For those who still had hope

This Blog Is Dead. Thank you, and goodbye.

The Parallellograms/The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Split EP

Genre(s) - Indie pop
Origin - UK/USA
Year of release - 2008
Bitrate - 320 kbps
Size - 11.35 MB

I've been having other things on my mind than my blog, excuse me for the lack of updates lately. I'm not sure if that is changing very soon. Watch and pray.

Well I hope everybody knows I love The Pains, only on this here fine EP I have to admit they are being topped by their British splitmates. The Parallellograms play ultra-upbeat, ultra-simple, ultra-childlike but very noisy twee pop, with a rawness of production that would scare the lads of Von or Beherit. Pop the Bubbles is fantastic, gets me ready for summer (if only the weather worked along). As for the Pains, Kurt Cobain's Cardigan sadly is quite a nondescript song and I know they can do better than this. Also of course I prefer their more melodramatic songs.

1. The Parallellograms - 1, 2, 3, go!
2. The Parallellograms - Pop the bubbles
3. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Kurt Cobain's Cardigan
   

Load it down

The Wounded - Atlantic

Genre(s) - Gothic/doom metal/rock
Origin - The Netherlands
Year of release - 2004
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 65.33 MB

A majestic opus of downcast gloom rock is not an export product you might expect from the picturesque province of Drenthe, or maybe again, it's exactly what you can expect - I wouldn't know what to do with myself either except for masturbating, drinking pils and playing depressive music. Living in the inhabited world I don't need to play depressive music because I have internet so I can listen to others doing it for me. All this tells you nothing about the album and is discriminating to non-Randstadters, I'm sorry. Atlantic is as vast and deep and churning restless as the ocean mirroring steel-grey skies. Singer Marco van der Velde has an astounding emotional voice and gives a great performance on songs like 18. Carat Dust or the lethargic, extra-extra-tortured Nirvana cover. The long closer and title track is a great hypnotic trip though lands of guilt and dejection. It's been six long years without an album now, I hope The Wounded will soon be patched up enough to write some more material. Who else hurts you so well?

1. Hollow world
2. 18. carat dust
3. Running on empty
4. Day of joy
5. Northern lights
6. "Prelude"
7. Smells like teen spirit (Nirvana cover)
8. We are darker
9. Atlantic
   

Load it down

Kreator - Endless Pain

Genre(s) - Thrash metal
Origin - Germany
Year of release - Early 1985
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 49.47 MB

This is a repost; the inverse had happened as with the previous post: still a post, but no file.

I bought Endless Pain on a whim when I was 14 and at that time it was the most extreme cd that I had, but it was instant love. Thrash metal is not my type of music - too angular - and to this date, Kreator are perhaps the only band that I can really say I like. Endless Pain, their debut, is a darker, cruder, slower affair than the three or four 'classic' albums that followed, in fact there's a lot of early Bathory in here. Texts are mostly about satan and killing people, rather a pity but you must remember it was the spirit of the times and these guys were no more than teens when they wrote this. Most of the songs have excellent riffage and the dank dungeon smell of eighties' old school thrash and proto-black metal makes this one of Kreator's most interesting releases. Tormentor and Flag of Hate, two of the best songs, are still played live today and notice the cool, almost epic bridges in Dying Victims and Son of Evil.

1. Endless pain
2. Total death
3. Storm of the beast
4. Tormentor
5. Son of evil
6. Flag of hate
7. Cry war
8. Bonebreaker
9. Living in fear
10. Dying victims
    

Load it down

Skagos - Ást

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - British Columbia, Canada
Year of release - 2009
Bitrate - 160 kbps
Size - 59.60 MB

Though I am well aware that Skagos' opus Ást is featured on most every black metal blog around and I hate the feeling of being behind, here it is now also on mine. After all, Google tells me it's Earth Day (we have an Earth Day? Kinda gets overshadowed by Four-Twenty Day this way, don't it?), and what music better symbolises the insignificance of humankind compared to the very soil that we and everything derives from, than some nice and foresty atmospheric black metal? Skagos tell us of the triumph of Nature; the impending downfall of modern civilisation and a return to modes of life more harmonious with the world around us. After all, the carcass of monotheist capitalism will yield blossoms indeed: the conditions for new relations among ourselves and between us and the planet we inhabit. And until that time you can enjoy the enveloping, melancholic and strangely warm tones of Ást, one of the most astounding albums released in the genre last year. Fucking Calignosity.

The inanity of the last song's title aggravates me considerably.

1. Colossal spell
2. The drums pound every night in a glorious celebration of life
3. Blossoms will sprout from the carcass
4. ...with a warm recollection
5. Calignosity
6. A night that ends, as all nights end, when the sun rises
   

Load it down

Joe Cocker - Unchain my Heart

Genre(s) - Pop/rock
Origin - Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
Year of release - 1987
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 57.24 MB

Ah, the memories... together with Babooshka by Kate Bush, when I was a real young'un Joe Cocker's Unchain my Heart was my favourite song of all time. It's not purely nostalgia leading me to post this now, because Joe simply has an awesome bluesy voice and the track stands as strong as ever, not to mention my other favourite, I Stand in Wonder. Those who know Cocker from singing With a Little Help from My Friends at Woodstock should expect a major eighties-ification in sound on this album with its synthesisers and saxophones, though the women's background choir (which at Woodstock, of course, consisted of dudes) is still firmly in place.

1. Unchain my heart
2. Two words
3. I stand in wonder
4. Rivers rising
5. Isolation
6. All our tomorrows
7. A woman loves a man
8. Trust in me
9. The one
10. Satisfied
    

Load it down

Fokofpolisiekar - Swanesang

Genre(s) - Rock
Origin - Suid-Afrika, poes
Year of release - 2006
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 44.62 MB

With South-African rave-rap group Die Antwoord a major hype in the Netherlands, and through their collaboration with Fokofpolisiekar in one of their songs, I found this awesome and controversial band back again after many a year of very specific amnesia. Its most remarkable feature seem to be the Afrikaans lyrics at first, which mean more to me than they probably do to you, but it hides a lot that only comes out after repeated listens. Though generally considered a punk rock band, this is full-bodied, driving modern rock geared remarkably towards atmosphere, and as such it reminds me just a little of latter-day Katatonia or Klimt 1918. The use of Afrikaans remains an interesting novelty however, especially from the melancholic raw throat of Francois "Van Coke" who translates a punklike disrespect for the whole of society. Let this grow on you, I think you won't be disappointed.

1. Morning star, Durbanville
2. Heiden heiland
3. Swanesang
4. Bel vir middelvinger
5. Vastbeslote korporasie (deel 1)
6. Prioritiseer
7. Vir altijd 7 november
8. Ek skyn (heilig)
9. Brand Suid-Afrika
10. Backstage (als daar een is)
11. Déjà vu
12. Vastbeslote korporasie (deel 2)
    

Load it down

My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans

Genre(s) - Doom metal
Origin - Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Year of release - 1993
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 52.17 MB

Turn Loose the Swans is a doom metal mammoth of frightening dimensions and an immense influence on the then-youthful death-doom subgenre in metal. Its makers, the institution that is My Dying Bride, are rightfully revered as pioneers and contemporary masters in bringing an edge of tragic elegance and emotional indulgence into the usually so stone-faced world of metal. This beast here is slow, really quite slow, as it should be. It does not stalk; it shakes the earth in its weight, yet still in graceful stride. This is not impossible if you have a violinist like Martin Powell, or a singer like Aaron Stainthorpe. Aaron who, in addition to his dejected, gracefallen clean voice, can lay down the deathgrunts damn well. This is an album to be experienced, song by solemn song.

More by this band: here and here.

1. Sear me MCMXCIII
2. Your river
3. The songless bird
4. The snow in my hand
5. The crown of sympathy
6. Turn loose the swans
7. Black god
   

Load it down

Fleetwood Mac - The Dance

Genre(s) - Classic rock
Origin - United Kingdom
Year of release - 1997
Bitrate - 160 kbps
Size - 89.38 MB

As I understand it, there are many people who really can't stand Fleetwood Mac, and I personally can't say they're my favourite band either. But this is an alright disc to have lying around, mostly for Go Your Own Way and The Chain, which were childhood favourites of mine. So you ask, couldn't you just take Rumours? Well I would, sir, madam, but there is one song here that you should really have heard at least once in your life. I don't think you'll be able to keep it at just once, unless you have a thing against melody and energy and brilliance in your music. Big Love. It's fantastic, check it out. And okay, there are plenty of other tracks that are really quite a treat to the ears.

1. The chain
2. Dreams
3. Everywhere
4. Rhiannon
5. I'm so afraid
6. Temporary one
7. Bleed to love her
8. Big love
9. Landslide
10. Say you love me
11. My little demon
12. Silver springs
13. You make loving fun
14. Sweet girl
15. Go your own way
16. Tusk
17. Don't stop
    

Load it down

Spite Extreme Wing - Kosmokrator (Magnificat II)

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Italy
Year of release - 2005
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 53.72 MB

In the excitement of spring we would almost forget the poor black metal fans. Always in for some rigorous hacking and gouging, with Kosmokrator, Spite Extreme Wing deliver a declaration of utmost hostility towards all human life.This Italian band is part of the Black Metal Invitta Armata collective, alongside such excellent compatriots as Janvs, Frangar and Tronus Abyss. The album consists of older songs that had not been released before, but you will hardly notice this. It is a leaden slab of fast and dense black metal, sometimes ever so slightly thrashy, with excellent riffs and versatility where needed with elegant acoustic (Vvltvs) and neoclassical segments (the long Il Volo). They do not forego good taste in the midst of ravaging will to destroy. And I really like to hear that. By the way, that is some real fetching cover artwork.

1. L'inizio
2. Il tempio ad est
3. Kosmokrator
4. Deo soli invicto
5. Vvltvs
6. Monvmentvm
7. Clermont
8. Il volo del bicorne (remake of Viaggio di Ritorno by Morgan Bellini)
   

Load it down

Tedje en de Flikkers - Tedje en de Flikkers

Genre(s) - Gaylectropunk
Origin - Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Year of release - 1979
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 30.46 MB

We've got a real oddity here. I am proud to present to you Tedje en de Flikkers, translateable as "Teddy and the Faggots", a proud flikkerpunk band from the east of the country. They were associated with the Rooie Flikkers or Red Faggot movement, a very explicitly gay left-wing squatters' collective, and the lyrics are rather political but mostly very, very naughty. Musically, this is rickety, formless sounding 70s punk with mismatched keyboard melodies and excruciatingly vieze vocals. It is also ridiculously dated, and it should be seen as an interesting relic of cultural heritage more than a musical project of any sort. It will most likely not please your ears to be subjected to this, unless you are Dutch and hunting for fat cocks in the night. Well anyway, enjoy it or not, I'll be going for a wank in the park.

1. Op de baan
2. Pierangelo
3. Sjit
4. Nijmegen
5. Noodkreet
6. Lijflijk
7. Stukje lul
8. Liefde
9. Nieuwjaar '77
10. Paranoia
11. Fantasie des volkes
12. Kinderen de straat op
13. Van Agt
14. Zwart leer
    

Load it down

V.A. - Twee as Fuck (the Joy of Kittenhood)

Genre(s) - Twee, o'course
Origin - Mostly UK and USA
Year of release - Never officially; compiled in 2005
Bitrate - 192 kbps

Twee as Fuck is a rather infamous compilation of a great many twee songs by a great many twee bands, that circulates the internet but was never officially released. Apparently it is based off a list of "essential listening" indie pop songs in a 2005 article with the same title in Pitchfork magazine. Some gentle soul has made an mp3 comp out of it and that's what I can share with you now. Many of the bands I got to like when I first discovered the genre came from this compilation and I urge anyone with a fondness of the sweet, the simple and the shamelessly underproduced to check this out. Revolt into childhood? Yes please!

Cut in half due to size. Get both!

1. Television Personalities - This angry silence
2. Talulah Gosh - Beatnik boy
3. Tiger Trap - My broken heart
4. Rocketship - I love you like the way that I used to do
5. Magnetic Fields - 100,000 fireflies
6. Honeybunch - Mind your own business
7. Cub - Tell me now
8. Beat Happening - Our secret
9. The Softies - Hello rain
10. Glo-worm - Tilt-a-whirl
11. Heavenly - Three star compartiment
12. Tullycraft - Pop songs your new boyfriend's too stupid to know about
13. The Pastels - Mandarin
14. [oops, missing file!]
    
15. Blueboy - Boys don't matter
16. Wolfie - Hey, it's finally yay
17. Tiger Trap - Puzzle pieces
18. The Hit Parade - Hitomi
19. Rocketship - Your New Boyfriend
20. Barcelona - I've got the password to your Shell account
21. Black Tambourine - Throw Aggi off the bridge
22. Beat Happening - Bewitched
23. The Pastels - Yoga
24. Honeybunch - My contribution to the greenhouse effect
25. Small Factory - If you hurt me
26. Velocity Girl - Pop loser
27. Heavenly - Hearts and crosses
28. The Pastels - Different drum
29. The Vaselines - Molly's lips
30. Beat Happening - Indian summer
31. Talulah Gosh - My boy says
32. The Sea Urchins - Pristine Christine
33. Heavenly - C is the heavenly option
34. Boyracer - In love
    

Part 1 - Load it down (70.13 MB)
Part 2 - Load it down (72.09 MB)