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