Woefully out of Print Friday

Each Friday I'm going to dig through my cd collection and talk about a cd that really should be available for purchase, but alas and alack is gone daddy gone.

This week is going to be a cd that was my introduction to dark electronic music outside of movie scores (though it was a rejected score it's self) I"m referring to Coil's Unreleased Themes for Hellrasier



It was 1987 that Clive Barker released Hellraiser on a very unsuspecting audience. The blood, sadomasochism, sexual imagery- and that was just in the first 5 minutes- left quite an impression on this particular kid (enough that I can VIVIDLY remember my very first issue of Fangoria magazine with a Hellraiser cover story) enough so that I sought it out on VHS and got to see it that same summer. I loved the movie. It was in a word AWESOME.

Rumors started to float around about an alternative soundtrack for the film. This peaked my interest because I knew how much of an important role music played in the film, and I could not imagine what this other score could have possibly sounded like. I just knew if was from some band called Coil.

Little did I know that Coil had been making some of the most influential experimental and f'n DARK electronic music since the early 80's. (Give me a break. I grew up in rural Ohio) I spent a good amount of time trying to track the cd down. It was through an ad in Thrasher that I found the record- well the cd. How could I possibly turn down an album that was given this endorsement "The only group I've heard on disc, whose records I've taken off because they made my bowels churn." - Clive Barker, Director of Hellraiser.

I was not at all disappointed. That cd opened up a whole world of music to me, and provided some of my favorite remixes of all time (Gave Up on nine in nail's Fixed EP comes to mind) However that being said nothing will ever compare to the first time I heard the Hellraiser EP and how it pretty much changed EVERYTHING for me.

The songs are available on the Unnatural History II comp, but that 6 track EP is one of my favorite 17 minutes of music, and I hope that a few of you can track it down and listen to in the way it was intended. Lights off, candles lit, and playing with a curious puzzle box.

download The Hellbound Heart
download Box Theme

Coil page at brainwashed
Threshold House for all of your Coil needs

Happy NIN day!

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few months, you probably know that the new Nine Inch Nails record Year Zero is out today.



Year Zero is a concept album based on an entirely plausible future where the United States Bureau of Morality is the high law of the land, and listening to a "subversive" album like this could land you in some serious shiznat. More over the US in entranced by what is being called "The Presence" (which could be nothing more than drug influenced hysteria) and brandishing bibles like they are going out of style...

What intrigued me most about this album was not just its concept, but the way that the concept was carried out from start to finish.

It all began innocently enough with some diligent fans decoding a url on a shirt (!!) that lead them to iamtryingtobelieve.com

The weirdness didn't end there several songs were leaked via usb drives left in restrooms at shows, and more websites started to emerge. All of these sites pointed to more bits of info about this distopian future...

All of it leads to the release of the album, and the very scary world that Trent Reznor has constructed.

In the next couple of days I will try to post a few of blogs about some of this. For now I'm doing what the rest of you should be doing...

Listening to Year Zero and trying to make sense of it all...

One more non-music related post for today

I just discovered Audrey Kawasaki's artwork via boing boing earlier today.



I am completely drawn into the subjects of the paintings. The melancholy I see in their eyes makes me want to sit down with a cup of tea and just listen- the stories they have of what that brought them to that moment must be fascinating.



I have not been as drawn to a piece of art since I first saw the works of Dave McKean years and years ago. (Though his work touched me on a different level.)

I highly recommend you take a long look at the work on her site. I cannot imagine any reader of this blog not falling in love the same way I have.

It's been a while since I posted a mashup

This one however, is not music. It's video. Robocop VS The Terminator.



My inner cyberpunk just made a very Quagmire GIGGITY GIGGITY GIGGITY GOO!!!

Enjoy! And be on the lookout for Worfully out of Print Friday!

PS I updated my links. Check out the things I check all of the time.

Monday post just because...

Ok, so just a few things.

First of all The Field.



All of the hype? Totally worth it. Holy crap. This came out of left umm...fie...erm you get the point. Minimal techno at it's most interesting. With the copious amount of microhouse I've been listening to this really hits the spot. I can't believe how much I like this record, and the more I listen to it, the better it becomes. You can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a track or two from it played at the first week of Halcyon here in Pittsburgh.

To wet your appetites you can download the track over the ice here.

In a non-music related post I'd like to point you in the direction of the website for Chanwook Park's new film I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK.



Who is Chanwook Park you ask? The Director of the spectacular revenge trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance) which are 3 of the most amazing films in recent years. This film focuses on Cha Young-goon (played by Su-jeong Lim) who is committed to a mental institution, because she thinks she is a cyborg. She finds love with a quirky patient named Rain (Park Il-sun) who thinks he can steal people's souls. The movie looks like it is going to be nothing short of amazing. The website is set up like a virtual pop-up book, and is just really cool. (be sure to let each page load!)

Finally, I wanted to thank all of my readers for coming back, and sending emails. It's cool that I'm reaching as many people as I am!