Music I discovered in 2019

Sorry for not posting the last two weeks.  My other half got a cold just after boxing day and decided to give it to me!  Still got it but not so bad now.  At least I can breathe through my nose!

So, instead of doing more favourite songs I thought I'd post videos of all the bands I discovered in 2019.  It is kinda all metal, but there's some southern rock style stuff along with some European thrash and a few atmospheric Norse/Celtic tunes.

So here we go in no particular order...


Gabriel and the Apocalypse - Systematic Chaos
Metal with a hint of thrash and industrial.

Apocalypse Orchestra - The Garden of Earthly Delights
Scandinavian atmostpheric.

Zombie Girl - Blood, Brains & Rock 'n' Roll
Industrial/dance with a 50s sci-fi vibe.

The SoapGirls - Society's Rejects
French punk duo.  Remind me a bit of Pillbox.

Infected Rain - Mold
Metalcore from Moldova.

Twin Atlantic - Heart And Soul
Alternative rock from Glasgow!!

Starcrawler - Bet My Brains
American rock.

Semblant - What Lies Ahead
Brazilian melodic death metal with male and female vocals. Why are Brazilians so good at death metal??

White Empress - Darkness Encroaching
Symphonic goth thrash from a former guitarist of Cradle of Filth.

Eleine - Enemies
More symphonic metal, this time from Sweden.

Nyxx - Nightmare
Dark heavy pop.

The Hu - Wolf Totem
Mongolian rock.  Watch with the subtitles on.

Clutch - Evil
American hard rock.  Fucking love this!!!  How have they existed since 1991 and I've not heard of them until now???  Man that voice is fantastic.

Heilung - LIFA Live
They've been labeled as folk music, but this is so much more than that. I'd love to see this live.

Ignea - Alexandria
Symphonic thrash(?!) from Ukraine.  Keyboard solo!!!!

Week 21

So I decided to go waaaayyy back for this one.  Didn't realise until right now that most of these were in the UK charts in the same year.  Seems like 1983 was a great year for music!



Flying Pickets - Only You

Nena - 99 Luftballons

Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Talking Heads - Burning Down The House

Men At Work - Down Under

Week 20

I had these tunes in mind for this week's blog, but yesterday I was thinking of something a little more appropriate like Prophets of Rage or Captain SKA instead.  But I'm going to stick with what I originally thought.

So here's something different to start before kinda following on from last week's dancy stuff then something even more different to end with.



Aphex Twin - Avril 14th
As I said in a previous post I'm a sucker for the piano so here's something completely different by AT.  The whole Drukqs album has multiple personality disorder.

The Orb - Toxygene (Single)
This is one of the rare times I prefer a single edit to the original.  To me the original takes too much time to get to the meat of the song.  Nothing wrong with that but I just want to get to the bouncy beat!

Orbital - Satan
I never really paid much attention to Orbital until I switched on the radio and it was halfway through this track.  There something Aphex Twin/The Prodigy about it.

Basement  Jaxx - Where's Your Head At
Great tune with a mad video.

The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist
Remember how I said I like weird things?

Week 19

Some bands that I'd probably not be that interested in if it wasn't for these songs.  A bit laid back this week.


Stereo MC's - Get Connected

Stereo MC's - Deep Down And Dirty

Massive Attack - Teardrop

Faithless - Insomnia

Robert Miles - Children

Week 18

More problems with PCs so here's a quick selection of stuff...



Daft Punk - Around the World
I think this was the first Daft Punk song I'd heard.  Possibly on TOTP2 on a saturday.

Daft Punk - One More Time

Aphex Twin - Ventolin
I'd heard Selected Ambient Works Vol 2 a few times and knew this was going to be different.  Loved it.  If you don't like a high pitched noise it's probably best not to listen to this.

Aphex Twin - At The Heart Of It All
The only song on Nine Inch Nails' Further Down The Spiral that's not a remix.  Love the combination of orchestral movements and the industrial fuzzy drums.

Aphex Twin - 4

 

Replacing turntable belt

I finally got round to replacing the turntable belt on my 80's Pioneer hi-fi.

My parents bought this in the early 90s.  I think I inherited it from them 15 years ago when they got a smaller one that could play from a network and ditch the turntable.  Amazingly this is the first time it's ever needed repairing.  Thankfully it's only the turntable belt that needs replacing.  So here goes...

The first thing to do is remove the rubber mat.

There's a small hole in the turntable itself.  This small hole lines up with a hole below it on the unit.  The left large hole is near where the sprocket is, this is where you need to hold the belt (which you'll see a bit further down).

 The turntable simply lifts off when aligned with the small hole.

Take the old belt off the and place the new one around the inner circle making sure it's not twisted.  The section I'm holding out needs to be placed over a sprocket which is on the left of the casing so make sure you hold the belt out at the large hole 90 degrees clockwise when it's upside down like I have done, or 90 anti-clockwise when the right way up.

As you put the disc back onto the unit you need to try and put the belt around the sprocket as you lower it into position.  Don't worry, it's easier than it sounds.  Make sure the belt is right in the middle and hasn't got twisted.  If you're not that dextrous then another hand can easily help.

Then simply put the rubber mat back on and enjoy.

But what to play??

I think we have a winner!!

Week 17

So, following on from last week I thought I'd do the other big metal band from that time.  Metallica.

I only started listening to them after the Black Album but I really love Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets.  Never liked Load, Reload or St Anger.  Death Magnetic was pretty good though.

Rather than do just the audio like I have before I thought I'd do live videos instead as there are no music videos for anything before One and they are great live.

So, here's 5 from Ride and Master...



Trapped Under Ice

Creeping Death

Call of Ktulu
The song itself starts at 2:25.

The Thing That Should Not Be

Welcome Home (Sanitarium)