Longplay love 42.0

Bracken's "We know About The Need" is the first album on Anticon. to hit the streets in 2007 - a work of 11 tracks on which typical, foggy Anticon.-styled beats meet abundant string arrangements and what media calls AntiFolk these days. A whole lot of melancholia is to be found, too, mixed up with a certain restlessness like the one man experiences when waking up after a nightmare, impossible to fall asleep again. Due to this "We Know About The Need" is not to be called an "easy" album anyway, but one that's made for attentive listening sessions in which it might grow compared to the first impression it makes.

February 9th is the streetdate for The End's new album "Elementary" , which is due to be released on Relapse Records then. Dark, heavy Hardcore influences and brutal, exceeding walls of sound meet epic choruses and harmonies that almost fit to be filed under Pop - not in a sense of mainstream radio Pop, of course. This fusion is at least interesting as a wider audience will gain access to guitar-based Hardcore through this but at the same time there might be voices bemoaning a point of sell-out of the HC movement. Leaves me kinda undecided so the best recommendation might be to check this one on your own at your local record store.

Southern Lord are about to put out "The Resurrection Of Whiskey Foote" on February 23rd, which is the third longplay workout of Maryland-based The Hidden Hand, an eleven track masterpiece of epic, down-to-earth Doom Rock. The four piece band of Scott "Wino" Weinrich, Dave Grohl, Bruce Falkinburgh - also responsible for the whole recording process - and Evan Tanner delivers a raw and high-proof view on the dark side of classical heavy Rock, ravaging through a running time of 42+ a bit minutes evoking pictures of deserted land and endless motorcycle rides in the heat of a hot summers day. Nice one.