CD COLLECTION:::
A-C
i dick m the f table - Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In
(Filed under "id m theft able"). Alright, I'm back, I know its been a couple months (I got
sidetracked with a rateyourmusic list). But
I ordered a bunch of id m theft able reprint CDrs from the man himself and voila, here they are. This one, Hits From
The RON Sack, 'intendo innuendo, and a Shea Mowat CD that will appear much later.
I only now just discovered that this album was named after a 7 inch single from The 5th Dimension, reused about 25 years later on his latest album, Tambourine Green. Now, this
album was also "lost" for a while (I say "lost" because by the time he uploaded it to Bandcamp after a couple years
of being interested in this guy and wondering where all these old albums logged on Discogs were, I never thought to
check Soulseek, though it still probably wasn't on there), eventually being uploaded to Bandcamp with a batch of
other archive albums, though this one, seeming the most interesting, being the one I was most excited for. In part of
the same upload batch was School Willwear This, Chants and Mantras of Munjoy and Big Boy (amazing title that I think
about often), Blue Jay, The Xylophoning of Dirges, And I Pulled The Word "And" From My Beard, Feb 27 1999, Sand
Down Your Pelvis, and Teeth Teething. I was in marching band at the time, slowly trying to get through all of them.
Teeth Teething and Sand Down Your Pelvis I think I remember were better albums, but still, this one was old and
seemingly lost for many years, so it had that allure to it. And there are definitely still id m theft able albums
with that allure to them that are just *gone* and I would love to see or hear from (Atmos Eros Sprig), but most of
them have surfaced in some way or another by now... that we know of (a man this obscure doesn't have all of his
albums catalogged on Discogs).
But let's get to the point, there is a really funny and pure childish energy to this album that's also
present in a lot of id m theft able's music, but really done well here. Mostly in track 6 you get weird hilarious
lines like "give me that, that's mine!" and "I don't want to!" in between long sections of uneventful, watery noises.
There's the entire last track that's a pitched up voice over a looping swing melody singing about "simple balarina".
It's a very similar energy to Bogdan Raczynski, except it's entirely abstract musique concrete harsh noise stuff,
but like with the same exact sense of humor, it's weird. It's weird to hear music that's so nuanced and careful and
artistic but also so childish and funny, but also not all of it is great because you get moments like the first
and fourth tracks that are these huge, dense, and incredibly noisy sound collages that I can only wish I was
capable of making myself, but then other tracks that feel pretty underwhelming and focus more on relatively
unedited, collected sounds, only some of which are interesting. Like there is some *amazing* material on this
album that definitely floors you, but there's also a few tracks on here that just kinda feel like a lull in
energy. I don't know, I'm split between a 7 and an 8 on this one...
7/10
id m theft able - As A.T. Beheld / Hits From The RON Sack
As opposed to the previous album, this one to this day hasn't been released on any other
medium than CD (and possibly tape according to Discogs I think, though there aren't any images of those), so until I
got word that id m was repressing it, I had no way of ever listening to it (wasn't even on Soulseek!) But here we
are, CD finally in hand, listening to it for the first time ever. And in line with the original packaging which was
made out of wildly varying recycled material, my copy's packaged in a Kidz Bop CD with the K covered over in duct
tape so it reads "Idz Bop", likely an intentional play on the artist name. There's also duct tape and
marker everywhere on the inside gatefold opening of the CD (I don't think the original Kidz Bop CD is a gatefold, I'm
pretty sure this is two Kidz Bop CDs taped together to form a gatefold, one CDr being housed in each side). Also,
this is *early* id m theft able, so the songs are much longer here (56, 22, and 59 minutes respectively), not
something I always love from id m theft able as I think his shorter, more focused material is usually done better,
but in this case, these long noise improvs are really nice to hear develop. Unlike what you usually get from id m
theft able, these aren't nearly as dense or childish or chaotic, but there's still found sounds, mouth noises,
elements of his signature production style, but it's done much more in the style of a huge live improvised sound
collage, a lot more like a traditional noise artist. It's good, but oh my god is it long. The second track (Disc
1-2) is my favorite, mostly because of the sample flipping and the baby crying, it has the most id m theft able
energy to it, it's awesome. The other two tracks are much slower burns and spend a lot more time building up
soundscapes. Part of this album is the closest id m theft able has ever (seemingly) gotten to straight up musique
concrete drone. Really cool, but again, oh my god is it long. Maybe I need to listen to it again to get it more, but
I've been sitting here for 2 hours and 20 minutes chunking out homework and listening to this all, one sitting
baby, that's how we do it.
7/10
id m theft able - A ♥ Named Spooky
id m theft able, one of my favorite musicians of all time... I've been putting off this next
section of CDs for a while, partially because I wanted to take a break, partially because I knew I'd have a *lot* to
talk about on id m theft able and I just haven't had the largest amount of free time in recent months. So this album
was originally released as an okcupid profile, then much later on Bandcamp and I guess at some point CDrs and Tapes
were made of it so I ordered one along with a bunch of other Mang-disc stuff. This one's especially weird (well, on
top of it being an Ok-Cupid exclusive for a little while) because it's id m's piano ballads album - which in id m
theft able's signature style is still *very* stimmy, very weird, very dissonant, and not even all the tracks are
piano balldas (see track 6 for a squeaking swing set, and the following track 7 for a bizarre drone + rain + vocals
session). Improvised vocals that are vaguely romantic, slower and I guess more tonal drones / piano, it's a good
album, not great. But it's definitely one of the more wildly experimental and unique id m theft able albums out
there... if id m theft able could even get any more experimental.
7/10
id m theft able - Babb's Bridge
Babb's Bridge is in a weird sort of way id m theft able's magnum opus, though it's definitely
not representative of all the majesty he has to deliver; I just mean to say that this is the big high effort album
that was pressed on 500 vinyl copies so it's the one everyone's heard. And I mean it's good, but this album hasn't
always been the one I return to the most often or have the most memories of. For the most part, it's a fairly
standard id m theft able album, with a fair mix of harsh sound collage tracks, mouth noises, and bizarre stimmy
moments, just mastered for vinyl this time. And I don't totally *love* the mastering on this one, mostly because
it's a bit tinny and metallic and harsh (see also: a lot of Deerhoof albums). Most memorable part is the big band
sample on Gasps and Asterisks which is followed by that strange punch sound effect that for the longest time I
could've sworn was from a Faust track and ended up getting super frustrated that I couldn't figure out where it was
from until I relistened to this album last year. Also the part where he reads all the graffiti on the inside of
Babb's Bridge, except that's a Bandcamp exclusive track.
7/10
i'd m thfft able - Her Blood / Blood Blood
(Filed under "id m theft able"). I'm not starting out this list by making the best case for
id m theft able being one of my favorite artists of all time becuase I'll be completely honest, I don't totally get
this one. I'm not totally sure what's going on to begin with. It's like a live show, except he's invited maybe his
friends to it and they're singing along to something bizarre. Maybe he's holding up signs for them to read and say?
There's also like a 5 year old kid there? And I'll be real, he's hilarious when he speaks, definitely my favorite
part of the CD, but the entire first disc is like sorta-directed crowd noises. The second disc is cooler cause it's
more of a traditional id m theft able live show with mouth noises and sound collage and a lot of the radio. And the
kid's still there and presumably the crowd is still there. There's not really much of a description on the inside of
the packaging either, other than it was recorded live at Ferry Village, South Portland, Maine, September 2012.
orila.net describes it as "Here, he performs for folks in their backyard, an intimate event with the kids and
audience joining in (both spontaneously and by invite)." I don't really get it, but it's interesting.
6/10
id m theft able - IF YOU TRAVEL AROUND THE COUNTRY, YOU KNOW THAT WATER QUALITY VARIES WIDELY
At some point, id m theft able went and remade new editions of a bunch of super old CDrs and
he's just selling them on Discogs for pretty cheap. I INTEND to get all of them at some point, I just need a bit more
money, you know how it is. There's currently 3 more he's selling that I don't have and a few other scattered copies
of things other people are selling that I'd like to have (usually just split or collaborative albums, but still).
This copy of Teeth Teething I'd especially like... This album's a more standard id m theft able album, minus the
fact that there's a 30 minute track just in the middle of it (though he used to make a lot longer tracks than now),
but it's cool, fairly average for the guy, but probably mind-blowing if you've never heard anything he's done. Lots
of sound collage, EAI, no input mixer, harsh scratching sounds, long samples of kids' songs, pretty much everything
you can expect from an id m theft able album, though this being an earlier one definitely shows signs of
imperfection that he's since improved massively on. Not one I return to often because it's honestly not that
notable, but idk, maybe it's still a cool introduction or something. Still not making the best case as to why this
guy's one of my favorite musicians ever but oh well, better albums come up soon.
7/10
id m theft able - I'm On Flourescence
Since I got this as one of my Christmas CDs years ago (probably one of the only people to
ever recieve id m theft able CDs as a Christmas gift), this album's had its time to grow on me and while I didn't
love it at first, I've definitely started to understand it as time goes on. Like the previous record (Water Quality),
there's a lot of quiet, more EAI moments than I'm used to on id m theft able records, but I think with the way these
odd digital bleeps and bloops and vocal samples are interlaced in between everything makes for a really engaging
listen. This first 20 minute track is mostly fumbling in your ears, weird bleeps and bloops, and what sounds to be
porn samples? But they're not very clear, it's just like once or twice you can hear "fucking pig", no moaning or
anything, so it's not super explicit. Near the end, this starts to really ramp up as the bleeps start to get more
tonal, more frequent, and more video-gamey, and then you start to get the classic id m theft able Stims like him
repeating "test, test, my headphones, my headphones are dead" over and over again. And it starts to build up this
incredible intensity along with these absurd stims. But that's how pretty much all of these tracks go. Unlike other
id m albums, this one sorta lacks variety, but that in a way makes it easier to grasp what's going on? Each track
is relatively quiet and empty compared to other id m tracks, but that's still with a massive asterisk on it because
there's definitely loud and unrestricted moments. And most of the record is like random ASMR fumbling in the ears,
but there's still crazy harsh digital sounds everywhere too. As well as repetitive stimmy samples in and out of
every which direction. There's an amazing part of track 4 that I never realized was id m theft able's normal
mouth noises, but actually CD skipped this time. And actual Oval style CD skipping at the end of track 6! And
like many other id m theft able albums, the last track is a near-perfect combination of sounds that on paper
shouldn't work together, but sound absolutely fantastic when presented in this context together: layers of toy
pianos, melancholy singing from Skot, the bleeps from earlier are much louder and a have a lot more different
sounds to them, light CD skipping. Definitely the loudest track on the album and even though all of these sounds
definitely just loop, it's still wildly interesting to hear them all and how they interweave with each other.
Also, "put on your coat, we're leaving" ended up being one of a few phrases me and a friend would say to each
other in jazz band when bored, because I randomly said it to him one day and it stuck (there's a few titles that
ended up like that that I can't totally remember off the top of my head). I
don't often return to this album because of how esoteric it can be at times, but there's some real skill
displayed here and it's definitely worth a listen once you're more seasoned with this incredibly unique style of
music. Maybe listen to some of his best works first though.
8/10
ib m theft adle - 'intendo innuendo w/an inuit in it
(Filed under "id m theft able"). This was in the batch of new (well, new at the time of
writing, which I famously don't specify, good luck figuring out a timeline future readers) id m theft able repress
CDrs I bought, this one being another album that was completely lost until repress. Well sorta, it actually was on
Soulseek this time, but I've still never actually listened to it until now. From the way it was described ("six
impromptu refrains and one reduction"), I thought it would end up being a vocal heavy album, one that I wouldn't be
too into. But wow, this album is incredible, it's one of the most maximalist projects I've heard from the guy, crazy
chiptune melodies everywhere, CD skipping, hilarious vocal stims, bizarre mindblowing compositions, the whole spice.
What's even harder to believe is that any of this (other than track 4 which is actually quite easy to believe) is
improvised. These seem brutally composed, I don't understand how he does it. It's a shame this one's physical-only
too, even more so that the repress is completely sold out. Do listen to it if you ever come across it. Maybe I'll
upload it to YouTube, it's definitely a highlight from the guy.
9/10
id m theft able - Leaving The Keyboard That Plays Itself Down By The River Between 2:30 AM And 3:30 AM August 3rd, 2017
id m theft able has lately (the past few years lately, basically since 2017) been almost
entirely exclusively interested in taking the field recording genre to its extreme, trying to come up with as many
ideas to innovate simply-recording-an-environment-without-any-real-influence as possible including this piece in
which a broken keyboard is left outside, an 8 disc set themed around leaving percussion objects out in the rain for
the gods to play, leaving harps out in the snow (featured later on this page), leaving a microphone inside of a tuba
out near water bodies, and probably definitely more I'm forgetting about. So it's about 67 minutes of that,
completely unedited recording of exactly what the title says. I think it's for sure interesting, trying to be
inventive in an extremely limited genre, and it's definitely inspiring. I feel like I've heard this weird keyboard
that manages to stochastically play itself when left on in a few other id m theft able tracks before. This weird
percussion coming from the speakers definitely sounds familiar. It's esoteric for sure. Super long winded and not an
atmosphere I totally lose myself in, but it's still at the very least a damn interesting concept.
6/10
id m theft able - n's On Fire
God, this is especially difficult to listen to. I think id m theft able's signature mouth
noises can work in some contexts (especially in the context of being a single element of a multi-layered piece), but
40 straight minutes of nothing but gets close to torture at points, especially when he calms down and gets more
ASMRy. I don't want to immediately dismiss this as 'unlistenable', so for now we'll just say that I still find it
hard to get through. At
least the middle track is fun.
3/10
i'd m thfft able - Popsicles, Icicles, Baseball and, Fancy Clothes
(Filed under "id m theft able"). Very traditional id m theft able album here, all the stops and gaps and techniques and bells
and whistles and whatnot: noise, samples, CD skipping (we love this), mouth noises, extremely fast plunderphonics
edits, random silly shit. It's great, you're great.
I swear I hadn't listened to this one in full before but I recognize the first and second tracks so well, I could
almost swear they were used in other id m theft able pieces? Maybe the fact that this is under the 'i'd m thfft
able' name is an allusion to that fact? But to be completely honest, I can't really find a correlation between
usages of the B-sides name and quality, much like that of Aphex Twin and AFX (I mean Hangable Auto Bulb really is
his best work, come on). Ok I didn't pay the greatest attention to this one and I'm not giving it the super in-depth
review I gave I'm On Flourescence, but who cares.
8/10
id m theft able - Releaseless
You know, I wrote a *reeeeeally* in-depth review of this one ages ago when I was doing an id
m theft able listening project that I ended up not making it *that* far through. Still though, the first id m theft
able CD I owned, and one of the coolest CD packagings in my collection. Blew my 8th grade mind away, though Smidge
Beats was still cooler... Anyways, this one's a bit of a difficult listen because there's long stretches of it that
can be pretty quiet and relatively uneventful, but there are these moments every once in a while that are some of the
most memorable moments in the entire id m theft able discography. Those moments are: "WE'RE GONNA GO OUT TO A BIG
RESTAURANT HOW 'BOUT THAT KIDS AND THE KIDS ARE ALL EXCITED!! BOY, A BIG RESTAURANT!! A BIG BANQUET!!" on track 3,
the entirety of track 5 as it plays around with this short loop from a children's song for 9 whole minutes, yet it
never gets old, the big standup comedy joke in track 6, the end of track 6 that's one of the most interesting
textures in a song I've ever heard, a weird children's song that you can't really make the lyrics out of other than
"fancy treat" because it keeps cutting in and out and in and out, and track 7 being the closest id m theft able has
ever gotten to a noise rock track.
8/10
id m theft able - Smidge Beats
First id m theft able album I ever listened to upon looking up a review for another CD I own,
the 'What Would Jason Do? Go And Do Likewise!' compilation and finding this guy's name on the website (which I
can no longer find) under a list of funny artist names and this blew my 8th grade mind away. This is an ORIGINAL
2004 copy of the CD which comes with a random broken CD taped to the cover purchased secondhand from Discogs
somehow, even though there's probably what, about 30 copies of this in existence? I was messaging id m theft able
once on
Instagram about this album and the next time I ordered some CDs directly from his website, he gave me two of the
original breaded scallops stickers he had left from the dumpster where he originally found them for this album
(which are currently the front & back pictures of the album since I've just wrapped the sticker sheet around my CD
copy. I've included a bonus picture of the *true* front of my CD, broken CD taped to the front, for your viewing
pleasure).
There was a point at which this was my favorite album of all time and even though that's long since passed, I can
still say this album is fantastic and near-perfect. I don't know, just listen to it if you're at all a fan of
plunderphonics or CD skipping.
9+/10
id m theft able - Smidge Beats
As I had made my love for this album apparent and Skot still had some of the breaded scallops
stickers laying around, when he was in the wave of reissuing some old items, he went ahead and made new Smidge Beats
CDs, of which I of course had to purchase one. So now I have two copies of Smidge Beats, but it's chill, it's rock
and roll. This one's still packaged the same (even though the disc label's different), but he gave me some extra
cardboard that had a thank you note on it wrapped around it so the front / back pictures don't exactly do the album
justice (but I included a bonus picture of the broken CD on the front for your viewing pleasure).
9+/10
id m theft able - Some Fruit
Even though I bought this directly from Skot in 2023, I think this is actually an original
copy, given that it's in a jewel case and the CD label looks different from the random zoomed in picture of something
that he's been putting on all his recent CD copies. But Water Quality's also in a jewel case and I feel like that's
almost definitely a reissue (see the copyright 2005 Jersey Boys CD tray even though this album released in 2000.
Anyways, this CD is weird. There's only really 5 tracks on this album, but on the CD, there's 30 tracks. That's 5
real tracks, 24 short and completely silent tracks, and one unlisted bonus track, the order being the first five,
each separated by a short silent track in between, the rest of the silent tracks, then the bonus track. Except on my
CD, 11 silent tracks then the bonus track come first, then the rest of the album. This is also a really weird album
because it has essentially none of the classic id-m-theft-able-isms and is the closest he's ever got to a pure
drone record. Each track is like this warped piano or synthesizer followed by manipulation and strange computer
sounds, and of course, I love it. Quieter than normal, strange, uncanny, synthetic. Oh and that weird bonus track,
just like a weird field recording of the radio, but with a low-pass filter on? Not sure what's going on there, 12
minutes of that is kinda crazy.
8/10
id m theft able - Star Guts
While this is easily some of the best disc packaging in my collection (look at the art!), the
music, like I'm On Flourescence, is a lot more quiet and stuttery. There's a bit more sound variety here, but I
don't like it as much. There's a lack of repetitive *hooks* that get you in the other id m theft able albums. Still
though, rapid edits, satisfying sounds, this album *does* have it all, it's just not the greatest at doing that.
It's good though, I'll probably have to give it more listens to really get it, especially since this is a quieter
one and like the music dork I am, I tend not to like the quiet ones as much. Also, the CD exclusive track that
doesn't appear on the Bandcamp version is a CD skipping track which I of course love.
7/10
id m theft able - Well I Fell in Love With the Eye at the Bottom of the Well
id m theft able's most recent traditional-style "album" (still all the way back in 2021, he's
certainly a little less prolific nowadays) with professionally replicated CDs in Digipaks from If, Bwana's label
Pogus Productions (a label I definitely need more CDs from). And this is also one of id m theft able's best albums,
as he uses pretty much ALL of the skills he's honed over the years and pulls every possible punch on this album.
Apparently this album took 5 years to make and you can really hear that. Although it does sorta make all his older
albums in the same style that much more impressive given he was able to pump a few of those out annually back in the
day. On top of your usual mouth noises, CD skipping, harsh beeps, and rapid plunder edits, there's ideas of actual
"songs" here (the album was inspired by Skot trying to make a doo wop song out of the title of the album which
eventually spiralled into what we have now) with actual lyrics, stochastic toy piano, field recordings or rain
playing percussion, and
probably more I'm missing. On top of all that, this is the highest quality id m theft able album out there, it goes
down unexpectedly smooth. This honestly deserves to be on vinyl more than Babb's Bridge.
9/10
id m theft able - 2 Autoharps, A Snowmobile, Some Snowplows, A Premature Snowblower
And for the last id m theft able CD in my collection (for now, I did just order 3 more since
one of them only had a copy left and they were all old CDr reissues that probably weren't coming back a third time,
two of which aren't even on Bandcamp). Finding this at Recycled Books makes it maybe the most rare in-person find of
mine. The soundscape is interestingly
enough a lot more hypnotic and
enthralling than
the broken keyboard one. Oddly enough, the CD's about 18 minutes longer than the Bandcamp version, though all of that
time is pretty much just the field recording continuing after the snow had already stopped and some cars
occasionally passing by. Not super necessary but cool to have the bonus time I suppose.
7/10
Igorrr - Savage Sinusoid
A little while ago during my first semester of college ever, I saw Melt-Banana, Igorrr, and
Otto Von Schirach live in Austin and it was probably the best concert I've ever been to, it was an insanely powerful
night. This album is total mindblowing material and while I'm not in love with every creative decision made on it
(the baroque aesthetic doesn't do much for me),
the sound design, mixing, and mastering are phenomenal and make it one of the most satisfying breakcore / metal
releases to date. Not that there are many of those, but still, this record is great.
8/10
Igorrr - Spirituality And Distortion
On one hand, I can't believe I haven't properly listened to this CD until now, but on the
other hand, I know that at this moment, I am the most generous critic I have ever been and the most appreciative of
music as a whole that I have ever been. Part of that is because that's just naturally where my journey as a musician
and music critic has taken me, opening me up to new forms of music and music appreciation as I go along. Another part
of that however is my job in the back of house kitchen at a sandwich place. You see, we are always playing music on
a bluetooth speaker back there and depending on who's there is who's in control of the aux playlist. Now of course,
whenever I get it, I like to play full albums, and I try to put on something different every time. My coworkers may
not always like my music taste, but at least it is different every time. Now imagine having four coworkers who love
to have control of the aux who also have relatively small playlists who also have pretty similar tastes in music to
each other. This means you will hear the same songs every damn day. Every damn day. This is how you make a man go
insane. So lately I've been desperately craving some more proper avant-garde music, some of the ambient / drone /
musique concrete / even shoegazey stuff I would've disregarded in the past as being a little uneventful (like Main)
and I've just been so appreciative of all the music I get to choose to hear outside of work. Especially if it's good
like this album. Additionally, I've started that rateyourmusic list where I try to listen to and rank as many 2025
releases as I can, and I've been in an ethnomusicology class that's taught me a lot about music around the world, so
I'm much more able to appreciate an album like this that makes use of many different styles. And wow, this album is
incredible. You'd think each song focusing on a different style of music would be a bit gimmicky and I'd argue in
a lot of other albums' cases it is, but here it just sounds so smooth and so nice and the beautifully
complex composition that goes along with things like the accordion are so flooring. The blend of electronics and
acoustics is absolutely jarring, but in the best way possible. It's like when you least expect it, the song pulls
a crazy glitch or break segment out of nowhere and it just hits you in the heart. Plus, this album brings back
memories of that amazing Igorrr concert cause I think most of the songs performed there were off this album. Need
to listen to this again (and probably Savage Sinusoid as well since I don't remember much from my first listen of
it... maybe I'll have to relisten to all of my CDs multiple times...)
9/10
Illusion of Safety - Rules of the Game
One of my most recent purchases from Recycled Books ("recent", but it was really like 4
months ago or so), I think my second time being there since moving permanently to Denton. Definitely a nice find, I
sent my dad a picture of it and he said he's never once seen an Illusion of Safety physical outside of Chicago, so
that's cool. I'm not sure where this came from, but somehow when I ripped this CD, I got the track title for the only
track on the CD of "None Of The Tracks Have Titles, But This POS Software Won't Accept That" which is maybe CD text
or just Gracenote acting up. On my old laptop, when I ripped my Sigur Rós ( ) CD, iTunes gave me about 9 options of
titles to choose from (all of them being (seemingly) the exact same option). I wondered what would happen if I chose
something like the 5th one down, and then it made all of the track titles something about sex with goats. I still
can't find where the data for those track titles actually comes from at all. Although this EP is just Dan Burke (I
think), Illusion of Safety for a period of time contained a few members of Cheer-Accident and Jim O'Rourke, making
some of these records a companion to Brise-Glace era material (one of my favorite Cheer-Accident x Jim O'Rourke
projects) so I'm definitely excited to look for more of that. This is a pretty cool 20 minute sound collage, I like
the sounds presented on it. It doesn't make a huge impact on me, maybe it needs a couple relistens, but I like the
blend of computery sounds with field recording, I like the density in some areas paired with the sparseness in
other areas. It does feel a little aimless and formless though, like it's just sorta going without much thought
or greater purpose. Not that it necessarily needs a greater purpose, the music does compliment the collage on the
cover art pretty well. Also that's awesome cover art.
7/10
Imperium - Dedicated To Cray-1
Pretty much every track on here is MIDI improvs with a layer of noise on top of them, much
like Ramleh's Product of Fear (and no doubt very much inspired by Ramleh). I think the first track definitely has
that desolate, hopeless quality to it that Product of Fear had, but as the album goes on, it does get progressively
less interesting and the melodies progressively less impactful, the last track being my least favorite. But this
album is overally good, I like the simple concept and on most of the album, it's executed well. Maybe it'd be better
as an EP project or with a greater variety of sound concepts explored. But even near the end of that last track, the
melodies get a lot better.
7/10
Inhibitionists - Lithium Salt Mines
This was one of those noise CDs I got for super cheap on Discogs that one time, never heard
of this guy before, but you know what, this is pretty cool avant-garde drone stuff. I mean, nothing you wouldn't
really expect, but I liked it. The track titles are kinda shit tho.
7/10
Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls
Iron Maiden is one of the longest bands I've been interested in in my life, by which I mean I
was into them at the age of 4 or 5 and never *really* fell out of them except around middle school early high school
when I first started actually getting into music and wanted to leave some of the "cringe" stuff behind. But no,
Iron Maiden started out as one of my all time favorite bands and then drifted into the background as a bit of a
guilty pleasure, but now I can safely say, yeah, these guys are great. And while I haven't really heard much of
their newer music (well, I think I heard it all when I was a kid, but I don't remember much of it), I take it this
is one of their best albums in a long time. I'm definitely a bit of a weird Iron Maiden fan though. Piece of Mind
and Powerslave are 9/10 masterpieces, that's not really a controversial opinion, but man, I really did not care for
Somewhere in Time or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and that's about where I stopped by discography listen-through a
year ago, pretty much just because I got bored of them. I should really try that again sometime though. One other
thing I want to address is that I don't have very many Iron Maiden CDs even though I definitely should. My dad
only owns three (Killers, Piece of Mind, Powerslave), so you know, I should definitely have come across at least
a few others in my time. It's just they usually cost a lot new and I usually find other things at the store
when I find Iron Maiden, so they end up being the first thing I put down a majority of the time. Except for
this time at Grimey's where I found the Book of Souls box for 10$ which I considered such a good deal that I
just had to buy it, and buy it I did. And yeah, this is actually a great album, I don't really understand many
of the complaints about it. I think Iron Maiden's longer track lengths suit them well, this album is paced
amazingly, I never got bored during it. I think the first disc is definitely better than the second and Bruce
Dickinson's old voice is a little hard to get used to, nowadays it's sounding more like Isaac from Black
Country New Road than Bruce Dickinson. But those are my only complaints, this is a great album.
8/10
Jackie-O-Motherfucker - U-Sound Archive Vol. 3
Jackie-O-Motherfucker are one of the more interesting bands I know about (also thanks to my
dad) and are the closest thing I can name to "avant-country", if you ever wanted to hear something like that. Of
course, they tend to fall into more free folk / improvisation territory, but albums like Bloom and some tracks on
Liberation are full on country with avant-garde elements to them. See also Vibracathedral Orchestra (who I need to
remember to pick up the couple albums I saw for sale on Recycled Books' Discogs page... when I have money in
presumably April). Anyways, this album is great. Got it from Recycled Books like where I've been getting pretty much
everything as of late (you can probably tell from the price tag, it's a generic tag, but they tend to price items the
same way, in groups of three numbers). I really like the silkscreened artwork on it, now I want to collect the other
U-Sound archive sessions. The music on here is fantastic too, I can get a little bored of some other JOMF releases
that tend to meander a while before getting to the great songs, but this one consistently vibes all the way
through. They have this really contemplative nature to them that I don't really get out of much other free folk.
Definitely listen to this one (if you can, not so sure as to the availability of it).
8/10
Jackie-O-Motherfucker - U-Sound Archive Vol. 4
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Jackie-O-Motherfucker - U-Sound Archive Vol. 20
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Jackie-O-Motherfucker - Wow / The Magick Fire Music
AS one of few finds in the San Antonio Half Price Books when we went to Six Flags Fiesta
Texas, I kind of *had* to pick this up, even though my dad already owns a copy (part of my reasoning is that last
time I checked, I couldn't find this CD in the house for the life of me), but it's one of my favorite cover arts and
disc arts (I'm in love with that font) and I mean come on, you're not finding anything cooler in San Antonio,
nobody's gonna be as kind-hearted as me and take this poor album home with them. I think the CDs are produced in the
wrong order from the title though since it's Magick Fire Music first THEN Wow. And might I add, I like Magick Fire
Music much more than Wow because Wow only consists of 2 20 minute songs, neither of which have any particularly
memorable moments to them while Magick Fire Music at least has Bone Saw (really one of the best post rock songs of
all time) and Quaker (which on first listen was very funny to me). All in all though, both albums are still 7/10s for
having a bit too much nothing going on at points, you know? I love the *moments* on this album, but altogether, it's
a little hard to get through.
The Magick Fire Music: 7/10
Wow: 7/10
Jack Pier - Happier Day
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Jaiden Macintosh - Ø
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Jaiden Macintosh - Plurr EP
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Jan St. Werner - Felder
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Jan Jelinek - Kosmischer Pitch
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Jason Forrest - The Unrelenting Songs Of The 1979 Post Disco Crash
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Jim O'Rourke - Happy Days
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Jim O'Rourke - I'm Happy, And I'm Singing, And A 1, 2, 3, 4
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John Frusciante - Maya
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John Oswald - 69 Plunderphonics 96
a
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John Wiese - Circle Snare
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John Wiese - GGA
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John Zorn - Elegy
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Kazumoto Endo - While You Were Out
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Kazuya Ishigami - Sunday Morning Field Recordings
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Broken Computer Orchestra - Live @ Michaelsoft Binbows
(Filed under "KBH").
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Keith Fullerton Whitman - Dartmouth Street Underpass
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Hrvatski - Oiseaux 96-98
(Filed under "Keith Fullerton Whitman").
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Kevin Drumm - CRAZY
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Kevin Drumm - Elapsed Time
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Kevin Drumm - Imperial Horizon
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Kevin Drumm - Motif
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Kevin Drumm - !!!
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Kid606 - Don't Sweat The Technics
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Kid606 - Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You
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Kid606 - Pretty Girls Make Raves
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The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble
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King Crimson - The Elements: 2020 Tour Box
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King Crimson - Heroes
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King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
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King Crimson - VROOOM
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King Tiger - INVADE
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King Tiger - Nonamecd
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King Tiger - Magic Wood EP
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King Tiger - Stone EP
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KK Null - Absolute Heaven
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KK Null - Extropy
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KK Null - Kosmik Engine
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KK Null - Kosmo Incognita
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Koenjihyakkei - Nivraym (Revisited)
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Koharapayl - Avant Jazz
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Kraftwerk - Electric Cafe
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Lawrence English - Kiri No Oto
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Lesser - Welcome To The American Experience
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Liars - There's Always Room On The Broom
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The Locust - Flight Of The Wounded Locust
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The Locust - Follow The Flock, Step In Shit
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The Locust - The Locust
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The Locust - New Erections
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The Locust - Plague Soundscapes
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The Locust - Safety Second, Body Last
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Loscil - Endless Falls
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Loscil - Equivalents
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Loscil - Plume
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Loscil - Submers
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Lowercase Noises - The Swiss Illness
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