Weekly 3x3: 07-Jul-2013

I know, I know, I'm the worst at this. A day late again. Whatever.

Black Flag - Jealous Again EP: I'm only getting into Black Flag now (a sin, I know), and I'm digging everything from Nervous Breakdown to Damaged, but my favorite release so far has got to be Jealous Again. It's a solid mix of the punk aggression and not-Henry Rollins' voice that gets me riled up every time.

Rush - Clockwork Angels: I was jamming Rush's newest album in anticipation of seeing them this past Saturday. And while I loved this album, it was brought to even higher levels of awesome played live with a string sextet.

El-P & Killer Mike - Run the Jewels: This album is like the grindcore of hip-hop. Aggressive, loud, heavy, and before you know it, over. It only clocks in at half an hour, but both El and Mike rip out some freaking awesome lyrics over top of El's futuristic beats.

Magrudergrind - Magrudergrind: This album is what introduced me to this amazing grind/ powerviolence band. I don't jam it as often as I used to, but whenever I want to throw the fuck down, this is the first thing I go to.

Foals - Antidotes: This one is a surprise, even for me. I totally forget how it got onto my iPod, but I jammed it in the car one day, and shit, is it ever good. It's kind of a proggy, indie alt-rock sound, which I understand sounds pretentious as fuck, but I swear, it's actually pretty solid.

Big Chocolate - HiLion: Summer driving music. Especially the title track, my favorite Choco Grande song.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist: More summer driving music. Word.

Weekend Nachos - Worthless: What's a man without a circle pit every once in a while?

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer: Mandatory (potential) AOTY jams.


That's all for now, folks!

-DG

EP Review: Big Chocolate - "Hilion"

I recently rediscovered my love for Disfiguring the Goddess' slam masterpiece Sleeper (review up sometime soonish... maybe.), and I decided to delve into Big Chocolate's electronic music to see how it compares. For those of you who have a life, Big Chocolate (real name Cameron Argon) is an electronic music producer/ modern death metal cult legend who has been on the music scene for a few years, but has only started to gain recognition and attention recently. Hilion came out in 2011, and was his last EP before his full length Red Headed Locc in 2012.

Big Chocolate deals mostly in dance music, whether in the form of electro, drum 'n' bass, or dubstep. Honestly, I don't know all the fine differences between all  the different electronic music genres, so I'm just going to call them all "electronic". Cool? Cool. Cool cool cool.

I gotta say, I enjoy this EP for the most part. It's danceable, its got slammin' bass drops, and Grieves raps on a song. What's not to like about that? Small progressions and melodies get planted in your head after you finish listening to it, and whenever they pop up, you feel like spontaneously breaking into dance. It's pretty sweet. The biggest contributor to random-dance-syndrome has to be "Eye This Way" (mostly the electro version), but the club banger "I Don't Know You" is another one that makes you throwdown on the dancefloor.

Something I find interesting is since I know Big C as a death metal figure first, I can hear how some of his breakdowns and drum patterns borrow from metal elements. There are a couple spots on Hilion that have some wicked double kicks thrown in, and some of the slower heavy parts could easily be translated to an 8 string guitar, or something. Just check out the remix he did of his previously released song "Praise" and tell me that's not something that could show up on a Pathology record or something.

Bomb-Ass Tracks: Hilion, Eye This Way (Electro), Praise 2011

On a Playlist With: I dunno, that's the DJ's job.

Overall Score

3.0

Big Chocolate proves that he can slam in not only one, but two genres. Crank the bass and blast Hilion if you're looking for a sweet collection of dance songs that can potentially inspire a mosh pit. It's nothing too, too special, but it gets the job done.

That's all for now, folks! Stay super kawaii ~ !

-DG