dredg - connect sets (acoustic ep)

download: dredg - connect sets (acoustic ep)

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thurston moore - sensitive/lethal

.:: American fringe music boasts no figurehead as prominent or as potent as Thurston Moore: The multimedia mogul of independent rock, Moore still leads Sonic Youth after nearly three decades, runs a record label with worldwide distribution, writes poetry, reviews records in Arthur, scribes liner notes, recently co-authored a handsome hardback on the history of no wave, wrote trenchantly about Finnish hardcore last year for The Wire, and managed to narrate a straight-edge documentary for National Geographic. Oh, and if you have a guitar and a pedal around, he'd probably be super fucking stoked to do a little collabo later this afternoon. pitchforkmedia.com

After last year's amazing 'Trees Outside The Academy' - his second album of solo songwriting - Thurston Moore takes a major look back into the noise arena with Sensitive/Lethal, an incredible three-part study in raw sound matter, utilising electronics and both electric and acoustic guitars.

It's Thurston's unplugged activities that probably prompted the otherwise entirely ironic title 'Sensitive' for the first piece: buried under a maelstrom of extravagant feedback and yelping oscillator modulations a mantra-like open dreadnought chord lays down a foundation of clean, crisp steel string sounds, jangling excitedly like the beginnings of some unholy raga.

After twenty-two minutes of this oddly beguiling punishment, the tone changes for 'Lonesome', a magnificent four-minute blast of stereo feedback cycles, sounding not unlike certain interpretations of Steve Reich's swinging mic piece 'Penduluum' - Sonic Youth's own version on Goodbye 20th Century springing most obviously to mind. Finally, 'Lethal' is a markedly less easily digested production, spewing forth analogue noise in all its myriad colours, with pure voltage controlled carnage in one ear and lacerating guitar in the other.

There's still plenty of detail spread across the stereo field to make the piece an immersive listen though; after all, this isn't authored by just any old bedroom-bound tape jockey, but rather one of the founding fathers of noise rock and the modern American underground, so frankly it'd be surprising if this wasn't one of the very best noise albums of the year so far. Which it is, by the way.

Sensitive/Lethal proves that Thurston Moore's far from done finding ways to wrangle sound from his guitars, and that any fear of him relaxing as he ages is likely unfounded. The album's not going to scare most listeners as much as Moore did the young lady on the album's cover, but Thurston's still no stranger to aggressive sound, as evidenced here in spades. With his vast discography, this release might not signify one of Moore's absolute best, but it's a more than ample sign that he's in no way ready to let the kids have all the fun.



download: thurston moore - sensitive/lethal

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kayo dot - blue lambency downward

.:: Multi-instrumentalists Toby Driver and Mia Matsumiya lull you into a dream state with a small cavalcade of instrumentation, plying an almost noir sensibility at once moody and contemplative, bristling and demure. An unclassifiable masterpiece.

Sounding somewhere between the avant garde lounge music of groups like Pram or Tom Waits and the progressive New York scene that has embraced groups like Time of Orchids and Colin Mastron's slew of project Kayo Dot have skillfully traded their rigid sense of dynamic build-ups for the more ambient and psychedelic side of "Dowsing".

It seems if one thing is clear with "Blue Lambency Downward" it is that Driver will finally be able to shrug off the shadow that his previous band, maudlin of the Well has cast on his career thus far. The album is devoid of any "metal" sections and instead of using heavier sections as the basis of the sound the group has decided to flirt with their more melodic side.

.:: For an initial impression it’s a good place to start, but any attempts to lump Kayo Dot in with some of the more fashionable acts peddling experimental music at the moment would be a mistake.

The ethereal guitar chords and chant-like vocals on opener ‘Blue Lambency Downward’ are far more indebted to vintage Italian horror soundtracks and the prog-rock of King Crimson than anything put out by the current Brooklynite noise brigade. read on (this is indeed a good review).


download: kayo dot - blue lambency downward

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the british expeditionary force - chapter one a long way from home

.:: The British Expeditionary Force bring to mind the sweet Scandinavian sounds of Efterklang or Mum. This is pop music, reframed and re-imagined as electronica, and taking influence from the muddy mire of indie music on the way, so it's not hard to work out that the two members of the band are old hands at production.

In the red corner we have Justin Lockey, founder member of Mycodenameis:Milo and producer of such beastly projects as Enter Shikari among other things, and in the blue corner vocalist Aid Burrows, better known as the frontman of Fierce Panda band My Architects.

The music featured on 'Chapter One : A Long Way From Home' is the most unusual to ever come from this camp. It's indie music for people who want a little more for their money, pop music for people getting bored with pop or electronica for those of you who don't mind some vocals slapped about over the glitches and pads, and somehow it works. While the record isn't totally successful it leaves you with a warm glow, perfect for this time of year I'd say... boomkat.com


download: the british expeditionary force - chapter one a long way from home

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entertainment for the braindead - hypersomnia

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.:: Hypersomnia is the self-released, handmade first album from Julia Kotowski aka Entertainment For The Braindead. Hailing from Cologne, Germany this 21 year old singer/songwriter bring us 13 fragil but direct songs, full of a complex simplicity and layers and layers of tiny lo-fi sounds that remind the same atmosphere and kindness reached by acts such as Juana Molina.

entertainmentforthebraindead.com


download: entertainment for the braindead - hypersomnia

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tertium auris - vox stridens

.:: Recorded, arrenged and created by a pianist and choir-orchestra conductor, Voz Stridens is a sound experiment based on vocal sounds with no other instrument. You may think "ok, this is going to be/sound like opera or something". Well my dear friends i'm glad to tell you that you're wrong.

According to artists's own words:
I think the voice is the most powerful instrument since it is inside of us own, mirror of ourselves.
I think that at a production level the vocal sound is the most direct from our thoughts.
We can gain control of our own tool.
We can understand the difference between hear and listen.
We can unify the two.
In my personal idea of sonorous space the irrevocable decision to give my electroacoustic compositions only human voice audio samples became increasingly convincing to me.

To achieve this release, I used predominantly personal voice sounds, made using overtone singing technique, sometimes vocal sounds of my wife Elizabeth (she is an opera singer, her voice is on "Cyclus"), of a little girl with brain disease (on "Vox Mentis"), of a dolphin and a whale (on "Vox Mentis"). Any other instrument was not used.

It it important to know that no compressor or limiter tool was used in the post-editing phase. Each song is based on one to three sample at most, each of which was analyzed and then digitally processed. All derived from the original takes, and stacked in multitrack.


download: tertium auris - vox stridens

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r.e.m. - accelerate

.:: In the decade since the departure of drummer Bill Berry, R.E.M. could seem at times schizophrenic. Their albums of the era, which veered from the experimentalism of Up and reaffirmation of Reveal to 2004's more diffuse, reflective Around the Sun, often stood in stark contrast to the vibrancy of their live act. But here the alt-rock godfathers have resolved that dichotomy with their most focused and satisfying album in over a decade; a collection that doesn't so much revisit the bracing ethos of the band's '80s coming-of-age, as boil it down to its essence and supercharge it with the energy of their contemporary stage shows.

That sensibility is evident from the opening track, "Living Well's the Best Revenge," where Peter Buck's aggressive, distortion-drenched riffs and Michael Stipe's gruff snarl set the tone for "Mansized Wreath," "Horse to Water," and "Supernatural Serious"; rockers that bristle with the abandonment and aggressive energy of a band half their tenure. Yet it's no mere blast-from-the-past. The inclusion of the band's recent touring musicians (Scott McCaughey on second guitar and drummer Bill Rieflin) into the session mix, as well as working out much of the material live onstage in Dublin, has yielded something more sonically akin to R.E.M. 2.2.

Stipe's penchant for the lyrically opaque has been largely supplanted by an edgy, articulate passion that variously explores "Houston'"s displaced Katrina refugees, the bluegrass-tinged "Until the Day is Done," and the more typical, quiet self-examination of "Hollow Man," before exploding in the album's unlikely, upbeat elegy "I'm Gonna DJ," where singer and band find renewed hope in not only music, but themselves.

.:: Accelerate is the first studio album by that post-Berry stage band, and it is one of the best records R.E.M. have ever made. Much of Accelerate was cut in live-band takes and even tested onstage during a run in Dublin last summer, and it shows. Guitars are front and center, in slashing-chord and rusted-arpeggio crossfires, as if you've got R.E.M.'s 1982 EP Chronic Town and the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks spinning in your CD tray at the same time. "Man-Sized Wreath," "Supernatural Superserious" and "Horse to Water" rattle and zoom like buried treasures from an old club-tour set list. And there is nothing soft or shy about the slower darkness either. In "Houston," a stark snapshot of post-Katrina exile ("If the storm doesn't kill me/The government will"), crude fuzz drones and ham-fisted organ chords roll over Buck's acoustic guitar and the fighter's will in Stipe's voice ("I was taught to hold my head high. . . . Make the best of what today has") like oily floodwater.

But the R.E.M. on Accelerate is also the one I saw at New York's Madison Square Garden right after 2004's Vote for Change Tour — and two nights after Bush's re-election. Bummed but unbowed, they opened the show with loud, fast defiance — "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" — and they do the same thing here, with "Living Well Is the Best Revenge." "Don't turn your talking points on me/History will set me free/The future is ours, and you don't even rate a footnote," Stipe sings in a rapid, ecstatic near-shout over flying fists of guitar and racing bass and drums. And that's just the start of the blowback. "Nature abhors a vacuum/But what's between your ears?" he snaps in "Man-Sized Wreath," a bitter laugh at empty pomp and sound-bite patriotism, aimed at sheep and herders alike. And whoever "Mr. Richards" is, he gets his just desserts — "Mr. Richards, your conviction/Had us cheering in the kitchen" — served with Buck and McCaughey's bristling-glam guitars.

Stipe has not sounded this viscerally engaged in his singing and poetically lethal in his writing since the twilight of the Reagan administration. But he is not merely protesting the mess of the nation. Accelerate is total-victory rock, Stipe making promises he knows he can keep — "You weakened shill . . . Savor your dying breath" ("Living Well") — because he's not alone. The apocalypse is obvious in "Sing for the Submarine," an urban-holocaust update of Crosby, Stills and Nash's hippie-escape plan "Wooden Ships." So is the strength in numbers. "It's all a lot less frightening/Than we would've had it be," Stipe insists, as Mills swoops way behind him in guardian-angel harmony. (Mills' vocals, too often taken for granted, are frequent literal high points on the album, the reassuring sunlight on Stipe's gritty delivery.) And in "Hollow Man," Stipe concedes his own needs and fuck-ups, then calls for help — "Corner me and make me something" — in a stunning mix of tender-piano ballad and big-guitar chorus that sums up the commitment that makes true loves, democracies and great rock bands possible.

Ultimately, the best thing about Accelerate is that R.E.M. sound whole again, no longer three-legged but complete in their bond and purpose. "Music will provide the light you cannot resist," Stipe crows at the end of the record, in the atomic frivolity of "I'm Gonna DJ." And you can believe him — because he and his band believe in themselves again. -- rolling stone


download: r.e.m. - accelerate

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mary shelley overdrive | 3 free albums

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.:: Columbia, SC-based band Mary Shelley Overdrive has made two albums available today as free downloads.
The band made a splash earlier this year with an impromptu collection of covers titled Hideous Sexy. Released the same weekend as Bo Diddley’s death, the album featured a cover of his classic “Who Do You Love,” described by New York Magazine as a “muscle-bound goth dirge.”

Hideous Sexy was a collection of cover songs recorded during the creation of the band’s self-titled LP, released September 24, 2008. Hideous Sexy has been available as a free download at the band’s website, www.maryshelleyoverdrive.com, since May.
Joining that album today are two more EPs — Shock Theatre, and Bride of Shock Theatre. Both are also posted as free downloads.

Shock Theatre is a re-mastered version of the band’s first EP, originally posted for download a year ago today. It has since been discontinued but, after the release of Hideous Sexy, the band was hit with requests to make their earlier effort available again to the public.

When the band finished its self-titled LP, they returned to the studio and recorded seven new songs in a week. Titled “Bride of Shock Theatre,” it’s a collection original compositions peppered with covers of tunes by Blue Oyster Cult, New Math and Bauhaus.

“It’s got a rushed, impromptu sound that I like,” said singer Mark Wood. “It sounds very ‘live.’ We didn’t do many takes or spend much time obsessing over details.”

I love these guys !!!


download: mary shelley overdrive - hideous sexy
download: mary shelley overdrive - shock theater
download: mary shelley overdrive - bride of shock theater

pass (Hideous Sexy):MSOhs+88
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oxomaxoma - espíritus en rojo y negro

.:: Here's another awesome album from the great mexican band Oxomaxoma. This is such a rare album, really hard to find son enjoy it. Enjoy !!!

download: oxomaxoma - espíritus en rojo y negro

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the octopus project + black moth super rainbow - the house of apples & eyeballs

.:: "The House of Apples & Eyeballs" is not a split, but a year-long, full-length collaboration by both bands. The Octopus Project is known and loved for their uncategorizable broken-guitars-meet-samplers-meet-drums-meet-drum machines sound, while the musical island of Black Moth Super Rainbow would rather play their songs in the woods and not let you know if their gear is broken or working just fine.

Holding hands from Austin to Pittsburgh, they set out to create one of the wilder pop records of the year. For anyone familiar with both bands, may you find yourself at peace with this dream record. But know that not all is as it seems, and the challenge of figuring out which band played which parts may sometimes be impossible.

While a couple tracks did make it to the record in their original, one-band form, most were passed back and forth for several rounds of dismemberment, rearrangement, and augmentation. The result overflows with sonic treats: cut-up beats and vocoder melodies collide with huge, distorted riffs. A theremin orchestra descends into layered steel guitars before all is dissolved in a wash of hazy synths.


download: the octopus project + black moth super rainbow - the house of apples & eyeballs

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cranes - forever

.:: Having reached a new level of variety and elegant restraint combined with brusque power on Wings of Joy, the foursome continued exploring such combinations on Forever without simply rehashing the previous album. If anything, the album went to extremes in both directions -the quieter moments were even more hushed and shadowed, the louder points all that much more whipsnap cruel. "Cloudless" remains the album's most sweetly beautiful, truly haunting moment.

Over what sounds like a synthesized combination of plucked violin and keyboards, doubtless played by Jim Shaw, sister Alison delivers a softly husky vocal that slowly grows in strength. More synth strings swell up in the background, just enough, followed later by gentle electric guitar and at the end distant drums.

On a completely different tip, there's "Clear," its searing, blunt lead guitar line matched by a massive rhythm slam, only occasionally interrupted by a quieter moment or two before launching back into the full band attack. "Jewel" ended up being a surprise U.K. and U.S. hit, though thanks to a somewhat transformed remix courtesy of longtime fan Robert Smith (in fact, Forever takes its name from a Cure rarity of the same title).

.:: just for the record:
Early on in their recording and performing career, the music of Cranes borrowed from both the industrial/avant-garde, deconstructive style of bands such as Einstürzende Neubauten, and the ethereal labyrinths of acts like Cocteau Twins. Following a general softening of their sound, the introduction of pop elements to their music, and a world tour with The Cure in 1992, the band's popularity increased, and peaked with the release of the albums Forever and Loved.

The band fell silent for a period of approximately four years after the release of Population 4 in 1997, but did not actually break up. In the early 2000s, they began writing music again, and released Future Songs and Particles and Waves on their own label, Dadaphonic. These albums signified a change in the overall style of their music, emphasising its ambient, ethereal qualities. Despite heading in a more electronic direction, however, the band's music continued to revolve around Alison Shaw's distinctive singing.


download: cranes - forever

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r.e.m. - chronic town

.:: Chronic Town is the debut EP by the american "unknown" rock band R.E.M., released in 1982 on I.R.S. Records. Chronic Town is the first illustration of R.E.M.'s signature musical style: jangling guitars, chords played in arpeggio, murmured vocals, and oblique lyrics.


download: the inventors of aircraft - unknown language

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risser mazur duo - élan vital

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.:: One more great collaboration to enjoy by Rafal Mazur. 23 minutes of complexe mutant structures and magical interaction between bass and piano exploration.

Eve Risser: Grand Piano
Rafal Mazur: Acoustic Bass Guitar

Recorded in concert, 21.06.2008, Centre of Contemporary Arts, Krakow.
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Rafal Drewniany "Dzwiek to Sztuka/Sound
is Art" mobile recording studio.

Edited as 50 8''cdr with hand-made cover.


download: risser mazur duo - élan vital

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the divine comedy - victory for the comic muse

.:: One of the most critically acclaimed acts to emerge in the UK during the '90s. Mixing a bit of Serge Gainsbourg with Noel Coward, Morrissey and Ray Davies, The Divine Comedy sound like no-one else and remain a musical quilt that continues to grow with each release.

The Divine Comedy, a nom de chamber pop for Northern Ireland-born singer/songwriter Neil Hannon, has traipsed through several musical wardrobes since 1989-- jangle-pop, eccentric Britpop mini-orchestra, Nigel Godrich-guided introspection-- but despite sporadic UK chart appearances and a 2002 U.S. tour with Ben Folds, critical acclaim has yet to usher in popular acceptance. The Divine Comedy's constants are a Wildean wit with an apposite sense of style, and they persist on extravagant ninth album Victory for the Comic Muse.

It's a pity that such similarly sharp-minded social observers as Evelyn Waugh and Bernard Shaw don't have more platinum records. At least there are always MySpace friends.


download: the divine comedy - victory for the comic muse

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alice in chains - mtv unplugged

.:: Out of the dozens of MTV unplugged performances there were two that stuck out in my mind as the best. The number two spot goes to Eric Clapton. An excellent show by the guitar marksman. But the number one in my opinion would be the Alice In Chains Unplugged. By far the best, this performance shows no matter how far down from the top you think you are, some of the best can come out it.

Take Layne Staley for example, the period of time when he was seriously losing the battle against drugs (particulary heroin) he comes out of the dark and puts on a spectacular once in a lifetime performance. Just when you think Alice In Chains are gone and lost, April 1996 comes by.

There's alot of humor in the performance as well as interactive comments with the crowd, particulary after messing up on the first take of 'Sludge Factory', an audience member yells "hey, quit f---in this up!" Even Layne's attempt at humor early in the show saying "Now we're going to break to, uh, an LL Cool Jay video, so" was kind of funny. Overall it was a great show.

Is Alice In Chains done? Or do they have another chapter to write in their incredible history? All I know is, the 400 people in attendence to this concert sure were lucky. That's all I have to say about that.


download: alice in chains - mtv unplugged

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youth group - casino twilight dogs

.:: Picking up where they left off from "Skeleton Jar", Youth Group fans will be assured once again of more incredible song writing. The first taste from their third album is the stand out 'Catching & Killing' and from here on in the music just gets better and better.

The band achieved double platinum sales and an Australian #1 single in March 2006 with "Forever Young", before playing Coachella and undertaking a hugely successful support slot on Coldplay's trek down under.

Produced by Wayne Connolly (The Vines, You Am I), and mixed by Rob Schnapf (Elliot Smith, Guided By Voices), Casino Twilight Dogs is the follow up to last year's critically acclaimed Skeleton Jar, a work of shimmering beauty full of heart, debuted at #10 upon release in Australia and has already achieved gold status there.


download: youth group - casino twilight dogs

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el senor ciuf ciuf - as seen from above

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.:: Hello everybody, you have to give a try to this fantastic album… a must have !!!

Just check the first song "I Feel Like A Clean Blackboard": along with his mates Matteo Mohorovicich at sax & clarinet and Daniele Dalla Pellegrina at trumpet, Oliviero Farneti creates a surprisingly catchy and slightly surrealistic pop-song that knows about dance-music, lo-fi indierock and jazz (!).

Bet you'll whistle this one when you leave the house. "We The Ants" sucks you in with his beautiful warm guitar-riffing. This song didn't leave my head for weeks! It ends with a little free-jazz woodwind-intermezzo. Stunning. "I Think I Saw A Dead Person Walking Yesterday" expands olivieros sound-cosmos back to the sixties- these sweet vocal-harmonies in the middle make you think of The Beach Boys immediately.

Along with cheap synth-melodies, noisy wall-of-sound guitars and the trademark-woodwinds of Matteo and Daniele, by the way. "Demons", song seven, introduces the housy bassdrum and could have fit on the last Gorillaz-album without a problem. "The Unspeakable Chant Of A Collapsing Universe" afterwards exactly sounds like this: about nine minutes of psychedelic kraut-pop build on a small repetitive synth-motive. El Senor Ciuf Ciuf waves hello to the early Flaming Lips.

This description might sound a little weird, indeed. But: the album doesn't! Although there are a lot of genres in the mix, Oliviero's melodies, his voice and his sound of lo-fi homerecording hold it all together.


download: el senor ciuf ciuf - as seen from above

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skitsystem - ondskans ansikte 10"

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.:: Skitsystem certainly didn’t care about aesthetics or perfectionism on this release, instead opting to belt out chaotic and fuzzy, yet catchy, hardcore influenced metal, or vice versa… or punk. The songs are direct and in your face, leaving little room to relax. It’s evident that these guys gathered into the studio with beers.

Oddly enough, this album featured two members of At the Gates (you know who they are), was recorded in the same studio on said bands time and used the same gear, yet managed to not even sound at all like ATG. That’s nice. They clearly weren’t trying to ride the coat-tails of the more popular band and were simply and plainly having a good time. The guitars are fuzzy, sorta thrashy, and the bass is fucken low on top of some fast drumming. The vocals are spat with aggression and halitosis in a not too subtle shouty way that I found to be enjoyable for some weird reason.


download: skitsystem - ondskans ansikte 10"

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okkervil river - the stage names

.:: "Their fourth full-length may also be Okkervil River's most conceptually gnarled work to date, as frontman Will Sheff's intricately detailed lyrics leap from the ornate to the blunt, encompass philosophical inquiries and goofily playful riffing, invite the listener into confidence only to con them. With a voice both poetic and toughly slangy, these songs are equal parts high-concept filigree and low, street-level kicks; they're both artistically ambitious and refreshingly unpretentious."

This record dynamites the moss-covered castle walls of 2005's "Black Sheep Boy" to let in the glaring sun. Riddled with characters real and fake, with the relics of high culture and the crumpled up trash of low culture, "The Stage Names" is a cinemascopic take on the meaning of entertainment in the modern world.

Reverberant with echoes of Motown snap and girl group pop, redolent with ripe whiffs of dirty rock 'n' roll, shining with the shimmy of Bo Diddley, with the shimmer of the Velvets, with the swagger of the Faces, and with a glittery sprinkling of cheap perfume to disguise the stink, "The Stage Names" is a relentlessly paced and ruthlessly thrilling journey.

This is the sound of a band at the height of their powers, effortlessly making good on their earlier promise long after the point where they remember or care that they even made that promise in the first place.


download: okkervil river - the stage names

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pedro the lion - achilles heel

.:: David Bazan, the driving force behind Pedro the Lion, hasn't reached Jay-Z's level of material success, and even fans of Pedro the Lion's work might not recognize Bazan's name outside of the context of his band.

Recorded in his home studio near Seattle, Achilles Heel enlists previous collaborator TW Walsh, along with fellow Jade Tree label mates James McAlister and Ester Drang. The album jumps off with "Bands With Managers", a catchy, ironic song reminiscent of a slowed down Grandaddy ditty that seems inspired by a run-in Bazan had with an arrogant lead singer or actual manager.

Achilles Heel is filled with a few deviations from Pedro the Lion's previous style. For example, long-term fans will wonder at the higher falsetto with which Bazan sings, and speculate if he is attempting to emulate the success that groups like Coldplay have found recently. But for the most part, Pedro the Lion continue to mine the rich vein of material they've been concentrating on from the beginning.

Much of Achilles Heel focuses on Bazan's attempt to hold his relationships together no matter the cost. His relationship with God, his wife and himself all bend under the strain, but he'll break his bones holding them together. Ultimately, Bazan continues to sound more like a distillation of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and The Counting Crows' Adam Duritz than the latest flavor of pop star.

Bazan uses the context to separate himself from other groups that are so obviously "going places", using the occasion to posture that his relationship with longtime contributor T. William Walsh is far more important than getting to open for U2 on their next stadium tour. Lyrics like "But I trust T. William Walsh and I'm not afraid to die" are a testament to friendship and loyalty that Bazan takes more seriously than the trajectory of his career.

Somehow a band that existed in a foundation of Christian indie rock found an audience with songs that dredge the banks of the river misery. Would the achievement destroy the very fabric that made Pedro the Lion great: poignant, somber songs about Bazan's moral struggle with faith, marital fidelity, and the reason to keep going in this life?


download: pedro the lion - achilles heel

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waiting room - la estulticia del cognicidio

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.:: Edited under Creative Commons License (CC) "La estulticia del Cognicidio" is one of the best albums I've ever listened from a spanish band (dont forget Ekkaia). These collection of songs are based on improvisation and experimentation.

Although, Waiting Room was conceived as an instrumental band, they recently added some human voices (catalonian and english lyrics) without losing their warm, delicate sound.


download: waiting room - la estulticia del cognicidio

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kurregomma - 8bitconnection

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.:: Broken rhythmic, blurry poems, epileptic fillings: this is the language chosen to commemorate the relationship between the existence of men and machine, programmed to explore the hidden shadows of suffering: ignorance.

8-bit connection is a furious descent into an aseptic hell from the heretic unbalanced cables.


download: kurregomma - 8bitconnection

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sam king - two

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.:: Prodigal painter and sometimes musician, Sam King (Fire Don’t Care’s guitarist and singer) bring us his second solo album "Two", a collection of indie pop bedroom songs that reside on the hi-fi end of the lo-fi spectrum.

Consisting of nothing but his voice and acoustic guitar, this set of captivating, haunting folk songs is simply perfect and beautiful.

Who needs bells and whistles when songs are this strong and the voice is this perfect?. Folk is reinventing itself and, as the Kings of Inconvenience's first album announced, "quiet is the new loud."


download: sam king - two

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caribou - the milk of human kindness

.:: The first record after changing the band's name from Manitoba (before a threatened lawsuit from a similarly-named artist caused the switch to the similarly-Canadian Carobou), Dan Snaith delivers a heavy set of his most developed music to date, touching on influences as distinct and impressive as Neu! and Soft Machine. Full of life and tasteful production/instrumentation, this art record's got antlers, though still progresses like a more delicate animal.

The songs that will jump out a first time listeners, however, are the ones where Snaith makes the transition from organic samples to a more simple band performance, but while the compositions mark a major shift in his musical approach, they still remain true to the Caribou sound.

The leisurely five-minute jam "Bees" centers around a relaxed '60s garage/blues rock groove, complete with cool touches, such as a memorable recorder solo, only to be briefly interrupted by string samples and more of Snaith's thunderous drum fills.

The warm "Hello Hammerheads", meanwhile, is straightforward, late '60s folk pop, the plaintive acoustic guitar and layered vocal harmonies greatly resembling both Simon and Garfunkel and Nick Drake.

Although The Milk of Human Kindness sounds more stripped down, its simplicity is deceiving, as Snaith has drawn from a much wider musical palette that he ever has in the past.


download: caribou - the milk of human kindness

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spirit elevating brains - pulsos temporales memorias estables

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.:: Pulsos Temporales Memorias Estables' is the second album from SEB here at test tube and this time he made it even bigger than the previous one.

Twenty tracks of SEB's trademark 'digital nostalgia' style of clicks 'n' cuts and weird sampling. After a couple of listens, it's clear that Sebastian has been refining his sound. He's more precise and to-the-point when he tries to capture an emotional essence into a track or simply by telling us a story.

Most of his new tracks are also smaller and more effective, like a new engine model that consumes less but takes you farther. Some of this tracks work a bit like interludes of sort, filling the gaps between heavier, denser and more mesmerizing ones.

In the end, Sebastian Alvarez offers us 20 wonderful tracks for us to dream about metaphorical titles and the unknown dimensions that inhabit his mind. Have a nice trip.


download: spirit elevating brains - pulsos temporales memorias estables

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crash test dummies - god shuffled his feet

.:: Hailing from Winnipeg, Canada, with its dense, richly textured production and the distinctive baritone vocals of Brad Roberts, the Crash Test Dummies are ready to crash this party.

The band, which is considered a mainstream pop act in Canada, developed a modest following in the States following the release of its 1991 debut album, The Ghosts That Haunt Me. On God Shuffled His Feet, the band departs from its acoustic roots and heads toward an alternative sound, with a crisp rhythm section and supremely over-dubbed guitars and keyboards.

The fact that the production on the album (which was recorded in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin) is flawless is not surprising, considering that Jerry Harrison (of Talking Heads fame) was at the helm.

Basically, It's a great album with catchy lyrics and tunes. The quirkyness is missing for music nowadays.


download: crash test dummies - god shuffled his feet

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scott joplin - the entertainer

.:: Scott Joplin (between June 1867 and January 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American musician and composer of ragtime music. He remains the best-known ragtime figure and is regarded as one of the three most important composers of classic ragtime, along with James Scott and Joseph Lamb, and also a precursor to Stride Piano. Decades after his death, his music enjoyed a considerable surge of popularity and critical respect in the 1970s, especially for his most famous composition, "The Entertainer." wikipedia

He combined the traditions of Afro-American folk music with nineteenth-century European romanticism; he collected the black Midwestern Folk rag ideas as raw material for the creation of original strains. Thus, his rags are the most heavily pentatonic, with liberal use of blue notes and other outstanding features that characterize black folk music.

In this creative synthesis, . . . the traditional march became the dominant form, and the result was a new art form, the Classic rag – a unique conception which paradoxically both forged the way for early serious ragtime composition, and, at the same time, developed along insular lines, away from most other ragtime playing and composing.

After his death, Joplin's music and ragtime in general waned in popularity as new forms of musical styles, such as jazz and novelty piano, emerged. However, a number of revivals of ragtime have occurred since. Scott Joplin created many different styles of ragtime and made it what it is today.


download: scott joplin - the entertainer

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london after midnight - selected scenes from the end of the world

.:: Los Angeles goths London After Midnight open this, their debut CD, with a provocative sample from one of Hitler's speeches. Whether it's meant to shock or educate or both, it's one of the few moments of drama on this otherwise fairly straightforward disc of glam-manqué death rock.

Songwriter, instrumentalist, producer and founder Sean Brennan is known for his strong stances in favor of animal rights, pro-environmental and human rights issues, anti-corporate control of media, and support for progressive and liberal politics.

London After Midnight began performing live in Los Angeles in the early 1990s at the legendary club Helter Skelter, which also hosted bands like Nine Inch Nails and many others. The live band immediately began to draw large crowds and always had elaborate stage settings including stage props that could have come from the Universal Studios' back-lot.

Needless to say the extreme stage settings attracted as much attention as LAM's music, which soon grew in popularity. So much so that the original four song demo cassette tape released in 1991-1992 was the hottest selling item in Hollywood's trendy Melrose Ave indie record stores, even beating out new releases from Duran Duran and other major label artists.

For 2 years the most sought after item Los Angeles area club kids searched for in LA area independent record stores was the LAM cassette tape. Signs hung in record store windows proclaiming "yes we have LAM's tape IN STOCK". Stores from as far away as Australia ordered multiple shipments of the tape each month to meet demand.



download: london after midnight - selected scenes from the end of the world

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jimmy page & the black crowes - live at the greek

.:: Jimmy Page, one of rock music's greatest guitarists combined with The Black Crowes, one of today's best live bands, delivers ripping Zep classics.

Recorded in October 1999, this double-disc slab will certainly stick to your ribs, chock-full as it is of burly, brawny riffs, and it is as flavorful as it is filling. Without question, the pairing of Page and the Crowes sounds as strong on your player as it does on paper.

Page's playing is more focused and incisive than it has been of late, the Crowes sound energized and inspired by the esteemed guest, and Chris Robinson makes a fine Robert Plant. The Zep covers, which account for 14 of the 20 tracks, stay close to the original arrangements--you can sing along most of the way based on your knowledge of the Zep studio albums.

Zeppelin fans are going to go three ways on "Jimmy Page [ tickets ] and the Black Crowes Live at the Greek": those who want anything that smoking Jimmy lays his axe to; those who heard that these two October 1999 shows were the best thing in rock since medical marijuana and want to hear what it was all about, finally; and that little group of naysayers who just might be onto something when they say, "Why not just listen to the original Zeppelin albums?"

Track by track, there's plenty of screaming soloing by Page, who blasts out his devil-take-the-hindmost blues on "Woke Up This Morning," works the slide soulfully on the rocking "In My Time of Dying," and cuts himself a nice slice of the wah-wah pie on "Ten Years Gone," one of the more interesting Zeppelin tunes that the Crowes homed in on.

THIS IS ROCK BABY !!!


download: jimmy page & the black crowes - live at the greek (disc 1)
download: jimmy page & the black crowes - live at the greek (disc 2)


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circle of dust - disengage

.:: Circle of Dust - the 90's cult industrial act, released it's final record (Disengage) in 1998 before Klayton retired the act to pursue other ventures.

Originally released in 1998 on Flying Tart Records, but barely noticed due to inadequate distribution and both label and distro tanking quickly thereafter, a Limited Edition (only 1000 made) version was re-issued by Retroactive Records October, 2005.

Not only do fans get the Disengage album, but another entire album's worth of bonus tracks, i.e. Refractorchasm, which fills out the disc, making it a twofer. It was digitally re-mastered and features enhanced artwork. This was the last album ever released by the most influential Christian gothic industrial metal band ever.

Later Scott Albert (aka Klay Scott, Klayton, and Celldweller) would go on to release mainstream albums by Angeldust, and most recently Celldweller. Expect pounding, aggressive gothic industrial metal full of angst and dissatisfaction with the status quo. For fans of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, HIM, Argyle Park, Klank, Ministry, and Prong.


download: circle of dust - disengage

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