1996
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the year 1996.
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Everything but the Girl – “Walking Wounded”
Walking Wounded is a surprisingly competent downtempo album often carried by active drum and bass beats that massage the mind while the dual vocals of Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn soothe your ears. It’s astonishing how well this vocal duo complement each other—it’s very easy to not consciously notice when they swap vocal duties out… (read more)
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Tricky – “Pre-Millennium Tension” (1996)
It’s very rare to find a trip hop album that pushes the boundaries of the genre, but Pre-Millennium Tension is one of them. The production is damp—and I mean damp. Some of the thickest beats I’ve ever heard, strange off-kilter instrumentation, and surreal imagery (though not atypical for trip hop). Almost unbearably thick production. Pre-Millennium Tension… (read more)
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The Aloof – “Sinking”
Worth a spin. Sinking is one of those albums definitely in need of editing. Check out those song lengths. I can tell you right now few of them are justified, and a lot of repetitiveness should have been cut to make this a more digestible listen. Right now it’s 72-minutes long. There’s self-indulgence, and then… (read more)
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Neurosis – “Through Silver in Blood” (1996)
Pretty good. What Neurosis lose in character with Scott Kelly’s post-hardcore vocals becoming deeper and more in line with traditional sludge metal vocalists, they gain in sound. Through Silver in Blood is their most cohesive and original album yet. True to its name, the riffing and atmosphere on this album is chrome-like and metallic. It’s… (read more)
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The Olivia Tremor Control – “Music From the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle” (1996)
You know all those retro indie bands around today that make music styled in the vein of ’60s psychedelic pop, only mildly updating it with more modern (but still tepid) production tricks? Well, that stuff has actually been going on as far back as the ’90s. Dusk at Cubist Castle is an extremely derivative album,… (read more)
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Broadcast – “The Book Lovers EP”
Pretty wonderful, even if the songs on ‘The Book Lovers EP’ are fairly interchangeable. Broadcast would develop more of their own style over time. (read more)
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The Cardigans – “First Band on the Moon”
The Cardigans have an impeccable style inspired by ’50s lounge pop, but the incredible singles from ‘First Band on the Moon’ land every other song on the dark side of the moon. (read more)
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Current 93 – “All the Pretty Little Horses”
Ugh, the sampled children voices on All the Pretty Little Horses are terrible. Who wants to hear little kids yapping at them in real life? Who wants to hear that in their music? Why does Nick Cave randomly show up near the end of the album? Completely takes you out of the album because David… (read more)
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PaRappa the Rapper
‘PaRappa the Rapper’ is a watershed rhythm game developed by NanaOn-Sha featuring iconic character designs by Rodney Alan Greenblat. (read more)
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Cheap Trick – “Sex, America, Cheap Trick”
Sex, America, Cheap Trick is a rather half-assed, unfocused box set. Primarily has rare and unreleased tracks/demos, but also seems to be trying to make a case for Cheap Trick by including some (but certainly not all) of their biggest hit songs. However, this is pointless because due to the haphazard track selection and random… (read more)