Circle X's Prehistory was the most far-out psychedelic album of it's time, if not of all times.It started with "Current", a delirium depicting a primitive scene in a jungle - consisting of a buzz of swarming guitars, a dizzying polyphony of tribal-drums, an offbeat funk bassline with faint Middle-Eastern echoes, wild electronic noises and guitar-feedback, and semi-chanting vocals. The textures never stayed the same; the layers and density kept interweaving and were continuously rearranged.The future-primitive (and thus subliminal) dance continued with "Prehistory I", that started with tame electronic noises and added apprehensive cries, fragmented tribal beats and manic guitar-strumming, bells-percussion, razor-like feedback, and then all the elements combined in a ritual-dance frenzy. The singer completed his suggestive psychoanalysis by delving into the subconscious of a menacing pagan sub-reality.A disruption in the continuum was evident in "Culture Progress", where the nightmare took a vividly real form of a menacing abyss of wild dissonances, which then materialized in a cyclical industrial-dance of monstrous reflections in a mirror of ancient ornaments. Back in the shadow-world of the human subconscious, in "Underworld" the ancient land "beneath" is torn by miniature volcanoes of electric shocks, only for the Freud-ian id to take a non-form barely contained in colossal spasms.More than just music, Prehistory's catharsis reached beyond.Get it here. Thanks to Nexd. Included are pictures of the cover, back-cover, booklet, and two vinyl sides.
No Tears is even more engaging than Pinheads On The Move. "New Machine" is equally synth-punk and a romantic futurist anthem, while "Litebulb Overkill" transformed the new-wave song to an austere chamber sonata, "Nite And Day" to a depressed robotic surreal mini-symphony, and "No Tears" to a lycanthropic yell drone dance. With this release Tuxedomoon merged the punks with the intellectuals.
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Zappa and his Mothers Of Invention struck again with Burnt Weeny Sandwich. The recipe this time ranged from lounge parodies ("WPLJ"), bust circus music ("Igor's Boogie Phase One"), soaring 60's soundtrack themes ("Overture To A Holiday In Berlin"), to epic acid-rock with wild percussion ("Theme From Burnt Weeny Sandwich"), unorthodox cosmopolitan jazz-themes ("Holiday in Berlin Full Blown"), exotic rainbow splashes ("Aybe Sea") and so on.On top of it all lay the 18-minute "The Little House I Used to Live In", that starts as irrational piano sonata, turns to triumphant prog-jazz theme, and then to a colossal jam: frenetic, cacophonous, with acid, slavic-folk and lounge overtones. But the epic isn't over. It then transforms to a minor orchestral fantasia, and then turns to one last spectral delirious jam. This track is a wild celebration of the free creative spirit of this great band.The closing 60's pop "Valarie" is one last joke by Zappa, the great prankster, and also adds to the surreal feel.Get it here.
Public Image Ltd's fusion is one of the most huge in the post-punk canon.
We find African percussion/ Middle-Eastern litanies/ horror electronics ("Four Enclosed Walls"), atonal folk set on irregular rhythms and acid Eastern strings ("Track 8"), horror mantras/ exotic funereal percussion/ hallucinogenic atmosphere/ Arabic psalmody ("Phenagen"), subliminal fear/ voodoo drums/ Eastern invocations/ accordion cadence ("Flowers Of Romance"), African rituals/ tape manipulation/ oriental dance ("Under The House"), symphonic march ("Hymie's Him"), drone dance-punk ("Banging The Door"), catastrophic funk on amphetamines played by a free-jazz band ("Francis Massacre").
And all underlined by Lydon's lyrics, a sort of manifesto for post-industrial alienation. Essential.
EDIT: Dead link because of complaints to Rapidshare.
Yet another facet of the dark-punk sound was exhibited by Norway's Fra Lippo Lippi. The usual characteristics are there: bass-prominence, cold atmospheres and tribal drums. But Fra Lippo Lippi's sound runs deeper than that. Their songs seem as if they come out of a catacomb, out of some alternate Middle-Ages dimension."In Silence" is built around a delicate melody carried by the bass and drums, while the guitar diffracts through mirror melodies of it's own, chanting vocals appear here and there in the background - as if to express the menace that plagues the medieval land, while the singer's ghostly baritone enhances the cursed surroundings."Recession" goes even deeper, 4 minutes of bass-heavy morbid monotony, slow besetting ritualistic drums and faint vocals, for an elegiac melody to finally appear through doom-laden synthesizers (as if a spectral presence is taking over), only for the song to end as it began with it's minimalistic cold-wave patterns."The Inside Veil" goes for a very effective slow/ fast dynamic and contrasting feel between the anaemic and the epic; "I Know" goes for a symphonic coda, and in "Quiet" a humble synth line underlines the singer's feeble cry.Without a doubt, the album reaches it's apex with "Lost", that starts as a cosmic black hole, then tribal drums kick in and the dark priest chants his ritual, the medium vortex appears courtesy of the choral vox, sub-symphonic keyboards and ecstatic guitar, only for the ceremony to end without a logical conclusion, just everything fading quietly in the brooding horizon.Get it here. Ta Nexd.
This is a project by Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), Brian Deck and Tim Rutili (both from Califone), Paul Jenkins (Black Heart Procession) and John Orth (Holopaw). It feels like a post-modern study of American music by an autistic robot, and elegantly quotes from different genres and time-lines, as in the folk/ blues/ electronica "Barnacles", the post-industrial blues/ gospel "Spilled Milk Factory", the ghostly hallucination "Pacifico", the acid/ country/ folk/ electronica "Smoke Like Ribbons" etc.In the meantime, the anthemic melody of "Parasites" has a childish feel to it (in contrast with the epic horns in the background), the restless manic funk/ blues "Ice on the Sheets" remembers Pere Ubu, "Beesting" recalls Syd Barrett, while "Hotcha Girls" is a tranquil folk lullaby. This is more than a series of experiments. The album never feels artificial, never loses it's sense of purpose. An amazing work.Get it here.
Nico achieved the perfect synthesis between the futuristic and the archaic with The End, a set of medieval incantations from another dimension ("It Has Not Taken Long"), manic-depressive liturgies for some deserted future land ("Secret Ride"), ectoplasmic tangos ("You Forgot To Answer"), rituals from the ancient priestess ("Innocent And Vain"), funeral music for demons ("Valley Of The Kings"), astral projections through catacombs ("We've Got The Gold").The cover of "The End" (The Doors) is the least successful track here, but still fits well with the images of fallen future empires the album evokes. An intense rendition of "Das Lied Der Deutschen" is an appropriate finale. This trilogy of albums (Marble Index, Desertshore, this one), simply-put, belong among rock music's crowning achievements.
Get it here. Ta Nexd.
