Gamingforce Music Exposure Club™

Gallows - Orchestra of Wolves

Label: Epitaph
Year: 2007
Genre: Hardcore Punk Metal

Track list
There is a tagging error on track 16.
The title is "Staring at the Rude Bois", and the composers are: Paul Fox, Malcolm Owen, Dave Ruffy, and Paul Jennings.

01. Kill the Rhythm
02. Come Friendly Bombs
03. Abandon Ship
04. In the Belly of a Shark
05. Six Years
06. Rolling with the Punches
07. Last Fight for the Living Dead
08. Just Because You Sleep Next to Me Doesn't Mean Your Safe
09. Will Someone Shoot That Fucking Snake
10. Stay Cold
11. I Promise This Won't Hurt
12. Orchestra of Wolves
13. Sick of Staying Sick
14. Black Heart Queen
15. Nervous Breakdown ("Black Flag" cover)
16. Staring at the Rude Bois ("The Ruts" cover)

"Gallows? What's that?", you may ask, and you may not. But its a good introduction, and segues well to a description of the band. Gallows is a British hardcore punk band that recently entered the US market with their first LP "Orchestra of Wolves."

If the title doesn't tell you enough about their sound, it's basically really heavy hardcore punk. Real punk, not like some others... NOTE: Do not attempt to decipher the lyrics unaided. This will only lead to confusion.

Also, on the CD, track 15 and 16 are separated by about 11 minutes of silence. I edited this out so you could listen to them properly. Also, in case you couldn't tell, this is the US version, with the bonus tracks. If anyone has the 2-CD UK Special Edition, and is willing to upload, please PM me. I'm definitely interested.

Enjoy!

Spoiler:

Kill the Rhythm!

How ya doing, buddy?

Stabilizer - A Fuse Slowly Burning
Genre: Mostly Alt. Rock with various other influences
Year: 2007
Label: Nonexistent Recordings




Track List
1 - Place Your Bets
2 - Needless
3 - False Start
4 - Tequila
5 - Sonata in the Key of Jade
6 - A Beginning
7 - Tarantulas
8 - Face the Music
9 - Sea of Strangers
10 - We, Conquistadors
11 - Wake Up Already
12 - Faceless Greed
13 - WWRDADS - What Would Robot Do - A Drum Solo
14 - Sold to the Devil
15 - The Old Timey Legend of Stabilizer
16 - So Long
17 - Flashed
18 - Reaching Down
19 - Slam
20 - Smile
21 - Inside a Prayer
22 - The Hidden Joke Track 2 - Booty Breaks

Review

Spoiler:

What's interesting about this band is that they've never met in real life. Just on the internet. What they do is they record a section of song, send it to the next person, who adds their part, and so on. Despite the fact that this might sound like a bad idea, they make it work, and very well. They start with a mostly alt. rock base sound, but they careen off into acoustic, electronic, heavy metal, bubblegum pop, and basically any other genre you can think of, while still retaining a unique, high energy sound. If you have eclectic tastes, you should definitely check it out.

For those interested the band's myspace is here, and contains full lyrics.

Here's a professional review:

Originally Posted by flawedLogic

Recently I was asked to review a CD by Stabilizer, the group who put out “A Project Called Red” which I reviewed here some time ago. Up to their old tricks again, the two original “Stabilizers” Ian Siegert and Brad Podray plus new member Dan Dolan put forth another quality release on Nonexistant Recordings. Combining elements of rock, IDM, glitch, salsa, and even (though they may deny it) some pop, they seem to enjoy breaking down definitions of musical genres for their own pleasure.

This is all made even more amazing when you realize that the three members have never even met.

“What the hell are you talking about, Justin,” I can hear you asking your lifeless computer monitor. That’s right, the three bandmates have never shared a stage, or a green room, or even a pizza. Brought together through a subforum of the Something Awful website, they have collaborated on two albums with only the internet as their communication medium. They each record a part (like a drum track or guitar riff), send it to the other, where the other member would lay down another track (like a vocal or bass line) and then pass it along to the final member who would do the same. After everything was all said and done, they’d mix and master it together in the same way. It’s really amazing when you think about how much extra work would be required for something like this, but they pulled it off brilliantly. [Editor’s Note: Their story is quite aptly described on track 15: “The Old Timey Legend of Stabilizer”]

The second track on the sophomore called “Needless” features singer Emily Rose whose voice reminds me of Sarah McLachlan at times (this is definitely a good thing). She sings about her own confusion about her perceived individuality, and whether she should grow up and end the “needless rebellion” that she’s been putting people through. It is almost a “coming of age” message, where young adult becomes adult, and realizes that trying to do the polar opposite of everything society says you should isn’t going to further any cause you might be fighting for. Really beautiful song.

[...]

“Inside a Prayer”, the album’s only completely acoustic song, is another blissfully melodic piece that tugs at your heart strings at every corner. Simply a vocalist with his guitar (both vocals and guitar are by Siegert), the song strays quite far off the beaten path, even for Stabilizer, yet they manage to knock it out of the park, proving that there is no genre they can’t attack, no style they can’t master.

All in all, A Fuse Slowly Burning is a great disc with only a few moments that I was less than excited about. They are experimental, they are expressive, but most of all, they are entertaining. Bringing together just the perfect bits and pieces from many different kinds of music, they’re able to blend them all together into a form that has something for everyone. They combine musical experience with incredible lyric writing to create 22 listenable songs that absolutely destroy their last release, and shows that a little effort can go a long way.

>>>DOWNLOAD<<<

Most amazing jew boots

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.

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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

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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)

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

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

OutKast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Genre: Hip-hop/rap

Track List
Speakerboxxx

1. Intro
2. Ghetto Musick
3. Unhappy
4. Bowtie
5. The Way You Move
6. The Rooster
7. Bust
8. War
9. Church
10. Bamboo (Interlude)
11. Tomb of the Boom
12. E-Mac (Interlude)
13. Knowing
14. Flip Flop Rock
15. Interlude
16. Reset
17. D-Boi
18. Last Call
19. Bowtie (Postlude)

The Love Below

1. The Love Below (Intro)
2. Love Hater
3. God (Interlude)
4. Happy Valentine's Day
5. Spread
6. Where Are My Panties?
7. Prototype
8. She Lives in My Lap
9. Hey Ya!
10. Roses
11. Good Day Good Sir
12. Behold a Lady
13. Pink and Blue
14. Love in War
15. She's Alive
16. Dracula's Wedding
17. The Letter
18. My Favorite Things
19. Take Off Your Cool
20. Vibrate
21. A Life in the Day of Benjamin André (Incomplete)

These are really good albums. I got it just a few weeks ago, and it's quickly become one of my favorites.
Review

Spoiler:

So is it one album or two albums? Is it good? Whose is better? Are they gonna break up? Are they gonna wake up? What's up with Andre -- is he in a cult, is he on drugs, is he gay?

The new OutKast album raises a lot of questions, not the least of which is: will it be their last? But here's what we do know: as of now, OutKast is still a functioning entity, one which has earned the status as one of the all-time great rap groups over the course of four stellar records. The duo's fifth, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, is a double-album, with a separate effort conceived and constructed by each member: Big Boi and Andre 3000, respectively.

And my, are they different.

OutKast's foundation has always been the dichotomy of its two members -- Big Boi and Andre, the player and the poet. The group's breakthrough third album Aquemini was a celebration of the pair's zodiac signs Aquarius and Gemini. But they always existed side by side, and in any given song, the two were able to express different viewpoints to enlighten and entertain the listener.

This approach reached a fever pitch on the group's 2000 multiflavored hip-hop stew of an album, Stankonia. But for its follow-up, they chose a different path -- each was to individually create an entire album, with little help from the other, splitting the OutKast personality down the middle and giving the public a clear view of the rawest expression each member was capable of.

Big Boi's Speakerboxxx is the album you knew he could make -- bangin' beats, top-draw guest appearances, addictive horn breaks, and of course, the unimitable rapid-fire rhyming style of Mr. Antwan Patterson. His strongest moment is the lead-off track, "Ghettomusick," an inferno of skittery beats, machine-gun choruses, tempo shifts, well-placed samples and memorable raps. Other highlights include the steady-pumping first single "The Way You Move," the laid-back social commentary "Unhappy" and the ramshackle, horn-drenched "The Rooster," which chronicles Big Boi's home life, juggling single fathership and his addiction to the "wax, tapes, and CDs" that are his livelihood.

Speakerboxxx is almost a great OutKast album by itself. Its flow gets a bit choppy, but the sheer amount of innovation and memorable hooks make up for that. The one thing it really lacks is a healthy dose of Andre, and Big Boi seems to concede as much, peppering his lyrics with references to the fact that the two are on good terms and OutKast is not finished. Still, flaws aside, Speakerboxxx more than lives up to its billing.

Andre 3000's The Love Below, however, is a revelation. As he told the New York Times, he didn't so much make a hip-hop album as an album made by a hip-hop person. The record contains charged electro-funk, sex romps a la mid-'80s Prince, breezy acoustic ballads, haunted-house themes and cabaret experiments. Lyrically, the whole album is predictably love-themed, but the precocious Andre stretches within his boundaries, from the explicitly erotic "Spread" to the sentimental "Take Off Your Cool" (with Norah Jones) to the biting send-off "Roses." He also gets cartoonish on the electro-vamp "Dracula's Wedding" and the funked-up "Happy Valentine's Day," on which he plays the part of a modern-day gangsta Cupid, aiming his pink gun to blast playas off the street and onto the altar.

He waxes personal on the album-closing freestyle "A Day In The Life Of Benjamin Andre," but the most advanced tracks on The Love Below are its two centerpieces: bubbly first single "Hey Ya!," on which Andre plays acoustic guitar and keyboards and programs the beat, and the flawlessly constructed "Roses," which has a little bit of just about everything that makes OutKast great -- it's the only song on either album to feature rap verses by both Andre and Big Boi.

So really, we get two great OutKast albums for the price of one: one that reminds us of what makes the old OutKast so good, and the other which hints at future possibilities. The only disappointing thing about Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is the splitting of the band members. Is Andre really, as rumors have suggested, planning a move to Los Angeles to work on an acting career? Will that disband the group? Again, the questions arise. I guess the best way to deal with it is to listen to both albums and revel in their excellence. If this is the last OutKast record, the world will have lost one of rap's shining stars. But whatever the future holds, the fifth chapter in the book of OutKast adds admirably to the group's legacy.-Troy Carpenter,

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I was speaking idiomatically.

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2
Genre: Ambient Techno, Experimental

This is a one of Richard D. James' (Aphex Twin, in case you didn't guess) most acclaimed albums. Papa Haydn ripped it for me by request, and by his permission, I'm reposting it here for everyone.

Here's his review of the album:

Spoiler:

-Notes from Papa Haydn-
Well, ladies and gentleman, I know that my release style here is a bit odd and uncoventional, but what the hell?! I am an immense enthusiast of unorthodox modus operandi (and oddity). These are sometimes the best methods! I implement them in my daily work ethics at the job, in spite of the pissin and moanin of my coworkers, and fulfill a pretty good quota.

So I reckoned that a complete "compiled" release of Selected Ambient Works Vol. II would be of some interest. I personally ripped the US Sire edition of of this double CD album, and found high quality or lossless encodings of the unincluded tracks from other versions of the album. And then I unintentionally discovered supa high quality scans of the covers. These extra files are located in seperate folders from the original rip, so things should be organized enough for ya.

Well, about the music. This was a very early encounter encounter with ambient music, perhaps the first encounter with this form of ambient music, mellow and eerie. I gradually found this to be wonderfully strange music. The style is minimal and there are no beats, unlike most other Aphex related releases. At some points, the sedate tone and monotonous sounds seems to exude an gloomy, almost clinical atmosphere, while at other points (like with the track Rhubard) can be completely calming with the gentle unfolding of its simple melody, while still maintaining this latent perception of hauntedness.

After a few repeated and pensive listenings, the it seems to capture the more abberant and esoteric conjurings of your imagination-- it doesn't feel the soundtrack to anything pleasant and sweet, but enamors a drearier dimsension in our cerebrums.

I wanna say more, but I better wrap this up. I hope you enjoy the music and the presentation.

He's also very nicely included several rare bonus tracks, which everyone should enjoy. I would recommend finding a post of his and propping it if you want to thank him.

Download Here

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Here are some Ed Alleyne-Johnson albums (all of them, in fact).
For those who don't know who he is, he is an amazing electric violinist who uses very ethereal sounds and tape loops in his music. That description doesn't really do him justice, though, so here's a YouTube link of him busking in Chester. Absolutely beautiful.

Anyway, this is his complete solo discography. It's all pretty good quality, and covers are embedded in the mp3's. Enjoy!

Purple Electric Violin Concerto
Purple Electric Violin Concerto 2
Ultraviolet
Reflections
Echoes

FELIPE NO