Wet Hair - 08 Tour Tape (Cass.)

Some really great lo-fi ambient/noise/rock type stuff from the folks who brought you Raccoo-oo-oon & Pocahaunted (Night People). I really enjoyed this, as well as any other Wet Hair I've heard, and Night People are quickly becoming one of my favorite labels. I'm a sucker for tapes, and they've got a lot of good ones! If you liked the Emeralds post, or anything like that, then you'll probably dig this, though they're not the same at all really. This is much more immediately progressive, less of a wash of sound type thing. So maybe that's a bad comparison. Both will put you in a dazed-out zone, I suppose, is what I'm trying to say. But besides all that they're awesome! Check their Myspace for a better idea of the sound. Enjoy!

Wet Hair is Shawn Reed & Ryan Garbes of Raccoo-oo-oon.

TRACK LIST:
1. White Strobe Void
2. Black Sand
3. Saturns Return
4. Electric Annihilation

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(thanks to We Are Up For Sale! for the origianl upload)

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Can't Hear My Eyes / Evolution's A Lie (7") (2008)

The newest from Ariel Pink sees his first ever recording with full band. I really liked it. Though I wasn't huge on Can't Hear My Eyes overall I didn't hate it by any means, and the horns in the middle are incredible! Evolution's A Lie is just overall an awesome song, with a much harsher jam/freak-out type dealy [aura] deep at the core. Definitely get this if you're already familiar with Ariel Pink!

"hello friend. My name is Ariel Pink. You've probably read my name online somewhere, maybe your best friend burned you some of my older records, or perhaps you even think we've met at some time in the past. Baloney! Everything you think you know is WRONG- DEAD WRONG. THIS is me, naked, without the buffer of awful tape noise drowning out any lack of vision." - Ariel Pink

TRACK LIST:
1. Can't Hear My Eyes
2. Evolution's A Lie

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Emeralds - Planetarium (2008)

Very beautiful, melodic droney stuff. I don't know much about the band, but this is a fabulous album. It seems they're quite prolific too, as they have several other 2008 releases. They're a band I'm looking quite forward to hearing more of. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find much information on them aside from this being a limited tape release. As such, this is obviously a cassette rip. Enjoy folks.

TRACK LIST:
1. Untitled (9:55)
2. Untitled (9:55)

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(thanks to We Are Up For Sale! for the origianl upload)

Merzbow - Kibbutz (1983)

I've sampled Merzbow before, here and there, but this is the first album to ever really grab me, shake me, throw me down, forcefully penetrate me, impregnate me, abort the baby, eat the remains, and force me to pay attention to the heavenly light that is "Merzbow". Imagine Mainliner's Mellow Out, Amon Düül, and Eye all skipping, hand in hand, through a beautiful park, raping and pillaging as seen fit. This album is the best no-wave krautrock orgasm I've heard. Ever. Get it and prepare to explode. This is a cassette rip, and I'm fairly sure it's never been re-released on anything else. I'm also going to upload one of his 2008 releases, Anicca, in the coming days. Enjoy!

"The late 80s/early 90s saw an influential experimental noise movement emerge from Japan, with artists such as Hanatarash, Masonna, Violent Onsen Geisha, and especially, Merzbow, causing quite a stir. Besides being the leader of the movement, Akita also quickly turned out to be one of the most prolific recording artists in music, as it is almost impossible to stay on top of all his releases. His total number of recordings (both solo and with others) easily passes 300, with some guessing the number totalling over 500." - NME.com

Also: Wikipedia.com

TRACK LIST:
1. Kibbutz Side A Track 1
2. Kibbutz Side A Track 2
3. Kibbutz Side B

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Maximum Joy - Unlimited (1979-1983) (2005)

Picture Ana da Silva of The Raincoats yelping along to some superb punk-groove (think Dub era Flying Lizards), toss in some amazing Pop Group horns and that is somewhat what this album represents. Two parts Glaxo Babies, one part Pop Group, with Janine Rainforth on vocals, Maximum Joy is a hard hitting groove fest that you can't help but dance to! This is kind of like their version of Minor Threat's Discography, in that it compiles tracks from a larger body to give you the overall, a retrospect. I won't ramble on for too long, but if you want to bop, and rock out then grab this one!

"On the track "Building Bridges", Maximum Joy's Janine Rainforth sings, "How do you feel about building a bridge / Between you and me / Between them and us?" A great deal of Maximum Joy's output seems to deal with building bridges. Musically, the group's use of complex percussion, horns, danceable bass lines, and overtly English female vocals built a bridge between the worlds of Afrobeat, reggae, avant-garde jazz, funk, and pop. On a personal level, the band built a bridge connecting musical luminaries like the Pop Group, Adrian Sherwood, Dennis Bovell, Nellee Hooper, and John Peel. The group came together in Bristol, England, in 1979 and besides Rainforth, included Tony Wrafter, Charles Llewelyn, John Waddington, and Dan Catsis. Llewelyn was a former member of Glaxo Babies, Waddington was formerly in the Pop Group, and Catsis and Wrafter had played in both bands. Later, they would be joined by Kev Evans, future super-producer Nellee Hooper, and Jeremy Hirsh." - PopMatters Review

Also: Pitchfork Review (7.8/10)



TRACK LIST:
1. White & Green Place
2. In The Air
3. Building Bridges
4. Summer 'Till Done
5. Stretch
6. Where's Deke
7. Silent Street
8. Man Of Tribes
9. Searching For A Feeling
10. All Wrapped Up!
11. Dancing On My Boomerang

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Arthur Russell - The World Of Arthur Russell (2004)

Disco has never sounded this good. That's really all I can say. Arthur Russell (aka Dinosaur L, for a lot of his dance stuff) is beautiful. Disco is perhaps the wrong word to use, but the inspiration is there. A lot of this stuff could be easily played in clubs, especially in 1978, and people would dance their heads off. Also remember that this is Arthur Russell, so to try and pigeon hole it would be stupid. There is a lot about this album that isn't dance, and doesn't sound anything like the sample below, so experiment with this even if that song doesn't strike your fancy. Also, if you haven't had the chance I recommend sitting down and watching the film Wild Combination (2008), about the life of Arthur Russell. It's intensely mesmerizing and heart breaking. Please go and listen to this album! The end.

"The set opens with the disco favorite "Go Bang #5", as mixed by Francois Kevorkian. From the drunken Don Drummond-esque trombone, weird Bitches Brew-style keyboard doodles, and crisp hi-hats cutting into the hand drums to the mingled masculine/feminine chants of "I want to see all my friends at once go bang, go bang, go bang, get BANGED!!!" its dubby pleasuredome message is undeniable and infectious. Similarly lascivious is the Larry Levan mix of "Is It All Over My Face", whose lyrical meaning vacillates between that of come-on and unbridled aural beatitude on the dancefloor. Both tracks embrace the seeming conflicts of simple physical release and higher levels of ecstatic pleasure and simply let it all go." - Pitchfork Review (8.9/10)



TRACK LIST:

1. "Go Bang" (Dinosaur L) – 7:36
2. "Wax the Van" (Lola) – 5:27
3. "Is It All Over My Face" (Loose Joints) – 6:57
4. "Keeping Up" (Arthur Russell) – 6:20
5. "In the Light of the Miracle" (Arthur Russell) – 13:21
6. "A Little Lost" (Arthur Russell) – 3:18
7. "Pop Your Funk" (Loose Joints) – 6:38
8. "Let's Go Swimming" (Arthur Russell) – 5:14
9. "In the Cornbelt" (Dinosaur L) – 5:57
10. "Treehouse" (Arthur Russell) – 2:17
11. "Schoolbell/Treehouse" (Indian Ocean) – 10:05

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Surprieze - Zeer Oude Klanken En Heel Nieuwe Geluiden (LP) (1973)

SWACK! SHOOMP! BLAP! Look the fuck out before your face explodes! This little dutch jem is golden! Full of disturbed psychedelic free jazz rock and roll extravaganza! There's raunchy guitars, noisy drums, fuzzy feedback, bagpipes, flutes, chants, horns, strings, harmony, cacophony, and plain old good time freak outs. It's got a somewhat middle eastern edge at times, and at times it's kinda like the velvet underground or something. It's all over the place and nasty and I like it that way! Many levels, and they're all schizophrenic noodles and really superb. To top it all off, this is an original vinyl rip courtesy of the great Mutant Sounds. So get it! Now!

"I first read the reviews of the Surprieze LP's and did not expect to hear what I heard when I finally had the chance to listen. The descriptions I read were possibly not written by reviewers who liked or knew albums like Kalacakra, Dom, Siloah, etc., German acoustic improvisational Krautrock albums with a raga-like effect...

This band who started with their career with R&B in 1966 evolved to something completely different, something more psychedelic through avantgardistic and more pure mood improvisation styles. "Suprieze" refers to "surprise" and the music is surprising indeed, because there is not much music like this being made in Holland.

The first track is like Kalacakra, improvisational raga like.

The second track start like an experimental sounds creation like very early Kraftwerk. This kind of creativity with music being born from within the mood and sound creation was very ahead of it's time, and even now it's still not always understood by music writers. -Thanks to the newer more accessible works of Kraftwerk some people did take time to get into the earlier works of Kraftwerk for instance, but other groups were often still denied, although such "sound creations" on its own have abilities to look for and dig into the 'essence' of musical creation. Such transformational potential, within a psychedelic / bluesy raga like mood continuation, creating its own structures, becomes an accessible and enjoyable, mind expanding experience.

After the first two long tracks in the described style two less appealing underground blues tracks come after that. The first track on side B, "Zero" is experimental acid blues, with a psychedelic repetitive rhythm, and with, let's call it "Native screams" and blues mouth harmonica.

The very short track "In Galop" to be followed are completely experimental free sounds. "Lazarus" is a long acid psychedelic improvisation, completely tripped out, with distorted electric guitars, bagpipes, echoed effects, psychedelic voice sounds / singing, flutes. "Lazarus" is a Dutch word for being completely farout which you can be by being drunk or stoned, but can become also when you would listen to this music. The title of the album itself means something like "old sounds for a new sound".

Except for the two blues tracks this is a very interesting psychedelic record, maybe even the most psychedelic record from Holland." - Dutch Progressive Music Reviews

TRACK LIST:
(Note: This track list is from Discog's, which is the only one I could find online, and is different then the upload itself. The sides are reversed. I'm not sure which is correct, sorry.)

A1		Klasziek
A2		Zoen Zoen
A3		Just The Blues
A4		Eddies Harpblues
B1		Zero
B2		In Gallop
B3		Lazarus

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(Thanks to Mutant Sounds for always being amazing, and for the original upload!!)

Filipe Pires - Canto Ecuménico/Litania/Homo Sapiens (1980)

Some amazing acousmatic music! Noise collage at it's finest! Highly recommended if you're interested in noise, electroacoustics, avante-garde composition.

"[Filipe Pires] began his career as a pianist, studying in Lisbon, Hannover and Salzburg. A growing interest in avant-garde aesthetic trends led him to undergo training in electroacoustic music with Pierre Schaeffer at Groupe de Recherches Musicales, from 1970 to 1972. He was engaged as a music specialist for the UNESCO International Secretariat between 1975 and 1979. Up to present, he has also been teaching musical analysis and composition. The musical language of Filipe Pires, formerly of strong tonal roots of neo-classical appearance, has shifted to atonalism, chance and electroacoustics, the latter of which he was a pioneer in Portugal in the 1970’s." - Unknown source.

1. Canto Ecuménico (Ecumenical Chant) - 1979
The choice of a religious theme is a pretext for an approximate comparison of traditional music from different cultural areas. The similarities and differences are presented in the form of collages and quotations, connected and superimposed on the sequences of sound material - vocal and instrumental - drawn exclusively from the musicians. Some parts are fragments of Australian Aboriginal rites, joined with Rain Spirits and mixed with sound taken from a funeral ceremony of the Somba of North Benim. Also included are materials from Tibet, Japan, Orthodox Christian Chants from Armenia and Syria, Islamic rites from Morocco, Yemen and Tunisia. Moroccan, Yemenite and Tunisian jews are also quoted here. From a formal point of view, the grand lines of the composition come together in a single block, in the middle of which distinct sessions develop.

2. Litania (Litany) - 1972
This work was composed while Pires was studying with the French GRM. The improvised parts are controlled in the editing process. The sound materials originate mostly from sheets of iron and metal wires, which are joined at their ends. To produce sound, these are plucked, struck or rubbed, obtaining an extensive range of vibrations. Other sound objects are inserted into the discourse, upon which there are opposite characters, that stop and start under a repetitive pattern.

3. Homo Sapiens - 1972
At the heart of this work is the human voice, used as the symbol of earth and creation. It is phonetically framed towards movement, elaboration, and the fusion of disparate sound elements. Homo Sapiens is a revision of the first part of the Nam Ban ballet, composed in 1970. The present version was composed while Pires was studying at the GRM in Paris.

Released in 1980 by Imavox SARL.
Re-released on CD by Strauss in 1997.

TRACK LIST:
1. Canto Ecuménico [1979] (24:45)
2. Litania [1972] (14:31)
3. Homo Sapiens [1972] (13:38)

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(Thanks to bravo juju for the original upload)

Jakob Olausson - Moonlight Farm (2006)

If this album doesn't move you, then you don't deserve to breath. As far as 2006 goes this one is way up there at the top, along with Beach House's debut. The first time I heard this it was about 7:30 in the morning, I was sitting on the couch drinking some coffee and my roommate put it on. About halfway through the song Unforgivable Question I realized I was completely entranced by the music. I quickly asked who I was listening to, and so began my love affinity with Jakob Olausson. The only other music I was able to find by the gifted Swede was his equally unknown band, Joshua Jugband 5. This is basement bedroom four-track bliss like you've never heard it. For the few of you who may know Tradition, this is somewhat comparable at times, if only for the occasional bellow from deep within Olausson's belly. Full of bells and whistles and trinkets, toy noise makers found in garbage dumps and flea markets, full of gorgeous guitar melodies, full of hauntingly morose vocal chants, full of absolute, undoubted, moving beauty. Get this album or you're wasting your life!

"If Skip Spence were somehow, instead of finding his white-frocked self stuck in the rat-infested hole that was Bellvue, transplanted to the pine forests north of Malmo, Sweden, in a sonic nest of gimbri, bells, shakers and clothed in Tibetan silk, one would come slightly closer to the reality of Jakob Olausson’s migratory whims. To be sure, that foggy and only slightly inland empire of synapse-twisters like Ben Chasny offers a step on the trodden trail, but this isn’t the same road we’ve traveled before. Olausson’s huge ears protect him from the cold and keep the sun from turning his face to a series of desert crags, as his compositions slowly fade down the walls of four-track bedroom artistry into atemporal suites that shrink huge expanses and are a bellows to the microcosmic. Enter the Moonlight Farm." - Clifford Allen (De Stijl)

Also: Pitchfork Review (7.9/10)

- LINK REMOVED -

Fred Frith - Cheap At Half The Price (1983)

The first time I heard this album it totally threw me against a wall, as would any introduction to Fred Frith I should assume. It screamed at me, and I listened contently. If you've never heard this album, or especially if you've never heard Fred Frith, then you are in for a real treat. The first song that really grabbed me, and is still my favorite of his, is Evolution. When that middle-eastern-esque guitar solo kicks in it just fries my brain. I sat down about a month ago and started watching the film Step Across The Border (1990), which features Frith throughout, and I only made it ten minutes in before I paused it and spent the rest of the night listening to Frith albums I'd never heard before. It was a great night. So please grab this if you've never heard it. Frith is as eclectic as a river is wet, and this album is no exception, so to try and explain what he sounds like would do no justice. Just get it if you're interested in anything.

"Cheap at Half the Price is a 1983 solo album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It was Frith's third and last album for The Residents' Ralph Records label and was recorded by Frith at his home in New York City on a 4-track recorder. Frith played almost all the instruments himself, with the exception of bass guitar on two tracks, and drums, for which he used drum tapes and samples previously recorded by other drummers." - Wikipedia.com



TRACK LIST:

1		Some Clouds Don't (3:12)
2		Cap The Knife (2:47)
3		Evolution (3:21)
4		Too Much, Too Little (2:09)
		Bass - Tina Curran Engineer - Kramer (2)
5		True Love (2:58)
		Voice - Sheena Dupuis
6		The Welcome (2:28)
7		Same Old Me (2:58)
		Bass - Bill Laswell
8		Some Clouds Do (2:49)
9		Instant Party (1:53)
10		Person To Person (2:20)
		Saxophone [Alto] - George Cartwright
11		Walking Song (3:13)
12		Flying In The Face Of Facts (2:38)
13		Heart Bares (4:56)
14		Absent Friends (3:58)
		Handclaps - Aksak Maboul
15		The Great Healer (2:07)

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Lemon Kittens - The Big Dentist (1981)

Those that bite the hand that feeds them sooner or later must meet ... THE BIG DENTIST ...! Indeed, there is no better statement to sum up this album. I've only just started listening to it, I stumbled upon it a few days ago while researching Karl Blake, and I immediately knew I had to share it on here. It's got so much of what I love in so many different bands. There is just so much to offer. It's like The Flying Lizards, with a bit of Eno (sometimes), and even briefly at times it takes on a certain tenderness which can't help but remind one of the great Robert Wyatt, of The Soft Machine. Take all of that and mix it with some sort of odd-ball early electronica/80's synth-pop and you might be close to this album. You may also be way off base. Who knows, and who cares. This album is so much stranger and eclectic then how i've explained it, so just get it because it's really interesting and fantastic stuff!

"The Lemon Kittens are a post-punk band formed in Reading, Berkshire, England in the late 1970s by Karl Blake and Gary Thatcher. The cast of the band revolved quite frequently, notably counting among its membership musicians such as Danielle Dax and Mark Perry of Alternative TV and The Good Missionaries." - Wikipedia.com


Not from this album, but it'll give you a taste.

TRACK LIST:
1. They Are Both Dirty (11:19)
2. The Hospital Hurts The Girl (4:30)
3. Mylmus (4:09)
4. No Night Not Shared (4:55)
5. Oath (4:08)
6. The Log And The Pin (4:00)
7. Nudies (3:17)
8. An Untimely End (2:11)

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Nahvalr - Nahvalr (2008)

To start off with, I'm not a Black Metal enthusiast by any stretch of the imagination. I don't know all the bands, and I couldn't tell you what "true" black metal is. I do, however, know a little about the genre, about the various murders and crimes associated with the Norwegian scene, and about some of the main people involved, etc. I have a few friends, one in particular, who have shown me everything I know, only within the last few months. From what little I do know I can say this, some black metal is lame, much like the mindset of many of the most hardcore fans, but aside from all the ritualistic bullshit and uptight elitist know-it-all hogwash, there is some really fucking incredible music out there. And the best part is, you don't have to burn down a church or murder yr best friend to enjoy it! I don't know if this would fall, technically, into the black metal circle of life but that's where I'd put it. It's dark as hell, and full of sound. Droney guitars, blasting noise, it even opens with "sounds from Hell" for Christ sake! As a bit of a side note, this is made by the same dudes responsible for Have A Nice Life, though the two are completely different projects. So without trying to sound like I have any idea what I'm talking about when it comes to black metal, I'll just say that if you like things loud, heavy, atmospheric, or just really fucking cool, then do yourself a favour and get this album! It's completely rad! P.S. If yr a hardcore Black Metal dude, please don't kill me.

"Nahvalr, described by its founders as “open source black metal”, is nothing less than a landmark in originality. Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga from Connecticut’s equally brilliant Have a Nice Life have taken submitted noises, samples and instrumentals from across the web and melded them together into 8 terrifying movements that shift between ambient, doom, drone and black metal styles. These impenetrable walls of sound are as compelling as they are suffocating, rich with grotesque detail and atmosphere. While numerous dark ambient acts have touched on the same blackened corner stones as Nahvalr, both the innovative creative process and the density of this album is remarkable.

The idea of having many so disparate sounds compiled may seem daunting, even counter productive in the creation of music, Nahvalr moves far beyond mere bursts of noise and finds a common, sinister and even spiritual thread that runs through their collections. Their compositions, whether they are cavernous, bass-driven processions (”Blood Flood”) or ghostly, free-floating ambiance (”Swallower of Bile”) are given ample room to stretch out and breathe, uncovering a powerful emotional center in each.

Music this experimental, haunting and visceral demonstrates the often neglected potential the Internet has for collaborative projects. It may be overlong in some segments, but the dark energy within Nahvalr is impossible to ignore and shake off, making it a masterpiece of devastatingly bleak reflection. I can only hope that projects like Nahvalr, with all their promise and dynamism, will continue to take shape and flourish in our digital culture." - The Rock Blogger

Also: An awesome review where they compare this to Burzum

TRACK LIST:
1. Chorus of the Blasphemes
2. Blood Flood
3. There Isn't Anything
4. Objectivity
5. Swallower of Bile
6. The Witch Box
7. Let Them Eat Blood
8. Black Elk Speaks, Chokes, and Dies

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A John Waters Christmas (2004)

I'm sitting here, freshly poured white russian in hand, enjoying Phil Spector's brilliant holiday album, A Christmas Gift For You, after putting together my nephew's new drum set and I'm thinking to myself "sometimes, Christmas is fantastic!". So, in honor of my splendid mood, i'll share something with you. I discovered this album a few years back when I went through my first John Waters binge. It's totally great! One of my favorite holiday albums, way up there with Spector's. These are songs that John Waters himself has chosen, a mix tape of sorts, to share with everyone on his favorite holiday of the year. I got to see Waters live last christmas for his annual stand-up thingy and if you ever get a chance to go I recommend taking it. He's a great man to hear speak. So anyways. Please, sit back, pour a drink, and enjoy this holiday gem! And have a good holiday season assholes!

"Just when you think you can’t stand to hear another Christmas carol, here I come with a holiday treat that will make you actually appreciate the insanity of the Yuletide season. Wrap this CD as a gift to yourself, pretend you forgot what it is and act surprised when you open it. Close your eyes and imagine you’re with me at my house Christmas morning listening to favorite carols.

What better music to open your Xmas stocking with than “Fat Daddy (is Santa Claus)” ?! Fat Daddy -- Baltimore’s one-time coolest rhythm and blues disc jockey, host of “Negro Day” on “The Buddy Deane Show”, and my inspiration for the Motor Mouth Maybelle character in “Hairspray” -- never sounded so lovely, so cheery, so ripe to be asked over for eggnog. Maybe Tiny Tim could join us. No Mrs. Miller, this eccentric but brilliant performer may have been a novelty act in his day, but when he sings, “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” like a Christmas canary, he’s no joke in my house.

Of course, some of us get neurotically religious during the holiday season, so “Happy Birthday Jesus” by scary “Little Cindy” will be just perfect to play if Christian guilt ever creeps into your celebration. Listen to this child’s voice; so godawful, so devout, so beautiful, so perfect. No second take in the recording booth for this motley moppet! “Little Cindy” regrets nothing and neither should you.

A lot of my Baltimore friends might be described as “extreme white people” so I hope you don’t mind if I invite a few of them over to join us. They especially like to get drunk and sing-a-long with “Here Comes Fatty Clause” and complain about future bankruptcy because of gift giving. Of course, some of these guests get the “whirlies” and are unable to stand up without falling down so I put on the crippled Christmas carol “Little Mary Christmas” and we all shed a tear over the pathologically maudlin orphan who “hobbled back to her room” after being passed up for adoption year after year.

But who needs to feel sad at Christmas, right? Especially when Big Dee Irwin and Little Eva belt out “I Wish You a Merry Christmas” in a soulfully obscure holiday greeting that makes me wish I had their heirs’ home addresses so I could wish them a merry one, too. Of course, not all of our friends could make it over here today, so when we listen to the melancholy “Santa, Don’t Pass Me By” and think about that country singer hitching a ride with Santa to get home for Christmas, I bet you’ll feel like picking him up and buying him a present all on your own.

I can’t help it, I have the hots for “The Chipmunks.” We all have a type, what can I say? When these mischievous little friends ring those “Sleigh Bells”, I feel so happy, so aggressive that I want to get dressed as Santa, go out and scare the neighbors. Just when I think no Christmas song could be any closer to my heart I hear the nasal good cheer of “Sleighbells, Reindeer & Snow” and wish I could get a stuffy nose. I fix everybody another cocktail and we sit back, count our blessings and marvel at the almost cinematic use of the musical instrument, the theremin, in “First Snowfall.” I remind my guests that being alone can sometimes be so peaceful.

But hey, it’s time for turkey dinner so what better way to say grace than to play my old time favorite Kwanza carol, “Santa Claus Is A Black Man.” Here it is, the motherlode of crackpot Xmas carols, the 45rpm record I hunted for my whole life and recently bought on eBay at a great deal of personal expense just so you could hear it too. Yes, Akim, there is a Santa Claus and he’ll always be black in my mind because of your liberating, endearing vocal. Just thinking about this holiday song makes me feel as if I could spontaneously combust.

Have a merry, rotten, scary, sexy, biracial, ludicrous, happy little Christmas.

See you next year." - John Waters

TRACK LIST:

1. "Fat Daddy" - Fat Daddy
2. "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" - Tiny Tim
3. "Christmas Time Is Coming" (A Street Carol) - Stormy Weather
4. "Happy Birthday Jesus" - Little Cindy
5. "Here Comes Fatty Claus" - Rudolph & Gang
6. "Little Mary Christmas" - Roger Christian
7. "I Wish You A Merry Christmas" - Big Dee Irwin & Little Eva
8. "Santa Don't Pass Me By" - Jimmy Donley
9. "Sleigh Ride" - Alvin & The Chipmunks
10. "Sleigh Bells, Reindeer And Snow"
11. "First Snowfall" - The Coctails
12. "Santa Claus Is A Black Man" - AKIM & The Teddy Vann Production Company

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ME, & JOHN!


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Merry Christmas Ya Little Jerks!

Hope everyone has a good Christmas, or Holiday, or what have you. Hopefully by the end of the night I'll have uploaded A John Waters Christmas, one of the best x-mas albums ever, but if not it'll be tomorrow. Toodles for now.

- DD

Kenneth Higney - Attic Demonstration (1976)

Imagine for a second that Jandek and Simon Finn teamed up with Jad Fair and started a psychedelic free form folky rock 'n' roll band in 1976. It might sound a little bit like this. It's naive but complex, confusing and strange but very beautiful and honest. It has a certain quality to it that I can't quite place, but I like it! Very much! I guess this album has become somewhat of a cult classic among record collectors, and it's pretty easy to see why. It's a very strange album, but I highly recommend it to those interested in outsider music.

"Attic Demonstration is a collection of demos performed by Higney in 1976. A New Jersey truck driver looking to jumpstart a career as a songwriter, Higney pressed the record in order to give it to other musicians, in hopes that they would perform his songs. That no one took him up on his offer is not surprising, since this a relentlessly downbeat, ramshackle collection of music. It’s a compelling and frequently bleak piece of work, but not one with much (or anything at all) in the way of the commercial potential Higney may have hoped for. Imagine Neil Young’s depressive masterwork On the Beach, only replace Neil Young with an untrained singer who vacillates between a haunted, plaintive drawl and a raspy shout, force the musicians to play constantly out of time, drench everything in tortured lead guitar, and deprive the band any second-takes." - Dusted Review

More Info: Wikipedia.com
Reviews: CD Baby

TRACK LIST:
1. Night Rider
2. Children Of Sound
3. Rock Star
4. Can't Love That Woman
5. Look At The River
6. Quietly Leave Me
7. Let Us Pray
8. I'll Cry Tomorrow
9. No Heavy Trucking
10. Funky Kinky
11. I Wanna Be The King

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Peter Jefferies & Jono Lonie - At Swim 2 Birds (1987)

What you have here is some extremely melodic mood work. It's instrumental zone music of the highest grade. At times, the guitar is fairly reminiscent of early Durutti Column, though overall there is a lot more going on here. It almost delves, if only for the slightest of moments, into the Krautrock arena with glorious repetition and rhythm. It's a very beautiful and eclectic album, so full of sound. I especially enjoyed the songs Interalia and Tarentella. Aside from listening to it I don't really know too much about the people involved or anything like that so please just grab, listen, and enjoy!

"Jefferies' first solo effort is actually a full collaboration with fellow New Zealand musician Jono Lonie, titled after the cult surrealist novel by Irish author Flann O'Brien. The album itself is entirely instrumental, and described by Jefferies in the liner notes for the 1997 reissue as being "an antidote of sorts to a previous sound and method of writing," further referring to the recording location at Lonie's house as providing the "ocean, air, light" counterpoint to the often dark and brooding This Kind of Punishment releases. For all this, many hints of Jefferies' TKP work inevitably crop up (as does its overall sonic quality, due in part to also using a TEAC four-track). The most unmistakable connection is his distinct, evocative piano sound, highlighted prominently on songs like (unsurprisingly) "Piano (One)." However, the collaborative nature of the work with Lonie, in the end, does result in distinctly different music all around; when "Piano (One)" really takes off with a restrained but forward-moving keyboard line as Lonie's echoing guitar weaves around the music, it's just one of many moments where things indeed feel much livelier and more brightly beautiful than in the past. Jefferies adds drums at points much as he did in TKP, giving the sprightly drone "Interalia" a rollicking little push where needed and providing the powerful "The Standing Stone" with a pulsing beat under a strong guitar/violin combination. He also plays with tape effects to provide fine twists and turns to the music throughout. Lonie's own work is impeccable; besides providing almost all the guitar, his violin work is equally striking. The title track is one of his finest moments, as his violin melody rises throughout an overlay of reverbed strings that have turned into a weirdly lovely background shading. " - All Music Guide

TRACK LIST:

1. Introduction
2. Thief With The Silver
3. Piano (One)
4. Interalia
5. At Swim 2 Birds
6. Tarentella
7. Where The Flies Sleep
8. The Standing Stone
9. Aerial
10. Short Was Fast
11. Piano (Two)

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Thanks to La Folie Du Jour for the original upload.

Eric Copeland - Hermaphrodite (2007) + Alien In A Garbage Dump (2008)

I have long been a fan of the New York noise outfit Black Dice. Their unique combination of melodic noise and pop sensibility is undeniably original. They do to "Noise Music" what i've always wanted to do, or have someone do for me. As a result I naturally got very excited last year when Eric Copeland began releasing his solo work.

Hermaphrodite (2007)


Hermaphrodite is probably the best noise album i've ever heard. It's OK if you don't agree with me. This isn't your average noise album. It takes what Black Dice does to "Noise" and amplifies that. It's what you might expect if Justin Timberlake decided to do noise music. By that I mean it's "poppy" as hell. That being said, if you're not a noise fan then you'll want to take that with a grain of salt. This is still Noise by any definition.

As far as I know, Copeland spent a few years tinkering with his first solo effort before finally deciding on these 12 tracks, a euphonic mixture of radio loops, frequencies, various effects pedals, samples, etc. Though this is indeed a noise album, it's an extremely fun and, again, poppy one. It's noise you don't mind bobbing along to. I'll stop this ramble so you can enjoy it for yourself.

"It may be misleading to say that Hermaphrodite, the first solo album by Black Dice's Eric Copeland, is catchier than anything his band has done. After all, it's a noisy, predominantly abstract record. But there's a joyful swing and pleasant ease to Copeland's work here that no Black Dice album has quite caught. Rather that darting around implied destinations, Copeland is happy to settle into grooves, picking simple patterns and letting them blissfully churn away. The result is music that you can actually nod your head to, even when it challenges your grey matter.

Hermaphrodite's accessibility comes not just from its simplicity, but also its playfulness. Through bouncy rhythmic loops, sprightly vocal chants, and child-like melodies, Copeland crafts pieces that feel sunny and breezy even at their roughest. In that sense Hermaphrodite evokes Gang Gang Dance's early séances and Animal Collective's brighter rain dances. But it's even closer to the wide-eyed art loops of the Residents. Copeland captures that seminal outfit's primal beauty on tracks like "Wash Up", with its warped vocals and bubbly synths, and "FKD", with sneaky whines so Residents-like you can practically follow the bouncing eyeball." - Pitchfork review

TRACK LIST:
1. Hermaphrodite
2. La Booly Boo
3. Oreo
4. Green Burrito
5. Wash Up
6. Spacehead
7. Tree Aliens
8. Scum Pipe
9. Dinca
10. Mouth Hole
11. FKD
12. Scraps

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Alien In A Garbage Dump (EP) (2008)

So, this too is great. I found it somewhat different from Hermaphrodite, though that could be due to the fact that there was much less time spent on creating this. Still, I can't help but nod along to the rhythms Copeland creates with his mashed samples and vocal loops. Highly recommended listening for anyone remotely interested in Noise.

"Sometimes a song's title can tell you something. Case in point is the title track from the Alien in a Garbage Dump vinyl-only EP by Black Dice member Eric Copeland. As heard on his record last year, Hermaphrodite, Copeland is something of a sonic dumpster diver, finding weird bits of sonic detritus and then slapping them together into collages that can be both creepy and funny. Compared to where Black Dice has been with the last few records, Copeland seems to be in a comparatively maximalist state of mind, never finding any virtual audio tape that he didn't want to saturate with noise. He's also making music that seems to me a touch more pop and easier to latch onto on the first spin. "Alien in a Garbage Dump" begins with huge amounts of clatter and a sampled voice imploring "Just don't do it" in a never-ending loop that could be a cousin to the "Come out to show them" bit used in Steve Reich's "Come Out" all those years ago. It works through myriad small variations to the pulse of a bass hit, and then it comes out on the other side, squinting into the bright light of a for-real tune. Over "La Bamba"/"Like a Rolling Stone" guitar chords, a loose and melodic guitar solo brings things home. Ah, the wonders of contrast; you can find some pretty cool shit in a landfill." - Pitchfork

TRACK LIST:
1. King Tits Womb
2. Alien In A Garbage Dump
3. Corn On The Cob
4. Osni
5. Scones And Bull
6. Reptilian Space Beings Shapeshifting Bloodsucking Vampires
7. Everybody's Libido

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Synecdoche, New York (2008)

So apparently i'm out of the loop. I'm so out of the loop. I'm embarrassingly and shamefully out of the loop. I'm so far out of the loop it's scary. It may not be for you, but for me it's terrifying. You see, I somehow have managed to go until two days ago without knowing about this new film thats coming out. Finally, at long last, my hero, my god, the love of my life, the intencely brilliant Charlie Kaufman has directed his first picture. When it comes to writing a story that just destroys everything you've come to expect in a story, there's no one better than Kaufman. I didnt know he was even writing a new film, let alone that he was done it, and he was directing it himself. I am, to say the very least, so fucking excited I could cry. NOT ONLY THAT! but it stars my favorte actor as well. The always depressingly great, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The film, as far as I've picked up so far, is about Caden Cotard (Hoffman), a theatre director, who builds a lifesized replica of New York city, and fills it with actors to play himself and the people he knows in an attempt to dicover something about himsef that might satisfy his insecurities with life (??). I think? Now, within this life sized recreation of New York city there is of course another life sized recreation of New York, and within that recreation, OF COURSE, there is yet another life sized recreation of New York, and so on and so on and so on and so on. All of these filled with actors, playing the parts of Cotard and his friends/family. God I love you Charlie Kaufman. Anyways, i'll stop drooling now. Thought I'd let you know in case yr as behind as I.





ENJOY MOTHERFUCKERS!

Holiday Rush

OK, so I'm traveling around home for the Holidays, and I haven't really had a chance to upload anything, nor do I have a very solid internet connection, but I'll have lots of new stuff in the coming weeks, so please be patient. Sorry for taking so long to update.

- DD

The Brothers Quay - Rehearsals For Extinct Anatomies (1988)

Another brilliant stop-motion short, by The Brothers Quay.

Jan Švankmajer - Picnic With Weismann (1968)

Well I guess today is movie day on BT. This is one of my favorite pieces by one of the pioneers of stop-motion animation, Czech filmmaker and artist Jan Švankmajer. If yr not familiar w/ his work then you need to look into it. Enjoy!

more info: IMDB.com

Fallen Art

Sonic Youth + Aphex Twin (Dance Party!)

Duncan Browne - Give Me Take You (1968)

Some hippy psych-folk goodness for a quiet sunday afternoon. I was just listening to some Lee Hazelwood and it mellowed me out big time. I decided to listen to Duncan Browne's debut release Give Me Take You, an occassion not too frequent in my day to day. What a nice album. It's so peaceful and good. Browne's voice hangs slightly on a cross between Paul McCartney, Nick Drake and a bit of Dr. Strangely Strange frontman and founder Tim Booth. There's also a hint of John Cale in there somewhere. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys beautiful folk. Very similar musically to Donovan, Bill Fay, or Dr. Strangely Strange, though not quite as eccentric as the latter. Just get it if you like nice mellow acoustic guitar songs.
The End.

"Duncan Browne's melancholy first album, Give Me Take You -- released on music impresario Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label in 1968 -- is one wonderfully tender album. Many who only discovered it well after its original release are compare its dulcet introspective tone to Nick Drake's albums. It does fall into a similar English folk vein, though Browne's arrangements are, on the whole, more Baroque, giving the album a semi-classical, regal feel. Browne charted his own classical arrangements and wrote out vocal charts for a choir, but turned to his art school friend David Bretton for song lyrics. It's Bretton's lovely Pre-Raphaelite style phrases, used here in the guise of lyrical content, that fans of this album often react strongly to, one way or another. True, there's a youthful innocence and melancholy that comes off as somewhat naïve sounding, mawkish, and awkward in our modern age -- "Better a tear of truth than smiling lies" is one example -- but this is a minor quibble. Immediate issued only one single from the album, "On the Bombsite," but it failed to connect with listeners. At the time of its release, Oldham's Immediate was reportedly falling apart. He was in financial ruin and reportedly cut the sessions short to save money. The album remained out of print until 2000, when it was issued for the first time on compact disc by the U.K.-based Castle imprint, this time with five bonus tracks dating from Browne's early-'70s sessions when he was recording for the Bell label." - Allmusic.com


Ninepence Worth Of Walking

TRACK LIST:

1. Give Me Take You

2. Ninepence Worth Of Walking

3. Dwarf In A Tree (A Cautionary Tale)

4. Ghost Walks

5. Waking You

6. Chloe In The Garden

7. Waking You

8. On The Bombsite

9. I Was You Weren't

10. Gabilan

11. Alfred Bell

12. Death Of Neil

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Sun City Girls - Djinn Funnel (2006) (LP)

Sun City Girls are one of those bands where you never know what to expect. They're probably the band you can always rely on being surprised by. Every album I've ever heard has been totally different from the last. They're jazz, they're rock and roll, they're lo-fi garage punk, they're acid freak-out tribal blues, they're indian wedding destruction, they're folk fodder farfiza funk. They're also really great! This album is my favorite of what I've heard. It's very aggressive and raw, sometimes sounding a lot like Old Time Relijun or something. Lot's of cool guitar licks, and brutal drum drones, and a few great vocal waves that just put you in a trance! The guitar just squeals on into waves of euphoria until you forget that you're even listening to it. My favorite song is definitely the albums opener, Nites of Malta. It makes me want to cream on the walls with blood semen and smash my face into nails and screws. Enjoy this gem, or die a wasted soul.
(This is an LP rip, limited pressing of 570 copies)

"There's five tracks on "Djinn Funnel", recorded between 1999 and 2001, and they're the Girls like I've never been familiar with em before. I don't profess to know nearly the amount of SCG material as I'm sure many out there do but this one stumped me hard, if we were Invisible Jukeboxing I'd have been as out of my element as Marianne Faithful trying to nail down an MF Doom b-side. All these five are Sun City Girls playing the blues, playing the heavy electric blooz psych rock blues that is. "Nites of Malta" opens the set with a funky, swishing drumline and stoned, radio-ed nasal voice drip, with an absolutely searing Rick Bishop solo what kinda brings to mind Michio Kurihara shredding things on the record he did with Boris...'cept with the Eastern hookah haze the Girls often tread in. It ends with an explosive, thrashing chorus of screaming feedback (and screaming voices) and somehow the LP keeps getting better from there. If "Djinn Funnel" is the band's "Paranoid" - heavy, stoned and blues-informed - then "Dukun Degeneration" is its "Planet Caravan" with the echo of Ozzy's vocals replaced with noise distortion from Rick's guitar as Alan's struggles to keep things above water with melting, gelatinous bass fuzz. But it's Rick again who steers the songs up to and over the brink with more destructive, almost metal moves on "Dark Nectar", while he shears up in almost Mizutani-like fashion with another Eastern bent on "Red Sea Blues", an even closer comparison would be Acid Mothers Temple and the Eastern-influenced psychedelics they dredge up from time to time. The best is saved for last on the 12-minute epic finale "Grand Trunk (Drifters of the Grand Trunk)". Moving at a meditative pace and operating off of a rhythm section composed of Gocher's cyclical cymbal shots and Alan's gently loping, looping bass rhythm, the Girls hit a sound not at all unlike what OM put together on "Conference of the Birds" with a bit more in the way of subtly pushed, acid-washed guitar licks and airy vocals. Other reference points coult be Quicksilver Messenger Service or the Grateful Dead. And yeah the Sun City Girls playing in line with classic 70's psych sounds every bit as good as you'd hope."
- OuterSpaceGamelan


The albums sounds nothing like this.

TRACK LIST:
1. Nites of Malta
2. Dukun Degeneration
3. Dark Nectar
4. Red Sea Blues
5. Grand Trunk (Drifters of the Grand Trunk)

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Dean Ween shows us his "Sunday Sauce"

Dean Ween shares his recipe for a Sunday Sauce. This looks and sounds so delicious! I am definitely going to try to make it someday! Enjoy.

The Sunday Sauce

Ween - Axis: Bold As Boognish (1987) (Cass.)

Depending on when Mrs. Slack came out, this would be Ween's second release. There's isn't much known about the album, and the label it was released on is long dead. The album is kinda strange, for Ween. It's very raunchy old school punk type music, with the trademark silly lyrics, and lots of noisy feedback. At times it's reminiscent of Dead Milkmen or something of that ilk, but overall it's a lot noisier. You can tell they were 17 when they made this. It's very aggressive and full of hyperactivity. I Love it! I had never heard Ween like this and it's great! Released on cassette tape.

More Info: Wikipedia.com

TRACK LIST:

1. "I'm Killing It (Kill Everything)"
2. "Tweet Tweet"
3. "On The Beach"
4. "I Like You"
5. "Bumblebee"
6. "Emily"
7. "David The Negro"
8. "The Iron Whore"
9. "Sittin' On My Ass (Wanton Nougat)"
10. "Smoke In My Brain"
11. "Anne"
12. "Aqua-Ween"
13. "She Said, She Said"
14. "The Journey Into Dinh"
15. "Gene's Lament (Tree Love Theme)"
16. "Opus 51 Fugue Trilogy In A (Take Me To The Tree) - a. Yurtle Swimming/b. The Tree/c. Bertha Gets The Mooshy Mooshy/d. The Kitty And The Squirrel/e. The Departure"
17. "One Love For Boognish"

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(Thanks to Bruunski Beats for the original upload)

Hanatarash - The Hanatarash & his eYe (1992)

TOTAL DEATH ENTERTAINMENT CURMUDGEON! that's one way of putting it. Hanatarash is Eye (pre-Boredoms) and Mitsuru Tabata, and it's total noise war chaos. They were banned from every club they played due to their intencely violent and dangerous live shows, in which Eye would basically set up and destroy "things" including large drum barrels, sheets of glass, various metals, etc. Get this and explode.

"Hanatarashi (ハナタラシ), meaning "sniveler" or "snot-nosed" in Japanese, was a noise band created by later Boredoms frontman Yamantaka Eye and featured Zeni Geva guitarist Mitsuru Tabata. The outfit was formed in Osaka, Japan in 1984 after Eye and Tabata met as stage hands at an Einstürzende Neubauten show. After the release of the first album, the "I" was dropped and the name became Hanatarash. They used a variety of unusual noise-making objects, including power tools, drills, and heavy machinery.

Hanatarash was notorious for its dangerous live shows. Some of the band's most infamous shows included Eye cutting a dead cat in half with a machete, strapping a circular saw to his back and almost cutting his leg off, and destroying part of a venue with a backhoe bulldozer by driving it through the back wall and onto the stage.

At a 1985 show in Tokyo's Superloft, the audience was required to fill out waivers due to the possibility of harm caused by the show. The show was stopped due to Eye preparing to throw a lit molotov cocktail onto the stage. The performance cost ¥600,000 (approximately $6,000 US) in repairs.

After several years of the intense live shows, Hanatarash was forbidden from performing at most venues, and were only allowed to return to live performances in the 1990s without the trademark danger." - Wikipedia.com


Live (1988)


Live at Bears, Osaka Japan

TRACK LIST:
1. Bom Bom Rider
2. Acid Surfin Nazimetal
3. Audio Gunshot--One
4. Pointless Brosers
5. Suicidal Budda
6. Audio Gunshot--Two

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Blurt - BBC Session (09/24/80)

I have no album art for this one, sorry. If you've never heard Blurt, think James Chance meets The Pop Group meets The Birthday Party? Maybe even a bit of Faust-ish Krautrock thrown in for kicks? I know, i know, that sounds WAAAY too good to be true, and maybe it is. It probably is. Blurt isn't the best band to ever exist. BUT, they're certainly really really REALLY great and well worth listening to. So fucking groovy and cool. So get this and rock and roll a little. Its good time chir out duude. WAKKID DOOD. the end.

"Blurt are a musical group founded by poet, saxophonist and puppeteer Ted Milton in 1979 in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Ted Milton's brother Jake Milton, formerly in psychedelic group Quintessence, on drums and Peter Creese on guitar. After three albums Creese left the band to be replaced by Herman(Nep'n' Bend)Martin on synthesizers who after a year of constant touring left the band and was replaced by Steve Eagles, former member of Satans Rats, The Photos and Bang Bang Machine. Shortly thereafter brother Jake left to be replaced by Paul Wigens, with a short interim on drums by Nic Murcott. Eagles was replaced by Chris Vine as guitarist from 1990 to 1994. The latest drummer in the band is Bob Leith, also on drums in Cardiacs.

Blurt's compositions are based around repetitive minimalistic guitar and/or saxophone phrases with relentless, machine-like drum beats, over which Ted Milton orates his lyrics in a variety of "voices"."
- Wikipedia.com

Cherry Blossom Polish (Live in Stollwerk, 1982)

TRACK LIST:
1. Cherry Blossom Polish
2. Paranoid Blues
3. Some Come
4. Ubu

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