F/i are one of those bands that changes everything for you. It is so druggy and so psychedelic it makes everything else “psychedelic” seem somewhat tame. And they’re not just one of those space-rock clones who heard Space Ritual and purchased a bunch of delay pedals or an analog synthesizer. These guys experimented to the max, and the results are stunning. Their bursts of heavy, cosmic goodness are constantly wrestling with amplifier buzz and radio static and sundry other forces. If you want straight-ahead psych chug-a-lug, try Paradise Out Here.
They formed in Wisconsin in 1981. The rest is just two decades of utterly fantastic recordings. They can play the Neu! meets Hawkwind sonic assault, but they’re just as likely to make like Wolf Eyes or Throbbing Gristle and destroy your ears. Sometimes it takes patience to work through an F/i album, but once it finishes your state has been altered. You’ll find traces of their influences in almost everything you listen to, as long as all you listen to is experimental or space rock from the last twenty-seven years. Also, they’re playing at Circle A this month? Crazy!
F/i
Why Not Now?… Alan!
MediaFire download link
Track Listing:
01) Number 27
02) QR (Z)
03) Nothing More Than A Hoax
04) Electric Waltz
05) Zombie Theme 2
06) Zombie Theme 3
07) Observation (The Eye On Top Of The Pyramid)
08) Threshold
Ah, the mythic 16. Perhaps one of the most-unappreciated, hardest-rocking bands ever? They have scarily deliberate rhythms that would bore a hole in your guts so that the weird fucked up grinding, throbbing searing guitars can wind their way inside you to do the real damage. In the same way your first Motorhead record causes visions of a bunch of dirty motherfuckers with no teeth doing meth and chain-smoking, the first time you listen to a 16 album is a somewhat similar experience. Good luck trying to figure out just what the fuck the singer is trying to say. You’re not going to figure it out. My advice, buy the dirtiest fucking pot you can find, the shit that looks like dirt and gives you a massive headache, then turn up your speakers and enjoy this one. Otherwise, it might be unlistenable.
Really, I don’t know much about the band other than they’re from California and they must have been really high all the time. If you know more about ’em, you should definitely leave a comment and share your info with the world.
16
Scott Case: Out Of Print Material
MediaFire download link
Track Listing:
01) Doorprize
02) Red Tool Box
03) Attention Span
04) Kharma Slump
05) Sailrabbit
06) Loafer
07) Powdered Milk
08) Apollo Creed
09) Texas Tunnel
Oftentimes I find myself telling people that “Bark Psychosis picked up where Talk Talk left off,” taking the group’s slow, ambient tendencies to new heights. In fact, I’m pretty sure they were the first band that ever received the “post-rock” tag. Especially on the stunning record entitled Hex. The first time I heard Bark Psychosis I decided I couldn’t listen to bands such as Calla or Tristeza anymore. They just sounded flat and boring. Bark Psychosis were the all-lush, all-painkiller-slow groove band I wish I’d learned about five years earlier than I did so that my friends would respect me even more than they did after I handed down information on the band much like a father hands down a pair of cufflinks to his dumbass kid for his stupid fucking prom.
Independency is a compilation (now out of print, sorry kids) that collects a series of singles that were issued between the years of 1989 and 1992. The four-minute opener “I Know” will lull you into an opiate-like state. “Nothing Feels” sounds like a track that should have been included on Spirit Of Eden, maybe even as a replacement for “Wealth” or one of those couple songs that kind of get lost near the end. The real coup de grace on this album is “Scum”. It is a massive achievement in musical innovation; the kind that — had a band like Slowdive heard it sooner — could potentially force groups into early retirement. It’s that good. And this shit came out a solid three years before Pygmalion. Trust me, you’re going to hear this one and then head over to Amazon and buy Hex (still in print, otherwise I’d share it). Once you hear that one, you will bow down before Bark Psychosis and kiss their penises.
Bark Psychosis
Independency
MediaFire download link
Track Listing:
01) I Know
02) Nothing Feels
03) All Different Things
04) By Blow
05) Manman
06) Blood Rush
07) Tooled Up
08) Scum
