A Year of Music

As promised, here’s the list of what-all I’ve added to my collection since the last time I posted one of these omnibus roundups. As always, the sources are various: Amoeba, Boomkat, the Amazon MP3 store, Mutant Sounds, Dualtrack, The Thing on the Doorstep, No Longer Forgotten Music, The Soundhead, Phoenix Hairpins, and What Fucked You. Some of them are duplicates from the last list big list I posted because I purchased copies of things I had downloaded to check out (like the excellent Au Revoir Simone album).

Some of you may notice that despite my fevered excoriation of Death in June (or, you know, ambivalent musings thereon), there’s a hearty selection of their music here. I decided I needed to hear more of their stuff for myself, and I have to say, extended exposure to their music reinforces my conviction that they’re purposefully playing games with their listeners in a way I find unconscionable, even if some of the (earlier) songs scratch a very specific, Joy Division-esque itch deep in my head. This is something Jessica Hopper deals with obliquely, in the context of indie hipsters becoming fans of black metal bands with questionable beliefs (another thing I’ve had to wrestle with repeatedly over the years).

UPDATE: The conversation continues over Jessica’s way, just as ambivalent and inconclusive as the one that goes on in my head.

Anyway, here’s the list.

1. ABC Mutes: Studio Stuff
2. Ab Ovo: Empreintes
3. Architects Office: 1987: Live
4. Architects Office: 9th Year Gala Performance
5. Area: Arbeit Macht Frei
6. Art & Technique: Diabolus In Mecanica
7. Au Revoir Simone: The Bird of Music
8. Ballet Mécanique: The Icecold Waters of Egocentric Calculation
9. Sir Richard Bishop: While My Guitar Violently Bleeds
10. ビジリバ: ビジリバ
11. Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath [box set remaster]
12. Black Sabbath: Paranoid [box set remaster]
13. Black Sabbath: Master of Reality [box set remaster]
14. Black Sabbath: Vol 4 [box set remaster]
15. Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath [box set remaster]
16. Black Sabbath: Sabotage [box set remaster]
17. Black Sabbath: Technical Ecstasy [box set remaster]
18. Black Sabbath: Never Say Die! [box set remaster]
19. Blue Mathue: Perfect Pictures
20. Bogart & S·Core: Pilgrim
21. Boys Noize: Oi Oi Oi
22. The Breeders: Mountain Battles
23. Monte Cazazza: The Worst of Monte Cazazza
24. CEDS: Xandosis
25. CINdYTALK: Camouflage Heart
26. CINdYTALK: In This World
27. CINdYTALK: Secrets and Falling
28. CINdYTALK: The Wind is Strong
29. CINdYTALK: Transgender Warrior
30. CINdYTALK: Wappinschaw
31. Cardboard Village: Sea Change
32. Coil: The New Backwards
33. Combo FH: Véci
34. Commando M Pigg: s/t
35. Confetti: Retrospective
36. Crawling Chaos: The Gas Chair
37. Crawling With Tarts: Operas
38. Crevice: Crevice 1
39. Crevice: Think of Pleasant Things
40. Curlew: s/t
41. De Fabriek & Telepherique: PWZ
42. Death in June: The Guilty Have No Past
43. Death in June: Burial
44. Death in June: Nada!
45. Death in June: The World That Summer
46. Death in June: Brown Book
47. Death in June: 93 Dead Sunwheels
48. Death in June: The Wall of Sacrifice
49. Death in June: The Cathedral of Tears
50. Death in June: Oh How We Laughed
51. Death in June: The Corn Years
52. Devo: Recombo DNA
53. Disrupt: Jah Bit Invasion
54. Dom: Fackeln Im Sturm
55. Frank Domert: Kiefermusik
56. Dorothy: I Confess
57. Drahomira Song Orchestra: The Return of 120 Magicians
58. Iancu Dumitrescu / David Prescott: split
59. Alec Empire: The Golden Foretaste of Heaven
60. Enduser: Form Without Function
61. Eva-Tone: She’s-A-Wild
62. Flipper: Love Canal / Ha Ha Ha
63. The Flying Lizards: s/t
64. The Flying Lizards: Fourth Wall
65. The Flying Lizards: Top Ten
66. Folkdove: s/t
67. Francisco: Cosmic Beam Experience
68. Frequency.m: Fm043
69. Genghis Tron: Board Up the House
70. Gorilla Aktiv: Umsonst Ohne Risiko
71. The Hafler Trio: Ignotum Per Ignotus
72. Hajsch: Nagual (für Silvio Manuel)
73. Hands To / Eric Lunde: split
74. Kevin Harrison: Inscrutably Obvious
75. Hula: Black Pop Workout
76. Hula: Cut From Inside
77. Hula: Fever Car
78. Hula: Murmur
79. Hula: Freeze Out
80. Hula: Get the Habit
81. Hula: Black Wall Blue
82. Hula: Poison
83. Hula: Cut Me Loose
84. Hula: VC1
85. Indoor Life: s/t
86. Linton Kwesi Johnson: A Cappella Live
87. Linton Kwesi Johnson: Bass Culture
88. Linton Kwesi Johnson: Dread Beat an’ Blood
89. Linton Kwesi Johnson: Making History
90. Kiss the Blade: The Party’s Begun
91. Kiss the Blade: Young Soldier
92. Hassisen Kone: Harsoinen Teräs
93. Korean Buddhist God: Magnum You
94. Korpses Katatonik: Sensitive Liberated Autistiks
95. Joachim Kuhn: Cinemascope
96. Der Künftige Musikan: Veitstanz
97. LAShTAL: Thoum Aesh Neith
98. Laddio Bolocko: Strange Warnings of Laddio Bolocko
99. Laddio Bolocko: The Life & Times of Laddio Bolocko
100. Leviathan: Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
101. Liquid Visions: Endless Plasmatic Childhood
102. Eric Lunde: V215
103. Eric Lunde: Witness to Disaster
104. M83: Saturdays = Youth
105. Magma: Trilogie Theusz Hamtaahk Live
106. The Master Musicians of Joujouka: recorded live in France
107. Merzbow & John Hudak: The Time Stream
108. Merzbow: Batzoutai With Material Gadgets
109. Merzbow: Lowest Music 2
110. Mesh: Claustrophobia
111. Meshuggah: obZen
112. Jeff Mills: Gamma Player, Volume 1: The Universe by Night
113. Misson of Burma: Signals, Calls, and Marches [2008 Matador reissue]
114. Mnemonists: Gyromancy
115. Mnemonists: Roto-Limbs
116. Mnemonists: Some Attributes of a Living System
117. Monos: Everyday Soundtracks
118. Monos: Generators
119. Monos: Window
120. Monoton: Monotonprodukt 02
121. Monoton: Monotonprodukt 07
122. Mr. Partridge: Take Away / The Lure of Salvage
123. Nailsleeper: Marching Dynamics
124. Neung Phak: Neung Phak (Mono Pause)
125. Kaiser Nietzsche: Non Plus Ultra
126. Hermann Nitsch: Klaviersonate für Arnulf Rainer
127. Gary Numan & Tubeway Army: Replicas Redux
128. Nurse With Wound: Steel Dream March of the Metal Men
129. OAD: Daytona
130. The Ocean: Precambrian
131. Ora: After Rainfall
132. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Dazzle Ships [2008 Telegraph remaster]
133. Jürgen Paape: Nord Nord-West
134. PBK: Shadows of Prophecy / In His Throes
135. Pearls Before Swine: The Complete ESP-Disk’ Recordings
136. Bob Pegg: Ancient Maps
137. Bob Pegg & Nick Strutt: The Ship Builder
138. Pekka Streng & Tasavalla Presidentti: Magneettimiehen Kuolema
139. PFN: Akasa / Für Cleo
140. Phallus Dei: Pontifex Maximus
141. Poison the Well: Versions
142. Portion Control: Simulate Sensual
143. Prag Vec: No Cowboys
144. Princess Tinymeat: Herstory: 1984-1986
145. Qua: Forgetabout
146. Qua: Painting Monsters on Clouds
147. The Raincoats: s/t
148. Jay Reatard: Blood Visions
149. Reyvision: The Sound Cage
150. Chas Rose: Child of the Universe
151. Jack Rose: Dr. Ragtime & Pals / Jack Rose
152. Rosetta: Wake / Lift
153. S·Core: A Great Lump
154. S·Core: A Jest of Nature
155. S·Core: Dross
156. S·Core: Dysphonia
157. S·Core: Finger Mark
158. S·Core: Morbid Moppets
159. S·Core: Shedder
160. S·Core: Tarnish
161. S·Core: Undersong
162. Rolf Schulz: Tambora
163. Adrian Sherwood: Becoming a Cliché / Dub Cliché
164. Sigillum S: Abstraction
165. Sigillum S: Dispersion: Sliced Carrions & Pixel Handcuffs
166. Sigillum S: Es Database Chronology
167. Sigillum S: Mutilated Terrorism
168. Sigillum S: Terror-Auto Obstetrics
169. Soap-Jo Henshi: s/t
170. Social Climbers: s/t
171. Somatic Responses: Augmented Lines
172. Somatic Responses: Circumflex
173. Somatic Responses: Pounded Mass
174. Somatic Responses: Touching the Void
175. La Sonorite Jaun: Heliae
176. La Sonorite Jaune & The Haters: The Interstellar Destroyed Music Mail Project
177. SPK: Dekompositiones
178. SPK: Live 7 June 1987 Theaterfabrik Manege, München
179. SPK: Oceania: In Performance 1987
180. Stars & Stips: Nevergreens
181. Suburban Lawns: Baby
182. Suburban Lawns: Gidget Goes to Hell
183. Supersister: Present From Nancy
184. Supersister: Spiral Staircase
185. Teddy & the Frat Girls: Audio Suicide
186. Test Dept. / Brith Gof: Gododdin
187. Steve Thomsen: Retrospective II
188. Steve Thomsen: Retrospective III
189. Throbbing Gristle: Discipline
190. Throbbing Gristle: Mission of Dead Souls: The Last Live Performance of TG
191. Throbbing Gristle: Subhuman
192. Throbbing Gristle: The First Annual Report
193. Throbbing Gristle: Throbbing Gristle Live: Volume 1 (1976-1978)
194. Throbbing Gristle: Throbbing Gristle Live: Volume 2 (1977-1978)
195. Throbbing Gristle: Throbbing Gristle Live: Volume 3 (1978-1979)
196. Throbbing Gristle: Throbbing Gristle Live: Volume 4 (1979-1980)
197. Torche: Torche [2005 original version]
198. Torche: Torche [2007 re-recorded version]
199. Torche: Meanderthal
200. The Vaselines: The Way of the Vaselines: A Complete History
201. Vazz: Your Lungs and Your Tongue
202. Vendino Pact: s/t
203. Virgin Prunes: A New Form of Beauty
204. Virgin Prunes: Over the Rainbow
205. Virgin Prunes: …If I Die, I Die
206. Voigt/465: One Faint Deluded Smile
207. Vox Populi!: Half Dead Ganja Music
208. Warning: s/t
209. Trevor Wishart: Journey Into Space
210. Trevor Wishart: Red Bird / Anticredos
211. Xanopticon: Liminal Space
212. Yeast Culture: IYS
213. Yeast Culture: Rena Leica: The Exposition of Nothing
214. Yelle: Pop Up
215. Zanov: Green Ray
216. Zanov: In Course of Time
217. Zanov: Moebius
218. v/a: Alchemy
219. v/a: Angelica 91
220. v/a: Angelica 92
221. v/a: Anthology 1: Come Organisation Archives 1979-1981
222. v/a: Bogata, Luca & Richman: The Devil’s Trill
223. v/a: Dry Lungs
224. v/a: Dry Lungs II
225. v/a: Dry Lungs V
226. v/a: Freedom in a Vacuum
227. v/a: Fridge Freezer
228. v/a: Hands 2/3
229. v/a: La Mort Heureuse
230. v/a: Mutant Sounds Whacked-Out Singles: Volume 7
231. v/a: No Big Business
232. v/a: No Big Business 2
233. v/a: PS1 Volume: Bed of Sound
234. v/a: Project One
235. v/a: Trumpett Sounds

So I sorta fell silent and haven’t been posting much lately. This is due, in large part, to having accumulated a huge pile of music that is entirely new to me. It doesn’t help that it would be difficult for me to write about much of this music even given the advantage of intimate familiarity; most of it was obscure to begin with, and is abstract verging on the obtuse. Jazzy krautrock improv from Scandinavia, broad-spectrum wiggly noise bursts, ramshackle protean compositions that were coming unraveled even as they were recorded: these are highly individual outbursts of noise and creativity, and even when they’re affiliated with a time and a place or from a reasonably well-known artist (depending on how well-known you think Nurse With Wound is), they’re difficult to describe.

But that’s not really an excuse or a complete explanation. The simple truth is that spending sustained periods of time listening to music I’ve never heard before erases my ability to talk about music at all. There are albums where I can confidently say, after a single listen, “I like this,” or “this doesn’t interest me,” but for the most part the stuff I’ve been listening to lately resists that kind of immediate judgment. I can tell after hearing Mnemonists’ Horde or Rota-Limbs for the first time that they’re both interesting and exciting, but I lack the words for putting that fascination into concrete terms, and given the tiny audience for this kind of music, just saying “this rox u shud listn 2 it” isn’t going to do much for anyone. Especially when I don’t really know how I feel about it myself.

I think that explains why I’ve fallen off the soundwagon a little in the last few weeks and have spent some time listening to stuff that’s a little less demanding. There have been a number of great new records put out over the last month, too: the Breeders erase time with a miraculously good / unpretentious / direct set of songs on Mountain Battles, as accomplished as anything they’ve done since Safari; Torche’s new record, Meanderthal, is almost as good as their monstrous debut, putting the “thunder” in “thunder pop”; M83 have returned from the wilds of Elektronikaslavia with a newer, sleeker sound and a new album, the aptly named Saturdays = Youth; and a Dutch label has released a remastered version of OMD’s brilliant Dazzle Ships, with its incredibly infectious New Wave hit single that never was, “Genetic Engineering”. These are the things I find myself returning to when the stress of moving (oh yeah – I’m preparing to move me and my enormous pile of media across town) overwhelms my ability to deal with hours on end of square waves and rambling percussive scree.

But I’m going to try to suck it up and deal, both by documenting the enormous piles of stuff I’ve continued to add to my collection, as well as trying to come up with some kind of game plan for talking about it. It’ll probably be fragmentary and incomplete, but that’s what blogs are, aren’t they?

One of the many fruits of my recent orgy of downloading and purchasing is that it’s put me back in touch with a lot of my favorite industrial and drone music, and among the groups who combine both those tendencies most effectively, Organum has to stand as one of the most impressive and uncompromising. They’ve built up a small pile of releases over the years, many of which are only available as part of compilations, and are not a well-known group even among fans of strange music. It’s not hard to understand why they’re marginal, as their work is fairly inaccessible even by industrial music’s esoteric standards, but every time I listen to an Organum record I find it riveting, a collection of mysterious yet concrete sounds that never overstay their welcome.

To refer to Organum by a plural pronoun is a little misleading; in every meaningful sense the name is just a handle David Jackman has attached to many of his musical activities. Organum’s music has appeared on many collaborative releases (Jackman especially appears to favor split albums), but these days, the best way to find his music is on a couple of CDs, prosaically entitled Volume One and Volume Two, on Robot Records. By “best” I mean “easiest to find”; the downside of listening to Organum on omnibus collections is that many of the original pieces originally stood alone, and stringing them together robs them of some of their power. The perfect amount of time to spend listening to Organum is about 20 minutes. Unlike some of his followers (most notably Jonathan Coleclough, whose music I absolutely adore no matter how long the works are), Jackman has recognized the power inherent in keeping compositions concise.

Jackman’s method is easy to describe, but the net effect is close to indescribable. Typically he combines some kind of mechanical drone (compression fans, electrical motors) with bowed metal (cymbals, saws). It can range from the quietly ominous (“Crux”) to the overpowering (“In Extremis”), but always with the unpredictable shrieks and whines caused by friction against sheet metal. Often there are abstract elements (wordless vocals, feedback) layered over the top. It’s a strict program, and would seem to make for predictable / boring / irritating results, but each recording has its own distinct personality. Despite the mundane origins of the sounds and the plain recording, Organum’s work feels like ritual music, and it is weird in the truest, oldest sense of the word (“suggesting something supernatural; uncanny… connected with fate”).

Much of Organum’s early output was released on Nurse With Wound’s United Dairies imprint, and careful listeners can derive insight into Organum’s methodical approach by comparing and contrasting Organum’s work with Nurse With Wound’s. Steven Stapleton is a curator, a consummate technician and a near-involuntary surrealist; each Nurse With Wound record is a product of laborious tape engineering, even if the original source material is the product of random studio improvisation. By contrast, Organum’s work is relatively static, and it seems as if Jackman sets up the initial conditions for a recording, records a take, and calls it done. You can hear the room in which the music was recorded, as opposed to NWW’s dematerialized (and often chaotic) soundstage.

Most of the Robot Records material is still in print, or at least available, so if you’re curious about Organum, I recommend picking up a copy of Volume One and listening to it as two separate halves (it compiles Tower of Silence and the Organum half of the NWW / Organum A Missing Sense / Rasa split single). From there, Ikon and Sphyx are both fine releases, if you can find them. All of Organum’s material is best when treated as abstract sound sculpture, and rewards a meditative frame of mind; it’s neither ambient wallpaper nor music in any traditional sense of the word.

The problem with drinking from a firehose is that sometimes you asplode. This just happened to me, and I’m trying to deal with it by sharing my total insanity with you, the semi-random passersby on the internet.

As I’ve mentioned several times, I recently discovered the awe-inspiring zombie amusement park that is Blogspot’s coterie of MP3 blogs. I’d never really paid them much attention before, because most of my exposure to MP3 blogs had been through dodgy Eastern European metal blogs that were dedicated to scene rips of upcoming releases, and I’m really not all that into pissing all over the people who make my favorite music, which is basically what these blogs are all about (somebody has to pay for music, somehow, if it’s going to continue to be made).

However, Mutant Sounds and its brethren opened my eyes to the vast amount of music that exists in a twilit state with respect to copyright; thanks to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act™, most of the recordings shared via these blogs won’t be public domain until the end of this century – if ever – yet the vast majority of this material can be had neither via love, money, nor diligent browsing of GEMM. Most of the artists involved really don’t seem to care, as the bloggers are all pretty careful to avoid posting material that is readily available, and in some cases the creators send the blog owners better-quality recordings of their own material to replace inferior rips.

It didn’t help that one of the first of these blogs I discovered, dualtrack, has posted nearly every record I deeply coveted between 1989 and 1992. I sometimes forget that I got my start as a major music nerd through RE/Search’s Industrial Culture Handbook, but when I was learning about this stuff, I was also your average broke college kid and therefore could only read about these records in The Ooze’s monthly new-releases newsletter, saving up for stuff I really, really wanted, like :zoviet*france: reissues on CD or the occasional bizarre overindulgence. Now that I’m all grown up, most of those records, CDs and cassettes are beyond gone, appearing only in Amoeba’s used bins or on eBay (sometimes for plainly hurtful prices). It was with delight bordering on awe that I discovered that almost all of these records I’d been searching for for many, many years were freely available, generally with high-quality scans of the included artwork.

So, armed with a not entirely flimsy rationalization, a sense of burning need, and a month’s Premium subscription to Rapidshare, I went completely bonkers. Most of the stuff on this list came from either dualtrack, The Thing on the Doorstep, No Longer Forgotten Music, Rusted Noise, Mutant Sounds, Phoenix Hairpins, Boomkat, Amoeba and Other Music Digital. (NOTE TO RECORD LABEL FOLK: My copy of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black is on a shiny aluminized plastic platter purchased new from Amoeba Records, with the latest lame cover art you have chosen for it. The original cover art was much nicer. Thank you for your attention.) A lot of it I even bought, as I took this opportunity to fill in long-standing gaps in my collection. As you can see, it would take me a very long time to even summarize what’s here, so I’m going to leave that to other postings. Suffice it to say that just about every weird kind of music you can imagine, and some you probably can’t (the Masstishaddhu record, in particular, defies description to anyone who hasn’t already heard it).

It’s going to take me weeks to listen to all this stuff, much less comprehend it. There’s a lot of amazing, weird and profound music in here.

1. ABGS: Werkbeschallung: Live
2. Abwärts: Amok Koma
3. Gunter Adler: Minute Music
4. Gunter Adler: Polysyntetica
5. Gunter Adler: The Silver Book
6. Ain Soph: Kshatriya
7. Alpha Omega: Electronic Mind Project
8. Au Revoir Simone: The Bird of Music
9. Autonomic Computing: Mutantextures
10. Henry Badowski: Life is a Grand
11. Erykah Badu: New Amerykah, Part 1: 4th World War
12. Biochemical Dread: Bush Doctrine
13. Biota: Rackabones / Vagabones
14. Bipol: Ritual
15. Black Sun Ensemble: Black Sun Ensemble
16. Blacworld: Subduing Demons (In South Yorkshire)
17. Burning Witch: Crippled Lucifer
18. Monte Cazazza: To Mom on Mother’s Day / Candy Man
19. C-Schulz: 7. Party Disco
20. C-Schulz: 10. Hose Horn
21. Chrome: Alien Soundtracks
22. Chrome: Half Machine Lip Moves
23. Chrome: 3rd from the Sun
24. Chrystal Belle Scrodd: The Inevitable Chrystal Belle Scrodd Record
25. Coil / Zos Kia: Transparent
26. Cold Sun: Dark Shadows
27. Cosey Fanni Tutti: Time to Tell
28. Cranioclast: A Con Cristal
29. Cranioclast: Koitlaransk / Ration Skalk
30. Crash Worship: This
31. Crawling Chaos: Sex Machine / Berlin
32. Helios Creed: X-Rated Fairy Tales / Superior Catholic Finger
33. Crispy Ambulance: From the Cradle to the Grave
34. Crispy Ambulance: Live on a Hot August Night
35. Crispy Ambulance: Sexus
36. Crispy Ambulance: The Plateau Phase
37. Crispy Ambulance: Unsightly and Serene
38. Crispy Ambulance: Live at the ICA
39. Current 93 & HÖH: Crowleymass
40. Current 93 / Nurse With Wound: Mi-Mort
41. Daft Punk: Alive 2007
42. Danava: UnonoU
43. Danielle Dax: Pop-Eyes
44. Danielle Dax: Jesus Egg That Wept
45. Danielle Dax: Inky Bloaters
46. Danielle Dax: The Janice Long Session
47. Danielle Dax: Comatose Non Reaction: The Thwarted Pop Career
48. Amy Denio: No Bones
49. Dead Meadow: Old Growth
50. Dethklok: The Dethalbum
51. Die Form / Asmus Tietchens: Face to Face, Volume 1
52. Die Form: Duality
53. DF Sadist School: Les Cent Vingt Journées de Sodome
54. Doxa Sinistra: Via del Latte
55. Drowning Craze: Trance / I Love the Fjords
56. Frankie Dymon, Jr.: Let It Out
57. Earth: The Bee Made Honey In The Lions Skull
58. Einstürzende Neubauten: Kollaps
59. Einstürzende Neubauten: Zeichnungen des Patienten OT
60. Elohim: A L’Aube Du Verseau
61. Erste Weibliche Fleischergesellin Nach 1945: Ferien Auf Dem Lande
62. Étant Donnés: Aurore
63. Étant Donnés: L’eclipse
64. Étant Donnés: Re-Up
65. Etat Brut: Mutations et Protheses
66. Exterminator: Anna Blume
67. Factrix: Empire of Passion
68. Factrix: Scheintot
69. Fanzine: 1980
70. Fanzine: 1981
71. Fanzine: 1982
72. File Under Pop: Heathrow
73. Brigitte Fontaine & Areski: L’incendie
74. Brigitte Fontaine & Art Ensemble of Chicago: Comme à la Radio
75. Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle: Telinehmende Beobachtung
76. The Fugs: First Album
77. The Fugs: Second Album
78. BC Gilbert & G Lewis: Ends With the Sea
79. The Gothic Archies: The Tragic Treasury: Songs from “A Series of Unfortunate Events”
80. Bruce Haack: Electric Lucifer: Book 2
81. Bruce Haack: The Electric Lucifer
82. Hanadensha: Acoustic Mothership
83. Hanadensha: Astral Pigmy Wave
84. Hanadensha: Doobie Shining Love
85. Hip Hop Pantsula: YBA 2 NW
86. Lars Hollmer: Fran Natt Idag
87. Lars Hollmer: Vill Du Höra Mer
88. Lars Hollmer: XII Sibirska Cyklar
89. Hoola Bandoola Band: Fri Information
90. Hoola Bandoola Band: Garanterate Individuell
91. Hoola Bandoola Band: På Väg
92. Hoola Bandoola Band: Vem Kan Man Lita På?
93. The Horrorist: Attack Decay
94. The Human League: Being Boiled
95. The Human League: The Dignity of Labour
96. Hunting Lodge: Tribal Warning Shot
97. In the Woods…: Three by Seven on a Pilgrimage
98. Islaja: Meritie
99. Kallabris: Considération sur / sous lé café
100. Richard H Kirk: Darkness at Noon
101. Richard H Kirk: Disposable Half-Truths
102. Kotazo: Papy Mbavu / Papa Komanda
103. Korpiklaani: Korven Kuningas
104. Korpiklaani: Spirit of the Forest
105. Korpiklaani: Voice of Wilderness
106. Lava: Tears Are Goin’ Home
107. Thomas Leer & Robert Rental: The Bridge
108. Lemon Kittens: Spoonfed and Writhing
109. Lemon Kittens: The Big Dentist
110. Lemon Kittens: We Buy a Hammer for Daddy
111. Lesbian: Power Hor
112. Liquid Sound Company: Exploring the Psychedelic
113. Machinic Indices: Untitled Kompositions
114. Malombra: Malombra
115. Masstishaddhu: Shekinah
116. Men/Eject: Men/Eject
117. Metabolist: Drömm
118. Metabolist: Hansten Klork
119. Metabolist: Identify
120. The Metronomes: Regular Guys
121. Mimir: Mimir
122. Mimir: Mimyriad
123. Mnemonists: Biota
124. Mnemonists: Horde
125. Moctan: Suspect
126. Morphogenesis: Prochronisms
127. Mysticum: In the Streams of Inferno
128. nEGAPADRÉS.3.3: nEGAPADRÉS.3.3
129. Joanna Newsom: Walnut Whales
130. Joanna Newsom: Yarn and Glue
131. Nocturnal Emissions: Spiritflesh
132. Non: Mode of Infection / Knife Ladder
133. Nurse With Wound / Spasm: Creakiness / Firemoon
134. Nurse With Wound / Termite Queen: Nurse With Wound / Termite Queen
135. Nurse With Wound / Organum: A Missing Sense / Rasa
136. Nurse With Wound: A Sucked Orange
137. Nurse With Wound: Brained by Falling Masonry
138. Nurse With Wound: Crocodile Krazy Glue
139. Nurse With Wound: The Musty Odour of Pierced Rectums
140. Opal: Early Recordings 2
141. Orchestra Terrestrial: Here and Elsewhere
142. Organum: Horii
143. Organum: Ikon
144. Organum: Sphyx
145. Organum: Tower of Silence
146. Michael O’Shea: Michael O’Shea
147. La Otracina: Fauna & Animated Floral Arrangements
148. P16.D4: Distruct
149. P16.D4: Kühe in 1/2 Trauer
150. Penumbra: Skandinavien
151. Permutative Distorsion: Brückenkopf im Niemandsland
152. Pitch Black Afro: Split Endz
153. Eddie Prévost / Organum: Flayed / Crux
154. Problemist: 9 Times Sanity
155. Project 197: IP001
156. Pseudo Code: Europa
157. Psychic TV: Allegory & Self
158. Psychic TV: Dreams Less Sweet
159. Psychic TV: Force Thee Hand ov Chance / Blinded Eye in Thee Pyramid
160. Psychic TV: Mouth of the Night
161. Psychic TV: NY Scum
162. Punch Inc.: Fightclub
163. The Raveonettes: Lust Lust Lust
164. Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
165. Steve Reich: Tehellim & The Desert Music
166. Steve Reich: Triple Quartet
167. Steve Reich: You Are (Variations) / Cello Counterpoint
168. Robert Rental: On Location / Double Heart
169. The Residents: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
170. The Residents: Commercial Single
171. Graeme Revell: The Insect Musicians
172. The Revolving Paint Dream: Flowers in the Sky: The Enigma of the Revolving Paint Dream
173. Boyd Rice and Friends: Music, Martinis & Misanthropy
174. Salon Music: La Paloma Show
175. Sandoz: In Dub: Chapter Two / Extra Time (Under the Stones)
176. Shock Headed Peters: I, Bloodbrother Be
177. Shock Headed Peters: The Kissing of Gods
178. Sielwolf: IV
179. Sielwolf: Nachtstrom
180. Sielwolf: V - Remixes
181. Sigillum S: 23|20
182. Sigillum S: Bardo Thos-Grol
183. Sigillum S: Studs and Divinity
184. Sixth Comm: Grey Years
185. Smegma: 33 1/3
186. SPK: Slogun / Meccano
187. SPK: Live At Garibaldi’s, 1979
188. SPK: Information Overload Unit
189. SPK: Auto Da Fe
190. SPK: Leichenschrei
191. SPK: Angst Pop: Live
192. SPK: From Science to Ritual
193. SPK: Human Post Mortem (Despair OST)
194. SPK: Live at Pandora’s Music Box
195. SPK: Live at the Crypt
196. SPK: No More
197. SPK: Off the Deep End
198. SPK: See-Saw / Chamber Musik
199. SPK: The Last Attempt at Paradise: Live in Lawrence, Kansas
200. SPK: Wars of Islam: Live in Rome
201. SPK: Machine Age Voodoo
202. SPK: Metal Dance / Will to Power
203. SPK: In Flagrante Delicto
204. SPK: Zamia Lehmanni
205. SPK: Gold & Poison
206. SPK: Compilation Tracks (2nd version)
207. Snakefinger: Manual of Errors
208. Snakefinger: Chewing Hides the Sound
209. Snakefinger: Greener Posters
210. Sol Invictus: Lex Talionis
211. Somatic Responses: Digital Darkness
212. Spektr: Mescalyne
213. Sun Ra: HelioCentric Worlds, Volumes 1 & 2
214. Sweet Exorcist: Spirit Guide to Low Tech
215. Symphonique Elegance: Act One
216. Syrup Girls vs Sick Girls: Shotgun Wedding, Volume 8
217. Teenage Jesus & The Jerks: Orphans / Less of Me
218. Thick Pigeon: Thick Pigeon
219. Throbbing Gristle: AR-TT-010
220. Throbbing Gristle: United
221. Throbbing Gristle: DOA: The Third and Final Report
222. Throbbing Gristle: Adrenaline
223. Throbbing Gristle: 20 Jazz Funk Greats
224. Throbbing Gristle: Nothing Short of a Total War
225. Throbbing Gristle: Rafters
226. Throbbing Gristle: CD1
227. Tools You Can Trust: Again Again Again
228. Tools You Can Trust: Say It Low
229. Tools You Can Trust: Sharpen the Tools
230. Trop Tard: Ils etaient 9 dans L’obscurite
231. Tuxedomoon: Dark Companion / 59 To 1 Remix
232. Tuxedomoon: Desire / No Tears
233. Tuxedomoon: What Use? / Crash
234. Tuxedomoon: Joe Boy The Electric Ghost / Pinheads on the Move
235. Tuxedomoon: Une Nuit au Fond de la Frayére / Egypt
236. Tuxedomoon: Scream with a View
237. Tuxedomoon: Half-Mute / Scream With a View
238. Tuxedomoon: Ship of Fools
239. Tuxedomoon: The Ghost Sonata
240. Týr: Ragnarok
241. Ultravox: Slow Motion
242. Vas Deferens Organization: Zyzzybaloubah
243. Verhören: Death is Safe
244. Vidna Obmana: Noise / Drone Anthology 1984-1989
245. Virgin Prunes: Heresie
246. Von Zamla: No Make Up!
247. Vox Populi! / HNAS: Face to Face, Volume 2
248. Amy Winehouse: Back to Black
249. Xasthur: A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors
250. Damien Youth: Festival of Death
251. Damien Youth: Fluttering Briar
252. Damien Youth: The Man Who Invented God
253. Z’ev: Elemental Music
254. Z’ev: Salts of Heavy Metals
255. Stefan Weisser: Poextensions
256. Zahgurim: Moral Rearmament
257. Zero Kama: The Secret Eye of L.A.Y.L.A.H.
258. Zos Kia Meets Sugardog: That’s Heavy Baby
259. v/a: 2005 Hands
260. v/a: 4 in 1
261. v/a: Ach Hanover
262. v/a: Angst in My Pants
263. Alban Berg / Anton Webern / Arnold Schoenberg / James Levine / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra: Orchestral Pieces
264. v/a: Can You Hear Me? Music from The Deaf Club
265. v/a: Colorado
266. v/a: Dada > Antidada > Merz
267. v/a: Devastate to Liberate
268. v/a: Dokument: Ten Highlights in the History Of Popular Music, 1982-1983
269. v/a: Earthly Delights
270. v/a: The Elephant Table Album
271. v/a: Er Ist Tief Und Dein Wasser Ist Dunkel
272. v/a: Feature Mist
273. v/a: Fluxus Anthology
274. v/a: Für Ilse Koch
275. v/a: A Gnomean Haigonaimean: A Compilation of Fantasies Intoxication Concepts
276. v/a: Gut Level One
277. v/a: Hare / Hunter / Field
278. v/a: Harmony of the Spheres
279. v/a: Hate’s Our Belief
280. v/a: Iberico
281. v/a: Internationalism
282. v/a: The Last Supper
283. v/a: Machines
284. v/a: Masse Mensch
285. v/a: Palatine: The Factory Story
286. v/a: Passage du Trou Marin
287. v/a: Perpetual State of Oracular Dream
288. v/a: Riposte
289. v/a: A Selection
290. v/a: Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus
291. v/a: The Virus Has Been Spread: A D-Trash Records Tribute To Atari Teenage Riot

I’m no stranger to loose-limbed freak folk, where songs are more nuclei around which sounds coalesce than any sort of tightly knotted skeins of rhythm, melody and lyric, and perhaps it’s a consequence of spending much of the last week plundering the grand riches of the internet’s many fine MP3 blogs, but Islaja’s Meritie totally disorients me in a way I find very hard to understand or describe. Merja Kokkonen sings her Finnish lyrics in a sweetly meandering voice, engaging with the rest of the music (guitars, piano, various other noisemaking bits) in the way that a bird rides the gusts on a windy day. There’s nothing overtly challenging going on save for the songs’ very free structure, but that lack of structure means these are not songs so much as neatly arranged piles of musical ideas, and Kokkonen’s near-total refusal to engage with typical notions of songcraft lend her songs a hallucinatory, subversive power that makes me giddy and confused in equal measure. I’m not sure it’s beautiful, but it’s certainly sublime.

Some things happened, and then they stopped happening, and here I am, back again, with a huge pile of new music to hear and perhaps the cleverest recording I’ve heard in a long time currently on the stereo. I’ll get to talking about the huge pile in a little bit, but I wanted to urge anyone who likes their out-rockin’ both clever and loud to go check out this awesome Nurse With Wound / Spasm split 12” at The Thing on the Doorstep (yet another way-too-awesome MP3 blog I’ve discovered).

Its ability to be musical and strange in equal measure frankly confuses me. One side features Steven Stapleton’s / Nurse With Wound’s usual high surrealism (although more linear and rhythmically coherent than usual), and the other is a slab of slowly building, hard-rockin’ tribal psychedelia that reminds me of the Krautrocked heaviness Julian Cope tries so hard to harness, or maybe Electric Wizard in a particularly blown state of mind. It gets genuinely heavy, and Stapleton’s predictably unpredictable interventions just ratchet up the intensity by throwing things in new directions every few phrases. It remains curiously unadorned and unsentimental for all that, and so it stands pleasantly outside of time, sounding like it could have come out at any time in the last 40 years. Nurse With Wound makes this kind of mercurial mutability seem so easy, but I know it’s anything but.

I’m going to have a terrible time trying to find a copy of this for myself (United Dairies vinyl is deeply collectible and hence tough to find), but I’d really like one.