Gamingforce Music Exposure Club™

Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream
Label: Snapper
Release: 1999
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. Even Less
2. Piano Lessons
3. Stupid Dream
4. Pure Narcotic
5. Slave Called Shiver
6. Don't Hate Me
7. This is No Rehearsal
8. Baby Dream in Cellophane
9. Stranger by the Minute
10. A Smart Kid
11. Tinto Brass
12. Stop Swimming

This is one of Porcupine Tree's more mainstream efforts, but don't let that detract you. It's about as solid as it gets. This was my first PT album, and it's a good, easy listen. It's not as musically brilliant as Fear of a Blank Planet, but it's equally enjoyable on a different level. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD HERE

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

John Legend - Once Again
Label: G.O.O.D. Music/Columbia/Sony Urban
Release: 2006
Genre: Contemporary R&B



Track Listing:

1. Save Room
2. Heaven
3. Stereo
4. Show Me
5. Each Day Gets Better
6. P.D.A. (We Just Don't Care)
7. Slow Dance
8. Again
9. Maxine
10. Where Did My Baby Go
11. Maxine's Interlude
12. Another Again
13. Coming Home

I can't say that I find what passes for R&B these days the least bit interesting, but this guy really caught my ear. It was easy to dismiss him back when he was getting a lot of mainstream buzz, but now I'm hooked.

Obligatory review:

Spoiler:

On 2004's Get Lifted John Legend stood out from the R&B pack -- and scored a Best New Artist Grammy -- with a piano-driven throwback sound and an all-star lineup of collaborators that included Kanye West and Will.i.am. Legend's famous friends are back for the bigger, better follow-up, which blends lush, elegant band arrangements with stylish synth parts and cool samples (including one of Hendrix backing Lonnie Youngblood). Over thirteen tracks, Legend ranges from strummy rock ballads (the excellent "Show Me") to McCartney-style love songs ("Where Did My Baby Go") and Temptations-channeling R&B ("Slow Dance"). Often the tunes take surprising, oddball turns -- near the end of the sprightly first single, "Save Room," a dark organ freakout emerges for a few measures before quickly disappearing. Too quickly, actually: Those moments leave you wishing Legend had indulged his weirder instincts a little more. But it's possible Legend is just too polite -- even the awesomely titled "P.D.A. (We Just Don't Care)" turns out to be a crooned ballad, complete with Vince Guaraldi-esque piano, that wouldn't sound out of place in a Nora Ephron movie. - Rolling Stone

Once Again


Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo
Label: Gold Standard Laboratories
Release: 2007
Genre: Jazz Fusion, Experimental



Track Listing:

1. The Lukewarm
2. Luxury of Infancy
3. Rapid Fire Tollbooth
4. Thermometer Drinking the Bussness of Turnstiles
5. Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo
6. If Gravity Lulls, I Can Hear the World Pant
7. Please Heat This Eventually
8. Lurking About in a Cold Sweat (Held Together by Venom)
9. Boiling Death Request a Body to Rest Its Head On
10. La Tiranía de la Tradición

Notable track would of course be "Rapid Fire Tollbooth", which showed up as the heavier "Goliath" on The Mars Volta's latest album.

Spoiler:

Thankfully though, Rodriguez-Lopez occasionally leaves the major label budget behind for some home recordings like the ones on his latest solo offering, Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo, one of four albums recorded while visiting Amsterdam in 2005. Fortunately handed-over with no over-arching themes or alienating concepts or questionable Mars Volta artwork (other than the once again possibility of being a soundtrack), his third album under solely his name is an intriguing affair of mid-fi Latin-jazz-grounded psyche-rock that vastly improves on the foundation laid with A Manual Dexterity. The regular cast of characters remains involved: Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s high-pitched croon is utilized on three of the tracks (exceptionally on “Rapid Fire Tollbooth,” haphazardly on “La Tirania de la Tradiciòn”), Volta contributors Juan Alderete de la Peña, Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez and Jon Theodore all chip in, and of course the now expected two-cents from John Frusciante and Money Mark. All the musicians involved sound very much attuned to each other and provide ample palettes for Omar to riff and wail and rip over with his so ably proficient electric guitar.

After two doodling ambient pieces (the kind that made up the majority of A Manual Dexterity), the first proper tune is “Rapid Fire Tollbooth,” a patient psyche-funk number narrated by Bixler-Zavala that should have been what the Mars Volta was doing all this time. With Bixler-Zavala’s unearthly, echoing yelps undercut by drowned soprano sax flourishes, Rodriguez-Lopez first riffs with consciously sloppy wah-wah funk before releasing the kind of finger-bleeding solo that has instigated so many Santana parallels. A slightly more developed ambient piece bridges into the title track, a slowly blossoming song of Latin-jazz piano, mindedly eased electric guitar and un-enunciated vocals from Bixler-Zavala. It mostly sounds like a Tremulant cast-off, which is absolutely a compliment. Another continuously developed ambient number (a pattern is appearing) before we get to the original studio version of “Please Heat This Eventually,” a limited-edition 12-inch collaboration with Can’s Damo Suzuki from earlier this year. Though Suzuki’s growling vocals aren’t included on this version, Money Mark’s Joe Zawinul impression accentuating the urgent, exuberant piece certainly takes it to a new, welcomed dimension. In between the culmination of this every-other-track-pattern of slow-burning, ambient pieces, “Lurking About in a Cold Sweat (Held Together by Venom),” and the questionable psychedelic-punk of “La Tirania de la Tradiciòn,” is my favorite number, “Boiling Death Request a Body to Rest Its Head On.” Like a b-side to Love Devotion Surrender, Rodriguez-Lopez submerges his guitar in watery effects-pedals and lets Adrian Terrazas Gonzales wail on an equally recordingly-restrained soprano saxophone in a Pharoah Sanders-spiritual-jazz manner. With the light percussion and just right marriage of pedals and distortion, it’s the Latin-psyche-jazz excursion I have always hoped for from Rodriguez-Lopez.

So is Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo the best Omar Rodriguez-Lopez solo offering to date? Yes. Is it more rewarding than most of the Mars Volta output? To me at least—yes—but mostly because it just seems devoid of the pretension they have established with that outfit (which seemed like a good idea at first, but hasn’t really panned out). Will it prove as remarkably sustainable selling-wise as A Manual Dexterity? It should from a music standpoint, but the prairie-toned artwork certainly doesn’t have the same mesmerizing appeal as the light refracting hoopla of Dexterity. And finally, the must-be-answered hypothetical question: “I am more of a fan of the idea of the Mars Volta than the actual music, will this suffice my tastes?” Yes, and I’m right there with you buddy. - Audiversity

Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo


The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath
Label: Universal, Gold Standard Laboratories
Release: 2008
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. Aberinkula
2. Metatron
3. Ilyena
4. Wax Simulacra
5. Goliath
6. Tourniquet Man
7. Cavalettas
8. Agadez
9. Askepios
10. Ouroboros
11. Soothsayer
12. Conjugal Burns

Bonus tracks:

1. Back Up Against the Wall (Circle Jerks)
2. Birthday (The Sugarcubes)
3. Candy and a Currant Bun (Pink Floyd)
4. Pulled to Bits (Siouxsie & The Banshees)
5. Memories (Soft Machine)
6. Things Behind the Sun (Nick Drake)

Fucking awesome. The third listen solidified it as my new favorite Volta album. I've included all the bonus covers, some of 'em are cool (Soft Machine and Nick Drake!). Just for laughs, let's see what Pitchfork has to say...

Spoiler:

The Mars Volta discography carries an astronomical risk/reward potential, and so it is no surprise that the band's latest record, The Bedlam in Goliath, is yet another all-or-nothing entity. Pitchfork has tended to be in the "nothing" camp: Their first three studio LPs bombed but did so in entertaining and spectacular fashion, clusterfucks of Cedric Bixler-Zavala's incomprehensible lyrical jabberwocky and Rock Band feats of strength. But every now and again, even we'd catch a glimpse of their undeniable upside. Few bands in popular modern rock share their technical prowess, super-adventurous listening habits, or K2 conquering ambition. If they could somehow manage to channel all of it into something other than a tribute to their own excess, even we believe it would probably be totally fucking awesome.

Despite its surface similarities to 2006's Amputechture (decoder ring title, Street Fighter II cover art), it's possible that Mars Volta were finally willing to meet non-converts halfway. First single "Wax Simulacra" clocked in shy of three minutes without a single edit, and while they're still using a compact disc's capacity as a starting point, this time it's broken down into a relatively manageable 12 tracks-- most of which begin with a vocal riff of instantaneous impact. Of course, this is still Mars Volta's idea of accessibility; having left the earth's orbit sometime in 2003, they can only go further into the cosmos. If you can commit any of these attention deficit disorders to memory, you're probably in Mars Volta. If you can explain the concept (something about a cursed Israeli ouija board) without having read any of the pre-release materials, you've recently done drugs with Lil' Wayne.

The general "pro" argument for Mars Volta is that they're a true anachronism of the iPod age, but The Bedlam in Goliath goes great lengths towards actually rewarding short attention spans. Between Bixler's preposterous lyrics (no need to quote them, you've already gotten the idea by now), the fractious time signature switcheroos of "Metatron", and Ikey Owens' keyboard globules on "Agadez", you'll find plenty of moments worthy of high-fiving, but they lack any sort of meaningful big picture context or contrast. (Oh, excpet for that Israeli ouija board stuff.) It used to be you could rely on them to toss in some aimlessly ambient smoke breaks for variety's sake, but save for the turgid wolf cry of "Torniquet Man", Bedlam plays like the true soundtrack to Katamari Damacy, indiscriminate consumption set to a relentless beat.

Opener "Aberinkula" is typical of the dynamic assault, erupting like it was in a stepped-on firehose for the past year and proceeding to just get fucking louder and louder until the free-time saxophones confirm the scent of apeshit. I swear there's a legit funk-metal groove in "Ilyena", but Thomas Pridgen doesn't agree. Ignoring the basic drumming priority of keeping time, Pridgen solos for about six minutes-- or as much you can "solo" while the rest of the band does their own thing. "Goliath" has an appropriately mountainous riff and lumbering rhythm, but guitarists John Frusciante and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez deface it with rote pentatonic wah-wah soloing in the same manner people use the word "like" in conversation. And in the most preposterous production trick you'll (likely not) hear in 2008, 90 seconds into "Cavalettes", the mix gets fried and then sounds like it's being sucked down a toilet before spitting back up. And then they squander any WTF impact by repeating it every two minutes.

Bixler comes off the best here; not since Chris Cornell on Superunknown has there been a lead man who can do a more convincing job of peddling obvious hokum through sheer force of primal will. He isn't as interested as testing the boundaries of his falsetto this time around, and it results in some of the most melodically satisfying tune fragments the Volta have ever come up with. But he can't leave well enough alone, and whatever restraint he shows on the mic fails to make it to the production board, as Bixler filters his vocals through the last 30 years of voice-manipulating technology. Obviously, recent developments have caused for reassessment of the effect, but once again, it's a matter of context. Whereas the robo-pimping of T-Pain or Snoop Dogg at least is juxtaposed with the smoothness of their backing tracks, here it's just another wanky sound effect from a band that can't get enough of them-- Bixler's most recurring guise has him sounding like an insectoid clone of himself.

And I suppose none of this should've been a surprise, but whether it's At the Drive-In's enduring goodwill, a fear of preemptively dismissing the band that could be seen as the premiere 21st century schizoid men, or the brazen conviction with which Mars Volta sell their shtick, they always manage to make you at least second-guess your own instincts. But consider what the similarly constructed virtuoso collective of Battles have accomplished with their chops this past year-- embracing technology, humor, groove, and concision into something that actually sounds like the future as opposed to the refrying of decades-old noodles in dry ice and snake oil. I'm sure defenders of the band will champion Mars Volta as a keeper of the prog-rock flame, but The Bedlam in Goliath renders the term meaningless-- the result couldn't be more averse to actual progress in rock music. -Ian Cohen

Get fucked by Goliath

FELIPE NO

The Avalanches - Since I Left You
Label: Modular Recordings
Released: 2000
Genre: Electronica



Track Listing
1. Since I Left You
2. Stay Another Season
3. Radio
4. Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
5. Avalanche Rock
6. Flight Tonight
7. Close To You
8. Diners Only
9. Different Feeling
10. Electricity
11. Tonight
12. Pablo's Cruise
13. Frontier Psychiatrist
14. Etoh
15. Summer Crane
16. Little Journey
17. Live At Dominoes
18. Extra Kings

The Avalanche's Since I left You has got to be one of the finest electronica albums I've ever heard and most definitely the greatest sample album out there. It truly is a work of art.

Review:

Given the fact that Since I Left You, the debut album from Aussie party animals the Avalanches, contains over 900 individual samples, it's pretty incredible that this thing got released in the first place. The fact that they sample everything from long-forgotten R&B records to golf instructionals to Madonna's "Holiday" makes it even more impressive. But what really makes this album brilliant is not as much the volume or quality of the samples used as the way that they're employed. The Avalanches have managed to build a totally unique context for all these sounds, while still allowing each to retain its own distinct flavor. As a result, Since I Left You sounds like nothing else.

Much of the beauty of the opening title song and its accompanying track, "Stay Another Season," lies in the way that the Avalanches turn obvious sonic mismatches into something all their own. It's not too common that you'll hear a sample of a horse, a rastafarian singer, and an invitation to a Club Med disco all in the same song, but somehow it makes perfect sense under the masterful direction of the Avalanches.

Indeed, many of the most interesting moments on Since I Left You come with these mismatches. "A Different Feeling" sets horn blasts from 1974 against video game sounds from 1988-- the kind of bizarre pairing of classic soul with futuristic sounds that constitutes a substantial part of Avalanches magic. "Radio," which is slated for release as the band's next Australian single, centers around a mantra-like vocal sample, a thick disco bassline, and bits and pieces of filtered guitars and synthesizers.

Throughout Since I Left You, sampled vocals are used almost like percussion. But rather than utilizing the frenetic, intricate rhythms seen in most contemporary rap, the Avalanches repeat small vocal samples over and over again, melding them into their rump-rocking grooves. And while many of these songs rely heavily on the repetition of beats and samples, no single part of the record is allowed to stagnate. Something is always being mixed up-- a sample transposed up or down a few steps, a beat chopped up into little pieces and seamlessly restructured, an unexpected vocal sample popping up out of nowhere before being swallowed up by the massive sound the Avalanches have concocted.

Another key element of Since I Left You is the keen sense of humor the Avalanches display throughout. And "Frontier Psychiatrist," one of two singles already released from the album, is simply one of the funniest songs I've heard in ages. Relying on a heavy, Ninja Tune-style beat for backing, "Frontier Psychiatrist" busts out samples from 37 spoken word recordings, resulting in an oddball, hilarious pastiche of phrases like, "You're a nut! You're crazy in the coconut!" And some brilliant scratching on a sample of a parrot.

Though it contains many distinct songs and moods, Since I Left You is a remarkably coherent record on all fronts. Aside from the fact that the Avalanches achieve a certain uniform "sound" on this album, subtler elements come into play as well. Songs blend seamlessly into one another. Samples reappear from song to song. And the album's final cut, "Extra Kings," with its breezy flute and psychedelic swells of sound, puts a brilliant twist on the album's title track, fading out with that same chipmunky voice lamenting, "I've tried but I just can't get you/ Ever since the day I left you."

In releasing Since I Left You, the Avalanches have essentially brought hundreds of slabs of inanimate vinyl to life. Though it was no doubt meticulously constructed, this is an album brimming with spontaneity, joy, sadness, humor, reflection, and general human-ness. With its high fun factor and subtle traces of deeper emotion, Since I Left You is the perfect record for the party, and for the period of regret and recovery after the party.

LINK

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================================================== ===============
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
Label: Modular Recordings
Released: 2008
Genre: Electronica



Track Listing
1. Feel the Love
2. Out There on the Ice
3. Lights & Music
4. We Fight for Diamonds
5. Unforgettable Season
6. Cold Youth
7. Midnight Runner
8. So Haunted
9. Voices in Quartz
10. Hearts on Fire
11. Far Away
12. Silver Thoughts
13. Strangers in the Wind
14. Visions
15. Nobody Lost, Nobody Found
16. Eternity One Night Only

Review:

As expected, In Ghost Colours is again an album that draws together the sweaty live energy of an indie rock gig with the synths and bleeps of house and electronica, along with the ever-present 80s influence and now, even a dash of 60s psychedelia thrown in for good measure. But ultimately, all this is just a distraction: what’s really gonna grab people here is the emotion-drenched pop melodies. We’ve already had a taste from the singles Lights and Music, So Haunted and of course, last year’s euphoric Hearts on Fire; but this tendency towards powerful harmonies is even more pronounced on the album. And it definitely sets them apart: all too often the bands that embraced the indie/electro sound also brought with it a ‘too-cool-for school’ attitude, an aloof sense of New Wave detachment; but there’s none of that here. When was the last time you were genuinely moved and swept up in the choruses of an indie/dance band? That’s what’s in store with In Ghost Colours.

But then again, all those exhilarating melodies wouldn’t have nearly as much impact if the execution wasn’t so clever, and also just a little bent. As guitarist Tim Hoey said in a recent interview, “We kind of like it when pop music gets a little weird.” And frontman Dan Whitford’s vocals are so much more expressive and involving than what anybody would have thought he was capable of: you’re never quite sure where he’s gonna take you next, and he’s largely responsible for the album’s haunting undertone, though you can never quite put your finger on what it is. But helping this along is Cut Copy’s distinct blending of indie rock and electronica, in ways that are often unexpected and unpredictable. In a similar fashion to Bright Like Neon Love, it’s about more than just throwing in an electro bassline and a few handclaps behind a chunky guitar riff. Straightforward rock songs like Unforgettable Season sit comfortably alongside brazen club tunes like Out There on the Ice and of course Hearts on Fire, along with even a few ambient interludes that build the tension beautifully. It’s this combination which makes for an album that’s surprisingly deep, varied and gripping.

But as mentioned before, it’s the pop choruses that lie at the heart of In Ghost Colours. Interestingly, all of these songs would have worked with your standard guitar/bass/drums combo, but what sets them apart is how all the different musical elements lock together so effortlessly. And the So Haunted single makes for a great case study of that: the wailing guitars that open the song, the electro synths present in the mix without needing to dominate, the shrill guitar solo that breaks out in the middle along with that chorus: part of you might be cringing on how close it borders on being cheesy, but trying to resist humming along is just a waste of time.

So what have we got here? Genius songwriting, an inventive and creative approach to musicality along with a heavy dose of slick studio polish. It’s got it all basically, and while on the surface it’s very much a rock/pop album, lovers of deeper sounds and glitchier electronic music will find plenty to enjoy here. Like a lot of other people perhaps, I was expecting something that was catchy and easy to listen to; but the sum of all the album’s different parts is something that’s a lot more involving than that. Bright Like Neon Love may have been memorable, but this blasts it out of the water. An emotional rush from beginning to end, In Ghost Colours delivers way more than we’ve come to expect from the indie/electro movement. Best album of ‘08 so far.

LINK

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

Baloji - Hotel Impala
Genre: Hip Hop
Release: 2007

Spoiler:

Some 5-6 years ago, there was exactly ONE good Belgian hip-hop group (although there are others that are ok, they can't hold a candle to the more known international groups), Starflam (an anagram of malfrats linguistiques). Don't think about a bunch of posers, like there are so many US groups, these guys were the real deal. Unfortunately, as it happens so often to bands that have some success, they started fighting and split up in 2004. I really regretted the split, since these guys were just so awesome, I met a few of them backstage at a concert in Liege, and they were just the people that you'd like to hang out with and chill all day. Regardless, they went their seperate ways, trying to build up solo careers, some successful, others failing miserably.

One of the more successful solo artists is Baloji, a Belgian guy with roots in Congo. He released his first album a couple of months ago, and I can easily say that it is one of his best albums yet. It's more than just music, he tries to tell us his life story, from coming to Belgium when he was still a kid, through his life on the streets of Liege, to his meeting with his birth mother a year ago. The misery that he raps about is REAL, not like the shit that so many groups try to tell (forty year old guys singing about the though life in high school? Please), everytime you listen to his album, you're listening to someone's story, which sets it apart from a lot of artists. Of course, no matter how interesting the story, when the music is shit, you're not going to listen to it. Luckily, Baloji surrounds himself with an allstar entourage, some of the finest artists that we have in Belgium these days, making this the perfect record for a party, or if you just want to chill with a couple of friends.

Recommended tracks: Tous ceci ne nous rendra pas le Congo, Entre les lignes, Où en sommes-nous?, Nakuenda.

Download Link

How ya doing, buddy?

I have for you all three fantastic albums from one fantastic, but short-lived band - Transatlantic. This progressive supergroup was formed by Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy and Spock's Beard vocalist/keyboardist Neal Morse. Joining them are bassist Pete Trewavas from Marillion and guitarist Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings.

Together, these guys produce a sound that is just unmatched. They are juggernauts in the progressive world, and they came together and made some really incredible music. Their short-lived career can be blamed on Neal Morse becoming a born-again Christian. When he found God, he left both Transatlantic and Spock's Beard to pursue a solo career that, while pretty good musically, is absolutely nothing, NOTHING compared to how wonderful Transatlantic was.

The following three albums are their only three studio releases, one of them being an alternate mix of their first album. They put out two live albums that I've yet to get my hands on, but I can only assume that they too are a pleasure to listen to.

Enjoy!

-

Transatlantic - SMPTe
Label: Metal Blade/Radiant Records
Release: 2000
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. All of the Above
2. We All Need Some Light
3. Mystery Train
4. My New World
5. In Held (Twas) In I

Transatlantic's first studio effort was like a megaton bomb to the progressive scene. Here are four of the most prolific prog rockers out there combining their forces to make an album of undoubtedly epic proportions. The results of this collaboration is SMPTe, a masterful album that harkens back to the earlier days of prog rock.

It borrows mostly from Morse's band, Spock's Beard, but there are some Flower Kings influences in there as well. Regardless of the criticism that this album is "basically a great Spock's Beard album," it doesn't change the fact that these guys know how to make music like few others. This is one of the best CDs I own, and I hope you all enjoy it.

DOWNLOAD HERE

-

Transatlantic - Bridge Across Forever
Label: Metal Blade/Radiant Records
Release: 2001
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. Duel With The Devil
2. Suite Charlotte Pike
3. Bridge Across Forever
4. Stranger in Your Soul

The epic sequel to the epic SMPTe is.... epic. Much grander in scale than SMPTe, and with a more diverse sound, drawing their influences further away from Spock's Beard, and instead becoming something truly original. Oh gods, if only these guys continued their career onward... What greatness could have come? This is simultaneously a fantastic, ball-shattering listen, but at the same time completely heartbreaking. The makings of a truly one-of-a-kind, brilliant outfit are shown here even moreso than in SMPTe, and the fact that they had to disband is just suicidally depressing.

Regardless, enjoy this fantastic album. It in many ways surpasses SMPTe, but in the end it's still a powerfully solid prog album throughout.

DOWNLOAD HERE

-

Transatlantic - SMPTe: The Roine Stolt Mixes
Label: Radiant Records
Release: 2003
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. All of the Above
2. We All Need Some Light
3. Mystery Train
4. My New World
5. In Held (Twas) In I

Roine Stolt of The Flower Kings compiled his own mix of the fantastic Transatlantic debut, and this is the result. I prefer the original mix better, but this is still essential listening for fans of either Transatlantic or The Flower Kings. His influence is definitely shown more in some tracks than in others. In the mammoth opening track, his influence is shown in a fairly egotistical way, by bringing out the guitars more while drowning out Morse's keyboards in some areas. Throughout the album, Stolt's mix is distracting at times, good at others, and sometimes better than the original mix.

The best way to put this mix is this - Stolt took the original SMPTe and made it flowery. A lot of the tracks sound more in line with Flower Kings material than anything else (especially My New World), but in the end, it's still Transatlantic all the way, and amazing it still is and always will be.

DOWNLOAD HERE

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Shark Quest - Battle of the Loons
Label: Merge Records
Release: 2003
Genre: Instrumental Rock



Track Listing:

1. Blake Carrington
2. Kool's America
3. Bali
4. Ellen's Theme
5. Lunch at Sara's
6. Dead Turkey Gulch
7. Armadillotron
8. In a Dive
9. 5 Dollars

This is the second album I'm putting up from this outfit. It's good instrumental rock...duh. Not a lot of info out there though, so bear with the review.

Spoiler:

To those who aren't geeks that get hung up on various terms used to categorize music, I owe an explanation as to what I mean by "math rock." I couldn't resist using the term, because it best describes the type of music Shark Quest plays on their 1998 debut effort Battle of the Loons. My interpretation of the term "math rock" is various busy instrumental parts interlocking into one sonic canvas...similar to prog-rock in its intricacy, but prog usually has a rhythmic bedrock with true "solos," on top. In math rock, all the sounds mesh together.

Shark Quest is an all-instrumental manifestation of the "genre." Their lack of a vocalist may bother some listeners, but truthfully, I can't picture vocal melodies floating on top of this music...there's too much going on in the mix already.

The band's "sound" is tough to describe. I've read reviews that have pegged them as "surf," and to a certain extent that's appropriate. The production has an "underwater" feel, and the music is dominated by guitars soaked in dreamy reverb. I also hear a classical chamber music influence, and not just because the band features a cellist (Sarah Bell). The songs' arrangements and "feel" remind me of the chamber music I played with small groups of students in my high school orchestra...Battle of the Loons has the same prim, stately beauty. Finally, I hear a folk/bluegrass influence in the busy picking of guitarists Laird Dixon and Scott Goolsby.

Sounds interesting, no? Battle of the Loons is rarely dull, and the musicians strum, pick, bow and pluck with a reasonable amount of passion. But something is missing here. The resulting music itself just isn't terribly moving or evocative. I didn't get that sense of dramatic tension or emotional involvement I expect from classical-oriented instrumental music (or any kind of music, for that matter).

To be fair, there are some stirring moments on Battle of the Loons. I was briefly swept away by the moody cello melody of "Blake Carrington," the lovely, sun drenched, Olde English folk picking on "Ellen's Theme," and the frantic, fiery banjo runs of "Dead Turkey Gulch." But the rest of the songs (dominated by layered, intertwining, arpeggiated guitar lines) fall curiously flat...they provoked reactions in me like "Wow, that's interesting" and "Neat, that's really cool sounding" but they didn't tug at my heartstrings, and I could barely remember them after they stopped playing.

Part of the problem is that Shark Quest are too Prim, Polite and Academic sounding on their instruments. As I had mentioned before, they play with passion, but it's a controlled passion that prevents the music from making a sustained personal connection with the listener. The musicians need to "sink their teeth" into their parts a little more.

I can appreciate this album solely for its uniqueness and because I have a certain element of Cold Technical Geek Musician in me...I can be fascinated simply by musical arrangements and the way instruments fit together. But the fact that the album has trouble making a lasting impression on, and most importantly, making an emotional connection with the listener makes this a difficult album to recommend. I will be checking out Shark Quest's other releases though... - some dude

Battle of the Loons


The Parlor Mob - And You Were a Crow
Label: Roadrunner Records
Release: 2008
Genre: Rock



Track Listing:

1. Hard Times
2. Dead Wrong
3. Everything You're Breathing For
4. The Kids
5. When I Was an Orphan
6. Angry Young Girl
7. Carnival of Crows
8. Real Hard Headed
9. Tide of Tears
10. My Favorite Heart to Break
11. Bullet
12. Can't keep No Good Boy Down

I had been anticipating this for a couple years, based on what they had on their myspace page ("Bullet", "Tide of Tears"). Imagine The Mars Volta doing straight rock 'n' roll. I bought it on iTunes, I don't think physical copies are being sold yet.

Spoiler:

The Parlor Mob burst onto the rock scene in 2006 with an attitude reminiscent of 60s rock n’ roll and a free self-titled EP. Originally known as What About Frank?, the New Jersey rock quintet has won the hearts of local rock addicts since 2004 and only recently broken through to the mainstream by signing on with rock giants Roadrunner Records. Their debut album, And You Were A Crow, was released digitally in March. It displays a more refined style than their EP, but with all the talent, promise, and energy that the band is known for.
Sticking True

From the beginning of the album, The Parlor Mob lets you know what to expect. The opening track, “Hard Times”, opens with a quick drum fill by Sam Bey that gets backed up by explosive guitar riffs by Dave Rosen and Paul Ritchie and Mark Melicia’s shrieking vocals. This sums up a large portion of the album which is dedicated to honoring previous rock legends such as Led Zeppelin with driving rhythms, lengthy guitar solos, and a coarse singing voice.

This call for a rock n’ roll revolution is made a great deal easier by the two incredible guitarists Rosen and Ritchie. These two play well together; they often share solos and play around with melodies. This style makes for an experimental rock sound that is reminiscent of their self-titled EP and their self-released What About Frank? By establishing a decisive and innovative style of rock n’ roll, the band is sure to win both fans of classic rock and fans of experimental or progressive rock.
Making New

As was previously stated, The Parlor Mob does take liberty with a number of rock conventions. Their progressive rock influences lead them to create songs like “Real Hard Headed” and “Bullet,” which jump between time signatures and melodies almost as fast as the guitars can shred. Their experimental style allows for the bass-heavy eight minute long “Tide of Tears” to succeed; the song is an interesting fusion of rock ballad and blues, although it is admittedly a task to listen to.

Blues rock also rears its beautiful head in songs like the breathtaking “Everything You’re Breathing For” and the slightly hokey closer “Can’t Keep No Good Boy Down”. This blues influence allows listeners to catch their breath for awhile while still enjoying the powerful rock The Parlor Mob brings forth. The band’s musical spectrum is most prominent in the ending “Can’t Keep No Good Boy Down”, where the only instruments are foot stomps, voices, country-style guitar, tambourine, and piano. This off-beat closer shows the band’s playful charisma and showcases their diverse influences at the same time.

At the end of the album, there are no real problems other than aesthetics. Some of the songs drag slightly, such as “When I Was an Orphan”, and some of them just don’t connect, like “My Favorite Heart to Break”. The minor problems in the album are slightly accentuated by the lack of a distinct bass line (except on “Tide of Tears”), although this is also never a real problem. Despite its minor flaws, the album displays all of the boyish charm and energy that they promised on their EP, hones it, and drives The Parlor Mob’s rock revolution home. - James Blake

Bite the Bullet


More coming...

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

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire
Label: Columbia
Release: 1973
Genre: Jazz Fusion



Track Listing:

1. "Birds of Fire" – 5:50
2. "Miles Beyond (Miles Davis)" – 4:47
3. "Celestial Terrestrial Commuters" – 2:54
4. "Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love" – 0:24
5. "Thousand Island Park" – 3:23
6. "Hope" – 1:59
7. "One Word" – 9:57
8. "Sanctuary" – 5:05
9. "Open Country Joy" – 3:56
10. "Resolution" – 2:09

I thought someone had this up, but it's not indexed...I just bought the CD (as much as this shit demands vinyl), so I guess I'll post it anyway. Review (which I did not bother reading):

Spoiler:

This album has enough energy and power to have been recorded in the birth of a supernova. Only the inner sanctum of guitarists had known a few years earlier of McLaughlin's arrival from England as a living legend, but the message quickly flew to the general public. The Orchestra featured McLaughlin's double-neck blinding speed; Jan Hammer's keyboard outcries; Jerry Goodman's electric violin playing both classical themes and twin lead lines; Rick Laird's trembling bass, and Billy Cobham's super-speed percussion and footwork. If you need any more help, think of the legendary live Fillmore track of "Elizabeth Reed" and consider that as close kin. Pure kinetic outbursts of notes and turbulent rhythms whip and rage on these 10 cuts, but there's also a few brief glimpses of relative calm in the eye of the hurricane.

It's perhaps appropriate that Cobham's gong splashes and rolling percussion alongside Goodman's chanting violin herald the title song with an Asian Indian-like mantra, as McLaughlin awakens with a piercing, rising flurry that sounds like a peacock in a courtship frenzy. The ritual reply comes back from Hammer's synthesizer, and then it's back to the guitar and violin as they weave and intertwine like DNA strands. "Miles Beyond" (dedicated to the late trumpeter) emerges slowly from the jazzy fog of electric piano, and then watches as Laird and Cobham raise the curtain for an opening statement by McLaughlin and Goodman. What follows next requires headphones-as much as you want to believe it's muted electric guitar, it's really a fascinating pizzacato on Goodman's violin, supported by more electric piano musings. The band then throws themselves into a brief summary, only to have McLaughlin and Cobham devastate the landscape, sounding like a ferocious firefight from the worst days of warfare, with machine gun-like guitar bullets flying in front of a bombardment of cymbal-and-drum mortar explosions. The song ends as the opening phrase is once again firmly planted in the ground like a waving banner.

Like a scurrying swarm of ants in action (or New York City in rush hour), "Celestial Terrestrial Commuters" features more electric guitar/violin duets and twin lead lines, swept along by the pace of Cobham and Hammer like two men with push brooms in a hyperactive frenzy to clean up after the crowd. It's followed by the brief (23-second) bit of electronic chatter of "Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love." The M.O. then offers one of the most delicate electric pieces ever recorded, "Thousand Island Park," with McLaughlin's flamenco-like acoustic performing a jazz ballet movement with Hammer's piano as his partner, praised by Laird's bass. With almost poetic resolution, "Hope" builds in what can be best considered grandeur, strengthened by Cobham's percussion and Laird's upright bowed bass, capturing some of the rich arrangement ideas that George Martin used so effectively with the Beatles on albums like Magical Mystery Tour's "I am the Walrus."

Track seven, "One Word," was born in the deep realms of space in a galaxy that contains life-forms unlike any found on Earth. Beginning with Cobham's skintight inside-out snare solo, the band frantically careens through the narrowest of channels like a bobsled race without brakes. They miraculously arrive unharmed with the rescue effort of Laird's solo, only to mutter and fuss behind his melodic tumbling notes. However, it's too easy to be safe, and in a three-way argument of "my opinion, and yours-be-damned," McLaughlin, Hammer, and Goodman take turns venting their thoughts and gestures with dramatic, flamboyant phrases. The climax is reached as each man/creature tries to shout down his colleague with overlapping statements that sound like a marriage counselor's nightmare day in the office, and Cobham steps up to clear the brawl. A muscular drum solo follows as he rolls effortlessly back and forth on his tom-toms, and the double bass drum pedals thump like a dangerous blood pressure reading. A series of staccato notes signals that the band is ready to snap its chains again and breaks into a final exhausting sort of cosmic orgasm.

Something is sure needed to calm down the fury, and it's time to seek "Sanctuary," a song that must be a eulogy from the casualties of all this turmoil. Hammer's grief-stricken synthesizer solo weeps behind the wails of dual violin-guitar lead, and there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel. However, this isn't the case, as "Open Country Joy" (a song that Kottke did on Dreams and All That Stuff and the newly-reissued 1971-1976: Did You Hear Me?) awakens like the first warm day of spring. Gliding violin and 12-string guitar preface the false ending, which bursts into full bloom behind McLaughlin's electric warbling, Hammer's return calls, and Goodman's ecstatic freedom. Cobham unleashes a summer shower while the sun shines, then pulsates away, switching to brushes while the others frolic and dance. All these adrenalin rushes have to find the time to regenerate, and "Resolution" closes out as the band redoubles its intention and vigor with a "you haven't seen the last of me" conviction that is almost patriotic in its foundation. If anything is needed, it's a towel and a shower as these five musical massage therapists have just finished pummeling the daylights out of your mental muscles.

Do not, under any circumstances, give this CD to anyone who is under a doctor's supervision and requiring bed rest. On the other hand, if you need to paint the entire house in one day (or build one) and don't mind doing the job yourself, the Mahavishnu Orchestra will gladly haul any gear or heavy construction material you need with the pure power of sound at its best-and it could move a mountain. I'll bet they don't require a ladder, either, because they know your speakers will use anti-gravity to get the job done. Crank it up and watch! - amazon.com review

Birds of Fire


Faust - Faust
Label: Polydor
Release: 1971
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. "Why Don't You Eat Carrots?" (Faust) – 9.31
2. "Meadow Meal" (Faust, Sosna) – 8.02
3. "Miss Fortune" (Faust) – 16.35

...because we all need a little krautrock.

Spoiler:

Ah, Germany in springtime. The leaves have returned, and the air is cool and of noble weightlessness. You can clearly see what the past has left behind in the medieval town squares, and hear the music of Bach's day playing continually from the opera houses and churches. Germans, like most of us, enjoy admiring nature. And since their cities have many parkland areas, it's no surprise to find the tourists crowding shops while the locals gaze in an auburn splendor. This is a country of quaint Bavarian villages and major metropolitan centers, majestic mountains and beautiful waterways, castles and culture. So, wouldn't it be nice if we dropped some acid, holed up like trolls and made an album?

Faust's records have never been the kind you dissect. The band seems to have some kind of plan at work, but not the type of plan left for others to follow. It's not the kind of algorithm that bears any scrutiny; yet, 30 years later, the music remains. And given the state of the boys in der Gruppe, that alone makes it worthy of reissue.

After spending several months in 1970-71 lazing, smoking, and existing rather superfluously (on Virgin Records' dime, of course), Faust moved their commune to W�mme in western Germany and decided to get serious. By serious, I mean they decided to put to tape the sugarplum visions in their heads. By sugarplum visions, I mean the acid-damaged prototypes of the New Solution for Music. By music, I mean their self-titled 1971 debut album and its contents, which consist of the music they played and processed using Kurt Graupner's infamous little black boxes. And by Kurt Graupner, I mean Faust's engineer, the sound wave savior who, perhaps more than any other, was responsible for bringing the group's adventures in hi-fi to acetate.

"Why Don't You Eat Carrots?" gets the movement underway with a knall ("bang," my kliene Kinder). Actually, it's more like the wake of a small jet whose engine roar is panned out all over your speakers. In the jet's cockpit, we have "All You Need is Love" and "Satisfaction" blaring, if only to remind you that Faust were at one time human and listening to your music. Upon reaching an altitude of about 120 decibels, our captains decide to let the aerodynamic vehicle coast, dropping a vaguely Bill Evans-esque piano interlude before launching a vaguely Zappa-esque groove that features some vague kind of shinai solo (or maybe one of their homemade synthesizers). I wish I could translate the sheer romantic terror of the thing, but it's all rather vague.

"Meadow Meal" follows, and though the intensity has died down a bit, Faust still resides in the hall of mirrors. There doesn't seem to be much reason behind the stuff (other than the "wonderful wooden" variety), and though the by-product may be skewed art-pop along the lines of Throbbing Gristle or Nurse with Wound, the overwhelming vibe here is of playful curiosity rather than oppressive abstraction. After a mystical incantation ("And the guess I get it/ And the gate I get it/ And the game I get it"), they break into a trashy rock joint, shimmying like Monkees on parade. I suppose they couldn't have kept it down if they'd tried.

And that ends the program as Faust planned it: a total of about 18 minutes of music before running out of steam and/or money. What to do, then, but jam out the mother of all documented freak-outs. "Miss Fortune" is probably not Faust's greatest legacy, but it is a testament to some fairly unadulterated haze-charisma. Recorded live, it consists of two rock-esque instrumentals (again filtered through Graupner's little black boxes), and one fantastic piece of prose set to a ghostly backdrop of acoustic guitar and admirably understated shakers. "And at the end, realize that nobody knows if it really happened." And at the end, I say "amen."

Faust wasn't a hit by any stretch, but it was freakish enough to garner a cult following. So, with a small sect of the world waiting, the band retreated to W�mme again, presumably with the intention of making an album that you could at least play while sober. That album would turn out to be So Far, their 1972 sophomore release, and the record with which the press (or whomever it was covering them at the time-- probably just the NME's Ian MacDonald) caught up.

Within seconds, the change is obvious. The steady tom toms and insistent rhythm guitar of "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" aren't the work of the voodoo shamans on the last album-- or maybe they are, but under pressure, perhaps Faust just betray their VU roots more readily (and simultaneously earn their Krautrock merit badge). But where there had been chaos, there was now tranquility; where there had grown paranoia and Dadaism, suddenly there sprouted mystique and atmosphere. A good start, but stay tuned.

After "On the Way to Abam�e," we're given signs that all is not well in the Faust camp. "No Harm" begins with a drawn-out crescendo that leads into a horn-driven instrumental. That's about as much as I can say about it. It's sort of indistinct, but in the context of the album, and coming from this band, it seems either very campy and strange, or oddly comfortable. In any case, the feeling doesn't last long, as three minutes in, the tune transforms into feverish blues-rock, with the phrase, "Daddy take the banana, tomorrow is Sunday," repeated ad nauseam. You know Faust, right?

The funny part about Faust was, no matter how far out they got, they always came back. And on the title track, they trade in their acid wisdom for pure Kraut trance groove-- though very different from Can's avant-funk or Neu's motorik beat-- via horn punches and a galloping rhythm. And, like clockwork, just when you think they've managed the whole acid situation, "Mamie" introduces the buzzsaw of doom, replete with an intimidating synth force field and Moog vomit. Then, the chanting returns. The chanting! It's like some kind of game that only the Boredoms have figured out how to play since.

I could tell you that the next song goes back to sounding halfway normal (you know, that "kids in a dark studio with bipolar musos to the tune of a DeVry commercial" kind of normal), and that the last track tells you how many toes and ears you have, but you get the picture. It also asks, "I wonder how long this is gonna last?" and if I didn't know it lasted two or three more years, I'd say about ten minutes. In the end, history and I were wrong, because both of these albums have outrun all the detox statistics by maintaining a permanent place in the hearts of seemingly normal people everywhere. Okay, so it's probably mostly greasy lo-fi musicians and acidheads, but there are times when it doesn't pay to know the difference. - Dominique Leone

Make a pact with the devil!


The Soft Machine - Fourth
Label: Columbia
Release: 1971
Genre: Jazz



Track Listing:

1. "Teeth" (Mike Ratledge) 9:15
2. "Kings and queens" (Hugh Hopper) 5:02
3. "Fletcher's blemish" (Elton Dean) – 4:35
4. "Virtually part 1" (Hugh Hopper) – 5:16
5. "Virtually part 2" (Hugh Hopper) – 7:09
6. "Virtually part 3" (Hugh Hopper) – 4:33
7. "Virtually part 4" (Hugh Hopper) – 3:23

Maybe a weird choice for your first Soft Machine album. But it fits with the other shit in this post.

Spoiler:

The Soft Machine's collective skill is hyper-complex and refined, as they are extremely literate in all fields of musical study. Fourth is the band's free purging of all of that knowledge, woven into noisy, smoky structures of sound. Their arcane rhythms have a stop-and-go mentality of their own that sounds incredibly fresh even though it is sonically steeped in soft and warm tones. Obviously there is a lot of skillful playing going on, as the mix of free jazz, straight-ahead jazz, and Gong-like psychedelia coalesces into a skronky plateau. Robert Wyatt's drumming is impeccable -- so perfect that it at times becomes an unnoticeable map upon which the band takes their instinctive direction. Mike Ratledge's keys are warm throughout, maintaining an earthy quality that keeps its eye on the space between the ground and the heavens that the Soft Machine attempt to inhabit. Elton Dean's saxophone work screams out the most inventive cadence, and since it's hardly rhythmic, it takes front and center, spitting out a crazy language. Certainly the band is the preface to a good portion of Chicago's post-rock output, as they undoubtedly give a nod to Miles Davis' Bitches Brew experiments, which were going on in the U.S. at the same time. - Ken Taylor

Naked Lunch

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

Nobody has uploaded anything here for a while, so I figured I would.

Dirty Three - Dirty Three
Label: Touch & Go Records
Released: 1995
Genre: Post-Rock



Track Listing
1. Indian Love Song
2. Better Go Home Now
3. Odd Couple
4. Kim's Dirt
5. Everything's Fucked
6. The Last Night
7. Dirty Equation

Review:

There have been many attempts to integrate instrumentation, other than the guitar, bass, and drums format, into so-called rock music. Many bands have gone through an Eastern or psychedelic phase, adding strings, tabla, or some other seemingly eccentric instrument to their sound. For the most part, bands like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and others make these new instruments sound out of place in a rock setting. But the Dirty Three — an aptly-named Australian drum, guitar, and violin trio — create an hour of music on this self-titled album that takes the experiments of their predecessors and coalesces them into a beautiful whole. Violinist Warren Ellis is a magician — the sounds he coaxes out of the instrument range from conventional melody to washed-out feedback noise. On "Indian Love Song" Ellis starts off with a gentle plucking of the strings, but midway though this ten minute drone he's on another planet, wailing away in a Pete Townshend meets Thurston Moore vein. This album does not follow a strict melody-cacophony structure though. Mick Turner plays along perfectly with Ellis, crafting subtle guitar lines that complement his counterpart. All the while drummer Jim White uses a keen selection of shells, tambourines, and God knows what else to keep a beat. The band seems equally assured in playing quiet pastoral passages ("Kim's Dirt") and ferocious rock ("Everything's Fucked"). Their music is cinematic — moving at varying paces through different emotions. Where most bands have come up short in both creativity and execution, the Dirty Three have it right.

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The Drones - Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By
Label: In-Fidelity Records
Released: 2005
Genre: Alternative



Track Listing
1. Shark Fin Blues
2. Baby²
3. The Best You Can Believe In
4. Locust
5. You Really Don't Care
6. Sitting On The Edge Of The Bed Cryin'
7. The Freedom In The Loot
8. Another Rousing Chorus You Idiots!!!!
9. This Time

Review:

Pay no mind to the misleading name: The Drones are in no way a noise band, Tony Conrad-derived, or psychedelic. Actually, on first listen the Australian quartet may seem like little more than an unhinged bluesy garage outfit-- but that's because career music fans are too often trained to shun things that work within genre definitions. Serious, give these fuckers time and they'll rip out your eardrums, perhaps even your heart.
Vocalist/guitarist Gareth Liddiard and guitarist Rui Pereira found a drummer and bassist and formed the group in Melbourne in early 2000. They put out an eponymous EP in 2001 and a year later released the full-length debut, Here Come the Lies (which tellingly included a cover of the Cramps' "New Kind of Kick"). Over the next three years they only put out two 7" singles. Now, kinda out of nowhere, comes their amped sophomore dispatch, Wait Long By the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By.

Playing together for a half-decade has resulted in shivery tightness: Notes bend and expand just as a snare wakes up; the bass adds an exclamation to a vocal line. They have the boundless cohesion and energy of X or the Gun Club. Judging them against other Australian acts, you'll find more than a bit of Kim Salmon's Scientists (see, for instance, their 1983 single "We Had Love") and, of course, the Birthday Party (albeit with less all-over-the-place percussion, horns, and avant tendencies).

Despite the band's meshing, the focus rests squarely on vocalist/guitarist Gareth Liddiard. A tall, lean rocker who flails on floors and swings his guitar over his head, Liddiard's reminiscent of the Laughing Hyenas' John Brannon in his willingness to shred his vocal chords. Fast forward to his bloody howl on the poppy, Ponys-like "Baby" to get an idea of the scratchy decibels.

Lyrically, the Drones' world's crammed with drunkenness, night sweats, and suicide notes. The album opens with "Shark Fin Blues", one of the best rockers of the year, a seemingly endless path of riffs and dynamics and a good introduction to Liddiard's nihilistic subject matter. The song's protagonist is stuck on a sinking ship, watching sharks "coming fin by fin" toward the wreckage "like slicks of ink." He thinks he sees Jonah, there's an albatross � la Samuel Taylor Colerdige's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", and the captain's "laid up in the galley like a dried out mink...dying of thirst." He admits he's going to be alone, asking "Why don't you get down in the sea/ Turn the water red like you want to be?" And there you are, losing oxygen sans friends, all by your lonesome.

The other thing the band does is slow. things. down. They take their time with pieces like "Sitting on the Edge if the Cryin'" and "The Best You Can Believe In", which closes with smears of vibrato distortion and posits that there isn't much in which you can have faith. Variations on this crisis are echoed throughout: For instance, in the aforementioned "Baby," Liddiard admits, "Man, I won't ever be free/ Though alone drunk on a beach/ Ain't such a bad way to be." The aptly titled "Another Rousing Chorus You Idiots!!!" Perhaps the track most structurally redolent of Laughing Hyenas' slow-burn blues lets it be known that "We were shat from wormholes...there's no use for order."

It's also a solidly working-class record, discussing the walk home from the factory or, as in "Locust", sketching a depressing port town. In what amounts to the town's love story, the protagonist's first girl, daughter of drunken war veteran, leaves a suicide note. One of the more atmospheric tracks, it opens with moments of feedback and single piano notes while Liddiard pensively intones, "Georgie, I can't stop drinking/ Seems like every time I can't stop thinking." The tracks ends under a distorted gale of malleted piano strings, frenzied bows, and a tidal whirlpool of guitar noise.

Albums that stick come in various shades: Something surprisingly ambitious like Sufjan Steven's Illinois, meta-smart like Art Brut's debut, as beautifully honed as Othrelm's OV, or as magnificently unrelenting as Sunn 0)))'s Black One. Wait Long By the River sounds nothing like any of these, and won't win awards for originality. But it could garner some props for brilliance. There's nothing wrong with being a solid whiskey-drunk rock band. But really, the greatest thing about such a pessimistic bunch of sots (with a truly ecstatic spitter) is the realization that they're too smart to relegate drowning to one's enemies. Hey, if you hang out by the river long enough, you'll most likely spot a couple of friends, too.

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The Drones - Gala Mill
Label: Shock Records
Released: 2006
Genre: Alternative



Track Listing
1. Jezebel
2. Dog Eared
3. I'm Here Now
4. Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce
5. I Don't Ever Want To Change
6. Work For Me
7. I Looked Down The Line And I Wondered
8. Are You Leaving For The Country
9. Sixteen Straws

Review:

The Drones made a record, a damned good one. They made another, even better, dense, tense, and yet, and yet - frenzied? So now they've made a third.

They went down to Tassie to work, recording in a mill in a place called Gala Farm, in Cranbrook. The eccentric little island must have got to them; two of the songs here are taken directly from local folklore: the story of cannibal convict Alexander Pearce, and a long dirge called Sixteen Straws, inspired by the old Moreton Bay song.

Maybe their separation from the mainland has something to do with it, or maybe not, but this record is a departure in many ways. It's still totally Drones, with the updated Crazy Horse twin guitar slash and burn of Rui Pereira and Gareth Liddiard, but where a trudging bedside lament such as Locust from the magnificent Wait Long By The River . . . was an interlude between cacophonous freak-outs, here that profoundly personal sense of stillness permeates, with the blasting, kick-out-the-jams rock monsters the exceptions rather than the rules.

As in exceptional, anyway, including the scorching opener Jezebel and the almost perfunctory high-energy I Don't Ever Want to Change. But most of these songs unroll at a bold, even arrogant pace. By bringing the tempo right down to a saunter (bassist Fiona Kitschin's vocal on the barbiturate plod of Work For Me is exquisite agony), they've wrapped all the instruments in open space, given Mike Noga's drums and those mad guitars ample room to be heard. But mostly they've brought Liddiard's man-on-the-edge vocals to the front and said "listen to the words".

The lyrics are, as usual, full of portent and menace, giving an apprehensive nod of recognition to the fraught nature of life. There are few refrains or choruses, rare wasted words amid Liddiard's torrent. No one else in Australia is making music like this. There's no quarter given to style or popularity. This is us - like it or hate it, it's your call, they seem to be saying. It's a brave record from the most important rock band in this country today.

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I was speaking idiomatically.

Genesis is a band of two identities. The first and probably the most well-known is Genesis the pop band, headlined by Phil Collins, and popularized in the 80s and 90s as a chart-topping venue-filler.

But there is another identity that is arguably not as well-known, and that is the identity they held in the 70s as arguably the most important prog rock act of all time.

The lineup of this far better iteration of Genesis was Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Tony Banks, Michael Rutherford, and Phil Collins. The music I will be sharing with you is during their best and most successful time with this lineup. Musically, they were unmatched, but Gabriel was the centerpiece of their live act, often performing in different costumes for different songs.

It made for a truly excellent musical experience that still resonates powerfully to this day. Peter Gabriel left after the double-disc concept masterwork The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, citing clashes with the other members of the band. It marked the end of an era, and the beginning of the Phil Collins period, a period marked with their progressive sound diminishing in favor of pop-rock crappiness. A truly depressing thing when you think of what the band might have been had it not been for the dissent between Gabriel and the others, and Collins having his way with the band after he left.

Regardless, enjoy these 4 masterful musical accomplishments.

-

Genesis - Nursery Cryme
Label: Atco
Release: 1971
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. Musical Box
2. For Absent Friends
3. The Return of the Giant Hogweed
4. Seven Stones
5. Harold the Barrel
6. Harlequin
7. The Fountain of Salmacis

The first great Genesis album is not nearly as great as the ones that followed, but still a necessary addition to their discography. The Musical Box and The Return of the Giant Hogweed are the centerpieces of this album. It doesn't flow nearly as well as the others, but is still a worthwhile listen.

AMG Review:

If Genesis truly established themselves as progressive rockers on Trespass, Nursery Cryme is where their signature persona was unveiled: true English eccentrics, one part Lewis Carroll and one part Syd Barrett, creating a fanciful world that emphasized the band's instrumental prowess as much as Peter Gabriel's theatricality. Which isn't to say that all of Nursery Cryme works. There are times when the whimsy is overwhelming, just as there are periods when there's too much instrumental indulgence, yet there's a charm to this indulgence, since the group is letting itself run wild. Even if they've yet to find the furthest reaches of their imagination, part of the charm is hearing them test out its limits, something that does result in genuine masterpieces, as on "The Musical Box" and "The Return of the Giant Hogweed," two epics that dominate the first side of the album and give it its foundation. If the second side isn't quite as compelling or quite as structured, it doesn't quite matter because these are the songs that showed what Genesis could do, and they still stand as pinnacles of what the band could achieve.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Genesis - Foxtrot
Label: Atco
Release: 1972
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. Watcher of the Skies
2. Time Table
3. Get 'em Out By Friday
4. Can-Utilities and The Coastliners
5. Horizon's
6. Supper's Ready

This is where things picked up for Genesis. This album is nearly perfect. It has my personal favorite Genesis song (Get 'em Out By Friday, a stunning concept song with Gabriel singing as a few different characters), as well as two of their most universally acclaimed songs, Watcher of the Skies and Supper's Ready. Watcher of the Skies was often the song they played to kick off their live shows, with Gabriel dressed up AS the "watcher of the skies." It was always a crowd pleaser.

Supper's Ready was one of their most epic songs, clocking in at nearly 23 minutes. It's a great listen, though not as impressive as some of their other songs on this and other albums. Regardless, this is one of their tightest releases, and well worth the download.

AMG Review:

Foxtrot is where Genesis began to pull all of its varied inspirations into a cohesive sound -- which doesn't necessarily mean that the album is streamlined, for this is a group that always was grandiose even when they were cohesive, or even when they rocked, which they truly do for the first time here. Indeed, the startling thing about the opening "Watcher of the Skies" is that it's the first time that Genesis attacked like a rock band, playing with a visceral power. There's might and majesty here, and it, along with "Get 'Em Out by Friday," is the truest sign that Genesis has grown muscle without abandoning the whimsy. Certainly, they've rarely sounded as fantastical or odd as they do on the epic 22-minute closer "Supper's Ready," a nearly side-long suite that remains one of the group's signature moments. It ebbs, flows, teases and taunts, see-sawing between coiled instrumental attacks and delicate pastoral fairy tales. If Peter Gabriel remained a rather inscrutable lyricist, his gift for imagery is abundantly, as there are passages throughout the album that are hauntingly evocative in their precious prose. But what impresses most about Foxtrot is how that precociousness is delivered with pure musical force. This is the rare art-rock album that excels at both the art and the rock, and it's a pinnacle of the genre (and decade) because of it.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
Label: Atco
Release: 1973
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. Dancing With the Moonlit Knight
2. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
3. Firth of Fifth
4. More Fool Me
5. The Battle of Epping Forest
6. After the Ordeal
7. The Cinema Show
8. Aisle of Plenty

Genesis set the bar extremely high with Foxtrot, but lucky for all of us, they don't disappoint with their follow-up. This is one of the most incredible albums I've ever listened to in my life. It's full of genius on ever measure. Everything comes together in a pitch-perfect way, and is a stunning listen from the first song to the last.

There aren't any stand-out songs, since they are all basically perfect. The whole album is composed with such skill and grace, it makes their departure into pop-rock all the more depressing.

If I must talk about one song, it would be The Cinema Show, which features an utterly mindblowing keyboard solo that carries into the closer, Aisle of Plenty, which shares a common guitar riff with the first song. It brings the album full-circle to a beautiful, stunning conclusion.

This has become one of my all-time favorite albums, and is easily one of the most essential progressive rock records ever made. Please get it.

AMG Review:

Genesis proved that they could rock on Foxtrot but on its follow-up Selling England by the Pound they didn't follow this route, they returned to the English eccentricity of their first records, which wasn't so much a retreat as a consolidation of powers. For even if this eight-track album has no one song that hits as hard as "Watcher of the Skies," Genesis hasn't sacrificed the newfound immediacy of Foxtrot: they've married it to their eccentricity, finding ways to infuse it into the delicate whimsy that's been their calling card since the beginning. This, combined with many overt literary allusions -- the Tolkeinisms of the title of "The Battle of Epping Forest" only being the most apparent -- gives this album a story book quality. It plays as a collection of short stories, fables and fairy tales, and it is also a rock record, which naturally makes it quite extraordinary as a collection, but also as a set of individual songs. Genesis has never been as direct as they've been on the fanciful yet hook-driven "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" -- apart from the fluttering flutes in the fade-out, it could easily be mistaken for a glam single -- or as achingly fragile as on "More Fool Me," sung by Phil Collins. It's this delicate balance and how the album showcases the band's narrative force on a small scale as well as large that makes this their arguable high-water mark.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Label: Atco
Release: 1974
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

DISC 1:
1. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
2. Fly on a Windshield
3. Broadway Melody of 1974
4. Cuckoo Cocoon
5. In The Cage
6. The Grand Parade
7. Back in NYC
8. Hairless Heart
9. Counting Out Time
10. The Carpet Crawle
11. The Chamber of 32

DISC 2:
1. Lilywhite Lilith
2. The Waiting Room
3. Anyway
4. The Supernatural Anaesthetist
5. The Lamia
6. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats
7. The Colony of Slipperymen
8. Ravine
9. The Light Dies Down on Broadway
10. Riding the Scree
11. In The Rapids
12. It

The final album with Peter Gabriel is a full-blown concept album. It was written entirely by Gabriel based on a story he thought up. It almost became a film, but that's another story.

This album divided the band, since everybody thought that Gabriel was hogging all the limelight with his theatrics and with him writing the entire album, things became sort of tense. He announced his departure during their expansive tour of this album.

Musically, this is very different from their previous works, though it still retained the same Genesis sound that became well-loved with them. It's an epic concept album that focuses on smaller compositions rather than the epic pieces that were featured on the previous ones. Regardless, it still plays out like a few giant suites, and is a very fun listen.

In my opinion, it's not as good as Foxtrot and Selling England by the Pound, but that's like saying that doggystyle sex is better than reverse cowgirl. It's still sex, and it's still amazing, but it's just a matter of taste. It's a more demanding listen, but it's still very rewarding if you give it the time and patience it deserves. It marked the end of an important era for an important band.

AMG Review:

Given all the overt literary references of Selling England by the Pound, along with their taste for epic suites such as "Supper's Ready," it was only a matter of time before Genesis attempted a full-fledged concept album, and 1974's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was a massive rock opera: the winding, wielding story of a Puerto Rican hustler name Rael making his way in New York City. Peter Gabriel made some tentative moves toward developing this story into a movie with William Friedkin but it never took off, perhaps it's just as well; even with the lengthy libretto included with the album, the story never makes sense. But just because the story is rather impenetrable doesn't mean that the album is as well, because it is a forceful, imaginative piece of work that showcases the original Genesis lineup at a peak. Even if the story is rather hard to piece together, the album is set up in a remarkable fashion, with the first LP being devoted to pop-oriented rock songs and the second being largely devoted to instrumentals. This means that The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway contains both Genesis' most immediate music to date and its most elliptical. Depending on a listener's taste, they may gravitate toward the first LP with its tight collection of ten rock songs, or the nightmarish landscapes of the second, where Rael descends into darkness and ultimately redemption (or so it would seem), but there's little question that the first album is far more direct than the second and it contains a number of masterpieces, from the opening fanfare of the title song, to the surging "In the Cage," from the frightening "Back in NYC" to the soothing conclusion "The Carpet Crawlers." In retrospect, this first LP plays a bit more like the first Gabriel solo album than the final Genesis album, but there's also little question that the band helps form and shape this music (with Brian Eno adding extra coloring on occasion), while Genesis shines as a group shines on the impressionistic second half. In every way, it's a considerable, lasting achievement and it's little wonder that Peter Gabriel had to leave the band after this record: they had gone as far as they could go together, and could never top this extraordinary album.

DOWNLOAD HERE

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

The Who is my favorite band of all time. They went through several periods during their lifetime: A typical British pop band, the stadium rock gods, the art rock pioneers, and the typical rock band. Arguably their most popular phase was that of the art rock pioneers. Without losing touch with their bluesy roots, they combined synthesizers, orchestration, and some really tight songwriting to create some of the most compelling music of the seventies. Here are two of their best albums.

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

Genre: Rock
Year: 1971




Track Listing

Disc 1: Original Album

1. Baba O'Riley
2. Bargain
3. Love Ain't for Keeping
4. My Wife
5. The Song Is Over
6. Getting in Tune
7. Going Mobile
8. Behind Blue Eyes
9. Won't Get Fooled Again

Disc 2: B-sides, demos, and extended tracks

1. Pure and Easy
2. I Don't Even Know Myself
3. Naked Eye
4. Water
5. Baby Don't You Do It
6. Too Much of Anything
7. Baby Don't You Do It - Extended
8. Getting in Tune - Extended
9. Love Ain't for Keeping - Extended
10. Behind Blue Eyes - Alternate Studio Version
11. Won't Get Fooled Again - Early Alternate Take

Disc 3: Live at the Young Vic Theater

1. Love Ain't for Keeping
2. Pure and Easy
3. Young Man Blues
4. Time Is Passing
5. Behind Blue Eyes
6. I Don't Even Know Myself
7. Too Much of Anything
8. Getting in Tune
9. Bargain
10. Water
11. My Generation
12. Road Runner
13. Naked Eye
14. Won't Get Fooled Again

This is compiled from the regular remastered release and the Deluxe Edition of the album.
When it says B-sides up there, it really doesn't mean anything. The Who's b-sides were actually some of their best tracks. Pure and Easy is particularly essential.

AMG Review (this describes it perfectly, for anyone interested)

Spoiler:

Much of Who's Next derives from Lifehouse, an ambitious sci-fi rock opera Pete Townshend abandoned after suffering a nervous breakdown, caused in part from working on the sequel to Tommy. There's no discernable theme behind these songs, yet this album is stronger than Tommy, falling just behind Who Sell Out as the finest record the Who ever cut. Townshend developed an infatuation with synthesizers during the recording of the album, and they're all over this album, adding texture where needed and amplifying the force, which is already at a fever pitch. Apart from Live at Leeds, the Who have never sounded as LOUD and unhinged as they do here, yet that's balanced by ballads, both lovely ("The Song Is Over") and scathing ("Behind Blue Eyes"). That's the key to Who's Next -- there's anger and sorrow, humor and regret, passion and tumult, all wrapped up in a blistering package where the rage is as affecting as the heartbreak. This is a retreat from the '60s, as Townshend declares the "Song Is Over," scorns the teenage wasteland, and bitterly declares that we "Won't Get Fooled Again." For all the sorrow and heartbreak that runs beneath the surface, this is an invigorating record, not just because Keith Moon runs rampant or because Roger Daltrey has never sung better or because John Entwistle spins out manic basslines that are as captivating as his "My Wife" is funny. This is invigorating because it has all of that, plus Townshend laying his soul bare in ways that are funny, painful, and utterly life-affirming. That is what the Who was about, not the rock operas, and that's why Who's Next is truer than Tommy or the abandoned Lifehouse. Those were art -- this, even with its pretensions, is rock & roll.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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

Genre: Rock
Year: 1973




(This is my favorite album of all time. Just thought I'd put that in here )

Track Listing

Disc 1

1. I Am the Sea
2. The Real Me
3. Quadrophenia
4. Cut My Hair
5. The Punk and the Godfather
6. I'm One
7. The Dirty Jobs
8. Helpless Dancer
9. Is It in My Head?
10. I've Had Enough

Disc 2

1. 5:15
2. Sea and Sand
3. Drowned
4. Bell Boy
5. Doctor Jimmy
6. The Rock
7. Love, Reign O'er Me

While most concept albums tend to get bogged down with slow explanatory songs that don't really go anywhere, this is a rare exception. Every track here both contributes to the story, and, well, just rocks. The only tracks that could be considered filler are Quadrophenia and The Rock, as they are both instrumentals. However, they are certainly more entertaining and compelling than most.

AMG Review

Spoiler:

Pete Townshend revisited the rock opera concept with another double-album opus, this time built around the story of a young mod's struggle to come of age in the mid-'60s. If anything, this was a more ambitious project than Tommy, given added weight by the fact that the Who weren't devising some fantasy but were re-examining the roots of their own birth in mod culture. In the end, there may have been too much weight, as Townshend tried to combine the story of a mixed-up mod named Jimmy with the examination of a four-way split personality (hence the title Quadrophenia), in turn meant to reflect the four conflicting personas at work within the Who itself. The concept might have ultimately been too obscure and confusing for a mass audience. But there's plenty of great music anyway, especially on "The Real Me," "The Punk Meets the Godfather," "I'm One," "Bell Boy," and "Love, Reign o'er Me." Some of Townshend's most direct, heartfelt writing is contained here, and production-wise it's a tour de force, with some of the most imaginative use of synthesizers on a rock record. Various members of the band griped endlessly about flaws in the mix, but really these will bug very few listeners, who in general will find this to be one of the Who's most powerful statements.

(Hint: if you read the Wikipedia page, the concept becomes much clearer and makes following the story much more interesting)

DOWNLOAD HERE

FELIPE NO

The Brecker Brothers - Heavy Metal BeBop
Label: One Way Records Inc
Audio CD Release: February 15, 1996
Original Release Date: 1978
Format: Live
Genre: Jazz / Rock / Fusion



Tracklisting:

1. East River
2. Inside Out
3. Some Skunk Funk
4. Sponge
5. Funky Sea, Funky Dew
6. Squids

Review:

Spoiler:

Review from Amazon.com:

"This is just an absolute JEWEL. Zappa fans will recognize Terry Bozzio in addition to the Brecker brothers themselves, and MAN, what a combo! Michael Brecker just shreds on every solo, and Randy finds nuances with the "electric trumpet" that have never been heard before or since. Some will want this for the novelty of the electric tenor sax and trumpet, but there are FINE examples of modern BeBop solos here, over a high-powered rhythm section that kicks and jumps all over everything the soloists lay down. This is the kind of rhythm section that can make ANYBODY sound good, but the Brecker brothers talent is unmatched; a combination that presents an order of magnitude.

Bass players NEED to hear Neil Jason, and guitar players NEED to hear Barry Finnerty on this. Blistering tight unison lines will prove once again why Zappa saved his most intricate horn passages for these guys, and why you won't hear them at tempo with anybody else. I sincerely hope for more of this largely unexplored flavor of jazz. I haven't found anything else that quite measures up to this."

DOWNLOAD (160CBR, 48MBs .RAR Archive)

I came across this on the internet a few days ago as I've been on a Jazz binge, and its an absolute rush of melody and sound. Check it out

How ya doing, buddy?

Adrian Quesada & Ocote Soul Sounds - El Niño Y El Sol
Label: Eighteenth Street
Release: 2006
Genre: Jazz/Electronic



Track Listing:

1. Tamarindio
2. Dedication T.V.
3. Esto no se Acaba Aqui
4. Divinorum
5. Ora Como Rey, Manana Como Guey
6. Justicia
7. Vals de la Despedida
8. La Lucah Sigue
9. Where Is the Love?
10. Learn to Let Go
11. Grenudos
12. Look Sharp
13. Paz y Alegria

I realized there's an extra copy of the first track in there. Deal. The following is not a review, because reviews are boring. The slightly awkward English on the inset of the CD, on the other hand, is not.

Spoiler:

Co-producer Martin Perna, travelling in Mexico in a vegetable-oil-powered Mercedes, fell into some deep mechanical troubles and had to rely on a loan from a local narcotraficante to pay the mechanic. In exchange, Perna agreed to produce a film in memory of the narco's missing son, and left to shoot the film on the coast of Michoacan, where the boy disappeared. After six weeks of filming, Perna headed north towards New York where he would edit the film and finish the soundtrack. On his way back, he was detained at a police roadblock, where they confiscated all the film, equipment, and audio tapes. Empty handed, he headed back towards New York miserable and deep in debt.

His car broke down once again just south of Austin, Texas where he called on Adrian Quesada. Adrian invited him to stay for a few days at his apartment, and Perna begged him to help finish the soundtrack. At least then he would have something to pay back to the narco, who had already sent people looking for him. Perna had found a cassette tape of three songs he had started to compose for the soundtrack that had jammed in the tape deck as the police tried to pull it out and a few polaroid still photographs under the seat. Working from these materials, they began to recreate the soundtrack to "El Niño Y El Sol".

Andele!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Artist: Happy End
Label: URC Records
Albums: Happy End (1970) / Kazemachi Roman (1971) / HAPPY END (1973)

Track Listing:

はっぴいえんど (Happy End) [1970]

01 - 春よ来い (Haru yo Koi)
02 - かくれんぼ (Kakurenbo)
03 - しんしんしん (Shin Shin Shin)
04 - 飛べない空 (Tobenai Sora)
05 - 敵タナトスを想起せよ! (Teki Thanatos wo Souki Seyo!)
06 - あやか市のどうぶつえん (Ayaka Shi no Dou Butsuen)
07 - 十二月の雨の日 (Juunigatsu no Ame no Hi)
08 - いらいら (Ira Ira)
09 - 朝 (Asa)
10 - はっぴいえんど (Happy End)
11 - 続はっぴーいいえーんど (Zoku Happy End)


風街ろまん (Kazemachi Roman) [1971]

01 - 抱きしめたい (Daikishimetai)
02 - 空色のくれよん (Sorairo no Crayon)
03 - 風をあつめて (Kaze wo Atsumete)
04 - 暗闇坂むささび変化 (Kurayamizaka Musasabi Henka)
05 - はいからはくち (High Collar Hakuchi)
06 - はいからびゅーちふる (High Collar Beautiful)
07 - 夏なんです (Natsu Nandesu)
08 - 花いちもんめ (Hanaichimonme)
09 - あしたてんきになあれ (Ashita Tenki ni Naare)
10 - 颱風 (Taifuu)
11 - 春らんまん (Haru Ranman)
12 - 愛餓を (あいうえを) (Aiueo)


HAPPY END [1973]

01 - 風来坊 (Fuuraibou)
02 - 氷雨月のスケッチ (Hisametsuki no Sketch)
03 - 明日あたりはきっと春 (Ashita Atari ha Kitto Haru)
04 - 無風状態 (Mukaze Joutai)
05 - さよなら通り3番地 (Sayonara Toori 3 Banchi)
06 - 相合傘 (Aiaigasa)
07 - 田舎道 (Inakamichi)
08 - 外はいい天気 (Soto ha ii Tenki)
09 - さよならアメリカ さよならニッポン (Sayonara America, Sayonara Nippon)

Happy End is a Japanese folk rock band that was active from 1970 to 1973. While their period of activity was brief, the impact they had on Japanese music since then was enormous, both from them as a band and from them as its individual members. They were one of the first musical groups to truly incorporate the Western rock and folk idioms into Japanese sounds, while others were still into making pop-rock tunes a la Group Sounds. Comprised of Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣) (bass, vocals), Takashi Matsumoto (松本隆) (drums), Eiichi Ohtaki (大瀧詠一) (guitar, vocals), and Shigeru Suzuki (鈴木茂) (guitar, vocals), Happy End cited contemporary bands such as Buffalo Springfield and Moby Grape as influences to their sound.

By far, their most successful album of the three original studio albums is their second: Kazemachi Roman. This concept album was their presentation of how life in Tokyo was prior to the 1964 Olympics, when affairs seemed simpler and more down to Earth. "Kaze wo Atsumete" (track 3) gave renewed interest to the band when it was featured in the film Lost in Translation, and "Hanaichimonme" (track 8) was considered by the band to be their most definitive song.

from Chin Music Press:

At the time, rock music was largely considered a fringe genre and was performed by young musicians who focused more on playing guitar phrases accurately than conveying their thoughts and emotions. On the other hand, big record companies were marketing guitar-toting boy pop groups (dubbed "Group Sounds") styled after the early Beatles sound to appeal to the emerging youth culture. Happy End broke out of this mold and influenced the course of Japanese music as a whole. While it remained on the margin of popular culture and only lasted about three years, the band, along with the label URC (Underground Record Club) that signed them, showed that independent musicians could put out work that does not conform to the mainstream notion of what's popular and still be viable long before independent labels became a popular alternative some 20 years later.

Kazemachi Roman (Wind City Romance) is Happy End's second album and often cited as their finest. The band set out to create a musical portrait of Tokyo before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, naming the A-side "Wind" and B-side "City." The lyrics by drummer Takashi Matsumoto paint a wistful landscape of the old city and the changes that took place there:

hitoke no nai
(deserted and alone)
asa no koh hee ya de
(in a coffee shop in the morning)
hima wo tsubushitetara
(killing time was all I was doing)
hibi wareta garasu goshi ni
(then, through the broken glass)
matenrou no kinuzure ga
(i saw the skyscrapers' rustle)
hodou wo hitasunowo mitan desu
(filling the sidewalk)
-- "Kaze wo Atsumete" (Gathering Wind)

inaka no shiroi azemichi de
(the country side, on a white dirt road)
hokorippoi kaze ga tachidomaru
(dusty wind comes to a halt)
jibeta ni petan to shagamikomi
(squatting flat on their feet)
yatsura ga bi-dama hajiiteru
(them's flicking glass marbles)
-- "Natsu Nandesu" ('Tis the Summer)

Musically, Happy End sounds very much like the West Coast folk rock of the 60s (the band's leaders, Hosono and Otaki, wanted the band to sound like Buffalo Springfield). The record does sound pretty dated (unfortunately, the poor sound quality of the re-issued CD I am listening to doesn't help here) even compared to their contemporaries such as the Doors, Zeppelin, Hendrix and the Beatles, but it certainly is a convincing work by accomplished musicians. There are some genuinely timeless melodies and riffs here, such as the folkie "Kaze wo Atsumete" (recently made popular again by the Lost in Translation soundtrack) and the Allman Brothers-esque "Hanaichimonme." The humorous word-play found in "Aiueo" (Love Hunger, or the Japanese ABCs), "Taifu" (Typhoon) and "Haikarahakuchi" (High-Color Fool, "high-color" being a Japanese expression meaning "modern style") is quite refreshing and unconventional for the time, I imagine. The band's intricate, sometimes hard-edged playing, anchored by Hosono's bass and Matsumoto's beats, create a genuine groove over which the enigmatic Japanese words glide somewhat hypnotically. I found myself putting it on repeatedly and daydreaming about the city I'd never known but long for.

The band went their separate ways in 1973, all finding successful careers in music. Two in particular have stood out in exemplary fashion. Hosono would become one of the founding members of Yellow Magic Orchestra in the late 1970s and Matsumoto became a wildly successful lyricist, writing the words to numerous hits for artists across the spectrum of Japanese music.

Regardless, it is worth listening to the band that created one of the foundations that Japanese music today is still built on.


DOWNLOAD:
Happy End (1970)
Kazemachi Roman (1971)
HAPPY END (1973)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Fightstar - One Day Son This Will All Be Yours
Label:Institute/Trustkill
Genre: Alternative Metal/Metalcore
Released: 2007



UK based band formed in 2003. People in the UK will recognise Charlie Simpson (singer/guitarist) as a member of former pop band Busted. Due to Simpson's previous work, the band received negative attention from the start - despite being quite a promising band. I saw them live at Download festival and they were pelted with bottles and eggs in the first 10 minutes, until Simpson made a short speech that ended the disrespect immediately. They were great live, I've always had their stuff on my laptop and found myself liking their songs when they play on random. I recently listened to this album from start to finish and although, in my opinion, the first couple of tracks aren't that great the rest of the album has some astounding moments.

They have a nice blend of a melodic and heavy sound, some little extras like the use of samples and string arrangement isn't used boldy but nevertheless is nicely done. "Floods" showcases an excellent use of piano, very reminiscent of Muse's New Born. At the moment, it stands as my favourite track. "Deathcar" is a hardhitting heavy track, which to me represents their sound as a whole - a mixture of dynamic soft and heavy sound. The last track "Unfamiliar Ceilings" is unlike the rest of their work, sounding slightly more electronic and featuring a female vocalist to create a nice atmosphere - it's an interesting way to end the album for sure.

The vocals definitely give the band a softer touch, which can turn people away from the band. He has a powerful voice, but it's very...soothing in a way. But the boy can pull off the metal growl when he wants to. If you prefer clean vocals over heavy guitars, then this could be your cup of tea.

Highlights: Floods, One Day Son, Deathcar, Amaze Us, Unfamiliar Ceilings

DOWNLOAD

How ya doing, buddy?

Moxy Früvous - Bargainville
Label: Warner Music Canada, Atlantic Records
Released: July 20, 1993
Genre: Folk-pop-rock/Fucking Awesome



Tracklist:
1. River Valley
2. Stuck in the 90's
3. B.J. Don't Cry
4. Video Bargainville
5. Fell in Love
6. The Lazy Boy
7. My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors
8. The Drinking Song
9. Morphée
10. King of Spain
11. Darlington Darling
12. Bittersweet
13. Laika
14. Spiderman
15. Gulf War Song

Review:
OK, so here's something I promised a long time ago: the debut album by awesome Canadian band Moxy Früvous. Seriously, in terms of Canadian bands that I can think of, they're better than Rush and everything Barenaked Ladies did besides Gordon (that album's fucking fantastic and one of the best pop/rock albums I've ever heard). In terms of style, they're FUN AS HELL, having a really smart sense of humor, incredible usage of instrumentation, and . . . dammit, they're just fun. Most songs feature all four of the band members singing, with a few (King of Spain, Spiderman, Gulf War Song) being almost entirely a capella.

Oh, and if you haven't heard King of Spain, you haven't lived.

I have a college pal who / Says we can pay one price for two / Just ask for Roger / At VIDEO BARGAINVILLE

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

Various Artists - Solutions for Dreamers: Season 2
Year: 2007
Label: Oniric Records
Genre: Folk/Island Rock/Dub/Ska



1. G. Love - G. Love Introduction
2. Matthew McAvenue - Heal The Ocean
3. Peter Gare - Treehouse
4. Matt Kustura - Rise Bones
5. Phil Taylor - Uneasy Truce This Family Brings
6. Ritmo Y Canto - Sueno Del Pertido
7. The Mar Vista Social Club - Gallo Enfermo
8. The Hodgland Conspiracy - Flush
9. Animal Liberation Orchestra - Reality Police
10. Culver City Dub Collective - Makuta de Ritmo y Canto Remix
11. OSo- Pattern
12. The Hero & The Victor - Rome
13. Mortals - March of the Living Dead
14. Dyson Sphere - Arecibo
15. Stephanie Croff - One Minus One
16. Danny Riley - Through Their Eyes
17. Melissa Larkin - Before The Boats Came
18. Nine Mile Feat - Rise And Stand
19. Lani Truck - Blue Light Special
20. Kenny Lövrin - Angels
21. Joe Beleznay - Start Again
22. Jeff Jones - Vanessa
23. You Are Here - We Don't Need Time

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

Santa Barbara based Simple Shoes, music label Oniric Records, and environmental group Heal the Ocean have been teaming up for a few years now to host Solutions for Dreamers, an environmental awareness compilation album featuring international & Santa Barbara musicians. Heal the Ocean is a Santa Barbara non-profit citizens’ action group that formed in 1998 out of public protest over the closing of local beaches due to pollution. The organization has grown into one of the most successful environmental groups in the country, one of the first to use cutting-edge research to pinpoint sources of pollution - including DNA and virus testing in the environment. Focusing on wastewater infrastructure, the group most recently achieved approval of a project to remove septic systems from the Rincon, a world-class surf area. For the past 3 years, they have produced compilations of artists in Santa Barbara to help raise funds for their cause.

The second season's record arrangement is in radio format featuring Heal the Ocean factoid-interludes between tracks. Producer of these interludes, Merlo (Jack Johnson’s band) with Money Mark (The Beastie Boys) composed and recorded melodic beats while G. Love (G. Love and Special Sauce) raps the Heal the Ocean factoids.

Solution for Dreamers : Season 2 features many exclusive tracks, including songs from ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra), Culver City Dub Collective and Nine Mile. Zach Gill of ALO recorded with Santa Barbara musician & artist Matthew McAvene on “Heal the Ocean,” the album’s opening anthem.

Solutions for Dreamers : Season 2 is supported by an ocean-themed music festival, the Solutions for Dreamers Festival, at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara on February 24, 2007 in benefit of Heal the Ocean. This is Oniric Records’ first festival supporting their third full-length album release.

ENJOY YOURSELF AND DON'T FORGET TO FLUSH

I was speaking idiomatically.

These guys are phenomenal.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Label: Bella Union
Released: 2008
Genre: Indie



Track Listing
1. Sun it Rises
2. White Winter Hymnal
3. Ragged Wood
4. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
5. Quiet Houses
6. He Doesn't Know Why
7. Heard Them Stirring
8. Your Protector
9. Meadowlarks
10. Blue Ridge Mountains
11. Oliver James

Review:

You've seen it happen a million times before: a cloud of anticipatory acclaim kicks up around a new band, with breathless exclamations of their imminent takeover of the planet and emphatic insistence on their status as the greatest thing yet. Pumped up by the hyperbole, you buy the album or go to the show, and all that trumpeting is revealed as unfounded, misguided balderdash at best, and PR-driven mendacity at worst.

But not this time.

Fleet Foxes, the Seattle quintet who have been the subject of countless buzz-band designations ever since Beck lost a bidding war over them to Sub Pop, debuted on their hometown's legendary label with the Sun Giant EP in February. They deliver on that five-song teaser's promise and then some with their first full-length, a self-titled gem that already seems set to wind up near the top of any right-thinking person's year-end list.

You'll hear a lot of ignorant “beard rock” and “retro” accusations leveled at the band, but the fact is that in their own earthy, organic way, Fleet Foxes are at least as forward-looking as former fellow buzz babies like, say, Yeasayer or MGMT.

The kneejerk reaction is to label Fleet Foxes as “folk rock,” but the Crosby, Stills & Nash-tinged harmonies bear just as much Beach Boys influence, and these songs' sun-dappled acoustic-guitar arpeggios owe as much to Love as to Buffalo Springfield. We're clearly dealing with a batch of hardcore music geeks who've spent time trawling eBay with the keywords “baroque pop,” but they strip it down to a front-porch format while somehow maintaining orchestral ambitions.

There's an undeniable Americana aspect to the band's apple-pie voices, pastoral settings, and soft-sell dynamics, but it's the Americana of Stephen Foster, Aaron Copeland, and Van Dyke Parks, humble-but-stately, unfurling as elegantly but naturally as a stone skipping across a stream. It's bucolic to be sure, but without a trace of twang or honky-tonk; it sounds as though Gram Parsons only ever entered the Foxes' universe via the Byrds. And while the songs utilize folk-based melodic devices, the construction is more artful and adventurous than anything the No Depression crowd ordinarily embraces.

Warmth, humility, ambition, honesty, eclecticism -- these are the watchwords of a substantive musical force, no mere buzz band, and Fleet Foxes seem likely to progressing ever further long after the last echoes of the inevitable backlash die down.
LINK

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What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Deerhunter - Microcastle
Label: Kranky Records
Released: 2008
Genre: "Ambient Punk"

Image art isn't available as this is a leak.

Track Listing
Intro - 1:21
Agoraphobia - 3:22
Never Stops - 3:04
Little Kids - 4:22
Microcastle - 3:40
Calvary Scars - 1:37
Greem Jacket - 2:09
Activa - 1:49
Nothing Ever Happened - 5:50
Saved By Old Times - 3:50
These Hands - 5:25
Twilight at Carbon Lake - 4:24

I honestly can't provide a review for you because the album isn't out and because I don't trust myself to give a reliable review. I can say that the album is fantastic, however, and that I would highly recommend it.

Link!

Most amazing jew boots

Edit: These have all been re-uploaded. Thanks to Sewer Overflow for the new hosting! And another thing,... for these I chose reviews not from a consistent source or time, but I chose those that best reflect my thoughts on the album.

If you haven't heard of Pink Floyd, you've been living under a rock for the past 40 years. But it's not too late to be redeemed . Here are high quality rips of all their seventies albums, except one (Obscured by Clouds, it didn't really fit). These are by and large considered to be their best albums, and some of the finest progressive rock available, period.

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Meddle
Label: EMI
Year: 1971
Genre: Progressive Rock


A review from Rolling Stone, circa 1972

Spoiler:

Pink Floyd has finally emerged from the Atom Heart Mother phase, a fairly stagnant period in their musical growth, marked by constant creative indecision. They tried to cover for it by putting a particular series of subliminal sound effects on the 'Atom Heart' LP, and by dragging in huge, unwieldy brass orchestra sections to their concerts. Nothing short of disaster on both counts. Their new album, Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again. The first cut, "One Of These Days (I'm Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces)" sticks to the usual Floyd formula (sound effect-slow organ build-lead guitar surge & climax-resolving sound effect), but each segment of the tune is so well done, and the whole thing coheres so perfectly it comes across as a positive, high-energy opening. Next, we have a series of ozone ballads like "Pillow Of Winds" and "San Tropez". Pleasant little acoustic numbers hovering over a bizarre back-drop of weird sounds. A clever spoof entitled "Fearless" leads up to a classic crowd rendition of Rodger's & Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone", the perennial victory song for the Wembley Cup Final crowd in England. And, to round off side one, a great pseudo-spoof blues tune with David Gilmour's song Seamus taking over the lead "howl" duties. "Echoes", a 23-minute Pink Floyd aural extravaganza that takes up all of side two, recaptures, within a new musical framework, some of the old themes and melody lines from earlier albums. All of this plus a funky organ-bass-drums segment and a stunning Gilmour solo adds up to a fine extended electronic outing. Meddle is killer Floyd from start to finish.

-- Jean-Charles Costa, Rolling Stone, 1-6-72

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The Dark Side of the Moon
Label: EMI
Year: 1973
Genre: Progressive Rock


A review from Rolling Stone, circa 1973

Spoiler:

One of Britain's most successful and long lived avante-garde rock bands, Pink Floyd emerged relatively unsullied from the mire of mid-Sixties British psychedelic music as early experimenters with outer space concepts. Although that phase of the band's development was of short duration, Pink Floyd have from that time been the pop scene's preeminent techno-rockers: four musicians with a command of electronic instruments who wield an arsenal of sound effects with authority and finesse. While Pink Floyd's albums were hardly hot tickets in the shops, they began to attract an enormous following through their US tours. They have more recently developed a musical style capable of sustaining their dazzling and potentially overwhelming sonic wizzardry.

The Dark Side of the Moon is Pink Floyd's ninth album and is a single extended piece rather than a collection of songs. It seems to deal primarily with the fleetingness and depravity of human life, hardly the commonplace subject matter of rock. "Time" ("The time is gone the song is over"), "Money" ("Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie"), and "Us And Them" ("Forward he cried from the rear") might be viewed as keys to understanding the meaning (if indeed there is any definite meaning) of The Dark Side of the Moon.

Even though this is a concept album, a number of the cuts can stand on their own. "Time" is a fine country-tinged rocker with a powerful guitar solo by David Gilmour and "Money" is broadly and satirically played with appropriately raunchy sax playing by Dick Parry, who also contributes a wonderfully-sated, breathy solo to "Us And Them." The non-vocal "On The Run" is a standout with footsteps racing from side to side successfully eluding any number of odd malevolent rumbles and explosions only to be killed off by the clock's ticking that leads into "Time." Throughout the album the band lays down a solid framework which they embellish with synthesizers, sound effects and spoken voice tapes. The sound is lush and multi-layered while remaining clear and well-structured.

There are a few weak spots. David Gilmour's vocals are sometimes weak and lackluster and "The Great Gig in the Sky" (which closes the first side) probably could have been shortened or dispensed with, but these are really minor quibbles. The Dark Side of the Moon is a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement. There is a certain grandeur here that exceeds mere musical melodramatics and is rarely attempted in rock. The Dark Side of the Moon has flash -- the true flash that comes from the excellence of a superb performance.

- Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 5-24-73

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Wish You Were Here
Label: EMI
Year: 1975
Genre: Progressive Rock


A review from Rolling Stone, circa 2003

Spoiler:

Pink Floyd sometimes confused musical virtuosity and melodrama with emotion. The restrained title track of Wish You Were Here, however, remains one of their most affecting songs -- and the closest the band ever came to country music. The instrumentation suggests Nashville: slide guitar, gentle honky-tonk piano, even some fiddle. And Roger Waters' lovely lyrics -- "We're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl" -- would sound natural coming out of the mouth of, say, Willie Nelson. As is, sung by guitarist David Gilmour, they're heartbreaking.

Most of the rest of the album stays on that sorrowful human scale; all four of its songs are at least tangentially about Pink Floyd's founder, Syd Barrett, who left the band in 1968 due to mental illness, possibly exacerbated by too much LSD. More overtly, two of them ("Have a Cigar" and "Welcome to the Machine") are complaints about the commercialization of the music industry, always a bit hard to swallow from millionaire rock stars. But since Barrett actually didn't survive his encounter with show business, both songs have a haunted quality that suits their industrial throb.

On one of the last days of mixing the record, the band had a surprise visitor in the studio: a wild-eyed overweight gentleman in a trench coat, shorn of hair and eyebrows. It was Barrett himself. As he listened to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and the band members blinked back tears at what their "miner for truth and delusion" had become, he showed no signs of recognition that the song was about him and his departure from our world.

- Gavin Edwards, Rolling Stone, 7/24/03

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Animals
Label: EMI
Year: 1977
Genre: Progressive Rock


A review from Fallenempire2000, circa 1997

Spoiler:

By 1976, Pink Floyd had arrived at a point somewhere in between the lushness of Dark Side and the stark cynicism of The Wall. The product of this middle ground was the Animals album. Animals was a concept album in the truest form, but the concept is a little less overt than those of The Wall and Dark Side Of The Moon. The concept this time around was loosely based around George Orwell's Animal Farm. The visual on the cover of a giant pig floating over a dark industrial landscape just about says it all. Roger Waters, much like Orwell, was trying to make a statement about the dehumanizing effects of capitalism. He does this by dividing society into three groups: the dogs are ruthless opportunists, always trying to get ahead and make money by any means possible; the pigs are self-absorbed tyrants and government figures running the show for their own benefit; the sheep are the mindless masses following their leaders (much like Orwell's proles from 1984).

The album begins with Pigs On the Wing (one of only two songs which clock in under ten minutes). This is a deliberately self-absorbed acoustic, discussing the fleeting nature of relationships and perhaps revealing the tragic human side of Waters' concept. From there it moves on to Dogs. The music changes pace frequently and is built around one of the most complex and moving narratives ever to appear on a Floyd album. The song describes the life of a corporate businessman who spends his life screwing others to get ahead. In the end, he winds up dying bitter and alone, "It's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw down". Social commentary at its hardest, a Floyd trademark witnessed in full strength here. The vocals are perfectly cynical and the guitar solo is among Gilmour's finest work. The soundscape of barking dogs and the mournful keyboard arrangements capture some of the lushness sadly missing from Floyd's later work. Pigs tells the story of three different pigs and exposes them as sad, pathetic, and weak despite their charade of power and prestige. The simple guitar riff fades in and out above a fat bass line. Musically, this is one of floyd's better songs. The only thing which kept this song from achieving radio hit status was its 10 minute plus track length. The 4th song, Sheep attacks the listener with power chords and seething hostility, featuring a driving guitar riff set perfectly to vocals which drone and fade with the music. Waters actually sounds really pissed off in his vocals, a sign of things to come in later years. The concept here describes a flock of sheep as human society, sitting in a pasture, obeying the dogs and waiting for slaughter. In the end, the sheep rise up and fight the dogs off. This triumph of human will over oppressive conformity would be explored further in The Wall two years later. Pigs on The Wing Part II ties the concept up again with the human aspect of this struggle.

While it is not the best Pink Floyd disc, I would have to say that Animals comes god damn close at least, and in my opinion is one of the best floyd albums. The concept, while dark, is brave social commentary at its best. It still applies today. The music combines metal influenced hard rock, progressive rock, and psychedelia in a way which only Pink Floyd could pull off. This is brilliant, creative, and nearly fucking flawless. Classic Pink Floyd.

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The Wall
Label: EMI
Year: 1979
Genre: Progressive Rock


A review from Ground and Sky, circa 2005

Spoiler:

The penultimate Pink Floyd album featuring Roger Waters was accompanied by a single that is still instantly recognisable after more than a quarter of a century, and, several years later, a movie starring Bob Geldof. Despite receiving widespread critical acclaim and spending fifteen weeks at number one, The Wall seems to be considered very much the poorer cousin to Dark Side of the Moon by most progressive rock fans.

The Wall is almost a Roger Waters solo album, rather than a band effort. The only other significant contribution is from David Gilmour, who co-wrote three tracks, including the brilliant "Comfortably Numb." In fact, band friction was so bad that Richard Wright was kicked out and only joined the tour as a hired hand. At least he made some money from the loss making concerts.

Lyrically, this is all Roger Waters' baby. Appalled at his own behaviour in spitting on a young fan on Floyd's Animals tour, Waters headed home for some self-analysis. Working in the semi-autobiographical mode that has become his signature, a story was constructed about a boy named Pink, whose father died in the war. Brought up by an over-protective mother in an oppressive school system, Pink grows into a troubled rock star. In a dysfunctional marriage, he seeks solace in groupies and struts about the stage like a fascist dictator. His unhappy dealings with the outside world he treats as metaphorical bricks in the wall, which he uses to completely isolate himself. Side two deals with the consequences of this isolation.

Musically, the album is extremely strong. Waters takes up the bulk of the vocal duties, and despite the fact that I often dislike his voice, here its raw, emotional qualities are perfectly suited to the album. Although this is a vocally dominated album, there are some truly superb moments on the guitar. The guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb," the deceptively tricky finger picking on "Goodbye Blue Sky," and the amateur guitarists' classic "Is There Anybody Out There" are all standouts for their guitar presence.

This is an emotional work, and anybody who cannot connect on that level is not going to appreciate this album. It is also a complex one, with a structure like a musical inolving reprisal of themes at key junctures, and rewards many repeated listenings. There is no traditional progressive rock "space cadet glow" here, only painful self-analysis. For me this has always been my favourite Pink Floyd album, in spite of subject matter that I usually do not appreciate and an unhappy ending. It will not please those who want keyboard pyrotechnics, odd time signatures or space travel, but for existential angst and emotion it doesn't get any better. -Conrad

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

Emancipator - Soon It Will Be Cold Enough

Label: Independent / Hydeout Productions
Release: December 16th, 2007
Genre: downtempo / electronic / trip hop
Credits:
Emancipator - Guitars / Keyboards / Samples / Production
Cindy Kao - Violin / Additional Vocals
Thao Nguyen - Vocals on "Soon It Will Be Cold Enough to Build Fires," "When I Go," and "Good Knight."

Notes: This album will be released next year by Hydeout Productions, the japanese indie label (Hydeout.net).



Tracklisting:

• 1. Eve
• 2. Soon It Will Be Cold Enough to Build Fires
• 3. First Snow
• 4. Wolf Drawn
• 5. Anthem
• 6. Smoke Signals
• 7. When I Go
• 8. Periscope Up
• 9. With Rainy Eyes
• 10. Good Knight
• 11. Lionheart
• 12. Maps
• 13. Father King
• 14. The Darkest Evening of the Year

Review

Spoiler:

Full Review at MusicTap.net

Quote:

Some albums just feel so good, so cool, you can’t help but feel good while listening to them.

Emancipator’s Soon It Will Be Cold Enough is such an album. Incorporating hints of jazz, electronica, trip-hop and down-tempo into its violins, keys, various samples and the occasional female voice, this 19-year-old college student has put together a release worthier of the attentions of a record label.

The fact that this is funded not by a record label, but by a college student who does this in his spare time, is admirable. Pop onto his site you can even download some remixes (including his mash up remix pairing Sigur Ros with Mobb Deep. Hearing Mobb Deep rap “I’m only 19 but my mind is old” has so much added weight when melded like this). And, to boot, the music is damn cool. Highly recommended.

DOWNLOAD (VBR, 76MBs, .ZIP Archive)

DN Says: I came across this on youtube, and I wouldn't have just bothered with a kid who released his music on myspace, but it really is good chillout music, so I will give it a recommendation.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It's been quite a while since we've put up some good hip hop up in this piece. Here we go:


Louis Logic - Sin-A-Matic
Year: 2004
Label: IODA
Genre: Hip Hop



1. Sintro
2. Street Smarts
3. Freak Show
4. Celph Hatred (Featuring Celph Tilted)
5. Diablos (Featuring Celph Tilted)
6. Dos Factotum
7. Coochie Coup
8. Postal
9. Mischievous
10. Halfway Stretch (Sinterlude)
11. Best Friends
12. Revenge!!! (Featuring Celph Tilted)
13. Fair Weather Fan
14. The Rest
15. The Ugly Truth
16. Idiot Gear
17. Dust to Dust

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

When this album dropped a few years ago it was hard to go without constant comparisons to Eminem, Louis Logic may never hear the major labels beckoning as his talent would merit. Along with Atlantic records signee Apathy (who, despairingly, gets killed after only one guest appearance on this album) and a swarm of other New England underground talents (Wreckedshop, 2000 Leagues Under The Streets) the past few years as the collective the Demigodz, Louis always stood apart from the 7 or 8 other members of the crew. As shown on this album, his concepts set him apart from his (albeit WHOLLY TALENTED) counterparts. His "sick" sense of humor is completely Eminem from Infinite (back in '96, when he still had a smile when he kicked his similes and metaphors, as opposed to the scowl that now creeps across his face while spitting his best lines), but Logic's concepts are that of the Marshall Mathers LP (peep The Ugly Truth and Fair Weather Fan). The result: a dope and cohesive lp. However, just as Logic gets constantly compared to Em in a good light, it's possibly the only downside to this lp, Logic's INCREDIBLE word manipulation might be better spent if he furthered himself from the trendy rapid fire theatrics kicked by his fellow Demigodz (check Mischievous for Logic's ludicrous bounce flow), and perhaps spread himself out a little bit. The beats (mostly from J.J. Brown, and out-of-sight up-and-comer that I haven't heard a bad beat from yet, and Logic's partner in cRhyme, the often under-rated beat/word-smith Celph Titled) are major label budget worthy, definitely form fitting with Louis. However, if Louis ever wants to stand apart, he's going to have to do it soon (just ask Hom, once The Source's unsigned hype, then stimulated dummies' top prospect, now a a rain drop in the ocean of emcees trying to get on...why? mainly because he sounded like a black Eminem)...because this kind of music deserves to be heard, let's just hope he's found his own voice by then.

Which isn't to say this isn't the best hip-hop album in a few years (because it probably is), but with this much talent, it's almost hard to hear him squander himself like this. But enough of that. I'll raise my glass to the war with "Lady 'Liks" but since we find no lessons in this lonely life it's like:

SHORTY LET ME TELL YOU 'BOUT MY ONLY VICE




Immortal Technique - The 3rd World
Year: 2008
Label: Viper Records
Genre: Hip Hop



1. Death March
2. That's What It Is
3. Golpe De Estado (feat. Temperamento y Veneno)
4. Harlem Renaissance
5. Lick Shot (feat. Crooked 1)
6. Apocrypha (Interlude)
7. The 3rd World
8. Hollywood Driveby
9. Reverse Pimpology
10. Open Your Eyes
11. Payback (feat. Diabolic)
12. Adios Uncle Tom (Skit)
13. Stronghold Grip (feat. Poison Pen)
14. Mistakes
15. Parole (Evil Genius Remix)
16. Crimes Of The Heart (feat. Maya Azusena)

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

Immortal has garnered more accolades without a major label's PR support than probably any other MC, due, no doubt to his rigorous integrity and relentless pursuit of quality in his lyrics. He's turned down at least one offer of mainstream backing in favor of a seat at the wheel. The wheel in question is Viper Records, where Tech is the Executive Vice President and constant collaborator with Viper artists Southpaw, Chino XL and Diabolic. It's a surprise, then, that the Harlem rapper is hooking up with the hugely popular mixtape DJ/producer, Green Lantern. Is he selling his soul on his upcoming album, The 3rd World? Or just opening up to new experiences?

The Verdict: The 3rd World is three degrees away from being the best of both worlds. Tech sticks with his regular crew - producers Southpaw and Chino XL among them - but flows to good effect with his mainstream buddy DJ Green Lantern. Unfortunately, on "Harlem Renaissance," you feel that Lantern doesn't totally get Tech's rhymes. Give a good listen to the words Tech is spitting, and you hear some heartbreaking, enraging messages. Lantern's tender violin strains hint at that undertow, but don't give in to it. Compare that to Tech's labyrinthine structure on "That's What It Is," where the beat keeps bumping via vocal samples, pingy synth tones and even old school scratching, and you see the distance a song like that can travel when it's well matched. This is not to say that Green Lantern was a bad choice, but rather a bold one that is not as strong as we would have hoped. Still, our hopes were pretty high to begin with, so it's with comfort that we say that The 3rd World is a great album. The energy never drops and Tech always finds innovative ways to spin subversive messages into entertaining hits.

LOCK AND LOAD, YOU'RE GOING WHERE I'M FROM: THE 3RD WORLD SON




Vast Aire - Deuces Wild
Year: 2008
Label: Chocolate Industries
Genre: Hip Hop



1. You Know
2. T.V. Land
3. Take Two
4. The Dynamic Duo feat. Gecchi Suede (of Camp Lo)
5. Give Me That Mic feat. Copywrite
6. Mecca And The Ox feat. Vordul Mega
7. Back 2 Basics
8. Lunchroom Rap (It’s Nothing)
9. When Starz Fall feat. Double A.B., Thanos, Swave Sevah & Karniege
10. The Crush
11. Shu (The God of Aire)
12. Graveyard Shift feat. Genesis
13. The Infinity War
14. The Man With Out Fear

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

Four years after his last solo effort, Vast Aire is releasing his sophomore album, Deuces Wild, on June 24 through One Records. The LP features guest appearances by Vordul Mega, Gecchi Suede of Camp Lo and Copywrite. While El-P is nowhere to be found in the production credits, the legendary Pete Rock produces one track, while newcomer Melodius Monk handles the majority of the album's beats.

Deuces Wild is a return to form, of sorts, for Vast Aire. The LP is arguably the best Can Ox release since The Cold Vein mainly because Vast's beat selection - always a point of contention - has noticeably improved. A prime example is the Pete Rock produced "Mecca and the Ox." The long awaited reunion of Cannibal Ox doesn't disappoint as the Soul Brother No. 1 does his best El-P impersonation, providing a left-of-center beat that is tailor made for the duo's peculiar tastes. Similarly, producers Melodius Monk and Thanos provide a comparable aesthetic on songs such as "Shu (The God of Aire)," "Back 2 Basics," and "The Man Without Fear." While strong beats make Deuces Wild his best solo effort, Vast's selling point has always been his spacey, abstract rhymes. Vast is one of the few artists, if any, who can get away with not even rhyming, as evidence on "Graveyard Shift," rapping: "I treat emcees like Naomi, and hit 'em in the head with Motorola." Vast's strange rhymes continue on "You Know," as he spits: "So don't go there, you cannot hold Aire/I will escape through the grips of your fists/And that will be a stupid move on your part/And now you gotta leave with a limp." Besides a few uninspired concepts such as "Lunchroom Rap (It's Nothing)," "The Crush" and "T.V. Land," Deuces Wild is an impressive effort. Vast Aire's style isn't for everyone, but for those who appreciate Cannibal Ox's unique sound, Deuces Wild is a step in the right direction.

IT'S A BIRD! IT'S A PLANE! NO! IT'S LOIS LANE GIVIN' ME BRAIN!




88-Keys - Adam's Case Files
Year: 2008
Label: Decon
Genre: Hip Hop



1. A Happy Ending?
2. Fibs ft. Grafh
3. Wasting My Minutes ft. Kid Cudi
4. 21 & Over ft. Big Sean
5. Deal Breakers ft. Mr. Bentley
6. Typical Maury ft. Izza Kizza
7. Quit Playing ft. Serius Jones
8. True Feelings
9. Cuddle Bums ft. Tanya Morgan
10. Just LIKE A Man ft. Guilty Simpson
11. Young, Dumb & Full of…
12. Outro

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

In anticipation of his upcoming Kanye West-produced release scheduled for this October entitled The Death of Adam, MPC demon 88-Keys drops the Adam’s Case Files Mixtape. Mos Def, Consequence, and J-Live fans already know that 88 is a monster behind the boards and sure to deliver with guest appearances by Kid Cudi, Serius Jones, Tanya Morgan, and Guilty Simpson. Truly a kicking little mixtape in anticipation of an album that's sure to do the OkayPlayer community proud.

THREE KIDS, ONE BOX OF CERAL, TWO SPOONS




Ruckus Roboticus - Playing With Scratches
Year: 2007
Label: Grease
Genre: Hip Hop



1. Overture
2. The Birth of Ruckus
3. Baby's First Scratch
4. When I Grow Up
5. Never Play With Scratches
6. How To Handle Grownups
7. Intermission (Flee To the Playroom)
8. Here We Go
9. A Child's Introduction to Drums
10. Everlasting Ghettoblasting Gobstopper
11. Taking Turns
12. Bedtime For Sleepyhead
13. Face The Music
14. The Rebirth of Ruckus
15. (Untitled)

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

Ruckus Roboticus' debut album -- Playing With Scratches is a creative and complex mixture of beats, scratching, and story-telling. Created entirely from found sounds, this semi-autobiographical tale playfully chronicles the childhood of Ruckus Roboticus; from "The Birth of Ruckus", to his discovery of scratching on his See-N-Say toy ("Baby's First Scratch"), to his declaration of what he wants to be when he grows up ("When I Grow Up"). Things take a turn for the worse when his parents find out about the shenanigans taking place in the playroom, and command him to "Never Play With Scratches". In the end, Ruckus must "Face the Music", and decide whether to give-in to the pressures of the grown up world, or reject the grown up establishment by continuing to "Play With Scratches". This is a fairy tale told in the form of hip hop and I couldn't possibly be more overjoyed to hear it in such pure form.

NEVER PLAY WITH SCRATCHES!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Project 86 - Truthless Heroes
Label: Atlantic Records
Release Date: September 24, 2002
Genre: Spoken word/hardcore



Tracklist:
01. Little Green Men
02. Caught in the Middle
03. Know What It Means
04. Salem's Suburbs
05. ...A Word from Our Sponsors
06. S.M.C.
07. Team Black
08. Your Heroes Are Dead
09. ...To Brighten Your Day
10. Another Boredom Movement
11. Bottom Feeder
12. Shelter Me (Mercury)
13. ...And Help You Sleep
14. Last Meal
15. Soma
16. Hollow Again
17. ...With Regards, T.H.

Review

So yeah, more of the offshoot brand of hardcore that is Project 86. Even more musically compact/expansive than Drawing Black Lines, this album's conceptual; while the other album I posted WAY back railed against hypocrisy (among other things), this one's about losing oneself to excess (consumerism, gluttony, lust). It even stirred up some bullshit about how they "can't be a Christian band" because they don't talk about Jesus and stuff; because it's mostly anger, y'know, THAT'S NOT GODLY. Musically, it's more melodic, while just as hard as before. There's no wonderfully heavy noise thing at the end of the album, but there's some strange ambiance in the form of four filler tracks (one ends out the album). I swear the guest vocalist on track 14 is King Soloman from Stavesacre. Highlights are the opening track, track 10 (holy god, the ending) and the ending suite of tracks 15 and 16 (the album COULD have ended after "Soma," but then they go ahead and explode out to the end and it's fantastic).

In the end all you sold us was BOREDOM

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Today it's going to be a little sweet and a little sour. First up we have the somewhat popular band Alexisonfire, which a lot of people (at least in Texas) don't seem to know about. I've never heard them on the radio, so I hope this is news to some of you. Second is the soft-voiced Dallas Green (City and Colour being his namesake) from Alexisonfire, who put out a solo album basically at the demand of his fans after some acoustics came to the surface on the internet.

Alexisonfire - Crisis
Label: Vagrant Records
Release: 2006
Genre: Post-Hardcore/Hard Rock



1. Drunks, Lovers, Sinners And Saints
2. This Could Be Anywhere In The World
3. Mailbox Arson
4. Boiled Frogs
5. We Are The Sound
6. You Burn First
7. We Are The End
8. Crisis
9. Keep It On Wax
10. To A Friend
11. Rough Hands

Alexisonfire is the product of 3 other different bands breaking up. You get the sense that if things had been different, these guys would have been happy to play, each in their own niche.

But after listening it's apparent that some karmic intervention has brought these guys together, and the end product plays well. The back and forth between hardcore and soft vocals definitely gives the songs some replay value, and in my own opinion, allows them to reach a wider audience, letting the moshers and the guys nodding over at the bar a middle ground that they can meet on.

This album is their third and most recent, and it's obvious their success has helped rather than hindered them. This is a band that has apparent chemistry, and they've allowed each member to bring things to the creative table-- something that some other bands might resent. Compared to their 2004 album, there's not a whole lot of change in the band's style, but what little experimentation there is only adds to the dynamic of the band.This album will show you stadium favorites like "Boiled Frogs" next to pseudo-ballads like "Rough Hands" and what sounds like an attempt at post-rock noise with "You Burn First."

Bottom line is that these guys rock.

Favorite tracks: Boiled Frogs, This Could be Anywhere in the World, Keep it on Wax, To a Friend

All right! This is from our hearts!

_____________________


City and Colour - Sometimes
Label: Vagrant Records
Release: 2005
Genre: Acoustic/Indie



1. ...Off By Heart
2. Like Knives
3. Hello, I'm In Delaware
4. Save Your Scissors
5. In The Water I Am Beautiful
6. Day Old Hate
7. Sam Malone
8. Comin' Home
9. Casey's Song
10. Sometimes (I Wish)

Here's the real star of the show, as far as I'm concerned. Where Alexisonfire is a little something to everyone, Dallas Green brings the big guns in a quiet way. He's a talented singer, a talented songwriter, but perhaps more importantly, he maintains a sense of style about the way his music comes out. A small flourish here or a sharp pluck there keeps his songs memorable while the words are allowed to work their magic.

This first album, as mentioned above, is basically a response to fans that wanted to hear more of Dallas Green's acoustic work that appeared on the internet. It's a collection of some songs that he had already written, and in some ways it still sounds more like a collection than an album. As if it's in some sense of disarray. I like to think of it like an amalgam of keepsakes in someone's shoe box. All those memories that come bubbling to the surface when we view the photos and knick-knacks of our relationships.

Friends, with this album, Dallas Green makes the college anthem sound good.

Favorite songs: Comin' Home, Sometimes (I Wish), Save Your Scissors, Day Old Hate

If I was a simple man...

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

Emerson, Lake & Palmer was progresive rock's first supergroup. comprised of Keith Emerson (The Nice), Greg Lake (King Crimson), and Carl Palmer (a ton of bands). They enjoyed critical and commercial success due to their unique, powerful sound, and killer lineup.

What I have for you here is their first four studio albums that they put out before descending into mediocrity and obscurity (Pictures at an Exhibition not included). Enjoy!

Bonus knowledge - They originally courted Jimi Hendrix to join the band, but he died before getting a chance to jam with them. They would have been called HELP if he had joined.

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Label: Island Records
Release: 1970
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. The Barbarian
2. Take a Pebble
3. Knife Edge
4. The Tree Fates
5. Tank
6. Lucky Man

The first ELP album is barely even a group effort. Only the first track features credit for all three band members. The rest are essentially solo efforts. Despite that, it's a good listen.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus
Label: Island
Release: 1971
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. Tarkus

a. Eruption
b. Stones of Years
c. Iconoclast
d. Mass
e. Manticore
f. Battlefield
g. Aquatarkus

2. Jeremy Bender
3. Bitches Crystal
4. The Only Way [hymn]
5. Infinite Space [conclusion]
6. A Time and Place
7. Are You Ready Eddy?

Tarkus was a concept album, the centerpiece of it being the 20-minute suite that kicks off the album, Tarkus. The unfortunate truth is, due to the strength and awesomeness of the title track, the rest of the album kinda flounders. Regardless, it's worth getting just for the title track alone.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Trilogy
Label: Rhino Records
Release: 1972
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. The Endless Enigma (Part One)
2. Fugue
3. The Endless Enigma (Part Two)
4. From the Beginning
5. The Sheriff
6. Hoedown
7. Trilogy
8. Living Sin
9. Abaddon's Bolero
10. Hoedown (Live)

This is my favorite ELP album. It's overall their most solid work, with naught a weak track to be found.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery
Label: Manticore Records
Release: 1973
Genre: Progressive Rock



Track Listing:

1. Jerusalem
2. Toccata
3. Still... You Turn Me On
4. Benny the Bouncer
5. Karn Evil 9

a. Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 1
b. Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 2
c. Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression
d. Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression

The biggest and widely regarded as the best album in ELP's library is this. The centerpiece, like Tarkus, is the epic song on the album, this time being the closer, Karn Evil 9. Unlike Tarkus, the rest of the album is just as strong. On top of that, the album features badass artwork by HR Giger. A worthy listen.

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Short Term Diary - Between Timid and Timbuktu
Year: 2002
Label: Heel Turn Media
Genre: Acoustic / Emo



01. Lonely Song
02. Same Sentence, Different Words
03. A Walking Advert for Straight Edge
04. The Same Night in April
05. Vincent Vega
06. Bedford Falls
07. Reprise
08. An After Thought

One man, his voice, an acoustic guitar and some significant songwriting chops. Yes, this is "emo," (aka "lol music for pussies") which will no doubt turn some people off, but seriously, this is good music. Worth checking out. Melancholic and heartfelt without descending into any sort of self-pity or whinging. I didn't think I'd enjoy this, but I do. Immensely. Grows on me with every listen.

An album for one of those nights. Or days, even.

Spoiler:

"This album should come with the kind of public health notice you find on packets of cigarettes. Warning: This record could break your heart. Do not use if your kitten has recently been run over/you've been dumped/you think sparse acoustic dribbling is for wussies. Short Term Diary is Grand Union singer Dave Cullern's new project and its almost too personal tp bear listening to. If it was drowned out by any amount of noise, chaos and rage it might be easier, but these songs are stripped down to one man's voice accompanied by his gentle, acoustic, folky guitar and nothing else. It's easy to sneer at this type of music for being so simple and traditional. But in terms of intensity this is equally as hard to listen to as the more traditional wall of noise - KKKK"

DOWNLOAD

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?