The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace (1985)

I've been told that you don't listen to The Fall as much as you immerse yourself in them; there's a quality to Mark E. Smith's slightly caustic, acerbic delivery that fits perfectly into their jagged and abrasive rhythms and demands a lot from you as the listener. 

That they might agitate your senses into oblivion is of little to no consequence here- this album serves more to hold you hostage in a scuzzy London basement, alternating between showing you snippets of snuff films and electrocuting your temples.

Like all challenging music it makes you work hard for it, and you'll likely discover before the album is halfway done that to listen to The Fall is more of a visceral experience than a passive one. That all being said this is the most accessible of The Fall's 80's output.

This is a great starting point for one of the most underrated bands of all-time. I've previously blogged their 1982 album Hex Enduction Hour, which I actually like more than this one- this is probably a better starting point and I say give it a go if you've ever wondered what this band was all about. 

The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace (Beggars Banquet; 1985)

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Dandelion Gum (2007)

Have you ever wondered what it would sound like if you gave a robot a lot of LSD?

Hopefully I'm not the only person thinking this. But just in case you were thinking this, here's the perfect album for a lysergically-induced cyborg freakout session.

This record is right up there with Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion, Panda Bear's Person Pitch and Dungen's Ta Det Lugnt for post-millennium psychedelia.

Enjoy!

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Dandelion Gum (Graveface Record; 2007)

David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971)

Jerry, Phil, Mickey and Bill from The Dead.

Michael Shrieve and Gregg Rolie from Santana.

Jorma, Jack and Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane.

Graham Nash.

Neil Young.

Joni Mitchell.

And David Crosby.

All-star line-up gets together for this criminally underrated 1971 classic.

David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971; Atlantic Records)

Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety (2013)

You can make really great pop music and exist completely outside of the mainstream; Arthur Ashin aka Autre Ne Veut- French for "others don't want" (how fitting) has crafted a really fine art pop record here, completely free of any of mainstream R&B's trappings. 

An homage to Prince as much as one can be without falling victim to imitation, it doesn't overindulge in nostalgia. Yet there's a really heavy sadness underneath everything here. It's messy, it's strange, it's yearning, it's pacing back and forth, it's a lot. 

It's anxiety.

Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety (2013; Software Recording Co)

John Lee Hooker - It Serve You Right to Suffer (1966)

John Lee Hooker's raw, stripped down electric blues have more power than a locomotive barreling down the track at 90 mph- somebody done him wrong here and he's got eight tracks to let you know. 

Featuring the a barest of bones for a backing band- stalwart session men Barry Galbraith on rhythm guitar, Milt Hinton on the bass and Panama Francis on drums as well as Dicky Wells on the trombone for a track (Money) and the inimitable Billy Preston on the keys for a few songs. 

The name of this record was eventually changed from the colloquial to the proper use of the word "serves" but I'm leaving the spelling as it appears on the original release.

Check this one out!

John Lee Hooker - It Serve You Right to Suffer (1996; Impulse Records)

Mogwai - Young Team (1997)

Mogwai's Young Team is a landmark album in the post-rock genre; weaving intricate melodies into a giant wall of sound then going up against gentle atmospheres while building tension then giving way to a cathartic, almost violent release.

Mogwai - Young Team (1997; Chemikal Underground Records)

O.C. - Word...Life (1994)

Born Omar Credle in Brooklyn- never for one second has the man stopped reppin' his hood- running with another Out Sounds' favorite Diamond D's Diggin' in the Crates crew, O.C. strikes a balance between his depression and desire to move into the light, presenting us with a dark and introspective record that isn't cringeworthy like a lot of today's rappers. O.C. was very critical of gangsta rap, preferring to talk instead about relationships, his faith and racism. This album is a perfect snippet of the mid-90s inner city zeitgeist. 

Featuring production from an all-star cast like Lord Finesse, Buckwild and Organized Konfusion, the beats and samples are very sophisticated, dare I say abstract, while lending a jazzier quality to the sound that by 1994 a lot of producers in hip-hop were starting to move away from.

O.C. - Word...Life (1994; Wild Pitch Records)

I'm baaaack!

Decided to resurrect this thing- where to start? 

Okay, first- I sold my entire record collection. 

Got a pretty penny for it but that's not the point; all of this great music, everything I uploaded onto this blog I owned at one time in one form or another, mostly vinyl. 

So I started this blog in March of 2010 because I wanted to show that insane collection off, or better yet- let you all hear it. 

A collection built from countless hours spent in record stores from Philly to NYC to Oakland, Berkeley and SF down to LA and up to Seattle and all points in between. So many Saturday morning garage sales. 

Lists and lists on scraps of paper and in my brain. Re-issues, remasters, first pressings, Japanese pressings, avant-garde, noise pop, psychedelia, abstract hip-hop... it didn't matter. 

So I "shared" all of my music on here until I got shut down by the constant Digital Millennium Copyright Act notices (or DMCA for short). 464,000 page views- apparently that attracts a lot of attention from the powers that be. 

The writing was on the wall- Spotify was finally coming to America, labels were cracking down on file sharing, it was over for all of us fileshare bloggers. 

I wrote my last post on November 12th, 2011.

Until today. 

Here's the story: I checked my spam folder for the first time in years and I got an e-mail last week about a post on here, a guy from Denmark was begging me to re-upload an album. I thought "we all need music right now... does he not know of Spotify? YouTube?" 

I didn't respond but linked back to the post in question and it was weird reading some shit I wrote about an album almost 10 years ago. 

I decided to dust this off and give it another shot.

I've replaced every single Rapidshare link with a link to either Spotify or YouTube. 

A handful of the records on here are not available on either of those sites so they are now completely gone- but you should try to find these elsewhere, like in record stores or Discogs. 

Here they are:

Mekons - The Quality of Mercy is Not Strnen (1979, Virgin Records)

Jandek - Chair Beside a Window (1982, Corwood Industries)

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - Magnetic Flip (1984, Ace of Hearts)

Arvo Part - Tabula rasa (1984, ECM New Series)

John Zorn - Bar Kokhba (1996, Tzadik Label)

Various Artists - Chains and Black Exhaust (2002, Memphix Records)

90 Day Men - Panda Park (2004, Southern Records)

Anyway, I'm going to try to post a few albums a week and get back into what I used to love, which is getting people outside of their comfort zone and into listening to new music.

If you're not into having your mind blown by challenging, obscure, esoteric and otherwise "missed" albums, this is not going to be the site for you.

There are 236 posts (about 245-ish albums, some posts have multiple albums on them) so have a look around, listen to something, leave a comment.

Thanks for stopping by.