martes, 28 de septiembre de 2010

Talk Talk - It's my life



Genere: Pop/Rock.
Style: New Wave, New Romantic, Synth Pop
Similar artists: Simple Minds, Human League, Japan.
Recording year: EMI, 1984.  


The story of Talk Talk begins with singer/songwriter Hollis, the younger brother of Ed Hollis, a disc jockey and producer who went on to manage such punk-era bands as Eddie & the Hot Rods. Mark originally planned to become a child psychologist, but in 1975, he left university to relocate to London, eventually forming a band called the Reaction; Ed Hollis called in a few favors, and in 1977, the Reaction recorded a demo tape for Island Records. Among the tracks was a Hollis original titled "Talk Talk," which later surfaced on the Beggars Banquet punk compilation Streets. After just one single, 1978's "I Can't Resist," the Reaction disbanded, and through his brother, Hollis was first introduced to bassist Paul Webb, drummer Lee Harris, and keyboardist Simon Brenner, with whom he formed Talk Talk in 1981.

After recording a number of demos with producer Jimmy Miller, Talk Talk signed to EMI, who assigned Duran Duran producer Colin Thurston to helm their first two singles, "Mirror Man" and "Talk Talk." Clearly, EMI's intent was to mold the band in the spirit of the new romantic movement, and toward that end, they also tapped Talk Talk as the opener on Duran Duran's 1982 U.K. tour. Their debut LP, The Party's Over, was indeed a product of its times, defined by contemporary synth pop sensibilities but with an honesty and lyrical depth absent from most other records of the moment. In 1983, Talk Talk resurfaced with the single "My Foolish Friend," which in itself marked a major leap from the first record with its denser and more mature sound; the subsequent dismissal of Brenner made it plain that the band's days of relying on synthesizers were over for good.

After an unremarkable debut, Talk Talk regrouped and refashioned themselves more in the style of sophisto-era Roxy Music while developing their own voice. It's My Life shows a great leap in songwriting, the band making highly personal statements with a sexy, seductive groove and a diversity that transcends the synth pop tag. Synthesizers still play a dominant role, but the music is made far more interesting by mixing "real" instruments and challenging world music rhythms seamlessly with the technology. Still pulling off the catchy single (like "Dum Dum Girl" and the title track, as well as the simply sublime "Does Caroline Know?") on It's My Life, Talk Talk also proved themselves capable of achieving a cohesive album -- a rare feat for the time and an unexpected surprise from a band that seemed to be simply a bandwagon-jumper.











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lunes, 27 de septiembre de 2010

Hocico - Dog Eat Dog




Genere: Pop/Rock.
Style: Electro Industrial
Similar artists: Leather Strip, Amducia, Psychopomps.
Recording year: Out Of Line, 2010. 


“Dog Eat Dog”, the brand-new single from Mexican Hard-Electro-legend Hocico, shouter Erk Aicrag and sound wizard Racso Agroyam are as aggressive as never before. A catchy-as-hell hook line meets the most brutal vocal escapades and the hardest beats the duo has ever unleashed: a relentless aggro-fest with a distinctive hit-appeal. The new single also contains four bass-laden remixes from Solitary Experiments, Aesthetic Perfection, Diabolic Art and Arsch Dolls as well as the exclusive b-side-smasher “Escape The Spell.” “Dog Eat Dog” will also be released as a 7” white vinyl, limited to 666 copies and sporting the exclusive b-side “Breathe Me Tonight.”








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Einstürzende Neubauten - Five on the open-Ended Richter-Scale




Genere: Pop/Rock.
Style: Dark Ambient, Industrial, Experimental Rock.
Similar artists: Revolting Cocks, Pigface, KMFDM.
Recording year: Thirsty Ear Recording, 1987. 



Along with Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, Germany's Einstürzende Neubauten ("collapsing new buildings") helped pioneer industrial music with an avant-garde mix of white-noise guitar drones, vocals verging on the unlistenable at times, and a clanging, rhythmic din produced by a percussion section consisting of construction materials, power tools, and various metal objects. Einstürzende Neubauten was founded by vocalist/guitarist Blixa Bargeld and percussionist/American expatriate N.U. Unruh in Berlin as a performance art collective; their early activities included a seemingly inexplicable half-naked appearance on the Berlin autobahn, where the duo spent some time beating on the sides of a hole in an overpass. The group's early lineup also included percussionists Beate Bartel and Gudrun Gut, plus contributor and sound engineer Alexander Van Borsig

Einstürzende Neubauten's earliest recordings are mostly unstructured, free-form noise issued on various cassettes and singles, including their first single "Fuer den Untergang," the 1981 EP Schwarz, and the 1982 album Kollaps. Some of these recordings are compiled on the Strategies Against Architecture '80-'83 collection, with live shows on the cassette-only 2x4. Bartel and Gut were replaced by ex-Abwräts member F.M. Einheit (who served as Neubauten's chief machinery operator) in 1983, when guitarist and electronics expert Alexander Hacke and Abwräts bassist Mark Chung also joined. A tour of England opening for the Birthday Party resulted in a contract with Some Bizarre Records, which released the slightly more structured Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T., as well as consternation from club owners and journalists over Neubauten's stage demolitions and frequent ensuing violence.

Like watching a stalker cleverly follow its prey for miles, only to watch it shy away just short of lodging a knife into the back of the followed, Fünf Auf der Nach Oben Offenen Richterskala (Five on the Open-Ended Richter-Scale) is Einstürzende Neubauten at their unsettling, gripping, and tension-ridden best. It was also the group's most subdued and measured work to that point, organic dark ambient that rarely utilized the chaos and cacaphony for which they had become known. You expect the big release during the closer, "Kein Bestandteil Sein," but you don't get it. 











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sábado, 25 de septiembre de 2010

His Name Is Alive - Livonia




Genere: Pop/Rock.
Style: Experimental Rock, Dream Pop, Indie Rock .
Similar artists: Throwing Muses, Belly, Red House Painters.
Recording year: 4AD, 1990.

His Name Is Alive formed when multi-instrumentalist/producer Warren Defever (also of shockabilly group Elvis Hitler) was still in high school. Defever, former schoolmate Karin Oliver (vocals), and drummer Damian Lang released self-produced cassettes of their music, one of which made its way to Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the pioneering art label 4AD. Intrigued with His Name Is Alive's blend of spectral vocals, poetic lyrics, and textural guitars, Watts signed the band.

The group recorded its first release for the label, Livonia, in Defever's home studio. The album features Oliver's shivery vocals along with tape loops, samples, and guitar blasts, for a noise-damaged, ethereal collection of songs about ghosts, reincarnation, and dreams.

Livonia, is the group's artiest, most explicitly experimental release. It's also the most haphazard, in terms of musical success; the affecting ("If July," "Fossil") sits next to the affected ("You and I Have Seizures," "Reincarnation"). Even at its most contrived, however, Livonia features the elements the group used later to create their distinctive style: Karin Oliver's shimmery, ghostly voice and Warren Defever's open-minded production. Defever commented later that he saw himself as an avant-garde composer during the Livonia period; the album's found sounds, tape loops, and samples do give it an artsy and occasionally precious patina. At its best, Livonia explores death, dreams, and spirituality with transcendent music and lyrics. At its worst, it's an ambitious debut, introducing a creative, aspiring band. 









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viernes, 24 de septiembre de 2010

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Social Network (5 track)






Genere: Rock/Pop.
Style: OST.
Recording year: Null Corporation, 2010.
 


Trent Reznor founded the '90s rock group Nine Inch Nails; with Chris Vrenna at the drums, Reznor did all of the writing, performing and producing himself. Other musicians were brought in only on tour or if a desperate need arose.

On June 1, 2010, it was announced that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross would score the film. The soundtrack will be released September 28 in various formats under the Null Corporation label. Leading up to the release of the soundtrack.






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jueves, 23 de septiembre de 2010

Cabaret Voltaire - Three Mantras



Genere: Rock/Pop.
Style: Industrial, Electronic, Experimental.
Similar artists: Coil, Skinny Puppy, Foetus.
Recording year: Mute Records, 1980.
 
 

Though they're one of the most important groups in the history of industrial and electronic music, Cabaret Voltaire are sometimes forgotten in the style's timeline — perhaps because they continued recording long after other luminaries (Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, Chrome) called it quits. Also related to the fact is that CV rarely stayed in one place for long, instead moving quickly from free-form experimentalism through arty white-boy funk and on to house music in the late '80s and electronica the following decade. The band, formed by guitarist Richard H. Kirk, bassist Stephen Mallinder, and tape manipulator Chris Watson, were influenced by the Dadaist movement (whence came their name) and as such, came closer to performance art than music during many of their early performances. After several years of recording with no contract, the group signed to the newly formed Rough Trade label in 1978 and began releasing records that alternated punk-influenced chargers with more experimental pieces incorporating tape loops and sampled effects.


It would actually be more accurate to call this album 'Two Mantras,' given that it consists of two sidelong pieces, "Eastern Mantra" and "Western Mantra," which gives the still-then-a-trio a chance to expand its avant-electronic-grunge into trancier realms. Mallinder's abstract ranting is in full effect from the start of "Eastern," talking about bodies in the streets and the like, and from there things move into a rough realm of strange art, Voltaire-style. The combination of Kirk's guitar and Mallinder's bass work here is practically that of Krautrock/motorik, Mallinder playing a steady, quietly varying series of notes while Kirk throws in a variety of crumbling squalls. His work is sometimes vaguely Arabic in flavor, which combined with the length of the song, the hollow drum machine punch driving everything along, and Watson's piercing keyboards is not merely interesting but helps to demonstrate, in a subtle way, some of the future influences on artists like Muslimgauze. The alien feeling at the core of Cabaret Voltaire remains, though, strong and strange as always. "Western Mantra" has the basic trio, plus guests on percussion and found-sound tapes, doing something far more outre. A heavily-treated vocal loop underlaid by a subtle keyboard drone starts the song, interspersed with samples of Arabic and Israeli pop music and various bell sounds — the roots for Muslimgauze in particular really show here! Kirk's crisp playing floats in some time later, stepping in and out of the mix but never predominating, while Mallinder's bass is barely detectable. The occasional bursts of low, clattering pounding, with cymbals if not with drums in the background, combined with the continuing series of song samples, Arabic wind instruments and snippets recorded in a Jerusalem market, heightens the enveloping, striking feel of the piece and release as a whole.







 
 



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sábado, 18 de septiembre de 2010

Joy Division - Best Of



Genere: Rock/Pop.
Style: Post Punk, Indie, Alternative.
Similar artists: Public Image Ltd, Bauhaus, Throbbing Gistle
Recording year : Rhino, 2008.




Formed in the wake of the punk explosion in England, Joy Division became the first band in the post-punk movement by later emphasizing not anger and energy but mood and expression, pointing ahead to the rise of melancholy alternative music in the '80s. Though the group's raw initial sides fit the bill for any punk band, Joy Division later incorporated synthesizers (taboo in the low-tech world of '70s punk) and more haunting melodies, emphasized by the isolated, tortured lyrics of its lead vocalist, Ian Curtis. While the British punk movement shocked the world during the late '70s, Joy Division's quiet storm of musical restraint and emotive power proved to be just as important to independent music in the 1980s.

The band was founded in early 1977, soon after the Sex Pistols had made their first appearance in Manchester. Guitarist Bernard Albrecht (b. Bernard Dicken, January 4, 1956) and bassist Peter Hook (b. February 13, 1956) had met while at the show and later formed a band called the Stiff Kittens; after placing an ad through a Manchester record store, they added vocalist Ian Curtis (b. July 15, 1956) and drummer Steve Brotherdale. Renamed Warsaw (from David Bowie's "Warszawa"), the band made its live debut the following May, supporting the Buzzcocks and Penetration at Manchester's Electric Circus. After the recording of several demos, Brotherdale quit the group in August 1977, prompting the hire of Stephen Morris (b. October 28, 1957). A name change to Joy Division in late 1977 -- necessitated by the punk band Warsaw Pakt -- was inspired by Karol Cetinsky's World War II novel The House of Dolls. (In the book, the term "joy division" was used as slang for concentration camp units wherein female inmates were forced to prostitute themselves for the enjoyment of Nazi soldiers.)

Playing frequently in the north country during early 1978, the quartet gained the respect of several influential figures: Rob Gretton, a Manchester club DJ who became the group's manager; Tony Wilson, a TV/print journalist and owner of the Factory Records label; and Derek Branwood, a record executive with RCA Northwest, who recorded sessions in May 1978, for what was planned to be Joy Division's self-titled debut LP. Though several songs bounded with punk energy, the rest of the album showed at an early age the band's later trademarks: Curtis' themes of post-industrial restlessness and emotional despair, Hook's droning bass lines, and the jagged guitar riffs of Albrecht.

The Best of Joy Division is a 14-track, 55-minute grab bag of scattered tracks from the band's discography. It is impossible to call these the best, or even the highlights, when the band recorded no obvious lowlights and (only in a relative sense) a handful of midlights. Not including alternate mixes or demos that have floated out in various forms, Joy Division recorded short of 50 songs, none of which would be completely unjustifiable on a single-disc summary. Beyond the no-brainers "Love Will Tear Us Apart," "She's Lost Control," "Transmission," and "Atmosphere," the program doesn't lean in any one direction, pulling fairly evenly from the two proper albums while offering seven tracks that were compiled originally for Substance. It is kind of strange, however, that the somewhat slight instrumental "Incubation" was chosen over "Atrocity Exhibition" and "A Means to an End," and that there is nothing from An Ideal for Living (the band's first release, a four-track EP), especially when there were 25 minutes of available space on the disc. While this is one of many ways to become acquainted with a body of work that adds up to some of the most tense, precise, and powerful rock music made, the best solution is to get as much as possible at once and submit.

During late 1979, Joy Division's manic live show gained many converts, partly due to rumors of Curtis' ill health. An epilepsy sufferer, he was prone to breakdowns and seizures while on stage -- it soon grew difficult to distinguish the fits from his usual on-stage jerkiness and manic behavior. As the live dates continued and the new decade approached, Curtis grew weaker and more prone to seizures. After a short rest over the Christmas holiday, Joy Division embarked on a European tour during January, though several dates were cancelled because of Curtis. The group began recording its second LP after the tour ended (again with Hannett), and released "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in April. The single was again praised but failed to move beyond the independent charts. After one gig in early May, the members of Joy Division were given two weeks of rest before beginning the group's first U.S. tour. Two days before the scheduled flight, however, Curtis was found dead in his home, the victim of a self-inflicted hanging.











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jueves, 16 de septiembre de 2010

Clan Of Xymox - Medusa



Genere: Rock/Pop
Style: Goth, Dark WaveSimilar artists: Crüxshadows, The Cure, Medicine
Recording year : 4AD, 1986.



Clan of Xymox have been in the unfortunate position of always being compared to other bands since their inception. Whether it's the Cure or Joy Division, Clan of Xymox have never been able to shake off the similarities to their influences. Nevertheless, the group has produced an impressive body of work that consistently absorbed new sounds while remaining faithful to the '80s goth rock menu.

Clan of Xymox were formed in Nijmegen, Netherlands, in 1983 by Ronny Moorings (vocals, guitar) and Anka Wolbert (bass, vocals). A year later, Moorings and Wolbert moved to Amsterdam, releasing the LP Subsequent Pleasures as Xymox. (The album was limited to 500 copies.) Xymox then became the opening act for Dead Can Dance in England. The band's presence on Dead Can Dance's U.K. tour caught the interest of 4AD Records, and the label eventually signed them. A year later, Xymox lengthened their name to Clan of Xymox and recorded a self-titled album in 1985, followed by Medusa the next year. 
Clan of Xymox's second full album (not counting the rudimentary debut EP) is a distinct improvement on the Dutch band's earlier work, and indeed is probably the group's career high point. However, the band's fatal flaws remain clear throughout the album: although these songs are superficially attractive in a goth-dance sort of way, there's little in the way of depth or substance here, and on closer listen, one realizes that the best parts of these songs sounded even better when they appeared on earlier albums by Depeche Mode, Xmal Deutschland, Propaganda, and Bauhaus. The album's high point by far is the proto-acid house "Michelle," which has the dreamy neo-psychedelic textures of Psychic TV's "Godstar" or mid-period Siouxsie and the Banshees.





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martes, 14 de septiembre de 2010

Black Heaven - Negativ



Genre: Rock/Pop.
Style: Gothic Dancefloor. Similar Artists: In Strict Confidence, Haujoubb, Wumpscut. Recording Year: Scanner, 2008.



 



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lunes, 13 de septiembre de 2010

Absolution Rock the Alternative Way (Compilation)





Recording Year: Polygram TV, 1991. 



 










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domingo, 12 de septiembre de 2010

Ataraxia - Kremasta Nera (2007) / Nosce Te Ipsum (2008) / Llyr (2010) (Limited Edition).






Genre: Classical/Folk.
Style: Neo-clasical, Medieval
Similar Artists: Eden, Dead Can Dance, Stoa.
Recording Year: Ark Records, 2007.


This album is a cosmic chant inspired by the lights and shadows of an extinguished civilization, a lost world which eclipsed with its secrets. A mix of acoustic sounds, strings, electronic and eastern percussions with deep evocative vocals.




 



Recording Year: Twilight Records, 2008.


 
Ataraxia is an Italian neoclassical band who combine modern technology with archaic instrumentation over various media. They describe their music as a cross "between sacred and profane, ethereal and neo-classical, contemporary and early music". They make researches into the European legends crossing the Greek and Latin myths. Their lyrics are written in many ancient and contemporary languages. Many of their performances take place in locations the band believes to possess specific spiritual qualities. Since the beginning of the group in the late 1980s, they have released more than 20 original LPs.










Recording Year: Prikosnovénie,
2010. 


Three years after the last studio Album Kremasta Nera, ATARAXIA are back with a marvellous new album on Prikosnovenie. Llyr (Lyra) is the name of the instrument of the bards and the Greek lyrical poets; a sacred musical instrument visually inspired by the grace and nobleness of the swans.

ATARAXIA, on this voyage, played the following instruments: classical, folk and 12-string guitars, chitarra battente, keyboards, flutes, sitar, gamelan, daf, frame drums, santoor, tablas, zard and bells. Female vocals are sometimes accompanied by male vocals. 
This album is a new story inspired by pagan myths, feminine celebrations of Mother Nature and celtic traditions. ATARAXIA and charismatic singer Francesca Nicoli have created their very own, incomparable genre of music: a cosmogenic dark folk praying for beauty.









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sábado, 11 de septiembre de 2010

Loreena Mckennitt - To Drive The Cold Winter Away



Genre: Folk.
Style: Celtic, New Age, Harp Fusion.
Similar Artists: Anam, Rose Among Thorns, Spiral Dance
Recording Year: Quinlan Road, 1987.
 


The daughter of a nurse mother and a livestock trader father, songstress Loreena McKennitt studied classical piano and vocal training and learned to dance in the highland style as a youngster. Her love of traditional music was strengthened in the folk clubs of Winnipeg, which she frequented during the brief period she studied veterinary science at the University of Manitoba. Relocating to Stratford, Ontario, she continued to sharpen her skills as a composer and performer. In 1981, she auditioned for a role in the city's Stratford Festival of Canada. Although she did not get the role, she remained inspired. After reading Diane Sward Rapaport's book How to Make and Sell Your Own Recording, she formed her own label, Quinlan Road.

Recorded in various halls and abbeys in Ireland, and completed in the Church of Our Lady in Guelph, Ontario, harpist/arranger/vocalist Loreena McKennitt's first foray into the crowded field of holiday music -- she would go on to release an EP called Winter Garden in 1995 -- is steeped in old-world atmosphere. To Drive the Cold Winter Away celebrates the winter solstice through eight traditional English, Scottish, and Irish carols and ballads and two Mckennitt originals. The artist's reverence for her source material is moving, and her meticulous yet simple arrangements help tracks such as "The Wexford Carol," "The Kings," and "Let Us the Infant Greet" resonate with all of the grace and piousness that the lyrics and poems strive for. McKennitt has succeeded in making a beautiful, haunting, and ambitious yuletide song cycle that despite taking itself a little too seriously, ranks among her finest. 


 





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viernes, 10 de septiembre de 2010

Skeletal Family - Songs of love hope and despair



Genre: Rock/Pop.
Style: Goth Rock.
Similar Artists: The Wake, The Stranglers, X Mal Deutchland.
Recording Year: 2009.



Skeletal Family were an English gothic rock band which formed in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England in December, 1982. The band formed from the remaining membership of an earlier group, called The Elements, and took their name from the title of the song "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" from the 1974 David Bowie album, Diamond Dogs.
The original line-up of the band was Anne-Marie Hurst (vocals), Stan Greenwood (guitar), Roger 'Trotwood' Nowell (bass), Ian "Karl Heinz" Taylor (keyboard/sax), and Steve Crane (drums). In 1984, the band signed on to the independent record label, Red Rhino Records, and recorded their first single for Red Rhino, "The Night," just after losing their original drummer Steve Crane. Crane was replaced by Howard Daniels. Daniels was soon replaced by Martin Henderson (formerly of The Last Laugh). Skeletal Family's first album, Burning Oil, was released by Red Rhino in the autumn of 1984. The band began touring with The Sisters of Mercy during the Sisters' First and Last and Always tour. The group released "Futile Combat" in 1985, along with the "Promised Land" single.
The group then signed with Chrysalis Records, and Anne-Marie Hurst along with Martin Henderson left the band to develop new projects. Anne-Marie Hurst would eventually team up with Gary Marx in Ghost Dance. Martin Henderson teamed up with ex-March Violets vocalist Simon D to create The Batfish Boys. Vocalist Katrina Phillips replaced Anne-Marie Hurst and Kevin Hunter replaced Martin Henderson. The remaining members of the group soon disbanded after being dropped from the Chrysalis label. In 2002, Skeletal Family reformed. After reforming they played several high profile shows, including the Wave-Gotik-Treffen three times and Drop Dead New York.
Skeletal Family's last album, Love, Hope and Despair, was released in September 2009. Two months later the group announced that they had disbanded again.









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The String Quartet - Tribute to The Smiths




Style: Compilation.
Similar Artists: Cronos Quartet
Recording year: Vitamin Records, 2003.



While these are instrumental chamber arrangements of classic Smiths songs, the arrangements are still colored most by the hangdog melancholy of Morrissey, rather than any afterglow of Johnny Marr's guitar workouts. You can almost hear his self-obsessed croon floating behind the violins in "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out," "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others," and "This Charming Man," while "How Soon Is Now" is revealed to be rather boring without Marr's classic guitar line. The Vitamin label has even done a respectable job of replicating the Smiths' famous cover-star album art, with its sepia boxer photo. 








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A Clockwork Orange - O.S.T.




Style: O.S.T.
Año de grabación: Warner Bros., 1972.



A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 darkly satirical science fiction film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. The film concerns Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a charismatic delinquent whose pleasures are classical music (especially Beethoven), rape, and so-called 'ultra-violence'. He leads a small gang of thugs (Pete, Georgie, and Dim), whom he calls his droogs (from the Russian друг, “friend”, “buddy”). The film tells the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture, and attempted rehabilitation via a controversial psychological conditioning technique. Alex narrates most of the film in Nadsat, a fractured, contemporary adolescent argot comprising Slavic (especially Russian), English, and Cockney rhyming slang.



The music is a thematic extension of Alex’s (and the viewer’s) psychological conditioning. The soundtrack of A Clockwork Orange comprises classical music and electronic synthetic music composed by Wendy Carlos. Some of the music is heard only as excerpts, e.g. Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 (aka Land of Hope and Glory) ironically heralding a politician’s appearance at the prison. The main theme is an electronic transcription of Henry Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, composed in 1695, for the procession of Queen Mary’s cortège through London en route to Westminster Abbey. “March from A Clockwork Orange” was the first recorded song featuring a vocoder for the singing; synthpop bands often cite it as their inspiration. Neither the end-credits, nor the soundtrack album, name the orchestra playing the Ninth Symphony excerpts, however, in Alex’s bedroom, there is a close-up of a microcassette tape labeled: Deutsche Grammophon – Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphonie Nr. 9 d-moll, op. 125 – Berliner Philharmoniker – Chor der St. Hedwigskathedrale – Ferenc Fricsay – Irmgard Seefried, Maureen Forrester, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Ernst Haefliger.










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jueves, 9 de septiembre de 2010

Corpus Delicti - Best of



Genre: Rock/Pop.
Style: Goth Rock.
Artistas similares: The Wake,
Año de grabación: Cleopatra, 1998.



Corpus Delicti were a gothic rock band active in the early-mid 1990s. In the late '90s, they incarnated as an industrial rock band called Corpus.

The Best of Corpus Delicti is the second compilation album, and last album by gothic rock band Corpus Delicti.



 




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miércoles, 8 de septiembre de 2010

The Who - Tommy




Genere: Pop/Rock.
Style: Rock & Roll, British Invasion, Psychedelia.
Similar Artists: The Moody Blues, Robert Plant, Love.
Recording Year: Polydor, 1969.



Few bands in the history of rock & roll were riddled with as many contradictions as the Who. All four members had wildly different personalities, as their notoriously intense live performances demonstrated. The group was a whirlwind of activity, as the wild Keith Moon fell over his drum kit and Pete Townshend leaped into the air with his guitar, spinning his right hand in exaggerated windmills. Vocalist Roger Daltrey strutted across the stage with a thuggish menace, as bassist John Entwistle stood silent, functioning as the eye of the hurricane. These divergent personalities frequently clashed, but these frictions also resulted in a decade's worth of remarkable music -- it took some five years to find their audience, but at the tail end of the 1960s they suddenly achieved a level of popularity rivaling the Rolling Stones, both as a live act and in album sales.

As one of the key figures of the British Invasion and the mod movement of the mid-'60s, the Who were a dynamic and undeniably powerful sonic force. They often sounded like they were exploding conventional rock and R&B structures with Townshend's furious guitar chords, Entwistle's hyperactive basslines, and Moon's vigorous, seemingly chaotic drumming. Unlike most rock bands, the Who based their rhythm on Townshend's guitar, letting Moon and Entwistle improvise wildly over his foundation, while Daltrey belted out his vocals. This was the sound the Who thrived on in concert, but on record they were a different proposition, as Townshend pushed the group toward new sonic territory. He soon became regarded as one of the finest British songwriters of his era, rivaling John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, as songs like "The Kids Are Alright" and "My Generation" became teenage anthems, and his rock opera, Tommy, earned him respect from mainstream music critics.

Townshend continually pushed the band toward more ambitious territory, incorporating white noise, pop art, and conceptual extended musical pieces into the group's style. The remainder of the Who, especially Entwistle and Daltrey, weren't always eager to follow him in his musical explorations, especially after the success of his first rock opera, Tommy. Instead, they wanted to stick to their hard rock roots, playing brutally loud, macho music instead of Townshend's textured song suites and vulnerable pop songs.

The full-blown rock opera about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy that launched the band to international superstardom, written almost entirely by Pete Townshend. Hailed as a breakthrough upon its release, its critical standing has diminished somewhat in the ensuing decades because of the occasional pretensions of the concept and because of the insubstantial nature of some of the songs that functioned as little more than devices to advance the rather sketchy plot. Nonetheless, the double album has many excellent songs, including "I'm Free," "Pinball Wizard," "Sensation," "Christmas," "We're Not Gonna Take It," and the dramatic ten-minute instrumental "Underture." Though the album was slightly flawed, Townshend's ability to construct a lengthy conceptual narrative brought new possibilities to rock music. Despite the complexity of the project, he and the Who never lost sight of solid pop melodies, harmonies, and forceful instrumentation, imbuing the material with a suitably powerful grace.








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martes, 7 de septiembre de 2010

Dead Can Dance - The Hidden Treasures




Genere: Pop/Rock.
Style: Modern Classical, Neofolk, Goth Rock, Ambient.

Similar Artists: Bel canto, Nick cave, Cocteau twins.
Recording Year: Swindle Records, 1994.




A very well know group for the "Fields Of Haze People". No need to explain anything.

This is a collection of studio outtakes, unreleased songs and rare live performances.












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