Disclaimer

Any links that appear on this blog have been added in order for music to be readily available to anyone who should want to hear it. If you download any of these files it is expected that you delete the music after a day or so. If you like an artist, buy their music and support them by going to shows and buying merchandise.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas just came early

That's right children. I'm no fat man, but I've got a veritable dickload of goodness for you to get excited over. If you would like to touch my sack in appreciation then that can be arranged.



This Heat - This Heat

So if you haven't heard their avant post-punk masterpiece Deceit, you should really rectify that. If you have and wondered "oh I wonder what they sounded like before that" then wonder no more!


Miles - Facets

Miles is half of Demdike Stare, who have put out a bunch of great material collected in their '11 release Tryptich. His first release under his own name (he has been putting out different stuff under other names for years) takes that darkness from Demdike Stare, and gets closer to a sound the fantastic Andy Stott might produce. Great EP.


Andy Stott - We Stay Together

What, you slept on this guy too? Well you're in for a treat. The two EP's he has released this year have been awesome, this later one particularly so. This has dark, very minimal beats, though not as quite primal as Passed Me By. Excellent "dub techno" as the kids call it (sorry dev).



Ah, French Impressionism. What's impressionism you ask? Well, no doubt you have heard the name Claude Monet, and perhaps seen this painting by him; now imagine that same image represented by music; soft around the edges, slightly blurred tonality, more liberal use of dissonance though not at all in the same way as the Expressionists, etc. You should at least know "Clair de lune" aka one of the best pieces of music ever... well that's this guy, and here is some of the best music written for the piano.


Arnold Schoenberg - Verklarte Nacht, String Trio

Expressionism? You got it. Whilst the French were (typically) being all airy-fairy and passive, the Austro-German composers, led by one Mr. Arnold Schoenberg, took all of the emotion the could muster, and dramatised it as much as possible. Dissonance features strongly, as Schoenberg led the charge in atonal music, and later serialism, though the main piece we have here, "Verklarte Nacht", is one of his earliest, therefore sounding a little more like Wagner/Mahler, but all twisted and distorted. Not that intimidating, I promise. "Verklarte Nacht" (Transfigured Night) is for string sextet by the way.


Morton Feldman - Triadic Memories

Fast forward another 50 or 60 years, and all tonal barriers have been broken down, Cage has drawn up a blank score, and the Americans are beginning to be recognised in the post-WWII "contemporary classical" era. One of the most important, and peculiar, is Morton Feldman, a good friend of John Cage. Along with other artists from different fields, they were apart of the New York School, known mainly for painter Jackson Pollock. Well, I'm going to post another painting just because I can, this time by Philip Guston, who was part of that crew, and who Feldman dedicated a piece to (he did that quite a bit). Again think of this painting and the odd use of colour, the hazy quality though in a different way to impressionism, the ambiguity of it all, the strange brush stroke patterns. These things can be applied to Feldman's music also. Quiet, slow, recurring asymmetrical patterns which bring about a hazy sense of timelessness (Wittgenstein's idea of infinity is very apt here). It is all quite ambiguous, and like many other twentieth-century composers, he explores dissonances in his music, though in a more intriguing fashion. Timbre and texture are of the utmost importance, each note, each chord, all ringing out together and repeated and repeated and repeated...

I have written more than I intended but that is because I love his work so much. This is a solo piano piece, around a hour and a bit, masterfully played by Aki Takahashi. 


Eric Dolphy - Iron Man

If you have not heard this man's avant opus Out To Lunch then you had better go do that. Either way, here is some more fine playing from Charles Mingus' favourite horn player. This album is one of his later works, and oh boy is it one fiery occasion. It's loose, crazy and of course a little bit out there, but still hanging on to the post-bop idiom by his fingernails. 


Dead Language - Dead Language

Everybody loves some powerviolence, especially when it features members of Iron Lung, No Comment, Walls and Solutions. Debut LP released this year.



I have really come around to El-P this year, after somewhat stupidly neglecting him after a hasty listen to his later album. Company Flow certainly straightened me out though, and then I checked out this gem. Sometimes odd, dense beats, combined with dense lyricism. Dude is incredibly talented just needs to work on his quality control a little bit, but it doesn't hamper this album too much anyway.




Hope this helps to make up for the lack of activity on here of late.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Complete String Quartets (Fitzwilliam String Quartet)


It is entirely necessary to get these 6+ hours of music.

The giant of twentieth-century Russia, who had a quite tumultuous (and fascinating) relationship with Stalin and the state, wrote both 15 string quartets and symphonies. Each display his prowess as a composer of the modern world, though he does not abandon tonality completely. This makes him a excellent choice for somebody perhaps less inclined to dive in to what is sometimes an intimidating century in the classical world.

No excuses. Listen.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Henry Purcell - The Fairy Queen

Britain's version of Bach and probably their most well known and highly thought of composers. The Fairy Queen is a masque, or semi-opera with words from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's such a great piece of music, with complex contrapuntal ideas and, as with practically everything Baroque, features the goddamned fugue.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

AFX - Chosen Lords


Richard D. James. Yes, that crazy guy.

This is a compilation of some highlights from the Analord series put out under the AFX moniker. Needless to say, it's awesome.


Chosen Lords

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Emika - Emika



Emika's world is one that owes not only a huge debt to the London underworld of Dubstep, but the Bristol world of trip hop. You could also lump her in with the recent strain of darkwave inspired artists, such as Salem and Holy Other. Her music is rife with stifling atmosphere and a violent paranoia, all set to a soundtrack of twitchy and stuttering percussion and ruthless bass thumps.


Link removed as per request of blogger

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Cocteau Twins - The Pink Opaque

1985 compilation album from everyone's favourite unintelligible dreamy scottish poppish (kinda) band.

and it rules

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Moss Icon - Lyburnum

Woah this place looks different it's all grey. Here is some Moss Icon, some band that were playing emotional hardcore before people were even calling it that (emotional hardcore sounds dumb anyway, like regular hardcore isn't emotional already?). Too bad they missed the 'Revolution Summer' by a year or something. Blah blah, it's good, get it.

New Contributor - Deviant

The looserthanloose blog/community/brotherhood/family/fraternity/club/group would like to welcome its newest member, the ineffable, unassailable, incomparable, inaudible (cuz its the internet lol) and a bunch of other words too DEVIANT.

He's also got better everything than you.

but particularly hair.
oh baby

Wayne Shorter - Juju


Shorter put out a string of great albums on Blue Note through the 60's, before he went all fusiony and founded Weather Report in the 70's. This album was released in 1964, around the time he joined Miles Davis' amazing quintet, though before his playing evolved into what it would be like in that group later on. Here, Shorter is very much under the spell of Coltrane (as nearly all saxophonists were at that stage), but the one thing that shines through no matter what period of his career you pick, is his compositions. While they were still basically following the general bop guidelines of the day, his harmonic and melodic material is far more intricate in its relationship to each other. What results is you humming along to things in your car you never thought you would.

Also featuring two parts of Coltrane's quartet in McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, and the ever-reliable Reggie Workman on bass, you know you are in for something special.


Juju

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Mainstream Rap Special

I love 90s underground rap because the internet tells me to, and I hate mainstream rap becuz its just about bitches and hoes and money and its not intelligent at all LOL a milli a milli i mean wtf is that hahahaha thats not rap RIDIN DIIIIRRRTY LOL

^ That shit pisses me off. Here's some rap that wasn't produced by DJ Premier circa 1994 but still manages to rule:

Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3
Lil Wayne - Dedication 2
Chamillionaire - Ultimate Victory
T.I. - Trap Muzik
T.I. - King
Three 6 Mafia - Mystic Stylez
Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
UGK - Ridin' Dirty
Big K.R.I.T - Returnof4eva
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - E 1999 Eternal
Curren$y - Pilot Talk
Game - Documentary
Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle



Fleshpress - III - The Art of Losing All


 feel like sluj? heres sum sluj


Bill Withers - Just As I Am

great great voice plus he can sing iknowiknowiknowiknowiknowiknowinknowiknowiknowiknowiknowiknowiknowiknow then KEEP SINGING without taking a fuckign BREATH yeah thats right holy shit anyways this is a great album filled with delicious melodies, brilliant soulful vocals and luverly phrasing this is a staple of r&b and one of the best soul albums ever recorded of all time in the world ever

Friday, September 16, 2011

Lord Finesse - Return of the Funky Man


Early 90's East Coast, you know the drill.

He did a great deal of the production on this too, and got a bit of help from, among others, Showbiz (of Showbiz and A.G fame (A.G also guests)). Solid, if nothing outstanding, but oft-neglected just because of the rest of the great shit back then.


Return of the Funky Man

Monday, September 12, 2011

Mayhem - Deathcrush


Fuck yeah Mayhem
Fuck yeah Deathcrush
Fuck yeah songs called Chainsaw Gutsfuck

but seriously this is a great lil slice of black metal this and De Mysteriis are the two highest points of their discog easily and hey if you dont like it its only 20 mins long so stfu

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds


Classic album if you don't like this then you are not a person. This is probably the best pop album ever to exist bar maybe a Beatles album. You can hear its influence even today, clear as a bell. The harmonies, the songwriting and the vocal precision are all breathtaking and it's hyper-melodic but retains this sense of atmosphere that balances its sound pretty much perfectly. oh yeah and its the most catchy and singalongable thing ever in the world ever.

Get this shit now

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Dirty Beaches - Badlands



Sup guys? Here's some incredibly dismal music for you, and one of the best albums of the year! Enjoy.

---

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Our Sunday Affairs - Smiles From Next Year


Young dudes playing twinkly lil emo ditties like a bau5

really pretty especially the song that is about Alyssa but isn't but so is.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Benga - Diary of an Afro Warrior



Fairly minimal dubsteppy goodness, kind of a mid-point between atmospheric stuff and bass overload 'womp'. That's why it's good. Won't blow your socks off, but should appeal to anybody with an interest in the genre.


Diary of an Afro Warrior

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Electric Masada - At the Mountains of Madness


Seeing as Qwe posted some Zorn, I figured I would post this.

One of Zorn's groups, Electric Masada is an outlet for the klezmer music he has also been doing in Masada, but, as you may have guessed, with an electronic spin. Along with the usual frenetic sax and percussion of most of Zorn's work, we find laptop electronics, keyboards and electric guitar adding to the insanity. This isn't as bat shit insane as Naked City, however noisy avant-garde jazz with middle eastern influence doesn't fully reside in the sane camp either.

This is a double live album of monumental quality.


Disc 1
Disc 2

Sunday, August 7, 2011

John Zorn - Naked City


the most insane album you will ever listen to. sometimes groovy, sometimes beautiful, sometimes a whirring grind assault.

get the fuck on it. absolutely brilliant