Mark Organ

Discerning an aesthetic thread through the Mark Pritchard discography was tough in 1996. Twenty years later, forget it. Around 2013, he evidently tired of thinking up a new alias with each expectation-confounding release and, under his birth name, initiated a trio of brief releases for the Warp label. Featuring drop-ins from Ragga Twins and Spikey Tee, the fully energized EPs moved through jungle, bass, juke, ragga, and grime. They provided no indication for the approach taken on Under the Sun, itself a stylistic manifold. The album begins with "?," a sorrowful and moving ambient piece. Given a low-key release in 2009, the track has been used by Mala to open DJ sets, and it serves a similarly cleansing purpose for its new home here, leading to a rolling Krautrock chorale that features the baleful, multi-tracked voice of Bibio…

By now, anyone who has heard one of Mark Lanegan's solo albums knows exactly what the others will sound like – Lanegan's weathered, smoky voice intones tales of quiet desperation over echoing electric guitar arpeggios, folky acoustic guitar work, and the occasional piano, organ, or violin embellishment. This approach has resulted in a compelling body of work, often possessed of remarkable depth, but it's also become something of a stylistic straitjacket over the course of several albums. And that's the only major knock against the otherwise brilliant I'll Take Care of You, Lanegan's fourth solo album, which marks the first time it hasn't taken him four years to deliver a follow-up. Perhaps that's because there's no original material here – I'll Take Care of You applies the drifting, elegiac qualities of its predecessors to a selection of well-chosen, mostly underexposed folk, country, and blues covers. It's a testament to Lanegan's interpretive skill that he's able to use his already well-established style so effectively yet again, as most of these versions range from stunning to merely excellent.

Though Black Pudding marks the first time that singer Mark Lanegan and multi-instrumentalist Duke Garwood have recorded together, it isn't the first time they've collaborated. The latter toured with the Gutter Twins, Lanegan's project with Greg Dulli. Garwood's name isn't as well-known to the general public as the singer's, but his reputation among musicians certainly is. He's worked with everyone from the Orb to Wire, from Wooden Wand to Sir Richard Bishop, from Josh T. Pearson to Kurt Vile. For those familiar with Lanegan's 2000s solo work, the moody nature of the material here will come as little surprise; let's face it, his voice is coated in darkness. That said, all but two of these songs – the lovely guitar instrumentals by Garwood that bookend the album – are co-writes. They range from spooky blues numbers such as "Pentacostal" and "Death Rides a White Horse," where the guitar is the primary instrument, to fractured, skeletal, nocturnal funk numbers such as "Cold Molly."

Unlike many guitarists on today’s crowded stage, Mark Lettieri treats his fretboard as a runway. Before liftoff, he ensures every calibration, setting, and bolt is as it should be before grabbing a piece of sky. In Dragonfly, the riff-heavy opener off his latest full-length, Can I Tell You Something?, he makes good on that promise of flight. With Jason “JT” Thomas (drums), Daniel Porter (keys), Wes Stephenson (bass), and Bobby Sparks (organ) in the control tower, he has a dream team to get him off the ground without the slightest worry of a malfunction. From the moment his landing gear leaves the tarmac, he soars with the fullest confidence.

Mecki Mark Men - Mecki Mark Men (1967) {Universal Music 06025 171758-9 rel 2008}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 355 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 131 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 79 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1967, 2008 Universal Music | 06025 171758-9
Rock / Psychedelic Rock

Mecki Mark Men were Swedens first Psychedelia band and this debut album from 1967 is so psychedelic and wasted that even the hardcore of both US and German Psych bands would be green with envy. The base is jazzy avantgarde like rock with wasted out there vocals and psyched out structures combined with sitar drone. This is not garagey jingle jangle pop psych of 1967 but hardcore acid psychedelia that became more the norm in the late 60's and early 70's than in 1967. This debut album is a cornerstone of Swedish underground psychedelia. Both Mecki Bodemark (Vocals & organ) and Thomas Mera Gartz (drums, still active with Trдd Grдs och Stenar) are among the founding fathers of Swedish psychelia.