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DJ Shadow
Endtroducing

endtroducing2.jpg


As a suburban Californian kid, DJ Shadow tended to treat hip-hop as a musical innovation, not as an explicit social protest, which goes a long way toward explaining why his debut album, Endtroducing..., sounded like nothing else at the time of its release. Using hip-hop, not only its rhythms but its cut-and-paste techniques, as a foundation, Shadow created a deep, endlessly intriguing world on Endtroducing..., one where there are no musical genres, only shifting sonic textures and styles. Shadow created the entire album from samples, almost all pulled from obscure, forgotten vinyl, and the effect is that of a hazy, half-familiar dream -- parts of the record sound familiar, yet it's clear that it only suggests music you've heard before, and that the multi-layered samples and genres create something new. And that's one of the keys to the success of Endtroducing... -- it's innovative, but it builds on a solid historical foundation, giving it a rich, multi-faceted sound. It's not only a major breakthrough for hip-hop and electronica, but for pop music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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Spotify: Endtroducing - DJ Shadow - Spotify

Last FM: Endtroducing – DJ Shadow – Listen and discover music at Last.fm.....​
 
16 minutes too early Nome - I refuse to listen to it :p

Quality album - an all time classic in my opinion!
 
I_live_cement said:
Mull Historical Society - Loss

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Loss - Mull Historical Society - Spotify

Colin Macintyre's debut album and still probably his best work. Lot's of different styles here but very melodic. Good underappreciated writer.
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Really really disliked this one. Probably one of my least favourite from this entire thread if I'm honest. Found it to be very annoying, and ended up stopping around track 7 or 8, which was quite an achievement I thought after coming so close to doing so half way through the opening song.
 
Poor old Mull Historical Society! I remember loudly stating how much I disliked them to these guys that did Elbow's video projection stuff at a place in Temple Bar only to turn around and see that they were right behind me and looked a bit miffed to say the least. Had they written any good songs that never would have happened though...

Edit: just spotted the gig in question on his website: May 5th, 2001 - TEMPLE BAR MUSIC CENTRE - DUBLIN (with Elbow)
 
Haha that's brilliant. I had a friend do something similar last November with Wild Beasts. I suspect they're not too fussed by it now what with their Mercury nomination.

Just gave the Coldcut album a try. It was alright. I've heard bits and pieces from Coldcut before but not sure if I enjoyed listening to a whole album of it. Started to lose interest by the end, although the Soweto Kinch track did pique my interest a little.
 
I think I also slagged off Mull Historical Soc a few pages back - I did manage to get through the whole album at least.

Im not sure if that is a typo when you say you heard 'bits and pieces from Coldcut' because they have an album called 'Beats and Pieces' !
I've always been a big Coldcut fan but I can see that some people will find their earlier stuff a bit hit and miss as it was always more experimental in nature.
 
Yeah that clicked as soon as I wrote it, but I did mean bits and pieces!
 
Slightly more up-beat (by my standards at least):

Quasi - American Gong

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Spotify: Link

The band's eighth album (and first with bassist Joanna Bolme) is both a summation of its career and an accessible introduction for new listeners. American Gong showcases Weiss' textured, musical fills and muscular beatkeeping and Coomes' bar-piano melodies and bent-note blues guitar riffs. But here they focus on those strengths and boil their songs down to their most essential ingredients: knotty, seasick melodies, heavy riffs, surprisingly sugary harmonies, and virtuosic drumming.

Quasi have always been enamored of repetition, both lyrically and musically, but often to a monotonous effect. Here that becomes a draw. "Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez", a mid-tempo rocker featuring barely more than its titular lyrics, makes Coomes' nasal, keening delivery as much a part of the song's syrupy groove as Weiss' undulating drum rolls. And the fuzzy guitar arpeggios anchoring "Bye Bye Blackbird" and cyclical structure and central refrain of "Rockabilly Party" accomplish the same thing.

American Gong is also blessedly free of typical Quasi jams-- which work live, but can drag on record. There are still lurching, aggro guitar solos and hints at foundations for what will become showcases for improv on tour, but the album's arrangements are simplified and mostly serve their vital hooks. There are some surprisingly quiet moments-- from the subtle, acoustic track "The Jig Is Up" to the mournful opening of piano-peppered "Everything and Nothing at All"-- that show off the band's dexterity. But with an experimenter's adventurous spirit, they eschew pure prettiness by adding a shambolic solo or acidic harmony to keep things from getting predictable. And 16 years into their career, that's a valuable thing. Here, a rewarding one, too.
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Not my favourite album by them (Featuring Birds is) but it's their most recent and I like it a lot.
 
Talking Vulture said:
It seems a few are trying to 'out obscure' others with their selections and if I'm being honest, I'm completely under-whelmed.

Music is about having fun and enjoyment, so I defy anyone not to tap their foot at Beating Heart Baby.

Decadence - Head Automatica - Spotify

Daryl Palumbo, I salute you for this album.
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I defy you! This isnt terrible but it is average at best - suprised to see that Dan The Automator is involved, apart from a couple of tracks I really cant hear where he was involved at all.

Well done for trying to break the monotony of the downtempo stuff anyway!


datura said:
re Coldcut I prefer their mixes to their music.
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Ye they have done a lot of good work on that side of things - the Eric B & Rakim remix is the classic one I suppose:

 
Rood said:
I defy you! This isnt terrible but it is average at best - suprised to see that Dan The Automator is involved, apart from a couple of tracks I really cant hear where he was involved at all.

Well done for trying to break the monotony of the downtempo stuff anyway!
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It was worth a try. I think the album is very good, a couple of fillers but very good nonetheless. I think the whole nature of the album surprised me because I'd only ever heard the singer in Glassjaw before, so the styles are like chalk & cheese, which is good imo.
 
As no one else's posted one, here's a classic. Sure lots of you will have listened to it before, but if you haven't, you need to.

Album 83

The Pixies - Surfer Rosa (1988)

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1. "Bone Machine" – 3:02
2. "Break My Body" – 2:05
3. "Something Against You" – 1:47
4. "Broken Face" – 1:30
5. "Gigantic" – 3:45
6. "River Euphrates" – 2:33
7. "Where Is My Mind?" – 3:53
8. "Cactus" – 2:16
9. "Tony's Theme" – 1:52
10. "Oh My Golly!" – 1:48
11. "Vamos" – 4:18
12. "I'm Amazed" – 1:42
13. "Brick Is Red" – 2:00

Spotify Link

​

I first got this album around '94, several years after it's release and a year after the Pixies had broken up. It's been one of my favourite albums ever since. The Pixies debut full length album, produced by the near-legendary Steve Albini, and despite Doolittle also being a superb album, probably my favourite Pixies album. Annoyingly Spotify doesn't have the UK release version which included 1987's Come On Pilgrim at the end, also a great release, I'd highly recommend tracking it down.
 
It's one of those rare albums where I love every track, just a shame spotify doesn't have the version with Come On Pilgrim included, as that's got some cracking songs on too.
 
I tink I actually prefer Come On Pilgrim nowadays - previously I'd have said Surfer Rosa was my favourite Pixies album.
 
SecondFig said:
It's one of those rare albums where I love every track, just a shame spotify doesn't have the version with Come On Pilgrim included, as that's got some cracking songs on too.
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I remember buying it and first playing it on a car journey down to the South of France with my parents. They weren't great fans of it!

I went through a real Pixies session earlier this year, Bossanova was a far better album than I realised, not really a bad track on it. Even Trompe Le Monde sounded pretty decent, it just pales in comparison with the heights of the earlier albums.
 
datura said:
I remember buying it and first playing it on a car journey down to the South of France with my parents. They weren't great fans of it!

I went through a real Pixies session earlier this year, Bossanova was a far better album than I realised, not really a bad track on it. Even Trompe Le Monde sounded pretty decent, it just pales in comparison with the heights of the earlier albums.
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Yeah, all of their albums (pre-break up in '93) were very good, but the last 2 were definitely weaker. The BBC album is really good as well actually, though obviously recorded during the same period. Impressive really considering they were churning out an album a year (Come On Pilgrim '87, Surfer Rosa '88, Doolittle '89, Bossanova '90 & Trompe le Monde '91).

Can't watch them now though, they're just pale imitations of the Pixies I fell in love with.
 
datura said:
I did, I thought I wasn't going to like it after the first few tracks but it improved thereafter and I enjoyed it, especially the slower songs.
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Good stuff. I posted that album in particular because of the up beat songs - if you liked the slower ones, I really recommend Featuring Birds.
 
SecondFig said:
Album 80:

Bishop Allen - Charm School (2003)
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Quite liked it to start with but the novelty value wasnt enough to hold my interest for the whole album.



RedNome said:
DJ Shadow
Endtroducing
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Obviously know this one very well - he's never managed anything as good as this since.
This Spotify version has a 2nd disc which is worth checking out as well.



decorativeed said:
Slightly more up-beat (by my standards at least):

Quasi - American Gong​
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Only slightly! Many tracks sounded like Mercury Rev but not as good - decent enough in their own right but probably not something I would listen to again.​
 
I got some time to listen to a good few of these recently, i have them mixed up now, i will have a recap and post my likes and dislikes.
 
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Artist: Yngwie J. Malmsteen (Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck)
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden
Album: Odyssey
Year: 1988
Genre: Neo-classical metal
Link: Odyssey

Odyssey is an album by Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force released in March 1988, With Joe Lynn Turner on lead vocals, with the three instrumentals being "Bite the Bullet" - a brief intro to "Riot In the Dungeons", "Memories" - the outro to the whole album, and "Krakatau," a six minute piece that contains many themes Yngwie still plays in concert today. The songs are influenced by 1970s heavy metal, such as Deep Purple's Machine Head and Rainbow's Rising, as well as by 1980s glam metal and hard rock, as can be heard in the tracks "Hold On", "Heaven Tonight" and "Dreaming (Tell Me)". This was the last Yngwie studio album to feature Jens Johansson.

The single "Heaven Tonight" reached #19 on Billboard's U.S. mainstream rock chart—Malmsteen's only charted single in the U.S.

This is Yngwie's best album and it features his best vocalist ever Joe Lynn Turner. Yngwie combines Neo Classical Metal, Hair Metal and Power Metal to make his best album ever!

1.Rising Force- 10/10 Maybe Yngwie's best song ever! This song starts off with a great intro that leads into an amazing fast track with brilliant lyrics from Joe Lynn Turner and an awesome riff from Yngwie. Yngwie's solo is amazing as it's different from any solo he's ever done and one of his best. Yngwie trades off with keyboard virtuoso Jens Johhansen. Yngwie's fills in are amazing and and the ending line he does at the end of the song seems impossible. A true classic as Joe Lynn Turners vocals are very powerful.

2.Hold On- 10/10 A great commercial track with some very good vocals from Joe Lynn Turner who hits some very high notes. Yngwie's riffs in this song are excellent and fit this melodic song perfect. Yngwie's solos are amazing in this song as he shreds with emotion.

3.Heaven Tonight- 10/10 A very good commercial song. A very poppy hair metal song with a good riff. Yngwie's tone is perfect and Joe Lynn Turner's vocals are great too. Cheesy lyrics but Yngwie's awesome solo makes up for that.

4.Dreaming (Tell Me)- 10/10 An amazing acoustic solo intro which rivals Spanish Fly. This is a great "Power Ballad" with some amazing vocals from Joe Lynn Turner. A great soulful solo from Yngwie with some shredding thrown in.

5.Bite the Bullet- 10/10 An amazing instrumental that is pretty much like an introduction to Riot In The Dungeons execpt most of it is Yngwie going crazy shredding.

6.Riot in the Dungeons- 10/10 A great song with an awesome riff. The lyrics are excellent and Yngwie's fill ins are amazing. Yngwie's solo sounds different from all of his others and is filled with lightspeed shredding aswell as another keyboard solo! Turner's vocals are powerful and he shows a HUGE range once again.

7.Deja Vu- 10/10 Another great song with some more great riffs. Turner's vocals are excellent again and the chorus is great too. More good lyrics from Joe Lynn Turner and an awesome guitar tone from Yngwie. Yngwie's wacked out solo is amazing too even some use of the wah wah pedal.

8.Crystal Ball- 10/10 A great soft intro which bursts right into a great Dokken type riff. Turner's lyrics and vocals are very strong once again. As always Yngwie's fills are amazing. Turner hits some very high notes and Yngwie's solo is great aswell.

9.Now Is the Time- 10/10 A very poppy song. This is like 80's Rainbow with Yngwie on guitar but it's a very good song. This is a bluesier song with another great solo from Yngwie.

10.Faster Than the Speed of Light- 10/10 This is song is a great mix of Yngwie with classic Dokken. Joe Lynn Turner launchs notes into the stratosphere. Yngwie's solo is amazing and once again different from the other solos. The chorus is excellent too!

11.Krakatau- 10/10 A great instrumental with a fast melodic section which leads into a slow heavy section. Than comes another heavy section which goes into an AMAZING solo by Yngwie which lasts for a long time. A great instrumental which contains some great shredding and an actual song.

12.Memories- 10/10 A short beautiful acoustic instrumental. It's great but WAY too short.

This is Yngwie's best album it has something for everyone...power metal songs, neo classical shredding in the solos, instrumentals, catchy hair metal tunes. This is also Yngwie's best performance on a studio album..every solo sounds different and everyone has feeling and technical difficulty. Joe Lynn Turner's vocals are amazing as well and the rythym section is great. The writing is the best ever on an Yngwie album too. If you like power metal, neo classical metal, hair metal or virtuoso shredding rock than get this album
Amazon.com: Odyssey: Yngwie Malmsteen: Music

1. "Rising Force" Joe Lynn Turner, Yngwie J. Malmsteen 4:26
2. "Hold On" Turner, Malmsteen 5:11
3. "Heaven Tonight" Turner, Malmsteen 4:06
4. "Dreaming (Tell Me)" Turner, Malmsteen 5:19
5. "Bite the Bullet" Malmsteen 1:36
6. "Riot in the Dungeons" Turner, Malmsteen 4:22
7. "Déjà Vu" Turner, Malmsteen 4:17
8. "Crystal Ball" Turner, Malmsteen 4:55
9. "Now Is the Time" Turner, Malmsteen 4:34
10. "Faster Than the Speed of Light" Turner, Malmsteen 4:30
11. "Krakatau" Malmsteen 6:08
12. "Memories" Malmsteen 1:14

Personnel
* Yngwie J. Malmsteen: All electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, background vocals
* Joe Lynn Turner: Vocals
* Jens Johansson: Keyboards
* Bob Daisley: Bass guitar on "Rising Force", "Hold On", "Crystal Ball" and "Now Is the Time"
* Anders Johansson: Drums
 
Sorry sonny, but I've always hated 80s hair-metal; I hate the faux passion, the hair, the guitar solos and the overblown production.

Not for me.
 
decorativeed said:
Slightly more up-beat (by my standards at least):

Quasi - American Gong

KRS512_cover.jpg


Spotify: Link

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Not my favourite album by them (Featuring Birds is) but it's their most recent and I like it a lot.
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Listened to this the other day, it was ok. It starts off sounding a bit like a serious we are scientists and then takes a country turn about half way through, probably would give it another go at some point.

::sonny:: said:
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for some reason I could only get 20-30 second clips of each song for this but I can tell it really isn't my type of thing. There isn't many genres of music that I can't get into on some level but for some reason I'm left completely cold by this kind of thing.
 
decorativeed said:
Two words: guitar wankery.
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Exactly :D

You cannot appreciate an album like that, if you don't love electric guitars

I could post easily 1000 albums like the last one

I should move to Finland, black metal is part of their traditional music :smirk:
 
And on that note..I'll post something completely different! It's a reggae album but mostly instrumental and assimilating various influences from Calypso to Afrobeat, and incorporating the Nyabinghi drummers on most tracks to give it a unique sound:

The Light Of Saba - The Magical Light Of Saba

The Magical Light of Saba - Cedric IM Brooks & The Light of

14921.jpg


Lambs Bread Collie
Sabasi
Free Up Black Man
Outcry
Salt Lane Rock
Sabebe
Nobody's Business
Rasta Lead On Version
Sabayindah
Rebirth
Satta Massa Gana
Africa
Sound
Sly Mongoose
Words Of Wisdom
Jah Light It Right
Ethiopia Tikdem
Song For My Father
Collie Version

'... compelling and eccentric mix of lopsided funk, freaky jazz and African disco, which gets through more rhythms than some people hear in a lifetime', Time Out

Cedric Im Brooks is an old boy of the Alpha School in Kingston, Jamaica, alongside alumni like Don Drummond, Johnny Moore and Tommy McCook of The Skatalites, jazzmen Joe Harriott and Harold McNair, and too many other musical giants to mention. He was a member of The Vagabonds, before Jimmy James moved the group to England, and during the sixties toured Caribbean hotels and clubs with various big bands and combos. His own musical horizons — especially the new jazz music — were increasingly distant from these constrained commercial contexts; and he eagerly accepted an invitation to visit a friend in the U.S.

In Philadelphia, Cedric was awe-struck by the music and vibes of the Sun Ra Arkestra. He was on the point of joining the commune when the birth of his second daughter necessitated his return to Jamaica. Amazingly, though rocksteady was in full swing on the island, Cedric took up Ra’s challenge by starting The Mystics, to experiment with free jazz and poetry, African robes and dancers.

During this period, Cedric’s long association with Studio One produced the hit single ‘Money Maker’; and his musical direction of Count Ossie’s Mystic Revelation of Rastafari was commemorated by the classic Grounation triple-LP set, before his frustrations with purely rasta patterns encouraged him to set up The Light of Saba, to go into other aspects of African drumming.

Taking leads from Hugh Masekela and Fela Kuti, the recordings of Cedric Im Brooks and The Light of Saba delineate ‘world music’ way ahead of its time. They offer a blend of African and US, Cuban and other West Indian influences — calypso and funk, rumba and bebop, nyabinghi and disco — magnificently expressed as classic reggae. This compilation is drawn from extremely rare singles and LPs.

'Mystical, uplifting, sensual, difficult. If you like your reggae
deep and dark, with splashes of primitive funk and a real feel for roots, then this is for you' (Record Collector).

'One for those who think they've heard it all' (Mojo).
 
Reggae is a swearword in my house, but I'll give it a go when I've got more time.

::sonny:: said:
Exactly :D

You cannot appreciate an album like that, if you don't love electric guitars

I could post easily 1000 albums like the last one

I should move to Finland, black metal is part of their traditional music :smirk:
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I do love guitars, but more the Jaguar/Jazzmaster sort of stuff. A certain type of player gravitates to those guitars. Anyone that plays a superstrat, I stay as far away from as possible. If someone has a Floyd Rose tremolo, they are to be avoided at all costs. :lol:
 
Merry Airbrakes - Merry Airbrakes
merry20airbrakes2020fro.jpg

Genre:
Some kind of bluesy psychedelia.

About:
Bill Homans a.k.a. Watermelon Slim released this album under the name of Merry Airbrakes. It's an album recorded and released on a small label in 1973 after Homans returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam. He had become, after his return home, involved with Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the Merry Airbrakes album had songs with lyrics reflecting drug use, spiritual exploration, and involvement with the emotional cost of fighting "enemies." The Merry Airbrakes album, originals of which are now highly collectible, has been re-released.

Track list:
Side One
1 Vigilante Man 3:34
2 Frog Song 3:19
3 The Bearded Man
4 Quang Tri City
5 Even Those Among Us

Side Two
1 Draft Board Blues
2 Three Hearts
3 A Happy song For Hanoi
4 Preacher Song
5 Tribute To Frankie


Previews of each songs can be found on
Watermelon Slim - Merry Airbrakes

Download link
http://www.megaupload.com/nl/?d=BVAM8EI4
 
datura said:
And on that note..I'll post something completely different! It's a reggae album but mostly instrumental and assimilating various influences from Calypso to Afrobeat, and incorporating the Nyabinghi drummers on most tracks to give it a unique sound:

The Light Of Saba - The Magical Light Of Saba

The Magical Light of Saba - Cedric IM Brooks & The Light of

14921.jpg


Lambs Bread Collie
Sabasi
Free Up Black Man
Outcry
Salt Lane Rock
Sabebe
Nobody's Business
Rasta Lead On Version
Sabayindah
Rebirth
Satta Massa Gana
Africa
Sound
Sly Mongoose
Words Of Wisdom
Jah Light It Right
Ethiopia Tikdem
Song For My Father
Collie Version
.
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this is right up my street. Excellent find mate.
 
Album 87

The Antlers Hospice
(2009)

hospice_the_antlers.png


1. "Prologue" – 2:35
2. "Kettering" – 5:10
3. "Sylvia" – 5:27
4. "Atrophy" – 7:40
5. "Bear" – 3:54
6. "Thirteen" – 3:11
7. "Two" – 5:56
8. "Shiva" – 3:45
9. "Wake" – 8:44
10. "Epilogue" – 5:25

Spotify
Last FM

Concept albums got a bad name after the 70s, but this is a thing of fragile, fierce, beauty. Telling the tale of a destructive and abusive relationship with an ex-girlfriend, through an extended metaphor of cancer, Hospice follows the descent and death of his relationship/loved one and tells it beautifully. Like the recent albums from Bon Iver or Right Away Great Captain, it's the product of one man who shut himself off and wrote an album (though in Brooklyn, not a snow-bound forest or log-cabin), and it's intensely brilliant. It got universally good reviews upon its release, and then re-release, it's been reviewed by every major paper, magazine, music website, but I still feel it's somehow slipped under the radar slightly. Perhaps its the subject matter, or the length of so many of the tracks, but it deserves so much more attention and praise than its received.

Personal favourites are Kettering (named after a cancer treatment center in New York) and Wake, in fact I've had Wake on repeat for much of today, it's stunning. Great lyrics too...

edit: I should add, this is probably best enjoyed through good headphones, in the dark and with a bottle of wine (or drink of your choice). Has a similar effect on me to Sufjan Stevens' Casimir Pulaski Day
 
Right I've never heard of that and have no idea what it is (I'm guessing indie rock from the cover) - going to have a listen with no preconceptions...

Edit: I wrote that before you posted the text !
 
Rood said:
Right I've never heard of that and have no idea what it is (I'm guessing indie rock from the cover) - going to have a listen with no preconceptions...
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I like how it really is possible to judge an album by the cover (type of image, font used etc.). I'm not knocking either, I do the same thing, and it's even vaguely reliable.
 
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