The most incendiary female British performer to emerge in the 1990s, Polly Jean Harvey has fought against stereotyping every step of her career. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea – her sixth album – is as powerful a record as any she's made. It strikes a masterful balance between her blues/folk roots, avant-garde leanings and soaring pop sensibility. The abrasive and jagged guitars hark back to her fiery 1992 debut album Dry on the ballistic yet anthemic opener “Big Exit” while the dreamy and opulent closer “We Float” demonstrates how her song writing has matured. Elsewhere the clamour and emotional rush of a heady relationship – particularly on the Thom Yorke duet “The Mess We're In” – gives the album a ferocious clarity. The production skills of Mick Harvey (of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds) lends depth and assurance, but though PJ quotes from many influences – The Who, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, even West Side Story – her own indomitable presence shines throughout. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea showcases a singular talent at the peak of her powers.

Without words, cameras show us the world, with an emphasis not on “where”, but on “what's there”. It begins with morning, natural landscapes and people at prayer: volcanoes, water falls, veldts, and forests; several hundred monks do a monkey chant. Indigenous peoples apply body paint; whole villages dance. The film moves to destruction of nature via logging, blasting, and strip mining. Images of poverty, rapid urban life, and factories give way to war, concentration camps, and mass graves. Ancient ruins come into view, and then a sacred river where pilgrims bathe and funeral pyres burn. Prayer and nature return. A monk rings a huge bell; stars wheel across the sky.

This U.K. duo's landmark ambient techno album Lifeforms (1994) explored lush jungle vistas. Its follow-up opts for a much darker urban nightmare motif that makes it an ideal soundtrack while reading William Gibson. Progressive rockers by any other name, FSOL are highly respected innovators who rate with Orbital as the genre's leading exponent.

Autechre is the result of two guys just going at it, doing their job. and do they do it well. i'm not going to waste time trying to describe the music. it needs to be listened to on a case by case basis. either love-it-or-hate-it. is it better to keep music like this a secret?

Only 100 copies of this limited edition release was available.  CDR001 contains a collaboration between Murcof and H. Amzquita plus an exclusive track of each artist.  3 tracks, from Murcof's lush ambient lullaby to H. Amzquita's minimal dance patterns, plus the casual collaboration that fuses both styles on an extended head trip.  

Genre: Electronic
Year: 2001
Bitrate: 256 VBR
Recording Label: City Centre Offices

Genre: Electronic - Ambiental
Year: 2002
Bitrate: 192 CBR