SHOGUN KUNITOKI Tasankokaiku (Fonal) cd 16.98
Wow!!! Most loyal AQ customers are pretty aware of our total love and adoration of almost all things Finnish, especially pretty much everything released on Finnish label Fonal. They just have not done us wrong yet. Islaja, Kemialliset Ystavat, Paavoharju, Es, the list goes on and on. And while for the most part their releases focus on the more murky free folk side of Finnish underground rock they have proven to be a label that isn't just about one 'sound' but instead are simply about beautiful music. Period. Whether it's random ethereal forest folk, dreamy drifty swooning ambience, or crunchy chaotic tribalistic clatter. Their latest release, from the Helsinki quartet Shogun Kunitoki, is further proof to that effect, and dare we say this might even be the greatest thing Fonal has released. Some of you may be shouting IMPOSSIBLE! And under different circumstances we'd be right there with you. But just listenening to Tasankokaiku has us thinking not only is it possible, it's damn near for certain. Color! So much vibrant color just bursting out of Shogun Kunitoki's instrumental onslaught. It starts out on fire and every song and sound just feeds the flame. It's almost as if Steve Reich and Terry Riley raised a child weaned on the BBC Radiophonic experiments, a young Rick Wakeman who grew up listening to the fuzzy guitarscapes of M83's Dead Cities, Red Seas... and the dreamy and propulsive instrumental jams of Stereolab, and thus cultivated a totally informed yet unique outlook and approach to music and music making. The sounds on Tasankokaiku are triumphant and assured, flickering then bursting, warm and so totally alive! Knowing how to perfectly use repetition to build momentum and then suddenly blast off to sparkling spaces that make you feel like you're being spirited away to a place that you've never been to but have always dreamed about. A sparkling glistening land of thick warm keyboards, hypnotic prog laced krautrockiness, Neu-infused soundscapes, basically a world populated by all the sounds that drive us wild. This is another one of those rare records that is an across the board unanimous AQ favorite. Everyone who works here loves it. We all hear different things too, besides the above mentioned bands, Andee hears bits of Goblin and Zombi and Heldon, Allan hears hints of Aavikko and Cluster and Circle, Irwin noticed a little Broadcast and even some Raymond Scott, but no matter what you hear, or what shades of sound reveal themsleves to you, the sum is SO much greater than its parts. A gloriously dense and warm world of fuzzy sound that we just can't stop listening to. No matter what music you've been obsessed with lately, this is one of those special records that somehow trumps whatever it is, straight to the top of your listening pile, elbowing it's way past all the other discs in your collection right into your cd player where it will effortlessly fend off any other records wanting to get in there. It's that good.
MPEG Stream: "Montezuma"
MPEG Stream: "Leivonen"
MPEG Stream: "Piste"

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ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE PINK LADIES BLUES Featuring The Sun Love And The Heavy Metal Thunder (Fractal) cd 21.00
*Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert*
Of sorts... for, despite the name, this is not exactly the same Acid Mothers Temple by whom you already have a dozen albums. AMT & The Pink Ladies Blues, unlike AMT & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. or AMT & The Cosmic Inferno, doesn't feature Kawabata Makoto! Yet this is one of the best AMT releases we've heard in a while (and it's not like we didn't like Starless & Bible Black or Iao Chant From The Cosmic Inferno, either). AMT & The Pink Ladies Blues is a trio consisting of guitarist Magic Aum Gigi (whose solo LP MMMM we also have in stock, though it's not been reviewed on our site yet), drummer Mai Mai, and guitarist Tsuchy, presumably all members of the extended Acid Mothers Temple communal family.
AMT always can be counted on to indulge in an orgy of FX-overloaded heavy guitar jamming when desired, and THIS Acid Mothers Temple, even without the presence of Kawabata, definitely live up to that reputation! A goodly part of this is primitive, fucked up, bluesy, choppy, podding clangor, heavy and damaged like they're trying to outdo krautrock obscurities Zippo Zetterlink in that dep't. Opening track, the 19 minute "Sandoza Death Blues" sets the tone: utterly raw geetar/drums/electronics (Magic Aum Gigi and Mai Mai being both credited with thermin) riff-stomp, with weird drop outs and/or edits (??). Bearing a dedication to the late great Link Wray, this album knows how to "Rumble"! But they have their blissful space-out side too...
Aside from two brief interludes of ambience and effects, the tracks on this 72 minute album are all lengthy jams. The longest at over 28 minutes is called "Freaks Your Mind & Your LSD Piss Will Follow". Geez, those psychedelic punsters! Ain't that a VERY Acid Mothers Temple title, though? They liked it so much they chant it a bunch, which while unfortunate fails to detract from the enjoyable Brainticket-style bad trip they conjured with this track.
We kinda wish that they hadn't included "Acid Mothers Temple" in the band name, which could cause this to be overlooked amidst past, present and future massive AMT output. This supreme lysergically inspired rock dementia deserves its own designation! Though it also fits in perfectly with the AMT aesthetic that's for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Sandoza Death Blues"
MPEG Stream: "Acid Mothers Rock n' Roll"

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE PINK LADIES BLUES Featuring The Sun Love And The Heavy Metal Thunder (Fractal) 2lp 48.00
*Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert* *Acid Mothers Temple alert*
Of sorts... for, despite the name, this is not exactly the same Acid Mothers Temple by whom you already have a dozen albums. AMT & The Pink Ladies Blues, unlike AMT & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. or AMT & The Cosmic Inferno, doesn't feature Kawabata Makoto! Yet this is one of the best AMT releases we've heard in a while (and it's not like we didn't like Starless & Bible Black or Iao Chant From The Cosmic Inferno, either). AMT & The Pink Ladies Blues is a trio consisting of guitarist Magic Aum Gigi (whose solo LP MMMM we also have in stock, though it's not been reviewed on our site yet), drummer Mai Mai, and guitarist Tsuchy, presumably all members of the extended Acid Mothers Temple communal family.
AMT always can be counted on to indulge in an orgy of FX-overloaded heavy guitar jamming when desired, and THIS Acid Mothers Temple, even without the presence of Kawabata, definitely live up to that reputation! A goodly part of this is primitive, fucked up, bluesy, choppy, podding clangor, heavy and damaged like they're trying to outdo krautrock obscurities Zippo Zetterlink in that dep't. Opening track, the 19 minute "Sandoza Death Blues" sets the tone: utterly raw geetar/drums/electronics (Magic Aum Gigi and Mai Mai being both credited with thermin) riff-stomp, with weird drop outs and/or edits (??). Bearing a dedication to the late great Link Wray, this album knows how to "Rumble"! But they have their blissful space-out side too...
Aside from two brief interludes of ambience and effects, the tracks on this 72 minute album are all lengthy jams. The longest at over 28 minutes is called "Freaks Your Mind & Your LSD Piss Will Follow". Geez, those psychedelic punsters! Ain't that a VERY Acid Mothers Temple title, though? They liked it so much they chant it a bunch, which while unfortunate fails to detract from the enjoyable Brainticket-style bad trip they conjured with this track.
We kinda wish that they hadn't included "Acid Mothers Temple" in the band name, which could cause this to be overlooked amidst past, present and future massive AMT output. This supreme lysergically inspired rock dementia deserves its own designation! Though it also fits in perfectly with the AMT aesthetic that's for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Sandoza Death Blues"
MPEG Stream: "Acid Mothers Rock n' Roll"

BISHOP, SIR RICHARD Fingering The Devil (Latitudes) cd 13.98
The newest in the frustratingly limited Latitudes series. Former contributors have included the Grails, Shit & Shine, Will Whitmore, Ginnungagap and Ariel Pink (don't bother asking, they are all long gone). Here we have the Sun City Girls' Sir Alan Bishop, in his solo guitar Improvika mode. Very much in the spirit of the current American Primitive / neo Appalchia sound, exploring similar territory as Jack Rose, Stephen Basho-Jungans, Charlie Schmidt and of course John Fahey, but on these improvised tracks, Bishop injects a healthy dose of flamenco which is sort of surprising. Not that Bishop isn't well versed in various musics of the world, he most definitely is as any number of SCG records will attest to, but it still sounds a little surprising in this context, but the result is truly gorgeous. Moody and emotional, dark and dense, dreamy and lyrical. Just Bishop and a steel string guitar unfurling dense tangles of intricate fingerpicking, as well as slow contemplative melodies, all rich with Spanish flavor. Occasionally Bishop goes for an Eastern raga like vibe instead, and ends up sounding closer to UK guitarist James Blackshaw or Rose at his most drone-y. So so lovely indeed!
Comes packaged in a super intricate hand screened die cut fold over sleeve with a full color insert. The cover has a breathtaking silver foil stamped embossed frontpiece and each copy is hand stamped and numbered. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, 500 of which made it to the United States, about 50 of which made it here. So you know what that means!
MPEG Stream: "Abydos"
MPEG Stream: "Dream Of The Lotus Eaters"
MPEG Stream: "Romany Trail"

BLUEPRINT HUMAN BEING Heaven Is All (Paradigms) cd 11.98
Fourth in this new series of super limited aural oddities, all of them amazing and sonically all over the map, from black metal (Throne Of Kataris, elsewhere on this list) to doom drone (past Record of the Week Hjarnidaudi) to gorgeously gloomy chamber music (Amber Asylum) to this, the first release, as far as we can tell, from epic Finnish post rock prog metal mavens Blueprint Human Being. That's right you heard us, FINNISH. As in from Finland! So all you Finnish music freaks best not dawdle, as you will definitely want to get your hands on this. Especially if you're partial to the sort of Krauty drone rock of Circle and the like, although that element is only one tiny aspect of BHB's sound. There's lots of post rocky drift, a sort of proggier Tarentel maybe, but then the horns kick in and we're in serious King Crimson territory. But there's also lots of fuzzy metal guitar wrapped around jagged loping Slintish rhythms, with strange sung / spoke vocals, all blending in some weird way that reminds us as much of Ved Buens Ende as Crimson. Some parts have the horns moving to the foreground, the music taking on a very jaunty garden party sort of feel, which makes us think of some damaged, sort-of-metal Penguin Cafe Orchestra or some bizarre Japanese what-the-fuck jazzdrone outfit or the stranger Circle side projects like Ratto Ja Lehtisalo. A bit schizophrenic for sure, but in a good way, a super dynamic sort of seasick meander through blasting metallic post rock, far out quirky prog, lilting almost RennFaire acoustic breaks, and blissed out repetitive krautrock. Be sure and stick around for the end of the final 11+ minute track, after a stretch of silence, comes a dizzying blast of freaked out psychedelic noise, all grinding loops, snippets of earlier songs, and all sorts of head spinning post production fuckery. Groovy laid back post-kraut-rock slathered in thick swirls of distortion and fuzzy effects, obscured by tape dropouts and strange damaged feedback, the whole thing warped and warbly as if broadcast through a thick cough syrup haze. So cool.
Limited to 750 copies, packaged in a mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Vojaganto"
MPEG Stream: "Tucumbalam"

CIRCLE Arkades (Fourth Dimension) lp 14.98
Finalnd's mighty masters of metallic hypno drone rock return, with yes, another limited LP only release, and their obsession (one of many obsessions they have) with Southern Rock has finally reached critical mass. Not so much musically, although there are subtle hints here and there, as visually and conceptually. This set, recorded live on Brian Turner's radio show on WFMU when Circle were in the states last time is a monster. Two side long tracks, combining the metallic leanings of their later records, with the murky propulsiveness of their earlier records, as well as their droney improvised abstract side (most noticable on the LP only Mountain). It's kind of remarkable how all of Circle's disparate musical personalities fit so well together. But before we get to the music, let's talk about the sleeve. And the Southern Rock. The cover features a knotty pine background, riddled with bullet holes, two crossed pistols above the band name. Very Sergio Leone... The reverse side features a band photo seemingly branded into the wood, with Circle donning cowboy hats and sombreros, whooping it up like that last freeze frame in an episode of Bonanza (maybe it was CHiPs, but Bonanza makes more sense here). Then there's Brian Turner's eyewitness account of the musical showdown that occurred when Circle showed up at WFMU to record their set. Woe was the pasty British garage band that felt Circle's wrath. Broken glass and tobacco spit figure prominently. And let's not forget the Confederate flag on the LP label.
Thankfully (or maybe not, some might be thinking) this Southern Rock doesn't filter all the way down to the music. Instead we've got more of that Circular genius we just can't get enough of.
Side one begins as an abstract soundscape of spacey affected riffs, sort of blurry and drifty, above strange mumbled mutterings and what sounds like alien scat singing. The vibe is strangely dubby and Middle Eastern sounding. Eventually a warm wash of woozy distorted guitars builds into a monstrous swell of sound, warm and thick and sort of heavy, while buried beneath is a burbling cauldron of electronic squiggles and gurgling vocal sputters. Out of nowhere, like a beam of sunlight with a small flock of faeiries flitting about, comes a strange dreamy drift of almost rennaisance faire sounding festive folk, which dissipates quickly into a swirl of speaking-in-tongues vocals and insect like electronics before drifting off.
Side two is a bit darker, with faux throat singing over ominous psych sludge riffing like classic Circle but slowed way down. Groovy and dark, peppered with subtle tribal percussion. Weirdly enough, that weird dreamy stretch of faerie flecked folk sunniness that surfaced briefly on side A, shows up again here in a slightly different form, and disappears just as quickly, returning to a VERY Circular propulsive groove. Drums skitter instead of pound, while a guitar drifts and stutters, sounding a bit like the guitar line from the Smiths' "How Soon Is Now" but way more druggy and psychedelic!
So we'll all have to keep waiting for the inevitable, that record they keep threatening us with, when Circle finally become a bizarre krautrock psychrock dronemetal version of the Marshall Tucker Band, but for now, just crack open that Jack Daniels, throw those boots up on the desk (careful with those spurs!), pull the brim of your ten gallon down over your eyes, put a little pinch between your teeth and gums, turn it up and drift off...

CONRAD, TONY WITH FAUST Outside The Dream Syndicate Alive (Table Of The Elements) cd 16.98
Recorded live at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in '95 this was the reunion of one of minimalist's great torch holders Tony Conrad along with one of experimental rocks greatest bands Faust. When they originally teamed up at a German filmmakers request, they made Outside The Dream Syndicate over three days together in 1971. A landmark record that took Conrad's affinity for building drones mixed with a rhythm section that added intense pulsations and textures to the sounds. While apparently Faust didn't really remember the recording sessions (what were they on?) they met up only two more times since the original recording to perform the piece live. This show was the third and last time they performed together and at this show they were also joined by the helping hands of Jim O'Rourke (is there a band he hasn't played with?). And wow! What an amazing show to have been at. With his La Monte Young cap on tightly, Conrad masterfully created a piece that no matter when it was produced evokes such a strong physical reaction. This is raw, building, blistering, pounding, droning brilliance! The way momentum keeps building works its way into your body and about half way into the piece you can't stop from getting completely wrapped up in it. The droning violin, the dirty percussion, the gut wrenching passion underneath and above it all! It's amazing how in these sounds you can hear so much of a handful of contemporary AQ favorites: Godspeed You Black Emperor's explosive drama, The Dirty Three at their most wild and rocking, Swans/Angels Of Light's blistering poignancy, but it all ends up seeming sorta like little league in comparison to the blood and guts that oozes out of this performance. As always Table Of The Elements appropriately package the cd with the care it deserves including some nice short conversations with Conrad and two great stickers of Conrad's face. Absolutely recommended!
MPEG Stream: "From The Side Of Man & Womankind"

CRUSHED BUTLER Uncrushed: First Punks From The British Underground 1969-1971 (RPM) cd 16.98
We heard a lot about this before we got it in which fired up our curiousity just a little bit. Like it says in the title, this obscure post-mod trio with the cool name has been trumpted as the "first punks" to come outta Blighty, kicking out the jams with an antisocial sneer and snarl long before the Sex Pistols and the Damned and all the rest blew up in '77. And on the strength of the seven tracks here recorded circa 1969-1971, they were indeed pretty darn punk and ahead of their time (at least, in terms of bands who made it into the recording studio). Loud fast rules with these guys, most of the tracks being uptempo rockers, though the lumbering "Love Fighter" will be welcomed by all '70s proto-metal lovers, and supports the argument that these guys are just as much a proto-metal outfit as proto-punk, being something that fans of Buffalo, Toad, Budgie, Nazareth or Black Sabbath would enjoy. Indeed, some of the riffing on here might quite well remind you of Sabbath, and we weren't surprised to learn that they'd opened for the likes of UFO and Atomic Rooster. Metal? Punk? Same dif back then really. The distortion, fuzz, and 'raw power' attitude on display should qualify 'em as pioneers in either camp. Crushed Butler were heavier than the Pink Fairies, anyway, and that (awesome) band is already rightly heralded as punks before their time. So we'd say that the legend of Crushed Butler is hereby confirmed... alongside the Fairies and Third World War and a few others in England (and the Stooges in the States, of course, and some European freaks too) they trashed the happy hippy scene of the day for something uglier, grottier and more dangerous.
This digipack cd (a slightly expanded version of a 10" released a few years back) boasts in-depth liner notes and archival graphics. There's just two drawbacks: it's only 21 minutes long, and that's only because of the inclusion of an alternate version of what's probably our least favorite song as a bonus track. BUT it's 21 minutes that anyone into metal/punk/hard rock history should find quite a blast.
MPEG Stream: "It's My Life"
MPEG Stream: "Factory Grime"

MAMMATUS s/t (Holy Mountain / Rocket Recordings) cd 13.98
Whoa, heavy!! This is a whole-body vibrating, brain-melting, serious amplifier worship ceremony! The first time I (Allan) saw these guys, last year sometime at the Hemlock here in San Francisco, I was blown away... I'd been told the were a heavy 'stoner rock' outfit from Santa Cruz and worth checking out, but I didn't realize they were gonna be quite so AMAZING. Hairy backwoods hippy dudes, the drummer wearing what looked to be a home-made Whysp t-shirt, guitars turning the air to cottage cheese a la Blue Cheer while creating a trance-zone worthy of Finland's Circle!! So good that I immediately bought the live cd-r they were selling... we were gonna try to get some for the store, in fact, but then we found out that local label Holy Mountain run by our pal JW was on the case already and would be issuing Mammatus's debut studio full-length cd Stateside (with Rocket Recordings, home to the most recent UFOmammut, putting it out in Europe).
So yeah, heavy stoner rock this is, but waaay psychedelic and Hawkwindy, kinda like what maybe you thought Circle side-project Pharaoh Overlord was gonna (and sometimes does) sound like. Loud, massive and mesmerizing, swirling sludge psych! Their songs, often of epic length, are ever chugging skyward, dripping molten goo, full of feedback and fx. Their energetic riffage and warm drones are adorned by drifting vox (not unlike Dead Meadow, with whom they share certain proclivities) and fantastic, metallic, progtastic imagery. Take note of titles like "Dragon Of The Deep" (parts one and two!) and the Roger Dean-esque cover art by Arik "Moonhawk" Roper.
Further musical comparisions aren't hard to come up with -- Mammatus belong in the company of such bastions of cosmic heaviness as Sleep, Boris, YOB, UFOmammut, Earthless, old Monster Magnet, Acid Mothers Temple (at AMT's heaviest, like on Starless & Bible Black Sabbath), Tarantula Hawk, and even Amon Duul (especially on the druggy, krautrocky jam "The Outer Rim"). And of course they're now labelmates with OM, which also makes perfect sense. If you love many, or even just any, of those bands and the sounds they make, this comes highly recommended.
Time sensitive note: Mammatus are playing tomorrow, Saturday April 1st again at the Hemlock with AQ faves the Grey Daturas!
MPEG Stream: "The Righteous Path Through The Forest Of Old"
MPEG Stream: "Dragon Of The Deep Part One"

MELNYK, LUBOMYR Wave-Lox (Bandura) cd-r 16.98
We had never heard of Lubomyr Melnykor, nor his 'Continuous Music method' before. But the more we learn the more we fall in love with this iconoclastic modern innovator. In the early 70's Melnyk developed a unique approach to the piano called Continuous Music, a physical and mental technique that allowed Melnyk to play an incredible amount of notes at an incredible speed. In fact he holds two world records, one as the fastest pianist in the world, sustaining speeds of over 19.5 notes per second in each hand, simultaneously! And two, for the most number of notes played in one hour! In 60 minutes, Melnyk sustained an average speed of over 13 notes per second in each hand, yielding a total of 93,650 INDIVIDUAL notes. Holy shit!! But don't be mislead, this is not some Yngwie bullshit, where songs and composition are sacrificed for mere shredding. No, there is a method to Melnyk's madness, and the result says all that needs to be said. Continuous Music as you might have surmised, involves generating an extremely rapid flow of notes, with the pedal sustained non stop, patterns, broken chords, the sound is dense and dizzying, like glimpsing the inner workings of some tiny lifeform and watching atoms and molecules spin and swirl. The result of so many notes, played so quickly and so close together, with the overtones drifting and bleeding into each other, is some of the most breathtaking music we've ever heard. It's almost like a waterfall of piano notes, a frothy cascade of tinkling sparkling melody, or a laying beneath a perfectly black night sky, watching a million fireflies dance and flit, a sky full of tiny little streaks of light. Someone described Wave-Lox as three Terry Riley playing at once, which is not that far off the mark. Or imagine a thousand George Winstons spinning weightless in space, notes everywhere careening wildly, but with some strangely indescribable pattern. The sound of Wave-Lox is at once chaotic and soothing, confusional yet serene. Close listening yields so much detail, like looking at a piano concerto through a microscope, not so close listening offers the listener a glorious abstract soundscape on which to drift away. Wave-Lox is actually a piece for 2 pianos (giving you an idea of the density and number of notes we're talking about here) and 3 contra-bass, which offer the same sonic complexities as the piano, making a rich sonic stew even more deliriously dense.
It has been ages since we have been so blown away by a new discovery, and not just a new performer but a new way of performing. And for those of you who are especially moved by this music, you can write to Melnyk and purchase a course that will train you to be able to play Continuous Music. But be warned, Continuous Music requires serious discipline, in fact Melnyk, when he first started out, was unable to perform the pieces he composed, and only after years of strict discipline, including extra training, both physical and mental, in the form of martial techniques like Tai Chi, was he finally able to play the music the way he intended it to be played. SO AWESOME!!
These are professionally printed cd-r's with full color covers and extensive liner notes, they are bit more expensive than most cd-r's we carry because instead of mass producing one or two titles, Melnyk wanted to make available all of the pieces he has been working on for the last 20 years. Thus each disc is pressed in a super limited run, but what that also means is that there are 50 or more different pieces to choose from, all of them utterly amazing. We currently have about 10 different titles in stock, and while Wave-Lox is our favorite so far, one of the others features Melnyk on piano accompanied by multiple tubas! So drop us an email if you're interested in any of the other titles, but for now revel in the beautiful beautiful music of Wave-Lox!
MPEG Stream: "Wave-Lox 1"
MPEG Stream: "Wave-Lox 2"

OXBOW Love That's Last (Hydra Head) cd + dvd 14.98
Rock and roll as a raw nerve art form, that's the intense Oxbow aethetic... a band that dares you to listen, much less attend one of their shows. Avant garde yet drawn to swampy roots, Oxbow's approach is both intellectual and primal at the same time, these men channeling psychic and physical distress into their music, so much tension and release it's disturbing to behold... This brilliant and unique Bay Area outfit has been going strong against all odds for almost two decades now (!) and with each passing year seem to gain a wider audience, despite never ever being a part of any scene or trend. Not one that would help them, anyway. Except maybe now, that they've seemingly been accepted into the Neurosis/Isis axis of arty post-metal noisecore, releasing their last full-length An Evil Heat 4 or 5 years ago on the Neurot label and now (finally!) reappearing on Hydra Head with this cd+dvd package. Love That's Last isn't exactly the new Oxbow opus we've being waiting for, since it's not an all-new album but rather a collection, complete with commentary and lyrics in the booklet, of unreleased live cuts, improv tracks, compilation rarities, and a few "greatest hits" from their hard to find early albums. You'll certainly get a representative serving of their cathartic ugly/pretty rock action here, with all of Oxbow's characteristic Bonham beats, slide guitar skronk, droning ambience, and of course the distinctive mewling/screaming baby monster vocalizations of scary front man/fighting man Eugene Robinson. Highlights (and that's what all this is, really) range from their infamous "Insylum" duet with Marianne Faithful from 1996's Serenade In Red to the 1998 live recording "Glimmer Bird" to the prototypical expression of Oxbow anguish that is "Yoke" from their 1989 Fuckfest debut. Ten tracks in all... you too might be crying like a baby when it's over. Oxbow would be happy about that.
The DVD portion includes 5.1 mixes of a handful of Oxbow classics, plus filmmaker Christian Anthony's Oxbow documentary Music For Adults (previously available here at AQ when it was a dvd-r release) with outtakes too, AND a bunch of additional live footage of the band in Belgium and San Francisco. Here's what we said about Music For Adults before: "Now you can vicariously join Oxbow for their summer 2002 European tour. Even better than actually being there, you can enjoy their shows and tour hijinx without running any risk of Oxbow singer Eugene getting you in a headlock (and pulling down your pants, as happens to at least one unhappy Scotsman in this film). The live footage captures the Oxbow rock machine in all their twisted, bawling glory, while the 'behind-the-scenes' stuff will show you that they're actually all really nice guys!"
So, Oxbow fans NEED this. And it's obviously the first thing the prospective Oxbow fan needs to pick up as well. Hopefully that's just what's gonna happen. Recommended as always with all Oxbow product!
MPEG Stream: "Insylum"
MPEG Stream: "Is That What Sleep Looks Like?"
MPEG Stream: "Pretty Bird"

PENTAGRAM First Daze Here Too (Relapse) 2cd 14.98
It's a time of joy, and a time of doom. That's because in the space of just the past month or two we've gotten not one but now two awesome, unearthed releases of previously lost early '70s underground heaviness from a bunch of longhaired DC-area Blue Cheer fans who, if they'd only managed to get a record deal back then, might have gotten huge and now be known as the American Black Sabbath. Well they really are the American Black Sabbath anyway, but not as many people know it. We're talking about the legendary original lineup of Pentagram, and their even more obscure evil twin Bedemon.
Two lists back, we were freaking out over the long awaited release of that Bedemon album, upon which sometime Pentagram guitarist Randy Palmer's home recorded hymns of doom finally saw the light of day. We're still freaking out about it (just got more in, it's relisted this list), but now our frenzy is doubled. Yes, that amazing release wasn't enough, now here's First Daze Here Too, the follow-up to First Daze Here (natch) the AQ fave 2002 release that compiled a bunch of rare '70s era Pentagram recordings that were otherwise unavailable except perhaps with sub-par sound to rabid tape-traders. First Daze Here astounded us, being one of the best '70s heavy rock albums that never was we'd ever heard. Great songs, restored to sound better than fans has ever heard 'em. Incredibly, Relapse has now put together a solid -second- collection of unreleased vintage Penta-tracks from '72-'76. So many classics in their original form: "When The Screams Come", "Wheel Of Fortune", "Virgin Death", "Target", "Nightmare Gown", "Much Too Young To Know", an alternate version of "Be Forwarned", and more -- even their heavy take on the Stones' "Under My Thumb"! Sound quality varies, from tracks recorded for professional demo purposes to lower-fi rehearsal tapes, but fans will dig it all... though at 22 tracks total we'll admit that it's not all entirely the equal of the 100 percent killer first First Daze Here. This is more like 90 percent, yet it's not like we'd have wanted them to leave anything off. And in fact, we know that there's still more in the Pentagram vaults, so maybe we can look foward to a third volume someday...
Relapse have pulled out all the stops with this one, which after all these years Pentagram definitely deserve. It's a double disc (though actually we think all of it could have fit on one stuffed to the gills 80 minute cd) handsomely packaged with a huge thick booklet full of prevously unseen, sepia-toned band photos and text by original Pentagram drummer and keeper of the flame Geof O'Keefe, including track-by-track commentary... there's also notes from other former members as well. Doom on!
MPEG Stream: "Wheel Of Fortune"
MPEG Stream: "Virgin Death"

PENTAGRAM First Daze Here Too (Relapse) 2lp 16.98
It's a time of joy, and a time of doom. That's because in the space of just the past month or two we've gotten not one but now two awesome, unearthed releases of previously lost early '70s underground heaviness from a bunch of longhaired DC-area Blue Cheer fans who, if they'd only managed to get a record deal back then, might have gotten huge and now be known as the American Black Sabbath. Well they really are the American Black Sabbath anyway, but not as many people know it. We're talking about the legendary original lineup of Pentagram, and their even more obscure evil twin Bedemon.
Two lists back, we were freaking out over the long awaited release of that Bedemon album, upon which sometime Pentagram guitarist Randy Palmer's home recorded hymns of doom finally saw the light of day. We're still freaking out about it (just got more in, it's relisted this list), but now our frenzy is doubled. Yes, that amazing release wasn't enough, now here's First Daze Here Too, the follow-up to First Daze Here (natch) the AQ fave 2002 release that compiled a bunch of rare '70s era Pentagram recordings that were otherwise unavailable except perhaps with sub-par sound to rabid tape-traders. First Daze Here astounded us, being one of the best '70s heavy rock albums that never was we'd ever heard. Great songs, restored to sound better than fans has ever heard 'em. Incredibly, Relapse has now put together a solid -second- collection of unreleased vintage Penta-tracks from '72-'76. So many classics in their original form: "When The Screams Come", "Wheel Of Fortune", "Virgin Death", "Target", "Nightmare Gown", "Much Too Young To Know", an alternate version of "Be Forwarned", and more -- even their heavy take on the Stones' "Under My Thumb"! Sound quality varies, from tracks recorded for professional demo purposes to lower-fi rehearsal tapes, but fans will dig it all... though at 22 tracks total we'll admit that it's not all entirely the equal of the 100 percent killer first First Daze Here. This is more like 90 percent, yet it's not like we'd have wanted them to leave anything off. And in fact, we know that there's still more in the Pentagram vaults, so maybe we can look foward to a third volume someday...
Relapse have pulled out all the stops with this one, which after all these years Pentagram definitely deserve. It's a double disc (though actually we think all of it could have fit on one stuffed to the gills 80 minute cd) handsomely packaged with a huge thick booklet full of prevously unseen, sepia-toned band photos and text by original Pentagram drummer and keeper of the flame Geof O'Keefe, including track-by-track commentary... there's also notes from other former members as well. Doom on!
MPEG Stream: "Wheel Of Fortune"
MPEG Stream: "Virgin Death"

QUASI When The Going Gets Dark (Touch & Go) cd 14.98
AQ faves Sam Coombes and Janet Weiss are back with their sixth Quasi album... with the worst cover art... ever. Whoa, what an eyesore. Fortunately the same can't be said about the music. Whew, Quasi fans rejoice. Yaaaaay! Weiss is an aggressive dynamo on the kit, likewise Coombes on the piano and guitar. When The Going Gets Dark features some of his most valiant cascading piano flourishes. Their performances are looser and more impassioned than ever. We always wish she'd sing more, but we're somewhat disappointed to report that this album has the fewest appearances of Ms Janet on the mic. On the rare occasions when she does chime in with Sam on vocals, the sun shines a little brighter. On his side of things, Coombes has exhibited some bizarre behavior on his own solo releases (for instance the swampy bluesy psych of Blues Goblin), and some of it has definitely trickled into the Quasi pot. This is evident right from the get-go, as the first track "Alice The Goon" comes tumbling out of our speakers. As well, our musical antennae picked up a few oddly familiar melodic progressions that we more than suspect he nicked from some old classics -- the closing song "Invisible Star" shockingly trickles into Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade Of Pale" territory, and the second to last song "Death Culture Blues" has an ominous plodding section that strongly recalls Brian Wilson's "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow". But then again, Quasi always toss in a couple of eyebrow raisers to keep up on our toes. Apart from the cover art, the only other downside of this album is the somewhat murky sound quality. This is a little surprising since studio whiz David Fridmann was at the production helm, but despite his successes working with other pop wonders such as the Delgados, Flaming Lips, and Janet's other band Sleater-Kinney, his overdriven, blown-out style seems to overwhelm and disrupt the Quasi pop balance. That said, nothing can really tarnish the radiant force of Quasi. Their greatness always shines through, and so we proclaim, "Recommended!!!"
MPEG Stream: "Beyond The Sky"
MPEG Stream: "Poverty Sucks"
MPEG Stream: "Merry X-Mas"

QUASI When The Going Gets Dark (Touch & Go) lp 14.98
AQ faves Sam Coombes and Janet Weiss are back with their sixth Quasi album... with the worst cover art... ever. Whoa, what an eyesore. Fortunately the same can't be said about the music. Whew, Quasi fans rejoice. Yaaaaay! Weiss is an aggressive dynamo on the kit, likewise Coombes on the piano and guitar. When The Going Gets Dark features some of his most valiant cascading piano flourishes. Their performances are looser and more impassioned than ever. We always wish she'd sing more, but we're somewhat disappointed to report that this album has the fewest appearances of Ms Janet on the mic. On the rare occasions when she does chime in with Sam on vocals, the sun shines a little brighter. On his side of things, Coombes has exhibited some bizarre behavior on his own solo releases (for instance the swampy bluesy psych of Blues Goblin), and some of it has definitely trickled into the Quasi pot. This is evident right from the get-go, as the first track "Alice The Goon" comes tumbling out of our speakers. As well, our musical antennae picked up a few oddly familiar melodic progressions that we more than suspect he nicked from some old classics -- the closing song "Invisible Star" shockingly trickles into Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade Of Pale" territory, and the second to last song "Death Culture Blues" has an ominous plodding section that strongly recalls Brian Wilson's "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow". But then again, Quasi always toss in a couple of eyebrow raisers to keep up on our toes. Apart from the cover art, the only other downside of this album is the somewhat murky sound quality. This is a little surprising since studio whiz David Fridmann was at the production helm, but despite his successes working with other pop wonders such as the Delgados, Flaming Lips, and Janet's other band Sleater-Kinney, his overdriven, blown-out style seems to overwhelm and disrupt the Quasi pop balance. That said, nothing can really tarnish the radiant force of Quasi. Their greatness always shines through, and so we proclaim, "Recommended!!!"
MPEG Stream: "Beyond The Sky"
MPEG Stream: "Poverty Sucks"
MPEG Stream: "Merry X-Mas"

RUPTURE, DJ/ Low Income Tomorrowland (Apple Core) cd-r 10.98
Once in a while we get all super annoyed BY DJ'S and DJ culture. We love DJ's as much as the next guy (okay, well, maybe not AS much) but once in a while, we start to wonder how playing somebody else's records makes you a musician, or a celebrity or a star. C'mon, what the fuck? Sure there are DJ's and turntablists who blow our minds, who take the turntables and do amazing shit, from avant soundscapists like Jeck or Marclay, to actual hip hop DJ's like the Skratch Piklz or folks who exist somewhere in between like DJ Shadow. But for the most part it's hard to not think "Fuck DJ's". So when there's a DJ, who isn't some crazy acrobatic scratcher, isn't some crafter of obtuse beatscapes, but who just plays records, has killer taste, and deftly mixes and matches and mashes up tunes and beats and said cool records, well for us to love every single thing they do is definitely saying something. And that's precisely how we feel about Rupture. Sure being a DJ is the equivalent of being a professional mix tape maker, so your record collection is 90% of the battle, and judging from Rupture's last few records, he has one of the world's best record collections (rivalled only by DJ Andy Votel we'd imagine). This time around it sounds like Rupture has caught grime fever just like the rest of us. Sure there's loads of classic hip hop, spastic drill and bass, classic jungle, huge bigbeat ragga, dancehall, but there's also plenty of greasy grungy griminess!! Every track on here rules, From a wildly catchy and bizarre MIA remix, to a Dead Prez meets snake charmer joint, to a perplexing but killer a capella Tracy Chapman track mashed up with some super stuttery slow motion drum and bass. Funky, fierce, furious, and FUN.
As if that weren't enough the disc also includes 4 live German radio mixes, over 90 minutes, 6 MP3's of crazy sonic terrorism, all over the map, from Sabbath, to eighties pop, to hardcore ragga but most importantly there's glorious GRIME all over the place...
MPEG Stream: SIZZLA "Got It Right Here (50 Cent Blend)"
MPEG Stream: BONG-RA "Old Skool Armageddon"
MPEG Stream: JAHBA + KRUMBLE "Bush Is A Pussy Cloth + Backward Country Boy Explosion"

SEAWHORES Forest (Essay Recordings) cd 14.98
Seawhores appears to be the work of a cast of thousands -- well there's like ten people credited as "writers and contributors" anyway. We're not sure who or what is at the core of this project, but we can tell you that Brian Chippendale (of Lightning Bolt) and Dale Crover (of the Melvins) both appear, amongst others, including ex-members of the Cows, on this album. And Seawhores definitely do display an affinity with the sort of noise-rock of those bands, particularily the mix of heaviosity and musical fuckery normally (abnormally?) practiced by the Melvins, and their former AmRep brethren as well. It's mostly instrumental with the notable exception of the (ironic we're pretty sure) hard rock radio friendly vocals that make/break the track "College Walls". They've gotta be ironic as we do sense a definite wiseassitude about this band, again in keeping with their Melvins meets Wolf Eyes noisedrone attack, a demented mix that incorporates rhythmic drum machine damage, gobs of distortion, soundtracky ambience, and more... For instance, the track "Sweaty Men, Attack" destroys the memory of its mock-country opening with pummelling industrial rock spazzcore. Elsewhere, you'll be treated to the extended eleven minute hissing howling horror soundscape of "Village Curse". All six tracks on this mysterious cd are intriguing. Very recommended to fans of Melvins, Mike Patton, Lightning Bolt, and suchlike gonzo avant-rock entertainment!!
MPEG Stream: "Sweaty Men, Attack"
MPEG Stream: "May Your Hands Wither"

SLOMO The Creep (Important) cd 14.98
Finally available again! Now it's a real cd ( not a cd-r) and comes in spiffy new packaging courtesty of Important records! Here's what we said about the previous edition:
Could a band have a more perfect name? And an album a more perfect title? In this case, no. Slomo's The Creep is EXACTLY that. Creepy, creeping, slow motion music. One hour, one track, improvised and recorded live with minimal overdubs and "zero eye-contact" (it kinda sounds like it was recorded in total darkness, in fact). The ominous subterranean echoing seismic sounds of Slomo are the work of the UK's Chris McGrail and Howard Marsden. McGrail, as you might have guessed, is also the main guy behind heavy psych-dronesters Holy McGrail, whose Collecting Earthquakes was highlighted here last list. This heavy-lidded, cave-dwelling creature is a different, more somnolent beast, but if you liked that Holy McGrail disc we think you might like Slomo's The Creep too. It's something akin to a narcotized Earth or Black Boned Angel, but played with the spacious, quiet restraint of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. The crunchy feedback on offer is both spooky and soothing. Appropriately, the cd booklet contains an old rhyme on the subject of this duo's namesake, a folkloric character known as Slomo for his generally slow and slothful ways. The final line says of Slomo: "Whose detractors do call static... but whose champions call Ecstasis?" Clearly McGrail and Marsden are of hold to the latter opinion, as do we.
This is an actual factory pressed cd, in a cool Important style gatefold cd sleeve, which supplants the now out of print cd-r version released on Julian Cope's Fuck Off And Di cd-r label that we listed back in September of 2005.
MPEG Stream: "The Creep [excerpt 1]"
MPEG Stream: "The Creep [excerpt 2]"

SPARKS Hello Young Lovers (In The Red) cd 13.98
Wow! 30+ years after their beginings Sparks have made one of the best records of their carreer! Brothers Ron & Russell Mael are sometimes known best for their totally amazing mustaches and their Queen-like approach to symphonic pop with totally quirky leanings. Truth be told they formed a year before Queen in 1970 and actually had Queen as openers for many shows in their early years. In their 36 year existence they've been all over the map, being under appreciated and ahead of their time with their ubber smart art-pop, then going for disco gold with Georgio Moroder in the late 70's, hitting the charts with The Go-Go's Jane Wiedlin in the early 80's and then...well then it seems like the world stopped noticing them. But they never really stopped and thats part of the beauty of Sparks. It's undeniable that what they do is so a part of them and all their quirky eccentristies might make some annoyed but they're so smart and too cool to even care. Their last release Lil' Beethoven was arguably one of their strongest in a decade but with Hello Young Lovers they've totally reignited their flame of totally infectious (we're talking infectious, like it will be in your head when you go to sleep when you wake up when you are on the bus when you are at work -- and this is something to worry about), totally ridiculous, totally over the top brilliant dorky super smart pop from men who remind us that men are still boys when all is said and done. From Devo to Nomeansno to current spazzy punkers you can feel the influence of Sparks in both sound and sentiment. Like a possesed house band in Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory making their own brilliantly crazed multiple Bohemian Rhapsodys over and over and over for eternity. Underneath all the flamboyance and fireworks though you always get the sense that Sparks mean every single breath of it and that's what makes them so totally special. YEAH!
NB. we have to say also, if you're a fan of Steven Schultz and his many projects, you will DEFINITELY love this...
MPEG Stream: "Dick Around"
MPEG Stream: "Perfume"
MPEG Stream: "Metaphor"

STARVING WEIRDOS Self-Hypnosis (Jyrk) cd-r 5.98
Hard to believe it was only a matter of months ago when two guys from Humboldt sent Andee a stack of 15 full length cd-r's. All mysteriously packaged, with bizarre collage art, strange song titles, and music that was stranger still. We went apeshit and insisted they make us a sort of best of disc, which they did and we sold about a million (we still have a bunch in stock too!). Word spread and now the Starving Weirdos are like a real band, with releases coming out all over the place, including a recent one on Root Strata, and this here gem on the Yellow Swans' Jyrk label. They were even in the latest issue of Vice Magazine!! Thankfully all of this hasn't gone to their heads and this blast of murky free psych weirdness is just as fucked up, demented and downright beautiful as anything else we've heard from them. Huge spacious recordings of Dead C like clatter, cavernous swells of haunting ambience, like exploring some lost sewer system that leads right to the center of the earth. Clatter and clang, percussive splatter drenched in natural reverb, like some sort of silverware war in an abandoned cistern. Free jazz played on scrap metal in a cave. Cool and creepy.
The second lengthy track introduces sax, but not in that annnoying sax-ruins-everything sort of way. No, this is more of a deep listening sort of sax, long foghorn like blasts, rumbling and reverberating, drifting into the reverby distance, a slow low meditative series of short rich drones, the whole thing a barely recognized melody stretched into it's constituent parts. A foghorn symphony played on duck calls and broken reeded bagpipes. The final 15 minute epic is a return to the metallic clang of track one. A pipe fight to the death, taking place at the bottom of a black pit, walled with stone and the crushed skulls of past pipefighters, between Z'ev and David Jackman, each hurling broken cymbals, warped gongs, bent cutlery and assorted car parts at each other, while in the background a mad scientist boils up an unspeakable brew of warm wheezing guitars and gurgling electronic drones, each and every sound wrapped in a thick smear of reverb, drizzled with delay, and sent drifting back to the surface where they were recorded onto a wax cylinder. Fucking awesome!
Hand screened cardboard sleeve, photcopied insert. Limited to 200 copies!
MPEG Stream: "Density Of Life Pt. 1"
MPEG Stream: "Self-Hypnosis"

THRONE OF KATARSIS Unholy Holocaust Winds (Paradigms) cd 11.98
The third release in Paradigms' series of super limited cd obscurities, this time from mysterious Norwegian black metal horde Throne Of Katarsis. On first listen, this sounds like some lost slab of classic nineties Scandanavian darkness, ultra grim, super lo-fi black fuzz recorded on a 4-track, whirling drone drenched icy buzz, but the Throne manage to add their own little slant to the proceedings. The first hint that this is not just some typical BM group, is the warm church organ intro that manages to be totally misleading, unless you envision the ToK horder bursting in on a mass in progress and defiling everyone and thing in sight. Then there's the haunting acoustic guitar halfway through the eleven minute opening track, that quickly segues into some loping dirge-y doom, sounding sort of like a slowed down Xasthur. The acoustic guitar returns again closer to the end, and transforms that gloriously droning dirge into a strangely melodic, epic sweeping sway, sort of like Dissection or even Iron Maiden, albeit doused in muffled black grit and slathered with satanic skree. The second track is more straight ahead Norwegian black metal, bringing to mind Emperor, Mayhem mixed with newer black souls like Leviathan and Xasthur, especially with its weird sorrowful lilting Burzumish acoustic guitar melody buried beneath the fuzz. The final track is the real oddball (and maybe our favorite track here), partially recorded in the Liarlund forest, the sounds of footsteps crunching through the snow, the call of faraway birds, whirling whispering wind, all beneath a warm creepy blanket of muted synth and gargled demonic mutterings. Eerie and lovely, but still strangely black and grim...
Limited to 750 copies, packaged in a mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Funeral Moonlight"
MPEG Stream: "Symbols Of Winter"

V/A Not Alone (Jnana / Durtro) 5cd 37.00
Talk of this compilation has been making the rounds for months, and now that it's here we can see why. We can also see why it took so dang long. But it was well worth it. The final product, the lineup, the songs, the packaging, the cause, WOW. The bands are a who's who of indie / avant / alternative rock / folk / electronica / experimental, all over the map. It's dangerously close to being SO eclectic that it's just a mess, but if you approach it as the worlds longest mixtape, made by your coolest friend with the best record collection it all starts to make some sort of skewed sense. But who cares? Look at this lineup:
Angles Of Light, Michael Yonkers, Antony And The Johnsons, Thighpaulsandra, Devendra Banhart, William Basinski, Bevis Frond, Teenage Fanclub, Sundial, Six Organs Of Admittance, Suishou No Fune, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Richard Buckner, Vashti Bunyan, Damon And Naomi, Shock Headed Peters, Isobel Campbell, Dolly Collins, Shirley Collins, Bill Fay, Marissa Nadler, Tom Recchion, Colin Potter, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, Linda Perhacs, Max Richter, Current 93, Jad Fair, Simon Finn, Edward Ka-Spel, Pearls Before Swine, Nurse With Wound, Jarboe, Charlemagne Palestine, Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke, Mirror, Matmos, Alex Nielson & Richard Youngs, Larsen, Faun Fables, James William Hindle, The Hafler Trio, Keiji Haino, Allen Ginsberg, Howie B, Ghost, irr.app.(ext)., Cyclobe, Fursaxa and more more more!
The liner notes make it impossible to tell just which tracks are exclusive or unreleased and which are album tracks, but again it hardly matters in this context. Like borrowing some cool kids Ipod and setting it on shuffle. And of course the most important part of all this, and the whole reason this compilation exists is that all proceeds go to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) to support their work in fighting HIV / AIDS in Africa.
Packaged in a cool slipcover box, with individually printed cd sleeves, a HUGE book with liner notes from Mark Logan who runs Jnana records as well as information about Medecins Sans Frontieres, as well as track by track notes from each band.
MPEG Stream: IRR.APP.(EXT.) "Fly Away - And Then What?"
MPEG Stream: FURSAXA "In Lieu Of"
MPEG Stream: MATMOS "A Song For The Appeal"
MPEG Stream: DEVENDRA BANHART "A Sight To Behold"

V/A Run the Road 2 (Vice) cd 14.98
What more can we say about grime? Other than it's kicking our ass on a daily basis. This shit is so hard and heavy, so funky and catchy and freaked out. Why are people still listening to shit like 50 Cent, The Game, and all that bullshit gangster cookie cutter hip hop? Grime has all the aggression, all the ferocity, but mixes in loads of humor in a super subtle way, and the sound of grime is so much more funky and fun, so much more alive, more vibrant. A headspinning collision of hip hop, dancehall, jungle, ragga, huge slabs of distorted synth, throbbing basslines, bizarre sped up loops, that stuttering grimy beat, and the flows, oh the flows. Holy shit! These MC's could rap circles around our MTV elite, although no one would be able to understand a word they were saying. Super nimble, tongue twisting, mush mouthed, marble mouthed, cockney drawls, shooting off rapid fire lyrics, sputtering, stuttering tangled up rhymes splattered all over the hiccupping beats. FUCK! This is so good!!!! As much as we dug the recent Heavy Meckle comp, this second volume of Vice's Run The Road series is even better, definitely HARDER, as they have cherry picked the hottest tracks from the hottest names in grime (most of which remain criminally unknown in the US): Low Deep, Big Seac, Kano, Crazy Titch, Klashnekoff, Bear Man, Mizz Beats Sway and loads more.
SO ENTIRELY AND UTTERLY AND UNEQUIVOCALLY RECOMMENDED!!!
MPEG Stream: LOW DEEP "Get Set"
MPEG Stream: BIG SEAC "Nah Nah"
MPEG Stream: KLASHNEKOFF "Can't You See?"

VULTURE CLUB Pure Agitator (Invisible Generation) cd-r 10.98
We always wondered when and how we could finally remove the musician from the equation entirely. Not like synthesizer and sequencer sampled electronic music or anything. And not like some Chuck E. Cheese robotic band. No, we mean just taking a drumkit or a guitar, plugging them in or setting them up and letting them go. Some bands have come close for sure, SUNNO))), Earth and the like. Music so slow moving that it seems to just sort of hover, a music that seems to be playing itself via huge swaths of amp hum and wild sheets of feedback. It's almost as if the music would still play even if the band members took five. All of the robes and smoke machines and demonic imagery in the world can't disguise the fact that you could get almost the same sound from just plugging in a guitar, turning the amp to 10, the distortion all the way up, and leaning the guitars up against the amps, and letting the guitars just feedback, moaning and squealing and rumbling and droning gloriously on and on and on....
Thus we have Vulture Club, a band, MAYBE, or perhaps just some guitars and amps who somehow figured out a way to capture their nocturnal rumblings on tape and press up a bunch of cd-r's. Either way, this record has been kicking our asses since we first got a copy a few weeks back. Imagine a more minimal Earth 2, or SUNNO))) without the riffs, or a more metal Troum! Slow shifting, churning, warm thick swells of guitar hum that swirl and eddy like some strange black tide. Alternately, at its most fierce, a seriously Total like skree, like a plane flying overhead, or someone mowing their lawn down the street, or all of your neighbors vacuuming at once heard through the apartment walls, or the sound of the mighty Ditch Witch that has been sucking sewer water out of ditches all along Valencia Street outside our store for the last two weeks. A thick and gloriously corrosive din! But the noisy edge is tempered by long stretches of tranquil drone and hum, a whirring and warbling rumble, that would sound not at all out of place hovering dreamily between your Maeror Tri records and all of those limited PseudoArcana and Celebrate Psi Phenomenon cd-r's!
Really, the thing to do would be to actually buy those amps, three or four 100 watt amplifiers, a handful of distortion pedals, and a couple guitars, and let them loose, set the amps up around your bed, cranked as loud as they'll go, plug the guitars into the distortion pedals, crank 'em up, lean the guitars against the amps, lay down and just get buried in guitars. But assuming you're not up for spending the $10,000, or are short on space, Vulture Club should most definitely do the trick for now!
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES (we took almost the WHOLE pressing!!) Hand numbered and stamped in cool oversized cardstock sleeves, with strange hairs/fibers affixed to the front, with a lovely vellum insert and track list.
MPEG Stream: "Dusk On Owl Creek"
MPEG Stream: "From Afield"
MPEG Stream: "Pure Agitator"

WHITE HILLS No Game To Play (self released) cd-r 5.98
We'd been hearing good things about this band for ages. Someone we know was raving about 'em, and they also had the recommendation of Julian Cope... But we were having some difficulty tracking down the band, or a way to get their record for the store. Until an insane bit of coincidence / serendipity. In walked one Dave Weinberg, who a decade earlier had been Andee's boss at Holey Bagel in Noe Valley, across the street from the old aQuarius (back when Andee had time for two jobs). He had copies of a cd by his band, and what do you know? Dave's band just so happened to be White Hills! Wow. Thus we managed to get 30 or so copies of the second pressing of the No Game To Play cd-r (the first pressing is long out of print, as is the alternate version, which was drastically remixed, resequenced and retitled They've Got Blood Like We've Got Blood and released on Cope's Fuck Off And Di cd-r label) and it's just as good as we had hoped. In a word, SPACEROCK. Or if you prefer, two words. Either way, this is some seriously tripped out swirling cosmic proggy, krautrock flecked, keyboard drenched outer outer outer space rock. Think just the jams from all the best Hawkwind songs, or the dreamiest mellowest bits of your favorite Monster Magnet tracks. Mix in some Neu! and some Faust and even some Stereolab at times and you'll just be scratching the surface of White Hills' sound. The opening track is a grungy, lowslung garagey drug addled space rock stomp, think the Stooges dropping acid until they started drifting off and began to sound more like Hawkwind, a killer hypnotic riff, a simple shuffling drum beat, mumbled vocals buried in the mix, and a swirling squall of wigged out guitars and all manner of synthesizer squiggle and swoon. It sounds quite a bit like Circle too, that riff just repeating and repeating, mantra like, a super tranced out rock that you want to go on forever. The centerpiece of the record is definitely "They've Got Blood Like We've Got Blood", a near static synth swirl over a shuffling tribal rhythm, while guitars just sort of drift and float lazily amidst the whir and drone. Sounds a little bit like Brian Eno jamming with Crash Worship while somebody goes apeshit in the background on the synths. A gloriously mesmerizing hypnorock. Then a brief blast of straight up blown out, super distorted Neu! worship before the drifting ambient closer "Ulan", an abstract synthesizer soundscape that sounds like some lost Tangerine Dream jam. Blissy and totally dreamlike.
This is supposedly the final pressing, limited to 222 copies.
MPEG Stream: "No Game To Play"
MPEG Stream: "They've Got Blood Like We've Got Blood"

WOLFGANG PRESS Burden Of Mules (4AD) cd 13.98
The Wolfgang Press' 1983 debut Burden Of Mules is one of the most curious albums from the annals of '80s post-punk. Dark, clunky, and quixotic on occasion, Burden of Mules has very little in common with the stylized retro-chic propulsion which has been favored by the likes of Interpol, Ladytron, Adult and other contemporary darlings from the '80s revivalist camp; thus, it's a little weird that 4AD would choose to reissue this album. I (Jim) am not going to complain, as I've cherished this album for years. The band had originally formed many years before the release of Burden Of Mules, but other projects such as Mass (yes, another band called Mass!), In Camera, and Rema Rema required the attention of the Wolfgang Press trio (Michael Allen, Andrew Grey, and Mark Cox). Something of an aggregate of The Birthday Party, Public Image Limited, and Tom Waits, The Wolfgang Press crafted weird noir-funk tunes through the alienated, aggressiveness of post-punk. Unlike the spastic energy of James Chance across the pond, London's Wolfgang Press mired their lust for atavistic funk in surrealistically tinged, cacophonous gloom, typified on Burden of Mules. Later on The Wolfgang Press' grooves become more and more pronounced, culminating in the vastly underrated album Bird Wood Cage before they devolved into a cheeseball parody of themselves. Regardless, Burden Of Mules remains a diamond in the rough for The Wolfgang Press with a case in point being the opening track "Lisa The Passion" with its tribal percusssive hammering coddled with an angelic swath of droning melodies. Elsewhere on the "Prostitutes 1 & 2," Michael Allen slinks along his bass and utters a disaffected croon about his subject matter being "the spice of life," whilst a Swordfishtrombone percussive clatter is extracted from drum machines and metallic junk. The album hardly fits in with what had been codified as the 4AD sound espoused by The Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil; but it's a sarcastic, challenging, morose, and very well done record nonetheless.
MPEG Stream: "Lisa (The Passion)"
MPEG Stream: "Prostitutes I"
MPEG Stream: "The Burden Of Mules"

WRIGHT, PETER Yellow Horizon (PseudoArcana) cd 13.98
If there were any justice in the world we'd be speaking of Peter Wright in the same hushed, reverential tones reserved for the more well known minimalists and dronologists. Chalk, Coleclough, Berry, Kneale, Milton, all fantastic, but they have nothing on Milton. In fact, if anything, Milton takes the subtle drones and the amorphous soundscaping of his brethren and uses those concepts and sounds to make actual songs. Like on the opening track "The Chain Bridge", Milton lays out a thick wash of warm cathedral guitar, slow moving and stately, so thick with reverb and delay that the melody sounds submerged in some warm viscous sound, the overtones so rich and thick they seem to overwhelm the notes that produced them. But that doesn't keep Milton from unfurling the mightiest of drones. Take the 13+ minute "Offa's Dyke" a chiming reverberating slow moving mass, glistening black, shot through with all the colors of the rainbow, but so subtle as to only be barely glimpsed through the whir and rumble of the mighty drone. But even in full drone mode, there are layers of melody, subtle shadings, even little song fragments and sonic swirl. Then there's tracks like "Bannockburn", one of the most gorgeous, and emminently listenable pieces of modern minimalism we've heard in ages, a circular series of repeated motifs, slowly shifting and gently overlapping, the best Steve Reich piece that never was. A 21st century new-weird-underground cd-r Terry Riley even. Wow.
Yellow Horizon is that rich in sound, heavy in emotion, just beautiful to listen to, all the way through, alternately droning and lilting, slow and smoldering, shimmery and effervescent.
Easily one of the most gorgeous records of the year so far!
MPEG Stream: "The Chain Bridge"
MPEG Stream: "Hover"
MPEG Stream: "Pendulum"

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AHMED, ILYAS Yahan Aur Wahan (Self Released) cd-r 6.98
What a thrill it is to discover one of our customers quietly making music as beautiful as, if not more so, than the music we love and listen to every day! Such is the case with aQ pal Ilyas Ahmed. We listed one of his cd-r's a few weeks back, which didn't last long since we only got a handful. We also got copies of his other limited cd-r which sold out so fast we didn't get enough to list at all. Well, we didn't want to blow it again so we made sure to reserve 30 copies of this, the newest cd-r release, and again it's a breathtaking bit of beauty. Solo acoustic guitar, gentle and lilting, soft focused and dreamlike. Definitely in the spirit of John Fahey, Richard Bishop, Jack Rose and the like, but much less Appalachia, and more introspective folk. Minor key and melancholy, fingerpicked steel string guitar, candlelit and moonlit, melodies flickering like shadows, deft and smooth, but effortless and carefree. So so so so lovely!
Packaged in a cardboard sleeve, with hand screened artwork affixed to the front and back. Hand numbered, LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "100 Veils"
MPEG Stream: "Descend Again"

AMANDINE Leave Out The Sad Parts (Fat Cat) cd ep 8.98
Leave Out The Sad Parts is the new cdep from this Swedish foursome who briefly went by the less fitting moniker Wichita Linemen. This U.S.-only release includes one song ("Firefly") from their fine debut album, 2005's This is Where Our Hearts Collide and two tunes previously only available on a UK 7". Amandine's sound is perhaps most characterized by the vocals of Olof Gidlof. He has one of those voices of which it's difficult to discern the gender. We believed it to be a female singer until we checked the band lineup. It sounds as though the weight of the world is preventing him from raising his voice beyond a low, muted register. Some of us thought this was quite reminiscent of '70s heavy hearts such as Bread. It's a disarmingly warm, melancholic assembly of piano, guitar, bass and drums accompanied by accordion, theremin, banjo and trumpet. The final song "Between What He's Saying And What He Regrets" is graced with some suitably sleepy fiddle... a definite highlight!
MPEG Stream: "Firefly"
MPEG Stream: "Between What He's Saying And What He Regrets"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Grass (Fat Cat) cdep+dvd 10.98
A special treat for Animal Collective fans! The audio portion of this cd/dvd combo offers up the super buoyant tune "Grass" from their last album Feels, and accompanies it with a more abstract "Fickle Cycle" and a third number titled "Must Be Treeman" which is sorta like an Animal Collective microcosm encapsulating their catchy poppiness and more bizarre musical behavior in one track.
The dvd features videos for "Grass" (European tour footage from last year presented in washed out negative), "Who Could Win A Rabbit" (a 'bad trip' starring humans in fucked-up bunny and turtle costumes), "Fickle Cycle" (the most artsy fartsily layered of the bunch -- footage shot while they were recording, grainy segments of a guy shaking his head furiously, projections on a guy's head wrapped in a sheet, hazy close-ups of an eye and with a soda pop product placement) and another live one of "Lake Damage" from a 2004 tour.
MPEG Stream: "Grass"
MPEG Stream: "Must Be Treeman"

APPLESEED CAST Low Level Owl I & II (Gilead) 3lp 25.00
These two long time aQ faves have now been re-issued on vinyl, as a deluxe gatefold triple lp. YOWZA! Here's the skinny on these two classics, originally released way back in 2002:
Though Lawrence, Kansas based Appleseed Cast has been around since 1998 they haven't been as widely heard as their contemporaries The Get Up Kids and The Anniversary, and we would have imagined that the release of Low Level Owl volumes one and two would change all that (although it seemingly hasn't helped too much as this record came out last year and Appleseed's public profile hasn't really improved all that dramatically). Though AC was basically your run of the mill emo band (Andee's old band even played with them a few years back at a hardcore festival!), we highly doubt their most recent efforts will be confused with their mid-west emo contemporaries. Within the emo/post-hardcore spectrum Low Level Owl has much the same hue as Sunny Day Real Estate's angst-ridden How It Feels To Be Something On. Anthemic, meandering, and contemplative are definitely some of the adjectives that might describe this new sonic one two punch. Taken together Low Level Owl I and II are a much more sophisticated work than How It Feels was (and we love that album very much thank you), combining a sense of pop hook writing akin to Death Cab For Cutie or even Built To Spill, but with the added epic glory of Godspeed You Black Emperor, Radiohead or Mogwai's arrangements and production, but none of that overbearing pretension (esp. G.S.Y.B.E.'s incessant use of homeless street poets) and more a wide-eyed excitement to just make music!. This is good clean all American pop music for the emo lover who's old enough to have been drinking for at least a good ten years. The songs are filled with gorgeous melodic guitar lines soaked in spacious reverb, huge drum sounds and earnest vocals. If part of emo emanates a sense of nostalgia (Get Up Kids with Rick Springfield, Sunny Day with Christopher Cross) then we almost want to put Appleseed Cast on the same page with U2 circa Under A Blood Red Sky with many of the guitar and drum parts, but we imagine that might bum out some AQ customers so we'll refrain. Oops, too late!
The thing that really kicks a hole in our pants with these albums is the obvious love and meticulous care that went into recording them. The band apparently spent three months recording all the tracks; laying down the initial tracks and then sculpting them with additional overdubs and extensive tweaking, even miking leaves blowing along the driveway outside the studio and including it as a segue between two songs. In fact, both albums are obviously meant to be listened to in their entirety, with nary a second of silence between songs, as tracks bleed and drift into one another. Volume two begins, quite ingeniously and literally, where volume one leaves off -- with a brief reprise of the ending track. It could be us, but volume two seems to contain more Mogwai style extended jams and instrumental musical forays and experiments. So hearing the two together is pretty much perfect, the more ebullient "pop" record set up right there alongside the more drifting and pensive one. Almost everytime we play this in the store, someone buys a copy or comes to the counter to see what the heck we're playing. Fans of Death Cab, Get Up Kids, Flaming Lips, and all things emo, pop, and power pop, who missed out on the Low Level Owl a few years back should definitely have another listen and see what they've been missing!

BADAWI Safe (Asphodel) cd 14.98
Some of you might be familiar with Raz Mesinai from his work with the illbient/ambient dub project Sub Dub. If so you know that he has this great ability to get to eerie places in the music he creates. Growing up in Jerusalem he spent many of his formative years around Bedouins and really really latching onto their musical stylings. Then studying with dervish sheik Murshid Hassan he became a master of Middle Eastern drumming excelling in the playing of everything from bendir to zarb to darbukka. Meanwhile, he also studied extensively with folk musician and Hasidic rabbi Harov Shlomo Carlebach. All this background info really sets the stage for this outing as Badawai. The underlying tension in his homeland is no doubt a constant fuel for his music. Taking from both Palestinian and Jewish traditions he creates songs that are loaded with suspense and sizzle under the surface. With an amazing ensemble including Eyvind Kang, Marc Ribot and Mark Feldman the result is darn near flawless. It might just be a matter of moments before Mesani is snagged by a big film studio because we can't think of anyone better suited to score films filled with drama, mystery, suspense and horror. Wow.
MPEG Stream: "Etheric Uprise"
MPEG Stream: "Safe"

BAND OF HORSES Everything All The Time (Sub Pop) cd 14.98
Fans of My Morning Jacket, Sparklehorse, Songs Ohia, and Iron And Wine, you just might have another band jockeying for your affection! Mat Brooke and Ben Bridwell, two ex-members of Seattle pop band Carissa's Weird, have regrouped in a new combo that doesn't stray too far from their former band's slow, lush sound, but takes it into more of a rural setting. Some of us (staffers and customers alike) thought they were a deadringer for My Morning Jacket -- from Bridwell's high mournful vocal delivery to the duo's balance of haunting Southern gothic ballads and rockier numbers. For a full box of tissues example of the former, check out the final song "St. Augustine". But whereas MMJ blanket their shadowy melancholic recordings in cavernous cathedral reverb, Band Of Horses apply a lighter coat -- their sun-drenched guitars countering the heavy-heartedness of the vocals. Really really really good!
MPEG Stream: "The First Song"
MPEG Stream: "St. Augustine"

BAND OF HORSES Everything All The Time (Sub Pop) lp 14.98
Fans of My Morning Jacket, Sparklehorse, Songs Ohia, and Iron And Wine, you just might have another band jockeying for your affection! Mat Brooke and Ben Bridwell, two ex-members of Seattle pop band Carissa's Weird, have regrouped in a new combo that doesn't stray too far from their former band's slow, lush sound, but takes it into more of a rural setting. Some of us (staffers and customers alike) thought they were a deadringer for My Morning Jacket -- from Bridwell's high mournful vocal delivery to the duo's balance of haunting Southern gothic ballads and rockier numbers. For a full box of tissues example of the former, check out the final song "St. Augustine". But whereas MMJ blanket their shadowy melancholic recordings in cavernous cathedral reverb, Band Of Horses apply a lighter coat -- their sun-drenched guitars countering the heavy-heartedness of the vocals. Really really really good!
MPEG Stream: "The First Song"
MPEG Stream: "St. Augustine"

BATTLES EP C / EP B (Warp) cd 22.00
Two of the three killer Battles eps (C and B) on a single import cd (note: both eps are still available separately) from this far out post Don Cab post Helmet post-prog-jazz-mathrock-whatthefuck-supergroup! Here's what we had to say about the two eps when we first reviewed them a while back:
EP C:
This is one pedigreed post-rock combo here! Battles consists of Ian Williams (Don Caballero, Storm And Stress), Tyondai Braxton (son of jazz genius Anthony and solo artist in his own right), John Stanier (Helmet, Tomahawk) and Dave Konopka (Lynx). These gents have joined forces to tangle their guitar strings, various drum implements, and electronic gadgetry into a big knot that might seem loose but is probably really tight if you were to try and unravel it. And while their compositions might be 'difficult', listening to this is not. Battles sounds like a post rock band (a la Don Cab or Lynx) playing the music of Conlon Nancarrow on Raymond Scott's Manhattan Research equipment. Or Gershon Kingsley making math rock. Weird, complex, delightful.
EP B:
Battles seems to have a thing for EPs. Well, why not? Might be the best format for their brand of attention-span sapping math rock. And you do get a full half-hour here, filled out with these five tracks of advanced instrumental action. This band -- featuring (ahem, selling points here) Ian Williams from Don Caballero/Storm And Stress, Tyondai "Son of Anthony" Braxton, John Stanier of Helmet/Tomahawk and Lynx's Dave Konopka -- are pros at making impressively complicated yet undeniably enjoyable post-rock music, as lively as it is listenable (which we mean in a good way). Often hectic but never harsh. It's as if these guys are taking King Crimson's early '80s comeback classic Discipline and giving it a fractured, abstract and electronic makeover. Venturing into totally deconstructed Starfuckers-ish territory, the twelve minute "BTTLS" might be the highlight, or at least the most abstract track on here by far... but the whole B EP is a fine dose of Battles for their quickly growing legion of fans.
MPEG Stream: "Hi/Lo"
MPEG Stream: "Ipt2"
MPEG Stream: "Dance"

BEDEMON Child Of Darkness: From The Original Master Tapes (Black Widow) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK!! These went quick when we first listed this a month ago, and it took a while to get more from Italy, but here they are at last...
DOOM HISTORY HERE FOLKS! And not just that, it's a fantastic album. Ok, you know something is up when almost EVERYONE here at AQ absolutely loves a doom metal album. Not just the regular metal heads (Andee, Allan, Jason, Lauren) but also Jim and Cup too. Indeed, Cup's two cents for this review is this: "fucking awesome!"
So what's all the fuss about Bedemon? Well some of you may be familiar with the band Pentagram from Maryland, who have about a 30+ year history, going on 40 in fact. Well Bedemon are essentially an obscure but very worthwhile footnote to Pentagram's history, being the "solo" recording project of original '70s Pentagram guitarist Randy Palmer, the majority of this recorded circa 1973-74 with a few tracks from a 1979 Bedemon session as well. They never played out, or even released any records. Bedemon were more of a practice room, basement-recording project that involved Palmer and friends, including the other members of Pentagram, most significantly the uniquely talented vocalist Bobby Liebling who sings on all of these cuts. It was just a way for Palmer to get his own songwriting down on tape, stuff that wasn't recorded by Pentagram. It's totally in the same vein as Pentagram though, if anything MORE dark and doomy than Pentagram's '70s output. Very heavy, and heavily Black Sabbath influenced, also with echoes of Blue Cheer, Randy Holden's Population II, and Iggy & The Stooges (the track "Time Bomb" is very Stoogey, in a way similiar to Pentagram's "Last Days Here"). And for '73, this is definitely about as heavy as it gets, Sabbath and Pentagram themselves excepted. There's so many great tracks on here, each one more sorrowful and wrought with doomful emotion than the next, all of 'em throbbing and (awesomely) distorted. Yes, the quality of these rehearsal tape recordings is downright grungey and murky, but in our opinion that isn't a distraction nor a detraction. In fact, it only makes this better, totally capturing that spirit and raw energy of jamming in the garage for your own enjoyment. And it also sounds doomier that way too. Hands down, Randy Palmer wrote some of the best Pentagram songs, and many of these are just as good. Some of his riffs absolutely lay to waste those of his contemporaries. Just imagine if Palmer had decided to promote his doom skills rather than keep them for the most part to himself. Holy shit. At least we have this, one of the best "lost" albums ever uncovered in the realm of heavy, underground music.
Sadly, Palmer died in a tragic car accident just a few years ago, so the official release of this material at long last is also something of a tribute to his memory. Some of this stuff has been bootlegged before, but this legit release has been done with the blessings of Randy's survivors and the input of the other Bedemon musicans. There's even a Wes Benscoter cover painting based on Palmer's own hand-sketched ideas, as well as lots of photos, a Bedemon history written by Palmer before he was killed, and some very fascinating, detailed, and heartfelt liner notes from fellow Bedemon/Pentagram bandmate Geof O'Keefe.
Essential to all true fans of Pentagram, and also to anyone into heavy '70s Sabbathy psychedelic garagey proto-metal!!
MPEG Stream: "Child Of Darkness"
MPEG Stream: "Last Call"
MPEG Stream: "Time Bomb"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Chi Vampires (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 16.98
This all time aQ fave back in stock!
The thing with Campbell Kneale's Birchville Cat Motel, is everything he puts out is great. Really. There are very few bands we can say that about. And even fewer who have such a ridiculously extensive catalog of releases. So what is it that makes one record worthy of Record of the Week status? Well, to be quite honest, almost any of the BCM records -could- be a record of the week, but every once in a while, BCM offer up something -really- special. And as much as we totally love all things Birchville and love to immerse ourselves in their (actually, his) blissed out ambient drone ragas, we can't help but love the fact that lately, BCM mainman (only man?) Campbell Kneale has developed a thing for metal, even proudly wearing a Darkthrone T on his recent US tour. Better late than never we say. The first evidence of this new found metallic leaning, was the launching of a new label (Kneale owns and operates the Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label) called Battlecruiser, a series of limited 3" cd-r's chronicling a weird sect of underground metal, mostly made by NZ noise / drone guys who had also caught the metal bug (two new Battlecruiser releases get reviewed elsewhere on this list). One of the first Battlecruiser releases was by an outfit called Black Boned Angel, which just so happened to BE Campbell Kneale, and was a massive pummelling sludgy black hole of SUNN-like dirge metal. Recently re-released on cd and reviewed again on the AQ list, everyone here could not get enough of Kneale's weird drifting almost ambient take on blackened metal. Fans of Earth and SUNN and all that sort of slow motion doom definitely found a new band to love. Little did we expect that Kneale's metal would leak on over into his main project, but it has, and we couldn't be happier. The first three tracks on Chi Vampires are classic BCM, gorgeous ambient prog, like a blissed-out take on Goblin's creepiest horror film interludes, with slowly drifting swaths of thick warm sonic swirl, sun dappled and dreamily indistinct, but also slightly ominous. Completely epic and the sort of music that either rocks you to sleep, or puts you in a trance, sending you on a trip through your inner senses, dizzying and mesmerizing. Those tracks alone could have had us pushing for a BCM record of the week, at last. But then the final track "Chi Vampires" hits, and it hits hard. Huge guitar riffs, not processed guitar drones, but ACTUAL RIFFS, bulldoze and crush all in their path, massive and intense, ultra low, and ultra heavy, with haunting heavily reverbed chanting offering the only counterpoint. This is like SUNNO))), but sped up to say 18 or 19 rpm, and with actual melodies, and the chanting, so creepy, like a drone metal ritual being performed at the bottom of a massive cavern, riffs filling the room with thick low end, making it hard to breathe, hard to see, the chanting distracting you only enough to maybe worry about escaping with your life, making it to the surface without being sucked into the blackness. The riffs eventually drift off, as the mysterious makers of these sounds trudge slowly back to the center of the earth, chanting as they go, the reverb of the cave turning the chants into indistinct vocal blurs, until they too fade into blackness, and you're left dazed, unable to move, staring into the void. So intense and haunting and heavy and utterly amazing!
MPEG Stream: "Blonde Moth Burial"
MPEG Stream: "Chi Vampires"

BLIGHT Detroit: The Dream Is Dead - The Collected Works Of A Midwest Hardcore Noise Band (Touch & Go) cd 10.98
Blight was a short lived and misunderstood band that came out of the vibrant early 80's Midwest (more specifically Michigan) hardcore scene along with better know groups like Negative Approach, Necros, Crucifucks, Meatmen, The Fix, etc. Blight was made up of former members of The Fix, along with Tesco Vee of The Meatmen doing vocals here as well as "playing" trumpet! Yeah, these guys all held Ph.D's in "Hardcore 101" but Blight was about branching out from what had become a confined attitude/scene and thus the racket these guys created together as a band was more akin to Flipper or the Germs or Throbbing Gristle. There's even a bit of NY No-Wave going on with all the repetition and discordance and skronk that that entails. During the time Blight was active they released one 7" EP and played out only a handful of times. 23 years later, Touch and Go finally does this band justice in releasing this long lost (and hard to find) EP along with five unreleased songs from that same session, a pair from an earlier demo and the disc closes with a short live set from 1982 in Detroit. Fucking killer! Anyone into Butthole Surfers, Stickmen With Rayguns, Scratch Acid, Flipper and all of those bands who trafficked in gloriously abrasive thud and chaos should hear this.
Great packaging and extensive liner notes help make this exactly how all posthumous releases SHOULD be, an amazing, well researched, perfectly assembled reissue designed to preserve the past and expose folks today to a band who should definitely not be forgotten.
A truly unique band that stood out in a sea of clones even back in the day...
MPEG Stream: "Blight"
MPEG Stream: "Dream Is Dead"
MPEG Stream: "Bludgeon"

BLOODY HEADS Picking Up Your Pieces (self-released) cd 9.98
The opening song of this SF band's first cd finds them crunching out a rough'n'tumble garage pop with lots of snare drum that sounds a lot like Violent Femmes... but if Gordon Gano were replaced by more of a boyish crooner. The next track "Pipe Down!" does just that (bring things down a bit, that is!) as does the third song. These lower-key tunes which make up the better part of the album (and which gives you opportunity to catch hold of the lyrics), call to mind quirky storytellers such as Jonathan Richman, Microphones' Phil Elverum or Morrissey even. A promising indie pop debut!
MPEG Stream: "Lighter Than A Bullet"
MPEG Stream: "Picking Up Your Pieces"

CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE Etiquette (Tomlab) lp 14.98
Now on vinyl too! Yaaay, a new album from our dear pal Mr. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone (aka Owen Ashworth)! Seems like it was only yesterday that his last full length Twinkle Echo was released, but it was actually 2003. Wow, time sure flys! Anyhoo, Etiquette picks right up where that album left off, even in the cover art department with another lovely, enchantingly odd painting by his pal Heidi Anderson. Tho' Ashworth might portray a perpetually bashful, lovelorn teenager in his lyrics and stage presence, the musical manner in which he conveys his heartfelt confessions and sentiments has blossomed and flourished with each subsequent album. Yes, his beloved trademark bedroom-y lo-fi quality of bittersweet valentines being played out on thriftstore-scored toy electronic keyboards still surfaces here and there, but the compositions have gotten increasingly ambitious. Indeed this is his most grand (but still unmistakably CFTPA) to date. No longer a one man band (or at least not for the time being), he has a bunch of friends joining in the musicmaking fun which certainly contributes a good deal to the breadth of the recordings. Lots of different voices singing and playing a much more varied array of instruments.
One thing tho' that we must take issue with is that while there are times and places when the phrase "menstrual blood" should be mentioned, a Casiotone song ("Love Connection") seems like the last place you'd want to hear it... sung. It sure made us hit the brakes and go, "Whoa!" Don't get us wrong, we're not squirmish, but when we spend the better part of a CFTPA album getting up to 'holding hands' speed, it's a bit of a nasty jolt to be reminded of that time of month. Maybe they should've taken a cue from the same song's later lyrics "Some things are best left unsaid"? Perhaps somewhat unfortunately that's also the album's final song. Ah well, just press 'play' once more. You'll be right back to the beginning again, and all will be well.
MPEG Stream: "New Year's Kiss"
MPEG Stream: "Scattered Pearls"

CHEVREUIL Sport (Sickroom) cd 13.98
There's two kinds of post rock, the sort of jazzy, drifty, Tortoise-y modern Krautrock bliss of bands like, well, Tortoise, and To Rococo Rot, Tarentel, all shuffling and dreamy and shimmery, and then there's this. A churning, chops heavy, rhythmic and textural workout. Big BIG drums, even when the surrounding music is muted and subtle, the drums are still pounding and deftly navigate dense tangled time signatures and stretches of full on pounding rock, The guitar parts are slippery and noodly, often supplying texture more than melody. A lovely abstract counterpoint to the booming big drum framework. French duo Chevreuil travel a similar sonic post rock path on Sport (a reissue of a 2000 release) as outfits like Dazzling Killmen, Shellac, Fuehler, Lynx and the like but an ultra stripped down version of any of those. All instrumental, thick and propulsive, each track is a dizzying swirl of proggy guitar filligee drifitng like clouds of multi colored dust around the whirling dirvish drums, an impossibly octopoidal, solid as a rock, pounding pummeling percussive crush. All that said, this will still most assuredly appeal to fans of Tortoise and other likeminded post rockers, but it's a lot weirder and heavier and more fucked up sounding. A bit like Tortoise's bad ass little post rock brother who carries a switchblade and runs with the wrong crowd and hangs out on the corner in the bad part of town and can't be bothered to write songs or listen to jazz, opting instead to put some spikes and studs on his Members Only jacket, and turning the drums WAY up and just sort of wandering aimlessly, seeing where the music might take him. Or better yet, imagine, Hella or Lightning Bolt played at 16rpm, the spastic splattery drumming becoming a solid chugging rhythm, the suquirrelly squiggly guitar freakouts, transformed into shimmering melodyscapes and near ambient guitar swirl.
Awesome surreal moldy ground beef cover art too!
MPEG Stream: "Modenature"
MPEG Stream: "Montacute"
MPEG Stream: "Acier"

CIRCLE Sunrise (Headspin) 2lp 34.00
We sold through all one hundred copies of this we got direct from the label (25 percent of the entire pressing!) in a matter of days, but folks kept ordering it, so we managed to get another 30 copies from a distributor who had a handful in stock. These are almost certainly the last copies we'll be able to get. Since we had to get them from a distributor this time instead of direct from the label, the price went up a bit (the middleman getting their cut), but don't let that deter you from picking this up, if you haven't already. Why you ask? Just read on...
NOW ON VINYL, WITH A SIDELONG BONUS TRACK NOT ON THE CD!!!! This long out of print Circle cd, one of our favorites, finally gets resurrected, at least on vinyl, a double lp actually, of which all of side 4 is taken up by an previously unreleased 18 minute bonus track. And the already amazing cover art looks even better in the 12" format, a gorgeous thick gatefold sleeve to boot! WOW. SUPER SUPER LIMITED. Supposedly limited to 400 copies worldwide, of which we got 100!!! So act fast, these are gonna fly out of here.
What we said about Sunrise when we reviewed the cd:
Brilliant, shockingly brilliant! Herewith we present to you what we can only say is the headbangingest record yet from our Finnish friends Circle (containing also, paradoxically, a couple of their most gentle numbers). The Circle concept is one of repetition, and while ALL their records are in fact great, one can find some of them to be a lot like another. So it's nice that this new Circle really goes out on a limb, with so much success, while totally managing to remain Circle to the core. How do they do it?
The album opens with "Nopeuskuningas", seemingly Circle's answer to Judas Priest's "Breaking The Law"! Down and dirty hard rock riffing (cyclic and repetitive in the trademark Circle way, of course) with keyboardist/vocalist Mika Ratto -- a relatively recent, and significant, addition to Circle's lineup on their past three or four discs -- simultaneously channeling screechy metal gods Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Klaus Meine (Scorpions), and Brian Johnson (AC/DC), but in an indeciperable, or Finnish at least, babble. It stretches to nearly eight minutes after the space-rock effects and swirly keys kick in. But then, when you think this is going to be The Heavy Metal Circle album, track two gets all mellow and pretty and folked-out, even MORE unlike any previous Circle we've ever heard. Acoustic guitar, and lots of la la la's from Mika. Unbelievable -- and lovely. But then the next song triggers the dormant motorik Circle drum pulse, overlaid with heavy guitars and vocal histrionics akin to the opening track. Plus new wavey/Axel F keyboards. Hit material here! Following that, track four, "Vaanen Valtiatar", heads back to the forest glade where Circle do that hippy jamming again a la track two, but more plugged-in, turning into a spacey jam session. And then, as you might now expect, it's back to the mosh pit for the monstrous rifferama of the next song, "Kylan Suurin Miekka". Evil stuff. This is True Circular Metal indeed. From then on the album maintains the heaviness, getting spacier and spacier though, culminating in the droning fifteen-minute "Lokki".
Wow. An amazing album, making effective use of Mika's unusual/unique vocals -- he's developed some sort of exotic (Middle Eastern? American Indian?) meets metal style, delivered in a manner as over-the-top as the most insane Italian prog of the '70s. Throw in some violin and moog and of course all the heavy metal moves, and you've got a bizarre blend of, uh, Yoko Ono, Hawkwind, Judas Priest, and of course Circle's krautrock forerunners Neu! and Can.
While Sunrise is in many ways a departure for Circle, it can also be seen as an album harking back to their hard-rockin' roots (they've nodded that way on the guitar-heavy Prospekt and Jussi's Kyuss-ish Pharoah Overlord side project, but you've got to also remember that the very first Circle album, Meronia, drew quite a few comparisons to Helmet at the time). Recommended.

COH Above Air (Eskaton) cd 16.98
Russian sound artist Ivan Pavlov aka COH returns with a new album of ultra minimal, ultra pristine electronic ambience, a tribute to recently passed Coil mainman Jhonn Balance, who was a good friend and frequent collaborator of Pavlov's. COH, for us, is best when Pavlov is manipulating organic sounds into warm rich swells of sound, most notably on the LP-only Seasons (now out of print). But while Above Air is a much more clinical affair, Pavlov manages to somehow imbue each song with all manner of warmth and emotion. He may be a master of the glitch and the click, and the digital squelch, he proves once again that he can create art, feeling and emotion with the slightest of sounds. Above Air is a subtle, dark, contemplative mix of whispery sine waves, distant chimes, speaker static and white noise, tolling bells, gently ringing chimes, an ultra subtle glitch here and there, creating fetal rhythms, that never quite mature, remaining just another layer of sound, haunting electronic drones that waver and drift as if being broadcast from afar, pulsing chopped melodic fragments, all deftly woven into a dark but somehow surprisingly sanguine elegy for Balance. The whole record is minimal, but active and alive, subtle, but infused with disarmingly complex arrangements and dark emotion, a bit like the best Coil records, which we're sure is exactly the sort of memorial Pavlov intended.
MPEG Stream: "Faster Than Sound"
MPEG Stream: "Between Heaven And Earth"

COMBS, CORY TRIO Valencia (Evander) cd 12.98
A perfect ease-you-into-the-day kind of album. Put this one on Sunday morning when you've got nothing to do but lounge around, and don't quite feel like getting out of your pjs just yet. The SF trio of Cory Combs, John Hollenbeck and Dan Willis offer up breezy mellow jazz centered around a lilting drowsy saxophone. A generous 17 tracks. Very nice!
MPEG Stream: "Money In Your Pocket And A Room With A View"
MPEG Stream: "Tiny Insects"

COMUS First Utterance (Breathless) cd 16.98
For those of you who are not yet COMPLETELY OBSESSED with Comus' beautiful and bizarre seventies pagan folk, WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!? Well, we now have yet another chance to convince you that First Utterance is indeed (especially if you ask Allan or Andee) quite possibly the greatest record of all time EVER! The recent double cd reissue, Song To Comus, which compiled First Utterance and their slightly less thrilling and somewhat baffling second album To Keep From Crying, may have been a bit much for the uninitiated, especially with its $27 price tag. That said, any serious Comus fans or full on seventies freakfolk obsessives should throw caution to the wind and pick up Song To Comus immediately! For the less obsessive among you and those of you who are more apt to take a chance for under $20, we have this new version on Breathless.
Here's what we had to say about First Utterance:
Let's get this out of the way first: most folks around these parts consider Comus' First Utterance to be the greatest seventies pagan tribal folk prog psych freakout record ever. Hard to debate that. But among those folks, about 99 percent also consider First Utterance to be one of the greatest records ever, regardless of genre! One listen and you'll be convinced. Or you'll run away screaming in terror. Either way, it's hard to not be totally blown away and / or thrillingly confused by the mad musical world of Comus.
First Utterance has now been reissued a total of seven times, most recently as a UK import double cd version which marked the very first time that the three tracks from the pre-First Utterance maxi-single (i.e. the bonus 12" ep included with the lp reissue) has been released on cd. Thankfully this new single disc version includes those three tracks, but for some reason excludes the really rare bonus track from the First Utterance sessions that was on the double disc! Only a minor quibble once you sink your ears into the glorious sounds of First Utterance...
THIS RECORD SCARES US. Hearing it is like stumbling upon some forbidden ancient ritual that scares you to death. You stand paralyzed, too afraid to look away. Comus's singular, frightening sound and violently poetic lyrics have kept them from taking their rightful place alongside Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, and the rest of Britain's psychedelic folk royalty.
And we don't write the words psychedelic folk royalty without a certain amount of trepidation. At first glance Comus would seem to fit squarely in the Ren-Faire camp: bongos, flute, oboe, 12-string guitar, and no drummer. But never has the whole of a band so completely defied its parts; their sound is as mesmerizing as it is repulsive. Upon the record's initial release, one British music journalist wrote that she "didn't get past the first track, which sounded like a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth, and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death." Funny thing is, that's a fairly apt description. Tales of murder, rape, insanity, and witchcraft unfold amid a swirling abyss of seething acid folk. Squalls of shamanistic wailing jut uncomfortably from serene, tranquil melodies; guttural growls battle a delicate angelic chorus, echoing the violent struggle of the lyrics. Flutes, hand drums, acoustic guitars, and a violin clamber atop one another in a chaotic melee, creating a pagan folk not unlike that of The Wicker Man soundtrack gone totally bonkers.
Although the band has been resolutely ignored by mainstream music fans, the press, and the majority of the underground, a small rabid following has kept a reverential vigil beside the corpse of Comus. Nurse with Wound cronies Current 93 modeled their '90s sound after '70s British folk, Comus especially. They even went so far as to cover "Diana," Comus's only single, on their album Horsey. Swedish progressive black metallers Opeth have always been outspoken about their love of Comus. Their acclaimed 1998 album was called My Arms, Your Hearse, after the lyrics of "Drip Drip". And it's not surprising. This record is so powerful and frightening and totally devastating even 30 years later.
And never would we have thought that a record as old as us, with flutes and bongos fer chrissakes, could be so absolutely malevolent, both sonically and lyrically! But like we said, this record scares us. And we know you like to be scared too! One of our ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS EVER!!!
Interesting facts culled from the liner notes of the double disc import version, whihc are not included in the liner notes of this single disc version: After First Utterance, there was actually a Lord Of The Rings inspired suite of songs (a proper follow up) already written called Malgaard, that the band had begun performing live but never got around to recording! We flipped when we read about that. Can you imagine? Sadly, it just wasn't meant to be. And they also never recorded their live version of "Venus In Furs", either (apparently Comus started out doing lots of VU covers!). Ah well. But still, we're more than happy with the amazing musical malevolence Comus left as their legacy.
So any of you who haven't discovered Comus, what else can we do to convince you that you NEED this record? Folkies will love it, but it's plenty dark and creepy and sinister enough for all you metalheads, and way weird enough for all you experimental music lovers. And of course Comus obsessives (like Andee and Allan) who already have multiple versions of First Utterance will for sure need this one as well! Let your pagan prog rock psych folk freek flag fly!
MPEG Stream: "Diana"
MPEG Stream: "Drip Drip"
MPEG Stream: "The Herald"
MPEG Stream: "Song To Comus"

CUTS, THE From Here On Out (Birdman) lp 9.98
Now on vinyl, yes indeed!!
The third long-player to come from these local sharp-dressed rock and roll revivalists about town, The Cuts. Yay! Every time we've seen 'em play, they've been great -- but just a little bit different from the last time. At one gig they'll come across all Cars-y, keyboards to the fore. The next, it's guitar-heavy rawkin' with an early '70s Alice Cooper vibe. Ya never know quite what to expect, except that they're always impressive and a real authentic rock n' roll good time. Just like this album. We dug albums one and two, but number three might be the best yet. It's like some amazing power pop band from the early '70s that you somehow never heard of, whose album just got reissued and makes you go, wow, they just don't make 'em like they used to. But they do, and The Cuts are doin' it. From Here On Out sees them honing their craft (and they ARE careful craftsmen, with so much attention to songwritiing, arrangement, and performance), doing their influences proud, from '60s garage to west coast ballroom psych to new wave pop. There's out-and-out guitar rock action here as well as lovely, pretty pop moves too, with vocal harmonies and all. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Demons"
MPEG Stream: "Lemonade"

DAKTARIS Soul Explosion (Daptone) cd 14.98
Fela Kuti lovers take note! This is one of the best post-Fela Kuti inspired Afro beat records of the last decade for sure. Originally released in '98 just a year after Fela passed away, this was sadly the one and only album released by The Daktaris. Melding Afro beat, soul and funk with total perfection these are songs that make you walk with better posture and with total purpose. They pay homage to their heroes with amazing renditions of James Brown's "Give It Up Turnit Loose" as well as the aforementioned Fela Kuti's "Upside Down." Like Antibalas this was a group carrying the flame that Fela lit with total devotion and a commitment to his spirit. Polyrhythms that will make your body shake, your heart race, and you'll be smiling all over. Good stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Musicawa Silt"
MPEG Stream: "Upside Down"

DR. STRANGELY STRANGE Heavy Petting (Repertoire) cd 24.00
Whoa...what a great find this is! Being a big fan of early seventies/heavy folk rock and of course the Incredible String band (who Dr. Strangely Strange most resembles upon first listen), we just can't get enough of this strangely strange record! There's the surrealistic multi-instrumentalism similar to that of ISB (and whimsy not unlike Bonzo Dog Band) but Dr. SS offers something moodier, too. With layered acoustic and electric guitar and lots of harmonized vocals, some songs sound almost like the Velvet Underground's Loaded record (which, incidentally, came out the same year). And with a young Gary Moore (who went onto Thin Lizzy fame) there's lots of solid guitar soloing going on. A nice bonus is the elaborate die-cut packaging made to look like the original LP artwork. Very recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Give My Love an Apple"
MPEG Stream: "Ballad of the Wasps"

DRAUGAR Weathering The Curse (Moribund) picture disc 14.98
Back in stock for a very limited time! We managed to get a few more copies of this ultra black picture disc. Limited to 500 copies, pretty much gone after this...
The black ice continues to spread, a grim black metal glacier slowly enveloping all with ears to hear. The West Coast black metal contingent's influence grows steadily, until one day hell walks the earth. Sorry, getting carried away. If the above scene had some sort of hierarchy, Leviathan would undoubtedly be the king. Xasthur would be a prince, or perhaps another king vying for supreme power. Crebain would be a knight, sent to slay all who shall dare oppose, and then Draugar, well Draugar would be the kings ex-vizier, locked in a dark dank dungeon, insane and murderous and demented, from years of no light, eating bugs, lack of sleep, and staring endlessly into blackness. Draugar is definitely the black sheep of this already black family, imbuing his home recorded evil, with the grim buzz of classic black metal, but with a healthy dollop of damged brilliance a la Benighted Leams, Lurker Of Chalice, or Striborg. Buzzy and black, droning and depressive, Draugar more than holds his own amidst the blackened elite, but somehow, everything he touches turns to what-the-fuck? Gentle clean arpeggiated clean guitar melodies are way up in the mix, layed atop a sluggish stream of indistinct guitar fuzz and Whitehouse-ish vocals. Sounding a little like somebody taped Darkthrone over a Slint record on an old C90 that had been in their back pocket for a month. Loping midtempo buzz over buried angelic choruses, like Morricone's The Mission performed by Graveland. Occasional ambient breaks, where guitar melodies wander aimlessly across barren soundscapes of distant rumble and creepy shimmer. Sometimes the riff seems to just splinter apart and what was moments earlier a galloping black metal juggernaut, has become a seasick drone. contructed from fuzzy almost melodies and vocals so distorted and so affected they sound like bursts of radio static. As always, heavy and grim and completely fucked!
MPEG Stream: "Warrior Without War"
MPEG Stream: "Infernal Existence / Grey Horizons"

DUNCAN, JOHN & PAOLO PARISI Conservatory (San Sebastiano) (Maschietto Editore / All Questions) cd+book 48.00
The work of John Duncan should need no introduction, as he has long been one of Aquarius' favorite sound artists; however, Paolo Parisi is something of a mystery to us. An Italian sculptor, painter, and installation artist, Parisi commissioned Duncan to compose a sound component for one of Parisi's installation. The themes behind Parisi's installation for plastic tubes and eviscerated cardboard sentry houses are far too convoluted to recount within this review; but in a shocking display of Aquarian restraint, we'll merely mention that the Panopticon, Hitchcock, Deleuze, and Duchamp all get name checked throughout the book's text celebrating Parisi's installation. The CD is all Duncan; and it's well worth the price of admission. Duncan has long been known for his use of shortwave radio sounds as the springboard for his psychologically intense compositions; but slowly, he has been introducing the human voice into his pantheon of sound sources. For Conservatory, voice is the only source he is using, in particular he's amplifying and stretching the gasps, wheezes, and hisses that occur during the act of breathing. Through his manipulation of these sounds, Duncan cultivates a vast network of gaping blasts of air that collectively build into a ghastly, frigid drone emanating from a unscrupulous cryrogenics laboratory. Another epochal release from Mr. Duncan!
MPEG Stream: "Conservatory (extract)"

EDITORS The Back Room (Kitchenware / Fader) cd 10.98
Bundled up in their ash grey wool overcoats, The Editors enter the overcast world that's already inhabited by the dour hearts of Interpol and She Wants Revenge, and their British forefathers Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen. How you feel about the Editors depends on how you feel about another band that sounds -dangerously- like their peers. Eyes closed you'd be hard pressed to convince yourself that this wasn't Interpol. The songs aren't nearly as immediately catchy, but definitely cut from the same cloth. The EXACT same cloth. The Back Room is definitely executed with skill and aplomb but we'd almost always take originality and spirit and creativity over musicanship or chops. But how about if you just want more of something that sounds like something that sounds like something you like? Then this might very well hit the spot.
MPEG Stream: "Lights"
MPEG Stream: "Blood"

EVERLOVELY LIGHTNINGHEART Cusp (Double H Noise Industries) cd 14.98
We'd been hearing about this band for ages. But had no real idea what to expect. This was most definitely not it.
Everlovely Lightningheart are a 3 piece (or 14 piece if you count all the contributors) ensemble, whose debut has somehow found its way to Hydra Head imprint Double H Noise Industries. That distinction is most definitely important in this case, so all you Hydra Head geeks expecting more Isis / Pelican / Old Man Gloom can relax, sit back, throw on the headphones and prepare for a distinctly unheavy, but beautifully fucked up sonic experience.
It's one slow growing 40 minute track, that is all over the map sonically, never getting heavy, in fact there are no RIFFS here, this is abstract free noise, but most of the noise is of the subtle subdued variety. ELLH would most certainly be at home on Kranky, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, PseudoArcana, or any one of a hundred microlabels who have been unfurling gentle abstract soundscapes.
Everlovely cover a lot of ground in 40 minutes, most of the time is spent drifting lazily through slow shifting fields of ethereal sound, ever lovely indeed. A reverb drenched piano plays some sort of dirgey ballad before dissipating into chimes and tinkling bells, which are quickly smoothed out into an abstract lowercase drift. Soon buzzing steel strings and squealing sine waves join the fray, becoming some sort of otherworldly Appalachia. The rest of the record is like strolling through little sonic vignettes, from clattery percussive workouts, to lilting dreamlike melodies, to some fuzzy muted metallic guitar, to soundscapes of keening strings and delicate chimes, it's all quite beautiful, an incredibly compelling listen, but definitely the kind of soundwork that requires the listener to -really- listen to truly appreciate everything that is going on. Sometime it's foolish to list all the instruments used on a record, but with music like this, it's as much about the instruments as it is the players: accordion, various metals, a creosote bush, exhaust pipe, receivers, bass, acoustic guitar, microphone, metal bucket, blood, wood, piano, rivers, springs, sheet metal, distortion pedals, cymbals, hand made harp, drums, skin, jars full of liquid, broken glass, bells, a boot, tin cans, frying pan, record player, broken clarinet, harmonica, megaphone firecrackers, xylophone, as well as objects and IDEAS like a feather, ghosts, gasping for life, jars full of memories, breathing, dragon's blood, bat wing, icicles, monsoons, scars, bullets, thoughts, trains and more. Phew. Recorded in a monastery's barn, the dead end of a tunnel, a train station, various abandoned rooms, hallways and basements and the desert. Sounds like it too!
Packaged in a striking gatefold with a dense animal collage cover, each disc comes with a hand sewn booklet.
MPEG Stream: "Cusp"

F/I A Question For The Somnambulist (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 14.98
This 2003 release went out of print WAY too fast, so the kind folks at Strange Attractors Audio House have swooped in to save the day. And they didn't just make it available again, they repackaged it in a super swank silkscreened sleeve and added a killer bonus track!
F/i have been somewhat of a buried treasure since the early eighties, spewing a rich brew of buzzy psychedelia, sludgy stoner doom, and extended space jams over the course of numerous lps and cassettes, but never really reaching out beyond the space rock underground. That's a shame as there has been a recent plenitude of reissues, making available again some of F/i's most seminal recordings, on cd for the first time, reminding us what a psych/space rock powerhouse these guys were. And still are! These guys never really stopped kicking out the jams. A Question For The Somnambulist finds the band back to its original lineup with the return of founding member Richard Franecki, and while one might hope this would mean a fiery, triumphant comeback of amp melting, spine crushing intensity, you also have to consider that it's been 20+ years since the launch of F/i, and these guys are getting older, and wiser, and mellower. So while there are moments where the whole thing threatens to combust and leave your stereo a charred husk, most of AQFTS is more on the dreamy, hypnotic, Krautrocky side, reminding us quite a bit of Finnish drone rockers Circle or local psych rock tribe Subarachnoid Space, with warm fuzzy riffs, swirls of squiggly Moogs, propulsive infinitive rhythms, and the occasional squall of freakout guitar.
MPEG Stream: "A Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Daisy Cutter"
MPEG Stream: "Hit The Kill Switch Eugene"

FIGURINES Skeleton (The Control Group) cd 14.98
Not to be confused with the electronic pop band known as Figurine (singular). Figurines make punchy pop that's sort of like a cross between The Arcade Fire, The Pixies and Violent Femmes... or alternately as someone here described, "Daniel Johnston singing with Pavement". The first three songs' get the ball rolling at quite a feverish pace. After that, things ease up a little into more of a gentle lope which we think is kinda disappointing after that juiced-up introduction. It just made us keep hoping they'd get a second wind. That's not to say the slower numbers are at all inferior, it just takes a little time to adjust to this very different tempo. So maybe you could break your Figurines' Skeleton listening session in two, depending on your personal preference, mood and energy level?
MPEG Stream: "The Wonder"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Ponds"

FLAHERTY, PAUL & CHRIS CORSANO The Beloved Music (Family Vineyard) cd 14.98
Not sure what it is, but a lot of the new wave of post-hardcore improvised jazz leaves us really cold. Naysayers and squares have always described free jazz as just a bunch of noise, a bunch of honking skronking non-music. And as much as we fancy ourselves lovers of free jazz AND diggers of all manner of noise, we have occasionally lamentedly found ourselves playing that role, you know, the grumpy and bitter old music man, reflecting on the glory of the good ol' days, admonishing the younguns "That's nothing but noise, give that dangnabbit rackit a rest!" Or something appropriately crotchety like that.
But every once in a while, for whatever reason, one of those records sneaks through and kicks our ass. This is one of those records.
It helps that Corsano and Flaherty have been honing their improvisational mind melds for years now. Their interplay is fluid and fierce, a free jazz freakout as sublime as it is pummeling. Corsano (who also does time in free folk weirdos Sunburned Hand Of The Man) and Flaherty (a legend amongst free jazz fiends) spar and weave, Flaherty's sax spewing thick gushes of corrosive sound, a downright Borbetomagusian cascade of shreiks and groans, sputters and wheezes, but it's Corsano who holds it all together, an incredible gush of dense and delirious drumming, from impossibly subtle shuffle and skitter to an avalanche of percussion pummel unrivalled. Holy shit! So massive and emotionally charged, freaked out and wild and free. But Corsano and Flaherty manage to imbue each white hot burst with strangely soothing atonal melodies and rhythms that manage to be downright catchy, so much so that on repeated listens we find ourselves almost humming along to Corsano's solo stretches. Amazing stuff!
MPEG Stream: "The Great Pine Tar Scandal"
MPEG Stream: "A Lean And Tortured Heart"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Satori (Radioactive ) lp 27.00
An all time aQ fave finally available on vinyl!!!
This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough -- possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album. From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one -- "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) -- from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit -- which it ain't -- the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" -- an instrumental -- picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part II"
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part III"

GELB, HOWE 'Sno Angel Like You (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98
The Giant Sand frontman has certainly traversed great expanses of musical terrain in his quarter century of music making -- getting to some pretty varied 'out-there' places often within a single album -- but 'Sno Angel Like You finds him at what just may be his most stable and consistent to date. That's not to say there aren't surprises. A strange swamp blues guitar interlude halfway through the album is a good indication of that! While some of this album definitely falls within the realm of his unmistakable dusky desert folk, he's also encorporated ample soul and gospel influences. The gospel according to Howe Gelb? Indeed, most of the songs follow in the tradition of such venerable artists such as Leonard Cohen whose near spoken word vocals are often backed by wonderful female backing chorus. On 'Sno Angel Like You, Gelb is backed up by the Canadian choir Voices Of Praise, and that's not the only connection this album has with our neighbors to the north. It was recorded in Ottawa, ON, and Gelb's current drummer is Jeremy Gara who also drums with a group of Canucks known as The Arcade Fire. Howe Gelb's never been one to seek 'cool points', but you gotta admit he scores plenty here intentionally or not. Seven new songs along with a few from his Giant Sand library and a few that were written by his Giant Sand bandmate the late Rainer Ptacek. Wonderful!
MPEG Stream: "The Farm"
MPEG Stream: "Nail In The Sky"

GELB, HOWE 'Sno Angel Like You (Thrill Jockey) lp 12.98
The Giant Sand frontman has certainly traversed great expanses of musical terrain in his quarter century of music making -- getting to some pretty varied 'out-there' places often within a single album -- but 'Sno Angel Like You finds him at what just may be his most stable and consistent to date. That's not to say there aren't surprises. A strange swamp blues guitar interlude halfway through the album is a good indication of that! While some of this album definitely falls within the realm of his unmistakable dusky desert folk, he's also encorporated ample soul and gospel influences. The gospel according to Howe Gelb? Indeed, most of the songs follow in the tradition of such venerable artists such as Leonard Cohen whose near spoken word vocals are often backed by wonderful female backing chorus. On 'Sno Angel Like You, Gelb is backed up by the Canadian choir Voices Of Praise, and that's not the only connection this album has with our neighbors to the north. It was recorded in Ottawa, ON, and Gelb's current drummer is Jeremy Gara who also drums with a group of Canucks known as The Arcade Fire. Howe Gelb's never been one to seek 'cool points', but you gotta admit he scores plenty here intentionally or not. Seven new songs along with a few from his Giant Sand library and a few that were written by his Giant Sand bandmate the late Rainer Ptacek. Wonderful!
MPEG Stream: "The Farm"
MPEG Stream: "Nail In The Sky"

GHOSTING s/t (Oncmato) cd-r 5.98
This mysterious three piece ensemble from Portland couldn't have chosen a more appropriate monicker for their deep listening inner space explorations. Everything about this single 40 minute track is ghostlike, from the drifting shimmer of the opening few minutes, where guitars hover and haunting keening faraway sounds drift past like stormclouds, to the stretch about halfway through, of warm white noise over muted melodies and hauntingly harmonious drones, to the final few minutes of muted murky creeping broken music box like lilt, all twisted and warped, slowed down and slithery. A dark fog blurring all the edges and laying down a fuzzy drift. So darkly lovely.
Limited to 100 copies, each copy hand numbered and all the covers are hand painted, each slightly different!
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 2"

GLITTER PALS Unleash The Compassion (Lovepump United) cd 8.98
What do two guys from Genghis Tron do when they're not spewing metallic electronic grind pop whatthefuck? Well, they sort of do the same thing they always do. Sort of. But they do mix things up a bit by upping the pop ante, toning down the grind, and thus these Pals have come up with a NINE MINUTE burst of bubbly glistening, sludgy dirge pop that hits the spot in a similar way to the recent sludge pop of Torche. But this isn't sludgy or poppy as much as it's freaked out a furious, a poppier take on that sort of Locust / Horse The Band synthgrind. The thing that sets Glitter Pals apart for us, is a really demented use of clean harmony vocals, a moaning chanting weirdness, that Allan thought sounded like the sample from LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out". Weird and heavy and catchy and totally fucked. And you know from us that means HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: "Thunder Tights"
MPEG Stream: "Unleash The Compassion"

GONZALEZ, DELIA & GAVIN RUSSOM The Days Of Mars (Astralwerks / DFA) cd 16.98
Somehow missed this when it came out last year. But with Delia & Gavin being recent Arthur Magazine cover stars we figured we should get on the ball. Some of us remember hearing a 12" of theirs on DFA that stood out as it was really like nothing else on the label. These weren't sounds interested in making you dance and shaking your ass, instead they were about creating a trance, a hypnotizing, tranquil and space-bound dreamlike state. The album takes the same approach and even widens and propels its effect. With 5 long songs that will no doubt make you think of the best of Tangerine Dream. So entrancing and mesmerizing. The Days of Mars sort of sounds like trying to travel to outer space in an old helicopter that rises ever so slowly with its rotors going around and around, an analog starship travelling through some druggy digital universe. Taking cues from lots of the best of 70's electronic minded ambient recordings, like the collaborations between Eno & Cluster, as well as the most spaced out moments of pre-Wall Pink Floyd, this is a record that totally nails its sound so well. Something so mesmerizing, empty, and creepy about its presence. There have been times near closing hour where there will be just one person in the store and this will be on and there's just the weirdest tension that begins to permeate the store. Like a film loop of a acid drenched washed out kodachrome shot image that you can't stop staring at. This is the sound of hours after the rave, days of being awake, nights of being in a complete daze. A late night early morning eyes wide shut dreamstate blissout for sure! We are hooked!
MPEG Stream: "Relevee"
MPEG Stream: "Black Spring"

GREY DATURAS Blood Trail (Heathen Skulls) cd-r 13.98
The Daturas showed up a week or so back at the beginning of their current US tour and brought a big ol' box of cds to sell on tour. We somehow convinced them to part with a big batch so we could relist their new tour only ep Blood Trail that we reviewed on the last list and sold out before we knew it. So we grabbed their last 40 copies (all told we took about 75 percent of the 150 copies they pressed!!) and they're all yours! Just act fast as we imagine this second batch will disappear just as quickly.
The more we listen to the Grey Daturas, the more we see them play live, the more times we hear and their records and the more they perform and interact with other musicians and performers, the more we realize the Daturas aren't really a band. Or more specifically aren't -just- a band. They are music makers certainly, but they seem to approach music from a distinctly non rock band perspective. There are drums and synths and bass and guitars, oh! are there guitars, but the sounds they make and the 'songs' they craft have as much in common with the Dead C or SUNNO))) as they do with the drone of Sunroof! or Jonathan Coleclough or the abstract minimalism of Morton Feldman or Steve Reich. This two song live ep demonstrates that yet again. The first track is a swirling snarling tangle of slowly shifting guitar feedback, distorted waves of sonic rumble and squeal unfurl and just sort of drift and sway, slipping under and over and around each other, dense and active, but subtly so, almost tranquil, a dreamy drift of electric guitar thrum. The drums begin as just some sort of sonic garnish, a little splash here or there, before kicking into a fully rocking, totally propulsive pounding spacerock groove, the guitar and bass following suit, the track now a distorted prickly static throb, wrapped in squalls of Hendrixian guitar freakout and huge slabs of bass, lumbering skyward like a more minimal and more metal Hawkwind. The second track follows a similar path, but this time the drums are more of a chaotic presence, spitting fills in every direction, cymbal sizzle drenching everything within earshot, the guitars whipped into an impossible frenzy, so loud and recorded so hot, that the sound itself begins to crumble, a blown out blast of space rock psych fuzz sludge.
Two 14 minute tracks. Hand numbered and limited to 150 copies (of which we took almost 1/3 of the pressing!). Packaged in a cool hand painted faux blood splattered digipak.
And as much as we hate to belabor the point, this is SUPER LIMITED! Once these are gone they are gone gone gone.
MPEG Stream: "Six Foot Ditch"

GROUPER He Knows (Jyrk) 3" cd-r 5.98
We were totally gaga for Grouper's Way Their Crept cd from last year. So much so we made it Record of the Week. A more aQ record we couldn't have imagined, a gloriously thick and fuzzy swirl, equal parts Arvo Part, Morton Feldman, Skullfower and all manner of drift and drone. Dense smears of processed vocals and mubled guitars, all so heavily affected they became indistinct blurs, drifting fuzzy drones. We've been anxiously awaiting more, and were thrilled to discover this new 3" cd-r on the Yellow Swans' Jyrk label. The good news is that it takes everything we loved about Way Their Crept and made it more, daker, denser, thicker, prettier. The bad news is it was limited to 130 copies of which we only managed to get 20. And the rest are sold out, so after these are gone we won't be getting any more.
He Knows is very short, three songs, ten minutes. But what it lacks in lenght, it makes up for in depth. The first track could of come straight off of Way Their Crept. Disembodied vocals hover and drift, guitars (are they guitars?) rumble and murmur and shimmer and hover, not so much an instrument as some sort of musical spirit. The vocals, the guitars, the sounds Grouper produce are like wraiths, floating like whisps of smoke, drifting in and around and through each other, a thick cloudy soundscape, warm and enveloping, pusling and reverberating, an indistnict blur, lovely but ineffable.
The second track is like chamber music recorded at the bottom of the sea, listening to it after it has bubblrd up to the surface, warm and warbly and murky and so lovely. Melodies are nothing but streaks of barely there sound, like sunbeams filtered through the prism of swirling seawater. The final track sounds like a hymn, but muffled and indistinct. Imagine laying in a field outside a smalll stone chapel, blankets wrapped tight around your head to stave off the cold, the warm sounds of the church drift across the icy ground, the sounds barely making it through your wool shroud and into your ears, but what does make it, sounds warm and safe and beautiful. So good.
Limited to 130 copies and already OUT OF PRINT! We have the last 20, once these are gone they are GONE!
MPEG Stream: "One"

GROUPER s/t (self released) cd-r 8.98
Ahhh Grouper. The work of one woman named Liz, Grouper manage to push all of our musical buttons. Hazy and crackly, staticky and droney, blurry and smeary, drifty and so dreamy. All of our favorite parts of records by Phillip Jeck, Tim Hecker, William Basinski and other dreamdrone minded folks, all boiled down into their essence, abstract obfuscated sonic drift, sounds smeared into wide open stretches of shimmer and drone. This s/t cd-r preceeds the Way Their Crept cd we made Record of the Week last year, and while sonically similar, differs in a couple ways. One, the recording is much more lo-fi, which in other cases might be unfortunate, but in the case of Grouper, just adds a whole 'nother layer of grit and grime and murk. In addition to being more lo-fi, some of the tracks here are way heavier than anything else we've heard from her. Some tracks are REALLY heavy, channeling all of Grouper's fuzzy drones and murky soundscapes into huge rumbling wall of dronedirge guitar, the sort of din that would fit sungly right there alongside your SUNNO))), Earth and Corrupted. But those brutal squalls are in the minority, and even then, the heaviness quickly gives way to a beautifully tranquil aftermath, a hazy fuzzed out barely there drift.
SUPER LIMITED. We have about 20 copies, and we're pretty sure once these are gone we won't be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Two"
MPEG Stream: "Three"

HAINO, KEIJI & TATSUYA YOSHIDA New Rap (Tzadik) cd 16.98
No, there's no rapping on here (or, if there is, it is indeed an extremely NEW style of "rap", consisting of intense screaming in what may or may not be Japanese -- yeah how's that for a "new rap dialect"?). So no, it's not Keiji gone MC. It's the Fushitsusha guitarist (and all around Tokyo psych shaman) Keiji teamed up again with Ruins drummer (and fellow Tokyo underground music titan) Tatsuya Yoshida for a disc of presumably improvised duets featuring Yoshida's amazing octopoidal drumming and Haino's shards of guitar and agonized throat-rasps.
Each track is named after a different New York City neighborhood, and based on Haino's vocals you might think that he'd had some traumatic experiences in these places, if a track like "Lower East Side" is somehow descriptive of its namesake. A violent mugging perhaps? Maybe the NYC theme suggests that New Rap is influenced by, or an homage to, Downtown New York jazz skronk a la John Zorn, who released this on his Tzadik label. But it's also unmistakably the sort of thing you'd expect to hear from Haino and Yoshida, and in fact have heard before from 'em on their previous duo disc from a few years back Until Water Grasps Flame, and to some extent their collaborations in Knead and Sanhedolin. This strikes a good balance between the controlled spazzcore of the Ruins and the primal emotions of Haino's many projects. Harsh energy indeed!!
MPEG Stream: "Lower East Side"
MPEG Stream: "Canal Street"

HOFFMAN, KAY Floret Silva (Robot Records) cd 16.98
RennFaire gone Rock In Opposition? Italian prog meets medieval madrigals?? We're still puzzling about how to describe this wonderful, wonderful disc, a remastered cd reissue of a rare LP (long awaited by some, totally new to us but very welcome -- thanks Robot!) which was recorded by composer Kay Hoffman in Florence, Italy in 1977, though not released until 1985, on vinyl in Japan only! On Floret Silva, Hoffman and her collaborators, including members of the very excellent and arty Italian prog band Pierrot Lunaire, took a trove of medieval Latin poetry known as the Carmina Burana -- poems written by anonymous authors around 1200AD that are both religious in nature as well as very earthy and real, about such subjects as love and money -- and set them to music. The settings are diverse (as befits the variety of these texts), and the results are often eerie and pretty and even a little bit groovy, with quirky chamber ensemble/prog rock backing and even the use of field recordings. Utterly magical for the most part, most especially due to the delicate vocals of Jacquline Darby. One song reminds us strongly of Stereolab, others call to mind (rather more obscurely) that Flamen Dialis album we've raved about before. This should appeal to experimental psych-folk fans for sure, even if this unique treasure is really something outside almost any genre designation you'd care to come up with!
MPEG Stream: "Iste Mundus"
MPEG Stream: "Tempus Instat"

ISLAJA / TV-RESISTORI Split 7" (Fonal) 7" 6.50
Two new songs by two of favorite Finnish artists. They couldn't be more different, but this reminds us of why we love and have such a soft spot for split 7"s. Groups that sound nothing alike but share geography or friendship with each other. And with the increasing price of making vinyl, split 7"s are truly a labor of love and such a sweet token, as really its quite impossible to make money from them. First be forewarned as it will become obvious that the single was labeled wrong and the side that says Islaja is TV-Resistori and vice versa. TV-Resistori give us more of their upbeat totally fun synth pop that if we didn't know better we'd think they were another great Japanese pop band. And a new song by Islaja is of course something to rejoice about. Tiding us over until whenever her next album comes out, her track is so lovely and will for sure get you standing up every few minutes to reach for the needle to hear it over again and again.

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Our Nakedness Was Our Picket Sign (Cast Exotic) 2cd 19.98
Finally available again!
Northwestern psychedelic space/free/avant rockers Jackie O Motherfucker return from a massive European tour and all we got was this lousy live double cd. Just kidding. It's hardly lousy. In fact, this may be one of our favorite JOMF recordings to date. Which makes sense, since live is where a large improvisatory ensemble can let loose and do what they do best. Improvise. Wander. Meander. Get lost. And explore. Mantra like, barely-there-vocals, guitars buzzing like sitars, subtle shuffling percussion, warm drones, occasional sputters and half melodies from the turntables, guitars and basses melt into the background, blending into the sonic foliage, while everything rustles and shimmers, breathes and stretches. Like free jazz filtered through a thick haze of painkillers and potsmoke. Lethargic, lugubrious, cinematic and at times almost nightmarish. Really nice! Includes a West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band cover, of all things...
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"

JEL Soft Money (Anticon) cd 14.98
One of the problems with bands, and labels, who put out record after record, and we're talking a new record every week or month, even if they're all great, is it's tough to keep caring. That sort of happened to us with Anticon. When we first heard that twisted Anticon indie hip hop, we were blown away, we're still blown away actually, the bizarre loops, the totally skewed approach to hip hop and sampling, it was new and fresh, weird and wonderful. But, we needed to take a break. We'd get done reviewing a new Anticon record and there would be two or three more out. So we're back on track, just in time to review the newest from Jel. And as always it's a good 'un! Loping loopy samples, all sorts of strange sounds, and unfunky funkiness, some of the vocals are a little stilted and sound straight out of the eighties (Fresh Prince anyone?) but some are right on and perfectly compliment Jel's fuzzy blissed out beatscapes. Definitely dark and laid back, some of the more ambitious tracks sound like they could be Endtroducing outtakes which is high praise for sure.
Guests include Stefanie Bohm of Ms. John Soda, Wise Intelligent of Poor Righteous Teachers, Why?, Fog, Dosh, Pedestrian. And it's produced by Anticon stablemate Odd Nosdam.
The first few customers who order the new Jel will get a free Jel turntable slipmat with the album art on one side and the cool giant ant Anticon logo on the other!
MPEG Stream: "To Buy A Car"
MPEG Stream: "All Day Breakfast"

JERUSALEM AND THE STARBASKETS Skarekrau Radio (Apop) lp 12.98
From the same label we got those cool petri dish Warhammer 48K cd-r, Jerusalem And The Starbaskets are a gloriously ramshackle mess. Produced by Warhammer 48K's Cooper Crain, Jerusalem is a stumbling, distorted whomp of detuned hillbilly indie twang. Or something. Kind of hard to describe. Crunchy guitars splattered with little bits of twang, over tripped out shuffling drums. Very noisy and chaotic, sort of like some lost Velvet Underground live tape, run through a Liquorball filter and dipped in some sparkly moon dust shuffle and twang. They even do a Roky Erickson cover, which even though the bands is so wild and chaotic, should give you an idea of where their roots lie.
Packaged in handmade, silkscreened, recycled, pasted and painted sleeves. Cool.
LIMITED, we only got about a dozen!

JONNYX AND THE GROADIES s/t (self-released) cd 5.98
One of our favorite "party black metal records"(WTF?) finally back in stock!
So what kind of a name is JonnyX And The Groadies anyway? Well, quite possibly the only appropriate monicker for the world's only "Party Black Metal" band. Huh? What? C'mon, you heard us. PARTY BLACK METAL. That's right. Might not sound good, at least to all you grimmer than grim blackmetalheads, but it is, in fact it's a heck of a lot more interesting than most black metal we hear these days. And actually the 'party' aspect isn't as obvious on record. Live they seem to be a serious blast, wild and goofy and explosively spastic, with pointy metal axes (as in guitars, although we imagine their might be actual axes as well) and goofy outfits and plenty of mayhem and destruction. But on record, it's all skull encrusted synths and upside down crosses, um... tight pants and foot long spikes, and, well, wild windmilling hair and white belts? The most unholy union of buzzing black metal and insanely aggro spastic screamo EVER. Grinding buzzing guitars, demonic shrieks, programmed blast beats and a thick wall of majestic keyboards. Think maybe Drop Dead, Arcturus, Teen Cthulhu, The Locust, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Behead The Prophet No Lord Shall Live, and Cradle Of Filth all packed into a sweaty filthy Portland Basement, playing before some strange mix of metalheads, emo kids and the walking dead! Huge thick blasts of grim black metal segue into fuzzy squelchy ambient synth break downs and then slip into some moody midtempo near-doom, before exploding again in a blast of barbed buzz. Awesome! Nine tracks, the first eight, brief blasts of blackness, all clocking in at under two minutes, the final track, "Unmortal", a massive 14 minute blackened synth doom juggernaut.
MPEG Stream: "Gauntlet Of Iron And Fear (Give The Doom A Hand)"
MPEG Stream: "Fog Of Blood"

JOYNER, SIMON Beautiful Losers: Singles And Compilation Tracks 1994-1999 (Jagjaguwar) cd 16.98
Somewhere in the company of Bob Dylan, John Darnielle and Daniel Johnston sits the quirky folk of Nebraskan Simon Joyner. This cd gathers together a heap of his long-gone tunes (offered in non-chronological order). Some are genuine lo-fi folk treasures, while others... well, let's just say, some things are best left in the vaults. Such is the case with the fourth song "Jeff Engel Rules" which is horribly disfigured by a gawdawfully out of tune violin. Yikes. That song does serve a purpose though. It makes you appreciate the next somber song "Don't Begrudge A Man His Funeral" all the more. Twenty one intimate bare-boned weepers, most of them acoustic, so very fitting for these drizzly days.
MPEG Stream: "Jeff Engel Rules"
MPEG Stream: "Burn Rubber"

KHANATE Capture & Release (Hydra Head) lp 11.98
The cd version of Capture & Release, the latest slab of slow motion harshness from the mighty Khanate, came out late last year, but this is the first time it's been available on vinyl (not counting the ultra limited picture disc version, now GONE and out of print so don't ask!). Wrapped, as always, in a striking Stephen O'Malley sleeve, this lp is probably also still limited (as they all seem to be) so as always better act fast!
A new Khanate! 'Nuff said perhaps, as all you AQ doom customers surely know what that means! Ultra-depressive dirge metal from some of the best in the biz. Capture & Release, a two-song, 43 minute "ep" (maxi-ep? mini-lp? heck, it's a full-length, really!) is the third cd release from this NYC-based band, featuring Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))) on guitar and graphics, bassist James Plotkin of OLD, singer Alan Dubin (also from OLD), and drummer Tim Wyskida. By now, Khanate have really established a distinct style of extreme, slow, scary, art-metal. To the point that we're always citing them as a comparison when describing other bands. They're the standard by which anyone indulging in feedback-filled heaviness, anguished/evil vocalizations, creepy atmosphere, double digit song-lengths, and rumbling sub-sonics is judged -- like when we say Bunkur or Graves At Sea (reviewed on this list) are bands in the style of Khanate. So if would be easy to review Capture & Release if it were by *another* band -- we'd say it was a lot like Khanate and that'd be enough to recommend it to many of you! Of course, Khanate themselves can be compared to predecessors Corrupted and especially Eyehategod, godfathers of feedback sludge brutality. But Khanate's compositions are way more extended, dramatically ambitious, and clinically produced than EHG, and utilize "experimental" sonic textures and loud/soft dynamics in the manner of a post-rock band as well. This new disc really exemplified this approach, with the second, 25-minute track "Release" featuring lots of really quiet parts that make us think a hypothetical Khanate / Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore tour would be PERFECT. (We can dream, can't we?) Vocalist Alan Dubin makes the most of these "vulnerabilities" in the band's otherwise crushing sound barrage, with dark, cryptic, and psychologically suggestive rather than explicit lyrics wherein he seems to be inhabiting the role of the deviant antagonist from a Thomas Harris novel...but poetically enough that perhaps we can all relate, and indeed find release in their music.
MPEG Stream: "Capture"

KNEALE, CAMPBELL Pink Stalingrad (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 16.98
Ran out of these super quick, so for those of you who got left in the dust last time around, we just now managed to get more!
After a whole slew of recent releases, this is the first new record in a while from Mr. Kneale presented under his given name. Not sure what makes this a Campbell Kneale record and not a Birchville Cat Motel record, but who cares, fans of either will dig this heavily. Seems like Kneale's focus lately has been almost exclusively on his black sludge doom project Black Boned Angel, and we're not complaining, we definitely can't get enough of that stuff. But Kneale has quite a deft hand when it comes to free ambient drone as well, and oddly enough we can't seem to get enough of that stuff either. So here we have the new Kneale record, which could have just as easily been a Birchville record, based on the sounds within, and is shot through with plenty of Black Boned Angel-isms, delicate drones are thicker, heavier, more dense and volatile, sludge metal blissed out into expansive stretches of shimmer and swirl. Four lengthy tracks, each a barely moving slab of molten sonic grrrrwwwwrrrrrrrrvvvvvmmmmmm. Layers atop layers, delicate melodies buried beneath, rumbling churning slow shifting sound, keening high end skree all tangled up with subsonic reverberations, the whole thing a slow moving vibrational flow, a massive abstract multiphonic spaced out downtuned tranced our Ur-drone.
MPEG Stream: "Pink Stalingrad"
MPEG Stream: "Black Thrash Princess"

LARSEN Seies (Important) cd 14.98
Larsen is an enigmatic post-rock ensemble who have been responsible for some interesting conceptual projects all of which have been immaculately executed. For their highly acclaimed album Rever, the ensemble hired Michael Gira (Swans, Angels of Light) as the producer, but never allowed him to actually see the band as they played behind a curtain. Larsen followed this album with a breathtaking record reconstructing the melodic phrasing of Autechre through their own repetitive patterns for guitar, bass, vibraphone, accordion, and drums. Seies doesn't enjoy any of the conceptual agendas of the previous record; or rather if there are any concepts to the record, Larsen has shrouded them from their audience. The hymnal post-rock hypnosis from the previous records is certainly present, conjuring a spaghetti western swagger heard in the more bad-ass Morricone soundtracks. In these looping dirges, Larsen also call to mind the desolate soundtracks composed by Calla and some of the late period work of Swans; this is especially true for the tracks in which former Swans singer Jarboe appears! There's guest appearances a plenty on Seies as Current 93's cellist Julia Kent appears on some early tracks, and the dark ambient overlord Lustmord conjures his own black clouds on some of the later cuts.
MPEG Stream: "The Snow"
MPEG Stream: "Mother"
MPEG Stream: "Marzia"

LEE MILLER The Futility Of Language (Musically Incorrect) cd 11.98
Finally back in stock!!
Finnophile alert!!! Yet another amazing post-Circle / Circle related project!! What the hell?!? Do those guys ever sleep? And if they do, have they figured out some way to record in their sleep? But who's complaining? Certainly not us. This time around, it's two Finns and one -American- doing the hypno-rock drone damage. Janne Peltomaki, former Circle drummer, current drummer for Paine and the recently reviewed Stalwart, Jyrki Laiho current guitar player for Circle and Stalwart, and Jordan Mamone, guitarist for NY artrockers Alger Hiss. While Circle continually flirt with metal, guitars always getting a little heavier, vocals that veer into serious Rob Halford territory, and of course the increasingly metallic imagery, it's this here Lee Miller outift that has finally pulled out the metal stops. Not that this is a "metal" record. It's just undeniably heavy, big jagged distorted guitars, pounding rhythms, and strange growling baritone vocals. In fact it has a bit of an industrial edge to it as well, with plenty of teutonic ponding a la Swans, Copshootcop, or fellow Finns Worms. Occasionally things do simmer down, and the result is a much more Circular sound, but a bit less krautrocky and more arty and angular, due in no small part we imagine to the presence of Mamone. But Lee Miller is all about that crush and pummel, and The Futility Of Language pounds that point home. Dark and distorted, heavy and hypnotic! This will definitely please Circle fans who have been digging their gradual shift into heavier territory, and just might tempt some metalheads into the vast and wondrous land of glorious hypnorock!!
MPEG Stream: "Mary Pentagram"
MPEG Stream: "Two Black Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Kiinalaiset"

LEWIS, JENNY WITH THE WATSON TWINS Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love) lp 13.98
Now on LP!
The lovely voice that defines the sound of L.A.'s Rilo Kiley goes solo on (in?) this Rabbit Fur Coat. Well, sort of... she's got a pair o' angelic voiced twins in tow, and the results are a remarkably lady-like affair. Jenny Lewis unveils a much broader range of both style and expressiveness -- generously planting a number of bare-branched country and gospel inflected saplings here and there amid her more familiar sounding lush pop blossoms. Initially upon hearing the poignant, soulful opening track, we mused that fans of Neko Case might also take a shine to the equally red-tressed Lewis. Mind you though, Lewis and her music do come across as being considerably more milquetoast (meaning, you probably won't be finding The Grand Ol' Opry taking issue with her the way they did with the fiery Ms Case!). At any rate, it's clear that in both fashion and song, she's just as comfortable in womanly Lawrence Welk Show gown as she is in a winsome floral country frock or barefoot in a sassy pop gal mini-dress. To boot, she's stacked the indie luminary decks in her favor -- her pals Conor Oberst, Ben Gibbard (whom she sings with in Postal Service), and Matt Ward to name a few -- and the star-studded cast is put to good use on the very faithful rendition of the Travelling Wilburys' tune "Handle With Care". Quite a beauty that's just might not only appeal to her younger Rilo Kiley fans, but also their parents!
Psst, coincidentally Lewis' R.K. bandmate Blake Sennett's side project The Elected also just released a dandy album!
MPEG Stream: "Run Devil Run"
MPEG Stream: "Handle With Care"

LOOSE FUR Born Again In The USA (Drag City) cd 14.98
Lots of you probably remember the first Loose Fur record which came out a few years ago. Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame teaming up with man of so many hats Jim O'Rourke along with Wilco's drummer extrodinair Glen Kotche for a record that surpassed side-project trappings and had such a nice life of it's own. It came right at the peak of Tweedy's more adventurous and daring musical mind awakening coming in between Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born. Much like Radiohead, there tends to be two camps with Tweedy/Wilco those who love the early more straight ahead rock stuff and those who think the above mentioned albums are the real ones worth obsessing over. The second Loose Fur affair with its tongue in cheek title will make those who like the rocking and straight ahead side of Tweedy very happy. With O'Rourke adding his pop leanings which seem as sharp here as on records like "Insignificance" and "Eureka." While we miss some of the drugged vibe of the first Loose Fur record there is no denying that Tweedy & O'Rourke know their way around a hook and a catchy song.
MPEG Stream: "Hey Chicken"
MPEG Stream: "Stupid As The Sun"

LOOSE FUR Born Again In The USA (Drag City) 2lp 15.98
Lots of you probably remember the first Loose Fur record which came out a few years ago. Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame teaming up with man of so many hats Jim O'Rourke along with Wilco's drummer extrodinair Glen Kotche for a record that surpassed side-project trappings and had such a nice life of it's own. It came right at the peak of Tweedy's more adventurous and daring musical mind awakening coming in between Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born. Much like Radiohead, there tends to be two camps with Tweedy/Wilco those who love the early more straight ahead rock stuff and those who think the above mentioned albums are the real ones worth obsessing over. The second Loose Fur affair with its tongue in cheek title will make those who like the rocking and straight ahead side of Tweedy very happy. With O'Rourke adding his pop leanings which seem as sharp here as on records like "Insignificance" and "Eureka." While we miss some of the drugged vibe of the first Loose Fur record there is no denying that Tweedy & O'Rourke know their way around a hook and a catchy song.
MPEG Stream: "Hey Chicken"
MPEG Stream: "Stupid As The Sun"

MALL, THE First, Before And Never Again (Mount Saint Mountain) 12" 11.98
Phew, this is one furious fuzzed out blast or RAWK! Local rockers The Mall offer up 4 short sharp tracks of trashy garagey new wave artrock fuzz and splatter. Taking an arsenal of sounds formerly employed by the rosters of GSL and Gravity records and giving them a 21st century makeover, The Mall, take jangly angular guitars fuzzy warbly casio keyboards, yelped distorted vocals and BIG bloopy Gang Of Four bass. In fact the thick throbbing bass is what hold this all together. And gives it a sort of dancepunk vibe. But this isn't shiny and well coiffed, no this is dirty and noisy, scummy and crusty, Like Interpol if they were taken into an alley, roughed up a bit, hair mussed, suits ripped, soiled and dirtied, and forced to play through broken old amps and hand me down guitars and keyboards held together with duct tape. Super chaotic, wild and aggro, but subtly funky. So if the current wave of artpunk, dancepunk, electro whatever is just a little too smart and smooth, crisp and clean for you... The Mall would be more than happy to take you out back and show you a thing or two.
Packaged in a cool hand silkscreened blue, white and maroon sleeve, with an equally cool matching insert.

MINUS FIVE, THE s/t (Yep Roc) cd 16.98
This band should need no introduction, but like many of veteran Pacific Northwest pop maestro Scott McCaughey's innumerable musical wings, The Minus Five somehow still lingers in the criminally unsung box. Why, oh why??? Granted, it's not like he's one to trumpet his talents. He just goes about his business of making kickass music with (and for) other folks. An expert pop craftsman, he not only makes his own good music, but also plays a big part in making good music better (case in point, his participation in R.E.M.). But people, come on now, this is McCaughey's seventh Minus Five album! Time to get with the program!! His endearing, perpetually boyish vocals are in top form as are all of the participants' chops. While he'll occasionally delves into mildly gloomy or melancholic sentiments, it's never without a dab of his indelible wit which keep things on their trademark buoyant track. Stellar songwriting, stellar performances, and a stellar cast of beloved familiar faces including a bunch of Wilcos, a Posie, a Decemberist, an R.E.M., a Kelly Hogan, a John Wesley Harding, among many others. What more do you want or need?
MPEG Stream: "My Life As A Creep"
MPEG Stream: "Leftover Life "

MOUNTAINS Sewn (Apestaartje) cd 14.98
It took us a while to give this a listen as we didn't want the beauty of its pastoral green cover to let us down. Luckily when we finally gave this a listen we realized the sounds contained inside were just as rich and pretty. There is something so delicate and perfectly paced about this record. It unfolds at its own confident pace and when it ends you just kind of want to do it all over again. A duo from the east coast, Mountains so successfully merge acoustic instrumentation, electronics and field recordings to create a layered sound that is not only just totally beautiful but also feels as if there is something under it all that keeps you really interested and attached to every unfolding moment. With a tenderness that rivals Colleen and an aesthetic that reminds us of the shimmering beautiful side of Fennesz, "Sewn" is a record that totally rises above the pack of pastoral electronic tinged records we've seen come out in recent years (which is important, as the trend recently has to been drizzle a little electronic squiggle over generic pop or folk, suddenly transforming it into something AVANT!). To make this album Mountains traveled away from city life into upstate New York and recorded in remote areas of Connecticut, and in their travels they totally captured that feeling of water running through creeks, rain dropping on grass, and what it feels like to be away from it all, soaking up your surrounding and maybe even getting a few moments of total clarity. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Sewn One"
MPEG Stream: "Below"

MS. JOHN SODA Notes And The Like (Morr Music) cd 16.98
Ms John Soda make pretty pretty pop-tronica, the kind that very much defines the Morr Music label. With their droll yet airy female vocals, chiming electronic effervescence and occasional counterweight of electric guitar, this German duo are very very akin to their dreamy Morr labelmates LaliPuna, if perhaps a little bit more insistent. Heck, the striking resemblance is really not all that surprising since each group has an Acher brother in its lineup (fyi: Micha and Markus Acher are also prominent members of The Notwist, Village Of Savoonga, Tied & Tickled Trio, 13 & God, among others). Also very much for fans of Broadcast or Postal Service.
MPEG Stream: "A Nod On Hold"
MPEG Stream: "A Million Times"

MS. JOHN SODA Notes And The Like (Morr Music) lp 16.98
Ms John Soda make pretty pretty pop-tronica, the kind that very much defines the Morr Music label. With their droll yet airy female vocals, chiming electronic effervescence and occasional counterweight of electric guitar, this German duo are very very akin to their dreamy Morr labelmates LaliPuna, if perhaps a little bit more insistent. Heck, the striking resemblance is really not all that surprising since each group has an Acher brother in its lineup (fyi: Micha and Markus Acher are also prominent members of The Notwist, Village Of Savoonga, Tied & Tickled Trio, 13 & God, among others). Also very much for fans of Broadcast or Postal Service.
MPEG Stream: "A Nod On Hold"
MPEG Stream: "A Million Times"

MY MORNING JACKET Chocolate And Ice (Badman) cd ep 10.98
Here's a reissue of My Morning Jacket's Chocolate And Ice 6-song cdep! When it was originally released back in 2002, we had this to say...
Of the half dozen tracks, the standout is the unexpected 24-minute "Cobra". Although the rest of the songs do still retain My Morning Jacket's wonderful, shadowy, lonesome twang, this track is a refreshing change allowing the band to diverge from their usual path. With much less of a rootsy rock feel, it leans more heavily on a smoky blues guitar sound. From an almost funky groove, it dissolves into a lovely drone and returns to the more familiar somber country-folkish mood. Mainman Jim James subtly shifts his vocal delivery too, veering from his usual Neil Young-ish nasality to an almost Damo Suzuki (of Can) drowsy murmurred uttering. Quite effective. An added note, the items in the title made for a very cool textured cover image... although we'd bet someone was bummed that they spilled all that choco-syrup.
MPEG Stream: "Cobra"
MPEG Stream: "Sweetheart"

OAKEN THRONE Number Three - Spring 2006 magazine 5.50
The return of Oaken Throne, one of the best, if not the only, magazines focusing on the true, the grim, the real underground black metal (as well as other heavy musicks). As much as we loved the crazy oversized format of the last few OT's, everyone is a little relieved that this new format is much more managable (and no longer requires an extra shipping charge!). Size change aside, Oaken Throne is still gorgeously black, printed in silver, and is still chock full of some of the best and weirdest metal around. This time: Ancestral Fog, Ofermod, Ondskapt, Xasthur, Otesanek, Bunkur, Eternal Majesty, Averse Sefira, Bolt Thrower, Malhkebre as well as tons of record reviews. They continue to explore the phenomenon of "religious" Black Metal perhaps less skeptically than we might, but we do find those discussions interesting, if a little bit disturbing. This 'zine is super well written, well researched, tons of photos, and a gorgeous layout. Sad that all the "real" music mags are so shitty and poorly written and ultimately pointless while the folks with a real passion for music, and a totally original grasp of the music they're writing about, as well as a keen eye for design and layout are doing zines. Not that there's anything wrong with zines. But let's say we take all the money wasted on Rolling Stone and Spin and Hit Parader and stuff like that, and give it to all the folks who could DESTROY given enough money and resources like Ben and John from Oaken Throne, Kevin from Salt, the guys who do F.T.Y.K.P., Jon from Astronauts, and all the other folks keeping the underground alive.

POLYSICS Now Is The Time (Tofu Records) cd 14.98
Until we live in the perfect world where frantic Japanese 'kids' shows such as Kure Kure Takora, Booska and Domokun ran non-stop on the telly, we'll have to make do with the aural equivalent... which is this new Polysics cd. As suggested in the album's title, there's an air of insistent immediacy, but for what we're not quite sure. Curses, you language barriers! We'll just say, Now Is The Time is a manically hyper Japanese collision of no wave and new wave. Lots of tweaked synthesizers and chunky guitars, but with more singing, spazzy shrieks and hollerin' too. With the exception of the second to last song the sugar-shocked "Baby BIAS", this is a heavier, noisier and more darkly dissonant Polysics than the band we remember from their last album, 2001's Hey! Bob! My Friend! This domestic release includes two bonus tracks not on the import! Recommended.
We like! Ears find super fun! Polysics!
MPEG Stream: "Ah-Yeah!!"
MPEG Stream: "Mr. Psycho Psycho"

PRURIENT Black Vase (Load) cd 15.98
Noise is indeed truly a lost art form. Okay, well it's not really lost. Actually there are more noise bands and noise labels than ever. Maybe it's the sheer joy of hearing noise as music that seems lost. Not sure if it was the 345th Merzbow release (we're rounding down) or the millionth shitty show, with a bunch of guys sitting on the floor pounding contact mic'ed pieces of metal. But noise began to just sound like noise again. Annoying, irritating, well, ya know, NOISE. There are always exceptions, and Prurient just might be one of them. Maybe.
This is indeed noise. Serious noise. The first track is a 16 minute experiment in high end feedback, a squirming squeal that seems intended to test the endurance of your fragile inner ear. The rest of the record is no easier on the constitution. Muted percussion, some Whitehouse style synth sputter and some maniacal howled vocalizations. Sort of Z'ev meets Hanatarash. Squelching industrial grind over pounding drums. Pummeling abstract vocal / noise / percussion free for alls. It must be the drums that do it. That make Black Vase more, um, listenable. What would have been just a series of circuit frying, amp destroying walls of malfunctioning sound, take on some sort of songlike form, almost a groove at times, although the sort of groove produced by throwing a drum kit down the stairs and then pushing a battery of synths and plugged in toasters into a swimming pool. Imagine a sludge-noise Abruptum, or a lobotomized Boredoms, weird percussion frames anguished screams, the result of some unspeakable self torture, while a million amps feedback in the distance. In the foreground the ultimate pipe fight, clanging metal and clattery skree, evertyhing barraged by dog whistle sine waves and impossibly high end shrieks, all over simple pounding tribal drum figures or muted industrial clink and rattle. The sound of a thousand rusty iron gates, grinding open on squealing hinges, while a caveman pounds drums made from hollow skulls near by.
Harsh for sure, -noise- is meant to be harsh, but there's some internal, almost musical logic behind the utter brutality, that allows Prurient to restore our faith in NOISE!
MPEG Stream: "Silent Mary"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Flashlight"

RAMESES III Parsimonia (Barl Fire) cd-r 11.98
As frustrating as superlimited cd-r's can be, you really can complain when faced with music this dark and mysteriously lovely. You can wish that someone would have the foresight to know when a record was amazing, and thus might press more than 130 copies, but again, we're happy that 130 more people get a chance to hear this record. The UK three piece known as Rameses III have been quietly laboring away for 5 or 6 years now, having released cd-r's on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, 267 Lattajjaa and handful of others. Their sound is hushed, a whispery drone, disembodied guitars, the sounds of running water and bird calls, bowed strings, shimmering ambience, a slow melodic churn through dark mysteries and warm soft soundscapes. Parsimonia was originally released on Foxy Digitalis way back in 2004, this reissue adds some spiffy new artwork and like we said, gives 130 more people the chance to enjoy some gorgeous late night drone and shimmer. Which actually means 30 AQ customers as this is frustratingly already out of print and we took all the copies the label had left. The sound on Parsominia is just more of what we've come to love about Rameses III, soft subtle soundscapes cobbled together from natural sounds and delicately crafted drones, never better exemplified than on the title track, a nearly 12 minute track of warm melodic swells, broadcast across a spring meadow, birds chirp, families laugh and talk, the wind rustles the leaves, all the while a huge shimmery cloud of muted rumble and soft focused sonic swirl drifts dreamlike through the trees. The rest of Parsimonia is equally drifty and dreamy, incorporating chiming bells, gentle finger picked steel string guitar and mumbly murky feedback into sweet sweet swells of mystical and transcendental sound.
LIMITED TO 130 COPIES, OF WHICH WE GOT 30. IT'S ALREADY OUT OF PRINT SO ONCE THESE ARE GONE THEY ARE GONE FOR GOOD (or until some other cd-r label decides to press up 100 more, arghh!)
MPEG Stream: "When The Bomb Drops, Hold Me Close"
MPEG Stream: "Three Ghosts (U.F.O.)"

RAZOR X PRODUCTIONS Killing Sound (Rephlex) 2lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl!
We love dancehall. A lot! Makes perfect sense too, a grinding, pounding, throbbing mix of hip hop and dub, with that totally repetitive, hypnotic, instantly recognizable dancehall beat, you know: BOMP..BOMP.........BOMP..BOMP.........BOMP..BOMP. With tongue twisting toasting over the top. Very similar to grime (which is probably why we love grime so much too). Hard really to improve on dancehall, you could maybe, rough it up a little, and, which gives us ragga of course, but then, you could also make the beats even thicker and crunchier and WAY more distorted, you could have the vocalists toast through a tin can and twine run through a fuzzbox and plugged into a battered old blown out loudspeaker, you could take all that stuff and supercharge it, send it coursing through your speakers as if your stereo was struck by lightning, the resulting sounds coming out of your speaker a hard and heavy, fierce and fucked up, super aggressive and distorted but still totally wild and danceable digital hardcore ragga. Whoowee!! Fuck yeah! Similar to the way Alec Empire and other folks took drum 'n' bass and jungle and turned it into superdistorted hardcore brutality, a few likeminded noiseniks have been doing the same with ragga, giving it a DHR makeover, turning already pretty aggressive ragga music into a brain melting blast of buzzing and blown out dancehall. One of those folks is the UK's Kevin Martin, who after years of lurking on the fringes of the noise underground, running the Pathological label and playing in God, Ice and a handfull of other fucked up dubbed out noise outfits (maybe hinting at what was to come), renamed himself the Bug, and started making dark and dense dubby dancehall, the new sound owing as much to classic dub and dancehall as it did to his time spent playing weird fucked up noisiness. A few years back the Bug hooked up with Rootsman and formed Razor X Production, a dynamic duo that began to whip up all sorts of brutal distorted ragga classics, all big beats, blown out production and toasting by some of the world's best reggae / dub / ragga vocalists: Cutty Ranks, He-Man, Daddy Freddy, Tony Tuff, Mexican, El Feco and more. This double disc collects some of the best singles, beats are jagged and sharp, distorted stabs, rumbling rib cage rattling low end, synths are massive thick smears of speaker shredding fuzz, each track a pulsing, throbbing dubbed out groove as hard and pummeling as it is groovy and funky. If all "dance music" was this fucked up and firece and fun even us wallflowers would be forced to spend all our evenings sweating and slithering all over the dance floor.
MPEG Stream: "Killer"
MPEG Stream: "WWW"
MPEG Stream: "Slew Dem"

REYNOLS Pacalirte Sorban Cumanos (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 10.98
Finally back in stock! We just discovered that this, one of our favorite Reynols records, was not in fact out of print (as we were mistakenly informed) so we ordered up a bunch for all of you who may not have gotten one way back in 2002 when we first reviewed it. Here's what we had to say about Pacalirte Sorban Cumanos:
For some reason, this 'real' cd Reynols disc is cheaper than many of the cd-r albums of theirs we listed not long ago. Maybe 'cause it's domestic, not an Argentine import? No matter what, you're always getting a deal, 'cause we're convinced that this Reynols stuff is in fact priceless. Now, there's essentially two types of Reynols records: the 'rock' albums (like "------" and the Reynols/No Reynols double cd) and the conceptual ones (like Blank Tapes and the 10,000 Chickens 7"). This new disc falls into the 'rock' camp, such as it is: damaged, monomaniacal drumming, psychedelic, noisy guitar jamming, and of course Reynols' frontman Miguel Tomasin's otherworldy, shamanistic vocals. Good stuff, in other words.
As the first track of this 50-minute journey begins, you're lost somewhere, in a tunnel or cavern. There's an ambient rumbling sound, and some haunting, echoed cries from Miguel. Then, with track two the distorted rock n' roll drone kicks in, all heavy-like, building in noisy intensity until track 3 interrupts the storm with a calmer, mantric mood, only to be interrupted itself with more fierce feedback guitar at the four and a half minute mark. Other songs feature Hare Krishna -worthy warbling chant, acoustic strum, and rattling hand percussion, as well as more of their primitive psych rock dementia. From simple, vocal-led tracks of trancey emptiness to guitar-based fuzzed-out chaos, the results are only enhanced by the raw, reverby production. Reynols is always strange, and strangely compelling, appealing to us in sort of the same way that much of the music of Keiji Haino does. Listening to Reynols isn't just about enjoying some weird songs, it's about taking a trip into their world and trying to see and hear things the way Miguel and his compatriots do. These are field recordings from inside their minds.
MPEG Stream: "Agrando Disa"
MPEG Stream: "7 apolca baluba"
MPEG Stream: "Trilo Pampeho"
MPEG Stream: "Camio Flatdas"

ROOT Madness Of The Graves (Redblack Productions) cd 14.98
Damn, the new Root! Weird black metal from Czech just gets weirder. They're set apart from all others by their sense of drama, and by vocalist/mainman Big Boss and his deep voiced delivery. And the unbridled dementia they bring to their very metal, very odd songwriting and arrangments. Originals they most certainly are, combining killer blackened riffage with romantic keyboards and parts that sound a bit Jesus Lizardy though they might not be aware of it. One of the most striking tracks, "The Last Gate (The Story Of Demons)", uses tribal drumming and overlapping vocal chants to approximate the sounds of demonic possession or worship (or something), making Root sound like Sepultura's Roots (until insane chipmunk voices like those on the last Sigh album kick in!). Wow.
MPEG Stream: "Madness Of The Graves (Calling)"
MPEG Stream: "The Last Gate (The Story Of Demons)"

SALVATORE Luxus (Glitterhouse) cd 15.98
We can't belive how tough it is to keep this in stock. So frustrating beacuse we love this band so much and all of their other records are seemingly out of print. But we just managed to get another big batch of these in, but they probably won't last long...
Yes, at last! The new Salvatore is here! We've been trying to get this, their fifth album, for AGES. For whatever reason, these imports were tough to come by, but finally we've got 'em. And now that it's booming through our stereo here at the store, we know that it was worth the wait. First off, the love of Neu! still beats strongly in the hearts (and, um, beats) of these mostly instrumental Norwegian post-rockers. That motorik percussion propulsion that we love. Instant hypnosis in other words. Which means that they're still very much of the "Circle-ular" persuasion, leaning towards the likes of Tortoise and Trans Am too. Tortoise's John McEntire did the mix, in fact (and contributes drum machine on one track, "Brugata"). That's alongside drums, guitar x 2, organ, bass, "bassdrones", xylophone, vocoder, "sitter" (sitar?) -- and each track has a slightly different, usually expansive line-up of musicians and instrumentation. The bass and percussive elements are always quite strong, of course, but Salvatore still manage to make their music quite delicate too -- and although Luxus remains on the lighter side of Salvatore's output (the "poppier" path they've followed since 2002's Fresh), there are certainly bolts of electric darkness and grit shivering through these tracks, especially on the scarily reverberating "Fluxus"...while the combination of female vocals, strings, and "fake balaban" (presumably the middle-eastern sounding horn we hear) on the ten-minute-plus title track is simply gorgeous, not scary or dark at all. Speaking of balabans, Luxus establishes that ethnic influences are definitely a part of Salvatore's sound, something that they have in common with krautrockers Can, doubtless another inspiration of theirs. So, for fans of Can, Circle, Neu!, Tortoise, etc. Salvatore has produced another winning album, that we're so glad to finally have, to share with you.
MPEG Stream: "Hefe"
MPEG Stream: "Brugata"
MPEG Stream: "Luxus"

SHALLOW NORTH DAKOTA Mob Wheel (Six Foot Foam Skull) 2lp 15.98
The thing about sloooooow bands, is that their slowness tends to permeate every facet of their lives. Including sending records. So now we finally have another small batch of this massive slab of sludgy doom. This new batch comes with a cd-r of the music that's on the 2lp, making it much eassier to get this vinyl onto your iPod or whatever...
Gooey crunchy sludge from the Great White North.
67 minutes of what sounds like the sonic equivalent of your head dunked in Robitussin”
Gorgeous packaging: a double LP on nice thick vinyl, an ULTRA LIMITED edition of 300, all hand-screened (inside and out) printed on brown heavy cardstock that folds like a big envelope.
Which is perfect, you need a cover this thick to contain the downtuned blobs of almost unbearable heaviness that these guys ooze.
And we mean that in a good way” Mob Wheel is a delightfully skull caving mix of Dopethrone-era Electric Wizard and some Floor or later Cavity. Maybe even some early Unsane. All that with a giant dose of Bullhead-era Melvins crush and just a smidge of early Eyehategod. Tuneful? A bit. Melodic? A bit. Heavy? Let's see, imagine a dumptruck full of gold bricks, dipped in tar and dropped from a plane. That's sort of heavy. Now imagine that dumptruck MADE out of solid gold and filled with black holes, and fired from a cannon, in space, directly at your earhole. Now you're getting closer.
Yeah, you definitely need this: the gooey, sticky, sludgy, icky stuff we can't get enough of! Like someone took the record, threw it in a pot to boil, then dumped it over your head.
Fans of the "new sludge" (Boris, Corrupted, SUNNO))), Earth) will be in heaven (or hell I guess depending on your preference)!
Featuring a former member of doom-dirge lords Sons of Otis and a current member or metalcore heros Cursed, Shallow N.D. has been a mainstay in the Ontario scene since 1992.
Unfortunately the band have recently hung up their touring boots and put the van up on blocks, so we'll just have to imagine what it would be like see these guys conjure up this dissonant crunch and thud on stage!
MPEG Stream: "With My Pitchfork"
MPEG Stream: "Dead Man Has A Memo"

SHIPP, MATTHEW One (Thirsty Ear) cd 15.98
Much like William Parker whose latest release we loved and listed last time, Matthew Shipp is a jazz great whose plethora of releases makes it easy to kind of lose track and maybe pay as much attention as we should (like William Parker). While his willingness to coloborate and stretch and blur lines of genre is admirable we have to admit that we are sort of partial to him on his own. Something about when it's just him and his piano that is so compelling. Of course he is a ridicously talented piano player but it's also the way in which he can create so much tension and mood with the keys that makes him so special. Not often lately that a solo piano record carries its weight and keeps things interesting enough to attract our interest but we're not surprised that Matthew Shipp's the one to deliver such a record.
MPEG Stream: "Patmos"
MPEG Stream: "The Encounter"

ST. JOHN, BRIDGET Ask Me No Questions (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
So we've worked are way backwards with the recent reissues of great British folkstress Bridget St John. A couple lists ago we reviewed her most pop and upbeat release Thank You For..., then last time it was the ever so lush and orchestrated '71 release Songs For The Gentle Man and this time we focus on her debut, 1969's Ask Me No Questions. An outing that's the most stripped down of her first three albums. Produced by her biggest supporter, John Peel, this was by and large a totally solo affair. Her totally beautiful voice and sparse guitar instrumentation help create an overall somber and peaceful mood that is usually so hard to get so right, but St. John demonstrates that she knew so well how to evoke those sentiments without hitting people over the head, instead slowly wandering and tiptoeing her way through leaves and trees and finding beauty, truth and sadness along the way. The reissue of this debut also contains two bonus tracks including a stunning cover of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne." These recent reissues have proven she is worthy of that spot in your record collections next to Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan and Marianne Faithfull, voices that are timeless and always ring so true and wise.
MPEG Stream: "To B Without A Hitch"
MPEG Stream: "Curl Your Toes"
MPEG Stream: "I Like To Be With You In The Sun"

STEREO TOTAL Juke-Box Alarm (Kill Rock Stars) cd 13.98
When we first encountered Stereo Total back in 1999 with this album (originally released by Bungalow Records), our initial reaction was a rather perfunctory "Stereo-Total are Stereolab meets Musical Youth with herky-jerky female vocals you will either love or hate." Over the years, the duo have certainly improved and endeared themselves to a few of us... or maybe back then our hearts were just colder. Now that the folks at Kill Rock Stars have reissued two of the duo's early albums, we've been spurred to revisit 'em. Y'know what? We've been having a grand ol' time kicking up our heels and tapping our toes to this album and its also-reissued follow-up My Melody (with which we were already smitten the first time around). While we can't say that we luv Francoise Cactus' pouty cooing vocals, we sure don't hate 'em either. They make a great companion to Brezel Goring's droll Gainsbourgian delivery. We're happily humming along even if we haven't a clue what they're singing about in French, German, Japanese and Italian! If you dig '60s French Ye Ye girls, bubbly electronic pop, and all things Euro-cute, Stereo-Total is sooooo for you!
MPEG Stream: "Holiday Innn"
MPEG Stream: "Supercool"

STEREO TOTAL My Melody (Kill Rock Stars) cd 13.98
Ooooh la la! This was the Stereo Total album that really caught our ears back in late '99 -- especially the irresistible ultra-kicky tune "Vilaines Filles, Mauvais Garcons". Clearly it caught the ears of the Kill Rock Stars folks too 'cause they've reissued it domestically (it was originally released by Bobsled Records) along with their previous album Juke Box Alarm.
Here's what we said the first time around: Quirky German, French and English vocals frolic over a mish mash of tinkly, woobly melodies. A dash of Pizzicato Five, a sprinkle of Francoise Hardy, a pinch of Thee Headcoatees. This is the soundtrack to your next pyjama party, wear your pinkest of lipsticks and fluffiest of pjs... Or perhaps, this is the soundtrack to your next Sanrio soiree, wear your battiest of lashes and froufrou-est of frocks. Go go go!
MPEG Stream: "Vilaines Filles, Mauvais Garcons"
MPEG Stream: "Ringo, I Love You"

STIVELY, RYAN AND HIS POISON BAND Sugar Thunder (self-released) cd-r 9.98
Another rootsy lo-fi cd-r from the SF folk whippersnapper Ryan Stively. This one's a bit more even-keeled than his self-titled debut cdr which took a few wigged-out distorted detours. From Sugar Thunder's packaging to the dozen loosely woven acoustic tunes to Stively's slightly frayed around the edges vocals, this release is entirely shaded in muted earth tones. Note: As we mentioned, these recordings are quite low in the fidelity department with volume levels that jump about haphazardly. So, keep in mind that you might need to govern the volume knob a bit.
MPEG Stream: "Sugar Thunder"
MPEG Stream: "Sutro Tower"

STOLTZ, KELLEY Discount City / '84 Tigers (Cass) 7" 4.98
What's this? A little bit more from Kelley Stoltz! Wow, we've barely been able to catch our breath after he double-whammy'd us with Below The Branches and Crockodials (aka his terrific new full length and his complete recreation of Echo & The Bunnymen's album Crocodiles respectively). In case you're still craving more from Mr. Stoltz, the kind gent himself has just brought in some copies of his latest 7" vinyl offering for your hungry lil' ears. Instead of the Beach Boys-Bowie-Beatles-y pop sounds of his album or the '80s somber angst of the cover album, he's opted for a more swaggering, grungey Motor City-ness. "Discount City" and its baseball-themed flip side "'84 Tigers" are edgy, trippy blues rock numbers, very well suited for release on this Detroit, MI indie label. Cool!
Limited to 500.

THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING Storyboard (Resonant) cd 17.98
Despite our anticipation that this might be an ode to Laurie Anderson (or more specifically her track "From The Air" on Big Science). This Is Your Captain Speaking are not that at all. Their debut album presents this Australian combo as more in the tradition of grand atmospheric rock bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor and Mogwai. The expansive Storyboard is comprised of seven lengthy instrumentals beginning with an eighteen minute epic "Gathering Pieces". Gliding strings move in like a creeping fog bank as picked guitar lines offer fleeting glimmers of light. Drumsticks on the rim of snaredrum snap sharply like dry twigs underfoot. An interesting sidenote: Save for a brief outburst of children's giggles at the end of the third track, there's no way that you'd guess it, but the album was recorded in a primary school library!
MPEG Stream: "Gathering Pieces"
MPEG Stream: "A Wave To Bridget Bondly"

THRONES Day Late, Dollar Short (Southern Lord) 2lp 16.98
Managed to get a handful of these back in -- 2nd pressing -- grey vinyl now, not pink (although a few random pink copies might have snuck in there) and of course STILL LIMITED...
Here's what we had to say about it last time around:
We're big ol' Thrones fans here, and so the arrival of a third Thrones opus the other day was pretty darn exciting! It's been five years since the magnificent Sperm Whale, after all! And we're happy to report that Day Late, Dollar Short, despite its title, does not disappoint in any way (though, it's not exactly an entirely new album, more on that in a sec). Now, you know that the double necked guitar/bass wielding Joe Preston -- for he is Thrones and Thrones is he -- has quite the heaviness pedigree. He's played in the unholy heavy trinity of Earth, the Melvins, and SUNNO))), and he's currently the bassist for stoner metal lords High On Fire. Thus, from his one-man-band project Thrones you'd expect nothing less than H-E-A-V-Y, and you'd be right. But it's more than merely heavy. Thrones ain't just rubbery, head-caving bass, lotsa feedback nastiness, machine beats, and throat-rasped vox. Thrones is also really, really weird. As you'd expect from Joe, who used to be in the Melvins after all. There's certainly plenty of Melvins style fuckery going on here!
I mean, after the sheer noxious pummel (we like!) of track one, "The Suckling", you'll wonder what's going on with track two, "Young Savage". Punky and uptempo, with a gang-vocal chorus, it threw us for a bit of a loop until we figured out it was an Ultravox cover. That's then followed by the disarmingly gentle (but disturbingly child-voiced) "Algol". What's going on? Whatever the heck Joe wants, basically. And that's okay 'cause what he wants is to unleash a torrent of creativity that encompasses such things as utter sludge drone dirge, Buttholes Surfers-ish mania, indie rock pop (with some non-effected, clean singing even), drum machines kickin' old school hip hop beats, crazy prog structures, all-out rawk, thrashy riffs, electronic filtering, etc... almost all of which you'll hear in, say, track fifteen, "Obolus", which starts off doing the Melvinsy doom thing but with Bruce Haack/Electric Lucifer robot singing before segueing into a soundscape of bird twitters, bells and chimes, and waves of white noise (this from the "soundtrack" to La Foresta Della Norte). Then there's all the crazy covers that Joe tries his hand at: along with the Ultravox, this includes a Residents cover, a Blue Oyster Cult cover, and yes, unreleased track "A Quick One" is indeed a cover of a portion of the Who's "A Quick One While He's Away". Wow. Not afraid of a challenge, this guy.
And we do mean "unleash a torrent" -- there's 19 tracks here, almost 80 minutes of Thrones insanity, much of it compiled from rare, out-of-print singles, cassettes and comps, with some previously unreleased tracks as well, spanning the years 1994-2001. The lovely, bunny-adorned packaging (Mr. Stephen O'Malley, take a bow) also features personal notes on each track by Joe hizzelf. Here's hoping that he'll find time away from his regular gig in High On Fire to do a real *brand new* Thrones album... but in the meantime we're happy to have this "incomplete collection of smaller projects" all on one handy cd.
MPEG Stream: "The Suckling"
MPEG Stream: "Coal Sack"
MPEG Stream: "Obolus"

TRAFFIC SOUND Yellow Sea Years (Vampisoul) cd 21.00
Yeah! Yellow Sea Years is a great collection of tracks from this legendary '60s psych outfit from Peru. We've actually had this in stock since last year and always meant to list it but only got around to it now. Traffic Sound's early influences should be readily apparent from the cover versions that populated their first album, 1968's A Bailar GoGo: Jimi Hendrix, Eric Burdon, Iron Butterfly (nope, not "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" -- they did "You Can't Win"!), and Skip James's "I'm So Glad" (as featured on the Latin American installment of the Love, Peace & Poetry compilation series). Of those debut album tracks, only Eric Burdon's "Sky Pilot" is included here. By the time of their second album Virgin in '69, they'd definitely established their own, wonderfully spacey, groovy and melodic, sound. That brilliant LP is only represented on this disc by "Meshkalina" though this comp takes its name from the epic "Yellow Sea Days" (not included). Following on from Virgin, Traffic Sound continued to explore more mellow, Pink Floydy pop as well as getting into funkier Latin-tinged soul-psychedelia... the latter perhaps being the reason that Vampi Soul has opted to focus mainly on material from the band's third and fourth LPs, Traffic Sound (1970) and Lux ('71), cramming as much of those albums onto this 80 minute cd anthology as possible. And there's definitely some great stuff here! For example, the utter jazz-horns boosted psychedelic grooviness of "Tibette's Suzettes" (with a slightly Ozzy-ish vocal). Badass track that one. Yep, if you're into upbeat, '60s psych-pop rock that draws on prog, folk, and funk, you need to check out the Traffic Sound. Now if they'd only also reissue all of Virgin!
MPEG Stream: "Tibet's Suzettes (You Can't Appreciate A Gift From God)"
MPEG Stream: "Those Days Have Gone"

TRANSMISSION 0 0 (Go-Kart) cd 14.98
Note to bands. Go all out on your cover art. It's really the only thing setting you apart from a record that gets listened to and about a million that don't. And as much as we try to listen to every single record we get, it's just not physically possible. So we almost passed right over this one. The artwork's not bad really, just sort of blah, black and white, a little abstract, but considering how weird and heavy and great this record is the cover just doesn't do these songs justice. Transmission 0 are another one of those bands that are really tough to pin down. They're pretty metal, with super stacatto, chugging riffs, howled vocals, sort of Helmet meets Converge. Thick and almost metalcore sounding. But then there's keyboards everywhere, all over the place. Not right up front, but just a sort of hazy melodic fuzz lingering behind the dissonant riffing or draped like some sort of gauzy curtain across the pounding rhythms. But that's not all, the band will often bliss out and simmer down into some weird reverb soaked moody post rock lope, all clean guitar and almost croony vocals, sort of swirly and krautrocky with heavily affected guitars that sound like they were lifted from a Smiths song, but before you know it, the song might burst into an ultra-aggro head pounding metal riff-down. There's even some stretched out spacious doom all slow motion riffs and plodding drums, that sometimes dirge down to a downright SUNNO))) / Earth-like crawl. There's also a couple downtempo electronic beatscapes, skittery and shuffling, with thick grinding synths and super distorted bass, some kickass Iron Maiden dual harmony riffing, some Godspeed-like dreamy slowbuild epics, and on and on and on. Sounds impossibly confusional on paper (on computer?) but coming through the speakers it sounds divine. Maybe a little bit dizzying in their sonic scope, but we think you can handle it.
MPEG Stream: "Journey"
MPEG Stream: "San Miguel"

TWILIGHT s/t (Southern Lord) lp 14.98
The super limited vinyl version back in stock for a limited time!
What do you get when you mix Wrest from Leviathan, Malefic from Xasthur, Hildolf from Draugar, Imperial from Krieg and Azentrius from Nachtmystium? Odds are by the end of that sentence, most of you black metal fans don't even care, you just want it whatever it is! Well, what IT is, is a long in the works collaboration dubbed Twilight, featuring the above mentioned black metal masters, all conspiring to produce the sickest, grimmest black metal ever. And Twilight certainly is both grim and sick, but the sound manages to be much more, veering dramatically from the various contributors' usual sound and sounds. The first track is a massive and thick, buzzy and blurry tarpit of swirling BM, that is so unbelievably dense at times that the vocals and guitars and drums almost merge into a single massive blackened drone, before random parts shift ever so slightly and are allowed to drift to the forefront before slipping back into the murky blackness. Layer after layer of downtuned riffing, insane blast beats and hellishly surreal super processed howling vocals (sounding almost like all five of them are singing simultaneously). Quite possibly one of the most frightening black metal tracks EVER. We were totally thrown for a loop though with track two, which starts off with a bizarre jaunty black metal jig, accompanied by grunted troll-like vocals, before splintering into more familiar buzz and drone territory. After that it's exactly what you would expect from a BM dream team like this, lots of midtempo Burzumic throb and buzzy BM drone, plenty of growled, howled, gurgled and shrieked vocals, completely amazing riffs, veering from echoing spacious doom to razor sharp blackthrash to weirdly melodic almost jangle, catchy melodies that reveal themselves slowly with each listen, and of course there's Wrest's amazing and super creative drumming holding it all together. The sticker on the front pretty much says it all: "As an entity, they have delivered a mammoth, blackened metallic statement. Bleak, cold, darkness within and beyond the void."
MPEG Stream: "Woe Is The Contagion"
MPEG Stream: "Exact Agony, Take Life"

UNCLE JIM Superstars Of Greenwich Meantime (Abduction) cd 14.98
OK, what would you think if we told you that this record is basically some white guy, sounds like he's in his forties, doing caffine fueled, stream-of-conciousness, foul-mouthed beat poetry backed by jazzy, exotic music? His intellectual macho rants are full of '60s references ("I know who killed Kennedy. It was Ladybird Johnson. She was the only one with the guts to do it.") and surreal stories (there's a whole story about yeti hunters) and other conspiritorial strangeness. He makes very little sense, talking his own brand of hep jive, spewing bile all the while.
So the question is, is this a parody? Or really meant to be taken seriously? Well perhaps not the latter, since Uncle Jim is apparently Alan Bishop of the notoriously confusional Sun City Girls, who are on hand to provide that background music, along with others including Porest. Of course even if you convince yourself that it's some sort of joke, that doesn't mean it's that funny or that you'd want to listen to it. So maybe it's better to decide that this IS actual serious poetry and if you work hard enough to "get it" it'll be brilliant. Or it's just something for hardcore collectors of everything by Alvarius B, Sir Richard Bishop and Charles Gocher, though presumably you all already got the previously issued limited edition vinly version of this...
MPEG Stream: "Liberties"
MPEG Stream: "Graduation Day"

VAMPYROS LESBOS (OST) (Crippled Dick Hot Wax) 2lp 16.98
Now on vinyl!
Yeah! Back in print and we're thrilled about that. The new reissue has 3 bonus tracks on cd and 5 bonus tracks on the oh so nice double gatefold vinyl edition. Even if you haven't had the pleasure of seeing any of the over 150 Jess Franco's 'horrotica' films from which these songs come from that shouldn't stop you from jumping into this delicious offering of red light sleazy cheesy psych-light instrumental treats. Composed by Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab in 1969 these songs ooze with a playful sexuality that you have to be pretty lifeless not to enjoy. The packaging is exquisite as well with amazing stills from the Franco films and really nice text that gives a background of where these sounds and his films were coming from. Next time you have some people over to your place, turn down the lights, light some candles, put this on the stereo and who knows where the night might take you!
MPEG Stream: "Droge CX 9"
MPEG Stream: "Kamasutra"

VIRUS SYNDICATE The Work Related Illness (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
So okay, when we first listed this back in the middle of last year, it received a less than overwhelming response which we just couldn't figure out. It was some of the best grime we had heard so far. Easily up there with Dizzee and Lady Sov and Wiley. So here it is, a new year, you've all had some time to get used to this new bastardized hip hop / jungle fusion thing called grime, in fact folks have been positively freaking out about it. The recently listed grime comp Heavy Meckle sold like gangbusters. And so, as if on cue, the Virus Syndicate gets the deluxe reissue treatment, with some new killer black and silver cover art (replacing the cringeworthy comic strip cover on the original) and FOUR extra tracks. So for those of you who missed out the first time around (maybe who skipped it 'cause of the cover), and for those of you who dug it enough that you need the four extra tracks (like us) then here we go again...
Boy do we love Grime!! But we're getting a bit frustrated at the relative dearth of grime stateside. We can only listen to our Dizzee Rascal and Wiley records so many times. Plus to be honest, as much as we dig those, we're sort of hankering for something a little more, well, you know, grime-y! Overseas, you got Kano, Lethal Bizzle, Lady Sovereign, More Fire Crew and loads more but it's taken forever for any of their records to make it over here. But in the meantime, we've got the debut from the Virus Syndicate, courtesy of Mike Paradinas' Planet Mu label. And it's a corker. The thing with grime is, well, it's sort of like drum and bass, you just gotta love the sound. We can't get enough of the super distorted classic ragga drum and bass. So much so that we could listen to that shit forever. And we're beginning to feel the same way about grime. It's sort of like hip hop sure, but the rhythm is this super repetitive, slurry, stuttering beat, a very clumsy funk, over and over, every song has the same general head nodding shuffle, with grimy fuzz synth bass lines, and then maddening, tongue twisting flow over the whole thing. Virus Syndicate take that formula and give it their own twist. Big fat beats, throbbing and hiccuping, haunting stabs of operatic vocals, fuzzed out synths, burbling booming system bass, all rocking that instantly recognizable grime rhythm, while the Syndicate spit bizarre marble mouthed rhymes, talking trash, a wildly confusional flow, catchy and soulful, occasionally slipping into some almost Jamaican style toasting. So fucking awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Slow Down"
MPEG Stream: "Major List MCs"

VON HAUSSWOLFF, CM Leech (Raster-Noton) cd 15.98
Carl Michael von Hausswolff stands as one of the more intriguing conceptually based sound artists, often manipulating electro-magnetic ephemera within highly codified contexts, installations and performances. Hausswolff is most well known for his collaborative project with Leif Elggren called The Kingdom of Elgaland-Vargaland, a psycho-geographical territory that claims to have annexed all of the land between countries and the space where dreams exist, along with a number of deliberately absurdist proclamations to act as a critical counterpoint to the nation-state of the 21st Century. Beyond this, Hausswolff has steadily produced an eccentric body of recordings, culling static, noise, feedback, and tones from disturbances in electro-magnetic fields. For Leech, he has taken on the role as a parasite, extracting the sounds on this recording from the electro-magentic disturbances caused by four of his contemporary artists: Olafur Eliasson, Carsten Holler, Tommi Gronland / Petteri Nisunen, and Richard D. James. Hausswolff provides a scant amount of information about the installations / performances, and it hardly even matters that some of the sounds might have come from one of Eliasson's ephemeral installations bringing the fog into large-scale mirrored kaleidoscopes or the legendary sandpaper DJ set by the Aphex Twin back in 1994. Hausswolff's sounds are typical of the technology he has always employed: wire-tapping microphones, cheap algorithmic samplers, and noise-gating devices. The resulting sounds on Leech are raw recordings of glitches, crackle, and sinewave piercings that hold a cathode ray deadness to the collected recordings, except for the Aphex extractions which have been bathed in a cavernous warehouse reverb. The concept does seem to stand a bit above the execution of Leech; but the idea is such a strong one, and Hausswolff has such a strong grasp of his equipment that the album certainly holds up to his previous albums.
MPEG Stream: "DJ Set"
MPEG Stream: "Swingers"
MPEG Stream: "Blitzableiter Induktionsspule"

WASTELL, MARK Vibra #2 (Longbox Recordings) cd-r 11.98
Proprietor of London's 323 Sound shop and protagonist in the New London Silence movement that bridges the ethos of minimalism within the scope of Birtish improv and academic composition, Mark Wastell is a figure whose name has been popping up more and more in recent months. Vibra #2 is a limited edition CD-R release of his solo work upon a tam-tam. In fact, the gong he used for this recording was previously owned by the late Roger Sutherland, to whom this album is dedicated. In softly tapping this gong, Wastell offers an exceptional drone construction of soft resonant timbres, clouds of natural metallic reverberation, and harmonic shimmers that give the impression of electronic treatments, even when Wastell used no such devices. The slow pacing of Wastell's performance adds to the languid almost submariner haze of the recording, providing something of a mix between Thomas Koner and Stockhausen's tam-tam composition Mikrophonie. Beautiful stuff! It's limited to 200 copies, of which we only have a handful. You know what that means!
MPEG Stream: "Vibra No. 2 (extract)"

WEED IN THE HEAD / GORILLA MONSOON Suicide Feelings / A Lesson In Darkness (Grimm Grinner) 10" 14.98
This is a downtuned stoner sludge face off between two German outfits, who tackle their Sabbath obsessions in slightly different ways. Weed In The Head start things off with delciate clean guitar figures, which are interrupted by ULTRA distorted blasts of metal riffing, the kind of distortion that is so fuzzed out the sounds are almost crumbling into pieces. Doesn't take long before the clean guitar disappears under an avalanche of groovy sludge, pounding Cromagnon drums and wailing sort of Ozzyish vocals. A weird blend of Sabbathy groove and Kyuss-y desert rock, heavy but most definitely stoney and groovy. Things occasionally slow down into almost Eyehategod terrirtory and eventually bliss out into a druggy trippy Monster Magnet style space jam. Cool!
Gorilla Monsoon (named for the wrestler we presume) counter with their own stoner psych sludge groove, starting out with a gorgeous bit of hazy ambience, all guitar distortion and feedback, before the main riff powers through, kicking up all that ambience into a swirling sonic dust storm. Dark and murky, but a bit more rocking than WITH, and much harsher vocals, that swoop wildly from a King Fowley type growl to a near Khanate like hellish shriek. There are some sludgy Eyehategod moments, lots of loping midtempo fuzz and groove, but like Weed In The Head, Gorilla Monsoon are ultimately channelling the spirit of the mighty Sabbath (heck, the singer's nom du rock is even Jack Sabbath) and there ain't nothing wrong with that.
Packaged in a nice fullcover foldover sleeve and pressed on nice thick vinyl

WIRE, THE #266, April 2006 magazine 7.50
It's that time of the month again. No not -that- time of the month. The new Wire features ex-Television frontman Tom Verlaine on the cover. This month's Invisible Jukebox is with Burnt Friedman. The Wire Primer schools us all on the British institution that is the Fall. This month's Global Ear focuses on Kyzyl, the capital city of Tuva. Elsewhere, articles on and interviews with: Mouthus, The Knife, Ned Sublette, legendary UK artist / musician Linder, Spring Heel Jack, and as always tons and tons of reviews of records, shows, performances, installations, books et al. And finally a back page epiphany from Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.

YELLOW SWANS Live At Sound & Fury (Sound & Fury) cd-r 12.98
Between the Yellow Swans and the Skaters, you could fill up a whole shelf at home with limited cd-r's. If you figured Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Birchville Cat Motel, Gray Daturas, Hototogisu, Axolotl and all the rest into the equation you might just need a whole room. So here's one more to try and squeeze in if you can. Recorded live in 2005 at Sound & Fury, a record store in Australia and limited to 150 copies (we got the LAST 24!), we have to say it'll be well worth the trouble to make room for this in the cd-r wing of your musical collection as it's another kick ass installment in what is now a MASSIVE, but surprisingly consistent body of work. This live set is all droney which you know we love (and we know YOU love). The first near twenty minute track is one long shimmer, a warm low end thrum supporting a pulsing dog whistle skree and in between all manner of creaking industrialism and drifting guitar warble, thick whirring vacuum cleaner fuzz and moaning distant feedback. Track two takes the sounds of track one and roughs them up, adding more volume, more power and ultimately more noise, a big thick layer of feedback and rumble and rrrooooaaarrr. The final fifteen minute track continues in a similarly droney direction with another layered soundscape of ultralowend power and ultrahighend sinewave squeal. This time the low end is thicker and more distorted, like a guitar pressed up against the speaker, while the high end is just a distant sheet of white hot shimmer, while in the foreground, guitars oscillate and pulse, not full on noise, but not melodic necessarily either. There are most certainly melodies (or fragments of melodies present, but they are suffocated by the Swans' bulldozing sonic swells. Another winner. Hototogisu heads and fans of other such sonic mayhem will love it!
Packaged in a simple brown cardstock sleeve with a black 'Y' wax seal. Hand numbered and limited to 150 copies, includes an actual photo insert. Each one is different.
We have 24 copies and then these are gone for good!
MPEG Stream: "One"

YOUNG PEOPLE All At Once (Too Pure) cd 13.98
With their last record, "War Prayers" Young People showed that they were really coming into their own and moving beyond their obvious influences. With this new release they take an even greater leap forward. Stripping down their sound considerably and making a totally raw and engulfing album that injects a minimalist aesthetic into their pop songs with amazing results. By taking away some of the layers and some of their overly sprawling emotions of past outings, they have really found their sound, narrowing their target and hitting it dead on. Like Young Marble Giants or the hard to track down in the States No Sound Is Heard album by the UK group Klang, Young People have made a set of songs that might sound sparse on first listen but have so much richness hidden away inside. Any hints of their somewhat twangy past have been sublimated into their new more subtle sound and we are so loving where they've moved to. Sometimes less is so much more.
MPEG Stream: "R&R"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Rainbow"

YURA YURA TEIKOKU na.ma.shi.bi.re.na.ma.me.ma.i (Mesh-Key) cd 11.98
This modern Japanese psychedelic pop band has been around forever (like, 15 years now at least), having recorded for underground labels like Captain Trip and PSF before making the jump to (in Japan) major-label status, we think. Over here of course they're still fairly unknown, but NYC label Mesh-Key is doing their best to change that, by issuing this 2003 live recording in the States (actually, the cd itself appears to be the actual Japanese release, but with an extra paper obi sleeve printed up by Mesh-Key added on to provide some English-language context). Over an hour long, the show documented here should definitely give prospective Yura Yura Teikoku fans a decent sampling of the band's charms, from the ghostly to the garagey, from chaotic crashing rockers to Velvets inspired, gentle poppiness. There's definitely enough in the way of intense Rallize-like distorto guitar on here to please those into YYT's colleagues LSD-March and Up-Tight (as on the track "Penetration" that starts off all "Twist And Shout" before they burn up their amps in a firestorm of guitar noise).
For those who follow the Tokyo psych scene, we should mention that Yura Yura Teikoku features one of the members of The Stars, and that Michio Kurihara (Ghost/White Heaven/The Stars) often guests on their records, though we don't know if he's on here or not...but he IS quoted in a blurb on the obi calling Yura Yura Teikoku "the greatest band in the world"!!
Limited to 700 copies, presumably because that's how many left-over cds from the Japanese cd pressing Mesh-Key was able to buy up? Limited vinyl also due soon from Mesh-Key.
MPEG Stream: "Penetration"
MPEG Stream: "Became A Star"

Z-TRIP, DJ AND DJ EMILE Best Friends (The Long Lost Bombshelter Mix CD) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK!
Awww. Best friends. And they're into Star Wars too!
There's a pair of Stormtroopers in the cover photo as well as in the considerably more saucy pics inside (we can assume they're supposed to be Z-Trip and DJ Emile) and the disc art is of the Death Star, but that seems to be the extent of this release's Star Wars-iness. However, just as Star Wars fans are a somewhat obsessive breed, so too are fans of DJ acrobatics. If you count yourself among those legions (either specifically a fan of Z-Trip or of turntablism in general) then you know that the resurfacing of this long-lost mix is definitely a reason to celebrate. AWOL for eight years, these recordings have finally been rediscovered, remastered and released on cd. A very welcome, truly Z-Trippy release following his last, remarkably un-Z-Trippy (i.e, non-DJ, non-sampled) major label album Shifting Gears. Spine-tinglin' and ultra funky! Yes, this is why we dig him (and DJ Emile's sure no slouch either, going toe to toe with best bud Z-Trip in the Bombshelter)!
MPEG Stream: "track 6"
MPEG Stream: "track 25"

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----* Compilations :
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V/A An Anthology Of Noise & Electronic Music : Fourth A-Chronology 1937 - 2005 (Sub Rosa) 2cd 16.98
The curators of the fourth volume of the seven part series of Anthologies of Noise & Electronic Music are correct when they point to the fact that the history of the avant-garde is a messy one with tangled connections between competing factions, ideologies, methods, and personalities. The Sub Rosa compilations are dotted with a who's who of the electro-acoustic avant-garde from the past century, tossed in with a smorgasborg of previously unknown (and often very interesting) artists as well as contemporary musicians who are well on their way to establishing themselves within the canons of the institutional avant-garde. Sub Rosa has gone out of its way to compile a collection to scramble one's notions of the taxonomic rhetoric that may influence the perception of any of the artists present; hence you'll find Les Rallizes Denudes (already you can tell this series is not very reverential of the academic definition of experimental electronics music, with the inclusion of this incendiary Japanese psych band) next to Vibracathedral Orchestra followed by one-time Blind Idiot God guitarist Andy Hawkins then Alvin Lucier. Sub Rosa boasts that more than 75 percent of the album is unreleased material, which is all the more impressive considering that the compilation features the likes of Gyorgy Ligetti, Oliver Messiaen, William S. Burroughs, Milan Knizak, Steve Reich, Halim el-Dabh, Jean-Claude Risset, Stephen Vitiello, Laurie Spiegel, and many others. To top it all off, it's surprisingly pleasing to listen to. What that says about the state of 'noise' music may be another question.
MPEG Stream: WANG CHANGCUN "Seafood"
MPEG Stream: LES RALLIZES DENUDES "Fucked Up and Naked"
MPEG Stream: HALIM EL-DABH "Wire Recorder"

V/A Girl Group Sounds: Lost and Found (Rhino) 4cd box 78.00
Even if it is last year's fashion (meaning: this was released back in October '05), we've fallen head over heels for this stylish boxset! The tunes, the big booklet, the chic black'n'white hatbox packaging... all of it! The folks at Rhino Records have always made it their mission to dish out the oldies-but-goodies, but they have truly outdone themselves with this '60s girl group extravaganza. Each of the four cds contains thirty songs for a whopping total of one hundred and twenty songs! They cover a lot of ground from pert pop to smoooth soul, from peppery R&B to sashaying country. Many of the featured artists will undoubtably be more than familiar to you, but we'd wager that just as many will be new to you. That said, even if you do recognize the faces, you very well might not recognize the songs. This boxset is dedicated to shining a rosy glowing spotlight on the more obscure tunes. Aaah, some things -- such as good music -- never go out of style.

V/A Tibetan And Bhutanese Instrumental And Folk Music (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98
Last year, one of our favorite releases was the always great label Sub Rosa's beautiful assemblage of 1971 recordings from the kingdom of Bhutan entitled Tibetan Buddhist Rites From The Monasteries of Bhutan; and wow, what an intense and powerful collection of recordings it was. Sounds by monks and nuns that pretty much surpassed in sheer intensity and core spirit so much of what we usually drool over in our experimental and metal sections. Now we have the follow up to that which comes from the same recordings by John Levy made in Bhutan from 1971-72. A much different affair, these recordings as made obvious by the title, focus on the actual songs and folk tradition of Bhutan. Featuring skillful and moving instrumentals as well as many songs with vocals that leave us in total awe of their haunting qualities and totally beautiful delivery. You can almost imagine people like Islaja and Will Oldham listening to this with their notebook by their side and their ears wide open hoping to have it all enter their psyche. Parts of the instrumentation no doubt would get members of the No Neck Blues Band standing at attention. So funny how so much of what we know as 'free folk' or "free whatever" can be found in its original incarnation on these recordings. The Bhutanese dramnyen is probably the core and most used instrument on these recordings and wow how much we are in love with its glorious sound: seven strings that are struck with a plectrum and vibrate warmly, instantly washing over you with a darkly gentle vibe of total warmth and surrender. We're so grateful to Sub Rosa for releasing these previously impossible to find recordings. So moving and totally recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Tashi Laso, At The Top Of Lucky Valley"
MPEG Stream: "The Palaces Of Gesar's Family"
MPEG Stream: "Tibetan Dramnyen"

V/A Time Machine: A Vertigo Retrospective (Vertigo ) 3cd 38.00
BACK IN STOCK!
Listing this, at last. We know a lot of you have been enjoying DJ Andy Votel's Vertigo label mix cd that we made Record Of the Week last summer. Advertised in the booklet for that cd was this triple disc box set, compiling 41 full (unmixed) tracks from the Vertigo vaults. So here it is. If you liked that Vertigo Mixed disc but you're not ready yet to hunt down the collectable original LPs (or cd reissues, which aren't always available either) by all those bands, this 3cd set is just the ticket to get to hear more. Some of these tracks were included in Votel's mix (but here you get the entire song!), and some not.
Of course, with a vast, three and a half hour collection like this, a review is superflous for the curious. First off, though, if you don't know: Britain's Vertigo label, in its early '70s heyday (characterized by the "swirl" logo), specialized in both heavy psych and jazz-rock, often finding bands that blended the two into progged-out grooves that Votel likes to call "hairy funk". Not every Vertigo "swirl" album was incredible, but there's enough gems amidst the many, many tracks released by the label circa 1969-1973 to make putting together a fairly bountiful compilation like this pretty easy on the compliers.
Vertigo's most famous signing was Black Sabbath. Perhaps unnecessarily, there's two Sabbath tracks included here. Being the best band ever (sez Allan anyway) you should already have 'em. But chances are you don't already have tracks by a lot of the other bands found here, ranging from the fairly well-known to the totally obscure: Gentle Giant, Gracious!, Affinity, May Blitz, Juicy Lucy, Jade Warrior, Dr. Z, Tudor Lodge, Warhorse, Freedom, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Beggars Opera, Nucleus, Atlantis, Ramases, Colosseum, Aphrodite's Child, Ben, Cressida, Patto, Clear Blue Sky, Gravy Train, Uriah Heep, Mick Ronson's Ronno, and more. A diverse array ranging from folky flutes to hard rock riffage to jazzy romps (sometimes all in the same song). All these cuts are contained on three cds in cardboard sleeves, housed inside the box alongside a 48 page booklet with a page or paragraph on each band, and an introductory essay about Vertigo's history. The whole package is a Vertigo primer, if you will. Definitely a good sampler to help direct your further exploration of the Vertigo (and early '70s psych/prog/jazzrock) legacy, or maybe just enough for your needs in that direction...
MPEG Stream: AFFINITY "Three Sisters"
MPEG Stream: RONNO "Powers Of Darkness"
MPEG Stream: WARHORSE "Mouthpiece"


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----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed :
----* 5/5/2000 "Reflektionen Musique" (Post Replica) cd 12.98
7 YEAR RABBIT CYCLE "Ache Horns" (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98
A-TRAK "Oh No You Didn't" (Disque Primeur) cd 15.98
ACID BATH "Demos: 1993-1996" (Rotten) cd 14.98
ALOG "Catch That Totem" (Melektronik) cd 16.98
APPLESEED CAST "Peregrine" (Milita Group) cd 14.98
CANVAS SOLARIS "Penumbra Diffuse" (Sensory) cd 14.98
CAPRICORNS "Ruder Forms Survive" (Rise Above / Candlelight USA) cd 15.98
COLLINS, SHIRLEY & DOLLY "Snapshots" (Fledg'ling) cd 16.98
COLOSSAL YES "Acapulco Roughs" (Ba Da Bing) cd 13.98
CONNORS, LOREN "Sails" (Table Of The Elements) 2cd 17.98
DARKTHRONE "Goatlord" (Moonfog) cd
DARKTHRONE "The Cult Is Alive" (Peaceville) cd/lp 14.98/21.00
ELECTRIC GHOSTS (DANIEL JOHNSTON AND JACK MEDICINE) "s/t" (Important) cd 14.98
ETTRICK "Infinite Horned Abomination" (Heule) cd-r 9.98
FATHER YOD AND THE SPIRT OF '76 "Contraction" (Swordfish) cd 17.98
FEATHERS "s/t" (Gnomonsong) cd 13.98
FOSTER, JOSEPHINE "A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing" (Locust) cd 14.98
FUNCTION "The Secret Miracle Fountain" (Locust) cd 14.98
FUNCTIONAL BLACKOUTS "Severed Tongue Speaks For Everyone" (Criminal IQ) lp 11.98
GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR & MATT DEGENNARO "Long Wires In Dark Museums 2" (Table Of The Elements) cd 16.98
GAMELAN SON OF LION "Metal Notes" (Locust) cd 14.98
GHOSTFACE KILLAH "Fishscale" (Def Jam) cd 12.98
GODATHON "Competitions for Guitar, Opus 1" (Goblinland) dvd 12.98
GREGOR SAMSA "55:12" (The Kora Records) cd 14.98
HEBDEN, KIERAN & STEVE REID "Exchange Sessions Vol. 1" (Domino) cd 14.98
ILITCH "Rainy House" (Sparkling Spare Wheel) LP + CD 39.00
JANDEK "Khartoum Variations" (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
JANDEK "Newcastle Sunday" (Corwood Industries) 2cd 12.98
KLANG "No Sound Is Heard" (Blast First Petite) cd 13.98
LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR "The Ultimate Destroyer" (Southern Lord) cd 13.98
LEKMAN, JENS "Oh You're So Silent Jens" (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98
LIARS "Drum's Not Dead" (Mute) cd+dvd/lp+dvd 19.98/19.98
LILES, ANDREW "In My Father's House Are Many Mansions" (Fourth Dimension) cd 14.98
MADLIB "The Beat Konducta Vol. 1-2" (Stones Throw) cd 16.98
MAGIC AUM GIGI "MMMM" (Sparkling Spare Wheel) lp 21.00
MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "Live 1984-85" (P.S.F.) cd 21.00
MAJOR STARS "Synoptikon" (Important) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
MCBAIN, JOHN "The In-Flight Feature" (Duna) cd 16.98
MELNYK, LUBOMYR "Continuous Music For 2 Pianos" (Bandura) cd-r 16.98
MELNYK, LUBOMYR "Legend and Song of Galadriel" (Bandura) cd-r 16.98
MELNYK, LUBOMYR "Music For Solo & Double Pianos (SP1)" (Bandura) cd-r 16.98
MELNYK, LUBOMYR "Remnants Of A Man (SP5)" (Bandura) cd-r 16.98
MELNYK, LUBOMYR "The Voice Of Trees" (Bandura) cd-r 16.98
MELNYK, LUBOMYR "Vocalizes & Antiphons" (Bandura) cd-r 16.98
MERZBOW "Turmeric" (Blossoming Noise) 4cd $36.00
MERZBOW "Black Bone Part 5" (Blossoming Noise) cd $12.98
METAL, MIKKEL "Victimizer" (Kompakt) cd 15.98
MGR "Nova Lux" (Neurot) cd 14.98
MIKAMI, KAN "Hoi 1973 - 1992" (PSF) cd 21.00
MIKAMI, KAN "Live In Kouch University 1972" (PSF) cd 21.00
MOHA! "Raus Aus Stavanger" (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
MOHAMMED, MOHAMMED 'JIMMY' "Takkabel!" (Terp) cd 17.98
MONO "You Are There" (Temporary Residence, Ltd.) cd/lp 14.98/15.98
MONUMENT OF URNS "The Destroyer Of All" (Hand Hewn Timbre) 3" cd-r 4.98
MORD "Christendom Perished" (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
OCEAN, THE "Aeolian" (Metal Blade) cd 14.98
PAX "s/t plus 7 Bonus Tracks" (Walhalla) cd 21.00
PIANO MAGIC "Incurable" (Important) cd 10.98
PINK MOUNTAINTOPS "Axis Of Evol" (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98
POOLE, ROD & SASHA BOGDANOWITSCH "Mind's Island" (Justguitar Records) cd 15.98
PRIDDY, NANCY "You've Come This Way Before" (Rev-Ola) cd 15.98
PUFNSTUF "Original Soundtrack Album" (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
RUCKER, RICCI "Dirty Soap Instrumental e.p." 12" 12.98
SHANKAR, ANANDA "A Life In Music" (Times Square) 2cd 16.98
SHIVVERS, THE "Lost Hits From Milwaukee's First Family Of Power Pop: 1979-82" (Hyped2Death) cd-r 11.98
SMITH, TERRY "Fall Out" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98
SOM IMAGINARIO "s/t" (Rev-Ola) cd 16.98
SOMBRE CHEMIN / ORNAMENTS OF SIN "split" (ISO666) cd 14.98
SOUVENIR'S YOUNG AMERICA "s/t" (Under Roar) cd 9.98
SPECTRE FOLK "s/t" (3 Lobed) cd 14.98
SUBTLE "Wishingbone" (Lex) cd+dvd 12.98
SUISHOU NO FUNE "Where The Spirits Are" (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98
SUN DIAL "Other Way Out / Other Way In" (Relapse) 2cd 14.98
SUN DIAL "Return Journey" (Relapse) cd 12.98
TENGIR-TOO "Music Of Central Asia Vol. 1: Mountain Music Of Kyrgyzstan" (Smithsonian Folkways) cd+dvd 21.00
TERRESTRIAL TONES "Dead Drunk" (Paw Tracks) cd 14.98
THRALLDOM "A Shaman Steering The Vessel Of Vastness" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI "Live 2005 at Osaka Banana Hall" (PSF) cd 21.00
TOOLSHED "Album" (Twisted Nerve) cd 16.98
TOYOZUMI, SABU & EXIAS-J "Son's Scapegoat" (Siwa) cd 14.98
TSUNODA, TOSHIYA "Ridge of Undulation" (Hapna) cd 15.98
TUCKY BUZZARD "Time Will Be Your Doctor" (Castle / Sanctuary) 2cd 21.00
TUNNG "Mothers Daughter And Other Songs" (Ace Fu) cd 14.98
TUSK "Get Ready" (He Who Corrupts Inc.) cd 14.98
TV-RESISTORI "Serkut Rakastaa Paremmin" (Fonal) cd 17.98
V/A "Bosporus Bridges: A Wide Selection of Turkish Jazz and Funk 1968-1978" (The World Is My Oyster Records) lp 19.98
V/A "Dave Chapelle's Block Party (OST)" (Geffen) cd 14.98
V/A "Dubstep Allstars Vol. 03" (Tempa) cd 15.98
V/A "Human Element - The World's First Human Beatbox Compilation" (108) cd 14.98
V/A "Lagos All Routes: Juju & Highlife, Apala & Fuji" (Honest Jon's) cd 16.98
V/A "Lagos Chop Up: Fuji & Afrobeat, Highlife & Juju" (Honest Jon's) cd 16.98
V/A "Mas Rock And Roll - 26 Rare 60's Teen-Punk Artyfacts" (Electro Harmonix) cd 16.98
V/A "Messthetics Greatest Hits" (Messthetics) cd 11.98
V/A "The Celluloid Years: 12"es and More..." (Collision / Groove Attack) 2cd 17.98
V/A "The Tomorrow Show w/ Tom Snyder: Punk / New Wave" (Shout Factory) dvd 33.00
V/A "Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies From The Canyon" (Numero) cd 17.98
V/A "Zanzibara 1: Ikhwani Safaa Musical Club" (Buda Musique) cd 15.98
VAN ZANDT, TOWNES "Be Here To Love Me" (Palm) dvd 29.00
VOLCANO THE BEAR "Classic Erasmus Fusion" (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2cd 15.98
VULCAN'S HAMMER "True Hearts and Sound Bottoms" (Radioactive) cd 17.98
WHITMAN, KEITH FULLERTON "Libson" (Kranky) cd 10.98
WIRE "154" (Pink Flag) cd 14.98
WIRE "Chairs Missing" (Pink Flag) cd 14.98
WIRE "Pink Flag" (Pink Flag) cd 14.98
WITCHERY "Don't Fear The Reaper" (Century Media) cd 12.98
WIZARDZZ "Hidden City Of Taurmond" (Load) cd 14.98
YEAH YEAH YEAHS "Show Your Bones" (Interscope) cd 14.98
ZOFFY "Live!" cd 21.00
ZORN, JOHN "Filmworks XVIII" (Tzadik) cd 16.98

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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 :
--------------------------------
1-2 items $4.50 USPS Priority Mail
3+ items $6.50 UPS Ground

Further Explanation (Please Read!):
Within the USA, an order of 3 or more items will be shipped via UPS ground for a flat fee of $6.50. These packages are automatically insured and trackable.

However, if your package contains just 1 or 2 items, we will ship your order via USPS Priority Mail, and charge you $4.50 for shipping. These packages are NOT insured or trackable, sorry. So if you desire those safeguards, please request UPS delivery at the $6.50 rate. You must mention this in the comments field of our online order form.

Also, please note that UPS will not ship to PO Boxes. If you only have a PO Box, we can ship packages of 3+ items via US Postal Service and charge you by weight according to their rates. Special shipping needs (e.g. UPS Next Day) are also do-able, just ask.

Another important note: box sets DON'T (usually) count as one item. Sorry. A box set will generally bump you up into the "three or more items" category. Y'know, they're big. Boxes.


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

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SOME SELECTED UPCOMING RELEASES

----} coming soon
Orthodox "Gran Poder" cd on Alone Records, Spain
Circle "Earthworm" cdep on No Quarter
Khanate "dead & Live Aktions DVD 2005" dvd on Hydra Head (limited!)
Avarus "Vesikansi" cd on Secret Eye

----} April 4th
Flaming Lips "At War With The Mystics" cd on Warner Bros.
Unearthly Trance "The Trident" cd on Relapse
Morrissey "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" cd on Sony
Pink "I'm Not Dead" cd
Vines "Vison Valley" cd on Capitol
Metalux & John Wiese "Exoteric" cd on Load
Yellow Swans "Psychic Secession" domestic cd on Load

----} April 11th
Calexico "Garden Ruin" cd/lp on Quarterstick
Pretty Girls Make Graves "Elan Vital" cd/lp on Matador

----} April 18th
Om "Conference Of the Birds" cd on Holy Mountain
AFX "Chosen Lords" cd on Rephlex
Otomo / Laswell / Yoshida "Episome" cd on Tzadik
John Zorn "Moonchild" cd on Tzadik
Killing Joke "Hosannas From The Basement Of Hell" cd on Cooking Vinyl

----} April 25th
The Coup "Pick A Bigger Weapon" cd on Epitah
v/a "Invaders" cd on Kemado

----} also in April
The Court and Spark "Hearts" cd on Absolutely Kosher
Frog Eyes "The Bloody Hand" cd reissue with extra tracks on Absolutely Kosher
Frog Eyes "The Golden River" cd reissue with extra tracks on Absolutely Kosher

----} May 2nd
Solar Anus "Skull Alcoholic" 2cd on tUMULt
Elope "3WD" cd on Gravitation
Enslaved "Ruun" cd on Candlelight
Phill Niblock "Touch Three" 3cd on Touch

----} May 9th
Matmos "The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of a Beast" cd/lp on Matador
Scott Walker "The Drift" cd/2lp
Jolie Holland "Springtime Can Kill You" cd on Anti

----} May 16th
Espers "II" cd/lp on Drag City
Faun Fables "The Transit Rider" cd on Drag City
Boris "Pink" cd domestic release on Southern Lord

----} May 23rd
Knut "Alter" remix cd on Hydra Head (w/ mixes by Francisco Lopez, Asmus Tietchens, Oren Ambarchi, Dalek, Spectre, and others!)

----} also in May
Current 93 / Om split 10 (4 different colors of vinyl) on Neurot, cd on Durtro
Magyar Posse "Bloody Avenger" cd on Verdura

----} also upcoming, sooner or later
Elope "Nine Distilled Dreams" cd on Gravitation
Om "Conference Of the Birds" lp on Holy Mountain
Earth "Phase 3: Thrones and Dominons" reissue on Sub Pop in May probably along with other Earth vinyl reissues
Kemialliset Ystavat "Varisevien Tanssi / Silmujen Marssi" cd version on Kevyt Nostalgia
v/a Conet Project II !!!!!!!!! (maybe a long ways off...)
Simon Finn "Pass The Distance" LP on Beatball
Slint "tba" DVD on Touch And Go
The Monkeywrench "tba" cd/lp on Estrus
Glenn Branca "Indeterminate Activity of Resultant..." cd on Atavistic
Sonic Youth with Brigitte Fontaine and Areski cd on SYR/Goofin
Cerberus Shoal on Young God
David Kilgour "Here Come The Cars" cd reissue on Merge
David Kilgour "Sugar Mouth" cd reissue on Merge
Boris "Vein" limited LP on Important
Boris with Merzbow "I am the walrus" 12" on Hydra Head
Boris "Pink" domestic cd and vinyl release on Southern Lord
Virgin Insanity "Illusion of Maintenance Man" cd reissue on P-vine
Virgin Insanity "Toad Frog & Fish Friend + The Odometer" cd reissue on P-vine


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THE BODY on tour!!!!

Mar 30 redrum providence, RI w/mutant life expectancy
Mar 31 35 plum st. new brunswick, NJ
Apr 1 jerk store baltimore, MD
Apr 2 firehouse bikes philadelphia, PA w/face down in shit,black
cobra,deadbird
Apr 3 dust charlottesville, VA w/red wizard
Apr 4 house show greensboro, NC
Apr 5 TBA asheville, NC
Apr 6 art damage cincinatti, OH w/realicide
Apr 7 TBA nashville, TN
Apr 8 TBA atlanta, GA
Apr 9 the pit jacksonville, FL w/civizilation
Apr 10 wayward council gainesville, FL
Apr 11 sluggo's pensacola, FL
Apr 12 downtown records little rock, AR
Apr 13 TBA tulsa, OK
Apr 14 TBA columbia, MO
Apr 15 valhalla gallery kansas city, MO
Apr 16 lemp neighborhood arts space st.louis, MO w/one am radio
Apr 17 mister city chicago, IL
Apr 18 darling hall milwaukee, WI
Apr 19 Meirda Verde Warehouse madison, WI
Apr 20 ask around minneapolis, MN
Apr 21 hairy mary's des moines, IA
Apr 22 nyabinghi youngstown, OH
Apr 23 the d.a.a.c. grand rapids, MI
Apr 24 heavy friends house detroit, MI
Apr 25 bloomington, IN
Apr 26 cafe bourbon st. columbus, OH w/sword heaven
Apr 27 garfield artworks pittsburgh, PA
Apr 28 A/V rochester,ny
Apr 29 american legion hall wallingford, CT

Here's what we had to say about the Body on a past aQ list:

A while back we reviewed an amazing record by a band called Tides. What was equally amazing was the circuitous route it took to get to Aquarius. In a nutshell, it was sent to a certain publication who deemed it too punk to review, a friend at said publication grabbed it from the reject box thinking we'd like it. We did. And well you can read that review on the AQ site. And that record ended up being a huge hit around here. The thing is, that record wasn't alone on its perilous journey. No, another record was right there along side the Tides cd making its way to AQ. That record, was this record. The Body. But The Body had a bit farther to go, before making it to the list you have right here in your hands. First, many emails with the label, then much waiting. Then finally a box of cds arrived, but somehow they had all become unglued and ruined in the mail. More emails followed, and still more waiting. Finally we had pretty much just given up. Then just a few days ago, a couple of big bearded guys with tattoos were sort of lurking around the store. You guessed it, they were The Body. Phew. So was it worth it? Hell yeah it was. That is if you like massive, pummeling, downtuned slow motion sludge metal with little bits of ultra doom and lots of post rock in there. And you know we do.
So yeah, The Body. This will definitely hit the spot for all you folks into Conifer, Pelican, Isis, The Ocean, Mouth Of The Architect, Tides and all that metallic post rock doom stuff. The first track is a crusher, a plodding doom riff spread out over eight minutes, with freaky garbled vocal samples and the whole thing building in intensity and slowly becoming more and more blown out until it's a fuzzy slab of white noise doom drone. Woah. The rest of the record trudges alternately between slow motion chugging and poundiing, moody mathy rhythmic workouts, and some truly dense tangles of chaotic riff rhythm mashup. All strung together with some seriously harrowing shrieked black metal style vocals buried WAY down in the mix. The final track is a fifteen minute long, relentless midtempo pipe to the skull, with a main riff that is repeated over and over, almost looped sounding, completely mesmerizing, before it all breaks down into a spacious plodding doom coda. So awesome.
Packaged in hand glued cardstock digipaks. This came out a while ago and was limited to 1000 copies so we can't be entirely sure how long we'll have these.

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For our readers in SF and LA who appreciate true Heavy Metal majesty, two upcoming shows of note:


Saturday April 22nd @ The Bottom Of The Hill, San Francisco

SLOUGH FEG
BROCAS HELM
BIBLE OF THE DEVIL (Chicago)
THE NERDS (Italy)
8:30pm, $10

Sunday April 23rd @ The Knitting Factory Alterknit Lounge

FALCON
SLOUGH FEG
EVE'S DOWNFALL
BIBLE OF THE DEVIL (Chicago)
THE NERDS (Italy)
7:30pm, $10

(if you're in SF not LA that day, well we'd also recommend seeing Priestess from Montreal playing with locals Hightower and New Yorks' Blood Panda at the Bottom Of The Hill)

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THREE LOBED RECORDINGS "MODERN CONTAINMENT" CD SUBSCRIPTION SERIES!!!!


Back in 2002 Three Lobed Recordings kicked off a subscription-only CD series called "Purposeful Availment" which featured exclusive (and now highly sought-after) EPs from Six Organs of Admittance, the Rachel's, Tarentel, Mick Turner, Bardo Pond and others. Goaded by a few friends into revisiting the subscription CD format, Three Lobed is now proud to announce "Modern Containment." Similar to the prior series, this set will consist of eight CDs of exclusive material which will only be available from Three Lobed. Each disc will be in excess of 25 minutes in length, with many discs being full-length releases. The participants in this series are:

Bardo Pond
Hush Arbors
Kinski
Mirror/Dash (Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon - their first release under this name since an Ecstatic Peace 7" in 1992)
Sun City Girls
Sunburned Hand of the Man
Matt Valentine & Erika Elder with The Bummer Road
Wooden Wand and the Omen Bones Band

The discs will be shipped in pairs starting in June. Subscribers will also receive a slipcase to hold the entire series (hand-silkscreened and designed by John Gibbons of Bardo Pond). Three Lobed only has a total of 550 subscriptions available for this one-of-a-kind series. More information can be found at www.threelobed.com/tlr/containment.html or by writing info@threelobed.com. Subscriptions are $75 postpaid for delivery to a domestic US address
and $85 for delivery anywhere else.


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Aquarius Records is now selling tickets for the following performance!

Recombinant Media Labs present:

Curtis Roads
Yashunao Tone
Florian Hecker

There will be three separate perforances:

Friday, April 14, 9PM
Saturday, April 15, 8PM
Saturday, April 15, 11PM

at the Recombinant Media Labs
763 Brannan Street in San Francisco!

Tickets are $16.00 (cash only!)
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Psychedelic heaviness from Down Under, and Santa Cruz too!

Saturday April 1st!!

MAMMATUS
GREY DATURAS
GOWNS

The Hemlock Tavern
9:30 pm, $7


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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanLaurenAshleyJasonKerryIrwin and Scott