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A painstakingly curated selection of 20 albums, spanning a period of 25 years, which are celebrating round number milestones in 2025. Its an eclectic collection of 21st century music; music that is delicate and enlightening, sophisticated and thought-provoking, but also complex and demanding.
Albums that are undeniably relevant within their respective genres and are still turnkey references for many younger artists, many years or even decades after their original release. We are knowingly leaving out other unique albums that are genre-defining masterpieces, and as much as it pains us to do so we have chosen to put a stronger emphasis on atmosphere and the emotional attachment we have with some more than others. These represent the very sonic fabric that informs our taste and will continue to challenge our sound systems for years on end.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Released 9 October 2000
taken from mix #gybe
Sunn O)))
Black One
Released 17 October 2005
listen to 'It took the Night to Believe'
taken from mix #62
Venetian Snares
Rossz Csillag Alatt Született
Released 14 March 2005
listen to 'Galamb Egyedul & Szerencsétlen'
taken from mix #50
Swans
My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to The Sky
Released 23 September 2010
listen to 'No Words/No Thoughts
taken from mix #101
GAS
Pop
Released 28 March 2000
taken from mix #67
Demdike Stare
Liberation Through Hearing + Voice of Dust + Forest of Evil
Released in 2010
listen to 'Forest of Evil (Dawn)'
taken from mix #146
Earth
Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method
Released 20 September 2005
listen to 'Lens of Unrectified Night'
taken from mix #39
The Body
All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood
Released 02 June 2010
listen to 'Even The Saints Knew Their Hour...'
taken from mix #74
Deathspell Omega
Paracletus
Released 09 November 2010
listen to 'Apokatastasis Pantôn'
taken from mix #72
Mount Eerie
Sauna
Released 03 February 2015
taken from mix #176
Lurker of Chalice
Lurker of Chalice
Released 27 June 2005
taken from mix #39
Rafael Anton Irisarri
A Fragile Geography
Released 16 October 2015
taken from mix #27
Boris
Flood
Released 15 December 2000
taken from mix #101
Abyssal
Antikatastaseis
Released 23 June 2015
listen to 'I Am the Alpha and the Omega'
taken from mix #34
Ulver
Perdition City
Released 26 March 2000
listen to 'Hallways of Always'
taken from mix #55
Coil
The Ape of Naples
Released 02 December 2005
taken from mix #32
Prurient
Frozen Niagara Falls
Released 12 May 2015
listen to 'Christ Among the Broken Glass'
taken from mix #132
Isis
Perdition City
Released 3 April 2000
listen to 'Celestial (The Tower)'
taken from mix #00
Chaos Echoes
Transient
Released 20 April 2015
taken from mix #45
31.05.25 – Monastery of Salzedas
12.05.25 – YASUNAO TONE RIP
Installation view of Yasunao Tone's 'Device for Molecular Music', 1982, machine, speakers, and light sensors, at "Yasunao Tone: Region of Paramedia," Artists Space, New York, 2023
Yasunao Tone (Tokyo, 1935 - 2025) was a Japanese interdisciplinary artist. He graduated from Chiba Japanese National University in 1957, majoring in Japanese literature. He became active in the Fluxus movement in the 1960s and moved to the United States in 1972. He organised and participated in many experimental music and performance groups such as Group Ongaku, Hi-Red Center and Team Random (the first computer art group in Japan). His unconventional musical work brings together certain forms of traditional Eastern culture and post-structuralist theories, and since the mid to late nineties has become a notable influence on new generations of sound artists worldwide.
Yasunao Tone performing Music for 2 CD Players at Experimental Intermedia Foundation, New York, 1986
16.03.25 – GATHERING INSPIRATION FROM PRINTS FOR A NEW LEATHER TECHNIQUE
02.03.25 – GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR LIVE AT CASA DA MÚSICA, PORTO
25 years after the first time, 3rd time lucky witnessing one of my favourite bands live after the Royal Festival Hall debut in April 2000, with Sigur Ros and Fly Pan Am, and London again at the Troxy in December 2010.
Iphone quality microphone capture of 'SUN IS A HOLE SUN IS VAPORS' from their latest album enhanced/boosted in Audacity.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor live at Casa da Música, 02 March 2025.
17.01.25 – DAVID LYNCH RIP – DEAF CENTER LIVE AT RIVOLI PORTO.
Coming to grips with the passing of David Lynch this Wednesday 15th January, 5 days short of his 79th birthday. Rest in Peace master.
Deaf Center + Rauelsson live at (Understage) Rivoli, Porto, 17.01.2025. Playing to a sold out room, managed to speak to Otto and Erik after the performance, wanted to buy Low Distance on vinyl, last copy went to André Amplicasom. Warm conversations on a cold night. 17.01.2025
The latest from Hi-Fructose, the 73rd volume, featuring amongst many great articles, a review of the new monograph of favourite punk photographer Murray Bowles, who has unexpectedly left us in 2019.
The world has gone bonkers so Campbell James Kneale is painting cats.
Lovely wine with a charming label from Valter Vinagre.
RIP Rich Hall. Pictured here is artwork for the latest Young Widows album, a band with whom he had collaborated for so many years.
06.01.25 – INTERVIEW: BYUNGSOO YEH
"I have not yet found any data on prices for the WE16A horn in the 1920's. It seems that the Western Electric Company did not sell it, but leased it to the theaters, which is why the horn is labelled 'This is the property of the Western Electric Company'. Genuine 16A horns are so rare that it's hard to find records of them ever being traded, so there is no known market price. I saw someone offer one for sale a long time ago for over €50,000..."
13.11.24 –
"Pay your respects to the vultures for they are your future, our fathers and mothers have, they have failed to release us into the welcoming arms of the amethyst deceivers. So pay your respects to the vultures, and to the crows, and to the carrion crows, those Craven Ravens, and to the carrion crows, and to the rooks, and to the vultures, for they are our future. "
Lyrics from 'The Last Amethyst Deceiver' by Coil.
John Balance died on this day, the 13th November, 20 years ago. RIP
John Balance at Brainwashed
Teatro do Mal by Carolina Amaral.
Semibreve 2011-2024: all the Artists so far.
The World is On Fire but we are still buying Shoes.
Vivian Caccuri investigates musical cultures and sound productions in a broad sense, proposing experiments with sound that go further than the auditory field and encompass the visual, the corporeal and the technological. Through objects, installations, performances and original music, Caccuri creates situations that disorient the everyday experience and, consequently, interrupt perceptions sedimented in culture and ingrained in cognitive structures. The artist sheds light on historical and cultural conditionings that establish distinctions between noise, music, natural sounds and silence. The constructions of Soundsystems in various materials and contexts highlights the collective meaning and, so often, the censorship of certain musical expressions. Thus, her work assumes a strong political sense. In recent years, mixing scientific data and fiction, Vivian Caccuri has investigated mythologies involving the mosquito and other insects. Narrated in embroidery and drawings, these works retell and update stories that describe the human aversion to these animals, both as epidemic agents and for their sound emissions ...
31.10.24 – Grouper RUINS is 10
Artwork for Ruins released on Kranky
"Ruins was made in Aljezur, Portugal in 2011 on a residency set up by Galeria Zé dos Bois. I recorded everything there except the last song, which I did at mother’s house in 2004. Iʼm still surprised by what I wound up with. It was the first time Iʼd sat still for a few years; processed a lot of political anger and emotional garbage. Recorded pretty simply, with a portable 4-track, Sony stereo mic and an upright piano. When I wasnʼt recording songs I was hiking several miles to the beach. The path wound through the ruins of several old estates and a small village.The album is a document. A nod to that daily walk. Failed structures. Living in the remains of love. I left the songs the way they came (microwave beep from when power went out after a storm); I hope that the album bears some resemblance to the place that I was in." - Liz Harris (Grouper)
"... An experience illuminated by Aljezur Ruins also in the scenario of degradation of some rural houses, in the collapse of the financial system. Or in the crisis in Portugal, with her artistic residency at risk by the budget cuts imposed to Zé dos Bois, ending up recording in a house owned by Sérgio Hydalgo. Debris of the planet reflected in the inner conflicts of Liz Harris..." (more)
Do you remember the first show you organized for ZDB? Of course, Grouper was one of the first during my first week. I didn’t book it but I helped. She was the first person I picked up at the airport. The first month featured all these people I loved like Scout Niblett, Boris, Dirty Projectors, Lightning Bolt - that was all the first year. Lots of amazing local acts, too because there are lot of interesting things happening in Lisbon... - Sergio Hydalgo, curator at ZDB (more)
Liz Harris somewhere in Aljezur during her stay
What a place it must have been. I know Aljezur well. I've been spending 2 weeks of summer in the unique village of Odeceixe, in Aljezur, since 2020. It makes you want to buy a place there. I shoot hundreds of pictures of the very same places every year as if it was the first time.
06.10.24 – 2024, THE YEAR OF THE BUG
“Ice cold and dystopian.” It celebrates “atmospheric pressure, and the joy of full body assaults, via oversized sound systems in undersized club rooms.”
in 'Kevin Richard Martin aka The Bug writes about his new album Machines I-V released on Relapse.'
Machines I-V
"NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD" - 04.10.24
"THE PLAIN TRUTH ==
we drifted through it, arguing.
every day a new war crime,
every day a flower bloom.
we sat down together and wrote it in one room,
and then sat down in a different room, recording.
NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody?
and then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile.
the sun setting above beds of ash
while we sat together, arguing.
the old world order barely pretended to care.
this new century will be crueler still.
war is coming.
don’t give up.
pick a side.
hang on.
love.
GY!BE"
13.09.24 – L’EAU ROUGE TURNS 35 THIS SEPTEMBER
The Young Gods 'L'Eau Rouge' turns 35 this September. Their 2nd studio album, it is usually referred to as their masterpiece and was included in “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die” in 2005, the 1st edition of the book edited by English writer Robert Dimery, who had previously worked for magazines such as Time Out and Vogue. The book is still being updated today and the album still features. Incidentally, been wanting to write about this album's milestone, which is sometime in September (a specific day for the release of the album has never been confirmed), and just heard the news of Roli Mosimann passing aged 68. The Swiss-American producer behind this album's unique sound was a respected drummer, musician and producer who worked with The The, Celtic Frost, New Order, Faith No More, Skinny Puppy, Marilyn Manson, and more.
'La Fille de La Mort' is one of the highlights of this extraordinary album and makes the experimental wackiness of Mix #110
05.09.24 –
Amazing Album cover of the month by Caroline Harrison for Pyrrhon.
Hail Murray! book - The Bay Area Punk Photography of Murray Bowles, 1982-1995.
30.08.24 – ODECEIXE + +
Above: details from 'Casas do Moinho' and 'Casa nr. 133', shot while walking up and down the charming Rua 25 de Abril in Odeceixe. Below: Praia da Arrifana and house in Rogil. Vintage Helios 44-2 58mm f2 lens using Fujifilm XT4 w/ Old Ektachrome simulation. No post-production.
