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knkwzrd
you know i'm ready to party because my pants have a picture of ice cream cake on them


Member 482

Level 45.24

Mar 2006


Old Jul 25, 2007, 09:10 PM Local time: Jul 25, 2007, 08:10 PM #1 of 201
Comus - First Utterance



Year: 1971
Label: Dawn
Genre: PsychFolk

Comus' first album contains an imaginative if elusive brand of experimental folk-rock, with a tense and sometimes distressed vibe. Although there are elements of traditional British folk music, there's an edginess to the songwriting and arrangements that would be entirely alien in a Fairport Convention or Pentangle disc. At times, this straddles the border between folk-rock and the kind of songs you'd expect to be sung at a witches' brew fest, the haunting supernatural atmosphere enhanced by bursts of what sound like a theramin-like violin, hand drums, flute, oboe, ghostly female backup vocals, and detours into almost tribal rhythms. All of this might be making the album sound more attractive than it is; the songs are extremely elongated and fragmented, and the male vocals often have a grating munchkin-like quality, sometimes sounding like a wizened Marc Bolan. The lyrics are impenetrable musings, mixing pastoral scenes of nature with images of gore, torture, madness, and even rape, like particularly disturbing myths being set to music.

1. Diana
2. The Herald
3. Drip Drip
4. Song To Comus
5. The Bite
6. Bitten
7. The Prisoner

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Von Südenfed - Tromatic Reflexxions



Year: 2007
Label: Domino
Genre: An old Cockney man shouts angrily over Manchester IDM

Mouse on Mars and Mark E. Smith enjoyed working together on the 12" version of "Wipe That Sound" so much that they decided to give their collaboration its own full-fledged identity, Von Südenfed (a witty mash-up of Germany's süden -- that is, southern -- region and the decongestant Sudafed). Though much has been made of how strange this pairing of artists is, it's really not that unpredictable: Smith, Andi Toma, and Jan St. Werner all like to defy expectations. More to the point, Smith has made a career of breaking and re-forming language in his own image, and in much the same way, Toma and St. Werner keep reconfiguring their music. Besides, getting hung up on the "quirkiness" of Von Südenfed's origins overlooks just how enjoyable Tromatic Reflexxions really is. It's clear that the trio shares a playful, fruitful creative spark -- even "That Sound Wiped," which uses leftover pieces from the initial "Wipe That Sound" collaboration, barely resembles its source materials. Sonically speaking, Tromatic Reflexxions is aggressively accessible, combining the tussling beats and splattered synths of Varcharz with the poppy, structured approach of Radical Connector, as well as elements of electro, dub, shortwave, hip-hop, and much more. The album leads off with three of its strongest tracks: "Fledermaus Can't Get Enough"'s irascible beats and vocals sound like LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge" went over the edge, while "The Rhinohead" brandishes a stomping beat and some of Smith's most melodic vocals in a long time. "Flooded," which is based on a dream St. Werner had of showing up to a gig only to find another DJ there, is a surreal, subterreanean dancefloor emergency, complete with synths that sound like sirens and sonar-like echoes on Smith's vocals. Speaking of Smith, he is as cerebral and caustic as ever; when you can make out what he's ranting about, it usually sounds like an internal conversation or argument, as on "Family Feud," a domestic dispute with Smith voicing all the relatives. "Speech Contamination/German Fear of Osterreich" blurs his versions of English and German together into a third, irresistibly rhythmic tongue. With tracks like "The Young the Faceless and the Codes," you can listen closely for the cheeky wordplay, or just appreciate how perfectly Smith fits into the mix, as on "Serious Brainskin." Tromatic Reflexxions leaves some of its most surprising songs for last, like the cranky, acoustic driven hoe-down "Chicken Yiamas" or the lilting, Afro-pop-tinged "Dearest Friends," which closes out the album. Brimming with gleeful collisions of sounds and words and puzzles you can dance to, this is an immensely fun working holiday.

1. Fledermaus Can't Get It
2. The Rhinohead
3. Flooded
4. Family Feud
5. Serious Brainskin
6. Speech Contamination/ German Fear Of Osterre
7. The Young The Faceless And The Codes
8. Duckrog
9. Chicken Yiamas
10. That Sound Wiped
11. Jback Lois Lane
12. Dear Dead Friends

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The Book Of Knots - Traineater



Year: 2007
Label: ANTI-
Genre: Experimental Rock

On Anti- for their second album, Traineater, the avant-rock collective Book of Knots gets even wilder and more ambitious than they were on their uncompromising self-titled debut. Where The Book of Knots was inspired by the seaside towns in which members Joel Hamilton and Matthias Bossi grew up, Traineater explores the corroded chassis of the American rust belt, possibly because Tony Maimone of Pere Ubu (the definitive Midwestern experimental punk band) is also a member. Traineater's portrait of the rust belt is not at all sentimental; instead, it crafts a landscape of hulking metal skeletons, buildings that are purely functional, and humble, largely hidden tools of industry and transport. This time the group's sound is more eclectic, welding together elements of free jazz, noise, metal, and Americana to complete their vignettes, and the cast of collaborators is just as wide-ranging. Some blend into Traineater's sonics seamlessly: Zeena Parkins' electric harp adds a subtle, prickly intensity to several songs, while Doug Henderson's aural manipulation piece "Walker Percy Evans High School" ties into the more abstract feel of the interlude by the Book of Knots' core members, "Hands of Production." Other collaborators are unmistakable: Carla Bozlulich's unmistakable rasp holds its own among the caustic noise/metal/jazz of "View of the Water Tower," which opens Traineater with one of the album's most overtly challenging moments. Likewise, the rusted industrial spiritual "Pray" is indelibly a Tom Waits track -- gruff vocals, junkyard percussion, and all -- and David Thomas' creaky voice makes the spooky fable "Red Apple Boy" even spookier. Even more so than The Book of Knots, Traineater is highly theatrical. Jon Langford, who contributed the brilliant "Back on Dry Land" to the Book of Knots' debut, takes the lead on "Boomtown," a much more elaborate and conceptual piece. Mike Watt's largely spoken word "Pedro to Cleveland" and Rick Moody's "Hewitt-Smithson," a spiraling study of self-loathing in a glass-making plant, also make Traineater feel as much like performance art as an album. Many of the album's most musical songs feature core BOK member Carla Kihlstedt at the helm. "Traineater" itself is a standout: an elegy for a furnace on its final train ride, Kihlstedt's empathetic vocals make it subtly, hypnotically beautiful. She lets it rip on "Salina," a plea for escape driven by her keening singing and violin. Though Traineater's second half isn't quite as strong as its first, the album is powerful, telling stories of strength and despair against a rusted backdrop. Like Skeleton Key, Tin Hat Trio, Pere Ubu, and the other projects the Book of Knots' members are involved with, this album is equal measures challenging and listenable, and entirely fascinating.

1. View From The Watertower
2. Hands Of Production
3. Traineater
4. Pray
5. Pedro To Cleveland
6. Red Apple Boy
7. Where'd Mom Go?
8. The Ballad Of John Henry
9. Midnight
10. Boomtown
11. Salina
12. Third Generation Pink Slip
13. Hewitt-Smithson
14. Walker Percy Evans High School

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Doug & The Slugs - Cognac and Bolagna/Wrap It!



Year: 1982
Label: Ritdong
Genre: Extremely well written and witty pop music

I had several of the Slugs' albums on vinyl back in a previous century, but I lost track of them for many years and only rediscovered them on CD a year or so before Doug Bennett's untimely death. I was delighted with how well this music had aged, if anything I appreciated the mix between energetic pop songs and more thoughtful numbers with insightful and often bittersweet lyrics more than ever. And it's hard not to like a band that sounds as if the members are having fun, it's a refreshing contrast with the brooding self-pity that so many rock musicians indulge in. Like some other Canadian Bands (Rough Trade or The Tragically Hip come to mind) the Slugs deserved more commercial success than they achieved, the name of the band probably didn't help much there, and maybe they were laughing too much for the music industry to take them seriously. But if you haven't heard this music then this collection is the best place to start, some of their later recordings maybe are not up to this standard, but Cognac and Bologna in particular is outstanding with razor-sharp songwriting that will have you hitting "repeat" to savor to savor the lyrics over and over again.


1. To Be Laughing
2. Just Another Case
3. Soldier Of Fortune
4. Too Bad
5. Advice To A Friend
6. Stay With Me
7. Chinatown Calculation
8. Thunder Makes The Noise
9. Drifting Away
10. If I Fall
11. Tropical Rainstorm
12. Dangerous?
13. Real Enough
14. Not On The Corner
15. Wrong Kind Of Right
16. Partly From Pressure
17. Alibi
18. Infrared
19. Forget About Me
20. Frankie
21. (Just A Little Bit) Embarrassed
22. River

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Jam it back in, in the dark.
knkwzrd
you know i'm ready to party because my pants have a picture of ice cream cake on them


Member 482

Level 45.24

Mar 2006


Old Aug 8, 2007, 04:17 PM Local time: Aug 8, 2007, 03:17 PM 1 #2 of 201
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Bluejeans & Moonbeams



Year: 1974
Label: Blue Plate
Genre: Blues-Rock

A lot of people judge this record against the Captain's other material, which really isn't fair at all, because that always leads to bad reviews for this simply because it's not off the wall and shit-crazy. The truth, though, is that it's really a great, laid back record that always gets overlooked in Beefheart's catalog. If you've tried listening to Beefheart before and couldn't handle the strangeness, you'll probably really enjoy this record anyway.

Tracks:
1. Party Of Special Things To Do
2. Same Old Blues
3. Observatory Crest
4. Pompadour Swamp
5. Captain's Holiday
6. Rock 'N Roll's Evil Doll
7. Further Than We've Gone
8. Twist Ah Luck
9. Bluejeans & Moonbeams

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Corrosion Of Conformity - In The Arms Of God...



Year: 2005
Label: Sanctuary
Genre: Metal

Prior to Corrosion of Conformity's 2005 release, In the Arms of God, many fans wondered if the group was over. After all, it had been a long time since the band had issued a studio set (2000's America's Volume Dealer). During this extended break, singer/guitarist Pepper Keenan did double duty in Down (2002's Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow), and of course, had a much publicized tryout for the vacated bass position in Metallica (as seen in the indulgent Some Kind of Monster docu-film). But now COC is ready to roar once more, and the group does so on their eighth studio album overall. Joining Keenan once more are other mainstays Woody Weatherman (guitar) and Mike Dean (bass), as well as a big surprise on drums -- Galactic timekeeper Stanton Moore. To prime themselves for the sessions, the group immersed themselves in old hardcore and metal albums they hadn't listened to in years, and the approach worked, as In the Arms of God is a straight-ahead and raw set. The beginning of the album opener "Stone Breakers" closely resembles a Tony Iommi-led Sabbath jam, while such other ragers as "Paranoid Opioid" and "Never Turns to More" are classic COC.


The intro on the first track alone makes it one of my favorite records.

Tracks:
1. Stone Breaker
2. Paranoid Opioid
3. It Is That Way
4. Dirty Hands Empty Pockets/(Already Gone)
5. Rise River Rise
6. Never Turns To More
7. Infinite War
8. So Much Left Behind
9. The Backslider
10. World On Fire
11. Crown Of Thorns
12. In The Arms Of God

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Greg Brown - One Night



Year: 1982
Label: Red House Records
Genre: Folk

Actually, two nights in October 1982, a time when Greg Brown was a dark horse still building a following and discovering his lyrical genius. In those lean years, Brown worked as a regular on Prarie Home Companion and gigged at coffeehouses more accustomed to hosting open mics than one of the finest singer/songwriters of the time. This long-out-of-print recording provides a window into a lovely, intimate solo show that's full of Brown's folksy wit and touching, previously unavailable ballads. "Banjo Moon" and "Ships" combine sly humor and melancholy, but the satirical set pieces are the most prescient and charming. In "Dream On," Brown raps, "We're not going to drop a bunch of bombs on everybody, blow up the whole world over some little political difficulty or border dispute / Dream on, little dreamers." On "Waiting" he offers a friendly parody of Tom Waits pilfering lines from a wino. Perhaps even more than 1995's The Live One, One Night provides perspective on just what distinguishes Brown from his contemporaries. Even at this early stage, his pacing and delivery are deft, his voice is flexible and visceral, and his songs are keen, openhearted marvels.

Tracks:
1. Dream On
2. Canned Goods
3. Every Street In Town
4. Flat Stuff
5. Introduction To "Downtown"
6. Downtown
7. Heart Of My Country
8. Butane Lighter Blues
9. Banjo Moon
10. Waiting
11. Ships
12. You Don't Really Get Me
13. Introduction To "On Records ..."
14. On Records, The Sound Just Fades Away
15. Love Is A Chain
16. Ella Mae
17. All The Little Places Around The Town
18. Never Shine Sun

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John Coltrane - My Favorite Things



Year: 1960
Label: Atlantic
Genre: Jazz

Although seemingly impossible to comprehend, this landmark jazz recording was made in less than three days. All the more remarkable is that the same sessions which yielded My Favorite Things would also inform a majority of the albums Coltrane Plays the Blues, Coltrane's Sound, and Coltrane Legacy. It is easy to understand the appeal that these sides continue to hold. The unforced, practically casual soloing styles of the assembled quartet -- which includes Coltrane (soprano/tenor sax), McCoy Tyner (piano), Steve Davis (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums) -- allow for tastefully executed passages à la the Miles Davis Quintet, a trait Coltrane no doubt honed during his tenure in that band. Each track of this album is a joy to revisit. The ultimate listenability may reside in this quartet's capacity to not be overwhelmed by the soloist. Likewise, they are able to push the grooves along surreptitiously and unfettered. For instance, the support that the trio -- most notably Tyner -- gives to Coltrane on the title track winds the melody in and around itself. However, instead of becoming entangled and directionless, these musical sidebars simultaneously define the direction the song is taking. As a soloist, the definitive soprano sax runs during the Cole Porter standard "Everytime We Say Goodbye" and tenor solos on "But Not for Me" easily establish Coltrane as a pioneer of both instruments.


It's not often that you can say Julie Andrews butchered something beautiful, but such is the case.

Tracks:
1. My Favorite Things
2. Everytime We Say Goodbye
3. Summertime
4. But Not For Me

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Sparks - Kimono My House



Year: 1974
Label: Island
Genre: pop music

Arguably one of Sparks' best albums, 1974's Kimono My House finds the brothers Mael (Ron wrote most the songs and played keyboards, while Russell was the singing frontman) ingeniously playing their guitar- and keyboard-heavy pop mix on 12 consistently fine tracks. Adding a touch of bubblegum, and even some of Zappa's own song-centric experimentalism to the menu, the Maels spruce up a sleazy Sunset Strip with a bevy of Broadway-worthy performances here: as the band expertly revs up the glam rock-meets-Andrew Lloyd Webber backdrops, Russell sends things into space with his operatic vocals and ever-clever lyrics. And besides two of their breakthrough hits (the English chart-toppers "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" and "Amateur Hour"), the album features one of their often-overlooked stunners, "Here in Heaven." Essential.

Tracks:
1. This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us
2. Amateur Hour
3. Falling In Love With Myself Again
4. Here In Heaven
5. Thank God It's Not Christmas
6. Hasta Manana, Monsieur
7. Talent Is An Asset
8. Complaints
9. In My Family
10. Equator
11. Barbecutie
12. Lost And Found

Get It

There's nowhere I can't reach.
knkwzrd
you know i'm ready to party because my pants have a picture of ice cream cake on them


Member 482

Level 45.24

Mar 2006


Old Sep 10, 2007, 10:34 PM Local time: Sep 10, 2007, 09:34 PM 1 #3 of 201
For Ence, finally.

Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata



Year: 1967
Label: Sonodisc
Genre: African pop music

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

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

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

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

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


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

Get It

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.
knkwzrd
you know i'm ready to party because my pants have a picture of ice cream cake on them


Member 482

Level 45.24

Mar 2006


Old Nov 27, 2007, 08:16 PM Local time: Nov 27, 2007, 07:16 PM 4 #4 of 201
It's been quite some time since I've uploaded any music. Here I am again, though.

Moondog - Moondog



Year: 1969
Label: Columbia
Genre: Modern Classical

Spoiler:
Louis Hardin aka Moondog was born in 1916 in Marysville, Kansas. At 5 he started playing a set of drums made by himself with a cardboard box. Later he got a buffalo skin drum at an indian fair, that he used as a Tom-Tom. His fascination with aboriginal American percussion never ceased. The repetitive beat became a distinctive sound that accompanied his compositions until the end of his life. At 16 he was injured in an unexplained dynamite accident and lost his sight, thus turning to an inner world of sounds and unique imaginary visions. After learning the principles of music in several schools for blind young men across central America he started teaching himself the skills of ear training and composition, becoming then a self taught man and artist.

He was never bitter about being blind. In late 50's he appeared in New York city as an eccentric figure, a man with a long beard, dressed as a Viking, claiming for the return to our ancestral roots, against the fake “values” of our modern world.

He transformed himself into something different from the rest of us. Into Moondog the poet, Moondog the pagan, Moondog the composer, Moondog the man in 6th Avenue who challenges society in a playful, rich way.

Although he had recorded a few works during the 50’s it was during the 60’s when he got to be known and admired by his peers and by a new generation that understood his anti-stablishment position much better.

By late 60’s he was a cult figure, probably not a world-famous one but known and celebrated by the likes of Janis Joplin (who covered one of his “rounds”) or James William Guercio (producer of the band Chicago, who “discovered him in 1969 and the guy who produced the album I am posting today)

About Moondog’s work allmusic.com says:

“His music, constructed of direct musical gestures and built mostly from pure modal themes expanded by sophisticated counterpuntal techniques, would now receive the avant-garde label of"minimal or pattern music but this sound has characterized his music since the late 1940's, and is thus a precursor of this postmodern compositional style. In New York, Moondog began to meet legendary jazz performer-composers, such as Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman, and to incorporate jazz inflections as well as humorous philosophical couplets and environmental sounds into his recorded compositions”

In 1974 Moondog left for Germany where he spent the last decades of the century producing a solid body of extraordinary compositions, edited in several marvellous albums, unfortunately not easy to be found today. (I’ll post some in the future if asked).

Among his many fans we can count people as diverse as Phillip Glass, Charles Mingus, Peter Hammill, Elvis Costello, Wim Mertens and the members of the great folk ensemble Pentangle.

In 1989 Moondog returned briefly to America for a tribute in which Glass himself asked him to conduct the Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, which he did in a rather unusual way: by sitting at one side with the musicians and beating a tympani.

He want back to Europe after that and recorded two albums in Peter Hammill’s studio in Bath, England: “Sax Pax for a Sax” and “Big Band” both extraordinary exercises in modernity.
It is said that his last years were very happy. He died, peacefully in Germany while listening to Camille Saint-Saens, in 1999.

His music is the soundtrack of a nicer, better, happier world.


Tracks:
1. Theme
2. Stamping Ground
3. Symphonique No. 3 (Ode to Venus)
4. Symphonique No. 6 (Good for Goodie)
5. Cuplet
6. Minisym No. 1
7. Lament, No. 1
8. Witch of Endor
9. Symphonique No. 1 (Portrait of a Monarch)

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Ken Vandermark and Tim Daisy - August Music



Year: 2007
Label: self-released, no label
Genre: Jazz

You know this is serious stuff because I never write my own reviews.

This is the best new jazz record I've heard in quite some time. The whole record is duets featuring percussionist Tim Daisy and tenor saxophonist Ken Vandermark, recorded live. I uploaded an album in the last thread by Vandermark's group the Vandermark 5 in the last MEC thread, which seemed to get a good response. Anyway, Ken Vandermark gets an amazing tone out of his instruments (he plays most woodwinds), and the combination his playing and Daisy's intricate rhythms are absolutely spectacular. If you like jazz at all, you need to get into Ken Vandermark in a big way.


Tracks:
1. Study for Mural
2. Half the Population
3. Hover
4. Red Box
5. Boiled and Fumed
6. 2000 Hours

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Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full



Year: 1987
Label: 4th And Broadway
Genre: Rap

One of the most influential rap albums of all time, Eric B. & Rakim's Paid in Full only continues to grow in stature as the record that ushered in hip-hop's modern era. The stripped-down production might seem a little bare to modern ears, but Rakim's technique on the mic still sounds utterly contemporary, even state-of-the-art -- and that from a record released in 1987, just one year after Run-D.M.C. hit the mainstream. Rakim basically invents modern lyrical technique over the course of Paid in Full, with his complex internal rhymes, literate imagery, velvet-smooth flow, and unpredictable, off-the-beat rhythms. The key cuts here are some of the most legendary rap singles ever released, starting with the duo's debut sides, "Eric B. Is President" and "My Melody." "I Know You Got Soul" single-handedly kicked off hip-hop's infatuation with James Brown samples, and Eric B. & Rakim topped it with the similarly inclined "I Ain't No Joke," a stunning display of lyrical virtuosity. The title cut, meanwhile, planted the seeds of hip-hop's material obsessions over a monumental beat. There are also three DJ showcases for Eric B., who like Rakim was among the technical leaders in his field. If sampling is the sincerest form of admiration in hip-hop, Paid in Full is positively worshipped. Just to name a few: Rakim's tossed-off "pump up the volume," from "I Know You Got Soul," became the basis for M/A/R/R/S' groundbreaking dance track; Eminem, a devoted Rakim student, lifted lines from "As the Rhyme Goes On" for the chorus of his own "The Way I Am"; and the percussion track of "Paid in Full" has been sampled so many times it's almost impossible to believe it had a point of origin. Paid in Full is essential listening for anyone even remotely interested in the basic musical foundations of hip-hop -- this is the form in its purest essence.

Tracks:
1. I Ain't No Joke
2. Eric B. Is on the Cut
3. My Melody - Eric B. & Rakim, Rakim
4. I Know You Got Soul
5. Move the Crowd
6. Paid in Full
7. As the Rhyme Goes On
8. Chinese Arithmetic
9. Eric B. Is President
10. Extended Beat
11. As the Rhyme Goes On [Radio Mix]
12. Paid in Full [Mini Madness- The Coldcut Remix]

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Charles Gayle - Repent



Year: 1992
Label: Knitting Factory
Genre: Jazz

There is absolutely no one playing tenor (or any other saxophone) coming close to making the kind of music created by Charles Gayle. While it's reminiscent of Albert Ayler's energetic, twisting 1960s free dates, Gayle's saxophone acrobatics and stamina are astonishing. This two-song CD was recorded live and features one number that runs 23 minutes; it's the short tune. "Jesus Christ and Scripture," the second piece, proceeds for over 50 minutes, much of that featuring Gayle's honks, bleats, turnarounds, moans, and anguished cries on tenor. After listening closely to this disc, its lack of repetition and gimmickry is commendable. It's certainly not for all (or even most tastes), but those who listen fairly and intently to Charles Gayle will be rewarded.

1. Repent
2. Jesus Christ And Scripture

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C.O.B. - Moyshe McStiff And The Tartan Lancers Of The Sacred Heart



Year: 1972
Label: Polydor
Genre: British Folk

C.O.B.'s second album was, like its first, a mighty rare and little-heard item, though its rep has risen slightly since then due to its reissue on CD (though that itself is hard to find). It's not much different than the debut, either, and can't fail to remind seasoned British folk-rock listeners of a more normal Incredible String Band, though the connection's legitimate since C.O.B.'s Clive Palmer was a founding member of the ISB. There's a plaintive, almost hymn-like feel to this muted British folk-rock, which is much folkier than rocky. There's also a tinge of acid-folk in the use of some relatively exotic instrumentation for a folk-rock record, including balalaika, dulcitar, tabla, banjo, and harmonium-like organ. "Eleven Willows" gets a little closer to Pentangle-Bert Jansch territory, and Genevieve Baker's nicely haunting background singing on that track makes one wish she'd been given a more prominent role in the band's vocals.

Tracks:
1. Sheba's Return/Lion of Judah
2. Let It Be You
3. Solomon's Song
4. Eleven Willows
5. I Told Her
6. Oh Bright Eyed One
7. Chain of Love
8. Pretty Kerry
9. Martha and Mary
10. Heart Dancer

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The Shapes - Songs For Sensible People



Year: 1998
Label: Overground
Genre: Punk

Spoiler:
One of the most gleefully idiosyncratic bands to emerge from Britain's punk scene, the Shapes released a mere single and EP during their brief career. However, that was more than enough to capture the group's uniquely crazed pop-punk sound and place them firmly in the punk hall of fame. The brainchild of singer Seymour Bybuss and bassist Brian Helicopter, the Shapes began life in Leamington Spa, in 1977, as a duo miming goofily along to golden oldies. Apparently, this was entertaining enough to amuse the pair for the next year, although at some point they did add a few more now long-forgotten members to the group. It was in this amorphous shape that Radio One DJ John Peel first saw the Shapes perform at a party in neighboring Stratford-upon-Avon. He walked away distinctly under-impressed.

By 1978, Bybuss and Helicopter had finally begun taking the band more seriously and recruited guitarists Tim Jee and Steve Richards and drummer Dave Gee into the Shapes ultimate form.

In February 1979, the new look group entered the studio to record their debut Part of the Furniture EP. The title was a bit of a joke, of course, playing off the fact that Furniture was released on the group's own Sofa label. A frenetic burst of poppy punk lunacy, the four-song EP made fans out of all but the most cynical scenesters. The highlight was definitely "Batman in the Launderette," an inspired piece of idiocy that was farcically infectious.

A repentant John Peel was converted to the Shapes' cause and his constant airplay helped push the record to number two on the indies singles chart. He also invited the group along to perform on his show, which they did on April 10, 1979. The Shapes were also sharpening their skills on both the media and the stage, where they opened for a host of upcoming groups. Equally memorable as their frenetic live shows were their bouts with the press, whom often photographed the band sprouting large, geometrically shaped boxes over their heads (this is how they appeared on the cover of their posthumous album). The actual interviews were equally surreal, and even at the time, it became difficult to separate the fact from the fiction of the band's history. There's no doubt, however, that soon after the release of Furniture, the Shapes were contacted by the Belfast label Good Vibrations, with whom Sofa struck a distribution deal. The upshot was the prescient "Airline Disaster" single, which was aptly dubbed a double B-side. The plaintive ballad about fear of flying was backed by the roaring noise of "Blast Off." Unfortunately, this time around, no one seemed to get the joke, and the single crashed and burned ignominiously; legend has it that it was the poorest selling release of 1980. The Shapes took this badly, as they were counting financially upon another hit.

The group ended their career on-stage soon after as ridiculously as they began. At the start of their gig at London's Marquee, Bybuss attempted to make a grand entrance by leaping onto the stage. Unfortunately, he misjudged his jump and landed smack in the middle of a stunned audience, who immediately crowd-surfed him out of the band room and onto Wardour Street. From there, he just kept on going and that was the end of the show, and the Shapes themselves, or so the story goes. However, the band's music continued to live on. In 1998, the Overground label released the Songs for Sensible People album, which compiled together the group's EP, single, and a clutch of previously unreleased songs.


Tracks:
1. Interview
2. Kids' Stuff
3. Wot's For Lunch Mum? (Not Beans Again!) (Demo)
4. Leamington (Demo)
5. College Girls (Demo)
6. Wot's For Lunch Mum? (Not Beans Again!)
7. College Girls
8. (I Saw) Batman (In The Launderette)
9. Chatterbox
10. Bedtime Stories
11. Alien Love
12. Airline Disaster
13. Business Calls
14. Leamington
15. Let's Go To Planet Skaro
16. My House Is A Satellite
17. Jennifer The Conifer
18. Blast Off!
19. Interview

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The Sadies - New Seasons



Year: 2007
Label: Yep Rock
Genre: Psychedelic Country Rock

It's almost disorienting to imagine that a band as good as the Sadies can still find room to improve each time they go into the studio, but Canada's greatest contribution to Americana since Blue Rodeo have been consistently topping themselves with each new album, and their sixth, New Seasons, is another triumph. It should come as no surprise that the Sadies are in superb instrumental form here and demonstrating an effortless mastery of a range of different sounds and styles; "What's Left Behind" is a superb evocation of the late-period Byrds with guitar work that would make Clarence White envious, "The Trial" is a deeply atmospheric Southern gothic tale with just the right degree of ominous atmosphere, "A Simple Aspiration" could pass for a lost Paisley Underground classic with its subtly psychedelic guitar figures, "The Land Between" is simply gorgeous folk-rock, and the opening bluegrass breakdown makes you wish these guys had let listeners hear more than 48 seconds of it. But for a band that used to prefer playing instrumentals over approaching the vocal mike, brothers Dallas Good and Travis Good have learned to sing nearly as well as they play guitar, and their harmonies add another layer of beauty and mystery to their music. The group's songwriting continues to impress, with the heartbroken "Sunset to Dawn" and "The Trial" sounding uncannily like lost country classics and the two-part "The Last Inquisition" showing they know how to write a good scary guitar figure for themselves. While ex-Jayhawk Gary Louris helped produce New Seasons, precious little of his influence is audible here; the Sadies have created a powerful and evocative sound on their previous albums, and with New Seasons they've given that sound its ideal definition.

This record reminds me a lot of Workingman's Dead era Grateful Dead.

Tracks:
1. Introduction
2. First Inquisition, Pt. 4
3. What's Left Behind
4. Sunset to Dawn
5. Yours to Discover
6. Anna Leigh
7. Trial
8. My Heart of Wood
9. Simple Aspiration
10. Wolf Tones
11. Never Again
12. Land Between
13. Last Inquisition, Pt. 5

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The Cravats - The Land Of The Giants



Year: 2006 (Recorded 1979-1982)
Label: Overground
Genre: Jazz/Punk

I cannot find a review for this, and I really do not trust myself to do a proper review. One thing I can say for sure though, this is absolutely wild stuff. The Cravats are the favorite band of Steve Albini, Jello Biafra, Henry Rollins, and John Peel. That says a lot. Give this a listen or miss out on great art.

Tracks:

Disc: 1
1. Off the Beach
2. Terminus
3. There Is No International Rescue
4. I Am the Dreg
5. Daddy's Shoes
6. Working Down Underground
7. Ice-Cubists
8. Rub Me Out
9. Who's in Here with Me
10. Land of the Giants
11. Shroud of New York (Chapter 1)
12. Station
13. Execute His Will

Disc: 2
1. Still
2. Triplex Zone
3. You're Driving Me
4. XMP
5. Fireman
6. All on Standby
7. In Your Eyes
8. And the Sun Shone
9. Precinct
10. Shroud of New York (Chapter 2)
11. Hole
12. When Will We Fall
13. Ceasing to Be
14. End
15. Seance
16. Still [Live]
17. In Your Eyes [Live]
18. Tears on My Machine [Live]
19. I Hate the Universe [Live]

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Swans - Cop + Young God



Year: 1984
Label: K.422
Genre: No Wave

If there's music in hell, this is what it sounds like. It's conceivable that some band, somewhere, is making music heavier, darker and just generally less fun than this, but if you find one, ask who one of their greatest influences is and they'll probably refer you to the Swans. Consisting of a four-piece lineup -- Mosimann on drums, Westberg on guitar, Harry Crosby on bass, and naturally Gira on vocals -- on their second full album Swans add even more vicious crunch to their basic approach, resulting in quite possibly one of the darkest recordings ever done. Gira's words come across a little more forcefully and cleanly than before, and the existential horror shows that he details, almost always phrased in confessional/accusatory "I - you" terms, make up in sheer power what they lack in any kind of subtlety. For example, typical lyrics, from the snarling "Your Property" state: "I give you money -- you're superior. I don't exist. You control me." Matching his at-times unearthly moans and cries perfectly, the pounding music mostly consists of one slow, descending chord progression or a repetitive series of one or two notes after another, extending the power of loud feedback and amped drums to indescribably forceful effect. The opening grind alone on "Why Hide," as Westberg stretches out his strings behind Mosimann and Crosby's pummeling, is crushing enough before Gira delivers a harrowing vocal. The most legendary track from the album is the title cut; as a vicious anti-boys-in-blue rant finds its equal only in N.W.A.'s "Fuck Da Police." With such thoroughly bilious Gira lines as "Nobody rapes you like a cop in jail" providing the mental pictures, a slow, steady punch of music gets slowly but surely more aggressive and destructive as the song unfolds to its raging conclusion. Jim Thirlwell, aka Foetus, helps contribute to the apocalyptic noise on the release, but you somehow figure that Swans would have reached this state quite well on their own regardless. Ugly, compelling, and overpowering, Cop remains the pinnacle of Swans' brutal early days.

Tracks:
1. Half Life
2. Job
3. Why Hide
4. Clay Man
5. Your Property
6. Cop
7. Butcher
8. Thug
9. I Crawled
10. Raping A Slave
11. Young God
12. This Is Mine

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Putrescence - Fatal White Pustules Upon Septic Organs



Year: 2007
Label: No Escape Records
Genre: Death Metal

This is a local metal band who just finished their first European tour. This is their third full-length album, and I have to say, it's my favorite metal album of 2007. It rips your spine out. On one of the live tracks on this, the lead singer jokes about shitting himself. One time when I saw these guys live, he actually did shit himself about halfway through the set, and he finished the show. Their music is fucking brutal.

Tracks:
1. Stench Of Vomit Vomit Of Stench 1:29
2. Kill Yourself Shit Your Pants 1:45
3. Face Unfastened And Rendered Into Emulsion By Claw Hammer 3:39
4. Faster Blunt Trauma Kill Kill
5. Blowtorched To Conceal Identity
6. Compulsive Defecation Into The Larynxes Of The Recently Mutilated
7. Head Crushed By Partially Severed Extremities Seeping With Viral Infection
8. Grotesque Instance Of Obscene Protoplasmic Devastation
9. Total Fucking Absence Of Brain Matter
10. The Black Out Drunk Psychotic Voices Inside My Head
11. Green Hell
12. Drilling Through Timpanic Membrane With A Corkskrew (Live)
13. 245 Trioxin (Live)
14. Dawn Of The Necrofecalizer (Live)
15. Self Strangulation In A Locked Refrigerator (Live)

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I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?
knkwzrd
you know i'm ready to party because my pants have a picture of ice cream cake on them


Member 482

Level 45.24

Mar 2006


Old Mar 5, 2008, 02:04 PM Local time: Mar 5, 2008, 01:04 PM #5 of 201
This might be an early shoe-in for my favorite album of 2008.

Jeffrey Lewis - 12 Crass Songs
Label: Rough Trade
Year: Officially released last year in October, but only actually saw distribution about a month ago.
Genre: Lots of critics call this "anti-folk", but I think that's a bullshit term. It's acoustic pop music.



While in the minds of many punk rock was supposed to be about upending the rules and assumptions that had come to govern rock & roll in the mid-'70s, punk also helped revive the ranting spirit that had informed the best political music and art through the 20th century, from the Situationalists to the Fugs. Among the first wave of British punks, none ranted with greater ferocity and sense of purpose than Crass, who actually were the anarchist firebrands the Sex Pistols pretended to be, though the brutal report of their music was rarely as impressive or as intelligent as their lyrics. Crass were massively influential during their 1977-1984 lifespan and beyond, both as musicians and as activists, and Jeffrey Lewis' 12 Crass Songs is a surprising example of just how far their ideas have reached. Best known for his witty anti-folk tunes, musician and cartoonist Lewis first heard Crass while he was a college freshman in 1993, and the blunt wit and angry idealism of their songs made a powerful impression on him. As he began performing, Lewis began looking for ways to merge the fury of Crass' broadsides with his acoustic-based music and he recorded some lo-fi interpretations of some of their tunes in his bedroom. A few years later, Lewis' efforts have grown into 12 Crass Songs, in which Lewis and a handful of friends (most notably vocalist Helen Schreiner) have taken a dozen tunes by Crass and married them to arrangements that give them a far more melodic spin than they revealed in their original form. While electric guitars pop up here and there (and take center stage on "Big A, Little A"), most of 12 Crass Songs is dominated by acoustic guitar and Lewis' sweet, slightly nasal vocals, but while he has succeeded in making these songs sound pretty and playful in a way they never were before, he's also managed to carry forth their message with a surprising accuracy. It was often difficult to understand what Crass were bellowing about on The Feeding of the 5000 or Stations of the Crass, but Lewis' performances are clear and carefully enunciated, and the backing tracks add a simple but eager tunefulness that amplifies the all-together-now power of the lyrics. Lewis' interpretations are a 180 degree turn from the originals, but they ring forth with honest belief and passion, and the occasional shifts from the original lyrics don't betray the original intent of the songs. 12 Crass Songs may turn these anarchist hymns into campfire singalongs, but at heart that isn't terribly far from their original intent, and "I Ain't Thick, It's Just a Trick" and "Do They Owe Us a Living" remain anthems of empowerment and righteous rage in Lewis' hands. Lewis' 12 Crass Songs shines the work of a legendary punk band into a fun house mirror, but their message and philosophy is still remarkably coherent for being twisted about, and this album is fun, bracing, and thought-provoking stuff.

Tracks:
1. End Result
2. I Ain't Thick, It's Just A Trick
3. Systematic Death
4. The Gasman Cometh
5. Banned From The Roxy
6. Where Next Columbus?
7. Do They Owe Us A Living?
8. Securicor
9. Demoncrats
10. Big A, Little A
11. Punk Is Dead
12. Walls (Fun In The Oven)

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I was speaking idiomatically.
knkwzrd
you know i'm ready to party because my pants have a picture of ice cream cake on them


Member 482

Level 45.24

Mar 2006


Old Apr 11, 2008, 05:06 PM Local time: Apr 11, 2008, 04:06 PM 2 #6 of 201
Amoebic Ensemble - Limbic Rage
Year: 1995
Label: Stupeur Et Trompette
Genre: accordion based experimental rock




Tracks:
1. Chapter 11
2. Birdfight
3. Limbic Rage
4. The Circus Has Been Cancelled
5. Tango
6. Gimme ABuck Or I'll Touch You
7. Boilermaker
8. Repetitive Motion Sickness
9. Three-Ring Bathtub
10. What I Did Last Summer
11. Scratch
12. Owls Are Actually Very Stupid
13. Tertullian Dance
14. Mayday In The Tunnel
15. Waxing Neuralgic

Review:
Providence, Rhode Island's instrumental Amoebic Ensemble is a peculiar beast — a huge group (usually eight people) playing mostly acoustic instruments (except for electric violin and mandolin) and assorted metal detritus to create something of a bizarre old-time Weimar clinkety-clonk. Accordionist and main songwriter Alec K. Redfearn is one of the greatest song-titlers alive (Limbic Rage offers, among others, "Owls Are Actually Very Stupid," "Waxing Neuralgic" and "Gimme a Buck or I'll Touch You"), and his themes are pretty great, too: "Repetitive Motion Sickness" is a twisted Brecht-Weill-ish tango for people with an unusual number of feet. Instrumentally, on "Boilermaker," Redfearn's accordion parts knit neatly with Laura Gulley's violin lines.

Excellent accordion oriented avant-prog band ,blending naiveness behind complex structured compositions . Chamber rock music mixed with plink plonky circus sounds and an excellent accordion on the background!


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Ewan MacColl & A.L. Lloyd - Blow Boys, Blow
Year: 1960
Label: Tradition
Genre: Folk




Tracks:
1. Row Bullies Row
2. Paddy Doyle
3. Wild Goose Shanty
4. While Cruising Around Yarmouth
5. Old Billy Riley Listen
6. Handsome Cabin Boy
7. South Australia
8. Blow Boys Blow
9. Whup! Jamboree
10. Banks of Newfoundland
11. Whiskey Johnny
12. Do Me Ama
13. Jack Tar
14. Paddy West
15. Haul on the Bowline
16. Hundred Years Ago

Review:
A phenomenal collection of sea shanties and sailing songs performed by two of Great Britain's most outstanding musicologists. MacColl recorded a great deal during his career, which is fortunate, though he might well be best remembered by some for writing "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." Lloyd performed a great deal and was highly regarded for his research and his attention to old, almost-lost songs, but his recordings are sadly few in number, and mostly unavailable -- there are a few songs on CD via a Riverside reissue, a cut on a Rhino compilation, and this Tradition reissue. Some of the songs included in this recording are familiar; "The Handsome Cabin Boy" has been recorded many a time, with notable performances including one by Kate Bush. Many songs are less familiar, however, and are quite deserving of attention. MacColl and Lloyd's performances have enthusiasm and vigor, and are given able support from a small ensemble. The CD reissue has been cleaned up nicely, with no obvious artifacts or loss of musical quality. If you can find it, Blow Boys Blow is a worthy album to have in hand.


Captain Beefheart said this was his favorite album of all time. That warrants it an initial listen in my mind.

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Mississippi Fred McDowell - I Do Not Play No Rock 'N' Roll
Year: 1969
Label: Capitol
Genre: Blues




Tracks:
1. Baby Please Don't Go
2. Good Morning Little School Girl
3. Kokomo Me Baby
4. That's All Right Baby
5. Red Cross Store
6. Everybody's Down On Me
7. 61 Highway
8. Glory Hallelujah
9. Jesus Is On The Mainline
10. My Baby She Gonna Jump And Shout
11. Long Line Skinner
12. You Got To Move
13. The Train I Ride
14. You Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Anymore

Review:
By the time acoustic-blues master Mississippi Fred McDowell finally plugged in for the first time--something I Do Not Play No Rock 'N Roll captures--his songs were already a major part of the emerging blues-rock scene of the late 1960s. The slide-guitar genius was a Delta blues purist of the first degree who ignored all else, even while serving as a significant influence on a new generation of blues players. His influence endures and his music, in its original form, remains riveting. The best example is the timeless classic "You Got to Move", covered by the Rolling Stones in a surprisingly faithful rendition on 1971's Sticky Fingers and radically reconfigured by adventurous jazz diva Cassandra Wilson three decades later on Belly of the Sun. Both versions are excellent, but McDowell's original, saturated with searing sincerity and electrifying licks, is better. In similar style McDowell demonstrates the inspiration behind "Kokomo Me Baby" (popularised by his protegé Bonnie Raitt), "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" and "Baby Please Don't Go", all core material of the modern blues-rock repertoire. All have since been done in different styles, but none have been done better. If you're looking for the real roots of modern blues and you haven't explored McDowell's ragged but righteous creations, you need to immediately redefine your search and hear his inspirational source music firsthand.


tl;dr version: The tone McDowell pulls out of his guitar on this record is amazing. It's the best blues-guitar I've ever heard.

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Natural Snow Buildings - Slayer Of The King Of Hell
Year: 2008
Label: Digitalis Ltd.
Genre: Folk/Drone/Experimental




Tracks:
1. Four Armed Protector
2. I, Slayer Of The King Of Hell
3. Broken Sword

Record Label Press Release:
the fall of civilization never sounded so sweet to these ears, but french duo natural snow buildings have soundtracked the end days in a way that has me crossing my fingers and hoping for the worst. "slayer of the king of hell" is epic in every way. these 90 minutes are filled to the fucken gills, with steam sneaking out through the cracks of this pressure cooker. it's dense, and at times beautiful. but it's always cohesive and cathartic and pushed to the limit.

natural snow buildings seem mythic in their approach and their output. they exist on an island in rural france, seemingly basking in the glow of a world of music and art. but "slayer of the king of hell" is down and dirty, as real as it gets. this is the best kind of sucker punch, straight to the gut. limited to 95 total copies


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Farmers Market - Surfin' USSR
Year: 2008
Label: Ipecac
Genre: bizarre bulgarian folk music




Tracks:
1 Surfin' USSR
2 Surfin' USSR Part 2 (Top Marx From the Serf Board)
3 Lodtschitze Mini Maritza (Ferry Cross the Mersey)
4 Anyone Who Remembers Vladiwoodstock Wasn't There
5 Dissident Harmony Sisters Camel Call
6 To Hell and Baku
7 Traktor Tracks Across the Tundra
8 From Prussia With Love
9 Red Square Dance
10 The Dismantling of the Soviet Onion Made Us Cry...
11 Kalashnikov Wedding
12 Steroid Train
13 Meanwhile Back at the Agricultural Workers Collective
14 Ladyboy's Night At The Cultural Relativism Saloon
15 One Day, Son, All I Own Will Still Belong to the State
16 Yagoda

Review:
The music of Farmers Market is a mixture of Bulgarian folk music, jazz standards, popular music and humor. Farmers Market has become one of Norway's most popular live bands, playing at all kinds of venues and festivals: jazz, folk and rock. Farmers Market has been releasing music in Norway sporadically over the past decade but their releases have been generally hard to find on U.S. shores. Those who have been lucky enough to hear the outfit have been instantly won over by the unbelievable musicianship and oddball mixture of styles. The groups last release came in 2000 and according to the band the title was never release, a secret amongst them and the label. Jazziz said of the outfit and the secretly-titled release, Balkan-jazz crossover may be well-established by now, especially on this side of the Atlantic. But seemingly from out of nowhere comes the Norwegian/Bulgarian quintet Farmers Market with a self-titled album that kicks the burgeoning genre sideways a notch or three.


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Groundhogs - Thank Christ For The Bomb
Year: 1970
Label: BGO
Genre: Rock




Tracks:
1. Strange Town
2. Darkness Is No Friend
3. Soldier
4. Thank Christ for the Bomb
5. Ship on the Ocean
6. Garden
7. Status People
8. Rich Man, Poor Man
9. Eccentric Man
10. Garden [BBC Radio I Session]
11. Eccentric Man [BBC Radio I Session]
12. Soldier [BBC in Concert]

Review:
Thank Christ for the Bomb was the first Groundhogs album to indicate that the group had a lifespan longer than the already-fading British blues boom suggested. It was also the first in the sequence of semi-conceptual masterpieces that the group cut following their decision to abandon the mellow blues of their earlier works and pursue the socially aware, prog-inflected bent that culminated with 1972's seminal Who Will Save the World? album. They were rewarded with their first ever Top Ten hit and purchasers were rewarded with an album that still packs a visceral punch in and around Tony McPhee's dark, doom-laden lyrics. With the exception of the truly magisterial title track, the nine tracks err on the side of brevity. Only one song, the semi-acoustic "Garden," strays over the five-minute mark, while four more barely touch three-and-one-half minutes. Yet the overall sense of the album is almost bulldozing, and it is surely no coincidence that, engineering alongside McPhee's self-production, Martin Birch came to the Groundhogs fresh from Deep Purple in Rock and wore that experience firmly on his sleeve. Volume and dynamics aside, there are few points of comparison between the two albums -- if the Groundhogs have any direct kin, it would have to be either the similarly three-piece Budgie or a better-organized Edgar Broughton Band. But, just as Deep Purple was advancing the cause of heavy rock by proving that you didn't need to be heavy all the time, so Thank Christ for the Bomb shifts between light and dark, introspection and outspokenness, loud and, well, louder. Even the acoustic guitars can make your ears bleed when they feel like it and, although the anti-war sentiments of "Thank Christ for the Bomb" seem an over-wordy echo of Purple's similarly themed "Child in Time," it is no less effective for it. Elements of Thank Christ for the Bomb do seem overdone today, not the least of which is the title track's opening recitation (a history of 20th century war, would you believe?). But it still has the ability to chill, thrill, and kill any doubts that such long-windiness might evoke, while the truths that were evident to McPhee in 1970 aren't too far from reality today.


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