Tomita – Pictures at an Exhibition (1975)

Here’s two video previews of lighter songs with the full album for download below.  Take a moment to check the vids out (they’re only about a minute apiece.) The longer songs get pretty far out with the composition and effects Tomita uses.  I really can’t get enough of early Moog electronic music…especially pieces with a quirky Japanese twist.

Click here to download Pictures at an Exhibition from vinyl

Tracklist

A1   Promenade 1:30  
A2   The Gnome 3:12  
A3   Promenade 1:02  
A4   The Old Castle 5:18  
A5   Promenade 0:34  
A6   Tuileries 0:55  
A7   Bydlo 3:17  
A8   Promenade 1:00  
A9   Ballet Of The Chicks In Their Shells 1:05  
B1   The Two Jews 3:04  
B2   Limoges/ Catacombs 3:56  
B3   Cum Mortuis In Lingua Mortua 2:06  
B4   Baba Yaga (Hut On Fowls’ Legs) 3:50  
B5   Great Gate Of Kiev 6:14

Yellow Magic Orchestra – X Multiplies (1980)

Plant seeds of Devo, Talking Heads, Nintendo Entertainment System soundtracks, Dire Straights and the Beatles in a cabbage patch at the foot of Mt. Fuji.  Fertilize heavily with synthesized voices and ensure exposure to plenty of electronic sunshine.  Creepy Japanese mannequins will begin sprouting in 4 to 6 weeks. Pick after 8 weeks and apply butter as desired.

Click here to download the USA Version of X Multiplies

Tracklist

A1   Nice Age 3:55  
    Electric Guitar – Kenji Ohmura*
  Voice [Spoken Vocal] – Sandi*
  Written-By – Chris Mosdell , Yukihiro Takahashi
A2   Behind The Mask 3:35  
    Written-By – Chris Mosdell , Ryuichi Sakamoto , Yukihiro Takahashi
A3   Rydeen 4:26  
    Written-By – Yukihiro Takahashi
A4   Day Tripper 2:39  
    Electric Guitar – Makoto Ayukawa
  Written-By – John Lennon-Paul McCartney*
B1   Technopolis 4:15  
    Written-By – Ryuichi Sakamoto
B2   Multiplies 2:55  
    Written-By – Yellow Magic Orchestra
B3   Citizens Of Science 4:33  
    Backing Vocals – Sandi*
  Electric Guitar – Kenji Ohmura*
  Written-By – Chris Mosdell , Ryuichi Sakamoto
B4   Solid State Survior 3:55  
    Electric Guitar – Makoto Ayukawa
  Written-By – Chris Mosdell , Yukihiro Takahashi

Edward Elgar – The Dream of Gerontius (Decca OSA 1293) 1972

(The Dream of Gerontius) tells the story of a soul’s journey through death, and provides a meditation on the unseen world of Roman Catholic theology. Gerontius (a name derived from the Greek word geron, “old man”) is a devout Everyman. Elgar’s setting uses most of the text of the first part of the poem, which takes place on Earth, but omits many of the more meditative sections of the much longer, otherworldly second part, tightening the narrative flow.

In the first part, we hear Gerontius as a dying man of faith, by turns fearful and hopeful, but always confident. A group of friends (also called “assistants” in the text) joins him in prayer and meditation. He passes in peace, and a priest, with the assistants, sends him on his way with a valediction. In the second part, Gerontius, now referred to as “The Soul”, awakes in a place apparently without space or time, and becomes aware of the presence of his guardian angel, who expresses joy at the culmination of her task (Newman conceived the Angel as male, but Elgar gives the part to a female singer). After a long dialogue, they journey towards the judgment throne.

They safely pass a group of demons, and encounter choirs of angels, eternally praising God for His grace and forgiveness. The Angel of the Agony pleads with Jesus to spare the souls of the faithful. Finally Gerontius glimpses God and is judged in a single moment. The Guardian Angel lowers Gerontius into the soothing lake of Purgatory, with a final benediction and promise of a re-awakening to glory.

That there’s the synopsis of the The Dream of Gerontius as determined by Wikipedia.  It’s the last line of that which really gets to me: “the soothing lake of Purgatory.”  Ok, so I wasn’t raised Catholic but I’m pretty sure that purgatory isn’t all that soothing.  I mean just look at this artist’s rendition of these dead dudes chilling in that lake:

Yeah, those guys’ asses are on fire. Flames lickin’ everything the eye was not meant to see. So, it’s not really that health spa that Wikipedia makes it out to be. 

I was raised Mormon and instead of having Purgatory on our plate we had Spirit Prison. That’s right, it was actually called Spirit Prison. Like most other doctrine in the Mormon religion there wasn’t a good explanation of exactly what that meant. I always envisioned I was going to be locked up in some heavenly Super Jail because I lied to my mom about making the neighbor kid eat grass or something. How exactly does one lock up a spirit? Can’t they walk through walls and all that jazz? Do you get conjugal visitation rights? Do spirits bone? Do they have difficulty maintaining satisfying erections after 60 years in the slammer? So many questions left unanswered.

If we’re going to have to deal with a “soothing lake” until we’re cleansed of our earthly asshole tendencies it better look something like this:

Click here to download Disc 1

Click here to download Disc 2

Larry Wolff & The Streetbeaters – Breakdance (1984)

Breakdance Music Conductor is the least likely occupation for a guy named Larry. The list of jobs that preceed BMC on Larry’s Hardhat List include but are not limited to sandwich artist, trapeze constructor and savings and loan officer. So it goes without saying that Larry Wolff must have had a tough go at it getting this album pressed. Maybe that’s why I found it still sealed 25 years after its debut in the used record bin at St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Store in St. Bernard. 

The songs are so fun loving and catchy it’s really a shame they didn’t make it onto some kooky 80s movie soundtrack.  I could totally see Ralph Macchio poppin’ and lockin’ or maybe Moonwalkin’ to Boogie Bod during the arcade scene in Karate Kid. At least I think there was an arcade scene–is there an 80s movie that doesn’t include a gratuitous screen shot of Ms. Pac Man’s junk?  I mean this album is by Larry Wolff & The Streetbeaters.  Personally I cannot fathom a better artist name to be included on a soundtrack about kicking, punching and manwaxing.

Someone desperately needs to sample this for a new project or I just might keel over and die. I don’t want Larry’s trials and tribulations to have been for nothing.  LARRY WORKED TOO HARD DESTROYING MILK TOAST NAME ASSOCIATIONS, GOD DAMMIT!!!

Click here to download BREAKDANCE

Tracklist

A1   Break It Up 3:35  
A2   Boogie Bod 4:15  
A3   Cultural Eclipse 3:55  
A4   Space Case 3:40  
B1   Moonwalkin’ 4:05  
B2   Barrio Break 3:55  
B3   Real Good 5:00  
B4   Heavy Action 3:23

Francis Lai – A Man And A Woman (Un Homme Et Une Femme) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1966)

Ce disque te donnera un sentiment très sexy. Non seulement qu’il vous incitera à vouloir orner votre maison avec les modes les plus fines de tweed et de velours. Soyez averti : votre amoureux ne sera pas efficace après l’expérience des battements de succulent et d’offre de ce film. Il changera votre vie des manières terribles que vous ne pourriez pas probablement imaginer. Svp don’ ; cri de t, il rendra seulement des choses plus mauvaises. Recherchez juste par votre histoire et texte de téléphone le compagnon le plus attirant. Tout sera parfait.
Bon appetit.
8)
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Tracklist
A1   A Man And A Woman (Orch.) (“Un Homme Et Une Femme”) 2:40  
A2   Samba Saravah (Vocal) 4:30  
    Performer – Baden Powell And Orchestra
A3   Today It’s You (Vocal) (Aujourd ‘hui C’est Toi) 2:06  
A4   A Man And A Woman (Vocal) (“Un Homme Et Une Femme”) 2:37  
A5   Stronger Than Us (Orch.) (Plus Fort Que Nous) 3:15  
B1   Today It’s You (Orch.) (Aujourd ‘hui C’est Toi) 2:35  
B2   In Our Shadow (Vocal) (A L’ombre De Nous) 4:55  
B3   Stronger Than Us (Vocal) (Plus Fort Que Nous) 3:43  
B4   124 Miles An Hour (Orch.) (A 200 A L’heure) 2:30

Daft Punk – Daft Club vinyl (2003)

Daft Club was first introduced online shortly after the French duo dropped Discovery.  The songs were available for free download as a bonus for purchasing a legit copy of Discovery.  If you bought this you’ll remember opening up the CD case and finding a curious little Daft Card attached behind the plastic CD nipple thing. Initially the address on the front  just led to their fan page and not much else so it stayed dormant in my wallet for some time.

Luckily I kept checking back periodically and one day found the Daft Club MP3 collection unlocked by the individualized 16-digit number on the card’s face.  At first I was megapumped for a batch of free songs by my fav group but soon found out the horrible truth:  the sound quality was total shit.  I could never get into any of the new original songs or remixes because they literally hurt my ears.  I’m still dumbfounded that MP3s from one of the best produced groups on the globo were plagued with the terrible treble shimmer that dominated low bitrate rips throughout the dawn of the 21st century.

Flashforward to 2005.  I was flipping through the used bin at Everybody’s Records in Pleasant Ridge and what’s this?  Daft Club in all its square foot glory staring, maybe even giggling mischievously, at me in the midst of a slew of anonymous electronic records.  “What are you doing here little man?” I thought. 

How could this have happened?  At the time I didn’t even know that Daft Club had made it onto CD, let alone vinyl.  And second who would have let this gem fall into the grabby hands of the used bin?  Somebody fucked up hard.

Long story short, I got this baby home and an everlasting love flourished. We’ve been to several Fancytown Balls, taken several weekend trips down Frogtown Road, and shared endless pints of Rocky Road. I keep her secrets and she mine. 

But it might have never happened. I might have been forever stuck with her free floozy sister.  I can’t even imagine. Just the thought of those terrible MP3s puts a terrible ring-a-ling-dingin in my fragile ears.  Luckily baby’s medicine is just down below.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD DAFT CLUB

Tracklist

A1   Ouverture 2:40
A2   Aerodynamic (Daft Punk Remix) 6:11
A3   Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (The Neptunes Remix) 5:11 
         Remix – Neptunes, The
         Vocals – Daft Punk
         Written-By – E.Birdsong 
B1   Face To Face (Cosmo Vitelli Remix) 4:54  
         Producer – Daft Punk , Todd Edwards 
         Remix – Cosmo Vitelli
         Vocals – Todd Edwards
         Written-By – T. Imperatrice 
B2   Phoenix (Basement Jaxx Remix) 7:52  
         Remix – Basement Jaxx 
B3   Digital Love (Boris Dlugosh Remix) 7:29  
         Remix – Boris Dlugosch 
         Vocals – Daft Punk 
         Written-By – C. Sosa , G. Duke 
C1   Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Jess & Crabbe Remix) 5:58 
         Remix – Jess & Crabbe 
         Vocals – Daft Punk 
         Written-By – E.Birdsong 
C2   Face To Face (Demon Remix) 6:59  
         Producer – Daft Punk , Todd Edwards
         Remix – Demon
         Vocals – Todd Edwards
         Written-By – T. Imperatrice 
D1   Crescendolls (Laidback Luke Remix) 5:25  
         Remix – Laidback Luke 
D2   Aerodynamic (Slum Village Remix) 3:36  
         Remix – Slum Village 
D3   Too Long (Gonzales Version) 3:12  
         Producer – Gonzales
         Written-By – A. Moore

Daft Punk – Around The World (Virgin Records America Promotional 12″) 1996

In 8th grade Daft Punk hit the scene and turned my world upside down.  At the time  I was wading in a sea of shitty punk and ska bands at Hopewell Junior School; just barely keeping my head above the turdy foam threateninig to extinguish my angsty being.

Suddenly a lifeboat emerged on the horizon in the shape of Michel Gondry’s stupidly simple yet fantastically brilliant video for Around The World:

My 13-year-old “brain” didn’t know what I was seeing but loved it. The song and the video were such an enigma–how could such basic elements of sight and sound evoke this potent feeling of digital empowerment from deep within my pubescent belly?  I didn’t know then and to be honest I still don’t know now.  But it still gets my ass shake shake shakin none the less.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM

Tracklist

1. Around The World (Tee’s Frozen Sun Mix)

2. Around The World (I:Cube Remix)

3. Around The World (Album Version)

4. Around The World (Motorbass Vice Mix)

The Dead Milkmen – Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance To Anything) 1986

The Dead Milkmen are some goofy bastards but they do make a solid point in this album’s title track and its various dong-inspired remixes. If you want to dance then by all means throb that bod but don’t clog the floor with pussified pouty posing. You creeps know who you are. The feature artists lay it thick in the following lyrics:

Don’t try to tell me that you’re an intellectual
Cause you’re just another boring bisexual
“I met Andy Warhol at a really chic party”
Blow it out your hairdo ’cause you work at Hardees
80 pounds of make up on your art school skin
80 points of I.Q. located within

Know what you are? You’re a bunch of …
Artfags! Artfags! Artfags! Artfags!
Choke on this you dance-a-teria types!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM

Tracklust

1. Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance To Anything)(Hung Like A Horse Remix)

2. Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance To Anything)(Radio Edit)

3. Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance To Anything)(Boner Beats)

4. Ask Me To Dance

5. Tugena

6. Vince Lombardi Service Center

Voivod – The Lost Machine 12″ clear vinyl (1993)

This musical brew usually ain’t my cup of tea.  However, I know that the folks that dig this sort of thing particularly love rare releases.  So here you go, if you like Voivod or prog rock/thrash metal dig in.  I will say that the second track “Jack Luminous”, which clocks in at a staggering 17 minutes und 26 seconds, is by leaps and bounds and fox and hounds my favorite of the two.  Of course, this will be your favorite as well.

From what I’ve gathered this 12″ was released during a the band’s transition period when they were claymating their 80s metal days sound with the more progressive/alternative vibe that buttblasted the scene in the early 90s.  But I could be completely wrong: if there’s one thing I don’t really care to understand its genres or who begat who. 

Maybe that makes me musically retarded.  Well, baby, if I’m retarded I don’t want to be bright.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS ALBUM TO MP3

Disneyland Record – Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House (1964)

When I was a little kid my parents loved scaring the crap out of me.  The act would evoke the most devilish, unquenchable laughter together as man and wife.  It was as if a monstrous invisible feather furiously caressed their funny bones in unison.  All while I was huddled in a corner crying like a little bitch, frozen in mortal terror.

One of these particular events is why I will always remember this album.  I think  I was probably five because my brother was just old enough to carry his fro-topped bobblehead upright around the house.  Anyway, we were playing with Hot Wheels in our primary color-slathered bedroom on our Pac-Man rug when suddenly we heard bone-numbing shrieks coming the hallway.  We opened our bedroom door to find the house completely dark and empty except for the terrible cries.  We worked our way out into the split-level entryway through the darkness and I cried out, “MOM, DAD…WHERE ARE YOU?!?”  I stood locked in fear. 

Terrible thoughts ran through my mind:  They’d been kidnapped.  I was all alone.  Who would make my pancakes in the morning?

“BOO!!!!!!”

My parents snuck up on me and boxed my ears with the classic Halloween battle cry.  I contemplated shitting my pants but instead started bawling–boy did I ever cry.  And my parents just laaaughed and laaaughed with a knee slaps interjected for comedic effect.

Why would they do that?  To the both of us?  Well, my brother probably doesn’t remember, I’m pretty sure he was on autopilot until the age of 12, but I sure as hell do.  It was Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House that really chiseled it into my memory.  Maybe my parents didn’t read the disclaimer on the back of the record sleeve….

The Disneyland catalogue of children’s records is one of the finest in the world.  The primary audience for Children’s records is the age group from three to eight years.  Most of the records in the Disneyland catalogue are made specifically for that group although there are some whose appeal reaches into the early teens.  This particular Disneyland record, CHILLING, THRILLING, SOUNDS OF THE HAUNTED HOUSE is not intended for young, impressionable children from three to eight.  It is intended for older children, teenagers and adults.

Those bold and capitalized sections in that excerpt were done just so on the album sleeve.  Those words jump right out at you.  So, they probably knew exactly what they were doing when they put this on.  They knew I’d carry this baggage well into my twenties.  They knew.

What a couple of assholes.

Just kidding I love you mom!

8)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD CHILLING THRILLING SOUNDS ON MP3

8)

Tracklist

Side 1

1. The Haunted House

2. The Very Long Fuse

3. The Dogs

4. Timber

5. Your Pet Cat

6. Shipwreck

7. The Unsafe Bridge

8. Chinese Water Torture

9. The Birds

10. The Martian Monsters

Side 2

1. Screams and Groans

2. Thunder and Lightning and Rain

3. Cat Fight

4. Dogs

5. A Collection of Creaks

6. Fuses and Explosions

7. A Collection of Crashes

8. Birds

9. Drips and Splashes

10. Things in Space