What do you get when you get together the bass player from Head of David (Dave Cochrane), the bass player from jesu (Diarmuid Dalton) and the masterminds, guitarists and vocalists from jesu (Justin Broadrick) and Isis (Aaron Turner)? The most abrasive, most dissonant metal machine music since Godflesh’s Streetcleaner (which is still the blueprint of this sound Broadrick laid down twenty years ago), that’s what. Greymachine’s debut, Disconnected is two steps forward and one step back and loud and ugly and good in all of the ways this kind of noise should be. If you miss the discordance of Broadrick’s earlier work or you just need a good, hard kick in the ass, Greymachine is your ticket.

—Roy Christopher, 20 August 2009

I don’t know about the ones on IFC, but the eleven episodes that they managed to squeeze by Fox were hysterical. You know how Family Guy and South Park are always slipping things by the censors? Well, Greg the Bunny, Warren DeMontague, Count Blah, Tardy Turtle, and their human friends Jimmy (Seth Green), Alison (Sarah Silverman), Gil (Eugene Levy) slid snide innuendo under radars the FCC didn’t even know to monitor. It’s an adult show about the making of a children’s show (Sweet Knuckle Junction) and you can get it on DVD.

—Roy Christopher, 21 July 2009

If The Cure were a metal band (à la Godflesh, not Skid Row), they’d probably sound a lot like Isis. An Isis record is usually a workout for your head, and Wavering Radiant is no exception. It’s their fifth long player and it showcases their strengths in spades: the solid songwriting, the slow builds, the scathing crescendos, the cathartic releases. Keyboards used to be a sign of going soft, but in the hands of Clifford Meyer, they’re as searing as the sun. With Jeff Caxide’s echoey, spaced-out bass and Aaron Turner’s gruff vocals, as well as the meandering song structures, we could consider Isis the flagship of their own genre: prog-core. Wavering Radiant is aptly named and a perfect entry point into their world.

—Roy Christopher, 17 July 2009

Tired of the same old nonfiction? Sick of sometimey music journalism? Seek out and acquire a copy of Kodwo Eshun’s mind-melting textual tilt-a-whirl, More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction (Quartet, 1998). Eshun takes everyone from Sun Ra and John Coltrane to Kool Keith and Grandmaster Flash and sieves them through the theories of everyone from Paul Virilio and Gilles Deleuze to Marshall McLuhan and Manuel De Landa. It’s one part tradition-trouncing polemic, one part trip-hop philosophy, and one part ice-cream headache buzz, so take it slow.

—Roy Christopher, 17 July 2009

Larry Harmon started the fiercely independent Genetic Disorder zine in 1987. Larry is one of the underground’s great unsung wordsmiths, and GD is his main vehicle. Issue #19 is out right now, and it proves my hyperbole on its own. His detailed researching and reporting of the odd tales of SoCal are required reading for any self-respecting punk—as well as those just interested in a point of view you’re not likely to find anywhere else.

—Roy Christopher, 03 July 2009

Since the early 90s, Steven Wilson has been The Man behind the UK’s neo-prog outfit The Porcupine Tree. With Insurgentes he steps out on his own. This is nothing new. He’s recorded under his given name in the past. What is new, however, is how big this record gets. The Porcupine Tree is a powerful band with big ideas, but Insurgentes overwhelms anything they’ve done. Wilson’s voice is as pensive and delicate as ever, but at times — the perfect times — the songs erupt in shimmering waves of guitar noise. It’s as beautiful as it is blistering.

—Roy Christopher, 02 July 2009

Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes) is Nacho Vigalondo’s first non-comedic film, and wow, it’s a completely harrowing rollercoaster mindfuck. The time travel theme, if presented well (as it is here—_in spades_), never seems to wear thin. Vigalondo’s sure-handed direction makes this condensed, pressure-cooker (the film contains exactly four actors and takes place over the course of about an hour) of a temporal thriller chock full of causal loops and suspenseful twists an imminently watchable and intriguing film. It’s somewhere between Primer and Back to the Future, only much scarier.

—Roy Christopher, 02 July 2009