recent bookmarks tagged gothic

I have struggled with metal. Too often the obvious technical quality of the music is, in my opinion, ruined by the cookie monster style vocals which are used. I know that, for some, this is an essential component of the music, but it does make it inaccessible to someone who is coming to it anew to find some longhair growling incomprehensibly about demons and dragons. It was refreshing then when Jools (thanks mate) suggested I listened to Agis by Norwegian outfit Theatre of Tragedy.The songs have a degree of elegance about them which I find lacking in other examples of the genre. Credit for that must go, almost in its entirety, to Liv Kristine who provides the soprano female vocals on the album. These combine with the harsher vocals of Raymond I. Rohonyi who has apparently toned down his growling from earlier albums. Most of his vocals are almost spoken and rarely growled. Yet, my favourite track, "Venus" is the one where he returns to growling, albeit in a less over-the-top manner than one might have become

Looking back on the myriad of ways that the genre now known quite loosely as 'bass music' has mutated, one of the key figures in its evolution would have to be Bristol's Rob Ellis, better known simply as Pinch. His fascination with what the outer limits of the dub sound can achieve, has made him a distinct figure within the fluid group of like-minded dubstep musicians that defined the so-called Bristol sound. In 2003, a Kode9 set became the stepping-stone that was his initial contact with dubstep at London's seminal FWD>>. This inspired him to start the first pure dubstep night outside of FWD>>, Subloaded, in his hometown. With the city's love of dub and long musical lineage, plus Pinch's dedication to the importance of the actual sound, it quickly formed a dedicated community and became a yardstick by which other nascent events were measured. This had all been driven by a key moment in his own musical evolution which as he explains, "I lost interest in D+B and started buying minimal Basic Channel style techn