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I've been listening to a few new records recently. Namely Flying Lotus's 'Until The Quiet Comes', Big Shug's 'I.M 4-EVA' and Kiss The Anus of a Black Cat's 'Weltuntergangsstimmung'
And you know what, all have been met without any great enthusiasm from yours truly.
Unlike 2011, where nearly every record that I heard, I initially either really enjoyed or despised, there's been too many records this year that have just been average.

Well established artists like Deftones, Greenday, Anathema, The Flaming Lips, The Mars Volta, Sigur Ros and MeWithoutYou have been guilty of releasing average records verging on being sub-standard.
Perhaps this is to be expected, I mean how many artists truly have flawless discographies. There's always a few minor notes on every artists resumes.
But, none of the above artists albums felt necessary. Apart from Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends and Dos, there weren't any horrible albums released by the above named artists. They were just middle of the road, more of the same material.
Very reminiscent of REM's last album in that it was playing it safe. And, after Collapse Into Now, REM folded. After 31 years, one of the biggest and most influential artists in that same time period decided to 'call it a day', in part due to the fact they could no longer make great records.
Could REM's fate be a sign of what is to come for the artists I mentioned above.

It's certain that Greenday will follow suit, having sunk from one artistic low to another and earlier this year completely falling off the wagon.
Releasing three lacklustre records in one year didn't help matters.
One would have been enough to seal their fall into irrelevancy. Anathema haven't released a good record in years, and their conversion from Doom to Alternative Rock was like trading premium steak for beef jerky.
Their new record just being infuriatingly boring and tedious to plough through, which makes it all the more frustrating considering they are the same band who released the sublime 'Judgement' .
Oh yeah, if you were new to the band and were easily impressed, you'd probably really like 'Weather Systems'. Those attributes do not apply to me.
The Mars Volta's record was so memorable that I cannot even recall the name of the album. (It had an 'e' in it, right?)
As for Sigur Ros, well I've never really been that much into them. I know that a lot of people on the internet really like them, so I usually give them the benefit of the doubt. I usually think it's me that's missing something, not the record itself because how could so many want-to-be music critics be so woefully wrong?
On this instance, the fault lies with Sigur Ros for not releasing a good album.
MeWithoutYou and Deftones probably had the two better records of the lot, but at the same time, they only scratch the surface of what each artist is capable of.

And to add to those offenders, we have Flying Lotus, Big Shug and Kiss The Anus of a Black Cat.
Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing 'wrong' per se but there's nothing particularly brilliant about any either.

Flying Lotus may be a victim of circumstance rather than anything else.
A few years back, in the mid 2000's when hip-hop was struggling, his instrumental beats were considered some of the finest work in the genre, which is saying something.
Now however, after hip-hop undergoing a complete 180 and being better than it's ever been due to the emergence and breakthrough of the new school of hip-hop; artists such as Kendrick Lemar; Odd Future, Big KRIT, Ab-Soul, Lil B, Death Grips, Jay Electronica, J.Cole and Danny Brown as well as the constant growth and improvement of guys like El-P, Kanye West, Immortal Technique and Killer Mike have helped make hip-hop more important and better than it's ever been.
This leaves Flying Lotus in somewhat of a predicament.
Now, that all of these artists have come out with such good music in the last year or two, his music which gained critical acclaim off the back of a complete lowering of expected standards in the genre, just isn't that special any more.
If he wants to continue having success, he's going to have to do better than 'Until The Quiet Comes' because records like this will just be lost in the shuffle, and aren't good enough to be classed as 'undiscovered gems'

Perhaps Lotus knew his time of riding on autopilot was coming to an end, and thus decided to launch his alter ego, Captain Murphy.
A hip hop artist; who you know...actually raps, just not well.
Captain Murphy is devoid of the artistic talent that Lotus possesses and just strikes me as Lotus desperately trying to remain relevant.
Perhaps he foresaw having Kanye West success in converting from producer to centre-stage superstar.
Well Lotus, what makes Kanye so successful in the most part is his character and personality that he brings to everything he does, be it an album, guest spot or controversial interview; you do not have any character or personality, none. That is why you were able to play the part of anonymous and enigmatic producer so well, because you had nothing to really hide from the public. There was never anything there to show off.

Maybe I'm being overly harsh on Flying Lotus, I'm sure there are those out there who consider his new record to be on a par with Los Angeles and 1983 - two of his earlier records - and they probably are but lets face it, when those two were released there wasn't such stiff competition in the genre so an average record could gain moderate success rather easily.
Flying Lotus finds himself in the precarious position that he isn't exactly creating great hip-hop, nor is he creating great electro music.
So what is a hip-hop producer whose records rely solely upon backing tracks supposed to do. Rap! Oh, wait...

Another guy who could probably have become quite successful in 2006 or 2007 is Big Shug. He's average enough to have floated along perfectly with what was the norm for hip-hop at the time.
Fortunately those days are over. And Shug either cleverly created a throwback album to those halcyon days or is just not that great at the game of hip-hop.
At a length of 18 tracks it was going to be hard for an artist as mauve to keep the interest of the listener and I thoroughly commend anyone who can get through this record in one sitting without taking a nap.
Again, Shug isn't necessarily bad, but as his bland name suggests, he's alike rice pudding in that it's okay. Not very special. Not very creative. Not anything groundbreaking, but if you're looking for a cheap and easily prepared desert it'll suffice.
If a track from I.M 4-EVA comes on I wouldn't mind. It's decent enough for me not to skip it, but at the same time, listening to a record 18 tracks long that never really even shows glimpses of being anything other than mundane is a bit of a tall task.

This brings me to Kiss The Anus of a Black Cat. Considering the way they're heralded by all lovers of obscure, I expected to be amazed by their 2012 offering 'Weltuntergangsstimmung'
The only thing this record makes me thankful for is that I don't do a video log as I'd have no idea of how to pronounce that one.
Again, this record wasn't bad. In fact, it was the best of the three I mentioned in my opening paragraph. It just wasn't great.

I think I could help point this band in the right direction though, because there were glimpses of potential in this record.
Each track on this album is like a pre-mature ejaculation in that it starts so promisingly, yet time after time fails to go the distance and ultimately ends up being rather underwhelming and disappointing.
The musicianship is actually really good, and each track starts with a good thirty seconds or so of solid build. Build that ultimately eclipses into 'meh' territory.
What this bands problem is, is that they try too hard to create an imposing brooding atmosphere when in actual fact it just repels any interest I may have had in this record by just coming across forced and unauthentic.
Every time the vocalist chimed in with his best attempt at being moody and atmospheric, I groaned.
Why try and create an insincere atmosphere? Why not just concentrate on what your bands strengths are? Like being talented musicians.
It just felt overly pretentious that a group would feel the need to create such a phoney sound scape in order to live up to their dark yet intriguing name.
They're not a black metal band as I first thought by looking at their names, although I get the impression they want to be.
The fact is, the black metal community's an odd one (look at Hip Hop Bunny Hop for evidence of this) and they could smell a fake a mile off. It wouldn't be long before Kiss The Anus were unearthed for what they truly are. Wannabes.
Why you would want to be miserable I do not know. Perhaps they feel it would bring some character to their music.
Be it misery, or anything else on this earth for that matter. There's rarely an appropriate and accurate substitute for the real thing.
And the atmosphere that Kiss The Anus try to convey, just isn't real.
This is what hampers the band. Too much focus on trying to create a mystique and not enough concentration on just creating a well crafted, well rounded record.

There are however many really good records out there, and I'll be returning to look at some from last year in my next post which will be the second instalment of 'Caaant Take The Heat: Get the F/ck up out the Kitchen'.
Ironically, it won't include Iceage's 'New Brigade', which came on album shuffle today, as it's meh.

Regards

MC