Coil

2010 was the year that Peter Christopherson joined Jhon Balance in the land of the not living, so I'm going to end the year with a fairly substantial upload of some of my favourite Coil tracks. I had a bit of a Coil-fest when I heard PC had died; put this compilation together; then had doubts about whether uploading a load of their music was a fitting tribute, bearing in mind that quite a few other folk made large contributions to Coil's music.
Here it is anyway: there are no more than 2 or 3 tracks from any one album; approx 590mb. This contains some of my favourite music ever.

I've re-upped a Coil selection, in case you are following a link. Follow another link to the post.

Air Liquide - Neue Frankfurter Elektronik Schule

A classic for Christmas. From 1992 this is archetypal Cologne business - deeply atmospheric and trippy. It's all one track, so you get samples of UFO spotters over ultra deep and spaced synth washes and bleepy noises. These blend into speedy acid trance-outs, with pattering drums and squiggling 303s. Swathes of panned static, radio noise and samples are the backdrop. It's a formula I love, and an album I love.

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Mordant Music - SyMptoMs

Mordant music are a mysterious and intriguing collective. Their music is fascinating, and they don't seem to be the kind of folk who employ voracious lawyers who are desperate to keep themselves in employment, trying to influence thinking and policy about music rights or legislation about copyright. The kind of cunts who offer nothing creative, who only want to syphon off their earnings from the creative industries. Expect lawyers to be at the forefront of all forthcoming copyright/mp3/pirating debates, trying to save their own bacon, and fatten it up at the same time. They don't give a shit about artists, but they certainly earn a shitload of money from them. But I digress.
This album sees this weird collective sometimes embrace a Pop Group-style polemic; classic Underworld repetition, and an ultra-modern aesthetic that keeps them fresh and strange. The title track is a truly glorious combination of these elements: pulsating epic Berlin techno backgrounds some proper spoken vocals, but also surges into the foreground, with chiming, tinkling melodies. This track is truly magnificent, and is worth downloading for. 'You Are A Door' is another fabulous track, with a wickedly chugging electro beat, and more spaced out atmospherics. Mordant are a curious bunch - definitely worth investigating further.

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Various Artists - 2009 favourites

I was just putting together a best of 2010, and realised I never posted my 2009 version, so here it is. The picture is unrelated - just a good one I took last year. I probably would have had more to say about these tracks if I'd done this post at the time. I do remember that Various Production ft. Gerry Mitchell 'The Invisible Lodger' was my album of the year - I highly recommend it. Actually, looking at these tracks, they were all from excellent albums - something that cannot be said for my 2010 selection - these were all pretty good albums.
You can find these in itunes by album artist, which is 'White Dot 2009'.

2009 tracklisting:

1-Various Production feat. Gerry Mitchell: This Invisible Blood (The Invisible Lodger)

2-Oneida: Luxury Travel (Rated O)

3-Lord Newborn and the Magic Skulls: Escape From Prism (Lord Newborn and the Magic Skulls)

4-Valet: Blood Is Clean (Blood Is Clean)

5-Bardo Pond: Silver Pavilion (Peri )

6-Fever Ray: If I Had A Heart (Fever Ray)

7-Alva Noto: Xerrox Tek Part 1 (Xerrox Vol. 2)

8-Wolok: Transubs(a)tantiation (Caput Mortuum)

9-Various Production feat. Gerry Mitchell: A Hole In Your Memory (The Invisible Lodger)

10-Alexander Tucker: Bell Jars (Portal)

11-Cave: Made in Malaysia (Psychic Psummer)

12-Oneida: What's Up, Jackal? (Rated O)

13-Shackleton: Let Go (Three EPs )

14-Ben Frost: Peter Venkman Pt II (By The Throat)

15-Bill Callahan: Eid Ma Clack Shaw (Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle)

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Since Blogger decided to remove my best of 2010 this posting looks faintly preposterous. Ho hum.

Circle - Prospekt

Another great Circle album: I'm uploading this because they have a new album out called Rautatie which you should buy from Ektro Records, as it's excellent. It's like a summation of all the threads of their sound: it has the weird ethereal avant-metal atmospherics they perfected on Katapult; it has spaced out jams in weird time signatures; plenty of deranged vocals; and in 'Vaellus', a magnificent anthem that seems to perfectly embody the New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal tag that Circle have bestowed upon themselves: it's epic, glorious, slightly weird - with tightly rocking instrumental passages in 7/8 which build the tension before that tune powers back in with fists raised.
Prospekt, from 2000, is definitely from the spaced jam end of the Circle spectrum. First track 'Dedofiktion' has some fabulous freaky vocals as it charges towards meltdown, but the rest of the album mainly consists of Krautified loop-jams with confusing time signatures that suck in your mesmerised brain. Often they will build up a groove with chugging bass and fuzzy synths until you think you have nailed the rhythm in your head; then they bring in some guitar stabs that sound like they are being played to another rhythm. On 'Stimulance', they just pound along in monster fuzz 5/4 until the mind threatens to melt. 'Varhain' confirm's Egg's assertion that seven is indeed a jolly good time. The album ends with a pair of 10+ minute jams, and some chanted vocals, that just confirm Circle's mastery of confounding space rock jams.
Also, this album is out of print and rather expensive.

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