A little update

What's up guys? As you may have noticed, I haven't really been active with the blog lately and honestly, I was considering taking a bit of a break from it all. The reason I haven't been posting is well, to be frank, because I'm lazy goddammit.

But when I decided to check how my blog was doing on its own, I noticed all these new blog templates or whatever and I just couldn't stop blogging when it looks this nice, right? (Do you like it? Please say you like it).

So I guess try to start posting on regular(ish) basis again pretty soon. Stay tuned!

Edit: I've also changed the "LinkWithin"-thingy so that it displays four albums instead of just three now. It looks nicer with this new, wider layout.

Existensminimum - OK Boys

What's up guys? Long time no post (funny, right?).
Yeah, so I've been real busy lately and haven't had the time to post anything, to be honest I haven't really felt like it either. But now I'm back, at least for this post. I just had to let you know about this awesome dude.

He's from the same country as me (Sweden), and he just makes amazing music. He seems to be pretty obscure (on last.fm at least, with less 3000 listeners).
OK Boys is his second album I believe and it was released last year. It's gotten lots of great reviews in Sweden, and I can really see why. His songs are melodic and catchy, yet complex and intricate. Like a mix between indie/dream pop and krautrock. And that's pretty much what it is. Lots of freaky synths, hard, driving rhythms, complex composition, psychedelic/progressive rock elements + melodic and upbeat catchiness of indie pop + a little bit of the ol' dream pop.
So that's why I thought krautpop would be an adequate name for this eclectic genre he plays.

This is the kind of album where every song is great. I love those kinds of albums.

I strongly recommend that you check this shit out, he deserves some more attention.
Premium super-awesome download below:

DOWNLOAD, BRO

If you wondered about the name, existensminimum is in Sweden, in layman's terms, the minimum amount of income a person should have to live a 'decent' life, so to speak.

The Comsat Angels - Waiting For A Miracle

Heya! Kind of a late post (well, later than usual) today.

Today's album is a little something I stumbled across at a local used record store yesterday. I'd seen the cover before and I was pretty sure that I'd heard someone say nice things about it, it was in nice condition and cheap too, so I picked it up.

I listened to it today and yes, it is good.

To be honest though; it's pretty formulaic British, new wave post-punk, but it's still damn good. These guys really know what they're doing and it's nice to listen to as they do their thing. Cheesy keyboards, clean but slightly dissonant chords, prominent bass, repetitive drums; it's all in here.

What I especially like is their smooth blend of spastic, artsy Talking Heads-like post-punk with typical British, Joy Division-esque (maybe not as moody) clean-cut post-punk.

It sounds at times very similar to The Sound, whose fantastic album Jeopardy I highly recommend you to check out if you haven't already.

So yeah, this is nothing special, but still a very good and solid post-punk, and pretty underrated too.

DOWNLOAD

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Yup, Ol' Flylo is back with another album. It just got released today, you can buy (you know, with money) it on here on Bleep, I'm probably gonna get the double gatefold vinyl. But let's cut straight to the chase shall we? Yeah.

This one's a bit "crazier" - I would say - than his previous works, but it still has it's trippy, laidback hip-hop moments.

It sounds very, very chaotic at times, yet you always kind of have this feeling that he knows exactly what he's doing. Some of the songs are extremely inctricate, with what sounds like a billion tiny little sounds jumping all around your ears, quick to arrive and even quicker to leave.

He's madly mixing all kinds of genres; including funk, hip-hop, psychedelia, trip-hop, IDM, and whatnot. Some songs are just smooth, chilled-out trip-hop - you know, typical Flylo - and others are either batshit crazy or wildly experimental.

What's also nice about this album is that he's collaborated with a lot of other musicians for this album, including - but not limited to: Ravi Coltrane, Laura Darlington (with whom he's collaborated with on his previous albums) and Thom Yorke, of Radiohead.

However I feel that there is no better description than the one on Bleep's page for this release:

''In his second full length release for Warp, Flying Lotus has taken his craft to bold new levels, new conceptual depths spun together for a psychedelic, genre melting trip. Bringing together collaborators such as former Suicidal Tendencies bassist Stephen "Thundercat" Bruno, Rebekah Raff, Dorian Concept, Ravi Coltrane, Laura Darlington and most strikingly , Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Cosmogramma bristles with a maximal energy, crossbreed innovation and distorted beat-bass funktions. A beautiful fever-dream of an album that variously resonates with the ghosts of Dilla, Parliament, Hendrix, Sun Ra, Love plugged into the kind of next-level bass waves that are crashing across continents right now. Destined to be lauded as a future classic...''

DOWNLOAD

Me - Lovebox

What's up people? Been a while since I posted anything; thought it was about time. I'm gonna try to post a little more often.

This album - Lovebox, by Me (not ME literally, the artist is called Me) - I found yesterday at one of my local record store's really cheap. They have this shelf where they put out all kinds of obscure, bad-selling albums really cheap, so you pretty often actually find quite a few gems.

And so yeah, I found this, bought it, got home, ripped it, and listened to it. I do not regret buying (partly because it was incredibly cheap for an entire album, a CD by the way, but mostly because it is GOOD).

Alright, so the album cover and the song titles kinda suggest that it should be a very gloomy, depressive album. But once you get listening to it, it's actually kind of upbeat and cheerful at times. I find that the man has a pretty nice and unique voice and the instrumentation (the actual music) is really nice too; kind of indie pop/folk with subtle influences from german folk music (which is not too surprising, considering he is from Germany).

I have some more stuff that's pretty underground/obscure in store for you - It's perfect for anyone looking to boost up their indie cred and brag about it to your hipster friends.

Oh and quality-wise, it will be some pretty premium shit, since I ripped it with EAC straight from the CD to 320 kbps mp3 (I'd do it in V0, but LAME is fucking with EAC, or vice versa, I don't know).

DAWNLAWD

Celeste - Morte(s) Nee(s)

Yup. Celeste's latest, peeps. You may or may not have heard of Celeste, but if you have any kind of interest in sludge, neocrust, extreme metal, etc. then pay attention now.

If you have heard Celeste before, then this won't be a surprise for you (I'm not saying it's bad though). If you haven't, then boy are you in for a treat.

Celeste manages to pull off the amazing combination of (neo)crust/sludge and black metal. Does it sound awesome? Of course it does! And it is. This shit will rape your ears (in a good way).

If you've heard Fall Of Efrafa or Alpinist, whose albums I've posted earlier, then you will be familiar with this soulcrushing brand crusty sludge (or sludgy crust, if you will) that seems to be on the uprise nowadays, except this leans more towards the metal side of things, most of the time it's a lot faster than pounding doom-riffs of Fall Of Efrafa's Inlé, but still slightly slower than Alpinist's blisteringly fast, sludge-tainted crust/hardcore.

If the album's goal was to cause a feeling of despair, then it does it's job well. Throughout the album you are filled with despair and terror in fear of the horrifying, grinding and devouring (figuratively, of course) wall of sound which is made up of angular and dark yet melodic sludge riffs backed up by furious blast-beats and crushingly slow kick-snare combinations. And on top of it all are the screeching, terrfying harsh vocals which definitely adds to the "despair-factor".

This album may make you uncomfortable, but I think you'll enjoy it a whole lot anyway.

P.S. Sorry if you're disappointed with the album, I may have hyped it a bit too much.

DOWNLOAD IF YOU DARE

Foals was fake

Okay, so apparently Foals' new album Total Life Forever which I posted recently was a fake leak, and I apologize for that.
I was unaware that it was not a legit leak, and I was told by a very kind person on last.fm that it was merely a collection of Foals B-sides.
I will however try and get you the real album as soon as I can, but that may not be until its official release.

Isaac And Hilltop - Before The Flowers Bloom

What up people? Got some new musics for you.

Here's the description of today's album:

Okay, so Isaac and Hilltop is incredibly obscure indie folk band (obscure enough to impress most of your hipster friends). But the obscurity is a shame, really. These guys are SO good and they deserve more attention.

The recording is very lo-fi, so it's kind of hard to hear what they're singing, but most of the time it seems that the lyrics are great.

If you wonder what they sound like, it's kind of a cross between Bob Dylan and the Mountain Goats (but not lyrically of course, that would be insanely good beyond belief).

This little album or EP or whatever it is is truly a gem that shouldn't miss out on, so download and listen to it now. You won't regret it.

DOWNLOAD THIS FINE PIECE OF MUSIC

By the way, most of their music is freely available on their bandcamp page, though not this release.

Astrobrite - Crush

Hey everyone! I'm going to Egypt tomorrow and I'll be gone for a week, so I thought I'd post a little something before I left.

This here is pretty, pretty, pretty nice album. Real fuzzy, dreamy post-punk/indie pop or something. You know, shoegaze.

It's real good and stuff, whatever. I don't feel like writing much right now, so just check it out, really, it's awesome, you won't be dissappointed.

See ya guys!

DOWNLOAD

Silly cat! You can't eat that cheeseburger!

HAHAHAHAHA ISN'T THIS THE BEST PICTURE EVER?

Lync - These Are Not Fall Colors

Sorry about the slightly smaller than usual album cover, I couldn't find any bigger. But hey, look on the bright side of things; considering how obscure it is, you could drastically increase your indie cred with this album

Hey guys, what's up? Finally updating the blog after a little hiatus; I think I'll keep this whole "only post a few times a month"-thing up for a while, I just don't have the will nor time to post like 4 or 5 times a week.

Yeah, anyways, here's the music part of the post:

Okay, today I'm posting what has quickly become one of my favorite albums, very recently. I actually found this by accident while lazily browsing through my grossly oversized (at least for me) music collection (I'll be reorganizing and removing some stuff soon, though).

It was tagged as "indie rock" and the cover looked appealing somehow, so I just thought "All right, I'll check it out".

And I'm fucking glad I did. This album is awesome with a capital everything.

Maybe it's just because I absolutely adore all things old school emo and have a perversion for anything that's really noisy, lo-fi, 90's indie/garage rock, but I think this album is fucking amazing.

I can't explain what makes it so great, really. But I guess it something about those noise/lo-fi guitars mixed with the emo chords/mood/whatever.

Every song (yes, every song) is awesome and by the end you just wish it'd lasted twice as long.

Maybe you won't like it as much as I do, but I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy at least some degree as long as you have an open mind. Maybe it'll be another favorite album of yours as well; either way, I hope you like it and even if you don't, I still will.

DOWNLOAD GODDAMMIT!

Btw, my last post was the 100th post on this blog. Yay for me!

Motohiro Nakashima - We Hum On The Way Home

Hey. I haven't posted in a while, and I think I'm gonna keep it this way from now on; not posting every day, but every once in a while when I have time and feel like it. Hope that's okay with you.

Anyway, this album I accidentally found when I stumbled over this guy's website and I really liked the music in the video on the drip sessions page, which was by Motohiro Nakashima. So I checked him out and downloaded this album. I'm glad I did.

This album is seriously the most beautiful album I've heard. It's like some sort of acoustic ambient or something (post-classical?). Amazing melodies and incredible soundscapes created by tons of instruments, including acoustic guitar, piano, brass instruments, and more surround you at all times.

He succeeds to constantly create the same atmosphere and evoke the same feelings that Boards Of Canada's songs do, but in a more cheerful and happy mood.

He's just one of those artists which you think it is a pity that they're not more famous.

Download this and listen to it. Then buy some of his stuff (if you like it, which you probably will) or support him in some other way.

This dude makes the most awesome music ever.

NOTE: The last song is missing, and I can't find anywhere so you'll have to do without that one I'm afraid.

DOWNLOAD YOUR NEW FAVORITE ALBUM

Burzum - Belus

FUUUUUUCK. FUCK. THIS ALBUM IS THE SHIT. VARG IS BACK IN A BIIIIG WAY.
I WILL WRITE THIS ENTIRE POST IN CAPS TO EMPHASIZE HOW PSYCHED I AM.
THIS ALBUM IS A MASTERPIECE. ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2010 GUYS. THIS IS LIKE HVIS LYSET TAR OSS + FILOSOFEM + A LIL' BIT O' ULVER OR SOMETHING TIMES AWESOME.
IT MAY JUST BE BECAUSE I'VE WAITED FOR THIS ALBUM FOR AGES, EVEN BEFORE IT WAS ANNOUNCED, BUT THIS IS AWESOME.
HE' S KEPT HIS OLD SOUND, SKIPPED THE BORING AS FUCK "AMBIENT" SONGS, ADDED A BIT OF EXTRA FRESHNESS AND RECORDED IT REAL LO-FI, SO IT'S ALL TRVE AND KVLT AND SHIT.
OH AND THERE'S FUCKING CLEAN VOCALS TOO ON SOME SONGS, MIXED WITH THE HARSH VOCALS (THAT'S KIND OF WHAT I MEANT WHEN I MENTIONED ULVER).
SERIOUSLY, WHEN THAT AWESOME RIFF IN THE BEGINNING BELUS DØD CAME ON I ALMOST CRIED TEARS OF JOY.
MANLY TEARS, OF COURSE.

DOWNLOAD OR GET SODOMIZED WITH A SCREWDRIVER

(also buy it, I'm going to. It comes on two awesome white vinyls, 2LP fuck yeah)

toe - Songs, Ideas We Forgot

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted anything lately, but I've been pretty busy so you'll have to excuse me.
Anyway, I've got this debut EP by a really cool japanese band named toe (no capitals) for ya today. They play a kind of really awesome instrumental math/post-rock or something.
It's pretty chilled out and laid back, feels like their just jamming at times, improvising you know?
So check 'em out, I don't really feel like writing anything more about them; my words won't do them justice. Just listen to it instead and be amazed.

I just watched a documentary about the hardcore punk scene in the early 80's today, so expect to maybe see some hardcore or something posted soon. The documentary was called "American Hardcore" by the way. It was just decent, but very interesting. Now I'm gonna go listen to Bad Brains.

Oh, and I might not post a lot this week, but I'll try and post every day next week.
Unless the blog gets shutdown by Google, that is. But I doubt that would happen.

DOWNLOAD

Jenny Owen Youngs - Batten The Hatches

Why, hello everyone! Today I've got something completely different from what I posted yesterday, you know how I like to mix it up.
So, Jenny Owen Youngs is this young (unfunny pun intended) singer-songwriter I first heard when she was opening for Regina Spektor a few months back.
She's a lot better live, but her studio recordings are not by any means bad at all.
Later I found out that Jenny and Regina are in fact friends and that shows in her vocal style. At times it's so similar to Regina's that it's almost a bit scary. She's got the same jazzy, quirky kind of voice and a pretty big vocal range.
As for the rest of the music, the instrumentation, it's mostly her acoustic guitar that is the "center" of her music (besides her voice) with some additional instruments that vary from track to track.
Pretty, pretty, pretty good album, check it out.



Trivia: On the track "Voice On Tape", it's Regina Spektor talking on the voicemail message in the beginning.

DOWNLOAD

Shining - Blackjazz

Hey there. Weird (but awesome) album for ya today. Shining is this band from Norway and they've been pretty much been playing experimental jazz with electronic elements and other stuff their entire career.
But on this album they just went nuts. It's sounds like some sort of crazy mix of Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan, industrial, jazz and metal. Seriously crazy shit. And really good too. This is just about as avant-garde and experimental metal gets.
It's gotten quite a lot of hype recently, and it deserves it (most of it, anyways).
Not much more to say, just check it out for yourselves, as it's pretty hard to describe this musical madness/genius with only words.

DOWNLOAD REMOVED DUE TO DMCA TAKEDOWN NOTICE

Norma - Book Of Norma

Yes, yes, yes. Late Saturday update comin' at ya (at least late where I am). This album is an album I actually found at my local library some while ago (very big library by the way, and they have a nice habit of purchasing obscure, yet very good albums which you can then loan for free. Awesome right?).

Norma is a post-punk/shoegaze/indie rock/whatever band straight out of the Argentina underground. How exactly the people at the library got a hold of this I'm not sure, but that's not really the important thing here, the important thing is that this album is pretty fucking good.
I only picked up this album because I thought the cover looked cool and the name sounded interesting. But then it turned out to be really good too.
The first song is a little weird and noisy, so the first time I listened to it, I thought: "What the hell is this shit? Should've never borrowed it" or something along those lines.
But then the second song wowed me (probably the best on the album, or at least second best).
Their sound is really cool, like a fresh take on the classic post-punk/shoegaze sound of the late 80's. It's sounds retro, but still modern and up-to-date.
Yeah, it's an awesome album and I think you should check it out ASAP.

DOWNLOAD

Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain

Hey people, here's some jazz for you. I'm not much of a jazz man myself (but I'm trying to be), but I just had to listen to this after reading a short description of it.
It went something like: "Davis taking a piece originally written for guitar and transcribes to be played by a trumpet, backed up by a minimal orchestra". I think it was something like that.
Anyway, that pretty much describes it very well. You can hear the guitar-like passages from time to time, with a bit of flamenco influence backed up by minimal orchestration/backup band.
I, for one, very much liked this, especially the last song, and Davis' trumpeting is as always amazing. A true legend.
If you're a jazz fan and haven't listened to this yet, you should probably check it out.

LINK REMOVED DUE TO DMCA TAKEDOWN

Aves - Demo

Hi. This is a rather unusual release. Aves' 2009 Demo is a very nice mixture of post-punk/shoegaze, black metal and a bit of post-rock. These guys are part of the so called blackwave movement that has risen in the latest couple of years.
And it's instrumental. You may have already heard it, and you may have not, but this is still a great demo.
I specifically love how they manage to blend these quite different styles seamlessly and still making it sound great.
It's instrumental, which is good because it lets you focus entirely on the instrumentation, which is quite awesome.
It's been quite humorously referred to as "twee black metal", due to the fact that Aves incorporates black metal elements into their upbeat, twinkly and melodic post-punk.
The black metal influences are most notable in couple of songs, for example the beginning of the second song.
Also, there's this badass 70's hard rock/heavy metal-ish guitar solo being played while the drums are doing insane black metal-style blastbeats. Does it get more awesome than that?

DOWNLOAD

KuroiOto - 7 Days Of The Breaks

Ok, I'm gonna be straight with ya here. I haven't listened to this entire album. In fact, I've only listened to the first two songs. But I'm gonna go ahead and post this anyway, partially because I felt the blog needed some change from the double punk-posts, and partially because I didn't know what else to post.
However, as for the music, I've only heard the intro and the first song, "Monday".
The album is about what the dude who made this, KuroiOto, felt about each day of the week and
he expresses this musically on this album. Also, all the drum loops are supposedly sampled breaks, hence "7 days of the Breaks".
Oh, and if you haven't guessed yet, the genre here is hip-hop of the instrumental kind.
Now, you may ask yourself (you probably won't though): "Was there really nothing else to post? Why did he pick this album?". Well, I'll tell you:
It's because the moment that the alarm clock rand and the drums kicked in on "Monday", I instantly felt that KuroiOto had perfectly captured the mood, the feeling of an average monday when you're on your way to work or school, in musical form.
That's why I decided to post this, because it connected with me on a kind of semi-subconcious, emotional level without speaking any words, only through music. And that is, according to me, what music should be all about, more or less.
Of course I will listen to the entire album (hopefully soon), and I'd like to think that the rest of the songs are at least as good as "Monday".
So I really think you should listen to this, and I hope you get the same feeling from this album that I got.
Oh, and it's awesome (I hope).

You can download the album for free on his bandcamp page.

DOWNLOAD AND BE AMAZED

Various Artists - Angels With Dirty Faces (Side Two)

Ok, got the second side of Angels With Dirty Faces for you, same shit quality as the last one.
I'm sorry I didn't post anything yesterday even though I said I would, so to make up for it, I'll post another album besides this.
And yeah, the music is pretty much the same genre and stuff as the first side, and just as good (if you like punk).
So check it out, it's pretty cool.

DOWNLOAD

Various Artists - Angels With Dirty Faces (Side One)

Yes, I took the picture with my cellphone

Rejoice! I have returned!
Yes, I know I said I was going to post something like four days ago, but I've been real busy and so I haven't had time to give you guys an update. But now I'm back, and this time with an unusual treat.
This album is an album I got from my uncle. It's on vinyl, and since it's pretty much impossible to find a download for it, I had to rip it myself.
Now, the sound quality of the recordings is horrible. I tried to make it better by doing a rough remaster, but it still sounds kind of shitty (if you think it sounds bad, you should hear the original).
It may be partially due to my turntable, but not that much (I don't have the best turntable in the world, but it's not THAT bad either).
Anyway, it's a really good album actually, and according to the back of the sleeve, the record label (No Future Records), it's a compilation of some old EP's and singles that they picked out and put on a single LP instead of putting out small quantities of 7-inches and stuff.
All of the songs are good old, British Oi!/punk songs with a nice, raw and lo-fi sound to them.
It's seems to be relatively obscure too, so it'll be great for boosting your punk-cred!
But seriously check it out, as it was a long and cumbersome process for me to rip these tracks (since I don't own a USB-turntable). Also it's a cool album.

I will hopefully have side two of the record up by tomorrow.

DOWNLOAD OR ALL MY HARD WORK WILL BE IN VAIN!

Two albums tomorrow

Ok guys, I won't have time to post an album today, so I'll just go ahead and post two tomorrow instead.
Sorry about that.
In the meantime, you can check out some of my older posts or something.

Gorillaz - Stylo (Single)

Pictured: Gorillaz during studio recording

Hey guys, too lazy to post an album today, so I'll just post the latest Gorillaz single.
It's really good, definitely check it out if you haven't heard already.
It's got a nice 80's feel to it, and it features both Bobby Womack and Mos Def laying down some awesome vocals.
So yeah, check it out while you're waiting for the album to be released (going to be awesome).
I'll probably post another album tomorrow, so stay tuned and peace out!

DOWNLOAD

Fall Of Efrafa - Inlé

Well hello everybody, I'm back once again. Today's album was recommended to me in the blog's CBox (which you can see on yout right) by a very nice person who goes by the name of "flex".
I'd heard of these guys before and I'd been meaning to check them out, but I'd never gotten around to it.
Now I wish I'd listened to them earlier, because this is one amazing album. Absolutely stunning.
Probably my favorite album of 2009, but they're not in the AOTY-list because at the time of its writing, I had not yet listened to "Inlé".
Inlé is a sludge masterpiece. I don't want to constrict it to a single genre, but overall it's sludge. It reminds me strongly of bands like Neurosis and Cult of Luna with their epic, post-rockish build-ups, soul-crushingly heavy doom riffs and agonized, screamed vocals.
This album is 80 minutes long, but it feels like it's over in no time. That's how good it is. Every song is great, beautiful and well-performed.
Fall of Efrafa broke up last year, so Inlé was their last album. But the members have moved on to other project and hopefully we'll soon hear something as grand as this.
Awesome album, download NOW.

DOWNLOAD, MAN.

You can find FREE and LEGAL downloads of all their albums on their website.

Black Uhuru - The Dub Factor

Hello everyone. Got something a little bit different today, namely some dub.
Now, I'm not a big fan of dub (in fact, this is the first dub I've ever listened to), but recently I got a bunch of vinyls from my uncle and this was one of them. It looked interesting, so I decided to check it out. It turned to be pretty awesome.
If you don't know what dub is, it's pretty much just reggae with a fuckton of delay, reverb and stuff like that.
This album is actually a remix album containing dub remixes of various Black Uhuru reggae songs. The songs are almost entirely instrumental too, with the occasional vocals.
I haven't heard any of Black Uhuru's material besides this, so I can't really give a comparison, but at least I can that it's good.
I don't really know what more to say, if you like reggae, dub or maybe even dubstep you'll probably like this. It's a good album.

DOWNLOAD

Algernon Cadwallader - Some Kind Of Cadwallader

Hello. Time for some more good music. I hope you enjoyed the last album I posted, I sure did.
Now, if you've been following the blog for a little while you probably know that I'm a sucker for emo (especially 90's) and screamo, and so it is time for some more emo.
This is a good album. Very good. But unfortunately I just recently discovered this and so it's too late to put it on my aoty 2009 list. But what the hell, I'm posting it now.
What I love about these guys are that they sound just like Cap'n Jazz, and since Cap'n Jazz split-up quite early they didn't have time release a lot of material. So this kind of like a reunion in a way, I guess.
And when I say they sound like Cap'n Jazz, I really mean they sound like Cap'n Jazz. I actually checked their MySpace to make sure that it wasn't in fact Tim Kinsella doing the vocals, because they sound scarily similar. Same goes for the instrumentals; nice 90's emo revival guitar work, very "twinkly" and melodic, kind of like a mix between Cap'n Jazz and American Football (minus the sad/depressing stuff). It's really upbeat and happy sounding stuff, so none of that gloomy American Football-esque kind of emo. These guys are Cap'n Jazz 2.0.

They've got a new 7" coming out soon with an included CD containing 6 previously unreleased tracks. I'm thinking about pre-ordering it, and if I do and you like this album, I could rip itfor ya and upload it in flac or v0 mp3 or whatever. Here's a link if you're interested in ordering: http://www.banquetrecords.com/search.jsp?query=algernon

Honestly, the first tiem I listened to this I didn't really like it, it just felt kinda "meh", you know? But the second time around...wow. I guess you could say it was love at....umm....second listen?
Anyway, check it out, amazing stuff.

Oh, and I almost forgot; it's awesome.

DOWNLOAD, PEOPLE!

The Sound - Jeopardy

Hey everybody, I'm back! Hooray!
No, but seriously, I decided to keep blogging (obviously) so today I'll have another album for you to enjoy.
As for the "albums of the decade"-list; I probably won't be making one any time soon because it's just too much work and I don't have time for that.

Alright, now onto the music. The album I've decided to post today is an album I stumbled across about a week ago and have benn enjoying quite a lot the last few days.
This is, in my opinion, probably one of the most underrated albums (and bands) of the 80's, maybe even one of the best.
The thing that I love most about this album is, well, everything really. The drums in the background playing all kinds of variations of that classic post-punk beat, the wonderful vocals, the wonderful, melodic yet at times dissonant guitar chops and the fat, creeping basslines.
The bass on this albums is kind of special in a way that it's just as prominent as the guitar, maybe even more. While the bass is playing just about all the time, the guitar really only "pops in" for quick chops and some short riffs here and there, mostly during the choruses. This is especially evident in the first song, which also happens to be my favorite song of the album, along with "Missiles" and the title track, "Jeopardy".
So if you like new wave, post-punk and/or other stuff like that and you haven't already heard this album, now is a damn good time.
Because this right here is fucking awesome.

DOWNLOAD

Top 20 Albums of 2009!...in alphabetical order

Ok, I think I'm done with my list for the top 20 albums of 2009, but then I realized I couldn't really decide which one was better than the other, so I just decided to list those 20 in alphabetical order. Plus, it'll be a new, revolutionizing and interesting twist to AOTY-lists (ok, maybe not revolutionizing).

So, I've written a short description for each album, and there's a download link in each post. Just click the links below.

Absu - Absu
Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
Alpinist - Minus Mensch
Andrew Jackson Jihad - Can't Maintain
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
The Antlers - Hospice
A Place To Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
Baroness - Blue Record
Clark - Totems Flare (old post)
Converge - Axe To Fall
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Kylesa - Static Tensions
Mastodon - Crack The Skye
Mono - Hymn To The Immortal Wind
The Protomen - Act II: The Father Of Death (old post)
Regina Spektor - Far
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns (old post)
Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
Tegan And Sara - Sainthood (old post)
TwinSisterMoon - The Hollow Mountain (old post)

And if you wondered about the AOTD-list, I most likely won't be making one.
I mean, I haven't really decided yet, so there's still a propability.
The reason why, exactly, is that I've been thinking about "quitting" the blog. Of this I am not sure yet either, we'll just have to see.
The main reason is because it's feels more like a chore most of the time than something I do for fun. It's hard to maintain a blog by myself and I just don't feel like I would want to entrust someone else with posting on my own blog.
Either way it goes, I'll make a (last) post when I've decided about everything.
But for now, just enjoy the music. After all, that's what this blog is about.

Feel free to leave comments.

Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions

Monoliths & Dimensions is the latest album of the refrigerator-duo Sunn O))) consisting of doom veterans Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson.
Jokes aside, this is by far Sunn O))) most accessible and in my opinion their greatest album.
They've nearly abandoned the strictly bass/guitar drone doom formula and incorporated other elements such as choirs and classical instrumentation.
At first this sounds like their old stuff; droning mindbendingly low drone doom riffs with Attila Csihar as their vocalist/gibberish mumbler. But as you progress through the album, you realize that they've changed their style, most notably on the last song, which has close to none of the old drone doom elements.
So check it out and be amazed.

DOWNLOAD

Regina Spektor - Far

Ah! Yes, yet another wonderful album from my all-time favorite artist, Regina Spektor.
Far is (in my incredibly biased, fanboy-opinion) an incredibly good album.
It's not nearly as good as her early work (pre-Begin To Hope), but it's still amazing.
The reason why it's not as good as her early work is that these new albums are over-produced.
She should just have stuck with her piano instead of incorporating cellos, drums and electronic elements into her music. She's gone from anti-folk to indie pop.
With that said, this is still one of my many favorite albums and Regina is still my favorite artist.

DOWNLOAD

Mono - Hymn To The Immortal Wind

There's nothing like a little post-rock whenever you're feeling gloomy or just want to relax.
And this right here, is a great, great post-rock album. Just amazing.
It's so fragile and beautiful, yet majestic and powerful. Not much more to say than that.
It's an awesome album. Listen to it.

DOWNLOAD

Mastodon - Crack The Skye

I'll be honest with you here. At first I considered not even including this a lbum in the list.
It had gotten terribly boring and everytime I listened to it, I felt nothing. It wasn't special anymore.
But then I remembered what it was like the first times I heard it, before I'd listened to it too much.
And I recall it to be an amazing experience. The vocals twisting and intertwining with each other, the delicate, yet heavy and technical riffs that shook the world by it's foundations, the drum work by Brann Dailor that was so flawless, technical and intricate that it would make you believe that this album was descended straight from heaven and the creeping, thick basslines that would make any challengers of Mastodon's might cower in fear and shame.
This is a masterpiece. And I'll be damned if Mastodon ever makes an album that surpasses Crack The Skye's greatness. For that, ladies and gentlemen, would indeed be an admirable feat.
This album will send you to another dimension.

DOWNLOAD

Kylesa - Static Tensions

There are bands that play this sort of pseudo-sludge, it sounds like sludge but has a whole lot of other stuff and it's a bit "watered down". Bands like Mastodon and Baroness play this kind of sludge.
Then there is the proper sludge, a clean fusion of crushing doom metal and furious hardcore.
Kylesa are one of these "proper sludge" bands.
And on this album they sure show it. It's a full-length of pure sludge carnage where the masterfully fuse the heavy, chugging doom riffs together with the fast paced aggressiveness of hardcore and create something amazing.
This is awesome. Download it.

DOWN-FUCKIN-LOAD, MAN

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

This is another "indie pop" masterpiece of 2009. Got a lot of hype, deserved most of it.
It's just insanely catchy and well-though out. Nice vocals, good instrumentation, just a great album really.
They're also a bit new weird america (and apparently quite experimental, according to all the indiefags over at last.fm), so they sound kinda like Grizzly Bear and other bands like that.
I'd write a bit more if I wasn't getting a bit tired of all this writing (I making all these AOTY posts today). Download it and fall in love.

FUGGEN WEBSHERIFF'D

(new megaupload is in the comment section below)

Converge - Axe To Fall

FUCK YEAH IT'S CONVERGE Y'ALL! Converge, the world's most solid (hardcore) band is back with yet another album.
And you know what? I'm not gonna waste my time by writing a long description. Just download it and once you hear THE RIFF in the first song (you'll know which one I'm talking about), you will literally shit you pants. That's how awesome it is.
This may not be as great as Jane Doe, but it's pretty, pretty, pretty fuckin' good.
Oh and there's also this awesome folky song featuring Steve Von Till that ends with a epic Neurosis-like part. Sound good enough for ya? Thought so.

FUCKING WEBSHERIFF'D

Baroness - Blue Record

I can start off by saying that this is probably the best album art of 2009. It was made by Baroness' frontman (whom I can't remember the name of right now, so whatever).
Constantly I hear people complaining about how Red Album was far better and that Blue Record was a big disappointment. I firmly believe that these people are all fucked in the head.
This album is godlike. From the sweet, melodic riffs reminescent of Thin Lizzy's twin lead guitar setup to the strained, raspy hardcore-like vocals that all fall together into one big, wonderful and undiscernable mess of sludge and prog.
This album is awesome. FUKKEN DOWNLAOD IT MAYNE

DOWNLOAD

A Place To Bury Strangers - Exploding Head

80's revival, fuck yeah! This album is filled with amazing shoegaze/post-punk and VERY NOISY guitars.
It starts out with a hard-hitting and poppy (yet kind of depressing in a no wave kind of way), post-punk/industrial beat and a lot of noisy instrumentation (as is the tradition with shoegaze).
This album feels like it came straight from the eighties, but still feels new and fresh.
Every song is great and as a whole this album is just wonderful.

DOWNLOAD

The Antlers - Hospice

Here's another over-hyped album. I mean, it's not bad. Far from it. It's just not as good as people made it seem. Still a fantastic album (trust me).
After a few listens it's really grown on me. The songs are incredibly gloomy and have incredibly beautiful melodies.
The singer kind of sounds like Antony from Antony and the Johnsons, which can take a while to get used (I thought they were incredibly creepy at first). But when you do, this album is awesome.
It's a pretty sad album, but not that sad, not enough to get you all depressed and shit (at least not for me).

DOWNLO-SYYYLVIIAAAA, GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE OVEN!

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

HOLY SHIT IT'S MOVING (the album cover). That was pretty much everyone's initial reaction to this album. It didn't really matter if the actual music was good or not; if the cover was some sort of awesome optical illusion, it was already AOTY.
No, but seriously this album is amazing but maybe not deserving of all the hype it got.
Animal Collective are one of time's most original and innovative artists (in my opinion) and they basically sound like a modern version of the Beach Boys mixed with a whole lot of neo-psychadelia.
This is not their greatest work, but it is damn good. But you've probably heard this already. Oh well.

THIS DOWNLOAD IS THE JAM OF A LIFETIME

Andrew Jackson Jihad - Can't Maintain

Everyone's favorite folk punkers are back again with another great album! Hooray!
Ok, I should start off by saying that I'm a bit disappointed with this album. Mainly because it feels a bit bland and boring and because People Who Can Eat People....etc was a lot better.
Don't get me wrong, this is still great. Just not as catchy and punky as the first one, I guess.
You could say that they've matured their sound (for the worse). But still, you should listen to this; I mean, come on. It' s AJJ.

DOWNLOAD

Alpinist - minus.mensch LP

The minus.mensch LP is by far one of my favorite releases this year, and quite surprising that an obscure band like Alpinist would put out such a well-made album.
The genre is basically crust but incorporates elements of traditional hardcore as well as screamo (most notably in the riffs).
It's hard to what makes it such a great album, besides that just about every song is amazing.
Definitely check this out.

DOWNLOAD

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse

Are you ready for some crazy-ass grind? You are? Good.
Because that's what this is. With Agorapocalypse, grind masters Agorapocalypse push the boundaries of grindcore further yet with unusually long song lengths, crazy (and awesome) guitar solos and insane drumming by a drum machine programmed by frontman Scott Hull himself.
This right here is a grindcore masterpiece. Check it out.

DOWNLOAD

Absu - Absu

Absu is back in 2009 with their self-titled album, and what a comeback! This album punches you in the face with mindblowing black- & thrash metal riffs that have a really nice melodic feel to them.
The incredibly catchy, melodic riffs on this album coupled with excellent production and blastbeat drumming at a blistering pace (and ridiculously long song titles) make this one of the best metal releases this year.

DOWNLOAD

AOTY + AOTD

Yo, whassup? I'll be compiling an Album of the Year & Decade list to be posted as one big "megapost" eventually, during the next 7 days or so I guess. So I probably won't be very active on the blog until it's finished. But it's going to be pretty awesome, I'm sure.
Anyway, just check out some music from my older posts in the meanwhile, I recommend the last post I made, Drive Like Jehu's Yank Crime. Awesome band, awesome album.
So, yeeaaahhh......Happy new year and peace out!

Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime

Awwright, got some really, really awesome music for you today.
Yank Crime was Drive Like Jehu's final album and their masterpiece, as well as their major-label debut (which means it shouldn't be to hard to find in a well-sorted record store near you).
It starts off violently with mind-twisting, dissonant riffs reminescent of no wave legends Sonic Youth's brilliant guitar arrangements. It's hard to constrict this band to a single genre as they draw heavily from noise rock and post-hardcore as well as achieving the technicality and complexity normally only found in math rock.
It really shows that the no wave bands and bands inspired by those no wave bands has had a great impact on Drive Like Jehu's sound. Just listening to them reminds me of the hard, driving riffs and rhythms of Shellac, the noisy aggressiveness of Big Black or the atonal and dissonant, yet somehow melodic and catchy riffs of Sonic Youth.
I can not emphasize enough how brilliant this album is. It consists entirely of wonderful, long songs filled to the brim with wonderful dissonant, driving riffs repeating alongside brilliant drumming, incredible hard and driving bass riffs as well as the "in-your-face", shouted lyrics that sound like they were ripped straight from some Fugazi song.
This is brilliant, easily one of the best albums of the 90's.

DOWNLOAD THIS OR YOU'RE STUPID

Idiot Pilot - Strange We Should Meet Here

Hey there. So I've got a new album for ya, this time by a band called Idiot Pilot.
I don't really feel like typing out a long description, so I'll just write something short.
It's really hard to classify them as one genre, but I guess you could say that they are similar to The Sound Of Animals Fighting, basically really experimental rock, sort of neoproggy with a little post-hardcore here and there, and a little electronic influences.
Except that these guys are more post-hardcore and shoegaze mixed with electroclash/new rave.
This may sound like absolute shit, but it's actually very skillfully done, and has just the right amount of guitar, alternating between screaming/singing vocals and synths/electronic kick drums.
It's interesting for sure, so check it out - I, for one, really enjoyed this album.

DOWNLOAD

Jesu - Silver

Hello again! I'm back after the holidays and I hope that you've had a merry Christmas.
Silver is an awesome EP by Jesu, a band that former Godflesh frontman Justin Broadrick formed after they split up.
Jesu is only one of Broadrick's many projects, but definetely one of his best. They have always played a very eclectic brand of music, being rock at the core, but experimenting with many different genres such as shoegaze, industrial, drone doom and ambient, among others. Kind of like a british Boris, I guess.
Silver, however, is a shoegaze release. And a heavy one at that. Imagine Black Sabbath meeting My Bloody Valentine, and you pretty much have the overall sound on this EP.
Broadrick does a good vocal performance, as well as playing all the other instruments except for bass and drums.
All the songs have a very nice structure, consisting of many layers of sounds with guitars high in the mix and vocals low in the mix. Like proper, traditional shoegaze should be.
But Jesu are not afraid to think outside of the box and incorporate ambient synths, industrial beats and doom riffs to make the music their very own.
A must listen for any fan of shoegaze or bands like Boris.

DOWNLOAD

The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys' Christmas Album

Merry christmas everyone! Yeah, I know I forogot to post a christmas ablum, but christmas isn't over yet, and I hope it's not too late.
I was going to post "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio initially (it's a piano-driven jazz album with christmas songs and songs from Charlie Brown, really great album) but then I though of this amazing album, which is, in my opinion easily one of the greatest christmas albums ever.
Not much to say really, it's the Beach Boys singing christmas songs. Could it get any better?
Just download it and have a Merry Christmas!

Note: If anyone really wants the Charlie Brown album, I can upload it.

DOWNLOAD
Sorry for the Megaupload, Mediafire isn't working for me.

Warning - Watching From A Distance

What's up, everybody? So today I wont be posting a Christmas album, but tomorrow I will, I promise! This, however, is a masterpiece by british (and awesome) doom metal band Warning.
What makes this so special is, in my opinion the vocals and the lyrics. They almost sound out of place at first, as if they were more fitting for a traditional heavy metal album or power metal.
The vocals are incredible, and are the driving force of the entire album.While this might sound strange for a metal album, it's true. The heavy droning, doom-guitars are merely ambience compared to the vocals. But you might still wonder what it is that makes the vocals so special and great? Well, I'll tell you: It's the raw emotion and power that makes them so wonderful.
Now this is an incredibly depressing album, which in it self is also quite unusual and unique for most traditional doom (a lot more common in funeral doom). It is truly soul crushingly emotional, in a way I've never experienced before. The combination of those heavy, droning guitars, the slow, pounding drums and those amazing, emotional vocals make this a true masterpiece of depressing, beautiful doom metal.

DOWNLOAD

Ulver - Kveldssanger

Yeah, bit late with today's update I guess, almost forgot about it. But nevertheless, here it is. Kveldssanger is a neofolk album sung entirely in Norwegian by Ulver, an awesome band from Norway who have played tons of genres, including black metal and folk. The album after this one was raw, aggressive black metal, but on the one after that they started to experiment with electronic music and ambient and whatnot. They basically change musical direction with every album, so it's hard to say what genre they play.
So whatever, Kveldssanger is an incredibly awesome album of dark, melancholic neofolk with influences of traditional Norwegian folk.
The vocals as well are great, flawlessly lead vocals performed frontman Garm and really nicea capella backing vocals accompanied by beautiful acoustic guitar among a few other instruments.
I'd say this is easily one of Ulver's best albums and something any self-respectable (neo)folk fan should listen to.

By the way, since it's almost Christmas now, I'll probably post some sort of "Christmas-ey" album tomorrow or the day before Christmas.

DØWNLØAD

Cap'n Jazz - Analphabetapolothology

Well hello everybody! I'm back again with another awesome album. Maybe you've heard (of) them, maybe you haven't, but one thing's for sure: Cap'n Jazz was an incredibly awesome and influential band and this album is a compilation of all the songs they ever (officially, at least) recorded. Cap'n Jazz has the sound of everything that was good with the 90's emo bands and they accomplished far more in about six years than most bands do during their entire career. The opener 'Little League' is a perfect example of what good emo sounded like in the 90's.
Also, their cover of A-ha's song 'Take On Me' is fucking brilliant and way better than the original (not that the original was any good).
Even if you're an fan of emo or not, this is required listening for anyone with an interest in good music. Listen to this shit!

DOWNLOAD OR DIE A SLOW, PAINFUL DEATH