Sunday, February 25, 2007

Episode #5 - Attack

1. Song: An Actual Attack , Artist: Negativland , Album: Ikebana: Merzbow's Amlux Rebuilt, Reused and Recycled (Important)
2. Song: Listen to the Hiss , Artist: Hell , Album: NY Muscle (Universal International)
  • Alan Vega of Suicide contributes guest vocals on this track.

3. Song: Frequency 7 , Artist: Visage , Album: The Kings of Techno (Rapster)

  • Off the double CD compilation chronicling the Detroit techno scene. The first disc sets the stage with tracks from The Stooges, Aretha Franklin, and The Temptations, while the second disc also features Arpanet, Kano, Black Dog, Nitzer Ebb, and others.

4. Song: 1.10 , Artist: The Vanishing , Album: Still Lifes Are Failing (Gold Standard Laboratories)
5. Song: Martin , Artist: Soft Cell , Album: The Art of Falling Apart (Sire)
6. Song: Redrum , Artist: Tom Waits , Album: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (Anti)
7. Song: I Put a Spell On You , Artist: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds , Album: Murderous Ends, Collaborative Odds (Silver Wolf)

  • Bootleg album on the Silver Wolf label; also features covers of Neil Young's "Helpless" and Roy Orbison's "Running Scared", as well as the excellent "The Mercy Seat". This track is a cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins of course, which has also been done by Marilyn Manson and the very underrated Arthur Brown, plus probably some other groups - it seems to be a popular song to cover.

8. Song: 30 Seconds Over Tokyo , Artist: Pere Ubu , Album: Rough Trade Shops: 25 Years (Rough Trade / Mute)

  • Too many awesome artists to list on this four-disc set. Just pick this up, seriously.

9. Song: Day of the Lords , Artist: Joy Division , Album: Unknown Pleasures (Qwest)
10. Song: Mining Villages , Artist: Swell Maps , Album: Jane From Occupied Europe (Rough Trade)
11. Song: Prelude - Nightmare , Artist: Arthur Brown , Album: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (Touchwood)
12. Song: Fan Fare - Fire Poem , Artist: Arthur Brown , Album: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (Touchwood)
13. Song: Fire , Artist: Arthur Brown , Album: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (Touchwood)

  • First three tracks off this crazy psych album from 1968 (produced by Pete Townsend), the first half of which is a mini-concept album of sorts. "Fire" was Brown's only hit, but that's not to discount the rest of the album, which also features covers of James Brown's "Money" and Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell On You". I highly recommend picking this up; I'd grab a vinyl copy if you can find one. If you must pick it up on CD, avoid all the versions save the Touchwood one (which has three extra tracks tacked on at the end, including a mono version of "Prelude - Nightmare"), as the tracklisting for most CD versions is out of Brown's original intended order - extremely important for an album such as this. Interesting side note: I hear grind-spazz-psych-core band An Albatross has covered "Fire" in concert.

14. Song: Wachovia , Artist: Pissed Jeans , Album: Shallow (Sub Pop)

LINK: Sounds of the Apocalypse Episode #5 2007-2-24

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Monday, February 19, 2007

Episode #4 - Aftermath

1. Song: Singin' In the Rain , Artist: Gene Kelly , Album: A Clockwork Orange (Warner Brothers)
2. Song: Untitled , Artist: Cornelius , Album: Ikebana: Merzbow's Amlux Rebuilt, Reused and Recycled (Important)
  • Double album compilation of remixes of material from Merzbow's 2002 album Amlux. Also features tracks from Negativland, Mouse on Mars, DJ Spooky, Alec Empire (of Atari Teenage Riot), Kawabata Makoto (of Acid Mothers Temple), John Wiese, K.K. Null, and others.

3. Song: Raggsokk , Artist: Svarte Grenier , Album: Raggsokk (Type)

  • Norwegian artist also known as Erik K. Skodvin, one half of the duo Deaf Center.

4. Song: *#.. , Artist: Dillinger Escape Plan , Album: Calculating Infinity (Hydra Head)
5. Song: Electric Love Cunt , Artist: Nursing Home , Album: God Bless America!!! (Self-Released)
6. Song: No More Air , Artist: Carlos Giffoni , Album: Arrogance (No Fun Productions)

  • Giffoni curates New York's annual No Fun Fest, usually held at The Hook. This year's lineup, scheduled for May 17-20, includes Hair Police, Merzbow, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), The Rita, Keiji Haino, Aaron Dilloway (Wolf Eyes), and Giffoni himself. He's also the guitarist for Monotract, and does electronics for noise supergroup Death Unit, which also features Chris Corsano, Trevor Tremaine (of Hair Police), and Brian Sullivan (Mouthus). Catch some footage from 2006's 'Fest by buying the double disc DVD over at Load Records.

7. Song: Weekend Sex Change , Artist: Dillinger Escape Plan , Album: Calculating Infinity (Hydra Head)
8. Song: Outdoorsman/Indestructible , Artist: Prurient , Album: Pleasure Ground (Load)
9. Song: Cloud Melodie , Artist: Tussle , Album: Telescope Mind (Smalltown Supersound)
10. Song: The Dead Flag Blues: The Dead Flag Blues - (Intro)/Slow Moving Trains/ The Cowboy.../Outro , Artist: Godspeed You Black Emperor! , Album: F#A#∞ (Kranky)

LINK: Sounds of the Apocalypse Episode #4 2007-2-17

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Saturday, February 10, 2007

Episode #3 - Eightysixed

1. Song: De Vrachtwagen 1 , Artist: Flat Earth Society , Album: Isms (Ipecac)
  • Belgian progressive big band formed from the ashes of fellow Belgians X-Legged Sally and Fukkeduk. Isms is actually a compilation of tracks from four prior releases, and also features a homage to the Birthday Party in the form of "(Little) King Ink".
2. Song: Woofer Wrecker , Artist: Kid 606 , Album: Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You (Ipecac)
3. Song: Dark Side of the Pink Frog , Artist: When , Album: Merzbow - Frog: Remixed And Revisited (Misanthropic Agenda)
  • From a double CD compilation also featuring Boris, Sunn O))), Fennesz, [Tim] Hecker, Russell Haswell, John Wiese (see below), Gerritt (see Episode #2; also runs the Misanthropic Agenda label), House of Low Culture (a side project of Isis), Merzbow, and others that reworks Merzbow's 2001 album Frog.
4. Song: Well I'll Be a Monkey's Uncle (Christoph de Babalon Remix) , Artist: The Locust , Album: Well I'll Be a Monkey's Uncle (Gold Standard Laboratories)
  • Part of the Lab Remixes series, which also includes The Convocation Of and a !!!/Out Hud split. Features reinterpretations of "Well I'll Be a Monkey's Uncle", from The Locust's 1999 self-titled release whose cover art parodies Queen. Bastard Noise (member John Wiese reared his head in Episode #1 with "Batman Dracula"), Wizards of War, Sinking Body (Neil Burke of Born Against and Men's Recovery Project fame), Kid 606, and I Am Spoonbender also contribute.

5. Song: Hamburger Lady , Artist: Throbbing Gristle , Album: D.O.A.: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (Mute)
6. Song: Frankie Teardrop , Artist: Suicide , Album: Suicide [First Album] (Bronze)

  • ILX pitts these two tracks against each other in their forums, but they're both classics. As far as scares go, "Frankie Teardrop", a tragic tale of a disenfranchised Vietnam vet, goes the surprise route, while "Hamburger Lady" - based off a true story about a burn unit victim in Portland, Oregon - lurches along (best line: "She is burned from the waist up/...She's burned from the waist down"). Originally on TG's own Industrial Records (yes, they coined the term), D.O.A. got the Mute reissue treatment in 1993. After breaking up, TG members went on to Psychic TV (Genesis P-Orridge), Coil (Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson), and Chris & Cosey (Cosey Fanni Tutti & Chris Carter), although an album of new material slated for an early 2006 release on Mute still hasn't seen the light of day.

7. Song: Walls of Sound , Artist: Throbbing Gristle , Album: D.O.A.: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (Mute)
8. Song: Ripe (With Decay) , Artist: Nine Inch Nails , Album: The Fragile (Nothing / Interscope)
9. Song: Brains Out , Artist: Error , Album: Error (Epitaph)

  • Members of Error include Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion and Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg Puciato, among others. This EP also features a cover of 999's "Homicide".

10. Song: Bride of Frankenstein , Artist: Quintron , Album: The Frog Tape (Skin Graft / Rhinestone)
11. Song: The Final Chapter (In Which the Town Bares Its Teeth) , Artist: The Death of a Party , Album: The Shame of the Sweet (Double Negative)
12. Song: Black Vomit , Artist: Wolf Eyes , Album: Black Vomit (Sub Pop)

LINK: Sounds of the Apocalypse Episode #3 2007-2-10

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Friday, February 2, 2007

Episode #2 - Hacked to Bits

1. Song: The Clavicle of Solomon , Artist: John Zorn , Album: I.A.O. (Tzadik)
2. Song: I Cannot Feel You as the Dogs Are Laughing and I Am Blind , Artist: Nurse With Wound , Album: Homotopy to Marie (United Diaries)
3. Song: Xualaux , Artist: Andy Puls (Neon Hunk) , Album: Pick a Winner (Load)
  • Off the DVD/CD compilation on Load Records featuring Forcefield, White Mice, Pink and Brown, Lightning Bolt, Pleasurehorse, Pixeltan, Gerty Farish, and others.

4. Song: Astral Dustbin Dirge , Artist: Nurse With Wound , Album: Homotopy to Marie (United Diaries)
5. Song: bassAliens , Artist: Sunn O))) , Album: White2 (Southern Lord)
6. Song: Track 01 , Artist: Gerritt , Album: Space Level Blaze (Misanthropic Agenda)

  • All six tracks on Space Level Blaze are untitled. Excellent use of stereo panning on this track - and throughout the rest of the album - makes this sound like an amped-up version of Neu!'s "Super 16" (specifically those dinosaur growls in the background). Gerritt [Wittmer] has collaborated with Ginnungagap (Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))) and Tim Wyskida of Khanate), Axolotl, D. Yellow Swans, and LHD, as well as helping on production of Yellow Swans' psych-noise splatterfest Psychic Secession.

LINK: Sounds of the Apocalypse Episode #2 2007-2-3

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