Pharoah Sanders - Karma (1969)

I was about to quit posting jazz for the coming time, because I have posted enough of it over the last month now, when I was just in time reminded by myself to post this album: one of the greatest. Pharoah Sanders is a goddamn animal when he has a saxophone in his hands, and on this album that's quite noticeable. He builds up to an enormous free jazz explosion by playing some of the nicest music ever heard. Incorporating a lot of spiritual elements and even lyrics and thus, vocals.

One of the greatest free jazz, and even jazz, records. I hope you will like this as much as I do. It is truly a masterpiece, I promise.

the creator has a master plan
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X - Wild Gift (1981)

When I posted the debut album by the great punk rock band X awhile ago, about three months ago already I guess. When the blog had just started. Time goes fast. Anyway, when I posted their debut I got some nice reactions about their music. They are really catchy, and not just catchy, but really catchy. They have interesting riffs and melodies to give us and they are, apart from that, important pioneers in the hardcore punk field.

This is their second album, almost as good, and at some days even better. It has 13 songs where the debut had 10, so there's even more to love here. Enjoy your day and enjoy X!

in this house that i call home
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Squirrel Bait - Skag Heaven (1987)

Because the word 'emo' became associated with horrible musical acts like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, it used to stand for a group of emotional hardcore bands that came out of the United States during the second half of the 80s as a supplement of hardcore punk. One of the best bands of that era was Squirrel Bait. Squirrel Bait became popular just after bands like Rites Of Spring and Hüsker Dü created and popularized the genre.

One of the most original bands of that time, Squirrel Bait, gives you 25 minutes of great hardcore songs. This is their only studio album, and they released an EP as well during that time. Short-lived band, great songs.

tape from california
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The Art Ensemble Of Chicago - A Jackson In Your House (1969)

The second album to be released on BYG Actuel, and also the debut album of The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, under the name they got famous for. The Art Ensemble Of Chicago is a really unique group of people that make free jazz as close to art as possible. When this group toured Europe in 1969, the year this record came out, they used over 500 instruments on their tour. A performance by this collective is as much an aural experience as it is a visual spectacle.

I really like this album, it is definitely not their best, nor is it their most famous, but it shows you how great BYG used to be and how much talent this group of people had together. All multi-instrumentalists and up for the experiment.

get in line
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Andrew Hill - Point Of Departure (1965)

When this album happened in 1965, the year of the invention of free jazz, the hip jazz world was more and more descending into free jazz territory. This album was made by Andrew Hill with a sextet that, among others, had Eric Dolphy playing the saxophone, the bass clarinet and the flute. Dolphy was and will always be considered as one of the greatest players in jazz, and the albums he made as a leader are among my favourite jazz material.

So yeah, this album is a great mixture of avant-garde jazz going a wee bit free jazz at times, but most of all it is a balanced set of compositions that Andrew Hill made when he was at the top of his career.

spectrum
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Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 5 (1997)

One of the most important composers of the late-Romantic time, and being a bridge between the music of the late 19th century and the start of modernism. What I'm giving you here is a great performance by the Wiener Philharmonic, conducted by Pierre Boulez (not only a great conductor, but one of the nicest composers of the 20th century) from 1997.

This 5th Symphony contains the fourth movement Adagietto, and that movement is probably the most recognizable music Mahler ever made. The 5th Symphony overall is also his most important work and Mahler is still considered as one of the greatest today.

trauermarsch
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Rashied Ali & Frank Lowe - Duo Exchange (1972)

Another really free album that came out of the free jazz burst at the end of the 60s. Easiest comparison to this album is Interstellar Space by John Coltrane, on which Coltrane and Ali played together as a duo. One of the greatest duo performances this is, ever. Although totally obscure, that doesn't mean it isn't any good. Frank Lowe is not Coltrane, obviously, but his way of playing is really fresh, free, and most important of all: great. Rashied Ali plays more structured than he does on Interstellar Space, and Duo Exchange is a much more urgent listen than Interstellar Space.

I guess you have all noticed that I've been posting a lot of (free) jazz lately. I hope you all like it, if not, bear with me, because I really want to post this masterpieces and I want people to like them. There aren't enough people listening to this kind of music, and I hate that. I'm writing an essay about free jazz at the moment, so this is all I really listen to.

duo exchange
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Peter Brötzmann - Machine Gun (1968)

Machine Gun, the greatest ever European free jazz record, is not only alike of the sound machine guns, it also sounds a lot like a bunch of wild African elephants coming down the stairs. This record is so bombastic, so brutal and so over the top, that it's hard to imagine it was made in 1968, before the BYG Actuel storm, before a lot of great American free jazz happened. The Europeans were influenced by the Afro-American cats like Ayler and Sanders, who wanted more out of jazz then great, coherent melodies.

The urgency of this record was never topped by Peter Brötzmann and his fluctuating crew (on this album, an in-cre-di-ble line-up: Evan Paker, Han Bennink, Willem Breuker, Fred Van Hove, Peter Kowald, you name them) afterwards. This record catches the time it was made in: a ferocious time with a lot of uncertainties, and a lot of anger, as well. This record is as much an essential as most of the output by Ayler and his buddies.

machine gun
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Miles Davis - Nefertiti (1968)

Before Miles Davis went crazy with creating fusion, Bitches Brew and all those dark fusion-jazz albums that came after it, he made some lovely little albums with some of the people who would go on to create the fusion in jazz with him. Present on this albums are Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and Ron Carter. This line-up is also known as 'the second classic quintet'.

On this album there are some fine moments when the horn section plays the rhythm and the rhythm section improvises underneath it. Most noticeable on the title track. This album is really the missing link between post-bop and fusion-jazz, as this sounds really fusion, while remaining completely acoustic.

madness
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Dave Burrell - Echo (1969)

The quintessential wild free jazz album lies here in front of you. Free jazz is all about the abstract creation of freedom. Through sounds, through forms, shapes, a free jazz player tries to escape the material world to just exist within the song and his instrument. On the first side of Echo, we have a very wild piece of 20 minutes called Echo on which all the players (BYG all stars Clifford Thornton, Alan Silva, Archie Shepp, Grachan Moncur III, Sunny Murray, Arthur Jones and leader Dave Burrell) are going completely over the top. You have to hear it to believe me.

The second side of the record is calm compared to the first piece, but still beautiful and still far from normal jazz, as most people know it. I'm giving you a vinyl rip that contains some scratches, so bear with me. It is the only digital copy around on the net, so enjoy it.

echo
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Gene Clark - No Other (1974)

The story of this album is really simple: Gene Clark was one of the founding members of The Byrds, with whom he made some beautiful records, but he quit the band in the early stages of the late 60s. The Byrds had released their best albums, and Gene Clark left the sinking ship. He released some fairly successful solo records in the early 70s, and when he began recording No Other, expectations were high.

This record was completely dismissed back in the day though, due to its experimental nature, 8 long alt-country compositions, and critics didn't like it for that. But we all know that critics are idiots, especially if you see their reactions to records some thirty years ago. This is now Gene Clark's absolute masterpiece, and it deserves all its praise it gets nowadays.

life's greatest fool
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Sunny Murray - An Even Break (Never Give A Sucker)

Sunny Murray could well be the most important drummer in free jazz. He was the drummer on Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity and he used to hang out a lot with Cecil Taylor. He was, and is, a great and accomplished drummer and an important band leader. He recorded a total of three records for BYG Actuel, of which this is the second one. This is number 32 out of 53. Spoken word is present, a lot of great horns, crazy drumming and some African influences.

Great, great drummer and a total hero for releasing under BYG, because BYG = the shit. He released his most famous records under ESP-Disk, pretty much the only label that released some free jazz in the 60s in America. Spiritual Unity came out on ESP as well.

invisible blues
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Archie Shepp - Yasmina, A Black Woman (1969)

After a few years a searching, I have fulfilled my destiny: I own all the 53 studio albums that came out on the French free-jazz label BYG Actuel. All these albums were released in the period of 1969-1971, when a lot of American jazz-players, visited Paris and recorded a lot of music for this epic label. It actually might be my favourite label overall.

To celebrate this fact, I will share some more free jazz with you all. To start of with the 4th of 53 releases, is this very obscure record by Archie Shepp. Archie Shepp was one of the bigger names to release music under BYG. We see Archie at his wildest on this label, because everything on BYG is extremely wild: no American labels were releasing this music back then. (with a few exceptions of course, but not on this scale, 53 records in 2,5 years).

body and soul
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Waylon Jennings - Honky Tonk Heroes (1973)

Waylon Jennings was one of most important players in the movement called Outlaw Country. The outlaw movement, often referred to as just 'outlaw music', was a reaction to the country made in Nashville, called Nashville Sound. The outlaws made a fundamental distinction between their own outlaw authenticity and the smooth, commercial sound of the Nashvillers.

This album is Waylon Jennings best studio album, and songs 1 to 9 are written by Billy Joe Shaver, another outlaw musician. Apart from song number 10, this whole album was written by Shaver. Jennings makes the songs his own though, and no-one does it as well as he does. Enjoy this lovely country album, because country is: great!

honky tonk heroes
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Frederic Rzewski - The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1999)

Frederic Rzewski has to be one of the most ground breaking composers of our time. This piece, The People United Will Never Be Defeated! from 1975, is a set of 36 variations of the Chilean song with the same name (but in Chilean). This recording that I'm giving you, was performed by Marc-André Hamelin and recorded in 1999. The opening theme is a piano version of the song, but after that: hell breaks loose. 36 epic variations of that theme make this composition of the best of the 20th century, in my opinion.

I think everyone who normally doesn't listen to (modern) classical music, but is interested in Das Experiment, will love this piece. I wish everyone a brilliant first experience.

the people united will never be defeated!
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Brainiac - Hissing Prigs In Static Couture (1996)

Brainiac was a cool little band from Dayton, Ohio who disbanded a year after the release of this album because of the death of lead singer Tim Taylor. Taylor died in a car crash in 1997, during the pre-production of their fourth album, an album that has never surfaced since. So that was that. A lot of potential, but what we're left with are three albums, of which the last two are really good.

Brainiac was a notorious live act in their day and they supported The Jesus Lizard, The Breeders and Beck, but their music doesn't sound anything like any of these three bands. I like to call their music synthpunk, because dance punk happened a few years later and sounded a lot shittier than this.

i am a cracked machine
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Insect Warfare - World Extermination (2007)

I have noticed that extreme metal is extremely unpopular on my blog, which is a pity, because I love to stress out on grindcore every once in a while. So therefore I'm testing you once again, and let's see if this release can get a lot of downloads. Why is it that you're all so into reggae by the way, I love that.

Anyway, this record is as dark as grindcore gets, the singer's voice is as dark as I've ever heard and the songs are all, 20 of them, grind classics. This is one of the most influential grindcore releases of the last ten years and grindcore is actually one of the genres in music that's blooming the most at the moment.

necessary death
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Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets (1974)

Ok, this is Eno's debut album, released when he was still in Roxy Music. It sounds very glam-rock, as does his second record, but he totally abandoned that style after the first two records to create ambient, and to do a whole lot of other stuff. But, yeah, what to say: this is an Eno-record, it's his debut even, so off course it's awesome.

Just listen to it, and love it the rest of your life. In my opinion this beats even the first Roxy Music records, so Eno proves that he actually can't do anything wrong, because he even masters the silly genre that glam-rock is. Good stuff.

needles in the camel's eye
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The Books - Music For A French Elevator (2006)

I told you all about The Books last week, or the week before. Or at least, I told everyone who didn't know The Books about The Books. Because I don't want to sound pretentious, as there are enough people who come here who knew The Books already, who knew them for a long time, and some who even knew them before me. So that doesn't make me pretentious anymore, so I can now go on and tell everyone how much I love this little, tiny EP they made in 2006.

This EP is just a collection of 'found sounds', funny fragments of coincidentally stumbled upon songs, phrases, and other sounds. Great work by The Books, because they always work with very cool samples and their music is practically based upon them, but on this EP they take it a step further: they let the sample be the song. Check, it, out!

you'll never be alone
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U.S. Maple - Talker (1999)

A concept album about high-school by U.S. Maple, is there anything that could ever top this? This is the band's definitive statement: they made a great debut record, a solid follow-up and one good and one mediocre album after Talker, but Talker defines them as a band. This could be so incredibly dull and pretentious, but because of the individual qualities of this band, they completely pull it off.

Maybe this is my favourite release by this band, but it definitely is their defining moment. High school as seen through U.S. Maple's scope.

breeze, it's your high school
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U.S. Maple - Long Hair In Three Stages (1995)

U.S. Maple has always impressed the hell out of me. This band is so scary, it really is incredible that these guys decided to make music instead of working in a slaughterhouse. U.S. Maple is not only about the deconstruction of songs, but the total destruction of songs as well. Every seems starts promising, but stays right there. It never lets go of its nervous surroundings.

A truly amazing band, one of my favourite, in fact. They made another four albums after this one, of which Talker is the best. I will post that one later on today, it's U.S. Maple-Day! Give them a chance!

letter to zz top
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The Jesus Lizard - Goat (1991)

Not very often do I post albums that are in my absolute favourite epic albums ever list, but today I do. Goat by The Jesus Lizard is in that Top 100, that I made a while ago, and I'm still not sure whether to post it or not. Anyway: this record is the absolute top of the bill when we're talking about pigfuck/noise rock.

I used to like their album Liar over this for a while, but lately Goat has come to grow on me a lot. I guess, that if I ever get kidnapped by a serial killer, this is the music he's playing in his car. That's probably the best description I could give of this music. Angry, scary, serial killer freaks playing rock music.

nub
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Flux Of Pink Indians - Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible (1982)

If I had to choose, I would pick American hardcore over British hardcore everytime I had to choose a favourite. Flux Of Pink Indians however, are a fantastic British hardcore band from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. A little shithole is where these fuckers lived, so they became anarchopunks, which seems perfectly logical.

This record has some of the best riffs present in British punk, and at the same time they remain very uncompromising, a fact they would also prove on The Fucking Cunts Treat Us Like Pricks, their second album. Enjoy this record!

the fun is over
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Cows - Cunning Stunts (1992)

At the end of the eighties and the start of the nineties, there was a crazy little scene, mainly based in America, called Pigfuck. Pigfuck is a genre close to noise rock, a term coined by Robert Christgau. It refers to the rough attitude of the pigfuck bands, often spotted in stetson hats and lumberjack outfits.

This record, Cunning Stunts by the great Cows, was one of the later masterpieces to come out of the scene. Cows had been part of the scene from the start and they were known for their raucous performances, akin to The Jesus Lizard.

The front cover says it all: a trumpet player with a cowboy hat, takes out his false teeth and starts playing the trumpet. Yeehaw.

yeehaw
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Prince - Dirty Mind (1980)

I'd like to post an album by one of the greatest artists of all time (Prince himself will say that he actually is the greatest artist of all time, but I'd like to disagree about him actually being the very best), Prince. Prince was born as Prince Rogers Nelson in 1958 and he made this album when he was 21/22. Almost all the instruments on these eight songs are played by Prince himself. He was a very gifted multi-instrumentalist, often forgotten by many.

A great provocateur, but I'd like to see him more as a creator of great music, I don't care so much for the sexual provocation side of his work. But that's just my opinion, because his status is probably 'the male Madonna'. Enjoy this music, that's what I care more about.

when you were mine
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T.S.O.L. - Dance With Me (1981)

Great hardcore punk classic from T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty) out of Long Beach, California. Led by the Iggy Pop of hardcore punk: Jack Grisham, who was one of the most notorious figures in hardcore punk. Known for his on stage and off stage behavior as a complete enfant terrible. This album is just a collection of one of the strongest set of hardcore punk songs, made in 1981, probably the best year for hardcore punk ever.

In 1981, everything came together, and bands like T.S.O.L., MDC and D.O.A. were able to lift upon the success of great acts like Black Flag and Bad Brains. Hardcore punk at its peek, there isn't anything better than that.

dance with me
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Mekons - Fear And Whiskey (1985)

This album is often called alt-country, but it really has nothing to do with what people call alt-country nowadays. This more appropriately sounds like The Pogues mixed with post-punk, without all the stupid bagpipe-stuff in The Pogues. You know, I really, really dislike The Pogues, but I love the Mekons. So there you can see the difference. On this record everything comes together. They made an enormous bunch of albums, but this album is the one that is the most coherent.

Side B especially is absolutely flawless and there are some amazing songs on it. Very unpretentious, fun cowpunk from Britain, so get it while it's hot.

darkness and doubt
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Melvins - Bullhead (1991)

It is always to have another Melvins album and to know it by heart. Melvins are one of the most original bands in the alternative metal field and I love them to bits. This album is a wee more droney than the album I posted a long while ago. The opening song on this album 'Boris' even inspired the band with the same name to name their band Boris. Only that fact makes this album worthwhile enough for every metal fan across the world I guess.

Sludgy as always, Melvins keep hitting hard. I'll keep posting these Melvins albums every once in a while, because I saw Houdini got downloaded quite a few times.

anaconda
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Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline (1969)

You can say that Bob Dylan said 'fuck you' to a lot of people when he went electric and made Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde in a row. When he made Nashville Skyline, he said 'fuck you' to his electric fans though. I see this album as Dylan's first real fuck you-album. This album is as sweet as Highway 61 Revisited is raw.

Extremely short in length, under 28 minutes, containing ten swinging country rock songs, and Johnny Cash sings on the first one! I know that this album isn't as fantastic compared to his electric epics, but see this as a little snack in between opposed to the full meal of Blonde On Blonde.

i threw it all away
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The Books - Thought For Food (2002)

Indie music can get pretty awesome at times. When it is done really well, it could well be one of my favourite musical disciplines. On this album, folk(tronica) is combined with a lot of electro, field recordings and weird samples/sounds/noises, etc. I'm very proud at the fact that one of the two guys in The Books is a guy from Holland called Paul de Jong (which is probably the most standard name possible for a Dutch guy in his thirties, but yeah, still)

Great, weird music on this album and a lot to discover after repeated listens. I really like this album because I can listen to it and genuinely enjoy it, and come back to it over two years from today and still have the same fresh experience. Love this band. New album (their 4th) will come out in July.

all bad ends all
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