MICHEL, NATHAN ABC DEF (Tigerbeat 6) cd 13.98
Another member of the Tigerbeat6 family. Whimsical laptop glitchery making use of beeping toy sounds. Not sure what else to say. Nice, cute, catchy and fun.
RealAudio clip: "Pound Louder"

MONOS Nightfall Sunshine (Die Stadt) cd 17.98
In the aftermath of the drone/ambient sound project Ora's breakup a couple of years back, all of the principle voices from that loose British collective have been producing an amazing array of translations of the drone through a variety of improvisations, field recordings, and electronic synthesis. Monos is the project of Darren Tate and Colin Potter, both of whom worked extensively in Ora as Tate collected field recordings for the group and Potter provided his engineering prowess which has also been employed by Nurse With Wound and Current 93. While the two have produced about a half dozen or so super limited CD-Rs as Monos and Dada Lives, "Nighfall Sunshine" is only the second proper CD release for the duo; and is the furthest the two have ventured into pure electronic synthesis. If the field recording is the source material for this album, Tate and Potter have almost completely eradicated the references to natural sounds with only a few instances of bird songs, night-time crickets, and rustling leaves emerging on the album. It's more likely that "Nightfall Sunshine" is the work of Tate and Potter tinkering with the huge arsenal of electronic gear that Potter has been storing up in his York studio for years. The resultant fluttering mirages of electronic warbling, sweeping parametric filtering, tremolo percolations, and atonal clusters make for a cold album of paranoid, sci-fi references not unlike the bleakest computer music from the '60s.
RealAudio clip: "Intro"
RealAudio clip: "Moon Environment"
RealAudio clip: "Sunrise"

NIGHTMARES ON WAX Mind Elevation (Warp) 2cd 19.98
Oh man, why isn't Nightmares on Wax totally famous? This is the most "radio ready" of NOW's albums thus far, which in lesser hands could be a turnoff or a disaster... yet I find this record utterly entrancing. It's just so good, a nicely executed take on KMEL-style R&B, albeit *super* stripped down but still complete with diva vocals, hip hop flavor, and a slowed up pace. Super pretty, hook-filled chord progressions -- articulated via pastoral basslines and blunted, easygoing beats -- dominate practically every song here. Occasional excursions into dub and 'trip hop' are similarly well-handled. It's all very accessible and unassuming, with no weird juxtapositions or noisiness to interrupt the reverie you'll fall into while listening. And that's a good thing, mind you -- this isn't sonic wallpaper. I can't remember the last time I liked a "downtempo" record, with no 'difficult' IDM affectations, this much! Maybe that Kid Loco album, A Grand Love Story... Highly recommended!!!
The first 10,000 copies have a free extra disc which features Mr Nightmares on Wax himself, George Evelyn, a.k.a. E.A.S.E., mixing older NoW tracks.

RealAudio clip: "Know My Name"
RealAudio clip: "Date with Destiny"
RealAudio clip: "Thinking of Omara"

NISHINIHON s/t (Resonant) 2lp 21.00
We listed the cd version of this Acid Mothers Temple side project's album back on list #113, but it's been unavailable in that format for some time. Thankfully for all you AMT/Kawabata Makoto fiends out there, Resonant has seen fit to reissue this silly hard rock power trio's album in a fancy gatefold double vinyl format, with side D consisting of two live bonus tracks not found on the original compact disc: "Are You Lady?" and the essential "The Undertaker Is Tombstone Maker" (essential for WWE fans, especially). Here's what we wrote on list #113:
Freaked out Japanese hard rock supergroup, a '70s inspired power trio featuring the talents of million-notes-per-second, whammy-bar-crazy guitarist Kawabata Makoto (of Acid Mothers Temple, Musica Transonic, Mainliner, Toho Sara, etc. etc.), bassist/vocalist Tsuyama Atsushi (AMT, Omoide Hatoba, Akaten, etc. etc.) and drummer Ichiraku Yoshimitsu (known for his work in the more experimental/electronic realm, with Otomo Yoshihide's I.S.O., and I'm sure much else). Although they want to sound like Cream or Blue Cheer or Led Zeppelin (there's a track titled "Let's Zepplin'") they're way more silly and noisy and spastic and insane-on-drugs sounding than those bands. They're less song-based, although they do run the whole spectrum of psychedelic improv rock from wild, wooly distortion fests to some mellower melodic jams. They just played a not-so-well publicized show here in San Francisco (last night, as I write this, and I'm still a little deaf) and they were impressive: by the end of the set I don't think Kawabata had more than one string left on his guitar, and drummer Yoshimitsu was entirely sweat-soaked. Along with the energy/volume level, the humor/weirdness quotient was high, with Atsushi's always weird vocal stylings (throat warbles, falsetto highs, not your typical '70s rock delivery). Also, they apparently have a strange obession with pro wrestling (they played a song about The Undertaker, and Makoto was clad in a Stone Cold Steve Austin t-shirt)! As the dozens of projects that have been spawned by the Acid Mothers Temple camp go, this is a good dumb fun one, to play loud.
The Undertaker song mentioned above is of course now found on the LP as the bonus track mentioned even further above. While we can't say that Nishinihon is one of the truly amazing, must-have artifacts of the Acid Mothers Temple's creative continuum, we know that it will appeal to some fans for sure.
RealAudio clip: "Hoos The Fuk That Et That Rest O Man Schoo"
RealAudio clip: "Let's Zeppelin'"
RealAudio clip: "Mystery-Dead Breaker"

OH-OK The Complete Recordings (Collector's Choice) cd 16.98
First appearance on cd, methinks, for this winsome Athens, GA quartet who made music between '81 and '84. Led by Lynda Stipe (yep, Michael's sister), Oh-OK employed singsong two-girl vocals, minimal yet interesting drumming, Lynda's rubbery, super catchy bass lines bouncing along at a cheerful pace, and a simple, off-the-cuff stripped down sound. Way ahead of their time, they should properly be mentioned in the same breath as their contemporaries The Pastels, Young Marble Giants, The Raincoats, etc. (They were quite a bit sweeter than YMG and Raincoats, mind you.) Features their entire recorded output -- a mere two EPs -- plus a whopping 13 extra live tracks of songs they never got around to recording (including Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer", which they remake in their own 'girls in the garage' style). All in all a nice, overdue package, with liner notes by Christgau, clippings 'n reviews, and produced by AQ fave customer and Perfect Sound Forever editor Jason Gross.
RealAudio clip: "Such N Such"
RealAudio clip: "Lilting"

OMIT Rejector (SySecular) cd-r 9.98
Through his DeepSkin imprint, the hermetic New Zealander Clinton Williams has released dozens of cassettes as Omit, housed in his obtuse artwork of bizzare post-Dali monsterisms and awkward geometric shapes. Due to the absence of Williams' artwork on this CD-R production of "Rejector," SySecular doesn't apppear to be the CD-R extention of the Deep Skin cassette catalogue. As Omit's work for haunted synth / loop constructions are incredibly well-executed and sublimely creepy, it's a shame that "Rejector" has only received CD-R status; regardless it's a more accessible format than the nearly-obsolete cassette. Omit's work has clear predecessors in '70s Kraut synthesists like Conrad Schnitzler, Kluster, and early Tangerine Dream; yet his apparently sinister intentions and sci-fi isolationism push his productions closer to the sounds of mid '80s Nurse With Wound (i.e. "Homotopy To Marie") and Zoviet France (i.e. "Mohnomische"). His work uses some amazingly simple techniques of counterpointed tape loops (crackling wood, creaking doors, down-pitched tape splice clicks, etc.) that warble in and out of phase with each other, while dark synth drones swell in and out of the mix to form slowly developed two or three note melodies. As with all of the Omit recordings, "Rejector" comes highly recommended! Super limited too, so don't dawdle.
RealAudio clip: "Full Relay"
RealAudio clip: "Divider"
RealAudio clip: "Rejector"

PATTERN, THE Real Feelness (Lookout) cd 14.98
In the year of the Strokes and the Vines and the Hives, here is our own local 'where the hell did they come from' wonders. They played the Reading festival, are huge in Europe and are on the lips of all in the hipster retro know. They have that 70's New York / Detroit sleaze rock sound, with the snotty vocals and the relatively rad guitar sound. Apparently influenced by Richard Hell, The Stooges etc. but with a soul flare. All veterans of rock, coming from the likes of The Peechees (vocalist Christopher), Talk Is Poison (drummer Jim), Saint James Infirmary (guitarist Jason), Nuisance (guitarist Andy) and The Cuts. Cool.
RealAudio clip: "Fragile Awareness"
RealAudio clip: "Nothing Of Value"

PIMMON I Left My Heart... (self-released) cd-r 9.98
We got a handful of this handmade, limited edtion Pimmon CD-R from Paul Gough himself, who has packaged it in two pieces of printed cardstock mounted together with two oversized circles of soft foam. An unusual design solution, but an effective one, nonetheless. Musically, "I Left My Heart" finds Pimmon deliberately contrasting elegant digital looped constructions with the ugliness of spluttering noise and sonic errata. The glitch is certainly present within Pimmon's work, but its application is more of the negation of sound rather than its textural addition as thousands of miniature drop-outs degraded Pimmon's chunked samples. Pimmon densely packs his computerized compositions with overlapping layers of sound, giving the impression that his music is a digitized kaleidoscope with harshly fractalized patterns and sublime rhythmic pulses moving in a complexly choreographed motion with each layer travelling at algorithmically variable speeds. It's possible that we might be able to get a couple more of these, but in all likelihood when these few copies are gone... they're gone!
RealAudio clip: "Fragment Meladique"
RealAudio clip: "Henson Park Blues"

POLWECHSEL FENNESZ Wrapped Islands (Erstwhile) cd 14.98
Everyone's favorite Austrian guitar-gone-electronica experimentalist Christian Fennesz again shows up on a release wherein he dabbles in the European free improv scene. So if you are buying this album simply because Fennesz is involved, you might be in for a surprise, as his contribution in collaborating with the New Music / Improv Jazz ensemble Polwechsel is only part of the whole, and it's hard to tell who's doing what -- Fennesz isn't the only one on hand operating electronics, computer, or a guitar. Polwechsel is the quartet of John Butcher (saxophone), Werner Dafeldecker (double bass, guitar, computer), Michael Moser (cello, computer), and Burkard Stangl (guitar, electronics) who have been exploring free improvisation and composition based around the European models of jazz for nearly a decade now. Fennesz, with computer, synth, and acoustic guitar, joined this quartet for a three day recording session in January of 2002. The results: a quiet, slow evolution of sound within the tonal parameters of the instruments in question, with bits of granular synthesis and timestretched, glitchy samples situated in the background. The dynamics of this album come from the spartan 'solos' taken by each of the players. These are not freak-outs by any mean, but delicate scrapes across the stringed instruments or a bleak tentative bleats from the saxophones. Quite subtle, and nice.
RealAudio clip: "Framing 2"
RealAudio clip: "Framing 3"

QUAILS, THE Atmosphere + (Inconvenient) cd 11.98
The kids love this energetic San Francisco trio, who have recently been seen touring about with Erase Errata and Sleater Kinney. And Sleater-Kinney comparisons, while sometimes arising out of a reviewer's lack of familiarity with a broad range of female oriented post punk sounds, are relevant here to describe The Quails girl-girl-boy vocal interchanges. At points, the heavily affected vocal stylings make us here put our hands over our collective ears, although "Atmosphere" is definitely not as ouch! as their testicle liberation opera "Bon Soir." If you do dig the vocals, or at least don't mind them, you'll have a great time getting down to their highly accessible, poppy take on the arty punk thang.
RealAudio clip: "Riding The 5"
RealAudio clip: "Soon The Rest Will Fall"

REDD KROSS Born Innocent (Frontier) cd 13.98
The debut record from one of my (Andee) all time favorite bands. This record is soooo great. For lots of different reasons, not the least being that they were all of 13 or 14 years old when they recorded it. Damn. When I was 13, I was watching cartoons and eating mac and cheese, not tearing up the Sunset Strip and playing in a kick ass punk rock band. And punk rock this is. While there are hints of the pop geniuses they were to become, 'Born Innocent' is mostly trashy, glammy, noise-y, bratty fun. And boy is it fun! From the almost punk rock jig of 'Pseudo Intellectual', to the shredding 'Linda Blair', the McDonald brothers prove that even at 13 they could rock with the big boys!
RealAudio clip: "Linda Blair"
RealAudio clip: "Pseudo Intellectual"

REYNOLS Pacalirte Sorban Cumanos (Beta-lactam Ring) cd 10.98
For some reason, this 'real' cd Reynols disc is cheaper than the cd-r albums of theirs we listed not long ago. Maybe 'cause it's domestic, not an Argentine import? No matter what, you're always getting a deal, 'cause we're convinced that this Reynols stuff is in fact priceless. Now, there's essentially two types of Reynols records: the 'rock' albums (like "------" and the Reynols/No Reynols double cd) and the conceptual ones (like "Blank Tapes" and the "10,000 Chickens" 7"). This new disc falls into the 'rock' camp, such as it is: damaged, monomaniacal drumming, psychedelic, noisy guitar jamming, and of course Reynols' frontman Miguel Tomasin's otherworldy, shamanistic vocals. Good stuff, in other words.
As the first track of this 50-minute journey begins, you're lost somewhere, in a tunnel or cavern. There's an ambient rumbling sound, and some haunting, echoed cries from Miguel. Then, with track two the distorted rock n' roll drone kicks in, all heavy-like, building in noisy intensity until track 3 interrupts the storm with a calmer, mantric mood, only to be interrupted itself with more fierce feedback guitar at the four and a half minute mark. Other songs feature Hare Krishna -worthy warbling chant, acoustic strum, and rattling hand percussion, as well as more of their primitive psych rock dementia. From simple, vocal-led tracks of trancey emptiness to guitar-based fuzzed-out chaos, the results are only enhanced by the raw, reverby production. Reynols is always strange, and strangely compelling, appealing to us in sort of the same way that much of the music of Keiji Haino does. Listening to Reynols isn't just about enjoying some weird songs, it's about taking a trip into their world and trying to see and hear things the way Miguel and his compatriots do. These are field recordings from inside their minds.
RealAudio clip: "Agrando Disa"
RealAudio clip: "7 apolca baluba"
RealAudio clip: "Trilo Pampeho"
RealAudio clip: "Camio Flatdas"

SADIES, THE Tremendous Effort (Bloodshot) cd 14.98
These lanky Canadians have been known to assume the form of Neko Case's backing band The Boyfriends, and actually Dallas Good's tingly reverb-laden guitar stylings can also be heard on her new album Blacklisted. However, The Sadies are so much more than that! Kicking up the dust with this their third full length (the follow-up to 1999's excellent Pure Diamond Gold), they continue to unfurl their particular sonic blend: the sinewy twang of spaghetti western soundtracks, the more epic Morricone grandeur, the rawness of garage surf rock, the whisky-soaked, careening, hillbilly barn burners, and the smouldering, intense murder balladry (Dallas alone cuts a very striking, lean 'n' suave Nick Cave-esque silhouette). They do each of these styles so well that they could just stick with one and be quite impressive, but no, that's not what The Sadies have in mind. That said, they definitely don't shift gears as radically from one song to the next as much as they used to, this album is much more cohesive. And yet even still, their musical pendulum's swing shears a distinct and refreshing path through the predominantly 'alt-country' Bloodshot Records roster. Very cool!

RealAudio clip: "Empty The Chamber"
RealAudio clip: "The Last of the Good"
RealAudio clip: "Flash"

SENKING Forge (Raster) cd 12.98
Continuing his reconstructions of electro found on his previous releases from Raster and Karaoke Kalk, Jens Massel (aka Senking) digitally sanitizes what could easily be vinyl surface noise into elegant post-techno pulsations that are not unlike Pan Sonic's pioneering "Vakio" album. These rhythms with their clusters of pinprick glitchiness relentlessly clatter through out the short 26 minute program, whilst Massel builds feedback tones that shift in density, aggressiveness, and volume. As a whole, the shortened 26 minute program screeches up to a tense crescendo, plunges down to static minimalims, and rebounds through submariner ambience, all the while maintaining a continuous mix of variable rhythms. Quite nice.
Released as a part of the new "Raster-Post" series housed in nice silkscreened, fold-out cardstock folder and bound with an elastic band.

RealAudio clip: "Forge 1"
RealAudio clip: "Forge 2"

SKEPTICISM Stormcrowfleet (Red Stream) cd 11.98
Here's one of those crucial, seminal recordings that somehow (probably 'cause we were much less thorough about these things at the time of its release) never made it into our on-line catalog. Yet we often make reference to it, and have recommended other, subsequent albums by the band, including the recently-released "The Process Of Farmakon" cdep reviewed on list #142.
Happily, Red Stream has just reissued this album, the debut from Finnish doom-lords Skepticism, after some time out of print, and we now have a chance to list it for the first time! Originally issued in 1995, this 2002 version has been (slightly) redesigned graphics-wise but contains the same immense sonic slabs of funereal doom-trudge metal that so awed us seven years back. We hail this album as the ultimate "black-metal-meets-Labradford" listening experience. Totally morose, depressive, atmospheric ambience in heavy dirge death metal mode, with melodies to crush your soul. Medieval organ-like keyboards give this a grim, churchly air, and of course it sounds like it was recorded with the microphones quite distant from the instruments/amps, possibly in a nearby forest.
If like other Skepticism albums and/or are a fan of the likes of Esoteric, Thergothon, Shape Of Despair, Corrupted, Evoken, Burzum's "Filosofem", and other sad and gloomy things, you MUST OWN THIS. 'Nuff said.
RealAudio clip: "Sign Of A Storm"
RealAudio clip: "By Silent Wings"

SLEEP Sleep's Holy Mountain (Earache) lp 17.98
Vinyl reissue of this classic from the Bay area's own sludge/doomer/stoner kings, S L E E P! No longer will you have to pay $100 for this puppy on EBAY. This is thick, colored vinyl, in the original lyric sleeve and an exact reproduction of the original cover. And this shit is HEAVY! Dirge-y, cannabis fueled excursions into the dark realm, Sabbathy riffs, pounding devil drum percussion, and a wailing howl over it all. If you don't already have this, what the hell is wrong with you?! Fans of Corrupted, Boris, stoner rock, sludge, doom, and all that sort of stuff, catch the hell up!! "Sleep's Holy Mountain" was this so-Sabbathy bands MOST Sabbath-like release, almost too close for comfort -- we're not convinced that Tony and Geezer didn't actually write this stuff!! Wow.

SMOAK, JIM & THE LOUISIANA HONEYDRIPPERS Bayou Bluegrass (Arhoolie) cd 11.98
Arhoolie has finally got round to reissuing this fine bluegrass album (originally released in 1961), and with four additional tracks that weren't included on the original LP release. Though the group's name and the album's title imply a cajun infused bluegrass sound, in truth Jim Smoak's bluegrass is a lot closer to its Kentucky origins in sound than Louisiana (Smoak himself was born and raised in South Carolina.) What the tracks lack in the traditional gospel derived vocal harmonization is made up in spades with variations on traditional old-timey and good humored numbers like "Kissin' Cousins", "Old Dan Tucker" ("...was a fine old man, washed his face in a frying pan"), "Whoah, Mule, Woah" and more. I wouldn't typify this as solemn or high-lonesome, but rather high powered and light hearted bluegrass with a strong connection to the early string band and minstrelsy of J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers or Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers. Jim Smoak was one hell of a banjo player who played not only in Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in the early fifties, but was hired by Earl Scruggs to play for Hylo Brown, who Earl was managing at the time. And there's not a better pair of personal recommendations for a bluegrass banjo player to have on his resume than that. And Smoak's playing, though certainly informed by Scrugg's innovative style was by no means a mere copy. The old-timey / bluegrass blend that was a big part of the Louisiana Honeydrippers' sound was a perfect place for Jim Smoak's playing style which utilized a faux-clawhammer picking for rhythm backup when not soloing, with some of the strongest Scruggs' style picking you're likely ever to hear and emphasized with heavy downstroke thumb strumming. Some of the melodies Smoak brings out to the fore from his arpeggios seem almost certain to break the strings right off the banjo, and yet his solos sound smooth as silk, not clunky and overdone. At times it's like listening to a bluegrass banjo player on crystal meth.
RealAudio clip: "Old Dan Tucker"
RealAudio clip: "Woah, Mule, Woah"
RealAudio clip: "Hop Light, Ladies"

SPECTRE FEATURING SENSATIONAL Parts Unknown (Quatermass) cd 15.98
Perennial AQ-staff fave Spectre (otherwise known as WordSound label honcho Skiz Fernando) has wisely left his tried and true formula alone, and thus come up with a fourth full length of scary, incredibly dark and heavy dub. I can't think of anyone this good that is this, well, apocalyptic about it. Scary scary stuff. Where's my mommy? Mostly instrumental, although four awesome tracks include guest rapper Sensational. Pling plong random piano, noir film brass samples, grunts, alarms, arpeggiated strings. Must be heard to be believed.
RealAudio clip: "Four Hoursemen (w/Teledubgnosis)"
RealAudio clip: "Bassick"
RealAudio clip: "Skrippin'"
RealAudio clip: "Heist"

SPECTRE FEATURING SENSATIONAL Parts Unknown (Quatermass) lp 12.98
Perennial AQ-staff fave Spectre (otherwise known as WordSound label honcho Skiz Fernando) has wisely left his tried and true formula alone, and thus come up with a fourth full length of scary, incredibly dark and heavy dub. I can't think of anyone this good that is this, well, apocalyptic about it. Scary scary stuff. Where's my mommy? Mostly instrumental, although four awesome tracks include guest rapper Sensational. Pling plong random piano, noir film brass samples, grunts, alarms, arpeggiated strings. Must be heard to be believed.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS Dial-A-Song: 20 Years of... (Rhino) 2cd 28.00
Despite the title, this is NOT a complete compilation of the two Johns' Dial-A-Song answering machine genius. Bummer! I mean, sure, they let us know in the liner notes that almost each of the songs here originated as a dial-a-song, but that's just not the same. Hold your horses though 'cause what this two cd set is is a gigantic, stellar collection of They Might Be Giants' best to commemorate their 20th year together! Bonanza! They kick it all off with a triple whammy of "Birdhouse In Your Soul," "Ana Ng," and "Don't Let's Stop", but the running order of the songs from there on is somewhat puzzling. Seems to be just a big jumble. Definitely not chronological nor alphabetical, but it does come with a hefty booklet filled with photos, discography, lyrics, and band-written essays - all laid out phonebook style. There's 52 songs in all including a handful of live versions as well as their contributions to the television and movie world (for Austin Powers and Malcolm In The Middle respectively). A genuine TMBG fan undoubtably already owns a copy (or two) of each of the albums from which 95% of these songs come, but then again, a genuine TMBG fan is also undoubtably a completist so.... TMBG fan or not, if you like finely crafted eclectic, eccentric pop, this is splendid!
RealAudio clip: "Birdhouse In Your Soul"
RealAudio clip: "Minimum Wage"
RealAudio clip: "New York City"
RealAudio clip: "Dr. Evil"

THULSA DOOM She Fucks Me (This Dark Reign) cd 11.98
You like that so-called stoner rock? You like them Queens of the Stone Age? Then pay attention: Norway's Thulsa Doom boys are back with a follow-up to their fine "The Seats Are Soft But the Helmet Is Way Too Tight" full-length. The five songs on this not-quite twenty minute cdep are perhaps even better than those on their undeniably rockin' debut (though with less harmonica). We're talking quality stuff here: heavy, catchy, kick-ass songs with fat, fuzzy guitar sounds and odd, gotta-think-about-'em lyrics (try "Cities After Cheese" for a song title/concept). You can't throw a stone anywhere in Scandinavia without hitting a stoner rock band, but please don't throw it at these guys, 'cause they're freakin' good! We're reminded of Thin Lizzy (a bit 'cause of singer Papa Doom's vocal style), the kick-out-the-jams garage rock of the Hellacopters and their ilk, and, we'll stress again, the BIG GUITARS and pop smarts of the aforementioned Queens Of The Stone Age (and Kyuss too of course). Unlike that new Queens album, though (as good as it is) this is all killer, no filler, no messing around with in-jokes and so forth -- indeed, sometimes eps are better than full albums 'cause you can really get into each song, and they're all pretty great on this lil' disc. Destined for big things, if the world was fair (which it ain't, but we'll still keep rootin' for Thulsa Doom).
RealAudio clip: "Birthday Pony"
RealAudio clip: "Cities After Cheese"

TIETCHENS, ASMUS Leuchtidioten (Die Stadt) 10" 15.98
In what looks to be the beginning of an onslaught of Asmus Tietchens' archival recordings from Die Stadt (who will be releasing 18 of Tietchens early LPs on CD), comes "Leuchtidioten", featuring two tracks that were recorded during the 'Teilmengen' sessions which resulted in the "a-Menge," "b-Menge," and "g-Menge" albums on Mille Plateaux. Comparatively more rhythmic than those compositions of post-'60s computer-based abstraction, the two tracks on this 10" are filled with tense percolations, with one track sounding like a paranoid acid house number run horribly amok, generatively shifting frequencies, adding / subtracting chunks of sound, and devoid of bass drum kicks, mind you. The other track appears as a synthetic reworking of tribal percussion, with tightly controlled flanges and ring modulation. Limited to 500 copies.
RealAudio clip: "Tot 3"
RealAudio clip: "Tot 5"

TODAY IS THE DAY Sadness Will Prevail (Relapse) 2cd 16.98
Praise be! Steve Austin and co. are back, delivering another dose of their unique brand of Satanic math-metallic noise. Sprawling over two discs (labelled X and Y), these tracks are less like songs proper than sonic symptoms of Today Is The Day's aesthetic and philosophical ideas -- and, especially, their darkest emotions.
With wretched rasping vokills, crushing doom riffs, maniac outbursts, and scary, atmospheric sample-littered soundscapes (normally we frown on samples we can recognize, but it *was* neat to hear the bit from Coven, y'know, from American Movie), Today Is The Day convey some dark feelings indeed. The metal parts are quite devastating, but it's perhaps the moodier elements that make this album so striking and creepy. Bass rumble and glitchy electronic synth noise are paired with sad piano tinklings, acoustic guitars are strummed in a backwoods night-time ritual, and there's even some honest-to-god melodic singing (as on the deathly-piano-ballad "Death Requiem" or the great Alice Cooper/Devil Doll styled track "Invincible", reprised from TITD's split cd with 16).
Several of us here at AQ have been TITD fans for a long time, all the way back to their sadly out-of-print "Supernova" debut on the Amphetamine Reptile label. Their rebirth on Relapse (three albums ago) moved them in a decidedly heavier, brutal direction, but, as made plain on "Sadness Will Prevail", their experimental, artistic impulses remain strong.
In some ways, the closest thing we can compare this to is the mighty Oxbow, colliding with the likes of Coalesce and Old Man Gloom perhaps. Easily a contender for "metal" (but not at all entirely metal) record of the year. There's certainly a lot here to like. Some of the production is more lo-fi than we'd expect from Mr. Austin (a well-known producer outside of this TITD career) but still manages to dangle us dangerously at the gaping mouth of hell! And wait for the hidden track at the end of disc two, wherein Austin fucks with some brutal black metal, which just happens to be from the upcoming Leviathan album on Andee's tUMULt label!
RealAudio clip: "Crooked"
RealAudio clip: "Distortion Of Nature"
RealAudio clip: "The Descent"
RealAudio clip: "Death Requiem"
RealAudio clip: "Spaceship"
RealAudio clip: "Flowers Made of Flesh"
RealAudio clip: "Sadness Will Prevail Theme"

TSUNODA, TOSHIYA Extract From Field Recording Archive #3: Solid Vibration (Intransitive Recordings) cd 16.98
This is the third entry from the exceptional, if self-explanatory archives of Japanese field recordist Toshiya Tsunoda, concentrating here on "solid vibrations" as the follow up to the second volume which dealt with the microphonic properties of air within hollow objects. In his liner notes, Tsunoda explains that most of the interesting properties of solid vibrations are too faint to be heard under normal listening circumstances; yet with the aid of a piezo-ceramic contact microphone (a simple device which translates immediate vibrations into electrical currents), these vibrations can be made audible. Tsunoda concentrates his recordings around distinctly urban environments -- construction sites, wharfs, highways, wire net fences, metal plate fences, and industrial detritus -- due to the presence of large motors and engines which can activate the vibrations he seeks out. These tend to be very-low frequency rumbles and drones dappled with fluctuations from any number of environmental changes and human interactions. As in all of his other recordings, Tsunoda studiously documents all of the details from each recording, providing interesting tidbits about the sources for these vibrations (i.e. that a swinging element from one his recordings is the sway of an anchor deep in the ocean). Tsunoda is careful to point out that his recordings are "for the purpose of being heard. It is for improving the occurrence which one encounters every day. Therefore, pure scientific detection is not being carried out here." This is a really wonderful document, and may be the best yet from Tsunoda!
RealAudio clip: "Metal-Plate Fence, Yokosuka City"
RealAudio clip: "Wharf, Two Vessels, Miura City"
RealAudio clip: "Metal Door Bisyamon"

VSNARES 2370894 (Planet Mu) cd 15.98
Why drop the "enetian" from the perfectly good name Venetian Snares? I dunno; but there isn't much of a big departure for Aaron Funk (aka VSnares / Venetian Snares) from his last couple of albums of chemically acerbic, drill 'n' bass workouts. "2370894" is a spastic album that shreds the common drum 'n' bass signatures into a shock / horror splatter: sometimes stretching the speed limits into Panacea's darkcore tactics for stalking rhythms and hoovering basslines into atonal stabs of breakbeat mania, then overloading the rhythmic density of free-jazz clatter into a headache inducing digital mess, then wallowing in the downer sentiments of Morrissey samples on top of conditionally minimal electronic arrangements. Vsnares concentrates all of the truely abrasive numbers at the beginning of the album and gradually lightens up the album to end up closer to where his label boss Mu-Ziq has been residing.

RealAudio clip: "Fuck Toronto Jungle"
RealAudio clip: "We Are Cesspools"
RealAudio clip: "British IDM Present Fanfare"

YOUNG, NEIL Trans (Geffen) cd 14.98
Finally, the record that nearly ruined Neil Young gets a proper cd release! And what better time than in the current electro-resurgence, retro-eighties new wave craze!!! Every band and their mother are now singing through a vocoder, but Neil was doing that shit 20 years ago!!! And people HATED it. 'Trans' was his worse selling record and had everyone predicting the end of Neil Young. But as always, people just don't get it. This record is awesome (though that opinion is not universal among AQ-staffers, we must admit). The first track starts out like any old Neil Young record, good old rock and roll, lulling you into believing nothing has changed. But track two kicks into future-gear, transporting us to 'the future' of music as it could only be imagined by folks in the eighties. A world of robots and robot cars and 'futuristic rock and roll' where everyone sings through vocoders and all melodies are played by wheedling little computers (or guitars rigged to sound like it). And weirdly enough, it's sort of a dark depressing, melancholy world. The melodies are mostly minor key, the emotions evoked are mostly -not- happy, and maybe the future is not so bright after all. That's part of the charm of 'Trans'. All kitsch value aside, this is a really cool record. With some of these songs, you'd think you were listening to that new Flaming Lips album, maybe. Great songs, catchy melodies, all sort of wistful and morose and sorrowfully dreamy -- in a futuristic sort of way!
RealAudio clip: "Computer Age"
RealAudio clip: "We R In Control"
RealAudio clip: "Transformer Man"

ZORN, JOHN Filmworks XIII (Tzadik) cd 16.98
For the John Zorn fan who has to have everything. Yes, that means that we're now on to Filmworks #13 and it looks like there's no end in sight. So with a big thanks to Tzadik for supplying a glowing review in advance, we bring you the obi: "2002 proves to be a watershed year for Zorn, with this being his fifth film score in three months. Here, a taste of Ennio Morricone, Astor Piazzola, French musette and Nino Rota make up what is perhaps his greatest film score to date. At times bizarre, haunting, exhilerating and powerful, the lush sonorities of this dynamic group will surprise you as much as it did Zorn himself. A romantic new lyricism. A remarkable new direction. Unexpected, inevitable and absolutely..." okay, enough. We made some sound samples, so check 'em out.
RealAudio clip: "Shifting Sands"
RealAudio clip: "Aftermath"

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----* Compilations :
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V/A Blue Skied An' Clear (Morr) 2cd 16.98
Slowdive's "Pygmalion" was the album that broke the band up and got them dumped from Creation just weeks after its release back in 1995; yet, that album has become one of the templates for the current strain of electronic melancholia. That album was ostensibly a solo album for Neil Halstead, who indulged in a majestic piece of electro-acoustic minimalism disguised as mope rock. "Pygamalion" displayed very little of the sublime tapestries of shoegazing guitars, and often blurred the fragile song structures into beautiful mirages and haunted echoes. For the business minded Creation, it was a commercial disaster and never got any serious consideration for licensing or even distribution for that matter. Which is a real shame, as it was a fantastic album.
While they didn't reissue that album, Morr Records did produce this tribute album to the Slowdive and their contribution to electronic music. Disc one of "Blue Skied An' Clear" (the name of a song off of the aformentioned "Pygmalion" album) is a collection of Slowdive covers by Morr musicians and likeminded artists. This collection as a whole - like everything on Morr - is pleasant, moody, rainy-day electronica with wistful guitars and vocals prominent in the mix. Disc two features tracks 'inspired' by Slowdive. Artists include Future 3, Isan, Lali Puna, Ulrich Schnauss, B.Fleischmann & Ms. John Soda, Limp, Solvent, Styrofoam, Skanfrom, Komeit, Manual, Herrmann & Kleine, Mum, Guitar, Populous, Icebreaker/Manual.
RealAudio clip: ULRICH SCHNAUSS "Crazy For You"
RealAudio clip: MANUAL "Blue Skied An' Clear"
RealAudio clip: ISAN "Waves"

V/A Grain (Dorobo Limited Editions) cd 14.98
Essentially, "Grain" is the companion disc to the "Variable Resistance" compilation published by local arts group 23five for an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art about Australian sound art. This album features four artists -- Philip Samartzis, Pimmon, Darrin Verhagen, and David Brown -- who had come to San Francisco to perform in conjunction with a lengthy 'listening room' event of many other artists. Samartzis, who had curated the "Variable Resistance" show, opens this album with a tense collage of post-industrial musique concrete that rummages through terse electrostatic cracklings, mutated calliope melodies, indeterminant creakings, and psychoacoustic drone work that is not unlike the Hafler Trio's best work. Ghostly fluctuations of sound mark Pimmon's contribution as these loops are coupled with miniscule digital vibrations, for one of the most sedate compositions we've heard from Pimmon. Darrin Verhagen (perhaps better known as Shinjuku Filth and Shinjuku Thief) also offers a particularly quiet track of meditative tribal rhythms run through a number of quietly glitchy DSP filters. David Brown (who may in fact be Australia's unsung answer to Keith Rowe) scratches a choral number out of vibrating guitar feedback, dischordant orchestral samples, and nervous electro-acoustic tonal fluctuations. Nice stuff.
RealAudio clip: PHILIP SAMARTZIS "Microphonics"
RealAudio clip: PIMMON "Slegner Forgets"
RealAudio clip: DARRIN VERHAGEN "Frame"
RealAudio clip: DAVID BROWN "Voices Of The Air Shaft"

V/A Infernal Proteus: A Musical Herbal (Ajna) 4cd + book 41.00
A massive 4 cd collection packaged beautifully in an oversized hardcover book from Stephen O'Malley's (Sunn, Burning Witch, etc...) Anja label. Featuring a who's who of underground expreimental ambient noise-icians, each doing a song about a different flower. Features: Circle, Amber Asylum, Alio Die, Ultra, Jonathan Coleclough, Troum, Steve Roden, Kawabata Makoto, Inade, Mnortham, Aube, Chaos As Shelter, Lotus Eaters and tons more. Absolutely gorgeous, looking and sounding. And of course quite limited.

V/A Konstantin Raudive: The Voices of the dead (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98
For those who recall the now out-of-print "The Ghost Orchid" cd collection of EVP -- "Electronic Voice Phenomenon", the mysterious manifestations of unknown voices breaking through radio transmissions, presumed to be voices of the dead -- Konstantin Raudive may be a familiar name. His contributions to that recording (originally paired as a 7" with his legendary book from the mid '70s entitled "Breakthrough") were some of the most hyperbolic and grandiose, claiming that in his research he had contacted numerous recently deceased friends, as well as historical figures like Winston Churchill! Since "The Ghost Orchid" and the follow-up collection drawn from from fellow researcher Friedrich JurgensonFriedrich Jurgenson's EVP recordings have been very difficult to track down in recent months, we thought that this new release of recordings from the archives of Raudive (and his collegue Gerhard Stempnik) would make for an acceptable substitute. Well, it might have been, if it weren't for all of the extraneous, some might say unneccesary, tracks found here: remixes of Raudive's recordings, tracks inspired by Raudive's recordings, and tracks that got onto this album just because they were by DJ Spooky. (DJ Spooky? Get it? These are ghosts. Haha.) At least the folks at Sub Rosa had enough sense to program all of the actual Raudive recordings as the odd numbered tracks with the remixes and so forth being the even numbered ones. So at least you can program your CD player if you wish to avoid the pieces by DJ Spooky, Brett Dean, Scanner, Calla, Lee Ranaldo, David Toop, CM von Hausswolff, Random Inc. and others. Not to say that these remixes are bad (some are pretty cool, total X-Files electronica), but how can you hope to compete with the raw ghost transmissions themselves? Truly voices of the dead or not, they're still creepy radio-noise recordings with German-language lectures to introduce 'em, full of mystery and terror and dense sonic textures. Imagine an occult Conet Project. We're purists, I guess, and would have liked the tracks by the modern-day artists to have appeared on a seperate release from the archival EVP material. But others we're sure won't be bothered at all, and enjoy (and be haunted by) the whole package.
RealAudio clip: KONSTANTIN RAUDIVE "Here Is Konstantin Raudive"
RealAudio clip: KONSTANTIN RAUDIVE "Radio Stimme"
RealAudio clip: SCANNER "Palae Fore Memoire"
RealAudio clip: CALLA "Raudive Track"

V/A Music Inspired By BaadAsssss Cinema (TVT) cd 14.98
Subtitled: "The Sounds Of Blaxploitation". A compilation of thirteen funky tracks from (or, perhaps just "inspired by") classic '70s Blaxploitation flicks, a sure-fire seller if we've ever seen one. Actually, this disc is apparently a soundtrack itself, 'cause 'BaadAssssss Cinema' is in fact a new documentary about the genre -- we'll be interested to see it.
Here's the line-up: James Brown "People Get Up And Drive Your Funky Soul", Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes "Expansions", Roy Ayers "Coffy Is The Color", Curtis Mayfield "Pusherman", Graham Central Station "We Be's Gettin' Down", Isaac Hayes "Main Title 'Truck Turner'", Edwin Starr "Big Papa", WAR "Nappy Head (Theme From 'Ghetto Man')", William De Vaughn "Be Thankful For What You Got", B.T. Express "Express", The Blackbyrds "Cornbread", Gil Scott-Heron "The Bottle", and of course Earth Wind & Fire "Sweetback's Theme" ('cause they get documentary's title, and spelling, from Melvin Van Peeble's pioneering Blaxploitation film 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' -- one that's not really an exploitation film at all, but rather something much more radical than what the genre it spawned later became). Not a weak cut in the bunch. "Pusherman" (from Superfly) and some others will doubtless already be familiar, but others are a tad more obscure, making for a decent car-driving or party comp indeed.
RealAudio clip: EARTH, WIND & FIRE "Sweetback's Theme"
RealAudio clip: ROY AYERS "Coffy Is The Color"

V/A Roots of Gamelan, the (World Arbiter) cd 16.98
Possibly a bit of a misnomer in the title, as the "roots" of gamelan predate any recording equipment by nearly a thousand years. 1928 however, when these earliest recordings of Balinese gamelan were recorded, could well be considered the roots of Balinese gamelan as it exists today, as the now ubiquitous Gong Kebyar of Bali was born, by most accounts, a mere fourteen years prior to these recordings (see "Music of the Gamelan Gong Kebyar Volume 1" from list 128.) In a sense, these seminal recordings exist thanks to all the wrong reasons. Apparently two record labels, Odeon and Beka, had the idea that they could record and market Balinese music to Bali on records. They put together 98 sides on 78 rpm discs, but the Balinese were completely uninterested in shelling out the dough for those recordings for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which was that by the time the recordings hit the shelves they were pretty much old news. The discs sold in small amounts on the international market, but for the most part the concept was a flop. Today, however, we are left with a wonderful time capsule of Balinese gamelan as it stood at the beginning of the century. Along with the early kebyar examples here, there are also several tracks of gamelan pelegongan, gender wayang (the quartet that accompanies puppet theater in Bali), jangger (a comical form featuring a chorus of young boys and girls, with the boys singing in a vocal style which we today are more familiar with as kecak) and anklung. Due to the limitations the 78 rpm disc and its 3 minute capacity, much of the works contained here are broken up semi-artificially into movements. Also included at the end of this disc are six tracks of gamelan transcriptions performed by Canadian composer and Balinese music scholar Colin McPhee (of whom the records which make up this collection belonged) and Benjamin Britten on piano and Georges Barrere on flute. These performances are quite interesting in and of themselves, especially for anyone who's familiar with McPhee's later classical compositions (or even fans of Lou Harrison) which were based entirely around Balinese music. Includes a healthy 27 pages of well scribed liner notes on the recordings and Balinese music in general.
RealAudio clip: GONG OF BELALUAN "Kebyar Ding III: Oncang-Oncangan"
RealAudio clip: JANGER GROUP OF ABIAN TIMBUL "Putih Putih Saput Anduk"
RealAudio clip: MCPHEE, COLIN & BENJAMIN BRITTON "Gambangan"

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----* 23five Offerings :
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V/A Ju-Jikan: Ten Hours Of Sound From Japan (23Five Incorporated) 2cd 17.98
Last year, local educational sound-arts organization 23five and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art co-presented a ten hour listening event/installation documenting the past 50 years of Japanese experimental music entitled "Ju-Jikan" (which translates as '10 hours' in Japanese). Curators Atau Tanaka, Ryoji Ikeda, and Shunichiro Okada described it not as a comprehensive taxonomy of Japanese experimentation, but simply sought "to trace the complex web of sonic style that constitutes the current Japenese musical landscape." Tanaka, who wrote the liner notes for the program, further explained that the curatorial choices were also guided by how the West perceives Japan and how Japan considers its own representation towards the West.
This double cd compiles elements selected from that ten hour listening event at SFMOMA (the full ten hours would have required mp3 encoding and much in the way of complicated licensing arrangements!), focusing upon the more contemporary elements of experimental Japanese music. These sounds draw their connections through the recombinant power of electronic synthesis and the juxtaposition of disparate styles; which together have become a standard if elusively-defined musical vocabulary for Japanese music. "Ju-Jikan" features physically challenging noise from Merzbow, Masonna, Hanatarash (Eye from the Boredoms), Pain Jerk, and Tetsuo Furudate; 'anti-academic' reactionary modes of Yasunao Tone and Yuji Takahashi; purist minimalism of tonal austerity from Ryoji Ikeda, Otomo Yoshihide, and Nerve Net Noise; and delicate electrodrone work from Kazuo Uehara, Tamami Tono, and Kozo Inada. A really important collection indeed. We're told some tracks are previously released, some not, but it's hard to tell which -- chances are you'd have to be a really geeked-out collector to have many of these already, and even in that case you'd still want this for the rest. The cd booklet gives Tanaka's detailed notes on all styles covered, a graphic timeline of Japanese experimental sound genres, and a program for the full ten-hour event so you can see what you missed.
RealAudio clip: YASUNAO TONE "Trio For A Flute Player"
RealAudio clip: KOZO INADA "d[0]"
RealAudio clip: OTOMO YOSHIHIDE "Composition For Two Guitars"
RealAudio clip: HANATARASH "77up"
RealAudio clip: TETSUO FURUDATE "Der Geist"

V/A Variable Resistance: Ten Hours of Sound From Australia (23Five) cd 14.98
"Variable Resistance" was the second 'listening room' event co-sponsored by SF sound art organization 23five, Incorporated and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Where the first collaboration between 23five and the Museum centered on Japanese experimental music, this one takes a southern route to Australia, which has enjoyed a healthy explosion of adventurous musicians exporting their wares across the globe. Assembled by noted sound artist Philip Samartzis, "Variable Resistance" is a title that encapsulates the tone and extent of the work on hand, referencing not only the electronic gizmo (the variable resistor) as key to many of the featured homespun constructions, but also as an applicable non-definition of those artists who "offer variable resistance in how they are defined and the positions they occupy in a broader cultural context, fragmented, and dispersed among remote cities and divided by enormous physical and psychological space." That said, Samartzis attempts to breakdown the Australian aesthetic into a number of sub-genres: Microphonics, Metallic Plates & Resonating Strings, Residue, Flutter & Flux, Malfunction & Resistance, Improvised Composition, Suspended Time & Expanding Space, Electrical Impulses & Variable Flow, Soundhackers, and Microwaves, Collisions, & Noise.
While each of these subgenres do offer some help in interpreting the work of these artists, those featuring on this cd (a condensed version of the SFMOMA event) are pretty good at resisting any imposed characterization. Much of the work on "Variable Resistance" is based upon live improvisation filtered through a number of DSP techniques (with obvious exceptions and detours) with tracks from Oren Ambarchi, Robbie Avenaim, Philip Samartzis, David Brown, Xonk, Thembi Soddell, Darrin Verhagen, Pimmon, and Delire.
RealAudio clip: OREN AMBARCHI "Stactedit"
RealAudio clip: XONK "Nevermind The Ruddocks"
RealAudio clip: PHILIP SAMARTZIS "Soft And Loud"
RealAudio clip: DARRIN VERHAGEN "P2"

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----* Nonesuch Explorer African Reissues :
----*

We're pretty damn excited about Nonesuch's decision to reissue the entire Explorer Series on CD. The series was spearheaded by Nonesuch chief Teresa Sterne who ran the label from 1965 to 1975 (when she was canned by Warner bean counters who had just acquired the label and its parent Elektra.) Sterne earned her stripes through her championing of modern American composers Edgard Varese, Elliott Carter, George Crumb and Scott Joplin. The Explorer Series was another undertaking entirely, and was the first time anything close to a thorough collection of recordings of world music had been attempted for commercial release. Dating as far back as 1966, with David Lewiston's recording of Balinese "kecak" chant, the entire series is nearly 100 discs in total! Broken up into 8 regions there are recordings from Africa, Indonesia/South Pacific, Tibet/Kashmir, Latin America/Caribbean, East Asia, Central Asia, Europe and India. Quite and undertaking. So far only the African portion of the series has been released, and of that we only were able to get in and write about a handful of them. But as the entire series is released, and as finances allow, we hope to get every last one of them in. All the discs include the original liner notes that were included with the LPs so, as the editor warns at the beginning of each booklet: "general cultural perceptions or specific factual information may have occurred since then." Each release comes with a handsome outer sleeve, the liner notes are accompanied by nice black & white photographs and though the lengths of the CDs are generally between 30 & 40 minutes, the nice price fairly makes up for it.

V/A Burundi: Music From The Heart of Africa (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
Recording the musical practices of other cultures is often extolled as a way of preserving those practices, as they seem to always inevitably become wiped out due to some form of "modernization" within the culture. Most often it seems that it's the multinational media conglomerates, the loud mouth of the United States, that has a bigger and bigger effect on culture everywhere as more and more people have television and radio. But sometimes it's something more directly horrific that has this detrimental effect on a culture and that makes the music that has been archived almost un-nerving to listen to. Such is this recording from Burundi made in 1974. Even at the time of the recording ethnic fighting had already resulted in the death of 200,000 Burundians. The Hutu of the Northwestern part of Burundi, where these tracks were recorded, that had not fled their country, have most likely been killed in the ensuing nearly 30 years of bloodshed. So the seemingly happy music contained on this disc belies the more sinister reality of its existense. No fewer than five of the tracks are tributes to then Tutsi president Michel Micombero, which were to be performed during rural political gatherings. Having said that, I hope that doesn't depress anyone enough not to pick this up. There's a great variety of excellent tracks on this disc ranging from beautful songs accompanied in various forms by ikembe (thumb piano), flute, drums as well as other stringed instruments (like the inanga which sounds like a stringed bass) to heavy drum corps songs. In particular, the song "Take Me Back To Mabayi" in which and old man accompanies himself on inanga and incorporating vocal effects reminds me of the late great Camerounian songwriter, poet, playwrite Francis Bebey. I wonder if Mr. Bebey picked up any tricks from Burundian musicians during his travels?
RealAudio clip: "Yes, I love Micombero"
RealAudio clip: "Take Me Back To Mabayi"
RealAudio clip: "Warriors Of The Drum"

V/A East Africa: Ceremonial & Folk Music (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
Originally released in 1975 as "Africa: Ceremonial & Folk Music", this collection of recordings comes to us from Northern Uganda, Kenya & Tanzania and is extremely varied in the tracks contained within. From the insane Aluar Horns which feature a group of horn players each with a horn capable of playing merely on pitch (reminiscent of the "Orgues A Bouche" in that sense) accompanied by a chorus of singers and a troupe of drummers, they mete out a teeth gnashing fanfare unlike about anything we've heard this side of Test Dept.'s "A Good Night Out." This track is immediately followed by the soft seven stringed enanga which accompanies a vocal duet as pretty as you can imagine. The rest of the disc is just as good, with both haunting and beautiful ceremonial music caught on tape.
RealAudio clip: "Aluar Horns"
RealAudio clip: "Enanga"
RealAudio clip: "Samburu Warrior's Initiation"
RealAudio clip: "Wagogo Soothing Song"

V/A East Africa: Witchcraft & Ritual Music (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
Recorded in 1975 by David Fanshawe, Witchcraft & Ritual Music is a collection of recordings made throughout Tanzania and Kenya of medicinal music. Fanshawe explains that, in this recording he had "tried to capture the spirit of a musical heritage now nearly extinct. The music on this album comes from a part of East Africa whose musical traditions remain largely unknown to the rest of the world. Particularly fascinating is the manner in which music and medicine are combined in the indigenous practice of witchcraft; music becomes associated with the healing sound of drums, interwoven with beautiful threads of melody." Most of the music utilizes vocals, individual and chorus, in addition to percussion and several tracks include stringed instruments and some of the most odd and amazing horn playing you're likely to ever hear. Most notable is the buzzing melodies of the Kenyan bung'o horn weaving its melodies throughout a choral accompaniament.
RealAudio clip: "Ngoma Ra Mrongo"
RealAudio clip: "Kayamba Dance: Giriama Wedding"
RealAudio clip: "Nyatiti"

V/A West Africa: Drum, Chant & Instrumental Music (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
Originally released in 1976 as "Africa: Drum, Chant & Instrumental Music", this is a collection of recordings made in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali. Like the other CD in this series "East Africa: Ceremonial & Folk Music" there's a wide variety of instrumentation, given the wide geographical span from which the recordings were captured. Unlike that disc however, much of the tracks on here consist of solo improvisations on various instruments, drums and voice. Much of the tracks are subtly altered cyclical tunes which were recorded either during a musician's daily endless practicing or during an actual ceremony, such as the Tuareg Medicinal Chant which is intended to excite "the sick person to dance in an increasingly vigorous manner until either cured or exhausted." The warbling tones of the lead vocalist are accompanied by a droning chorus and percussion. The buzzing of the chorus and the warbling singer is made even more creepy by random screams which are said to represent the devil being chased away.
RealAudio clip: "Bounkam Solo"
RealAudio clip: "Tuareg Medicinal Chant"
RealAudio clip: "Kouco Solo"

V/A Zimbabwe: The African Mbira of the Shona People (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
Another excellent reissue from the Nonesuch Explorer series, this one originally released in 1971. The mbira, in common vernacular often called a "thumb piano", is any number of instruments consisting of a board in which metal prongs of different lengths have been attached, the plucking of which produces a beautiful muted bell-like tone. The core of the songs here are repeated melodic patterns plucked on the mbira. The mbira player is accompanied by a percussive rattle (hosho), while the two players together form vocal melodies derived from the pattern meted out by the mbira. The songs are wonderfully cyclical, with ever subtle inflections added to the melody by gradual turns. Lulling, elliptical and simply wonderful.
RealAudio clip: MARAIRE, DUMISANI ABRAHAM "Misorodzi"
RealAudio clip: MARAIRE, DUMISANI ABRAHAM "Ndini Baba"

----> These African reissues also just arrived, will be reviewed in the future:

EL DIN, HAMZA "Escalay (The Water Wheel): Oud Music" (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
V/A "Burkina Faso: Savannah Rhythms" (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
V/A "Burkina Faso: Rhythms of the Grasslands" (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
V/A "Zimbabwe: Shona Mbira Music" (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
V/A "Zimbabwe: The Soul of Mbira: Traditions of the Shona People" (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
V/A "Ghana: High-Life and Other Popular Music" (Nonesuch) cd 12.98
V/A "Ghana: Ancient Ceremonies, Dance Music & Songs" (Nonesuch) cd 12.98


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----* Also New In Stock, Reviews Coming Soon :
----*

ALCATRAZ "Vampire State Building" (Long Hair) cd 17.98
ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO "Reese And The Smooth Ones" (Actuel / Sunspots) cd 16.98
BLACK NASA "s/t" (Tee Pee) cd 15.98
BONGZILLA "Gateway" (Relapse) cd 16.98
BRINKMANN, THOMAS "Row" (Max Ernst) cd 16.98
CALLA / WALKMAN "split" (Troubleman) cd 12.98
CHAO, MANU "Radio Bemba Sound System" (Virgin/EMI) cd 16.98
CLEARLIGHT "s/t" (Collector's Choice Music) cd 14.98
COH "Mockbe" (Error Records) cd 12.98
DANUBIUS "s/t" (Web of Mimicry) cd 13.98
DARK TRANQUILITY "Damage Done" (Century Media) cd 15.98
ESTES BROTHERS "Transitions" (World In Sound) cd 16.98
EVE "Eve-Olution" (Universal) cd 17.98
FLAMING LIPS "Finally The Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid" (Ryko/Restless) 3cd 32.00
GILES, GILES, & FRIPP "Brondesbury Tapes" (Mister E) cd 13.98
GINSBERG, ALLEN "New York Blues: Rags, Ballads, and Harmonium Songs" (Locust) cd 14.98
GOLDEN DAWN "Power Plant" (Sunspots) cd 16.98
GRAVELAND "Memory And Destiny" (No Colours) cd 12.98
GRAY, DARIN "St. Louis Shuffle" (Family Vineyard) cd 13.98
GUIDED BY VOICES "Pipe Dreams Of Instant Prince Whippet" (Recordhead) cd 12.98
IN FLAMES "Reroute To Remain" (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98
INCREDIBLE STRING BAND "5000 Spirits / The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" (Collector's Choice Music) 2cd 21.00
INCREDIBLE STRING BAND "Changing Horses / I Looked Up" (Collector's Choice) 2cd 21.00
INCREDIBLE STRING BAND "Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air" (Sepia Tone) cd 13.98
INCREDIBLE STRING BAND "s/t" (Sepia Tone) cd 13.98
ISIS "Oceanic" (Ipecac) cd 18.98
KID 606 / STARS AS EYES "$ Vol. 9 split" (Tigerbeat6) 7" 5.98
KIRK, RAHSAAN ROLAND "Other Folks' Music" (Collectables) cd 12.98
KIRK, RAHSAAN ROLAND "Prepare Thyself To Deal With A Miracle" (Collectables) cd 12.98
KIRK, RAHSAAN ROLAND "The Case Of The 3 Sided Dream In Audio Color" (Collectables) cd 12.98
KIRK, RAHSAAN ROLAND AND THE VIBRATION SOCIETY "Rahsaan Rahsaan" (Collectables) cd 12.98
KIRK, ROLAND "Right and Left" (Collectables) cd 12.98
LANDING "Fade In / Fade Out" (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd ep 10.98
LOW "Trust" (Kranky) cd/2lp 14.98/16.98
MR. LIF "I Phantom" (Definitive Jux) cd 15.98
RANDOM INC "Walking In Jerusalem" (Mille Plateaux) cd 16.98
RIVULETS "Thank You Reykjavik" (Blue Sanct) cd 9.98
RUSH "Vapor Trails" (Atlantic) cd 17.98
SHADOWS FALL "The Art Of Balance" (Century Media) cd 15.98
SHEA, DAVID "Classical Works II" (Tzadik) cd 16.98
SHING02 "400 Instrumentals" (Mary Joy) 3lp 16.98
SOTOS "Platypus" (Cuneiform) cd 13.98
SOURVEIN "Will To Mangle" (Southern Lord) cd 13.98
SPOOKY, DJ w/ KILLAH PRIEST "Catechism" (Synchronic) cd/12" 13.98/10.98
SPOOKY, DJ "Under The Influence" (Synchronic / Six Degrees) lp 13.98
STICKMEN WITH RAYGUNS "Some People Deserve To Suffer" (Emperor Jones) cd 14.98
SUTEKH "Incest: Sutekh Live" (Force Inc) cd 17.98
THEMSELVES "The No Music" (Anticon) cd 14.98
THORAX WACH "Die Euch Geht's Ja Noch Viel Zu Gut" (Knack) lp 9.98
VANDERTOP "Best On Tour 76" (Utopic) cd 17.98
V/A "Loud::Quiet" (Box Media) 2cd 17.98
YOSHIHIDE, OTOMO "Music For DanceArt Hong Kong's 'Memory Disorder'" (Noise Asia / Sonic Factory) cd 15.98

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SELECTED UPCOMING RELEASES, SUBJECT TO CHANGE (AND ERROR)


----> we'll get pretty soon but can't say when
Koji Asano "January Rainbow" cd on Solstice
Oxbow "Let Me Be A Woman" cd-reissue with bonus tracks on Ruminance (France)
v/a "Studio One Instrumentals" cd/lp on Soul Jazz

---> September 24th
Stilluppsteypa "The Immediate Past Is Of No Interest To Us: 10 Years Of Continuous Pointless Activities" cd on Bottrop-Boy
Spring Heel Jack "Amassed" cd on Thirsty Ear (w/ Evan Parker, Han Bennink, and Jason Pierce of Spiritualized)
The Soft Boys "Nextdoorland" cd/lp+7" on Matador
Iron & Wine "The Creek Drank the Cradle" cd on SubPop
Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet "Live" cd on DIW
Tech N9ne "Absolute Power" cd on Strange Music
Steve Earle "Jerusalem" cd on Artemis/E Squared
Burning Brides "Fall Of The Plastic Empire" major label re-release on V2
Christina Kubisch "Diapason" cd on Semishigure
The Wicker Man original soundtrack cd domestic reissue on Silva

---> October 1st
Flaming Lips "The Day They Shot A Hole In The Jesus Egg: The Priest Driven Ambulance Album, Demos, And Outtakes 1989-1991" 2cd on Restless
v/a "Painted Black" cd on tUMULt
Leviathan "Verrater" 2cd on tUMULt
Iran "The Moon Boys" cd on tUMULt
Worms "Pelican Songs" cd on tUMULt
El-P "Fantastic Damage - Instrumentals" (and "Remixes" on cd) 3lp/2cd on Def Jux
El-P "Fantastic Damage Remixes" 12" on Def JexThievery Corporation "Richest Man in Babylon" cd/2lp
Kid 606/Dalek "Ruin It" cd/lp on Tigerbeat6
Elf Power "Nothing's Going to Happen" cd of covers on Orange Twin
Ohkami No Jikan "Mort Nuit" cd on Fractal
Musica Transonic "Hard Rock Transonic" cd on Fractal
Acid Mothers Temple "Univers Zen Oy De Zero A Zero" cd on Fractal
Antipop Consortium "Ghost Lawns" cdep/12" on Warp
DJ Vadim "USSR: The Art of Listening" cd/2lp on Ninjatune
Steve Von Til "If I should Fall To the Field" cd on Neurot
Squarepusher "Do You Know Squarepusher" 2cd/2lp on Warp
David S. Ware "Freedom Suite" cd on Aum Fidelity
Maneri Ensemble "Going To Church" cd on Aum Fidelity
Abdullah "Graveyard Poetry" cd on Meteor City
Cex "Tall Dark and Handcuffed" cd on Tigerbeat6

---> October 8th
The Black Heart Procession "Amore Del Tropico" cd/lp on Touch and Go
Acid Mothers Temple "Electric Heavy Land" cd on Alien8
Catherine Irwin of Freakwater "Cut Yourself a Switch" cd on Thrill Jockey
Destroyer "This Night" cd on Merge
J Mascis + The Fog "Free So Free" cd on Ultimatum Music
Sonic Youth & I.C.P. & The Ex "In The Fishtank" cd on Fishtank
Royal Trux "Hand of Glory" cd/lp on Drag City
Richard Buckner "Impasse" cd on Overcoat
Destroyer "This Night" cd on Merge
King Crimson "Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With" cd on Sanctuary
The Fall "Totally Wired: The Rough Trade Compilation" 2cd on Sanctuary
v/a "Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs To Benefit The West Memphis Three" cd on Sanctuary
Spiritual Beggars "On Fire" cd on Koch/Music For Nations
Charlie Feathers "Get With It" 2cd re-release on Revenant
Incredible String Band "U" cd reissue on Collector's Choice
Peaches "Teaches of Peaches" deluxe expanded double cd with bonus disc of remixes and videos on Beggars
Stereototal "Musique Automatique" cd reissue on KRS

---> October 15th
Amon Tobin "Out From Out Where" cd/2lp on Ninjatune
Lesser / various artists "Massiv SIDplay Mix" cd on Tigerbeat6
Stars As Eyes "Enemy of Fun" cd/lp on Tigerbeat6
Cave In "Tides Of Tomorrow" cdep/lp on Hydrahead
Botch "Anthology of Dead Ends" cdep/lp on Hydrahead
Appliance "Are You Earthed?" cd on Mute
MC Paul Barman "Paullelujah!" cd/2lp
Kataklysm "Shadows and Dust" cd on Nuclear Blast
v/a "Rough Trade Shops Rock'n'Roll 01" 2cd on Mute UK
Aluminum Group "Happyness" cd/lp

---> October 22nd
I Am Spoonbender "Shown Actual Size" cdep/12" on GSL
Painkiller "Live In Nagoya: Talisman" cd on Tzadik
Badly Drawn Boy "Have You Fed The Fish?" cd on Twisted Nerve/XL
Foo Fighters "One By One" cd on RCA/Roswell (w/ bonus ltd. DVD)
Imperial Teen "Live At Maxwell's" cd on DCN
Daniel Zamir "Children of Israel" cd on Tzadik
Pavement "Slanted & Enchanted Luxe & Reduxe" 2cd on Matador
v/a "Classic Mountain Songs From Smithsonian Folkways" cd on Smithsonian Folkways
v/a "Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta" cd on Smithsonian Folkways
Santana "Shaman" cd on Arista

---> October 29th
Add N To (X) "Loud Like Nature" cd/2lp on Mute
Devendra Banhart "Oh Me Oh My..." cd on Young God
J Church "Palestine" cd on Honey Bear
Palestine/Coulter/Mathoul "Maximin" cd on Young God
Sheavy "Synchronized" cd on The Music Cartel
Kid606 / Xanopticon "$ vol. 10" split 7" on Tigerbeat6
Suicide "American Supreme" cd on Mute

---> also in October
Sun City Girls "Dante's Disneyland Inferno" 3LP on Locust
Laddio Bolocko "The Life and Times of..." 2cd on No Quarter
Laddio Bolocko "Strange Warmings of..." limited 2xLP on No Quarter
Laddio Bolocko "As if in Real Time" limited LP on No Quarter
EUROCK "European Rock & The Second Culture" book
and the first of 2 new Opeth albums (the heavy one, the "mellow" on is due in 2003)

---> November 5th
Thuja "Suns" cd on Emperor Jones
Outhud "S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D." cd on Kranky
Fontanelle "Style Drift" cd on Kranky
Loscil "Submers" cd on Kranky
The Double U "White Night, Floating Anchor" cd on Emperor Jones

---> November 19th
Don Cherry "Orient" reissued on cd by Fruit Tree
Don Cherry "Blue Lake" reissued on cd by Fruit Tree

---> also in November
Pharaoh Overlord "2" CD/LP on No Quarter
Earth "Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars" LP on No Quarter

----> some future excitement
Chik Chik Chik (!!!) tba cd on T&G
Dirty Three tba live cd on T&G
Peter Brotzmann Group "Balls" cd reissue on Atavistic/UMS
Men's Recovery Project "Night Pirate" cd on KRS
Boxhead Ensemble "Maps, Notes, Stories From The Half-Light" cd on Atavistic
Calexico tba on Quarterstick
Dirty Three live dvd/cd on Touch and Go
Circle "Taantalums" picture disc LP (and, eventually, cd w/bonus tracks) on tUMULt
Solar Anus "Skull Alcoholic: The Complete Solar Anus" 2cd on tUMULt
Sonic Youth + Friends "In The Fishtank" cdep/12"
Ufomammut new album on TMC in 2003
Cheval de Frise new album in January 2003

Love,

Windy Cup Allan Andee Jim Byram Sadie and Marcy