Summer Music pts. 3 & 4 - Golden & Popol Vuh

Sorry guys for not updating; have been busy doing nothing by the Mediterranean and just about to be busy with the same by the Baltic Sea. So, sorry for no covers, just links.
Golden was (is?) a band consisting of four people who made their names in other, more famous, bands like Trans Am, The Mars Volta, Make Up or Six Finger Satellite; the thing is, Golden was their first band. Sounds like none of the mentioned. The band's self-described "boogie-rock, as played in the 70s, with West African guitar music influences" made for "Golden Summer", my album of the year 2000, let alone that year's cold summer. Here is the vinyl rip; I do promise the cover shots in future.

And Popol Vuh? Got my hands on it in the scorching summer of 1994. Their best album, slightly different from the rest of the band's oeuvre. Piano, electric guitar and female vocals. Deeply spiritual, Christian atmosphere. Ranks among the most blissful music ever made, albeit carefully composed. Enjoy.

Summer Music pt. 2: XTC - "Skylarking"

What can I say? The most charming record ever. It was my summer 1987 LP, and if you don't know this one yet, it's bound to be your summer 2008 LP.
NOTE: this version contains the song 'Dear God' instead of 'Mermaid Smiled'. Anoyne to share the latter?

Summer Music pt. 1: JR

Wherever you guys can be, I am on the northern hemisphere and the summer has just begun. This here is the first instalment in my 'summer music' series. Quite literally: each of the albums featured here I was listening to on a one fine summer. This particular record made my summer 2002.
It's difficult to make out the basic info from the cover, especially if you don't speak Spanish. "127" is the title, and the name of the band is JR. The music is slow, scorching and suffocating, mostly acoustic, but with a few electronic touches. Not too far from what Calla or Songs:Ohia did at the time, but these Spanish guys were a year or so ahead of their American counterparts.
I was surprised to find this great disc from 1999 still in print (it's on Acuarela Records) and this great band still making records. Anyway, try this gem in my trusty ogg 500 format.

Mark Kozelek - Rock'n'Roll Singer, 2000

If you tend to agree with me that Sun Kil Moon's "April" is the weakest album from Mark Kozelek since 1996 (or maybe ever), please enjoy one of the man's moments of glory. When it came out, it was sort of a postcard to us, Red House Painters fans whose faith was just beginning to shake. 30 minutes, 7 songs including 4 unexpected covers (three songs by AC/DC and one by John Denver), but the originals keep the thing going. "Ruth Marie" and especially "Find Me, Ruben Olivares" make for some of the most essential shit from Koz.
Encoded in my trustworthy 500 kbs .ogg format. Get songs 1-6 here and the aforementioned "Ruth Marie" here.

Harmony of the Spheres - v/a, 1996

Somebody called this album 'the best drone compilation ever'; I'd say that Drunken Fish, the label behind this gem, could have named it 'The Shape of Music to Come'. In 1996, the artists featured were just a bunch of obscure psych acts defying the regimes of grunge, triphop, and post-rock equally successfully. A few years passed and they're all household names; moreover, everybody and their dog plays like one of them.
Originally released as a 3xLP edition, with each artist given one side; the thing was also available as a double CD.
A: Bardo Pond - "Sangh Seriatim"
B: Flying Saucer Attack - "Since When" pts. 1-4
C: Jessamine - "22:30"
D: Roy Montgomery - "Fantasia on a Theme by Sandy Bull"
E: Loren MazzaCane Connors - 4 songs
F: Charalambides - "Naked in Our Deathskins"
Get A and B here
Get C here
Get D, E and F here
and enjoy the sound quality of the .ogg files. The bitrate is somewhat lower than 500, though.

Tomasz Sikorski (1939-1988)

If Morton Feldman was contemporary music's Brian Eno, Sikorski, a Polish composer, should have been its Syd Barrett. An unsung proto-minimalist classic, an increasingly reclusive figure, died alone of alcohol O. D.
There is a strong obsessive quality to his music, which was his extremely singular take on minimalism. Absolutely essential stuff.
For an unknown reason, there are no CDs of his music. I found these files on soulseek, all of them are in 320 mp3. 9 compositions, 200 megabytes of stuff in three chunks which can be downloaded simultaneously.
Dig it.

PART 1 (divshare)
PART 2 (mediafire)
PART 3 (mediafire)

Keep your fingers crossed...

...coz I'm uploading 240 mbytes worth of stuff by Tomasz Sikorski and something keeps screwing up. In 2-3 days the post should be ready; in the meantime, try to find out who the guy was.

Big Black - "Atomizer", 1986

It should be in every home.

The Greatest Hits of Bezunesh Bekele (Ethiopia, 1960s)

You think it's folk music? Nope. Far from that. Just songs, regular stuff. Simply awesome. If you know Tilahun Gessesse, you get some idea - the band sound is pretty much similar (the same orchestra perhaps); but THESE vocals are incredible.
I'm desperately after ANY information on the singer and the recordings. The lady's first name sometimes appears in print as Bzunesh or Bizunesh, the surname - as Beqele. A few songs of hers surfaced on the 'Ethiopiques' compilation series, but not this material. This rip is from a cassette - 1st generation cd copy - borrowed from a friend of mine. I have processed the sound a little bit, so I think the resulting thing plays better than the source. The song titles are likely to contain spelling mistakes.
Please enjoy this stellar stuff.
ps. Not sure if I made myself clear, so: this is a MUST for EVERYONE, regardless of what kind of music you happen to be into. I can't remember when I last used so many capital letters...

Big Star - "Radio City", 1973

The thing is, this album is available only as a part of a twofer with their "#1 Record". The above must be the vinyl LP cover.
By the time of recording the album, Big Star had become a trio led by Alex Chilton. Much wilder sound than their first record, and more coherent than "Third/Sister Lovers", which followed next. No weak points on this one, really. Alex Chilton is the greatest rhythm guitarist ever. Also, I'm normally not a production freak, but the bright and punchy drums make this one sound as if it were recorded in the 1990s and not the same year as Houses of the Holy. Or Acnalbasac Noom, for that matter.
Speaking of sound quality, I encoded the whole thing in my trademark 500 kbs .ogg format.
Please enjoy one of my Top Ten records ever: SIDE A and SIDE B.

Jesu - demo 2004

The demo version of this decade's my absolutely favourite album.
Enjoy - PART 1 and PART 2.