Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Discovery: Live at Montreux

Unless you sit around listening to shitty street punk all day, you've probably heard a lot of very talented musicians. But how often do you hear a real virtuoso? Not just some guy who shreds on a guitar real good, but somebody that defies you to believe that they're even playing what they're playing? Gonzalo Rubalcaba is that dude. This is the then-27-year-old pianist's second public appearance in North America after being isolated in his native Cuba previously. This captures him playing in a trio with the ubiquitous Charlie Haden on bass and Paul Motian on drums, but the focus is on Rubalcaba all the way. By the time he finishes the first cut - Monk's "Well You Needn't" - you're left gasping for breath and grasping for adjectives at the sheer force of it all. He come out on FIRE, launching run after run with astonishing clarity and creativity, breaking out some Cuban rhythm and displaying classical delicacy where required. Unbelievable.
http://www.mediafire.com/?k7fr84w2jwow53x

Mayhem - Wolf's Lair Abyss

Wolf's Lair Abyss seems to get short shrift in the Mayhem discography, and understandably so. It was the follow-up to a record that couldn't possibly be followed up (De Mysteriis dom Sathanas) and preceded one that bitterly divided the band's fanbase (Grand Declaration of War). You can feel both of those albums trying to pull Wolf's Lair Abyss to their side. In the futuristic touches of the intro and the cold, mechanical production you can hear where the band is headed but in many of the riffs - most notably much of "Ancient Skin" - you can clearly hear where they have been. I think Wolf's Lair Abyss is better than just a transitional album though. As with every Mayhem release there is a lot of thought and creativity put into it and they have certainly never been afraid to take risks. Bonus points for a stellar layout on the CD from Mr. Stephen O'Malley himself.
http://www.mediafire.com/?niokmgga2xt4b8r

Channel - s/t 7"

Channel featured Nate Newton pre-Jesuit and pre-pre-Converge as well as Brian Benoit pre-Dillinger Escape Plan and played chunky, mid-paced hardcore in the vein of Groundwork and Chokehold. This is their first 7" from 1994. This is here more as a matter of historical curiosity than anything, but I wouldn't have posted it if it completely sucked. I think "Justice" in particular is a pretty solid jam.
WARNING: This record is '90s as hell.
http://www.mediafire.com/?zfjpb0k4ko65oi9

Urfaust - Verräterischer, Nichtswürdiger Geist

A strange entry from a strange band. Many prefer Urfaust's first LP, the excellent Geist ist Teufel, to this but I can't get this one into my ears enough right now. Urfaust play very simple, stripped down, melodic sort-of-folky Black Metal with mostly clean vocals that give way to strange howls and histrionics at points. The vocals may be a sticking point for many; IX's voice is very much unpolished but he's always in key. The drums can barely keep up with the simplest beats and there are some musical decisions that work but are kind of baffling (ie. the arpeggiated guitars for the entirety of "Verflucht das Blenden der Erscheinung"). Verräterischer, Nichtswürdiger Geist's four BM tracks are accompanied by 3 of the most sophisticated and well recorded classical pieces I've ever heard come out of a metal band. Unlike most would-be classical composers in metal, Urfaust veer away from too much obvious melody or soundtrackiness (that's a word now) and present largely minimal work somewhat in the vein of certain 20th Century works by guys like Giacinto Scelsi or Henryk Góreck. Not on the same level of sophistication obviously, but still... So you have this weird juxtaposition of very weird metal and weirdly brilliant classical music and it's not for everybody at ALL, but fuck if I can't stop listening to it.
http://www.mediafire.com/?hb3kk5ux354ap5l

Stars of the Lid - Live at Holy Trinity Church

I was rummaging in a hard drive for something else and found a few Stars of the Lid live sets that I don't remember ever downloading. How excellent! So here's one from Leeds in May of 2008. Graceful and sublime. Plus they open with a version of Arvo Part's "Fratres".
http://www.mediafire.com/?jh1ji1p9jr7d1tu

Jeniger - s/t LP

A bigtime grower. So at first I thought this was a decent melodic crust record, but as I listened more I realized it was way better than that: It's a fusion of that From Ashes Rise style with a fat dose of Uranus / '90s Bremen HC thrown in, and it's fucking potent. This made more sense when I found that Jeniger morphed into the most excellent Zeroid.
http://www.mediafire.com/?c8hfjo8poybyiqz

Force of Darkness - Darkness Revelation

A blistering black thrash assault from these Chilean masters! Think 'De Mysteriis...', Absu and Blasphemophagher duking it out with a touch of that special over-the-top South American evil. Strongly recommended. TOTAL SUPPORT!!! AAAAAAAAAARGH 666!!!!
http://www.mediafire.com/?eutlsuz4o95p21t

Lyle Lovett - I Love Everybody

It's okay if you're too cool to like Lyle Lovett. He's old and he puts stuff out on major labels and maybe your dad likes him or something. You're not missing out on much, just great songs with tasteful arrangements.
http://www.mediafire.com/?rdbpii885ngwwtz

VA - On the Powers of the Sphinx

A very interesting new comp LP from the Ajna Offensive. They still have a few left and have promised a CD version eventually, but here's my LP rip in the meantime.
Saturnalia Temple start things off a long flow of ritualistic, lo-fi subterranean DOOM.
Nightbringer follow them up by reminding us that they're probably the best BM band in the States right now.
Nihil Nocturne start the B Side with what to my ears is OK depressive BM. Not bad, some Wigrid-type moments, we'll see if it really sticks with me.
Aluk Todolo, who are basically the mighty Diamatregon playing different music under a different name, close the record off. I've enjoyed their hypnotic, repetitive black-kraut emissions for a while now and this might be the best song I've heard from them yet. Not for everybody, but heartily recommended.
http://www.mediafire.com/?o01sgi1y7zub3s1

Mind Eraser / Slang split 7"

The Slang side is one minute long and they spice up their ripping Japanese hardcore with just a touch of Swarm / LFD heaviness. They steal this one for me. Mind Eraser respond with two Mind Eraser songs. They're kind of in this zone now where you know exactly what you're getting when you buy their records, good though it is.
http://www.mediafire.com/?n8u3y1yvb8188en

Comets On Fire - Bong Voyage // collab w/ Burning Star Core

If you're only up on Comets On Fire's Sub Pop releases (which are great), these two limited-run LPs may come as a shock to the system. Actually, they're pretty much a shock to the system anyways. Both eschew the recent studio materials' polished bombast (yeah, I wrote that) for raw, unadulterated ROCKING. These are live/rehearsal quality recordings, but that does not prevent them from tearing a hole in your head.
Maximum volume yields maximum results.
Bong Voyage: http://www.mediafire.com/?qdsfym1z2iawcyc
Burning Star Core collab: http://www.mediafire.com/?7v0ll4649w19mxv

Complications - S/T LP

A little weird to think that this is the guys from the great Drift but it's been like 15 years and things change, ya know? I have trouble describing Complications' sound. Not that it's necessarily ultra-original, just that I don't really listen to much like this. I hear mid-period Die Kreuzen and some other Touch & Go bands, and maybe some Killing Joke. Rest assured that there are great songs on here though!
http://www.mediafire.com/?0p6slq4cbsvhkch

Walls - 2010 Tour 7"

Walls rule, as I hope you know. I didn't see them on this tour, but I picked the 7" from somewhere. two new originals and a Die Kreuzen cover from one of the best live bands in hardcore.
http://www.mediafire.com/?e3h37k8lkakjpmk

Resurrectionists / Battle of Wolf 359 split 10"

I've posted some other Resurrectionists stuff, why not this? Resurrectionists give us their tightest and most brutal output to date; fantastic. On the flip side, BOW359 continue on their quest to become Welcome the Plague Year 2.0. This is probably their best stuff yet, but I'm not convinced that I'll ever hold them to be a really great band.
http://www.mediafire.com/?8qt0p7zm9mljtfp

Jean Sibelius - Symphony #2

Schoenberg disciple René Leibowitz once called Sibelius "The worst composer in the world". Serialists are often dickfaces though, n'est ce pas? Besides, Morton Feldman, who people actually remember, apocryphally had Sibelius' back. All I know is that I really like the second and fifth symphonies. The climax of the final movement here is a monster. Sure it's not the most challenging or complex work that classical music has to offer but there's more to it than that, yes? This is a 1960 recording with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. Get cultured.
http://www.mediafire.com/?4mqq9l8lpk5xxb3

The Swarm - Discography

Eh, I guess I'll bring the blog back for a while.
All of The Swarm rips I hear floating around the internet sound like dogshit, so I made ones that sound less like dogshit. This file has everything they did including their last song off the Counter Culture comp 7" that hints strongly at a more Cursed-like direction. I feel like The Swarm may be the only hardcore band that EVERYBODY can agree was great. Rage hard or die.
http://www.mediafire.com/?p5jy13vkhq7e3p9

Phill Niblock - G2, 44 +/X2

Phill Niblock is known for his use of looooooooooooooong tones. I've heard a couple of his pieces that are just an instrument playing a single note for 30+ minutes until it detunes itself. Not interesting, really. This guitar-drone piece kinda plays off the same theme, but I really like it. The disc contains two different interpretations of the same 30-minute work. One by Rafael Toral and one "massed" version featuring Alan Licht, Kevin Drumm, Lee Ranaldo, and Thurston Moore that evolves slowly, almost imperceptibly, but above all satisfyingly. It took me forever to dig this one up, so I'll spare you the trouble.
http://www.mediafire.com/?kaynoqymjmg

Albert Ayler - The Hilversum Session

I spent a lot of time not getting Ayler, but I'm starting to come around. I encountered a lot of the later material first but I'm realizing that the early stuff smokes. This is one such example. A live Dutch radio set from 1964 with a lot of immensely powerful and aggressive playing, but which remains extremely expressive. Don Cherry on cornet, Gary Peacock on bass and the great Sunny Murray destroying the drums.
http://www.mediafire.com/?znzmnzymoew

Cruciamentum - Convocation of Crawling Chaos

MASSIVE demo from this UK Death Metal horde. They do a great job at balancing the rawness of an older DM band with the clarity and precision of more modern DM. Indeed, the recording is far beyond demo quality. The material on here is totally crushing too, especially the minute-long breakdown in "Rotten Flesh Crucifix" that makes me want to slam my head through a wall.
Been waiting for a full-length for a couple of years now... I've got to think that it will be a world-destroyer.
http://www.mediafire.com/?vjyzoz4yytm

Dispirit - Rehearsal / Demo 2010

I'd like to think that I'm not jaded, but the fact is that at this point there's only one or two occasions a year where I hear something new that puts my head on a swivel, makes me stop what I'm doing and just marvel. This is one. Dispirit is the new John Gossard (Weakling, Asunder) band. I'm no fanboy when it comes to those other bands and it doesn't bother me at all to say that this is better than either. The music falls somewhere between Mr. Gossard's above-mentioned bands. It combines the slow meandering menace of Asunder and the majestic fury (and a couple of Emperor riffs) of Weakling under a gauzy, near-psychedelic production. The sound quality is more than acceptable for a demo recording. Strongly, STRONGLY recommended.
http://www.mediafire.com/?wcnmmiwknzq

The Jayhawks - Sound of Lies

My favorite Jayhawks record. Great songs, great arrangements, great everything. Except for the cover art, which rivals Leatherface's "Dog Disco" for the Worst Ever Album Cover By A Respectable Band. Also, I feel like the chorus in "The Man Who Loved Life" should have been in a James Bond theme of some sort.

I'm way off topic. Just jam this.
http://www.mediafire.com/?0dnmzy1mwyk

Offonoff - Clash

I saw Paal Nilssen-Love play with the Scorch Trio a few years back and I still haven't figured out what I witnessed. Offonoff finds him forming a power-free-jazz-improv group with Massimo Zuma on bass and Terrie Ex on guitar. It's a wild one! Songs explode, shudder, creak, and resurrect themselves time and time again. More dynamic than Flying Luttenbachers, more fun than Peter Brötzmann, just a crazy ride from start to finish.
http://www.mediafire.com/?wd4gzjuqtjn

Angel Eyes - ...And For a Roof a Sky Full of Stars

One of a very few good things to come out of the whole "post-metal" craze of a couple years ago. If you've listened to even a couple of Cult of Luna clones, this will be familiar territory for you. Just seems like a little more care and effort was invested in these songs. The label still has copies of this for a whopping $4. Looks like the also have the last Capital LP which was a pretty sweet record, but I digress.
http://www.mediafire.com/?nj12jhdytzh

Hellwitch - Syzygial Miscreancy

Ignore what you see above. The rejected Helloween album cover is the only blemish on what I consider to be a perfect album. On their 1990(!) debut, Hellwitch were in a remarkable creative groove, effortlessly blending furious thrash with technical and progressive death metal. It's like a maddened Slayer-Cynic-Nocturnus combo. Every member gives a bravura performance on this LP - you can't help but get caught up in the sheer energy of it all. And they gracefully balance on the oh-so-narrow line between technicality and accessibility. The songwriting is engaging and they had the good sense to keep the record at a lean 25 minutes. I wouldn't change a single second of that runtime; every one of them is exhilarating.
http://www.mediafire.com/?myttmymjnjy

Paul Dolden - Seuil de Silences

I have some reservations about posting this, but here it is. My first reservation is that this music is impossible to describe verbally. There is nothing like it. I don't care how much weird stuff you've heard or what you're into, I PROMISE you that you've never heard anything like this. From Wikipedia: "His approach to audio technology is to use it as a platform from which to launch otherwise impossible musical performances". This gets you in the ballpark, but you'll just have to hear it to understand.
My second reservation is that people involved with this sort of music are often very sensitive about the reduction of their music to mp3s, and about the free dissemination of those files. So I would encourage you to purchase the CDs if this music is of interest to you. (Although I would note in my defense that this would be a more reasonable request if they caught up with the times charged something other than 1999 retail prices)
http://www.mediafire.com/?oaazmwiyioe

Deathchurch - Unsilent Hate Anthem 7"

Black Metal from Japan. This has that ultra blown-out, barely coherent sound that seems to be popular with the kiddies these days. I usually view that aesthetic as being kinda gimmicky, but Deathchurch makes it work for me. Maybe it's because Japan has a rich history of hyper-distorted barely coherent music. Maybe it's because Deathchurch actually seems to have some chops to back up the noise. Either way, this is some serious hatred being spewed.
http://www.mediafire.com/?zwdojivtd2j

No Parade - s/t 7"

Angry, no-frills hardcore punk from these Tennessee boys. Features half of the From Ashes Rise lineup, and could reasonably be described as a far less melodic FAR. Objectively this is a pretty average record, but it just has that je-ne-sais-quoi that makes me rock it hard.
http://www.mediafire.com/?zc4jlyz32mi

To Dream of Autumn - Kill Your Cul De Sac

I decided to revisit this recently after a number of years, expecting it to sound terrible. Much to my surprise it's aged pretty well. This band wanted to be One Eye God Prophecy sooooo badly, which is a sentiment that I condone and encourage. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Magic Bullet still had copies left. If they do, scoop one and help support Brent Eyestone's expensive football card habit.
http://www.mediafire.com/?znmythvuzaj

Cendres - Ungeziefer

Dense, mildly unsettling Black Metal from France, the official home of unsettling Black Metal. Cendres operate at a slow-to-middling pace and create a sound thick and mysterious, like seeing forms through the mist in a swamp. They do a brilliant job of using low fidelity to their advantage in creating something that's a little uncomfortable to listen to, as opposed to just doing it because Darkthrone and 100,000 Darkthrone clones did it. I don't know who's in this band, but they sure as fuck know exactly what they're doing.
http://www.mediafire.com/?nznett52e4u

Lasse Marhaug / Nils Henrik Asheim - Grand Mutation

Yet another entry in Lasse Marhaug's infinite discography. This release finds the Norwegian noise maven collaborating with organist Nils Henrik Asheim in Oslo Cathedral. It could have been a nearly nonsensical pairing but we find Marhaug in a gentler-than-usual mood here, generally avoiding the harshness that he is usually associated with. I really like the interweaving of the analog and digital domains, two eras finding ways to complement and augment the other's world as they move through soft drones to shattering crescendos, searching, searching, searching...

http://www.mediafire.com/?mjlnzzc4fyn