Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising (1985)

It is Queenday today in Holland, and because I viscerally hate Queensday, our monarchy, our queen, everyone who dresses in orange, all the artists at the Museumplein concert and our to-be-king, Willem-Alexander, I'm posting this very angry post-hardcore record by a great band I told you earlier on about: Hüsker Dü.

Bob Mould, Grant Hart and Greg Norton are a threepiece that has such a unique sound, it's hard to believe they actually helped crafting a new genre. That new genre was called post-hardcore, slower than hardcore, but just as effectively angry. Listen to this great album, pretty please.

i don't know what you're talking about
VBR

Joose Keskitalo - Kaupungit puristuvat puristimissa (2006)

What we have here is a great, tasteful and quiet solo album by the singer of the experimental folk band Paavoharju, from Finland. The name of this guy is Joose Keskitalo, and once you're used to how to pronounce this difficult Finnish name, please give him a try and see if you like his beautiful ballads. It is not a matter of understanding the words on this album, as they are completely gibberish to everyone outside of Finland, but it's all about getting in the mood of this album. Knowing what Keskitalo's means when he sings his blues.

Great solo exercise of this fantastic artist, I wish more people listened to this guy. I really do.

rajalaulu
192kbps

The Upsetters - Super Ape (1976)

The Upsetters were the house band of Lee "Scratch" Perry, one of the originators, and most influential people in reggae, and especially in dub. Super Ape is the best album The Upsetters ever made, right at the end of their career. They released a great deal of records in the early 70s as a dub-collective.

Hard to explain what's so great about The Upsetters and all of the other work Lee Perry has ever done. I guess it's just the pure dub feeling that Perry gets. Lee Perry is reggae, and reggae is Lee Perry. He was the first (or at least one of the first) to get it right, and you can sure here his mastership on this beautiful and chilling album.

croaking lizard
192kbps

John Frusciante - Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt (1994)

John Frusciante made this drug-fueled, stream-of-consciousness album after he quit the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I have always thought that John Frusciante's artistic capabilities are being used the most when he releases his work solo. However, his exceptional lead guitar qualities are just to good to not be in the RHCP. His presence in RHCP makes their music a little more bearable as well, so yeah, the way it went is probably the best way.

This album however, shows Frusciante's heroine side from under a microscope. The first side of the album contains singer/songwriter lo-fi doodlings, the second side is filled with mostly experimental soundscapes. A leftfield masterpiece, and an important document in the life of John Frusciante, who was in serious trouble during this period of his life.

running away into you
VBR

Pumice - Pebbles (2007)

I'd like to start this little text by saying that this album cover has to be one of my favourite album covers of all time. It is so intriguing, it has a sort of summery, dream-like feeling to it and overall it just makes a fantastic, everlasting impression on me. It makes me think of Sweden, or another country where it normally isn't so hot, where you are hesistant of wearing a t-shirt without sleeves.

Ok, so this album is as good as the cover promises it to be. A lot of genre tags are present: avant-folk, free folk, noise, drone, experimental, lo-fi, psychedelic folk, you name it. But what is important is to know that this band is from New Zealand, that they make music that Phil Elverum of the Microphones can be pretty jealous about and that this album is one of the greatest examples of indie and noise finding each other.

brownbrownbrown
192kbps

Alastair Galbraith - Mirrorwork (1998)

Alastair Galbraith is a visionary, lonesome singer from New Zealand and his albums breath a calm loneliness that can be found in the work of The Mountain Goats and The Microphones, and more of these American indie acts. What Alastair Galbraith does though, is to be on his own for the whole 24 songs on this album. You feel he's playing, inventing and trying these songs in front of you, just for the fun of entertaining you as an individual.

And that's what makes this album very special. 24 short to very short, minimalistic acoustic guitar tracks, with some noise added to it. A very overwhelming experience, which redefines the meaning of lo-fi recording.

flickering birds
192kbps

Scientist - Scientist Wins The World Cup (1982)

Scientist is one of the greatest dub musicians of all time, and he made an enormous streak of albums during the period 1980-1982, of which this album is the epic conclusion. On his albums, Scientist tackles different themes: Vampires, Pac-Man, space invaders, and on this album he wins the world cup. The songs are called 'Ten Dangerous Matches', part 1 till 10. And although the titles may suggest that everything will sound the same, the opposite is true. Scientist is able to create some of the richest and dub-drenched albums to ever come out of Jamaica.

Taught by King Tubby at the age of 16, he released his best albums from his 20th to his 22nd, and that makes him, together with Hugh Mundell, one of the real naturals of reggae music. One of the greatest. Oh, and I've included the bonus tracks on this one as well. Extra Time 1-5 and Golden Goal.

ten dangerous matches
VBR

Gong - Angel's Egg (1973)

Gong is band that is best placed in the progrock genre, but they show signs of avant-prog as well. They are, together with the Soft Machine, the most important band from the Canterbury scene. Canterbury was the place to be in the early 70s when it came to prog rock that didn't become dull like Genesis, Yes and a lot of other bands in their later days. The Canterbury bands remained true to their roots and some of them are still making the music they made back then.

Gong went to France and made and recorded most of their music over there, collaborating with dozens of great musicians, changing their line-up as much as the change of the seasons. This album is their second of the Radio Gnome Invisle trilogy, their three-part masterpiece.

i never glid before
320kbps

Dr. Alimantado - Best Dressed Chicken In Town (1978)

Best Dressed Chicken In Town is one of the best reggae albums I know of. Dr. Alimantado, born as Winston James Thompson, became popular to white audiences when John Lydon (then still known as Johnny Rotten) praised this album in an interview.

Alimantado's take on roots reggae adds a lot of dub to it. That makes this album groove deeper and even more laid back. You can hear the influence this album had on John Lydon and especially on his dub-influenced work with Public Image Ltd. That makes this an essential reggae album, with an immensely cool album cover and an important influence on the white reggae listeners.

gimmie mi gun
320kbps

Exuma - Exuma (1970)

Whereas Jamaica has reggae, Trinidad and Tobago has calypso, the Bahamas are more rooted in folk music. Exuma (née McFarlane Gregory Anthony Mackey, a mouthful) proves this lovely fact on this album. It may sound like freak folk, as we know it now, but what Exuma is doing is just making music that is close to his upbringing, close to his homeland and close to himself.

The album sounds like sitting around a campfire in the jungle with your friends, a fact that I haven't experienced often, but I have been in Africa and sleeping and living and discussing life in the jungle is something so elimentary, it is hard to describe. This album deals with typical Caribbean themes, such as life and death, religion, higher spirits. And above all, it's incredibly catchy, and plain lovely music.

exuma, the obeah man
320kbps

Broadcast - Tender Buttons (2005)

My previous post was the second official studio album by Broadcast, now I'm posting their third. Singer Trish Keenan still has the prettiest voice in the history of the world, and she shows it again on this album. Her sublime voice takes you into a dreamy pseudo-world where there's only one band making music and it's Broadcast. Really impressed by the atmospheres they come up with on the different albums.

Once again: awesome band that everyone needs to hear and therefore I'm giving them a big bump today! Have fun with it.

you and me in time
192kbps

Broadcast - HaHa Sound (2003)

Broadcast are an electronic music band, based in Birmingham, England. Their music is best described as a hybrid of Stereolab, library music, avant-pop with 60s influenced vocals. Their utterly unique sound is what attracted me to Broadcast in the first place. It all sound very dream-poppy at first, but on closer inspectation, you experience the rough, dark and edgy side of the band. They released three major studio albums so far, two compilations and a bunch of EPs.

This album, HaHa Sound from 2003, is still my favourite album by Broadcast. I really love the eased vocals, and the often pretty harsh electronics that fill the space up. An actually quite brilliant band, that is underappreciated in my opinion, so please give them a spin.

oh how i miss you
320kbps

Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel (1971)

Two sides of the best lengthy krautrock jamming is what this record has to give you. Manuel Göttsching totally rips his guitar to pieces on this one, and the very fast drumming makes it all very energetic. Great build-up on both of the tracks and fantastic pay-offs that take you to psychedelic heavens.

Krautrock, a genre that's not really a genre, but more a name for the experimental music scene in Germany, is able to hit me on a lot of different levels. Ash Ra Tempel has the best of both worlds I think. I really enjoy this band, and the absence of lyrics doesn't cross my mind a single time when I listen to this record. It is so full of noise experimentations and guitar extravaganza. It is actually a really good record.

traummaschine
192kbps

Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen (1972)

Ash Ra Tempel could best be described as a krautrock band that combines the jamming improvisation of Can with the long ambient compositions of Tangerine Dream. Founded by the great guitarist Manuel Göttsching and keyboardist/drummer Klaus Schulze (who both went on to make essential solo albums), they became one of the most influential krautrock/space-rock (whatever genre you want to put them in) bands of the early 70s.

The first side, Light & Darkness, is very funky and the songs on Side 1 are so great, it's a pity they only last for 17 minutes. The second side, Schwingungen, consists of a lengthy ambient track, filled up with sparse, but effective percussion. Lovely alltogether.

flowers must die
256kbps

The KLF - Chill Out (1990)

A short history of The KLF: notorious band from the early 90s, made ambient techno and house music. Left the music business in 1992 by performing with Extreme Noise Terror and afterwards firing machine gun blanks into the audience at the BRIT Awards. Burnt a million pounds, just for the heck of it. Deleted their entire back catalogue and published The Manual, a guide on how to score an easy number one hit.

They made two major albums in that period. The first Chill Out, the masterpiece I'm posting today, a collection of samples, forming a fantastic ambient record, and The White Room, a classic house album.

Chill Out sounds like a night-ride through the highways of America. When Elvis sings 'As the snow flies, on a cold an grey Chicago morning, a poor little baby child is born in the ghetto', the impact is devestating. This is one of my favourite records people, h-e-a-r it!

elvis on the radio, steel guitar in my soul
VBR

Black Eyes - Cough (2004)

A few years ago, browsing through the catalogue of Dischord Records (found by Ian MacKaye, singer of Minor Threat and Fugazi), one of the most important record labels back in the early 80s, when hardcore punk was at its peak, I found this band: Black Eyes. Black Eyes is a band that relies heavily on a tight rhythm section, with a spastic drum that's always hitting stuff, and a funky bass that makes this hardcore punk band something more of an improvisational tool for the musicians.

Their first record, self-titled, was very effective in turning up with 10 songs in the vein of the hip art rock tradition, but this, their second and last record, dives into free jazz territory. And that makes this release by Black Eyes the best release on Dischord of this century so far. My Beefheartian heart skips a beat when I hear this record, I love it.

scrapes and scratches
192kbps

R. Stevie Moore - Phonography (1976)

R. Stevie Moore is on one hand part of the lo-fi outsider art scene (which is not really a scene, more a collection of musicians who are alltogether quite weird), and on the other hand he creates melodies and riffs on his electronic instruments (most often keyboards and synthesizers) that are so incredibly catchy that artists like Todd Rundgren and Big Star would be quite jealous of Moore's gift of creating melodies. Todd Rundgren and Big Star aren't half bad either by the way, but still.

R. Stevie Moore is the son of Elvis Presley's long-time sideman and bassist, Bob Moore. He has self-released over 400 CD-R's, cassettes, home videos and a lot more. This album can be considered as his commercial peek. It's the only album that's really remembered by a lot of people as of today. Unfortunately.

i wish i could sing
320kbps

Bruce Haack - The Electric Lucifer (1970)

When you've heard the first track from this record, you will realise how completely un-original acts like Daft Punk are. Daft Punk (great band though) may sound quite far out, but it is hard to believe that a stellar 40 (!!!) years before this day, this record came out and stunned everyone who heard it back in the day.

Bruce Haack was a 39 year old guy in 1970 and he had made a lot of electronical music for children, and then he made The Electric Lucifer, an electronic album, sounding very cool still, using a lot of moogs, and even a vocoder. Highly recommended!

national anthem to the moon
192kbps

Butthole Surfers - Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac (1984)

And this is the debut album by the Butthole Surfers, where they were still being quite serious about their music and making epic songs. These 11 songs are probably their artistical high-point. After this it all became more sarcastic, more trashy and especially less epic. Still, albums like Hairway to Steven and Locust Abortion Technician are essential listens when you want to understand this band, but this is the real deal.

butthole surfer
VBR

Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician (1987)

Apart from being pretty weird and making a hybrid of noise and experimental music, Butthole Surfers are kind of disturbing. Their music is often a very sick combination of dark, satirical humor and more frightening themes.

I guess I love them best for their music, rather their lyrics. They often seem to be not so serious about the music they're making and it's all a bunch of sarcasm, but still, when they play a Black Sabbath cover, they do it in style. So, you're not supposed to take them seriously, but please enjoy the music they're making.

22 going on 23
VBR

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1992)

In 1985 Richard D. James was 14, just so you know. In 1992 he was 21. You can say for certain that he was an early bird when it comes to releasing absolute classics. This, his debut, is a collection of 13 ambient techno tracks that he made over the years, analogue. The debut sounds lo-fi in a very strange way, because he recorded most of the stuff on cassette and mastered it from there.

Combining the best ambient of Eno, and adding beats and epic basslines, this became in instant classic. Excellent music to listen to at the moment, because techno is great when it's hot outside. (or lukewarm).

we are the music makers
VBR

Bikini Kill - Pussy Whipped (1993)

Hardcore punk for girls, that's basically what Riot Grrrl is. Riot Grrrl is a short-lived genre from the early nineties wherein a bunch of girls went completely crazy. Feministic punk, with a very fast pace. I think a lot of these albums are actually tougher to listen to, than the hardcore punk from ten years earlier, made by tough guys. It was a very independent scene, making fanzines, making t-shirts, making their own record sleeves, etc. Very important ethics, very important scene.

This album is by one of the best and most notorious/famous bands from those years. Bikini Kill, led by the charismatic Kathleen Hanna. Even catchy at times, but always punching our guts: fantastic album. 24 minutes of riot grrrls.

star bellied boy
192kbps

The Residents - Meet The Residents (1974)

The first album The Residents made! And look at that album cover. Could there be a better start to their musical career, than this statement? This album cover is all you need to understand how The Residents look at music. They have absolutely no respect for anyone in the music business and they kick at the Holy Grail itself, The Beatles.

This album is a typical Residents' album and musically it sounds like the blueprint of their music. The first side contains a lot of short compositions, sometimes hinting at musique concrète, while the second side has longer pieces, a little bit more resembling songs. One of my favourite bands, definitely.

spotted pinto bean
192kbps

Red Krayola - God Bless The Red Krayola And All Who Sail With It (1968)

After the first record by the Red Krayola (The Parable of Arable Land, thank you for the many downloads I had on that one) I want to tell you something about this record, their second. When The Parable of Arable Land was released, the Red Krayola immediately began recording Coconut Hotel, the album that was supposed to be their sophomore record. The record company, International Artists in this case, however, refused the album. I don't blame them by the way, because International Artists was a little, sympathetic label that released 13th Floor Elevators and other psychedelic bands, and Coconut Hotel sounds pretty much inaudible to most people I guess. Modern classical, as you will, but highly experimental, and totally inaccessible for the hippies of the time. And you thought Parable of Arable Land was an acquired taste?

Anyway, this is the album they released instead of Coconut Hotel, and it sounds insanely fresh, to be fair: a lot fresher than The Parable of Arable Land.

listen to this
VBR

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album (1996)

Richard D. James makes beautiful music, that is completely acceptable fact for me. The cool thing about his works is that he has very easy to recognize periods in his career. He started out with ambient, went on to create music a-like of jungle and breakcore, and made modern classical-influenced music at the start of the new century. Only 5 official studio albums under the monniker Aphex Twin have yet surfaced, but he left an incredible outpet under the aliases AFX, Caustic Window, Polygon Window, and with his two big series: Analogue Bubblebath series and the Analord series. Especially the last series are highly recommended by me personally.

This album is the closest he ever come to breakcore. Heavily fractured beat, never really settling down. There's a lot going on under the surface here.

to cure a weakling child
192kbps

Disco Inferno - D.I. Go Pop (1994)

This album sounds so timeless, it could've been made yesterday, or even tomorrow, for that matter. It was made in 1994, to be exact, and yes, that was 16 years ago. Why does this album still sound so fresh than, some of you will think? I guess one of the reasons for that fact is that the progression of noise-pop (I think avant-pop sounds a bit more respectful) stagnated in the late 90's and bands still experience a lot of trouble these days to make simple pop-songs interesting, by treating them a bit, and giving them a certain twist.

This band definitely set the standard in the early nineties with this seminal example of how great and intelligent pop music can be.

footprints in snow
256kbps

NoMeansNo - Wrong (1989)

NoMeansNo is a hardcore punk band with a bit of a Minutemen-style add to it and more complex rythms, combined with instrumental passages. So that makes them one of the most interesting (post-)hardcore bands of the 1980s. This album is their most hailed, and I can surely say that it is a great album that deserves repeated listens.

The long songs are impressive because they are very repetitive, and the short songs are very impressive because they are so overwhelmingly fast. So there's a win-win situation here, all the songs are killers.

rags and bones
320kbps

Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle (1968)

Completely awesome record that cost a helluvalot of money back in the day. Warner Brothers (the label that released it) even made an ad the next year saying that they "lost $35,509 on 'the album of the year' (dammit)". Brilliantly orchestrated, chamber pop from one of the most underrated songsmiths of our day.

But the fact this album didn't make them money, doesn't make this any less valuable. It remains an incredible album up until today, because Van Dyke Parks (whose admirers of today include Joanna Newsom and Jim O'Rourke) was one of the first to experiment with the deconstruction of pop songs. Bands like Spoon and Animal Collective have listened to this album an awful lot, that's for sure. I hope you will do to.

pot pourri
320kbps

Don Cherry - "mu" First Part (1969)

Don Cherry is very recognisable jazz player. He plays a little instrument called the pocket trumpet. Indeed, an instrument that looks like a regular trumpet that shrunk in the washing machine. Because the pocket trumpet is so little, it sounds really shrill and high-pitched. Therefore, the playing of Don Cherry is always easy to spot. He is the one with the highest tones. This album is inspired by Africa. On the album only a trumpet player and a drummer are present. Together, they create one of the greatest duets in (jazz) history. Calling out to each together, they make it sound really playful and overall fun to make and listen to. Also: this came out on one of the most interesting labels of alle time: the French BYG. They released the most incredible free jazz that American labels didn't dare to put their hands on.

Go hear this thing people, great example of the qualities free jazz can communicate. Not as hard to listen to than a lot of other examples of one my favourite genres, so I guess this could be everyone's cup of tea.

sun of the east
VBR

The Residents - Duck Stab / Buster & Glen (1978)

The Residents is an American avant-garde and performance art group, making music since 1969. Nobody knows who they are and their whole career has been shrouded in mystery. On promotional photos they always dress in tuxedos, wearing eye-ball masks and top hats. During gigs they are also costumed and they never speak in public. In other words: a quite fascinating phenomena in rock history.

Their music is very hard to pin down. This album is a mix of minimal electronic music mixed with satirically sung lyrics. Especially the first song Constantinople is a classic example of the greatness of this album. But their musical style evolves from album to album, so don't worry if you don't like this album.

bach is dead
192kbps

Prince Far I - Under Heavy Manners (1977)

I guess when you get dub/reggae, it's a very easy genre. I guess when you don't get reggae, you will never ever get it. You will never enjoy the thick bass that lays lazily over all the tracks, you will never enjoy the lyrics and the way of singing and you will never understand the people who like it. Funny anecdote: Prince Far I, née Michael James Williams, used to be a bouncer/security guard at various clubs and recording studios and he started singing when another DJ failed to come up and he filled up the void by doing a session.

And then there's this artist called Prince Far I. I guess even the most devoted reggae-fans will have a hard time in the beginning with Prince Far I. In the reggae genre, he is an acquired taste. His mumbly singing style, his sand paper voice, it's all a bit tough at first. But when you get used to it, it opens important doors for reggae fans searching for more in the field.

heavy manners
320kbps

Suomen Talvisota 1939-1940 - Underground-Rock (1970)

To be fair, I didn't even know this sort of music existed at first. What we have here is a very early proto-punk album that has standard rock & roll music, with a nice upright bass and slicky guitar solos, but with a sort of anarchistic feeling all over it. Their band name means The Finnish Winter War 1939-1940, so now you know why they have such a weird band name. Because of the notorious Finnish winters off course!

So yeah, pretty weird album, also because those crazy Fins sing completely crazy stuff that no one can understand but the few people from Finland who have actually heard this record. Terribly one of a kind.

finnish proto-punk from 1970. whut?
192kbps

Odetta - Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues (1956)

When I first heard about the existence of this album, I immediately had the feeling that this girl Odetta was a blues singer, a more friendly, female equivalent of all the howling blues singers of her time and before. I was wrong. Bob Dylan was more influenced by this than blues was. Odetta is mostly a folk singer with a certain degree of blues in her voice. This album, recorded in 1956 (!) is a brilliant and very early milestone in folk music. Odetta's voice may well be the most mighty in folk history.

Incredibly sparse, compared to all the big arrangements, jazz orchestras and other ensembles from that time, this album is essentially Odetta with a guitar, sometimes accompanied by a tasteful acoustic bass. I highly recommend this to everyone, because the songs are very melodic and lovely. Odetta's voice is powerful enough to blow you away, there are no amplifiers cranked up to 11 needed to create such effects.

god's gonna cut you down
VBR

Massacre - Killing Time (1981)

It can be very hard for an artist to keep evolving throughout his career. At the beginning of one's career, the music that he or she is making is often the blueprint for the rest of the career to come. Take the Rolling Stones for an example: they were highly successful with their 'blues done by white men' music, but totally lost their relevance in the mid-70s. So, what an artist has to do is to let go of his roots (the music he's best known for) and try something new.

Best example I could give is Fred Frith. Fred Frith is a guitarist/multi-instrumentalist from the UK. He started the band Henry Cow (a very influential band that created the genre 'rock-in-opposition', a sort of more elemental form of progrock), then went on to form Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew and Naked City. He has made music in all sorts of genres and his solo records are immensely creative as well. This album, the only album Massacre made until their reunion in 1998, is one of the pillars of the no-wave genre although Fred Frith had absolutely nothing to do with the scene. And that's what makes this album so great. It provides a completely open-minded view into the genre no-wave, made by outsiders. Wild album.

And I'm positively sure that the math rock-bands have listened to this very carefully as well, and to some extend I hear some Massacre-influence in Foals' first album.

not the person we knew
192kbps

Buck Owens - I've Got A Tiger By The Tail (1965)

Country music has been an unpopular genre for almost its entire existence. People who love country, love it. People who don't love country, immediately hate it. I am definitely not a country music adept, and I don't know very much about it, but I can say for sure that I see what's so great about it. To put that feeling into words is another, more difficult story, because the themes used in early country music are often very boring, very red neck-ish, woman unfriendly, to name a few.

Buck Owens is not an exception. On song 3 he thinks it's best to 'Let the sad times roll on' and on song 7 he sings 'We're gonna let the good times roll', so yeah, lyric-wise: not too many points scored. Songwise, and most of all, the overall feeling it communicates: great! I really love the Telecaster-sound his band has on this album and I also like western movies, cowboys, etc. That helps as well I guess.

streets of laredo
256kbps

Throbbing Gristle - D.o.A. The Third and Final Report (1978)

This album came out a year before 20 Jazz Funk Greats, which is their best work I guess. You can never be sure with Throbbing Gristle, as they released about 30 bootlegs and live gigs over the course of 1976 - 1980, called the IRC series. They are therefore one of the most prolific bands, despite the fact that the only have been an active band from the period 1976 - 1982 and since 2004, when they reunited and started releasing music again.

They are now making an interpretation of Nico's Desertshore, and last year they released an album full of music from those sessions, called The Third Mind Movements. But first listen to this album, their second album!

blood on the floor
192kbps

Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979)

Throbbing Gristle is an English avant-garde and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions. The band is led by Genesis P-Orridge (Neil Megson) and Cosey Fan Tutti (Christine Newby) and their work, which deals with themes such as prostitution, pornography, occultism and serial killers, generated a lot of controversy throughout the United Kingdom. Neil Megson also created Psychic TV, an experimental music collective, five years after the start of Throbbing Gristle, who disbanded in 1981. This album is their third of four studio albums from the first period.

We are at the start of industrial music right here. Which is a total coincidence, because Throbbing Gristle is essentially very much on its own and their live shows were mostly based around performances, including pornography and photographs of Nazi concentration camps. A unique and quintessential art collective, of which I will post a lot more in the future.

Also: this photo was shot at Beachy Head, on the south coast of England, close to Eastbourne and it is one of the most notorious suicide spots in the world.

beachy head
192kbps

Chrome - Half Machine Lip Moves (1979)

This epic band named Chrome sounds like the Stooges going experimental, going post-punk and going even more insane. Like gang-banging the sound of punk. This all sounds very pioneering, just as This Heat paved the fundaments of post-punk, Chrome did the same for industrial music and there's a lot of experimentation with tape manipulation going on here as well, so get this album you all and listen to this indie masterpiece.

I'm afraid I'm calling albums 'a masterpiece' too fast. I apologize for that.

abstract nympho
VBR

Tiny Tim - God Bless Tiny Tim (1968)

If you like eccentric, obscure, weird albums: here's Tiny Tim for you. Tiny Tim could best be described as Daniel Johnston, deciding to be a vaudevillian, scary guy with a ukelele, singing high-pitched falsetto, instead of sitting in his room, being very autistic. The hysterical voice of Tiny Tim works very well with the way too positive songs he's playing. And there are so many fantastic quotes, like this one: 'never hit your grandma with a shovel, it will make a bad impression on her mind'.

Hilarious spoken words parts are followed by actual psychedelic offerings, but as always, it all falls back into the upbeat ukelele songs. He kept on playing until his death, and he actually died during a show, collapsing on stage after having a heart attack. When his third wife asked him if he was O.K., he responded 'No, I'm not', and that was that. Essential listen, I promise you.

tip-toe thru the tulips with me
256kbps