Bungle

The second album from Mr. Bungle horn-man Bär (Clinton) McKinnon. Shrouded in controversy, the album swings from meticulous chamber-pop majesty to unapologetic 4-track romps. It echoes in McKinnon's work with Mr. Bungle, but deepens his singular voice with lush compositions, elegiac meditations , and crushing bursts of irreverence. The record features an assorted cast of Musicians: Shane Lieber (A Lonely Crowd), Angus Leslie (Sex On Toast), Rob McDonald, Olaf Scott (Saskwatch), John Myatt (Sex On Toast), Gareth Thomson (Sex On Toast).

Performance art, art rock, experimental rock, heavy metal - all are styles of music that have been used to explain one of the more hard to explain bands in all of rock, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Some critics have compared the band - which hails from Oakland, California - to one of the quirkiest bands of all time, Mr. Bungle, and they may have a point (after all, like Bungle, SGM are not opposed to any musical style, and one of their albums was originally released by a label run by an ex-Bungle member, Trey Spruance). Strange costumes, makeup, and instruments that are both traditional and homemade turn out to be some of the key ingredients to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, who have built a sizable cult following along the way…

Leo Kottke - Time Step (1983) {Chrysalis BGOCD255 rel 1995}
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© 1983, 1995 Chrysalis Records / BGO Records | BGOCD255
Finger-Picked Guitar / Progressive Folk / Jazz Blues / Contemporary Folk / New Acoustic

Having followed Leo Kottke since 1974 I can honestly say this album is a keeper. All the tunes are vintage Kottke but "Rings", written as sort of a joke by Alex Harvey and Ed Reeves, is fantastic. Time Step is Kottke's last recording on the Chrysalis label. It is the first of two Kottke albums produced by T-Bone Burnett, the second being My Father's Face. Guests include Albert Lee and Emmylou Harris. After the release of Time Step Kottke went into a three-year seclusion. When he returned later in 1986, it was as a guest musician on The Blind Leading the Naked by Violent Femmes, then his own releases with a new direction and picking style.

John Zorn & Secret Chiefs 3 - Xaphan: Book of Angels, Vol. 9 (2008) {Tzadik TZ 7364}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 382 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 130 Mb
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© 2008 Tzadik | TZ 7364 | Tzadik Archival Series
Jazz / Rock / Funk / Klezmer / Classical / Folk / Avant-Garde / Experimental

Spectacular arrangements of Masada compositions by mad alchemist Trey Spruance, mastermind of Secret Chiefs 3 and one of the most brilliant musicians around. Drawing upon an astonishing array of musical styles from Exotica and Surf to Ethiopian Funk and Gypsy Swing, Trey ’s colorful orchestral arrangements perfectly compliment the lyricism and dynamic rhythmic complexity of Zorn ’s evocative Book of Angels. Featuring some of the best musicians from the Bay Area, LA and Seattle scenes, this is one of the most compelling installments in the entire Masada series.

Tomahawk is the rock supergroup featuring Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle), Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard), John Stanier (Battles, Helmet) and Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle). Tonic Immobility is the band’s first new album since 2013 and their fifth in their career. The band is Mike Patton’s third biggest project behind the multi-platinum Faith No More and Mr. Bungle, with a sound that appeals to the more mainstream Faith No More fans, and over 300,000 sales worldwide.

Long-established as a hugely popular radio format, the Classic Rock sound was established – though not codified and canonised until some while later – in the Seventies, when numerous British bands from a pop or blues-based background pioneered a muscular, riff-based sound that dominated American FM airwaves and led the most successful practitioners to fame, fortune and all manner of related excess.

War Child was Jethro Tull's first album after two chart-toppers, Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play, and was one of those records that was a hit the day it was announced (it was certified platinum based on pre-orders, the last Tull album to earn platinum record status). It never made the impression of its predecessors, however, as it was a return to standard-length songs following two epic-length pieces. It was inevitable that the material would lack power, if only because the opportunity for development that gave Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play some of their power. Additionally, the music was no longer quite able to cover for the obscurity of Tull's lyrics ("Two Fingers" being the best example). The title track is reasonably successful, but "Queen and Country" seems repetitive and pointless…

Despite its age, this collection remains the best introduction to the wonderfully bizarre sounds of Jethro Tull – a unique combination of folk music, progressive rock, heavy metal, and of course, Ian Anderson's ubiquitous flute. Drawing exclusively from the band's '70s heyday, opener "Living in the Past" sets the retrospective tone, leading the way into the signature guitar riff of "Aqualung," the band's multifaceted pièce de résistance. Though lyrically indecipherable, "Locomotive Breath" is equally timeless, and the moment when John Evan's fanciful piano intro gives way to Martin Barre's guitar feedback remains thrilling. With his acoustic guitar in hand, Ian Anderson becomes a medieval bard, drawing the listener into worlds of legend both threatening ("Sweet Dream," "Witches Promise") and joyously carefree ("Thick as a Brick," "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day"). The unbelievable kaleidoscope of sound which makes up "Songs from the Wood" is simply too original and intricate for words to describe.

Secret Chiefs 3's first three studio albums were not exactly stripped-down affairs, but Book of Horizons is by far an ambitious release. The first volume of a planned three-part series of albums, Horizons is set up to resemble a compilation of bands, the catch being that all of these bands are headed by SC3 leader Trey Spruance. The six bands, which have two or three songs each on this album, encompass pretty much the full range of SC3's previous stylistic forays, including the funeral ballads and marches of the Forms; the orchestral, Persian-themed rock hybrids of Ishraqiyun; the time-traveling surf-rock of UR; the electro-acoustic collages of Electromagnetic Azoth; the extreme death metal band Holy Vehm; and the sweeping film music homages of Traditionalists…

The Dubliners - Drinkin' & Courtin' (1968) {Major Minor-EMI rel 2012}
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© 1968, 2012 Major Minor Records Limited / EMI Records | 50999 4 64297 2 8 | Remastered
Folk / Irish Folk / Traditional Irish Folk / Celtic / Drinking Songs

The Dubliners released three albums on the Transatlantic label between 1964 and 1966, but it wasn't until they moved to Philip Solomon's new Major Minor label in 1967 that they had their first real success. A Drop of the Hard Stuff was released in the spring of 1967 followed by the rather unimaginatively titled More of the Hard Stuff later that year - both albums heavily promoted by Radio Caroline. Drinkin' & Courtin' was released in 1968, the year the original Radio Caroline went off the air, so had to rely more on the BBC for airplay.