Thursday, December 9, 2010

Peter Walker - Rainy Day Raga (1967)

"Peter Walker (born 1937) is an American folk guitarist noted for dextrous instrumental pieces that reference the Indian classical and Spanish flamenco traditions. Recognised principally for his recorded output in the mid-to-late sixties, his rediscovery by the current generation of American and European outsider folk artists has seen his work accorded similar reverence to that of other notable American finger-pickers such as John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Leo Kottke, and granted him a renewed platform for both touring and recording."
grab it here or here
enjoy
-p

Friday, November 26, 2010

The Gabby Pahinui Band & Ry Cooder - The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band Vol. 1 (1975)




Just found this amazing vinyl of ry cooder (guy that brought together the BVSC) cooperating with a hawaiian band on an Amsterdam flea-market.

The album has such a laid-back 'hawaiian meets country' feel to it. Lots of excellent slide-guitar by ry cooder, hawaiian 'slack key' guitar playing, and general good vibes. The whole album was recorded in gabby's house in hawaii, powered by generators especially bought for the occasion.

awesome quote for you guys:
"Gabby Pahinui helped to lay the foundation for Hawaiian slack key guitar playing. Although he recorded only one internationally released album, Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band, Vol. 1, his influence continues to be reflected in the playing of Hawaiian slack key players and American guitarists including John Fahey, Leo Kottke, and Ry Cooder."

The album's somewhere on mediafire, but can't find the link anymore so here are the tracks (streamed, thanks to 30daysout.wordpress.com):

Aloha Ka Manini
Blue Hawaiian Moonlight
Moani Ke_Ala (def check this one, so chill)
“Oli Komo (Chant)”
“Ipo Le Manu”
“Moonlight Lady”
“Hawaiian Love”

-p

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Benjamin Wetherill - Laura (2008)

Benjamin Wetherill’s an artist who I respect massively. He seems to have gone sadly under the radar of late, though some of the progressive stuff he’s done with the ‘Trumpets of Death’ is quite awesome. Here’s his debut album from 2008, ‘Laura’, which is an amazing contemporary recasting of some traditional folk songs and some wonderful original tunes.

‘For all the headlines’ and ‘Shallow Brown’ are good intros to his music, but some of the longer more complex tracks are worth repeat listens to really get a feel for him. I love this album it’s fucking incredible – the guitar-work and his voice are both phenomenal, and the extra instrumentation from A Hawk and A Hacksaw (and others) really compliments it. I also believe it was recorded in an abandoned church in Bulgaria (although I may be wrong) which adds to the flavour ;)

There are youtube clips but I didn’t really want to put one up as they’re generally not good enough quality to really convey the power of his music.

http://www.mediafire.com/?uhr2mndljlx

Friday, November 12, 2010

Nedry - Condors (2010)

Ok actually all that talk of Nedry in the post below made me want to dedicate a bit of blog space on here to them.

I've seen these guys develop their sound since I was playing in Green as a Primary a couple of years ago and it's been a pleasure to see them hone it like this and get some deserved recognition. Ayu's wonderfully ethereal voice and haunting melodies are an amazing addition to the well-crafted soundscapes of bass, beats and synths layered with intricate guitar work, and sometimes, just sometimes, it gets a little dirty - which is always nice. They're currently touring Europe with 65Days of Static.

Here's a big tune off their album Condors:


Here's their myspace - some awesome songs on there: http://www.myspace.com/nedrymakesmusic - check out Clouded

I don't really want to link to a mediafire DL of their album because I know them and it makes stealing music feel a bit more real... that's my hypocrit's mea culpa. But check em out and BUY their album! lol.

Also they're heading your way a week today Phil (19th Nov) - so def go see them if you can. Check the listings on their myspace.

-L

Dubbin' Selecta (various)

So Phil keeps bothering me about uploading some dubstep. I was trying to culture you with some of the 'Bangers and Mash' mix, but I guess what you're after is some of the dirty stuff... so here's a Skream overload for you.

Actually fuck that - first here's Martyn with a classic remix of Flying Lotus (love this tune): listen to it LOUD. (he's dutch, so very cool, as I'm sure you're aware - Rik, not Phil... ha)


Skream's well 'festival dubstep' and got pretty massive a while back along with Benga, but here's a classic for you (I can't say I listen to him much now, but I think this is what you're looking for!):


And here's an ace Digital Mystikz tune - they're the guys behind DMZ (you work it out yet?) - which is still banging about every couple of months and you should def come to next time you're in Londontown.


Here's a link to the mix album Watch the Ride - some classic tunes on there - check Flith.
http://www.mediafire.com/?0nzodcdyyyh

And here's Skream's first album Skream! (2006):
http://www.mediafire.com/?jw1ydtumhqw

So yeh - Dubstep's officially dead; I maintain it was never alive given that it wasn't 'one thing' but just a whole burgeoning direction in music encompassing loads of new AND existing genres; but anyway it's spawned some amazing new directions in music and a friend's band (Nedry) are now being touted as 'post-dubstep' which is hilarious but you should check them out though as they're ace: http://www.myspace.com/nedrymakesmusic
Saw them at Corsica Studios recently (just awesome venue at Elephant & Castle) and they were really good - supported 65Days on tour in Europe a while ago and they're doing it again NOW- so catch them NEXT FRIDAY (19th Nov) in Amsterdam.

big up
-L

p.s. you should def check out the track 'Clouded' on their myspace it's really ace and I reckon it's right up both of your respective streets (it's got some post-rock vibe in there Rik! and bass for Phil!).

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night (2010)




don't remember whether i picked this up from rik's drive or not. i might have. in any case, it's an album i've only really started listening to a week ago. very very nice. it's no use describing the sound or whatever, just listen aight
www.mediafire.com/?nldzzkclnjg

-p

Dream Rock & Noise Pop Compilation 1985-93 (Vol. 1)

awesome shoegazer/noise pop/dreamrock compilation by http://bubblegumcage3.com/

i remember promising rik to post a black tambourine album, but i guess i one-upped myself with this compilation. and this song rules so hard.

1. The Jesus and Mary Chain – “You Trip Me Up”
2. Cocteau Twins – “Aikea-Guinea”
3. My Bloody Valentine – “Slow”
4. A.R. Kane – “Baby Milk Snatcher”
5. Loop – “Arc-Lite”
6. Spacemen 3 – “Revolution”
7. The House of Love – “Destroy the Heart”
8. Ride – “Chelsea Girl”
9. My Bloody Valentine – “Loomer”
10. Slowdive – “Catch the Breeze”
11. Pale Saints – “Throwing Back the Apple”
12. Lush – “For Love”
13. Medicine – “A Short Happy Life”
14. Black Tambourine – “Throw Aggi Off the Bridge”
15. Swirlies – “Pancake”
16. Secret Shine – “Temporal”
17. The Boo Radleys – “Upon 9th and Fairchild”
18. Lovesliescrushing – “youreyesimmaculate”

http://www.mediafire.com/?nn3vdqz1wjh - dream rock p1
http://www.mediafire.com/?m4rmlhzzjlc - dream rock p2

-p

Friday, October 29, 2010

Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978)



A1Uncontrollable Urge 3:08
A2(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 2:38
A3Praying Hands 2:47
A4Space Junk 2:13
A5Mongoloid 3:42
A6Jocko Homo 3:38
B1Too Much Paranoias 1:56
B2Gut Feeling / Slap Your Mammy 4:54
B3Come Back Jonee 3:46
B4Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin') 2:37
B5Shrivel-Up 3:05

"Produced by Brian Eno, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was a seminal touchstone in the development of American new wave. It was one of the first pop albums to use synthesizers as an important textural element, and although they mostly play a supporting role in this guitar-driven set, the innovation began to lay the groundwork for the synth-pop explosion that would follow very shortly. [..]There was an almost unbearable tension in the speed of their jerky, jumpy rhythms, outstripping Talking Heads, XTC, and other similarly nervy new wavers. And thanks to all the dissonant, angular melodies, odd-numbered time signatures, and yelping, sing-song vocals, the tension never finds release, which is key to the album's impact. It also doesn't hurt that this is arguably Devo's strongest set of material, though several brilliant peaks can overshadow the remainder."


-p


Thursday, October 21, 2010

Dead Boys - Young, Loud and Snotty (1977)

just started listening to the dead boys today, but man they're awesome.
iggy pop meets the ramones type of punk. great riffs in there and with lyrics like "Ya got dents in your head that tell me all the beds you've been shoved on" you can't go wrong
-p



www.mediafire.com/?1uddzx1yyew

Bright Eyes - Another Travelin' Song

i never had much love for conor oberst, or Bright Eyes.
but then i was listening to my ipod shuffle a couple of days ago, this song came up and i immediately liked it. track of the week yallll
-p

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Four Tet - There is Love in You (2010)

Been loving this since it came out. It's getting better as well!

This is a tune:


Four Tet - There is love in you (2010)
http://www.mediafire.com/?uwmmnjm5mlz

-L

Friday, October 15, 2010

Thomas Mapfumo

Ok so Thomas Mapfumo is just amazing... his discography is too big to put just one thing on here - plus I couldn't find the album I wanted to share on Mediafire...

But this track, Shumba, is sick - as is Ndave Kuenda (which I wanted to put on here but there's no youtube vid for it).



Also def check out his most recent album 'Rise Up' (2006) - especially the first track 'Kuvarira Mukati/Suffer in Silence' which I have been LOVING. The album has a bit of a different feel to some of his older stuff and was produced in the US collaborating with US musicians, because he's now living in exile from the country that he was fundamental in the liberation of - Zimbabwe.
-L

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The new Belle & Sebastian

it's a winner

example, "I Want The World To Stop"

Red Sparowes - The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies The Answer (2010)

rik with the postrock


01. Truths Arise
02. In Illusions of Order
03. A Hail of Bombs
04. Giving Birth to Imagined Saviors
05. A Swarm
06. In Every Mind
07. A Mutiny
08. As Each End Looms and Subsides


near-explosions quality must-hear

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Congos - Heart of the Congos (1977)

fucking amazing album. props to rik for recommending it to me a while back.

-p

www.mediafire.com/?mtle3ezz4xi


Side one
1."Fisherman"
2."Congoman"
3."Open Up the Gate"
4."Children Crying"
5."La La Bam-Bam"

Side two
1."Can't Come In"
2."Sodom and Gomorrow"
3."Ark of the Covenant"
4."The Wrong Thing"
5."Solid Foundation"

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Propagandhi - Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes (2001)

Can't tell you how much I love this band - special place in my heart - and this song here is one of my faves. Sick political punk...




And here's the phenomenal album it's taken from:

Propagandhi - Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes
http://www.mediafire.com/?1tzi6aeqai1

M.I.A. - Paper Planes


man this song is perfect

- yeh this song was an ANTHEM in my house for a while! - L

Friday, October 1, 2010

The Impressions - The Young Mods' Forgotten Story (1969)


























"The quintessential Chicago soul group, the Impressions' place in R&B history would be secure if they'd done nothing but launch the careers of soul legends Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield. But far more than that, the Impressions recorded some of the most distinctive vocal-group R&B of the '60s under Mayfield's guidance. Their style was marked by airy, feather-light harmonies and Mayfield's influentially sparse guitar work, plus, at times, understated Latin rhythms. If their sound was sweet and lilting, it remained richly soulful thanks to the group's firm grounding in gospel tradition... Furthermore, Mayfield's interest in the civil rights movement led to some of the first socially conscious R&B songs ever recorded, and his messages grew more explicit as the '60s wore on, culminating in the streak of brilliance that was his early-'70s solo work. The Impressions carried on without Mayfield, but only matched their earlier achievements in isolated instances, and finally disbanded in the early '80s."
-Allmusic.com

This is the soul record I've, by far, listened to the most over the last years. lots of great tracks, awesome vocals and just general perfection.

-phil

Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Titch - Hold Tight (1965)



love the 1:30 - 2:00 bit.
the blue peter set makes it all a bit surreal. what the hell are these guys doing on a kids show?

-phil

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Yndi Halda - Enjoy Eternal Bliss (2007)

Post-rock band from Canterbury. Lovely stuff.

http://www.mediafire.com/?hyqm5tjymhk

This is the track 'We Flood Empty Lakes' from the 'Enjoy Eternal Bliss' EP (mediafire link above):



Seeing as you guys are on a big post-rock tip - epic crescendo.

-L

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Other Animals - Other Animals (2009)



























just rediscovered this album on my hard drive. great band.

"Other Animals, who hail from Crystal Lake IL take from the loud-soft dynamics and melodic instrumentation of post-rockers like Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The result is instrumental rock music that will invade your ears and have you setting fire to your speakers. Well, maybe you won’t get that dramatic about it, but it’s hard to deny the intensity and momentum behind these songs.

The band was formerly a duo called Somme which I which I wrote about two years ago here for their awesome Weight EP. Since that time, the band has become tighter and stronger, and added two more members. Other Animal’s self-titled album, which the band are graciously offering up for download, is packed with expertly-crafted and passionately performed songs like opener “Odin”. Extreme tempo changes; raw, layered guitar; and in-your-face drumming are the common threads throughout the album, but the band also have a sharp melodic touch as seen on tracks like the triumphant “Boxcar Blue”."

-musicforants.com


i remember having a tough time finding it on mediafire before, but here we go:

http://www.mediafire.com/?di2nmmeo4dc#1

-phil

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Lower Dens - Twin Hand Movement (2010)

























the lower dens blew me away when i heard them for the first time. they just released this album in july and blogs have been picking/hyping them up over the last months.

the whole album has an amazing sound that lies somewhere in between talk talk, galaxie 500 and the cocteau twins.

-phil



Sunday, August 22, 2010

Justice - Cross (2007)





awesome dirty french electro house
def check out the neo-clockwork orange 'stress' video, love the ending.

-phil

"French boys Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé originally got their start in the music scene playing in bad Metallica and Nirvana cover bands, and the album art of Cross makes it look like a doomy metalcore release, but the record is anything but metal. In fact, it's almost everything but metal. It's a grimy mix of dancehall, techno, '80s R&B, and lounge with Clockwork Orange synths, deadly static crunches, hard-hitting kicks, grinding groans, and a spliced Off the Wall slap-popping bass. Scattered and chopped to all hell, the songs often feel revolutionary. This is partially due to the duo's "anything goes" attitude. It's as if Justice is reacting to complacency in latter-day electronic music and seeing how far they can take their slicing and dicing before the chopped up compositions fall apart."
Allmusic.com

www.mediafire.com/?15ldn2nw1e5

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Part Chimp - I Am Come (2005)




"I Am Come is the second album from the UK's Part Chimp, and their second for the label formed by Mogwai, Rock Action. The band are certainly prone to slow, "Part Chimp Fear Satan" guitar squalls, but where those are emotional crescendos for some bands, they're just interludes between the highlights of I Am Come. "Bakahatsu" is the prototypical grinding opener. Standing squarely under Mogwai's shadow for 90 seconds, it's just buildup for the sludgy sweet tooth of album peak "War Machine". Ringing guitars march forward despite being interrupted by a distorted gallop every four bars, with a melody and rhythm no less effective for their simplicity.

Volume is Part Chimp's primary instrument, and while brief respites like "Bubbles" are welcome and needed, quiet moments are the enemy. Clean guitar chords creep quietly past, waiting for the next bomb to fall."
-Pitchfork

Couldn't find it on youtube, so uploaded one of the best songs:

Dr. Horse Part II


and here's the whole album, tons of great tracks:
www.mediafire.com/?dmdj2mab1zm

enjoy
-p

Entombed - Chaos Breed (1991)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Caspian - The Four Trees


phenomenal postrock, in the vein of explosions in the sky (which is a good thing obviously)


rik

Leonard Cohen - Live at the Isle of Wight 1970



























This Leonard Cohen concert/documentary aired on late-night belgian television yesterday. It's 1970, 2AM, cohen is in his pyjamas and proceeds to blow away a crowd of 600,000 angry hippies.
Going to order it immediately after i make some money.

(audio only)
-p

"On August 31, 1970, 35-year-old Leonard Cohen was awakened at 2 a.m. from a nap in his trailer and brought onstage to perform with his band at the third annual Isle Of Wight music festival. The audience of 600,000 was in a fiery and frenzied mood, after turning the festival into a political arena, trampling the fences, setting fire to structures and equipment – and stoked by the most incendiary performance of Jimi Hendrix’s career, less than three weeks before his death.
As Cohen followed Hendrix’s set, onlookers (and fellow festival headliners) Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Judy Collins and others stood sidestage in awe as the Canadian folksinger-songwriter-poet-novelist quietly tamed the crowd. Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Murray Lerner, whose footage of the 1970 festival did not begin to see release until 1995, was able to capture Cohen’s performance. Likewise, Columbia Records staff A&R producer Teo Macero, who was ostensibly there to record Miles Davis’ set, did a brilliant job of supervising Cohen’s live recording as well.
Adding further historic provenance to this release is a newly commissioned 2,000-word liner notes essay written by veteran British rock journalist and BBC commentator Sylvie Simmons. “It was a brilliant performance,” Simmons writes, “and Lerner’s cameras captured Cohen’s commanding presence, hypnotist’s charm, and an intimacy that would seem unfeasible in such a vast, inhospitable space.” As producer Bob Johnston sums up, “It was magical, from the first moment to the last. I’ve never seen anything like it. He was just remarkable.”
The releases represent the 77-minute concert set as performed by Cohen and his backup band: Bob Johnston (Cohen’s Nashville-based Columbia A&R staff producer), and Nashville musicians Charlie Daniels (electric bass, fiddle), Ron Cornelius (lead guitar), and Elkin ‘Bubba’ Fowler (bass, banjo). They were joined by backup singers Corlynn Hanney, Susan Musmanno, and Donna Washburn. During the course of their European tour – which Cohen only agreed to undertake if Johnston (producer of Cohen’s most recent LP, Songs From A Room) would manage him and organize the band – the group began to call themselves The Army, owing to the battles they were subjected to by audiences on the road."

Dinosaur Jr. - Don't

Wilson Pickett - The Sound of Wilson Pickett

"The Sound of Wilson Pickett was one of the three albums Atlantic issued by the Wicked One in 1967. Produced by Jerry Wexler (who got co-writes on a couple of tracks), it featured great session players like Chips Moman and Spooner Oldham, to name just two. Looking at the track list, it looks like a slew of hits. But it wasn't. In fact, it was two sides packed with singles. While it contains his absolutely classic, wailing read of "Funky Broadway," it also features both parts of "I Found a Love" (renamed "I Found a True Love" for the 1968 albumThe Midnight Mover), the Oldham and Dan Penn suggestive classic "I Need a Lot of Loving Everyday." Pickett's reading of the song with a killer female backing chorus smolders with nocturnal nether-hipped fire. Pickett's version of Rudy Clark's swaggering "You Can't Stand Alone" is a burning throw-down with awesome guitar and horn charts and a killer little Farfisa break in the middle. He also sings the deep Memphis blues on "Something Within Me." The set closes with one of his finest performances, his signature reading of "Love Is a Beautiful Thing." Arguably, The Sound of Wilson Pickett may be his finest album performance of the entire decade."
-Allmusic.com

-p

Friday, August 6, 2010

Nathan Fake - Hard Islands (2009)

"Having protested that he was "not a DJ" circa his 2006 debut, it wasn't long before this Norfolk wunderkind producer seduced clubbers with eclectic DJ sets. The result is writ large on this brilliant second album, which welds his drifting soundscapes to fractious, rapturous techno."
-Guardian

props to luke for recommending it
-p

www.mediafire.com/?mjtgotmzyyl

this one's not on hard islands, but too good not to add:

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Bedhead - HowFunLifeWas (1994)

"It didn't seem like it at the time, but with the appearance of this, Bedhead's debut, and Low's own first album some months later, the zeitgeist of post-grunge indie rock started to shift toward something more reflective and restrained. Not that WhatFunLifeWas doesn't steer clear of loud moments, to be sure; many of the songs use swelling transitions from quieter to noisier performance and back, all while avoiding the abrupt soft-loud-soft cliché of the time. However, even at the band's most explosive, there's less a sense of getting ripped out of your head on sound than there is a tension between steady, careful performance (drummer Martinez especially so) and more wide-ranging power [...] In the quieter moments, like the openings of "Crushing" or even more so, the flat-out lovely "Powder," the intensity level is ratcheted even higher; the overall performance is not so much easy listening as it is a prompting to listeners, who must lean forward to catch everything. Add the intertwined guitar work of both Kadane brothers, who combine power and control excellently, and listeners need ask for little more."
-Allmusic.com

Bedhead - WhatFunLifeWas (1994)
http://www.mediafire.com/?mzcnrnkety5

enjoy bras
-p

Songs: Ohia – Mi Sei Apparso Come Un Fantasma

"It is a live album that was recorded in Modena, Italy in September of 2000. It was released on Paper Cup and Cargo Records in 2001, and quickly went out-of-print on both CD and LP. The ability to hear any Songs: Ohia live performance is a treat, but to hear a Lioness-era Songs: Ohia performance…that’s pure gold, my friend."
-swanfungus.com

Rik prob has it already, but this live album got me hooked on songs: ohia.

Mi Sei Apparso Come Un Fantasma (You Come To Me As A Ghost)

01. Are We Getting Any Closer

02. Nobody Tries That Hard Anymore

03. Tigress

04. Being In Love

05. Constant Change

06. It Won’t Be Easy

07. She Came To Me As A Ghost

08. Vanquisher (cabwaylingo)


http://www.mediafire.com/?mnxkzy8ya1a

-p