Rowland S. Howard

Rowland S. Howard
"Pop Crimes"
2009 (Liberation)

1. (I Know A Girl) Called Jonny- 03:51
2. Shut Me Down - 04:21
3. Lifes What You Make It - 06:43
4. Pop Crimes - 07:23
5. Nothin - 03:51
6. Wayward Man - 03:42
7. Ave Maria - 04:00
8. The Golden Age Of Bloodshed - 04:31

DL: MP3-320k-LAME3.98

Review from Wire Magazine (March 2010):
"Despite a lifetime spent playing with groups and collaborating with a variety of postpunk musicians, ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard produced only two solo albums. The second, Pop Crimes, emerged a decade after its predecessor Teenage Snuff Film and two months before his death from liver cancer in December 2009. Backed by his ex-Birthday Party colleague Mick Harvey and The Hungry Ghosts’ JP Shilo, with appearances from Brian Hooper and Sean Stewart, Pop Crimes is Howard at his finest. Opening track “(I Know) A Girl Called Jonny” is an organ driven, lust-fuelled duet between Howard and HTRK’s Jonnine Standish, which recalls the 1960s cinematic pop of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigette Bardot. The timbre of the album moves from a sonic detournement that evokes the structures and tonal moods of 60s girl groups, to the driving rhythms and slashing guitar of the title track and “The Golden Age Of Bloodshed”. Howard’s guitar playing moves from raw notes to sonic barrage, yet it retains a unique delicacy of touch. His voice, rich and dark, enunciates tales of desire and failure. Along the way he makes Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin’” his own and transforms Talk Talk’s “Life’s What You Make It” into a churning, relentlessly hypnotic beast through almost abstracted layers of guitar noise. One album highlight,“Shut Me Down”, echoes with the refrain “I miss you so much” – yearning has rarely been so well articulated as here. Similar images of decline and ruination dominate these songs, but there’s a knowingness and dark humour at play. When he sings “I do all my best thinking, unconscious on the floor” in “Wayward Man”, it’s with a wry worldliness."

GHQ

GHQ
"Everywhere At Once"
2008 (Three Lobed)

1. Rembrance - 04:42
2. Four Trees - 13:37
3. Drop City Blues - 04:54
4. Morrow Rose - 05:05

DL: MP3-320k-LAME3.98

Review from Wire Magazine (June 2008):
"This is one of nine albums which make up Three Lobed’s Oscillation III series, featuring exclusive recordings from Bardo Pond, The Bark Haze (featuring Thurston Moore), Jack Rose and Lee Ranaldo, among others. A bit like Konkurrent’s In The Fishtank series, it offers artists an experimental breathing space aside from their normal output. GHQ is a trio of Steve Gunn, Marcia Bassett (from Double Leopards) and drummer Pete Nolan (of Magik Markers). Unlike some of the more extended pieces in the series, GHQ’s album is a varied collection of four contrasting tracks ranging from the tense, hovering guitar buzz of “Rembrance” (sic) and the murmured vocal drones and dappled psychedelia of “Four Trees” to the hollowed out drift of “Drop City Blues” (not unlike the eerie torpor essayed in Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan”) and the murky reverb and hum of “Morrow Rose”."

No Bra

No Bra
"Dance and Walk"
2006 (Muskel)

1. Doherfuckher - 02:26
2. Munchausen - 02:29
3. Noise Pollution - 03:10
4. Fags On My Floor - 01:33
5. New Girls - 02:22
6. Voodoo - 02:46
7. Polite - 03:52
8. Foxy Congregation - 02:06
9. No Woman No Crime - 02:16
10. X Sauna - 02:18
11. Motorcockhead - 02:21
12. Dance And Walk - 02:24

DL: MP3-VBR(V0)-LAME3.97

Review from Wire Magazine (April 2007):
"Originally, duo Susanne Oberbeck and Fanny Pistor-Ettinger (male) came together to make what they term “a retard porn film”. When Fanny declared he was fearful Oberbeck would rape him onstage (or suffered stage fright in alternative versions of the act’s history), he was replaced by Dale Cornish. All of which serves admirably to set the scene for the macabre, sexualised, cheap, sleazy and often hilarious world of No Bra. The broken down pop beats and dance tracks of Dance And Walk concern themselves lyrically with the more fraught aspects of humanity’s diverse proclivities. 2005’s cult hit “Munchausen”, included here, captures the mood. Two pseuds trade claims punctuated by the verbal tick “Really?”: “I love Karl Heinz Munchhausen”, “Really?”, “I shared a flat with him once”, “Really?”, “I shagged him once”, “Really?”, “I used to piss on him every day”, and so on. Pointedly true, funny and frequently revolting."

Fabulous Diamonds

Fabulous Diamonds
"Fabulous Diamonds"
2008 (Slitbreeze)

1. Untitled - 02:36
2. Untitled - 04:02
3. Untitled - 02:53
4. Untitled - 03:12
5. Untitled - 05:13
6. Untitled - 03:53
7. Untitled - 02:23

DL: MP3-320k-LAME3.98

Review from Wire Magazine (August 2008):
"The latest run from the relaunched Siltbreeze label has been the most impressive yet, and alongside the Eat Skull LP, the Fabulous Diamonds album is the cream of the bunch. An Australian boy/girl duo, they work from a blueprint of primitive drums, keyboards, saxophone, tapes and piano, with Nisa Venerosa’s simplistic rhythms extrapolated and confused via huge dub-scale doses of effects, while Jarrod Zlatic switches between drugged, Terry Riley-esque drones and devotional Pharoah Sanders-style sax. Their vocal duets have a frail pop quality that sounds most like the Aussie wing of the International Pop Underground while the overall heft of the sound is as propulsive and psychedelic as The Silver Apples. A unique and maddeningly addictive listen."

Zola Jesus

Zola Jesus
"New Amsterdam"
2009 (Sacred Bones)

1. Odessa (Live on WNYU) - 04:07
2. Dog (Live on WNYU) - 04:23
3. Orthodox (Live on WNYU) - 04:34
4. Last Day (Live on WNYU) - 04:28
5. New Amsterdam - 03:13
6. Lady Maslenitsa - 04:02
7. Nativity - 03:00
8. Little Girl - 01:22
9. Be Your Virgin - 01:41
10. Lady in the Radiator - 02:18

DL: MP3-320k-LAME3.98
Zola Jesus on AMG

These Are Powers

These Are Powers
"Taro Tarot"
2008 (Hoss)

1. All Night Services - 03:52
2. Chipping Ice - 03:31
3. Cockles - 04:18
4. Untitled (Garbage Bird) - 00:43
5. Peel Some Off - 03:42
6. Twin Remains - 04:32

DL: MP3-320k-LAME3.98

Review from Wire Magazine (June 2008):
"Featuring ex-Liars bassist Pat Noecker, the drum-heavy sound of These Are Powers evokes the echoing dub displacement of PiL accompanied by chanted vocals and howling, reverberating guitar. The group’s self-styled “Ghost Punk” music has its obvious antecedents, then, but its trancelike repetition and unsettling barrage of processed guitars and voices, bolstered by a robust low end, lend it a certain distinction. These Are Powers’s intense, ritualistic sound is a rechannelling of rock energies (rather than a post-punk rejection of them) and the 20 minutes of Taro Tarot are like a short, sharp shock. Here the group make their mark and sign off with the guitar’s distorted siren cries and the fading echo of tribal percussion."

Pumice

Pumice
"Quo"
2008 (Soft Abuse)

1. Pumice Quo - 05:31
2. World With Worms - 02:09
3. Fort - 01:34
4. Thermos in the Studio - 02:12
5. Pebbles - 02:20
6. Whole Hoof - 02:46
7. Sick Bay Duvet - 03:27
8. Dogwater - 03:29
9. Heavy Punter - 04:57
10. Battersby - 03:10
11. Beak Remedy - 07:13

DL: MP3-VBR(V0)-LAME3.97

Review from Wire Magazine (August 2008):
"Pumice aka Stefan Neville is the new heir apparent to the New Zealand DIY punk/pop crown previously held by The Clean, Chris Knox and This Kind Of Punishment. His songwriting combines a crude lo-fi aesthetic that manifests itself in muffled vocals, huge ‘dooming’ drums and a motorik take on Lou Reed-style chord solos with drunken folk melodies, lonesome vocals and bursts of free rock. Quo expands the remit even further, with song styles that run the gamut of breakneck hardcore, sea shanties and even moonfaced doo-wop, all rendered with that classic ‘edge of the world’ feel that defines all of the greatest New Zealand independents."

Trans Am

Trans Am
"Futureworld"
1999 (Thrill Jockey)

1. 1999 - 01:37
2. Television Eyes - 05:02
3. Futureworld - 07:02
4. City In Flames - 03:55
5. Am Rhein - 05:24
6. Cocaine Computer - 04:10
7. Runners Standing - 03:45
8. Futureworld II - 03:50
9. Positron - 06:17
10. Sad And Young - 06:40

DL: MP3-320k-LAME3.98
Review: Pitchfork

Salaryman

Salaryman
"Karoshi"
1999 (Twelve Inch)

1. Strong Holder - 03:03
2. The Companion - 04:10
3. Thomas Jefferson Airplane - 04:31
4. My Hands Are Always In Water - 04:04
5. Monterey Days / Malibu Nights - 03:49
6. Dull Normal - 04:36
7. Graze The Umbra - 03:33
8. Taco Muerte - 04:16
9. My Dog Has Fleas - 03:05
10. Craters Of The National Moon - 03:56
11. Karoshi - 04:51

DL: MP3-VBR(V0)-LAME3.97
Review: AMG
Official Site: Salaryman

Black Mountain

Black Mountain
"In The Future"
2008 (Jagjaguwar)

1. Stormy High - 04:33
2. Angels - 03:07
3. Tyrants - 08:02
4. Wucan - 06:02
5. Stay Free - 04:29
6. Queens Will Play - 05:16
7. Evil Ways - 03:26
8. Wild Wind - 01:42
9. Bright Lights - 16:41
10. Night Walks - 03:56

DL: MP3-VBR(V0)-LAME3.97

Review from Wire Magazine (January 2008):
"Stephen McBean’s defiantly anachronistic Vancouver group evokes an era of fin de siècle post-hippy burnout, with filthy boogie riffs, thick, rolling grooves and the aural equivalent of 70s smog. What’s great about Black Mountain is their elusiveness – they trade in a certain familiarity but mix and match their influences to such a degree that they become more a general touchstone than they provide any specific references. In The Future sounds heavier than their debut in all senses: the riffs are deeper and the feeling is more grimly antiestablishment, even as it recalls an era when ‘sticking it to the man’ carried some sort of serious currency. With Amber Webber’s vocals rising to Amon Düül II peaks of intensity, this album eclipses their previous output and hits a consistent note of righteous force."

HTRK

HTRK
"Marry Me Tonight"
2009 (Blast First Petite)

1. Ha - 05:10
2. Rent Boy - 03:38
3. Your Mistress - 03:38
4. Kiss Before The Fall - 02:36
5. Waltz Real Slow - 05:45
6. Panties - 03:13
7. She's Seventeen - 02:35
8. Fascinator - 05:15
9. Disco - 04:48

DL: MP3-320k-LAME3.98

Review from Wire Magazine (April 2010):
"Pronounced Hate Rock, the Australians’ debut album proper is an unashamedly sordid affair. Produced by ex- Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard, who also contributes guitar on a few tracks, this is grinding and ground-down rock, a drunken trawl in a gutter of trudging bass, with drumming as relentless as an inner city concrete estate and the guitar as flat and unyielding as fluorescent light. Vocalist Jonnine Clementine Standish sings with a cold whispered threat, like Lydia Lunch channelling Nico. She sings of pathetic romantic reunions (“Ha”), corrupted perversions of marital respect (“Rent Boy”), blank acts of sexual slavery (“Panties”) and the cold parade of nightclub narcissism on “Disco”, a world where “conscience is nowhere in sight”, a line which stands as fair warning for the sexual turmoil of Marry Me Tonight."

Fursaxa

Fursaxa
"Mycorrhizae Realm"
2010 (All Tomorrow’s Parties)

1. Lunaria Exits The Blue Lodge - 02:06
2. Poplar Moon - 04:27
3. Celosia - 06:42
4. Well Of Tuhala - 06:53
5. Sunhead Bowed - 04:04
6. Charlote - 08:28
7. Ode To Goliards - 05:51

DL: MP3-VBR(V0)-LAME3.98

Review from Wire Magazine (April 2010):
"This is Tara Burke’s seventh album, but the first where she has availed herself of a formal recording studio, previously preferring to work at home with a four-track machine. The result is a mesmerizingly textured set of recordings. The title describes the symbiotic state that exists between some fungi and their host plants, and there’s an appropriate sense of interplay on “Poplar Moon” between a two-note guitar figure, rising vocal drone, minimal harp line and a swell of sublime strings. On “Well Of Tahula” the chorused vocals and harmonies form such a fine tapestry that the sound is akin to a theremin."

Extra Life

Extra Life
"Made Flesh"
2010 (LOAF)

1. Voluptuous Life - 02:09
2. The Ladder - 06:29
3. Made Flesh - 04:59
4. One of Your Whores - 05:05
5. Easter - 06:15
6. Black Hoodie - 03:26
7. Head Shrinker - 04:09
8. The Body is True - 11:15

DL: MP3-320k-FHG

Review from Wire Magazine (March 2010):
"New York’s Charlie Looker presents a personal vision as bewildering as his resumé (Glenn Branca, William Parker) is impressive. Made Flesh offers a contemporary form of urban Prog, drawing as much on the symphonic clang of Branca and Chatham as the brooding chamber rock of Magma and Univers Zero. The crashing rhythms which introduce “Voluptuous Life” set the tone for a work which finds Looker unafraid to plumb ludicrous depths in pursuit of his muse, occasionally displaying a kinship with Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart in terms of unapologetic self-absorption. His affected nerd-squawk vocals are at times irritating but in truth everything here grates, and admirably so."

White Hinterland

White Hinterland
"Kairos"
2010 (Dead Oceans)

1. Icarus - 03:46
2. Moon Jam - 04:19
3. No Logic - 03:41
4. Begin Again - 03:42
5. Bow & Arrow - 03:35
6. Amsterdam - 02:55
7. Thunderbird - 03:38
8. Cataract - 05:14
9. Huron - 05:12
10. Magnolias - 05:20

DL: MP3-320k-FHG

Review from Wire Magazine (March 2010):
"There’s been a buzz recently about the crossover between indie rock and R&B following The Dirty Projectors’ magnificent “Stillness Is The Move”, which gained a degree of legitimacy via a cover by Solange Knowles. That comparison is mostly spurious, though, as it is in the case of Casey Dienel’s White Hinterland project. For sure, the cool, collected vocals are set within an environment of looped rhythms and electronic interference, but there’s little to make Electrik Red spill their “drank” and more to inspire wistful gazing onto snowcovered landscapes. This isn’t a criticism of the music itself, however, the glacial quality of which could teach The XX a thing or two about making effective and affecting minimal pop."

Bruckmayr

Bruckmayr
"A Little Warning From The Pimps"
2007 (Angelika Koehlermann)

1. Amplifier - 03:56
2. I See Them Cry Backstage - 03:41
3. Crashing - 03:17
4. The Good Times - 04:18
5. Deep Down - 04:44
6. Here Come The Assholes - 03:47
7. Regular Life - 04:07
8. Did You Really Love Me? - 04:28
9. Stupid - 03:46
10. Sniffing Glue - 04:19
11. Miss Biglove - 03:22
12. Only Love - 05:28
13. The Cat Is Gone - 03:31
14. Another Night In The Club - 04:16
15. Always Untrue - 04:24

DL: MP3-VBR(V0)-LAME3.97

Review from Wire Magazine (March 2007):
"At the wheel of this rumbling killdozer of a disc is hunched the bare chested and tattooed figure of Fuckhead mainman Didi Bruckmayr, who, together with various heavy friends, crashes on to the dancefloor with some severely warped pop, rock and disco . He gleefully hacks into these genres with serrated wit and wisdom. Coming across like Giorgio Moroder meets Leonard Cohen performing the Soft Cell songbook, Bruckmayr’s brilliantly performed electro pop and Motorhead strength hard rock connect perfectly for the ultimate death disco showdown."

Panther

Panther
"Secret Lawns"
2007 (Fryk Beat)

1. Use Your Mouth Your Breath To Breath - 02:46
2. Here We Stand - 01:05
3. How Does It Feel? - 03:25
4. Rely On Scent - 01:39
5. How Well Can You Swim? - 02:12
6. Take Us Out - 03:59
7. You Don't Want Your Nails Done - 02:09
8. Your Pants Are Creased Familiarly - 01:20
9. Telephone Wire - 02:00
10. Tennis Lesson - 01:28
11. Chanzz - 01:10
12. Talk For Tuesday - 01:48
13. Tigers Touch - 05:00

DL: MP3-VBR(V0)-LAME3.97

Review from Wire Magazine (March 2007):
"Panther is the mutant strain of Charlie Salas-Humara, a one-man music machine whose broken disco riffs lock into a secret pulsebeat weapon that roughly pushes Prince (in the form of a giant robot) and Edan up against the wall and pulls the trigger. Secret Lawns is a mad mixture of unpredictable beats, hooks and catchy beatbox routines that lead the listener through black alleys and gaming arcades, discovering new musical thrills at every turn. At one point we are left alone with only a brushed cymbal sample for company while the rest of Panther’s song takes a well deserved break. Isolated from the busy clutter, this simple device sounds devastating."