PS I Love You - Meet me at the Muster Station

Some more homegrown indie talent here, with an interesting sound. They're from Kingston, and have received Pitchfork's approval with this album (so you know its good!). Its amazing how big their sound is for just two guys. Facelove is an epic tune.

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Diamond Rings - Special Affections

For my blog comeback, I have decided to post this gem of Toronto area indie pop. This guy is getting a lot of attention from the indie press and I think he's only going to get bigger. Not all of these tracks are great, but a few of them are irresistible pop gold. The hooks would make Lady Gaga jealous.

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Asobi Seksu - Citrus (2006)

Early post since I'll be up north tomorrow. Asobi Seksu are a dream pop band from New York who are definitely influenced by the shoegaze scene. Songs like "Pink Cloud Tracing Paper" and "Red Sea" are just drowning in dreamy guitar fuzz similar to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. However, what makes them stand out from the many new-gazers is their singer Yuki Chikudate. She is Japanese and sings in both English and Japanese on the album. For some reason I wasn't a fan of her vocals at first but I love them now so I don't know what I was thinking. Anyways I just bumped this album to a 4.5 pretty recently on RYM so I thought I'd share.

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Mediafire is being a bitch

So no new album this week. Doesn't really matter since you're in Europe anyways. Instead, I give you this:

Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (1975)

So glad I discovered this. This is traditional Bulgarian folk music, which sounds very different but at the same time is instantly captivating. The choir consists of women from Bulgarian villages who have no professional vocal training, which to me is staggering as these are some of the most beautiful vocals I've ever heard. If you love vocal harmonies as much as I do, I'm sure you'll love this as well.

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Exuma - Exuma (1970)

Another forgotten gem of the 70s. Exuma along with Comus helped to pioneer what would become known as "freak folk," which combines folk with more avant-garde and psychedelic forms of music. While maybe not as weird as First Utterance, this almost sounds like the Carribean's answer to it. It's tribal, soulful, and definitely freakin' amazing.

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Slint - Spiderland (1991)

I first listened to this album nearly a year ago, and since then I've only listened to it maybe half a dozen times. It wasn't until listening to it today that it finally hit me how genius this album is. Spiderland was released in 1991, but feels so ahead of its time. It was extremely influential to both the math rock and post-rock genres and is considered by many to be an indie rock classic.

My favourite song here is "Washer" which is the only song that grabbed me upon first listening. As an album associated with the post-rock genre, I expected it to sound more like the genre does today. Sad, reverb-drenched guitars, huge crescendos, the like. Instead, this sounds like nothing I've heard before. The vocals for the most part are spoken-word, with some fragile singing and even some semi-harsh vocals on "Nosferatu Man." The album also has a short running time of 39 minutes, which is also a plus for me. Sometimes the best albums are the ones that don't take an hour or more to make their point, leaving you wanting more.

Wow my reviews are long now.

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Tim Buckley - Starsailor (1970)

I know an album will become one of my favourites when I'm always in the mood to listen to it soon after discovering it. This is the case with Tim Buckley's Starsailor. From looking at the album cover, you'd expect a pretty laid-back, feel-good folk album from the 70s. Looks, however, can be deceiving.

From the first few seconds of the album you know it's going to be weird. Tim has a very unique voice that can sound haunting or batshit insane, but always beautiful. Songs like "Monterey" and "Jungle Fire" revolve around repeating guitar riffs mixed with frantic, jazz-like drumming. The title track is probably the weirdest thing here, a primarily vocal piece that sounds like something Can would do. The record's most famous song is "Song to the Siren" which you might recognize since it's been covered by many artists including This Mortal Coil and John Frusciante.

While more avant-garde than most singer/songwriter fare, Starsailor is an album that instantly grabbed me despite being much different than I expected. I still haven't heard Jeff Buckley's Grace yet, but when I do it will have this album by his dad to live up to.

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Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness (2008)

Alright so here I am posting on a Monday like I said I would. Also I'm not going to bother with YouTube previews anymore 'cause I don't like how even the smallest-sized window takes up a ton of space.

So here is my favourite album of 2008: Deathconsciousness by Have a Nice Life. I've been listening to it since it was released, but it didn't become one of my favourite albums until fairly recently. Whether this was because of it's length (it's a double album with a running time approaching an hour and a half) or just the fact that it is so different from anything I had heard at the time I'm not sure.

It really is a unique album. The fact that they have been able to find their sound on their first album is amazing to say the least. Favourite tracks include Hunter, a longer track that slowly builds with its infectious drum rhythm, as well as Deep, Deep, an angry post-punk anthem with washes of dreamy synths during the chorus. But really the entire album is fantastic.

This album is pretty obscure, as the band doesn't even have a Wikipedia page (edit: they actually do have one now but didn't until June 30th of this year) and it's possible that it was made in some dude's basement. But the fact that it is one of my favourite albums really goes to show that good music doesn't always come from signing to a big studio and spending a ton of cash to make a professional recording. It really is the future of music, too bad most of the world isn't ready for it yet.

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Woodhands - Remorsecapade

I really enjoyed these guys live show, and picked up this CD when I saw them. It's a pretty fun album, and has a couple really solid tracks. Nothing mind blowing, but enjoyable. Funny cover too.

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Current 93 - All the Pretty Little Horses

I adore this album, although Current 93's neo-folk stuff can be difficult to get into. I know you've heard I Have a Special Plan... but this one is much, much different stylistically. I hope you enjoy it, although I can see it not being you're cup of tea.

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P.S. Love the new layout, looks really sharp. Next we need a more inventive name and a logo on the picture! And eventually our blog will conquer all... in due time...

Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You (2001)

This wasn't really what I was expecting, but it is slowly growing on me. I discovered it when I saw it was ranked really high on my RYM top albums list as rated by my friends (#11 to be exact). Personally I think the post-hardcore tag is kind of a misnomer, as their isn't much hardcore to be found here at all. I'd say it is more like dark, depressing indie rock while still being quite a bit livelier than slowcore. Don't expect it to hit you right away, but it really is great.

Preview: "Treachery"

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New layout bitches

Tell me if you likey. Also from now on I'm going to try and post an album every Monday 'cause it sounds like a cool idea. Plus I'm going to start including "previews" by posting a YouTube vid of a song from the album 'cause it comes in handy on other blogs I've been to. If you want to start doing it too just find a song on YouTube, click Embed and then copy-paste the code it gives you into your post. Have fun! :3

Nujabes - Metaphorical Music (2003)

This is one of my favourite hip hop albums, and I'm not just hyping it 'cause he died. The guest rappers aren't amazing but they do their part; where this album really shines is the beats. No one made beats as soulful and creative as this man did. It's sad that he's gone, he will be missed by many.

R.I.P. Jun Seba aka Nujabes: February 19, 1974 - February 26, 2010

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Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand (1994)

An indie rock classic that has grown on me immensely since I first heard it. The songs here are quite short but they're so damn catchy that I love most of them now. It's REALLY lo-fi, I've heard black metal albums that sound better than this but in this case it works really well. Probably one of my favourite albums of the 90s.

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Animal Collective - Feels (2005)

The song the guys were playing at the bar on Monday was Banshee Beat, and it's actually my favourite song on here. This sounds totally different from MPP, I'm pretty sure there's no electronics here at all. It's definitely...weird, but I love it and you seem to like freak folk so let's give it a shot.

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Low - I Could Live in Hope

Considered a classic slowcore album. I have their whole discography downloaded, so if you like this and want more let me know.

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Red House Painters - Red House Painters (Rollercoaster)

A remarkable album with some of my favorite material Mark Kozelek ever created. Katy Song is an absolute classic, and the rest of the tunes all have a lot to offer.

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Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider

This is the band of that guy who just died a little while ago. Really good stuff aside from a few forgettable songs.

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Big Black - Songs About Fucking (1987)

It looks like it belongs on one of those worst album covers lists but it's actually really good.

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Coil - The Ape of Naples (2005)

This blog isn't dead yet! This is my first and only Coil album so far, and it's pretty awesome.

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Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light

I really like this album. Some of the songs don't really go anywhere and are a bit of a bore, but the good tracks (Epilepsy is Dancing) are fantastic. Some really beautiful music, with a really unique voice.

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A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory (1991) & Midnight Marauders (1993)

And to continue with the hip hop trend on the blog, a double shot of the Tribe. Both albums are considered classics of 90s hip hop.

The Low End Theory: Download v0

Midnight Marauders: Download v0

Shiina Ringo - Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana (2003)

Amazing Japanese art pop with lovely vocals and a unique blending of multiple genres. This album basically made my summer ten times more awesome.

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P.S.: Tagged in Japanese but the English titles are on Wikipedia if you prefer.

Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star

More Mos Def and this time with another killer emcee in Talib Kweli. Some very good tunes on this one, Definition being my favorite.

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Mos Def - Black on Both Sides

The definitive Mos Def album, and a hip hop classic so I am told.

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Mos Def - The Ecstatic

Just bought this CD because it was cheap, and it's really good, I'd personally say it's pretty close to Black on Both Sides. Hopefully gonna see his show in Toronto with DOOM.

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