Slowly Growing Deaf

Coming back. Again...

Protect your ears and enjoy!
01 - Oceansize - It's My Tail and I'll Chase It If I Want To (Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up 2010)
02 - Black Mountain - Let Spirits Ride (Wilderness Heart 2010)
03 - Anathema - Summer Night Horizon (We're Here Because We're Here 2010)
04 - Orphaned Land - From Broken Vessels (The Never Ending Way Of Orwarrior 1910)
05 - Kylesa - Spiral Shadow (Spiral Shadow 2010)
06 - The Dillinger Escape Plan - Farewell, Mona Lisa (Option Paralysis 2010)
07 - Shining - Madness and Damage Done (Blackjazz 1910)
Total: 35:09

Enjoy!
01 - William Shatner - Common People (Has Been 2004) - Pulp
02 - Tom Waits - Sea Of Love (Orphans 2009) - Phil Phillips
03 - The Neville Brothers - Way Down in the Hole (Spirit of the Century 2001) - Tom Waits
04 - Tindersticks - Here (Donkeys 92-97 1998) - Pavement
05 - Hellsongs - Symphony Of Destruction (Hymns In The Key Of 666 2008) - Megadeth
06 - Johnny Cash - Hurt (American IV 2002) - Nine Inch Nails
07 - Smashing Pumpkins - Never Let Me Down Again (Rocket 1994) - Depeche Mode
08 - Sarah Jarosz - Shankill Butchers (Song Up In Her Head 2009) - The Decemberists
09 - Faith No More - War Pigs (The Real Thing 1989) - Black Sabbath
Total: 38:23

Some recent - and danceable - electronic music. Haven't been the best years for the genre, but some releases are exciting enough to keep the hope alive.

Enjoy!
01 - Falty DL - Human Meadow (Love Is A Liability 2009)
02 - Clark - Rainbow Voodoo (Totems Flare 2009)
03 - Crystal Castles - Intimate (Crystal Castles 2010)
04 - Caribou - Sun (Swim 2010)
05 - Jon Hopkins - Wire (Insides 2009)
06 - Röyksopp - Tricky Tricky (Junior 2009)
07 - Moby - One Time We Lived (Laurent Wolf Remix) (Wait For Me Remixes 2010)
Total: 37:22

5 tracks of some wild, genial, jazz.

First is the title track from one of my all time favorite albums: "Leap Of Faith". A fast paced unpredictable improvisation filled with memorable motifs and solos and four musicians in top form. "Las Vegas Tango" is one of the weirdest jazz covers ever done. Based on the Bill Evans' orchestral original, Robert Wyatt's "sings" all the horn parts with it's already unusual voice accompanied with some free form piano and drums.

Charles Mingus' first track from the amazing "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" is something completely different. The challenging aspect is not the minimalist, experimental side but the complex, multi-layered denseness of the music. Maybe the wildest orchestral jazz I've heard. And it segues again to the minimalistic "Nobu" from the not always interesting but always forward moving Herbie Hancock. Recorded with a pre-recorded synthesizer and a live solo keyboard, its hypnotic influence is in such places as Detroit techno, 20 years later!

And, full circle, we end with another improvisation-based masterpiece from the free jazz controversial king: Ornette Coleman. From the legendary (and amazing) "The Shape Of Jazz To Come", it's still a challenging listen nowadays and certainly a wild fun-filled ride!

Enjoy!
01 - Dave Douglas - Leap Of Faith (Leap Of Faith 2000)
02 - Robert Wyatt - Las Vegas Tango Part One (The End of an Ear 1970)
03 - Charles Mingus - Track A - Solo Dancer (The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady 1963)
04 - Herbie Hancock - Nobu (Dedication 1974)
05 - Ornette Coleman - Eventually (The Shape Of Jazz To Come 1959)
Total: 34:52

The late 60's were some wild years in the music field: both mainstream and underground bands were into experimenting and making some of their best and worst music. The worst were forgotten by time, the best still sounds modern and adventurous nowadays.

All the tracks in this episode are not only great music by themselves, they are also from excellent albums.

Enjoy!
01 - The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil (Beggars Banquet 1968)
02 - Van Morrison - The Way Young Lovers Do (Astral Weeks 1968)
03 - Serge Gainsbourg - Initials B.B. (Initials B.B 1968)
04 - Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love (Surrealistic Pillow 1967)
05 - King Crimson - Epitaph (In the Court of the Crimson King 1969)
06 - 13th Floor Elevators - Nobody to Love (Easter Everywhere 1967)
07 - Jimi Hendrix Experience - Bold as Love (Axis: Bold as Love 1967)
08 - The Velvet Underground - What Goes On (The Velvet Underground 1969)
09 - The Beatles - The End (Abbey Road 1969)
Total: 38:46

1995 was one of the most important formative years of my musical taste. It was the year where I started to find out what I liked and I didn't liked, and some of that music has followed me through the years.

The ten tracks I chose are some examples of that: music that were formative but that I still listen regularly today.

Enjoy!
01 - Elastica - Stutter (Elastica 1995)
02 - Morphine - Honey white (Yes 1995)
03 - Fun Lovin' Criminals - Passive/Aggressive (Original Soundtrack For Hi-Fi Living EP 1995)
04 - PJ Harvey - C'Mon Billy (To Bring You My Love 1995)
05 - Tindersticks - Snowy In F# Minor (Tindersticks II 1995)
06 - Björk - Hyper-ballad (Post 1995)
07 - Garbage - Queer (Garbage 1995)
08 - Skunk Anansie - Selling Jesus (Paranoid and Sunburnt 1995)
09 - Faith No More - Ricochet (King For A Day Fool For A Lifetime 1995)
10 - The Smashing Pumpkins - Bodies (Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness 1995)
Total: 36:21

Some of the best music released this year. A mixed-style retrospective between metal and soul and with three Portuguese bands!

Enjoy!
01 - Orelha Negra - A Cura (Orelha Negra 2010)
02 - Melissa Auf der Maur - Out Of Our Minds (OOOM 2010)
03 - Johnwaynes - Marguerita Soul (Ft Stee Downes) (What Is All About 2010)
04 - Coheed And Cambria - The Broken (Year Of The Black Rainbow 2010)
05 - Erykah Badu - Umm Hmm (New Amerykah Part Two 2010)
06 - Mão Morta - Tardes de Inverno (Pesadelo em Peluche 2010)
07 - Gil Scott-Heron - New York Is Killing Me (I'm New Here 2010)
08 - Orphaned Land - Sapari (The Never Ending Way Of Orwarrior 2010)
Total: 29:55

A quick selection of tracks for people that don't like the usual message of gangsta, women and exhibitionism.

It starts with Dalek's challenging lyrics and unusual metrics and delivery over an industrial wall of noise. Two pioneers follow. First is Gill Scott-Heron, an amazing proto-rap classic (from 1970!) about the numbing effects of television, followed by the 1982 manifesto of life in the inner-city. Ten years later, the intelligent (and mostly positive) approach of Arrested Development, here with an anti-church pro-spiritual funk track, was overthrown by Dr Dre's (nonsense) gangsta rap.

Ending the episode, two amazingly powerful songs. The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy reputation is way bigger than their commercial success but maybe that's a consequence of the complex approach to the themes. Language Of Violence is a violent tale in movements the power of words and their relation to physical violence ("Dehumanizing the victim makes things simpler"). Again, a few years later, gangsta rap... Finally, from last year, a touching epic song from Knaan telling three stories about an american soldier, an unemployed woman and Knaan himself, when he had to escape his home country of Somalia.

Enjoy!
01 - Dalek - Distorted Prose (Absence 2005)
02 - Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Pieces Of A Man 1970)
03 - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 - The Message (The Message 1982)
04 - Arrested Development - Fishin' 4 Religion (3 Years, 5 Month and 2 Days in the Life of... 1992)
05 - The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Language of Violence (Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury 1992)
06 - Knaan - People Like Me (Troubadour 2009)
Total: 30:31

Enjoy!
01 - Roots Manuva - Witness 1 Hope (Run Come Save Me 2001)
02 - Outkast - The Train (Idlewild 2006)
03 - Mos Def - The Embassy (The Ecstatic 2009)
04 - CunninLynguists - Love Ain't (Southernunderground 2003)
05 - Spank Rock - Bump (YoYoYoYoYo 2006)
06 - Us3 - Money On My Mind (Say What!? 2007)
07 - DJ Vadim - Terrorist (U.S.S.R.: Life From The Other Side 1999)
08 - Massive Attack - Five Man Army (Blue Lines 1991)
Total: 34:12

Actually, one of the tracks is from 1969, but it was ahead of its time anyway...

Enjoy!
01 - Pink Fairies - Do It (Never Neverland 1971)
02 - Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin III 1970)
03 - MC5 - Kick Out The Jams (Kick Out The Jams 1969)
04 - Deep Purple - Highway Star (Machine Head 1972)
05 - Stooges - Search And Destroy (Raw Power 1973)
06 - Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds Of Fire (Birds Of Fire 1973)
07 - Blue Oyster Cult - The Red And The Black (Tyranny and Mutation 1973)
Total: 30:16

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