King Crimson – The Sheltering Sky (Basing Street Studios-21st of May 1981)

Here’s a stripped down, minimal mix of KC’s ‘The Sheltering Sky’. Lovely.

The Residents – Skratz

A track that sounds like a mushroom trip at a 50’s Drive-in Cinema; this is from The Residents debut album from 1973. This is an eclectic album, with the faceless four dipping into many, many styles, pastiches, and sounds. The album does have tracks that captured the distinctive sound they quickly became known for, but is full of surprises, and has more ideas per song than many bands have over a whole career.

Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel – Lust For Death

Jim Thirlwell with a number from the stellar ‘HOLE’ album (1984). Industrial metal clashing percussion rubs up against a Big-Band/Rockabilly hybrid and a barrage of samples with Thirlwell’s hilariously brilliant lyrics spat all over it. As you can see, the title is a sly nod to Iggy Pop.

Holger Czukay, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit – Mystery R.P.S (no. 8)

The slinky, lilting sound of Can meets Dub! What else could you expect from this collaboration really? Though it’s nice for your expectations to be met sometimes. This is from the trio’s 1982 album ‘Full Circle’.

Brian Eno & David Byrne – Moonlight in Glory

Another great slice of Avant-Funk/Electronica from Eno & Byrne’s seminal 1981 album ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’. This one has a very haunting feel to it, with sampled voices that give us snapshots of a narrative which leaves one with a sense of ambiguity. Is the old lady letting in friend or foe? Is the old lady herself the deceitful one? Finding out where these voice samples come from has appeared to be fruitless so far, as the only nod to a sample in the track is from the ‘Moving Hall Star Singers’; from their track ‘Moonlight in Glory’*, where Byrne & Eno nicked the title from. So, the narrative will always remain a mystery, and will always have a touch of menace to it, and maybe that’s for the best.

*track this down if you can, it’s incredible. We’ll be posting it soon too.

Othar Turner & The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band – Shimmy She Wobble

Othar Turner was a proponent of Fife and Drum music, a quintessentially American music, as it was a blend of European Folk, country Blues, martial music tradition, and African rhythms culminating in a new American folk. This tune, from the 1997 album ‘Everybody Hollerin’ Goat’ is something many may recognise, as it’s used in the opening scene of Scorsese’s ‘Gangs of New York’. It was very effective in that scene, and has feel of restrained derangement to it. Wonderful piece.

Steroid Maximus – The Bowel of Beelzebub

The hilariously titled ‘The Bowel Of Beelzebub’ is a piece in 4 “movements” (Jim always had a sense of humour); ranging from the floaty, orchestral opener, through the sounds of a North African souk, humans (?) in pain/pleasure, up to the bombastic closer. This is fantastic, and from what is arguably the greatest Steroid Maximus album, 1992’s ‘Gondwanaland’.

0:00 First Movement: The Trojan Hearse

2:38 Second Movement: The Auctioneer of Souls

7:15 Third Movement: Crawling Goliath 1

0:58 Fourth Movement: Erupture

Einstürzende Neubauten – Ein Seltener Vogel

Beautifully restrained piece from everyone’s favourite German metal bashers. This is from their 2004 album ‘Perpetuum Mobile’; their first LP after Chung and Einheit had left, and the first with the bands current line up.

Devo – Ton O’ Luv

“So it happens…..all the time; don’t get low, just stand in line. Wait your turn….now make your move. And crush that doubt, huh, with a ton o’ luv”.

Nineteen Eighty.

Krzysztof Penderecki – Polymorphia

Here we have Penderecki’s spine tingling masterpiece. This track travels some in it’s 10 minutes; although every corner it takes you too is as terrifying as the last. The piece begins quietly, and after a period of barely heard rumbling the track builds and builds until the listener is in the eye of the skin-crawling storm. Then you get onto the plucking; which stumbles into a section that approaches bombast. Famous for being used in both The Exorcist and The Shining. This, coincidentally, is the recording used in both films, and is the performance by the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin.