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GAF's Albums of the Year 2011 Edition.

robor

Member
It is time fellow GAF brethren, let us congregate here, in this very thread and share our experiences of today's artists in today's world. Is music dead? Is it alive? Is this year a mark of greater and more inspiring works to come aiding younger artists not yet established in this field? Or are we heading down a spiral of genericism, redundancy and any other viral tropes these faux-artists cling onto and claim as their own (I'm looking at you Jet)?

Was that too dark to start off with? I think so, but hey, sometimes I just like to spill out my disdain for pop culture and it's hemorrhaging leaders thrusting us forward into an ever enclosing entrapment of sludgy filth that's expected by all to be called beauty. Well I won't take it! And here's why:

WOM-040-Saptarshi.jpg

WOM-040-RADAR.jpg


Secret Chiefs 3: Ishraqiyun / FORMS - Saptarshi / Radar

If you know anything about this collective, you should know by now that SC3 is a band of bands. What? Don't ask, just know that within SC3 there are 7 satellite bands, two of which are on this 7" single. Oh shit, I'm breaking the rules, this is supposed to be about albums! Yea well, I'm breaking it because this stuff needs to be heard regardless of length and overall duration.
So, out of the seven bands, the two displayed here are Ishraqiyun and FORMS. FORMS is mostly focused on even meter time signatures, that means anything created with in this band is going to be fairly straight and neatly phrased (so to speak). These satellite bands are made up of defined principles that carry out in the creativity of the music itself. The FORMS track is called Radar and is kind of like a dense hard rock (verging on metal?) cover of Bernard Herrman's The Day The Earth Stood Still. Fantastic rendition and you'll spend days dipping your ears into the production quality because it is incredible.
Next up is Ishraqiyun. This band is the opposite of FORMS and dedicates itself in odd-metre time signatures and odd-phrasing. You could say it's heavily inspire by quite a plethora of eastern traditional music with it's instrumentation comprising of some eastern such as the Sitar. Saptarshi (the track title) also contains many established western instruments, such as guitar and synthesizer creating this collage of eastern and western mannerism you may acquire if you are versed in listening to either music traditions, though I don't really see that as the point. The point is quite blurry with this collective due to their deep rootings in musical philosophy and religion etc and how it's incorporated into the music.

You obviously don't need that to enjoy what is being heard but it's there in the creative process for those who are more enthralled by that kind of thing.

Check it out.

Alright, I'll leave it at that for the time being but I'll be back to add more.

Now it's your turn!
 
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