The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project - We are only riders (vinyl rip). 2009

   In 2006 while clearing out his attic, Tony Cmelik (aka Cypress Grove) came across a bag of dusty old cassettes.
   He started to sort through them and found one marked "JLP Songs". As soon as he put it on he remembered what it was; Tony & Jeffrey Lee Pierce of Gun Club rehearsing material for the album they made together ("Ramblin' Jeffrey Lee and Cypress Grove with Willie love"). 
   The album was initially going to contain country songs, but it gradually evolved into a full blown blues album. It was recorded on an old boombox in Tony's bedroom, just the two of them on acoustic guitars.
   22 years later these songs see the light of the day thanx to jeffrey's friends, 13 years after his death. "We Are Only Riders" is more than just a "various artists" compilation. It's a musical collective of artists who have come together to interpret (and in some cases, complete) unfinished skeletal works by Jeffrey Lee Pierce, an artist they were friends with or whose work they admired.    

   Artists featured on the album include Nick Cave, who has done his own solo track, as well as duetting with Debbie Harry, and playing piano on Debbie's solo track, and added backing vocals on the Cypress Grove track. Mick Harvey contributed to two of the Nick Cave tracks and has recorded a solo track. Barry Adamson plays bass on the Nick Cave solo track and also on the Mark Lanegan solo track, who has also recorded a duet with Isobel Campbell. Kid Congo Powers contributed to Nick Cave and Lydia Lunch tracks. The Raveonettes and Crippled Black Phoenix are also here.

(from Glitterhouse site)

                                   The file contains the 16 songs and the artwork. 

                                                  Download   here

Shit Hit The Fan (E.P., 7", vinyl rip).1995

  Shit Hit The Fan was a punk/industrial band formed in Athens in 1994 by ex Deus Ex Machina singer Kostas Diavolitsis. Deus ex Machina is a great band - one of the best punk groups ever made in Greece, creating  absolute chaos in their concerts -   but in my eyes (or ears) their best years was the early nineties, when Kostas, with his unique punk voice and attitude, was the singer of the band. After he left they are just a great punk band... He sings in their first record "Motorpsycho".

   After leaving Deus, Kostas formed Shit Hit The Fan, a band influenced by industrial and punk music.

   Ιn 1995 - always in the spirit of "do it yourself" - they released this limited edition (500 copies) 7" record with 5 excellent songs. This was their only release plus some songs in compilations... Today Kostas sings for So Uzd.

More about this band (plus 2 songs not included in the record) in this excellent blog

                               The file contains the five songs and the artwork.

                                        Download here

 

Modern English - Chapter 12 (E.P. 12", vinyl rip). 1984.

  Modern English are an english post punk band formed in Essex in 1979. Next year they signed for 4AD records. Joy Division was their biggest influence when they started but later the band's sound evolved to a more pop direction.

  Their first album "Mesh and Lace" (1981), climbed the indie charts and the band toured with Depeche Mode and Japan. 1982's album "After the Snow"was produced by famous Hugh Jones (Echo and the Bunnymen, Simple Minds, The Damned etc.).

   Then the band relocated to New York city and worked on a third album, "Ricochet Days", which made the top 100 in the US, after which the band left 4AD and were signed for Sire records. 

   The album Stop Start (1986) was the last Modern English record released by Sire, with the band splitting up after its release. 

  During 1983–4 time band's members Grey, McDowell and Conroy were also involved with This Mortal Coil.

   

Modern English disbanded in 1987 but they reunited in 1995. They still play and you better check out their Official site.

   

This 12" record was released in 1984 and it contains three beautiful new wave songs (Chapter 12, Ringing in the change, Reflection).

   The wonderful cover is designed by the two geniouses called 23 envelope

   They have designed many album covers for 4AD including the covers of Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Dead Can Cance.

                                               Downoad  here

Art of Parties - Last Time / Central Room (7" single, vinyl rip). 1984

This is one of the most beautiful singles of the '80s greek rock scene!

Art of Parties was a neo-romantic/synth - new wave band from Athens with a serious melancholic sound. They recorded this single for Creep Records in 1984. In 1990 they released an LP ("Elements") but they will stay in history of the greek post punk scene thanx to these two great songs!

You can learn a lot of things about this band and listen to their songs  here.

                              One of the first records i ever bought. I still love it!

                              The file contains the two songs and the artwork.

                                                         Download  here

The Hands of Cain - The Only Sound (1983 - 1985 recordings/vinyl rip). 2009

   The Hands of Cain were Dimitris Chorianopoulos (vocals, bass), Spyros ‘S. Adam’ Floros (drums), Costas Papakitsos (synthesisers) and Dimitris Stamatiou (guitar) from Athens, Greece.

    In 1983 the HANDS OF CAIN evolved from of one of the first groups of the Greek punk scene of the early 80’s called Ausschwitss when their music was gaining a darker shade and their lyrics were changing to English. 

    Unlike their former group, The Hands of Cain had very little public exposure, but built their reputation amongst the lively Athenian dark wave/post punk scene of the time with a few live gigs in clubs like ‘Skylab’ and ‘Pegasus’. They finally split up in November 1985, and although none of their recordings was ever released their fame lived on.

 

 An end was put to this local hidden secret 

when Dimitris ‘Profitis’ Petrou sent Annalogue records two tracks in Autumn 2007, “Two Steps to the End” and “The Dagger in Me”. Anna was blown away by those tracks and couldn’t believe they have remained unreleased. Of course, this had to be changed. The quality of HOC’s song writing is amazing, these are just strong compositions, and without any doubt, this album will perfectly line up with the best ever goth/dark wave albums being so close to Christian Death’s first recordings as well as the best songs by Bauhaus. 

Their tracks are pure mid 80’s despair and melancholy, typical of the goth/dark wave scene of the time, although such terms as goth or dark-wave had not yet been invented by journalists back then. The material was (more or less) preserved on dusty 8mm reels and worn-out cassette tapes – it is thanks to Dave Hewson, who digitally transferred and restored these tracks that this fascinating music escaped oblivion.

 Prepare yourself for a milestone not only in Greek music history, but also in goth/dark wave history!

 (from Annalogue records official site)

         Vinyl rip. The file contains the 10 songs of the LP, the three songs of the 7" record and the artwork.  

                                      Download  here

Rehearsed Dreams - Trip (E.P. - 1985 recordings). Vinyl rip. 2011

   Rehearsed Dreams was one of the darkest bands ever! 

   They formed in Athens, Greece, in 1985 and they released their only record "Repulsion" in the legendary Creep Records the same year. Their music is influenced by Bauhaus and darkwave generally, but Rehearsed Dreams tried to push it as far as possible!
    They created a sound reflecting all the despair and melancholy someone can feel...

    Piano was playing key role in their music which is also characterised by the excellent vocals.

    Band's members were John Schrei (Giannis Papaioannou) - vocals, keyboards, bass, piano, saxophone, Spy Spider (Spyros Faros)- guitar, fretless bass, cello, piano and Billy SS - drums, but they had the help and collaboration of Fill Scars from Yell O Yell.

    After the release of Repulsion Rehearsed Dreams started working on new material with the participation of Fill Scars. They recorded 5 songs but they never made it to continue because the group disbanded.

These tapes were lost for all these years (!) untill last year some great guy found them somewhere in Spain! So, the Inner Ear record label finally released three of these songs in this E.P. on vinyl only and limited copies (250 only - sold out of course).

The songs are written by Spy Spider and John Schrei and the musicians are John Schrei (vocals, Roland SH-101, piano, saxophone), Spy Spider (fretless bass, cello, piano), Fill Scars (electric guitar, backing vocals on "Trip") and Andreas F. (drums).

P.S. I have to warn you. This is really dark...

Download here

The Flowers of Romance - Pleasure and the pain/Winter Waltz (7", vinyl rip). 1993

The Flowers Of Romance was a pioneering punk and later gothic rock band of the underground Greek rock scene from 1981 to 1998. The Flowers Of Romance’s energetic sound and combinations of several styles of rock led to their prevalence within the underground Greek rock scene for nearly two decades, and a belief by many that they were the top Greek gothic rock group in history.

 Mike Pougounas was the singer and leader of the band. After Flowers of Romance disbanded, he formed Nexus, the first greek industrial band and also Cyberdelia, an independent record company whith many greek bands and in 2005 he created a new band, New Zero God.

    After the punk years, The Flowers Of Romance began work on their first album, Dorian Grey in 1990. Its tracks consisted of the band's songs between 1986 and 1989, including “Kashmir” and “There is Nothing We Can’t Solve Together” and their cover of Bolan's "Children Of The Revolution" was a cult hit in Greece.

 The Dorian Grey LP was also the band’s first foray into the gothic rock style, making The Dorian Grey LP the first Greek gothic rock album to be distributed internationally.

    In 1992, The Flowers Of Romance capitalized on their cult success with the release of the Love Means Death EP and …The Story So Far.

 The November 1993 release of The Flowers Of Romance’s The Pleasure and the Pain LP revealed the band’s versatility; this new album showcased a style more in line with gothic rock and featured Mike Pougounas on the keyboards as well as the vocals. 

This 7’’ single (The Pleasure and the Pain/Winter Waltz) was released prior to the arrival of the new album, with “Winter Waltz” becoming one of the band’s most acclaimed songs.

  Mike Pougounas and The Mission frontman Wayne Hussey met in 1995, and by this time The Flowers Of Romance were already amidst the pre-production of their next album, Brilliant Mistakes. Wayne Hussey’s keen interest in The Flowers Of Romance resulted in a full collaboration. In addition to producing the album and allowing the band to record in The Mission’s Bristol studio, Wayne Hussey collaborated on several songs and was able to introduce The Flowers Of Romance to a broader media market. Brilliant Mistakes was released in late 1996 and became The Flowers Of Romance’s greatest succes.(from Wikipedia)

                     This is my first vinyl rip! Vinyl to WAV to mp3 (320 Kbps).

              

                                                  Download  here

Iambia - Prometheus. 2002

  Iambia were formed back in the beginning of 2000 in Thessaloniki, Greece. Their music can be described as a mixture of modern E.B.M. and powerful electro.

 This is their debut CD "Prometheus", released in January 2002 by Capp records containing 11 tracks.

 Iambia have performed live several times supporting bands such as COVENANT, HOCICO, VNV NATION, ASLAN FACTION, GRENDEL, LAIBACH, PROJECT-X, NEBULA-H etc.

 In the meanwhile the band signs a new record deal with the swedish label PROGRESS PRODUCTIONS. 

The current line up is: Herr Khaos: Keyboards, production, vocals Loup3r: live keyboards.

                                 This is high energy dark electro!

                         Band's site is  http://www.myspace.com/iambiaorg

                                            

                                              Download  here

Brian Eno / David Byrne - My life in the bush of ghosts. 1981

This, my friends, is great music!

 African ryhtmology and avant garde electronic atmospheres mixed with continuing sampling. Not only sounds, but most of the vocals are sampled from other sources.

Maybe not that famous today but this album was a milestone for the evolution of avant garde and electronica.

It was recorded entirely with analogue technology, before the advent of digital sequencing and MIDI. The sampled voices were synchronized with the instrumental tracks via trial and error, a practice that was often frustrating, but which also produced several happy accidents.

Drawing on funk and world music (particularly the multi-layered percussion of African music), My Life is a mind-blowing experience!
 Some of the vocals that are sampled here are a Lebanese mountain singer, a radio evangelist, an exorcist in New York, an Egyptian popular singer, a radio host etc.

The famous Bill Laswell plays the bass and Chris Frantz (Talking Heads) is on drums, but there are also a lot of great musicians here.
And again... this is great music!

                                                    Downloa here

Peter Murphy - Deep. (1989)

  In 1983, Bauhaus broke up and Peter Murphy went on to new projects not involving Bauhaus members. After some brief dabbling with acting and dance - including a slightly odd televised performance to Bauhaus song "Hollow Hills" - he formed Dali's Car with Mick Karn, the bass player from Japan. The group recorded only one album.

   Murphy's solo career over time became more varied than Bauhaus, ranging from pseudo-pop to haunting ballads that showcased his deep and complex vocals, with lyrical themes that are often metaphysical or religious.
  This third album is the perfect example and maybe his best solo work. It includes the hit single "Cuts you up" and also two of the best songs he ever wrote, " Marlene Dietrich's Favorite Poem" and "A Strange Kind of Love", a striking love song, with acoustic guitar and plaintive Paul Statham (ex B-Movie) keyboards supporting one of Murphy's strongest lyrics and performances.

   He's even comfortable enough to do an open rewrite of bauhaus song "In the Flat Field," renamed "The Line Between the Devil's Teeth"; it has almost the same verse structure, definitely some of the same lyrics, but still, it's something he could have only done in his solo days.

   "Deep" showed Murphy balancing mass appeal and his own distinct art with perfection. 

                                                    Download   here

In Trance 95 - Desire to Desire/ Brazilia (single). 1988

  You can find this gem in some other blogs also, but i couldnt resist the joy to introduce In Trance 95 to those of you out there who may not know them!

  In Trance 95 are a greek electro band, active from 1988 till 1996 as a duo (Alex Mahairas and Nick Veliotis) and again from 2009 till today. New York record company Minimal Wave called them to release their early tapes and this was the beginning for a new career for the band.

  This is their first single from December 1988. Their first album "Code of Obsession" released at 1990. They had two more EPs "Ocean" and "Overcast" at 1995 and then they disbanded till 2009.

  This is high quality electro music with all the originality of '80's.

  Two songs icluded here, "Desire to Desire" and "Brazilia".

                                                Download  here