Death

By request of my good friend ZeroofHate, a couple of Death albums for you today.

Human is the fourth album released by Death in 1991. It marked the beginning of a major stylistic change for Death. The actual sound of the album is much more technically accomplished and progressive than Death's previous efforts. The lyrics are now more introspective and meaningful as opposed to the gore based lyrics of the band's first two albums or the social commentary on Spiritual Healing. This new style would be more and more prevalent on all following Death albums.

Symbolic is the sixth album by American band Death. It was released on March 21, 1995 through Roadrunner Records. Like its predecessors, this album is progressive and technically advanced. It is notable that the average song length on this album is around five minutes, while it was around four minutes on Human and Individual Thought Patterns, perhaps due to slowed down song tempos closer to that of traditional death metal. As a result, the album was not quite as "technical" as its predecessors but more straightforward, "progressive". According to Metal-Rules.com, it is the seventh greatest extreme metal album of all time.

Artist: Death
Albums: Human & Symbolic
Genre: Death Metal, Progressive Metal
Official Website: http://www.emptywords.org/

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9TK4J122

Baile Funk

Based on the driving rhythm and aggressive vocal delivery of Miami Bass, Baile Funk is the music of Rio's favela populace, the true music of the streets. While the middle class kids listen to rock and metal, the street kids find their emotions expressed in this powerful, exciting blend of hip-hop and dance. Maligned by the press as a means by which the drug syndicates can sell, the parties that the style developed at remain popular, and are a means of expession for people otherwise ignored by the Brazilian middle and upper classes.
Nowadays, Baile Funk is gaining popularity worldwide, with artists such as M.I.A., Diplo and Kelis incoporating the influence into their own work, and CSS taking Bonde do Rolê on tour with them. Obviously a lot of it sounds a bit rough around the edges, but the music is expressly about freedom, the freedom to escape the favela and party, and that shines through.

DJ Marlboro- Funk Brasil

DJ Marlboro's Funk Brasil is the album credited as the start of Baile Funk. I've yet to download it at the time of writing. The download is megaupload.

Bonde do Rolê- With Lasers

Having toured with CSS is a good advertisment for BdR, who have that same party atmosphere in their music. They were until recently on Diplo's label, but this latest album, With Lasers is on thier old label. It's worth checking out, as they incorporate a variety of sounds through use of samples, so it's a bit like listening to someone rap over a constantly retuning radio.

Fernanda Abreu- Raio X

Hailed as the 'Queen of Brazilian Funk', Fernanda Abreu has been on the scene for a long time, and this album shows why. This is Baile Funk in its purest form, addictive and fun.

Tigarah- Self-titled EP

This is an interesting album, in that Tigarah is not in fact a Brazilian, but a Japanese girl who, after majoring in politics in University, decided to become a Baile Funk MC and spread her political message through her music. It's not quite up to par with the Brazilian music, because Japanese is not a language that lends itself to the vocal style in my opinion, but the music is fun and not awful. Definately worth a look, if only for interest's sake.


The following albums are collections of various artists, so I can't account for the quality on offer, but there are some gems in there:

Baile Funk Vol.1

Baile Funk Vol.2

Baile Funk Vol.3

Baile Funk Vol.4

Baile Funk Vol.5

Baile Funk Vol.6

Baile Funk Vol.7

Baile Funk Vol.8

Baile Funk Vol.9

Baile Funk Vol.10

Baile Funk Vol.11

Baile Funk Vol.12

Baile Funk Vol.13

Baile Funk Vol.14

Baile Funk Vol.15

Baile Funk Vol.16

Baile Funk Vol.17

Baile Funk Vol.18

Baile Funk Vol.19

Baile Funk Vol.20

Tom Waits

I'm gonna whittle you into kindlin'
Black Crow 16 shells from a thirty-ought-six

Indeed, another offering from gritty bluesman and all-round musical genius Mr. Tom Waits. Swordfishtrombones is where he really began to experiment and (without mixing any words) it sounds batshit weird when compared to the Small Change record I previously linked you to. It's not for everyone, that's for certain, but I would urge everyone to listen to it at least once. It's very, very good.

Review courtest of allmusic.com -

Between the release of Heartattack and Vine in 1980 and Swordfishtrombones in 1983, Tom Waits got rid of his manager, his producer, and his record company. And he drastically altered a musical approach that had become as dependable as it was unexciting. Swordfishtrombones has none of the strings and much less of the piano work that Waits' previous albums had employed; instead, the dominant sounds on the record were low-pitched horns, bass instruments, and percussion, set in spare, close-miked arrangements (most of them by Waits) that sometimes were better described as "soundscapes." Lyrically, Waits' tales of the drunken and the lovelorn have been replaced by surreal accounts of people who burned down their homes and of Australian towns bypassed by the railroad -- a world (not just a neighborhood) of misfits now have his attention. The music can be primitive, moving to odd time signatures, while Waits alternately howls and wheezes in his gravelly bass voice. He seems to have moved on from Hoagy Carmichael and Louis Armstrong to Kurt Weill and Howlin' Wolf (as impersonated by Captain Beefheart). Waits seems to have had trouble interesting a record label in the album, which was cut 13 months before it was released, but when it appeared, rock critics predictably raved: after all, it sounded weird and it didn't have a chance of selling. Actually, it did make the bottom of the best-seller charts, like most of Waits' albums, and now that he was with a label based in Europe, even charted there. Artistically, Swordfishtrombones marked an evolution of which Waits had not seemed capable (though there were hints of this sound on his last two Asylum albums), and in career terms it reinvented him.

Note: I hate trying to fit Tom Waits into a genre. He transcends them. I label these posts with some of the more likely genres he might fall into, but his music really can't be categorised.

Artist: Tom Waits
Album: Swordfishtrombones
Genre: Jazz, Blues, Rock, Experimental
Official Website: http://www.anti.com/artists/view/1

1. "Underground" – 1:58
2. "Shore Leave" – 4:12
3. "Dave the Butcher" – 2:15
4. "Johnsburg, Illinois" – 1:30
5. "16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought-Six" – 4:30
6. "Town with No Cheer" – 4:22
7. "In the Neighborhood" – 3:04
8. "Just Another Sucker on the Vine" – 1:42
9. "Frank's Wild Years" – 1:50
10. "Swordfishtrombone" – 3:00
11. "Down, Down, Down" – 2:10
12. "Soldier's Things" – 3:15
13. "Gin Soaked Boy" – 2:20
14. "Trouble's Braids" – 1:18
15. "Rainbirds" (instrumental) – 3:05

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AQBDSXXJ

Tom Waits

And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter
She hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her
And the box-office is drooling, and the bar stools are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
'Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking, not me, not me, not me, not me, not me

Thomas Alan Waits (born 7 December 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by one critic as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl; his incorporation of pre-rock styles such as blues, jazz, and Vaudeville; and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films, including The Fisher King, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Short Cuts. He has been nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on One from the Heart.

Lyrically, Waits' songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of bizarre, seedy characters and places, although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads. He has a cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters despite having little radio or music video support. His songs are best-known to the general public in the form of cover versions by more visible artists—for example, "Jersey Girl," performed by Bruce Springsteen; "Downtown Train," performed by Rod Stewart; and "Ol' '55," performed by the Eagles. Although Waits' albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries. He has been nominated for a number of major music awards and has won Grammy Awards for two albums, Bone Machine and Mule Variations

The album I post today is his 1976 offering Small Change. The album featured famed drummer Shelly Manne, and was, like Waits' previous albums, heavily jazz influenced, with a lyrical style that owed influence to Raymond Chandler and Charles Bukowski as well as a vocal delivery influenced by Louis Armstrong. The music for the most part consists of Waits' hoarse, rough voice, set against a backdrop of piano, upright bass, drums and saxophone. The album's themes include those of desolation, deprivation, and, above all else, alcoholism. The cast of characters, which includes hookers, strippers and small-time losers, are for the most part, night-owls and drunks; people lost in a cold, urban world.

This is probably me my personal favourite of Tom Waits' albums. Keep an eye out, I'll be posting more. The man is a genius.

Artist: Tom Waits
Album: Small Change
Genre: Jazz, Blues, Rock
Official Website: http://www.anti.com/artists/view/1

1. "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen)"
2. "Step Right Up"
3. "Jitterbug Boy (Sharing A Curbstone With Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body And The Mug And Artie)"
4. "I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In The Ninth Ward)"
5. "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening With Pete King)"
6. "Invitation To The Blues"
7. "Pasties And A G-String (At The Two O'Clock Club)"
8. "Bad Liver And A Broken Heart (In Lowell)"
9. "The One That Got Away"
10. "Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38)"
11. "I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue)"

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VX4YEUQ0

Santogold

Santogold- Santogold

This is just a brilliant pop album. To give you an idea of the eclecticism of Santogold's work, here's the list of contributors to this album: Chuck Treece of Bad Brains, Cliffored "Moonie" Pusey of Steel Pulse, Diplo, Freq Nasty, M.I.A, Naeem Juwan of Spank Rock, Radioclit, Sinden, Switch, Trouble Andrew, and XXXchange. She's also written for Lily Allen and toured with Björk in the past.
She's steered away from the stereotypes of 'brown girls' in music, claiming that she is 'not like Ciara', and there is no R&B or rap influence present on the album.

Björk- Vespertine & Homogenic

Vespertine cover

Homogenic cover

Two of Björk's most critically acclaimed albums, Homogenic and Vespertine. I've only just downloaded them myself, so I can't really give you any idea of how good they are, but Vespertine manages to make its way onto most 'Albums You MUST Hear Before You Die' lists, so it can't be that bad. Homogenic is less loved, but combines a lot of heavier beats with choral and classical effects, taking off from where she started with Post.

Homogenic

Vespertine

Nine Inch Nails

I need your discipline,
You know once I start I cannot help myself

Nine Inch Nails (abbreviated as NIN) is an industrial rock act, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction. NIN's music straddles a wide range of genres, while retaining a characteristic sound using electronic instruments and processing.

Thank you, Trent Reznor! Not only are your tunes awesome, but this time they are free! Legally free! (It is nice to be able to link to an album download and it not be against piracy laws). This is called The Slip, and unlike NiN's previous downloadable affair Ghosts I-IV this is a proper album with vocals and everything. I am listening to it now and it is very good. Maybe not quite The Downward Spiral, but some quality music all the same. Get it!

Artist: Nine Inch Nails
Album: The Slip
Genre: Industrial Rock
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/nin

1. 999,999
2. 1,000,000
3. Letting You
4. Discipline
5. Echoplex
6. Head Down
7. Lights In The Sky
8. Corona Radiata
9. The Four Of Us Are Dying
10. Demon Seed

Download: http://theslip.nin.com/

Daft Punk

Work It Harder, Make It Better
Do It Faster, Makes Us stronger
More Than Ever, Hour After
Our Work Is Never Over

Daft Punk is a duo consisting of Paris musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. The duo is considered one of the most successful electronic music collaborations of all time, both in album sales and in critical acclaim. And today, for your listening pleasure, I have uploaded all three of their studio albums - Homework, Discovery and Human After All. All records are awesome and highly recommended, so grab it now!

Artist: Daft Punk
Albums: Homework, Discovery, Human After All
Genre: Dance, Electronic
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/daftpunk

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XY57DNH1

Sortilège

Dans un univers
Où l'homme n'a guère
Le droit de citation
Vivent des guerrières












Artist: Sortilège
Album: Métamorphose
Genre: Heavy Metal

Do you like leather and metal? Then you'll love Sortilège. They're pretty much a French version of Judas Priest, and as bad as that sounds (FRENCH?!?!?), this band completely redeems that poor country. With Christian Augustin on vocals (entirely in French) that can pierce as high as Halford himself and guitar work that shows great prowess, these guys are ballsy old-school heavy metal. All Judas Priest fans must get this band. Even the French Power Metal band Manigance (who I laud as one of the best Power Metal acts around) hail this band, and have performed a cover of the Sortilège song "Messager". Unfortunately, I can't get my hands on the CD with Messager, Larmes De Héros, so you'll have to do with Métamorphose for now.

Tracklist:
1. D'ailleurs - (2:32)
2. Majesté - (4:53)
3. Hymne à la Mort - (5:30)
4. Légende - (2:45)
5. Nuit des Limbes - (2:25)
6. Civilisation Perdue - (2:12)
7. Délire d'un Fou - (5:25)
8. Cyclope de l'Etang - (3:58)
9. Métamorphose - (4:38)

Download

Public Enemy

So here it is again, another def jam

I don't think my own review could do this album justice, so I'm going to copy and paste one from Public Enemy's official site. Just know that this is an amazing album, and probably one of the best rap records ever released (along with Licensed To Ill by The Beastie Boys, which is also on this blog BTW). Download and listen to this now, you won't regret it.

Yo! Bum Rush the Show was an invigorating record, but it looks like child's play compared to its monumental sequel, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, a record that rewrote the rules of what hip-hop could do. That's not to say the album is without precedent, since what's particularly ingenious about the album is how it reconfigures things that came before into a startling, fresh, modern sound. Public Enemy used the template Run-D.M.C. created of a rap crew as a rock band, then brought in elements of free jazz, hard funk, even musique concrète, via their producing team, the Bomb Squad, creating a dense, ferocious sound unlike anything that came before. This coincided with a breakthrough in Chuck D's writing, both in his themes and lyrics. It's not that Chuck D was smarter or more ambitious than his contemporaries — certainly, KRS-One tackled many similar sociopolitical tracts, while Rakim had a greater flow — but he marshaled considerable revolutionary force, clear vision, and a boundless vocabulary to create galvanizing, logical arguments that were undeniable in their strength. They only gained strength from Flavor Flav's frenzied jokes, which provided a needed contrast. What's amazing is how the words and music become intertwined, gaining strength from each other. Though this music is certainly a representation of its time, it hasn't dated at all. It set a standard that few could touch then, and even fewer have attempted to meet since.

--Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Artist: Public Enemy
Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Genre: Hip-Hop
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/publicenemyofficial

Track Listing:
1. Countdown To Armageddon
2. Bring The Noise
3. Don't Believe The Hype
4. Cold Lampin' With Flavor
5. Terminator X To The Edge Of Panic
6. Mind Terrorist
7. Louder Than A Bomb
8. Caught, Can We Get A Witness?
9. Show 'Em Whatcha Got
10. She Watch Channel Zero?!
11. Night Of The Living Baseheads
12. Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos
13. Security Of The First World
14. Rebel Without A Pause
15. Prophets Of Rage
16. Party For Your Right To Fight

Download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I27EPDCS

-Steel Lord