UNDERWORLD
Barking (w/ Alternative Versions) - (2010)

Underworld's eighth album found the duo seeking outside production, which came in the form of a half-dozen dance heavyweights who pull the aging duo in several different directions, mostly pop, trance, and, occasionally, their native techno. The opening "Bird 1" is a glorious return to form, featuring a production from Dubfire that recasts the duo in the gritty, rain-soaked techno of 1993, a dead ringer for Dubnobasswithmyheadman's "Dark & Long." Underworld have rarely revisited old ground, making this a startling and excellent track. Still, Barking doesn't spend much time there, instead visiting much brighter territory on the single "Scribble," with a production by High Contrast that should have creative directors rearranging their budgets to license. The biggest name here is Paul Van Dyk, whose "Diamond Jigsaw" is as straight-ahead as techno can get -- and also sounds like it could earn its share of advertising dollars. Although this is hardly Underworld at their finest, the duo's songwriting fits the mainstream productions and results in a solid dance album for the 2010s -- music for aging-raver activities like driving cars, pushing swings, or jogging on treadmills.

CD 1 - The Album

http://www.mediafire.com/?8ls1wcp6372ca6e

CD 2 - The Alternative Versions

http://www.mediafire.com/?33990t9wq699eec

TODAY IS THE DAY
Today Is The Day - (1996)

Having subtracted bass from Today Is the Day and added keyboards, noise rock auteur Steve Austin thereby altered his outfit stylistically, moving from the warmth and emotional appeal of Willpower to an icily digital landscape of painful, high-frequency tones, screeched vocals, and even more painful guitar. Today Is the Day is a brutal record, owing a bit of its industrial nature to acts like Skinny Puppy and Merzbow. However, this is hardly textbook industrial music. Still utilizing guitar and organic drums, Today Is the Day is not driven by the keyboards so much as augmented sonically by them. The keys produce more of an atmospheric than a melodic effect, thereby leaving the essential constitution of Today Is the Day intact and guitar-driven.

http://www.mediafire.com/?03r9e33pb83g3cr

BUZZOV-EN
To A Frown - (1993)

Raw as a heroin abscess, Buzzov-en's debut, To a Frown, ushered in a devastatingly ugly admixture of bastardized Southern rock riffs, heavy metal, noise rock, and the broken bottle aggression of early Black Flag. Though not the band's finest album, it packs a violent wallop, with Kirk's contorted, half-growled, half-screamed vocals threatening menacingly over the sturm and drang of the rhythm section. Though Buzzov-en owes part of its aesthetic -- both in appearance and sound -- to Southern scum rock outfit Antiseen, they upped the ante in energy, presence, recklessness, and songwriting. Half of the album resides in sludgy blues riffs dragged through the sewer of Kirk's drug- and violence-oriented lyrics, and the other half is pure Damaged-influenced, early-American hardcore aggression. The band toured relentlessly for this album, destroying clubs and leaving a wake of drug-induced terror in its wake. A year later, Buzzov-en was signed to Roadrunner, where it would release its finest album, Sore. (allmusic.com)

http://www.mediafire.com/?79qcdilxpqa903f

THE AFGHAN WHIGS
Up In It - (1990)

Though the Afghan Whigs were still about a year away from hitting the peak of their powers in the studio, their second album, 1990's Up in It, was a major improvement over their self-released debut, and it was their first recording to suggest that they would mature into one of the best American rock bands of the 1990s. As a songwriter, Greg Dulli was starting to really get in touch with his self-loathing, and "Retarded," "White Trash Party," and "I Know Your Little Secret" offer a powerful and sometimes disturbing look into one man's obsessions. Just as importantly, the band had finally learned to make the most of their musical muscle; Greg Dulli's nicotine-laced growl merged "heavy-alternative" bellow with a soul man's sense of phrasing, while the guitars of Dulli and Rick McCollum and the rhythm section of John Curley and Steve Earle managed to combine bruising power with a remarkable sense of drama and dynamics. While lots of bands riding the "grunge"/"alternative" bandwagon at the time owed an obvious debt to Led Zeppelin, the Afghan Whigs were one of the few that fully grasped not just their pomp and heaviness, but their precision, their timing, and their understanding of R&B. While it pales in comparison to what the Whigs would achieve on Congregation and Gentlemen, Up in It made it clear the Afghan Whigs had truly arrived, and would not be ignored.

http://www.mediafire.com/?7y8bggecs1xnygh

ARCADE FIRE
Arcade Fire EP - (2003)

As far as debuts go, the Arcade Fire's seven-song introduction to the world will forever be lorded over by its behemoth older sibling, 2004's commercially and critically lauded Funeral. While the hundreds of people who coveted the self-titled EP prior to its 2005 re-release on the ultra-hip Merge label can rest assured that their copies are indeed original, those who are looking for a prequel to the anthemic, end-of-the-world bombast that emanated like a black-box recorder from Funeral are in for a treat. While there's nothing here that matches the goosebump-inducing electricity that runs through "Tunnels" or "Power Out," there are moments -- both musical and lyrical -- that portend the fireworks to come. "Old Flame" starts things off innocently enough with a simple melody tied to the even simpler pangs of new love -- "My mouth is full/Your heart is an apple" -- and "I'm Sleeping in a Submarine" extends that joy with a defiant chorus of "A cage is a cage, is a cage, is a cage!" However, it isn't until the third track that the record begins to take shape -- "No Cars Go," with its driving accordion melody line and unified shouts, sounds like the blueprint for Funeral's "Rebellion (Lies)." Régine Chassagne does little to escape the Björk comparisons on the sparse "Woodlands National Anthem," but her distorted, blood-curdling howls on the pulsing "Headlights Look Like Diamonds" are one of the EP's highlights. By the time the listener arrives at "Vampire/Forest Fire," with its familiar themes of pain both spiritual and familial, it's obvious where the band is headed. Like Broken Social Scene or the Flaming Lips, the Arcade Fire are sometimes earnest to a fault. While each of the seven tracks contained herein are fully realized, they are as unfocused as they are beautiful, resulting in an intangible, dreamlike atmosphere that reduces each cut -- no matter how deep -- down to a mere scratch. (allmusic.com)

http://www.mediafire.com/?xhknjyw69nrt3x1

NASH THE SLASH
Nosferatu - (2001)

Nash the Slash has a strong love of silent movies (his name comes from Laurel and Hardy's classic Do Detectives Think) and he has composed three other soundtracks for silent film classics (including his wonderful music for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). However, this is the first soundtrack that he has committed to tape and released to his rabid fans. And it is fantastic. The music actually stands alone without viewing the film. It is a combination of several styles including classical, rock, electronica, and ambient. Slash is able to combine these genres and create his own atmospheric sounds with very strong melodies. This style differs from his instrumental work (such as Blind Windows) but is equally interesting and engaging. Fans of Slash will love this CD, and fans of soundtracks will undoubtedly find something of interest here. A brilliant work. (allmusic.com)

http://www.mediafire.com/?kga2gu574am77m9

JOSEPH LoDUCA
Evil Dead (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - (1982)

Joeseph LoDuca's score for The Evil Dead is a study in contrasts. Some of its pieces are moody and even old-fashioned in composition and execution, heavy as they are on piano and strings. They are of themselves impressive. Many of the tracks make liberal use of synthesized notes, sometimes interwoven with the more traditional instruments. As you get deeper into the album, LoDuca increasingly chooses a seemingly chaotic combination of instruments, creating a manic sense that fits the film and is an exciting listening experience.

http://www.mediafire.com/?l29xllkuiupi553