Gamingforce Music Exposure Club™

Explosions in the Sky - How Strange, Innocence
2005 :: Temporary Residence :: Post-Rock



1. A Song for Our Fathers
2. Snow and Lights
3. Magic Hours
4. Look into the Air
5. Glittering Blackness
6. Time Stops
7. Remember Me as a Time of Day

Download here

AMG:
How Strange, Innocence was recorded a year before Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever, the eventual breakthrough for Austin's Explosions in the Sky. But this 2005 Temporary Residence release is the first many will hear of it, since the original pressing was only a few hundred CD-Rs. It's an interesting listen for fans of the group, as it incorporates the layered guitar melodies and deliberate volume shifts of later EITS work but unfolds with a brittle uncertainty that reveals the band's brief lifespan at the time. Sometimes it sounds like a recital, as if Chris Hrasky, Michael James, Munaf Rayani, and Mark T. Smith, having learned their parts painstakingly and over time, were debuting the songs for an audience of proud parents. In "A Song for Our Fathers," brittle electric guitar notes find the melody over brushed snare and a stoic bassline until the song locks into a louder but still lingering groove, like a sleepwalking Pixies, while "Time Stops" builds from a gentle stroll to a storm of crash cymbals, shadowing vintage Bedhead in the din. The songs here are long -- nothing's under five minutes -- and Explosions in the Sky overuse some of the same effects that give their material strength. "Magic Hours," for example, is only a preamble to "Time Stops," glimmering, then building, then exploding at the usual pace. But despite some predictability, How Strange, Innocence shows remarkable tact for a band that was so unseasoned during its recording. As the ambitious "Snow and Lights" proves, they were already hashing out the pacing issues, heroic scope, and striking melodic sense that would define later releases.


Explosions in the Sky - The Rescue
2005 :: Temporary Residence :: Post-Rock



1. Day One
2. Day Two
3. Day Three
4. Day Four
5. Day Five
6. Day Six
7. Day Seven
8. Day Eight

Download here

Here is a review of this CD.


A Silver Mt. Zion - Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Outward
2001 :: Constellation :: Post-Rock



1. Sisters! brothers! small Boats of Fire Are Falling from the Sky!
2. This Gentle Hearts Like Shot Birds Fallen
3. Built Then Burnt (Hurrah! hurrah!)
4. Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River
5. Could've Moved Mountains
6. Tho You Are Gone I Still Often Walk W/You
7. C'mon Comeon (Loose an Endless Longing)
8. The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes

Download Here

AMG:
For their sophomore release, A Silver Mt. Zion has expanded and changed their name, adding three more members to make the original trio of Efrim, Thierry, and Sophie from Godspeed You Black Emperor! a sextet at their core, plus the addition of a huge horn section (one heavily overdubbed contributor on trumpet and trombone) and various others lending vocal, atmospheric, percussive, and textural support. The three new members -- Becky, Jessica, and Iain -- fill out the band's sound with a denser string presence, which creates a backdrop for piano and eventually, electric guitars and drums. This band is like the mirror image of Godspeed You Black Emperor!; things evolve more slowly and melodically, and they open onto themselves. One example is the opener, "Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats of Fire Are Falling From the Sky!," where a lone violin and piano are eventually engaged by more strings and high, whining guitars that grow out into chord progressions that build on the ostinato of the theme but never, never explode. On "Could've Moved Mountains," the strings open up sad vistas in the heart of sound itself and are caressed by a guitar streaming, ever so slowly, along the underside of the mix before it reshapes the tune in its own image. This is music constructed with the same sense of dynamic and attention to detail, from echo and flange to masked vocals and the shimmer in cymbals, but it is so stunningly, heartbreakingly beautiful in its unfolding that for it to reach any other conclusion than to fall apart or disintegrate at the end of each piece would be to violate it somehow. As it is, the music on Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward is devastating in its beauty and ghostly in its articulation. We can only wonder what spirits came from the ether to inform this vision, and be glad they did.

Ciao.

Hallucinogen - Twisted
(Goa/Psy-Trance, 1995, Substance)


Tracklist:
1. LSD
2. Orphic Thrench
3. Alpha Centauri
4. Dark Magus
5. Shamanix
6. Snarling Black Mabel
7. Fluoro Neuro Sponge
8. Solstice

Amazon.com review:
"Dark and driving yet also uplifting, huge in both sound and scope yet at its core rather simple, cathy yet not at all catchy and mechanical yet somehow very human, Twisted is an epic and engrossing album that is essential not just for trance fans but for anyone who enjoys psychidelic music. The way the music climaxes and flows means its just as enjoyable for a sober night in as it is at a rave (the true test of good electronic dance music), something that cannot be said for most drug-induced (non-)experiments with a keyboard and a drum machine. The music can both hover over you and sweep you off its feet with its impressive sonic layering and manipulation. The structure of the music is also remarkable. Simon Posford knows how to break a song down and bring it back up again, ensuring that the repetitive lines don't outstay their welcome and the overall feel of the music doesn't become stagnant."

Discover a new way to think

Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger
(Goa/Psy-Trance, 1997, Twisted Records)


Tracklist:
1. Demention
2. Snakey Shaker
3. Trancespotter
4. Horrorgram
5. Snarling (Remix)
6. Gamma Goblins Part 2
7. Deranger
8. Jiggle of the Sphinx

Amazon.com review
"Simon Posford, the man behind Hallucinogen and Shpongle, has an excellend reputation for being a really good goa trance DJ, and a lot of it is because of this CD. It has clean, clear sound and the loops are more like spirals - the melodies keep changing in an intricate way, just right to let you get into that trance state when dancing but yet changing all the time. The sound 'morphs'. Posford manages to do this very well, even better than Astral Projection. There are samples that conjure up images, like a running water sample in Gamma Goblins. If you want to hear what psychedelic trance is all about, you need Posford's stuff. This CD is a classic."

Hallucinogen, along with a small taste of Juno Reactor, is what I started with when it came to electronica music in general. Once I figured out that not all electronic music was like this, that this was called psy trance or goa, I always kept an eye out for these kinds of bands. It's dancable, has a groove that rarely grows dull, and is a must for anyone who enjoys the rave scene. Listen. Rave. Enjoy.

Imagine a circle, one side sanity, the other insanty

Cheers.

Sarah Blasko - The Overture & the Underscore
2004 :: Dew Process :: Pop



1. All Coming Back
2. Beautiful Secrets
3. Always Worth It
4. At Your Best
5. Don't U Eva
6. Counting Sheep
7. Perfect Now
8. Sweet November
9. Cinders
10. True Intentions
11. Remorse

Download Here

This is actually one of my favorite albums ever; I think I've played the entire album through at least 50 times (and each song innumerable times). I think it's a real shame that so few people know of her since she's one of the best (freshman) artists out there. Here is a review at Australian Music Onlie.


Asako Toki - Debut
2005 :: Avex Trax :: Jazz



1.??????
2.???????
3.??????????
4.Under Surveillance
5.????
6.???????
7.Takin’ It Slow
8.???????
9.It’s a Short Life

Download here

I am not very familiar with jazz music, but I've always enjoyed this album. It is very upbeat and lighthearted, and Ms. Toki's voice complements that very nicely. Her voice is actually one of the stronger points of the album, I think, as the songs are made around her voice. It is not a particularly groundbreaking album, but it is great fun to listen to.

Ciao.

Mission of Burma - Vs ( 1982, Rykodisc, American UG )



Track Listing:

1. Secrets
2. Train
3. Trem Two
4. New Nails
5. Dead Pool
6. Learn How
7. Mica
8. Weatherbox
9. The Ballad of Johnny Burma
10. Einstein's Day
11. Fun World
12. That's How I Escape My Certain Fate
13. Forget
14. Ok/No Way
15. Laugh the World Away
16. Progress

Overview:

The EP Signals, Calls and Marches suggested that Mission of Burma had the talent and vision to become one of America's great rock bands; the subsequent album Vs. proved beyond a doubt that the group had arrived and was fully realizing its potential. MOB's blend of punk rock fury and post-collegiate musical smarts had been honed to a razor-sharp point by the time Vs. was recorded, and they had fully worked through the British influences that occasionally surfaced on Signals, Calls and Marches, maturing into a band whose sound was as distinctive as anyone of its generation. Roger Miller's guitar work had gained greater depth and confidence in the year since Signals, the rhythm section of Clint Conley and Peter Prescott epitomized both strength and intelligence, and MOB was exploring trickier structures and more dramatic use of dynamics this time out; the subtle tension of "Trem Two" and the powerful mid-tempo angst of "Einstein's Day" were a genuine step forward in the group's development, while "The Ballad of Johnny Burma," "Fun World," and "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate" made it clear that the band had lost none of its rib-cracking impact along the way. It's daunting to imagine just how far Mission of Burma could have taken its music had Roger Miller's hearing problems not caused the band to break up the following year, but regardless of lost potential, very few American bands from the 1980s released an album as ambitious or as powerful as Vs., and it still sounds like a classic.

Amazing Album

Swell maps - Trip to marineville ( 1979, Rough Trade, Punk )



Track Listing:

1. H.S Art
2. Another Song
3. Vertical Slum
4. Spitfire Parade
5. Harmony in your Bathroom
6. Don't Throw your ashtrays at me!
7. Midget Submarines
8. Bridge Head (pt. 9)
9. Full Moon in my Pocket
10. BLAM!
11. Full Moon ( Reprise )
12. Gunboats
13. Adventuring into Basketry
14. My Little Shops
15. Ripped & Torn
16. International Rescue
17. Loin of the Surf
18. Shoot the Angels
19. Elephant Flowers ( no. 2 )
20. Turn me on Dead Man
21. Bronze & Baby Shoes
22. nevertoseenanyotherway

overview:

Released in 1979, the band's first full-length album, A Trip to Marineville is the slightly more accessible of the two, but not because it has all that many hooks or melodies or anything like that. Swell Maps approach to songwriting involves pounding out a riff or chord progression over and over again -- on chunky, thickly distorted guitars or on a piano -- while unexpected noises and abstruse, sullenly intoned vocals are layered on top. Borrowing much from the loosely structured jams of Can, this strategy would ultimately be adopted by bands like Flipper and the Germs. Impenetrable at first, songs quickly grow on you, if only through their sheer repetition, their relentless momentum.

On the cover is a photo of a house on fire, very appropriate to how the album opens, with well-orchestrated burst of three short, explosive tracks that run together seamlessly: the sneering "H.S. Art", which repeatedly asks "Do you believe in art?" with such scorn that it's clear you don't if you have to stop and ask; the metacritique of "Another Song", which seems to question its own right to exist as it co-opts pop-song formula, and the concise, incisive "Vertical Slum". The rest of the album eschews such tight focus, and progressively becomes more difficult listening. Songs that begin with crisp, throbbing riffs and well-layered guitars -- "Midget Submarines" and "Harmony in Your Bathroom" -- have endings that stretch out and devolve into chaos. And the instrumentals mount up as well, starting with the innocuous piano and found noise fragment "Don't Throw Ashtrays at Me!" and moving through the drifting, meditative "Gunboats" and climaxing with "Adventures into Basketry", a spontaneous eight-minute noise fest that sounds like a spastic drum circle conducted during an air raid. This discursive experiments in discord certainly sound liberating for the band, but if you can't get lost in the accidental textures of random noises colliding and patterns disintegrating, if you can't get off vicariously on their freedom, you'll probably grow impatient with it all. More successful is "Full Moon in My Pocket" and "Blam!!" which are really one song, an extended homage to the quintessential Can epic, "Mother Sky". Using staccato bass notes to punctuate a fluid groove and elliptical lyrics to invite abstruse speculation, these songs are perhaps the closest Swell Maps comes to achieving an effective synthesis of deliberate artistry and open-endedness, suggesting for a few sublime moments that these are natural complements to each other.

R.I.P Nikki Sudden

Cheers.

High On Fire - Blessed Black Wings

Year: 2005
Label: Relapse
Genre: Metal



A review better than I could write.

Tracks:
1. Devilution
2. The Face of Oblivion
3. Brother in the Wind
4. Cometh Down Hessian
5. Blessed Black Wings
6. Anointing of Seer
7. To Cross the Bridge
8. Silver Back
9. Sons of Thunder

Get It

Ciao.

Three albums from the Avant-Garde Electronica genre

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Exponential Presents Collapsing Culture


(2006, www.antipop.com)

Track List:
1. Aether216 - Renascent
2. Theory of Everything - Little Prince
3. Darby - Portrait
4. Mnolo - Fall From Grace
5. A.M. Architect - Upon
6. Darby - Ciudad de Leche
7. Mnolo - The Abyss
8. Darby - Quality Television
9. Theory of Everything - Backpack
10. Mnolo - The Birth
11. Reader -The Antidote - Aether216 Remix
12. Aether216 - Memoir of Nova
13. A.M. Architect - Ft. Worth
14. Theory of Everything - True Love
15. A.M. Architect - Take 4
16. Darby - Fedora
17. Mnolo - The Acension
18. Darby - Many Colored Days
19. Theory of Everything - Lullaby No. 5
20. A.M. Architect - What If

A better review than I could hope to write. Like most Avant-garde electronica, the songs are exceedingly difficult to describe. They're for the most part calm, with a somewhat rhythmic feel to them. The review does a much better job than this, though. Read it.

DOWNLOAD LINKY

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The Flashbulb - Red Extensions of Me


(2004, Sublightrecords.com)

Track List:
1. In an Instant (2:02)
2. Lawn Wake I (4:17)
3. Lawn Wake II (3:11)
4. Lawn Wake III (3:29)
5. Sun Rise Jul (1:16)
6. An External Frost (2:58)
7. Planet Th (3:07)
8. If Trees Could Speak (1:48)
9. The Son and the Star (2:25)
10. Didj Z (1:54)
11. Black Lawn Finale (4:25)
12. Sensual Data (5:08)
13. Never Remember January (2:36)
14. Sunset Hamlin (2:35)
15. Earthtone Morphine Battery (3:35)
16. Eight Empty Beds (1:25)
17. Lucid Bass I (7:56)
18. Lucid Bass II (8:43)

From wikipedia:
In particular, this album seems to be driven by the aesthetic of Drum n bass/Jungle theory, used to accentuate a particular focus on electric guitar-controlled MIDI sequences written in a very showy but informed neo-classical metal style. The intense combination brings to mind VGM music, as if one were playing a copy of a Mega Man or Sonic the Hedgehog game in the series' heydays. Furthermore, the last two tracks (Lucid Bass I and II) are straightforward Drum n bass tracks, featuring a long, repetitive running time/rhythm and elements such as triggered samples of sleep therapy tapes during the breakdowns, the classic DnB rhythm, mandatory Amen break/Apache break chopping, looping, dreamy, pitch-shifted synth passages and robust, heavy, droning sub-bass lines.

Put simply, it is drum and bass mixed with ten parts of awesome and 21 parts of every musical genre you can think of minus two. Also, Lawn Wake I is the second best song I've ever heard.

DOWNLOAD LINKY

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Vector Lovers - Vector Lovers


(2004, www.iwari.com)

Track List:
1. Girl + Robot
2. tokyo glitterati
3. Telecom Meltdown
4. Electrobotik Disco
5. Funk & Droid
6. Electrosuite
7. Yamanote Sundown
8. Futures in Plastic
9. kissed you by the fountain
10. lake nocturne
11. Metrolux Forever
12. Solitaire

Review from Amazon:
This first full length releas by Vector Lovers has a stark, shimmering crystalline beauty that resonates emotion. the beats & melodies are superb and in short it is the best Electro CD that I have purchased this side of the Twentieth Century! I was fortunate enough to purchase the initial release from IWARI.COM (home of Vector Lovers) which differs slightly from the SOMA release and in my opinion has more 'introspective' feel with more emotive tracks at the beginng that have been replaced with Soma's more dancefloor friendly choice.
If you have any interest in Electro whatsoever this is an ESSENTIAL purchase - I will never tire of it. Emotional Android music - perfect!

Put simply, think a robot and some d00d on a synthesizer in a jam session. Except that it is UTTERLY FUCKING BEAUTIFUL. If you don't download this you are really missing out on something.

DOWNLOAD LINKY

Cheers.

I think I'll bring in some local music to the table. Besides, I just ripped them to put on my mp3 player, so why not share it?

A quicky consisting of two EP's by Jackdaw. They're a great mix of celtic, rock and punk-rock influences, but a lot of the fans just prefer to call them "awesome." In their music you'll hear it all, from drums and guitars, to fiddle, accordian, bagpipes and other traditional Celtic insturments. They're one of my favorite bands from the area.

And here's an even better band overview from AMG:
A group that describes itself as "brick-throwing Celtic rock" might not conjure up images of tin whistles and kilts, but these are indeed also parts of the Jackdaw experience. The band is based out of Buffallo, New York, and has been releasing music since the late '90s, beginning with a pair of EPs and graduating to full length discs. The CD Armed and Legged as well as a self-titled set were both released in 2002. Fiddler Joe Davies is one of the instrumentalists in the band that has gotten heavy nods from critics, and that is not a reference to anyone falling asleep during a Jackdaw show. Kilts and tin whistles are provided courtesy of multi-instrumentalist David Moore, whose physical antics onstage seem a wee bit inspired by Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Moore is more than just a jump-around showman, however; he is an accomplished player on bagpipes, accordion and concertina as well as his dinky whistle.

The brothers Mike Jordan and Tommy Jordan tighten the group's nuts and bolts through the kind of sibling communication that has been a trademark of music history's many "brother" bands. Front man Tim Byrne, often dressed in black with a cigarette hanging from his lips, presents an image that tends to confirm the group's rock influence even before a sound has been played. This rocking aspect is present in more than just visuals alone. Drummer George Tutuska, for example, was an early member of the Goo Goo Dolls. Jackdaw has established a loyal following through regular touring, performing at both rock clubs and folk festivals. While naming a band after a bird is normally not something that confuses discographers, the noisy jackdaw has actually wound up credited as a participant on several records, including a Johnny Winter side from the late '60s. This small crow with a voice loud enough to be heard above Winter's electric guitar could probably also make a grand contribution to the band named Jackdaw, but has yet to be asked into a recording session.

Jackdaw - Whiskey (EP) (2002)

Format: mp3 Quality: VBR (LAMEv3.97 -V 2 --vbr-new)

Track List:
1. Where Is Claire?
2. Devil With One Leg
3. So Far

Download

Jackdaw - Seven (EP) (2002)

Format: mp3 Quality: VBR (LAMEv3.97 -V 2 --vbr-new)

Track List:
1. Butcher Boy
2. Black Cat Luck
3. LV82

Download

Both of these were limited edition releases (only having 1000 copies made,) consisting of original tracks and traditional celtic covers (I believe.) These two EPs are just a small sampling of the band.

I'll probably post more of their work later, and as I listen to it, more local bands.

Ciao.

Prowla - Lonewolf
Label: Nuffsaid
Year: 2001
Genre: Hip Hop



http://www.zshare.net/download/prowla-lonewolf-rar.html

1.IN POSITION (0:49)
2.REFLECTION (3:35)
3.DIPLOMATS (ft Creative) (3:01)
4.NO COMMENT (3:57)
5.HIT EM GLOBALLY (ft Esoteric) (3:32)
6.MOTIVATION (1:09)
7.LONEWOLF (3:38)
8.OWN FATE (3:47)
9.PRELUDE (0:44)
10.ANALYSE (3:14)
11....NESS (3:04)
12.GOT YA GIRL (0:33)
13.WHAT'S YOUR WORTH (4:19)
14.RENOWN (ft Trem) (3:50)
15.CULTIVATE/OR (3:38)

Since someone commented about a lack of hip hop, here is some hip hop.
Prowla is a MC/DJ/producer out of Melbourne, Australia. He was fairly prolific in the mid-late 90s and early 2000s but he hasn't released anything for a while now.
The beats are generally dark and raw, with Prowla handling most of the production himself. Lyrically Prowla is on the much talked about "next level"; brilliant imagery and metaphors abound. The turntablism is world class and really adds something to the tracks. You would be hard pressed to find a better Australian hip hop artist than Prowla.

Cheers.

The Go Betweens - 16 lovers lane (1988, Capitol, Alt. Pop )

Note: I've included the " 16 lovers lane " Acoustic demo sessions with this comp as they are also some pretty wicked and hard to get hold of.



Track Listing:

1. Love Goes On!
2. Quiet heart
3. Love Is a Sign
4. You Can't Say no Forever
5. The Devil's Eye
6. Streets Of your Town
7. Clouds
8. Was There Anything i could Do?
9. I'm Allright
10. Dive For your memory

Acoustic Demo Bonus Track listing:

1. Was There anything I could Do?
2. Wait Until June
3. The devil's Eye
4. I'm Allright
5. You won't Find it again
6. Love is a Sign
7. Dive For your memory
8. Streets of your town
9. The Clarke Sisters
10. You've Never Lived

Overview:

Arguably Australia's greatest pop group ever, The Go-Betweens seemed to save the best for last when they split in 1989. (They reunited in 1999, and have issued two more studio recordings since that time). 16 Lovers Lane is simply breathtaking; it is a deeply moving, aurally sensual collection of songs about relationships and the broken side of love that never lapses into cheap sentimentality or cynicism. Songwriters Robert Forster and Grant McLennan had always been visionary when it came to charting personal and relational melancholy and heartbreak, but here, their resolve focused on charting the depths of the romantic's soul when it has been disillusioned or crestfallen, is simply and convincingly taut. While it's true that the group was going through its own version of a soap opera-styled romantic saga, that emotional quagmire seemingly fueled its energies and focus, resulting in an album so texturally rich, lyrically sharp, and musically honest, its effect is nothing less than searing on an any listener who doesn't have sawdust instead of blood in his or her veins.

Opening with McLennan's "Love Goes On," the stage is set for a kind of refined yet primal emotional transference that pop music is rarely capable of revealing. As he sings: "There are times when I want you/I want you so much I could bust/I know a thing about lovers/Lovers lie down in trust/The people next door they got problems/They got things they can't name/I know about things about lovers/ Lovers don't feel any shame/Late not night when the light's down low/The candle burns to the end/I know a thing about darkness/Darkness ain't my friend/Love goes on anyway," the doorway to the heart and its secrets opens.

In the grain of his voice lie the flowers in the dustbin whose names are desperation and affirmation. With its hyperactive acoustic guitars, Amanda Brown's cooing string arrangements, and the deftly layered, subtly played brass instruments, the tune becomes a gauzy anthem; it celebrates the ravaged heart as a beacon of strained hope in the entryway to a hall of bewilderment. He follows it with "Quiet Heart," a song whose opening was admittedly influenced in structure by U2's "With Or Without You," but blows it away lyrically and with its subtly shifting melody and harmony between the guitars. Brown's multi-layered strings actually stride the backbeat's pulse.

His protagonist speaks to an absent lover. His ache offers a view of his own weakness, desperation, and an all-consuming tenderness: "I tried to tell you/But I can only say when we're apart/How I miss your quiet, quiet heart." Forster seems to underline McLennan' s raw emotionalism with his painterly, nearly baroque, "Love Is A Sign," where images from visual art, remembered scenarios, and real life brokenness intermingle effortlessly with the elegance of mandolins, a string orchestra, and a shimmering bassline. With "Streets Of Your Town," the Go-Betweens scored a minor hit in the U.K., and even got played on American radio for a moment, but despite the fact that it has the most memorable hook on a record filled with them, it merely underscores how constant the quality is on the record. Evidenced further by "The Devil's Eye," and the shattering closer "Dive For Your Memory," 16 Lovers Lane is melancholy and somber in theme, but gloriously and romantically presented. Despite the fact that band has but a cult following, even in the 21st century, the Go-Betweens have nonetheless given us a far more literate, magnificently written, performed, and produced slab of pop classicism, than Fleetwood Mac's wonderfully coked out, love as co-dependency fest, Rumours.

Grant McLennan, may you R.I.P. Admiration goes on alot longer then love!

Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley ( 1994, Elektra, Stoner Rock )

Note: This is the band that spawned " Queens of the Stone age" and is also far more talented then QotSA. Garcia's vocals alone hold more talent, then Homme could ever do.



Track Listing:

1. Gardenia
2. Asteroid
3. Supa Scoopa and the Mighty Scoop
4. 100°
5. Space Cadet
6. Demon Cleaner
7. Odyssey
8. Conan Troutman
9. N.O
10. Whitewater

Overview:

After creating a classic with their second album, Blues for the Red Sun, desert metal gods Kyuss faced the unenviable task of delivering the goods once again for a new label, Elektra Records. And they pulled it off with 1994's stellar Welcome to Sky Valley. The album's 10 songs are divided into three "suites" which fully display the band's impressive creative range, from furious metal to psychedelic grooves, and anything in between. The first and most consistent of these suites starts with the huge guitar riff of "Gardenia" (which resembles molten lava flowing down the side of a volcano), continues into the moody space jam instrumental "Asteroid," and culminates in the strangely titled yet superbly diverse "Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop." Other highlights include the solid thrashing of "100 Degrees," the prog rock instrumental "Whitewater," and the rather mellow (by Kyuss standards) "Demon Cleaner." But no song exemplifies the Kyuss sound as well as the aptly titled "Odyssey," which opens suite number three and provides a veritable blueprint of the band's unique combination of ingredients. The track begins with a cryptic melody, explodes into a ferocious riff, glides into a psychedelic bridge, then returns to full-throttle for its conclusion.

If only Homme could lose the ego and start jammin with the people who he knew how to make quality music with

Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um ( 1959, Columbia, Jazz )



Track Listing:

1. Better Git In your Soul
2. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
3. Boogie Stop Shuffle
4. Self-Portrait in Three Colors
5. Open Letter To Duke
6. Bird Calls
7. Fable of Faubus
8. Pussy Cat Dues
9. Jelly Roll
10. Pedal Point Blues
11. GG Train
12. Girl of my dreams

Overview:

Charles Mingus' debut for Columbia, Mingus Ah Um is a stunning summation of the bassist's talents and probably the best reference point for beginners. While there's also a strong case for The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady as his best work overall, it lacks Ah Um's immediate acccessibility and brilliantly sculpted individual tunes. Mingus' compositions and arrangements were always extremely focused, assimilating individual spontaneity into a firm consistency of mood, and that approach reaches an ultra-tight zenith on Mingus Ah Um. The band includes longtime Mingus stalwarts already well versed in his music, like saxophonists John Handy, Shafi Hadi, and Booker Ervin, trombonists Jimmy Knepper and Willie Dennis, pianist Horace Parlan, and drummer Dannie Richmond. Their razor-sharp performances tie together what may well be Mingus' greatest, most emotionally varied set of compositions. At least three became instant classics, starting with the irrepressible spiritual exuberance of signature tune "Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul," taken in a hard-charging 6/8 and punctuated by joyous gospel shouts. "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a slow, graceful elegy for Lester Young, who died not long before the sessions. The sharply contrasting "Fables of Faubus" is a savage mockery of segregationist Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, portrayed musically as a bumbling vaudeville clown (the scathing lyrics, censored by skittish executives, can be heard on Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus). The underrated "Boogie Stop Shuffle" is bursting with aggressive swing, and elsewhere there are tributes to Mingus' three most revered influences: "Open Letter to Duke" is a suite of three tunes; "Bird Calls" is inspired by Charlie Parker; and "Jelly Roll" is an idiosyncratic yet affectionate nod to jazz's first great composer, Jelly Roll Morton. It simply isn't possible to single out one Mingus album as definitive, but Mingus Ah Um comes the closest.

Not the best of Mingus's work, but definetely the most accessible work of Mingus's for people who don't know jackshit about Jazz sans for Davis or Coltrane

Ciao.

The Residents - Third Reich 'N Roll

Year: 1976
Label: Ralph
Genre: The Residents



From AMG:
Technically the third album from the group, though released as a follow-up to Meet the Residents, this 40-minute assault on the music of the '60s follows Picasso's dictum of all artists killing their (aesthetic) fathers. Two side-long medleys of songs both classic ("Papa's Got a Brand New Bag") and obscure ("Telstar") are destroyed, deconstructed, mangled, spat on, spit out, ground up, and injected with gleeful humor. If there's any concept here, it's that the brain-numbing catchiness of pop music was fascism in disguise, keeping teenyboppers docile while selling them rebellion, hence the cover art of a gestapo-uniformed Dick Clark holding a carrot. Whether it's only much-suppressed love for these songs (as they went on to return again and again to the themes and artists examined here, including James Brown, "Land of 1000 Dances," and "Double Shot"), it's up to the listener to decide. Mostly any fan of the group will spend many hours trying to decode all the songs here, all the time with a smile on their face. (Officially, there are 29 songs, but there could be more).

-*-*-*-*-

This is a rip I made of the 1988 Torso Records CD release, which includes the Satisfaction single w/ B-side Loser = Weed, as well as the The Beatles Play The Residents And The Residents Play The Beatles single, containing the tape experiment Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life, and a Residents cover of the song Flying, which the band says they chose because it was the only song they could find that gave songwriting credits to all four members of the Beatles. The Residents are proginators of electronic music, lovers of the avant-garde, and have a greater devotion to D.I.Y. than any straightahead punk act. A recent reissue (sans bonus cuts) on Mute Records came with a slipcase holding the warning: "Avoid if you are a bigot, a narrow minded bastard, or have no sense of humor". Listen.

Tracks:
1. Hitler Was A Vegetarian
2. Swastikas On Parade
3. Satisfaction
4. Loser = Weed
5. Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life
6. Flying

Und sing meinen song!

Cheers.

I fear Björk and Belle & Sebastian may be too mainstream for something about music exposure but both of these albums aren't played too much on Last.fm and I'm simply enjoying them that much. Of course, I have more of all three artists if people are interested.


Delgados - Hate
2002 :: Mantra :: Alternative



1. The Light Before We Land
2. All You Need Is Hate
3. Woke from Dreaming
4. The Drowning Years
5. Coming in from the Cold
6. Child Killers
7. Favours
8. All Rise
9. Never Look at the Sun
10. If This Is a Plan

Download here

AMG:
Bringing the Beatles into any discussion or analysis of music since...oh, about 1970 is not only the granddaddy of all rock critic clichés -- it's ultimately pointless because of the seep of the band into every single recess of the world of popular music. Nevertheless, it's almost impossible not to bring the band up when talking about Hate, the Delgados' first release since the much-lauded (and possibly over-hyped) breakthrough release, The Great Eastern. The first giveaway is the track which inspired the album's title, "All You Need Is Hate," which inverts the premise of the original into a bouncy, three-minute pop song which pretty much questions the motivations of everyone who can still draw breath. Even bleaker is "Child Killers," which is the dark flipside of John Lennon's "Imagine," complete with a cop of part of the melody and a sly lyrical reference; while the original song was a hopeful number, "Child Killers" reflects a self-medicating generation without hope of any kind, not even caring if they live or die: "Maybe now I'll find peace in another world" indeed. From a musical perspective, it's hard not to haul out another cliché; each of the songs here is processed, tweaked, and orchestrated into a positively massive (even majestic) sonic epic, bringing to mind albums by the Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev that were released around the same time. If you believe the party line, the Delgados had already fully hammered out the songs before bringing them to producer Dave Fridmann (whose heavy production hand had, indeed, provided much of the sonic signature of both the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev), and Fridmann's contribution was minimal polish. That's pretty hard to believe when you actually listen to the results, but it's certainly easy to forgive; where The Great Eastern was a fairly gentle and tentative record in a lot of ways, this one is bigger and demands your attention. The good news is that it's one of those rare records that actually deserves all of the attention it demands.


Björk - Medulla
2004 :: Elektra :: Alternative?



1. Pleasure Is All Mine
2. Show Me Forgiveness
3. Where Is the Line
4. Vökuró
5. Öll Birtan
6. Who Is It
7. Submarine
8. Desired Constellation
9. Oceania
10. Sonnets/Unrealities XI
11. Ancestors
12. Mouth's Cradle
13. Midvikudags
14. Triumph of a Heart

Download here

AMG:
It's hard to accuse Björk of making music influenced by commercial or critical expectations at any point in her career, but her post-Homogenic work is even more focused on following her bliss, whether that means acting and singing in Lars Von Trier's grim musical Dancer in the Dark; crafting tiptoeing laptop lullabies on Vespertine; or, in the case of Medúlla, sculpting an album out of almost nothing but singing and vocal samples. The album's title and concept refer to the purest essence of something, and Medúlla explores both the ritual power of the human voice and some of the most essential themes of Björk's music in a way that's both primal and elaborate. It took a large cast of characters to make the album's seemingly organic sound, including vocalists ranging from Icelandic and British choirs to Inuit singers to Mike Patton and Robert Wyatt; programmers like Matmos, Mark Bell, and Mark "Spike" Stent; and beatboxers such as Rahzel and the onomatopoeically named Japanese artist Dokaka. Several songs are sung in Icelandic, which works especially well, not only because it ties in with Medúlla's concept, but also because of the language's sonic qualities: the rolling Rs, guttural stops, and elongated vowels reflect the alternately chopped and soaring arrangements behind them. Neopaganism and unfettered sensuality also wind through the album, particularly on "Mouth's Cradle," along with meditative, Vespertine-like pieces such as "Desired Constellation." Medúlla is unusually intimate: Björk's voice is miked very closely, and with the dense layers of vocals surrounding her, it often sounds as if you're listening to the album from inside her larynx. Some of the heavy breathing, grunts, and ululating woven into the album come close to provoking physical reactions: the eerie sighs and throat singing on the feral "Ancestors" make the chest ache and suggest a particularly melodic pack of wolves. Meanwhile, there's something simian about Dokaka's gleeful babbling and beats on "Triumph of a Heart." Despite its gentler moments, Medúlla's raw rhythms and rarefied choral washes make it the most challenging work of Björk's career. "Where Is the Line" is one of her tough, no-nonsense songs, and Rahzel's hard-hitting beats make it starker than anything on Homogenic. Even relatively accessible songs, like the gone-native loveliness of "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)" and "Oceania," which Björk wrote for the 2004 Athens Olympics, have an alien quality that is all the stranger considering that nearly all of their source material is human (except for the odd keyboard or two). Actually, fans of world, contemporary classical, or avant-garde music might find more to appreciate in Medúlla than anyone looking for a "Human Behaviour" or "It's Oh So Quiet." It's not an immediate album, but it is a fascinating one, especially for anyone interested in the world's oldest instrument being used in unexpected ways.


Belle & Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab Strap
1998 :: Matador :: Alternative



1. It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career
2. Sleep the Clock Around
3. Is It Wicked Not to Care?
4. Ease Your Feet in the Sea
5. A Summer Wasting
6. Seymour Stein
7. A Space Boy Dream
8. Dirty Dream Number Two
9. The Boy With the Arab Strap
10. Chickfactor
11. Simple Things
12. The Rollercoaster Ride

Download here

AMG:
Belle & Sebastian quietly built a dedicated following after the release of their second album, If You're Feeling Sinister, as word of mouth spread from indie kids to record collectors to store clerks to critics. By the end of 1997, the Scottish septet had developed a following every bit as passionate as the Smiths did at their peak, which is only appropriate since leader Stuart Murdoch is as wittily literate as Morrissey. If You're Feeling Sinister proved this as did the three excellent EPs that followed, increasing expectations for The Boy With the Arab Strap. Even if the album doesn't match the peerless If You're Feeling Sinister or break new ground for Belle & Sebastian, it's not a sophomore slump. From the Motown stomp of "Dirty Dream Number Two" to the Paul Simon shuffle of the title track, there is more musical texture on Boy than Sinister, but much of this was already explored on the EPs, which means Arab Strap essentially consolidates the group's talents. Murdoch recedes from the spotlight on occasion, letting Steve Jackson deliver two music-biz spiels and giving Isobel Campbell space to shine with the lilting "Is It Wicked Not to Care?" All three songs are highlights, but Murdoch's songs still attract the most attention. His vicious wit, often overlooked in favor of his poetic narratives, surfaces on the title track, while "It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career" summarizes his effortless gift for elegant melancholia. Such small, precious gems are what Belle & Sebastian are all about, and The Boy With the Arab Strap offers another round of timeless, endlessly fascinating folk-pop treasures.

Ciao.

Plastilina Mosh - Aquamosh (1998)
Genre: Electronic, Indie



Review
Plastilina Mosh' first album and probably their best. I love the instrumental tracks. Most of the singles were covered in the Greatest Hits album I uploaded before, so you better check other awesome tracks such as Pornoshop and I've Got That Milton Pacheco Kinda' Feeling.

Pitchfork Review
It's surprising that folks up and down the U.S.-Mexico border weren't getting all funky fresh this past summer to Plastilina Mosh's Aquamosh; sure, it might not have the cross- cultural healing power to put an end to the ridiculous illegal- immigrant issue once and for all, but at the very least, it's music the gringos and chulos can finally agree on while cruising around Long Beach. With boombastic beats, over- the- top rapping in Spanglish, and a fair share of salsa, funk, and lounge- jazz thrown in to boot, Aquamosh had all the makings of a modern- rock radio success. However, even in a year when foreign- born artists such as Air, Buffalo Daughter, Cornelius, and Solex released albums to much critical acclaim, the Mexican duo's Stateside debut went largely unnoticed.

It's a shame, because despite the typical first- album flaws, Aquamosh is a pretty solid album, perfect for aimless summer days. There are the obvious comparisons to Beck to be made, especially with the Mellow Gold production team of Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf at the controls, but Beck can't rock the house as convincingly and fiercely as Plastilina Mosh. Party- pumpin' numbers like "Nino Bomba," "Monster Truck" and "Afroman" are edgy but not humorless, keeping one foot on the dance floor and one in the mosh pit. Beyond that, Plastilina Mosh's surprising musical range shines through in moments such as the extended jazz- piano coda of "Banano's Bar," "Encendedor"'s impression of Blur covering Korn, and oddest of all, a space- age bachelor- pad tune called "I've Got That Milton Pacheco Kinda Feeling," featuring vocals by French- by- way- of- L.A. chanteuse April March. As an album, Aquamosh never really gels, but there's enough here to indicate that Plastilina Mosh could rise above flavor- of- the- month sounds and create a something unique and equally cool on their next outing.

Tracklist
1. Niño Bomba
2. Afroman
3. Ode To Mauricio Garces
4. Banano's Bar
5. Monster Truck
6. Encendedor
7. Bungalo Punta Cometa
8. Aquamosh
9. I've Got That Milton Pacheco Kinda' Feeling
10. Pornoshop
11. Savage Sucker Boy
12. Mr. P. Mosh

Download Link!!

Cheers.

Throughout this post, *'s indicate key tracks.

Mindless Self-Indulgence - Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy

Released: 2000
Label: Elektra / Wea
Genre: Ummm.... They defy classification. Maybe they're electrothrash or something.



01. Backmask[*]
02. Bitches[*]
03. Boomin'
04. Clarissa
05. Cocaine and Toupees
06. Dicks Are For My Friends
07. F
08. Faggot[*]
09. Futures
10. Golden I
11. Harry Truman
12. Holy Shit[*]
13. I Hate Jimmy Page[*]
14. I'm Your Problem Now[*]
15. J
16. Keepin' Up With The Kids
17. Kick The Bucket
18. Kill The Rock
19. Last Time I Tried To Rock Your World
20. London Bridge[*]
21. M
22. Masturbates
23. Planet Of The Apes[*]
24. Played
25. Ready For Love
26. Royally Fucked
27. Seven-Eleven[*]
28. Step Up, Ghetto Blaster
29. Whipstickagostop
30. Z

OK. So, my collection of music for this upload begins with these guys. While some folks hold that their live show is the only saving grace this band has, I feel that the albums have their own worth, and this album finds the band at their most "focused." It goes all over the fucking place, Jimmy Urine has the single most random vocal range EVER, and yet it seems to find a wonderful medium between going too far and going WAY too far. In case you can't tell from the track titles, the lyrics are extremely offensive to most normal people, but that's part of the fun of the band. I really can't describe just how great this album is in its utter randomness, so just get it.

I love my mommy 'cuz she fucked my dad.

Argyle Park - misguided

Released: 1995
Label: R.E.X.
Genre: Synth-heavy Industrial



01. ReFuGe
02. HeAdscRew[*]
03. agonY
04. fuTILe
05. SCarrEd FoR liFe[*]
06. A burDens foLLy
07. CirCle
08. LEave ME aLONe[*]
09. VIOLENT
10. DieseL
11. GUTTERbOY (iamiam)
12. og
13. MISanthROPE[*]
14. Skin Shed[*]
15. Skin Shed[*]
16. Skin Shed[*]
17. DOOMsayer
18. uFFern
19-25. Silent
26. Phone Call
27-28. Silent
29. Vocal Noises
30-33. Silent
34. DOOMsayer reprise

A great history of the band, and a much better one than I could write.

A side project of Christian industrial musicians Klay Scott from Circle of Dust, Buka, and LeVeL (from their own projects (not quite sure what Buka's done asides from this)), this is heavy, pissed off, synth-industrial. Think Front Line Assembly, and you'll have the idea. Before you go "oh God, this is Christian," keep in mind that the Christian industrial scene was just as angry as about anyone else who made Industrial in the 90's. These people were hurt and abused, and while they are Christians, they get mad and pissed off just like everyone else.

This was a big thing, with collaborations from kLaNk (from Circle of Dust and his own band,) Jim Thirlwell (!) (from Feotus,) gyro (from Mortal and Fold Zandura,) Dirk Lemmons (from Stavesacre,) jEFF bELLEW (of Stavesacre and CHATTERbOX,) and Tommy Victor (from Prong (!)) among many others. There's some great rediculously fast guitar work in HeAdscRew, and Skin Shed is a 3-part epic. All in all, a great damn album.

Welcome to my home of escape, my refuge.


Diamandia Galas - Plague Mass

Released: 1991
Label: Mute U.S.
Genre: Avant-Garde Vocal



01. There Are No More Tickets to the Funeral/Were You a Witness (I)
02. There Are No More Tickets to the Funeral/Were You a Witness (II)
03. There Are No More Tickets to the Funeral/Were You a Witness (III)
04. This Is the Law of the Plague
05. I Wake Up and See the Face of the Devil (I)
06. I Wake Up and See the Face of the Devil (II)
07. Confessional (Give Me Sodomy or Give Me Death)
08. How Shall Our Judgment Be Carried Out Upon the Wicked
09. Let Us Praise the Masters of Slow Death
10. Consecration
11. Sono l'Anticristo
12. Cris d'Aveugle/Blind Man's Cry
13. Let My People Go
14. There Are No More Tickets to the Funeral

This is challenging stuff right here. This lady has a NINE-OCTAVE vocal range and she leaps all over the fucking place. This is a live recording from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City or a piece she wrote to protest against the treatment of AIDS patients. It may seem unimportant nowadays, but something about her wailing is so disconcerting as to wake you up to the fact that people are still dying from the Disease. There's no asterisks because this album deserves to be listened to as a whole for the full effect.

Oh, and during the 10th track, she stripped to the waist and poured lamb's blood all over her. This is a Satanist mass in the Paradise Lost sense of the word: protesting against overly pious religious figures who prosecute what they feel is wrong while still remaining true to your own personal sense of religion.

GIVE ME SODOMY OR GIVE ME DEATH


Celldweller - Celldweller

Released: 2003
Label: Position Music
Genre: Genreless Industrial



01. Cell #1
02. Switchback[*]
03. Stay with Me (Unlikely)
04. The Last Firstborn[*]
05. Under My Feet
06. I Believe You
07. Frozen[*]
08. Symbiont[*]
09. Afraid This Time[*]
10. Fadeaway[*]
11. Cell #2
12. So Sorry to Say
13. Own Little World
14. Unlikely (Stay with Me)
15. One Good Reason
16. The Stars of Orion
17. Cell #3
18. Welcome to the End[*]

Man, I suck at reviewing the albums that I really REALLY REALLY like. Seriously. Just get this and, if you watched movies at all, you'll recognize bits of Cell #1 and Switchback from the Spiderman 2 trailers. The Last Firstborn is an utter genre-fuck in and of itself, going from full out techno to dance-metal to rock in the course of its 7 minutes. Just give it a shot, cuz it's good fun.

Ain't OK, I've got no way to switchback.


György Ligeti - György Ligeti Edition 5 - Mechanical Music

Released: 1997
Label: Sony Classical
Genre: 20th Century



01-05, 07-17: Adaptations for Barrel Organ
01. Continuum (Barrel Organ)[*]
02. Hungarian Rock
03. Capriccio No. 1
04. Invention
05. Capriccio No. 2

06. Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes[*]

07-17: Musica ricercata[*]
07. I. Sostenuto - Misurato - Prestissimo
08. II. Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale
09. III. Allegro con spirito
10. IV. Temp de Valse (poco vivace - (a l'orgue de barbarie))
11. V. Rubato. Lamentoso
12. VI. Allegro molto capriccioso
13. VII. Cantabile, molto legato
14. VIII. Vivace. Energico
15. IX. (Bela Bartok in memoriam) Adagio. Mesto - Allegro maestoso
16. X. Vivace. Capriccioso
17. IX. (Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi) Andante misurato e tranquillo

18-24: Arrangements for Player Pianos
18-23: Études pour piano
18. X. Der Zauberlehrling
19. IX. Vertige
20. XI. En suspens
21. XIII. L'escalier du diable[*]
22. XIVa. Coloana fara sfarsit
23. VII. Galamb borong (2 Player Pianos)[*]

24. Continuum (2 Player Pianos)[*]

This is one of my FAVORITE 20th century composers. He's the only one of them who does really odd shit while still maintaining a sense of listenability, unlike many of his contemporaries. This is mostly arrangements of his music that he feels a human doesn't do total honor to what he originally intended (although I've heard an amazing recording of a harpsichordist playing Continuum that kinda defeats that in my mind,) but both the player pianos and barrel organs allow him to have an exactatude in tempo and length of notes that would be impossible for a human player to duplicate.

Of most importance in this is the arrangement of his most famous piece, Musica ricercata. If you've seen Eyes Wide Shut, you know the second movement. What he did with each one of these peices was add a note each time he began a new movement, so the first movement consists of only 2 notes, C and G; the second has 3 notes, F, F#, and G, the third has 4, and so on, until the final movement with all twelve notes in the chromatic scale.

The other (and quite possibly the best single track) track of importance is the Poeme Symphonique. If you think that listening to 100 metronomes ticking will give you a headache, you'd be mistaken. It has the effect of mechanical rain, almost, and as it goes on, you start hearing patterns within the music. Ligeti said that he wrote it as an experiment in entropy, and if you know the physical theory, it really makes sense. I'm not going to go into that. Anyways, enjoy.

The most talented of the "wierd" composers in the 20th century


Frank Zappa - The Man From Utopia

Released: 1983
Label:
Genre: General Zappa fun



01. Cocaine Decisions[*]
02. SEX[*]
03. Tink Walks Amok
04. The Radio Is Broken[*]
05. We Are Not Alone
06. The Dangerous Kitchen[*]
07. The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou (Medley)
08. Stick Together
09. The Jazz Discharge Party Hats[*]
10. Luigi And The Wise Guys[*]
11. Moggio[*]

Steve Vai-era Zappa, and really good shit, at that. tracks 4, 6, and 9 are fucking HILARIOUS, and the rest of the album is just sonic gold. I don't really feel like reviewing a whole hell of a lot, just grab it and have fun.

You look like a double-dork butt-rash


Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For the Money

Released: 1968
Label:
Genre: Zappa meets psychidelica



01. Are You Hung Up?
02. Who Needs the Peace Corps?
03. Concentration Moon
04. Mom & Dad
05. Telephone Conversation
06. Bow Tie Daddy
07. Harry, You're a Beast
08. What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?
09. Absolutely Free
10. Flower Punk
11. Hot Poop
12. Nasal Retentive Calliope Music
13. Let's Make the Water Turn Black
14. Idiot Bastard Son
15. Lonely Little Girl
16. Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
17. What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body? (Reprise)
18. Mother People
19. Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny

From the Label:

"This is it, kids: The ultimate stab at hippiedom, the flipside to SGT. PEPPER, the album that didn't leave a single pretense of the counterculture standing. Can it be mere coincidence that the '60s ended within a few years of this album's release?

From its Beatles parody cover design to the lyrical barbs on "Flower Punk" and "Who Needs the Peace Corps?," this was aptly described by Rolling Stone (who picked it as one of the top 100 albums from 1967-1987) as "perhaps the most mercilessly derisive raspberry ever flung at the rock scene by an actual participant therein." The finale, "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" still stands as one of the more audacious pieces of composition in the Zappa catalogue.

When WE'RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY first appeared on CD in 1986, Zappa took the controversial step of technically spiffing up the music with new, digitally-recorded bass and drum tracks. Some fans responded with a resounding "Thanks, but no thanks." Here, the original Verve master has been restored. "

Ahem: It's so wonderful, and it's absolutely hilarious. Just about everything the label (the rykodisc reissue) says is wonderfully true.

I'm Jimmy Carl Black and I'm the Indian of the group


Failure - Fantastic Planet

Released: 1996
Label: Warner Brothers / Wea
Genre: Post-Grunge Rock



01. Saturday Saviour[*]
02. Sergeant Politeness
03. Segue 1
04. Smoking Umbrellas
05. Pillowhead[*]
06. Blank[*]
07. Segue 2
08. Dirty Blue Balloons[*]
09. Solaris
10. Pitiful
11. Leo[*]
12. Segue 3
13. The Nurse Who Loved Me[*]
14. Another Space Song
15. Stuck On You[*]
16. Heliotropic
17. Daylight[*]

Wow. Just wow. A rediculously underrated rock album from the 90's that I've only in the past year heard of, thanks to A Perfect Circle's cover of The Nurse Who Loved Me. Now, while I love APC's version of that song, Jesus Christ, the original is a MILLION TIMES BETTER. There are very few songs that I can listen to on repeat for hours on end, and this is one of them. It's just that good. Extremely frank lyrics about sex, life, and drugs, the use of a HELL of a lot of ring-mod distortion (!!,) and some great ambient soundscapes within the songs just make this an absolute joy to listen to. Get it now.

I only wanna be your Saturday saviour

Ciao.

Regina Spektor - Live at Bull Moose EP
2005 :: Warner Bros. :: Anti-Folk



1. Ain't No Cover
2. Carbon Monoxide
3. Pound of Flesh
4. The Noise
5. My Man

Download here

This EP is a personal favorite of mine. Ms. Spektor's work is always fantastic, and this is no exception. The first two tracks don't do much for me (I much prefer "Carbon Monoxide" on Soviet Kitsch) but the last three are exemplary examples of her work. "Pound of Flesh" is my personal favorite song on the EP.


LUNA SEA - EDEN
1993 :: J-rock



1. Jesus
2. Believe
3. Rejuvenescence
4. Recall
5. Anubis
6. Lastly
7. In My Dream
8. Steal
9. Lamentable
10. Providence
11. Stay

Download here

This is as J-rock as you can get. Takes itself very seriously, and is very much ROCKIN'. That's all I can really describe it as, really.

Cheers.

Hope of the States - The Lost Riots
Year: 2005
Label: Sony Music Entertainment (UK)
Catalogue #: 517264 2
Genre: Folk Rock, Post Rock, Indie Rock (?)



1. The Black Amnesias
2. Enemies / Friends
3. 66 Sleepers to Summer
4. Don't Go To Pieces
5. The Red the White the Black the Blue
6. Black Dollar Bills
7. George Washington
8. Me Ves y Sufres
9. Sadness on My Back
10. Nehemiah
11. Goodhorsehymn
12. 1776

Simply put, I love this album. Probably one of my favourites ever. I don't really know what to say, so I'll stick an AMG review here:

Hope of the States lost one of their best friends during the recording of The Lost Riots. They could have given it all up to mourn the loss of founding guitarist James Lawrence, but their dedication to one another and to their music could not be disregarded. The majestic soundscape that is The Lost Riots honors the band's personal bond and cherishes the memory of their late friend, but that's merely a stepping stone. Sam Herlihy's bittersweet vocal delivery during the piano-driven ballads "Don't Go to Pieces" and "Sadness on My Back" matches the heartache previously displayed by Starsailor's James Walsh. He's even a touch like Richard Ashcroft, a working-class poet in progress much like Ashcroft was during his latter years with the Verve. With their tragic loss aside, there's a lilting sense of comfort surrounding the 13-song set. Hope of the States compose a youthful, rebellious spark found in those who raise a fist against corporate establishment. The dynamic of love and loss will never rest, and it bursts with a millions fibers and a few tears as Hope of the States channel their frustration for the man versus man equation. Herlihy's heavy-hearted voice and Mike Siddell's atmospheric violin arrangements during "Enemies/Friends" immediately set the anthemic tone of The Lost Riots. Words as simple as "Come on people/keep your friends close/your enemies won't matter/in the end" makes it all seem so easy. Hope of the States encourage those people to take a stand against anything that challenges faith. It's just their sharp, yet sensitive approach that makes The Lost Riots emerge honest and true. Even the more ambitious numbers like "The Red the White the Black the Blue," a downpour of acoustic guitars, pianos, and percussion, and the old-timey jangle "George Washington" don't come off as pretentious or overly earnest. It's likely that Hope of the States are firm in questioning a bullying United States, but the songs are open-ended enough so that they could be about anything to anyone. Genuine sincerity is the key to their success, and The Lost Riots breaks apart the darkness of personal tragedy for a joyful daybreak. Herlihy softly croons "I've seen from broken people smile" at the start of "Black Dollar Bills." If that's not enough to impress you, the soaring exclamation of "Nehemiah" is promising. The double-cross of emotions holds The Lost Riots together, thus making Hope of the States' first introduction an impressionable one.

http://www.axifile.com/?6384158
http://rapidshare.de/files/20673153/HotS_2.rar.html

Ciao.

Sasha - Fundacion NYC
Label: Fundacion
Year: 2005
Genre: Experimental/House



DOWNLOAD LINK

1. Rise of the Machine
2. Four Squares
3. Another Way (Richard Davies Mix)
4. Tides (C's Movement #1) (Carl Craig mix)
5. Innocent Thoughts (Stel Remix)
6. All That Matters
7. One, Two, Three (Ewan Pearson remix)
8. 99 & A Half (I:Cube remix)
9. Come To Me (Last Version)
10. Come To Me (Club Mix)
11. Jah
12. Behind The Wheel (DJ KICKS ELectroca$h Mix)
13. Electromagnetic (Tiefschwarz Dub)
14. One, Two, Three (Ewan Pearson Remix)
15. Safari (James Holden Remix)
16. Blacklight Fantasy
17. Strict Machine (We Are Glitter Mix)
18. Don't Save Us From The Flames (Superpitcher remix)

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

Wax will always have its place of honor, but MIDI controllers, laptops and other forms of technical wizardry continue to inspire DJs throughout the land. In 2004, one of the world’s most popular, Sasha, performed extended aural surgery on his Involver release, molding ten tracks into a softer, vaguely ambient, yet still lethally danceable mélange. But live, the studio tricks didn’t translate with such panache. So he built his own tool, a box of circuits, knobs and processors he calls MAVEN, and took it for a test run on Fundacion. The result, ironically, will make you forget all about the fancy gadgetry, since that’s not the side of the brain that involves motor function. More house-oriented and playful, this is Sasha’s most overtly dance floor-oriented release since 1999’s Ibiza. 17 tracks are thoroughly diced and sliced, served up hot with sides of electro ("Electromagnetic") and driving pop (the album-ending one-two punch of Goldfrapp and M83, for instance). Say what you will about DJs without turntables, but no matter how innovative the means, the end goal remains the same: delirious crowds and late-night bliss. In a world where music has broken up into tiny digital pieces, astute artists like Sasha are only adapting. --Matthew Cooke (Amazon.com)

I was actually at the record release party at the Avalon in Los Angeles for this album and while the disc itself may sound like the utmost electronical wailing and beat mixing, it is truly an awe to watch a tall skinny English guy mixing all this stuff on a Mac with on stage whilst hundreds of coked-up and drunken club goers jumping loops around the beats. Truly one of the most awesome musical experiences in my life.


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Everything But The Girl - Like The Deserts Miss The Rain
Label: Atlantic
Year: 2002
Genre: Trip-Hop/Techno



DOWNLOAD LINK

1. My Head Is Only House Unless It Rains
2. Rollercoaster
3. Corcovado
4. Each And Every One
5. Before Today [Chicane Remix]
6. Mine
7. Protection
8. Single [Photek Remix]
9. Tracey in My Room [Lazy Dog Bootleg Vocal Mix]
10. Missing [Todd Terry Remix]
11. Almost Blue
12. No Difference
13. Cross My Heart
14. Mirrorball
15. A Piece Of My Mind
16. Walking Wounded

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

The British duo Everything But The Girl has had a strange career. They've been around almost two decades enjoying the barest of mass success in the States, although they are quite popular in their native England. The duo have gone from a folky/acoustic pair to a smoky jazz/funk Sade knockoff to a trendy lounge/dance act, all the while spotlighting the smooth yet tormented vocals of lead singer Tracey Thorn, arguably one of the best pop music voices of the past two decades. This collection-named after a line from their only major U.S. hit ("Missing")-while not a proper "Greatest Hits" album, contains some of the duo's best work.

Cheers.

zZz - The Sound of zZz
Label: Howler
Year: 2005
Genre: Experimental



DOWNLOAD LINK

1. O.F.G.
2. Ecstasy
3. Lalala
4. House of sin
5. Hammerhead
6. Soul
7. Lucy
8. Sweet sex
9. Godspeed
10. Uncle Sam
11. Roses

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

OK. So this isn't your standard-issue rock-and-roll joint. zZz is a Dutch band that has pretty much blended a unique sound by melding their organ and drums. That's pretty much it; these cats are a two-man sonic army. To achieve this kind of sound using only their respective instruments is quite a feat and they prove that their sound is worth its salt. There's not much else I can say about their high energy sound except that it has to be experienced to be believed.

Ciao.

Bill Hicks - Rant in E Minor ( recorded in 1993 & released posthumously in 1997, Rykodisc, Stand-up Comedy )




Track Listing:

1. Fevered Egos
2. Easter
3. Gideons
4. People Suck
5. Pro Life
6. People who hate People
7. Non-Smokers
8. Gifts of Forgiveness
9. Purple Vein Dick Joke
10. Confession Time ( COPS )
11. Wax Dart
12. I'm Talking To the Women here
13. You're Wrong Night
14. A New Flag ( Patriotism )
15. Gays in the Military
16. I.R.S Bust
17. Politics in america
18. Quiet Loner
19. Artistic Roll Call
20. Orange Drink
21. Save Willie
22. Deficit ( Jesse helms )
23. Rush Limbaugh
24. Time to Evolve
25. waco ( Koresh )
26. The Pope
27. Christianity
28. Seven Seals
29. One of the Boys ( Clinton )
30. Car bomb Derby
31. The Elite
32. Love List ( No Future)
33. Back to the Garden
34. Your Children Aren't Special
35. Wizards have Landed
36. Lift me lord

overview:

Rant in E-Minor is the comedy equivalent of an Ingmar Bergman film. This posthumously released CD is so brutal, bitter, pessimistic, and honest that it is a very difficult task indeed to listen to it. Recorded most likely while he was going through chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer in 1993, Bill Hicks must have sensed the end was near for him. Like John Coltrane's wailing saxophone on "Interstellar Space," Rant in E-Minor seems to exorcise the burden of life from Hicks' body, while simultaneously reaching a level of passionate intensity rarely matched. That being said, Hicks spits out words like shards of glass, bound to lacerate anybody in his audience. While some may laugh, his bits about Jay Leno ("Artistic Roll Call"), Jesse Helms ("Deficit"), and Rush Limbaugh are sadistically cruel. His bleak notions include totalitarian world rule ("The Elite") and the loss of artistic integrity in American pop culture ("Fevered Egos"). Anybody who is anti-abortion, Catholic, or Republican is bound to be offended by this spitefully honest and slanted material. In listening to this disc, you will laugh as Hicks takes comedy to its most extreme boundaries, but you will also be saddened at the lack of optimism in his life at the time it was cut short. While listening to this man, who was so filled with bitterness, loneliness, and pessimism, one must realize that he was quite unlike any other comedian, because night after night he unleashed his convincing, but idealistic vision of the world on his audience. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that he ever got to live in it.

Bill Hicks, one of the gods of stand-up

Acid mothers Temple - Does the Cosmic Shepard Dream of Electric Tapirs? ( 2005, Space Age Rec, Pscyhedelica )



Track Listing:

1. Daddys Bare Meat
2. Suzie Sixteen
3. Hello Good Child
4. The Assassin's Beautiful Daughter
5. Dark Star Blues
6. The Transmigration of Hop heads

Overview:

If there's one word to describe the music of Acid Mothers Temple, it's consistent. If you take the time to buy one of their records or to go see them live, you already know what you're in for: spaced-out music that's got a lot of weird moments but features loud guitars mixed with pretty guitars and noise mixed with long, long, looooooong jams and equal devotion to beauty and noise. Temple guru Kawabata Makoto has been making this music for decades, but his approach to his creation always sounds fresh. So, yeah, you're going to get what you paid for, and you already know what's in store, but it's an amazing testament to his talent that his music never sounds repetitive.
Thus, you really have no reason to be disappointed with the latest Acid Mothers Temple offering, Does The Cosmic Shepherd Dream Of Electric Tapirs?

From the opening blasts of "Daddy's Bare Meat," you'll get that blast of rock, with some excellent yelping from Cotton Casino, who has since left the band. "Suzie Sixteen" is a little number that's best described as silly; imagine a punk group taking a 50's pop song and making grunting noises instead of vocals. It doesn't sound quite that juvenile, of course, but it does produce a smile or two. Then there's the gentle folk of "Hello Good Child" and "The Assassin's Beautiful Daughter," which is then blown away by the wild ride of "Dark Star Blues" and "The Transmigration of Hop-Heads." These jams--I don't like jam sessions, but Acid Mothers Temple have a knack of making me forget that dislike--are amazing, mindblowing and everything you've come to expect from these folk.

One of the more easily accessible AMT albums

Acid mothers Temple - Mantra of Love ( 2004, Alien8 rec, Psychedelica )



Track Listing:

1. La le Lo
2. L'Ambition Dans Le Miroir

Overview:

This is where it all starts to get strange and beautiful. While it's true listeners have come to expect the strange from Acid Mothers Temple, this is indeed a new phase of recording for them. For starters, it's the final album of the Mothers with Cotton Casino (who not only sings but plays "beer and cigarettes," too). There are two tracks here that total an hour. Given that, the average punter(though Mothers heads tend to be anything but "average") may be thinking, "Oh, it's more of that cosmic supersonic freakout stuff, and who needs another one of those?" Well, that's wrong — and right. First, "La Le Lo" is a snaky, hunted, long droning modal thing with Casino chanting the verses over and over again as the band dips and winds, crawls and walks to the middle section, where all hell breaks loose and the synth comes careening from the stratosphere into the middle. But the cut never loses its melodic sense; it remains "a song," beautiful and haunting, and only its tension changes from languid and relaxed to speed freak and then unravels slowly and purposefully to reach its starting point once more, like a Möbius strip. "L'Ambition dans le Miroir" also begins as a minor-key ballad, a song with an improvised intro of Tibetan bells, synth fluctuations, and sonic modulation (great in headphones). The guitars slowly enter, the space sounds float and hover in the center of the mix, and the chords become their own chant, fluctuating ever so slightly as drums and bass prod them forward. Casino's vocal — and her own backing vocal tracks — seem out of kilter, along the changes but apart from them, slipping and swooping the words over and through the band's progressions, trancelike, until the tune erupts and opens up into an entirely new psychedelic universe of oblivion and emotion. This is music for transcendence, for travel, for memory, for dancing yourself into a whirling ball of chaos governed by centrifugal force and humming all the while, until the Acid Mothers once more bring you back to the place of drone and drift, gently, almost whispering into silence.

A Lush vibrant yet tranquile album and a fitting end to Cotton Casino's career with AMT collective

Cheers.

Originally Posted by el jacko

I fear Björk and Belle & Sebastian may be too mainstream for something about music exposure but both of these albums aren't played too much on Last.fm and I'm simply enjoying them that much. Of course, I have more of all three artists if people are interested.

do you happen to have the album "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" by Belle & Sebastian? i've heard it's a good one... and i loved the one you posted

Ciao.

Voxtrot - Raised by Wolves



Tracklisting:
1. Voxtrot - Raised By Wolves
2. Voxtrot - The Start Of Something
3. Voxtrot - Missing Pieces
4. Voxtrot - Long Haul
5. Voxtrot - Wrecking Force

Overview:
I feel this album deserves a listen. Maybe it's not the best album in the world. Maybe it might sound like typical album number 350187 by a typical 20s some band with good production. But damn, it's enjoyable album. Track 2 is the standout here, with it's contemplation on a new relationship. It's jumpy giddiness makes it fun track to listen to, but it's not the only one worth listening to. I guess the whole feeling of excitement is mirroed throughout the entire EP and slowly ends on a softer not with the Wrecking Force. However, this EP feels like it was borrowed from a multitude of artists. The Strokes, Lucksmiths and Joy Division all seem to evident in this EP. This doesn't detract from it's overall enjoyment factor. So, give it a shot.

Voxtrot - Raised by Wolves

Cheers.

Dragon Ash - Harvest

Label: Jvc Victor
Year: 2003
Genre: Rock/Pop

Tracklist:
01 Intro 0:58
02 House of Velocity 4:30
03 Posse in Noise 4:33
04 Revive 4:33
05 United Rhythm feat. 43K, EIG 4:16
06 Byakuya 1:13
07 morrow 4:24
08 Landscape 2:34
09 Art of Delta 0:56
10 Mob Squad (RITMO ACELERADO rmx) 4:12
11 Episode 4 feat. SHUN, SHIGEO 4:58
12 Massy Evolution 4:25
13 Day 6 0:27
14 Fantasista 4:30
15 Canva 4:33
16 Gymnopedie #1 2:45
17 Harvest 6:36

Album Review (source):
Dragon Ash finally pleases all J-pop fans with their high hitting new album after a period of no less than 2 years without a major release!

All the more reason for you to listen to their latest creations that include such tunes like "House of Velocity", "United Rhythm", "Landscape" & "Fantasista" among many other tracks that are all waiting to be played by your CD player!

Download Link:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2SEQD5VO

Ciao.

Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen ( 1972, Ohr, Kraut Rock )



Track Listing:

1. Light and Darkness : Light - Look at Your Sun
2. Light and Darkness : Darkness - Flowers Must Die
3. Suche and Liebe

Overview:

Ash Ra Tempel's second album featured the first of several personnel changes, Klaus Schulze having departed for other realms and replaced as a result by Wolfgang Muller. A few guest players surfaced here and there as well, with one John L. taking the lead vocals — another difference from the self-titled debut, which was entirely instrumental. The general principle of side-long efforts continued, though the first half was split into two related songs, "Light" and "Darkness." "Light" itself sounded halfway between the zoned-out exploration of "Traummaschine" and bluesy jamming, a weird if not totally discordant combination that still manages to sound more out there than most bands of the time. Gottsching's fried solo, in particular, is great, sending the rest of the song out to silence that leads into "Darkness." Said song initially takes a far more minimal approach that bears even more resemblance to "Traummaschine," fading out almost entirely by the third minute before a full band performance (including Uli Popp on bongos and Matthais Wehler's sudden alto sax bursts) slowly builds into a frenetic jam. John L.'s vocals become echoed screams and yelps not far off from Damo Suzuki's approach in Can, and the overall performance is a perfect slice of Krautrock insanity, sudden swirls of flanging and even more on-the-edge solos from Gottsching and Wehler sending it over the top. "Suche & Liebe" takes up the entire second side, the performers this time around concentrating on the quiet but unsettling approach, Gottsching's massive soloing kept low in the mix but not so much that it doesn't freak out listeners. The song concludes on an almost conventionally pretty band jam, something that could almost be Meddle-era Pink Floyd, only with even a more haunting, alien air thanks to the wordless vocal keening.

Ash Ra Tempel's Finest work

Windir - Arntor ( 1999, Voices of Wonder, Black/Folk Metal )



Track Listing:

1. The Beginning
2. Artnor, the Warrior
3. The Burial Mound of King Hydnes
4. The Blacksmith and the Troll of Lundamyri
5. The Struggle
6. The Longing
7. Ending

Overview:

I bought this CD based solely on the cover art and a couple of briefreviews that compared it favorably to bands like Thyrfing and Mithotyn. I'm glad that I did, too, as this is an excellent slab of black/folk/Viking metal that deserves way more attention than it has thus-far received.

Windir is the creative result of one man, a certain Valfar. Though he enlists the talents of a few session players to handle the drums and clean vocal bits, Valfar delivers guitar, bass, synths, accordion(!) and 'screams.' The latter he delivers in full, with some of the grimmest black metal screeching I've heard in a while. If the whole album were confined to this style, it might prove a bit much, but he does a great job integrating it with the clean style of the session vocalist.

"Byring" is an enchanting instrumental that kicks of Arntor, blending simple keyboard work with some folky accordion playing for a truly unique (and effective) sound. "Arntor, ein Windir" breaks the spell with its brutal yet melodic assault of black metal. Valfar's vocals rip and shred while the music retains its keen folk feeling. Like most of the tracks here, the drums and guitars speed along at dizzying speed, while the keyboards tend to follow a more sedate path, forming the real hook of each song.

Another highlight is the mid-tempo "Kampen," which features an inspired rhythm and clean vocals that put me in mind of Falkenbach. This tune also sports an unusual break halfway through, with the guitar going off on a different riff and the distorted bass pounding out a menacing pulse behind it.

I wish I could say more about this band, but I do know that Valfar has released one other Windir CD prior to this one, so I guess it is time to start looking for that one, too. Arntor is truly a class album from start to finish - excellent production (courtesy of Pytten and Grieghallen), beautiful cover art, a thorough lyric sheet (which also includes English translations of everything, even the album's credits), and some damn fine song-writing.

If you dig black metal stylings mixed with some more adventurous folk elements, Windir will not disappoint.

one of Windir's best albums. R.I.P Terje ”Valfar” Bakken

Sun City Girls - Torch of the Mystics ( 1990, Majorca, Indie Rock )



Track Listing:

1. Blue Mamba
2. Tarmac 23
3. Esoterica of Abyssynia
4. Space Prophet Dogon
5. The Shinning Path
6. The Flower
7. Cafe Batik
8. Radar 1941
9. Papa Legba
10. The Vinegar Stroke
11. Burial in the Sky

Overview:

Torch of the Mystics represents the pinnacle of the first phase of the Sun City Girls. A concise, pinwheeling album that captures the band's pure commitment to emotional transcendence through music, the 11 songs here fly off into the netherworld of ethnic avant-garage rock with startling clarity. The band had never fully explored the Middle Eastern tones accumulating in their brains as they did on this 1990 masterpiece, nor had they been as clearly and smartly recorded as they are here: guitarist Rick Bishop's tone slices, drummer Charlie Gocher is wider than he has ever been, and bassist Alan Bishop rumbles with an ominous ferocity. Songs like the pile-driving "Esoterica of Abyssynia" sound like your radio has leapt into a dreamy foreign astral plane of its own volition. "Space Prophet Dogon" is a dance of the seven veils as played by the freaked-out Mothers of Invention, while "Radar 1941" crash-lands in the middle of Egyptian Top 40 as imagined by "Count Five." Every track contains a shimmering melodic phrase or haunting undertone that the Girls mine like pure manna, and the occasional bursts of delirious chanting still summon goosebumps on the listener's skin. Every argument made for the greatness of the Sun City Girls has its roots in this platter, and if you have never understood what the fuss is all about or if you ever needed something to convince you of their (deservedly) sterling underground reputation, this is the original testament.

Probably the greatest Indie album of the early 90's

Acid Mothers Temple - Univers Zen Ou de Zéro à Zéro ( 2002, Fractal, Psychedlica )



Track Listing:

1. Electric Love Machine
2. Ange Mécanique De Saturne
3. Blues Pour Bible Noire
4. Trinité Orphique
5. Soleil De Cristal et Lune D'Argent
6. Untitled Hidden Track

overview:

Puzzled by this album's title? It belongs to Acid Mothers Temple's list of "tribute titles," although this time it doesn't reference Jimi Hendrix or Frank Zappa. Univers Zero was a key developer of avant-garde chamber rock and took part in Chris Cutler's Rock in Opposition movement in the late '70s (check out the group's AMG biography for more). Is there any link between UZ and the music on Univers Zen Ou de Zéro à Zéro? No, not the least bit. This album stands as one of AMT's strongest realizations, simply because it covers a lot of musical ground in exciting ways and with good enough studio sound to satisfy a selective listener without killing the trashy feel of the music. The album begins with a frantic space rock jam, "Electric Love Machine." It propels a heavy guitar riff into interstellar space Hawkwind style — i.e., without making a single pit stop and with plenty of synth sweeps. "Soleil de Cristal et Lune d'Argent" (Crystal Sun and Silver Moon) is more nuanced, starting from almost nothing, building into a jam frenzy (listen to it on headphones; there are a lot of instruments buried under the guitar drone), coming apart and starting over for an orgiastic finale. "Ange Mécanique de Saturne" (Saturn's Mechanical Angel) is a trippy guitar-and-voice number, anticlimactic and haunting. "Blues Pour Bible Noire" will enrage any blues purist: For 20 minutes it kicks around a simple 12-bar motif drenched in echo and avant rock guitar solos. The album ends on an unannounced piece of strange vocalizing, adding that Dada touch fans of the group love. In an already crowded discography, Univers Zen manages to crawl its way to the top as one of AMT's most representative albums. If you were looking for a place to start, you found it.

Considered by many AMT heads to be the Definitive Album

Scientist - Heavyweight Dub Champion ( 1980, Greensleaves, Reggae Dub )



Track Listing:

1. Seconds Away
2. Straight Left
3. Upper Cut
4. Kidney Punch
5. Saved By the Bell
6. Right Cross
7. Jab
8. One-Two
9. Below the Belt
10. Knock Out

Overview:

At the ripe old age of 20, Scientist was working with "Junjo" Lawes, and came up with this stunner, a sinuous groove party with cartoonlike special effects (lots of bongs and boings like pans hitting one another, blips and squeals that sound like a Pac-Man game). All the "song" titles are references to boxing (a motif that Scientist was obviously mining for all it was worth), and all are great individual bits of dub sound that cohere into a meaningful whole. As it says on the LP jacket, "This ya a youthful sound fe come mash y'down." I couldn't agree more.

One of the greatest and funnest Dub albums ever recorded

The Red Krayola - The Parable of Arable Land ( 1967, Collectables, Psych Rock ) & God Bless the Red Krayola & All Who Sail With It ( 1968, International Artist, Psych Rock )

Note: This is a double Album Comp and contains both of the above mentioned albums.



The Parable of Arable Land Track Listing:

1. Hurricane Fighter Plane
2. When the Ride Is Over You Can Go to Sleep
3.Transparent Radiation
4. Red Signs Out-Side, Which I Contain
5. War Sucks
6. You Remember What Happened to Hansel and Gretel
7. Pink Stainless Tail Seven Guest Are Quiet Now
8. And Now Not Half So Much
9. Parable of Arable Land
10. Free Form Freak-Out
11. Former Reflections Enduring
12. Doubt I Pass in a Rain That Is Always Too

Overview:

The Red Krayola's debut remains their most celebrated/notorious effort. Although this was categorized as psychedelia when first released, it's more like futuristic avant-noise-rock. Thompson's flighty songs about hurricane fighter planes and transparent radiation are almost submerged by a cacophony of "free-form freakout" noise created on kazoos, flutes, harmonica, hammer, jugs, bottles, sticks, and more by a large ensemble of friends dubbed the Familiar Ugly. It's quite a daring statement for its day

God Bless the Red Krayola & All Who Sail With It
The Red Cra Track Listing

1. Say Hello to Jamie Jones
2. Music
3. The Shirt
4. Listen to This
5. Victory Garden
6. Coconut Hotel
7. Sheriff Jack
8. Free Piece
9. Ravi Shankar Parachutist
10. Place For Piano and Electric B
11. Dairymaid's Lament
12. Big
13. Leejol
14. Sherlock Holmes
15. Dirth of Tilth
16. Tina's Gone to Have a Baby
17. Save the House
18. The Jewels of the Modonna
19. Green Of My Pants
20. Night Song

Overview:

A far gentler, though equally quirky, album as their maiden effort. The Krayola's second record was a series of odd miniatures that, though far more restrained than Parable of Arable Land, was a much more solid indication of the direction Mayo Thompson would explore over the next few decades. These are less "songs" than stream-of-consciousness fragments. Thompson's wavering, quizzical voice intones disjointed but evocative lyrics that may appear to be non sequiturs. Odd time meters and musical shifts do their best to defy conventional rock song structures. It's not very poppy, no, but if the description sounds foreboding, be assured that as experimental rock goes, it's far warmer and friendlier than the norm.

One of the greatest Indie bands of the 60's, although highly forgotten nowadays.

Cheers.

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
(10/88, Geffen, Experimental/Art-Punk/Alternative)


Tracks:
1. Teen Age Riot
2. Silver Rocket
3. The Sprawl
4. 'Cross the Breeze
5. Eric's Trip
6. Total Trash
7. Hey Joni
8. Providence
9. Candle
10. Rain King
11. Kissability
Trilogy:
12. The Wonder
13. Hyperstation
14. Eliminator Jr.


AMG Review

If I were to ever descrive any of my uploads as "essential", this would be the one. Sonic Youth, the gods of guitar noise, were somehow able to refine their sound and distill the best elements of their music down into this album. This work seems to somehow encapsulate so much into its 70 minutes, from the driving Punk blasts of "Silver Rocket" interrupted by a massive wave of noise and feedback, to the monolouging and repetitive musings on consumerism of "The Sprawl", to the beautiful guitar patterns that give way to a crunchy, atonal slam that eventually works its way back to bouncing riffs and wonderful vocals on "Candle", to the quartet performing RATM's entire catalouge before it was even written on "Trilogy: Eliminator Jr." (you have to hear it to believe it). And throughout, the flow somehow works marvelously between the lengthy anthems and excrutiatingly-planned crash-landings of noise and sound. This masterpiece of the late 80s has quickly become one of my favorite albums, and you should give it a proper try as well. Give yourself some time to fully "get" this one - it grows on you, as does all truly great music.


Daydreaming days in a Daydream Nation

Ciao.

CunninLynguists - A piece of Strange (2006)

1. Where Will You Be?
2. Since When
3. Nothing to Give
4. Caved In - C-Lo, , Cunninlynguists, Cunninlynguists, Cee-Lo Green
5. Hourglass
6. Beautiful Girl
7. Inhale (Interlude)
8. Brain Cell - Cunninlynguists
9. America Loves Gangsters - Cunninlynguists,
10. Never Know Why - Cunninlynguists, Cunninlynguists, , Immortal Technique
11. Gates - Cunninlynguists, Cunninlynguists, Tonedeff
12. Damnation (Interlude)
13. Hellfire
14. Remember Me (Abstract/Reality) - Cunninlynguists
15. What'll You Do? - Cunninlynguists
16. Light - Cunninlynguists

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Simply one of the best hiphop album to come out this year. Anyone digging in hip hop will not be dissapointed by this. You have my word.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=M2S9KEBD

Cheers.

LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
(2005, Alternative)



Track List:
CD 1
1. Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
2. Too Much Love
3. Tribulations
4. Movement
5. Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up
6. On Repeat
7. Thrills
8. Disco Infiltrator
9. Great Release

CD 2
1. Losing My Edge
2. Beat Connection
3. Give It Up
4. Tired
5. Yeah (Crass Version)
6. Yeah (Pretentious Version)
7. Yr City's A Sucker

A review better than one I could write.:

Source = http://www.artrocker.com/reviews/albums/albums25.shtml

Infectious grooves of "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" are rippling across the nation just like an army of symmetrical robots stomping across the M25.

It's got its claws in you and won't let go until its left you drained, wrecked and partied out. Its pushing an agenda of minimalist bass plucking and incessant Mark E. Smith "-eh" exclamations. The Fall garrotting vocoder led dancefloor fillers, then.

Slasher movie creaking doors interrupt "Too Much Love" and its monotone vocals. "Tribulations" has flu-like catchiness entwined in its tune. Busted couldn't have wet dreamt up a more chartworthy track.

Suddenly we do a U Turn into real blasting rock and roll-eh with the astounding "Movement". Monument demolishing is a complete requirement to thrashing out this blinder.

A half blink of one optical sensor sees the Zutons teleporting in and revelling in the down-tempo quirkiness of "Never Tired as When I'm Waking Up". Three note guitar lines abound as James Murphy indulges in a Beatles bootleg ending. It's fantastic 'n all, wrapped up in early seventies vibes so far removed from this decade it may as well have been a transplant.

"On Repeat" reminds us of 2003 when The Rapture ruled the world after borrowing Murphy's cowbell. "Thrills" burrows a bee into our collective ear and lets it angrily buzz there for three minutes. "Disco Infiltrator" sounds like dance music saviour Mylo. Final track "Great Release" betrays a Coldplay experiment gone right.

That's just Disc 1.

Disc 2 slows things down considerably but is worthy of being included with this awesome album.

You can flick through this album and think each cut was someone else. Not literally another artist but a compilation of up and coming new artists. They may remind you of someone else, but you realise, simultaneously, that James Murphy is just carefully stripping away sounds other people have used and attaching them to this Frankenstein like creature he has brought to life.

It sounds unstoppable. It looks unshaven. It demands you to wake up and smell the fumes of a dying new century. It is garage rock in retreat as a sizable new motherfucker turns up to wreck the place and start its own party. Like Daft Punk playing in all our houses.

Brad Barrett

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Fetish Chicken - Dinosaur Pilgrimage
(2006 - Indie Rock)



Track List:


I believe given the artist name, you can figure out what sort of album this is. Some songs go from quiet and serene to hard rock and screaming very quickly. It has a somewhat distorted feel to it, and features random conversation in the background on occasion. If you're inot thinkgs that sound ridiculous in a good way and has a fairly unique way to it, then you should download this. Hell, you should probably download this simply for your musical education.

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Ciao.