Alastis

Before I started looking for artists to include on "Boston Not LA", I thought that Boston scene is mostly about punk bands.

Guess what? I was wrong.

Case in point - Jenova 7 (a.k.a. Michael J. Sirois) a local musician and filmmaker, whose work... See full review

Gone In 60 Seconds is the first compilation from my blog (I Heart Noise).

Its a collection of songs clocking under one minute - more than 20 bands from all over the world, including Ireland, France, Serbia, US and UK.

There's no doubt in mind that Obituary are at the top of their game - be it death metal, thrash metal or metal in general. Unlike many of their peers, they don't rely on shock values, but in general they can still beat listener into submission. They... See full review

I'm really glad that mr. Hulme & company decided to return to the idea of Morricone-esque western music, a sequel of sorts to "Slim Westerns", released in 1994. Their previous record called "Pink & Purple World of Dishonesty" was an attempt to explore... See full review

"Zen Arcade" is, without a doubt, one of best albums to come out of the 80s. Its a conceptual masterpiece, dealing with the life of frustrated youth leaving his home who is uncertain about the future. Sonically, its a mix of tape experiments, rough... See full review

Those who are familiar with artists from Cruz Records typical roster might be really surprised with this one. Its miles away from punk, pop-punk and all of its variations, which label is primarily known for. Rather it sounds extremely close to bands... See full review

Most certainly, Konono are nothing short of mesmerizing (in live setting, at least, since I had a pleasure of seeing them at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston). Its hard to believe that they're doing their music without any samplers or syntheziers,... See full review

B&DCoG are from Germany and while they are not famous worldwide (not yet), selected (and lucky) few know about their brand of "horror-jazz". This is the sort of music that You can drown in, so to speak - slow, seductive and quite spooky in many... See full review

"Cindy" was a debut by Acetone, rock trio from Los Angeles and what a fine debut this one is. "Cindy" foundation is blues/noise/drone hybryd, with the band taking cues from Hendrix, Velvet Underground and Black Sabbath while not being complete... See full review

As they say "gifted people are talented at anything that they do" - and this applies perfectly to the work of visual artist and musician Tor Lundvall. There's something deep about both his autumnal and melancholic paintings and echoey soundscapes that... See full review

Indeed Sleep Chamber were an oddity, even for relatively diverse Boston music scene. Part rock/part ambient, they were interested in exploring all sorts of forbidden fruits - from S/M to black magic. The band, however, appears to be finished since... See full review

In 10+ years of existence, this little-known German band created a series of consistent, but stylistically different albums. Styles varied from noise to ambient to minimalism. My favorite work of theirs is 1996 Ego Ex Nihil album, which is a... See full review

One of the most powerful and moving rock/metal records ever done, period. Although you can still smell an influence of grunge (there was a hardly a way to get around in 1992), God Machine were onto something special here. Furious tracks like "I've... See full review

Surprise, surprise - NIN weren't always about music for soccer moms and bored housewives. In fact, you can see a huge improvement from "Pretty Hate Machine" empty youthful anger to more refined lyrical and musical approach on "Broken" and nearly... See full review

One of the weirdest bands in existence today. They got it all - ambience, noise, rock, long druggy trips in audio form and satanic references. The only constant member is Steve Austin (not the relative of another, more famous guy, I guess). Unlike... See full review

One of the most powerful rock bands, period. Out of all 80s a-list thrashers, they were probably some of the most angry ones (you certainly don't think that Metallica or Anthrax would get away after writing lyrics about necrophilia, do you?). Not to... See full review

Anything about the history of the band sounds odd (just like the band itself). First of all - its not a trio, its basically Andrew McKenzie himself, although in the beginning it was a duo of him and Chris Watson who later turned to a solo career. Yet... See full review

"Goo" is universally considered a first "sell-out" album by Sonics. What it really means is that they cut on noise and added more melody, which resulted in a slew of major and minor hits (the biggest being Kool Thing, followed by 100%, Dirty Boots and... See full review

Although her name isn't anywhere near VH1 and MTV or any major newspapers, Juliana Hatfield is one hell of a singer/songwriter. She could probably kick asses of many of her male brehtren out there due to her skills. Granted, some of her songs are... See full review

For those of you who don't know - ASGT is a project of former O Yuki Conjugate mastermind Andrew Hulme. Whereas OYC was mainly about tribal/ambient atmospheres, each album produced by ASGT feels like a soundtrack to a certain movie. This time we're... See full review

Suicide self-titled debut is hard to top. Unfortunately, it also meant that the band itself will be forced to try and top it in the following years, which is not an easy thing to do. This album, along with early Throbbing Gristle material was a... See full review

This is a modern classic, no less (just like two other parts of the trilogy). Its also as far removed from mass-produced music as possible. Its all about atmosphere - although mostly vocal-less, title are usually speaking for themselves (Shadow Path,... See full review

Due to enormous amount of hacks and people without a hint of talent getting more popular than ever, we need people like Loren Connors today. He was doing his thing quietly for the past 30 years without anyone (except for avant-garde completists)... See full review