December 2006

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Ευοί Ευάν (Evi Evan)

Ευοί Ευάν - Το τέλος 8ά'ναι πάλι αρχή(2000)
Evi Evan - To Telos Tha'nai Pali Arhi(2000)

tracks:
01 - Σ'αυτόν τον κόσμο(In This World)
02 - Φωτιά στην καρδιά(Fire In The Heart)
03 - Τρικυμία(Storm)
04 - Ένας(One)
05 - Χτυπάς φέυγεις πετάς(You Hit You Leave You Fly)
06 - Χορέυω(I'm Dancing)
07 - Το δώρο(The Present)
08 - Προσφορές(Offerings)
09 - Busytone
10 - Και πάλι απ'την αρχή(Again From The Start)

the band
Fotis Siotas:vocals,violin,electric violin.synthesizers
Vaggelis Tsotridis:electric guitar,acoustic guitar,midi guitar,programming
Nektarios Karantzis:electric bass,contrabass,piano
Alekos Papadopoulos:drums,percussion

enjoy!
http://rapidshare.com/files/9555800/euoi_euan1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/9561153/euoi_euan2.rar

Minimal Compact - 1984 - Deadly Weapons

1. Next One Is Real
2. Losing Track (Of Time)
3. Well
4. There's Always Now
5. Nada
6. Not Knowing
7. Deadly Weapons
8. Burnt-Out Hotel
9. Howling Hole
10. Next One Is Real
11. Not Knowing Remix
12. Babylonian Tower (Remix)
13. Hole Version Accidental (Remix)
14. Next One Is Real (Extended Remix)
15. Introspection

Between its foundation in 1981 and its dissolution seven years later, Minimal Compact played a crucial role in the European rock scene. Malka Spigel (bass, vocals), Samy Birnbach (vocals, texts) and Berry Sakharof (guitars, keyboards, vocals) left their native Tel-Aviv in 1981 for Amsterdam in search of an escape from the provincial attitudes of their own city. Of the trio, only Berry was a "real" musician. Malka was "learning to play the bass", while Samy was better known as a DJ and a music fan who dabbled in poetry . They recorded a 2-song demo at home, and consequently become one of the very first artists signed to the Belgian Crammed label.
During the recording for a speculative 7" in a little studio in the Belgian countryside, it became quickly evident that the trio had hit upon something worthy of development and a their first, self-titled, mini album was the fruit of this. Their burgeoning style was a heavily Middle-Eastern coloured brand of post New Wave, based on driving rhythms, scratchy guitars and their own very un- "Anglo-American" style of vocalisation. In this way they both prefigured "indie-dance" and later fascinations with so called "world music".


One by One, the second album, was recorded in London in 1982, and like it's predecessor co-produced by Dick Polak (from Dutch band Mecano) and Crammed supremo Marc Hollander. It includes tracks such as "Babylonian Tower", "Disguise" (another live staple) , "It Takes a Lifetime". With this release Minimal Compact had become a "real band" with the adddition of the native Amsterdammer Max Franken on drums. Now Minimal could play live, this was to prove a strong element in their career. As Minimal began to tour more extensively they went from strength to strength as a live band and could certainly rock any house!!

Deadly Weapons , produced by Gilles Martin and Peter Principle dates from 1984 and is considered by some their most experimental album. Nonetheless it threw up a "club classic" of the time in the shape of "Next One Is Real" (famously remixed by Dick O'Dell, one time boss of the Guerilla label). The sleeve was by Neville Brody.

On this album the "classic" 5-person line up became complete with the addition of guitarist/vocalist Rami Fortis a long time Minimal cohort from Tel-Aviv who arguably was Israel's most imnovative post-punk musician with his solo debut Plonter. Fortis had previously collaborated with Malka on their 7 codes tape (a low-fi home tape effort which had done nicely in the indie shops in Amsterdam).

Touring by this point took them further and further afield, everywhere from Palermo to Kyoto fell to their conquest although typically for the time British success was limited to an NME single of the week and a John Peel session.

Raging Souls was released in 1985. Produced by Colin Newman , with artwork by Eno/Sylvian collaborator Russell Mills, it has proved their most popular album, with tracks like "My Will", "When I Go", "The Traitor", "Autumn Leaves" all of which became live favorites. By this time Minimal had become established in Brussels and were at the hub of the local "International Indie Scene" which featured at various times, Tuxedo Moon (both individually and collectively), Bel Canto, Colin Newman, Sonoko, Gilles Martin, Benjamin Lew...

As a follow up Minimal Compact recorded a 12" Immigrants Songs (featuring a Led Zeppelin cover) with Israeli Uri Barak. Like "Next One Is Real" before it the 12" received extensive US college/dance attention and figures amongst their most enduring work.

The Figure One Cuts was their last studio album, recorded in 1987 with producer John Fryer (Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode, M/A/R/R/S). Tracks include "Nil-Nil"," Inner Station", "New Clear Twist", "Piece of Green". The Lowlands Flight instrumental album was released at the same time in Crammed's "Made To Measure" series. The touring continued but their goal of following up their record success in the USA was never acheived as several planned tours were cancelled because the US immigration authorities refused to grant them visas.

Minimal Compact Live was recorded in 1987 in Rennes, France, this last album came out after the band split in '88.

Minimal today

Berry Sakharof and Rami Fortis have both returned to Tel Aviv where they have enjoyed huge popularity both together and seperately. Malka is a partner with Colin Newman in the swim label based in London. She has released several solo albums as well as partnering Newman in Immersion, on his solo albums and on their recent live collaboration. Samy Birnbach, still resident in Brussels, has worked with Benjamin Lew, with Newman and Spigel in Oracle and as part of The Gruesome Twosome. He also performs as an ambient DJ under the name Morpheus, and is also an associate A&R for SSR/freezone. According to legend, Max Franken (who never left Amsterdam) still plays drums and football!!

source : http://www.swimhq.com/artists/Minimal_Biog.html


Get It Here :
RapidShare or SendSpace

Deep Freeze Mice - 1983 - Saw A Ranch House Burning Last Night

Deep Freeze Mice - 1983 - Saw A Ranch House Burning Last Night

01 Under The Cafe Table
02 Down To A Proton
03 The New Emotional Twist
04 Kiwis Come In Close
05 You Took The Blue One
06 You Think I'm A Car
07 Eat Molten Death
08 Hitler's Knees
09 Funny Monsters
10 Matter Over Mind
11 The Damage
12 Ammonia Suction
13 Everlasting Lollipop
14 Sagittarians
15 Saw A Ranch House Burning Last Night
16 Phylis #2
17 I Met A Man Who Spoke Like An UCCA Form
18 Peter Smith Is A Banana
19 My Geraniums Are Bulletproof
20 The Gates Of Lunch
21 A Ten Legged Beast (or An Eight Legged Beast With Feelers)
22 Teenage Head In My Refrigerator
23 God
24 Ammonia Suction
25 The New Emotional Twist


Alan Jenkins: singing, guitar, clarinet
Sherree Lawrence: keyboards, singing
Michael Bunnage: bass
&
Graham Summers: bass
John Grayland: trumpet
Dawn Leeder: pecussion
Geof Griffith: singing

The Deep Freeze Mice were an English New Wave band that were active between 1979 and 1989. They were based in Leicester, and consisted of the core members Alan Jenkins (guitars and singing), Sherree Lawrence (organ and other keyboards), and Mick Bunnage (bass guitar). The band had two different drummers over the years: Graham Summers and Pete Gregory. The band released 10 albums during their existence on their own Cordelia Records label. Their music was odd, often consisting of absurd and surreal lyrics delivered in Alan's deadpan voice accompanied by bouncy pop/progressive rock music. Favoured lyrical concerns included animal rights, conformity, and science fiction. Alan Jenkins was also a member of The Chrysanthemums in the late 1980's, and joined up with members of Po! and The Ammonites in Jody & The Creams (later as "Alan Jenkins & The Creams") and Ruth's Refrigerator. He has played guitar with The Thurston Lava Tube since 2001.

Friday, December 29, 2006

The Gun Club - 1982 - Miami

MIAMI 1982 ANIMAL RECORDS

01 Carry Home
02 Like Calling Up Thunder
03 Brother and Sister
04 Run Through the Jungle
05 Devil in the Woods
06 Texas Serenade
07 Watermelon Man
08 Bad Indian
09 John Hardy
10 Fire of Love
11 Sleeping in Blood City
12 Mother of Earth

The sophomore record by the Gun Club bore the curse of having to follow a monolith of their own making. Fire of Love sold extremely well for an independent; it was a favorite of virtually every critic who heard it in 1981. Miami showcased a different lineup as well. Ward Dotson replaced Congo Powers (temporarily, at least) on guitar, and there were a ton of guest performances, including Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. Stein produced the album. Off the bat the disc suffers from a thin mix. Going for a rougher sound, Stein left the instruments at one level and boosted Pierce's vocal. There is plenty of guitar here, screaming and moping like a drunken orphan from the Texas flatlands, but next to its predecessor it sounds drier and reedier. Ultimately it hardly matters. Going for a higher, more desolate sound, frontman and slide player Jeffrey Lee Pierce and his band were literally on fire. The songs here, from "Carry Me," "Like Calling Up Thunder," "Devil in the Woods," "Watermelon Man," "Bad Indian," and "Texas Serenade," among others, centered themselves on a mutant form of country music that met the post-punk ethos in the desert, fought and bloodied each other, and decided to stay together. This is hardcore snake-charming music (as in water moccasins not cobras), evil, smoky, brash, and libidinally uttered. Their spooky version of an already creepy tune by Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Run Through the Jungle" runs the gamut from sexual nightmare to voodoo ritual gone awry. Finally, Pierce and company pull out all the roots and reveal them for what they are: "John Hardy," is a squalling punk-blues, with the heart of the country in cardiac arrest. Dotson proved to be a fine replacement for Congo Powers, in that his style was pure Telecaster country (à la James Burton) revved by the Rolling Stones and Johnny Thunders. Miami was given a rough go when it was issued for its production. But in the bird's-eye view of history its songs stack up, track for track, with Fire of Love and continue to echo well into this long good night.

source:AMG

DownloadLink:

http://rapidshare.com/files/9282980/gun_club.rar

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Savage Republic - 1988 - Jamahiriya

Savage Republic - 1988 - Jamahiriya (Democratique Et Populaire De Sauvage)

Savage Republic, the L.A. based drone-rockers and post-rock forefathers, have announced that they are reforming for a series of reunion shows this November, thirteen years after they split. From what I remember, I was first introduced to their sound through an NME review of their Trudge E.P. by Chris Bohn- this review spoke of a band that combined Eastern music with rock like a soundtrack to a desert landscape. There is a very cinematic sounding quality throughout the work of the band and Bruce Licher's later band Scenic that seems ripe for plucking as soundtrack stuff. This is a musical direction that group leader Bruce Licher has claimed was intentional and that has been made use of before. Also consider that the track "Real Men," from their first LP Tragic Figures, soundtracks the scene at the climax of The Silence Of the Lambs. This visual/cinematic quality may come from the fact that the bandleader was an art Student when he formed the band in UCLA in '81. As the leader of Scenic, he still runs his own letterpress, making CD sleeves etc in a recognizable style that's graced a lot of other people's work too.

January 2002 saw the re-release of Savage Republic's back catalogue through the Mobilization (give link to http://www.mobilization.com/artists/savage.html#) label run by Ethan Port, a central member of the later line up. There was a slight delay from the projected September 2001 reissue partially caused by the World Trade Center attack, which nearly cost Ethan his life. He was in the Marriott Hotel across the square when the planes hit, he cathartically explained what happened to him in a message he sent to the Procession chatlist where the story remains in the archives as it does on the Mobilization website

http://rapidshare.com/Savage_Republic_-_Jamahiriya.rar

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Deep Freeze Mice - 1981 - Teenage Head In My Refrigerator

Deep Freeze Mice - 1981 - Teenage Head In My Refrigerator

01 I Like Digestive Biscuits In My Coffee (3.52)
02 Dr. Z (3.39)
03 The Letter Song (Scrib) (3.18)
04 My Geraniums Are Bbulletproof (4.13)
05 Peter Smith Is A Banana (2.05)
06 Hegel's Brain (0.55)
07 Esther (3.29)
08 Vera (5.51)
09 God (3.28)
10 Path To You (6.02)
11 Dictatorship Of The Proletariat (2.13)
12 Teenage Head In My refrigerator (3.38)
13 You Took The Blue One (2.32)
14 Esther (3.22)
15 Red Light For The Greens (4.23)
16 Minstrel Radio Yoghurt (2.30)

Graham Summers: drums
Michael Bunnage: bass
Sherree Lawrence: organ
Alan Jenkins: guitar

Biography:
Do-it-yourself post-punk band the Deep Freeze Mice released ten records in their decade-long existence, beginning as amateurs with no formal knowledge of what they were embarking on. The original lineup -- guitarist/vocalist Alan Jenkins, bassist Mick Bunnage (of the Statics), keyboardist Sherree Lawrence, and drummer Graham Summers (also of the Statics) -- stayed intact until the release of the band's third record, The Gates of Lunch. After the departure of Summers and the acquisition of replacement Pete Gregory, the lineup remained until their breakup in 1989. Leader Jenkins (who was also involved with the Chrysanthemums and Ruth's Refrigerator during the existence of his primary band) continued afterwards in the Creams and the Thurston Lava Tube. All of Deep Freeze Mice's records were released in small quantities through the band's labels, Mole Embalming and Cordelia.
AMG~by Andy Kellman

More info Here

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Tav Falco's Panther Burns - 1991 - Life Sentence

Tav Falco's Panther Burns - 1991 - Life Sentence

01-My Mind Was Messed Up At The Time
02-Torture

03-Vampire From Havana
04-Make Me know You're Mine

05-Go On Home
06-Auto Sapiens

07-Guarda Che Luna
08-Oh, Girls, Girls

09-(I'm Gonna) Dig Myself A Hole
10-Sent Up

11-What's Wrong
12-Why Was i born

13-Only The lonely

Tav Falco's Panther Burns, sometimes shortened to "(The) Panther Burns", is an errant musical troupe performing stripped-down, often primitive rock and roll and other styles, originally from Memphis led by Tav Falco. They are best known for having been part of a set of bands emerging in the late 1970s and early 1980s who helped nationally popularize the blending of blues, country, and other American traditional music styles with rock music among groups playing in alternative music and punk music venues of the time. The earliest and most renowned of these groups to imbue these styles with expressionist theatricality and primitive spontaneity were The Cramps, largely influenced by rockabilly music. Forming just after them in 1979, Panther Burns drew on obscure country blues music, Antonin Artaud's works like The Theater and Its Double, beat poetry, and Marshall McLuhan's media theories for their early inspiration. Alongside groups like The Cramps and The Gun Club, Panther Burns ranked among the contributing influences and progenitors of the Southern Gothic-tinged roots music revival scene that arose during the last two decades of the 20th Century and continued into the early 2000s.

According to the band, Panther Burns is "a Southern Gothic, psychedelic country band influenced by Memphis music styles". The original band lineup featured two guitars, synthesizer, and drums, later usually omitting keyboards or synthesizers at live shows. The group's somewhat experimental recordings have embraced and deconstructed a number of influences and genres.
With his signature Höfner fuzz-tone guitar and a stage presence characterized by his Argentine-styled pompadour, pencil moustache, smoking jacket, and urbane manner, Falco infused his shows with theatrical antics and a reverence for the originators of country blues and rockabilly. The band's assorted song subjects and album photography themes have included Memphis scenery, Carroll Cloar's Panther Bourne painting, the occasional reference to historical figures like American rampage murderer Charles Starkweather, motorcycle imagery, denizens of Memphis neighborhoods, tango imagery, and blithe introspection, among other themes
Falco's treatment of the blues classic "Bourgeois Blues" adds a line from Ginsberg's famous beat poem "Howl". In a 1984 interview discussing his anti-environment concept and music, he said that many outstanding, but lesser known blues and rockabilly artists were "treated like the idiot wind". Similarly, he continued, "the beat writers and theorists like Antonin Artaud were treated like they were crazy. It wasn't until he died that everyone realized he was a genius". Two of his originals, "Agitator Blues" and "Panther Phobia Manifesto", evinced playful humor and a left-leaning, Utopian anarchist political stance. In "Panther Phobia Manifesto", Falco referenced lines from influences as disparate as William S. Burroughs, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Howlin' Wolf, Rod Serling, French psychedelic band The Dum Dum Boys, and Dadaist poet Louis Aragon, in wishing a "huge firedamp explosion" to closed-minded members of society who blindly follow the dictates of the establishment. Proclaiming that everywhere the Panther Burns go, they are greeted with derision, he riffed from Aragon, "Laugh your fill, the Panther Burns are the ones who always hold out a hand to the enemy".
The group's wide-ranging styles have included Argentine tango music, country music, rockabilly, r&b, soul music, novelty tunes, early rock and roll, country blues, and pop standards of the 1950s and 1960s like Frank Sinatra's "The World We Knew", among others. Set lists have included mutated covers of songs originally performed by such diverse artists as J. Blackfoot, Doc Pomus, Bobby Lee Trammell, Gene Pitney, Reverend Horton Heat, Jessie Mae Hemphill, R. L. Burnside, Mack Rice, and Allen Page (of the small 1950s Moon Records label helmed by early rock-and-roll producer/songwriter Cordell Jackson), among others.
Terms the band says have been inaccurately "foisted upon" the group by media include "rockabilly, wreckabilly, psychobilly, punk, post punk, post-modern, garage, bluesabilly, roots, and permanent wave". The earliest description the band gave itself on a concert poster read simply: "Rock'n'Roll". Media confusion in categorizing led the band to eventually invent its own self-descriptive terms, such as "panther music" and "backwoods ballroom", also at times calling its tumultuous performance style "art damage".

[info: wikipedia]

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Cosmic Rough Riders - 2000 - Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine

Track List

01. Brothers Gather Round (1:12)
02. Gun Isn't Loaded (2:51)
03. Glastonbury Revisited (2:47)
04. Baby, You're So Free (3:45)
05. Value of Life (2:38)
06. Revolution (In the Summertime?) (3:21)
07. Have You Heard the News Today? (2:51)
08. Sometime (3:31)
09. Melanie (3:23)
10. Rain Inside (3:23)
11. Charm (2:04)
12. Loser (2:25)
13. You've Got Me (3:10)
14. Emily Darling (2:48)
15. Morning Sun (:57)

The Band

Daniel Wylie :Vocals, Engineer, Producer, Handclapping, Mixing

Stephen Fleming :Guitar, Vocals (Background), Mixing, Engineer, Producer

Gary Cuthbert :Guitar, Handclapping, Vocals (Background)
Mark Brown : Drums, Vocals (Background), Handclapping
James Clifford : Bass, Handclapping, Vocals (Background)

This album is pop/folk/rock heaven. Not a dull moment throughout the entire album.This is the best album I have heard in 2000. Every song on the album could have been a single, they area all so catchy. I bought it after hearing the single "Baby You're so free" but didn't expect the whole album to be up to that calibre. Daniel Wylie's lush vocal harmony arrangements are perfect. If bands like The Byrds, Crosby Stills and Nash tickle your fancy , then you will adore this record. "Revolution in the summertime" is a really a masterpiece!!!!!


Third album for the Scottish folk-rock act combines tracks from their first two albums, 'Deliverance' (1999) and 'Panorama' (2000) though some have been vastly improved upon, although the original versions earned them a place in Virgin's Greatest Albums. Includes three all new tracks, 'Sometime', the first single 'Melanie' and 'Morning Sun'.

In the current musical climate, it's hard to imagine anything more unfashionable than an album of 60's-style Byrds/Beach Boys-influenced guitar pop that is so traditional it makes Teenage Fanclub sound like Aphex Twin, but put your cynicism on hold for "Enjoy..." is one of the most enjoyable, grin-inducing debuts of recent years. Hailing from Glasgow, and firmly in the TFC/BMX Bandits tradition of that city, it's no surprise that Cosmic Rough Riders are signed to former Creation boss Alan McGee's new Poptones label, for this album positively reeks of McGee's former stable. Chiming guitars, heavenly harmonies, joyously dumb cod-psychedelic lyrics...all the elements are here, and they work wonderfully together. Don't be put off by the album's opening gambits - "Harvesting the Land" and "Glastonbury Revisited" are mawkish 60s folk, and "This Gun Isn't Loaded" is a fairly unsuccessful stab at sitar-drenched psychedelia which ends up sounding too much like Spinal Tap's "Listen To The Flower People" for comfort. It's when CRRs lose the patchouli oil and let loose the pure pop vibes that "Enjoy..." really takes off. "Revolution In The Summertime" is perfect sunny-day listening, "Sometime" is the best song Teenage Fanclub have never written, and "The Loser" is catchier than a cactus. These guys have clearly got hooks coming out of their ears and most of the verses here are more memorable than most bands' choruses. They simply are that good. It's unlikely that "Enjoy..." will sell millions of copies and make CRRs the household names they clearly deserve to be, but if you like joyful, life-affirming, summery guitar pop, and have ever found yourself grinning inanely at the sound of Big Star's "September Gu rls", TFC's "Sharky's Dream" or the Stone Roses "Waterfall", then this CD will end up welded to your CD player for weeks on end. Enjoy indeed.

Download Link

Monday, December 11, 2006

Swans - 1994 - The Great Annihilator

Tracks
01. In
02. I Am The Sun
03. She Lives!
04. Celebrity Lifestyle
05. Mother Father
06. Blood Promise
07. Mind/Body/Light/Sound
08. My Buried Child
09. Warm
10. Alcohol The Seed
11. Killing For Company
12. Mother's Milk
13. Where Does A Body End?
14. Telepathy
15. The Great Annihilator
16. Out

After a three-year break occasioned in part by wrangles with the Sky label, Swans returned in 1995 with a vengeance, as always pursuing their unique muse of dramatic, ever-more textured music. Gira and Jarboe work with a fantastic core band this time out, including returning veteran Westberg, who trades off guitar duties with Steele, at points playing together with him, a magnificent combination. Other returning musicians include Kizys and Parsons, while newer players like drummer Bill Rieflin from the Chicago Wax Trax! circle join as well. As is par for the course by now, Swans seem incapable of producing a bad album, Annihilator being crammed full of astonishing songs to prove it. Everything's a little more stripped-down here, possibly due to having a central band, but it's still all very lushly arranged and created, perfectly balancing force and restraint. Leadoff single "Celebrity Lifestyle" is one of the catchiest things the band has ever done, but it's still uniquely Swans -- a minimal, throbbing song matched with a sharp lyric on starlust and what it might mean. "I Am the Sun" pounds as hard as any early Swans track, but the use of careful space between blasts, Gira's heavily echoed, out-of-nowhere vocal (accentuated by equally vivid background vocals from Jarboe), and tempo shifts clearly demonstrates the constantly evolving nature of Swans music; the band is never content to simply repeat the past. Jarboe's own standout tracks include "Mother/Father," a brawling number showcasing both her and the band at their full-on best, and "My Buried Child," with her softly husked take on a terrifying Gira lyric, which is carried by a roiling rhythm. This is followed immediately by the sweeping, cinematic "Warm," where she contributes wordless vocals. Once again, Swans have created an epic, incredible work of art.

review from AllMusicGuide

One of the few remaining pieces of the digipacked and remastered re-issue puzzle, 1994's "The Great Annihilator" is reclaimed from Invisible Records for Michael Gira's own Young God Records. This was a transitive period for Gira and Jarboe's SWANS, a natural progression from the previous "bunny" artwork themed albums ("White Light From the Mouth of Infinity" and "Love Of Life") and a premonition of what was to come with the conclusive trilogy ("Die Tür Ist Zu", "Soundtracks For The Blind" and "SWANS Are DEAD"). Many of "TGA"'s songs delve into a darker and grittier sound but also maintain melody, mixed moods and brevity. "Celebrity Lifestyle" and "Mother/Father" flirt dangerously with mainstream rock & roll conventions while "Mind/Body/Light/Sound", "My Buried Child" and "Alcohol The Seed" throb with tantric mantras. Tenderness is a distinctive trait of "Blood Promise", "Warm", "Killing For Company" and "Mother's Milk", the last of which features an especially bittersweet vocal by Jarboe. Lyrical themes follow Gira's ever-present obsessions with the eternally entangled dualities of life and death, love and hate, mind and body, man and "God", etc. The title track embraces Stephen Hawking's theory of an omnivorous, universe destroying black hole - science's embodiment of God, perhaps. Near the end Gira invitingly sings "come on in and come inside" in harmony with the title and Jarboe's backing over a spiraling mass of percussion laden rock, perfectly evoking the very nature of said sucker. To my ears the remastering improves overall clarity but is far from drastic and the bonus track, a bootleg quality live rendition of "I Am The Sun", pales in comparison to the version on "SWANS Are DEAD". No matter. "The Great Annihilator" is what nearly all SWANS albums were and remain to be: powerful, evocative and, ultimately for me, indispensable ...

review from www.brainwashed.com

Enjoy!
http://rapidshare.com/Swans_-_The_Great_Annihilator.rar

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Afrika Korps - 1977 - Music To Kill By

Afrika Korps - 1977 - Music To Kill By

Back in 1973, teenage fanzine writer Ken Highland first traveled from his small-town home in upstate New York to Brooklyn, New York, to jam with pen-pal Solomon Gruberger and his younger brother Jay in their living-room rock band O. Rex. Three years later, in early '76, Ken recorded the first infamous Gizmos EP in Bloomington, Indiana--and then joined the United States Marine Corps! Finding himself stationed in Maryland, near Washington, D.C., he quickly found his way into the burgeoning D.C. punk scene. He became friends with the Slickee Boys, and began writing songs on guard duty. Some of these became later Gizmos tunes, but the main project was a new band with the O. Rex brothers called The Afrika Korps. With help from Slickee Boys Kim Kane and Martha Hull, and the addition of multi-talented drummer Ken Kaiser, they recorded the music on this LP in the first few months of 1977. The recordings became free-for-all punk-rock "super sessions"--with various other Slickee Boys members, D.C. scenesters, rock writers, etc. joining in on the fun. The resulting LP still stands as one of the most spontaneous and least trendy things to come out of the early Amerikan punk scene. This CD includes the classick LP plus eight studio outtakes and four live tracks, and comes with a 16-page booklet featuring mostly unpublished photos and a detailed history of the Afrika Korps.

This merger of The Slickee Boys, The Gizmos, The Look, The Teenage Boys, O. Rex, and The Kaiser's Kittens has thrown up (how punky!) the best album of the year. Twenty-two (yes! 22!) songs about all the things that bother you--your complexion . . . your boys . . . your mental health . . . and your girls. Every gem is short and sweet . . . each one a nursery rhyme that's been sneaking looks at teen magazines . . . pure, unsullied, untouched by recording contract rock and roll. Every verse is a reprise, every song a chrous with a harmonious soundmix nothing like the usual Heavy Metal row most 'punks' employ. Despite their threats about slapping your pretty face and ripping your pretty lace, they're sweet kids. Real innocence always tries to be tough." --Julie Burchill, New Musical Express, 3 December 1977.

You can also check their mLP 'God Its Them Again' here.

Friday, December 8, 2006

Mecano - 1983 - Autoportrait

The story of Mecano starts with a painting, made in 1977 by founder Dirk Polak after finding an old booklet belonging to a Meccano construction box, as fabricated and sold in the thirties.While scanning the booklet, Dirk was struck by a vision of a world built out of Meccano, in painting, sculpture and even lyrics and music.

In the years before Lego existed, Meccano was very popular amongst parents, as they believed that Meccano was not just a toy, but an educative tool for schoolboys with technical abilities. An average box consisted of iron strips, wheels and plates with holes in it, based upon half an inch distance in between. It was designed “for the engineer of tomorrow” and patented in 1901 by Frank Hornby, who advertised it in the swollen tone that colored the first decades of the century and promised membership of “the Meccano Guild” and “unlimited possibilities as the system itself”.

The examples in the instruction booklet set Dirk to paint his Meccano figures, surrounded by surrealistic landscapes and interiors. In those days punk was booming and Dirk thought it was time to start a band and together with Pieter Kooyman and a few hired guns he recorded Face Cover Face, b/w Fools as Mecano Ltd. for the “No Fun” label. But Dirk wanted a real band and so he asked Ton Lebbink to be the drummer. Ton, who was a bouncer at Paradiso in Amsterdam and thus knowing everbody on the scene, immediately introduced the brothers Tejo and Cor Bolten, who also worked at Paradiso, Tejo as floor-manager and Cor, who was a bouncer too and were standing right next to him as he spoke and the band was formed in the blink of an eye. Before that, Dirk was close with Pieter, who was in the short lived “God's heart attack” and also “The Helmettes” and had a single out that was produced by Dirk and so Mecano showed up with 2 guitarists.

Another advantage of Ton and the Bolten brothers, beside their musical abilities, was that they had unlimited acces to Paradiso, the best rehearsing place a band could think of and they started experimenting and putting the music together, mainly based on the ideas of Dirk and the Bolten brothers

Emerging from the punk-era, Mecano is best described as new wave, leaving raw punk behind, adding poetry and remarkable arrangements, colored with unusual guitar harmonies, combining Allen Ravenstine-like squeeks with time experiments, sonicly floating as one, with brashness and provocation, converting into an ashtonishing electric blend.
Dirks' lyrics, influenced by such artists as Andre Breton, Paul Eluard and above all Russian poet Maiakovski, are overall cryptic and along the way Dirk added his own grammar like “lack of joie de vivre” or “globeold”.

In the summer of '79 Mecano made their stage debut and began touring the alternative circuit. Later they toured France and their '81 Paris concert had an enthousiastic press in the France Soir, their high intensity performance in Reims left a huge impression on the audience.

Early 1980 newly founded Torso Records had released the mini-lp Untitled and in that same year Subtitled, both nowadays reaching high prices amongst collectors. The next year Torso released two singles, Escape the Human Myth b/w History Landmark and Robespierre's Remarks b/w Room for Two, heading for hunters to collect. After that the band split up, to be reunited in 1982 without Ton Lebbink and Pieter Kooyman and a smaller size Mecano started recording Autoportrait, which came out early ‘83 and on which Pieter Kooyman is present on Suggestive Sleep and To Life's Reunion .

At last the Mecano files have been opened and the recordings were professionally remasterd by Cor and Tejo Bolten, resulting in exellent sound quality. This double cd has all of Mecano's studio-recordings. Also including live recordings who are never been issued before.


A true history landmark.
Leo Schelvis Resources : mecano.ws/

Thanks Mystery Poster and Friends

Download Link :
http://rapidshare.com/Mecano_-_Autoportrait.rar

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Afrika Korps - 1987 - God, It's Them Again EP

Afrika Korps - 1987 - God, It's Them Again EP



Line-up
Solomon Gruberger: vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar / Jay Gruberger: bass, lead guitar (3,6) / Kenne Gizmo Highland: vocals, lead guitar (1,2,4,7) / Marthat Hull: vocals (1,2,7) / Kenny Kaiser: drums, percussion (1,7) / Kim Kane (Slickee Boys): rhythm guitar, vocals (1,7) / Tommy Carr: drums (2)
recorded on august 14, 1982 - producers: S.Gruberger, J.Gruberger, K.Kane

Track listing
1.I'm lost in the sea of your love (part 1)
2.Nothings gonna change my life
3.Tonight
4.Reno Mania
5.Don't spoil the cake
6.Cute little she devil
7.I'm lost in the sea of your love (part 2)

The Afrika Korps was formed in 1976 by three pioneers of the American DIY garage-punk movement Solomon Gruberger (O.Rex), Kim Kane (Slickee Boys) and Kenne Highland (Gizmos). All three had already released their own indie records at this point, and with the addition of Ken Kaiser on drums and 16 year old Jay Gruberger on bass, the Afrika Korps was a casually constituted underground supergroup whose fifteen-person lineup included fanzine writers, and other assorted Washington DC-area garagepunks. Their first LP 'Music to Kill By' boasts 22 songs (including the Slickee Boys' "Jailbait Janet," covers of the Kinks and Yardbirds, and such culturally profound outpourings as "Iggy," "Death to Disko!" and "N.Y. Punk.").
Reuniting on a smaller scale five years later, the Korps roared back into action with a punchy second album. Solomon Gruberger (who does a pretty good Joey Ramone imitation on "Tonight") shares lead vocal duties on the half-dozen songs with ex-Slickee Boys singer Martha Hull and SB guitarist Kim Kane. These recordings released as an 12"EP by the French label New Rose, in 1987. The best review for this comes from Dimitri T.Shepilov, Editor in Chief of Pravda, in the 50s: "All this nervous and insane Boogie Woogie are the wild orgies of cavemen...devoid of all elements of beauty and melody...representing an uncontrolled release of base passions, a burst of the lowest feeling and sexual urges."

Sunday, December 3, 2006

The Sound - From The Lion's Mouth

Tracks :
01 Winning
02 Sense Of Purpose
03 Contact The Fact
04 Skeletons
05 Judgement
06 Fatal Flaw
07 Possession
08 The Fire
09 Silent Air
10 New Dark Age

There is a kind of double irony to the lyrics of the opening track of The Sound's second album. Listening to the excellent new wave classic 'Winning' the lyrics convey becoming triumphant in the face of adversity: "I was going to drown then I started swimming. I was going down then I started winning". Yet these optimistic words are set to a doomy rhythm section that suggests anything but. All of this naturally leads to thinking of frontman Adrian Borland's recent suicide. Rather reflect on that though, it is best to concentrate on an excellent album from the early 80's which ranks alongside The Comsat Angels' early work for being an overlooked classic. 'From The Lion's Mouth' possesses that same air of controlled miserablism and that tangible sense of loneliness that sounds just as poignant now as it did 22 years ago. Unfortunately the group lost their way on subsequent albums in an effort to cross over to a more lucrative market. Remember them instead for exemplars of edgy rock such as the rattling intensity of 'The Fire' and 'Skeletons' or the awesome 'Fatal Flaw' and 'New Dark Age' with its threatening military drum introduction.

resources : http://www.leonardslair.co.uk/lions.htm

EXCELLENT album guys ! 9/10


Download Link :
http://rapidshare.com/Sound_-_Lions_Mouth.rar