Alright, so I'm just going to repost everything I put up in the lafixed music upload thread. I could just link to the
directory that contains all the files, but I figure I might as well include the descriptions, so you get some idea of whether you want to spend your valuable time grabbing the files.
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Artist: Fela Kuti
Album: Shakara / London Scene
Year: 1971/72
Genre: Afro-beat
Fela Kuti - Shakara / London Scene
If you like Afro-beat, I suppose you probably have this one already. If you want to "get into" that funky African goodness, well then, here's the original Nigerian badass in top form.
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Composer: Steve Reich
Album: Music for 18 Musicians
Year: 1978 (ECM recording)
Genre: Minimalist "Classical"
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
My favorite minimalist piece. Maybe my favorite piece of music ever. Beautiful. Epic. Sublime.
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Artist: Uusitalo
Album: Vapaa Muurari Live
Year: 2000
Genre: Techno, I guess?
Uusitalo - Vapaa Muurari Live
Uusitalo aka Vladislav Delay aka Luomo is Sasu Ripatti, a Finnish chap with a penchant for particularly interesting electronic sounds. Vapaa Muurari is a live set of deep, atmospheric, dubby techno in four "movements." It's hot. And cool. And in this strange and oblique way, it bumps.
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Artist: Susumu Yokota
Album: Sakura
Year: 2000
Genre: Ambient
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Susumu Yokota - Sakura
Serene, bubbly, loopy melodies. I thought this was some obscure little gem, but just discovered that it was The Wire's electronic album of the year for 2000. Ah, well, there goes my street cred. It's a great album no matter which industry wankers like it.
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Artist: High Rise
Album: High Rise Live
Year: 1994
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
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High Rise Live, 1994
High Rise's live album is one big, awesome distortion-fest. Heavy. Noisy. Freaky. Yes.
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Artist: Soul Bossa Trio
Album: Soul Bossa Trio
Year: 1995
Genre: Jazz
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Soul Bossa Trio
Grooving, hard-driving jazz in a Brazilian/Afro-Cuban vein. This was the group's first U.S. release, taking the best from their first two Japanese LPs. Solid. Swingin'. Fun.
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So I've been on this Jim O'Rourke kick lately. O'Rourke is mostly known as either a producer or a pretentious asshole (or both), depending on whom you talk to. He's worked with such accessible acts as Wilco, Joanna Newsom and Stereolab, but the bulk of his own projects have skewed toward the avant-garde. He was a member of Gastr del Sol and Sonic Youth, and he's released some drone-y electronic stuff as well as several improv collaborations with the likes of Christian Fennesz and Peter Rehberg. And they're all quite good, really, if you're into that. But if you have no patience for such art-rock and electroacoustic wankery ("stunning," "sublime," and "groundbreaking" as some of us may try to convince you that it is), then have no fear. A few years back, he released this string of little albums that were, well, pop or rock or something. And they were awesome.
Artist: Jim O'Rourke
Album: Eureka
Year: 1999
Genre: Rock (sorta)
Eureka
This is probably his most balanced and original album. Cynical lyrics and top-notch production, with loungey stylistic flourishes, some pedal steel, and a bed of subtle synth work in the background throughout. He's not taking on the asshole persona that he does in later albums, but even in his more upbeat moments you can't help but suspect that he's making fun of optimism.
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Artist: Jim O'Rourke
Album: Halfway to a Threeway
Year: 1999
Genre: Rock
Halfway to a Threeway
This is an EP. Four songs, mostly summery odes to human failure, featuring child abuse, cross dressing and unsuccessful orgies with the disabled. You'll be whistling them later.
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Artist: Jim O'Rourke
Album: Insignificance
Year: 2001
Genre: Rock
Insignificance
Some almost-straightforward rock, as lushly produced as Eureka (with even more pedal steel), but more tightly arranged and hard driving. The lyrics consist mostly of O'Rourke describing scenarios for the listener's humiliation and demise, but the music is downright pretty. Rarely will you hear someone tell you that you're fucked quite so cheerfully as Jim O'Rourke does here. Think of it as a soundtrack for watching the global economy implode, if you like.
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Oh, and since someone asked for these a while back (and because they're really good albums):
Artist: The Knife
Album: Silent Shout
Year: 2006
Genre: (amazing, dysfunctional) Electro-Pop
The Knife - Silent Shout
Seriously, in my opinion, the best electronic album of the last three years.
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Artist: Teddybears
Album: Soft Machine
Year: 2006
Genre: (pumped up, kickin') Electro-Pop
Teddybears - Soft Machine
Fun!
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Artist: Contemporary Noise Quintet
Album: Pig Inside the Gentleman
Year: 2006
Genre: Jazz
Contemporary Noise Quintet - Pig Inside the Gentleman
Maybe I'm not listening in the right places, but I think most jazz made in the last 25 years or so is just plain boring. Whether it's free-and noisy improv, curatorial Marsalis-ism or just about anything in between, it just misses some kind of push and pull. It's enough to make you think that Jazz with a capital J is dead, or absorbed into the culture, or whatever it is that happens when musical genres meet their productive end. (please, somebody upload something that proves me wrong...) Anyway, the point here is, there are these five dudes from Krakow, and they've made this album that you might call Jazz and I most definitely do call fucking amazing. They have a fair bit of cacophony in their palette, but more than anything, their music seems to be
about the "contemporary noise." They draw from lots of influences (Polish and otherwise) and manage to do it without being gimmicky. The music is tense, dark, cinematic, working toward resolution but always falling an inch shy. It's great.
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In a certain way, the Contemporary Noise Quintet reminds me of:
Artist: The Cinematic Orchestra
Album: Every Day
Year: 2002
Genre: Downtempo Electronic
The Cinematic Orchestra - Every Day
The blending of jazz into the electronic realm is often a pretty ham-handed affair, but The Cinematic Orchestra have managed it much more skillfully than most. The fact that they're an actual band, with real-live jazz musician members, instead of just some guy toiling away with a sampler probably helps a lot. And of course that's not to say that J. Swinscoe, the producer behind it all, doesn't deserve props too, just that he's managed to do things the "right way" here. Like the Contemporary Noise Quintet, they combine a certain angst with an appreciation of the sublime, and it works really well.
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And because The Cinematic Orchestra borrows samples (and a fair bit of inspiration) from Alice Coltrane:
Artist: Alice Coltrane (with Pharoah Sanders)
Album: Journey in Satchidananda
Year: 1970
Genre: Jazz
Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda
A classic. You say "Harp? Sitar? This must be some kind of hippie bullshit." Oh but no. This is the real deal. After John's death and before veering off into the completely spiritual domain, Alice Coltrane released a handful of really good albums. This one, backed by Pharoah Sanders' trademark squeals, is possibly her best.
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Put this up for a friend and figured I might as well post it here too:
Artist: Woody Guthrie
Album: The Asch Recordings, Vol 1-4
Genre: Folk
Vol 1 - This Land is Your Land
Vol 2 - Muleskinner Blues
Vol 3 - Hard Travelin'
Vol 4 - Buffalo Skinners
Quoth the Wiki:
Recorded in 1944 and 1945, 'The Asch Recordings' are possibly Woody Guthrie's most famous recordings, conducted over a series of days by Moses "Moe" Asch in New York City. The songs recorded by Asch comprise the bulk of Guthrie's original material and several traditional songs. They were issued on a variaty of labels over the years since under the labels Asch, Asch-Stinson, Asch-Signature-Stinson, Disc, Folkways and Verve/Folkways. The tracks for Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads, Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child and Nursery Days were from this session.
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OK, then. That will be all.
nathansnider09.29.09 - 6:27 pm
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