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

CATHEDRAL JAPAN

This is gonna be a shorter post as this one is for posterity really! Cathedral are a band that should need little introduction Featuring Lee Dorrian (Owner of Rise Above Records and who, at the time Just freshly vacated the vocal spot in Napalm Death) as well as ex- members of UK thrashers Acid Reign These guys set out to make the heavisest and darkest doom metal they could possibly manage heavily influenced by the early Doom bands like Pentagram, Trouble, Saint Vitus and of course Black Sabbath. Cathedral took that mournful sound to the next level! Time for a space filling anecdote....

I had known Lee from his time in Napalm Death and I hadn't seen him since he had left ND. However he had come on tour as "chaperone" to Japanese Hardcore band S.O.B. as they did not really speak English and had never been to the UK before. I caught up with him in Edinburgh and as we were chatting he told me about his new band Cathedral (I'm almost positive original Cathedral bassist Griff was with him but memory is hazy) and from his pocket he pulled the now legendary "In Memoriam" Demo tape which had just been recorded and not yet released....


                                   

Lee said if i could get the sound man to play it over the PA so we could hear it good and loud (The band had not played live yet and wanted to know how they sounded over a venue system) then I could have the tape to keep! So I asked, the sound man obliged and I got to hear the first Cathedral demo pre-release at top volume over a venue PA system! I was blown away this was an era when bands were trying to "out-heavy" each other all the time down tuning guitars heavier gauge strings etc. But i had never heard a guitar tone so low or music so slow it was ridiculous but mind blowing! This was heaviness on a near subsonic level!

Over a career of near 25 years 10 albums and a brace of EP's Cathedral were a very progressive band going from the slow crawling funeral doom of early albums to integrating funkier and more prog rock and psychedelic influences even being given the tag "disco doom" at one point! There's so much stuff and it's easily available elsewhere so I would not even try to give you a discography it'd take forever to upload, however, I put a little something together for myself a few years ago and I mentioned it on social media and a few friends of mine begged for a copy so I uploaded it to mediafire for them and decided at some point i would share it here! I have no idea how long ago that was but here we are now...

You may not be aware that when albums are released in Japan the domestic price of a CD is far more expensive than the cost of an imported version from the West so how would the Japanese music business even begin to compete with that? (You'd think lowering prices would be the obvious answer) Well the normal practice is that the Japanese domestic release of a bands CD normally comes with a bonus track or in some cases whole bonus discs or DVD's.The problem is that this extra stuff MUST remain exclusive to the Japanese market and cannot be released in the West. I for one think this is a fucking travesty have you ever tried to look for Japanese Imports with bonus content ? You are looking at 3 or 4 times the price of the released version, sometimes it's worth it but other times you're looking at paying £30 for a single CD that has one short bonus track! So back to Cathedral over the course of their career they have amassed 10 tracks and an hours worth of Japanese bonus tracks! I of course think it's ridiculous as stated above the price of imported Japanese CD's is ludicrous both in Japan and the rest of the world so here I have compiled them in chronological order and even made a custom cover. So now you rabid Cathedral fans can add this to your collection! ENJOY!

CATHEDRAL JAPAN - Mediafire

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

Lack Of Knowledge are a bit of an anomaly, I have been listening to a lot of what is called "Post Punk" type music for quite a few years and also having been a long standing fan of anarcho punk music I had done a lot of downloading of that early 80's era music centred mostly around Crass & their Crass Records imprint however some of the things I had downloaded didn't fall into that specific "anarcho" sound I loved, bands such as The Mob, Part 1 , Vex, etc they didn't really fit into that rage and bile sound and they were consigned to a folder and forgotten. However with my interest in the post punk sound I started seeing a few ties to the anarcho scene and decided to revisit some of them and this is where Lack Of Knowledge come in.

Formed around 1980 Lack Of Knowledge self released their first single "The Uninvited / Ritual" in 1982 Following that they forged an alliance with Crass records releasing their amazing "Grey" EP packaged in a trademark 6 panel fold out sleeve and bearing the standard Graphic appearance of the Crass records EP's you'd be forgiven for thinking that you were getting some serious punk rock but that is definitely not the case.... 

Lack Of Knowledge - "Grey" EP (Crass Records 1983)

Whilst there certainly is a ton of energy to this band they have a sound more akin to post punk contemporaries of the time such as Joy Division whom they obviously owe quite a debt to for their sound, whilst the lyrics are overtly political that is pretty much where the connection to the more traditional punk ends! The sound is very melodic but with a slightly darker edge also the songs are well written and have a scratchy kinda melody that makes the songs both memorable and a pleasure to listen to.

It staggers me that Lack Of Knowledge landing at the exact time when this sort of music was at the height of it's popularity that they didn't garner a larger following as at the time post punk was very much en vogue and these guys play the style with absolute conviction. I can't help but think that their association with Crass Records may have held them back somewhat or maybe it was their blatant Joy Division influence that hampered them more than helped? I don't know of many people outside of the punk scene that have actually heard of them in fact when I recently shared a song on social media only one of my more astute friends of a similar age, himself entrenched in punk had actually heard of them and was a fan! Another thing that mystifies me is why go with Crass Records (Their later stunning debut album "Sirens Are Back" was released on Crass records offshoot Corpus Christi Records) I personally feel that being packaged like and released by a notoriously political label whose releases were hugely popular with the "hardcore" punk crowd then maybe they were "guilty by association" I can imagine the lack of raging guitars shouted vocals and "Fuck the System" lyrics would have had most Crass Records fans chucking this on their pile and never listening to it again! (Which is exactly what I did sort of! Though I DID listen again).

Whilst as I have already said Lack Of Knowledge are very heavily and very obviously influenced by Joy Division The baritone vocals the drumming style the playing the bass high while the guitars ring and chime these things were also pretty much all the trademarks of the post punk sound and Lack Of Knowledge have a lot more to offer than mere cloning.They add elements to the sound that are what I can I guess describe as heavier maybe denser? the songs are melodic with plenty of hooks and great vocal lines whilst delivering astutely political lyrics and there are some nice subtle touches of keyboard that help drive the songs dynamics. All in all Lack of Knowledge have become one of my favourite listens over the last year or so which is why I decided to give them a space here in the hope this will land with you guys too.

Almost all of Lack of Knowledge's output was compiled over 2 CD compilations The "Grey" EP and debut album "Sirens Are Back" being released as the "Grey" CD and a further compilation "Americanized" compiles Their Debut Single "Uninvited/Ritual" and "Sentinel" 12" along with a further 19 tracks, 6 demos/unreleased tracks from 1978 - 1984 and a staggering 13 new recordings from 2000 I can find no information as to what these are an attempt at a comeback an aborted album? who knows however they seem to spark with a more punky energy and less of the doomy Joy Division sound of their earlier material. the only thing missing from these CD's is the "White Science" EP which was released in 2004 however this sounds like an early demo having a far scratchier, faster and intense sound and far more akin to the sound of anarcho punk at the time rather than the better produced and more mature sounding music released later I have added it in here for completions sake.

So below you will find the discography of this great band split over 2 parts I have broken both compilation Cd's into their individual parts as listening to the CD's at home as a whole is fine but I feel digitally you should see the individual covers and be able to listen to the separate parts as they were released. Part 1 contains the "Grey" EP & "Sirens are Back" LP. Part 2 contains the "Amercanized" CD Which I split into the 7" & 12" and compiled the remaining studio tracks into chronological order the demos & Unreleased tracks and the session from 2000 separately

I can't recommend this band highly enough I truly feel they have been overlooked and forgotten and it's a real shame because they really deserve more of an audience and the music has aged surprisingly well in both production and sound.

ENJOY


PT 1 - Mediafire

PT 2 - Mediafire

GESCOM - DISCOGRAPHY

As some of you may remember from my posts on Aphex Twin I am a bit of a fan of electronic music. / IDM / Electronica whatever you want to call it, in the interim since I have been avoiding the blog I have been getting into a lot of  it and have been investigating a lot of artists who, whilst having been around a LONG time I never had the opportunity to check out. One of these artists is Gescom. I knew of Gescom back in the 90's as I lived in their hometown of Manchester which is also the home of their label Skam. I don't recall ever having seen any Gescom records for sale anywhere, I can only assume that with their connection to the kings of geek electronica Autechre that they were simply not available or sold out very quick! However I decided it was long overdue to get onto them so I did I managed to download their entire discography as well as purchase some bits on CD. I was absolutely gutted that I hadn't got to them sooner (but not as gutted as I was when i found out 90% of their output is vinyl!) Gescom play an almost industrial style of electronic music when I say industrial I don't mean industrial music I mean the music is very machine like deep clanks and pulsating repetitive rhythms pretty much defining their sound.Whilst I am saying that Gescom have an "Industrial" sound don't think this is all Sturm und Drang there are some absolutely gorgeous pieces in here too, take the sublime waves and bleeps of "Five" from their debut EP or "Mag" from their 2nd EP which has a fantastic hip hop-esque flavour to name just two really they are quite a varied outfit they just happen to have some very dark machine like flourishes!

As has become par for the course with the blog these days here's a potted history nicked from the web....

"The project name is an abbreviation of "Gestalt Communications". Beginning its activities in the early nineties, the Gescom collective has released material on Clear, Leaf, Chocolate Industries, SKAM, Warp, Worm Interface, and Source labels.

Incorrectly perceived as simply an Autechre side-project, Gescom in fact exists as a platform for a number of aligned artists to work in various different combinations, whilst remaining otherwise-anonymous. Personnel in Gescom has varied from release to release and even track to track. Quote from the Autechre FAQ: "Actually the whole Gescom crew consists of almost 20 people. Sean Booth calls it an 'umbrella-project'."

Whilst having both Rob Brown & Sean Booth of Autechre at it's core this as has been said Gescom is not simply an "Autechre Side project" (If by now you are baffled by who Autechre are and I'd be surprised if you were reading this post if you were, then here's a link to wiki for you if you are the curious type like me Autechre Wiki )

I originally got into Electronic music due to it's being really good music to chill out to with a spliff! but, as I've gotten older I have realised that you can enjoy the full benefits of this kind of music without being stoned! I'm not the best at describing this sorta stuff I dunno how to describe a digital sound or have enough about me to say they use (insert complex technology here) either, all I know is I listen to a lot of electronic music and I think I have discerned what's the best of it and Gescom are definitely in that category

I have pretty much collected the full discography here there may be one or two comp tracks I have not managed to source or maybe some obscure stuff that I just don't know about but as far as i am aware this is pretty much everything it's all tagged with relevant covers etc here's what's in your links

PT 1

Gescom EP (Skam 1994)

The Sounds Of Machines Our Parents Used 12" (Clear 1995)

Gescom EP (aka C & D EP) (Skam 1995)

Keyknell EP (Skam 1996)

Motor EP (Source 1996)

PT 2

Keyknell (Autechre Mixes) (Warp 1996)

That 12" (Skam 1998)

Fat Cat Split 12" W/ Foehn (Fat Cat 1998)
I
SS:SA CDEP (Skam 2003)

PT 3

A1 - B1 (Skam 2007)

C1 - D1 (Skam 2007)

This EP (Skam 1997)

Skull Snap EP (Skull Snap 2011)

COMP TRACKS AND RARITIES

OK bit of explaining here this file basically rounds up all the Gescom tracks from various compilation EP's & Albums that do not appear on any of the EP's above, including but not limited to (because I can't remember every release I sourced them all from) "0161" , "Skampler" , "Invisible Soundtracks Volume One" "Alt Frequencies" and I think a couple from the series of "Mask" 12" Comps on Skam. There's 13 tracks in total and nearly 80 minutes of music so basically a double albums worth of stuff! I have arranged it in chronological order as best I can.

So lastly we come to what for me is the turd in the otherwise sparkling swimming pool that is Gescom....

MINIDISC

This was originally released on Minidisc only in 1998 but was reissued on CD in 2006 basically it contains 88 tracks, ranging from a few seconds to a minute or two at longest mostly electronic farts, beeps, noises whooshes and contains NO discernible songs really I don't know what purpose it serves is it a template for making your own music is it a pisstake on the obsessive nature of electronic music fans? who knows for me it's a worthless effort and is included here only for completions sake DO NOT download it if you are expecting music of the quality of everything else here!

So that's about it as I just want to say that pretty much everything here is sourced from the best quality downloads the majority is from FLAC vinyl rips I converted to 320KBPS (NO I do not still have the FLAC files before you ask they take up too much room and it took me about 8 hrs to upload this post!) and having listened to all of this a LOT I can assure you there is nothing here that will distract from this amazing music save the very faintest of crackle between songs if you listen hard! Anything that is available on CD has been sourced from CD or taken from my own CD's. I already said I lack the descriptive terms to describe electronic music, I just know what I like and I like Gescom! I am hoping this post will be a nicely organised way in for the curious or a good place for fans to find some missing pieces from their Gescom collection so that being said I shall leave it at that and you can go check out some brilliant music from some of the top minds in the electronic field. I may or may not consider doing a post on Autechre one day it'd be a mammoth task so don't ask it'll happen or it won't!


PT 1 - Mediafire

PT 2 - Mediafire

PT 3 -  Mediafire

COMP TRACKS & RARITIES - Mediafire

MINIDISC - Mediafire

METZ - DISCOGRAPHY

You wouldn't think Sub Pop records would really have that much to offer these days, their heyday I guess is long behind them, save stalwarts Mudhoney who continue to release consistently great records really I don't know much about Sub Pop beyond the early 90's or what they release. Enter METZ a 3 piece Garage/Noise band from Ontario Canada! I had heard a lot of good things about METZ back in 2012 when they released their debut album however I was surprised to find they had a brace of 7" singles and EP's dating back to 2009! I was blown away when I finally got round to listening to these guys here is a band who like to make one HELLAVU racket and i had to wonder how fucking out of touch I am that I had never heard these guys!.

I saw METZ live twice in the space of a few months (They were so good first time I had to go back for a second round) and despite that and owning all the CD's I literally know very little about these guys! In fact I didn't even know what they looked like till I saw them live, I like these guys a lot so I don't know why I didn't look into them more. So as I have been doing of late with the posts here's a bit of blurb about them from the internet. I mean this is pretty weak considering this is from Sub Pop's webpage on them it still doesn't tell you very much but here you go

"METZ, our own widely-adored and delightfully noisy 3-piece punk* band from Toronto (ON, CANADA), have been laying waste to stages around the globe for over 10 years. During that tumultuous chunk of time METZ, comprised of Alex Edkins, Hayden Menzies, and Chris Slorach, have cemented their reputation as one of the planet’s most exhilarating live acts and trusted providers of bombastic outsider rock METZ create uncompromising and challenging music that remains unwavering and has only grown over time."

* I would like to add here "punk" is not really a word i would use to describe METZ that's SUB POP not me! Punk is far too bland a word for these guys!

The rest of the blurb just tries to sell you their music! So onward then... I would have to say that METZ are one of those bands that continue the fine tradition of "Noise Rock" that has seen the torch passed from hardcore to early exponents of the genre like Amphetamine Reptile records and bands Like Jesus Lizard, (Early) Helmet, Shellac, Drive Like Jehu, etc etc etc what's great about METZ though is they really like to push their sound into the red, Drums like Oilcans from the back of a cave, guitar and bass that literally feels like you can touch it they are so loud and in your face. Their attack is 100% aggressive but without sacrificing the tunes and whilst I say tunes don't expect to be whistling any of these dittys as you hoover your house, what I mean is these guys are so forceful in their approach that they completely draw and COMMAND your attention, their songs for all their thrash and full on guitar overdrive are actually memorable, though I would say that a typical listen to METZ will leave you with your eyes reddened and bugging out, your neck muscles aching and the taste of blood in your mouth!

I have no fucking idea what I'm saying here I post a lot of different music and I try my best to bring you variety but I listen to so much music and there's so much to digest these days that whilst a band stands out to me I'm no longer able to trainspot to the same standard as when I first started this blog!!! For me it's about the sound of a band more than individual songs and information these days and METZ sound just destroys me in the best way music can destroy anyone,What I will remind you of is what I have always held true here. that. NOTHING get's posted on this blog that isn't music I truly love if it's passable or just OK or good it does not make the cut . So take my word for it if I tell you METZ will rip your head off your shoulders and you'll be happy about it you can trust me they are THAT fuckin' good!

Here below you will find links to all 3 of their albums plus last years "Automat" comp which nearly rounded up all their previously mentioned 7" tracks however there were a couple missing which i sourced and added to the comp along with the "M.E." EP containing 3 cover versions that was originally released on a bonus 7" with the limited first edition "Automat" LP but I downloaded the digital version and stuck it in with the "automat" link. The 7" featuring covers by Urinals, Sparklehorse and Gary Numan it's a pretty interesting listen! I don't see the point in going into the sound of each album here, METZ are a consistent band that's another thing going for them you pick up the new METZ you know it's gonna be exactly what you expect no jazz funk or pop hooks, no frills just straight up what you want from them not that they have not progressed but every album has those cavernous drums and in your face guitars and the songwriting just gets better and better!

So that's about it in a world of fairly weak guitar bands that leave me longing for the 80's and 90's and a new Shellac album Metz were exactly the tonic I needed Loud in your face and kicking me around the room just like the good ol' days go check em out I can guarantee your satisfaction!


METZ - Mediafire

II - Mediafire

STRANGE PEACE - Mediafire

AUTOMAT & M.E. EP - Mediafire

A.C. TEMPLE - DISCOGRAPHY

Back in the 80's and early 90's when hardcore ruled the underground in the UK there was a small scene that ran parallel to it and often crossed over with it, for the sake of ease I'm gonna call this music "guitar noise" think of  bands like Head Of David (See post HERE ) and Loop (See Post HERE ) and many more, there were many famous venues such as ,The Mermaid in Birmingham and Planet X in Liverpool who would put on large mixed bills (the kind of thing that would have "Fest" attached to it now, but back then it was just a normal thing) and it wouldn't be unusual to see what you'd think of as a "weird" mix of bands on these bills from crust and grindcore to punk and often these type of guitar noise bands as well (For example Liverpool band Walkingseeds who I will do a post on soon often appeared on these type of bills at Planet X). Whilst these bands bore little resemblance to the hardcore bands on the bill back then thinking was not so rigidly divided by genre and it wouldn't be jarring to have Head Of David on the same bill as Extreme Noise Terror in fact the first time I saw Godflesh they were on tour with Napalm Death in 1988 so you had one of the worlds slowest bands playing with the worlds fastest! There were some great bands that emerged from this "guitar noise" scene, some long forgotten, some have become more well known and influential, with the availability of the internet people are discovering this groundbreaking music with ease. One such band that seems largely forgotten is this band A.C. Temple.I had completely forgotten about them myself until for some reason recently the name popped up and I remembered them being around at the time and that, despite trying, I couldn't get my hands on their records, luckily. as i say their albums are easily available used on CD.

Despite the fact that A.C. Temple did a mini album and 3 great albums on Various Mute related labels (Furthur & Blast First) particularly with the latter (Blat First) being the absolute bastion of acidic guitar noise. Unleashing such bands as Sonic Youth & Big Black on the UK, it seems A.C. Temple remain largely a curiosity of the time, all of their albums are out of print and hardly anyone seems to know much about them.

I know very little about A.C. Temple's history so I decided to take the easy way out here as I have a lot of posts to get through for you so here's what the holy temple of discogs.com has to say about them....

A.C. Temple were - Chris Trout, Jane Bromley, Matt Silcox, Noel Kilbride, Paul Dorrington, Tim Beckham

"Formed in Sheffield in 1985, A.C. Temple were a powerful UK counterpart to the abrasive experimental guitar bands coming out of the USA around the same time.

Early vocalist Giles soon took a back seat to Bromley but remained a co-lyricist to the band throughout their career. However, it was the classic line-up of Bromley, Kilbride, Woodward, Hartley and Waterfall who recorded their seminal 'Blowtorch' LP and a session for John Peel on Radio 1 in 1987. Critics made favourable comparisons to Sonic Youth and Big Black (Kilbride, in fact, had acted as Big Black's driver for their final UK tour and is one of the named recipient's on Shellac's 'Futurist' LP) but the swirling intertwined guitars and extreme down-tuned bass, combined with Bromley's sonorous vocals and Waterfall's thunderous drumming, were distinctively theirs.

Subsequent line-up changes saw Chris Trout (from Kilgore Trout) join and more melody and light enter their songs, culminating in the ethereal LP 'Belinda Backwards', before they split in 1993 (leaving some new songs sadly unrecorded), under-appreciated and under the radar to the end"

That pretty much sums it up and covers what I was saying "under-appreciated and under the radar to the end" Though i can understand the Big Black/Sonic Youth comparisons I feel that while yes they definitely fitted into that mould that they had something of their own there and also there was little to compare this band to at the time as this music was new for example I remember Godflesh being pitched to me as a cross between Big Black & SWANS well yeah I definitely see SWANS but Big Black? why because they use a drum machine? As i say reference points were thin on the ground then!

So onto your links what you have here is the released discography by this band there are a few unreleased things I'd love to get my hands on such as their John Peel Session and the aborted Steve Albini recordings for their debut album "Blowtorch" (you can find some of those on youtube at the Camel Channel HERE this youtube channel is run by ex - A.C. Temple member Chris Trout and contains many interesting bits and bobs) So here's what you get

Their 1986 demo - I found this at the excellent Sheffield Tape Archive on Bandcamp (HERE) they document many lost and unknown Sheffield bands recordings as well as many decent quality live recordings of bands that have played in Sheffield and is well worth a few minutes of your time to have a browse. This is very good quality for an unearthed demo from over 3 decades ago and has a couple of primitive versions of songs that would be reworked for subsequent albums. It's raw and noisy but definitely shows you this band had their sound nailed!

Songs Of Praise - This was originally their debut mini LP but was added as bonus tracks to the CD of their debut album "Blowtorch" I decided to separate it and give you it on it's own with the correct cover art etc as being their vinyl debut it's too important to be tucked away as bonus tracks. I remember this causing a stir in the music papers and getting some pretty decent reviews I had only recently discovered bands like Big Black & Sonic Youth as well as the likes of Head Of David and Loop so anything in that mould would definitely attract my attention! This is a great debut thundering drums deep bass topped with all sorts or chiming and thrashing noisy guitar it also contains some great use of that crazy slide guitar technique that Jesus Lizard would use to great effect later! top this with some great dual male and female vocals and it's definitely a potent listen! The guitar is definitely at the forefront of the sound and there's swirling riffs ala' My Bloody Valentine and plenty of scratchy guitar that reminds me of bands like The Fall and The Wedding present though way more out of control!

Blowtorch - Takes the sound of Songs Of Praise and refines it and maybe smooths off the rough edges a little and i can definitely feel a more Sonic Youth influence here while the guitars still bite and scratch and the vocals are still edgy there's a definite progression here and whilst far more noisy and out there there's a lot of sounds that would later form the basis of a lot of the indie rock of the 00's! Also the production is way smoother I would actually prefer they had released the noisier Steve Albini version of the album (see link above to youtube) but this is still a cracking listen and definitely gives me that teeth gritted nodding my head thing!

Sourpuss - 4 years into their existence and the band are definitely progressing this album smooths the edges out further and the Sonic Youth and now Dinosaur Jr. influence is definitely showing, with Kate Bromley's vocals (which are most definitely heavily influenced by Kim Gordon) are taking the lead and the band are definitely leaning more towards the sound of the music coming out of the US underground at the time like some of the things SST & Homestead records amongst others were releasing also bands like Fugazi, whilst that American influence is definitely felt they have a very British take on it and are still holding their own here the sound is bombastic the songs have a spark and energy that just leaps from the speakers where i found the American bands to be more introspective there's almost a dark "joy" to the songs on this album.It's still chock full of dissonant guitar and thundering drums it's just a less "grimy" take on it than it's predecessors.

Belinda Backwards - This is their 3rd and final album from 1991 this is probably my least favourite of theirs whilst it's still a pretty decent album again the influences I mention on "Sourpuss" are very prevalent but that bombastic "Dark Joy" I mentioned seems to be missing, whilst the songs aren't in themselves what you call slow they seem to lack the energy and dynamic of the previous album and overall the sound is far more accessible, in places reminding me of the Pixies. Again whilst the influences are overwhelmingly American you couldn't listen to this band and not know they were British if you are versed in the music scene of that time. I'm maybe being a bit unfair to this album as I'm listening to it now as I type this and it's certainly a great album but as I said it just seems a bit tamer than it's predecessors with some almost sorta jaunty/jangly touches whether that's a better thing or not you can decide.

So that's it not quite a lost band but certainly a (sadly) forgotten band there wasn't a great deal of bands in the UK at the time coming up with sounds that were as good as their American counterparts it's just unfortunate that they suffered from that aloof elitism that because they were not American then they were "not as good" I call bullshit on that, these guys are every inch the equal of the sounds they were influenced by and definitely worth your time to check out if you like any of the bands I have mentioned or if you are just curious! A.C. Temple, a great band defeated by geography!

1986 (DEMO) - Mediafire

SONGS OF PRAISE - Mediafire

BLOWTORCH - Mediafire

SOURPUSS - Mediafire

BELINDA BACKWARDS - Mediafire

MODERN ART & SUN DIAL (GARY RAMON) MEGA SELECTION

Gary Ramon  (Modern Art/Sun Dial)

I discovered these guys by pure chance I was listening to a podcast thing with Laura Pleasants (Ex - Kylesa/The Discussion) and she selected 10 tracks that had influenced her current band. I got a few good bands from that podcast, Modern Art was one of them I liked it a lot but by the time I got to the end of the podcast I had forgotten the name of the band and had to listen to the first part a second time I am SO glad I did read on.....

Modern Art began in 1980 with Gary Ramon playing all instruments recruiting other musicians as he needed them, releasing only cassette albums between 1980 and 1990 on his own Colour Disc label ( he also released other artists you can check out the discography of the label HERE) However recently his first 2 albums were reissued on CD and that's how I manged to hear them.Having managed to release 19 albums and quite a few retrospective/compilation albums he has a pretty BIG discography and only 3 albums are available on CD.

It's hard to describe the music of Modern Art it's good quality but has a kinda  lo-fi/bedroom recorded feel to it, for example over the course of listening to this band I have heard songs that sound electronic in nature, some Kraftwerk sounding things, tracks that sound like Meat Puppets circa "II" , Mission of Burma along with a lot of psychedelic touches and even some stuff that reminds me of the very first Big Black EP "Lungs" and a little Krautrock! Modern Art seem to come up with music that for an obscurity peddler like me is an absolute goldmine. I had no idea about this band and I know no one else who does which is great because I get to share them with people! I quite like Gary Ramon's vocal style as well think of an alternative/slacker Lou Reed I guess or something along those lines! The one thing I can say is the music is all infinitely listenable for me hitting play on Modern Art is a bit of a risk because I know there's a good chance every time I reach to change it another song will come on and I will think OOOOH yeah I rem this one this it's great!

This is not a discography, it's a selection, it would be near impossible to do a discography as most of his releases being on cassette and anywhere between 30 & 40 years old now you have to rely on other music users being able to rip cassettes and in fact being bothered to do so I mean do YOU have any cassettes from 30 or 40 years ago? I know I don't! So what I have given you here is a selection of everything I could source using Bandcamp, Buying CD's along with vinyl and cassette rips sourced from peer to peer sites. I can assure you these are all of the best quality available as I actually had to delete a couple of things I downloaded because of poor quality this is the best of what I could get my hands on so here's a short guide to what you get...

OK firstly Gary Ramon in both his Modern Art & Sun Dial guises often records multiple versions of his songs and sometimes different albums with the same name so you may find some repeats here normally when it comes to compilation releases I delete anything that's taken from an album I already have but in this case I have left everything intact  because it is impossible with different songs having the same titles and multiple versions of the same song (yet always very slightly different from each other) it's damn near impossible, so be prepared for the odd repeat!

Underwater Kites - CD Remastered Reissue (1980/2017)

Oriental Towers - (Original Cassette Rip/Remastered CD Reissue) (1983/2017) - (In this file you will find the original 1983 cassette release along with the CD reissue because the track lists are different and the CD omits some songs)

Bonus Tracks  - (Bandcamp download only compilation of some songs recorded between 1982 & 1983 that have not been on some of the recent reissues)

Sonic Dimensions 1982 - 1985 (This is a triple vinyl compilation from 2013 but I think it must have come with a download card as I can't hear any hiss and crackle between tracks)

Age Of Lights - (1986 Cassette Rip)

Dimensions Of Noise - (1984 Cassette Rip)

Pastel Sunrise - (There are 2 versions of this, one is a single cassette the other is a box containing 3 x 4 track cassette EP's the track lists are slightly different but contain mostly the same tracks this is the single cassette version from 1985)

Living In The Distortion Parade - (1987 Cassette Rip)

Stereoland - (1987 Cassette Rip)

Souvenir - (1986 Cassette Rip of a split with Cleaners From Venus file contains the Modern Art side only)

You have to understand that this guy never seems to stand still his work is varied but consistently sounds like him for example the release Pastel Sunrise is almost entirely instrumental and acoustic other releases veer more to the psychedelic some to to the lo-fi style I described originally. My personal recommendation is to start with "Underwater Kites" his debut if you like that keep going there's plenty here to go through or download the "Sonic Dimensions" Comp for a really good taster of everything.I love coming across obscure little gems like this I have absolutely fallen in love with the work of Gary Ramon both as Modern Art & Sun Dial I really think you will too.

SUN DIAL

In 1990 Modern Art had gone from being Gary Ramon to pretty much a functioning band and began leaning more and more towards psychedelic rock it was at this point Modern Art became Sun Dial the lo fi electronics/lo fi style were completely stripped for a louder brasher guitar based sound. As this post is getting a bit long here's what discogs says...

"Sun Dial is the vehicle of guitarist and singer Gary Ramon, who started recording in the eighties as Modern Art. He changed the name to Sun Dial when forming his live band. As Ramon’s cohorts came and went, Sun Dial’s style changed, yet it remained rooted in late sixties psychedelia and often focused on the guitar work. Many of the band’s indie label releases came as collectable limited editions and were re-released over the years; they also recorded and released multiple version of several songs"

As with Modern Art it would seem Gary Ramon was never satisfied with a song so again within your links there will be different versions of songs but these were mainly on the expanded reissues I present here but I enjoyed them!

Sun Dial were an even bigger shock to me than Modern Art I absolutely love psychedelic music the more sixties leaning the better and Sun Dial fall into that category for sure! I can't understand (and this goes for Modern Art as well) why this guys work languishes in collector obscurity because it's completely outstanding! After getting over Modern Art I decided to see what the members were up to now and came across Sun Dial so I downloaded the 2 disc deluxe edition of their debut album "Other Way Out" I hit play and I was utterly gobsmacked the music just leapt out of the speakers at me! Let me tell you something personal here, I have often been told I display some behaviours of ADHD , obsessive,fidgety, short attention span etc so the chances of me listening to a whole album even a regular length one is rare so If I tell you that on FIRST listen I hit play on "Other Way Out" and sat through it's entire 2 hrs 20 minutes without wanting to skip a single track or change the music and that every track grabbed my attention then you should take that as one SERIOUS guarantee of quality! Add to that the fact that the expanded 2 disc editions of the albums are deleted and rare I spent close to £70 ($83/76 Euro) on them within a week of hearing them! YEAH they are that fucking GOOD!

Sun Dial veer from mellow indie/psychedelia something along the lines of the very best of Spiritualized to full on loud guitar freakouts that scream of the loudest and heaviest of Hendrix and The Stooges all with their own touches! Sun Dial are one of the most entertaining bands I have ever listened to each song builds on the last creating a dynamic that swells up and mellows out and swells up again has catchy tunes and vocal lines and sticks in your brain like pins! I have played these to a few people as I do when I discover something I am enthused about and I have had 100% the same reaction that I did to this band that is "HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THESE!!!????"

So there are only 3 albums here by Sun Dial, reason being that after the initial 3 albums and a brace of EP's between 1990 & 1993 Sun Dial singed to Beggars Banquet and from what I have read they then began to change their sound a great deal taking away a lot of the the psychedelia for strains of hard rock and metal to the point that in fact their debut album for Beggars Banquet " Libertine" was apparently so bad that 15 years later it was taken back to the studio remixed, remastered and given a complete overhaul to make it sound more like Sun Dial I bought both of these to dip my toe in and to be honest the redone version is MUCH better but nowhere near the quality of the recordings I present here. The original 1993 version is terrible. The other reason being that he was very prolific beyond the albums I present here he released a further 15 albums 2 of those being 13 CD box sets! So for now i will continue to digest the ones I have if I get more I will expand the post!

So Your Links

"Other Way Out" - (2 Disc Expanded & Remastered edition contains The album, the "Exploding In Your Mind" EP, some outtakes and B-sides plus a further bonus disc "Other Way In" which contains 7 tracks from the original session that didn't go on the album plus 7 alternate versions/takes of the album tracks)

"Return Journey (The Lost Second Album Sessions)" - (2 Disc Expanded Remastered Edition) (This one i don't quite get it says "Lost Second Album" however the original album contained here appears to have been released in 1993 this 2 disc version from 2010 contains the whole album the "Overspill" EP plus a further 14 alternate takes/Outtakes/bonus tracks)

"Reflector" -  (2 Disc Expanded Remastered Edition) (Firstly the incorrect spelling of "Reflecter" is theirs not mine! This expanded edition of their actual 2nd album contains the Full album plus the "Fazer" EP and a whopping 19 bonus tracks/unreleased/Live and alternate takes)


So there you go a selection of some of the best material released by Gary Ramon under his 2 main aliases! This is some of the best music i have discovered in the interim since last blogging and I can't tell you enough to check this GREAT underappreciated music out!


MODERN ART

UNDERWATER KITES - Mediafire

ORIENTAL TOWERS (ORIGINAL/REISSUE) - Mediafire

BONUS TRACKS - Mediafire

SONIC DIMENSIONS 1982 - 1985 (COMP) - Mediafire

AGE OF LIGHTS - Mediafire

DIMENSION OF NOISE - Mediafire

PASTEL SUNRISE - Mediafire

LIVING IN THE DISTORTION PARADE - Mediafire

STEREOLAND - Mediafire

SOUVENIR (SPLIT W/ CLEANERS FROM VENUS) - Mediafire


SUN DIAL

OTHER WAY OUT (DELUXE EDITION) - Mediafire

RETURN JOURNEY (THE LOST SECOND ALBUM SESSIONS) - Mediafire

REFLECTER (DELUXE EDITION) - Mediafire

BIG BOYS

So despite shitcanning most of the hardcore/punk/blahhhh from this blog for the "reboot" I still love my classic era USHC. I think the Americans in the 80's had an unusual take on punk it didn't have that same regimented look and feel of it's UK counterpart these were guys in sneakers and jeans, flannel and t-shirts there wasn't so much of a uniform feel to the music or look and it's something that appeals to me more than the leather Spikes and flamboyant hair of UK punk of the era (not that i don't love UK Punk I just prefer the US stuff). I was a chubby kid and the whole leather and spikes thing wasn't for me nor was the spiky hair but I could rock the shit out of a flannel shirt (Still do to this day!)

So one of the best bands around in the 80's were  Big Boys out of Texas.these guys were pretty unique in their sound whilst they could easily write a raging punk tune they took their cues from the Minutemen, funk and the angular sounds of early 80's UK bands like Wire and Gang of Four and blended it together into one fantastic sound! Whilst a lot of bands ran with the distorted guitar thrash Big Boys leaned towards a more clean, tense sound with highly tuned guitar and clean bass and one other thing DAMN Big Boys could play. Featuring Rey Washam who went on to play in Jesus Lizard and Rapeman, the immense talents of Tim Kerr & Chris Gates both of whom played both guitar and bass (though not at the same time) and fronted by the imposing and flamboyant front man Randy "Biscuit" Turner they were a force to be reckoned with and definitely were a huge influence on the funk metal scene that came along in the later 80's (Red Hot Chili Peppers once supported Big Boys and look at them now!)

There's a lot I could say about Big Boys I've been a fan for a long time but as I have been doing of late I am gonna give it over to the internet for the facts so here's a blurb from wikipedia....

"Based in Austin, Texas the band members were Randy "Biscuit" Turner on vocals, Tim Kerr on guitar and Chris Gates on bass. The key members of the band were childhood friends for a decade before the band was started.[1] Over the years the group played with five drummers in all; Steve Collier, Greg Murray, Fred Schultz, Rey Washam and Kevin Tubb who played only one show (the band's first) because Collier was sick.

The hardcore punk style, a development from the earlier punk sound, arose spontaneously in various cities, but in Austin it was represented by MDC, Big Boys, The Huns, The Skunks and The Dicks. The bands often played together; Big Boys and The Dicks jointly released a split single and an LP, Live At Raul's.

Big Boys shows were legendary, frequently involving food fights, with "Biscuit" frequently sporting a pink ballerina's tutu and pink cowboy boots.Invitations would be made to the audience to come up and sing along, which often occurred. At the end of early shows, the band was famous for yelling, "OK y'all, go start your own band."

Queried about his sexuality by Flipside magazine in 1982, "Biscuit" Turner replied:

"I don't know if I want to answer that or not because it doesn't make any difference if I'm gay or not, I'm a human being and my sexual preference doesn't play into my lifestyle. It comes from my heart and I want people to look at me and say I'm a human being — don't ask me about what 5% of my life is."

There you go there's plenty to read about on Big Boys and I know I've been a bit lazy with my copy and paste lately  but at least i saved you the embarrassment of having web searches for "Big Boys" in your browser history! The great thing about Big Boys is they were unafraid to try different things sure there's a lot of funk already but listen to tracks like "We Got Soul" or "Funk Off" both have a funky brass section and think to yourself how often have i heard a punk band use a brass section!

SO onto your links here I present you with the 3 officially released compilation albums which is their entire discography. First up is "The Skinny Elvis" This covers the early years and includes their "Frat Cars" EP,  Their side of the Split "Live At Rauls" LP (other side was by fellow Texans Dicks) and their debut album "Where's My Towel?/Industry Standard" LP Next up is The Fat Elvis and for me this is the pick of the bunch This contains their classic "Fun,Fun,Fun" 12" "Lullabies To Help The Brain Grow" LP and the bizarrely titled last album "No Matter How Long The Line Is At The Cafeteria There's Always A Seat" This has been the most played of the 3 compilations for me "Apolitical" from "Fun,Fun,Fun" being a particular favourite of mine. Lastly we have "Wreck Collection" a compilation of non album odds n sods, this was originally a 19 track compilation LP but on CD was expanded to a mighty 34 tracks! If you are looking for a good place to start with the crazy world of Big Boys then this is the one! It has some great moments on there such as the aforementioned "We Got Soul" and the brilliant "Red/Green"!

So here you go folks a very brief write up for a huge band. I had these uploaded to mediafire for you for close to 2 years and just never got round to it as how do you describe the Big Boys without wrongly giving people the impression they are just A.N.Other USHC band which they certainly are not! Now I don't have to describe them or did I? anyway you got a full discography here 88 tracks 3 links 320KBPS quality you can go make up your own mind I guarantee you will be either slamming round your room or shaking your booty to the funk or both at the same time!


THE SKINNY ELVIS - Mediafire

THE FAT ELVIS - Mediafire

WRECK COLLECTION - Mediafire

WALKINGSEEDS

Walkingseeds are a band I was introduced to because I was lucky enough to have a mate who liked to confound you with great obscurities, he copied me some Walkingseeds bits and I was blown away by the sound of this unusual band. Here was a band from the UK who were making some grungy guitar noise that was easily the equal of all the US bands doing the same style that we worship so much! At the time I was still buying vinyl and their records were damn hard to come by! I would never have considered checking out a band called Walkingseeds sounds too much like country music I couldn't have been more wrong!

Hailing from Liverpool and existing from 1985 to 1994 they put out 3 LP's a load of EP's & Singles and did 4 John Peel Sessions yet for some reason they have never had any kind of reissue treatment you can lay your hands on their records and CD's some will cost you more than others but they are all from their original release no fancy new updated package for these guys! No one really seems to be that bothered about this great band so I decided a post was in order to rectify that.

First off as with most of my posts these days before we get to my waffle here is someone else's....

"Alternative heavy rock band from Liverpool, England. Their sound has been described as 'psychedelic grunge'.

Formed in 1986 from members of The Mel-O-Tones, Frank Martin (vocals), Bob Parker (guitar), and John Neesam (drums). With Neesam's departure they were soon joined by former The Marshmallow Overcoat guitarist Baz Sutton and drummer Tony Mogan.

The distinctive style includes Frank Martin's throaty and anguished vocals which are mostly barked or screamed, fuzzy overdriven guitar embarking on wailing psychedelic solos and heavy pounding drums. They may be explained in some ways as a British Butthole Surfers, although they do not sound too similar and the music lacks the absurdist elements of the Buttholes'.
It is rumoured that Seattle bands around the Sub Pop scene such as Nirvana were heavily influenced by Walkingseeds sound, however there is no conclusive proof of this.
In their later years they were joined by Don Fleming"

I have been a fan of this band for decades but it took me a long time to gather stuff by them and what I present here is not quite a discography as the "Earth Is Hell" Live LP is missing and I can't seem to source MP3's of their debut 12" "Know Too Much" well at least not one that doesn't have some kind of corruption and their 2 John Peel Sessions from 1989 & 1990 have eluded me thus far . However I have done my best to source the best quality versions as obviously I wanted these guys music in good quality for myself so here's a guide to your links....

"Skullfuck" their debut album comes with 2 bonus tracks not on the vinyl version. Of their 3 albums this is their by far the most distorted twisted and noisy I suggest standing back from the stereo a bit before hitting play on this one so you don't get bitten!

"Upwind Of Disater Downwind Of Atonement" Their 2nd album is a different beast altogether a little less violent on the distortion and madness and has some great memorable tunes

"Bad Orb..." their 3rd album carries on in the same vein as it predecessor and contains my favourite song "Broken Cup" if it's grungy repetitive riff and chorus doesn't earworm you I would get your hearing looked at! This is the US Shimmy Disc version that has 3 more tracks than the UK CD version.plus I added one more bonus track of their cover of Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine" from the B-side of their "Gates Of Freedom" 7"

all 3 of these are ripped from my own CD's at 320KBPS !

Dwarf Mini LP was a vinyl only release and contains 5 tracks somewhere between the sound of Skullfuck and the later 2 albums the Track "Can't Seem To Figure It Out" is another classic!

EP's This file contains all of their 12"s and EP's aside from "Know Too Much" which I explained before, so what you get is their side of the Split 7" on Clawfist with fellow psych maniac Bevis Frond and sees them covering one of Bevis Frond's tracks.."Marque Chapman" 12" , "Shaved Beatnik" 12" "Mirrorshades" CDEP (Contains the "Mirrorshades" 7" + 3 bonus tracks)  & "Rolling Machine" 7" 

Peel Sessions  And last but not least we come to the jewel in this post. I have managed to source a very good quality copy of both their Sessions from 1987 I was surprised at the quality of these they are not exactly pristine digital but then again they are a fairly noisy band especially back in 1987! But they are definitely better than you'd expect for a 33 year never officially released  recording.

So there you go a very comprehensive look at nearly everything this great band ever done I fear repeating myself here but I don't understand why no one has ever reissued these guys back catalogue it would seem that maybe the band don't really want to see it done or maybe mastertapes don't exist I know one of them went on to join the once huge Liverpool indie giants the La's but other than that I can't think of why this band languish in obscurity! Here's hoping I can now introduce a few more people to them with this post

ENJOY!


SKULLFUCK - Mediafire

UPWIND OF DISASTER, DOWNWIND OF ATONEMENT - Mediafire

BAD ORB WHIRLING BALL - Mediafire

DWARF MINI LP - Mediafire

EP'S - Mediafire

PEEL SESSIONS - Mediafire

PUNK ROCK DELUXE

I am an absolute sucker for a remastered or expanded reissue. I have bought albums I already own a second time (or in rare cases a third) because there is a new remaster, however over the last decade or so there has been a trend towards a new package there is nothing that sends me into a bigger frenzy reaching for the "Buy It Now" button than the words "Deluxe Edition"

It seems a bit of a strange concept that bands from the original era of Punk Rock should get this expanded "Deluxe Edition" treatment, for all of punk's pretensions of rebellion and anti-state views wellll 3 of the 4 albums I present here were originally, and these editions are, on major labels!
Deluxe Editions, when they first appeared seemed to be the domain of old fart bands that nobody with any decent taste would give a shit about! However as the idea expanded to more and more great albums  I for one have adopted it wholeheartedly and now own an absolute shitload of these bloody things. In a lot of cases it's a simple cash in where you get a disc of live recordings as your bonus, but sometimes and  particularly in the case of these 4 albums, it is a good idea, as sometimes they are albums in sore need of remastering plus, with the additional discs you often get all the non album b-sides, Peel sessions etc rounding up a whole era of a band and for me, it's a lot better buying all of this in one fell swoop than tracking down that one compilation with the great b-side on it!

So onto your links, I am not gonna go into a history of each band here because I am assuming you would know these bands but if not I added a link you to a biography for each band you can read up on them if you choose. All files ripped from my own CD's at 320KBPS.

The Damned - "Damned Damned Damned" (Deluxe Edition) 

Band Info - HERE

The Damned were one of the first and earliest exponents of "Punk" being credited with releasing the first "punk" record in the UK This their debut album here, expanded to a mighty 3 discs, for me, has less in common with The Pistols or The Clash and more of a sound of the earlier pre-punk bands like some of the harder end of the "Nuggets" compilations and the garage rock of MC5 and The Stooges as you can see by their cover of The Stooges "Not Right" closing the album. The 2 bonus discs contain all the non album singles and b-sides, a brace of demos , their first 2 John Peel Sessions and some live tracks, the third disc contains a full live set from London's infamous 100 Club from 1976 All remastered for this set.

Siopuxsie & The Banshees - "The Scream" (Deluxe Edition)

Band Info - HERE

Siouxsie & The Banshees were a band I have never had any interest in because firstly I'd always seen them as goth fodder (which in later years I think is fair) and also I always thought of them as wannabees. Formed out of the famous "Bromley Contingent" the first gang of punks around the Pistols in London and seemed to be more like coat tail chasers rather than innovators. That all changed when I finally had a listen to this, their debut album.Whilst not only being a memorable listen it creates a great urgency in it's sound whilst retaining an atmosphere and some more serious post punk sensibility, having more in common with some of the early female fronted American punk bands like X and Avengers to my ears. Here the Album is remastered with a bonus disc containing a load of demo's, both early Peel Sessions and a couple of non album A-sides.

X-Ray Spex - "Germ Free Adolescents" (Deluxe Edition)

Band Info - HERE

Now we start to get to more traditional 70's era punk X-Ray Spex were a great and original band fronted by the inimitable Pol Styrene, but they definitely had that more "evolved out of pub rock" sound that was pretty much the punk template in the mid 70's save for having a saxophone player in the band which I suppose in one way separated them from their peers and was a pretty radical idea for a punk band.! This time the album has been seriously expanded for this edition the first disc contains the album plus both their Peel sessions plus non album singles and b-sides whilst the second disc contains their entire pre-signing demos (14 Tracks) plus a couple of rough mixes and a couple of Backing tracks.

The Slits - "Cut" (Deluxe Edition)

Band Info - HERE

Whilst predating what would later be called "post punk" by a good 2 or 3 years I would say The Slits kinda fall into that category by the time of "Cut" their early demos and recordings which had way more youthful traditional punk ferocity than this album were long behind them, they had developed from "first all girl punk band" into something else entirely, they had matured! The Slits influences had also changed as well as being heavily influenced by Dub and more experimental sounds something that is clearly apparent when you hear some of the sparsity and space used in the sound of this album but also working with famous reggae producer Dennis Bovell on the album added that spacey feel of dub in a lot of the music despite it's obvious intensity! Not that there aren't great uptempo punk songs here take the blistering "Shoplifting" for one example and Ariana's vocals are just unhinged!
Here the album has been remastered and expanded containing the album plus the single B-sides on here (though not unfortunately the "Animal Space"  or "Man Next Door" singles released independently and unavailable anywhere except on an extremely rare Japanese unofficial CD release of their Y records Bootleg retrospective ) The second disc contains no less than 20 Demos, Rough mixes, Alternate versions & Dubs, Altogether this is a definitive look at The Slits music. Also note this collection is completely deleted due to an ongoing dispute over the rights to their material it is unlikely to ever be reissued in this format again.

So here you have it 4 fancy expanded Deluxe Editions of 4 important 70's punk rock albums whilst aside from The Slitsa none of these are particularly rare they are all no longer in print and becoming harder to find, plus as these document an entire era of these bands respective histories I thought I'd post them here for the curious and the hardcore fans.



THE DAMNED - DAMNED DAMNED DAMNED (DELUXE) - Mediafire

SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES - THE SCREAM (DELUXE) - Mediafire

X-RAY SPEX - GERM FREE ADOLESCENTS (DELUXE) - Mediafire

THE SLITS - CUT (DELUXE) - Mediafire