JUJU: Windtorn EP

One of the things that I love about the music blogosphere is the sheer amount of completely and hopelessly obscure bands that can be discovered on any given day. Myriad bands are completely unheard of until one person posts a song or an album, and all of a sudden people want to know more about the artist. Well, I wish I could tell you more about this. I really do. I absolutely love this EP. But unfortunately, there is absolutely no information anywhere. Similar to the Auscult EP that Curious Guy posted a little while back, this record is a gloomy gem with no credits whatsoever. Perhaps somebody out there can help solve the mystery of who recorded this, and where, and if they recorded anything else. I do know that it was released in 1989 on Rakish Records. . The music is nice and dark and very minimalistic. My favorite is Silent in the Shadow of the Sun, a slow-paced gloom-wave classic; Alkanet and Ashodel are also very good.

The songs are:

1. Malicious Iris
2. Silent in the Shadow of the Sun
3. Alkanet
4. Ashodel
5. Beloved Moonbeams
6. Goddess

Click here to download the record.

Primal Danse - Show No Emotion EP

Here's a pretty obscure EP from an LA band called Primal Danse. Although the record was marketed through Enigma Records, very little seems to be known about this record or the label (American Standard) that it's on. It seems that the drummer, Mike Hirsch, runs a skate shop these days in Southern California. Darin Bond, who played the rototoms, is also the name of one of the members of late 90s/early 2000s garage punk band Deadites (I don't know if they are actually the same person, though). This record was released on American Standard Records in 1982. The styles vary a bit: Insomnia is a midtempo mix of psychedelic and goth (similar to Red Temple Spirits or their predecessor, Ministry of Love); Johannesburg is dark new wave; Show No Emotion is more like a dancey funk-punk song.


Click here to download this EP!

MOLOKO+: Selftitled LP

Here is one of my personal favorite darkwave records. It's a 1986 selftitled, self-released album by a band called Moloko + from Germany. There isn't a lot of info about these guys. They released this LP as well as some songs on some German tape and vinyl compilations in the early to mid 80s. Almost every song here is great. From darkwave to dark electro to post punk to standard goth to more minimalist fare, these guys knew damn well how to make a classic album. My favorite songs are Fields of War, Falling Apart, and Eat & Starve.
Fun Fact: I saw this in a local record store and didn't buy it for almost a month because I thought the Russian writing at the top said "NAMBLA" when I glanced at it. Of course, common sense should have told me that those guys would probably not release an album that would be found in the goth section, but that's what happens when you thumb through records at a pace that's too quick for thought. Um, anyway, if you like darkwave or synth-heavy post punk (such as the Eleven Pond LP I previously posted), download this one!

The tracklist is:
Fields of War
Trance
Heatwave
Freimann
Falling Apart
Bad Love
Tenderness
Eat and Starve
In Meinen Taschen...

Click here to download this album.

Sad Is Fiction: Zum Wohle Der Menschheit 12"

This time I have a mysterious 12" EP from a Swiss band called Sad is Fiction. They self-released this EP in 1991, and that's really all I know. I have no idea if they released anything else, if the members (who only go by their first names on the jacket) went on to any other bands or what... I do know that I really like this EP. It's femele-fronted goth that's oddly dynamic, almost... I don't know, mathy? Math-goth? Would that be "Moth"? "Gothematics"? "Agothmetic"? There are loads of tempo changes, the songs build from repetitive doom-sounding basslines to angry shrieks and abruptly change to repeated chanting. It's definitely worth checking out if you're a goth or deathrock fan.

The tracks are:
Lied 13
Lied 7
Darling (Live)


Click here to download it!