(In no particular order...)
Scott Walker-The Drift
I had always heard various odds and ends by Mr. Walker and thought he had an interesting voice as well as being an interesting person. Several people I know have raved about this album and when I was out of town with a friend I saw it in a CD store and picked it up. IT was interesting to listen to in the car ride back with his rap-esque car stereo the kick on "Cossacks Are" was literally shaking the car....
But about the actual music, I totally love this album and Im really not totally sure why. The use of Bizarre Sounds etc. is something I can surely appriciate. Also Scott's voice is so marvelously different and just totally fits every word he sings. He takes a lot of time on his albums lately and it really, really shows. Every song is fabulous but I think "Cossacks Are" is still my favorite.
Current 93-Black Ships Ate The Sky
A lot of people have mentioned this as a return to the sound of albums like "All The Pretty Little Horses" which isn't wrong, but black ships still is wonderful and fresh. Black Ships is a lot less stripped down than the last two current 93 albums (soft black stars being simple piano and voice while sleep has his house revolved around harmonium and voice) this probably has something to do with the massive amount of collaborators giving there addition to David's apocalyptic visions. I was orignally put off by the fact that there are several versions of the Hymn "Idumea" but they're all very different and have different vocalists so they all seem to stand pretty well. I was also pleased to hear some very nice sound manipulation half-way through "Black Ships Were sinking into Idumea" (Coming from the wonderful Steven Stapleton I'm sure) It's not my all time favorite Current 93 album but its very good and shows that that David still has a bit of madness to shine.
Whitehouse-Asceticists 2006
Well everyone that talks about whitehouse says how "extreme" they are and how they "push the envelope". Also everytime an album comes out the "controversy" is brought up. Regardless of all that crap..Whitehouse is fucking amazing! A lot of people say how they've been doing the same thing for 20 years etc. and Asceticists just goes to show the opposite. Is it noisey? Ranting vocals about sex,violence,rape etc.? sure, but the sound has evolved to a new level, hell theres even some BEAT here and there. Although I feel Birdseed was slightly stronger (except for the Peter Sotos contribution which is something I can really only listen to once) Asceticists comes in very close and really isn't a bad starting point if your new to Whitehouse. I've heard there's a new album lined up for next year and I can truthfully say that Im excited!
M.S. Waldron, Steven Stapleton, Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson, Jim Haynes, and R.K. Faulhaber-The Sleeping Moustache
When I got this cd the only names that I were famillar with were Waldron and Stapleton. Since buying this I have looked further into the other three and become a fan of their work as well (though I havent been able to track down much of Sigmarsson's work yet) This album is nothing short of brilliant, several long time nurse fans have told me it reminds them a lot of some of the early stuff which makes me think its time to track down some of those hard to find cds (that they need to REISSUE) Beautiful Drones, strange audio manipulations..everything you've come to expect from Stapleton and it's all done so fabulously.
(after this I got too lazy to post pictures)
The Wardrobe-A Sandwich Short
Tony Wakeford (of Sol Invictus) teams up again with the wonderful Andrew Liles for another great cd. This ones even more far out than the last one. It goes from wierd to wierder in the best way possible and kept me interested the whole time. "Lucifer Before Sunrise" is a re-working of the Stapleton/Wakeford track of the same name and the vocals are narrated by the daughters of one Colin Potter.
Coil-The Remote Viewer (Threshold House 2 disc reissue)
I grabbed both the remote viewer and black antlers when they were reissued. Though I like both I really, really like the remote viewer and find myself spacing out to it all the time. Sure you can't listen to experimental music all the time, but when you do it might as well be something this good. Also, its nice to have more than just mp3s of this since before it was only availible as a cd-r
