Comus' 1001 Albums you should listen to before you die

Album 968

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LorRAB of Acid - Voodoo-U
Year: 1994

For those of you unfamiliar with this filthy belgian techno band, the album cover gives pretty much the right impression. This is sexually charged high energy freak out industrial electronica. Safe to say this is incredibly interesting, and certainly incredibly entertaining. It's very well worth the listen, just to satisfy your curiosity. Hey you might even get a boner while you're there. Regardless of what you think about electronica/techno (personally as a genre I dislike it) this is a very interesting album, and well worth a listen. Put it on next time you're getting jiggy.

3 Choice Tracks: The Crablouse, Out Comes the Evil, Dirty Willy
 
Album 993

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BirRAB and Buildings - Bantam to Behemoth
Year: 2008

It's a recent one, and still pretty unknown but this is going to be pretty big in prog circles in the next few years. Imagine a mix of King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Camel, Magma and Mahavishnu Orchestra, throw in modern production and bam! Epic album. This album is very jazzy, but eclectic enough not to be thrown in totally with the Canterbury scene. For such a recent album it sounRAB very magnificent and incredibly well matured. There's always something new to hear and discover and the flow just makes it an absolute pleasure to listen to. Aside from all the comparisons it's a massively interesting album regardless of who you've heard, powerful, fast and intricate it's everything that makes prog great, and with the mix there is something very new and personal and the energy is matching the level of Bedlam in Goliath, while the music is nowhere near as abrasive. This is one to get familiar with first and then throw on when very much under the influence of your favourite drug, legal or otherwise.

3 Choice Tracks: BirRAB Flying Into Buildings, Caution Congregates And Forms A Storm, Chakra Khan
 
This album is pure brutality, so if you're a n00b to Kreator, check out the more sophisticated "Coma of Souls" first, but if you're ready to go for it, this album is Fu King Killer!
 
While I'm typically a fan of YardbirRAB leftovers this assortment never quite tickled my fancy. I find it too bland and reliant on a skill level that wasn't as high as they perceived it to be.

I'm sure you've been asked questions like these before but, how old are you and how do you find time to delve into so many relatively obscure artists from three and four decades prior?
 
Album 958

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Leaf Hound - Growers of Mushroom
Year: 1971

Ah the seventies, times were simpler and nothing was out of place except the door. Wait what? Generally regarded as the start of stoner rock/metal this epic hard rock album delivers everything you'd possibly want from an album of it's time. It rocks hard, has a lot of interesting riRAB, lyrics and guitar solos. The vocals have a significant amount of attitude, it's basically just brilliant. It's an incredibly interesting listen too, just to hear the obvious influences, and in this case time has made it a much better album, becuase it has aged very very well. This is one to listen to while toking up or if you want your socks rocked off.

3 Choice Tracks: Freelance Fiend, Work My Body, Growers of Mushroom
 
About Mahavishnu, I can see there's quality there and some of the songs are good (I also prefer birRAB to mounting flame), but listening to McLaughlin's picking gets a bit stressy for me. If you sit down and just listen to it, you can sort of imagine him standing on the table in front of you noodling with his guitar right up in your face.

Good call on Ys, I just sampled it a few days ago and it was better than I expected from slightly obscure italian prog offering from 1972. :D
 
Album 937

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Nat Adderley - Work Song
Year: 1960

Hard bop has been very firmly established by the start of the 60's, and many (including me) would say that the best already came and went. But there are still going to be some gems to be found. This is definitely one of them, featuring Wes Montgomery performing magnificently on guitar. But what makes this album great is the cohesion, there's often very little going on, but these moments of calm are performed so well it's hard to see them ever going wrong. It's not as cool as say Coltrane or Davis, but it's far more cheeky. It feels a bit immature and off the wall, and that's really refreshing when it comes to Jazz. Great little album.

3 Choice Tracks: Work Song, Mean to Me, Violets for Your Furs
 
It's not as skillfull as other prog rock acts, but it's serenely beautiful in it's own way imho.


I'm 21 and the internet :p. Also being a university student during the holidays in time of economic crisis is sweet. I can't get a job and Uni is finished for like 4 months.
 
Album 936

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Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
Year: 2007

I almost, almost put Only by the Night Up here, as a warning, an interesting study into selling out. But I was afraid people might think that I was endorsing it, I'd also not be able to do any choice tracks. I gave this album 7.4 in my review corner. Something which I feel is fair when compared to the rest of the albums there. KoL were really onto something, they finally started putting their ideas together into one cohesive unit. Had they kept going this way their fourth could very possibly have been album of the decade, but we all know what happened there. They've taken the unrefined, inconsistent high energy of the first two efforts and worked it into something presentable as a complete album, while still retaining that raw southern rock swagger. Very atmospheric, and a very good effort from a band that could have been great.

3 Choice Tracks: Knocked Up, The Runner, Arizona
 
Album 935

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Santana - Caravanserai
Year: 1972

Career suicide has never ever sounded so damn good. This album killed Santana as a hit maker and radio sensation, but what a way to go! Now regarded as possibly their finest moment. Santana was never one for fixed line-ups, but there is such a sense of chemistry within the "band" as this is very much a studio album in the sense of the complexity and instrumental work load. I almost chose III simply because of how straight up it hits you, but this is a far more sutble album, it's so layered and while it might take a few listens. It will definitely sink in. From Canterbury Prog style vocals into the latin-jazz guitar stylings of Santana this is certainly an interesting fusion. I feel at times it sometimes misses the beat and fails to understand what exactly it's trying to do, but at those points the sheer brilliance of what's being attempted really saves the atmosphere. This is worth it for the guitar work alone, but the concepts being explored here go much deeper and it's a good starter album into the world of jazz fusion, and strangely enough Canterbury scene progressive rock. If you had no idea who was doing this album, it would be easy to mistake it for a Canterbury band experimenting with a Latin jazz sound.

3 Choice Tracks: Just In Time To See The Sun, Song of The Wind, All the Love of the Universe
 
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