Another list of random albums that I've had a listen to this week

After listening to Chino Moreno's new side project Crosses last week I had a hankering for some Deftones.  Diamond Eyes is probably my favourite of the Deftones albums - I think they managed to get the balance between chunky, solid riffs (almost like Meshuggah in some parts) and melodic and atmpospheric sounds just right.  This is a serious collection of solid tunes and I can't get enough of it at the moment.


Mirrored, Battles' first full length album, was an amazing display of technical prowess, messed up time signatures, and jazz fused with just about anything the band could find.  Gloss Drop, this years follow up, saw them inviting a whole lot of guests to fill in for their departed front man.  I'm still a but undecided on it because it's a bit poppier and not as interesting as its predecessor, but the songs are catchy as hell, the sound is huge, and like Mirrored, it's a whole lot of fun.

I was in need of a blues fix mid-week and the Black Keys always works for me.  Attack & Release won out over the others, mainly because I like the production on it; getting (my favourite) producer Danger Mouse to bring his hip hop values to the creation of this gem resulted in a different take on their sound.  It's still the same stripped back, garage blues, but it's just got a different feel to it on this album.

Sweden's Looptroop have been around since the late 90's, but after Modern Day City Symphony they kind of started getting more into a party type sound.  They still had some good albums after this (2005's Fort Europa was a return of sorts to their original sound and lyrical content), but the production is rough on this, the lyrics are sharp, and guest appearances by the Arsonists is the icing on the musical cake.

What have you been listening to this week?  Leave a comment with any interesting or new music you've been getting into over the past 7 days.