Unclassics 115: Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum (2007, Norma Evangelium Diaboli)

genre: avant black metal
I hate Christmas and you will do too!!! And nothing beats listening to black metal during Christmas Eve! I am looking forward to the moment children will be playing under the fucking Christmas tree and I will relieve all the stress listening to some Deathspell Omega. The french black metal scene blossomed to beauty during 00s and DSO are certainly the top act there. The thirt part of their unholy trilogy many times sounds like complete noise whiplash, but make no mistake - these guys are so smart they think about every note. OK, it may lack the pure mayhem of Mayhem and blasphemy of Blasphemy, but still - this is ultimate Christmas black metal album for you.





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Unclassics 114: Califone – Roots & Crowns (2006, Thrill Jockey)

genre: folk, post-rock

Noone loves sad morons, but they make beautiful music like that, they can be forgiven. Califone balance between intimacy and the American "grandeur", but the manage to make the cliches sound fresh.





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Unclassics 113: Clark - Empty the Bones of You (2003, Warp)

genre: IDM

The reason we loved hardcore rave was that it was RAW. Not necessarily tough, masochistic, testosteron RAW, but take-no-hostages and fuck-you RAW. Clark is perhaps the only inteligent/serious dance music producer, who kept this rawness and on Empty the Bones Of You you can enjoy it at the most. Without listening you know it by just reading the tracks names: Holiday As Brutality or The Sun Too Slow or Gob Coitus. And the music sound just like that. We salute you, Chris Clark!!!!









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CLARK plays in Fleda in Brno on 29th January!

Unclassics 112: Ulver - Lyckantropen Themes (2002, Jester Records)

genre: ambient, glitch


At the beginning of 00s Ulver showed us that metal is not about spikes and pentagrams but about doing whatever you fucking want - NO MATTER WHAT. And they did it: an ambient electronic album with no guitars and vomiting. It is in fact a soundtrack to short film of the same name, which makes it no less intriguing. It sound very beautiful, but I can still feel something sinister in it. Of course it makes sense with Burzum ambient passages, but the whole album of this? I suppose a lot of metalheads had problems with this and Ulver made their miserable live even more miserable - which means BETTER.





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Unclassics 111: Bjørn Torske - - Feil Knapp (2007, Smalltown Supersound)

genre: electronic, space pop

The cold north Europe again and their unusual take on pop music - Bjorn Torske from Norway was making music since the beginning of decade, but the hype caught him with the space disco fever later on. Feil Knapp is an album of blissed out electronic pop from outter space (just like the best moments from Royksopp - minus the dull vocals - combined with the best moments of Lindstrom - minus the pretentious intelectualism. When listening to this music you suddenly want to kiss yourself, which is a kind of Buddhist Koan which the space disco people encounter quite a lot.







Big up to Smalltown Supersound!!!!


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Unclassics 110: Akron/Family - Akron/Family (2005, Young God Records)

genre: freak folk

If you havent met me yet, you should know that I am bit like Eric Cartman from South Park - short, fat guy, who likes to piss everybody. And just like Eric I hate hippies. Can't stand them. I know Eric would be very angry, if I told him I loved Akron/Family debut album. Sorry, mate, but this can't be helped. There is something inside me, something that would like me switch off computer and go naked in the wild. Can't fight it. Listening to this album after year brings back memories - and I realize Akron/Family are still MILLION times more interesting than Fleet fucking Foxes. Bleh, I hate those hippies!!! Wanna kill... (just joking!)







)dl( get it while it's hot, I delete the files after 3 days

Unclassics 109: Roots Manuva - Run Come Save Me (Big Dada, 2001)

genre: UK hip hop

At the beginning of 00s british hip hop was a bad copy of American posturing and an oasis of "old school" conservationists AKA the most boring thing ever. Than came The Streets and turn it upside down - just like Father Bam said: make hip hop your own thing. And the British did and behold it was good. They added plenty of reggae, spirit of rave freedom & pure UK weirdness. Roots keeps doing his own thing until today, but the second album is his pinacle.










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Unclassics 108: Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun (1999/2000, Birdman, Warner Music Japan)

genre: noise

The 00s was a decade in noise and Boredoms might be THE referential point to the whole contemporary noise scene. Bands like Black Dice or Sightnings grew up on 90s japanoise boom and Boredoms was the most influential japanoise band in West. (They supported Sonic Youth, etc.) Just like Super Ae from 98, Vision Creation Newsun is no longer sonic whiplash that will make your ears bleed, but adventurous exploration of the beauty of distortion & weird sounds. Maybe it has more in common with freedom celebrating krautrock that with Hitler moustache machismo of Whitehouse. And in 2000 it was a revolutionary thing that noise music can be (this much) FUN (and I do not mean fun like in smashing-your-friends-head-with-beer-bottle fun.) Fucking head music! This is possibly the biggest legacy of Boredoms to our era. They got even weirder after that, changed their name on various occasions and alienated even the most hardcore fans.

(the album was released in december 1999 in japan, in the rest of the world the next year)





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Unclassics 107: Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat (Rough Trade, 2004) - fixed

genre: weird pop

Dead grandmother album, blah blah, you know the story. Two siblings - The Friedbergers make strange pop music which may not be to everybody's taste. But you cant deny they are sweet and honest. Is this enough for an album to be included in Unclassics list? Nah, you have to genius as well (and as pretty as Eleanor.)





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Unclassics 106: M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003, Gooom)

genre: synth-pop, shoegaze

Cant explain what exactly draws me towards M83. They are French for starters - their music is deeply sentimental, which is something I hate as well. Well, here I am - getting so emotional about their second album. It is very blissful music, just like MBV, but more poppy and less pretentious.








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Unclassics 105: Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind (2004, Sub Pop)

genre: noise

You are a sick individual, is my favourite phrase from 1st season of Office - and can be nicely used for describing Wolf Eyes. These guys are sick motherfuckers and their live concert in Austria 3 years ago is one of the most memorable moments of my concertgoing. (Me and Kubalik could have been the only people who stayed in the venue the whole concert.) Listening to their music is like when you let the devil scratch your soul. OK, this is awful metal cliche, but I can not come with anything better right now.





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Unclassics 104: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Worn Copy (2003, Rhystop)

genre: freak music, lo-fi, psychedelic pop

I remember buying this album on CD from one second (maybe third) hand shop in Vienna and listening to it for the first time on my way back on headphones (there used to be discplayers in the old old time, you know) - I can clearly recall the feeling of nausea when the music started. As if everything was wrong with the music and at the same time with the listener and the world around me. But later on I started geting to his weird/outsider world which seems to fascinate many people around the freak folk scene - he is the guy Animal Collective loved so much before they started loving Underworld (just joking!). They re-released the album on their Paw Tracks in 05. Try it and see for yourself. It has some pop appeal as well!!! Really.







)dl( get it while it's hot, I delete the files after 3 days

Unclassics 103: Moha! - Raus aus stavanger (2006, Rune Grammofon)

genre: abstract jazz metal

The name in the genre box (which I have just made up) may sum up everything. This is hell-of-a ride made by two norwegians guys who love doing abstract thing with their instruments. One of the two - Anders is also a member of Jaga Jazzist and Noxagt (which gives him rare treat being included twice in our list.) Noxagt might be a referential point, but Moha! is more abstract, more out-there and more about spacey smoked out grooves, which never ever go the way they were supposed to go. Big props to Rune Grammofon - one of the best labels of the 00s!



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Unclassics 102: Sakamoto & Alva Noto - Insen

genre: ambient, glitch

I know you all want pretty melodies and harmonies, so here you are. Japanese pianist and composer Sakamoto is genius of neo-classical film music, which sometime gets so pretty you wanna kill yourself with a screwdriver. Thanks God, Sakamoto is also fan of experimental electronics and on this album he met with Mr. Noto himself. If there is anybody who is even less minimalistic than Alva Noto, I do not wanna know him/her, but pairing his digital pulses with Sakamoto's nice piano playing yield magnificient results here.





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Unclassics 101: Gas - Pop (2000, Mille Plateaux)

genre: dub techno

The "oh-so ironically called" Pop is Wolfgang Voigt's last chapter in his underwater ambient series with Gas project. Do not expect nor Milli Vannili neither Madonna, Pop is heavy dose of 4/4 beats submerged and buried under the salvo of echo and delay effects. This is techno for creatures living 2 000 miles under the sea and it makes even more sense when listened together with the other three parts in Nah und Fern boxset. (If you manage to survive 4 hours of strange glitch noises, you have my deep respect!)





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Unclassics 100: Khanate - Things Viral (Southern Lord, 2003)

genre: ultradoom metal, noise

There is only one album from 00s which deserves to get the number 100 - it is Khanate's second recording. Well, it would rather deserve the number 666, but there is no way I will keep this project until 2012. Words fail when you want to describe this dense, claustrofobic and ultraslow album. Four songs all filled with Dubin's gravely screams and O'Malley's slow riffs, however the king of this recording is Plotkin, who creates the subsonic soundscape around the catathonic metal. Khanate are the best nightmare of your life, the soundtrack to your last moments alive. And also one of the very best extreme music albums ever made on this planet. (Both lo-fi & raw debut and their last studio album Capture & Release is also very good, but maybe too sofisticated for its own sake, the same said about this year's post-mortem album Clean Hands Go Foul.)







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Unclassics 99: The Books - Thought For Food (Tomlab, 2002)

genre: abstract pop, avantgarde, collage

This got Album of the year in Wire, so it is not as much unclassic as some might thing. I can see why the guys in Wire loved this mess of an album - it sheer weirdness, post-post everything collage music, who somehow still keeps its strange pop appeal. I must admit, I did not spend much time with the following books' lps The Lemon of Pink & Lost and Safe, but I hope when I get retired and have plenty of free time I am gonna dig it for sure.





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CORRECTED - SORRY AGAIN

Unclassics 98: Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet (Kranky, 2006)

genre: drone, ambient, electronic

The part of Tim Hecker's magic is the way he digs out beauty out of trash noises. On Harmony In Ultraviolet he created his masterpiece full of haunting moods and extraterstrial melodies. Listen with your eyes closed.

Hey, I am such a nice guy, I give you FLAC recording of this. Highest digital quality possible, but a bit larger file than usual.





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Unclassics 97: The Microphones - The Glow Pt. 2 (2001, Krecs)

genre: indie folk, psychedelic

Changing name after each album is really a strange marketing plan, but Phil Elvrum is such a taleted guy, he can do anything he wants. The Glow Pt. 2 is perhaps his best work (although some recent stuff by Mount Eerie is not bad either). It is and album full of psychedelic folk stuff and there are chances that after listening to the whole album you might feel a little dizzy like after a rollercoaster ride. But you will be happy at the same time and want to try it again.





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Unclassics 96: Otomo Yoshihide - Anode (2001, Tzadik)

genre: sonic mayhem

Yoshihide is the titan of japanese improv music and it would take an hour to list all the projects he put his hands on. Anode was made for John Zorn's Tzadik label with 11 other japanese musicians as and attempt to testtube Yoshihide's new rules for collective improvisation. There are 3 basic rules: Do not respond to other musicians, do not play melody and avoid all cliches. OK, fair enough. But is there any rule for the listener?





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