Internal Affairs (Goldie & 4 Hero) - Shinin' Down On Me 1993

On the surface this is a blueprint for radio/cafe friendly dnb that was to come in a year or two but give it another listen. Beneath the future gloss is a pretty deranged hardcore jungle tune. This is truly a sonic moment where the avant and the pop intersected. A real tension exists within this track where the pioneering hardcore underground elements meet the crowd pleasing commercial pop needs of the masses.  And yet it wouldn't be until the following year that Goldie would break into the charts with Inner City Life.

COLD MISSION 1994

Redy to Atak

Pretty mental jungle and so tinkered with in a dub tradition but it somehow becomes mellifluous. This paradox was not lost on listeners at the time. This is a 4HERO alias from one of their two 12"ers of 1994. 

 

The Sound Bizniz

Is this even jungle? Whatever it is, it's a journey into unorthodox beat science. Mac & Dego were known for pioneering a lot more than jungle. The secret to 4HERO's art was the broad palette of musical knowledge which they drew upon to come up with such boundary busting tunes. 

Drug Store Rude Boy

This is far out. 

Jungle from the other side. 

Uncanny.

Great.

Dreamers

Lovely ambient jungle until (as pointed out in the comments) the 3:24 mark when it's interrupted out of nowhere by something unnatural. Tainted euphoria. 

Source Direct

Shimmer (1994)

From the first Source Direct 12", Shimmer was the b-side. It starts out like a dolphin ambient almost shoegaze-y jungle thing before morphing into an amen smasher with diva after two and half minutes. Then at 3:49 we get the bleep-y technoid vibes as the bass drops continue and it smashes on. In 1994 you could have literally bought a record every day with an Amen break on it and they would have all been good.

Stars (1994)

After the atmosphere of the intro it's an Amen smasher all the way with a 1:37 sub bass drop for maximum speaker shaking. The 3:38 moment when the drums pull up for some dilapidated ambience is the subdued euphoric moment you're waiting for. 

Source Direct - Black Domina

Supreme choppage amongst the tense vibez. The gaps between drum hits are fascinating and that cymbal editing is top level mesmerising. 

GOLDIE - Still Life (Photek Remix)

What I love about this is despite it being drum'n'bass by this stage it's still a totally hardcore riddim. This was 4HERO on production & engineering and Photek on the remix. Still the future, has anyone come up with a better future?

GONG - The Isle Of Everywhere

Gong is.

The Shining Soundtrack

...because more than anything this film is a great listen. As a movie it's a great soundtrack. Why were we searching for the ultimate industrial noise thrills in the 70s, 80s & 90s? when it was already done many years prior by classical composers then put into this incredible sound design by music editor Gordon Stainforth for one of the biggest mainstream horror flicks of our time. The Shining OST 1980, it's got all the Penderecki pomp, percussion, dissonance, buzzing, scraping, violent intensity, abstraction etc. I mean De Natura Sonoris 2 is noisier and better than anything Einstürzende Neubauten or Liabach ever did, falling spanner sound included. Don't forget the other orchestral dudes Bartok and Ligiti. Ligiti brings the ominous frequencies and electric drones while Bartok's more subtle strings, percussion and celesta eerily enchant until climaxing with a jolt. Then there's the 30s pop of Jack Hylton, Al Bowlly & Pet Van Steeden that 20 years later would inspire hauntology, in particular Leyland Kirby's musical project The Caretaker (which he named after Jack Nicholson's character). 

I wonder if there is a mix from the actual film's sound source as there are a few pieces of music missing here and it's the editing of this noise of the 20th century that brings the extra excitement. Anyway for now here is the track listing for this youtube version of the soundtrack which is much more comprehensive than the original vinyl version from the 80s:

1. The Shining Main Title by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind

2. Lontano by Ligeti

3. Music For Strings, Percussion, & Celesta by Bartok 

4. The Awakening of Jacob by Penderecki 

5. De Natura Sonoris No. 1 by Penderecki 

6. Polymorphia by Penderecki 

7. Masquerade performed by Jack Hylton 

8. De Natura Sonoris No. 2 by Penderecki 

9. It's All Forgotten Now by Al Bowlly 

10. Kanon by Penderecki 

11. Home by Van Steeden, Clarkson, and Clarkson 

12. Utrenja (Kanon Paschy) by Penderecki 

13. Utrenja (Ewangelia) by Penderecki 

14. Midnight, the Stars, and You by Henry Hall & The Gleneagles Hotel Band

Denroy Morgan - I'll Do Anything For You

The synth in this is just the best! Classic bit o 1981 boogie from Jamaican ex-pat in America Denroy Morgan. 

UNWOUND - REPETITION

UNWOUND - LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR

Unwound are more well known for the inferior bands they influenced than for their own actual music, such as Modest Mouse, The Trail Of Dead, At The Drive In, Black Dice etc.

After Twin Infinitives, Spiderland and Soundtracks For The Blind you could make a case for Unwound's 1996 LP Repetition as the fourth greatest innovative American noisy rock album record of the 90s. Discuss (or not I mean who cares at this point...)

UNWOUND - LADY ELECT

Intense with lackadaisical overtones. Emotional...

UNWOUND - FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT

You know a good LP when the best tune is the final track (cf. Gouge Away - The Pixies, The Bewlay Brothers - David Bowie). 

earth - omen and portents

I never like re-activated groups. The two exceptions are Swans circa The Seer and totally surprisingly Earth. This track puts me in mind of Rock Formations era Yawning Man but slower. Bill Frisell guests. A deep psych jam emerges from the doomed drone desert rock nexus.

Nunc Dimittis (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: End Credits) - Geoffrey Burgon

This is the song in the closing credits for each of the 7 episodes of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which aired on the BBC is 1979. Apparently the singer is Paul Phoenix. This tune while already haunted has extra resonance today as the ill-informed, misguided and tyrannical woke-tard cultural revolutionists have now come to destroy choral music and church choirs. Object now! So this is the new punk-rock. 

This goes out to the heroic 80 year old granny objecting to cocks in her changing rooms at her local pool and the legendary lesbians who were banned today from a pride march in Wales for stating "Lesbians Don't Like Penises!"   

Kano - I'm ready

Future electro from 1980 by Kano. For a start that bass....then the vocal science....the untreated vocal melodies are like something Ariel Pink was influenced by circa Loverboy. The glitz & the glamour of Italo-disco bliss...

Hadji Baba - Gus Vali

Hadji Baba comes from a 1974 LP that's never been reissued so perhaps the collector cult builders who run reissue labels don't like it. Reminiscent of Can's ethnological forgeries, 70s Miles and Turkish psych, it's a super session of 70s psychedelic jazz-funk-fusion. Recorded in NYC by Greek American belly dancing advocate Gus Vali. A Middle-Eastern Afro-Cuban jam with an all star lineup that features Charlie Palmieri on the Fender Rhodes.  

Iration Steppas - Iration Steppas vs. Dennis Rootical

Choice "digi-dub" reggae from the mid 90s. Nothing produced by the dubstep people 10 years later was anywhere near as good as this tune. Massive.

Skream - Midnight Request Line

I always thought this dubstep tune was a total Drexciya rip off. Listening to most dubstep still gets on my tits because it has all these elements from top genres like dub, electro, Detroit techno, jungle, dub-tech etc. but it's not as good. Plus it's got dub in the bloody name right but it's rarely dubby enough. I mean this track, even though it's undeniable, is virtually dub free.  

Infophysix - Dopplereffekt

Infophysix from 96 is classic Detroit electro. Dopplereffekt is one half of Drexciya Gerald Donald's side project that adds an ebm element to the sound. The subject matter is old school industrial style though: nazis, porn, eugenics etc. Don't let that put you off though as many of their 90s tunes have that luxuriant electro vibe that could only be Drexciya. 

Jaze - Wanna Get Down With You

Some funky psychedelic guitar action on this disco number from 1979. An ace production that gets pretty out there. If someone told you this was Can collaborating with a female vocal trio you might well have believed them. The mysterious Jaze did just the one record and this it. Wanna Get Down With You was released on 12" by the Leo Mini label.  Top jam!

Underground Lovers - Promenade

One of the great 90s live bands from Melbourne. They also did some terrific records. I guess they were indebted to space-rock, post-punk, synth pop, krautrock, neo-psych, indie-dance, shoegaze and everything else good in between. 1992's Promenade is just hits & memories for me and sure I used to sometimes have a beer at me local with the drummer on this record 30 years ago. Still I reckon it must be good. It stands up like say Ripe, their contemporaries don't. At 2.52 when it takes off into blissed out noise overload and the synth strings swell with the concrete into the sky...

Underground Lovers were signed to short lived 4AD sub label Guernica. The only other bands I can think of that were maybe on that label were Insides & Unrest. Am I right? The Undies killed it on the big stages like The Palace with epic performances but were also great on the small stages where they could pack a punch like The Punters or The Empress. The sound of my youthful soul wasting away. Who knew it would all turn into a dystopian nightmare 30 years on...

Dr. Strangely Strange - Dark Haired Lady

A haunting acid-folk tune from 69 that swiftly transforms when an eldritch stylophone enters at 2.47 and it becomes another song entirely. 

Sekret Sekret - New King Jack

The offbeat New King Jack must have stood out like a sore thumb amongst Sydney's inner-city post-punk scene in 1980. I guess at its heart this tune is pop, sixties and folk influenced with hints of retroactively named 60s micro-genres like baroque psych and sunshine pop and eventually it becomes undeniably psych when that sideways guitar enters and almost tips the song over. Anyway what's a delightfully enchanting number to me might not be for your you. Peculiar. 

The Moles - Tendrils and Paracetamol

An epic pop mutation from Sydney group The Moles in 1991. This inspired psych-noise-pop post-punk-funk odyssey was an anomaly then and remains so to this day. 

The Missing Links - You're Driving Me Insane

Now we're talking...back to the British beat, the FREAKBEAT! Although this is actually from Sydney in '65. I'm sure Freakbeat Phil included several Australian and Dutch 45s in his freakbeat micro-genre roundup...I guess so long as it's not American and has been touched by the hand of mayhem it's in. This is buzzing with so much electricity on so many fronts. Lust, violence, noise... I've finally caught the spice-y virus and well my brain just can't think up the words to express the vibe for this song... If you don't already know the tune just press play and voilà it'll be one of your 60s favourites.

Beacon Street Union - The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens

Mr Simon Reynolds joins in the psych fest. He suggests this, another good bit of daggy Boston psychedelia from 1968. These guys were part of the phoney Bosstown Sound scene along with Ultimate Spinach and Orpheus. It starts out as a tepid Love rip off but then a flute enters and by the end a nifty little guitar break emerges creating a noice mini psych freak out.  

Ultimate Spinach - (Ballad Of The) Hip Death Goddess

I guess the best way to describe this is daggy psychedelia. Ultimate Spinach were acolytes of folk rock and San Francisco style psych but they were far from the happening scenes of the day (Texas, San Fran, LA etc.) as they were Bostonians. They are the sort of band that never quite make the grade with regard to lists of psych but often rate a mention as second tier runners up that might be worth a listen once you're done with the good stuff. Anyway that's all beside the point as Hip Death Goddess is a stellar tripped out acid rock epic. This jam could have continued for another 10 minutes and I wouldn't have minded at all.

Blue Orchids - Sun Connection

I always get a delightful surprise listening to Blue Orchids for some reason...it's probably something to do with the fact they are really forgotten and hardly even a cult band. Other neo-psych groups of the era with whom they have a spiritual affinity like Meat Puppets or even a band Blue Orchids influenced like The Chills have their place in the history of 80s rock with fanbases to match. The debut Blue Orchids LP The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) from 1982 despite being a big independent hit has never been reissued on vinyl and only ever got released on cd once, back in 2003. It's hard to believe a group made up of ex members of The Fall who made an idiosyncratic masterstroke of acid fried anti-establishment Pagan post-punk neo-psych are not celebrated by the underground. Perhaps they are just too unique and will only appeal to those with a penchant for the esoteric.  

Sun Connection is the opening song off The Greatest Hit. Once again Martin Bramah is in druid mystic mode. A very LSD vibe where his drug addled mind is trying to square away paradoxical notions such as the purity of a spiritual utopia and the encroaching reality of the necessity of money to survive. These existential dilemmas are delivered via that vocal trick of all of a sudden metamorphosing tunelessness into melodic elation and back again. All the while a mesmeric web of guitars and keys organically shift from tense passages to pastoral flourishes which has an added alchemical frisson as Bramah and organist Una Baines were romantically involved. 

Blue Orchids - A Year With No Head

Forgotten post-punk neo-psychedelic greatness from 1982. Hypnotic organ, a glistening fried guitar, a dark bass line and a rhythmic guitar all swirl in unison as mystic recalcitrant Martin Bramah philosophises blissfully over the the top, mesmerising.  

Fire Engines - Meat Whiplash

Were Fire Engines the best band of 1981? Anyway this is where fellow Scots Meat Whiplash got their name from: The b-side to Fire Engines 1981 single Candyskin which was released on the Pop Aural label. While it's a nervy post-punk gem it fits in with these recently posted tunes because there's a weird phazed psych guitar bit amongst the noisey frenetic post-punk shenanigans. 

Meat Puppets - Two Rivers

While the entire 1985 LP Up On The Sun is a sun baked roadside cactus of serene funky psychedelic perfection, Two Rivers is where they go into the mystic with sublime results. Words are no justice for this splendour. 

Mercury Rev - Chasing a Bee

The greatest neo-psych jam ever. Perhaps the greatest OTT psych tune of all time too. I guess you can't really compare 60s psych to 90s neo-psych though because by the time of Mercury Rev there were so many more influences going into the music from prog, krautrock, space rock, punk, post-punk, goth, post-hardcore, noise-pop, shoegaze and whatever else I've forgotten. I was expecting this tune to have lost its lustre now it's over 30 years old but no it is still fucking astounding. Dave Baker era Rev is still the best. If you only know Mercury Rev due to 1998's Deserter's Songs chart success well let me tell ya...you're missing out. In 1991 the cult band released the outstanding sprawling kaleidoscopic masterpiece Yerself Is Steam and then followed it up in 1993 with the equally mind-bending hallucinogenic Boces. For these two LPs the mercurial presence of singer Dave Baker gave the band an unhinged quality that would disappear from the group after he left in 94.