Christmas Gift #1: The Darkness Ahead

Band: The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble

Album: Live - I Forsee The Dark Ahead, If I Stay

Origin: The Netherlands (Utrecht)

Genre: Jazz Noir, Experimental, Electronic, Ambient

Year: 2011

To make up for my absence (again), I'm going to do three days of Christmas gifts. Not that I really care much about the holidays, so regard these gifts as antidotes for the overdose of holiday happiness and everything that comes with it.

If you don't know The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, these are the basics. TDKE was founded by Jason Köhnen (Bong-Ra) and Gideon Kiers (Telcosystems) as a project to compose new music for existing silent movies (Nosferatu, Metropolis,...). It's a jazz band, but far from traditional, throwing in ambient and electronic music (calling it 'Mutant Jazz' themselves).

The band also has an alter ego in the form of The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation, which focuses more on improvisation, darker drones and of course jazz.

They offer this live record for free on their bandcamp page, in different formats.You'll find this record to be the perfect counterpoint to the busy days ahead. Enjoy!

"I Forsee the Dark Ahead, If I Stay' is the first TKDE live album. A compilation of 9 live tracks recorded during the period of 2006 to 2011, from shows in The Netherlands, Slovenia, Hungary, Spain and Poland.
The download contains a little album/photo pdf cover for your archive. 

The album is available as free download (in exchange for your email) or a donation of your choice. 

Enjoy the album! x TKDE"

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Live - I Foresee The Dark Ahead, If I Stay

God I love Autumn

Band: Various Artists

Album: Paradigms Recordings - Autumn Sampler 2011

Origin: Various

Genre: Electronic, Drone, Noise, Experimental, Black Metal, Jazz, Psychedelic Folk, Metal

Year: 2011

I stumbled upon this free label sampler without ever having heard about the label and only knowing one of the artists, Aidan Baker (Nadja), and I have to say, there is quite some awesome stuff to discover on this compilation. Paradigms describes itself as 'a boutique record label based in London, England specializing in exclusive mailorder editions from the esoteric music underground'.
If you like experimental music, then this is definitely worth checking out. Enjoy!

...To launch this Autumn's carefully curated selection of upcoming releases, we're very pleased to unveil a FREE download sampler compilation today featuring one exclusive track from each of our new and upcoming releases this season...(Label Description)

1) Rashomon - Jigora
2) IXTAR - Amulet
3) Kinit Her - Mosaic Of The Hyacinths
4) Tele.S.Therion with Wilderness Perversion[Mortuary Drape] - Grimoire XIII
5) Aidan Baker - Loop Study Six
6) Owlfood - End Of Distance
7) Yr Iliad - Grow In
8) A Sending Service - Toward It's Ideal
9) Iron Forest - Wintermute
10) Höhlenmusik Ensemble - Xibal
11) The Slaves - Angel
12) Heinali And Matt Finney - Tinderbox

Paradigms Recordings - Autumn Sampler 2011

Sabbath Sketches

Band: The Casualties Of Jazz

Album: Kind Of Black

Origin: U.S.A. (West Coast?)

Genre: Jazz

Year: 2004

I'm finally back and I decided to start with another jazz record. It contains 9 covers of Sabbath hits performed with drums, upright bass and a hammond organ. I can't find much information on it (I can tell you that it's very relaxing to listen to), but if you like jazz or Black Sabbath than you might enjoy this!

1) Fairies Wear Boots
2) Luke's Wall/War Pigs
3) Sweet Leaf
4) Wicked World
5) The Wizard
6) N.I.B.
7) Into The Void
8) Black Sabbath
9) Iron Man

Casualties Of Jazz - Kind Of Black

Schwarzer Sabbat Für Dean Martin

Band: Bohren & Der Club Of Gore/Wald

Album: Schwarzer Sabbat Für Dean Martin (Split EP)

Origin: Germany (Mülheim an der Ruhr)

Genre: Jazz Noir, Noise, Metal, Experimental

Year: 1995

My exams are almost over after which I promise to post more often. In the meanwhile some more Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. This is a split EP with Wald. I can't find much information on that artist except that it is a certain Mark Sikora who is a german videoclip director (Midnight Black Earth and Prowler For Bohren) and graphic designer (covers for Napalm death). He has six short tracks ranging from noisy metal outbursts to mesmerizing droning guitar loops. Bohren has only one track (as long as all of Wald's tracks combined), which sounds very different from their later output (mind you, this was only their second release as far as I know). It has more of a metal sound than a jazz vibe to it and it reminds me of Ennio Morricone or latter day Earth mixed with some doom. They seem to have had that very deep bass sound from their beginning though (I just love the contrabass). Enjoy!

Bohren & Der Club Of Gore/Wald - Schwarzer Sabbat Für Dean Martin

The Whole World Is About Three Drinks Behind.

Band: Bohren & Der Club Of Gore

Album: Mitleid Lady

Origin: Germany (Mülheim an der Ruhr)

Genre: Jazz Noir

Year: 2009

I actually always wanted this blog to be quite diverse in the music that it offers, but somehow I got stuck on stoner rock and the likes. So this is my first attempt to expand this blog a little bit and post music from the other genres that I enjoy (jazz, folk, electro, hip-hop, classical music, etc).

Bohren & Der Club Of Gore is a german jazz band that plays a crossover of jazz and ambient music. They describe their own sound as an “unholy ambient mixture of slow jazz ballads, Black Sabbath Doom and down tuned Autopsy sounds”. I have to say that I really love this band and I felt so lucky to be able to watch them perform at Roadburn last year. This is their contribution to the latitudes sessions:

"In the style of John Peel's legendary BBC-Sessions, Southern Records started with the Latitude-Series a similar project - a never-to be-repeated series of session recordings in a limited edition, recorded and mixed in one day in Southern's London Studios. The 10-minutes track Mitleid Lady is the contribution of Bohren & Der Club of Gore to this Latitude-Serie."

This is the kind of music you expect to hear in a movie starring Humphrey Bogart, perfect for a lonely night in a rainy city. Enjoy!

Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Mitleid Lady

The Pheasant Has No Agenda!

Band: Various Artists
Album: "Phoning It In" A Hydra Head Digital Sampler
Origin: Various
Genre: Experimental, Metal, Punk, Drone, Shoegaze, Jazz, Black Metal
Year: 2010

My first (real) post since my exams ended and I decided to start with this awesome compilation that I discovered a couple of days ago. As it's from Hydra Head records, it contains some of the forerunners in experimental and/or heavy music. To download this sampler you need to:
1) add it to your cart
2) check out
3) give an email address
4) download it
5) and Enjoy!  

This is what the label wrote about it:

Regardless of the fact I/we shouldn't need to convince the public to download this sampler because... well... sampler = free, I/we plan on doing a little persuading... Please refer to list of reason for checking out the sampler below:

1. Free Jams!
2. 22 Free Jams!
3. Contains Some Unreleased Jams For Free!
4. Free Photos of the Lovely HHR Staff Having a Laugh and an Ice Creams!

Ok, so that seems like enough convincing...

Tracklisting:
1. Oxbow + Philippe Thiphaine - "Coalking" From Songs for the French (5:46)
2. Daughters - "The First Supper" From "s/t" (3:18)
3. Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - "Unkerich" From Dolores (5:31)
4. Knut - "Calamity" From Wonder (1:43)
5. The Austerity Program - "Song 27" From Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn (4:04)
6. Pyramids With Nadja - "Another War" From Pyramids With Nadja (15:27)
7. Helms Alee - "Lionize" From Lionize/Truly 7" (2:45)
8. Hayaino Daisuki - "Ghosts of Purgatory" From The Invincible Gate Mind of the Infernal Fire Hell, or Did You Mean Hawaii Daisuki? (2:43)
9. Harvey Milk - "I Know This Is No Place For You" From A Small Turn of Human Kindness (5:07)
10. La Gritona - "Tony Alamo" From Demasiado Tonto Para Los Ninos Listos. Demasiado Listo Para Los Ninos Tontos (4:38)
11. Stephen Brodsky - "Here In Spirit" From Here's to the future (5:54)
12. Jodis - "Continents" From Secret House (7:27)
13. Nihill - "Mundus Subterreanus" From Krach (5:16)
14. Cave In - "Retina Sees Rewind" From Planets of Old (2:30)
15. Kayo Dot - "II. Whisper Ineffable" From Coyote (11:13)
16. Keelhaul - "THC for One" From Keelhaul's Triumphant Return to Obscurity (3:34)
17. Clouds - "New Bombs" From B Chuggas May Be Logging (2:08)
18. Xasthur - "UNTITLED 4/05" From 2005 Demo (7:02)
19. GridLink - "Amber Gray" From Amber Gray (1:06)
20. Greymachine - "Wasted" From Disconnected (8:43)
21. Bergraven - "Hunger" From Till Makabert Vasen (7:08)
22. Torche - "UFO" From Songs For Singles (2:01)

V/A - "Phoning It In" A Hydra Head Digital Sampler