For as much as I love Jazzfinger, I really haven’t shared much of the collective’s recorded output in recent years. Since Slowed By The Grace Of Water in 2008, I haven’t posted anything until this past week’s mix tape. Too bad, the UK-based group consisting of Ben Jones, Hasan Gaylani and Sarah Sullivan has consistently recorded brilliant (if sometimes limited and thus hard to acquire) albums pretty consistently for the past six or seven years. Though originally formed in 1996, Jazzfinger didn’t really get going until about 2005/2006, when the collective entered into a more-prolific period that saw seven releases in 2006 alone, half that many in the following year, and an average of 3-5 releases in all subsequent years since. Though they’ve moved towards cassette-only territory in 2011 and 2012, Jazzfinger still put out CDrs, like this year’s Poem Of Stones to remind those of us who haven’t fallen for the “cassette tapes are back!” bullshit trend how good they are.
Ugly For A Living, released in 2005 on the Norweigan Gold Soundz label, is a brilliant exercise in abstract drone and noise music. It’s a bit harsher than some of their other efforts, but the highs (“Carving Off Skin That I’ve Chosen Not To Keep,” and “Shribble By The Shoals And Stepping Stones” in particular) are more than enough to warrant minding the endless buzzing and overblown effects and listening to this one all the way through. I mean, it’s called “Ugly For A Living.” Sun-dappled ambient drone, this is not.
Jazzfinger
Ugly For A Living
(Gold Soundz, 2005)
MediaFire DL Link
01. Summer Was A Flame Ride
02. Ascent Through Degradation
03. Paris Texas
04. Carving Off Skin That I’ve Chosen To To Keep
05. Northumbrian Grease
06. Reason With The Pony
07. Shribble By The Shoals And Stepping Stones
08. Apparently Arbitrary Arrangements
09. Icy Bloody Lies, We Hardly Knew You
