What.cd

[CosaNostra]

    Happy New Year!

    As another year has drawn to a close and a new one begins, we must once again celebrate! We celebrate a year closed: good cheer, good music, and most of all, good community. May 2015 continue to bring cheer and good will to all of you, and may it bring good music - starting now!

    ClosingTime's Legend Pick

    Of Porcelain - A Southern Summer's Breeze

    Genre: downtempo, idm, electronic

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=593146

    Review: dancefever5000.wordpress.com wrote:
    This is the music for hopeless romantics, made in the City of Angels by a renegade poet. My fickle soul falls in love with music on a daily basis; maybe my heart is made Of Porcelain too. Stop and listen.


    I love triangles entrapment edit: We take this opportunity to thank ClosingTime for his incredible service to the community!



    chai's Staff Pick

    Imperial Drag - Imperial Drag

    Genre: alternative, pop, rock, alternative.rock, glam.rock

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=335572

    Review:
    Glammy arrangements, gender-bending lyrics, and goofy lead guitar licks: No, it's not another posthumous Freddie Mercury project — it's a post-Jellyfish effort by Roger Manning. And while Imperial Drag's Queen-meets-the-Zombies keyboard-heavy power pop is often cloying, it also sticks in your head like bubble gum in a synthetic wig.




    brancusi's Staff Pick

    Anton Bruckner: The Symphonies - Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink

    Genre: classical

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=72399540

    Review:
    Bruckner was utterly unique - a medieval mystic and a Baroque contrapuntist stuck in a nineteenth century harmonic body - and Haitink understands this. Philips' mid-'60s through early-'70s sound is rich, warm, deep, and fully competitive with the best contemporary sound.





    vitiate's Staff Pick

    Charanjit Singh - Synthesizing - Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat

    Genre: Electronic, Indian

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=731970

    Review:
    It's easy to get distracted by what this album sounds (an early 1980s precursor to acid house), or the fact that the title references disco, which it isn't. Discard that and instead take it for what it is - an electronic composition that does for Indian classical music what Walter Carlos (now Wendy Carlos) did for Western classical music. The fact that there's a great backstory of this being a legendary "Lost Album" just adds an interesting layer of context - an album ahead enough of its time that, despite being forgotten, sounds like one of the foundations of several modern genres, not least because of heavy usage of the Roland TB-303 and TR-808.




    Ajax's Staff Pick

    RotFront - 17 Deutsche Tänze

    Genre: Alternative, Gyspy, World

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=72777903

    Review:
    Grab the vodka and the pickled herring, we're partying with the devil tonight.




    Glacier's Staff Pick

    Lagwagon - Trashed

    Genre: Punk rock, skate punk, melodic hardcore

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=51507

    Review:
    Trashed.





    Logos' Staff Pick

    65daysofstatic - Wild Light

    Genre: post.rock, electronic

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=72573012

    Review:
    Turn your volume up!
    If you really want reviews, knock yourself out.




    PepoteRouge's Staff Pick

    Skip James - Today!

    Genre: acoustic.blues, delta.blues

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=140604

    Review:
    This is the later work of one of the finest blues men from the thirties, and what a powerful comeback it is. It has all the great things from this era's folk/blues music: Evocative lyrics, haunting vocals and sometimes simple but very personal accompaniment, and all that in sound quality that was never possible at its peak. Another reason to pick this album specifically is that it features intimate rerecordings of some of his best original songs together, and like a blues man they only got better with age. Amazingly Skip James' trademark falsetto is unharmed. Here it ranges between silky and haunting, between soothing, incredibly sad and very dark while his fluid picking never lets you slip in attention throughout the songs. They are poetic, vivid and quite accessible stories of hard times and the folly of man, delivered with a load of soul. Beautiful from the very first track on.





    DixieFlatline's Staff Pick

    David Darling - Dark Wood

    Genre: Instrumental, Classical, Ambient

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=265341

    Review:
    Nature is a haunted house.




    Gautam's Staff Pick

    Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

    Genre: soul, rhythm.and.blues

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=51310

    Review:
    >inb4 Gautam is a pleb




    Lisbeth's Staff Pick

    Kiasmos - Kiasmos

    Genre: Minimal Techno, Modern Classical

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=72803803

    Review:
    "If you've got the patience, then this is a remarkably rewarding listen." - The405





    Bourbon's Staff Pick

    Yellow Swans - Going Places

    Genre: Noise, Drone

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=691579

    Review:
    The final album from Yellow Swans, Going Places is a focused and appropriate climax from this prolific noise/drone duo.





    puddy's Staff Pick

    Bud Powell - The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1

    Genre: jazz

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=102588



    WithTiredEyes' Staff Pick

    Mike Doughty - Haughty Melodic

    Genre: Rock, "Indie"

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=39123

    Review:
    I hadn't listened to anything Mike Doughty had done since Soul Coughing, until a friend reminded me that he existed and I decided to pick up this album. Yes, Dave Matthews provides vocals on "Tremendous Brunettes", but whether you like him or can't stand him, this disc is solid all the way through and deserves to be played loudly and have its lyrics analysed. Go download this.





    sprinkle's Staff Pick

    Mathusalem - Magic Feel

    Genre: Synthwave

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=72667573




    SevenNationArmy's Staff Pick

    The New Basement Tapes - Lost on the River

    Genre: Rock, Folk

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=72827421




    brd's Staff Pick

    Sonna - We Sing Loud Sing Soft Tonight

    Genre: post.rock

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=40275

    Review:
    Pretty songs come a dime a dozen, and simple beauty is not what makes Sonna so special. There is a complexity to their music, executed so seamlessly that it often goes unnoticed. It's that complexity that makes every song so memorable. Subtle changes in time signature and tempo creep in without jarring the listener. More often than not the guitars are playing in different time signatures simultaneously, yet never become the tangled mess one would expect. With the occasional hushed verse of vocals poking through in spots, the pieces are elevated to near pop song status, breathing angelic life into fragile, somnambulant compositions.






    Entrapment's Staff Pick

    Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

    Genre: indie, psychedelic, lo.fi, pop

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=71992220

    Review:
    Lo-fi indie rock with hooks like you wouldn't believe. You need to listen to this.




    Peppermint's Staff Pick

    Gustavo Santaolalla - The Last of Us

    Genre: Soundtrack, Ambient, Folk, Instrumental

    Torrents: torrents.php?id=72506745

    Review:
    One of the best videogame soundtracks to match one of the best games.