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Aquarius Records
New Arrivals #143
9 August 2002

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SIXTEEN HORSEPOWER Folklore (JetSet) cd 15.98
Imagine the desolate and dreary stretches of highway leading from wherever you are to nowhere. Imagine the perilous climb from the bowels of hell, in search of redemption. Imagine the violence and hardship of life in the bayou or the unsettled West at the turn of the century. Imagine that mysterious drifter, lurking around town, exuding a magnetic pull, dangerous but irrestistible. Imagine tragedy, forgiveness, the world as a wasteland, the world as hell, the world as nowhere. The music of Sixteen Horsepower is all that and more. Dark and mysterious, heartbreaking and ominous, hopeful and tragic, timeless and unforgiving. Southern gothic dirges, shivering dark waltzes, and creeping midnight melodies. Vocalist David Eugene Edwards has a startling voice, trembling and plaintive, but at the same time ferocious and strong. Backed by a shuffling funereal ensemble of banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar and brushed, minimal drumming, the effect is claustrophobic, suffocating, but with just the faintest glimmer of hope and happiness on the horizon. Some may be troubled (as I am) by Sixteen Horsepower's overt Christianity, but thankfully the lyrics are more subtle and spiritual than preachy, focusing on the human condition, hope, despair, love, hate, misery and joy. Four originals, four traditionals and two covers, 'Alone And Forsaken' by Hank Williams and 'Single Girl' by the Carter Family. This is record number six from these Colorado transplants (via L.A.) and I'm not entirely sure why we haven't listed them, since they're all stunning. If you're interested, inquire cause we should be able to get any of them. The closest comparison I can come up with is Nick Cave, but 16HP are an entirely different beast, jettisoning the drama, bombast and pagaentry that has plagued Cave in his later years, and instead stripping everything down and adding extra layers of murk and must, fog and frost. A gorgeous and cautionary Biblical tale told by wandering minstrels, as they slowly make their way toward salvation. So totally essential.
RealAudio clip: "Hutterite Mile"
RealAudio clip: "Outlaw Song"
RealAudio clip: "Blessed Persistence"
RealAudio clip: "Alone And Forsaken"

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CIRCLE Sunrise (Ektro) cd 14.98
Brilliant, shockingly brilliant! Herewith we present to you what we can only say is the headbangingest record yet from our Finnish friends Circle (containing also, paradoxically, a couple of their most gentle numbers). The Circle concept is one of repetition, and while ALL their records are in fact great, one can find some of them to be a lot like another. So it's nice that this new Circle really goes out on a limb, with so much success, while totally managing to remain Circle to the core. How do they do it?
The album opens with "Nopeuskuningas", seemingly Circle's answer to Judas Priest's "Breaking The Law"! Down and dirty hard rock riffing (cyclic and repetitive in the trademark Circle way, of course) with keyboardist/vocalist Mika Ratto -- a relatively recent, and significant, addition to Circle's lineup on their past three or four discs -- simultaneously channeling screechy metal gods Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Klaus Meine (Scorpions), and Brian Johnson (AC/DC), but in an indeciperable, or Finnish at least, babble. It stretches to nearly eight minutes after the space-rock effects and swirly keys kick in. But then, when you think this is going to be The Heavy Metal Circle album, track two gets all mellow and pretty and folked-out, even MORE unlike any previous Circle we've ever heard. Acoustic guitar, and lots of la la la's from Mika. Unbelievable -- and lovely. But then the next song triggers the dormant motorik Circle drum pulse, overlaid with heavy guitars and vocal histrionics akin to the opening track. Plus new wavey/Axel F keyboards. Hit material here! Following that, track four, "Vaanen Valtiatar", heads back to the forest glade where Circle do that hippy jamming again a la track two, but more plugged-in, turning into a spacey jam session. And then, as you might now expect, it's back to the mosh pit for the monstrous rifferama of the next song, "Kylan Suurin Miekka". Evil stuff. This is True Circular Metal indeed. From then on the album maintains the heaviness, getting spacier and spacier though, culminating in the droning fifteen-minute "Lokki".
Wow. An amazing album, making effective use of Mika's unusual/unique vocals -- he's developed some sort of exotic (Middle Eastern? American Indian?) meets metal style, delivered in a manner as over-the-top as the most insane Italian prog of the '70s. Throw in some violin and moog and of course all the heavy metal moves, and you've got a bizarre blend of, uh, Yoko Ono, Hawkwind, Judas Priest, and of course Circle's krautrock forerunners Neu! and Can.
While "Sunrise" is in many ways a departure for Circle, it can also be seen as an album harking back to their hard-rockin' roots (they've nodded that way on the guitar-heavy "Prospekt" and Jussi's Kyuss-ish Pharoah Overlord side project, but you've got to also remember that the very first Circle album, "Meronia", drew quite a few comparisons to Helmet at the time). Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Nopeuskuningas"
RealAudio clip: "Vaanen Valtiatar"
RealAudio clip: "Kylan Suurin Miekka"
RealAudio clip: "Hautain Takaa"

V/A Trojan Revive Box Set (Trojan) 3cd 15.98
At first glance this collection looked to be the sign of Trojan having completely run out of box set ideas, but fortunately this is not the case. The term 'Revive', according to the folks over at Trojan, refers to that period of Jamaican music that trails the rocksteady era and precedes reggae's eventual domination on the island (the tracks here were all recorded between 1968 and 1969.) And, unlike our expectations, the 50 cuts in this collection are really quite great. If you're a fan of rocksteady, or even ska and early reggae you should definitely take note of this collection: organ is the lead instrument of choice on at least a third of the set, but there's a heap of horns to be found here as well. Vocals are often taken by two lead vocalists, sometimes backed by a chorus and though firmly Jamaican in style, the soul influence is indelibly marked in these arrangements. There are quite a few excellent early roots tracks to boot, such as Al & the Vibrators "Going Back Home", and Count Ossie's "Blacker Black" (with some heavy nyabhinghi drumming.) What's better is that the tracks Trojan has unearthed here are all rare goodies that collectors of Jamaican 7"s salivate over. This might be the Trojan box to own if you have to choose only one.
RealAudio clip: AL & THE VIBRATORS "Going Back Home"
RealAudio clip: COUNT OSSIE & HIS BAND "Blacker Black (aka Africa)"
RealAudio clip: THE SILVERTONES "Intensified Change"

AUTECHRE Gantz Graf (Warp) cd ep 9.98
Somewhere amidst the nervous clattery percussive goodness that is Autechre, melody resides. Intrepid listeners will hear timestretched vocals and pure tones behind the clickety clackety headlong rush to... well where *are* they going anyway? I'm not quite sure. Um, maybe it doesn't matter. This is more quintessential Autechre, impossibly chaotic but nothing new. It sounds good, though, especially the last track where the notes tumble out so manically, competing with each other for milliseconds of space that it just becomes one big melodic wash of texture, like sand turning into glass. Very nice. Twenty minutes, three tracks.
The DVD version of this adds three video tracks, including one by the amazing Chris Cunningham for the track "Second Bad Vilbel," whose visuals can be read as one robot's nightmare of loneliness after we got to see it fall in love in the Cunningham-directed Bjork video "All is Full of Love." Staticky, color separated and full of interference, this video, along with the two others, is pretty good and makes the extra $5 worth it. Maybe.
RealAudio clip: "Cap.IV"

AUTECHRE Gantz Graf (Warp) 12" 8.98
Somewhere amidst the nervous clattery percussive goodness that is Autechre, melody resides. Intrepid listeners will hear timestretched vocals and pure tones behind the clickety clackety headlong rush to... well where *are* they going anyway? I'm not quite sure. Um, maybe it doesn't matter. This is more quintessential Autechre, impossibly chaotic but nothing new. It sounds good, though, especially the last track where the notes tumble out so manically, competing with each other for milliseconds of space that it just becomes one big melodic wash of texture, like sand turning into glass. Very nice. Twenty minutes, three tracks.
The DVD version of this adds three video tracks, including one by the amazing Chris Cunningham for the track "Second Bad Vilbel," whose visuals can be read as one robot's nightmare of loneliness after we got to see it fall in love in the Cunningham-directed Bjork video "All is Full of Love." Staticky, color separated and full of interference, this video, along with the two others, is pretty good and makes the extra $5 worth it. Maybe.

AUTECHRE Gantz Graf (Warp) dvd + cd ep 14.98
Somewhere amidst the nervous clattery percussive goodness that is Autechre, melody resides. Intrepid listeners will hear timestretched vocals and pure tones behind the clickety clackety headlong rush to... well where *are* they going anyway? I'm not quite sure. Um, maybe it doesn't matter. This is more quintessential Autechre, impossibly chaotic but nothing new. It sounds good, though, especially the last track where the notes tumble out so manically, competing with each other for milliseconds of space that it just becomes one big melodic wash of texture, like sand turning into glass. Very nice. Twenty minutes, three tracks.
The DVD version of this adds three video tracks, including one by the amazing Chris Cunningham for the track "Second Bad Vilbel," whose visuals can be read as one robot's nightmare of loneliness after we got to see it fall in love in the Cunningham-directed Bjork video "All is Full of Love." Staticky, color separated and full of interference, this video, along with the two others, is pretty good and makes the extra $5 worth it. Maybe.

RUPTURE, DJ/ Gold Teeth Thief (Violent Turd) cd 6.98
At last, reissued -- as a 'real' cd (not a cd-r) and cheaper too! This debut DJ/Rupture mix disc was a big hit here at Aquarius (and elsewhere too, apparently). We'd been getting the cd-r version on /Rupture's own Soot label direct from the man himself, but those are no longer available. Kid606 stepped in and signed DJ /Rupture to his Tigerbeat6 label, with a new /Rupture set called "Minesweeper Suite" due for release on August 27th. But, in advance of that, the Kid's other label, Violent Turd, has made the "Gold Teeth Thief" set available once again. Packaged in one of those plastic clamshell cases, with nought but a sticker for artwork, this remains a budget release, but a welcome one. It's also apparently a limited edition reissue, so if you missed it before, don't sleep on it now!! Here's our original glowing review, backed up by being named one of the top 50 best albums of the year by The Wire:
This is one of the best mix cds we've ever heard. And it's not about insane turntable skills, or about that 'isn't-it-weird-and-crazy-how-I've-juxtaposed-hip-hop-and-classic-rock' gimmicky stuff or about how famous or cool the DJ is (in fact, I bet you've never even heard of DJ /Rupture, an American living in Spain). It's about his choice of songs, and how smoothly and creatively they're mixed (live on 3 turntables). This cd is just an amazing and deft mix of dance hall (traditional -and- HARD ala DJ Scud etc.), hip hop, dub and electronica. Nothing fancy just 70 minutes and 43 tracks of some of our favorite shit: Missy Elliott, Nas, DJ Scud, Barrington Levy (a different track than his contribution to the amazing 400% Dynamite compilation, but you'll recognise his oh-so-familiar 'Woah Wooah.'), Nettle, Dead Prez, Bounty Killer, Kid 606, Venetian Snares, Luciano Berio, Shabba Ranks, Non Phixion, Wu-Tang Clan, Cannibal Ox, Djivan Gasparyan, Sub Dub, John Wall, Oval, Project Pat, Muslimgauze and even Paul Simon/Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Miriam Makeba (ending all smooth and pretty with no beats at all). Wow.
RealAudio clip: "track 2"
RealAudio clip: "track 5"
RealAudio clip: "track 1"
RealAudio clip: "track 3"
RealAudio clip: "track 6"

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400 BLOWS Black Rainbow (Tone Capsule) cd 11.98
Been hearing about this band for a while now. And I have to admit I was a bit skeptical. But this record pretty much erases all doubt from my mind. Crushing, pummelling low-fi math metal with lots of super complex arrangements, some serious riffage and some almost-catchy songs! Another band with the pointless guitar/drums/vocals/NO BASS lineup, but they manage to overcome the handicap of being a BASS-less heavy-rock band and whip up a minimal, spastic, sludgy and brutally lowend masterpiece.
RealAudio clip: "The Root of Our Nature"
RealAudio clip: "The World's Largest Miniature"
RealAudio clip: "The Long Wait For Nothing"
RealAudio clip: "The Wrong Song"

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE FAMILY COMPILATION Do Whatever You Want (Earworm) 3cd 22.00
Here's that long-rumored Acid Mothers Temple THREE cd set, at last! Is it the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. release to end all Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. releases? Not likely -- I mean, I'm sure there'll be another one before the month is out! -- but it IS one of the more desirable entries in these freaks' prolific output so far.
Furthering their status as a Grateful Dead for Japanophiles and krautrock nerds, this set kicks off with disc one's SIXTY MINUTE version of the AMT standard "Pink Lady Lemonade" (which appeared on their debut cd, as well as on the Live In Occident LP, and is now a staple of their live set). This new studio version, recorded in London, is yet another variant of the "Pink Lady Lemonade" template: it starts off with lots of spacey guitar and synth, sci-fi effects, and lovely bliss-out vocals from Cotton Casino. At about the half-way mark, after a jazzy interlude, the song gets a bit noisier, and dronier. But the mild feedback eventually gives way to a restatement of the song's initial theme, as everything comes full-circle to a mellow & pretty close at the end of the hour. Nice, but not a patch on their previous epic, the much heavier 40-minute "La Novia".
Disc two is where the "Family Compilation" part of the title comes in. The eighteen tracks found here are from a variety of artists, some featuring members of AMT, some simply being things AMT leader Kawabata Makoto liked enough to release on AMT's limited edition cd-r label, including two bands from the USA: San Diego's psychedelic indie-rockers Maquiladora, and Philly's female acid-folkie Fursaxa. Others include: the "mood cosmic sound unit" Pardons featuring AMTers Cotton Casino and Higahi Hiroshi, Kawabata's "shamanic acid-folk trio" Floating Flower, the acoustic, improvisational and not entirely serious Zoffy duo of Kawabata and Atsushi Tsuyama, the driving fuzz-punk of the Cosmic Riders (several original AMT members), the French solo guitar/vocal "acid chanson" of Frederic ... plus Father Moo & The Black Sheep, Seikazoku, Ueh, Alien Social Dance Party, Nipponianippon, The Wild Riders, and several more -- too many to describe. It all flows quite nicely -- there's no duds -- and all the selections, with or without members of AMT performing, definitely share the AMT acid-kraut-freak-pysch vibe. It's the best sort of compilation in two ways: 1) it's a "complete" listen, and 2) you'll probably want to hear more from all the artists on it (which may actually be a frustation 'cause it's going to be hard to find much else from some of 'em).
Disc three continues the compilation, but consists entirely of tracks featuring Kawabata Makoto projects or collaborations, including a Space Machine cut (Kawabata with Yamazaki "Masonna" Maso). Also: Kawabata solo, Uchu, Shogo-nari, Tsurubami, Kawabata with Miyamoto Naoaki, and an AMT track. With the big K on every track, this disc is somewhat more guitar-oriented than disc 2, tending towards darker, heavier, dronier, scarier stuff (disc 2 being a bit more "fun" and/or "folky", to generalize). On both discs two and three, quite a few of the tracks are unreleased or at least remixed, so even if you've managed to obsessively collect the various AMT-issued limited-edition cd-rs and so forth, you won't have all of these. And if you are such a collector, you'll be first in line to buy this anyway! And for most people, this will be your first and only chance to hear some of these projects.
AMT heads need this, others may find it a fascinating introduction into the realm of psychedelic excess populated by Kawabata Makoto, the Acid Mothers Temple, and friends.
RealAudio clip: TSURUBAMI "Dohkoku"
RealAudio clip: FLOATING FLOWER "Shizuku No Youni"
RealAudio clip: MAQUILADORA "So Far Away"
RealAudio clip: COSMIC RIDERS "Galactic Bomber (Roll Over Captain Ultra!)"
RealAudio clip: MAGIC AUM GIGI "Love Potion 26"

ADKINS, HASIL Out To Hunch cd 14.98
We're totally delighted that this has finally been reissued. Hasil Adkins is fucking insane and totally rockin'. Like Elvis Presley's evil twin, fucked up, dangerous and COMPLETELY MAD. All of these songs were recorded at home in a cabin in the mountains of West Virginia, rockabilly acoustic guitar under a creepy snarly, freaked out voice, interspersed with a Adkins' cackling laugh. Having spent time touring in a beat up old car with "the greatest one man band in the world Hasil Adkins and his happy guitar" painted on the door, Adkins leaves no doubt as to who is the most rockingist man around! This reissue collects songs from 1955-1965, right at the beginning of his long and consistently nutty career. The first song 'She Said' might rings some bells, since rockabilly freaks the Cramps covered it years back. Nice booklet with liner notes penned by Adkins himself.
RealAudio clip: "She Said "
RealAudio clip: "We got A Date"
RealAudio clip: "The Hunch"

ASPECTS OF PHYSICS Systems of Social Recalibration (Rocket Racer) lp 13.98
Up from the ashes of San Diego's Physics comes Aspects Of Physics. In the sonic experimentations that form Systems of Social Recalibration, this quintet utilized an array of synths, computers and guitars new and old that might make a gear geek quiver. The result? Seven predominantly electronic tracks that morph from flowingly celestial and crystalline to sputtering and glitchy to tenuous drones. Their combination of occasional warm guitar melodies, layers of viscous synths and considerably icier digital textures works well. Ultimately however, it's questionable if the groups's aural output lives up to their multimedia-ness, theories and creative process (check out the enclosed booklet and their website for the detailed and diagramed skinny). Pressed on almost-pure white vinyl.

BANG Bang / Mother - Bow To The King (BANGmusic.com) cd 15.98
Dust, Captain Beyond, Toad, Pentagram, Highway Robbery, T2, Buffalo, Budgie, Blue Cheer, Lucifer's Friend...if these names mean anything to you, you're probably one of our customers who dig that heavy '70s acid rock proto-metal stuff. Whenever we find a reissue of another lost gem from the era we try to share it with you. So, here, at last, are discs by the legendary Bang, a trio from Florida (by way of Philly) circa '71-'73 who managed to crank out some Sabbath-like riffing to go with the very Ozzy-like vocals of lead singer and bassist Frank Ferrara!
Bang never got big -- although they did share stages with everyone from Alice Cooper to the Allman Brothers to Chuck Berry to Funkadelic to Black Sabbath themselves, apparently had a #1 hit in Hong Kong and at one point owned their own private plane! They released three albums in their career (for a US major label in fact) plus they recorded some singles and made an entire unreleased album as well. Their entire output has now been reissued on two cds, the first of which (this one) contains their self-titled debut, recorded in February of '72, as well as their follow-up sophomore album recorded that same year in November (groups back then didn't dilly dally with putting out one album every couple of years like today's bands).
As we said, Bang, especially on their first album, bore a remarkable resemblance to the Sabs, which was really unusual for their era, when bands were more likely to copy Zeppelin or Purple or just be stuck in the '60s. Kinda lo-fi, but quite heavy, "Bang" delievers doomy hard rock, with a kinda Comus-y Pagan slant, that also brings to mind the most powerful early King Crimson. Like most heavy bands of the period, Bang weren't cognizant of the "metal" concept, and probably saw themselves as a pop rock group -- a dark and pyschedelic pop rock group to be sure -- and so sometimes the hard riffing lets up to allow for some happier or more gentle fare, which is not always a bad thing anyway (this a phenomenon we discussed in our review of the Dust albums not long ago).
Bang's 2nd album was oddly presented as two distinct side-long mini-albums, each with its own 'front' cover. Side one (the heavier) being "Mother" with side two dubbed "Bow To The King". Both sides together were not as Sabbathy as the debut perhaps, but still excellent '70s proto-metal indeed.
RealAudio clip: "Lions, Christians"
RealAudio clip: "Future Shock"
RealAudio clip: "Keep On"

BANG Bang Music / Death Of A Country / Three Lost Singles (BANGmusic.com) cd 15.98
Recorded in Hollywood, California in 1973, "Bang Music" was quite a bit more of your standard '70s rock/pop fare, not nearly as heavy as their earlier efforts. But it's nicely melodic and has a few rockin' tracks on it, like opener "Windfair".
Then we step back chronologically a couple of years for the conceptual "Death Of A Country", which was Bang's never-released first album, recorded in 1971 prior to their self-titled debut that came out the next year. With visions of societal corruption and ecological disaster, this album's doom-filled lyrics are certainly Sabbathian, although the music really doesn't get as apocalyptically heavy as what they came up with on "Bang". But still, a decent slab of downer psych-rock, more '60s hippie than '70s metal.
True heavy music connoisseurs really need this disc, though, for the two of the three "lost singles" included: the tracks "Slow Down" and "Feels Nice". They're the highlights here for sure. "Slow Down" woulda fit in well on their debut, while "Feels Nice" has more of Led Zep vibe.
Bang's slogan was always "Music Shot From Guns". Of the two cds reissues, it's the first ("Bang / Mother - Bow To The King") that's definitely using the higher caliber ordnance. But this one also gets off some good shots.
Note, unlike cd versions you might have seen before, these aren't bootlegs -- these reissues were done by the band themselves through their website. Initally they reissued 'em as cd-rs, but now they've done real cds, professionally printed. The cd booklets have the lyrics and credits, but we'd have liked some more art, photos, notes, etc. And as 2-on-1 releases, they've scrunched the cover art for two albums into each booklet's front panel, along with using some not-so-'70s Macintosh computer fonts. So, visually these could have been better, but oh well -- it's the music that matters. And much of Bang's music should definitely stoke those into early metal a la Black Sabbath and the aforementioned obscure greats.
RealAudio clip: "Windfair"
RealAudio clip: "Slow Down"
RealAudio clip: "Future Song"

BONFIRE MADIGAN 88 (Little Echoes) cdep 11.98
Easily drawing comparisons to the dramatic, fearless artists Tori Amos and PJ Harvey, Ms Madigan belts out her songs with such abandon, so high on emotion, that it's just as much a cathartic experience for the listener as it seems to be for her. And she plays her faithful cello with equal ferocity. On this EP, the group known as Bonfire Madigan also includes Sheri Ozeki (contrabass), Egg (drums, lap steel, guitar), Christine Lehmann (violin), Shelley Doty (electric guitar), and Biggs (drums). Five songs in all. 17+ minutes that'll leave you wonderfully spent. Limited pressing of 1000.
RealAudio clip: "O' Sanity"

BROTHER AH Move Ever Onward (Ikef) cd 14.98
This is a long lost classic (originally released in 1975) from ex-Sun Ra band member Brother Ah, and features a 25 piece ensemble and a vast array of exotic instruments such as shakuhachi flute, gong, space beam (?!), koto, pan flute, french horn, sitar, kiti kup (?!), tabla, oboe, shawn (?!), as well as various vocalists chanting, singing, shouting, and pre-recorded nature sounds. Sound far out? Well, it is, even by Sun Ra standards. Starting out with an Eastern-tinged spaced out raga, with buzzing sitars and subtle percussion underneath spoken word, then to a dreamy flute-flecked jazz number with Ethal Merman-ish operatic vocals over the top, on to funky African percussion workouts to chanted almost liturgical sounding afro-jazz-pop....Weird but definitely cool. For VERY adventurous fans of afro-rock as well as fans of Sun Ra and that sort of out-there-jazz.
RealAudio clip: "Track one"

BROTHER AH Sound Awareness (Ikef) cd 14.98
Ex-Sun Ra band member and musical visionary Brother Ah created a world even farther out than Sun Ra's if you can believe that. This early seventies classic features two extended numbers, the first a dreamy, spacy, psychedelic soundscape with heavily reverbed, chanted vocals, and heavily affected nature sounds. Dark and drone-y and completely overpowering. As tripped out as anything Acid Mothers Temple or any other modern psych band has attempted. The second, a spare, rhythmic, super free, clattery No Neck Blues Band-ish hippy jam, with thundering percussion, howling horns, and bells and chimes and hand drums that slowly develops into a throbbing, jazz rock revival complete with celebrated drummer Max Roach testifying to the glory of LOVE while an enthusiastic crowd cheers him on as gongs and shouts and thrumming bass lines get more and more feverish, climaxing in a furious eruption of wild percussion. Way, way out there. Not for the faint of heart, but definitely for fans of Sun Ra, No Neck Blues Band, and all sorts of out rock/free jazz.
RealAudio clip: "Introduction"
RealAudio clip: "Rap"

BUMBLE, B. & THE STINGERS s/t (Collectables) cd 8.98
An old favorite, that we just got a few (drilled, but cheap!) copies of in stock. B. Bumble & The Stingers were an early '60s combo composed of a bunch of talented studio veterans, who notched a few chart hits with their boogie woogie rock n' roll piano-led instrumentals, often versions of familiar classical and jazz themes. You know ELP's "Nutrocker"? Well The Stingers did it first, taking that Tchaikovsky chesnut to number 23 in '62. That's here, plus their "Bumble Boogie" (Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight Of The Bumble Bee"), Clarence "Pinetop" Smith's "Boogie Woogie", Duke Ellington's "Caravan", Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" and others, often with a gimmick like the underwater-sounding "Nautilus" (with vocals, even) or the vaguely-Asiatic "Chicken Chow Mein". Sometimes frantic, sometimes slinky, certainly quaint but totally fun novelty stuff. Like we said, an old favorite.
RealAudio clip: "Bumble Boogie"
RealAudio clip: "Nut Rocker"

BUTTHOLE SURFERS Humpty Dumpty LSD (Latino Bugger Veil) 2lp 21.00
Recent Aquarius Record of the Week, now available in the lavish double LP vinyl format. Our 'controversial' write-up about the cd version:
Let's get the negative stuff out of the way first. The Butthole Surfers suck. Not in the 'Primus sucks' self deprecating ironic sort of way, they really do suck. They have for years now. Everything post 'Hairway To Steven' has been total dreck. And those of you unfortunate enough to have heard their most recent record thus bore witness to the saddest beck-meets-eminem-meets-land-of-the-loops-meets-king-missile bid for MTV stardom. And on top of that, they are total assholes, as evidenced by their greed-not-common-sense based lawsuit against Touch and Go records, who were basically responsible for their popularity, and who were already paying them probably the best royalty rate in the industry. But apparently that wasn't enough. So it's with a little bit of trepidation that we recommend you buy anything on the Butthole's label Latino Bugger Veil, but RECOMMEND WE MUST! 'Cause this collection of live tracks and outtakes is vintage Butthole Surfers, at their drug-addled, tribal-drumming, chaos-causing, club-crushing, strobe-lighted, naked-dancing, on-stage puking, audience-pulverising BEST! Lots of rare compilation tracks (from P.E.A.C.E., God's Favorite Dog, Cottage Cheese From The Lips Of Death, A Texas Trip, the Roky Erickson tribute), 4 track and 8 track home recordings, practice tapes, outtakes from the Rembrandt Pussyhorse sessions, alternate versions of album tracks, and more. Weird sickly sweet warbly ballads to full on tribal drug stomps, with war whoops and processed vocals careening all over the place. Supposedly culled from close to 300 tapes. Hope there's more on the way!
RealAudio clip: "One Hundred Million People Dead"
RealAudio clip: "I Love You Peggy"
RealAudio clip: "SpaceI"
RealAudio clip: "Perry Intro"

CARCASS Reek of Putrifaction (Earache) lp 17.98
If you have to ask who Carcass is, stop reading right here. For those of you who know and love the sick grinding medical school death metal of Earache's finest, this collectors reissue is for you. The classic 'Reek Of Putrefaction' has been reissued on vinyl, with the original BANNED artwork, printed inner sleeve/lyrics and on BLUE wax!! No longer any need to buy this for $100 on Ebay thanks to the nice folks at Earache.

CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY s/t (Rhino) cd 16.98
Finally one of the greatest bands ever (Doubt it?!?! Email me and we will debate to the death) gets the deluxe reissue treatment. Nicely packaged in a digipak with a slip cover and remastered (but no bonus tracks...lame). Kick ass seventies soul flecked rock and roll with plenty of weird 'free' jazz piano, kick ass horns and unforgettable tunes. Their arrangements were complex, unpredictable and brilliant; 14 minute songs with different sections that keep you wondering what's coming next. Some of the best guitar playing you will ever hear (Chicago had guitar?!?!?). Guitarist/vocalist Terry Kath was even one of Hendrix's guitar heroes! And Kath supplied all of the rock and roll charisma and energy with his raspy growl (later replaced by the whiny and annoying Peter Cetera, who in the old days just played bass), wicked guitar playing and his totally rock and roll death, PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE! FUCK YEAH. There's also a freaked out instrumental Fushitsusha-worthy wild and psychedelic guitar freak out track that Allan and many other visitors to Aquarius mistook for Haino, Cline, Brotzman and any other of a number of noise-y guitarists! Did you realise Chicago were so cool?? I thought not. AND they were formed on February 15th, my birthday!!! Which also, for the record, makes us (me AND Chicago) AQUARIUSES!! What more do you need to know. Buy it. Or listen to the sound samples and be converted!!
RealAudio clip: "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?"
RealAudio clip: "Free Form Guitar"
RealAudio clip: "Beginnings"

CINERAMA Torino (Scopitones) cd 16.98
Cinerama's David Gedge and co. follow up the grand, swirling dream pop of their second full length Disco Volante with another album overflowing with romance and loveliness. The music continues to be flowery, lush and very Bacharach-esque, but this time around it sounds like the love affair's gone a little sour. The lyrics, weighted with a dose of scorn, are much less poetic than what we've come to expect from Mr. Gedge's pen. This is particularly noticeable on the ninth track called "Close Up". His words are rather...uhh... blunt -- definitely not the usual clever metaphors and dainty euphemisms. Almost cringeworthy actually. Fortunately the rest of Torino generally steers clear of this listening discomfort.
RealAudio clip: "And When She Was Bad"
RealAudio clip: "Close Up"
RealAudio clip: "Starry Eyed"

COH Netmork (souRce) cd 16.98
From his dedication to 'heavy metal fans all over the world' on "Iron" and his recombination of '80s synth pop on "Love Uncut," Coh (aka Russian electron engineer Ivan Pavlov) has presented some unusual concepts to guide his post-techno explorations. Less likely to invoke readings as a piece of irony, the "Netmork" album is a speculation on the hidden language of the telephone, specifically stated as "digitally encoded human emotions running through solid darkness ('mõrk') of telephone wires, electromagnetic ghosts of Love and Hate haunting the network after all conversations are made, merging, interacting, turning into each other, disappearing and reborn again." Coh actualizes his concepts through buzzing feedback that gets sequentially darker and more intense over the course of the album. At the album's onset, the electronic squiggles glisten and shimmer with occasional pinpricks of glitched digital feedback, giving way to perhaps those sounds' source material - the indeterminant dialing of a series of numbers on a phone (which made Byram think that Pavlov got bored with the prettiness of those sounds and just called up some friends to get a beer). Instead, the album takes a turn towards the darkside through incrementally building arpeggiations similar to early PanSonic, making for a fine album with an intriguing conceptual framework to match the well-executed electronics.
RealAudio clip: "netmork, part i: dark inside telephone wire?"
RealAudio clip: "undercosm"

COLLEY, JOE / CRAWL UNIT Sound Until the World Ends (Staalplaat / ERS) lp 11.98
This is not a split release as Joe Colley is the individual behind Crawl Unit, and perhaps should be seen as an indication that Joe is phasing out his Crawl Unit moniker. Regardless, "Sound Until The World Ends" is another great addition to the often overlooked / underappreciated catalogue of Mr. Colley, whose work has always been as good / if not better than Francisco Lopez, Zbigniew Karkowski, and other manipulators of physical sound. This vinyl only LP (as is the case for everything released so far on ERS) is broken into discrete sections which begin quite benignly with low-end drones and the delicate flutter of delay pedals feeding back upon themselves. But any tranquility these sounds offer quickly dissipates amidst noxious distortions and chopped white noise that steadily build up into a crescendo and quickly drop off into an abyss of deep tonal floats. This is the pattern that Colley follows through 4 or 5 sections throughout the record. Constructed at Colley's base of operations in Sacramento during the much ballyhooed California power crisis in the summer of 2001, "Sound Until The World Ends" alludes to the hyperboles of apocalyptic literature (found in the title and the pseudo-luddite note that this album was "mixed by hand (without a computer)". Given how incredibly hot Sacramento can get in the summer, such references may be warranted. Nevertheless, this is a great album.

COMETBUS Despite Everything: A Cometbus Omnibus (Last Gasp) book 14.95
After reading this tome if you still haven't gotten your fill of Aaron's writings, he also wrote the extensive liner notes for the new Jawbreaker rarities cd. And who could ever get enough of one of the greatest zines ever. Cometbus has been around (sometimes pub'd under different names) for over TWENTY YEARS! Got all the issues? Me neither. For this book Aaron personally selected the best, and filtered what he thinks of as the worst, writing from Cometbus. The most recent issues aren't here, as they are still in print, but the best of the rest of it is. So great!

DALEK From Filthy Tongue Of Gods And Griots (Ipecac) cd 16.98
Not purely hip hop nor dub nor electronic, Dalek might be right at home on Mike Patton's similarly genre-leaping label Ipecac. You may have heard Dalek rapping on top of Techno Animal's "Dead Man's Curse" track, a big favorite of Windy's from 2001. This full length is ferocious and powerful, full of threatening silences and massive bursts of noise. I like it. Dalek's epic, incantatory vocal stylings are pushed right up against apocalyptic, doom-laden instrumentation: high pitched squealing feedback that sounds like air raid sirens, abandoned machine bleeps, paranoid dub-heavy beats, crashing cymbals and other live drumming, shimmering guitar. There's even a psychedelicky track called "Forever Close My Eyes" that's got staticky record hiss, tabla, ethereal organs, melancholy melodic guitar strumming, even (what sounds like) sitar. Very well done! There's comparisons to be made with the DefJux (El-P, Cannibal Ox, Company Flow) sound -- scary hip hop with lots of noisy bits -- so if you like DefJux you'll porobaby get into this. Also definitely for fans of Spectre, Sensational, Techno Animal. Look for an upcoming split with Kid606, and there's even a collaboration with krautrockers Faust that'll hopefully get released by someone.
RealAudio clip: "Spiritual Healing"
RealAudio clip: "Forever Close My Eyes"

DUNCAN, JOHN Fresh (Podewil) cd 16.98
Sonic provocateur John Duncan has said he prefers the use of shortwave radio signals over any musical instrument in his pursuit into the pure physicality of noise. "Fresh," however, finds Duncan stepping back from that proclamation, as this album documents his collaboration with Zeitkratzer, a German avant-garde ensemble that specializes in the translation of electronic and noise compositions into scores for classical instrumentation. Under the guidance of Reinhold Friedl, Zeitkratzer's refreshing attitude is that "the opening to multi-disciplinarity isn't new any more, but artistic normality." In addition to this disc with Duncan, they've also worked with Merzbow, Zbigniew Karkowski, Phill Niblock, Christina Kubisch, and most recently Lou Reed in reworking his pioneering '70s noise opus "Metal Machine Music", if you can believe that!
"Fresh" features two Duncan compositions, "Nav-Flex" and "Trinity", as performed by Zeitratzer. Initially released as a collaboration with Francisco Lopez, "Nav-Flex" -- which happens to be one of my (Jim's) favorite Duncan pieces -- translates very nicely from original composition for shortwave, datastreams, and voice. Opening with a very loud, discordant blast of horns, strings, piano, percussion and electronics, Zeitkratzer vigilantly maintains Duncan's course of action by quickly fading the notes to a near silence that nervously persists for several minutes. The rumblings of those interwoven orchestral tones re-appear as a resurgent mirror reflection of that first incarnation of sound on the record and maintain a plateau-level of sustained, droning tones which accurately mimic the sounds that Duncan originally recorded. Zeitkratzer's version of "Trinity," on the other hand, sounds remarkably different than the original Duncan piece, a caustic composition that investigated the electric buzzings of shortwave radio static. It does follow Duncan's pattern of varying shortwave-like fluctuations, but the tonal colors of the two "Trinities" exhibit a much greater distance between the original and the orchestrated version than with "Nav-Flex." It's interesting to wonder how Duncan/Zeitkratzer scored these pieces (perhaps as a graphical score a la Cornelius Cardew?), but whatever the method, the results are nonetheless amazing.
RealAudio clip: "nav-flex [excerpt 1]"
RealAudio clip: "nav-flex [excerpt 2]"

FELDMAN, MORTON Complete Works For Two Pianists (Alice Musik Produktion) cd 14.98
Like the album title states, all of the compositions that Morty scored for two pianists. The pieces were all composed between 1951 and 1963 and include several of Feldman's earliest experiments with using graphical scores. For those overwhelmed by the temporal immensity of Feldman's later works, this release might be the ticket, as all the pieces here are well under the 10 minute mark, though it was irreverently noted that listening to this disc you might be convinced you were listening to one long piece. This because many of the works in this collection instruct the pianists to play at such a glacial pace that a new note is not to be struck until the preceding one has faded completely into silence. Yet not all the tracks here hold this molasses-like tempo. There are a few pieces such as the mantra-like "Work for Two Pianists" and "Ixion - For Two Pianos" which are densely packed with notes -- enough notes to make a dozen Feldman compositions. Includes a nice 39 page essay by pianist Mats Persson on Feldman's career and his close relationship with the visual arts and artists. Comes packaged in a handsome hardcover booklet.
RealAudio clip: "Vertical Thoughts 1 for Two Pianos"
RealAudio clip: "Projection 3 for Two Pianos"

FOREST Forest / Full Circle (BGO) cd 17.98
A release we've had before, but not for a while, 'cause it's been hard to get -- but recently Allan & several of his friends really really got into Forest, so he managed to track down and order a bunch (though, probably not enough...).
This double cd contains Forest's entire output -- two albums, one from 1969 and one from 1970 -- and should definitely be of interest to anyone into that whole '60s British folk-psych vibe. Y'know, if you liked the Tony, Caro & John or Fairport Convention reissues we've recently listed, or dig that excellent current interpreter of the genre, P.G. Six.
Forest were a trio of hippie musicians (Martin, Dez, and Adrian) from the town of Walesby in Lincolnshire. All three of 'em are responsible for the quite excellent male vocals that help make these albums the amazing lost treasures they are, along with their strong songwriting, and their adept and varied instrumental backing (mostly acoustic, with guitars, harmonium, mandolin, pipes, cello, electric harpsichord, organ, percussion, etc.). Their vocal harmonies recall the folkish stuff on those great early Wishbone Ash albums. Their songs and lyrics are rural, pastoral, lovely -- with titles like "A Glade Somewhere", "Rain Is On My Balcony", "Bluebell Dance", "Lovemaker's Ways" -- and darker too ("The Midnight Hanging Of A Runaway Serf", "Famine Song", "Graveyard"). But, while 'folky,' this is by no means trad folk; they are down with prog rock moves that remind us as much of Pink Floyd as the Incredible String Band. They can be sunshiney and twee a la Tyrannosaurus Rex, but also have a pagan, dark aspect as we said, coming pretty close to Comus territory at times (with the song "Fading Light", for one). Yep, 'folky' but not folk -- the ruined castles and fairy folk that inhabit the forests and fields of Forest's world exist, shadow-like, in the present day (well, Forest's England of thirty years ago), so it's not surprising when a song like "Hawk The Hawker" has kind of a Lou Reed/VU vibe, for instance. Their music is informed by the ancient British ballads, but you can tell that Martin, Dez, and Adrian were three young long hairs sleeping in a van, no matter how idyllic their songs sometimes sound.
This double cd reissue includes John Peel's original liner notes from the first album -- they're quite silly, but accurate at least in his closing comment "It would be nice for the Forest if you purchased these results of their lives and labours -- but nicer still for you." Definitely one of those "this is SO good why didn't these guys get famous??!" listens.
RealAudio clip: "A Glade Somewhere"
RealAudio clip: "Fading Light"
RealAudio clip: "Gypsy Girl & Rambleaway"
RealAudio clip: "Graveyard "

FUNGAL HEX s/t (Galerie Jeleni) cd 11.98
Fungal Hex is doom-lord Stephen O'Malley (of Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters) doing music for an art installation by Brooklyn artists which showed in the Czech Republic last year. His graphic design and guitar playing talents are both evident on and in this cd release, an "installation document with audio supplement". Musically, it's a 40-minute session of eerie drone and scrape, rather quiet and unsettling stuff, similar in spirit if not sound to the much heavier and more metallic output of O'Malley's band projects. The gallery in Prague printed only 500 of these discs to accompany the exhibit, and they're all gone now -- we've got just *four* copies, so act fast if you think you're gonna want one. (In other words, use the phone.)
RealAudio clip: "track 2"

GARADAMA 1 (Alchemy) cd 14.98
Back in stock, at the same cheap (for an import) price: the debut cd from Japanese heavies Garadama. Our review from list #110, for those that missed it:
Garadama is a hitherto unknown to us, super heavy metallic rock trio from Japan, making their debut on Osaka's Alchemy label (home to albums by Hijo Kaidan, Merzbow, Masonna, Angel 'In Heavy Syrup among others). They're not unlike a more modern-sounding version of prior Alchemy recording artists and retro '70s psych heavies Subvert Blaze. Less obscurely, Garadama specialize in Sabbathy riff-doom, with every song managing to remind us of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man", no bad thing. A FIEND IS LIVING IN MY BRAIN!!! (That's one of their song titles, and I believe it...) For fans of Boris, EyeHateGod, Zeni Geva, and the abovementioned!
Note we said: for fans of Boris.
RealAudio clip: "A Fiend Is Living In My Brain"
RealAudio clip: "The Sun Rises"

GO-BETWEENS, THE Before Hollywood (Circus/Jetset) 2cd 19.98
For almost a quarter of a decade, the Go-Betweens have been crafting some of the most sparkling pop songs. The songwriting duo of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan are responsible for innumerable understated, hook-filled beauties, each of them bearing the unmistakable Go-Betweens sound. So, if you're new to this great group, where do you start? Well, their most recent effort "The Friends Of Rachel Worth" (which featured the addition of Sam and Janet of Quasi to the line-up) was an absolutely glorious album, but with the recent reissues of their earlier albums... geez, the decision making's tough! Nonetheless, whichever album you choose will surely mark your entry into the rather sizeable and devout membership of Go-Betweens admirers.
Before Hollywood was their sophomore release. So very composed, confident, gentle and gentlemanly, they make songwriting seem easy. Some prime examples? The classic pop tunes "That Way" and "Cattle And Cane"... worth the price of admission alone. And voila, on the bonus disc you also get the video for the latter!
RealAudio clip: "Cattle And Cane"
RealAudio clip: "That Way"

GO-BETWEENS, THE Spring Hill Fair (Circus/Jetset) 2cd 19.98
For almost a quarter of a decade, the Go-Betweens have been crafting some of the most sparkling pop songs. The songwriting duo of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan are responsible for innumerable understated, hook-filled beauties. Each of them bearing the unmistakable Go-Betweens sound. So, if you're new to this great group, where do you start? Their most recent effort "The Friends Of Rachel Worth" (which featured the addition of Sam and Janet of Quasi to the line-up) was an absolutely glorious album, but with the recent reissues of their earlier albums... geez, the decision making's tough! Nonetheless, whichever album you choose will surely mark your entry into the rather sizeable and devout membership of Go-Betweens admirers.
For the record, Spring Hill Fair was the third album by these Australian pop geniuses. Underrated and often overlooked, but sooo good! It was recorded in 1984 and features amazing, intelligent lyrics and uniquely beautiful guitar pop instrumentation.
RealAudio clip: "Bachelor Kisses"
RealAudio clip: "You've Never Lived"
RealAudio clip: "Part Company"

GORILLAZ Spacemonkeyz versus Gorillaz - Laika Come Home (Astralwerks) cd 16.98
This appears to be dub versions of tracks from the Gorillaz record. Said outfit, you will recall, is a project of AQ-pal Dan the Automator (Dr. Octagon, Deltron 3030) with main guests Damon Albarn (Blur), Miho Hatori etc. Bearing little resemblance to the original Gorillaz album, or indeed its other, first remix record spinoff, all vestiges of rock and hip hop are stripped away in order for the bass to get heavier, the vocals to get echo-ier, the pace to slow down. As dub, it's decent, if a trifle formulaic. Melodica, horns, organs, even a flute round out the sound. This is my favorite of the Gorillaz-related projects.
RealAudio clip: "19/2000 (Jungle Fresh)"
RealAudio clip: "Starshine (Dub 09)"

JAWBREAKER Etc. (Blackball) cd 13.98
The demise of this awesome punk pop group broke many hearts. And though you thought you'd heard everything that they recorded, thankfully there is more. A plethora of b-sides, compilation tracks, and unreleased songs from 1988-1995 collected together on this long-awaited cd released on Jawbreaker drummer Adam Pfahler's Blackball Records. One thing's for certain, they sure did cover a heap of hits in their time: REM, U2, The Psychedelic Furs, The Misfits, and The Vapors.
With super extensive liner notes from the tireless pen of Aaron Cometbus (whose Cometbus Omnibus book is also listed here!) as well as complete release info and cover art, not to mention comments from the band members themselves.
RealAudio clip: "Equalized"
RealAudio clip: "Caroline"
RealAudio clip: "Gutless"

JAWBREAKER Etc. (Blackball) lp 15.98
The demise of this awesome punk pop group broke many hearts. And though you thought you'd heard everything that they recorded, thankfully there is more. A plethora of b-sides, compilation tracks, and unreleased songs from 1988-1995 collected together on this long-awaited cd released on Jawbreaker drummer Adam Pfahler's Blackball Records. One thing's for certain, they sure did cover a heap of hits in their time: REM, U2, The Psychedelic Furs, The Misfits, and The Vapors.
With super extensive liner notes from the tireless pen of Aaron Cometbus (whose Cometbus Omnibus book is also listed here!) as well as complete release info and cover art, not to mention comments from the band members themselves.
RealAudio clip: "Equalized"
RealAudio clip: "Caroline"
RealAudio clip: "Gutless"

KEUHKOT Peruskivi Francon Betonia (Ektro) cd 14.98
Keuhkot (lungs in Finnish) is Kake Puhuu. A one man band /art installation / travelling circus / raving lunatic. Kake plays everything: basses, drums, flutes, kimbara, ud-luth (?), samples, sequences, recordings and vocals. As well as appearing multiple times in his videos and photos (which consist of wastelands and wild sculptural gardens inhabited by 4, 5 sometimes even 10 Kake Puhuus!) This is the first Keuhkot record on Jussi from Circle's Ektro label and it is pretty amazing. Some kind of wild junkyard gypsy music, equal parts Birthday Party, Pussy Galore, Cop Shoot Cop, The Three Tenors, Devo, Finnish folk, circus music, looped/sampled electronica, all with Kake's distinctive Tom Waits-ish growl over the top. Wild percussion, hypnotic rhythms, sinister bass loops, growled spoken word passages, crashing waves, rattling spray paint cans, calliope-like melodies, chanted vocals, and groovy almost-exotica, all taken in directions you would never expect. Weird and wonderful, bizarre and beautiful. Is there no end to the musical bounty Finland has to offer? We're beginning to think not.
RealAudio clip: "Pois Zagorasta"
RealAudio clip: "Syksyn Kirjasatoa"
RealAudio clip: "MaanKaytto (a. Suunittelu b. Toteutus)"

MARK, CAROLYN & THE ROOM-MATES Terrible Hostess (Mint) cd 14.98
I can assure you that the title is by no means auto-biographical. Ms Carolyn is the lovely hostess with the most-est. Talk about a party girl! She along with her room-mates Tolan and Garth surely whip everyone else up into the mirthful merriment. Each on his or her own possesses a down to earth ease at entertaining that's something to behold, and together? Well, let's just say "get ready for the good times." Some of the best storytelling stage banter around. Her second album makes leaps and bounds from where her rough'n'tumble debut Party Girl left off. For one thing it's all studio recorded as opposed to her more lo-fi, song-in-every-city-across-Canada-in-a-Honda adventure. Since that album, she's performed a whole bunch in an ever-expanding range of venues and continued to play in the Corn Sisters with her good pal Neko Case (who, by the way, wrote a song about her - "Karoline" - on The Virginian). A much more polished, sophisticated lady who can still whoop it up and whomp yer butt! Much like fellow Canadian k.d. lang (yeah I know, aren't all Canadian female country artists compared to her?), she's able to slip gracefully from down home hillbilly stomp to elegant torch balladry and back again with nary a false step. This is most apparent on a particular three song stretch on this album ("Dirty Little Secret" through "Catscan"). With its warm horns, piano recorded in an old church across the street from the studio, a male chorus, there's an ever-present old tyme feel, bringing to mind the stage of the Grand Old Opry with its dapper gents and bouffanted ladies. The duet vocal interplay on "Catscan" rings with a fond familiarity much like that of George Jones and Tammy Wynette or Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty. Very nice!
RealAudio clip: "Dirty Little Secret"
RealAudio clip: "Inevitable"
RealAudio clip: "Catscan"

MESHUGGAH Nothing (Nuclear Blast) cd 13.98
If you are already a fan of Meshuggah (and why wouldn't you be) then the main question you probably have with their long awaited new record would be, how could they ever top Chaosphere. Well, the answer is simple. They couldn't. Or can't. This is nowhere as good as Chaosphere. But that said, Nothing is a wicked slice of hyper-technical /extremely fucked / rhythmically confusing death metal. Not sure if their recent stint on the Ozzfest and their favor with Jack Osbourne is the cause for the occasional nu-metalisms, but those minor hiccups are only a slight distraction from how fucking unbelievably INSANE this band is. This record is way more midtempo than Chaosphere but there's still plenty of 5/4 and 7/8 and 9/16 to keep all the tech geeks wetting their pants, and totally impossible guitar shredding from axeman Frederik Thornendal to keep the guitar geeks slack-jawed and just enough bounce to keep the nu-metal pit hopping and hopefully, for once, to see a -good- band get some MTV time and some MTV dough. If you aren't already a fan, get Chaosphere and have the way you listen to heavy music changed forever.
RealAudio clip: "Track 1"
RealAudio clip: "Track 2"

MIKEY DREAD World War III (Ernie B) cd 13.98
Our friends over at Ernie B proudly present Mikey Dread's 1981 seminal album World War III. Though Mikey Dread earned a reputation in the mid-seventies Jamaica for being the first DJ in Jamaica (on the Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation station) to play exclusively Jamaican artists, his international renown was sealed in 1980 when he worked with British punk band The Clash on several singles and their triple lp opus Sandinista. Featuring the newly formed Roots Radics band as back up and recorded by Scientist, WWIII is arguably the zenith work for Mikey Dread. Their influence on his work is not nearly as evident as Mikey's was on the Clash, so you won't hear any punk and or rock stylngs here. However, Dread's unique buzzing, nasal voice pierces through the mix with his mesmerizing chants in a way that could almost be described as punk in his own distinctively Jamaican way. The album's production itself is a prime example of the best eighties reggae had to offer: an excellent live studio band -- with some ridiculous great bass tones -- augmented by a plethora of engineering tricks and effects -- including the ubiquitous eighties Star-Trek-like synth explosions -- from Scientist. Along with the original 9 tracks that made up the album Ernie B has included 6 bonus dub tracks from the session. This release is, how you say, crucial.
RealAudio clip: "The Jumping Master"
RealAudio clip: "Mental Slavery"
RealAudio clip: "DATC Masterpiece"

MIKEY DREAD World War III (Dread At The Controls) lp 13.98
Our friends over at Ernie B proudly present Mikey Dread's 1981 seminal album World War III. Though Mikey Dread earned a reputation in the mid-seventies Jamaica for being the first DJ in Jamaica (on the Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation station) to play exclusively Jamaican artists, his international renown was sealed in 1980 when he worked with British punk band The Clash on several singles and their triple lp opus Sandinista. Featuring the newly formed Roots Radics band as back up and recorded by Scientist, WWIII is arguably the zenith work for Mikey Dread. Their influence on his work is not nearly as evident as Mikey's was on the Clash, so you won't hear any punk and or rock stylngs here. However, Dread's unique buzzing, nasal voice pierces through the mix with his mesmerizing chants in a way that could almost be described as punk in his own distinctively Jamaican way. The album's production itself is a prime example of the best eighties reggae had to offer: an excellent live studio band -- with some ridiculous great bass tones -- augmented by a plethora of engineering tricks and effects -- including the ubiquitous eighties Star-Trek-like synth explosions -- from Scientist. Along with the original 9 tracks that made up the album Ernie B has included 6 bonus dub tracks from the session. This release is, how you say, crucial.
RealAudio clip: "The Jumping Master"
RealAudio clip: "Mental Slavery"
RealAudio clip: "DATC Masterpiece"

MITTOO, JACKIE In London (Coxsone) cd 15.98
We've had the vinyl for this floating around for a spell and managed to get the CD in a few wiffins passed, so we thought we'd list them both. In London was recorded by Jackie Mittoo in 1967 (when the keyboardist was at the tender age of 19). Features a plethora of covers, including "Winchester Cathedral", Frank Sinatra's "Something Stupid", Procul Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale", The Beatles "Norwegian Wood" (here titled "Darker Shade of Black") and more, plus five Jackie Mittoo originals and two bonus tracks ("Choice Of Music" & "Hello Studio One") which aren't listed on the tray card. An additional note for those purchasing this disc is that the track listing is wrong, but it's pretty easy to figure out the correct order. Gotta love that Studio 1 copy editing.
RealAudio clip: "Ram Jam"
RealAudio clip: "Darker Shade of Black"

MITTOO, JACKIE In London (Coxsone) lp 13.98
We've had the vinyl for this floating around for a spell and managed to get the CD in a few wiffins passed, so we thought we'd list them both. In London was recorded by Jackie Mittoo in 1967 (when the keyboardist was at the tender age of 19). Features a plethora of covers, including "Winchester Cathedral", Frank Sinatra's "Something Stupid", Procul Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale", The Beatles "Norwegian Wood" (here titled "Darker Shade of Black") and more, plus five Jackie Mittoo originals and two bonus tracks ("Choice Of Music" & "Hello Studio One") which aren't listed on the tray card. An additional note for those purchasing this disc is that the track listing is wrong, but it's pretty easy to figure out the correct order. Gotta love that Studio 1 copy editing.

OLNEYVILLE SOUND SYSTEM Efforts In Freedumb (Hospital / Last Visible Dog) cd 10.98
We were never all that impressed by past Olneyville records. This Rhode Island group features ex-members of Six Finger Satellite and trafficked in repetitive minimal post-rock/funk and always kind of fell flat for us. But on this most recent disc things just really seem to click and we're offered up a thick slab of lo-fi post (f)(p)unk jams, instrumental and droning, repetitive and hypnotic. Think a Lightning Bolt 78 played at 16rpm or a smacked out James Brown jamming with the Starfuckers or better yet ESP weirdos Cromagnon trying to cover This Heat. Check it out.
RealAudio clip: "free dumb"
RealAudio clip: "dunce"

ORTHRELM / TOUCHDOWN Split (Troubleman) cd 12.98
Look out, here's a split release from two off-the-hook instrumental rock duos, Orthrelm and Touchdown. Both bands tend to get described with ridiculous hyper-hyphenated terms like avant-thrash-free-jazz-math-rock.
New Jersey's Orthrelm -- spasmo guitarist extraordinaire Mick Barr (Octis, Quix*o*tic, ex-Crom Tech) and human drum machine Josh Blair -- contribute four tracks of gnarly, twisted stuff with maddeningly fast and convoluted squeaky guitar and hectic stop-start drums, but perhaps more in the way of actual song-structure than on previous outings. Now, probably either you're already an Orthrelm fan (or you can't stand 'em), but this is a fine example of their art for newcomers and fans alike.
Touchdown, from nearby Brooklyn, are a two-piece a la Orthrelm, but with bass instead of guitar. Their nine songs here represent their recorded debut. They do sound a lot like what you'll hear earlier in the disc from Orthrelm, but with the high-end guitar replaced by equally busy low-end bass (which makes 'em sound a bit Ruins-like). Short-attention-span post-hardcore madness to massage your brain and bother your housemates. If this split was a contest, I'd have to award the prize to Orthrelm, for their more metallic, more manic, totally fucked attack, but that's just me. Do you like insects buzzing in your ear?
RealAudio clip: ORTHRELM "track two"
RealAudio clip: TOUCHDOWN "Low Pressure Storm System"

ORTON, BETH Daybreaker (Heavenly / Astralwerks) cd 17.98
I bet a lot of you probably think it's kind of weird that I (Andee) love Beth Orton. And weird it may be, but I do. I enjoy Beth Orton as much as I enjoy Darkthrone or Sixteen Horsepower or the Stereo or Philip Jeck. Not that you should be expecting any blast beats or skipping records (well, maybe skipping records) on this record, but this stuff is great and I LIKE IT. And I know this defensive approach doesn't necessarily make sense to most people, since most people -do- like Beth Orton, and all sorts of MTV tracks, and stuff that gets played on the radio, but a lot of folks with wilder tastes and some of our customers who may only buy records of shortwave radio transmissions or croaking frogs or church-burning blasting black metal and who maybe don't look too far outside of their favorite genre might just be missing out. Beth Orton has a gorgeous, slinky, sultry voice. Deep and brassy like Nina Simone crossed with Bjork crossed with Janis Joplin. All smooth but strong enough to knock you on your ass. And the arrangements are great too, all stripped down folk, run through the hands of various producers resulting in some sort of 21st century electronic folk. Bleeps and blips and sequenced drum machines and samples and drum loops are woven into a deep dreamy musical tapestry, topped off with that amzing voice. Not sure if I like this as much as her last one Central Reservation ('Stolen Car' is still one of the greatest songs) but it's quickly growing on me. Sure it's commercial, sure it's mainstream, so the fuck what!? A great record.
RealAudio clip: "Paris Train"
RealAudio clip: "Mount Washington"
RealAudio clip: "God Song"
RealAudio clip: "Concrete Sky"

REINHARDT, DJANGO Djangology (Bluebird / RCA Victor) cd 16.98
This 1949 album saw legendary seven-fingered Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt reuniting for a recording with also-legendary jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli for the first time since World War II broke up their Paris-based combo, the (yep) legendary Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Recorded in Rome with some not-so-notable Italian sidemen four years before Django's death in 1953, it's bebop influenced, although not Django's Les-Paul-inspired interest in electric guitar (he plays an acoustic here, as per his pre war habit). A nice digipak reissue, with lots of informative liner notes, and versions of Django faves from "Heavy Artillery" to "Djangology" to "Swing 42". 23 tracks total. A record collection -- let alone a jazz collection -- without any Django Reinhardt is sadly lacking, and this is a fine demonstration of his immense, shining talent.
RealAudio clip: "Djangology"

RJD2 Deadringer (Definitive Jux) cd 17.98
You know anything on Def Jux is gonna -sound- good. Obviously, with El-P producing, you're guatanteed ultra clever samples, big + weirdly funky beats and just overall awesome and completely original production. So what do we get with a record on Def Jux produced by someone else? Thankfully it seems that RJD2 is a faithful disciple of the mighty El-P, taking all his tricks, but giving them some personal flavor and using them to craft actual songs instead of looping tracks for rappers to flow over. A lot less hip hop and a little more R+B. DJ Shadow comes to mind. An now that I think about it, 'Deadringer' sounds like the record Shadow should have made instead of the disappointing 'The Private Press'. Track one is a James Bond interplanetary chase scene theme, with swinging sixties horns and big bursts of brass. Why the hell didn't they get RJD2 for the new Bond movie instead of Madonna. Ugh. Anyway, after a brief intro, track three comes in with swelling strings and minor key piano, under a slowed down soul classic, again recalling Shadow at his best. Melancholy piano break downs, all moody and sultry, smoky and funky as hell. Track four is another transformed Northern soul tune turned into a funky big beat epic. And it goes on and on from there. There are occasional guests, vocalising or rapping, but overall, the music stands on its own. Totally great. Fans of DJ Shadow, Cannibal Ox, U.N.K.L.E., DJ Vadim and the like NEED this.
RealAudio clip: "smoke & mirrors"
RealAudio clip: "the horror"
RealAudio clip: "good times roll pt.2"

RJD2 Deadringer (Definitive Jux) 2lp 17.98
You know anything on Def Jux is gonna -sound- good. Obviously, with El-P producing, you're guatanteed ultra clever samples, big + weirdly funky beats and just overall awesome and completely original production. So what do we get with a record on Def Jux produced by someone else? Thankfully it seems that RJD2 is a faithful disciple of the mighty El-P, taking all his tricks, but giving them some personal flavor and using them to craft actual songs instead of looping tracks for rappers to flow over. A lot less hip hop and a little more R+B. DJ Shadow comes to mind. An now that I think about it, 'Deadringer' sounds like the record Shadow should have made instead of the disappointing 'The Private Press'. Track one is a James Bond interplanetary chase scene theme, with swinging sixties horns and big bursts of brass. Why the hell didn't they get RJD2 for the new Bond movie instead of Madonna. Ugh. Anyway, after a brief intro, track three comes in with swelling strings and minor key piano, under a slowed down soul classic, again recalling Shadow at his best. Melancholy piano break downs, all moody and sultry, smoky and funky as hell. Track four is another transformed Northern soul tune turned into a funky big beat epic. And it goes on and on from there. There are occasional guests, vocalising or rapping, but overall, the music stands on its own. Totally great. Fans of DJ Shadow, Cannibal Ox, U.N.K.L.E., DJ Vadim and the like NEED this.

SCHAEFER, JANEK Le Petit Theatre De Mercelis (Audiosphere) cd 15.98
The third in this series of beautifully but annoyingly (according to several AQ-ers) packaged cds features AQ fave Janek Schaefer (the first two volumes featured Philip Jeck / Otomo Yoshihide / Martin Tetreault and Mika Vainio / Christian Fennesz). Recorded live in Brussels in April, 'Le Petit Theatre...' finds Schaefer in a mellow mood. And sounding not a little bit like Philip Jeck. Less looped sounding than Jeck, but still painting similarly sepia toned, fuzzy and murky soundscapes, with fluttering record crackle, low end thrum, warbly distant melodies, and dreamy gauzy atmospheres created out of layers and layers of rumble and hiss and whir and hum. This fifty minute track veers lazily from ominous dark ambient to free-drone to noisy clatter but always returns to the tranquil turntablescapes that we all find so damn irresistible. Probably one of my favorite Schaefer records so far!
RealAudio clip: "le petit theatre de mercelis [excerpt 1]"
RealAudio clip: "le petit theatre de mercelis [excerpt 2]"
RealAudio clip: "le petit theatre de mercelis [excerpt 3]"

SCIENTIST Meets The Space Invaders (Greensleeves) lp 12.98
Yet another installment of Scientist-as-superhero LPs has arrived at Aquarius. Here's the skinny once again: Greensleeves finally gets off their duffs and reissues their classic Scientist dub LPs that have been floating around in various bootleg editions for ages now. Not only are they decent pressings, but they're pretty competitively priced to boot (the unsavory LP edition of "Wins The World Cup" that we had had in previously retailed for the same price as these.) Plus, you get the original artwork in all its heroic cartoon glory (possibly some of the greatest album cover art to come out of Jamaica - much of the time it seems people will buy them for cover alone.) With these handsome new editions there's really no reason to own the CD version anymore unless you no longer own a turntable (we do have all these Scientist albums available on CD as well for those who lack vinylability) and there's certainly no reason to waste good money on bootlegs. Let's hope that Greensleeves keeps these things in print for a while this time. The albums in this series are composed of tracks recorded by the Roots Radics band at Channel 1 between 1981 and 1982 which were later mixed by Scientist at King Tubby's.
The dubs on these LPs reside on the very minimal side of the dub spectrum. Not much in the way of additional tracking was done for these records aside from percussion. The rest of the crafting is done by the Scientist behind the mixing board chopping up the tracks, recklessly sliding faders and pouring tons of delay and reverb atop the mix.
Cover note: The Scientist wields not one, but two laser pistols while simultaneously kicking and shooting those pesky Space Invaders as onlookers run for cover. Meanwhile, a brave female accomplice takes out a big purple invader with a laser rifle. On the back cover is a cute drawing of a stand up video game console cum mixing board with the album's credits displayed on its screen.
RealAudio clip: "Beam Down"