Alessandro Cortini, most widely known as being the touring keyboardist for Nine Inch Nails for four years and also known for being half of the duo named modwheelmood, has gone solo. Which is oddly close to saying the name of his new project, Sonoio, which is Italian for “it’s me”. So, it’s all one big statement of the seclusion involved. But with this seclusion and this control, as much as he was kickass in NIN and MWM, Cortini really shines.
Cortini released 4 songs from his upcoming, self-titled album on his website for free, plus a bunch of pre-order packages. They are as little as the $8 digital album and pre-order exclusive demo/outtake EP, to the mega $200 “Geek Bundle”, including a homemade synthesizer made so you can mess around with the Sonoio sounds, a limited art print of the album cover signed by Cortini, a CD signed and numbered by Cortini, the digital album, the pre-order exclusive EP, and a pre-order exclusive t-shirt. Between those two, you have 7 different packages with different combinations of all of the offerings. If you don’t think that is choices, you need to read a dictionary.
But, of course, the main point of all this is the music. Even more so, is it worth spending $200 on? The answer to that is simple: yes. Just yes.
The four tracks released by Cortini on the website for free, “Just Me”, “Suck Up Everything”, “Not Worth Remembering” and “Silence”, are nothing short of addictive. All the songs on the album are made using only one synthesizer, Cortini’s voice, and some very few and scattered extras, so they all feel connected by sound. Some of the songs feel like electro-pop music you may hear on the radio in Europe, while others are ambient tracks with calm build-ups. All the songs are full of melody and get stuck in your head abnormally fast. You’ll be finding yourself snapping and singing along to the song randomly many hours after hearing the songs because they are just that catchy. Not catchy in a bad way though, like pop-radio. It’s catchy because it’s written well and it has that feel of accessibility without being something you’ve heard a hundred times before.
Plus, Mr. Cortini is an extremely nice guy, and I don’t know about you, but when a talented musician is nice, it makes me want to buy his music even more.
There isn’t much to report on this project as the album hasn’t even come out yet, but I am recommending this to anyone. At least download the 4 songs on his website for free, because you’ll be happy you did.
.jpg "La Album Cover")
It’s been a long time guys. The rock/rap/nu-metal/pop/whatever (and UK!) band Lostprophets are back after a few years and a disappointing album. James Oliver, the band’s live keyboardist, stated that this new album, titled The Betrayed, had “the bite that Start Something (their second album, it was the heaviest of the three) had, with the song-ability of Liberation Transmission (their third album, which was very poppy and disappointing) but personality of Thefakesoundofprogress (their first album, which was an odd mix of metal, rock, and nu-metal… which turned out amazing).” Any Lostprophets fan would be excited as all hell for this album then! That just described awesomeness! Hell, I actually had hope that they would be able to redeem themselves. Now, notice how earlier I said that they are back. I really… REALLY wanted to say “and better than ever” but that, sadly, is just not the case.
Don’t call them a side-project because no one in the band would agree. You could call them a supergroup if you want to, but they wouldn’t really agree with that either. Josh Homme (singer/guitarist) of Queens Of The Stone Age and Eagles Of Death Metal fame, Dave Grohl (drummer) from Foo Fighters and the almighty Nirvana, and John Paul Jones (bassist) from the legendary Led Zeppelin see their newly formed band, oddly titled “Them Crooked Vultures”, as a bunch of friends (both new and old) just jamming. You would think that this would go decently well, as Dave and Josh have worked together before on the Queens Of The Stone Age album “Songs For The Deaf” and with Josh providing one guitar part on the Foo Fighters album “In Your Honor”, but it goes WAY more then decently well. It goes “Best Album Of The Year” well.
That’s right boys and girls, Michael “I like to dangle babies off of high ledges and rape little children” Jackson has died today, June 25, 2009, the same day as actress Farrah Fawcett, and the same week as late-night sidekick Ed McMahon. He was 50. More info after the break.