DIZZEE RASCAL Boy In Da Corner (Matador) cd 14.98
So by now, you've probably at least heard of Dizzee Rascal. He has been the talk of hip-hop / underground music circles for the last year, having won the 'prestigious' Mercury Prize, made every critic's best of list, all before he turned 20. And as with most things like that we had steeled ourselves to be bitterly and utterly disappointed. Look at that Streets record from a year or two back. We were fully ready to have our socks knocked off, but sadly, the socks stayed on. Way on. So we're happy to report, that Dizzee totally lives up to the hype, and then some! Taking the root of his sound from UK garage (pronounced GAIR-ij, we're not talking White Stripes here, ya know), a bastardized (and super simplified) varient of drum 'n bass, with pounding two step rhythms, fat distorted synths, and huge rolling bass lines, but all super spare and stripped down. Very similar (to our ears at least) to ragga/dancehall. Super repetitive and ultra danceable (in a robotic head banging hip shaking sort of way) each song is basically one or two parts, drilled maniacally into your skull, pounding and bouncing, hiccupping and stuttering, while Dizzee flows crazily, in his high pitched Jamaican / Cockney drawl. So crazy and so wickedly addictive. Fairly sample free except for the amazing "Fix Up Look Sharp", which is built entirely from a Billy Squier song, complete with the vocals! We know we don't tell you this often, so please believe us when we say, believe the hype.
MPEG Stream: "Sittin' Here"
MPEG Stream: "I Luv U"
MPEG Stream: "Fix Up, Look Sharp"

DIZZEE RASCAL Boy In Da Corner (Matador) lp 19.98
So by now, you've probably at least heard of Dizzee Rascal. He has been the talk of hip-hop / underground music circles for the last year, having won the 'prestigious' Mercury Prize, made every critic's best of list, all before he turned 20. And as with most things like that we had steeled ourselves to be bitterly and utterly disappointed. Look at that Streets record from a year or two back. We were fully ready to have our socks knocked off, but sadly, the socks stayed on. Way on. So we're happy to report, that Dizzee totally lives up to the hype, and then some! Taking the root of his sound from UK garage (pronounced GAIR-ij, we're not talking White Stripes here, ya know), a bastardized (and super simplified) varient of drum 'n bass, with pounding two step rhythms, fat distorted synths, and huge rolling bass lines, but all super spare and stripped down. Very similar (to our ears at least) to ragga/dancehall. Super repetitive and ultra danceable (in a robotic head banging hip shaking sort of way) each song is basically one or two parts, drilled maniacally into your skull, pounding and bouncing, hiccupping and stuttering, while Dizzee flows crazily, in his high pitched Jamaican / Cockney drawl. So crazy and so wickedly addictive. Fairly sample free except for the amazing "Fix Up Look Sharp", which is built entirely from a Billy Squier song, complete with the vocals! We know we don't tell you this often, so please believe us when we say, believe the hype.
MPEG Stream: "Sittin' Here"
MPEG Stream: "I Luv U"
MPEG Stream: "Fix Up, Look Sharp"

GHOST Hypnotic Underworld (Drag City) cd 14.98
Hallelujah! Ghost are back! Since Drag City's simultaneous release of their Snuff Box Immanence and Tune In, Turn On, Free Tibet albums back in 1999, we hadn't heard hide nor hair of Japan's wonderful acid-folksters Ghost (unless you count their liason with Damon & Naomi). Indeed we'd begun to wonder what was up with Masaki Batoh, Michio Kurihara and crew -- we missed them! And in those four or five years, it seemed that fans of '70s inspired Japanese psychedelic music had switched their allegiance to the much more prolific Acid Mothers Temple camp led by Kawabata Makoto who emerged in the meantime. But we Ghost fans know that, as good as AMT can be, in the realm of cosmic communal Japanese hippy rock, there is no comparison. Ghost rule that particular hypnotic underworld. Depth, beauty, originality -- on all those counts they have it over AMT. Unlike the excessive pastiche of AMT, there's nothing tongue in cheek about Ghost. And as for quality control, well, you do the math.
So, needless to say, we were supremely excited to get this brand new Ghost album! The sun was sure 'tangging' the day this showed up. Word was that this might be Ghost's best album yet, and while we each have our favorites (mine's Lama Rabi Rabi, with their self-titled debut in close competition) this was immediately revealed as a contender. In short, it's freakin' great. Ghost explore some heavier, rockier, more prog-tastic directions in some of these songs, yet let their incomparable delicate psych-folk flow as well. Stirring guitar/drums workouts coexist with Batoh's fragile vocals and trembling sunshine melodies. And Terrascopic trainspotters will be interested to know that Ghost interpret songs by both Syd Barrett and the obscure '70s Dutch prog-rock act Earth & Fire, and make them completely their own. The album takes its name from the four-part, 25-minute suite that opens this disc, which ventures from lovely, hazy jazz-inflected jams to bombastic, utterly prog-rock flourishes complete with grandiose choirs. That alone is worth having waited four or five years for!
MPEG Stream: "Piper"
MPEG Stream: "HU pt. 2: Escaped And Lost Down In Medina"
MPEG Stream: "HU pt. 3: Aramaic Barbarous Dawn"

GHOST Hypnotic Underworld (Drag City) 2lp 15.98
Hallelujah! Ghost are back! Since Drag City's simultaneous release of their Snuff Box Immanence and Tune In, Turn On, Free Tibet albums back in 1999, we hadn't heard hide nor hair of Japan's wonderful acid-folksters Ghost (unless you count their liason with Damon & Naomi). Indeed we'd begun to wonder what was up with Masaki Batoh, Michio Kurihara and crew -- we missed them! And in those four or five years, it seemed that fans of '70s inspired Japanese psychedelic music had switched their allegiance to the much more prolific Acid Mothers Temple camp led by Kawabata Makoto who emerged in the meantime. But we Ghost fans know that, as good as AMT can be, in the realm of cosmic communal Japanese hippy rock, there is no comparison. Ghost rule that particular hypnotic underworld. Depth, beauty, originality -- on all those counts they have it over AMT. Unlike the excessive pastiche of AMT, there's nothing tongue in cheek about Ghost. And as for quality control, well, you do the math.
So, needless to say, we were supremely excited to get this brand new Ghost album! The sun was sure 'tangging' the day this showed up. Word was that this might be Ghost's best album yet, and while we each have our favorites (mine's Lama Rabi Rabi, with their self-titled debut in close competition) this was immediately revealed as a contender. In short, it's freakin' great. Ghost explore some heavier, rockier, more prog-tastic directions in some of these songs, yet let their incomparable delicate psych-folk flow as well. Stirring guitar/drums workouts coexist with Batoh's fragile vocals and trembling sunshine melodies. And Terrascopic trainspotters will be interested to know that Ghost interpret songs by both Syd Barrett and the obscure '70s Dutch prog-rock act Earth & Fire, and make them completely their own. The album takes its name from the four-part, 25-minute suite that opens this disc, which ventures from lovely, hazy jazz-inflected jams to bombastic, utterly prog-rock flourishes complete with grandiose choirs. That alone is worth having waited four or five years for!
MPEG Stream: "Piper"
MPEG Stream: "HU pt. 2: Escaped And Lost Down In Medina"
MPEG Stream: "HU pt. 3: Aramaic Barbarous Dawn"

----*
----* Highlights :
----*

BATHTUB SHITTER Lifetime Shitlist (Shit Jam Records) cd 12.98
If you've been hanging out with me (Andee) much lately, you've undoubtedly heard me singing the praises of Bathtub Shitter. In fact before I had even heard them, I knew Bathtub Shitter had the potential to be my favorite band. C'mon, they're Japanese, they are called Bathtub Shitter, oh and did I mention they only sing about shit? For a while I was fantasizing about releasing a split with the two best bands in the world (as determined at the time solely by monicker as I had yet to hear either) Bathtub Shitter and Fuck I'm Dead. I'm still thinking about it, but while I ruminate, we're lucky to have this, the first full length Bathtub Shitter record and their only cd. We spent a good long while tracking down 7"s, but since the world leans heavily in the digital direction we had to wait until this beautiful shiny shit-obsessed marvel fell into our hands! What's it sound like you're probably wondering by now. Well, imagine some strange mix of Drop Dead, the Boredoms, Brutal Truth, CSSO, death metal, grindcore, and well....um...shit! Crunchy riffs swing from almost-surf rock, to Zeppelin groove to metallic crunch, but spend most of their time in grind mode, splattered and speeding out of control. Crazy drumming, farting bass and some wicked guitar noodling add to the sick sonic stew. But the vocals are where things get really weird. The main vocalist is of the burping, grunting, cookie monster death metal variety, belching out indecipherable tales of shit and shitting, but his vocal foil is a squealing, squeaking little girl of a man, sounding either like a babblingly hysterical middle age housewife shrieking at the top of here lungs or a horror movie cheerleader being evicerated, screaming in that terrified way only dying cheerleaders in horror movies do. The two trade lyrics like some sort of bastard grindcore Beastie Boys. Or imagine Chuck D as Chris Barnes in his Cannibal Corpse days and Flavor Flav as the aforementioned shrieking dead cheerleader. With the everpresent S1Ws made up of members of S.O.D. and Angelcorpse. Other sorts of vocals are occasionally introduced like the 'dog barking underwater' and the 'asthmatic yodel' but I don't want to give away too much. It's better if you just let the Bathtub Shitter unfold before you like a beautiful, shit-filled flower.
MPEG Stream: "Control Of Own Hole"
MPEG Stream: "One One One"
MPEG Stream: "Fuck Hip Raper"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Beautiful Speck Triumph (Last Visible Dog) 2cd 14.98
Another release from the oh-so-prolific Campbell Kneale aka Birchville Cat Motel. And as much as we scoff occasionally at musicians who seem to release a record a week, Campbell's output has managed to remain relatively dud-free, even being one of the most prolific. The difference this time is it's a real cd, not a cd-r, and not just a cd, but a double cd! Exactly the way this sort of stuff was meant to be heard, stretched out forever with plenty of time to develop and expand, burn brightly and fade away. Two discs, six tracks, all but one twenty minutes plus. Drone nirvana my friends. A low rumbling drone that over the course of 30 minutes swells to a keening resonant whine with clicking and chirping (think crickets, pebbles, geiger counters) splattered throughout. Shakers, chimes, rattles, and bells manage to be clattery and distinct, but at the same time become a meditative and sonorous whole. Warm chords stretch langorously into the ether, while instrument crackle and amp buzz provide rhythmic support before spreading into a gauzy, indistinct raga. Chords and notes are smeared into a noir-ish cinematic blur-scape. A warm fuzzy expanse of late night swoosh, bookended by creaking springs and ambient clatter. A forty minute coda of clatter and croon and creak and crunch and click and calm. So goddamn good. Employing an unlikely arsenal of electric, acoustic and fake guitars, synth, cheap organ, recorder, clarinet, contact mics, wired turntables, violin, bells, baby rattles, firecrackers, piano, cymbals, melodica, steel pot lid, drums, space phone, tape loops and floorboards, Kneale may have sealed BCM's fate with an all but unbeatably perfect two plus hours of divine Ur-drone.
MPEG Stream: "White Ground Elder"
MPEG Stream: "Trembling Forest Spires"

BOYSKOUT School Of Etiquette (Alive) cd 14.98
Besides being just about the cutest band in the the Bay Area (although they've recently left SF for NY), Boyskout more importantly manage to meld elements of queer grrrl punk, new wave, pop and goth into super buzzy, catchy, hypnotic perfection.
Three distinct vocalists keep things really interesting: one a petulant pout of a voice, another closely resembles Siouxsie's dark, throaty sultriness, and the third is all Kim Gordon-ish whispery, and almost spoken. So varied and cool. The music has the propulsive new wave simplicity of Interpol, the playful purr of the Cure, and the buzzy intensity of classic punk rock, with claustrophobic minor key melodies, crunchy punchy guitars, thick circus-y Gary Numan-ish synths, and super catchy hooks EVERYWHERE. The more we listen to this the more we love it! Includes one of the songs from their febut 7". The cd also contains a video for the track "Back To Bed", a spicy, saucy romp, reflecting the song's sexy lyrics, with the band making out with each other, and rolling around in their underwear!
MPEG Stream: "Back To Bed"
MPEG Stream: "Secrets"

HELLA The Devil Isn't Red (5RC) cd 14.98
The precision, nutso drumming of Zach Hill and the frantic, fearless guitar playing of Spencer Seim is something the world needs more of, and they are happy to oblige with this, only their second full-length recording after a few eps and live discs. Yay, Hella!
This dynamic duo hold the lease on hectic, headspinning math rock mayhem, tempering their breathless performances with a very eclectic, electric variety of sounds and good sense of what's catchy and what isn't. The Devil Isn't Red is perhaps denser than their debut Hold Your Horse Is, but no less delightful. As almost always, this is all-instrumental, with cryptic art and song titles to add to their aesthetic of controlled chaos. Into indie-prog a la Don Caballero, Lighting Bolt, Ruins, This Heat? Well if you haven't already, now's the time to make room for a Hella section in your record collection. (By the way, did you notice how 'Hella' no longer seems like a dumb band name, it just means Hella the band? You know, just like with the Melvins, for instance. They're good enough and have been around long enough now to make that transition.)
MPEG Stream: "The Kid The Mother Could Be You"
MPEG Stream: "Welcome To The Jungle Baby, You're Gonna..."

HELLA The Devil Isn't Red (Suicide Squeeze) lp 13.98
The precision, nutso drumming of Zach Hill and the frantic, fearless guitar playing of Spencer Seim is something the world needs more of, and they are happy to oblige with this, only their second full-length recording after a few eps and live discs. Yay, Hella!
This dynamic duo hold the lease on hectic, headspinning math rock mayhem, tempering their breathless performances with a very eclectic, electric variety of sounds and good sense of what's catchy and what isn't. The Devil Isn't Red is perhaps denser than their debut Hold Your Horse Is, but no less delightful. As almost always, this is all-instrumental, with cryptic art and song titles to add to their aesthetic of controlled chaos. Into indie-prog a la Don Caballero, Lighting Bolt, Ruins, This Heat? Well if you haven't already, now's the time to make room for a Hella section in your record collection. (By the way, did you notice how 'Hella' no longer seems like a dumb band name, it just means Hella the band? You know, just like with the Melvins, for instance. They're good enough and have been around long enough now to make that transition.)
MPEG Stream: "The Kid The Mother Could Be You"
MPEG Stream: "Welcome To The Jungle Baby, You're Gonna..."

KING COBRA, THE s/t (Troubleman) cd 10.98
No, not the '80s hair metal band led by drummer Carmine Appice!! This King Cobra is a brand new band formed by drummer Rachel Carns of The Need (also ex-Kicking Giant), bassist Tara Jane O'Neil (Rodan, Retsin, The Sonora Pine, and solo y'know), and a third party named Kwo on guitar. There is, however, a distinct metal element to be found here as you'd expect from The Need connection. I guarantee you that people will be headbanging and making the devil sign at their shows! This trio's sound is fat and heavy yet sinewy, additionally incorporating bombastic electric organ, some wild horns, and even wilder vocals. You'll hear how they distort metal, new wave, prog, and punk into their own supercharged sonic brew as they grind, gallop and gear-shift their way through six tracks in eighteen minutes. Short this may be but The King Cobra pack a lot of music into that span of time! We're definitely looking forward to a future full-length!
MPEG Stream: "March On Pompeii"
MPEG Stream: "Fake Ex Swan Diver"

KING COBRA, THE s/t (Troubleman) lp 10.98
No, not the '80s hair metal band led by drummer Carmine Appice!! This King Cobra is a brand new band formed by drummer Rachel Carns of The Need (also ex-Kicking Giant), bassist Tara Jane O'Neil (Rodan, Retsin, The Sonora Pine, and solo y'know), and a third party named Kwo on guitar. There is, however, a distinct metal element to be found here as you'd expect from The Need connection. I guarantee you that people will be headbanging and making the devil sign at their shows! This trio's sound is fat and heavy yet sinewy, additionally incorporating bombastic electric organ, some wild horns, and even wilder vocals. You'll hear how they distort metal, new wave, prog, and punk into their own supercharged sonic brew as they grind, gallop and gear-shift their way through six tracks in eighteen minutes. Short this may be but The King Cobra pack a lot of music into that span of time! We're definitely looking forward to a future full-length!
MPEG Stream: "March On Pompeii"
MPEG Stream: "Fake Ex Swan Diver"

SABERS Specter (Neurot) cd 12.98
Sabers? What's this? The picture on back is one of those band equipment in the studio photos that resemble a sculptural art gallery installation, all wires and mic stands and pedals and mixers and drums and amps. Interestin'... well, as you may know, the Neurot label has done us darn right of late, with several recent releases being AQ-list highlights (House Of Low Culture, Grails). Here's another one that also impressed the heck out of us, the debut from NYC's Sabers. They're a two-man band, one guy on guitar and effects and the other on percussion and effects. Not a little effects, a lot of effects. And a lot of amps -- it's a baritone guitar they use that goes through a multitude of bass and guitar amps. These two guys and their gear make glorious, miasmic music -- sparse, rhythmic and wholly instrumental abstractions that ought to appeal to both Starfuckers and Skullflower fans to use two relatively obscure references (sorry). Sabers' heavily droning yet quietly restrained soundscapes are also a bit like Neurosis stripped of most instruments, vocals, song structure, and aggression (but not menace). Artful, original, and extremely moody. Massive and mysterious. We like.
MPEG Stream: "Loess Kindchen"
MPEG Stream: "Golden Green"

SUZUKI, AKIO Odds & Ends (Horen) cd 26.00
Legendary Japanese musician / inventor / instrument builder / visonary Akio Suzuki is most likely unknown to most of you. But the more we discover, and the more of his music we hear, the more it seems like everyone needs to hear / experience his genius. Those of you who bought the recently re-listed Kogezan Kosugi double cd, a gorgeous ambient happening in a temple, surrounded by rain, have heard Suzuki performing on an ancient stone flute. And while the sound and spirit of the performance captured the tone and purpose of Suzuki's life and work, he is much more than just a stone flautist. Suzuki has been performing and building and teaching for 30+ years, exploring nature and how natural sounds can be captured and then set free, how one can get lost in the sounds all around us, and how music and creation and beauty exist always and everywhere. These tracks, as the titles suggests, are bits and pieces culled from the last 3 decades and reveal a spiritual pre-cursor to the Jewelled Antler collective, modern sound art and sound art exploration. Home made echo machines create throbbing, hypnotic voicescapes, warm and soft and naturally unique. Dancers' movements are translated into hand positions on a piano creating wild and unpredictable jumbles of notes. Hand made brick walls interact with wind and weather and expose their hidden emotions as haunting tones and subtle drones. Sounds are shuffled between multiple cassette decks creating insext symphonies of high end whir and distant chirps. Long glass tubes are struck and rubbed and bowed mimicking the sound of bird calls. Multiple turntables are used as the 'plates' in a musical game of plate juggling. Microphones are placed in rolled up tubes of paper, recording the phase shifts of people moving around the room and the sounds of the papers shifting. Roughly cut bamboo flutes accompanying the sound of a distant waterfall and the songs of birds. Suzuki's music is pure and zen, dreamy and uncluttered by the rules and worries of most modern music making. The liner notes are littered with effusive adulation from folks like Jim O'rourke ("All you have to do is listen"), David Toop ("I think of Akio Suzuki as a kind of magician") Yamatsuka Eye ("Hearing this music, I remember many things, including playing in a puddle as a tiny kid") and more. Suzuki reflects fondly on the recordings and offers us a glimpse into the soul of a shamen, truly in touch with himself and the sounds the earth has to offer. If we only know how, and where, to look.
MPEG Stream: "Analapos '70"
MPEG Stream: "Als-Ob"
MPEG Stream: "Ta Yu Ta I #2"

----*
----* Table Of The Elements Lanthinides Limited 12" Series :
----*

SAN AGUSTIN Triangulation (Hoof and Mouth Blues) (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
Part one in the Table Of The Elements' label series of super limited one sided 12"s, comes from the relatively unknown Georgia ensemble San Agustin, a three piece free-rock-minimalist-noise-improv outfit that takes the propulsive rhythms of post rock, deconstructs them and wraps them in dense clouds of shifting drone, with occasional NNCK tribalism and Dead C-ish clatter. Really beautiful. They also have a 3 cd set on TOTE if this 12" strikes your fancy. Gorgeous woodcut image silkscreened in glow-in-the-dark ink on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve. So nice. And SO LIMITED!

CONNORS, LOREN The Murder Of Joan Of Arc (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
Second in the Table Of The Elements' label series of limited, one sided clear vinyl 12"s, this time from ultra prolific guitarist Loren (formerly Mazzacane) Connors. Sublime and mesmerising, Connors' guitar is a dark cloud of distant chiming chords, shimmering reverb, and warm rich sonic swirl. Minimal but somehow completely epic, a dark cinematic dream/drone-scape. So good. Striking woodcut image silkscreened in silver ink on the clear vinyl in a clear sleeve. VERY LIMITED. So don't dawdle.

FAHEY, JOHN Hard Time Empty Bottle Blues (1-4) (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
Ultra limited, one sided clear vinyl 12" from the late John Fahey. Recorded live in 1996 at Table Of The Elements' Yttrium Festival, these four tracks harken back to his pre-electric period, a gorgeously melancholy, dreamily casual, wandering, and melodic appalachia that only Fahey could produce. Spare and unhurried, this four part suite unfurls lazily, melodies blossoming shyly, with each part ending quite abrubtly, as if Fahey just decided to stop when he felt like it, reminding us how intimate and playful Fahey could be live. Beautifully silkscreened woodcut image in mauve ink on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve. Striking. Oh, and did we mention...LIMITED!

SPIEGEL, LAURIE Harmonices Mundi (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
Perhaps the most historically relevant in the series, Laurie Speigel's piece for the Lanthanides 12" series was commissioned in 1975 by Carl Sagan to be included on the golden disc included on the Voyager II spacecraft (which is now beyond the orbit of Pluto moving into deeper space). Harmonices Mundi is Spiegel's relalization of the "harmony of the spheres", a celestial harmony of the planets' relationships envisioned by the ancient Greeks, and updated in 1619 by Johannes Kepler after discovering the true paths of the planets around the sun were in fact elliptical. The technology to convert these relationships into sound, however, would not exist until the computer bcame a viable instrument for making sound and music. Spiegel's instrumental interpretation is grand and sweeping. A repetitive and hypnotic cycle of siren like tones, sweeping majestically across a static sonic palette, overlapping and moving outward, seemingly to the ends of the universe, like ripples in a galaxy-wide pond. Fans of modern high end drone/skree (Sunroof!, Birchville Cat Motel, etc.) will glimpse will recognise this as a definite sonic precursor. On clear gold vinyl (like that legendary golden disc), with Voyager II's galaxial trajectory and Spiegel's Harmonices Mundi score silkscreened in black ink.

TORAL, RAFAEL Harmonic Series (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
On his entry in Table Of The Elements Lanthanides 12" series, Portuguese experimental guitarist Rafel Toral uses his guitar like a simple sound generator, coaxing forth warm and sonorous, gossamer strands of crystalline low end drone, nestled in equally diaphanous tendrils of analog electronics and computer generated sinewaves. Truly sublime. On clear aquatic blue vinyl, with an ancient sea map silkscreened in metallic ink.

DREYBLATT, ARNOLD Point Source / Lapse (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
Two tracks from New York Minimalist composer Arnold Dreyblatt, both sonically owe quite a debt to fellow New Yorkers Rhys Chatham and Glen Branca. The first track, Point Source, features Dreyblatt on "excited bass", Jim O'Rourke on drums (!), David Grubbs and Kevin Drumm on guitars and Maureen Loughnare on violin. A gorgeously hypnotic and metronomic post rock / downtown improv workout. Shades of Faust, Can and even Stereolab. Nice. Recorded live at Chicago's legendary Lounge Ax. The second track, Lapse, is performed by the Berlin version of Dreyblatt's Orchestra Of Excited Strings, performing on custom made instruments in unique tunings. The result is a playful, gypsy-ish romp, atonal and angular, with Eastern sounding melodies and shuffling active percussion. On clear vinyl, with antique cloud/weather charts printed in glow-in-the-dark ink.

KELLEY, MIKE Silver Ball (Light And Color, Mostly) (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
Number seven in Table Of The Elements Lanthanides series comes way out of left field. Mike Kelley has been rocking the art world for a while now with his irreverent pop art, often featuring stuffed animals and toys, but those of you less art inclined might know him from his cover/art for Sonic Youth's Dirty album (there's even a picture of a young, greasy haired, pimple faced Kelley on the inside sleeve). But some of you may remember that Kelley was a member of seventies audio terrorists Destroy All Monsters. While that band trafficked mostly in noise rock and audience confrontation, Kelley's contribution to this series is much more 'academic'. And to be honest, its appeal depends heavily on how you feel about spoken word. A thick miasma of hiss and static swirl ominously in the background, while Kelley emotionlessy spews a litany of 'Oh God...' and 'Wow....Wow....' and 'Rolling cigar shapes....' Kinda silly, would have been a whole lot better instrumental as the background is dense and intense. But cool nonetheless. And obviously you gotta buy em all!

----*
----* Two releases from grim black metal genius Xasthur :
----*

XASTHUR / ACID ENEMA Split (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
In addition to getting the brilliant new Xasthur full length back in (see elsewhere on this list), we finally managed to get copies of this amazing split (now out of print!) between AQ black metal fave Xasthur and the unknown to us and now defunct Acid Enema. Xasthur offers up more of his grim, bleak, depressive blackness: buzzing guitars churning in a murk of tape hiss and amplifier grit, barely audible anguished howls, relentless drumming, all weaving melancholy melodies and dark fugues into epic and harrowing soundscapes of abject misery and soul ripping hatred. Blasting Burzumic squalls give way to loping melodic breakdowns with finger picked guitars and mournful keyboards. So gorgeously grim. Seems everything Xasthur touches turns to black. The Acid Enema tracks take the buzz and dirge of Burzum and Darkthrone and add some industrial weirdness and damaged brutality. Razor sharp speaker shredding guitar tone and big boomy drums underpin some seriously demonic howls. A whirling, blood-red pool of sonic chaos, threatening to crush and blacken your ears and your heart and your soul. Some weird melodic ambience and then a DHR worthy industrial cover of Mayhem's "Deathcrush" with rigid hyper-distorted beats and punch-to-the-skull machine gun rhythms. Now out of print, so when these are gone, they're gone for good.
MPEG Stream: XASTHUR "Doomed By Howling Winds"
MPEG Stream: XASTHUR "The Eye Upon The Throne"
MPEG Stream: ACID ENEMA "Holocaust Reborn"

XASTHUR The Funeral of Being (Blood Fire Death) cd 11.98
We listed this last time, but we just managed to get a handful more, and thought we'd relist it alongside the Xasthur split with Acid Enema that's also on this week's list. Newest release from AQ black metal favorite Xasthur, who was responsible for the godlike Nocturnal Poisoning album a couple years ago which was a buzzy droning slab of Burzumic grimness that rivalled almost any black metal we had heard. Xasthur is just one man, a misanthrope called Malefic, who carves bleak crushing black metal buzz-scapes from sheer wells of blackness and despair. While Nocturnal Poisoning was a monochromatic wash of midtempo Norwegian style blur, with lots of sonic murk and low end rumble, The Funeral Of Being adds more uptempo numbers and a lot more treble. Yep, treble. Harkening back to ear shredding classics like Ulver's Nattens Madrigal and any old Darkthrone, this is a drill to the cranium of high end mosquito swarm guitars, splattery buried-in-the-mix drums, and barely audible anguised howls. In fact the production is really quite strange, considering how weirdly lush the first record was. It's as if Malefic thought that Nocturnal Poisoning was *over produced* and prurposefully set out to make this new recording as RAW as possible. And raw it is. Even the ghostly keyboard breakdowns are under a fuzzy layer of hiss. But the production only enhances the beautiful grimness of The Funeral Of Being. Rarely is an artists tortured soul so perfectly laid bare by the cacophonous sound of his instruments but then Xasthur is indeed a rarity.
MPEG Stream: "The Awakening To The Unknown Perception Of Evil"
MPEG Stream: "Tyrant Of Nightmares"

----*
----* Selected New Arrivals :
----*

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE Last Concert In Tokyo (Acid Mothers Temple) cd 17.98
*Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert*
Another limited edition AMT label release, live in Tokyo 1999. And why is it (or was it) their "Last Concert In Tokyo" you may ask? Well according to the sleeve notes, although this was just their third ever gig and they didn't have an album out yet, they were soooo disappointed that less than thirty people turned up to see them that they haven't played again in Tokyo since, and say "understandably we have little intention of doing so in the future." Hmm. Hey that was, like, four years ago guys, maybe you should give your hometown another chance. Anyway, they recorded the show and now you can join that meager handful of Tokyoites in hearing what they sounded like that night: wild and wooly and definitely psychedelic enuff to justify song titles like "Golden Bat Blues Dead" and "Satori LSD 1999". Four songs, forty minutes, one track. Fans should note that this was Atsushi Tsuyama's first gig as an official member of AMT, wielding "monster bass" it says here -- and oh yeah, you can hear it!
MPEG Stream: "Astro 69"

ASHLEY, GREG Medicine Fuck Dream (Birdman) cd 13.98
Medicine Fuck Dream is the debut recording for the Texan ex-patriot Greg Ashley, who now calls Oakland his home. With the current roster of multi-faceted psychedelia spread throughout Northern California (i.e. Jewelled Antler, Six Organs Of Admittance, Kelly Stoltz, etc.), the East Bay seems well suited to Ashley's druggist songwriting. Yup, the whole album seems to be cast in a fog of pot smoke; but, Ashley's craft is in pulling together a great range of influences from the haze and turning it into his own. Big Star stands strong in his pantheon, as does the Opal / Mazzy Star sound of dreamy troubaour folk. A couple of the tracks reflect Syd Barrett's flair for the stumblingly comical, but always cast under the doped-to-oblivion spell of Spacemen 3. Ashley's fluttering whisper of a voice may not be the finest in the world, but his eccentric production with massive Joe Meek reverb bathing some of his tracks and fizzling tape hiss on the others, more than makes up for what he lacks on that front. A great debut!
MPEG Stream: "Mona Rider"
MPEG Stream: "Deep Deep Down"

AVEY TARE / DAVID GRUBBS split (Fat Cat) 12" 8.98
It's been a while, but finally a new release in Fatcat's split 12" series, this time ex-Gastr Del Sol, Bastro dude teams up with Avey Tare of super hyped outsider rock ensemble the Animal Collective. Grubbs side is mostly piano, the first half of which is hypnotic, melodic and melancholy, just a brief snippet of barroom piano, ala Billy Joel or Randy Newman, but looped Reich style, and occasionally drifting into moody spare minimalism. Grubbs' second track is a fuzzed out looped drone, and sounds like the opening guitar riff from "How Soon Is Now", cut up and reassembled. Avey Tare offers up two short tracks of Chipmunks style kiddie show vocals over glitchy cricket chirps and distant feedback, and a lengthy track of homemade crunched out lofi plunderphonia, all drone-y and minimal, underpinning whispered indie boy vocals. It's a weird combo, but it sort of works.

BARE, BOBBY JR'S YOUNG CRIMINALS' STARVATION LEAGUE "OK - I'm Sorry..." ep (Bloodshot) cd ep 10.98
A bunch of us here loved Bobby Bare Junior's last full-length on Bloodshot, Young Criminals' Starvation League (which now seems to be the name of his band). The son of a country veteran, Junior and his pals play jangly, morose yet sometimes humorous alt-country/indie rock that mixes Nashville with post-Nirvana angst, and could have an Uncle named Tupelo. We're not quite as taken with this new mini-lp -- maybe 'cause the first song is a twee, twangy version of "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing" -- but you might be, so check it out, especially if you're already a fan. Indeed, this seems to be a fan-oriented release, with some new stuff, two covers, live versions of songs from his last album, and a demo of one of our faves off that record, "I'll Be Around". There's eight audio tracks here and two live video clips you can watch on your computer. A nice half-hour visit into Bobby Bare Jr. country as we await his next full-length.
MPEG Stream: "Pinky"
MPEG Stream: "Flat Chested Girl From Maynardville (live)"

BELLE & SEBASTIAN Fans Only (Matador) dvd 15.98
Massive collection of videos, live performances, interviews, outtakes, TV appearances and a full length documentary. Over two hours of goodies. Haven't watched the whole thing, but from what we've seen it's pretty great, set up nicely, and some of the footage is truly breathtaking, fuzzy and dream like, while the behind the scenes stuff is pretty fun and funny. As the title makes clear, fans will definitely need this!

CALIFONE Heron King Blves (Thill Jockey) cd 14.98
Another gorgeously dark and introspective trawl through the dark recesses of our souls from Chicago's Califone. Apparently based on Califone frontman Tim Rutili's recurring dream of some sort of bird-woman apparition, Heron King Blues expands Califone's musical vision of lugubrious, funereal twang, no-depression strum, and glacial drones. Muted and spacious, with Rutili's whispered warble over a dense backdrop of ghostly country quite reminiscent of Souled American or Scott Tuma. The big surprise this time around is the surprising addition of funk/soul to Califone's moody darkness. Strange but true. Bloopy and almost funky bass lines support brief snatches of bouncy blue eyed soul amidst the bleak blues-scapes, but thankfully this funk has been dragged through a swamp of folk detritus, keeping it from freaking out those of us who never expected to use the words funky and Califone in the same sentence. Just imagine Califone mixed with a little Greg Dulli/Twilight Singers or Lambchop. Not necessarily a bad thing, just unexpected.
MPEG Stream: "Wingbone"
MPEG Stream: "Apple"

CALIFONE Heron King Blves (Thill Jockey) lp 14.98
Another gorgeously dark and introspective trawl through the dark recesses of our souls from Chicago's Califone. Apparently based on Califone frontman Tim Rutili's recurring dream of some sort of bird-woman apparition, Heron King Blues expands Califone's musical vision of lugubrious, funereal twang, no-depression strum, and glacial drones. Muted and spacious, with Rutili's whispered warble over a dense backdrop of ghostly country quite reminiscent of Souled American or Scott Tuma. The big surprise this time around is the surprising addition of funk/soul to Califone's moody darkness. Strange but true. Bloopy and almost funky bass lines support brief snatches of bouncy blue eyed soul amidst the bleak blues-scapes, but thankfully this funk has been dragged through a swamp of folk detritus, keeping it from freaking out those of us who never expected to use the words funky and Califone in the same sentence. Just imagine Califone mixed with a little Greg Dulli/Twilight Singers or Lambchop. Not necessarily a bad thing, just unexpected.
MPEG Stream: "Wingbone"
MPEG Stream: "Apple"

CHEVAL DE FRISE Fresques Sure Les Paras Secretes Du Gare (Frenetic) cd 13.98
Yay! This import fave from last year is now back in stock, in a new domestic edition released on our pal Duncan's Frenetic label. Here's more-or-less what we said about the import:
Second album from the French instrumental post-rock duo Cheval De Frise. (With the help of an free internet translator and my meager high school French, I can confidently proclaim that their name means, uh, "Horse of Curls" in English. Hmm. Furthermore, the title of this record, I am sure, means "Frescos On The Secret Partitions Of The Skull".) Their previous album on Sonore was a fave 'round here, falling somewhere between Don Cab and Gastr del Sol... This new disc is, we're happy to report, more of the same: acoustic guitars (and electric) vs. drums, both very active and complex yet quite pretty too, the tangle they make. Dynamic and detailed, Cheval de Frise rock out with the elegance of a math equation scribbled on a doily. Imagine an introspective, high-end-eq'd Ruins, or a Hella with hitherto unrevealed, somewhat mellow and romantic qualities.
So if you missed this before, now's your chance to pick one up, just in time for their upcoming US tour which includes some shows hereabouts with Hella, appropriately enough. There's no bonus tracks (as was incorrectly rumored), it's just the same as the Ruminance version we used to stock. But we've learned what their name means -- a customer clued us in to the fact that even in English a cheval de frise is the term for spiked obstacles employed in battle (to deter cavalry charges and the like) and also can refer to barriers of barbed wire or broken glass on the tops of walls.
MPEG Stream: "Lucarne Des Combles"
MPEG Stream: "Chiendent"

COACHWHIPS Bangers Vs. Fuckers (Narnack Records) cd 14.98
The second you drop the needle (or if you prefer the cd format, press the play button) on this puppy it's full speed ahead trash garage rawk action Coachwhips-style. Live, this SF trio are known for sneering and spewing out the blistering basement party tunes with reckless abandon. PBR cans, furniture and limbs a-flailin'! Take this disc home for a sweaty, raw-knuckled, shimmy shakin' good time of your very own. Features a mighty sweet album cover to boot!
MPEG Stream: "You Gonna Get It"
MPEG Stream: "Purse Peekin"

COACHWHIPS Bangers Vs. Fuckers (Narnack Records) lp 11.98
The second you drop the needle (or if you prefer the cd format, press the play button) on this puppy it's full speed ahead trash garage rawk action Coachwhips-style. Live, this SF trio are known for sneering and spewing out the blistering basement party tunes with reckless abandon. PBR cans, furniture and limbs a-flailin'! Take this disc home for a sweaty, raw-knuckled, shimmy shakin' good time of your very own. Features a mighty sweet album cover to boot!
MPEG Stream: "You Gonna Get It"
MPEG Stream: "Purse Peekin"

CONN, BOBBY Homeland (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98
How does Bobby Conn make his retro glam rock stylings so damn perky? On Homeland, he's joined by The Glass Gypsies (who're actually his usual cohorts Monika BouBou, John McEntire as well as Nick Macri, Sledd Colby Starck and the wonderfully named Pearly Sweets), and they more than keep pace with Conn's often erratic effervescent musical adventures. Still swaggerin' in the spirit of T-Rex or Sweet, and the funk 'n' soul of Ohio Players or Kool & The Gang, but with the inclusion of song lyrics in the liner notes this time around Conn's socio-political side is brought more into view. Perhaps his past writings were just as much so, but buried under the swirling glitz of typical Conn productions who could tell?! Ample doses of falsetto, fountains of electric violins (oh so E.L.O.!), Hammond and farfisa organs. Groovy!
MPEG Stream: "We Come In Peace"
MPEG Stream: "We're Taking Over The World"

CREATURES, THE Hai (Instinct) cd 15.98
Having ventured to Japan for the "Seven Year Itch" reunion tour for the Banshees in 2002, Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie (who have also recorded a handful of albums together as The Creatures) had managed to arrange a recording session with Japanese Taiko drummer Leonard Eto. Budgie, already an accomplished percussionist known for his exotic flourishes and militant post-punk stomps, was thoroughly enamoured of Eto, and worked much of that extended session with multiple layers of marimba, gongs, hand drums, and big timpani crashes. But as with the Banshees, the Creatures focus upon Siouxsie's voice, which is as lovely, icy, and sensual as ever. Theirs is a simple formula that has worked well before with minimal accompaniment to Budgie's percussive mantras and Siouxsie's inimitable voice; and Hai doesn't veer off course at all, and is as good as anything that The Creatures have produced in the past.
MPEG Stream: "Say Yes!"
MPEG Stream: "Godzilla"

DAVKA The Golem (Tzadik) cd 16.98
Veteran San Francisco klezmer/jazz outfit Davka are certainly a good choice to take on the task of providing a soundtrack to the 1920 silent film classic Der Golem. Davka violinist Daniel Hoffmann wrote the score and performs it along with Paul Hanson on bassoon and clarinet, Kevin Mummey on dumbeq and zarb and Moses Sedler on cello. It's 32 short tracks seamlessly stitched together, ranging from almost loungey, exotica flavored sketches to more creepy and melancholic evocations -- but you could easily listen to this without getting creeped out, it doesn't come across like a horror-film score, just well-played, Old World influenced chamber jazz full of life, definitely for fans of John Zorn's Masada in their Bar Kokhba mode.
MPEG Stream: "The Golem track 8"
MPEG Stream: "The Golem track 12"

DIFRANCO, ANI Educated Glass (Righteous Babe) cd 16.98
The seemingly tireless Ani Difranco pleases her legions of fans and herself with this new album, the follow-up to last year's Evolve. Ever since her first album back in 1989, she's proven herself an incredibly inspiring, consistent and prolific independent force. Now sixteen (or is it seventeen?) albums later, she's exploring some new sonic and songwriting territories, not to mention performing all of the instruments and vocals herself - so truly d.i.y.! But yes, it all still resonates with that distinct Difranco quirky poetic earthiness.
MPEG Stream: "Educated Guess"
MPEG Stream: "The True Story Of What Was"

DOCKSTADER, TOD Eight Electronic Pieces (Locust) cd 14.98
Along with the Rhythmania disc by J.D. Robb we recently reviewed, Locust has reissued on cd another example of early 'electronica', this 1961 Folkways LP by famed tape music pioneer Tod Dockstader, whose experiments in musique concrete and pure electronics are always lively and dramatic. The simply if accurately titled Eight Electronic Pieces is a work of abstract sonic theatre constructed from a large library of tape 'cells' -- 12,000 feet of tape in total -- sourced from recordings made both in the studio and out. All the noise and chaos of the big city (the Big Apple in this case) seems to be swept up in these compositions, with the tape speed manipulations corresponding to the flow of traffic, although little you hear is readily identifiable, even if evocative of the roar of a jet plane overhead, or animals in the wild. Most of the sounds are suggestive only of the pings and pongs and oscillations that they are. Laboratory Music you might call it. Laborious at any rate, when you think of the hours of craft and creativity that Dockstader devoted to works like this, sustained really by his own excitement at the possibilities inherent the genre he was helping to invent, wherein the role of the engineer (composer) utterly supercedes that of the not-now-so-necessary musicians. Listening to sound, and editing sound, replaces writing music (or becomes a way of 'writing' music). In other words, we wouldn't have, say, Matmos today without the likes of Tod Dockstader back when. But not only is his stuff, like Eight Electronic Pieces, worth checking out for historical reasons, it's gonna give your ears something to chew on that's still vital forty years later.
MPEG Stream: "Piece #3"
MPEG Stream: "Piece #6"

GRAND ULENA Neosho (Family Vineyard) cd ep 9.98
This sophomore release from St. Louis instrumental art-core trio Grand Ulena is an ep comprising three fairly lengthy tracks. Each one builds a massive, almost static crescendo of bass, drums and guitar. Loud, difficult, trance music for those already attuned to the likes of Fushitsusha, who will find this cool indeed. Btw, Darin Gray (of Dazzling Killmen, Brise Glace, You Fantastic, etc.) is one of Grand Ulena's component parts.
MPEG Stream: "Flyer"

GROOVES MAGAZINE Issue 12 magazine 4.95
All kinds of electronic music get covered between the covers of Grooves magazine, a which is up to number 12 now and just getting bigger and better each issue. This time, Plastikman, Meat Beat Manifesto, Electric Birds, AGF, Mice Parade, Sami Kovikko, Diverse, Randy Yau, Tod Dockstader, Aelters, Christopher Willits, Dean Roberts and many more get written about or interviewed. Music consumers and gearheads both should be sated by the reviews and the ads found here.

HAFLER TRIO Kill The King (Korm Plastics) cd 19.98
In the ever expanding catalog of the Hafler Trio, Kill The King may be the Hafler Trio's masterpiece. Originally released back in 1991 as a co-production between Staalplaat and Silent Records, Kill The King suffered the fate of many records pressed up at that time: digital bit-rot. In fact much of the Silent stock had to be destroyed; but thankfully Frans De Waard, who had been instrumental in the European half of the co-production, has now arranged for the reissue of this fantastic album on his Korm Plastics label.
Housed in the same oversized folio that came with the original, Andrew McKenzie -- currently the only member of the Trio, although Kill The King features some collaborative work with John Duncan and Zbigniew Karkowski -- wrapped this version in an extra vellum sleeve covered with his signature enigmatic texts. The sound program for Kill The King begins with a crackly, muffled recording of an unknown woman with a thick Northern European accent reciting a complex text in English. Her intentional monotone gives hints at the records theme: difficulties in communication; but as with all Hafler Trio narratives, they are not easily discerned. The voice is buried in hiss. Her accented monotone doesn't help matters, either. That said, this is a quintessential Hafler Trio strategy in setting the stage for the rest of the album. An influx of oxygenated drones usurps the voice and majestically claims the stereofield, resembling the same timbres of Jonathan Coleclough and Andrew Chalk's Sumac. Yet, the pacing of Kill The King is far more active than Sumac and thus more than the recent Halfer Trio productions, deftly shifting the stage to gravelly textures, data-crunched noises, dental drills, and cryptic voices run in reverse, all underpinned by various tones.
Kill The King is a difficult album to reduce to a few words, and with the band's no-mp3-samples policy, you can only take our word for it that this is one of his greatest works.

HOAHIO Peek-Ara-Boo (Tzadik) cd 16.98
The Hoahio girls are back with their second release for John Zorn's Tzadik label's New Japan series. As before, this trio concoct exciting, experimental pop music that's at once both very strange and very charming. However, Sachiko M's sine-wave sampler is no longer present in the group, which now consists of avant-vocalist Haco, koto virtuoso Yagi Michiyo, and new member Era Mari on multifarious percussion: marimba, vibes, xylophone, etc. Yet even without Sachiko, a big electronic element remains, as Haco toys with various synths, effects, and thermin (along with playing electric mandolin on several songs). Sundry other samples and sound sources -- a speed-skating broadcast in one song, crickets in another -- mix with Haco's lovely, supple voice. Some tracks are delicate, atmospheric and folky, while others utterly rock out with quirky, spunky abandon. Bravo Hoahio!
MPEG Stream: "DJ Hashimoto"
MPEG Stream: "My Sister, The Wind"

HOTOTOGISU Befriending Demons 3"cd 5.98
The three inch cd seems to be the format of choice these days for all things avant / drone related. I guess it's part the novelty, but also the 20 minute limit is just perfect for one big long track. Like the modern day drone rock equivalent of our old friend the seven inch single. This super limited three inch just so happens to be the latest missive from Mr. Matthew Bower of Sunroof!, Skullflower, Total, etc. Bower is the Hototogisu, and on this disc that means gorgous, pulsing free noise, taking the crushing power of Skullflower and smoothing it out with the bliss of Sunroof! Two tracks merged into one twenty minute piece of strangled guitar chords, droning and throbbing, becoming more and more machinelike, until the whole thing is a keening, looped mass of distorted grit and vibrating hum, like an industrial Steve Reich, or a noise rock Terry Riley. Caustic and abrasive, but also hypnotic and beautiful. These are ultra limited so you can bet they won't be around for long.
MPEG Stream: "Befriending Demons"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Varisevien Tanssi / Silmujen Marssi (Kevyt Nostalgia) lp 14.98
Awesome vinyl reissue of these two long out of print 3" cd-r's from one of our favorite Finnish outfits Kemialliset Ystavat, one originally released on UK noise-experimental label Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers, the other released by Finnish underground folk label Lal Lal Lal and originally packaged in a velvet sleeve designed to be used as a petting glove! Everything we love about KY is present here, gorgeously primitive / innocent / timeless Ur-folk, simple strummed guitars, outdoorsy lo fi recording, chant-like vocals, simple clattery percussion, dreamy hazy ritualistic soundscapes, delicate melancholy melodies, deliberate rhythmic stumble, subtle tape malfunction and home recorded production fuckery, loping late afternoon, staring at the sun rhythms, and occasional swirling swooping electronics. Fans of Kemialliset and all things Finnish (you know who you are) definitely need to pick this up. And all you folks who have been digging the Jewelled Antler stuff (Blithe Suns, Thuja, Ivytree, Child Readers, etc.) will find a whole new world of sonic forests and audio landscapes to explore and get lost in.

KYOAKU NO INTENTION Astral Projection (PSF) cd 19.98
Second album of extreme electric guitar and drums improv action from the duo of Munehiro Narita and Shoji Hano, this time under the name Kyoaku No Intention (Worst Intention) which was the title of their previous PSF release (as well as the name of an early '80s project led by Narita prior to his formation of the Tokyo psych rock legends High Rise). The original Kyoaku No Intention left behind no available recorded traces, so we can't say how closely it forshadowed the sounds heard on Astral Projection. But with Narita's distorted, screaming guitar and Hano's tumbling drums, this disc can't be any less "out" than what Narita got up to 20 years ago. Shoji Hano is primarily a free-jazz drummer, though he's experienced in various psychedelic rock combos (Mainliner for one). Meanwhile, Munehiro Narita is of course the sort of underground Japanese guitar god that Hano is used to playing with (previous sparring partners include Keiji Haino and Kawabata Makoto). So you can expect serious speedfreak Hendrix psych-spurts alongside more moody, almost jazzy clatter over the three long, live tracks that writhe and burn on this disc. Lovers of way out, free-to-be-skree electric guitar mangling and drum wrangling will want to stick this in their ears right quick!
MPEG Stream: "track 2"

M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (Gooom) 2lp 16.98
Now available on vinyl! (Cd back in stock too...)
We hadn't even heard of this band until a handful of customers started mentioning them, so we figured we'd best check it out, and guess what? Turned out to be pretty fucking amazing. A huge slab of fuzzy shoegazey electronica-flecked dream pop. We've been listening to this nonstop since it came in. It's not really that new, but it's so good, we figured better late than never. Imagine the post rave swirl of the Orb, mix in the muted warmth of Boards Of Canada, the lalala Neu-worship of Stereolab, the catchy new wave of New Order, then wrap the whole thing in a thick shimmery distorted haze a la My Bloody Valentine and you'll be close. Now imagine that concoction as the soundtrack to the love scene in some super bizarre Anime. You know, the part where the girl is going into space because she can't live on earth because her tentacles keep killing cute little pandas, and her boyfriend is a giant panda, but they love each other so much her tears turn into jewels that the pandas can eat to make them invincible. It's that heartbreakingly good. This will totally hit the spot for electro geeks, shoegazers, pop kids, and everyone in between.
MPEG Stream: "Unrecorded"
MPEG Stream: "Run Into Flowers"
MPEG Stream: "In Church"

MEGAWEAPON Dropsouts (Zum) cd-r 4.98
Megaweapon is Mr. DJ George Chen (of Zum Magazine / indie music label right here in the Bay Area) and a few of his Oakland cohorts from Boxleitner and K.I.T. Together they're makin' 'tape music'. Dropsouts is a coarsely ground and blended 4-track recording of noise-alicious distorted scraping, looping and churning. A brief but notable track is the second - a scant thirty seven seconds of what sounds like a chat between two homemade foghorns. 25 minutes total. Limited 'pressing' of 75.
MPEG Stream: "track 2"
MPEG Stream: "track 5"

OLD BOMBS Audios (Soft Abuse) cd 13.98
A beautifully chaotic, spastic slab of plunderphonia from our pal Chris' Soft Abuse label. Old Bombs are one of those bands that all live in different cities and therefore compose and collaborate through the mail. An ideal working method for a music so inherently fractured and schizophrenic. Chopped and reassembled, reappropriated and reimagined, this is a complicated rhythmic sound collage that hints at IDM, abstract sound art, wacked out noise rock and all stops in between. Stuttery rhythms are constructed from old radio clips and ambient backdrops are woven from found sounds and bursts of instrumental chatter. Glitched out electronics collide with random instrument buzz and tape drop out while melodies deftly weave between the wildly careening sounds, trying desperately not to be noticed. Fucked up and awesome. Equal parts Wolf Eyes, People Like Us, Autechre, Merzbow, Lesser but somehow nothing like any of them, Old Bombs make a truly damaged and beautiful noise.
MPEG Stream: "Audio 1"
MPEG Stream: "Audia 1"

OLD MAN GLOOM Christmas Eve I and II + 6 (Tortuga) 3"cd 6.98
Our favorite primate-obsessed doom metal drone outfit finally return! Old Man Gloom are back with a three inch ep to hold us over until their next epic. The centerpiece is the two part Christmas Eve. The first part is all dreamy drone-y acoustic guitar strum and mournful electric guitar melodies over an ominous rumble that becomes a thick sheet of amps-gone-wild before dissolving into misty ambience again. Part two starts off just like part one but is quickly transformed into a hyper distorted, black hole dirge, with earth crushing downtuned guitars and chanted vocals sounding not unlike Alice In Chains slowed down and run through a bank of distortion pedals (which is definitely a good thing). The rest of the tracks are random bits of OMG ephemera: a thirty second blast of shrieking downtuned metallic grind, two tracks entitled Masami's Music Box I and II, presumably Masami Akita aka Merzbow contributing two thirty second bursts of uncharacteristically sweet melody and ambient hum, and a bonus track, an Extreme cover (Extreme the band, not extreme the sound) that is so stupid that it's funny (sort of), but has such an amazing ending (why hasn't anyone done this before, but more importantly, how the fuck did they do it) that it would be unfair for us to deprive you of discovering it for yourself. Just don't complain to us when you finally hear it. There is nothing wrong. It's just the OMG Simian Alien Defense League fucking with your mind! Resistance is futile!
MPEG Stream: "Christmas Eve Pt. II"
MPEG Stream: "Skull Of Geronimo"
MPEG Stream: "Masami's Music Box 1"

PARASOL, RYKARDA Here She Comes... (Blood of the Young) cd ep 9.98
The overall picture of Rykarda Parasol's music is one of somber, tarnished beauty with a smoky cabaret atmosphere. Ms Rykarda possesses a powerful voice resembling a melding of Siouxsie and P.J. Harvey -- slightly ashen and achingly empassioned. It's presented prominently amid the reeling piano, organ, violin and guitar. Hearts and wounds are laid bare in deeply wrought fashion. Includes a cover of The Gun Club's "She's Like Heroin".
MPEG Stream: "En Route"
MPEG Stream: "Lullaby For Blacktail"

PIG DESTROYER Painter Of Dead Girls (Robotic Empire) cd 11.98
For some reason the blurb on the cover of Painter Of Dead Girls trys to pass this off as new material although in all other ways it's touted as a stopgap release collecting material from long out of print splits. Regardless, this is some seriously punishing brutality. Pig Destoyer, for those of you new to this stuff, is the 'other' band of Agoraphobic Nosebleed mainman and ex-Anal Cunt axeman Scott Hull, and like AN, Pig Destroyer traffic in brutally heavy, spastic, crushing, ultra complex and pummeling metallic grind. Unlike Agoraphobic Nosebleed however, PxDx employ a real live drummer. Which is pretty unbeleivable when you hear how ridiculously fast and complex some of this stuff is. 17 tracks, 20 minutes total, of some of the most intense, furiously destructive grinding metal you will ever hear. Adding to the what-the-fuck factor is the fact that PxDx have no bass player, which seems completely impossible with shit this heavy! Included are some amazing covers, the Stooges' "Down In The Street", with vocalist J.R. Hayes doing a pitch-perfect Iggy, but with all the swaggery strut of the original sucked out in favor of a much more rigid, metallic bulldoze, a pretty straight up verison of the Dwarves' classic "Fuck You Up And Get High", and an awesome cover of Helmet's "In The Meantime". The liner notes include credits for a final track that seems to be missing. Also includes three videos recorded in 2000 live at CBGB's, one of which features a microphone shattered into pieces while Hayes howls away, somehow managing to be heard over the deafening tumult of his bandmates.
MPEG Stream: "Taskmaster"
MPEG Stream: "Painter of Dead Girls"
MPEG Stream: "Down In The Streets"

SOLITUDE AETURNUS Into The Depths Of Sorrow (Brainticket) cd 13.98
EPIC DOOM METAL. Nothing else better describes this band, the semi-legendary Solitude Aeturnus from Texas. In 1991 they debuted with this instant classic release. Back then, and even now, not too many bands were doing this style of metal. Heavy, slow, and emotive, with soaring guitar lines and equally soaring vocals, wailing in melodic, melancholic metal majesty, backed by the sheer weight of riff after massive riff. Candlemass (and by way of them, Dio-era Black Sabbath) were the obvious role models, along with Trouble, Witchfinder General, and a handful of others. Solitude Aeturnus are still with us today, but their first album was perhaps their best. Anyone who digs Candlemass -- not to mention the cultish likes of Solstice, Doomsword, Memory Garden, Thunderstorm, While Heaven Wept and other practicioners of EPIC DOOM METAL -- probably needs to have this album in their collection, and now it has been at last reissued by Solitude Aeturnus guitarist John Perez's own Brainticket label. He deliberately chose not to "remaster" it, preferring to retain the album's original feel, but this disc does add three bonus tracks that will make fans drool.
MPEG Stream: "Where Angels Dare To Tread"
MPEG Stream: "Mirror Of Sorrow (demo version)"

STEREOLAB Margerine Eclipse (Elektra) cd 16.98
Long awaited new full length from everyone's favorite psychedelic, French-philosophied kraut-pop lounge groop Stereolab. Their first since the tragic death of member Mary Hansen. But fear not, no maudlin melancholia or dirgey requiems for a lost friend here, just glistening, bubbly effervessence, honoring their lost comrade with transient random noise bursts and space age bachelor pad music. The sound is quite similar to the last few albums, their motorik Neu!-isms tempered by groovy loungey bounce, occasional sputtery drum machine and space-y swoop. Ever present of course are Laetitia's breathy French vocals, Tim Gane's shuffling chiming guitar and the groop's prefectly studied, effortless nonchalance. Nothing new, but who cares, when it all sounds this yummy and dreamy?
MPEG Stream: "Vonal Declosion"
MPEG Stream: "Need To Be"

TUSSLE Don't Stop (Troubleman Unlimited) cd ep 8.98
Local boys Tussle strike again with Don't Stop, an ep that brings us two new tracks along with the dub version of "Eye Contact" (found on the cd of this only) from their previous, debut 12" of that title, and remixes of said two new tracks, one by Mr. Drew Daniel of Matmos/Soft Pink Truth. You can hear here why folks are making such a fuss over Tussle -- their instrumental post-punk-funk jamming is so then it's now, so out it's in. Referencing krautrock, '80s NYC new wave disco, and Jamaican dub, amongst other hella retro, hella cool soundz, they just kick ass and make you wanna invite 'em to play your next freak party. Hopefully there's a full-length on the horizon, cuz these eps always leave us wanting more.
MPEG Stream: "Don't Stop"
MPEG Stream: "Windmill (Soft Pink Truth Disco Hijack)"

TUSSLE Don't Stop (Troubleman Unlimited) 12" 10.98
Local boys Tussle strike again with Don't Stop, an ep that brings us two new tracks along with the dub version of "Eye Contact" (found on the cd of this only) from their previous, debut 12" of that title, and remixes of said two new tracks, one by Mr. Drew Daniel of Matmos/Soft Pink Truth. You can hear here why folks are making such a fuss over Tussle -- their instrumental post-punk-funk jamming is so then it's now, so out it's in. Referencing krautrock, '80s NYC new wave disco, and Jamaican dub, amongst other hella retro, hella cool soundz, they just kick ass and make you wanna invite 'em to play your next freak party. Hopefully there's a full-length on the horizon, cuz these eps always leave us wanting more.
MPEG Stream: "Don't Stop"
MPEG Stream: "Windmill (Soft Pink Truth Disco Hijack)"

VOCOKESH The Tenth Corner (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 13.98
All you folks who have been digging the recent spate of F/i reissues, best strap yourself in, get chemically prepared, and sit back and let the lysergic sound of this new Vocokesh record work it's magic. Fronted by ex-F/i member Richard Franecki, this modern version of his Vocokesh is a loping, lumbering psych rock beast, aping the circular hypno rock of Circle, the acid drenched hippy jams of Amon Duul or Agitation Free and the spaced out drones and warm ambience of Tangerine Dream or Cluster. The guitar is a slithering sonic snake, left in the sun way too long, cracked and brittle, but struggling wildly amidst clouds of instrumental freak out. In fact it's pretty much the guitar alone that adds the acidic element to Vocokesh, as the bass and drums stay steady, setting a solid, head nodding krautrock foundation so Franecki need not worry about anything but his guitar. That actually may be the only complaint one could have. The rhythm section just sounds too smooth and modern, no grit or grime, without the wild guitar explorations they could just as well be the Windham Hill house band or backing up a light jazz group. Thankfully, Franecki's axe obfuscates their shortcomings most of the time allowing us to close our eyes and let his sunburned hand swing that guitar in a mighty arc and send us sprawling into oblivion.
MPEG Stream: "Desert Song (Zabriskie Point)"
MPEG Stream: "Eddie's Hallucination"

WELL OF SOULS s/t (Brainticket) cd 13.98
Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find a review of Into The Depths of Sorrow, the reissued 1991 debut from Texan doomsters Solitude Aeturnus. From the same label also comes this brand-new debut from another Texas EPIC DOOM METAL act who obviously take after Solitude Aeturnus in many ways. On Well of Souls' self-titled album, fans of doomful epickosity will find much in the way of chunky guitar riffage, utter dark dirge atmosphere, and tricky, technical prog parts, over which clean, witchy male vocals wave like a clenched fist in the air. There's light and shade, but mostly shade. They don't stray far from their influences (Solitude Aeturnus, Candlemass, Confessor, modern Euro power metal, and old-school '80s American Metal Blade bands like Fates Warning) but they do what they do with power and perfection. The second half of the disc is occupied by the impressively indulgent "Black Reign" -- a suite in three parts, each around ten minutes in length. Epic indeed!
MPEG Stream: "The Realms Of Reverie"
MPEG Stream: "Black Reign Pt. 1 - The Dawn Of Antiquity"

WIRE, THE #240 February 2004 magazine 7.50
Sun City Girls! Einsturzende Neubauten! Davis Redford Triad! Charles Mingus! Joe Boyd! Hafler Trio! And more! As always every month, an informative issue of the English speaking world's premier music magazine dedicated to avant rock, electronica, improv, dub, etc.

YOB Catharsis (Abstract) cd 14.98
Ok, we've got one here for anyone into the sludgy, stoner sounds of the likes of Electric Wizard and Sleep!! Yob is perhaps your new favorite band. From Portland, Oregon, these psychedelic doom lords take their chosen genre's obligatory Black Sabbath worship to the extent of incorporating the swingin' jazzy/jammy aspects of the Sabbath sound that most doomsters tend to disregard. Nor do they skimp on the the meaner, rigidly metallic side of the Sabs, or on the mountains of the moon sized riffage doom fans require. Yob is slow motion, sweat leaf'd sludge to the max. Most notably, while their vocalist does dip into a demonic growl at times, mainly he soars like an insane, heavily effected hybrid of Ozzy and Geddy Lee. The result is a remarkably unique sound for a band that unquestionably wears their influences on their collective sleeve. The closest comparision would be to a spaced-out combination of Sleep and Dead Meadow. The three long tracks (18, 7, and 23 minutes) showcase a stoned style that even fuses funk with full-on dirge doom. There's a couple other fine doom metal releases on this weeks' list (Solitude Aeturnus, Well Of Souls). But while those bands' style is to build big castles, these guys tunnel through the earth, out the other side, and into outer space. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Aeons"
MPEG Stream: "Ether"

ZOFFY Thou Shalt Not Mess With Zoffy!! (Acid Mothers Temple) cd 17.98
*Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert*
Here's one of them limited edition cds on the AMT's own label, this one the work of the band Zoffy, otherwise known as the duo of key AMT players Kawabata Makoto and Tsuyama Atsushi, armed with electric and acoustic guitars, bouzoukis, saz, violin, electric sitars, percussion, electronics, raygun (?), and more. Though the title is Thou Shalt Not Mess With Zoffy!!, Zoffy don't seem to mind messing with other people's music, with some or all of the lucky 13 tracks on here being deliberately fucked covers of songs like "Smoke On The Water" and "21st Century Schizoid Man". Utterly retarded, wrong, and noise-infused messes are made. But maybe that's the only way you could cover "Smoke On The Water" these days? Then again, there's always the option not to cover it at all... And although several other tracks here have ring-a-bell titles ("Hocus Pocus", "Heart Break Hotel", "Mysty Mountain Hop", "I Talk To The Wind") not all remain recognizable in any way when you hear 'em. It's just acid-psych-ethno-freakout-playtime for these guys, like Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Sun City Girls or Reynols huffing glue in the boys room at Classic Rock School. But persevere in listening, and all of Zoffy's wacky highjinx somehow add up to something more than just a joke. For instance, I really really like their take on the oft-covered "21st Century Schizoid Man" -- it's a new song all of a sudden, if you know what I mean. And elsewhere on here, the noisy bits subside and there's moments of real beauty.
MPEG Stream: "Smoke On The Water"
MPEG Stream: "Kanzenon"

----*
----* Compilations :
----*

V/A Sigmatropic: Sixteen Haiku & Other Stories (Thirsty Ear) cd 16.98
Upon hearing a few tracks of this compilation, a collection of musical interpretations of the haikus of Greek poet George Sefaris, former AQ staffer Marc Kate astutely identified the voice on track 13 as that of Lee Ranaldo, and posed the question: why is it that whenever Ranaldo does spoken word he's always yelling? Good question.
Anyways, there's a lot that is highly pleasing on this 22-track collection, but there's also an almost equal amount of the... how shall we say... uh, less than good. Problem is you have to suffer through the stinky ones (or scramble madly for your cd player's 'next track' button) to get to the quality stuff.
But when it's good it's deeply moving, intriguing and really impressive. However, when it's bad, well, it's really bad. Just think overwrought, "jazz-hands" hollering and melodrama. Ugh. Features the voices of Robert Wyatt, Cat Power, Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier, Howe Gelb, Alejandro Escovedo, Edith Frost, Mark Eitzel, Simon Joyner, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Wynn, Czars' John Grant, James William Hindle and more.
MPEG Stream: CAT POWER "Haiku Ten"
MPEG Stream: JOHN GRANT "Haiku Fourteen"

----*
----* New D V D's :
----*

BRANCA, GLENN Symphony Nos. 8 & 10 - Live At The Kitchen (Atavistic) dvd 21.00
There's been quite a little resurgence of interest in the eighties downtown NY scene, specifically the guitar orchestras and proto-post rock of Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca. This DVD features two live performances recorded in 1995 with an unknown (at least to us) ensemble with Branca at the helm conducting. The music is fantastic, dark and propulsive. Repetitive and trance-like, with churning guitars and tribal drums. Sound remarkably similar to AQ favorites Circle or Salvatore. Visually, there's not a whole lot to see, although it is cool to hear what sounds like your basic rock band, but is in fact a large ensemble, with guitar players struggling to 'rock out' but stuck behind their music stands. The visuals do reflect the music quite nicely though, dark and brooding, with spare lighting and lots of empty space on the screen.

V/A Recollection: Relapse Video Collection (Relapse) dvd 14.98
I don't have cable, so I don't know if the rumours are true that MTV (or MTV2?) brought the Headbanger's Ball back on the air. But if you have a DVD player you've got your own Headbangers Ball right here, and it's underground stuff that probably wouldn't get played on TV anyway. Relapse is one of the biggest and best metal labels in the country, and from their roster they've selected both new and long-time favorites to appear on this DVD video collection. From stoner metallers High On Fire (whose quite excellent video Andee does report having seen on MTV) to kinetic spazzcore heroes Dillinger Escape Plan, from the streetwise grind of Brutal Truth to the Nordic bombast of Amorphis, this ought to entertain any metal fan. Amidst the variety of metal styles and video budgets displayed here, we especially dug the rap-rock parody piss-take of grindcore outfit Blood Duster, the old-school macabre metal of Deceased, Unsane's classic skater-wipe-out video for "Sick", and Alchemist's industrial, psychedelicized channelling of Voivod. Other heavyweights also appearing: Neurosis (twice), Today Is The Day, Dead World, Benumb, Alabama Thunder Pussy, and Uphill Battle.

----*
----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed :
----*

If you want to order one of these, just cut and paste the info into the comments area on the order form, or just email mailorder@aquariusrecords.org.

A BAND "s/t" (QBICO) lp 23.00
ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO UFO "The Day Before The Sky Fell In America" (Galactic Zoo Disc / Eclipse Records) lp 14.98
AKIMBO "Elephantine" (Dopamine / Amalagate) cd 12,98
ANGANTYR "Kampen Fortsatter" (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
ARCTOPCALYPSE NOW "Behold The Arctopus" (Epicene) 3" cd 5.98
ART BEARS "The Art Box" (Rer) 6cd 76.00
ART OF NOISE "Into Battle With The Art Of Noise / 20th Anniversary Edition" (Repertoire) 2cd 17.98
BERNE, TIM "The Sublime And." (Thirsty Ear) cd 16.98
CALLA "s/t" (Arena Rock) cd 12.98
CASH, JOHNNY "Cash Unearthed" (American) 5cd 79.00
CAVO "s/t" (Shit Jam Records) 3"cd 5.98
CHEESEBURGER "s/t" (Aerodrome Records) cd 5.98
CHICAGO UNDERGROUND TRIO "Slon" (Thrill Jockey) cd 15.98
CIRCLE TAKES THE SQUARE "As The Roots Undo" (Robotic Empire) cd 11.98
CONNORS, LOREN & ALAN LICHT "In France" (FBWL) cd 19.98
CORNELIUS "Five Point One" (Matador) dvd + cd 14.98
CRIME IN CHOIR "The Hoop" (Frenetic) cd 13.98
CROWPATH "Old Cuts And Blunt Knives" (Robotic Empire) cd 11.98
CURE, THE "Join The Dots: B-Sides And Rarities 1978>2001 The Fiction Years" (Fiction / Elektra / Rhino) 4cd 82.00
DJ SPOOKY "Rhythm Science" (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98
DMZ "s/t" (Sepia Tone) cd 12.98
END, THE "Within Dividia" (Relapse) cd 12.98
EXMAGMA "s/t & Goldball" (Daily Records) cd 21.00
FANTOMAS "Delerium Cordia" (Ipecac) cd 16.98
FIERY FURNACES, THE "Gallowsbird's Park" (Rough Trade) cd 15.98
FLASKET BRINNER "The Swedish Radio Recordings 1970-1975" (Mellotronen) 4cd 88.00
FLIES INSIDE THE SUN "Burning Glass" (Metonymic) cd 15.98
FURSAXA "Mandrake" (Eclipse) lp 14.98
GANG WIZARD "Jeckyll Loves Hyde" (Ecstatic Peace) lp 13.98
GERRARD, LISA / PATRICK CASSIDY "Immortal Memory" (4AD) cd 14.98
HUMAN TELEVISION "Orange" (Soft Abuse) cd ep 6.98
I.S.O. (Sound Tectonics) cd 22.00
IMAI, SAYAKA "Mahiru-no-yume" (Detector) cd 9.98
JEFFERSON, BLIND LEMON "Long Lonesome Blues: Lemon's Texts Revealed" (World Arbiter) cd 16.98
JOKERS "s/t" (Modern Music (PSF)) cd 21.00
KEITH, RODD "Ecstacy To Frenzy" (Tzadik) cd 16.98
KELIS "Tasty" (Star Trak) cd 16.98
KING OF BLUEGRASS : THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JIMMY MARTIN (Straight Six Films) dvd 23.00
KIRCHIN, BASIL "Abominable Dr. Phibes" (MGM) cd 16.98
KITCHEN CYNICS, THE "Parallel Dog Days" (Secret Eye) cd 12.98
LOVELY MIDGET "North Head" (Family Vineyard) cd 14.98
MOLINA, JASON "Pyramid Electric Co." (Secretly Canadian) lp+cd 13.98
MR. AIRPLANE MAN "C'mon DJ" (Sympathy For The Record Industry) cd 14.98
MY CAT IS AN ALIEN "The Rest Is Silence" (Eclipse) 2lp 17.98
NEGATIVE REACTION / RAMESSES (psycheDOOMelic) cd 13.98
NEUROSIS & JARBOE "s/t" (Neurot) cd 12.98
NEWSOM, JOANNA "Walnut Whales" cd-r 8.98
NEWSOM, JOANNA "Yarn And Glue" cd-r 5.98
NOTWIST, THE "Different Cars And Trains" (Domino) cd ep 10.98
NUMBERS "In My Mind All The Time" (Tigerbeat 6) cd 13.98
OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL "Dusk At Cubist Castle" (Cloud Recordings) cd 14.98
ONEIDA "Secret Wars" (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98
OPEN CITY "Birth Of Cruel" (Thin Wrist) lp/cd 14.98/14.98
OUR LADY OF THE HIGHWAY "About Leaving" (Fogsnob) cd 9.98
PALAST, GREG "Weapons Of Mass Instruction Live" (Alternative Tentacles) cd 14.98
PAPA M / CHRISTINA ROSENVINGE "Five" (Drag City) cd ep 5.98
PIXEL "Display" (Raster.Post) cd 16.98
QBERT, DJ "DJ Qbert's Complete Do-It Yourself Volume 2: Skratch Sessions" (Thud Rumble) dvd 26.00
RAKU SUGIFATTI "Futatsu" (Improvised Music From Japan) cd 24.00
REYNOLS "The Bolomo Mogal F Hits" cd 22.00
RUSSELL, ARTHUR "The World of Arthur Russell" (Soul Jazz) cd 19.98
SACHIKO M "Derive" (NAIM) cd 16.98
SAJIKI, TENJO "Den'Em Ni" (Swax) cd 38.00
SAJIKI, TENJO "Throw Away" (Swax) cd 34.00
SSIBILANCE "s/t" cd-r 9.98
SONIC FLOWER "Heavy Sonic & Flower Groove" (Leaf Hound) cd 13.98
SOUL POSITION "8 Million Stories" (Fatbeats) cd 16.98
STATISTICS "Leave Your Name" (Jade Tree) cd 14.98
STILLER, BEN "The Ben Stiller Show" 2cd 27.00
SWARM OF THE LOTUS "When White Becomes Black" (At A Loss) cd 12.98
TAPE "Milieu" (Hapna) cd 16.98
TETSUO "Ranshuo" (Shit Jam Records) cd 8.98
THE ONE "Guardian's Inhuman" (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
THROBBING GRISTLE "TG+" (Mute) 10cd box set 142.00
TIRILL "A Dance With the Shadows" (The Wild Places) cd 15.98
UNIVERSITY OF ERRORS "Uglymusic.4.Monica" cd 12.98
UNPERSONS "III" (At A Loss) cd 12.98
UNSANE "Lambhouse" (Relapse) cd + dvd 14.98
UZ JSME DOMA "Rybi Tuk" (Indies) cd 14.98
VANDERSLICE, JOHN "Cellar Door" (Barsuk) cd 13.98
WALTER, WEASEL / KEVIN DRUMM / FRED LONBERG-HOLM "Eruption" (Grob) cd
WEIRD WAR "If You Can't Beat 'Em, Bite 'Em" (Drag City) cd 14.98
YOSHIHIDE, OTOMO / PARK JE CHUN / MI YEON "Loose Community" (Improvised Music From Japan) cd 17.98
_______________________________________________________________________
ABOUT MAILORDER

Please place your order via our website.

[1] We will contact you to verify your order and let you know when it will be shipped. Please note that occasionally it may take a day or two for us to reply. We are not a faceless bunch of computers replying to your order -- we are human beings!

[2] If we are out of some of your items and we think we will get them within the same week, we can wait to ship. Or... If it's going to be more than a few days to complete your order, we will ship what we have and then will contact you as the remainders arrive.

[ note ] Due to the everchanging nature of the independent record business, we are not responsible for listed price changes (due to supplier price changes) and often cannot update our site fast enough to reflect these changes, but we will always try to let you know of any differences.


DOMESTIC SHIPPING :
-------------------------------- Shipping within the USA is via UPS Ground for a flat rate of $4.50 for 1-2 items. Packages with 3 items or more cost $6.50. All packages are automatically insured and trackable. Please note that UPS will not ship to PO Boxes. If you only have a PO Box, we can ship via US Postal Service. Please note that if you have us ship to a commercial address (like your workplace), it saves us money and we appreciate that.


INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING :
-------------------------------- For foreign customers we ship via US AIRMAIL ("Letterpost"). Your price is based on the actual cost of shipping plus $1. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package, No Correspondence" category and see the price for "Letterpost". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)

We highly recommend insurance for your international package, but it is very expensive! You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package, No Correspondence" category and see the price for "Parcel Post". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)


INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE :
-------------------------------- You are hereby forewarned that Aquarius is not responsible if your international package gets lost in the mail. Insurance is your only recourse if your records never show up. Since the terrible events of 9/11, mail service has been slow and undependable... and while we haven't experienced any *confirmed* permanently lost mail, insurance might provide some additional piece of mind in this time of upheaval. We strongly recommend it. But yes, it is very expensive. It's your choice. Again: Aquarius is not responsible for lost mail, so if you aren't willing to take a (slight but real) risk, please buy the insurance.

International insurance is very expensive! In fact often the insurance costs more than the value of your package, in which case it obviously does not make sense to insure it. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package, No Correspondence" category and see the price for "Parcel Post", which is the way insured packages are sent. 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)

For example: for a one-pound package worth $18 going to England, shipping without insurance is about $8. But with insurance, the shipping / insurance total is over $16!

It is your reponsibility to check the international rate calculator in order to determine whether or not you want international insurance. If you tell us you want international insurance, we will add it to your order no matter how much it costs!


PAYMENT :
-------------------------------- Payment is via credit card: Visa, MC, Discover, and Amex. Money orders are accepted only from customers within the USA. If you must pay by money order, you have to confirm the order with us through email or phone BEFORE you send any payment. We cannot take personal checks for mailorder, sorry!


QUESTION?
-------------------------------- Email the mailorder department: mailorder@aquariusrecords.org


_______________________________________________________________________
SOME SELECTED UPCOMING RELEASES

----} any moment now
Boris "Boris At Last" (aka "Feedbacker") cd on DIWPHALANX Records
Boris "Live at Shimokitazawa Shelter" DVD on DIWPHALANX Records

----} also upcoming, maybe even soon
Scharpling & Wuster "New Hope For The Ape-Eared" 2cd on Stereolaffs
Yeti "Volume Obliteration Trancendence" cd on Life Is Abuse
Professor "Acadamizer EP" cd reissue on tUMULt
Electric Wizard "We Live" cd on TMC (maybe delayed)
Es "Kaikkeuden Kasittamattomyys Ja Kauneus" cd on Fonal
Kiila "tba" cd on Fonal
Espers (Greg Weeks) "s/t" cd on Locust
Danny Ben-Israel "Kathmandu Sessions" cd on Locust
Henry Flynt & The Insurrections "I Don't Wanna" cd/lp on Locust
v/a "Folk Music of the Sahara - Among the Tuareg of Libya" dvd on Sublime Frequencies
Princess Nicotine "Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar" cd on Sublime Frequencies
v/a "Radio Morocco" cd on Sublime Frequencies
v/a "Radio Palestine: Sounds of the Eastern Mediterranean" cd on Sublime Frequencies
v/a "I Remember Syria" 2cd on Sublime Frequencies

----} February 3rd
The Mountain Goats "We Shall All Be Healed" cd/lp on 4AD
Electrelane "The Power Out" cd/lp on Beggar's Banquet
Microphones "Live In Japan" cd/lp on K
The Olivia Tremor Control "Black Foliage" cd reissue on Cloud Recordings
Summer Hymns "Value Series Vol. 1 Fool's Gold" cdep on Misra
Stereolab "Margerine Eclipse" vinyl on Rhino
Clouddead "Dead Dogs Two" 12" on Mush

----} February 10th
Probot "s/t" cd on Southern Lord
Einsturzende Neubauten "Perptuum Mobile" cd on Mute
Cesaria Evora "Club Sodade" cd on BMG
Norah Jones "Feels Like Home" cd
Six Organs of Admittance "Dark Noontide" LP on Holy Mountain
Dustbreeders and Junko "Mommy Close The Door" cd on Starlight Furniture Co.

----} February 17th
Amps For Christ "The People At Large" cd on 5RC
Xiu Xiu "Fabulous Muscles" cd on 5RC
Lambchop "Aw Cmon" cd on Merge
Lambchop "No You Cmon" cd on Merge
Superchunk "Crowding Up Your Visual Field" DVD on Merge
Trouble Funk "Live And Early Singles" 2cd on 2.13.61
Arthur Russell "Calling Out Of Context" cd reissue on Audika
El-P "High Water (Mark)" Blue Series Continuum cd on Thirsty Ear
Trans Am "Liberation" cd/lp on Thrill Jockey
All Night Radio "Spirit Stereo Frequency" cd/lp on Sub Pop
OOIOO "Kila Kila Kila" cd on Thrill Jockey
Xiu Xiu "Fabulous Muscles" cd on 5 Rue Christine
Trapist "Ballroom" cd on Thrill Jockey

----} February 24th
Masada String Trio "50th Birthday Celebration Volume One" cd on Tzadik
Opeth "Lamentations: Live At Shepherd's Bush Empire" DVD on Koch
Jawbreaker "Dear You" cd/2lp reissue on Blackball
Broken Social Scene "Feel Good Lost" cd on Arts & Crafts
Papa M "Hole Of Burning Alms" cd/2lp on Drag City
Will Oldham "Seafarers Music" cd/lp on Drag City
The Red Thread "Tension Pins" cd on Badman
Liars "They Were Wrong, So We Drowned" cd/lp on Mute
Laterna "Highways" cd on Badman
Uli Jon Roth "Metamorphosis" cd on Hunter
Prong "Scorpio Rising" cd on Hunter
Uphill Battle "Wreck Of Nerves" cd on Relapse

----} also in February
Todd Fancey (New Pornographers) "Fancey" cd on March
Black Forest/Black Sea "Forcefields & Constellations" cd on BlueSanct
Lugubrum "De Vette Cuecken" cd on Blood Fire Death

----} March 2nd
Sufjan Stevens "Seven Swans" cd on Sounds Familyre
Black Sabbath "The Black Box" box set
Get Up Kids "Guilt Show" cd/lp on Vagrant
Low "A Lifetime Of Temporary Relief: B-sides and Rarities" 3cd on Chairkickers Music
Simon Joyner "Lost With The Lights On" cd/lp on Jagjaguwar
Little Wings "Harvest Joy" cd on K

----} March 9th
TV On The Radio "Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes" cd on Touch & Go
The Black Heart Procession "The Tropics Of Love" DVD on Touch and Go
The Black Heart Procession + Solbakken "In The Fishtank 11" cd on Fishtank
Destroyer "Your Blues" cd on Merge
Squarepusher "Ultravisitor" cd/lp on Warp
The Bobbyteens "Crusin' For A Brusin'" cd on Estrus

----} March 16th
Richard Youngs "River Through Howling Sky" cd on Jagjaguwar
Circulatory System "Blasting Through" cd/lp on Cloud Recordings
Wolf Colonel "New England" cd on K
Rhys Chatham "Three Aspects of the Name" 12" on Table of the Elements
Text Of Light (Alan Licht & Lee Ranaldo) "tba" 12" on Table of the Elements

----} March 23rd
Master P "Good Side/Bad Side" cd on The New No Limit Records
Milford Graves/John Zorn "50th Birthday Celebration Volume Two" cd on Tzadik
Alvin Curran "Lost Marbles" cd on Tzadik

----} also in March
Mayhem "Chimera" cd on Season Of Mist
Iron & Wine "tba" cd/lp on Sup Pop

----} April
Steffen Basho-Junghans "7 Books" 2cd on Strange Attractors Audio House
Jolie Holland "Escondida" on Anti/Epitaph

----} May 4th
Kinski "tba" cd on Strange Attractors Audio House
Cul de Sac "ECIM" reissue cd on Strange Attractors Audio House

----} June 8th
Paik "Black Satin" cd on Strange Attractors Audio House
SubArachnoid Space "tba" cd on Strange Attractors Audio House

_______________________________________________________________________
To Zamboni Or Not To Zamboni

Jean-Francois Laporte's Mantra, recorded for the Metamkine label has long been one of Aquarius' favorite found sound compositions, in part because the source material behind this stellar piece of droning, timbral complexity was the mighty Zamboni. In all honesty, we're not entirely sure if Laporte did in fact use the Zamboni or if it was just some slightly malfunctioning air compressor in an ice-skating rink. Regardless, Aquarius is thrilled to announce that Mr. Laporte will be performing in San Francisco during 23five's Activating The Medium festival. Laporte intends on presenting an alternate live mix of Mantra as well as a new composition involving suspended timpani and a trombone mouthpiece, that we've been told is breathtaking. Plenty of other Aquarius favorites are also performing alongside Laporte during the two day festival including Mills College professor John Bischoff, Noisegate's Trevor Paglen, Matt Heckert, and Joe Colley. If you are at all intrigued by the idea of sound art, please do yourself the favor of attending this festival!

EVENT: THE SEVENTH ANNUAL ACTIVATING THE MEDIUM FESTIVAL
PRESENTED BY: 23five Incorporated, http://www.23five.org
WHEN: FEBRUARY 6 and 7, 2004, 8PM each evening
WHERE: SOMARTS, 934 Brannan Street (between 8th and 9th), San Francisco
COST: $10 at the door

23five Incorporated proudly presents the Seventh Annual Activating the Medium Festival. Founded in 1998, The Activating the Medium Festivals set out to expose and educate new audiences to trans-disciplinary themes
explored within the genre of Sound Art. Since its inception, six festivals have spanned the state of California. This year's festival brings together Sound Artists working in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, North Carolina, and
Quebec; featuring Jean-Francois Laporte, John Bischoff, Kenneth Atchley, Trevor Paglen, Solid Eye, Thomas Dimuzio, Michael Thomas Jackson, Joe Colley and Matt Heckert. Curated by Randy H.Y. Yau and David Prochaska.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6:
8PM: Performances at SomArts, San Francisco

Jean-Francois Laporte (Quebec, Canada)
John Bischoff (Berkeley)
Kenneth Atchley (Oakland)
Works by Matt Heckert (San Francisco)


SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7:
8PM: Performances at SomArts, San Francisco

Solid Eye (Los Angeles)
Thomas Dimuzio (SF) and Michael Thomas Jackson (NC)
Joe Colley (San Francisco)
Trevor Paglen (Oakland)
Works by Matt Heckert (San Francisco)


OTHER FESTIVAL EVENTS:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20:
7PM: Performances at Interact Theater, San Luis Obispo

Solid Eye (Los Angeles)
Thomas Dimuzio (San Francisco)
Coelacanth (San Francisco)
Works by Aaron Ximm (San Francisco)

FEBRUARY 9-29
Cuesta College Fine Arts Gallery
Solo exhibition by sound artist:

Ted Apel (San Diego)

More information: http://www.23five.org

_______________________________________________________________________




Love,

Andee Byram Cup Allan and Jim