[ Aquarius Records Staff Favorites of 2000 ]


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Aquarius Records
Staff Favorites 2000
January 17, 2001
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 Customers and Friends,

Happy New Year! Here are lists of the AQ staff's top releases of 2000. We've also included descriptions and newly-created soundclips. Enjoy.

And speaking of which... we're super interested to know what *your* favorites of 2000 were. AQ customers never fail to delight and surprise by your varied and esoteric tastes. Please send us your top releases of the last year; we'll post them individually on our website and will also compile them into a big AQ-customers top faves list. Two randomly-chosen entrants will each get a $25 gift certificate. Please limit your faves to ten releases (full lengths, eps or singles -- whatever you liked). Deadline is the last day of January!

Please note that many of our staff faves listed below are either out of print or no longer available, but we thought you might enjoy reading about them anyway. We've noted the ones that're no longer around. 


                     ANDEE'S TOP 30 RECORDS OF 2000
                     ------------------------------
                  1. Necrophagist 'Onset of Putrefaction'
                 2. Wu Tang Clan 'W'
                3. Agents of Oblivion 's/t'
               4. Kick Axe 'Vices' (reissue)
              5. Frogs 'Racially Yours'
             6. Big Tobacco 's/t'
            7. Sapera 'Snake Charmers of North India'
           8. Ice Cube 'War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc)'
          9. Cave In 'Jupiter'
        10. Zioni 'Mind Over Matter'
       11. Jayhawks 'Smile'
      12. Mirror 'Visiting Star'/'Front Row Centre'/'Ringstones'
     13. Deftones 'White Pony'
    14. Discordance Axis 'The Inalienable Dreamless'
   15. Philip Jeck 'Vinyl Coda I-III'
  16. Crystal Fist feat. Universal Indians 'Live at Liquid Room 2.22.1997'
 17. Hazard 'Wood/Bridge/Field'
  18. New Pornographers 'Mass Romantic'
   19. DJ Screw (r.i.p.) 'Screwed Up Vols. 1-3' / mixtapes / napster!
    20. Cromagnon 'Orgasm' (reissue)
     21. Dreamies  'Auralgraphic Entertainment' (reissue)
      22. Reggie and The Full Effect 'Promotional Copy'
       23. Cycle Fly 'Generation Sap'
        24. Gas 'Pop'
         25. Seth Josel 'Go Guitars'
          26. Taj Mahal Travellers  'Live Stockholm July, 1971'
           27. Crossed Out '1990-1993'
            28. Tiermes '777'
             29. Orgues-A-Bouches Rituels Des Murung  's/t' 
              (not necessarily 2000, but new to us in 2000, 
               as are some others on this list)
                30. and of course...Circle 'Andexelt',
                 Court and Spark 'Ventura Whites',
                  Noisegate 'Suspended Animation, Hatewave 's/t', 
                   Iran 'S/t', Harvey Milk 'Courtesy And Good Will Toward Men', 
                    Thuja 'The Deer Lay Down Their Bones',
                     and Weakling 'Dead As Dreams' (all tUMULt)


          Byram's top 17 for 2000
          in order of their appearance on the AQ list:
      ----------------------------------------------------
      1)  DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE "We Have The Facts, And We're Voting Yes"
      2)  TOBIN, AMON "Supermodified"
      3)  JURGENSEN, FRIEDRICH "From The Studio For Audioscopic Research"
      4)  MB "Archeo MB 2"
      5)  ATOM FEATURING TEA TIME "XXX"
      6)  BURCH, PAUL & THE WPA BALLCLUB "Blue Notes"
      7)  LOVELY MIDGET "Lovely Midget"
      8)  MITTOO, JACKIE "The Keyboard King At Studio One"
      9)  V/A "400% Dynamite"
      10) PINETOP SEVEN "Bringing Home the Last Great Strike"
      11) V/A "Music Is The Revolution"
      12) V/A "Ethiopiques 8: Swinging Addis"
      13) RADIOHEAD "Kid A"
      14) DIESELHED "Chico and the Flute"
      15) MCGREEVY, STEPHEN P. "Auroral Chorus II"
      16) WU-TANG CLAN "The W"
      17) NEW PORNOGRAPHERS "Mass Romantic"
      

Jim's top 17 for 2000 and then some
-----------------------------------
 Mirror "Visiting Star" / "Front Row Centre" / "Ringstones"
  Reynols "Blank Tapes" / "-------"
   New Pornographers "Mass Romantic"
    L. Chasse "Exfolia Motors"
     Stephen McGreevy "Auroral Chorus II"
      Current 93 "I Have A Special Plan For This World"
       Aeolian String Ensemble
        Reggie & The Full Effect "Promotional Copy"
         Friedrich Jurgensen "From the Studio For Audioscopic Research"
          MB "ArcheoMB 2"
           Hazard "Wood / Bridge / Field"
            Mates Of State "My Solo Project"
             Lovely Midget
              Philip Jeck "Live at ICC"

         guilty pleasures of the year
         ----------------------------
           Deftones "White Pony"
            Smashing Pumpkins "The Machines of God"


Allan's 2000 List
-----------------
Top 11 reissues 2000
---->  AC "Early Years 1988-1991"
       Circle "Andexelt"
       Cromagnon "Orgasm"
       Dreamies "Auragraphic Entertainment"
       Haikara "Geafar"
       Highway Robbery "For Love Or Money"
       James Gang "Rides Again"
       Kick Axe "Vices"
       Manilla Road "Crystal Logic"
       Morricone, Ennio "Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura OST"
       Sun Ra "Lanquidity"
    
Top 26 new releases of 2000
---->  Agents of Oblivion "s/t"
       Alva Noto "Prototypes"
       Bohren & Der Club of Gore "Sunset Mission"
       Cave In "Jupiter"
       Champs, The Fucking  "IV"
       Circle "Prospekt"
       Dead C "s/t"
       Dynamite Masters Blues Quartet (aka DMBQ) "Jinni"
       Ektroverde "Integral"
       Enslaved "Mardraum (Beyond The Within)"
       Eternal Elysium "Spiritualized D"
       Ice Cube "War & Peace vol. 2 (the Peace Disc)"
       Iron Maiden "Brave New World"
       The Lord Weird Slough Feg "Down Among The Deadmen"
       Lucifer Was "In Anadi's Bower"
       Nokturnal Mortem "Nechrist"
       Reggie & The Full Effect "Promotional Copy"
       Dean Roberts "And The Black Moths Play The Grand Cinema"
       Sacred Steel "Bloodlust"
       Tarantula Hawk "s/t"
       Thrones "Sperm Whale"
       Thuja "The Deer Lay Down Their Bones"
       Ulan Bator "Ego: Echo"
       Christian Vander "Korusz"
       The Want "Greatest Hits Vol. 5"
       Weakling "Dead As Dreams"
       
       
CUP'S TOP 13 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
-----------------------------------
 Delgados 'The Great Eastern'
  Neko Case + Her Boyfriends 'Furnace Room Lullaby'
   Radiohead 'Kid A'
    Beautiful Skin 'Revolve'
     Yo La Tengo 'And Then Nothing Turned Itself...'
      New Pornographers 'Mass Romantic'
       Weakerthans 'Left And Leaving'
      Amon Tobin 'Supermodified'
     Milk Cult 'Project M13'
    Legendary Pink Dots 'A Perfect Mystery'
   Aisler Set 'The Last Match'
  Go Betweens 'Friends Of Rachel Worth'
 Jimmy Corrigan book by Chris Ware
 
 
Windy's Favorites of 2000, in Alphabetical Order
  --includes reissues and older material recompiled.
-------------------------------------------------------
   Agents Of Oblivion s/t
   Allen, Tony 'Jealousy / Progress'
   Atom featuring Tea Time 'XXX'
   Brian And Chris 'Vectors'
   Cerberus Shoal 'Crash My Moon Yacht'
   Champs, The Fucking 'IV'
   Circle 'Andexeldt'
   Crystal Fist feat. Universal Indians 'Live at Liquid Room 2.22.1997'
   Cuypers, Leo 'Heavy Days Are Here Again'
   Dieselhed 'Chico and The Flute'
   Elf Power 'Winter Is Coming'
   ESG 'A South Bronx Story'
   Gas 'Pop'
   Ice Cube 'War + Peace Vol.2 (The Peace Disc)'
   Jeck, Philip 'Vinyl Coda I-III'
   Kozelek, Mark 'Rock'n'Roll Singer'
   Mates of State 'My Solo Project'
   Milk Cult 'Project M13'
   Morricone, Ennio 'Il Poliziotto Della Brigata Criminale'
   New Pornographers 'Mass Romantic'
   Pinetop 7 'Bringing Home The Last Great Strike'
   Ray's Vast Basement 'On The Banks Of Time'
   Reggie and The Full Effect 'Promotional Copy'
   Sluta Leta 'If You Like Champagne On Ice?'
   Sonna 'The Eventual Bow'
   Thrones 'Sperm Whale'
   Umiliani, Piero 'Musicaelettronica, Volume Uno'
   V/A 'Bollywood Funk'
   V/A 'Disco Not Disco'
   
Songs Of The Year
   Loose Jointz 'Tell You (Today)'
   Leo Cuypers 'Alsdat de Olifantstand'
   Dieselhed 'Gentle Grooming'
   Buju Banton 'Ring The Alarm'


 Jeff's Tops of 2000 in No Particular Order
 ------------------------------------------
  Blectum from Blechdom "De Snaunted Haus"
  Burmese "Monkeys Tear Man To Shreds..."
  Brak "Brak Presents The Brak Album Starring Brak"
  Christine 23 Onna "Shiny Chrystal Planet"
  DJ Pika Pika Pika "All Natural Gas Webbing 999"
  Great Phone Calls reissue
  Bepler, Jonathan Music For Matthew BarneyÍs Cremaster 2
  Erase Errata 7"
  Arab on Radar "Soak the Saddle"
  Faust "The Wumme Years"
  The Lord Weird Slough Feg "Down Among The Deadmen"
  Beautiful Skin 'Revolve'
  Milk Cult 'Project M13'
  Thrones 'Sperm Whale'
  ESG 'A South Bronx Story'
  Champs, The Fucking  "IV"
  Discordance Axis 'The Inalienable Dreamless'
  Weakling "Dead As Dreams"
  Circle "Andexelt"

_______________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTIONS FOR FAVORITES LISTED ABOVE!

AEOLIAN STRING ENSEMBLE s/t

(Robot) cd 15.98
The Aeolian String Ensemble is the work of David Kenny, whose resume includes Nurse With Wound and Current 93 (mostly as an engineer). The Aeolian Strings (aka wind harps) are coaxed to produce two rather lengthy pieces of immersive drones which bring together the rich textual dynamism of Organum’s bowed cymbals and Maeror Tri / Troum’s propensity for hazy melancholia. A beautifully dark album.
RealAudio clip: "Elysium"

AGENTS OF OBLIVION Agents of Oblivion

(Rotten Records) cd 15.98
Dax Riggs and Mike Sanchez of the criminally overlooked Acid Bath (RIP) continue to rock with the metal of their former (and much loved) outfit tempered with Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie and slithery Iggy production. Plus the emotional intensity and murky melodicism of Jeff Buckley. Excellent! A runner-up for album of the week, actually. This proves that “classic rock” wasn’t only made in the '70s. Music to drive your Camaro to.
RealAudio clip: "Dead Girl"
RealAudio clip: "Endsmouth"

AISLERS SET The Last Match

(Slumberland) cd 13.98
Local popsters Aislers Set finally return with their second, super anticipated full length. Unabashed mod-pop fans of the Postcard Records/Belle&Sebastian/Zombies variety, the Aislers’ first album Terrible Things Happen has been a steady bestseller at AQ ever since it came out 2 years ago. Look for the same to happen with The Last Match -- it’s that toothsomely good and that insanely catchy. Warm, jangly with honest to goodness real songs. Belle and Sebastian are rumored to be big fans, and coincidentally enough, when we play this in the store some folks mistake the Aislers Set for B&S when Wyatt, not Amy, is singing.

ALLEN, TONY Jealousy / Progress

(Strut) 2cd 16.98
This double cd reissue of two of Tony Allen's is an essential gem! Legendary drummer of Fela Kuti's band, these records swing and stutter and groove and majorly kick ass. The guitarwork is also extraordinary. Every time we play this, someone buys a copy -- yes, it's that good!
RealAudio clip: "Jealousy"

ALVA NOTO Prototypes

(Mille Plateaux) cd 16.98
Recording with addition of Alva to his Noto moniker, Carsten Nicolai hasn’t altered his palette of sine wave oscillations, modulating tones, rhythmic clicks, and other electronic gizmos, all bathed in a clinical purity of sound. Surrounding himself with these machines, Nicolai sets up little repetitions that build to, dare I say, catchy complexities full of rhythmic invention and hinting at melodies.
RealAudio clip: "track 2"

ANAL CUNT (A.C.) The Early Years: 1988-1991

(NG Records) 2cd 21.00
Previously released as two seperate, hard to find cds ("Old Stuff Part 1" and "Old Stuff Part II") on two different labels. Now some crazy person at NG Records has gone and released this new version, compiling (as it says) the early works (i.e. demos, singles, and compilation appearances) of this notorious blurr-core, noise-metal, very un-pc band from Boston. Over 7000 "songs" to be found here, spread over two cds. That's mainly thanks to the presence here of the tracks from the infamous "5,643 Song EP"... Now for most reviews of A.C. discs, we'd simply pick the best song titles and leave it at that, 'cause offensive & funny song titles are what A.C. does best. But the material on here dates from back when A.C. didn't supply titles (or lyrics for that matter) for their "compositions". So that leaves us to make a case for the musical rather than humorous value (or musically humorous value) of these tracks. Oh boy...well for all you experimental jokers out there, the aforementioned "5,643 Song EP" features the songs playing at the same time! There's actually three hours of material compressed onto the original 7", and it took twenty hours for them to record it! Compares favorably to the Francisco Lopez disc we made record of the week last list... Then there's the "Unplugged EP" tracks, where A.C. takes their screaming metal chaos into the acoustic realm for some unique results. And, any fan of John Zorn or Masonna should really check out A.C. as well, on general principles... truly a classic band, American outsider improv "genius". If not musical genius, then comedy genius. Sure, you or I could have recorded more or less the same stuff on your parents' stereo much like these guys did for their first demo (disc one, track one), but you have to admit that you'd never record so much of it, for so many years, or play such crazy shows. We (Allan and Andee anyway--in fact, A.C. was the first interview Allan ever did for his old 'zine) love this band. For you collectors, note that there's material on these cds not found on the original singles and such. And for novices, we also recommend A.C.'s "Morbid Florist" ep and "Everyone Must Be Killed" album to start with... The cd booklet includes detailed liner notes about each track/release written by A.C. mastermind Seth Putnam. All hail!

ATOM FEATURING TEA TIME XXX

(Rather Interesting) cd 16.98
We’ve all been keeping a watchful eye on Mr. Atom Heart lately. Watching bemusedly as his relocation to Chile prompted him to reinvent himself as Senor Coconut, and listening, as his techno turned to mambo, and his obsession with the indigenous music of his new home seeped into every facet of his music making. The first Senor Coconut record (out of print, it seems) was a glorious mix of Perez Prado style mambos and Squarepusherish drum programming. The Senor Coconut we listed on the last AQ list took a bizarre turn no one could have predicted, consisting of all Kraftwerk covers done Chilean style, all mambo and rhumba, barely a hint of his former Atom Heart remained. On “XXX”, Atom hooks up with Chilean rapper Tea Time, for a wickedly clever record of X rated rapping (in Spanish of course) and convuluted hip hop, complete with plenty of turntablist trickery and hard disc scratching. And it’s practically perfect; funny and catchy and smooth and super wicked. Tea Time’s got a super smooth flow (sounding a bit like MC Solaar) and the music is just completely bizarre, lots of hiccuping loops, low end rumble, crazy scratching, and bizarre hard disc editing, making for probably one of our favorite (albeit quite odd) hip hop (Latin American glitch-rap?) records of the year, and it’s easily the best Atom Heart...er...Senor Coconut record yet.
RealAudio clip: "Mis Chiquitas"

BEAUTIFUL SKIN Revolve

(Gold Standard Laboratories) lp 10.98
Channelling the early strains of Joy Division, Wire, and maybe a bit of Cabaret Voltaire and PiL are these two men. Nick Forte (ex-Rorschach!) and Rossano Totino churn the moody new wave machine. And they do it so well. Fans of Trans Am take note. A very very cool album with some very very cool cover art.
RealAudio clip: "Revolve"

BEAUTIFUL SKIN Revolve

(Gold Standard Laboratories) cd 12.98
Channelling the early strains of Joy Division, Wire, and maybe a bit of Cabaret Voltaire and PiL are these two men. Nick Forte (ex-Rorschach!) and Rossano Totino churn the moody new wave machine. And they do it so well. Fans of Trans Am take note. A very very cool album with some very very cool cover art.
RealAudio clip: "Revolve"

BEPLER, JOHNATHAN Music For Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 2

cd 17.98
Glacial drones, beautifully sung songs by/about a notorious killer, thousands of buzzing bees and a death metal cameo...all are elements of this gorgeous and bizarre soundtrack to one of the weirdest and biggest budget art/film projects ever, Matthew Barney’s million-dollar “Cremaster 2”.
We were lucky enough to get a hold of some copies of the rare soundtrack composed by Johnathan Bepler. For the most part, Bepler layers multiple atonal church organ chords with varying effects that tweak the underlying sound. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir makes an appearance as does some digitally bent country twang. But the mindblowing highlight (both here on the cd and in the film) is the massive blastbeat provided by ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo as Morbid Angel’s bass player and vocalist Steve Tucker sings into a phone while cloaked in bees, who also contribute much buzzing to the wall of sound.
Barney’s “Cremaster” series is arguably the most important work to emerge from the artworld in the past decade. To discuss in depth Barney’s convoluted symbolism and bizarre Lynch / Cronenberg / Greenaway imagery would take up far too much space even for this increasingly verbose new arrivals list, but we’ll attempt a brief introduction for the uninitiated: Barney’s sound / film / installation pieces are poetic and difficult allegories, centered on the growth of human sexuality and its psychological implications. “Cremaster 2” is actually the fourth in a five part series (the order went 1, 3, 5, and then 2), and is, quite crassly put, a really good dick joke. More critically put, Barney abstracts the life & times of the serial killer Gary Gilmore to portray an archetype for a pre-linguistic male figure who lacks the super-ego control over the id’s proclivity for sex & violence.
Music has always played an important part in the Barney work, and Jonathan Bepler’s score for “Cremaster 2” certainly does its best to support Barney’s complex visual elements. If you haven’t seen the film, this soundtrack will make you want to.

BIG TOBACCO s/t

(Spunk) cd 15.98
While Joe Pernice’s recent work as Chappaquiddick Skyline and Pernice Brothers explored his singular take on lush, layered orchestrated Pop, this new album calls to mind the more plaintive and twang-inflected albums he made as part of the (stellar) Scud Mountain Boys. Pernice's hushed vocal delivery (think David Gates/Bread) is so intimate it seems as if he’s sitting right in front of you, strumming a guitar, telling it like it is. That voice of his carries everything along with it: delicately plucked mandolin, rhodes piano, sweetly coo-ing lap steel, etc. This is a lovely album of perfectly crafted songs from a perennially overlooked genius.
RealAudio clip: "Bum Leg"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Sunset Mission

(Wonder) cd 16.98
Allan discovered this band on a trip to Germany last year, with their ‘95 double-cd “Midnight Radio”, an amazing extended late-night autobahn driving soundscape, slow, low, instrumental “lounge” music, utterly perfect for a mesmerizing midnight listen. Unfortunately, we have not (yet) been able to acquire any copies of that album. Happily, though, the band just released a new disc, with domestic distribution. “Sunset Mission” is similar to “Midnight Radio”, more overtly “jazzy” perhaps, with the addition of smokey tenor saxophone to their piano/drums/bass lineup. Their US distributor (electronica/techno label Studio K-7) labels this ambient, but that’s far from the mark. From the song titles (“Prowler”, “On Demon Wings”, “Black City Skyline”, “Darkstalker”) to the packaging (booklet and slipcover with photos of nighttime Berlin and dangerous weaponry) to the music (a downtempo film noir soundtrack like the slowest, dirgiest Melvins played by Morphine, darker than Photek, moody and gorgeous) this is the nightmare “ambience” of a nowhere jazz-lounge you’ll never leave alive.

BRAK Brak Presents The Brak Album Starring Brak

(Rhino) cd 15.98
Brak, the lovable and dim outer space villian featured on the Cartoon Network’s brilliant “Space Ghost Coast To Coast” show, has his own album now (as the title makes plain). Despite the presence of showbiz pals like Freddie Prinze Jr., Grape Ape, and fellow interstellar creep Zorak, this album really does belong to Brak and his unique vocal stylings, not to mention lyrical content. Songs like “Magic Toenail” will bring a tear to your eye. We practically wrecked the car laughing, listening to this on the way to bowling league last night. Allan's never even seen the TV show (no cable!) but is now obsessed with this and the other Space Ghost compact discs!

BRIAN AND CHRIS Vectors

(Megalon) cd 13.98
If Jim O'Rourke wasn't so afflicted with attention deficit disorder, if Boards of Canada weren't so s-l-o-w in making new records, if the Champs weren't on tour all the time -- maybe they all coulda gotten together and made a record as pretty as this one. Brian and Chris are a coolly eclectic local duo whose record is so fresh, gentle, accomplished and unhurried that it's taken us by surprise. When an album is this eclectic we are usually a little suspicious -- but Brian & Chris' "Vectors" album totally works. Bravo.Starting with a shuffling bass groove layered over with atmospherics full of texture and grit, the record would at first seem to be yet more popular electronics in the vein of Mouse on Mars or Boards of Canada. But before you know it the electronics have been replaced by echoing acoustic blues guitar that's foregrounded right in your eardrum, while tinny jungle beats cavort way in the background, used more as texture than as booty movers. It's a nice combination you'd like to hear longer, but before long chiming, fingerpicked guitars accompany a lilting, ethereal female voice, soon to be followed by angular shards of art-post-rock very similar to Gastr del Sol (in a good way, not pretentious at all). And as if that weren't fun enough, by the end of the album the perfectly seamless segueways between the genre-bending tracks have placed you squarely in the middle of a Champs-style rock guitar workout. Wow. Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Jakarta International Airport"
RealAudio clip: "Pristina"
RealAudio clip: "Katzenjammer"

BURCH, PAUL & THE WPA BALLCLUB Blue Notes

(Merge) cd 14.98
Utterly delightful new project from Paul Burch of Lambchop. Country music with lyrics and vocals reminiscent of Arlo Guthrie or Bob Dylan, Country Jazz musical influences a la Doc Watson or Bob Wills and shades of bluegrass and barroom balladry. Though I felt a bit squeamish at first listening to this album, I must say it has an infectiousness and honesty to it that’s quite refreshing. All the faster numbers are wonderfully “live” sounding without being murky - lots of deep, booming upright bass that makes you feel as though you’re at the Freight & Salvage (for those out of town, that’s the East Bay’s best venue for country & bluegrass).

BURMESE Monkeys Tear Man To Shreds, Man Never Forgives Ape, Man Destroys Environment

(tUMULt) cd 13.98
If you live in San Francisco, you may have seen these local ne'er do wells playing live, with set times ranging from 30 seconds to 15 minutes, and often covered in blood, writhing on the floor in a heap of destroyed instruments, charging wildly through the crowd, smashing tables and chairs (and playing with other club destroyers the Black Dice and Arab on Radar). So you'd be forgiven for expecting a messy sloppy record that is nothing without the live show. But boy, would you be wrong. Burmese's first record is a dense, ultra heavy, super low end (they have 2 basses and no guitar after all) crushing and pummelling onslaught.
The opening track is is an intense free noise explosion of rumbles, feedback, and spastic drumming. The next 20 tracks take the grind of Drop Dead, drop it a few octaves, and add some seriously fucked arrangements. The last track is an epic drone ala EARTH: waves of subsonics weave in and out of malfunctioning electronics until the whole thing dissolves into a wash of turntables and instrument hum (you might recognise some of the turntable noise at the end, it's a bit of the last A Minor Forest recording, which Burmese recorded over!). Somewhere between DROP DEAD and EARTH, this is some of the craziest, heaviest, noisiest low end grind/sludge we've heard in a while. And as you might have expected, released on our very own Andee's tUMULt label.
RealAudio clip: "Leverage"
RealAudio clip: "WWWIII"
RealAudio clip: "Monkeys Tear Man to Shreds"

CASE, NEKO AND HER BOYFRIENDS Furnace Room Lullaby

(Bloodshot) cd 14.98
Here it is! The much anticipated follow-up to Neko Case’s fabulous debut album of 1997 “The Virginian”. Have no fear, this ain’t no faux-country a la Shania Twain or Dixie Chicks, No! Ms Case has some unbelievable true blue old-school country pipes and spirit (that have drawn many comparisons to kd lang and Loretta Lynn). Indeed, hers is a voice that can lift your heart and let it soar or wrap it in velvet aches... or pick you up by the seat of your pants and give it a swift kick. This time around she’s got a band with a solid line-up backing her up; one with whom she’s toured and written most of the songs on this album. Plus her usual lengthy list of guest players among them Brian Connelly (formerly of Shadowy Men From A Shadowy Planet, a truly awesome guitarist in his own right but perhaps most noted for writing the theme to 'Kids In The Hall’), Carl Newman (guitarist/vocalist of Zumpano, Superconductor, and The New Pornographers) and her labelmates The Sadies and Kelly Hogan. Whereas on her first record half of the songs were loving cover versions of many of her old favorites and inspirations, this album is wonderfully all her own.
RealAudio clip: "Bought & Sold"

CAVE IN Jupiter

(Hydra Head) cd 14.98
Boston metalcore band Cave In was once described as being a mixture of Slayer and Radiohead. And usually the Radiohead part was just ‘cause of some weird proggy electronic leanings, but the Slayer tag was the more accurate one. But now, with “Jupiter”, they’ve gone and morphed themselves into a pop band. Seriously. And they’re damn good at it. Amazingly, they still tour with the likes of Neurosis and Dillinger Escape Plan, playing their new, art-pop material exclusively! And the kids like it! Ornate, lengthy songs complete with falsetto vocals, and amazingly catchy melodies. Previously, we’ve enthused over Muse and Justin Clayton, as Radiohead clone bands par excellance, but this might just take the cake. But unlike the Radiohead clones, Cave-In don’t seem so much like they’re copying Radiohead, more like they’re contemporaries, albeit way heavier and way more rocking. We’re just so blown away by this band’s transformation and metal-forged skill at creating this stuff. Perfect proggy pop, mixed with healthy doses of Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Yes, etc. Fans of the old Cave In might be a bit disoriented, but give it a chance. Heavy doesn’t always mean distorted guitars and satanic growling. So recommended.
RealAudio clip: "In The Stream of Commerce"

CERBERUS SHOAL Crash My Moon Yacht

(Pandemonium/NEI) cd 13.98
Look out, Windy's got a new favorite band, and it's Cerberus Shoal. Never mind that I'm a latecomer to the group -- "Crash My Moon Yacht" is their _fifth_ album -- it's never too late to experience the crashing beauty that is Cerberus Shoal. High time, too, as this band, who live and make music together in Portland, Maine, has been grievously overlooked throughout their career. On such Western and ethnic instruments as bowed guitar, balalaika, flute, trumpet, dholak, woodblocks, oud, quena, radios, whistles, electric bass, hammond organ, xylophone, etc, Cerberus Shoal plays a stretched out, intense yet langurous blend of mostly-instrumental drone-rock similar to many of the bands AQ knows and loves. They're equally epic and emotional as Godspeed You Black Emperor, but less weepy. They're as careful as Tarentel, yet much more complex. As for other groups who feature ethnic instrumentation, Cerberus offers a worthy challenge: far more consistent than the spotty Sun City Girls, they don't try to wrestle their ouds, djembes and congas into pop song structures like Macha does, and they're more accessible and varied than Pelt. Without meaning to slight any of those groups, hopefully comparisons will make it clear to you just how amazing and worthy of your time this group is. Live and on record, the band displays amazing restraint -- although the stage is crowded with dozens of instruments, at any one time only 3 or 4 distinct sounds will be in play, making for any number of possible sonic combinations, all the while keeping the music simple and utterly respectful of each instrument's unique timbre. There are even parts that remind us of music as disparate as Boards of Canada and prog rock, that's how evocative it is. Very late night soundscape-y. I can't say enough good things about this band. If you've got the patience and the desire for meaningful music that's as substantive as it is lovely, Cerberus Shoal will make you so happy.Please note that we also have in stock "Homb" (on Temporary Residence), Cerberus' breathtaking fourth album and Caleb's (Cerberus' frontman) own personal favorite.
RealAudio clip: "Changabang I"

CHAMPS, THE FUCKING IV

(Drag City) cd 13.98
The one, the only, the...fucking...Champs! After three years, finally we get their second album (called "IV" on account of the couple of cassette releases that preceded "III"). Ok. Here's the run down, for those who do and who don't know the Champs (and to know them is to love them): they're a trio, they have two guitarists very interested in harmonies, but no bassist, they have song titles like "These Glyphs Are Dusty" and "Thor Is Like Immortal", they play metal but pass it off as indie rock in order to be popular (hey, they're on Fucking Drag City), and they are primarily an instrumental band. Oh, and they have lots of self-imposed problems with their name, always worried about being confused with those "Tequila" oldsters. This time, they're the FUCKING Champs (I prefer: The C'fuckin'hamps myself), but you've probably run across that amazing "III" record by C4AMP5, it's the same band of course. So, how's the new album? Well, it rules. It's a lot shorter than "III" (which was a double LP for goshsakes) at 38 minutes, and pretty much each and every one of those minutes is packed with Thin Lizzy/Maiden/Metallica/Van Halen lovin' genius. There's a lot less of the techno keyboard interludes that they did on "III", this has its gentle moments but none of that Trans Am-ish stuff. (Although it is on current heavy rotation in Windy's 1980 Firebird Trans Am, hey! ) It's also a bit poppier, on the whole. And in another brillinat move the Champs make you wait until the very last song ("Extra Man") to hear vocals. Drummer Tim Soete's vocals and the catchiness of the tune are certainly manifestations of their Thin Lizzy worship, but, being the Champs, even this vocal cut has a lot of instrumental sections, including a lengthy bit in the middle that seems dropped in from a hypothetical black metal math rock record. You'll be playing it over and over again, along with the rest of the disc. The Champs are probably the best (=least boring) post-rock band in the world, 'cause they're in fact a METAL band. (And let's face it guys, if you're not metal, then you're a novelty act...but if one indie rock kid gets into Thin Lizzy or Carcass 'cause of The Champs, then more power to 'em!) Recommended, if you hadn't guessed! The perfect back-to-school rock soundtrack.
RealAudio clip: "Extra Man"
RealAudio clip: "So What's a Little Reign?"

CHASSE, L. Exfolia Motors

(Unique Ancient Tavern ) cd 11.98
Odd to think that this is only the second solo recording for San Francisco's exceptional sound artist Loren Chasse after his numerous outings with id battery, Thuja, and The Knit Separates. "Exfolia Motors" is a collection of four different works, whose sections are mixed up and interspersed along the continuum of the disc... as if each of these sections have been broken from their original narratives and been rearranged in a more poetic fashion. "Exfolia Motors" presents a beautiful crystallization of droning sound with origins in various bells and gongs, the dynamic pulsations of an amplified strobe light, field recordings from rural Pennsylvania, and the crackling details of paper, rocks, and cloth. Chasse accentuates his source materials with a soft-focus haziness that recalls the tonal purity of Andrew Chalk and Jonathan Coleclough. Rather than extended drone floats, Chasse prefers to situate small events in which he gently smears his subtle sound recordings across stark white silences. Goddamn beautiful.While certain labels (Meme, Trente Oiseaux) were a bit too slow and missed out on releasing this, we're certain thatthis wouldn't have had such amazing artwork (each cover is a different hand rubbing from a rough piece of wood... as opposed to the stark non-existent design work of either outfit) if Chasse hadn't put it out through his own imprint Unique Ancient Tavern. Recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Exfolia Motors 1"
RealAudio clip: "Furniture Next To Twilight 3"

CHRISTINE 23 ONNA Shiny Chrystal Planet

(Alchemy) cd 19.98
Christine 23 Onna is a collaborative effort between Fusao Toda and Maso Yamazaki, better known as Masonna. While the presence of one of Japan's most frightening noisicians should be enough the scare away all of the too-hip-and-too-stoned kids who only care about 'rare grooves,' Christine 23 Onna's "Shiny Chrystal Planet" is actually a pretty damn funky record. Yeah, it's noisy, but in a swirling, synth-overload, super psychedelic way, not like Masonna's usual electronic scream-skree. And really uptempo breakbeats set the rhythmic backbone for some awesome trance-rock much like the latest grooves from their countrymen the Boredoms (a la "Super Are" and "Vision Creation Newsun)". The phase shifting fuzz guitar and cosmic space dusted synthesizers get jammy, but fortunately never too wanky. Those of you familiar with the '60s spy thrillers of Jerry Van Rooyen may recognize one of his tempestous songs covered by Christine 23 Onna (we think we do, anyways, although it's not credited as such...). Wild, spacey groov-adelia. All around great stuff!
RealAudio clip: "Christine Hop #1"

CIRCLE Andexelt

(tUMULt) cd 13.98
Finally! The new Circle record. Nine brand new tracks of droning, hypnotic neo-kraut rock from one of our absolute all-time favorite bands. Finland’s Circle, are the northernmost heirs to the Krautrock tradition, taking basic riffs, stretching and reshaping them, creating bleak, ever shifting underwater grooves and dizzingly repetitive rhythms, sounding like an otherworldly This Heat or a more damaged Can. A mesmerising wall of sound delivered with the sheer force of Loop or Godflesh, but with dark precision and melodic restraint Mellow, delicate jazzy passages intersect with crushing Bonham-esque beats. Fans of Circle’s other great records can already guess that this is completely amazing and absolutely essential!!! But fans of TransAm and Tortoise and Mogwai should definitely check this Finnish combo’s ability to out-post most post rock bands and out-space most spacerock bands.Released domestically on our own Andee’s tUMULt label (originally released on Finnish weird-prog label Metamorphos) with a bonus 10 minute track and a kick ass secret track.
RealAudio clip: "Andexelt"

CIRCLE Prospekt

(Ektro) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. IF WE GET MORE WE'LL LIST IT AGAIN.
Is there such a thing as Circle overload? We don't think so. In their case, you can't have too much of a good thing. Hot on the heels of the AQ-anniversary party concert appearance by this fab Finnish band, comes a brand new import disc of their hypnotic avant-rock compositions. Yep, newer than "Andexelt", and just as good. Not as sparse and dubby as that disc, "Prospekt" is rather heavier and denser, mesmerizingly repetitive as always, and kinda startling, with some incredible vocal acrobatics / operatics in the opening track "Dedofiktion". Of course, super super recommended. 50 minutes, six tracks of that Circle genius. This could have been a record of the week along with its cousin the Ektroverde disc but we didn't want the AQ Circle cheerleading to get too predictable (and also we might run out of these pretty quickly)...
RealAudio clip: "Stimulance"

COURT AND SPARK, THE Ventura Whites

(tUMULt) cd 13.98
The long awaited debut from San Francisco’s purveyors of epic and sweeping country rock heartbreak is finally here. If the Beachwood Sparks (last week’s record of the week) can be likened to the bouncy and sunny side of The Byrds, all harmonies and jangle, then The Court and Spark represent The Byrds’ dark side: melancholy murmur, stark and wintery, like the restless ghost of Gram Parsons, with echoes of Nick Drake and Townes Van Zandt. TC&S produce perfectly bittersweet songs and spectral soundscapes constructed from plaintive piano, delicately plucked guitars and found sounds. A wash of sweet strings, organ hum and muted buzz, pedal steel and breathtaking harmonies. Epic and sweeping. Gossamer traces of sounds heard in dreams. Dobro, mandolin, banjo, and even glockenspiel. And then there’s the voice, a deep and ragged drawl, rough and world weary. For fans of the abovementioned artists, as well as folks who like the Scud Mountain Boys, the Jayhawks, and Souled American. Which reminds us, we should mention that this is being put out by our own Andee’s fabulous tUMULt label, and it may well be the only other tUMULt release that will appeal to those who have been waiting for a follow-up to tUMULt’s Souled American reissues, except of course, for the very broadminded!
RealAudio clip: "Doctor The Veranda"
RealAudio clip: "Sugar Pie In Bed"

CROMAGNON Orgasm

(ESP-Disk/Calibre) cd 14.98
Yet another gem we somehow managed to miss, thankfully newly reissued to give us a second chance. (Well, not all of us missed it. Allan had the previously reissued version at one point, and got rid of it somehow. He just wasn’t ready for it back then. Now he owns it again!) And a few of our customers have responded with the customary “Oh that record! I love that record. I’ve had that record for years.” So for those of you, like us, managed to somehow miss it, we present to you Cromagnon. An anomaly, even on the always far out ESP label, Cromagnon was the result of two top 40 songwriters (accustomed to producing bubblegum pop) who seemed to have completely lost their minds. I mean they must have, to produce something as wacked as this record. Austin Grasmere, Brian Elliot, and their mysterious ‘Connecticut Tribe’ spewed forth 50 minutes of primitive dada-ist folk psych. Chanting, tribal percussion, short wave radio, maniacal, almost black metal vocals, hysterical laughter, bagpipes all coalesce into something ridiculous and amazing.Track one ‘Caledonia’ sounds like a strange hybrid of Comus and In Extremo, with bagpipes, jaw harp, crickets, raspy chants and teutonic percussion (‘Caledonia’ was even covered later by industrialists Test Department). Later on in the record is an alternate version of ‘Caledonia’ from the b-side of the original lp, slowed down to a third of the speed, producing an impenetratable swampy murk. ‘Ritual Feast of The Libido’ features a groaning and moaning vocal over whirring and rumbling machinery. Then comes ‘Fantasy’, where a faux Beach Boys intro almost convinces us that Grasmere and Elliot have returned to their bubblegum roots, that is until it devolves into a messy 7 minutes of garbled laughter and clattering percussion. Today this all still seems pretty damn crazy, so back in 1968 when it was recorded it must have really freaked people out, even despite the pervasive drug culture of the time... This is part of the new ESP reissue series on the Dutch label Calibre that come in beautiful slip covers and have restored artwork. So for those of you who aren’t already veterans of the Cromagnon experience, and definitely for those of you who were blown away by the Comus, and for everyone who is in need of a new favorite fucked record, this is it. Now a unanimous AQ fave.
RealAudio clip: "Caledonia"

CROSSED OUT 1990-1993

(Slap A Ham) cd 13.98
From Encinitas, California, land of surfers, and the Navy, and of course Andee’s young adulthood, comes the short lived but hugely influential Crossed Out. Progenitors of the now ubiquitous powerviolence/grindcore scene, along with Man Is The Bastard and Drop Dead, Crossed out were a howling lo-fi mess of blastbeats and mangled riffs, grunting and shrieking through 30 second songs and 12 song 7” sides. This cd collects for the first time (minus a bootleg or two) everything they ever recorded, including their splits with Man Is The Bastard and Drop Dead, as well as a bunch of live stuff. Absolutley essential.
RealAudio clip: "Practiced Hatred"
RealAudio clip: "Society"
RealAudio clip: "Suffocation"

CRYSTAL FIST FEAT. UNIVERSAL INDIANS Live at Liquid Room 2.22.1997

(Zero Gravity) cd 23.00
We love pretty much everything on Japanese label Zero Gravity, including this recent disc. But unlike the abstract electronics found on most Zero Gravity releases, Crystal Fist's album is an electro-acoustic hippie jam that owes more to the No Neck Blues Band, Amon Duul, and the Taj Mahal Travellers than to Ryoji Ikeda. Featuring the stumbling, 'free' drumming of Merzbow's Masami Akita (here leaving his noise persona behind for his first love, psychedelic rock), this single thirty three minute piece is a druggy, spacey, hypnotic masterpiece, that starts as a murky, otherworldly soundscape; all chirping crickets and ambient murmur. The sound is soon bolstered by the drone of Huun Huur Tu -like faux throat singing, whirring feedback, and the hum of rumbling turntables and abused cd players. This pagan ritual reaches a fever pitch as various percussion elements are introduced, and Akita's style of brain-damaged-Jaki Leibezeit drumming builds a rickety framework around the whole ceremony.What's amazing is that this sounds so much like it was recorded in the seventies....not in 1997. And it most certainly doesn't sound like turntables and cd players, it sounds more like rickety old amps, and bowed metal, and the vocalizations of lysergically enhanced druids. So recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Live At Liquid Room"

CURRENT 93 I Have A Special Plan For This World

(Durtro / World Serpant) cd 15.98
Ah, to be scared by Current 93 is a very good thing. The last time Tibet and co. put aside their trademarked renaissance faire folk was with their first collaboration with Lovecraftian horror novelist Thomas Ligotti. “I Have A Special Plan...” is the second collaboration between C93 and Ligotti to spine tingling results. Tibet recites a story written by Ligotti just for this release with Stapleton and Christoph Heemann providing the creepy droning and mutations on Tibet’s voice. The only fault is the length, a short 22 minutes.
RealAudio clip: "I Have A Special Plan For This World"

CUYPERS, LEO Heavy Days Are Here Again

(Atavistic) cd 14.98
Wow! I can barely remember the last time I heard a record as jubilantly bursting with Life and Laughter and Energy as this lost treasure of Dutch jazz. This record swings and stutters and gallops like Charlie Mingus’ “Black Saint”, like Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s almost-rocking sets, like Otomo Yoshihide’s spirited Ground Zero outfit. Imagine Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts piano taken on a roller coaster ride, and Charlie Brown’s running around swearing like a sailor, and there’s lots of thrills amidst the cacophony, and Lucy’s stomach turns over when the roller coaster’s upside down, and at some point Charlie loses his virginity. Yeah. That’s how good this record is.Recorded in 1981(!), the only existing document of pianist Leo Cuypers as leader, this recording also features the all star talents of unbelievably great percussionist Han Bennink, legendary reedist Willem Breuker, and bassist Arjen Gorter. All players had at one time or another been part of the esteemed Willem Breuker Kollektief, but here under the guidance of Cuypers, their skills are combined to produce one of the most EXUBERANT pieces of modern avant jazz I have ever heard.
RealAudio clip: "Alsdat de Olifantstand"

CYCLEFLY Generation Sap

(Radioactive Records) cd 12.98
This disc has quickly become one of Andee and Allan's most played. After getting over the initial surprise of absolutely *loving* a super commercial MTV style heavy rock band, one can enjoy what is in our opinion a totally great record. Definitely hyper produced, too heavy to be totally mainstream “alternative”, but too poppy to be a metal record, it just pushes all the right buttons. Sounding a bit like a more metallic Smashing Pumpkins, or a smoother, non-rap Rage Against the Machine, but with what sounds like GEDDY LEE FROM RUSH ON VOCALS!!. So great. Totally kick ass, totally catchy. It's a crying shame that these guys are major-label also-rans when they are as good or even better than the above mentioned bands. The sound, the look (hottie alt-hunk lead vocalist with dyed red hair and no shirt!) -- they should be huge. Must be the totally stupid album cover. Maybe a guilty pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.
RealAudio clip: "Violet High"
RealAudio clip: "Supergod"

DEAD C s/t

(Language) 2cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Dead C is the stalwart collective of free noise / avant rockers from New Zealand comprised of Bruce Russell (member of A Handful of Dust and boss of the Corpus Hermeticum label), Michael Morley (aka Gate), and Robbie Yeats, beloved of Bananafish readers and Siltbreeze junkies everywhere. We thought that perhaps their day had passed but, think again, they've gone and created a superb new album! This new, long awaited release is a sprawling double cd that finds them in the least-rock space they have ever occupied. Recorded over the past 5 years, this album is saturated in a langurous humidity produced by guitar feedback scrapes, ring modulation, and the buzzing din of improperly balanced amplifiers. Disc One is the noisier of the two, dominated by the epic 33 minute "SpeederBot" which passes from militant percussive stabs into twin tremolo guitar feedback, similar to the controlled chaos found on their masterful "Harsh '70s Reality" album. But Disc Two is where this eponymous Dead C release really shines. Sort of like an analogue version of Main, or like a Raster record coming in badly on a shortwave radio, full of erratic hissing and eerie static. The trio striates the slow motion hypnodrone of sampled guitar feedback (yup, the lo-fi mirror version of My Bloody Valentine) with creaky little events. It's apparent that all of the recent drones from New Zealanders like Lovely Midget, RST, and Surface of the Earth have definitely made huge impact on the Dead C. They've picked up the gauntlet and, after a few years in their lonely NZ laboratory, have again come up with something that can be only called Dead C music (more so than it can be called rock or anything else). Adventurous, idiosyncratic, fantastic.This is as recommended as it limited (to 500 copies and may not see a repress, sorry). Buy now or cry later!! (as we like to say.)
RealAudio clip: "One Night"
RealAudio clip: "Realisation con Slider"

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE We Have The Facts, And We’re Voting Yes

(Barsuk) cd 11.98
Death Cab For Cutie’s debut album "Something About Airplanes" emerged early last year from the mire of mediocre indie-rock as a breath of fresh air (after Andee found it in the dollar bin at Amoeba). These Northwesterners had crafted a near perfect Built-to-Spill-ian alternate universe where Built To Spill didn’t make the major label jump, and continued to labor over their excessive orchestrations of melodic jangle-pop, intricate arrangements, and odd time signatures within the limitations of indie-rock recording budgets. Death Cab’s second album "We Have The Facts, And We’ve Voting Yes" represents a maturation of their band, as they have clearly recognized that while it worked for one album, they can’t ape Built To Spill for the rest of their recording career. As a whole, "We Have The Facts" is sounding less like Built To Spill, but it seems as though their venturing tentatively into an unknown space for them. The pace of Death Cab has slowed down to embrace a preciousness of songwriting with much quieter arrangements. All of the songs really do want to explode out of the delicate even sensitive moods into a major-chord pop hook, but the restrains have been set in place. "For What Reason" and "Company Calls" are as close as Death Cab comes to releasing that indie-pop sensibility loose, but it doesn’t quite happen. It may be the critical kiss of death to say that this is an album that grows on you, but Death Cab’s second release isn’t going out of its way to bite you like its predecessor.

DEFTONES White Pony

(Maverick) cd 15.98
So, knowing full well that I am impervious to any mockery, having weathered plenty with my past admissions (Tool, Fastway, Warlord, Bad News), I will stand tall, and say that the new Deftones record is amazing. Maybe even better than their last record, ‘Around The Fur', ‘White Pony' puts the Deftones even more safely apart from the ‘nu-metal' crowd they are often (and unfairly) lumped in with. Sure, there's the occasional Rage-Against-The-Machine-isms, but that's not so bad (we all loved the Refused record which bordered on RATM territory) and this record is just fucking great. Heavy and weird and catchy and dark, and sometimes slow and creepy (their admitted Depeche Mode obsession is in full effect). Plus some guest vocals from Tool frontman Maynard, make for the best Tool song that never was. Fucking essential.
RealAudio clip: "Knife Party"
RealAudio clip: "Digital Bath"

DELGADOS The Great Eastern

(Beggars Banquet / Mantra / Chemical Undergroun) cd 16.98
Without fail if this is played in the store, customers ask who this is. Low-fi and unassuming yet epic and orchestral, this Scottish outfit has produced a majestic pop album of instantly catchy, toothsomely epic ditties and waltzes. Highly recommended.

DIESELHED Chico and the Flute

(Bongload) cd 13.98
Even if all they had were their unbelievably catchy melodies and those heartbreakingly lovely harmonies, Dieselhed would fucking rule. But there's so much more. The band's brilliance lies in being able to set marvelously "regular" slice-of-life lyrics to the most unexpectedly epic song structures. (Example: One of their most epic pieces of bombastic melodicism, "Forklift Test", is set to lyrics about passing a forklift driver test.) The band has always been foremost a rock band with twang in its heart, and often that heart is worn on Dieselhed's sleeve. Chico and the Flute, however, marks a very slight turn away from the twanginess and into a more gently-mocking AM-radio soft rock/soul flavor -- as evidenced by their cover of the classic Stax hit "Starting All Over Again". It's great stuff, and this album features three or four of their best songs ever. We recommend that if you're new to the band, you start with "Elephant Rest Home", their fourth album, first. If you're already as big a fan of Dieselhed as I am, though, then this record is pretty much a necessity.
RealAudio clip: "Gentle Grooming"
RealAudio clip: "Bright Lights"

DISCORDANCE AXIS The Inalienable Dreamless

(Hydra Head) cd 12.98
Yeah, I know we listed this last time, but it sort of got short shrift, especially seeing as this record, and this band are the absolute masters of technical grind, and have taken their chosen form and stretched it farther then anyone could have imagined, creating something furious and brutal and violent and frightening, but absolutley stunning at the same time. And stunning in ways other than musical, which is remarkable for a genre that often shuns the avant garde, or doesn’t understand it. The cd comes housed in a DVD box, allowing for more artwork and the gorgeous minimal cover art certainly benefits. The cover and the booklet, continue the DA tradition of hyper minimalism, obfuscated text, and a wicked eye for design. Sleek and smooth, warm, and slightly sinister. And that subtlety bleeds into the sound as well. You would think that a 17 song, 24 minute cd would be short on subtlety and long on bombast, and maybe you’d be half right. DA temper their lightning speed metalcore bombast with, complex song structures, a breathtaking technical prowess, and fleeting moments of dark ambience, classic metal riffing, and face melting noise. This is about as close to perfection, both visually and sonically, as any grindcore/metalcore I have ever heard or seen. Seriously.
RealAudio clip: "Castration Ritz"
RealAudio clip: "Oratorio In Grey"
RealAudio clip: "Compiling Autumn"

DREAMIES Auralgraphic Entertainment: An Incredible Mental Experience

(GearFab) cd 14.98
This long-awaited legit reissue of the lost classic by one man band the Dreamies will easily provide hours of crypto-analytic fun in response to the question “Who else besides the Beatles have the Olivia Tremor Control blatantly copied/paid homage to?” Kidding aside, we promise you could totally mistake this for an OTC record...a *great* OTC record! From 1973, it is an outstanding if bizarre psychedelic album with spartanly bleak arrangements for acoustic guitar and hauntingly Donovanesque vocal melodies, injected with trippy sonic squiggles and snippets from 70s newscasts to paint a disillusioned picture of the failure of 60s ideologies. Mesmerisingly beautiful and faithfully reissued from the original masters. Recommended!!
RealAudio clip: "Sunday Morning Song"

EKTROVERDE Integral

(Snowdownia/Mizmaze) cd 14.98
What a breath of fresh air! As if a new Circle album wasn't enough (see "Prospekt" elsewhere on this list), there's also a new release from this Circle side-project. A side project staffed *entirely* by members of Circle, we might add. Hence, there's an unavoidable but definitely welcome similarity between the two bands. Ektroverde are kind of like Circle's alter-ego -- less intense (and yet, still really intense!), sometimes jazz, sometimes fucked up hi-NRG pop. The trademark Circle rhythmic hypnosis remains, but the sometimes austere riff-mongering and prog-rock precision is mostly superseded by a generally more playful and groovier approach, certainly nothing as heavy or "rockin'" as what's found on "Prospekt". Gorgeous, psychedelic instrumental explorations, even venturing into the realms of primitive techno electronics at points (Ektro-house?)... There's actually many moods to this record, some parts silly and some downright spooky. To get a sense of the album's range, please listen to all three soundclips. We are especially enamoured of the track "Gradient" with its baa-ing sheep (this must be heard to be believed!) and Pansonic-like pulsations, and equally in love with the following track of creepy drone-effects, more like an Organum piece. In fact, this disc at moments reminds us of everything from Goblin soundtracks (creepy keyboards) to Van Halen's "Jump" (well, that only briefly). Very highly recommended!!
RealAudio clip: "Orange"
RealAudio clip: "Gradient"
RealAudio clip: "Therefore"

ELF POWER Winter Is Coming

(Sugar Free ) cd 14.98
With every Elf Power release the band grows in leaps and bounds, gleefully becoming more psychedelic and less sweetly pop. This is a good thing! Developing their own, original spin on the tried and true Elephant 6 sound (the underground pop collective typified by Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and Apples in Stereo) has resulted in "Winter is Coming", which is filled with delightfully ambitious psychedelic rock with a few nods here and there to their toothy pop roots. Very well executed and stunningly melodic. Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Embrace the Crimson Tide"
RealAudio clip: "Green Sea Days"

ENSLAVED Mardraum

(Necropolis/Osmose ) cd 14.98
Whoa! I thought that Weakling's "Dead As Dreams" was gonna be the uncontested "Black Metal Record of the Year" until I heard this, the new album from Norwegian Viking-metallers Enslaved. Now Weakling has some competition! "Mardraum" ("Nightmare") is probably Enslaved's best record to date, no mean feat considering that their "Frost" and "Eld" albums are two of the best Nordic black metal discs ever, in AQ's humble opinion. This new album somehow combines the violent and epic qualities of Enslaved's past works with what can only be considered (despite our dislike, and over-use, of the term) a 'post-rock' sensibility. And, on top of that, there's a full on ROCK element at work here too. During the very first track ("Larger Than Time -- Heavier Than Night") you'll swear that (despite the very metal attack) you can hear in the droning guitar harmonies and mathy drumming the post-rock of a Codeine or A Minor Forest! Enslaved have created a new, multi-layered complexified psych-metal, mixing dangerous speed with slow doom epic majesty (the waves pounding on shore during the Viking longboat raid)...then, amid all this beauty and brutality, they'll go and whip out some leather-clad, almost-punk rock n' roll riffing that's just as foreign to the black metal template as the 'post-rock' aspect just discussed. Not that any of this seems purposefully jarring or ill-fitting (or Mr. Bungle-like) -- it seems quite natural, more artful than artsy. Another example: track seven, "The Ending Empire", starts off with a catchy riff-cycle that strongly reminds me of something like "Insidious Detraction" off the first album by Greg Ginn's Gone, but then the song takes a turn into an almost honkytonk country-western flavored breakdown with a melodic rock guitar solo, before the Viking battle re-commences! Brilliant. Is this the most intense, heaviest, most psychedelic, rockin'est, 'post-black-metal' album ever recorded? We think so. Norwegian genius that puts almost all heavy-duty avant-rock acts to shame, metal or not.
RealAudio clip: "Det Endelege Riket (The Ending Empire)"
RealAudio clip: "Inngang -- Flukt (Entrance -- Escape)"

ESG A South Bronx Story

(Universal Sound) cd 19.98
How many other groups can you think of that have been equally embraced by the house, the hip hop, and the punk scenes? There ain't no one but ESG. The four black Scroggins sisters from the South Bronx formed their band in the late '70s (mom bought 'em intruments to keep them off the streets). They released their first single on Factory in the UK, and on 99 Records (No-Wave home of Liquid Liquid, Glenn Branca, etc) in the US. So not only did they play with groups such as The Clash and Gang of Four, but their single "Moody" was a bona fide disco hit, and the B-side of that single "UFO" has become one of the most recognizable, most sampled parts in the history of hip hop. Everyone from LL Cool J to 3rd Bass to Marley Marl to Big Daddy Kane has sampled ESG, you will be AMAZED when you listen to these original tracks. Super stripped-down, raw percussive tracks with enough groove to make a girl forget she's not swimming in jewels. Three full lengths and a couple of singles later, ESG (Emerald Sapphire and Gold) gets the best-of treatment in this excellent compilation of the group's best tracks (including Windy's personal favorite "Erase You": "Well I got news for you boys / I'm gonna erase you / just like a drawing / Erase you / flush you like my toilet / Pump it up girls!"
RealAudio clip: "Erase You"

ESG A South Bronx Story

(Universal Sound) lp 19.98
How many other groups can you think of that have been equally embraced by the house, the hip hop, and the punk scenes? There ain't no one but ESG. The four black Scroggins sisters from the South Bronx formed their band in the late '70s (mom bought 'em intruments to keep them off the streets). They released their first single on Factory in the UK, and on 99 Records (No-Wave home of Liquid Liquid, Glenn Branca, etc) in the US. So not only did they play with groups such as The Clash and Gang of Four, but their single "Moody" was a bona fide disco hit, and the B-side of that single "UFO" has become one of the most recognizable, most sampled parts in the history of hip hop. Everyone from LL Cool J to 3rd Bass to Marley Marl to Big Daddy Kane has sampled ESG, you will be AMAZED when you listen to these original tracks. Super stripped-down, raw percussive tracks with enough groove to make a girl forget she's not swimming in jewels. Three full lengths and a couple of singles later, ESG (Emerald Sapphire and Gold) gets the best-of treatment in this excellent compilation of the group's best tracks (including Windy's personal favorite "Erase You": "Well I got news for you boys / I'm gonna erase you / just like a drawing / Erase you / flush you like my toilet / Pump it up girls!"
RealAudio clip: "Erase you"

ETERNAL ELYSIUM Spiritualized D

(Meteor City) cd 13.98
Easily a shoo-in for heavy metal/stoner rock album of the month! The long-awaited domestic debut by this cult Japanese band of longhaired 70’s Black Sabbath freaks. Although they actually sound less like the Sabs than fellow Sabs-worshippers Trouble. Some other influences that come through the pot haze include the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (this disc includes their cover of “Innocent Exile” from Meteor City’s Iron Maiden tribute), ‘70s Japanese heavy psych bands like Blues Creation and Flower Travellin’ Band, Thin Lizzy, Saint Vitus, Kyuss, and other heavies. Meaning, in addition to sheer psychedelic doom riffage (a la another Japanese band, Church of Misery) they really can write *songs* in the classic sense--one listen to, arguably, the album’s highlight, “Easy Goin’” and you’ll know. We didn’t think they made ‘em like that anymore. And stay tuned for the ‘bonus track’, an unlisted 15 minutes of improv hippie folk drone in the tradition of Japan’s Taj Mahal Travellers. Very recommended indeed!!
RealAudio clip: "Easygoin'"

FAUST The Wumme Years 1970-73

(Recommended) 5cd box+book 64.00
A 5cd box set devoted to krautrock legends Faust? We were salivating from the moment we heard about it! The output of the band from 1970-73 is truly remarkable, and their work can hardly be compared to any of their contemporaries. They transcend both psych and prog, they influenced countless acts and anticipated many musical trends, from This Heat to Nurse With Wound, New Wave and No Wave, Industrial and "Post-Rock", the Boredoms old stuff to the Boredoms new stuff. Seminal musical genius that everyone should hear. And this is both a good place to start for newcomers (I envy anyone hearing Faust for the first time!) and a necessary collection for fans.
The nitty gritty details, for those who wanna know it all: Wumme refers to the schoolhouse-turned-studio that Faust producer Uwe Nettelbeck rented out at Polydor's expense (he also managed to get Polydor to buy the band all the recording gear they needed and pay for a 24-hour a day, live-in engineer.) It was under these ideal conditions that Faust recorded almost all of the material on this box set, which includes (get ready!): Faust's self-titled debut, their second album "So Far" (both of those terribly hard to find on cd, with the Japanese edition of "So Far" having been out of print for years now), the ever-popular "The Faust Tapes" (now with a track listing and indexing!) and "71 Minutes of Faust" (collecting both the "The Last LP" and "Munic and Elsewhere" LPs). And, also included in this set is an amazing disc of unreleased material, some recorded live at the BBC in 1973, plus some recently discovered & never before listened to tapes as well as the track "We Are the Hallo Men" which was originally on "Munic & Elsewhere" (though curiously credited here as having been on "The Last LP"), but previously left off of ReR's previous version of "71 Minutes of Faust". For this disc alone the set is worth the money to Faust aficionados! Then add in the 40 page booklet, illustrated with rare color photos (of them playing darts outdoors in the nude! THE NUDE!) and Super 8 stills, that features essays/memories from Faust friends/fans Chris Cutler and Peter Blegvad, and interviews with several band members as well as with their producer (the reclusive Nettelbeck) and, for the first time ever, with sound engineer Kurt Graupner!
Of course, the individual discs may be issued separately at some time (or not? all we've heard is that the BBC sessions will come out individually) but then again with those first two Faust cds being so hard to come by, and so essential, there's got to be lots of you out there you not only will want this whole box, but NEED this box. Nicely presented, clearly a labor of love, with the cds in not-fancy-but-serviceable individual digipacks (and don't worry, the paintings from "So Far" are included in a color booklet with that disc).
RealAudio clip: "J'ai Mal Aux Dents"
RealAudio clip: "Flashback Caruso"

FROGS Racially Yours

(4 Alarm Records) cd 13.98
This is a tough one to describe. If you hate the Frogs already, stop right here, this record will not change your mind. In fact, it might even stoke the fires of you Frogs-hatred. But, musically, this is easily the best Frogs record. And I imagine some of you are scoffing, ‘no mean feat, huh?’ But their second, and best record, "It’s Only Right and Natural”, was a brilliant and catchy, completely improvised in the studio, folk pop masterpiece. Not only that, their queer obsessed, absurdist lyrics, had everyone asking, "Are they gay?” and/or, "Are they homophobic?”, and especially, "Are they insane?” You either loved them and thought their peurile and juvenile humor was drop dead funny, or you hated them and were probably offended. Well.....This is the legendary "Racially Yours” record, a record so steeped in controversy, that it is only now being released after 10 years. Although like past Frogs efforts, I’m not so sure the controversy is entirely justified. Musically, this record is amazingly lush and complex (for being recorded on a 4-track), bizarre arrangements, swirling organs, rollicking guitars, keening vocals and melodies that stick in your head like glue. But it’s the lyrics...This is the Frogs’ labor of love, a record they worked on for years, a skewed but bizarrely passionate look at slavery and race relations in the United States. While "It’s Only Right and Natural” their ‘gay’ record, was kind of silly and irreverent (which is what convinced people they were homophobes), "Racially Yours” is definitely an indictment of racism, with the Frogs frontman, singing from different perspectives: a slave, a slave trader, a paranoid racist, and so on. And the lyrics, paired with the amazing music, often results in some really intense moments. Now, I’m sure people will cry foul, since the Frogs’ irreverence and lyrical absurdity are still present (and that is of course, unwelcome in any discussion of subjects this volatile). So if you like the Frogs, you will love this record, if you don’t like the Frogs, and this all sounds like a recipe for pissing you off, you should definitely pass.
RealAudio clip: "Holidays 4 King"
RealAudio clip: "Purification of The Race"

GAS Pop

(Mille Plateaux) cd 16.98
Recording under the Gas moniker, 'Pop’ is yet another exceptional album in the continuous stream of Wolfgang Voigt’s techno structuralism. While he has recorded under a number of pseudonyms (Mike Ink, All, Studio 1, M:I:5, etc) to varying degrees of success, the Gas recordings have clearly been his strongest work. This is especially true when Voigt applies one of the odd (and few) metaphors to his work, as the intrusion of the forest onto the dance floor, with all of its mysteries, mythologies, and wonders being ordered by the insistancy of his monophunk beats. Where the trilogy of “Zauberberg,” “Oktember”, and “Konigforst” were dark haunts where deep fluid ambience tops the nonstop pulsating rhythm, “Pop” is a shimmering sunfilled excursion that is mostly beatless, forming its structures out of repetitive sequences of trilling ambience swelling in and out of each other within Voigt’s penchant for hypnodub washes. For those longing for the beat of Voigt, simply wait for the last track which is beautiful repetition of the previous ambient modulation, with his insistant techno. It’s a trick he used on the 20’ to 2000 series, and it’s trick I hope he uses again. Breathtaking.
RealAudio clip: "1"

GO-BETWEENS The Friends Of Rachel Worth

(JetSet) cd 14.98
Upon the very first play of this cd in AQ, three (!) customers' ears immediately pricked up, then all three customers chimed in unison "new Go-Betweens?" And their ears were treated to a wonderful listening delight. On this album the Go-Betweens line-up consists of Grant McLennan, Robert Forster, Adele Pickvance, and Quasi's multi-talented Janet Weiss and Sam Coombes. Also contributing their musical talents are Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker (of Sleater-Kinney) as well as Brent Arnold and Jen Chorowhas. And a few others... Sure to please old Go-Betweens fans and certain to make them quite a few new ones as well. Beautiful, lush and earthy.
RealAudio clip: "The Clock"

GREAT PHONE CALLS

(Ipecac) cd 16.98
When "Great Phone Calls" first came out so many years ago (6 or 7?), it quietly marked the first appearance on record of the now-infamous Neil Hamburger, sad sack comic who's since gone on to great heights of humor recording for the Drag City label. A collection of prank phone calls, this is hands down one of the funniest records we've ever heard, from the aggro bass player who answers a musicians-wanted ad to a fat guy trying to order a low-fat pizza. Some of the calls are borderline offensive, and some jump right over that line, so be forewarned, but it's so worth it anyway. In fact the Hamburger tracks are among his best cos unlike later recordings of his live paying-gig performances, here on Great Phone Calls he's trying so desperately just to get a gig, calling comedy clubs and harrassing the bookers. You MUST hear this!
Note: this has been reissued by Mike Patton's Ipecac label and he makes an uncredited sneak appearance on the record too.
RealAudio clip: "I'm in Your Band"
RealAudio clip: "(Write My) Name on the Toilet"

HAIKARA Geafar

(Ektro) cd 14.98
Jussi Lehtisalo of Circle reissued this classic and obscure Finnish prog effort from the seventies. Thus, you can expect it to be quite strange and amazing. Haikara were an odd ensemble, hard to pin down to any specific style. The first half of the album leans towards an accomplished conservatory-esque approach -- long, solo ridden numbers, lead by fuzzy bass, clarinets, trumpets, flutes, the occasional operatic vocal and (of course) guitar; full of shifting meters and obtuse melody lines, but also entertaining bits of smokey garage simplicity. Then, in the middle of the album, all of a sudden it's like you’re listening to the title track to some 70's romance drama, albeit with a prog edge. It’s actually quite lovely. The nearest thing I can relate it to is the first side of Fred Frith's “Gravity” -- on which Fred is backed up by members of eccentrics Zamla Mammaz Manna -- and it continues in this vein before ending on a decidedly Scandinavian prog-funk note! A weird one, alright, something that takes a few listens to come to terms with. But I have to say, I really like this album...!
RealAudio clip: "Geafar"

HARVEY MILK Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men

(tUMULt) cd 13.98
The long awaited cd version of this legendary Harvey Milk record finally sees the light of day thanks to Andee’s tUMULt label.Crushing and pummeling majestic beauty, interspersed with delicate moments of hushed whispery strum. Lumbering down-tuned hyper-rhythmic skull crack dropped delicately into suffocating expanses of near silence. Delicate pointillist piano mutates into a dirgey exercise in tension that sounds like a lost Dario Argento soundtrack performed by the Melvins. Lilting andmelancholy near-ballads are disrupted by incessant and brutally heavy riffs. Amidst the pummel and beneath the negative space swirls a barely audible maelstrom of whispered vocals, warbling turntables and whirring vacuum cleaners, all adding to the confusional brilliance that was Harvey Milk. And their heart wrenching cover of Leonard Cohen's 'One of Us Cannot Be Wrong' features what has to be the most tortured and anguished vocal performance ever recorded.Too heavy to be post rock. Too weird to be metal. Too everything to be anything, Harvey Milk were unconventional and wholly unique, both structurally and sonically, touching on territory mined by the likes of Gastr Del Sol, Codeine, Queen, Husker Du, Man Is The Bastard, the Melvins, and ZZ Top, but slowing it down, making it HEAVY, and fucking it up. Making it more beautiful, while making it difficult to listen to at all.Hypnotic, repetetive and jarring. Unpredictable, exhausting and perplexing.Comes in a beautiful gatefold, letterpressed, silkscreened cover, replicating (in miniature) the lps original cover.
RealAudio clip: "The Boy With The Bosoms"
RealAudio clip: "Pinnochio's Example"

HATEWAVE s/t

(tUMULt) cd 13.98
The latest in killing technology from our very own Andee's tUMULt label! This is the first (and probably last) release from Chicago's metal mercenaries Hatewave. Completely crushing math/speed/avant/noise/metal/grind.Hatewave's musical bloodbath is equal parts death metal, free jazz, grindcore, no-wave and pure noise. Furiously brutal, two guitar and drums (no bass!) attack, whirling riffs, bursts of white noise, calculus-style time changes, frantic blast beats, and a barely-under-the-surface free-jazz obsession all coalesce into some of the most insane, lightning speed, technical black metal/grind bombast ever. Featuring Chicago scene fixture and metal/jazz obsessive, drummer Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers, Lake of Dracula, To Live and Shave in L.A.). Originally this was a limited LP-only release -- this new cd version adds 3 bonus tracks from their 1997 demo! The LP (and at the time, soon to be released cd) was banned by some squeamish distributors for its somewhat gory cover art and controversial lyrics, all of which are retained on the cd.
RealAudio clip: "Slit the Catholic Throat"
RealAudio clip: "Bleed for Me"

HAZARD Wood / Bridge / Field

(Ash International R.I.P.) cd+lp 20.00
Hazard’s third album sprawls across a cd and an lp, packaged together as one cohesive body of work. Moving further and further away from the industrialist tendencies that Hazard’s B.J. Nilsen employed for his previous work on Cold Meat Industries as Morthound, Nilsen deftly manipulates field recordings made in various Swedish forests to evoke an unforgivingly barren Swedish landscape that normally doesn’t translate so well on field recordings (unless you’re Chris Watson). Hazard’s grey sweeps of electronic dronescapes are sparsely punctuated by residual scrapings of what could be wood, leaves, and dirt for a spectacularly chilling work.
RealAudio clip: "Pylons"

ICE CUBE War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc)

(Priority) cd 17.98
The second disc in Ice Cube’s loftily titled “War & Peace” two volume opus, this could also be known as the 'party’ disc of the two. I know that sounds like a bad thing, but man does this record kick ass. Cube’s production has come a long way since the NWA days, sounding a lot more like Dr. Dre today (in fact, track one, 'Hello’ is a Dre/Cube collaboration that sounds as good as anything on the recent Dre record). Still mean as shit, but with wickedly catchy hooks, the “Peace” disc is chock full of amazing stuff besides the ubiquitous radio staple 'You Can Do It’ (everybody sing along: 'I can do it, put your ass in to it’), in fact, it’s probably some of the best Cube since “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted”: 'You Ain’t Gotta Lie (Ta Kick It), with some funny (for once) guest vocals from Chris Rock, 'The Gutter Shit’, absolutely slammin; in fact with the exception of the Bone Thugs ballad collaboration, this whole record is all huge sick beats, Cube’s intense in your face delivery, and way funny lyrics (I mean, when did you ever think you’d hear Ice Cube rap about Pokemon?) If you haven’t seen Cube’s hilarious Friday films, rent 'em. If you have, expect this disc to be the the aural equivalent (what Friday and Next Friday were to Boyz In The Hood, “Peace” is to NWA and “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted”).
RealAudio clip: "Hello"
RealAudio clip: "You Can Do It"

IRAN s/t

(tUMULt) cd 13.98
Another new release from tUMULt laboratories, finds our coworker Andee’s label dipping its toes into pop, and recoiling in horror, as it pulls its feet back covered in muck and crud. Iran take ‘Indie rock’ and bury it in fuzz and hiss, taking ultra catchy pop, and dragging it through the detritus of lo-fi noise rock, picking up an ungodly assortment of buzz and blur and scuzz. Imagine a Pavement record on Siltbreeze. Or Sebadoh, if Lou Barlow was a jaded fuck instead of a sappy romantic. Or old Smog covering Skullflower. Or Harry Pussy playing Built To Spill. A beautifully cacophonous mess. Iran play damaged folk music, bombarded on all sides by a wild assortment of squeals and shrieks, static and hiss, and speaker clogging grit. Huge and slowly shifting, dronescapes that evolve into perfect little pop songs and then explode into jagged shards of high end skree. Iran are psychedelicand textural and noisey and totally catchy,hardcore, hook-filled low fidelity un-pop noise. Pop.Plus fucking wicked 'tiger' cover art.
RealAudio clip: "Pick Up/Stillborn"
RealAudio clip: "San Diego"

IRON MAIDEN Brave New World

(Portrait/Columbia) cd 16.98
With the triumphant return of vocalist Bruce “the Human Air Raid Siren” Dickinson, as well as guitarist Adrian Smith (so now there’s three guitarists in the band!), the reunited, rejuvenated Iron Maiden 2000 is all set to kick ass, and redeem themselves for their last few painfully bad outings (for which you can’t entirely blame Bruce stand-in Blaze Bayley, although he really did suck). “Brave New World” is of course no “Piece of Mind” or “The Number of the Beast” but it’s waayyy better than anything the band did in the ‘90s (with Bruce or without), and certainly has many moments of “Maiden-esque” glory as only Maiden themselves can deliver. Actually, it’s refreshing that they didn’t entirely try to go the retro-route and copy themselves wholesale, ‘cause in addition to the several very satisfying numbers on here that timewarped in from ‘84 (like the storming “The Fallen Angel”) there’s also pieces that explore bassist/mastermind Steve Harris’ obsession with ‘70s progressive rock a la Genesis and Nektar. Certainly metallic but not exactly super-heavy, much of “Brave New World” is mid-tempo and quite catchy, almost a prog-pop record in fact (not like Radiohead, though!). The mostly seven-minute-or-so long songs do take some bad turns upon occasion but also venture into areas new for Maiden, so no one can accuse them of playing it safe. Basically, this is a record that will definitely please Maiden and melodic metal fans. If your record collection does not already include “Killers” or “The Number of the Beast” then maybe you should pick those up first (although for some this new album would actually be a more accessible starting point), but everyone else can get this and enjoy not only Eddie-nostalgia but some fine new tunes, which I for one have found stuck in my head after only a few listens. Recommended. Up the Irons!
RealAudio clip: "The Fallen Angel"
RealAudio clip: "Ghost of the Navigator"

HIGHWAY ROBBERY For Love or Money

(Collectables) cd 16.98
Reissue of 1973 obscure hard rock classic. To be reviewed next New Arrivals list, #107...

JAMES GANG Rides Again

(MCA) cd 12.98
Newly remastered and reissued, the James Gang indeed “Rides Again”. “Yer Album” and “Thirds” have also received the same treatment, and we have ‘em, but this is our favorite. Guitarist Joe Walsh (pre-Eagles, y’know) and his biker rock cronies Dale Peters and Jim Fox supply the famed ‘60s headbang “Funk #49” on this disc, along with extended musical suite “The Bomber” and some beautiful acoustic tunes mixed into the electric rawk. A classic.

JAYHAWKS Smile

(Columbia) cd 15.98
The Jayhawks took what could have been a fatal blow when they lost main man Mark Olson, who was pretty much *the voice* of the band. (For what Mark’s doing these days with wife Victoria Williams in the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers, see their three self-released, wonderful albums, all of which we carry.)But Gary Louris and the rest of the Jayhawks have managed pretty nicely without Olson, it seems. (For the full story, see the long feature on them in this month’s No Depression magazine.) A super rocking big time production courtesy of producer Bob Ezrin (Kiss, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd etc.), “Smile” is both a blessing and perhaps the worst thing that could’ve happened. Three or four of the tracks are truly among the best they’ve ever recorded, full of crackly twang and perfect hooks that’ll have you singing along. The album is completely worth it for those songs alone. But at times the band veers into Beatles-y lush pop directions, an ill-advised decision for such a band. I mean, there’s *synthesizers* on this record. And, oh god, on some of the songs the drummer is supplanted by f**king *breakbeats*. This is a Jayhawks record! Is nothing sacred? Now, Aquarius is the last place to be all crotchety and unwilling to accept that bands change and mature and whatEVER, but... . It might sound a little weird, but the best thing about "Smile" (besides the few really awesome songs on it) is that it has made Windy re-fall in love with the Jayhawks back catalog and Andee gets to crow (in a scene seemingly straight from Hi Fidelity) "Man, I always loved the Jayhawks. But their *early* stuff is the best'. All their previous output, especially "Hollywood Town Hall," "Tomorrow the Green Grass," and the underappreciated "Sound of Lies" are fucking amazing records so worth your time. Completely timeless and classic.
RealAudio clip: What Led Me To This Town""
RealAudio clip: "A Break In The Rain"

JECK, PHILIP 20_02_00: Live at ICC, Tokyo

(Touch) cd 14.98
If there is a fault to be found in this release from Philip Jeck, it is in the cdr format and the painfully limited edition. With an arsenal of Dansette turntables (numbering up to 180!!!), Jeck sets up numerous pieces of vinyl with various delays and locked grooves fashioned directly on the vinyl with glue and razor blades. Cyclical patterns of Christmas tunes, slowed down antique 78s, and the tidal flux of surface noise are the raw elements for Jeck's collage. The result is an eerily beautiful piece that is just as good as (if not better than) Jeck’s recently released turntablist double cd masterpiece “Vinyl Coda I-III.”
RealAudio clip: "live at icc"

JECK, PHILLIP Vinyl Coda I-III

(Intermedia / Strunz) 2cd 16.98
Why Phillip Jeck isn’t as famous as Oval and DJ Spooky is beyond us, as we think his brand of repetitive, crazily evocative warmth is just as good if not better than Oval, and his turntable installations are more interesting than anything Spooky ever (wet)dreamed. For instance, Jeck has subtitled his turntablist experiments “low-fi classics for the electronic generation,” working with his orchestra of antique Dansette turntables - an arsenal 180 machines strong!!! With the crackling hiss of records found at flea markets, Jeck’s concept for his performances / compositions involve a bottle of glue and a scalpel forcing the record needle into locked grooves at the desired points on the records. Anyway, for the three WONDERFUL “Vinyl Coda” pieces spread across these two cds, Jeck’s scratchy vinyl-derived loops fade in and out of percussive polyphony, fractured orchestral majesty, almost industrial / factory grinding, 50’s pop vocal snippets, and laughably long applause. It’s quiet yet there’s SO MUCH going on. And some points it sounds like the quiet parts of a Godspeed or Slint record, gently but urgently loping and hiccupping. Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Vinyl Coda I"

JOSEL, SETH Go Guitars

(oo Discs) cd 15.98
Six pieces of maximalist guitar pieces played by one Seth Josel, performing compositions by James Tenney, Lois V. Vierk, Phill Niblock, John Cage, and Seth Josel. Vierk’s composition for five guitars is a chiming hypnosis much like the symphonies from Glenn Branca. Niblock’s piece is a lengthy white hot drone spanning 30 minutes. Josel’s pieces are incendiary jams a la Caspar Brotzmann.
RealAudio clip: "Guitar Too, For Four (performed by Phil Niblock)"

JURGENSEN, FRIEDRICH From The Studio For Audioscopic Research

(Ash International (R.I.P.)) cd 14.98
Friedrich Jurgensen’s efforts in what he deemed Audioscopic Research is compiled here as the exquisite follow-up to AQ’s Halloween fave “The Ghost Orchid.” Both are collections of (alleged) recordings of examples of Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP), which is a broad catagory of unusual interruptions by unknown voices onto magnetic tape or the radiowaves. Parapsychologists like Jurgensen, Raymond Cass, and Konstatine Raudive (the latter two were featured on the aforementioned “Ghost Orchid”) claim that these voices may be from beyond the grave or may even have an extraterrestrial origin! While other researchers have devised intricate methods to focus these voices, Jurgensen claimed that his own telepathic tendencies could harness these voices, causing them to appear on radio or tape. All of Jurgensen’s recordings feature voices speaking in German, Italian, Swedish, and (if that wasn’t enough) polyglot--the intermingling of languages. One of the criticisms of EVP investigation is that the listener/researcher may be forcing the syllabic utterances into the recognizable patterns of his/her own native tongue or within the confines of a narrative context. While no one is questioning the actual presence of these vocal sounds, the interpretations (of origin and/or translation) that accompany the recordings are far from solid. As I have no real working knowledge of any of the languages featured, an utterance from one of the tracks which was supposed to be in Italian or German came out as clear as day to me in English as “we have to leave.” Does this debunk the possibility that these recordings are of alien/ghostly origins? No. Could it be an interesting anomaly within the context of analytical thought on the subject? Maybe. Could I be wrong? Quite possibly. Anyway, listened to purely as sound artifacts, Jurgensen’s recordings are downright creepy, and highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Audioscopic 1"
RealAudio clip: "Audioscopic 9"
RealAudio clip: "Audioscopic 22"

KICK AXE Vices

(Sony Rewind) cd
Allan and Andee both love this record. And we won't have any for a week or two. Outside of Kix, this is one of the best documents of the eighties 'hair metal' scene (it's a reissue), catchy and heavy and pretty weird. And Canadian. This one will be on the next AQ list and will get a proper write up then. Consider this a teaser for a record Andee and Allan would both like to see be record of the week, but they will probably be outvoted.
RealAudio clip: "Cause For Alarm"
RealAudio clip: "Heavy Metal Shuffle"

KOZELEK, MARK Rock’n’Roll Singer

(Badman) cd 13.98
Windy's new favorite record. Totally gorgeous solo album from the leader of Red House Painters, Mark Kozelek, who comes across as more direct, lush, warm, and poignant. Just perfect. Everyone is loving this album, as the underground word of mouth is spreading. Somehow reminds me of early, mournful Bruce Springsteen, and of course Nick Drake but Kozelek is in a class of his own. You will love this record! And this album’s big surprise: four of the songs are covers, one of a song by John Denver, and the other three are...drum roll...AC/DC tunes!! (Totally unrecognizable.)
RealAudio clip: "Find Me, Ruben Olivares"

LOVELY MIDGET Lovely Midget

(Corpus Hermeticum) cd 16.98
I’ve actually been waiting for Lovely Midget’s debut album for some time, after a brilliant 10” on Ecstatic Peace a couple of years back. Lovely Midget is the work of New Zealand’s Rachel Shearer, whose resume includes a few releases for Siltbreeze and Xpressway as Queen Meanie Puss and Angelhead. Whereas those projects were firmly entrenched in the magical avant-pop strum shared by fellow NZ musicians like Alastair Galbraith, Lovely Midget’s gritty drones barely have anything to do with the song, capturing a antiquated sound similar to Movietone or Kjetil Brandstal’s Corpus Hermeticum release. The layers of guitar feedback, slowly tumbling percussion, and sunbleached vibrations could easily have resulted in the crystalline sleepiness of My Bloody Valentine but instead have been covered with 10 years of dust and cobwebs blurring the melodies with murk and mire. Interestingly, this muddy, droning din was created digitally, although there certainly isn’t any indication that any digital production was used, and Lovely Midget would never get confused with the sterile electronica found on Raster or 12K. Rather this has all the trappings of a fantastic lo-fi 4-track recording... it’s beautiful, dreamy, and highly recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Paul Johns"

LUCIFER WAS In Anadi’s Bower

(Record Heaven) cd 18.98
This mysterious Swedish band sounds kind of like a cross between Jethro Tull (but with not just one, but two duelling flutes!) and Black Sabbath (due to the heavy riffs and Gibson Les Paul guitar work)ƒ Although they’re a current band, they began in the early ‘70s, but just hadn’t record an album until recently!! (1998’s “Underground And Beyond”, on which the original band lineup used vintage equipment to record vintage written-in-‘72 tunes... making for one of Allan’s favorite records of that year, ‘cause they really don’t make ‘em like that anymore!) Now, this, their second album, expands upon their Tull / Sabbath sound, becoming a little more prog rock, with the addition of the ultimate prog rock instrument, the mellotron (and not one, but two, of course!) and a new, more capable, vocalist. This goes straight into Allan’s year 2000 top ten. There’s one song that’s a little too, uh, poppy that I tend to skip over, but the rest is amazing ‘70s style psych/metal/prog nirvana. Flutes! Riffs! Genius!

MANILLA ROAD Crystal Logic

(Iron Glory) cd 17.98
This exceedingly weird '80s fantasy metal band has another of their many obscure albums reissued on cd! When you talk about a cult metal band, they don't get much more "cult" than this one... Hailing from the state of Kansas, but more at home in some sub-Robert E. Howardian prehistoric epoch of swords and sorcery, this band is beloved by the same folks who worship Cirith Ungol and The Lord Weird Slough Feg, and should appeal to bizarre-minded fans of Iron Maiden, Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, Manowar... "Crystal Logic" is a perfect illustration of what's great (and ridiculous) about Manilla Road: eccentric (to say the least) vocals, a totally wrong (tinny, thin, poverty-stricken) guitar sound that paradoxically sounds fantastic & punk, doomy bass, mythological/intellectual lyrics, and lets not forget the so-bad-it's-good cover art... But most importantly, Manilla Road had the talent and imagination to write some great songs, and truly rule their own unique sub-genre of progressive garage-metal. This reissue includes the crazed guitar instrumental "Flaming Metal System" as a bonus track.

MATES OF STATE My Solo Project

(Omnibus) cd 11.98
“My Solo Project” is the nearly perfect debut album from the San Francisco duo of Kori Gardener and Jason Hammel. The Mates of State’s super catchy arrangements for ‘70s organ, drums, and boy / girl vocal harmonies are a warm, almost groovy take on the bittersweet emo-pop championed by PEE, Rainer Maria, the Get Up Kids, The Anniversary, and Superchunk. Fans of those groups will be amazed at how strong and sure this record is. After only a handful of live shows, and absolutely no press support to speak of for Mates Of State, we’ve sold many many copies of this album -- an impressive feat in any respect! This is one of those records that customers ask about every single time we play it. You should expect more great things from Mates of State in the future!
RealAudio clip: "Proofs"
RealAudio clip: "La'hov"
RealAudio clip: "Everyone Needs an Editor"

MB Archeo MB 2

(EEs'T / Alga Marghan) 5cd 77.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, BUT THE CDS ARE AVAILABLE AS INDIVIDUAL VOLUMES.
Looking back at the manic output of Maurizio Bianchi (MB) with dozens of private edition LPs and cassettes from 1979 - 1984, it is arguable that his catalogue of ‘pre-apocalyptic' industrialisms is an aural diary of psychological distress on par with someone like Jandek. Bianchi's work reveals the existential crisis of a frustrated nihilist whose explorations of cultural, religious, and semiotic collapse brought him closer to God. In 1984, Maurizio Bianchi released his last album and dropped out of sight. From what little contact he kept with his musical past, a myth circulated that he became a Jehovah’s Witness, which appeared to be an absurd fate for this practitioner of negativity. However, this myth revealed itself as fact when he resurfaced in 1998 to release two ephemeral yet wholly uninteresting new age records filled with gilded spiritual imagery. At this time, Bianchi began remastering his earliest work and reissuing these albums through Alga Marghan. “Archeo MB 2” is the second set of reissues from the MB archives, collected as a 5cd set with the albums “Das Testament,” “Endometrio,” “Carcinosi,” and “The Plain Truth,” and “Armaghedon.” Where the first set is a violent display of neurotic vibrations and deadly electronics, the second is relatively dreamy, albeit retaining the sonic qualities of erratic vertigo and shadowy hallucinations. His suffocating experiments with primitive synths, delay pedals, turntables, and tape machines collapsed in on themselves with an electrocuted obliteration of sound. Out of the ashes of such early albums as “Symphony for a Genocide” and “Neuro Habitat,” Bianchi allowed for a structuralism with tentative rhythms and melodies to rise out of the blackened grit on the work found in “Archeo MB 2.” Each of the albums found on this box set are available individually; however, the box set features extra artwork (including a really dorky photograph of Bianchi in a red sweater), and a handful of Bianchi's cryptic music critiques. Of all of the dronescapes, noise attacks, and electronic warbles that Aquarius has lavished with critical hyperbole, MB remains at the top of the list in terms of innovation and actualization of metaphor and intent.
RealAudio clip: "Carcinosi"
RealAudio clip: "The Plain Truth"

MCGREEVY, STEPHEN P. Auroral Chorus II: The Music of the Magnetosphere

(SPM) cd 14.98
It's was a happy day at Aquarius when we heard about this new release! American radio hobbyist Stephen P. McGreevy has dedicated himself to the documentation of earth's magnetosphere by using home built VLF radio receivers (whose schematics are readily available from McGreevy's website). On "Auroral Chorus II" -- his second release after the acclaimed but sadly out of print "Electric Enigma" double cd set for Conet Project label Irdial -- McGreevy turns his charmingly enthused attention to the VLF phenomenon associated with the Aurora Borealis (a.k.a. the Northern Lights). Along with low buzzing hisses and crackles (not unlike those heard on records by hard disc editors like Fennesz and Pimmon), McGreevy's recievers have also picked up some beautiful choruses in which the magnetosphere resonates in beautiful wavering tones and whistling risers. Furthermore, McGreevy shows off his technical savvy with some stereo recordings -- with two VLF receivers with antennae along the north / south axis and along the east / west axis! As far as found sounds, McGreevy's VLF recordings are some of the more alien, yet most beautiful that we've ever encountered. So, if you missed "Electric Enigma" you now again have the chance to investigate these amazing sounds courtesy of McGreevy's fascinating obsession.
RealAudio clip: "#7"
RealAudio clip: "#10"

MIRROR Front Row Centre

(Die Stadt) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The breathtakingly beautiful collaborations between Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann as Mirror have resulted in three superb deep listening / tonal drift records in a little under a year, with “Eye of The Storm” for Streamline, “Ringstones” for Some Fine Legacy, and this for Die Stadt. While their production techniques revolve around blurring the sonic edges of arcane source material (highway field recordings, bowed metals, and tape machine backmasking), Mirror allows more of the source material to speak on its own with extended notes from orchestral warm-ups. They have layered hazy passages for lengthy french horns, warm strings, and a handful of their own mysterious drones within a slow building composition. If you’ve fallen for Chalk’s work in the past, this album will certainly impress you also. Stunning work.

MIRROR Ringstones

(Some Fine Legacy) lp 16.98
Mirror is the collaborative work of Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann (whose production talent has recently been employed by Nurse With Wound). Through the gradual introduction of delicate hazy drones which provide little external references, Mirror’s audio alchemy is apt to delude the listener about the length of these two beautiful and hypnotic recordings. We had thought that this might be the more affordable version of the first Mirror album (which ran around $55.00 due to the individually printed etchings as on the artwork), but it’s an entirely new album. As with each Andrew Chalk release that has presented itself to us, this is highly recommended!

MIRROR Visiting Star

(Three Poplars) lp 39.00
During the last year, Mirror has quietly released 6 albums - several of them incredibly limited art editions, wrapped in etchings, hand drawings, or monoprints. "Visiting Star" is one of those art editions (hence the price) with a lengthy strip of delicate paper hand patinaed with coppers, blues, and silvers and then wrapped around a standard black album cover. The color choice is one that matches the overall tonal quality that Mirror has been mastering during their brief but incredibly prolific career. Once simply the duo of AQ-favorite Andrew Chalk and recent Nurse With Wound collaborator Christoph Heemann, Mirror has recently expanded its membership to include Andreas Martin (who worked with Heemann in the '80s dadaist collage ensemble H.N.A.S.). While the first document of the new Mirror lineup faltered a bit, Mirror has returned to form with 'Visiting Star' -- mostly by recognizing that what Mirror does best is allow for Chalk's aesthetic of reflective metallic tones to float through space with all of their sublime glory intact. Here, Mirror's working process reveals itself a bit more, as eBowed guitars drift lazily alongside gently bowed gongs and bells. Absolute beauty.

MITTOO, JACKIE The Keyboard King At Studio One

(Universal Sound) cd 17.98
Much can be said comparing Jamaican keyboardist to American counterparts Jimmy Smith and Booker T. Aside from being a master of his instrument at a time when the keyboard was experiencing a renaissance as a leading role - not only in soul & jazz, but in Jamaican rock-steady - he was also a prolific arranger of music. Having cut his teeth as a founding member of the Skatalites (Jamaica'spremiere ska group) in 1964 and 1965, Jackie Mittoo went on to become the front man for Studio One's in house band. From 1965 to 1968 Jackie wrote, arranged and played virtually all the music to come out of the studio for such notables as Ken Boothe, Alton Ellis, Marcia Griffiths, Delroy Wilson and the Heptones. The tracks on this album, recorded between 1966 and 1968, represent some of Jackie's best originals and covers (including an off kilter version of Seals & Crofts “Summer Breeze”). These mostly instrumental rock-steady numbers by - as the liner notes say - “Jamica's funkiest keyboardist” are just the thing for moving your butt on a lazy, hot summer day.
RealAudio clip: "Get Up and Get It"
RealAudio clip: "Henry the Great"

MORRICONE, ENNIO Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura

(Dagored) cd 14.98
At long last, this rather legendary soundtrack album shows up on cd in our racks. Morricone appreciators, "kosmigroov" junkies, and experimental improv fans have all been salivating over rumors of this re-issue, and all that eager anticipation is quite justified. Genius Italian soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone is best known for both his lounge-style pop music for Italian sex kitten comedies and other flicks, and also of course for his stunning, atmospheric (and archetypal) soundtracks to Westerns such as For a Few Dollars More. Here at AQ, we worship Morricone. So what a pleasant thrill discover that this soundtrack to a 1971 erotic thriller called The Cold Eyes of Fear does indeed live up to its reputation, and instead of those usual expected Morricone sounds, we're treated to complex, sinister jazz strikingly similar to '70s electric-era Miles Davis circa "Live/Evil" and "Get Up With It". We can't imagine what must be going on in the film while this deliciously avant garde material is playing. There's simmering trumpet (blown by Morricone himself!), catwalking bass, pell mell drumming and other weird atmospheric percussive effects. It makes sense that the soundtrack was performed by Morricone's own outfit of musical innovators, the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza who've themselves been the subject of two recent and highly-regarded reissues. This soundtrack takes the Gruppo's 20th century chamber-improv and adds some definite grooves, although there's plenty of totally free sounding moments as well. Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Seguita"
RealAudio clip: "Evaporazione"

MORRICONE, ENNIO Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura

(Dagored) lp 14.98
At long last, this rather legendary soundtrack album shows up on cd in our racks. Morricone appreciators, "kosmigroov" junkies, and experimental improv fans have all been salivating over rumors of this re-issue, and all that eager anticipation is quite justified. Genius Italian soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone is best known for both his lounge-style pop music for Italian sex kitten comedies and other flicks, and also of course for his stunning, atmospheric (and archetypal) soundtracks to Westerns such as For a Few Dollars More. Here at AQ, we worship Morricone. So what a pleasant thrill discover that this soundtrack to a 1971 erotic thriller called The Cold Eyes of Fear does indeed live up to its reputation, and instead of those usual expected Morricone sounds, we're treated to complex, sinister jazz strikingly similar to '70s electric-era Miles Davis circa "Live/Evil" and "Get Up With It". We can't imagine what must be going on in the film while this deliciously avant garde material is playing. There's simmering trumpet (blown by Morricone himself!), catwalking bass, pell mell drumming and other weird atmospheric percussive effects. It makes sense that the soundtrack was performed by Morricone's own outfit of musical innovators, the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza who've themselves been the subject of two recent and highly-regarded reissues. This soundtrack takes the Gruppo's 20th century chamber-improv and adds some definite grooves, although there's plenty of totally free sounding moments as well. Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Seguita"
RealAudio clip: "Evaporazione"

MORRICONE, ENNIO Il Poliziotto Della Brigata Criminale

(Dagored) cd 14.98
One of Morricone’s FINEST soundtracks, this is from an obscure 1975 French crime thriller starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. Dreamy, almost unearthly female vocals, clear and high--remind us that Morricone not only did spaghetti westerns--but made space age pop as well. Intense arpeggiated piano accented with wailing sax, and some of the creepiest swirling swarms of violins I have ever heard (think Gorecki). This will definitely appeal to fans of another bestselling soundtrack here at Aquarius: “The Taking of Pelham 123”. Very, very cool soundtrack.

NECROPHAGIST Onset of Putrefaction

(Noise Solution) cd 15.98
NOT REALLY OUT OF PRINT BUT CERTAINLY TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. IF WE GET IT BACK IN WE WILL LIST IT.
Putrefaction. I love that word, especially how it’s spelled. Anyway, despite the generic death metal band name, album title, and lyrical content, Necrophagist is by no means your run of the mill generic death metal band!! No sir. First off, it’s one guy (German, I think. Maybe Italian) playing the guitar, grunting the vocals, and programming the drums. Bedroom home studio metal. The main thing, tho: playing the guitar. This might be the ultimate crazy squiggly guitar lead album ever, outdoing even Morbid Angel and Krisiun in the extreme guitar soloing sweepstakes. It’s insane, really. As brutal as the music gets, there’s guitar shredding wedged into every available moment of music. As mentioned, this is one guy, probably recording at home. Well, I don’t know about that for sure, but there must have been a long ProTools session involved in this!! ‘Cause there’s no way anybody could do this live. So, as a death metal record, pretty great indeed. Ignore the death metal aspect (if only the dude who did this would have!) and you’ve got an avant-garde guitar shred fest for John Zorn fans. It would make Buckethead weep.
RealAudio clip: "Foul Body Autopsy"

NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Mass Romantic

(Mint) cd 15.98
Amazing pop maestro Carl Newman (Zumpano, Superconductor) heads the star-studded cast of what is, to AQ's collective ears, simply THE BEST POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2000. When was the last time the AQ staff and our wildly differing tastes happened to *unanimously* agree on a single album's brilliance? Maybe Neutral Milk's second record? The Soft Bulletin or Conet Project? Suffice to say that this happens very rarely, and that's how good this New Pornographers record is. "Mass Romantic" is absolutely shiningly great power pop, with influences as wide-ranging as Big Star, the Zombies, Eno, the Beach Boys, Cheap Trick, and Built to Spill.Not since, well, the last Zumpano record (or Silver Sun's debut) has a pop record emerged that's this powerful, kickass, well-crafted and totally complex. Really. Each of the twelve tracks is a fully realised pop creation unto itself. Intelligent, infectious, and uplifting, with truly flawless arrangements (the key to pop greatness). In a sparkling non-country spin, the wonderful Neko Case lends her vocal gusto to complete the soaring FOUR-PART vocals on such gems as "Letter From An Occupant" not to mention the title track. And the four other members of the New Pornographers are super talents in their own right: Daniel Bejar