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[JD]

Maybe it's the band just being nice.

[ThePianoMan]

My University newspaper (which I’m banned from writing for, long story)

Having a bit of experience with shitty campus newspapers, I'd love to hear this.

[KvP]

Campus papers are The Worst.

Anyway, Swans megapost keeps getting pushed back due to school and the constant accumulation of more more more music. This is stupid.

[k.nol.edge]

Trap Them - Darker Handcraft

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http://www.M/F.com/?9ek94fvf4ywykf5FFO: Entombed, Converge, His Hero Is Gone, etc.

This band has yet to release a bad record, so if you're into hardcore or metal and the bands I mentioned, definitely check this one out.

This is an amazing records by some amazing dudes, They are just about to kick off a pretty expansive tour with some equally awesome dudes. i.e...

The Red Chord - Clients

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http://www.M/F.com/?hmnhly1hq1db1g9
Gaza - He Is Never Coming Back

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http://www.M/F.com/?kukjnwyzzed
Tour Info:
http://www.wecraftindarkness.com/2011/02/021111lets-fucking-die.html

[TheClickOfALight]

My University newspaper (which I’m banned from writing for, long story)

Having a bit of experience with shitty campus newspapers, I'd love to hear this.

I'd written for the paper for three years - one of my best mates was Music Editor, another mate was full Editor, all was good. We all left Uni, I took a year out, and then went back to Uni to do a postgrad. Went to the initial meeting and the ideas/vision they had were ridiculously stupid - ideas included a weekly feature in the 'Comments' section (which should/could be hard-hitting journalism right?) about which is better, City A or City B?, the two cities being the other side of a river from each other, and our Uni being in City A. This shit EVERY FUCKING WEEK! So I slagged them off on Facebook - well, I only called them douchebags, nothing major - got found out, and then the witch-hunt began. So, so, SOOO many e-mails from the new editor & loads of section editors criticisng me & banning me from EVERY INDIVIDUAL section of the paper. So I said 'meh' and moved on with my life and wrote for other local independent magazines etc., I'm content because most of the student body thinks the paper this year is one of the worst for a good few years - EVERY issue includes some kind of apology for insulting a group of people in the previous issue, and content highlights for what used to be a great, serious paper include a weekly blind date between the poshest, richest, douchiest kids at Uni, one article was called 'Ladies: how to jazz up your vay-jay-jay' (actual headline), and a music section which thinks The Tallest Man on Earth is new on the scene. Shudder.

[kwami42]

As a gift to all you fine people, here's a partial Scott Walker solo discography!

Scott Walker was originally a member of the 60s pop group The Walker Brothers, who are themselves an interesting counterpoint to the British Invasion bands (an American band that hit it big in Europe).  Scott 1-4 are great 60s pop, gradually including fewer covers (although his covers are great) and more of Walker's own writing.  The public tended to shy away from his stuff around Scott 3 because of the experimental tendencies.  Since that quartet of records, Walker has become somewhat of a recluse and also a very sporadic recorder, having only released three records since 1984.  His latest two, Tilt and The Drift, are chilling, and at times downright terrifying, works of art that are very exploratory and very avant-garde.  Hope you enjoy!  (If you like this stuff, David Bowie produced a very good documentary on Walker that I also recommend.)

Scott (1967)

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http://www.M/F.com/?4l01d4xanw22sxs
Scott 2 (1968)

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http://www.M/F.com/?8338alm48gp97fk
Scott 3 (1969)

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http://www.M/F.com/?i2l3s6x7wc1xcij
Scott 4 (1969)

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http://www.M/F.com/?98og4odrpkgt58a
Climate of Hunter (1984)

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http://www.M/F.com/?zjog3pkphk9ppzp
Tilt (1995)

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http://www.M/F.com/?u2g85z3p9ll5dp3
The Drift (2006)

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http://www.M/F.com/?l4d7pxhvih8373v

[TheClickOfALight]

J-Zone – Ign’ant Ass Rap Mix (2005)



The most offensive hip hop collected together for your listening pleasure. Personal lyrical highlights for me include:

You’ve got more crabs than a seafood platter.

and

I may be a woman beater but I’m not a pussy eater.

Bliss.

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http://www.M/F.com/?yrzyjeoniym

[JD]

More offensive than odd future?

[youthcant]

more offensive than said underage ODD FUTURE WOLF GANG KILL THEM ALL?
 

[David_Dovey]

I'm not sure who you're talking about, but I think you might be referring to Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All Don’t Give A Fuck Litter Life Bacon Boys Loiter Squad Butt Fuck Bitch Niggas

[Vuk]

That Trap Them record is really good, but I can't decide if I like it more than Seizures in Barren Praise and Seance Prime. Chris Maggio's drumming is insane on it, but I feel like Mike Justian was more groovy and well-suited to Seizures. He was so good on the last 108 record too.

[yop]

Moritz von oswald trio - Horizontal Structures

Following the almost unanimous praise for their previous studio masterpiece, Moritz Von Oswald (Maurizio/Rhythm & Sound), Max Loderbauer (Nsi./Sun Electric) and Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay) present 'Horizontal Structures', the jazz-suave and rolling x-axis to the kosmische y of 'Vertical Ascent'. The curve of their projections becomes more complex with the addition of Paul St. Hilaire (aka Tikiman) on guitar and ECM artist, Marc Muellbauer's double bass infusing deeply instinctive jazz moves into the cats-cradle of organ, percussion and electronics. There's a more leveled spirit and cruising groove to this album, their deft interactions creating a deeply engrained blue moodiness and playful efficacy whose potential is beautifully rendered in Moritz's mixing desk. As the elements begin to fuse like condensed gas particles in the bell jar sphere of 'Structure One' its clear to hear the group's evolution as the groove subliminally coalesces with a looseness that wasn't there before, Tiki's Afro-lilting guitar swirling about like fragrant hashish smoke and Muellbauer's eyes-shut bass adding daubs of melodic colouration. 'Structure 2' is more urgent and soundtrack-y, melody stripped back while the rhythm section ripples away with infinite Krautrock essence, before 'Structure 3' reintroduces the dub with moonboot skank rhythm hinging on crisp snare punctuations and offset chords in the dreamiest headspace. The 20 minute 'Structure 4' is perhaps the craftiest, Moritz the mixing board illusionist deftly weaving the acoustic and electronic, the synthetic and the real with a sleight of hand that makes this music at once electro-acoustic jazz and dub concrète, yet with the fundamental grace and glide of deep techno. Highly recommended!

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http://www.m/f.com/?75m5drml60c7cbs
Quantec - Imaginary Flight

**Transparent Vinyl**Four tracks of plush Dub House on handstamped transparent vinyl. We could have sworn Quantec had released on MoM before, but aside from his Aaron Carl remix this is his 1st solo 12" for the label. No major change to his style, just thick, dreamy House rhythms rendered in spacious, minimalist dub style. Ace.**Transparent Vinyl**Four tracks of plush Dub House on handstamped transparent vinyl. We could have sworn Quantec had released on MoM before, but aside from his Aaron Carl remix this is his 1st solo 12" for the label. No major change to his style, just thick, dreamy House rhythms rendered in spacious, minimalist dub style. Ace.

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http://www.m/f.com/?hon1m7s89xixjtq

[TheClickOfALight]

Yo! Majesty – Futuristically Speaking...Never Be Afraid (2008)



The rappers on this album are two big black Southern Christian lesbians. Their live shows are manic - sharing three microphones for the two of them, they often rap topless - and their after-shows are even better; me and a friend crashed the backstage, and were rewarded with some beer and a litre of vodka. Nice. So, which bad-asses have they got to produce their fantastic debut album? Yep, two nerdy middle-aged English white guys. A stroke of utter brilliance.

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http://www.M/F.com/?02m1oetnniv

[trr005]

That's something I can't wait to get off of work and download.  You've got me on board.

[ALoveSupreme]

My friend and I wanted to start a Rocky themed band called Yo! Adrian a few years ago.  We heard about this group but still wanted to do it.  But it turned out we were too lazy.

[KvP]

D5 - Neutrino EP

Really thick, deep dubby techno that gradually builds into more melody-focused music. Pretty great dancefloor stuff.

D5, the artist formely known as Dimension 5, returns to the label where he started. Deep smooth funk is the order of the day in a classic Detroit fashion, with hints of Luciano and Aril Brikha thrown into the mix. Class.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?dmekkfgch3qylyd


Marco Passarani - Colliding Stars Vol. 2

More jacking house from Passarini after his expansive Colliding Stars Vol. 1[/b]. For extended dancefloor sessions. The title track is particularly good.

Fine-tuned and cruising motorhythmic House from Marco Passarani. The 2nd part of his 'Colliding Stars' session for Running Back features the outstanding 'White Dwarf', a mid-tempo, subtly building and engrossing jacker with learned flourishes of Detroit synth and the kinkiest Italo/Chicago essence. Its 'Black Dwarf' counterpart on the flip is a more condensed and cooled version. 'Colliding Stars Pt.2' completes the groove on a superlative discoid House tip. Strong.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?5f5bx58nrmfmb4z


Benny Tones - Chrysalis (feat. Sacha Vee)

Lurching jazz-influenced beat music, very similar to recent Floating Points Ensemble and Bonobo stuff.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?n8f8nck9bk2qcy9

[42manZ]

The most offensive hip hop collected together for your listening pleasure.

More offensive than Vanilla Ice?

[dustnation]

The History of the House Sound of Chicago (320kbps)

Vol. 01: The Tracks That Built The House (1978-1985)
Vol. 02: The Tracks That Built The House (1977-1982)
Vol. 03: D.J. International — The Early Years (1985-1988)
Vol. 04: The D.J. Underground Tracks (1985-1987)
Vol. 05: D.J. International Classics (1988)
Vol. 06: Trax Classix (1988)
Vol. 07: The Chicago Independents (1986-1987)
Vol. 08: The Anglo-American House (1985-1987)
Vol. 09: The Anglo-American House (1988)
Vol. 10: The Lost Tracks (1985-1988)
Vol. 11: The House Remixes (1983-1988)
Vol. 12: International House — The Future (1988)
Vol. 13: Pop Goes The House (1988)
Vol. 14: The Acieed Trax (1987-1988)
Vol. 15: The Future — Deep House And More (1987-1988)

1.94 GB

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For downloading ease, I've created DLC files. If you don't know, google jdownloader.

MU DLC http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8L7TGCM0
MF DLC: http://www.M/F.com/?lnow612rhgvycyx

And if that's too much of a convenience, you can download a text file of the links:

MU: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K543BOMD
MF: http://www.M/F.com/?d6bakq7ky69ng81

@JD, below: There are lots of ways to block ads nowadays, so I never noticed them. JDownloader's a great program.

Ok, this hasn't gotten the recognition it deserves. It is SICK good. SICK. Thank you for posting it, my life has a new meaning since I got it.

[Orcusmars]

More offensive than Vanilla Ice?

http://www.gifsoup.com/imager.php?id=1035337&t=o
Excuse me, what?

(4.2MB Gif changed to link for sanity.)

[TheClickOfALight]

Raekwon - Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang (2011)



Peep it!

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http://www.M/F.com/?yy8bn543yo6d2dc

[large/marge]

The Dodos - No Color (2011)

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http://www.m/fer.com/?dssidtuqkgicbr4
ahhh been waiting some time for this beaut. its just as amazing as you'd expect it. enjoy!

[KvP]

Okay, time for Swans. The always-dubious Sascha Frere-Jones called them "The ultimate all-or-nothing band", but those with any sort of penchant for dark and / or loud music should give them a shot. I don't have the full discog but I have enough to serve as an adequate introduction to the band.

First, text. Swans was (for awhile, and now again) the primary focus of Michael Gira, who grew up in the 60's and 70's in California and Europe, the son of an alcoholic mother and a businessman father who didn't have a relationship with his son that would allow him influence. He dropped out of high school his sophomore year. After being arrested for selling drugs in Jerusalem, he returned to Los Angeles, got his GED, and enrolled in art school, playing in punk bands but aspiring to be a visual artist, meeting a young Kim Gordon. He moved to New York in 1979, played in Glenn Branca's guitar ensemble, started up his first NY band, Circus Mort, and then broke it up to form Swans. As part of the short-lived NY No Wave scene Swans made fast friends with Sonic Youth, and they shared rehearsal space in Gira's apartment and toured together through the south and midwest, with Sonic Youth opening for Swans, who antagonized most of the people who showed up into leaving early (Thurston Moore later said "... we belonged together. Neither of us felt too much affinity toward any other contemporary bands.").

They broke in Europe and the UK press started to hype them as "the loudest band in existence", which perpetually pissed off Gira, up until the point where he cited the band's reputation as a reason for its dissolution in '97. He was also unhappy with the crowds - he disliked people walking out, but he also disliked the increasing numbers of metalheads who would show up to enjoy their music. During European tours he would sometimes have the doors to the venue locked after they started playing.

Gira and Swans were essentially misanthropic, and that came out in their music. It's not exactly metal and it's not really punk - it's certainly very loud and abrasive but there isn't any irony or sneer to the music. They were a humorless, confrontational, very caustic band, with no melodies to speak of (Gira would often strip naked, spit on the audience, bludgeon and throw himself against monitors, etc.) and lyrics inspired by Jean Genet and the Marquis De Sade. The first years of Swans would end up being a formative influence on a lot of extreme noise groups in ensuing decades. The mid-to-late 80's found Swans in more overt industrial mode, very rhythm-focused but still trading in jagged guitar feedback and Gira's bellowing vocals. Around this time, Gira's partner Jarboe joined the band and became an integral member, providing a less aggressive but no less dark element to the band on keys and adding her bluesy Joplin-esque voice to Gira's as co-lead.

In the 90's the band's sound palette considerably expanded, as did the track lengths (reflecting the marathon-length walls of sound of their live show). The music got less abrasive, included recognizable melodies, and Gira began to croon more than he yelled. Folk, drone and electronic influences creeped into their sound, and they essentially started making post-rock years before Godspeed defined the genre. After releasing the double album Soundtracks for the Blind and a double-live album called Swans Are Dead, Gira broke up Swans (as well as, presumably, his relationship with Jarboe). Gira founded Young God, an indie record label through which he first re-released older out-of-print Swans material, and then began breaking NYC-based bands he enjoyed, notably Akron/Family (his favorite band, reportedly) and Devendra Banhart, as well as releasing his own post-Swans project Angels of Light, which was explicitly in the dark folk vein of the Young God catalog (including several collaborative efforts with Akron/Family).

Sometime in the latter half of the 00's, while playing a show on tour with Akron/Family as his backing band, Gira abruptly decided that he needed to start Swans back up. In 2009 he brought together a number of long-time associates (including core member and guitarist Norman Westberg, but notably not Jarboe, who has had a robust solo career and has collaborated with seemingly every single metal band influenced in any way by Swans) most of whom were from the mid-to-late Swans eras and his Angels of Light rolodex and began recording an album. That album, My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope to the Sky, was rapturously received for a "comeback" album, and they've been on tour ever since. I recently saw them in Denver and drank deep of the cult kool-aid at that point.



Swans - Cop / Young God / Greed / Holy Money

I don't have Filth, their debut LP, but I do have Cop / Young God / Greed / Holy Money, which collects the band's output from '84-'86. Cop and Young God, which make up the first disc, are akin to Filth in their feedback-scorched No Wave / sludge / metal sound. "Cop" is a classic (the band also courted some controversy over naming one of their songs "Raping a Slave"). Greed and Holy Money are more in line with the harsh post-industrial genre that was being explored across the pond by Coil and others - there's more use of empty space and a much greater focus on drumming, plus the fateful addition of Jarboe, who contributes Swans' first "quiet" songs. Of the early studio albums, they are my favorite.

Cop / Young God

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http://www.M/F.com/?xumcdckcy3k4dc2Greed / Holy Money

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http://www.M/F.com/?qd62hb8jd9xan4t


Swans - Public Castration Is A Good Idea

This is the official document of the Swans live show circa Holy Money. I don't know if I'd call it "you are there" type stuff, but Gira's explosive intensity is on full display and it's easy to imagine how terrifying it would have been to attend such a show in '86 (though he was plenty intense in 2011). Video of the show was also recorded and released as A Long Slow Screw, some of which is up on youtube. One of the heaviest, darkest things I've ever heard.

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http://www.M/F.com/?645fib8311q6976


Swans - Children Of God

Widely considered to be a "breakthrough", or at least a ligament, between the abrasive heaviness of early Swans and the more adventurous late Swans, and recorded with probably the best Swans lineup - Gira and Jarboe, reliable axeman Norman Westberg, and drummer Ted Parsons, who would go on to drum in a number of highly-regarded metal bands. As an album it's still possessed of a lot of the aggression of the 80's period but more varied in terms of sound and texture. Heavily focused on religion in that classic metal way.

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http://www.M/F.com/?4cbrqjo8z15bwc9


Swans - The Burning World

An anomaly, considered by the band to be a misstep. Swans was a little bit ahead of the curve on the indie music trend of signing to a major label they were clearly not cut out for, and then returning to the indie camp wiser for it. Post-industrial hired gun Bill Laswell was hired for production duties and kind of made a mess of things. It is easily the least "powerful" of the Swans albums. If nothing else, "The River that Runs with Love Won't Run Dry" anticipates Deerhunter a decade and change before they formed. Not really indicative of their sound from any other time, but it's still Swans, Laswell or no.

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http://www.M/F.com/?63yn6vnnrjkrz08


Swans - White Light From the Mouth of Infinity

A great rebound from the (comparitive) low of The Burning World, and the album that really set out the direction for Swans in the 90's - less direct, confrontational rage, more expansive and majestic sounds beyond guitar feedback and metal drum assaults, and Gira's shift into a Johnny Cash-ish crooner ("Better Than You" sort of plants the seeds for the Angels of Light project later on). They never really lost their power, but they found ways not to be staid in a particular place.

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http://www.M/F.com/?t5gss6n5627rb6x

Next came Love of Life, which I don't have!



Swans - Omniscience

The official document of Swans' mid-period live show, from the Love of Life era. Allmusic has a better rundown than I could give.

Beginning with the surging, sweeping crunch of "Mother's Milk," with some great Jarboe vocals over it all, Omniscience is a live album which benefits from the inclusion of some otherwise unrecorded or unreleased Swans tracks. Taken from dates on the 1992 Love of Life tour, the album showcases a newly solidified touring lineup of Gira, Jarboe, Steele, returning veteran Kizys, and Vincent Signorelli, drummer on the two previous albums. The sound is clear and sharp, a distinct change from the sometimes muddy official bootlegs of years past. Most of the familiar tracks are unsurprisingly from Love of Life, including "Her," "The Other Side of the World," and that album's title track in an extended take with a wholly new and incredibly dramatic instrumental coda. However, interesting choices like a version of Nick Drake's "Black Eyed Dog," originally done by Jarboe and Gira for the third Skin album, appear as well. "Will Serve" is a fantastic number appearing only here, starting with a delicate guitar intro and swiftly turning into a cinematic, soaring piece -- a lovely demonstration of Swans now at their newly inspiring best. "Amnesia" gets a particularly fierce take on the disc, with woodwind-like keyboards providing delicacy as the song rips along with further sonic touches like howling winds and breaking glass. Ending with a fine version of "God Bless America" and the new, slow-grinding "Omnipotent," Omniscience is yet another excellent addition to Swans' body of work. As an extra note, illustrations by Deryk Thomas, cover artist for the two studio albums previous to this release, are included in the CD booklet; continuing the child/rabbit theme of those covers, the paintings here are at once shockingly, horrifyingly violent and perversely beautiful, as perfect a complement to the band's work as any over the years.

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http://www.M/F.com/?twg5wmmun9h2w5k


Swans - The Great Annihilator

After a few years in the wilderness feuding with the Sky label they were previously on, Swans returned with Westberg and Parsons in tow to push their sound further forward, this time in a more grandiose goth rock direction. Songs like "Celebrity Lifestyle" could have been Smashing Pumpkins tracks without Gira's deep baritone, but overall the album really holds up. Gira's lyrics are typically dark ("Killing For Company" is famously about Dennis Nielsen, a serial killer who would murder gay men and have sex with their corpses) but his delivery is usually subdued. The band is more melodically-oriented than they had ever been.

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http://www.M/F.com/?dbh774432j7ukie


Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind

1996 saw Gira announcing the dissolution of Swans, to be kicked off by one last album and a farewell tour. Soundtracks for the Blind was a double album that found the band on the opposite end of the sound spectrum from where they started. Branca-indebted gutar drones, full-length ambient soundscapes, some weird proto-techno outings (courtesy of Jarboe) and extended passages of pounding drums and chords, plus scattered use of random found-sound recordings of interviews and the like that are often ridiculous before they start getting unsettling. Really sprawling and exhausting in one sitting, but there's a lot to explore, and the depth of the music is greater than much of their previous output. A pretty big influence on lots of post-rock and post-metal that would come after it, especially the work of Justin Broadrick and Jesu, whose sound fits seamlessly into the palette offered by this album.

Pt 1

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http://www.M/F.com/?8dljb8jld5ahgpjPt 2

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http://www.M/F.com/?p3cnbfft4x1o550


Swans - Swans Are Dead

The official document of The Great Annihilator and Soundtracks for the Blind tours, featuring different lineups (the latter with Phil Puleo, late of Cop Shoot Cop, who would return with Gira 13 years later). Allmusic's got me here.

Perhaps fittingly, given the huge amount of live CDs and recordings put out by Swans during their lifetime and even after, this, the band's final statement, captures performances from the last two touring lineups of the band, from 1995's Great Annihilator tour (the Mullins/Vudi/Goldring lineup also featured on Die Tür ist Zu) and the last tour from 1997, featuring recent Swans stalwart guitarist Steele, Bill Bronson on bass, and ex-Cop Shoot Cop drummer Phil Puleo on skins. The two-disc set is, unsurprisingly, split between the two lineups. The 1995 disc is taken wholly from a show in Norway, mixing a variety of then-unreleased tunes (including the two lengthy stunners surfacing on Soundtracks, "Helpless Child" and "The Sound," both played fantastically here) with both solo and Swans material. The thoroughly re-worked, Jarboe-sung version of "Your Property," aka "Yrp," gets another excellent airing, while her own track "Lavender Girl" also gets quite a lovely yet disturbing run-through. The 1997 disc, collects tracks from a variety of performances during the tour. Similarly, it mixes newer songs, including Gira's lengthy, style-shifting musical retrospective on Swans, "Feel Happiness," and "New Mother," which would eventually feature in much simpler form as the title track for Gira's Angels of Light project, although here it builds into a roaring, free-form explosion, with solo selections and at times drastically reworked takes on older Swans/Skin material. Most notable are two of the final tracks: a fantastic, utterly horrifying Jarboe-sung version of "I Crawled" from the untitled 1984 EP, and "Blood Promise," originally from The Great Annihilator. Throughout both discs the audiences are loudly and happily appreciative, and understandably so -- they were watching one of the greatest bands wrap up their astonishing career with fire.

Black

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http://www.M/F.com/?vsettp4hl0jiphgWhite

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http://www.M/F.com/?ws730v35zyz3xzr

[KvP]

Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope to the Sky

After 13 years of recording dark folk and and blues under the Angels of Light moniker, Gira decided to bring Swans back with My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope to the Sky (a reference to suicide by hanging), sans Jarboe, and at first listen it sounds more like a more aggressive Angels of Light than vintage Swans. But the truth of the matter is that AoL were in Swans before Swans was in AoL. Perhaps as a result of all that, it's a really good entry point for people who are new to the Swans oeuvre. Gira's voice isn't as deep as it used to be (he was 55 when he recorded the album), but he takes on the cadence of something like a pentecostal preacher throughout. Its only flaw is that it's too short. Guest turns from Bill Rieflin and Devendra Banhart included. Here's the announcement:

There was a point a few years ago during a particular show when I was on tour with Angels of Light, with Akron/Family serving as the backing band. It was during the song The Provider. Seth’s guitar was sustaining one open chord (very loudly), rising to a peak, then crashing down again in a rhythm that could have been the equivalent of a deep and soulful act of copulation. The whole band swayed with this arc. Really was like riding waves of sound. I thought right then, “You know, Michael, Swans wasn’t so bad after all...” - ha ha! It brought back – in a flood – memories, or maybe not memories, more a tangible re-emersion in the sensation of Swans music rushing through my body in waves, lifting me up towards what, I can only assume, will be my only experience of heaven. It’s difficult – and probably pointless – to try to describe this experience. It’s ecstatic, I suppose – a force of simultaneous self negation and rebirth. Really, I probably only experienced this a handful of times to such an extreme extent during the entire 15 year history of Swans. All the elements have to align perfectly, and you can’t force it, though you might constantly strive for it. I don’t mean to be too lofty here, but it’s a fact. I’m talking about my own experience of the music (though I’d hope people in the audiences along the way might have experienced a similar episode). When I ask myself if I believe in God, I start to say NO, but then I remember that sensation, and I’m not so sure. So I want more of that, before my body breaks down to such an extent that it won’t be possible any more. So I’m doing it.

THIS IS NOT A REUNION. It’s not some dumb-ass nostalgia act. It is not repeating the past. After 5 Angels Of Light albums, I needed a way to move FORWARD, in a new direction, and it just so happens that revivifying the idea of Swans is allowing me to do that.

Since the musicians live in different places on the planet, the idea of rehearsal for the recordings was both impractical and expensive. They had all heard the material in demo form, so were basically familiar with the material. In order to both allow time to work out the songs as a band with a distinct personality, and to ensure freshness in the performance, they recorded the basic tracks for one song per day over a period of 12 – 14 hours each day.

Once they’d reached a peak, having hashed the songs over (and over) and reconfigured them from their original demo form into something unique to the group, the engineer hit record. Basic overdubs were done at the end of the same day.

...

The recording of this record was made possible by the sale of a limited edition of 1000, handmade CD/DVD package exclusively at younggodrecords.com. The music CD consisted of Gira’s acoustic demos of several songs under consideration for the new Swans album and the DVD was 2 live shows of Gira solo. Gira hand printed the edition - named I Am Not Insane - (with wood block), hand colored each one individually, and assembled the 1000 copies himself. The expectation was that it would take 3 or 4 months to sell out through the limited venue of the YGR website. It sold out in 2 weeks.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?wxg8br9y6d1j4rs


Michael Gira - I Am Not Insane

A limited edition (of 1,000) hand-printed, hand-colored CDRs of MFWGMUARTTS demos, recorded solo by Gira, sold to finance the album's recording. Gira runs Young God records by himself, from his home, so he didn't have a lot of financial power to release his music.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?0lil1k907x871k1


Swans - Look At Me Go

The second disc to the MFWGMUARTTS Special Edition CD set, Look At Me Go is a contiguous mix of alternate versions of MFWGMUARTTS songs. The cover art looks to be from the "NO" zine that Gira published for a brief period in his art school / punk days.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?iu22f56lhq85c3u
Yet more errata to come.

[TheFuriousWombat]

Thanks so much for all the Swans stuff! They're a band I've always meant to get into but really never knew where or how to start so those posts are really helpful

[yellowfoliage]

Thank you thank you thank you thank you.

[KvP]

Swans / Young God errata!


Skin - Blood, Women, Roses

Skin (aka World of Skin) was Jarboe and Michael Gira's non-Swans collaborative project, undertaken in the late 80's. Blood, Women, Roses is essentially a Jarboe solo record, and it showcases Jarboe as a vocalist and arranger. It's split largely between dramatic, gothy balladry ("The Man I Love", "One Thousand Years") and post-industrial of various sorts (the strikingly Coil-esque "Red Rose", "Come Out").

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http://www.M/F.com/?llpl3a7bf4cslpc


Skin - Shame, Humility, Revenge

The Gira-centric companion to Blood, Women, Roses, perhaps the first release to showcase his interest in less aggressive music. It's still very dark - Gira's monotone delivery juts out from the music like a cold slab of black rock. Production-wise it's quite similar to Musick to Play in the Dark-era Coil. Not to touch on that comparison too much, but it's often really pretty, even if it is unblinkingly dark. Contains a dirge-y, plaintive cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" that may be the only thing Gira's ever done that contains a modicum of winking humor.

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http://www.M/F.com/?80i1kjo80b3ig4r


Flux Information Sciences - Private / Public

Flux Information Sciences was an industrial-punk / no wave outfit that kicked around the underground before releasing one album on Young God (this one) and breaking up in 2001. It's a really fascinating little record - full of fast, clattering noise rock. Young God claimed that it was recorded before a live audience that was stripped naked and blindfolded. There are electronic ("World Class Fuck") and post-rock ("Love") interludes among all the amphetamine rock vignettes ("Dollar Days", "Supermarket"). They kept the idea of good industrial rock alive for a scant few years longer than it had any right to be. Former member Chris Pradvica went on to play bass / jew's harp / "gadgets" on My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope to the Sky and tour as a member of Swans, as well as play in post-Flux outfit SERVICES.

For those interested, it looks like the entirety of the band's discography (including previously unreleased material) up for free download on their barebones web page. Private / Public is not included, presumably because Young God needs the money.

*Actually, it's worth noting that if you like Swans or Angels of Light, if you buy anything from Young God's website by those two groups, it will come signed by Michael Gira, because he has a vested interest in keeping the relationship between fans and the label close. It really is just him running the thing. Consider buying your favorite Swans record on CD or something.*

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http://www.M/F.com/?58drw13hmy2cbqv

Angels of Light put out 5 studio albums, one live recording and one split (with Akron/Family) between 1999 and 2007, but I only have two of their studio albums If you're interested in Gira's folk pursuits, seek them out!


The Angels of Light - Everything Is Good Here / Please Come Home

The Angels Of Light's third album, released in 2003. Features Gira in high-energy mode, but with any semblance of metal or industrial erased and replaced with cacophonous folk and twang influences. "All Souls' Rising" would become a live favorite, but "Rose of Los Angeles" also displays a restless, excitable spirit. Some of the quieter songs, like "The Family God" and especially "Kosinski", are perhaps the most affecting songs Gira has produced when not in Shock and Awe mode. It certainly proved that Gira could operate entirely outside the crushing sphere of Swans and still succeed musically.

To a certain extent, most of us are still living sheltered lives, insofar as we rarely confront our spirituality, reject our families, or cross our internal lines of social decency. Beliefs and codes vary from person to person like wardrobes, but very few people are willful, foolish or terminally self-aware enough to defy their own. Cultural expectations-- "absurd and malignant" or otherwise-- have sway, and the precious, indecent few who manage to outrun them are usually viewed as outcasts or criminals (though sometimes as prophets). Aside from whatever laws they break, criminals rob us of our conventions: Through acts of violence and upheaval, they force us to confront our boundaries. For some, ignoring the tenuous line between right and wrong is an easy feat, but for others, personal demons are as controlling as any backlog of cultural norms. From the sound of Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home, Angels of Light frontman Michael Gira may yet have demons to master and boundaries to set.

Gira broached straightforward indecency long ago, via his most infamous and acclaimed project, Swans. In the mid-80s, when even the most ruthlessly earnest punks were only beginning to come to terms with a "responsible" definition of anarchy, Gira and then-partner Jarboe were speaking, sometimes literally, of masochistic torture and humiliating, brutal sex, over drastically compressed drones and industrial propulsion. When the decade closed in an alternative rock flourish, Swans thrust forward by leaps and bounds: Love of Life, The Great Annihilator and especially Soundtracks for the Blind predicted Godspeed You Black Emperor! and all manner of dark-ambient music, though thematically, Swans still seemed to equate God with a dominatrix. Gira's post-Swans (read: post-Jarboe) folk collective, The Angels of Light, matches his previous band's penchant for mythic grandeur with more muted dynamics, if not sentiment. Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home is their third release, and it is both disturbing and wonderful.

According to Gira, the album is a response to various personal, historical and political disasters. In some ways, that cryptic declaration takes the edge off the songs, as without pretense there's vast room for interpretation in his lyrics. Where "Palisades" might read as a particularly bitter response to suicide ("Reasons won't come/ And no one will regret that you're gone"), it could as easily lament claustrophobic personal terror: "Do you see how they ruined your mind?/ Do you see how they ruined your life?" Gira's smoke-stained baritone barely carries the words over acoustic guitar and delicate bell-tones, though later, he verges on overtaking a serene arrangement of church bells and a children's choir. The altogether peaceful "Kosinsky", with its deft, gently strummed electric guitar and bright fiddle motif, initially reads as a tender love song; Gira's description of hair like "translucent, liquid light" and "the rhythm of your breathing" seem poignant, though he again blurs boundaries by admitting he looks on his love with "the eyes of an animal."

The textural range of Everything Is Good Here lends an epic, almost timeless quality that goes a long way toward fleshing out Gira's often-mythological way with words. "All Souls' Rising" features impressions of pagan ritual, and self-purification via "the cull of foreign bone" and forcing "the blue smoke in... [to] fill the sac of skin." The relentless hammer of drums and murky stew of bass, organ and guitar-- not to mention Gira's own droning war cries-- conjure scenes of violent sacrifice and the chaotic laws of a still-dominant Earth.

Contrarily, the midtempo, Beatlesque "Sunset Park" reveals little in its single repeated line, "She brings some/ She'll bring one," but betrays a brilliant optimism in Gira's simple, dignified melody and wall of shimmering guitars. Later, on "Wedding", an extended, gently strummed introduction is offset by ominous brass tones and the dissonant children's choir, giving way to Gira's rugged moan. The choir caps each phrase with angelic harmonies, quite removed from the intentionally grotesque sound of Swans, or even scattered moments on this album. As a whole, Everything Is Good Here is at once breathtaking and, like many Gira releases, simply too much.

The overwhelming impression is one of acceptance and redemption, despite repeatedly bleak (or at best, mysterious) narration from Gira. The production helps, but digging deeper into its lyrics, it seems that, rather than prolong an inner struggle, The Angels of Light seek salvation. "What Will Come" openly requests that God "save us... from what will come," though it's difficult to reconcile Gira's leap of faith after an album's worth of explicitly self-empowering, judgmental narrative, clouded by contradiction. Nevertheless, music that resonates with as much emotional weight and vital abandon is rare, and though I'm less inclined to look for answers in the mix than revel in its chaos, Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home is a commendable, heady experience.

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http://www.M/F.com/?1tff40l3voiocxg


Angels of Light - We Are Him

The last Angels of Light album before Swans came back from the dead and rendered the project dormant. You can definitely hear My Father Will Guide Me... in its embryonic form here, with "Black River Song" establishing a propulsive, repetition-heavy feel right from the start. As with all AoL, there are loud and quiet songs, but songs like "Good Bye Mary Lou" and "Promise of Water" bring the project closer to full-on country music than anything else they've done (though the latter is decidedly a gothic, workman's song sort of country). Many tracks entirely lack Gira's signature baritone.

"We Are Him is the most assured and relaxed Angels of Light album since the debut, and deserves to be considered alongside Gira's highest peaks. The frightening rage of old Swans surfaces several times, albeit in more bucolic clothing; the contrast is bracing. Lyrically Gira's constantly in-pocket, addressing his subjects with renewed agility, but
also in a very relaxed voice; if De Sade had lived long enough to tell folk tales around a campfire, some of them might have sounded like this. The genuinely playful orchestration - banjos? horns? chimes? slide? check – is by turns charming and perverse, and has a band-of-brethren feel to it that's both ominous and exiting. The title track is like a pure shot of adrenaline. An intimate, unexpected masterpiece." - John Darnielle/The Mountain Goats

"the moment I played -we are him- my heart exploded with the feeling 'that voice!!!!!!' and it has done it to me everytime I have ever heard it. From my first cassette of filth to this newest work, michael gira's singing is my favorite gentle violence and lovers strangulation. Now is the best he has ever sounded and I cannot without sounding insanely thrilled express how much this means to me. -we are him- is touching, frightening, wonderfully different and whole." - Jamie Stewart / Xiu Xiu

"What‚s a young turk to do when Michael Gira, at 52, is at the height of his powers? Everything I‚ve loved about his previous work ˆ the apocalyptic soundscapes, the window-shattering drums, the glistening acoustic passages, the voice like God speaking out of the whirlwind - is distilled and reimagined in these songs, and infused with an organic warmth that only makes them the more urgent and harrowing. By turns frightening, funny, cathartic, wise, even strangely sweet, "We Are Him" is a sprawling masterpiece by an artist whose muse seems more fertile than ever."
- Jonathan Meiburg / Shearwater

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http://www.M/F.com/?ycldzxrwzgfi6o8

[pinkpiche]

Thanks for The Dodos!

[nippletwister]

Swans / Young God errata!

What's the overlap on those Skin records with the World of Skin disc reissue?

[SWOON! at My Gravitas]

I'm pretty sure the World of Skin reissue is made up entirely of tracks from those two albums

[barista.babe]

I'm surprised this hasn't made it to the thread yet. I've been listening to the new Eisley LP "The Valley" non-stop for the past 2 weeks. I like it more than Combinations, but not more than Room Noises. The Fire Kite EP from last year was really just a tease, the LP as a whole is beautifully crafted. Hands down, my favorite track is "Kind." Listen and love it. Please note, this is NOT the Deluxe version that contains 2 live tracks.

Eisley - The Valley LP (2011)

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http://www.M/F.com/?iiq8cfci987ak86
I'm going to eat a Reptar bar now.

[NoDrinksNoCupsNoCandles]

Ok, so it's about time I start contributing. Here is some stuff from Boise Idaho, all recorded by one guy, but a pretty huge sound. His name has been spreading quite a bit over the past few months after he released this album. It's funky/psychedelic/dancy. Check it out.

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http://www.MF.com/?dv0u002a5cws3q6
Stream the album at: http://brotherdan.bandcamp.com/

Here is an EP by the same guy. The first track is an amazing cover of Paint it Black.

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http://www.MF.com/?vzr7d7u1dpp3i1b

[spoon_of_grimbo]

to the dudes creaming over the new trap them album - get your bad selves over to the hardcore thread, there's a whole vault of awesome similar stuff on there you'd love.  i'm personally gonna hold off listening to that album until it arrives on my doorstep, but i've heard it's awesome.

[nippletwister]

I'm pretty sure the World of Skin reissue is made up entirely of tracks from those two albums

That's how I remember it.

[ThePianoMan]

The History of the House Sound of Chicago (320kbps)

Ok, this hasn't gotten the recognition it deserves. It is SICK good. SICK. Thank you for posting it, my life has a new meaning since I got it.

Truth. This is an excellent compilation.

[42manZ]

Raekwon - Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang (2011)

Dude, that's awesome, thanks for sharing. I've been really curious about how this was going to turn out without the RZA.

[KvP]

RUPS


Function - Variance 1-3

I posted this awhile back but the 12" was actually 45 on one side and 33 on the other, so I had to rerip.

No rest for the wicked as Sandwell follow the 'Feed Forward' LP with three prime numbers from Function. If we're not mistaken, a couple of these tracks have appeared in remix form on previous SD vinyls (and it even shares a catalogue number with the single-sided blue 12" from early '09), but this is the first time any of these original tracks have been pressed to wax. The A-side is a colossal Function special, propulsive 4/4 bass hits arranged within a dazzlingly cold and spacious 3D dub environment, while the flipside cuts alternately aim for warmer, wide-eyed Berlin techno atmospheres like the recent SD LP and a slab of sub-heavy, acidic, Plastikman-style techno. Ace.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?73h96575ll6h7su


Niggas With Guitars - Ethnic Frenzy

Latest thing off Digitalis, limited to 200 copies for the world. Pleasant synth composition. "Blacksnake" is fairly BoC-y. Check it out. I've got a few casettes of theirs headed this way as well. Can't really find anything about who these people are beyond the fact that they're from Oakland. Wouldn't be surprised if they're some white kids, with that name.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?h24i43oibke06nq


On Fell - Untitled 7"

Shiny glow-pop. The B is sort of Matthew Herbert / Notwist-y.

By the time Andrew Johnson and Craig Tattersall started recording as The Remote Viewer and The Famous Boyfriend back in the late 90's, they were both no longer active members of Hood, one of the most important bands of the day. In the years that followed both camps would cross paths fairly irregularly, the odd contribution here and there, but never anything more than just a fleeting meeting of old friends sharing ideas. "On Fell" is a new (most likely one-off) collaboration between Hood's Chris Adams and the Remote Viewer's Andrew Johnson, spread across three strictly limited 7" releases (the first of which is out this week), featuring contributions from a bunch of connected heads such as Craig Tattersall and Wedding Present guitarist Paul Dorrington. The music they make is quite different to anything you will have heard from either the Remote Viewer, Bracken, Moteer or Cotton Goods camps over the last few years, the emphasis being on pure, joyous, melancholy and unforgettable pop songs, and we just can't stop listening to them. It might be fuelled by the kind of nostalgia that's impossible to articulate, or maybe it's just because pretty much everyone involved in this project has had a hand in some of the music we've loved most over the last 15 years; but quite honestly we were almost in tears the first time we heard the first of the two untitled tracks here, and every time we listen to it we get that same bittersweet sense of joy. These are simple songs, produced and recorded with a rough-around-the-edges, almost naive aesthetic that is the polar opposite to so much of the music we listen to these days. It's true, there are electronic treatments on the vocals, there's a heavy low-end element and sonic trickery present, but it still feels like a momentary step back to another era, one we almost forgot. We can't tell you how much we love this 7" - if any of this means anything to you we urge you to grab one of the 300 copies available while you can, it's a keeper.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?ktm7y534qz77ywi


13 & God - Men Of Station / Soft Atlas

The two best tracks from the supergroup's sterling debut, backed with an apparent remix of an unreleased 13&G track by WHY? and Alias, and the main course, a pair of incredible Hrvatski deconstructions. Man, have I really grown out of my WHY? fandom.

This is the killer introduction to the indi supergroup made up of Themselves and The Notwist : aka Jeffrey 'Jel' Logan, Micha Acher, Adam 'Dose One' Drucker, Martin 'Console' Gretschmann, Markus Acher and Dax Pierson with guests including Valerie Trebeljahr of Lali Puna and Steffi Böhm of Ms. John Soda who guest on the sooncome album. 'Men Of Station' features lonesome piano, acoustic guitar and strings behind Markus Acher's gorgeous politically fuelled lyrics - an incredible emotive track with excellent chorus duties shared with Dose. Why? & Alias remix the mysterious 'Into The Trees' where can I get the original version? Why's distinctive vocal is upfront against the dope beats of Alias and the glistening keyboard patterns. 'Soft Atlas' open's up Dose's mind to reveal his fears about the end of the world! Again beautiful piano chords, electronic loops and rustic percussion prevails. An amazing track that will be another highlight from the album. Last but very not least Keith Hrvatski abuses both 'Men Of Station' and 'Soft Atlas' utilising both his knack for improvtastic sounds and hyper mangled but deftly skilled drum programming - a seven minute blast! Essential purchase.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?jtwuv90v3eerqu3


Various Artists - Tropical Heat Vol. 2

Skweee clearinghouse MYOR music drops a compilation (do Skweee folk ever do anything other than comps?) EP. The first song is kind of a stupid joke, but the last track is Skweee done right - more dubstep than funk cheese.

Myor round up a second collection of laidback 8-Bit bounce and trippin' Skwee from Slow Hand Motëm, 1000names and co. The vibe is set with the screwed, Hyphy-like reduction of Slow Hand Motëm's 'Boom Respekt Boom' and a sparkling synth-boogie byte from Beem on 'Automan'. The excellent 1000names back up aces for Black Acre this year with the dub dreamy suspension of 'Cup Of Joy' and Pixelord puts dip in your hip with the splashing rainbow synths of 'Hypnofrog'. S.Y.Z's crafty bobbler 'Spirits and Demons' is perhaps a bit too rugged to be considered "Tropical", but Mother North's 'Butter Blues' keeps it comfortably heat-hazy and sluggish. F-r-e-s-h.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?3gfrj5rfa5pfhka

[KurtMcAllister]

Glenn Branca - Lesson No. 1 (1980)

In the 1980s, there began a massive restoration project to bring New York from its abject, whorish state to the super-capitalized, civilized state it is now in. Politics aside, it is clear that the New York that once was is long gone. It was that New York that was the New York of the Velvets, of Glenn Branca, of Sonic Youth, and of the best rap ever to come out of three Jewish kids. It was the heart of Travis Bickle's lament in Taxi Driver. New York's then miserable state was key for the music that would come out of it. It is perhaps why The Strokes, as hard as they try, cannot ever capture the essence of VU (what's cool about waiting for your man in the middle of Times Square drinking a Frappucino?), and why, perhaps, nothing will come close to capturing what Glenn Branca captured on his first few recordings.

The problem with any Glenn Branca recording, though, is that if -- and this is likely the case -- you've only heard Glenn's work after becoming obsessed with Sonic Youth, you're likely to comment on how much Glenn Branca sounds like Sonic Youth, instead of the other way around. "Lesson No. 1 for Electric Guitar" foreshadows the jangled, droning, oddly pop-like guitars of Daydream Nation, and the opening chord of "Dissonance” appears fit to kick off almost any SY song. The fact alone that a single two-song release would go so far in influencing so much of the experimentally-inclined artists to follow makes Lesson No. 1 an essential recording.

Like all of Branca's work, these aren't so much songs as they are symphonies, the classical music of the 22nd century. "Lesson no. 1 for Electric Guitar" sounds nothing like "Dissonance," yet they play off each other in a way that can only be described as harrowingly perfect. The former piece, as I have mentioned, is almost a pop song at times. Multiple guitars drone on without so much as a major change for the entire duration of the piece; a floor tom, whose accents are scattered on alternating stereo channels, occasional (and I use the term strictly) cymbal crashes, and a bass are the only instruments that bring forth any sort of momentum change. Yet it builds, and by the end of the piece it swells. It is but the exposition, however, of a story whose true monsters have yet to be introduced.

The complete disarray and brusqueness of "Dissonance" is only magnified by the relative-gentleness of what preceded it. If "Lesson no. 1 for Electric Guitars" showed you the gates of Glenn's mind, "Dissonance" takes you to the control room. Much like "Lesson no. 2" (off the equally astounding The Ascension), the sound is almost primal at times, like the deranged sounds running through the head of a man fleeing from his death by an unknown creature in the jungle. The first half could have easily been seen as an experiment in rock music, but to call "Dissonance" mere experimental-rock would be an understatement to say the least. More like a free-jazz piece gone wonderfully awry, it enters a realm of music that not even Sonic Youth has entered.

When asked about the milestone of jazz that was Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, drummer Jimmy Cobb said, "it must have been made in heaven." Such a response is certainly suiting, but as far as Lesson No. 1 is concerned, the hell that was New York could not have been done without.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?rlxruq2hc9kbb66
Glenn Branca - The Ascension (1981)

If one chooses to categorize the music on this recording as "rock," this is surely one of the greatest rock albums ever made. But there's the rub. While sporting many of the trappings of the genre -- the instrumentation (electric guitars), the rhythms, the volume, and, most certainly, the attitude -- there is much about The Ascension that doesn't fit comfortably into the standard definition of the term. Not only does the structure of the compositions appear to owe more to certain classical traditions, including Romanticism, than the rock song form, but Branca's overarching concern is with the pure sound produced, particularly of the overtones created by massed, "out of tune," excited strings and the ecstatic quality that sound can engender in the listener. Though his prior performing experience was with post-punk, no-wave groups like the Static and Theoretical Girls, it could be argued that the true source of much of the music here lies in the sonic experimentation of deep-drone pioneers like La Monte Young and Phil Niblock.

Happily, the music is accessible enough that one can jump right in, regardless of one's direction of approach. Branca's band, unlike some of his later enormous ensembles, is relatively modest (four guitars, bass guitar, and drums), so the sound is comparatively clear and each member's contributions may be easily discerned. The chiming notes that begin "The Spectacular Commodity" are allowed to hover in the air, awash in overtones, before being subsumed into a rolling groove that picks up more and more intensity as guitar chords cascade one atop another, threatening to, but never succeeding in, toppling the whole affair. "Structure" plays with sonic torque, whipsawing between two differently stressed voicings of the same theme, pulling them back and forth like taffy.

But the title track is both the consummation of the record and the surest indication of Branca's direction in later years. It begins with a marvelously dense haze of ringing guitars, feedback, and percussion, with a foreboding bassline contributing to the strong sense of disorientation. Midway through, it abruptly shifts to harsh blocks of sound over a rapid rhythm, the blocks differing in texture but played in alternating sections, smacking into each other and further heightening the tension. These disparate sounds eventually coalesce into a pure, ringing tone that, over the last minute of the piece, explodes into a spectacular cacophony, a seism of bell tones, microtonal eruptions, and near orgasmic guitar bliss. An absolutely stunning, jaw-dropping performance.

Branca's music has served as a major inspiration to many alternative rock bands that surfaced in the '80s and '90s, notably Sonic Youth; both Lee Ranaldo (who plays on this recording) and Thurston Moore were regularly members of his early ensembles. The Ascension, in addition to being an utterly superb album on its own merits, uniquely invites listening from both adventurous rock fans and aficionados of experimental electronic music. For years, the vinyl release on 99 Records, with its stunning cover illustration by Robert Longo, was a highly sought-after collector's item. It was finally issued to compact disc in 1999 by New Tone.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?flfz1njyejsbjon

[KvP]

I'm gonna roll the dice and say you read SA... I asked where to start with Branca and those were the two albums suggested. Lesson 1 is pretty awesome so far.

[yop]

Thank you so much for the Variance rerip. Nice and dark, edgy techno with deep bass sounds. Love it!

/

Overcast Sound - Beneath The Grain

Beneath the Grain is the result of three months Canadian artists OVERCAST SOUND spent in Berlin last year. A deeply personal album, Beneath the Grain reflects the impact of the city's contextual significance, both historically and as the modern nexus of creativity.

Each track investigates a particular place or theme discovered during their residency, drawing from the textures and sounds unique to those experiences. The ethereal vocals in Devil's Mountain make reference to the crumbling Cold War listening station on the outskirts of the city, while Lackadaisical bubbles and meanders with the reflected sounds of inner city parks and neighbourhoods.

Beneath the Grain marks the group's debut full-length album, showcasing OVERCAST SOUND's distinct cinematic style and delivering a compelling sonic diary of a city.

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http://www.m/f.com/?88tm9m2ie9xddnw

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http://www.discogs.com/Overcast-Sound-Beneath-The-Grain/release/2672686

[TheClickOfALight]

Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (1995)



Raekwon’s debut solo album, and the third of the many brilliant Wu-Tang solo offerings which began to emerge in the mid 1990s. But like many of the Wu-Tang solo albums, it isn’t truly a solo album, as it features Ghostface Killah prominently, and was entirely produced by Wu-Tang puppet master RZA, who, after reading his Wu-Tang Manual, has convinced me that he is some kind of utterly mad genius who has a twenty year plan to take over the world or something. However, Raekwon is still able to step out of the Wu-Tang limelight and craft an individual album that focuses on the mafia rather than kung-fu, and one which is simply astounding. You need this in your life.

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http://www.M/F.com/?yzizmnnx3z2

[yop]

Holy balls!! Niggas With Guitars - Ethnic Frenzy This record is amazing! Thank you

Tunnidge - Dark Skies/Tribe

Tunnidge steps onto his 2nd plate for Deep Medi with the dread sci-fi killah 'Dark Skies' and the intriguing outernational vibes of 'Tribe'. The ascending synthlines and Rutger Hauer samples lend a brilliant tension to 'Dark Skies', only exacerbated by droning, eyeball quivering subbass. We can't pinpoint the source of the samples on 'Tribe' but it's surely one of the most esoteric tracks Deep Medi's catalogue, ripe for set-starting dramas. Mad tings.

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http://www.m/f.com/?tdh7f3xq7w14fl0

Orphan101 - Into You EP

Odder Dub-Tech from Bristol's Orphan101, following an acclaimed drop for Apple Pips. With relentless intentions 'Into You' jacks Electro-House elements into a charging 140bpm framework, whereas 'Barraca' is proggy-tinged Techno riding quasi-speed subs and we're not sure what the feck 'Typical' is, perhaps some kinda spliced creature formed from sped-up Rhythm & Sound records and woozy ambient? Grab this if you were into the last Illum Sphere 12" on Tectonic.

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http://www.m/f.com/?pcq5sm5v75vd225

James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream

Arriving shortly after his extraordinary, eponymous debut LP, James Blake drops one its many highlights, 'The Wilhelm Scream' backed with two new and exclusive songs 'What Was It You Said About Luck' and 'Half Heat Full (Old Circular)'. If anything, the pristine electro-acoustic dynamism of 'The Wilhelm Scream' sounds even more dazzling given it's own side and pressed to 45rpm, his intentions coming through super crisp and clear. His new song, 'What Was It You Said About Luck' is perhaps more minimal and nuanced, slyly harmonised vocals moving around the artificial space with vivid, depth perception-realigning effect, before 'Half Heat Full (Old Circular)' displays him at his most tortured, bruised with distortion and seemingly singing from inside his grandad's shed. Tip!

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http://www.m/f.com/?d78lta1tezh62r0

[nufan]

Here are two EP's by my new favourite thing, Sepalcure. They fit right alongside my other favourite things, James Blake and Mount Kimbie, and are routinely described with the same "post-everything" or "post-dubstep" tag which, although are horrible genre names, do indicate how hard they are to pin down. Apparantly they are the project of Machinedrum and Praveen, who admittedly I've never heard of. The Fleur EP and in particular the song No Think are incredible.

Sepalcure - Fleur EP

Spellbinding release from Sepalcure, aka electronica veterans Machinedrum and Praveen. They unveiled a sumptuous new sound with the 'Love Pressure' EP back in the summer of 2010 but if anything this delivers an even greater emotive impact. Maybe it's because they're American, but there's definitely an instinctive feel for R&B elegance and graceful suspension at play here, something alluded to by reams of UK producers, but rarely achieved with this kind of tingling sensibility. The standout track is easily 'No Think', a near side-long swinger built from ethereal, yearning vocals, viscous 2-step patterns and droning subbass looming from their densely lush atmospheres. Complementing the vibe, the enchanting 'Inside' closes the side with a shorter, beatless piece of electronic ambience worthy of Tim Hecker. Meanwhile on the A-side we're in thrall to the crisp drums, smudged chords and sun-heated strings of 'Fleur' and another surefire spine-tingler, 'Your Love'. Full colour picture sleeve + four stunning productions = Well recommended.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?zsubixtghouubqg
Sepalcure - Love Pressure EP

Deeper soul burning dubstep and dreamy broken beats from Sepalcure aka Machine Drum and Praveen. It's a massive diversion from both operators previous styles, using their combined wealth of production knowledge to create four tracks of effervescent, kinetic and slightly unstable grooves marked with convective chord progressions and classic vocal lifts. 'The Warning' previously appeared on Scuba's Resident Advisor face off with himself, conducting a submerged ambient skipper with nods to Mount Kimbie. Their 'Love Pressure' cut is certainly the highlight though, sweeping us up in a heart-in-mouth swell of wide-open atmospheres driven by a Joy Orbison-tuned rhythm motor. Nearly as effective is the synths-driven thrust and vocal streaks of 'Down' while the pace of 'Everyday Of My Life' takes some getting used to if you're familiar with the original pitch of the sample, but once you're in, it's lush. Recommended sweetnuss for fans of Blue Daisy, Joy Orbison, Ramadanman or James Blake.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?4poa2uyg8yc1ad3

[TheClickOfALight]

GZA – Liquid Swords (1995)



I’d go so far as to say that this is my favourite album out of the ENTIRE Wu-Tang back catologue, Clan or solo. It’s seriously that good.

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http://www.M/F.com/?n4jrjotm3wy

[yop]

Various Artists - SMM: Context 2011

SMM: Context is the first release in Ghostly International’s new yearly compilation series of evocative, exploratory music.

In 2003, Ghostly International introduced SMM, an unknown acronym used to evaporate the already-unspooling musical boundaries between classical minimalism, electronic and drone composition, film soundtracks, and fragile imaginary landscapes.

SMM: Context features a hand-picked selection of some of the world’s finest musicians from Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, North America and the UK who traffic in SMM’s slow-moving, texture-focused compositions, simple in instrumentation, but infinitely complex in execution.

01. Goldmund - Motion
02. Leyland Kirby - Polaroid
03. Svarte Greiner - Halves
04. Christina Vantzou - 11 Generations Of My Fathers
05. Jacaszek - Elegia
06. The Fun Years - Cornelia Amygdaloid
07. Manual - Three Parts
08. Aidan Baker - Substantiated
09. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Moments Descend On My Windowpane
10. Kyle Bobby Dunn - Runge's Last Stand
11. Peter Broderick - Pause

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http://www.m/f.com/?17c7mjpc78740n4

[KvP]

Drums Off Chaos & Jens-Uwe Beyer

The latest from Magazine, who are sort of a little krautrock / kosmische revival in themselves. Long, winding texture'n'drums workouts. "4 of 7" would make an excellent piece of level music for Diablo 2. Rhythmic!

Sterling new release from Cologne's Magazine label, presenting the first substantial recordings from Jaki Liebezeit's Drums Off Chaos percussion ensemble. For their debut album they're also joined by Köln lynchpin Jens-Uwe Beyer, who's best known for his Popnoname productions on Kompakt's Pop Ambient series and as a member of future kosmiche group, Cologne Tape. Despite being in operation for nearly 30 years, the group have only committed their sound to tape on a handful of rare instances including a mail-order CD from 1985, preferring to keep their tribal anarchist sound in the live domain. So the addition of Beyer has more than revitalised them, it's actually got the trio in the studio to record their music! Together they've consolidated the inter-generational gap between the classic Can sound and the updated techno romance of Wolfgang Voigt's Gas project, resulting in a plush and expansive, yet lean and focussed linear style propelled by interlocking tribal polyrhythms and surrounded by sumptuous synthetic scenery of drifting melodies and radiant symphonic flushes. The accent of their precise, dynamic rhythmic codes is enhanced by self-constructed drums and carefully selected sounds from Beyer who innately understands their cadence, placing this album close to recent efforts from the MvO Trio and Mark Ernestus, but firmly grounded with a regional Ruhr dialect of their own. Entrancing stuff.

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http://www.M/F.com/?qf83rw8o6x2g4zh


Fxbip - TAL Acid

Some guy doing a very, very convincing AFX acid impression (The Analogue Quadrant specializes in this sort of thing). Nearly as good as the real thing!

Rephlexian acid manoeuvres from FXBip on his debut for The Analogue Quadrant. Five track very much int he vein of Ceephax Acid Crew, AFX or Ovuca, from the midnight acid burn of 'TAL Acid' to the rushin' patterns of 'Reaper 3' or the haunted pads and squirming 303 squiggles of 'Chimera'.

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http://www.M/F.com/?dz6nuxlgqm6m2s4


Siriusmo - Mosaik

Sprawling, goofy post-Justice electro with twisty IDM arrangements. Plus, someone trying out an actually-pretty-decent Tom Waits impression. Mental. From the Monkeytown camp (Modeselektor, et al).

'Mosaik' is Siriusmo's much anticipated 2nd album, and the first artist LP release on Modeselektor's Monkeytown label. The pair of acts have a longstanding relationship, with Modeselektor effectively setting up the Monkeytown label in order to release their mate's like-minded hi-tech party music. And like his brethren, there's no clear parameters for Siriusmo's sound, which twitches between IDM electronics, lounging jazz musicality, Techno propulsion and dadaist sample structuring. Aside from the previous single tracks, the jagged Electro thump of 'Feromonikon' and the twinkle-toed cartoon techno of 'Signal', the highlights have to be the Dubstep-aping, Jahcoozi-like 'Bad Idea', the harmonious disco of 'Nights Off' or the fractal Techno-Pop of 'Goldene Kugel' and 'Einmal In Der Woche Schreien'. Wickedly scatter-brained but forcefully fun. Check!

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http://www.M/F.com/?xh2m929qctftztc


Kahn - Like We Used To

From Peverelist's Punch Drunk imprint comes some expansive, Joy O-style rave techno complete with pitch-bent synth chords and bass. Thrilling and uplifting the way the best rave stuff is.

Dazzling debut from Kahn, a new talent discovered by exceptional minds at Punch Drunk. 'Like We Used To' is a powerfully built 130bpm swinger, stroking fragrant female vocal into orgiastic glossolalia over clipped 2-step and seasick subs copulating like Zomby and SBTRKT. 'Helter Skelter' is more exothermic, radiating stereo spirals of cascading lazer synths on a halfstep bump and grind akin to the recent Objekt 12". Huge, frankly.

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http://www.M/F.com/?iif1jv5xutu50rv


Pangaea - Inna Daze

An old hand in the dubstep / techno scene comes back with some classic rhythmic style. Loving the warped strings on "Won't Hurt".

Pangaea, lad, what are you doing to us?!?! Over a year after his eponymous Hessle EP, Kevin McAuley augments his sound to a 130bpm (or thereabouts) style of deep Technoid ruffige compatible with label brethren Elgato or more recent 2562 beats. Squaring up to 'Inna Daze' we're faced with a rugged rollers figure, broad, shoulder swinging bass with a Monolake-esque finish synched to hip-tucking, fake-out drum programming pecked with feverish diva yelps and siren stabs. On the flip, 'Won't Hurt' starts out pensive but soon enough brings the bass weight like some 2005 DMZ classic, only at 130bpm and with hair-raising Detroit techno strings delivered like a true badman. Don't f**k about. This is essential!

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http://www.M/F.com/?sljtewng3mh2ng7


Bunny On Acid - Oxygen

Like the bastard child of Planes and Slugabed. Laid back, shuffling hip hop beats and overstuffed, swooping synth chords. The title track is like vintage Ital Tek.

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http://www.M/F.com/?q4dlbqkds3t5irc


Various Artists - Super Vol. 1

Rave iconoclast Raffertie's homebrewed imprint releases a (prospective, given the few releases on the label so far) compilation featuring some old and new favorites. Raffertie starts off with a roaring warehouse-filler,  Morris Cowan comes out of nowhere with an stunning early 90's Warp epic, Subeena contributes a club jam in line with her more recent output, Photomachine brings out the handclaps on a nervous techno track, and Throwing Snow pushes his bass into the red to clinch it. Looks like we've got a baby Planet Mu on our hands.

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http://www.M/F.com/?u41agnxaywvgfzw


Wagawaga - Hyper Typewriter

A good week for Warp-indebted IDM, as Wagawaga (who I have never heard of, plus their name is kind of dumb) releases a full album of really, really excellent hip hop / acid techno hybrids, in classic 90's style. Like a marriage of Luke Vibert, Plaid and The Tuss, without all the overt goofiness that would entail. This comes with my highest recommendation.

pt 1

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http://www.M/F.com/?zfyiq4u99oexv3upt 2

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http://www.M/F.com/?bf6wj23pkib385s


Move D - Workshop 02

Warm, cosmopolitan house from the amazingly consistent Move D, probably my favorite House DJ. I can imagine rolling around Miami in the 80's blasting "Computer Flop". Incredible.

Following on from his killer set for Modern Love, Move D returns again this week for the elusive Hardwax-affiliated Workshop imprint with a crushing twelve of tracks lifted straight off the Moodymann/Theo Parrish school of thought. Quite unlike any of his other recent material, this limited twelve revolves around a muted jazz-funk pallette that sounds like a classic Theo production ripped-apart and re-assembled with that distinctive Moufang edge. The squashed percussion and shimmering Rhodes work a treat and the production here is so tight that it needs to be heard loud to be believed. Move D really seems to be operating at his peak right now - this twelve is sure to disappear in double-time. KILLER!!!

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http://www.M/F.com/?i47f8ttv80mey2w


Move D - Drøne

One-side single from Move D for Modern Love, a house / techno label that gained notoriety recently for releasing all of Demdike Stare's goth-dub-ambient albums. This one's a more atmospheric track, with a greater focus on the light, skittering rhythm.

Move D returns with the latest limited one-sided 12" on the Modern Love label - and it's an absolute KILLER!. Based around one long, forever mutating drone, the track comes from David Moufang's hallowed KM20 vaults, the place were he keeps his most devastating, vintage analogue material. Spiritually linked with his masterful "Sweet Heini" cut for the Philpot imprint, this is precisely the kind of tackle that finds Moufang at his most immersive, producing supremely smart and layered Techno that works on more levels than it's possible to elucidate verbally. What starts out as a rugged, heaving wheeze of machinery slowly develops into a scattered chug of fearless percussion and frayed engineering of the highest calibre. After astonishing work for the likes of the Workshop, Uzuri and Smallville imprints, Move D's stock is at the highest its ever been - and that's saying something for an artist who has been releasing music since 1994, and who has never lost form. Strictly limited pressing - ESSENTIAL PURCHASE!

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http://www.M/F.com/?5sx7ljxqh84u43x


Sunken Foal - Mother of God

How did I miss this?!?!?! Fuck. This came out in January and I only just came across it researching that Wagawaga LP. Sunken Foal returns, scaling back the folk aspect of his electro-folk a bit, but his music is just as charmingly shamblotic as ever. "Colloidal Glass" and "A Row of Gods" are more like his older stuff, but "Platforms" and "Gift Knee Pads" show off the more beat-centric side of Sunken Foal. PICK THIS SHIT UP.

Two years after their well-received Planet Mu album, Sunken Foal return with six tracks for Acroplane. 'Mother Of God' finds their sound at a juncture of Alex Smoke-like, Autechre-referencing electronica in 'Low Mountain Light Socket' and the mercury fuming synths and quickstep syncopations of 'Gift Knee Pads', while 'Colloidal Glass' is a glassy IDM configuration and 'Platforms' like some swaggering Gescom beat. Ace.

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http://www.M/F.com/?74d0qtfqbrn2pht


Ana Caravelle - Basic Climb Re-Imagined

The run-of-the-mill-if-not-for-the-beautiful-production indie harpstress Ana Caravelle turns to LA's Low End Theory scene for an expansive collection of remixes. If you like the LA Beats scene (Flylo, etc.) you'll love these. But I got it for the Julia Holter remix, which is odd and fuzzy and somber and perfect.

‘Basic Climb Re-Imagined’ sees harpist and singer Ana Caravelle’s gorgeous ‘Basic Climb’ record stretched, moulded and somehow re-invigorated by a whole host of hand picked artists. Remix compilations always run the risk of being simply a hodge-podge of ideas, but somehow LA label Non Projects have managed to keep things reigned in well without losing that important sense of experimentation. The tracks go from the beat-driven (Shigeto, Dibiase and DNTEL) to the delightfully strange (Dakim, A.D.L.R) but the high point comes from local LA artist Julia Holter. Holter takes Caravelle’s delicate vocal and process it to sound like a voice from another world, adding a host of unusual elements to the mix creating a veritable symphony of ideas and unexpected harmony. Very good stuff indeed.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?96atfrahadc8984

[KurtMcAllister]

I'm gonna roll the dice and say you read SA... I asked where to start with Branca and those were the two albums suggested. Lesson 1 is pretty awesome so far.

No, actually. I do read the SA forums often, but I didn't see that post until just now. I've just been on a Branca kick lately and thought I should share. Glad you enjoy it, though!

Now time for some more Raster-Noton.

Alva Noto - Unitxt (2008)

A curious dichotomy exists in Unitxt, the latest album from Carsten Nicolai, a.k.a. Alva Noto. Nicolai’s work relies on mathematical processes to govern rhythm (rather than traditional sequencers), utilizing machine noises — modems, telephones, and fax tones — for most of its sounds. On Unitxt, Alva Noto applies these frigid clicks and blips to an innate form of human expression: each track is about 120 bpm, and the rhythms, though often heavily obscured or syncopated, are entirely in 4/4 time — the basic ingredients for a dance album.

Clearly, Unitxt plays differently from Nicolai's previous efforts. It lacks the spacious ambience that characterized For (2006) and Xerrox (2007), and while these albums harbor clear melodies (or at least the semblance of them), the melodic passages on Unitxt are almost entirely absent. Consequently, it sounds more like an extension of the ideas Nicolai explored on his earlier, rhythmically-oriented Trans- EPs, with the droning, granular clouds replaced with pummeling bass, short beeps, and atonal static. It’s all a little colder, more sterile.

Which is ironic, as the album is one of the few (if not the only) Alva Noto releases that feature vocals. French sound poet Anne-James Chaton intones in a robotic manner on two tracks, including opener “U_07.” He reads the contents of Nicolai’s wallet (credit cards, driver’s license, receipts, etc.) in a constant outpour. This only furthers the album’s harshness, reducing personal information about the man to mere information, data to be processed.

None of this is to say that Unitxt doesn’t deliver musically. The rhythms are complex and engaging, and the sound sources he uses are refreshing, especially considering the ever-prevalent 808 and 909-ish software sounds of the dance world. But without significant variation, the album ultimately sounds redundant. Had Nicolai included more melodic elements or varied the structures, this could have been a great release. He has indeed provided a fascinating, innovative approach to dance music — one that I would like to see him develop — but it’s just not quite compelling enough to garner full-fledged attention.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?l88ch2f6ogy051h
Byetone - Death Of A Typographer (2008)

It turns out Byetone’s recent Plastic Star EP (Raster-Noton) was only a prelude to another big event — the release of a solo album. Though he’s part of Raster Noton’s pre-history and has been involved in electronic music since the early 90s, a solo release from Byetone (Olaf Bender) is a rare event indeed. Byetone is a member of live performance group Signal with Carsten Nicolai and Frank Bretschneider, and has appeared on various compilations over the years, but his primary contribution to Raster-Noton thus far has been as the mastermind behind the label’s striking visual identity. A graphic designer by profession, Bender’s been responsible for the minimalist, understated graphics and packaging from the earliest days of Rastermusic.

Byetone’s first solo release was the May installment of the 20” to 2000 series on Raster Noton in 1999. His minimalist aesthetic was translated into twenty minutes of static, sine tones and rhythmic clicks that were extremely austere. It was followed by a similarly stark production for Bine Music in 2003. Structural reductions continue to occupy Bender on his new album, but his method has changed dramatically. Noise and depth now play an integral role. He’s broken with the hermetic, clinical laboratory aesthetic and begun to allow something of the real world in: not just environmental noise, but layers of tone with sounds that sometimes resemble real instruments and make reference to rock and other music. In parallel with label mate Alva Noto’s recent work, Bender plunges deeply into an immersive, textured world on the fantastically titled Death of a Typographer.

Solid bass and tight percussion pin down weighty textures with the precision of an entomologist on the album’s eight variations. Could it be that each track infected Bender, keeping him from his graphic design work — earworms that made it impossible to for him to concentrate? Maybe this album is his surrender; the designer in him supplanted by the musician. Death of a Typographer is informed more by his work with laptop group Signal than his earlier solo work — ‘Grand Style’ is driven by Bretschneider funkiness and the degraded remains of reggae tropes. In other places Bender takes obvious cues from rock and pop. On ‘Straight’, his flattened percussion is draped with lush synths, while the truncated ‘Black is Black’ surprises with a Bender-esque drilling rhythm holding up a warm bassline and a synth melody that sound almost new wave. ‘Capture This (I)’ drones Phill Niblock style into ‘Capture This (II)’ where swooping Fennesz-like guitar drone/feedback affirm the rock intentions.

The one oddly weak point is the intro/outro bookending. Environmental sound recordings frame the album: the intro – a person’s footsteps walking into a club where ‘Plastic Star’ is being played; the outro – the sounds of someone, probably the artist, stepping outside to smoke. They are distracting and intrusive. But interesting. They fit thematically with Bender’s new inclinations to let the world in, and also hook in to the grand rock music tradition of staged-drama intro/outros from Pink Floyd to David Bowie to Kraftwerk.

For fans of Signal and Alva Noto’s recent work, Death of a Typographer is a fascinating insight into developments at Raster Noton HQ.

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Kangding Ray - Automne Fold (2008)

On Stabil, his 2006 debut for Raster-Noton, Kangding Ray (David Letellier) took the label's signature high-end frequencies and precise digital rhythms, and added traces of acoustic tones and melodies. The album largely retained the label's cool austerity, but touched on something warm beneath the surface. Automne Fold, the Berlin-based artist's sophomore effort, goes further in exploring this combination of digital and organic sounds, incorporating more acoustic instrumentation (such as violins and a detuned piano) and even vocals, creating what is one of the label's warmest and most openly emotional releases.

Perhaps reflecting Letellier's background as a guitarist and drummer, there's a pop sensibility at work here, with the longest tracks clocking in at a little over five minutes. "Idle," one of the album's many highlights, is actually a song, complete with verses and a chorus. Other tracks also have a song structure, such as "A Protest Song" (where the warm wall of hiss is reminiscent of what some bands do with guitars) and "World Within Words." The CD case even includes lyrics.

Readers concerned that this all sounds like too much of a departure from the Raster-Noton aesthetic needn't worry. Letellier still uses many of the hallmarks of the label's sound, deploying crisp digital beats and flickering rhythmic bursts of hiss and static to create an album that feels clean and pristine, yet also warm and organic. It's this contrast that makes Automne Fold so engaging and compelling, with the acoustic tones softening the edges of the sharp digital rhythms. And it's here, where these seemingly opposing sounds meet, that real feeling is found. For Letellier the heart of the machine is not cold and analytical, but is instead human and emotional.

Automne Fold is largely introspective (although not melancholic) in mood, despite its pop leanings. This is due to Letellier's sombre melodies and choice of organic instruments, such as the sonorous bowed guitar on "Apnée," the violins on "Parallel" and the contrabass on "Palisades." That Letellier can so deftly and consistently merge these sounds with a digital palette is impressive; in fact the album has only a single misstep, "Apnée. Part II," which features a spoken word monologue about eyeballs and ice cube trays that tries a little too hard to say something profound. (In Letellier's defense, somebody else wrote the lyrics in question.)

Of course, melodies and organic instruments are no strangers to Raster-Noton, having most notably appeared on Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto's collaborations. Yet the extreme restraint of those releases made them difficult for some listeners to approach. With Automne Fold Letellier has crafted an album that is extremely moving, expressive, and accessible from beginning to end. Highly recommended.

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[TheClickOfALight]

Rules:

The first rule of this thread is you do not mention MF.  I am doing this because we are currently the first hit for the full version of "MF thread" on Google, so y'know, that's bad n' shit.

No hot-linking images or albums. You can re-host images at http://imageshack.us.

Ensure your tags are correct and that you have specified both Artist/Album in your post.

Upload your files in either a .zip or a .rar archive to MF, in multiple parts if the album is over 200mb. The reason for this is that we know MF is safe and efficient and allows multiple downloads. The ads on other sites, such as Sendspace, are known to contain viruses on the page. Get yourself checked out.

Post your link using code tags. It's the # icon above the policeman emoticon. This prevents the links from being traced back to the forums, lowering the chance that the wrong people notice the thread, potentially threatening Jeph with legal action.

Also, please do NOT request albums. This includes requests for re-uploads; if you miss it, try looking for it somewhere else.

Repost the rules at the top of each new page.

Nas – Illmatic (1994)



Not only is this one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time, I also think it is one of the most important albums of the past fifteen years, regardless of genre. It marked a transition in the popular perception of hip hop in the early 90s, from the West coast gangsta rap to the East coast’s more artistic style, that also saw acts like the Wu-Tang Clan (who else?!) and Gang Starr emerge as well.

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[Vuk]

Everyone should have Illmatic.

[Algernon]

Here's a bunch of stuff.  Most of it is old stuff that I found from samples in more recent music.  There's also a decent soundtrack EP from the FX show Sons of Anarchy (which I found surprisingly awesome once I got over my initial doubts about a show heavily focused on the exploits of an outlaw motorcycle club), and another album I found due to use in the show as well.  I'll let you figure out which are the biker tunes and which are the oldies.



Aphrodite's Child - 666 (1972)



Babylon
Loud, Loud, Loud

An amazingly bombastic concept album about the Apocalypse of St. John seen as a rock spectacle. Demis Roussos wails the lyrics in a frantically operatic falsetto, while the band pound fiercely through Vangelis' furiously complex music.

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http://www.M/F.com/?7neeu5yqm95syzl


Black 47 - Home of the Brave (1994)



The Big Fellah

Larry Kirwan devotes himself to a strange mixture of Irish nationalism, American civil rights advocacy, and working-class infidelity on New York's Lower East Side. He sings with equal passion about 1920s Irish patriots and lovers' triangles, and when he loses his girlfriends to better-employed sanitation workers and dentists, he buries his misery in six-packs. It's a worldview of sorts, especially because Kirwan sees it in such heroic terms, and because he adopts music that reinforces those terms: an earnest, if slightly self-mocking singer emotes over martial rhythms, traditional Celtic folk instruments, a horn section, and dabs of rock guitar.

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http://www.M/F.com/?ku7s8av38hu8816


Christine McVie (as Christine Perfect) - Christine Perfect (1970)



Crazy 'Bout You
And That's Saying A Lot

1969 was a magic year for music. The Beatles in their prime, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and the Stones embarking on mammoth tours, the rise of new wave bands like Yes and King Crimson; and '69 also witnessed the first steady solo steps of one of the most incredible female performers to ever grace a studio, Christine Perfect.

Christine, who's earlier stint with the near legendary Chicken Shack had already gathered her a sizeable following in Britain, as evidenced by her back to back #1 female vocalist,honors in Melody Maker, penned five of the twelve selections found on the LP, and covers considerable musical ground in the process.

From "Crazy 'Bout You Baby", the up-tempo classic which opens side one, Ms. Perfect maintains strong control over a varied selection of tunes, including: "Close To Me" a soft rocker evocative of the US west coast sound, "Wait and See", a blues ballad, and "I'd Rather Go Blind", the Jordan/Foster classic which catapulted Chris to the top of the charts. Also contained on the album is the fine, orchestrated "When You Say", written by Danny Kirwan, guitarist for Fleetwood Mac.

Her powerful delivery on each cut makes this LP striking a full seven years past its original issue, and her career with Fleetwood Mac has shown Christine as a woman who has lived up to her name.

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http://www.M/F.com/?w1e43hp8249bslc


Galt MacDermot - Shapes of Rhythm (late 60's?)



Coffee Cold
Field of Sorrow

MacDermot's best remembered for the faux funk he delivered via the soundtrack to Hair. This record is a sterling example of what he does, or did best. The effect is a lot like what the Ramsey Lewis Trio might have sounded like if they stayed up all night listening to Slim Whitman records. This is some seriously unfunky music. That being said, is that necessarily a bad thing? Not at all. This music is so earnest and so heartfelt it's impossible not to be taken in by its charm. If you like soundtrack music, this is the perfect album to throw on while jogging. It'll make you feel tough.

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http://www.M/F.com/?60350t2glxa8eb1

Galt MacDermot - Up From the Basement Unreleased Tracks Vol. 1 & 2 (Recorded 1967-1973, released 2003)



Ripped Open by Metal Explosion
Come Away Death

While known mostly for his work on the '60s Broadway sensation Hair, accomplished jazz pianist/composer Galt MacDermot was far more prolific than a one-hit wonder. Proof positive is this collection of some of the progressive musician's funkier leanings, culled literally from the maestro's extensive cache of basement recordings. None of the album's 24 cuts (circa late '60s/early '70s) was originally meant for commercial consumption, but the final six tracks were lifted wholly from reel-less acetates (hence the lack of post-production polish). MacDermot's ivory tickling is aided by a host of relatively unheralded sessionaires (including funky drummers Idris Muhammad and Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, guitarists Charlie Brown and Billy Butler, and bassist Jimmy Lewis). Various soulful corners are explored throughout, from straight-ahead funky jazz ("Ripped Open By Metal Explosions," "Prison Life") to Age of Aquarius aesthetics ("Never Die, Desire Not," "Lost Dreams") to more frenetic flourishes ("Ghetto Suite Melody," "Flurry"). Tempos and vibes are shifted with regularity, giving the collection a herky-jerky feel, but the overall strength of the music generally overrides the haphazard sequencing. The album reaches its pinnacle with an alternate take of "Let the Sunshine In," one of Hair's more memorable overtures. MacDermot's revival was likely influenced by the new-school vinyl generation's interest in his music's sample-friendly elements.

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http://www.M/F.com/?1v2d28jwe6112qt


Galt MacDermot - Woman Is Sweeter (?)



Cathedral

(talking about both this album and Shapes of Rhythm)

Remember the musical Hair? Remember the groovy rhythm tracks on "Let the Sunshine In" and "Where Do I Go?" Yeah, well, this guy here, Galt MacDermot, expatriate Canadian funk meister, is the cat who composed those jams -- and in fact the music to the entire play. This CD brings together two of MacDermot's original LPs, both of them released in the '60s -- one pre- and one post-Hair, one a session album and one a soundtrack, and both greasy in the future funk with cats like Idris Muhammad and Bernard Purdie laying down the beats behind the band. MacDermot is a driven pianist and organ grinder who sought one thing on these records: funky grooves. And he got them. Here's what's scary though: "Coffee Cold" (from Shapes of Rhythm) was recorded in 1966 -- prefiguring the rhythmic changes of James Brown's "Cold Sweat" in sequence and in key a full two years before Brown laid down his track. The feel of "Coffee Cold" is a bit whiter and smoother, but the jam is still an anthem, even with its cheese factor. MacDermot was a prophet of the groove that would overtake the late '60s and early '70s, and, were he a proud man, could have argued that more young musicians heard and took to heart the grooves he laid down in Hair than heard Allen Toussaint and Red Allen or Eddie Bo. The true feel of Shapes of Rhythm is like Vince Guaraldi's Schroeder laying out the piano funk, seeking the groove inside the rhythm section and laying it out there. It's tough if ornate and it shimmers with real heat. The other disc, a soundtrack for Martine Barrat's movie Woman Is Sweeter, is a much dirtier, rawer affair altogether, and would have been worth the price of the CD alone. Here guitars chunk up in the cut with the bass, and the piano floats in the accents as drums and bass reign supreme. This was recorded immediately after Hair, and MacDermot wasn't in the mood to simply lay out some incidental music to a hippie flick. He took it down to its essence: rhythm, polyrhythm, drums, bass, and filthy nasty funk at insanely fast -- for the time -- tempos that were in fact symbolic of the orgiastic nature of his compositions. This wasn't just sex music, this was group sex symphonic music made with only a handful of instruments. These two albums comprise 26 tracks of pure groove-driven genius, with a bonus vocal version of "Coffee Cold" that the producers go hog-wild over in their notes, but it pretty much sucks compared to the rest of this -- thank the gods they left it until the end. Yeah, you need this if you care about the influence of '60s groove at all. After all, Busta Rhymes did -- check out the sample of MacDermot's "Space" on the rapper's "Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check."

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http://www.M/F.com/?swwxy9s0we6ebc6


Sons of Anarchy: North Country - EP (2009)



This Life
John the Revelator

The North Country EP kickstarts with the infectious theme song by Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers, who balance hard Americana with twangy Southern rock that's wrapped in all the warmth and familiarity of vintage guitar tones culled from those bygone ‘70s AM radio jams. Anvil & Franky Perez’s “Slip Kid” sparks new life into old-school biker rock with some boozy, rootsy, Leslie West-inspired singing under heavy cheeseburger-chomping riffs played loud through new amps. Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers return with a haunting take on the old blues standard “John the Revelator,” and a couple of solid Dylan covers bookend the EP. Audra Mae loans her endearing farmer’s-daughter voice to the Rangers on a beautifully sparse country-folk version of “Forever Young,” though Lions’ ambitious reworking of “Girl from the North Country” is surprisingly tasteful even though it sounds squeezed through a commercial indie-rock filter somewhere in between the Shins and Rogue Wave, sounding maybe more appropriate for the soundtrack to Garden State or Juno.

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http://www.M/F.com/?yxr6xwngny828ya


The Poppy Family - Which Way You Goin' Billy? (1969)



Of Cities and Escapes
Which Way You Goin' Billy?

While in recent years dozens of would-be hipsters have written about the dark undercurrents to be found in the music of the Carpenters, anyone looking for a truly great bummed-out soft rock experience needs to dig up the long out of print debut LP from Vancouver's Poppy Family. While producer, arranger, songwriter, and general straw boss Terry Jacks later found fame for his hit adaptation of Jacques Brel's "Seasons in the Sun," his greatest work was with his then-wife Susan Jacks and their group, the Poppy Family. Blending moody soft pop with light psychedelia, the group hit a rich vein of gorgeous melancholy that made sadness sound positively sensual (the album's token "upbeat" tune, "Happy Island," is significantly also one of the set's weakest moments). The album's two international hit singles, "Which Way You Goin' Billy?" and "That's Where I Went Wrong," are both tales of lovers on the run that sound as desperate as Del Shannon and as lonesome as Brian Wilson's worst nightmare, and such lost classics as "You Took My Moonlight Away" and "Beyond the Clouds" are every bit as strong, boasting clear but emotive vocals from Susan Jacks, brilliant if oddball Indian percussion from Satwan Singh, and melodramatic string arrangements from Graeme Hall. And the two side-closing "freakouts," "There's No Blood in Bone" and "Of Cities and Escapes," manage to be cheesy and powerfully effective at the same time. If the '70s were supposed to be about having a nice day, Which Way You Goin' Billy? shows the Poppy Family were one band waiting for a cloud to blot out all that annoying sunshine; at once kitschy and marvelously sincere, it's a great record worthy of rediscovery.

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http://www.M/F.com/?uq65q2m3afco6jq


William Sheller - Lux Aeterna (1970)



Introit

In 1970, for a friend's wedding, William Sheller wrote a psychedelic mass for orchestra, rock and choir which he called "Lux Aeterna". This work was brought out in 1972 and was therefore his first album. But it is an instrumental album, since song was still not his target.

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http://www.M/F.com/?5vzjfudkvrh8v12

[gospel]

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http://www.mediafire.com/?ids608qcz0foc9k
Couldn't find the bonus track from Amazon's release, "Skeleton Swoon".  I'm sure this link will be down by the time I wake up.