End of the year!

Hello and welcome to the end of the year! This will be the last post of 2012 on this blog and it will include several things that might and might not be of your interest. I made little sections for easier management through my bullshit.

General overview of 2012:

This year was not very kind both to me and to this blog. Luckily the blog managed to stay afloat after the mediafire cleansing, copyright claims and so on. But because of all these problems this year Flying Teapot had the least posts in its whole lifetime. Sadly these problems are only half of the story. I'm having some troubles outside of this place as well. But there's no use to complain about it, we all have troubles. A lot of blogs got closed down and a lot of people left. This year certainly was the ending of the golden age of music blogs. This saddens me greatly and I hope things will get better or that we move on to something better.

What will the future (2013) bring?

2013 will be (I think, I predict) perhaps the most decisive year for this blog. Hopefully if all goes well I will be done with college (first three years, bachelor degree or something like that) in mid spring or sometime around then. After that I might move to Zagreb for two years to finish my studies. If that happens Flying Teapot might close down for good because I won't have the time or the internet connection to post even on a monthly basis. The second option is that I will stay where I am now and finish my studies. That means I'll be able to post but on a slower basis. The third option is that I get a job and post as much as work allows me to and I will then finally have the money to open up my own label.

New blogs and what about Terror Noise Audio?

In late august I opened up a tumblr blog. Its purpose is to have photos of musicians and nothing else. I just use it to collect nice photographs that I find on last.fm or google. You may follow it if you're interested in such things.

Flac and Roll Gas Station - I wanted to use this as a side blog where I would post flac rips of my own CD collection. It would just be links on it, no reviews or anything like that. Now that mediafire has imposed its limitations to split files I'm not sure if I ever will start this blog up.

Terror Noise Audio - I'm not sure what to do with it. It seems dead and every other author on it stopped posting. I might revive it depending on how much free time I end up having. Apparently it still has +500 followers so people might be still interested in it. TNA was a lot of fun but over time it became a lot of work and very little fun. I have mixed feelings about getting back to it.

Gratitude and thanking!

That's it for this year folks! I hope everyone had a much better year than I did and I wish everyone everything good in the year to come.

Thank you for all the lovely comments of support, critique and general happiness that you left in this place and a big thanks to everyone who helped with fixing what was missing during the reuploading of the blog!

See you very soon and here's to a much brighter 2013!

Herbie Hancock - Sextant

This is something that's widely known (at least when it comes to jazz) so I decided to offer this release in flac for those who are either into archiving or are fans of lossless formats.

When it comes to modern jazz (bebop and further on) you could say that Herbie Hancock was one of those guys who had seen it all and tried it all. He played with a lot of greats, he made some marvelous albums of his own and he made some nice commercial hits. He started, like most of his generation, with bebop and hard bop releasing a dozen of interesting albums. Later on after he met Miles Davis and dabbled into electric things thus he moved on to fusion. During his fusion years he released a lot of hit albums like Headhunters and what not.

Sextant is important and interesting because it fits somewhere in the middle. It fits in what we call the Mwandishi period. This period came after he discovered fusion but it was still not all that friendly yet. This was because he was just getting into more complex and more demanding jazz (The Prisoner, Maiden Voyage). So naturally when he moved to a more fusion sounding music it was chaotic, experimental and complex

Freshly singed to a new label after being on Warner Brothers for a few years Herbie went completely batshit insane and made this album. It's very far ahead of its time so it wasn't liked very much at the time. I guess the nearest comparison to this album would be the interstellar works of Sun Ra (maybe that's why I like this so much) but there is so much more to this album. It's strange, it's cosmic and it demands a lot of attention.

If you are willing to give it the attention it deserves you will get in return a beautifully composed chaos of electronic sounds mixed with acoustic instruments. It will take you somewhere far away to a distant planet.

Part one, two and three.

Saywhy? - splits with Bastardass and D.H.I.B.A.C.

Ah grindcore, you gotta love it. I love it and I love it when it's especially lightning fast. Fast, short and punching. People at Czech Republic seem to know where it's at because there are a lot of bands from there that just love fast grindcore (fastcore if you prefer the microgenre terminology) and Saywhy? is a perfect example of this type of music.

I included two splits because they are really short and I often fin myself repeating them a couple of times. They don't get old fast and that's perhaps the most important thing with music like this. In contrast to Saywhy? we have D.H.I.B.A.C. from France and Bastardass from California. Both are good in their own respective sounds but I mainly listen to these splits for the Saywhy? sides.

Get it if you're into some good grind.

Link.

Onibaba

Director: Kaneto Shindo
Country: Japan
Date: 1964
Runtime: 1h 42min
Format: .avi with .srt subtitles

Here's a movie that's a bit hard to define and it's not exactly Christmas material but whatever. Some say it's a period drama, some say it's a horror movie and some say it's an erotic horror. I'd say it's a period drama first and a subtle horror flick second.

The movie is set during the Nanboku-cho period (which is like mid medieval times in ol' Europa) but this is no movie of samurai bravery or acts of just vengeance. The movie is about two women who live by sneakily killing soldiers and looting their equipment (as you would in any normal RPG). Their lives are very basic and they are very poor so it's something that the movie displays really well through character interactions and sets. This is where the "horror" part comes because there is no supernatural force here, the people are the horror and their deeds are atrocious no matter what they do. In contrast to human ugliness the scenes of nature (the whole movie is in a dense tall grass field) are beautiful to behold. Beautiful and sort of menacing or even indifferent to humans that run around it.

This might be a bit too slow for everyone to watch. It is kinda samey but I like the feeling and the atmosphere that the movie delivers. There's something in here that I really like but I can't really put my finger on it. I guess I just like this sort of thing for its macabre theme and feel.

You can read a more comprehensible review here.

Or you can download it and see for yourself: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Paul Chambers - Bass On Top

I always considered bassists in jazz to be the unsung heroes of the genre. Sure you have Mingus and Jaco Pastorius but that's the only people somebody would actually know about in more detail. The others were just kinda there despite contributing a lot to the music itself.

Paul Chamber definitely sits among the top of the unsung heroes. He, like many others in his craft, did a lot of albums. He was a long time companion of Coltrane, Miles, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley and a lot of other people. In contrast to that he did very few of his own albums.

Bass on Top is, in my opinion, his best output. This is where Chambers shines the most and has the most freedom to explore his own ideas of playing. There is only rhythm section on this album (so to speak) featuring most notably Kenny Burrell on guitar with who Chambers does a lot of interplay. That is perhaps the most interesting aspect of this album. The guitar and bass follow each other all the time, catching each others riffs and solos. Running along in between the steady drum patterns and piano chords that echo somewhere in the back. Each artist gets their moment to shine but like I said, it was Chambers time to shine and he did shine brightly.

Oh and please take note that the album is in flac:

Part: one, two and three.

Wishbone Ash - Argus

Different albums evoke different feelings. Some are sad, some are merry and some are deep and thoughtful. This one for me always brings back the feeling of summer and fantasy novels.

Wishbone Ash, as far as I can tell, never really did anything revolutionary in their respective genre. I mean, they're good musicians and all but their music was kinda on the safe side (from what I heard at least). Because of that very fact Wishbone Ash is always nice to have around. It has plenty of nice songs and instrumentals that are always enjoyable to hear and never much cheesy. Since the songs themselves lean on a more poppier sound (which isn't really that bad at all) you'll hear a lot of melodic solos and chorus singing. You know, the usual cliches of prog rock from those days. I always like this album to have in the back while I'm reading some lengthy fantasy novel. For some reason these two things always fit together nicely.

It's trapped in time, somewhere in the endless summers of the 70s. Back when the world was a much slower place. When you could just sit on your porch and listen to some fine tunes.

Have fun!

Vio-lence - Eternal Nightmare

Honestly I have no idea why I didn't post this before. It's one of the most biggest classics of thrash metal and metal in general. The stars were perfectly aligned when this record was made.

From the production to the riffs everything fits together so nicely and well that I can't imagine how could this record be made any better. Praise aside this album generally is well known among the thrash crowd but maybe not so among other fans of music. Vio-lence were around for a while but they never really made it big during their time despite making really solid albums throughout their career. Maybe because the sound kinda leaned more to the punk side of things?

If I really had to choose an album as my favorite amongst their discography this would be it. It's fun, fast-paced and excellently composed with some really great hooks and "crowd choruses". The only thing that takes some time to get used to are the vocals. A lot of people tend to have problems with the vocals on this album mainly because they sound a bit out of place. I can't really explain how the dude sounds but I guess he sounds like an exaggerated version of a standard clean thrash vocalist. It's kinda weird but I like it and have no problem with it. So you might not have any problems with it as well.

Check this out if you haven't and you're into metal.

Enjoy.

Fav. track.

Boris - A Bao A Qu

Boris are have been kicking around for a very long time now and they're also one of my favorite bands. Because they are so well known I didn't bother to post their stuff (I did post their discog early on but all those links are dead and gone) but I think this is worth sharing because of two reasons: the first reason is my favorite song by them and the second reason is that this is a bit more obscure release so maybe not all of you Boris enthusiasts have it.

A Bao A Qu has several versions, reworks and live versions. I managed to find seven of them and this is the longest one clocking at just a bit over 10 minutes. The song itself is set into two parts. The first part is a very laid back drone-y intro that reminds me a lot of Gymnopédies, 1. Lent et douloureux by Erik Satie (without the feedback of course). I don't know if this a tribute or a rip off but the notes seem very similar. Nevertheless this is probably the better half of the song. After about 4 or so minutes of drone Boris shift into high gear and lay out some really fine doom/sludge thing they usually do (or did). Big open guitar riffs, echoes vocals and all the good stuff they do best and this part transitions quite well from the quiet one.

What they achieve the most with this certain song is laying out a feeling of some happy solitude. One of those feelings that you get when you stare out of some tall building on a quiet sunday evening. Watching last rays of Sun disappear.

Download.

Music video.

Jooklo Duo - The Warrior

I was planning to write a few posts today but I got trashed so hard with whiskey yesterday that I can't even write or think. I'll write this short one because I'm so edgy.

This little seven inch record was released back in 2010 and it was made by an Italian duo consisting of a saxophone player and a drummer. Let the shortness of this record fool you not for they are so intense that they will leave you flattened after the first listen. The sound itself can be accurately described as skinning something alive. At least the saxophone can be described like that. It sometimes gets so high that I wonder why their reeds haven't snapped yet.

Basically it's one of those free jazz records that you either like or not. You get raw power here and if you're not into that kind of stuff avoid this record.

Get.

Desert Bus For Hope 6

Desert Bus For Hope Homepage

Alright so I mentioned this event last year but I thought for this year I might make a more bigger post about it. Well, not really bigger, just a bit more detailed.

Here's what this is all about: Desert Bus For Hope is a charity event that will start on this Friday (Canada time) and will end in seven days (or eight?). Unlike in the movie Ring they will not die in pain but will instead collect money from auctions and donations for charity. This event is actually connected to the Child's Play charity that collects money to buy games and things for children in hospitals.

The event is called Desert Bus For Hope because they play continuously a very boring game while you watch them on stream doing it. Aside from playing the game there will be auctions, guests, interviews, special events and all kinds of shenanigans.

Usually I don't use this blog to promote this kind of stuff but as someone who spent a lot of my childhood in hospitals I can get behind the idea. One of my fondest memories from childhood were nights spent in the hospital watching an older kid play Zombies Ate My Neighbors on snes on a really small TV in our room. Moments like that were great in those troubled times so I think this is a good cause.

Kammerflimmer Kollektief - Absencen

This summer I shared a band called Bohren & Der Club Of Gore who are a quite known band for its genre. While I like Bohren and their sound they do tend to get kinda stale after a while. Lucky for us Germany seems to be a really good place for strange jazzy sombre bands and Kammerflimmer Kollektief is an excellent example of that.

Unlike Bohren though these guys tend to experiment with sounds a lot more often. Absencen was their fourth album released back in 2005 and they were ripping shit up. Perhaps the most positive side of this is that these guys are a lot more jazz oriented in playing. There are some really sweet solos and free jazz outbursts on this album but they also provide an ample supply of smooth melodies that we come to expect from bands like this. While the album is overall in darker tones it does not shy away from more playful and happier moments. There are some great "happier" songs here like Shibboleth or Unstet that offer some really nice soprano sax/guitar improvising and upbeat tempos. There also, of course, great sombre tracks like Nach dem Regen that remind me of rainy strolls through the city. There's a bit of everything here so it might feel a bit too random but after a few listens it all sinks in very well.

Generally speaking if you're looking for a modern jazz band that is not shackled in old school worship but also not too much in the free jazz area this might be right up your alley. It's a great mixture of experimental and orthodox with a lot of different instruments and approaches to atmosphere.

Check them out.

Tsutomu Takahashi - Jiraishin

How about some tasty reading? It has truly been a while. Dunno why really. Must be the times (forgot most of my sources for manga).

Jiraishin right off the bat might seem a little too "tough guy" to be taken seriously. The main character can be a little stiff and sometimes the plot might be too absurd but once you get used to this world it's actually a really fun read. The manga went on from 1992 to 1999 making most of the volumes (and chapters) episodic with an overarching plot lurking somewhere behind. The stories themselves vary a lot and some are outright absurd while some are excellent thriller dramas and murder intrigues. When the story works it really works great. Luckily for the most part it works. The characters themselves are very distant from what you would find in a mainstream manga. They're very sombre and nihilistic at times and they act out much like slimebags act in real life. The main character after who the manga is called is a ruthless murdering detective who only cares about reaching his goal. I think he's a bit comparable with the Punisher.

The setting is another very bright point in this saga as well. Artstyle is very noir like and it's absolutely gorgeous to look at with a lot of double page scenery. Characters themselves as the volumes progress from looking mediocre to better and better but at the start they might seem a little too stiff. At least that's the impression which I got. Another interesting fact to point out is that apparently Nihei (of Blame! fame) worked as an intern or something like that for Takahashi and honestly you can really see how this influenced his later works. He helped only with art though (most visibly with the buildings I think).

Overall this is a very good detective saga. It never really got stale for me despite the plot being weak here and there. So I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for something more serious and longer to read.

vol. 1 to vol. 5
vol. 6 to vol. 10
vol. 11 to vol. 14
vol. 15 to vol 19

I did some separation so that each link contains only volumes indicated, you can just download the first link if you feel like only checking this out to see how it looks. You don't need to combine all the links is what I'm trying to say.

Babatunde Olatunji - Drums Of Passion

Despite never playing or having drums I always had a passion for them. I will always enjoy a good drumming session and this album is exactly that plus Africa because Africa is great (when it comes to music not nutrition).

Babatunde Olatunji was a drummer from Nigeria, a country most known (musically) for Fela Kuti and afrobeat. This record was released back in 1959 so afrobeat and funk in general for that matter was not really around that time but you can hear a lot of drumming here that will occur in later music. As I have said before this album is all about drumming but there are chants here as well to complement the sounds. Some tracks feature other native instruments but overall focus is always on drumming and the beat. There's a plethora of moods here from sad songs to flirting dances and so on. You heard this music before elsewhere but you don't realize it until you hear it again here.

Overall a very fun and interesting album.

Get.

Videos vol. 4

So these posts get a lot of views which I think means people like it. Here's a new batch of videos for you to watch when you have nothing better to do in life.

Music:

Charles Mingus - Jazz Pour Tous In Belgium
Bill Evans Trio on Jazz 625
Bill Evans - Waltz For Debby
Ravi Coltrane & Alice Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Wes Montgomery - West Coast Blues [1965]
Wes Montgomery - Twisted Blues
O'Death - Angeline (FD session)
Coltrane Walkin'
Vitalic - Stamina
Flying Lotus - Putty Boy Strut
Son House - Death Letter Blues
Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On (live in Montreux 1980)
Maceo Parker plays "Let's Get It On"
Portishead - All Mine
Elmer Snowden: Up A Lazy River
Cannonball Adderley Sextet - Jazz Stars 1963
Krzysztof Penderecki - Viola concerto, Nora Romanoff - Schwarzberg - Solo
Krzysztof Penderecki - Kadysz (Festiwal Warszawa Singera 2010)  
Richie Cole Quintet - Panishment Blues 
Herbie Hancock Headhunters 1974 
Sun Ra - Music Video Short - A - Interplanetary Music - "Orbiting"
Charles Mingus - So Long Eric
Kenji Kawai - Cinema Symphony - Ghost In The Shell OST
Bartok, Piano Concerto No 3 Argerich, Bashmet, Toho Gakuen Orchestra April 14, 2007
Bat For Lashes - Laura 
Louis Armstrong - When the Saints Go Marching In, 1961
O'Death - Bugs 
"Lover Man"Sonny Stitt,Walter Bishop,Tommy Potter,Kenny Clarke. 
タラチネ - 百景 
Dizzy Gillespie - On the Sunny Side of the Street 
Jascha Heifetz plays Hora Staccato 
Jascha Heifetz plays Rondo by Mozart  
David Oistrakh - Brahms Scherzo in C minor (III. from FAE Sonate)  
The Bridge/ Sonny Rollns & Jim Hall 
Dizzy Gillespie - Mmm Hmm

湯川潮音 - 緑のアーチ

Andrew Jackson Jihad - Gift Of The Magi 2

The Residents - My Window

Flying Lotus - MmmHmm

Flying Lotus - Zodiac Shit (Official Video)

The Residents - Gingerbread Man

Symphonic Legends - The Legend of Zelda Suite

Fun or stupid things:

Iron Maiden - The Trooper
How to play Counter Strike
First dude who won the Millionaire in US
Miles and Coltrane Shred (the original if you don't get the joke)
Stewart Lee - Political Correctness
GTA 4 Funny Moments
[Vinesauce] Vinnny - Half-Mind
Driving in Albania - Top Gear
Henry Rollins vs Hipsters
Henry Rollins being a douchebag
The most awkward interview ever filmed
Billy Joel being mad
Pokemon Spread
Papa Was A Rolling Stone
Extreme Dagobah Tourism Video 
二足歩行で押す猫
schemat musi być (dj problem remix) 
Michael Bay presents: Microsoft & Nintendo E3 2012 highlights
Pikachu on Acid
Mr Ando of the Woods

Interesting:

Hysterical Literature: Session One: Stoya
Three Minute Philosophy: Galileo
The Station nightclub fire
There You Are
A Liturgy interview where HHH is not a pretentious elitist (somewhat).
Playing Borderlands 2 with Randy Pitchford (for an hour, pre-release video) 
1,000,000,000,000 Frames/Second Photography - Ramesh Raskar 
Mark Applebaum: The mad scientist of music 
John Cleese on Creativity
The Great Porn Experiment: Gary Wilson at TEDxGlasgow

Freddie Hubbard - Straight Life

Freddie was a guy who did a lot of work in his heyday. He played all over the place from Herbie Hancock fusion albums to the excellent Ascension by Coltrane but he also did some things on his own. Up until the seventies he did the usual Blue Note bebop and post-bop stuff which is technically in musical sense excellent but it wasn't really breaking any new grounds.

Then arrived the seventies with all its new ideas with this electronic music. Now Freddie got some ideas and decided to switch labels and start doing fusion albums. What followed is kind of a mixed bag. After a while he got stale and released some really cheesy cash grabs. The usual 70s kitsch. Despite that his first four albums were one of his most successful and innovative ones that he ever did. Out of those four Straight Life is probably my favorite.

While other albums had more song oriented structure with 6-7 minute tracks this album has just two long tracks with one filler (but overall nice) ballad to fill out the empty space. This actually why I prefer it much more from the others simply because it sounds like a long jam. The lineup on this album is nothing but stellar. You have Herbie Hancock on keyboards, Henderson on saxophone, George Benson on guitar (which is mostly just in the background), Ron Carter on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. All of their signature sounds are very much present on this record especially Herbie who delivers that really nice Mwandishi soundscapes into the album.

Overall I really like this album a lot, and I would recommend it to anyone who has the least bit interest in jazz even if you have a distaste for fusion.

Get it.

Memories Of Matsuko

Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
Country: Japan
Date: 2006
Runtime: 2 hours and 10 minutes
Format: .avi and with .sub English subtitles

I've been going through my film and animated film posts and I noticed a pattern which is: most of them are either:

a) depressive as fvck
b) melancholic as fvck

I guess I like those the best. But! There's still hope! I might like some movies that present the other spectrum of emotions. Emotions like physical abuse, drug abuse, torture and, uhh, happiness? I heard of that somewhere, people even make movies about it. About happiness. Why don't I check a movie out that's happy? I looked around and this is what I ended up liking. But the problem is that despite the really colorful tones and delightful merry characters this is depressing as fvck. So we're back to square one. Eh, who gives a fuck anyway.

Memories of Matsuko is a story about a guy who has an aunt called Matsuko. He doesn't know very much about her but she died and he has to clean her apartment and crap like that. Through this cleaning he gets to know her aunt and how she lived through her life. He slowly but gradually pieces together her painful life into one big mosaic. So the story is actually focused around Matsuko but from the perspective of memories and interpretations by other characters. This is what generally makes the movie work and it works well for the most part. Since they are memories the scenes and events are highly stylized which gives a lot of room for social commentary and general Japanese weirdness. You know, the usual things they do.


The problem with all this is when the movie does something bad it gets really awkward and ruins the immersion of the story. Some of the singing musical bits were tedious for me to watch. But that's maybe because I don't like singing in movies. Because this doesn't happen that much often it kinda magnifies the effect when it does happen so it makes it that much worse. Aside from that there's really not that much to complain about. The acting is fairly good but it's still in that kinda strange Japanese way of acting. I'm not sure I can pinpoint what's so strange about it. It's just different.


Overall this is a very nice long film. It's not perfect and it might not click with you due to the over the top stylizing and you might miss some jokes/things if you're not that familiar with the culture. But those points should not ruin the whole film. Not in the least. In it's core the story is very universal.

Have fun: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14

Art Taylor - Taylor's Wailers

You might have heard of Art Taylor or maybe you have not. If you had then you probably heard him on a bunch of Coltrane records or perhaps somewhere else. He did a lot of drumming in his days with a lot of important people on a lot of great records. After all those features and groups you kinda get the will to do something on your own. So you invite a bunch of friends to a studio and you jam. But there's no stress because it's a friendly and known environment where you and your friends just sit back and have fun with some tunes.

That's basically what this album is. It's a meeting of good friends who all play their instruments masterfully. It was his debut album in 1956 but he didn't release a lot of albums under his own name so to have the opportunity to hear where he's in charge is great.

If you're into some nice jazz jamming be sure to get this hidden (or is it?) gem. Oh and Coltrane only plays on track two in case you're getting this just because it says Coltrane on the cover.

New one.

HELLBENDERS - Applooza

Watch it.

If you haven't already. It's great.

Check the website as well.

Roadside Poppies - Cycling and Crying

While twee pop isn't a genre of music that I know much about I still like to check out some of its artists every now and then. I can name a few bands and from what I heard this genre seems fun enough but I like it in short bursts. That's why I mainly have EPs of twee pop and perhaps this might be the time that I share probably my favorite twee pop EP. In case you haven't heard of it here are the basics of twee pop: it's mellow pop filled with happy melodies, cutesy vocals and silly lyrics (about love mostly).

Roadside Poppies released this back in 2007 and a few other demos and so. I don't think they have any official albums. The EP itself has a short and sweet set of just four songs. The first is probably the best one and it reeks of "It's summertime!" feelings, the whole EP is kinda like that actually. But all four are relatively catchy and fun to listen. The third track is probably my second best.

So yeah, if you're in the mood for some mellow tunes I suggest you check this out.

Get.

Bukka White - The Complete Bukka White

So tired man; every time I try to write a post I just give up. But when it's tough then it's time for some blues. Delta blues to be exact. I like the other kind(s) as well but this one seems more sincere and more painful. Bukka White was one of those old school blues players. He was born in 1909 and he saw all the bad and painful parts of the 20th century. There's something magical about these early blues recordings. They take you back to more slower and more tougher times. Despite being sad songs they are uplifting in its core. That's what blues was about back then and Bukka did it great. Just sit back, hear some of his stories and marvel in his guitar skills.

Download.

First three Belphegor albums

Lately I've been going through some kind of weird nostalgia train of revisiting bands that I used to listen a lot during high school and earlier. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while now might remember that Belphegor was in fact the very first band that got me into more extreme music (or extreme metal at least). Yes, the feeling of discovering something new and extreme was really great. What got me into it was their most famous album Goatreich-Fleshcult and after I played that album on repeat for days they kinda went downhill for me. Everything they released after that was samey or they just tried to relive/reinvent Lucifer Incestus or Goatreich.

But before they got famous they released a string of albums that were much more raw and much more fun. Now that I went through their discography again after all these years I find myself liking these early material more than my previous favorites. They had some really awesome riffs back then and the vocals were still top notch and they didn't seem like a joke then; just very blasphemous to a point of insane (see  front covers).

So I decided to share these albums for those of you who enjoy a good dose of black/death metal. Overall all three of these albums sound similar but you can really sense the growing and progressing with each new album. It's fairly standard stuff with very little experimentation but it's done well and it doesn't get boring. Also pretty much every gimmicky thing they do in later albums can be heard on these three albums but in a much more primal state.

Here are the albums:

The Last Supper (1995)

Blutsabbath (1997)

 

Necrodaemon Terrorsathan (2000)

Also I dug out their very first EP from somewhere called Bloodbath in Paradise, an extra treat if you liked the albums.

Alexey Tegin - Gyer - Sacred Tibetan Music Of Bon Tradition

Before Tibet (or general area of Tibet) adopted Buddhism there used to be a wide array of pagan beliefs. Bon is supposedly one of those religions but it also has many other meanings. You are free to read about it here.

This album recreates music of those traditions. Buddhist or not this Bon tradition music is similar (or even exact) to the usual Buddhist chants with the exception of percussion that mark ends and beginnings of chants.

The music was done or orchestrated by Alexey Tegin who is from Russia. I don't really have a lot of information about this release so I'm not sure if he did this or if he recorded this in some monastery or if he used some kind of orchestra for this. Whatever the case may be the music is still pretty much awesome. You can expect all the usual sounds that are present in Tibetan music. Lots of droning, throat singing and deep thunderous trumpets.

Download.

Blood the Last Vampire

Director: Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Country: Japan
Date: 2000
Runtime: 48 minutes
Format: .avi and with .sfv English subtitles

This was one of the first anime I saw so my opinion is probably a bit biased. This might piss some people off (perhaps purists?) but I really enjoyed watching this short movie. I admit that this has a lot of flaws but I still think it's a nice little messy vampire flick. Probably the biggest problem with this movie (or short, or whatever) is that it looks more like a pilot episode for some anime.

The good thing is that the characters (ESPECIALLY FEMALE) aren't brainless fetish objects that are just there to show you their schoolgirl panties. The usual shit that this type of anime tends to have (you are a special magical girl that has special magical powers and so on) is thrown right out of the window. What you get are gritty characters that are fed up with their lives and where it got them. So basically it's much darker in tone. They do sometimes try overly hard to look edgy but they pull it off for the most part.

In any case the plot revolves around a girl called Saya that's a vampire hunter and she infiltrates some school that's suspicious. That's pretty much it. There's not much plot but and that's okay for the main duration until the end when it gets kinda loose.

Concerning art this actually reminded me the most of Animatrix shorts. In fact there's plenty of western influence here (hence the purist hate) but I think it fits nicely with the tone and theme of the movie.

Parts: 01, 02 and 03.

In case you're interested there are spinoffs (sequels?) to this. There are a few novels/manga (one of them was written by Mamoru Oshii but I can't find it anywhere) and a few shows. I watched Blood+ and it was terrible. Characters are molded into the usual stereotypes (guess what, the protagonist got an amnesia and is now back in high school) and overall I didn't really like it. Another show is Blood C or something like that which I didn't watch.

Jûsan-nin no shikaku aka Thirteen Assassins

Director: Eiichi Kudo
Country: Japan
Date: 1963
Runtime: 2 hours
Format: .avi and with .srt English subtitles

Eiichi Kudo isn't exactly a known director, his Wiki page has maybe two sentences and this movie has like three reviews on Imdb. Those two sentences wouldn't even be there if Takashi Miike didn't remake one of his films (this one as it turns out) but that doesn't necessary mean he made bad movies. He's just not that known outside of Japan.

Thirteen Assassins is the first installment of the so called Samurai Revolution trilogy. It's one of those trilogies that aren't really connected by plot but by ideas or concept. The concept here is fighting for justice and telling feudal lords to go fuck themselves. I watched all three of movies and I have to say this is my favorite one. If anyone would like to (really, really) see the other ones I could upload them since they appear so scarce on the web.

The plot itself is pretty basic in structure. There's this colossal douchebag that did some really bad things and a group of people (samurais in this case) decide to do something about it. The plot is actually done really well when you look at its details. There's always something going on and it doesn't really get boring; maybe the plot goes a bit slow (the movie is 2 hours after all) but Japanese movies are kinda like that. Probably the only gripe I had with the characters and with this movie as a whole is that it has too much characters sometimes. You can get lost with all the names, motives and positions if you don't follow real close to what's currently going on and what's being discussed. Despite that it all resolves itself at the end and it's not really that hard to connect the dots. There are a lot of subtle hints and critiques of (then) Japanese society thrown out throughout conversations that are in the movie which I thought was a nice touch.

As far as cinematography goes the movie looks really nice. It was made during the golden era of samurai movies and it really shows in its design, locations and costumes. What I like about this the most is probably that it's far more realistic in its style. There are no one man armies here. Everyone is very human here which is a nice change from the: Mifune's beard kills everything in one hit.

If you're into these kind of movies I highly recommend you watch this, you won't regret it. If you don't like slow, black and white Japanese movies: feel free to pass this up.

Parts: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Advantage Lucy - Station

Since summer is starting to fade away I thought I might share one of my favorite summer time bands called Advantage Lucy. They're a three piece rock-pop band from Japan that released three albums. They're still active (I think?) but they didn't do anything new for a while now. I shared one of their albums before but that was a very long time ago so why not share another one?

This album is pretty much along the same line as the other one. It was released back in 2000 and I think it still sounds just as great. It's so happy and carefree that it makes me just sit around and watch birds shit on my window or something useless as that.

The melodies are very light (as expected of such bands) and quite catchy. The trio arrangement fits quite well with this sort of music. Too much instrumentation tends to bog down the melody so this is to me an optimal arrangement of instruments for this type of music. While the album is a bit samey it doesn't really feel all that long so I don't think that's a real issue here. Everything is nice and mellow in the land of Advantage Lucy and they help to bring that mellowness to the listener as well.

Get.

In the summertime.

Now that I'm finished with fucking up everything that was possible to fuck up during the autumn exams I have decided to leave the country; for a few days.

While I contemplate about mass murder outside the country posts will pop up every day up until the 18th of this month (when I'm coming back). Therefore I won't be able to moderate any of my usual mistakes (bad link and so on) or publish comments.

Also more or less importantly:

I'd really like to share some comics i.e. western comics. Last time I posted one it was quickly brought down by the watchful eye of its author. How rigorous is the comic industry about sharing stuff online? I see torrents all the time but I dunno. I'm kinda reluctant to start sharing just to get shot down by Marvel or something. If you have experience in this let me know via comments or something. I'd like to know how dangerous are the sharks in the shark pool where I'll be swimming.


Another thing that I would like to point out is this website: Noise Archive

"this website is a collection of underground / independantly released cassette tapes from the days when the audio cassette was the standard method of music sharing, generally the mid eighties through early nineties. 

material represented includes tape experimentation, industrial, avant-garde, indy, rock, diy, subvertainment and auto-hypnotic materials... most of what you are about to hear is rather difficult to file under any one category, and thus has not been."

Have fun!

Oh and this is really cool.

Sorhin - Apokalypsens Ängel

Time for some sweet black metal. This band comes from Sweden and they released just two albums during their time. This being the second one and it was released back in the year 2000.

These guys really knew their craft, from start to finish this one of the most tasteful energetic black metal that I have heard. They just rip like hell through every track telling you in Swedish about this dude Satan and how hating people is good with some furious riffs in the forefront. So yeah, the style and sound is firmly rooted in the second wave of black metal. The riffs are nonetheless very enjoyable and fun to listen every time you spin this album. What more could you want?

Get.

"The Imminent Demise of Hydra Head Records"

Sadly gravity will be weakened due to the closing of the excellent Hydra Head Records. In case you haven't read their announcement you can here.

They had a great run but I guess they got bogged down by shitty resource management and so on. Stuff like that happens and it sucks. They'll be selling everything they have so keep an eye out if you want to get something. They'll also be selling packages of stuff (America only) that seem really, really cool and you should not miss it.

Spread the word and help them earn some money to repay the debts!

Best of luck in the future for everyone involved there.

Abner Jay ‎– True Story Of Abner Jay

"Folk songs tell true stories but terrible stories, Because folk are terrible. Terrible songs make big songs." says Abner a few moments before he starts singing how he likes it when cocaine swims around his brain.

He's right though, folk songs are terrible and depressing because life is terrible for the most part but the best way to heal that is by singing how terrible it is. For some reason it makes you happy, that's the magic of blues. You sing about shitty times but you feel good about it somehow. Abner was a walking one man band playing primarily an electric banjo and drums/harmonic along the side. He plays them so good that you don't even realize it's just one guy behind all this but he is and it's fucking great.

All of his songs give a very melancholic feel, even depressing at times, but everything fits so well you don't even notice how pitch-black the lyrics are at times. His repertoire varies from old covers to some of his own songs as well. The cover songs get his thorough treatment so they become something new as well making this album pretty neat. Whatever he sings he puts his whole soul into it and you can really feel it which makes him one of my favorites really.

Recommended stuff.

Download.