Blog

2000's
1. The Legendary Pink Dots: Plutonium Blonde
2. The Tear Garden: For those who walk with the Gods
3. Blindead: impulse
4. GreenOcean: Expressive Night
5. Proghma-C: Bar-do Travel
6. Klaus Schulze & Lisa Gerrard: Farscape
7. The Legendary Pink Dots: A Perfect Mystery
8. The Tear Garden: The Secret Experiment
9. Radiohead: The Pyramid Song
10. Radiohead: Amnesiac
11. Radiohead: In Rainbows
12. Room Noir: Fifth Floor
13. Radiohead: Kid A
14. The Legendary Pink Dots: All the King's Horses
15. Edward Ka-Spel: Dream Logic Part Two
16. Portishead: Third
17. Room Noir: White Earth
18. GreenOcean: Toxic Cloud
19. cLOUDDEAD: Ten
20. Sigur Rós: ( )

1990's
1. The Legendary Pink Dots: The Maria Dimension
2. The Legendary Pink Dots: Malachai
3. The Legendary Pink Dots: 9 Lives to Wonder
4. Dead Can Dance: Into The Labyrinth
5. The Legendary Pink Dots: Hallway of the Gods
6. Iva Bittová: Ne nehledej
7. The Legendary Pink Dots: Remember Me This Way
8. Tones on Tail: Tones On Tail
9. Dead Can Dance: Spiritchaser
10. Portishead: Dummy
11. Depeche Mode: Songs of Faith and Devotion
12. The Legendary Pink Dots:Nemesis Online
13. The Legendary Pink Dots: From Here You'll Watch the World Go By
14. Sigur Rós: Ágætis byrjun
15. The Tear Garden: Bouquet of Black Orchids
16. King Crimson: VROOOM
17. Portishead: Portishead
18. Fields of the Nephilim: Elizium
19. Tool: Ænima
20. The Legendary Pink Dots: Sterre

1980's
1. Pieter Nooten & Michael Brook: Sleeps with the Fishes
2. The Cure: Disintegration
3. Philip Glass: Kooyanisqatsi
4. Dead Can Dance: Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
5. The Cure: Pornography
6. The Cure: Faith
7. Dalis Car: The Waking Hour
8. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Tender Prey
9. The Tear Garden: The Tear Garden
10. This Mortal Coil: It'll end in tears
11. Marillion: Fugazi
12. Depeche Mode: Little 15
13. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Your Funeral… My Trial
14. Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden
15. Depeche Mode: Music for the masses
16. Dead Can Dance: Spleen and Ideal
17. David Sylvian: Brilliant Trees
18. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: The Firstborn is Dead
19. Roger Eno: Voices
20. Clan of Xymox: Medusa

1970's
1. King Crimson: Red
2. Bauhaus: Bela Lugosi is dead
3. King Crimson:Larks' Tongues in Aspic
4. Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert
5. The Residents: Third Reich'n'Roll
6. Frank Zappa: Grand Wazoo
7. Popol Vuh: Nosferatu (On the Way To a Little Way)
8. King Crimson: Lizard
9. Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
10. Vangelis: L'apocalypse des Animaux
11. Kraftwerk: Autobahn
12. The Residents: Fingerprince
13. Pink Floyd: Relics
14. Throbbing Gristle: Second Annual Report
15. The Residents: Santa Dog
16. Soundtrack: Barry Lyndon
17. Vangelis: Hypothesis
18. Throbbing Gristle: D.o.A. - Third and Final Report
19. Henry Cow: Western Culture
20. Pink Floyd:Dark Side of the Moon
1960's (and earlier)
1. King Crimson:In the Court of the Crimson King
2. Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
3. Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band: Tadpoles
4. The Beatles:Abbey Road
5. Pink Floyd: A Saucerful of Secrets
6. The Beatles:Magical Mystery Tour
7. The Beatles: The Beatles (White Album)
8. The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground
9. The Deviants: The Deviants (No. 3)
10. Frank Zappa: Ruben And The Jets
11. John Coltrane: Giant Steps
12. Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band: Keynsham
13. The Doors: The Doors
14. The Beatles:With the Beatles
15. The Doors: Waiting for the Sun
16. Iron Butterfly: Heavy
17. The Beatles: Yesterday and Today
18. Czesław Niemen: Sukces
19. The Doors: The Soft Parade
20. Czesław Niemen: Dziwny jest ten świat

Originally posted on The Line of Best Fit



The songs that would eventually end up on Volcano Choir’s debut album started out as musical fragments exchanged between Justin Vernon and instrumental five-piece Collections of Colonies of Bees in 2005. Throughout Vernon’s rise to fame under the Bon Iver moniker, these exchanges continued, until the band Volcano Choir was finally conceived in 2008. Unmap, which is the result of this collaboration, is a series of dream-like compositions which juxtapose Vernon’s unmistakable vocal style against Collections of Colonies of Bees’ own brand of experimental folk music.

Whilst it may be difficult at first to discern any similarities between the songwriting of Volcano Choir and that of Bon Iver, the method of lyric-writing employed by Vernon on the two projects is consistent- recording wordless vocal tracks and allowing the lyrics to write themselves, based on the syllables rendered by the music. Whilst for Bon Iver these sounds eventually became the poetic and heart-wrenchingly nostalgic lyrics found on 'For Emma, Forever Ago', for 'Unmap', they are barely developed beyond the sounds initially used to map out the melodies. For those drawn in by the immediacy of the stories on Bon Iver’s debut, this may act as a deterrent, but those who felt a visceral attraction to the textures on the album will no doubt find beauty in Vernon’s every murmur, from the nonsensical phraseology of ‘Island, IS’ to the multi-tracked drone of his humming on ‘Dote’.

The influence of minimalist artists like Steve Reich is unmistakable on tracks such as ‘Seeplymouth’ and ‘Island, IS’, with their use of repetition and the creation of climaxes through the gradual introduction and removal of instruments. The songwriting also borrows from post-rock and drone and could easily fade into the background given enough time, but there’s always a moment to bring your mind back into focus- where the drums drop out and a reverb-drenched vocal line comes to the forefront or a playful guitar line, like the Dirty Projectors-esque build-up towards the end of the aforementioned ‘Island, IS’, returns after an ambient interlude. Although these songs may lack the emotional crescendos found on an album such as 'Spirit of Eden', there are elements of Talk Talkian brilliance in the way in which the atmosphere, as much as the immediate intentions of the songwriting, is instrumental in narrating the relationship the listener will form with the music.

The production style here is a collaborative effort, sacrificing little of the homely, organic energy found in Vernon’s solo work but introducing a sheen and professionalism that works to bring Collection of Colonies of Bees’ compositions to the forefront. Whilst the use of panning often feels spacious and expansive, the percussive use of instruments- whether it’s the subtle pulse of electronic disturbances, the patter of handclaps or the noise of picks against guitar strings- helps maintain a pretense of total control throughout. It’s undeniable that music of this nature must stem from improvisation, yet these songs never become self-indulgent jams- they never outstay their welcome.

If any one track supports the claim that Bon Iver’s releases and ‘Unmap’ run parallel to each other in an artistic sense, it’s ‘Still’, which sets the band’s ‘Woods’ to music. As Vernon repeats, “I’m up in the woods / I’m down on my mind / I’m building a still / To slow down the time,” it’s the reflection of the emptiness in the a cappella arrangement that makes the song so powerful, yet it’s impossible to argue that anything was lost on ‘Still’ as the auto-tuned vocals soar over glitchy electronics, distorted guitars and cymbal crashes.

To see this album as a follow-up to 'For Emma' or as an excuse for Vernon to indulge his more experimental whims would be a mistake. 'Unmap' functions more as a companion piece and those fans who fell at the feet of Vernon’s previous output should relish the opportunity to hear his voice pushed to almost every extreme and set against some of the most refreshingly inventive arrangements composed this year. This album does not speak in words and even as it closes with ‘Youlogy’, which evokes the spirit of Nina Simone and comes across like a new take on a traditional folk song, the timbre of Vernon’s bruised falsetto does more to stir the emotions than the melodies or the words being sung.

An Sealgaire, the new mini-album from Beithíoch, is available now as a free Creative Commons licensed download.

Hi.Arc.Tow presents the debut album of industrial techno project Mushin as a free Creative Commons download. Realm of Corrosion fleshes out a techno industrial sound world around a narrative structural skeleton akin to that of prog-ambient or metal. Accompanying visuals for the album have been provided by photographer and graphic/texture artist David Watts (whose homepage is currently being reconstructed).

Download:
MP3 -FLAC

Visuals:
Front cover - Back cover

Mushin home page at HIARCTOW.com

-----

About Creative Commons

This album is provided as a free Creative Commons licensed download by HI.ARC.TOW. This makes it free to download and to redistribute.


More info here.



MushinSíol Na Gréine cryosyncopy Maeror Tri Radio NIHIL BiosphereTangerine Dream Burzum Dead Can Dance JesuTechno AnimalKarlheinz StockhausenApollyon SunRobert FrippRobert RichApoptygma BerzerkMayhem Programmed Cell DeathLustmordBeheritUlverSkinny PuppyNONSteve RoachRobert RichNurse With WoundNegura BungetAbhorrentNULLLullLisa GerrardTangerine DreamKlaus SchulzeCanSigur RósVäsenArvo PärtJean SibeliusPhillip GlassSteve ReichJohn CageFinalIldjarnDarkthroneBeheritDawnThornsBeithíochKraftwerkgoaHappy MondaysThe ProdigyBasement JaxxPsyAphex TwinPolygon WindowAutechreBoards of CanadaGhreg on EarthFuzzionExtraweltMidimilizXenomorphMetalogicDownhillVelvet Acid ChristLaibachSpirallianzThe Deltaµ-ZiqRoni SizeGoldieLTJ Bukem

I think by now it is official:
Steve Reich has forever cemented his place among my "favorite composers of all time" and is now placed with Gyorgy Ligeti as my two favorite composers of music ever. Reich's minimalistic music is so beautiful and clear, hearing Daniel Variations nearly bowled me over with the sheer amount of beauty. Upon listening to that song, i got the same feeling when I listened to either Ligeti's Lontano or San Francisco Polyphony...

It's a deep welling up in the heart, near the very core of being. The music speaks to you and your chest nearly bursts with every rise and fall of a tone... A note held is a breath held, and the sudden explosions and releases euphoric. Beethoven was quite right indeed in calling music a form of revelation... Few would dispute him. Indeed, I have felt all of this and more on listening to Reich and Ligeti's works... Though they occupy two different ends of the emotional spectrum.

Ligeti's music is always tinged by melancholy, and this nervous force of prickly energy (that is absolutely beautiful), whereas Reich's works are bittersweet, sad in a hopeful way, or just generally uplifting in nature. Exceptions abound of course, but the point being, Ligeti nurtures the depressed man inside of me, whilst Reich soothes the romantic sap in me. I have found myself in only one area of human activity to ever evoke a heartfelt sigh, and that is in listening to music. Whether it be the Beethoven of my youth, the Schoenberg of my second awakening, or now the Reich of my seeming maturation (highly doubtful; in essence, I know nothing), music (and a good novel! Can't neglect the other half of my creative side!) has been able to bring a semblance of peace to my countenance. I am sure others share this similar disposition.

I won't create a long and highly-reflective journal post, as is my usual wont, but I will suffice in saying that those who read this who are as interested in making and listening to music as I am (and to come to this lonely corner of the web you probably are rather interested):

For the contemporary listener of music, things seem like they are in a great state of flux... The past is there but unchanging and static, and therefore, ignored. The future is feared and ridiculed, because the people who look to the future are to ensconced with their own dreams of grandeur to recognize that they have no clue where they are going. The listener can and should respect the past, and be mindful of the future and the changes it might bring which he or she may like. However, it is in the present in which one lives, and therefore, the present must be paid with the utmost attention, because it touches our lives most immediately. Don't wish for a bygone age, or prepare for a revolution that will never come, but rather, when one lives for the now and all what that comes to mean, things have a sweeter shine to them, and the sun comes up a bit faster and a bit brighter.

Woo, a journal! I've been meaning to use last.fm's journal function for a while, but never found the right opportunity. I have thoughts about music all the time, and my blog just doesn't seem like the right place for 'em.

Well, I'm listening to Tehillim, by Reich, and it's incredible. The voices just meld like nothing else, harmonies of steel, and i'm trying to learn the Jewish (Hebrew) lyrics. Amazing! O'course, it goes on a while, because it's Steve Reich we're talking about, and there are a few unfortunate spots where the poor maraca player seems to have slowed down unintentionally (it's such an RSI-inducing part though! CRAZY) and where one of the singers doesn't seem to pronounce all the words, which is noticeable because all the other singers around her *do*. But overall, what an experience! It's so uptempo, and joyful - I was listening to Fitkin yesterday, and there seems to be a trend with the whole uptempo, manic, driving thing in some new music. They're both minimalists to some extent, and perhaps that's the link. Slow change over time. Dance music. Driving towards... what?

Some kind of paradise? A future of happiness... Or is it the tarantella, or the Rite of Spring, where the dance of madness only leads towards death?

Well. There be some interpretative, silly thoughts for ye :)

Atículo en castellano e inglés


Article in spanish and english



Tras mucho investigar e indagar por varias páginas de la red que tratan sobre música, recompilé la información necesaria para encontrar los mejores grupos y solistas de la historia de la música.

Todo el mundo sabe que la mejor música siempre será la música clásica pero para los que no están aún preparados ante tal maestría y talento se puede acceder a música más "fácil" de escuchar como lo es el Rock o similar.

A pesar de no ser música tan grandiosa como Mozart, Beethoven, Bach o compañia, se puede encontrar verdaderas preciosidades dignas de ser escuchadas para el oído entrenado o la mente abierta.

Repito, he indagado mucho para encontrar, al fín, la lista de los verdaderamente mejores músicos de los ultimos tiempos. Son para degustar delicadamente por esas personas que de verdad sepan apreciarlos. Abtenerse los necios.



After much investigate on several pages of the net about music, I re-compiled the necessary information to find the best groups and soloists of the history of music.

The whole world knows that the best music always will be the classic music, but for those who are not prepared such mastery and talent, one can accede to "easier" music to listen like it is the Rock or similar.

In spite of not being a music so grand as Mozart, Beethoven, Bach or company, it is possible to find real preciousness worth being listened for the trained ear or the opened mind.

I repeat, I have investigated very much to find the list of really better musicians of last times. They are for these persons with delicately taste and who indeed can estimate them. Don't for fools.



La lista/the list:


- A Tribe Called Quest

- AC/DC

- Agalloch

- Al Green

- Albert Ayler

- Alice Cooper

- Andrew Hill

- Arcturus

- Aretha Franklin

- Art Blakey

- Arvo Pärt

- Big Star

- Bill Evans

- Bill Hicks

- Billie Holiday

- Björk

- Black Sabbath

- Blind Guardian

- Bob Dylan

- Bob Marley

- Boogie Down Productions

- Boredoms

- Brian Eno

- Bruce Springsteen

- Caetano Veloso

- Camel

- Can

- Candlemass

- Captain Beefheart

- Carcass

- Cecil Taylor

- Cocteau Twins

- Coil

- Creedence Clearwater Revival

- Current 93

- Curtis Mayfield

- Charles Mingus

- Danny Elfman

- David Bowie

- Dead Can Dance

- Death

- Deep Purple

- De La Soul

- Depeche Mode

- Devin Townsend

- Dream Theater

- Duke Ellington

- Elvis Costello

- Elvis Presley

- Ella Fitzgerald

- Elliott Smith

- Emperor

- Ennio Morricone

- Eric B. & Rakim

- Eric Dolphy

- Fairport Convention

- Faust

- Fleetwood Mac

- Frank Sinatra

- Frank Zappa

- Fugazi

- Funkadelic

- Gal Costa

- Gene Clark

- Genesis

- Gentle Giant

- Glenn Gould

- Godspeed You! Black Emperor

- Gong

- Grateful Dead

- Guided by Voices

- Herbie Hancock

- Howard Shore

- Howlin' Wolf

- Hüsker Dü

- Ice Cube

- Iron Maiden

- Isis

- Jackie McLean

- James Brown

- Jay-Z

- Jethro Tull

- Jimi Hendrix

- John Coltrane

- John Fahey

- John Lennon

- John Williams

- John Zorn

- Johnny Cash

- Joni Mitchell

- Jorge Ben

- Joy Division

- Judas Priest

- Judee Sill

- Kate Bush

- Keith Jarrett

- King Crimson

- Klaus Schulze

- Kraftwerk

- Kreator

- Led Zeppelin

- Leonard Cohen

- Los Hermanos

- Lou Reed

- Magma

- Marillion

- Marvin Gaye

- maudlin of the Well

- Melvins

- Mercyful Fate

- Metallica

- Miles Davis

- Modest Mouse

- Motörhead

- Neil Young

- Neu!

- Neurosis

- Nevermore

- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

- Nick Drake

- Nico

- Nirvana

- Nobuo Uematsu

- Opeth

- Ornette Coleman

- Os Mutantes

- Otis Redding

- OutKast

- Pain of Salvation

- Parliament

- Paul Simon

- Pavement

- Pearl Jam

- Pere Ubu

- Peter Gabriel

- Philip Glass

- Pink Floyd

- Pixies

- PJ Harvey

- Porcupine Tree

- Portishead

- Premiata Forneria Marconi

- Prince

- Public Enemy

- R.E.M.

- Radiohead

- Rahsaan Roland Kirk

- Rainbow

- Ramones

- Randy Newman

- Red House Painters

- Richard & Linda Thompson

- Robert Wyatt

- Roxy Music

- Rush

- Sam Rivers

- Santana

- Sepultura

- Serge Gainsbourg

- Simon and Garfunkel

- Skinny Puppy

- Slayer

- Sly and the Family Stone

- Smashing Pumpkins

- Soft Machine

- Sonic Youth

- Sonny Rollins

- Sparks

- Steely Dan

- Steve Reich

- Stevie Ray Vaughan

- Stevie Wonder

- Sun Ra

- Swans

- T. Rex

- Talk Talk

- Talking Heads

- Tangerine Dream

- The Allman Brothers Band

- The Band

- The Beach Boys

- The Beatles

- The Byrds

- The Clash

- The Cure

- The Chameleons

- The Doors

- The Fall

- The Flaming Lips

- The Gathering

- The Jam

- The Kinks

- The Misfits

- The Mothers of Invention

- The Olivia Tremor Control

- The Pogues

- The Replacements

- The Rolling Stones

- The Smiths

- The Stooges

- The Velvet Underground

- The Who

- Thelonious Monk

- Tim Buckley

- Tindersticks

- Todd Rundgren

- Tom Waits

- Tool

- Townes Van Zandt

- U2

- Ulver

- Van der Graaf Generator

- Van Morrison

- Wayne Shorter

- Ween

- Weezer

- Wes Montgomery

- Wilco

- Willie Nelson

- Wire

- XTC

- Yasunori Mitsuda

- Yes




Todos estos artistas han logrado cambiar la música de su momento de alguna u otra manera o grabaron discos dignos de ser joyas preciosas de las mejores colecciones.

Si entiendes de música sabrás apreciar a todos ellos, si no, te pierdes la vida chico/a y no puedes llamarte a tí mismo amante con mayusculas de la música. Dejad de perder el tiempo y dedicarselo a lo que de verdad vale, hay mucho alrededor y solo el que sabe buscar encuentra. ¿eres uno de ellos?

Repito, deja de perder el tiempo y sé más exigente, sube un nivel y escucha algo de esto, te aseguró que en un futuro te darás cuenta de como esos grupos que idolatrabas no expresaban nada.


Siento que mi esfuerzo a merecido la pena y he logrado al fín la lista de la mejor música actual definitiva dentro del siglo XX y XXI.



All these artists change the music of his moment or they recorded discs worth being precious jewels for the best collections.

If you deal on music you will be able to estimate all of them, if not, you get lost the life dude and cannot be call you lover with capital letters of the music. Stop losing the time and devoting it what indeed costs, it is very much around and only the one that can search finds. Are you one of them?

I repeat, stop losing the time and be more demanding, raise a level and listen to something of this, assured you that in a future you will realize since these groups that you were adoring they were not expressing anything.


I feel that my effort to been worth it and I have achieved the list of the best current definitive music inside the 20th and the 21st century.

KATIE / EMILY


1. Lady GaGa – Beautiful, Dirty Rich
2. Fat Segal – Diver Revive
3. Lady GaGa – Brown Eyes
4. Passion Pit – Sleepy Head
5. Andre Herman dune – Smalltown Boy
6. Steve Reich – Music for 18 Musicians
7. Born Ruffians – Little Garcons
8. Millionaires – Alcohol
9. Passion Pit – Better Things
10. Au Pairs – It’s obvious
11. Wilco – Radio Cure
12. Born Ruffians – Red, Yellow and Blue
13. Little Boots – Meddle
14. Louis La Roche – Warning Mass Murder
15. Phil Collins – In The Air Tonight
16. Elbow – Mirrorball
17. Ting Tings – That’s Not My Name
18. Glen Campbell – All I Want Is You
19. Glasvegas – It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry

An Sealgaire, the new mini-album from Beithíoch, is available now as a free Creative Commons licensed download.

The album is part of a two work set, the second of which will follow in a few months time. It marks a returns to the instrumental format of debut Díolaim whilst also refining the production and aesthetics of the entire artistic package.

download:
MP3

-----

About Creative Commons

This album is provided as a free Creative Commons licensed download by HI.ARC.TOW. This makes it free to download and to redistribute.


More info here.



MushinSíol Na Gréine cryosyncopy Maeror Tri Radio NIHIL Biosphere beethoven Bach Tangerine Dream Demilich Burzum Dead Can Dance Averse SefiraImmolationIncantationJesuRevengeAnton BrucknerKarlheinz StockhausenSteve RoachSlayerMotorheadCeltic FrostRobert FrippRobert RichXasthurMayhem Programmed Cell DeathLustmordBeheritUlverOpethNONSteve RoachRobert RichNurse With WoundNegura BungetAbhorrentNULLLullFripp & EnoLisa GerrardTangerine DreamKlaus SchulzeCanSigur RósVäsenHeitor Villa-LobosSeán Ó RiadaPeadar Ó RiadaJohn kinsellaArvo PärtJean SibeliusLudwig van BeethovenPhillip GlassSteve ReichKing CrimsonJohn CageJesuFinalVelvet CacoonAncientVelesGravelandIldjarnDarkthroneImmortalOld FuneralMorbid AngelBathorySodomWoodtempleBehemothPrimordialMael MórdhaOverothGeasaAltar of PlaguesEnslavedDawnGorgorothThornsI Shalt BecomeDimmu BorgirSatyriconSacramentumDissectionMassacraHellhammerBeithíoch