Ugandan Methods - Sixth Method 12"

How the hell did I miss this? One of the best electronic releases of the year, and yes I am someone who loves hyperbole but wow. This 20 minute 12" starts out with two clean, minimal dance tracks and then works itself into a third track of industrial feedback and muffled vocals. Up there with Muslimgauze and Vatican Shadow.

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Twist Barbie

This will probably be taken down within a matter of minutes, but if you can snag it, your finals week will suck infinitely less. Guaranteed.

Tortoise Brand Pot Cleaner's Theme (Sea Turtle)

Also, this:

Shonen ('boy') have very cute feelings and 'knife' have very keen or very strange feeling.

Best of 2012

It was a good year for industrial, and a laughable year for "DIY" (here's lookin' at you, Merchandise), and the countless number of Drive Like Jehu imitators that magically spawned as if on cue. Overall, things were pretty solid on the electronic front, with Andy Stott's impeccably produced and emotionally androgynous "Luxury Problems" coming in at #1 for me.

1. Andy Stott - "Luxury Problems" (Modern Love)
2. Raime - "Quarter Turns Over A Living Line" (Blackest Ever Black)
3. Vatican Shadow - "Ornamented Walls" (Modern Love)
4. Speedy Ortiz - "Sports EP" (Exploding In Sound)
5. Roomrunner - "Super Vague 12"" (Fan Death)
6. Swans - "The Seer" (Young God)
7. Useless Children - "Post Ending // Pre Completion" (Iron Lung)
8. Shoxx - "Demo Cassette" (C6)
9. Silent Servant - "Negative Fascination" (Hospital Productions)
10. Jan Jelinek - "Music For Fragments / Music & Birds" (Faitiche)

Honorable Mentions:

Taco Leg - "Taco Leg" LP

Lamps - "Under The Water Under The Ground"

Tearist - "Purple Video" [Cass.]

Slices - "Still Cruising"

Mutant Video - "Head Scan - Part Two"

Dum Dum Girls - "End Of Daze EP" (surprisingly good, and a Strawberry Switchblade cover!)

Potty Mouth's new 12" managed to step in to sate Shoppers fans, though overall I wasn't that impressed with the new material, but thank god for Dark Times---a band that never fails to impress. Their record Girl Hate saw them going in a less melodic and more hardcore direction. It's desperate and fast moving and fantastic.

Also, I am shamelessly gonna plug Sean's new project, No Paris. He's touring sometime in the spring with Screen Vinyl Image.

Various (Reissues/Live):

Unwound - "Live Leaves" (you can stream here)

The Cleaners From Venus - Blow Away Your Troubles / On Any Normal Monday / Midnight Cleaners

Medicine - "Shot Forth Self Living"

My Bloody Valentine - "EP's 1988-1991"

Bikini Kill - "Bikini Kill" EP

William Basinski - "The Disintegration Loops"

Radio Phnom Penh

This is by far the best Cambodian compilation I've ever listened to. Khmer music, in my opinion, has always sounded more complex than Thai pop and rock from the same era. Perhaps it has to do with the common knowledge of Cambodia's 20th century history, which is nearly impossible to mentally separate from its cultural exports. Cambodian (as well as Vietnamese) music tends to have a more wistful, unsettling quality. There is also a huge Hindu influence, which can be heard immediately. This particular compilation mixes together years of Cambodian music, with spoken words parts as well--in both Khmer and French.

And yes, of course, this is a Sublime Frequencies release. This compilation is definitely special because it both incorporates and moves past the Cambodian musical staples of Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron, Meas Samon, etc.

320 kbps

Halloween Mix

Halloween is the only holiday I get into making mixes for, as it's basically an excuse for two things: goth-rock and coldwave.

This mix is also good if you work at a haunted strip club. I went heavy on the Blackest Ever Black catalog.

1. Zombi: L'Alba Dei Morti Viventi: Goblin
2. Stranger (Remix): Clan Of Xymox
3. Shadowplay: Warsaw
4. Figurative Theatre: Christian Death
5. Waiting For: Trisomie 21
6. Heed: Rosenkopf
7. Chains Of Desire: Tollund Men
8. This Foundry: Raime
9. Lucid: Dream Affair
10. Chrome Vox: Tropic Of Cancer
11. Lo Tek: Black Rain
12. Embers From The Pyre: Young Hunting
13. Rain Of Despair: Death In June
14. Pornography: The Cure

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Louis & Bebe Barron - Forbidden Planet (1956)

All information stolen mercilessly from Wikipedia. But seriously, the Barrons are so goddamn interesting.

Louis and Bebe Barron's composition for Forbidden Planet is credited as the first fully electronic soundtrack to a movie. Louis and Bebe Barron married in 1947 and moved to Greenwich Village and began experimenting with musique concrète.

Says Wikipedia: The sounds and patterns that came out of the circuits were unique and unpredictable because they were actually overloading the circuits until they burned out to create the sounds. The Barrons could never recreate the same sounds again, though they later tried very hard to recreate their signature sound from Forbidden Planet. Because of the unforeseen life span of the circuitry, the Barrons made a habit of recording everything.

If you listen to this without keeping note of the (albeit hilarious and absurdly descriptive) track titles; you could easily shelve this alongside Michel Chion, Iannis Xenakis, and Conrad Schnitzler.

On the back of the Forbidden Planet record sleeve, the Barrons explained:

We design and construct electronic circuits which function electronically in a manner remarkably similar to the way that lower life-forms function psychologically. [. . .]. In scoring Forbidden Planet – as in all of our work – we created individual cybernetics circuits for particular themes and leit motifs, rather than using standard sound generators. Actually, each circuit has a characteristic activity pattern as well as a "voice". [. . .]. We were delighted to hear people tell us that the tonalities in Forbidden Planet remind them of what their dreams sound like.

Fun facts:

"Bebe" Barron was nicknamed by Anaïs Nin

The Barrons made some of the first audio recordings of Henry Miller reading his work aloud, and Anaïs Nin's full version of House of Incest. 

Said Nin of their music,

"[Barrons' music sounds like] a molecule that has stubbed its toes." — From the Diary of Anais Nin, Volume 7 

A Shangri-La In The Desert - Garden With Cuddly Tiger

Floating Into The Night

I'm not the biggest David Lynch fan, but his work with Julee Cruise and Angelo Badalamenti immediately grabbed me. In my opinion, "Falling" is one of the greatest songs I've ever heard, both with and without the vocals. The album is processed to the point where every percussive element is muted, the vocals are devoid of any tension or assonance, and the entire thing just flows. Cruise's voice isn't particularly distinctive, and the synth chords are dated as hell--but each aspect of this collaboration is so flawlessly pulled off that I can't get it out of my head. Nostalgic and indulgent, but also very unsettling. I would venture to say that it sounds like a more sinister Beach House mixed up with Goblin's soundtrack to Suspiria.

Floating Into The Night

Moscow Olympics - Cut The World

Filipino dream-pop. Airy reverb, delicate vocals, clearly running in the post-rock/shoegaze vein with a bit of jangle-pop guitar influence. Not particularly groundbreaking, but perfect for those times late at night when you've gone through everything else in your music library and simple predictability hits the spot.

Cut The World (2008) 

Hans Joachim Roedelius - Wenn Der Südwind Weht

Time has been kind to Wenn Der Südwind Weht, Hans Joachim Roedelius' 7th solo album. I have always admired electronic composers who manage to build a lush sonic atmosphere using very few tools. With synthesizer tones that would normally sound dated and stale, Roedelius manages to create an artificial Eden: each song a curious meditation on the natural world. I am struck by how gorgeous this album is, with a surprising warmth and immediate likeability. Unlike his contemporaries Eno and Shnitzler, Roedelius' compositions have a shimmering, playful quality to them. Wenn Der Südwind Weht is truly a stunning album.

Through the Berlin arts scene, Roedelius met Conrad Schnitzler, a kindred spirit with whom Roedelius ultimately co-founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab and the 1968 happening known as Human Being. The project’s eventual demise gave rise to the trio Kluster, featuring Roedelius, Schnitzler and a young, unknown Swiss art student, Deiter Moebius. When Schnitzler left after two short years to pursue a solo career, Roedelius continued with Moebius as Cluster, going on to produce several albums in the late 1970s that defined electronic music of the era. (Amazon)

Sky Records - 1981

Living With Victoria Grey - Cleaners From Venus

Unbelievably catchy, verging on quaint, but eccentric enough to make it endearing. I think this is the best representation of CFV in terms of experimentation with style and sound.

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Reinhard Voigt - Im Wandel Der Zeit

 The Voigt brothers are basically the Wright brothers of Berlin minimal techno.

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Max Richter - Memoryhouse

Contemporary classical record. Cinematic, nostalgic, bosom-heaving, reminiscent of Phillip Glass.

My personal opinion is that this record would do well with more added aural space. Or just play it while watching the Jane Eyre TV miniseries.

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Dandelion -- Dyslexicon

Straight from the buzz bin. Roomrunner approved. As of right now, this is the only viable download link to this album.

Weird me out

Pauline Oliveros: Electronic Works 1965-1966

 "I think about using all these delays as a time machine. Because when I play something in the present, then it's delayed and comes back in the future. So that's expanding time. That's the idea there. It's not about just one delay, it's about a whole lot of them. I've got it up to the point now where I can actually use about twenty delays. If you're in a space, you're hearing delays all the time, different time-scales. What I got interested in, long ago, was the coloration of sound that happens in a space. This happens because of delays, so I wanted to work with that."

- Oliveros, Pink Noises: Women On Electronic Music and Sound (Rodgers, 2010)

Pauline Oliveros is a badass.

 Electronic Works 1965-1966 (320)

Also related to sound delay in music, Radiolab has a great interview with Zoe Keating of Rasputina called "Quantum Delay," which can be found here.

Broadcast - Tender Buttons

Vocals imitate the best of minimal synth/coldwave (think Xeno & Oaklander, Chris & Cosey, Jeff & Jane Hudson) but with a softer, dreamier minimal-pop touch. The album has a very good pace to it, switching rhythm and sound--achieving a 14-track record that remains compelling and entertaining throughout, with a fantastic overall texture. 

RIYL: Ladytron, The Knife, Xeno & Oaklander

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Pärson Sound

The 3-LP box set released in 2010 of 60's era recordings from Swedish psychedelic/spacerock outfit Pärson Sound is reminiscent of Taj Mahal Travellers and hints at a later prog-rock movement. Swirling, expansive, and whimsical.

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Ryoji Ikeda - Matrix

Taken from Ryoji Ikeda's website:

matrix | mātriks|

noun (pl. -trices |ˈmātrisēz| or -trixes)

1. an environment or material in which something develops; a surrounding medium or structure : free choicesbecome the matrix of human life.
• a mass of fine-grained rock in which gems, crystals, or fossils are embedded.
• Biology the substance between cells or in which structures are embedded.
• fine material : the matrix of gravel paths is raked regularly.

2. a mold in which something, such as printing type or a phonograph record, is cast or shaped.

3. Mathematics a rectangular array of quantities or expressions in rows and columns that is treated as a single entity and manipulated according to particular rules.
• an organizational structure in which two or more lines of command, responsibility, or communication may run through the same individual.

ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense [womb] ): from Latin, ‘breeding female,’ later ‘womb,’ from mater,matr- ‘mother.’

matrix is a series of sound installations employing pure sine waves and white noises as a sculptural material. The installations are designed in response to specific gallery spaces or public sites selected by the artist. Sine wave is one of the purest forms of sounds, white noise contains the full frequency spectrum randomly. As visitors pass through the sound field, subtle oscillation patterns occur around their ears, caused by their own movements interfering with the sounds. It is a very personal experience that is only through the visitors' physical engagement in the sound space that the real character of the work can be perceived.

I strongly encourage you to check out the rest of Ryoji Ikeda's website, some of his projects are wildly creative. 

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Vladislav Delay - Mutila

Austere glitch compositions. Crisp pops juxtaposed with distorted clanging and atmospheric tones. One of my all time favorite electronic albums.

Mutila - 320

Pylon - "Chomp"

This album kicks ass. It starts right off with a pulse, and wasted no time in asserting itself as one of my favorites. Vamp vocals, perpetual bassline, embellished with a well-placed metallic twang, and amazing cover art to boot. I was originally prepared to make a Bush Tetras reference based on the first track, but upon listening to Yo-Yo, the delightfully funky and sultry second track, this band clearly has flexibility and range. Solid post-punk/new-wave gem.

Chomp

The A-Lines: "You Can Touch"

Sassy British band with a garage rock sound. RIYL: Mo-Dettes, Liliput, Au Pairs.

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Bored Youth 7" -- Official Reissue Out Soon on Accidental Guest Recordings

We are super proud to bring you the first official issue of the lost 1981 hardcore classic 7" from Bored Youth. While this gem has been bootlegged a few times (you probably own a copy already), this is the first time it has been officially reissued with the bands blessing. This isn't just some cut and paste issue of those crappy mp3s you might have, we wouldn't do that to you. Not only has this recording been remastered, but it comes with unreleased photos, complete liner notes by Tony Rettman (who has written Why be Something That You're Not, contributed to The Village Voice, Arthur, and many more), and a high quality digital download. That isn't all though, the first 100 come with a copy of the UNRELEASED Bored Youth LP on cassette which also contains the 7" and a digital DL as well. The LP was recorded in early 1982 with Corey Rusk (Necros, Touch And Go).

The 7" will be out in September. A pre-order for the Cassette/7" package will be up soon.

Bored Youth - Youth Culture by Accidental Guest

The Third Sex - Card Carryin'

Totally underrated queercore band with a remarkable sonic resemblance to Sleater-Kinney. Played with Bikini Kill, Harum Scarum, and Bratmobile. Mixed and produced by Donna Dresch. Apparently, each copy of Card Carryin' contained a promotional fake ID. I'm still looking for a picture. 


Card Carryin' - Chainsaw, 1996

Close Lobsters - Foxheads Stalk This Land

Alternate post title: "In which Emma posts something that is not female-fronted"

Yet another loveable Scottish jangle-pop outfit. Full disclosure, I picked up this album because I enjoyed both the name Foxheads Stalk This Land, and the entirely predictable color scheme. Really lovely record actually.

Foxheads Stalk This Land (Enigma - 1987)

A Slice of Lemon Compilation

2-CD compilation created by Kill Rock Stars and Lookout! Records. Definitely a mixed bag in terms of genre and style, but features some incredibly underrated bands.

A Slice of Lemon: CD 1 (320)

A Slice of Lemon: CD 2 (320)

From Y to Z and Never Again

Art punk find of the day: this 1978 EP from Big In Japan. The whole record is so catchy, from the  delightfully doo-wop "Cindy and the Barbi Dolls," to the amazing guitars on "Taxi" that fade out and let the bassline and muted vocals take over. Vocals sound like a combination of The Slits and Siouxsie & the Banshees*, which is never a bad thing.

*Budgie of Big in Japan actually worked with both Siouxsie & the Banshees and the Slits (he played bass on the album Cut)


DL "From Y to Z and Never Again"

Gorilla Aktiv: Nur für Erwachsene 7" - 1982

Goofy minimal wave 7" by German group Gorilla Aktiv. Maniacally repetitive proto-electro beats, monotone German lyrics, sometimes layered over a porno soundtrack, sometimes not. Try throwing it on a playlist with Absolute Body Control and Mekanik Kommando.


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The Sound - Jeopardy

Killer album art. The first track is kind of a red herring, done up Chameleons self-loathing style, and just when you think you know where they're going with this--the rest of the album picks up and delivers a set of immaculate synthpop gems. Definitely the best record I've found in a while, despite the cursory description. 


LINK REMOVED BY REQUEST

Saigon Rock & Soul: Vietnamese Classic Tracks 1968-1974

The long-awaited foray into the Vietnamese Rock, Pop and Soul sound of the late 1960s and early 1970s is finally here. Saigon Rock and Soul delivers the goods International retro collectors have been searching for in vain for many years - and it delivers beyond belief. Every song is a mini-masterpiece be it heavy acid rock psychedelia, horn and guitar drenched funk grooves, or gripping soul ballads reflective of life during wartime.

The tracks that form this collection cut a window into a rich musical Vietnamese music scene that has long been obscured, and for the most part, forgotten. As the scope of electrified Vietnamese music from the 1960s and 1970s begins to be revealed, it becomes evident that this was among the heaviest and most eclectic musical scenes of South East Asia at the time. These songs tell of war, love and what war does to love. All of them were recorded in makeshift studios and even US army facilities while the Vietnam War raged – and were issued by a handful of Saigon record companies on vinyl 45s and reel or cassette tapes. Westernized forms of music in Vietnam had appeared during the latter nineteenth century, and especially during the early 20th century, under the influence of the French colonizers. Tan Nhac (modern music) always incorporated both domestic and international sounds, and continued to develop alongside Western musical trends.

During the 1960s and 1970s, pulp ballads were being recorded by leading crooners of the time who alternated between modern and traditional forms of regional music. When the electric guitar hit the streets of Saigon, Vietnamese renditions of contemporary instrumental trends such as surf rock, beat and twist soon emerged, followed by some pretty deep soul sounds inspired by Motown radio hits as well as funk grooves brought on by James Brown and his contemporaries.

By the mid-1960s, Vietnam had been ravaged by war for years. American G.I.s had become a standard fixture in Saigon, as did many of the cultural artifacts they brought with them. This certainly included the music. The sounds of rock and roll dominated the radio waves, and Saigon nightclubs were teeming with new sounds. Musically, the Shadows and the Ventures soon gave way to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as an enthusiastic set of young Vietnamese rockers signed on to the lifestyle, always eager to hear the latest musical trends the G.I.s would bring in on LP or tape. This era saw the birth of a vibrant rock scene yet rock music and anything that came close was commonly referred to as ‘soul’ in the Vietnamese genre-listings.

Like many cultures in Asia, Vietnamese music is recorded, marketed, listened to and disposed of in a relatively quick manner. This level of advanced ephemera ensures a degree of difficulty when trying to unearth and discover cultural histories. Literally, most of the music heard here has been brought back from the dead. Artists featured include some of Vietnam’s most popular at the time: Elvis Phuong, Hung Cuong, Mai Lei Huyen, Le Thu, Thai Thanh, Giao Linh, Mai Lei Huyen and the CBC Band.

Best Sublime Frequencies compilation to date. Amazing.

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The Supremes

Such a classic.

Via Wikipedia: With the release of this album, The Supremes became the first act in Billboard Magazine history to have three number-one hits from the same album. It was the album that introduced "The Motown Sound" to the masses. It was also, at the time, the highest ranking album by an all female group. It remained in the #2 position for 4 weeks, in January 1965, remaining on the Billboard charts for an unprecedented 89 weeks.

The Supremes -- Where Did Our Love Go 

Bush Tetras -- Boom In The Night (Original Studio Recordings 1980-1983)

For fans of The Slits and Au Pairs style vocals, and Minny Pops/Crispy Ambulance improvisational basslines and percussion, this Bush Tetras comp is right up your alley. Textured, snarky, 1980's NYC underground post-punk.

320

My Body, The Hand Grenade (Hole)

Amazing Hole comp, courtesy of Sean (No Paris, No Harm) Includes a cover of my favorite Donovan song and another of "He Hit Me, It Felt Like A Kiss" (Carole King/The Crystals). Goodies include demo of "Miss World" (on which Kurt Cobain plays bass) and songs spanning from Pretty On The Inside to Live Through This. The compilation has the rare quality of feeling cohesive while still representative of Hole's varied sound through the years. Highly recommended.

My Body, The Hand Grenade (released 1997, City Slang Records)

Sublime Frequencies World Music Compilations

I absolutely love Sublime Frequencies for doing all these compilations. I originally came across the label after downloading Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk & Pop Music Vol. 1. My eventual goal is to get a large majority of the Sublime Frequencies comps uploaded on the blog. However, this is one of those labels where I seriously recommend buying the CDs/LPs too because this is stuff you can feel really good about supporting.

SF describes themselves as the following: "Sublime Frequencies is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations."

As a note, all descriptions of these comps are taken from the Sublime Frequencies website. 

Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan 

Molam is a multi-faceted folk music native to Laos and the predominantly rural Northeastern region of Thailand known as Isan - home to myriad ethnic groups and provinces, and once a part of present-day Laos. Mo meaning "master" and lam meaning "song", molam literally translates into "master singer", but it remains more of an umbrella term covering over a dozen types of lam styles in which male and female singers can be backed by a free-reed bamboo mouth organ called a khaen, indigenous lute-like instruments (the phin or the soong), a bowed fiddle called a sor and a percussion ensemble featuring finger cymbals and hand drums.

Lam phun and lam sing are the two molam styles featured most prominently in this collection. Also in the musical family is look thoong, a slower, more tragic style, usually lamenting lost love and perpetual poverty. Examples are heard on tracks 10, 15 and 20. Costumed Isan comedy troupes called Talok incorporate hyper-eccentric molam and look thoong renditions with low, vaudevillian comedy and high social satire on stages and TVs throughout the country. Maniacal examples are heard on tracks 2, 8 and 11. The classic recordings featured here are selections from rare vinyl LPs, 45s and cassettes recorded in Isan and beyond between the 1970s and 1980s. This was a pivotal time when music of the region began to be electrified and integrated with Western instruments. When electric bass, effected guitars, electric organs, kit drums and horns played alongside the khaen and the phin. Molam had never sounded this way before -and due to the typically ephemeral nature of the music industry and the introduction of the modern keyboard workstation, molam will never sound like this again. 

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Pakistan: Instrumental Folk & Pop Sounds 1966-1976 

Spending the greater part of the last decade assembling this masterpiece while tracking down most of the musicians in the process, Stuart Ellis of Radiodiffusion Internasionaal has compiled a mind-blowing set of Pakistani instrumentals spanning the period between 1966 and 1976. It’s all here: rock and roll beat, surf, folk traditional mixed with pop, film tunes, electric guitars, sitar and organ solos, brilliant percussion and arrangements crafted by the grooviest bands of the period: The Panthers, The Mods, The Bugs, The Blue Birds, The Abstracts, The Aay Jays, The Fore Thoughts, Nisar Bazmi, and Sohail Rana. 

Situated between Afghanistan, India and Iran, the collision of cultural influences in Pakistan gave birth to music that was, and still is, unlike anything heard anywhere else on the planet. By the late 1960s, previous restrictions on musical expression began to soften and bands that were playing American and British pop covers became popular in Karachi’s burgeoning night club scene and at private dance parties. Long hair came into fashion among young men and hashish became the popular drug of choice on college campuses across Pakistan. Soon, hippies from both North America and Europe began flocking to Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. Very few of the bands that formed during this time actually got to record. Like their neighbors in India, the Pakistani record industry was more focused on releasing “filmi” music, which had just started to incorporate the electric guitar and electric sitar. 

Pakistan’s musical revolution ended in June 1977 after a coup d’état and the establishment of a pure Islamic state governed by Sharia law. This marked the end of the “Swinging ‘70s” in Pakistan as night clubs and alcohol were banned throughout the country. Television and cinema, as well as popular music, were now subjected to government censorship. After the clamp down, many Pakistani musicians left the country and moved to America, Canada and England. 

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Folk and Pop Sounds Of Sumatra Vol. 1 

The equator runs through only ten countries on earth and I bet that you cannot name them all without consulting a map. Indonesia is one of them and the only nation in Asia with the equatorial stripe impaling it. There are so many different cultures spread-out on these islands, that it would take several lifetimes to experience them all properly. Within this umbrella of diversity is one of the world's richest and most dazzling sound museums. Sumatra is the northwestern entry point to the great archipelago. It is a large island approximately the size of California. There are jungles, mountains, swamps, various forms of myths and folklore, hustlers, Padang Food, Tigers, the Durian, dozens of cultures and languages, and more music than you've ever been allowed to hear. 

The selections on this CD are a combination of droning beat pop, pseudo-gypsy songs, jungle folk trance, and other improbable traditional and hybrid styles heard by only a handful of outsiders. These recordings are from old cassette tapes received as gifts, in trade, or purchased from sources in Sumatra in 1989. Some of the tapes are unmarked with the artists unknown, yet all of them are decaying documents of various sound quality containing some of the most eccentric artifacts ever uncovered from this fascinating island.

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Check out all the other amazing compilations on the Sublime Frequencies website. (I've got my eye on Saigon Rock & Soul: Vietnamese Classic Tracks 1968-1974.)

Babes In Toyland - Peel Sessions

Love this band. 

download

Big Black -- Atomizer

Posting this because it rules and it's a pain in the ass to find online now.

DL

BB - "Lungs" EP

This little EP is often forgotten in the wake of Songs About Fucking and Atomizer, but I actually really like these six songs. They present an awkward, pared-down, almost...relaxed sound from Albini.

Also of note: "The original EP came with an array of objects, including loaded squirt guns, bloody pieces of paper (one of Albini's friend suffered from a nosebleed), dollar bills, condoms, concert tickets, Bruce Lee trading cards, pictures of old people and firecrackers. Things like fishhooks and razorblades were discounted, fearing lawsuits." - via Wikipedia

DL

Onna -- Onna (7" RE)

Via Discogs: Reissue of a 7" single originally released on Cupid & Psyche Records in 1983.

A)		コルティジアーナ・ダル・ベーロ (Cortigiana Dal Velo)	7:30
B)		胸をつつんで (Mune O Tsutsunde)

So awesome.

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Six Finger Satellite -- The Pigeon Is The Most Popular Bird

Figured I'd post the first Six Finger Satellite album because for some reason their stuff is rather difficult to find online. The Pigeon Is The Most Popular Bird serves up an hour of paranoid noisy rock, a la Shellac* or The Jesus Lizard. The record has a crooked kind of humor to it, and seems to occupy a tortured little niche between grunge and punk. TPITMPB had the misfortune of coming out on Sub Pop the same year as In Utero, and it tends to veer off sonically in the style of bands like Arab on Radar, which can drive listeners looking for a pop-hook off fast. Nevertheless, I adore this record, so without further ado, here it is.

*Bob Weston of Shellac recorded this album, so no real surprise there.

Six Finger Satellite -- Law of Ruins

Six Finger Satellite never gets enough recognition as an awesome band. Their first record, The Pigeon Is The Most Popular Bird allies itself stylistically with post-punk, whereas Law of Ruins has a textured, grating space-rock sound with bits of Kraftwerk style synth thrown in--all within the bracket of 90s noise rock.

Law Of Ruins -- 1998, Sub Pop