Ali Jihad Racy - Mystical Legacies

 1997; 10 tracks This recording features performer, composer, and scholar Ali Jihad Racy accompanied by percussionist Souhail Kaspar performing ten excerpts from a live concert at the 1993 Los Angeles Festival on August 21. Here these two master artists perform at a high level of saltanah, namely the creative state that inspires musicians to evoke tarab, of "musical ecstasy" within the initiated listeners. Performed on a variety of string, wind, and percussion instruments, the content illustrates the traditional textures, timbres, embellishments, and melodic and rhythmic modes of traditional Arab music. It also includes improvisations and interpretations of works by Racy and other composers.

My favorite instrument that they use is called a buzuq, which is a long-necked lute with metallic strings, much like a guitar but with a more resonant sound. I found this a beautiful recording of musicians becoming so involved with the instruments they play it is if they are one.

01 Sufi Medley
02 Taqasim And Sama'i Bayyati Al-'Arayan
03 Moorish Impressions
04 Taqasim And Dama'i Nahawand Racy
05 Themes of Yearning
06 Strumming Magic
07 Enchanting Beauty
08 Taqasim Hiljaz
09 Saba Medley
10 Breeze of Nostalgia


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Harvey Milk - Special Wishes (Live)

October 27, 2006; 9 tracks

Here the Athens, Georgia-based sludge band Harvey Milk play through their 2006 album Special Wishes at the Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta, GA. I haven't heard the original album, but this live album is full of crushing tracks that hook you in almost immediately. My personal favorite would have to be "War," it being just so damn catchy, but many tracks here lend themselves to a deluge of heaviness and earthmoving brilliance. For a while now I've admired their 1996 album Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men, a milestone in this experimental / sludge genre. There is something about their guitar sound which blends southern drone with a Boris-esque dread, completely inundated with mystery, and the utterly spine-tingling voice of Creston Spiers, reminiscent of Jandek and Cohen, that innately draw me to them. It is said of Creston that he would only do Cohen covers if he could, and I don't think that would be a bad idea. On Courtesy they did an incredible cover of "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong," I can't remember if I've already mentioned that in an earlier post or not, but listen to it right now if you haven't already. Live albums are always spontaneously alive and awe-inspiring, and this is no exception!

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Lungfish Live + 10 East 7"

Lungfish is a progressive/post-hardcore band from Baltimore, Maryland, fronted by the infamous Daniel Higgs and equipped with such outstanding musicians as Asa Osbourne, Sean Meadows, and Mitchell Feldstein. Their discography is fairly vast, each album changing in color slightly, building and building until the bitter end of their legacy...

Thank you to tsintskaro for these.


Lungfish Live in Poznań, Poland, 11.03.93  1993; 12 tracks
This is an amazing collection of live tracks from the 92 and 93 albums of Lungfish - Talking Songs for Walking and Rainbows from Atoms. A raw look into the early sounds of Lungfish, which you may find to be a bit heavier (but still great).

01 Kissing (Talking Songs For Walking, 1992)
02 My Fool Heart (Talking Songs For Walking, 1992)
03 Descender (Talking Songs For Walking, 1992)
04 Broadcast (Talking Songs For Walking, 1992)
05 Animal Man (Rainbows From Atoms, 1993)
06 Reveal Me (Talking Songs For Walking, 1992)
07 Abraham Lincoln (Rainbows From Atoms, 1993)
08 8.14.2116 (Rainbows From Atoms, 1993)
09 Put Your Hand in my Hand (Talking Songs For Walking, 1992)
10 Open House (Rainbows From Atoms, 1993)
11 Non Dual Bliss (Talking Songs For Walking, 1992)
12 Mother Made Me (Rainbows From Atoms, 1993)



are you afraid of liberation?   10 East 7" 1995; 3 tracks 
A highly meditative release... The track "Go Simple" makes my life a little better. It is a gem among Lungfish records.
To scrape the chattering lungs
Away from my skin
The beast and all it's hornets
Collapse in the popping air 01 10 East
02 Go Simple
03 Savings
Download.   Lungfish Live at Upstairs at Nick's, Philadelphia, 3.5.98 

0:46 Black Helicopters (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
3:54 Amnesiac (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
6:32 Oppress Yourself (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
11:47 You Did Not Exist (Indivisible, 1997)
18:15 Tick Tock (Indivisible, 1997)
23:13 Free State (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
25:32 Truth Cult (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
28:22 [I cannot tell what song this is :( help?]
31:26 Yellow Sun (Indivisible, 1997)
33:35 Ann the Word (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
39:33 Pray for the Living (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
42:20 [I cannot tell what song. I was thinking maybe X-Ray Pharaoh off of Sound in Time, but can anyone verify this?]
54:09 Light For All (Artificial Horizon, 1997)


Lungfish Live at Teamster's Hall in Baltimore, MD, 5.12.98 

0:08 Black Helicopters (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
3:31 Oppress Yourself (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
8:22 You Did Not Exist (Indivisible, 1997)
15:06 Tick Tock (Indivisible, 1997)
18:56 Free State (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
26:28 Yellow Sun (Indivisible, 1997) ((Most amazing song ever))
29:06 Pray for the Living (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
31:53 Ann the Word (Artificial Horizon, 1997)
37:06 [I cannot tell what song. I was thinking maybe X-Ray Pharaoh off of Sound in Time, but can anyone verify this?]
47:19 Searchlight (The Unanimous Hour, 1999)


 Lungfish Live at Brownies, NY, 12.11.99  1999; 14 tracks

01 Searchlight
02 Ecology of the Gut
03 Symbioses
04 Screams of Joy
05 Sex War
06 Between You
07 Vulgar Theories
08 You Did Not Exist
09 Yellow Sun
10 Mated
11 Love Will Ruin Your Mind
12 Shapes in Space
13 Hallucinatorium
14 Armageddon
Download.   Lungfish Live at the Empty Bottle, Chicago, 12.05.03  2003; 16 tracks 01 Spheres Of Influence
02 Indivisible
03 Child of Chaos
04 Love is Love
05 This World
06 Vulgar Theories
07 Signpost
08 Unfold the Leg
09 Jonah
10 Lay Yourself Aside
11 Fearfully and Wonderfully
12 Well... All Right
13 Yellow Sun
14 No False Suns
15 Armageddon
16 You Did Not Exist

Download.   Lungfsh Live at the Knitting Factory, NYC, 1.24.04  2004; 15 tracks 01 Indivisible
02 Love is Love/Sphere of Influence
03 Vulgar Theorems
04 This World/Jonah
05 Well...All Right
06 Signpost
07 Faithful Steward
08 Fearfully and Wonderfully
09 Yellow Sun
10 Lay Yourself Aside
11 Unfold the Leg
12 No False Suns
13 You Did Not Exist
14 Child of Chaos
15 Armageddon

Download.   Lungfish Live at North Six, NYC, 09.18.04  2004; 15 tracks 01 All Creation Bows
02 Sex War
03 This World/Love is Love
04 Time is a Weapon of Time
05 Wailing Like Dragons
06 Faithful Steward
07 Fearfully and Wonderfully
08 Unfold the Leg
09 You Are the War
10 Lay Yourself Aside
11 No False Suns
12 Child of Chaos
13 Way-Out is the Way Out
14 Sphere of Influence
15 Well...All Right/Vulgar Theorems
Download.   Lungfish Live at the Knitting Factory, NYC, 06.03.05  2005; 16 tracks 01 Vulgar Theorems
02 Love Is Love
03 This World
04 Urania
05 Lay Yourself Aside
06 Wailing Like Dragons
07 Fearfully and Wonderfully
08 Well...All Right
09 Way-Out is the Way Out
10 Constellations
11 Sing
12 Time Is A Weapon
13 X-Ray the Pharaoh
14 Yellow Sun
15 Unfold the Leg
16 Jonah
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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.


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+ Tracks 5 and 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.

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