Gamingforce Music Exposure Club™

All right, I got a couple albums for you, but I'm gonna do things a little different, since they were recorded and self-produced by the brother of a close friend of mine. Don't worry - these are truly studio-quality, they're up for sale on iTunes in fact, and I can honestly say I would be extremely impressed with this music and enjoy it as much as I do, even if I didn't know who he was. In fact, I don't know the guy personally, I only know his younger sisters and brother, but I'm trying to support him as much as possible right now since he is an independent artist, so instead of putting up the whole album for download, I'll give links to a couple of tracks from each album that you can download from his website as well. That way you get a feel for the music, and can decide if it's worth spending ten or twenty bucks in iTunes for. (It is.) Just listen to the first track "Undone" and I can almost guarantee you'll be sold. I suppose this could come off as advertising, but I really feel this music is truly worthwhile and truly something people here would enjoy being exposed to.

Dave Tate
Genre: Folk

Home Is In the Stars
Released: August 29th, 2006

1. Undone
2. The Beauty of You
3. Everone
4. Alchemy
5. I'm a Stone
6. Trust your Nature
7. Heat in the Noble Soul
8. Cool Blue River
9. You Move Me
10. Rocks and Shoals
11. Forever Burn
12. Moonchild

CD Baby Review:

Spoiler:

Quote:

Dave Tate is an active composer and performer. His music blends innovative modern styles with folk songwriting. Dave Tate's music appeals to a wide audience, though most popular among the college to middle age crowd. His songwriting is progressive and innovative and yet contains solid songwriting elements. Tates versatile vocals are one of his greatest strengths. From intimate songs sung with soft sentimental utterances, to his powerful, soaring tenor voice, he moves audiences with his stark dynamics and emotional investment in the music. His progressive guitar playing and soulful voice are integrally woven using abstract chord combinations to support unique, hauntingly beautiful melodic lines. Performances can contain both strange outbursts of off the wall humor, between songs, to deep soul felt insights in his music.


Dave Tate on "Home is in the Stars"

Home is in the Stars, is my second self-produced solo album, is a collection of high energy, driving rhythmic songs and sultry introspective ballads. Recorded near Zion National Park in the summer of 2006 this album reflects a period of great change and transition for me. It represents a union of the darks and light aspects of my experience through music. Songs for me are a way of conversing with myself, of honoring emotion and by doing so stilling the mind. Although very personal in inspiration I write in a way that I feel reaches beyond circumstance and reaches into the gift of the moment of experience. So that being said... Home is in the Stars.

The title comes from song "Everone" to me it represents the feeling that we all come from pure potential and return to pure potential. That is the feeling I get when loosing myself in the night sky. Sleeping under the stars in Zion it's
easy to feel that potential. On one scale "Home is in the Stars" is about me realizing my own potential in music. Taking my true gifts and honoring them. I.E. persuing my own carrer in music with added intensity and intention. Many of the songs are reflections of this inner journey. It is my intent that all of my music inspires people to turn in and find that they are thier own guide, and trust themselves. That is also the message I hope to further learn by sharing it. We are truly creatures of creation and reception. If "The Solitude of Here" represents the feminine receptive side of me, "Home is in the Stars" represents the creative masculine side. It has been a great experience to wittness my own life unfolding and this beauty coming through me. I am looking forward to sharing it with you. Peace,
Dave

The Solitude of Here
Released: January 30th, 2006

1. Evensong
2. Left a Mark
3. Maria
4. The Faucon
5. Light was Low
6. Harmony
7. Rose
8. Like Water
9. In to Mercy
10. The Solitude of Here
11. Surely

Folk Forum review:

Spoiler:

Quote:

Every now and again you may find that words are inadequate to describe the beauty of a CD, which makes, to use a paraphrase of one of Frank Zappas quotations, writing about music as awkward as dancing about architecture. Nevertheless Ill make an attempt to do so.

You rarely come across a CD of such exquisite quality that you are entirely enthralled by it. A CD which is always close to your sound system so you can play it daily. A CD which keeps you awake because you cant seem to get some of its passages out of your head and which, when played in company, will immediately stop all conversation and make people ask you about its artist and title. In short, a CD which will make your heart beat faster and which will dominate your musical life for a longer period of time.

The brilliant singer/songwriter who made such a CD is Dave Tate. My attention was drawn to his CD, The Solitude of Here, by a review in Heaven magazine, in which he was given high praise, which still seems like an understatement after youve heard the album. The Solitude of Here makes you feel nostalgic because it takes you back to the time of the great singer/songwriters. In some songs, such as No Mercy or Rose, Tate sounds somewhat like a young Paul Simon, while comparisons of his voice to those of David Gates and Don McLean are obvious when he sings in a high pitched voice. In addition to that, The Solitude of Here, has the introspective, intimate quality of a Nick Drake CD.

All of these musicians have made important contributions to music in the past and I am much mistaken if Dave Tates name wont be added to this list, in time. Still he is not an epigone of the examples I mentioned above. This is due to Dave Tates talent to revive old times without wanting to sound or sounding old fashioned. Dave Tates themes are universal but his approach is anything but that. This can already be heard in the opening track, Evensong. After youve just recovered from hearing Tates marvellous voice and virtuoso guitar-playing, a bassoon joins in to give the track an additional emotional overtone. You know youve come across something special from that moment on. The next track, Left a Mark, is a breathtakingly beautiful composition which is a perfect synthesis between vocals/guitar music and chamber music. The trio of classically trained musicians, consisting of Anne Marshall (violin), Ryan Kratsch (cello) and Joe Jones (bassoon), ads depth and dynamics to several tracks through subtle contributions. The vocal climax in Harmony, which in itself is no small feat, is intensified by superb string music by Marshall and Kratsch and in Light was Low the polyphonic cello and violin music pull right at your heartstrings.

But the elements which make this album into a true listening experience are Dave Tates voice and guitar playing. This can be heard in songs such as Lets be Lovers, The Faucon or Rose. All songs are sung, or to put it more aptly, experienced by Tate with great intensity, which makes them get under my skin permanently. The tracks on this CD are characterised by vulnerable poignancy instead of cheap sentiment or melodrama.

Dave Tate has released this album on his own, dubbing and mastering it himself. The recordings are either unbelievably clear, or theyve been made in an exceptionally good recording studio. Its hard to believe but this CD isnt distributed and can only be bought on the Internet at www.cdbaby.com, where you can also listen to fragments of the album. This CD deserves to be better distributed; it should be available at every record shop. This masterpiece is worthy of a place in the singer/ songwriter Hall of Fame. I discovered that The Solitude of Here is not a nine days wonder when I got hold of Tates second album True Sound, on which he validates his exceptional talent.

Rating: 9.5 (out of 10)

Give it a listen, at the least. You won't be disappointed.

Ciao.

Té - If That Is What Is Being Thought, Liberated Sound Talks the Depth of [Musical] World.
Label:
Year: 2006
Genre: Post-rock


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It Must Be Called "Intelligence" If People Stop When They Realize They Are Not Able to Become What They Are Wishing to Be.
2 A Thought Would Never Let People "Watch" What They Choose. Instead, It Let Them See What They Hope to See.
3 Anxiety Is Not About The Issue. It Is Actually About People's "Mind" Related to the Issue That They Are Afraid Of.
4 Avarice Would Speak With Every Word, It "Acts" Every Part And It Even Pretends to Be Not Avaricious.
5 A Real "Imitation" Is the Imitation That Let People See Ridiculousness of Boring Original One.
6 It Is Supposed to Be "Ordinary" That Imagination Moves Much Faster And More Freely Than Bright Light in the Darkness.
7 "Existence" of Eloquence Is Only in a Look Of People's Face That Remain Silence, And It Even Beats Any Kind Of Words.
8 Anger Kills All the Idiots, And Envy Would Torture Foolish People And All the "Instants" Being Involved.
9 We Promise With a View to Hope, But the Reason to "Accomplish" What We Promised Would Be Fear.
10 A Reality That People Are Living in This World Is a Lot "More" Complicated Than Fantasy-Land That They Imagine.

There are two American bonus tracks, but I don't have them, and I apologize.

First things first, this is a wonderful album. Reminds me of Ghosts And Vodka, only a lot better. I say that because it's got more of the Indie Rock feel to it, albeit it's instrumental. Post-Rock it is, but it's got a different feel to it than most would think. It's a mesmerizing piece of music fueled by delay pedals and straight up crunching riffs. The beats of the songs gives most of the album a dance-like feel to it. The drums keep a great tempo that soars the foursome all through the album. If I ever feel the need to go to a club, I'll ask the D.J. to spin this hot thing and get down and bust a move. If you add up all the song titles, it'll makes up a paragraph. Here's one for you "Anxiety Is Not About The Issue. It Is Actually About People's "Mind" Related To The Issue That They Are Afraid Of." Yeah, there's 11 more like that, also. Humorous for sure, but the music stands for itself. It hit me like a tidal wave of pure post-rock bliss.
-somebody you've never heard of.

Cheers.

Lovage - 2001 - Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By

An extremely artsy take on love and sex. And with a cover directly referencing Serge Gainsbourg’s second LP from 1959; Lovage is the super-group of Dan The Automator, Mike Patton, and Jennifer Charles--and right there should be reason enough for you to listen to this artful masterpiece.

Listen

Ciao.

Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material
Label: Restless Records
Year: 1979
Genre: Punk



DOWNLOAD LINK

1. Suspect Device
2. State Of Emergency
3. Here We Are Nowhere
4. Wasted Life
5. No More Of That
6. Barbed Wire Love
7. White Noise
8. Breakout
9. Law And Order
10. Rough Trade
11. Johnny Was
12. Alternative Ulster
13. Closed Groove
14. Suspect Device (Single Version)



Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody's Heroes
Label: Restless Records
Year: 1980
Genre: Punk



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1. Gotta Gettaway
2. Wait & See
3. Fly The Flag
4. At The Edge
5. Nobody's Hero
6. Bloody Dub
7. Doesn't Make It All Right
8. I Don't Like You
9. No Change
10. Tin Soldiers
11. Bloody Sunday
12. Straw Dogs
13. You Can't Say Crap On The Radio
14. Jake Burns Interview By Alan Parker, Part 2

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Historically, music has been an expressive medium used to speak up against oppression, war and injustice. Political in nature, the messages were all the same...freedom and justice for all. A unified dissatisfaction and frustration against the powers that invoked brutality to keep the masses at bay. The slaves had their spirituals, the colonial Americans had their patriotic songs, the folk movement and the hippies of the 60's sang about the atrocities of Vietnam, civil rights and revolution.

In the 70's this tradition continued...punk rock, although primitive and raw in sound was anything but...it was the collective anger and hopelessness of Britain's youth expressed in no uncertain terms. The Damned, Sex Pistols, Generation X, The Jam and The Clash openly criticized its government and its hierarchy.

England's youth weren't the only ones who had a beef with the pompous savages...Ireland was occupied by British troops and civil war was a horrendous reality. From Belfast, "Stiff Little Fingers" used music to express their outrage and disgust. Freedom and unity was an unreachable dream for all of Ireland...and "Stiff Little Fingers" protested with a fervor and urgency that screamed "Brits Out Of Ireland"!

Their first album "Inflammable Material" is just that...explosive, angry and passionate. Their fast, propulsive political rantings and intense convictions is like a loaded gun pressed to the Queen's forehead. Jake Burns' harsh, screaming distressed vocals ring out a truth that is filled with urgency and a stinging venom. His guitar work is powerful and filled with a scorching fire. Ali McMordie's bass is furious, fast and intense. He provides some nice melodic moments and precise bass runs with a high ended trebly sound. Brian Faloon's drumming is hard, fast and heavy hitting. Henry Cluney's ferocious power chord attacks sound as angry as he is. As a total unit, the Fingers are dangerous, dedicated and on a fucking warpath.

Stiff Little Fingers are a punk band, originally based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, formed in 1977. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star, doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They split up after six years, and four albums, although they subsequently reformed five years later, in 1987. Despite massive personnel changes, they are still touring and recording as of 2006. Jake Burns, their lead singer, is the only member to have been with the band during all its incarnations, although in March 2006, original bass guitarist Ali McMordie rejoined them following the departure of Bruce Foxton after fifteen years.

Prior to becoming Stiff Little Fingers, Jake Burns, Vocals and Guitar, Henry Cluney, Guitar, Gordon Blair, Bass, and Brian Falloon, Drums, were playing in a cover band, Highway Star, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Upon the departure of Gordon Blair (who went on to play with another Belfast group, Rudi), Ali McMordie took over the duties on Bass. Henry had by this time discovered punk, and introduced the rest of the band to it. They decided that Highway Star wasn't a punky enough name, and after a brief flirtation with the name The Fast, decided to call themselves Stiff Little Fingers, Jake taking the name from a Vibrators track.

In the autumn of 1978, they toured with the Tom Robinson Band, and in 1979, they released their first album, Inflammable Material. This inspired their move to London, which in turn led to the departure of Brian Falloon, and Colin McClelland (who along with Gordon Ogilvie had been joint manager of the band up until that point).

Jim Reilly was installed on the drum stool in time to make his debut on the "Gotta Gettaway" single, and play in that spring's Rock Against Racism tour.

These guys are one of my favorite acts ever to grace the punk scene and I highly recommend them; even above The Clash.

Cheers.

Well, this' my first contribution to the music exposure club, so, I hope ya'll enjoy it.

Buckethead - Crime Slunk Scene


Mini-review:
This' the first tour cd of Buckethead's that I've managed to pick up, as most tour cd's I've ever bought seemed to be just throw aways and b-sides not good enough to release on a national record, I was a little skeptical. That being said, this' absolutely the best Buckethead album I've ever heard. If you're a fan of virtuoso guitarists, or just out there music, this album is a damned good listen.

Tracklisting:
01. King James
02. Gory Head Stump 2006 The Pageant
03. The Fairy and the Devil
04. Buddy Berkman's Ballad
05. Mad Monster Party
06. Soothsayer (Dedicated to Aunt Suzie)
07. Col. Austin Vs. Col. Sanders AKA Red Track Suit
08. We Can Rebuil Them
09. Electronic Slight of Hand
10. Mecha Gigan
11. Slunk Parada AKA Freaks In The Black

Link to a much better and indepth review

Download Link

Ciao.

Black Eyes - Black Eyes
Year: 2003
Label: Dischord Records
Genre: Noise Rock



1. Someone Has His Fingers Broken (4:30)
2. A Pack of Wolves (2:02)
3. Yes, I Confess (4:09)
4. On the Sacred Side (1:58)
5. Nine (3:04)
6. Speaking in Tongues (3:10)
7. Deformative (2:27)
8. King's Dominion (2:26)
9. Day Turns Night (4:54)
10. Letter to Raoul Peck (2:57)

Really enjoyable stuff from this 5-piece that consists of 2 drummers, 2 bassists and a guitarist, all of whom do vocals. Not totally devoid of catchiness and accessible hooks/grooves, but of course that all depends on the listener. Track 1 is probably my favourite track on here.

AMG Review:
Black Eyes self-titled debut displays a band with a hold on the experimental side of D.C. punk -- a path paved by Fugazi and, particularly in this case, Q and Not U. This five-piece band takes dub, bass-driven grooves, and kooky vocals of the Liars and Q and Not U's off-kilter dance punk and plays them grittier, from the violent narrative of "Someone Has His Fingers Broken" to the oblique sexual politics of "A Pack of Wolves." But Black Keys, despite an unstoppable cacophony on insane songs like the Queen-on-caffeine "King's Dominion" and the spazzy "Day Turns to Night," never really have the terse drive of Fugazi or the accessible hooks of Q and Not U. This album will have to remain the mark of a band's crazy potential and perhaps a warning siren of what is to come.

Download

Cheers.

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission
Year: 2000
Genre: (Dark) Jazz
Label: Wonder



1. Prowler
2. On Demon Wings
3. Midnight Walker
4. Street Tattoo
5. Pain-Less Steel Angels
6. Darkstalker
7. Nightwolf
8. Black City Skyline
9. Dead End Angels

Bohren & Der Club of Gore started as a freaky mix of ambient, metal, and jazz. Fortunately, we have here the eventual result, a more focused if less ambitious album.

Dark jazz. What is that, really? Well, if you've ever wanted ambiance to go along with the hazy smoke curling from your mouth, or if you've ever thought that the feeling of driving through a metropolitan area and seeing hookers, graffiti, and underpasses wreathed in shadow needed a soundtrack, look no further. Lonely saxophone and lazy drum hits are surrounded by ambient keyboard jazz, making you feel like you might melt into a puddle in your chair at any minute.

After a while, you just might want to. Part of the problem is that the formula eventually gets old, and the listener can only take so much subdued, oily-black ambiance before it blends together. For first-time listeners and lovers of music that works better in the background, there's a lot to like here, though.

You can almost taste the street grime.

Ciao.

The Wipers Box Set
Year: 2001
Genre: Punk
Label: Zeno Records



Tracks

Is This Real
1. Return of the Rat
2. Mystery
3. Up Front
4. Let's Go Away
5. Is This Real?
6. Tragedy
7. D-7
8. Potential Suicide
9. Don't Know What I Am
10. Window Shop for Love
11. Wait a Minute
12. Born With a Curse
13. Rebel With a Cause
14. Misfit
15. Mystery
16. Tragedy
17. Let's Go Away
18. Is This Real?
19. Alien Boy
20. Image of Man
21. Telepathic Love
22. Voices in the Rain

Youth of America
23. No Fair
24. Youth of America
25. Taking Too Long
26. Can This Be
27. Pushing the Extreme
28. When It's Over
29. Scared Stiff
30. Pushing the Extreme
31. No Fair
32. When It's Over
33. Youth of America

Over the Edge
34. Over the Edge
35. Doom Town
36. So Young
37. Messenger
38. Romeo
39. Now Is the Time
40. What Is
41. No One Wants an Alien
42. The Lonely One
43. No Generation Gap
44. This Time
45. Mistaken Id
46. No Solution
47. Doom Town
48. The Lonely One
49. Now Is the Time
50. Romeo
51. Our Past Life

I'm not especially good at this. I'm also lazy, and an online reviewer has already said it a lot better than I could have (http://www.guypetersreviews.com/wipers.php). The Wipers aren't especially well-known, except for really die-hard Nirvana fans (Nirvana covered a few Wipers songs). I don't know much about music theory, but the Wipers' guitar work is incredible and very distinctive. And if you want the good stuff quickly, play When It's Over (in Youth of America). It's a six minute (mostly) instrumental piece that is just amazing.

The only strike against the Wipers is consistency. They can have epic, incredible songs like "When It's Over," but some other songs aren't nearly as memorable.

DOWNLOAD LINK

Cheers.

Better than the Beatles: A Tribute to The Shaggs
Released: 2001
Label: Animal World
Genre: Varied Shaggs covers.



Tracklist:

01. Ida - Philosophy of the World
02. Optiganally Yours - You're Something Special to Me
03. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Who Are Parents
04. Mongrell - My Cutie
05. Bauer - We Have a Savior
06. Joost Visser - It's Halloween
07. Deerhoof - My Pal Foot Foot
08. R. Stevie Moore & The Olsiewicz-Chusid Ensemble - My Companion
09. Plastic Mastery - Shaggs' Own Thing
10. Slot Racer - Painful Memories/Wheels
11. Danielson Famile - Who Are Parents
12. Furtips - You're Something Special to Me
13. The Double U - Philosophy of the World

Review:

Well, yeah. It's a tribute album, so it's kinda uneven, but it's the Shaggs. Of note are both covers of Who Are Parents, with Thinking Fellers Union Local 282's version being rather . . . creepy, and Danielson Famile's being utterly cute and neat and fun. Oh, and Deerhoof's entry is, surprise of surprises, a little off.

Some of the other tracks are from the Shaggs' other album, Shaggs' Own Thing, but the majority are from the previously uploaded Philosophy of the World. But yeah. It's still fun.

"The Shaggs. Better than the Beatles - even today." - Frank Zappa, who named Philosophy of the World his 3rd favorite album of all time in Playboy

Ciao.

Composed, arranged and recorded by Paul Giovanni and Magnet, the soundtrack contains folk songs performed by characters in the film (including some by members of the cast). For example, Lesley Mackie, who plays the character of Daisy in the film, sings the opening song, and various others in the CD Soundtrack. The songs were arranged in such a way as to hint at a pre-Christian pagan European culture and vary between traditional songs, original Giovanni compositions and even nursery rhyme in "Baa, Baa Black Sheep". This mix of songs contributes to the film's atmosphere, contrasting rabble-rousing songs that depict the island's community like "The Landlord's Daughter" and the child-sung "Maypole" with the sinister "Fire Leap" and the erotic "Willow's Song" before culminating in the islanders' chilling rendition of the profane Middle English "Summer Is Icumen In".
The opening music and "Corn Rigs" are arrangements of the Robert Burns ballads "The Highland Widow's Lament" and "Rigs O' Barley'", respectively. The instrumental parts of the score are based on traditional English, Scottish, and Irish tunes such as "Miri it is", the strathspey "Robertson's Rant" jig, and "Drowsy Maggie" reel. "Chop Chop" is based on the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". "Procession" is an instrumental arrangement of the Child Ballad "Willie o Winsbury".
The soundtrack is a recording cited by many as a major influence on neofolk, psych-folk, and even the recent New Weird America movements. Some of the songs have been covered by contemporary artists, such as Doves and Sneaker Pimps.
The soundtrack was unavailable until a 1998 release on Trunk Records of a mono album dubbed from the shorter original cut of the film (hence missing the song "Gently Johnny"). This was due to disappearance of master tapes (long thought buried under the British M3 Motorway and it was not until 2002 that Silva Screen Records released a stereo version taken from the original master tapes that included the songs missing from the first release.)

This is the Silva release.

Get It

Cheers.

Two albums contained within, one is a double album.
NOTE: One of the tracks is missing from the self-titled. Just click on the link in the tracklist to get it.
Shalabi Effect - Shalabi Effect
Label: Alien8 Recordings
Year: 2000
Genre: Arabic-influenced Post-rock


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1. Wyoming
2. Vicious Triangle
3. Mending Holes In A Wooden Heart
4. Aural Florida (Approach)
5. Aural Florida
6. Mokoondi
7. Amber Pets
8. Boardwalk at Apollo Beach
9. Apparitions
10. On The Bowery
11. Leaving A Horse To Die
12. Return to Wake Island
13. ﺍﻠﻮﺮﺪﺓ ﺍﻠﺑﻴﻀﺎﺀ. (White Rose)

Shalabi Effect is a massive debut album ; 131 minutes to be exact , which goes somewhere to explain the cover imagery - huge views taken from the National Space Science Data Center. The music is absolutely stunning. It wanders around your head almost at will - the Birmingham Metro (a Canadian newspaper) calls it "the musical equivalent of a lava lamp" , which is surprisingly apt as it does have a fluid , improvised feel to it. At times , it is influenced by cultures from the Middle East and Indian subcontinent , other times it sounds almost industrial and computerised , but never does it sound boring. Listened to through headphones , it is amazingly intense , dramatic and all-encompassing , yet it is interesting enough to have playing quietly in the background while doing something else.
I was once in a chatroom talking about music ... well , arguing actually. Someone had just said that there had been no decent music since Hendrix , and I bit back , making reference to Montreal in general and Constellation in particular. The guy asked for details , and I started blabbering on about Godspeed You Black Emperor!. He then mentioned something about Anglo-Arab fusion in the music . I replied that I wasn't aware of any Middle Eastern influence to Constellation , at which point he says to the room that I was full of shit and didn't know what I was talking about. Well , now that I own this album , I see where he was coming from. Just a shame we were talking about different bands and record labels.

Sam Shalabi apparently 'cut his musical teeth' by playing as a guest or session musician on many albums before this finally saw the light of day. He has been involved with Molasses Evan Parker and Detention as well as many of the Constellation bands , and is probably one of the busiest musicians in Montreal.

I've realised that trying to review an album like this one is very difficult. I think my best bet is encourage anyone who likes their music 'free-form' (but not chaotic) with a blend of modern and ancient & Eastern and Western styles to give this a whirl.

Shalabi Effect - The Trial of St. Orange
Label: Alien8 Recordings
Year: 2002
Genre: Arabic-influenced Post-rock


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1. Sundog Ash
2. St. Orange
3. Mr. Titz (The Revelator)
4. One Last Glare
5. Sister Sleep
6. Uma
7. A Glow In The Dark

This sophomore effort by Sam Shalabi's solo project -- with fellow fringe-dwellers Anthony Seck, Alexandre St. Onge, and Will Eizlini (with Bryan Highbloom returning on Tibetan bowl on one track) -- moves to the edges of where the band's self-titled debut left off. Over the course of six tracks that come in at a little under and hour, Shalabi Effect delves deep into the sonic palette for sounds that will fit into textural psychedelic studies. The use of bird songs, running water, and wind has all been done before, but not quite like this. When combined with altered guitar and keyboard elements whose frequencies have been irrevocably changed into both sub- and supra-lingual soundscapes and are woven into a deeply Middle Eastern-influenced tapestry of dimension and texture, the result is a roadmap into the very heart of psychedelia. Unlike the Holy River Family Band, the Shalabi's don't worry as much about staying "musical"; they allow the dictates of the composition to take them where they need to go. Where that is is fascinating -- disturbing at times, mind-expanding in the alteration of time and space, and outrageously innovative. Who would have thought that one could use a heavy metal riff on an oud, shoot it through with electronic game sounds, layer on some deeply organic hand percussion and electronic breakbeats, and have it all running out of the speakers like clear water? While the last record had various tracks to single out over two discs, this one just begins with "Sundog Ash" and extrapolates, breathes, adapts, and mutates over the next five before it closes with a bang more than a whisper. This is truly groundbreaking work; this band shows mores surprise and restraint on this set, and as a result will have listeners finding new things to hear after dozens of listens.

Ciao.

Pekka Pohjola - B the Magpie (1973)


In the 70ies, one of my uncles was working in a small Parisian record shop. There were quite a few oddities he brought back from there and which remained as unusual classics for my family, and this is one of those. Pekka Pohjola is, to quote Wikipedia, "an influential Finnish bass player, composer and band leader whose music could be categorized as progressive". I've never been good for categorizing music, myself, so you'll have to do with that.
This album is one of those numerous 70ies conceptual ones. It features unusually catchy yet deep melodies that I would describe as a mix of jazz and folk influenced by the neoclassical 70ies touch. Entirely instrumental like every Pohjola's solo works, the album is a true musical journey that I have been experiencing since childhood. Hope it will have impact on some of you as well. =)

>> Download <<

Perunwit - W Kregu Debow (1997)


This is one of those non-Metal bands that still belong to the Metal sphere. Well, at least one of it's spheres, namely the European Pagan one (Poland this time). No heavy riffs, grimmed vocals and double pedals there, but quiet folk melodies, ritualistic music and dark yet natural atmospheres. The landscapes painted in this album are quite vivid and strong and will make you travel in mind if you listen to them at the right time, namely -and despite how cliché it sounds- late at night. The production is pretty low quality, but if your mind is at all receptive, this really won't matter.
I'm curious to see what people not into Black/Pagan Metal will think of this one. =)

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Pete Seeger - Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay (1976) / Rainbow Race (1971)


This is another family treasure, and there is an interesting story behind it. Since childhood, I've been raised listening to Pete Seeger's music. Among a lot of other things of course, but still. When I started downloading loads of music from the internet a few years ago, I of course searched for good old Pete Seeger' songs from my childhood. Strangely, searching for what I considered some of his obviously best songs wielded no results whatsoever. So I downloaded anthologies, best ofs ... Not only I knew none of the songs on those, but I didnt even like them ! Very politically engaged, the truly famous Pete Seeger I was discovering had nothing in common with the classic folk song and occasionnaly so emotional singer I knew from my childhood !
So I gave up for a while, started again, gave up ... Until a month ago, where I actually digged in my uncle's huge vynil collection to find the exact references of the records we used to listen to. Well, it turned out what I consisered the essence of Pete Seeger were actually two of his most overlooked and unknown albums, which were actually never reprinted on CD. I was lucky enough to find a vinyl recording of one on Soulseek, and the other was, luckily as well, web-released by a folk music specialized site where I could purchase the FLAC files.

Well, here they are. Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay is a collection of Folk songs related to the Hudson river. It has the strength and emotion that truly good classical folk is supposed to have. Rainbow Race is a much sensible album, still folk driven but not as positive. Probably an introspective moment in the man's life.

>> Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay <<

>> Rainbow Race <<

Cheers.

Asin - Masdan Mo Ang Kapaligiran
Label:
Year: 1978
Genre: Filipino folk


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Masdan Mo Ang Kapaligiran
Pagbabalik
Itanong Mo Sa Mga Bata
Ang Bayan Kong Sinilangan
Anak
Gising Na Kaibigan
Balita
Himig Ng Pag-Ibig
Magnanakaw
Hangin
Ang Buhay Ko
Kahapon At Pag-Ibig
Tuldok
Usok

What? Do you think I can find a review of this? Itanong Mo Sa Mga Bata is gorgeous. So get it.

Eyeless in Gaza - Saw You In Reminding Pictures
Label: Hive-Arc
Year: 1994
Genre: Avant-garde folkish stuff


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1. Book
2. Full Beautiful
3. Wild Flower
4. Reminding Pictures
5. Mock Sun
6. Orchard and Brandy
7. All Yr. Pages
8. Streets I Ran
9. Cornish Claw
10. Day Screaming Reminiscence
11. Sennen Cove Cliff Path
12. Sea Bed
13. Lizard
14. Drive The Nail Thru The Snake
15. Many
16. Brilliant Blue
17. Hunger Song
18. Dwell

Following their resurrection/reformation last year – marked by a wondrous ’pop’ (in the best possible use of the word) cd – Eyeless In Gaza now offer an instrumental collection: 18 improvisations which prove that they haven’t lost their ear for melancholic, moody soundscapes. Play this in a sunny room and let your mind wander – it’ll conjure all sorts of pictures, and remind you of what music can do when required. Martyn Bates and Peter Becker are masters at understatement, and able to couple the most unconventional instruments into harmony and ambience. Bates’ ethereal wordless vocals add to the general effect as he continues his crusade to create contemporary folk voice. This is no collection of simplistic ambient twoddle, however – there is plenty in the music here to occupy the closest scrutineer. I can think of no other band drawing on so many musical areas – folk, improvised musics, european traditional musics, not to mention their own lo-fi bedroom-taping/punk-ethic past – and who produce such wonderfully moving and original music. Stunning.

Ciao.

Artist: Vanessa-Mae
Title: The Violin Player
Released: 1995
Label: EMI
Genre: Techno/Acoustic/Classical



Track listing:

1. "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" – 7:47
2. "Contradanza" – 3:49
3. "Classical Gas" – 3:21
4. "Theme from 'Caravans'" – 5:06
5. "Warm Air" – 3:38
6. "Jazz Will Eat Itself" – 3:30
7. "Widescreen" – 3:58
8. "Tequila Mockingbird" – 3:26
9. "City Theme" – 4:32
10. "Red Hot" – 3:16

Review:

"Vanessa Mae's The Violin Player merges classical violin with pop/rock music and a soundtrack'esque feel. What results is a virtuoso violin performance that is more accessible than usual due to its catchy, memorable melodies, many of which at times possess an impressive sense of drama. Most interestingly, on occasions when the mood of the music gets adventuresome or spooky enough, the CD sounds remarkably like what one might expect from good Castlevania (Dracula) arrangements, particularly some of the pieces from "Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight".

Not every track on the CD offers a high level of rocking energy, but even those milder tracks are almost always interesting. The album as a whole is a successful blend of genre and style very well suited to the soundtrack fan."

Download

Cheers.

Megaupload link contains three albums

Eyeless in Gaza - Rust Red September
Label: Cherry Red
Year: 1983
Genre: Avant-garde folk rock


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1. Changing Stations
2. Pearl and Pale
3. New Risen
4. September Hills
5. Taking Steps
6. Only Whispers
7. Leaves are Dancing
8. No Perfect Stranger
9. Corner of Dusk
10. Bright Play of Eyes
11. Stealing Autumn
12. To Steven
13. Sun-Like-Gold
14. To Eiisabeth S.
15. Lilt of Music
16. Inky Blue Sky
17. Tell

Rust Red in September Eyeless in Gaza Cherry Red records BRED50. Changing Stations/Pearl and Pale/New Risen/September Hills/Taking Steps/Only Whispers/Leaves are Dancing/No Perfect Stranger/Comer Of Dusk/Bright Play of Eyes/Stealing Autumn.

CHERRY RED have captured a comer of the current market by recognising new talent. Eyeless in Gaza are new talent in the shape of Martyn Bates and Pete Becker. They use old techniques in a 1983 way. Harmonising over rhythmic but thin backing they awake me to half-forgotten experiences shared by us all.

The poetry is set to uncompromising percussion or sympathetic keyboards, I have been thinking for some time we need a new word other than ’song’. This album […]

[…] the present form, but many of the other tracks are words and music, put together conjuring up a feeling or emotion, not relating a story or inviting a sing-along session. Often these tracks are more powerful because of this attack.

In years to come we may look back and realise the future of pop was kindled by the likes of Martyn and Pete and Cherry Red. But for the moment they will get across to those unblinkered fans who have pushed down the boundary walls of convention, and the trendies who follow this week’s fashion. This album deserves to find its way into more hands.

The music and lyrics of the band reflect the best of what is happening today on the music scene. The sooner they take over from Bucks Agoogoo on top of the Pops the better it will be for us all.

Eyeless in Gaza - Back from the Rains
Label: Cherry Red
Year: 1986
Genre: Avant-pop rock


Back from the Rains

1. Between These Dreams
2. Twilight
3. Back from the Rains
4. Lie Still, Sleep Long
5. Catch Me
6. Evening Music
7. She Moves Thru the Fair
8. Sweet Life Longer
9. New Love Here
10. Welcome Now
11. Your Rich Sky
12. Flight of Swallows
13. My Last, Lost Melody
14. New Risen
15. Bright Play of Eyes
16. Scent on Evening Air
17. Drumming the Beating Heart

Back from the Rains (Cherry Red/UK) is Eyeless In Gaza’s first lp release since 1983’s Rust Red September. The English duo was formed in 1981 by Martyn Bates and Peter Becker. Their first release was Photographs as Memories, an abstract work of minimal melodies and primal sream sincerity. Bates’ vocals on Photos are raw and vibrant, driven by Becker’s ambitious beginner’s approach to backing instrumentals. But behind their avant garde stance was a pop band yearning to cut loose. Five years and six albums later find Eyeless in Gaza striking a balance between art and the mainstream. Back from the Rains’ opening track ’Twilight’ is a blast of unabashed pop, from its chattery rhythms and horn charts to Bates’ strident vocal delivery. Most of the album is full of sparkling piano melodies and lovely, quirky arrangements. Rains on cassette is a chrome dioxide double-play affair; it also contains the 1982 Eyeless release Drumming the Beating Heart. Their most most obscure and obtuse lp is Pale Hands I Loved So Well (Uniton/Norway), a mostly instrumental work of random drones with an ethereal feel. Fans of Felt, Nick Drake and Robert Wyatt will love Eyeless in Gaza’s Back from the Rains.

Eyeless in Gaza - Orange Ice and Wax Crayons
Label: Cherry Red
Year: 1992
Genre: Everything on the previous albums


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1. Ways of Rachel
2. Stay
3. What I Want to Know
4. Old Lime Quarry
5. All Lone Hours
6. Street Lamps n' Snow
7. Early Empty Lane
8. From Drawn Blinds
9. Hours Grow
10. Fear Clutches
11. My Lost Melody
12. p.s. For Michael
13. Great Ocean Liner
14. Dogs Bark
15. Fever Pitch and Bite

Here’s one for us broken-hearted, manic depressives. EIG’s immortal soul re-emerges with more hidden ghosts from their halycon past. Genius spirits rising from 1981-85. immersing your nerve-ends on a hauntingly emotional journey. EIG patented passion and distress with their melancholy yearnings and pleas resulting in an atmospherically devastating effect. Like all EIG creations this release is scattered with the debris of broken dreams, disillusionment and shattered hope, an eternally downward spiralling emotional trip. Vocally incoherent at times but Bates’ vocals are designed for reaching out and caressing not appraising, a cry for help, bleeding helplessly from the wounds of experience. Sadness, stripped of all its pretences stands pure. EIG attack the gut and psyche, emmanating a sometimes senseless desperation, a knowing darkness exchanged between listener and songster, an almost unspoken style that escapes in a whispered lyric, a note cut short or an empty gasp. Perhaps you need to have seen such darkness to fully appreciate submitting to EIG’s full intensity, indulge in their tragic incarnation of feelings, and willingly succumb and drown in their overwhelmingly painful landscape; but if you’re not wracked with tragic, paranoid and suicidal tendencies as these … you don’t know what you are missing!!

Eyeless in Gaza - Summer Salt and Subway Sun
Year: 2006
Label: A-Scale
Genre: Avant-garde folk rock

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1. Dust Box/Subway Sun
2. Whitening Rays
3. Mixed Choir
4. Summer Salt
5. The 3-D Picture
6. Before Beginning
7. Where Vivid Bloomed
8. Paper Aeroplanes
9. Antipathy Whisper
10. Ebbing All The Years
11. Ghost Blocks

t’s fair to say that the birth of Summer Salt & Subway Sun has proved to be amongst the most chequered in the 26 year history of Eyeless in Gaza, which was some three years in the making (following on from 2000’s Song of the Beautiful Wanton and 2003’s collaboration with Lol Coxhill, Country Bizarre).

Originally, the intention was to put together a double album, centering around an “escalated excitement with the idea of cities as new, blank texts – contrasted with the kind of sense of alienation and loss evoked in such works as J.G. Ballard’s Concrete Island.” The completed Summer Salt & Subway Sun works as a kind of survival or synthesis of these ideas – and also as an illustration of Eyeless In Gaza as ‘studio animal’, contrasted with their (newly re-discovered) life as a regularly gigging band. (– The band has been off the road since the late 80’s, but have recently gigged in Bruxelles, London, and Athens – with forthcoming gigs in Italy, Iceland and the U.S.). The album thus neatly encapsulates two key aspects of the music Eyeless in Gaza are presently creating – offering a balance of atmos/acoustic material and sprawling, rhythmic/semi-improvised spidery electric pieces. This has resulted in a heady blend of song based material juxtaposed with a distinctive brand of kaleidoscopic, “cityscaping” filmic musics. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is the latter, primarily instrumental pieces which gleefully reflect the band’s recent activity in cinema – in Patrice Chereau’s controversial Intimacy, and Jim Jarmusch collaborator Glen McQuaid’s poetic, sub Hammer short, The Resurrection Apprentice.

Ciao.

Jerome Moross - The War Lord Original Soundtrack (1965)


Very nice music for an awesome movie. The so Medieval main theme makes it a spiritual listen as well as an epic one. A very surprising piece, in my opinion.

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Lord Wind - Atlantean Monument (2006)


Continuing with the folk/pagan/dark ambient releases connected to the Metal sphere. Here's a nice review:

Taking cues from medieval folk, Dead Can Dance, and a healthy dose of the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack, Rob Darken’s Lord Wind mightily returns to the battlefields once again.

It’s been quite some time since we last heard from Lord Wind with the average and fairly pedestrian, Rites of the Valkyries. With that release, along with 2000’s Heralds of Fight, it seemed Darken had a destination in mind, but no direction. Five years, 4 Graveland full lengths, and one Infernum album later, Rob Darken’s Lord Wind has discovered its anthem of war.

Consisting entirely of synthesized instruments, with male and female choirs, one must be willing to give Lord Wind time to work within the shallow confines of give-it-me-now greedy metal “fans”. The songs move and weave in and out of triumphant bombast to eerie quiet, with a definite Eastern slant. Comparisons can easily be made to Summoning’s more synth-based albums, as well as certain moments on Dead Can Dance’s Aion, where ethnic sounds permeate the compositions such as ‘The Temple of Harmony’ and ‘Secret Key to Hidden Wisdom’. With the latter, Lord Wind has found a banner to fight under. What must be mentioned is the inherent presence of the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack spirit. Epic without the cheese

Lets be honest, Faithful Reader, this is not music that will instantly make an impression upon your psyche. It must be felt and cherished, however cliché that may sound. Atlantean Monument is not for you to enjoy, but for you to immerse yourself. If you remain unwilling, Lord Wind will pass you by.

Easily Lord Wind’s finest release since Forgotten Songs, it is yet another fine testament of Rob Darken’s abilities as a musician and composer. Let us hope the upcoming Graveland album is as impressive.

>> Download <<

Cheers.

Lord Buckley - A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat

Year: 1970
Label: Straight Records
Genre: some kind of brilliant vaudevillian madness

pretty long:

"A most immaculately hip aristocrat," Lord Buckley was the epitome of comedy cool; a onetime vaudeville performer and a hulking ex-lumberjack, he was a comic philosopher, a bop monologuist whose vocalese fused the rhythms and patois of the street with the arch sophistication of the British upper-crust to create verbal symphonies unparalleled in their intricacy and dexterity. A comedian who didn't tell jokes and a word-jazz virtuoso riffing madly on the English language, Buckley combined the frenetic intensity of Beat poetry with the lessons and moral heft of Biblical tales and historical discourse; holding court over the "hipsters, flipsters and finger-poppin' daddies" of the postwar era, he was a true visionary, the original rapper.

His Lordship was born Richard Myrle Buckley on April 5, 1906 in Tuolumne, California, a mining town located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. After spending his formative years as a lumberjack, in the mid-1920s Buckley set out to find work in the oil fields of Texas and Mexico; he never made it, instead teaming with a traveling guitarist to form a musical comedy act. By the 1930s he was in Chicago, emceeing in mob-owned speakeasies; there he became a protege of Al Capone, who set up the comedian with his own club, the Chez Buckley, where he performed backed by a cadre of jazz musicians. Constant vice-squad pressure soon forced Buckley out of town, however, and throughout the early 1940s he worked the vaudeville circuit, gaining a notorious reputation for ridiculing unhip audiences and smoking dope onstage.

After touring with the U.S.O. during World War II, Buckley relocated to New York City, where he acted in a Broadway production titled The Passing Show. After marrying Elizabeth Hanson, one of the show's dancers, the couple and their children moved to Los Angeles at the dawn of the 1950s; after attempts to break into films proved largely unsuccessful, Buckley began taking on the persona of "His Lordship," an aristocratic hipster madman clad in tuxedo, pith helmet and Salvador Dali-esque waxed moustache. He quickly emerged as an underground legend, partipicating in LSD experiments while throwing wild parties at his rented Hollywood Hills mansion (dubbed the Castle) where the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Tony Curtis mingled with jazz musicians, junkies and poets. At a Topanga Canyon art gallery owned by his friend Bob DeWitt, he also founded the first jazz religion, "The Church of the Living Swing."

In 1951 Buckley made his first recordings for the Vaya label, Euphoria and Euphoria, Volume II. The first album contained his most legendary routine, "The Nazz," a "hipsemantic" retelling of the life of Christ ("the sweetest, gonest, wailinest cat that ever stomped on this sweet, swingin' sphere"); the latter featured a number of riffs on Aesop's Fables as well as "Jonah and the Whale," complete with a pothead Jonah. Despite a series of well-received appearances on The Tonight Show, The Milton Berle Show and You Bet Your Life, Buckley did not re-enter the studio until 1955, when he cut Hipsters, Flipsters and Finger-Poppin' Daddies, Knock Me Your Lobes, which spotlighted his adaptations of scenes from the Shakespearean dramas Julius Caesar, Hamlet and Macbeth.

After issuing a trio of singles in 1956 -- "Flight of the Saucer, Parts 1 and 2" (an excursion into outer space rapped over the 1946 Lyle Griffin track "Flight of the Vout Bug"), "The Gettysburg Address" and "James Dean's Message to Teenagers" -- as well as recording the LP A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat (which went unreleased until 1970), Buckley moved to Las Vegas, where he worked the nightclub and casino circuit. In 1959 he returned to play Hollywood; the majority of a February 12 appearance at the Ivar Theatre was soon issued as the album Way Out Humor, while the remainder appeared in 1966 as Blowing His Mind (and Yours, Too). Ever the nomad, Buckley and his family moved to San Francisco in 1960, where he took up residency at clubs like the Hungry i and the Purple Onion; a performance at Oakland's Gold Nugget formed the basis of the 1970 release The Bad Rapping of the Marquis de Sade.

In the summer of 1960, Buckley set out alone in a red VW microbus to tour the country; in August he arrived in Chicago, where he fell ill. Still, he forged on to New York for a series of October performances at the Jazz Gallery; during one of his shows, the city's vice squad confiscated his cabaret card -- a document necessary to play area clubs -- on the grounds that he lied about having a prior arrest record. On November 12, he called the novelist Harold Humes, complaining of great anxiety triggered by the cabaret bureau's daily refusals to reissue his card; he also said he was hungry and broke. Within hours of hanging up the phone, Lord Buckley was dead of a stroke brought on by "extreme hypertension; " he was 54 years old. A few weeks later, civic pressure forced a repeal of the cabaret card law.

While never a mainstream figure, Buckley's stature grew to mythic proportions in the months and years following his death. Lenny Bruce was an avowed fan, borrowing much of his attitude and rhythms from Buckley's lead, and everyone from Jonathan Winters to Robin Williams acknowledged His Lordship's influence. Bob Dylan was also enamored of his work, and at the outset of his career frequently covered Buckley's rendition of the poet Joseph Newman's "Black Cross." Jimmy Buffett performed the Buckley original "God's Own Drunk," and George Harrison's hit "Crackerbox Palace" drew inspiration from the comedian's life and its title from the name given his tiny Hollywood home. Still the subject of a fanatical cult following and a true underground hero, even decades after exiting "this sweet, swingin' sphere" the self-styled Messiah of Hip lives on.

This disc -- featuring the ultra-hip humor of Lord Buckley -- is among an increasingly hard to find handful of releases in the compact disc medium. The origins of this title hark back to 1970. Somehow, Frank Zappa got ahold of these Buckley raps, which had been documented by amateur recording engineer Lyle Griffin. He edited and then subsequently issued them on his Straight Records vanity label. Part of the unique charm of these five stories is that they were spun in a highly intimate setting with an audience of only a handful -- as if the location may have been someone's living room. Likewise, only "Bad Rapping of the Marquis De Sade" is available elsewhere. These recordings were made at some point in 1956, and contained material that was concurrently part of Buckley's live repertoire. However, in late 1960, Buckley's cabaret card (which enabled him to work at establishments selling alcohol) was revoked -- making these (or any) recordings of Buckley all the more exceptional. The extended mile-a-minute story of the Marquis De Sade -- or "Da Marc" as Buckley calls him -- varies only slightly from the performance version on the World Pacific release Bad Rapping of the Marquis De Sade (1969). "The Raven" (aka "The Bugbird") is an absolute stunning hip interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's poem of the same name. Buckley's recitation retains the same rhythmic patterns as the original and is likewise faithful in storyline. Both "Governor Slugwell" -- which was one of Zappa's favorites -- and "The Train" display Buckley's immense vocal talents. His uncanny and often eerie sense of mimicry -- even in the form of a brass band -- never fails to leave audiences speechless. For the hip-minded, this is an essential release.

Read the damn thing!

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London Is The Place For Me Compilations

Year: Released 2002-2006
Label: Honest Jon's Records
Genre: Calypso

Cultural narratives are as much conventionalised and fictionalised as any other, and this is especially true of the story of black music in Britain. The standard histories will have you believe that apart from the occasional passing jazzer, nothing much happened until the 1970s. But to accept this narrative is to airbrush a whole vibrant musical subculture out of existence; from the moment the Empire Windrush docked in 1948, bringing with it Calypsonians Lords Kitchener and Beginner, there has been a flourishing, if rarely acknowledged, black musical culture in Britain. If truth be told, you could probably track one back far further if you looked hard enough. However, the post-1948 culture has the singular advantage of having left behind solid recorded evidence.

Honest Jon’s have done a brilliant job of documenting this on their London is the Place for Me CDs; and while volume 1 was the more immediate, being packed with beguiling calypso, volume 2, perhaps, is all the better for having a more diverse spectrum of music to hand. We certainly get our fair share of calypso, though, particularly Lord Kitchener’s entertainingly louche ‘My wife’s nightie’ and Lord Beginner’s ‘General Election’, which transplants the Caribbean tradition of using calypso to comment on current affairs to Britain’s 1950 election. Elsewhere, Young Tiger’s ‘Calypso be’ decries bebop, while King Tiger’s ‘Gerrard Street’ takes the opposite stance and praises it. Other musics here reach far and wide for their connections; Ambrose Campbell’s ‘Ashiko rhythm’ has distinct similarities to the drums of Count Ossie’s ‘Mystic revelation of Rastafari’, for example. But it is not just the Caribbean that sent musicians to London in the 50s and 60s: there’s a healthy stream of African musicians represented here, too, from Tunji Oyelana (who came over with playwright Wole Solyinka to perform with one of his shows and then couldn’t return for political reasons - he stayed to record the excellent ‘Omonike’, on which he is joined by luminaries such as Dudu Pukwana and Mongezi Feza) to Gwigwi Mrwebi, who also arrived with a theatrical production (King Kong- The Musical!) and never left, creating jaunty London Kwela instead, plus some classy Highlife from the immensely cool ET Mensah.

This is probably the best series of compilations of the last 20 years.



Get Vol. 1



Get Vol. 2



Get Vol. 3



Get Vol. 4

Ciao.

Eyeless in Gaza - Fabulous Library
Label: Cherry Red
Year: 1993
Genre: Avant-garde electronic something something


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Slow Train
Fabulous Library
As Far and Deep as Love
Be the Teacher
Vivid (full-on)
She Tries on the Jewels
Stone Smile
Stormy Weather
Feel Like Letting Go
Love's a Sometime Thing

Originally, Eyeless In Gaza were just two boys and some cheap instruments, an early 4-track and a (now very collectable) home-produced ep. Then there were a series of albums on Cherry Red Records, and a gradual move towards pop songs, along with an improvement in recording quality and musical ability. But something went wrong, and the band split. Now, however, they’re back – returning with a recording of out-takes from their past, a best-of cd, and now a brand new cd.

Fabulous Library finds Eyeless In Gaza a three piece, the mysterious Elizabeth S. is now a full-time member it seems. What she’s added to the usual eclectic mix of instruments Becker and Bates play is a softer voice, that contrasts strongly with the tough strains of Martyn Bates yowl. This is very carefully recorded and constructed – beautiful songs turn out to consist of broken bottles, guitar feedback, and rythm machines (as well as a few normal things like bass and guitar), somehow woven into a song that entices and delights. It hasn’t got the attack and immediacy I expected from the band, but it’s a real grower: I reckon this one’s made to last, and it’s great to have one of my favourite bands back again.

Cheers.

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Black Earth
Year: 2002
Genre: (Dark) Jazz
Label: Wonder



1. Midnight Black Earth
2. Crimson Ways
3. Maximum Black
4. Vigilante Crusade
5. Destroying Angels
6. Grave Wisdom
7. Constant Fear
8. Skeletal Remains
9. Art of Coffins

Back by popular demand!

I didn't think it was possible for a band to sound more ominous than Bohren & der Club of Gore, but it is when that band is Bohren themselves.

If the last album can be considered background ambient, then this one can be considered ambient with an agenda. There's more keyboards and double bass to set the stage, but on some of the tracks the saxophone takes a back seat to studio samples and almost-environmental sounds that prime your senses for the disturbing that is to come. This album, because it introduces more melody and more of a way to fill the empty space between jazz notes, could more easily transition to a film or videogame score. You could almost call "Maximum Black" a theme.

But it's not all new tricks. Tracks like "Maximum Black" and "Destroying Angels," that are as melodically noir as noir can be, contrast starkly to tracks such as "Midnight Black Earth" and "Vigilante Crusade" that maintain the last album's devotion to atmosphere first, and melody second.

Frankly, I really love the moves that they made towards more melody, and while I still love the first album, I think Maximum Black has to be my favorite song that the band has done because it feels like it has a definite direction it wants to go in.

To those of you impressed with the band so far, be aware that their previous albums (Like Gore Motel in particular) tend more towards post-rock, while their latest album, Geisterfaust, signals yet another shift by the band into the most purely ambient music I've ever heard. I found it unlistenable, to be quite honest, which is why I didn't bother to upload it here, but you may have more patience for it than I. Regardless, this album and Sunset Mission represent the only two instances that the band plays ambient jazz. Sad.

Witness the end of an age.

Ciao.

Anemonengurt - Bocuse Berneau

Year: 2003
Label: Dom Elchklang
Genre: Post-Rock, I suppose.



Ten (!) years after their amazingly bizarre debut, Anemonengurt dive even deeper into heavy blasts of intelligent fake-powerrock and strangely unique lyrics for their 'second coming'. Here is a crushing, multi-faced beast of an album, due to the new found strength of the song shaping in combination with their good old cheap death metal synthi sound. Conjointly with the odd cover artwork, Bocuse Berneau can be seen as one of the most fascinating CDs published within the last years. The lazy late night beats and truly soulful vocals of Feuerboy are incredible and Kirk Kleber's cool and stylish performance on the title track evokes the thrill of struggling between heaven and hell.

Tracks:
1 Feuerboy
2 Schwankung
3 Die Gitarre
4 Die Villa
5 Bocuse Berneau
6 Um So Besser
7 Snyder's Of Hanover
8 Geisteswissenschaften
9 Gesang Deutlicher

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Los Dug Dug's - Smog

Year: 1972
Label: BMG
Genre: Mexican Psychedelia

Spoiler:

In the foothills of Mexico's famous Sierra Madre lies the industrial, iron-rich city of Durango, the capital city of the Mexican state also known as Durango. It is here that the story of Los Dug Dug's began in the early sixties with a local high-school band called Xippos Rock. And it is in this band that two young, musically-inclined teenagers named Armando Nava and Jorge de la Torre began a long and productive musical partnership. In 1966, after working hard at perfecting their sound, Xippos Rock decided to pursue their dream of a rock & roll life on the road. With Armando's father, a salesman, leading the way (and doing his business as they went), they traveled from Durango to Tijuana in a two-week period. Midway through the trip, Armando decided to change the name of the band to Los Dug Dug's, an abbreviation he had come up with of the band's native city and state. The newly-renamed band finally arrived in Tijuana and began its climb to the top. After paying some dues playing behind go-go girls at Fantasitas, a strip bar, they landed a regular gig in the more music-oriented Mike's Bar, and their reputation started to grow very rapidly. They also landed a few gigs across the border, where they picked up on all the latest sounds not only from America, but Liverpool as well. Bringing the Beatles' records back with them, Los Dug Dug's became not only the first band to play their songs in Mexico, but also the first in Mexico to sing theirs and other bands' songs in English, breaking what had been a rule in Mexican rock up till then.

With their popularity in Tijuana growing day by day, Armando decided to bring the band to Mexico City in 1966. Along the way, two of the band's members quit and were quickly replaced. The gamble proved a successful one as the band quickly built a following in the Districto Federal and attracted the attention of RCA who signed the band to a long-term contract. Their first single was "Chicotito Si, Chicotito No," a Mexican children's TV show theme song! The band also appeared in two movies in 1967: El Mundo Loco De Los Jovenes (The Crazy World of the Teenagers), which featured members of the band standing in as the house band in the club scenes, miming to music played by session cats, and Angel O Demonio a/k/a Cinco De Chocolate Y Una De Fresa (Angel or Devil -- Five of Chocolate & One of Strawberry), for which they wrote, and performed live, the instrumental "Tema de Los Dug's," which was released as a single.
In 1968 Los Dug Dug's took their success back to Tijuana and found themselves playing to even bigger audiences than before. It was at a club called Sans Sous Ci that an American tourist named Frank Mangano saw them, was blown away, and offered them the opportunity to try to crack the American market, a virtually unheard-of opportunity for a band from Mexico. Late that year the band flew to New York and began a valiant but ill-fated attempt to get a groove going there. Live recordings exist from this period of their history that feature the band, with Jorge de la Torre on vocals and remarkably good English pronunciation, Gustavo Garayzar on sizzling lead guitar, and Armando on keyboards, tearing through raunchy, garagey versions of everything from "Gimme Some Lovin'" to "Summer in the City" to Sam Cooke's "Shake." The band also made a few unreleased studio recordings including early versions of "World of Love" and "Eclipse," which would later become hits in Mexico as well as key tracks on their first album. But try as they might, they just weren't getting the kind of attention they got in Tijuana or the D.F., and with the music unions knocking on their door demanding their money, Los Dug Dug's returned to Mexico, disillusioned but refusing to give up.

By 1971 they had released their first album on RCA Mexico, sung entirely in English, and had accepted an invitation to play at the notorious Avandaro festival, a.k.a. "The Mexican Woodstock," a rock festival held under threat of massive government oppression on September 11, 1971, for a number of Mexican rock & rollers estimated anywhere between 250 and 300,000. But the band that began the event that day was already in turmoil: creative tensions had taken their toll on the long-held musical partnership between Armando Nava and Jorge de la Torre as Armando became more and more of a dominant force in the band. Jorge left just after the recording of the band's first album and before the show, forcing the band to perform as a quartet. Eventually this lineup of the band would break up, and Armando would take the name and reinvent the band in 1972 as a power trio.

By this time, in Mexico, Los Dug Dug's were no longer the only Mexican rock band singing in English, but one of dozens. Bands such as El Ritual, La Revolucion de Emiliano Zapata, and Three Souls in My Mind had cut albums in English, and the pressure was on for Los Dug Dug's to do the same for the second album in a row. But Armando was finding less and less sense in this idea; this was Mexico, after all, not America! After recording English versions of "Smog," "Yo No Se" (I Don't Care), and "�Cual Es Tu Nombre?" (What's Your Name?), Armando finally collapsed under the pressure, fled the recording sessions, and locked himself in his house, refusing to leave for two full weeks. By the time he emerged from his seclusion, he had a new set of songs and a determination to do the band's second album in Spanish. Many of the songs would be strung together to form one of the most ferocious moments in Mexican rock & roll history, the incredible 12-minute "Hag�moslo Ahora" (Let's Make It Now). Additionally, Armando was sporting a salt-and-pepper look that he would display on the cover of the album, SMOG, released in late 1972. The album would prove influential in at least one respect: many Mexican bands went back to singing in Spanish shortly thereafter. The era of English-language rock in Mexico was over, and the scene had been forced underground in the aftermath of the Avandaro festival.

Though SMOG gave the band another hit single in the rather topical title track, the overall heaviness of much of the rest of the album (especially "Hag�moslo Ahora") ensured only modest success for the band. When it came time to record their third album, CAMBIA CAMBIA(Changes, Changes), in 1974, the band adopted a more clean-cut look, had photos taken of themselves lounging in the Mexican countryside, and streamlined their sound into a more cleanly-produced pop-rock groove. It was yet another fine album, though no doubt it put off some of the fans who were wondering how they could possibly follow an album as brutal as SMOG. The new sound and album earned the band some of the wider radio exposure they desired, in places like Guadalajara, Tijuana, and La Paz, but strangely enough, the album somehow went unnoticed by the major stations in Mexico City, where they needed the airplay the most. Worse, the band was receiving very little promotional support from RCA, forcing them to tour extensively on their own budget in a small, cramped van which sometimes served as their sleeping quarters after a gig.

Tracks:
1. Smog
2. Buscalo
3. Hagámoslo Ahora:
a. Sigueme
b. Dime Que Eres Tu?
c. Cortalo
d. Ven, Ven, Ven
e. Hagámoslo Ahora
4. Yo No Se
5. Cual es tu Nombre?
6. Meditacion
7. No Somos Malos
8. Voy Hacia el Cielo (Voy Hacia el Sol)

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Peter Brötzmann - Machine Gun

Year: 1968
Label: FMP
Genre: Jazz



This historic free jazz album is a heavy-impact sonic assault so aggressive it still knocks listeners back on their heels decades later. Recorded in May 1968, Machine Gun captures some top European improvisers at the beginning of their influential careers, and is regarded by some as the first European -- not just German or British -- jazz recording. Originally self-released by Peter Brötzmann, the album eventually came out on the FMP label, and set a new high-water mark for free jazz and "energy music" that few have approached since. Brötzmann is joined on sax by British stalwart Evan Parker and Dutch reedsman William Breuker (before Breuker moved away from free music, his lungs were as powerful as Brötzmann's). The rest of the group consists of drummers Han Bennink (Dutch) and Sven-Åke Johansson (Swedish), Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove, and German bassists Peter Kowald and Buschi Niebergall. Brötzmann leads this octet in a notoriously concentrated dose of the relentless hard blowing so often characteristic of his music. While Brötzmann has played this powerfully on albums since, never again is it with a group of this size playing just as hard with him. The players declare and exercise their right to bellow and wail all they want; they both send up the stereotype of free playing as simply screaming, and unapologetically revel in it. The sound of Machine Gun is just as aggressive and battering as its namesake, blowing apart all that's timid, immovable, or proper with an unrepentant and furious finality. The years have not managed to temper this fiery furnace blast from hell; it's just as relentless and shocking an assault now as it was then. Even stout-hearted listeners will nearly be sent into hiding -- much like standing outside during a violent storm, withstanding this kind of fierce energy is a primal thrill.

Tracks:
1. Machine Gun
2. Machine Gun [alt.]
3. Responsible
4. Responsible [alt.]
5. Music For Han Bennink

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Black Randy & The Metrosquad - Pass The Dust, I Think I'm Bowie

Year: 1980
Label: Dangerhouse
Genre: Just read the review. Few words cannot do justice.

An Excellent Review I Didn't Write:

Black Randy and his Metrosquad were a supergroup of the Hollywood punk era: the line up included members of the Randoms, Eyes and the Dils as well as one of the other founding partners of Dangerhouse, David Browne. Musically, they were nothing like the hard-fast-loud sound of punk- if anything they were a '60's Soul/James Brown style funk/soul band that played rather fast. They also had echoes of early Blondie and the Who, with there tough and tight rock and roll. They were a funny band, a joke band in the sense that humor was key to understanding what they were about. The bands' music, with its circus-like Woolsworth Doors organ vibe, played the collective straight man to Black Randy's drunken, buffoonish, drawling, sneering voice. His voice is one of the few truly filthy voices I've ever heard in music- every word he says is dripping in self hatred and general loathing, a venomous nicotine and beer-stained voice that's just laughing. His voice is sleazy enough that you don't just think that he just slept in a porn arcade (as the lyrics to his anthem "I Slept in an Arcade" discuss), you think he INHABITED it. The band was perfectly in sync with Black Randy, playing covers of "Shaft" and "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)" while he took aim at the songs, exaggerating the swaggering manhood of one and the simple minded racial pride of the other to grotesque proportions.
Black Randy as a lyricist was a satirist who made everything he took aim at disgusting and outrageous, but still rooted in the real world. This is important, as many artists will take satire into fantasy (such as Eminem), making the situations so outlandish they become unreal. Almost all of Black Randy's lyrics are internal narratives of a person's feelings at a certain moment. A man revels in his ability to manipulate others in "I Tell Lies Everyday" (complete with a 'nya-nya-na' chorus). Another song has a man discussing his love for the syphilitic African dictator Idi Amin ('Idi-idi-idi Amin/I'm your fan!/Idi-idi-idi Amin/I'm your man!). The only song of his that betrays any sympathy for other people is one called "Marlon Brando," whose chorus goes 'What could they do?/He was Marlon Brando?.' The song is about an incident at the Oscars in the '70's where Marlon Brando won an award, and sent a Native American woman to accept it for him and who used the acceptance speech as an opportunity to rail against the treatment of Native Americans in the U.S. The 'they' in the song is everyone involved with Marlon Brando, who has to submit to the power he wields- and this includes the Oscar people, the Native Americans and the audience that was watching. While the sentiment behind Brando's decision was laudable, it was entirely the product of his power, and finally, everyone was kowtowing to him. Black Randy was obsessed the abuse of power, with the ego and obsession and the vanity that it produces.
My favorite Black Randy song is "I Wannabe a Nark." Like all his best work, it's about power and is probably his most vicious look at it. The music, secondary in a lot of Black Randy songs, seems like a half thought- its a loping rock and roll background, pounding in the way that one's head does when you have revenge fantasies.
The narrator is a high school kid who's been rejected by the hipsters, 'the scene' he wishes to join. He's rejected the people he believes to be 'cool,' who have that ideal lifestyle he wants. His rejected triggers the fantasy of "I Wannabe a Nark." It's stating the obvious to say the he now wants to be a cop, but it's his reasons, the specific forms his desire takes, that makes the song brilliant. He wants to be a dirty, dirty cop in Hollywood, like something out of Bad Lieutenant. More than that, he dreams of demanding bribes, taking the hipsters' dope and throwing them in the back of his car. He dreams of being able to assert power over the very cool rock culture that's rejected him as a square. He'll become the ultimate symbol of Squaredom, and lock them up for locking him out. He veers between sneering and sniveling, saying that he has to study hard to become a cop. He can't wait. He wants to take bribes, steal drugs and lock 'em up. This song has a vicious take on the rock star/fan relationship, displaying how powerful a force jealousy is when we're watching people perform- jealous of the power we give them, and that they enjoy so much. This song is the strongest example of Randy's satire, as well as the one that's the nastiest of his songs.
The other interesting aspect of Black Randy is his total obscurity. He doesn't even have an individual listing in the All Music Guide. This is extraordinary in of itself. Everyone has a listing there: The Dils, Chainsaw Kitten, even Delta 5 (a band known more for a single and a tour than an album). Black Randy's album was briefly reissued by Sympathy for the Record Industry, but has fallen out of print again. He hasn't been discovered by a new generation of punk kids, but then he was never embraced by the older generation of punk fans either.
Why is this? Part of the reason is that he put out very little recorded work in his lifetime. His one and only album Pass the Dust, I Think I'm Bowie is little over half an hour. Even with some dodgy out-takes and live recordings added (including an interminable sampling of Randy's stage show), the CD barely cracks the fifty minute mark. Randy's early death prevented any kind of body of work from forming.
Also, his music was strangely difficult. Unlike the Germs or X who drew from fairly traditional rock roots, Black Randy's appropriation of soft funk-soul makes him a much less appealing artist for musicians in his milieu to follow- he had no Gang Of Four no-wave-isms or Minuteman virtuosity and song writing. Black Randy's music isn't very interesting when viewed as music per se- rather, it should be viewed as performance art. His use of his musical forms was to further exaggerate the grotesque parody.
The last reason I think that he's been largely forgotten is one of image. Unlike Darby Crash or Exene, Black Randy never embodied (or even seemed to try to embody) the punk look. He was too old and kind of chubby. He wore long hippie shirts and pork pie hats- never anything close to the punk look. Black Randy wasn't sexy or iconic, and didn't live long enough to become a punk elder and didn't die young enough to become one of its martyr's.
His cerebral and vicious humor, combined with his antagonistic actions and odd appearance meant in some ways that he wasn't the kind of fascist/charismatic rock star figure around which legends build. He didn't seem to embody some kind of ideal state to which to aspire towards. Black Randy was working against the rock star image the majority of artists cultivate- he bathed in the dregs of society without trying to ennoble them (like Lou Reed). He didn't try to make a virtue out of weakness like punk rock traditionally did- he wasn't the voice of the oppressed or an agent of the oppressor, but rather a howling, bitter laugh. He was a nihilistic satire of our collective vanity and ambition, and showed how the human desire for power is consuming and essentially always the same, whether it's in the form of a bloated celebrity, hipster, African dictator, cultural icon or religious worshiper relying on God to provide.
Hopefully, one day there'll be a cult following for Randy, and I'm sure he'd have secretly brimmed with pride, while subjecting them to as much abuse, verbal and otherwise as he could.

Get It

Cheers.

Two albums here

Tinariwen - Aman Iman (Water is Life)
Label: World Village
Year: 2007
Genre: Bluesy Tamashek rock

Download Linky - Moonspace

1. Cler Achel
2. Mano Dayak
3. Matadjem Yinmixan
4. Ahimana
5. 63
6. Toumast
7. Imidiwan
8. Awadijen
9. Kyardardem
10. Tamatantelay
11. Assouf
12. Nak Assarhagh


Even if you do not know the story of Tinariwen, the Tuareg nomads-turned-rock-performers, you can sense their rebel souls in their latest recording Aman Iman: Water is Life (World Village, worldvillagemusic.com--March 20, 2007 release). The band made waves throughout the Sahara Desert playing what became the soundtrack for Tuareg independence and reconciliation. And now they are making waves in the American and European rock scenes. The latest buzz echoes their D.I.Y. origins in their barren homeland.

“It was a cassette-to-cassette ghetto-blaster grapevine,” explains Andy Morgan, a U.K. journalist who was so taken with Tinariwen that he became their full-time manager, describing their role in Mali long before Westerners heard their licks. “The audio quality was as atrocious as the message was powerful. It was an electrified sound and thus appealed to a youth that was wrestling with modernity. It was rock’n’roll.”
Review here


Tinariwen - Amassakoul
Label: World Village
Year: 2004
Genre: Bluesy Tamashek rock


Download Linky - Moonspace

1. Amassakoul 'n' Tenere
2. Oualahila ar Tesninam
2. Chatma
4. Arawan
5. Chet Boghassa
6. Amidinin
7. Tenere Dafeo Nikchan
8. Aldhechen Manin
9. Alkhar Dessouf
10. Eh Massina Sintadoben
11. Assoul

Music and poetry rarely cross paths with war. For desert dwellers, poetry has long been another way of making war, just as their sword dances are a choreographic representation of real conflict. Just as the mastery of space and territory has always depended on the control of wells and water resources, words have been constantly fed and nourished with metaphors and elegies. It’s as if life in this desolate immensity forces you to quench two thirsts rather than one; that of the body and that of the soul.
Review continued here

Ciao.

Grateful Dead - Dick's Picks Vol. 4 (Fillmore East February 13/14 1970)

Year: 1997
Label: Grateful Dead
Genre: Psychedelia



Though this was the third Grateful Dead album to be released since the death of bandleader Jerry Garcia and the group's subsequent decision to disband, it is the first one that wasn't in the pipeline already. Its release offers evidence that the Dead organization, which had begun releasing selected recordings of live shows as a courtesy to fans while raking in most of its revenues through roadwork, has changed its priorities. Dick's Picks, Vol. 4 isn't just another Grateful Dead concert recording, it's the recording: February 13-14, 1970, the Dead's debut at the Fillmore East, and a show consistently ranked by Deadheads as among the five best live tapes ever. This stand, some of which was released in 1973 on the History of the Grateful Dead, Vol. 1 (Bear's Choice) (there is no overlap with this album), finds the Dead gearing up to record Workingman's Dead, and already songs like "Casey Jones" and "Dire Wolf" have crept into the set. But there is so much more: half-hour versions of "That's It for the Other One," "Turn on Your Lovelight" (a showcase for Pigpen), and, in a near-definitive performance, the Dead's signature song, "Dark Star." Much of the then recently released Live/Dead material is heard, not to mention a rare performance of "Mason's Children." But it isn't just the set list that makes this a legendary show, it's the playing: amazing interaction among the players on every song, with Garcia noodling his way to nirvana. While it would be an exaggeration to say that if you own this three-CD, three-hour-and-ten-minute album you have all you need of the Grateful Dead on disc, the overstatement is only slight. As Bob Weir says at the outset, "This ain't a show, it's a party."

Tracks:
1. Intro By Zacherle
2. Casey Jones
3. Dancing In The Streets
4. China Cat Sunflower
5. I Know You Rider
6. High Time
7. Dire Wolf
8. Dark Star
9. That's It For The Other One
10. Lovelight
11. Alligator
12. Drums
13. Me & My Uncle
14. Not Fade Away
15. Mason's Children
16. Caution
17. Feedback
18. We Bid You Goodnight

Get It

Cheers.

I've been a huge fan of this thread and idea ever since I stumbled upon them, and after enough time of lurking and leeching, I've decided to contribute something that hopefully is received in an okay manner.

Virt - FX3
Year: 2007
Label: 8-Bit Peoples
Genre: 8-Bit / Chiptune



1. Incident 01
2. Survivors
3. Bedtime Story
4. Night And Day
5. Choppastyle
6. Thrash
7. Across Rooftops
8. Scorched Sands
9. Visitor
10. Try
11. He's A Radical Rat


Okay, so the word chiptune might be a bit of a misnomer. Simply put, this is something of an original video game soundtrack, for a video game that never really existed. The original site probably put it better than I could, here's their blurb:

Spoiler:

A young boy trapped between warring nations stumbles through a time rift, and upon a terrible conspiracy spanning generations! He finds safety in the warm embrace of a tall, handsome vampire who helps him return home and shows him how to love again. But is there anything left of his world? virt answers this question, returning to his absurdly detailed progressive NES sound for a long-awaited 8bitpeoples debut. Don't feel bad about headbanging to chiptunes - just indulge. A double album by PRIESTCAVE, featuring these original tracks and fully produced arrangements, is also currently underway.

All in all, this album is packed full of nostalgia and creative majesty not normally associated with NES soundboards. If there was a game with this soundtrack, I'd boot it up and leave it on the field screen just to hear the music - whichever track that would happen to be. It's really catchy, for something you'd expect to hear on a Nintendo game. For seriously.


Download it herein, and press start to play thereupon

Ciao.

The Evens

Despite all efforts on my part to find a contrary, "indie" really is the best word to describe this band.

The Evens
(2005 Dischord)



With the hiatus of Fugazi, lead singer Ian MacKaye found himself with some spare time and decided to make a left turn stylistically into stripped-down pop, or at least music as poppy as a post-punk pioneer can get. Collaborating with Warmers alum Amy Farina, MacKaye went into the studio with longtime Dischord resident engineer Don Zientara during the summer of 2004, a time ripe with political tension, discourse, and a hotly contested presidential election campaign. The fire, discontent, and mistrust of systems political and otherwise that were the hallmark of MacKaye's nearly two-decade tenure as dean of D.C. anger remain firmly entrenched in the Evens' carefully crafted 12-song eponymous debut. But in place of his trademark growl and yell, which could lift the strongest of houses off its foundation, MacKaye provides quiet, contemplative harmonies only hinted at briefly in latter-day Fugazi material (check "I'm So Tired" from Instrument and "Pink Frosty" on End Hits for solid reference points) to reinforce the somber sobriety and dire exasperation of his political frustrations. The lyrics are some of the most straightforward and politically caustic of MacKaye's career, packing a punch equal to some of his most visceral moments in Minor Threat. But that's not to shine the spotlight solely on MacKaye, for the group would be a half-hearted solo project if it weren't for Farina's velvet harmonies, her call-and-response interplay with MacKaye that dominates the album, and her sharing of lead vocal duties. MacKaye often used the quiet and low volumes of Fugazi to carry just as much weight as the loud and harsh, and over the decade honed the practice to near perfection. This practice is not the exception but the norm; this is in no small part due to Farina's exceptional percussion skills. She never overplays and calls only for what the compositions need, accentuating empty spaces and providing a heavy weight that even the most piercing wall of noise and feedback couldn't accomplish. It might not be the long-overdue Fugazi album that the most vigilant of chain wallet-carrying fanboys and aging alterna-teens were looking for, and that's a good thing. Most of these songs could never have bloomed to full fruition under the tight quality control of four people. With this project, MacKaye is free to swim in personally uncharted musical waters, and has the ideal swimming buddy along for the ride. The Evens is not just a step forward in the creative careers of MacKaye and Farina; it's a major leap.

Tracks:
1. Shelter Two
2. Around The Corner
3. All These Governors
4. Crude Bomb
5. Sara Lee
6. Mt. Pleasant Isn't
7. Blessed Not Lucky
8. If It's Water
9. Until They're Clear
10. On The Face Of It
11. Minding One's Business
12. You Won't Feel A Thing

Get It

Get Evens
(2006 Dischord)



Normally, when a band decides to scale back production and embellishment on a record, it's really no big deal. Many bands decide to drop the overdubs, or reduce the keyboards, or only work with a live horn section, for example. But when your band consists of two people, one playing baritone guitar and singing while the other drums and sings, "scaling back" seems like an impossibility. On the first Evens release, Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina had scaled back the angularity and electric dominance of their prior bands (Fugazi and Warmers, respectively) and chose to keep the music subtle, rooted in atmospherics. Adding to the stripped down lineup, Farina and MacKaye added piano and mood through post-production to give the album a rather warm, close feel. Although at times some of the tones could be jarring or the rhythms jagged, moods and atmosphere would swirl in and out, giving a slightly less than organic feel, leaving the listener safe in the opinion that a lot of the record could not be re-created on-stage in such detail. For Get Evens, their second full-length, the Evens must have agreed, and embarked on a recording process that was much more immediate, eschewing piano and overdubs, recording the songs with a more "live" sound, culminating in a record that is rough, angular, and wholly organic. But that is only half the picture. Both Farina and MacKaye spent a great deal of time in their previous bands dealing in what can only be called more abstract lyrical ideas. Sure, there is no mistaking the meanings behind Fugazi's "Great Cop," or "Give Me the Cure," but much of that band's conceptual fare was left up the ear and mind of the listener. With the Evens, MacKaye and Farina have obviously decided to leave that mindset behind, making pointed protest and criticism without flinching. "Everybody Knows," with its scathing indictment of the real purpose of politicians and George W. Bush, pulls no punches. There's no doubt as to what "you fabricated your way in here and everybody knows...you are a liar" means, or whom it's meant for. Being from D.C., and living in these times, it's no great surprise that the targets of MacKaye and Farina are the elected officials currently residing on Pennsylvania Ave. and others inhabiting federal offices. One only needs to take one listen to "Dinner with the President" to get the idea. But the easy political targets aren't the only ones examined on this disc. The overreaching of government resultant from cashing in on fear and paranoia in the years since 9/11 get a fantastic (and arguably best so far in terms of songs on the matter) reading on "All You Find You Keep." The emptiness of plastic culture ("Cache Is Empty"), consumerism ("Eventually") and -- most important to the overall theme of the record -- freedom ("Get Even") are examinations that gain so much from the decision to keep things as raw and real as possible. The Evens' first disc was pointed and protesting, to be sure, but here, on Get Evens, the raw feeling of the record makes the message here more pointed, more specific, and more meaningful. Protest has always worked best when it is free of embellishment that may diffuse the message. By keeping the proceedings more proletarian, like their shows, the Evens have created a record that blossoms because -- as they themselves put it -- "there's nothing in the way."

Tracks:
1. Cut From The Cloth
2. Everybody Knows
3. Cache Is Empty
4. You Fell Down
5. Pushed Against The Wall
6. No Money
7. All You Find You Keep
8. Eventually
9. Get Even
10. Dinner With The President

Get It

Cheers.

This album's always been a favorite of mine.

Sunscreem - Change or Die
Year: 1999
Genre: Dance/Techno/Pop/Alt.Rock/Ambient/New Age



Track Listing
1: Exodus
2: Ice Screems
3: Something
4: When
5: Syclick
6: For Maddened Prophets
7: Looking At You
8: No Angel
9: Secrets
10: Cheng Cheng
11: White Skies
12: Be of Good Heart
13: When (K. Klass Remix)
14: Looking At You (Jimmy Gomez Remix)
15: Who Will Love Me More (Jimmy Gomez Remix)


The various album reviews are pitifully short and don't really do much justice to the album. They're positive but all too brief.

Sunscreem is essentially a dance groove ensemble that has the rare disctinction of being able to perform live and not suck. This said, to call them strictly a dance group would be a tragic misrepresentation of their scope. The band is ever-changing; even from track to track, they radically alter their style.

Change or Die begins with a suitably dark raver anthem, progresses into some harder techno beats, then smooths out with some deeply layered, quasi-pop/new age tracks. From there, it's a rather acidic dance trip before the album moves into its more uplifting mode of "made for radio" pop-alt.rock songs. Once that craving is fulfilled, the band launches back into a stream of drum loop intensive beats before wrapping things up with the ubiquitous selection of DJ remix selections.

The fact that Sunscreem manages to encompass so many styles while still retaining a unifying presence through each song is notable in itself. Between some of the warmest technopop anthems this side of Gary Numan and their more raver-friendly offerings, there's likely something for most everyone on Change or Die. The emphasis is clearly less upon breaking through eclectic sound walls and more about producing an all-around enjoyable experience.

Which is how it had ought to be.

Get It!

Ciao.