MAXIMO PARK A Certain Trigger (Warp) 2cd 15.98
When we listed the Maximo Park ep a few lists back, in the review we proclaimed that if only it had been a full length it would have been record of the week for sure. Well, here we are a few months later, and what do ya know? Maximo Park is record of the week. It wasn't a done deal though, not at all. That first four-song ep was so perfect, Interpol meets XTC, flawless angular pop, we listened to it non-stop. So much so that when we first threw this on, it didn't quite live up to our expectations. Those first four songs from the ep set the bar pretty high. Maybe too high. But like all great records, each subsequent listen offered us more, and revealed each song to be even catchier than the one before. A Certain Trigger has quickly become the pop record of the year for us. Hyperbole? Maybe, but we just can't stop listening to this record. As we've mentioned many times before, we fought tooth and nail against this whole new wave dance punk revival, but a good band is a good band. What can you do? And ya know, we dug Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, but hell if Maximo Park doesn't trounce them all. They do have "the sound", that sort of jagged off kilter post punk pop that will ensure that they get lumped in with the flavors of the month. But the songs here are so much more timeless sounding. Unlike the loads of bands just aping Gang Of Four, Maximo Park sound like their own band, sure they share some sonic elements, but they sound like they could have easily existed in 1980 as much as 2005. And they draw their inspiration not only from the obvious, Gang Of Four, XTC, Interpol, but also incorporate the moody dramatic electropop of Ultravox, the gloomy buzz and burn of Joy Division, and even bouncy eighties power pop, with super fuzzed out synths, kinetic new wave rhythms, and of course MP frontman Paul Smith's immediately engaging vocals. The songs are bouncy and poppy, but manage to be dark and minor key and edgy enough to give the whole record an intense emotional buzz. Two songs from the ep are present, our pop song of the year "Apply Some Pressure" and the XTC worshipping "The Coast Is Always Changing" (you can hear samples of both with the review of the "Apply Some Pressure" ep), but there are plenty of new classics that have been getting repeat play here like crazy. The massively catchy "Now I'm All Over The Shop" with its pounding piano and weirdly arpeggiated rhythm, and a vocal melody that literally gives us chills, like that one song on a mixtape that makes you want to either smash everything to bits or run across town to declare your true love. And then there's the bouncy XTC count-by-numbers pop of "The Night I Lost My Head" with its angelic background Oooo's and a weird stop start chorus, and the gloomy bass driven "Once, A Glimpse" with it's chiming guitars, tribal rhythms and guitar heavy refrain and the gorgeously languid "Acrobat" that sounds like an updated version of Ultravox's "Vienna". So pretty. All of A Certain Trigger is totally classic sounding, enough that it was tough to pick which songs to make sound samples for. So yeah, all you folks who froth at the mouth for every band that has any of that Killers / Franz Ferdinand / Bloc Party sound going on will probably love this record, but it's way more than just another one of -those- bands. Maximo Park are an amazing pop band, and this is an amazing pop record, with enough sonic precedents to make it feel familiar and classic, but enough new stuff going on and enough killer classic songs to make it one of our favorite new records. Period.
For a limited time, a bonus disc is included featuring 7 tracks recorded live in Japan!
MPEG Stream: "Now I'm All Over The Shop"
MPEG Stream: "Limassol"
MPEG Stream: "The Night I Lose My Head"
MPEG Stream: "Once, A Glimpse"

MAXIMO PARK A Certain Trigger (Warp) lp 16.98
When we listed the Maximo Park ep a few lists back, in the review we proclaimed that if only it had been a full length it would have been record of the week for sure. Well, here we are a few months later, and what do ya know? Maximo Park is record of the week. It wasn't a done deal though, not at all. That first four-song ep was so perfect, Interpol meets XTC, flawless angular pop, we listened to it non-stop. So much so that when we first threw this on, it didn't quite live up to our expectations. Those first four songs from the ep set the bar pretty high. Maybe too high. But like all great records, each subsequent listen offered us more, and revealed each song to be even catchier than the one before. A Certain Trigger has quickly become the pop record of the year for us. Hyperbole? Maybe, but we just can't stop listening to this record. As we've mentioned many times before, we fought tooth and nail against this whole new wave dance punk revival, but a good band is a good band. What can you do? And ya know, we dug Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, but hell if Maximo Park doesn't trounce them all. They do have "the sound", that sort of jagged off kilter post punk pop that will ensure that they get lumped in with the flavors of the month. But the songs here are so much more timeless sounding. Unlike the loads of bands just aping Gang Of Four, Maximo Park sound like their own band, sure they share some sonic elements, but they sound like they could have easily existed in 1980 as much as 2005. And they draw their inspiration not only from the obvious, Gang Of Four, XTC, Interpol, but also incorporate the moody dramatic electropop of Ultravox, the gloomy buzz and burn of Joy Division, and even bouncy eighties power pop, with super fuzzed out synths, kinetic new wave rhythms, and of course MP frontman Paul Smith's immediately engaging vocals. The songs are bouncy and poppy, but manage to be dark and minor key and edgy enough to give the whole record an intense emotional buzz. Two songs from the ep are present, our pop song of the year "Apply Some Pressure" and the XTC worshipping "The Coast Is Always Changing" (you can hear samples of both with the review of the "Apply Some Pressure" ep), but there are plenty of new classics that have been getting repeat play here like crazy. The massively catchy "Now I'm All Over The Shop" with its pounding piano and weirdly arpeggiated rhythm, and a vocal melody that literally gives us chills, like that one song on a mixtape that makes you want to either smash everything to bits or run across town to declare your true love. And then there's the bouncy XTC count-by-numbers pop of "The Night I Lost My Head" with its angelic background Oooo's and a weird stop start chorus, and the gloomy bass driven "Once, A Glimpse" with it's chiming guitars, tribal rhythms and guitar heavy refrain and the gorgeously languid "Acrobat" that sounds like an updated version of Ultravox's "Vienna". So pretty. All of A Certain Trigger is totally classic sounding, enough that it was tough to pick which songs to make sound samples for. So yeah, all you folks who froth at the mouth for every band that has any of that Killers / Franz Ferdinand / Bloc Party sound going on will probably love this record, but it's way more than just another one of -those- bands. Maximo Park are an amazing pop band, and this is an amazing pop record, with enough sonic precedents to make it feel familiar and classic, but enough new stuff going on and enough killer classic songs to make it one of our favorite new records. Period.
MPEG Stream: "Now I'm All Over The Shop"
MPEG Stream: "Limassol"
MPEG Stream: "The Night I Lose My Head"
MPEG Stream: "Once, A Glimpse"

V/A Indiavision: Hindi Film Songs And Instrumentals (1966-1984) (Buda Musique) cd 21.00
The Western obsession with India's prolific film industry, and even more so the musical numbers that drive the narratives forward, has nearly reached its saturation point. The amount of "best of Bollywood" anthologies released to date seems to almost equal India's annual theatrical output. Which all just makes it that much harder for us when we want to tell you that Indiavision is quite assuredly the best collection of Bollywood music we've come accross. See, so much has come before that such a claim will be immediately written off as so much of the usual record reviewer hyperbole. So just hear us out. First of all, what is it that makes Indian film music so great? Well, one of the things most often cited by fans is the over-the-top arrangements on some of the better numbers. The really great film music composers like Kalyanji & Anandji and Laxmikant & Pyarelal are some of the most worldly specialists in all genres of music, integrating the talents of Ennio Morricone's Western period, entire western orchestras, regional Indian classical music, the newest in electronic developments and whatever fad happened to be big in the year which they were composing (Hawaiian slide guitar, psychedelic music, soul, funk, you name it). The greatest film scores manage to somehow meld all that together in a way that just begs for some kind of clever culinary analogy (which we will spare you from in this review).
What else makes a great Bollywood song? The vocalist(s). A good song can survive without a male vocalist; they're only needed in duets with the female lead. The female vocalists in Indian film music are the equivalent of lead guitarists in the golden age of American rock and roll, and their vocal chords have the same dynamics, presence and range as most amplified guitars. Singers like Asha Bhosle (India's shining star of singers), featured heavily on this collection (and all collections) have a way of disembodying their voices from their bodies. When Bhosle sings her voice cuts through the speakers like a scalpel. Half of this phenomenon is due to her amazing lungs, the other to the insane engineering skills of the producers who record these scores who choose to overload the microphone preamps and super-saturate the magnetic tape during the loudest passages resulting in an unholy natural compression of the signal. Second only to the likes of Lee Perry in his Black Ark period of the early seventies or dub master King Tubby, the production values of Indian film music is singularly twisted in their techniques. Like the aforementioned Jamaican demigods of the multi-track, the recordists here have an arsenal of reverb, echo and compression tools that -- while not as new as the gear used in Hollywood's recording studios -- are used to their absolute functional limit. All of those essential elements of Indian film music are represented on each and every song here. But unlike many earlier collections, which focus their range on a particular era, composer, or vocalist, Indiavision draws from a wide range of sources. The tracks included here date from as far back as 1966 on up to 1984, it includes such film score heavyweights as father S.D. and son R.D. Burman, Laxmikant & Pyarelal, Kalyanji & Anandji and Bappi Lahiri. The broad time spanned by the tracks makes this collection as a whole more varied and easy on the ears. There's also quite a good variety of both slow, sultry numbers and completely batty comical ones. Some, like the title music for "The Burning Train" (listed as an instrumental), which features gruff female vocals like those of Yma Sumac, or the "Cabaret Dance Music" from the film "Dharmatma" with its maniacal laughter are completely off the wall. Others, like "Yashomati Maiya Se Bole Nandala" -- a deadly serious romantic number with crooned vocals by Lata Mangeshkar -- and "Come Closer" -- a mellow and sincere funk/soul song sung by Salma Agha -- are beautiful respites from the cornball antics which are more often the songs of choice for Bollywood anthologies. Comes with a 30 page, full color booklet with plentiful liner notes in both French and English. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: LATA MANGESHKAR / LAXMIKANT & PYARELAL "Yashomati Maiya Se Bole Nandala"
MPEG Stream: KALYANJI & ANANDJI "Cabaret Dance Music"
MPEG Stream: SALMA AGHA / BAPPI LAHIRI "Come Closer"
MPEG Stream: R.D. BURMAN "Title Music from the film The Burning Train"

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AKIYAMA, MITCHELL Small Explosions That Are Yours To Keep (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98
The Small Explosions That Are Yours To Keep (if you purchase this, that is, which we recommend you do) are the eleven instrumental songs/soundscapes found on this latest, lovely electro-acoustic outing from Montreal's Mitchell Akiyama. His is a dreamy world of stuttering electronica, abstract yet pretty, with fragments of melody coaxed from what sound like swooning strings, accordion wheezes, delicate piano, and tinkling bells amongst other playthings. The gauzy glitch and crackle put us in mind of Tarwater, Oval, Alog and Philip Jeck. It's just really really nice... Allan's mom (visiting SF) heard this playing in the store and immediately bought a copy she liked it so much! In fact, he was gonna get her to review it, but that didn't happen unfortunately. He does remember her saying that she thought that each track sounded like a different insect, some happy, some sad, young and old, producing some sort of sap or syrup...honey I guess. Something like that. We can kind of hear where she's coming from with that. You (or your mom) might come up with a different mental image, but we imagine that if you like gentle, moody rainy-day electronica with a certain 'clicks n' cuts' element you'd like this too. Likewise even if you didn't know you liked any sort of electronica (like Allan's mom previous to hearing this). Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Strategies For Combatting Invisibility"
MPEG Stream: "Full Then Felt"
MPEG Stream: "Contrapuntal Lung Apparatus"

ALVA NOTO / RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Insen (Asphodel) cd 13.98
Insen is the exquisite follow-up to Vrioon, which was the first collaborative outing for seminal electronic musicians Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) and Ryuichi Sakamoto that came out in 2003. As on their first album, Insen centers upon the balance between the impressionist piano passages of Sakamoto and the cold yet graceful production of Nicolai. While the differences between the two records are subtle, they are certainly noteworthy as Nicolai slices up Sakamoto's piano into fine slivers of time-stretched fragments, terse rhythms, and blurred ambience. In turn, Nicolai realigns these sounds with Sakamoto's untreated notes, providing a complex interplay between the piano and its fractured electronic mimesis. In structuring all of the pieces on Insen, Nicolai occasionally situates his electronics along a parallel path to Sakamoto's piano, and slowly moves the two paths toward different directions, with Nicolai's rhythms achieving velocity and tension whereas Sakamoto's pointillist notes remain weighless and transient. Yet, Nicolai always teases with losing control over the composition, as he often snaps back into a somber atmosphere of minimalist smears, resorting to a similiar strategy as heard on Eno's epic Thursday Afternoon. Stunning.
MPEG Stream: "Aurora"
MPEG Stream: "Logic Moon"

BORIS / GREEN MACHINE / CHURCH OF MISERY / ETERNAL ELYSIUM Wizard's Convention - Japanese Heavy Rock Showcase (DIW Phalanx) dvd 35.00
There's a show coming up you can't miss. Next month, July 9th, Saturday night. ALL NIGHT. The cream of the Japanese stoner sludge crop. All perfroming in the same venue on the same night. Boris, Green Machine, Church Of Misery and Eternal Elysium! (Plus 'special guests' Pelican!) Holy Crap!! C'mon, let's go!! Oh, wait. The tickets may be only $30, but the plane fare to get there is $800, 'cause it's happening in Tokyo, Japan of course. And of course hotels will cost us about $600 for the weekend. And then of course food and all that. So right around $1600, to see the ultimate Japanese Heavy Rock Showcase?! Well, if there ever WAS a show worth $1600, it would probably be this one. Thankfully, we've got this $35 dvd for those of us with a much more sensible show-going budget. Beautifully packaged (designed of course by a certain member of Boris aka Fangs Anal Satan) the Wizard's Convention DVD gathers live footage from all four bands from 2003-2004 at various venues in and around Tokyo. Shot professionally, all the sets are awesome, super high energy, ultra kinetic, wild and rocking, hair flailing, lights flashing, all before very polite (but headbanging) Japanese crowds. The coolest thing about this disc is seeing that most of the purveyors of this filthy, sludgy, crusty, doomy, metallic brutality, are not in fact the scraggly tattooed beasts you imagine when listening to this stuff, instead they all seem to be not-scraggly-at-all skinny ultra cuties. Especially the serial killer obssesed Church Of Misery, who in a different setting could be some kind of boy band. And of course we can never get enough of Boris guitarist Wata whose tiny girl frame belies the crushing guitar god she proves to be, unleashing an ultra heavy torrent of relentless riffing, seemingly without even breaking a sweat.
This DVD is ALL REGION!

SMOG A River Ain't Too Much To Love (Drag City) cd 14.98
On his new Smog album (yep, he's shed the parentheses for the time being), Bill Callahan has opted to situate the somber instruments (primarily his own guitar, piano by Joanna Newsom and understated drums from Dirty Three's Jim White) and Connie Lovatt's backing vocals in a very distant backseat and his vocals right up front and center. No complaints here though 'cuz his pipes are in fine form, conveying a similar deep velvety heft and thoughtful phrasing to those of Giant Sand's Howe Gelb or Son Volt's Jay Farrar. Actually A River Ain't Too Much To Love fits quite well right in the enigmatic Americana alcove between those two artists. Callahan continues to pen his intimate songs with bare bones economy (but no longer 'lo-fi', this was beautifully recorded at Willie Nelson's studio in Texas), and a few of those included here are some of his most captivating. Look no further than the fourth song "Rock Bottom Riser". We've had something of a love/hate relationship with the mournful music of Smog, there's been some unbelievably powerful albums (the unfortunately titled Dongs Of Sevotion and Red Apple Falls) and some frustrating disappointments (Rain On Lens), but this album and the previous one (Supper) have kept us securely in the loveseat.
MPEG Stream: "Palimpsest"
MPEG Stream: "Rock Bottom Riser"

SMOG A River Ain't Too Much To Love (Drag City) lp 15.98
On his new Smog album (yep, he's shed the parentheses for the time being), Bill Callahan has opted to situate the somber instruments (primarily his own guitar, piano by Joanna Newsom and understated drums from Dirty Three's Jim White) and Connie Lovatt's backing vocals in a very distant backseat and his vocals right up front and center. No complaints here though 'cuz his pipes are in fine form, conveying a similar deep velvety heft and thoughtful phrasing to those of Giant Sand's Howe Gelb or Son Volt's Jay Farrar. Actually A River Ain't Too Much To Love fits quite well right in the enigmatic Americana alcove between those two artists. Callahan continues to pen his intimate songs with bare bones economy (but no longer 'lo-fi', this was beautifully recorded at Willie Nelson's studio in Texas), and a few of those included here are some of his most captivating. Look no further than the fourth song "Rock Bottom Riser". We've had something of a love/hate relationship with the mournful music of Smog, there's been some unbelievably powerful albums (the unfortunately titled Dongs Of Sevotion and Red Apple Falls) and some frustrating disappointments (Rain On Lens), but this album and the previous one (Supper) have kept us securely in the loveseat.
MPEG Stream: "Palimpsest"
MPEG Stream: "Rock Bottom Riser"

THRONES Alraune (Communion) cd 13.98
Timed almost perfectly with the release of the third Thrones cd Day Late, Dollar Short (one of our Records of the Week last week, for those with short memories), we also just got a few copies of Thrones' 1996 debut disc Alraune back in stock. Sheer luck, 'cause it's out of print -- but one of our distributors managed to find a box of 'em lurking in the depths of their warehouse, so we grabbed 'em all while the grabbing was good. As you too should do, if you don't have this already and are a fan of all that is heavy! A quick background briefing: Thrones is Joe Preston, who has done time in both seminal dirge-masters Earth and the Melvins (he's also played in The Whip and SUNNO))) and is current the bassist for High On Fire). You probably know all that already, and this too: back when Joe was in the Melvins, each member put out a solo album (inspired by the same stunt KISS pulled way back when). Joe's was perhaps the best. Carrying on from that, he "formed" Thrones and set out to prove to the world that a one-man-band could be as heavy as any "normal" band (not that the Melvins are all that normal, ahem). Not only did he offer that proof with this Thrones debut, but also took it to the stage. A drum machine, double necked guitar bass, vocal effects and samples were (and still are) put to shudderingly heavy use by Joe in kicking out his weirdly prog and sometimes oddly pop Thrones drone anthems. The tracks on Alarune range from aggro Melvinsy metal to underwater drone to drifting New Age synth melody...a sinister combustion of sound that bridges Earth with Goblin! So, we're happy to have these again (for however long they last), allowing us to review it for the very first time (back in '96 we just weren't as on the ball as we are now I guess)! So, if you've still got an empty space on your cd shelf next to Sperm Whale and Day Late, Dollar Short now's the time to fill it.
MPEG Stream: "Gifthorse"
MPEG Stream: "Ursa Minor"

VANNIER, JEAN-CLAUDE L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches (Finders Keepers) cd 16.98
Some reissues of long-lost gems arrive here with little fanfare and turn out to be great nonetheless. This one though, came our way emblazed with blurbs proclaiming its immense awesomeness quoting the likes of Jim O'Rourke, Tim Gane, Jarvis Cocker and David Holmes. And guess what? Those guys do indeed know what they're talking about! This IS pretty fantastic. Here we have an action-packed instrumental concept album whose title translates into English as The Child Killer Of The Flies, which musically narrates a simple but creepy story by Serge Gainsbourg (written *after* he heard the album, not before, and included the liner notes, explaining each track title) about the horrific revenge of flies on a child who had tortured them. This musical story-telling is by way of schizoid arrangements of tracks that range in sound from groovy pop to jazz to avant-garde tape music to fuzz guitar rock! Sounds good, eh? Good n' weird for sure.
L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches is a "Fellini-esque psychedelic symphony" originally released (but poorly distributed and relegated to general obscurity) in 1972, credited to a unknown group called Isolitudes. The man behind Insolitudes, though, was one Jean-Claude Vannier, a musician and producer from the happening '60s French pop ("Ye Ye music") scene who had scored film soundtracks and collaborated with Serge Gainsbourg, most famously providing the arrangements for Gainsbourg's highly-rated L'Histoire De Melody Nelson album (the reissue of which we wish we had in stock also, but haven't been able to get a hold of lately). This record is thereby cited as the follow-up to that one-of-a-kind conceptual classic. Itself it's pretty much one-of-a-kind too. Funky and groovy, as well as deliriously, disorientingly hallucinogenic, this will hit you with lush string arrangements one moment, sound effects of sheer terror the next... it's psych, it's prog, it's funk, it's musique concrete. There's even a chorus of car horns put to good use here! It's the freakiest 'sploitation soundtrack that never was. This reissue includes two bonus tracks from a rare 7" single entitled Point D'Interrogation, and also boasts extensive and informative (and quite laudatory) liner notes by DJ Andy Votel. Very recommended!
MPEG Stream: "L'Enfant La Mouche Et Les Allumettes"
MPEG Stream: "Le Roi Des Mouches Et La Confiture De Rouse"
MPEG Stream: "Mort Du Roi Des Mouches"

VANNIER, JEAN-CLAUDE L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches (Finders Keepers) lp 27.00
Some reissues of long-lost gems arrive here with little fanfare and turn out to be great nonetheless. This one though, came our way emblazed with blurbs proclaiming its immense awesomeness quoting the likes of Jim O'Rourke, Tim Gane, Jarvis Cocker and David Holmes. And guess what? Those guys do indeed know what they're talking about! This IS pretty fantastic. Here we have an action-packed instrumental concept album whose title translates into English as The Child Killer Of The Flies, which musically narrates a simple but creepy story by Serge Gainsbourg (written *after* he heard the album, not before, and included the liner notes, explaining each track title) about the horrific revenge of flies on a child who had tortured them. This musical story-telling is by way of schizoid arrangements of tracks that range in sound from groovy pop to jazz to avant-garde tape music to fuzz guitar rock! Sounds good, eh? Good n' weird for sure.
L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches is a "Fellini-esque psychedelic symphony" originally released (but poorly distributed and relegated to general obscurity) in 1972, credited to a unknown group called Isolitudes. The man behind Insolitudes, though, was one Jean-Claude Vannier, a musician and producer from the happening '60s French pop ("Ye Ye music") scene who had scored film soundtracks and collaborated with Serge Gainsbourg, most famously providing the arrangements for Gainsbourg's highly-rated L'Histoire De Melody Nelson album (the reissue of which we wish we had in stock also, but haven't been able to get a hold of lately). This record is thereby cited as the follow-up to that one-of-a-kind conceptual classic. Itself it's pretty much one-of-a-kind too. Funky and groovy, as well as deliriously, disorientingly hallucinogenic, this will hit you with lush string arrangements one moment, sound effects of sheer terror the next... it's psych, it's prog, it's funk, it's musique concrete. There's even a chorus of car horns put to good use here! It's the freakiest 'sploitation soundtrack that never was. This reissue includes two bonus tracks from a rare 7" single entitled Point D'Interrogation, and also boasts extensive and informative (and quite laudatory) liner notes by DJ Andy Votel. Very recommended!
MPEG Stream: "L'Enfant La Mouche Et Les Allumettes"
MPEG Stream: "Le Roi Des Mouches Et La Confiture De Rouse"
MPEG Stream: "Mort Du Roi Des Mouches"

WHITMAN, KEITH FULLERTON Multiples (Kranky) cd 14.98
A few years back, Keith Fullerton Whitman wowed the students of the Harvard University Studio for Electro-Acoustic Composition with a few workshops that demonstrated his wizardry with the Max/MSP computing language. In exchange, he got access to the University's collection of antique synthesizers including the Buchla Music Box and Serge Modular Prototype with their massive banks of patch bays, knobs, and toggle switches. The images of these devices which grace the album artwork in taxonomic presentation immediate provide a cold, tonal air of paranoiac, bunker aesthetic that out of the early history of institutionally funded electronic music (i.e. Xenakis, Ussachevsky, Eliane Radigue, Arne Nordheim, etc.). Multiples far exceeds whatever expectations one might have when gazing upon the covers, as Whitman once again argues his case as one of the most gifted electronic musicians of the contemporary era. Each of the tracks honestly profess their source material as 'stereo music for acoustic, electric, and electronic instruments' including those aforementioned electronic devices from Harvard as well far more commonplace instruments such as a hi-hat cymbal, a drum kit, and acoustic and electric guitars. The album opens with glacial timbres that emerge from that hi-hat which Whitman transforms into a Mirror-like dronescape of murk, fog, and mystery. Next, the Serge Modular Synth buzzes with complex saw-blade waveforms of agitated electricity, phase pattern sweepings, and post-Dockstader pointilist spectroscopy. Harkening back to his early work with tape delay and guitar repetition, Whitman's work with a Yamaha Disklavier Prototype is sublime in its hypnotic prowess echoed with a lingering sense of melancholia. Whitman then shifts to a wonderful recreation of the vintage organ 'n' drum sound from Swedish icons Hansson and Karlsson, with baroque shifts in melody upon a simple drum propulsion. Altogether, Multiples showcases the many personalities of Mr. Whitman for a marvellous album!
MPEG Stream: "4)."
MPEG Stream: "5)."
MPEG Stream: "6)."

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We realize that lots of folks might have only recently discovered aQuarius, and may have missed out on lots of past favorites we consider essential listening. Many of those same people may not realize that our very own Andee runs the tUMULt label, on which some of our all time favorite records have been released. So check it out:

V/A Painted Black (tUMULt) cd 13.98
FINALLY!!! Hard to believe this thing is actually done considering how long and how seemingly cursed this project has been. Started almost 5 years ago to be released on AQ staffer Jim's now defunct Petrol label, then bequeathed 2 years later to AQ staffer Andee to release on his tUMULt label where the lineup and concept went through many changes (possibly because what was begun as an homage to a song Jim really liked, had become a deconstruction of a song Andee really hates) and then an endless procession of waits, mastering, pressing, re-recording, battles with other labels over 'rights', as well as 4 different cover concepts that all had to be scrapped because they were seemingly too difficult for any printers to confidently take on. -sigh-
So here we are. Was it worth the wait? Obviously we think so. Look at the lineup, a veritable who's who of AQ favorites: Acid Mothers Temple, Circle, Hrvatski, James Plotkin, Kit Clayton, Loren Chasse, Troum, the Tape-beatles, Mieskuoro Huutajaat, Fennesz, and Stilluppsteypa. And that's just the cream. Lots of tracks were left off, according to Andee in order to avoid the spotty/uneven flow of most compilation/tribute/cover records. He even opted to leave off the Melt Banana track, which was a tough, but important choice, since the spazzy grind of their track disrupted the droning meditative, hypnotic flow of what is now less just a compilation of random tracks, more an epic and gorgeous hour of dreamy droney creepy blackness.
So what does it sound like? Well, while it does flow, and could perhaps pass itself off as a record by a single (quite eclectic) group, each track offers something unique, while still culling the sinister spirit and nihilistic 'rock' from the original (the inspiration for this comp). Finnish shouting choir Mieskuoro Huutajaat start things off with a brief, and shouted, acapaella version, in Finnish, and delivered with gusto! James Plotkin's Joy Of Disease turns it into a burbling, stuttering, electronic soundscape with hiccupping beats and backwards vocals. Somewhere between Boards Of Canada and Coil. Stilluppsteyppa took back their original track, a wash of glitchy yet melodic, musique concrete, and re-recorded/re-mixed it, removing most of the melody and adding even more space, resulting in a dark abyss of gorgeously perplexing minimalism. The Kit Clayton track is an ultra catchy, beat heavy SF glitch core workout, that obliterates the original melody but manages to keep the minor key tension and dark ambience. Ultra prolific Japanese space rockers Acid Mothers Temple turn the original into a wild pagan ritual, starting out with several minutes of Tsuyama's throaty chants, skipping nervously around that oh-so-familiar melody before the band stumbles in to join him for the remaining 10 minutes, with splattery percussion, freaked out reverb/retard guitar and squealing feedback. Hrvatski (aka Keith Whitman) claims that this Painted Black contribution is his favorite track that he's ever recorded and it's easy to see why: he actually sings, plays guitar, and weaves a thick wash of warm, langorous tones before it all crumbles beneath a speaker shredding cascade of sputtering drill and bass. Iowa's masters of plunderphonia, the Tape-Beatles use found sounds and actual(?) chunks of the original to create a tense and unnerving, noirish dreamscape, with disebodied screams, curious snippets of overheard conversations, and THAT meoldy sliced and diced, which all end up adding to the creepy vibe. German drone-sters Troum incorporate 'that' melody into a totally overpowering and molasses-thick drone, assembled from multiple tracks of guitar and accordion. The Fennesz track was previously released on an ep via Jim O'Rourke's Moikai label, and to us seems like Fennesz at his very best. Melodies and textures are spit out, stuttering and hiccupping from the cold, digital craw of the laptop, but somehow come out all warm and thick and coil around you like stuffed snakes and deliciously fragrant pipesmoke. Amazing. AQ faves Circle, do what they do best, taking the skeletal remains of the original, holding on to the barebones melody, and constructing a motorik, unwavering rhythm, that sounds like Tony Conrad and Faust's Outside The Dream Syndicate with just a little more melody and umph. And the record is finished off perfectly, spiralling slowly into 'black'ness, by AQ pal Loren Chasse (who as you probably already know is a pillar of the Jewelled Antler Collective, as well as a member of Thuja, the Blithe Suns, etc). He uses snippets of the original, slowed down hundreds and hundreds of times until it is a lugubrious almost-melody, and contact mic-ed strobe lights to create a static-y, humming, nighttime dronescape, like an otherworldy forest, complete with clattery insect buzz and moaning winds in the ancient trees. An almost perfect compilation and an amazing gathering of some of our favorite artists doing some of their best work. Essential.
MPEG Stream: JOY OF DISEASE "2"
MPEG Stream: TROUM "8"
MPEG Stream: L. CHASSE "11"
MPEG Stream: HRVATSKI "6"

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AGENTS OF ABHORRENCE Covert Lobotomy (Missing Link) 9" 14.98
How can you not love a band called Agents of Abhorrence? Or a record called Covert Lobotomy? Well, with names like those you can probably guess what sort of business these agents get up to. A thrashing grinding buzz of epic proportions. Swarms of bombinating riffs and spastically thrashing drums, howled vocals and ultraprecise ultracomplex song structures. Massive and masterful grind! Pete from the mighty Whitehorse hipped us to these guys and he was right on the money. Clear vinyl packaged in a gorgeous cut-away sleeve, hard to describe but really, really cool looking. Beautiful and of course VERY LIMITED!!

ALPERT, HERB AND THE TIJUANA BRASS Going Places (Shout! Factory) cd 13.98
Ok, while I don't think we're gonna stock and review EVERY entry in Shout! Factory/A&M's new "Herb Alpert Signature Series", we did just list the reissue of the all-time classic Whipped Cream & Other Delights by Herb and his Tijuana Brass (and sold a bunch to some happy customers) so we'd be remiss then if we didn't also give some attention to this other classic Tijuana Brass album, Whipped Cream's follow-up Going Places. Also from 1965, this LP sported a bandolier of boppy south-of-the-border styled instrumental pop hits like "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea" (which will ring bells with some of your for sure from its use on the old TV game show the Dating Game). Then there's the sweet "More And More Amor" and the lush va-va-va-vooom of "Mae". Also: Herb's Tijuana version of surf nugget "Walk Don't Run" alongside other familiar tunes like "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You", "Zorba The Greek" and the "3rd Man Theme". It's hard to keep a smile off the face while listening to this, really! Sunny fun from a pop world very different from today's.
MPEG Stream: "Tijuana Taxi"
MPEG Stream: "Walk Don't Run"

ASKEW, ED Ask The Unicorn (ESP-Disk) cd 15.98
Could the time be any more right for an album of intimate, individual psychedelic folk music from three decades ago to be reissued? This is almost more 'now' than it was then, really! Ed Askew's Ask The Unicorn was originally released on LP by the legendary, eccentric free-jazz and folk label ESP-Disk back in 1969. Now at last it's on cd (twice, in fact, more on that in a sec). We think anyone into, say, Devendra Banhart will enjoy this. In fact, we wonder what Mr. Askew thinks of the music of Mr. Banhart (if he's ever heard him). We'd imagine he'd think... "Not bad, but I did that 30 years ago!!"
One artsy guy with a weird imagination and a nasally-but-nice, gentle, emotive voice and a guitar, singing and playing from the heart, his tripped out lyrics turning tight circles with their rhyme schemes, Askew comes across a bit like a druggier, rawer, more obscure and stream-of-conciousness Bob Dylan or something.
Note: weirdly enough, two different editions of this have just been released on cd. The one we've got doesn't actually say Ask The Unicorn on it (except as a song title) but is indeed that album, with three bonus tracks and a sticker proclaiming this to be the "Artist's Edition". Not sure what's going on there, as we also received word that Askew, while happy this was in stores, didn't actually know it was coming out! The extra tracks apparently come from a cd-r version he'd been circulating to friends or something. Anyway, this version seems to be the better deal, and we're only mentioning all this so as to preempt any confusion about what exactly this is.
The bonus tracks are quite worthwhile, with two ("The Accordion Man" and "Green Song") dating from back in the day and one ("A Soldier's Song") from 2005! Yeah, the new track sticks out, both his voice and the production being quite different, and Askew even seems to be deliberately making it seem up to date with references to computer mice and monitors -- and there's even a drum machine part that starts up halfway through the song! But actually it's a nice tune and comes last on the disc so its inclusion isn't too jarring. Indeed, it helps bring this great music into the present, where it belongs.
MPEG Stream: "Fancy That"
MPEG Stream: "The Accordion Man"

BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE Korrelations (Old Europa Cafe) cd 15.98
We finally managed to get a few more of these in, so if you missed out last time don't dawdle!
Not long after we reviewed the recent collaboration between dark ambient drone legends, Nordvargr and Drakh (who started out as partners in the legendary black industrial drone outfit MZ412), we received an email from Drakh, thanking us for the review, and letting us know about his main project Beyond Sensory Experience. What a weird coincidence. Some of us around here were already huge fans of BSE, but had no idea who was behind it. Although sonically it makes perfect sense. Beyond Sensory Experience is an exploration into bleak sonic darkness, vast expanses of suffocating drones and desiccated melodies, haunting disembodied voices and ghostly glimpses into the dark soul. Korrelations is a remix record of sorts. Four original tracks, seven re-interpretations. One from ex-partner Nordvargr, the rest from like minded isolationists Alexxx, Doshaka, P3, Zdan and Alko. While occasionally the new versions introduce Muslimgauze-like tribal percussion, traditional drum kit and electric guitars, the bulk of the record is dark and dreary and rumblingly minimal. Muted pulses underscore streaks of black and grey, distant throbs beat out funereal rhythms beneath huge swaths of thick fuzzy drone, all flecked with bizarre sonic bits of lost dialogue, cracked and creaking flutters, and a completely claustrophobic and creepy ambience.
MPEG Stream: "Korrelations"
MPEG Stream: "The Two-Trace Problem (Alexxx)"
MPEG Stream: "Tortuna (Henriknordvargrbjorkk)"

BJORKK, HENRIK NORDVARGR The Dead Never Sleep (Old Europa Cafe) cd 15.98
Finally we're starting to be able to get records by Nordvargr on a regular basis. Many of us here have been totally obsessed with Nordvargr for ages but it's been so tough to get his records in with any regularity and never enough to list.
For those unfamiliar, Mr. Nordvagr was a member of seminal black metal ambient drone outfit MZ412, and later went on to form the miltaristic drone folk ensembles Toroidh and Folkstorm, as well as releasing stuff under his given name. The Dead Never Sleep is Nordvargr's newest release and definitely harkens back to his days in MZ412. This is one of the darkest, bleakest most abject drone records ever. Super minimal and pitch black. A million shades of black and grey, all slowly and barely shifting. Vast expanses of slow motion reverberations and distant rumbles, the sounds of hearts beating and gongs shimmering and winds whipping and waves crashing but all heard through the tiny end of a mile long, black hole telescope. Planets imploding struggling to be heard through the deadness of space. A barely there smear of subsonic thrum, gorgeously serene, like a peaceful boat trip, drifting lazily down a river of black pitch, through the blackened caverns of the underworld. Definitely one of the most evocative, and brilliantly bleak collections of drone musick in recent memory!
MPEG Stream: "Algenon"
MPEG Stream: "Noma Klaw"

BROOKHAVEN Transitive Verses (Expel) cd 11.98
This new Brookhaven album unwinds like a slow waking from a dream. Nine hazy, mesmerizing instrumental beauties. In turn Transitive Verses brings to mind four 'M's -- M83, Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine and Morricone -- but wholly without being imitative. On this, their follow-up to 2001's Everything That Rises Must Rise, they've taken their music to a whole new plane. Some elements have been retained such as their warm shimmery guitar twang and their blend of acoustic drumming and programmed beats plus some lingering shadows of post-rock-ness, while others have been set aside for the time being. For one thing, although there is a heavier synthesizer presence on this album, this is definitely less woozily spacey than their previous work, and much more composed. Whereas much of Everything Rises took a gradual meandering path that drifted in and out of focus seemingly at random, their new material seems more fully realized, with each song following a more defined arch. The results are ultra dynamic, but somehow still thoroughly gentle at the same time. Wonderful!
MPEG Stream: "Transitive Verses"
MPEG Stream: "Static In The Valley"

BUNNYBRAINS 88 Squirrel Attack EP (Equation) 10" 25.00
You know how much we love the Bunnybrains around here. Their chaotic retarded garage rock chaos gets us everytime. We were blown away by the recent Box The Bunny release, that collected all their old recordings and included a DVD of insane and ridiculous footage. So you can imagine how psyched we were to learn that there was a brand new Bunnybrains record! So why the 88 you ask? Well, apparently there were two seperate bands that joined forces in 1988 and became the Bunny brains we know and love. After 17 years or so, rock and roll took its toll and the Bunnybrains split back into two seperate units. Both bands are 100% Bunnybrains (or at least 98%) and both bands kick ass! This new 10" from Bunnybrains 88 is ULTRA LIMITED to only 333 copies, the first 88 of which came in super fancy boxes and were $50 or more and are now out of print. But do not fear, the other 245 copies are nearly as cool, gorgeously packaged in custom letterpressed Bruce Licher sleeves, an elaborate cardstock interlocking foldover, with lovely maroon and white text and filigree. The vinyl is breathtaking as well, half clear, half opaque red, and the sleeve has a nifty sparkley pink stick affixed to the front. One track on one side, and two simultaneous tracks on the other! Includes a bunch of inserts incluing a sticker and FAQ that goes into greater depth about the whole two Bunnybrains thing. These are gorgeously packaged and thus INCREDIBLY LIMITED and also quite expensive. We got a handful, and we're not sure when / if we'll be able to get more. Each copy is also hand numbered! WOW!

!!! (CHIK CHIK CHIK) Take Ecstacy With Me (Touch & Go) cd ep 5.98
No thank you. We'd rather do PCP with the James Gang. Or smoke drano with the Commodores. Or even drink Liquid Plumber and horse piss smoothies with Funkadelic. Or better yet, how 'bout we just listen to the original version by the Magnetic Fields and skip this all together...

!!! (CHIK CHIK CHIK) Take Ecstacy With Me (Touch & Go) 12" 5.98
No thank you. We'd rather do PCP with the James Gang. Or smoke drano with the Commodores. Or even drink Liquid Plumber and horse piss smoothies with Funkadelic. Or better yet, how 'bout we just listen to the original version by the Magnetic Fields and skip this all together...

CLEMENT, CORALIE Bye Bye Beaute (Nettwerk) cd 16.98
Oooh, my pretty! Bye Bye Beaute is the debut album from Ms Coralie Clement, and yes, it does certainly beg to be renamed "Bonjour Beaute" 'cuz chances are you're gonna wanna get to know her music better (rather than bid it au revoir). Her voice enchants with a soft, airy sophistication, but some songs have a bit of a kicky sashay to them too. Providing the occasional contrasting energetic drive to her whispery bliss are a buzzing electric guitar strum, some '70s soft rock horns and a YeYe girl stompin' beat -- all composed and produced by her own brother Benjamin Biolay. Very much in the tradition of lovely French chanteuses such as Francoiz Breut, Jane Birkin, and Francoise Hardy. Plus there's even a very Gainsbourg-esque duet with Daniel Lorca (of Nada Surf!!).
MPEG Stream: "Indecise"
MPEG Stream: "Mais Portant"

COLDNESS Poisoned Gift (Goatowarex) cd 14.98
Another killer release from Australian label Goatowarex, who also released the two amazing Urfaust records and the Planet Aids record reviewed elsewhere on this list. Coldness is ultra sick, ultra raw, ultra grim black metal. Guitars so raw each riff is like having a swath of flesh flayed off and set afire. Thrashy and midtempo, with stretches of doomy dirge as well as burts of overblown vocals and blasts of hyperspeed rrroaaarrrrrr. Insane vocals that go from raw demonic howls to paint peeling shrieks to inhuman squeals. This is some truly weird, super lo-fi black metal for sure. It's not just the music. The cd booklet lists the band "line-up" as "Coldness = Nocturnus Horrendus, Nocturnus Horrendus = one minus one." Huh? Then there are the messages printed throughout: "N.H. bows to P.B.C., alcohol and all the rest that contributes to make life harder to live but no doubt more interesting", and "Lick the joy out of my rotten essence", or "P.B.C. a poisoned gift / grant, a poisoned gift / demand." Huh, again? And then finally there's the photo collage inside the booklet of Nocturnus Horrendus masturbating into a wine glass, then cutting his arm and bleeding into the same glass, and then of course drinking it all down. Weird indeed. For fans of all things brutal and sick and grim and evil!!
MPEG Stream: "I Destroyed The I"
MPEG Stream: "Living A Lie"
MPEG Stream: "That Is All"

COLDPLAY X & Y (Capitol) cd 16.98
Don't hate them cuz they're beautiful... love 'em! Yes, this band is obscenely huge and popular, but for once it's deservingly so. Really, they've yet to disappoint. Coldplay make some of the most elegant, evocative music coming out of mainstream radio these days. It stands in such a contrast to the constant glut of blandness and mediocrity that floods the radio and video dials. The earnest emotional drench of Coldplay's music always verges on the sappy, but somehow never stumbles across the line. On X & Y all the pieces of Coldplay lock in magically -- catchy choruses, richly atmospheric layers of guitars, synths and piano, and of course those unmistakable vocals. Chris Martin has one of the most effortless swoop-up-to-falsetto voices around. Depending on what time of the year you're listening to this album, you might find many songs on X & Y capturing that end of the school year or end of summer romance wistful ache... which pretty much guarantees their inclusion in an upcoming teen movie soundtrack. However, the band continues to buck the obvious or easy routes. Take for instance the album's immediately engaging third song "White Shadows", it seems like it would've been the obvious pick for the first single instead of the less hooky seventh song "Speed Of Sound". Striking a balance between instant treats and more involving ones, this is a work that invites repeat listens, and we're happy to oblige. Grand and gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "White Shadows"
MPEG Stream: "X & Y"

CONTINUOUS PEASANT Intentional Grounding (Good Forks) cd 11.98
This is Mr. Chris Stroffolino and co.'s follow-up to their warmly received debut album Exile In Babyville from a couple of years ago. Once again Stroffolino's expressive saloon-style piano playing is a key ingredient to C.P.'s potency. It shines forth from the backdrop which is solid rootsy rock with some Pavement-y indie boy slouchiness. Comparisons to Silver Jews (with whom Stroffolino has played keyboards) are still very apropos. That said, Ms Mia Lipman's backing vocals certainly offer a nice contrast to his world weary 'n' whisky'd delivery. Prior to entering the musical realm, Stroffolino put his thoughts to paper rather than music, writing numerous books of poetry and prose. His literary past definitely surfaces in his evocative lyrics which take primarily an intimate, observational, first person perspective. They're granted ample space to unwind and sink in, given the songs' mostly slow to mid tempos. That said, occasionally the band kicks up a cloud of dirt for more rollicking numbers such as "You Don't Believe In Nuthin'".
MPEG Stream: "All I'm Saying"
MPEG Stream: "You Don't Believe In Nuthin'"

DIRTBOMBS If You Don't Already Have A Look (In the Red) 2cd 16.98
Attention Dirtbombs completists! Here's a two-disc compilations of rare songs, singles, eight new songs and over 20 covers (Gun Club, Rolling Stones, Yoko Ono, Flipper, ESG, Ohio Players, Stevie Wonder, among others)! Many of the tracks found here were recorded and just never released by the labels that took 'em on. A nice 24-page booklet accompanies the discs with tons of photos and track notes. Love your Dirtbomb grungey gutter punk rock all day long.
MPEG Stream: "Broke Again"
MPEG Stream: "Ha Ha Ha"
MPEG Stream: "Little Miss Chocolate Syrup"

DISIPLIN Anti Life (Moonfog) cd 14.98
You like your metal raging and misanthropic? Probably you do. After all, mellow, have-a-nice-day metal just isn't that popular, we've noticed. Well this second album from up n'coming Moonfog act Disiplin sure as heck ain't filled with a lot of love for their fellow man! Instead these Norwegians are full up with aggression and negativity. A powerful production here showcases Disiplin's violent blend of black and death and thrash metal brutality...thrash blackened thrash! But very modern and mechanized mayhem this is, and unrelenting. Maybe a song will start swith a sample, and/or a few moments of atmospheric string-scrape...however it's not long before you (or the inner demons you intend to exorcise with this particular listening regime) are being trampled by vicious riffage, blasting drums, and the throat-scorching bile-spew of the vocalist. For fans of more recent Satyricon, Myrkskog, Grimfist, Zyklon, etc. Includes bonus video clip for the title track.
MPEG Stream: "Feed The Fucker To The Dogs"
MPEG Stream: "Anti-Life"

EARTH Legacy Of Dissolution (Southern Lord) 2lp 16.98
NOW AVAILABLE ON LP!! Two slabs of gorgeous swirled green opaque vinyl, housed in a nice think gatefold sleeve, with beautiful cover art from Mr. Stephen O'Malley. And as with most things like this VERY VERY LIMITED! Here's what we had to say about the cd version:
It's been an Earth kinda year so far, eh? Once considered a going-beyond-the-Melvins joke, notable mainly for the early involvement of one Kurt Cobain, Earth's status has grown and grown over the years. They've got to be much more popular now than when their first few Sub Pop albums came out in the early '90s. Back then, only a few folks -- that'd probably be me, you, and those guys who later formed SUNNO))) -- were into Earth, and understood the immense genius of their slo-motion, drone-heavy ambient doom riffage. Now, we sell more copies of Earth 2 every week than Aquarius probably sold the year it came out (well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but we do sell a heck of a lot of Earth 2, considering). And SUNNO))), Boris and all the rest of 'em owe a lot to Earth's Dylan Carlson and his various cohorts.
So far, 2004-2005 has seen the release of two new (though, live) Earth albums and a 7". And now this. You know you've made it when the remix album comes out! Handpicked by Carlson himself, the remixers here are an interesting lot: Mogwai, Russell Haswell, Jim O'Rourke, Autechre, Justin Broadrick, and surprise surprise SUNNO)))! Now, on one hand that's an exciting line-up, sure, while on the other, it'd might be even more interesting to hear those blokes remix something like Brittany Spears, right? For subversion's sake anyway. But they're all Earth fans, and Earth is fans of them, and we're pretty sure Earth fans are gonna like what they've done here. And even if you think that the presence of SUNNO))) is a little...redundant, or that Jim O'Rourke, cool as he is, need never trouble himself with yet another remix, overall no complaints! We like how Mogwai has introduced what sound like avant-classical violin into "Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine", we found Russell Haswell's Merzbow-ization of the almost Champs-y "Tibetan Quaaludes" enjoyable, and SUNNO)))'s sixteen-minute "Rule The Divine (Mysteria Caelestis Mugivi)" sounds the most Earth-like of all these remixes, which might be to be expected, dontcha think?
Interestingly, no one remixed anything from the first Earth album Extra-Capsular Extraction, while two mixes are from the same Earth 2 track, and three of the remixers (Haswell, O'Rourke, and Broadrick) picked songs from the out of print Phase 3: Thrones And Dominions. Autechre went even further afield and chose a song from Earth's fourth and last (also out of print) studio album, Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons. Hmmm. While I would have liked to hear something from Extra-Capsular, perhaps the presence of all those Phase 3 derived tracks will convince Sub Pop to reissue that album!
Some of the remixes, like Haswell's, feature obvious fuckery, whereas others, like Broadrick's more trebley, buzzier "Harvey" almost need to be played back-to-back with the original to tell which is the remix and which is the real Earth. Though, that "Harvey" sounds like it could also easily be a track by Broadrick's awesome new Jesu project as well! All in all, SUNNO))) excepted, this is generally a bit less riffy and "doomy" than the Earth originals, concentrating instead on Earth's drone-washed trance elements. Almost makes sense that the cd booklet art looks kinda looks like a Pop Ambient cd! Now, it doesn't usually take much of a recommendation from us to convince AQ customers to buy anything Earth-related, but we did like this, a lot!
MPEG Stream: AUTECHRE "Coda Maestoso In F (flat) Minor"
MPEG Stream: JUSTIN BROADRICK "Harvey"

EARTH / KK NULL Split Tour 12" (Autofact) 12" 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Only have 3 or 4 of these. Probably won't ever get more. Limited to 330 copies and originally only available on the 2003 Earth / Null European tour. Some are on pink vinyl, some on light blue. Two lengthy tracks!

EBB & FLOW Time To Echolocate (Three Ring ) cd 15.98
Wow! Some sorta transformation has taken place with this band in the couple of years since their last release, the 2003 Mur Murs ep. They're definitely much more confident, complex and dynamic, and these developments are made more than apparent right from the get-go. Indeed, you need look/hear no further that the excellent lead-off track "Sonorous", but of course with such tantalizing edgy pop sounds you'll want to! It's a lengthy number (subsectioned into "Time To Echolocate" and "Ear Of The Other") that effectively presents the many facets of the band. They've veered away from they're former Chicago post-rock scene leanings, into something more un-pinpointable. Their increased attention to song structures and arrangements do much to define a sound of their own. Like an agile juggler they keep their atmospheres, time signature shifts and multi-part vocals aloft. Speaking of which, the vocals are definitely a key ingredient in Ebb & Flow's magic. The wonderful soaring female vocals contrast nicely with the male ones which approach a moody, withery Interpol-ness. Pretty darn great!
MPEG Stream: "Sonorous"
MPEG Stream: "Body And Soul"

ELECTRONICAT Voodoo Man (Hausmusik / Indigo) cd 15.98
Bo Diddley goes Electro? Uh-huh, some of this sounds a bit like that. Yes, France's Electronicat (aka Fred Bigot) is back with another neigh-irresistable album of glammed-up, poppy, punky, distortion n' groove engorged electronica. If you liked Electronicat's previous disc 21st Century Toy you'll like this. His clash of electric guitar fuzz and "shuffletime" techno beat-throb works its usual magic here, this album perhaps getting even more into, um, a Powerbook psychobilly thang. Lead off track/single "Dans Les Bois" sets the tone with Bigot's voodoo man lyrics (in English, with a French accent) about being "lost in the jungle". Oui, there's something kinda campy about it all, but we can't help but like it nonetheless. And that thumpin' fuzz is so satisfying. Includes a big ol' lyric sheet with cryptic personal notes on each track's genesis as well.
MPEG Stream: "Dans Les Bois"
MPEG Stream: "Non"

EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL 2 1/2 Creatures (dLTD) cd 13.98
Oakland's Experimental Dental School come crashing in with their latest twisted concoction. They've done split releases with Japan's Limited Express in the past, and that entirely makes sense as they're very much of the same imaginative art-rock ilk. Their music also brings to mind the rollercoaster-y quirks of Melt Banana and Deerhoof -- actually the latter band's Greg Saunier makes a guest appearance on a few songs. Drawing influence from both the carnivalesque multi-personalities of Mr. Bungle and the dissonant angst of Sonic Youth, 2 1/2 Creatures confirms that E.D.S. are more than capable of making themselves equally at home in indie post-rock and no wave basements, jazz joints and circus tents. The first song sprints out of the gate with some very frantic organ playing that sounds like a disjointed "Flight of the Bumblebee". Their effected high trebly vocals, pinchy electric guitars and keyboards balance precariously atop the loosely strung bass and thick synth lines. Very cool!
MPEG Stream: "Our Blood Is Laughing"
MPEG Stream: "A Little Bird Told Me"

EYE WEOOEM (P.A.M.) book 14.98
Okay, Bore-fanatics, we only have a handful of these and we will NOT be getting more. A brand new book of original art from Boredoms frontman Eye Yamataka, in the style of the graphics of all the many Boredoms and related (UFO or Die, DJ Hellshit & MC Carhouse, DJ Pica Pica Pica etc.) releases over the years. All the colorful, splattery, scribbly, chaotic collaged weirdness we've come to love! It's kinda like children's art, by a very punk rock little kid, on drugs. Eye's "Bore Flag" logo is a repeated motif. Released through Australian imprint P.A.M., these are gorgeous full color 36 page perfect bound books, 5 1/2" by 8 1/2", quite cool. And again: EXTREMELY LIMITED. Once this batch is gone, they are gone for good!

FINN, SIMON Magic Moments (Durtro Jnana) cd 14.98
Very few things have changed for Simon Finn's mythological folk music in the twenty-five years between his nearly forgotten debut Pass The Distance (1970) and his second album Magic Moments (2005). If anything, the current infatuation with the acid folk meanderings of Six Organs of Admittance, Devendra Banhart, the Skygreen Leopards, and Fursaxa has opened the way for obscure folk artists from the '70s such as Simon Finn. Without David Michael of Current 93 stumbling across one of few original copies of Pass The Distance, Finn would have continued to toil as farmer in Canada; but fortunately, David (don't call him Tibet anymore!) Michael reissued the album with much acclaim and provided Finn with the impetus to record many of the songs that he has been quietly composing during his 25 year hiatus.
Like Pass The Distance, Magic Moments still speaks of a Gnostic mythology, in which knowledge, revelation, and secrets creep throughout his tales of death, sex, gods, devils, and his relationship with those archetypes. It's the darker side of psychedelia, hallucinations, and liminal thought that Finn explores; but the music itself remains a simple vehicle for Finn's expressionism, as his arrangements are little more than voice and acoustic guitar. This bare aesthetic is the major difference from his Pass The Distance album, which enjoyed a complex production with wild stereo pans and eccentric instrumentation from collaborator David Toop. Also missing is the epileptic rage which punctuated several of the tracks from Pass The Distance, but Finn is considerably older allowing his lyrical content to speak through his Syd Barrett meets Cat Stevens voice rather than through phlegm and spit. All things considered, Magic Moments is certainly recommended listening for acid folk fans.
MPEG Stream: "Walkie Talkie"
MPEG Stream: "Eros"

FLANGE DU MAL, LE s/t (self released) cd-r 8.98
Holy smokin' haz-mat howdoyoudo's! This is the debut release from SF art-noise project Le Flange Du Mal... and quite an introduction it is. Despite their moniker, as far as we can tell none of the participants are French. A quick'n'dirty translation of their name is The Flange Of The Evil, but that's not quite as poetic, is it? Doesn't really slip as gracefully off the tongue. Anyways, the leader of Le Flange pack is Mr. Chris Rolls. He's the head honcho of the very varied SF indie label Kimosciotic Records (home to art-noisies Ezee Tiger and Crack W.A.R., electronic experimentalists Not Breathing, and hip hop lone wolf Unagi), and he's also been in the ranks of SF shit-disturbers Ziegenbock Kopf and Earwicker. He's joined by Chris Cones (also of Earwicker and Subarachnoid Space), Crack We Are Rock's Jason Stamberger and MurderMurder's Liz Allbee, and they make music that runs the gamut just as much as the artists whom he releases on his label. With their multi-barrelled toxic industrial-bootybass-sludge assault, they come careening right at you with their foot nowhere near the brakes, swerving woozily to avoid other vehicles in their path, cruising through the no wave and art rock zones, and through a musty gothy batcave (check out the track "Nightcrawler") too.
MPEG Stream: "Silent Cock"
MPEG Stream: "Nightcrawler"

FORREST, JASON Lady Fantasy (Soniq) cd ep 10.98
We see that the press release for this new ep from WFMU DJ Jason Forrest (nee Donna Summer) mentions that his previous full-length The Unrelenting Songs Of The 1979 Post Disco Crash "surprised many with its revolutionary rock-disco sample ideology". Well, yeah, it was pretty cool if that's what they mean! We dig Forrest's "rock-disco sample ideology" quite a bit! So now he's back with a teaser for his next full-length. There's four tracks here (with a bonus fifth on the vinyl only), starting off with a blissfully droney piece entitled "The Work Ahead Of Us" that's got the "feedback guitar" of none other than David Grubbs on it somewhere, for some reason. You can't tell it's Grubbs of course, but it is a nice shimmery cut, though not what we expect from Forrest exactly -- but what we expect (mash-up madness!) does for sure come into play on the next (title) track, a computer-assisted collison of prog and jazz, chaotically cut up and then synth-smoothed. Following that, there's "The Lure Of You" which sees Forrest collaborating with vocalist Margareth Kamerer for a schizophrenically new-wavey *and* folky pop number. Lastly, "Sperry And Foil" wraps things up with eight minutes of blenderized beats and snatches of spacey melody, including a sample of something we really like that we totally know but just can't quite put our fingers on right this second -- what is it? Some krautrock electronics, or Joe Meek or something? Argh it's gonna drive us crazy. You'd think that if Grubbs and Kamerer are gonna be credited, this significant sample should be too.... wait a sec, we figured it out, it's Neu! Anyway, the track is great, a little more manic than something DJ Shadow would do, but not that far from his stuff really. A nice lil' ep then, and we're looking forward to the upcoming album!
MPEG Stream: "Sperry And Foil"
MPEG Stream: "The Work Ahead Of Us"

FORREST, JASON Lady Fantasy (Soniq) 12" 10.98
We see that the press release for this new ep from WFMU DJ Jason Forrest (nee Donna Summer) mentions that his previous full-length The Unrelenting Songs Of The 1979 Post Disco Crash "surprised many with its revolutionary rock-disco sample ideology". Well, yeah, it was pretty cool if that's what they mean! We dig Forrest's "rock-disco sample ideology" quite a bit! So now he's back with a teaser for his next full-length. There's four tracks here (with a bonus fifth on the vinyl only), starting off with a blissfully droney piece entitled "The Work Ahead Of Us" that's got the "feedback guitar" of none other than David Grubbs on it somewhere, for some reason. You can't tell it's Grubbs of course, but it is a nice shimmery cut, though not what we expect from Forrest exactly -- but what we expect (mash-up madness!) does for sure come into play on the next (title) track, a computer-assisted collison of prog and jazz, chaotically cut up and then synth-smoothed. Following that, there's "The Lure Of You" which sees Forrest collaborating with vocalist Margareth Kamerer for a schizophrenically new-wavey *and* folky pop number. Lastly, "Sperry And Foil" wraps things up with eight minutes of blenderized beats and snatches of spacey melody, including a sample of something we really like that we totally know but just can't quite put our fingers on right this second -- what is it? Some krautrock electronics, or Joe Meek or something? Argh it's gonna drive us crazy. You'd think that if Grubbs and Kamerer are gonna be credited, this significant sample should be too.... wait a sec, we figured it out, it's Neu! Anyway, the track is great, a little more manic than something DJ Shadow would do, but not that far from his stuff really. A nice lil' ep then, and we're looking forward to the upcoming album!
MPEG Stream: "Sperry And Foil"
MPEG Stream: "The Work Ahead Of Us"

FOUR TET Everything Ecstatic (Domino) cd 16.98
Everything Ecstatic introduces an unexpected, fresh direction for Four Tet. We haveta say though that the title does seem somewhat incongruous with the music. After referring to the dictionary, we wouldn't say this album evokes: 1. a state of being beyond reason and self-control; 2. a state of overwhelming emotion; especially: rapturous delight; 3. trance; especially: a mystic or prophetic trance; nor 4. a synthetic amphetamine analogue... (with) mood-enhancing and hallucinogenic properties. Nope, none of the above. Really, that title seems like it would've been more fitting for any of Kieran Hebden's previous releases. The song titles are oddly playful and sweet too. Weird, maybe Hebden was ON ecstacy when he was naming stuff and deciding on the kooky album art?! Hmmm. Anyways, after a consistent stream of well-crafted, dreamy, shimmery electronica, Hebden (also of Fridge) has allowed the storm clouds to build. This is a much darker, heavier and even funkier Four Tet, encorporating considerably more aggressive rhythms and ominous sounds (for instance deep resonant chimes replace delicate tinkly cymbal washes). Edges are harder, resulting in tracks that come across as more sturdily constructed and defined. It's not a complete transformation however, you'll still find some of the old Four Tet loveliness lingering.
MPEG Stream: "A Joy"
MPEG Stream: "Turtle Turtle Up"

FOUR TET Everything Ecstatic (Domino) 2lp 21.00
Everything Ecstatic introduces an unexpected, fresh direction for Four Tet. We haveta say though that the title does seem somewhat incongruous with the music. After referring to the dictionary, we wouldn't say this album evokes: 1. a state of being beyond reason and self-control; 2. a state of overwhelming emotion; especially: rapturous delight; 3. trance; especially: a mystic or prophetic trance; nor 4. a synthetic amphetamine analogue... (with) mood-enhancing and hallucinogenic properties. Nope, none of the above. Really, that title seems like it would've been more fitting for any of Kieran Hebden's previous releases. The song titles are oddly playful and sweet too. Weird, maybe Hebden was ON ecstacy when he was naming stuff and deciding on the kooky album art?! Hmmm. Anyways, after a consistent stream of well-crafted, dreamy, shimmery electronica, Hebden (also of Fridge) has allowed the storm clouds to build. This is a much darker, heavier and even funkier Four Tet, encorporating considerably more aggressive rhythms and ominous sounds (for instance deep resonant chimes replace delicate tinkly cymbal washes). Edges are harder, resulting in tracks that come across as more sturdily constructed and defined. It's not a complete transformation however, you'll still find some of the old Four Tet loveliness lingering.
MPEG Stream: "A Joy"
MPEG Stream: "Turtle Turtle Up"

GORILLAZ Demon Days (EMI) cd 17.98
Some changes have taken place in the Gorillaz 'virtual band' ranks since their wildly popular, super vibrant and fun self-titled debut in 2000. That album was a wholly collaborative effort between Blur-man Damon Albarn, man-of-many-hats Dan The Automator, and cartoon illustrator Jamie Hewlett along with contributions from Miho Hatori, Ibrahim Ferrer and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien. For one thing, Mr. Automator has left the clubhouse, leaving Albarn as the lone lord of the musical manor. An immediate clue-in to the contrast between 'old' and 'new' Gorillaz can be read in the album's title and seen in Hewlett's latest Gorillaz' illustrations. He continues to provide the visual representation of the group, but his former palette of playful cartoonish hues have been replaced by the darker tones found in the more mature subject matter of graphic novels -- a suitable match for the headier undertones of the music. On the cover characters' faces there's nothing but grimaces and suspicious scowls. When we heard that Danger Mouse was slipping into the production control seat formerly occupied by The Automator, we were expecting some manner of radical changes in the Gorillaz's actual sound -- perhaps a little wilder approach or sumthin'? -- but it's really not that drastic of a departure from their past recordings. No, the primary difference is in the album's moodier undercurrent. Whereas the conceptual and sonic effervescence of its predecessor offered a sense of escapism, once you delve beneath the shiny pop surface of Demon Days, things feel somewhat more claustrophobic, sinister and foreboding. Guests this time include Neneh Cherry, Martina Topley-Bird, Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder (!), London Community Gospel Choir, San Fernandez Youth Chorus and even Dennis Hopper! Dig it!
MPEG Stream: "Last Living Souls"
MPEG Stream: "Dare"

GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE City Calls Revolution (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 13.98
This second full-length album from Japan's Green Milk From The Planet Orange proclaims boldly on its sleeve that "Progressive Rock Is Not Dead"! Well, WE never thought it was anyhow, but if you yourself have doubts, a loud dose of this should correct your thinking. Though, while quite lively (and rather live-sounding too, on this recording), GMFTPO's brand of prog rock definitely does look to the past for inspiration, from cosmic psych-scapes of krautrock to the precision epics of Yes. And we're also hearing some not-entirely-welcome No Wave-ish yelping dissonance on one track here as well. But when song-lengths can hit the double digits as they do here (there's four tracks, the shortest clocking in an prog-respectable seven minutes and the longest stretching out to over 38!!) and you've got musicians capable of turning on a dime like these guys, something ELSE is gonna happen before the song's over for sure. So you get tripped out atmospheres AND fully cranked acid-rock electric guitar mayhem, prog-complex song constructs and punk raucousness. Some will find this eclecticism exhilirating (and of course somewhat typical of the genre-bending Japanese underground that we've been fans ever since the Boredoms first freaked us out years ago) while others might wish that they'd stick to one thing -- taking the Yessism all the way, or the psych guitar skree. But check 'em out (live too if possible -- they've toured the US a couple times already, and knocked out a great instore performance here at AQ last year, with the drummer playing a 'kit' jerry-rigged from empty soda cans, a tamborine, and duct tape) and see what you think... fans of AMT and DMBQ both might quite like.
MPEG Stream: "Concrete City Breakdown"
MPEG Stream: "Demagog"

HAFLER TRIO Exactly As I Do (Important) 2cd 27.00
Yes, the man loves a mini-series. There have been many sequels, triptychs, and serial works for the Hafler Trio, the tech-Gnostic program of grandiose minimalism and conceptualized electronic manifestations of sound, engineered by the lone member of the Halfer Trio, Andrew M. McKenzie. Exactly As I Do falls within a sub-series of a larger body of related work dealing with the essence of the human voice, and this album is the second album in a triptych centered upon the voice of Sigur Ros' Jonsi Birgisson. With the first album called Exactly As I Say and packaged in the same oversized folio, McKenzie is not making it easy for anybody in calling this album Exactly As I Do. Nevertheless, these are two distinctive albums which are variations upon a theme (in this case Birgisson's voice). As a preamble to Exactly As I Do, McKenzie states that he is investigating "voice, the most human expression of a person, striped down and elabrated to show the essence of a person, and a human leading towards the divine. Hopefully." As far as his essentialization of Jonsi Birgisson's voice, McKenzie extracts particular tones, frequencies, and breathy fragments, which he recontextualizes into dense chorales of majestic drones tinged with a bout of melancholia. In a lot of ways, these drones resemble that kid's toy consisting of a flexible plastic tube that you swing in a circle over your head to produce a constant hoovering sound. McKenzie, of course, twists and folds all of these sounds into a beautiful maelstrom of polyphonous Birgissons. Sorry, McKenzie firmly disapproves of offering song samples and we will oblige his wishes with no sound clips of his work on our website.

HAIR POLICE Constantly Terrified (Troubleman Limited) cd 13.98
Primitive electric no wave noise planes. Sound pretty good huh? It is, actually! For certain moods, certain people, certain places, times and things.
The Lexington, KY trio of Robert Beatty, Mike Connelly (Wolf Eyes) and Trevor Tremaine open our ears enough to bleed all over the place with this penetrating severist noise. You can even catch Wolf Eyes' John Olsen for a brutal saxophone cameo on the title track. Constantly Terrified will be most utterly enjoyed by brutal noise fans and others who heart the pummelling noise/rock of Burmese, Wolf Eyes, Dead Machines, etc.
MPEG Stream: "The Haunting"
MPEG Stream: "My Skull Is My Face"

HOTOTOGISU Green (Eclipse) cd 14.98
A new cd from Skullflower / Sunroof! mainman Matthew Bower's other ambient free noise outfit Hototogisu, and it's about time too, as most of the other Hototogisu and Sunroof! releases have been on cd-r and have been tough to get back in stock. Hototogisu is now, and has been for a while, a duo with Marcia Bassett of the Double Leopards, and their sound is definitely a bit more noisy and aggressive than in the past (as hinted at on the sleeve with the instrumentation listed as Bower on "oooowwwhh" and Bassett on "rrrggghh"), with sheets of corrosive guitars, spread into thick washes of screeching feedback, all over thick gurgling backgrounds of rumbling drones and glitchy malfunctioning electronics, occasionally splattered with bursts of chaotic percussion and maniacal abstract drum programming. But all of that random clatter and aggressive pummel is harnessed into an epic record of thick, throbbing guitar drone, not all that unlike Bower's old Total outift, or Skullflower at their most guitar heavy and free. Heavy and noisy indeed, but also blissfully hypnotic in that way that only a massive slab of droning guitars can be!
MPEG Stream: "Hellbore"
MPEG Stream: "Crimson Streams"

JONES, FERN The Glory Road (Numero Group) cd 16.98
Man, what a great set of releases the Numero Group is building. Each one not only details a particular artist/label in song, but through well-considered packaging and extensive liner notes we get a great sense of what went on behind the music. Amazing! Well, this time round, we have Fern Jones. A gifted gospel singer, who's voice carries similar croon power and soul-fire intensity as Patsy Cline or a young Elvis.
Fern's career was bittersweet, however. Early on, Fern and husband played/sang their hearts out through Evangelical tent tours all over the South, selling a vanity recording (The Joneses Sing) out of the back of their sedan. Dot Records soon released Singing A Happy Song in 1959, for which Fern had acquired a stunning backing band: Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland on guitar (Roy Orbison, Marty Robbins, Conway Twitty, Hank Williams Sr., Everly Brothers), Floyd Cramer on piano (Booby Bare, Patsy Cline, Wings, Johny Cash, Chet Atkins), Joe Zinkan on bass (Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn), and Buddy Harman on drums (Reba McEntire, Hank Snow, Willie Nelson) -- all of whom were fresh off a 1958 session with Elvis.
Despite several tours (without a single to promote), Fern's "rockabilly gospel style" songs never caught on with a conservative buying public. Fern soon stopped performing all together and found it impossible to gain back the rights to her songs after the label's lease was up. After constant threat that the master tapes might be destroyed (as were all others from that era of Dot) and a fifteen-year letter-writing campaign, Dot Records' second owners, MCA, finally awarded her the rights to these songs once again. And thankfully so. They're amazingly powerful devotionals. If you're a fan of Patsy Cline, and who isn't, you'll love love love these Fern Jones songs!
MPEG Stream: "By And By "
MPEG Stream: "Be Thankful You're You"

JUNIOR DAN s/t (Honest Jon's) cd 17.98
Good ol' Honest Jon's. Always with the nice packaging for one and, as evinced by the wonderful Cedric Im Brooks reissue of a couple years ago, excellent choice in music. Super rootsy, super heavy reggae from the 70's. Recorded at the Black Ark, Joe Gibbs and King Tubby's with guesting from Fred Locks, Pablove Black, Zoot Sims and engineering talents from Joseph Robinson (who worked on Light Of Saba). Possible bummer: this is one of those vocal, version, vocal, version style anthologies, so if you're not into hearing the same rhythm doubled on every other track you might want to program your CD player to play all the even numbered tracks (for vocals) and all the odd numbered tracks (for the versions). Comes in a beautifully printed digipak with glossy black ink on matte red and white.
MPEG Stream: "Look Out For the Devil"
MPEG Stream: "Cobre Version"

LENO s/t (BMG Spain) cd 16.98
From the album cover -- an oddly staged photo featuring four long haired dudes with peculiar, only-in the-seventies fashion sense (high top Converse sneakers or bare feet, tube socks, floral print shirt and white vest and pants, bathrobe, shorts, little red hat...) relaxing at a cafe table -- you wouldn't necessarily guess that this is as heavy as it is. But it is. Though this first (and best) album by Spanish hard rockers Leno dates from 1979, it definitely sounds a few years older than that. Total early '70s heavy proto-metal in sound (which means that if you come into the store looking for it, you'll find it in our new "heavy '70s proto metal" section that lives in our "vintage psych rock" rack) for fans of all that stuff like Dust, Toad, Bang, Buffalo, Budgie, Blues Creation, Socrates Drank The Conium, etc. Wild, riffy stuff with tough, rough wailing (Spanish-language) vocals and lots and lots of *killer* guitar that gets almost Sabbathy in spots. Man, we love finding obscure stuff like this that sounds so classic the second you put it on. Pretty darn kick ass.
MPEG Stream: "El Oportunista"
MPEG Stream: "Este Madrid"

LES GEORGES LENINGRAD Supa Doopa Remix (Troubleman) cd ep 8.98
Yes. Yes. Yes. Hmmmm, yes. Yes. And Yes! While some people around here might be incredibly annoyed by our ridiculous French-Canadian electropop-artrock-postpunk friends, Les Georges Lenningrad, others of us can't get enough of 'em. Ainsi, pour nous qui t'adore [so for those of us who adore them], this remix cd ep lands on ope