Be Human OST
Be Human, the GitS SAC soundtrack album that revolves around the idea of, well, ‘being human’. The tachikomas of the SAC were prone to discussing what it means to be human in a world of computers and AI - a recurring theme of the series that forms the concept of this record. Basically, it’s a concept album that’s dedicated to the endearing little ‘think tanks’ - if it hadn’t been penned by Ms Kanno I probably would have given it a go on that reason alone.The cover art, that of a tachikoma taking to the microphone, is reflected in the rest of the inlay booklet that places them in a variety of real life situations (i.e. not art taken from the series) in an photographic style reminiscent of the sleeve art for Pink floyd and The Verve’s early stuff. It means you don’t know what to expect from the album from a musical point of view, beyond the fact that it’s a bit strange.
Flushed with success after a tour that included sell-out shows in the USA as well as their native Japan, Osaka’s Dir en Grey released The Marrow of a Bone, their sixth full-length studio effort. Although some of the song titles and lyrics are in English, they still insist on performing many of the songs in their own native language - not that it’s very obvious given the in extremis screaming that is Kyo’s vocal trademark. The nu-metal influence is a little more obvious this time around but nevertheless they deliver a record that is characteristically original and difficult to pigeonhole.
After Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Billy Corgan and James Iha announced that the band was taking a change in direction musically. Although this difference in sound was no doubt intended from the outset the overall feel of their follow-up, Adore, can also be attributed as much to the absence of Jimmy Chamberlin; at the time was fired from the band due to his problems with drug use. As a result, it is a very different album that lacks, among other things, the crisp and cutting drum beats of their earlier days. Instead, Adore is almost entirely a collection of slow, introspective ballads and synth-driven numbers that are a far cry from their previous alt-rock/borderline-metal offerings.
Several years ago I read an interview with some American rock band in which they claimed that the new Bush administration would do untold harm to their country but would give rise to some great music. I can’t recall their exact words or even who said them, but in recent years some very startling politically-inspired music has been released. Joining the likes of NOFX and Pearl Jam in criticising the US government, Trent Reznor has taken the fears and negativity of the current political climate and looked ahead fifteen years to an age of government control and abject pessimism.
There was a time when Metallica were viewed as at the cutting edge of modern heavy rock and metal; considering the relative mediocrity of their more recent efforts it’s all too easy to forget, which makes their 1984 LP all the more essential. At this point the greatness of Master of Puppets was yet to come and they only had one full-length album under their belts; nevertheless, Ride the Lightning should be considered as one of the highlights of the band’s career.
It is testament to the prolific nature of Billy Corgan’s songwriting talent that, after only two full studio albums, there was more than enough extra material to make up a complete album of b-sides, outtakes and other odds and ends. Pisces Iscariot is just that: a collection of b-sides, outtakes and other songs that had otherwise been hard to find. Because of this, it lacks the ‘flow’ of songs whose components had been intended to be heard back-to-back in one place, but there’s no denying the quality of indvidual songs on offer here.
J-rock has a reputation for producing some very unusual sounding bands to put it mildly. The likes of the Boredoms and more recently Melt-Banana have shown how raw noise can also be (usually) musical, while the Mad Capsule Markets and L’Arc en Ciel have taken the concept of heavy rock and fused it with other influences that work together in remarkably improbable combinations. Another name that often crops up is that of the Osaka outfit Dir en Grey, who have been recording together as a band with no change in line-up since 1997.
The release of a new Pearl Jam album always makes me feel a little apprehensive since the band are notorious for being experimental and unpredictable in their sound, doing things their way with little obvious regard for outside criticism. Futhermore their previous effort, Riot Act, was quite a sedate and restful affair that suggested the unthinkable: PJ are getting old. Hinting at a new start, their latest effort is self-titled; it seems to say simply: We are Pearl Jam. This is Pearl Jam.
One thing that the SAC always represented for me was the fusion of the natural and mechanical, old and new, recognisable and strange. Appropriately enough, that theme is carried over in the music that accompanies the show - traditional instrumentation sits alongside samples and other electronic sounds, showing perhaps her broadest range of styles to date. The opening tune, Run Rabbit Junk, blasts out of the speakers with an industrial drumbeat and distorted guitars, Yakitori following hot on its heels as an instrumental guitar jam. Taken on their own, this could be a rock album - a far cry from the orchestral pieces of Macross Plus. Stamina Rose however falls more into the realms of dance or trance with its hypnotic beat and ethereal chanting.
Live albums are all too often characterised by poor sound quality, unpolished performances and alternate versions of songs that fans already own on CD or tape. Fortunately S&M is an above-average example of its type in that it is more than merely Metallica performing live: it is Metallica performing live whilst backed by the full San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, which was conducted by the late and great Michael Kamen.