life beyond mars
Content tagged as life beyond mars.
Various: Bowiemania (Naive)
Compiled by the French arranger/sound artist Beatrice Ardisson, this wayward collection of people covering Bowie songs is as enjoyable as it is uneven: but even the weaker moments hold considerable appeal. They are hardly household names here (Microsillion, Rhonda Harris, Los Chicros) but some are so engaging you might want to hear more from...
Hellsongs: Hymns in the Key of 666 (Rhythmethod)
It happens every now and again, someone turns a genre on its head -- like when Hayseed Dixie makeover hard rock as hoe-down bluegrass, Pat Boone takes metal classics and makes them big band ballads, or Metallica's music gets appropriated by a string quartet.This is familiar stuff, and Laibach taking Let It Be into aggressive martial music is a...
Various: Life Beyond Mars. Bowie Covered (Border)
The ever-increasing pile of tribute albums/covers is so high it is starting to topple under its own weight. Just last week Elsewhere offered the amusing lounge-sweet versions of heavy metal by Hellsongs.Bowie has always been ripe for covers and there have been any number of such projects already: the point of difference here is the obscurity of...
Hellsongs: Minor Misdemeanors (Lovely/Yellow Eye)
This outing follows a similar path to the previous Hellsongs album Hymns in the Key of 666 where metal songs were delivered in a quiet, almost pastoral manner or inna lounge style. A rather familiar route as I pointed out then. This is not dissimilar: with a fine new vocalist (Siri Bergnehr), Sweden's Hellsong take material by Slayer, Meat...
Various Artists: SIN-ATRA (Armoury/Shock)
After Hellsongs who take metal songs and render them in a lounge or country-folk manner, this might be subtitled "Metal's Revenge!!!" Here bellicose and bellowing heavy metal frontmen from Anthrax, Deep Purple, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, Cheap Trick, Warrant and others take on the catalogue of Frank Sinatra (New York New York,...
Onelung: Binary Pop Songs (Monkey/Global Routes)
Behind the unappealing nom de disque is Auckland electronica musician Kevin Tutt whose previous album Nu Scientist was a real, if overlooked, gem. Once again located somewhere between the harder end of Brian Eno ambient-pop and slightly funky electronica -- with real instruments like cello and bass, and various vocalists alongside samples and...