Coil - Love's Secret Domain

RIP Peter Christopherson part II

a little more psychedelic / industrial than The Ape Of Naples, with some acid house influence. as such i personally don't find it as emotionally powerful, however it is still definitely an amazing album.

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Coil - The Ape of Naples

RIP Peter Christopherson

more people need to listen to Coil. start with this album. dark, beautiful, emotional ambient / electronic / industrial music.

MP3 320

Television - Marquee Moon

my favourite album at this point in time. post-punk released in 1977, yet sadly this went mostly unnoticed in terms of mainstream popularity. the guitarwork is sublime, the drumming is not overly technical yet stellar and the vocalist is unique and passionate. the whole thing goes from catchy and fun as hell (See No Evil, Friction) to beautiful and touching (Elevation, Torn Curtain). get it.

MP3 320

Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

despite mostly being labelled as black metal, which is probably a turnoff for many people, Agalloch's 2010 album is quite beautiful in its own chaotic way, with the heaviness and raw fury of black metal mixing with softer folk elements. i'm still sort of undecided about it but everyone seems to love it so i might as well post it.

MP3 192 (will change later.)

Mimas - Lifejackets

Mimas' second and most recent albums sees them losing a lot of the depressing undertones of their previous album, The Worries. most of the tracks on Lifejackets (one or two wouldn't be out of place on The Worries) are upbeat and creative takes on post-rock / indie with subtle yet impressive guitarwork. the vocalist's voice has become deeper and on many songs he adopts a sort of sing-along style which, for me, took some time to get used to but is a nice change. while i think The Worries is probably better this is still a great album that will hopefully make these guys more well-known and appreciated.

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Igorrr - Nostril

if a mixture of IDM / breakcore / death metal / classical music sounds like something you'd enjoy, listen to this album. if you think it sounds like a joke, listen to it anyway... somewhat surprisingly, it works. i imagine this album will be considered very polarizing (it's only been out for a day or so) due to the mixture of very differing music genres. personally i can't recommend it enough.

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Fridge - Ceefax

Fridge's 1997 debut Ceefax is certainly an oddity of a post-rock release. Fridge were, along with Tortoise, one of the first bands to incorporate elements of electronica into their music, which are most prominently shown in the trio of 'Edm' tracks. Ceefax is a strange album full of interesting electronics as well as a few rockier tracks, all wrapped together with, curiously enough for a fairly heavily electronic album, lo-fi production.

MP3 320

Indian Summer - Science 1994

Indian Summer were a short-lived emo/post-hardcore band around in the early to mid 90s (there is a self-titled Indian Summer album from 1971 floating around. this is a different Indian Summer. it is not good). they lasted for a year and then broke up, which is a shame because they made some pretty great music. the Science 1994 anthology (consisting of only 9 songs...) is their only release unless you count live albums. Indian Summer mostly play post-hardcore similar to Drive Like Jehu with vicious guitar riffs and anguished vocals, but they stand out from other post-hardcore bands with their ability to go from aggressive madness to a much softer, melancholy sound, often within the same song, giving them a distinctive and varied sound.

MP3 320

Daniel Striped Tiger - Capital Cities

Capital Cities follows screamo / math rock-ish band Daniel Striped Tiger's aggressive and technical Condition, and with this they enter into a quite different style of music. the album is a bit slower and calmer than their previous release, though the tremendous passion is still present and the guitar riffs are as technical and creative as ever.

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Dead Elephant - Lowest Shared Descent

Dead Elephant create music that is as dark (and at times as subtle) as their name. the band switches between a mixture of sludge / hardcore (sometimes featuring a saxophone) and dark, gritty industrial / noise passages, and overall it plays out like an Oxbow album, which i personally love. it's probably only for fans of sludge, though.

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Brasstronaut - Old World Lies

Old World Lies is a short EP released a couple of years before the lovely Mt. Chimaera, one of my favourite albums this year. the majority of the songs lean towards the more melancholy side of the band, focusing on piano and brass (obviously) melodies, and also featuring a demo of Insects, the fantastic 8 minute closer of Mt. Chimaera.

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Satanicpornocultshop - Ugh Yoing

one of the bizarrely named Satanicpornocultshop's first albums, Ugh Yoing is an extremely glitchy mess of an album. constantly cycling through a combination of glitchy breaks, hip-hop and a Ghostbusters sample every now and then, this album never fails to captivate you despite being over an hour long. while it might give some people a headache it's definitely interesting and fun music.

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Æther - Artifacts

Artifacts is a curious trip-hop album i recently discovered. 15 tracks of glitchy hip-hop that also retains a glitchy quality. the songs are for the most part very short and rush by, making the album constantly interesting, though at times it did leave me wanting more considering it's only 38 minutes long. very easy on the ears and a lovely album to listen to lying in bed.

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Converge - Axe To Fall

"what the fuck nick, is that the vocalist? why do you listen to this shit"

-my friend on Converge

Axe To Fall is Converge's latest album, and this release the wall-of-sound days of Jane Doe are definitely over. that isn't a bad thing, however. adopting more of a death metal influence, ATF is filled with heavy guitarwork (with a few solos thrown in) and Bannon's trademark vocals form more of a snarl than a scream yet are as vicious and unintelligible as ever. the drummer Ben Koller is also a standout, pounding out some incredible rhythms.

the last two tracks are somewhat of a departure for Converge; Cruel Bloom features Steve Von Till of Neurosis fame, not contributing to a sludgy song but instead creating an odd country-ish piece. the final song, Wretched World, also features Genghis Tron on what is a soft, almost ambient track. these songs may take a while to get used to but did grow on me, despite seeming somewhat out of place.

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