An absolutely genius compilation of Fall's best release "Slates" and the most essential live document in their catalog "A Part of America Therein", which captures the Fall on multiple dates on their 1981 US tour.
The material in Slates is astounding. Every song being an out-of-the-park home run. The fact that Slates is only a 6 song mini-album makes it even stronger because it leaves you wanting more. From the instantly memorable opener "Middle Mass", to "An Older Lover Etc." which has some of MES's funniest lyrics to the barely contained chaos of "Prole Art. Threat", you just can't beat any of the material on here. Essential.
Format: MP3
Bitrate: VBR
Encoded with: LAME 3.97
The Fall - Slates / A Part of America Therein
Hall of Fame - First Came Love, Then Came The Tree
First Came Love, Then Came the Tree finds Hall of Fame further refining their lo-fi, avant-drone aesthetic, adding more warmth, melody, and accessibility to their vocal and instrumental pieces. This doesn't make their music any less intriguing, however -- like their 1996 self-titled album, First Came Love ... covers 11 songs in 34 minutes, yet each of the pieces is more complex and expansive than its length would suggest. The six-minute anti-epic "Little Horsey Rider" ambles along on gentle drones and an almost pastoral violin. Though it builds slightly in volume and atonality as it goes, its gentle drift reaffirms that Hall of Fame's music is more about the trip than the destination. Other delicately hypnotic yet uneasy songs, such as the album closer "Angelski" and "Come on Baby, Light My Fire," hang like a fog, immersing the listener in the group's sensuous melodies and lo-fi production values. Indeed, the simmering, Krautrock-influenced "Vermillion," which mixes murky bass and guitar with tinny, crackling percussion, is a perfect example of how Hall of Fame uses lo-fi as an artistic choice, not necessarily because they weren't able to make the album sound cleaner because they lacked the funds or ability. The deliberately grainy sound leads to other interesting textures, such as the strangely watery percussion and insistent thumb piano on "The Hubris of the Dream Input-Applique," which sounds like an avant-garde gamelan; likewise, the rattling, asymmetrical percussion on tracks like "Rival" and "VF" give them a slightly exotic tinge. First Came Love, Then Came the Tree's more experimental moments are balanced by the group's relatively poppy vocal-based songs, which range from Samara Labriski's dreamy, hushed "Fatter Leaner" and "Paper Thin" to the near-traditional ballad "Lucifer." While the album isn't a big departure from Hall of Fame's other work, First Came Love, Then Came the Tree is just that much more inviting, making it a good introduction to their fascinating sound.
Format: MP3
Bitrate: VBR
Encoded with: LAME 3.96
Update
Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of updates recently... I hope to get back into full swing soon and start updating at the same rate that I used to back in the Kiwi Tapes days.
It's been brought to my attention that people are unhappy with my use of Send Space. I am definitely open to suggestions and I will use anything else except for DivShare.
Please leave a comment letting me know your preference... thanks!
The Shallows - Suzanne Said
This was originally posted on Kiwi Tapes as a vinyl rip, and now I have found a much better copy. This is sadly the only release cut by Roy Montgomery's post-Pin Group band The Shallows. These two tracks continue the progression of that idea, and rank just as highly in my mind as the best of that group's output.
Kiwi Tapes
Over the past week, I have actually toyed with the idea of bringing back my old blog Kiwi Tapes to post additional new New Zealand material that I have. By posting Gate's amazing "Wisher Table" yesterday you can see that I have instead opted to just keep everything on this blog as kiwi rock and lo-fi are very similar in aesthetic. You can expect a more Kiwi posts in the future, along with stuff that is along the lines of what I have already been posting. If you have any kiwi albums you'd like to contribute please email me at: decrepittapes -at- gmail.com
I will not take any requests of any kind nor will I will be doing any re-uploading, no matter how much you beg for it so save yourself the trouble and don't even ask.
Link Wray - The Swan Singles Collection
A collection of all of the singles that Link Wray recorded from 1963-1967, which is arguably his most productive and influential period. Link Wray may never get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but his contribution to the language of rockin' guitar would still be a major one, even if he had never walked into another studio after cutting "Rumble." Quite simply, Link Wray invented the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists. Listen to any of the tracks he recorded between that landmark instrumental in 1958 through his Swan recordings in the early '60s and you'll hear the blueprints for heavy metal, thrash, you name it. To put it blunty: Link Wray rocked harder than anyone else from his era.
Emeralds - Allegory of Allergies (c120)
Using guitars, synths, tapes and who knows what else, the Emeralds drench the listener in languid waves of liquid drone. The sounds ebb and roll like audio mercury filling up your ear canals. Forget ambient, this is audio Nyquil and a fist full of Xanax. And that's not to say you'll be put to sleep, just completely hammered by the tones. Every track's a winner and no filler in sight.
One of the few underground bands that truly live up to the buzz around them. If you dig old Nurse With Wound, definitely check it out.
Vinyl version to be released very soon on Weird Forest: www.weirdforest.com
Gate - The Wisher Table
This release from New Zealand noise rock guitarist Michael Morley completes a trilogy for the Table of the Elements label that began with the drone masterpiece The Dew Line and was followed the equally impressive, if a little off kilter, Monolake. The third installment is a continuation the desolate themes of isolation that made the previous records discomforting explorations of lucid guitar texture's and rambled vocal desperation. The vague song forms reflect the music of his other project, Dead C, in some manner, yet, at the same, that is probably the only other comparison to this unique brand of noise shaping, feedback-drenched minor-key strum underlined by droning loops and the noise of corroding speakers. Like fellow New Zealand noise groups Rain and Flies Inside the Sun, Gate's charm lies in the apparent homemade isolation that gives them a tone unlike anything else. Such outlandish experimentation could not occur in the calculation of a studio environment, like a feedback-drenched minor-key strum underlined by droning loops and the noise of corroding speakers. Somehow this is a little hard to hold the attention, yet, as whole, this record is fine and bold statement, and is certainly a vital album in the spectrum of '90s post-rock and noise music. That Gate has worked with guitarist Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth may give an indication of the six string-havoc on offer here.
Strapping Fieldhands - Gobs On The Midway: Singles 1991-1995
Imagine that Syd Barrett and the Bonzo Dog Band had been born in Stinking Creek, KY, and joined forces to create bizarre, darkly humorous backwoods psychedelia in a variety of styles. Or that the Holy Modal Rounders decided to go electric and sing with fake British accents. Or that there was a time in the early '90s when groups as dissimilar as Guided By Voices, Tall Dwarfs, and Freakwater could be somehow lumped together. The latter is, of course, the real-life environment into which the Strapping Fieldhands sprang with a series of cracked singles on the Siltbreeze label, something of an American version of New Zealand's Xpressway. Gobs on the Midway compiles 17 songs from these singles, from the nearly straightforward rocker "October Kentucky" to "Ol' Jimmy Cole," which sounds like a manipulated country blues field recording. "Mysterious Girl" and "Eggs in the Reservoir" suggest a hillbilly incarnation of XTC bashing away in a machine shed, and are among the more conventional tracks on the collection. This is unusual and interesting stuff far removed from the tame alt-country suggested by its rustic trappings.
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