Friday, July 31, 2009

OUTRAGE!

A RIAA lawyer said recently that:
He [Steven Metalitz] has now responded to a host of questions from the Copyright Office following up on live hearings held earlier this year, and in those comments, Metalitz (again) strongly opposes any exemption that would allow users to legally strip DRM from content if a store goes dark and takes down its authentication servers.
Hop over to ars technica for the full article. Tweakers.net (Dutch tech site) also published an article, as did Slashdot. Earlier this month, A RIAA Spokesman was reported saying DRM was dead, which was later corrected to:
Lamy's [the spokesman's] full, original comment, made in an e-mail sent to Radcliffe in response to a query for a story she was working on, read: "There is virtually no DRM on music anymore, at least on download services, including iTunes."
As reported by InformationWeek.

Time to keep an eye out on the RIAA Radar (thanks guys!) when buying your music.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

hip hop

Finally, time for a new post.

I ordered some hip hop goodies this weekend:
Dälek - Absence
This one I haven't heard at all yet. Abandoned Language was so good this has to be worth it, though.
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
An album I've liked for some time, and this one was with a DVD for the same price! I wonder what's actually on it though. Not sure I got the right RYM link for this.
Rites of Spring - End on End
The last album I ordered. Not hip hop at all, but just posting it for the record. This album is fucking amazing and I recommend it to any fan of (hardcore) punk. It's basically where emo began. Go google it.


Also, I gave MF DOOM's projects another listen because I got so excited buying the above:
Madvillainy cover
Madvillain is a project by MF DOOM (rapping) and Madlib (producer). They've got short tracks, with some rather unusal sounds and voice samples. But not nearly as much comic/villain notions and references as does the following album.
The Mouse and the Mask cover
DangerDoom is a collaboration between Danger Mouse (who also did production in Gnarls Barkley) and MF DOOM. They've got a truckload of funny lyrics, with enjoyable beats.

Go and find those albums, too.

Friday, July 24, 2009

ゲルニカ - 新世紀への運河 (Guernica - Shinseiki e no Unga)

Hello!

Just to let you guys know, I discovered something amazing today. This band is called Guernica and they're from Japan. They don't do the usual cheesy-j-pop sound, though. They do a kind of pop best described as art pop. It's a mixture of classical music, cabaret and various other music styles usually considered art, with a great pop-feel.
I suggest you just listen to this. You can find it on the Chainsaw Fellatio blog. If you enjoy lightly avant-garde or art music, or Japanese, this is probably your thing.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Virgin Black - Elegant... And Dying

Hello,

Time for some really impressive gothic metal!

Virgin Black - Elegant... And Dying is one of the most impressive albums I've heard lately. On the first sight it seems rather lengthy, but it's guitar work is so subtile yet heavy that this is over before you know it. There is a pretty heavy style here, compared to most gothic metal (and symphonic metal, though the term doesn't really apply here) bands. The vocals are pretty good too, but the best part is the excellent production.
Go and have a listen.


album on wikipedia
Virgin Black on last.fm
Virgin Black on metal-archives

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Free (and good!) music post

Hey folks,

I had my harddrive break down yesterday, so I couldn't make any posts I wanted to make. Instead, I'll post a good bunch of free music now. These are all bands I've known for a while and think you should totally hear.

We'll start off with the Russian post-hardcore band called .crrust.
.crrust - You Came for the Everest, You'll Find Your Way Dead
Their album, You Came for the Everest, You'll Find Your Way Dead is up for free download on last.fm. The music is rather chaotic for post-hardcore, but I personally don't mind that (I've had a long love for grindcore).

Next up is the now-disbanded Hungarian band Gire. They play metal which I find hard to classify. It certainly has black metal influences, but it feels more like tharshy industrial metal. Make sure to check them out if you like rawer metal. here is their audio downloads page. The second demo, Energire, is amazing.
Gire - Energire
It has keyboards, but also has some of the rawest guitar sounds I've heard. I think they're pretty unique with this sound: I have yet to hear anything like it (feel free to let me know if you don't agree!).

Next up is something completely different: gay against you. It's glitchy, poppy, and hilarious chiptune stuff. Just go listen to it, their self-titled EP is right here.
Gay Against You - Gay Against You

And back to Russian hardcore we go: Follow the White Rabbit. Don't let the first track of their EP fool you: they play loud, chaotic mathcore. And they play it well.
Follow the White Rabbit - Follow the White Rabbit
Get it right here.

Monday, July 13, 2009

VACATION!

Not that anyone cares, but after some hard final days of work, I've got my summer vacation.

To celebrate, I provided you with some deliciousness.
Fist in Fetus - Fist in Fetus
Fist in Fetus, a delicious melting pot of death metal, with progressive, symphonic and some grind sounds. I can tell you one thing: all 'symphonic' metal bands seem lame when compared to this. Just download this. It's free and awesome, what else do you want?
UM
album on RYM
correctly formatted download (provided in the UM thread)
Myspace
Mikseri (original download)

Friday, July 10, 2009

Krzysztof Komeda Quintet - Astigmatic

Hey folks,

Since it's North Sea Jazz festival time this weekend, I'll post some jazz.

First off, I found the following post on /mu/ today:

and for something a little older

Krzysztof Komeda - Astigmatic
>Avant-garde Jazz, Polish Jazz
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zm10gjzlim2
A true classic and really a must have for any comprehensive jazz collection

Bitrate: 320
Astigmatic cover
And I must say, this is an amazing record. Way up there with Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. I can't tell you much more about it than this and what the post above says. Amazing in one word. Go listen to it.

Beyond this, I would also like to bring to your attention the slightly less avant-garde, but no less amazing music that Rashaan Roland Kirk:
Rip, Rig and Panic cover
The Inflated Tear cover
Out of these two, Rip, Rig and Panic is my favorite. On the other hand, The Inflated Tear's cover is more awesome, showing what Kirk is known for: playing multiple saxophones at once.


Anyway, for all of you people who are in the Netherlands, hop over the radio 6 website and catch some of the shows on the North Sea Jazz festival this weekend! They've got an excellent and variated show with interviews, recordings, live samples and everything you want to know about NSJ.


Information:
Krzysztof Komeda on last.fm
Rahsaan Roland Kirk on last.fm
radio6/NSJ (in Dutch)
radio6 twitter

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Cosmicdust - Snow Noise Assemblage

Hey dudes,



/mu/ is still down. So I bring you some shoegaze, to cover for /mu/'s absence. Cosmicdust is a one-man shoegaze band from Japan. As seemingly all music from Japan that is not j-pop, this album has it's amount of noise. As My Bloody Valentine, it has the dreamy atmosphere combined with the delicious noisyness. However, where the noise of MBV becomes annoying to the later half of the album (AH FUCK MY EARS), this album balances it out with some quiet, near-ambient parts (Bird Cries is a pretty good example). On the other side, there is some delicious loudness (see Meditation), sometimes to the point of nearly being noise.

I would provide you with a link, but I can't find any. You can stream some of the tracks on the album page as well as on the myspace page. Good luck searching.

As a final, I'd like to mention LSD and the Search for God, which released a self-titled EP (last.fm) for streaming on last.fm (click to stream).

They're also shoegaze and quite a nice calm-down for after this album. See their Myspace page for more information. If you must download it, google can help you. The fourth hit is also one of the blogs that /mu/ has produced.

Listen, and enjoy!

Linkage:
last.fm music profile
last.fm user profile
/mu/ on last.fm
4chan status blog
blog of some of /mu/'s tripfags

The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet - Voodoo

Hey folks, time for some jazz!

The (in)famous John Zorn (sax) plays with Wayne Horvitz (piano), Ray Drummond (bass) and Bobby Previte (drums) on an amazing bop album:
The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet - Voodoo
The album is an obvious tribute to Sonny Clark, a jazz pianist that died in 1962 after nine years of activity. I haven't heard the original recordings, so I can't tell you how this performance compares, but I can tell you Zorn is one amazing performer (and composer, but that aside).
Voodoo is a pretty adventurous album, at some point hinting to the avant-garde jazz that Zorn also plays (Voodoo being the most prominent example). Apart from these hints, the tracks are very gentle to the ears (in my opinion, anyway), but they do not avoid showing what each player is capable of. Apart from Zorn, the piano on this album is amazing. This is not that suprising, since Clark was a pianist himself, but the execution is truly magnificent. You can hear it for yourself by hopping over to this blog. I'd provide a beter source, but I don't have one.

Now, I am no jazz expert, but I think this is a wonderful introduction to the world of jazz and that if you enjoy this album, you should explore Ornette Coleman's works. Those are a few steps beyond this, but it's definitely worth checking out.

info:
AllMusicGuide review
Sonny Clark on last.fm
John Zorn on last.fm
Sonny Clark on wikipedia
The album on wikipedia
The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet on last.fm

thanks to:
MAC at last.fm, for their wonderful forums and advice
Post about this album on MAC's Jazz Desk
beelzbubba for his excellent recommendations.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Prurient - Rose Pillar

Hey folks,

Time for some ear-raping noise:
Prurient - Rose Pillar
Prurient is a pretty big guy in noise. I personally haven't heard that much of his works, but judging from the Cocaine Death compilation and this album, his sound resolves around a dark-ambient-like atmosphere, slowly building in to very low or very high tones that WILL make you want to turn things down. He also uses distorted, screamed vocals to create a despairing, terror-filled effect. Unlike harsh noise, which just blasts you away with full-range noise (see Merzbow's Pulse Demon for that, which isn't all that good), this plays more with variation.
Enough of me: go here and listen for yourself.

Info:
last.fm
Hospital Productions
Wikipedia
Thanks to:
Spreading Neurotoxins

Kehlvin - The Mountain Daylight Time

Time for yet another metal (well, metal related) post!

This time, Kehlvin is the name. Kehlvin is a Swiss band that consists of five members. They formed in 1999 as Loaf A. They have released one album (this one), one EP (Holy Cancer) and a split with a band called Rorcal.
Anyway, lets move on to the album:
Kehlvin - The Mountain Daylight Time

On this album, they play a mixture of post-hardcore, sludgy goodness and a strong atmosphere. Before we get in to yet another debate about what (atmospheric) sludge/sludge metal is: I use it in the sense of hardcore fused with doom metal. I use it for this band, along with similar-sounding bands like Neurosis and Mouth of the Architect (and if you like those, you should definitely check this one out too). If you think I'm wrong, feel free to enlighten me.
The album has few flaws, but no real high-point, either. It's (atmospheric) sludge done well, that's for sure. Another big plus is that the whole thing is that you can stream most of it from last.fm here. Unfortunately, they inherited one trait that is rather annoying: a lengthy silence in the last track. Apart from that, the album isn't really memorable (which could be good or bad- that depends on you).

To conclude, check these guys out if you enjoy Neurosis, Mouth of the Architect and that sort of thing. Before I forget, here you can get the album.

If you liked this, you'll probably like the Dutch band Izah too, which has a free EP on their site. The now-disbanded band Transmission0 might also be relevant to your interests. This link will stream their album Memory of a Dream in your last.fm player.

Info:
MySpace
Last.fm
Official site (rather dead)
The album on RYM

Thanks to:
GoodNoisyCore, the blog that published this stuff too (see here).

Aladdin - Void Last Line

There must be more!

It's psytrance time: aladdin is the name. He's a dude from Sweden playing some full-on tunes with the usual popular culture references (South Park, Family Guy...) and some tasty beats. He shares his name with the popular disney movie and a dude called Aphrodite (drum'n'bass) has used it as an alias.
Here's a youtube version of the first track (sound only):

Psyplanet.org, one of the blogs I have loosely followed over the years, has the whole album posted as a single MP3. You can get it here (they've got it on rapidShare and depositFiles).
The tool mp3DirectCut can be used to quickly split the MP3 in to seperate tracks, if you feel the need.
Some other excellent tracks on this album are: U Know This, Hard Coffe (Live Mix), The Way Of The Fly. The final track, 1994 (feat. Brainfreeze-Bonus Track), is much more like regular trance than the rest, but still sounds great. Who knows, maybe there will be a post coming up on this brainfreeze guy soon.

Little Brother

Here's a quick recommendation on something you have to read.
Little Brother is a freely available ebook by writer Cory Doctorow. Now, I'll try to keep this short because I don't know anything about books, but this is awesome. It's about a little nerdy kid who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time during a massive terrorist attack in San Francisco. After he is released from his terrorism prison, his city has turned in to a police state.
If you care about any of the following:
  • Privacy

  • Paranoia

  • Hacking

  • Sci-fi about the near future

  • Nerdy stuff

Then get reading. Like I said, I don't know anything about books (I don't read apart from college books and stuff on the internet), but I read this 'out in one breath' as the Dutch saying goes. It also gives some alpha-friendly information about Bayesian Math, DNS and some cryptography. If you're not a tech-person, don't worry: the explaination is really good and avoids technial details. All you need to know is that most things described in this book are real or near-future (5-10 years?) technology.

Distorted in Eclipse - He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes...

Time for another post.

For this one, we'll dive in to some pretty harsh black metal. The one-man-band Distorted in Eclipse, a side project of the guitarist and vocalist for some other band called Mengele Blue Eyes, released a track or two and an album on a free-to-download site called mikseri. It contains noisy, distorted black metal. Think merzbow doing remixes of Blut Aus Nord, The Axis of Perdition, that sort of thing. Some people use the term 'ambient black metal' for the previous two bands, but this is more noisy.

Anyway, someone collected the tracks (only the album), properly tagged them and stuffed them in to a single rar file for your convenience. If you're the guy that made this (then you rock! But that's not the point here) and you don't want that, just contact me and I'll delete the link. I can't do anything about the file itself, though.

There is one minor recording bug in the third track (around 9:00), but apart from that this album does what it aims to, flawlessly. If noise and black metal are among your favorite genres, you'll LOVE this.

info:
Last.fm
Unknown Metal
official download page

Thanks to:
verenvuoto: the user that posted the band.
Unknown Metal: the forum that helped me find this.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Pagan Altar - Volume 1

Hello (again), folks.

I sweeped away whatever was here before (half a dozen links to last.fm streams and downloads), decided to start over. I intend to write a little more interesting now. Here's the idea:
I do what most blogs do, ie. pointing you where to download something. However, what annoys me about most of those is that very few of them actually provide anything about the band. I intend to do this different. Please note, I will never provide direct download links (call me a selfish bastard, but at least you people will see how exact google queries can be).

My first post is about the band Pagan Altar, a band founded in the late 70's from England. They're one of the bands that moved from NWOBHM to doom metal. They self-released most of their early works, but their first album got re-released in 1998, with the title 'Volume 1':
Pagan Altar - Volume 1
This is the album I discovered today through last.fm's Unknown Metal group (the group labels any band with under 5000 listeners on last.fm as 'unknown', just to have some kind of measure). The album has music somewhere around Black Sabbath and Candlemass. I actually prefer this album over Candlemass' Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, though both have the same downside of boring vocals. However, this album features more elements of heavy metal, which definitely makes this one better. And it has the short-but-awesome track 'Acoustics'. If you like the previously mentioned artists, you should definitely check out. You can find a download link right here (first link works at the time of writing).

More information:
Official Site
Unknown Metal post
RateYourMusic
last.fm
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Thanks to:
ApZwanenberg: last.fm user who posted this in the Unknown Metal forums.
Unknown Metal: for being the platform that helps me find good metal.