Substix

Love and Surgery: Victor Lovera sampler

2010-09-16T14:02:00.024+01:00

I tried to pare this down, I really did, but it couldn't be done with a clean conscience. So here you have a 10-song sampler of the work of Victor Lovera, a Nashville-based songwriter and muse/sometime creative partner of R. Stevie Moore, who, as anybody who is familiar with this WEBPAGE or its author will know, is by far my favourite one-man musical tornado.
Lovera was, from the evidence on this Moore-compiled double album of his songs, an arch-druid of mostly contemplative and personal minor-chord songs; at least in his later recordings chronicled here - he began with Moore in possibly Nashville's only hard rock/glam/Zappa-influenced group Ethos and could do a mean power pop.
I have never truly been a connoisseur of singer-songwriters, so it takes something really special to get me hooked (here the awkward, uninformed attempt at musical analysis); and Victor had a great ear for a satisfying chord change and a calming voice, paired with a feel for classic, universal lovesong lyrics and, yes, a goddamned sense of humour.

His more playful uptempo numbers are good fun, whipping out the assisted high harmonies, but for me these home recordings will always recall a sense of kinship, sorrow and mystery; seen, as Lovera is by the limited Youtube audience, as a disheveled and peripheral figure in the RSM lifelense - a streaming artistic audiovisual feed of sorts stretching back some 35 years. This feeling can be summarised neatly in the multi-part camcorder document of Lovera's visit to Moore's New Jersey home in 1991 - it was the song 'Gleason', below, which first caught my attention.

I believe that these days, amongst all the web-paradigms, they'd call this user-generated content. But there is something sincere and candid in the almost unselfconscious home tapes of the pre-spiderwebs generations.
Lovera's maudlin demeanour, which I am speculatively romanticizing, is no doubt partially explained by the unfortunate fact that he was a sufferer from Crohn's disease, which tragically claimed his life in '98. In place of any sense of injustice at the non-exposure of thousands of such worthy artists (LoveraMoore foremost), I merely count myself fortunate to have encountered these people and their music in my virtual travels. Could VicLo ever have imagined that people as far flung as the grey skies of Norwich UK would be shuffling around with his songs on their iSplod on an autumn's day?

The songs included are taken from 'Love Lovera, Last Victor', available for $$$coppage here and only here (near the bottom). They are mostly home recordings from the mid-80s to the mid-90s. Amongst them, 'It Sparkles' is 1996's latter-day classic (RSM rearrangement here); 'Jackie' reminds me of the intro to Love's 'Laughing Stock'... what can I say about the rest, they are just heart-rending and whimsical songs by a ''real down-to-earth cat''. Enjoy!

http://www.mediafire.com/?1s1h6goxwo9m7ji

Additional and essential material

Mice paces:

http://www.myspace.com/victorlovera (links through to dozens more)

http://www.myspace.com/victorlovera2

http://www.myspace.com/stethos Ethos (Lovera & Moore)

The compilation sampled here constitutes just a small part of Victor's output; he was in many other bands and it's all chronicled and sold through Steviehub. Here is the main page from which you can navigate through a plethora of info http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/cdrsmclub/3/vl/victor1.html

2010-06-03T22:20:00.011+01:00

Can’t recommend this enough, one of those real delights you'd rarely unearth on purpose. The compilation consists of recordings from the 1930s golden age of rebetika/rembetika - urban underground music. This was the music disaffected Greek refugees from Asia Minor brought back with them, and boy… True to its origins, the Byzantine modes and unresolved structures give the style a strong Middle Eastern feel, but that doesn’t really cover it. The musicianship is impressive, intricate, often deceptively simple, and it still feels very Balkan, i.e. wistful as a troupe of wand'ring gypsies. These songs are ethereal when excised from worldly distractions and, as it turns out, made for stoners by stoners; which goes some way to explaining the disorientating side effects - even by today’s 'ethnic music' standards, where obscure and alien sounds issued from the dusty vaults are a dime a dozen.

Rebetiko is a folk style, and thus the tracks range from what I am informed are laments of woe to vital celebrations that make you want to dance badly, smash a few plates and drink copiously at a Mediterranean wedding reception... Ironically, my Greek ladyfriend hates it (too Turkish). She adds: ''rembetika originates from the verb 'remvazo', which means be lost in thoughts/absent-minded''. How apt!

Opa!

Below is a stonking BBC documentary on rebetiko, vintage: 1988.

Fugazi 'Red Medicine' (1995)

2010-04-14T13:25:00.004+01:00

The most eclectic and unconventional sounds of the post-hardcore variety. Words seem pointless here, plus I ain't got the brain for many.
Luminary of the great Washington D.C. scene Ian MacKaye leads us throo noise rock, Beefheartized punk, downbeat instrumentals, a distant reggae flavour (scratchy guitar lines, 'Ring The Alarm' reference on track 7?) and some of the best dual guitar work you'll hear this side of... Slint or Sonic Youth, I suppose. Former members of Rites of Spring (who also featured in this D.C. 'supergroup') see to that, and Picciotto's vocal earnestness counters MacKaye's classic pubescent punk growl perfectly. Almost in-credibly good. The wheels were removed at some point and these guys just decided to clear their own way, off the beaten path. Even the faintest animal tracks seem to have been eschewed in favour of... this ... Checkit out. Gotta love dem righteous Fugazi/Dischord business/performance ethics too! And to think we were mired in Britpop.

As a bloke on the Boobtubes comments: ''Genres are for fucing books. This is music.''

REVENGE OF THE ATTAQUE OF TEATIME PSYCHOTROPICKS

2010-02-21T15:39:00.003Z

Originally compiled for my friend Trix; a spiritual sequel to my 2007 'Teatime Psychotropics' compilation of transatlantic 1960s psychedelic pop. A few non-UK/US groups. Mostly obscurities. Goes from the baroque and whimsical to more garage rock-y in the second half. Contains the best cover of Tomorrow’s ‘Real Life Permanent Dream’ you will ever hear. Non-aficionados of the era should probably steer clear and listen to fucking Deerhunter or something.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ynt2ey2kgdy

1. Scarecrow’s Love Affair - Blues Magoos
2. Time Track - Skip Bifferty
3. Life Is Short - Billy Nicholls
4. What Does It Feel - The End
5. When The Alarm Clock Rings - Blossom Toes
6. The Birthday - The Idle Race
7. Yo Recuerdo Mi Mundo - Los Shakers
8. 14 Hour Technicolour Dream - The Syn
9. Wake Up Cherylina - The Smoke
10. Real Life Permanent Dream - Orange Machine
11. Starvation - The Golden Dawn
12. Feathered Fish - The Sons Of Adam
13. The Letter - The Mops
14. Changing The Colors Of Life - Los Chijuas
15. All Night Stand - The Thoughts
16. 99th Floor - The Moving Sidewalks

Enter The Magical Mystery Chambers (2009)

2010-02-06T10:37:00.017Z

Every bit as awesome as you'd hope for. Unlike Danger Mouse's excellent Jay-Z/White Album mashup, most tracks here do not actually utilise Beatles samples as the basis for a cultural conflation. Rather, Caruana exploits obscure instrumental Beatles cover version: latter-day RZA-like horn motifs blowing soulfully away on Macca's 'Live and Let Die', a Hammond organ riff on 'And I Love Her', or at one point, oddly, a surf instrumental to the tune of 'You Won't See Me'... Cheeky and potentially disastrous, but it works. The overall quality of produckies is high, Caruana is an ace mixer who fills in the gaps inventively; and the Beatles seem little more than a convenient melodic device for a hip-hop redux. Cause let's face it, they were a hook factory.
The rhythmic instincts and sometime 'lyrical esoterics' of the Wu are carried through, but given a new lease of life with fresh beats that merely happen to be reappropriated from Thee Hoali Beetles canon. It's a hardcore hip-hop album first and foremost.
Vocals are lifted from not just Wu-Tang tracks but also the respective members' solo careers, it's gloriously l-o-n-g, the Beatles/Ol' Dirty Bastard skits are classic (heareth) and it's freeeeeee. Or at least it was until the bandcamp.com profile got taken down. Haw haw.

Click the picture above before this shit gets removed by the EMI attack dogs!

One of the few instances of extensive Beatles hook-sampling, this one from 'She's A Woman' with a Ghostface Killah vocal overdubbed:

Dedicated to the late, great Dirt McGirt. If there is a heaven he is up there getting wrecked.

That Motown Sound

2010-02-05T16:49:00.015Z

A cottage industry that was churning out 110 Top Ten hits like nobody's business between 1961 and 1971; whose productions possess a timeless-yet-nostalgic quality that reduces music snobs and casuals alike to a quivering heap; that was Motor City's largest export after automobiles (and certainly the more culturally significant); to which generations of musicians and songwriters are indebted; the soul/R&B Mecca-Eden and the driving force behind the Northern Soul 'pre-rave' phenomenon in the UK...
What pop music witchcraft is this?
That's a question which I as a lowly music fan am not qualified to answer, but here's a succinct passage poached from that ever-questionable academic resource the Wikipaedos:

Motown’s music was crafted with an ear towards pop appeal. The company specialized in a type of soul music it referred to with the trademark "The Motown Sound". The Motown Sound was typified by a number of characteristics: the use of tambourines to accent the back beat, prominent and often melodic electric bass guitar lines, distinctive melodic and chord structures, and a call and response singing style that originated in gospel music. In addition, pop production techniques such as the use of orchestral string sections, charted horn sections, and carefully arranged background vocals were also used. Complex arrangements and elaborate, melismatic vocal riffs were avoided; Motown producers believed steadfastly in the ''KISS principle'' ("keep it simple, stupid"). Read the rest as you listen, fascinating stuff!

Great, but it doesn't satisfy my affinity for pointless comparative analysis... Ever seen a classic Martin Scorsese movie, noticed his tendency to big, upbeat orchestral soul? That's one aspect of Motown Records. In fact even in the incredibly unlikely case that you've never even heard of Motown, you will definitely have come across at least one of the songs included here during your lifetime; it will take a cattle prod to the withered memory bits o' your brain - as if you're revisiting a long-forgotten childhood... via the gift of ECT.

It's just that 60s magic to some extent, that is: the clean-but-not-over-processed-to-tawdry-shit analogue production, the guitar sound, the characteristic effects and instruments of the era; but it's also the Motown THING. Is it in-house session musician icons the Funk Brothers, the stock songwriting teams (which included flagship singers like Gaye, Robinson and Wonder)?; or is it simply the perfect combination of time, place, passion and inspiration? Probably... What do I know.

So, not to be missed. Should you even consider yourself something of an expert on the classic single-oriented era of Motown, this'll still knock you for six - 38 tracks! But it goes by in a flash, there is plenty of space for the less familiar stuff and each song retains an unmistakable identity. Despite the classic Motown remit outlined above there is considerable variety - check out the gritty, psychedelic garage stomper below!... The total euphoric effect of all this is something like a whirlwind. They truly had pop music down to a science.

...But there's one catch which I have to apologise for. I acquired this in 2007, and it served as my official introduction to a bedrock of popular culture that had somehow been omitted from my upbringing. Unfortunately the mp3s are in 128kbps. I've scoured the blogosphere and online retailers, but nothing matches the title... this first-class delight of a compilation is likely some blogger's one-off. To some people this won't make a difference, but to the rest of you I would still implore you to take the dive.
On the plus side, the occasional dodgy high-ends in the sound neatly replicate the experience of listening to the songs through a transistor radio on the kitchen table in 1966, or dusty old vinyl. If you can find a collection on a par with this in better quality... you are a better man than I, and you should share the wealth in the comments box forthwith.
cheers, J x

Partario Wun
Partario T'u

(Tracklisting in comments)

k-the-i??? 'Broken Love Letter' (2006)

2010-02-01T14:43:00.001Z

Despite growing to become the most popular form of music on the planet*, hip-hop still gets a raw deal from us alternative types. Now, there are a hundred tiny reasons for this but I'll keep that analysis for my Sociology paper. The main reason has to be that pasty faced sensitive kids assume all hip-hop is about gats, hoes, and crack, and they can't relate to that. They need poetry; deep, dark musings from the soul.
This is where our brave hero of the day, k-the-i??? steps in. Crafting a record about unrequited love, this man mountain from Massachusetts lyrically creates an accessible, universal appeal. I'm sure most of us can recall a time we've been spurned, even when the object of our affection has been blissfully unaware of our very existence, and we've thought hey, “you're not that beautiful”. Waitaminute, that's the title of one of the songs on here! This common thread persists lyrically throughout the album – it's very much one that speaks to the heart and soul, our hero 'fessing all his personal angst so us the audience, can sympathise and emapthise.
k-the-i??? also handles the majority of the production, and the music itself is fantastic. Stuttering, jerky beats, like an even more spastic Timbaland. This gives the album a feeling of even more intense rawness, like a heart that's been split open and out comes these weird sounds and heartfelt peans. I implore you dear Substix readers to at least give this album a chance – it's not for everyone sure, but for me it's one of the bravest, creative, most forward thinking, pieces of music of the last ten years, whilst also being so old-fashioned even Sinatra would've dug it.
C'mon, don't be scared.

*(this may not be statistically true, iunno)

'ere the good stuff

Big kisses to Molecules for allowing me to ruin his great blog with my garbled writings and questionable selections. Hope I'm invited back!

Dalis Car 'The Waking Hour' (1984)

2010-01-27T19:47:00.010Z

^A painting by Max Parrish, whose 'Daybreak' is the album's cover-art

A deeply unusual and beguiling one-off here (not me, the album). The delectable Peter Murphy of Bauhaus and multi-instrumentalist Mick Karn (ex-Japan) came together for this totally unique celebration of Middle Eastern modes and Paganistic themes; conjured almost entirely by complex, interwoven fretless bass and synth lines. With a number of exceptions, the fretless bass' sound can seem dated as it instantly recalls an era. But similar to the iconic and fluid basstones featured on Kate Bush albums from the period, it just feeds into the strangeness and in the case of Dalis Car, sets the scene.

Murphy was surely one of the classic post-Bowie New Wave singers, bold and brazen. Karn brings the dark, synth-based ruminations of Japan to the project. The programmed drums are barely noticeable and rendered almost superfluous beneath the album's mirage. This is far from simply Bauhaus meets Japan - it carves out a mystical exoticism, at a time when many artists of renown (Byrne, Gabriel, Eno etc) had recently succeeded in bringing the alien rhythms of various 'world'/ethnic musics into synthetic Western pop.

Dalis Car is pretty left of field however, being unsettlingly hypnotic and instrumentally upside-down. The minimalist approach to the compositions is fleshed out by excellent production and timely touches of distant guitar and woodwind. If you're a fan of the cold sounds of Talking Heads' Fear of Music, Bowie's Lodger, or the gothic New Age-isms of Dead Can Dance in general you can't afford to miss out on this.
BEWARE 'Cornwall Stone'.

the judgement is the mirror
1985 interview with Karn and Murphy

Themed Mix - Bellydancing-ish

2010-01-27T01:52:00.000Z

Ohh...it's been quite awhile since I last posted something to Substix. Or made a mix of any sort for that matter, so today I bring you Bellydancing-ish, which is a mix with the objective of bringing together tracks which could potentially be suitable for the purpose of bellydancing - many could be said to be 'arabesque' or Indian-tinged, while there are also tracks which simply have a somewhat avant-garde rhythm and beat which coincide with the theme. Dead Can Dance and Siouxsie are often considered staples for "gothic belly dance", while Ofra Haza is probably the closest to legit bellydance music - everything else I was going on my own intuition ~~and possibly practice~~. Onwards!

Cover art is taken from Josefina - Nico Nelson on Flickr (a Creative Commons image).

Various Artists - Bellydancing-ish

---Tracklisting---
1. Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Follow the Sun"
2. Shocking Blue - "Love Buzz"
3. Nine Inch Nails - "14 Ghosts II"
4. Damon Albarn - "Reedz"
5. Danielle Dax - "Timber Tongue"
6. Beastie Boys - "Eugene's Lament"
7. Ratatat - "Mumtaz Khan"
8. David Bowie - "Yassassin"
9. The Who - "Disguises"
10. The Fall - "Theme From Error-Orror!"
11. Koji Kondo - "Marina Research Laboratory"
12. Danielle Dax - "Ostrich"
13. Ananda Shankar - "Dance Indra"
14. Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Silly Thing"
15. Ofra Haza - "Im Nin Alu"
16. Dead Can Dance - "Indus"
17. Nico - "Into the Arena"
18. Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Lunar Camel"
19. Koji Kondo - "Lethal Lava Land"
20. Dead Can Dance - "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove"

V/A - The Beginner's Guide to Thrash Metal

2010-01-24T17:10:00.006Z

Presented here for your pleasure is a sterling and succinct introduction to the original thrash metal movement, by one of my favourite music fans on the web and stalwart/sugar daddy/patriarch of the Musicbanter forum. Thrash was initially a California-centric scene but was quickly indebted to the East Coast and Western Europe in particular; with bands surfacing worldwide like Brazil's influential Sepultura. This compilation not only covers the greatest bands of thrash that are perhaps lesser-known to casual listeners (i.e. not the Big Four), but it carries great import as the root of just about all the metal that would come in the ensuing decades.
Here's a thorough documentary-retrospective of the whole thing (stream works as of 24/01/10).

What follows is the comp as it was presented on the forum in June '09.

This is more of an introduction to a genre and hopefully some of the younger members might like it and see where the multitudes of metal sub genres came from initially. Thrash was a massive shot in the arm for metal as the NWOBHM was burning out along came Thrash with it's Metal roots influenced by Punk and Hardcore. All the tracks on here are pre 1990 and I have purposely excluded the big 4 here ( Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer,Anthrax). I have also seen 7 of the bands live although that is just me showing off! enjoy please!

1. Death Angel-Evil Priest
Recorded in '86 and released in '87 this bay area band are one of the most influential bands in the Thrash scene and not bad for a drummer who was only 14 at the time! lyrically this is bloody awful cliched crap but that bass line in the middle and the subsequent accelerating guitar riff is nothing short of stellar.
2. Vio-lence-Phobophobia
If you are wondering it's fear of fear! Vio-lence never really got the attention that they deserved probably due to Sean Killians vocal style which many found ill fitting amidst their razor sharp riffs. This track has plenty of riffs jostling for attention yet it is still streamlined and tight as! Guitarist robb flynn went on to front a little band called Machine Head!
3. Testament-Burnt Offerings
Outside of the big 4, Testament were always the fans favourite and it could be argued that theirs is the quintessential Thrash sound. Again lyrically terrible, it makes up for that in the twin guitar muscular riffs and it remains a Thrash classic.
4. Sepultura-To The Wall
For many the band never recaptured the raw power of their second album Schizophrenia from which this track is taken and this awesome track backs that up. Brilliant raw production and the stupendous drum work of Igor Cavalera make this another absolute classic and not nearly heralded enough amidst the bands later success's.
5.Kreator-Stream Of Consciousness
Always one of the rawer bands in the Thrash fraternity and a band that's live power has never been captured well on vinyl at all which was a shame as the efficient riffing and vocal power of Mille Petrozza has always given Kreator a unique sound. Love the openeing riff that bounces off the bass drum pattern.
6.Sabbat-The Best Of Enemies
How I love that intro with the bass guitar and double bass drum punctuated with that guitar riff. Sabbat where always a band not quite of their time and if they were around in the 70's i swear that they would have been a Prog band! Musically they were very different from the usual sound and employed lots of time changes and unusual vocal techniques. Dreamweaver is another album that needs reappraising.
7.Mortal Sin-Mayhemic Destruction
Mortal Sin were unusual due to the fact that they were from Australia (hardly a mecca for Thrash) and the fact that they were unashamedly old school thrash. The same titled debut album suffered from bad production and the band fell into many cliches on the album. However this track showed their potential and really cements it's place here with it's change of pace and awesome riff that kicks in at 2:50. It remains one of my favourite Thrash riffs ever.
8.Dark Angel-No One Answers
The main stop start riff on this track is still absolutely fucking mental and still sounds heavy as hell even today. Dark Angel began life as a cliched speed/Thrash band dabbling in the usual Satanic/morbid lyrics but they changed tack with this album. Lyrically very powerful. It dealt with child abuse and it's devastaing effects on the young. It's a shame about the faster parts as the production cannot quite keep up with the band and it sounds a little murky. That riff is still worth it. Amazing.
9.Meliah Rage-Impending Doom
A bit of a cheat here as Meliah Rage were essentially a power metal band that jumped on the Thrash bandwagon and occasionally on their debut (from which this is taken) reached some great heights. The track is built around a number of excellent riffs and changes in pace that warrant it's inclusion.
10.Nuclear Assault-Brain Death
Epic.Epic.Epic. Although Nuclear Assault took their influences from Punk and Hardcore, the first 3 albums are beloved in Thrash scene and the bands ability to keep that raw edge coupled with Dan Lilkers ridiculously fast bass work made them a live favourite ( I managed to catch the band twice in 4 days in different cities and I managed to hang with them on the later date). This track is worth it for the brilliant middle section that begins at the 3:40 mark and is a perfect send off for my intro to ya all!

Megadeth 'Rust In Peace' (1990)

2010-01-21T14:20:00.019Z

Well, this has been a long time coming. You can find this on a thousand blogs with the click of the mouse, but if I'm to share my favourites then it would be dishonest to omit Rust In Peace.

RIP is considered to be the album where Dave Mustaine truly got his revenge on ex-bandmates Metallica, by producing an album that was faster, more complex and more political than anything they could ever manage. It is also inarguably the apex of thrash metal (a California-born meeting of punk rock and heavy metal of the early 80s) and contender for the greatest metal album of all time, in any subgenre.
To the uninitiated - i.e. those who have no interest in 'The Metal' - this may well just be the same old noise, but I defy you to test it and not appreciate the musicianship and compositional skill involved.
I've never been a metalhead per se, but I find extreme metal subgenres therapeutic, thrash metal in particular has the speed and density, and is the primary language of the headbanger. In the 80s this was the perfect antithesis to dumb/hedonistic, poodle-haired AM metal... although as you can see above, painful trousers and effeminate coiffures remained.
Neither have I ever been one for instrumental virtuosity and guitar histrionics for the sake of it, which makes my appreciation of this album all the more special.
The thick-and-fast solos of dual guitarists Marty Friedman and songwriter/frontman Mustaine on Rust are never tedious; it's as if they agonised over every note. It's incredibly progressive, with time and key changes that leave you reeling - for a classic example see what happens around 2:48 on 'Hangar 18'. 'Holy Wars' is a breakneck suite and two-pronged reflection on religious fanaticism and crusades - the sort of track that may have happened had old prog guard been born in time for the hardcore punk movement and the First Gulf War!

... And I will hold up my hands and admit that some of the lyrics here are f*cking awesome. There are the occasional, obligatory/corny ones about wizards or Satanism; but this is thrash metal so the main points of order are grinning fascists, government wars, obliteration, conspiracy, social control, religion - nothing that far removed from reality, really.
I always thought the intentions of the 'Big Four' bands of thrash (Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer) were sound; taking a firm anti-war stance and calling out hypocrisy and corruption - albeit in a ham-fisted manner - and often extending this into the realms of farce for our tongue-in-cheek enjoyment.

MERCY KILLINGS
Classic interview

Death 'For The Whole World To See' (1975)

2010-01-09T13:00:00.013Z

Recorded by the three brothers Hackney in 1975 but bafflingly left unreleased until last year, Death (not to be confused with the equally trailblazing death/technical metal pioneers of the 80s) left us a mere 7 songs, but what epic and prescient statements they were!

They started as an R'n'B outfit before changing tack - embracing hard rock and the proto-punk of other Motor City originals like the Stooges and MC5 - whilst, to my ears at least, retaining the soul and social conscience of early 70s African-American music.
The result resembles a sound at once like Bad Brains and hardcore punk five years before the fact, with an unmistakable Detroit groove barely contained in a strait jacket of outrage: that of social outcasts trying to comprehend the senseless prejudice and apathy of the world around them. If this all sounds a bit too angsty and sincere to you then you'd do well to remember that this is rock music and getthehelloffamypage.
Now, the Bad Brains comparison isn't just some handy euphimism for all-black (so-called Afro-punk) groups of the 1970s, but one for the political approach and wide range of moods that both bands evoked over the majority of their peers within a raw punk framework. The album begins like any other Detroit garage group, presaging the Dirtbombs et al. Track 2 is spookily H.R, or even the 'black New York Dolls' Pure Hell. However the songs hereafter become lengthier, incorporating time changes and introspective lyrics; there are echoes of Curtis Mayfield's funk, the soul and rhythmic gospel seemingly compulsory for Detroit and even the jaded 1970s psychedelic hangover.

Ahead-of-their-time cuts like 'Let the World Turn', 'You're a Prisoner' and 'Politicians In My Eyes' ought to have reached the nascent punk subculture and become bonafide classics, but they didn't. Death self-released one 7'' single - these recordings having been funded by Columbia Records - and were swiftly dropped after refusing to compromise with a friendlier band name. Now is your chance to hear what a generation missed out on.

Alb'm
Afro-punk doque

Various Artists 'Paket aranžman' (1980)

2009-12-29T02:29:00.024Z

I love the energy of this album - it's taut and (I think it's safe to say) political like a lot of post-punk, but all the more worthwhile for the harsh social conditions under which it was produced. For all the gloom of the Eastern bloc, these groups sound like they were having fun, and the short but flawless career of Šarlo akrobata (of whom I am a big fan) exemplifies this: occasionally ska-inflected bursts of punk-inspired expression that would make for an interesting socio-historical study.
Šarlo clearly share their art school sensibilities with English contemporaries like Gang of Four, Wire et al; but if you had grown up in an environment shrouded behind the Iron Curtain, I think you might have more immediate priorities than artists in the 'free' world - who more often than not are met with a wall of conditioned ignorance or apathy. There is a sense that this is music that is truly reflecting a heavily oppressed generation that, having been spurred by the anarchic freedom of the punk movement, is struggling to not only free but to find itself and its role in this strange limbo-world.

This urgency in the music, occasionally tempered by bleak resignation, invokes all the usual Cold War imagery I somewhat romanticize in my head, so this little summary could only be positive coming from that perspective... And Paket aranžman is as perfect a snapshot of a time and place as one could hope for. However I think for the post-punk connoisseur and Europhile there is more to be had here. Only the three foremost Yugo Rock groups are featured, but they cover a lot of ground and only leave you dying to know what the lyrics are saying, particularly in Idoli's passive 'Amerika' (are they cynical, reverential?). The New Wave/Two Tone movements had obviously taken hold in Serbian record shops, the kids were doing the jerk to Costello, XTC, the Specials and producing music with the same tight rhythm sections and jagged guitars.

Here are some sample videos to help give you some idea of what these guys thought about life under leaders who were little more than Soviet puppets... note the mocking of Sov social realism in Idoli's Maljčiki video. SHOW PAPERS AT CHECKPOINT.

Sound wise, it's not 'lo-fi' in the conventional sense, some songs are endearingly ramshackle but no worse than a typical penniless Western group making do with a cheap studio. The difference here is that the music mattered. It mattered to a youth mired in the conflict and prejudices of their parent's/grandparent's generation - both Soviet and internal. It is scant comfort to know that things were only going to get worse - events of the ensuing decades would claim the lives of a few of the musicians featured on this record, including the drummer and frontman of Šarlo Akrobata.

Wiki:
'Paket aranžman is a New Wave music compilation album released in 1980 by Jugoton and is one of the most important and influential records ever made in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It features the eminent Belgrade artists: Šarlo akrobata, Električni orgazam and Idoli. Along with Novi Punk Val and Artistička radna akcija it is considered a symbol of the Yugoslav New Wave era and still has cult status in the countries that emerged after the breakup of Yugoslavia. The album was voted the second best Yugoslav rock album of all time by the critics. It is second only to Odbrana i poslednji dani by Idoli.'

LINK: http://www.mediafire.com/?2k2jzyyegur

Янка Дягилева 'Стыд и срам' (1991)

2009-11-27T16:11:00.006Z

Link

The definition of a 'lost' classic. Russian 'punk poet' Yanka Dyagileva's sorrow is beautiful and heartbreaking. The dissonant rumblings of cheap electric guitar introduced here on some tracks makes this, like all 'final statements', prophetically unhinged and disturbing. The foreknowledge of her spiralling depression, alcoholism and the increasing bleakness of her lyrics haunt the listener throughout.

This short album is bookended by painful exorcisms, 'Выше ноги от земли' and 'Придет вода'; both are lengthy songs with more than one passage, and both transmit an indescribable angst (especially if you don't speak Russian), although these titles should give you some idea: 'The Water Is Coming', 'Higher Than My Feet Above the Ground', 'Of Devils'...
Cracked lullabies, a recurring broken music box and an endearingly shambolic delivery reflect an innocence lost, never to be regained, and the sort of fatalistic, self-destructive philosophy that permeates the art of those under the Mighty Red Boot. We are even treated to a minute or so of Yanka's *swoon* spoken word and *gasp* an organ solo!

The title translates as Styd i Sram, or Shame and Reproach, and is Yanka's final self-released record before her suicide in Siberia, in 1991, within months of recording these songs.
In Soviet Russia you were simply not allowed access to studio facilities unless you were bland, state-authorised un-music. Yanka's vagrant lifestyle, travelling around Russia in collectives playing to the counterculture crowd, was the only means by which a dissenting artist could make themselves heard - at grassroots level. As such the Russian political folk underground was largely inspired by Bob Dylan and other Western minstrels, as well as rock 'n' roll and other impassioned forms of music that were frowned upon. Indeed, many of Yanka's contemporaries faced arrest without trial (and in some cases even torture) for their stance.

To those in the know, Стыд и срам is a punk-folk classic, although parallels could be drawn with the concurrent grunge and lo-fi scenes emerging in America. However none of those artists knew anything of the true tyranny, cultural suppression and hardship that Yanka did; and the melodies bear no resemblence to anything Western.

It's such a shame there has been no comprehensive translation of this bohemian heroine's lyricbook, as the folk-poet element is lost on non-Russian speakers... But if you are interested there are dribs and drabs of information, and all her home-recorded albums and bootlegs are free to download here: http://store.yanka.lenin.ru/mp3/Prodano!_89/

Shout to Proskynesis for introducing me to this a while ago.

The POWDERED COWS AND THE TOY THROAT ALARM CLOCK - s/t (2009)

2009-11-26T07:46:00.010Z

Right, a bit of a break from the norm here as this is not an album share; but I've included a few streams for you to peruse whilst you deliberate on taking the monumental risk of actually paying FIVE POUNDS for an excellent record by a lovely person whom, in all certainty, deserves the money.

Powdered Cows is the solo alias of multi-instrumentalist songwriter Martin Roberts, resident of the rolling hills and sweaty crevices of Dorset (this is an important factor as we shall find out).

Compared to the playful noise-jazz chaos of one of Martin's many group projects, Skitanja, the Powdered Cows output is predominantly of the introverted, reflective indie-folk variety. I'm crap at hearing lyrics, but based on the artwork and song titles this album is inspired by very late nights and the 'blissed-out' (as a friend recently put it) atmosphere of the countryside in the South West. It's my belief that the closer to nature you are, the closer you are to the essence of life, and this is reflected in the Powdered Cows listening experience, which is quite ethereal. 'Descent From Animals'.

From track to track the permeating sound is hushed and reverential, even when things take a darker turn it's as if Martin were staked out at 3am with Bill Oddie, waiting for a badger to emerge from its burrow. These references to nature shouldn't be misread as New Age philosophy either - think more along the lines of British Sea Power, a pastoral Englishness and celebration of peaceful life, with a dash of spirituality.

A lot of work has gone into the production, and each track is layered with instruments, synths and samples of all kinds: woodwind, strings, trumpet, drum machine, accordion, toybox, to name but a few. It's the sound of a musical collector bringing his toys out of the loft to play.
But what really ties this record together for me are the sound samples and the hissy gramophone-like effect on many of the tracks. We hear birds crowing, what sounds like pattering rain throughout 'Eyes of Knives', radio static, a kick-drum that almost recreates the sound of a record skipping on 'Little Red Lilly Beetle', and a denouement that, appropriately, reminds one of the 'Lonely Man' theme...

Every song is legitimately catchy, but it's easy to overlook this amidst the homespun, secretive ambience of the album, which is only punctuated in the first half by Angus Rudd's driving drumwork featured on such tracks as 'Hidden Tapes'. This actually rocks in a subdued, post-punk way and is one of my favourites on here; with an intro that sounds like a processed organ feeding back, and a highly satisfying Doctor Who tone in the chorus.
The Doctor Who tangent might also take us, by way of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (also featured here) to the 21st century's Ghost Box label and its esoterical manifesto of mysticism and the paranormal; a thread that I feel Powdered Cows picks up on, at least in spirit.

Hear some tunes, and possibly purchase them. http://www.myspace.com/powderedcows
Last.fm, free downloads. http://www.last.fm/music/The+POWDERED+COWS+AND+THE+TOY+THROAT+ALARM+CLOCK

John Frusciante 'Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt' (1994)

2009-11-13T20:01:00.013Z

Resykld:
Who would've thought the popularity of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (whom popular opinion holds to be a gaggle of gurning, shirtless Californian twats with a few conversely great LPs to their name) could be indirectly responsible for an album like this?: A home-recorded double album of avant-garde, dissonant demons ('92 & '94 respectively) by guitarist John Frusciante. This is up there with other shadow flowers like Oar and the Madcap Laughs, except even more abstract in its style. Whereas Skip's music was a schizophrenic mess and Syd was just shot-away, Frusciante is not of that generation, and through the 90's was an extremely reclusive, emaciated crack and heroin addict with his head tightly screwed on and free of whimsy.

The songs/instrumentals are warts-and-all, frequently detuned, almost ignore melody (but not really) and sound as if they were written/recorded on the spot, freeform. If this spontaneity was the method, Frusciante's four-track tape machine (my favourite recording tool incidentally - because it forces you to make the most of the little space available) captures and preserves these moments of torment uninhibited. These recordings do not answer to gravity, they have their own laws and operate in an emotional and musical vortex. If you have experienced such a vortex or are capable of stepping into one, then you will 'get' Niandra. And no, you don't need to enjoy his group work, Frusciante has his own muse.

Listening back to this album by a physically withered, disintegrating individual, it seems miraculous that Frusciante managed to emerge the other side of the 90's; and go on to use his considerable talents to forge a decent solo career... but he'll never write like this again. He escaped the vortex, stepped through a waterfall, and today explores a different kind of spirituality. For all their macho sex-funk and Hendrixising, the Chili Peppers' constituent members cite an eclectic range of greats for influence, and Frusciante would go on to make some excellent, introspective and ambitious music off the back of post-punk/new wave/krautrock obsessions.
On Niandra however there is no trace of this later polish, it's a totally unique and isolated document - on its own planet musically and deeply personal, achieving a sort of metaphysical junkie plateau. The mistakes are left in, and anything resembling a pretty song is quickly ravaged with psychedelic tape effects and everything from tormented howls to banshee screams (made even more inhuman by occasional pitch-shifting). It's sad, ugly and beautiful.
When he finally rejoined his old group in 1999, cleaned up, Frusciante had lost all his teeth to infection and received extensive skin grafts for needle abscesses. He also suffered severe burns after his crack den burned down. Ladies and gentlemen:

I (Niandra Lades)
II (Usually Just a T-Shirt)

Remarkable 1994 interview and the only press Frusciante did during this period

Song from the album
Example of latter-day oeuvre

Einstürzende Neubauten 'Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T.' (1983)

2009-11-12T17:06:00.006Z

Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T. (1983)

Here the Berlin group, led by the positively demonic Blixa Bargeld, expands its sound, underlying the metallic clatter and grating noises of the first album with something resembling a pulse (quite literally, on one track). The disturbing, minimalist sound still reigns but it's much more textured and varied this time around; O.T. is one of those albums where you will have it on in the background and mistakenly think you have been through half of it, only to check the tracklisting and find you've been listening to but a single epic composition. This progression is one reason I consider Neubauten's 80's period to be great.

We are not in the territory of conventional songwriting yet, no choruses or verses are here to give you a tether into popular music or safe familiarity, this is the world of Collapsing New Buildings - the constant disintegration and perpetuation of disposable modern structures (ideals as trends, cultures, powers-that-be, people?). You might say that musically and lyrically Neubauten are deconstructing it all themselves, but I think they had aspirations to destruction as well:
'I am waiting on the edge of the world for the new sun which burns more than it shines /The president howls at the grave of the HMV dog / And the newsreader bears his honest as bones face / The station ID, a blow on the bones.'

A few aspects of the broadening and deepening of the Neubauten sound, which has a resonance different to that of the masochistic appeal of the debut:
- synth burbles, circuit buzzes and static that provide a lower register to the found-sound ambience, which are fleshed out with a wider range of objects being struck/plucked/scraped etc
- at least twice the number of tape tracks (seemingly) in use, with several dedicated to analogue sampling and field recordings (a Hamburg fish market being one, apparently)
- occasional use of atmospheric, Central African-sounding woodwind and percussion, even dissonant strings ('Armenia')
- found sounds like water, animals and, erm, race cars...
The eclectic whole makes perfect sense as a coherent, continuous record, with an atmosphere so beautifully executed yet brooding and malevolent it probably belongs in a 'scariest albums' nerdlist. Has to be heard to be believed!

The album title means 'Drawings of Patient O.T.', O.T. refers to this man and gives you some idea as to the darker themes of the album, and perhaps Bargeld's growing sense of isolation from the world. Most of us may not be able to understand the lyrics, but this is not essential, especially when the music is perhaps a most effective narrator that often threatens to drown out Blixa's tortured exultations and improv. Not to detract from his talent as a vocalist (which is part of what defines the group) however, but it is a presence less dominant on this album.

I wanted to include a stream of a standout track, the neo-classical 'Armenia', but can only find live versions which have a totally different sound.
You can hear snippets here, but bear in mind that the tracklisting's messed up the so 'Armenia' isn't 'Armenia': Drawings of Patient O.T. â€“ EinstÃ¼rzende Neubauten â€“ Listen free and discover music at Last.fm

the Chrysanthemums 'Little Flecks of Foam Around Barking' (1988)

2009-11-07T19:17:00.005Z

The finest psych-pop/double-concept LP to come out of 80's underground Britain, and certainly the best album ever made in Leicester. Crucially, the Chrysanthemums were a collaborative effort between two great unknowns: Terry Burrows (better known as Yukio Yung) and Alan Jenkins (he of Deep Freeze Mice and Cordelia Records); our beloved R. Stevie Moore is in there somewhere too - in fact it's the spirit of deadbroke musical ambition and penpal tape exchanges that glues it all together. That and the ever-amusing absurditastic lyricks.
Alan Jenkins' weirdness and deadpan noo wave non-sequiturs are here in spades; and channeled through Yung's reliable pop know-how and eclecticism (his fascination with Japan and Germany has resulted in some top releases, some of which you'll find @ MutantSounds) give us the magnum opus from these sadly anonymous heroes.
The only way it could possibly be any more perfect is if we got to hear Jenkins' befuddled croak, and you, as a music lover, are now obliged to blog search Deep Freeze Mice and have a good old nibble.

It's probably worth mentioning that in a brief GesichtBuch photo comments box exchange I had with Burrows (really), he expressed his dissatisfaction with the mastering of the album. And whilst it could certainly do with more range and punch, I think you will be too busy having your brain cells rearranged by the CD rip presented here to give a toss. A dearly beloved album in my collection, enjoy or die!

I II

More info here, including transcript of R. Stevie Moore's top notch sleevenotes...
... And here an inadequate video I made for 'He's Had His Bears'.

Jello Biafra 'High Priest of Harmful Matter' (1989)

2009-11-06T22:00:00.021Z

Ex-Dead Kennedys frontman's second spoken word album, recorded (presumably) during his speaking tour of US universities. He's an articulate and rousing speaker, with important messages to impart - if Chomsky's stoic mutter sends you to sleep then look no further. It's a 20 year old album, so there are one or two dated cultural refs at the beginning; but the broader issues he raises will be all too familiar to the more switched-on younger listener. Some prescient, statistically-supported predictions are made that would later unfold, with consequences that endure to the present day...

3 tracks: one of 10 minutes, two more @ 45 minutes each.
Even if progressive politics and the real dirt don't 'appeal' to you, I'd highly recommend hearing this for the meat of it: Biafra's summary of censorship in America. He details the madness of Tipper Gore's PMRC (you'll never look at Al the same again) and the ensuing 'obscenity trial' brought against Dead Kennedys and the Alternative Tentacles label for the Frankenchrist album cover... In the pre-web era the breadth and depth of Biafra's research is quite remarkable - you actually believe what he's saying and, lo and behold, a cursory Google search will confirm. He's great at voices too and there are bittersweet laughs to be found amidst the tales of persecution and corruption.
Anyone who's familiar with Frank Zappa's anti-censorship efforts, testimony against the PMRC and this video in particular will find 'High Priest...' both fascinating and terrifying. I II

Black Flag 'Who's Got the 10½?' (1985)

2009-11-06T01:37:00.033Z

Purpose

Roll call:
Greg Ginn - Mahavishnu improv-punk, dissonant garrote strings
Henry Rollins - Banshee razor throat, vox of conscience
Kira Roessler - Bump buh bum bu bump buh, (see album title)
Anthony Martinez (RIP B. Stevenson) - machine gun allfiller/timekiller

One of me favourite albums (and a live one at that!) period, been meaning to share it f'some time. Ripped from CD (how quaint!). Rollins didn't write any of these songs, but he is on form here, spitting fire and making every lyric his own - if you know the guy you'll know that they might as well have been.
I can't think of any other bands who provoked this white-knuckle rapture of tight-wound, late-night sobriety and damning isolation. It's violent catharsis. A band where the guitarist plays lead and rhythm simultaneously!
True, the post-Damaged era of Sabbath/free jazz-inspired sludgecore yielded some seminal albums that would essentially be responsible for the grunge movement (as I and the 'key players' see it) and an anti-scene vision/work ethic that goes above and beyond the narrow strictures of 'punk' of early 80's west coast US; BUUUT one might argue that the muddy/downright awful/yet-to-be-remastered (come on Ginn, ya c*nt!) production on most of those albums never truly represented the explosive/implosive experience of LIVE Black Flag.

1984's live effort, their only truly inconsequential record, was an example of just about everything going pear-shaped as a recording and as a poorly-mixed slab o' Flag.
Black Flag lived on the road, they played anywhere anytime and, by all accounts, always delivered. A performance band, then. See the Youchoobs for prüf. They developed their sound on the road and through the cassettes played on the van's tape deck. In this van Ginn wrote his lyrics, which set up camp behind Rollins' increasingly misanthropic and punishing thousand-yard stare. They saw The Shit all over and they called it, that's the young man's duty.

And since the Flag were a band that worked more live than in any other medium, thank ___ they left us with a perfect snapshot of their final peak; before the as-yet unexplained animosity of Greg Ginn towards Rollins could sever an already frayed and exhausted relationship. Personally I suspect it was a clash between Ginn's psychotropic use (hear it in the music, the 70's influence) and Rollins' heart-of-stone sober focus. Ginn's music after Flag was, unsurprisingly, mainly jazz fusion guitar jams.

But here on 10½ we gots all the innovations of 80s Flag: the fucked-up time signatures, the anti-solos, fronted by a caged animal, ever-lengthening hair... and the ability to conjure a leaden heart in three chords like no other band on earth. These were never your average L.A. punk wasters. As for more contemporaneous influences they were in good company on Ginn's SST with post-punk expansionists Minutemen, Meat Puppets... you can hear the soundemolitions of their beloved Einstürzende Neubauten in here too.
The extensive setlist is not slim on the old anthemiklassix either - there's the customary freakout stoner jam (what better way to stick it to the skinheads?) and medley, you'll love it if you have ears and any small measure of righteous anger.
I could write endlessly about this record, its relevance to me personally, its meaning to other musicians and how BF were one of the few that 'rose above' (hurrrr) the surrounding pond life-smegma of La-La Swamp. Are you sick of the swamp and its revolting fumes? You aren't the only one. Join yourself!

Steel Pulse 'True Democracy' (1982)

2009-11-01T21:39:00.004Z

My posts have been getting a bit oppressive lately, so here's something more buoyant and conscious. This record gives me butterflies and flashbacks to amazing sex that never happened. Here are ze opening and concluding paragraphs of my little brother's exhaustive review; 'True Democracy' made #5 in his 'top 100 albums' list back in April:

''I always find it hard to review reggae with sounding like some raddish who has no idea what he's on about but, nevertheless, I'll do my best to do this album justice - officially my favourite reggae album of all time. While I could just as easily call their 1978 debut, Handsworth Revolution, a classic (it is the album that got me into reggae music and all), Steel Pulse's fourth album here stands for me as the pinnacle of Birmingham reggae (don't even get me started on that joke of a band called UB40). To put this album into a bit of context, with their aforementioned debut, Steel Pulse had caused a few ripples in the music industry and had gained a sizeable cult following, and had even supported Bob Marley and Burning Spear on tour. They'd become known for using much more of a polished studio sound than their roots reggae contemporaries, as well as peddling very politically-motivated, anti-apartheid songs (it doesn't take much of an imagination to think what they'd be on about for a song called Ku Klux Klan for example). As yet, though, mainstream success had eluded them. In hiring legendary producer Karl Pitterson (who had albums such as Bob Marley's Exodus and Peter Tosh's Legalize It under his belt, as well as Steel Pulse's first two albums), the band attempted to find a more mainstream sound as well as, in lead singer David Hinds' words, "your earth-man style and your militant style". It's the best way to sum this album up in a stylistic sense. From the bare bones of the instantly-recognisable reggae backbone, True Democracy employs an eclectic mix of upbeat dance rhythms, political and social commentary and a state-of-the-art feel that sets it apart from the sound of contemporary Jamaican reggae of the day. It's mainstream yet militant, preaching yet unpretentious, and one of the absolute essentials on top of that.''

''Whereas their earlier work is just as meritable, True Democracy sees Karl Pitterson's production creating a much fuller and uptempo sound and, therefore, a much more accessible one. Such is the reason if I had to recommend one classic reggae album to someone who's never heard any good reggae before, I'd go with this album. Another reason it's impossible to hate this album is because, while softening their approach in order to gain a more mainstream audience, Steel Pulse still explore the deeply evocative, militant and thought-provoking lyrical matters of social and political commentary, with Hinds incorporating some unusual subjects into his lyrics. As well as all this, Pitterson's splendid production allows each band member (particularly percussionist Phonso Martin) to really stand up and make themselves heard. All these factors are the building blocks to a classic reggae album, and one I couldn't give enough praise. Brilliant album. If you've ever thought about getting into reggae but aren't sure where to turn, I recommend this.''

Grait kwollitty, 320, with some extra tracks, 12'' versions for pardeez if you have them.

Deathspell Omega 'Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice' (2004)

2009-10-31T21:41:00.008Z

What's that? Black metal is a silly genre and about as far removed from 'frightening' as I could post on All Hallows' Eve?
Well slap on your best over-ear heddfones because you've clearly not heard what France's most innovative extreme metal group have to offer. This breaks the Norwegian monopoly on a fading, self-parody of a sub-genre.

I never thought I'd truly enjoy a black metal album in my lifetime, but y'know what? I was wrong. First there's the guitar work, a lot of characteristically high-end, dissonant stuff with murky lo-fi production that just sounds otherworldly and hellish - about as far removed as you can get from thrash-derived cliche, with its own kind of beauty.

Then the mixing and 'ambience' of the album holds everything together and drowns out any potentially embarassing secular rambling. Strangely enough, the end product really is unsettling; primarily because it doesn't summon the image of greasy-haired misanthropes in smelly leather trenchcoats so much as it does demons eating babies. Deathspell channel Hades in ways that speed metal has never attempted before: atmospheric sampling, reverse guitar, various unidentifiable tics and sound degradation effects (à la Burial) and a Wall of Sound so devastating it would flatten the business district of Manhattan in a Roland Emmerich movie. In fact the wall of sound is literally a wall insomuch as they seem to have flattened the onslaught, ironed out the spikes that normally make various extreme metal subgenres difficult to endure for long periods - the album washes over you like an oil slick (stopping to punch you in the head a few thousand times on the way).

Speed is by no means the order of the day (although of course there are blast beats aplenty) but neither do Deathspell lapse into the tacky keyboards and melody of many contemporaries... This is punishing stuff for the uninitiated - and the overpowering delivery from the fringes of sonic reason and (shockhorror) lack of guitar solos is, I think, what earns Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice its acclaim and reputation as a 'scary' album. It's a bona fide 'Reign In Blood' for the 21st century, and equally suited to clearing every last muthafucka out the room.

It's also great to study to. Or maybe that's just me...
I meant what I said about over-ear phones btw - you'll miss a lot of the subtleties otherwise. Youtube samples fail to capture this.

satan's all about the free will and junk

Themed Mix: Marshmallow in Space

2009-10-28T04:11:00.001Z

Originally posted to my Tumblr, Neon Sigh, Marshmallow in Space
reflects a particular feeling I get from certain tracks / track combinations that is both dreamlike and cosmic, both warm and cool, and also bittersweet. It wasn’t my initial intention, but the mix also kind of ended up being like a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist, and sorta (well, really) about love, which when I realized where it was going I just ran with it. I hope you hear some things on here you haven’t heard before, and feel like you’re drifting along on a cozy marshmallow amongst the stars!

Various Artists - Marshmallow in Space
——Tracklisting——
1. Broadcast - “Until Then”
2. Depeche Mode - “Never Let Me Down Again”
3. Dead Can Dance - “Wild in the Woods”
4. Tones on Tail - “Lions”
5. Suicide - “Touch Me”
6. Chromatics - “Mask”
7. The Glove - “Mouth to Mouth [Landray Vocal Mix]”
8. My Bloody Valentine - “Lose My Breath”
9. Strawberry Switchblade - “Deep Water”
10. Cocteau Twins - “The Itchy Glowbo Blow”
11. Goldfrapp - “Lovely Head”
12. Sad Lovers and Giants - “Your Skin and Mine”
13. Lush - “Love at First Sight”
14. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Nine Million Rainy Days
15. Spectrum - “Then I Just Drifted Away”

Better Than the Beatles #234: Cardiacs

2009-10-24T17:00:00.007+01:00

^1984

30-year-old (and counting) cult institution from my old hometown of Kingston Upon Thames, brought to you by the ALPHABET BUSINESS CONCERN.

Despite the fact that Tim Smith (the brains of the operation) has always vehemently rejected the 'progressive' label (he prefers simply 'pop' or 'psychedelic') it is a reasonable point to raise: in Cardiacs' music there is a fondness for unusual chord progressions, chord modulation, and compressing the equivalent of a prog epic into 4 minutes or less... All with the energy of a '77 band. Cardiacs also opened for Marillion in the 80s, apparently Fish was heartbroken when the fans did not take to them...
It's natural that an amateur such as myself who can't write for toffee should always seek to pigeonhole a sound for n00bs, but the Cardiacs are infamous for being one of those idiosyncratic oddities who sound remarkably similar to nobody except Cardiacs. The only comparisons I can come up with are the more anarchic, ambitious New Wavers like XTC and Split Enz (particularly the latter's early years), mixed with the avant-rock of Henry Cow... Infact they straddle all types of 'progness' whenever they feel like it, perhaps playing symphonic Yes-ness one minute and unhinged Gentle Giant sing-songs the next. That's the remarkable quality of this band, there are seemingly no limits. But you can always relying on the delivery being OTT to the point of ridiculousness and bewilderingly melodic - you know that this is Tim Smith's idea of how pop music should be.
They are also obscenely tight live. Unfortunately Smith suffered, erm, a cardiac arrest in 2008, and it's unlikely you or I will ever experience a 'religious' Cardiacs performance.

I think this is as clear-cut a case of love 'em or hate 'em as you will ever encounter on this blog... Unacknowledged genius or bad acid trip in a fairground? Or are they just trying too hard? I don't think so personally, plus buried in the lyrical abstractions are some statements somewhere I am sure of it, which keeps me listening.
Presented here is 'Sing To God', a 1995 double album which will leave you laughing hysterically, then slack-jawed in disbelief as each track reaches new heights of structural insanity and musical prodigiousness. And then the injustice of it all hits you, that by this time the 'classic' Cardiacs line-up had shrunk to a quartet, and they actually somehow played this shit onstage, constantly, to comparatively tiny audiences of loyal fruitcakes. It's just not fair. God bless Cardiacs.
This is from the album, easily the most insane piece of music I have heard in a long time

Groundhogs 'Thank Christ For the Bomb' (1970)

2009-10-24T14:16:00.009+01:00

I say this often, but this time I've really got something special for yuz.
Once upon a time, albums like this got to number 9 in the pop charts. I suspect it had something to do with the fading 60's counterculture - that era of cultural identity crisis, political activism and constant fear of nuclear holocaust... And the stoned white-blues pretenders that helped to herald heavy metal, of course.
But Cream and Led Zeppelin this ain't, in fact Groundhogs were in a league of their own. Aside from the best album cover/title ever for what is first and foremost a leftist, anti-war concept album, stylistically the band were carving their own niche with this record which they would further explore on their next two albums Split and Who Will Save the World?. This very special sound falls somewhere between prog rock, hard rock, psychedelia and an advanced strain of blues, all delivered with the kind of raw production that (combined with the imagery in their artwork) no doubt played a large part in the Groundhogs being looked on today as somewhat 'proto-punk' - for their acknowledged influence on many first generation UK punk luminaries in this decade. A young Mark E. Smith was particularly smitten, and the Fall have covered the first track here 'Strangetown' (hear below), as well as 'Junkman' from the subsequent LP.

^sound quality's better in upload

So Thank Christ was a turning point for Tony McPhee (jaw-dropping guitar, vox) and co; having been a semi-successful blues band in various forms since '66 and earned their stripes, they were going down a path nairy travelled, opposed the cheesy machismo and studied wankology of their peers. Perhaps this was to their detriment financially (McPhee is conspicuously lacking in phoney Hall of Fame tokens of commercial achievement, when he should be remembered as one of the greats), but ultimately to those in the know, the classic run of albums speak for themselves as some of the most remarkably fresh and emotionally-charged rock albums you'll come across. At their best Groundhogs are not clawing to capture the blues with over-acted guitar solos; a world-weary fatigue just emanates naturally from the songs and playing technique, especially on this album.
I've got time for the rest somewhere, don't get me wrong, but when you hear Groundhogs you'll just wonder what those other groups were playing at...

bandages

Martin Galway - Project Galway

2009-10-19T09:36:00.001+01:00

Project Galway is a compilation of songs from Martin Galway, a chief composer of Commodore 64 video game tunes, "recorded directly from his very own chip, as they were meant to be heard: with the most sensitive and well-balanced 6581 filter ever heard." (purchasable as a hard copy double-disc at C64Audio.com), including some previously-unheard pieces and alternate versions. Despite being somewhat of a video game aficionado for much of my life, I've never played any Commodore 64 games (!), though the fact that I think this is some of the greatest video game music ever just goes to show that soundtrack material can be enjoyed apart from associating it with what the songs were made to accompany. "Comic Bakery" is the most SERIOUSLY EPIC track of all, though other highlights include "Helicopter Jagd", "Ocean Loader v2", and "Mikie". Grab it!

Vangelis - Blade Runner OST, Esper Edition (1982)

2009-10-15T11:25:00.012+01:00

The release history of one of cinema's most celebrated soundtracks (and groundbreaking electronic album in its own right) is a long and complicated one, with large swathes of the most memorable score left unissued, alternate track titles, blahblahblah. All you need to know is that this incorporates the entire original soundtrack - nothing is left out and it's all noirish, cyberpunk, sci-fi synth-classical genius. The tracks are in chronological order as they appear in the film. I can't remember whether I included the artwork as this is an old upload, but it's likely =D
The remit is broad: Moog jazz/blues, grandiose synth compositions, Middle Eastern modes with uncanny synthesized bazaar orchestra...
For fans of the movie (if you haven't seen it go buy the tin box final cut edition or watch here, you mug) you'll appreciate the fact that this 320kbps bootleg includes everything from the geisha billboard music to Vangelis' spot-on speculation of what clubbers would be dancing to in 2019 dystopian Los Angeles. These tracks are possibly the best feature for me, the ones where the musical cues were never issued separately, so you still get to enjoy the subtle genius of the sound effects department: rain falling, wind chimes, etc. The bootleggers obviously made a conscious decision to extricate the dialogue track but keep in alot of these sounds, and they only serve to enhance the atmosphere.

Tyrell Records

^(This is just the main title theme and closing credits,
doesn't quite do justice to the scope of the soundtrack)

Tom Lehrer In Concert (1959)

2009-10-14T20:18:00.014+01:00

My father was never a punk rocker. And I'd never wish him to be... In fact I get mildly embarrassed at 75% of my music collection whenever our conversations turn to music - he is an austere classicist through and through, with a deep knowledge of classical (but not Stravinsky, he's got not melody you see) and a passion for light opera (Gilbert & Sullivan etc). We even got the marching band treatment as kids. I always loved it. Rock n' roll and doo-wop vinyl, recorded to cassette to put on in the car - that's as close as he got to letting his hair down. Don't get me wrong, he's not a blinkered old fart, just musically conservative, or at least uninterested in the frivolous nonsense I waste my time on. Sometimes I agree with him.

But this is all before you take account of Tom Lehrer. My father broke his leg in a motorcycle accident in the late 70's and Lehrer's literary brand of satirical sing-song kept him sane, apparently, and it's easy to see why: there's something very comforting about the best musical satire of the 20th century - it makes you realise you aren't insane after all and everything really is fundamentally fucked.

Don't let the cover fool you either, Tom plays a mean piano and has a meaner lyrical repertoire that covers everything from drugs and nuclear holocaust to rednecks and 'poisoning pigeons in the park' - which perhaps explains his popularity with 60's subculture.
Lehrer was infuriatingly educated, funny and conscious, with a head-spinningly deft playing technique and an ability to mimic other styles. This bloke and a piano could bring the house down and he was, predictably, bigger in the UK than his native land, I guess he was too much to stomach for a Cold War audience. At the time, the mainstream press deemed Lehrer tasteless. This is poppycock, obviously. His wit shines in the spoken interludes and the total lack of frills on this live compilation give it a warm and jovial atmosphere.
Not much here has dated, as long as you have the vaguest grasp of where the world was at in 1959. Step outside yourself, laugh and enjoy. If this was big with the hippies you mugs'll love it. I'll end on a quote from the 81-year-old himself. 'I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush, I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them'

This is a sizeable upload and probably all the TL you'll ever need.
Part the first
Part the second

The Passage - Seedy: The Best of the Passage

2009-10-04T05:29:00.004+01:00

The Passage were a post-punk Mancunian post-punk group, appearing on the impeccable Cherry Red label with a handful of albums and singles. Despite their brilliance, they continue to remain fairly obscure (currently less than 3,000 listeners on Last.fm) - I only had heard them when I was putting a post-punk box set together and had been recommended their stuff. Although there are certainly similarities between this group and contemporaries of the same scene, the difference with The Passage is that there is a certain standoffish sarcasm present that is uniquely theirs (comparable to the role The Cars served for new wave). Favorite tracks on *this compilation*, Seedy: The Best of the Passage, are "Carnal", "Devils and Angels", "Armour", and "Drugface" (sampled by Moby, apparently).

Eleanor Rigby - The Best Of, Vol. 1 (1994) & 2 (1996)

2009-09-21T09:28:00.005+01:00

I first came across Eleanor Rigby when I was questing after whether there were any Mod/Mod Revival female artists out there. While she was certainly inspired by Mod artists (doing a bunch of Kinks covers and the Rolling Stones' "Play With Fire") in music and her looks, she more frequently came off sounding like Debbie Harry, albeit a Moddier,and rougher-edged version. With currently less than 1,000 listeners on Last.fm, a bit of odd controversy, and her current whereabouts unknown, she remains an obscure, even slightly enigmatic figure. She only released one full-length album, Censorship, and her best-of collections Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, packed with a cheesy, yet tuneful assortment of tracks, are currently totally out of print. You can read more about her backstory at Mr. Suave's Mod Mod World.

Jungle Brothers 'Done by the Forces of Nature' (1989)

2009-09-16T11:12:00.006+01:00

To this day unfairly overshadowed by 1989's other alt. hip-hop/Zulu Nation milestone - 3 Feet High and Rising. The Jungle Brothers trumped their debut (Straight Out the Jungle) here and built the ark from that original Native Tongues blueprint. This is a fact acknowledged by the album's placing in the Source's top 100 hip-hop LPs of all time, but still the debut is all anybody seems to talk about. The astounding diversity of the sampling represented here is more than a match for De La Soul, the pacifist politics relayed with all the articulacy of A Tribe Called Quest and the production as densely layered as anything the Bomb Squad were producing at the time.

Musically it will just leave your head spinning. If Straight Out the Jungle was the funk album, this is the all-encompassing Afro pop album, and to my mind a definitive jazz-hop manifesto. It's a much more well-rounded affair than the (still excellent) debut, sampling everything from African trad to R&B on up, often within a single song.
Lyrically the album is as positive and (anti?)intellectual as you might expect, what with Jungle Brothers being the vanguard for the movement. They preach self-realization, address black identity with dexterity, delivering a few expertly-crafted party jams along the way; as well as a vastly superior sequel to the seminal (but dated) 'I'll House You' with 'What U Waitin 4?'.
Apparently, such conscious themes have long since passed into Afro-centric cliché within the mainstream hip-hop 'community'... so what? Black culture has always been homogenized and sold back, gutless and lobotomised, to a latent consumer herd, now more than ever. But there's always a dissenting alternative that is not for profit or ignorance. Plenty of people know it's records like this that count and provide armour for future generations... Don't miss out!

the Seatbelts 'Cowboy Bebop' (1998)

2009-09-14T17:29:00.016+01:00

Barmy genius OST to what is universally regarded as the best anime of all time and an awe-inspiring, big band jazz eclecto-workout. The Seatbelts were assembled by composer Yoko Kanno to perform and tour this much-loved soundtrack, which is a sublime retrospective of various pre-'65 jazz trends and much more besides. From the big city blues of 'Cosmos' and the Blade Runner-in-Africa synths of 'Space Lion'; to the ostentatious spectaculars 'Tank!' and 'Rush' - there is something for every palette... especially if you dig Charles Mingus. And be sure to hear each song out, they are prone to switching genre mid-jam. Has a big band ever been put through it's paces so much as the Seatbelts?
The ever-critical users of RYM have given it a 4.16 average out of 5 (that's in the top flight of popular votes), putting 'Cowboy Bebop' in eighth place for top albums of 1998. Behind...urgh... Neutral Milk Hotel? I never said they were a tasteful bunch...
As testified by many strangers to the anime show (watch it), the album is an easygoing and accesible standalone classic; but fans of show will also revel in the déjà vu and memories of the show - indubitably to be butchered and flogged for $$ in 2011 of course!

It's all a dream...

Manic Street Preachers - JFPL Demos

2009-09-14T05:30:00.002+01:00

*These* are the demo versions of all the tracks from the new Manic Street Preachers release Journal For Plague Lovers (Jenny Saville's Stare pictured at left), included on a bonus disc with the deluxe edition of the album. The sound is seemingly stripped away of that extra 'oomph' heard in the actual album release, and yet some of these tracks here rival the final product (especially "She Bathed Herself in a Bath of Bleach", sung by Nicky instead of James, and "All is Vanity" which is all the more powerful in bare, acoustic form) - highly recommended!

Related items:
- *Click for JFPL Article Scans from NME May 2009* (re-upped!)

- The Shadows and Words documentary on the making of the album on YouTube (Pt. 1 is below):

Here also is a description of the original release...:
(Originally posted at A Future in Noise in May, 2009):

It's impossible to listen to or discuss the new Manic Street Preachers album, Journal For Plague Lovers (set for release on 5/18), without placing it in the context of the band's history: their confrontational, politically-charged style of music, after a couple of EPs and 1992 debut album Generation Terrorists , offered a stark contrast to the early-90's British shoegaze scene. Though threatened to be smothered by the exploding Britpop movement, a cult following sustained them. Member Richey James (songwriter and guitarist) contributed heavily to the lyrics and mood of 1994 album The Holy Bible, released only months prior to his disappearance (sadly declared as 'presumed dead' in November, 2008), proved an intensely dark reflection of his personal turmoil.

The remaining three Manics, James Bradfield (vocals / guitar), Nicky Wire (bass / songwriting), and Sean Moore (drums) went on to release the brilliant Everything Must Go in 1996 (including 5 tracks co-written by Richey), and several other albums which all received mixed critical reception: This is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998), Know Your Enemy (2001), Lifeblood (2004), and Send Away the Tigers (2007).

A mixture of semi-outrage and hopefulness in fans and critics alike has surrounded Journal For Plague Lovers since the announcement of the track-listing and cover art in March. In many ways appearing as a Holy Bible 'part 2', the cover art was done by Jenny Saville (whose Strategy painting graced the Holy Bible) and all of the songs contain lyrics left behind by Richey.

Opener "Peeled Apples" establishes an immediate departure from the commercial approach of Send Away the Tigers, with soundbite snippets and unnerving bass throbbing away. Tracks like this, and extraordinary album high-points like "She Bathed Herself in a Bath of Bleach" and "Marlon J.D.", not out of place in comparison (or companionship) to The Holy Bible, show a sudden maturity and advancement in band's sound, as if Journal For Plague Lovers is a purging of all they have been holding back. The content of the track available as a promo at their official website, "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time" seems a bit shocking amidst the radio-friendly instrumentation, with "Me and Stephen Hawking" continuing the feel of poppiness mixed with tongue-in-cheek wit.

"This Joke Sport Severed", acoustic and moving at the outset, and strings leaping in midway, is the most somber track so far, followed in theme, though more sarcastic, by "Facing Page: Top Left" later on. The album's mid-section has a greater continuity than the start, with title track "Journal For Plague Lovers", and even "She Bathed Herself in a Bath of Bleach", hinting at their glam-rock influences, while "Marlon J.D." is a crunchy synth-punk track, my favourite on the album. "Doors Closing Slowly" reiterates that unsettling gloom introduced earlier on. "All is Vanity", "Pretension/Repulsion", and "Virginia State Epileptic Colony" nearly blend into each other, sounding incomplete and hum-drum in comparison to what else is available here. Closing track "Williams Last Words", which is delivered vocally by Nicky Wire with much sadness and presumably in tribute to Richey. Bonus track "Bag Lady" ought to fulfill the needs of anyone who really expected to hear something Holy Bible-esque, sounding incredibly like it was pulled straight from '94.

The overall production (done by Steve Albini, who produced Nirvana's In Utero) wavers between sounding too polished and moments of the raw grittiness an album like this calls for and would have greatly benefited from if implemented on a wider scale throughout. Not exactly a place for beginners, since there are so many reference points to other places in their discography, nor is this the sort of album that can be properly understood after just a couple of listen-throughs, Journal For Plague Lovers ends up as the most enigmatic, satisfying release the Manic Street Preachers have put out in years.

MYSTERY ALBUM 02

2009-09-14T04:24:00.019+01:00

Wiki
For our purposes also known as Sensimilla - 'Scones'.
Previous 'mystery album' here. (Touch wood this method seems to work, the only well-known album I received notification for and had to remove was Loop's 'A Gilded Eternity').

This fileshare is always being taken down, and once you've become a believer you should probably buy it. Because the proceeds (as long as you buy from Stones Throw) go straight to the mother of 'real' hip-hop's greatest deceased producer, who succumbed to the effects of a rare blood disease on 10th February 2006, 3 days after magnum opus 'Donuts' came out. The mum has been yet another victim to the ethnic cleansing of America's healthcare system, still lumbered with her son's medical bills three years down the line. Despite the universal acclaim and popularity of Dilla's productions since the late 90's, she's still struggling. Listen, enjoy and support if you aren't already struggling enough through life...
This album is the only real contender to 'Entroducing...'s untouchable 'sampled soundscape' throne, a strange place where familiar sounds structures have been lovingly dismembered, distorted and juxtaposed to build a world that stands on its own two feet - testament.

In fact such is the quality of these beats (an inadequate term in this context, let's say 'works') that not only are they still being used for songs by a lot of the top 'real' MCs; but the works succeed in totally upstaging all raps by virtue of the layered emotiveness in the music. Be prepared to dive headfirst into the Melting Pot.
If you've heard the latest DOOM album or the classic Fishscale, you will instantly recognise 'Lightworks' and 'One For Ghost'.
One of the greats, with more soul than you can shake a stick at.

GLAZED
Tune from the album Workinonit (10CC and Beastie Boys fans pay attention)

Various Artists 'Ethiopiques 1'

2009-09-14T03:37:00.004+01:00

Bored of music? Never-ending streams of obnoxious, pasty suburbanites with amplifiers? I was until I got volume 2 of Buda Musique's Ethiopiques series, and now I've never felt better! There have been 23 of them so far, and they are all far, far, far out. The agenda for the series is Ethiopian music with the occasional overspill into neighbouring Eritrea, but the sheer range of styles covered therein is as much, if not more, that what you might find in inferior countires that never knew the wisdom of Selassie.

I was going to upload the aforementioned vol.2 which focuses on urban azmaris, in fact I've been sitting on it for a while, but using somebody else's link is much easier and where better to start than the beginning? This is a snapshot of the popular Ethiopian sound from 1969-75, and despite using some US-style jazz and 60's electric instrumentation it is nothing like you've ever heard before; they completely made it their own, much like West Africa's ever-popular Mali music, but much strangers to the senes. The overall effect is something quite hypnotic, some truly weird loping rhythms here and some mind-blowing jazzstrumentals there, all entrenched in the meandering scales of traditional Ethiopian singing, percussion and perhaps a trace of gypsy music brings to mind the black Zionist link. Sometimes it sounds like a parallel universe, non-wife beating James Brown. There aren't any Yoobtube videos for this one so you'll just have to do the clicky-click - this is one of the best things I've shared in a while so ignore at your peril.

Link nicked from hee-yer, with a few others in the ridiculously diverse series aussi:
BIG HEAD STEVENSON

Various Artists 'Samurai Champloo Music Record - Impression' (2004)

2009-09-12T08:04:00.009+01:00

The ronin-themed hip-hop soundtrack thing is just a happy coincidence and after this it will definitely be out of the way, honest...
Recently I was tickled pink to discover that Shinichirō Watanabe (director of hands-down the greatest anime series of all time Cowboy Bebop) had completed another acclaimed series a few years back called Samurai Champloo, which maintained his propensity for fusing kinetic storytelling over approximately 26 episodes with purdy musiks - to spellbinding effect. And by fusing I mean the initially unholy, but soon completely natural marriage of Edo period Japan and, you guessed it, hip-hop. A historical revisionist take on the chanbara genre (there is an episode with beatboxers), like Bebop it raked in the glowing reviews for it's soundtrack of which several discs were released. 'Impression' is by far the strongest though so here it is.

The album is split into three parts, first third is produced by Japanese DJ duo Force of Nature, second by another Japanese producer of immense talent called Nujabes and the final part by brilliantly-named American DJ Fat Jon the Ample Soul Physician. The last track is an R&B song by a chick called Minmi, which actually wraps things up rather nicely. Except this one and the track listed in kanji 'Impression' is all instrumental glory, and it quickly becomes apparent that goood music is alive and well in Nippon. The track with vocals is obviously nonsensical to me, but it's surprising how the language actually survives the journey into Western musiks unmangled, and the meter isn't totally off kilter. I would never begin to try to deconstruct foreign language hip-hop, but I highly doubt it's as the internet says - that Japan doesn't have a significant black minority population and therefore has nothing to say. Apparently food is a hot topic... None of this is important!

The beats are fucking sick, so sick they will probably make you sick in your ears, and it just gets better as it goes along, like a snowball made of fucking sick. None of it suffers from OST out-of-context syndrome because it's just a bunch of appealing vomitus thrown haphazardly over the show, the soundtrack was probably written beforehand! While most tracks are in hip-hop tempo, there are tons of surprises, like 'Nightshift' being indistinguishable from funk (which is ironically where it all began) or funk with a drum quintet(?) on it. There's just an awful lot going on - particularly satisfying is some of Nujabes' loungy-jazz-cum-deep-house material and all of Fat Jon's Eastern-tinged stuff. Even raga gets a look in!
It's interesting to note that, judging by the Youtube viewing figures and the popularity of this album on sites like RYM, the show's soundtrack is something of a sleeper hit, and deservedly so. I will never use the word 'chillout' seriously in a sentence as long as Moby has breath in his body and the Tesco album charts thrive on lazy compilations for dull people, BUT elements of this album might be considered to have a therapeutic or relaxing quality on the heavy head. But it's got the aforementioned boom-bap, it's also cool, otherwise I wouldn't be posting it here would I because that wouldn't be a cool thing to do on my little blog would it? Just think about that. In all seriousness, in the strange and scattershot world of instrumental hip-hop, this is as good as it gets. This and the other albums I am posting.

On the Dee Elle

RZA 'Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai' OST (1999)

2009-09-12T03:41:00.039+01:00

Part 1 of a short series on instrumental hip-hop.

Whilst DJs have been producing beats exclusively for MCs to spit over since the early 80's, hip-hop fashioned to be heard on its own is much less prevalent (it's yet to be truly recognised as a genre of its own) but has yielded some truly intriguing results. With the exception of a few groundbreaking cut & paste instrumentals and turntablism, non-specialist interest in 'just the beats' barely existed until the potential of hip-hop as a compositional tool was fully exploited by DJ Shadow's 'Entroducing...' album, the first album to be made entirely of sampled material (with a few seconds of interlude vocals recorded in studio).
Whether it be via breakbeats and crate-digging à la Shadow or just navigating the intricacies of beatmaking on a digital workstation, once (good) hip-hop producers are freed of the limitations of having to craft a foundation for raps they can (and do) tend to go a bit mad. Variations and changes that would not have been considered before are indulged, often morphing the track into something that could no longer be called conventional boom bap hip-hop or whatever. This is why 'instrumental hip-hop' does not have it's own section in digital or physical shops - it too diverse, often crossing the border into electronica, downtempo, industrial, trip-hop... in fact just about anything, as these uploads will hopefully demonstrate.

One of the musical vignettes from Ghost Dog (footage not from film)

I'd like to start with a master who is no stranger to a sequencer, and who's minimalist, kung-fu flick and Thelonious Monk-inspired beats were responsible for a renaissance in 1993. RZA (Ruler, Zig-Zag-Zig, Allah in the Five Percenter alphabet) was the mastermind, de-facto leader and producer of Staten Island, NYC's Wu-Tang Clan, a group who's hard-hitting sound once sold a hell of a lot of records but nowadays would be considered 'underground'. RZA's style must have been a revelation in the time of sluggish gangsta/Funky Drummer conscious hip-hop, every bit living up to the dark spiritualism and espionage tactics of Wu-Tang's lyrics. It sounds lo-fi, gritty and unique, whilst being extremely difficult to resist nodding your head to.

Since that initial period of success and the plethora of classic solo albums produced by Rizzer that followed, things started to tail off. The long-awaited sophomore Wu-Tang album in 1997 was an overstuffed double-disc beast, flawed but with plenty o-merit. The group however was in dissolution, and from this point on RZA turned more to live instrumentation and a pronounced 70's soul influence - whilst still crafting the occasional classic. He is nowadays more prolific and better known for his movie soundtrack work. 'Ghost Dog' was the beginning of that and it marks a one-off return to the sound that made RZA a household name and minor deity within hip-hop.
The cult movie is an understated Jim Jarmusch effort which I really recommend tracking down, and with his history of East-meets-West themes and beat-crafting there could not have been a more perfect choice to produce the music than Mr. Turkey Swizzler.
There were two soundtrack albums released, one was made up of RZA-produced rap tracks inspired by the film and released in North America (t'was so-so); the other was a Japan-only released and comprises of the much-vaunted score to the film, the excellent scratchy beats you hear throughout. In this upload I've also included a bunch of songs that weren't on the original release, like the music from the infamous Cold Lampin' scene among others, these are tagged on the end.
The score itself is like the protagonist of the film, subtle and cold on the job but warm and reflective in it's quieter moments. For the most part, this serves as a prime example of typical instrumental hip-hop (typical for the RZA at least), in that you'll never question what type of music you're listening to. There are some beautifully humble percussive pieces and acoustic effects which I can only assume were recorded live; and the few samples used are done so sparingly, with RZA's expressive keyboard work taking the 4.
Most of the tracks are short and don't outstay their welcome, but there is one big exception: the infuriating 'Opening Theme (Raise Your Swords)' at track 2. Mark my words and avoid that one and you will get along just fine this album. Now not to downplay the up-front quality of the beats, but you'll also find 'Ghost Dog' makes great background/night-time music to accompany most PG-rated activities, with it's unobtrusive rhythm and dusky atmosphere. For fans of the film, it even has the freestyle in the park as a nice little extra - what more could you ask for? Really? I'll end on a simple RZA quote I found, for anybody who somehow got through this entire entry and still thinks 'hip-hop' = Lil' Wayne.

''How has the South dominated hip-hop for the last four, five years without lyrics, without hip-hop culture really in their blood? Those brothers came out representing more of a stereotype of how black people are, and I think the media would rather see us as ignorant, crazy motherfuckers than seeing us as intelligent young men trying to rise and take care of ourselves.''

Pt. 1
Pt. 2

Edan - 'Beauty and the Beat' (2005)

2009-09-11T19:05:00.010+01:00

Edan's second full-length is a wee independent (read: not produced by Timbaland, the Neptunes or their brood) gem from 2005, which is sample-based in an old-skool stylee. What makes it unique however is that pretty much all the sampling is culled from 60's psychedelic pop and rock, with some soul thrown in. Sounds like a big fat mistake but... well what do you expect me to say? Because it doesn't fail, it soars. Inventive (like those 60's four-track conceptual epics) und funky, but suitably sprawling given the source material; and the sound reproduction is a tad crackly like an old 45. 'Beauty...' is not rammed to the gills with obligatory guest spots either - one of the few to pop up is Mr. Lif who is supposedly amazing but, whilst admirable lyrically, always kind of annoyed me. I hope he annoys you too.

One Last Wish '1986' (1986)

2009-09-09T23:06:00.019+01:00

^(Sound quality of video is not representative of album)

People really have some half-arsed ways of categorising music, not to mention marginalising themselves and others. One Last Wish formed in a great year for music, er, 1986, after the dissolution of what many consider to be the first 'emo' band, Rites of Spring. This is still a term I have difficulty acknowledging in the musical sense, not least because it has been lumbered with derogatory connotations and passed into lazy slang for people who don't understand it's true origin... Although by now it's safe to say that the term has been firmly reinvented by morons (after all, what isn't 'emotional'?!) - 'melodramatic' would be so much more apt.
Anyway, when I was still at school, 'emo' was not in use and it didn't constitute a lucrative youth trend - these people were simply labelled as 'goth', a proud label indeed that is, importantly, rooted in a hugely diverse set of musical traditions stretching way back to the late 70's. I try and fail to ignore the developments of pop-metal. What you are getting here is not the Billboard 100 emo that you have come to love or loathe.
If 'emo' must be used, let us use it properly. It was invented as a title for Rites of Spring and their ilk - bands that arose from the always-active Washington, D.C. scene during the Revolution Summer - and who were tentatively billed as 'emotional hardcore' or 'emocore' (which itself has a totally different meaning nowadays). Ian McKaye and his post-hardcore group Fugazi are two of the central pillars of this scene that the music fan 'on the street' will be familiar with; and '1986' is one of the lesser-known classics of McKaye's groundbreaking Dischord label.

One Last Wish comprised of three ex-members of Rites, including singer/guitarist Guy Picciotto. They released only the one short 'n sweet masterpiece before moving on (two of them to Fugazi); and it's a record which I consider to be much superior to the output of their first band, even if they are more celebrated. Every song is a gem, the impassioned delivery is every bit deserving of the original 'emo-core' tag; and it's musically ingenious to boot, more complex and cavernous-sounding than than its violent hardcore brothers. Every little time change within the punk-length songs is calculated to twist the stomach and Picciotto's voice suits the material to a T. It's never a cakewalk understanding rock lyrics at the best of times, but you know the score here: pious straight edge personal politics and good old alienation, both from the mainstream and the 'punk scene'.

Meat is, like, murder

Various Artists 'Sushi 3003' (1996) & Sushi 4004 (1998)

2009-09-09T16:32:00.010+01:00

Subtitled 'A Spectacular Collection of Japanese Clubpop' and 'the Return of Spectacular Japanese Clubpop' respectively.

These are the original shibuya-kei introductory compilations unleashed on an unsuspecting world (at least the portion that had never heard Pizzicato Five) through German label Bungalow. In keeping with the spirit of some recent posts, shibuya-kei happens to be a Japanese brand of international pop, a melting pot of many ingredients with the defining featuress being:
An electronica/hip-hop influence, a 60's hipster aesthetic (song titles like 'Bond Street'), twee indie-popness (thanks to the Monochrome Set and Would-Be-Goods in particular) and a heavy dose of the difficult-to-categorise Serge Gainsbourg... French pop, lounge jazz and bossa nova. It's tough to narrow down, but the end result is eclectic enough to keep you guessing from track to track before the glorious masterplan becomes apparent.

Shibuya-kei simply means 'Shibuya style', Shibuya being the trendy district of Tokyo in which the music first gained popularity in the mid-late 90s. Since then shibuya-kei has covertly infiltrated games, anime and Western movies, gained a few fans along the way (Pizzicato Five and Cornelius are only 'stars' you might recognize on here), and eventually dissipated as a coherent club-oriented genre. Its legacy endures in Nippon since being absorbed into modern J-pop, and elsewhere with the likes of the Yoo-Kayz Momus.

Hardly any of these artists embraced this tag at the time anyway, making shibuya-kei seem all the more like a fortunate accident. Also, Soft Machine fans will not believe their ears when they hear the Kahimi Karie's 'Good Morning World' on 3003. Ees craytsee.
My personal favourite of the two is 4004, the first two tracks of which are in the first upload becausetherewasn'tanyrooooom... Incidentally, Cornelius was previously in the lubly Madchester-influenced band Flipper's Guitar (see post before last), so as usual everything is connected.

Very cool 'Legacy of Shibuya-kei' articles (links are in post @ top of page)
Shibuya-kei on Last.fm

Various Artists 'Decca Originals - R&B Scene'

2009-09-08T19:15:00.009+01:00

In case ya couldn't tell, I'm not in the mood for writing, but this is a really great CD. All your favourite mid-60's rhythm 'n blues rockers crammed into one delightful package... In fact much like the 'Decca Girl's Scene' disc, the tracklisting is mostly focused on obscurities - but what obscurities they are!

There's even an appearance from a young, fame-hungry David Jones with his group the King Bees, this is the scene he would later pay tribute to after making it with Ziggy, on the covers album 'Pin-Ups'. There are plenty of other 60s & 70s heroes to be heard here, young, eager and cutting their teeth gigging on the basement circuit... R&B in this context was the harder, blacker alternative to drippy beat pop, and this stuff hasn't really lost any of its power. I daresay most of these groups were London-based, but don't quote me.
Not all these value-for-money Decca retrospectives are absolutely the best in their area, but along with 'Girl's Scene' this is one of the stronger ones. Delivers what it says on the package, chock full of the pill-popping energy of the era... Pretty good for a bunch of skinny English white boys!

Middle class blues

Métal Urbain 'Anarchy In Paris!' (2004)

2009-09-08T12:47:00.012+01:00

Just read this now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tal_Urbain
Download this compilation that shits from a great height on all your favourite rosbif/scenester/constipated grunters of decades past: http://tiny.cc/Jyw7f

Henry Rollins 'Big Ugly Mouth' (1987)

2009-09-02T17:06:00.010+01:00

Early, occasionally stuttered recordings of Hank's early spoken word gigs. Rollins (that's pronounced 'raw'-lins, if you're American I guess) is in convivial mood, which will be disarming to anybody who is only familiar with his music with Black Flag, which split up a year before this was released. These spoken word tours proved a hit; he honed the formula of anecdote, opinion, humour and observation and to my understanding still tours relentlessly, to the joy of a devoted cult following. This early gig is a bit rougher around the edges than the later stuff, both in terms of audio quality and delivery, but any fans of Black Flag and a nice dose of realism should enjoy. Rollins would have been 26 here and his frank (sometimes overtly so, like Bill Hicks' 'Goat Boy' schtick), passive-aggressive, self-deprecating, social reject thing has always been very sympathetic and helped me through some hard
times... it helps that he's funny too. He may have matured in the last 15 years, but I miss the angst.
On this rip audio quality seriously dips off in places, but it's comprehensible and you won't be finding it anywhere else online, unless you buy it on sale =P
Great nostalgia factor, slap bang in the middle of Underground America on the campus circuit, complete with dated 80's references, good stuff. http://www.mediafire.com/?zmotzq2yzll

Ryuichi Sakamoto 'The Sheltering Sky' OST (1990)

2009-09-02T14:38:00.010+01:00

''The Sheltering Sky is a 1949 novel by Paul Bowles. The story centers on Port and Kit Moresby, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the North African desert accompanied by their friend Tunner. The journey, initially an attempt by Port and Kit to resolve their marital difficulties, is quickly made fraught by the travelers' ignorance of the dangers that surround them. Time magazine included the novel in its 'TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005'.''

This is eminent maestro Ryuichi Sakamoto's soundtrack for the 1990 film adaptation starring John 'John' Malkovich. I've never seen this movie, so it's says something for the power of the music that I can enjoy the soundtrack without having any nostalgic connection to the images - it stands on it's own. In truth Sakamoto's orchestral score takes up about about two thirds of the album, the rest is Arabic music (traditional or otherwise), old swing, vintage French chanson - all stuff relevant to the film's setting and a perfect complement to the record. There are two so-so tracks by producer/arranger Richard Horowitz which are literally background music (albeit with some interesting field recordings of Morrocan women's voices from the 50's thrown in).

The meat of the record is of course in Sakamoto's compositions, which are amongst the best he's ever pulled off with an orchestra. One thing it's important to remember is that he has always had parallel careers - one as a modern classical composer and arranger of film scores, the other as a progressive electronic artist with an international bent -and he's somehow nary put a foot wrong in either field. This is quite an accomplishment considering ol' Sakky's been averaging, at least, an album a year since 1978.
So 'The Sheltering Sky' theme is all well and good, grandiose and sweeping as any of the great main themes of cinema, but it's the variations and expressive pieces within the score that are fascinating. Given what is (apparently) the content of the film it's hardly surprising that the music is by turns sorrowful and tender, dark and disturbing. The London Symphony never mucks about (nor should they with their union rates) and they realise the impressionistic Sakamoto score here beautifully. A couple of characteristic Sakamoto piano solos crop up too, this rendition of 'the Sheltering Sky' being one of his classic pieces.
On the whole then: the two 'sides' of the album - one romantic, the other an ethic pick n' mix - present an emotional spectrum you don't find on record all that often.
Get this is you are a soundtrack aficionado, a Sakamoto fan or if you are just looking for something out of the ordinary... In which case the first two conditions will soon apply to you.
D/L

Brian Eno & David Byrne 'My Life In the Bush of Ghosts' (1981)

2009-09-02T10:07:00.022+01:00

''My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a novel by African writer Amos Tutuola from Nigeria published in 1954. This novel recounts the fate of mortals who stray into the world of ghosts. The 'bush' is in the heart of the tropical forest, an impenetrable thicket left even after the rest of the forest is cleared for cultivation. Here, as every hunter and traveler knows, mortals venture at great peril, and it is here that a small boy is left alone.''

This album, from the very definition of a dynamic duo, is instantly recognisable as being in a genre all it's own, like 'Entroducing...' 25 years before the fact and accomplished not with samplers, but with simple manipulation of the raw tape; from Eno's recordings of radio call-in shows, evangelists, and the various Arabic samples that help to give the album it's haunting quality. Despite an underlying funkiness adeptly provided by Byrne playing most of the instruments (underrated musician that he be), this is a different beast to Byrne & Eno's work on the previous 3 Talking Heads albums.

The fascination with African polyrhythms remains, but as a listening experience it it free of associations with the oeuvre of either artist. The album takes on a life of it's own through the strange grooves characterized by found objects and African percussion, overlayed with those voices from disparate places in languages we can't understand - everything is out of context and the effect is supernatural and, like I said, unique. I've always loved this record and the only thing that comes close (despite all the claims of inspiration by other musicians down the years) is David Byrne's mostly-instrumental 1981 album 'the Catherine Wheel'. Innovative? Probably, 'My Life...' was obscenely ahead of it's time... but nobody went on to imitate the hands-on analogue sampling technique of this album (understandable given the headache it must have been without MIDI). Perhaps that's why sampled-based albums have rarely been so otherwordly? Having said that this would make good rush hour listening; it captures the cold and hollow functionality of an overpopulated urban area whilst being tethered to a sombre spiritual ancestry.

This is the 11-track CD edition (not the whopping 2006 reissue, but you are welcome to buy it for me =P), it's bloody marvellous and of course doesn't include the long-gone but fitting track 'Qu'ran'. The Islamic Council of Great Britain wasn't having a track that sampled readings of the Holy Book, and who were these two nerds to argue? It was struck from the running order, replaced with the B-side 'Very, Very Hungry' and has remained absent from all subsequent reissues. However you can hear it by clicking the link a couple of sentences back.

Here is the extremely cool official website of the album. The samples Eno originally used have all been made public domain so you can download them and do your own mixes. There are also streamable tracks and essays by Byrne about the production of the album and it's connection to the Tutuola book.
And for shits n' giggles here's David Byrne's web-o-log, which is surprisingly good reading... and he doesn't even have to upload any albums?!

David Byrne 'Rei Momo' (1989)

2009-08-30T09:08:00.016+01:00

This is sort of connected to the last post, because Ruichi Sakamoto and David Byrne not only collaborated on 1987's beautiful 'the Last Emperor' soundtrack, but both have well-earned reputations as purveyors of worldbeat. Worldbeat hit it's fashionable peak in the late 80's onwards, and a number of great albums came out of it. It's music aiming to be made from a truly multi-cultural perspective, fusing ethnic styles left, right and centre and pushing post-modern Western styles into the background. As such the challenge calls for a cosmopolitan (typically Manhattan-dwelling?), multi-instrumentalist type with international connections. Both Sakamoto and Byrne's (no doubt picking up where he left off with the African stylings of late Talking Heads) eclectic solo careers emphasise a collaborative creative process above all else - rarely will you find a song where they are not backed or assisted by other musicians, often outside their usual comfort zone. That's the ethos of 'worldbeat', and with this album Byrne set his sights on Latin America.

Long influenced by and a champion of Afro-Latin styles (Byrne's Luaka Bop label is responsible for turning English-speaking music fans on to Os Mutantes and Tom Zé, among others), on 'Rei Momo' Byrne seeks to (un)cover seemingly every Latin folk-fusion rhythm, backed by the real musicians of course, combining it with his own herky-jerky style and deceptively workaday voice. Surprisingly, neither suffers as a result and you end up with an inspired, celebratory and enriching pseudo-folk album, peppered with Byrne's amusingly observational and optimistic lyrics.
The carnaval vibe is by no means exclusive to Brazil but is disseminated through many interconnected Afro-Cuban/Afro-Hispanic dance rhythms, lovingly documented on 'Rei Momo' (Portugese for King Momo, the king of carnivals).
Again this is a 320 job, artwork on request. On the back cover of the CD each track is listed along with the regional rhythm represented, I'll replicate that here along with the country of origin!

Uno Dos
Many of these are prevalent across Latin America:

1. Independence Day (Cumbia - Colombia)
2. Make Believe Mambo (Orisa - presumably a reference to the Yoruba religion, the song is in mambo which is of course Cuban)
3. The Call of the Wild (Merengue - Dominican Republic, named derived from meringue!)
4. Dirty Old Town (Mapeyé - Puerto Rico)
5. The Rose Tatoo (Bomba/Mozambique - presumably a reference to this Puerto Rican dance music being an African import)
6. Loco De Amor (Salsa/Reggae - Cuban, Caribbean)
7. The Dream Police (Cha-cha-chá - Cuba)
8. Don't Want To Be A Part of Your World (Samba - Brazil, African roots)
9. Marching Through the Wilderness (Charanga - Cuba, fusion of European classical music and African rhythms)
10. Good and Evil (Rumba - slower Cuban percussive rhythms of African origin)
11. Lie to Me (Merengue - see above!)
12. Office Cowboy (Pagode - Brazilian samba derivative, it's complicated)
13. Women Vs. Men (Bolero - slower tempo Cuban version in 2/4, not the Spanish 3/4 form)
14. Carnival Eyes (Mapeyé - see above!)
15. I Know Sometimes A Man Is Wrong (nothing here, just a short outro with a harmonium and some samples of jungle noises)

Radio: the Chill Room Does R. Stevie Moore

2009-08-29T10:56:00.005+01:00

http://chillroom.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-06-28T09_18_47-07_00

This Chill Room fella is really rather good, with a mic manner very becoming of the material here and a real ear for highlights of the repertoire, good news for us Moore children. This is a cracking podcast episode from a couplamonths back interspersed with what sounds like excloosivs.

Podcast summary from the page:
The Chill Room has been part of the L.A. underground radio scene for over ten years, beginning on the infamous KBLT-FM pirate station in 1997. The Chill Room is live collage, with your mind in mind.

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Technodelic (1981)

2009-08-29T04:49:00.012+01:00

With noted electronic composer Ryuichi Sakamoto's first band, Yellow Magic Orchestra, you could always be sure that each album would bring something new and thought-provoking. From 1978-1983 YMO consistently broke new ground, beginning as the Eastern-mode equivalent of Kraftwerk (but more inspired by 8-bit videogame music and the classical training of their respective members), going on to pioneer electropop and finishing on a high note with 'Naughty Boys' - probably the only J-Pop album that is essential listening - which made them huge stars in China of all place (having already become more of a 'Japanese Beatles' than even the Spiders ever were).

Sakamoto (keyboards) went on to collaborate with just about
everybody and win Oscars, Haruomi Hosono (bass) and Yukihiro Takahashi (drums) maintained electro-god status in the Far East; in a way they were a pre-emptive super group. On top of that YMO were the first Japanese band to aspire to, and attain, worldwide acclaim and influence; the shared vocal duties were multi-lingual (Korean, Chinese, French, and English lyrics written in collaboration with Chris Mosdell) displaying a desire to break down perfunctory international barriers that have no place in music. They even got on Soul Train with their hit cover version of the anything-but-tight 'Tighten Up'! You'll find it's actually nigh-on impossible to listen to classic hip-hop or the various nascent dance musics of the 80's without hearing YMO samples...

This album, 'Technodelic', is their fourth, which as well as being a marked development from their first two bonafide classics (I don't have the third) is probably my personal favourite.
It's well known amongst DJs and dance pioneers as being one of the first albums to make extensive use of samplers, and I don't mean just a drum break or the odd bit of speech. On 'Technodelic' you can hear the beginnings of the ethno-funk, anything-from-anywhere-goes style that Sakamoto is famed for, but it's not the whole story. This one is darker in places, with a wider palette than anything YMO had previously attempted, but it retains that sense of playfulness that makes them SO much fun to listen to; and the whole thing's propped up on the prodigious playing skills of the trio.
I first encountered Yellow Magic Orchestra (a name one assumes is tongue-in-cheek) upon reading a magazine review of all the newly-remastered albums back in 2004. It timed in perfectly with a borderline-Japanophile phase and my discovery of the African polyrhythms of Talking Heads, and I ended up getting four Why 'Em Ohs on CD. This is ripped at 320kbps but I couldn't be bothered to scan the artwork, sorry. If anybody demands it I'd happily oblige however!

Marilyn Roxie & Friends - Collaborative EP 02 'Water'

2009-08-27T06:11:00.003+01:00

I think I already mentioned that this second instalment trumps the first free-P 'Earth' in several ways that are entirely accountable to my personal taste. Each track still reverberates with creative energy, and with the smorgasboard of sound flavours on offer (everything from classic synth sci-fi zaps to feedback and ethereal drone loops) you really wish it had some kind of visual accompaniment. Actually, I recommend switching on your media player visualizations while listening if you really want to be absorbed in the experience.
Now for my customary game of spot-the-genre. On this release the brief is much longer. The Nick Silva collaboration '00000003' in particular is a fluid Dalek-like synthesis of hip-hop and MBV noise drones, the 'Ice Water Girl' remix is a totally unexpected funky d'n'b track and 'Sleep Wheels' is almost a return to Roxie's videogame soundtracks of old but doused with Sonic Boom's influence on her music since, with haunted castle apeggios. An awful lot to get your teeth into for a 15, maybe 20 minute-long download.

Without traipsing over all the benefits of the medium again, and how tantalizing five tracks of highly-focused artistic collisions can be, I will say that the elements theme continues to be integral to the feel of these projects. Whereas tracks like 'Aum' from the previous offering recall ancient stone monoliths roused from a thousand-year slumber, 'Water EP' retains the timeless feeling but debunks to Atlantis. In fact it brings to mind that HP Lovecraft story (remember the title? Fat chance) about a lost and damaged German U-Boat in it's death throes, the last surviving crew member stumbles upon an ancient city in the forgotten recesses of the deep, with the battery that powers the submarine's torches running out... and some crazy shit goes down. At least I think it was a U-boat. Any takers on this?

GET IN

Download
Credits n' deets
Marilyn's m'espace

Nicky Wire - I Killed the Zeitgeist (2006) + Bonus/Demos

2009-08-23T04:00:00.004+01:00

Nicky Wire's solo album I Killed the Zeitgeist isn't an easy one to get into, whether you're a Manic Street Preachers fan or not. It's been variously described as "rough and unfinished, but... utterly alive", "a delicate mix of ragged art punk and romantic poetry", having a "certain eerie charm", and "bloody annoying". Adding to the befuddlement is his list of musical inspirations for the release, which includes Neu, Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, and Einsturzende Neubauten (which you'd be hard-pressed to detect anywhere in the tracks), though the mentioned influences of John Cale, Modern Lovers, and Adam Green make more sense, given the spirited, ramshackle vibe throughout.

The haphazard flow of the album and the general consensus that the man's singing voice is "a characterless drone" seem to have caused many to leave this one in the dust, though I think they might be missing the point. It's no surprise that most of the positive sentiments I've heard about this one come from people who are interested in Nicky Wire as a personality ~~and think that he's gorgeous~~ or at least get the decidedly poetic angle of the material here. I Killed the Zeitgeist is a very much celebration of the music that he loves, as nearly all of the track descriptions reference one or more bands, which is occasionally over-the-top ("So Much For the Future = "Tom Waits singing with the Jesus and Mary Chain along to Beethoven's Piano Sonata number 23 in F minor", apparently) and other times weirdly fitting ("Kimono Rock" = "Bay City Rollers meets Libertines"), presented with an almost non-stop wryness of tone and themes. The most heartfelt tracks, "Goodbye Suicide", "You Will Always Be My Home", and definite highlight "Everything Fades" provide a nice contrast with the rest of the album, and are, strangely, where he excels in getting his message across vocally. You'd think that his continued status as a boisterous antagonist ("It's not that I'm trying too 'ard, it's just I'm naturally ****ing intelligent!") would lend itself better to half-ironic vocal stylings! And, well, maybe it does...in his ~~cute~~ way. Ahem...

Overall, it's a strange album, though certainly with more enjoyable, fun moments, and unexpected sentimentality than most listeners have given it credit for.

I Killed the Zeitgeist+ Non-Album Bonus/Demos

Now for a peculiar live rendition of "Sehnsucht":

And a brief plug of my own Manicsy endeavors:
VISIONBLURRED: Manic Street Preachers + The Horrors Link Directory
AFIN Tear-Worthy Tribute Video to Richey / Nicky, the product of marathon-listening to all the band's albums in a weekend

Wesley Willis Sampler

2009-08-22T18:32:00.017+01:00

Daniel Crapston

To mark the sixth anniversary of this one-of-a-kind performer's death by heart failure (it was yesterday actually), I've uploaded not an album or one of Jello Biafra's excellent 'Greatest Hits' compilations but all of the free tracks from the Alternative Tentacles website. That's 24 tracks in total, a pretty good deal I think. Note that this comprises Wesley's extremely prolific solo output (he once recorded 4 albums in 36 days) and only one track by Wesley Willis Fiasco, the punk band he fronted.

Wesley Willis was a cult legend in the 90's, a hit in the early days of P2P filesharing, and certainly not your run-of-the-mill Chicago street musician. He was a clinically obese, diagnosed chronic schizophrenic and talented felt-tip landscape artist who liked to greet new friends with a headbutt (thus the ever-present third eye bruise on his forehead) and relay his totally unique, blunt and childlike worldview via simplistic three chord songs - each one as bewildering and hilarious as the last. The songs will crack even the iciest veneer, and as well as making you laugh give you plenty of food for thought when you look at his life - it was traumatic by all accounts as he suffered child abuse and abject poverty, only to later have to (literally) battle his inner demons. This was not a well man. But far from his music being some sort of exploitative arena for the Wesley Willis Freak Show (it sure as hell woulda been if he'd been picked up by a major), it seems like 'rock-a-roll' was Wesley's catharsis and therapy, his means of suppressing the voices in his head. He actually named these demons, and the accompanying psychotic episodes they induced he referred to as 'warhellrides'; apparently he normally experienced these riding on the Chicago bus lines - one of his favourite hobbies. Wesley mainly sung about things he enjoyed, and having opened for many bands in his time was particularly fond of writing songs about them: 'Foo Fighters', 'Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers', 'Swervedriver' being just a few.

'Rock over London, rock on Chicago'

Check out the Alt. Tentacles tribute page and enjoy the music. It will bring a smile to your face at the very least. Whilst Willis is obviously the star of the show with his out-of-tune voice and unique wisdom, his band/producer clearly knew how to tap in to the weirdness of the uncategorizable songs and the sprightly backing is prone to long instrumental passages and weird, Ween-esque pitch-adjusted harmonies.
Listen:
Rock 'n' Roll McDonalds
Northwest Airlines

If you are taken with this stuff, the AT prices seem more than reasonable and the CDs come with an obscene amount of extras. One of the best parts of ordering from an indie or direct from the artist is the personal messages ('Keep on rockin' Jinsie!' etc) and the occasional freebie thrown in the parcel you didn't ask for. Then there's the fact that you're helping to stem the tide of mainstream cattle music; and who knows maybe less great bands would split prematurely and fewer promising labels would go under if people actually did things the old-fashioned way and bought stuff they liked. Mindless acquisition will only take you so far if you have half a brain. I personally can't wait to start buying up my most cherished digital music hoardings on CD.

Perhaps that's why most major labels have been turning a blind eye to mp3 blogs, it's free advertising... fortunately however there are still people who are opposed to lining the pockets of corporations who, for many decades, have overpriced awful, awful music and gone out of their way to screw the artists. But, hey, as long as fashion fascism exists and the apathetic populace continues to buy what they are told to, it'll go on. I'd sooner pay 9 quid for a Wesley Willis record than a single penny for a fucking chainstore Calvin Harris album on Sony BMG or Polydor or whatever... Especially as that penny would not be going to Harris.

Nomeansno - Wrong (1989)

2009-08-22T16:12:00.014+01:00

Jazz-inspired, post-hardcore group (sometimes given a little subgenre of it's own called jazzcore) from that finest of musical cities Vancouver, with arguably their finest LP. Very much like a heavier Minutemen. Hell, Rob Wright is a dead ringer for Ed Boon at times.
For those who's lives aren't bogged down in musical genre designations, by post-hardcore I mean groups that came in the wake of the early 80's American hardcore (see: faster/louder) punk movement. These were typically alumni of the hardcore scene who took what they learned and diversified their music - fusing with other genres they admired or just broadening the remit of punk with unusual tempos, more chords and an indefinable maturation that necessitates the use of portentous phrases like 'post-whatever'. 'Post-hardcore' often overlaps with the old 'post-punk' category, but is more true to it's noisy punk roots, often with a heavy metal edge.

So what could anybody have possibly learned from hardcore punk? Plenty: how to set up independent labels and become your own media machine, how an increasingly homogenous scene dominated by narrow-minded wannabe radicals is as good as a bullet in the head for music and progress, how to make a purposeful racket, and even some musical chops.

Nomeansno might share something in common with the free jazz-like meanderings of Minutemen but at this point I think we could safely agree with wikipedia that 'Wrong' falls into the category of so-called math rock, that calculated chaos. It's music rooted in the geometric discipline of Wire and Devo and the like. Musical intricacy, polyrhythms and time changes galore - all delivered with the fire of punk and lacking the plodding track-lengths of progressive rock. The lyrics are always interesting too, not being preoccupied with the abstractions of many a contemporary experimental band.

If you have the money and this becomes a fixture, buy it! This is NOT a major label group; greed is killing thousands and holding back the psychic evolution of the human race, don't add to it

The Saints - (I'm) Stranded (1977)

2009-08-20T14:38:00.029+01:00

The album cover you viddy to the right belongs to arguably the greatest Australian record of all time - certainly the most influential on the Antipodean music scene, and definitely one of the finest first wave punk albums. Now, check out the unlikely purveyors of the scuzziest kinda garage punk photographed on the sleeve. You'll notice that not one of them is dolled up in leather or safety pins - that Richard Hell-inspired scene uniform of the time, popularized by the CBGB's bunch and the London movement...
This is because in 1975, when the Saints formed and started pressing their own singles, there was no D.I.Y./punk scene in Australia to speak of, and indeed when '(I'm) Stranded' was released in February 1977 the band were still on the very cusp of an international punk explosion. The song of the same name was the first Aussie punk single and would more readily be considered one of the progenitors of the genre, had it come out of either the US or UK.
The band (and most of the songs on this debut) not only predate more well-known seminal releases like 'Damned Damned Damned', 'The Clash' and 'Never Mind the Bollocks', they really give those records a run for their money, whilst recalling the best proto-punk stylings of the Stooges and MC5. It's proper, back-to-the-wall garage rock in the 'Raw Power' sense, not only in terms of the fuzzed-out, ear-splitting production but also the 50's rock'n'roll influence - they do lean, mean covers of 'Kissin' Cousins' and 'Lipstick On Your Collar' (I suspect they covered the Platters' version actually but there's no video for it anywhere).
So that's all very nice, but the cover versions (the other being 'River Deep Mountain High') are by no means the highlights of the album. In true early punk style the songs mainly deal with teenage travails related at a reckless and parent-bothering velocity, with a welcome sentimental streak occasionally rearing it's head. The Saints (for this album at least) were every bit the louder Oz contemporary of the Ramones, one of the only other bands on the planet in 1975 to be delivering fun songs with such no-bullshit, solvent-pumped gusto. A large part of the album's appeal is also that the Saints were well outside the punk zeitgeist that was developing, none of them were photogenic... it's almost like they happened by accident - proving the theory that had London been nuked in 1976 (we can only dream!), some other gaggles of bored kids somewhere would have put their Stooges records to good use and made a beautiful, inept noise.

^Great band, rubbish crowd ('twas ever thus)

The album did get some minor attention in Orstralia and the UK (oddly enough they were the first punk band to be signed to EMI's prog imprint Harvest), but it seems like one of those records where over the years word of it's influence and following has snowballed - you are now liable to see 'Stranded' mentioned in any mainstream punk 'all-time' list - but I still feel it is ludicrously underrated in our oh-so-jolly Northern hemisphere. This is a 320 rip of the CD remaster, and comes highly recommended (what doesn't?) - treasure it as if you were 16 and discovering punk for the first time.
After this the Saints did two good-to-average albums: the second was tinted with more of an R&B influence but still packed a punch and had a more political edge, the third was a full-blown hornfest called 'Prehistoric Sounds'. Of course the vitality of the first album was totally lost by this point and the Saints spent the 80's carving out a name for themselves as one of Australia's foremost soft rock outfits (joy).

Afterthought: doesn't the drummer (second from the right) look exactly like Brian Eno circa 1978-ish? With a teeny bit more hair? Answers on a postcard!

BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Music From the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (2003)

2009-08-18T22:10:00.026+01:00

Having compared the subject of my previous post to electronic composer Delia Derbyshire on more than one occasion, I thought it would be good to follow through and let people know just who the hell I was talking about.

The late Ms. Derbyshire was first attached to the BBC's 'Radiophonic Workshop' in the early 60's, along with other drug-free young talent like Brian Hodgson and John Baker. The Workshop was a venture that, over four decades, became the BBC's very own in-house music and sound effects unit; producting for an extensive range of radio and television programming, as well as acting as an alternative to the expensive practive of music licensing.

From it's early days the Workshop was a hotbed for 'budget experimentation' that sought to make soundtracks and create a library of BBC sound effects, without having to hire orchestras and freelance composers. It was a coming together of maths/physics PhDs, BBC jobsworths and hundreds of miles of magnetic tape; the results were some of the most otherwordly and prescient electronic music of the twentieth century.

46 years on, the Workshop's biggest achievement in the public eye still remains the supremely weird proto-techno of the Doctor Who theme, and with good reason. It's hard to believe when you hear it, but this was made before the rise of polyphonic synthesizers (although oscillators are put to good use here); with Derbyshire actually taking Ron Grainer's original composition and realizing it in the manner that would become a signature of the Workshop - manipulating and splicing pieces of analogue tape by hand. The recordings being (literally) cutted & pasted were typically single tones made by instruments or, most commonly, 'found sounds' (bottles, bicycle wheels, anything goes). This approach must have been spurred on by the musique concrete avant-garde of the time... In the 60's at least, the Workshop very much reflects a playful spirit of the age, one that permeated everything from pop music to sound engineering.

The real genius of it though was in the twisted imagination of the music, and the skill these people must have had to build, layer upon layer, highly complex tracks: pulsating bass rhythms overlayed with effects, glitches and washes of sound rendered under such unique conditions as to actually seem extraterrestrial in origin... all with a mathematical precision necessitated by the clumsy, pre-sequencer technology. However the warmth of the analogue sound is more organic and personable; despite the arduous labour that went into making these tracks, generations of British electronica producers will testify that the Workshop was decades ahead of it's time, pre-dating the boom of cerebral, intricate electronica in the 1990's. Just listen to this unprecedented music and imagine - it was all handbuilt from scratch, not cobbled together through some unfathomably complicated monitor interface. At it's best, BBC Radiophonic Workshop was producing the most 'soulful' music you could derive from non-acoustic instruments (without the aid of samplers, which were a long way off).

This limited edition 10'' vinyl box set (compiled, appropriately enough, by Richard D. James' Rephlex label) covers the halcyon days of 1958-75; and by the 70's you can detect the advent of the Moog, also known as Delia's Bane. Not to fear though, because the bar is still set ridiculously high, and the likes of Paddy Kingsland would go on to do amazing work with the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (listenlistenlisten). Delia and John Baker both get their own discs, and the material runs from inspired bastardizations of radio (apparently a pig-headed British public drew the line at the Radio Sheffield theme); to forerunners for the soundtracks to hellish 80's science videos that some of you might remember from school (parodied perfectly here); to little TV-theme vignettes and beautiful, extended compositions not unlike Derbyshire/Hodgson's seminal electronic-psych masterpiece 'An Electric Storm'.
Mesmerizing, haunting and bloody weird... and it's all thanks to the British taxpayer!

Blue Veils + Golden Sands
Full track details
Comprehesive Delia-worship site

Marilyn Roxie '& Friends' - Collaborative EP 01 'Earth' (2009)

2009-08-17T22:54:00.018+01:00

So as not to be accused of contributor bias (you'd have to comment to do that anyway, ha!), I'll do the preamble. I wouldn't have taken the trouble to become acquainted with the Roxbot if it wasn't for coming across her Uematsu-like synth compositions, quirky BBC Radiophonic Workshop mini-suites and sometimes ambient, sometimes jarring dronescapes plucked straight out of REM sleep... in that order. Actually I think it started after finding some rare Cornershop albums posted on her blog... but I digress. Aside from the instrumental music I've got a great deal of respect for anyone who exploits the potential of the internet as a free artistic platform, and I don't just mean self-promotion. Rather than reading me list Marilyn's myriad gifts to an ungrateful web-o-sphere, just follow the links below and see for yourself. It's just nice to know that floating on a sea of opportunists and disposable dross (a bit like this overdressed mp3 blog) there are actually some innovators.

The latest Marilyn Roxie project is a planned series of freely downloadable, themed EPs, each release being produced in collaboration with a different cross-section of bedroom musicians over the internet. The remit is as broad as the international palette, although 'Earth' remains vaguely rooted in Roxie's current ambient/shoegaze-inspired style. There's nothing negative (--=+?) I am dying to impart about it either, except that maybe I'm perched uncomfortably on the fence about the track 'Plain Little Game'...
But even had the EP's title been 'Beach Party Campfire Ballads in E Minor To Matt Your Dreads To', I'd still be overwhelmed by the ambition behind this project and would still put it to the reader: 'what have you got to lose?'. This is the genius of the (sadly dwindling) EP format - it's not disposable, but neither will it take a chunk out of your afternoon.

Some tracks are more idiosyncratic, exhibiting Roxie's characteristic semi-improvisation, others feel like they have been daubed, mangled or blended by a stranger. It's impossible to guess who is responsible for what most of the time, but that's part of the fun; and the making of this collaborative experiment will no doubt have inspired all the participants and opened up their creative process in some way or other. So everyone's a winner, and nobody had to die.
I've heard the follow-up instalment already, due next week, and I'll be posting a link to that because it's actually even better.

Download
Full details
Meine Raum

Dead Kennedys - In God We Trust, Inc./Plastic Surgery Disasters (1981/82)

2009-08-17T19:08:00.019+01:00

You lucky people!
We're on a mini-tangent of conscious punk rock here, and what history of sober reality-music would be complete without a look-in from San Fran peeploids the Dead Kennedys? (Explanation of the name: Biafra's idea was that the Kennedy assassinations marked 'the end of the American Dream' and a point where the mainstream populace tuned in and turned off, so to speak).
If you've never heard 'Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables', the hallmark West Coast punk album, you had better be ready for fast, loud music that is a total subversion of the meatheaded, cultish nihilism that had come to characterize the stale punk scene of the early 80's. If it weren't for these guys and a few select believers really pushing the limits, slapping the kids out of an insular scene mentality, then punk would not have been the all-important social movement it was and the 80's underground wouldn't have happened. Period.

The band, fronted and personified by the brilliantly-named vibrato/activist Jello Biafra, also manage to introduce no small degree of musicality into the mix . The other Dead Kennedys were seasoned guitarists (both in their early 30's by 1980) with a fetish for surf music, rockabilly and Ennio Morricone; these influences do plenty to illuminate just what made the band's take on hardcore punk so unique and apealing. But they didn't stop them diving in head-first and play everything at 1000 miles an hour, of course.
Over the four LPs they banged out no social hypocrisy was safe from Jello's fearsome pen, no politician or evil-doer let off the hook. The result being that by album number three the music was starting to take a backseat to Biafra's soapboxing. They never made a truly poor album by anyone's standards though, always challenging what was then-acceptable in Reagan's America of suppression and under-the-counter dealings. It's the job of art and succeeding generations to challenge, in case you forgot. And for several years after that debut landed, it must've seemed like the Dead Kennedys would keep accelerating and mouthing off until they dashed themselves to pieces (or at least until the CIA did some tour van brake-tampering).

'In God We Trust, Inc.' is the mini-album breaker between 'Vegetables' and 'Plastic Surgery'. It's their most conventionally 'hardcore' album musically, and I included it because it's better than everything you cherish and includes some of their catchiest ditties.
The production on the sophomore album presented here, 'Plastic Surgery Disasters', is even louder than on the previous records, amped up right across the board, frequently fuzzing out and coming off like 'Raw Power' as written by Noam Chomsky. It's as good as, if not better than 'Vegetables'. The lyrics are razor sharp, often hilarious and encouraging, and much of the album resonates even more in today's society; although there are a couple of topical references that might warrant a wiki ('Kepone Factory'). Biafra's sense of humour as usual keeps things ticking and there's no air of preachiness about songs like 'Forest Fire' or the classic extended metaphor of 'Halloween' - he's just pointing out the bloody obvious, and it's both funny and infuriating. They call it satire, I believe?
Jello is still going strong as an activist and musician with the inspirational label he founded in 1979, Alternative Tentacles (love the 'batcasts' and free mp3s on that site); he briefly ran for leadership of the Green Party in 2000 and I intend to post at least one of his better spoken word-tour albums on SS at some point. Some of his collaborations down the years are surprisingly good, too, he's done an album and tour with Melvins and a handful of albums with Ministry as Lard.

If you're one of the uninitiated and are by some freak chance still reading, you'll doubtless be sucking your thumb and wondering why all the 'Plastic Surgery' songs sound the same, with indecipherable but articulate-sounding lyrics garbled over the top. To this I would counter: a) yer wrong; b) remember what it was like to listen to music? Didn't think so; c) if you are still having trouble go here & here and see if you can't clear some cobwebs. If you require incentive, just imagine you're being told to do this by the Wire/Pitchfork/NME/Guardian supp./Daily Mail (delete as applicable).

Ripped @ 320 avec R't.
1 2

Jello Biafra meets the mighty Nardwuar

What do you MEAN you've never heard...

2009-08-16T13:15:00.013+01:00

Rage Against the Machine??

Their 1992 self-titled debut is surely a musical rites of passage for teenagers everywhere - I've met surprisingly few people who didn't grow up with this album. Tom Morello and the band's relentless alt.metal riffage assault must work in tandem with the most explicitly anti-authority lyrics any 14-year-old was/is likely to come across. So RATM was the perfect hormonal release, and at that age not much thought went in to the Zack De La Rocha's words beyond 'shit, he's got some problems too...'. It's funny, because in school this was the only music anybody could universally agree on, it spoke to that barely-suppressed torrent of teenage angst. Kids had problems with bullies, parents, puberty, and this album always did the trick - people went mental when RATM came on.
So what can I say about this album in the 'sober light' of adulthood? Hmm. It's been a good few years. It gives me kicks of a different sort now, which manifest themselves in much the same way - hyperactivity and indignation. I've come full circle in terms of my worldview and, this being something of a manifesto of left-wing sloganeering clearly written to be screamed on the street, RATM ticks all the right boxes. One can't escape the knowledge that this debut album (at the very least) should have been de-licensed for free distribution amongst the populace once the group broke up, but it hasn't been. Hopefully this full-quality download (with artwork scans) will make a notch in some blowhard bank accounts... yeah, right!

So you've got the rage there, clearly. Rage against capitalism, exploitation, suppression, greed, religion, inequality and the general population's booze 'n' lard-fed apathy in the face of it all. It's a direct challenge to mainstream beliefs of the time (and now); very much a product of the disillusioned underground swell that bubbled under the surface of Reaganite Bullshit America. Bill Hicks spoke to that youth with comedy and reason, Rage with music and reason.
And musically? Sure, RATM almost single-handedly kicked off the vogue for rap-metal as a means of delivery, and this might understandably send retrospective shudders at that culmination of hip-hop's influence on metal: 'nu-metal'. But nu-metal this ain't. This is the best underground hardcore punk and metal of the 80's, condensed, fed through a Jimmy Page cookie cutter for catchy-ass riffs, and infused with the political activism of Public Enemy. Morello's guitar is more 'metal' on this, but shows early signs of the hip-hop/electronic sound it would later assume, and the occasional flourishes of slap bass are rather anachronous... but all is forgiven as it's heavy as fuck and never misses a step. RATM doesn't pretend to be the answer all wrapped up in a neat little package, but it's such a forceful and compelling wake-up call you'd need to be completely beyond the McPale to not sit up and listen.

If you missed out on jumping around a room and throwing chairs to 'Killing In the Name's final refrain (you'll see what I mean), then you should jump on board right now and see what you done missed. And don't pretend you're too highbrow for it, because we both see through that smokescreen. Testosterone booster strictly optional.

Download
Origins of the artwork
Bonus wisdom

the Dukes of Statosphear - Chips From the Chocolate Fireball Anthology (1985-87)

2009-08-15T11:44:00.019+01:00

A snappy little two-album anthology of the ultimate psychedelic nostalgia here, as performed by Sir John Johns and his merry band of toytown travellers - better known as New Wave songwriting geniuses XTC.

The neo-psychedelia tag is a misnomer really, seeing as the Dukes of Stratosphear's output was that of a loving tribute to the anni mirabiles of 1967 and 1968; no doubt the fruits of swollen record collections and weed-fuelled in-joking. Partridge & co's moment of indulgence is in fact so complete that were it not for the slight giveaway of John Leckie at the boards, one could be fooled in to believing the Dukes were a great obscure band of the psychedelic era, and no doubt this was their intention.
Fans of that fertile period of ambitious songwriters will absolutely lap up this little experiment; it comes out as a seamless amalgam of all your favourite 60's drug music, at times sounding exactly like a lost Beatles album from between 'Sgt. Pepper's' and 'Magical Mystery Tour', at

others recalling the frenetic paranoia of the Pretty Things, or staples like Tomorrow and Art. The 1985 mini-album '25 O'Clock' is perfection and the '87 full-length 'Psonic Sunspot' literally has nothing wrong with it either - the only downside I can see is if you aren't all that fond of 60's psych, but then why the hell are you even breathing?
Andy Partridge demonstrates a great ability throughout to mimic the clichéd effects and studio trickery of the era, whilst utilising his characteristic songwriting ability to keep things awesome. He has plenty of fun with the lyrics of course, the late 60's being one of the most ripe-for-parody in the history of pop. Special mention must go to 'Bike Ride to the Moon', which is like a tongue-in-cheek version of 'My White Bicycle':
Why not bring a pot of tea / On a bike ride to the moon? /
Angel cake for you and me / On a bike ride to the moon.
What's not to like?

Within this multi-coloured tea chest lie nestled some of the best songs XTC recorded in the studio-only part of their career, in my redundant opinion. In short, I be your witch doctor and 'Chips From the Chocolate Fireball' is what I prescribes.

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1965)

2009-08-14T01:02:00.021+01:00

Whilst it's immensely difficult not to regurgitate a puddle of wiki accolades about 'A Love Soup-Ream' being 'generally regarded' as this and that; it's NOT immensely difficult to tell you that this is the best (well, one of the top three interchangeable) jazz, if-not-just-album albums of all time. This is what ALL jazz should have sounded like by 1965. Coltrane by this point had dropped hard-bop like a bad smell, a regime where the improvisation was restricted to the chord changes within a tune.
ALS is, according to a certain source, modal jazz. I am a layman but even I can tell this is so, with my lugholes. Modal jazz was like the next step to the misleadingly-named free jazz (aka musical masturbation) that Coltrane would spend the last few years of his life exploring. Since this form is often not completely 'free', let's just call it avant-garde jazz. Anyway, ALS only skirts this territory, and is a culmination of the new freedom that improvising within modes allowed. This requires great skill on the part of the soloists, since you have to know your scales and be really quite ingenious to come up with something as timeless as the Coltrane Quartet did here. Coltrane had been testing this methodology since at least 'Giant Steps' (a fringes be-bop classic that I'll upload), but on here you will notice a marked difference to those oldies. Recording this album, one of the greatest saxophonists of all time still had his audience foremost in mind, and that's why Coltrane spares us an outdated form of improvisation without disappearing completely up his own arse.

John is the bandleader of course, and in case you hadn't worked it out, plays tenor saxophone. The rest of the quartet for this beast of a session runs as follows:
Jimmy Garrison - double bass
Evlin Jones - drums
McCoy Tyner - piano

This is a no-frills 320kbps upload, remastered but minus the tiresome five discs of 'bonus' material ('ooh an alternate take! WOW').
If I can practically hum the entire four-part suite of this album from memory, then it's well within the realms of possiblity that other people will enjoy it.

Only known performance of 'A Love Supreme'. Hardly any footage survived, and it was apparently more dissonant that the LP rendition.

Lives of Angels - Elevator to Eden (1986)

2009-08-13T02:18:00.004+01:00

Though Lives of Angels are were associated more with minimal synth/coldwave (I did discover them when I was on my coldwave quest, after all), there are readily apparent psychedelic elements as well, which makes for an unusual, unique sound. Their only LP was 1986 release Elevator to Eden, which appears to be hopelessly out-of-print, and all current linkage is corrupt or dead...until now! (recommended if you like Joy Division / New Order, Siglo XX, the So Young But So Cold compilation, Blank Dogs, and so forth):

Elevator to Eden (obscurity level: super-high - just around 200 listeners on Last.fm!)

They also appeared on 1988 compilation Colour Supplement (which you can grab at MUTANT SOUNDS) with three tracks that are absent from their one album, along with songs from Modern Art, Mystery Plane, and WeR7, and their MySpace Music page contains some more recent recordings.

Danielle Dax - Comatose Non-Reaction (1990) + "Tomorrow Never Knows" Single (1990)

2009-08-11T23:25:00.024+01:00

When I was around 14, I started going through all my parents' albums I hadn't heard before, and Danielle Dax's Dark Adapted Eye (1988 compilation; it finally went back in print in late 2008!) was one that grabbed my attention most. Up to that point, I'd never heard anything quite like that album, with its strange mix of ethnic, often tribal, sounds, the spooky and vaguely psychedelic, and even country-western motifs, showcasing Dax's diverse and impressive vocal and instrumental abilities. Upon investigating whether there was more material, I found that not only was almost everything of hers out of print, but that she's remained incredibly obscure overall (currently with just around 5,000 listeners and, sadly, nothing streamable at Last.fm), which is quite inexplicable, since she has at least the chops of Siouxsie Sioux, more than enough of Kate Bush's quirky madness, and a strong injection of mysticism. I managed to also track down a copy of Blast the Human Flower (1990) a few years ago at Amoeba Records in San Francisco, and scrounged around for her myriad of other releases on the interwebs Apart from the two out-of-print items I'm offering below, her other releases are available via this post at j's heaven [for Jesus Egg That Wept (1984), Blast the Human Flower, and Inky Bloaters (1987)], *here* for Dark Adapted Eye (particularly recommended!) *here* for the Timber Tongue EP (1995; the title track includes a sample from Faust's "Just a Second (Starts Like That)"!) and *here* for Pop-Eyes (1983; this was her first release, entirely self-made and produced).

Prior to her solo endeavors, she was half of the bizarre experimental group Lemon Kittens (see also 1980 EP Cake Beast, also two additional EPs are at mysteryposter), with other half Karl Blake going on to form the Shock Headed Peters and later returning to collaborate with Dax again. Her last solo output was the aforementioned Timber Tongue EP all the way back in 1995, though she collaborated with the equally odd Andrew Liles on his 2008 album Ouarda (The Subtle Art of Phyllorhodomancy) on a few tracks. Apart from being featured on several of Sire's Just Say Yes compilations and apparently permanent cult status, Dax has gotten far less respect than what she deserves for her innovative, and incredibly still-unique works of musical artistry- now's your chance to get in on the secret!

The appropriately-titled Comatose Non-Reaction: The Thwarted Pop Career of Danielle Dax collects some of her singles and notable songs, as well as some tracks unavailable on any other collection, and serves as a good introduction:
Comatose Non-Reaction - Disc 1
- Disc 2
---
Her cover of The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" is featured on her '90 album Blast the Human Flower, and the single includes both the single and album mixes, "King Crack", and two otherwise unavailable remixes:
Tomorrow Never Knows (Single)

The music video for the track is below:

the Move - Very Best of the Move (1967-72)

2009-08-10T21:30:00.013+01:00

The Move. The Move, the Move, the Move. They were chart staples at one time, NME Poll Winners, and are clearly some sort of perfect cross-pollination of the Beatles, the Kinks and the Stones, yet how often do you hear them name-dropped these days? Not often. For shame, for shame, for shame. Not only do they contain elements of all those bands, throughout their existence moving from epic psychedelic pop to garage rock, but they were mixed better, with a more dyamic range than the tinniness/saturated warmth of the Four-Headed Monster. It certainly helps that this relatively recent and near-flawless compilation is all remastered.

60's eccentric auteur Roy Wood heads up proceedings. His former band the Idle Race (which also featured Jeff Lynne, who would join the Move in 1970 and with Wood later formed Electric Light Orchestra) are one of my faves, but like this band they start to lose my attention towards the end of their existence. This could be one of several things, it could be the move (HAHA) into mediocre hard rock territory, but it's more likely the departure of their first singer Carl Wayne, for whom I have a soft spot. And also the ouevre of Jeff Lynne irritates me slightly. Whatever.
This compilation, however, is basically wall-to-wall greatness, and the music doesn't have the 'slighty dated symphonic-poodle disco nightmare' factor of ELO, which for me is a distinct boon. Let's just say the Move were cooler. I mean just WATCH.

^Ever felt socially alienated by your acid vizhunz? The Move have. And Carl thinks he's Elvis.

That is certainly their most covered song, but why aren't they more universally adored? Is it because they're from Birmingham? Huh?

Brummies do it better (ripped@AMAZING)

Art: Treat Yourself to the Best

2009-08-10T08:15:00.011+01:00

http://treatyourselftothebest.blogspot.com/
Very special blog that covers all artistic aspects of life, with lots of amazing high-res images, films and tidbits, a great deal of which I imagine they upload themselves. Subscribe to it. Recently a big post on the art-as-science of Czech genius Nikola Tesla, my FAVORITT. Well, well, well worth your time.

Mr. Bungle - s/t (1991)

2009-08-09T02:43:00.020+01:00

This is the last of the impromptu Tomahawk background posts, although Señor Patton will be making more appearances in the future. The order I've done this in might seem to imply that Tomahawk are the culmination of all these lesser career highlights, but this is not the case... Consider the albums from this and the previous three posts equatable to four ancient historic landmarks, demolished for their composite materials. These are used to build a towering modern facility for the common good, one that affords views of the land around. However the ancient foundations remain the same, a testament to it's workmanship...
And somewhere in that garbled metaphor is Mike Patton's quite unfathomable debut record with his first band, Mr. Bungle!

However this wasn't the first major label album he'd appeared on. Having done several cassette-only releases with Bungle in the mid 80's, 1989 saw a 21-year-old Patton assume vocal duties on 'the Real Thing', alternative metal group Faith No More's eclectic third album and the one that launched them on the global circuit. Over this album Patton had no control in the production aside from lyrics, as he was brought on board after the songs were already written, dropping out of college to join.
While 'the Real Thing' was far from a conventional album, it was an MTV hit, and responsible for starting an unfair comparison between Patton and Red Hot Chili Peppers singer/frat-goon Anthony Kiedis with their then-similar vocal styles. A bitter rivalry ensued that eventually resulted in axed Mr.Bungle festival gigs (at the behest of the headliners), many a jibe and vindictive 'tribute gigs'.

'The Real Thing' was a hugely successful debut, but Patton merely used it as a springboard to get his first band a deal and to cut an album that fulfilled the previous decade's most bizarre and twisted, avant-garde metal ambitions... complete with horn section!

The objective for Mr. Bungle was and is (three albums in a decade and they've not announced a break-up) an ALL-in-one philosophy. Every style of music that any member of the band can play (i.e. everything) is given space in any one song; consequently I could spend the next twenty minutes reviewing a song, which simply won't do. Oh... maybe just one then =P

^Oh an egg comes out of a chicken
Oh a chicken comes out of an egg

Here's a good archetype for the album (see above), 'Egg' is the Bungle-ites anthem and it gives you an inkling of how volatile and unpredictable their songs are. It's like a contemporary progressive rock, except instead of boarding school boys droning on about classical/jazz influences, you just have punk rockers on drugs doing everything else!
On 'Egg' you have, in order: funk, polka, ska, space rock, some bad-acid doom metal, a quick freakout combining funk and death metal, then back to the ska figure, after that it kind of goes into meltdown. And that's just under three minutes in to what, on record, is a 10-minute song (my description makes more sense with the album version too =P).

By now you may be getting an idea of the sheer scope a reviewer of this album has to deal with, and at this point I strongly suggest you stop reading and just clarify the situation for yourself. Go on, the words will still be hear when you get back:
256kbps (comprend des oeuvres d'art) Ein, Zwei

I could go on playing 'spot the genre' here, which is tedious for you but good fun for me: free jazz, rapping, carnival music (giving the album it's sinister edge), Middle-Eastern modes, even an elegant strings-and-ballroom waltz to see us off when we finally claw our way out of the rabbit hole... You get the picture. And needless to say it's an awe-inspiring set of musicians indeed that could play all of this and make it look easy to boot.

So while at it's core the album is rooted in funk metal, perhaps evoking traumatic images of a certain rival band's early incarnation; 'Mr. Bungle' is still a groundbreaking concept and essentially the ultimate fusion album... Unless you count the follow-up 'Disco Volante', but we won't go there just yet.
Far from being 'a bit like RHCP', Mr. Bungle are quite possibly the little demonseed offspring of that expert manipulator of rock forms, Frank Zappa. And unlike RHCP, you get the feeling Bungle is a tongue-in-cheek project, they're prodding to see just how much they can get away with.

The record presented here is also the easiest entry point for newbies and the epicentre of Patton's two decades of experimentalism, a manifesto on magnetic tape.

Amendment: Bungle did in fact officially split, inamicably, in 2004; and their debut was produced by avant-jazz giant John Zorn.

Cows - Cunning Stunts (1991)

2009-08-08T13:54:00.006+01:00

For Tomahawk bassist Kevin Rutmanis' post I could throw up any number of latter-day Melvins albums but his first band are a far more interesting proposition, especially since most of their albums are out of print.

As one might conclude from the band name, Blue Note-parody record sleeve and spoonerism title, Cows were an offbeat and manically unhinged take on the innovations of the hardcore punk fallout and, like the last couple of posts, a somewhat legendary band of the American underground... Except you would be afraid to make eye contact if you met them.
Taking their cues more from Captain Beefheart and his demented avant-blues than heavy metal, you sort of know something abnormal is about to go down when 'Heave Ho' opens the album with sound of a baby being smacked, blurred guitars and infamously-erratic singer Shannon Selberg's bugle. The album continues in this vein and never lets up, one moment recalling cowpunk and early Meat Puppets, the next Thor Eisentrager is doing a great impression of Melt Banana's ingenious noise riffage well before they made a name for themselves.

The overall result is more melodic perhaps than the pure atonal punk of their earlier records, but this is an unmissable gem of noise rock made by men who almost certainly sprinkled skag on their cereals. If you like early Sub Pop and even early Nirvana, but with an eclectic twist, thou shalt dig.

MYSTERY ALBUM 01

2009-08-08T00:07:00.017+01:00

Also known as the Jeebus Wizard - 'Cryer'.
The title is in fact a not-so-cunning attempt to throw off search engines, as this tremendous album is being kept off blogs quite effectively. I presume it has something to do with the fact that the Jesus Lizard have recently reformed for touring, and September will see the remasters of these albums released. Make no mistake, the reissues of 'Liar' and 'Goat' will be worth copping, but that shouldn't stop people from judging it for themselves.

'Liar' is essentially a refinement of the preceding album which is often cited as their magnum opus 'Goat', and to my ears it's actually a vast improvement. I was listening to a Flipper-infuenced post-hardcore band of recent times called Pissed Jeans, who have flashes of greatness but are missing something, and thought 'who are these guys stealing their ideas from?'. Flipper were around at a time during the inception of hardcore American punk in the early 80's when it was fashionable to play as fast as possible, garble lyrics about the LAPD and speed. Flipper played extremely slow and sung about isolation and downers. So that's the tempo covered, but as it turns out Pissed Jeans were ripping off a band of great infamy I had shamefully never investigated, called the Jesus Lizard.

JL were one of the many bands that Kurt Cobain launched by wearing their t-shirt and talking about them in interviews, and you can see why he admired them so: nothing is straightforward, the rhythms are all syncopated and the time signatures skewiff, songs are liable to flip on you at any moment, the guitar playing is the most awe-inspiringly abstract display you will hear from the post-hardcore school, and the furious rhythm section props the whole thing up on shaky stilts. People talk about Jones and Bonham of Led Zeppelin being the definitive bass/drums pairing, but they wouldn't be caught dead playing anything this angry and penetrating, which only serves to increase JL's appeals for me. That's not to say that the band isn't capable of reigning it in and delivering the goods without attacking their instruments, as on 'Zachariah' and the trudging 'Slave Ship' that puts you right in the hull of a galleon... for a few albums they were basically like the grunge archetype, free of arena-rock anthemic pretensions.

David Yow: a cross between latter-day Mark. E Smith and Iggy Pop?

Nobody really sounded like this before, and everyone's favourite noisenik producer of raw aggression Steve Albini is, predictably, pulling the strings. In lesser hands, soft-around-the-edges production could have ruined a Jesus Lizard record, but instead Albini is probably responsible for cementing their reputation as a lean sonic-sledgehammer assault. The guitar pierces space and vocalist Yow sounds like he's being buried alive in the mix. 'Liar' is more accessible than a pure noise-rock record, but more searing than straight middle-of-the-road grunge...

Despite this being an old CD issue, it's in 320kbps and is the best quality you'll find online.
And that covers Duane Denison's part of the Tomahawk posts!

Tomahawk - s/t (2001)

2009-08-07T21:32:00.024+01:00

As I have been stuck on taut, hot n' heavy post-hardcore and so-called 'alternative' metal of the experimental variety, I intend to celebrate this in the next few posts. The supergroup Tomahawk starts this little thread with their self-titled debut album. The following posts will be the defining albums of the various members' careers, something like a jigsaw puzzle of excellence, but first you're getting a bird's eye view of the overall picture.

This 'supergroup' of mavericks who originally came to fame in the late 80's is:
Mike Patton on vox, synths and devices: ex-Faith No More/Mr. Bungle and one-man sonic army in his own right, this is his baby and was released on his Ipecac Recordings label;
Duane Denison, groundbreaking guitarist from the Jesus Lizard, creates a musical backing of tension/release, weird spaces and time signatures that I've never heard matched;
John Stanier: ex-Helmet, unorthodox and jaw-dropping drummer for one of the most influential bands of the 90's;
and finally bassist Kevin Rutmanis of devastating sludge metal pioneers the Melvins. Sludge metal is the down-tuned dirge of doom metal combined with hardcore punk, incidentally. =)

Combined, it's quite a tour-de-force. Like all of the members' former projects, this music is not just about simply making a racket, but breaking new ground in an area of music that has a history of pushing the boundaries - this is something that perhaps needs to be explained to those uninducted into the wonderful world of metal.

Mike Patton is widely respected and renowned for a prolific output and his seemingly endless stream of collaborations, but what will really astound the first-time listener is his vocal diversity. 'The man of a thousand voices', he utilises a good few hundred of them on this album, from guttural death metal grunts and eerie falsetto to inhaled shrieks and banshee howls... And that's just the parts he sings. There's also the numerous overdubbed noises, treated vocal nuances and chants that are so standard for a Patton record you forget just how unusual they actually are... In short Patton sets the standard for Tomahawk, their sound is incredibly eclectic and unique, displaying many a non-metal influence, and showing a disregard for conformity that is all part 'n' parcel of the true experimental/'alternative metal' tag.
Just compare it to the popular Billboard 100 'nu-metal' of the time, which was essentially a castrated and codified regime of hip-hop-over-metal... How did those guys look at themselves in the mirror every morning knowing there were albums like this out there?

^ Auteur in the theatre of noise

The 'metal' tag is perhaps misleading, as Tomahawk really straddles the divide between metal subgenres and alternative rock. There are no quiet/loud dynamic clichés but it's certainly all over the place, and is definitely the most well-rounded and memorable of the three excellent Tomahawk albums to date. While the album is more focused that the progressive genreric fruit-machine of Patton's first band Mr. Bungle, it's still impossible to pigeonhole from song to song, and that's one of it's great pleasures. For me, as a big fan of Denison's style of guitar playing, this album is a wet dream, coming off sounding a bit like one of the classic Jesus Lizard albums being properly duffed-over by one of my fave vocalists and given 'the Patton treatment'.

There is a common thread, apart from the reliable ability of the band members to confound and surprise, in that Tomahawk is a loose concept album about a serial killer. The only songs that explicitly state this though are the first two tracks: 'Flashback' concerns the protagonist undergoing memory retrieval and '101 North' is about a highway abduction. The other tracks seem to be mostly related to traumatic, regressed memories of the killer's past and his acts of murder. I'll leave it up to you to work out!

It's at variable bitrate and sounds just hunky-dory:
They made you wear a dress did they?

Radio: the Cellar Tapes

2009-08-07T19:05:00.007+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen, here is the ultimate radio bonanaza for the discerning 60's connoisseur; no matter how much you think you know you will learn something here.
Psychedelia, garage bands, girl groups, beat, mod R&B, folk and blues - the whole bit.

The show is broadcast from Stockport, Cheshire (that's north west UK) and presented by the Mancunian Candidate aka Ben, in a highly endearing Mancunian brogue. He calls his listeners cellar dwellers and it's presented in a great no-frills, old skool British radio stylee. Just passion for music and light-hearted musical entertainment... I suspect Ben is spiritually not of this decade.

I was tuned out for a while but I returned to the show to discover Ben's aptitude for securing the most amazing and unlikely interviewees, including Gary Burger of the Monks.
I'm posting this here because tomorrow he is interviewing Peter Daltrey from one of my favourite 60's groups - KALEIDOSCOPE. Need I say more?

The Cellar Tapes
SATURDAYS

1pm - Los Angeles
4pm - New York
9pm - UK
10pm - Berlin

TUESDAYS (repeat)

12pm - Los Angeles
3pm - New York
8pm - UK
9pm - Berlin

Live Stream here:
www.pureradio.org.uk/silo/files/live-streaming.m3u

Reception's a bit dodgy but, hey, live with it!

Sekkle: a DMZ dubstep sampler

2009-08-03T15:04:00.008+01:00

I posted this on the trusty but dance/electronica-shy Musicbanter forum a while ago, and I'm still rather proud of how it turned out. Enjoy!

Dubstep Label Sampler: DMZ
(click the banner above tracklisting for download)

DMZ is a label set up in 2004 run by producer/DJs Coki, Mala and Loefah (as well as MC Sgt. Pokes) out of Brixton, South London. DMZ is also inarguably the most influential dubstep club night and part of the bedrock of the scene's origins.

Coki and Mala are dubstep's most infamous producers under their pseudonym Digital Mystikz; the DMZ label being a platform for their music as a duo, as solo artists or the tunes of longtime collaborator Loefah.
They were present at the dubstep's beginnings in 2003 with producers such as Skream and Benga on the Tempa label, having a huge impact on it's direction with their incorporation of dub/reggae soundsystem aesthetics and values.

^Yes this a common reaction to 'darkstep' I imagine. Self-conscious shuffling
punctuated by the odd nutter who managed to sneak in some brownies.
This is a shot from the DMZ night at Mass, incidentally.

DMZ's speaker set-up has a fierce reputation. Before the England smoking ban, the sight of glowing spliffs protruding from the raised hoods of skanking bass-junkies was a common sight; and many of dubstep's most recognizable names made the pilgrimage here throughout the first half of the Noughties to experience the infamous sound and 'meditate on bass weight'.

Every budding 'scene' brings with it it's collection of pretentious arseholes and manifesto-writers and from what I've heard DMZ had it's share. These are the people that balk at the current state of the scene, where mid-range bass and a 'heavy metal'/ravey vibe have taken precedence... They probably have a point, but you can either move on and evolve or let the cement dry and stagnate, like grime did.
As the initial fervor of lost wanderers in virgin musical territory has diluted into hundreds of producers and releases every month, the DMZ dubs still take me back to the pure dread I cut my teeth on, sitting pressed to the wall of my flatmates room as he put the sub-woofer through it's paces practicing for the next set.
Their stuff is foreboding and deep in a way very few have imitated successfully... So here's the best of Digital Mystikz and the rest of the DMZ label for yooz to experience! All 12'' plates from the last 5 years.

Sekkle...

1. Intro
2. I Wait - Digital Mystikz
3. Spongebob - Coki
4. Haunted - Digital Mystikz
5. Triple Six - Coki
6. Twisup - Digital Mystikz & Loefah
7. Hunter - Mala
8. Anti War Dub - Digital Mystikz
9. Horror Show - Loefah
10. Learn - Mala
11. Mood Dub - Coki
12. Goat Stare - Loefah
13. Ancient Memories - Digital Mystikz

A number of iconic DMZ tracks made it onto the Dubstep Allstars Vol.2 CD showcase on Tempa, which was largely responsible for popularizing the genre, and elsewhere, but here you will find just tracks from their 12'' back catalogue I have accumulated over the last couple of years.
Except for the odd mid-bass one to break up the mood this is a sub-fest so, as always, make sure you can amp it up to hear everything.

Loadsa sets @ Get Darker

RSM LUVVIN' 01

2009-08-01T16:37:00.068+01:00

Exciting things are afoot, as a (slighty ammended) version of this article with two whopping R. Stevie introductory mixes has just been contributed to the best new music community-cum-blog this side of anything: A Future In Noise. Go catch it and see how proper music blogs are done:

************************************************************************************

Visit the labyrinthine homepage which is, aptly, as large and confusing as his back catalogue

Right, lots to cover here... well, R. Stevie Moore is by far my favourite multi-talented, progressive popster/composer of all time. The very, very true definition of Mr. all-round, prodigious prodigy man. Now reach into your mind, pick a genre of music. Got one? He's done it, and better than you or I could ever hope to.

Imagine if the Beatles had arrived a decade later, through a freak radioactive laboratory explosion all inhabited the same body, and as a result of their horrific appearance never made it big. They'd still find a release for that geyser of creative talent by any means possible, right? What's the alternative? D.I.Y. RECORDING - play all the parts yourself, produce yourself, record yourself, mix yourself... In your living room. Not a pastime that was as universally accessible as it is nowadays by a long shot, but come the 70's you certainly had the means. This aggregate mutant-Beatle would probably need to decide on a name too...

Robert Steven Moore started out in Nashville, TN, home recording on a reel-to-reel tape machine that his session musician father used to lay down demos. Bob Moore Sr. was not just any session man but a Nashville fixture who played on many a country standard, as well as being Elvis Presley's touring bassist for many years. And thus Bob Jr. was born and raised around legendary musicians rehearsing in his childhood home; he appropriated the primitive equipment they left behind after heading off to the studio, made it his own and will undoubtedly die a myth of the medium.

RSM is generally regarded as the grandfather of 'lo-fi' or low-fidelity music - a title originally given to a wave of indie bands in the 90's, who used tape noise and the side effects of simple four-track recording techniques to enhance a certain quality in their music. But this hack-conceived pigeonhole did not exist in the decades before Pavement, Beat Happening and Guided By Voices, and innovators like RSM got a comparatively microscopic amount of credit for their work...

...Which is tragic, because whilst the aforementioned popular groups' early work was characterised by the fashionable fuzz that draped a veil of mystery over some good songs; RSM accomplished so much more, turning his home studio into a factory for boundless creativity, where anything and everything (except high fidelity) was possible. The 'lo-fi' element seems more owed to budgetary constraint, and is frequently manipulated or pushed to absolute breaking point with techniques like track bouncing. He cultivated a love and mastery of cheap equipment, but it never defined his work.
But the recording quality had improved by the 80's, and with the advent of the digital recording era RSM eventually caved in and moved on from tape to cleaner pastures, but the rampant unpredictability of the music has not suffered in the slightest.

What makes this man's obscurity all the more depressing is that from 1974 onwards, he was creating accessible-to-your-grandma pop classics, whilst staying true to all the tenets of art rock, doing just about everything in between and maintaining his passion for instrumental music and the avant-garde. RSM even anticipated New Wave by a good 4 years, fer chrissakes.
And what do we have to show for it - just over 7000 listeners on Last.fm, which doesn't even match the listener count of 21st century pupils like Ariel Pink.

^A weirder offering from just after the make-or-break of the major label courtship era,
with backing band. Props to A. 'the Face' Rudd for turning me on to Moore a year ago

Despite the tireless local support of New Jersey public access, radio stations such as WFMU, many a frenzied podcast and a demi-God reverence amongst his thin but far-reaching and dedicated fanbase (I've personally talked to fans from several continents, apparently he's a fixture in Bogota), Mr. Moore is quite human, and some of his best material has arisen from sour grapes. Exasperated by a lack of progress, he even called the music thing quits for a few years in the late 80's but returned in 1991. The intervening period was spent exploring a booming medium: home video. The fruits of this era and beyond are archived on Youtube in their hundreds, and are forever growing in number.

Blimey, did I forget to mention he's self-released all his material via a home-delivery service since the late 60's? Why yes I did. Once known as the R. Stevie Moore Tape Club, now the CD-R Club, he's put out over 400 tapes and is still going full tilt. I personally own about 20 of them, many from the 'golden period' of the mid-70's to mid-80's, but truth be told he never disappoints no matter the decade. Understand that these 'tapes' (hereon in I'll use this term to refer to the CD-Rs) do not constitute his official discography of independent label albums, which are all instant classics and essentially distilled compilations of his material.

But as a matter of principle for a struggling artist, what tapes I choose to include on here will NOT have any of the CD-R bonus tracks or scanned artwork. These often include not just songs but 15 minute+ sketches, radio spots, even complete concept albums... a lot basically. The main aim here, as always, is to share my enthusiasm and spread the noise about the best music. The more fans this guy can get, the better, and hopefully in tandem with the inevitable documentary, RSM will one day get the mainstream recognition he deserves.

^Yeah yeah, I am one of the 'lunatics with no life', and proud =D

R. Stevie Moore's range is vast, but if you appreciate musicks, and in particular any of the following: the first 5 years of Zappa, the Beatles and their legacy, 10cc, XTC, Talking Heads, Ween, prog rock, Eno soundscapes, the avant-garde, or any number of post-punk and lo-fi artists... you would do well to check this guy out.
Where to start, you ask? UK label Cherry Red recently put out the perfect introduction, and a follow-up compilation is imminent.

Get some Mo' Stuffs (this is 1974's 'Stevie Moore Often', one of the very first cassettes that adopted the more popular song-based format he is 'known' for, and jolly nice it is too. Includes early versions of staples like 'Why Should I Love You'.)

Blur - B-Sides (1990-'99)

2009-07-31T16:57:00.014+01:00

^ Best song they ever did, period...

First off, this has nothing to do with the group's chequebook-balancing reunion - something I really couldn't care less about. It's a measured selection of 20 of the best B-sides and non-album tracks, including 2003's white label 'Don't Bomb If You're the Bomb'. Gloss over that though, because the meat of this is focused on the good stuff - offcuts from the Modern Life Is Rubbish era (possibly the last choking plea for sanity from indie rock Britain produced) which particularly draw attention to the influence of a little band called Wire.
Blur's initial submission to their label Food for their sophomore album was rejected for being too weird, so of course it has some of the best songs. They often suffer from the B-side syndrome of great ideas laboriously stretched out to song length, but what else did you expect? This includes most of (but not all) of the much-revered 'Popscene' EP. It's garnered mostly from the box set of their singles released in 1999, and if there are any particularly impassioned requests for the rest of it I'd be up to fulfilling them.

Unfortunately I was only born in time to see them touring the portentous Think Tank in 2003. What a fucking jip.

modern life is sadistic water torture

^Or was it this?

Film: Noroi / the Curse (2005)

2009-07-31T06:30:00.014+01:00

There are some exciting uploads on the way for you readers, real and phantom alike. Until then here's an above-average J-horror film I just viddied on the Boobtubes:

Noroi is a healthy mixture of profoundly scary and unintentionally funny, for some reason I can't make up my mind about it, which is either a sign that it's not that good or repeated viewing is required...

One day, maybe, the world will be treated to a horror renaissance on a par with the first time we saw Ringu or the Blair Witch Project; back in those dark, formulaic days of the Hollywood slasher revival. But Noroi isn't it. Still worth watching if you have the chance (i.e. now), it's essentially a hybrid of those two aforementioned classics: a chiller presented as a documentary of real events, incorporating the slow-moving but effective demons 'n' curses template of Japanese horror. True to that form it avoids cheap shots and pummels you with dread (a little too densely at times I thought, something that bothers me about another, much more confusing J-horror standard Ju-On/the Grudge); so when the camera finally gives you a 'money shot' you wet your proverbial pants.

It's an interesting, if relatively minor, deviation from the long worn-out formula of girls with long hair over their faces, creepy psychic children and confusing plots with loose ends.

Things to look out for:
Mr. Hori, the comic relief;
Approximately 7:38 on part 11;
Fetus ghosts

Enjoy!

Klaus Mitffoch - Klaus Mitffoch (1984)

2009-07-29T17:07:00.017+01:00

Lech Jaierka - bass/vocals (went on to a long solo career)
Krzysztof Pociecha - guitar/backing vocals
Wiesław Mrozik - guitar/backing vocals
Marek Puchała - drums/backing vocals

Since I am primarily of Polish descent, a mind-bendingly good Polish album is something I hold very dear. And in case you needed reminding, the flourishing generation of Polish musicians in the wake of punk all created under (and were frequently censored by) the vigilant policing of the Soviet Union, which by this point was losing it's tenuous grip on Eastern Europe. There is a lot of great music from Cold War Europe, which will find it's way on to this blog, but I consider the sole album by Klaus Mitffoch to be one of the best.

Wikipedia cites Klaus Mitffoch as being Poland's answer to Gang of Four, and while the influence is obvious and welcomed it just doesn't do them justice. (And remember this is before a GoF influence constituted the lame-dicked, chart-topping dirge of the media's 'post-punk revivial' in the early Noughties).
Klaus Mittffoch, as the song 'Nie jestem z nikim' states, are not with anyone, and display a quality that Gang of Four and, understandably, most of their Polish peers did not possess - a sense of humour and playfulness. The album might broadly be described as the ultimate collage of new wave/cold wave (the icy synth-led European equivalent) madness with occasional progressive tendencies... well it might and it just has!
Every song is packed with hooks delivered at outta-my-way speed, but just when you think you have them pegged Klaus Mitffoch will rein it in and deliver a glacial classic like some twisted interpretation of Magazine's 'Permafrost', or make an unexpected timechange. But they rarely slow down enough to stop barking profound-sounding slogans that I am shamefully ill-equipped to interpret.

^This is a good example although there are better songs - it starts out very 'Gang', goes coldwave in the chorus then has a funny bridge.

The band don't want you to take them too seriously either, there are some weird near-psychedelic passages and unexpected flourishes that persist in shaking things up. And unlike much 'cold wave', the production never feels like it's indulging it's own sense of hopelessness, in fact the clean and compressed effects are used as tools for Klaus Mitffoch's own nefarious ends, and only serve to shine a light on their playing ability (I'm sure some digging would reveal they were a jazz fusion outfit in the 70's or something).

This new upload originally came from the sterling Proskynesis blog which is a real treasure trove, go visit, and download the 'Fala' compilation if you want to get to the bedrock of Polish post-punk. The strange logic behind this repeat upload is something along the lines of: EVERYBODYMUSTHEARTHISNOW.

Now as the man says, 'have a nice day and go fuck yourself'.

Jestem tu jestem tam / here I am here I am

Januscz x

Los Shakers - La Conferencia Secreta Del Toto's Bar (1968)

2009-07-27T17:14:00.023+01:00

Hugo Fattoruso - guitar/piano/harmonica/vocals
Osvaldo Fattoruso - guitar/vocals
Roberto 'Pelín' Capobianco - bass/backing vocals
Carlos 'Caio' Vila - drums/backing vocals

Do yourself a favour and download this now, and listen while you read. Because this is a good one, a real diamond in the rough that was 60's international beat pop. By this I mean that, regrettably, there were very few non-Western groups of the the era that weren't direct cash-ins on Beatlemania, or the worldwide popularity of the Stones and the Kinks.
Everything was carbon-copied from the 'four-headed monster' template: the haircuts, the songs (normally just making minor alterations to the chord sequences of the latest hit, if not just simply releasing no-frills cover versions), the teen exploitation movies, the 'cheeky' parent-baiting personalities... It doesn't sound too promising so far does it?

Similar to the Japanese 'Group Sounds' wave of commercial pop, South American groups were dragging the early 60's beat template well into the latter part of the decade, long after the fickle trendsetters in the US and UK had moved on. The band being presented here, Los Shakers, played rowdy beat pop and were modelled after the Fab Four, while their 'rivals' Los Mockers were Stones clones. That's not to say there weren't great original songs being produced in the region, or even a few classics albums (that I'm aware of), the most infamous example being Brazil's Os Mutantes. What made that album so great was the reappropriation of epic, psychedelic chamber pop with traditional music styles, making it a Sgt. Pepper's-inspired album that sounds totally Brazilian (this individuality, of course, earned them only the ire of the government).

^ This is Los Shakers' biggest garage-like hit from the 'Invasion' era, and the best example of their lasting legacy in 60's Latin beat... 'La Conferencia' doesn't sound like this, but I love this track as it lives up to their one-dimensional name.

So that's all very well, but in 1967 Los Shakers had also been listening to this Sgt. Pepper's, and like everyone else must have realised that things would never be the same again. This revolution came from the band that was their bread and butter, the very reason for their existence. They had to move on.
By this time the Shakers had made their mark as leaders of the 'Uruguaryan Invasion' (which for some reason was mainly an Argentine phenomenon); and like the Monkees in America, they were a talented band on a commercial leash who were beginning to get itchy feet.
The 1968 loose-concept extravaganza 'La Conferencia Secreta Del Toto's Bar' is the result. This is a ridiculously good high-pop album and a criminally overlooked world contender. Not only is it all the more respectable for incorporating Latin candombe and tango styles into the mix (yet still sung in English), but it's a huge leap from the restrictive beat formula they stuck to previously.
Predictably, the EMI label execs couldn't see past their pay cheques, and dropped Los Shakers for not producing an LP of 3-minute hits. I'm sure if Los Shakers had stuck it out and waited for the Argentinian market to catch up, this might have been better received. Unfortunately it was not to be and this was their last album-proper.

It's all a bit mystifying, especially as to the modern listener every song on 'the Secret Conference of Toto's Bar' is instantly catchy. Sure, the first half of track one has a vocal line that sound uncomfortably like 'I Am the Walrus', but that's where the Beatles-hijacking of old ends.
It may not be startlingly original, it may be sung in broken (but charming and comprehensible) English, and it may also be in the same symphonic ballpark as Sgt. Pepper's and Pet Sounds; but the songs more than speak for themselves and some real classics come to light.
The band is easily as tight as those Other Guys, their harmonies are up their with the Wilson brigade, and their songwriting and composition skills didn't seem to suffer from a career languishing in pastiche. In fact, you'd swear they had been secretly practising for this moment all along...

Una descargar muy especial, incluyendo obras de arte!* @320kbps, remaster with (good) extra tracks
Uno Dos

*disclaimer: I don't speak Spanish. Please correct me.

Set: Iration Steppas Meets Zion Train (UK Dub)

2009-07-26T16:12:00.008+01:00

Iration Steppas Meets Zion Train
Recorded @ Dub Club 29 October 2000, Dingwalls, London
Length 1:09:24

Iration Steppas meets Zion Train.zip

What: great soundsystem clash featuring Leeds' finest Iration Steppas versus Zion Train (London-based but initially formed in my old hometown of Oxford!)

What??: A disorientating blend of dub, dancehall, roots, ragga. Hiss is not bad, but if it bothers you lower the treble, and it goes without saying push the bass.

As it turns out, Zion Train are headlining the value-for-money Endorse-It-In-Dorset festival which takes place in one of the most beautiful country settings in England, if you are local and have never been I strongly suggest checking it out. (That's coming from somebody that abhors festivals with a passion).
Also on the bill are my favourite unsigned pop experimentalists Henry's Phonograph, all their stuff is free to download and they 'get it', apparently.

The Fall - Fall In A Hole (1983)

2009-07-25T20:45:00.011+01:00

^Click to enlarge. Awkard New Zealand 'zine interview

The third live album here, for you trainspotting Fallites. Recorded on the August, 1982 NZ leg in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington respectively. Back when I posted Totale's Turns I claimed that it was the best Fall live album (by definition one of the greatest live albums ever), and 'Fall In A Hole' only narrowly fails to top it. But if TT, with it's dictaphone-in-the-audience, anti-punk recording quality, was too much for you to stomach, then you'll love the comparatively clear fidelity on this.

There's yet another 'best line-up ever' documented here, the almighty double-drumkit powerhouse of repute and myth, playing all the 'hits' from the sonic riot that is the Hex Enduction era. The remaster is excellent, with depth as well as volume to the sound, a whole disc of extra tracks which essentially just turn this into a double album, and I have included scans of the well-worth-reading Sanctuary liner notes.

'Fall In A Hole', which as you are listening might as well be one continuous wet-dream of a Fall set, positively crackles with malevolent garage oomph showcasing the band for what they were and still are 27 years later under Smith's guidance - a great live band. My credentials only extend to one gig at the Oxford Zodiac for the Fall Head Roll tour, but recent footage doesn't disappoint, they still play LOUD.
I imagine one would have been similarly blown away by hearing the Monks in a dank German club in the mid-60's. But listen to this and just bear in mind: this is 1982, this is Culture Club, Bucks Fizz, the rise of 'popular capitalism' and buckets of yuppie wank.
And here were a band commanding your attention with social-surrealist poetry barked over driving, post-industrial, Can-like anti-grooves played at 'ilevin', with all the conviction of a Group completely and utterly Alone. Brilliant.

Pink
Press
Threat (art)

Krautrocksampler by Julian Cope, .pdf scan (1995)

2009-07-24T21:13:00.022+01:00

Quite simply if you've ever read anything about the unfortunately-named and disparate 'Krautrock' movement of German experimental music, you will know how important this tome is. In fact, there's no way I'd be typing this if Julian Cope hadn't written his book, and you probably wouldn't be all-too aware of Can, Faust, Guru Guru, or the rest either... Who can say?
But one thing's for certain - Cope's comprehensive guide to this late 60's/70's 'genre', first published in 1995 and still out-of-print (why, why, WHY?), revived interest in many of the pivotal groups to such an extent that sales were boosted and remasters issued - see the excellent Can albums on SACD (I don't know what they're for either, but they'z gold ).

As you probably know, despite mostly underwhelming sales, various Krautrock bands had an incalculable influence on young musicians the world over, on punk and beyond (Johnny Rotten insisted Tommy Vance play all 20-odd minutes of Can's Halleluwah when guesting on the fucking awful Capital FM), and nobody did more to bring this to the attention of a pre-Wikipedia public than Julian Cope. I didn't have my own computer until 2007, but it was constant mention of this book in music rag reviews and articles on the subject that kept my mouth watering at the prospect of ever actually reading the damned thing, laying eyes on the legendary 'Krautrocksampler Top 50'...
Essentially, it lives up to all the hype.
You are getting here, from the (sort of) printed word, what you can't get in bite-sized chunks from online encyclopedias: reams of detail in the accounts, the Druid's passion for the subject and what must have been many years worth of painstaking research. Not only that, but Julian Cope is beyond fantastic as a writer, and his enthusiasm comes across so fluently in his verbose rants and masterful anecdotes you will finish up convinced he is a genius.
Check out the sublime Head Heritage site to see of what I speak.

One glance at the listening figures on Last.fm will show you that Krautrock is not only common property in the 21st century - it's actually popular ! And how could that possibly be a bad thing?

Here in two parts in .pdf form (you'll need this to read it), it's a bit harsh on the eyes trying to read a book from the monitor so be kind to them; unfortunately it's the best you'll get without forking out or learning German:

***Get sauer***
The credit for this is obviously not mine, I came across it many moons ago in a thread on the best general music forum there is, musicbanter.com. It seems to have been floating around on torrents for a while.

It's just as well Jules' solo career since the Teardrops has been extremely patchy, because he's excelled in all non-musical endeavours. Here's a fascinating, and periodically chuckle-worthy, televised version of his other highly-acclaimed scholarly work, 'the Modern Antiquarian':

Art: Stephany Yepes Lozano (de Colombia)

2009-07-24T13:57:00.007+01:00

A most intriguing artist/designer based in Bogota, with aspirations to relocate to Berlin. She works in ink and watercolours and there are some real beauties on the Flickr. Some great collage work, portraits and what (I think) is some nifty pattern design.
If you are particularly taken, leave a comment! (I'm sure she would appreciate).

Ms. Lozano also kindly supplies you with one wonderful thing per day via Tumblr.

V/A - Sub Pop 200 (1988)

2009-07-23T12:27:00.019+01:00

^ Monkey? Back? Geddit?

Apparently in the 80's some American people started a label as a launch pad for this thing called 'grunge' that sounds a bit like punk and a bit like metal, whilst not quite settling for either. I never understood all the hoo-hah myself... I lie of course, early grunge is a wondrous, marvellous thing, second only to a testosterone drip.

Sub Pop 200 is the second label sampler from, er, Sub Pop. Still one of the most successful independents to this day (one might argue that's down to major-label distribution deals but this is beside the point), the music may have broadened out a bit and calmed down for the most part, but there are still some great bands on their roster, the Flipper-meets-Jesus Lizard antics of Pissed Jeans being a favourite.
Here's the list.

This compilation though, is a five-star snapshot of the times, capturing the nascent Seattle grunge scene when it was still a homegrown explosion of scuzzy distortion, tattered jeans and plaid. No international unit-shifters here in 1988, no copycat, watered-down nonsense, and a fair few surprises.

^ Great fat blokes in rock & roll - how many can you name?

For the most part you get hot and heavy, revved-up, slowed-down hardcore mixed with 70's hard rock theatrics; but look out for an acid-munching wall of FX from Screaming Trees, lo-fi college radio stalwarts Beat Happening with easily their least annoying song (a Suicide-esque dirge), the tedious spoken word of Steven J. Bernstein and the de-tuned home recording of the Thrown Ups (great track).
The best thing about Sub Pop 200 though is not just the quality of the obscure bands, but also the total absence of sheen that would characterize the later albums of the more successful groups, bar the obvious exceptions. I guess in 1988 they were still young, filthy and hungry... that's certainly how it sounds.
Oh, and almost all of these songs are exclusive to the compilation. Whatever happened to the fine tradition of the label sampler? Cracking semi-relevant article here.

So, Sub Pop 200 - yet another reason to thank our lucky stars that Black Flag decided to grow their hair...?

Fat
Corporate
Cigar
@320 + art

Skip James - Complete Recorded Works (1931)

2009-07-22T13:34:00.024+01:00

Taken from my dodgy scan of the liner notes:

''Nehemiah Skip James was born in 1902, and raised on the Woodbine Plantation near Bentonia, Mississippi. He became interested in music around 1909, after hearing Green McCloud playing Drunken Spree on the fiddle, backed by guitarists Henry Stuckey and Rich Griffith.
After World War 1, Stuckey and James, together with Jack Owens, developed the Bentonia style. In France, Stuckey had learned an open E minor tuning from some black soldiers (who he believed were Bahamians), and this tuning, picked with three fingers in complex patterns, became the basis of the guitar pieces Skip was to record in 1931. Only Drunken Spree, pattern picked in A, and Special Rider Blues, in open G, are exceptions, and for all its charm, there is a great gulf between Drunken Spree, basically a vocal tune plus accompaniment, and the tightly knit pieces, for voice and guitar are equal expressive partners, that James composed in the new style. In the early 20's, he took up a hobo's life, meeting a whorehouse piano player named Will Crabtree in Arkansas, learning a good deal of piano technique from him. In 1931, James auditioned for H.C. Speir, Paramount's Mississippi talent scout, and was despatched to Grafton, Wisconsin on a two year contract which he hoped would eventually free him from manual work. (Paramount shortly went broke during the Depression, and Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues, composed at the session, became personal as well as topical).

Seldom can there be seen a more impressive start to a recording career than Devil Got My Woman, a seamless pattern of counter-tenor voice and eerie, hollow guitar, each taking up and embellishing the other, to form perhaps the single most poignant blues about failed relationships between men and women.
On Devil, as on most of his songs, James achieved an unrivalled unity between the content of the words and the sounds of the music to which they are set. The generally dour, pessimistic mood was at one with James' own misanthropic philosophy; even the spirituals don't seem very consolatory, and the blues seem intended rather to display and justify James' anger and sorrow than to provide a purgation of them. His guitar playing, always remarkable, reaches a summit of musicianship on I'm So Glad, a lyrically insignificant song used as the basis for a display of sensationally fast and accurate fingerpicking; his thumbwork on the bass strings is especially noteworthy.''

^ I chose this as it will probably be his most familiar tune today, ever since it's
appearance on a certain Coen brothers film, the popular soundtrack to which
revived public interest in bluegrass .

''Just as sensational and even more individual, is James' piano playing which is like no other on record. Staccato and percussive, it functions, like his guitar work, as a response to and elaboration of his vocal lines. Sometimes he contributes additional percussion by stomping on a board placed in front of the piano; the frequent independence of this rhythm from that laid down on the keys will repay attention, and is another indication of James' mastery, alike of musical ideas and their execution. 22-20 Blues, made up in the studio, contains one of the most remarkable piano breaks in blues, with spectacular glissandi, and his transformation of Leroy Carr's How Long How Long into a manic buckdance is almost as extraordinary.

It's not surprising that a musician as individual as Skip James had little stylistic influence on others. Robert Johnson increased the 22-20s calibre to 32-20, and Johnny Temple and Joe McCoy also made covers of songs by him; but their versions owe little to the originals beyond the words. Skip James was simply too much of an individual, too much of a genius, to be easily copied. Relocated in the 60's after years of preaching, strip mining and farmwork, he made a short comeback, dying in 1969. He still retained much of his talent, and all of his suspicion, both of the rest of mankind and of what he called the 'music racket'; but he never equalled the astonishing performances he had recorded in 1931.''

Chris Smith, 1990

Hard
Cheddar

Skip James - Vcls, guitar, piano, foot-tapping
All songs by James, except Hard-Luck Child by unknown

Nostalgics 01

2009-07-21T23:40:00.010+01:00

Now and again 1979's 'Metal Box' resurfaces from the murky depths of a Mariana trench that is permanently etched into my psyche. It was always an obsession but I don't think this trench was dug until the day I played the album on a pair of hand-me-down standing speakers, a bargain from my flatmate, and first cautiously turned up the bass dial on the amplifier. It was the same dial that brought roots and dub to life via the Trojan Dub Box and Super Ape.

This is all the more significant since honourary rasta John Lydon met many of the artists on those records himself on his infamous trip to Jamaica, before returning to record the first two PiL albums. I have a recollection of an anecdote from the Lydon autobiography, essentially recounting how he and the great Don Letts went to an authentic soundsystem dance in a rough part of Kingston. Within a few tokes of powerful Jamaican skunk these Eastenders were unaccustomed to, they fell unconscious under a palm tree, carried on the sub-bass. They awoke to find the performers, the crowd and all the equipment gone! For some reason it's a powerful and soothing image, whenever I recall it it's as if I were there myself...

It's 'Metal Box' though that takes the dub template to new spaces and fuses it with experimental German rhythms, among other things. I will post it someday, hopefully when it is remastered, because in many ways it's my favourite record. 'Poptones' is about a kidnapping/murder, I am guessing.

Drive to the forest in a Japanese car
The smell of rubber on country tar
Hindsight does me no good
Standing naked in this back of the woods
The cassette played Poptones
Can't forget the impression you made
Left a hole in the back of my head
I don't like hiding in this foliage and peat
It's wet and I'm losing my body heat
The cassette played poptones.
Miss bleeding heart
Looking for bodies
Nearly injured my pride
Praise picnicking in the British countryside.

Yoko Ono - Fly (1971)

2009-07-21T15:44:00.020+01:00

^Screenshot from the Fly short

The second album by Yoko Ono. Her first was 'Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band' with the fluctuating supergroup that included John Lennon, and at variously Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Phil Spector, etc. It was a companion piece to what is considered Lennon's most accomplished solo album 'John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band'.

'Fly' is definitely up there with the debut, a record that is variously avant-garde and jam-oriented - groovy even - but always experimental in it's approach. For the most part it sounds like nothing else from the period, the only music that came close was the budding 'krautrock' scene, and this was unfortunately lacking in Ono's kabuki-theatre wailing (which is like Marmite, except if you don't appreciate the spectrum of it's abrasive/beautiful range then you're a dick).

Unlike 'Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band', which was at times loud and fast and today is still hailed as proto-punk, 'Fly' is more spaced-out, much longer and more of an all-round Fluxus (the Japanese Dada-inspired art collective Yoko represented) statement.
Not only was the gatefold sleeve stuffed with sublime frames from the 'Fly' art film and instructions for performance taken from Yoko's 'Grapefruit' book; tracks were culled from various installation pieces (Telephone Piece, Toilet Piece, Airmale is the soundtrack to Lennon's 'Erection' film). On record you will also hear the use of mysterious, specialist 'instruments' custom-built by Joe Jones, a Fluxus artist whose idea it was to evoke emotions yet to be illuminated by sound vibrations.

^ From Grapefruit, to be performed by the reader. Ono's background in conceptual and performance art is all but evident on 'Fly'

Also, if you're a Beatles fan it's interesting to hear the rhythm section of Klaus Voorman (the man responsible for several iconic Beatles record covers) and Ringo thrashing out weird jams with Clapton and Lennon atonally banging away in the background. It feels like they have all been infected with the Yoko virus, and the results are electric.

So this is a must-have, as everybody from Sonic Youth to David Bowie would testify (if that's the kind of convincing you need). Lennon and Yoko's later musical collaborations would get a lot more direct and conventional, the feminist themes a lot less oblique; and in the singularly idiotic 'Yoko Vs. Beatles' debate these great records and Ono's light-hearted and accessible take on the avant-garde have all too often been forgotten. For shame, as you will hear.

This upload is at 320, and it's one of the recent Rykodisc remasters with two bonus tracks and artwork included. Needless to say, if you really, really like it go out and buy the CD - the packaging of the reissue is special.

Ichi
Ni
San