Guadalupe Plata- Guadalupe Plata (2013)

Guadalupe Plata's most recent LP is a great showing of Spanish blues rock.  My full write up on this album can be viewed Here at the new blog I have been writing for.  In short though, this is a great album which has a great consistent sound and is a solid album from start to finish.

Check out both the review and listen to the band's Bandcamp.

John Lithgoat- Who Gives a Fuck Nowhere (2013)

Who Gives a Fuck Nowhere starts out on a roll, slamming the listener with post-rock reminiscent of At the Drive In.  ‘Transistors’ is a great song to kick off an album with and introduces the sound of the album perfectly.  John Lithgoat’s album jumps between this style of post-rock, noise rock, and some Midwestern Emo guitar licks.

The complaints I have about the album are pretty minor.  Overall, the sound quality isn’t anything to write home about.  The band could have benefited from renting some studio microphones for the recording.  Still, for an album that was probably mixed and mastered by the band, they did a fair job with it, and the quality doesn’t distract from the song quality, especially because they make up for the sound quality with a decent job mixing.

The other minor qualm I have is that sometimes songs do not seem to know what direction they are trying to go.  ‘War Movies’ is an example of this.  The vocals and guitar playing remind me of glocca Mora from the start, but the guitar that kicks in at 1:42 is not fitting.  Furthermore, songs like this one seem to have issues with pacing.  Fortunately, even this song is nowhere near the point of needing skipped, just one of the worse tracks on the album, and even tracks of this quality are few and far between here.

Now that I am done complaining, for every ‘War movies’ on this album, songs like ‘Jampoline’, ‘Hand Thorough a Keyhole’, ‘Four Snap!’, and ‘What People Think’ show off this album’s noise rock influences, and songs like ‘Middle’ and ‘Do I Have a Backup Plan’ showcase the Midwest Emo sound in a fashion very similar to Settlefish and at times Glocca Mora.  The vocalist has a pretty good range and switches up how he sings enough to keep it interesting.

To conclude, it is a shame that these guys announced their disbandment only days after this album emerged, because this album showed both great promise and is a fantastic listen.  I recommend this if you are a fan of the genres and looking for something from 2013 to hold you over.

The whole album is free to listen to and download Here

Clear Soul Forces- Detroit Revolution(s) (2012)

I was told this is an album with little lyrical value.  That same person told me this was their hip-hop album of the year.  After listening through once, I immediately understood why Detroit Revolution(s) was described like this, and my initial opinion is that that description is pretty spot on.  Clear Soul Forces use interesting enough beats to keep me listening, but really, this is an album that is all about the flow.  Every member of this crew spits fire.  The delivery comes out varied, both in style and tone.  More importantly, though, is that all of the delivery sounds confident and effortless. 

At times, this group reminds me of Lootpack; specifically songs like '15 minutes'.  While Lootpack may make more conscious rap, this song similar beats and B-boy flow.  Ironically, the vocals and beat on 'The World is Yours' sound like something from Kanye, not like the NAS reference in the title or like Viktor Vaugnh and Ghostface like referenced in the lyrics.  Songs like this show promise for this group to garnish fame.  Its good to see that the group can make solid radio tracks in addition to showing off strong flows.

While I could go on disecting the group's style, I suggest you simply take a listen on their bandcamp and enjoy the free download they provided.  This is an album that would have made my top 50 of 2012 if I had heard it in time and is a group I will be keeping my eye on in the future.

Listen to and download Here.