Killing Joke - MMXII

 2012; 10 tracks This is proof, purely, that good music can still be made today. You just have to look around a bit.

Killing Joke, a near-legendary English post-punk/new wave band, have been releasing music fairly consistently for almost three decades. I do not know of the quality of all of these releases, and to be honest I have never listened to them much before right now (as in, TODAY), but I am amazed at the beauty and quality of this music, especially considering the year it was released.


In any case, here is my absolute favorite song off of the track, "In Cythera" - it could have been released in 1984, maybe, although some metal/industrial elements in it might give away the age a little. I just really like this.

If you want the whole album, try this.

 I've seen you, in a dream On a sunny day, where the skies are clear

Death Grips - The Money Store

2012; 13 tracks

as you ALL hopefully know by now, Death Grips is a fairly new band who fucking rule. here is their latest... or a link to the pre-order at least. links up for free download can be found here.

i might like it better than exmilitary, their first album, but it's pretty hard to tell. enjoy.


pre-order EDIT: download  
video for "the fever (aye aye)" (warning: hnnnnnng)

ZGA - Riga

1989; 19 tracks

Abstract industrial from Russia.

"Amplified metal debris."

Fragmented and disjointed.

Abrasive, improvisatory.

Perfect.

Download.

Cosmonauts Hail Satan - Hellraiser & Cape Cannibal Skull Island Apocalypse

1993; 2 tracks


1998; 12 tracks

Here are two releases by the mysterious 90s noise rock outfit Cosmonauts Hail Satan. Hellraiser was two tracks dedicated to the first Hellraiser film and "Coil's shamefully unused soundtrack." I'm not sure how well these would have worked with the film, but one can speculate. Cape Cannibal Skull Island Apocalypse was their final work, a compilation of sorts, featuring my favorite track, "Serious Business."

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70 Gwen Party - John Peel Sessions 1, 2, 3 & 4

1995; 19 tracks



Politically charged underground industrial duo from Britian. last.fm



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Sickness of Snakes / Current 93 - Nightmare Culture

1985; 4 tracks

Split between Current 93 and Sickness Of Snakes (aka Coil collaborating with Boyd Rice). The Current 93 track (track 1) was later appended to the CD reissue of In Menstrual Night and is dedicated to James Low.

TIME FOR TEA AND FEED THE THING
I SLEPT WITH FAITH AND WOKE UP WITH A CORPSE IN MY ARMS

"Brékkek Kékkek kékkek Kékkek! Koáx Koáx Koáx! Ualu Ualu Ualu! Quaouauh!"

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Bodychoke - Cold River Songs

2009 (re-issue); 9 tracks

Bodychoke's final album is such, such an incredible work. I'm no good at writing right now, here are some thoughts that echoed my own:

"These sinister, spacious efforts create the perfect union between gothic atmospheres and tastefully grating, pulsing noise rock. The bulk of the compositions center around throbbing basslines and crisp drumming alongside short, simple vocal lines that are delivered through everything from hushed whispers to intense shouts/shrieks – accented by surprisingly frequent (and efficient) appearances of cello, while the guitars tend much more towards noisy textures and waves as opposed to tangible riffs. This re-issue also includes three outstanding bonus tracks taken from the odds and ends collection CD-R Completion that the band released posthumously, which I believe were recorded around the same time as the sessions for the album, thus making for about an hour's worth of music across nine songs total."

As a more fully-realized and sophisticated industrial/noise album (think Swans' Children of God), Cold River Songs is the epitome of Bodychoke's talent and also a fitting end...

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Bodychoke - Five Prostitutes

1996; 14 tracks

Bodychoke is the brainchild of Kevin Tomkins and Paul Taylor (of Sutcliffe Jügend and Power Electronics), and was active in the UK from 1993-1999. They released three very good albums in that time, the second of which being Five Prostitutes, and another one in 2004.

Five Prostitutes is an incredibly disturbing look into the mind of an infamous serial killer - Jack the Ripper. Bodychoke uses a very methodic and diverse array of sounds to create this thriller of an album, all circulating around the murders of five women. This, and their other albums (which I will be exploring very soon), represent a "dark and intriguing version of rock, with thick bass and thin drums, guitars that make noises and hum and drone and feedback, cello of all things (!!), and two singers who run the gamut from whispering to yelling and even sing and harmonize."

It also came with a curiously sick dedication:

"This album is dedicated to all those who, in the pursuit of pleasure, have suffered imprisonment or execution."

I was surprised to hear very Slint-like melodies almost alongside the sudden dissonance of harsh noise. The vocals in "Anal" and some other track reminded me very much of the throaty, brutal voice of Michael Gira, which was a very pleasant realization. "Cripple" is a particularly disturbing song, serving as a sort of anthem to the complete domination, murder, and mutilation of women. Be prepared to be disturbed, Five Prostitutes is an incredible and utterly haunting album.

I can't wait to see you crawling away

Psychic TV - Roman P / Neurology

1984; 3 tracks

The first track of this release, "Roman P," was written in memory of film director Roman Polanski. I love that track so so much, although it doesn't sound very like Psychic TV at all.

The B-side is entitled "Neurology" and contains a message from Mr. Sebastian, a spokesman of Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth (TOPY). TOPY is an artistic federation of groups such as Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, and Coil. These two final tracks also contain collaged speeches by Charles Manson and Jim Jones which run simultaneously in different stereo channels.

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Sol Invictus - Lex Talionis

 1993; 12 tracks  This might bene of the coldest, darkest, and most piercing apocalyptic folk/indutrial albums I've ever heard. The intro to "Black Easter" (indeed, the entire track) is sheer, visceral brilliance.  Download
Purchase

anbb (Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld) - Ret Marut Handshake Vinyl

2010; 5 tracks

Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld, two of the most fascinating German experimental musicians of today, unite for this stunning new collaborative venture - anbb. These two seemingly strange bedfellows have long admired one another's work and the project has itself been a long-term concern, in development since 2007. Bargeld lends his vocal to Nicolai's soundscapes, a formula that in theory might lead to an end product resembling Alan Vega's work with Pan Sonic. There is, however, something rather more immediately synergetic about this project, and Bargeld's voice embeds itself very naturally within Nicolai's seemingly inhospitable, yet ever-inscrutable production.

Download.

Einstürzende Neubauten - Stahlmusik

1980; 9 tracks

This is the first official release by German industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten and it is unlike most of their other releases. Stahlmusik is an extremely atmospheric piece of work.. very intimate and eerie. Blixa Bargeld's vocals are quite haunting.. sometimes shouted and sometimes whispered... reminiscent of Jandek at times. The music here is much more conventional and retrained than even on Kollaps, but the interesting industrial noises in the background are still heard. Omg. Highly recommended.

Download.

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

2003; 12 tracks (51:40)

A must hear infinite times album. Listen in the dark for best results.

777

Michael Gira - Drainland

1995; 10 tracks

Amazing, otherworldy album. This version of "Blind" is just so so good.

Michael Gira:

"Drainland is a 1995 obscure solo album by me, co-produced by the lovely Bill Rieflin and myself, with musical contributions from Bill and Jarboe. Spare arrangements (recorded in Bill's living room) with the focus on words.

"You See Through Me" features a surreptitious recording by Jarboe of a drunken rant by me. I think I discovered the cassette one day in a drawer in her desk and decided to use it for a song dedicated to her ("you see through me"). Of course it's incredibly embarrassing to include on an album made for public consumption, but I thought it a legitimately good recording - a good "performance" in a way, despite the fact it was of slovenly, spiteful me. It could have been anyone. Well, maybe not. Prescient, it's subject was money. Anyway, it was just "material" and everything's fair game. In the end, it was an honest homage to Jarboe, though most people failed to notice that. "Fan Letter" and "Unreal" are seen from the perspective of a crazed fan's inverted worship of Madonna. " I See Them All Lined Up" (later re-recorded for Swans) is a naked hate/revenge diatribe, some of the most vile words I ever wrote. I apologize to all concerned. Thank god it’s not too obvious who the subject of my hatred was..."



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Judith Juillerat - Soliloquy

2005; 13 tracks

I got this album after seeing Judith Juillerat's name in some random person's charts, and then I viewed her page and saw that she only had one album. She was French, she was an experimental/ambient/electronic artist, and she just seemed interesting. After listening to Soliloquy all the way through for the first time, I immediately thought that I MUST listen to it again. So I did. And I did again. I honestly can't get enough of this album, and the complexity of it brings so many new aspects every time I listen.

"What's interesting about Juillerat is her choice of technology in creating her work. Instead of putting everything together on a computer (which is what I would have guessed after hearing the album), she slowly layers everything together in a multi-track recorder with a variety of analogue and digital synths, mini samples, effects machines, and other toys. The result doesn't sound hugely different, but offers a bit of insight as to her process (which seems a little less tied-in with current trends).

Soliloquy isn't afraid to touch on lots of different sounds, which is good considering it runs almost an hour in length. Considering the definition of the album title and the way in which the vocals are delivered on the release, the title Soliloquy seems to fit pretty well with the somewhat detached style of delivery (and the occasionally disorienting sounds). An excellent and ambitious debut."


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Death in June - But, What Ends When the Symbols Shatter?

1992; 12 tracks

Taken from a special place somewhere in the universe:

"I started to listened Death in June's But, What Ends When the Symbols Shatter? this morning, on the way to the university for piano classes. I haven't thoroughly listened to this album, ever. I meant to like a year ago, but I never got around to it. I don't know one person in my life that would have the patience to try to listen to something like Di6 - It just seems way too intellectual and "weird" for most of the people I know. I have now listened to it about 6 times through.


But, What Ends When the Symbols Shatter? is an amazing album for me, especially the because of the lyrics. Throughout the entire album, Pierce continues to remind us, sometimes subtly, that "This is Not Paradise." The idea that this world is fleeting, something that passes, seems to be prevalent throughout the album... I am amazed by this, by the dreams that can so easily become reality... it leaves me speechless. Also, the instrumentation here is a little more simplistic than on other albums, I guess - every song has the acoustic guitar strumming away forever. The lyrics, however, are spectacular.

My favorite song was 'Daedalus Rising.' It might be one of the most amazing songs I've ever heard in my life."

Download.

Einstürzende Neubauten - 09-15-2000, Brussels

2002; 22 tracks

I used to really dislike live albums for some odd reason, but after hearing Coil's ...And the Ambulance Died In Their Arms, I knew that live albums were really amazing. As my friend put it, they are "intimate snapshots into a moment in time that cannot be recreated." Many things go into a live performance, sometimes things that didn't exist during a recording session, so the effects are always interesting, varied, and unique. This record of performances, I feel, is one of the closest and most intimate looks at Einstürzende Neubauten.

After giving 9-15-2000, Brussels a few good listens, I might say that this is one of (if not my absolute) favorite Einstürzende Neubauten album(s). It is a live performance of the band in Brussels, Belgium (duh), and it features songs from various other EN albums. I really love this version of "Der Schacht von Babel," originally on their album Ende Neu. I highly recommend this live album to fans of the group who wish to get a closer look at the people behind the amazing music.


Download.
+ Tracks 5 and 10.

Einstürzende Neubauten - Silence is Sexy

2000; 15 tracks

I only recently became interested in Einstürzende Neubauten, but I am so glad I did. I really think they will (or maybe already are) be one of my all-time favorite bands. I've heard 3 other EN albums now, and I'm going to listen to Perpetuum Mobile soon and then try to hear everything else. For some reason, this album remind me a lot of Keith Haring and the contemporay urban art that he did in the late '80s and '90s. I'm not sure why I connected these two things, but I did. >.<

Silence is Sexy is an industrial masterpiece, the only one of it's kind.

My favorite songs are "Beauty," "Die Bifindlichkeit Des Landes," "Redukt," and "Total Eclipse of the Sun."

Beauty remains in the impossibilities of the body.

Swans - White Light From the Mouth of Infinity

1991; 12 tracks

I can't stop listening to this album. It is one of the most beautiful things I've heard in a long while - and Swans is becoming a very important band to me. This is just one of many Swans releases but I really like this one atm and I felt like posting it.

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Coil - Scatology

1984; 14 tracks

I never say this about an album, but - this has to be my absolute favorite album of all time. It's the first official release of Coil's (excluding the 17-minute weird sex track), and in my opinion, their best. I think what really gets me about this album is the VOCALS. Jhonn Balance is always amazing, but there's something torturous and therefore lovely about his voice in Scatology. This album has a sort of an upbeat, industrial sound to it, but not without the strange, eerie sampling that Coil is quite well known for. I love this album. My favorite tracks are all of them! AHHH I love this album!!!!!!!!

Download.