SLEEP - 1990 - 2018 THE STORY CONTINUES

This post was originally done in 2013 There has been a lot gone on in the world of Sleep since then so I have completely re-edited the original text and updated old links with better quality ones and added some new ones. this supercedes previous posts and is to all intents and purposes a new post. Read on..

A band like Sleep should need no introduction especially with their recent touring and mighty remastered version of "Dopesmoker" last year. If you didn't know here's a quick history Sleep started off as brutal sludgy crust band Asbestosdeath who released 2 x 7" singles they then evolved into Sleep, doing their debut album "Volume One"  in 1991 which was not a million miles away from what they had done in Asbestosdeath (3 of the 4 tracks  from the Asbestosdeath 7"' appear on Sleep's debut) they then recorded a second album of all new material which they shopped around labels for a release, a tape of it found it's way to Earache records with this letter....

Earache saw the potential and signed them. The subsequent "Holy Mountain" album was a radical departure from "Volume One" and pretty much invented the "Stoner Rock" genre. After the success of this album Sleep decided to sign with major label London records and for their London Records debut to record the now legendary 1 hour plus epic that was proposed 3rd album "Dopesmoker"!  Exec's from major labels aren't known for their open mindedness and immediately balked at being presented with a concept album of 1 track an hour long, the main theme being weed smoking (unlike today this was not the most acceptable or commonplace activity in 1995!) The band and label butted heads severely, the band refusing to change or alter the album and the label refusing to release it! They were subsequently dropped, the master tapes were shelved, causing the band to fracture and it wasn't until 1999 long after Sleep broke up that "Dopesmoker" was released albeit broken up into 6 parts and re-titled as "Jerusalem" then in 2003 it was reissued in it's original 1 track format as a rough mix "Dopesmoker" with a bonus track "Sonic Titan (Live)" Then in 2012 the masters were handed over to Brad Boatright of Audiosiege for a proper remastering and released on Southern Lord, this time with "Holy Mountain" Live from 1994 as a bonus track for me that is the definitive version. So that's a brief history of Sleep here's a more in depth look at the albums I've posted....

Asbestosdeath - 7"'s "Dejection" & "Unclean" these were released by Profane Existence and the other by the band themselves in 1990 and are 4 tracks of slow, crawling sludgy stuff reminiscent of Dystopia but if you listen carefully you can hear that trademark classic Matt Pike riffing in there underneath the sludge! and as I said before 3 of the 4 tracks were re-recorded for the Sleep debut album "Volume One" These 2 x 7"'s were collected together on one CD by Southern lord this file is taken from my CD 320kbps.

Sleep Volume One - Debut album from Sleep and released on what was then the European home of all things Grunge & Seattle in the early 90's Tupelo recordings (also responsible for releasing the first editions of Nirvana's "Bleach" in Europe) Not exactly a good fit, however this album whilst the stoner edge can be felt is still not a million miles away from what these guys had been doing in Asbestosdeath this is slow heavy sludgy metal that is also to my ears heavily influenced by early Melvins, in fact the main reason I bought this album is because when I listened to it it just screamed "Gluey Porch Treatments" at me. Remember these guys pretty much invented stoner rock so at this time in 1991 there was nothing to compare this to and it certainly wouldn't fall into the stoner genre had it been invented then!! Like i say this is slow heavy punishing stuff and whilst the vocals aren't quite as anguished as Asbestosdeath this is still some pretty tortured music and vocals.It's a killer heavy album and there's nothing else (outside of Melvins early work) Ripped from my CD at 320kbps

Sleep Volume Two, This,now ultra rare 7" EP was released on Eric Keller (of legendary Swiss grinders Fear Of God) label Off The Disk in 1992 and is probably the holy grail of Sleep collectables as it was probably limited to copies in the hundreds maybe 1000 copies at a push This 7" features their version of Sabbath's "Lord Of This World" (made to sound live but isn't!!) backed with excellent early demo versions of "Nain's Baptism" & "The Druid"! High Quality FLAC vinyl rip converted to MP3 320KBPS

Sleep's Holy Mountain I first heard Sleep in 1992 on the Earache records cassette comp "Naive".This was a showcase for all the non-grind/death metal bands that had releases out or coming out on Earache and featured bands like Clutch, Fudge Tunnel, Scorn, Pitch Shifter and of course Sleep. I was already aware of a few of the bands but when iI got to the Sleep track "Dragonaut" (Subsequently the opening track on "Holy Mountain") I was utterly floored. This was PURE Sabbath worship given a 90's twist and made even heavier!!! (Ozzy Osbourne himself is quoted as saying when he heard Sleep out of all the bands that are influenced by Sabbath, Sleep were the closest in sound and feel) I had been a fan of Early Sabbath for a while then and had exhausted those first 6 Sab's albums, so this came along at a perfect time for me! Though there is no denying the Sabbath influence Sleep have the sound and feel as Ozzy says but they are not straight off ripping Sabbath off for a start this is way heavier in sound and production and riffs like the Monster intro to track 2 "The Druid" are so utterly fucking amazing it just makes me go arrrgggggghhhhhh! everytime! This predates the legion of Sabbath pilfering and weak stoner rock that's around these days by almost a decade. Like I say this album practically invented the style there was NO ONE else doing this type of music in 1992 and there has been no one yet from the stoner genre that has recorded ANYTHING in the same league as this album it's an utter masterpiece! (320kbps Reissue version with "Snowblind" from the Earache "Masters of Misery" Sabbath tribute as a bonus track)

Dopesmoker - I've already gave you the history of this album and about how it never saw release till 1999 (in altered form) years after the band broke up after originally recording it in 1993.However is this the absolute pinnacle of a short lived career by the band who invented stoner rock? Hmm it's a good album no mistake and there's immense fucking walls of riffage by the dumper truck load, But I think it may have been a little ambitious, because I don't think there's enough to it to keep me completely involved for a whole hour. The main riff to the song is a theme throughout and mighty a riff as it might be.... I mean don't get me wrong, when I play this album some parts just make me go whoaaahhh FUCK yeah! And because it's 1 song it's good that when you listen to it certain parts blow you away and it keeps repeat listens interesting, but I have to say the majority of this album kinda washes over me until aforementioned parts just grab me! I'll leave you to make up your own mind on this album and say no more except here is the Brad Boatright remastered 2012 version with "Dopesmoker" and "Holy Mountain (Live 1994) and as a bonus I've also tacked on "Sonic Titan (Live)" from the 2003 version! All ripped from my own CD's at 320KBPS

2012 Dopesmoker reissue art by Arik Roper

I recently discovered, and, being a huge Sleep fan I kicked myself repeatedly, that both a double CD and cassette were released of their reunion show at the famous All Tomorrow's Parties festival in May 2009. Since it has been out for over 4 years (11 years now!) and I only just found out about it last week is an utter tragedy. Becasue 1: I will now have no chance of ever owning one and 2: It's a double CD/Cass of live Sleep!!! So the CD appears to be a bootleg and the cassette is an official release, which of the two these files are sourced from I don't know, I found it on the internet the bitrate is high but the quality is not the most sparkling. It sounds somewhere between an audience recording and a soundboard recording not terrible quality but not amazing either. However the quality of the music is another matter this is an epic 95 minute Sleep set. Now having only got this downloaded yesterday I have listened to it but not intensely, as well as a wealth of material culled from their "Holy Mountain" album there are some NEW Sleep songs on here along with epic length versions of the "Holy Mountain" material (a 14 min through "From Beyond" HELL yeah) this means you should have been reaching for the download link at the point where the words "New Sleep Songs" were mentioned. Don't let my quality control alarms put you off, this is a great live set from one of the greatest bands around not a terrible bootleg for diehards only. This is well worth an hour and a half of your time for even a casual fan, do not doubt it! 

Secondly, at the same time as I discovered the above live CD I also discovered there had been a semi-official live 12" from a 2010 show in Denver Colorado. For the sake of completion I thought I'd try and get a download to add to this post. When I was looking for a copy of the 12" online I happened upon a nice little blog by the name of "That's The Thing About That" (Check it out HERE).The kind soul behind that blog had the full set from the show posted up in glorious 320kbps! Now I have downloaded this myself literally minutes ago and I am just having a quick listen the sound is heavier than than the Reunion show recording, but the quality is about the same, not amazing but again far from unlistenable. The set is almost identical and I might have considered not posting this because of that, but as well as the usual glut of material from "Holy Mountain" and the same new songs, this set is worth your having because clocking in at a massive 2 hrs long it also contains an opener of a near 10 Minute run through the intro to "Dopesmoker" which segues nicely into "Holy Mountain". There's another 8 minute run through a second part of "Dopesmoker" later in the set and a super heavy Sleep style run through Ozzy Ozbourne's "Over The Mountain" from his "Diary Of A Madman" album! All in all the fact that I went looking for the 3 track live 12" and found the complete set from the Denver show makes it worth the inclusion! So there you go no less than 2 amazing Sleep Live sets for you.(The link to this is not mine but I have just checked it whilst editing this post today (Apr 2020) and the link is valid and works should that change i will upload it myself)

The story does not end there of course ....in 2014 it had been some 20 years since riff titans Sleep had been anywhere near a studio. I was excited as anyone when I heard they were to release a new single through the Adult Swim Program (check that out HERE ) and lo and behold we received the first new recording from the revitalized Sleep."The Clarity".So is it any good?  Well yeah of course it is good, but to be honest I don't know if my expectations were too high or what, but, to me whilst a decent song and at near 10 mins in length there's plenty of it, to my ears, it sounds a bit too much like OM with guitar. Whilst this is not necessarily a bad thing as readers of this blog will know I am a fan of OM, we already have a ton of OM releases to listen to, with a new Sleep single I can't help but have expected a bit more than that. It's a titanic riff and there's a great solo, but all I hear as I said is OM! I have only listened to it a couple of times and I have really enjoyed it, but the reason I loved OM was because they were doing something different to what Chris and Al did in Sleep, from Sleep in 2014 I expected something more along the lines of the new songs they debuted on recent live releases. It is the first thing they have released and maybe the OM thing won't be so apparent with the album, as I'm sure there is to be one! Anyway I shall leave you to judge for yourself. Go check this out Sleep? back in 2014 FUCK man I couldn't be happier!

The above paragraph was edited from my original post on "The Clarity" now whilst I stand by the OM vibe I feel maybe, as I said, my expectations were maybe too high. So lets FFWD 4 years.
In 2018 some 26 years since the last Sleep album (not counting the multiple Reissues of "Dopesmoker") and with no warning, no hype, no intensive ad campaign, no pre-order bonanza on the 20th of April 2018 Sleep quietly released their first new album in 26 years! This was entirely brilliant, not just because of the date it was released (In the U.S. they put the month first in dates so the release date for this was 4/20/18 for the significance of the number 420 in cannabis culture then please go HERE to further your knowledge) Not only was the quiet release of this album controversial, the album itself seemed to polarise fans. I definitely think the lack of collector arousing pre-order packages, thus denying the collector fraternity their opportunity to outdo each other and everyone else by getting it first and "best" genuinely pissed a lot of people off, because of  this, and the surprise release I read several threads where people were complaining about the fact it was difficult to get this on vinyl, simply because demand had probably been underestimated, however that didn't stop the dickheads taking to the internet and bitching about being unable to get ALL the colours (who needs the same fucking album in 5 colours? ) but it was also because of this idiotic collector mentality that the availability was scarce, collectors buying multiple copies, as well as scalpers getting in on the act to flip em on ebay! Whilst this isn't Sleep's fault entirely surely the demand should have been predicted by anyone running a record label having any remote idea how the market, particularly with the kind of music Sleep play actually works these days! It wasn't just that though, once people got their hands on it and ears around it then the bitching really started "It's too short" "2 of the songs have been around for years" (Yes 2 tracks or 1/3 of the album have been staples of Sleep's live set during their various reformations for years but did anyone stop to think that these songs had maybe been in preparation for the next album they had intended before they originally broke up and this IS the next album!) "That intro is pointless" etc. etc. it continued Here's my take on the whole thing...

"The Sciences" - is a fantastic album, and for me it sounds like the next day of Sleep not some 26 years later,  herein lies pretty much every whiny little fuckers problem. It's not the next day, it's 26 years later. Whilst Sleep may have played a huge part in inventing the sound we know as Stoner/Doom, for 26 years bands have run riot with it, there are thousands and THOUSANDS of bands who play and have played this style and the problem is the template for the music is a small one. When this music was first around in the 80's and 90's there was a small handful of bands playing it and the influences were a very small platter indeed and the best thing about Sleep was they took that platter of influence and drowned it in SABBATH SAUCE! In 1992 NO ONE had made music this close to the classic Sabbath sound, and made it even heavier! The problem is, in 26 years every tiny little facet of the first 6 Sabbath albums has been plagiarised, every note, every cover, every lyric, has been done to death, it's an oversaturated scene and genre to the point now where it's almost mandatory to plagiarize Sabbath, and,  where doing anything original in stoner/doom is pretty much impossible.
So tell me this... How the FUCK were Sleep gonna accomplish the feat of redefining a genre/style that they pretty much invented with something new and groundbreaking after 26 years? They WERE the groundbreakers. How is that possible within a genre that has a strictly defined sound and under a monolithic wave of successive generations of bands who stole the sound Sleep themselves stole from Sabbath? If you truly like Sleep then you will love this album it does exactly what it should shows that the guys who invented this style are still one of the best at it! Here it's ripped from my CD at 320KBPS

So this brings us onto the last 2 bits of Sleep goodness Shortly after the album Sleep issued a 12"/Download of what I assume is an album outtake. "Leagues Beneath" clocking in at just shy of 17 minutes well I can see why they left it off the album due to the fact it probably woulda necessitated the compressing of the 6 album tracks to fit it all on 4 sides of vinyl, so I suppose that's fair enough and they did make it available for download however they coulda put it on the fucking CD right? But once again we have the usual pandering to the vinyl collectors with a fancy one sided limited 12" I'm not gonna start it fucks me off I'm leaving it at that! The track itself is an absolute towering beast of a riff and is easily as good as the other new material on the album and at it's length if you take it on a playlist with The "Sciences" brings the playing time up to 70 minutes! More than enough Sleep to keep you going for 26 more years??

Lastly we have "Live At Third Man Records" so I was surprised as anyone to find these guys signing with Jack White's label for all the new releases but I guess if you are in the vinyl target market then he is the man! This mammoth live album was released on multiple coloured  3 LP and 1 x 12" boxset yadda yadda yadda fuck it I'm gonna get onto a rant about vinyl AGAIN so I'll stop there.. Onto the music Recorded on December 12th 2018 in the Blue Room at the Third Man headquarters in Nashville to a live audience using a direct-to-acetate system and mixed and mastered in real-time.There you go so this epic set clocking in 8 mins shy of 2 hours I assume must have come with a download because I certainly have noticed any hiss or crackle of a vinyl rip and that's what you get here 11 tracks of Sleep live including a near 23 minute run through their masterwork "Dopesmoker" Playing all 5 of the tracks from "The Sciences" (excluding the intro) as well as both "The Clarity" & "Leagues Beneath" With only "Holy Mountain" and closing, unsurprisingly, with their biggest "hit" "Dragonaut" being a nod to the old days! It's a fantastic quality set everything is clear in the mix there's nothing overwhelming about it it's just a fairly decent document of Sleep live and superior in quality to all of the various bootlegs around!

That's it then folks This already huge post updated! There's not a lot more to say other than Sleep are the godfathers and about the best at this kind of music (Save of course Sabbath)

Current Sleep Line Up Date Unspecified I would say 2018 though

ASBESTOSDEATH EP's - Mediafire

VOL 1 - Mediafire

VOL 2 - Mediafire

HOLY MOUNTAIN - Mediafire

DOPESMOKER - Mediafire

REUNION AT ALL TOMORROWS PARTIES DISC 1 - Mediafire

REUNION AT ALL TOMORROWS PARTIES DISC 2 - Mediafire

LIVE DENVER 5/9/10 - HERE

THE SCIENCES - Mediafire

THE CLARITY - Mediafire

LEAGUES BENEATH - Mediafire

LIVE AT THIRD MAN RECORDS - Mediafire

LEFT LANE CRUISER

Left Lane Cruiser were a band I discovered when browsing Alive Records back catalogue (Alive records is the blues/garage/punk label of Patrick Carney Drummer of Blues rockers the Black Keys). Having discovered that a few great CD's we had here were on Alive records and doing a bit of trainspotting online I found many more great bands on the label, but for me Left Lane Cruiser are by far the best of them.

Comprising of a duo of Brenn Beck on Drums and percussive instruments and Fredrick "Joe" Evans IV on slide guitar and vocals, LLC originate from Fort Wayne, Indiana in the USA You'd be forgiven for thinking they were from the deep south of the USA and indeed they themselves say, they take their influence from "North Mississippi Hill Country Blues musicians most of which are signed to Fat Possum Records". Both their sound and lyrical subject matter is steeped in the traditions of the American South. with album titles like "Bring Yo' Ass To The Table" and songs like "Pork N' Beans" and "Hillgrass Bluebilly" they most definitely wear that influence on their sleeve.

Now there seems to have been a LOT of blues revivalism over the last decade or more in the wake of The White Stripes take on the blues, and also quite a few 2 piece bands as well, (love the White Stripes or hate em you can't deny they opened the door for a torrent of new modern electric blues bands that has seen a modern take on the style that is new and exciting, some 100 + years after it's invention. Also Seasick Steve's madcap home made instruments and quirky take on traditional blues deserves a mention for bringing blues back to the attention of the world in more recent years) but to my mind LLC are the best of them. Their blend of foot stomping electric blues with a very slight nod to heavier contemporary styles such as rock and garage and Fredrick Evans blistering slide guitar work and raspy vocals just nail it for me.

So there is not a lot much more that I can tell you about this great band so here I present you with their discography now before we start LLC tho steeped in blues tradition do have their heavier moments just listen to something like "Big Momma" from "Bring Yo' Ass.." or "Hard Working Man" from "All You Can Eat"  for examples of this this is blues but these guys are peddling a seriously rocking and ass kicking variation of this that is all their own.

I'm not gonna get into a big thing here about each album because tho they have progressed in musicianship, songwriting and production over the 7 or so years they have been around this is blues music, loud and electric and staggeringly good as it is it is still blues based so if you're a fan of any of the modern electric blues/garage bands like for example Black Keys, Radio Moscow, Oblivians etc then you NEED these albums if you don't like blues in any of it's many forms you would've stopped reading long ago.

Left Lane Cruiser were fairly consistent soundwise over their first 3 albums "Gettin' Down On It" , "Bring Yo Ass To The Table" and "All You Can Eat" although the production got better with each release as did their playing, the sound remained fairly similar throughout. Obviously though as with any band there is a marked progression in the quality of the musicianship with each release, if you listen to the first album then say the 3rd album you will see how much they had come on as a unit and as musicians tho talented as they were to begin with! However it's on most recent album "Junkyard Speedball" from 2011 where you can hear a real progression the production here is far cleaner than any of the preceding albums and Frederick Evans vocals while still retaining that rough blues howl have definitely gotten a little smoother here also the tightness and sheer talent of these guys is especially impressive here. This continues on 2012's collaboration with James Leg vocalist of fellow Alive records soul/blues band Black Diamond Heavies. On this album the rocking blues is given a further edge by James Leg's Tom Waits/Mark Lanegan gruff vocal style and the addition of some organ and blistering harmonica here and there and Leg adds a groove to the music that wasn't there with LLC's raging blues before and trust me it's utterly great.

UPDATE - In the 7 years since I posted this Left Lane Cruiser have DOUBLED their discography releasing a further 3 albums 2 Compilations and a split album! So as it's my intention to update any posts that are out of date I have added them below. It appears that Brenn Beck original drummer has quit the band sometime after "Rock Them Back To Hell"  I don't think you or I need to know why, I haven't researched it but he has been replaced by one Pete Dio I did look him up appears he has no history with any other bands, for 2016's Record Store Day  LLC released "Beck In Black" a remastered compilation of early LLC material with Beck drumming I checked the tracklist against the early albums and found no matches so it appears to be a collection of unreleased material (Link below) so it would seem to me that there is no acrimony over the split. So there's been no radical changes in direction here, however, first album with Dio drumming 2015's "Dirty Spliff Blues" while still a slab of dirty riffing seems to feel, to my ears, a little less ragged and a lot more tuneful than before this slight and it is SLIGHT cleaning up of their sound hasn't been detrimental at all I still find that their raw blues to be entertaining and still makes me want to stomp my foot, eat pork 'n' beans, wear dungarees and drink moonshine out of a jug!

So what's been added then well all the links are below but a couple need a bit of explaining. I already dealt with "Beck In Black" above there are 3 full new albums "Dirty Spliff Blues" (2015) , "Claw Machne Wizard" (2017 who's cover bears a striking resemblance to MC5's "Back In The USA" see pic below,whether intentional or not it wouldn't surprise me that this is part of where the non-blues influences lie) And "Shake And Bake" (2019) There is also a split with 20 Watt Tombstone "Death Blues V.s The Dirty Spliff" (2016) I have only given you the LLC side below and it's only 3 songs so more of an EP than an album. That brings us lastly to "Slingshot" This appears to be a remastered compilation of material recorded in 2005 preceding the debut album.

(hmmm seems plausible these guys have heard of MC5?)

So there you go some modern electric blues heavily updated  here that will have you don your check shirt and trucker cap pull the sofa out into the garden, fire up the BBQ and crack a beer whilst you involuntarily nod your head to the sheer brilliance of this really great band.

(Note - 2 of the links below are in blue simply cos for some reason I can't change them! They are still valid links and working)


Gettin' Down On It - Mediafire

Bring Yo' Ass To The Table - Mediafire

All You Can Eat - Mediafire

Junkyard Speedball - Mediafire

Painkillers (With James Leg) - Mediafire

Rock them Back To Hell - Mediafire

Slingshot - Mediafire

Dirty Spliff Blues - Mediafire

Claw Machine Wizard - Mediafire

Death Blues V.s The Dirty Spliff (Split W/ 20 Watt Tombstone) - Mediafire

Skake And Bake - Mediafire

Beck In Black  - Mediafire

ENDLESS GRINNING SKULLS - DISCOGRAPHY (UPDATE)

So I said in my post about the reebot that almost all the "extreme" music was gone, whilst about 99% of it just isn't for me anymore there is a 1% that is and I have left posts up of the things that for me are outstanding, this is one of them. So I decided it needed an update as well!

Endless Grinning Skulls come from an immaculate pedigree featuring Gords (Geriatric Unit, Hard To Swallow, John Holmes) Steve Charlesworth (Heresy, Geriatric Unit, Meatfly etc) Patrick Lawlor (War/System & Terrorain) and Andrew Morgan (Army Of Flying Robots & Dead In The Woods) these are some guys with a serious fucking grounding in the UK hardcore scene. I had never heard of Endless Grinning Skulls till a couple of months before I saw that they were playing the Leeds Means To End festival in September 2013 on the day I was going, so I sought out their music as soon as I found that out and then I found out who was in the band (I was a huge fan of Heresy back in the 80's I even wrote to all of them including Steve the drummer) and when saw their awesome artwork the urgency to hear them just increased TENFOLD! (However they ended up not playing due to a problem with their bassist)  So I wasn't sure what to expect as these guys have a real hardcore pedigree but yet they were playing a political/crust punk festival and their artwork had shades of Crass/crust to it and basically that kinda sums it up what you get is blisteringly fast crust punk riffs and drumming but with quite hardcore sounding vocals, instrument sounds and production, it really is a product of it's members as this is way too clean and well produced to be your typical gnarly heavy crust punk but yet at the same time the riffing is pure Discharge inspired punk with a hardcore sound! I originally managed to get in touch with one of the band members who kindly furnished me with a CD burn of the debut self titled album and their first EP "Fear Ignorance Control" but the story does not end there EGS are not the most prolific of bands they have very little internet presence no facebook etc but they do have a blogspot however it has not been updated in 7 years! To be honest I think this band really are guys who just do it as time and convenience allows or basically when they can be arsed. They don't seem to care about people hearing their band or even playing live very often! I was lucky enough to catch them live finally in 2014 and they were amazing Particularly drummer Steve who was playing fast sharp drums but looked like he was wondering if he had left the gas on or what he was gonna have for tea tomorrow simply effortless!

So FFWD to 2017 and we have some more activity, finally, after playing sporadic gigs over the 4 years since their last releases they hit us with a new album and 7" and this is where the music gets really interesting! The new 7" "Endless Grinning Spirits" contains 2 short tracks of fairly standard stuff straight up Discharge worship but retaining the clean hardcore sound this time round with maybe a little more grime on the production but still sounding exactly like you'd expect from EGS however new album "Risus Sardonicus" (Better known as Rictus Grin a spasming of the facial muscles which produces a smile that does not convey hapiness or pleasure, often associated with the dead) this was a different beast altogether. As the album begins firstly the tempo of the songs whilst still fast and in your face has been reigned in a little, however this has not sacrificed any of this bands intensity and actually lends more power to an already potent sound, but other than a little relaxing on the pace the production of the album is also stellar everything sounds sharp and clean and is equal in the mix the guitars slice, the bass bounces, the drums crack and cut through perfectly and the vocals are as per you'd expect....pissed off!  it is from track 7  things start to get a little different "Guilt Games" is a mid paced blazer of a track it has discordant riffs that are 100% out of the 80's Voivod soongbook but as the song builds pace the bass and guitars start to sound familiar and it's from this point on you notice that nearly the entire second half of the album is pretty much a tribute to Rudimentary Peni!( If you don't know who Rudimentary Peni are you can see my extensive post on them HERE) Next song "Septic Ascetics" starts off as a 100% take on Rudimentary Peni's "Rotten To The Core" The next track "Crutches" is more straight up EGS business as usual clocking in at under 2mins, however the next 2 tracks both return to that 100% Rudimentary Peni sound leaving us with album closer"End Times" clocking in at 5 & 1/2 minutes a mid paced scorcher this is just intensity personified, peppered with driving drums and rapid fire snare rolling it has an absolutely fantastic dynamic peaking and troughing often but yet never for one minute letting up on the intensity! It literally quickens your pulse and shortens your breath and makes your teeth grind!

SO since I did this post the band a put a few more bits up on their bandcamp page which is handy as I sorted all that whilst updating the post, onto your links. I have given you 2 links below even though the files are fairly small. SO PT. 1 contains their Self Titled Debut Taken from a 320 KBPS bandcamp download and also includes their Debut EP "Fear Ignorance Control" and their Split 7" With Violent Arrest that came with Artcore zine The EP is from a CD the band themselves sent me at 320 and the split 7" comes from I think a download it's 320 too. PT.2 contains the "Endless Grinning Spirit" 7" & "Risus Sardonicus" album both taken from 320 Bandcamp downloads plus their 2 tracks from Our Future Records comp "New Wave Of The Grave New Beat" Volume 2 ripped from my own CD which is 2 early rawer version of tracks from the "Risus..." album. These 2 links contain EVERYTHING they have done to date.

My main reason for updating this post is while EGS for me are still a brilliant HC band but as my interest in this kind of thing is waning a little I'm maybe not as big a fan of the first album and EP as I was when I first did this post, I still like them a lot but what I really wanted to share was the latest album "Risus Sardonicus" as you can read above it's an absolutely astounding listen and the fact it is so good makes me all the sadder that this band are so sporadically active cos I could listen to this album all day! It's not often that a band of this style comes along and utterly floors me especially these days but as you can see I have taken the time to update this post and give you fresh links I think that says that these are worth your time.

PT. 1 - Mediafire

PT. 2 - Mediafire


here's a link to their blogspot it is still there but hasn't been updated since 2013 but you can have a look at what's there if you are interested?

http://endlessgrinningskulls.blogspot.co.uk/

THE FALL 1982 BOX & COMPLETE SINGLES

The Fall are a band I studiously ignored for decades. As you are probably aware I am a music obsessive, so, to start tackling a band like The Fall with 97 albums, 60 Singles & 51 compilations really is pretty much financial suicide for me! The worst part is each album has many different versions & "expansions" coupled with the fact that you have to go through lots of versions to find the best remaster and the one with the most extras, also,  they are not cheap!! Whilst I have dipped my toe in The Fall over the decades and I have really liked what I have heard, tackling their vast back catalogue just seemed insurmountable! That all changed recently! I had been listening to some Fall and really enjoying it and last month I had a bit of spare cash and decided maybe I should buy some I found someone who was selling The Fall 7 CD singles box set for £30, I was aghast, as the Fall have always been a "singles band" I figured it was as good a place to start as any with these guys, so I decided I would get that and maybe their first lot of albums.Whilst searching for some bargains I also found that they had released a box set called "1982" this 6 CD set basically covers everything they done in that year and as it was a handier way of wiping out 6 separate purchases so I got that too!

This brings us to this post, I had downloaded The Singles box set when it came out in 2017 and I remember at the time there was a lot of complaint about how it was arranged (3 discs of all the A sides and 4 Discs of the B Sides rather than have the complete singles in chronological order) not only that when the CD came along as the dominant format The Fall  often released CD "sets" with multiple B-Sides and on this box set they only give one or in some cases 2 of the B sides for each single!

FFWD to a couple of weeks ago, I am in a group on Facebook called "Now Playing" where you post up a picture of what you are listening to and talk about it! I posted The Fall singles Box and one member commented that he hated the way it was arranged and that he was "gonna rip my CD's one Day and put it in the right order" WELLLL as you can imagine this sent a huge spotlight (not a light bulb a SPOTLIGHT) off above my head, I decided that not only was I gonna take my freshly ripped CD's and put the singles chronologically A & B-Sides together I was gonna insert ALL the missing B-sides and make this a TRUE "Complete Singles" set. I set about doing this and it took me about 10 hours over 2 days to do it, I had no intention of doing a Fall post here but I decided I'd put so much work into this I should upload it for the world!

So firstly, here, the box set has been expanded from it's original 121 tracks to a whopping 155 tracks! And, as  this is my personal version of the "Complete Singles" each single has been put in proper chronological order (I researched the dates each single was released and arranged them accordingly ...Yeah I'm that much of a fucking NERD!) with it's A side then B sides rather than split them up into "all the A-sides" and "All The B-Sides"! I also where possible put the tracks in the order they were on their original release even if it meant there were 2 versions of the same track together!

Now I am not gonna claim this to be 100% complete as the original boxset contained one track each from the A & B sides of later EP's "The Remainderer" and "Wise Ol' Man" however I decided as these are not truly singles and are actually more like mini LP's (both running at around 20-30 minutes in length) that I would ommit them from this set as I would have had to add a 9th part just for those.
I have sourced the missing B-sides from remastered and expanded Fall albums so there is no loss in quality and no vinyl rips, the sound should be and is to my ears consistent throughout.

I decided that giving you The Fall Singles set wasn't nearly enough, Hell no! Let's go back to the "1982" box set! The Fall were fairly productive in 1982 doing 2 albums, a single, a Peel session and a tour of Australia and New Zealand! Label Cherry Red Records are in the process of releasing "The Fall Sound Series" they claim this series as the definitive remasters and expansions of The Fall back catalogue and they decided to cover the whole year in one mighty 6 Disc box set! So in the Box you get the albums "Hex Induction Hour" "Room To Live" plus the compilation "Singles, Sessions, Soundchecks, Live" (containing their 1982 Peel Session and the 1982 Kamera 7" plus some Live tracks and the soundcheck for the Australian Gig That Was Released as "Fall In A Hole" this comp is exclusive to the boxset) Also included are the live Albums "Fall In A Hole" & "Fall In A Hole Plus" and a further Live set from the same tour "Live To Air Melbourne '82" so altogether you get 72 tracks of prime era Fall all remastered for this set!

Onto your files... I don't think there is any point in me discussing the music of The Fall I don't think that anyone whose come to this post is going to be new to them you probably came to this from a search for it, but if you don't know The Fall this is a good place to start as the singles box covers their entire career from their first 7" release in 1978 to the last in 2016 and will give you a damn good idea what they are like. So the files These are pretty big downloads I decided, as I have the storage space and no restrictions on uploads, why upload 14 links? So I have put them together in parts. Each of the parts of the single box contains 2 folders of approx 80 or more minutes in length and I chose to put 2 Discs each from the "1982" set in each part below to save time for me and the box set was too big to just upload in one file.

So there you go a labour intensive exhaustive "Complete" Fall Singles collection and the bonus of the expensive 1982 box set all ripped from my own CD's and sourced from remastered versions so... Go get yourself TOTALLY WIRED with some classic FALL!


1982 BOX PT 1 - Mediafire

1982 BOX PT 2 - Mediafire

1982 BOX PT 3 -  Mediafire

COMPLETE SINGLES PT 1 - Mediafire

COMPLETE SINGLES PT 2 - Mediafire

COMPLETE SINGLES PT 3 - Mediafire

COMPLETE SINGLES PT 4 - Mediafire

BLOG REEBOOT 2020 PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO READ THANKS..

I guess many of you regular readers of this blog may have thought the blog was dead and finished? I guess i kinda did too I have to be honest I lost interest and enthusiasm and as you will see I've done little but a couple of short posts and updates over the last year

This year marks 7 years since I sat down on the Google blogger page and attempted to work it out, I remember starting this in 2013 and it has gone through some trials and tribulations like the loss of a years work through 4shared banning me over copyright issues to the gradual slowing down and eventual grinding to a halt!

I have made many promises of I am going to be doing more etc and not lived up to them so if anyone is reading this I will be surprised! However this time I mean to do it and here's a show of faith....

FIRSTLY... Some changes :

You will notice the blog has been trimmed down SEVERELY that is because I am no longer going to be posting "extreme" music that is extremes of metal and punk almost all the Crust/ Grind/ Death/ Metal has gone I have left a few but not much. This is my music policy from now on I am dead with "extreme" music I am approaching 50 and really I am no longer part of it anymore it doesn't move me the same and I have subsequently sold ALL my CD's of that nature and will no longer be posting music of that sort!

REQUESTS - I will still take requests for stuff but if I don't have it or feel it's not something worth blogging I won't honour the request I have moved house since last posting and the internet here is terrible and it takes a long time to upload even the smallest of files so I won't waste my time uploading things I am not 100% behind and definitely DO NOT request extreme punk or metal (see above).

WRITE UPS - I am going to continue writing things up in my usual "anecdotal"style  but in most cases instead of doing time consuming research I will provide you with a short overview from a decent source (probably discogs or wikipedia) if I am not able to write off the top of my head as basically I would read that and re-word and expand on that info anyway. OH, AND I had a few complaints in comments over the years about my lack of correct punctuation making my write ups hard to read, well let me tell you something....I am a self confessed dumbass, I left school at 15 some 33 years ago and have done no formal study since. I recently had to do a qualification for my current job and part of that was an English course! Which I passed with a high grade mark so SCREWWWW you! I will now endeavour to edit more heavily and insert correct punctuation but no promises this is supposed to be fun for me too!!! All links will be provided by me and kept to the usual UTS quality standards

All of this is being done to streamline the process of bringing you a high quality of music and high quality downloads and also so I will not end up being discouraged by the huge task of starting a write up.

That's about it, below this post you will find no less than 19 new posts yup 19! my goal for this reboot was 20 posts to go some way to replacing the near 100 posts I deleted so it's a start I had aimed for 20 but these 19 were done and ready and my brain was fried and I decided that as these were done and nothing new was lined up and I have spent the best part of 6 weeks worth od free time doing these that I would publish these 19 and have a fresh look tomorrow and see if i can give you a 20th!

It is my intention to try and do minimum one but attempt 2 posts per week where possible.

Right now at the end of March 2020 we are in the middle of the CoVid -19 Corona Virus pandemic. Here in the UK we are on government enforced lockdown  being in the high risk group I am stuck at home on my days off for the foreseeable months I can only leave the house to work because it is literally a 5 min walk there if I had to take public transport I'd be in self isolation right now. This was the impetus behind rebooting the blog! I am bored and here I can actually do something to help other people who may be stuck at home bored with little to do, well here is a bit of reading and a shit ton of free music for you to enjoy.

I'd like to say a heartfelt thanks to those of you who have continued to drop by the blog despite the lack of activity and if you fell by the wayside then I am sorry for being a lazy dick! I guess you won't be reading this anyway ha ha!

Here's to a more productive 2/3 of 2020 here at Under The Surface

Look after yourselves, Stay home, Stay well and Enjoy the music

Love, Peace and Good Health

Your Editor

DAVE 

(^ The uncertain smile of a man in the middle of a deadly pandemic!!!^)

SECTION 25 1979 - 1984

Manchester's Factory Records has long been an interest of mine basically for 2 reasons when I first moved to England in the mid 90's I lived in Manchester for 5 years. I absolutely loved the city and it's a place very close to my heart and secondly because I am a huge Joy Division fan, it had always held a fascination for me as it was during the years of "Post Punk" that bands were truly innovating and inventing new sounds from the stale 3 chord pub rock on steroids template of the original punk sound. However aside from Joy Division I had never really considered any of the other Factory bands worth checking out I had this idea in my head that the names and the music released by Factory in particular New Order who I have never been able to get into, were basically too commercial or just not going to be of interest to me! It was upon reading I think the 5th book I had read on Factory records related things that I decided I have the internet what harm is there in checking out some of the other early Factory bands? When i finally sat down at the computer to do this I started wanting to punch myself in the face! Between around 1981 and 1984 there was some utterly amazing stuff released by factory (also some total GUFF!) and some of these rapidly became an obsession for me to the point I bought albums beyond this period that cost me dearly and turned out to be well pretty disappointing and terrible!

So one band I discovered was Crispy Ambulance (see Post HERE) Another was Section 25. Named after a Section of the Mental Health act I have no idea that with a fairly dark name and coming from the particular era I love that I ignored them for so long! You'd think I'd learn about prejudicing music by now right?  I downloaded Section 25's debut " Always Now" and by 3 songs in I was on Ebay buying the fancy double CD reissue within about a week I had bought almost everything I present to you here, I say this not to brag but to illustrate how much of an impact it had on me I had been looking for bands with that sound and Section 25 pretty much hit that nail square on the head!

Joy Division seemed to be a catalyst for the Manchester scene and beyond, their influence lies heavy over the early Factory records roster, not that any of the bands are merely cloning but you can certainly feel that influence of dark, moody atmosphere. Section 25 are no exception, their debut album "Always Now" is an atmospheric ride through dark urban spaces the music is sparse but still manages to evoke a feeling of discomfort. Not that it's not enjoyable I absolutely love this album but it is a very dense, claustrophobic listen in places but then so were Joy Division and they went on to be one of the most popular bands in the world! Don't get me wrong this is a great album and here expanded with all the singles B-sides a John Peel Session session outtakes and a live set it's an absolutely fantastic set! The dark and moody theme continues with second album "In the Key Of Dreams" in fact if possible it seems this album is even more moody than it's predecessor you can hear more electronics sneaking into the sound here with the use of some programmed beats and more synths but it's actually a very minimal stripped down sound this time still very much in the post punk camp but taking the sound to a quieter place. less brash guitars, more darkened rooms and almost whispered vocal at times. I do like this album but it doesn't have the same impact for me as it's predecessor I have listened to it a few times but I find you definitely have to be in the right mood for it, here it is expanded with "The Beast" 12" and bonus track "Hold On"

Lastly we come to probably their most well known album well if not it contains their most popular song ("Looking From A Hilltop") 1984's "From The Hip" is a VAST progression from it's predecessors, whilst still evoking an atmosphere this is a complete change of style. Here the moody darkness has been substituted for a lighter touch there is almost no live instruments on this album it's beats appear to be entirely programmed and the music created by processing and keyboards/synths also there are now some gorgeous female vocals provided by Angela Cassidy which was also a big shock to me I hadn't really expected when buying these albums for the band to have come so far in a year. Legend has it that the rise of The Hacienda club, at the time the heart of the Manchester and Factory scene, had been a huge influence on every band involved with factory (New Order are a perfect example) the infectious dance, funk and electro beats being played in the club had hugely influenced Section 25 resulting in this first foray into more dance orientated sounds! This is a great album, though, as I had been hoping for more of the moody post punk of their first 2 albums I was actually very disappointed and at first I shelved it and was pretty gutted about my purchase as it was quite expensive, but, for me at least, persistence was key. Determined to get my moneys worth I continued to listen and I began to realise what a great album it is, Although the sound is quite dated now reminiscent of the synth pop of the era there's a melancholy sorta underground edge to it. I am old enough to remember when this was cutting edge music so to my ears it's a beautifully crafted electronic album with some great catchy beats and warm pulsating synths that still manage to evoke an atmosphere but here the dark dread like feeling has been replaced by something altogether more wistful! I have given you the 30th anniversary expanded 2 disc edition which includes a\ll the relevant singles and mixes released at the time a BBC session plus a brace of album demos bonus tracks and a couple of more contemporary remixes one by Stephen Morris of new Order from 2010

lastly we come to "Illminus Illumina" this is a little confusing as between their first and second album Section 25 released a cassette of this title however in 2001 LTM released a 2 CD compilation one disc featuring bands from their label packaged with a second disc which was a Section 25 compilation with the same title but a different tracklist from the 1981 cassette this contains what appears to be an entire demo from 1981 recorded at SSRU Studio coupled with 7 live tracks from 1979 - 1982. It's actually a pretty good listen considering it's near 40 year vintage and shows a great glimpse of the bands early work (Please note everything here is ripped from my own CD's at 320 KBPS except for this I have not been able to find a CD yet but it's at VBR and is really good quality)

So I kinda waffled a bit here but I hope you get the idea, I really like this band and they are one of the better ones from this era i have discovered from my deep dive into the early post-punk scene if you're already a fan then help yourself to these expanded editions if not have a listen if what I've said strikes a chord?


ALWAYS NOW (30th Anniversary 2 Disc Edition) - Mediafire

THE KEY OF DREAMS - Mediafire

FROM THE HIP (30th Anniversary 2 Disc Edition) - Mediafire

ILLUMINUS ILLUMINA - Mediafire

CRISPY AMBULANCE - ESSENTIALS

Crispy Ambulance were an early Factory Records band and it is a name I have heard many times and completely ignored due to, thinking "How can I possibly take a band seriously with a name like that?!!" Whenever the name has come up in the plethora of Factory records and related books I have read I have not really given them my attention! However I recently got sick of certain bands coming up in things I was reading in relation to other artists I like, one of those was Crispy Ambulance (Another was Section 25 see post HERE) I decided to do a bit of investigation into them despite my reservations about the name, so first a little bit of history...

The band played their first gig on 1 January 1978 at the Spurley Hey Youth Centre.Following a self-released debut single, "From the Cradle to the Grave" (1980), the band joined Factory Records. Singles "Unsightly and Serene" and "Live on a Hot August Night" (produced by Martin Hannett) preceded their album The Plateau Phase and final single "Sexus". The Plateau Phase was given a five star review by Sounds In April 1980 singer Alan Hempsall also appeared on stage with Joy Division at Derby Hall, standing in for Ian Curtis who had suffered an epileptic fit, a performance which ultimately descended into a riot. This scene is depicted in the Joy Division biopic Control. During 1981–1982, Crispy Ambulance played several dozen live dates in the UK, as well as a short European tour with Section 25. They also recorded a session for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show in January 1981. Crispy Ambulance disbanded in late 1982, leaving behind Fin, a live album of late period songs. A further posthumous album, Frozen Blood, included their 1981 BBC radio session for the John Peel programme.
In the commentary for the 2002 film, 24 Hour Party People, Tony Wilson of Factory Records stated that while he liked the band, he felt that their name was the worst band name of all time.

So there you go I'm not the only one with reservations about the name! I have taken most of the above paragraph from wikipedia as I don't know a great deal of history of the band as I am a fairly recent convert however you will note this post is called "Crispy Ambulance - Essentials" this is because I am going to deal with the bands original era from 1980 - 1982 as they reformed in 1999 and have actually released more material since reforming, than they did in their original incarnation however whilst good it does not have the same sound as the original releases and in a lot of cases is instrumental.

So enough blurb here's what you get in your files, Now I feel it was quite sneaky the way the 3 Albums "Plateau Phase", "Frozen Blood" & "Fin" that I present to you here were reissued, whilst for my money I would have compiled all the non album studio material on one disc the reissuers have chosen to spread it over the 3 CD's and in one case on a much later release from 2015! So all shall become clear at the moment as OCDave has sorted it all out neatly for you!

Your first file is Plateau Phase (Expanded), In 2015 Crispy Ambulance recorded an album of unreleased songs from their early days called "Compulsion" but also included on this album were 2 outtakes from the Plateau Phase album session from 1982 "WMTP 2" & "Rain Without Clouds" I have added these to the end of the album in this file giving you the complete session

Second File is Frozen Blood (Redux) "Frozen Blood" was a compilation of  Live Tracks their John Peel & Piccadilly Radio Session & some single tracks however the rest of the bands singles were split up over "The Plateau Phase" CD and "Fin" Live CD so what I did was took the Live Tracks out from "Frozen Blood" then I stripped the single tracks from the other 2 CD's and rearranged it all in chronological order and therefore you have Frozen Blood (Redux) I feel it works better that way and gives a better overview of the bands non album studio output. This is all tagged correctly and I have put in brackets after each song title where the song is from

Third File is "Fin" This was a 12 Track live compilation taken from Various concerts up to 1982 I have expanded this by adding the live tracks from "Frozen Blood" as stated above taking "Fin" from it's original 10 tracks and expanding it to 18 tracks.I have put in brackets after each track the concert and date it was taken from.

Please also note that ALL of the material presented here has been remastered for these reissues and ripped directly from my own CD's so it's very good quality.

So if all of the above has not confused you too much then you will find this is, at least as far as released material is concerned the complete early works of this essential band it took me a few CD purchases and a lot of work to arrange them how I have but what's good about that is these versions are entirely unique to this blog you may find these albums elsewhere but not in the way I have presented them here.

I feel Crispy Ambulance whilst having a following at the time didn't really take off as much as some of their Factory records contemporaries and have remained an obscurity, they play a style whilst rooted in the Post Punk movement of the time remains all of their own blending jangling guitar lines with deep bass and keyboard textures along with unique vocals to make a sound that is all encompassing and just envelops the listener as it evokes mood and atmosphere.So I am giving you a chance to check out a fantastic band with all their recordings from the early 80's in one place I strongly urge you to give this band a chance as they would not be here if they weren't of extremely high quality.

PLATEAU PHASE (EXPANDED) - Mediafire

FROZEN BLOOD (REDUX) - Mediafire

FIN (EXPANDED) - Mediafire

TRICKY - EARLY ESSENTIALS & EXPANSIONS

Adrian Thaws aka Tricky Kid aka Tricky has been an artist that rose to high prominence. But whilst continuing to make music to this day seems to endear himself to hardcore fans only. having consistently progressed his music forward over the course of some 25 years Tricky has managed to remain relevant if not still having critical and commercial sucess these days, to illustrate I had no idea Tricky was still making music and releasing albums until recently and I consider myself a fan, His current flavours of contemporary urban music are not really my bag but his body of work in the mid 90's up to 2000 was outstanding and I decided that having talked about it in the post on Massive Attack I would do this companion piece as I feel Massive Attack and Tricky are intrinsically linked certainly during the era covered by this post and again now as he made an appearance with Massive attack on their most recent 2016 EP "Ritual Spirit" which if you have a look at the Massive Attack post (HERE)you will see this was really quite an event!

After breaking from the Massive Attack collective in 1994 after their 2nd album "Protection" Tricky started work on his debut album with vocalist Martina Topley-Bird Also featuring appearances from Alison Goldfrapp & Mark Stewart of The Pop Group, The Mafia etc) The resulting album "Maxinequaye" (Named for Tricky's departed departed mother) was unprecedented! Winning him critical and commercial acclaim and sold 100,000 copies during it's first months of release and going on to sell 500,000 reaching number 3 in the UK album charts, no mean feat when you listen to the album and I certainly remember at the time nearly everyone I know owning this album!

Whilst as I have stated Tricky has continued to consistently release music having just released a single earlier this month (March 2020) this post will stick to the era of Tricky's first 3 albums and surrounding projects as for me this was an era when his creativity and innovation was at it's best.

I am going to deal with your links and talk a bit about each album at the same time here if you wish to delve deeper into Tricky's history then you can find all you want to know HERE at trusty ol'wikipedia it will also provide you with links to other articles should you choose to follow them.

Maxinequaye (1995)  - Tricky's debut was surprisingly popular, the thing with Tricky's music is it is dense and dark, utilizing elements of Hip Hop, Dub, Rock and with some experimental edges at times the beats are quite off kilter and leave you wondering whether you should nod your head or scratch it. It's not without it's moments of beauty take the beautiful slow motion strings and beats of "Hell is Round The Corner" with Martina provided some vocal parts to compliment Tricky's sinister whisper it is just sublime. Martina Topley Bird has a unique style at once heavily accented streetwise young girl at the same time smoky chanteuse it's a brilliant combination and I definitely think finding her was a godsend for Tricky as she fits it perfectly and is key to this albums brilliance. Tales of lost love and urban alienation rub shoulders with street jargon, slang and give an overall dense, dark feel to the whole album, the click of what sounds like an automatic handgun forming part of the beat on "Strugglin'" illustrates this perfectly and throughout the album Tricky and Martina's trade off vocals compliment each other perfectly. Whilst not an entirely challenging listen, for me, this album has an experimental edge that is missing from a lot of what is known as "Trip Hop" whilst this album is tailor made for sinking into the couch with a packed spliff it'll have you looking behind you to make sure no one's there.

LINK NOTES - This album was given the "Deluxe Edition" treatment back in 2009 and I picked this version up, the entire package is remastered and the bonus disc contains monitor mixes, remixes and B-sides as well as 3 new remixes from 2009 by Tricky himself. However I was a bit disappointed because there was a brace of singles and EP's released around this album and a LOT of the B-side material and mixes and some of my favourites were not included. So In this folder you will find a folder entitled Disc 3, this was assembled by me from various CD's I own and top quality downloads and contains a further 11 Mixes from the B-sides of the various singles that were ommited from the Deluxe Edition so this rounds up pretty much the entire first year of Tricky's career.


Nearly God & Starving Souls (NG (1996) SS (1995) - In between Tricky's debut and second album, as if hitting us with Maxinequaye's dizzying journey wasn't enough Tricky initiated 2 projects first Starving Souls and then this short-lived (one EP) project morphed into Nearly God. This was completely unexpected, an artist rooted in the culture of Hip Hop brings out an album almost devoid of beats! Whilst not completely without ANY rhythm at all, what beats there are are sparse and minimal in some cases reduced to mere bass pulses you feel rather than hear, in other cases beats are there but understated, not only that the list of collaborators is an impressive run through some of the biggest names of the era. Featuring contributions from Terry Hall, Björk, Neneh Cherry, Alison Moyet, Cath Coffey and of course Martina Topley-Bird.This album does not have the same sort of density as "Maxinequaye" but it definitely has a very dark and brooding atmosphere. Opening with an unrecognisable cover of Siouxsie & The Banshees "Tattoo" the album proceeds through another 10 tracks each of which has it's own unique features (Take I be the Prophet With it's weird jumpy almost horror movie strings) and is a really interesting companion piece to "Maxinequaye"

LINK NOTES - Here I have given you The American version of this album which contains 2 bonus tracks "Children's Story" from the B-side of the "Poems" single and "Judas" In the folder you will also find the Starving Souls "I Be The Prophet" EP whilst Starving Souls is basically the Project that evolved into Nearly God ("I Be The Prophet" Is on the Nearly God album) It contains non album track "If You Want My Love" and alternate version "I Be The Prophet (With Drums)" and is worth having for those alone!

Pre-Millenium Tension (1996) - Tricky's second album was a shocker for me whilst "Maxinequaye" had been an impressive and brilliant debut, the depth of maturity and progression displayed by this second album was staggering. Taking the already dark, dense & claustrophobic feel of the debut and pushing those boundaries further, looking back now I can't believe an album this dark could be so popular I remember working at Virgin records and regularly hearing tracks from it being promoted on the instore radio! Opening track "Vent" simmers deeply with a looped snare roll, subsonic bass and guitar motifs and Tricky intoning "Can't Hardly Breathe" repeatedly whilst Martina provides some backing if that isn't the very definition of "claustrophobic feel" I don't know what is! Making a conscious effort to shed the "Trip Hop" tag he'd been saddled with Tricky himself stated "I wanted to make this an out and out punk record" I wouldn't exactly say he achieved that, whilst it certainly doesn't have the same slow motion feel of "Maxinequaye" it's still definitely a chilled out listen if you take that as a double meaning, as in it's chill out but at the same time "chlling" like a horror movie! The lurching scratch of single "Tricky Kid" winch literally sounds like someone heaving about to vomit, coupled with the backing shouts of someone deranged (Tricky? who knows!) doing intermittent dub style toasting like they were being electrically shocked and you have a pretty potent mix! Again this album is not without it's beautiful "ahhhh" moments take "Makes Me Wanna Die" where Martina's gorgeous sultry croon is in full effect over some gorgeous guitar picking and a really nice beat, however here look at the title it's not the music that's dark here it's the content! This really is a fantastic album and shows that Tricky was listening and watching and progressing the sound forward without losing any of the momentum he had gained and still being consistent in his sound.

LINK NOTES - This album was reissued and remastered in 2016 released bizarrely enough by Cherry Red (usually home of punk and post Punk having released stuff by The Fall and Dead Kennedys)  it was expanded with 5 bonus tracks from the various B-sides of singles and EP's from the album however once again there was a few mixes and B-sides missing so in this folder you will a second folder "B-sides" containing a further 4 tracks that were omitted from the official expansion.

Angels With Dirty Faces (1998) - This, Tricky's 3rd album and the last one to feature Martina Topley Bird as a collaborator is a completely different sound and a big departure from it's predecessors and is definitely, whilst great, far less challenging than the first two. Here the album has a live sound the drums and instrumentation sounding for the most part less sampled and more like an actual band, however weirdly enough lead single from the album "Broken Homes" features a collaboration with jagged british Indie artist PJ Harvey and it's beat has that same slow motion feel backed with almost soul-esque backing singers and peppered with a Public Enemy style sax scream! The chill out vibe of the preceding 2 albums is still there in a way but it feels more intense, less chill out on the sofa and more sit up and pay attention this is perfectly evidenced by second single "6 Minutes" an intense track with hard hitting drums that scattershot the rhythm and retain the live feel I mentioned before!
Again here Tricky has progressed and pushed his sound into new area's whilst still remaining consistent and familiar the self deprecating and media baiting "Analyse Me" and the sub drum and bass rhythms of  "The Moment I Feared" are great examples of this! Whilst I would say this is not quite as compelling for me as the first 2 albums This is still head and shoulders above his contemporaries at the time only his previous band Massive Attack who released their master work "Mezzanine" bettered him in 1998!

LINK NOTES - Here I have given you the Japanese Edition of the album no one has seen fit to reissue/expand./remaster this album as yet so as The Japanese version came with 2 bonus tracks I bought that to replace my original (Note the Japanese version as with all the non UK versions of the album have the tracks presented in a different order than the original UK edition, I have left it in the order it came  the bonus tracks being "Time Slippin'" & "Peyote Sings") As with the other files I present here again this album having not been expanded there's a second folder of B-sides rounding up 4 more tracks and thus covering the entire "Angels..." era)

Mission Accomplished EP (2000) - I have included this little curiosity as I almost added it to the "Angels..." folder but coming between that album and his next "Blowback" I figured I would give you it separately! SO this EP contains 4 tracks culled from various promos etc that were put together as this EP it carries on in the same "less trip hop more hip hop/live band" feel as "Angels..." does but I mainly include it here for the absolutely vicious closing track "Divine Comedy". This vitriolic stab at his previous record company (The sarcastically bright sampled shout and repetitive motif of "Polygram" throughout the track leaving no doubt whop the target is) and hearing Tricky's attack on this is worth the downloading this EP alone!

Remixed (2001) - This compilation rounds up Tricky's remixes of other people up to 2000 and contains 9 of Tricky's take on tracks by a dicverse ranfge of artists such as Intastella, Black Grape, Yoko Ono, Elvis Costello, Cath Coffey, Aco, Angeligue Kidjo, Bush & Garbage. So pretty much a round up of older heads and indie darlings of the 90's It seemed when Tricky's star was on the rise everyone wanted a piece of him This comp, whilst not essential is part of the era I cover here and I figured I would include it as an interesting look at Tricky's remixing skills and also because it shows you how a couple of critically acclaimed albums can put your name on everyone's lists and open doors.

That's pretty much your lot then! I have maybe rambled a bit more than intended considering this was simply a companion piece to the Massive Attack post, I seem to have possibly made this one even more expansive! It wasn't my intention, but I hadn't listened to Tricky in a while and as I did this post I was listening through to each album and I was stunned how damn progressive and innovative Tricky were. Not to say that he is not anymore, but I haven't really found much of his post millennium work has moved me that much "Blowback" his fourth album from 2001 was decent enough but didn't have the same spark or attraction for me as the preceding work. I guess having fallen off the radar a little and continuing to release work quietly and a lot of stuff as downloads I guess Tricky committed as he is to what he does and continuing to progress and remain contemporary is no longer the media darling he once was (considering his intense dislike of the media I guess he's probably happy with that?) so I did wonder if this post might be a bit of a nostalgia one for me and anyone who comes across it because I definitely have a nostalgia for that era of my life when the whole "Trip Hop" thing was fresh and new and I was deeply immersed in it, however having listened to the albums today I am in no doubt that, whilst the music covered here is definitely "Of it's time" it most definitely passes muster on the UTS Quality control meter and is 100% worth the inclusion and your attention.


MAXINEQUAYE (DELUXE EDTION + EXPANSION) - Mediafire

NEARLY GOD & STARVING SOULS - Mediafire

PRE-MILLENIUM TENSION (DELUXE EDITION + EXPANSION) - Mediafire

ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (JAPANESE EDITION + EXPANSION) - Mediafire

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED EP - Mediafire

REMIXES - Mediafire

DÄLEK - DISCOGRAPHY + DEADVERSE MASSIVE

Dälek (pronounced dialec) are a hip hop outfit I came across by pure chance, During 2007 & 2008 I had a massive phase of listening to a lot of what is known as "Concious" Hip Hop basically underground, mostly unknown artists (mostly white), with more to say than the usual "bling & bitchez" type nonsense (A misogynist, sexist and neanderthal approach that I have no time for FUCK that) that were basically mining their own particular vein of hip hop. Most of the things I was listening to at that time were centred round or affiliated with Anticon & Definitive Jux records however Dälek had nothing to do with either of those and are definitely out there on their own with their style! So before i start my blurb I'm gonna continue being a little lazy and give you some history from discogs.com the fountain of all trainspotter knowledge

"A hip hop outfit from Newark, New Jersey, founded in 1998. Will Brooks (a.k.a. MC Dälek) was responsible for lyrics, Alap Momin (a.k.a. The Oktopus) was the producer Hsi-Chang Linaka (a.k.a. Still) used to handle turntables, but left Dälek in summer 2005.For a band so steeped in noise and bombast, Dälek ended quietly, going on hiatus in 2011 without even an official statement. Brooks stresses that there was no beef between he and Momin, just a project that had run its course. Momin moved to Berlin and focused on electronic projects, while Brooks made slightly more traditional rap as iconAclass. Performing classic Dälek tracks live gave Brooks the urge to revive Dälek, and with Okto’s blessing he assembled a new lineup in the spring of 2015 with co-producer Mikey Manteca (Destructo Swarmbots) and DJ rEk."

That should give you a brief overview of the band it would appear that the main core of the band as pictured above is Will Brooks (aka MC Dälek (Left) & Alap Momin (a.k.a. The Oktopus (Right) So I don't know a great deal about this band what I do know is that I love their unique sound so let's go with that!

Dälek combine a lot of elements into their dense sound the early albums "From Filthy Tongues.." & "Absence" mix variations of huge beats pushed up to 11 combined with industrial scrapes and washes of abstract sound that wouldn't be out of place on an early Einstürzende Neubauten album!!! Combine this with some nifty turntablism and lyrics delivered with sincerity and urgency with an interesting style of wordplay based in the social/political spectrum and that about sums up the sound early on, However take a listen to something like the epic "Images of .44 casings" on their debut mini LP "Negro, Necro, Nekros" and when the beat kicks in it absolutely floors you, in the same way the huge beats on those early DJ Shadow records did (A technique they would use again to devastating effect on the Deadverse Remix of Techno Animal's "Homicide" see EP's blurb below)  and will put your speakers through their paces. Also on "Ever Somber" from "Absence" they weave the sound collages in a way that makes the backing track sound like a remix of something from My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" album! Shoegaze hop anyone? This is basically the essence of  Dälek they use sounds and beats in a way no other hip hop artist does and is precisely why, whilst much of the hip hop I discovered during my "phase" has fell by the wayside Dälek endured and remain a firm favourite, I continue to follow them and why I decided that they deserved a place in the blog!

Beyond the first 2 albums the Industrial sounds start to lessen or are at least made less harsh and by the time of "Abandoned language" the sound has been tempered with more contemporary elements and is far easier on the ears! There are actually some truly beautiful moments that just stop you in your tracks and leave you just astounded, "Isolated Stare" from "Abandonded Language"  for example with it's soaring strings and off kilter distorted brass which combine to make a sound that just melts you into your seat! As I said it's hard to define Dälek I listened to a lot of hip hop over the years from the early days of Public Enemy & gangsta rap in the 80's The 90's weed influenced artists like Cypress Hill, Ice Cube and House Of Pain in the 90's, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg & Eminem's world domination in the early 2000's to the contemporary underground artists I talked about at the beginning, I am NO hip hop aficionado but would consider myself well versed in Hip Hop and I have never heard anything like Dalek! Their sense of experimentation and use of sounds beyond the norm of what is normal hip hop fare (you're unlikely to find an Amen break or a James brown Horn solo in amongst ANY of these guys work) is what keeps me returning to them and I hope you will too! I feel I want to say that while I may make Dälek sound like some sort of unholy experimental mess it's exactly their ability to draw their elements together into a cohesive sound that whilst occasionally challenging, overall they do make some just simply fantastic and original hip hop and I have found myself often sitting back listening to these guys and nodding my head with a huge grin on my face! These guys may challenge in places but exactly that element that makes them so compelling, with hip hop being probably the most influential style of music ever created on the planet infiltrating almost every aspect of music from punk and metal to contemporary dance and urban sounds to come up with sounds that actually are both contemporary and experimental that also draw the listener in and remains cohesive and ultimately listenable is something the majority of the biggest selling and best known artists in the field fail to do miserably!

Right then onto your links I have given you all the Dälek studio albums ripped from my own CD's  which is pretty self explanatory However a couple of these links need a bit of explanation

Griots & Gods - This is a live collaboration with Swiss  Industrial legends Young Gods recorded in 2010 at the Les Eurockéennes Festival de Belfort it is basically what you imagine it is a live  combination of the sounds of both bands and is a very interesting listen!

EP's  - This contains the non album EP's these have been either taken from downloads (high quality paid) and from my own CD collection This contains the "Street's All Amped" 12" "Respect To The Authors" 12" Their split with Techno Animal and the 1 track 40+ min "Untitled" EP released on Southern records experimental Latitudes offshoot.

Deadverse Massive Vol 1 (Redux) - OK if you follow this blog you will know I am an obsessive so when i started looking at Dälek's discography after I bought this compilation of EP's and remixes I realised that there was quite a few things missing from it and other things that had come out since it's release so I stripped some of the stuff out (Streets all Amped 12" and Techno Animal/ Dälek split see EP's above) and rebuilt the comp in near as possible chronological order with the missing bits and pieces inserted! So this version is completely different to the released version and is unique to me and this blog! The material from this was taken from various sources including the original comp, downloads and vinyl rips but it's all presented in 320KBPS and is as good quality as is possible!

OK so that's Dälek dealt with so onto the bottom set of links Deadverse Massive now this may get confusing here but bear with me as well as doing Dälek, members are also involved in a collective group called Deadverse Massive which is also a name often used for Dälek remixes.To date there have only been 2 releases under the Deadverse Massive name exclusively, these are the album "TakeOver" which is basically a collaborative effort which is overseen, produced and mixed  by Will Brooks of Dälek featuring a plethora of MC's and artists collaborating on the tracks it gets more confusing now, there is also a Deadverse Massive 12" pic Disc this is released under the artist names of Dälek / Destructo Swarmbots / Oddateee but the record is called "Deadverse Massive" and features 4 tracks none of which are credited to in individual artists! To be honest with you it's really all irrelevant, what you get is an album and EP's worth of some great underground hip hop that whilst featuring members of Dälek  has a more contemporary feel to it there's none of the Shoegazey/Industrial Scrape experimentation whilst this is still most definitely underground hip hop and you are unlikely to hear this music blasting out from boy racer cars any time soon it is definitely way more straight ahead than Dälek whilst still having it's feet firmly planted in the conscious/underground camp there is a lot of use of the N-Word, bass and beats and more what you would expect from more well know hip hop but it's still an interesting listen and I added it here as it's related to the Dälek camp and is a good counterpoint to Dälek's madness!

So that's that, here's your links go nuts, I don't often post much Hip Hop and I don't really intend on posting more but you never know, I'd like to think that in the company of the other music I have posted over the years of varying genres that you will understand that these guys are head and shoulders above anything else in the genre, at least in  my opinion and that's why i am drawing your attention to this! I can imagine that this is the kind of Hip Hop that would appeal to readers of this blog and is definitely something more cerebral than fucking Kanye West!

DALEK

Negro, Necro, Nekros - Mediafire

From Filthy Tongues Of Gods & Griots - Mediafire

Absence - Mediafire

Abandoned Language - Mediafire

Gutter Tactics - Mediafire

Griots & Gods (With The Young Gods) - Les Eurockéennes Festival - Mediafire

Asphalt For Eden - Mediafire

Endangered Philosophies - Mediafire

EP's - Mediafire

Deadverse Massive Vol 1 (Redux) - Mediafire

DEADVERSE MASSIVE

TakeOver & 12" Pic Disc - Mediafire