lonely. i feel like i've lost all will to find new music, to listen to it, to upload it, to share it. please give me some new things to work off of. please listen to this too.

Hey Colossus - Hates You and You and You

2004; 5 tracks

Killer and heavy band's killer and heavy debut album that was completely enjoyable to listen to.

Download.

The Protomen - Act II: The Father of Death

2009; 12 tracks

Act II: The Father of Death is a truly moving album about Megaman. Perhaps it sounds lame, or the cover looks a bit cheesy. The truth is, it brought tears to my eyes. This powerful album is epic in every sense of the word - building upon The Protomen's fantastic debut album and, here, creating a masterpiece.

Download
Purchase

High Wolf - Incapulco

2009; 7 tracks

High Wolf is a neo-psychedelia/electronic project from France that is absolutely incredible! According to Last.fm, High Wolf "uses loops, percussive sounds, fuzzy keyboards and obscure sunken melodies to create a ritual space that combines aspects of exotica, ethno-flux, drone and minimalism." I hope that caught your interest.

Download
Purchase

Songs of Green Pheasant - Gyllyng Street

2007; 7 tracks

This soft, beautiful, perfect album by Songs of Green Pheasant, aka Duncan Sumpner, literally makes me feel at home. His style is likened to those of Devendra Banhart, Múm, and Vetiver, among others... There is such a comfort in the gentle melodies here, the whale-like sounds of the ocean and unearthly picturesque scenes full of sights and smells reminiscent of the woods.. His soft, luxurious vocals add to the whispy atmosphere. Breezy, dream-like and enchanting music emanates from Little Hours. Highly recommended. "A Sketch For Maenporth" is definitely a highlighting track for me - it is exactly the kind of ambience I've been looking for in such a long time.

Download
Purchase

Jandek - Interstellar Discussion

1984; 15 tracks

Jandek is a one-of-a-kind musician, artist, visionary. His music is both haunting and comforting - spectacular and, yet, misunderstood. Listen to this album and soak yourself in the dark, cold, outsider energy of Jandek's off-putting voice and lonesome guitar.

Download.

Spokane - Little Hours

2007; 10 tracks

Little Hours is the patient sheen of stillness after a short, violent burst of intention. The lingering, resonant decay of a nail being hammered into wood. A piano laden marriage of small hopes and quiet violence.

In Church Hill, a borough of Richmond, Virginia, there is a small yellow cottage. Next to the cottage is an austere replica of a mid-nineteenth century, white Federal period house. The members of Spokane hand built the structure over the course of 2006 while recording and revising their first new album in four years, Little Hours. The record is both a document of and an aural parallel to that difficult, meticulous process. In the emotional vein of folk singer Jackson C. Frank with the textural emaciation of composers Zbigniew Preisner and Morton Feldman, the songs themselves are hinged on concepts of failure and stillborn ideas, on the conflicted process of building or birthing a cerebral image into the world. There are the echoes of insistent cats running through the skeletal frame of the house, pillaged, infant birds in their mouths, left half-dead at the foot of the hole where the stair would be. The brutal gutting of the earth to build a foundation wall of concrete and brick, by sheer will and intent and arrogance. There is the crude muscling of lifted walls that block out the sun and obscure the trees. And the thought of future inhabitants, laughing and arguing and sitting, each alone, the ghosts of these songs wilting and remnant in the air. - UntitledTwo

Download
Purchase

For Phonsie...

September 22, 1993 - October 21, 2010

Alphonso Batista, also known as PhonSiE, Phonsie22, and Phonsietm, died on Thursday, October 21, 2010. The decision was his own - there is no one to blame. He contributed to this blog fairly regularly for a few months, but I eventually encouraged him to create his own blog in order to "fly away from the nest." He has also been a regular contributor to sites such as last.fm, what.cd, and rym. Phonsie lived a guarded life, one of seclusion and loneliness, but there was one thing no one could say he didn't love: music. It accompanied him throughout the many trials of his life, and kept him connected to the person he truly wanted to be. He often said that the identity most people knew him as was not genuinely him - it was his "fake conciousness." Perhaps no one can ever know what he meant by this, but it was clear to me from the first time we met that his goal in life, his True Will, was not that of a normal teenager. He did not attend traditional school, preferring methods of self-examination, some of which were self-destructive. No one and nothing could dissuade him, however, from utilizing all that he had available to him in the accomplishment of his Will. This was his choice, and now I can only pray and hope that this was a step closer to that which he wanted most in life - the destruction of the fake conciousness.

Fuck off with your religious practices and false sympathetic nothings. His death proved that the philosophies of modern life take away all meaning from the pursuits of the mind. Phonsie understood this. Though they aren't precisely comparable, Phonsie often reminded me of Geff Rushton, aka Jhonn Balance, of Coil. Nearly nothing in modern life can assist one whose mind is so in tune with unseen, unspoken things of both this world and the one he/she his/herself have created. Both men saught after the writings and intellectual meanderings of those who many disbelieved or wrote off as crazy in an attempt to recapture that ancient logic of rejecting the world around you and creating some sort of "utopia" inside. In the case of Jhonn Balance, the result was clearly the experimental project Coil. In the case of Phonsie, the results are not yet known - or are they?

I do not assume that I am fully aware or understanding of every thought or idea Phonsie ever possessed. I do, however, claim that I knew him better than almost anyone did. Even though I abused this privelege, or ability, I still held it - he told me almost everything he thought and shared nearly every experience with me. I am saddened by his passing and will continue to mourn his loss and remember his family but, finally, this is not the end. Yes, he is dead. It is certain now. Even so, I believe that death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.

I've created a mix of both Phonsie's favorite songs and tracks that, to us, were music of the moon. This is my final say - my final flower resting upon the grave of my friend.




1. Death in June - The Giddy Edge of Light
2. Current 93 - To Blackened Earth
3. Boduf Songs - Left Behind Like a Piece of Shit
4. Colleen - I Was Deep in a Dream and Didn't Know It
5. Gasp - Eating the Translucent Old Folk's Village
6. Rudi Arapahoe - Every Time I Sleep
7. Grails - Belgian Wake-Up Drills
8. Swans - In My Garden
9. The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud - Amara Tanta Tyri XIII
10. Supreme Dicks - Swell Song
11. Belbury Poly - The Willows
12. Teenage Larvae - Past, Present, Future
13. Air - Alone in Kyoto
14. Henry's Dress - Feathers
15. Zero Kama - Azure-lidded Woman (Pregnant Womb Of Non)
16. Coil - Batwings (A Limnal Hymn)

I dream of colour music.

The Skull Defekts - The Temple

2009; 8 tracks

My friend told me about this album, and once I listened, I knew exactly why. The Temple is an intensely powerful album that just blew me away.

The Skull Defekts have made a rock record unlike any other I've heard. It's sexmagic. It's powerthrill. It's everything a rock record should be. I had no idea what I was missing until I heard this. The percussion is so tribal and propulsive and the guitars are buzzing electric raw. This is the record you crank all the way up and fucking pound your chest to. - Anti-Gravity Bunny

Download
Purchase

Sol Invictus - Lex Talionis

1993; 12 tracks

This might be one of the coldest, darkest, and most piercing apocalyptic folk/indutrial albums I've ever heard. The intro to "Black Easter" (indeed, the entire track) is sheer, visceral brilliance.

Download
Purchase

Pink Mountaintops - Axis of Evol

2006; 7 tracks

Download
Purchase

The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge

1983; 12 tracks

Script of the Bridge is a stunningly dark and beautiful album that explores many different moods and feelings. The more upbeat songs remind of The Cure's early efforts, although songs like "Don't Fall" and "Paper Tigers" shed some of the unabashed post-punk aggression and gothic atmosphere found on those albums in favor of warmer feelings and emphasis on beautiful melodies and soundscapes. Fielding and Smithies masterfully craft beautiful textures that envelop the listener in a dreamy wall of sound, while Burgess delivers a vocal performance that ranges from passionate to desperate as necessary. Alistair Lewthwaite provides a final touch, tastefully played keyboards that add another dimension to the album. Overall, the band is very tight and they really play well together.

Script of the Bridge is a much overlooked album that is an essential part of the British post-punk movement. You can still hear the impact of The Chameleons in many newer bands even today, but they have yet to be equaled at their craft. It's not just a trick of the light. This album is an absolute classic that is not to be missed. - Implications.

Download / Purchase

Please listen to the following musics.

1. Angelo Badalamenti - The City of Lost Children Soundtrack

2. Carbon Based Lifeforms - World of Sleepers

3. Kauan - Lumikuuro

4. Coil - Musick to Play in the Dark, Vol. 2

5. dredg - El Cielo

6. Lullatone - Plays Pajama Pop Pour Vous

7. Lungfish - Feral Hymns

8. Air - Talkie Walkie

9. Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element, Pt. 1

10. Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun

11. Deadboy & the Elephantmen - If This is Hell, Then I'm Lucky Demo

12. Rome - Flowers From Exile

13. Why? - Oaklandazulasylum

14. Einstürzende Neubauten - Silence is Sexy

15. Le Le - Flage

16. Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas

17. Novembre - Materia

18. Lifelover - Erotik

19. The Angels of Light - We Are Him

20. Isis - Wavering Radiant

Zouzou - L'intégrale

2003; 21 tracks

Here is a collection of 60s songs sung by Zouzou (Danièle Ciarlet). She's a French ye-ye/pop artist and she's fantastic. I've been listening to Chantal Goya, and I thought she was good, but Zouzou is even more spectacular. Particular highlights from that album are 'L'Heroiene' and 'Mes Convenances' (ye-ye + punk?!!), but there's a handful of other beautiful songs too.

Download.

Mew - And the Glass Handed Kites

2005; 16 tracks

God I fucking love this album. I find the album cover a little annoying and weird-looking, but who cares. I listened to it non-stop in the spring/summer of 2008... I have so many dumb memories associated with it though, I hate it when that happens -.- Anyway, it's basically the epitome of beauty and power, and definitely my favorite Mew album. No one can deny that tracks like "Special," "The Zookeeper's Boy," and "White Lips Kissed" are absolutely essential to understanding and appreciating life and it's many wonders - one of them being this marvelous Danish band Mew.

.....

Gasp - Drome Triler Of Puzzle Zoo People

1998; 16 tracks

This is one of the most beautiful powerviolence albums I've ever heard. From the beginning to the end it is a masterpiece.

Download.

Darius Milhaud - Piano Music

1997; 26 tracks
Francoise Choveaux, piano

Darius Milhaud was a member of that group Les Six, so his style is similar to that of Satie's. That said, I think Milhaud's solo piano music is even more delightful and charming that Satie's - it has a marvelous vibrance and an... exotic-ness that Satie lacks. This is most likely due to Milhaud's travels to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1917. He went there to work in the diplomatic entourage of his friend, the poet Paul Claudel, who was serving as the French ambassador to Brazil at the time. Inspired by the country's tropical landscape and rich culture, Milhaud seemed to have been particularly intrigued by the rhythm of Brazilian popular music, and the elusive, mournful, and liquid way Brazilian performers played this music.

The piano music of Milhaud takes me to his world and transforms every one of my senses to his. Listening to Milhaud I can feel the warm sunlight, taste the cold fruit, hear the birds calling, smell the earthen ground... and it calms me.

Milhaud once remarked that while he gazed into the heavens at night he "would feel rays and tremors converging on [him] from all points in the sky and from below the ground, simultaneous musics rushing towards [him] from all directions."

He expressed this ideal of simultaneity in his music with a technique called polytonality, the superimposition of chords and melodies in different keys.This collection of his piano music, and most importantly the 12 Saudades do Brazil, or "Fond Remembrances of Brazil," is incredibly stunning.

Download.

Erik Satie - Cubist Works & Le Fils des Étoiles

2007; 38 tracks
Ronald Corp / Cologne Symphony Orchestra
Bojan Gorisek, piano

Although this music cannot and should not be considered truly "cubist," for whatever technique one might use to create "cubist music" Satie didn't use, Satie was a strong proponent of the style as well as a friend to the painter most readily associated with Cubism, Pablo Picasso.

This program includes the two large collaborations between Satie and Picasso, the ballets Parade (1917) and Mercure (1924) in both their piano and orchestral versions, along with three short pieces; the organ "Divertissement: La Statue Retrouvée," written for a masquerade ball that contained a short choreography with designs by Picasso, and "Trois Valses distinguées du précieux dégoûté," a suite written as a malicious jab at Ravel's stately piece.

Erik Satie's schizophrenic body of work has resisted canonization by the classical establishment in favor of avant-garde adulation and popular ubiquity: by turns, he’s either Vexations, paving the way for aleatory and process music, or he’s the superb, cinematic mood music of Gymnopédies. In the vacillation between these poles, we find the notion of "Furniture Music," which, as Brian Eno would articulate much later, is as excellent as it is ignorable. This recording draws out the explicit links between Satie’s work and the frenetic, sectarian art world of Paris in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Download.



2008; 17 tracks
Claire Chevallier, piano

The aim of this rather challenging disc, according to pianist Claire Chevallier in her erudite, thoughtful, and yet entertaining booklet notes, is to demonstrate "the existence of a continuous line of thought in Satie's life." The line of thought under discussion is Satie's unorthodox spirituality, which was by all accounts closely linked to his music. This murky, incantory yet rigorous recording highlights the mystic spirituality of Satie.

He flirted with Rosicrucianism (in a distinctive Parisian sect also attractive to Debussy) but loved to visit Notre-Dame. Later he founded a single-member church of his own, which he called the "Eglise Métropolitaine d'Art de Jésus Conducteur." The musical counterparts to these ideas were stark harmonies and modal tunes derived from Satie's studies of chant and medieval music. A lovely CD that features a beautiful look at both Satie's well-known works and his more cerebral.

Download.

anbb (Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld) - Ret Marut Handshake Vinyl

2010; 5 tracks

Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld, two of the most fascinating German experimental musicians of today, unite for this stunning new collaborative venture - anbb. These two seemingly strange bedfellows have long admired one another's work and the project has itself been a long-term concern, in development since 2007. Bargeld lends his vocal to Nicolai's soundscapes, a formula that in theory might lead to an end product resembling Alan Vega's work with Pan Sonic. There is, however, something rather more immediately synergetic about this project, and Bargeld's voice embeds itself very naturally within Nicolai's seemingly inhospitable, yet ever-inscrutable production.

Download.

Helium - The Dirt of Luck

1995; 12 tracks

Dark, melancholy, blistering, bissful, flawless.

You are a beautiful thing

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - The 3 Ballets

The Nutcracker, Op. 71 - Complete Ballet

1998; 24 tracks
Valery Gergiev / Kirov Orchestra

I have only just begun to listen to Tchaikovsky (intensely), and The Nutcracker has become my favourite. I also listened to his 6th Symphony which is a masterpiece of melancholy. These are some highly nostalgic pieces that I believe will astound and enthrall you. I also just found the complete Sleeping Beauty Ballet hiding in my closet, hmm....

Although Gergiev is highly experienced in the theater, and he is leading an opera-ballet orchestra, this is definitely a concert Nutcracker. Tempos are brisk, textures streamlined, and dancers might have a good deal of difficulty keeping up with the music. For us home listeners, though, this is a superb way to hear Tchaikovsky's complete score and to remind ourselves of how much good music isn't included in the familiar suite. Gergiev justifies his reputation as an interpreter and as an orchestra leader, getting amazingly precise playing from the ensemble. I am especially glad that this is a complete recording of the ballet, are there are magical moments in each section that deserve recognition at all times.

Download.


Swan Lake, Op. 20 - Complete Ballet

1989; 49 tracks
Leonard Slatkin / Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra

The story behind Swan Lake purportedly began as a little ballet called The Lake of the Swans that Tchaikovsky wrote for his family in 1871. Then, when he received the commission, Tchaikovsky added Russian and German folk tales for his sources, the general plot based on a story by the German author Johann Karl August Musäus. One of the salient points about Tchaikovsky writing it is that critics now consider it the first ballet composed by a writer who had previously worked almost exclusively in the symphonic field. Thus, if Swan Lake sounds more "symphonic" in structure, composition, and themes than earlier ballets, there is a reason. (taken from here)

Disc 1
Disc 2


Sleeping Beauty Suite, Op. 66

1996; 5 tracks
Mstislav Rostropovich / Berliner Philharmoniker

Shortly after recording these three ballet suites in 1978, Mstislav Rostropovich likened conducting the Berlin Philharmonic to driving a locomotive. You get on, and you go where it takes you, he said - but in this case, the orchestra went where he wanted it to go. The playing is magnificent, but it is the characterization, the things Rostropovich gets the players to do that they wouldn't otherwise have done, that makes these accounts so memorable. As you listen, you are transported to a different world, for no conductor understands Tchaikovsky's soul better than Rostropovich. The delicacy is amazing, the power overwhelming (taken from here)

This is only the Sleeping Beauty Suite from the complete suite set originally recorded on the CD.

Download.