Throbbing Gristle - Greatest Hits

Style: Industrial, Experimental.
Similar artists: Clock DVA, Psychic TV, Coil.
Recording year: Mute Records, 1990.

Throbbing Gristle and their front man Genesis P-orrrige have been creating and then confounding the pop culture dialectic since 1976. Genesis P-orridige not only invented industrial music but also founded the first independent record label to promote it. If you listen to bands such as Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, or KMFDM, you owe a hand of gratitude to Throbbing Gristle; they invented the genre.

Abrasive, aggressive, and antagonistic, Britain's Throbbing Gristle pioneered industrial music; exploring death, mutilation, fascism, and degradation amid a thunderous cacophony of mechanical noise, tape loops, extremist anti-melodies, and bludgeoning beats, the group's cultural terrorism -- the "wreckers of civilization," one tabloid called them -- raised the stakes of artistic confrontation to new heights, combating all notions of commerciality and good taste with a maniacal fervor.

Formed in London in the autumn of 1975, Throbbing Gristle consisted of vocalist/ringleader Genesis P-Orridge, his then-lover, guitarist Cosey Fanni Tutti, tape manipulator Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, and keyboardist Chris Carter. A performance art troupe as much as a band, their early live shows -- each starting with a punch clock and running exactly 60 minutes before the power to the stage was cut -- threatened obscenity laws; during their notorious premiere gig, P-Orridge even mounted an art exhibit consisting entirely of used tampons and soiled diapers.

From their first performances in 1976 to their last gig in San Francisco in 1981 (recorded and released as "Mission Of Dead Souls"), they challenged and threatend so-called "normal", society - denounced from the floor of the House of Commons as "Wreckers of Civilisation" as the Coum Transmissions "Prostitution" art show in London's ICA (at which TG played their third show) came close to causing riots and set the stage for the punk revolution.

Musically, they were extreme and uncompromising, using technology to make anti-music, which redefined music for all time. Their experimentation led them to pioneer sampling and looping techniques adopted by many of those who came after.

They split in 1981, with Genesis and Peter forming Psychic TV (and Peter later forming Coil) and Chris and Cosey becoming, well, Chris & Cosey. However, they came back together 23 years later in 2004 to plan an ill-fated weekend festival, which became a one-off recording session in London when the festival fell through, releasing a limited TGNOW album of the recordings.

Fields Of Haze... Underground for all.

Thelema - Tantra

Style: Goth Rock, Post Punk
Similar artists: Sisters Of Mercy, Panic on the Titanic, Madre del Vizio.
Recording year: Spittle Records, 1986.

The band was born in the most usual way in Modena, during the Winter of 1984 when Massimo Mantovani, formerly in Blousons Noirs, bass player Giorgio Parmigiani, formerly of Throbs of Pleasure and Gregorio Bardini, formerly in T.A.C., were one of the few true italian darkwave band of the 80s.

The first need was for a drummer, and they found Marco Bucciarelli. This first line-up wrote the first songs (The Golem, The Dance of the Witches, Sweet Pain, and the obvious covers of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Velvet Underground etc.). Influenced by the English dark-wave and post-punk of those times, they managed anyway to give their songs a personal bias, with a strong tribal mix of bass and drums which created a rhythm background for the guitar and keyboards tunes, all covered by vocals not always sung but often screamed. The live debut took place in november 1984 in Ostiglia (Mantova), where they played all of their set. They recorded their first demo titled The Golem and the fall of the dying gods with 5 songs and, on the b-side, a part of their first gig. In december 1984 they recorded their first single, released in the first months of 1985 by Sandro Bergamo’s Signal magazine. Reviews on specialized magazines were unanimously positive, and Thelema began a cospicuous live activity.

In 1985 Massimo and Gregorio also recorded a tape of ritual music titled Rosa+Croce, whose first 93 copies were numbered in gold. The positive live response brought them back in studio to record new songs.

Whilst these sessions were taking place Spittle Records got in touch with the band, and after a short hagging the band signed their first contract. Around october-november 1985 guitarist Davide Mussini joined the band, and Thelema recorded the songs which were to become their first album (Tantra, Spittle Records), released in the first months of 1986. This album, released with a ‘60s gatefold package, is still a collectors’ item.

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Everything But The Girl - Love Not Money

Style: Alternative Pop Rock.
Similar artists: The Sundays, Mono, Tori Amos.
Recording year: Sire, 1985.

Originating at the turn of the 1980s as a leader of the lite-jazz movement, Everything but the Girl became an unlikely success story more than a decade later, emerging at the vanguard of the fusion between pop and electronica. Founded in 1982 by Hull University students Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, the duo took their name from a sign placed in the window of a local furniture shop, which claimed "for your bedroom needs, we sell everything but the girl." At the time of their formation, both vocalist Thorn and songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Watt were already signed independently to the Cherry Red label; Thorn was a member of the sublime Marine Girls, while Watt had issued several solo singles and also collaborated with Robert Wyatt.

On their second album, Everything But the Girl took a more contemporary pop approach while retaining the spareness of their debut. They also upped the ante in their songwriting, tackling a range of issues from the Irish troubles to the troubles of movie star Frances Farmer, with lots of criticism of the stratification and sexism of the current social and economic system thrown in. Tracey Thorn's careworn voice proved an excellent vehicle for such essentially pessimistic sentiments, and even if Love Not Money made for a dour listening experience, it was nevertheless compelling. (The "special U.S. edition" of the album, released by Sire Records, differed from the Blanco Y Negro version from the U.K. in that it featured the pop-sounding "Heaven Help Me" and a cover of the Pretenders' "Kid." Neither enhanced the album's commercial appeal; it made the Top Ten back home, but did not chart Stateside.)

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Traffic - On the road

Style: Blues rock, Jazz rock.
Similar artists: Jefferson Airplane, Manfred's man, The Moody Blues.
Recording year: Island, 1973.

Though it ultimately must be considered an interim vehicle for singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist Steve Winwood, Traffic was a successful group that followed its own individual course through the rock music scene of the late '60s and early '70s. Beginning in the psychedelic year of 1967 and influenced by the Beatles, the band early on turned out eclectic pop singles in its native Great Britain, though by the end of its first year of existence it had developed a pop/rock hybrid tied to its unusual instrumentation: At a time when electric guitars ruled rock, Traffic emphasized Winwood's organ and the reed instruments played by Chris Wood, especially flute. After Dave Mason, who had provided the band with an alternate folk-pop sound, departed for good, Traffic leaned toward extended songs that gave its players room to improvise in a jazz-like manner, even as the rhythms maintained a rock structure. The result was international success that ended only when Winwood finally decided he was ready to strike out on his own.

Reportedly released as an effort to undercut bootleggers following a world tour, Traffic: On the Road was the band's second live album in three years. The album chronicled a late edition of the band in which original members Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Chris Wood were augmented not only by percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah, but also by a trio of session musicians from the famed Muscle Shoals studio, Roger Hawkins, David Hood, and Barry Beckett. The studio pros lent a tightness and proficiency to their characteristic free-form jams, and though they sometimes sounded like they couldn't wait to get the songs over with, the tunes went on and on, four clocking in at over ten minutes. That might have been okay if the choice of material had been more balanced across the band's career, but 1971's Welcome to the Canteen had treated earlier efforts, and the 1973 tour was promoting Shoot out at the Fantasy Factory, from which three of the six selections were drawn. Unfortunately, that album was not one of Traffic's best, and the live versions of its songs were no more impressive than the studio ones had been. Traffic: On the Road featured plenty of room for soloing by some good musicians, but it was the logical extreme of the band's forays into extended performance, with single tunes taking up entire sides on the original LPs. It's not surprising that, after this, Traffic shrunk in size and returned to shorter songs. [Though best known in its two-LP version, Traffic: On the Road was initially released in the U.S. as a single LP containing only four tracks.

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Dead Can Dance - Within the realm of a dying sun

Style: Modern Neoclassical, Neo Folk, Ambient.
Similar artists: Bel Canto, Cocteau Twins, Eden.
Recording year: 4AD, 1987.

With its two sides split between Perry and Gerrard's vocal efforts, Within the Realm of a Dying Sun serves as both a display for the ever more ambitious band and a chance for the two to individually demonstrate their awesome talents. Beginning with the portentous "Anywhere Out of the World," a piece that takes the deep atmospherics of "Enigma of the Absolute" to a higher level with mysterious, chiming bells, simple but effective keyboard bass and a sense of vast space, the album finds Dead Can Dance on a steady roll. Once again a range of assistant musicians provide even more elegance and power to the band's work, with a chamber string quartet plus various performers on horns, woodwind, and percussion. Impressive though the remainder of the first side is, Gerrard's showcase on the second half is even more enveloping and arguably more successful. The martial combination of drums and horns that start "Dawn of the Iconoclast" call to mind everything from Wagner to Laibach, but Gerrard's unearthly alto, at its most compelling here, elevates it even higher. "Cantara" is no less impressive, a swirling, drum-heavy song that sounds equally inspired by gypsy dancing, classical orchestras and any number of Arab musical traditions. "Summoning of the Muse" is perhaps too formal in comparison, though still quite impressive, but "Persephone" is the finer effort and a good way to close.

Fields Of Haze... Underground for all.

The Damned - Shut it!

Genere: Rock/Pop.
Style: Goth Rock, Punk.
Similar artists: The Strnglers, The Saints, Chelsea.
Recording year: Cleopatra, 1996.


Information about the group, click here:

http://fieldsofhaze.blogspot.com/2009/08/damned-phantasmagoria.html

Fields Of Haze... Underground for all.

Frank Zappa - Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Genere: Rock/Pop.
Style: Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock, Progressive Jazz.
Similar artists: Soul Gigants, Adrian, Belew.
Recording year: Rykodisc, 1970.

Burnt Weeny Sandwich is the first of two albums by the Mothers of Invention that Frank Zappa released in 1970, after he had disbanded the original lineup. While Weasels Ripped My Flesh focuses on complex material and improvised stage madness, this collection of studio and live recordings summarizes the leader's various interests and influences at the time. It opens and closes on '50s pop covers, "WPLJ" and "Valarie." "Aybe Sea" is a Zappafied sea shanty, while "Igor's Boogie" is named after composer Igor Stravinsky, the closest thing to a hero Zappa ever worshipped. But the best material is represented by "Holiday in Berlin," a theme that would become central to the music of 200 Motels, and "The Little House I Used to Live In," including a virtuoso piano solo by Ian Underwood. Presented as an extended set of theme and variations, the latter does not reach the same heights as "King Kong." In many places, and with the two aforementioned exceptions in mind, Burnt Weeny Sandwich sounds like a set of outtakes from Uncle Meat, which already summarized to an extent the adventures of the early Mothers. It lacks some direction, but those allergic to the group's grunts and free-form playing will prefer it to the wacky Weasels Ripped My Flesh.

Fields Of Haze... Underground for all.

Love Like Blood - Love Like Blood EP

Genere: Rock/Pop.
Style: Goth Rock.
Similar artists: Killing Joke, Fields Of The Nephilim.
Recording year: Hall Of Sermon, 1998.

Fields Of Haze... Underground for all.

The Indie Scene 1980 - Story of British Independent Music

(Ahí está el disco que querías mi estimado Eric, saludos).

1 ::::::Echo & The Bunnymen - Pictures on my wall

2		Joy Division - These Days
3		Wah! - Seven Minutes to Midnight
4		Bauhaus - Dark Entries
6		Woodhead Munro - Mumbo Jumbo
7		Spizz Energi - Where's Captain Kirk
8		Holly and the Italians - Tell That Girl to Shut Up
9		The Associates - Affectionate Punch
10		It's Immaterial - Young Man
11		The Frantic Elevators - You Know What You Told Me
12		Q Tips - Sysljfm
13		Cabaret Voltaire - Silent Command
14		Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft - Kebabtraume
15		Fad Gadget - Rickey's Hand
16		Modern English - Gathering Dust
17		The Tea Set - Parry Thomas
18		Swell Maps - Let's Build A Car
19		Dead Kennedys - California Über Alles
20		The Adicts - Easy Way Out
21		Normil Hawaiians - The Beat Goes On
22		The Fall - Totally Wired

Fields Of Haze... Underground for all.

The Doors - Doors

Genere: Rock/Pop.
Style: Rock, Contemporary Rock
Similar artists: Greatful Dead, The Animals, Them.
Recording year: Elektra, 1967.

The Doors, one of the most influential and controversial rock bands of the 1960s, were formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by UCLA film students Ray Manzarek, keyboards, and Jim Morrison, vocals; with drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger. The group never added a bass player, and their sound was dominated by Manzarek's electric organ work and Morrison's deep, sonorous voice, with which he sang and intoned his highly poetic lyrics. The group signed to Elektra Records in 1966 and released its first album, The Doors, featuring the hit "Light My Fire," in 1967.

A tremendous debut album, and indeed one of the best first-time outings in rock history, introducing the band's fusion of rock, blues, classical, jazz, and poetry with a knock-out punch. The lean, spidery guitar and organ riffs interweave with a hypnotic menace, providing a seductive backdrop for Jim Morrison's captivating vocals and probing prose. "Light My Fire" was the cut that topped the charts and established the group as stars, but most of the rest of the album is just as impressive, including some of their best songs: the propulsive "Break on Through" (their first single), the beguiling Oriental mystery of "The Crystal Ship," the mysterious "End of the Night," "Take It as It Comes" (one of several tunes besides "Light My Fire" that also had hit potential), and the stomping rock of "Soul Kitchen" and "Twentieth Century Fox." The 11-minute Oedipal drama "The End" was the group at its most daring and, some would contend, overambitious. It was nonetheless a haunting cap to an album whose nonstop melodicism and dynamic tension would never be equaled by the group again, let alone bettered.

Fields Of Haze... Underground for all.

Can - Ege Bamyasi

Genere: Rock/Pop.
Style: Avant Garde, Experimental.
Similar artists: Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Frank Zappa.
Recording year: Mute, 1972.

Always at least three steps ahead of contemporary popular music, Can were the leading avant-garde rock group of the '70s. From their very beginning, their music didn't conform to any commonly held notions about rock & roll -- not even those of the countercultures. Inspired more by 20th century classical music than Chuck Berry, their closest contemporaries were Frank Zappa or possibly the Velvet Underground. Yet their music was more serious and inaccessible than either of those artists. Instead of recording tight pop songs or satire, Can experimented with noise, synthesizers, nontraditional music, cut-and-paste techniques, and, most importantly, electronic music; each album marked a significant step forward from the previous album, investigating new territories that other rock bands weren't interested in exploring.

Throughout their career, Can's lineup was fluid, featuring several different vocalists over the years; the core bandmembers remained keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, drummer Jaki Leibezeit, guitarist Michael Karoli, and bassist Holger Czukay. During the '70s, they were extremely prolific, recording as many as three albums a year at the height of their career. Apart from a surprise U.K. Top 30 hit in 1978 -- "I Want More" -- they were never much more than a cult band; even critics had a hard time appreciating their music.

The follow-up to Tago Mago is only lesser in terms of being shorter; otherwise the Can collective delivers its expected musical recombination act with the usual power and ability. Liebezeit, at once minimalist and utterly funky, provides another base of key beat action for everyone to go off on -- from the buried, lengthy solos by Karoli on "Pinch" to the rhythm box/keyboard action on "Spoon." The latter song, which closes the album, is particularly fine, its sound hinting at an influence on everything from early Ultravox songs like "Hiroshima Mon Amour" to the hollower rhythms on many of Gary Numan's first efforts. Liebezeit and Czukay's groove on "One More Night," calling to mind a particularly cool nightclub at the end of the evening, shows that Stereolab didn't just take the brain-melting crunch side of Can as inspiration. The longest track, "Soup," lets the band take off on another one of its trademark lengthy rhythm explorations, though not without some tweaks to the expected sound. About four minutes in, nearly everything drops away, with Schmidt and Liebezeit doing the most prominent work; after that, it shifts into some wonderfully grating and crumbling keyboards combined with Suzuki's strange pronouncements, before ending with a series of random interjections from all the members. Playfulness abounds as much as skill: Slide whistles trade off with Suzuki on "Pinch"; squiggly keyboards end "Vitamin C"; and rollicking guitar highlights "I'm So Green." The underrated and equally intriguing sense of drift that the band brings to its recordings continues as always. "Sing Swan Song" is particularly fine, a gentle float with Schmidt's keyboards and Czukay's bass taking the fore to support Suzuki's sing-song vocal.

Fields Of Haze... Underground for all.

Fields Of The Nephilim - The Nephilim

Genere: Rock/Pop.
Styles: Goth Rock.
Similar Artist: Sex Gang Children, Bauhaus, Sisters Of Mercy.
Record Year: Beggars Banquet, 1988.

Of all the bands involved in Britain's goth rock movement of the 1980s, Fields of the Nephilim were the most believable. The group's cryptic, occult-inspired songs were sung in a guttural roar by vocalist Carl McCoy. Live appearances were shrouded with dim light and smoke machines, while bandmembers stalked the stage in black desperado gear inspired by western dress. The group was also one of the longest lived of the original goth rock groups, finally breaking up in 1991 when McCoy left for another project.

Fields of the Nephilim formed in 1984, in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, with an original lineup of McCoy, guitarist Paul Wright, his brother Nod on drums, saxophonist Gary Whisker, and bassist Tony Pettitt. The quintet played many live shows and released the EP Burning the Fields in late 1984. Whisker then left the band, just as Peter Yates was added as a second guitarist. Beggar's Banquet, also the home of goth rockers Southern Death Cult and Bauhaus, signed the Nephilim and released the singles "Power" and "Preacher Man" in 1986. Both did well on the independent charts; "Preacher Man" made it to number two, increasing the expectation for debut album Dawnrazor, which appeared in 1987. The album also did well on the indie charts, but later that year Fields of the Nephilim finally cracked the pop singles chart with "Blue Water." In June 1988, second album The Nephilim reached number 12 in the pop charts, while the single "Moonchild" made number 28. A live video titled Forever Remain was also released in 1988.

The Nephilim approached their second album with confidence and a clutch of stunning new songs. The resulting, semi-self-titled release blows away the first by a mile (the art design alone, depicting an ancient, worn book with strange symbols, is a winner), being an elegantly produced and played monster of dark, powerful rock. Even if McCoy's cries and husked whispers don't appeal to all, once the listener gets past that to the music, the band simply goes off, incorporating their various influences -- especially a good dollop of pre-Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd (think songs like "One of These Days") -- to create a massive blast of a record. Buchanan again produces with a careful ear for maximum impact, whether it be the roaring rage of "Chord of Souls" or the minimal guitar and slight keyboard wash of "Celebrate"; McCoy's vocal on the latter is especially fine as a careful, calm brood that matches the music. Perhaps most surprising about the album is that it yielded an honest-to-goodness U.K. Top 40 hit with "Moonchild," which is very much in the vein of earlier songs like "Preacher Man" but with just enough of a catchier chorus and softer guitar part in the verse to make a wider mark. Though the first part of the album is quite fine, including such longtime fan favorites as "The Watchman" and "Phobia," after "Moonchild" the record simply doesn't let up, building to a fantastic three-song conclusion. "Celebrate" is followed by "Love Under Will," a windswept, gloomily romantic number with a lovely combination of the band's regular push and extra keyboards for effect. "Last Exit for the Lost" wraps everything up on an astonishing high; starting off softly with just bass, synths, one guitar, and McCoy, it then gently speeds up more and more, pumping up the volume and finally turning into a momentous, unstoppable tidal wave of electric energy.

Fields Of Haze... Underground for all.