Gamingforce Music Exposure Club™

Portugal.The Man - Church Mouth
Label: Fearless Records
Genre: Indie, Experimental





1. Church Mouth - 3:13
2. Sugar Cinnamon - 3:04
3. Telling Tellers Tell Me - 3:10
4. My Mind - 3:50
5. Shade - 3:58
6. Dawn - 3:17
7. Oh Lord - 3:23
8. Bellies Are Full - 4:08
9. Children - 5:03
10. The Bottom - 3:46
11. Sleeping Sleepers Sleep 3:59
12. Sun Brother (excerpt) - 2:11

Will's Comments: The Mars Volta Lite? If you like this or Led Zeppelin let me know, I've got something for you.

Spoiler:

"'This band is from Alaska.' How often do you hear yourself uttering these words? You’d be saying them a lot more if you listened to Wassila Alaska’s own Portugal. The Man.

Situated just inland from Anchorage, Wasilla, the 'Home of the Iditarod,' does not inspire visions reminiscent of rock and roll extremes – or any extreme other than cold for that matter. But given time, they might just be able to proudly tack 'Home of Portugal. The Man' up onto their website right next to 'Alaska’s First Tree City, USA.'

Portugal. The Man is one of those bands is that either the subject of highly exaggerated praise or unmitigated scorn by rock critics. Staking claims as to the potency of their “esoteric, shape-shifting” rock certainly doesn’t help. And while the band may be unfounded in many of their claims to mind-boggling complexity, they admittedly do offer a unique vision in their music that is definitely worth exploring for fans of Indie rock.

Carefully carving around any classically defined rock ‘genre,’ it’s probably best to file Church Mouth under ‘rock, prog’. If variety is the spice of life then Church Mouth is a spicy meatball - bluesy hard rock, driving arena rock, and modern day alternative Indie sounds abound to create a musical diversity steeped in contemporary and classic progressive rock traditions in short form, replete with easily marked influences that can be named in nearly every track. The leadoff title track is White Stripes with a Mars Volta time signature. For some reason the chorus of 'Telling Tellers Tell M' sounds like Blood Sugar Sex Magik-era Red Hot Chili Peppers and 'Shade' takes a page from the TV on the Radio playbook. 'Bellies Are Full' and 'Children' take a turn for the Zeppelin, minus the pseudo-mystical Lord of the Rings lyrics.

Church Mouth’s influences may be easily identified, numerous and diverse as they are, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Portugal. The Man has much to offer in the way of originality, too. The schizophrenic “Sugar Cinnamon” goes from pseudo-drum and bass verses to electro-boogie stomp choruses and back again. But “My Mind” is the radio-ready standout track. A perfect musical diorama of disaffected, yet privileged youth, I can see this song used as the track over the opening title sequence of a new dramedy on the CW – the camera tracking sweeping beach vistas as front man John Baldwin Gourley wails the plight of the principal cast – “my mind is all/gone.” My intention is not to undercut the seriousness or effectiveness of the song, but it does reek a little melodramatic. However, “My Mind” has universal appeal with a great chorus, and there’s still plenty of weirdness buried within the track to satisfy the audiophile in you.

There’s a lot going on within Church Mouth, but the listener isn’t bombarded with zithers and mandolins. None of the songs have long instrumental passages symptomatic of prog and the production has an elusive textural feel, which is so important to a band with such a frenetic sound. The result is that Church Mouth is radio-friendly, but not necessarily tailor-made for radio – something that is deceptively hard to pull off and I applaud the band for this achievement.

With Church Mouth, Portugal. The Man has chosen timely influences and wisely at that. Fans familiar with bands such as White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age and Silversun Pickups will find plenty to like about this album, if they don’t mind a little flair for prog. One can only speculate as to the album’s lasting appeal, but it’s a very ‘now’ sound and one that is worthy of attention by both the casual and the serious Indie fan. - Kory Lanphear

Church Mouth





The Slip - Eisenhower
Label: Bar/None
Genre: Indie, Jazz Fusion





1. "Children of December" – 4:49
2. "Even Rats" – 5:33
3. "If One Of Us Should Fall" – 5:26
4. "Airplane/Primitive" – 6:55
5. "Suffocation Keep" – 5:21
6. "First Panda in Space" – 2:20
7. "The Soft Machine" – 4:21
8. "Life in Disguise" – 3:45
9. "Mothwing Bite" – 3:29
10. "The Original Blue Air" – 2:24
11. "Paper Birds" – 8:19

Will's Comments: I have no idea where I found these guys, but even my dad likes this album. They're definitely more into indie at this point, but with a song named after The Soft Machine, they're awesome in my book.

Spoiler:

"Seeing them live was amazing...I instantly felt a bond with these three guys. You see so many tired, boring rock acts doing the same thing over and over, but these guys are reaching out...They're taking what we know of music and trying to twist it to a different place." - Jim James, Sunday NYTimes, July 2, 2006

Brad Barr is the band’s core songwriter and one of the great rock guitarists of his generation. He is also looking to join an adult softball league. Brad is the troubadour who’s absorbed it all, from Blonde on Blonde to Bitches Brew. He has the ability to do almost anything on six strings, yet consistently plays with taste, context and humility, understanding the awesome power of three chords and a simple melody to bring people in.

Marc Friedman is mission control on bass guitar, the foundation keeping it all together. He brings the wide-ranging and eclectic interests - from Gershwin to Madonna - that result in many of the trio's most enduring arrangements, as well as many of the high-concept production elements on Eisenhower. Marc brings the nutmeg and the cinnamon. He’s the virtuoso who has literally invented new ways of playing his instrument yet also represents the band’s brick wall; constant and comprehensive in his support.

Andrew Barr is the engine and the source of the band’s chaos and primal energy, often forgetting where he put his shoes, and dreaming up elaborate beats that tell real stories. Andrew's drum parts are practically their own complete songs, adding thunder and lightning to the intimacy of a heartbeat. He rocks like Bonham and listens like your best friend." -JIVE

Eisenhower

How ya doing, buddy?

Joni Mitchell - Blue
Label: Reprise
Release: 1971
Genre: Singer/Song Writer



1. All I Want
2. My Old Man
3. Little Green
4. Carey
5. Blue
6. California
7. This Flight Tonight
8. River
9. A Case Of You
10. The Last Time I Saw Richard

Joni Mitchell is one of only two women on Rolling Stone's "Top 100 Guitarists of All Time." Regardless of what you think about the magazine, it's saying something that she managed to make the list at all, since she doesn't play rock or blues music, and most of the list was devoted to rock & roll and its influences.

Anyone familiar with the songwriters of the late 60s and 70s like Jim Croce, Don McLean, or Nick Drake should know something about what to expect here, but Joni Mitchell's earnestness and forthrightness in her songwriting shines through like few others. The crooning vibratto she uses lends each song a gravity and nostalgia that runs throughout the entire album.

There's really only winners here, but my favorites include: "All I Want", "Little Green," "Carey," "California," and "The Last Time I Saw Richard."

Like the color when the spring is born.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

For Ence, finally.

Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata



Year: 1967
Label: Sonodisc
Genre: African pop music

Spoiler:

Following a three decade long exile, Miriam Makeba's return to South Africa was celebrated as though a queen was restoring her monarchy. The response was fitting as Makeba remains the most important female vocalist to emerge out of South Africa. Hailed as The Empress Of African Song and Mama Africa, Makeba helped bring African music to a global audience in the 1960s. Nearly five decades after her debut with the Manhattan Brothers, she continues to play an important role in the growth of African music.

Makeba's life has been consistently marked by struggle. As the daughter of a sangoma, a mystical traditional healer of the Xhosa tribe, she spent six months of her birth year in jail with her mother. Gifted with a dynamic vocal tone, Makeba recorded her debut single, "Lakutshona Llange," as a member of the Manhattan Brothers in 1953. Although she left to form an all-female group named the Skylarks in 1958, she reunited with members of the Manhattan Brothers when she accepted the lead female role in a musical version of King Kong, which told the tragic tale of Black African boxer, Ezekiel "King Kong" Dlamani, in 1959. The same year, she began an 18 month tour of South Africa with Alf Herbert's musical extravaganza, African Jazz And Variety, and made an appearance in a documentary film, Come Back Africa. These successes led to invitations to perform in Europe and the United States.

Makeba was embraced by the African-American community. "Pata Pata," Makeba's signature tune was written by Dorothy Masuka and recorded in South Africa in 1956 before eventually becoming a major hit in the U.S. in 1967. In late-1959, she performed for four weeks at the Village Vanguard in New York. She later made a guest appearance during Harry Belafonte's ground-breaking concerts at Carnegie Hall. A double-album of the event, released in 1960, received a Grammy award. Makeba has continued to periodically renew her collaboration with Belafonte, releasing an album in 1972 titled Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte. Makeba then made a special guest appearance at the Harry Belafonte Tribute at Madison Square Garden in 1997.

Makeba's successes as a vocalist were also balanced by her outspoken views about apartheid. In 1960, the government of South Africa revoked her citizenship. For the next thirty years, she was forced to be a 'citizen of the world.' Makeba received the Dag Hammerskjold Peace Prize in 1968. After marrying radical Black activist Stokely Carmichael, many of her concerts were cancelled, and her recording contract with RCA was dropped, resulting in even more problems for the artist. She eventually relocated to Guinea at the invitation of president Sekou Toure and agreed to serve as Guinea's delegate to the United Nations. In 1964 and 1975, she addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations on the horrors of apartheid.

All that really says nothing about the music though. Suffice this: if you can't enjoy this album you are a soulless waste of space.

Tracks:
1. Pata Pata
2. Ha Po Zamani
3. What Is Love
4. Maria Fulo
5. Yetentu Tizaleny
6. Click Song Number 1
7. Ring Bell, Ring Bell
8. Jol'inkomo
9. West Wind
10. Saduva
11. A Piece Of Ground
12. Malayisha

Get It

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Talib Kweli - Eardrum
Label: Blacksmith Records
Release: August 21, 2007
Genre: Hip-Hop



Tracklisting

• 1. "Everything Man" (Featuring Res (additional vocals), Sonia Sanchez (intro) )
• 2. "NY Weather Report"
• 3. "Hostile Gospel Pt. 1 (Deliver Us)"
• 4. "Say Something" (Featuring Jean Grae)
• 5. "Country Cousins" (Featuring UGK, Raheem Devaughn)
• 6. "Holy Moly"
• 7. "Eat to Live"
• 8. "In the Mood" (Featuring Kanye West, Roy Ayers)
• 9. "Soon the New Day" (Featuring Norah Jones)
• 10. "Give 'Em Hell" (Featuring Coi Mattison, Lyfe Jennings)
• 11. "More or Less" (Featuring Dion)
• 12. "Stay Around"
• 13. "Hot Thing" (Featuring will.i.am)
• 14. "Space Fruit (Interlude)" (Sa-Ra)
• 15. "The Perfect Beat" (Featuring KRS-One)
• 16. "Oh My Stars" (Featuring Musiq Soulchild)
• 17. "Listen!!!"
• 18. "Go With Us" (Featuring Strong Arm Steady)
• 19. "Hostile Gospel Pt. 2 (Deliver Me)" (Featuring Sizzla)
• 20. "The Nature" (Bonus Cut featuring Justin Timberlake)

Review:
Average 71/100 on Metacritic.com

DOWNLOAD

I was speaking idiomatically.

Minus The Bear - Planet of Ice
(2007, Math Rock)



Track List:
1. Burying Luck
2. Ice Monster
3. Knights
4. White Mystery
5. Dr. L'Ling
6. Part 2
7. Throwin' Shapes
8. When We Escape
9. Double Vision Quest
10. Lotus

Review (from here:

Quote:

Minus the Bear's Planet of Ice marks the Seattle band's third full-length release (not counting three EPs and a remix album), and achieves an effect as spacious and blinding white as the landscape the title evokes. Psychedelia and math rock are here in equal parts, making for a somewhat bi-polar listening experience--the excellent "Part 2" opens with a downright Pink Floydian acoustic guitar before winding up to a driving circuitous conclusion, while nine-minute closer "Lotus" reels all over the stylistic map, starting and stopping in a mini-suite of hammering guitars and vaporous keyboards. Most songs keep well away from a standard verse-chorus structure, with lyric and instrumental passages stitched together like some indie rock Frankenstein (tracks are occasionally book-ended by wittily realized sonic manipulations that might cause the listener to check the CD for skips), but Minus the Bear keeps the melodies potent and the emotion high enough to prevent Planet of Ice from drifting into impenetrable shoe-gazer territory. --Ben Heege

DOWNLOAD LINKY

--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------

Sunkings - Soul Sleeping
(1998. Electronica)



Track List:
1 Tongues of Fungus (3:35)
2 Flesh Canvas (6:54)
3 Isle of the Departed (6:49)
4 Tang (7:28)
5 Eden Reprised (9:50)
6 Polyglot Man (10:09)
7 Divine Inferno (9:52)
8 Talisman (15:39)

Review (from here:

Quote:

\As a line of verse is recited, various pads and layers of sound are built as percussion and subsonic swoops bring the energy levels up to nominal. Finally breaking into an overdriven digital age looping dirge as Flesh Canvas carries you deeper, tones falling and tumbling all around as a death rattle hammers away in the near distance.

And don't expect things to get lighter from here on in as the Sunkings throw all they can at you, the unsuspecting listener. Moments of virtual ambience are quickly chipped away by pounding rhythms and wider than wide multi-level synthetic landscapes.

Made available by Blue Room Americas, the U.S. division of a U.K. label (Blue Room Release) originally set up to help promote those ultra cool Pod design speakers by B&W, Soul Sleeping is the debut full-length album from a band that promises to do even more great things way out there in the future.

DOWNLOAD LINKY

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Pharoahe Monch - Internal Affairs
Label: Rawkus Records, 1999
Genre: Hip-Hop




1. Intro
2. Behind Closed Doors
3. Queens
4. Rape
5. Simon Says
6. Official
7. Hell
8. No Mercy
9. Right Here
10. The Next Shit
11. The Ass
12. The Light
13. God Send
14. The Truth
15. Simon Says Remix

Will's Comments: I was kinda surprised that no one responded to my comment in the Hip-Hop thread...but then again, since his release this year, Pharoahe Monch hasn't put out an album since 1999. His delivery is so good he didn't feel the need to put out another record, so he's been writing for other artists ever since. This is his first solo release, which is out of production. I also *highly* recommend the new album, Desire, which should be very easy to get, and is quite different than Internal Affairs. I'll put it up if requested.

Spoiler:

"If you're not already familiar with the name; "Pharoahe fuckin Monch - ain't a damn thing changed." That's probably how most people know the verbal lyricist featured herein - that line and several verses of ill raps on the underground and club hit "Simon Says." Pharoahe has chops in hip-hop though - he and partner Prince Poetry released three albums as the duo Organized Konfusion; and their self-titled debut album is rated by most experts as one of the 50 greatest rap albums of time.

After their debut, the waters got a little bit more murky. "Stress: The Extinction Agenda" was an underground classic that got largely ignored commercially, and the follow-up album "The Equinox" was a conceptual journey on par with Prince Paul's "A Prince Among Thieves" but which fared even LESS well compared to the sophomore album. Perhaps sensing that he needed to recapture the spark with the rap world and build on the legion of underground heads who jocked his lyrics and flow, Pharoahe decided to sign with Rawkus Records and release a solo album. Pharoahe has said all along that it is not the end of Organized Konfusion, just a period of transition for the group. When you hear this LP, you may think differently.

From the verbal spitfire stuttering of the "Intro" right into the ominously macabre track "Behind Closed Doors" Monch is clearly pulling no punches. Pharoahe is an MC's emcee - the kind of rapper who exudes confidence and pulls off mindbending breath control while spitting scientifically superb lyrics at any choice of tempo; often speeding and slowing at will. He is literally a magician on fat beats - able to pull any rabbit out of his hat and leave you wondering just what the trick was. Just peep the arsenal he displays:

"Bananas is the unaninmous way we choose to live scandalous
Even with doorknobs you couldn't handle this
Pharoahe's the host, the audience, and the motherfuckin panelist
My mic's equipped with laser sights so that the man'll miss"

Alliteration, punchlines, assonance and meter are all in his bag of tricks. However, being gassed off his own skills may have led him to make this album's only controversial track - "Rape." Lyrically and conceptually sound, the song nonetheless stirred the ire of men and women alike for the fact his rhymes were likened to the male phallic and the beats to a woman's privates which he took at will, with or withour her consent. It's up to the individual listener to decide, but to this reviewer it certainly wasn't of itself enough to impact the overall quality of this album.

Even the strongest lyricist would have trouble rocking 15 tracks on the sheer ambition of his verbal ferocity - a fate which for most critics felled albums like Ras Kass' "Soul on Ice" and Chino XL's "Here to Save You All" (though I don't share their opinion). For Pharoahe though, the line-up of talent assembled is not slouching. Both the sports metaphor "Official" and the internet inspired Canibus duet "Hell" are ably produced by Lee Stone, who also rocks the Organized reunion "God Send" as well as lending production assistance to several tracks. Perhaps crunchiest of all though is The Alchemist laced "No Mercy" featuring M.O.P., a hard-stomping New York anthem with unabashed male machismo. Quite simply, any cojones having man will get AMPED UP by this cut.

There is also subtle beauty hidden in these bars too. The much missed musical mastery of D.I.T.C. don Diamond (D) pleases the aural canals with the sublime beauty of "The Light." If you've heard the track of the same name by Common, please, get off it. There is simply no comparison for the sheer sonic pleasure of this cut's simple smoothness as Monch macks to make moves on a mate. The beat is so dope it makes even Pharoahe's marginal singing talents on the chorus come off like the smoothest R&B soul. Of the two, this is the song that SHOULD have blown up, and didn't.

"It was like the earth twisted around her
She shifted the ground I was like, 'Ohhhhh.. SHIT!'
She's off the hook, I would dress her decently
but look her body is immaculate I'm attackin it from all positions
of thinkin inside my mind-ah
Hopefully it won't be too inappropriate if I walk over there and say,
'Excuse me, can I have your number please?'"

The album is closed by an all-star "Simon Says Remix" featuring everyone from mediocre rappers Shabaam Sahdeeq and Lady Luck to rap top guns Redman, Method Man, and Busta Rhymes - the latter in particular drops one of the hardest cameo verses we've ever seen from him. In one verse he not only threatens to put a "picture of your autopsy up on a web site" and then sell you out like "British civil servants pass secrets to the Soviets." Ouch! Busta also duets with Pharoahe on a bouncy uptempo cut called "The Next Shit" but he clearly saved the best for last. Apparently, Pharoahe Monch did too. Those who knew he had skills before clearly could not have the atomic bomb he dropped with this album. As great as Organized Konfusion was (clearly one of rap's best duos ever) this solo album proves without a doubt Pharoahe has 'nuff skills to rock it for delf. Hopefully there will be another Pharoahe album which builds on this one's strengths (and they are many) and raises the stakes another notch." - RapReviews.com

Internal Affairs





Rocky Votolato - Makers
Label: Barsuk Records, 2006
Genre: Indie/Singer-Songwriter





1. "White Daisy Passing" – 3:07
2. "Portland Is Leaving" – 2:45
3. "The Night's Disguise" – 3:17
4. "She Was Only in It for the Rain" – 3:09
5. "Uppers Aren't Necessary" – 2:55
6. "Wait Out the Days" – 2:43
7. "Streelights" – 2:29
8. "Tennessee Train Tracks" – 2:25
9. "Goldfield" – 3:32
10. "Tinfoil Hats" – 2:39
11. "Where We Left Off" – 5:38
12. "Makers" – 3:18

Will's Comments: I heard "White Daisy Passing" because of the iTunes free songs thing on Facebook. It's just different than everything I usually listen to, and I really like his voice.

Spoiler:

"Take away the bass and drums, and most rock songs lose their mojo. But on his Barsuk debut, the former frontman of indie-rock band Waxwing lets the guitar do the driving and strings together some of the most memorable melodies I’ve heard in the past few years. Compared to the auto-tuned nature of so many pop records today, Makers’ raw authenticity belongs in a vinyl collection next to Gram Parsons. More than anything, it’s Votolato’s voice that stands out and demands attention. On “Tennessee Train Tracks” it sounds a bit like a raspy Ryan Adams, while the three-part harmonies of “White Daisy Passing” recall Iron and Wine. Most of the tunes are propelled by acoustic-guitar strumming and have an urgency that underscores stories about restless people anxious to escape trailer-park life in old mining towns. Though death and regret are recurring themes, the dynamic melodies and predominantly brisk tempos give them an uplifting energy. Peppered with mandolin, harmonica, and pedal-steel riff s, the arrangements are sometimes reminiscent of alt-country forebears like Richard Buckner. But the melodic choruses have as much in common with label mates Nada Surf and Death Cab for Cutie. Like Votolato himself, the songs sound like they are rooted in Texas but blooming in Seattle." - acousticguitar.com

Makers

FELIPE NO

Label: RCA
Year: 2007
Genre: Acoustic

These tracks are really nice sounding, all acoustic style with some great guitar playing with different techniques and stuff. I'm pretty sure you'll like most if not all of the tracks on here. If you've heard of any, it will probably be Dream Catch Me, but be sure to give his cover of Massive Attack's Teardrop a listen!

1. Intro
2. To The Light
3. I Need Something
4. All I Got
5. Dream Catch Me
6. Feels Like Home
7. Teardrop
8. Gone In The Morning
9. Sitar-y Thing
10. Uncomfortably Slow
11. Straight Towards The Sun
12. People Should Smile More
13. She's Got The Time
14. UFO
15. Face (Her)
16. Aging Superhero
17. Lullaby

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I felt like slowing it down a bit for you cats today, so I brought some chill and downtempo. Just a foreword: I like Bonobo a lot more than I like Dzihan & Kamien, but I think they're both worth checking out for any electronica or jazz lovers.

Bonobo - Days to Come
Label: Ninja Tune
Release: 2006
Genre: Downtempo/Funk

Spoiler:

Disc: 1
1. Intro
2. Days to Come
3. Between the Lines (ft. Bajka)
4. Fever
5. Ketto
6. Nightlite (ft. Bajka)
7. Transmission 94 (Parts 1 & 2)
8. On Your Mark
9. If You Stayed Over (ft. Fink)
10. Walk in the Sky (ft. Bajka)
11. Recurring

Disc: 2
1. Days to Come [Instrumental]
2. Between the Lines [Instrumental]
3. Nightlite [Instrumental]
4. If You Stayed Over [Instrumental]
5. If You Stayde Over (Reprise)
6. Walk in the Sky [Instrumental]
7. Hatoa [Instrumental]

Here's what you do. Picture Air. Add platform shoes and a polyester shirt collar that could swallow a baby. ('Fro optional.) Now you've pretty much got Bonobo's Days to Come. He definitely doesn't have as much penetration as Air's music, but he does a damn fine job of it regardless.

Bonobo comes from label Ninja Tune, which has also hosted Amon Tobin for some time. While Amon Tobin has since gone entirely experimental, Bonobo has stayed pretty much within his own niche, crafting jazz influence music that has only gotten better as the years go by.

Definitely check out: "Days to Come," "The Fever," "Transmission 94 (pt. 1 & 2)" and "Recurring"

Move away from your western lands, travel towards eastern sands.

Dzihan & Kamien - Freaks & Icons
Label: Six Degrees
Release: 2000
Genre: Downtempo/Chill

Spoiler:

1. After
2. Dabudei
3. Streets Of Istanbul
4. Before
5. Homebase
6. I Guess She...
7. Slowhand Hussein
8. Just You & I
9. Colores
10. Ocean Air
11. Smile
12. Where Are We?
13. Spacewater

Dzihan & Kamien are a couple of Austrians with groove on their minds. Basically you can think Sunday afternoon listening. It's lazy, but with a slight edge to it. In this case, it's eastern influence, courtesy of both artists' interest in Turkish and middle-eastern style.

One thing that you'll notice time and time again in Dzihan & Kamien's music is the clarity and punch of the samples and vocals that they use. A lot of downtempo music is minimalistic not just with the samples but also with the treble or the distinctness of the sound. With these guys, though, the buzz of the bass and especially the crystal quality of the piano come through the whole time, making it seem like a more fresh sound, even when it might not be.

Favorites for me include: "After," "Homebase," and "Spacewater"

When your sunlit window needs a soundtrack.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Panda Bear - Person Pitch
(2007, Experimental Beach Boys rock)



Track List:
1. Comfy in Nautica
2. Take Pills
3. Bros
4. I'm Not
5. Good Girl
6. Carrots
7. Search for Delicious
8. Ponytail

Review (from here)

Quote:

Like another reviewer on here, I was not all that impressed with Panda Bear's first solo record, Young Prayer. It was overly simple and lo-fi. There's not much that I can say about it that hasn't been said before. However, with Person Pitch, Panda Bear has created an amazing audio tapestry of hazy samples and sun-drenched guitarscapes. If I had to reduce this review to as few words as possible, I would say this: Fennesz's Endless Summer meets the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds in Animal Collective's basement. I hesitate to mention AC here but this album is definitely reminiscent of the more melodic parts of Feels. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is more accessible on the first listen than any AC release.

There are only 7 tracks here, but there is no filler on the album and two of the tracks exceed the 10-minute mark. It opens with Comfy In Nautica - a repeated choral loop on top of simple 1-2-3-4 factory-noise percussion that floats underneath Noah's (Panda's real name) nostalgic singing. The next track, Take Pills, reminds me of Banshee Beat from Feels in that it begins slow and lurching but becomes upbeat about 3 minutes into it. "I don't want for us to take pills anymore..." is the catchy refrain to this one. Next comes Bros, the album's centerpiece. It starts with the sound of an owl hooting, but jumps into the melody very quickly. It desolves into lovely, hazy AC territory about halfway through, and the owl comes back for some background vocal work.

DONWLOAD LINKY

--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------

Cocteau Twins - Lullabies To Violaine (Volume One)
(2006, Dream Pop)



Track List:
1-01 Feathers-Oar-Blades (4:26)
1-02 Alas Dies Laughing (3:38)
1-03 It's All But An Ark Lark (8:04)
1-04 Peppermint Pig (7" Version) (3:24)
1-05 Laughlines (3:19)
1-06 Hazel (2:49)
1-07 Sugar Hiccup (12" Version) (3:37)
1-08 From The Flagstones (3:38)
1-09 Hitherto (3:52)
1-10 Because Of Whirl-Jack (3:26)
1-11 The Spangle Maker (4:40)
1-12 Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops (Alternate Version) (4:47)
1-13 Pepper-Tree (3:58)
1-14 Aikea-Guinea (Alternate Version) (3:57)
1-15 Kookaburra (3:18)
1-16 Quisquose (4:10)
1-17 Rococco (3:05)
2-01 Pink Orange Red (4:37)
2-02 Ribbed And Veined (3:55)
2-03 Plain Tiger (4:01)
2-04 Sultitan Itan (3:49)
2-05 Great Spangled Fritillary (4:02)
2-06 Melonella (4:01)
2-07 Pale Clouded White (4:59)
2-08 Eggs And Their Shells (3:04)
2-09 Love's Easy Tears (3:35)
2-10 Those Eyes, That Mouth (3:38)
2-11 Sigh's Smell Of Farewell (3:34)
2-12 Orange Appled (2:49)
2-13 Iceblink Luck (3:15)
2-14 Mizake The Mizan (3:00)
2-15 Watchlar (3:16)

Review (from here)

Quote:

The Cocteau Twins were one of those mysterious bands that the really cool kids in High School were into. You know, the ones with lots of black clothing, complicated footwear, hip hairdos, and surprisingly easy access to mind-altering substances. In other words, not me.

In spite of this, I once unwittingly ended up with a Cocteau Twins album of sorts called The Moon and the Melodies via my obsession with the rather uncool music of Harold Budd. I didn't realize it at the time, though, since that record was credited to Mr. Budd with "Simon Raymonde / Robin Guthrie / Elizabeth Fraser" and I was way too uncool to realize that those three people were actually the Cocteau Twins.

I continue to grow older and more uncool each day, but I nevertheless decided to pick up Lullabies to Violaine -- a four CD retrospective of singles and other "non-album" tracks by this band from 1982's Lullabies to, well, Violaine in 1996. (It's available as either two double-CD sets or as a "limited edition" four-CD set with the same track listing and strange shiny rubbery packaging they call "Curious Soft Touch Milk" for some reason...)

Knowing that the Cocteau twins are considered one of the original and definitive "dream / ambient pop" bands, I was more than a little surprised (and somewhat annoyed) by the first six tracks on disc one -- "Lullabies" is not a title I would have chosen for these dissonant, distorted, agitated electro-punk tunes.

When "Sugar Hiccup" (there's a great title!) arrives, however, the clouds part and the Cocteau Twins hit on what would be their signature sound going forward. You soon find out why the adjectives "ethereal," "blissful," "dreamy," and "atmospheric" are always used to describe their music: massively echoed, reverbed, and chorused layers of pulsing guitars and synthesizers... unintelligible sweeping soprano vocals... piles of major 7th chords... and, so the kids can dance to it all, a steady drum machine beat.

Over time, the Cocteau Twins tinker with this appealing formula without straying too far from it. But sometimes this stuff is too saccharine and radiant for its own good, sounding a little too much like the ideal soundtrack to a Volkswagen commercial or something. Also, while it's nice to understand the words Elizabeth Fraser is singing for a change, these versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "Frosty the Snowman" just sound really silly.

Otherwise, there is plenty of genuinely sublime music to be heard throughout this collection, including several great tracks from the band's often dismissed and maligned later years. I especially enjoy it when they turn the drum machine down (or off) and let the music and vocals expand and breathe a little more. The alternate "acoustic versions" of some songs are also a welcome inclusion, allowing you to better appreciate the unique sound of this band without all the layers of production and processing.

So whether you're a die-hard fan needing to round out your collection or a newcomer looking to take the plunge into the Cocteau Twins ocean, Lullabies to Violaine is an ideal (and affordable) way to do it.

In a word, it's... cool.

DOWNLOAD LINKY

--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
The Flashbulb - Kirlian Selections
(2005, Hard Drum & Bass plus like 10 bajillion other things)



Track List
1. Eyes of June (1:15)
2. Binedump (3:42)
3. Passage D (2:00)
4. Lawn Wake IX (2:35)
5. Mellann (2:11)
6. Kirlian Isles I (1:37)
7. Kirlian Isles II (3:35)
8. Dishevel (2:26)
9. My Life of Loving Ghosts (2:09)
10. Kirlian Shores (3:19)
11. At One Last Night (1:19)
12. Blackout (2:25)
13. Creep (3:05)
14. Autumn Insomnia Session (3:25)
15. Shortcuts (2:50)
16. Kirlian Choices (5:03)
17. East Highways (1:51)
18. West Highways (3:19)
19. Dakota June (1:53)
20. Parkways (2:48)
21. Lifeless Indoors (1:43)
22. Six Months Without Light (3:03)
23. (Unknown Cherokee script) (2:32)
24. California Dreaming (3:43)
25. Kirlian Changes (1:46)
26. Kirlian Isles III (2:13)
27. Miles and Miles (3:03)
28. Five Karots (1:45)

MOON NOTE: This is my favorite album OF ALL-TIME. It's not so much due to the songs, but the way the songs integrate each other into an album.

Review (from here)

Quote:

I will forgo the general cliche of comparing this artist to others. Instead, imagine that you are knocked down by an incurable cancer and are thus frozen in order to keep you "alive" until a cure becomes available.

The year is now 2060 and half of the world is desert. The other half is in the midst of a steady global crisis; stricken with famine and the anarchy of small wars. Despite this apocalyptic future, a cure is found and you are brought "home" after 55 years of stasis.

Your psychiatrist is going to get you through the lonliness with music and history. You have been presented a basket containing a list of present day recordings and at random, choose Kirlian Selections. The music fills the empty halls of your home, drilling and atmospheric. The smart wallpaper cues to the sound and displays a field of flowers beneath a crystaline sky that reflects a myriad of colors from a distant and alien sun. Phantom children dance frenetically and a family that appears to have once been your own, is enjoying a picnic in absolute peace. The music changes at times, like a passing cloud laden with violent rain, but returns to the pristine calm that can only be found in simulation.

The tracks of this album mesh and bring you through a wonderful collection of soundscapes. It denotes a level of maturity that unfortunately, seems to be elusive to others who share this particular genre of music. In short, when I think of ideal intelligence electronic composition, this is what my mind hears. This album shares the accessibility of Red Extensions and contains similar elements of drillnbass mixed with piano and string based instruments. Anyone who is a fan of Ben's other releases will find this at the top of their list.

DOWNLOAD LINKY

Most amazing jew boots

RJD2 - Deadringer
Year: 2002
Label: Definitive Jux
Genre: Hip Hop/Experimental



WHO KNOWS WHAT TOMORROW WILL BRING...

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

The hip hop world is an ever-evolving place for Columbus producer RJD2. In the summer of 2003, this guy was doing DJ work in the Columbus area as the lesser-known producer for the MHz. Then he moved to Philly, PA, and was busy promoting the hugely acclaimed 8,000,000 Stories with emcee Blueprint (collectively known as Soul Position), has recorded what is possibly the single of the year in MF Doom's Saliva, and reportedly impressed the hell out of The Roots with a track he submitted for The Tipping Point. Then he had his swift hand in producing the soundtrack for Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. Let's put it simply and say the man has made a name and a reputation for himself and a lot of this stems from his glorious solo debut, Deadringer.

While this is mostly an instrumental hip-hop album, trust me, you won't miss the lyrics. While the album starts with the quirky, dense, mood-setting The Horror it quickly brightens up into a journey through the wonderful world of soul. Smoke & Mirrors shows RJ filling a dark but wondrous track with hard trumpet loops and reflective soul singing samples. Ghostwriter skips the vocals completely and instead goes with a borderline country guitar sample which bursts joyously into triumphant horns that will leave you breathless.

Being a popular DJ around Ohio's biggest campus (Ohio State), RJD2 knows how to have a good time which is exemplified by Good Times Roll Pt. 2. If I had a time machine, I'm pretty sure RJD2 could have sold this track to some Motown artist in the old-soul era. It's got all the dance, rhythm, and atmosphere of a back-in-the-day party anthem.

To give us a Soul Position preview, Blueprint crashes the party on Final Frontier. With a wicked piano riff and a little added bounce, RJ sets 'Print up for an easy score. 'Print proves he's up to it too, spitting, You're not ill and if you are/ My notepads full of medicine/ Plus my freestyle is Excederin/ Take two rhymes and call me back with a new style/ Be sure you're prepared for the final frontier (We're here!). And indeed, Soul Position has officially arrived on the scene.

While Deadringer is entrenched in soul with a little fun, RJD2 manages to get hard-nosed and a bit reflective. Chicken-N-Bone Circuit shows his great love of hard drum loops as he forms one of the most chaotic, head-nod-inducing drum beats you will ever hear on wax. On June he opts for atmosphere instead of the usual steady soul-loops while bringing along MHz emcee, Copywrite. Between Copy's tight intro/retrospective verses RJ digs out a beautiful guitar to drive home the passion of his fellow artist. It's one gripping track.

Nowadays, RJD2 wakes up as an in-demand, financially stable, top 3 producer in Hip-Hop and Deadringer is much to thank for that. The only sin that has been committed anywhere in this story is that Definitive Jux dropped them from their label and have, in the process, lost their finest producer.

Damn shame too but only time will tell how well this über-talented mastermind fares outside of underground hip hop.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Mew - Frengers
Label: Sony/Epic, 2003
Genre: Indie





1. "Am I Wry? No" – 4:54
2. "156" – 4:55
3. "Snow Brigade" – 4:22
4. "Symmetry" – 5:39
5. "Behind the Drapes" – 3:40
6. "Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years" – 2:48
7. "Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed" – 4:48
8. "She Came Home for Christmas" – 3:55
9. "She Spider" – 4:44
10. "Comforting Sounds" – 8:58

Comments: I included the single "Special" from their latest album just for kicks, because it's what initially drew me to the band.

Spoiler:

"The best thing about disasters is the beauty that follows. Volcanoes have that lush firefly rain and glowing goo rivers. Avalanches have that muted minute of absolute silence. And pop has had the Reality-TV glut, the rebirth of the ‘70s, a general lack of new bands to really believe in. But then, from outta nowhere (or Denmark as it's usually know), along comes a band like Mew: pop band of the moment.
"What you on about hacko? They ain't pop-u-largh yah bucktoof fool!"
Rap your jive all the way to the zoo, bucko! You'll soon stop the moment ya hear this band. And when ya discover they've got Alan McGee in their camp... come back, don't run away!

Let's get one thing straight: pop ain't a popularity contest, it's a state of mind. Pop is meant to define the day, stain history, act as a vehicle for revolution or simply internationally link the youth of the day! Pop today has been taken away from us by the tweenies (Think: S Club Jnrs, tATu, et al). Pop sucks. Pop is evil. Pop is a paedophile’s cum-encrusted world (steady on! - SubEd).

On the cherub face of it this album is a soaring, triangle tapping, kitten cuddling, debut; Mew have playground innocence down - lunchbox in hand, toothpaste on tie and scabby knees, all set for a day of holding hands with the pigtailed girl. Mew could market this to my 6-year old cousin to dance around to whilst munching her Sugar Puffs, and they'd sell a billion. Pop is Universal... aaaaaaah, that's the cookie, that's what everyone has forgotten!

Saying that, this coulda been the soundtrack to the cult flick ‘Kids’. And there are Pumpkins’ shadows that obscure moments of this record and split seconds when you forget this isn't the newie from Sparklehorse. Not to mention the distinct tones of Stina Nordenstam sitting pretty on a couple of these 'ere tracks.

Don't be fooled. No matter how many clouds Jonas' vocals reach out to, average angels, they is not. Amongst the mood-shifting time changes and throbbing bass lines, are disjointed swollen moments of joy, where the Sigur Rós-like one-man choir, melts into almost teary monologues about stalking a girl from a boat, in the middle of a lake.

The death of youth is the disaster dealt with throughout this album. Anyone who's woken up to the reality of overdrafts, insurance, been to the clinic and had people asking if you have a pension plan, know exactly what that's all about. This album touches on those feelings, impulses, fears, blood rushes, moments of utter confusion and feeling like all you want to do is sit around, suck on lollies, read pop-up books and be a kid again.

This is a Northern European mongrel of dizzy lo-fi with pop hooks to help you escape the everyday. After year upon year of ‘big’ bands being incapable of making genuine and concise summaries of the feelings of the day, Mew are a breath of fresh air. It's an album with longevity and throughout it’s an uplifting joy.

If you don't get this record first time around, come a projection drenched live set or one of their amazing videos, Mew are gonna getcha. Soon." (8/10) -Drowned in Sound

Frengers

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Kiss The Anus of a Black Cat - If the Sky Falls We Shall Catch Larks
(2007, Experimental Folk)



Track List:
1. Sevenfold - 5:31
2. Nihil, As In Nihilism - 8:14
3. Sighing, Seething, Soothing - 19:16
4. Almost, Silver - 5:58

Review:

Quote:

This album is a very dark and hard hitting folk album, something that I didn't think was possible of the genre unless it's mixed with metal. And this album has no metal in it. The lyrics a sort of rhythmic quality to them, and each song is unique from the rest.

The CD starts with sevenfold, which has a chorus that's reminiscent of a chain gang "call and response" sort of deal. This also sets the tone for the rest of the album: dark, yet not depressing. The next song continues form the previous song with the chorus lyric "Who on the seven, the seventh day," which I though was cool. It then goes to power acoustic guitar mode and makes it impossible to not headbang to for the next few minutes of the song.

Sighing,Seething,Soothing is not just a 19 minute droney sort of song. It starts slow, then gets fast, then gets slow like many other songs; it's just over a longer scale, meaning that the song reaches a black tentacle into your eardrums and wraps itself on your brain. I almost want to say the concluding song Almost Silver"starts with an almost upbeat feel in that the guitar and feel seems lighter. Yet it's not, and let me be the first to say that it will take you a few listens to really like the song. Like the second track, there is a real sense of power to the song, and it's a fitting end to the album.

Overall, this album is required listening in every sense I can think of, even if you think you don't like folk. I NEVER write my own reviews for the albums I post, and judging by the size of the review I just gave for this one alone, you can tell I think this album is pretty freaking awesome.

DOWNLOAD LINKY

--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------

Junius - Forcing the Silence (EP)
(2004, Alternative / Psychedelic Rock)



Track List:
1. [Élan Vital] (1:12)
2. Hiding Knives (5:27)
3. From The Isle Of The Blessed (5:15)
4. [Élan Fatale] (2:13)
5. Forcing Out The Silence (7:34)

Quote:

This is another one of those albums that I can never seem to stop listening to. Forget the perfect use of the reverb pedal, and the way the one album could be considered a single piece. The songs are just pain awesome. They aren't afraid to put immense power into their guitar and vocals, but they don't overdo it. Lyrically, the songs are incredible, but they don't make the mistake of putting too much emphasis into their lyrics and leave the background instrumentation o0ut of the picture. I only have one fault with the album and that the recording quality could stand to be better.

[Élan Vital] builds up a sense of power for Hiding Knives, which is the climax and resolution to that power build up. From The Isle Of The Blessed starts on a clean slate essentially, as the previous track cleansed the aural palette at the end. Aside from being a great song, ti is also the perfect middle song in a very gestalt kind of way. [Élan Fatale] is essentially the band flipping out with their instruments and balancing echoy vocals with screaming vocals. Seriously cool shit, in other words, and ends with an almost ethereal feel to lead up to the conclusion. Forcing Out The Silence, man, there's a reason it's the name of the EP. I cannot describe beyond that is the perfect encapsulation to the previous songs and just a great song in general that has seen many of my listening tracklists ever since I heard it several months ago.

DOWNLOAD LINKY

How ya doing, buddy?

album: Tenhi: Folk Aesthetic 1996-2006 (2007)
label: Prophecy
genre: folk/progressive


Ilmari Issakainen: guitar, piano, drums, bass, percussions, vocals
Tyko Saarikko: vocals, piano, guitar, synth
Ilkka Salminen: guitar, vocals, bass, drums
Tuukka Tolvanen: vocals
Inka Eerola: violin
Jaakko Hilppö: backing vocals
Janina Lehto: flute
Eleonora Lundell: viola
Veera Partanen: flute

A 3cd compilation of early demos, EPs, alternative versions and unreleased tracks plus a whole new album (the third cd). The darkest folk music you will find. I translated the tracklist into English just for you, so there might be some inconsistensies. Wow, ye olde Finnish was hard to translate.

I:
- Kertomuksia demo (Tales):
01. Näkin laulu (The Chant of Näkki)
02. Havuisissa saleissa (In the Halls of the Pine Forest)
03. Tenhi (Spirit)
- Hallavedet EP:
04. Hallavedet (The Glacial Waters)
05. Hiljaiseksi lampi jää (The Pond Stays Still)
-Airut:ciwi EP (Harbinger: Stone):
06. Tuulennostatus (Rising the Winds)
07. Kielo (Lily of the Valley)
08. Ciwenkierto (Around the Stone)

II: Alternative and unreleased tracks:
01. Kausienranta (Shore of Seasons)
02. Suortuva (Gaiety)
03. Etäisyyksien taa (Beyond Distances)
04. Linnuit (Leaves)
05. Tuulenkaato (The Downing Wind)
06. Sydänvalkea (Flame Heart)
07. Kuoppa (Pit)
08. Korvenraivaajat (Rid a Route)
09. Kielo (Lily of the Valley)
10. Niin auer hiljaa vie (So the Haze Takes Quietly)

III: Kaski
Häie (Inkling)
Luo varjo (Cast a Shadow)
Koiranlainen peura (A Deer like a Dog)
Suruiksi soi (Sings for Woe)
Sarahdus (A Dawning)
Tuuli varista (The Wind the Crow)
Laule (A Singling)
Vasen (The Left)
Neidiie (Maiden)

OH THE DOWNLOAD LINK I ALMOST FORGOT

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Sweet Coffee - Naked City
2007
dance with some jazz and soul influences



Review coming soon

Download link


Roisin Murphy - Overpowered
2007
pop with disco influences



Review coming soon.

Download link

FELIPE NO

Label: Chess/MCA
Original Release: 1970 Deluxe Edition Release: 2002
Genre: Electric Blues/Funk

wolf.PNG

1. Rockin' Daddy
2. I Ain't Superstitious
3. Sittin' On Top Of The World
4. Worried About My Baby
5. What A Woman
6. Poor Boy
7. Built For Comfort
8. Who's Been Talking?
9. Red Rooster, The - (False start and dialogue)
10. Red Rooster, The
11. Do The Do
12. Highway 49
13. Wang Dang Doodle
14. Goin' Down Slow
15. Killing Floor
16. I Want To Have A Word With You

DISC 2:

1. Worried About My Baby - (rehearsal take)
2. Red Rooster, The - (alternate mix)
3. What A Woman - (alternate take)
4. Who's Been Talking? - (alternate take, With false start and studio dialogue)
5. Worried About My Baby - (alternate take)
6. I Ain't Superstitious - (alternate take)
7. Highway 49 - (alternate take)
8. Do The Do - (extended alternate version)
9. Poor Boy - (alternate lyrics/mix)
10. I Ain't Superstitious - (alternate mix)
11. What A Woman! - (alternate mix, with organ overdub)
12. Rockin' Daddy - (alternate mix)

This album, in my opinion, represents one of the most awesome moments in blues music history. As the title mentions, the album's premise is a week of recordings sessions by Howlin' Wolf in London. What isn't mentionned in the title however, is exactly who the musician's are who comprised his band. Well, this band is comprised of none other than Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts (the Rolling stones bassist and drummer) and Steve Winwood, with contributions by some other great cats, amongst them Ringo Starr (disc 1- track2).

Even though this kind of thing happens quite more often today, it was at the time less than obvious that such a venture would yield positive results. In fact the liner notes do mention that there were tensions within the group in the first few days of recording.

However, it becomes clear when one sits down to listen to the tracks that they did in the end get it together to amazing results. My personal favorite track is no.13 of the first disc, where Wolf's vocals and the incessant rhythmic drive of the band are perfectly in sync and yield a most satisfactorily groovin' feel.

This album, in my opinion, is a must for any Clapton/Stones/Wolf/Blues/Funk/MUSIC fan out there.

here is the link: download

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Artist: Mako Ishino (石野真子)
Album: New Best One
Year: 2004
Label: Victor Entertainment (ビクターエンタテインメント)
ASIN: B0002V012O




Track List

01 - 狼なんか怖くない
02 - わたしの首領
03 - 失恋記念日
04 - 日曜日はストレンジャー
05 - プリティー・プリティー
06 - ワンダー・ブギ
07 - ジュリーがライバル
08 - 春ラ!ラ!ラ!
09 - ハートで勝負
10 - めまい
11 - 彼が初恋
12 - 恋のハッピー・デート
13 - 彩りの季節
14 - 恋のサマー・ダンス
15 - バーニング・ラブ
16 - めぐり逢い
17 - ガラスの観覧車

Download Here --- Megaupload


This time, we will look into the career of Mako Ishino, the idol with a bubbly personality and her characteristic "million dollar smile". While the album put here is the alleged "Limited Edition" release, there is a cheaper one under the Colezo! series that is the exact same thing. Regardless, Ishino's path to pop music fame began when she was a contestant in the talent show Star Tanjou (as was many others at the time) in 1977. Her appeal was infectious and she began an agressive regimen of performance and recording, releasing up to 5 singles on a given year (not unusual at the time either). This album is a collection of most of her A-side singles from 1978 to 1981, when she temporarily went into retirement, and 1985 & 1987, during her return to showbusiness.

For the most part, her songs have the quality of being exceedingly happy, with strong emphasis on beat (she would later be one of the icons of Japanese disco) and tunefulness. They range from the whimsical (狼なんか怖くない "Wolves Aren't Something to be Afraid Of") to teasing (ジュリーがライバル "Julie's Rival") and even simply toe-tapping exuberance (日曜日はストレンジャー "Sunday Stranger", 春ラ!ラ!ラ! "Spring La La La!", or ワンダー・ブギ "Wonder Boogie"). But she can also show her more mature facet in songs such as 失恋記念日 "Commemoration Day of Unrequited Love" and めまい "Dizziness" as well as take on sincere ballads like 彼が初恋 "His First Love".

Mako Ishino is one of the more prominent idols of the late 1970s and early 1980s, one of the several that lead the way to the wave of idols in the 1980s that exude sweet and positive girlish charms. Her position between the two decades have given her the chance to appeal to a wide audience.

How ya doing, buddy?

Artist: Sunset Rubdown
Album: Random Spirit Lover
Year: 2007
Label: Jagjaguwar
ASIN: B000VDDBLQ



Stealing a review from Amazon, because I can't pretend to be pretentious and get away with it .

Originally Posted by some dude

Spencer Krug is insane. In the best possible way of course.

And Sunset Rubdown has expanded their sound in every direction, with the gloriously dense third album "Random Spirit Lover." While their music hasn't changed drastically in sound, it's grown deeper and denser and much, much weirder -- in fact, it may be too dense to hear in one sitting.

It opens with a sprightly tangle of growling squealing guitar, energetic piano, bells and blurry synth. "He was a man of many nations, had a hundred souls and a hundred to go/He was a man of many nations, two hearts, two hands, it's a slippery slope," Krug yowls over the bouncy, cluttered melody. "It was the tender mending of this slender gown/that brought me bending to the ground..."

You might want to just turn it off after that, and take a little while to digest it. Or you can move on to the tremulous, mournfully quirky "Magic vs. Midas," which serves as a little oasis after the craziness of the first song.

But things don't really get any simpler after that -- we have twinkly marches, ominous indie-rock with a chorale, stately crescendos of ringing guitars, rippling dark electronica, and cascading eruptions of crazy harps and keyboard. Occasionally, they mix in a gentle echoing experimental song, a fuzzfolk pop song, or a tinkl little ballad like "Stallion."

You can really tell in "Random Spirit Lover" that Sunset Rubdown is no longer merely a side band for people from Pony Up, Wolf Parade, et cetera. Their music has really blossomed into a dense, intense combination of experimental music (a la Animal Collective) and pop tunes. You can dance to it, but it might make you dizzy.

Each melody is made of a bunch of loosely intertwined instrumentals -- winding riffs that vary from ringing to fuzzy, solid drums and fast-moving piano setting the beat. And the whole thing is wound in a dizzying, colourful blanket of shimmering glockenspiel, harmonica, and swells of windy keyboard.

Krug is responsible for most of the vocals, and it takes a little while to get used to his yowling, dramatic voice. But he sings lyrics of staggering lyrical beauty ("You say it's the hair of ghosts/So I say it's the white hair of Poseidon/Ebbing in the tide in some dead sea"), and more than a little tenderness.

Even more striking, those lyrics are crammed with symbolism and dreamlike imagery -- leopards, virgins, snow and ice, the Shroud of Turin, and lots of diamonds and violins. There are plenty of repeating motifs in these songs, tangling them almost into a theme album.

Your ears may overflow while you're listening to "Random Spirit Lover," but the rich experimental pop and astounding lyrics make a wonderful way to be overwhelmed. Definitely a must-listen.

Essentially, it's a mix of Wolf Parade and Animal Collective that has been one of my most enjoyable albums of the year. Highly recommended

Download

----------------------------
Artist: Swan Lake
Album: Beast Moans
Year: 2006
Label: Jagjaguwar
ASIN: B000IOMY0C

Originally Posted by amazon

Swan Lake is a supergroup made in indie-rock heaven, featuring Dan Bejar (Destroyer), Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes), and Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes) and debut Beast Moans is the cacophonous, lo-fi outcome of their collaboration. Using what they do best, Swan Lake's members have meshed their distinct styles and odd voices together, mingling them to create something limitless and fresh. But, cooperation takes patience, and so does this album. There's a lot going on and without the guide of great engineering, wading through some of the murkiness is probably best left to the band's other pre-established fans. While this record isn't a collection of bonus tracks, there are undeniable watermarks: Destroyer fans will rejoice at strident "The Freedom" that's so Destroyer that it self-references a city of daughters, yet is peppered up with Krug's characteristic weirdo keyboards and Mercer's haunting backup singing. Similarly, "All Fires" and "Bluebird" spark pure pathos not unlike other Sunset Rubdown lamentations, and Carey Mercer's spastic frenzies aren't at all hushed either. Echoes of the inescapable rock & roll canon are here too. If it ever seemed lazy to compare Destroyer to David Bowie, that association has a leg to stand on in the sum of Swan Lake, as Mercer renews Bowie on "City Calls" and the album's mood recalls Bowie's Eno-influenced period. Also, the playful "A Venue Called Rubella" is really Beatlesy and "The Partisan But He's Got to Know," is a raucous Pere Ubu jaunt that could be the soundtrack to a Bobby Socks night for the undead--not a bad thing, in fact it's the best track on the album. Perhaps intentionally, the lyrics are mostly indecipherable and swirl together in static ("Pleasure Vessels," "Shooting Rockets"); the duets Krug and Bejar share are sometimes like duels ("Are You Swimming in Her Pools"). Overall, the album is loud and challenging, aptly full of moaning, gnashing, and circumstances of halting, crystalline beauty. --Gabi Knight

Download

How ya doing, buddy?

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Label: Ba Da Bing, 2006
Genre: Indie/Folk/World




1. "Gulag Orkestar" – 4:38
2. "Prenzlauerberg" – 3:46
3. "Brandenburg" – 3:38
4. "Postcards from Italy" – 4:17
5. "Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)" – 3:15
6. "Rhineland (Heartland)" – 3:58
7. "Scenic World" – 2:08
8. "Bratislava" – 3:17
9. "The Bunker" – 3:13
10. "The Canals of Our City" – 2:21
11. "After the Curtain" – 2:54

Comments: I guess I'm just continuing my trend of putting up an older album once I realize that a new one's out. I heard the title track while watching the last lunar eclipse. It was weird shit. Think Miranda, That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore.

Spoiler:

"Beirut's received quite a bit of pre-release buzz. He deserves some of it. His tuneful Balkan stomp is fairly unique within the indie realm, an aesthetic shared with Man Man, Gogol Bordello, and Barbez but few others. That, and for a 19-year-old from Albuquerque (now living in Brooklyn), he sounds like an old man sipping vodka and humming along to Tchaikovsky while the neighborhood kids play stick ball or drink egg creams. The sound is there, but beneath the atmospherics his themes of war, fallen curtains, bunkers, life on the Rhine-- his song titles are more fixated on Germany (and Slovakia and an imaginary Eastern Bloc) than Russia-- and Gulags, are vague and sometimes less than effective. That makes sense: He doesn't have the lived experience for those situations. Perhaps he studied W.G. Sebald to add some color, and in a very Sebaldian move the album's anonymous cover photos were found in a library in Leipzig, Germany. In the liner notes, Condon asks if anyone knows the photographer's whereabouts.

Beirut's brassy In the Aeroplane Over the Sea-like instrumental accents have garnered Neutral Milk Hotel comparisons. There's also guilt by association-- ex-NMH player Jeremy Barnes and his A Hawk and a Hacksaw compatriot Heather Toast contribute accordion, violins, and percussion. But while Condon writes generally spare, pretty tableau that can lodge themselves in your ear like hazy memories, his words aren't as intellectually, emotionally, or erotically invested as Mangum's feverish, tear-jerky lyrics. And that's OK-- it's unfair to hold a debut record up to one of the bona fide indie classics of the past 10 years. I mention it only to squash the impulse at the root, because exaggerated expectations shouldn't dissuade anyone from enjoying Beirut's best work, chiefly the gorgeous triumph "Postcards From Italy", an infectious, Rufus Wainwright-tinged love/death story accented by loping majorette drumming, a menagerie of horns, and a plucky ukulele lilt that mixes perfectly with Condon's airy croon.

Elsewhere, "Bratislava" is a celebratory march for the Slovakian capital-- a sweaty, saw-dusted cabaret jam with Gogol Bordello. It's at moments like these, his vocals placed further back in the mix, that you realize the kid sounds truly authentic and captivating. In the bubblier chill of "Scenic World", Condon arms the troops with dinky Six Cents & Natalie Casio drum machines and brings them into Magnetic Fields and Jens Lekman territory. It's two minutes of pretty pop, plain and simple. At the end, amid horn flourishes, accordion, and doubled vocals he sings, "I try to imagine a careless life/ A scenic world where the sunsets are all breathtaking"-- he holds the last word, letting it swoon and flutter, like Morrissey with a hammer-and-sickle Band-Aid on his nipple.

Time and again, the most powerful element of Gulag Orkestar, and what ought to be emphasized, is Condon's acrobatic, powerful, emotionally nuanced voice. It could carry any style of music. Fixate for a second on the stuff he's doing on "Rhineland (Heartland)". The lyrics are dopey, but his trills and whirls are mind-blowing. Pairing these melodies with Eastern European accouterments in lieu of standard guitar-pop creates an obvious appeal. Still, the question ought to be asked: Are the songs really so incredible or do they simply mimic and mine musical traditions unfamiliar to the average indie rock fan? That said, the best songs here are a joy and the average and ho-hum tunes even have a thick and aesthetically appealing atmosphere-- in other words, it's an impressive and precocious debut. -Pitchfork

Gulag Orkestar

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hella - Hold Your Horse Is (2002)
Label: 5 Rue Christine
Genre: Math rock (according to the internet, I'd say it's more Experimental Tech)




Review:
The instrumental music Hella constructs (call it math rock/spazz, whatever) is sensational because of the immediate realization of Zach Hill's innovations in drumming. I've heard his drumming be compared to popcorn popping in patterns or a hailstorm raining on a drumkit. However these comparisons kind of make a novelty out of Hill's playing. It's not even about his agility and precision, or even his endurance to play Hella music for that matter. Then you have Spencer Seim whose guitar playing offers a complimentary ear extravaganza for you. Appropriately frenzied, often transcendent in melody or reckless in nature (usually combined), he uses a lot of tapping and odd atonal chords that really give the staccato rampage of Hella's music it's colorful paint job.

Recommended tracks:
City Folk Sitting, Sitting
Republic of Rough and Ready

Download



Behold...The Arctopus - Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning (2006)
Label: Metal Blade
Genre: Experimental Tech Metal




Review:
The complexity of this band, hailing from somewhere beyond the North Atlantic, is interesting and creative. The difference between Behold… the Arctopus and other prog-metal bands is that whilst they have an interest in classical composition (citing Luciano Berio as an influence, for example) as most ‘prog’ bands do, they have a past in thrash and death-metal which stops them from becoming as weak as, say, Dream Theater. Don’t let that stop you from listening to this though, non-death metal fans, there is nay a growl in sight here - it’s entirely instrumental. Plus, look at the title of this EP and the songtitles and you’ll see they have a sense of humour which stops this from merely being an exercise in ultra-technical proficiency.

The actual music held herein is highly aggressive, highly dissonant and dazzling. It’s almost cinematic in scope. As much inspired by 20th century classical and jazz as by metal is the usual way the band is described; some reviews and descriptions mention improvisation however, but that would be incorrect. Every part of the band’s music is rigorously composed and structured, separating it thus. To give you some idea of just how much thought goes into these pieces, the band says this: "We tend to compose above our own abilities, so while a song may come together in a week, it takes us another six or eight months to learn it."

Musical phrases don’t last very long, with spiralling fret board workouts imitating both themselves, the Warr guitar parts and even the drumming patterns; occasionally, during quieter, more subtle passages, Mike Lerner’s guitar resembles Pat Metheny’s whilst playing Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint composition. This is, surprisingly, not that rare in the tech-metal scene, for instance on Psyopus’ debut they regularly use the same tone and technique used by Metheny in playing the composition aforementioned. Make of that what you will.

As touched upon in the previous paragraph, it’s not constantly loud and metallic; Colin Marston’s other projects (Byla, certainly) quietly influencing the music, with sporadic drone and ambient-inspired passages. This once again sets the band firmly apart from most other millennial metal acts. It’s also this variety that makes the band vastly superior to another Marston band, Dysrhythmia, whose standard math-rock forms are much less interesting than Behold… the Arctopus.

This is the first serialist-metal act, and it’s for fans of Arnold Schoenberg as much as Meshuggah, but to get the most out of this release it's best if you appreciate both.


Recommended Tracks:
Sensory Amusia

Download



The Sword - Age Of Winters (2006)
Label: Kemado
Genre: Doom/Stoner Metal




Review:
There hasn't been an album which is this bursting at the seems with huge, super heavy, rumbling, meaty, crushing, Sabbath-inspired, fret board smoking riffs since Mastodon's "Leviathan" was released in August of 2004. Frontman J.D. Cronise sings melodically (almost in an Ozzy Osbourne-esque tone), so he sometimes takes away from this Austin based band's intensity. But, luckily, the punch the guitars pack is definitely powerful, visceral, and great enough to make up for the vocals. The riffs cascade, groove, and storm like tumbling logs, and the rhythms crunch, crash, and flatten like a truckload of falling bricks and steel bars. The album begins with a brief instrumental ("Celestial Crown"), which has pounding, lumbering riffs. That song is mid-tempo, but some songs, like "Freya" and "The Horned Goddess," are blistering, with speedy, churning guitars (plus, the latter track also has a mini guitar solo.) Track six, "Iron Swan" begins with soft strumming and percussion rattles before rocketing into a fast, propulsive guitar lead and eventually segueing into crunchy, punching riffs. But this disc's best track is probably the epic, very Mastodon-esque instrumental, "March of the Lor." According to the C.D. booklet, this instrumental is divided into eight "movements" (parts). Even if one or two songs get to be kind of repetitive, it only makes sense that the guitarists (Kyle Shutt and the aforementioned frontman J.D. Cronise) would have to recycle a couple riffs when the album is this full of them. All in all, "Age Of Winters" is easily the best doom metal C.D. of the past year and a half, and it is absolutely essential for everybody who enjoys the genre, as well as fans of Black Sabbath, High On Fire, and Mastodon.


Recommended Tracks:
Freya
Barael's Blade


Download

Lightning Bolt - Wonderful Rainbow (2003)
Label: Load Records
Genre Noise/Experimental Rock





Review:
Oh Jeebus, this is one intense album. For those unfamiliar with Lightning Bolt, the loud, hard-pounding Wonderful Rainbow should serve as a suitable introduction to this manic drum-and-bass duo. There may only be two instruments being played, and a few wordless vocals scattered throughout, but Wonderful Rainbow is anything but minimal. This is one busy album, filled with dense, complex, and occasionally playful pieces of noise rock that will have you banging your head in no time at all.

If you ever thought a bass couldn't be used as a lead instrument, this album will provide you with a resounding rebuttal, as Brian Gibson finds more uses for the instrument than you might think possible. His work here ranges from big fuzzed-out riffs to screeching bouts of feedback and everything in between, while Brian Chippendale contributes some drumbeats that you'd have to send away to NASA to calculate. Go ahead, try to sit still while listening to the crazed intro to 30000 Monkeys. I dare you.

There are a few rather mellow moments to be found here, but they basically just serve as counterpoints to the monstrous sonic onslaught that's typically on display. As someone else has already noted, Lightning Bolt makes a great antidote to the Belle and Sebastians of the world. This album is a must for serious noise enthusiasts everywhere.


Download






*all reviews were taken from Amazon.. sorry forgot to quote them all :X*

How ya doing, buddy?

Ultimate Opera: The Essential Masterpieces



This compilation really speaks for itself. A 5 CD collection of great opera, including both well-known and lesser known works, and recorded with high quality in mind. Listening is highly recommended, both for those just getting into opera and opera fans.

This is a lossless rip. Opera + lossless = 6 hours, 4 minutes and 21 seconds of solid aural orgasm.

<track no>. <track name> (<Composer>: <Opera>)
CD 1:
1. Oh! mio babbino caro (Puccini: Gianni Schicchi)
2. Va, pensiero (Chorus of the Hebrew slaves) (Verdi: Nabucco)
3. Dove sei, amato bene? (Handel: Rodelinda)
4. Una furtiva lagrima (Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore)
5. Où va la jeune indoue (Bell song) (Delibes: Lakmé)
6. E lucevan le stelle (Puccini: Tosca)
7. Regina coeli laetare (Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana)
8. Morgenlich leuchtend (Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg)
9. Beglückt darf nun dich, o Heimat (Pilgrims chorus) (Wagner: Tannhäuser)
10. Mrsicku na nebi hlubokém (Song to the moon) (Dvorák: Rusalka)
11. Intermezzo sinfonico (Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana)
12. Spirto gentil (Donizetti: La Favorita)
13. Che farò senza Euridice? (Gluck: Otphée et Euridice)
14. Recondita armonia (Puccini: Tosca)
15. Bella figlia dell'amore (Quartet) (Verdi: Rigoletto)
Download Disc One

CD 2:
1. Che gelida manina (Puccini: La Bohème)
2. Viens, Mallika,... Sôme épais (Flower duet) (Delibes: Lakmé)
3. Non più andrai (Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro)
4. Soave sia il vento (Trio) (Mozart: Cosí fan tutte)
5. O Dieu! que de bijoux... Ah je ris de me voir (Jewel song) (Gounod: Faust)
6. C'est toi... Au fond du temple saint (Duet) (Bizet: Les Pêcheurs de perles)
7. Ebben? Ne andrò lontana (Catalani: La Wally)
8. Oh! fede negar potessi ... Quando le sere al placido (Verdi: Luisa Miller)
9. I zampognari! ... Don din don (Leoncavallo Pagliacci)
10. Pourquoi me réveiller (Massenet: Werther)
11. Son vergin vezzosa (Bellini: I Puritani)
12. Prelude... Si può? Signore! Signori! (Leoncavallo Pagliacci)
13. Vissi d'arte (Puccini: Tosca)
14. Un d ì felice (Verdi: La traviata
15. Cielo e mar (Ponchielli: La Gioconda
16. Tre sbirri... una carozza... Presto - Te Deum (Puccini: Tosca)
Download Disc Two

CD 3:
1. The Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner: Die Walküre)
2. Die Todesahnung ... O du, mein holder Abendstern (Wagner:Tannhäuser)
3. Che puro cie, che chiaro sol (Gluck: Orphée et Euridice)
4. Là ci darem la mano (Mozart: Don Giovanni)
5. Ah sì ben mio (Verdi: Il trovatore)
6. Ritorna vincitor! (Verdi Aida)
7. La fleur que tu m'avais jetéee (Bizet: Carmen)
8. Humming Chorus (Puccini: Madama Butterfly
9. Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix (Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila)
10. Sérénade: Vous qui faites l'endormie (Gounod: Faust)
11. O don fatale (Verdi: Don Carlo)
12. Signore, ascolta (Puccini: Turandot)
13. La dolcissima effigie (Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur)
14. Belle nuit,ô nuit d'amour (Barcarolle) (Offenbach: Les Contes d'Hoffmann)
15. Morro, ma prima in grazia (Verd:@ Un ballo in maschera)
16. Vivat! Vivat le torero!...Votre toast (Toreador Song) (Bizet: Carmen)
Download Disc Three

CD 4:
1. La donna è mobile (Verdi: Rigoletto)
2. Una voce poco fa (Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia)
3. Deh! vieni alla finestra (Mozart: Don Giovanni)
4. Vedi! le fosche notturne spogli (Anvil chorus) (Verdi: Il trovatore)
5. Quando m'en vo (Musetta's Waltz Song) (Puccini: La Bohème)
6. Dove sono (Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro)
7. Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja (Mozart: Die Zauberflöte)
8. Casta Diva (Bellini: Norma)
9. Stride la vampa! (Verdi: Il trovatore)
10. Recitar! ... Vesti la giubba (Leoncavallo: Pagliacci)
11. Fin ch'an dal vino (Champagne aria) (Mozart: Don Giovanni)
12. In questa reggia (Puccini: Turandot)
13. Près des remparts de Séville (Bizet: Carmen)
14. Mi batte il cor ... O Paradiso! (Meyerbeer: L'Africaine)
15. Suicidio! (Ponchielli: La Gioconda)
16. Solenne in quest'ora (Verdi: La forza del destino)
17. Mild und leise wie er lächelt (Isoldes Liebestod) (Wagner: Tristan und Isolde)
18. Loge hör! (Magic Fire Music) (Wagner: Die Walküre)
Download Disc Four

CD 5:
1. Un bel dì vedremo (Puccini: Madama Butterfly)
2. Se quel guerrier io fossi! ... Celeste Aida (Verdi: Aida)
3. Prelude (Verdi: La traviata)
4. Libiamo ne' lieti calici (Brindisi) (Verdi: La traviata)
5. Questa o quella (Verdi: Rigoletto)
6. Chi il bel sogno di Doretta (Doretta's Dream Song) (Puccini: La Rondine)
7. O mio Fernando, della terra il trono (Donizetti: La Favorita)
8. Ch'ella mi creda (Puccini: La fanciulla del west)
9. Tu che di gel sei cinta (Puccini: Turandot)
10. Squilli, echeggi la tromba Il trovatore
11.Donna non vidi mai (Puccini: Manon Lescaut)
12. Merchè, dilette amiche (Verdi: I vespri siciliani)
13. Ronde du veau d'or (Gounod: Faust)
14. Colpito qui m'avete ... Un dì all'azzura spazio (Giordano: Andrea Chénier)
15. Fuoco di gioia! (Verdi: Otello)
16. E la solita storia (Cilea: L'arlesiana)
17. Qui Radames verrà! ... o patria mia (Verdi: Aida)
18. Di Provenza il mar, il suo! (Verdi: La traviata)
19. Voi lo sapete, o mama (Romanza) (Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana)
20. Di quella pira (Verdi: Il trovatore)
Download Disc Five

I was speaking idiomatically.

Artist: Yasume
Title: Where We're from the Birds Sing a Pretty Song

Release: 2003
Label: City Centre Offices
Genre: Electronica / Ambient / Experimental



A fine, gritty slice of electronica. Being a one-time collaboration between Xela and Logreybeam, this album is much more accessible than Xela's usual stuff, seamlessly mixing deep, warm, and sad melodies with the frigid sound electronica is known for.

From a review:

Spoiler:

"Twelve months were spent honing the sound and perfecting the tracks - bringing to life eight amazing cinematic soundpieces best summed up by the album's title : "Where we're from the birds sing a pretty song". An album that reflects the varied and seemingly incongruous elements at play : intricate beats, cinematic strings, dub aesthetics and, perhaps most importantly, an intuitive understanding of evocative instrumental songwriting. Two musicians from two totally different parts of the world, each reflecting their own place, their own time, bringing to the world music from nowhere, music without a home... perhaps it’s the music of dreams? One thing is certain though, in this place the birds really do sing a very pretty song. Gorgeous."

-> Download Link

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Diablo Swing Orchestra - The Butcher's Ballroom
Label: Gillioutine Grooves/Candlelight Records
Release: 2006
Genre: Metal/Experimental/Opera



This is one great and original band. Mixing metal with all kinds of different music it makes it hard to explain how it sounds like in detail. There's no song like the other on this album. You just have to listen to it yourself. You'll encounter unfamiliar instruments to the metal genre like cello, trumpet and even unusual instruments like the didgeridoo. Great opera-style vocals from the lead vocalist, mixing very well with the music. One of the best and most innovative metal bands I've ever heard. For being their first release, the CD is of professional quality. Go take a listen

Download Link

Avishai Cohen - Continuo
Label: Razdaz Records
Release: 2006
Genre: Jazz/Mediterranean



This is one of the greatest jazz musicians that I know of. Avishai Cohen is double bassist, and a great one at that. And so are the musicians playing in his trio of double bass, piano and drums. I've seen this guy live and it's one of the best lives I've ever been on. His compositions are very original and calming for the soul. Avishai is from Israel, so you can hear lot of influences from mediterranean music. This particular album is the CD I bought after seeing him play for the first time. It has now become one of my favorite albums ever.

Download Link

FELIPE NO

Artist: Buried Inside
Album: Chronoclast: Selected Essays On Time-Reckoning And Auto-Cannibalism
Genre: Post-metalcore
Label: Relapse
Year: 2005



1. Introduction [2:51]
2. Time As Ideology [3:15]
3. Time As Methodology [2:23]
4. Time As Surrogate Religion [7:12]
5. Time As Imperialism [4:24]
6. Reintroduction [2:00]
7. Time As Abjection [4:55]
8. Time As Automation [0:57]
9. Time As Commodity [5:50]
10. Time As Resistance [6:16]

A friend bought this yesterday and lent it to me for purposes of ripping. It's atmospheric, crushing, brutal and amazingly original. The closest thing I'd be able to compare it to would be Cult of Luna, but it's quite far removed from even them... Crushing riffs, harsh hardcore-influenced vocals, repetition, ambient passages - It's certainly not for everyone, but definitely worth a listen.

Download Link

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Innocence & Despair: The Langley Schools Music Project
Label: Bar/None Records
Released: 2001
Genre: Outsider/Pop Covers by Elementary School Kids/Pop Genius



Tracks:
1. Venus and Mars/Rock Show
2. Good Vibrations
3. God Only Knows
4. Space Oddity
5. The Long and Winding Road (Soloist: Joy Jackson)
6. Band on the Run
7. I'm into Something Good
8. In My Room
9. Saturday Night
10. I Get Around
11. Mandy
12. Help Me, Rhonda
13. Desperado (Soloist: Shelia Behman)
14. You're So Good to Me
15. Sweet Caroline
16. To Know Him Is to Love Him
17. Rhiannon
18. Wildfire
19. Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem of World Contact Day) (Soloist: Tina van de Weteringe Buys)

Review:

This is what you get when it's the mid-seventies and your elementary school has a hippie for a music teacher. Almost every instrument and voice heard on this album is played (or sung) by a student from schools in Langley, B.C. This is stripped down, raw, and so utterly enjoyable, I can't imagine listening to this without a smile on one's face. Lo-Fi at its finest. Seriously. Words really can't do this thing justice.

We Are Your Friends


William Shatner - The Transformed Man
Label: Geffen Records (Reissue)
Date: 2004 (Reissue)
Genre: Shatner.



Tracks:
1. King Henry the Fifth / Elegy For the Brave
2. Theme From Cyrano / Mr. Tambourine Man
3. Hamlet / It Was a Very Good Year
4. Romeo and Juliet / How Insensitive (Insensatez)
5. Spleen / Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
6. The Transformed Man

Review:
Here it is: one of the most famous things ever, if only for the covers of Tambourine Man and Lucy in the Sky. It's Shatner doing spoken word over ridiculously 60's orchestrations. Honestly, I don't think his word's that bad . . . well, it wouldn't be as bad on-stage as it is on this CD or on TV. Seriously. This thing is awesome, and required listening.
MR. TAMBOURINE MAN

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Artist: Alabaster & REDALiCE
CD Title: Oto no Ishi - Happy Hardcore Style "Mother" Arrange CD Album
Publisher: ©2005 ALiCE'S EMOTiON
Catalog Number: RACD-001
Price: ¥1,200
Release: 2005 (Japan)



TRACKLIST:

NONSTOP DJ MIX
01. Mother Earth / REDALiCE
02. Twoson / Alabaster
03. My Friends / REDALiCE
04. Snowman / REDALiCE
05. Portal / Alabaster
06. Easter / Alabaster
07. Eight Force / REDALiCE
08. Queen Mary / REDALiCE
09. Alien's Attack / Alabaster
10. HolyLoly Factory / REDALiCE
11. Oto no Ishi / REDALiCE

SEPARATE TRACK
12. Alien's Attack / Alabaster
13. Encounter / Alabaster
14. Oto no Ishi / REDALiCE

>>DOWNLOAD<<

INFORMATION - From Starmen.net

Spoiler:

Oto no Ishi, which in translation means Sound Stone, was formed by REDALiCE and Alabaster. The album jacket design and sprites were done by qzna.

Oto no Ishi is a collection of techno club mix music from Mother. The album is over an hour long of nonstop techno beats. You can check out some short samples from select tracks found down below. This is not an officially licensed album by Shigesato Itoi or Nintendo. However it can still be purchased from Japanese online music stores. It is common for Japanese artists to make remixes and sell them for small profit. However, the artists give credit to the the Mother series and past albums for their work. This album is currently out of print.

REDALiCE and Alabaster have worked on other projects together, which can you can check out at ALiCE'S EMOTiON. This was not meant to be the only album by Oto no Ishi. In their insert and album tag there is mention of a new album on the way once Mother 3 is released. Check out the new album Oto no Ishi 2.

There's nowhere I can't reach.