Atrax Morgue

It feels familiar to listen to italian Marco Corbelli, also known as Atrax Morgue. One can possibly rebuild its influences from 79 to 90: the most haunting of early Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, early Merzbow and Lustmord. Clearly reconstructing the ways of industrial, noise, dark ambient and power electronics, these early cassette pieces are musical documents of someone with complete control of his intentions and assumedly essaying over pervertion.
There is a sublime minimalistic subtlety in his music. Decrepit white noise signals turned into timid beats, sound processing of mechanical tools and field recordings, Boyd Rice like organ / synthetizer mantras, channelled into the perfect suiting range of frequencies of the cassette tape.



(1993) In Search of Death / V0
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(1993) Black Slaughter / V1
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(1994) Collection in Formaldeide / V1
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Mayhem

During the course of more than two decades, Mayhem has built the reputation of one of the most notorious and influencial black metal bands of all time. Albeit a pillar of the so called second wave black metal - term referring to bands from the early nineties and forth - this demos record is an isolated masterpiece itself.
The paradoxal beauty of this record is that this teenage norwegian trio, while still adhering to satanic aesthetics, has its apparent radical standpoints neutralized by the unpretentiousness of a barely garage-band Venon tribute. This becomes evident in the second part of the album, a totally unmixed recorded studio rehearsal, showing the lads simply trying to acheive an unexampled level of heaviness much beyond the point their idols stopped, evidently having fun.
The first part of the album is especially delightful to lo-fi appreciators. Low-fidelity black metal production has seen its first steps on projects such as Bathory, debuting two years before Mayhem's demo. The latter, however, has taken the limits of lo-fi to another level: "Ghoul" and the title track make it virtually impossible to distinguish anything but a wave of reverberating fuzz and toy-like drums; Venon's "Black Metal"cover (coherently labeled as "total death version") is one of the rawest and heaviest recordings ever made. Here, and in recordings until the early nineties (specially in their Deathcrush EP), show much more of a punk attitude than anything.
Preceding all the controversy the band attracted during its twenty year plus carreer, this album, released before the second wave of black metal bands was consolidated as a specific style in the nineties, remains as a cult statement of unprecedented characteristics.

(1986) Pure Fucking Armageddon / V0
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Their 1987 follow-up, the Deathcrush EP, goes beyond attitude: it is a trash, punk, grindcore, death/black metal crossover album. The opening intro track sounds like a satire to martial music found in Death in June; following tracks are utter gore themed songs, ranging between the listed styles. Deathcrush's idiosyncratic amalgam of styles closed a period of Mayhem's discography before a seven year hiatus, after the suicide of Dead, the vocalist who entered the band after Deathcrush, and the assassination of Euronymous, the former guitar player (in 1991 and 1993, respectively). Eventually, the band released in 1994 "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", an album that consolidated what is known today as norwegian black metal.

(1987) Deathcrush / V0
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Roy Smeck

Roy Smeck is a virtuoso genious. His stunning technique, however, transcends itself, and together with improvised percussion onto the current instrument and incredibly good taste, one can't deny Smeck's avant garde approach, specially in his context.
The self descriptive "Plays Hawaiian Guitar, Banjo, Ukulele and Guitar" finds Smeck merging his Hawaiian, country,swing and blues influences in the period of 1926 to 1949, in a nearly perfect compilation.
The frenzy noticeable in the late 20s and 30s is not that evident in his later work. Albeit enjoyable and laid-back, these adjectives are not enough before the groundbreaking aggressiveness of his self described "nifty picking" seen once before.

(1992) Plays Hawaiian Guitar, Banjo, Ukulele and Guitar (1926-1949) / V0
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(1959) The Magic Ukulele of Roy Smeck / 192k
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(repost) Codeine

check the main post for updated links and bitrates (by browsing the menu, or clicking here).

edit: demos link fixed.

Throat Singing: Huun-Huur-Tu and Yat-Kha

Much of what is known from Tuva, with worldwide recognition, comes from their traditional throat singing technique. Deeply studied by musicians and musicologists, this technique, existent in several cultures in the world, involves the production of multiple harmonics simultaneously by a single person (see the differences between throat singing styles here).

One of the tuvan throat singing most notable ensembles are Huun-Huur-Tu. 1994's The Orphan's Lament is a true master work of tuvan folkloric songs.

(1994) Huun-Huur-Tu - The Orphan's Lament / 320k
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(1997) Huun-Huur-Tu - If I'd Been Born An Eagle / 320k
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Albert Kuvezin, from Huun-Huur-Tu, founded Yat-Kha in the mid-nineties intending to introduce new influences to his homeland traditional style. Albeit firstly focused on the insertion of electronic elements (by avant-garde musician, and also founding member, Ivan Sokolovsky - who left the band shortly after), Yenisei-Punk is a great example of rock music moderately conciliated with tuvan folk, and of the path which would the group follow afterwards.

(1995) Yat-Kha - Yenisei-Punk / V0
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(1999) Yat-Kha - Dalai Beldiri / V1
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(2000) Yat-Kha - Aldyn Dashka / V0
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(2006) Yat-Kha - Re-Covers / V2
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Zoviet France

After several people asking me for reuploading, I managed to reobtain some rather difficult to find Zoviet France albums.

Browse to their page in the menu, or click HERE.

B Fachada

Bernardo Fachada, teamed up with producer Tiago Pereira, recently released a documentary over oral tradition in Portugal, and its sense in the 21st century. "Tradição Oral Contemporânea" (Contemporary Oral Tradition) shows him absorbing ageless folkloric tunes and analysing their change over time. The 'lisboeta' Fachada has visited villages in Portugal and orally exchanged songs with the people, trying to prove the natural aspects of traditional music and giving life to it outside rural boundaries. In both Viola Braguesa and in the documentary,the sense of transmission and change can be understood as aspects of tradition itself - opposed to the idea of crystalization of popular (mostly rural) culture. Similar results can be seen in the work of the mythical António Variações in the early eighties, but with massive repercussion and lacking Fachada's conceptual and intellectual approach.

Musically, the album's broody atmosphere and slow paced tempos, its lovely lo-fi aesthetics composed of organ and viola braguesa (portuguese sort of guitar) and great vocals sung in portuguese, make this album not only conceptually, but sentimentally, a great achievement.

(2008) Viola Braguesa / V0
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Milton Nascimento

The recognition of Milton Nascimento's work has been built in ambiguous ways, specially in his homeland Brazil. While kept as a cult marvel to foreign ears, his superstar status in Brazil as a lead singer paradoxically coexists with his more avantgarde approach as a musician - at least until the seventies - thus establising himself as the most prominent and inaccessible artist in the country.

His 1967 self-titled debut album - years later re-released as Travessia - is a roots samba / jazz crossover album, fully orchestrated by Luiz Eça (who also plays the Piano throughout the record), which propelled Nascimeno to worldwide recognition. In 1969, most of these songs were re-recorded under CTI's Creed Taylor guidance, resulting in Courage. Songs like "Três Pontas" and "Catavento" were emulated, new songs added ("Courage", "Vera Cruz", "October") and an english spoken version of "Travessia" (Bridges) - backed up by great names such as Herbie Hancock and Airto Moreira.

(1967) Travessia / V0
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(1969) Courage / 320k
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Some years later, Nascimento would veer towards what would become one the the most notorious records in decades of brazilian music - Clube da Esquina. While credited to Milton Nascimento (for obvious reasons) and Lô Borges (who earned compositional credits for several songs), the Clube da Esquina ensemble ("Corner Club", childishly named after what would their respective mothers call the gang) is also formed by Márcio Borges, Toninho Horta, Wagner Tiso, among others. The Clube da Esquina record, ranging from psychedelia, to Beatle-esque pop, samba and folk, thrusted all members to prolific solo carreers - except for the already established (and now bulked up) Nascimento's acclaim. "Os Povos" is unearthly.

(1972) Milton Nascimento e Lô Borges - Clube da Esquina / V2
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The following year, Milagre dos Peixes finds the musician still in the psychedelic field, but more british sounding and more progressive oriented, merging different root brazilian music influences with reverbful prog-like timbres. This sound orientation is due to the Som Imaginário backup band (formed originally to backup Nascimento, but continued to perform afterwards), also featuring Clube da Esquina's Toninho Horta and Wagner Tiso.

(1973) Milagre dos Peixes / 320 VBR
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In 1975 and 1976, Milton Nascimento released Minas and Geraes, respectively. Minas is the last breath of artsiness in his work, while Geraes may be seen as the bridge to his 80's carreer. The first still gathers jazz, samba and prog rock elements, consolidating one of his most gloomy and haunting releases (attention to "Beijo Partido" and "Ponta de Areia"). Geraes tends to baroque pop with strong brazilian elements, recreating the baroque aura typical of the Minas Gerais state.

(1975) Minas / V0
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(1976) Geraes / V0
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extra:
(1972) Lô Borges - Lô Borges / V0
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(repost) Erik Satie: Socrate; John Cage: Cheap Imitation

There are two great articles in Wikipedia about both works:
Socrate
Cheap Imitation

(1991) Erik Satie: Socrate; John Cage: Cheap Imitation / 192k
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Will Oldham

	Will Oldham + Bill Callahan (1993) The Sundowners - Goat Songs / 192k download Sea Note Records
	Will Oldham + Mick Turner (2000) Marquis de Tren & Bonny Billy - Get on Jolly / 192k download Palace Records

Will Oldham + Mick Turner (2001) Marquis de Tren & Bonny Billy - Get the Fuck on Jolly Live / 192k download Palace Records

Brian Eno & Gavin Bryars

Conceptually inspired by Satie, Stockhausen, Cage and others, Brian Eno has reached the touchstone of what would become a pillar in experimental music with Discreet Music. The idea of ambience preceding music per se has been intensely explored by Satie, and taken to extreme with Cage: the concept of form has been perverted throughout his work in aspects such as length, source, harmony and reproductivity.
Eno, allied to Gavin Bryars (and spiritually assisted by Robert Fripp), released Discreet Music in 1975. The process of tapelooping was heavily explored by both Fripp and Eno in previous collaborations. This technique analogically scrutinized the possibilities of pitch and length variations in overdub, with discrete (separate) groups of patterns discreetly (restrainedly) intertwined. Eventually, the announced intention of achieving pictorical sensations was later baptized of Ambient Music.
Albeit being endlessly remembered by the thirty minute plus self-titled track, which effectively landmarked Eno's goals by the use of the referred techniques and concepts, the undervalued ageless second half of the album reached the acme of minimal placidity. 3 variations of Pachelbel's Canon performed by Gavin Bryars' ensemble, remains undeniably influential as observed in several ambient and contemporary classical acts.
Bryars' first solo attempt was recorded in 75 and released the year after by Eno's Obscure label. It gathers much of what he's performed in Discreet Music, in an excellent debut release, disconsidered the exaggerated use of sampled voice in the closing track.



(1975) Brian Eno - Discreet Music / V0
EG Records
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(1976) Gavin Bryars - Sinking of the Titanic/Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet / 320k
Obscure Records
download:
(part 1 / part 2)

SYR

SYR1 (1997) download	SYR2 (1997) download
SYR3 (1997) download	SYR4 (1999) download: part 1 / part 2

SYR5 (2000) download	SYR6 (2005) download: part 1 / part 2

SYR7 (2008) download

ps: ALL V0'S / The original post is now a year old; all the albums were 128k's with dead links.

John Cage

John Cage (performers: Arditti Quartet)
The Complete String Quartets
(1989) Vol. 1, (1992) Vol. 2 / 320k
download:
download: part 1 / part 2 / part 3

John Cage (performers: Dennis Russell Davies and Margaret Leng Tan)
(2000) The Seasons / 320k
download: rapidshare.de / megaupload






John Cage (performer: Frances-Marie Uitti)
(2004) Works for Cello / Lecture on Nothing / V0
download: part1 / part2
ps: I wrongly tagged this album as "Works for Cello". Please correct with the additional title.

DNA

"The title of this EP couldn't be more appropriate, clocking in at less than 10 minutes; ... For fans of ebullient and exciting noise rock, this release will show you where the contemporary Japanese noise bands (e.g., The Boredoms) got their inspiration." (AMG)


(1981) A Taste of DNA / 320k
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NON

Boyd Rice's NON, in a superb dark-ambient album. Absurdly disruptive and unsettling - extreme drone-music.

(2002) Children of the Black Sun / V0
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Dagmar Krause

Canterbury Scene's most notable voice, Dagmar Krause (Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, Art Bears), in her solo debut, sings early twentieth century german theathre music by icons Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hans Eisler. Although far from the rock scenario, Supply & Demand shows Krause's highest vocal qualities, in a no less joyful approach.

(1986) Supply & Demand / 160k
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Today is the Day (repost)

Second album by Steve Austin and Today is the Day, Willpower (Amphetamine Reptile Records) gathers much of Zeni Geva and OLD in this noise-rock / post-hardcore / metal crossover album. The comparisson to K. K. Null and James Plotkin is pertinent since Austin has as well pushed further the boundaries of experimentalism in metal territory. TitD eventually trailed a straight metal path towards the 2000's, except for the amazing Relapse's Sadness will Prevail.

(1994) Willpower / 320k
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Charles Mingus

Another masterpiece from Charles Mingus, this time in big-band format. It was considered by Mingus himself, by the time it was released, his best work to date.

(1972) Let My Children Hear Music
(V0) / download (part1 / part2)