Originally released in a very limited quality (it has since been re-issued with a bonus remixed track that completely breaks the continuity of the release), Discord is for me the finest album that Sakamoto has ever done. Encased in a shiny blue foil wrapping and containing completely outdated multimedia material for computers (256 colors only please!), the release is 4 pieces of modern classical music that runs the gamut of the emotions and states of mind in the titles of the tracks. At times lovely and fragile and achingly beautiful and at other times almost completely dissonant, this is an album that has consistently found its way back into my stereo after first discovering it.

"Grief" opens the release and it's a seventeen-minute epic that seemingly encompases the particular variations of that emotion. The first section of the track finds a string quartet playing a repeated motif before some sparse piano enters and pieces of the quartet start breaking off from the original piece and playing something darker. The track in turn morphs into an almost desperate section, where playfully sinister flutes, strings, and piano all mingle in an off-kilter waltz before coalescing into a more simple melody. If the opening piece captured the different variations of "Grief," the second track of "Anger" is the opposite; single-minded and overpowering as throttling waves of percussion, strings, and piano attack relentlessly for almost seven minutes. It's cathartic and almost a shock to the system upon first listen, but it fits within the greater album wonderfully.

"Prayer" is much like the first track in that it starts out with a fragile and simple motif (this time played by woodwinds) that evolves slightly over the course of nearly seventeen minutes. The piece is subtle and doesn't always take the path most likely (ocassionally drifting into darker passages), but is highly rewarding as well. For all the lovely music on the release, nothing still can beat the last track of "Salvation," in which Sakamoto starts the track with found-sound of people talking about finding said salvation and redemption and mixes it into the piece as it slowly evolves with string phrases that veer between tragic and hopeful. It's a meditative and stirring close to a varied album of great music that deserves much more attention than it got when it was originally released.ALMOST COOL

D I S C O R D

glass darkly

The collective’s genre-bending vision, incorporating anything from dub, fusion jazz, post rock, krautrock, afro-beat and electronica, is expressed through improvisation.MILK FACTORY

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KEEPER'S
22-year-old Randolph Chabot, also known as Deastro, takes 80s new/synth wave, blends in some emo/indie rock and a lot of electronic/dance to create enchanted, emotional 16 Candles/Neverending Story fantasy-dance pop. MY OLD KENTUCKY BLOG

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link

(manand)

barcelona

(manand)

arzachel

(manand)

in the hands of karma

(manand)

"The cold and beautiful synths of Galaxy Toobin' Gang are transmitted through the same feeric wave-spaces as those of Laurie Spiegel, Terry Riley or Tangerine Dream and convey perfectly the sensation of simultaneous wonder and alienation that the members of the Peabody expedition must have felt when flying between the abnormally regular shapes of a monstrous mountain range hidden deep into the heart of a eternal screaming whiteness. Galaxy Toobin' Gang's debut album is a truly timeless sounding piece of work created by Elliot Lip and Speculator."BOOMKAT


G. T. G



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II


Follow-up to this Japanese psychedelic power trio's gob-smacking self-released debut. Their first full-length for PSF, this one almost outdoes Mainliner in terms of totally over-the-top fuzz-damaged production, with a bottom end that's as crunchy as Blue Cheer and as wiped-out as Nanjo Asahito's Christmas card list. The vocals are wild; aggressive, barked, monosyllabic and the lead guitar seems to coalesce out of distortion, tape warp and densely compacted highs and lows to birth serpentine forms that meld the time-warping potential of early Makoto Kawabata at his most formally extended with a more damaged punk rock/No Wave style that could almost be Les Rallizes Denudes-play-Germs-play-Motorhead with the addition of Billy TK for exaggerated axe ecstasy. Can't recall anything quite as adrenaline-charged and obliviously wasted as this since maybe one of the more brutal Univive sides. The guitarist/vocalist is called Mondo, they look like the Scientists circa Atom Bomb Baby, there are four massive tracks on the disc that never let up with the fuzz=satori stance and it all comes packaged in a hard card shrunken LP style sleeve with Obi. It's at times like this when you remember all over again why PSF is the greatest label in the world. Highly recommended.

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'One of the year's most original, personal and haunting records' (Martin Aston - The Times/MOJO)


MY HOTEL YEAR

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l.t.i.p

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TAPES
Faust's third album compiles fragments of music that the German band had recorded between 1971 and 1973. Something of a home-made mixtape, the band strung these bits together and would play the tapes to freak out their friends. These recordings were not intended to ever be released, but the England-based Virgin Records had just picked them up and the label wanted to create a buzz by selling the album at an absurdly low price. It worked too well — the record sold over 50,000 copies in the UK in the months after its release and Virgin had to quickly delete it because each unit was being sold at a net loss. The publicity probably did Faust no favors, as it resulted in the band's least accessible album being the first exposure that many music fans had to them — thus ensuring that most of these people would never again buy a Faust album.


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homem - espuma

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twitches

Twitches is a collection of songs recorded at home in fits and starts over several years. It celebrates nervous energy, imagined moments in the history of technology and the ghostly glee of automation.

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british ballads

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"Adachi Tomomi Royal Chorus is an experimental vocal group based in Tokyo. Drawing upon influences as diverse as the Fluxus movement, hardcore punk, contemporary classical, TV commercials, cartoon music, Conceptual Art and more, Adachi's complex compositional miniatures are filled with energy, imagination and a sly sense of humor. This stuff really kicks."

Y O !

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H O U R O F T H E W O L F
Black Sun are so heavy that unless someone creates a similarly heavy band somewhere in the south Pacific to counterbalance them, there’s a danger of the earth being tilted off its axis and consequent ecological devastation. And since I can’t really see a band like this being formed under the palm trees of Tonga or wherever, we’re doomed, doooomed, I tells ya!HEATHEN HARVEST

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It is Aphex Twin meets Martin Denny on "Bam Boo", John Oswald (Plunderphonics) meets Jackie Gleason on "Poker", or Negativland commissioned to do the ad soundtrack for a crumbling paradise motel on a sinking tropical isle. Or Eno as Quasimodo on "Bell". A Peter Gunn ("gunn") sample in a Moulinex offers whimsical explorations of sound and memory that remind us of the Kraftwerk maxim: machines may indeed have soul (or at least a number of composition-divided-by-whimsy-times-funk settings).

elevator 2

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Short Circular Walks In The Hope Valley is like a gallery of vignettes - a corridor of living, speaking pictures like something out of a lost Lewis Carroll novel. And while the painterly style of Pilgrim Fathers can be seen in the brushwork from one painting to the next, each scene is very different.THE DREADED PRESS

Short Circular Walks In The Hope Valley

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...αφιερωμενο στο παιδι που αποκοιμηθηκε κατα τη διαρκεια της παρουσιασης του lovebomb
στο synch '08......καληνυχτα!

lovebomb


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AFFINITY was a short-lived band that released one album and one single in 1970 and then spilt up. They were a highly regarded band and looked upon with much promise as the one of the new wave of jazz-rock fusion artists. With an effective blend of folk, jazz, soul, blues, and rudiments of modern-day psychedelia and progressive rock, it simply was not fair to put them into any one classification of music. With the powerful vocals of Linda Hoyle leading the way, it looked as though the band had quite a future ahead of them. It was not in the cards unfortunately. What they left for us was a superb achievement by any musical standards, and that includes the most important factors such as sound, production, and musicianship. PROGARCHIVES

AFFINITY

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link

(manand)

It’s doubtful you will hear a more genuinely seat-gripping moment of terror this year than the layers and layers of screams that swiftly disarm on the eight track of 16 Bitch Pile-Up’s first factory-pressed CD, Bury Me Deep. So much of noise or any audio artform that attempts to strike-up a series of discomforting unpleasantries for its audience is based more on hints and implications of fear rather than its actual emotional response. Sure, certain sonics may sound evil and undoubtedly sadistic, but it’s usually all in the realm of auditory gonzo gore rather than a deep-seated fright. Like the brunt of slasher movies, the joy is in the gross-out, not actually leaps in your seat. But Bury Me Deep is one of the very few listening pleasures in recent memory to produce a pronounced tremble in your stomach or force you to look embarrassingly over your shoulder as if an ominous presence has suddenly materialized in your sphere.TINY MIX TAPES

bury me deep


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Soaked in tension, murky and unapologetic, John Clyde-Evans presents an industrial album, much like Nurse With Wound's classic Homotopy to Marie, for a nation who is starting to slowly embrace, or at least accept, everything that comes with said industrialization.DELUSIONS OF ADEQUACY

APETALL THUNDERFALL

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STEP OUT


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a hero's welcome

wire magazine, 50 records of the year, 1999
wire magazine records of the year 1999, jazz
jazziz magazine critics' picks top ten recordings 1999
coda magazine writers choice top ten recordings 2000
cadence magazine reviewer's choice, top 10 recordings 2000

***(*)
"Two modern giants of the bull fiddle, united in a project of awesome power.
Silva's ambitions to write orchestrally have finally been fulfilled. He used MIDI keyboards & old-fashioned acoustic piano to create a body of sound that occupies a mid-territory between Duke Ellington or Charles Mingus & Edgard Varese. The five relatively brief sections might almost be movements in a romantic symphony, were the language & articulation not so unmistakably American. Parker is by now beyond reproach & beyond categorization: but what is surprising is how thoroughly & how completely Silva still thinks/plays like a bass player, even if nowadays his imagination ranges right across the strings & beyond. The good news is that this is just the first release in a sequence featuring a remarkable modern duo." --cook & morton, penguin guide to jazz on c/d

"Together, Silva & Parker play a music that is stunningly decisive & seamless, gorgeous & dramatic. It grooves like a motherfucker, but it's also highflown, strident & abstract. The multilayered textures immediately reference the classical tradition, suggesting two post-tonal orchestras improvising in real time. The musicians grip each other's lines as intimately & passionately as lovers, but the eloquence remains symphonic... If only swinging the classics - or 'jazz' as some call it - always sounded this succulent." --watson, the wire

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inlandish

(manand)

mysterious skin

(manand)

Stella Malu

s t r g z r

ΚΑ-ΤΑ-ΠΛΗ-ΚΤΙ-ΚΟ REMIX ΤΩΝ SOULWAX ΣΤΟ KIDS ΤΩΝ MGMT...

LINK

(manand)

''A beautiful and heart-wrenching album of original instrumental work written by pianist ehren starks. He is joined by cellist Kate Gurba on this stunning album.''


try

buy


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son of a glitch


This is the long awaited Atom TM full length album, charismatically entitled Son of a Glitch. The title in combination with the most disturbing artwork in music history very much is self explanatory: it's funky, it's glitchy, it's nasty, it's funny and highly complex at the same time. Way beyond what critics often misunderstand as an ironic or just humouristic soundscape, Atom TM demonstrates with perfection that his music escapes any sort of superficial categorization. Whenever you think 'it's just been a joke,' you're confronted with wisdom that is dressed in the most funky arrangements and most horny complexity. Atom TM himself introduces the album with a spoken word section, insulting no one more or less than you, the dearest listener. Spoken or sung vocal elements in English and German lead throughout the album. Last but not least, the album features the guest appearance of Audiocrip, Mikrosopht and Original Hamster." FORCED EXPOSURE


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here is a very lovely release for the summer time. eric delay make minimal grooves with a sense of pop and melancholy that takes you away. it´s an amazing combination! TROPIC RECORDS

s h e


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death wish

(manand)

Solo soli iiiii

The music here percolates with the energy of the newly animated: Pop hooks surface and are then shredded and spit back out by the band's irreverent melodic sensibility. Scratch Pet Land is a world where nothing is ever quite as it seems. Welcome the Scratch Pet Brothers into your homes and their old Atari Computer, their Gameboys and turntables, their bongos and jews harps and ukeleles. They'll never do the same thing twice. For Scratch Pet Land, it's always the first time. Take this record, listen to its unique melodies and discover how exotic things can get in the kingdom of Belgium. Recommended.BOOMKAT


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What starts off as a seemingly random collection of noise gels into an amazing conglomerate of unique sounds and atmospheres. Each unnamed track seems to have a consistent theme running beneath the random bells and whistles that holds everything together. If it weren't for this kind of consistency, Diaspora would sound totally random and become too difficult to focus on. Part of what makes a record of sounds and noises successful is the quality of the sounds themselves: those used must be interesting and compelling or brutal and confrontational. Diaspora succeeds on this level by employing some unusual sounds and effects. Futuristic computers, ray guns, drones of impending doom, aquatic fans, solar explosions, and alien bells are all peppered over the duration of the album.THE BRAIN


Diaspora


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Oft compared with gloomy breakbeat industrialists Scorn and Techno Animal, the dubbed up drum'n'bass of Witchman has as much in common with jungle paranoids Nico and Ed Rush and the gothic techno of Disjecta and Meat Beat Manifesto. Combining heavy, space-filling drum sequences -- alternately split- and double-time -- with piles and piles of effects units and daubs of ominous synth patches, Witchman lies somewhere near the intersection of Jamaican dub, early hip-hop, ambient, and the darker side of bleep techno. ALL MUSIC GUIDE

DISC 1

DISC 2


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Treading the same mentally fragile tightrope as former Pink Floyd guiding light Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson's savant-like genius shines through on "I Think Of Demons," a reissue of his 1980 album oringally on CBS(!). It's anyone's guess what demons were tormenting Erickson back then, but it sure inspired some bizarre, dark, and ultimately great music. Erickson deserves some sort of recognition in the fickle business of popular music, if not for songs like "I Walked With A Zombie" and "Don't Shake Me Lucifer," then surely for his time spent as a member of The 13th Floor Elevators. Highly recommended...


i think of demons


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Quiet & Still is a testament to the pleasure / pain complex — this album is absolutely dreadful, and I love it. Filled with quintessential gloominess and roughly etched beauty, Even Johansen sings with the detached apathy of one who feeds their inspiration with depression. An unexpected minor chord in “Bullet to Your Heart” sends a shock to the system, while his delicate voice trembles to a whisper, only to release into blinding falsetto. The pulsing organ and dreary, lilting vocals in “Beautiful Day,” incant the ghost of The Cure’s Disintegration, while his brilliant cover of Thin Lizzy’s, “Dancing in the Moonlight,” is flawless in its opulence. This, the first solo album from Libido’s frontman, not only features his impressive musicianship and songwriting, but his production and engineering chops as well.

quiet & still
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take a ride into the life of Thomas Alva Edison


''Take A Ride Into The Life Of Thomas Alva Edison” consists of 23 songs, fragments, ideas, soundscapes – ranging from the Lambchop-ian “Little Postcards” (about the invention of the telegraph) to Calexico-style instrumentals, from powerhouse R`n´B in “Bright Lights Big City” (about illuminating New York with his lightbulbs) to downright noisy interludes. They sound like The Shadows on bad acid, like a Motown band with acoustic instruments, like Tom Waits fronting a Lounge Orchestra, they combine all kinds of different styles of American music to tell this story.''

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unklejam



Η μουσική τους ένα εκρηκτικό χαρμάνι 80’s electro, funk και r’n’b, που ενώνει με μια νοητή γραμμή τους Gnarls Barkley και τους Outkast.

Κάθε τραγούδι από το δίσκο είναι ένα εν δυνάμει single ικανό να σε κάνει να χτυπήσεις ρυθμικά το πόδι σου στο πάτωμα ή να σε ξεσηκώσει να χορέψεις, ακόμα και αν δεν είσαι θιασώτης του είδους.

Το πρώτο single «Love Ya» είναι ένας funk δυναμίτης, ένα Διονυσιακό jamming, που περιλαμβάνει τους Pigeonhed τον Prince και τον Τimbaland τυλιγμένους, στην στοργική αγκαλιά του George Clinton.

Το δεύτερο single «What Am I Fighting For» είναι ακόμη καλύτερο, σαν να αποτίουν οι Gnarls Barkley φόρο τιμής στην eighties synth funk pop, ΦΟΒΕΡΟ!!

Τα υπόλοιπα κομμάτια ακολούθου χωρίς να υστερούν, το «King U» με τις Rick James κολλητικές μελωδίες του, το «Cry» με το αλλά Outkast refrain, ακόμα και Scissor Sisters θυμίζουν στο Stereo.

Συνοψίζοντας λοιπόν έχουμε ένα δίσκο χορευτικής μουσικής με κομμάτια που όντως χορεύονται, πολύ καλύτερο από την οποιαδήποτε ανούσια extravaganza τύπου Britney που του αξίζει μια θέση στα Charts και τις πίστες.TRANZISTOR

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Recent census data indicating that the population of Latinos and African-Americans are roughly equal has produced a flurry of discussion about the necessity for the 2 groups to work together in their mutual interest.

I mention this only because the current situation makes Harlem River Drive's vision even more astounding. The group was assembled by Latin artist Eddie Palmieri and charged with a noble mission: to synthesize the music of urban New York, Latin and funk, into a cohesive whole. With a racially mixed band that counted Cornell Dupree, Ronnie Cuber, Charlie Palmieri and Nick Marrero as members, Harlem River Drive turned heads in concert by having the Latin and black musician open by playing separate sets, only to come together for the main event. Their self-titled masterpiece would be their only recording.

"Idle Hands" and the opening "Harlem River Drive Theme" are dutifully recognized landmarks in the Nu Yorican and rare groove communities. Jimmy Norman's soulful vocals put real feeling into the lyrics addressing the reality of ghetto life, most forcefully on "Broken Home," a 10 minute explosion of rich solos and passionate singing.

"Seeds of Life" closes the LP on an optimistic note, one that seems keeping with the band's hope for a day in which America's two largest minority groups would live and work together in harmony

harlem river drive

(manand)

dirty harry

(manand)

don't


Don’t oozes charm, you can tell it’s an album made with love. There’s a lot of emotion in this album. Each song is like a piece of poetry. It’s the sort of music you can come home and relax to after the rough and tumble of a hectic day. A sublime mix of Jazz, guitars, pianos, and smooth electronics.INTHEMIX.COM

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HIGH

Subtitled "the trippier side of the Morricone genius" you can guess that this isn't your standard soundtrack fare. These were apparently the scores to "Italian Psychedelic & Art movies" and they sound like it (in a good way); while things don't get too avant (anyone expecting 16 tracks of pure freak-out will probably be disappointed) there are trippier elements running through these pieces to varying degrees, getting downright eerie at times (tracks like "1970" make one wonder what the fug the movie he scored was like). In the end there are sixteen more reasons why "Morricone" and "classical-music-pillaging-hack" should never be in the same sentence.SHREDDING PAPER


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BLUE POTENTIAL



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...ενω ο mr.squarepusher εχει δυο μεγαλες αγαπες,τον Aphex και τον Jaco των Weather Report
o mr.Clιfford αντλει την εμπνευση του απο τους δυο παραπανω αλλα αντι για W.R προτιμαει τους Return To Forever πασπαλισμενους με ολιγη cinematique εσανς.....


i was young.....



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neu!

(manand)

quiet is the new loud

(manand)

melody day(cd single)

(manand)