Stanford Folk - Presenting Stanford Folk (1977)

Custom (?) 7" of square xian folk courtesy of two married couples. "Put Your Hand in the Hand" is a tad twee, but endearing, and as much as I enjoy the performance of "I Don't Know How To Love Him", I could do without having "Rice/Webber" credited on any record I own. However, the middle 2 songs, "Sing Halleluya" and "Babylon" are gorgeous slices of earnest christfolk, with the pure female vocals being a particular treat, especially on the latter. This was worth the 50p I paid for it.

PEACE BE WITH YOU

Shitbastard - S/T 7" (1994)

Of all the random cheap hardcore records I bought over the years cause of cool bandnames/covers, this is one of the most brain-damaged. Basement-level sloppy hardcore with weird grunt-sing vocals that veer into Eric Cartman territory. They play it fast and loose like early Meat Puppets, with the clear guitar tone showing every missed note and twisted change in all its glory. Definite shit-fi potential.

LISTEN UP

Unknown - Death Move RMX (20??)

Mystery white label I pulled out of the sale section of Intense Records in Chelmsford last Summer and finally got round to ripping. Cat. No. is "CHINKS005" and it shares samples with Reservoir Dogs' "Death Moves", but that's all I know. Musically it's a blinder. Dark, techy garage/proto-dubstep and (I assume) way ahead of its time. Side A has a weird hum on it that I can't get rid of but sounds awesome IMO. Anyone with further info about this one please get in touch.

RIGHT HERE

Sonlight - Sonlight (1975)

This would have been a vinyl rip but I found the mp3s on slsk so I saved a lot of time and effort. This is a pleasant Christian light pop LP with some cool jazzy bits and nice organ work. No trace of fuzz or psych, but I still love this record. Cool cover too.

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Primevil - Smokin' Bats at Camptons (1974)

This one gets really fun really quickly, with pristinely-recorded rural gentleness breaking out into intense virtuoso jamming and wild vocals. The rhythm section keep it heavy and funky while the guitar leads head for the stratosphere. In theory I find the barroom muso vibe kinda gross, but the execution is so wild and entertaining I don't care. I pick up some low-rent early 70s Dead overtones too, which is always a bonus.

HERE IT IS

Noizy B demo mix

Here's a promo mix of my amateurishly ambitious mutant garage/dubstep/whatever stuff. Starts off with minimal 2-step and gets psychotic about 25 minutes in.

GET IT HERE

TL:

Made of Straw
Abide
Firehouse
In Parting
Runaway
Too Soon
Tidal Fury
Abdication Jam
Skulled Out
Wobbly Eggz
Ankles Out
Carnival Crush

Feedback is of course welcome.
Anyone after any 320s just get in touch.

Noizy B - Skulled Out

Weird dubstep tune I've just finished. Distorted bass. Broken rhythms. Etc.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E6VJPV3Z

Not sure quite what to make of this...

Paternoster - Paternoster (1972)

Nightmarish, organ-led heavy prog/proto-proto-proto-funeral doom from early 70s Austria. Lengthy instrumental passages dominated by eldritch pipe organ and fuzzed-out, near-black metal guitar are interspersed with harrowed, mock-operatic vocals hymning frustration and despair. Standout track "Stop These Lines" goes from almost ludicrous descriptions of mundanity ("Lunchtime snackbar eating chips, ketchup dripping down your lips") into the repeated, impassioned plea to "stop these lines". Elsewhere, "Paternoster" and "The Pope is Wrong" turn the formal liturgies of the catholic church into bitter hymns of cynicism. The closing "Mammoth Opus O" sees fragments of oompah melodies drawn into the quagmire. Original copies of this gem will set you back at least a grand, so thank the lord for piracy!

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Dog House Posse - Dope Gets No Heavier (1995)

New Orleans Bounce that swaps the genre's usual block party exhuberance for doomy atmospherics and bleak gangsta lyrics. Definite 3-6/Hypnotise Minds comparisons can be drawn, but the beats are still heavy on the "Triggaman" samples.

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Whore - Suicide Massacre (2005)

Satisfyingly abrasive UKBM from the nightmarish Ballardian sprawl of Essex. Long tracks of unrelenting VON-influenced black metal, drenched in white noise and underpinned by the monolithic monotony of a distorted drum machine. The vocals are heavily effected, rising like ghosts from the acrid miasma and screaming incomprehensible invective. Cover of VON's "Satanic Blood" is better than most.

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P.S. Sorry, I only have this ripped as a 128kbps WMA file and can't find the CD, but with music this lo-fi it's really not that important.

Smokin' Willie - Smokin' Willie

Reverb-choked 'lude-rockers sing the barbiturate blues. The fuzz solos on the heavy tracks scyth through the murk and go straight for the back of your brain, struggling up from the leaden mire of the rhythm section, which pounds monolithically (this is of course a good thing). The lighter songs, covers of "Whiter Shade of Pale" and "House of the Rising Sun", while still maintaining the downer vibes, disrupt the flow of the sludgier pieces somewhat, and break up the album in a mildly frustrating way. Well above the biker rock/heavy psych average though.

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Dryewater - Southpaw (1974)

Early 70s burnout rock with an appealingly murky soundscape that brings a cold, resigned atmosphere to the preceedings. The 60s were long dead by this point. Strong, bluesy vocals and adventurous but solid instrumentation keep things interesting for the most part, although there are a few lapses into bar-band mundanity. Opening "Winterground" lives up to its name with an atmosphere of icy detachment and dead trees, complimenting the bluesy vocals, and is my favourite track on the album. Lots of Who influence scattered throughout the record, as well as solid FM rock moves, but "Thunder" and "Revelation" play it hard and psychy, with some nice flanged guitar. Overall, a flawed but interesting listen that unfortunately doesn't live up to the promise of its opening track.

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St. George's Day

Thought I'd do my patriotic duty by listening to one of England's greatest treasures:

Classic Youtube Misery

I will never get bored of black and white footage of miserable white guys and bridges and hospitals and shit:

American Music Club - Electric Light

Idaho - God's Green Earth

Red House Painters - 24

Codeine - Loss Leader
Low - Shame

And a classic from outside of the indie-rock world:

Coil - Tainted Love

Slashing Death - Irrevocably and With No Hope (1989)

Vintage Polish savagery from this pre-Vader unit. Although ostensibly a black/thrash record, this is so raw and chaotic that the faster moments sound like 7 Minutes of Nausea on a metal tip. Plenty of splashing cymbals, manic guitar abuse and guttural vocals make for a thrilling listen. Parts of this bear comparison to Blasphemy and their progeny, but with a near-psychedelic looseness few war metal bands achieve. Some of it even made me think of Peter Brotzmann, for no good reason. The token "ambient" intro with Santana guitar and machine gun fire is a vintage treat, too.

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Skull Hell - Death Lust Demo (2009)

Something I finally recorded today that I've been planning for a long time. Unlistenably raw BM in tribute to all those 80s demo bands no one remembers (but I'll be uploading here). Let me know what you think.

1. Death Lust
2. Cruelty of the Grave
3. The Burning
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Abstract Satan - Demo 7512 (2004)

Insane black metal from the wilds of Russia. Unlike the vast majority of Eastern European BM, this is bestial, ritualistic BM in the vein of VON and Havohej, rather than Burzum-indebted or folk-influenced. The production is a bass-heavy chthonic rumble, but everything is fairly audible. The vocals are heavily VON-influenced, but the liberal amounts of reverb make them sound even more inhuman. Programmed drums don't sound overly artificial, and keep a steady hypnotic grind (these short songs feel much longer than they are). This came out in 2004 in an appropriately obscurist edition of 66 copies, so I hope they don't mind me making it more widely available.

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Elvie Thomas - Motherless Child Blues

Gut-wrenchingly bleak pre-war blues song of the day has to be Elvie Thomas - Motherless Child Blues. Available on Various Artists - "American Primitive II:Pre-War Revenants" on Revenant Records.

Feral Gospel

Little comp I put together of raw gospel, both known and obscure. Usual religious disclaimers apply.

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