DEXTER WANSEL

i love all things space related including SPACE DISCO.
this isn't any shit on Ed Banger records or anything like that, this is jumpoffs from the late 1970s when synthesizers were new and futurism was still ingrained in the popular consciousness. Dexter Wansel was an in-house composer and keyboardist for Philadelphia International Records, writing songs for their artist. But when he dropped his spaced themed record "Life On Mars" in 1976 the proverbial "game" got real. It's a really palpable mix of disco beats, space synths, funk horns and occasionally proggy riffs. Some perople have told me it sounds like the soundtrack to a blaxplotation movie set in space, i retort simply "i dont see how thats a bad thing".


Dexter Wansel - A Prophet Called KG


Dexter Wansel - You Can Be What You Wanna Be

HASE

Evocative work by Japanese artist Ryohei Hase, great to see fantasy imagery realized like this.

Ryohei Hase

above is the magic of ong bak 2 starring ya boy tony jaa. if u grew up watching steven segal and cynthia rothrock and chuck norris kick people in the face and break bones, and you havent seen tony jaa in action yet... you need to watch this immediately, post haste even. in ong bak 1 jaa jumped over a car, with no wires or stunt actors just him being a crazy living weapon type of dude. watch this dude do work on peoples skeletal system.

TUCAN SAM THAT. TROPICAL COLORS YOU CANT MATCH THAT, GOTTA BE ABSTRACT!

really tight work by kelsey brookes an artist out of san diego. really dig his use of pastels and human/animal husbandry in his paintings. his work is what youd see on the walls of some kind of bad acid trip inspired eugenics institution. werd to Sir Francis Galton & Ken Kesey.

Kelsey Brokes

ALL HAIL FAT DUDE METAL!

somewhere around 10th grade is where i got into metal outright, previous to that dude was on his rap shit and some alternative/grunge as was the practice of the time. in tenth grade (circa '95-'96) my dudes put me on a steady diet of Metallica, Pantera, Biohazard and life of agony to get my metal weight up. This was also the days when a young dude was trying to learn how to play guitar and Dimebag Darrell of Pantera was the coolest motherfucker known to man, see evidence of such below.


the goatee match the headstock, thats fucking boss

so one day im reading guitar world or some such guitar related periodical with Dimebag on the cover and dude drops knowledge about how hes really into Crowbar and how theyre heavy as shit. So young me is like "if its Dimebag approved it must be good", which to this day probably isnt too bad of a rule to follow, with the exception of his fascination with KISS. fuck those dudes.

so i ran out and coped "Time Heals Nothing". and was seriously floored by how incredibly and unflinchingly heavy this stuff was. a great mix of punk and metal with none of the superfluous indulgences of either genre. the songs are all simple but destroy entire ecosystems with their mixture of 2-step parts, quarter time evil break downs and pure fat dude metal sludge. Kirk Windstein's vocals sound like he delivered them while trying to pass a kidney stone and yet he doesnt get anywhere near cookie monster vocal land (and he even pulls of some great melodies parts with no hint of wussery). Im totally convinced that the weight of this band adds to the enormity of their sound. back when todd strange was on bass they had to be pushing a cool 1000lbs collectively, which is impressive for a four piece. especially when your drummer is actually thin. you can't even begin to listen to or play crowbar without having that face you get when you get the first whiff of the dog shit you just stepped in.

check it:


Crowbar - Lack Of Tolerance

Crowbar - I Am Forever

I'm at a loss as too how these dudes never got Uber famous, they toured with Pantera¹ non stop at the height of their popularity, they made four records (at least) of brutal music and yet they still remain relatively unknown. in 1997/98 when Hatebreed put out "Satisfaction is the Death of Desire"
the innanets went nuts because that record was so focused and lean and terrifyingly bludgeoning. but heres the thing, that record is pretty much a Crowbar tribute album and Jamey Hatebreed openly admits to having a bromance with Crowbar². Hatebreed goes on to be one of the top 5 metal bands out right now and Crowbar is..well not so much.


Crowbar- All I Had I Gave



¹ Kurt Windstein from Crowbar joined up with dudes from EYEHATEGOD, Corrosion Of Conformity and Pantera to create a southern metal supergroup known as DOWN. their first record was pretty much a flawless victory as it showed a heavy Crowbar influence, later records showed less Crowbar influence and hence were less awesome.


DOWN - Bury Me In Smoke & Syptoms of the Universe (Sabbath Cover)

When the first riff drops out and we get that behemoth crushing second riff at 1:32. WTF!!! that's why i love metal

²Kurt Windstein also started a band with Jamey from hatebreed which despite what'd you'd expectwas not the most crushing thing ever. instead it was simply pretty aight.

PLEASE SAY THE BABY

The Carter 3 has leaked and after sitting with it for a couple days im very very stoked with the amazingness of Wayne's studio work, its pretty much like Rosie O'Donnel at a bisexual bridal shower. i was a little worried all the weirdness and drugged out rapping we heard on Wayne's mixtape work would be toned down for the commercial release. especially after the shitstorm that i refuse to acknowledge known as "Lollipop". but luckily for free association rap enthusiast most of the album is Wayne going nuts. i could sit here and describe how when dude is on its nearly transcendent but instead ill just hit you with some of my favorite lines.

"Ima venereal disease like a menstrual bleed..
Threw the pencil and leak the sheet of the tablet in my mind"
-A Milli

"richer than Nicole and a lion like her daddy"
-La La

"and yeah im a bear,
like black and white hair,
so i am polar,
and they cant get on my system cause its solar..."
-Phone Home

"i open the lamborghini, hoping those crackers see me
like 'look at that bastard weezy.he's a beast, he's a dog, he's a motherfuckin' problem',
ok you're a goon, but whats a goon to a GOBLIN?"
-A Milli

"you better keep payin me, you dont want my problems,
I'll be wildin like Capital One, '"What is in your wallet?'..."
-Nothin On Me

"I made so much ice they yell "skate wayne!",
she wanna fuck weezy, she wanna rape wayne..."
-Got Money

theres a bunch of subtle little touches on the album that just make me giddy like a school girl. example; on the second excerpt from "A Milli" above when he says "a goblin" and they screw his voice so he sounds liek a goblin.
party time, excellent.
whats also great is the sheer amount of tracks this due puts out in a year. im sure hes recorded about 4 songs in the time it took me to write this post. thats great for us the lsitener, not only because we get alot of content but it allows for you to create an album that totally suits your tastes. i personally cant stand the shitty rnb rap tracks, so i just discarded em from my version of The Carter 3 and replaced em with more excersises in weirdness. you dont really get to do that with too many other genres of music or at any other period in time. i appreciate such choice in my listening experience.