Tuesday 9 June 2020

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 - IIIMediafire

MAIDA VALEMediafire

Saturday 6 June 2020

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 VERSIONMike & 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 2Mediafire






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 RECORDINGSMediafire