Double post: The Roots (Dilla Joints) + Bastard (No Hope In Here)

This is going to be a quick double feature since I'm leaving for New York in a couple of days and have a bunch of things to take care of. Let's get started.

First off, we have one of my favourite hip-hop acts covering songs by one of my favourite producers in the same genre. ?uestlove and co. have been covering the late J. Dilla's tracks for a while now and this right here is a compilation of the best ones. Absolutely sublime and very relaxing.

Download

P.S. If you like this, you should definitely buy the new Roots album. Real hip-hop is hard to come by in 2010 so it's really quite special.

On the other end of the spectrum we have BASTARD (so good it has to be written in block capitals), a Japanese hardcore band. I don't know if hardcore fans out there are familiar with the awesome power of Japanese hardcore but if you're not, BASTARD will be happy to provide a great introduction. Aggressive hardcore/crust for the most part, at times morphing into thrash and sometimes even catchy (le gasp). Cop this, you know you want to.

Download|Buy

damd-burning cold

Damad (1992-2001) is a southern down-tuned crust-metal crossover band from the USA (Savannah, Georgia). Headed by female vocalist Victoria Scalisi, this outfit was easily one of the most talented and listenable underground punk/metal bands of the late 90s and early century. In 2001 ex-members of Damad formed Kylesa & Karst







get it here

Crust essential

So, absolutely essential split from two legendary hardcore punk/crust bands. No library is complete without this one split. What's that? You say you've heard this brand of crust more often than balls smacking against your ass? I just provide the links, so bear with me.

side disclose

side totalitar

EDIT: Might be vice versa, now that I think of it.

Disfear

Disfear is the Tomas Lindberg (ex-At The Gates) fronted D-beat/crust band and damn, do they know how to play fast and aggressively. There are even hints of rock 'n' roll in here, which only makes me like it more.


Mediafire

Cursed

One by Cursed



Finally got around to upping this beautiful release. Cursed are/were a crust/hardcore band from Canada that broke up in 2008 which is really upsetting (not that I was gonna be able to see them). Anyway, they released some great records, my favourite being One. If the opening track "Polygraph" doesn't do it for you, then leave the hall. This stuff is fast and angry. What more could you want?
Mediafire

Zoe

The Last Axe Beat by Zoe

Zoe are a band from Japan that play that doom-y crust, very much like Amebix. In fact, I think the whole album is Amebix worship. And that's not a bad thing.
Mediafire

Thurisaz + UNCALM

I'm gonna compress 2 completely different albums into one post. Like it or not, here it comes.

Circadian Rhythm by Thurisaz


Thurisaz are kind of hard to categorize, especially on this album. I guess the most accurate description would be melodic/atmospheric black metal. That pretty much sums it up. The songs on this album are beautiful in their melody and they all have a very melancholic atmosphere which really seals the deal in making this a solid album. The musicianship is also brilliant. Thurisaz are definitely masters at what they do.
Mediafire

The next album is actually a demo by a great powerviolence band from Aberdeen, Scotland called Uncalm. One of their members, Dave, has been in several bands of similar genres, the most notable being Filthpact (their album Plague Carriers of the Crust Apocalypse is fucking great) and actually used to be live in UAE. Anyway, their demo is simply blistering. Czech it.
Mediafire