VA – Soul Mix

Soul mix that I put together the other day. Enjoy!

mediafire.com/?mzwatnwc2hw

Bill Evans Trio – Sunday at the Village Vanguard

“Sunday at the Village Vanguard is a 1961 (see 1961 in music) album by jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans. It was recorded live on June 25, 1961 at the Village Vanguard in New York City over five recorded sessions (2 matinee and 3 soiree). It is well remembered as the final performance by the Evans trio of the time, which included bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. LaFaro was killed in a car accident ten days after the recording.

Evans and producer Orrin Keepnews reportedly selected the tracks for Sunday at the Village Vanguard to best feature LaFaro’s masterful performance on bass, beginning and ending with two tracks (Gloria’s Step and Jade Visions) written by LaFaro himself, and with all the others featuring solos by him. This album is routinely ranked as one of the best live jazz recordings of all time.”

-wikipedia

mediafire.com/?wwzuww2myyd

Josh White – Free and Equal Blues

“The material on this album is from White’s heyday in the mid-1940s, when he was one of folk music’s most influential stars. An accomplished guitarist with a beautiful, warm voice, his topical protest and rallying songs anticipated the marriage of folk and social issues of the ’50s and ’60s. He blended the folk roots of Leadbelly with politics of Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger. In fact, on this album, he’s accompanied by Burl Ives, Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger, Brownie McGee, Sonny Terry, and Leadbelly himself. But because the material is from the ’40s, White was equally concerned about oppression by landlords, fascists, and segregationists. Free and Equal Blues is a fascinating snapshot that captures White’s righteous dignity and stellar artistry.”

- Richard Price

mediafire.com/?m0ymwzwqeql

Eternal Tapestry – Invisible Landscape

“Kraut-driven psyche-rock heaviness from Portland’s Eternal Tapestry delivering their second album for Not Not Fun after 2007′s ‘Vibrations New Dawn’. These guys sound like an amalgam of Parson Sound, Can, Neu and Wooden Shjips, but you could imagine that they’re not even aware of it, as they sound so damn into their groove that’s it’s just what they do naturally do, like they just picked up instruments, started hitting/strumming/picking at them and this is what came out. Of course, that’s not the case, as the flashes of heavily scrutinised mathiness bely a structured approach. But they can still freak out out with the best of them while holding a tight groove and should gain the trust of fans of the aforementioned heavyweights, especially Can and Wooden Shjips!”

-Boomkat

This is very similar to Cloudland Canyon but i really think this blows that away. Amazing album.

mediafire.com/?jhm01tz14hz

Washington Philips – What are They Doing in Heaven Today?

Great find. This quickly became my favorite Mississippi Records release.

“Gospel maverick Washington Phillips has been championed and covered by Ry Cooder and Will Oldham among others, but you have to go back to the source to fully appreciate this man’s unique oeuvre. Aside from his not inconsiderable talents as a writer, Phillips’ instrumental skills instantly set him apart from his Depression-era contemporaries. According to Frank Walker, the man who first recorded Phillips, the singer played a homemade instrument that “nobody on earth could use except him”, although the contentious contraption has been identified as a Phonoharp (?), a Celestophone (??) and a Dolceola, an advertisement for which is bundled with this record. It’s billed as a miniature grand piano, but these crackly, ancient recordings obscure the sound of the device somewhat, so it’s hard to say whether it’s more like a harp, a piano or a zither. In any case, it serves Phillips’ wonderful songs perfectly.”

-Boomkat

http://www.mediafire.com/?ztemxtmn32h

Toro Y Moi – Causers of This

Causers of This is the first of two Car Park full-lengths planned for 2010 from one man lo fi act, Toro Y Moi. This is just an overall great album and is a nice segue away from some stuff I’ve been stuck listening to. Highly recommended.

http://www.mediafire.com/?olnzzqwyzux

 

 

Best Coast – Make You Mine 7″

“Group Tightener is putting out Best Coast’s new 7″ featuring four sweet fuzzed out summer jams ideal for those of us still clinging to the last remnants of this lamented season.
In an interview on Olive Music Bethany described this 7″ as a little moodier: “The songs on there are a little slower paced, and the lyrics are definitely more angsty.” As for her overall artistic vision, she just wants “everything to sound really sweet and poppy, but also really fuzzy and sort of dark. Like the sun coming out after an epic rain storm or something.” Lovely.”

-No Conclusion

http://www.mediafire.com/?dmiyywdzumj

Tonstartssbandht – An When

“They opening track to the debut album from Tonstartssbandht is a self conscious recognition of the ridiculous unpronounceability of the band name. For just over a minute there is a question and answer session between a guy and a girl in which the band name is repeated 18 times. It’s somewhat silly but necessary seeing as how after listening to An When you are going to be repeating these guys’s name a lot…because it’s really good. I think the most wonderful thing I’ve noticed about the band is that while I should be able to pin down some good comparisons of Tonstartssbandht’s sound to other similar bands on the market right now, Tonstartssbandht defies easy associations. There is definitely elements of lo fidelity infused in the songs on An When, but I’m very hesitant to define the group by this aspect of their sound. The lo fidelity here is used as a tool rather than applied as an adornment leaving the songs with a wonderful waterlogged haze rather than an ear puncturing skree. Most simply put, Tonstartssbandht are a pop band, albeit a pop band from way out of left field. The songs are just way catchy, great harmonies, super delicious weird sounds and analog blisters rising all over the place. I don’t know how to categorize them really. The RIYLs up top are pretty misleading I think because Tonstartssbandht straddles the arena of hipster lo-fi with a heavy dose of neo tropical underwater new wave resurrection (wait, is that the same thing?). Right, that makes about as much sense as the band’s name. I can see that I am getting nowhere fast with this attempt at a critique. Regardless, An When is filled with murkily enjoyable pop that simply pleases to no foreseeable end. This is the type of music that will stick with you for a long time, demanding you to shut off other music in order to get a quick Tonstartssbandht fix. An When contains several of my favourite tracks I’ve heard this year and is sure to be a staple of my future mixtapes to friends. Lovely stuff that I think I like a lot more than I’m willing to exasperate about now. I don’t know why I haven’t seen this posted all over the blogosphere because this stuff is easy to gush about. Check it hard.”

-Thistle

http://www.mediafire.com/?mzjym4mm2gn

Emeralds – What Happened

One of my favorites right now

“Last years ‘Solar Bridge’ EP was a (third) eye opening experience and the entry level opener to their self created world of synthesized pschedelia. The group, consisting of members John Elliot, Mark McGuire and Steve Hauschildt, have some 20 odd releases to their name since 2006, generally produced on the deliberatly lo-fi cassette and CDr formats for a number of tiny boutique imprints like Hanson Records, Wagon and Fag Tapes. Their distinct brand of freeform deep space emotions found them on many end-of-year charts for 2009 and more recently picked up a huge fan in Thurston Moore, who released their split LP with Tusco Terror last year, and now Carlos Giffoni who aligns the group with his label’s motley array of noise technicians on No Fun Productions. ‘What Happened’ is an aural flashback to the midsts of a powerfully affecting and overwhelming reverie that you never had, recorded to tape from improvised sessions between 2007-8. Utilising an array of guitars, effects pedals and vintage analogue synthseizers in an improvisational manner, the group manipulate a sound of heart wrenching intensity and mind blowing potential that often comes in at long over the 10 minute mark, but requires such a long duration to reach that point. Opener ‘Alive In The Sea Of Information’ is the shortest track here, but in it’s 8min lifespan, manages to soar between the elevated electronics of Tangerine Dream and the religious effect of Popol Vuh in one succinct sweep of synths, rising to a spine melting crescendo after 6 minutes and opening your soul for the rest of the session. ‘Damaged Kids’ is initially part Wolf Eyes horror ambient and part Delia Derbyshire radiophonics, exploring the outer limits of their gears spooking capabilities before turning into a lush swell of krautrock optimism worthy of Ashra. Field recordings are prominently employed on ‘Up In The Air’ to add a wonderous sense of spatial dislocation to the drifting synth washes, cleansing the palette for ‘Living Room’ with more Gottsching esque mid-distance guitar stares and cosmic plumes of sinewaves shooting like sonic spermatozoa into the ether, fertilizing your surroundings with an unpredictable tranquility and brooding intent. Trust us, if you reach this far, you’ll be left in a hollowed mess by the last 5 minutes. Like any strong psychedelic drugs, care and caution should always be applied for the trip, and we’d compare this to DMT, meaning listeners should savour the trip for special occasions with enough time and mental energy to apply to the intricacies and tactility of the substance. If you’ve not tried Emeralds before, prepare yourself, it’s going to be special. Recommended for fans of everyone from Coil to Deathprod to Terry Riley – just immense.”

-boomkat

 

mediafire.com/?mzjym4mm2gn

Fantastic Magic – Witch Choir

“Freaky and folky, Witch Choir is nothing if not whimsical. A ten track album in twenty-three minutes probably sounds pretty fragmented, and indeed it is. But that is integral to the fun – it sounds as if Fantastic Magic recorded this record around a campfire, bringing songs to fruition mere minutes after their conceptualization. As such, the songs share a weirdo folk theme, but are quite stylistically quixotic. This makes it a difficult record to digest, let alone describe.

With that said, the most notable aspect of Witch Choir is its straightforwardness – despite its whimsical nature, most of these tracks are unarguably SONGS. The most accessible, “songlike” moment on this ten track record is “Moat Island,” which combines tinny falsetto vocals with an acoustic guitar part. A tad more eerie is the outsider folk-pop of “Flowerbeds,” but it is the especially polished “I’ve Covered the Halls, With Glitter and Awe…” that earns top marks here, laying a filtered vocal melody over trumpet, guitar, and a punchy rhythm section. Aside from its more accessible side, Witch Choir is also littered with a sprinkling of avant-garde excursions – be it the discordant improv of “Balloons” or the insane psychedelic freeformery of “Etains Whirlwind.” “

- Indieville

“Before Wavves, Nathan Williams dwelled in the more mellow, droney sound which he projected into the music of Fantastic Magic. This band’s sound is total tropical psych pop.”

- Static Fuzz

http://www.mediafire.com/?gttmijmiyjn