Pink Floyd, "Is There Anybody Out There?"
In a different potential project of mine, I was looking at albums released in 1979, and it's pretty amusing that the same year in rock produced London Calling and 154 and also The Wall. I know rock is pretty dead as a commercial prospect these days, but it's just kind of fun to consider that those extremes were commercially viable in what was ostensibly the same genre once upon a time.
Zeni Geva, "Total Castration"
Avant-garde metal band Zeni Geva were dropping extremely heavy music in the late 80s and early 90s that was pretty far past where a lot of their peers were at. This was contemporaneous with the Melvins' Bullhead, and it's in some ways on another level of heavy. Albini's usual precise engineering here helps everything come through beautifully. Thanks to inconsistent distribution here in the US, it's really only their couple later albums on Alternative Tentacles that got much traction in the US, but this record and 1990's Maximum Money Monster are both trend setters.
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, "Dim the Lights, Chill the Ham"
Aw, it pains me to not settle into this whole album after hearing the intro.
The Apples in Stereo, "Stop Along the Way"
Discogs tells me Science Faire is a comp, not a proper album, but I'll be honest: I can't really tell. Most of their stuff really fuzzes together for me. Album? Comp? Early career? Later? Who knows? Pleasant, but a little undifferentiated.
Nitzer Ebb, "Lovesick"
I've mentioned before the tendency of industrial dance bands to crank out singles and EPs in baffling profusion. I used to actually try and keep up with Nitzer Ebb's releases, and remember this one (As Is) being one of the harder ones to track down. Maybe it was a promo release? Looking at the Discogs list, seems like maybe that's what I did find. Anyway, it's...well, it's Nitzer Ebb. This is a pretty good tune, honestly.