Alternative & Indie thread rapidshare

exy · Advanced

The Replacements - Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of The Replacements (2006)

Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? is a compilation album from both the Replacements Twin/Tone and Sire years. "Message to the Boys" and "Pool and Dive" were recorded specifically for this album by the remaining members of the original line-up. Josh Freese was the session drummer for these tracks and Chris Mars simply sang backing vocals.

* Tracks 1 and 2 from Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash
* Track 3 from Stink E.P.
* Tracks 4 and 5 from Hootenanny
* Tracks 6-8 from Let it Be
* Tracks 9-12 from Tim
* Tracks 13-15 from Pleased to Meet Me
* Tracks 16 and 17 from Don't Tell a Soul
* Track 18 from All Shook Down
* Tracks 19 and 20 are previously unreleased.

Track listing:
1. "Takin' a Ride" – 2:23
2. "Shiftless When Idle" – 2:18
3. "Kids Don't Follow" – 2:50
4. "Color Me Impressed" - 2:27
5. "Within Your Reach" - 4:25
6. "I Will Dare" - 3:19
7. "Answering Machine" - 3:40
8. "Unsatisfied" - 4:02
9. "Here Comes a Regular" - 4:49
10. "Kiss Me On The Bus" - 2:54
11. "Bastards of Young" - 3:37
12. "Left of the Dial" - 3:43
13. "Alex Chilton" - 3:13
14. "Skyway" - 2:05
15. "Can't Hardly Wait" - 3:04
16. "Achin' To Be" - 3:41
17. "I'll Be You" - 3:29
18. "Merry Go Round" - 3:40
19. "Message to the Boys" (Previously Unreleased) - 3:27
20. "Pool and Dive" (Previously Unreleased) - 2:07

Download mp3 192kpbs:

exy · Advanced

Butthole Surfers - Piouhgd (1991)
Alternative Rock, Psychedelic Rock | mp3 256kpbs | 96MB | 3% recovery inf.

Piouhgd features Hurdy Gurdy Man, a single that found its way on to MTV. Need we remind you that the Butthole Surfers catalogue continues to generate fascination, interest, and puzzlement from past and current generations? Upon its initial release in 1991, Rough Trade claimed that the Piouhgd album was pronounced pee-owed (as in the euphemism for p*ssed off) and that it also meant i told you in the Navajo. This explanation, as well as the spelling, were fabricated by the label unbeknownst to the band; the album title was intended to be unpronounceable.

Shifting to Rough Trade shortly before that troubled label ceased American operations, the Surfers found themselves at something of a crossroads with Pioughd. By this time the 'legend' of the Surfers was taking more precedence than the music itself, resulting in a slightly half-hearted. However, Pioughd included, following its appearance on a single, of their cover of Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man." Played live for a number of years beforehand, it's a great take, Haynes' appropriately trippy vocals floating across a fairly straightforward but still powerful run-through of the music. The group's semi-Black Sabbath obsession reappears with a brief squaller called "No, I'm Iron Man," while "Something" is performed as a hilarious Jesus and Mary Chain parody (bizarrely enough a version of that song was first recorded as a demo in 1983). But aside from the lengthy "P.S.Y.," and the CD-only noise collage "Barking Dogs," Pioughd approaches Surfers-by-numbers -- loopy Haynes vocals and squawks, heavy-duty crunt and guitar grunge from Leary and steady rhythm'n'beats from Pinkus and Coffey. It's fun, but not as engaging as their earlier releases. Rembrandt Pussyhorse and Hairway to Steven's variety isn't apparent, unless you count the country pisstake "Lonesome Bulldog," though it's redone four different times throughout the album -- a sign the band was stretching to fill up the album. As a result, Pioughd's best memories come not from songs but moments in them, as when halfway through "Revolution Part 2" the whole band starts chanting "Garry Shandling" for no particular reason and keeps it up for the remainder of the song's length.

Download mp3 256kpbs:
http://rapidshare.com/files/199831107/BS-P.rar

exy · Advanced

The Birthday Party - Hee-Haw (1988)
Separate FLAC - 275MB | mp3 VBR~245kpbs - 73,5MB | 3% recovery inf.
Post-Punk, Noise, Goth Rock

The Birthday Party were one of the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s, creating bleak and noisy soundscapes that provided the perfect setting for vocalist Nick Cave's difficult, disturbing stories of religion, violence, and perversity.
There are 13 tracks on the CD. Five songs have been taken from the original 1979 Hee haw EP, five songs from the bands first two 7" EP's and the final three songs from the bands Australian LP aptly named 'The Birthday Party'.
The initial tracks on Hee-Haw come from two of their earliest proper Birthday Party singles, "Mr. Clarinet" and "The Friend Catcher." Three other tracks included on the 1980 self-titled American-only compilation, the squealing sax and raunch of "Hats on Wrong," the slightly more straightforward punch and thrash of "Guilt Parade," and "Riddle House," surface as well. All showcase the violent, thrashing energy of the Party of legend perfectly; even the organ on "Mr. Clarinet" sounds like it's being strangled as much as being played. Cave may be in utterly hyperdramatic mode throughout, spitting out barks on "Happy Birthday" and braying out the title call on the slow, brilliant burn of "The Friend Catcher," but the band aren't holding back either; Howard's spindly, aggro guitar work complements Calvert's drum punch nicely, balancing nerves and body slam, while Pew and Harvey flesh out everything else in the same spirit. Things aren't quite on the level of sheer sonic pain of later releases, but with the help of engineer Tony Cohen, who brings out the overall performances well, the fivesome is already well on its curious way. The last five songs come from the original Hee-Haw EP, which was also the final Boys Next Door release. While not quite as frazzled as what the group would soon fully mutate into, the tracks do have a more pushing, discordant air than the earlier Boys tracks, Cave still hesitant at points but starting to let go a bit elsewhere. "Faint Heart" has a great breakdown into random vocal mumblings and instrumental nuttiness, especially on piano, while "The Hair Shirt" especially is already the Birthday Party in anything but name.

Tracks:
1. Mr. Clarinet
2. Happy Birthday
3. Hats on Wrong
4. Guilt Parade
5. Friend Catcher
6. Waving My Arms
7. Catman
8. Riddle House
9. Catholic Skin
10. Red Clock
11. Faint Heart
12. Death by Drowning
13. Hair Shirt

Download mp3 VBR:
http://rapidshare.com/files/201010750/BP-HHmp3.rar

Download FLAC:
http://rapidshare.com/files/200838146/BP-HHflac.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/200946943/BP-HHflac.part2.rar

exy · Advanced

Dreamend - Maybe We're Making God Sad And Lonely (2005)
Shoegaze, Indie Rock, Dream Pop | mp3 192kpbs | 50MB

Dreamend is a Chicago-based shoegazer musical group signed to Graveface Records, whose music is characterized by textured guitar work and prominent drums and percussion. Song styles range from post-rock to bluegrass.
From the opening guitar strums of Dreamend's 2005 release Maybe We're Making God Sad and Lonely, it's readily apparent that these musicians have graduated cum laude from the Greater North American Academy of Post-Rock. It seems they've absorbed their course information well, and have capably regurgitated it for the purpose of passing their exams, but are still a long way from drawing up the personal thesis necessary for post-graduate study. It's obvious they've thoroughly researched all the masters: the trilling and chiming delayed single-string guitar lines that build to inevitable overdriven crescendo of Explosions in the Sky and Mono, the patient moments of near silence that are lulling yet disquieting of Sigur Rós and A Silver Mt. Zion, the snippets of found dialog backed by ominous dronescape of Godspeed You Black Emperor!. They've even appropriated the frustratingly gorgeous hand-constructed cardboard packaging of the Constellation and Alien8 Records ethos. Their most distinctive moments are those of actual vocalizing beyond the expanse of their instrumentals where they call to mind similar moments from Yume Bitsu. The music has that tranquil-bliss-to-apocalyptic-climax-and-back-again formula down pat, from the elegiac beauty of "A Place in Thy Memory" and "Can't Take You (Dif)," to the spoken word mood pieces of "In Her Little Bed We Lay Her" and "Mary Cogswell & Fred Vaillancourt," to the evocative travelogues of "Iceland" (again, referencing Sigur Rós?) and "New Zealand." Which sums up this release, at six songs and 35 minutes really more of an EP in the overlong-playing world of post-rock. While a great sounding record with moments of near brilliance, Maybe We're Making God Sad and Lonely is little more than a simulacrum of Dreamend's influences/contemporaries, and it remains to be seen if they will find a unique voice.

1. "A Place in Thy Memory" – 8:47
2. "In Her Little Bed We Lay Her" – 5:02
3. "Can't Take You (Dif)" – 4:10
4. "Iceland" – 5:21
5. "Mary Cogswell & Fred Vaillancourt" – 1:39
6. "New Zealand" – 10:02

DOWNLOAD:
http://rapidshare.com/files/203350958/Dreamend_-_Maybe_We_27re_Making_God_Sad_And_Lonely__282005_2C_Graveface_Records_2C_50MB_29.rar

exy · Advanced

Pixies - Acoustic (Live in Newport) [2006]
mp3 | 192kpbs | 73:43 min. | Alternative Rock

Combining jagged, roaring guitars and stop-start dynamics with melodic pop hooks, intertwining male-female harmonies and evocative, cryptic lyrics, the Pixies were one of the most influential American alternative rock bands of the late '80s. Frank Black, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering step up to the stage of Newport, Rhode Island's Atlantic to offer acoustic versions of 21 classic Pixies tunes in this concert captured live in August of 2005.

1. Bone Machine
2. Cactus
3. Ed is Dead
4. All Around the World
5. Subbacultcha
6. Monkey Gone to Heaven
7. Is She Weird
8. Here Comes Your Man
9. River Euphrates
10. Velouria
11. Wave of Mutilation
12. I Bleed
13. Crackity Jones
14. Gouge Away
15. Hey
16. The Holiday Song
17. Nimrod’s Song
18. Mr. Grieves
19. Caribou
20. Where is My Mind?
21. Gigantic

DOWNLOAD:
http://rapidshare.com/files/205362395/Pixies_Acoustic.zip

exy · Advanced

Dinosaur Jr. - Ear Bleeding Country: The Best of Dinosaur Jr. (2001)
Alternative Rock, American Underground | mp3 | 160kpbs | 85.65 MB | 75:27 min.

Dinosaur Jr. were largely responsible for returning lead guitar to indie rock and, along with their peers the Pixies, they injected late-'80s alternative rock with monumental levels of pure guitar noise. As the group's career progressed, it turned into a vehicle for J Mascis' songwriting and playing, which had the ultimate result of turning Dinosaur's albums into largely similar affairs. Over time, Mascis shed his hardcore punk roots and revealed himself to be a disciple of Neil Young, crafting simple songs that were delivered at a crushing volume and spiked with shards of feedback.

Track Listings
1. Repulsion
2. Little Fury Things
3. In a Jar
4. Freak Scene
5. Budge
6. Just Like Heaven
7. The Wagon
8. Thumb
9. Whatever's Cool With Me
10. Not You Again
11. Out There
12. Start Choppin
13. Get Me
14. Feel the Pain
15. I Don't Think So
16. Take a Run at the Sun
17. Nothin's Goin' On
18. I'm Insane
19. Where'd You Go

DOWNLOAD:
http://rapidshare.com/files/205202450/Ear-Bleeding_Country_Best_Of_Dinosaur_Jr.zip

exy · Advanced

The Breeders - Pod (1990)
Alternative Rock, Indie Rock | FLAC | 173MB | 29:20 min. | 3% recovery inf.

One of alternative rock's most promising -- and frustrating -- bands, the Breeders were conceived initially as a way for Pixies bassist Kim Deal and Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donelly to let out some SPAMessed creative energy and to take a break from being the second bananas in each of their main bands.
On their 1990 debut album Pod, the Breeders prove that they have more potential, and more fun, than the average side project. In fact, thanks to the album's creative songwriting, immediate production (courtesy of Surfer Rosa producer Steve Albini), and clever arrangements, Pod is a fresher and more successful work than the Pixies' Bossanova and the Muses' Hunkpapa, their main projects' releases from around that time.
Producer Steve Albini has stated that it is the one album on which he felt he got both the best sound for a band, and the best performance from a band. It has been credited by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain as being one of the most influential albums of his life. According to Cobain, "it’s an epic that will never let you forget your ex-girlfriend.

All tracks were written by Kim Deal, except where noted.

1. "Glorious" (Deal, Halliday) – 3:23
2. "Doe" (Deal, Halliday) – 2:06
3. "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" (Lennon/McCartney) – 2:46
4. "Oh!" – 2:27
5. "Hellbound" – 2:21
6. "When I Was a Painter" – 3:24
7. "Fortunately Gone" – 1:44
8. "Iris" – 3:29
9. "Opened" – 2:28
10. "Only in 3's" (Deal, Donnelly) – 1:56
11. "Lime House" – 1:45
12. "Metal Man" (Deal, Wiggs) – 2:46

All tracks accurately ripped with Exact Audio Copy V0.99

http://rapidshare.com/files/202143310/TB-Pflac.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/202223551/TB-Pflac.part2.rar

exy · Advanced

The Birthday Party - Prayers on Fire (1981)
Post-Punk | FLAC (sep. tracks) | 259MB | 3% recovery inf.

It should come as no SPAMise that there is an album in Nick Cave's oeuvre called Prayers on Fire; a fascination with the dark, (self-)destructive side of religion is more than evident in his later work with the Bad Seeds.
Nick Cave is widely acknowledged as one of our most mature songwriting talents these days, but there was a time when heseemed to be the most unhinged soul in Christendom. The Birthday Party's performances, whether in the studio or on stage, were always compelling, and they left behind no more powerful document than this shattering record. PRAYERS ON FIRE, an intense, disquieting effort, was their first international release after relocating to London from Australia. While the violence of the group's urban rockabilly rumbles underneath, often to no obvious linear structure, Cave's lyrics are informed, acute, but utterly unyielding and savage. Check the no-compromise ferocity of "Nick The Stripper" and "King Ink", still among his best songs.

Tracks:
1.Zoo-Music Girl
2.Cry
3.Capers
4.Nick the Stripper
5.Ho-Ho
6.Figure of Fun
7.King Ink
8.Dead Song, A
9.Yard
10.Dull Day
11.Just You and Me
12.Blundertown
13.Kathy's Kisses

Download FLAC:
http://rapidshare.com/files/201141979/BP-PoF_flac.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/201397057/BP-PoF_flac.part2.rar

exy · Advanced

Throwing Muses -The Real Ramona (1991)
College Rock, Alternative Rock | FLAC | 246MB | 40:10 min. | 3% recovery inf.

The Real Ramona marked the perfect balance of Throwing Muses' angular songwriting and latent pop tendencies.
Where Hunkpapa tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to mix these elements, this album succeeds with surreal pop songs like "Counting Backwards" and "Red Shoes." They're catchy and riveting, clearly linked to the band's early material yet more focused and accessible. "Graffiti" and "Two-Step" are two of Kristin Hersh's most appealing pop snippets, but dark, uncompromising tracks like "Say Goodbye," "Ellen West," and "Hook in Her Head" reaffirm that she can still write troubling, fascinating songs like nobody else. And just before she left the Muses to form Belly, Tanya Donelly finally arrived as a full-fledged songwriter with the giddy, gleeful "Not Too Soon" and "Honeychain," proving that she could be a charming foil to Hersh's more challenging style. Their final album as a quartet, The Real Ramona highlights the best points of the group's sound, making it a great starting point for new Throwing Muses fans.

1. "Counting Backwards" – 3:15
2. "Him Dancing" – 1:10
3. "Red Shoes" – 3:33
4. "Graffiti" – 2:37
5. "Golden Thing" – 2:25
6. "Ellen West" – 2:49
7. "Dylan" – 1:40
8. "Hook in Her Head" – 6:32
9. "Not Too Soon" – 3:09
10. "Honeychain" – 4:24
11. "Say Goodbye" – 3:54
12. "Two Step" – 4:34

All tracks accurately ripped with Exact Audio Copy V0.99

Download FLAC:
http://rapidshare.com/files/202838427/TM-TRRflac.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/202959909/TM-TRRflac.part2.rar

exy · Advanced

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky (2007)
separate FLAC | 322MB | total time 53:48

In 1999, Wilco willingly abdicated their position as one of the leading acts in the alt-country movement to dive head-first into the challenging waters of experimental pop with their album Summerteeth, and moved even further away from their rootsy origins with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, winning the group a new and enthusiastic audience along the way. So it might amuse a number of the band's earlier fans that in many respects Wilco's sixth studio album, Sky Blue Sky, sounds like the long-awaited follow-up to 1996's Being There -- while it lacks the ramshackle shape-shifting and broad twang of that earlier album, Sky Blue Sky represents a shift back to an organic sound and approach that suggests the influence of Neil Young's Harvest and the more polished avenues of '70s soft rock. Sky Blue Sky also marks Wilco's first studio recordings since Nels Cline and Pat Sansone joined the group, and they certainly make their presence felt -- with Cline, Wilco has its strongest guitarist to date, and while his interplay with Sansone on numbers like "Impossible Germany" and "Walken" lacks the skronky muscle of his more avant-garde work of the past, it's never less than inspired and he works real wonders with Jeff Tweedy's lovely melodies. Sansone's keyboard work also shines, adding soulful accents to "Side with the Seeds" and Mellotron on "Leave Me (Like You Found Me)," as does Mikael Jorgensen's piano and organ, and overall this is Wilco's strongest album as an ensemble to date. Tweedy's vocals boast a clarity and nuance that reveals he's grown in confidence and skill as a singer, and the songs recall Summerteeth's beautiful but unsettling mix of lovely tunes and lyrics that focus on troubled souls and crumbling relationships. Between the pensive "Be Patient with Me," the lovelorn "Hate It Here," and "On and On and On"'s pledge that "we'll stay together" squared off against the resignation of "Please don't cry/We're designed to die," Sky Blue Sky isn't afraid to go to the dark places, but Tweedy and his bandmates also find plenty of beauty, inspiration, and real joy along the way, and the album's open, natural sound is an ideal match for the material. Sky Blue Sky may find Wilco dipping their toes into roots rock again, but this doesn't feel like a step back so much as another fresh path for one of America's most consistently interesting bands.

1. Either Way — 3:07
2. You Are My Face — 4:38
3. Impossible Germany — 5:58
4. Sky Blue Sky — 3:23
5. Side With the Seeds — 4:16
6. Shake It Off — 5:42
7. Please Be Patient With Me — 3:19
8. Hate It Here — 4:33
9. Leave Me (Like You Found Me) — 4:10
10. Walken — 4:27
11. What Light — 3:35
12. On and On and On — 6:33

Download FLAC:
http://rapidshare.com/files/208539655/WSkBlSk07.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/208539458/WSkBlSk07.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/208537145/WSkBlSk07.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/208537477/WSkBlSk07.part4.rar

exy · Advanced

Morphine - Best of 1992-1995 (2003)

mp3 256kpbs | 103MB | 57:23 min.
Morphine is a rarity -- bluesy, bare-bones rock & roll without any guitars. Instead of guitar riffs, the trio relies on sliding two-string basslines, raucous saxophones, and wry, ironically detached vocals. During the mid-'90s, Morphine gained a sizable cult following in America, primarily due to good word of mouth, heavy college airplay, and positive reviews.
The Best of Morphine, 1992-1995 chronicles the bands first four albums: Good, Cure For Pain, Yes, and B-sides and Otherwise, and includes two previously unreleased tracks: “Pretty Face”, a dark atmospheric ballad recorded live in one take at Morphine’s studio in Cambridge, MA, and “Jack And Tina”, described by Morphine drummer Billy Conway as “the most beautiful bridge Mark Sandman ever wrote.” All of them are in the sultry jazz-noir-blues-rock typical of the band's output, with "Jack and Tina" rumbling along for eight-and-a-half minutes.

Morphine was formed in 1990 by bassist/vocalist Mark Sandman, who had previously played with the bluesy alternative rock band Treat Her Right, and Dana Colley (tenor and baritone saxophone), a former member of the local Boston group Three Colors. Sandman and Colley added drummer Jerome Dupree to complete the lineup. The group released its debut album, Good, on the independent Accurate/Distortion label in 1991; it was reissued on Rykodisc Records in 1992. Good received substantial airplay on American college radio stations, as well as favorable reviews in alternative publications across the country. After the release of Good, Dupree left the band and was replaced by Billy Conway, who had previously played with Sandman in Treat Her Right.
The positive reception to Good set the stage for 1993's Cure for Pain, which received good reviews from a variety of music and mainstream publications upon its spring release. Morphine supported Cure for Pain with an extensive American and European tour that lasted throughout 1994, which helped the album sell over 300,000 copies -- an impressive feat for an independent release. In 1995, Morphine released their third album, Yes, which also received favorable reviews and helped the band sustain its large cult following.
The success of Cure for Pain and Yes also attracted the attention of major record labels, and in late 1996, Dreamworks bought out the majority share of Morphine's contract from Rykodisc. Like Swimming, the group's debut for Dreamworks, was released in the spring of 1997 to generally favorable reviews, yet it failed to break Morphine out of cult status. On July 3, 1999, Sandman collapsed on-stage during a performance in Rome, dying of a heart attack at the age of 47. The Night was posthumously issued early the following year and the live disc Bootleg Detroit appeared in fall 2000.

Track listing:
# "Buena" (from Cure For Pain)
# "Honey White" (from Yes)
# "You Speak My Language" (from Good)
# "Cure For Pain" (from Cure For Pain)
# "Candy" (from Cure For Pain)
# "Have A Lucky Day" (from Good)
# "I'm Free Now" (from Cure For Pain)
# "Thursday" (from Cure For Pain)
# "Super Sex" (from Yes)
# "Whisper" (from Yes)
# "Radar" (from Yes)
# "You Look Like Rain" (from Good)
# "Jack And Tina" (previously unreleased)
# "Pretty Face" (previously unreleased)
# "Shame" (from B-sides and Otherwise)

DOWNLOAD mp3 256kpbs:
http://rapidshare.com/files/209706636/MBOM1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/209706515/MBOM2.rar

exy · Advanced

Camera Obscura - Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi (2002)
Indie Pop | mp3 192kpbs | 47:48 min. | 63MB

You really can't discuss Camera Obscura without mentioning Belle & Sebastian. That group's Stuart Murdoch produces Camera Obscura's debut, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi; both groups hail from the part of Scotland where Felt, Donovan, the Pastels, and Heavenly are gods; and they both write smart, sweet indie pop songs with hearts on sleeve and tears on eyelash. Stop right there if you are thinking that Camera Obscura is a copyist, though. Stop and listen, because there is much to love about the band. First off are Tracyanne Campbell's remarkably sweet and rich vocals; she sings most of the leads (though John Henderson chimes in on leads and harmonies time to time) and has the kind of voice that will melt anyone who had a thing for Tracey Thorn. The songs are hooky and simple, based on classic indie pop chord changes and lovingly spiced with all sorts of sonic candy like chirping horns, gentle organ fills, handclaps, twangy-guitar solos, and swooning strings. The girl group-inspired "Eighties Fan" is undoubtedly the highlight, but almost any other tune would fit in swimmingly on an indie pop highlights mixtape. In fact, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi makes a strong case for Camera Obscura as one of the best indie pop bands to come down the pike since, well, Belle & Sebastian.

exy · Advanced

Green on Red - Valley Fever: Live in Tucson 2005
mp3 320kpbs | 174MB | 82:26 min.

"Downwardly mobile ambitions"--that's how writer Fred Mills described the music of Green On Red, the Southwestern band that became an underground sensation in Europe during the eighties. The band was among a handful of progenitors of the eclipsed "desert rock" sound, which blended elements of country with a frenetic, edgy guitar sound a la Neil Young. Starting in 1980, the band released eleven albums, toured relentlessly, and experienced immense burnout throughout a twelve year career which included its share of lineup changes, business squabbles and drug/alcohol addiction. Singer, guitarist, songwriter Dan Stuart could be the poster child for musicians stuck between cult status and overblown celebrity.
Valley Fever is a serendipitous document of a one-off reunion of the group paying tribute to drummer Alex MacNicol, who died in 2004.

DOWNLOAD mp3:
http://rapidshare.com/files/203980221/gor-latr05-01.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/204334124/gor-latr05-02.zip

exy · Advanced

Laika - Silver Apples Of The Moon (1995)
Indie electronic, Dream pop, Post-Rock/ Experimental | mp3 192kpbs | 61.7MB

Laika is a UK-based indie/experimental band founded in 1993 by ex-Moonshake members Margaret Fiedler and John Frenett, and producer/engineer Guy Fixsen. Musically the band could be described as electronica with dreamy female vocals. However, they also rely on a more organic approach to their songwriting with live drums and percussion, together with guitars and samples, creating a complexly-layered and polyrhythmic stew of beats and diverse analogue sounds that defy simple categorization.

Starting off with a clattering, noisy loop but soon settling down into calmer but no less fascinating waters, Silver Apples of the Moon makes for a great debut from the Laika collective, inventive, modern, and unafraid to take chances. Unlike many efforts from folks with a more rock-oriented background that took an electronic plunge, Silver Apples of the Moon sounds like both Fiedler and Fixsen have been working in that field for years, and with confidence at that. Certainly Fiedler's experience with Moonshake and Fixsen's production skills didn't hurt, but Laika is, in many ways, a leap into the beyond for both, slinky and dark, with an obsessive focus on rhythm and groove. Comparisons are hard to draw -- all the better for it, as it demonstrates the group's uniqueness -- but there's something of the pioneering post-punk/electro/funk spirit of the early '80s here (check out "44 Robbers," in particular), only for a later generation with a broader background palette. Kindred spirits might be early Seefeel or contemporaneous Tricky, but more for the sense of sonic adventure than specific sound. Breathy shared vocals from the two at points suggest easy listening grooves and erotic tension (it's actually appropriate that My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm O'Ciosoig worked on the arrangements), but Fiedler takes the lead most times, and very well at that. The outrageously playful "Marimba Song," which understandably lives up to its name with certain key samples, and the crisp, punchy strut of "Coming Down Glass," with a truly purring bassline, are just two highlights of many. For all the darker moods and Fiedler's breathy, attractively low-key singing, what comes across most from Silver Apples of the Moon is a sheer sense of joy, of playing with music and creating atmospheres at once lively and maybe just a touch melancholy.

Track Listings
1. Sugar Daddy
2. Marimba Song
3. Let Me Sleep
4. Itchy and Scratchy
5. Coming Down Glass
6. If You Miss
7. 44 Robbers
8. Red River
9. Honey in Heat
10. Thomas
11. Spider Happy Hour

DOWNLOAD mp3:
http://rapidshare.com/files/209703372/Laika1995SilverApplesOfTheMoon.rar

exy · Advanced

Laika - Sounds of the Satellites (1997)
Indie electronic, Dream pop, Post-Rock/ Experimental | mp3 192kpbs | 87MB

Like their namesake -- the dog rocketed into orbit by the Soviets renowned as the first living creature to exit the earth's atmosphere -- Laika travelled the spaceways, forging a distinct and wildly experimental fusion of hip-hop, jazz, electronica, dub and Krautrock without earthly precedent.

During the two years that passed between the release of Silver Apples of the Moon and its follow-up, Sounds of the Satellites, the dub, trip-hop and drum'n'bass sounds which made Laika so distinctive and original the first time out became commonplace; never given their proper due as pioneers of electronica anyway, their prospects for creating music of similar depth and invention appeared to grow dimmer and dimmer as time went on. Miraculously, Sounds of the Satellites is even better than its predecessor, a simultaneous expansion of the band's sonic palette and a brilliant refinement of their past innovations. The pivotal difference between Laika and other similarly inclined artists is their unparalleled sense of atmosphere: far removed from the pummeling insistence of groups like Prodigy or the Chemical Brothers, Laika also avoids the cinematic film-noir ambience of Portishead in favor of a subdued, dreamlike labyrinth of sound -- the album is, by turns, claustrophobic ("Breather"), sexy ("Almost Sleeping") and menacing ("Shut Off/Curl Up"). Rarely is electronic music so suggestive, so fluid, or so human; Sounds of the Satellites exists in its own orbit, so far ahead of its contemporaries as to be off of the map.

Tracklisting:
1. Prairie dog
2. Breather
3. Out of sight and Snowblind
4. Almost sleeping
5. Starry night
6. Bedbugs
7. Martinis on the moon
8. Poor Gal
9. Blood + bones (Moody mix)
10. Shut off/Curl up
11. Spooky Rhodes
12. Dirty feed + Giggles

DOWNLOAD:
http://rapidshare.com/files/209703475/Laika1997SoundsOfTheSatellites.rar