Destroy All Monsters - 74 76 (1994)

Destroy All Monsters were quite an interesting group. Emerging in Ann Arbor in the early 70's, their sound could best be described as an extremely noisy and hectic proto-punk group. The band, however, is very eclectic and it's difficult to define their sound with just a genre or two, and this album, compiled by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, definitely shows it. They were certainly ahead of their time, and quite out there too, with songs that are full-on improvisational freak outs, to really droney songs, to songs that seemingly signal and hint at the Post-Punk, Punk Rock, and Anarcho-Punk movement that were soon to come. I definitely feel they had an influence on all three of those genres. Although the album is quite intimidating, clocking in at just under three and a half hours, its definitely worth it and I highly recommend giving this album a chance. It's a great look into one of the many (but in my opinion one of the best) precursors to the Punk movement.

Disc One: Gospel Crusade

Disc Two: Crying In Bed

Disc Three: To The Throne Of Chaos Where The Thin Flutes Pipe Mindlessly

Throbbing Gristle - D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (1978)

This is probably one of the most demented album I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. And I mean that in the best way possible, Throbbing Gristle was one of the most influential groups of Industrial music, and they did it by making some very sick, hypnotic, and fantastic albums. Eons ahead of their time, they really just didn't have any contemporaries, they were raw, unadulterated, and grotesque. And Throbbing Gristle have the ability to be great at crafting songs that are up-in-your-face-violent and psychotic, while being equally good at writing songs that manage to build a subtle sense of dread, songs that really have the power to leave the listener uneasy by the end. This is my favorite release from them by far, though their most accessible is probably the legendary 20 Jazz Funk Greats. It's unique, hypnotic, and just plain spooky. While it's not the best starting point for the industrial genre, but it's a fantastic listen for those already accustomed to the abrasive genre.

You didn't see me on the floor weeping
You didn't see me lying by the door
You didn't see me swallowing my tablets
You can't look inside my eyes no more

R. Stevie Moore - Clack! (1980)

Stevie is singular -- the concrete universal embodied. Stevie is the patron saint of radical alterity -- and in this way he is far from alien. Stevie is the proper exegesis of pop -- and he knows it and we know it. Stevie has reached the position of absolute knowledge -- and is it now the time, maybe, for our interesting results? Here is the lesson: Stevie serves /his/ intentions rather than those of cultural capital and the endless circulation of genre. You can't transcend the dialectic, cuz whenever you think you have you're deeper in it than you ever thought -- so get inside it enough to get outside; let's see you try. 

Behold Stevie, the pauper of pop.

Mass - Labour of Love (1981)

Wonderful little gem from 4AD, one of the best albums to come from the label in my opinion. Mass can be quite out there at times, and pretty ahead of their time if you ask me. To describe the album briefly, it's like a looser, angrier, and more demented version of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures LP, that doesn't quite do it justice though, it's really worth a listen. And I'd say that it's definitely a required listen for big fans of This Heat, as the two, to me, are very similar. I honestly think anybody who likes Post-Punk in general should check this out. It's definitely one of my favorite albums of the genre.

Clap your hands
We're doing handstands for fun
Can't win
We're rolling around on the floor

Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice - The Flood (2005)

Wooden Wand is the moniker of James Toth, a free folk artist from New York. He's remained quite under the radar, creating quite a few hidden freak folk gems since the dawn of the New Weird America movement of the early 2000's.

Maude Maggart - Maude Maggart Sings Irving Berlin (2005)

Maude Maggart - Maude Maggart Sings Irving Berlin (2005)

Fionna Apple's sister preforming a fantastic selection of songs from the oeuvre of Irving Berlin. Maggart's selection from the songbook of Berlin has some fantastic variety, covering the wide repertoire from Berlin's surviving work,from the jaunty and upbeat "Pack Up Your Sins & Go To the Devil" to the lovelorn reminisces of "What'll I Do", offering a fantastic introduction for those new to Berlin's work.

Yeah

Robert Millis - Leaf Music, Drunks, Distant Drums

As music fans, we're all aware of the myriad functions music -or even more basic than that, sound - can serve, from pure entertainment to a transcendental spiritual experience, passing down religious tenets, affirming racial or gender identity, or simply offering escapism. "Leaf Music, Drunks, Distant Drums" presents the multi-faceted nature of music and field recordings from all around South-East Asia, and provides a wonderful snapshot of the cultures of the region: As much as a documentary or travel show, Millis brings the streets of Thailand and villages of Burma alive, showing the insight that even abstracted sound taken out of context can give about the cultures and people of a region. As labels like Mississippi or Sublime Frequencies have shown, we can gleam so much from music and field recordings, even taken from our outsider perspective: the sounds of the elephant mahout leaf improvisation might sound alien, and the talking in Thai might be incomprehensible to most, but the earnest and intimate nature of these recordings make them feel so special: free of the pretense of commerciality, this is simply the world as presented through Millis' microphone. Millis' expert ear provides such a wide variety of sounds, and even insects and frogs provide such an interesting experience, and even without understanding the prayers and speeches, the raw emotion of these pieces makes for an experience that truly transcends the language barrier. In fact, many of the musical pieces may seem simplistic or at least very alien to those with more western sensibilities, but the heartfelt nature of some of these pieces, from the desperation of the blind street singer and the jeans salesman to the religious fervor of the sermons is simply undeniable. With the compilation, Millis has provided a different, and far more varied, experience than the ones I've had traveling in Thailand and Cambodia, but even though it lacks the visceral impact some of the sights may have, Millis more than makes up for it through the transcendental, universal world of sound

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