Aphex Twin

Palmistry, “In The Mountains…”

A mystery here. This is from a release just labeled Demo, and it doesn’t appear to be from Bandcamp. It’s from 2017 according to the metadata (and Metal Archives), but I don’t know where else I would have gotten it other than Bandcamp. Well, whatever. Let’s listen! Pretty basic doom here, not unpleasant, but not lighting me on fire either.

Hüsker Dü, “Something I Learned Today”

This opens one of the most impressive and important albums in all of hardcore, Zen Arcade. Hüsker Dü proved that hardcore could still be recognizable and even thrive in an environment of trying unorthodox things. That they pulled this off with a double album that was recorded in as much of a rush as the music itself makes it doubly impressive. Pound for pound, it’s probably not their best record, but for the ambition and impact, you can’t argue with it as a holistic piece of work.

Screeching Weasel, “Leather Jacket”

Ben Weasel started letting some of the songs on Anthem For A New Tomorrow stretch out a little bit, and let the Ramones worship go just a tiny bit. The result is probably his best record - still very much punk, still very familiar, but tuneful and fun.

Aphex Twin, “Radiator”

The second Selected Ambient Works album from Aphex Twin doesn’t quite hit the same way the first one did. It’s very long (two discs of 70 minutes each), and it doesn’t seem like it was edited down enough. The first one is the most important ambient electronic album ever, and this one is more of a curiosity. Add in that I’m not a huge ambient guy, and this album hasn’t really gotten much play since I got it.

Here’s today!

Jeanne And The Darlings, “How Can You Mistreat The One You Love”

How sweet is that Memphis sound? This is a song from late in the Atlantic run for Stax/Volt, from 1967. That’s a tasty break in this song! Jeanne and the Darlings just ended up recording four singles in their career, so there isn’t a lot of followup to this tune.

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Bildbeschreibung”

There have been times in my life when I’ve bought a record that was intimidating, when I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into. Buying this album, Strategies Against Architecture II, was one of those moments. I had heard of the band, in mostly hushed tones, and I wasn’t really sure I was up for it. So strange! So noisy! So German! I didn’t honestly know if I was up for it. And the album was, indeed, something pretty far beyond what I could have expected. But I certainly liked it!

Time to check in on analytics. It says here I’m consistently above 10 people a day. Not bad! If you’re one of those 10 people, feel free to let me know down below. Or not, it’s cool, I love talking about music to myself. Speaking of music…

Built to Spill, “The Weather”

The closer for Ancient Melodies of the Future, this almost sounds more like a Belle and Sebastian song at times instead of a Built to Spill song. Compared to monumental closers like “Broken Chairs” or “Untrustable Pt. 2”, this song comes off as limp. In fact, the lack of epics like those two songs are one of the reasons Ancient Melodies is not as great as the preceding albums.