Eunuch - Self Titled 7"

Artist: Eunuch
Album: Self Titled 7"
Release: 2010
Label: Self Released

Tracklist:

1. Stillborn
2. Human Waste
3. Moral Law
4. Past Life
5. Carcasses
6. The Archer

Skull servitude in the most supreme manner. Eunuch was a short-lived Boston band who masterfully summoned the raw power of first wave powerviolence, drawing in every ounce of hatred and contempt for society while avoiding all the silly gimmicks more commonly shown by shitty revivalists such as [your band here] or any number of other bands with completely terrible names.

Delivered here are six crushing, bass-driven kicks to the face. The "guitarist" never plays a single chord or note, instead opting to mangle the strings and neck while tweaking nobs to create a wall of disgusting feedback, which masterfully compliments the deranged vocalist spewing venom and spite.

If all of this wasn't enough to entice you, Eunuch contains members of Libyans and General Interest.

Positively negative.

Download Here (Link fixed!)
To Buy, email/paypal loobiecore@gmail.com

-Evander Holywar

Whirl - Distressor

Artist: Whirl
Album: Distressor
Release: 2010
Label: Self-Released

Tracklist:

1. Preface
2. Leave
3. Blue
4. Ghost
5. Meaningless
6. Child
7. Sandy

In a world where the glut of newer shoegaze bands (I refuse to use the lazy term “nugaze,”) Whirl are band that gets the formula right. Their three (!) guitars flow and ebb throughout this debut release not unlike Slowdive. But whereas Slowdive often focused more on melodies, Whirl have riffs as well, and the energy boost they lend the band’s tracks saves them from getting too boringly focused on creating effects-laden atmospheres.

“Preface,” like the album’s cover art, samples Nicole Kidman from Eyes Wide Shut, who posits that maybe we “should be grateful...that we’ve managed to survive through all of our adventures, whether they were real or only a dream.” “Leave” immediately kicks up the intensity with aching lead melody, steady drums and swirling guitars in the background. It’s here that we learn how perfectly the voices of Bianca Munoz and Loren Rivera are mixed, delivering melody and emotion while maintaining a healthy amount of lyrical obscurity. In the forefront, the guitars of Nick Bassett, Joseph Bautista, and Rivera are warm and perfectly enveloping. “Meaningless” drives like the ICDT-adored the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa. “Child” wails with a back-and-forth part that’s third cousins with “Only Shallow,” and “Sandy” evokes the beautiful sombreness of Souvlaki.

In a shitty Revolver interview for his Team Sleep project I read when I was 15, Deftones frontguy Chino Moreno praised Siamese Dream as a huge production influence, citing distortion that “sounded huge and heavy, but also like it was hugging you.” The Deftones are pretty uninteresting and I doubt Team Sleep is any better, but that description perfectly puts into words how the band's sound on Distressor feels. Appropriately dreamlike, never overproduced or gratuitously lo-fi, and elegantly navigating through a handful of a quailty tunes, Whirl-- not unlike Weed Hounds-- are a young band that offer plenty of promise while hearkening back to sounds of old.

Download Here
Buy Here

-Asa

Steve Gordon And The Kosher 5 - Take My Rap....Please

Artist: Steve Gordon And The Kosher 5
Album: Take My Rap....Please
Release: 1979
Label: Reflection

Tracklist:

1. Take My Rap....Please [Long Version]
2. Take My Rap....Please [Short Version]

This might be the oddest record that will ever be posted on ICDT. A week ago, my roommate was going through some of his records for potential eBay-ing when stumbling upon a 12" single from Steve Gordon And The Kosher 5, curiously-titled Take My Rap....Please. After everyone laughed at the mere sight of the record, this roommate revealed that it was actually a record that his ex-rapper father recorded and that it was not only the first Jewish rap record ever recorded, but one of the first recorded rap songs ever. I did my internet research (for about ten minutes before getting bored) and have concluded that this claim is far from outlandish, but seems to be shared by many hip-hop historians and old school aficionados.

The first thing that one needs to know about this record is that it's purely novelty, as was all the other hip-hop that was released around the time. As a matter of fact, Reflection (who put out this record and a few other rap and disco records at the time) used the same backing track for each of its rap singles, Take My Rap....Please included. The 12" version of this release is just the one song, in both its regular and single versions. On this song, Mr. Gordon utilizes the archaic beat to throw out an endless barrage of self-referential Jewish cracks in a heavy, affected Yiddish accent.

Do I get most of these jokes? Not at all, as I am not culturally Jewish by any means, but that doesn't mean that this isn't still endlessly fascinating (not to mention, highly enjoyable!) for those of us counted as Goyim. As I previously stated, this record is a real curiosity, but for those of you interested in odd, forgotten nooks of musical history, then you should definitely check out this seldom-heard gem! Take this download link, please! [Note: Sorry, I couldn't help it...]

Download Here

P.S. For the record, the attractive woman on the right is not my roommate's mother, but merely Mr. Gordon's girlfriend at the time. A Faigelah he is not!

-Adam

Billy Bragg - You Woke Up My Neighborhood 12"

Artist: Billy Bragg
Album: You Woke Up My Neighborhood 12"
Release: 1991
Label: Go! Records, Liberation

Tracklist:

1. You Woke Up My Neighbourhood
2. Ontario Quebec And Me
3. Bread And Circuses
4. Heart Like A Wheel

"You Woke Up My Neighborhood" is a 12" single that features four songs, three of which only appear on this single. The title track (featured on the Don't Try This At Home LP) is an incredible song about lost-love driven by peddle-steel guitar and violin. Bragg's lyrics are introspective on this one, not political. They longingly remember the shouting and fighting the speaker and his former lover once did in his now empty apartment. Back-up vocals are by Cara Tivey, who appears on many Bragg albums, as well as R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe.

I bought this single mostly for the above song. It's really a piece of pop genius. There are three others on the record which sometimes stir me and at other times irritate me. If you can tolerate Bragg's falsetto on the second song "Ontario Quebec and Me" you might find that all-in-all it is a solid track, reminiscent of Life's a Riot...-era Bragg. It's very minimal with only electric guitar accompaniment. The third song is a 10,000 Maniacs cover which might mean something to some people. "Heart Like a Wheel" has a mood like the Worker's Playtime track "Man in the Iron Mask." Like a lot of Bragg tracks Johny Marr provides production/guitar work.

At the end of the day Billy Bragg is a phenomenal songwriter. He is, sometimes, sickeningly sincere; the upshot of this is that he really accurately paints pictures of fundamental human experiences (successfully in "You Woke Up My Neighborhood") but at other times makes you want to run away from his records because they are embarrassingly honest. I prefer the political tracks (ala "To Have and Have Not") but this may just say something about my disposition.

This is intermediate-level Bragg, so you might want to try checking out some earlier stuff first to see if you can't stomach this.

Download Here

-Colman

Woob - Woob² 4495

Artist: Woob
Album: Woob² 4495
Release: 1995
Label: Em:t

Tracklist:

1. Gte
2. Pondlife
3. Woobed
4. Creek
5. Cupboard
6. Depart
7. Later

Woob's seminal Woob 1194 is one of my favorite ambient techno albums. It's tasteful combination of downtempo beats, ambient dub, and world music. Unfortunately for the world, Paul Frankland's Woob project released only one album after that, Woob² 4495.

While not as perfect as that last album, it's still an incredible album that ranks among the best electronic albums of the 90's. I didn't hear the album until well after Woob 1194, as the CD has remained out-of-print for years. The first thing one familiar with Woob 1194 will notice that Woob² 4495 is far more experimental in nature than its predecessor. Still, like Woob 1194, Woob² 4495 is about as cinematic as music gets. The whole albums flows as one thanks not only to its musical motifs, but its use of acoustic elements, droning synths, and found sounds and samples. Both conceptually and structurally, this album is leaps and bounds ahead of its peers.

Really, the only downside of this album is the occasional poor use of world music, which occasionally smacks of both goofiness and Orientalism. Still, these instances are too far and few between to be a real bother, and this is still an incredible record. Obviously, this is not for the non-electronic music fan, but for those of us who enjoy floating through space or on icebergs, this is for you.

Download Here

-Adam