What are you currently listening to?

[vol.2]

Zomes self-titled.

It's from the heyday of Baltimore art-warehouse music ~2008. Before Ghost Ship burned down in SF prompting the police forced closures and raids of the art squats.

Understand that the mastering is "bad" on purpose. If that's not your cup of tea, then this isn't going to be worth it for you.

[Marc]

Bunch of stuff. Picked up a couple of early Swervedriver EP's, like those a lot. Turns out the latest Deftones is one of their best, you can tell when they're all involved, rather than one member taking the lead.
Picked up a lovely double silver/etched vinyl repress of T.Rex's 'Zinc Allot and the Hidden Raiders of Tomorrow', a bit more funky than the stuff Bolan was really known for. Oh, and also 'Metrobolist', a heavyweight vinyl remaster/re-issue of Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold the World' album. Original artwork restored, and an all-new mix from Tony Visconti that equals out a previously murky-sounding record into something really nice.
Though I doubt any bugger has ever heard of them, Kerbdog's two albums finally got a vinyl re-release/master. The s/t titled debut is a charmingly clunky Metallica-meets-Pearl Jam mashup, but the follow-up, 'On The Turn' is a proper 90's guitar album that should have been as well known as any of the seminal Seattle albums. Though according to the new liner notes, the band themselves played a small part in fucking it up

[vol.2]

T.Rex's 'Zinc Allot and the Hidden Raiders of Tomorrow',

I like that album. It's not The Slider, but it's good. He never really got back up to The Slider. It's a real shame because he had a real gift. His production just got monotonous in the mid-70s. I think he was trying really hard to fit into the disco era and he let go of the heavy. Must have been a move from booze to Quaaludes or something.

'Metrobolist', a heavyweight vinyl remaster/re-issue of Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold the World' album. Original artwork restored, and an all-new mix from Tony Visconti that equals out a previously murky-sounding record into something really nice.

I saw that Holy Holy tour when they came the US in 2016. Visconti got the drummer from the Spiders and a bunch of other randoms to perform the whole album. It was a fun time. I don't know if I would get a remaster though. That album is one of my favorite albums of all time, and the production is part of what makes it what it is. Incidentally, there are multiple versions of that "original" album out there. Most of the copies on vinyl with the original artwork are bootlegs and have famously bad mastering/sound. The real original is quite clear and sounds amazing. The later version with the black and white image of bowie is a yet a third version and is a little muffled. No one is sure exactly why, but that particular album was very heavily bootlegs. I talked to a record dealer about it who estimated that the bootleg copies heavily outweigh the real ones.

[Steamflogger Boss]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZcRSy0 ... Iy&index=2

Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon III: The Chosen

Great album.

[Marc]

T.Rex's 'Zinc Allot and the Hidden Raiders of Tomorrow',

I like that album. It's not The Slider, but it's good. He never really got back up to The Slider. It's a real shame because he had a real gift. His production just got monotonous in the mid-70s. I think he was trying really hard to fit into the disco era and he let go of the heavy. Must have been a move from booze to Quaaludes or something.

'Metrobolist', a heavyweight vinyl remaster/re-issue of Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold the World' album. Original artwork restored, and an all-new mix from Tony Visconti that equals out a previously murky-sounding record into something really nice.

I saw that Holy Holy tour when they came the US in 2016. Visconti got the drummer from the Spiders and a bunch of other randoms to perform the whole album. It was a fun time. I don't know if I would get a remaster though. That album is one of my favorite albums of all time, and the production is part of what makes it what it is. Incidentally, there are multiple versions of that "original" album out there. Most of the copies on vinyl with the original artwork are bootlegs and have famously bad mastering/sound. The real original is quite clear and sounds amazing. The later version with the black and white image of bowie is a yet a third version and is a little muffled. No one is sure exactly why, but that particular album was very heavily bootlegs. I talked to a record dealer about it who estimated that the bootleg copies heavily outweigh the real ones.

Yeah, Bolan definitely started to head harder into funk and soul from Tanx (my favourite of the lot) through to Zip Gun. If anything, I think the final two albums are probably the weakest of the lot. Dandy in the Underworld has some good songs, spoiled by an awful bubblegum production. Slider is possibly a bit overplayed for me, I was brought up on that and Electric Warrior.. Talking of heavy, the live version of Buick McKaine from Musik Laden.... Stupendous. The guitar tone on that gives me chills.

Interesting stuff about the Bowie album. I've two versions - the BnW sleeve, and a repress on some 80's vinyl box set. I do love the production, the remaster just separates things out a little for clarity, the 12-string sounds a bit more visible for instance. It's still got that huge bottom-end to it though. I wonder why it was so heavily bootlegged?

[vol.2]

Slider is possibly a bit overplayed for me, I was brought up on that and Electric Warrior..

Well, I guess that's inevitable. For me too. I put it away for many years and now only bring those two out on special occasions (heavy listening sessions with old pals). In retrospect, I had the strongest emotional response to the Slider when I first got to know it. That's the only way I can judge.

Talking of heavy, the live version of Buick McKaine from Musik Laden.... Stupendous. The guitar tone on that gives me chills.

I have a buddy with like all of the ML DVDs, so probably watched it, but he only has this little combo CRT-DVD unit, so I doubt I got the full experience. I'll have to dig that up and give it good listen.

I wonder why it was so heavily bootlegged?

You know, I've wondered the same myself. I remember when I first found out about it; I was hanging out in a little record shop in the Greenwich Village (NY varient) called Subterranean Records drinking beers and shooting the shit with Kenny, when I pulled a copy of TMWSTW out a bin which turns out is a bootleg. In those days, bootleggers where basically just speculators who would press stuff they could get their hands on. I suppose that Space Oddity had just come out and they figured there was a chance that the album would hit big and they'd sell lots of them.

You can see the information as it is know in the notes of the Discogs release page. The way you tell if it's genuine is the the numbers in the runout should be stamped. If they are handwritten, it's a bootleg.

AFAIK, the OG UK cover with Bowie in a dress isn't effected, but I think that one is going for about 2.5k in USD or something. However, it's also worth noting that the "dress" variant is 1971, while the US version came out in 1970 (I assume because Visconti is an American, or perhaps they were aware of the bootleg issue and rushed to release the US version early).




Currently listening to a comp of Japanese background music that's mostly from the 2000's, but with a few cuts from 80's-90's. It's a very well chosen comp that is mostly interesting because it collects a bunch of random tracks from unknown Japanese electronic artists from recent times and puts them on LP (whereas they were mostly CD only). The few cuts from earlier are less interesting because the albums that they are from are all available on LP, and are all worth buying individually. Still, there's enough stuff I never heard of that I bought a copy. It's on some Dutch label called Music for Dreams.

The discogs page a youtube playlist of the whole thing.

[Udderdude]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-VktGyBN9w

[Marc]

Just received a Ltd repress of The Appleseed Cast's 'Mare VItalis'. Amazing record, haven't listened to it in a while. I've three different copies of this on vinyl, trying to work out of it's the only one I own that has completely different artwork on every pressing.

Picked up re-issues of Alice In Chains 'Dirt', Paw 'Dragline' and Queens of the Stone Age 'Era Vulgaris'. Think Dirt might still be one of the most lyrically grim albums I've even heard.

[vol.2]

This just came up on youtube for me. Didn't know it existed, but there it is. 1980 Japanese Heavy Metal. Hard as nails.

Final Baton, BiL, you should check this one out if you don't know it.

[Stevens]

I love me some SID tunes. Those composers were way ahead of their time.

[vol.2]

I love me some SID tunes. Those composers were way ahead of their time.

SID as in the chip in the C64? Like demo scene stuff?

[BIL]

This just came up on youtube for me. Didn't know it existed, but there it is. 1980 Japanese Heavy Metal. Hard as nails.

Final Baton, BiL, you should check this one out if you don't know it.

Badass... Rainbow Rising-esque vibes from the start, that mechanistic gallop and spacey backdrop is so "Tarot Woman." Amazingly crisp and hard production too! Cutting-edge continental metal via customarily honed Japanese craftsmanship. Straight onto me MP3 stick, thanks for the rec!

"Dreamy Express Trip" is like a bizarro "Rapid Fire," haha. Love the call/response between the verses and guitars - "Pounding the wo-orld / Like a bat-ter-ing ram" Got a face-melting solo to go with that bulldogging riff. Lightens up a lot towards the end but it's very classy stuff throughout.

I see it features future Loudness personnel, so I guess this is my long-procrastinated intro to them.

[Marc]

I love me some SID tunes. Those composers were way ahead of their time.

Could listen to that stuff for hours. The Ocean loaders alone....

[Stevens]

SID as in the chip in the C64? Like demo scene stuff?

Yes.

C64 tunes from games, demo scene from 20 or so years ago. It's all good.

Reclusive Lemming has an inactive channel on YouTube but up loaded 12 hours of tunes about a decade ago and it is still there under his first 1000 subscribers:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ReclusiveLemming/playlists

This is another one I go to a few times a year too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Racui ... 3&t=30010s

Thankfully there are a ton of videos on YouTube (commercials be damned).

Could listen to that stuff for hours. The Ocean loaders alone....

The stuff was amazing. I remember reading in an interview (might have been with Martin Galway) and he said something along the lines of that it was just this perfect storm of the technology and people with tech and musical know how. Obviously not verbatim, but it seemed he thought he would not have gotten the recognition through other music mediums.

Also, and I feel this is true of older games too, the limitations of the tech at the time seemed to spark ingenuity and imagination in ways modern tech can't.

Here is a quick read from about 4 years ago:

https://theconversation.com/the-sound-o ... usic-74935

[Marc]

Think I'm gonna hit up some C64 classics when I get home now, one of my faves was the high-score table from X-Out, fantastic tune. The C64 version of Ninja Spirit has an amazing rendition of the coin-op's first stage as its soundtrack. Can't mention any C64 list without Turrican. Then there's Commando, Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, Last Ninja 2.... the memories.

I had the funniest of coincidences last night. I've been on a Sunny Day Real Estate kick, but realised a few weeks ago that I only had one of Jeremy Egnik's solo albums (Return of the Frog Queen), so I ordered a copy of 'OK Bear', which landed yesterday. I was listening to that, while checking up on Assertion, William Goldsmith's (SDRE / Foo Fighters drummer) new band. I dropped a comment on a FB post by them yesterday evening, and a few more comments later ended up having a conversation with Mr Goldsmith himself regarding the new stuff and SDRE. Was quite surreal as a 25 year + fan.

[vol.2]

it seemed he thought he would not have gotten the recognition through other music mediums.

No doubt. As with most art pre-internet, it was very difficult to reach medium-sized audiences with much effect. Musicians either had to aim for (or be predisposed to) a large mainstream audience, or try to make it some niche market, typically filled with snobby elitism. Not that both categories didn't produce plenty of great music, but it remains that the most interesting material (to me) was always those artists which chose to askew the mainstream in some way and try to make it without compromise. College radio was (more or less) the only real outlet for that at time. (Or you could scour Maximum Rock'N'Roll and try to find the diamonds)

I'll give some of that a listen. I actually have a C64 that I picked up at a thrift store ~15 years ago that I recently decided to get going. It had a bad PSU, so I never tried to turn it on. I'm looking forward to checking things out and hope that it doesn't take more than a recap and a PSU.

[Stevens]

Krelez also has a channel of chipped goodness - 40+ random mixes and a livestream:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf69z7 ... bNKdFn4ELg

I should probably kick him some dollars at some point.

EDIT -

Me fail english? That's unpossible.

[vol.2]

Krelez is also has a channel of chipped goodness - 40+ random mixes and a livestream:

Goodstuff.

I just picked up the new 8-bit Guy C64 game Attack of the Petsci Robots. The SID music is pretty great. IMO

[FinalBaton]

Goodstuff.

I just picked up the new 8-bit Guy C64 game Attack of the Petsci Robots. The SID music is pretty great. IMO

Speedy DTM writes great tunes! the score of Planet X3 is great as well (I have a soft spot for the Tandy 3 voice renditions)

I'll give a full blast listen to the japanese record tommorow

[YovanRen]

Haha, everyone's been so active in posting what they're listening to, loads of useful songs to listen to, thanks) I'm currently playing https://www.slotozilla.com/free-slots and listening to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm0ru2i ... l=NiceGuys.

[MintyTheCat]

New Memoriam album out end of March. Listening to their last album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O3rVbhz-Hk

Last one felt like a step up from the previous two. See how they get on with the new drummer.

http://www.memoriam.uk.com/

[Tyliquer]

Is there any song that will bring good luck?

[XoPachi]

This is such a perfect song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DSUhxQyBA4

[Marc]

Decided I wanted to explore a bit more 90's shoegaze and picked up Slowdive's 'Souvlaki'. Loving it so far, perfect lazy Sunday afternoon music.

[vol.2]

Decided I wanted to explore a bit more 90's shoegaze and picked up Slowdive's 'Souvlaki'. Loving it so far, perfect lazy Sunday afternoon music.

Really great stuff. I haven't listened to shoegaze et al in awhile, but was heavy into it. If you haven't heard any of these, I would recommend checking them out:

A.R. Kane: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.R._Kane

The Veldt: https://www.discogs.com/The-Veldt-Afrod ... ster/71645

and of course, if you haven't listened to the Cocteau Twins:
https://www.discogs.com/Cocteau-Twins-T ... aster/5232

[OmegaFlareX]

Decided I wanted to explore a bit more 90's shoegaze and picked up Slowdive's 'Souvlaki'. Loving it so far, perfect lazy Sunday afternoon music.

Hell yeah, Slowdive is amazing. Also check out Just For A Day and the EPs that preceeded it (ST EP, Morningrise, Holding Our Breath). I recently bought the 2010 Cherry Red re-issue of JfaD on CD and it includes a 2nd disc with those EPs and a Peel Session. I found their earlier works have a much, much thicker sound, which I prefer to Souvlaki's more minimalistic approach. I also very much like their 2014 Self-Titled LP and there's another in the works currently. There's a lot of very good footage of them playing live in recent years on YT. I've never listened to Pygmalion but I hear it's very different and quite divisive.

e: Pitchfork made a really awesome documentary about Souvlaki: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjr6esFXJl4

[BIL]

Chipmunks On 16 Speed - Sludgefest



Holy fuck. Cheese-pop marinated in acid, deadly-effective. Walk Like An Egyptian summarises. Heaven Is A Place On Earth and You Keep Me Hangin' On unironically shattering doom-pop. Juddering Super 16 heft laced with sugary hooks from start to finish.

Refugee sounds for all the world like a lost Johnny Thunders ballad, heartbreaking. Holy fuck.

Good strong stuff, Dave.

[vol.2]

Chipmunks On 16 Speed - Sludgefest

The soundtrack to the american oxycodone epidemic.

It's hard for me to listen to this stuff without a tinge of emptiness. It recalls wasted days of youth that had gone too far.

[null1024]

Chipmunks On 16 Speed - Sludgefest

This version of Call Me, Refugee, You Keep Me Hanging On, and My Sharona are regular listens for me. Not quite as fond of the rest, but it's all still oddly great.
Heaven Is A Place On Earth here sounds so god damn bleak.

and I'll never get over how good Refugee sounds here
absurdly, mindblowingly massive

THEODORE, WHAT DO THOSE WORDS REALLY MEAN?
BEATS ME!

[BIL]

Chipmunks On 16 Speed - Sludgefest

This version of Call Me, Refugee, You Keep Me Hanging On, and My Sharona are regular listens for me. Not quite as fond of the rest, but it's all still oddly great.
Heaven Is A Place On Earth here sounds so god damn bleak.

and I'll never get over how good Refugee sounds here
absurdly, mindblowingly massive

THEODORE, WHAT DO THOSE WORDS REALLY MEAN?
BEATS ME!

Helll yeah, Refugee is stunning. Besides the morosely guttering guitars, those Mellotron swells and the primal drumming give a blistered-black New Dawn Fades/So Alone deathrock funereality. And the vocals, can't say better than it sounds like Johnny Thunders himself at the mic. So plaintive.

Somewhere, somehow, somebody must've kicked you around some...

The Chipmunks sample makes me imagine a Muppets Show performance.

You Keep Me Hangin' On is my second-favourite, it takes on a sublime combo of longing and fury.