Sun City Girls - Box Of Chameleons (3xCD, 1997)

Sun City Girls are one of my favourite bands, so obviously I was stoked when I found this beauty in a bargain bin this evening. So, this is basically 3 fantastic discs worth of Sun City Girls goodness. It's a big download, but it's more than worth the effort. The track listing (which no, I'm not writing out for you) can be found here, and I would highly recommend visiting their website for info and purchasing opportunities. If you haven't heard of this excellent band before, then you've been missing out, but I won't even bother trying to describe their music - just listen to it.

Other Sun City Girls albums can be found at these great blogs:

Shards of Beauty
Eclectic Grooves
FM Shades
Astraal Tempel RhytHmns
Sector 2814
Pathway to Unknown Worlds

Another great Sir Richard Bishop solo release can be found here - Audial Forensics


Box of Chameleons Part 1
Box of Chameleons Part 2

Merry Whatever.

Carina Round - The First Blood Mystery (CD, 2001)

I've had this cd for a while, and paid a pittance for it, but I seem to have been lucky, given the prices on amazon.com ($75 US bucks is freaking ridiculous - I paid 10 of a much less valuable currency!). Prices on amazon.co.uk seem substancially more realistic, but still, all the copies seem to be used, maybe because I can't find any trace of the label that released it (Animal Noise).

Anyways, I like this album a lot, about as much as her second album, The Disconnection (which, being on a different label, is easy to find in most places). I'd avoid her latest album though. Too commercial. Yucky. The only flaw on this album is the arrangement of 'Let It Fall', which I have attempted to remedy by including her far superior (i.e. there's more screaming, and Pixies and Iggy Pop references) live version of the same song.  She gets compared a lot to PJ Harvey and Patti Smith, because that's who all loud female singer-songwriters are compared to, but she isn't that similar. Her vocal and lyrical theatrics are the things to watch out for here. Highly recommended.

The First Blood Mystery

Controlled Bleeding - Songs From the Grinding Wall (CD, 1989)

I sold last semester's textbooks today, hence the material for posting. This was buried beneath tons of crap in the back of the store. What little I'd heard of Controlled Bleeding before this was largely ambient, sort of a la Konstruktivits, so this caught me off guard, being much more rhythmic. More investigation of their backcatalogue is required methinks...

Grinding Wall

Various Artists - Machines and Noise - Volume Two (CD, 2002)

This is the second disc of this three part series. With any luck (i.e. me finding the 7 bucks necessary and no one else buying it before then), the third will eventually follow.  This is pretty much more of the same type of stuff that the first, fun if occasionally iffy.

Tracklisting:

Severed Heads - Jet Lag

The Shamen - You, Me and Everything

Chris & Cosey - October Love Song

Thule - Gold Old Gold Old

Swamp Terrorists - Rebuff

Cop Shoot Cop - Relief

Orbital - Open Mind

New Order - Evil Dust

God Flesh - Pure Spite

Finni Tribe - Electrolux

Pop Will Eat Itself - Menofearthereaper

Volume Two

The Broadway Hush - The Broadway Hush EP (CDR, 2006)

This release is one of a pressing of 50 released by The Broadway Hush last year. The Broadway Hush are Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw of the US indie pop group Page France, who, in this release, switch their normal singing roles (ie Nau on lead vocals, McGraw on backing) to great effect. Page France have released 3 albums and a two EP set within the last 2 years, and all come highly recommended by me and various other people. Nau's other side-project, The Cotton Jones Basket Ride, will also soon be releasing an album in a similar folky pop vein to his other releases. These are definitely bands to watch! (and buy!)

In this file, I've also included The Broadway Hush's cover of Gene Austin's 'Tonight You Belong to Me', and the original for your listening pleasure.

The Broadway Hush

S.Y.P.H. - Harbeitslose (CD, 2001)

Yet another bargain bin find! This release is a collection of S.Y.P.H.'s 1982 Harbeitslose
LP (Pure Freude PF 25) and the Double-EP (Pure Freude PF 21) of the same year. From discogs:

German band somewhere between Punk, Avantgarde and Neue Deutsche Welle.
Founded 1977 by Harry Rag (Peter Braatz), Uwe Jahnke and Thomas Schwebel in Solingen/Germany. Thomas Schwebel hit upon the idea of naming the band "Syph" because it's a dirty name. Harry Rag added the periods to make it look like an acronym and confuse people. S.Y.P.H. was then translated into "Saufender Yankee Prügelt Homo" (Drinking yankee beats queer). After 1986 it stood for "Save Your Pretty Heart"
When Schwebel said goodbye to play with Mittagspause, the band was joined by Uli Putsch and Jürgen Wolter. This new formation stayed - more or less - stable until 1981, but had many changing guest musicians, including Holger Czukay from Can. In return S.Y.P.H. played with Czukay on his LP On The Way To The Peak Of Normal. Uwe Jahnke also appears on the Wobble/Liebezeit/Czukay EP "How Much Are They?".
The band paused in 2003 and is now active again.

Myspace
Pure Freude Label

This album is still available (here, amongst other places), and I strongly recommend that you buy it.

Harbeitslose

Various Artists - Machines & Noise: Volume One (CD, 2002)

Another bargain bin find, this Australian compilation has a few bum tracks, but for the most part it is comprised of excellent rhythm driven industrial music. The best tracks, in my opinion, have to be those by the Revolting Cocks, Mussolini Headkick and Cabaret Voltaire.

Tracklisting:

1. Tackhead - 'King Of Beast'
2. 400 Blows - 'Fundamental Islam'
3. Nocturnal Emissions - 'No Separations'
4. Skinny Puppy - 'Deadlines'
5. Cabaret Voltaire - 'Doom Zoom'
6. 23 Skidoo - 'Shugyosha Step'
7. Revolting Cocks - 'Crackin' Up (Short Version)'
8. Front Line Assembly - 'Welcome to the Global Casino'
9. Mussolini Headkick - 'Compassion'
10. Die Krupps - 'Metal Machine Music'
11. Surfers For Satan - 'Closeout'
12. KMFDM - 'Don't Blow Your Top'

Machines and Noise

Straitjacket Fits - Melt (1990)

A slice of excellent homegrown music today! I found this album at my grandparents' place a while back, left there when my uncle emigrated to the UK an aeon ago. For some inexplicable reason, it is out of print, so I thought I'd post it. Straitjacket Fits are legendary round these parts, but if you haven't heard of them, read this bio for info on their career up to 1993 (update your website Flying Nun!). Anyway, after this bio so abruptly stops, Straitjacket Fits unfortunately broke up. They reunited for a tour a few years back, but the members remain focussed on their new projects, the most notable of which is Shayne Carter's Dimmer.

This is definitely one of my favourite kiwi rock albums (which is saying something), so I highly recommend that you download this. You can buy their best of here, and you should. For more obscure releases by them (some links are dead unfortunately, but a couple are still active) and their contemporaries, visit KiwiTapes.

Melt

Morton Subotnick - A Sky Of Cloudless Sulphur/After The Butterfly (Cassette, 1980)

More minimalist goodness, this time from Morton Subotnick, but a much healthier cassette this time, thank heaven! I know almost nothing about this tape except what the sleeve tells me, which is... almost nothing. Track one appears on 'Morton Subotnick - Vol. 1 Electronic Works', but I can find no trace of the second track, or of this particular cassette.

Tracklisting:

A Cloudless Sky Of Sulphur ("Realized electronically by the composer")

After the Butterfly ("Digitally recorded", featuring Mario Guarneri (Trumpet) and The Twentieth Century Players, conducted by the composer)

Sulphur/Butterfly

Also, try these excellent sites for more by Subotnick:

The Avant-Garde Project
Mutant Sounds
Dualtrack
Curved Air
A Closet Of Curiosities

Phew!

Tangerine Dream - Livemiles (Cassette, 1988)

This album from the legendary Tangerine Dream comprises two live recordings: their gig on the 8th of June 1986 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in West Berlin, Germany on the 1st of August 1987.

I haven't yet had a chance to listen to this fully, but it seems promising. The sound quality is average, as it has been ripped from a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th ad infinitum) hand cassette (big ups to Groovy for still stocking tapes haha!). Folder includes cover scan taken from discogs of the vinyl cover, not of the cassette that I own. Also I've switched to divshare cos it's awesome.

Livemiles

Compilation Notification

I don't know how many people know about these sites, so I thought I'd post this just in case. At erratum.org, three excellent experimental/noise compilations can be downloaded free of charge. Artists featured include John Giorno and Etant Donnés! Exciting hey?


Also, at 'The Silent Ballet' website (which is incidentally a fantastic post-rock resource) you can download six post-rock compilations of tracks by independent bands for free! Yay!

Help!

Does anyone know what this cassette is? I found it in a bargain bin the other day and it's great, but sadly unlabeled expect for a mysterious "No.3" on the front cover, as you can see. Unfortunately, I can't figure out who it is, and discogs doesn't seem to know either. I've uploaded a rip of this, so have a listen and see if you can figure it out. Any clues will be appreciated greatly!

Untitled Cassette