Neats ‎– The Monkey's Head In The Corner Of The Room

[1982]

The debut Neats EP came out the same year as spiritually similar records like Mission Burma's Vs, Dream Syndicate's Days Of Wine And Roses, Chronic Town from REM etc. yet today many aren't aware of these Boston legends. Evocative and moody lyricism was combined with clean edgy dark strumming. These driving instrumental workouts would go on a really intense journey with chiming jangles offering a reprieve. This was supreme shadowy art rock.  

In A Dark Cell - The Hands Of Cain

The Hands Of Cain - In A Dark Cell [1983]

Unknown Greek goth gold. 

Rocking your dystopian nightmare hard in psych-post-punk electro manner.

The Hands Of Cain didn't release a record during their existence in the 80s but somebody tracked down these lost tapes, digitally restored them and in 2009 the compilation LP The Only Sound was released.

The Hands Of Cain - Pristine Passion [1983]

Mental psychedelic goth jam with ott anthemic synth touches. 

The Hands Of Cain - Two Steps To The End [1984]

Absurd Bowie-isms, phased drummage, classic goth bass, gloomy synths, Barney-esque one string guitar lines and dark space rock flourishes all put through a gothic echo chamber. 

The Hands Of Cain - Deadlips [1983]

These guys could get pretty weird too with their fx, synths, psych guitars and echoed vocals. This one's for fans of early Chrome.

Wagon Christ - Spotlight

[1995]

Spotlight paid homage to old school electro with its vocoder robot amongst the woozy noir funk.   

The funky trip hop hop sounds of pioneer Wagon Christ get a bit forgotten in the historic lineage of plunderphonics to sampledelia to instrumental hip hop to hauntology to whatever but he was a master of the nocturnal downtempo tune. 

Back in the day when it all used to, literally, be all about the beats. Sometimes all I ever heard in a tune was the beats, the actual beats and we were beat connoisseurs. 

CHUCK BROWN & THE SOUL SEARCHERS - BUSTIN' LOOSE

]1978[

I feel like bustin loose from this fucking blog. I know its bullshit and nobody reads it anymore so why am I botherin' ?

anyway... 

This is just a fuckin funky funk jam! 

Stone cold classic!

With bad arse cowbell!

Get get get get get get on down!

Get get get get get get on up!

Freak freak-a-deek!

God Almighty!

Yellow Swans - Drowner Yellow Swans

[2007]

Apocalyptic noisey ambient drone classic. It's got the feeling and texture of Daydream Nation and F#A#∞ without the Beatles rock band dynamics and instrument definition just a crushing, chaotic and catastrophic looming clusterfuck of a sound. Drowner Yellow Swans is ominous hovering amorphous sludge and yet it still feels a bit like a rock album because of the loud propulsive racket created containing an array of swirling and fluctuating distorted tones and hidden melodies. The band described it as their gonzo psych rock record... er just don't go looking for a beat or anything.   

Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries

[1984]

The dawning of a new age with dazzling displays of acoustic guitar prowess. Hedges conjures a trompe l'oeil affect creating picturesque splendour and an exquisite spacious atmosphere. On Aerial Boundaries he explores his instrument to its maximum potential pushing the American primitive folk-prog thing out into another dimension. However daggy it may be, it's an undeniable jam.

Difference Engine - Bugpowder

Difference Engine - Bugpowder [1994]

A barnstorming slice of neo-psych dream-gaze. Great drummage!

Difference Engine - Breadmaker [1994] [Full LP]

Totally missed these guys at the time as they were a bit late to the gazing of the shoe party but I gotta say Difference Engine's 1994 cd Breadmaker is top tier second wave shoegaze. They had a real tight nit band aura and thankfully weren't doing exact replicas of the genre's pioneers. Amongst the dreamy atmospheres and ethereal reverberations they would sometimes whip up an incredible disorientating maelstrom. Pretty psychedelic and hypnotic. 

Get mesmerised. 

*The final track at 35:08 is a bonus track added to the 2015 Breadmaker reissue cd. It was originally recorded a year later for the unreleased follow up album. To me it doesn't really fit and the album should always end with the spectacular epic Epiphany...

Difference Engine - Epiphany [1994]

The aforementioned spectacular epic that closes the original cd. Epiphany is an xpressway to your disintegration today and forever. 

猫 シ Corp. - A1 - Palm Mall

[2014]

The opening 22 minute title track to Cat System Corp's Palm Mall. The vague distant muzak reverberations and the field recorded atmospheric buzz of shoppers and mall staff in Palm Mall, as opposed to the rest of the album's vaporwave tunes, has become a minor ambient landmark in certain quarters. A sound design triumph, this soundscape is a soft, wistful, immersive and hypnagogic journey that needs to be experienced at least once. 

Strangely soothing and serene consumerism ambience - Have a nice day.

MediaFired - 04 pixies

[2011]

A vaporwave eccojam video masterpiece. They sample and loop Kate's Wuthering Heights with the looped slow mo vision of a Pepsi Cola ad featuring legendary 90s supermodels Bridget Hall, Tyra Banks and Cindy Crawford. 

*Who the hell would deliberately choose to drink Pepsi when you could have the greatest soft drink/soda/pop of them all Coke?

Tom Recchion - Flying Weather

[1986]

A classic plunderphonic exotica jam with possibly a ye olde Esquivel record on the turntables add in loops and fx, all done in real time. Experimental avant-garde is better when it's fun.