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[marty_jannetty]

heres a few ass kicking records. Some old and some new.

!!!-Myth Takes

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http://www.mediafire.com/?xdkraomok05

Of all the dance-punk revivalists, !!! has been the most consistently interesting and challenging, not to mention the group most likely to fill the dancefloor on indie rock night. While their previous album, the political and righteous Louden Up Now, was good enough to vault them to the level of the bands that inspired them (Gang of Four, the Pop Group, Liquid Liquid), Myth Takes firmly establishes them there. It's a different fire that burns here for !!!, mostly setting aside political concerns for fiery dancefloor rave-ups. The band sounds inspired, like they are plugged directly into a wall socket. The first three tracks are like opening a door and being blasted backward by a wall of flame and heat. Nic Offer's vocal chants, asides, and strung-together proclamations are more frantic than ever, and when he turns it down a notch, he sounds nearly sexy (as on "Must Be the Moon," a desperate story of sex and lust in the city). He has to be a live wire of energy to keep up with the band, which burns brightly and plays like they have something to prove from beginning to end. This is especially true of Justin van der Volgen, whose bass work underpins the freewheeling walls of chik-ing guitars with a fluid and funky bottom. His production is a masterwork, balancing and blending a kaleidoscope of guitars, drums, percussion, keys, and vocals. The record could have easily sounded like a mess, but he makes it sound alive and raw. When !!! finally slows things down after that initial burst, they do some interesting things -- "Heart of Hearts" is a dancefloor filler that manages to sound menacing and rubbery at the same time, "Break in Case of Anything" is a kitchen-sink funk epic that has elements of disco, dub, hip-hop, and a killer horn section, and "Yadnus" is a fun mash-up of glitter drumbeats, tough-guy vocals, chicken-scratch guitars, and sweeping synths. The only tracks that let the side down a bit are the slightly generic "Bend Over Beethoven," which sounds like something they could have come up with in their sleep, and the ballad that ends the album, "Infiniford." On that last song, Offer's vocals don't suit the somber mood very well, and it's a down note to end such a wild ride of an album. These stumbles aside, Myth Takes is a thrilling success. Not too many bands even in heyday of the initial wave of dance-punk released records as full of energy, intelligence, and ferocious funk as this.

Can-Tago Mago

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http://www.mediafire.com/?i8oyeduap1u

With the band in full artistic flower and Suzuki's sometimes moody, sometimes frenetic speak/sing/shrieking in full effect, Can released not merely one of the best Krautrock albums of all time, but one of the best albums ever, period. Tago Mago is that rarity of the early '70s, a double album without a wasted note, ranging from sweetly gentle float to full-on monster grooves. "Paperhouse" starts things brilliantly, beginning with a low-key chime and beat, before amping up into a rumbling roll in the midsection, then calming down again before one last blast. Both "Mushroom" and "Oh Yeah," the latter with Schmidt filling out the quicker pace with nicely spooky keyboards, continue the fine vibe. After that, though, come the huge highlights -- three long examples of Can at its absolute best. "Halleluwah" -- featuring the Liebezeit/Czukay rhythm section pounding out a monster trance/funk beat; Karoli's and Schmidt's always impressive fills and leads; and Suzuki's slow-building ranting above everything -- is 19 minutes of pure genius. The near-rhythmless flow of "Aumgn" is equally mind-blowing, with swaths of sound from all the members floating from speaker to speaker in an ever-evolving wash, leading up to a final jam. "Peking O" continues that same sort of feeling, but with a touch more focus, throwing in everything from Chinese-inspired melodies and jazzy piano breaks to cheap organ rhythm boxes and near babbling from Suzuki along the way. "Bring Me Coffee or Tea" wraps things up as a fine, fun little coda to a landmark record.

Fucked Up-The Chemistry of Common Life

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http://www.mediafire.com/?dn2ugwzblzw

Fucked Up's new album, The Chemistry Of Common Life, synthesizes numerous diverse impulses into an expansive epic about the mysteries of birth, death, and the origins of life (and re-living). Merging elements of hardcore songwriting with up to 70 tracks of guitars, organs, winds and vocals, (including 18 guitars on the first single, the fatalistic "No Epiphany"), the music remains iconoclastic and startling, with Pink Eyes' vocals front and center.  Guest musicians, of course, abound, notably gorgeous female voices such as Brooklyn's Vivian Girls and Toronto's Katie Stelmanis.

The band remains contemptuous of churches and religion (opening track "Son The Father," with its refrain "It's hard enough being born in the first place: who would want to be born again?") while promoting an almost Buddhist mysticism ("Royal Swan"). But in the end the view is idiosyncratically scientific: amid soaring guitar chords, the title track pays homage to the random chemical processes that created life on this planet. Though Fucked Up remain punks at heart - if quixotically diverse ones - they have created a great, weird, heavy record that stubbornly sticks in your brain and your heart.

The Grateful Dead-American Beauty

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http://www.mediafire.com/?mvmhs94ja9x

A companion piece to the luminous Workingman's Dead, American Beauty is an even stronger document of the Grateful Dead's return to their musical roots. Sporting a more full-bodied and intricate sound than its predecessor thanks to the addition of subtle electric textures, the record is also more representative of the group as a collective unit, allowing for stunning contributions from Phil Lesh (the poignant opener, "Box of Rain") and Bob Weir ("Sugar Magnolia"); at the top of his game as well is Jerry Garcia, who delivers the superb "Friend of the Devil," "Candyman," and "Ripple." Climaxing with the perennial "Truckin'," American Beauty remains the Dead's studio masterpiece -- never again would they be so musically focused or so emotionally direct.

Enjoy the new Fucked Up album, Dance your ass off to !!!, be wierded out by Can and mellow out to one of the best albums you will every in American Beauty

[Kat]

Alina Simone - Placelessness 2007

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/download.php?jimsxnw4ijo

Alina Simone's debut LP placelessness, released this August (2007), plays partly like a disquieting recountance of people, circumstance and actions that could perhaps have been and gone better but are being related precisely because they did not and partly like endearments and yearnings that fall under the same unsettled skies. The music is an edgy brand of sparse rock and would-be folk with blues undercurrents that combine to form a unique and cohesive flavor with a surreal bite. Throw Simone's voice into the mix, reminiscent of Tracy Marcellino[1] and Björk[2] with an added signature "wail" that dispels any and all doubt of conviction, and the results are positively hypnotic.

[timmykillah]

Everyone had better get that Can - Tago Mago album

heres Envy - A Dead Sinking Story sorry if it was already posted

It's their best album

Code: [Select]

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?glxnheyincg

[sean]

Really if you haven't heard that Envy album by now you really do owe it to yourself to drop whatever you are doing and listen to it right goddamn now.

[DMart]

The Datsuns - S/T

Never mind the garage punk, here comes the cock rock revival in the form of New Zealand's Datsuns and their alternately righteous and ridiculous self-titled debut. While the group has been associated with the Strokes, the Hives, and the White Stripes, this isn't exactly accurate — though the Datsuns are very much a "return to rock," the rock they return to, and how they return to it, is considerably different. While the other bands mix mid-'60s mod and garage rock with late-'70s punk (as well as other influences), the Datsuns re-create the sound of a beer- and weed-fueled Saturday night in 1973, borrowing and blending the revving guitar riffs and choked, macho vocals of Thin Lizzy, Bad Company, .38 Special, and on occasion, the hornier side of Led Zeppelin. Unabashedly heavy and silly at the same time, the band approaches the excesses of '70s rock in a relatively straightforward fashion, as compared to overtly stylized acts like Urge Overkill or Spinal Tap's outright parody. Ultimately, the Datsuns' take may be the most contrived out of all of these, since they replicate the details of the music so slavishly. From the phased vocals on "MF From Hell" to the Deep Purple-esque organ that introduces "In Love" to the omnipresent cowbells, The Datsuns provides a nearly exact replica of a generically entertaining, early-'70s hard rock album. At their best, as on the opener, "Sittin' Pretty," and the wonderfully stupid "Harmonic Generator," the Datsuns rise above their influences and produce some undeniably fun rock, but too often the album falls prey to the indulgences that sank the bands who inspired them. In particular, the second half features too many squealing guitars and vocals and not enough memorable hooks. Though their melodic sensibilities desert them by the end of the album, on their debut the Datsuns prove that they can craft vintage-sounding hard rock like no one else. Whether or not that's a good thing is debatable, but The Datsuns does feature more worthwhile songs than some of the band's inspirations managed in an entire career.

Code: [Select]

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?mvegizgsz14
It's a fucking fun little album.

[medicatesleep]

Dude I am diggin on this Fucked Up album HARD.

Thank you sir!

[Scarychips]

The second Final Fantasy EP leaked.

Plays to Please -- Final Fantasy

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http://www.mediafire.com/?hniznpkwroy
It consists of six covers of Alex Lukashevsky's songs, big-band style.

Again, I love Owen Pallett.

[squawk]

yaaaaay!

[KvP]

Alias - Resurgam

On his first solo instrumental album in five years, Alias takes Boards Of Canada's gorgeous forays into the ambient unknown and splits them across his drum kit. The comparison to the electro-gaze godfathers is inevitable—Resurgam is brimming with glacial, lucent, keys-driven beauty—but the Anticon soundscape designer holds his own among such strong company. Perhaps owing to his days as an MC (alone and as part of seminal art-rap crew Deep Puddle Dynamics), Alias has an impeccable ear for rhythm, and he complements all that pretty, crystalline sprawl with a whole lot of surging, sharp angles via his own chopped-up live drumming. "Death Watch" alternately soothes and swells like The Books gone dubstep, "Justamachine" is a dark epic defined by its percussive punches, and when Why? songbird Yoni Wolf stops by to lend falsettos, Rhodes, and raps to "Well Water Black," he appears as another instrument in the mix, alongside Alias' own guitar, melodica, voice (always without words), and 10 types of keyboards. It makes sense that this is the album that follows the artist's exodus from Oakland back to his quiet hometown in southern Maine—for all of its beat-fueled bluster, Resurgam is best played on a slow snow day right after the storm lets up and the sun begins to pierce the clouds.

A.V. Club Rating: A-

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?sharekey=47c453a6407ae91ed2db6fb9a8902bda
I met Alias when he was opening for Sage Francis a year or so ago. He manned the merch booth, and we talked about 13 & God and Boards of Canada the Notwist. He was a real stand-up guy, gave me an EP he was selling for free, all smiles and laughs. I didn't even know he was an artist until he took the stage later on. He's really good live, and I've been looking forward to this album for awhile. Check it out.

[ex_penumbrae]

Michael Finnissy - English Country Tunes
[aac | 320kbps | 99.79Mb]

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http://www.mediafire.com/?whl9e58c7ut
The classic original recording by the composer himself. i remember him once stating how the title should be thought of as "English Cunt Re-tunes"...! Enjoy.

[valley_parade]

I just liked the name. I have an eternal hard-on for suffixing exclamation points onto the word 'Oh', because it can make basically anything sound like it's a Broadway musical.

'OH! Colossus'
'OH! Snow Crash'
'OH! She's Pregnant'
'OH! Misogyny'

Well then. Let's try this.

The Lawrence Arms - Oh! Calcutta!

Oh! Calcutta! is the fifth studio album from some of Chicago's finest punk rockers, the Lawrence Arms. Always ones for consistency, the album falls easily into the ranks of other releases from the raucous trio; it's a blazing dose of gritty, energetic punk rock with enough attitude to spare through Chris and Brendan's trademark duel vocal assault, which actually trades off more within each song this time than each having their own tracks. Brash, desperate emotion spills over each song with the raw air of being on the verge of breakdown, but it's that same passion that manages to hold everything together seamlessly song after song. Though the album mostly contains these frenzied up-and-down rockers, each incendiary song distinguishes itself through rousing choruses and empowered lyrics that speak of leaving the past -- whether good or bad -- behind. The stylish "The Devil's Takin' Names" contains sweetly pathetic lines like "You've got those moves and those eyes/I've got these shakes and bad breath." And though one might cringe at the opening Dead or Alive-esque sentiments of "Like a Record Player" ("I'm like a record player/I keep going round"), the song soon launches into a sentimental ode to friendship and the road. Don't forget to also stick around for the folksy hidden track soon after the last song's end for a little insight into festivals like the Warped Tour via the Lawrence Arms. Plain and simple, Oh! Calcutta! is more of what fans of the group have come to expect from the guys. Every spin is like a freakin' party. On the one hand, it's good to see the Arms haven't lost any of the vigor that's made them so engaging over the years. On the flip side, however, the album unfortunately probably won't garner the guys any more attention than past efforts received, thus retaining their place as one of the most overlooked bands in today's punk scene. But hey, when the band and its fans seem most comfortable playing and drinking together in the sweaty dive bars across the world anyway, you can just look at it as everyone else's loss.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=599801404b670b25d2db6fb9a8902bda

[bbqrocks]

Damn...No time to download awesome stuff. Thanks again hodges and penumbrae.

[Dimmukane]

I should also add that I did enjoy the Oh! Colossus quite a bit.  If I had a working turntable, I would buy the LP, even.

[blashco]

Here is a nice little indie band, Sound Team

I have uploaded two of their albums (well, one album and one EP)

Review from allmusicguide

The Austin sextet Sound Team are quite adept at hijacking various indie rock and pop sounds of the last few years and sometimes even further back. From Sonic Youth, the New Pornographers, Spoon, and Interpol to Silver Apples, Can, and shoegazers like Ride, they cover a lot of bases in 11 tracks. Most bands that sound like a chopped and blended soup of influences fail because they have no songwriting skills or nothing of their own to contribute, but Sound Team succeed because they have large amounts of both of those things. Songs like the Vancouver-poppy "No More Birthdays," the hazy "Afterglow Years," and the trance-punk jam "Handful of Billions" have hooks big enough to render influences irrelevant. Even the songs that aren't immediately imprinted on your brain prove to be nothing less than entertaining due to the amount of energy the bandmembers put into their performances -- especially the vocals, which range from impassioned to totally impassioned. You may be put off by their bland name and lack of image, but to pass them by would mean denying yourself some fine major-label indie rock.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?3pnugciivyt

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?hjwyzputuno

[windinthewires]

Patti Smith - Horses

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/download.php?7yjmaatmpxk

[gardenhead_]

Entanglements -- The Parenthetical Girls

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?0cln2mslqfn

First with the leaked Final Fantasy EPs, now with new P Girls. What could you post next that would continue this streak of greatness?

Basically: thankyou!

[Scandanavian War Machine]

Ennio Morricone - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly OST

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?kgydnfptehl

fucking awesome.

[Eris]

I uploaded this for fatty, so I figured I might as well share. I think I put it up ages ago, but that was the old part of the thread which has subsequently disappeared.

TZU - Snarling at Strangers

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http://www.mediafire.com/?t2jlo0jptjd
Aussie hip hop, it's a two disc edition of Smiling at Strangers, the album before their recent release, Computer Love. Hip Hop, a bit political, mostly fun dancey stuff. download it; listen to it. Maybe enjoy it?

[Scarychips]

Many Lives -> 49 MP single

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http://www.mediafire.com/?uew7asezoxtIncludes two new tracks and a re-arrangement of "The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead".

Young Canadian Mothers

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http://www.mediafire.com/?ml9gm9wilvnIncludes a Joanna Newsom cover, a new song and two re-arrangements. One for "This is the Dream of Win and Régine" and one for "The Sea.

Tomlab Alphabet Series: X

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http://www.mediafire.com/?ml9gm9wilvnTwo previously unreleased songs recorded with Beirut's help.

[gardenhead_]

You posted the Young Canadian Mothers link again for the Tomlab Alphabet Series!

Deerhoof - Green Cosmos EP

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?kazjzllogyt

Edan - Beauty and the Beat

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http://www.mediafire.com/?9xoy13054wm
one of my favourite hip-hop albums

[KurtMcAllister]

Hey guys I uploaded this for a friend, and I figured I might as well put it here because it is fucking delicious

Radio Soulwax Live - Get Yer Yo Yo's Out! Pt.3

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http://www.sendspace.com/file/jrtgld
For reference sake, this is the one that starts with YMCA by the Village People, and it just gets off the hook from there. It's probably my favourite of all the Radio Soulwax sets, if just for the first three tracks alone, including the Soulwax remix of Get Innocuous which is awesome

Hey, any chance for a re-up? I've been looking for that LCD Soundsystem remix all over, and wouldn't mind getting the rest of it either. Also, so this isn't a content-less post, I give you:

(Jesus, I cannot get that picture any bigger. Sorry!)

The Deadly Syndrome-The Ortolan

"Deadly's arrangements never cease to amaze ...his themes are often obtuse, his lyrics quite cryptic and oftentimes surreal, but never less than fascinating. All told, a stunning debut, leaving one to wonder where the band can possibly go from here.
4.5 out 5 stars."

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http://www.med!afire.com/download.php?jcq5tn9bnzwI think you'll like this one.

[ex_penumbrae]

James Dillon - The Book of Elements (2 CD)
[aac | 320kbps]

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http://www.mediafire.com/?aljhmtysnyn
http://www.mediafire.com/?ap3l24odesr
A fascinating & very engaging epic from one of Britain's few remaining interesting composers. This is the first complete recording, including all 5 volumes. Tuck in.

[ex_penumbrae]

Thanks for this post Mr Hodges!  i've only just grasped that you're Nick Hodges father - funnily enough, i'll be contacting him soon about a new piano piece of mine. i'm actually a composer, one of the 20 or so selected for the new SPNM shortlist, so i'm hopeful he might be interested in playing my new piece.

& thanks again for this - it'll be interesting to hear a different interpretation. Has Nick played the whole cycle?

[rynne]

As promised:

Solex - Solex vs. the Hitmeister

Solex, a.k.a Dutch record-shop owner Elisabeth Esselink, creates a pure, offbeat musical world on the 1998 debut, Solex Vs. the Hitmeister. All of the songs contain the band's name; Esselink delivers her English-sung vocals with dreamlike, rhythmic phrasing; and the album's cavernous production makes it sound as though it were recorded deep inside her head -- it all adds up to an abstract, alien collection of songs that owes very little to electronica or indie-rock as the outside world knows it. Instead, each song on Hitmeister flows to its own musical logic, built on samples of discounted, long-forgotten records and Esselink's expressive, sweetly foreign voice, supported here and there by touches of guitar and keyboards. "When Solex Just Stood There" suggests industrial dance with its relentless beat, one-note vocals and screeching sound effects, while "Solex All Licketysplit" bounds around the room on a rubbery bassline and sparkly keyboards. "Some Solex" marries a somewhat ominous bass drum to a warm guitar line, while spaceship sound effects hover in the background. "One Louder Solex" and "Solex in a Slipshod Style" have a fluid, stream-of-consciousness style that recalls daydreams, adding to Hitmeister's overall surreal quality. A completely unique combination of beats, samples and voice, Solex is insular and inventive, revealing an artist with a very personal kind of creativity.

Code: [Select]

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?qpvzenz0pqd

[gardenhead_]

Fantastic! Thanks a bunch!

[GMM]

You posted the Young Canadian Mothers link again for the Tomlab Alphabet Series!

You did. Couldyou fix that? Otherwise: Thank you SO much for all that FF non-album stuff. Awesome of you.

[Catacombs]

So thanks to whoever posted that Datsons album, its great.  Also, i'm really enjoying the new Mogwai disc.

[DMart]

José González - Australian Tour EP

The Australian tour EP might lead you to assume that these tracks are recorded live in Australia but it's not the case. It simply serves as an introduction to his potential new fans as he tours our country for the first time.Perhaps this explains the inclusion of his cover of 'Hand On Your Heart'- the Stock/Aiken/Waterman hit originally sung by Kylie Minogue. I can't think of any other reason to cover it, especially so earnestly and without a hint of humour. The EP begins with another cover- Joy Divisions' 'Love will tear us apart'. The guitar strums away energetically enough, but Jose sings it in a pretty flat and strained manner. The lack of keyboard seems to deflate it as well.

'Suggestions'- the second track, begins to highlight José's' skill as a guitarist. It's a very pleasant, well-articulated instrumental piece. The title aptly describes the questioning quality of the phrases. 'Down The Hillside' is a more lively and upbeat number with nice light percussion and a more relaxed sounding vocal. Jose sounds more at home with this folksy, colourful number. The guitar in 'Sensing Owls' is more static with a repetitive phrase driven along by the light but energetic percussion. Next comes the aforementioned 'Hand On Your Heart'. It's pretty unrecognisable at first. You just start to realise that the lyrics are silly and then recognition strikes. If he was attempting to bring out the inherent beauty in the song with his beautiful guitar and super earnest vocals it's fruitless. Some may say he was polishing a turd.

Track number six is an instrumental imaginatively titled 'instr.'.
Insistent strumming builds tension and alternates with a bar or five of brass, repeat and repeat again…would have been really nice to have a meatier melody or a change somewhere here. The track ends with muffled voices and birdsong that goes on for longer than it needs to. 'Storm' is a moodier track as the title suggests. It's very Nick Drake and although it suits José's' voice really well it just reminds you of something that someone else did better. The final track is the 'Rocket Boy' remix of the Swedish hit 'Heartbeats'. This one will have you asking yourself- "Am I in a disco with John Denver"? Despite that, it's nice to hear Jose sounding a bit funkier and more playful, even with the nasty retro styling.

The Australian Tour EP possibly is not the best showcase for Jose Gonzalez. It's pleasant and innocuous but does reveal some potential. It would be good to hear more original material. His second album is in the works and should be worth a listen.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?az2cf7xiswy

So thanks to whoever posted that Datsons album, its great.  Also, i'm really enjoying the new Mogwai disc.

No trouble - if you liked that, check out the Rocket Science album I posted a while back - not many people seem to have taken the opportunity to download it...

[wespeakinmidi]

weird i was going to upload in our nature.  jose gonzalez is a great listen!

[tigrar]

New Stars EP. Pretty good so far.

Stars- Sad Robots EP

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?20yz0oobifh

[PECOAE]

Robert Fripp & Brian Eno - Evening Star

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?yoc2qsmnmbg

This is so FUCKING AMAZING!

Does anybody have anymore of their collaborations?  Or Ambient 2 onwards?

[GMM]

New Stars EP. Pretty good so far.

Stars- Sad Robots EP

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?20yz0oobifh

I really, really like that EP. A lot. I will be purchasing the CD version.

[TheFuriousWombat]

Agreed. It's excellent!

[gardenhead_]

Low - Things We Lost In The Fire

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http://www.mediafire.com/?syxtbybtzax

[Oqtober]

Townes Van Zandt - S/T

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?ietr0t3micz
Townes Van Zandt - Our Mother The Mountain

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?ljaxhymt0td
Castle Crashers: The Unofficial Soundtrack

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?jrybalvjz2h

[Bacon Machine]

Since I've been piking a large amount of music I felt it was only right for me to contribute.

Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?ybzamloya3w

[nufan]

Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires

Wow, cool, a band from my hometown in England. Not only that, they are pretty damn good as well.

[imagist42]

Oh man guys, that album is all kinds of great. Everyone should get it right now.

[screamingfool]

here is arthur russell's 'world of echo' it's a gorgeous album somewhere between elliot smith, nick drake and carla kihlstedt.

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www.mediafire.com/download.php?dkjusx9svir

[theoryC]

Thanks for that Arthur Russell, it is quite fine.

As is the Stars EP.

[yipinglim]

Mr Lif - I Phantom



AMG Review

Mr. Lif, the hardworking Bostonian MC, drops a debut LP that playfully discloses in lyrical fashion his inner battle of whether or not to return to his nine-to-five job, but the long-overdue record practically guarantees he'll no longer need the day job. One of the working-class heroes signed to hip-hop indie Definitive Jux, Liffy enjoyed a busy 2002, releasing the Emergency Rations EP and appearing on several releases from the Jux camp. I Phantom is slightly less politically aggressive than the EP in overall aesthetic, with blue-collar rhymes over hype, funky tracks with great production by Fakts One, DJ Hype, Edan, and Lif himself. The guest appearances on the mic by Akrobatik, a fellow fledgling Bostonion, Edan, Aesop Rock, El-P, and Jean Grae make all the tracks quality and seal the deal on Lif's breakthrough set.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?qaf2onj4n5i
Mr Lif - Mo Mega



AMG Review

Like 2002's I Phantom, Mo' Mega has a concept behind it, but unlike I Phantom, there's no board-game-style liner notes to follow along as Mr. Lif excavates the musings of his mind on culture and politics. What Mo' Mega does have is Lif's brief statement that the album concerns the intersection of lower-class culture with an increasingly modernizing world, and how the latter is adversely affecting the former. Lif scores hits on dozens of targets, both specific (the President, the FCC, the United Nations, McDonald's) and non-specific (the Feds in general, the global community as a whole, materialism, TV, and, it seems, anyone in a position of authority). Laden with caustic commentary, his tracks are lyrically obtuse but rhythmically effective, and with the weight of eight hard-hitting El-P productions behind him, listeners won't mind taking a couple of spins to digest everything he says. And Lif's own productions, for a pair of comedy tracks ("Murs Iz My Manager," "Washitup!") that appear halfway through the program, are just the icebreakers needed to leaven the funky gloom and doom earlier in the record. At the close of Mo' Mega, Lif looks inward. First he questions his father's abandonment of him ("It's pain like this that makes a grown man crawl"), then he wraps up the record, ironically, with a tribute to his child that was written on the road ("I'm on the highway in Montana and it's 7:42/And Daddy wrote a rhyme just for you"). With political tracks and comedy and confessionals, Lif easily covers more ground than virtually any other rapper on record, and he makes his tracks entertaining, but he occasionally falls prey to a common trap -- educating the listeners but not enlightening them.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?iflnhiazmfl

[McTaggart]

This is rapidly becoming my favourite pop album of the year. There is not a song on it that I do not really enjoy. 12 songs about being young but getting to that age where you're not really so young any more. I can't find a nice succinct review and I don't have it in me to write one, so here are two youtube links for if you want to know what you're downloading: Two Doors Down, Young Love. Favourite songs from the album or favourite songs from the year? I'm really not sure.

Mystery Jets - 21

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http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?pwsxuydfmaw
http://www.mediafire.com/file/pwsxuydfmaw/Mystery Jets.rar

[gardenhead_]

the new TV On the Radio album leaked. It's called Dear Science, and it is not too bad.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?mwcwz091jbv

[Daft pun]

I can't find a nice succinct review and I don't have it in me to write one

OK, so this one isn't succinct, but it does do the record justice AKA it's nice.

The story of Twenty One is a tale you’ll hear spun countless times over the next fortnight or so, as press focus comes to fall on Mystery Jets. You may be familiar with it already, in fact, if you’d read the interviews carried in the free London dailies or in the music ‘press’; or even online, perhaps in the shape of this interview DrownedinSound ran with the band last week. The story of Twenty One runs thus, then – a young quartet of musicians plug away for years in a practice space on Eel Pie Island, West London, under the tutelage of one Henry Harrison. Father of lead vocalist, guitar and keys player Blaine, Harrison oversees the musical development of the band, feeding them up with early Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and “loads of prog stuff” while performing and writing with the act on their first forays around the local live circuit.

Those forays begin to attract attention when a clutch of local, South or Southwest London acts – among them Jamie T, Larrikin Love, Laura Marling, Good Shoes and The Maccabees – begin filling bills that offer a refreshing counterpoint to the stultifying, tack-heavy smog of the clublands out over east in Shoreditch and Hoxton. A nascent scene is documented and built up, focused around the Stripes Bar in Brentford and Mystery Jets’ Eel Pie and the Harrisons, as well as Kai Fish, Will Rees and Kapil Trivedi, are in the band seen as leaders of something people will call, for a few weeks, the ‘Thamesbeat scene’. However, their debut album arrives somewhat belatedly and is eclipsed by the efforts of Jamie T and Marling and The Maccabees. Band tries hand in the US, a Henry Harrison approaching 60 retires from tour duties and all’s fairly quiet for several months as the band go back to the drawing board.

Once there, they find local man-about-town and esteemed DJ Erol Alkan, who takes over production duties for the second album and coaxes pop from a band with skills hardened during their time studying “loads of prog stuff” but re-invigorated by a new sense of youthful abandon and independence. The result is a modern pop masterpiece.

All of which is almost true – Mystery Jets’ new album is certainly a fantastic record bursting with life and colour and personality, reaching out towards the listener in slugs of moody bass and dazzling, club-drugged synth lines. But, on reflection, perhaps the hailing of Twenty One as a masterpiece does a disservice to its creators. This is an album as much about the growth of a band, and the process by which the record got here, blasting joyously from speakers, as it is about the songs contained therein – that’s why it felt necessary to include the longwinding introduction. It does have its flaws – in among its twelve tracks (eleven listed, one secret) lurks a dud; ‘Hand Me Down’ perhaps better for the B-side, though it’d grace lesser albums than this, doubtless.

The main concern with heralding this as Mystery Jets’ masterpiece is the classicism inherent in such a statement – you don’t want to constrict the sense of action and adventure that riddles the record, don’t want to date it and submit it to the archives before it’s had a chance to enjoy the moment that it exists in and is so well-suited to. Twenty One is the sound of guitar music finding its place in London in 2008 but doesn’t take itself too seriously to think that’ll last the summer, past whoever and whatever comes along next. Thankfully, the quartet’s past should see them avoid the pitfalls of zeitgeist convention they’ve managed to confound so far.

Musically, this raids the ‘80s for the only thing left worth taking, tracks like ‘Two Doors Down’ recalling the tableau vivant pop of ABC, while those flaring synth lines, presumably devised by Alkan, fire across the top of the mix in the same way that Antibalas’ horns added much-needed colour to the Foals record. That track is Twenty One’s discoball hero, building through levels of Smiths-y guitar surf before erupting into a bewildering chorus, sounding like Whitney Houston’s ‘I Want to Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)’ as sung by Squeeze or The Kinks. It is ridiculously good.

Elsewhere, free Christmas single ‘Flakes’ provides a more downbeaten glory, rising into yet another chorus whose altitude sets it on collision course with the best moments from the The La’s, ‘Umbrellahead’ sounds like The Walkmen and ‘Veiled in Grey’ brings to mind a band intent on writing their own funeral song, upbeat and, once again, heroic, but without the usual earnest eye-screwing that usually entails. Twenty One revels in fun found in the cobwebbed corners of Alkan’s mix and the nightlifing minds of its lyricists.

But, typically, you get the impression the band weren’t scribbling those lyrics on old bar receipts while they were actually out enjoying themselves. There’s a clarity to the words that can only be found in the hungover hours surrounding noon on a Saturday or Sunday, verses like “I knew that you were thinking of him last night / ‘Cause I saw the blood seep down to your toes / Turn away if you must / But how can you put your trust / In a man who always sleeps in his clothes” thrilling as they unravel in their easy, unlaboured delivery. It’s an ease that suits Mystery Jets as well as their music, and, finally, I can come to reject the term ‘masterpiece’ as the natural growth of this band promises to propel them on and up, into dizzy and deserved, ever-fresher stratospheres.

[Catacombs]

the new TV On the Radio album leaked. It's called Dear Science, and it is not too bad.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?mwcwz091jbv

I can't believe someone is just upped this.  Like two days ago i got back in to their second Return from Cookie Mountain and thought "this came out a few years ago, i wonder what they are up to" so i wikipedia'd it and it said this album was coming out in a few weeks.

Long story short, thanks!

[imapiratearg]

McTaggart, every time I try that link, it brings me to the mediafire homepage and I am really disappointed because I am totally digging the YouTube links.

[McTaggart]

Ok, that was odd. I've edited the post and now there are two different addresses for the same page, both of which work for me. Hope that's fixed it.

[imapiratearg]

Yay!  Thanks!

[marty_jannetty]

Big Leak

Kings of Leon-Only by the Night

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http://www.mediafire.com/?hhxnnhknxyh

[Oqtober]

Re-Ups:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - B.R.M.C

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?qlfvtwjxqyl
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?4ybonxts2bi
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?u4m12qd0m0z
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl Sessions

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?x2zqdyciqet
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Take Them On, On Your Own

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?ztx9tgskbdw
This is all in 7Z if that's ok.

That Friendly Fire album is really good. Thanks.