GUIDED BY VOICES..."VAMPIRE ON TITUS"

"vampire on titus" contains the most abrasive, penetrative and hostile fidelity of any of the early gbv recordings. i would make a casual guess and say that i listened to it nearly 10 times before anything remotely appealing began to emerge from the density and fog of tape hiss, feedback and oddly-mixed vocals; now it's among my favorite guided by voices albums, so what the hell do i know? the album also contains some of the more puzzling and strange songs that robert pollard has ever written, and at what point that statement becomes a hyperbole - i simply don't know. you never know, try it out - it certainly has its out sound to it, however unpleasant it appears at first.





download "vampire on titus"

http://www.sendspace.com/file/w2j42i

DOLLY MIXTURE..."DEMONSTRATION TAPES"

have you no heart?



this is a quick post primarily for people who love the marine girls, the raincoats and the television personalities. dolly mixture was an all-female group that formed in the 70s during the punk explosion in london, and though they have few sonic resemblances to much of that music (especially the inherent hostility to which english punk was prone), they made lovely, passionate little songs that seem almost manufactured for the sole purpose of elevating your philosophical outlook. they released a few singles here and there, sadly disbanding in 1983 after recording their double album "demonstration tapes." i don't know if it's physically possible to dislike this music, but you're more than welcome to disprove that notion.




download dolly mixture "demonstration tapes"

http://www.mediafire.com/?cj0zjpeytls

DREAMIES..."PROGRAMS 10 & 11"

seriously...words would disobey any attempt to express the fragility, hebephrenia and warmth of this music



somewhere hovering over 3 years ago i began an itinerant, almost blindfolded hunt about the greater record stores of toledo and ann arbor, terribly disdainful of my own life and stoic as to its outcome, embalming my self-worth and esteem within the vestments and rewards of music, finding myself only slightly appeased (on any significant level) when stumbling across something remarkable. i was denuded of internet access and wary of accessing any of the computers within campus labs, so i began blindly purchasing things for their aesthetic qualities, finding albums that had unique covers, wondering what the music behind that artwork signified, where it went, what minor world it conjured for itself. fortuitously, it was with this haphazard method that i became ingratiated to the company of this heat, united states of america, susan christie, jean-claude vannier and dreamies. glazing over the artwork - which at the time looked as if to be some ludicrous mock-up of a cereal box - observing the white, hollowed out head that contained the words "program 10" and "program 11" within its respective hemispheres. i listened to the album before reading the inserts that accompanied it, and i'm still immeasurably happy that i conducted things in such a manner. appropriately, this music does affect a state that resembles the logic and pathology of a dream; ambient and electronic noises merge with an acoustic guitar and samples taken from a transistor radio - somewhere among the fog and density trembles a small, double-tracked, cracked alabaster voice; and though the lyrics are inscrutably recited, nearly obscured by the atmosphere, somehow this all makes perfect sense.

as with most "lost" albums, this one has a story behind it. dreamies is the work of one man, bill holt, who upon hearing the beatles "white album," emerged from a suburban coma, quit his reputable job (allegedly at a fortune 500 company) and assembled an acoustic guitar, sampling device and one of the first commercially available moog synthesizers. his aims weren't particularly modest, as he intended to make a continuation of the song "revolution number 9" from the "white album," composing two side-long musical suites (26 minutes each) that take the structural device of the infamous, widely abjured lennon tune - the careening samples of dialogue and electronic coruscations - and impart pop sensibilities and melody within the ambient noise. to say this had even the scantest ripple or effect on anyone when it was released in 1973 would be an act of divine revisionism, as only something like 100 copies of this were privately pressed. quitting his job and recording an album of what is often called aural collage proved to be an impecunious decision, as he ended up bankrupting himself, falling to penury, eventually waddling back to a normal job. he left this as his living testament, and luckily he has been afforded the opportunity to record another dreamies album recently, entitled "program 12." i've yet to hear it and am somewhat reticent, especially given the immensity of my love for this album. as far as "lost" albums go, this is exceeded by nothing and no one - remaining one of my absolute favorite curiosities and listening experiences, and i can only marvel at the ambition it displays. please, please - if you enjoy this record, please purchase it from holt's website. the cover alone is worth the 10 dollars, and this man deserves any penny you can spare for putting something so hypnotic into this sad, grey world.

download dreamies' "program 10 & 11"
http://www.mediafire.com/?oyyrm1nw2rk

THE MOLES..."UNTUNE THE SKY"

another of my favorite albums, and another neglected group. the moles are an australian group that formed in the late 80s, and perhaps it is owed to their regional location that they share sonic similarities with many of the dunedin groups in new zealand, though admittedly they are both more feedback-oriented and melancholic than most of the kiwi bands. their music has an interesting polarity, in that some songs (such as the first track, featured above) emit swaddling rays of sunburst pop, while other songs are more austere with pensive lyrics, minor keys and interesting progressions. my favorite tunes are the fermenting death march of "the happy garden" and the swelling, prismatic anthem "lonely hearts get what they deserve" (featured below).



though "untune the sky" wasn't released until 1992, its spirit is very much bound to the underground music of the 80s, and it has an indescribably "communal" feel to it. some of the tracks aren't immediately accessible (more than a few people have some trouble with "tendrils and paracetamol," which was the moles' attempt to replicate a drug-addled state of mind). there are a good variety of moods here, as well as a dynamism that results from how peripatetic the songs can be. the conclusion of the album is the organ-driven "nailing jesus to the cross," which is both humorous and inescapably sad - the two emotive states that the moles pinball between (garnering them even more comparisons with the chills). their sophomore and final album, "instinct," pursued another direction entirely, foreshadowing leader richard davies' orchestral pop work with the band cardinal. "instinct" is somewhat more baroque, forsaking the ear-rattling feedback for trumpet horns.

download the moles' "untune the sky" (tracks 1-11 are the full album, while the remaining tracks are supplements)

http://rapidshare.com/files/143260928/Moles1.zip.html