Daan - profools

To conclude the Daan week, as it turned out to be, his album profools. This album was recorded at his home, he did everything on his own from recording to cover. Ot is definetely lo fi stuff but it never bothers. Great stuff! If you liked " Berchem" from dead man ray, you will love this as well!

Dead man ray - Marginal ep (2001)

Some more dead man ray for all of you kids, guys, girls, women, sheep, ...

23 tracks, 45 minutes, early demoversions, rough skeches of songs, a cover from the song kiliwatch by the band " the cousins", some songs from " at the drop of a hat", some live recordings.

Allthough this is conceived as an ep this could well be a full album! The cover art is a trash can, that is what this album is, left over songs from different stages of the band before they went on to record CAGO with producer Steve Albini.

Dead man ray - Trap (2000)

Some more dead man ray! Tomorrow I will post the marginal ep.

It seems like this is turning into a Daan week!

Dead man ray - Berchem ( 1998)

I was watching the belpop docu about Daan yesterday and was amazed by this man's genius, so I decided to upload all the Dead man ray albums I have. This is their first effort, after Daan met Rudy Trouvé in an Antwerp bar and they started talking about music and four track recorders, they decided to work something out. Daan was at that time somewhat of the laughing stock in the Antwerp scene. He went from rock tot pop to new wave to kitsch to awful music that was only ment to become famous. He was surprised someone like Rudy Trouvé ( deus) wanted to talk and work with him. They came up with dead man ray, Daan is the one in charge of the great album covers, he is a graphic artist as well. The music is low fi as low fi can be. Very intimate and breath taking stuff!

Ashlar - enthroned in a so-called heaven

I am still in a hardcore mood, therefore here are some more fine hardcore tunes from Ashlar, a Limburg based band playing metallic hardcore in H8000 Style.

More tunes coming up later today!

Dead man ray - Cago 2003

Dead man ray was a Belgian indie band, the base of the music was experimentation, not so strange when you know the band consists of Daan Stuyven ( Daan); Rudy Trouvé ( dEUS, Kiss my jazz, Liolel Horowitz, ...), Herman Houbrechts ( Nemo), Elko Blyweert ( Kiss my jazz, jazz musician), Mauro Pawlowski joined the band later on( dEUS, the evil superstars, ...).

Anyway, this is something you have to have heard, great stuff!

Uploading right now!

Dan Auerbach (Black Keys) - Vacilando territory blues (09)

Dan Auerbach from black keys going solo and doing a great job as a singer songwriter. Nice album to have a chat among friends and to let the music slowly sink into your brain. m4a format!

Link added

H8000: Spineless

Thanks to arnenra for the link, this is just fantastic stuff, two former members of spineless went on to form amenra, one member was responsible for the yoda magazine back in the early nineties I believe, anyway, great band this is! full H8000 stuff.

Folder consists of the "painfields" mcd and the full album "a talk between me and the stars".

Firekites - the bowery (2009)

Experimental, campfire songs, folk, violin, some nice handclaps ( I really love that in a song!), some electronica, some doomy athmosphere, ... Well it should be clear that this debut from the Australian band is something nice an good and is hard to put a label on, which I like by the way!

Link is up.

H8000 part three: Kindred, spirit of youth, clouded, death before disco

Some more stuff from H8000/Goodlife.

Kindred - file 01, brilliant album this is about animal rights and straight edge. This is to be sung along with conviction, I know I did back in the days.

Spirit of youth/one king down split cd: great classic H8000 band, bandmembers played akso in solid and later on the Denolf brothers went on to form blood redemption.

Death before disco - party bullet: somewhere between poison the well and converge, post hardcore stuff.

Clouded - inheritence: new school hardcore

The noisettes - what's the time mr. Wolf? (mp4)

Very catchy indie punk, good stuff!

Watch it this is an mp4 file!

H8000 part two: Sektor, Vitality, Kindred, Culture

I was planning on uploading this in the future but since this was a request, here it is. 5 albums in this folder! All brutal H8000 hardcore.

Sektor was a great band, very heavy, very brutal, classic H8000, this is death metal and hardcore drenched in a straight edge bath

Vitality was in the same line as sektor but the sound is more full in my opinion. Same ingredients as Sektor.

Kindred another H8000 band, different style, more metallic and again not, these vocals are heartdrenched, they come from the inside, they are not just a way to sing, proclaim but they are ment to make you think combined with the groove and the violet dancing those were quite some shows back then. On this split album they share the bill with Culture. An American straight edge band with great grooves, militant vocals and a massive following in Belgium. When they performed each song was sung along like it was a hymn. I saw some crazy things happening with people when they took the stage! I remember they switched singers with Morning Again at certain time, later on a couple of members went to form As Friend Rust, another popular band over here back then.

One more H8000 part left for now, I will up that later this week.

Like Kool Keith requested in the comments, if there is anyone out there with some recordings from the Antwerp scene back then Thums down,( with crazy Steven and Raf) Rain, Between the lines, ... It will be appreciated.

Link is up! Have fun.

God help the girl - God help the girl (2009)

Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian) came up with the idea to make a movie while touring. Before the movie was/is ready he wanted to record the songs for the movie. He came up with the idea of a contest to let some undiscovered talent sing the songs. Out of three woman ha chose for Catherine Ireton who seems to be blessed ith a heavenly sound! The songs are in the line of belle and sebastian, at times there is a orchest present consisting of 45 people and it all sounds like a female version of the last shadow puppets, but that is a good thing!

Reiziger part two

Some more albums from this great band, this folder includes Our Kodo LP, Don't bind my hands 12" and Grab and nailed 7". If you got both folders, you will have everything from this band and you can die happy.

Thanks to Christophe!

Uploading done

H8000 part one, Congress, negate, blindfold, deformity

I have been rediscovering my roots of hardcore, back in the days I used to order all my stuff through mailorder or buy it at the shows I went to every week. In the through hardcore spirit I decided about ten years back that I had to share the music and gave it away to the hardcore kids of the village I lived in back then. Now I got a hold of it again and I was amazed that I still remembered the lyrics, I can still sing a long, I can still mosh it up, I can still do the windmills ... but I have to pay for it. The day after all my muscles are sore, I cannot place one foot in front of the other without feeling pain. Getting older is a bitch!

In this folder there are some great albums:

Blindfold - Asteroid

Congress - Euridium

Congress - Angry at the sun

Deformity - Misanthrope

Negate - Enemy

Maybe you need some explanation about the bands.

First there is the genre defining title of H8000. This comes from the postal code where most of the bands came from, during a brief period, the area around Kortijk, Ieper, was blooming with some of the best hardcorebands in Europe. The term is pronounced as Hate thousand. The music is a blend of metal, death metal and hardcore, mostly rooted in the straight edge scene.

Congress for exemple was labelled as "edge metal", blend of hardcore and death and straight edge.

Anyway, labels are not that important I believe.

Blindfold - Asteroid play a thriving mix of hardcore and emo, they really know how to find the groove in the music, hard heavy and groovy! Fantastic songs, saw them live and that was an exhausting experience.

Congress - euridium ep + angry towards the sun is an edgemetal band, very heavy, great riffing and an enormous power. One of the bands that defined the genre back in the days. The lyrics mattered as well!

Negate - enemy is a great band, very heavy, fantastic vocals and amazing songs

Deformity - Misanthrope is probably my favourite, actually these guys were hardcore as hell, but the music wa sa perfect mix of death metal and a bit of hardcore. Groovy like hell, fast when it needed to be, heavier then a ten pound hammer, fantastic growls and shriking vocals!

Hey, it should be clear to you this is some great stuff, even if you don't know hardcore, H8000 stuff or whatever, I think you should try it out. If you are in a destroying mood, this will absolutely help you out!

I still remeber going to a festival mid nineties with a friend of mine, The Ieper fest when it was still held at the vort'n vis in something that looked like a barn. Me and my friend were the only kids drinking beer that day. It didn't stop us and we respected the straight edge kids and they respected us for drinking. Those were the days!

Uploading in progress!

American hardcore dvd

Great documentary about de hardcore punk scene back in the eighties, you will encounter bands like AF, Black Flag, Flipper, Minor threat, Minutemen,SSD, Void, Jerry's kids, ... and their views at the politics in the eighties. Pretty interesting if you ask me!

It is in mp4 format so you ca, throw it on your ipod and watch it on the road!

Reiziger - the tiger becomes a kitten + my favourite everything

Reiziger was a great Belgian band, it came from the ashes of Kosjer D and went after they disbanded further under the name confuse the cat. Thsi is a request fromt he chatbox.

Expect some slowcore, emocore when it was still good stuff, very intens this is. The file cosists of two albums, first is "the tiger becomes a kitten", the other is "my favourite everything". The last one is in mp4 format.

If anyone can hook me up with their first album called "my kodo", that would be nice!

Enjoy!

Richard Hawley - Cole's Corner (m4a)

Ripped straight from my itunes library, I posted the new Richard Hawley a while back on this blog. I like this man, great songs, great craftmans ship when it comes to songs, just beautiful stuff, almost croonerlike but still with that independant feeling! Very romantic stuff, great lyrics.

The Antlers - the hospice (09)

Not much time, great release, it tells the story of dealing with pain and death in a hospital of a woman named Sylvia. Musically this is outstanding but when you take the lyrics beside the msuic, it gets all the more interesting!

Review: Secret War - It's in your blood

Secret War is a band from California, First thing that comes in mind when I listen to the songs is Verse, As friends rust, hundred reasons. This is a HC band with a great rock sound/attitude, a massive dark sound, the vocals fit the sound. This is not the stand out band within the genre but they surely have potential. This could well be granate out of controll when they play live!

Check them out!

Review: Sigmoid Argonaut - EP

I got this one through mail, thanks guys.

I have listened to this a couple of times, the first song ( Quixotis) sounded groovy in the beginning but it turned into cheesy, the synths were out of tune with the rest of the instruments, I didn't fond any cohesion in the song between the bandmembers.

Second song (Trapperin keeper), is almost some acid jazz stuff but it is laking some soul feeling, it lacks depth, some ideas are worth working out but the song is not near finished if you ask me.

Third song (Brittie Brail), I kind of get an idea of what this band is missing in my opnion, or better, what is too much. This song has a good start but again the synths fuck it up. I just don't like the sound of it. The soundscapes are ok, but when the synth player starts hitting his keys and starts playing motives I get bored instantly.

Fourth song ( Tentackle trap), well the same stuff again, around 3:15 it gets interesting for about ... 30 seconds.

Overall it all needs a lot work, The sunths are horrible, almost like Jean Michel Jarre and that guy is way outdated.

4 songs it is then, very monotone in sound and structure and melodies, ... Get back in the rehearsal room guys!

I would like to get back to those interesting 30 seconds in song 4, it starts around 3:15. Finally there was something happening and the synth is not dominating the whole spectrum of sounds, finally there is a sound, there is cohesion. Good thirty seconds, after that ... well yeah ...

But by all means, form your own opinion!

Them Crooked Vultures - st

I saw these guys live this summer and that was a brilliant show, my hopes were high for this release. The magic on stage is not present on the album. This is good, solid rock and roll mixed with that bluesy desert feeling. Nice songs but nothing more than that. If it wasn't for the all star cast, this would not ever cause the kind of media attention it is getting now.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good release, but when those three guys come together and after seeing them live I was expecting a lot more firepower!

Link is up.

ST Le fabuleux poulain d'Amelie Poulain - Yann Tiersen

Now this is a great soundtrack, you can hear Paris, Montmartre through the music, beautiful, alienating, melancholic, ... really something you must try out!

The movie is brilliant as well!

Bonnie Prince Billy - I see a darkness

Brilliant album, singer songwriter stuff, almost too vulnerable to listen to without feeling a lot of emotions raging through your body.

If you liked the Isbells post, this will be your cup of tea. This guy is actually a legend, Will Oldham makes a lot of albums under pseudonyms like the palace brothers, ... He always brings quality. The problem is that is mostly in the same line, at times you get the idea that you heard it before, but above all this is brilant work. I like the artwork for the record as well.

I have been getting a lot of mails of bands asking to listen to their music and to review their album/song. It is almost getting a second job! ( I tend to listen to each album at least 5 times to form a well based opinion) I like this a lot, if you play in a band and want to let your songs loose to a pair of critical ears? Mail it to me, I will listen to it a couple of times and write down what I think of it. The viewers of this blog are at least as critical and open minded as me I think, they will provide you with some feedback as well!

2562 - unbalance

This is another dubstep, minimal, techno, electronic album that will not dissapoint you. Great vibes, deep bass, great feeling!

Review n°2: The company corvette - The company meeting

I got the link from the band, thanks guys!

It took me some time/songs to get into it but then I was hooked. This is some great fucking rock and roll! It is hard, heavy, fats groovy. Nice chorusses, great guitar riffs, solid drumming.

What I didn't like were the vocals, no range, no power, it got lost in the music, it is not interesting. But good effort overall!

References if you need some: early Sabbath, Qotsa, creature with the atom brain's first album.

Review n°1: Fen - congenital fixation

Fen is a band from Vancouver Canada, they play heavy rock/metal that is quite crazy. Hinches of Opeth and Tool but the important thing is that it are only hinches. These guys have their own approach, their own touch, their own sound.

Nervous, chilly, spooky, crazy, interesting, complex disturbing, melancholic and still it never feels like you have to work to understand or feel the music.

All musicians have great skills, the vocals are clean and beautiful and fit the music perfect. The rythms are complex and challenging, Give these guys a try and let them know what you think about them!

www.fenmusic.ca

Isbells - Isbells (2009)

Reviews will come later, first I am excited about a record. Late yesterday evening I got a hold of Isbells. I started listening and was immediately drawn into the world of the album. The guitarplayer of Soon ( Band from Leuven, Belgian answer to Fugazi and Sparta) took his acoustic guitar and started composing. He came up with one f the most beautiful albums of this year.

Very intimate, painful yet hopeful americana/folk/singersongwriter songs. I actually cannot explain what this album does to me but it makes me feel good, happy, sad, melancholic, euphoric, strange, ... it makes me relect on my life, relationships with the people around me, choices I make, ...

I think it should be obvious that you all need to check this out! Very strong debut release!

If you are in need of references: Bon Iver, Bonnie prince billy, José Gonzalez, ...

Molina & Johnson - Molina and Johnson (2009)

Feeling very productive today, I have listened to this a couple of times and it is breathtaking. Very intimate, personal, minimal folk. The voices of Jason Molina ( songs:Ohia, Magnolia electric company ) and Will Johnson ( Centro-Matic) collide perfectly, emotional, heartbreaking, intense, melancholic, ...

Hey if you like above mentioned bands, or Bon Iver, ... you should give this a try!

I have been able to get a hold of a vast amount of Japanese rock, prog, noise, punk, avant garde, ...

After listening to some of that music I think we should take our heads out of our asses and look east! Very interesting scene it is!

I had a couple of mails from bands, singer song writers asking to review their album and post a link. I will come to that tomorrow.

Captain Beefheart and his magic band - Safe as milk

Let's keep the weirdness going, allthough weirdness? It is better to say brilliance.

This dates from back in 1967, I was even't born then, and some people consider me old!

The captain will take on a trip from blues, over anarchy, to soul, psychedelica, ... This is an amazing album that wil hook you up on the captain forever, actually this might well be considered as art!!!

Full five stars for this album!

Oh, this album is ripped at 256 mbs in m4a format.