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