own drum, Sufjan (pronounced SOOF-yahn) Stevens has mastered nearly every corner of electronic and indie rock productions, often recording either bare-bones recordings that put his breathy vocals and a single instrument in the forefront, or creating a lush atmosphere of electronic orchestrations. The Ascension takes all of this growth over the past 20 years of his career and places it affirmatively into a seminal album full of love and hope. 

The Flaming Lips latest LP expertly crafts sonic psychedelia, detailing pastime youth, family, drugs, and death, but in the present year, does anybody care? American Head Album Review

The Flaming Lips - American Head Review

For a band as determined to explore all of the inner space that can possibly be explored, The Flaming Lips have done it yet again, but for all the sadness they seem to drudge up from either the past or their own lingering thoughts, there doesn't seem to be much new ground to be made. 

Banditfide - Banditfide Album Review

Banditfide - Banditfide Review

Tryna Get It Entertainment presents Banditfide Sh*t, the latest LP from Pittsburgh hip-hop group, Banditfide, which stars D Tha Don, Ruzee Ru Sbz, and Queenie Moët.

The debut album is a promise of greatness and unending drive that doesn't pull any punches, and while each member has their own careers ahead of them, Banditfide Sh*t displays strength and prominence of the Pittsburgh trio as they come together.

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts V: Together & Ghosts VI: Locusts Album Reviews

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts Reviews

Just over 12 years since the debut of the instrumental, ambient, and cinematic soundscape series Ghosts I-IV, seasoned film and television composer duo, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, aka Nine Inch Nails, release their surprise twin albums Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts, to help aid an ailing world in the midst of a global pandemic crisis.

BeanieDon - Not The Usual Album Review and Upcoming Tour

BeanieDon - Not The Usual Review

Our other headlining act for the Beast To Blessed Tour (which kicks off TONIGHT in Brooklyn, NY!) is the multi-faceted and soulful hip-hop artist, BeanieDon!

Hailing from Stratford, Connecticut, BeanieDon is currently on tour in support of his few upcoming singles as well as his last LP, Not The Usual, which was released in May of 2019. For any listeners who are just getting to know him, it's important to understand just how deep, spiritual, and forward-thinking Beanie is. Available on all streaming platforms, Not The Usual is an example of passion and art coalesced and manifested into one singular vision.

Beyond Top Secret Interview & Last Train To Hollywood Review

Beyond Top Secret Interview and Last Train To Hollywood Review

Allll aboard!!! 

New England hip-hop group Beyond Top Secret release their latest full-length album, Last Train To Hollywood, in concert with their East and West coast headlining tour!!

Dropping March 6 and currently up for preorder, New England hip-hop group Beyond Top Secret are in their prime with their third full-length release, Last Train To Hollywood, a super mix of multi-genre beats and strong-as-steel lyrics that will put a chokehold on any haters who get in the way.

Nary Da Producer - The Chill Out Volume I Review

Following our at-length interview with Pittsburgh hip-hop beat maker Nary Da Producer, there's a lot to unpack. Whether it's his most recent productions, such as Cuban Pete's single Nothin's Gonna Stop Me, or his fulfillment of a childhood dream in producing four cuts for a Wu-Tang Clan affiliate, on Solomon Child's 2019 album Wu-Tang BBQ, Nary is hitting the bars of his MPC hard, and now, swerving in just in time for the holidaze is Nary Da Producer's first in a themed series of beat tapes, The Chill Out Volume I!

DJ Shadow - Our Pathetic Age Review

Just over a month from the end of a decade, there's been more change in the Internet age than ever before. As the rise in social media, influencers, and connectivity continues to grow, so too do the anxieties, concerns, and questions that our artificial and intelligent world continues to pose. There's a lot to be concerned over, but there's still room for hope. If there was ever an album to sum up what's happened to us globally in the past ten years, then it is DJ Shadow's latest full-length album, Our Pathetic Age, an affecting and universal double LP that features genre-bending electronica, hip-hop, and heart.

Update: Satellite Beats: Earliest Transmissions OUT NOW!

Update: Satellite Beats - Earliest Transmissions Release

How do I begin? Satellite Beats... Where do I go from here? DJ Dark Flow... As an aspiring songwriter and musician, a 15-16-year-old me was lucky enough to collect and get my hands on various electronic equipment, a keyboard, an acoustic and electric guitar, and a digital recorder. With these circuits and machinery, I was able to begin to fulfill my dream and passion for songwriting by creating acoustic, electronic, and industrial atmospheres full of mystery and dread, and from this era of my musical experimentation, I produced a lot of wide-ranging material under my first musical alias, Satellite Beats. After years of having the songs on my computer, I decided to curate and release this compilation album of my earliest recordings.