'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! (2012)

Third wave post-rock legend Godspeed You! Black Emperor made a very triumphant return to the music scene in 2010 when they decided to start touring after their break-up back in 2003, and now they have revealed their first album release since 2002. With no prior warning, this album was sold only in record format during their tours, starting on the first of October. Soon after the news hit, an official post was made on Constellation's website, promoting the album. Released on one 12" record and one 7" record, this album departs from most Godspeed releases, with the 7" specifically being the "drone" tracks that break up the album.

Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable.

Cell-Scape (2003)

Noise rock in possibly the most literal sense of the term.

Shield for your eyes, a beast in the well on your hand.

American Football (1999) [24bit/96kHz]

Best friends, and better halves.

Goodbyes.

Live at The Stone NYC (2010)

Finishing up the small lossless discography for these guys, this is the only official live album to be released by them. This fittingly lo-fi recording of one of the few live performances only contains eight songs and clocks in at a short show of only 53 minutes. As brief as this performance is, it sure is a heavy hitter, with songs from all stages of the band's brief career.


I hope I can hold on
Until the day that I escape.

299792458 (2012)

299792458, more commonly known as the speed of light in meters per second, is the first release by Mariko Goto (後藤まりこ), the former front-woman of the popular Japanese jazz-punk band Midori (ミドリ). After the break that followed the band calling it quits in 2010, Goto began her solo career in 2011 with this as the result. More pop orientated than anything, 299792458 is an album that more shows Goto's experience with song writing and her vocal performance, which is absolutely stellar on this album. Definitely something to check out if you're a Midori fan, even if it isn't really your cup of tea.

HARDCORE LIFE

The Great Cold Distance (2006)

This album is best described as the moment when Katatonia fully realized their sound.  Dark alternative metal with hints of prog, this is the formula that their future albums have been built from, and even after the band released two more albums, there was nothing that sounded quite like this.

Evacuate, assemble here.

The Super Mario 64 Original Soundtrack (1996)

One of the most iconic platformers of all time also has one of the most iconic soundtracks. Composed by Koji Kondo (近藤浩治), this OST has all of the themes, stage tracks, and some of the minor chimes you'll encounter throughout the game. Totaling at about 51 minutes, this is fairly short for a game soundtrack by today's standards, but this has everything you would want to hear from the original game. Ripped from one of the original Pony Canyon releases.

"It's-a me, Mario!"

Deathconsciousness (2008)

With the recent re-release of the album on both vinyl and CD, I figured that I would finally own this masterpiece of an album and rip it myself. Unfortunately, I was very late on the gun on was only able to pick up the CD version. Still the classic you all know and love, Deathconsciousness was the first musical endeavor by the duo Have a Nice Life. The album experiments with rich soundscapes and ambient sections, heavy post-rock and noticeably industrial segments, and incredibly low quality all around. To be honest, lo-fi doesn't even begin to describe this album's quality. That aside, Have a Nice Lfie's Deathconsciousness is an 80 minute experience set across two discs that is simply too good to pass up. I would use the new cover of the album for the post image, but my scanner is pretty shitty and nobody seems to care about scanning that sort of thing anymore, unfortunately. Thankfully, the old cover is still awesome.

a thousand tiny lives
disappear into the black depths
I guess I thought I'd feel something
but I didn't

Plan Infiltration (2011)

Japanese emo guys. Really swell band, mostly sound like some of the other emo bands I'm fond of, including Algernon Cadwallader and Snowing. This album is a compilation of some tracks recorded in 2005 and some older singles and split tracks. Give it a listen here.

Malegoat is one of the most talented bands from Japan, if not everywhere. We sold several imports of their latest full length "To Face the Music", and we toured with them in Japan. Now we have a handful of copies of their early work, newly collected and issued for the first time on one CD from the wonderful Waterslide Records out of Japan.
                                                                              -CYLS

Soundtracks for the Blind (1996)

This is Swans' most varied studio release, touching on various genres, from EDM to early post-rock.  Created from various sound experiments by Micheal Gira, it is unlike any previous Swans album.

See for yourself.

Bad as Me (2011)

The seventeenth studio album from the prolific rock artist. His first album since 2004, Waits brings his usual bluesy song arrangements and unique vocal style to the table and does not disappoint. Receiving widespread critical acclaim, Bad as Me is Waits in his most refined and efficient form. From this album, you can really feel the over thirty years of experience that Waits has under his belt.


They told me you were no good
I know you’ll take care of all my needs
You’re the same kind of bad as me

Filth (1983)

FLEX YOUR MUSCLES

Candy Cigarettes, Capguns, Issue Problems! and Such (2011)

A compilation of Andrew Jackson Jihad's first LP, first EP, and some other bits and pieces.  It does a great job of capturing the band in their earlier years, as said in the album's liner notes, "when we had nothing to lose or prove, long before our lavish spending habits had gotten the best of us and we had to spend more than 15 minutes making an album."

"Some of you may have noticed that we do not play a fair amount of these songs anymore, particularly some songs featured on our first record, Candy Cigarettes and Cap Guns.  To be perfectly honest, I don't remember how to play most of these songs, and furthermore, my grandmother has now heard tured on our first record, Candy Cigarettes and Cap Guns.

Here's how it happened: She has recently discovered how to use the internet, and now checks up on AJJ news daily.  While skimming through our videos on Youtube (which she thinks is our website), she came across the songs "Be Afraid of Jesus,", "Lady Killer", and "Fuck White People".  When she wrote to tell me that she had heard these songs, waves of embarrassment flooded my brain, and I knew that my greatest subconscious fear had been realized.  The prospect of my grandmother hearing these songs had been a long time fear of mine, and I should have known that it was only a matter of time before she heard these songs, which were written under my grandparent's roof while I was living there in high school.

If you happen to be at one of our shows, and Ben and I do not honor a request from this album, please think of my grandma, because while we are very proud to have released and rereleased Candy Cigarettes and Cap Guns, the thought of my grandmother watching us play "Fuck White People" is personally horrifying, and I am not willing to take the chance that it'll end up on Youtube

-Sean Bonnette 2010

Tripper (2011)

The most recent full-length from the hella rad math-rock duo from Sacramento, California. Imagine Lightning Bolt and Behold...the Arctopus making a collaboration album and you have these guys. They're a really groovy and powerful blend of noise and math. It's hella sweet.

"We wrote, recorded, and mixed Tripper in only 16 studio days but we did it in short 2 or 3 day sessions spaced a couple of months apart each. 95% of the album is just one guitar track, one bass track and one drum track.  On Headless I doubled the guitar part and on a section near the end of the song I actually played a harmonized lead for a second."


Source.

Beautiful (2008)

Second album by the Japanese math/post-rock band About Tess. Consisting of two guitarists, two bassists, and two drummers, they're a nice blend of great guitar grooves and very diverse post-rock movements.

It's somewhat hard to explain, so just give it a shot.

Ire Works (2007)

The third album by one of the predominant mathcore bands. After two major band departures that effectively changed how the album was recorded, Ire Works was released in November of 2007. All of the guitar work on the album was performed by Ben Weinman, who also reprised his role of programming on the album, and the drums were done by Gil Sharone, who remained in the band until the start of 2009. The album is composed of more avant-garde metal with the more traditional mathcore sound that the band was known for on their first album, Calculating Infinity. This album continued the buildup that eventually led up to the band's most recent release, Option Paralysis.


Got so much salt from your lies poured into me
You didn't see yourself dead already
So full of with every breath that you breathe
But you forgot that in your fairy tale I'm the wolf
All this attention got you thinking that you're a queen
You think that everything you're doing isn't a dream, long as it feel alright.

Nothing Was Missing, Except Me (2010)

The start and end of it all. Much like other emo bands, Hightide Hotel followed the tried and true formula of releasing a demo, some singles, and one LP. Nothing Was Missing surely does not disappoint, with some great new material and a few rerecords from their demo. It's sad to see these guys go, but at least they left us with a nice album to remember them by.


I can’t wrap my mind around where you find time to screen-print valentines between five classes, but I’ve kept mine tucked underneath pamphlets about loneliness and suicide prevention by my bedside.

F♯ A♯ ∞ (1997) (Vinyl Rip)

The first official release from the critically acclaimed post-rock band. Initially released in 1997, the LP version of the album only contained two songs, one on each side, that was divided into six and four "movements" respectively. Possibly the most interesting fact about the record version of the album is that in the final movement of "Bleak, Uncertain, Beautiful...", the last groove on the record is an infinite groove which will continue to play until you manually stop the record. This rip obviously stops pretty soon after the groove starts, but doesn't lose any content. Unlike most vinyl rips, this version is not 24/96 (24 bits sampled at 96 kHz), but standard ripping rates. If I ever feel like actually getting around to it, I might also decide to upload that version.


The car is on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows 


The government is corrupt
And we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn 


We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death 


The sun has fallen down
And the billboards are all leering
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles 


It went like this: 


The buildings tumbled in on themselves
Mothers clutching babies 
Picked through the rubble
And pulled out their hair 


The skyline was beautiful on fire
All twisted metal stretching upwards
Everything washed in a thin orange haze 


I said, "Kiss me, you're beautiful -
These are truly the last days" 


You grabbed my hand 
And we fell into it
Like a daydream 
Or a fever 


We woke up one morning and fell a little further down
For sure it's the valley of death 


I open up my wallet
And it's full of blood

Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head (2009)

Often compared to the folky recordings of acclaimed artist Jeff Mangum and his band Neutral Milk Hotel, this album is the only release by Jordaan Mason under the name Jordaan Mason and the Horse Museum. From what I've heard, the very disjointed lyrics, similar to those of Mangum, tell the story of a failed marriage between two people of confused genders and identities. The album takes place during a glandolinian war and includes horses, shotguns, carnival horn sections, religion, male birth, sickness, semen, haircuts, and an eventual apocalypse in 1990. Filled with very acoustic lo-fi and folk flare, this album is a roller-coaster of ridiculousness and strangely touching feelings.


my mouth is filled with his ovaries
i hold them: here, between my teeth

Vocalogenesis (2010)

If the cover somehow is not a dead giveaway, this is a Vocaloid compilation. If you don't know what that means, that's not my problem. Give it a shot anyway.

Click here to give shot. (Lyrics someday maybe.)