The Dead C - Vain, Erudite and Stupid: Selected Works (1987-2005)

Here's an oft-overlooked band who's just starting to get the due they deserve as innovators in the noise genre. Bill Meyer of Dusted Magazine sums it up nicely here:

"Despite receiving scant honor throughout their 17-year existence (the last couple Dead C albums were self-released in editions of 500), they’ve carried on making their patented entropic racket. But it’s a nuanced cacophony, neither monolithic nor monotonous. Brute power chords, processed machine sounds, field recordings of passing traffic, all are grist for the Dead C’s mill."

This excellent comp compiles a little bit of everything from over the course of the band's existence, from early recordings blanketed in tape hiss, to more recent extended jams with increased sonic fidelity (keep in mind it's all relative). I'm not an expert on these dudes nor do I feel the need to pretend to be. Check the links below for more info about this band's significance. If you're a fan of artists like Growing, Throbbing Gristle, Sonic Youth, and many others in the Drone/Noise category, you should really give these guys a shot.


Wikipedia

Pterodactyl - S/T (2007)

Here's the deal: I'm not going to share this album by righteous Brooklyn Noise-rock-head-busters Pterodactyl because they are friends and I want them to gets paid. So please, check out a sample of their song "Polio" below and think about buying their record. They are friends and associates of fellow racket-makers Parts & Labor, and if you like those guys you should dig this too. Lots of furious drumming, searing guitar work, and melodic screeching. Enjoy

Vangelis - Earth (1972)

I probably would have uploaded this album for the cover shot alone. Can you believe that this disheveled wreck of a man is the very same Greek who gave us the lush and beautiful score to Chariots of Fire? Perhaps by the time of that movie's release in 1981 Vangelis had cleaned up his act. In the early 70's, though, he was really letting his earth mother hang out. This album was his attempt to fuse early christian music with rock, and in so doing he creates some really beautiful songs. "My Face in The Rain" is a particular standout. A gorgeous, swelling lament, that sounds like an inspiration to bands like Spiritualized and the Verve. Other highlights include opener "Come On", which is a sweet slice of hard stomping prog rock. Then there is "He-O" with its Eastern influenced guitar lines , hand percussion, and incanted vocals that sound like a chorus of monks. The variation continues with the grooving "Let it Happen", a song that wouldn't sound entirely out of place on Air's Moon Safari. The rest of the album is given over to prog-ish meditations on nature, freedom, spirituality and life. If you can get past the new-age-ness of it all (or if you get off on lyrics like, "I would like to write a song that is so vibrant and so intimate, that the Earth would adopt it, as if it had sprung like a stream from the land's memory") then you NEED this album. Highly recommended.