Manic Street Preachers - Know Your Enemy (2004)

Manic Street Preachers - Know Your Enemy

1. Found That Soul
2. Ocean Spray
3. Intravenous Agnostic
4. So Why So Sad
5. Let Robeson Sing
6. The Year Of Purification
7. Wattsville Blues
8. Miss Europa Disco Dancer
9. Dead Martyrs
10. His Last Painting
11. My Guernica
12. The Convalescent
13. Royal Correspondent
14. Epicentre
15. Baby Elian
16. Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children
17. Hidden Track

The Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh band who like to dress up, act intellectual and shout political slogans. Unsurprisingly, they seem a little silly. Also unsurprisingly, they command a huge cult following. They're made up of three people right now. Nicky Wire, James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore. Nicky is the cross-dressing, vacumming, teetollar bassist who writes all the lyrics, James is the singer and lead guitarist and musical genius, Sean is the drummer. Adding to their mystique is the fact that one of their band members who used to cut himself with knives and take pictures of it (Richey James Edwards), disappeared in 1994. Poof! And he never came back.

The year is now 2008 and my Manic Street Preachers tickets just came in the mail yesterday. It seems like I've spent the better part of my youth spraypainting my clothes, buying tiaras, feather boas, leopard skin tights, obsessing over them and acting like a bit of douche but good fucking god was it fun. And now I am old and it's hard to be as excited as I was, today especially, since I'm in one of those Serge Gainsbourg moods where you're old and bitter and drunk and just want to fuck girls.

It actually might be part of the reason that I'm posting Know Your Enemy. A quick Google survey reveals that a huge portion of the people who actually post in forums (as opposed to trolling, like normal internet denizens) think that this is the album when everything started skating downhill for the Manics. It was then that I realized that in the back of my mind, I felt everything after The Holy Bible to be a bit of a footnote. And I was overcome with shame. Was I really one of those cutter Richey fanatics who was depressedlawl and pined for his return? How could I have been so... so... unfair to James, the person who actually wrote all the music and was, possibly, the only talented one in the whole band?

My friend D, however, was being very fair to James when he told me that Know Your Enemy was actually his favourite album. I jumped back in shock! But why? According to him, the guitar work on Know Your Enemy was amazing. I jumped back in shock! But... I never noticed! So caught up was I in the Manics not sounding like the Manics anymore!

So, recently, I've tried to rediscover the Manics, this album in particular. It's not a very good introduction but there really are some good tracks on there. My favourite being So Why So Sad, which is an odd ditty that sounds like James has the same crush on Brian Wilson that I do. Stuff like Let Robeson Sing and Found That Soul has also kind of aged better. I find myself enjoying it a lot more than before. Maybe it's because I'm older, maybe it's because it so poppy, maybe it's because... I don't care, it just sounds better. I haven't discovered the amazing guitar work yet but I'm sure it's in there since my aforementioned friend is also a really amazing guitarist. Let me know if you find it though.

God, my writing has become really lazy all of a sudden. Oh well, WORKING WILL DO THAT TO YOU. Now I will proceed to get drunk to Serge Gainsbourg.


Know Your Enemy (drop.io)

Muji BGM 1980 - 2000

MUJI BGM 1980-2000 (disc a)
01. Original BGM.mp3
02. TALKING -BGM ver.-.mp3
03. 冬の夜.mp3
04. 星の子供たち.mp3
05. 星群の船.mp3
06. 星のささやき.mp3
07. 天の川.mp3
08. 星たしのラグタイム.mp3
09. 星たちの眠る頃.mp3
10. 流れ星.mp3

MUJI BGM 1980-2000 (disc b)
01. モダンパストラル - 夏の手掛かり～小卓の夢.mp3
02. モダンパストラル - オリーブ風.mp3
03. Dr.Kプロジェクト - Leona.mp3
04. Dr.Kプロジェクト - To,To,To,Walking.mp3
05. Dr.Kプロジェクト - Cape Light.mp3
06. Dr.Kプロジェクト - Pelican in the park.mp3
07. 配島邦明 - bicolore livre.mp3
08. 配島邦明 - color tote.mp3
09. 配島邦明 - tiny pet.mp3
10. 配島邦明 - banal look.mp3
11. 配島邦明 - mignard,e divan.mp3
12. 配島邦明 - pave ring.mp3

MUJI BGM 1980-2000 (disc c)
01. [春夏編]Akogare.mp3
02. [春夏編]Samba.mp3
03. [春夏編]鏡の上の波.mp3
04. [春夏編]Deja-vu.mp3
05. [春夏編]In the Forest.mp3
06. [秋冬編]Bug's Dance.mp3
07. [秋冬編]Funny Strut.mp3
08. [秋冬編]Julian.mp3
09. [秋冬編]Rio.mp3
10. [秋冬編]Crow's Eye.mp3


Muji started out as a small stationery store in Japan and gradually evolved to become this huge company that sells all sorts of things, from furniture to clothing to candy to bikes. Everything in Muji is unbranded, natural-looking and pleasantly minimal. What strange, wonderful things will they make today? A notebook with pretty lines that help keep you organized? A wall-mounted CD player that starts up with the pull of a string? All their items are crafty, kitschy, very Japanese and very lovely indeed.

Even just walking into a Muji store transports you into a new land. That the store itself is color co-ordinated is not a surprise but everything in the store is, not just color co-ordinated, but simply co-ordinated, feeling like irreplacable pieces in a puzzle, which, when put together, becomes a picture of a beautiful natural landscape with breezy fields and smiling people.

One of the biggest defining factors of the Muji experience, for me, is actually the wonderful music they play. They don't use standard elevator muzak but commission musicians to create actual background music to enhance the environment. The music is very, very Muji. Clean, modern and natural, unintrusive, somehow painting everything in cream, maroon and cardboard tones... It gives you the strangest kind of store-bought serenity.

So, when I saw that they were actually selling their background music, I went out of my mind with joy. Now, you too can take Muji with you wherever you go! Put in on in your house and watch it get more spacious! Listen to it while you lie on the grass and watch the sunlight diffuse! Listen to it when you're taking the train and watch your destination change to Tokyo!

This is really some of the most perfect ambient music ever made. If Brian Eno gave us an immense, gorgeous imaginary airport with Ambient 1: Music For Airports, then Muji turns the whole world into an extension of a Muji store. Which is, honest-to-God, not as bad as it sounds. Not bad at all! Just because we hate consumer culture doesn't mean we have to hate people who make wonderful things and sell them right?? Hell, William Gibson swore by their toothpaste!

Anyway here's the Muji BGM 1980 - 2000 box set. It took me a long time to upload. Enjoy.


Muji BGM 1980 - 2000 part 1
Muji BGM 1980 - 2000 part 2
Muji BGM 1980 - 2000 part 3
Muji BGM 1980 - 2000 part 4

Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert (1975)

Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert

1. Köln, January 24, 1975, Part I
2. Köln, January 24, 1975, Part IIA
3. Köln, January 24, 1975, Part IIB
4. Köln, January 24, 1975, Part IIC

So, I went to a party last night and ended up in a park arguing with this guy from California about music. Despite being pretty drunk, I managed to make what seemed like sound arguments to me but not to the guy, apparently.

Anyway, he was gushing about how emotional gothic rock like Evanesence and Nightwish was and I told him I had the exact opposite opinion of gothic rock because I felt that the subculture and structures in place have corrupted, to some extent, the 'natural-ness' of the music. No matter how hard you scream at the top of your lungs, choosing a mode of expression that has been so standardized feels a little stilted to me and I can't connect to it emotionally at all.

But maybe, that's just my personal bias against gothic rock. I've always been a structure over style person when it comes to music, really. AND FUCKING JOY DIVISION WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THAT SHIT. Wow, I wish I was fucking Joy Division. Last night, I dreamt I was taking pictures with Liam Gallagher, of all people.

So anyway, long and rambling intro over? No, not yet.

So, I told him about my ideas of the 'natural-ness' of music, a kind of authenticity and sincerity that has not so much to do with sincerity of emotion as the sincerity of the mode of expression. I firmly believe that it is something you can hear in the music and it's something that is very, very valuable. Maybe because I didn't explain myself properly, he went off on a tangent on how I contextualized music too much but that's really besides the point.

Anyway, I tried to break into his tangent with my tangent on how I HEARD IT, I REALLY DID, THERE WAS THIS GUY WHO PLAYED POP MUSIC, POPPY IMPROVISED TUNES, BUT FUCKING HELL IT HAS SO MUCH DEPTH AND SOUL AND EMOTION AND EVERYTHING YOU COULD WANT IN MUSIC AND ITS FUCKING POP TUNES AND DO YOU KNOW WHY ITS SO FUCKING GOOD ITS BECAUSE ITS SINCERE EXPRESSION ITS REAL ITS SOMETHING REAL SO THE OUTER FORMS REALLY MATTER LESS THAN THE SOMETHING SOMETHING BLAR BALR BLARR. Sadly, he didn't hear me (how? right?) and the rest of my friends ignored me because they all knew I was in one of my Keith Jarrett frenzies again.

So, this is it! The kind of music that changes your life, if you let it. The kind of music I have slapped people for insulting. The kind of music you cry to. The kind of music you listen to for the rest of your life and it just gets better and better and better each time. This is real music.


Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert (drop.io)

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Tyrannosaurus Rex - Unicorn (1969)

Tyrannosaurus Rex - Unicorn

1. Chariots of Silk
2. 'Pon a Hill
3. Seal of Seasons
4. Throat of Winter
5. Cat Black (The Wizard's Hat)
6. Stones for Avalon
7. She Was Born to Be My Unicorn
8. Like a White Star, Tangled and Far, Tulip That's What You Are
9. Warlord of the Royal Crocodiles
10. Evenings of Damask
11. Sea Beasts
12. Iscariot
13. Nijinsky Hind
14. Pilgrim's Tale
15. Misty Coast of Albany
16. Romany Soup

The 'freak-folk' revival of yesteryear gave us gems like Animal Collective and Joanna Newsom, but also washed up trash like Devendra Banhart and, well, everyone on that godawful The Enlightened Family compilation, with the exception of Vashti Bunyan. Anyways, thank god that's over!

But to find real freaky folks who are real freaks of folk musicians, one has to look a little harder and a little further back. What did your face look like before your parents were born? Who was Animal Collective's music before they picked up instruments?

Why... Marc Bolan, of course!

Collaborating with such luminaries as 'Steve' Peregrin Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Saruman of the Many Colors, with bells and whistles and puppy dog tails, Marc Bolan created a mystical, child-like wonderland where sound roamed freely, all around.

It's stunningly experimental for it's time, fearlessly incorporating all sorts of sounds into its patchwork of melodies. Kind of like an In An Aeroplane, Over The Sea, lo-fi, kitchen sink approach to things, only much less emotional crazy and a lot more quaint crazy. It fucking works, though! The clapping hoofs and bird song and Marc Bolan's loopy thin voice mumbling "sky sky sky" all come together in a way that is really quite magical. And the melodies! Good god! I really didn't expect some of the best, most gorgeous, most comforting melodies I'd ever hear in my life to come from people pretending to be hobbits but fuck! They are so crazy catchy and beautiful, it's hard not to melt into a puddle of fairy goo. The flow of the album is also very solid, which is surprising, given how loose-sounding the songs are. But, well, that's what it is. All the songs make sense in their little compartments but put together they weave a wonderful world around you... How much more convincing do you need? It's a great album, pls download kthnxbai.

Oh man... look at that cover. Is it just me that wishes it was a picture of them doing each other instead? Did I just come out to the internet?


Tyrannosaurus Rex - Unicorn (drop.io)


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SebastiAn - Remixes (2008)

SebastiAn - Remixes

01. Intro
02. Revl9n - Walking Machines (SebastiAn Remix)
03. Daft Punk - Human After All (SebastiAn Remix)
04. Mylo - Paris Four Hundred (SebastiAn Remix)
05. The Rapture - Get Myself Into It (SebastiAn Remix)
06. Editors - Camera (SebastiAn Remix)
07. The Rakes - We Dance Together (SebastiAn Remix)
08. Kelis - Bossy (SebastiAn Remix)
09. The Kills - Cheap & Cheerful (SebastiAn Remix)
10. Kavinsky - Testarossa Autodrive (SebastiAn Remix)
11. Benjamin Theves - Texas (SebastiAn Remix)
12. Das Pop - Fool For Love (SebastiAn Remix)
13. Bloc Party - I Still Remember (SebastiAn Remix)
14. Sebastien Tellier - Sexual Sportswear (SebastiAn Remix)
15. Klaxons - Golden Skans (SebastiAn Remix)
16. Annie - Happy With You (SebastiAn Remix)
17. Nadiya - Tous Ces Mots (SebastiAn Remix)


A collection of highly enjoyable remixes by SebastiAn big-A, a French artist on Ed Banger Records. His remixes kind of remind me of steak, like a large, tasty, well-cooked cut of beef. The sounds he uses are just so punchy and... beefy. While not exactly life-changing stuff, its dance-y and addictive and worth listening to. The remixes of Daft Punk and Sebastian Tellier are particularly delicious.


SebastiAn - Remixes (mediafire)

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Lindsey Buckingham - Gift Of Screws (2008)

1. Great Day
2. Time Precious Time
3. Did You Miss Me
4. Wait For You
5. Love Runs Deeper
6. Bel Air Rain
7. The Right Place To Fade
8. Gift Of Screws
9. Underground
10. Treason


Lindsey Buckingham, the talented former Fleetwood Mac guitarist, returns with an album full of the best guitar work you'll ever hear. I am completely serious about this. This album has the best guitar work I have ever heard, trumping Nick Drake, Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo, John McLaughlin, Robbie Basho and Vini Reilly.

With some kind of magical unicorn strings, Lindsey Buckingham has managed to hit the sweetest spot possible with his sound that lingers somewhere in between candy, ice-cream, a cold morning and kissing the one you love. It's clear like ice and a little detached, but somehow, still warm inside, like that bad boy who you know is really a sensitive, cuddly softie. It's a perfect sound, an absolutely perfect guitar sound that he uses to bring out his catchy, poppy melodies. The perfect equation for bliss, really. The swirls of guitar in Great Day are so intense and the production so immersive, it pulls you in right away. Songs like Wait For You, Did You Miss Me, Love Runs Deeper and the exceptional The Right Place to Fade bring to mind his former glories with Fleetwood Mac and turns them into new glories, not ghostly memories of a distant past. The best track, for me, is Bel-Air Rain where a beautiful, driving, finger-picking melody runs all around you and turns wherever you are, whatever the weather is, into a cold, pale grey, urban melancholy that feels prettier than diamonds.

His voice is also amazing. It sounds at once wise, youthful, passionate yet secure, so rich and full of depth. It sounds like the kind of voice that only comes with years of experience yet sounds more like the Lindsey Buckingham on the cover of Buckingham Nicks (link to the cover) rather than the old man on the cover of Gift Of Screws. It's a voice that carries weight, a voice full with the shades of things. The whole of Gift Of Screws seems like an album made out of the shades of things, the shades of history in his voice, the shades of color in the reverb, the shades of stories in the guitar, like a collage or a fuzzy pencil drawing of a blurry man standing on a hill far away. You can't tell the whole story but, somehow, it feels close to your heart.


Lindsey Buckingham - Gift Of Screws (Mediafire)
Lindsey Buckingham - Gift Of Screws (Sharebee)

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Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun (2008)

Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun (2008)

1. That Lucky Old Sun
2. Morning Beat
3. Narrative: Room With a View
4. Good Kind of Love
5. Forever My Surfer Girl
6. Narrative: Venice Beach
7. Live Let Live
8. Mexican Girl
9. Narrative: Cinco De Mayo
10. California Role
11. Narrative: Between Pictures
12. Oxygen
13. Can’t Wait Too Long
14. Midnight’s Another Day
15. Lucky Old Sun [Reprise]
16. Going Home
17. Southern California
18. Roll-Around Heaven [Reprise]

I'm sure everyone has heard a couple of Beach Boys songs here and there, I know I did when I was a bit younger. Combined with their slightly dorky name (Beach Boys?!), for those who don't really bother to listen, the Beach Boys easily become synonymous with the bit pieces used in commercials.

It's sad, really, but I think the first time I really, really listened was when Brian Wilson (the member of the Beach Boys) released SMiLE in 2004. I had encountered Pet Sounds before that but I didn't let myself drown in the music the way I did with SMiLE, parts of which made me believe that I had touched God, so sublime it was. With his heavenly feel for harmonies and arrangement, he constructed sky-high surround-sound angelic sonnets to... melancholy. Pocket symphonies marred only by inner turmoil.

In That Lucky Old Sun, the follow-up release to SMiLE, eagerly awaited by the gnarly set, the geriatrics, a few slimy critics, basically a bunch of old people and me, all of that melancholia seems to have evaporated under the warm, honeyed, Californian sunlight. Retaining his harmonic ideas, he seems to have given up complex, linear, classically-inspired construction for simple, incredibly catchy, poppy melodies and, instead of foward, built up up up! Think of the best four-chords you've ever heard and imagine them swallowing you up in a swirl of oranges and trees and sea and sand and surf and waiters, and you have an idea of what this album is like. The lyrics accurately create an amazing world for you to sink in, the spoken word adds not detracts from the album, and with the music, Brian Wilson has thrown out the complexity of SMiLE and substituted a wholeness for it.

Every song is a love letter to California, a celebration of Brian Wilson's ideal of California, and though it can sound a little forced at times, the joy that permeates every note is a welcome breath of fresh air. It's all so positive and happy and beautiful and... sublime. The way only Brian Wilson knows how.

Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun (Sharebee)

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