30.4.10

Coil - ...And the Ambulance Died in his Arms


2005 (recorded in 2003); 5 tracks


This album is one that I've been struggling with for a long time. I guess I didn't give it a fair chance or listen at first, but after listening to it full through 5 times, I have come to love it. This is a live album (more info here) that has captured the hearts of nearly all Coil fans - it is an intensely personal look at COIL, and especially Balance. This album provides the listener (or at least me) a glimpse at a previously mysterious man - Jhonn Balance. He jokes and plays with the audience, interacts with them, answers questions, and is just generally great. This album also features 3 new Coil tracks, among them "A Slip in the Marylebone Road" - an AMAZING, atmospheric, beautiful track. Enjoy this beautiful Coil live album.

Download.

School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms


2008; 11 tracks


I've known about this album for ages, and yet it never ceases to amaze me. There are some real gems on here, such as Chain (one of my favorite songs ever) and My Cabal. This is a great album for fans of Sweet Trip, Justice, and Goldfrapp.

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Lungfish - Feral Hymns


 
2005; 10 tracks


This is Sam's favorite band :) I didn't like this album all that much when I first gave it a listen, but I came to really appreciate the intensity of the album. There is one riff per song, and when I learned this I was like uhhh..... cool? But then I realized that the limitations that aspect brings don't necessarily have to be a bad thing. The riffs even sounded a bit like Slint's off of "Spiderland." Anyways, this is a cool album and I don't have anything against it. More info here.

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Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. - Univers Zen Ou De Zéro À Zéro


2002; 6 tracks


I don't remember where I heard about this album, but I just got it and it's reallya trip through some strange creepy place. I liked it but I'm not sure if I love it yet. I'll be giving it a few more listens before I make any final thoughts, but this is definitely a worthwile listen. More info on the diverse and prolific group here.

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Death - Symbolic


1995; 14 tracks


I really love this album. I've known about it for a few years now, but I recently listened again and found out how much I must worship this death metal masterpiece. I honestly never listen to death metal, but this is the one album I can say that doesn't make me want to throw up. More info here. Stand out tracks: Without Judgement, Symbolic.

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Burial & Four Tet - Moth/Wolf Club




2009; 2 tracks


There are two tracks on this beautiful collaboration: Moth and Wolf Club. More info and really great description here.I've known about this album for a while, but after seeing someone say that "Moth sounds like the party on the next flat over coming through the walls and onto your pillow" - I was like OMG I must hear this album again!! So I did, and I loved it again, and yeah. Beautifffuuullll wonderful album.

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Maki Asakawa - 浅川マキの世界


1970; 12 tracks


The first time I ever heard Maki, I fell in love. Literally. Her vocals are honestly breathtaking, and the smoky, dark atmosphere her music creates is beautiful. Click here for more info and a very apt description of her music. Maki's vocals are stunning, especially for a 70s-era Japanese jazz artist. This album in particular puts me in the mood to read some Hemmingway, sit in a "clean, well-lighted place," hear Asakawa's murky, seductive voice in the background and watch old men play cards or a bartender rub his eyes... The smoke of the night is peacefully penetrating my lungs and calming my bloodstream. I lick my lips and close my eyes. My head is empty and my toes are warm. Maki sings...

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25.4.10

Rome - Berlin & Masse Mensch Material



Rome is a martial/dark folk group led by Luxembourgian Jerome Reuter. Rome has currently released 4 albums and 2 EPs since its beginning in 2005. More info here. Here are two amazing Rome releases.

Berlin EP



2005; 6 tracks


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Masse Mensch Material



2008; 12 tracks


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22.4.10

Nahvalr - Nahvalr

Nahvalr is a noisey black metal band featuring members of Have a Nice Life (lolwut.)
This music is dark and terrifying. It will give you nightmares.

I recommend this for fans of bands like Gnaw Their Tongues and Portal.


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19.4.10

Cocteau Twins

This band is probably my second favorite band in the entire universe, second only to Coil. Plus, they had awesome hairstyles.





Cocteau Twins is a very versatile, prolific, and extremely unique group from Scotland. They were formed in 1979 and have released numerous full-length albums, EPs, Singles, and other collaborations. Elizabeth Fraser is the lead singer, with Robin Guthrie on guitar and drum machine and Will Heggie as the bassist. Fraser's vocals are extremely provocative and diverse. Upon hearing album after album by CT, I became increasingly amazed at the sheer fluidity and abilities of this talented woman's voice (though the talents of the other members are not to go unnoticed) and the icy connection she creates with the other band members. Due to the fact that this band has released material over such a broad length of time, the music that they have created and the movements surrounding their work has changed greatly. This is why many consider Cocteau Twins to have gone through "periods," where they released music leaning more towards dream-pop, post-punk, shoegaze, pop, ambient, etc. I want to post those albums that I personally loved the most, but they in no way are the group's only "good" work. I respect everything that they have done, but here are some of my favorites :) Enjoy. (More info here).

Head Over Heels


1983; 14 tracks


Someone once told me that this album sounds like it was recorded in a cathedral, with it's echoing grandeur and magnificence not often seen in a debut album. This album tends to strike me as some of CT's more deeply cerebral and mystical work. I haven't listened to it half as much as I'd like, but as Cocteau Twins' second album Head Over Heels serves as an extremely apt introduction to their music.

Download.



Treasure


1984; 10 tracks


Every single song on this album is pure perfection. Treasure, apart from being Cocteau Twins' doubtlessly most popular effort, shows a maturity in a young band that can rarely be seen in artists today. When I first heard Treasure, I was reminded almost instantly of Frédéric Chopin's 27 Études. Each of the pieces is intended to "show off" a different aspect of the piano and its technique, much like how each track on Treasure appears to stretch Fraser's voice into a new dimension and sound. I absolutely love Treasure - it is a very beautiful and luscious piece of music.

Download.



Aikea-Guinea EP


1985; 4 tracks


This is a really amazing, delightful EP that is sort of surprising in how fragile and yet devastatingly beautiful it is. I really enjoy -this- particular CT style, that is the icier side of their already post-punk tendencies, the most.

Download.



Victorialand


1986; 10 tracks


This album is a gentle, sweet and honey-like approach to Cocteau Twins, maybe a good introductory album. I consider this album and their music from the late 80s as their transition into a slightly more "no-wave" sound, sort of like My Bloody Valentine, but Fraser's vocals are as piercing as ever.

Download.



Blue Bell Knoll


1988; 10 tracks


I don't care what aaaanyone says, THIS album, Blue Bell Knoll, is my number one favorite Cocteau Twins album. It's perfect. Enough said =)My favorite tracks are "The Itchy Glowbo Blow" (Favorite CT song) and "Suckling the Mender".

Download.



Heaven or Las Vegas


1990; 10 tracks


This is one of my absolute favorite albums of any genre. It is really a gorgeous, upbeat, crazy, bright and brilliant album.

Download.



Four-Calendar Café


1993; 10 tracks


This album is considered by many to be one of Cocteau Twins' weakest albums. I personally don't agree with this concensus at all. I agree that it's a little more bluh than, say, Heaven or Las Vegas, but there are still a few gems on here. "Pur", Track 10, is one of my favorite Cocteau Twins songs ever! It has the most amazing climax, and the bass guitar just drives me crazy. So yeah, don't always believe what you hear, especially in this case.

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Lullabies To Violaine, Pts. 1 and 2


1982

This link includes:
Lullabies to Violaine, Volume 1: Singles and Extended Plays 1982-1990 and Lullabies to Violaine, Volume 2: Singles and Extended Plays 1993-1996. Released March 20, 2006.

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17.4.10

Zbigniew Preisner - La Double Vie de Véronique OST

The other day I just so happened to come across this website, because I love Zdzislaw Beksinksi, and I really liked the music. As it happens, the music from that site was composed by a rather popular Polish composer by the name of Zbigniew Preisner. I looked for him on Last.fm, and I found him! Theeenn, I noticed that he composed the soundtrack for the 1991 Kieslowski film La Double Vie de Véronique (The Double Life of Véronique). I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard great things anyway. I decided to go ahead and get this soundtrack and I was instantly amazed. The La Double Vie de Véronique soundtrack has become my second favorite soundtrack in the world (First is, of course, Badalamenti's The City of Lost Children). Stand-out tracks: Véronique, L'enfance (I and II), and Van den Budenmayer Concerto Version de 1798. Enjoy - it is truly a masterpiece.




1991; 18 tracks


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14.4.10

Imperium Dekadenz























All I've been listening to is black metal...



Imperium Dekadenz is a fantastic black metal band from Germany (if you call them DSBM I will cut your balls off.) Here are their three full lengths

Dämmerung der Szenarien is my personal favorite of theirs, so I guess you should get that one first.

...Und Die Welt Ward Kalt Und Leer (2006)

Dämmerung der Szenarien (2007)

Procella Vadens (2010)

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Études-Tableaux


1994; 17 tracks


Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in 1873, Novgorod (Semyonovo), Russia. He was a late Romantic and early Modernist composer who, though he is technically "Russian," lived in America for most of his life and is now considered an "American" conmposer. I don't really care about people who make this assumption. He is and was and always will be a true, Russian composer to me. His music is gorgeous. The Études-Tableaux are some of my favorite solo piano music of Rachmaninoff's, though he has composed a few Minute-Musicals and Preludes and other things. Rachmaninoff died in 1943 in San Francisco, California.

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"Études-tableaux" literally means "studies of landscape." Lugansky is a master of creating dark, cerebral landsacapes and yet maintaining Rachmaninoff's signature gentle melodies. The Études-Tableaux are some of my favorite solo piano music of Rachmaninoff's, though he has composed a few Minute-Musicals and Preludes and other things. Enjoy this wonderful 1994 recording.

Peste Noire

I dunno, this band is just... seminal in its beautifying of filth and all those ugly, disgusting, hellish things of the world.

Peste Noire can be described as a French "medieval" black metal band in it's use of older modes and instruments. It is the project of La sale Famine de Valfunde (?), formed in 2000. Since then the project has released 3 demos, 2 splits, 1 EP, and 3 full-lengths. More info here.



My current favorite album is Le Sanie...

La Sanie des siècles - Panégyrique de la dégénérescence (2006)





Download.



Folkfuck Folie (2007)




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Ballade cuntre lo Anemi Francor (2009)




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M8L8TH - By the Wing of Black


2004; 8 tracks


I LOVE M8L8TH (which translates to "Hammer" in Russian). M8L8TH is a NSBM band from Russia whose perfection is unrivaled in the black metal scene. This album is beautiful and full of pure hatred. I love it more than even the band's 2009 release, Nepokolebimaja Vera (though it's still a great album too). Stand out tracks: Scum, Under the Falling Star, and By the Wing of Black. This album got a 100000/10 from me.

Download.

12.4.10

Fauré Complete Piano Music

Gabriel Fauré was a French composer of the late 19th century, influenced by composers such as Liszt and Schumann. I have made a link consisting of all his solo/duet/random piano music, some of which has been transcribed by Fauré or others from the orchestra to the piano. It has been split into 3 parts. All solo music is performed by Jean Martin. For pieces that require two pianos or four hands, pianists Patrick de Hooge and Pierre-Alain Volondat perform. Please enjoy some beautiful post-romantic/impressionist piano music! More info here.



Part 1:
- 13 Nocturnes
- 13 Barcarolles
- 1 Ballade

Part 2:
- Dolly Suite
- 6 Impromptus
- 9 Préludes

Part 3:
- Pavane in F-sharp minor, op. 50
- Masques et bergamesques
- Pelléas et Mélisande
- 4 Valses-caprices
- 1 Mazurka
- Themes and Variations
- 3 Romances



LINKS:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Luror

Luror is a black metal band formed in 1994 in Germany. One member: Unhold. More info here. Luror has currently released 2 full-lengths, both of which are astounding and unlike most other black metal bands in their raw beauty, textures, and atmosphere.



The Iron Hand of Blackest Terror (2003)




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Cease to Live (2008)




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11.4.10

Angels of Light - We are Him


2007; 12 tracks


I've just started listening to We Are Him again, and it is truly an amazing album. This Michael Gira project is sort of like Swans, but more "freak-folkish," with many experimental elements. I just love it.

Download.

8.4.10

Maurice Ravel - Complete Piano Music

Maurice Ravel was a French impressionist composer. He lived most of his life in seclusion in lavish houses, creating his exotic music. His sexuality is not known, as he was never married, and Ravel was only 5 feet tall. His music is AMAZING, and I love every single second of every work.



The file was so large I had to split it into two parts. The first part includes the following:

- Gaspard de la Nuit, 3 parts
- Sonatine, 3 parts
- Miroirs, 5 parts
- Sérénade grotesse
- A la manière de... Borodine
- A la manière de...Emanuel Charbier
- Prélude
- Jeux d'eaux
- Pavane Pour Une Infante défunte
- Menue sur le nom de Haydn

And the second part includes all 6 Le Tombeau de Couperin.

Maurice Ravel's Complete Piano Music




Part One.

Part Two.

5.4.10

Krallice

I've decided to post music, since Allison is just posting silly pictures and stuff.

Krallice is awesome. Everyone needs to listen to this.




















Krallice (2008)





















Dimensional Bleedthrough (2009)