musings

• Losing Them All to This Time by A Shoreline Dream

• Combat Boots by Black Cab

• blood by Bloody Knives

• This Machine by The Dandy Warhols

For many years, the core of Ministry was the pair of Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker. After Barker left, Ministry became more and more metal, but Barker carried on in the industrial tradition with Flowering Blight. (And also in USSA with Duane Denison of The Jesus Lizard, but that’s, uh, not this.)

• The Perfect Pair by Flowering Blight

An hour of massive drone doom in a single track!

• Thaumogenesis by Nadja

• Ataraxia/Taraxis by Pelican

• Empros by Russian Circles

I love all things Spacemen 3, Sonic Boom, and Spiritualized. I even liked Songs in A&E, which nobody liked, but this isn’t an “only I will like it” album – it’s just an amazing album

• Sweet Heart Sweet Light by Spiritualized

Squarepusher albums are always either awesome dancey techno, or technically amazing but (to me) ultimately boring jazz bass affairs. This is a return to the awesome Squarepusher of old

• Ufabulum by Squarepusher

Swervedriver are back together, and touring, which is pretty awesome. I hope they get the recognition they’ve always deserved.

• Raise – US Extended Version by Swervedriver

• You’re Early by 2:54

For some reason I can’t explain I have an extra $25 balance in my account this month. I did just roll over to a new year’s subscription, so perhaps it’s a bonus? I don’t remember buying a booster pack. Regardless, I have a big whack of downloads for the month!

EBM goodness from Tom Shear:

• Compass (Deluxe) by Assemblage 23

Cevin Key doesn’t make things easy for the listener, and his Download project is probably the most inaccessible to the casual fan, even compared to the harshest of Skinny Puppy’s output, but I love it.

• FiXeR by Download

I’ve long been a fan of Grouper, so when I saw a bunch of new material on EMusic, I had to grab it all.

• Violet Replacement | Pt.1: Rolling Gate by Grouper

• Violet Replacement | Pt. 2: SLEEP by Grouper

• Water People by Grouper

• Wide by Grouper

This one is a reissue of a split release between Grouper and Inca Ore:

• Split by Grouper E Inca Ore

This was recommended by EMusic, so I gave it a try:

• A Balloon Called Moaning by The Joy Formidable

Ever since I first heard Miranda Sex Garden, I’ve had a mad music-crush on Katharine Blake. Originally a Miranda Sex Garden side-project, Mediaeval Baebes has become Katharine Blake’s full-time project. Wonderful!

• Mirabilis by Mediaeval Baebes

I discovered Nadja thanks to the amazing internet radio station and blog Strangeways Radio, as part of their shoegaze spotlight series. An absolutely awe-inspiring blend of shoegaze and drone metal, I had to grab everything I could find on EMusic. Also worth buying is their cover album, When I See the Sun Always Shines On TV, particularly for the mind-blowing Long Dark Twenties, a re-imagining of a Paul Bellini (Kids in the Hall) song from the Brain Candy soundtrack.

• Belles Betes by Nadja

• Desire in Uneasiness by Nadja

• Numbness by Nadja

• Radiance of Shadows by Nadja

• Touched by Nadja

A couple of months ago I downloaded Creatures of an Hour by Still Corners ; I was so impressed, I had to return for the rest.

• Don’t Fall In Love / Wish 7-inch by Still Corners

• Remember Pepper? by Still Corners

World’s End Girlfriend makes haunting, disturbing, and ultimately beautiful music.

• Ending Story by World’s End Girlfriend

• Hurtbreak Wonderland by World’s End Girlfriend

• Seven Idiots by World’s End Girlfriend

• Through Small Windows by Alsace Lorraine

• Come Hell or High Water by The Flowers of Hell

• Groove Immersion by Steve Roach

• Ghostory by School of Seven Bells

• Succour by Seefeel

• Taking the Stage Live (1997-2005) by Sky Cries Mary

• Kill the Child by Swans

• Mezcal Head – US Extended Version by Swervedriver

• You Win Again, Gravity! by Vitesse

• Onwards to the Wall by A Place To Bury Strangers

• Remnants of a Deeper Purity by Black Tape For a Blue Girl

• Oceanside:1991-1993 by deardarkhead

• Snuggle Bunnies by Elika

• Third Transmission by Experimental Aircraft

• The Fauns by The Fauns

• Pigs of the Roman Empire by The Melvins + Lustmord

• The Horror by Pop.1280

• Waiting For The Rain To Fall by Under Electric Light

• Crush by Astrobrite

• Call Signs by Black Cab

• Stars Out by broaddaylight

• Disorientation by Deep Cut

• Purple Bloom by Purple Bloom

• Colour Trip by Ringo Deathstarr

• Hover by The Sleepover Disaster

• Creatures of an Hour by Still Corners

• Northern Sky by 93 Million Miles From the Sun

• Dédale by Aiboforcen

• APOK by iVardensphere

• Gravity the Seducer by Ladytron

• Somnific Flux by M.J. Harris and Bill Laswell

• Sheath by LFO

• Like A Slow River by Lull

• 3-D by SPC-ECO

• Big Fat World EP by SPC-ECO

• Psychic Life by Jah Wobble & Julie Campbell

• Years in the Darkness by Arkaea

• Bodycode by Diffuzion

• E.P. by drowner

• Treny by Jacaszek

• Common Burn by Mazzy Star

• Lay Myself Down by Mazzy Star

• Do With Me What You Want by Mona Mur / En Esch

• Chao Organica in A Minor by Soriah

• Ofrendas de Luz a Los Muertos by Soriah

• Eztica by Soriah with Ashkelon Sain

• Automatic by VNV Nation

• Back From The Dead by Zombie Girl

• Only in Dreams by Dum Dum Girls

• beyond within and so on by iszoloscope

• Les Gorges Des Limbes by iszoloscope

• How to Enslist in a Robot Uprising by memmaker

• A Perfect Solution (Deluxe) by Mesh

• Erection Body Mutilated by Obszön Geschöpf

• Atlan by Soriah with Ashkelon Sain

• Conatus by Zola Jesus

There are more than 90 tracks this month, because EMusic did a giveaway on twitter, and I found a free album too.

• Mother Ignorance by Army of the Universe

• Animal by Autokratz

• Shades of Grey by Autumn’s Grey Solace

• A Bureaucratic Desire for Extra Capsular Extraction by Earth

• The Complicated Futility of Ignorance by Fudge Tunnel

• Live at Floristree, 1.26.08 by Growing

• Akasha by Isobella

• A.M. by Magnetic Morning

• Death Threat by My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult

• Faults by Seefeel

• Seven Tales of the North Wind by Rhian Sheehan

• Fourteen Summers and Fifteen Winters by The Twilight Sad

• Tertia by Caspian

• Feindflug (Vierte Version) by Feindflug

• Occult Radiance by Fleeting Joys

• Ascension by Jesu

• Blackest Beat by IS/IS

• Dreamweb by mind.in.a.box

• Neurosis & Jarboe by Neurosis & Jarboe

• Turning Point by Prospero

• Shapeshifting by Young Galaxy