Gary Higgins - Red Hash

Red Hash is a lo-fi psychedelic folk album by singer/songwriter Gary Higgins. The music found on this album sounds a lot like if Karl Blau and Six Organs of Admittance (Chasny cites Higgins as a huge influence) recorded an album together. Very few copies of the album were printed initially, as Higgins recorded the album knowing he was about to go to prison on drug charges. Because of the aformentioned Ben Chasny, however, Higgins is starting to enjoy some amount of acclaim.


DL

Haruomi Hosono - Tropical Dandy

Hawaiian music-obsessed Japanese pop artist creates an album chock full of some of the catchiest and best arranged/produced ditties around.

choochoo

Frank Ocean - nostalgia,ULTRA

Frank Ocean's the latest addition to the Odd Future fold. He sang on a couple of tracks on MellowHype's BlackenedWhite and now he's got out a new album full of chill ass electronic r&b jams fo FREE. The production on this album is top-notch and his voice is outstanding as well. Probably my favorite OFWGKTA release since Rolling Papers. Which I mean there's probably been like 3 releases since that but whatever. This is great.

heo

Terry Allen - Lubbock (On Everything)

More country for y'all since the other kuntry posts were hits (along with just about every other post of course). However, nearly 80 minutes long, this ain't your pawpaw's country album. Allen's songwriting and lyricism are unique to the genre. He channels a great deal of anger and witty cynicism into his lyrics while maintaining an artistic sophistication that honestly just isn't exactly typical of country music. Allen also pushes the genre's boundaries in regards to song structure. Many songs break the 5 minute mark, with one reaching 7:25, almost unheard of in a genre where a long ballad might be 4 minutes long. Other songs simply work as short vignettes, once again quite strange to a style where verse-chorus-verse-chorus is king. Lubbock (On Everything) is a lot to take in, but it's worth it.

git

The Flatlanders - More A Legend Than A Band

Overlooked country album by a band featuring two genre greats Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Simple, straightforward plainsman tunes by some good ol boys who just wanted to play some no frills country. Great great stuff.

git

Troum & All Sides - Shutûn

Shutûn is a colossal 54-minute dark ambient track produced as a collaboration between dark ambient duo Troum and shoegaze/ambient guitarist Nina Kernicke (All Sides). I can't think of anything in the dark ambient subgenre that's better than this, to be honest. An epic that builds from ghostly vocal recordings to grand, sweeping movements laden with fuzzy guitar and synth pads to sinister, brooding passages that churn and grind like giant mechanical beasts or something like that.

darq

GuMMy†Be▲R! - Inauspicious

this is probably the best shit i've heard out of the whole hipster dance music (hdm) (aka witch house) trend. hard beats and lo-fi ambient electronics. OH MY GOD ITS LIKE WHAT IF SKY LIMOUSINE DUDE TEAMED UP WITH LIKE DALEK OR SOMETHING MAYBE THATS A BAD COMPARISON BUT MAN THATD BE OBSCURE

and i mean LOOK AT THAT ALBUM ART. IT LOOKS LIKE A POWERPOINT PROJECT. THATS LO-FI.

i listened to them before they got big

Rowland S. Howard - Teenage Snuff Film

Rowland S. Howard is most well-known for his spidery guitar work alongside Nick Cave in The Birthday Party, but he also released two solo albums before his death in 2009. This one, 2005's Teenage Snuff Film is painfully overlooked. Howard establishes suffocatingly grim atmospheres with his monotone, macabre voice and lyrics, but to me the best part here is his immaculate guitar work. Throughout this album, he creates massive tones, smooth atmospheric layering, and bleak walls of sound to craft a melancholic mood.

(and then...)

Hasil Adkins - Out to Hunch

Recently been fascinated with this one quite a bit. Released back in 1955, this album is so far ahead of its time it's ridiculous. Lo-fi cracked-out, psychotic rock tunes that sometimes veer into blues territory, and often veer into experimental noise-like territory. I can't even begin to imagine what I'd think if I head this record in 1955. Songs range from catchy and fun (She Said, Chicken Walk) to depressing (I'm Happy) to disturbing (No More Hot Dogs). Probably the most notable track here is "I Need Your Head." It's pretty much the first screwed song ever and undoubtedly one of the most evil, disturbing tracks I've come across, consisting of a slowed down recording of a murderer's rant over atonal no-waveish guitar.

this aint no rock n roll show

My Dad Is Dead - Peace, Love & Murder

Bleak as hell post-punk. Band comprises of just Mark Edwards's cold lyrics and guitarwork and a drum machine. Really surprising this band isn't more well known considering the size of this dude's discography. Most of it is really solid.

gidit

DJ Paul & Lord Infamous - Come With Me To Hell

Lo-fi, dark, evil ass beats from two of Three 6 Mafia's founding members. Also, if you were ever wondering if you should smoke a sack or not, "1000 Blunts" will help you make up your mind.

da dick dats in yo mouf long and hard oh my god

Excoriate - On Pestilent Winds...

Alls I really gotta say about this one is that it sounds like old school death metal fronted by Lemmy.

eargh

Glenn Hardeman - Armageddon Metal Revelation

Okay, so this dude was handing out cd's at the university student center and I grabbed one out of curiosity. "Armageddon Metal Revelation" by the Cyberband, Built on Hard Rock, all printed on one of the most MS Paint album covers I'd ever seen. I figured it would be some sort of Christian hard rock album, so my friends and I popped it in for a good laugh. What graced our ears, however, was completely unexpected. This is pretty much an hour of midi-quality software instrument nu-metalish RIFFS accompanied by a 60-year-old redneck reading the Bible into a computer mic. It's the best thing I've heard all year. All decade. My entire life. After a little bit of quick internet research, I unmasked the mastermind behind the music.

The Prophet Glenn Hardeman

BEHOLD

For more of Mr. Hardeman's classic tunes, check out this page for greats like "SLUDGE METAL MATTHEW," "THRASH METAL JOHN," "PUNK MARK," "BLADE METAL ACTS," and "CIRCUS HYMNS ACTS."

Robert Fripp & Brian Eno - No Pussyfooting

The first album by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. Fripp does his Frippertronics (that's such a cute word) thing, fuckin around with analog tape machines and shit, while Eno does his ambient thing, fuckin around with keyboards n shit. But for real, fantastic ambient album showcasing the sensitivity of both musicians. I can't write an album description worth lamb dick.

http://www.mediafire.com/?20nznzlwe5y

Ulaan Khol - III

This is an album done primarily by drone guitarist Steven R Smith, and if you've ever heard Steven R Smith before you know that that fact alone is enough reason to download this album. If you aint heard steve ronaldo smith before hes like noisy and psychedelic but good at it rather than being some cheap imitation piece of shriveled dick

http://www.mediafire.com/?01fzvferwb1zng8

Lee Hazlewood - Love And Other Crimes

at first i was like you know i already posted that one lee hazlewood album i prolly shouldnt post him again but then i was like nah dude lee hazlewood is one of my favorite songwriters ever and im going to post his shit until one person listens to one of his albums so listen to this country-tinged psychedelic pop GOD also this is prolly better than the other album i posted

ktadgaf

Also, read this for a better synopsis of this album than I could ever write.

John Hartford - Aereo-Plain

Probably my favorite bluegrass album, but I feel like this could appeal to anyone unfamiliar to the genre as well. John Hartford was just such an awesome songwriter. I don't think there's a single song on this album that isn't excellent. Humorous at times, nostalgic at others, and often strangely poetic. Hartford's also a pretty adept guitarist/banjoist/fiddler at that.

If you don't at least like this song, you are a soulless, unfeeling fuck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lo_-MnG-wQ


berb

Korouva - Shipwrecks & Russian Roulette

Korouva is Miranda Lehman from Portland, OR. She writes simple lo-fi jazz/folk tunes and sings and it's all rather pretty. Shipwrecks is mostly known for being one of the albums that Velvet Cacoon plagiarized, but beyond that it's actually a pretty chill album. Good stuff.

blb

John Fahey - Volume 6: Days Have Gone By

Pretty much every day since I got this album, whenever I pick up my guitar I'm only learning songs off this. Simple enough for a clown like me to learn but complex enough to make me sound good. Anyway, John Fahey is the fuckin man. Look at that badass motherfucker on the cover. He's just like "yeah you tap your foot to this kickin tune you little shit."

fokk

The Innocence Mission - Birds of My Neighborhood

Every year during this season, I actively search for a new "fall" album. This year it was this. Birds of My Neighborhood is just an impeccable collection of simple, mellow tunes consisting of lush guitar instrumentation and Karen Peris's incredible voice and songwriting. It reminds me a bit of 10,000 Maniacs kinda. Whatever, ish is great. It's a shame fall only lasts for a month here in Alabama.

mm

Doc Watson (1964)

Doc is the shit. Listen as he tears it up on the geetar, banjer, and even acapeller. His songwriting skills are pretty fantastic, too, with songs ranging from lighthearted folk tales to solemn hymns.

pickin

David Sylvian - Secrets of the Beehive

Been digging this a lot lately. It's pretty much blatant Scott Walker worship down to the very vocals, but I can't think of a reason why that's a bad thing. The production on this album in particular is incredible, with perfect splashes ambient guitar layering, sophisticated string arrangements, and jazzy acoustic instrumentation. So yeah, it's kind of like if Scott Walker fronted Bark Psychosis. This is perfect for chillin' on your back porch watching a winter sunset n gay shit like that.

gud

Red House Painters - Early Demos

As the title might suggest, this is a collection of early cassette demos and unreleased songs recorded during the band's early days. Most of the material on these tapes later appears on Down Colorful Hill, Red House Painters I, and Red House Painters II, but here they're all in less developed stages. It's interesting to hear some of the familiar polished material in a more stripped-down, lo-fi setting. The unreleased tracks are really great, too. Guess they just didn't make the cut before the band started moving into more folky territory.

dlow

Lil B - Blue Flame

rich ho rich ho im a rich ho
rich ho rich ho im a rich ho
rich ho rich ho im a rich ho
rich ho rich ho im a rich ho
im a rich bitch and that ho on my dick
im a rich bitch and that ho on my dick
im a rich bitch and that ho on my dick
im a rich bitch and that ho on my dick

swag

Red House Painters II (Bridge)

Perhaps even bleaker than Red House Painters I, II has slowly grown to become one of my favorite releases of Mark Kozelek's vast and growing catalog. To those familiar with its predecessor, take that album and push it to even more austere extremes and you'll have something like this. This album even sounds kind of Slint-ish at times. "Evil" is frankly one of the most aptly titled songs and "Blindfold" might just be the best song Kozelek did under the RHP moniker. I mean, he just straight up screams for the last two minutes of the song. User PMac551 of RYM put it best when he said "Blindfold is the pinnacle of feeling like absolute shit and it is everything all at once and I don't even know how to respond to that song." Also, this is the most panned RHP album on sputnikmusic's review site, so you know it's gotta rule.

sad