Swans - White Light From the Mouth of Infinity

Some more soul-devouring Swans for your enjoyment.

plot of knives

Similar - EP (2009)

As requested by my buddy Ariel, here's a little music by some of our close friends from Puerto Rico. In the same vein as bands such as Dinosaur Jr.

EP available at their site:

www.soysimilar.com

The In-Kraut - Hip Shaking Grooves Made In Germany 1966-1974

Vol. 1

Vol. 2

Vol. 3

RZA - Birth Of A Prince

This one here is for the Javius.

Do Make Say Think - Goodbye Enemy Airship, The Landlord Is Dead

yet another album that grew up with me and shaped my ears into the eclectic listener i try to be. a good production from another humble canadian band that recorded this album inside a strange place. epic soundtracks for those long drives and cozy moments in life. long loops of distorted guitars with some rare delayed atmospheres. 

minminminminmin

Roosevelt Sykes - Feel Like Blowing My Horn

For Abe, amazing joyous blues from Mr. Sykes.

"This loveable pianist and singer sustained a long recording and performing career, the last decades of which he was frequently heard as a soloist. Although this was an artistically defendable position and Sykes made the most of the solo context, he was quick to admit in interviews that he was most known as a bandleader in his romping, stomping days, and these were bands that featured horns and arrangements of a style somewhere between Kansas City and New Orleans. Producer Bob Koester gets kudos for bringing about a studio session for Sykes involving such a group later in his career. What a great combination of players is involved, including the brilliant guitarist Robert Jr. Lockwood, the crack rhythm section of Dave Myers and Fred Below, and two horn players whose affiliation with the bandleader goes back to the '30s and '40s. One of them, trumpeter King Kolax, is a name who frequently shows up in discographies of jazz great John Coltrane, who played in the Kolax band when he was a whippersnapper. These legendary players hardly sit on their laurels; they use the opportunity to lay down really beautiful music, the rocking and fun-loving spirit of Sykes looking down on all of it like some kind of barbecue munching holy spirit. One of the best recordings on the Delmark label, and that is saying a mouthful." - Eugene Chadbourne

Git

Hash Jar Tempo - Under Glass

Continuing with Bardo Pond related projects, Hash Jar Tempo sees the group augmented by Antipodean guitar psychogeographer Roy Montgomery (solo and group records by him forthcoming). The name is a pun on one of krautrock's greatest (guess who), and the music is, well, listen for yourself. Titles like "Atropine" and "Hymenoptera Amber Crybaby" should give you a hint.

Wavves suck

Aphex Twin - Druqks

a classic electronic album by sound master/rhythmic guru Richard D. James that should be heard in every corner of the earth. great music to draw inspiration from.

jynweythek

A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace The Corners Of Our Room

this is the debut release by Montreal based band A Silver Mt. Zion (they have changed names various times and still changing), side project of guitarist Efrim Menuk of Godspeed! You Black Emperor. an instrumental record of epic proportions full of unique soundscapes and long compositions.

13 Angels Standing Guard 'round the Side of Your Bed

Third Troll - Pharmacognosy

For Mariola, first in a series of posts involving Bardo Pond side projects and collabs. Third Troll is pure ethnoskronk with nervefraying passages of praying mantis like stillness and forays into Fourth World shamanistic ceremonies with corroded electronics and ritual percussion. You can smell the Kif Hash from a mile away. This is Bardo Pond members paying homage to Ur beings like Taj Mahal Travelers, Angus Maclise and Bachir Attar. There is power in the blood.

Enjoy

OM - Conference of the Birds

"In Hinduism, “om” is the single most important syllable of existence, representing the confluence of deep sleep, dreams, and consciousness, and their mystic separation from the idea of the absolute which is beyond everyday human comprehension. There are also connections with the life cycle - the sound “om” being made of “a” which represents creation and Brahma, “u” which is Vishnu or the middle period of life, and “m” represents Shiva, whose meditation frees us from the concrete world. Om is a trinity, the exact components of which depend on which interpretation you’re using. I won’t pretend to be an expert in Hindu myth or meaning, but these basic tidbits are enough on their own to at least partially explain the sounds contained on Conference of the Birds. And while it may be mere coincidence that Om formed out of two thirds of Sleep (you could probably debate which two parts of the “om” Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius represent, but it would only make any sense if you were either a huge metalhead, a giant stoner, a Hindu scholar, or some combination of the three), the symbolic connection between the two in this context is too much to ignore. To get perhaps a bit too literal here, om is the step beyond sleep towards some kind of transcendence. Which isn’t to say that music of Om is any “deeper” or “more advanced” than that of Sleep, just that it operates on a different level with a different set of tools.

Conference of the Birds is structurally and sonically similar to its predecessor, Variations on a Theme – repeated bass licks and drum patterns that gradually evolve over the course of about 15 minutes. The second song (each song spans about 20 tracks, presumably to thwart piracy), “Flight of the Eagle,” could very easily be the fourth track on Variations both in character and in sound. Cisneros’ bass sound is dense and fuzzy and his vocals are an imposing chant musing on some mythic journey or battle occurring in ancient Egypt, while Hakius keeps a solid beat centered around his bell-like cymbal.

“At Giza,” on the other hand, represents a very different side of the group, one much closer to the concept of om than anything else they’ve done. Simply put, the music is much tauter than before, with less overall weight. The bass tone is clean, devoid of any distracting distortion, the drums are slower, more hypnotic, the vocals more an incantation than a chant, returning to words like “sentient,” “aperture,” and other archaic multisyllabics. And while the imagery is more an opium-den vision than a meditative dream, the words are there more as sounds and rhythm and quickly lose their meaning.

Whether you view it as stoner wisdom, opium hallucination, or mystic journey, this album is about transcendence. The Conference of the Birds is, amongst other things, a 12th century Sufi metaphysical parable on discovering the true nature of God, mimicking the journey of the avatar protagonist of both of Om’s songs. Farid ud-Din Attar’s poem comes to the conclusion that God is not to be found in a single place but all around, in every aspect of life and the world. So despite the fact that Om comes from the Hindu, references the Sufi, and uses the language of the Egyptian, they draw from each the same idea: that the world beyond the tactile is not that far away." - Dan Ruccia

Themes

This Heat - Live 80/81

i listened to this shit yesterday and i felt the need to share it. a recopilation of live recordings for this increible band out of the UK. 'Paperhats' live!? aaaaaaaaawww shiiiiit!

do this.

Midnite - Nemozian Rasta

Midnite is a band based out of St. Croix that plays strictly roots and culture, enlightened jah music. they put out like 4 albums per year (they have 40+ albums). the obscure harmonies on this album changed my view of reggae music forever.

jah jah.

Conjunto Canayon - A Las Millas

this is a puertorican salsa band that was keeping it real when all the other salsa bands where doing a lot of pop-ass bullshit.
maybe that`s a little bit harsh. i`m sorry.


taken from http://sunoflatinmusic.blogspot.com

Who is Conjunto Canayon? I wish that I could tell you. There's very little information about this band outside of their discography, which itself seems incomplete. What I can tell you is that Canayon (sometimes spelled as Canallon or Kanayon, making information even harder to come by) is a Puerto Rican band led by timbalero Cano Robles. They recorded in the early 80s, during a time when the wave of 70s salsa was diminishing and succumbing to the glossy, overproduced sounds of the decade. Consider a case-in-point. During this time Ruben Blades would record Escenas, featuring the song Sorpresas, the "sequel" to one of his greatest songs on one of the great Latin records of all time: Pedro Navaja, found on Blades's collaboration with Willie Colon, Siembra. While lyrically astute, the energy of the new Seis de Solar band wasn't there, perhaps muddled by the electronic drum kits and synthesizers. It was, in my humble and perhaps very biased opinion, salsa without its musical soul. The fact that such a important legacy in Latin music could not be aptly carried on, for me, perfectly summarizes the state that Latin music would find itself in by the mid-80s. (This is only my opinion....many disagree, and I encourage you to decide for yourself, as Escenas is still in print)

But if there's anything I've learned from my lifelong affair with music, it's that any generalization about a genre or time period in music always carries exceptions. I offer up one of those exceptions today.

A Las Millas, euphemistically translated as "going fast" or "at lightspeed," was recorded in 1981 and released on the Puerto Rican Top Hits label. To my knowledge, this is the band's first album. They would record Criollo y Mas in 1982, and another album, perhaps their most obscure, Folkloriko Tropical, was recorded at a date unknown to me. In 1998, a "best of" of their material, entitled Colecion Series Vol. 1, was issued on a record label created by the Conjunto Canayon members, simply entitled Kanayon Records. It has since become out of print. There may very well be more installments in the Canayon discography that I am not aware of.

It's truly astounding that Conjunto Canayon has gone virtually unheard. Their music fused salsa, cumbia, and descarga while retaining a truly original sound unlike any other artist I've heard. Furthermore, they were incredibly innovative, giving even the great Ray Barretto a run for his money by employing complex rhythms, stop-start structures, and perhaps most intriguing, a boldness in experimenting with dissonance in their melodies, an avenue of exploration that I cannot say even Barretto braved. Indeed, Conjunto Canayon, much like Ray Barretto, sounds like a band founded on Latin jazz playing Latin dance music. Though rare, a few songs such as Wild Tropical (found on A Las Millas) and Tropical Jungle (album unknown, as I've only heard it on the 1998 retrospective) find the band casting off lyrics and pop song structure for extended, flute-centered jams.

The first song on A Las Millas, No Se Puede Vencer, perfectly encapsulates my point. The sweeping piano intro recalls Eddie Palmieri in his more experimental years. Pay attention to the guitar as it comes in. It is slightly dissonant, a tactic virtually unheard of in Latin music. Immediately, you get the feeling that you are listening to something different, something truly unique. Vocalist Cheo Quinones captures this perfectly. He is in no way as refined or polished like the greats Tito Allen or Ruben Blades. Rather, there is something undeniably earthy in his timbre, much more down to earth. This is a vocalist that you would hear singing on the streets of Puerto Rico, accompanying las parrandas (small, roving, improptu bands formed to visit and sing to neighbors) through the barrios, as real as the Puerto Rican soil itself. The flutes move throughout, setting up a darker, minor mood to take the fall for an explosion into more upbeat territory as led by Quinones and his backing vocalists, Pipo Pica and Rafael Lopez.

Then, there's the next track, Chaflan, the hit song of the record. It is a perfect song, start to end, and a classic in the Puerto Rican canon (modern reggaeton artist Residente Calle 13 references the song's chorus in his self-titled album). Once again it begins with the signature Canayon build-up, a dissonant rumbling of the bass and congas, and an elegaic plea from the choro. Soon the polyrhythms come in over the groove, but this is only foreshadowing; if you thought the song was settling in at this point, you are wrong. Soon enough, the real groove comes in, an unforgettable chorus referencing the fugitive main character, Chaflan, as he runs "a las millas." Though it makes more grammatical sense in Spanish, the chorus (Nadie sabe donde viene, pero a las millas) is linguistically playful: no one knows where's he is going--but fast. It is catchy and furious, and features an excellent horn break once again showcasing a penchant for dissonance. The almost haunting, reverberating lyrics during the outro harken back to the production ideas emerging out of the Willie Colon camp in the 70s. This song is, to say the least, sublime.

If the rest of the album slows down, it's only because Chaflan can't be topped, and the songs compose an excellent album no matter what they follow. Rafael Lopez, as on Chaflan, sings Hace Tiempo; Pipo Pica takes over on the hit La Revelacion, a song about a man's epiphany concerning salvation through music. The song features an excellent vocal solo as it improvises with an accompanying guitar, ending in a heavy, bass-driven breakdown that virtually deconstructs the entire song. Cosas Del Amor is an upbeat dance number and ode to love, featuring an unforgettable chorus. Que Cosa's horn lines rank among their best; Nuestra Musica, a Johnny Ortiz cover, showcases fiery flute and percussion work as bookends to the song. The album closer, Wild Tropical, is a Latin jazz jam showcasing the band's musical foundations. Incredible flute abounds, courtesty of Coco Andujar.

I could go on and on about this album and how much I love it (and virtually already have). It is a true gem, one of those finds that is not only treasured for it's rarity, but because it's quality is unequaled. It's a great pleasure to share this with you guys, I can only hope you'll enjoy this band's music as much as I have.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is an original vinyl rip, and, unfortunately, features a few skips (on Que Cosa and particularly on Cosas Del Amor). There is an another mp3 rip floating around on the internet (itself very difficult to find), though the quality is much worse and sounds like it has been heavily treated with noise removal, resulting in a tinny film over the recording. I've included my original, unedited rip, skips and all, but I've also included versions of Que Cosa and Cosas Del Amor in a separate download so that you can hear the song uninterrupted, despite the poor sound quality. I apologize folks, there's nothing I can do about the skips, and you may very well never see this album anywhere else.



hmmmm i don`t know about the cover art, but this album is fucking kicking.

Orchestra Harlow - Harlow`s Harem

Orchestra Harlow was the side project of La Fania Allstars pianist Larry Harlow. This jewish character had a lot of fresh ideas that blend salsa with other rhythmically complex and harmonically defiant modes of composition. At the same time he made this music sound simple and easy to remember. Produced by Jerry Masucci (obviously) and supervised by the demented (now senile) Johnny Pacheco with Ismael Miranda on vocals, this album reached a lot of corners of the earth and its considered a classic around the globe. Just look at this dude just sitting around with a bunch of funky looking ladies.

ps - there is a freaky side note in the black and white picture of larry with the ladies.

who the fuck is barry secunda?

Wizz Jones.

For Lorraine:
An influential yet overlooked figure in the UK folk scene. Wizz plays with amazing technique and fast paced licks accompanied by breathie vocals with beautiful lyrics. He's chums with Bert Jansch of the Pentangle and artists such as Roy Harper and John Martyn regard him as a direct influence.




It looks like its'a dying, but its hardly been born.



Los Angeles, city of the angels. Wrong place to be if you're looking for a friend.

Earthless - Rhythms of a Cosmic Sky (2007)

This is the creme of the crop right here. Another great 2007 release.

Earthless is the brainchild of Mario Rubalcaba, Mike Eginton and Isaiah Mitchell. Rubalcaba, a prolific drummer, has worn the alias of Ruby Mars during his stint with Rocket from the Crypt, went on to bang away for the Hot Snakes, was the drummer for hardcore art-punks Clikatat Ikatowi and previously was in the Black Heart Procession… and prior to that? Mario was a member of Tony Alva’s Alva Team skateboarding crew. He now finds himself, along with bassist Mike Eginton and guitarist Isaiah Mitchell, knee deep in the near opposite direction of all things punk rock, ensconced in the world of jam, space and “cosmic nodding” a.k.a. Earthless.

The trio, based out of San Diego, met through mutual friends and a fondness for under the radar record collections. Mario explains how the band connected, “We discovered a mutual admiration for a lot of Japanese psychedelic hard rock bands, as well as primitive ‘60s garage music. After combing over each other’s record collections and lending out records, we came upon the idea of, ‘Let’s specifically start a Japanese-psychedelic-heavy-Kraut-rock-band.’ With the Japanese bands, it was always a really kind of heavy, blues, twisted take on Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. Isaiah is an awesome guitar player & Mike is an amazing bassist, playing with the both of them really sealed the deal. Magic happened in the room. Since then, we’ve followed that formula.”



bizcochito de tití

Coleco - Nuevo Sistema De Colores

after 6 years of making noise and playing together, this local band out of Puerto Rico (!!!) decided it was time to go into the studio and record all the music in their repertoire. its about god damn time.



myspace.com/colecojackson


nooooo goooooood!

The Skaters -Palmshaper

More spine-shattering shit for Abe.

"Monolithic vocal-based assemblage from the duo of James Ferraro and Spencer Clark who work all sorts of inspired epiglottal strategies into whole new vectors of dense psychedelic sound. Somewhere between Double Leopards, Coil circa Moon's Milk and Vibracathedral Orchestra on paint thinner. Totally ecstatic." - David Keenan.

futile attempts to look european in a Rio Piedras watering hole

Robedoor - Rancor Keeper

More choice drone for my friend the Abester.

"With sleeve artwork boasting a demonic octopus-headed figure standing at the mouth of some diabolical, cyclonic gateway, this record sets out its stall from the outset: Rancor Keeper is a maelstrom of deep, dark noise constructions, spewing forth torrents of contorted instrumentation (believe it or not there's cello, guitar, percussion and keyboards buried in here) and harrowed, wailing voices. Californian duo Alex and Britt seem to have refined their unholy din for this release, distilling the Robedoor sound to a godless horror show of atmospheric sonic punishment. While pieces like Penitent Runes' and 'Abyss Whisperer' certainly sound hellish, there's always some sort of harmonic cogency lurking in the details, but by the time we reach fifteen minute closer 'Wendigo Psychosis' the pair really plummet into the furthermost reaches of noise, initially falling through a gentle five-minute drone passage, before ultimately combusting into a feathery, distorted mass." - Boomkat

Douchious Andronicus

Smith Westerns

These chicago youngsters are the newest addition to Hozac records and they are like the illegitimate sons of the black lips, and the black lips are the asshole father who forgets your birthday and picking you up from soccer practice because he is to busy getting drunk and having affairs overseas with a hot british stuardist. In the vein you can notice their affinity for the ever new upcoming garage scene but don't be fooled you can tell they have tons of influences up they're sleeves, some songs sound like they've been sprinkled with magic "glam" dust, Although this is not as "garage" as their firt Ep they definitely started off with their right foot with this lo-fi catchy LP, this has been on my stereo for quite the time, it's hard to get out these catchy- as-hell songs from my head.

i'll be your favorite son, i'll be your number one

Roky Erickson & The Aliens - I Think Of Demons.

Roky Erickson was the frontman for the Psych-Rock spawning outfit The 13th Floor Elevators, known famously as a loon, he is a heavy influence on people like Robyn Hitchcock and Julian Cope. This is his first album after serving some time. Rocking and catchy as fuck.



This one's for all those climbing that social ladder. Godspeed.

Baikal - Baikal (2007)

One of the best releases of 2007. Two heavy jams by what is essentially Bardo Pond.

"Baikal is a new burner from Bardo Pond brothers John & Michael Gibbons along with fellow Bardo Pond members Clint Takeda and Jason Kourkonis. This time they ventured down the route of heavy free-improvisation and a Last Exit style hard rock approach coupled with a hard psych bend. With two tracks each weighing in at over 30 minutes in length it’s clear that Baikal is a deep voyage underseas with yet another Bardo Pond sideproject featuring Bardo brothers John & Michael Gibbons as your tour guide."

pal de babies

KTL - s-t

KTL are Stephen O' Malley (Sunn O))), Khanate et al) and Peter Rehberg (Pita).

"It is interesting then to hear this collaboration purely from a historical standpoint; the two musicians reside in seemingly totally different areas of the musical spectrum, yet on listening to KTL it seems like a match made in heaven (or maybe hell...). We begin the journey with 'Estranged' - a 25 minute exploration into gothic ambience, which maybe edges closer to Burzum's ritualistic (and prison-bound) electronic work or the icy cave-scapes of Thomas Koner than the ear-bludgeoning noise-fest you'd expect. Slowly O'Malley's guitar is introduced, creaking and scratching its way into the sound field and coming up to the fore only briefly in the final quarter of the piece. A nice way to lull the listeners into a false sense of security, this cavernous chunk of gloom is followed by the first part of four 'Forest Floor' tracks, which with a skeletal finger ushers us into O'Malleys black-metal inspired world while allowing Rehberg to conjur up wobbling sub-bass frequencies and horrifying electronic noise. The second part pushes us more definitely into Rehberg's world as distorted squeals erupt over O'Malley's bass drones; this is extreme music as it should be, all-encompassing and visceral, rich in imagery and deadly in it's statement. By the time we reach the third part our bodies are already battered and sliced to ribbons so we are pushed beneath a thick swamp as Rehberg processes the sludge and doom so synonymous with O'Malley's name and makes it sludgier and... well... more doomy. This is where you realise this is music that simply must be played at a high volume. Like Tim Hecker's incredible 'Harmony in Ultraviolet' the distortions and computer-processed sounds only reveal themselves when the decibel level pushes the point of discomfort. The fourth and final part of the quadrilogy is probably the closest to 'proper' black metal, with heavily distorted riffs bursting through the crumbling noise and coming across like a Xasthur track playing in a room next door, I keep expecting Malefic's throaty groans to appear horrifically on top, but they never come. Now the disc takes a turn, after the narrative epic that was 'Forest Floor' we are heralded out of the album with 'Snow', a track which to me sounds what I imagine it would be like to be trapped in an underground storage unit in Siberia. It's frightening but at the same time strangely beautiful, and as chains clank and metal scrapes against metal you become somehow drawn in to the intense imagery that has been left exposed. The density of the previous tracks is sidestepped for a more minimal approach which strangely enough enhances the terror and dread felt across the whole disc. 'KTL' is easily one of the most involving and simply horrific discs I've heard this year; it marks a disparate new phase in doom music and is the finest exploitation movie you'll never see. A huge recommendation." - Boomkat

Douchejan Stevens

Magazine - The Correct Use of Soap

Andres request. Magazine's third album, and my favorite.

"This is something of a return to standard operational form for Magazine, who thawed after recording Secondhand Daylight to throw together an energetic batch of colorful and rhythmically intricate songs. It's an unexpected move considering that they enlisted Martin Hannett (Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, Crispy Ambulance), master of the gray hues, as the producer. A looser, poppier album than its predecessors -- somewhat ironically, a cover of Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" is the most subdued song -- it features the rhythm section of John Doyle and Barry Adamson at their taut, flexible best and guitarist John McGeoch at his most cunningly percussive. Save for the called-for razzle-dazzle on "Sweetheart Contract," keyboardist Dave Formula takes more of a back seat, using piano more frequently and no longer driving the songs to the point of detracting from the greatness of his mates, as the most frequent complaint of Secondhand Daylight goes. Howard Devoto's lyrics are also a little less depressive, though they're no less biting. The closing "A Song from Under the Floorboards" -- another near-anthem, an unofficial sequel to "The Light Pours Out of Me" -- includes sticking Devoto-isms like "My irritability keeps me alive and kicking" and "I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit." His themes of distrust and romantic turbulence remain focal, evident in "You Never Knew Me" ("Do you want the truth or do you want your sanity?") and "I Want to Burn Again" ("I met your lover yesterday, wearing some things I left at your place, singing a song that means a lot to me"). "Because You're Frightened" is the closest they came to making a new wave hit, zipping along with as much unstoppable buoyancy as Lene Lovich's "New Toy" or the Teardrop Explodes' "Reward," yet it's all fraught nerves and paranoia: "Look what fear's done to my body!" Song for song, the album isn't quite on the level of Real Life, but it is more effective as a point of entry." - A Kellman

Ray Bans

Ciencia Fixión - O.D.I.O. 12'' EP and Unreleased Material (2004)

Esto es para todos los que ibamos a los shows de CIFI y jangeabamos con las botellas de vino Ponte Veckio completamente wasted para eso del 2003-2004. Here's one of Puerto Rico's best hip hop acts.

O.D.I.O. 12'' EP

Unreleased Album

Orange Juice - Ostrich Churchyard

Back from the dead.

Yellow Swans - Bring the Neon War Home

For Alex. One of the best noise/dronerock releases of recent years.

"Bring the Neon War Home is a powerful piece of music, but there’s no denying that much of its poignancy hinges on today’s prevailing political climate. 2004 has been one of those rare, charged years wherein even the most apolitical felt compelled to look outside themselves a little, watch The Daily Show occasionally, even vote. Bush’s once-distant idiocy assumed a more ominous tone in the context of an election year, turning even the frailest forums of left-wing media into active political entities. Suddenly tiny community papers were denouncing the President. Daytime soap stars plead viewers to vote. And esoteric, underground Bay Area noise duos conjured urgent, apocalyptic masterpieces.

In a possibly symbolic move, Yellow Swans quit their long-standing appellation vice – affixing a random word beginning with ‘d’ to their name, i.e. Dusk Yellow Swans – for Bring the Neon War Home (the band’s first on Broadway-based Narnack). The edit reflects the album’s stringent, serious agenda, which progresses through its five tracks with an almost cinematic sense of purpose. This is noise as narrative. Older releases, like the Demos Yellow Swans 12” on Weird Forest, used similar means – tape loops, guitar feedback – and contained equally convulsive crescendos and brooding pools of electric tension, but bled/morphed with much more of a languid, lost motion. Like submerged currents. Or blurred visions.

Neon War, however, is the sound of Yellow Swans seeing clearly. The production is incredibly crisp and clean, and many of the movements are driven by prominent drum machine rhythms, which are an oddly concrete element for such an immaterial, abstract band. The mechanized percussion harnesses their drifting noise clouds, tethering the chaos into a dense, claustrophobic space, much like Ministry used to do. In fact, “Police Eternity,” the dark, angry opener, is the kind of pummeling, goth-industrial hell-storm most Nine Inch Nails acolytes would die for.

From there, Yellow Swans bask back a little into the looming, resonant emptiness they’re such masters of, bashing out zig-zags of reverb eruptions and scraping metal arcs, slowly snowballing a murky mountain of rumble and rubble. “High On the Mountain of Love” is pure Yellow Swans – escapist, idealist, amorphous, amorous. It is all too brief.

Both the third song and the title track explode with more uncharacteristic darkwave dance beats, moody blips and beeps; neon shrapnel and dystopian delay-pedal declarations. The text accompanying “Neon War” could easily serve as this record’s aesthetic thesis statement: “Shake. Shake your death rattle. The Reagan era’s not over? Vietnam’s not over? Bring the war home. Bring the Drug war home. Bring the neon war home. Bring it all back home.” These are overt words from a covert band. Bring the Neon War Home is Yellow Swans’ Combat Rock. It’s their defiance, their demands, their stance, their circumstance. Decades from now, Bush will be just another history textbook monster, a bad memory, but this record will remain, and remind." - Britt Brown

Steel Reserve

Hawkwind - Hall of the Mountain Grill

Stone cold classic HEAVY ROCK.

Pocho Pan

Terry Riley - Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band All Night Flight Vol.1

Terry Riley and group opening third eyes in a live setting, 1968.

"The live recording of Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band All Night Flight taken from a 1968 concert titled "Purple Modal Strobe Ecstasy with the Daughters of Destruction" is the perfect trigger for what anthropologist Jean Rouch called 'The Strange Mechanism,' the trance state which most of this decade's electronic music aspires to induce. The immediacy and the spectral filigree--the dervishes summoned during Riley's nocturnal concert--have been faithfully preserved on this CD." - Richard Henderson

The Arcade Fire = Journey for artfags

Orange Juice.

This band always reminds me of days before the blog-o-sphere had taken shape, my friend the Cat here would burn me entire packs of cd-r's filled with all sorts of stuff (the man has a big heart) and we dubbed em' Towers of Terrors. If im not mistaken in Tower #2 was the Juice which intrigued me on face value alone. I still listen to 'em, they have a great jangly post-punk sound with a deep soulful voice and catchy hooks throughout. Just hear for yourself.


You Can't Hide Your Love Forever.




Rip It Up.




Orange Juice.

Hawkwind - Quark, Strangeness and Charm

For Jose R. Hawkwind's strange 1977 masterpiece, with a streamlined, razor sharp sound and songs full of Ballardian imagery. This ain't "Hall of the Mountain Grill", but it's no less powerful or plain fuckin' rocking.

Don't boo me, boo history

Japan - Tin Drum

A thing of utter beauty.

"Partially growing out of their success in the country they were named after, as well as growing friendship and affiliation with such bands as Yellow Magic Orchestra, Japan, on Tin Drum, made its most unique, challenging, and striking album. It was also the final full studio effort from the group, and what a way to bow out -- there was practically no resemblance to the trash glam flailers on Adolescent Sex anymore. Rather than repeat the sheer restraint on Gentlemen Take Polaroids, Tin Drum is an album of energy, Sylvian's singing still the decadently joyful thing it is, but the arrangements and performances tight, full, and active. The fusion of exquisite funk courtesy of Karn and Jansen's joined-at-the-hip rhythm section and a range of Asian music influences, from instrumentation to subject matter, combined with an even wider use of technological approaches to create the dramatic, sly songs on offer. Only the Talking Heads showed the same attempt at reach and variety at the time, at least in the Western rock world, but Japan arguably outstripped the New York band with its sheer sense of theatrical style. To top it all off, the band was more popular than ever, with "Ghosts," an appropriately haunting ballad notable for its utterly minimal arrangement, almost entirely eschewing beats for Barbieri's textures and Jansen's work on marimba, becoming a Top Ten hit in the U.K. The wound-up dancefloor art grooves of "The Art of Parties" and especially "Visions of China," the latter featuring what has to be Karnand Jansen's eternal highlight performance (check out Jansen's jaw-dropping drum break) were also notable efforts. Meanwhile, the evocation of Chinese culture in general continued with such songs as "Canton," a slightly martial, stately march with clear inspiration from the country's classical music tradition, and the concluding "Cantonese Boy." - Ned Raggett

Nico Muhly craps his pants

Human Hands - Bouncing to Disc : The Complete Human Hands

Sweet, angular, tense but very accessible post-punk from this California group featuring members of The Dream Syndicate (the paisley one), Solid Eye and the LA Free Music Society.

the pains of listening to your crappy shoegaze

shh...dont tell a soul.

Hoo-boy. This much madness is too much sorrow. Massive amounts of Neil can be a blessing and a curse. These tunes make me sad to the core. I think I need a drink. Here you've got everything, starting with his surf rock band The Squires, the Buffalo Springfield days, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Crazy Horse goodness, some great live albums and Neil just being Neil.

tracks
cd: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Zach Galifianakis - Live at the Purple Onion.

I sure xylophone. Do I xylophone.

Magazine - Second Hand Daylight

Their second album.

Golpes Bajos - Golpes Bajos EP (1983)

EP de post-punk/new wave de "La Movida" en España,1983. El cantante del grupo German Copinni, cantaba y hacia tiempo entre esta y su otra banda por un tiempo, Siniestro Total. Valga la aclaración que las dos son bastante diferentes, ninguna mejor que la otra, las 2 respetadas en sus propios estilos.

no mires a los ojos a la gente