In Scotland the winters are long and the search for great music is intense. Find out what Pedram Valiani of Sectioned is (really) listening to after the jump.
Sectioned released a split earlier this year with Shudder (sample it below) but what does the band’s guitarist (really) listen to when no one is looking?
Here’s his 3×3 with his description of each album.
This Will Destroy You – Self-Titled
This and the Young Mountain E.P are really great. Post-rock gets boring because most of the bands don’t bring things back, they just tremolo pick for 30 minutes without considering a song structure. This Will Destroy You actually provide replay value and memorable progressions. ‘The Mighty Rio Grande’ and ‘Burial On The Presidio Banks’ are my two favourites on this release. Grandfather Clock is probably my favourite from Young Mountain.
Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
This is his best album imo, You’re Dead didn’t quite have all the catches/hooks and sonic depth as Cosmogramma. This album is amazing to just go on a long walk with (which I do a lot). There is great dynamic variation between all of the tracks and a balance between good hooks and venturing into weird shit to keep the listener interested.
The Armed – Spreading Joy
I don’t think this band has put out a flawless release yet, I’m waiting for their next album to be album of the year and prove me wrong. However, this E.P is their most aggressive to date. Probably one of the best heavy bands going at the moment and definitely the best unsigned heavy band without question. If you disagree, you’re wrong.
Calvin Harris – Ready For The Weekend
Every song on this album is a hit. I mainly listen to them for the melodic hooks. I think he’s one of the few recent artists in the world that has an entire album in a world dominated by singles, where all of his songs are hits.
Converge – Axe To Fall
I don’t tend to like a lot of older Converge because I think they have a lot of filler songs spread across all of the albums. This one has the least though and it’s also the album where they found their “sound” and Kurt Ballou started to actually produce albums that were sonically optimal in terms of how polished they they could be for hardcore records. The album title track ‘Axe To Fall’ grabbed me into this album.
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza – 3 – A Series Of Unfortunate Events
Danza IIII was a huge disappointment, having only three or four legit songs. 3 is high impact for the majority of the way through it. I’d still say there are a few filler tracks on here but tracks like ‘Vicki Mayhem’ just want me to lay into the nearest face.
High Contrast – High Society
I am a huge DnB/Jungle/Breakbeat fan and this album was the first full one I listened to by chance. I will never get bored of the repetitive beats but the thing that sets aside a good DnB album from a shit one is the melody hooks. This album has three,maybe five solid tracks, the rest are a bit weak but it still remains a favourite.
Deftones – Saturday Night Wrist
This is the first album that properly got me into Deftones. Although, now I’d say Diamond Eyes is my favourite album, tracks like ‘Cherry Waves’ always remind me of a specifically good period in my life. Old Deftones prior to the self-titled was terrible imo. I think once they hit the self-titled they really identified themselves. Koi Noi Yokan was a bit too bland though. Poltergeist is probably my favourite track on that.
Alien Ant Farm – Anthology
There is far more to this band than their ‘Smooth Criminal’ cover. In fact, it’s probably one of the worst tracks they have done in comparison to the work between this album and TruANT. Again, an album where almost every song stands on its own as a hit. I’m big on my hits, if you haven’t guessed by now. No time for bullshit. Get to the point.
And here’s Sectioned’s split that we told you about.
As always, be sure to post your 3×3’s in comments, on Facebook, or tag #HeavyBlogisHeavy on Instagram
–BS