La Muerte - Death Race 2000

Name: La Muerte
Album: Death Race 2000
Year: 1989
Style: HardCore, ScreamCore, Metal.
Similar Bands: Kukl, Megadeath, Helmet, Fantomas (musically), Melvins, Sepultura
"One-Word" Review: "Kill Your Melodic Face"
Based Out Of: Brussels, Belgium & Spain
Label: Play It Again Sam Records USA, Waxtrax,

Death Race 2000 - Cover, Sleeve Photo

Death Race 2000 - Back, Sleeve Info

Death Race 2000 - Record

Death Race 2000 (1989)

1. I Would Die Faster 4:07
2. Black God White Devil 4:41
3. Ecoute Cette Priere 3:26
4. Make it Easy 3:21
5. Shoot You In the Back 4:52/
6. Death Race 2000 5:19
7. Burst My Soul 4:04
8. Killing Is My Business 3:59
9. Scared Flame 7:14

Album Rating (1-10): 5.5

Members & Other Bands:
Paul Delnoy - Producer (Qui)
Marc Borgers - Cover Computer Painting, Pictures
Marie Beaunom - Tech Assistance
Hugues Wurstenberger - Photo Assistant
Marc du Marais - Screams

Dee-J. - Distortion (Ether, 3 Angry Poles)
Paul "Dunlop" Delnoy - Vibrobass
Michel De Greef - Drums

Unknown-ness: I've never heard of these guys before, but I like the cover art of a T-Rex caught at what I believe to be the extinction of the dinosaurs. The pictures of the back make me think that the band will be some kind of industrial punk music, and the motivation behind the album title could back that up.

Album Review: “I Would Die Faster” begins with a driving dark drum and bass beat, and low growl-singing, which reminds me of Bjork’s older band Kukl. The power guitar riffs and growls all over the place add accent to the lyrics. The singing has advanced to higher pitched scream-talking. The song keeps up the driving rhythm with the unchanging bass and drum beat and power single chord of the rhythm guitar.
“Black God White Devil” sounds like it might actually be a heavy pop number. The vocals are angry spoken words with a slight growl. This reminds me a little of Megadeath. The song is very steady and does not stray from the formula that you encounter at the get go. There is a power guitar instrumental section, but it returns to the predictable guitar hook driven verse. Even the chorus does not change too much from the main song structure, although it does incorporate a different dual tone shouting vocal for the chorus. “Ecoute Cette Priere” has howling guitars and vibrating weirdness to start off. Then growling angry vocals shout, but do not follow the driving music melody. Like spoken work poetry set to unrelated music. It is dark and has a lot of built up aggression. Musically, it reminds me of a nice combination of Faith No More and Helmet.“Make it Easy” starts off with a sleazy metal guitar hook, but has barely audible deep growling vocals. The song has a very bold presence. The chorus is a yelling of the title over and over again in rhythm with the melody“Shoot You In the Back” begins with a country western influenced slow guitar. Like a western showdown, it drags on slowly with determination. The vocals are grueling and grating. This song, musically, reminds me of Tomahawk. But the vocals detract from the potency of the song. It should be mellow and focused, but the shouts seem careless.

“Death Race 2000” has a head down, stomp progression. The start and stopping of the music, while carried along by the bass line reminds me of the song “War Pigs.” The vocals are barely more than a hushed whispering, but there is still tension in the hisses and syllables of the whispers. The song breaks form and releases an aggressive rush of vocals and music before adding what sound like heavy orchestral strings to accent the underlying melody.“Burst My Soul” is fast paced from the get go. It drives and rumbles on. The vocals are barely there, which let the catchy melody take the main stage. There is a breakdown after 2:20 where the music stops and metallic guitar string screeches echo. Then 20 sec later, the song picks back up with the driving chorus.“Killing Is My Business” starts with cop cars and some kind of hot pursuit audio sample. Then repetitive driving music begins and shouting lyrics with no music basis begins. The chorus is a nice change up with depth and a nice hook but the vocals just scream. The song ends with the music fading out and the hot pursuit sound clips finish up the song in dramatic fashion.“Scared Flame” begins with a dark off-timed bass line and cowboy electric, echoing steel guitar and a steady drum beat are added. The rough vocals are filled with aggression, and shout at the listener. The music rolls on, unaffected, as if it’s playing to its own audience, and the vocals are just layered overtop. The vocal and music do actually overlap in the middle of the song, and remind me of the limited stuff I’ve heard from Sepultura. The song relaxes in the end and calms down to a single tone echoing for a few seconds.

Stand Out Track: "Burst My Soul"

Links:
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Ether
3 Angry Poles

Discogs

Delorean - Subiza

Name: Delorean
Album: Subiza
Year: 2010
Style: Dance Pop
Similar Artists: Cut Copy, New Order, Hot Chip, Animal Collective, Junior Senior, Jesus Jones remixes, EMF remixes
"One-Word" Review: upbeat-etheral-dance-euro-pop
Based Out Of: Barcelona, Spain
Label: True Panther Sounds

Subiza - Cover (not included in my version)
Subiza - CD & Back

Subiza (2010)

1. Stay Close 4:32
2. Real Love 6:06
3. Endless Sunset 4:27
4. Grow 4:40
5. Simple Graces 4:18
6. Infinite Desert 4:52
7. Come Wander 4:20
8. Warmer Places 4:48
9. It's All Ours 4:33

Album Rating (1-10): 6.5

Members & Other Bands:

Nacho Alegre - Band Photo

Callan Clendenin - Design

Hans Kruger - Engineer

Tim Saputo - Design

Ekhi Lopetegi - Vox, Bass

Guillermo Astrain - Guitar

Unai Lazcano - Keys

Igor Escudeo - Drums

Unknown-ness: I’ve heard the name before, just from checking the local show listings, but I do not have any idea what they might be like. I’d imagine there are some geeky, indie band, inspired by the Delorean car from Back To The Future. This is a promotional copy that I got free at work, so I don’t have any artwork to go on. But the bio on the back says they are a Spanish band with rock & electronic influences. The more I read, the more it seems like this will be hipster party music.

Album Review: “Stay Close” immediately starts off with a tambourine dance beat and echoing, drippy keys and echoing vocal sounds. A techno beat fades up, but the effects blending together sound more chaotic than rhythmic. Then the main vocals begin, and they sound bold and confident like a brit-pop anthem. The quick fading in and out of the echoing vocal effects makes you feel like you are being attached by swooping birds. There is simply too much here overlapping.
“Real Love” enters with the music played backwards and a euro-dance track laid underneath. The Ahhh-Ahhh synthesized vocals are at the forefront, carrying the melody through the zips and pops. More ethereal lead vocals are used here as the song picks up and bounces with the bass and drum tracks. And frantic and chaotic as the music is, the overall mood is relaxed, patient, inviting and non-threatening. This sounds like an over-produced Pet Shop Boys track. There is a break in the music that resets the action, and giving a break to the driving beat, and features what sounds like seagulls quietly taking off. The melody comes back in reprise at the end, repeating until the song fades out instrument by instrument.
“Endless Sunset” starts out simple and ethereal, but driving beats, even a muffled industrial drum beat, push the happy song onward. Here the happy but monotone vocals remind me a little of New Order. But the song seems to sit there half-cocked, ready to take over as a dance song, but the song never fully kicks in. It ends feeling like the song was off in the distance the whole time.
“Grow” begins with the feeling of a remixed Lightning Seeds song. The production still features lots of echo, but has much more minimal and comprehendible production. It is more of a catchy pop song than the rest so far, but still relies on echoing distorted background vocals and ethereal uplifting dance music. After the vocals end with a minute to go, the dance music takes over and turns into a suds-fest dance party. The vocals come back and boldly follow the new dance rhythm.
“Simple Graces” starts with a little Motown loop, which is quickly abandoned for dance pop with odd accompanying sound effects. The melody is simple, almost to the point where it gets annoying, and is built upon as the song moves forward.
“Infinite Desert” the pounding, repetitive piano lays the framework for this dance-pop song. The vocal melody is annoying in its whiney, drawn out trajectory. And the repetitive, bouncy techno/disco nature of the music is lost on the vocal delivery; they seem contradictory for most of the song.
“Come Wander” possesses a liquid feeling with the synth mood setting loop in the background. The liquid feeling remains, but the echoing vocals take the song on a trippy, drug inducing direction, while the dance piano hook sobers up the song.
“Warmer Places” features a horn in the beginning which sounds like some sort of large electronic bird’s mating call. The chorus is built on echoing call and response vocals overtop a typical dance floor drum machine loop. The background effects also make you feel like you are walking around a casino with random slot machines beeping, bipping and beckoning to you with their looped winning noises.
“It's All Ours” has a muffled hammering beginning that evolves into a tribal conga rhythm. Twinkling bells are added as well as synthesizer single notes. The vocals actually sound a lot like Of Montreal here. Soaring synthesized strings in the background give it a classic quality. The song relaxes around 2:45 only to be rejoined by the tribal drums.

Stand Out Track: Grow

Links:

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