Atmosphere, "Next To You"
On one hand, I think it's admirable that Atmosphere is willing to experiment with their music and stray very far from the hip-hop that they originally made their names with. On the other, though, when they do too much of this kind of thing, it can get pretty old. This song, from Fishing Blues, is fine, but isn't really why I listen to Atmosphere.
Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Apache Rose Peacock"
OK, let's take a moment to step back and just admire the production job on this. Not because it's great, or adds a ton to the music, or anything like that. No, just listen to how immaculate it is. It's squeaky clean! Every sound is perfectly isolated, perfectly recorded. There's not an iota of accidental noise anywhere in this. You could perform surgery inside this song, as long as you got the boys to, I dunno, put surgical masks on their junk or whatever.
J-Live, "3 Out Of 7"
There's actually something slightly Peppers-y about this song in parts. At least the drums and guitar. However, that keyboard on the chorus is fantastic.
Foetus, "Miracle"
Love, from 2005, sort of brought in a new era for Foetus. From this album forward, the abrasive elements were toned down some, while the symphonic and orchestrated elements largely remained. Thirlwell has always made very dramatic music, but mostly, the noisy stuff started being phased out. This song still has some of that, mind you, so it didn't all go away completely.
Coil, "Slur"
Horse Rotorvator is one of those albums where I genuinely didn't know what I was getting into. Coil was mentioned a lot on the mailing lists and Usenet groups I was following in 1991, and almost always in really positive terms. But nobody really seemed to mention what they were like. But they were supposed to be industrial, and I liked industrial, so I thought I should try them out. So, I found this album at Eide's record store in Pittsburgh, and took a look. And it was creepy! The cover was strange! The title didn't make sense! The first song was called "The Anal Staircase"! What was this? I didn't know what to make of it.
Despite being, honestly, a little intimidated, I bought it and brought it home. And I still didn't know what to make of it. I was used to thinking of industrial as just noise and aggression, and this was not that. This was creepy, atmospheric, and strange. This was music designed to weird you out, not club you over the head. I didn't really like it at first. But I couldn't forget it, either. Every month or so, I'd haul it out and decide I still didn't really like it. But it kept hanging around just on the edges of my brain, haunting me a little. After long enough, I was forced to admit, yeah, I did like this album. A lot.
There's nobody quite like Coil, and this is their best album. You'll note that I, too, have not really described what they sound like. Maybe it's best to just let yourself be haunted by it a little also.
By the way, Jim Thirlwell (Foetus) had a guest appearance on this album. It's a small world in Five Songs!