Siad & Yesha DapoED - The Visualz Anthology (V0) (2008)

For the record, I know that I am not usually the source of much underground hip-hop.

Now shut up and download this. It's good shit.

Just a day like any other

Nine Black Alps - Locked Out From the Inside (320) (2009)

I'm not too familiar with Nine Black Alps, but Everything Is enjoyable, no? This album was released on their own label "Lost House Records" which may account for the very small amount of attention it's received. After two listens, the album proves itself to be better than Everything Is, both lyrically and sonically. Nine Black Alps manages to do the whole "HEY! We got melody AND Heaviness!" thing without settling for mediocre elements of both like many modern groups.

Then again, this is all opinion and from an author that has terrible taste in music, so keep that in mind.

Seriously, I'm a Yeezy fan. I'm so mainstream.

The Local - Low Indigo (Bonus Disc Only) (2010) (FLAC)

Oh lawdy.

Takes an ocean not to break

Blue Sky Black Death - A Heap of Broken Images (320) (2006)

Hip-Hop. Two discs. Both instrumental and not. It's good. Trust me. Short phrases. Infrequent blog updates.

I guess I should put a link up, or something.

Eskmo - Eskmo (320) (2010)

Great beats, great melodies. Very unique sounding electronic album, kind of a glitchy trip-hop type of sound. Best song is the opener Cloudlight, possibly my favorite track of 2010 so far.

Floating in magically colorful pieces of sky

At The Drive-In - Relationship of Command (320) (2000)

Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez's band before they splintered off and formed The Mars Volta. Post-hardcore cornerstone. Masterpiece. Just listen to it.

Arcarsenal

TV On the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain (V0) (2006)

Per request. TVotR returns with some new faces, including David Bowie, who does guest-vocals on the track Province, and Jaleel Bunton, who provides the first actual drums on a TVotR album.

TvOTR don't really deviate from what made Desperate Youth such a great album. Instead, they treat their sophomore effort as an outline and use Cookie Mountain as a medium to flesh out the finer points. I Was A Lover is one of the better opening tracks I've heard, with Massive Attack's Teardrop used as a very basic sample before TV On the Radio layers it with horns, guitar, and Malone and Adebimpe's unique vocals. Wolf Like Me is probably the closest TVotR has ever come to actual in your face, driving rock-and-roll. For my money, the strongest track is the second-to-last one, Tonight, featuring what I firmly believe is the strongest vocal effort on any TVotR album.

Bottom line is that TV On the Radio isn't doing much of anything differently here, they're just doing everything better, which is pretty damn impressive and makes for a great listening experience...or ten.

Your rusty heart will be fine, in its telltale time

State of Mind - Faster Than Light (320) (2009)

Drum N' Bass.

Division Ten.

Boris At Last -Feedbacker- (320) (2003)

Jonathan Davis of Korn was once quoted as saying this on an advertisement of a video game called Haze: "Gaming for me is a religion. And Haze is the shit. I had to come up with a track that can hit up that kind of rush I get from the game and I think we really rocked it!!"

Now that quote by itself sounds both stupid and ridiculous. But if we change several words in that quote, it can sound like he is talking about Boris. "MUSIC for me is a religion. And BORIS is the shit. I tried to come up with a track that can hit up that kind of rush I get from FEEDBACKER and I think we really FUCKED it UP!!"

And there you have it. Jonathan Davis loves Boris. A random review of this album I remember reading described this album by saying it was as diverse as Akuma no Uta, and as cohesive as Flood. That sounds like a good way to describe it. Why the hell not, right?

It probably has more in common with Flood and Amplifier than it does with Heavy Rocks or Pink, if that helps as a point of reference. The album was written to be experienced as one long track, and it is about 43 minutes long. The first track is about ten minutes of building up for the second track, so keep that pacing in mind. Expect serene soundscapes being slowly overtaken by electric wail (provided by the Les Paul wielding guitar goddess Wata) before exploding into gorgeous amounts of feedback and percussive stomp. If that sounds like your thing, this album is for you. It's fair to say this may not be the perfect starting point for Boris, as that role might be filled better by Akuma No Uta or Pink, but it's definitely worth a listen.

Cover kinda creeps me out, though.

The Roots - Organix/Do You Want More?!!!??! (320) (1993/1995)

Per request.

Dubious Edit: Just dropping in to remind you that the Legendary Roots Crew is better than you.

Organix
Do You Want More?!!!??!

TV On the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (V0) (2004)

TV On the Radio are a band that are, among other things, impossible to pigeonhole, and it is perhaps this single quality that makes their sophomore album as good as it is. There are so many different influences that intermingled to create this sound that trying to identify them all would probably feel like a really awkward family reunion where everyone is technically related but no one really knows anybody else, so I will avoid trying to list them all and instead hit a few of the key ones: soul, funk, jazz, electronic, hip-hop, and even doo-wop.

What makes this album work is not just the obscenely good vocals of Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone, but the perfection in which they are implemented within each track: sometimes soft, letting the often industrial guitars and programmed drums drive the song (King Eternal); at other times forceful and demanding to be the center of attention (Dreams). The middle track, Ambulance, is completely a cappella--a risk for any band to take, but which Adebimpe and Malone pull off flawlessly. Lyrically, the album is sublime and deep, covering topics from racism to war to love while never missing a beat.

If you've never listened to TV On the Radio before, they can sound disjointed at first--even awkward. I would classify this album as a grower simply because I believe it takes multiple listens to appreciate every subtlety that the band buried deep into this record.

Staring at the sun

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (320) (2010)

Friend's review: I liked the first half, but the second half seemed like the thirty-fifth day of an endless party, if you know what i mean. also, fire the drummer.

9.4/10

Park that car, drop that....wait. Wrong album.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (320) (2000)

Per request. I have a Russian test tomorrow and therefore no time to write my own review. Not that I would want to try and write a review for this album. I'll let Sputnik do my talking for me.

So much of the music that we hold dear stands side by side with us, as our peer, joining hands or marrying voices or calling to arms, but for all the inspiring qualities of Lift Your Skinny Fists it is never once a viable possibility that the minds behind the composition of its schizophrenic and soaring peaks and troughs are Just Guys That Went To Your School. Godspeed You! Black Emperor are better than you and me; they can do things you and I aren't capable of, and they can do them despite, and because of, their pretentious, elaborate self-indulgence.

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven is the sort of record which doesn't have hooks because the very idea of listening to a minute of the last dramatic surge is blasphemous and because everything relies on everything before it and everything after it in order to work. Many people have claimed that Godspeed's shorter and more digestable EP Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada is more concise and therefore better, but the two records are simply different; Lift Your Skinny Fists is the work of a group of incredible musicians and artists, unrestrained, unleashed and totally off the rails. In the hands of a band less than sublime it would be a veritable train wreck, but in the possession of Godspeed You! Black Emperor it is simply life-changing. Set aside some uninterrupted time and all of your pre-conceptions, ignore everything I just wrote and listen to this album right from the start right to the finish. You'll know what I've been trying to say.

Welcome to ARCO AM/PM Mini Markets we would like to advise our customers that any individual who offers to pump gas wash windows or solicit products is not employed by or affiliated with this facility we discourage any contact with these individuals and ask that you report any problems to uniformed personnel inside

Carissa's Wierd - Songs About Leaving (V0) (2002)

There's a line with "sad" albums. You have to communicate whatever anguish, despair, loss, pain, depression, or misanthropy through the medium of your sound, which can be difficult to pull off. Lots of bands wind up simply sounding flat and boring at this point. If you can pass that first test, though, there's another line: you can't be over the top. If it's hyperbolic sadness, it's unbelievable, and if it's unbelievable, there's nothing for your listener to connect to. This is why many bands labeled "slowcore" or, as I prefer, "sadcore," reject the label. They want the bitterness in their music to sound natural, rather than forced.

Carissa's Wierd second album, Songs About Leaving, passes both of these tests with flying colors. This is by far one of the most depressing albums I have ever heard, in particular lyrically, but also musically. The album actually features two singers: Mat Brooke (who would go on to form Band of Horses with Ben Bridwell, who played bass for CW), who sings on the majority of the tracks, and Jenn Ghetto, who has an absolutely beautiful voice and who I would have liked to have heard more from. Can't have everything, I suppose. Still, Ghetto's final chorus on So You Wanna Be A Superhero is absolutely chilling:

My dreams are full of what's not real
I'll fly away to save the world
I'll make you proud someday
I just won't be around to see your face
My life is full of what's not here
I'll go away and save myself
I'll make you proud someday
I just won't be around to see your face

I do believe that if many singers attempted a chorus like that, they would immediately break the over-the-top law. With Ghetto, however, there is never any doubt that these words are coming straight from her soul. Same with Brooks' lyrics. And the thing is, the entire album is like this, and it's brilliant from start to finish--there is no let up. There is no relief. But there's also never any question of it being fake. This is a tragically real record.

Sofisticated fuck princess please leave me alone

Corrosion of Conformity - Wiseblood (320) (1996)

Wiseblood was released 2 years after Deliverance, an it certainly sounds like it. That's not a bad thing, however. This album is thoroughly enjoyable. If you like Deliverance, you'll probably like this album.

Mr. Tambourine play one more song for me, 'Cause I gotta leave, I lost what I believed