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Aki Streeter – Discography Breakdown

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The lowdown on Aki Streeter – Discography Breakdown

Aki Streeter has one of the weirdest discographies in the world. Every album and every track almost seems like planned chaos. 80 percent of his bands have no lyrics, but when they have, the lyrics are so different to all the other musicians.

The best place to start:

I would mostly suggest the album “In Danger of Collapse” by Heimwerker. A punk band Aki founded in 2021 and this whole record is a 1-hour journey through the Multiverse. It gives me kinda Zappa mixed with ironic punk vibes. I hope they put the lyrics on Spotify one day!

The absolutely essential masterpiece(s):

Tracks: Mystic Punk (Heimwerker) TON-618 (Misanthropic Planet) ENDlich (Heimwerker)

Recommended if you like….

Buckethead, GG Allin, AxCx, Frank Zappa, Merzbow

Horslips – More Than You Can Chew (33CD/2DVD)

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The lowdown on Horslips – More Than You Can Chew (33CD/2DVD)

A 50th Anniversary 33CD/2DVD Super Deluxe box set celebrating the work of Ireland’s greatest Celtic Rock band, Horslips.

The ultimate collection of the band’s recorded work, More Than You Can Chew contains more than 500 audio tracks and features over 250 previously unreleased pieces and 4.5 Hours of unreleased video.

The set has been curated by Bert Jansch/John McLaughlin biographer (and longstanding Horslips fan) Colin Harper in close collaboration with the band members.

The audio, including most of the film audio, has been restored and (re)mastered by IFTA award-winning engineer Cormac O’Kane.

Herculean Horslips biographer Mark Cunningham has written the books in the set with fresh input from the band and, wearing his day-job designer hat, has lovingly designed the set under the oversight of Horslips’ de facto art director Charles O’Connor.

More Than You Can Chew also includes two albums new to any digital medium: Tryal (1983) by the Host (a post-Horslips band featuring Eamon, Johnny and Charles) and Breaking Star Codes (1983) by Barry Devlin.

Contents:

• 33 CDs containing 506 audio tracks 252 of which are previously unreleased • 2 DVDs containing two documentaries » Continue Reading.

Fugazi

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The lowdown on Fugazi

Fugazi are a Washington DC band, formed in 1987 and officially still extant, although they have been ‘on hiatus’ since 2002. The four members are Ian MacKaye (vocals and guitar), previously of hardcore legends Minor Threat, Joe Lally (bass), Brendan Canty (drums) and Guy Picciotto (initially only backing vocals in a hype man role, the Flavor Flav to MacKaye’s Chuck D, but subsequently second guitarist and co-lead vocalist). Their music is rooted in punk, but moves outwards to encompass much more. There’s a strong dub reggae influence from their earliest recordings, not least in their use of space – they took a traditionally dense and claustrophobic sound and found the space that was hiding in it all along. The guitar style is unusual. There’s no real differentiation between lead and rhythm, rather both guitarists occupy different parts of the sound spectrum, with Picciotto’s needling treble interlocking with MacKaye’s chunkier riffs. The real musical stars of Fugazi are the rhythm section. Lally and Canty are just superb, with sensational interplay, drive and groove. They deserve to be spoken of in the same breath as Entwistle and Moon or Jones and Bonham. As their career progressed, the » Continue Reading.

Alice Cooper

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The lowdown on Alice Cooper

The Alice Cooper group in 1970 were the sort of group that only Frank Zappa could love (which is presumably why he signed them to his label). Then they had the great luck to hook up with a young producer called Bob Ezrin who completely transformed their sound and sent them flying up the charts in the process. The material from this period forms one of the best greatest hits sets of the 70s (see below).

After splitting up in 1974, the singer took the name of the band for himself and since then has had a remarkably resilient solo career. He’s never really retired, and has been releasing albums pretty much every 2-3 years or so in that time.

The best place to start:

1974’s “Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits” does a flawless job at cherrypicking the Alice Cooper group’s string of albums from 1971 to 1974. All the hit singles are here, alongside strong album tracks such as “Billion dollar Babies” and “Desperado”. Future compilations add mid 70s AOR ballads and 80s metal to the mix, which distracts rather than adds to the experience.

The absolutely essential masterpiece(s):

1. “Billion Dollar » Continue Reading.

Wire

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The lowdown on Wire

Wire were bracketed with Punk but in fact they had more in common with Roxy Music, Eno, Art Rock bands like This Heat and a psych-rock edge too. Signed to the Harvest Label, more than one commentator referred to them as ‘The Punk Floyd’.

Wire’s debut album Pink Flag is, on a surface level, the most recognisably ‘Punk’ sounding record of their career. It crams 21 tracks onto two sides of Vinyl and is something of a novelty in having several songs which last less than 1 minute – the shortest being ‘Field Day for the Sundays’ which in spite of it’s 28 second duration somehow feels fully formed. Their M.O. at the time was that when the ‘Text’ (as Wire like to call lyrics) finished, then so should the song -perhaps catching their audience mid-pogo.

Their first 3 albums on Harvest are essential listening. Chairs Missing veers from the absurdist Tiswas/dance-craze of ‘I Am The Fly’ to the pop perfection of ‘Outdoor Miner’. 154 is perhaps their early masterpiece – at one point a Cor Anglais appears and there are nods toward King Crimson, Gentle Giant and Van Der Graaf Generator – » Continue Reading.