Friday 6 November 2009

Just to quickly say that...

...I am really looking forward to writing up my top 50 albums of the year this year. The process drives me to the edge every time but it's an enjoyable one and this year especially I have heard some seriously inspired, inspiring and mind blowing music so it's a challenge I am inviting on myself more than ever.

Also, this being the coincidence of my 30th year and the close of the first ten years of the 2000's I am tempted to make a little top 10 albums of the decade. I already have strong feelings over five or six records so I am feeling like I want to do it.

This shit writes itself anyway, doesn't it?


MxBx

Monday 28 September 2009

Not For Resale Vol. 5 (IMP 49, August 2009)

It's Not For Resale at the Penthouse this week - Thursday. Diaries out. good good. coincidentally, this month's download mix for you in a Brighton based NFR special.

This is your sneak preview teaser trailer of a mix of demo mayhem. There'll be 4 more hours of this and then some later in the week when we hit the Penthouse for an NFR which might also double as an epliogue or addendum to my 30th birthday from Sunday.

It's the 5th installment of the Not For Resale mixes I make for the Project. Usually these are compiled from demos, self- and subterranean label releases we’ve been playing from all over the world; but this one is more special. This is an exclusively Brighton only mix (except the xbx jingles. He’s from the US, but no one in town has made me a mini-jingle yet…hint hint!) –designed to show off the undeniably awesome strength of a music scene that’s full of razor sharp talent, freaks and undiscovered genius. Just in time for Brighton Live too, which is pretty much lacking in a lot of that.

So here you go. Here’s Brighton for you:

NFR!

www.nfrblog.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/notforresaledjs
















Not For Resale Volume 5 (IMP 49, August 2009)

DOWNLOAD

Tracklist:

01. Power Up! – NFR Jingle
02. Masks - Fang
03. 129 Die In Jet! - Progression
04. Elks – Four Pale Letters
05. Awesome Wells – I Think I Just Heard The Hens Applauding In The Henhouse
06. Bellows - Troop
07. xbx – Shut Up NFR Jingle
08. Beadle – Chasing The Feedback Monkey
09. Curly Hair – Oh Brother
10. Halogen – Not The Remix
11. Drum Eyes – 50 50 (Live At The Engine Rooms)
12. Nullifier – If Days Corrode
13. Everyone To The Anderson – The Man Who Was Born Inside A Horse
14. Hind Ear - Coconut
15. Lamp – 1 Means 2
16. Esben And The Witch - Corridors
17. xbx – WolfMeat NFR Jingle


MxBx

Thursday 10 September 2009

Crawling Lke A Leech

I haven't listened to this kind of buzz for a while then this turned up on The Worried Well.

Along with the music, it's probably the most disturbing video I have ever seen.

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Start Beef I

More of these are getting out there. Check yrselves.

Start Beef: ONE

Thursday 27 August 2009

Summer Winter (IMP 48, July 2009)

July’s IMP mix concludes my Summer Trilogy on the bleakest of notes. Somewhat predictably of me I realise, but it’s a kind of predictable I can live with especially given the premise of the series – the soundtrack to my summer split into 3. The final part is 70 minutes of black metal, ranging from the claustrophobic through the ambient to feral punk, doom, back-yard and downright (read subterranean) dirty. All that and more. 12 individual caustic/beautiful entities to climax this triptych.

Sounds just right for long summer days lazing around the beach right? Yep.

Fuck off.



Summer Winter (IMP 48, July 2009)
Download

Tracklist:

01. De Silence Et d'Ombre - From The Dark Unknown Space
02. Carrion Wraith - Vers Une Nouvelle Ère
03. 1349 - Maggot Fetus... Teeth Like Thorns
04. Woe - Alone With Our Failures
05. Weapon - Cacophony! Black Sun Dragon's Tongue!
06. Bone Awl - Make For Yourself A Last Vision
07. Al Namrood - Atba'a Alnamrood
08. Bone Ritual - Attend To The Signs
09. Darkcell - II
10. Urfaust - Unter Töchtern Der Wüste
11. Teitenblood - Infernal Dance Of The Wicked
12. Cobalt – Two Thumbed Fist



MxBx

Sunday 2 August 2009

Summer Strings & Skins (IMP 47, June 2009)

June’s mix is part two of my Summer Trilogy and it’s all the guitar based tracks that my summer is revolving around. That’s as far as the concept stretches but it’s still come out as a really involving listen from the patient intro that builds up and bounces on to Wild Beasts right down to the imploding amp firestorm of Mayyors and out into the quivering pulse of Jungle Gym Vaginas; Shifting through scenes and sounds this keeps a certain heat and excited momentum going throughout.



Summer Strings & Skins (IMP 47, June 2009)


DOWNLOAD

Tracklist

01. The Flowers Of Hell – Bluemchen
02. Wild Beasts – The Fun Powder Plot
03. The Maccabees – No Kind Words
04. Oneida – It Was A Wall
05. Atlas Sound & Panda Bear – Walkabout
06. Best Coast – Sun Was High (So Was I)
07. Velvet Davenport – Ocean Summer Time
08. Ilyas Ahmed – Enter A Shadow
09. The Warlocks – Standing Between The Lovers Of Hell
10. The Phantom Band – Folk Song Oblivion
11. Magic Wands – Kiss Me Dead
12. Mayyors – Deads
13 Jungle Gym Vaginas – Wavy Caps Side A

Friday 31 July 2009

Summer Dub & Bass (IMP 46, May 2009)

May’s mix has finally been completed right at the end of July. A terrible state of affairs that I can blame on all sorts – mostly I am saying that it’s because I was working on the best mix I might ever make if I can actually ever finish it. More on that when it’s done. Instead of that I conceded defeat for the time being and put together a load of grinding bass heavy dub tech and ambient soulful dubstep. This is the first part of my Summer Trilogy - named in an homage to Oneida’s Kill Yr Parents trilogy for sure.




Summer Dub & Bass (IMP 46, May 2009)

DOWNLOAD
Tracklist:


01. Mount Kimbie - Verticals
02. La Roux - In For The Kill (Skream’s Lets Get Ravey Remix)
03. Kwaidan - Masaki
04. Raffertie - Sugar
05. Bar 9 - Coalescence
06. 16 Bit - Chainsaw Calligraphy
07. Bombaman - Rear End
08. Egyptrixx - Godzilla
09. Joker - Snake Eater
10. Ramadanman & Appleblim - Justify
11. Peverelist - Clunk Click, Every Trip
12. Silkie - Purple Love
13. Goth Trad - Far East Assassin (Distance Remix)
14. Coki - Goblin

Friday 24 July 2009

Thrash Hits Nachmystium Review

I was recently approached by Thrash Hits magazine to write about US Black Metal for them and they seem to be happy for me to flex a bit and really go for it across the whole world of the genre which is awesome news and a thoroughly welcome development for me. I have a couple of pieces in the works on Canadian and Saudi Arabian BM but my first piece for them went up last night - a review of the new Nachtmystium EP, Doomsday Derelicts.

Read it: HERE

Thursday 18 June 2009

Songs of the year so far

Halfway through month six of 2009 seems like a suitable time to drop some kind of landmark for the year. I will definitely be doing another top 100 tracks of the year come December/January. The kind of exhaustion it made me feel last year was masochistically enjoyable and it was a far more popular and well received exercise than I imagined it would be. But that's for later, just so you know its coming and to prepare yourselves, for now I just want to drop my current two favourite songs so far.

I don't think revealing my relationship with these two songs is going to give too much away at this stage, anything can happen in the next six months, song, album, demo releases and my own opinions, but halfway through the year these are the two songs that for me have, in one instance have distilled and defined the sound of the year so far, and in the other created a whole separate world just a sidestep from this one furnishing it with songcraft of genuine genius and arresting lyricism.

The first 3 months were totally owned by Mount Kimbie's Maybes from the Maybes EP on Hotflush. Ostensibly a soulful dubstep and bass label this branch out in sound totally spun the game around on its head and incorporated some kind of shoegaze element into the continually evolving beast that is dubstep. The track features a rippling echo of a guitar part for half its length before dropping a bassline bomb and shuddering stuttering female vocal hook along with the electronic ornamentation. Simply put; Icy cool.


The second of the two is Sunset Rubdown's Nightingale/December Song from Dragonslayer on Jagjaguwar. For the first few listens it was the first half of this album that I found especially compelling then suddenly I could get past this one song - or rather, I had to skip straight to it: "Let me hammer this point home" - and more than that, the structure of it is the pinnacle of everything the album tries to create (and does successfully across it's entire length), but here it all comes together in the buzzy electronic drum beat and voice of valour and heroism striding across it, the euphoric swell of the verse into the chorus, the sensual eroticism of "sacrificial virgins" and "fast explosions" and the organ breakdown/build up. After all that, I'm not sure whether the ending is a bit of a let down or not but by then it's too late to worry about a simple thing like that.


So far I have about 30 songs vying to get in my top ten of the year, but these two are my current obsessions. Let me know if they become yours.

MxBx

Thursday 4 June 2009

Home Shopping







Yesterday I received a lot of stuff in the post all on the same day and last week I got a whole stack of records I'd been waiting a while on receiving. I've got a lot of listening to do! A few of these are albums from my top 10 last year that I promised myself I'd buy and I only got round to it now, the rest are brand new exciting. The Wormsblood 12" is amazing - it's the blue/black splatterfest up there. The grey Heavy Winged is really nice too, real heavy. These things are objects of beauty. Adam also gave me all the albums he's been working on recently, so there's a journey of about 5 hours of deep claustrophobic psychologically challenging drone I am about to embark on.

Adam Lygo – Legend Of The Grey Woods (Hive Music)
Adam Lygo – The Mythology Of Mirrors (Hive Music)
Adam Lygo – The Mythology Of The Spiral (Hive Music)
Adam Lygo – Virus (Hive Music)
Amesoeurs – Amesoeurs (Profound Lore)
FNU Ronnies - 12" (Night People)
Harvestman - In A Dark Tongue (Neurot)
Heavy Winged - Waking Shaking 12” (Aurora Borealis)
Horna - Sanojesi Aarelle (Debemur Morti / Moribumd)
Invisible/Sarah Walpole – A Life In Whispers (Hive Music)
Our Love Will Destroy The World - Stillborn Plague Angels 12” (Dekorder)
Ride For Revenge - Wisdom Of The Few (Bestial Burst)
Sylvester Anfang II – Sylvester Anfang II (Aurora Borealis)
U.S. Christmas - Eat The Low Dogs (Neurot)
Wooden Shjips – Dos (Holy Mountain)
Wormsblood - In The Stars 12” (Aurora Borealis)

Thursday 21 May 2009

The Swarovski Mix (IMP 45, April 2009)

Like a lot of the mixes I make this has been based on me noticing a theme running through a lot of the music – usually artists names – that I have been listening to. I am making a concerted effort to be a bit more intellectual about things, but am failing dismally – the proof is clear in the title of this mix. After noticing a lot of jewels in my playlists – Emeralds, Diamonds, Crystals - I realised they were nearly all Crystals so I just went with those and came up with the most stupid, cheap name and artwork I could think of. It’s a really varied selection of music though, so I think it works. I got away with it. Just. I am under duress to stress that the Mr Crystal Face track is one of the greatest pieces of music ever created.

There. I said it.




















The Swarovski Mix (IMP 45, April 2009)

Download

01. Crystal Plumage - Three Mothers III
02. Mr Crystal Face - Polar Bears
03. Crystal Castles - Untrust Us
04. Crystal Fighters - Xtatic Truth
05. Lazer Crystal - hotpinkbmx
06. Crystal Antlers - Parting Song For The Torn Sky
07. The Crystal Unicorn - The Light The Light
08. Crystal Stilts - Crippled Croon
09. Crystal Shards - Two Hard
10. Crystal Dragon - ‘Untitled 2’

Wednesday 20 May 2009

NFR @ NWFA Fringe Festival Weekender

Super stunning Fringe Festival weekender starring Meatbreak and Fokka Wolfe!!

These flyers say we're djing after bands, but we're on from 8 til midnight. Change of plans! Because the best laid ones.....


THE NICE WEATHER FOR AIRSTRIKES FESTIVAL

Brighton Fringe 22 -24 May Bank Holiday 2009

FREE ENTRY!!!

“A weekend of PostRock, Shoegaze, PostPunk, AntiPop, and loopladen soundscapes from Brighton’s Nice Weather For Airstrikes Records.”

* BANDS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT
* ALL DAY SUNDAY ACOUSTIC AND LOOPS
* NOT FOR RESALE DJS FROM 8 - MIDNIGHT
* AT THE DRUIDS ARMS, Ditchling Road, Brighton





Tuesday 19 May 2009

USBM DNLD

“This thread, and the other one about the PlanB article, are the best things on the music board since the minimal techno thread.”
marckee

http://drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4181610

In response and in addition to Plan B’s article on USBM and my reply post on Drowned in Sound I made my own compilation of US Black Metal to illustrate a whole range of styles of black metal that will hopefully reveal the many different facets and angles to what can be done with this genre of music - or more specifically, what American artists are doing with it, how they are interpreting the templates that already exist and how they are mutating them. I think that it is evident that even the more traditionionally indebted tracks still display a sense of progression and flair for interpretation while the out and out progressive shows scant regard for what went before other than it simply being the style of music the artists enjoy most.

No compilation will ever be complete, exhaustive, succinct or get into all the niches and dark little corners that exist and I can only ever be subjective in my selection, but what I tried to do here is cover as wide a range of sound and influence as possible, from original Heavy Metal, through traditional Scandinavian BM, to post-rock, prog-folk, doom-drone and power-electronics.

In reducing this selection down to something fairly concise and focused instead of the enormous compendium I was tempted to do I have ended up compiling 21 tracks of US Black Metal recorded since the year 2000 – in alphabetical order. It comes in at 2:22:23, which I think is nice and tidy. Shame it wasn't 22 tracks and 22 seconds, but never mind., I don't think it means too much anyway.

Also worth noting – because of the unique way black metal is recorded, the sound levels and qualities between songs are unpredictable, if nothing else.

Brace yourself.


DOWNLOAD


Agalloch - Limbs (Ashes Against The Grain, The End)
Ash Pool - Origin Of Man (Saturns Slave, Hospital Productions)
Black Witchery - Holocaust Summoning (Upheaval Of Satanic Might, Osmose Productions)
Bone Awl - Culture Denied (By Ropes Through Dirt, Demo-Worship Him-Klaxon)
Brown Jenkins - Forever Funerals (Angel Eyes, Moribund)
Chaos Moon - Illusions of Dusk and Dawn (Origin of Apparition, Wraith Productions - Ars Magna Recordings)
Cobalt - Pregnant Insect (Gin, Profound Lore)
Draugar - Dust Chains Idiots (From Which Hatred Grows, tUMULt)
Enbilulugugal - Slicing The Blood Clotted Cunt Of The Rotting Virgin Angel Slut (Nun Twat Armageddon, Dipsomaniac)
Inquisition - Of Blood & Darkness We Are Born (Magnificent Glorification of Lucifer, No Colours)
Krallice - Forgiveness In Rot (Krallice, Profound Lore)
Leviathan - Fucking Your Ghost In Chains Of Ice (The Tenth Sublevel Of Suicide, Moribund Cult)
Lurker Of Chalice - Granite (Lurker Of Chalice, Southern Lord)
Servile Sect - Into The Bloom (Stratospheric Passenger, Sounds Of Battle & Souvenir Collecting)
The Angelic Process - We All Die Laughing (Weighing Souls With Sand, Profound Lore)
Velvet Cacoon - 1 (Genevieve, Full Moon Productions)
Weakling - This Entire Fucking Battlefield (Dead As Dreams, tUMULt)
Wolves In The Throne Room - Behold The Vastness And Sorrow (Two Hunters, Southern Lord)
Wormsblood - A Wolf In The Night (Mastery of Creation, Barbarian)
Wrath Of The Weak - Journey Of Many Days (Wrath Of The Weak, Bastardised)
Xasthur - Soul Abduction Ceremony (Nocturnal Poisoning, Blood Fire Death)

Thursday 14 May 2009

USBM & PlanB

Congrats PlanB. Joseph Stannard wrote one of the best features to appear in the magazine for some time, and that's not just because the subject matter is something I am so close to. It didn’t descend into the kind of cliché or rhetoric that cripples almost every piece written about the genre, it was very even- and steady-handed and really quite thorough. At the risk of sounding a bit supercilious, I would have published something on the genre this time last year, or even the year before, when all these bands featured were already releasing records and artists like Leviathan and Xasthur were still kicking it, but the country’s still buzzing with this, so now is just as good a time as any – there’s plenty more where they came from.

I had a few thoughts on it, and here they are:
It concentrated on the more cerebral figures of the moment - or I suppose in another respect the more ‘hipster-metal’ artists - which I guess could have been either to:
a) give a coherent, focussed, narrative to the piece, or
b) to make it appear that the kinds of BM being produced in the US are all these artly crafted, cross-genre worthy strains.
There was no mention of the more base, violent, unsubtle thrashier end - No Black Witchery, Baphomets Horns, Bone Awl, Black Horns (…loads of other’s not beginning with ‘B’!). Although they got a brief mention, even Dominic Fernow’s Ash Pool are pretty down there, but deliberately so. Not too big a problem, but for the uninitiated it would be worth mentioning that the moronic Satanic sludge is not only still alive and kicking, but also producing some killer chops – just check Bone Awl’s new 7” for proof.

I guess that the foil to the more progressive side of the piece was Averse Sefira. Despite their unorthodox Kaballistic angle they are a pretty orthodox sounding BM band, more indebted to and corralled by the Scandanavian form, with a rigid attitude at odds to the rest of the bands in the article.

It felt the article didn’t quite finish off what it started in considering the lefty/liberal conundrum of musicians and the army, but it’s a real toughie for sure – For me, I want to give Cobalt my money so they can quit the army (and in recognition of their music of course), but at the same time, I wonder whether I want to give anything to the kind of person who would be in the army – that’s a superficial reaction to the idea of ‘Army’, which doesn’t consider any of the number of reasons why someone might want to join, and that’s the question I felt could have been asked of Phil McSorely, as opposed to the more patriotic angle.

The one tangible thing holding the scene together is arguably Aquarius Records and Andee Connors. In making all these records available – even down to the 10 copy tapes – in one place alongside practically every other genre of music conceivable, by listing Neu! next to Necrosadistic Goat Torture, Wormsblood next to Wolfgang Voight, The Vaselines next to Varghkoghargasmal… etcetcetc…., he’s drawing the disparate sonic elements together and providing the overarching narrative/attitude/forum that gives the idea that all these sounds can and do tie up. He would never even acknowledge that as a viable hypothesis, but the evidence is there. This is why Wrath is wrong when he says his band is “not engaged in any USBM scene” Just because this US scene is more ethereal and doesn’t revolve around a record shop…oh no, wait…

Joseph pegs it when he says that “the moment record stores added a black metal rack…the music was changed forever”, but I would go one further and say that they remain the energising, sustaining force.

It was especially good seeing Umesh Amtey get some page space - Brown Jenkins released one of my top 3 albums of 2008 and has been deserving of attention as much as more prominent groups like Nadja for combining sonic elements and moving metal forwards through a refreshing mindset.

Also, finally, Joseph must know, if not through the grapevine then personally, that Brandon Stosuy is writing a book on USBM – I wonder if he just wanted to get a cheeky little pop at it first!
PlanB, you should have stuck yr neck out and put Cobalt on the cover. The UKBM scene is coming on strong, with a few veterans…any plans for a follow-up?!

Friday 24 April 2009

Syd's Second Crawl (Happy Birthday Mum!)



I don't normally post much really personal stuff, but since it's my Mum's birthday I'm posting it up for her, and since this happened yesterday it's breaking news that the world needs to know. Syd starts crawling! Does this count as crawling? It looks more like swimming on the floor - or thrashing and floating. What a little boy!

Monday 13 April 2009

This Is How We Did It (IMP 44, March 2009)

March's IMP mix seems to have taken so long to make. I had the idea for it ages ago where originally it was going to be a comparison of white UK and black US 90's chart R&B, Hip-Hop and a bit of Pop. After listening to a lot of East 17, 5ive, Westlife, Take That and other UK stuff I realised that the UK entries just looked embarrassing and sounded so weak and clueless next to their US counterparts. I guess that was actually the intention of the mix, but we already knew that (though it is interesting to hear in hindsight and proximity and just how large a disparity there is between the sounds - the reality falling so woefully short of the intention). So what it has been distilled down to is pure solid gold 90's chart R&B and Hip-Hop without the cultural cross-examination. The only exceptions are two songs I stumbled across while looking through all this stuff and couldn't resist putting them on because not only must they be in my top 10 guilty pleasures, but they also fit in pretty well as a break in pace too. After refining the tracklist the artwork took me ages to get right too. I think I‘ve done it.




















This Is How We Did It (IMP 44, March 2009)
Download

Tracklist:

01. Montell Jordan - This Is How We Do It
02. Backstreet Boys - Everybody (Backstreet's Back)
03. Blackstreet & Dr. Dre - No Diggity
04. 2Pac - Changes
05. Mark Morrison - Return Of The Mack
06. Ginuwine - Pony
07. K7 - Come Baby Come
08. Haddaway - What Is Love
09. Ce Ce Peniston - Finally
10. Bobby Brown - Two Can Play That Game
11. Luniz - I Got 5 On It
12. TLC - Creep
13. Boyz II Men - Motownphilly
14. R Kelly - (She's Got That) Vibe
15. Method Man & Mary J Blige - You're All I Need

Friday 3 April 2009

Primary Colours preview equation



Horrors = √ MBV X Neu – (Joy Division / Sex Pistols)

Thursday 19 March 2009

The Procession
















Electric Wizard - The Procession
Rise Above

There is a new one song Electric Wizard release thing! Not sure how else to describe it. It sounds like it was recorded on Spanish radio or something. What it is, is a 500-copy limited pressing on single-sided black vinyl with fold-out cover and A2 poster, released for the Rise Above Records 20th Anniversary Show at London ULU, Saturday December 13th 2008, where it was sold exclusively. That will be why I am a bit slow on the uptaek on this. But new Wizard is always exciting and this is no different....no wait, it is very different! Listen >>>

Download

Monday 16 March 2009

DJ VS. Band Vs. Blog Action

Me and Fokka Wolfe have been busy blogging and setting up the new NFR blog over here - www.nfrblog.blogspot.com We have no idea whether anyone will read it, or even how to get anyone to read it. Answers on a postcard if you do know....seriously. I will be focussing all my NFR related stuff on that blog, and using this Black Static for more personal things - well, not personal as such, just less NFR-oriented. I am not sure how well that will work, but I guess I will be putting anything that is more Brighton or demo oriented over on the NFR and anything and everything else here.

So far we've posted up our opening mission statement, March's Penthouse setlist, a bit on Japanese shoegazers Hedgehog and a review of the Everyone To The Anderson gig we DJ'd at on Friday. Things to come will be a bit on Revenge of Shinobi, an Old Mayor preview for Wednesday (so that's coming in a minute!), and if all goes well and according to plan (which is very unlikely considering how quickly all major operations are going with me at present), a new download for you too.


MxBx

Friday 13 March 2009

Look at us, we made a BLOG!



Yes, me and Fokka Wolfe have made a Not For Resale blog. Our mission
statement first post is up, plus our first setlist and extra curricular gig details >>>

http://www.nfrblog.blogspot.com/


see you there!



MxBx

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Friday mega gig

I am DJing at this on Friday. Bring everyone you know >>>





Everyone To The Anderson are my favourite Brighton band, on record and live. I don't even need to say Brighton, they are one of the bands I enjoy most full stop. There is an intensity and aggressive to them that commands attention, a (barely) controlled sense of chaos and a proclivity to volume that verges on hostile. All wrapped up in a warm and cosy sense of fun.

Elks I have not seen yet so I do not know about them. If Ben is putting them on, I trust they will be worth watching.

P For Persia are great! Psychedelic doom rock, full on volume and dirty low slung good times, telephone vocals and disco keyboard mayhem. Or something like that.

Be there.


MxBx

Saturday 7 March 2009

NFR Setlist 5th March, 2009






Another Not For Resale setlist for all who came and stared in wonderment at the speakers wondering what it meant. And another setlist for youze who missed out and can read what you missed out on. No instant link to Fokka Wolfe's set yet, but I'll stick it in place of this sentence when I do.

We are working on an NFR blog as we speak, and I suspect this setlist will be the second post up there - after an introductory/celebratory one, naturally. More news on that as and when.

Here you go, Meatbreak's jamz from the Penthouse. The first hour was pretty stargazey droney and intense - School Of Seven Bells clicked it back into the realms of pop and we hit it up and off, kicking and screaming from there:

Crippled Black Phoenix – Rise Up And Fight (The Resurrectionists, Invada)
Heavy Winged – Wool And Water (Monolith:Earth 12”, Music Fellowship)
Wolves In The Throne Room – Ahrimanic Trance (Black Cascade, Southern Lord)
Kontakte – Motorik (Soundtrack To Lost Road Movies, Drifting Falling)
These Feathers Have Plumes – Quiet Sun, Indian Summer (These Feathers Have Plumes, Period Tapes)
Six Organs Of Admittance - Punish The Chasms With Wings (RTZ, Drag City)
School Of Seven Bells – Iamundernodisguise (Alpinisms, Ghostly International)
Passion Pit – Sleepyhead (Demo)
Minnaars – To Jackals (Minnaars EP, Self-Released)
Turbowolf – Seven Severed Heads (7”, X-Taster)
Lloop – Lei-Tei (60 Hertz, The Agriculture)
Distance – Konkrete (Repucussions, Planet Mu)
Yeah Yeah Yea’s – Zer (It’s Blitz, Interscope)
Mayyors – Airplanes (Megan’s LOLZ 7“, Self-Released)
Everyone To The Anderson – Harpoon Flesh Wound (Doodlebug, Toy Soldier)
Action Beat – Dinosaur (The Noise Band From Bletchley, Southern)
Cotti – The Search (12”, Soul Jazz)
Apollo Sunshine – Brotherhood Of Death (Shall Noise Upon, Headless Heroes)
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – This Love Is Fucking Right (The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Slumberland)
Turbowolf – Read And Write (7”, X-Taster)
Crippled Black Phoenix – Rise Up And Fight (The Resurrectionists, Invada)
Quttinrpaqq – The Sea And The Birdman (Dragged Through The Streets, Blackest Rainbow)
Ty Segal – Watching You (Ty Segal, Castle Face)
Blank Dogs – Spinning (The Fields, Woodsist)
Lotus Plaza – Different Mirrors (The Floodlight Collective, Kranky)
Wormsblood – Inheritor (In The Stars, Skulls Of Heaven)
Emeralds – Living Room (What Happened, No Fun Productions)
Alva Noto – Xerrox Phaser Acat 1 (Xerroxx Vol II, Raster Norton)


MxBx

Friday 27 February 2009

Blitz it!


The new Yeah Yeah Yeah's album It's Blitz! is here....ish. It's due on 12th April or some time waaay far in advance of now. I got the leak yesterday. Exciting? Could be.

Starts off with the very electro Zero and gives the impression that they have given up on creating something that could be better than Maps or Date With The Night, or Machine and gone for a much more superficial, contemporary - so much so it will sound dated in a months time - sound designed solely for dance-floors. I think this is where a lot of people have stopped listening judging from initial reports. Maybe the really indie-schmindie kids got scared off here and deleted the file in disgust. It's not disgusting; it's just pretty disingenuous...but still pretty. Second track Heads Will Roll is very similar but eases off the electro and brings in a bit more guitar. Already the shock reports of no guitars are w.r.o.n.g. Nick Zinner has got plenty of tricks up his sleeve across this album. The 3rd and 4th tracks are pretty subtle and more listens, and the actual high quality CD rather than a crappy mp3 will probably reveal a lot of sound design within them. Having said that, next up is Dull Life which comes on like a hammer blow. It's textbook YYY's anthemic and euphoric with a thick guitar riff that makes up for it's lack of subtlety by striking an immortal rock-pose of the kind the last two albums did so well, replicating the fist-pumping stadium filling Y-Control. The lack of electric textures is made up for by the entrance of acoustic guitar in the second phase verse - it's an excellent addition to the tones of the track and is deployed much more effectively than the acoustic guitar in Gold Lion.

Jump two more tracks. It's not that they're filler, more like I want to save you something to discover yourself >>>

Track 7 comes in with the kitchen sink romantic collapse of Runaway. I am always disappointed with love songs, not only are they boring subject matter but someone like Karen O is supposed to be the one making boys cry. She never mopes, lope. Ah well. The track is a winner though; swept into a climax of strings that breaks the heart of the song and adds a sudden sumptuousness to the centre of the record. Off the back of that and just so you know where they are coming from, leaving you in no doubt as to their credentials, the skulking dropped kerb bass-line lead of Dragon Queen is instantly arresting. The track goes on to mention Nightclubbing in lyric and sounds a lot like the rhythm of the Iggy Pop song too. Sweet chewy Pop with a hard Punk centre. Or at least, it was made in a factory that contained punk, so sensitive kids be careful.

This could be good. Really good.


MxBx

i-pod shuffle

This is a thread of DiS. Play shuffle, write about the first 5 tracks. Since I have my headphones on at work I could play. Good game...(not really a game though is it)

Play >>>

01) Grampall Jookabox - I’m Absolutely Freaked Out (Ropechain)
Amazing start! Messed up paranoid grooved-out soulful ‘jungle-folk’, better whistling than P,B&J + mean bass break and war whooping on Jeffry Lewis’ Ashtmatic Kitty label. “Black soul yes black soul / black strength yes black strength” Can’t remember exactly where I heard about this band first – maybe Ongaku Baka - but this album turned up on a lot of American blogs in their end of year lists. Quite rightly. Amen to that.

02) Crippled Black Phoenix – Rise Up And Fight (The Resurrectionists)
Awesome second song. This is going great! Sounds loads like dusty, dark 60’s road blues – chung-a-chugga-chung-a-chugga…..claustrophobic and expansive at the same time. That’s agoraphobic, right? This planes out into a totally blissed-out Stooges Vs. Spiritualised epic cosmic ending of U.S. Christmas proportions. Heartbeat to finish. Coming as either a double album or succession of releases some time very soon, if not already.

03) Fake Shark Real Zombie – Shame On You Scabs (Zebra! Zebra)
Someone mentioned this band here on DiS as an album of 09 so far, so I looked into them. This is a protest/union rights song, right? They sound like 3hostwomexicansandatinofspanners – and will probably last as long too.

04) Headquarters - Playskool
Saw this band support Action Beat in Brighton the other day. Why have I never heard of them before? Tense, nervy, taut Albini style Dischord guitars with an organ tying everything up together, really engaging frontman. Bombastic country. This track is just a snippit of weirdness though. Good enough as a break before…

05) Backstreet Boys – Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)
“Am I original?” No, but this track is one of the best pop tunes EVER!
“Am I the only one?” No, there was a lot of this going on, but not as good as you, I’ll give you that.
“Am I sexual?” Hell yeah. This has groove, style and a ruffneck bass that makes me KNOW you could bring me home baby.
“Am I everything you needed?” at this moment in time, abso-fuckin-lutely.

Monday 16 February 2009

Baphometic Goat Worship (IMP 43, February 2009)

Every once in a while I need to purge myself of some filthy bestial black metal. I have done it twice before and each time I pity the recipient, because in all likelihood they really aren’t going to like it. Fuck ‘em. For this mix I picked only the most goatly Satanic bands I could find and tempered them with both black rituals and evangelical preaching. In many ways, this is the most coherent, complete and self contained mix I have ever made, and despite the restrictive nature of the subject matter I think there is a real broad range of sounds. I tried to keep it down to an hour and then realised too late that I should have gone for a 66 minute 6 second running time. Instead it is 63:54 which looks like one of the least significant numbers ever. Enjoy. or not, as the case may be.













Baphometic Goat Worship (IMP 43, February 2009)
Download

Tracklist:

Anton Szandor LaVey - Black Mass Opening Hymn (Lords of Chaos)
Aosoth - Rebirth By Fire (Aosoth)
Akercocke - He Is Risen (The Goat Of Mendes)
Archgoat - Rise Of The Blackmoon (Angelcunt (Tales of Desecration))
Rev Emmet Dickenson - Hell And What It Is (Goodbye Babylon)
Baphomets Horns - Attack Annihilate Desecrate (Satanic War Command)
Beastcraft - Unholy Blood Ritual (Into The Burning Pit Of Hell)
Blasphemy - Fallen Angel Of Doom (Fallen Angel Of Doom)
Bestial Warlust - Satanic (Vengeance War Til Death)
Rev AW Nix - Black Diamond Express To Hell Pt. 1 (Goodbye Babylon)
Beherit - Werewolf (Drawing Down The Moon)
Aleister Crowley - The Pentagram (The Great Beast Speaks)
Akercocke - Zulicka (Rape Of The Bastard Nazarene)
Mystifier - An Elizabethan Devil Worshippers Prayer Book (Göetia)
Sarcofago - Desecration Of Virgin (INRI)
Rev AW Nix - Black Diamond Express To Hell Pt. 2 (Goodbye Babylon)
Teitanblood - Ultimate Revelation Descend (Black Putrescence of Evil)
Impaled Nazarene - Sadogoat (Goat Perversion)
Revenge - By Force (The Only Option) (Infiltration.Downfall.Death)
Rev TE Weeins - God Is Mad With Man (Goodbye Babylon)
Black Witchery - Baphomet Throne Exaltation (Upheaval of Satanic Might)
Anton Szandor LaVey - Black Mass Closing Hymn (Lords of Chaos)

Saturday 14 February 2009

New NFR Posters

It is time for more postering and a lot more effort going into the next load of Not For Resales. I am still using these amazing images that Owen made for us and bastardising them in my own unsubtle way. I made three up and I'mnot sure which oen to go for. We already used the tree/rock one for the last few at the end of '08 and the planes one we used for the Toy Soldier Records special night in August. That's far back enough to recycle I reckon. If we are allowed to recycle images. I am drawn to the wolf because it is brand new. And because it's a fucking wolf, yeh?


Any opinions and suggestions gratefully received>>>








Wednesday 11 February 2009

2008 gigs

Well, all the gigs I went to in 2008. Which was only 21, not 2008, as that somewhat misleading title suggests. I have been tidying up my IMP page where I have been keeping this list and just deleted it out to start a new from this year. Since it's a really really quiet day at work I thought I'd post this up. I don't really know why.

I thought my last gig was in August, but it wasn't it was in July - Which means it has actually been 6 months since I've seen any live music! That's gone past so fast, craziness. Babies are very time consuming - all good time though. Only in the build up to Wolves In The Throne Room did I really start missing live shows and the Wolves totally put paid to that on the 2nd February. More on that later, because I do want to drop a post to say what that was like.

These gigs then. The bands are in order of appearance at each gig, not headlining order:


Grasscut / John The Savage / Sooks / Crackle (Club Savage @ The Komedia, Brighton, 31-07-08)

Teeth Of The Sea / The Heads / Wooden Shjips (Freebutt, Brighton, 18-07-08)

129 Die In Jet / -A+M / Everyone To The Anderson / Winchell Riots (Bully The Ugly Girls @ The Hope, Brighton, 17-07-08)

The Cathode Ray Syndrome / Power Up / Cottonmouth Rocks (Not For Resale Live! @ The Hope, Brighton, 11-07-08)

Power Up / Tropics / Applicants / Pope Joan / Pagan Wanderer Lu / Pseudo Nippon (OIB Vs. Brainlove All Dayer @ Westhill Hall, Brighton, 06-07-08)

Laish Band / Stars Down To Earth / Last Days Of Lorca (NFR @ The Hope, Brighton, 26-06-08)

Frightened Rabbit / The Twilight Sad (Theatre Royal, Brighton, 17-05-08)

Robert Lippok & Beatrice Martini / Paul Ayres / William Whitehead / The Necks (Brighton Dome, 15-05-08)

Pope Joan / Turbowolf (Throw Up & Die @ The Water Margin, Brighton, 10-05-08)

Autumn Choris / Kontakte / Passiondale (NFR @ The Hope, Brighton, 09-05-08)

Threatmantics / Clinic (Audio, Brighton, 10-04-08)

Tom White / Chris T-T (Komedia, Brighton, 08-04-08)

Blood Red Shoes (Resident Records, Brighton, 07-04-08)

Des Capulets / Last Days Of Lorca (The Hope, Brighton, 26-03-08)

Dr Razzu / Pope Joan / The Laish Band / Girls From Egypt (Hiero Terrific, The Hope, Brighton, 15-03-08)

MC Fashion / One Unique Signal / Everyone To The Anderson (NFR LIVE! @ The Greenhouse Effect Basement, Brighton, 14-03-08)

Zettasaur / Towering Breaker / Action Beat / Axis Mundi (The Greenhouse Effect Basement, Brighton, 27-02-08)

Mr Jack Cooper / The Riddles / The Flesh Happening (Halloween Club, Engine Room, Brighton, 27-02-08)

The Lucans / Plastic Passion / Foxes!(NFR LIVE! @ The Greenhouse Effect Basement, Brighton, 08-02-08)

-A+M / Revenge Of Shinobi (Freebutt, Brighton, 31-01-08)

Diagonal (Catacomb Carousel, the Hope, Brighton, 19-01-08)

Saturday 7 February 2009

NFR Setlist 05-02-09

Thursday was the first Not For Resale of the year, and it went pretty damn well. being off for a month means we were stocked full of new-ness, and being the first of 2009 it was only right that we set out our stall in pretty fucked up fashion.

Here's the jamz from me and the Wolfe >>>

Wolves In The Throne Room – Hate Crystal (Malevolent Grain 12”, Southern Lord)
A Death Cinematic – A Short Story On The Theme Of A Broken Dream (A Parable On The Aporia Of Vengeance And The Beauty Of Impenetrable Sadness, Simple Box Construction)
I Hope You Suffer – I Could Move Mountains For You (Pocket Change Sampler, Pocket Change)
Women – Lawncare (Women, Flemish Eye)
Grampall Jookabox – I’m Absolutely Freaked Out (Ropechain, Asthmatic Kitty)
Mi Ami – Echonoecho (Watersports, Touch & Go)
Der Blutharsch – VIII (The Philosophers’ Stone, Tesco)
Psychic Ills – Fingernail Tea (Mirror Eye, Social Registry)
Action Beat – Le Chap (The Noise Band From Bletchley, Southern)
Blank Dogs – Spinning (The Fields, Woodsist)
Wavves - Wavves (Wavves, Woodsist)
Apollo Sunshine – Brotherhood Of Death (Shall Noise Upon, Headless Heroes)
The Death Set – Impossible (Etan Remix)
South Central – Nothing Can Go Wrong (The Owl Of Minerva, Egregore)
Quttinrpaaq – The Sea And The Birdman (Dragged Through The Streets, Blackest Rainbow)
Fever Ray – Coconut (Fever Ray, Mute)
Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes (Merriweather Post Pavilion, Domino)
Cardopusher –Cockpit (Mutant Dubstep Vol. 2, Spectraliquid)
Turbowolf – Ghost Hunt (Demo)
Nullifier – 30 Minute Heat (Demo)
Foals – Two Steps Twice (Antidotes, Transgressive)
Grasscut – Swallow The Day (Demo)
Grampall Jookabox – We Know We Might Be Fucked (Ropechain, Asthmatic Kitty)
Black Mountain – Lucy Brown (7”, Sub Pop)
Deerhunter – Nothing Ever Happened (Microcastle, 4AD)
Paavoharju – Tytto Tanssii (Lau;Lu Laakson Kukista, Fonal)
Factory Floor – Taxidermist (Planning Application, One Of One)
A.H. Kraken – Black Borny (A.H. Kraken, In The Red)
Tayside Mental Health – I See Hygiene Issues (Metal Eyes Ep, Self-Released)
Mayyors – Airplanes (Megan's LOLZ 7", Self-Released)
Hateful Abandon – Lungs (Famine (Or Into The Bellies Of Worms), Todestrieb)
The Hospitals – Sour Hawaii (Hairdryer Peace, Self-Released)
Diagonal – Child Of The Thunder Cloud (Diagonal, Rise Above)
Hotel Wrecking City Traders – The Lakeshore Strangler (Black Yolk, Bro Fidelity)
Crippled Black Phoenix – 200 Tons Of Bad Luck (The Resurrectionists, Invada)
Fauna – Rain (Rain, Aurora Borealis)


Laurence played all this stuff:

An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump - "100 percent"
Baltimore Club Music - "Mc Nuggets Remix"
Cow'p - "Chip808"
Black Moth Super Rainbow - "Hairy Candy"
Moses Strongpice and The Going Home boys - "Mating Call"
Yeasayer - "Wintertime"
Numbers - "Crimson & Clover"
Nothing Vampirz - "nnnnnn"
Fuckwolf - "Afro Cuban"
Unicorn Dream Attack - "W34k 4nd Sm4ll"
Black Lips - "Bad Kids"
Liars - "Sailing to Byzantium"
Electrocute - "Tiger Toy"
1-800 Zombie - "XXYY"
Gameboy/Gamegirl - "Sweaty Wet Dirty Damp"
We Wait For The Snow - "Forgotten Lovers"
An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump - "Lights Out"
Women - "Woodbine"
Jagannah - "Pyl"
T.I.T.S - "Lady Whispers"
An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump - "The Past Between Us"
Cobra Killer - "Mund Auf Augen Zu"
Toxic Lipstick - "Rape Me"
She - "Gum"
Habsyll - "1 Pt 2"
Moses Strongpiece And The Going Home Boys - "Panty Monster"
MGMT - "The Youth"

Sunday 1 February 2009

Twelve Scattered Chessmen (IMP 42, January 2009)

The inspiration for the first IMP of 2009 came from watching Guy Maddin's 'My Winnipeg' over xmas and (aside from it being an incredible film in it's own right) this image just demanded to be made into an album cover, with the narration serving up the title almost verbatim. But what music to go with it? Wintery? Cold? Dead horses? Dubstep? Does that follow? It did to me. I fleshed it out with a little bit of chilly ambience and something nice to lift it a little – after all, this is almost a tribute to Maddin’s film so there has to be something warming amongst the icy atmosphere.













Twelve Scattered Chessmen (IMP 42, January 2009)
Download

Tracklist:

Alva Noto - Xerrox Teion Acat (Xerrox Vol.2)
Gas - Koenigsforst (Nah Und Fern)
Ricardo Villalobos - Theoreme Darchimede (The Au Harem D'Archimede)
Pluxus - Transient (Solid State)
Dusk & Blackdown - Drenched (12’’)
EQD - ‘Untitled B’ (Equalized #002)
Appleblim & Peverelist - Circling (12'')
Distance - V (12'')
Cotti - The Search (12'')
Joker - Gully Brook Lane (12'')
Cardopusher - Cockpit (Mutant Dubstep Vol. 2)
Flying Lotus - STUNTS (Mr Oizo BlessKUTMAH Remix)

Sunday 25 January 2009

Where to now?

How's your 2009 going? Animal Collective have brought on a heatwave pretty early on in the year huh? Merriweather’s where it’s at, properly sunny and free-spirited and a bleak-month mood-lifter. Those dual Crippled Black Phoenix albums are pretty special, really. If you weren’t quite sure of A Love Of Shared Disasters, then this might be the thing that really sucks you in to this band. Spreading their massive post-rock vistas over a wider area that brings in a bit more country, a bit more found sound sampling, a bit more of a groovier riff, a bit of stoned Doorsy pulse. The Doors have cropped up in Golden Animals Free Your Mind and Win a Pony, which is pretty much a Morrison/Manzenera tribute, but respectably so. More throwback action from The Dutchess & The Duke who have produced an heroically rocking Rolling Stones record of their very own. The Blank Dogs The Fields cassette on Fuck It Tapes is way way cool, all the surfy garage psych(o) rock’n’ roll you could ask for (Plus De Stijl just re-released Wavves that Fuck It put out last year which Blank Dogs jump off the back of, but a bit slicker like a helicopter drop on to an even bigger wave in deeper waters….meh, that’s an analogy that not going much further than Long Beach). Speaking of deep, The Hospitals Hairdryer Peace deserved it’s Wire number 3 spot in their EOY list (could/should even have been number 1 over the Bug). I have been playing that a lot and getting more out of it each time, swapping between paying attention to the groove and the backdrops they’re set against – both of which constantly switch focus anyway. Grampall Jookabox are my other pretty essential what-the-hell?! Album band of the moment - Ropechain on Asthmatic Kitty is a real melting pot of surrealism, absurdism and down right screaming soul-jacked rock and roll brilliance. They call it Jungle-Folk. It’s a good a name as any. Also been playing a lot of These Feathers Have Plumes, which Syd really loves too – baby boys can really get into that heavy heady flowing liquid murk and phosphorescent eddies of that tape. Hakobune has also been a pretty effective ambient nursery brew of pretty pretty homeostatic Japanese contours and electronic chanting. Incredibly, Persistent Repetition Of Phrases, the album from V/VM’s new incarnation The Caretaker is another hit with little boy; not sure whether grainy, spectral 40’s instrumentals were intended to be the soundtrack to an 18-week-old’s sleep, but it really works.

Things of a grimmer nature that have darkened the skies over Chez Meat is Fauna – temperate climate black metal from the US – warm, wet, humid misty guitars. So-long frostbite, hello heatstroke – it’s all as blurry and overwhelmingly crippling. Szarlem, another in a long-line of outfits from Varghkoghargasmal’s Avenger, tears it up in suitably lone-ranger fashion. Lots of utterly oppressive sustained claustrophobia from bands like these: Brulvahnatu, Lyrinx, Ashtoreth Incesti, Darkspace, Exitus Letalis, Hopeless and Paranomia. Mutant BM is likely to get even weirder this year, thanks to the January release by Den Saakaldte that features vaudeville and Arabian flourishes, trumpet and….woahwoah…yeah? I think we can leave it on BLACK METAL TRUMPETS and ponder that for some long time.

…..Black metal trumpets. Where to now?

Oh yeah – Old Mayor release their debut ep on London based Paradigms Recordings. Should be due February or March. Awesome news.


MxBx

Wednesday 21 January 2009

IMP Last.FM Group

I went a bit IMP fan-boy and made an IMP group on Last.fm. I've really gotten into Last.fm over the last 6 months so much so that I combined my love for it with the International Mixtape Project and made this:

http://www.last.fm/group/International+Mixtape+Project.

I made a bit of a cheesy first topic post on it, but I still think it's a good idea for a thread. Hopefully the IMP can get some good use out of it, there's a lot of potential in it I think (but then I would, I made it!!)


MxBx

Sunday 18 January 2009

101 : 08

For the first time ever I have made my top 100 tracks of the year. The main reason being that I have listened and loved so many dubstep/bass 12"'s this year which didn't go in to my end of year albums list that I just wanted to post something up that represented the massive impact they have had on me this year, plus there’s loads of singles and some amazing compilation tracks which I wouldn't include in my albums list either but I wanted to rep on here too. Plus, this was pretty fun. It has taken me almost an entire month of near-constant post-work work to finish it, so whether I can be bothered to do it again is another matter, but it was a lot of fun.

There’s always the chance that this list would change depending on the week it was finished, but since it’s taken me so long, I’m pretty sure that these tracks are accurately ranked to a precise and highly scientific degree.




Something like that anyway.

So here is my list, my cross-section of my year, my boiled down essence of 2008, my essential elements – the tracks that really made me stop and listen right from the first bar to the final beat (or hum), every time.

No descriptions or anything this time – just the list and downloads in four parts, because the whole thing is pretty massive. I really hope you enjoy all this, because I really do!

MxBx


Tracks 77 – 101: Download
Tracks 51 – 76: Download
Tracks 26 – 50: Download
Tracks 01 – 25: Download

101. The Rotted - 28 Days Later (Get Dead or Die Trying)
100. Melencolia Estatica - 'Untitled' I (Letum)
99. Awesome Color - Already Down (Electric Aborigines)
98. Appleblim & Peverelist - Circling (12”)
97. Joker - Gully Brook Lane (12”)
96. Aosoth - Never Betrayed (Aosoth)
95. Errors - Pump (It’s Not Something But It Is Like Whatever)
94. Totalselfhatred - Ruoska (Totalselfhatred)
93. The Black Angels - Snake In The Grass (Directions To See A Ghost)
92. Fortresse - Les Corbeaux (Les Hivers De Notre Epoque)
91. Dananananaykroyd - Pink Sabbath (7”)
90. Black Mountain - Bright Lights (In The Future)
89. Leviathan - Made As The Stale Wine Of Wrath (Massive Conspiracy Against All Life)
88. Pagan Hammer - Ode To My Fathers (Ode To My Fathers)
87. Flying Lotus - STUNTS (Mr Oizo blessKUTMAH Remix)
86. Horse Feathers - Heathen's Kiss (House With No Home)
85. Religious Knives - The Storm (The Door)
84. Emeralds - Magic (Solar Bridge)
83. Grouper - Disengaged (Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill)
82. Pangaea - Router (12”)
81. Shackleton - El Din (Part One) (12”)
80. Prussia - Lady Lady (Dear Emily, Best Wishes, Molly)
79. Pivot - O Soundtrack My Heart (O Soundtrack My Heart)
78. Hakobune - Yukidaruma (Melting Reminiscence)
77. A.H. Kraken - Black Borny (A.H. Kraken)
76. Cloudland Canyon - Krautwerk (Lie In Light)
75. Woodpigeon - Knock Knock (Treasury Library Canada)
74. To The Boy Elis - Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down (Love Is Like The Cost Of Living)
73. I Haunt Wizards - Incentive To Miscarriage (Demo)
72. Pied Plat - Double Trouble (12”)
71. John the Savage - Hoser (Demo)
70. Tayside Mental Health - I See Hygiene Issues (Mental Eyes Split EP)
69. Sparkling Wide Pressure - Tearing Rippling (Touching Pasture)
68. Wild Beasts - Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyant (Limbo, Panto)
67. Varghkoghargasmal - Near The Stars (Drowned In Lakes)
66. Natural Snow Buildings - Song For Laurie Bird (Laurie Bird)
65. Cheval Sombre - Hyacinth House (Sonic Visitations)
64. Factory Floor - Taxidermist (Planning Application EP)
63. Plastic Passion - Beneath The Light (Contrived Imagery)
62. Oneida - 'Untitled' 3 (Preteen Weaponry)
61. Hercules & Love Affair - Blind (Frankie Knuckles Remix)
60. Hotel Wrecking City Traders - The Lakeshore Strangler (Black Yolk)
59. A Forest Of Stars - Earth and Matter (The Corpse Of Rebirth)
58. Wovenhand - White Knuckle Grip (Ten Stones)
57. Rudi Arapahoe - Conversation Piece (Echoes From One To Another)
56. Paavoharju - Uskallan (Laulu Laakson Kukista)
55. Kowloon Walled City - My Hands Are Turning To Bricks (Turk Street)
54. Grasscut - Muppet (Demo)
53. Department of Eagles - No One Does It Like You (In Ear Park)
52. Portishead - We Carry On (Third)
51. The Death Set - Impossible (Etan's Positive Outlook Remix)
50. Abandon - Lungs (Famine)
49. Women - Lawncare (Women)
48. Los Campesionos - You! Me! Dancing! (Hold on Now Youngster)
47. One Unique Signal - Dismemberment (Dismemberment EP)
46. Gnod - The Somnambulist's Tale (The Somnambulist's Tale)
45. Fuck Buttons - Colours Move (Street Horrrsing)
44. Nullifier - 30 Minute Heat (Demo)
43. Pocahaunted - Riddim Queen (Island Diamonds)
42. Wavves - Wavves (Wavves)
41. White Fang - Acid Reaper (Demo)
40. Revenge of Shinobi - Organ (Demo)
39. The Bug - Poison Dart (London Zoo)
38. The Caretaker - Long Term (Remote) (Persistent Repetition Of Phrases)
37. This Mono Galaxy - Team Building (The Glamour And The Pain)
36. Revenge - Death Heritage (Built Upon Sorrow) (Infiltration.Downfall.Death)
35. Iron Pirate - Abominable Iron Steamship of Death (Iron Pirate)
34. Pete & The Pirates - Bright Lights (Little Death)
33. Benga - 26 Basslines (Diary Of An Afro Warrior)
32. Pyha - Hyungga Is A Tangled Story, Pt. 1 (The Haunted House)
31. Lonely Ghosts - Happy Lovers-Friends Forever (Don’t Get Lost Or Hurt EP)
30. Foals - Two Steps, Twice (Antidotes)
29. I Hope You Suffer - I Could Move Mountains For You (Pocket Change Records Sampler)
28. Racebannon - The Killer (Acid Or Blood)
27. Zombie Zombie - Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free (A Land For Renegades)
26. Caina - Temporary Antennae (Temporary Antennae)
25. Krallice - Forgiveness In Rot (Krallice)
24. Times New Viking - Drop-Out (Rip It Off)
23. Brael and Tokyo Bloodworm - Golden Mean Rectangle (Living Language)
22. Laish Quartet - The Love Written Down (One-18, Toy Soldier Records)
21. Apollo Sunshine - Brotherhood Of Death (Shall Noise Upon)
20. Urfaust - 'Untitled' 1 (Drei Rituale Jenseits des Kosmos )
19. M83 - Couleurs (Saturdays=Youth, Mute)
18. Old Mayor - Bring In The Sleeper (Demo)
17. Frightened Rabbit - I Feel Better (Midnight Organ Fight)
16. Der Blutharsch - 'Untitled' VIII (The Philosopher's Stone)
15. Crystal Antlers - Parting Song For The Torn Sky (Crystal Antlers)
14. Action Beat - Maximum Bletchley (Thirty Years Of Hurt Then Us Cunts Exploded)
13. Crystal Castles - Alice Practice (Crystal Castles)
12. Cotti - The Search (12”)
11. MGMT - Kids (Oracular Spectacular)
10. The Mae Shi - Run To Your Grave (Hlllyh)
09. Mayyors - Airplanes (Megan's LOLZ 7”)
08. Horna - Liekki Ja Voima (Sanojesi Äärelle)
07. U.S. Christmas - Uktena (Eat The Low Dogs)
06. Brown Jenkins - Forever Funerals (Angel Eyes)
05. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened (Microcastle)
04. Distance - V (12”)
03. Turbowolf - Power (7”)
02. Late Of The Pier - Heartbeat (Fantasy Black Channel)
01. TV On The Radio - DLZ (Dear Science)

Sunday 11 January 2009

20:08 (IMP 41, December 2008)













20:08 (IMP 41, December 2008)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/bb209b

Tracklist:

Disc One
20. Iron Pirate – Abominable Iron Steamship Of Death (Iron Pirate)
19. Woodpigeon - Knock Knock (Treasury Library Canada)
18. Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing! (Hold On Now Youngster)
17. Pyha - Hyungga Is A Tangled Story Pt. 1 (The Haunted House)
16. Krallice – Forgiveness In Rot (Krallice)
15. Prussia – Lady Lady (Dear Emily, Best Wishes, Molly)
14. WOLD – The Frozen Field (Stratification)
13. Frightened Rabbit – I Feel Better (The Midnight Organ Fight)
12. Women – Upstairs (Women)
11. Fuck Buttons - Colours Move (Street Horrsing)


Disc Two
10. Times New Viking - Drop-Out (Rip It Off)
09. Action Beat - Justice Yeldman (1977 - 2007: 30 Years Of Hurt Then Us Cunts Exploded)
08. Urfaust - ‘Untitled’ (Drei Rituale Jenseits Des Kosmos)
07. U.S. Christmas - Uktena (Eat The Low Dogs)
06. Horna - Liekki Ja Voima (Sanojesi Äärelle)
05. Rudi Arapahoe - Conversation Piece (Echoes From One To Another)
04. Caïna - Temporary Antennae (Temporary Antennae)
03. Brown Jenkins - Forever Funerals (Angel Eyes)
02. Late Of The Pier - Heartbeat (Fantasy Black Channel)
01. Paavoharju - Tyttö Tanssii (Laulu Laakson Kukista)



For my December IMP I always make it my top twenty tracks from my top twenty albums of the year and this year is no different. 2008 has been an incredibly interesting year for music. Again. Making this list really did feel like an impossible task, much moreso than other years – and it is not because this year has been lacking in greatness; quite the opposite as far as I am concerned. My end of year list has also been a pretty tough challenge because I have listened to so much music this year and have struggled to take it all in. This was the year when I felt dwarfed by the enormity of scale in the range and sheer volume of music in the world and I started really asking myself a lot of questions about what I wanted my relationship with music to be. It can never be a casual affair, but I have lifted the lid off something so large that trying to get to know every recess of it intimately would futile. I have no idea how I am going to tackle 2009, but I am sure I’ll think of something.

I have also been questioning the channels through which people have traditionally come to hear about artists. This was the year I fell totally out of thrall with music journalism. There are still writers I can read who inspire me who are extremely talented, perceptive, and have their own vision as much as the artists they choose to write about, but they are now very few and far between. Over the last 12 months I have got so tired of people writing to make themselves look good, or trying to place themselves in some kind of involved role of importance amongst the groups they are writing about. Far too much is written that comes across like attempts to write the cleverest sentence that the author could be writing about anything, the net result being so worthless and far removed from the task in hand. But I still continue to buy the magazines and read the websites (after all, I am on their side), but I still get angered at narrow minded editorial policy, at the limitations in both knowledge and writing and at the hapless delusions of grandeur.

Of course, I include myself in this, my limitations show themselves every time I hit a key or speak a word; one reason why I have written so little this year and another catalyst to my feelings of bleakness.

But yeah, I still read, and I notice that no two lists of the year have really been that similar, even across the mainstream. It seems this was a year when people’s listening habits became more fragmented than ever. More labels, publications/websites, blogs, social networks, P2P, Web2.0……yet, there seems to be a general consensus across many magazines that this year was pretty dull and lacked any really major classic albums or Big Events like Arctic Monkeys. Whenever anyone says that to me I always reply “You don’t listen to enough music” – which is almost always true. Those people who say this, who ignore word of mouth successes like MGMT or Bon Iver, have simply not been paying attention. But that is not the point. If they are looking for greatness they are looking in the wrong place. For me, this year was not the year of the difficult third album, but of the ever more limited tenth CDr, the swansong label and artist releases, split tour 7”s, free download net labels, sharity blogs, debuts and demos (always always more and more demos).

Apparently the record industry is in trouble and there is some kind of economic crisis crunching everything up. If that were true, why is it so many releases on so many labels have all sold out? Why are all the gigs still selling out? Why are people still making music?

My record industry is not in trouble.

My record industry thrives because the people involved love their music and art and create every part of it themselves. It is created by people, for people who actually care about every detail, right down to the kind of stamps on the envelope they send the records out in. It is this natural spirit of independence that makes the music individual, makes each record an almost incomparable entity to another, gives each artist their identity and a reason for existing.

This is what my top twenty represents and this is what it sounds like.