John Carpenter mix-tape (2013)

Another mix I have been working on. A little tribute to the musical works of the great John Carpenter. I have been a fan of his since I first saw Escape From New York at the age of 11 and its iconic opening theme that stuck in head. Below is a mix I put together featuring my personal favourite moments from a variety of the masters best films. Feel free to download and share.



On another note, Mediashite has deleted my account thus deleting the entire content of this blog and the past 5 years of posts. At the moment I'm not really sure what will happen to the blog but while I look at new hosting sites, if there is anything you want re-upping then drop me a line.

Black Mass - Of First And Last Things (2013)

Bit of shameless self promotion here. We (Black Mass) have been sat on this for some time now. Its a compilation of all the material the band had previously released. After myself and our two guitarists had joined we started building up our own recording rig and this compilation is the result of those forays into home recording. Its come out pretty good if I do say so myself. We have now dropped most of this from the setlist as well, so we saw this release as a good sign off for the first period of the bands life. For now, we have released it on Bandcamp for free. If it doesn't work then use the Mediafire link under, we only get so many free downloads a month. A physical version should be available from Witchunter Records in March.

Bandcamp

Mediafire

Goblin - Tenebre OST (1982)

Though often credited as a Goblin record, Tenebre is really a soundtrack composed by three former members of the Italian, prog-synth, rock freak out act. Once again working with Italian master Dario Argento, Simonetti, Pignatelli and Morante crafted a sturdy mix between the well known Goblin keyboard heavy sound and something approaching the more standard guitar based work that was popular at the time ( in all honesty the track "Lesbo" could have been omitted, it sounds like the theme tune to a dreadful beach set surf cop film/TV series). The film itself is one of Argento's most under rated efforts. As much as Suspiria and Profondo Rosso are well crafted classics, Tenebre holds a certain charm and nastiness about it. Goblin's iconic title track has one of the catchiest refrains going, I dare you not to be humming it after only a few listens. French dance gang Justice covered/sampled/homaged it on the track Phantom, off the "cross" album.

Goblin - Tenebre OST

Wives Of Seth - Demo (2003)

Wives Of Seth a.k.a. Ray Reardon Youth. Snooker violence. A short lived blast of noisy, aggro hardcore from Bloody Kev ( Hard To Swallow, Raging Speedhorn, Regimes and far too many others to mention) and various London folk. We played with them at a very drunken, very sweaty gig in 2004 at a Jamaican pub called The Swan. Dancehall playing in one room and a load of sweaty kids smashing up the other room to loud punk rock. It was superb.
Here's the 2003, Sexy beast sampling demo...............

Wives Of Seth - Demo 2003

You can learn all about this band and nearly everything else Kev has been involved in over at his blog Keep It In The Family.

Satanic Threat - In To Hell (2008)

We all have a love for the head banging fury that masters like Nunslaughter and the mighty Midnight obviously rule at. Now take members of both those mentioned acts and let them loose on some 80's hardcore records and you have this EP by Satanic Threat. Solid, US, 80's hardcore. Think Uniform Choice, Minor Threat, SSD and Youth of Today if they wrote songs about hating Christ and blaspheming. Solid, evil stuff.

Satanic Threat - In To Hell

Gonnamaketheponyhop Mixtape (2012)

I recently did a hip hop mix just for fun and as a chance to mess around with some new editing software. It's just short of an hours worth of  beats from Onyx, NWA, Big Juss, Dead Prez and loads more. I thought I might share it here with you. Feel free to download and share around all you want.

John Holmes - El Louso Suavo (1999)

I wrote about John Holmes and posted up their final album a while back here, so I am not going to patter on about this awesome bands legacy and lineage again. All you need to know is that El Louso Suavo is a monster of an album. A ugly, crust influenced monstrosity of hardcore smashing its way through Deadguy and The Jesus Lizard style noise rock with a suitably British sense of nihilism.

John Holmes - El Louso Suavo

This originally came out on Flat Earth Records who have recently put their entire back catalogue up for free download. This is a label that introduced John Holmes, Hard To Swallow, Manfat, Ebola, Sawn Off Drop Dead, Witchknot and tons more to my young ears. They made an impression on my musical education.

Flat Earth Records

Kiss It Goodbye and all the other good things.

By now you will have probably heard the news, despite being only half the original line-up, Kiss it Goodbye have reformed for some select US shows. The band responsible for one of the most important albums to my musical growth as a youngster. Even now, over 10 years since I first heard it I still get a buzz every time I listen to it. In honour of this and my love for the melodramatic howl of vocalist Tim Singer, I have posted up some choice cuts from the dudes discography.
She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not is still, to this day, one of the angriest hardcore records I have ever heard. Tim Singer sounds like he is going through a complete mental breakdown, his vocals a mixture of mumblings, shrieks and roars complemented by the berserk, twisted instrumentation. I still struggle to get my head around some of the ideas and riffs on this album. You can draw a definite line from Black Flag to the KIG, sonically and lyrically they both possess a crazy, wild anger that not many bands achieve. Stone cold classic.

Kiss It Goodbye - She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not

Prior to KIG Singer and guitarist Keith Huckins where part of the Deadguy line up responsible for Fixation On A Co-Worker in 1995. The New Jersey group, along with Bloodlet where the black sheep of the Victory Records roster. A superb album in its own right. Combining noise rock, hardcore and a ton of negative attitude.

Deadguy - Fixation On A Co-Worker

After KIG, the other members took part in Playing Enemy and Nineironspitfire. The demo below surfaced about 1999/2000 and whetted a lot of appetites for a future that never came. Family Man was KIG without Huckins and sounds for all intents and purposes like Black Flag smashing into Unsane's practise room. Sadly these two songs are all that ever seemed to exist.

Family Man - Demo

There was talk of other recordings over the years, internet gossip and so forth but nothing has come out yet.

P.S. My Mediafire account is on the fritz so the links on this page are courtesy of the awesome folk over at The Living Doorway and Counts Of Arson. Sweet stuff.

Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return To The 36 Chambers : The Dirty Version

1995 saw the release of this album, probably one of the most well known and commercially successful offshoots of the Wu-Tang empire. From then onwards, its creator, Ol' Dirty Bastard ( Tyrone Russell Jones to his mother) went on to have a fair few adventures :

Around this time, Jones gained notoriety when, as he was being profiled for an MTV biography, he took two of his thirteen children bylimousine to a New York State welfare office to pick up his welfare check; his latest album was still in the top ten of the US charts. The entire incident was filmed by an MTV camera crew and was broadcast nationwide.

In February 1998, Jones witnessed a car accident from the window of his Brooklyn recording studio. He and a friend ran to the accident scene and organized about a dozen onlookers who assisted in lifting the 1996 Ford Mustang—rescuing a 4-year-old girl from the wreckage. She was taken to a hospital with first and second degree burns. Using a false name, Jones visited the girl in the hospital frequently until he was spotted by members of the media

The evening following the traffic accident, Jones rushed on-stage unexpectedly as Shawn Colvin took the stage to give her acceptance speech for Song of the Year at the 1998 Grammy Awards, and announced that he had recently purchased expensive clothes in anticipation of winning the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album that he lost to Puff Daddy. As Colvin took the stage to a round of applause, he asked of the audience, "Please calm down, the music and everything. It's nice that I went and bought me an outfit today that costed a lot of money, you know what I mean? 'Cause I figured that Wu-Tang was gonna win. I don't know how you all see it, but when it comes to the children, Wu-Tang is for the children. We teach the children. You know what I mean? Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best, Okay? I want you all to know that this is ODB, and I love you all. Peace!" This incident was widely covered in the mainstream media.


In February 1999, he was arrested for driving without a license and for being a convicted felon wearing a bulletproof vest (the first person arrested for this infraction under a new California law). Back in New York weeks later, he was arrested for drug possession of crack cocaine and for traffic offences. With multiple cases in the past and present, he was arrested with marijuana and 20 vials of crack. After his arrest, Ol' Dirty Bastard reportedly asked the police to "make the rocks disappear". During a court hearing, he once called a female prosecutor a "sperm donor."


Its a top class album. It has that East Coast dissonance that RZA's production always lends. Alongside Liquid Swords its my favourite Wu offshoot.

Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return To The 36 Chambers

Alejandro Jodorowsky - El Topo OST (1970)

Writing about the work of Jodorowsky is a task in itself. Everyone has varying opinions on his work. So instead of getting hung up on what its all about lets just enjoy the jazzy, funk, acid trip score to his Surrealist, spaghetti western classic, El Topo.

Alejandro Jodorowsky - El Topo

Koreisch - This Decaying Schizophrenic Christ Complex (1999)

I once listened to this album four times in a row. It was the only tape I had on me during a particular stressful and long winded public transport nightmare back from Sheffield after a Nile gig. Being the days when I had a Walkman, the batteries started going near the start of the fourth play, this album sounded even more horrific at half speed.
Koreisch sounded horrific to start with. A piercing wall of feedback, droned samples ( little girls reciting holocaust figures, extracts from Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes and Naked) and then the ragged blasting and sudden tempo shifts into distorted dirges of ringing noise punctuated by the harsh screaming. This album is more a ritual or trial to listen to, something to better yourself with.
Originally this surfaced out of the north of England on Screams Of Salvation, I do have an original copy around somewhere, and got a repressing and remastering by Calculated Risk back in 2004. Neither pressing ever sold very well from what I gather and Koreisch disbanded and moved onto In The Clear and The Kervorkian Solution. The download below is the remastered 2004 edition.
In a similar way that Today Is The Day make horrific noise as a way of dealing with life and to reflect there world view, so do Koreisch. Its a world view of complete failure and misanthropy.

Koreisch - This Decaying Schizophrenic Christ Complex

Ron Grainer - The Omega Man OST (1971)

A fine piece of original scoring for you today. The full soundtrack to the second ( and my personal favourite) film version of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, the Charlton Heston starring The Omega Man.
Grainer worked on a lot of TV and film music, even helping compose the famous theme to Doctor Who, and was very progressive in the use of strange sounds and electronic musical instruments. The Omega Man uses these odd effects but also balances them with uptempo, almost psychedelic rock, glimmers of folk and some very stirring orchestration to soundtrack Chuck Heston's running fight with "The Family". I won't recap the film as its been adapted four times for the big screen, my favourite posted here, the 1964 The Last Man On Earth, 2007's I Am Legend and those cheeky devils at Asylum Films knocked out their own adaptation in the same year, I Am Omega. So here you have it, one of my favourite 70's scores, a very hard to find one at that. It never got a proper release until a 3000 copy pressing in 2002 and then a general release in 2008.

Ron Grainer - The Omega Man OST

Basil Poledouris - Conan The Barbarian (1982)

A true classic of cinema scoring. In fact, in my opinion, the best orchestral score to any film ever. Mr Poledouris is responsible for quite a few great film scores but I always come back to his awe inspiring composition for Conan The Barbarian. Utilizing a 90 piece orchestra and 24 member choir alongside the unheard of the, then new, Musync editing software. A truly majestic and triumphant body of music and the last ever film score to be recorded in mono for a major motion picture. Its a manly listen for sure.

 

Basil Poledouris - Conan The Barbarian

Onyx - Bacdafucup (1993) & All We Got Iz Us (1995)

The angry, foul mouthed, Biohazard collaborating, Spike Lee acting group known as Onyx made a pretty big impression back in the 90's. Here are the first two albums they did, Bacdafucup and All We Got Iz Us both classics zipped up together.

Onyx - Bacdafucup/All We Got Iz Us

 

Breach - It's Me God (1997)

Solid gold, bulletproof classic. The dark, Swedish hardcore machine known as Breach have never really set a foot wrong. This album is my favourite and one of my biggest influences. I couldn't ever really describe how good this is, just get it listened to.

Breach - It's Me God

They ended the final show by smashing up all the instruments and then the guitarist did this little interview......

Fuckmorgue - Down Forever (2004)

 Once again. Another Canadian band that went completely under the radar first time around, alongside the awesome Association Area ( that is to come soon). Another band that shows those Cannucks skill at producing quality noise. I mean just look at the list...legends like Crypotopsy, Gorguts, Cursed ( and its own family tree) Grade, Acrid, No Warning, Fucked up.....and so forth. Pure quality. Anyway, I digress.
Fuckmorgue are a lo-fi amalgamation of hints of black metal, crust, hardcore, Gothic rock, punk all overlaid with spooky keyboards and some very desperate sounding female vocals that all adds up to create a really interesting and unusual listen. I couldn't think of any bracket to put them in. Despite the added influence of the crust and black metal on each others worlds Fuckmorgue easily sidestep that. The only way I can describe this is to imagine west coast art rockers get lost and kidnapped in the cold, harsh winter. Forced into slavery and witness to brutality, murder and the futility of life. They escape and make a bid for Canada. Along the way they are forced to eat one of there party and kill animals to survive.........

Fuckmorgue - Down Forever

.....this is what all that would have sounded like. Down forever. on a related note, some of this lot did go onto play in the sweet Kursk and Wolbachia as well. Another couple of bands worth checking out.

Rob Nabbe interview - HSML - S/T (2004)

This one has been sat on my shelf for ages. Just waiting for the right time to be posted. feeling like shit and hungover, this morning seems to be the right time.
I first met Nabbe when my then band played Trashfest in Holland many many years ago, having previously toured with his old band Insult. Spent all weekend hanging out with people, drinking and playing noisy fast music.Nabbe has been responsible for being involved in some pretty sweet bands. Insult, Jason obsessed gore metal with Bile and today's offering.
HSML where a band he followed Insult up with. The album never really got distributed that well, which is a shame because its certainly better than most stuff mining a similar vein in sludgy hardcore.
But who better to explain it all to you than the man himself.......Rob Nabbe, and his thoughts on a few things.....

HSML........

HSML stands for Hot 'n Steamy Monkeylove and started out in the early '00s after the demise of Fastcore pimps Insult. The idea was to create Sludge/Punkmetal influenced by the likes of Iron monkey, Buzzov*en and Entombed amongst others. As a band we never really got picked up since our style wasn't hip or happening at the time. We didn't have the right tattoos, shitty facial piercings, haircuts, dance moves or social skills to fit in with the herd. The fact that our debut LP/CD was poorly distributed and promoted didn't really help either. HSML was heading for the shallow mass grave of obscure and forgotten bands. Sure we played shows with a bunch of well known bands such as Tragedy, Gadget and Cursed amongst others, but whatever. It was painfully obvious the scene wasn't ready for sexy riffs and sexy beasts. To this day I stand behind our record 100% and now that you've uploaded the thing here, all the nerds, wimps and posers can pretend they like us.

Current trends and the lack of any sort of backbone to modern music............

The backbone of modern music is snapped like a twig.
Or was it a spineless worm to begin with? It seems pretty trendy to play weak and lame music that is easy accessible and your girlfriend can mosh to while you hold her purse, Lucy.
There is no substance, no power, no violence. There is nothing good about modern music.

The point of creating/being involved in music.............

The only reason you need to be involved in creating music should be the fact that it's interesting and exciting to yourself and your bandmates. Music aside, it's the drinks, the laughs and the bullshit that makes it worthwhile. As long as you enjoy the music you create, that's all that counts. Who the fuck care's about the internet rumour mill, flavour of the week or how many idiots "like" you on facebook? If I can sit in my car, crank up one of my own records and feel like driving off a fucking cliff out of sheer adrenalin or aggression, that's all that matters.

Current musical highlights..........

My personal musical highlights at the moment involve this project/band I'm doing with a couple of dudes from Ghent, Belgium. The band is called Blind to Faith and is all about malice, violence and distortion. Dwid Hellion (Integrity) picked us up and released our debut LP through his Holy terror records. Recently we've released a split 7" with Gehenna through A389 records and we've only played a few shows so far. We don't wanna play every shithole and will do everything on our own terms for a change. We play whenever we want and that's that. If this means 5, 50 or 500 shows? Time will tell. So far, we've shared the stage with Eyehategod, Voorhees, Geriatric unit and a few others and will be playing with Buzzov*en in April. We're currently in the process of writing a new album and fans of heavy, raw and violent tunes should keep an eye out. Since nerds are to lame to pick up an album or visit a show they can download our debut LP through the Holy terror records website. Google "lazy" or "easy" you cunt.

Friday 13th...........

Daryl Kahan from Citizens arrest played a little part in one of the Friday the 13th movies. I will not spill the beans on which movie it is or if he's getting killed, maimed or mutilated or not.
Bring out the pizza's and beers and good luck.

What stuff you doing musically these days..........

Besides Blind to Faith I'm currently active in Skullhog and Mutank. Skullhog is working on new material that is basically filthy, moronic and utterly barbaric. Like Autopsy and Hellhammer's retard offspring. Mutank is a new Sludge band that focuses on crushing skulls and crumbling buildings and cities through low frequency obliteration. 

Straight from the mouth of the jacket destroying madman himself. This is HSML.............

HSML - S/T

AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO

AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO

Sorrows - Lethe (2010)

Far too good to let pass by. It was courtesy of the awesome Cosmic Hearse blog that I came into contact with Sorrows depressive and atmospheric take on black metal. Internet presence is kept to a bare minimum in Sorrows world. A single blog keeps it ticking over. Something which I really think has perked my interest in them. 
Of course, this might be a result of Sorrows being immensely boring individuals and having nothing to add about they're music. Who knows? One thing I do know is Lethe is well worth investigating. Showing a wide ranging appreciation of black metal past and present and managing to shape those influences into something greater than the parts. Keyboards, harsh noise, frost bitten blasting, spoken word, indulgent arrangements, its all here and all done with a genuine honesty that is pretty refreshing to hear in the black metal world.

Sorrows - Lethe

GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM, GRIM,

Unsane - The Peel Sessions (1994)

The awesome, pummeling sound of Unsane is one that has been much copied but never bettered. If you don't know who Unsane are then you really should not be reading this blog. Along with The Kittens album I posted a while back, I don't trust anyone who doesn't like either. I remember there being a point when I was a kid, my friend had a compilation he got from somewhere. On it where a selection of bands that would dictate our musical paths. My three friends followed the mundane sounds of The Wildhearts and Honeycrack while I was introduced to Unsane with the the song Scrape. Never looked back since.
This is a compilation of two separate sessions they recorded for John Peel ( a total of three where recorded over the years but the third has never been made available) back in May and November 1991. The live medley and "Bath" feature original drummer Charlie Ondras as well. Download this and bathe yourself in that crushing tone.

Unsane - Peel Sessions

* Listen out for the string drop as Chris Spencer tunes down for Exterminator on the live medley.

Armour Of God - 3 Tracks (2000)

There really isn't much more that can be said that hasn't already about the overwhelming loss of Johnny Morrow back in 2002. You cannot deny the power of Iron Monkey and you would have to be blind to not be aware of its influence still to this day. Armour Of God was a project that involved JPM and his ex-Monkey band mates Jim Rushby and Justin Greaves alongside Sean and Marvin from The Varukers. The best way to describe the sound would be Infest pumped up on steroids while throwing in huge Boston style mosh riffs. Completely untrendy, no frills, aggro hardcore with those vocals raging over the top.
These three tracks saw light of day as a split with 3rd Stone on the Threefold label back in 2000. I have only included the Armour Of God tracks as I don't like the 3rd Stone side. The above picture is courtesy of the jacket destroying madman known as Nabbe.

 Armour Of God - 3 Tracks

As far as I know, these are the only recorded evidence of Armour of God. I have heard things over the years but nothing has ever really come up. If anyone knows different then seriously, swing us a line.