Okay, there might be one more secret vinyl download after this one, but that really will be it. This one is kind of the penultimate WTF?  situation though and deserved to be shared. A little background for you... Without saying the name of the artist, whom I'm sure has nothing to do with the issues at hand, I pre-ordered a very special reissue of their their debut album from their website. I got the announcement a little late, so when I arrived the only options were a deluxe package that included a t-shirt. I figured, what the hell, it's their site, it'll get to me quickly enough, and it was announced there that the orders would be shipping the week of September 24th, so I placed my order and figured I'd be getting an email the next week with tracking data. That email never came though so I tried to figure out who to contact at the company handling the order. They did not have the most public of contact information available so I ended up reaching out to them via their

So, as it's been exactly one month since my last post, I think it's time I laid it all out there. This blog is coming to an end in the very near future. I'm going to leave the posts up a little while longer, but I'll eventually delete the links (maybe most of the links but leave a few special ones active) and maybe the vaguer posts, since they won't make sense without the links. With that said, there will be one more secret vinyl download I'll be sharing here, and that should appear before the end of the week. After that, I'm planning on trading mixtapes with people around the world. That's not to say that they're explicitly cassette-based mixtapes, but the basic idea of making a mix for someone and sending it to them through the traditional mail. These mixes can be on cassette, cdr, usb stick, whatever, though I'll be making sure that myself and whomever is trading with me are getting formats they can play and work with. I'm not going to sen

I've had a long history with this album, as I'm sure many others have as well. The copy this is ripped from arrived on my wedding day in 2014, so they're always linked there in my mind. This version is a special box set edition with the entire album on 45s. It came with some bonus tracks, two of which feature guests and their vocals, which is kinda funny since there were no vocals recorded expressly for this album. Still, as much as I love it, it's kind of haunting, knowing it's creator passed away right after it was released. Also funny, since I'd heard this album quite a bit before it was released. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I'd downloaded Madvillainy and this, both ripped from advance CDs that had tags in the tracks that would interrupt them and tell you what you were listening to. That was kind of annoying, especially for Madvillainy , but it kinda added to the aura of this album. I've still got those mp3s, but I haven't listened to them

On this long weekend, I have so many emails to respond to, and I'm hoping to get a good dose of listening to recent purchases in. I bought A LOT of records the other day, and I've got a few more on their way to me as I write this. I was hoping to have something a little more expansive for this post, especially since I've gotten a lot of interesting stuff recently, but I haven't had much time to examine any of it in depth, so instead I give you some vinyl rips as the equivalent of comfort food. Actually, they're both really good records, but the content is quite a bit easier to get a hold of now compared to a few years ago. Still, I'm pretty proud of these rips, as they're almost entirely needle drops, which is to say there is no declicking, apart from one utterly pointless bit that no one will ever notice anyway, as well as the editing, though none of that is messing with the rip. Minor hints follow. The first rip is an album from 2002 that was out of print

If you've ever purchased a deluxe edition of an album and wondered to yourself, "what's the point if everything isn't included?", this one's for you. Not that everything is included, because it definitely isn't, although this is a nicely done deluxe edition of an album that it can't be easy to do one for. The quick and dirty of it is that this edition of this album was prepared in 2017 but only saw release this year. The vinyl may have been sitting in a warehouse for several years, as evidenced by the copyright info on the packaging, the use of old logos, a different name for the edition (it's listed simply as Deluxe, mentioning nothing of anniversaries) and the fact that the art and track listing leaked several years ago when photos and details about the vinyl were posted online by someone who had managed to acquire a copy. That's not even mentioning the typos in the track list. They didn't leak the music, but the damage was done for the l

I don't think it's been too long since my last post, but it's been a little longer than I initially planned. In my defense, I spent about 12 hours in the ER with my wife last night, and that will derail just about anything you're trying to do. So, please forgive me that I don't have the next download ready to go. That said, I whipped up a little something to hopefully tide everyone over until I get more secret vinyl downloads ready.  A little backstory; my wife underwent a fairly significant surgery about a month ago, and in the days leading up to it, I dealt with the stress by playing records and recording them to listen to while she was in surgery and recovery. It was all a little OCD, but my rules were that I wouldn't do any clean-up to the tracks after recording them. I haven't followed that rule to the letter, but I've kept the tracks mostly untouched. Originally, I wanted about two hours worth of tracks to listen to, but I kept playing and recordin

I absolutely cannot say what this album is. I'll give you some hints and I can acknowledge if you ask me and you are correct, but I can't say what this is because it would get knocked offline rather quickly. With that said, this is the start of some not terribly rare vinyl rips I'll be sharing. Well, that's not entirely true, because some of them are a little more rare than others, but the material is well known and readily accessible via modern means. These rips though, they're not what I think anyone would consider modern means. This is a Homemade Deluxe Edition, much like the Prince albums I used to post on my original Unheard Music blog. That said, this album has had several official deluxe reissues, though I'm not particularly happy with them. The packaging and liner notes are all wonderful on those reissues, and a lot of the most important content is present, but there are significant details missing. I'm hoping to take care of those details while supp

This one gets filed right next to the DJ Mink record(s). It's a little more in your face, but it's the same kind of vibe I want to hear in a good hip-hop mix. No surprise then that I first heard this in Liam Howlett's masterful Dirtchamber mix. So much incredible stuff in that mix, it's really amazing they managed to clear probably 95% of the original mix for release, including the then-unavailable (at least in a legal sense) original "trance" version of The KLF's What Time Is Love . Mink did do some other production work that's known of outside Hey! Hey! , but not much. That Blue Eyes track is nice if you can ignore Blue Eyes himself. Ugh, he was wack even in 91. Uptown though is a similar but different enough story. He showed up on a DJ Premier remix of Omar's Keep Steppin' (I don't know who he is either, but here's a YouTube link for the track ) and worked with Buckshot LeFonque , Branford Marsalis'  now defunct jazz

These are both pretty old rips. I was using the same basic equipment, a Technics SL-QD33 and my BBE Preamp though my Creative Labs X-Fi USB soundcard, but one was done with a Shure cartridge that isn't made any longer, and the other with an Audio Technica. These were also completely manually declicked, which is to say I didn't use iZotope RX like I usually do when cleaning up my rips. I use it pretty sparingly, with custom settings to remove obvious clicks and more noticeable surface noise, but even then things still get messed up sometimes so I have to be careful. I feel like I've gotten pretty good at vinyl ripping, but I'm still learning something every time I transfer a record, so while I have no issues with either of these rips, they don't represent how I usually transfer records these days. For instance, I recently ripped each US pressing of Paul's Boutique, and while I think they all sound pretty damn good, I heard a more recent rip of the original US iss

Okay, no secret, this is DJ Mink's Hey! Hey! Can U Relate . Since this track is barely available online in it's original form(s), lets not beat around the bush and get to the point. I LOVE this song! I somehow knew how it would sound before I'd actually had a chance to hear it, and it was utter perfection! That said, obtaining a new copy of the original 12", even a digital one, is simply not possible in a legal fashion. Yes, the original mix is on several compilations which are still available to stream and purchase to this day, and there is a remix on a Warp comp that is also available digitally , but the complete release, which includes the instrumental and a dub version of the aforementioned remix, are only available second hand. Even odder, there were several versions of this track that were never given a proper release of any sort. Promotional pressings were made for Sheffield's FON Records , though never issued for retail. White labels were also pressed

So, I kinda slipped on the last post and shared something I'd previously posted somewhat recently. How recent? A few months. Previously, it wasn't hi-res lossless, so I guess it's okay, but it makes me feel silly if I'm spinning my wheels, so... and now for something completely different. Since I'm not posting metadata that would lead someone to these posts through a search engine, I suppose I can say a little more about some of them. This one is a VERSION of a very well known, self-titled album by what is arguably the most important band of the 20th century. This self-titled album, colloquially known as the "white album", is, again, very well known. This version though was compiled by an individual named Rutherford Chang as part of a traveling art presentation he has shown all over the world. You can learn more about it here ,  here  and here . It is a recording of 100 unique copies of this "white album" being played at the same time, all take

For the second volume of vinyl rips, I selected some singles to share with you. Again, all of these are rather hi-res rips, and with two minor exceptions, they're all from original pressings, as in not reissues or bootlegs. I'm not planning on doing another batch of singles, and I'm generally not beholden to pressings having to be originals and not reissues, but who knows what I might dig out. As for bootlegs, there is a time and place for them, and I own some too. I've actually got two that I plan on sharing eventually, one I ripped for a friend which is definitely not something I'd normally listen to, and the other a ridiculously nutty private pressing that I'll discuss when the time comes. As for now, I'll give a little information on each of the records based on their alphabetical order in the download folder. 1) This is from RSD 2010 and was released in advance of the version of their album that was supposed to be released then but was canceled due to

I've been at a loss of time to write posts lately, and that hasn't changed, but I wanted to keep the site going and I thought it would be a great idea to share some hi-res vinyl rips with you. I may have shared some of these elsewhere, maybe I haven't, but these are all rips I did on my own equipment and are mostly very hi-res, 24 bit, 96 kHz lossless files. The rules of these posts are that I will be sharing download links for each rip for a month. After that time, I'll be removing the live link. If there is something that you'd like to get that you missed or lost, you can drop me a line privately and maybe I can help you out, but I can't make any guarantees. It's also important that I note that I won't be publicizing what the vinyl rips are. I'll give some commentary but the name of the release won't appear here, as some of these might be more recent releases than others. There will be a photo for each one that should tell you what you can down

My job is returning to its normal schedule next week, so I'm not going to have much time to post regularly. Not that I've posted much regularly in recent history. Still, I've got a few things up my sleeve and I'd like to post things now and again. I don't have much ready to go right now though, so I'm sharing a few remixes I like that, as the title gives away, I think you might like too. If you don't like them, sorry, I'll post other remixes later. For now though, here are four remixes for your enjoyment. Pizzy Yelliott - Could You Be Loved (Mungolian Jetset 303 Acid Mix feat. Katzenjammer) I'm 99% sure I posted this a while ago, though it was probably a very old mp3, whereas this is a fresh transfer from my vinyl. There was some noise in the first eight bars that I couldn't get removed no matter how hard I tried, so I recreated the intro by reassembling the loops from non-shitty sounding parts. If you haven't heard this track before, prepare

Quite a few years ago, on my The Unheard Music blog, I'd posted a lossless collection of remixes Trent Reznor with/and/or Nine Inch Nails did for other artists. The criteria was that they wouldn't be mixes for Trent's own projects, ala NIN or How to destroy angels , and they couldn't be for remix albums he was directly involved in, like Marilyn Manson's Smells Like Children . There were quite a few mixes that were difficult to find, barely released, or outright unreleased. Then the other day, I was contacted by a longtime follower of my blog(s) to ask if I still had those files. I asked him to give me a day or two to find them and I'd let him know. And that brings us to today, as I have re-uploaded those files and added a bit to them. Thanks to Ryan for reminding me to dig these out, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I hope he does. For a rundown on what's here and what's been updated, first I want to note that there are some tracks here that a

Was that a long enough title? How many of you are familiar with Resident Alien ? They were to be the inaugural signing and release on Prince Paul's label, Dew Doo Man Records , which was to be distributed by Def Jam/RAL (Rush Associated Labels) in the early nineties. Their sole album, which was never officially released, sounded like the mid-way point between De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising and the De La Soul Is Dead album. It was a mix of Paul's brand of sample-heavy hip-hop with a lot of reggae and world influences. It's probably not very politically correct by today's standards, though it's also clear it's not meant to be taken very seriously. It really is a missing link of the Native Tongues era of early nineties hip-hop that should have been released. There was even a single released, with two videos ! (Please forgive me for the quality of those two videos, they are glitched pretty bad.) And yet Russell Simmons , in his weird, rapey way where

So, as I mentioned previously, the sampler of demos for George Clinton's Hey Man Smell My Finger album that I'd posted were only part of a bigger forthcoming release. Well, here it is, the full enchilada! For a little background on what's been done here, first off, this is a Coco Bros release, meaning it was done by my friend and I. I'm not sure if he wants his name broadcasted just yet, even if it's only his first name, so I'll just say that I ripped the tape and denoised it, and he gave it a professional mastering job because he's a PROFESSIONAL ! There is some silence removed from between tracks but I made sure not to touch the musical content. There is also an edit at the end of High in My Hello as my tape cut off, so I added a beat or two so it ended more smoothly. I did the artwork by taking a black and white photo on yellow paper from the Hey Man press kit, running it through a random glitch tool until I found a pic I liked, and adding some text. 

So I said on my Twitter last night that I wouldn't have another post until probably next week. Well, surprise, I apparently lied to myself, because last night I found a tape I'd been looking for, ripped it, and put way too much work into it while still managing to watch tv with my wife. I wouldn't consider it done though, as my partner in the Coco Bros is doing some clean-up before we put the whole thing out, so consider this a little work in progress sampler of something to come soon, that being a tape of demos for George Clinton's Hey Man Smell My Finger album that dates from around 91 or 92, along with some other unreleased tracks most likely from some time in the 80s. For a little background on this tape, I got this a while before George's finished Smell My Finger album dropped, and I thought they sounded really good at the time, so I was truly blown away when I heard the finished album. In case you haven't heard it, it doesn't really sound like tra

So..., some guys I know did this thing. It's kinda like Saul's Boutique , which is to say it's totally unofficial, but compiled entirely from the best available official sources, and then sweetened for maximum listening enjoyment. It's an album by a guy that loved the color purple , though he recorded it under a different name than his own. It was scheduled to come out in early 1987, but was canceled in favor of another album, which was then canceled and edited into yet another album. The album that was finally released is considered a classic, and three songs from the album I'm posting here appeared on it. It's one of my favorite records that the guy who loves purple made, even though it was never released. I wanted to share it with you, as I think it's a damn shame that it hasn't been given a proper release yet, despite there being a super deluxe box set for the album that did come out in 1987 which had a few songs from this one. If this all sounds

I had a ton of stuff ripped that I was prepared to share, but the more I've looked at it, the more I wonder "is this appropriate to put online?" Not that there is anything offensive in there, but some of this stuff may be available elsewhere in an official status. So I'm making a small post of two tracks that aren't available anywhere in an official status, at least not at the moment, though that doesn't look like it will change anytime terribly soon. Below, you will find both sides of a remix 12" that Talking Heads released shortly after 1983's Speaking in Tongues album. This is sometimes credited as Slippery People / Making Flippy Floppy , though I generally just list it as Remixes . Both versions are credited as having been remixed by David Byrne and John "Jellybean" Benitez . Not sure why David gets his name listed first, but whatever. It should be noted, if you bought Speaking in Tongues on cassette when it was released, it contai