albums you think are amazing but noone has heard of

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Ok, basically the thread title. Just post albums you think are amazing but no one has heard of, or so it seems. I am curious and I want to discover some really good music.

Parenthetical Girls - Safe as Houses

This album just blows me away for some reason, just everyone seem so well placed, and serious.

Pitchforkmedia.com rating 7.9
album art:
19075.parenthetical-girls.jpg


"

Now that Jamie Stewart's drama, if not his songcraft, seems to be mellowing an iota-- or maybe he's just showing his sense of humor-- Xiu Xiu fans hungry for the new nervousness would do well to seek out the work of former Portland Mercury music editor (and Slender Means label head) Zac Pennington's Parenthetical Girls for a strong dose of panic-pop.

The connections are abundant: Stewart remixed the Girls' debut EP, and Pennington is backed by two members of Stewart's self-professed favorite band, tour- and labelmates the Dead Science. The album contains Xiu-ian xylophones, somber organs, wind instruments, spidery guitars, and brittle electronica, as well as lovely androgynous vocals that tiptoe right up to the shrillness of an opera staged in a psychotherapist's lobby without ever goosing it. Just as Stewart hollered "I won't rest until I forget about it," memory is a burden to Pennington's speakers; see his debut's "Here's to Forgetting" and this album's "Forward to Forget."

Both bands are also preoccupied with reconstructing nightmarish childworlds and treating gender like so much ideological Silly Putty. (Each PG release features artwork depicting Pennington as a pair of epicene cartoons on the verge of preadolescent makeout-- the London Suede meets Strawberry Shortcake.) Xiu Xiu plays songs about abused girls and is named after the film about a teen female lost in a rape-centric state apparatus, while Safe as Houses is a story-album about the abandonment and penetration of young women.

At points, portraying all of this emotional, physical and sexual damage seems less like empathy than it... should? To qualify: the "misogyny" on display here is sophisticated and interesting, way different from the incidental Travis-Bickle-isms of early Smog, and not like painter Francis Bacon referring to women as cows-- it's not even like that photo/fashion-happy gay male in every town who comments on women's appearances to the point that it seems vindictive or even jealous of their allure. It's closer to how the horror of the Alien movies is that the creatures squirt eggs in the mouths of, and impregnate the torsos of, men.

Safe as Houses is a creepily pretty presentation of female reproductive power as a kind of monstrosity: its women are protuberant, seeping, layered apertures. Pennington's falsetto cracks as he references a purgatorial "awkward stage." Multiple songs begin by citing leaks and stains. This is not the commiserating world of Talib Kweli's "Black Girl Pain"; this is the world of Carrie and The Exorcist, in which girl-puberty and menstruation are accursed, as opposed to how the onset of male sexuality is usually construed to be heroic (Goonies, Spider-Man, et cetera). These women dread themselves, and each other. The album's most devastating couplet comes when a mother tells her daughter: "Curls round your cheeks, Christ you look just like me/ When you took nine months to destroy my body." That song, "I Was the Dancer", plays like a fierce update of the Carter Family's "Single Girl Married Girl", another potential duet reduced to monologue.

The lyrical menace is relieved somewhat by an aesthetic that Parenthetical Girls and Xiu Xiu do not share: Several songs hearken to the innocent flirty teen-pop ballads of the late 50s and early 60s, suggesting that Phils Spector and Glass should have worked together, or at least deejayed an experimental prom. Sweeping tunes "The Weight She Fell Under" and "Stolen Children" both smell like teen Fallujah, and will cure anybody's womb envy, but they passionately want to know if you'll still love them tomorrow.

-William Bowers, July 06, 2006
"
 
Pitchfork Media's review scores are bollocks. They tend to pay more attention to the artist than the music. Still, great resource for those unheard of albums.

A lot of the ones on their recent top 50 are amazing but no one's heard of them :p

particular #2
 
Pitchfork Media's review scores are bollocks. They tend to pay more attention to the artist than the music. Still, great resource for those unheard of albums.

A lot of the ones on their recent top 50 are amazing but no one's heard of them :p

particular #2


True, I agree, however I like reading about the artist's background because knowing the history usually gives the story alot more depth. For instance listen to Sufjan Steven's the Lord God Bird, then listen to NPR's segent on the Lord God Bird and his song just has so much more weight.

And I ask all my friends if they have heard of the Knife, Silent Shout, or Deep Cuts, and they are all clueless. The electronica pop kind stuff hasn't hit America yet. :rolling:
 
Yeah, but more I mean that their ratings/reviews are based off of the nature of the band, not their music. They're very snobby and uptight, you gotta read them kind of through a lens so you're not biased :p
 
http://www.discogs.com/image/R-155183-001.jpg

Leafcutter John - The Housebound Spirit. It's kindof hard to describe. Lots of electronic manipulations of found sound and field recordings, musique concrete, folk songwriting, ambient bits, and some incredible electronic work. Some tracks are soundscapish, others more like music. It blew me away.

It's not something for people who do not like to be challenged by their music.
 
http://www.discogs.com/image/R-155183-001.jpg

Leafcutter John - The Housebound Spirit. It's kindof hard to describe. Lots of electronic manipulations of found sound and field recordings, musique concrete, folk songwriting, ambient bits, and some incredible electronic work. Some tracks are soundscapish, others more like music. It blew me away.

It's not something for people who do not like to be challenged by their music.

what do you mean by challenged? like listening to country music challenging or, trying to figure out how the hell they made that sound?
 
Yeah, but more I mean that their ratings/reviews are based off of the nature of the band, not their music. They're very snobby and uptight, you gotta read them kind of through a lens so you're not biased :p

I agree, I usually get the feeling that most of the reviewers feel that writing about music is beneath them. With that said Pitchfork is an excellent source for finding independent music, just don't take everything they write too seriously

The Faunts-High expectations low results
 
The Servant - The Servant
The Servant - How To Destroy A Relationship
Cobra Starship - While The City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets
 
In what sense to you mean albums no one has heard of? Literally, like they get no mention over the internet or anything that close to 'underground', or between your local freinds and the general area?

If the latter, then that's quite alot. The former... eh, not so much, I guess.
 
In what sense to you mean albums no one has heard of? Literally, like they get no mention over the internet or anything that close to 'underground', or between your local freinds and the general area?

If the latter, then that's quite alot. The former... eh, not so much, I guess.

well, it doesnt matter just post stuff you think no one has heard of , and most likely people will have not heard the music before. I know all the stuff that has been posted in this thread by other people i have never heard of, but i will seek them out. :D

oh ya you have to think the album is amazing.. like something you could listen to a million times and not get tired of... not just a list of stuff that has its good points i mean an aamazing album
 
tv on the radio - return to cookie mountain
 
Well, I guess jesu could count. No one around here likes them, and I have actually never seen them mentioned on a forum, and I mean forum's that have double the music community here, which alone is pretty open-minded. But whatever.

The s/t album jesu is a sludgy, darkened, epic landscape of pure fuzziness and distortion, yet cut apart by Justin's quiet, dry, soothing and somewhat sadistic voice. The album is pretty much just a chunk of utter gloom, and the only word that comes to mind is ''depressing'', but I really do adore the fact that an album can create such an emotion and image. If you've seen/played Silent Hill, just imagine the ''Darkness/Hell'' areas of the film and game, and that's what this album would best be suited to playing in the background of - scary, rusting, atmospheric and dark. It's wonderfull.

What really stands out with jesu is how layered the music is for just three guy's. Feedback to the left, overlapped with a nice douse of distortion, mixed between slow, strummed chords that are all swallowed up by each other. Justin's ears must be completly closed up by now.

Where some tracks could be considered ''the complete eptimone'' of minamalist post-metal, it's the songs like 'Freinds are Evil' that contain slow, gradual build up's that sound like the apocalypse is coming, but are then lead on to have Justin's... hell, beautiful voice ride the feedback and take the song by storm. It really is an epic record, and I'm far too tired to go on at the moment.
 
I keep mentioning these two every chance I get, and I'll do it again! Both have a slightly proggy feel to them, and hail from Manchester:

Amplifier -- their self-titled album is one of my favourites, and no one knows who they are :D They're only 3 guys, but the sound they make is just huge. New album isn't quite as flawless though.
>>>> The Consultancy video <<<<

Oceansize -- ditto, but 6 guys instead of 3 and their latest album is incredible. :p
>>>> Catalyst video <<<<
 
new for me:

ellen allien and apparat - orchestra of bubbles
 
I keep mentioning these two every chance I get, and I'll do it again! Both have a slightly proggy feel to them, and hail from Manchester:

Amplifier -- their self-titled album is one of my favourites, and no one knows who they are :D They're only 3 guys, but the sound they make is just huge. New album isn't quite as flawless though.
>>>> The Consultancy video <<<<

Ah, someone on the Damnation Festival Forum (you may know the festival, being in Manchester n' all) keep's recommending Amplifier and she even uploaded an album, I just didn't bother getting it. Watching the video now.

Wow, it's a blatent British voice but it's not crappy indie. :p But seriously, this isn't bad. I'll look into them through the album uploaded.
 
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4417/b0002vl7hm01aa240sclzzzrr1.jpg

Blindspott - Self-Titled
New Zealand band, album released in 2002 after a huge leadup (I think they released 3 or 4 singles before it saw the stores). They had a pretty big fanbase at the time though, myself included, and for me atleast it was worth the wait. In my opinion, these guys were one of the best things to come out of the nu-metal wave in ~2000, and one of the only bands to truly infuse their work with a bit of flavour, really stamp it with their signature. It has some definite kiwi influences in there, although you mightn't pick up on those unless you knew what to look for, but besides that it's just really satisfying music and different enough to stand out from the crowd. It nails the fusion between heavy and soft, has some really nice melody stuff, and some really brutal screaming (the vocalist had a bleeding throat after each day nearing the end of recording). Also they had a turntablist at that point so the sampling/scratching adds a cool - if not really original - twist.

Anyway, my description is really unworthy and it's probably just come off sounding like the retarded offspring of bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park (although that is partially true, they're miles better than both combined). If you have any interest in this sort of music, here's some songs to check out... err, if you can find em -

Nil By Mouth
S.U.I.T (so us is this)
Room to Breathe
Phlex

^ All their original singles, first three are heavier while the last is a soft one. It was their biggest hit here though and it's real class... they played it at someone's funeral I went to :(

Edit - Oh yeah, they have a new album out too, but the lineup's changed and it's more straight metal now. Not really sure if it's worth checking out, I gave it a miss just going by the singles.
 
http://www.discogs.com/image/R-155183-001.jpg

Leafcutter John - The Housebound Spirit. It's kindof hard to describe. Lots of electronic manipulations of found sound and field recordings, musique concrete, folk songwriting, ambient bits, and some incredible electronic work. Some tracks are soundscapish, others more like music. It blew me away.

It's not something for people who do not like to be challenged by their music.

Yeah, that's a pretty nice album. I found out about him through his Max/MSP patches that he's released, which are also neat.

My contribution to this thread would be Scope by Nobukazu Takemura. The first track starts with a sound which I can only describe as what a lighthouse's light rotating about would sound like.
 
what do you mean by challenged? like listening to country music challenging or, trying to figure out how the hell they made that sound?

When I say challenged I mean to be subjected to music that you aren't used to. It's typical of avant garde and experimental music to be very foreign to the ears of listeners not accustomed to it. People who listen to a lot of it tend to approach any new record expecting the unexpected, in a sense.
 
Yeah, that's a pretty nice album. I found out about him through his Max/MSP patches that he's released, which are also neat.

My contribution to this thread would be Scope by Nobukazu Takemura. The first track starts with a sound which I can only describe as what a lighthouse's light rotating about would sound like.


Nice recommendation as well. Nobukazu is an amazing artist.
 
Ok, basically the thread title. Just post albums you think are amazing but no one has heard of, or so it seems. I am curious and I want to discover some really good music.

Parenthetical Girls - Safe as Houses

This album just blows me away for some reason, just everyone seem so well placed, and serious.

Pitchforkmedia.com rating 7.9
album art:
19075.parenthetical-girls.jpg


...

Now that Jamie Stewart's drama, if not his songcraft, seems to be mellowing an iota-- or maybe he's just showing his sense of humor-- Xiu Xiu fans hungry for the new nervousness would do well to seek out the work of former Portland Mercury music editor (and Slender Means label head) Zac Pennington's Parenthetical Girls for a strong dose of panic-pop.

Similar to Xiu Xiu eh? I might have to check this out. :)
 
Nice recommendation as well. Nobukazu is an amazing artist.

Yeah, I've got most of his albums, but some of his earlier work is hard to find. Most of his songs, especially on Hoshi no Koe and 10th, cheer me up lots. After I started listening to him I went back and got all the .spc files from games like Super Mario RPG, Earthbound, and the lot.

You should also check out 8-Bit Free Hand by KLUtCH, a russian IDM artist who's songs also have a bit of charm, and are reminiscent of the 8-bit console era. :)
 
Yeah, I've got most of his albums, but some of his earlier work is hard to find. Most of his songs, especially on Hoshi no Koe and 10th, cheer me up lots. After I started listening to him I went back and got all the .spc files from games like Super Mario RPG, Earthbound, and the lot.

You should also check out 8-Bit Free Hand by KLUtCH, a russian IDM artist who's songs also have a bit of charm, and are reminiscent of the 8-bit console era. :)

Cool :) I dig the 8 bit stuff.
 
Cool man, even though I'm getting a bit off-topic here, there are some awesomely good chipdisks out there, which are basically compilations of chiptune songs from the demoscene. I've got loads of really abstract and avant-garde electronic music as well. I wouldn't think anyone would know about Takemura here, so excuse me if I've gone off on a bit of a tangent.
 
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