2 more tonight..
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 21:41 (eleven years ago) link
62. BRAINTICKET Cottonwoodhill (2666 Points, 20 Votes)RYM: #380 for 1970http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/089/MI0002089659.jpg?partner=allrovi.comhttp://open.spotify.com/album/7h2AERd0CxTtK0xWrUtlDEspotify:album:7h2AERd0CxTtK0xWrUtlDE
Next time you feel like getting fried, listen to this! But never mind the first two songs on Cottonwoodhill; they are both a rather ho-hum affair. The real brillance on this disc is to be found throughout their 26 minute acid-fueled masterpiece, "Brainticket", the basis of which is a slightly varrying guitar/keyboard lock groove, kinda like Can at their most repetitive. Over this groove pulses all sorts of sound effects, such as machine guns, screams, gargeling, etc. Mostly, though, the overriding sound is their synthesizer, who, although not in the league of Klaus Sculze, nonetheless provides some very entertaining squawks, squeeks, beeps and drones, resulting is a very high-powered burst of aphetimene driven psychosis, dancable and meditative (but meditative in a disturbing, scary way)But Brainticket the band doesn't stop there, and what really makes "brainticket" the song transcend ordinary greatness in pursuit of nutty brilliance is the voice of Dawn Muir. Sounding very Engish, she freaks out over the whole thing, recounting a very bad acid trip, doubting her exsistence, screaming her LSD-fueled insights, and just generally making a complete mess of herself....Suddenly you realize that the insanity is contageous, as the song stops, revealing a weird computer voice going "Brainticket Brainticket Brainticket" and you are left wondering just what the fuck is going on,just what is this I'm listening to? But then the song fades back in, and it's back to where we started... Poor Dawn Muir, she sounds like a girl being dragged off towards a mental institution, and I wouldn't be surprised if she was still there. Because after this album, everyone in Brainticket freaked out, and only their keyboard player remained. While other Brainticket albums are interesting, none have the sheer grab you by the balls lunancy as witnessed all over Cottonwoodhill, the cover of which carries the helpful warning, "Don't listen to this record more than once a day or your brain will be destroyed!" -- John, Head Heritage
...Suddenly you realize that the insanity is contageous, as the song stops, revealing a weird computer voice going "Brainticket Brainticket Brainticket" and you are left wondering just what the fuck is going on,just what is this I'm listening to? But then the song fades back in, and it's back to where we started...
Poor Dawn Muir, she sounds like a girl being dragged off towards a mental institution, and I wouldn't be surprised if she was still there. Because after this album, everyone in Brainticket freaked out, and only their keyboard player remained. While other Brainticket albums are interesting, none have the sheer grab you by the balls lunancy as witnessed all over Cottonwoodhill, the cover of which carries the helpful warning, "Don't listen to this record more than once a day or your brain will be destroyed!" -- John, Head Heritage
review[-] by Rolf SemprebonCottonwoodhill is one of the trippiest records ever made, capturing the intensity of the peak LSD experience far more successfully than any Timothy Leary recording, and even today, when many such documents from that era can sound silly and dated, Brainticket's fascinating debut still holds hallucinogenic potency. The record has only two proper songs, "Black Sand" and "Places of Light," with a side and a half of the album taken up by the three-part "Brainticket." "Black Sand" opens the disc with a driving funk beat and powerful organ and guitar interplay, adding in vocals distorted beyond coherency. "Places of Light" begins in a slightly lighter vein as a flute leads the proceedings, a looser jazzier piece that throws in some of Dawn Muir's odd spoken word vocals. Before one realizes what has happened, the piece has faded out and there is suddenly a crashing sound, car horns, and engines starting up. "Brainticket" is a bizarre roller coaster ride through weird sound effects and electronics, an endless organ riff, and Muir's acid-rush ramblings from hushed whisper to urgent screams, as any coherency she had earlier becomes lost to mind-expanding visions. Rather than the laid-back mellow groove of some psychedelic music from this era, Cottonwoodhill has a hyper energy in the frenetic organ riff and Muir's voice, like an acid trip out of control, while at times the various sound effects take over completely.
Cottonwoodhill is one of the trippiest records ever made, capturing the intensity of the peak LSD experience far more successfully than any Timothy Leary recording, and even today, when many such documents from that era can sound silly and dated, Brainticket's fascinating debut still holds hallucinogenic potency. The record has only two proper songs, "Black Sand" and "Places of Light," with a side and a half of the album taken up by the three-part "Brainticket." "Black Sand" opens the disc with a driving funk beat and powerful organ and guitar interplay, adding in vocals distorted beyond coherency. "Places of Light" begins in a slightly lighter vein as a flute leads the proceedings, a looser jazzier piece that throws in some of Dawn Muir's odd spoken word vocals. Before one realizes what has happened, the piece has faded out and there is suddenly a crashing sound, car horns, and engines starting up. "Brainticket" is a bizarre roller coaster ride through weird sound effects and electronics, an endless organ riff, and Muir's acid-rush ramblings from hushed whisper to urgent screams, as any coherency she had earlier becomes lost to mind-expanding visions. Rather than the laid-back mellow groove of some psychedelic music from this era, Cottonwoodhill has a hyper energy in the frenetic organ riff and Muir's voice, like an acid trip out of control, while at times the various sound effects take over completely.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 21:46 (eleven years ago) link
Acnalbalsac Noom + The Modern Dance. In the walkman days I had them either side of tape until it got chewed up.
― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 21:47 (eleven years ago) link
Surprised nobody is commenting on these albums
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 21:56 (eleven years ago) link
That Pere Ubu's a gnarly beast. Sorry wrapping up worky work.
― Fastnbulbous, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 22:00 (eleven years ago) link
61. MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA The Inner Mounting Flame (2685 Points, 20 Votes)RYM: #28 for 1971 , #497 overall | Acclaimed: #598http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0001/629/MI0001629825.jpg?partner=allrovi.comhttp://open.spotify.com/album/0chWLemqlI6G1GOEr1q1bzspotify:album:0chWLemqlI6G1GOEr1q1bz
This excellent album bears absolutely no resemblance to the record that British guitarist John McLaughlin released around four months ago, except in the intensity of spirit in which the music was made. That album, My Goal's Beyond, reflected the serenity which McLaughlin was seeking under the guidance of the Indian teacher, Sri Chinmoy, who also counts as a disciple of McLaughlin's fellow guitarist Larry Coryell. On the earlier album, the Mahavishnu Orchestra used droning techniques, both traditional and innovative, to create a feeling of completion, the end of a long musical and soulful search. But The Inner Mounting Flame is a throwback in its own way, a retreat to more basic jazz and instrumental rock and roll. It's very similar to the first album that McLaughlin made after leaving Miles Davis' band, Devotion, on which McLaughlin and Buddy Miles (who sounded like a man drumming for his life) made it clear that heavy rock music wasn't necessarily like having an anvil dropped on your skull.In the incarnation in which it presents itself on this new record, the Mahavishnu Orchestra is one of the tightest assemblages of musicians playing today. Gone (unfortunately) is Dave Liebman on soprano and McLaughlin's wife Eve, who performed beautifully on oud. The great Charlie Haden has been replaced on bass by Rick Laird, a fine Czech pianist named Jan Hammer has been added, and three of the original members remain: Violinist Jerry Goodman, formerly of the defunct Flock; Billy Cobham, one of the most proficient and creative session drummers working out of New York, and McLaughlin himself, who is one of the few electric guitarists in the world who has the complete facility of dexterous skill to bring his instrument fully into the world of fast, improvisatory jazz music.There are eight songs on Flame, each one having something different to say about the real connection between music and spirit. "Meetings of the Spirit" is psychic and religious torch music, a hard rocker that lets each musician cook a little, each adding his own dash to the swirling stew. "Dan" is built at first slowly, and then frantically with weird, shifting cadences, around McLaughlin's beautiful but elusive melodic line."The Noonwind Race" is hard rock/jazz, fast almost beyond comprehension, stretching and reaching for something that only the musicians themselves know anything about. McLaughlin solos first in a blaze of 8ths and 16ths, then Goodman on electric, hopped-up violin draws a picture of complex, skirling luminescence, then Hammer's econonmical break on electric piano, then McLaughlin takes the final lap of this astounding, exhausting race. The rhythm section of Cobham and Laird is laid back, and very, very tight.The side ends with "A Lotus on Irish Streams'," which is not a bar ditty you might have heard in your local tavern but a soft, acoustic instrumental, a kind of breather after the intensity of the sturm und drang. As it will in almost any acoustic ensemble, the violin dominates, and Goodman shows that he possesses a soulful, soft touch. As the title suggests, it's a lovely song.Side two features Cobham strutting his stuff on "Vital Transformation," another fast, hard number reminiscent of Devotion, as is "The Dance of Maya," which also has a nice, slow blues line that's a treat to hear. "You Know You Know" is more subdued and presents pianist Hammer on electric keyboard, and he too is tremendously skilled, with beautiful phrasing and a smart ear for tart improvisation.The last number, "Awakening," is just that: the band is up and moving fast again, as if it's getting ready for the next step on that good old Sri Chinmoy calls the "sky-kissing ladder." It's a short, almost curt song, but one that somehow says to us that there's more in store. As Sri would say, "Aspiration is the first rung; Realization is the last." -- Stephen Davis, RS
In the incarnation in which it presents itself on this new record, the Mahavishnu Orchestra is one of the tightest assemblages of musicians playing today. Gone (unfortunately) is Dave Liebman on soprano and McLaughlin's wife Eve, who performed beautifully on oud. The great Charlie Haden has been replaced on bass by Rick Laird, a fine Czech pianist named Jan Hammer has been added, and three of the original members remain: Violinist Jerry Goodman, formerly of the defunct Flock; Billy Cobham, one of the most proficient and creative session drummers working out of New York, and McLaughlin himself, who is one of the few electric guitarists in the world who has the complete facility of dexterous skill to bring his instrument fully into the world of fast, improvisatory jazz music.
There are eight songs on Flame, each one having something different to say about the real connection between music and spirit. "Meetings of the Spirit" is psychic and religious torch music, a hard rocker that lets each musician cook a little, each adding his own dash to the swirling stew. "Dan" is built at first slowly, and then frantically with weird, shifting cadences, around McLaughlin's beautiful but elusive melodic line.
"The Noonwind Race" is hard rock/jazz, fast almost beyond comprehension, stretching and reaching for something that only the musicians themselves know anything about. McLaughlin solos first in a blaze of 8ths and 16ths, then Goodman on electric, hopped-up violin draws a picture of complex, skirling luminescence, then Hammer's econonmical break on electric piano, then McLaughlin takes the final lap of this astounding, exhausting race. The rhythm section of Cobham and Laird is laid back, and very, very tight.
The side ends with "A Lotus on Irish Streams'," which is not a bar ditty you might have heard in your local tavern but a soft, acoustic instrumental, a kind of breather after the intensity of the sturm und drang. As it will in almost any acoustic ensemble, the violin dominates, and Goodman shows that he possesses a soulful, soft touch. As the title suggests, it's a lovely song.
Side two features Cobham strutting his stuff on "Vital Transformation," another fast, hard number reminiscent of Devotion, as is "The Dance of Maya," which also has a nice, slow blues line that's a treat to hear. "You Know You Know" is more subdued and presents pianist Hammer on electric keyboard, and he too is tremendously skilled, with beautiful phrasing and a smart ear for tart improvisation.
The last number, "Awakening," is just that: the band is up and moving fast again, as if it's getting ready for the next step on that good old Sri Chinmoy calls the "sky-kissing ladder." It's a short, almost curt song, but one that somehow says to us that there's more in store. As Sri would say, "Aspiration is the first rung; Realization is the last." -- Stephen Davis, RS
review[-] by Richard S. GinellThis is the album that made John McLaughlin a semi-household name, a furious, high-energy, yet rigorously conceived meeting of virtuosos that, for all intents and purposes, defined the fusion of jazz and rock a year after Miles Davis' Bitches Brew breakthrough. It also inadvertently led to the derogatory connotation of the word fusion, for it paved the way for an army of imitators, many of whose excesses and commercial panderings devalued the entire movement. Though much was made of the influence of jazz-influenced improvisation in the Mahavishnu band, it is the rock element that predominates, stemming directly from the electronic innovations of Jimi Hendrix. The improvisations, particularly McLaughlin's post-Hendrix machine-gun assaults on double-necked electric guitar and Jerry Goodman's flights on electric violin, owe more to the freakouts that had been circulating in progressive rock circles than to jazz, based as they often are on ostinatos on one chord. These still sound genuinely thrilling today on CD, as McLaughlin and Goodman battle Jan Hammer's keyboards, Rick Laird's bass, and especially Billy Cobham's hard-charging drums, whose jazz-trained technique pushed the envelope for all rock drummers. What doesn't date so well are the composed medium- and high-velocity unison passages that are played in such tight lockstep that they can't breathe. There is also time out for quieter, reflective numbers that are drenched in studied spirituality ("A Lotus on Irish Streams") or irony ("You Know You Know"); McLaughlin was to do better in that department with less-driven colleagues elsewhere in his career. Aimed with absolute precision at young rock fans, this record was wildly popular in its day, and it may have been the cause of more blown-out home amplifiers than any other record this side of Deep Purple.
This is the album that made John McLaughlin a semi-household name, a furious, high-energy, yet rigorously conceived meeting of virtuosos that, for all intents and purposes, defined the fusion of jazz and rock a year after Miles Davis' Bitches Brew breakthrough. It also inadvertently led to the derogatory connotation of the word fusion, for it paved the way for an army of imitators, many of whose excesses and commercial panderings devalued the entire movement. Though much was made of the influence of jazz-influenced improvisation in the Mahavishnu band, it is the rock element that predominates, stemming directly from the electronic innovations of Jimi Hendrix. The improvisations, particularly McLaughlin's post-Hendrix machine-gun assaults on double-necked electric guitar and Jerry Goodman's flights on electric violin, owe more to the freakouts that had been circulating in progressive rock circles than to jazz, based as they often are on ostinatos on one chord. These still sound genuinely thrilling today on CD, as McLaughlin and Goodman battle Jan Hammer's keyboards, Rick Laird's bass, and especially Billy Cobham's hard-charging drums, whose jazz-trained technique pushed the envelope for all rock drummers. What doesn't date so well are the composed medium- and high-velocity unison passages that are played in such tight lockstep that they can't breathe. There is also time out for quieter, reflective numbers that are drenched in studied spirituality ("A Lotus on Irish Streams") or irony ("You Know You Know"); McLaughlin was to do better in that department with less-driven colleagues elsewhere in his career. Aimed with absolute precision at young rock fans, this record was wildly popular in its day, and it may have been the cause of more blown-out home amplifiers than any other record this side of Deep Purple.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 22:07 (eleven years ago) link
That Brainticket album is such a bizarre beast. So surprised and very pleased it ended up this high.
Somebody already mentioned it once but it bears repeating:
Brrraaaainticket, Brrraaaainticket. Brrraaaainticket...
― Non-Stop Erotic Calculus (bmus), Tuesday, 26 March 2013 22:07 (eleven years ago) link
I voted for Birds of Fire over the Inner Mounting Flame, but I do have to admit "Vital Transformation" is one of my favorite songs of any jazz-related genre.
― Tom Violence, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 22:18 (eleven years ago) link
Only the 1 funk album today
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 22:18 (eleven years ago) link
The Lost Trident Sessions by Mahavishnu is really good too.
Does anyone know if the Cooking Vinyl reissues of the Pere Ubu (both the albums and Datapink In Year Zero box) from 2008 was a remaster?
― Fastnbulbous, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 22:22 (eleven years ago) link
Direct Link to poll recap & full results
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 22:28 (eleven years ago) link
Tomorrow we will enter the top 50! but first all latecomers and lurkers can discuss todays/previous days results if they want to..
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 22:29 (eleven years ago) link
Spotify f/ Black Flag's The First Four Years: http://open.spotify.com/album/78WwCynnhbncgNobigrXpq
― Hellhouse, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 22:58 (eleven years ago) link
Ohio Players - Pleasure has some biiiig grooves, I like it.Even this high up the list there's plenty of stuff that's new to me - Heldon, Agitation Free & Selda were all artists that I'd never heard of before.
― Eamon Dool Two (Mr Andy M), Tuesday, 26 March 2013 23:19 (eleven years ago) link
I'm loving that part of the rollout... The almost stress-inducing vastness of riches that I haven't even HEARD OF, much less listened to. I need to hear Heldon, Comus, Atomic Rooster, A.R. & Machines...
― Clarke B., Tuesday, 26 March 2013 23:36 (eleven years ago) link
best poll i've ever read anywhere. Such an absurd amount of stuff I cannot wait to hear.
― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 00:23 (eleven years ago) link
OH OF COURSE I'm out when half my ballot places. Hurrah for Selda, Slits, Pere Ubu, Faust. Double super hurrah for Cottonwoodhill. EXTRA MILLION TIMES HURRAH for Acnalbasac Noom. Seriously, when it didn't place in the 200s I really thought it wouldn't place in the top 500 at all. It was a pretty emotional struggle for me to not make it my #1, so I'm very very glad it's here.
― emil.y, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 00:44 (eleven years ago) link
Sorry I havent been following. Cut and Tanz were both top 5 for me. Also stoked to see Cottonwoodhill in the top 100
― Drugs A. Money, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 02:09 (eleven years ago) link
Who was the #1 for Tanz? Out yrself for kudos!
― Drugs A. Money, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 02:10 (eleven years ago) link
wow @ this Malesch album
― Mordy, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 04:26 (eleven years ago) link
Curtis at 78 is really disappointing, it's one of the most perfect albums ever made.
Very happy to see that the first Roxy Music album will be their highest, I have my fingers crossed it'll make the top ten.
I thought The Modern Dance would be a lot higher going on how well it did in the last 70's albums list.
Would have liked to see Radio City a bit higher, yet another perfect album.
There seems to be lots of albums showing up now that I have just never heard of.
― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 04:53 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah I had Modern Dance pegged for top 20
― Drugs A. Money, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 05:07 (eleven years ago) link
best poll i've ever read anywhere. Such an absurd amount of stuff I cannot wait to hear.― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke),
― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke),
Thanks!
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 06:25 (eleven years ago) link
It really makes it all worthwhile to see comments like that. Glad lots of ilxors are checking out lots of new-to-them albums and getting into them. The whole point of doing the poll for me!
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 06:30 (eleven years ago) link
I hope everyone is enjoying the reviews that fastnbulbous is doing a LOT of work in tracking down just for everyone?
It's been a treat.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 06:31 (eleven years ago) link
Also I'm pleased that emil.y's campaigning for Slapp Happy paid off for her!
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 07:12 (eleven years ago) link
It's great that we're still getting surprise entries this high up in the list - I'd never heard of those Heldon records before, will have to check them out (I've got a twofer CD of their first and third albums which I do like). Curtis, Zuma, The Modern Dance and Inner Mounting Flame all got points from me.
I gave that Brainticket album a listen after enjoying the one that placed earlier, erm... yeah, it was a bit much.
Surprised Tanz and Wolf City placed so high - they're both good albums but I'd never rank them over Yeti.
― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 09:35 (eleven years ago) link
Listened to that Selda album this morning. Really nice, not partic rocking IMO. Will definitely go back to it though. When looking at that I also picked up Jean-Claude Vannier's "L' Enfant Assassin des Mouches", also on Finders Keepers, which is some crazy freakiness and might have fitted well with this poll.
― Neil S, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 09:39 (eleven years ago) link
I think that was nominated, I agree that it'd fit right in here (I wouldn't be at all surprised if it made the top 60).
― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 09:45 (eleven years ago) link
2 #1 votes for slapp happy! I haven't spent much time with them, probably should as I love in praise of learning, babble & all the art bears stuff.
I thought for your pleasure & cut would be top 20 for sure. Can't wait to see what bonkers stuff makes it to the upper reaches.
― beau 'daedaly (wins), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 09:45 (eleven years ago) link
The amazing thing is emil.y wasn't even one of the #1 voters.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 09:50 (eleven years ago) link
But it shows the power of campaigning.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 09:51 (eleven years ago) link
Any hopes or predictions for the top 60?
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 10:04 (eleven years ago) link
Still hoping to see A Wizard, A True Star make it.
― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 10:09 (eleven years ago) link
Along with Roxy Music I'd like to see Here Come The Warm Jets, Are We Not Men and The Modern Lovers very in the top ten/twenty.
I've been hoping that Motor Booty Affair would make it but just realised it wasn't nominated so I guess I'm now looking to see Mothership Connection high up. I would really love to see Standing on The Verge of Getting on beat Maggot Brain as I think it's a much better album, don't see that happening though. I'm sure Maggot Brain stands a good chance of being number one.
It seems like Marquee Moon is another obvious contender for number one but this list has been so unpredicatable so far I just can't be sure.
― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 10:17 (eleven years ago) link
Entertainment! should do well I think. Everyone likes that record, right?
― Neil S, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 12:02 (eleven years ago) link
Simply Saucer ftw
― acid in the style of tenpole tudor (NickB), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 12:22 (eleven years ago) link
will lol if maggot brain tops this one as well
― unprepared guitar (Edward III), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 12:30 (eleven years ago) link
Did I miss Yeti?
I am hoping Fun House is #1, but it v well cd be Maggot Brain or Tago Mago. Theres actually a lot of possibilities now that O think about it...
― Drugs A. Money, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 12:59 (eleven years ago) link
er, "now that I think about it..."
― Drugs A. Money, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 13:00 (eleven years ago) link
I read that like one of those screaming goats interrupted ..
― Mark G, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 13:19 (eleven years ago) link
Idk what you're talking about
Theres a real possibility that Riot will beat out Maggot Brain
― Drugs A. Money, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 13:31 (eleven years ago) link
Hahaha, it does have warning labels on the sleeve.
"After listening to this record, your friends won't know you anymore" and "Listen only once a day to this record, your brain might be destroyed".
― emil.y, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 13:33 (eleven years ago) link
Listened to that Selda album this morning. Really nice, not partic rocking IMO. Will definitely go back to it though.
OTM.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:17 (eleven years ago) link
Well that's what I get for using Spotify, no warnings there, you'd think they could have a pop-up or something.
― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:29 (eleven years ago) link
Soft Machine's Third hasn't appeared yet, would like to see that place high.
― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:30 (eleven years ago) link
60. BLACK SABBATH Paranoid (2726 Points, 17 Votes, 1 #1)RYM: #1 for 1970, #18 overall | Acclaimed: #135 | RS: #130http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/780/MI0002780001.jpg?partner=allrovi.comhttp://open.spotify.com/album/714ndVxSx8lIWhQxdbcXIsspotify:album:714ndVxSx8lIWhQxdbcXIs
They do take heavy to undreamt-of extremes, and I suppose I could enjoy them as camp, like a horror movie--the title cut is definitely screamworthy. After all, their audience can't take that Lucifer bit seriously, right? Well, depends on what you mean by serious. Personally, I've always suspected that horror movies catharsized stuff I was too rational to care about in the first place. C- -- R. ChristgauA young girl's voice. She is dressed in a nun's habit. The boy turns and faces her. She proffers a chalice of cervical exudate and he drinks from it. She gets down on her knees and elbows, como peros, and tosses the nun's hem above her posterior. On each naked buttock is the scrawled sign of Ashirikas; "Fuck me, Rolf." The boy whips out a 10" personal vibrator, adorned in waterproof acrylics with the image of the Nazarene. He intones the words "nuk Khensu tenten nebu" and approaches her intendant fundament...impletion...across the room the fresh corpse of an illegitimate hippie baby is dis-impaled from the ceremonial sword of Baph-omet. The myrrh is extinguished with the collected saliva of priests listening to tales of carnal abuse in warm, dark confessionals. The Shadaic numinae are chalked over with the mirrored sign of Ariael, the eleven rubies returned to the vessel of Dione. A dark, handsome youth with the physique of a Dionysos — eyes, though, glazed and cold — grasps the two-foot stem of an imported El-Douhab hookah by its hilt and shoves its tip, sans mouthpiece, into the dry, collapsed rectum of the dead hippie baby, pushes until thin rivulets of blood ooze from the nostrils and lips of the infant. The hookah's stem-tip surfaces and the suck-piece is restored. Those in the room gather about. One youth wears a mosaic-inlaid Aztec skull mask, ornamented with the symbols of Gnostic adoration. He fills the hookah bowl with black opium tars and a dash of Asthmador powders...in the corner of the room, clutching a smuggled police photo of Sharon Tate with her hacked-off tit crammed up her snatch, a lone boy masturbates slowly, moaning "tempora mutantur et nos muta-mur in illis."No "flower children" they, the sinister emanation of a generation who only yesterday, it seems, were set on changing a world in the shadow of nuclear holocaust and overpopulation into a utopia of peace and love. They drop the knee of fealty before the Antichrist. They shoot "M" and they engage in group sex. No act is too depraved, no thought too bizarre as they plunge deeper and deeper into the realm of perversion, into the ultimate "trip" of their own self-fashioned Hell. Orgies, incest, drugs, homosexuality, necrophilia, public nose-picking, Satanism, even living sacrifice.And this is their music. Although you may not enjoy its "message," although you may not enjoy a lead singer (Kip Treavor), who sounds like Keith Relf whining about the tampons stuck up his nostrils, you owe it to yourself as a person concerned with contemporary society or merely with the artistic underground of the youth movement in general to be aware of the "heavy" sounds of bubble-gum Satanism and if you see them live sometimes they undress a hippie girl. -- Nick Tosches, RSMost heavy metal thrives on uptempos; Black Sabbath prefers sludge and slow-motion fuzz. Ozzy Osborne's shrill vocals contribute to a mix of rudimentary riffs and obsessive lyrics, creating an angst-ridden punk poetryof the semi-conscious. Despite an impressive list of potential rivals, Black Sabbath may play the ultimate downer metal. -- Jim Miller, "The Heavy Metal Hall of Fame", RSBlack Sabbath had already raised eyebrows in their native England with their self-titled debut: a seismic re-routing of the blues that, along with the first two Led Zeppelin classics, helped give birth to a new form of rock 'n' roll: heavy metal.In terms of songwriting, the Birmingham quartet's second LP was a quantum leap. Leviathan protest number "War Pigs" is one of the all-time great intros, capturing the embittered mood of Western youth as the U.S. government fought its bloody campaign in Vietnam. All the Sabbath trademarks are here: Ozzy Osbourne's eerie, ominous wail; supple, tempo-shifting dynamics from drummer Bill Ward and bassist/lyricist Geezer Butler; and, most recognizably, the hulking presence of guitar hero and lord of the riff, Tony Iommi.The iconic title track comes next, a proto-punk blast of alienation that remains Black Sabbath's signature anthem -- Ozzy and Iommi even performed it at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee celebrations in London in 2002. Ghostly ballad "Planet Caravan" displays an oft-overlooked tender side, while lumbering sci-fi drama "Iron Man" seems to anticipate the entire grunge movement. The final four tracks are less well known, but just as imposing. Heroin nightmare "Hand Of Doom" is especially apt, helping consolidate Sabbath's position as the darkest force in Seventies music.Paranoid broke them in America, reaching No. 12 on the U.S. chart. Its songs have been covered by acts as diverse as Pantera and The Cardigans; its influence on the heavier end of the rock spectrum, from Nirvana to Queens Of The Stone Age, is incalculable. -- Manish Agarwal, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
A young girl's voice. She is dressed in a nun's habit. The boy turns and faces her. She proffers a chalice of cervical exudate and he drinks from it. She gets down on her knees and elbows, como peros, and tosses the nun's hem above her posterior. On each naked buttock is the scrawled sign of Ashirikas; "Fuck me, Rolf." The boy whips out a 10" personal vibrator, adorned in waterproof acrylics with the image of the Nazarene. He intones the words "nuk Khensu tenten nebu" and approaches her intendant fundament...impletion...across the room the fresh corpse of an illegitimate hippie baby is dis-impaled from the ceremonial sword of Baph-omet. The myrrh is extinguished with the collected saliva of priests listening to tales of carnal abuse in warm, dark confessionals. The Shadaic numinae are chalked over with the mirrored sign of Ariael, the eleven rubies returned to the vessel of Dione.
A dark, handsome youth with the physique of a Dionysos — eyes, though, glazed and cold — grasps the two-foot stem of an imported El-Douhab hookah by its hilt and shoves its tip, sans mouthpiece, into the dry, collapsed rectum of the dead hippie baby, pushes until thin rivulets of blood ooze from the nostrils and lips of the infant. The hookah's stem-tip surfaces and the suck-piece is restored. Those in the room gather about. One youth wears a mosaic-inlaid Aztec skull mask, ornamented with the symbols of Gnostic adoration. He fills the hookah bowl with black opium tars and a dash of Asthmador powders...in the corner of the room, clutching a smuggled police photo of Sharon Tate with her hacked-off tit crammed up her snatch, a lone boy masturbates slowly, moaning "tempora mutantur et nos muta-mur in illis."
No "flower children" they, the sinister emanation of a generation who only yesterday, it seems, were set on changing a world in the shadow of nuclear holocaust and overpopulation into a utopia of peace and love. They drop the knee of fealty before the Antichrist. They shoot "M" and they engage in group sex. No act is too depraved, no thought too bizarre as they plunge deeper and deeper into the realm of perversion, into the ultimate "trip" of their own self-fashioned Hell. Orgies, incest, drugs, homosexuality, necrophilia, public nose-picking, Satanism, even living sacrifice.
And this is their music. Although you may not enjoy its "message," although you may not enjoy a lead singer (Kip Treavor), who sounds like Keith Relf whining about the tampons stuck up his nostrils, you owe it to yourself as a person concerned with contemporary society or merely with the artistic underground of the youth movement in general to be aware of the "heavy" sounds of bubble-gum Satanism and if you see them live sometimes they undress a hippie girl. -- Nick Tosches, RS
Most heavy metal thrives on uptempos; Black Sabbath prefers sludge and slow-motion fuzz. Ozzy Osborne's shrill vocals contribute to a mix of rudimentary riffs and obsessive lyrics, creating an angst-ridden punk poetryof the semi-conscious. Despite an impressive list of potential rivals, Black Sabbath may play the ultimate downer metal. -- Jim Miller, "The Heavy Metal Hall of Fame", RS
Black Sabbath had already raised eyebrows in their native England with their self-titled debut: a seismic re-routing of the blues that, along with the first two Led Zeppelin classics, helped give birth to a new form of rock 'n' roll: heavy metal.
In terms of songwriting, the Birmingham quartet's second LP was a quantum leap. Leviathan protest number "War Pigs" is one of the all-time great intros, capturing the embittered mood of Western youth as the U.S. government fought its bloody campaign in Vietnam. All the Sabbath trademarks are here: Ozzy Osbourne's eerie, ominous wail; supple, tempo-shifting dynamics from drummer Bill Ward and bassist/lyricist Geezer Butler; and, most recognizably, the hulking presence of guitar hero and lord of the riff, Tony Iommi.
The iconic title track comes next, a proto-punk blast of alienation that remains Black Sabbath's signature anthem -- Ozzy and Iommi even performed it at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee celebrations in London in 2002. Ghostly ballad "Planet Caravan" displays an oft-overlooked tender side, while lumbering sci-fi drama "Iron Man" seems to anticipate the entire grunge movement. The final four tracks are less well known, but just as imposing. Heroin nightmare "Hand Of Doom" is especially apt, helping consolidate Sabbath's position as the darkest force in Seventies music.
Paranoid broke them in America, reaching No. 12 on the U.S. chart. Its songs have been covered by acts as diverse as Pantera and The Cardigans; its influence on the heavier end of the rock spectrum, from Nirvana to Queens Of The Stone Age, is incalculable. -- Manish Agarwal, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
review[-] by Steve HueyParanoid was not only Black Sabbath's most popular record (it was a number one smash in the U.K., and "Paranoid" and "Iron Man" both scraped the U.S. charts despite virtually nonexistent radio play), it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. Paranoid refined Black Sabbath's signature sound -- crushingly loud, minor-key dirges loosely based on heavy blues-rock -- and applied it to a newly consistent set of songs with utterly memorable riffs, most of which now rank as all-time metal classics. Where the extended, multi-sectioned songs on the debut sometimes felt like aimless jams, their counterparts on Paranoid have been given focus and direction, lending an epic drama to now-standards like "War Pigs" and "Iron Man" (which sports one of the most immediately identifiable riffs in metal history). The subject matter is unrelentingly, obsessively dark, covering both supernatural/sci-fi horrors and the real-life traumas of death, war, nuclear annihilation, mental illness, drug hallucinations, and narcotic abuse. Yet Sabbath makes it totally convincing, thanks to the crawling, muddled bleakness and bad-trip depression evoked so frighteningly well by their music. Even the qualities that made critics deplore the album (and the group) for years increase the overall effect -- the technical simplicity of Ozzy Osbourne's vocals and Tony Iommi's lead guitar vocabulary; the spots when the lyrics sink into melodrama or awkwardness; the lack of subtlety and the infrequent dynamic contrast. Everything adds up to more than the sum of its parts, as though the anxieties behind the music simply demanded that the band achieve catharsis by steamrolling everything in its path, including its own limitations. Monolithic and primally powerful, Paranoid defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history.
Paranoid was not only Black Sabbath's most popular record (it was a number one smash in the U.K., and "Paranoid" and "Iron Man" both scraped the U.S. charts despite virtually nonexistent radio play), it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. Paranoid refined Black Sabbath's signature sound -- crushingly loud, minor-key dirges loosely based on heavy blues-rock -- and applied it to a newly consistent set of songs with utterly memorable riffs, most of which now rank as all-time metal classics. Where the extended, multi-sectioned songs on the debut sometimes felt like aimless jams, their counterparts on Paranoid have been given focus and direction, lending an epic drama to now-standards like "War Pigs" and "Iron Man" (which sports one of the most immediately identifiable riffs in metal history). The subject matter is unrelentingly, obsessively dark, covering both supernatural/sci-fi horrors and the real-life traumas of death, war, nuclear annihilation, mental illness, drug hallucinations, and narcotic abuse. Yet Sabbath makes it totally convincing, thanks to the crawling, muddled bleakness and bad-trip depression evoked so frighteningly well by their music. Even the qualities that made critics deplore the album (and the group) for years increase the overall effect -- the technical simplicity of Ozzy Osbourne's vocals and Tony Iommi's lead guitar vocabulary; the spots when the lyrics sink into melodrama or awkwardness; the lack of subtlety and the infrequent dynamic contrast. Everything adds up to more than the sum of its parts, as though the anxieties behind the music simply demanded that the band achieve catharsis by steamrolling everything in its path, including its own limitations. Monolithic and primally powerful, Paranoid defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:31 (eleven years ago) link
I could do w/out the bits of musique concrete, but that motorik guitar/keyboard riff-machine at Brainticket's core drives the track w/in spitting distance of proto-techno and pushes it far ahead of the endless space-noodle prog-dribbling that eshews bearing down on the present like a freight train for the illusionary pleasures of vanishing into a quasi-literary fantasy miasma of exponential technocratic tinkering that like one of Zeno's paradoxes only drags the music further from its ostensibly epic affect and closer to the heart of misplaced 70s ambition. (so I'll take an hour of that riff noize, keep yr Van der Graaf Generator).
― Hellhouse, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:34 (eleven years ago) link
Paranoid is probably my least favourite of the first six Sabbath albums but that's mainly down to overplaying of 'Iron Man' and the title track, it's still a great album.
― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:38 (eleven years ago) link
I could do w/out the bits of musique concrete
I know I do this myself, but I really hate comments where people are "oh, this would be okay if it weren't for x", where x is something that is totally integral to the whole record.
― emil.y, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:39 (eleven years ago) link