AARON TURNER BAND HYDRA HEAD

PLEASE NOTE DUE TO THE NAME OF THIS BAND I AM GETTING SOME SERIOUS AND DANGEROUS SPAM IN COMMENTS SO I HAVE RE TITLED IT IN ORDER TO COMBAT THIS THERE WERE OVER 100 SPAM COMMENTS, HOPEFULLY PEOPLE SHOULD STILL BE ABLE TO FIND IT WITHOUT THE BAND NAME. i HAVE ALSO REMOVED THE WORD FROM THE POST AND REPLACED IT BEST I CAN IT MAY MAKE LESS GRAMMATICAL SENSE BUT I HOPE THAT IT ALL MAKES SENSE?

CHEERS

DAVE


These are a band that i hope will need little fanfare to the readers of this blog they were along, with Neurosis pretty much responsible for the spawning of entire "Post Metal" scene and one half of the mocking musical descriptive term Neurisis!! Also Guitarist/Vocalist Aaron Turner also ran Hydra Head records and over there 15 year existence were home to some of the most interesting technical/experimental metal music that has ever been released.

Emerging with their debut demo in 1998 (later tacked on to the CD version of their "Red Sea" EP) they had a career lasting 12 years and released many great records always stunning and always progressing the band forward. If you don't know Isis then best way I can describe them is take Neurosis, Godflesh, Godspeed You Black Emperor and a big pinch of originality mix it all up and there you have these guys! Whilst they are a band that are way more than the sum of their influences you'd be hard pressed to deny hearing elements of the 3 bands I mention in their sound.

So I could go on for quite some time in typical Dave gushing manner as i have a lot of respect for this band I have been a fan (albeit intermittently i shall explain further on)  since picking up their debut album "Celestial" in 2000 however to be honest even though I have long been a fan I know little of interest about them outside of the music they have released so continuing my theme of "shorter write ups and more music" let's move ahead and have a quick look at your links

Now first off there will is a case of repeated tracks here because it wasn't till i was sorting out the links for this post I realized that the recently released "Temporal" compilation had almost all the tracks from "Sawblade" EP on it however it doesn't have them all and as it's a bit of a rarity I decided to leave it up here for you. So Not getting into big details here as this is the last of the big discographies i had uploaded so lets get to it... The 1998 demo and the debut "Mosquito Control" EP are both dense harsh listens sheer walls of multi layered, thick, heavy guitars assault the senses for the most part here and they are incredibly accomplished for a band just starting out however on the last track of "Mosquito Control" "Relocation Swarm" is where you can start to feel more of the Godspeed/Godflesh influences creeping in, next EP "The Red Sea" continues this theme tempering the Guitar assault with some more dynamic parts paving the way for debut album 2000's "Celestial" however i feel that of all the material they released this one is the most heavily Godflesh influenced there's still those amazing wall of noise guitar avalanches in there but it's tempered with a more clinical approach and production with sharp industrial riffage and with song titles like "C.F.T. (New Circuitry And Continued Evolution)" and "Collapse And Crush" and the album being broken up by short eerie themed interludes named "Sgnl>01" - "Sgnl>04" well i'm sure you get what I'm saying? This continues throughout the sister EP to "Celestial" "SGNL>05" and this EP also contains a remix by none other than one Justin Broadrick that along with the split EP with Pig Destroyer featuring their version of Godflesh's "Streetcleaner" should leave you ion no doubt as to what page these guys were on in 2000! (their Version of "Streetcleaner" is on the "Temporal" comp link is below)

So getting those early releases out the way it's on next albums "Oceanic" and "Panopticon" where we see them develop their sound further and the albums that would definitely make them front runners in the Post metal scene. Whilst they had always been a talented band even in the early days it's here where you start to notice them getting a real grip on dynamics for example the 8 min opening track of  "Oceanic"  "The Beginning And the End" takes a full 5 minutes to build up before the trademark guitar avalanche this band are known for kicks in however there's some amazing guitar work and dare i say it? Melodies in those 5 minutes! This is an album full of surprises there's a lot of post/prog rock type experimentation going on throughout the album that works really well along side the crushingly heavy parts to make for a totally compelling album. The sister release to this "Oceanic : Remixes" was released as a series of 12 inch singles and then compiled on to a double CD with names like James Plotkin, Mike Patton and again Justin Broadrick among some more even out there artists getting their hands on Isis tracks and making something new out of them... well in some cases it works great in others it doesn't I would most definitely file this under "For completists only"! "Panopticon" sees a further progression of the sound of "Oceanic" however the main things I notice here is that the guitar sound whilst still heavy has a more raw distorted feel to it rather than a thick heavy sound and also Aaron Turner is actually singing in some parts rather than shouting! "Panopticon" is probably one of the albums i listen to the most it's just fantastically done and the dynamics are soaring and as you will hear this has pretty much spawned a whole scene of copyists! next album 2006's "In The Absence Of Truth" was a real shock to me because if I'm honest I had drifted away from metal for a while between "Celestial" and "Panopticon" so "In The Absence..." was the first thing I had heard by them since "SGNL>05" EP. I was sent this by a friend and liked the nice slipcase packaging etc however having a  gap in my knowledge of their progression I had expected an album full of shockingly heavy guitar avalanches and scraped raw brutal vocal attack! Nope! This album though not without it's heavier moments is such a progression even from the last 2 albums that it is staggering! There are some heavier moments but this is most definitely falling into post rock territory not Metal there's stunning build ups beautiful quiet passages and Aaron's vocals are now almost exclusively sung with only the occasional shout to accent heavier parts but if you were expecting super downtuned sludgy guitarwork and screaming then you got nothing coming!! This is one of my favourite albums it's really pleasant listening and the build up to the end of 3rd track "Dulcinea" just makes me want to weep it's just so utterly GENIUS! So final album from these guys 2009's "Wavering Radiant" I get the feeling that though they may have been comfortable and happy with their more sedate last album that heaviness was still close to these guys hearts and on this album they have pulled together the raw sound of "Panopticon" and blended it with the dynamics and sound of "In The Absence..." and it works beautifully this album is a masterwork and the fact that it was their final album is just saddening because it's a great sound a further progression and although saddening it's a fitting testament to a fantastic body of work spanning 10 years plus! So finally in 2013 they released a compilation of B-sides, unreleased tracks and unreleased remixes,demos and rarities called "Temporal" it's a mammoth collection clocking in at 9 mins shy of 2 hours! it would not be fair of me to try and break this down as the collection spans their whole career however i will say for even the casual fan this is essential containing some great looks into the process of tracks from the albums with the demos, their covers of Sabbath's "Hand Of Doom" and Godflesh's "Streetcleaner" and both tracks from their split 12" with the Melvins. so along with the rest of your links this pretty much rounds up all the odds and sods all mastered and put together nicely! The only thing missing is their cover of Melvins "Boris" from the "We Reach.." tribute album but perhaps there's another volume in the works??

So this is in no way a "complete" discography I haven't got any of their live EP's as any followers of the blog will know i'm not a fan of live stuff but apart from maybe one or two bits this is a pretty much complete studio discography. I always felt that tho they had a huge following of their own that being the first of a second wave of post metal (Neurosis obviously get the credit for inventing the style disagree if you must but that's how I see it) I always felt they were kinda saddled with a Neurosis clone tag and nothing could be further from the truth there are a LOT of bands that have a similar sound to them but that is because of their existence not their lack of ideas! they were progressive and unique in their field and it's a shame they are gone because the void has been filled with a ton of bands the majority of which don't have half the ideas or sheer talent and brilliance of this band. One listen to anything from "Oceanic" onward will leave you in no doubt of that.

Demo 1998 - Mediafire

Mosquito Control EP - Mediafire

Sawblade EP - Mediafire

The Red Sea EP - Mediafire

Celestial - Mediafire

SGNL>05 EP - Mediafire

Oceanic - Mediafire

Oceanic: Remixes/Reinterpretations - Mediafire

Panopticon - Mediafire

In The Absence Of Truth - Mediafire

Wavering Radiant - Mediafire

Temporal - Mediafire

HELLACOPTERS SINGLES REDUX & MORE

I hadn't listened to the Hellacopters in ages and decided it was long overdue and I pulled out the files for the singles I uploaded to this very blog, upon listening I discovered that they were fairly average to poor quality and for the most part appeared to be vinyl rips so I decided to have a look and see if the entire lot could be pulled from the hundreds of variations of CD releases the Hellacopters Have out and lo and behold IT WAS POSSIBLE!

Now I am not gonna go into any blurb here about Hellacopters as you can go to my original post HERE  and read all about the singles etc and I intend on leaving that post up because if you are anything like me you probably are ecstatic about finding all those great 7" singles in handy packs with the covers etc. But I decided to make this a sort of companion piece to that post.

I am becoming less obsessive about having separate singles and EP's by bands these days, if a band has many EP's I am finding that I generally compile them chronologically into packs for myself rather than spend ages scrolling through a bands discography when, as is the case with the Hellacopters they have 33 Singles!  I also noticed when putting this new version together that a LOT of stuff on the singles I originally uploaded were repeats of album tracks (a lot of the singles had an album track as their A side) so I removed any tracks that appear on albums. SO here's what you get.... I painstakingly surfed round every compilation, special edition etc etc and I have managed to pull together all but 3 non album tracks by these guys. I have arranged them in chronological order A & B-sides together into 3 "volumes" all of these are taken from CD at 320KBPS quality anything that was not available on CD was omitted (that amounted to 3 tracks only If you are beyond obsessed with this topic then the missing tracks are available at the original post as low quality vinyl rips).Also in my original post I only covered till 2005 this new version covers from the debut 7" in 1995 to the last one in 2008 and also includes the 6 track "Strikes Like Lightning" EP that is not in the other post.

So here you have it one file, 3 volumes 71 tracks and a far superior in quality and far less haphazard collection of the complete Non Album Hellacopters tracks complete with custom cover by me (see pic above)

However as this post is a redux I figured I'd give you a bonus so as well as the new higher quality singles compilations I have added a little bonus Hellacopters "Maida Vale" this folder contains their one and only John Peel Session from 1999 as well as a full Live set from Maida Vale Studios for the John Peel show in 2003! they aren't astounding quality but not unlistenable either.

Apologies for the short post I made this "Digital" MP3 version of the Hellacopters Singles for myself but as I remember it was a hugely popular post that's why I am leaving the original up but I figured the chance to have these in far superior quality was one you guys should have! ENJOY!


SINGLES COLLECTION VOL I - III - Mediafire

MAIDA VALE - Mediafire

APHEX TWIN - 2020 THE FINAL WORD

READ ME - I decided to upgrade and sort of finalize this post and tidy up the write up a bit and add a few loose ends and get all the Aphex Twin in one handy post! All the links are still valid and I have upgraded the Analord 1-11 series with the recent expanded digital versions the "Other Projects" folder has been upgraded with the full Digital expanded version of the GAK EP and the 2 disc remastered Mike And Rich "Expert Knob Twiddlers"plus a couple of other bits related to the soundcloud playlists! All will become clear if you read this hope you enjoy this expansive post!
(I have highlighted anything that's been updated in YELLOW so if you can be arsed to read just look for the yellow!)

PART 1 - THE DISCOGRAPHY

Aphex Twin is an artist that seems to unite everyone, I know many people who live and die for their specific genres of music be it metal,punk,rock,indie etc that can't help but love a bit of Aphex Twin and he inspires slavish devotion from his fans. His back catlog is both vast and confusing. Here is a man who gave away near 3GB of music on soundcloud and claims to be barely scratching the surface of his archives! Richard D. James is a true maverick and I think that along with his stellar music is what makes him appeal to so many people despite creating some of the most angular and "difficult" electronic music around.

I see no point in going into his long history because it's been done many times before and to be honest while I wouldn't consider myself an expert I think I know enough about him but I think you'd be better off doing your own research I would assume if you're here at this post you are already a fan? I'm simply here to provide some music for you

So whats on offer then? OK, There's no way to gauge a true Aphex Discography, if you have seen the list of his various pseudonyms and projects it's beyond ridiculous, while the title of this post is APHEX TWIN DISCOGRAPHY no one other than Richard D James knows what the complete Discography is and I have missed out all of his early rave stuff that was done under names such as Power Pill etc as it doesn't really move me and there's a lot of it! Below you will find everything I have by Aphex Twin! here's what's in your first lot of links


I Care Because You Do (2017 reissue 20 tracks)

Syro

Selected Ambient Works '85 - 92

Selected Ambient Works II (2017 Reissue which has the fabled "track 19" that was only available on the original cassette and Vinyl versions of "SAW II" reinstated, plus a bonus track) ,

Aphex Twin EP's (Contains "Come To Daddy" EP  8 tracks, the "Girl/Boy" EP & All tracks from the various versions of "Windowlicker")

Caustic Window Discography (Contains the original Caustic Window Compilation and also the Unreleased Caustic Window album that was recorded in 1994 and released in 2014 digitally by RDJ)

Polygon Window Discography (Contains the "Surfing On Sine Waves" album the "Quoth" EP and the "Portreath Harbour" 12")

AFX : Analord Series  UPDATED This has been updated to the EXPANDED DIGITTAL VERSIONS (NOT vinyl Rips!!!) there's a LOAD of bonus tracks on these enough for another cpl of EP's! I also stuck in "Chosen Lords" compilation CD as well which features 10 tracks from the series chosen by Aphex Twin all in one handy pack

Peel Sessions 1 & 2 (1st Session was never officially released second session is available as a download from Warp or on a very limited 12" box set),

Analogue Bubblebath 1- 5 (Includes all the AB series the Different Vinyl & CD Versions of AB 3 and also the rare Analogue Bubblebath 3.1)

EP's Pt. 1 Contains "Donkey Rhubarb", "Hangable Auto Bulb" 1 & 2, "On" (EP & Remixes EP) & "Ventolin" (EP & Remixes EP).

EP's Pt.2 Contains Later EP's "Cheetah", "Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments" , "MARCHROMT30a edit 2b 96" EP "Orphaned Deejay Selek 2006 - 2008" & "Orphans".

Odds & Sods is a pack containing some Digital only Aphex Twin releases and other EP's including "2 Remixes by AFX", "2 Tran 1" "Korg Trax & Tunings For Falling Asleep" "AFX & LFO" Split EP "Modular Trax" & the "Smojphace" EP.

The Tuss - Discography Richard James side Project from 2006/7 which Includes The "Confederate Trough" EP "Rushup Edge" album and the "Rushup Edge" 2017 reissue with 7 bonus tracks!!!!

26 Mixes For Cash (comp of 26 Aphex Twin remixes)

Drukqs

Early EP's ("Xylem Tube" EP & "Digeridoo" EP)

Melodies From Mars (An unreleased Aphex album from 1995 that was bootlegged heavily)

51:13 Singles Collection (Japanese comp of singles feat alternative edits and versions of tracks from "Donkey Rhubard" "On" & "Ventolin")

Richard D. James (expanded digital reissue with the "Girl/Boy" EP as bonus tracks)

Other Projects UPDATED  "Gak" EP (EXPANDED DIGITAL VERSION) Mike & Rich "Expert Knob Twiddlers" (2 DISC REMASTERED & EXPANDED EDITION) "Mescalinum United" EP and Universal Indicator Discography ("Red" 12" "Blue" 12" and "Green" album) I have also moved the links for his recent releases from the Soundcloud playlists page to here so additional extras

Houston, TX 12.17.16 12"  (2 Long tracks sold only at this Houston show)

London 03.06.17 12" (11 untitled tracks 36 mins more like a mini album sold only at this London show)

Aphex Mt. Fuji 2017 Cassette (Crazy soundbyte/noise tape 45 tracks 1 hr in length unpleasant listening sold only at this Mt. Fuji show)

Some of these Packs are pretty big but if you only want one thing from a pack then sorry I did not want to list every single release separately but you can still get whatever you want by downloading the "packs" and I have utterly crap broadband speed and the biggest of these packs would still only take me around 20 mins to download. I'm sorry for the lack of in depth blurb but how the hell do you go about charting the complex history of an insane genius? His story is filled with rumor, legend and myth Many have tried  but I don't think anyone will ever get to the true heart of Aphex Twin and that's fine with me there's not enough mystique in music anymore and I personally like to imagine Richard D. James perpetually locked away in a room buried under a stack of unfathomable knobs and wires continuing to create the most distinctive and appealing electronic music of our time!

Which leads me nicely to...

PART 2 THE SOUNDCLOUD PLAYLISTS

When I said above I liked to imagine Aphex Twin perpetually locked away making music this pretty much illustrates that perfectly

It's no longer a secret that in 2015 a Soundcloud account was started under the name user48736353001 This person claimed to be a friend of Richard D James and claimed to have been making electronic music around the same time that was heavily influenced by Aphex Twin's output and began uploading quite a lot of tracks to Soundcloud eventually it became clear and was finally confirmed that user48736353001 was none other than Richard D James himself. The account was closed shortly thereafter and all the archive material gone a further 2 other soundcloud accounts with variations on the user... name were opened and are now all closed.

Now people who are a fan of Aphex Twin will know that Richard D James has often said he has a VAST archive of unreleased material, it would seem that he has compiled greatly more unreleased material than what has actually been released so he began to upload big chunks of this archive material to soundcloud. Now as this is no well kept secret and I came to this whole Soundcloud thing late however I checked it out and found that the vast amount of stuff on there was too intimidating for me firstly I hate streaming and then I thought what should I listen to first? what will  he delete? etc etc so i had a look thought "Pretty cool" and left it at that and kinda forgot about it! Because I was late getting to it there was just too much stuff to go through.

However a few days ago I was looking for something else and i came across a 2.5GB download entitled "user48736353001 the soundcloud playlists" the user name rung a bell and I realized this was a download of everything that Aphex Twin had uploaded to Soundcloud on that account so I thought why the hell not so I downloaded it and kinda regretted it immediately what I was confronted with was a huge messy playlist with 280 tracks all in one long list however it was numbered 1 - 8 so i took that to be playlists uploaded at different times so I broke it into 8 slightly more manageable chunks retagged it all sorted it out into a more easily digestible format and that's what I present to you here.

Now I did some research and I will say that these tracks are no secret there are links on several well known internet pages to downloads of this stuff however when i did my research I found most of the links to be dead so I decided I would put up my "version" of these infamous tracks for you readers!

OK so onto the music firstly these are huge files the smallest being 138mb the largest around 450mb!!! the bitrates vary from 128kbps to 320kbps and the total playing time of all 8 parts is a might 22 hrs the tracks are taken from all eras of Aphex Twin from before he released any music to bang up to date however I have no idea which is which and he hasn't said either but if you are familiar with Aphex Twin then you will know his sound is completely unique and whilst always progressing his music forward he has also remained consistent again it's a case of when you hear Aphex Twin you know it can only BE Aphex Twin and no one else. I cannot claim to have listened to all of this music (yet) but from what I have listened to sounds as good and in some cases better than his released music. Whilst I am sure someone will either officially or unofficially release some sort of box set or something in the mean time i present you with 280 tracks 22 hrs of unreleased Aphex Twin material comprising demos,remixes some live stuff and just general Aphex Twin madness.

So before your links I want to mention something else Since owning these for a while i have often come across articles relating to these playlists obviously an artist as popular as Aphex dropping a career's worth of music on soundcloud for free has been much discussed! So firstly within the files I found a folder titled "Selected Ambient Works  1.5" This was a playlist uploaded to the soundcloud site by RDJ so whether this was a propsed volume preceding "SAW 2" or an actual project that got shelved who knows so I have uploaded it seperately below. I also came across some chatter about a second volume of Polygon Window's "Surfing On Sinewaves" I cannot find the link where Aphex gives the actual tracklist but I have also tacked on the links below "Surfing On Sinewaves 2" This is a playlist uploaded by RDJ to soundcloud for a second volume and it got folded into the massive wealth of other tracks here but I painstakingly assembled this from much research I did. Here's what the man himself said....

 "list not complete, might add from tracks already on SC or from the archives, I have started a bit to knock the order into shape. or take away tracks if they dont fit, so feel free to omit some. These tracks are mostly from the same era with a few newer and older ones that were on SOSW1. SOSW1 was also a mixture of old ones like polygon window, audax and newer ones like Quoth, so I dont mind mixing it up again a little bit. If you would like to try and order this, it would be very helpful and might end up getting used :) Im currently working on new stuff, so not in the mood to do it. Would love to release this on Warp, all mastered properly, Warp? Wish Rob Mitchell was around to help, RIP Rob, your still very, very missed man!"

So I took this huge prospective tracklist and assembled it as best possible from the playlists retagged and organised and  broke it into 3 parts of just over an hour in length. These tracks do work well together as an album that's why I have uploaded it but it is in it's rawest form who knows if it will ever happen or if any of these would end up after the final addition/subtraction proccess

Below you will find links to the 8 Packs I would suggest downloading them all if you have the space because there are some stunning alternate version/different takes on some of his most well known work as well as a goldmine of unheard stuff and i for one have enjoyed everything I have listened to so far it may seem like an awful lot of music by one artist and I have not listened to it all myself yet but broken down into 6 chunks as I have done here even though they are far from bite size means you can dip in whenever you like rather than try to digest 22 hrs of music in one sitting.

Aphex Twin whether because of his eccentricities or the sheer originality of his amazing music is by far the most popular IDM/Electronic music artist around and the one who has had the longest career within that genre the albums he has released have all been real masterpieces of the style and the quality of the Vast amount of unreleased material here (and these 207 tracks are apparently a mere glimpse into his archive) shows that there's a good reason why he is that popular.
Here's your links Enjoy......

(Please note there was a TON of artwork for all these playlists there is a folder entitled Artwork that includes all the art plus the above cover (which i used for all 8 parts) plus all the individual pictures for various tracks this folder is included in Playlist 1 OK)



Not Included in the artwork are some notes from a Solid Steel Radio Show Mix that was done by DJ Food here it is if you save then open it in a picture viewer you can read some notes about this music by someone who was actually there at the time (The DJ FOOD mix is not enclosed on this post)....

Also you can find a full breakdown and all the information you could need on these tracks HERE

Syro - Mediafire 

EP'S -  Mediafire

Ambient Works 85 - 92 - Mediafire

Polygon Window - Mediafire

I Care Because You Do (Expanded Reissue) - Mediafire

Selected Ambient Works II (Expanded Reissue) - Mediafire

Caustic Window - Mediafire

Analord EP's 1 - 11 (Expanded Digital Versions) & Chosen Lords CD - Mediafire

Peel Sessions 1 & 2 - Mediafire

Analogue Bubblebath 1-5 - Mediafire

EP's Pt. 1 - Mediafire

EP's Pt. 2 - Mediafire

Odds N Sods - Mediafire

The Tuss Discography - Mediafire

Early EP's - Mediafire

Richard D. James (Expanded Digital Issue) - Mediafire

Melodies From Mars - Mediafire

51:13 Singles Collection - Mediafire

Drukqs - Mediafire

26 Mixes For Cash - Mediafire

Other Projects - Mediafire

Houston, TX 12.17.16 12" - Mediafire

London 03.06.17 12" - Mediafire

Aphex Mt. Fuji 2017 Cassette - Mediafire

Soundcloud Playlists Part 1 - Mediafire

Soundcloud Playlists Part 2 - Mediafire

Soundcloud Playlists Part 3 - Mediafire

Soundcloud Playlists Part 4 - Mediafire

Soundcloud Playlists Part 5 - Mediafire

Soundcloud Playlists Part 6 - Mediafire

Soundcloud Playlists Part 7 - Mediafire

Soundcloud Playlists Part 8 - Mediafire

Selected Ambient works 1.5 - Mediafire

Surfing On Sine Waves 2 - Mediafire

SIR LORD BALTIMORE - COMPLETE RECORDINGS

It was during a tradition long since forgotten in these days of the internet that I chanced upon these guys... I was reading the "Thanks" sections on the inner of my Pentagram CD's (See post HERE)
these guys name came up all the time! I dunno what the relationship is maybe they knew each other or maybe Bobby Leibling just loved them? Who knows! But as far as 70's heavy rock goes early Pentagram in the 70's was definitely influenced by these guys.

I had downloaded some Sir Lord Baltimore but as their discography has mostly been unauthorized by the band or bootlegged having been pretty much out of print since it's original vinyl release. So this box set was a godsend compiling their 2 albums for Mercury Records the debut "Kingdom Come" (1970) & 2nd Self Titled (1971) albums along with "III Raw" (2006) which I believe is 2 of the band resuming the Ill-Fated attempt at recording a 3rd album in the 70's? Supposedly all have been remastered for this issue and is released for the first time with the bands approval. Thus I present "The Complete Recordings"

So who are Sir Lord Baltimore ? They were a serious heavy rock power trio from Buffalo New York existing in the very early 70's. Creem magazine's review of their 2nd album "Kingdom Come" is said to be the first known documented use of the term "Heavy Metal"! All of this has to be taken in context of it's time whilst there were maybe a few HUGE bands from the late 60's early 70's who can be considered as the heaviest of bands around for their time such as Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, Black Sabbath and of course Led Zeppelin! For those there will always be young hungry bands that want to take that infuence and up it a notch and make some seriously heavy and rocking music that get's overlooked or is just maybe ahead of it's time just slightly. I'm really glad labels and people are delving deeper into the 70's underground and discovering these lost gems (That is indeed how Pentagram came to rise to popularity in recent years). To my ears Sir Lord Baltimore to me sound like a lot of the less heavy/doomy acts around labels like Heavy Psych Sounds & RidingEasy records are putting out along with some bands that have rose to a bit of prominence such as Kadavar, However it's that lovely 70's production that really gives it away that this is from back in the day! So in a nutshell Sir Lord Baltimore have big heavy riffs by the bucket load they groove but there's a definite prog influence too, there's also plenty of fist pumping uptempo rockers in there too, of a speed nipping at Motorhead's heels!!  I'm sure if it was 1971 and you were digging Led Zep and Sabbath then something like this would be an utter gem of a discovery. So all in all pretty fucking cool for records 49 & 50 Years old! 

So below is a link to the boxset ripped directly from my CD's (If you want to pick up this boxset for yourself it comes as a nice package with a booklet/poster & LP replica sleeves in an outer slipcase for a pretty decent £17.99 direct from the label HERE) But why not try before you buy? I guarantee these guys riffs are so smokin' you'll be back for the buy it link!!!

COMPLETE RECORDINGS - Mediafire

UPDATE PLEASE READ

Hi readers I have noticed during the long absence before the reeboot that a lot of spam has been turning up in comments I am working to remove it all but it's a LONG laborious job but hopefully it will all be gone soon.

Secondly I have repeatedly stated this but i shall repeat it again, if you have any problems with passwords for extracting files or corrupt fdiles then please do report corrupt files but... 

THERE IS NO PASSWORD PROTECTION ON ANY OF MY UPLOADS

I used WINRAR to compress these files into RAR it's one of the best and it is free to download if you can't extract my files when you download or there is some password requested...

DOWNLOADING WINRAR SHOULD SOLVE THIS!

Here is the link to where you can download it safe and virus free

https://www.win-rar.com/download.html?&L=0

this is what it looks like on your desktop once installed and what my files should look like when you download them

                                     

Hope that solves any problems anyone might have.

Thanks

Dave

NIRVANA DEMOS AND PEEL SESSIONS 1989 - 1991

Yeah I would have never expected Nirvana to turn up on this blog either! I was around for the original explosion of what would later be termed "Grunge" bands from Seattle. Back in the late 80's I used to trade records with a guy from Portland Oregon and when we would send each other packages we would always stick something in that wasn't requested, something new or good that we had come across and thought the other person might like. One package I received from him contained Nirvana's "Bleach" album along with the first couple of Mudhoney singles he said this was a new scene that was coming out of Seattle and maybe I would like these? At the time I was just starting to lose interest in all the Death Metal and brutal hardcore I was listening to at the time and when I put the needle to "Bleach" I was blown away I had never heard anything close to this and I couldn't stop listening to it! Subsequently he furnished me with more records by Tad and Soundgarden but that's another story.

I just recently finished reading the Kurt Cobain Biography "Heavier Than Heaven" I had originally picked it up because there was supposed to be some good stuff about the other bands from the Seattle scene of the time but there wasn't, however what was interesting was that he detailed many studio sessions Nirvana had done right up to Dave Grohl joining the band and the subsequent mass hysteria of "Nevermind" For example I had no idea that there had been 7 songs recorded during The sessions for their debut 7" "Love Buzz" or 5 songs during the session for the 2 B-side tracks for the "Blew " EP. This really piqued my interest as, while like everyone else I fell under the spell of "Nevermind" (an album i can no longer listen to due to over saturation) I still love the era preceding it when Nirvana were less polished and well, a lot heavier & noisier! SO I spent a morning researching and hunting down various tunes and decided that I'd put them up here.

 I'm not gonna lie, 90% of this stuff is commercially available, but is spread over many compilations and the infamous "With The Lights Out" Box set, but using both the book and an excellent extremely detailed website called Live Nirvana (Find it HERE for detailed Information on everything I present here) I managed to source and order all the demos in their correct order and separated them into files. I stated that 90% of this stuff is readily available there is quite a few tracks that I had to do some serious work to try and find which is why I decided to do this post!

I feel going into any kind of History about Nirvana is futile there is no stone left unturned or bone left unpicked about this band so I'm gonna get straight to the links here.I'm also gonna give you a link to the page for each session so you can get the detailed information there if you are curious)

1st Demo - In 1988 After Nirvana's original drummer Aaron Burckhard left the band they enlisted Dale Crover of the Melvins to fill the drum stool, but whilst he took the position, despite Kurt's pleading he would not leave the Melvins to take the position full time, however he did play on this first demo. 2 of the tracks would subsequently be remixed and appear on the debut album "Bleach" of the remaining 8 tracks 7 have been issued over the "Incesticide" & "With The Lights Out" I have sourced these from there, however the original rawer versions of "Floyd The Barber" & "Paper Cuts" which were remixed for "Bleach" have never been commercially available and the version of "Spank Thru" has also never been released I sourced these from downloads. There is a bit of difference in quality between the released and unreleased tracks but if they were unlistenable as per usual I would not have shared this. (More Info HERE)

Love Buzz Sessions/Blew Sessions - After Sub Pop agreed they would like to release a single by Nirvana they strongly urged the band to record their version of Shocking Blue's "Love Buzz" Kurt Cobain wanted to put 2 originals on the 7" rather than their debut release be a cover version but conceded to Jonathon Poneman of Sub Pop and they entered the studio for several sessions between June and September 1988 and subsequently recorded 11 tracks 3 versions of "Love Buzz" , 2 Versions of "Big Cheese" as well as 6 further originals Here I present 7 of those tracks as the various takes of "Love Buzz" and "Big Cheese" were unavailable so what you get here is "Love Buzz" & "Big Cheese" The former contains the sound collages that were removed for the album version and a different version of "Big Cheese" from the "Bleach" Version. these are both ripped from the original 7" "Blandest" is taken from the "With The Lights Out" Box set "Spank Thru" was sourced from the Sub Pop 200 compilation the other 3 tracks "Mr Moustache" , "Blew" & "Sifting"  were sourced from the internet and are NOT the "Bleach" Versions. "Blew" Sessions" This was the session where they recorded tracks for the B-sides of the "Blew" 12" "Been A Son" & "Stain" appeared on the B-side of the 12" I sourced these from the CDEP but a further 3 tracks were recorded "Even In His Youth" (not the version that turned up on the B-side of the Teen Spirit Single) as well as an early version of "Polly" And "Token Eastern Song" These 3 Appeared on the "With The Lights Out" Box and were sourced from there. More Info on Love Buzz HERE and Blew HERE)

Smart Studio Sessions - This was the last session to feature Chad Channing on drums before Dan Peters of Mudhoney took the seat briefly for "Sliver" and was then unceremoniously booted from the band for Dave Grohl and subsequent Nirvana super stardom. This session was originally meant to be an attempt at recording the second Nirvana album but did not work out, it's a long story you can read about at the link below. of the 8 songs recorded 6 would be re-recorded for "Nevermind" of the other 2 you get another version of "Sappy" and the Velvet Underground cover "Here She Comes Now" which would appear on a split VU tribute  7" with Melvins. This session was released on the bonus disc of the 20th Anniversarry 2 Disc edition of "Nevermind" I separated it here because this is the last (excluding "Sliver" ) session before Nirvana were propelled to stardom and also I prefer these versions of the later far more polished versions that turned up on Nevermind"
(More Info HERE)

Hard To Believe Kiss Covers Comp Session/Sappy Session/Sliver 7" - I won't go into too much detail as I put these all in one folder due to them being three short sessions. The Kiss covers session was done in Spring 1989 they recorded "Do You Love Me" by kiss as well as 4 takes of "Dive" the final version of "Dive" is the only one completed at this session so here I present you with only these 2 tracks The Kiss cover was sourced from the orioginal compilatioon CD and the demo of "Dive" from the "With The Lights Out" Box Sappy Session - Nirvana excessively dedicated 10 hrs of studio time here to basically record this one song "Sappy" this was taken from the "Sliver Best of the Box" compilation. Lastly we have "Sliver" 7" I have put this in here because at the end of the song "Sliver" on the original 7" had a 40 second phone call to Kurt at the end that was ommited from every other version of the 7" and also because it was the only song recorded at that session and features Dan peters Of Mudhoney on Drums The B-side "Dive" is taken from the Smart Sessions (see below)
 Info On Kiss Session HERE Sappy Session HERE Sliver Session HERE)

Peel Sessions - I have put this in here simply because I love Peel Sessions and for some reason, of the 3 sessions only tracks from the 2nd 1990 session have ever been released comercially and it seems ridiculous to me that despite the money to be made that these 3 sessions have never been compiled for an album! There are 3 Sessions, one from 1989 featuring Chad Channing on drums, and one from 1990 and one from 1991 these feature Dave Grohl on drums and were just on the cusp of their breakthrough. I have sourced these from various bootlegs and present the best quality versions available I present them here simply because they remain unreleased in their entirety and there are some great versions of songs that would be recorded for albums and b-sides later. (More Info on all 3  Sessions HERE)

There you have it, as I said at the beginning I would never have expected to blog a band as huge as Nirvana became but, I think in the wake of their global mass acceptance people tend to forget that between 1988 & 1990 Nirvana were one of the best new underground guitar bands out there and I can tell you, I was around then, they were really only known and loved by people who followed the underground scene, you didn't see them on music video channels or hear them often on radio and you were lucky if you could even find a T-shirt. I can also state unequivocally that they made some fantastic twisted, noisy and heavy music that was utterly compelling and still is to this day! I remember once after being blown away by "Bleach" that someone sent me a tape of a bootleg 7" called "Beauty & Power" that contained 3 songs from their first demo "Downer" "Hairspray Queen" and "If You Must" (all of which came out years later on "Incesticide") I could not believe how twisted and fucked up these songs even compared to "Bleach" Kurt Cobain's vocals were utterly insane and deranged there's little resemblance between these recordings and the band that later became what they were/are and I urge you to look past that massive fame and give these a chance, especially as instead of being haphazardly thrown onto various compilations with no real love or attention to detail, here they are presented as they should have been, together in their right order (I took the running order for the first demo from a picture of Jack Endino's original BASF cassette of the session which is in your folder here) So go blast these out and try to forget what Teen Spirit smells like!


1st Demo - Mediafire

Love Buzz & Blew Sessions - Mediafire

Smart Studio Session - Mediafire

Kiss Covers/Sappy Sessions & Sliver 7" - Mediafire

Peel Sessions -  Mediafire

PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS

PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS (who shall be referred to as Pigs x 7 for the rest of this blurb) are a 5 piece band hailing from Newcastle Upon Tyne, I have heard them being described as psychedelic, motorik beats, Noise, Heavy Rock etc etc for my money they are a lot like Henge (see post HERE) one of those bands operating withing the "Heavy Riffs" spectrum of music but without falling into the derivative trap of pilfering Sabbath riffs and crooning vocals from the Kyuss school of rock!

I came across these guys when they did a split 12" with The Cosmic Dead back in 2013 I was really impressed by their 21 minute epic "The Wizard and the Seven Swines" But the name was ridiculous and I thought maybe they would be one of these bands with weird names that disappear into obscurity as it was a further 4 years before anything was heard of them again. I have no idea what was going on in the interim, touring, writitng? Who knows but since 2017 they have managed an album a year so maybe they were "woodshedding" enough material for the 3 albums? I don't know a great deal about this band I have not followed them avidly I love their music but really there's not a lot of net presence I did some searches for this article and could only find an interview preceding their debut album in 2017 (HERE)  SO I can't tell you much about them and that's after following the band through their 3 albums since 2016! So instead let's talk about what's on offer here

First up we have the Split 12" with The Cosmic Dead! This only contains 1 track by each band (I have only given you the Pigs x 7 side here as a post on The Cosmic Dead maybe done in the future) But at a hefty 21 mins Pigs x 7 have packed a near albums worth of material into one track .one of the main motif riffs is so catchy it automatically has my head bobbing like a demented chicken with a huge smile on my face! This track is pure riff heaven keeping the pace mostly at a foot tapping tempo throughout, the drummer provides a great beat and the backbone for this epic, whilst the guitarists stick with a motif that is pure 70's rock meet's Can or NEU! but this is no repetitive cycle while the main riff is ever present the interplay between the 2 guitarists ensures that the song dips and peaks in all the right places but also rocks out enough to keep you interested throughout not only that but there's plenty of parts where they just soar the song into the psychedelic stratosphere but also descending deep into BIG heavy riff territory too that just makes you go UGH where did that come from? Leaving you thoroughly satisfied that this is one hellavu Band!

In the interim between The split 12" and debut album Pigsx7 released a very limited  (50 Copies) cassette featuring the full length 21 minute version of "Psychopomp" (A truncated 16 minute version would appear on debut album "Feed The Rats") I have not long found this out as I say info is lacking on these guys, but upon listening to the 21 minute version of "Psychopomp" I didn't notice a great deal of difference between the 2 versions, except the cassette version is longer! The flipside of the cassette contains a remix by Joseph Curven who like Pigsx7 I can find little info on it's a 16 minute almost ambient take on the song and is kinda interesting but didn't really move me that much.

Onto the albums, When I bought debut album "Feed The Rats" and put it into media player it says EP I suppose at 3 songs but clocking in at 36 minutes it's a grey area. Opening with the aforementioned shorter (though at 16 minutes not short) version of "Psychopomp" this is a great tune with a bombastic heavy riff and some neat guitar harmonics that pierce the main riff to great effect. What I have noticed about these guys is as they progress the music has become more riff based and less of the psychedelic/kraut touches, which is no bad thing as they are head and shoulders above their contemporaries in this style and make music that is far more compelling than your average doom/stoner type stuff. Their riffs, whilst good and heavy don't follow your typical riff patterns and whilst lessened, that psychedelic edge is still there. You can definitely feel this in second track "Sweet Relief" and again in closing 17 minute epic "Icon"

I could go in depth on these guys next 2 albums as well but I fear I would be repeating myself. Pigsx7 are a great riff based band their albums have got better and better as they go on, the band have progressed throughout in both songcraft and sound, opting for less extended pieces to more regular lengths of songs and more conventional grooves, they always seem to have this ability to write a tune that immediately gets your head nodding, this is a formula taken to perfection on both 2018's "King Of Cowards" and current album "Viscerals" also they seem to make their sound "bigger" with each successive album where the sounds just really leap out of the speakers with a nice rich fullness but never sacrificing the dirty, grimy sound of those great guitars!

Below I present their entire discography to date I have packaged the Split 12" with the Cosmic Dead inside the file for debut album "Feed The Rats" below and as an addition after I started this post I found out that the LP version of their "Viscerals" album came with a mail order exclusive 6 Track "Live" CD "Off-Cuts". This is not strictly speaking a live CD, it's a selection of tracks from their albums played live in the studio and contains a run through 1 track from "Feed The Rats" 2 from "Viscerals" and 3 from "King Of Cowards".To be honest though as there's no crowd, no mistakes or feedback or chance occurrences and also as they are pretty consistent in their sound there's not a great deal of difference to these ears between the versions on "Off-Cuts" and the album versions but as it's a hard to find thing I decided I'd put it here so the discography is complete!

So there you go one of the UK's best and most interesting riff monsters collected! An absolutely stellar band with a ridiculous name and some amazing songs! You should be downloading these already!


PSYCHOPOMP CASSETTE - Mediafire

FEED THE RATS + COSMIC DEAD SPLIT - Mediafire

KING OF COWARDS - Mediafire

VISCERALS - Mediafire

OFF-CUTS - Mediafire

RELOAD & GLOBAL COMMUNICATION

Mark Pritchard & Tom Middleton have been responsible for some of the most important electronic music to come out of the UK. Both having been immersed in the dance scene since 1991. Both of these guys together and separately have a mind boggling amount of aliases for their music and swinging from old school electro to drum'n'bass to house music and all points inbetween! You name an electronic genre these guys have done it and have an alias to cover it. Here however I am gonna concentrate on 2 of their best known projects that have meant the most to me, Reload & Global Communication.

I have often stated my love for early/mid 90's electronic music, at that time I was in a transitional period moving away from the brutal music of my youth and well I guess maturing, I was also smoking a lot of weed and what better music is there to "chill out" with than what was coming out of the then emerging electronic (or "Ambient" as we called it) scene. With no internet you just had to piece together what you could, take chances, join the dots etc. You'd look at a cover and think yeah that looks ambient and take a chance, mistakes were made and. some terrible records were purchased but when you struck gold it was a BIG event one of those was Reload "Auto-Reload Vol.2" 12"

Back in the early 90's there were a couple of label's that were a guarantee of quality the obvious one being Warp records who were in the middle of their "Artificial Intelligence" series releasing the debut by Autechre and projects by Aphex Twin and Richie Hawtin (Plastikman) among a load of others. The other much smaller operation was a subsidiary of indie giant Creation Records named Infonet. Infonet whilst mainly sticking to more dance orientated tunes did put out a couple of blinding electronica releases one of them being "Auto Reload" Vol.2 by Reload and later their only album "A Collection Of Short Stories" I'm going to be a bit lazy again and give you some discogs blurb....

"Reload was originally a Mark Pritchard solo project. Later Tom Middleton joined Mark on some of his Reload releases, As Tom became more heavily involved on the Reload "A Collection of Short Stories" album, Reload came to mean both Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton.
All Reload Remixes were done by both Mark and Tom together"

Well not exactly helpful! I find myself in a bind with these posts, whilst I really want to share these electronic goodies with you as it's something I own and listen to a lot of , coming from a mostly traditional "rock format" type background in music (guitar,bass,drums) I really have little idea how to describe this kind of music do I say"ooh it's got some great swooshy bits and a nice clang to it here and there"? Who knows? I have to assume that the reader of these posts is unfamiliar with the music because otherwise I could make comparisons to other artists in this genre. So here goes anyway!

SO Reload differ greatly from Global Communication in the fact that over the course of a handful of EP's and one album they have a more scattershot beat based sound more compatible to artists like Aphex Twin (See posts HERE & HERE) or Gescom (See post HERE) Their Early 12" EP's have a much more dancefloor orientated sound than later releases verging on abrasive techno and in some cases house music. However around 1993 when as stated above Tom Middleton joined the Reload name things started to become more lush. Reload definitely shade their music in dark and light some pieces are so beautiful with soaring strings and waves they just melt you into your seat and some are quite dark and definitely leave you with a chill up your spine this exactly what I love about this artist!

So onto your links I have compiled Both Reload's Infonet releases the "Collection Of Short Stories" album and "Auto Reload Vol. 2" EP in one file. Both are taken from my own CD's at 320KBPS and the "Auto Reload" CDEP contains 2 bonus tracks not on the 12" vinyl.

EP's #1 contains their debut "Reload" EP "Auto Reload" & "Biosphere" EP's the former 2 are what I mentioned earlier about more abrasive techno sounds but the "Biosphere" EP is where you find the band starting to develop the more lush electronica sound I described These 3 EP's were remastered for a vinyl compilation release this file here is taken from a CD promo of this released by the band
EP's #2 contains the "Amenity" EP from 1996 and "Archives" EP from 1997 these are from what I can gather taken from vinyl rips. Also enclosed is a set of remixes done by µ-Ziq that were never used and only released on Mike Paradinas (µ-Ziq) soundcloud page. For me this was as match made in heaven as i have wanted to do a µ-Ziq post but his discography is almost as bad as Aphex Twin!!! These remixes are great and unavailable elsewhere as I think Mike Paradinas took them down from his soundcloud page.

So there you have a full discography of this great artist all their releases are out of print and I had to pay near £20 to replace my Reload "A Collection Of Short Stories" LP with a CD the vinyl goes for nearer £100 I have saved you a lot of money here!

This Write up is getting a bit long now and I'm sure confusing as dealing with these multi faceted/endless sub project artists are so I shall try to be brief here!

Global Communication for a brief shining moment were an artist who really did gain a lot of attention for their debut album I am going to be even lazier again and give you the internet version of events.

"Global Communication was a project begun in 1991 by Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton. Middleton had previously worked with Aphex Twin (appearing under the name of Schizophrenia on Analogue Bubblebath by AFX); Pritchard was a one-time guitarist and DJ. Following a series of singles and EPs on their own Evolution label, their first proper album together was A Collection of Short Stories under the name Reload in 1993. Soon after this they released the Incidental Harmony / Sublime Creation EP, considered to be their manifesto. In the same year they produced the album 76:14, now widely considered to be a landmark ambient album. Tracks were titled by their duration, with the intention of not wanting to colour the experience of the listener. However, when a track was later issued as a single it was given the more marketable title of "Maiden Voyage".
In 1995 a compilation of their remixes of other artists' work was issued as Remotion, followed in 1998 by the reissue of Pentamerous Metamorphosis - an album of remixes, or "retranslations", of tracks from Chapterhouse's Blood Music dating from 1993 (and previously only available with initial copies of that album).
Later releases by the duo saw them moving away from the ambient template of 76:14 to produce funky house and dance music until they went their separate ways in 1998. Currently they work separately: Middleton under the name of Cosmos; and Pritchard mainly as Trouble Man and Harmonic 33.
In 2005 The Guardian newspaper named 76:14 as "the best ambient album of the nineties," and this was followed by a reissue of the album with a bonus CD of non-album tracks."

SO that pretty much covers Global Communications for you.In the links below you have the Expanded 2 disc remastered version of their INCREDIBLE debut album "76:14" which as it says above comes with a bonus disc which features most of the non album singles and other tracks which is nearly another albums worth of material in itself and makes this a near discography oif their recorded works.This is ripped from my own CD at 320KBPS I have also given you "Remotion - A Global Communications remixes album" This collection of remixes for artists such as Jon Anderson & Chapterhouse as well as more traditional electronic artists such as Warp 69 & The Grid is just fantastic it really does leave little of the originals and basically to my ears sounds like a further album of Global Communications originals!

So to wrap all this up your last link is "The Theory Of Evolution" this is a compilation album of Tom Middleton & Mark Pritchard's  Evolution records who have released many of the various aliases of these guys it's sorta a mix CD but also a compilation you get full tracks mixed into snippets of others and for me it's a great introduction to these guys works, it does not contain any Global Communications tracks I assume this is probably due to GC being on another label but it is a great listen though far more uptempo and dancefloor orientated than anything else i have presented by these guys here.

So that's that another electronica post where I have waffled for many paragraphs yet possibly failed utterly to describe the music. For me these posts are archives of a time long gone when electronica/IDM/Ambient music was fresh and new and it's a period very close to my heart and I like to hope that either old middle aged guys like me or young un's looking for some history will come across these posts and find easy to digest chunks of this amazing music! Also the albums contained here are collectable on both vinyl and CD and also out of print not that they would be hard to find but htey are NOT cheap. So here you have it free of charge get in your favourite armchair hit play and melt away!


RELOAD

A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES & AUTORELOAD VOL 2 CDEP - Mediafire

EP'S #1 - Mediafire

EP'S #2 - Mediafire


GLOBAL COMMUNICATION

76:14 (Remastered 2 Disc Edition) - Mediafire

REMOTION - Mediafire

EVOLUTION RECORDS

THEORY OF EVOLUTION COMP - Mediafire

MASSIVE ATTACK - A CONNOISSEURS SELECTION

I have done previous posts on DJ Shadow (HERE) & Portishead (HERE) so I figured as Massive Attack are one of the big 3 originators of the sound known as "Trip Hop" and also happen to be one of my favourite artists that despite them being a mega band that it was long overdue that I did a post on them!

When it comes to bands that are popular on a global scale in the sense of "pop" popularity/chart sucess I don't like many, so, when people ask me why I love certain popular bands and artists who have had this kind of success  I have had the same mantra for decades and that is tis "Sometimes bands are popular because they are disposable and a current trend forced on you by the media sometimes bands are popular because they are simply REALLY fucking good" Massive Attack fall into the latter category.

A Little history, Massive Attack have worked hard for their popularity. Evolving out of a Bristol sound system collective named "The Wild Bunch" having immersed themselves in Hip Hop, Dub and Graffitiit culture they coalesced round a core of Robert "3d" Del Naja, Grant "Daddy G" Marshall And Originally Andy "Mushroom" Vowles in the early days they also enlisted Adrian "Tricky Kid" Thaw (Who would later see sucess in his own right as simply Tricky I will be doing a companion post on Tricky soon) This along with contributions from Shara Nelson & Horace Andy are the crew responsible for groundbreaking debut album "Blue Lines" in 1991, pulling together many elements of underground sound system culture they pretty much invented what would later be called "Trip Hop" (a name all the artists tagged with it despise) The Track "Unfinished Sympathy" was a massive hit both in clubs and in living rooms and thus Massive Attack became the hot name on everyone's lips! Massive Attack have continued to have sucess and adversity over the near 30 years since forming core members have come and gone at one point during the era of their "100th Window" album Massive Attack were Robert Del Naja On his own! Peaking with their "Mezannine" album selling 4 million copies in 1998 and containing a hit single " Teardrop" The story of Massive Attack is a long and convoluted one it's really difficult to discern who Massive Attack actually are at times core members as I said have come and gone and other names come and go regularly (Neil Davidge for example who appears to have worked on a lot of Massive Attack material but it's unclear what he actually does!) Massive Attack seemed to have settled nicely into a niche where they can comfortably do what they want, make music or not, it's been 4 years to date since they released any new music and there's no word of any coming I guess we'll know when they are ready!

I have called this post "A Connoisseurs Selection" this is meant in a slightly tongue in cheek way as there is no point in doing a Massive Attack Discography their music is distributed in huge quantities you can pick up all of their albums now for about £10 for the set so the reason for the name is I have picked a selection of newer things that might not be so easy to find and some bits that I have found that have never been given an official release. So here's what you get

First up we have something I came across by pure chance and had no idea existed. There is a fantastic Massive Attack site (you will find it here - massiveattack.ie) The person or persons who run this site are absolute Massive Attack obsessives there is so much information on there and so many bootlegs etc that you can download, they are all in FLAC and all of the highest quality, it's one of the first matches when you type in Massive Attack website to google and it's a testament to Massive Attack's spirit they haven't had their lawyers shut it down. I f you want to learn more about Massive Attack then I would strongly suggest you go there they leave no stone unturned. This brings us to our first 2 links I am an absolute FIEND for BBC recordings in particular Peel Sessions so when I found this BBC Live From Miada Vale Studios 2006  I was beyond excited to hear it what you get here is basically the Massive Attack live band playing live in the studio doing some of their best songs there are 7 tracks on this and it's a fantastic listen and the quality is superb I don't know how it was sourced but it sounds phenomenal! What's also great is, exclusive to this download (and from the website itself ) is that after the 7 tracks there's an interview with MA main man 3D .

Next up is "Nocturne Sessions (Disk 3)" Now do not panic this is not a random disc lifted from a set here's the story....

"This disc is one of the rarest Massive Attack promo discs in existence. There were only 200 copies produced and each is numbered. This disc was only given out free to the first 200 patrons of the Nocturne club in Bristol on the night of the 12th March 2002. It was the third in the series of such very limited releases from Nocturne to feature exclusive one track mixes from well-known DJ's and musicians from Bristol. This particular one was mixed by 3D"

So as you can see it's a series by different DJ's this being the 3rd and the only one related to Massive Attack! It's an absolutely fantastic mix, as it's a continuous DJ mix it is only one file however there is also a text document giving you the tracklist but just in case wherever you are in the world you can't open it here' it is,

01. Pink Floyd - On The Run
02. Kraftwerk - Musique Non Stop
03. Massive Attack - I Against I
04. Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead
05. Can - Mushroom
06. The Twinkle Brothers - Jehovia In Dub Majesty (Mix By Jah Shaka And Mad Professor)
07. Vangelis - Blush Response
08. Massive Attack - Risingson (Mad Professor Remix)
09. The Saints - This Perfect Day (Single Version)
10. Radiohead - Meeting In The Aisle
11. Psyche/BFC - Elements
12. This Heat - 24 Track Loop
13. Public Image LTD - Careering
14. Liquid Liquid - Cavern
15. Massive Attack - Inflight Data
16. Vangelis - Tales Of The Future
17. Public Image LTD - Radio 4

For me this mix perfectly illustrates the diversity of influence on Massive Attack and why their sound is so unique and compelling!

Let's continue with the commercially available stuff. Firstly we have the "Blue Lines" (2012 Mix/Master) Basically in 2012 the band decided their debut album needed an overhaul for the new millenium being some 20 years old for this reissue it received a new mix and a new mastering job straight from the original tapes, whilst nothing has been changed drastically the sound is sharp and clean and everything just sparkles with a new energy, listening to this 2012 mix is a bit like washing your car, you knew you loved your car but it looked grubby and you didn't love it as much, then you put it through the car wash and it came out looking beautiful and you remembered how much you loved your car in the first place! It sounds great and include it here in case you are not like me and feel the need to purchase every scrap of Massive Attack.

Next up "Mezzanine" 2019 Deluxe Edition" I didn't even know this was coming out I just happened to be on an assignment in the community and the person I was with wanted to go into HMV so as we walked in "Mezzanine" was playing which brought a smile to my face however I did wonder why HMV would be playing it as they only ever play things they are trying to sell, new releases etc. So lo and behold I discovered this new overhaul of "Mezzanine" I personally think the album already sounded perfect but there's no harm in giving it a little clean up and it does sound fantastic however. the bonus disc is a full set of Mad Professor mixes of tracks from "Mezzanine" however, of the 8 mixes presented, most have already been released as B-sides to the many singles from "Mezzanine". There are a couple of new ones and I get the concept of the Album/Dub Version but I would have liked to have seen Mad Professor do an entire new Re-Dub of the whole album but hey what do I know?

Singles 2016 right well this is the absolute bonus for me, After a few years of silence in the time after their "Heligoland" album, in 2016 Massive Attack released 2 x 12" singles and a four track EP put together they total 8 tracks and pretty much an albums worth of material! Best part is this is a massive return to form for Massive Attack the sounds are fresh and contemporary but it still manages to sound like Massive Attack from the 90's it also features a host of collaborators both old and new including Ghostpoet, Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star), Roots Manuva, Young Fathers and the biggest surprise of all Tricky See Post HERE) is back providing some vocals on "Take It There"  There is the 4 Track "Ritual Spirit" EP The 2 Track "The Spoils" 12" and lastly "Dear Friend" A couple of notes here, in the files you will find "Dear Friend is 2 tracks with the same name they both feature the same vocal but the second track is actually the instrumental of  "Take It There" from the Ritual Spirit EP. also note in the middle of "Come Near Me" the song stops and I think it is supposed be the sound of a party where "Unfinished Sympathy" is playing I found this a bit confusing but it appears to be intentional. These are a fantastic set of tracks and certainly have been enough to keep me going for the last 4 years waiting on a new Massive Attack Album.

OK so onto your last link Rarities so this is a bit of a misnomer as most of this is easily available however what I have done here is, I have taken the bonus disc of the Massive Attack Best Of "Collected" which features 10 tracks of rarities and I have tacked on some hard to find extras, so aside from the 10 original tracks I have expanded it with another 10 B-sides etc so here's what's extra...

The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game (From the Batman forever Soundtrack featuring Tracey Thorn of Everything But The Girl), Nature Of Threat (an MP3 Released by Massive Attack themselves from their aborted 2000 studio session for their 4th album),  I Against I (Instrumental) from a promo 12",  United Snakes (B-Side of Promo 12"/CD of  False Flags (UNKLE Remixes). Reflection B-side extra from "Inertia Creeps" CDEP, Aftersun (Feat Dot Alison) appears over the end credits of the movie Danny The Dog/Unleashed but was never put on the soundtrack released as an MP3 by the band. Superpredators & Euro Zero Zero  (Mezzanine singles B-Sides), Home Of The Whale (Mix of Hymn Of The Big Wheel from the B-side of their Debut EP), Unfinished Sympathy (Instrumental) Self explanatory!!!  That brings the Rarities file up to a meaty 20 tracks of non album Massive Attack!

So That's about it, I have made the write up and explanations far longer than I intended to making this a pretty massive (pardon the pun) post, but these guys are worth the effort. I was unsure as to whether to do this post or not due to the fact that there's not a great deal of  hard to find stuff by Massive Attack and in general for a band entering their 30th year there's not a great deal of material in general. As I said in the beginning this is A Connoisseurs Selection I'd like to think that there are people who like Massive Attack as a chart/pop/singles/best of band and there is a smaller group who love massive Attack for the innovative fantastic music they make, I fall in to that latter group, and if you do then this post is for you! If you're looking for hits and best of's go to amazon and buy a CD! I hope you guys enjoy this post as much as i enjoyed listening to the music and writing it up!


BBC LIVE FROM MAIDA VALE - Mediafire

NOCTURNE SESSIONS MIX - Mediafire

BLUE LINES (2012 MIX/MASTER VERSION) - Mediafire

MEZZANINE (2019 2 DISC DELUXE EDITION) - Mediafire

SINGLES 2016 - Mediafire

RARITIES - Mediafire