July 2012

1. Creeps on Candy - Dr. O Alternative Tentacles?  Really?
2. Augustus Pablo - Memories Of The Ghetto Dub My melodica has been gathering dust for a while, but I think it's time for a change.
3. Jesu - Tiny Universes I am far too excited about the concept of Godflesh playing Pure in its entirety next year (at a festival that I won't be able to get to), so here's some Jesu to tide me over.  The last time I saw Jesu live, they had so much bass that their hard drive kept locking up.  Brilliant. 
4. Jean-Claude Deblais - Voix De l'Etrange Great French Library music.  Click the link and you'll know as much as I do.
5. Jefferson Airplane - The Last Wall Of The Castle I'm torn over Jefferson Airplane.  They never push all of the right buttons at once for me.  This song's not too bad.
6. Miasma And The Carousel Of Headless Horses - The Pale Staircase This is a great album of Victorian music hall prog.  Never call it Steampunk. It's too good for that.
7. Captain Beefheart - Sun Zoom Spark It seems that most people got into Beefheart via the Zappa connection.  I like him because he sounds like Island-era Tom Waits (or vice-versa, depending on your point of reference).
8. Venetian Snares - Nutimik Canadian avant-techno spazz.  Considering this man's last name is Funk, you can't go wrong.
9. King Tubby & Soul Syndicate - Ethiopian Version Not my favorite King Tubby album, but a great one nonetheless.
10. L'Infonie - J'Ai Perdu 15 Cents Dans Le Nez Froid D'Un Ange Bronze See Jean-Claude Deblais on my feelings about this track.
11. TwinSisterMoon - I Wish I Could Drown the World in Reverberation I love reverb and reverb-soaked drone.  Unfortunately TwinSisterMoon albums have a lot on non-reverb-soaked-drone tracks on them, which is perfectly nice, but doesn't always do it for me.
12. Steve Hillage - Meditation Of The Snake It probably shows my age that I first heard about Steve Hillage through System 7 and his affiliation with the Orb.  Or possibly my good taste. Nah, just my age.
13. Grails - Dead Vine Blues Grails are one of those bands that should be bigger than they are, especially with their drummer in the mighty Om.  Their new project sounds interesting.
14. Henry Mancini - Touch Of Evil Only a touch?

June 2012

1. Alain Presencer - Lullaby This is a great album primarily made up of Tibetan singing bowls (you can see the full list of instruments here).  There's an example of the technique here.  Via Continuo.
2. Mr. Oizo - WC More fun from Mr Oizo.  This free EP is worth your time (as is his Mactastic website).  Completely worth the email address I had to surrender.
3. Studio - Origin (Shake You Down By The River) I'm not sure if I admire or just get irritated with bands that have unGoogleable names.  It's probably the reason why I keep coming back to this track, enjoying it, and forgetting to buy the rest of the album.
4. Ashra - Deep Distance Not as mighty as the amazing Ash Ra Tempel, Ashra is highly enjoyable, if only to spot the samples/influences that the Orb used for their first couple albums (Manuel Göttsching's E2-E4 being the big one).
5. David Darling - Darkwood IV: Dawn David Darling (who has apparently won a Grammy, but don't let that put you off) is someone I've been meaning to check out for a while.  Apparently he soundtracked four films for Goddard, and didn't get pied. 
6. Ścianka - Dni Wiatru Amazing and deep atmospheric post-rock.  Time to dig into their catalog.
7. Kimmo Pohjonen - Keko Some enjoyable accordion insanity from Finland.  Check out the video.
8. Keith Seatman - Highdown (Simon Heartfield Remix) An enjoyable free remix of a track from the excellent Consistently Mediocre and Daydreams (now on Bandcamp).
9. Polmo Polpo - Rottura Deep loop music.  Don't know anything else about this band.  Go-go-Constellation Records!

May 2012

1. d'Eon - #109 A great Popol Vuh/Cluster-esque kettle of swirling keyboard goo that will restore your faith in komische.   Pick it up, because it's both good and free.
2. Sly And The Family Stone - Luv N' Haight Sly Stone's career has been an amazing trainwreck, which is a real pity.  Perhaps it's time for a Rick Rubin/Daman Albarn intervention?
3. Fields Of The Nephilim - Submission Two (The Dub Posture) If you don't own Dawnrazor, The Nephilim, Elizium, Earth Inferno, and Revelations, then pick them up and we can talk afterwards.
4. Earth - Sigil of Brass If you are unfamiliar with Earth, I personally recommend everything from Hex onward.  If you are familiar with Earth, then check out Dylan Carlson's Kickstarter project (I'm a backer). 
5. Belbury Poly - Cantalus I meant to pick the album up when it came out, but somehow it slipped through the cracks.  I guess I'll have to fix that now. 
6. Gerard Doulssane - Evening News I'm not sure where I got this particular album from, and the interent is feeling particularly unhelpful right now. 
7. Tom Waits - Paris Mood (Un De Fromage) Tom Waits is the greatest living American songwriter.  The Island albums were the best ones and Marc Ribot was his best guitarist.  That is all.
8. Igor Wakhevitch - Twilight And Call Of The Ascending Spirit I recently got turned on to Wakhevitch, even through he apparently had a renaissance in the late 90's.  It's modern composition that doesn't play into Minimalism or Serialism, but pulls from the rock vernacular without going all "Switched On," prog, or ELO.
9. Trial Of The Bow - Inverloch This is here in celebration of half of the most underrated doom band ever naming their new project after this song.
10. Gil Melle - Hex (Continued) This is from the Andromeda Strain soundtrack.  Check out more about the Creel Pone label that this was released on here. 
11. Scorn - Night Tide You know that Scorn album that you haven't listened to in years and is gathering dust in a plie of CD's that won't fit in the rack?  Pull it out and listen to it again.
12. Demdike Stare - Shade Phenomenally dark dub that is still burning up the internet.  Completely worth picking up.

April 2012

1. John Lennon/Paul McCartney - A Toot And A Snore A bit of dialog from the A Toot And A Snore In '74 Lennon/McCartney bootleg.  Just because.
2. Coil - Sex With Sun Ra A great track (and a great song title) from the 2006 Black Antlers  re-release.  The fact that there will never be another Coil album saddens me greatly. 
3. Sala-Arhimo - Ilmestys Some of the Finnish freak-folk (or whatever it was called) that was all the rage with the kids a couple of years back.  Some if it isn't half bad.
4. Jane Birkin - Help Camionneur What do you get when you add a squeaky-voiced actress to a Gainsbourg written/produced album?  Something like this, actually. 
5. Laghonia - Glue Psyche from Peru.  Apparently they wanted to be Traffic. 
6. Deuter - Der Turm Fluchpunkt Deuter's first two albums, D and Aum, are both great studio Krautrock albums.  Now move along. 
7. Funkadelic - I Bet You (Single Version) A much as I love P-Funk, the rock in me keeps pulling me back to Funkadelic.  In mono, because (according to Stanley Kubrick and Anton LeVay) it's better.
8. Dry & Heavy - Dawn Is Breaking Japan is not generally the first place I think to look for heavy roots dub, but what to I know?  Nothing, apparently. 
9. Jack Dangers - Burbidge Chain Experimental MBM commissioned for the unfortunately named T.I.T. planetarium?  Sure, I'll take a bit of that.
10. Okkyung Lee - Sky I have no idea where this came from, though iTunes claims that I downloaded it in 2008 and the cover looks like standard Tzadik fare.  Sounds great, though. 
11. Bindu Suspension - Snow Is Coming Apocryphal, hopefully. 

March 2012

1. Jago & Litefoot - The Ruthven Inheritance (Excerpt) Why?  I don't know.  I just needed something to kick it off.
2. Fhloston Paradigm - The Simple Things A sci-fi-informed King Britt side project with a free EP?  Sign me up.
3. Red Electric Rainbow - Ferris Wheel According to the artist's website, this music is "face melting."  I leave the final judgement to you, dear listener.
4. Thighpaulsandra - Celine and Julie Go Boating It looks like the never-updated official Thighpaulsandra site is down.  Nevertheless, go get yourself a copy of I, Thighpaulsandra at any cost.
5. Metallic Falcons - Snakes and Tea Apparently this was a side project of CocoRosie, who were way too hip for me.  Not much of a web presence, but a good album.
6. Jago & Litefoot - The Ruthven Inheritance (Excerpt) I refer you to my initial excuse.
7. Lubomyr Melnyk - KMH Section V The founder and possibly only true practitioner of "Continuous Music."  A bit new-agey, but some great dynamics and mind-boggling playing.
8. Philippe Petit - Out Take From Oneiric Rings On Grey Velvet I don't know too much about this guy aside from him being almost un-Googleable becasue he didn't walk on a tightrope between the World Trade Center Towers.
9. Homayun Sakhi - Zuhals Song WFMU find.  Great music.
10. New Orleans Traditional Funeral Marches - Westlawn Dirge This is off of a generic "Funeral Marches of New Orleans" comp that I can't find on the internet.  Everyone should own at least one of these.
11. The Caretaker - But the Stars had Come Out Off of the addendum to the much-hyped Patience (After Sebald), Leyland Kirby proves that if you go from art-terrorism to introspective ambient melodies, people tend to listen.

February 2012

1. A.R. And Machines - Cosmic Vibration - An Afternoon Concert Let's start this off with some Krautrock.  The Seth Man has the full rundown.
2. Tomas Dvorak - Clockwise Operetta This is off of the marvelous soundtrack to the quirky game Machinarium.  You can download the game and soundtrack bundle for cheap money here.
3. Berlin Express - The 4-08 To Paris A bit of synth fun from Peter Baumann and the unfortunately deceased Conrad Schnitzler.  Need one say more?
4. Le Revelateur - Statues Apparently this band has a MySpace page, but they actually log into (last signon 1/31/2012 as of writing this).  The band is Roger Tellier-Craig, who played with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, which is a glowing enough endorsement for me to check it out.  Should be for you as well.
5. Brightblack Morning Light - Everybody Daylight  I'm not sure if this is a band that has just one trick that they do really well, or if they went anywhere after this album.  Either way, if you want hazy, this album delivers in spades.  I should probably check out the second one.
6. David Lynch And Dean Hurley - The Air is on Fire: IV (History) David Lynch needs no introduction.  I'm not sure what exhibition this is the soundtrack to, but it's some pretty dark ambient.  Like Lustmord, but with more David Lynch and Dean Hurley.
7. Richard Skelton - Undertow This is off of the amazing Landings album.  I can't recommend it highly enough.
8. Andrew Oldham Orchestra - Play With Fire This is off of the orchestral Stones album that the Verve got sued for sampling.  The album itself is a brilliant slice of 60's orchestral pop: too much reverb, a slew of top-notch session musicians (I think Jimmy Page is the guitarist on this one), and all of the soul sucked out and replaced by James Bond theme pomp.
9. Ariya Afrobeat Arkestra - Big Grammar I'll check out anything with "Arkestra" in the name just in case Sun Ra is hiding in there somewhere like a Jupiterian pixie.
10. Ras Michel And The Sons Of Negus - Rastaman Chant Bill Laswell's dub mixes for Trojan Records?  I'm there.

Worst Day of the Year 2012

1. The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden - Baltic Antiquarian  This track is off of the amazing Live at VPRO album released by Brainwashed.  The band name has since mutated into the more inclusive The One Ensemble.  Daniel Padden can also be heard playing guitar for Volcano the Bear.
2. Six Organs Of Admittance - Attar I'm not the biggest fan of "American Primitive" guitar playing, but (along with such players as Glenn Jones and the late Jack Rose), Ben Chasny is really phenomenal. I was able to see an acoustic version of Six Organs a couple of years back, and they were quite good.
3. Moondog - Death, When You Come To Me I really don't know much about Moondog aside from what's mentioned in in the Wikipedia article.  I picked up this CD in Paris, but that doesn't really mean much.
4. Thighpaulsandra - Hovercar Von Düsseldorf This track is off of the Michel Publicity Window EP  which was the followup to the absolutely amazing I, Thighpaulsandra album.  His website hasn't been updated since 2008, and aside from an industrial festival appearance, there doesn't seem to have been much from him recently.  Hopefully that will be rectified soon.
5. Pink Floyd - One Of These Days (Rainbow Theatre, London 9/16/1970) I am not a big Pink Floyd fan.  I think that their output post-Syd and pre-Dark Side was interesting, but ultimately second rate psyche rock. What I do like about this recording is the level of incompetence though the track.  The bass has a post-punk/no-wave clang (complete with the late tremolo entry), the tempo is sliding all over the place, and Gilmour (who can really rip both PF solos: the half-time one and the slightly-faster-than-half-time one) has apparently forgotten how to play.  Brilliant.
6. Far East Family Band - The God Of Wind Pretty much everything you could possibly need to know about the Far East Family Band can be found in Julian Cope's Japrocksampler.  I got this track from a web mix called Video Wedding at the Freex.
7. Field Rotation - Acoustic Tales 2  Acoustic Tales is an enjoyable album of electro-acoustic ambient.  Suggested for fans of Richard Skelton's wonderful Landings.
8. MAL - The Walk of the Watchman MAL seems to be cut from the same cloth as Ash Ra Tempel's Manuel Göttsching.  Most of the information I have on them is from this page. Actually, it's where I got this track from as well.
9. Jacaszek - As Each Tucked String Tells Another great electro-acoustic album.  Unfortunately his website hasn't been updated since 2009 and what little information I can find is on a MySpace page, which is like trying to read with a 9 year old throwing things at your head. 
10. The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Rivers Of Congo I'm really glad that someone took a hint form Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore and ran with the doom-jazz/Twin Peaks thing.  They also record as the Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation, which is also worth a listen.  As a side note, Jason Köhnen from the band also performs as Bong-Ra and does a great homage to Bolt Thrower bassist Jo Bench.
11. Sand - May Rain Once upon a time this was the holy grail of Krautrock collectors, though it's re-release a while back/the availability of everything on the internet saw an end to that.  Great album. 

January 2011

1. Kevin Eldon - Je Ne Parle Pas Anglais From the depths of the Resonance FM archives comes this massive dose of French from comedian Kevin Eldon, who was in the greatest comedy series of all time (and certainly the one with the best soundtrack).
2. Oval - Alpaca A ringtone from the Oval album "O" which should still be floating out on the internet somewhere.  If not, it's available on disc two of the album.
3. Matt Elliott - The Sinking Ship Song This track is from the criminally underrated The Mess We Made album by Third Eye Foundation's Matt Elliott.  He also performed some of the music from the aforementioned Jam.
4. Tamponi - Profondita This piece of library music comes from the depths of the Lunar Atrium blog.  That's all the info I have on it.
5. The KLF - Trancentral Lost My Mind From the depths of the long out-of-print KLF discography, this tune is off of Chill Out.  Oh, and just in case you don't have enough Extreme Noise Terror in your day, you can get some here.
6. Peter Howell and Paddy Kingsland - Marshmen This is off of the Meglos/Full Circle Doctor Who soundtrack. Great sinister noodling synths.  Much better than the soundtrack for the current series.
7. Dave Vorhaus - The Rhesus Rhythm Band A great Radiophonic Workshop-related musician.  He is probably best known for being in White Noise with Brian Hodgson and Delia Derbyshire, but is a wonderfully quirky composer in his own right.
8. Harry Forbes - Microchips 1 Another piece of library music without much info.  If this kind of thing appeals to you, check out Johnny Trunk's OST podcast.
9. Pye Corner Audio - Electronic Rhythm Number Seven The Head Technician over at Pye Corner Audio produces some wonderfully dark and dirty radiophonic synth work.  Both volumes of the great Black Mill Tapes can be found here.
10. Keith Seatman - A Dirty Thought I only have nice things to say about Keith Seatman, as he might be listening.  Go out and buy Consistently Mediocre and Daydreams.  That is all.
11. Killing Joke - Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell Apparently I blinked and completely missed this album when it came out.  There's a great video for this track full of face-painted Jaz Coleman insanity and fire.  Lots of fire.  Do yourself a favor and catch them if they're touring in your area, as they're an amazing live band.
12. Mount Vernon Arts Lab - The Submariner's Song When an artist has connections to Ghost Box and Coil, they must be doing something right.
13. J.D. Doche - Aire De Fanchon La Vielleuse Hurdy gurdy, sir?  Why yes, don't mind if I do.
14. Cyclobe - How Acla Disappeared From Earth I've been a casual Cyclobe fan for a while, but this album really resonated with me.  Again, the Coil connection is nothing but a good thing.  Apparently Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown both have books out.
15. Fondation - Climat Nocturne I have very little information about this band aside from the Mutant Sounds description, so I won't repeat it here.
16. Manorexia - Ten Ton Shadow I really like the direction that JG Thirlwell has pulled his musical career as of late (by "as of late" I mean the last decade).  If you have been stuffing newspaper in your ears for the past 30 years, you should really dig into his catalogue.