Once We Were - Contra

Click Here To Download: Discs 1 & 2


If you looking for a band with range look no further. Once We Were can play the jazzy tunes as well as the rockin' ones. They experiment a bit on the second disc but it's pleasurable and has me wondering where they are going next. Enjoy it.

"It took a long time but we are very pleased with the finished result. It is an hour-long experience divided into two discs. The first one contains some of our more established live songs, like Buckets Have Ears and Cut Corners as well as a few surprises. Disc number two covers more uncharted territories and is in places (semi-)improvised with us sometimes swapping instruments. The two Contra discs are housed in a beautiful fold-out digipak with stunning artwork courtesy of Elisa." - OWW


Full tracklisting:
Disc A
Buckets Have Ears
Hard Shoulder
Cut Corners
Left Field
Static
By Number And Skill

Disc B
Carnival
Last Trolley
Roof, Please
End Of Clear Sound
Three Minutes
It All Came Down

Synchonocity Series: Feb 22, 2007

Thanks to Oh It's Max for this week's artwork.

Click Here To Download: Part 1
Click Here To Download: Part 2


So today was my first show in my new Thursday time slot and I've uploaded the 2-hour playlist for everyone in 2 parts. The first half is mostly straight-up instrumental rock n' roll. The 2nd half starts with some electronic and ambient then closes with some jazzy tracks. Enjoy.

Track list is as follows:

Brand New - Welcome to Bangkok
Friends Of Dean Martinez - Dusk
Mogwai - Glasgow Mega-snake
Saxon Shore - With a Red Suit You Will Become a Man
Do Make Say Think - In Mind
Pelican - Sirius
Red Sparowes - The Soundless Dawn Came Alive As Cities Began To Mark The Horizon
Maserati - The World Outside
Grails - Stray Dog
Always The Runner - I Thought I'd Find You Here
Magyar Posse - Whirlpool of Terror and Tension
Once We Were - By Number And Skill
Northvia - Awake
Hammock - Before the Celebration
God is an Astronaut - Suicide By Star
Cam Butler - Brothers & Sisters
Nino Rota - Guido E Luisa-Nostalgico Swing
Six Parts Seven - Stolen Moments
Isan - Betty's Lament
Toe - ‘Ç„Æ≠̉–ˆ≤
Pantha du Prince - Moonstruck
Sir Richard Bishop - Anatolia
Tortoise - It's All Around You
This Will Destroy You - This World is Our _______
Manitoba - Kid You'll Move Mountains

Red Sparowes - At The Soundless Dawn

Click Here To Download

Well I'm still wading in this tide of sludgy and metal instrumental rock at the moment so I thought i'd upload At The Soundless Dawn, which is amazing start to finish. Fans of previously uploaded Pelican, note this band.

"Starting with beautifully intense buildups into full-on doom metal fury, At the Soundless Dawn is a lush, orchestrative affair as each member contributes wonderful sounds from their instrument, achieving what some could call a masterpiece of an album. Greg Burns of Halifax Pier manages to both relax and captivate the listener with the strangely satisfying addition of the pedal steel, which helps At the Soundless Dawn reach its full glory. It feels almost sacrilegious to try to describe what Red Sparrowes have achieved. Like the album, it has left me speechless." – Nick Walker

Beware of Safety - It Is Curtains

Los Angeles, California. I'm not going to pretend like I know the nitty-gritty about the underground instrumental rock scene over here (or anywhere, really), but I do have a radio show and have booked a few bands to do interviews sometime this Spring and talk about it. At the fore-front of the L.A. movement is this band, Beware of Safety. Their debut EP, Is Is Curtains has made the band instantly relevant in instrumental circles with emotive drum-less dramas like "Veneklasen" and 10-minute guitar-epics like "To The Roof!..." The band doesn't always rely on beauty for its identity, though. "Weak Wrists" sounds like a challenge to Red Sparowes or Pelican to pick it up a notch as BoS are riding their coattails pretty tight when it comes to pure rockin' out. With all the variety in their ~38 minute EP, BoS leave listeners guessing as to where they are headed next. My advice to you: see them live.

Check out their West Coast upcoming tour dates w/ Caspian as well:

Mar 25 2007 8:00P	The Scene w/Signal Hill, You.May.Die.In.The.Desert and Panther Attack	Glendale, California
Apr 28 2007 8:00P	Ground Zero w/Caspian, You.May.Die.In.The.Desert and Joy Wants Eternity	Seattle, Washington
Apr 29 2007 8:00P	Someday Lounge w/Caspian and Fall of Snow	Portland, Oregon
May 3 2007 8:00P	TBA with Caspian	Los Angeles, California
May 4 2007 7:00P	Parkview with Caspian	Riverside, California
May 6 2007 8:00P	The Space w/Caspian, North and Arc of the Aurora	Tempe, Arizona

Sir Richard Bishop - Fingering The Devil

Click Here To Download


I grabbed this album from my friend's blog. He gave me permission and was totally stoked when I told him I wanted to post it. Here's what Southern Records had to say about it:

"Recorded in London in July of 2005 at Southern Studios. Nine tracks of solo acoustic guitar, mostly improvised. An exploration into the shadow worlds of the Sub-Continent, North Africa, and other points on the Gypsy Trail... Sir Richard Bishop is perhaps better known for the part he plays as one third of radical feral punk-noise collective Sun City Girls. Out of this band's intense unruly free jams grew Bishop's love for solo improvisation, which along with his appreciation for global folk musics largely shapes his solo work." -Southern Records

Here's what John (Visit His Website Here) had to say about it:

"I can hardly believe that these songs were improvised. Sir Richard Bishop possesses unholy technique and dexterity that allowed him to develop his absorbingly complex style and nuance. There are no pedals or recording tricks on the album; the production is crisp and clean.

Sun City Girls may be difficult for many listeners to get into, but I guarantee that this album is impossible to criticize and difficult to dislike. Even if you know nothing about the guitar, it's pretty obvious that Sir Richard Bishop is one of the most talented and creative living guitarists." - John D


I can't add much to those two.

Gas - Pop

Click Here To Download: Tracks 1-4
Click Here To Download: Tracks 5-7


"Köln kingpin Wolfgang Voigt often waxes tyrannical about the sanctity of techno's four-on-the-floor heartbeat. In his Gas guise, though, Voigt is gradually coming to value beatless bliss. His atmospheric Gas-werks are as in thrall to the almighty kick drum as all productions bearing the redoubtable Voigt's nom de jour. But over four albums (and a vinyl-only mini-LP), Voigt has been refining the Gas concept to the point of perfection. Practice indeed has its virtues. Voigt craftily weaves string and woodwind samples that he has skimmed from obscure classical recordings into bolts of melodic mesh. Where these folds once fell freely over beds of uncompromised beats, Pop hangs them as from a lofty bough to billow in the breeze. As this shimmering material twists and tangles, shadows collect among the creases. Voigt introduces the knotlike texture of the familiar 4/4, and the intrusion of rhythm is for once absolutely justified. While uplifting and ravishingly melodic, Pop is certainly not pop. Nor is it ambient music in the strictest, Brian Eno-sired sense of the word--Voigt's still reluctant to give up those ghost drums. For now, Gas is like no other music on Earth or off it." --Gil Gershman

God is an Astronaut - All is Violent, All is Bright

Click Here To Download

" The Dublin-based band present critics with an added problem with their debut, All Is Violent, All Is Bright: the music it contains is almost impossible to describe in such a way as to do it justice. I could expound on the beauty and menace of this music for pages and pages and still come absolutely nowhere near an accurate depiction. Torsten Kinsella (vocals, guitars, piano) and his brother Niels (bass and guitar) and Lloyd Hanney (drums and synths) have created fantastically broad and lush soundscapes for their listeners to explore. The songs are crammed with atmospherics, tension, melodrama and - amazingly for a band that only includes vocals as an extra instrument - emotional draw. Repeated spins reveal All Is Violent, All Is Bright to be a meticulously assembled vision - twisting the volume knob down reveals the kinks and components of the massive walls of sound that are capable of melting your eardrums at high levels." - Nick Cowen

Russian Circles - Enter

Click Here To Download

Russian Circles will be touring with Pelican soon and I should be seeing them over my spring break in either Houston or Baton Rouge. Enter is a very exciting album that you don't want to end but when it does you are glad because you can finally take a breath. Some instrumental bands catch my ear and hold my attention so well I can't do anything else when I'm listening to them. Russian Circles is one of those bands. Chicago spawns another good one.

This Will Destroy You - Young Mountain (EP)

Click Here To Download


I'll always have a special place in my heart for TWDY. I discovered them during a difficult time in my life and Young Mountain really cemented their sound in my head over the course of a few months. I finally got around to seeing them this winter in Austin, close to their hometown of San Marcos, and their mix of electric guitar and electronica touched my heart in the cozy Emo's Lounge like only a handful of acts have ever done. I ended up meeting Andrew, the drummer, after the show and conducted an impromptu interview with him to discover they are currently recording for a full-length release in April and have plans to tour Europe around that time and possibly a US tour in the summer. Fan-boy infatuation aside, listen to this album with some good headphones late at night and you won't be disappointed.

Pan Sonic - Kesto (Disc 1 & 2)

Click Here To Download Disc 1
Click Here To Download Disc 2

Back to the music. I've always enjoyed Pan Sonic but it wasn't until I started taking a synthesizer instructional coarse that I really appreciated what they do. Disc 1 is my favorite of the 4 disc set and i'll gradually upload the rest.*

*Disc 2 now available.

OWM Recap

I know I specifically started this blog to spread good music, but I think everyone should also acquire at least a basic sense of intimidation when viewing Earth on a geologic scale. Climbing up the Old Woman Mountains with my classmates a repeating theme of immensity dominated my thoughts. Mountain chains are enormous and take tens of millions of years to form but they climb thousands of meters high against the force of gravity. The vertical motion generated is truly hard to wrap my head around unless I'm in the field surrounded by geologic formations. So here are some pictures that might help relay that whole thought process:

Weekend Sabbatical

My faithful readers,


I'm leaving for the weekend and won't be back until Sunday night (missing the SuperBowl). I just wanted to assure you of my return and the continuation of uploading in a short time. I shall return with many great pictures of the majestic Old Woman Mountains.


(A picture from the Sierras... not the mojave desert)

world's end girlfriend - The Lie Lay Land

Click Here To Download: Tracks 1-6
Click Here To Download: Tracks 7-10


Continuing the world's end girlfriend discography because of multiple requests. Just an example of how commenting works. Keep it up.

Aarktica - No Solace In Sleep

Click Here To Download


No Solace in Sleep is a somber dreamscape where sound becomes music & music becomes sound. Minimalist ambient guitar structures, utilizing treated guitar tones varying from freight trains to falling snow emerge from the shadows projecting a range of mood, being and emotion. In this dark musical terrain, Jon rolls out a remarkable new map, the kind used by adventurous travellers to move across stricken borders, through unusual terrain and down lost highways. It is a work of unresolved tension, astonishing harmonies and timbres, and spooky moments of forlorn beauty. –Ben Kettlewell

world's end girlfriend - farewell kingdom

Click Here To Download

Fulfilling my first request from the readers. Here's one of WEG's full-lengths.

1. Yes (15:06)
2. Call Past Rain (8:32)
3. Daydream Loveletter (7:32)
4. Halfmoon Girl (7:22)
5. Fragile Fireworks (5:26)
6. Fifteen White (11:51)
7. You (12:53)
8. Onepiece (5:00)


Heavily recommended. "Yes" will hook you from the first listen.