Mix CD #57 - You Either Got It Or You Don't

Hello folks! How's it going in your little corner of Worldwide Cataclysm? If one thing this Pandemic has shown, it's just how spiteful, stubborn and selfish a lot of people can be. Not to mention completely hatstand. Imagine what these obstreperous fuckers would be like if it was a proper Post-Apocalyptical breakdown of Society, I don't think Mad Max or Fallout are too far off the mark really. It starts with refusing to wear a mask, ends with bezerking Super Mutants. 

Maybe I'm immune, I don't know.

So, Mix #57. It's taken me a little longer to write than I would have liked but it's the first blog in months that's actually out on time. As seems to have become the norm, there's artists from a whole load of Countries featured: France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Australia etc. There's some peculiar stuff too. 

I had a bit of a fanny on trying to sort out the Spotify playlist, there's five tracks I've written about that aren't on Spotify, so there's a quarter of the blog unable to be listened to by you fancy pants streaming types, sorry. I've highlighted which tracks below.

Cheers,

Luke

x

Tracklisting

Jon Cougar Concentration Camp - You Either Got It Or You Don't

Butterfly - Climbing A Mountain

PowderKeg - Wait It Out

Ghost:Hello - An Unrealistic Display of Optimism

2 Ton Predator - Ready To Die

Priscilla The Outlaw - The Shirt

Hans Gruber And The Die Hards - Is Today Worth Waking Up For?

Depotek - Blox

Swan Prince - Hidden Love Song

Kombynat Robotron - KRII.I

She Makes War - Weary Bird

Teenage Halloween - Figwit

Lifetaker - Wound Man

Kaizers Orchestra - Kontroll På Kontinentet

Volturian - Between The Sleepers

Grumpynators - Feel The Same

Fret! - Davy

Space Deer - Ghost Magnet

Disgraceland - Harvey

The Konbinis - She's On The Run

Backyard Superheroes - Netflix & Chill

You can listen to the playlist on Spotify HERE

Or via the MP3's HERE if you prefer.

Spotify Adjustments

Jon Cougar Concentration Camp - I've substituted in the title track of the only album of theirs that's on Spotify, which is Too Tough To Die.

Butterfly - They aren't on Spotify at all so I've had to omit this one entirely

Ghost:Hello - I've substituted in the track Fingerstache from their album, The Sound Of Color In Space.

2 Ton Predator - Another band completely absent from Spotify.

Kombynat Robotron - They only have the one album on Spotify, Modul 12. I've included the track I from that. It's 22 minutes long, enjoy!

Mix CD #56 - I Only Fall In Love With Scientists

Hello folks, here's the fifty sixth blog, a couple of weeks belated again sorry! As usual with my no themed mixes, there's a right hodgepodge of stuff, from a wide range of countries. There's some bleepy Synthpop from Scotland, Psychedelic Jazz Rock from Italy and Stoner Rock from Iceland, not to mention a fair bit of Punk from a few places too. It's all, of course, exemplary.

 After almost six months I've found myself unfurloughed once more and back to work. Ironically, this means I'm gonna have more time to write these things so normal service should be resumed forthwith. If I go by my once a month thing then there are only two more blogs before its the AOTY special so I'm gonna try and squeeze another one in there to get back on track a little. It's been a funny old year so far, eh?

Cheers,

Luke

x

Tracklisting

The Bubble Project - I Only Fall In Love With Scientists

Worriers - Curious

Volcanova - I'm Off

ZOMBIESHARK!  - Synthetic City

Concept Car - I Miss The Mountains

Nø Handøuts - Surf's Up (808)

Android Superstation - All There Is

Jaded Eyes - Be Not Like Them

Penny Orchids - The Day The Circus Fell Down

Petrol Girls - Big Mouth

Death By Stereo - Free Gun With Purchase

The Anti-Queens - Not What It's Worth

The Winstons - Ghost Town

Tankengine - Banshee

Emily And The Blackouts - Slam Into Me

Dream Nails - DIY

Pizzatramp - Stop Being A Racist Cunt

Whirling Hall Of Knives - Laid To Rust

Murderbird - Shining Star

Something To Do - It's Not Funny

The Gits - Spear And Magic Helmet

Molly Tuttle - Olympia. WA

You can listen to the songs on Spotify HERE

You can download the MP3s HERE if you'd rather.

Mix CD #55 - Summer Of Bro's

Happy July folks! Anyone else found out they aren't the star sign they've spent the 45 years being anymore? What kind of name is Ophiuchus anyway?

Anyway, the blog. I've been wanting to have this Randy track as a title track since before last Summer but never really got the chance. It doesn't really seem fitting this year either what with lockdown and the dying and all that but bollocks to it. I still don't know if I should have added the ' though, neither way looks right.

There's a good mix of new and old on the blog this month with a reasonably varied selection of genres and nationalities and, I think, some really good tunes. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Luke

x

Tracklisting

Randy - Summer Of Bros

Fostermother - Dark Sun

Chariot The Moon - Thousands

Little Teeth - Avondale

Bratmobile - What's Wrong With You?

Zilf - When The Cat Has Your Tongue

Elephant Tree - Bird

Pain City - I Play My Guitar When I Want

Band Of Skulls - Not The Kind Of Nothing I Know

Starbenders - Can't Cheat Time

Geist - Buried Language

Cable Ties - Tell Them Where To Go

Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Godhopping

Indecent Behavior - Feels Like Home

Kayleth - Cosmic Thunder

Imonolith - We Never Forget

Gentle Giant - Peel The Paint

Thick - Mansplain

Ol' Rattlebones - Pushed It

Hell's Fire - Same Old Story

Little Petie & The Mean Old Men - Rocking Horse

Listen to the playlist on Spotify HERE

Download the mp3's HERE

Mix CD #54 - Keeping The Stupid Stupid

Friggin' finally, here's the fifty fourth blog for your delectation just the seven weeks too late. Lockdown is still causing me delays and both myself and my wife have been laid low with Covid-19 symptoms for a few weeks now which hasn't helped much. Once we're finally diagnosed and can maybe get all antibioticised up, things might improve.

Hopefully, the mix will be worth the wait and I certainly think it is, I love all of these tracks and heartily recommend each band. Hopefully there's plenty that you're currently unfamiliar with and can head off on some musical journies of wondrous discovery. That's the plan anyway. 

Cheers,

Luke

x

The Dowling Poole - Keeping The Stupid Stupid

Phil X & The Drills - Middle Finger

Gaytheist - hashbrownsblessed

Lady Beast - Sacrifice To The Unseen

Hub City Stompers - Leave Me The Fuck Alone

Scarlxrd - Rip$aw

These Four Walls - Fire Away

Shower Of Teeth - Slow Gurner

Bone Church - Bone Church Blues

Fool's Ghost - Fugue

Those Fucking Snowflakes - Meat Is Murder But Morrissey's A Dickhead

Killus - The End Of The Vatican

1000mods - So Many Days

Smiling Assassin - With All Due Respect 

Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes - For Ezra

Wexler's Prime - Insectarian

Ceres - Viv In The Front Seat

Final Round - Shooting Stars

Throttlerod - Where's Josh?

Dandelion Charm - Afraid of The Silence

 

You can listen to the mix on Spotify* HERE

If you'd rather the MP3'ss then they're HERE

*The Phil X & The Drills track MIddle Finger isn't on Spotify for some reason so I've replaced it with Live On The Moon

As always, my aimless, meandering waffle is below.

Mix CD #53 - What's The Alternative To The Alternative?

Hello folks, remember me? It's been a good while since the last blog update sorry. For most people the Covid-19 lockdown is a chance for increased productivity with blogs and podcasts and other assorted amusements but, as I do the majority of my writing on company time, I'm finding it hard to make time for it with family stuff and, er, Skyrim. 
Due to my little lad being high risk I'm gonna be off work until everything is alright again so it'll be a while until (my already erratic and lackadaisical) normal service is resumed.

Anyway, this blog. There's no theme as is the norm these days, just some great music. There are artists from all over the world, including six from Australia alone. I seem to be listening to a whole load of Antipodean bands at the moment but it seems to be a particularly fertile source of new, exciting music so expect more on the next blog!

I dunno why it's taken me so long to think of it but I've also included a link to every artist's Facebook page. Just click on their name down where all my blurb is, ta...

Cheers,
Luke
x

Tracklisting
Local Resident Failure - What's The Alternative To The Alternative?
Sky Valley Mistress - Lost In Shock
Rotzak - The Big Leap
Baby Chaos - The Wild Beast
Lunachicks - The Day Squid's Gerbil Died
Southern Empire - Forest Fire
Krosis - Battles Are Won Within
Angie McMahon - Pasta
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Which Way To Go
Huntsmen - Colossus
Knock Off - Labels
Cherry Lips - Messin' Around
Puta Volcano - Sugar Cube
DEgITx - Grim Reaper
Press Club - How Can It Not Be Love?
Stella Donnelly - Allergies
Juggernaut Stomp - Appalachian Mama
Sallow Moth - Ancient Grudge
New Bomb Turks - Minimum Wages Of Sin
Blackwater Holylight - Lullaby

You can download the mix HERE
You can listen to it on Spotify HERE.
Annoyingly, the only track not available on Spotify is the bloody title track by Local Resident Failure. As a substitute, I've gone for the opening track from their 2012 album A Breath Of Stale Air. It's appropriately titled The Opener.

Mix CD #52 - This One's Gonna Bruise

Hello! Here's the two score and twelfth blog for your perusal and entertainment. I've always tried to update around the 10th-15th of the month but Christmas and a load of time off in January have thrown all that right out. and I'm gradually trying to get back on track. Hopefully, I'll be able to knuckle down and get next months done a lot quicker!

I've still got an absolute ton of songs from 2019 that I haven't managed to get into the blog as yet but I'm struggling to find new songs from 2020 that I like enough. I dunno, maybe 2019 was just a really productive year for music and bands are just taking their time this year? That being said, all of the new songs on the blog this month are really good, at least I think so. Have a listen and that if you want, read what I writ too, ta!

Cheers,
Luke
x

Tracklisting
Beth Orton - This One's Gonna Bruise
Stonewall Noise Orchestra - On A Program
All My Friends Hate Me - Not In This Economy
PYRE - Smite With Hex
Mighty Bombs - With Your Eyes
Patty Gurdy - Slaughterhouse
Swollen Members - Fire
Ruby Fields - Climate
Chowder Boy - Rock Mullet
Thieves Of Liberty - Are You Ready?
Kkett - Death In The Disco Toilets
Elevators To The Grateful Sky - Song For July
Destroy Planets! - Absolution
Hayley Kiyoko - I Wish
Celldweller - New Elysium
Spermbirds - Let Me Think
Void Droid - Clockface
Patriots - Reckoning
Mariana Semkina - Turn Back Time
Dreadful - Upper-Class Supersucker
Black Water Birth - Dead Weight
Nø Handøuts - Old No Name (Live Demo)

If you actually want to listen to the songs then you can download them HERE

Mix CD #51 - Wasteland Soul: An Introduction To Miracle Of Sound

Hello and welcome to the, very late, first blog of 2020! Seeing as we are now living in The Future, I figured I'd treat you to some Post-Apocalyptical artwork (see more info below) just to remind that, no matter how shit the world seems right now, at least we aren't buying things with bottlecaps just yet.

Anyway, to the music. It's been a fair while since I did a themed mix, especially an artist-specific one (that was Regurgitator, almost two years ago now), so I present to you Miracle Of Sound!

Miracle Of Sound is actually just one man rather than a band as it may seem, that man is Gavin Dunne from Cork in Ireland. He sings, plays and records pretty much everything, though quite a few songs have guest vocalists and musicians on them.

The vast majority of his work is Geek (not Greek) themed, so video games, movies or cartoons etc. He tends to write his songs from the first person viewpoint of the protagonist (or antagonist occasionally) which gives them an immersive, narrative feel and draws you into their story. He also tends to tailor the genre to fit the song so his albums have a wildly eclectic sound. Though based around a base Alternative Rock sound, his songs veer wildly through Dance, Folk, Pop, Jazz Metal and weird Russian polkas.

Gavin 'Miracle Of Sound' Dunne

On top of that, every single one of his songs has an accompanying video, usually made using footage of whatever that song happens to be about. If you have a few hours to kill on YouTube, they're all pretty good.
Taking all that into account then it's no surprise that Gavin is a severely talented man. There's more to it than even all that though as his true strength lies in the fact that his songs are good enough that it doesn't matter if you're familiar with the subject matter or not. You don't need to know anything about Minecraft to enjoy Mining All Day Long, you don't need an encyclopedic knowledge of Far Cry to appreciate Welcome Home and it's not necessary to be familiar with Cortana or Master Chief to feel the sorrow in Reclaimer. In fact, half of the songs on this compilation are based on games I haven't played but I still love them anyway. He knows how to write a good tune and that's a far more important gift than any technical ability.

He also churns them out at an impressive rate too, releasing twelve albums, some of which are thirty+ tracks long, in nine years. For the sake of keeping things themed (and also to help trim it down to one CD's worth of compilation) I've not used anything from his instrumental album Vistas or his Metal album, Metal Up. I've only taken songs from his Level 1 to Leven 10 albums. A few of those albums have none geeky themed songs on them and I've avoided them too.

There's also a couple of songs that I would have included were it not for the fact I've already used them in the past:

The Ballad Of Clay Carmine - This Gears Of War themed song was the opening track on the first none themed mix I ever did for this blog, Mix #3 - The Devil's Right Hand

Friends - This cool, 70's Pop Rock inspired track is based on Guardians Of The Galaxy and was on Mix #18 - Top Albums Of 2016 Part One

This mix really does just scratch the surface of Gavin's music so if you like what you hear then please do follow up your listening pleasure by steaming/downloading/buying some more of his music, maybe buy yourself a T-shirt, modelled beautifully but Gavin himself in the photo above, check out his Bandcamp, add him on Facebook and all that. Links below!

Miracle Of Sound
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Bandcamp
Youtube
Spotify

Karliene (lead vocals on 'No One')
Facebook

One last thing. I had an idea of what I wanted for the cover of this, so I was trawling Google for Post-Apocalyptical images that I could half-inch to use. I found the above picture, loved it and thought it perfect (almost perfect. I had to trim it a little and make it black and white to fit in with all the other covers). I had a look into the source of it and it was created by a French artist/photographer/digital manipuliser who works under the handle of Midnight Digital. All of his stuff is really good, especially if you're into smashed up shit.

Midnight Digital
Website
Facebook
Instagram

As usual with these blogs, there's my tuppence worth about every track included in the mix down below as well as a link to download the mp3's as well as a link to the mix on Spotify too

Cheers
Luke
x

Tracklisting
Wasteland Soul
Reclaimer
Welcome Home
No One
Hard Cash
When I Swing By
Duke, You Used To Be Cool
Clockworks
Mining All Day Long
Roll Out
Dream Of The Sky
Upside Down
Wigglesticks
Commander Shepard
Shooter Guy
Never Alone
Keepers
Road Rage
Nord Mead
Deep Blue
Medal Of Honor: Doorfighter

Download the mix HERE
Listen on Spotify HERE

Mix CD #50 - Top Albums Of 2019

So here we are, at the end of not just another year but another decade. Golly gosh and all that. 
As usual, my final blog of the year is a countdown of my favourite albums of the year, from forty all the way down to my favourite. 

It's been a strange year for music in some ways, there seems to have been an absolute ton of it for a start. Normally I'm whittling down from a couple hundred of albums but this year has been twice that. I found it quite hard to place most of them after the first ten-fifteen and I'll admit some of them have been placed so the tracklisting scans a little better. 
There's also been a lot of comeback albums recorded after a lengthy break released this year. I thought The Wildhearts was a lengthy gap as there are ten years between albums but there's several with even bigger gaps. I think there's four artists where's it's been the best part of three decades since their last!

Several of these albums have some really beautiful artwork that my dinky little images don't fully convey so I recommend having a proper nosey at a decent sized image of them, in particular, Flora Greysteel, Lonely Robot, Gloryhammer, Stonefield and Moron Police have especially nice ones. 

I've included a Spotify playlist as well as the download as with previous years. It's about the only blog where every artist will be on there. It's something I'd like to do every time but there ends up being so many omissions that it's just not worth doing. 

There's a few noticeable omissions from this list, and I'm not talking big names like Tool, Opeth, Rammstein etc. I liked those albums, I just liked these ones more. There's a couple of albums that I would absolutely have included if not for the following reasons:

Ginger Wildheart - Headzapoppin
The latest solo album from The Wildhearts mainman is apparently brilliant and one of his best. I say apparently as I haven't heard even a single song from it. The album is out digitally but not physically and I think it's on my Christmas list. This would have been right up at the top no doubt.

Janus Stark - Angel In The Flames
Gizz Butt (from The Prodigy)'s band that last released an album in 2000, the brilliant Great Adventure Cigar. They've reformed and have just released this new album. I've bought it but the CD hasn't arrived yet so I've not heard it. I'm sure it's very good.

Toehider - Concerning Lix & Fairs And Other Cooked Stories
This album was only sent to a certain tier of his Patreon supporters and it's not commercially available so I didn't feel it was eligible. On top of that, most of the songs will be on his new album ( currently titled I Like It but that might change) that WILL be commercially available next year. Look for it in my Top Five next December as it's brilliant.

Finally, you may have noticed this is blog number fifty which I'm taking as a huge achievement. I never thought I'd still be going with it and, truth be told, I was planning on packing it in if I got this far, especially when all the algorithms changed and I went from blogs getting over a thousand views to being lucky if I break a hundred. 
Still, I'm still enjoying compiling them and some of you still seem to enjoy reading them so I'll carry on for now. I've already got the next three blogs pretty much all planned out so I'll crack on with the next one shortly.

I guess that's everything. Have a great December and I'll see you all in the new year! Oh and if you haven't joined the Facebook page then please do! 

Cheers
Luke
x

Download 40-21 HERE
Download 20-1 HERE
Listen to the Spotify playlist HERE

You can find the running order right down at the bottom of the blog so as to avoid spoilers.

Mix CD #49 - Rec & Play

Hello all! Here's the forty ninth edition of the blog and, once again, there's no theme other than right good music and that. Also just like previous mixes, there's music represented from a wide range of nationalities, around eleven I think, but a couple of the songs are sung in non-English. Maybe one day I'll get around to a full mix of other languages, I've been planning to for a while.

Some of you may have read my post on Facebook about the next post, it doesn't take a mathematical genius to calculate it'll be the fiftieth one. I always wanted to do something special for such a big landmark, a meaningful theme or something. As it happens, it's fallen in December which is when I always do my AOTY so it looks like that's your special blog. Happy birthday.

In the meantime, have a read (and a listen if you want) to this blog. As I said, it's right good.

Cheers,
Luke
x

Tracklisting
I'm From Barcelona - Rec And Play
Killed A Fox - Gone With The Devil's Hum
The Toy Dolls - Sciatica Sucks
The Wind Whistles - The Quietest Voice
Raindrop Collector - Hell In Me
Once Human - Dark Matter
Chvrches - Forever
The New Roses - Can't Stop Rock & Roll
Shrug Dealer - That's $10 You Owe Me Now, Dickhead!
Caerus - Antimatter
Speedmatics - Ella
Repulsive Woman - When I Get Good
DVOLV - Within This Mortal Soil
Those Fucking Snowflakes - Stop Being Dickheads To Each Other
Hippie Death Cult - Unborn
Smash Potater - Toxic Masculinity Holocaust
Amy Gabba & The Almost Famous - F.U. Cupid
Roadsaw - Fat Rats
Badflower - Die
Helengard - Summer Feast

THIS could be your favourite song, this could be your favourite albuuuum

Mix CD #48 - Welcome To The Real World

Good evening!
Here's the latest installment of Sapphire Bullets for your enjoyment, should you choose to enjoy it. There's no theme this Month, as usual, just a collection of songs I've been loving lately.
As does seem to be the growing trend with these blogs though, there are artists from a wide range of countries as far apart as Indonesia, Ukraine, Switzerland and beyond. Well, not beyond but you know what I mean. Other places and that.

This blog has taken me a while to get out due to busy real world stuff. I've been on nights during Fresher's Week so it's that's included an alarming amount of vomit (not mine), pissed up aggravations, ambulances and, at one point, the hefting of an unconscious girl. Then more vomit.
Given that I do most of my blogging on company time, it's meant I've had to do actual real work and haven't been able to abuse worktime privileges much. Hopefully, that will change and I'll get the next blog out in good time.

Cheers for reading (and listening if you listen)
Luke
x

The Riders - Welcome To The Real World
Robot Zombie Army - Taste The Rainbow
Isabelle Stillman - That Salinger Novel
Toxic Melons - Not In Love
The Short Fuses - The Pink
Destrage - About That
Amygdala - It Takes A Village
The Brought Low - This Ain't No Game
Clatter - Come Back
Cats In Boots - Shotgun Sally 
G.L.O.S.S. - We Live
Tarja - Railroads
Black Moth - Moonbow
Lamebrain - Repulse
Incendiary - The Product Is You
Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones - Ghost
MC Lars & Mega Ran - Bartleby, The Scrivener
Skypilot - Superdupernaut
Necking  - Boss
Carrying Goodness - I Don't Know You
Frozen Crows - Aeon

You can download the song HERE if you want. No pressure.