Earth -- Earth 2

The album without which Sunn 0)))) and Boris and Nadja and all the others would not exist. Ambient metal. Although it's very easy to tune this out and do other stuff while it's playing, the second it ends I feel empty inside and want to put it back on. Maybe that's the effect that noted heroin-enthusiast Dylan Carlson was going for.

320 kbps

Laddio Bolocko -- The Life & Times of Laddio Bolocko

Noisy, krauty, jazzrock at its best.

VBR @ 224 kbps on average

Kemialliset Ystävät -- Kemialliset Ystävät

Freakout forest fuckery from Finland.

320 kbps

Les Rallizes Dénudés -- '77 Live

Strange that a bunch of Japanese guys would choose Les Rallizes Dénudés as a name given that they are almost certainly incapable of pronouncing it. I've read that this is the greatest rock album of all time -- the very quintessence of rock music. While I don't necessarily believe that, it's fucking great. What all spacerock bands wish they were, but aren't. One of the previous band members hijacked a plane in 1970, directed it to North Korea, and is still living there to this day. I wonder how that worked out for him.

192 kbps

Deep Turtle links fixed

Thanks to Petya for fixing the links to There's a Vomitsprinkler in My Liverriver and Flutina. I'm not sure what happened with the originals, but they ended up being mono. He (she?) was nice enough to "re-master" them for me, so if you downloaded them before, you should re-download them now.

One million internets for you, Petya.

Pissed Jeans -- Hope for Men

These guys sounds like they were transported straight from early 90's-era Amphetamine Reptile records. The cover is dedicated to you, Jonny.

320 kbps

Caspar Brötzmann Massaker -- Home

Avant guitar noodling from the son of Peter Brötzmann -- see the Last Exit post a few days back. Sounds a bit like Helios Creed when he gets going, but with less drugginess and more violence. I could do without the singing, actually.

These are .m4a files, so I don't know what the bitrate is, but it should play just fine

Amon Düül II -- Yeti

I had never heard this until recently. Thanks to No Brain for turning me on. Krauty goodness from 1970, and superior in my opinion to Amon Düül (or Amon Düül I, if you will). Don't ask me the difference.

VBR near 192 kbps

Mincing Fury and Guttural Clamour of Queer Decay -- Eye for Eye

Insane Czech Republic brutal death metal or goregrind or whatever the hell you want to call it. As you may have noticed, 'insane,' 'wacky,' 'spastic,' etc. are all positives around here. A recorded barrel of recorded monkeys couldn't possibly be this much fun.

192 kbps

Last Exit -- Last Exit

Free jazz supergroup featuring Sonny Sharrock, Bill Laswell, Peter Brötzmann and Ronald Shannon Jackson. This one's for you, Dimitri (although you probably already have it...)

192 kbps

Arab on Radar -- Yahweh or the Highway

AOR were a part of the RISD noise-rock posse. I originally thought about posting this after hearing AIDS Wolf. These guys never got the credit they deserved, if you ask me, and it probably has something to do with the callow lyrics and whiny vocals. (I sure know how to sell 'em.) But, if you can get past all of that, the music is uniquely discordant and jagged and noisy. Some of the lyrics are actually worth a chuckle, too, such as

Your kids are not safe from us homosexuals
Your kids are controlled by the intellectuals
Your kids will dabble in that devilish stuff
Your kids will dream about their teacher's muff

So true.

224 kbps

Soilent Green -- Pussysoul

Really excellent album from the New Orleans southern-fried grind/metal/sludge/heroin scene. Sounds muscular, if that's possible. Nothing at all like their current stuff, which just doesn't do it for me. When I say 'nothing at all,' that's in the relative sense, of course.

192 kbps

AIDS Wolf -- Cities of Glass

Whoa, this is some noisy shit. Kind of like Arab on Radar with a female lead singer. Actually, a lot like that. Definitely not for everyone, but then what is?

VBR @ 256 kbps or so

Wormed -- Planisphærium

Brutal death metal from Spain. That's an actual subgenre of death metal, by the way, and not just my evaluation. Although in this case, it's both. That's the best image of the cover that I could find.

192 kbps

Deep Turtle -- John Peel Session

Bow at the altar of the mighty Turtle.

192 kbps

Khanate -- Things Viral

Slow, tortured, misanthropic doomsludge measured not in beats-per-minute but minutes-per-beat. Some of the most bleak and tormented vocals you're ever likely to hear, by the same guy who sang for Old Lady Drivers way back when. He manages to make the line "I did this for you" into the creepiest thing you've ever heard. What exactly did he do, I wonder? It couldn't have been a nice thing, that's for sure.

Also featuring James Plotkin and Stephen O'Malley, of whom you probably have heard. I can't explain why it feels so good to listen to something so depressed and depressing and grim (but not frostbitten). It just does.

192 kbps

Deep Turtle -- Turkele

Perhaps a slightly mellower version of the Turtle, but still pretty out there. Oddly, the lyrics are in Spanish, but then everything these guys do is odd. Their penultimate release, which came after a long layoff from 1996 to 2002. Anyway, get it.

192 kbps

The Stick Men -- Insatiable

Hyperkinetic no-wave calisthenics from early-80's Philadelphia. This release compiles all of their recorded output, plus some previously unreleased stuff. Props to Dimitri for turning me on to this. When he said they had more spastic energy than The Contortions, I pooh-poohed. Turns out he was right.

224 kbps

Attila -- Attila

I stole this from the excellent Cosmic Hearse blog. Although I downloaded it more out of curiosity than anything else, and was prepared to delete it after one listen if not sooner, it's actually pretty good. Listen for yourself, or go over there and read Aesop's write-up, which is undoubtedly better than anything up with which I could have come.

VBR @ 256 kbps average

P.S. -- This is Billy Joel before he was Billy Joel, wailing on a fuzzed-out organ like some sort of jazzman, but stoned out of his mind like some sort of metalhead.

Come Sleep -- The Burden of Ballast

Swedish post-rock/post-metal in the vein of Neurosis, Conifer, Isis, etc. Sounds not unlike what would happen if you crossed the band Sleep with the band Come, perhaps in a ratio of 3-to-1 or so. Although there's more Sleep than Come, it occurs to me that Sleep Come would be a very different name, with different and most likely unwanted connotations.

VBR @ 192 kbps on average

Deep Turtle -- There's a Vomitsprinkler in My Liverriver

Big thanks to Beelzebozo for this one. More Deep Turtle, which means more music that you must have. There are 18 tracks total, but they're clustered in groups of 3, so there are only 6 actual .mp3 files. Those crazy Finns!

320 kbps

Sonny Sharrock -- Ask the Ages

Apparently his real name is Warren Harding Sharrock. Who names their kid after Warren Harding? Anyway, a change of pace for this place, perhaps, but I've been listening to this album for years and it still sounds good. It's also the last album he recorded before dying, so you kinda owe it to him to check it out. Featuring Pharaoh Sanders on sax. Sorry, but I couldn't find a better cover image than the one above.

320 kbps

Warhammer 48k -- An Ethereal Oracle

So apparently there's a flourishing music scene in Columbia, MO. Who knew? I recently drove across the country, and while we didn't make it to Columbia specifically, the part of Missouri we did see was without question one of the lowlights. Along with Oklahoma and Indiana. And Amarillo, TX. But, this album is quite excellent. It's almost like a new musical style -- part metal/sludge/doom, part krautrock, part post-rock or whatever you want to call it. You'll like it.

320 kbps

Raccoo-oo-oon -- The Cave of Spirits Forever

This is the first post in here of an album that's a bit new to me. At first listen it has a Warhammer 48k-ish vibe, but less metal. Sort of meandering, but in a good way. I think. They're from Poughkeepsie, which seems to me like the town most well-suited for inclusion in a limerick of some sort.

There once was a girl from Poughkeepsie
Who something something something gypsy

...on second thought, maybe Nantucket is better.

192 kbps

Flesh Consumed -- Mutilate Eviscerate Decapitate

Brutal death metal band from Santa Cruz. This stuff always brings a smile to my face, and these guys manage to incorporate genuine songcraft into the mix, too. Or at least that's what Burt Bacharach said.

VBR @ 224 kbps minimum

Racebannon -- Acid or Blood

The best band ever from Indiana. (I know what you're thinking, but John Cougar Mellencamp is not a band.) Some sort of post-hardcore damaged art punk weirdness. Their last album was a rock opera about a guy who went through a sex change in order to become famous, or something like that. I have no idea what this one is about, although the cover image is fairly evocative, yeah?

VBR @ 256 kbps minimum

Immortal -- Sons of Northern Darkness

Sure, these guys are silly, but there is nothing silly or ironic about my enjoyment of this album. Black metal is not really my thing, but then this isn't really black metal, is it? Er, in some sense, this is as black as black metal gets -- just look at that cover -- but musically it's closer to death metal, I'd say. Which is a good thing.

320 kbps

Deep Turtle -- Flutina

The Finnish Nomeansno. Kinda. I'm gonna post as much of this band as I can find, but most of the stuff they put out were 7'' or EPs, so it may take a while. So so very good (good).

320 kbps

Aavikko -- Derek!

Finnish forest circus music. The Finns are slowly surpassing the Japanese for weird, head-scratching but irresistible music. Maybe it has something to do with using syllables, rather than letters, to construct words. Or maybe it's just a coincidence. It really sounds to me like these guys inhabit a different world, and I guess that's part of the charm.

192 kbps

Portal -- Seepia

Fucking insane art-metal from Australia. Although I'm sure it was a conscious decision by the band to record it this way, I really wish it sounded better. There's some serious axework going on, but half the time you can't hear it. Still, this is a must for those who enjoy musical extremes.

192 kbps

Melt-Banana -- Cell-scape

The best Melt-Banana album, in my opinion, due in no small part to the presence of Dave Witte on drums. Every single one of the members is at the top of their game here, though. One of the highlights of my life thus far was seeing them play in Tokyo, not long after the release of this album. I screamed out "Meruto-Banana wa ichiban ii desu," to which the lead singer responded "arigato." It was cute. The first and last tracks are some sort of electro-waste-of-time, but I included them for the sake of completeness.

192 kbps

Coughs -- Fright Makes Right

Love at first listen. No, not the band. I'm talking specifically about the lead singer. Is there anything sexier on the planet? (Hi Mia.) I mean, just listen to the creaky, squeaky, screamy, delicious...I mean, she could look like Barbara Bush or Bea Arthur or Sarah Jessica Parker and still be sexy with that voice. And how can you not love lyrics such as "Frank Lloyd Wright, you're alright. I.M. Pei, you're OK"?

I realize that I've told you more about myself than the band in this post.

192 kbps

Japanische Kampfhörspiele -- Rauchen und Yoga

Wacky German grindcore with dual lead singers. One grunts, the other squeaks. Something about it being in German makes it sound even weirder, but that could be because I don't speak German. Starts off kinda like We Will Rock You, but that doesn't last. Their name means "Japanese Deathcamp of the Mind," and apparently their lyrics are good, too. Although, honestly, I really don't care much about lyrics in general. Eine kleine grindmusik.

VBR @ 224+ kbps

Killdozer -- 12 Point Buck

This is an obvious first post for this place. An absolute classic for people with brains. These guys just finished a mini-reunion tour, to which you should have gone. I'm guessing that future shows, if they happen, will be limited by this. Yup, that's him.

Despite that somewhat depressing image [from some of the most brilliant lyrics ever written, to "The Tax Issues (and Substantiation Nightmare) Created by Providing Employees Cellular Telephones"...], these songs are smart, and funny, and absolutely essential. This is perhaps the only band/artist in the history of music whose appeal, for me, is primarily the lyrics. Which is not to say that the music isn't good, because it is. It's great, in fact, but this is some of the best social satire since A Modest Proposal, and all should hear it. I'll probably post their entire catalog eventually, but since this is the source of this blog's name, it makes sense to start here.

192 kbps