The GOTHIC COMPENDIUM - 577 shades of black in 7 mystic years (1979-1986) torrent - Gothic torrents

In 1978, after punk's death, what was going to be born from its ashes, post-punk (i.e. the spine of British new wave), at the moment seemed to assume cheerful and funny forms. The new emerging bands (ex. the Police, Magazine, the first Japan and so on) looked like they want to shake off the furious, but sterile on the long run, rabies that punk brought with itself.
Anyway the underground music scene needed just few weeks to settle and re-organize itself, in order to restart more virulent than ever with at least three scenes: 1) the “combat” and politically involved new wave (ex. Pop Group, Gang of Four, etc), 2) the most cacophonous and alienating industrial (ex. Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, etc) and 3) gothic rock in all of its variants, from gothic-punk to positive-punk (the funniest definition), from dark-wave to depressi-wave.
Of the three genres (or shapes of the underground), the latter one revealed itself as the most fertile and harbinger of novelty and artistic genius. In its various forms and aspects it could represent the repressed anger, the anxiety and frustration of the generation that saw both the defeat of punk and itself without any future, even more than punk did. An everlasting economical crisis, the failure of social battles, the politics in inflexible and insensitive conservatory hands (Thatcher in the UK, Reagan in the USA) made a florilegium of artists explode between 1979 and 1986, the year universally recognized by critics as “the one of the last masterpieces” (though the scene lovers know it's not true). Real, tough, adult artists, able to represent, through variously gloomy or depressively tinted post-punk tunes, the hundreds frustrations of a humiliating society: psychological distress in any form, social or mental deviance, fear and death, and physical or moral monstrosities (or generic teratology made by devils, werewolves and vampires) as exterior symbols of such topics. In short, what is called “the dark side of the moon”, or of the human soul, that's the same.
A better and deeper description of the genre can be found at Scaruffi's page dedicated to it: http://www.scaruffi.com/history/cpt47.html

This compilation is a real compendium: it wants to be satisfactory both from the synthetic point of view, given the number of represented bands, and from the analytical one, being a sort of “best” of the most artistically relevant realities of the period between the years 1979 and 1986, the one of birth, blooming and (apparent) death of the first original gothic scene (may these bands be traditionally assimilated to it or not). In short, that's the best possible introduction to such a deep and complex genre and, at the same time, an excellent chance of resuming for the ones who already have a certain confidence with it.

- Markedly, some here included bands represent the artistic diamond tip of the gothic rock scene and its main variants, according to the prevailing opinions of the International critic. They are (in alphabetical order):
45 Grave, Ausgang, Alien Sex Fiend, Bauhaus (& Dalis Car), the Birthday Party (& the Boys Next Door), Bone Orchard, Christian Death, Clan of Xymox, Coil, the Cure, the Danse Society, Dead Can Dance, Death in June, Fields of the Nephilim, In the Nursery, Joy Division, Killing Joke, Kommunity FK, the March Violets, the Mission, New Order, Nico, Play Dead, Public Image Ltd, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Sex Gang Children, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Sisters of Mercy, the (Southern Death) Cult, Swans, This Mortal Coil, UK Decay, Virgin Prunes

- It's nevertheless undeniable that many more bands, not traditionally connected with such a scene, have however given their determinant contribution to its development. The artistically most relevant are:
A Certain Ratio, Breathless, the Cassandra Complex, the Chameleons, Cocteau Twins, Colin Newman, the Comsat Angels, Crime & the City Solution, the Damned, Danielle Dax, Diamanda Galas, Lydia Lunch, Minimal Compact, Modern English, Nick Cave (& the Bad Seeds), Simple Minds, Sonic Youth, the Sound, Tuxedomoon, Venus in Furs, Wire (& He Said)

- But even more bands deserve at least one mention, either because minor gothic ones (in the examinated period) but composing at least one memorable tune, or because non-gothic (or simply non-anglophone) yet measured more than dignifiedly with gloomy, depressed or spooky atmospheres and topics. So here are featuring also:
!Action Pact!, 1919, Actifed, All about Eve, the Anti Group, Associates, the Bolshoi, the Bomb Party, the Creatures, Cuddly Toys, the Dark, D.I., Diaframma, Echo & the Bunnymen, Flesh for Lulu, Gene Loves Jezebel, Ghost Dance, the Gun Club, In Excelsis, Japan, Josef K, Litfiba, the Lords of the New Church, Marc Almond, Mephisto Walz, Misfits, New Model Army, Psi Com, the Psychedelic Furs, Rema-Rema, Ritual, Rubella Ballet, Sad Lovers and Giants, Screaming Dead, Sexbeat, Skeletal Family, Specimen, the Stranglers, T.S.O.L., Talking Heads, That Petrol Emotion, the Three Johns, Tones on Tail, Turkey Bones & Wild Dogs, Under Two Flags, X-Mal Deutschland

Here you're not going to find tinsels, images or covers, but music, just music in mp3 format at 192 bps! All the files, not numbered (then, if left to themselves, disposed in alphabetical order), are with meta-tags indicating the artist, the record they're culled from and the year of first issue. This way it's possible to list them according to these criteria.
577 shades of black. For the darkest and most unfathomable abysses of your soul.