Bruno Pronsato - Why Can't We Be Like Us (2008)

ARTIST`````Bruno Pronsato

ALBUM`````Why Can't We Be Like Us

GENRE`````Minimal Techno, Microhouse

YEAR````````2008

Info & Review

It is very hard for me to find good techno (especially minimal) these last years so this gem comes as a very pleasant surprise. I suppose that playing the mega sexy and hypnotic What They Wish to a packed club would be a DJ's suicide but it is evident that author didn't spend 2 years of his life producing this just to create dance music for fluorescent thongs - he spent 2 years because he enjoyed it. This should be listened on the most expensive, finest and loudest headphones you can steal because there are endless little layers and touches of sound between the booming basslines.

Who is it?

The journey from speed-metal/punk drummer to minimal techno producer isn't exactly a common one, but it's exactly the music path that a certain Steven Ford has forged over the past 20 years. After leaving his Voice Of Reason bandmates back in Texas and making a move out west to Seattle, Ford became increasingly interested in computer-based music and electronic minimalism, steadily learning the tools that have made him such an accomplished producer.His early years in the electronic music scene saw him split his output between two different monikers. While his now defunct Bobby Karate pseudonym explored Ford's more abstract side, his more dance floor-focused work came out under the Bruno Pronsato name, and was promptly picked up by respected labels as Musique Risquee, Philpot and Orac.

Excellent review by RA

Why Can’t We Be Like Us is like the unexpected fulfilment of a promise: unexpected because none of Pronsato’s EPs so far had hinted at anything this good; and a fulfilment in the sense that he has spared nothing with this work—there is nothing missing, lacking, insufficient. Not since We Are Monster has a producer so subtly yet undeniably redefined what’s possible within the rubric of house. Listen to this, and so many things seem possible. All you other wannabes, you’re on notice: the bar has just been raised.

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New link with all 9 tracks! - Thanks Mike hahahaha:)

Slapp Happy - Acnalbasac Noom (1973)

ARTIST`````Acnalbasac Noom

ALBUM`````Slapp Happy

GENRE`````Avant-pop, Cabaret, Glam-Prog

YEAR````````1973

Info & Review

In 1974 Virgin Records rejected the album Acnalbasac Noom by the Avant-pop band Slapp Happy, made them re-record it with different backing musicians and then released it under the corrected title Casablanca Moon. Thirty-plus years later, Slapp Happy have re-released the original version of Acnalbasac Noom in the form it was intended, with four bonus tracks. It was recorded in Wümme, Germany in 1973 with Faust as their backing band and American guitarist Peter Blegvad, who was in Britain to complete his studies.

What made the album stand were the musical styles appearing on the album, which were absolutely out of step with what was common in those days - simple as glam but at moments complex as progressive, mixed into popular housewife styles of the 60's kitsch, tangos and even straightforward chansons. There are moments that totaly sound like hippie parents of Stereolab's band members. A dated sound when heard today but it's clean production and naive atmosphere make this collection of surreal and Kurt Weill-inspired expressionist cabaret ditties a must listen.

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This an alternate version of Slapp Happy's album Casablanca Moon

Bill Hicks - Rant In E-Minor (1997)

ARTIST`````Bill Hicks

ALBUM`````Rant In E-Minor

GENRE`````Stand-up comedy, Genius, Character assassination

YEAR````````1997

Why?

Recently I watched American: The Bill Hicks Story documentary (very bleak & shitty fan-made effort if you ask me) and later discovered that I missed the best and rather famous Bill Hicks material ever recorded - Rant In E-Minor. Some bits from this album are just stunning pieces of character assassinations. It doesn't matter if you heard this before - hear it again and again because recordings like these remind us that it is healthy to occasionally express our anger in the most direct way possible.

Review from allmusic

Rant in E-Minor is the comedy equivalent of an Ingmar Bergman film. This posthumously released CD is so brutal, bitter, pessimistic, and honest that it is a very difficult task indeed to listen to it. Recorded most likely while he was going through chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer in 1993, Bill Hicks must have sensed the end was near for him. Like John Coltrane's wailing saxophone on "Interstellar Space," Rant in E-Minor seems to exorcise the burden of life from Hicks' body, while simultaneously reaching a level of passionate intensity rarely matched.

Read the whole review here

Review by NICK TAVARES

The images are as graphic as any nightly newscast. Pro-life warriors murdering doctors. Cops storming trailer parks. Jesse Helms and Jay Leno killing themselves. Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Dan Quayle urinating into Rush Limbaugh’s mouth. Federal officers blowing fire into a Waco compound. It’s likely more explicit than any NC-17 movie released in the past decade. But at no time is it obscene. Sure, it’s not appetizing, but it’s funny as anything,and it’s all geared towards proving his ultimate point: that we are all one and we have to live with each other.

Read the whole review here

Review by ALAN RANTA

Till that point, I thought Denis Leary's No Cure For Cancer was hilarious. Then I found out Leary lifted many of the ideas for his breakout CD from the material Bill had been developing since the early eighties for this album, watered them down, of course, to cater to the beer swilling, soap opera and wrestling watching pop fans Hicks stood against. Bill didn't really hate the people too lazy or ignorant to understand. His ultimate message, revealed to those who could see past his foul language and unapologetic delivery, was one of love, compassion, and understanding.

Read the whole review here

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Kalacakra - Crawling to Lhasa (1972)

ARTIST`````Kalacakra

ALBUM`````Crawling to Lhasa

GENRE`````Psychedelic, Krautrock

YEAR````````1972

What?

German psychedelic underground band- released only Crawling To Lhasa album.

“A legitimate reissue of this great spacey, psychedelic album from 1972. A duo perform, & the final result is lots of guitars, flute, electric piano and old synthesizers & percussion plus some additional instrumentation, & lots of creepy spoken recitation. This is a CLASSIC! ‘’Kalacakra’s blend of mantras, blues, folk and stoned psychedelia gained Crawling To Lhasa a well deserved curiosity value, yet they were an altogether more eclectic and strange band than any of their possible mentors.’‘-The Crack In The Cosmic Egg.”

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Staff Carpenborg and The Electric Corona - Fantastic Party (1970)

ARTIST`````Staff Carpenborg and The Electric Corona

ALBUM`````Fantastic Party

GENRE`````Krautrock, Esoteric, Out There, Experimental, Psych

YEAR````````1970

What?

Defined as very early Krautrock and limited to a 500-only release, this album, from the Spanish reissue label, has always been considered “lost” to the genre, mainly because it wasn’t released on the usual Krautrock labels. It was, in fact, handled by Maritim. What were the owners of this K-Tel-alike outfit thinking of? How this drug-addled freak-out made it onto that roster is anyone’s guess. Imagine The Story Of O published by Mills & Boon. The record sleeve suggests James Last, but the music pushes boundaries, bestowing rhythm to free jazz, plus psychedelic jams drenched in nasty effects. Think of Can on a strange (as opposed to future) day, or a primordial Amon Düül. If you’re into Krautrock, get this record now.

From last.fm

...Imagine Reynols or Yahowha 13 gone lounge, trying to entertain a bunch of jet-setters at some hip, swinging ’60s party… It’s called Fantastic Party after all and that’s what it was meant as, a party record! Some cheesy German record label in 1970 put this together, presumably paying (with drugs?) a bunch of studio musicians to create a one-off psychedelic exploitation album by a nonexistent “band”. A dime a dozen back then, maybe, but these guys really really went for it. It is pretty darn tripped out...

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