Soundtrack to my Year

These are the albums that made me

jump up and down the most this year.

Loads are new but there are a lot from

last year or years ago that I have only

discovered or got around to listening

to in 2010.

My outstanding top releases were:

Stooges - Live at Hammersmith

Kongh - Shadows of the Shapeless

October File - Holy Armour from the Jaws of God

Git Some - Loose Control

Coliseum - House with a Curse

Envy - Recitation

NoMeansNo - Wrong

Followed very closely by:

Ganon - As Above, So Below

General Lee - Hannibal Ad Portas

Wo Fat - Psychedelonaut

Boris - Heavy Rocks

Rosetta - Wake/Lift

Taint - All Bees to the Sea

Rinoa - An Age Among Them

St Vitus - Heavier Than Thou

Acid Tiger - S/T

Tia Carrera - The Quintessential

Bad Wizard - Free & Easy

Ceremony - Rohart Park

Black Bombaim - Saturdays & Space Travel

Alaskan - The Weak & the Wounded

Human Fly - Darker Later

Chickenhawk - S/T

Litany for the Whale - Dolores

Grinderman - 2

Killing Joke - Absolute Disscent

Touche Amore - To the Beat of a Dead Horse

Gil Scott Heron - Pieces of a Man

Electric Wizard - Black Masses

Gholas - 3araka

SirCusCus - Brutal Ethnology

Black Jazz - Shining

Part Chimp - Thriller

Melvins - Houdini

Phantom Glue - S/T

Well, I gave myself a year of blogging to see

what I could do - in the spring I decided that

when 2011 came up I would stop - it became a

chore to post every week day, no comments, no

feed back, take downs and doing it by myself

just seemed a bit - what's the point?

But ............

Visits increased, 'some' comments were being left and

more importantly I was talking to other blogs

and discovering shit loads of brilliant music that

could of passed me by. In particular, Veins Dried Out

introduced me to the murky and sometimes brain

exploding world of doom & black metal / very heavy

sounds and extreme noise rock.

In the last 3 months I have just been posting

whenever I feel like it or when a particular record

has hit the spot and that is the way I intend to

continue next year........ for a while at least!

See ya.

Acid Eater - Black Fuzz on Wheels (2010)

What do they put in the water in Japan?

Acid Eater are from the same school of thought

as Guitar Wolf but have decided that more distortion

was needed! Fuzz on the vocals, drums, cymbals -

even the space between tracks seems distorted.

But the psych type keyboard riffs are clean!

Garage rock played at full volume - little surf

guitar breaks slotting in nicely - a healthy

disregard for vocal niceties - breakneck

punk tunes - delicate ears be warned!

Overload your speakers here!

Xmas Posting

My faithful download monkeys -

my posts will be sparse over the

next couple of weeks.

Now the kids are on holiday,

I can no longer make my money

selling drugs to school children

in the local parks.

I will be building up stocks by

stealing morphine drips from

all the terminally ill patients

in the Greater London area

but this all takes time and effort.

I will try to do a couple to satisfy

the BIL craving but cannot promise

too much.

I suppose you will be dreaming of your

ideal christmas present ..... the chance to

talk to a real girl/woman rather than your

cyber porn avatar.

Well, good news. I was in the final planing

stage of my ideal sniper spot - when I go, I'm

gonna take a lot of people with me - when a

parcel arrived ........ my prototype "Groin

Glove" for the X Box.

No more tossing off to Lara Croft and a box

of kleenex by your side. No, siree....

Slip over your "weapon of destruction" - you

can of course use your own nickname - when

secure and snug, activate the pressure nodes,

plug the USB end into your games console, set

the dial to full "Splurge" and away you go.

Within minutes, I was wiping steaming droplets

of Man Gravy from my monitor.

Just wish I had used the Tomb Raider game - I

felt a slight flush of shame as the burly plumber

from Mario leered at me.

See ya on the other side.

Eraserhead - Soundtrack

Ho, Ho, Ho from the Anti Santa!

Listen in Fear!

Swans - Greed/Holy Money (1986)

As a small respite from all the

enforced yuletide cheer, here

are 2 Swans albums from each

end of 1986 on one CD.

You know what to expect

otherwise you are reading

the wrong music blog!

Listen

Fripp & Eno - No Pussyfooting (1973)

Very early ambient/drone album - not

drone as it is today, there is no SunnO)))

heaviness but nevertheless there is a

quiet menace amongst the atmospherics.

Eno operates two tape decks that are

looping endlessly over each other while

Fripp improvises guitar solos - some

which are looped and some that drift

in and out.

The drones are ever shifting, with textured

layers of sound.

I have heard this called background music but

this deserves to be listened to as a record in

all its glory.

Listen

There is a interesting article about the recording

of this Here

The Fertility Cult - Eschatology (2010)

A fantastic band from Finland, The Fertility

Cult play a doom/stoner groove - think

faster Electric Wizard tracks ; "We Live"

era with a bit of early Kyuss.

But ......

...... with a saxaphone player. This really

changes the dynamics of the music. If you

like the anarchic playing of Steve MacKay

on the seminal Stooges "Funhouse" then

give this a Listen.

I found this on the wonderful and varied blog

Udols thanks man.

Fertility Cult MySpace

The Jesus Lizard - Goat (1991)

Goat is the second album by the schizo-blues noise band.

Masterful rusty chainsaw guitar riffs scrape throughout

the songs backed by a rhythm section high on strange

punk/funk mutant psychotic moonshine, which all sets

the stage for David Yow and his deranged vocals which

(to my mind at least) remind me of Bad Uncle Nick in

the Birthday Party.

Produced by Steve Albini so you know what to expect -

I know I said I had no more Albini stuff left but so many

of my most played albums feature him in some way, so

expect him to come up again.

Listen

Band Info

Beefheart & Zappa - Bongo Fury (1975)

Both gone - both missed, I don't see many

people coming up to replace them either.

The Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic (1995)

London is dark, wet, cold and todays

post had concert tickets, which mean

I will be taking my 9 year old daughter

and her mate to her first gig - Wembley

Arena - where I have seen Bowie, Metallica,

The Cult, Alice Cooper and others but next

week I will have to sit through a pile of

steaming shite served up by a bunch of

auto-tuned, dancing twats who call themselves

a "band" and who come from that nail in the

coffin for music show - the Shit Factor!!!!

Anyway, here is some sunny underground pop

psychedelia.

Listen

Band Info

Count Five - Psychotic Reaction (1966)

This album from the Count Five had their

most famous track - Psychotic Reaction ...

a raw fuzzed out slab of garage rock. Some

of the other tracks are not quite up to this

standard but think Stones doing early r'n'b

covers and add on some thick fuzz guitar

tones which in '66 must of been fantastic

to hear for the first time.

Listen

Band Info

Alien Sex Fiend - Who's Been Sleeping in My Brain? (1983)

Shut up! Stop moaning - this is not "goth" ......Nik Fiend

likes to white out his face but this is not music for pale

faced students dreaming of sucking off Neil Gainman.

ASF play a dark version of punk art-rock. For this and the

next 3-4 albums - before they became very electro based-

crappy old synths churned out primitive tribal drum

patterns, guitars riffed away drowned in fuzz and reverb

with an almost psychobilly feel and then there was the

vocals - shouting, talking, chanting, crooning away with

insane lyrics that seemd to be made up on the spot.

"Acid Bath" and "It" were very good as well.

Listen

Band Info

Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975)

This is the last album with Lemmy on. Following

on from "Hall of the Mountain Grille", this has

a more clean cut rock sound than earlier stuff.

Hey, it still has the space psych vibe but with

a much heavier and driving feel which seemed

to fade away in the next couple of releases -

which I have always put down to the lack of

Mr L.

Fantastic songs with a lot of lyrics from Michael

Moorcock - mostly from his Eternal Champion books -

but most of all a great listen all the way through.

As this is from my CD, it also has the bonus tracks:

Kings of Speed and a very slow version of "Motorhead"

........ oh yeah, this would surface in a years time sounding

very different indeed!

Listen

Head of David - Dustbowl (1988)

A heavy sounding band with Justin Broadrick

in before he went on to form Godflesh and

Jesu, Head of David were signed to Blast First

and are described as Industrial Rock/Stoner.

I can also spot bits of Killing Joke/Sabbath/

Sonic Youth.

Using a drum machine as a noise weapon, murderous

bass and uber heavy guitar, riff after riff pound

away in a thrilling mixture of power and scuzz.

This was produced by Steve Albini and (unlikely

as it seems!) gave them quite a 'rock' sound

complete with guitar solos and tunes!!

Listen

Big Black - Songs About Fucking (1989)

Steve Albini led band using a drum machine and an

abrasive guitar sound that did not care who it hurt!

This went beyond post-punk and took in hardcore

and noise rock ...... the first time I heard them

described as this, it made perfect sense.

Big Black's pounding drum machine rhythms,

repeated guitar riffs and abrasive textures must

of played no small part in the blueprint for

industrial rock.

This is a savage album but with a controlled fury.

Turn Up and scare the neighbours!

Band Info

Public Image - Album (1986)

Lydon, Ginger Baker and Steve Vai. Even in black and

white in front of you, it seems an impossible band to

ever come together.

Well, it happened and guess what - it was great.

Huge sounding drums, a fluid shifting bass line + Vai

guitar work - not too widdly in the solo department

and harsh sounding chords which blended with the

vocals ....... Lydon employed all his vocals trademarks -

the "warble", shouting, sneering and even a bit of singing!

This is a very solid record with no filler tracks - classic

song writing is in evidence here.

Some PIL fans thought it "too rock" but I liked it.

I have stuck with Mr Lydon through some absolute

crap as well as some tracks of genius and I just wish

that he would get together with a heavy guitar sound

for a whole album.

Anger is an Energy!

Buy

Devo - Live at Walkers (1978)

The Spud Boys from Akron, play a blinder on this live

album. I have always thought that the studio recordings

sounded a bit tinny and lifeless compared to seeing them

in the flesh.

This captures the manic intensity and crazed performance.

Are we not men?

No - we are Devo

D-E-V-O!

Listen