Magic Lantern - High Beams

As fine a psych record as you'll ever hear, and I insist that you hear it. Launch your brain into the sun.
http://www.mediafire.com/?jmgzimjng3n

Secret Abuse - Ripeness

Jeff Witscher, the man of a million projects, was invincible in 2009. This tape, limited to 50 copies, is the companion piece to the brilliant Secret Abuse LP "The Immeasurable Gift". Gorgeous haunted melodies drowning under a lake of noise.
http://www.mediafire.com/?qdtrirkmbmd

Sonny Sharrock - Ask the Ages

Man, I feel grossly inadequate trying to write about jazz. Here's the deal: Sonny Sharrock was a jazz guitarist who ran in some pretty heavy Free Jazz circles in the late '60's and early '70s. He retired from music for 12 years before being coaxed back by Bill Laswell. I don't know a great deal about his later body of work, but I do know this: Ask the Ages, his final studio album, is a masterpiece, period. Featuring Pharaoh Sanders on sax and Elvin Jones on drums, it screams, burns an smolders in every conceivable way. Do NOT let the "Free Jazz" moniker scare you off on this either; while elements of it are certainly present, I feel like the songs on here are really accessible to the adventurous modern music listener regardless of their familiarity with jazz. Or, as some random critic put it, "Hands down, Sharrock's finest hour, and the ideal album to play for those who claim to hate jazz guitar." At the very least check out "Many Mansions" and let your mind be destroyed.
Absolutely Essential.

Marc Antony / Dogs of Ire split 7"

This one's for Nate because he wasn't sure if he'd heard it yet. Marc Antony deliver two tracks of unique, angular hardcore that reminds me of a less techy This Ship Will Sink. Dogs of Ire are somewhat on the same page, but more stripped down and DIY sounding.
http://www.mediafire.com/?xzytj1yjwxi

Sabeth - s/t 7"

By request. Another in a seemingly infinite string 0f Uranus-worshiping hardcore bands that came from from Germany in the '90s. Like all the others, it rules. Also, the end of the first track rips off One Eyed God Prophecy almost note-for-note. That rules too.
http://www.mediafire.com/?omewz1fgmjm

Dead Friends LP

Great new band from Gainesville. Reminds me of some of the newer Mike Kirsch bands and Assfactor 4 and maybe even a little Propagandhi at times? One of my favorite hardcore records of the year, and one of the only ones in recent memory with lyrics that I really liked.
http://www.mediafire.com/?crjwtlzz2ow

Pinetop Seven - The Night's Bloom

Pinetop Seven are a bit hard to pin down. I guess you could draw a comparison to Calexico or Okkervil River, but the arrangements are more ambitious than the former and lusher and more cinematic than the latter. Add to that a gorgeous vocal performance and great storytelling and you have a really engaging and unique record. The LP version has three bonus tracks, which I ripped and aded to the file.
http://www.mediafire.com/?yajdn2z25wm

Desolation Hymn - Purgatory Despairing 7"

Desolation Hymn was comprised of Akhenaten of Judas Iscariot and M.K., the drummer from Katharsis. Their only output was this 7", limited to 666 copies (of course). Think of a more drawn out, "epic" sounding Judas Iscariot and you're most of the way there. Raw, sorrowful, ice-cold. I've found over time that I prefer this to almost all JI material. Highly recommended.
http://www.mediafire.com/?kmmj4yuuzoq

Ravencult - Temples of Torment

Furious Black Metal from Greece. You can tell that these guys' copies of "Nemesis Divina", "Blizzard Beasts" and "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" have been spun to the point of coaster-dom. Don't write this off as a mere copycat band though. The production is clear and powerful, the songwriting is well thought out and the performances are absolutely vicious.
http://www.mediafire.com/?kjgmdy3jgmn

Aloof Proof - Piano Text

Have you ever listened to a record that altered your perception of your surroundings? Like everything becomes sharper, or softer or more vivid? This is that music. Achingly beautiful, elegiac and ambient, this is one of three albums made by Michael Fibe under the Aloof Proof moniker before he apparently disappeared off the face of the earth. The entire work is constructed from processed piano samples. It's staggering to me to consider that this was created in 1994.
http://www.mediafire.com/?zumjozjnyny

Narodnaïa Volia rehearsal tape

There was Fingerprint, then there was Jasemine, then there was Narodnaïa Volia (trans. The People's Will). The latter, named after a rather sketchy Anti-Tsarist terror group from the 1880s, never released anything but this rehearsal tape has leaked out into the world and it is phenomenal. The quality is raw, but more than adequate for a rehearsal. The music bears more similarity to Drift, Ire or Uranus than it does to the members' previous projects. 5 tracks, 12 minutes, 1000% raging.
http://www.mediafire.com/?v5tmxjmqn5o

Uncle Tupelo - assorted Neil Young covers

Don't remember where I got this stuff, but some dedicated fellow compiled 16 different Neil Young covers performed by Uncle Tupelo and Uncle Tupelo alumni. They range from Excellent to Extremely Fucking Excellent. Unfortunately whoever put this together didn't bother to tag the songs with titles or anything... and neither did I. But don't let my apathy give you pause, downloading this should be the easiest decision you make today.
http://www.mediafire.com/?nnqt2zzwjen

Cryptic Winds - Storms of the Black Millenium

Raw, buzzing and echoey USBM. Their only release. One of these guys went on to play in the rather excellent Negative Plane. This was released on Akhenaten from Judas Iscariot's label and falls somewhere between that and very early Emperor.
http://www.mediafire.com/?hmme1qunzuz

Incantation - Mortal Throne of Nazarene

I remember listening to this when I was like 16. I didn't get it. I thought the slow parts were boring, not crushing. Thought the fast parts were sloppy rather than straining to get loose like some chained beast. Thought the whole vibe was cheesy, not the demented brilliance that I hear now. I wrote Incantation off for many years, which is of course a colossal mistake on my part. Ah well, can't nail 'em all.
http://www.mediafire.com/?rrumg2ziwkm

Jellyroll Rockheads - Intense and Mild 7"

Manic thrashing punk rock from Japan. There is no vocabulary that can describe just how much rocking goes down in these six and a half minutes.
http://www.mediafire.com/?w5eym1z2mzy

Kevin Drumm - Land of Lurches

Now, let's be clear: I don't claim to know much about noise, and I'm not about to bombard you with 500 different heavily distorted basement recordings on CDRs limited to 23 copies. But sometimes something from that realm catches my ear. One thing I like about this is how musical the approach is. Nothing amateur here. There are dynamics, there is direction and structure, it's not just some dude running 13 things through a distortion pedal. The whole thing proceeds in three distinct movements that work together to produce a greater overall effect. First, a brutal assault of the senses; then a bizarre but brief transitory phase, and finally a gentle massage of your ears. I'm not saying you'll like it, just that I do. Scrub your eardrums clean.
http://www.mediafire.com/?2qfqqnjmyir

Agents of Abhorrence 9"

Incredible grind from Australia. AOA sound more than a little like Discordance Axis. Not the same level of brilliance, but real close. It kind of weirds me out that one of these guys plays in My Disco and Clann Zú as well. This is probably the trickiest one to find, and they only got better after this 9". Track it all down.
http://www.mediafire.com/?z0kvt5iduzb

Hyacinth - s/t 12"

Hardcore from the North of France. Sounds like Bremen, Ottawa and, well, France. 5 originals and a ripping LIFE'S BLOOD cover. Don't mess with Metz. Recommended.
http://www.mediafire.com/?jfqmnqc4fz1

La Otracina - Tonal Ellipse of the One

Jammin' psych rock that finds a great balance between improvisation and structure. There's a song called "Sailor of the Salvian Seas". That should give you some idea of what you're getting yourself into.
http://www.mediafire.com/?yyxjllnjtln

Chune - Big Hat, No Cattle

Chune were a San Diego band from the mid '90s and it's tough to pin down their sound. There's bits of bands like Christie Front Drive and Texas is the Reason, and some '90s college rock that nobody remembers, but there's also odd chords and unusual song structures that tend to meander. My description falls short, but I assure you it's worth a shot if you're on the fence.
http://www.mediafire.com/?gn5tn4mymn1

New Brutalism - Territorial Reconstruction

There are three reasons you should check this out:
1. They made all of their instruments and amps from scratch. Out of aluminum.
2. As a wedding gift for the guy who put out a couple of their records they recorded a brand new double LP, had one copy pressed and give it to him. How sweet is that?
3. Oh yeah, they know how to rock! Hurl / Big'N / Stop It!!! / Shellac vibes.
http://www.mediafire.com/?doyjliizino

Merkit / Resurrectionists split 7"

Merkit are from Florida and play raging hardcore with influences from Left for Dead and Deadguy. Resurrectionists hail from Germany, have ex-members of Arsen and Louise Cyphre (I think) and play a brutal grinding hardcore not far removed from the members' former bands.
http://www.mediafire.com/?tmz3kmwd33z

Andrew Chalk - Over the Edges

Andrew Chalk is a name you can always rely on for lovely drone. This is no exception. 49 minutes of it, from 1997.
http://www.mediafire.com/?nrr2zezztmt

Ildjarn - Son of the Northstar

Raw, raw, RAW black metal. There are a few compilations of his earlier work and some run for an hour or more which is just way too much. This clocks in at around 15 minutes and serves as a good intro to his early material. Ihsahn of Emperor handles the vocal duties on this session.
http://www.mediafire.com/?qyowjmwidtm

Drift - Discography

Drift were a Québécois hardcore band in the same vein as Uranus or One Eyed God Prophecy, and they're in the same league in terms of quality. Their discography is a mere 7 songs, but it's easy to see the evolution from a band writing short, simple hardcore songs to something bigger and more ambitious. Incredible and underrated. It's weird to me that four fifths of Drift formed Born Dead Icons immediately afterward.
http://www.mediafire.com/?2yrjjmcm1zi

Yonder Mountain String Band - Town by Town

Awesome modern bluegrass. No strained revivalism, no faux-lo-fi, just great playing and killer hooks.
http://www.mediafire.com/?hdj3rqjzaoh

Michael Gordon - Decasia

The soundtrack of the film where a guy found crates of rotting film and transferred the decayed results without any additional manipulation. Very cool to watch. The soundtrack echoes the visual theme of the movie by presenting a "decaying" orchestra. Four detuned pianos are the centerpiece, and the rest of the orchestra is similarly detuned to varying degrees. The results can be a little unsettling - much like the film - but there's simply nothing else quite like it that I've heard. I've found it to be more rewarding when approached separately from the film.
http://www.mediafire.com/?yjmnjmn1mwh

Hose Got Cable - Majesty LP

This is a record that I've seen in cutout bins across North America. And it's kinda too bad, because it's a damn fine record. The a-side comes across as kind of a Shotmaker meets Karp vibe and the b-side is a long, strange droning improv piece that I like quite a bit. Eventually, you will find this for 2 or 3 dollars and it's worth picking up when that happens.
http://www.mediafire.com/?vhejwmmfzcl

Vinterland - Welcome My Last Chapter

Maybe you don't remember the huge glut of Dissection ripoff bands in the mid-late '90s. This is the best of them. It seems that relatively few people remember Vinterland, who disappeared after their only full length, but those who do always hype it up like crazy. For my money I think this has aged better than either classic Dissection LP, although many would call me crazy for saying it. Vinterland focused more on atmosphere and had a more black-metal-ish sound overall than their precursors. At the very least, you'll have to admit that Vinterland's corny Casio piano interlude is MILES better than Dissection's.
http://www.mediafire.com/?mzni2giigni

Assay - Pisschrist LP

I have a great love for '90s German hardcore, so you'll be seeing more as this goes on. Assay had members of Morser, Age and Rusty James and subscribed to the idea that Rites of Spring were a great a band and worth ripping off. So they did, and the result is a somewhat gruffer and heavier take on that sound.
http://www.mediafire.com/?3ya2zyw0tww

Pauline Oliveros - Deep Listening

Trombone, accordion, voice and a variety of homemade instruments recorded in a colossal underground cistern outside of Seattle. Recognizance is strained as everything echoes back into itself and the result is a lovely ever-evolving cloud of ambiance.
http://www.mediafire.com/?y2m2wumwul0