MELOMANIA brings FOURth for you

It may get a little scary, little loud, but you will never lost with our divining rod leading the way.

ACT II SCENE ONE

The essence of radio broadcasting brought a lot of fantastic music together. It shared control between the host and the listener. It encouraged communication as well. Most importantly, it retained the element of surprise in the process of listening to music. While playlists here are heavily tested and gauged for the widest appeal available from limited resources, the advent of live internet broadcasting via AMP is too good to miss.

While it has its drawbacks and definitely works better with some formats and personalities, the community growing at AMP shows real promise. After a week of experimenting and listening to a variety of shows there - we are attempting to find a use for it as well.

Bear in mind, this is still in the early experimental stages. Shows may be truncated. Shows may be wall-to-wall unfamiliar. In short, shows may not really seem like shows. After much thought, the latter reason (or lack of it) seems like Robert Frost’s proverbial road not taken. So these untethered, unscheduled events will hopefully be fun - at the least. Likely chaotic. Join us as we try to figure it out. (and enjoy the others there or — start your own)

INSPIRAL CARPETS - The Complete Singles [2LP/3CD](Mute)

While the Carpets came to fame under the swell of danceable music from the Madchester craze in the early Nineties, their singles make a fantastic resource to hear the different ideas of music coming together in weird strains. 1988’s “Joe” is a feverish whirligig of a single that really uses their love of the Sixties organ sound. By the time it is officially released with the steamy “Find Out Why,” they are beating everyone else to that weird hop-skip beat and the punch that Charlatans UK will use on “The Only One I Know.” The difference here is Clint Boon’s ideas still throwback to Eighties Manchester and the Post-Punk dance music of the Hacienda. When they get around to actually pursuing the “commercial” sound (those reverb drums!) on “Move,” they have figured out how to use that organ to launch everyone into a trance. As the pants around them grow baggy and the Nineties unleash Manchester as a colorful new center of fashion, the Carpets bring back the big tom sound of the Eighties with crisp harmonies on their biggest hit “This Is How It Feels.” Success allows the band to expand and yet still capitalize on the “working class” lift of their biggest hit. “She Comes In The Fall” uses production skills to maintain the aforementioned trance. The great news here is the buzz of the earlier tracks has become more controlled by excellent production (Chris Nagle) and Tom Hingley’s vocals. The way they all tangle on the way out of “Biggest Mountain” or the manner they wrap around the chorus on “Weakness” brings together their Sixties and Eighties influences in a sublime way. Even though the Carpets were really courting the Pop charts from 1990-91, the lessons learned from the original singles were never left behind. The cuts from “The Beast Inside” are slightly more overt (the definite Madchester/Stone Roses rumble on “Caravan”) but “Please Be Cruel” is a lovely Velvets-meets-Julian Cope escape. Their biggest chart hit “Dragging Me Down” has probably aged the most. With its clarity upfront and the distorted organ in the background, the parts of the Carpets seem to be too separated. Thankfully “Saturn 5” and “I Want You” with Mark E. Smith show new depth. However, 1995 would mark their conclusion. Madchester vanished into history and Britpop took its place making bands into artists who made records that followed the Carpets’ mixture of identifiable parts from different eras. While it is not entirely due to the Manchester scene (their one-time roadie’s band Oasis perhaps, with Blur and Pulp as reactions to it,) Inspiral Carpets provide a great bridge from Post-Punk to the psychedelic-colored danceable Rock of the early Nineties.

NAUT - Hunt [LP/CD](Season of Mist/The Orchard)

Bristol’s Naut is Sisters of Mercy-esque Post-Punk. Replete with bellowing vocals and an incessant (and consistent) drummer who is machine-like. “8 in 3” is Naut at their most driving with singer Gavin Laubscher sounding like Peter Murphy while his band takes all kinds of near-Prog swerves. The chaos really agrees with Naut. The twisted Horror film-ready staircase crawl upward is thrilling. Like The Cure circa “Pornography,” you have no idea where they are going - or how you are going to get out. The spiky “All The Days” would be a choice single with its atonal guitar riff and the blend of nervy high guitar lines with riffage. While “Nightfall” places a close second with its instrumental pushes. While Naut could easily be seen as too similar to their source material, thanks to their adventurous writing - “Hunt” stands on it own.

UNFELLED - Pall of Endless Perdition [LP/CD](Season of Mist/The Orchard)

Australia likes its metal to be dark. Black Metal duo Unfelled unleash their creatively constructed Heavy Metal opuses upon us. Like your favorite Black Metal, be prepared for shredded vocals and double-drum kick runs that are clearly designed to exhaust (the one in “Veil of Perdition” nearly overwhelms every other facet of the track.) However, this pair studied their Eighties Metal for inspiration. The majesty and buzzing intensity of “An Epoch in Bloodshed” allow it to explode from the page. The nail-driving beat and speed-picking single-note guitar lines are outdone by a Sabbath-esque slower run. Like Darkthrone, as effective as the speed portions are, Unfelled have are skillful at grinding Doom-on-speed sections (the middle of “The Opposer” is like getting your head stuck in a beehive,) and angry, spiraling builds (the closer “A Diadem Embattled.”) However, Unfelled are smart arrangers. Most Black Metal songs show their seams. The key to “Pall” is their Emperor-like openings to songs like “Transcendent Legacy” that bash mercilessly and overwhelm - but never lead you away from their chilling melodies.

TALES OF TERROR [CD](Call of the Void)

Given its lineage and influence, 1984’s “Tales of Terror” is somewhere between out-of-control Thrash and the upcoming wave of Grunge. A favorite of Kurt Cobain and covered by Mother Love Bone (the awesome “Ozzy,”) Tales of Terror is memorable because of its sheer lack of control. Out of the gate with a blistering “Hound Dog,” it first makes you think that it is about to be maddening Psychobilly. However, the pedal has not yet touched the metal. “That Girl” is a real mess with its Husker Du riffing and Black Flag-esque solo. However, the bassline and the driving changes, in the end, show some promise. The latter is possibly Tales of Terror’s largest influence (“Deathryder” and “Skate or Bale” - with slide guitar!.) However, a change emerges from what we will say is an attempt to fit in. “Romance” is slow and grinding like an early version of Hole’s “Teenage Whore.” “Over Elvis Worship” returns to Cramps-ian psychobilly but with Danzig-esque chunking licks. Finally, the Cobain fave “Chambers of Horror” is frightening in its Suicidal Tendencies-meets-Butthole Surfers way. For a California Thrash band circa 1984, Tales of Terror tear the rule book up and create primordial grunge.

We sincerely hope that these were time well spent. We thank you for reading, listening, subscribing, and most of all supporting the artists listed here. Thank you.

There is a method to the madness we promise. To us, the best playlisting songs come two ways:

1. When you are just skimming an older playlist/segment - see a track - and it starts playing in your head.

2. When a cut surprises you. When you are listening to the random array run together and that song plays that makes you race over to find out what it is.

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