Man or Astro-Man? - Is It... Man or Astro-Man?

1993; 14 tracks

Man or Astro-Man? is an amazing surf rock/electronic/punk group from Auburn, Alabama. Created by college students Birdstuff, Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard, and Star Crunch, Man or Astro-Man? firmly believes they are aliens sent to Earth from the universe solely to play surf rock. Is It... Man or Astro-Man? is the group's first album, and the only one I've heard so far, but it's so so good.

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Men's Recovery Project - The Golden Triumph of Naked Hostility

1997; 60 tracks

Men's Recovery Project is an experimental/avant-garde musical group formed in San Francisco, 1993. This record is an assembly of tracks from 72s and one micro-EP put out between 1993 and 1998, during which years the group obviously spent time expressing themselves in dozens of styles. Among this mix of genres is the harsh post-hardcore familiar to early MRP records, as well as a few more synthesized (hardly melodic) tracks. My favorite tracks are the more sciencey, robotic, chaotic, and strange ones, like "Rude Scientist."

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Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson

1971; 7 tracks

Many of you have probably heard this before, it being a 40 year old album. But still, it must be said - it is an iconic album, one everyone must hear at least once! Serge Gainsbourg was a French singer/songwriter, among many other things. Histoire de Melody Nelson, Gainsbourg's 12th album, is conceptualized around a young girl named Melody Nelson. More info on the album's interesting and romantic plot can be found here. The entire album is silmultaneously sweetly beautiful and very sexy, but "Ballade de Melody Nelson," the second track, is easily the most tender and melancholy.

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DJ /rupture - Uproot

2008; 23 tracks

DJ /rupture is New York-based electronic/breakcore artist Jace Clayton. Uproot is a very diverse mix album, combining dubstep, classical, reggae, and other urban dance genres. The tracks flow seamlessly as the album progresses, with a few gentler tunes to complement the intensity of the others.

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Purchase

Dornenreich - Flammenmensch

Incredible. I am so so so so so excited for the new album Flammentriebe (14.2.11). Dornenreich has made it evident that their creativity, talent, expressiveness, and passion knows no bounds. Not even Herr von welken Nächten sounds this good!

Bowery Electric - Bowery Electric

1995; 9 tracks

Bowery Electric is the first album by shoegaze/ambient group Bowery Electric. It really might be my new favorite shoegaze album ever, Loveless aside. The spacey feel, the prominent bass, the dreampoppy vocals - it feels like being by the sea at night time. Dark, repetitive, and utterly hypnotic, the tracks can, at times, become indistinguishible from each other. This only intensifies the ambient beauty of Bowery Electric's brand of droned-out shoegaze. I don't really know what else to say... "Another Road" is an amazing track.

awake but numb

Philip Glass - Dracula

1999; 26 tracks
Kronos Quartet

Prolific modern classical composer Philip Glass has created a live accompaniment to Browning's 1931 film Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi. While the film is not a 'silent film,' there being dialogue and a few selections from Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, Glass intended the score to accompany the film. Though I prefer the deathly silence of the film, its startingly bare landscape, devoid of gore, blood, and thrills, merges quite well with this minimalist score for strings.

undead, undead