JASPER TX I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You (Lampse.) cd 16.98
It's funny that after years of everybody striving for better sound quality, better recording equipment, higher fidelity, a sound closer and closer to pristine perfection, wax cylinder to 78 to lp to cassette to compact disc.... that we here at AQ tend to lean in the exact opposite direction. Sure that record's great, we'll think, but imagine if it was swathed in murky distortion, or drenched in a dense swirl of tape hiss! Record crackle? Yes, please. This constant quest for sonic perfection seems like a reflection of exactly what is wrong with society in general, a constant striving for some unattainable ideal, the march of progress, sacrificing character and feeling and emotion for faceless smooth 'perfection' in the process. But those imperfections are exactly what make things interesting and unique and totally unlike anything else. But as much as we love lesser than pristine sound quality, it's worth pointing out that when, for example, we hear a compilation of old blues 78's often cleaned up, obviously the scratches and pops and hiss were not at all intended, and thus realistically have no place in the music, at least from the musician's point of view, but as a byproduct of degradation and the passing of time and the fragility of primitive recordings, the sound of that decay becomes representative of the time passed, and the history within the music. So when we hear old 78's or long lost wax cylinder recordings, we don't want them cleaned up and digitally restored, the sound of the music wrapped in warm scratchiness and murky lo fidelity, gives the music a special kind of character, like the lines on our faces, or metal oxidizing into cool greens and blues. And I guess that's what appeals to us about the music of Philip Jeck and Tim Hecker and William Basinski and the like. Musicians who create modern music, but who take that music and affect it in a way that makes it sound antique or otherworldly, damaged and decayed, sometimes by utilizing modern techniques, but just as often by employing old turntables and antiquated recording techniques, the music on its own is of course beautiful, but even more so with a rough patina of age and weariness, of whir and hiss, the musical equivalent of an old sepia tone photograph, edges all creased and folded, the images blurry and indistinct. It's more romantic, and way more mysterious.
But it takes more than just slapping on some fuzz, or recording on a broken old reel to reel machine. There was a glut recently of electronica pop hybrids, where a band would sprinkle some bloops and bleeps over some generic strummy pop, and suddenly what was once a crappy pop band became some sort of experimental avant post pop group. Bullshit. Just like anything, it's more than the process, more than the technique, it's some ineffable combination that creates magic. Magic like Jasper TX.
The work of one man, Dag Rosenqvist, and recorded at home in Sweden, Jasper TX sounds like so much more. A fuzzy travelogue, soft smeared images from lost lives and faded memories. A gentle lilting post rock, transmitted through time, picking up all sort of sonic detritus on the way, a message from another world, faded like an old postcard. A futuristic version of the unearthed 78. Imagine music nerds in 2066, discovering a mysterious compact disc, "rarely see those anymore...", unearthed in a trunk in some old abandoned house, marveling and the murky mystery of this record, and the beautifully fuzzy and foggy melodies, the droney timeless beauty. Jasper TX manages to evoke all sorts of feeling and emotions, some of the sounds, the methods, are clearly modern, but the whole record, every sound, every melody, is steeped in warm warbly mystery, even the title, I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You, hints at the emotional disconnect, that faded photo, undelivered postcard, translated into music. Each track is a snapshot, a sonic glimpse into the past, or a future that was never meant to be, a melancholy soundtrack full of shadows and whispers, a slow shuffling shimmer, a loping lazy rhythm, drifting beneath a warm swirly wash of thick guitar fuzz and what sounds distinctly like the sound of surf crashing on the shore, a thick wash of My Bloody Valentine guitar and M83 buzzy shimmer over a lilting minor key guitar and delicate piano, long stretches of lustrous, sun dappled drones, over slow shifting chordal washes, and a creeping morose melodic crawl, soaring strings and gentle fingerpicked guitars, all muted and mumbled, as if heard from underwater, the light bending and wavering hypnotically, tinkling music box melodies drenched in reverb and broadcast from tin speakers hung from trees, the fog thick and the moonlight dull and grey, soft strummy guitars smeared into whisps of dreamlike whir, each track thick with sorrow, or regret, or hopelessness, not overt, but conveyed through the subtle soft light each track is cast in, warm overcast evening glow, the pale spill of the crescent moon, the diffuse flush of predawn light, glimmering and glistening soft and bittersweet. The heart of the record is the appropriately titled "My Heart Is Broken, I've Lost My Way", a nine minute slow build, warm wheezing layers of organ, over ambient clatter, mic sounds, footsteps, a weary, woozy wanderingly soft soundscape, gentle swells, each hovering and gliding dreamlike, an angelic theremin-like skree way in the background, while an alien melody is played out on top, crafted from glitched out crackling instrument buzz, an abrasive squelch, cutting in and out, easily the 'hardest' sounds on the record, like someone trying to get a message through from another dimension, a groaning distorted guitar, broadcast intermittently through the ether, creepy and strangely haunting. The record closes with the just as eerie "All Those Broken Birds Singing Winter Into Spring", a final look back, before fading into nothing, soft lilting guitar, over a whisper soft drift of minor key shimmer and minimally morose melody. So totally and absolutely perfect.
MPEG Stream: "Blown Out To Sea, I'm Never Coming Back"
MPEG Stream: "Braille"

MOHAMMED, MOHAMMED 'JIMMY' Takkabel! (Terp) cd 17.98
It must seem like we're on the Terp payroll or something by now, this being the second record they've put out that's received record of the week honors here at aQ. And the fourth or fifth that we've raved about. And to be totally honest, the Terp releases that ended up -not- being records of the week, could very well have under different circumstances, as they are equally as amazing. What can we say, everything Terp has put out so far has totally and completely blown us away! The live Konono record, the gorgeous Lanaya record and this newest release from blind Ethiopian vocalist Mohammed 'Jimmy' Mohammed. His story is just as amazing as his voice and the music he makes. After becoming blind as a child, supposedly as a curse for his parents' decision to ignore the warnings of a fortune teller and baptize him, as God had willed him to be a Muslim, Mohammed ran away and spent several years on the streets, homeless, begging for food, finding solace in the songs of legendary vocalist Tlahoun Gessesse (immortalized in several volumes of the amazing Ethiopiques series) who not only sang beautifully, but whose songs addressed the plight of the poor and suffering. Mohammed was eventually discovered and cared for, enrolled in a school for the blind and raised by a kind hearted surrogate father. After money was raised to help restore his sight, he was heartbroken to discover the funds were stolen and his eyesight was never to be restored. Mohammed spent a brief stint in the national theater before becoming a nightclub singer, where he became more and more popular. Mohammed mostly sings Tlahoun Gessesse's pop songs from the '60s / '70s, being as those are the songs that most affected him throughout his life, but it's his voice and the unique arrangements that make him so special.
He appeared briefly on Ethiopiques 2 but this is his first proper full length. The first track here is a mindblower. The music is so squiggly and complex, so dense and tangled, angular but so lovely, our first thought was that it sort of sounded sort of like the maniacal casio exotica of Aavikko. Part of it might be the fact that Mohammed's band is augmented on that track by legendary European free jazz drummer Han Bennink, and Massimo Pupillo from Italian drone jazz combo Zu. SO amazing. There are plenty of immediately recognizable melodies and distinctly Ethiopian elements, but the way it is played is so strange and lovely. But it's Jimmy's vocals, high and clear, swooping into an impossible falsetto and back again, warm and rich and so gorgeous, that makes this so magical. Bennink drums on a handful of the other tracks as well (he apparently told Jimmy that the reason they clicked so perfectly was because, he said "I'm blind as well when I play with them") but even when it's just Jimmy and his band, the sound is still totally unique and so very special. Little delicate curlicues of electric krar (5 string harp), shuffling skittery drumming, smooth slithery riffs, warm smooth sax from Ethiopian legend Getatchew Mekurya, all weaving a rich intricate tangle of classic Ethiopian melody and irresistibly groovy rhythms, above which Jimmy just soars, so totally emotional and intense, so passionate and absolutely breathtaking.
MPEG Stream: "Aykedashem Lebe"
MPEG Stream: "Sethed Seketelat"

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16-17 Early Recordings (Savange Land) 2cd 19.98
Long overdue reissue of the impossible to find early releases from Swiss extremist free jazz / outrock outfit 16-17! Because of using saxophone, 16-17 were always tagged as some kind of 'jazz' group, but if this was jazz, it was a kind of jazz no one had EVER imagined at the time, extreme and difficult listening for sure, like Borbetomagus filtered through the Swans or like a snake charmer high on PCP jamming with Prong's rhythm section. Or even a free jazz Whitehouse! 16-17 were a shrieking banshee, a pummeling behemoth, massive, ear shredding, primitive horn blasting freakout predating Zorn's extreme jazz (Painkiller et. al.) by at least seven years. This trio (saxophonist Alex Buess, drummer Knut Remond and guitarist Markus Kneubuhler) wove tight, tense grooves of pounding drums, pulsing thick ropy low end guitar throb, and atop it ,all Buess' wildly squealing, squirming, snarling sax. 16-17 sound was so intense and far out, and so much modern music can be heard in these tracks, Flying Luttenbachers, Laddio Bolocko, Aufgehoben No Process, Painkiller, a few years later and maybe Buess would be celebrating HIS 50th birthday with star studded NYC performances and multiple cd releases, but as it is, these guys remained a footnote, lurking on the periphery, making common cause with Kevin Martin's God and Alboth and the even the Digital Hardcore label, their legacy indisputable, modern music's debt unrepayable, so thanks to Savage Land we can all now genuflect before the Gods of ultra extreme hardcore free jazz post punk whatthefuck, hear where it all started, feel the same thrill folks must have felt stumbling into some dingy New York dive when 16-17 came over and toured with the Swans, and being fucking flattened by these guys.
Includes the first two albums, Self Titled (1986) and When All Else Fails (1989) as well as the ULTRA rare Hardkore & Buffbunker cassette (1984). Two discs wrapped in a cardboard slipcover. Transferred from the best available sources, digitally remastered by Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers) and this is the very first time ANY of this music has been available on cd!
MPEG Stream: "Kat"
MPEG Stream: "Speech"
MPEG Stream: "Hardkore 1"

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED PCP Torpedo / ANBRX (Hydra Head) 2cd 14.98
"All records should be six minutes long!! I just listened to this whole record, and it was awesome!"
- Me (Andee) ranting when I threw this on the first time.
By now, it takes a whole lot for us to give a shit about a 'remix' record. Pretty strange that one of the first remix records in ages to totally kick our asses would come from grindlords Agoraphobic Nosebleed and avant post metal label Hydra Head. But remixes aside for the moment, metalheads and grindfreaks should be thanking their lucky stars that AnB's legendary PCP Torpedo 6" has finally been released on cd. All SIX minutes of it. One of the most perfect slabs of mechanized grind metal EVER. Dense, convoluted, heavy, ridiculous, scary, blazing fast, buzzing and snarling, short and sweet. PERFECT GRIND! So it would almost be worth it for PCP on cd alone (okay, maybe $15 for 6 minutes is a bit steep, but it's soooo good!). Thankfully, PCP's 6 minutes gets rounded out by an hour long bonus disc of remixes from folks like Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh, etc.), James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher), DJ Speedranch, Merzbow, Jansky Noise, Vinda Obmana, and a bunch more. From Plotkin's timestretched, ultradistorted industrial freakout mix, to the Godfleshy sludge and pummel of Broadrick's mix, to the skittery acid fried IDM Dev/Null mix, to Vinda Obmana's bleak wasted industrial soundscape mix, it's all totally weird and wonderful, most of it very very noisy. But what would you expect when the source material is the violent and vitriolic hate fueled fury of Agoraphobic Nosebleed?!
And then there's the packaging! HOLY SHIT. Totally deluxe double disc digipak, all in vivid yellows and reds and oranges, the front some sort of factory, with multicolored flames licking the sky as pills rain from the heavens. The inside is a dizzying blur of pills and capsules, each disc covered in tiny little flames, the six minute PCP disc a little black 3" cd embedded in a 5" plastic disc, all flickering little blue flames, the remix a 5" black disc with red flames, so completely and overwhelmingly gorgeous. Includes a black and white insert with all the liner notes and lyrics confusingly tucked amidst and within a litany of pharmecutical jargon, suggestions for dosages, various health warnings and lists of side effects. Awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Thanksgiving Day"
MPEG Stream: "Thinning The Herd"
MPEG Stream: "James Plotkin - Phantomsmasher Mix"
MPEG Stream: "Justin Broadrick - Flesh Of Jesu Mix"

ALPS, THE Spirit Shambles (Digitalis) cd-r 8.98
SF's The Alps (featuring our very own Scott Hewicker) returns with their second full length of haunting folky foresty freeform loveliness. Featuring members of Tarentel and Tussle, the Alps traffic in dark dreamy wonder, disembodied strains of some lost Appalachia float weightless in a dusky forest of murky mumbly ambience, while muted guitars and stumbling tribal drumming swirl and sway amidst delicate tendrils of creepy ghostly falsetto croon and swoon. Elsewhere, deep pools of shimmering cymbal wash sparkle and glimmer, the sky above a moonlit smear of ethereal electronic effevescence, all run through with streaks of subtle melody. Think The Wickerman meets Jewelled Antler or Neu! played at 16rpm broadcast through a moss covered speaker on the bottom of the sea, or the sound of the Northern Lights, recorded onto a wax cylinder and played back through a shortwave radio, while a boy on a nearby rooftop hurls broken cymbals into the drained swimming pool next door, the entire thing subtly underpinned by the relentless throb and pulse of rain dripping on upended plastic garbage cans. The final track however veers into much stranger territory, but somehow still sounds very Alps. An ultra lo-fi, pagan freakout, creepy and muddy and druggy, blown out drumming, bizarre animalistic vocalisations, all seemingly captured on a hand held microcassette recorder. Weird. But very cool.
LIMITED TO ONLY 150 COPIES!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "O Wind"
MPEG Stream: "Bird With The Crystal Plumage"

BASHIR, MUNIR & THE IRAQI TRADITIONAL MUSIC GROUP s/t (Le Chant Du Monde) cd 17.98
What a totally beautiful and moving record! Muni Bashir founded the Iraqi Traditional Music Ensemble in 1981 as an aim to help preserve Arab & Iraqi musical heritage. His ensemble included around 40 musicians who would be sectioned off into groups of five, all playing the same instrument with Bashir leading the oud section. To call Bashir a master of the oud is not hyperbole...he is! This is one of those amazing examples of virtuosity, not for virtuosities sake, this amazing talent is mixed with so much soul and passion it takes the album out of the realms of just amazingly skillful performance into a space of transcendent beauty and bliss from start to finish. It should come as no surprise that there is a strong Persian influence on these traditional Iraqi sounds, and it's those sweeping melodies and intense rhythms that keep us mesmerized and listening with undivided attention. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Iraqi Traditional Music"
MPEG Stream: "Debke"
MPEG Stream: "Baghdadi cafÅ"

COELACANTH & KEITH EVANS Wrack Light In Copper Ruin (Seal Pool) cd+dvd 21.00
In the two years since we last heard from Coelacanth, other drone based groups have unleashed hundreds of cd-rs of extended vibrations, treated field recordings, and fucked-up droning noise; and Coelacanth could have easily fallen into that camp, releasing any number of perfectly adequate live recordings. But they didn't. Instead, Loren Chasse (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Of, Child Readers, and many things Jewelled Antler) and aQ's own Jim Haynes chose to labor on the details of their recordings so that every timbre, every drone, and every tactile grain of sound was perfectly aligned with the sounds of their elemental objects and particular environments. In the world of Coelacanth, there are rocks, rust, sand, leaves, strobe lights, weird electrical devices, shortwave, and plenty of oceanic field recordings (in honor of the fish they're named after); and from those sounds, Coelacanth creates multiple layers and deep textures, all together in a mesmerising tapestry of sub-aquatic abstractions and chiming reverberations. Perfecting their tactile dronework was just the beginning in preparing for their fourth album Wrack Light In Copper Ruin, as they also began collaborations with the film/sound artist Keith Evans in finding a visual corrolary for their sonic abstractions, utilizing breathtakingly hypnotic film and video installations to compliment Coelacanth's music and vice versa. Evans is also a member of Silt, a multimedia collective that specializes in elaborate multi-projection / kinetic-sculpture installations -- one of which was featured at the Whitney Biennial back in 2002. Given that Evans has previously worked with Chasse for a Thuja performance in Scotland a couple years back, a Coelacanth / Keith Evans pairing seemed logical.
So, Wrack Light In Copper Ruin is both a CD and DVD, with the audio portion finding Coelacanth not only collaborating with Evans on some of the recordings, but also Matmos who had asked Chasse and Haynes to join them for part of their 96 hours of performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Underwater bell tones, raked stringed instruments, ringing glass harmonics, and gaping drones saturated in a density of texture so complex that it almost sounds like an acoustic version of a Fennesz album! The DVD features Evans' jaw-dropping video work: abstract undulating landscapes of refracted light, all scored to a subtle Chasse / Evans remix of the sounds on the CD. The rippled linear patterns seem innocuous at first; but like the hypnotic primal power of fire, it totally sucks you in. So gorgeous!
MPEG Stream: "Nerine"
MPEG Stream: "Sessile Rotifer"
MPEG Stream: "Alluvial Dust"

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR / MATT DE GENNARO From The Dark (South Island) (Xeric / Table Of The Elements) cd 16.98
This is volume two of one of our favorite records EVER, Long Wires In Dark Museums, a sound installation from a few years back where New Zealand underground legend Alastair Galbraith teamed up with American musician Matt De Gennaro and strung long metal wires, some as long as 100 feet, between the walls of the performance space, and thus proceeded to scrape and bow and coax huge reverberant drones and groans from the wires, creating huge metallic dronescapes, informed by the works of Harry Bertoia and the long string experiments of Ellen Fullman. the cool thing about these Long Wires In Dark Museums, is that when the wires are excited they don't actually produce the sound, it's the points at which the wires are affixed to the space, the vibrations run up the wall, or through the windows, turning the whole space into a natural resonator, where the architecture of the space, the shape of the rooms, the makeup of the walls determine the tone and timbre of the sound. These performances occur in utter darkness as well, so the ears become the only sense that matters.
The sounds these two, and their building of choice create is magnificent, massive, the sort of sound that not only resonates within the space, but also in our ears, in your bones. It's like the idea of bowed metal, the glorious warm sound that makes, expanded and stretched out into a sound at once so natural, but so alien, that it's impossible to not be drawn in and completely mesmerized. It almost sounds like huge violins, or a cello the size of a barn, being tuned and tinkered with. Long notes stretched out for minutes, letting the microtones and sonic subtleties gradually reveal themselves. These metallic drones shift and shimmer, each long strecth of sound full of subtle colors and layer after layer of strange texture. This is seriously deep listening. Very very recommended, as is the first volume.
MPEG Stream: "Archenar"
MPEG Stream: "Matariki"

GLISSANDRO 70 s/t (Constellation) cd 16.98
When you think of the Constellation label, warm bouncy and sunny aren't usually words that come to mind. Home to the whole Godspeed You Black Emperor family the label is most usually associated with monumental post rock with some dark flair. Glissandro 70 is a much welcome blast of washed out sunshine for the label. Incorporating blissed out melodies, tasteful lo-fi nods to world rhythms, and an overall cohesive laid back approach that quietly sucks you in. There is something about this record that sounds so totally refreshing. We listed the reissue of Brian Eno and David Byrne's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts elsewhere on this list as well and this can be added as a great example of a future generation getting so right the seeds planted by that influential recording. There's also an avant pop sensibility that will totally hit the spot for fans of Animal Collective's recent outings as well as Broken Social Scene at their most abstract. The sun has finally reappeared here in SF and this has been the perfect record to hang out with while we soak in the rays.
MPEG Stream: "Something"
MPEG Stream: "End West"

GREGOR SAMSA 55:12 (The Kora Records) cd 14.98
We're not sure what message is sent by naming your band Gregor Samsa, but judging from this, the first proper full length from these Virginia post-math-mope rockers, it could be as simple and obvious as 'metamorphosis'. Each track here is a lush, lugubrious crawl, slithery and subtle, dark reverbed chords drift in wide open spaces, a blurry druggy soundscape, the drums sort of creep along WAY back in the background, a distant thud, a simple pulse, ethereal female vocals drift soft and angelic, sometimes hovering sweetly beside the whispery croon of her male foil, but most of the tracks shift at some point, build into a darkly brooding wave of thick guitars and keening melodies. But this isn't your typical post rock, quiet soft / loud heavy thing, as GS never really get heavy, insead they deftly ratchet up the emotion, choosing to not stomp on the fuzz box, but instead to quietly maneuver the music into a much more intense space. It's this intensity that manages to convey more pathos than a distorted guitar ever could in this context. This is dreamy and dreary, lovely and secretly dark and foreboding, with occasional swells of thick guitar, keening melody and a brooding malevolence, like Low with Mogwai tendencies, or drifting on a black, musical moonlit sea, slow and serene and absolutely breathtaking.Ô
Packaged in a gorgeous letterpressed thick cardstock sleeve, with a silver inked Japanese style obi. Wow!
Cool, non-music related footnote: this full length. 55:12, is exactly twice the length of their prior ep, 27:36!
MPEG Stream: "Makeshift Shelters"
MPEG Stream: "Even Numbers"

GROWING Color Wheel (Megablade) cd 13.98
It must be hard to find a sound, especially one that is based in drone and drift, and continue to constantly push the limits of that sound without drifting too far away from the elements which define your essence. Growing have managed to do just that, moving gracefully from drone drenched space rock to minimal rumble and whir, to wherever it is they are now, some musical netherworld, equal parts subtle shifting shimmer, grinding distorted dirge, and sparkling barely there ambience. No higher compliment can be paid than "how the hell do we describe these amazing sounds?!" And really, it seems that any cursory description could not possibly do justice to the amazing sonic world Growing have created.
On Color Wheel, the drift and rumble and shimmer of the past few releases is still present, but stretched out even further, in even stranger directions, some, on first listen sound almost 'wrong', like the almost cheesy panpipe sounds of "Cumulusless", but within seconds some internal logic reveals those sounds to be sort of kind of perfect, in their own skewed way, and then they begin to blur and become a gorgeously murky melodic drift. Other songs are stretched even more dramatically, songs and parts are peppered with strange production techniques and unusually distorted glitches, jagged edits and completely unlikely sequencing. The opening track "Fancy Period" begins as a cool ambient whir, high end melodies swirling and drfiting ever skyward, before the drone sort of buckles, and those high end meldoies become distinct peals, each fluttering weightless above a shuffling fuzzy stuttering rhythm, almost like a skipping Sunroof! cd. Track two, "Friendly Confines", is actually the most 'unfriendly' of the bunch, the core of the track a huge swath of downtuned distorted sludge guitar, tinkling melodies buried in the murk and mire, a shifting wall of rooooaaaarrr, like a slow motion mudslide, before the melodies are freed, the dirge drifts off and all that is left is a series of very Fripp / Eno guitar figures, repetetive and sweetly hypnotic. The record's closing track "Green Pasture" mines similar territory, a blissy barely there drone, peppered with stacatto bursts of blown out vacuum cleaner metal guitar, a super dynamic seesaw, between burbling dreaminess and massive SUNNO)))-like dirge. Quite possibley the coolest Growing track yet...
MPEG Stream: "Fancy Period"
MPEG Stream: "Green Pasture"
MPEG Stream: "Peace Offering"

GROWING Color Wheel (Megablade) lp 17.98
It must be hard to find a sound, especially one that is based in drone and drift, and continue to constantly push the limits of that sound without drifting too far away from the elements which define your essence. Growing have managed to do just that, moving gracefully from drone drenched space rock to minimal rumble and whir, to wherever it is they are now, some musical netherworld, equal parts subtle shifting shimmer, grinding distorted dirge, and sparkling barely there ambience. No higher compliment can be paid than "how the hell do we describe these amazing sounds?!" And really, it seems that any cursory description could not possibly do justice to the amazing sonic world Growing have created.
On Color Wheel, the drift and rumble and shimmer of the past few releases is still present, but stretched out even further, in even stranger directions, some, on first listen sound almost 'wrong', like the almost cheesy panpipe sounds of "Cumulusless", but within seconds some internal logic reveals those sounds to be sort of kind of perfect, in their own skewed way, and then they begin to blur and become a gorgeously murky melodic drift. Other songs are stretched even more dramatically, songs and parts are peppered with strange production techniques and unusually distorted glitches, jagged edits and completely unlikely sequencing. The opening track "Fancy Period" begins as a cool ambient whir, high end melodies swirling and drfiting ever skyward, before the drone sort of buckles, and those high end meldoies become distinct peals, each fluttering weightless above a shuffling fuzzy stuttering rhythm, almost like a skipping Sunroof! cd. Track two, "Friendly Confines", is actually the most 'unfriendly' of the bunch, the core of the track a huge swath of downtuned distorted sludge guitar, tinkling melodies buried in the murk and mire, a shifting wall of rooooaaaarrr, like a slow motion mudslide, before the melodies are freed, the dirge drifts off and all that is left is a series of very Fripp / Eno guitar figures, repetetive and sweetly hypnotic. The record's closing track "Green Pasture" mines similar territory, a blissy barely there drone, peppered with stacatto bursts of blown out vacuum cleaner metal guitar, a super dynamic seesaw, between burbling dreaminess and massive SUNNO)))-like dirge. Quite possibley the coolest Growing track yet...
MPEG Stream: "Fancy Period"
MPEG Stream: "Green Pasture"
MPEG Stream: "Peace Offering"

ITAVAYLA Itavalta (Verdura) cd 14.98
Finland's Itavayla (sorry, we left out what are most certainly crucial umlauts over each "a" in their name because otherwise our database software will convert 'em into gibberish on our website) are a Circle-related project, featuring Circle's lead guitarist Janne Westerlund, and definitely have that Circle vibe to 'em... but imagine the repetitive, hypno-rock jams of Circle as played by ZZ Top in their '80s and '90s synthed-out, techno-blues rock style! Not to make this sound more high concept than it is, but Itavayla could be said to be an "Electro-Boogie-rock" version of Circle. Yessir. Their first, self-titled, album (which we'll have in stock soon too, and review when we do) -really- fits that description. This one, though, is a bit more varied. Going track by track: you've got a spacey, synthy soundscape called "Kristalliyo" to start things off, kinda in the mold of Zombi. Then, getting much more raucous, the second track, "Hyperborea", is a droney driving Hawkwind w/ talk box boogie + horn section Funhouse freakout. Track three "..." is a chaotic, electronic interlude that sets you up for track four's distorted sci-fi blues and ambient noise/drone mix ("Future Representation") which features some of the album's only vocals (highly treated ones at that), followed by the irresistable laid back groove of "Children Of Tomorrow", track five, replete with synthetic buzz-fuzz, harp blowing, and robotic handclaps. That one Kerry and Andee thought sounded like something from the soundtrack to a hypothetical combination porno/heist movie! And finally, "Good Men Going Down", the sixth track, is a lumbering stomper that brings the album to a dark and sudden end.
Imagine, if you will, something that blends together such things as the Magnum P.I. and Miami Vice themes, Neil Young's Trans, Trans Am, Circle (of course), Kitaro, Salvatore, Ram Jam, ZZ Top, Jonathan Kane, Groundhogs, Neu!, '80s synth soundtracks, and more. Weird and cool and recommended.
By the way...amazing band illustration on the cd itself!
MPEG Stream: "Kristalliyo"
MPEG Stream: "Children Of Tomorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Hyperborea"

KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE s/t (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
The minute we threw this one, we were totally captivated. The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble are a gloriously creepy crawly mutant jazz combo, equal parts DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, seventies horror movie soundtracks, late night jazz and super sluggish blown out trip hop. The KDJE originally formed to create live soundtracks for films by FM Murnau, Fritz Lang and the like, taking their inspiration from such unlikely sources as animators the Quay Brothers and artists Bosch, Picasso and Goya and boy does it show. A full on group, not one dude and his laptop, the KDJE unfurl haunting imaginary soundtracks, dark and dense, smoky and noir, everything in rich lustrous shades of black and grey, shuffling jazzy skitter underpins melancholy moaning horns bathed in reverb, pizzicato strings and minor key guitars hover and dart furtively, a drizzly rainy day jazz dirge, so creepy and mysterious and lovely, and that's just the first song. The rest of the record wanders similarly rainslicked streets, hat pulled down low, collar pulled way up, face obscured by shadows, the wet streets reflecting the orange grey glow of the streetlights, the buildings like totem poles of shadowy ghosts, the sky a blackish grey, turning the vibrant city into a lonely monochrome. This record is just so ominous and foreboding, so emotionally charged, so haunting and murky, imagine DJ Shadow collaborating with Tricky, mix in plenty of Raymond Chandler some dingy bars, some laid back jazz, some doomy dark ambience, some muted Boards Of Canada shuffle and thump, the whole thing drenched in late night ambience and warm warped M83 style whir and you'll have a rough idea. The ultimate soundtrack for late night lonely walks through the city.
MPEG Stream: "The Nothing Changes"
MPEG Stream: "Pearls For Swine"
RealAudio clip: "Adaptation Of The Koto Song"

KLIMEK Music To Fall Asleep (Kompakt) cd 15.98
There are two facets to the Kompakt sound. The thump thump thump house music side, and the shimmery blissed out 'pop ambient' side. We definitely much favor the the sleepy glistening swoonscapes that define that warm welcoming pop ambient sound (although there are a few Kompakt records where the house beats are just murky and muted enough that the resulting Heroin House sound pushes all those same buttons) and no one does it better than Klimek. Responsible for maybe the defining pop ambient track "Milk And Honey", the perfect blend of electronic drones and subtle simple indie melodies, Music To Fall Asleep continues in a similar direction, exploring post-Eno ambience, and offering up a huge sleepy swirl of sound, that is, duh, perfect to fall asleep to. Warm thick whirls of dense droning synths ebb and flow like a midnight tide, guitars are chopped up and stuttered into smooth sleepy smears, like some sweet slab of indie rock left out in the sun so long it melts into a big puddle, rich chords shimmer into vast expanses of reverb and delay, each melody slowly developing over minutes instead of seconds. What else can we say? This is gorgeous and gentle, delicate and dreamlike, sun dappled and absolutely perfect. Essential for fans of all things pop ambient, and something to hold you over until the next Gas record. And like we even need to say it again, the perfect drifting off to sleep record!
MPEG Stream: "Pathways To Work"
MPEG Stream: "Music To Fall Asleep To"

NATH FAMILY Sounds Of The Indian Snake Charmer (Hanson) cd 14.98
Finally! This out of print, vinyl only aQ fave gets re-issued on cd!
On a brief break from bursting ear drums and shredding synthesizers and destroying clubs in Wolf Eyes, Aaron Dilloway spent a brief period living in Nepal with his wife. While she studied, Dilloway wandered the streets, where he encountered the Nath family, Titu, Kala, Sukha and Ram Chendra, three generations, all street performers, hustlers, and SNAKE CHARMERS. Well, Dilloway quickly befriended the family, hung out, drank, smoked and most importantly recorded their amazing talents. Haunting and dizzying Eastern melodies, performed on traditional bamboo reed instruments called pungis and accompanied by a stringed percussion instrument called a premtal. So lovely, swaying and swooning, droney and buzzy, all hovering above a fluctuating framework of tribal percussion and shuffling, rattling rhythms. At times playful and bouncy (supposedly that's some Bollywood music) but more often mesmerizing and hypnotic, a wavering warbling drone. You can't really hear the swaying cobras, but if you listen really close you can hear folks walking past, talking, cars, all adding to the feeling that you are right there, in an alley in Nepal, seated before huge hooded snakes, being lulled into a trance by the endlessly droning Eastern buzz.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

NIBLOCK, PHILL Touch Three (Touch) 3cd 24.00
"No rhythm. No melody. No bullshit."
Thus read the caption in Niblock's recent feature in the UK's Wire magazine. And we couldn't have summed it up better ourselves.
Three is Niblock's third release on Touch and most definitely his most ambitious. Three discs, every piece 20 to thirty minutes in length, each composed using the recordings of a single instrument. Be it sax, or cello, or viola, Niblock has the performer play extended notes, 15 to 30 seconds, he later removes extraneous sounds, breathing, etc. and then subtly shifts the sounds to create microtones, and microtones are exactly what is so magical about Niblock's work. Small subtle shifts, glacial movements that over the course of a twenty minute piece cause nearly imperceptible alterations, an ultra minimal flux that reveal all sorts of gorgeous subtleties. These pieces are massive, monolithic, grand explorations of sound, that require close listening, and close listening results in untold rewards, the beauty is secretive, revealing itself slowly and in tiny tiny increments, but it allows these pieces to grow and hover dreamlike, wrapping your head in a sound that feels alive, filling your ears with a thick, practically viscous drone, so intense, that when it finally stops, it feels like you've been yanked suddenly back from the abyss. This is truly powerful minimalism, at once simple and spare, but also dense with microscopic color and incredibly subtle shadings.
Niblock has been composing and subtly influencing many of his more well known peers since the late sixties, lurking on the fringes of academia and underground avant composition for years, having only started to document and release his compositions relatively recently, with the advent of the compact disc, a medium much more well suited to long from pieces, and he has rapidly and rightfully take his place amongst the minimalist hierarchy. With every new Niblock release, especially one as epic as like Touch Three, we find ourselves longing for Niblock to take his drones even further, exploring DVD audio and hours long live performances. These are the kinds of pieces, the sorts of sounds, that given enough time and space, could continue to grown and expand and blossom, revealing completely new worlds of sound. And we can't wait!
MPEG Stream: "Harm "
MPEG Stream: "Sethwork"
MPEG Stream: "Lucid Sea"

OM Conference Of The Birds (Holy Mountain) cd 14.98
OM....OM... OM . . . O M . . . .
Their debut last year, Variations On A Theme, was heralded by many as the second coming of Sabbathy stoner/doom legends Sleep. No surprise, considering that Om consists of two thirds of Sleep, and pretty much sounds like two thirds of Sleep too. Same low-end bass (Al Cisneros), thundering drums (Chris Hakius), and druggy, chant-like vocals (Al again, stepping up to the mic). All that's missing is the guitar (Sleep guitarist Matt Pike is busy with High On Fire right now). We gave that album the thumbs up, won over by the psychedelic trance-like heaviness of their jams and their mantrically soothing yet (to us) unintentionally amusing singing, which made us giggle 'cause it just never let up, delivering endless deadpan lyrics of cosmic hippy nonsense in a zoned-out monotone. We don't want to say it was so bad it was good, 'cause it really wasn't bad, but there was some of that kind of bad/good alchemy going on. And we ended up lovin' it.
And of course, the resemblance to old faves Sleep helped too.
Now Al and Chris are back with the second Om opus. It's simultaneously a heckuva lot like their debut but even better somehow. Productionwise, yes. And also perhaps 'cause while the two-piece line-up on Variations sounded like Sleep without the guitar, and maybe (heck, definitely) would have been even better with a guitarist, now they've made that lack of guitar seem more the ways things should be, by getting more and more hushed and spacious and mimimal here, thereby making it seem like just bass and drums is enough, not like something's missing. They've made a virtue out of a necessity, realizing that by really adopting a "less is more" aesthetic they'd be playing to their strength. And it works. Listen to it straight through (you'll want to... it's two tracks, about 33 minutes) and you'll find it quite floatational, even without chemical assistance. This riff-repetitive spaceout drone dirge drug is all you need. And Al's lyrics remain occultic, obtuse and slightly absurd, giving this the effect of a hypnosis tape meant to help build your vocabulary (along with heightening your conciousness). He uses such everyday words as "clesiast", "epison", "aurican", "tunnement", and "agurate". It's heavy rock that requires a heavy dictionary to decipher!
So if you liked the first OM, you'll love this. And if you weren't sure before, definitely check this one out. As with their first album, file with Sleep's Jerusalem, Electric Wizard's Supercoven, and UFOmammut's Godlike Snake.
OM....OM... OM . . . O M . . . .
MPEG Stream: "At Giza"
MPEG Stream: "Flight Of The Eagle"

OS MUTANTES Os Mutantes (#1) (Universal / Polydor Brazil) cd 19.98
We just can't think of a more perfect way to walk into Aquarius. It's finally nice and sunny here in the city to begin with, and then we walk in the door to find, sitting on the front counter, the recently reissued back catalog from one of our favorite bands of all time, Os Mutantes!!! Whoo-hoo! The timing couldn't be better as a reformed Mutantes (minus Rita Lee, tho) are on tour right now, spreading their sound across the globe. It's been a few years since the first three crucial albums from these Brazilian psych-pop pioneers were available on cd domestically, and the import versions we previously had from South America have been out of print for a long time too. Until now. They've been repressed in Brazil and we've got import copies of not just the first three classics (reviewed here) but the also-pretty-great fourth and fifth Mutantes records too (which we've never reviewed before, and plan to list next time around). We are so stoked.
This, their 1968 debut (self titled Os Mutantes, not to be confused, though it's easy, with their also self titled 2nd album Mutantes) is one of the most important and influential records of the last quarter century. Seriously. Here was a band from Sao Paulo, Brazil creating sounds with so many layers and styles intertwined, dense and dizzying, lush and lilting, elaborately arranged but so simple and catchy, who have gone on to help inspire some of the best and most beloved musical outfits in recent times. Their blending of breezy psychedelia, fuzzy delicious pop, and drops of musique concrete was the perfect infusion of experimental elements into challenging and rewarding pop that STILL sounds so amazingly enchanting, weird and irresistible. We could go on listing forever some of the bands and artists who have been inspired by so much of the Muntantes' spirit, sound and aesthetic: Stereolab, Broadcast, the whole Elephant Six scene, Beck, The Flaming Lips, Tower Recordings, Tater Totz, the list is endless. Today we even just noticed how Sonic Youth totally took the guitar melody of "O Relogio" for their classic "Little Trouble Girl". The scope and breadth of Os Mutantes influence is immeasurable. At one point, Kurt Kobain was desperately trying to convince Os Mutantes to tour with Nirvana! And while best-of collections and a few songs on comps here and there are nice, this is the kind of band whose records need to be heard in their entirety. We can't say it loud enough but just imagine us singing to you in glorious sun dappled Technicolor as we tell you that THIS IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL! And not just 'cause it's the one that features perhaps their best-known hits, "Baby" and "Bat Macumba". Heck we could even do without those songs at this point, the rest of this is so great. An absolute all time Aquarius favorite and quite possibly one of the best pop records EVER! You might as well just give in, you absolutely need ALL of their first three albums. Never has there been a more perfectly unique and effortless blend of bossa nova and fuzzed out psych rock as on this trio of perfect discs! In addition to this their absolutely perfect debut, there's also Mutantes (album #2, 1969) with its amazing green alien band photo on the back cover. And of course A Divina Comedia (album #3, 1970) with its slightly proggier sound and striking graveyard scene on the cover. Their "Sgt. Pepper meets Astrud Gilberto mix" holds up brilliantly across all three original Mutantes records. It's the sort of thing where we're kinda envious of anyone who hasn't heard 'em already and now has the chance to buy these cds for the first time!
MPEG Stream: "A Minha Menina"
MPEG Stream: "O Relogio"
MPEG Stream: "Panis Et Circensis"

OS MUTANTES Mutantes (#2) (Universal / Polydor Brazil) cd 19.98
We just can't think of a more perfect way to walk into Aquarius. It's finally nice and sunny here in the city to begin with, and then we walk in the door to find, sitting on the front counter, the recently reissued back catalog from one of our favorite bands of all time, Os Mutantes!!! Whoo-hoo! The timing couldn't be better as a reformed Mutantes (minus Rita Lee, tho) are on tour right now, spreading their sound across the globe. It's been a few years since the first three crucial albums from these Brazilian psych-pop pioneers were available on cd domestically, and the import versions we previously had from South America have been out of print for a long time too. Until now. They've been repressed in Brazil and we've got import copies of not just the first three classics (reviewed here) but the also-pretty-great fourth and fifth Mutantes records too (which we've never reviewed before, and plan to list next time around). We are so stoked.
This, their 1969 sophmore effort (self titled Mutantes, again, not to be confused with the also self titled debut Os Mutantes) is, along with their debut, another one of the most important and influential records of the last quarter century. Seriously. In fact we might as well just consider the first three Os Mutantes records a single entity, as they are absolutely the perfect 1-2-3 pop punch! Here was a band from Sao Paulo, Brazil creating sounds with so many layers and styles intertwined, dense and dizzying, lush and lilting, elaborately arranged but so simple and catchy, who have gone on to help inspire some of the best and most beloved musical outfits in recent times. Their blending of breezy psychedelia, fuzzy delicious pop, and drops of musique concrete was the perfect infusion of experimental elements into challenging and rewarding pop that STILL sounds so amazingly enchanting, weird and irresistible. We could go on listing forever some of the bands and artists who have been inspired by so much of the Muntantes' spirit, sound and aesthetic: Stereolab, Broadcast, the whole Elephant Six scene, Beck, The Flaming Lips, Tower Recordings, Tater Totz, the list is endless. Today we even just noticed how Sonic Youth totally took the guitar melody of "O Relogio" for their classic "Little Trouble Girl". The scope and breadth of Os Mutantes influence is immeasurable. At one point, Kurt Kobain was desperately trying to convince Os Mutantes to tour with Nirvana! And while best-of collections and a few songs on comps here and there are nice, this is the kind of band whose records need to be heard in their entirety. We can't say it loud enough but just imagine us singing to you in glorious sun dappled Technicolor as we tell you that THIS TOO IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL! You might as well just give in, you absolutely need ALL of their first three albums. Never has there been a more perfectly unique and effortless blend of bossa nova and fuzzed out psych rock as on this trio of perfect discs! If you love Os Mutantes (album #1, 1968) and how could you not? Then, there's no way you wouldn't also want this one, Mutantes (album #2, 1969) with its amazing green alien band photo on the back cover. And of course A Divina Comedia (album #3, 1970) with its slightly proggier sound and striking graveyard scene on the cover. Their "Sgt. Pepper meets Astrud Gilberto mix" holds up brilliantly across all three original Mutantes records. It's the sort of thing where we're kinda envious of anyone who hasn't heard 'em already and now has the chance to buy these cds for the first time!
MPEG Stream: "Nao Va Se Perder Por Ai"
MPEG Stream: "Caminhante Noturno"

OS MUTANTES A Divina Comedia Ou (#3) (Universal / Polydor Brazil) cd 19.98
We just can't think of a more perfect way to walk into Aquarius. It's finally nice and sunny here in the city to begin with, and then we walk in the door to find, sitting on the front counter, the recently reissued back catalog from one of our favorite bands of all time, Os Mutantes!!! Whoo-hoo! The timing couldn't be better as a reformed Mutantes (minus Rita Lee, tho) are on tour right now, spreading their sound across the globe. It's been a few years since the first three crucial albums from these Brazilian psych-pop pioneers were available on cd domestically, and the import versions we previously had from South America have been out of print for a long time too. Until now. They've been repressed in Brazil and we've got import copies of not just the first three classics (reviewed here) but the also-pretty-great fourth and fifth Mutantes records too (which we've never reviewed before, and plan to list next time around). We are so stoked.
This, their 1970 slightly proggier third album, is, along with their first two records, another one of the most important and influential records of the last quarter century. Seriously. In fact we might as well just consider the first three Os Mutantes records a single entity, as they are absolutely the perfect 1-2-3 pop punch! Here was a band from Sao Paulo, Brazil creating sounds with so many layers and styles intertwined, dense and dizzying, lush and lilting, elaborately arranged but so simple and catchy, who have gone on to help inspire some of the best and most beloved musical outfits in recent times. Their blending of breezy psychedelia, fuzzy delicious pop, and drops of musique concrete was the perfect infusion of experimental elements into challenging and rewarding pop that STILL sounds so amazingly enchanting, weird and irresistible. We could go on listing forever some of the bands and artists who have been inspired by so much of the Muntantes' spirit, sound and aesthetic: Stereolab, Broadcast, the whole Elephant Six scene, Beck, The Flaming Lips, Tower Recordings, Tater Totz, the list is endless. Today we even just noticed how Sonic Youth totally took the guitar melody of "O Relogio" for their classic "Little Trouble Girl". The scope and breadth of Os Mutantes influence is immeasurable. At one point, Kurt Kobain was desperately trying to convince Os Mutantes to tour with Nirvana! And while best-of collections and a few songs on comps here and there are nice, this is the kind of band whose records need to be heard in their entirety. We can't say it loud enough but just imagine us singing to you in glorious sun dappled Technicolor as we tell you that THIS TOO IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL! You might as well just give in, you absolutely need ALL of their first three albums. Never has there been a more perfectly unique and effortless blend of bossa nova and fuzzed out psych rock as on this trio of perfect discs! If you already love the first two Os Mutantes records (and how could you not?), Os Mutantes (album #1, 1968) an absolute pop masterpiece and Mutantes (album #2, 1969) with its amazing green alien band photo on the back cover, then you most definitely need part three of this perfect pop trilogy, A Divina Comedia (album #3, 1970) with its prog flecked take on the Mutantes' psychedelic psych pop and the unforgettable striking graveyard scene on the cover. Their "Sgt. Pepper meets Astrud Gilberto mix" holds up brilliantly across all three original Mutantes records (and even to a certain degree the 4th and 5th). It's the sort of thing where we're kinda envious of anyone who hasn't heard 'em already and now has the chance to buy these cds for the first time!
MPEG Stream: "Desculpe, Babe"
MPEG Stream: "Oh! Mulher Infiel"

ROSETTA The Galilean Satellites (Translation Loss) 2cd 16.98
It always amazes us, when everyone starts digging a certain kind of music, that there can suddenly be millions of bands that just start coming out of the woodwork, who play -that- sort of music, really well. It's perplexing. It's too far fetched to think that there are a multitude of bands, great players, super creative, just waiting in the wings for someone to decree what the NOW SOUND is, at which point these bands immediately leap into action crafting exactly the sort of music people suddenly want to hear. We may be cranky old jaded music nerds, but even we're not that cynical. We'd like to think the process is much more organic, an outgrowth of the massive interconnnectedness of the underground, the sharing of ideas, the discovering of new sounds via the music of ones peers. How else to explain the seemingly endless torrent of math rock / post rock /sludge metal hybrids we've been seeing lately. We're not complaining, we love it! And so far, for the most part, for a scene based on similar influences and execution, the results have been quite varied and really fucking awesome. A quick off the top of our heads list reads like a who's who of AQ favorites: Tides, Minsk, Isis, The Ocean, Indian, Warhammer 48K, Akimbo, Baroness, Pelican, Cult Of Luna, Conifer, Mouth Of The Architect and we could go on and on. So what's a band got to do now to really stand out in a pretty overcrowded field? The answer lies right here, this mind blowing double disc debut from this Philadelphia crew.
The Galilean Satellites is some sort of concept record (no lyrics, only the cryptic line: "These songs are about a space man") and sprawls grandly over two discs, taking all the elements we love about the above mentioned bands, and pushes each of those elements to their very limit. Imagine a collision between Explosions In The Sky and Coalesce, and you'll understand just the framework, a starting point, from there, Rosetta build and build, stretching skyward, fingers brushing the heavens, their sound so massive and expansive it's hard to even begin to describe The Galilean Satellites. If you like any of the above mentioned bands, if you like that sound, then this is the next logical step.
Heavy parts are heavier, the ambient parts are more dense and fully fleshed out, lasting minutes instead of seconds, as critical to the mood and the journey as any riff or hook, not just a by rote method of building dynamics. The sound is HUGE, hypnotic and loping, slow melancholic grooves that give way to planet crushing heaviness, each track drenched in swirls of electronic whir and thick swaths of ambient color. Riffs are not just distorted and loud, they grind and churn, tuned low, sludgy and punishing, slithering and squirming, like they're alive and intend to do you harm. The vocals are throaty and howled, dripping with anguish, very reminscent of Coalesce's Sean Ingram. But it's the color and subtleties that really make these discs totally unique. Sheets of clear ringing guitars (almost Edge like) will soar majestically over a prickly framework of ultra skittery jazz drumming (the drummer is incredible) before slipping into glacial sludge. If Isis are the masters of thinking man's metal, then Rosetta are their precocious little brothers, determinedly striving to outdo their more famous siblings, and in many ways succeeding. This is the sort of music, much like drone music, that benefits from being allowed to stretch out, two minutes is fine, but twelve minutes is better, allowing for the song to grow and change and stretch and morph organically. Disc one is definitely the core, a dense raging avant post metal juggernaut, whereas disc two is more contemplative, more abstract and ambient, but no less heavy. The guitars are still present, but here they have crumbled into rough washes of buzz and whir, clear ringing melodies drifting above like black smoke from burning cities, the whole disc a dense melancholic drift, a series of soul stirringly creepy soundscapes, at the same time impossibly lovely and moving. Some sort of post metal abstract ambience that acts as the perfect emotional foil to the first disc's furious pummel. Utterly and absolutely essential.
Beautifully packaged with gorgeous metallic cover art by Aaron Turner of Isis/Hydra Head.
MPEG Stream: "Departe"
MPEG Stream: "Europa"

SHADOWHUNTAZ Valley Of The Shadow (Skam) cd 15.98
It's been so long since we had some crazy crew of brain meelting tongue twisting outer space hip hop visionaries. Disconnected rhymes, sputtering, glitched out beats, total mind melting confusional free funk freakouts. For a while Antipop Consortium were pushing the envelope, Anticon definitely have their own avant angle. But we've been hankering for someone like Kool Keith. Paging Dr. Octagon. We want some damaged stuttery beats, warped warbly synths and fuzzy glitched out grzzzzt. Most importantly, some maddening slurred, drug drenched, space age, conspiracy theory WHATTHEFUCK flows. Maybe that's why we've been leaning toward Grime so much lately. It just feels so much more dangerous and fucked up and unconcerned with hip hop convention. But now we've got the Shadowhuntaz. A rogue band of futuristic hip hop explorers, who mix the perplexing sci fi / high as fuck mush mouthed ramblings of Dr. Octagon with the glitched out hip hopped electronic squelch and thud, skitter and skid, slowed down IDM beatscapes of Antipop (they are on Skam after all) into a fucking killer trip hop skittery groove. The beats, hiccup and slither, bounce and bump, the music is a claustrophobic swirl of haunting loops, weird industrial clatter, moaning drones, and all sorts of production fuckery, effects swirl and shift, vocals are chopped and looped, skipping samples, warm washes of ambient whir, and then there's the vocals, all different and distinct, some laid back and stoned as fuck, some amped up and rapid fire, all dense with incredible tales of this or that, all sort of druggy and tripped out. Plus there's some totally fucked up scratching, little snatches of DJ freakout, but those scratchfests are run through the Shadowhuntaz supercomputer and spit out the other side a careening chaotic crush of chopped up, impossibly complex textural collages of scratch detritus, like they dropped 3 or 4 DJ's, wildly scratching and tearing shit up, into a huge blender, and then sprayed the resulting funk flecked gore funk all over these tracks.
Funky, fucked up, freaked out, cool and creepy and quite possibly contender for hip hop record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "2020"
MPEG Stream: "Massive"

SNOWBLOOD Being And Becoming (SuperFi / Lawgiver) cd 13.98
We've been hearing about this band for ages, but until recently had never actually -heard- them. Word was they were a more metal Mogwai. Can't really argue with that. They're Scottish too, so they've obviously been slurping from the same slow build explosive climax fountain as their more moody, less heavy countrymen. But where Mogwai get bigger, and louder, and more expansive, Snowblood get HEAVIER, exploding into a doomy grind like Neurosis or Eyehategod or Corrupted. Which is most definitely a good thing. The sound of Snowblood is one we love, that epic post rock, moody and mathy, equal parts Godspeed, Mogwai, Mono, Isis and the like, but with the added bonus of constantly stumbling into massive downtuned slow motion sludge dirge mode, crusty and lumbering, huge tarpit riffs and howled almost black metal vocals. It's like some sort of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, where Mogwai or Mono let's say, get all wound up, more and more, louder and louder, until they turn away, and then lunge at you suddenly, fangs bared, claws out, eyes blood red, where they then proceed to tear you limb from limb, only later coming to, soaked in blood and entrails, in some sort of post blood letting daze, easily slipping back into dreamy indie swoon, as if nothing ever happened, only to do it all over again in the next song. Fuck! It's so awesome. Exactly what we always thought, when a band would get all loud and heavy, we would always think, "why not just go for it, go all the way and just be metal for fuck's sake!" and here Snowblood have done just that. Some tracks stay soft, drifting dreamlike, swathed in jangle and twang, but some songs get heavy right away and don't let up. Varied and dynamic and fucking killer! Stretches of blissy, soft focus post rock, delicate guitar figures, simple barely there rhythms, swirls of cymbal shimmer, the sound of wind and water, groovy almost jazzy shuffle, strange fuzzy almost funky Three Mile Pilot style basslines, crunchy angular riffing, a strange haunting croon (sounding strangely like Unrest's Marc Robinson), these elements shift and swirl, painting a dreamy post rock soundscape, but when the hammer falls, it falls hard, sometimes erupting into full on metalic grind, sometimes a lurching sludge rock behemoth that would give AQ faves like Whitehorse, Bunkur or Moss a run for their sludgerock money. An absolute perfect mix of the soft and moody, Godspeed. Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, and the hard and heavy, Boris, Monarch, Khanate, Eyehategod. Absolutely essential. We also have Snowblood's previous disc, The Human Tragedy, in stock, and that one is just as good!
MPEG Stream: "Disappearance"
MPEG Stream: "Aubade"

SNOWBLOOD Being And Becoming (SuperFi / Lawgiver) lp 16.98
We've been hearing about this band for ages, but until recently had never actually -heard- them. Word was they were a more metal Mogwai. Can't really argue with that. They're Scottish too, so they've obviously been slurping from the same slow build explosive climax fountain as their more moody, less heavy countrymen. But where Mogwai get bigger, and louder, and more expansive, Snowblood get HEAVIER, exploding into a doomy grind like Neurosis or Eyehategod or Corrupted. Which is most definitely a good thing. The sound of Snowblood is one we love, that epic post rock, moody and mathy, equal parts Godspeed, Mogwai, Mono, Isis and the like, but with the added bonus of constantly stumbling into massive downtuned slow motion sludge dirge mode, crusty and lumbering, huge tarpit riffs and howled almost black metal vocals. It's like some sort of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, where Mogwai or Mono let's say, get all wound up, more and more, louder and louder, until they turn away, and then lunge at you suddenly, fangs bared, claws out, eyes blood red, where they then proceed to tear you limb from limb, only later coming to, soaked in blood and entrails, in some sort of post blood letting daze, easily slipping back into dreamy indie swoon, as if nothing ever happened, only to do it all over again in the next song. Fuck! It's so awesome. Exactly what we always thought, when a band would get all loud and heavy, we would always think, "why not just go for it, go all the way and just be metal for fuck's sake!" and here Snowblood have done just that. Some tracks stay soft, drifting dreamlike, swathed in jangle and twang, but some songs get heavy right away and don't let up. Varied and dynamic and fucking killer! Stretches of blissy, soft focus post rock, delicate guitar figures, simple barely there rhythms, swirls of cymbal shimmer, the sound of wind and water, groovy almost jazzy shuffle, strange fuzzy almost funky Three Mile Pilot style basslines, crunchy angular riffing, a strange haunting croon (sounding strangely like Unrest's Marc Robinson), these elements shift and swirl, painting a dreamy post rock soundscape, but when the hammer falls, it falls hard, sometimes erupting into full on metalic grind, sometimes a lurching sludge rock behemoth that would give AQ faves like Whitehorse, Bunkur or Moss a run for their sludgerock money. An absolute perfect mix of the soft and moody, Godspeed. Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, and the hard and heavy, Boris, Monarch, Khanate, Eyehategod. Absolutely essential. We also have Snowblood's previous disc, The Human Tragedy, in stock, and that one is just as good!
MPEG Stream: "Disappearance"
MPEG Stream: "Aubade"

SONIC YOUTH s/t (Geffen) cd 11.98
The greatest debut ep of all time? Maybe bold words but for some of us this is it. Sonic Youth's debut record came out in 1982 yet it sounds as relevant and amazing today as it ever has. It was on this record that they would help shape the course of interesting rock music for the next few decades. Raw and pulsating. Sensual and sexy. Creating tension and mood with a touch that never feels forced and always hits its mark. We could listen to this record over and over and over and in fact since we got this reissue we have been doing just that. For some weird reason when DGC reissued most of the Sonic Youth back catalog in 1995 they failed to reissue this. Why is beyond us but sometimes those corporate folks don't always know what's best. Luckily on this most recent batch of SY reissues this record has finally been given the attention it so totally deserves. Added to the original ep are a handful of live tracks from the early era of the band. Showing their most raw and no-wave inspired side with guts proudly worn on their sleeves. A record you got to have!
(The one down side, for those of you who had this on cassette, the tape version on the flipside, had the song info printed in reverse and the b side was the whole record played backwards! Would have been cool to include that on the reissue. Oh well...)
MPEG Stream: "I Don't Want To Push It"
MPEG Stream: "She Is Not Alone"
MPEG Stream: "The Burning Spear (live)"

TOMORROW PEOPLE, THE Original Television Music (Trunk) cd 15.98
Whenever we think about what massively obsessive record nerds we are, we think of the guys who run Trunk Records in the UK (Dawn Of The Dead, multiple Basil Kirchin releases, Desmond Leslie, Psychomania) and we feel just a little bit better. These guys are nuts. But oh how grateful we are for whatever imbalance cause them to obsessively hunt down insanely obscure soundtracks and mysterious long lost recordings. The latest is this disc or rare and previously unreleased incidental music from the UK television show the Tomorrow People. Don't know too much about it, other than the fact that the Tomorrow People are teenagers who can communicate to each other using telepathy and who can transport themselves through time and space. Oh, and they have a talking computer called Tim. Who better to supply the appropriate theme music and musical cues than the BBC Radiophonic Workshop! Several of the Workshop's legends are here strangely performing under pseudonyms, Li De La Russe is none other than Delia Derbyshire and Nikki St. George is in fact Brian Hodgson. Along with Australian Dudley Simpson and American David Vorhaus (Vorhaus, Derbyshire and Hodgson also recorded as White Noise!) created a haunting and psychedelic world of electronic sound and creepy freaked out ambience. There are lots of Dr. Who-isms which makes sense as these are the same folks responsible for that music as well. "The Tomorrow People Theme" is the only proper 'song' here, a jaunty slab of groovy sixties James Bond soundtrack music replete with all manner of unlikely instruments, synths and theremins, tribal drums and all sorts of electronic bloops and bleeps. A killer melody quite a bit reminiscent of the Dr. Who Theme! The rest of the record is a series of musical cues and background music, and as such is more about sound, and texture and atmosphere, but it's all completely weird and wonderful. Plenty of shimmering synthesizer drone, rumbling percussion, creepy crawly ambience, spaced out bleeps and bloops, analog synth weirdness, primitive drum machines, and lots and lots of bizarre sounds and mysterious sonic textures. This stuff is so amazing! We're dying to see the show now (available on DVD from Amazon UK) but for now this disc will for sure tickle your lost soundtrack / strange sound fancy in very much the same way the Psychomania soundtrack or the Desmond Leslie did, both of which are fantastic and still available!
MPEG Stream: "The Tomorrow People Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Battle Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Attack Of The Alien Minds"

TOMORROW PEOPLE, THE Original Television Music (Trunk) lp 17.98
Whenever we think about what massively obsessive record nerds we are, we think of the guys who run Trunk Records in the UK (Dawn Of The Dead, multiple Basil Kirchin releases, Desmond Leslie, Psychomania) and we feel just a little bit better. These guys are nuts. But oh how grateful we are for whatever imbalance cause them to obsessively hunt down insanely obscure soundtracks and mysterious long lost recordings. The latest is this disc or rare and previously unreleased incidental music from the UK television show the Tomorrow People. Don't know too much about it, other than the fact that the Tomorrow People are teenagers who can communicate to each other using telepathy and who can transport themselves through time and space. Oh, and they have a talking computer called Tim. Who better to supply the appropriate theme music and musical cues than the BBC Radiophonic Workshop! Several of the Workshop's legends are here strangely performing under pseudonyms, Li De La Russe is none other than Delia Derbyshire and Nikki St. George is in fact Brian Hodgson. Along with Australian Dudley Simpson and American David Vorhaus (Vorhaus, Derbyshire and Hodgson also recorded as White Noise!) created a haunting and psychedelic world of electronic sound and creepy freaked out ambience. There are lots of Dr. Who-isms which makes sense as these are the same folks responsible for that music as well. "The Tomorrow People Theme" is the only proper 'song' here, a jaunty slab of groovy sixties James Bond soundtrack music replete with all manner of unlikely instruments, synths and theremins, tribal drums and all sorts of electronic bloops and bleeps. A killer melody quite a bit reminiscent of the Dr. Who Theme! The rest of the record is a series of musical cues and background music, and as such is more about sound, and texture and atmosphere, but it's all completely weird and wonderful. Plenty of shimmering synthesizer drone, rumbling percussion, creepy crawly ambience, spaced out bleeps and bloops, analog synth weirdness, primitive drum machines, and lots and lots of bizarre sounds and mysterious sonic textures. This stuff is so amazing! We're dying to see the show now (available on DVD from Amazon UK) but for now this disc will for sure tickle your lost soundtrack / strange sound fancy in very much the same way the Psychomania soundtrack or the Desmond Leslie did, both of which are fantastic and still available!
MPEG Stream: "The Tomorrow People Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Battle Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Attack Of The Alien Minds"

TUNNG Mothers Daughter And Other Songs (Ace Fu) cd 14.98
Released last year on Static Caravan in the UK, and only now re-issued stateside on cd by Ace Fu, we've been wanting to review this for a while, but only recently were we able to finally get enough to list.
Imagine if the Beta Band, instead of following in Beck's funky folk footsteps, were born of the current underground cd-r culture, their electronica tinged folk more a product of New Weird America and musical compatriots like Devendra Banhart than MTV ot the NME. Thus, Tunng. Rich and lush strummed acoustic guitars, gorgeous harmony vocals, droney and drifting, a crackling campfire intimacy, glitchy skittery beats, strange found sounds, hiccuping loops, skipping cds, an unlikely combination, but the result is totally amazing. Like a Boards Of Canada produced Vetiver record, or the Feathers Family recording for Warp, this is classic sounding seventies British folk, filtered through a damaged off kilter electronica kaleidoscope. Banjos collide with shuffling muted drum machines, soft tonal chimes drift over sweetly fingerpicked guitars, soft hushed vocals emote over a smattering of glitches and squelches, a gorgeous guitar figure will begin to skip, faster and faster, smearing into an ambient soundscape that underpins a whispery sadboy croon and delicate shimmering chimes. So totally lovely. This has been one of our most listened to records lately, check out the sound samples and you'll immediately understand why.
MPEG Stream: "Mother's Daughter"
MPEG Stream: "People Folk"
MPEG Stream: "Out The Window With The Window"

TUNNG Mothers Daughter And Other Songs (Static Caravan) lp 16.98
Released last year on Static Caravan in the UK, and only now re-issued stateside on cd by Ace Fu, we've been wanting to review this for a while, but only recently were we able to finally get enough to list.
Imagine if the Beta Band, instead of following in Beck's funky folk footsteps, were born of the current underground cd-r culture, their electronica tinged folk more a product of New Weird America and musical compatriots like Devendra Banhart than MTV ot the NME. Thus, Tunng. Rich and lush strummed acoustic guitars, gorgeous harmony vocals, droney and drifting, a crackling campfire intimacy, glitchy skittery beats, strange found sounds, hiccuping loops, skipping cds, an unlikely combination, but the result is totally amazing. Like a Boards Of Canada produced Vetiver record, or the Feathers Family recording for Warp, this is classic sounding seventies British folk, filtered through a damaged off kilter electronica kaleidoscope. Banjos collide with shuffling muted drum machines, soft tonal chimes drift over sweetly fingerpicked guitars, soft hushed vocals emote over a smattering of glitches and squelches, a gorgeous guitar figure will begin to skip, faster and faster, smearing into an ambient soundscape that underpins a whispery sadboy croon and delicate shimmering chimes. So totally lovely. This has been one of our most listened to records lately, check out the sound samples and you'll immediately understand why.
MPEG Stream: "Mother's Daughter"
MPEG Stream: "People Folk"
MPEG Stream: "Out The Window With The Window"

V/A Zanzibara 1: Ikhwani Safaa Musical Club (Buda Musique) cd 15.98
We've been totally digging the always amazing Ethiopiques series, documenting the rich history of Ethiopian music, and it just keeps getting better and better with each volume. You think that would be plenty to keep the folks at Buda Musique busy, but apparently not, as they've gone ahead and launched a new series entitled Zanzibara, chronicling the Swahili popular music of the East African Coast. Future volumes will be more archival, but this first installment celebrates Ikhwani Safaa, Zanzibar's (and most likely Africa's too) oldest music club, which turned 100 in 2005. These recordings, captured in Zanzibar in 2004 and Dubai in 2005, feature some of the region's most revered singers and players, all gathered to play classic songs and celebrate the last 100 years. The music here is dramatically different than anything in the Ethiopiques series, much more moody and hypnotic, less festive and jubilant, but no less captivating. The interesting thing is that the music here sounds unlike any of the African music we are familiar with and instead sounds much more Indian or Arabic. The vocals especially, sound distinctly Indian, as well as the swooning soaring strings. Lush, moody, swirling, slightly saturnine, and absolutely wonderful.
MPEG Stream: "Vingaravyo Vyote Si Dhahabu"
MPEG Stream: "Cheo Chako"

WRIGHT, PETER Pariahs Sing Om (Last Visible Dog) 3cd 16.98
Subtitled "Collected Drone-Poems 2000-2003", this collection gathers up many long out of print and now impossible to find drift/drone/free/noise gems from NZ expat Peter Wright. Collected here are the cd-r's Duna (Last Visible Dog), A Tiny Camp In The Wilderness (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon), Catch A Spear As It Flies (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon), Pariahs Sing Om (Apoplexy) as well as a few pieces from compilations and a couple previousy unreleased tracks. And as you might expect it's all totally captivating and dreamy and lovely. All three discs here are overflowing with warm drones, subtle shifting soundscapes, vast expanses of creaking, groaning, drifting sound, soft and shimmery, sweet and slow moving, guitars hover weightless in dense clouds of chordal warmth, single notes float and flutter, while clusters of notes get smeared into still more layers of drone and rumble. Gorgeously subtle, every track deep and dense, sparkling and crystalline, lustrous and so lovely, resplendent with muted colors, like watching clouds float across the sky, or watching leaves drift down stream, this is deeply personal, totally captivating ambience that is most certainly the equal of his more well known peers. Fans of the drone cd-r underground (CPSIP, Digitalis, PseudoArcana, atc.), as well as the more academic side of minimal dronology (Chalk, Coleclough, Niblock, Berry) should most definitely make it a point to further explore Wright's constantly evolving, gorgeous and mysterious soundworld.Ô
Packaged again in one of those strange triple fold plastic sleeves that is unfortunately not ideal for keeping cds from gettin' scratched...Ô
MPEG Stream: "Porous"
MPEG Stream: "Lakeside"
MPEG Stream: "Flypast Of Angels"
MPEG Stream: "Low Ground"

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----* From the I Am Spoonbender press :
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I AM SPOONBENDER Spoonbender Sleep Research Team: 'Hypnotic Trance Pamphlet' - Series 2 (Seismic Seance) card set 9.98
This is the 2nd series of 'Hypnotic Trance Pamphlets' by the Spoonbender Sleep Research Team (the printed-word annex of I Am Spoonbender). Enclosed in each metallic anthracite-hued paper, die-cut envelope are ten 2" by 3" cards (unique to each series), imprinted with an array of provocative IAS word/image concepts, thoughts and musings. Think a sort of 'Oblique Strategies' for the memetic-engineering mindset, although this set has some sociomagico narrative-generating possibilities... mix 'em up! Tres sublime! As with the 1st (and forthcoming 3rd edition), these are limited to 333 hand-numbered copies. Hypnotico! Arouseo! Awakeup!




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----* Twonicorn Tapes :
----* Three super limited tapes of noisy brilliant weirdness from this myesterious cassette label from Rhode Island:

DRUNJUS On The Heels Of Sleipnir (Twonicorn) 2xcassette 11.98
Massive double cassette from Drunjus, a mystical magical offshoot of free noise folk outfit Davenport. Monstrous, thick, reverberating tones, like dragging a horsehair bow across the roof of the Astrodome, a dark deeply felt vibration, a subterranean string section, playing a single low low note, balanced by sections of full on chaotic skree, grinding warped guitars, blown out acid drenched psychedelic squalls, crunchy abstract clatter, a buzzy, blurry, speaker shredding sheet of corrosive trancelike urdrone. Double cassette wrapped in a hand screeened Japanese style obi.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!!!
MPEG Stream: "On The Heels Of Sleipnir (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "On The Heels Of Sleipnir (excerpt 2)"

GLASS ORGAN s/t (Twonicorn) cassette 5.98
Dreamdrone side project of Panther Skull folks. A haunting drift of fluttering synths, soft and wispy. Slow moving, washes of bleak ambience, creaking splintered abstract sound, dotted with bursts of acid fried corrosive synth meltdown, all heated up and poured tar like into your ears, a gurgling, burbling cauldren of warm murk and drooling grime. Filthy, fuzzy, freaked out innerspace ambience.
2ND EDITION, LIMITED TO 25 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

TOMBI Cavern Tapes Volume 2 (Twonicorn) cassette 5.98
Mysterious purveyors of grungy sludgy subterranean murk, take a slow motion creepy crawl through slime encrusted caves, and black pits filled with bones and rotting flesh. Huge static walls of guitar fuzz smear into Sunroof! like ambience, melodies drift and shimmer, pinned to the moist ground by the oppressive cloak of suffocating guitars and dense swirls of subterranean sound. The finest moment comes when Tombi channel that one break, in "Shoot Me A Deer" by Bastro, where the guitar sort of distorts, blows out, a sort of rhythmic riffing that just goes haywire, it's like THAT part timestretched into infinity and then roughed up a bit. before blissing out into more guitar buzz serene drift. Awesome.
2ND EDITION, LIMITED TO 25 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Future Skull Prayers"
MPEG Stream: "Sunken Ribtones"


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----* Selected New Arrivals :
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5/5/2000 Reflektionen Musique (Post Replica) cd 12.98
A long look through a dark tunnel into the cloudy past of drone explorationists 5/5/2000, a duo made up of aQ pal Nathan Berliguette, formerly of tech grind outift Creation Is Crucifixion as well as the man responsible for bringing the glorious sounds of the Arboga Teenage Riot to these shores and our ears (and for that we he will never be forgiven, er... I mean forgotten) and Travis Ryan, frontman of gore soaked death metallers Cattle Decapitation and nominee for Sexiest Vegetarian In The World. But none of that really prepares you for the sound of 5/5/2000, named for a rare planetary alignment that was supposed to signal the coming of the Antichrist. Their sounds is not technical, not grind, not metal, instead, these three extended tracks explore different facets of the drone, from soft billowy tranquil ambience to soaring space like shimmer to creaking, corrosive machinelike whir to a thick whirl like the washed out fuzz of a million vacuum cleaners to the out of focus sepia toned drift of soft edged rumble and melancholy instrumental mumble. All three tracks are gorgeous, dense drones thick with swirling reverb, fuzzy tape hiss, and all manner of fragmented melodies and layer after layer of rich warm sound. While supplies last, you'll get the special limited edition version, limited to 100, hand numbered, packaged in an oversized sparkly silver, velcro sealed cardboard sleeve, with three pins affixed to the front. After those are gone it's back to the normal jewel case version...
MPEG Stream: "There Was Never A Moment When The End Of The World Was Not Real"
MPEG Stream: "Surface Of The Sun"

AFX Chosen Lords (Rephlex) cd 15.98
It's actually been quite a while since Richard D. James has produced a a proper full length album, with the Aphex Twin double disc Drukqs being released five years ago, way back in 2001. In recent years, he's returned to his infatuation with acid techno and breakcore by releasing a series of Analord singles under the AFX moniker. Chosen Lords collects the best material from those 11 Analord singles and gives those tracks a slight trim to fit as much material on the CD as possible. No one is going to confuse anything on Chosen Lords with the repulsive electronica brutality of Aphex' "Come To Daddy" or the grotesque hip-hop bastardization of "Windowlicker", instead the tracks here harken to his earliest experiments with 303 melodic squiggliness and fidgety drum-machines struggling to keep together a constant rhythm amidst the rollicking breakbeats. James has long been an exceptional programmer; and even if there's nothing super innovative here, Chosen Lords is an absolute joy to listen to. Certainly on par with his Polygon Window and Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1 releases!
MPEG Stream: "Fenix Funk"
MPEG Stream: "PWSteal.Ldpinch.D"

APPLESEED CAST Peregrine (The Militia Group) cd 14.98
The marketing blurb on the top-obi of The Appleseed Cast's Peregrine reads "America's closest answer to Radiohead." Well, that's an apt description if one emphasizes the fact that the Appleseed Cast are undeniably American. Unlike many of the anorexic boys with black eyeliner who populate the United States of Emo, The Appleseed Cast genuinely approach emo simply as a starting point, the template upon which they can heap spacious washes of post-Mogwai guitar crescendos and assorted other sonic embellishments. But Appleseed Cast's thick atmospheres have much more of a bittersweet nostalgia than Mogwai's dejected brooding, as The Appleseed Cast still retains emo's charming optimism in spite of being brokenhearted. Where The Appleseed Cast's Low Level Owl twin set of releases sprawled over the American heartland, Peregrine is a bit more driven by pop-hooks a la Death Cab For Cutie and Modest Mouse, although there's plenty of dramatic release-then-silence guitar episodes, and of course impassioned melodic bellows that would make Jeremy Enigk proud. If The Appleseed Cast ever got heavy, they'd make for a good touring partner with Jesu as there's more than a passing similarity between Peregrine and Jesu's recent slab of indie industrial pummel Silver.
MPEG Stream: "Sunlit Ascending"
MPEG Stream: "February"

APPLESEED CAST Peregrine (Graveface) lp 10.98
The marketing blurb on the top-obi of The Appleseed Cast's Peregrine reads "America's closest answer to Radiohead." Well, that's an apt description if one emphasizes the fact that the Appleseed Cast are undeniably American. Unlike many of the anorexic boys with black eyeliner who populate the United States of Emo, The Appleseed Cast genuinely approach emo simply as a starting point, the template upon which they can heap spacious washes of post-Mogwai guitar crescendos and assorted other sonic embellishments. But Appleseed Cast's thick atmospheres have much more of a bittersweet nostalgia than Mogwai's dejected brooding, as The Appleseed Cast still retains emo's charming optimism in spite of being brokenhearted. Where The Appleseed Cast's Low Level Owl twin set of releases sprawled over the American heartland, Peregrine is a bit more driven by pop-hooks a la Death Cab For Cutie and Modest Mouse, although there's plenty of dramatic release-then-silence guitar episodes, and of course impassioned melodic bellows that would make Jeremy Enigk proud. If The Appleseed Cast ever got heavy, they'd make for a good touring partner with Jesu as there's more than a passing similarity between Peregrine and Jesu's recent slab of indie industrial pummel Silver.
MPEG Stream: "Sunlit Ascending"
MPEG Stream: "February"

BEAUSOLEIL, BOBBY Lucifer Rising Sessions (Qbico) picture disc 25.00
We were able to get Bobby Beausoleil's legendary Lucifer Rising soundtrack on cd for a brief time, but it seems to be unavailable again, so for now, this super limited picture disc may be your only chance to hear this awesomely freaked out music. Side A was recorded live in San Francisco in 1967, and features a killer live version of "The Magick Powerhouse of Oz". The B side is a different version recorded a decade later, in Tracy State Prison where Bobby and and least one other Manson family member was doing time. Here's a truncated version of our review for the now out of print cd version to give you more background on Beausoleil and the Lucifer Rising soundtrack:
The rare soundtrack to cult underground director and Crowley-ite Kenneth Anger's film Lucifer Rising (begun in the mid-'60s, completed in 1980). Originally Jimmy Page was supposed to do the score, but he bowed out and the music was instead handled by another cult figure, the musical visionary and imprisoned killer Bobby Beausoliel, who composed and performed this spacey psychedelic opus with his Freedom Orchestra (presumably all fellow prisoners with Bobby).
Bobby and the Freedom Orchestra play electric guitars, Fender Rhodes electric pianos, some synths and bass...there's two drummers, and a trumpet player. The result is a sometimes sinister, sometimes blissful, always beautiful and "cosmic" drifting soundscape. Gurgling old-school electronics blend with propulsive rock drumming, while psychedelic guitar soloing tears across the sunset horizon created by the synths...The combination results in what you might imagine an early '70s Tangerine Dream/Ennio Morricone collaboration might have sounded like. It's indeed a lost classic. And the composer's life story is at least as weird and interesting as the music...
In the late Sixties, Bobby was a rising star in the LA rock-pop scene, hanging with Zappa, the Beach Boys, and Love. But then a drug deal went bad and he was sent to death row for murder, arrested 3 days before the Manson killing spree. Fortunately for him, his sentence was eventually commuted, but he's spent like the last 30 years in jail. He's been a model prisoner, pursuing his talents in music and art despite his incarceration, and you'd think that the parole board would have let him out by now (he's been paying his debt to society longer than anybody else has for a similar crime, we're told) but sadly for Bobby, he's got to deal with his association with the notorious Charles Manson. While never a member of Manson's Family (a common misconception), he did play in a band with Manson, and the media hype surrounding anything to do with Manson hasn't helped Bobby's case, as you might imagine! (At least that's the way Beausoleil tells it. But the more one delves into the story of "Lucifer Rising", the weirder things get -- for instance, apparently Bobby was supposed to PLAY the role of Lucifer in the original 1966 version of Anger's film, but the two had a falling out and Bobby allegedly stole the footage and buried it in Death Valley! How this jibes with him later writing this soundtrack, we don't know.)
Although for obvious reasons Bobby wouldn't probably approve of the use of the word to describe himself and this soundtrack, in the Aquarius Records' musical context it's quite appropriate: Cult!

BEIRUT Gulag Orkestar (Ba Da Bing) cd 13.98
It would be all too easy and short-sighted to draw up a musing comparison such as "if The Arcade Fire were a band of Balkan gypsy minstrels, they would be Beirut", but it might be a pretty accurate place to start. Now let's take into consideration that Beirut is one nineteen year old Albuquerque lad, Mr. Zach Condron. Quite a boy wonder, indeed he's been making music for a quarter of his life, and it's not been the usual crashing 'n' bashing about in the garage expected of restless youths nor is it just the regurgitative sounds of musical heroes. Condron finely crafts a remarkably broad spectrum of timeless music well beyond his years. His singing voice is reminiscent of Adrian Belew and David Byrne, and his lilting, often calypso-y melodies also bring to mind the offbeat, worldly elements that those two venerable artists have embraced in their music over the years. You can easily envision the brass instruments glowing in the light of oil lanterns as they emerge from the shadows bringing in tow a carnivalesque procession of accordion, mandolin, clarinet, piano, ukelele, cello and bustling percussion. It's not at all surprising that he's become comrades with Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trosk of the very like-minded A Hawk And A Hacksaw (both of whom assisted Condron in the studio). An utterly captivating listen. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "The Gulag Orkestar"
MPEG Stream: "Bratislava"

BIRDMONSTER No Midnight (self-released) cd 9.98
Following up their bright punchy 3-song self-titled ep debut, Birdmonster deliver a full baker's dozen. With No Midnight, they do their best to keep the college rock fires burning -- meaning lots of crunchy, buzzing guitars and emotive male vocals churned out at a driving pace. Occasionally though they get into a bit more somber, sullen territory ("Balcony" and the title track for instance) than on their last release, but they also bring back a little rootsy rock into numbers such as "The Bar At The Back Of The Basement". Both are used to good effect. Note: one song from the debut ep makes a reappearance here ("All The Holes In The Walls").
MPEG Stream: "Skeleton Suit"
MPEG Stream: "No Midnight"

BODY, THE Even The Saints Knew Their Hour Of Failure And Loss (Corleone Of Things) cd-r 3.50
The return of the Body! We've been chomping at the bit, waiting for these sludgelords to come up with record number two, might still be a while, but in the meantime we've got this super limited 20 minute cd-r ep to tide us over. Four tracks of abstract sludge doom. Think a more skeletal Khanate, with dubbed out drums, and replace Alan Dubin's vocals, with a hysterical shriek bordering on Bathtub Shitter territory. Weird but so fucking cool and creepy. Massive sheets of blacktar guitars, sometimes a grinding trudge through a viscous cloud of noxious grime, at others, a slow motion stumble through stark post rock territory, one track features a doom dub breakdown, where the snare sort of carreens lazily in a wide open spce before eventually being stomped flat by a wall of anvil guitars, another track is peppered with creepy soundbites, adding to the paranoid creepiness. The final track, a Judas Priest cover (!) is a blown out white noise drenched dirge, crumbling and crushing. Fuck yeah.
Packaged in a cool hand stamped cardboard sleeve. SUPER LIMITED so act fast!
MPEG Stream: "Even The Saints Knew Their Hour Of Failure And Loss"
MPEG Stream: "Ruiner"

CAT POWER Could We (Matador UK) 7" 3.98
Cat Power completists! Here's two lil' ditties from Ms Chan Marshall released by the UK wind of Matador Records (hence the slightly more hefty price tag). One is the languid "Could We" taken straight from her latest album The Greatest, and the other is a dreamy cover of the Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream" (mysteriously titled "Dreams" here). Sigh-inducing. but all too short! That's right Matador, just keep us wanting more...
MPEG Stream: "Dreams"

CAT POWER Could We (Matador UK) cd single 9.98
Cat Power completists! Here's two lil' ditties from Ms Chan Marshall released by the UK wing of Matador Records (hence the slightly more hefty price tag). One is the languid "Could We" taken straight from her latest album The Greatest, and the other is a dreamy cover of the Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream" (mysteriously titled "Dreams" here). Sigh-inducing. but all too short! That's right Matador, just keep us wanting more...
MPEG Stream: "Dreams"

CLANDESTINE BLAZE / DEATHSPELL OMEGA split (Northern Heritage) cd 15.98
Finally back in stock!
Even though one band is from France, and the other is from Finland, you couldn't ask for a more perfect pairing. This split was originally released in 2001, and only recently was repressed so we could get enough to list, unfortunately it seems to already be out of print again so the 30 or so we got will most likely be the last for a while.
Finland's Clandestine Blaze specialize in ultra primitive black metal, paying homage to Bathory, Beherit, Darkthrone and the like, with buzzy sludgy riffs, thrashing and blasting mostly, but occasionally slowing down to a near doomy crawl. Their sound a buzzing murky blur, so much so that when they're not plodding along like Celtic Frost at 16rpm their black metal bombast smears into a gloriously hypnotic blur.
Clandestine Blaze are paired up here with Deathspell Omega in (appropriately) their earlier, more raw incarantion. DSO spew forth their buzzing blackened thrash, very much like the other DSO reissues, raw and grim on the surface, but with plenty of subtle compositional and sonic irregularites right below the surface, adding a definite depth not found in lots of similar musics and a hauntingingly unlikely catchiness very rarely (if at all) found in any black metal.
So good!!
MPEG Stream: CLANDESTINE BLAZE "Will To Kill"
MPEG Stream: DEATHSPELL OMEGA "The Suicide Curse"

CLOCKCLEANER Nevermind (Reptilian) cd 14.98
A few lists back we went apeshit over some mysterious band of musical miscreants called the Violent Students, who made an unholy din like we hadn't heard since the glory days of the Butthole Surfers. Damaged and filthy and freaked out, a druggy chaotic punk sludge mess that just totally blew our minds. We recently discovered that some of those very same Students were doing time in the band Clockcleaner so we figured we oughta check them out as well, and so glad we did! For CC, the all out chaos has been reeled in a bit and while the result is less fractured and less completely unhinged, it's still pretty demented and manic, but way more song oriented with some KILLER riffs. When we first threw this one, the first thing we thought was the Cars meet Flipper. Which pretty much describes our dream band. But the more we listened the more we felt like we were slipping back in time, to that special moment, that only lasted a few years, where the Amphetamine Reptile label could do no wrong. Clockcleaner could easily have existed right there between the God Bullies, Halo Of Flies, Lubricated Goat, King Snake Roost and all the rest. The record starts off with some weirdly eighties metal riffing, like the intro to some Ratt song, before the whiney Jello like vocals kick in, and the whole thing lurches into action with plenty of Buttholes tribal pound, Jesus Lizard groove and a decade's (the nineties) worth of Amphetamine fueled fury. Plus some amazing song titles ("Missing Dick", "Gentle Swastika", "Interview With A Black Man", "Blood Driver") and some problematic poop smeared cover art, but they had us at the Cars meet Flipper!
MPEG Stream: "Interview With A Black Man"
MPEG Stream: "Missing Dick"

COLLINS, SHIRLEY & DOLLY Snapshots (Fledg'ling) cd 16.98
This compilation of unreleased recordings and demos from 1966-1979 was released as an addition to the Fledg'ling label four cd Shirley Collins box set Within Sound. This 22 song set of traditional fare accompanied by sister Dolly on organ is sweet but a bit lackluster, perhaps for completists only. While this is meant to be a tribute to Dolly who passed away in 1995 (as well as a final career rounder for Shirley herself), for anyone new to the Collins sisters stunning musical power, we recommend 1970's apocalyptic folk epic and Current 93 fave, Love, Death and the Lady as a more proper introduction.
MPEG Stream: "Poor Murdered Woman"
MPEG Stream: "The Banks of Sweet Primroses"
MPEG Stream: "Black White Yellow and Green"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Infernal Battles (Northern Heritage) cd 15.98
Finally back in stock!
The two most recent Deathspell Omega records, Kenose and Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice, immediately became all time AQ favorites, due in no small part to their strange hybrid of classic thrashy black metal, and strange serpentine post rock. Grim enough to satisfy all the true black metal warriors out there, but weird and avant enough to please fans of strange music, metalhead or not. But as with most groups with a strange progressive sonic bent, that sound didn't just happen overnight, they had to grow into it, feeling their way as they went and DSO is no exception. While now they are this ultra mysterious avant garde black metal outift, they started out as an ultra grim, thrashy black metal band, as is evidenced on Infernal Battles, a disc that collects two of DSO's demos (2000 / 2003). This was released a while ago but quickly went out of print and has only been repressed recently so we've finally gotten enough to list!
So while this isn't as far out or weirdly progressive as the more recent releases, in no way does that mean this isn't essential stuff. And even that far back, there were hints as to what the future held for DSO sonically. Overall, this is simple and true and grim thrashy buzzing black metal, furious blast beats and droning riffs, howled vocals, but even in this more traditional classic BM framework, DSO manage to imbue each song with subtly strange melodies and unlikely riffing, surprisingly complex and catchy arrangements, all fitted snugly in that classic BM structure, subverting subtly from within. This one is definitely not for the dabblers who dug later DSO records but for whom the BM angle was more of a novelty -- this is harsh, heavy, grim, brutal stuff, fans of Darkthrone, old Immortal, Mayhem and the like will be in utter hell (which they like), and will gladly wallow in the bleak blackness of Infernal Battles for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Drink The Devil's Blood"
MPEG Stream: "The Ancient Presence Revealed"

DEATHSPELL OMEGA Inquisitors Of Satan (Northern Heritage) cd 15.98
Finally back in stock!
Inquisitors Of Satan was the second album from Deathspell Omega, originally released in 2002 and intended to be vinyl only until a slew of spotty bootleg cds convinced the band to release a cd version. Much like Infernal Battles, IoS finds Deathspell still firmly ensconced in a more traditional grim and true black metal sound, channelling the spirit of Darkthrone and Immortal and Mayhem, but twisting that classic BM sound into their own subtly strange shapes.
A cursory listen reveals all the sonic hallmarks you might expect from any classic black metal record: buzzing blurry riffs, furious blast beats, haunting minor key melodies, gutteral growled demonic vocals, but as on Infernal Battles, DSO seem to be growing tired of just blasting away, and inject all sorts of subtleties that slowly reveal themselves upon repeated listens, riffs are twisted and convoluted, melodies are totally unlikely but in being so, manage to also be completely and extraordinarily catchy. Granted this is still at it's core, pure and evil and furiously brutal black metal, but this definitely hinted even more at the mysterious blackened beast DSO would one day become.
MPEG Stream: "From Unknown Lands Of Desolation"
MPEG Stream: "Torture And Death"

DNTEL Rock My Boat / Everything's Tricks (7" Edit) - Aim Jukebox Series (Aim) 7" 4.50
This drizzly afternoon we were listening to Cat Power's latest single with her cover of the Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream", then immediately after that we put on the first side of this new Dntel record (Jimmy Tamborello's first 'solo' release in five years -- his time's been occupied with other matters, namely a little duo known as Postal Service). The song "Rock My Boat" sung by guest vocalist Mia Doi Todd segued sooo wonderfully. It's an absolute heartmelter that you wish would linger a bit longer than its fleeting few minutes. Oh, 'tis a pleasure to hear two such amazing voices back to back. We'd highly recommend that you do the same! It totally brought back the warm fuzzy feeling you get while playing your favorite 7" records in your bedroom. The flipside is an instrumental of Tamborello's familiar gentle glitchy fare. Sweet.

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL Death By Sexy... (Downtown Recordings / Rekords Rekords) cd 13.98
They're back, those glammy poppy trashy rock n' rollers misleadingly named the Eagles Of Death Metal. This is the band in which Queens Of The Stone Age leader Josh Homme kicks out the jams with tongue jammed firmly in cheek, a glittering disco ball spinning in his head. It's total T-Rex worship, complete with silly stupid lyrics and the metallic crunch of as few chords as necessary. Needless to say, irony-wary Andee really hates this band. He didn't like their first record and he doesn't like this one either. Maybe it's because he was disappointed that they absolutely don't sound at all like the Eagles OR like death metal, or like any combination thereof (which is what he was hoping for, apparently). Or maybe he's just too sexy for 'em. Either way, he's an Eagles Of Death Metal hater, and not the only one here. Right now Andee's singing "I'm so ironicc" in a ridiculous falsetto in an attempt to mock this band, while Christine argues that if they sound like T-Rex, it's 'cause they used the "T-Rex" setting in GarageBand. Ouch. HOWEVER, Allan says screw 'em -- rock n' roll is supposed to be FUN and dumb sometimes, and Eagles Of Death Metal do it up right in that regard. Good times, a la the equally glammy Boyjazz, and also Electronicat, who are also in their own ways wanna-be (and why not?) T-Rex, The Sweet, Cheap Tricksters too. Sure can't argue that this album is a serious, intellectually stimulating piece of art, no. But as far as catchy, bubblegum hard rock goes, Death By Sexy definitely offers up a sugary dose. C'mon, don't be a sourpuss, go ahead and party on with these bubblicious dudes.
MPEG Stream: "I Want You So Hard (Boys Bad News)"
MPEG Stream: "Cherry Cola"

EARL SHILTON Two Rooms (Full Of Insects) (Invisible Spies) cd 11.98
BACK IN STOCK AGAIN!!! This all time AQ fave and former record of the week continues to be super difficult to restock for some reason. But it's again, so don't miss out!! And there's a new Earl Shilton expected in the next little while so be prepared! Here's what we had to say about Earl Shilton when it was Record of the Week a long time back:
We somehow knew this was an Aquarius Record of the Week the minute we first laid eyes on it. Well, okay, maybe that's not entirely true. But it had the potential, that much we knew for sure, just from the cover: a huge double bass drumkit, set up in the middle of the forest with the name 'Earl' scrawled on one of the bass drums. A very evocative image, combining our love of heavy rock (the kit), with my personal thing for drums (the kit again) and our love of all things forest-y: nature sounds, field recordings, animal sounds and all that. My mind was reeling. Was it a drummer just playing solos out in the woods? Was it some sort of Jewelled Antler style rock band / field recording hybrid? Or something else entirely? Stranger yet, the song titles were all in German while the label was British. Intriguing. Better give it a listen... Well, the first track revealed very little. A weird minimal rhythmic workout composed entirely of backwards drums and cymbals. Thhwwp....thhhwwwwip...sssssssp.... Very cool, but was that the gist of it? After a minute or so of that, the record exploded into something entirely unexpected -- a crushing metal riff, with weird syncopated drumming, a sort of chunky Pantera / Prong meets the Fucking Champs vibe, with whispered vocals. Then it shifted gears again and entered into a super melodic Carcass-style death metal breakdown with howled black metal vocals before it shifted back to the machine-like opening riff. And then I knew for sure. Record of the Week!
Only later, with some Internet research, did we figure out what the heck was going on. The dedication on the inside to UK death metal crusties Bolt Thrower should have been our first clue, as it turns out that Earl Shilton is a pseudonym for Alex Thomas, former drummer for those very same metalheads. For some unknown reason, Earl Shilton is the name he has assumed for this project "of crushing death metal brutality and total corpse raping necro-blast carnage" as his website puts it. Indeed!
Furthermore, that website tells us that on tour, the band features a quite young, brother and sister rhythm section! Live, Earl steps from behind the kit to handle the guitars and vocals, while the brother plays bass, and the 16 year old sister mans the drums!!! Fuck yeah! This is getting more Record of the Week by the minute, we're thinking! And the music is well worthy too, lest we forget -- Two Rooms (Full Of Insects) is a blasting, hyper complex, super varied blast of metallic mayhem. From motorik, ultra-precise technical riffery, to stop/start math-metal complexity, from grooving, galloping death metal fury, to screeching blasting black metal, from eighties Earache style thrash to modern metallic fury, with all sorts of tripped out breakdowns, fucked up production and some really really weird parts, like the breakdown a little more than halfway through the album where everything drops out except for a simple, quietly played hypnotic tom tom rhythm, joined by backwards, super creepy Orcish vocals, and the hissing backwards drumming that started the record, before the whole thing bursts back into motion, in an explosion of grandioise Maiden-ish metal. Whew, so good. And while it may not be the best (or truest) metal record on this list, it certainly is the weirdest. And the coolest. And certainly the one most suited to being Record of the Week!
MPEG Stream: "Infrarot / European Kanone"
MPEG Stream: "Zwei Raume (Voller Insekten)"
MPEG Stream: "Schlachthaus Rock"
MPEG Stream: "Tu Es.../Entscheidungskampf"

ELECTRIC PRESIDENT s/t (Morr ) cd 16.98
We are living in a post-Postal Service world. In the last several years we've been flooded with groups turning down their guitars and turning up their electronics, syrupy melodies, sensitive sentiments and catchy choruses. Unfortunately very few of these groups reach the bar set by the folks they are looking up to like the aftermentioned Postal Service, The Notwist and many of their Morr label-mates or on the non-electronic side of things, Pinback and Death Cab For Cutie. Unfortunately Electric President don't bring a whole lot new to the table and while they would sound fine in the background of a new episode of The O.C. we can't say this is going to win any awards for originality or songwriting talent. It's not bad it's just sorta pleasant. Definitely for those who like their electronic pop to be ultra feather-soft, pretty and with male vocals that bring to mind Stuart Little or the little frog Robin on Sesame Street... which come to think of it probably includes quite a few folks.
MPEG Stream: "Good Morning Hypocryte"
MPEG Stream: "Insomnia"

ELEVENTH DREAM DAY Zeroes And Ones (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98
It never fails to amaze just how incredibly strong Chicago, Illinois' musical roots are, and that they feed a sturdy community trunk from which have flourished countless awesome branches that themselves have become deeply interwoven. This band is a perfect example. Metaphors aside, throughout the '80s and '90s, Eleventh Dream Day was a consistently amazing outfit, and this new album proves that they still are. A little history lesson for ya... commencing in 1983 their original lineup included Janet Beveridge Bean (also of Freakwater), Doug McCombs (also of Tortoise, Brokeback, The For Carnation and Pullman). Baird Figi and Rick Rizzo. Over the years, a fella named John McEntire (also of Tortoise, duh!) stepped in from time to time to help produce and play stuff. Their current roster is graced by the talented former Coctail multi-instrumentalist Mark Greenberg. The sound of these pop rockers has always been comfortably nestled right in with the likes of fellow college pop veterans the Go-Betweens and Throwing Muses. They've surely shared a lot of fans. And with this, their return after six years of silence, they've picked right up where they left off. Perhaps with even more vigor and urgency than before. Catchy, smart, solid and executed with ease. Welcome back old friends!
Note: not to be mistaken with the album Ones and Zeroes by Canadian youngsters Immaculate Machine. Hmmm, does everyone have binary code on the brain?
MPEG Stream: "Dissolution"
MPEG Stream: "For Martha"

ELF POWER Back To The Web (RykoDisc) cd 15.98
On Back To The Web, Elf Power's frontman Andrew Rieger's voice struck us as really familiar, and then we realized that it reminded us of Al "Year Of The Cat" Stewart. Is that a good or bad thing in your books? For us, we don't have a problem sayin' it's not bad at all. The album's pretty darn good from beginning to end, but stand-out songs are "The Spider And The Fly" and "Peel Back The Moon, Beware!" Both are entrancingly psychedelic and a bit folky at times, but also check out "All The World Is Waiting" which combines late night slinky electric guitar with the more characteristically Elf Power plucky folk guitar. It's a very groovy, very glammy tune. The album as a whole is infused with a '70s rock vibe, especially the final third which definitely reveals the potent influence of bands from that decade such as T-Rex and Led Zeppelin. While we do on occasion yearn for the toothsome dreamy psych pop of the Elf Power days gone by, we do quite dig the new direction the band's been taking on their last couple albums.
MPEG Stream: "The Spider And The Fly"
MPEG Stream: "All The World Is Waiting"

ENO, BRIAN / DAVID BYRNE My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (Nonesuch) cd 17.98
Mixing elements of world, funk, dub, and electronic music has for the most part turned out to be a recipe for disaster. All too many have attempted this mix with a glossy shine and a clumsy hand and without fail have produced pretty tepid attempts at cross cultural imagination. From 1979-1980 Brian Eno and David Byrne recorded -their- take on this fusion years before it became chic and of course with just the right kind of careful and talented hands, and were actually able to make those elements come together and create a brand new language. What's so nice about hearing this reissue is how it's both ahead of its time but also so OF it's time as well. With moments that bring you back to the bits on early Talking Heads records that you could listen to over and over, and with a recording quality so refreshingly raw and primitive. This record was recorded by a large ensemble cast including Bill Laswell who was just then starting his band Material with lots of the same ideas and elements. While not totally related in exact sound we can totally see how many of today's cross cultural sonic explorers were influenced by this record. There's no doubt these were sounds soaked up by the best hip-hop & electronic producers of the '80s and '90s as well as folks like Animal Collective, Excepter and even Glissandro 70, whose record we review elsewhere on this list. This reissue adds a handful of bonus tracks not on the original version and unlike most extras these are in fact all essential.
MPEG Stream: "Very Very Hungry"
MPEG Stream: "Mea Culpa"
MPEG Stream: "Solo Guitar With Tin Foil"

ENVELOPES Demon (Brille) cd 9.98
Envelopes are a Swedish band who take a stab at quirky indie-pop. Much like fellowindie popsters Architecture In Helsinki, they mix and match styles and incorporate all sorts of different influences. We hear some Young Marble Giants, Mates of State, The Pastels, etc. Sometimes they seem to have trouble rising above their influences but there are moments where their own endearing spirit really seems to shine. It will be interesting to see how this group evolves. And for those with a sweet tooth for quirky sugary pop you might wanna give this a listen.
MPEG Stream: "Audrey In The Country"

EVERLASTING ARMS, THE s/t (self-released) lp 9.98
These Everlasting Arms embrace (sorry for the pun, we couldn't resist) the moody angularities of post punk. Some of the more shadowy, dramatic, tumultuous moments brings to mind the awesome but dearly departed SF band Pleasure Forever, while others project a more straightforward rock-ness. Propulsive, occasionally explosive and mathy with angstful male vocals that you would guess comes from SoCal (think: ThreeOneG or Gold Standard Labs). Pressed on vinyl the color of popcorn Jelly Bellys (pale swirly yellow) with sleeves hand-silkscreened by the band themselves.

FIERY FURNACES Bitter Tea (Fat Possum) cd 14.98
Yeah, that hits the spot! The Fiery Furnaces' tea may be bitter but it sounds mighty good to these ears. While their last, occasionally laborious release (Rehearsing The Choir, a collaborative effort with their grandmother) tossed a few folks off their wagon of devotees, this album will surely win them back and then some! Oddly enough it was originally meant to be a companion to its predecessor, but it has an altogether different tone and energy. It's more like a contrasting counterpart.
The brother and sister duo's strange stagey cabaret flair is in full bloom with lots of rambunctious mischief and intriguing instrumentation. Actually quite a few of the songs could easily be mistaken for something on the new Sparks album. Check out the second tune "I'm In No Mood". Is it just us or is Eleanor Friedlander's high delivery not a deadringer for Russell Mael's falsetto?
They've spent some time at play in the studio, running the recordings of the vocals and instruments backwards, noodling with synthesizers and such. Mind you the former does get a little tedious after a while -- they use that trippy application quite generously -- particularly on the lengthy seventh track "The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry" which ends up seeming much longer than its 5:44 minutes. Nevertheless for those who love the pair's devil-may-care attitude and pilfering of styles from all time periods and places, this album will definitely not disappoint!
MPEG Stream: "I'm In No Mood"
MPEG Stream: "I'm Waiting To Know You"

FROG EYES The Bloody Hand (Absolutely Kosher) cd 12.98
The Bloody Hand was the 2002 debut album from this amazing Canadian band, but having been released on a tiny Canadian indie label, it might've been missed by many of us south of the 49th parallel. Now we have no excuse because it's just been released domestically by our Bay Area pals Absolutely Kosher Records. Not only is it a bit cheaper than the import was, but it comes with SEVEN previously unreleased songs (psst, they're actually songs from Seagull Is On The Rise, the never-issued second album of Mercer and bandmate Michael Rak's former band The Blue Pine).
Much like the likeminded eccentric art rockers Xiu Xiu, this band from Victoria, BC does draw rather emphatic love and hate responses. For some the over the top melodramatic hystrionics of frontman Carey Mercer can be a bit wearing and off-putting, but for others it's just the cathartic ticket needed! Allan and Cup here give it the thumbs up, and say that 'specially if you liked any of their other albums, you need this.
MPEG Stream: " Sound Travels From The Snow To The Dark"
MPEG Stream: "Lost In A Godless Sea"

FROG EYES The Golden River (Absolutely Kosher) cd 12.98
Now released domestically by our Bay Area pals Absolutely Kosher Records! And this version tacks on an astonishing twelve bonus tracks (only three of them previously appearing anywhere) consituting a whole 'nother, earlier Frog Eyes album entitled Emboldened Navigator and the Seagull Dots!! Frog Eyes fans, rejoice! Here's our original review of The Golden River:
Hailing from the same city that popped out Hot Hot Heat, Frog Eyes bring forth an altogether different sound from their Victoria, BC brethren. Imagine a baroque hybrid of the Brit-inflected melodrama of Interpol or Pulp and the more dissonant, hand-wringing instabilities of Xiu Xiu. Very high on moody affectation with the focus squarely on the vocals. In addition to the deeply emotional croon and warble of those mentioned above, singer Carey Mercer may also draw comparisons to Tom Waits' hoarsely heart-baring delivery or the slightly smoother sandpaper swoon of Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler. Lyrics and song titles are somewhat cryptic, obtuse and strangely poetic. The backdrop: electric guitar string churns and howls, shimmery cymbal washes, all anchored by some velvety piano melodies. FYI: More evidence of the Vancouver/Victoria music scene being quite a mighty tight knit family? Neko Case's Corn Sister co-hort Carolyn Mark lent her lovely voice to three songs (check out the luminous fifth song "A Latex Ice Age"), and Ms Mark's bandmate Tolan McNeil engineered the proceedings. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "A Latex Ice Age"
MPEG Stream: "Time Destroys Its Plan At The Reactionary Table"

FUNERAL MIST Devilry (Ajna Offensive) cd 15.98
Finally back in stock. Here's what we had to say about this slab of blackness when we first had it a while back (and for some reason this is still damn difficult to keep in stock):
For those of you whose black metal addled brains can barely remember all the way back to list #203 of last year, Funeral Mist's Salvation was quite possibly THE best black metal release of 2004, and one of our favorite BM records ever! Let's have a quick look at a bit of that review:
"It's been forever since we saw a record this beautiful and frightening looking, and so weird but utterly heavy sounding. This is definitely black metal. Appropriately buzzing and grim, with fuzzed out riffs and blasting rhythms and death rattle shrieks, but unlike most other black metal records, this is HEAVY. No, we mean H E A V Y."
And thus we went on and on about how unlike most black metal bands, where heaviness is sacrificed for speed and buzz, Funeral Mist manage to be fast and at the same time ultra heavy. Dense and completely pummeling. And beyond that, the songs are linked by and laced with bizarre suffocatingly intense ambient interludes, rife with unrecognizable samples, screams of terror, strange snippets of fifties orchestra music, thunder, lightning, droning rumble and smears of blacknoise, like the sound of hell, and Devilry is quite similar. In fact it might be even more intense, if that's possible. Devilry is from way back in 1998, and the sound is a little bit more raw, the production is a little bit more blown out, but the sound is very much the same, a frighteningly intense blast of Norwegian style black metal, with plenty of doomy melodic breakdowns, but the majority of Devilry is spent in full on blast mode, buzzed out guitars, impossibly heavy AND fast drumming, and super complex catchy songs. Hard to really put into words why this band kicks our asses so hard, their sound is just so visceral, and again SO HEAVY, the buzz is definitely still in full effect at all times, but the drums are hit so hard (there's even a sort of black metal drum solo!!) and the whole thing is just so LOUD and not at all lo-fi like so much of the black metal we love. A blackened upside down cross to the face, and we love it!
Also included is the Havoc Demo from 1996, which is a lot more lo-fi than Devilry, like a foetal version of what they would soon become, but even in their demo form, these songs leave practically all other BM in the dust, fuzzy and buzzy, tons of super bizarre affected vocals, strange production fuckery, killer riffs all tucked beneath Funeral Mist's warm black wings. SO FUCKING GREAT!!
MPEG Stream: "The Devil's Emissary"
MPEG Stream: "Bringer Of Terror"

GONZALEZ, JOSE Veneer (Mute) cd 15.98
If the cruddy weather we've seen recently in San Francisco decides to come back, we have the perfect rainy day indie-folk record to make us feel ok with it. Minimal arrangements of pensive Spanish-inflected guitar accompany Gonzalez' sedate yet strong voice that falls somewhere between Nick Drake and a male version of Juan Molina, without the electronic accompaniments. Before we heard this, we wrongly assumed this was a folk-tronica record in the vein of Molina or Beck but thankfully Veneer avoids such trappings (Swedish electronic duo The Knife do provide the only beats -- barely audible heart-beats). With an economy and restraint, unheard of in many contemporary singer-songwriters, Gonzalez wisely lets his sophisticated finger-picking express the melancholic heft of the songs. Beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "Slow Moves"
MPEG Stream: "All You Deliver"

HARWOOD, CHRIS Nice To Meet Miss Christine (Finders Keepers) cd 21.00
The latest Finders-Keepers release is no doubt a curiosity. While we loved all the previous releases, from the symphonic-psych of Jean-Claude Vannier to Stanley Myers' Sitting Target soundtrack, this reissue of vocalist Chris Harwood's sole album from 1970 (including 4 unreleased tracks) is not as easy to love. She -is- backed by an awesome band, which includes members of Yes, King Crimson, The Strawbs, Spencer Davis Group and Rainbow, but working through Prog-y jazz breaks, pomp rock and early fusion, it's clear the band is the selling point, as Harwood's vocal ability is not as strong a match. She sounds like Julie Driscoll when it works, and Christine McVie or Linda McCartney when it doesn't. Meet Miss Christine does have some strong songs, which we could definitely see included on some Andy Votel mix or something, but as a full record it doesn't entirely satisfy. On the other hand, we know that lots of folks, collectors and DJs and so forth, are sure to be thrilled that this got a nice Finders Keepers reissue, and maybe more of this album will start clicking with us eventually too.
MPEG Stream: "Hear What I Have to Say"
MPEG Stream: "Never Knew What Love Was"
MPEG Stream: "When I Come Home"

ISIS 03.19.03 (Troubleman) 2lp 17.98
Ok, vinyl nerds! Isis freaks! Slowpoke cd-r collectors, gather round, set your credit cards on stun, make a little space on that record shelf of yours, you've got yourself a lucky break, one more chance to pick up this super rare, long out of print live Isis tour cd-r, not at some ridiculous eBay price and no longer on cd-r even! Woo hoo! The kind folks at Troubleman have reissued that cd-r as a special limited edition double gatefold lp, with a cool red on red print, so beautiful, limited to 1000 copies worldwide and probably out of print by the time you read this. We got a whole bunch, but odds are once these are gone we won't be able to get more. So don't blow it again. 03.19.03 was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden, on March 19, 2003, and sounds fantastic. This set just so happened to be recorded by aQ customer / Swedish radio sound engineer Helena too! Small world... Heavy, droney, dreamy avant math metal of the highest degree. Very recommended as with all things Isis, and again VERY VERY LIMITED!

KOTCHE, GLENN Mobile (Nonesuch) cd 15.98
For those of us who thought Wilco reached new heights on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, there is no doubt that the addition of Glenn Kotche on drums made a significant impact and influence on those recordings. Joining the band on YHF, he has been a key ingredient in helping Jeff Tweedy/Wilco take their sound further and further. On this, his second solo outing, Kotche shows he isn't just someone's backing man. Kotche has an amazing musical mind and puts it to such great use on this record. What's best about this record is that it isn't what you would expect it to be. Yes it's a drummers solo record and yes it is a mostly percussive affair but the songs have so much depth, variety and interesting twists and turns. You can see how everything from afro-beat to Steve Reich to experimental electronic sounds have helped shape the cannon of Kotche's playing. A very nice outing!
MPEG Stream: "Mobile Parts 1 & 2"
MPEG Stream: "Projections of (What) Might..."

KOWALSKY, GREGG Through The Cardial Window (Kranky) cd 14.98
Having earned an MFA under the tutelage of Fred Frith at Mills College, Gregg Kowalsky landed his debut album on Kranky, a perfect home for his polite and pleasant swatches of ambient music. Kowalsky blurs all of his diverse source material (i.e bowed acoustic guitar, sounds he composed for the Mills Ensemble, and even samples from Isis!) into a twinkling mass of harmonically aligned tones. Furniture Music for the 21st Century.
MPEG Stream: "That In Allepo Twice"
MPEG Stream: "Coral Gables"

LADYTRON Extended Play (RykoDisc) cd+dvd 11.98
Ladytron enter a bid to keep the kids on the dancefloor just a little bit longer with this remixes 'n' b-sides collection. The former are previously unreleased tracks in which the fluffy electronic pop foursome's music gets even more techno-fied, and the latter are drawn from their Witching Hour album's UK singles. One of the best cuts on the cd is the third. It's James Iha mix of "Weekend". He wisely keeps one of the best things about Ladytron in the foreground, that is, the gals' breathy kittenish vocals. It has a raved-up ending that would've been great on the Run Lola Run soundtrack. Another tasty track is what the group has dubbed the "Catholic Version" of their last album's single "Destroy Everything You Touch". They deliver the song's simple central synth line through a church organ sound and apply a heavy dose of echoe-y cathedral-esque reverb. Quite nice. An aside, we'd swear that in the second track ("Nothing To Hide" which is one of the b-sides, but actually seems more like a remix in its unstructuredness) they're singing "I huff and I puff". It could be our rain-addled minds, 'cause we kinda doubt that they'd be making any Three Little Pigs references.
Also included in the deal is a bonus dvd so that in between boogie sessions you can kick back for a half an hour or so and watch some vids and a short documentary.
MPEG Stream: "Nothing To Hide"
MPEG Stream: "Weekend (James Iha Mix)"

LAST OF THE BLACKSMITHS s/t (self-released) cd 9.98
The hospitable Bay Area country/folk stable grows and grows. There's such an awesome sense of kinship among the artists (think of sorta 'six degrees of Jolie Holland' - yes, she does make an appearance here on viola!). Garrett Pierce and Matt Bauer, the band's pals and terrific singer/songwriters in their own right, brought this in recently on the band's behalf, and we're glad they did. This self-titled, self-released album is quite an impressive debut. The Last Of The Blacksmiths' Americana sound which vacillates between woe begone twang and roots rock groove has much in common with the likes of Jason Molina, Jay Farrar and Will Oldham. Fans of those artists should definitely sit up and take notice.
MPEG Stream: "Knowing Me"
MPEG Stream: "Pushing Down"

LES RALLIZES DENUDES / TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS OZ Days Live 1973 lp 18.98
Super rare, totally amazing split lp from two Japanese legends. Fuzzed out psych rockers Les Rallize Denudes on one side, blissy drone ensemble Taj Mahal Travellers on the other. HOLY SHIT! What a match up! We only had this once before and it was nearly $40 (and we were only able to get a couple copies that time). Now we managed to get FIVE more copies, and they're only $18.98! Need we stress that these will be gone before you even finish reading this... sorry!!

LOWBROW READER OF LOWBROW COMEDY, THE Issue #5 - Summer 2006 magazine 3.00
It's been a bit of a wait since the last issue of this New York comedy themed mag was published back in the fall of 2004, but the slightly more biting Issue 5 was well worth the wait! Neil Michael Hagerty reappears with his tribute to Don Knotts. There's a comicstrip about a visit by Jack White to the editor's apartment for a Time Out New York interview, as well as a couple of articles unfurling the pros and cons of Chevy Chase. A wry, entertaining read.

LSD-MARCH Empty Rubious Red (Archive) cd 12.98
Last time we listed a limited edition cd by Japan's LSD-march from the Archive label, we sold out of it in about, oh, two seconds. That was the Live cd that came our way (and went) last month. Well here we go again -- but this time we were able to score more copies than before. So we figure our stock of Empty Rubious Red will last, say, four to five seconds. Why are y'all so grabby with the LSD-march? Is it because of the cool packaging with which Archive always takes great pains? Is it because there's only 500 pressed? Maybe... but of course it's also 'cause if you love heavy duty distorto guitar psych in the vein of cult '70s Japanese heroes Les Rallizes Denudes. And you do get that here on the dronily intense, trippy title track, in spades. But for much of the rest of the album you also get the kinder, gentler side of LSD-march, with Shinsuke Michishita handling vocals and guitar and bass and percussion and whistling (yes, there's some whistling!) all by himself, joined by drummer Ikuro Takahashi on just two of the tracks. It's quite intimate, really, maybe even romantic -- these are love songs, aren't they? The lyrics are in Japanese but the titles "I Have Been Saving My Love For You" and "I Only Have Hands For Hold You" (sic) sure sound like love songs. Dunno about "Nude And Bizarre" though. A gorgeous late night listen, echoey and emotional. Spacious, slow, drowsy. Melancholic, melodic. Compared to the destructive, amped-up attack of that Live album, the beautiful balladry here is like night and day... a mistily overcast day with rays of sun glinting between the clouds.
Nice packaging and graphics as usual (a clear plastic insert overlays the cd, which rests on a nub affixed to a card printed with curls of dark hair similar to the Live cd, if you ever saw one). Mastered by Khanate's James Plotkin, also as per usual with Archive releases. Ok, 'nuff said. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Nude And Bizarre"
MPEG Stream: "Empty Rubious Red"

MAGYAR POSSE We Will Carry You Over The Mountains (Verdura) cd 14.98
At long, long last the first two albums by this big AQ fave are back in stock!! Good timing too 'cause there's a brand new album called Random Avenger peeking up over the horizon! Here's what we said when we first discovered Magyar Posse's debut some years ago:
We've really been enjoying this find from Finland: Magyar Posse have put together a really great set of sweeping, emotive post-rock instrumentals highly reminiscent of the excellent, out of print "La Planete Sauvage" (aka Fantastic Planet) soundtrack, believe it or not. Orchestral embellishments introduce the icy sounds of reverb-laden guitar and trembling electric organ. Suave drums and spooky glockenspiel melodies mix with manifestations of krautrock in the funky basslines and oscillating, Moog-y synth sounds. Occasionally, plaintive vocals are subtly placed low in the mix, buried in layers of echo. And is that the haunting voice of a musical saw I hear? Why yes, it is! The whole thing builds into climactic crescendos a la Godspeed You Black Emperor. Truly splendid! Andee actually saw this band play when he was visiting over in Finland not long ago -- they hail from Pori, also the hometown of AQ-faves Circle, and we think any Circle fans ought to like the Posse. It's really majestic, beautiful stuff, and more original and a lot less wimpy than the general run of post-rock that they might get lumped in with. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Witchcraft"
MPEG Stream: "Sleepwalker"

MAGYAR POSSE Kings Of Time (Verdura) cd 14.98
At long, long last the first two albums by this big AQ fave are back in stock!! Good timing too 'cause there's a brand new album called Random Avenger peeking up over the horizon!
Finnish post-rock heavyweights Magyar Posse return with a second, even better, album. Like their first, We Will Carry You Over The Mountains, Kings of Time will appeal first and foremost to fans of God Speed You Black Emperor and/or Mogwai. And while these comparisons may be a double-edged sword for Magyar Posse, the blade that cuts closest -- that of being seen as derivative -- might as well be a butter knife. Truthfully, Magyar Posse outdo what others have done before them. They're like the Alban Berg or Anton Webern of post-rock to Tortoise or GSYBE's Arnold Schoenberg. Kings of Time is an instrumental concept album on par with Pink Floyd, or an epic soundtrack worthy of Ennio Morricone's tip of the hat. Using a plethora of instrumental variations, from sparse reverb laden guitar to full blown orchestral arrangements of epic proportions -- all modern recording studio wizardry, Magyar Posse recontextualize leit motifs, and develop melodies like no one else in the post rock camp can. Reminiscent at times of Morricone's spaghetti western soundtracks they incorporate cooing wordless vocals into the mix with the utmost in subtlety. If some filmmaker doesn't snatch this band up to write a soundtrack to their film soon, we'll be really surprised. Completely amazing.
MPEG Stream: "Kings of Time, Track 2"
MPEG Stream: "Kings of Time, Track 5"

MALLANDER, J. O. More Time - Hits & Variations 1968 - 1970 (Anoema) cd 17.98
BACK IN STOCK! A while back we reviewed a compilation of early Finnish experimental music called Arktinen Hysteria, that documented the lively scene there in the sixties and seventies, from playful goofy sound manipulation, to austere soundscapes, hand built instruments, vocal experimentations, freaked out avant rock and more. A pretty amazing document, that unfortunately seems to be unavailable lately.
Not long after we reviewed it, a Finnish label contacted us with an entire album from one of the artists on the comp, by the name of J.O. Mallander. To be totally honest, at the time we couldn't remember who was who and which tracks were Mallander's, since by that time the comp had been gone for a while, but we figured that folks loved that comp so much that a whole record by Mallander, regardless of which tracks were his would be amazing.
So we got the discs in and they looked amazing, gorgeous eight panel silkscreened sleeve, with totally confusing but eminently readable liner notes form Leif Elggren, and two front covers depending on which way you held it, since it compiled two different sets of pieces. We decided to listen to Extended Play first, two pieces, one from 1962, one from 1968. The first track begins with Mallander repeating a single word over and over. And over. And over. Well, weird. Skip to the end of the first track, still repeating that same word, over and over and over. Okay, we'll go to the second track. Hmmm. Same word. Over and over. Obviously being 'performed' live as you can hear throat clearing and seat shifting and foot shuffling. Wow. 13 minutes of the same word, repeated over and over in a deadpan monotone. Slowly shifting in pitch and inflection, but very, um. similar. But stick with us, after those tracks, which have now grown on us quite a bit, this becomes a super cool, super weird, and totally primitive turntablist / plunderphonic / mashup record. The majority of Decompositions, the pieces that make up the second half of the disc, is manipulated vinyl lps, 78's, 7"s, all tweaked and affected and fucked with. A series of smokey jazz records are slowed way down, pitch shifted up and down, up and down, warbling and wobbling, woozy and dizzyingly soothing, like listening to old jazz 78's through a funhouse mirror, melodies stumble clumsily into each other and pile one on top of another, jostling to return to some normal speed, some semblance of regular jazz, but continue to weave drunkenly, seasick and sleepy, drunken and druggy. Not all that different than stuff we've heard Kid Koala and other modern turntablists do which is pretty amazing. Then: a looped snippet of piano and a weary vocal singing "I'm Alabama bound" over and over, a seemingly endless loop, until the words stop making any sense and become nothing but strange melodic concepts, and then the voice riffs its way out of the loop, the effect similar to when a massive drone finally ends, there's that moment where the tension is finally relieved. Later: a record of thirties boogie woogie is scratched and skipped and looped and becomes a skittering, hypnotic, jumble of female vocals and jaunty horns, all sort of bouncing and hiccuping and skipping, creating strange rhythms and melodic fragments.
Probably the most compelling and amazing piece is "In Reality", where multiple versions of "I've Got You Under My Skin" are played simultaneously, piled atop one another, seemingly at random, performed at different tempos, in different keys, sounding a bit like a random round, until all of the singers sing the word 'reality' at the same moment, and which point the song starts to loop and repeat and blur, becoming a confusing collage of multiple 'reality's. Literally.
MPEG Stream: "Extended Play 1962"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

MAUDLIN OF THE WELL Bath (Dark Symphonies) cd 14.98
Repressed and back in stock, these Maudlin Of The Well albums (Bath and Leaving Your Body Map) may be of interest to fans of post-MotW band Kayo Dot. Here's what we said about these when we first encountered 'em:
Andee and Allan saw this band play last year [1997, actually] at the Milwaukee Metalfest, and they made a definite impression: imagine a death metal band (three or four long-haired dudes with the requisite t-shirts and musical equipment) sharing the stage with several complete incongrous-looking college band geek -types (playing trumpet, violin, french horn -- highbrow western art music instruments like that). This band is then fronted by a short-haired singer with a mustache who is painfully, obviously really *into* Mike Patton of Mr. Bungle. They weren't that great, really, but it was a nice change of pace from the generic death/black fury of the rest of the fest! Now, here's their new albums (not one, but two) and our friend Drucifer tells us that they might be the records of the year! Well, we *never* listen to him...BUT...these are pretty astounding, actually! Bizarre and intriguing, anyway. We're not complete sure if they're really *good* or not, yet. This new stuff sounds kinda like a relaxed Ulver jamming after listening to some old Radiohead, only occasionally remembering that they're supposed to be playing metal. Or Voivod on a New Age kick. Weird! Lots of acoustic guitars and sensitive-guy singing. Mixed with church organ, mellow saxophone, watery sound fx (the disc is called "Bath" after all!), and some ethereal female vocals. The metal content is minimal, there's maybe only three songs out of the ten found here where the drums and guitars work themselves up into a truly metallic velocity and heaviness (but when they do, it's really heavy). "Leaving Your Body Map" is similar (we thought maybe one of these two discs was the "heavy" one, the other not, like the last two Areyon releases, but that's not the case). Like "Bath", this is on the pretty side. Delicate. Emotion-filled. Melancholy. Quirky. With sudden, unpredictable bursts of very heavy metal. These guys (and gals) have to be commended for trying something different, although it's a bit hard to get one's head around. They're trying to get something across that really hasn't been done before, and they're obviously talented. We're guessing that they're Hampshire College English/Music majors who also happen to be really into Opeth, Morbid Angel, and giant squids, and art. Check 'em out if you dare.
MPEG Stream: "The Ferry Man"
MPEG Stream: "Birthpains of Astral Projection"

MAUDLIN OF THE WELL Leaving Your Body Map (Dark Symphonies) cd 14.98
Repressed and back in stock, these Maudlin Of The Well albums (Bath and Leaving Your Body Map) may be of interest to fans of post-MotW band Kayo Dot. Here's what we said about these when we first encountered 'em:
Andee and Allan saw this band play last year [1997, actually] at the Milwaukee Metalfest, and they made a definite impression: imagine a death metal band (three or four long-haired dudes with the requisite t-shirts and musical equipment) sharing the stage with several complete incongrous-looking college band geek -types (playing trumpet, violin, french horn -- highbrow western art music instruments like that). This band is then fronted by a short-haired singer with a mustache who is painfully, obviously really *into* Mike Patton of Mr. Bungle. They weren't that great, really, but it was a nice change of pace from the generic death/black fury of the rest of the fest! Now, here's their new albums (not one, but two) and our friend Drucifer tells us that they might be the records of the year! Well, we *never* listen to him...BUT...these are pretty astounding, actually! Bizarre and intriguing, anyway. We're not complete sure if they're really *good* or not, yet. This new stuff sounds kinda like a relaxed Ulver jamming after listening to some old Radiohead, only occasionally remembering that they're supposed to be playing metal. Or Voivod on a New Age kick. Weird! Lots of acoustic guitars and sensitive-guy singing. Mixed with church organ, mellow saxophone, watery sound fx (the disc is called "Bath" after all!), and some ethereal female vocals. The metal content is minimal, there's maybe only three songs out of the ten found here where the drums and guitars work themselves up into a truly metallic velocity and heaviness (but when they do, it's really heavy). "Leaving Your Body Map" is similar (we thought maybe one of these two discs was the "heavy" one, the other not, like the last two Areyon releases, but that's not the case). Like "Bath", this is on the pretty side. Delicate. Emotion-filled. Melancholy. Quirky. With sudden, unpredictable bursts of very heavy metal. These guys (and gals) have to be commended for trying something different, although it's a bit hard to get one's head around. They're trying to get something across that really hasn't been done before, and they're obviously talented. We're guessing that they're Hampshire College English/Music majors who also happen to be really into Opeth, Morbid Angel, and giant squids, and art. Check 'em out if you dare.
MPEG Stream: "Gleam In Ranks"
MPEG Stream: "The Curve That To An To An Angle Turn'd"

MGLA Presence (Northern Heritage) cd ep 9.98
We reviewed the massive triple cd black metal collection, Crushing The Holy Trinity a while back, a compilation of some of the most fucked up and amazing black metal we'd heard in ages, due in no small part to the contributions of long time AQ faves Deathspell Omega and Clandestine Blaze. The rest of the collection was made up of lesser known bands, all of whom managed to kick our asses as well. One of the bands we had never heard of, but whose contribution etched itself in our memory like an upside down crucifix held in the fire and then pressed into our foreheads was the bizarrely monickered MGLA. This Polish (as far as we can tell) horde traffic in the same sort of loping midtempo black metal as their countrymen Graveland. Nods to Nargaroth and Woodtemple as well. That gloriously droney, midtempo, murky and fuzzed out blackened buzz we can never get enough of, interrupted by occasional bursts of stumbling blast beats, lightning fast mosquito buzz riffs, glass gargling demonic howls, all with a subtle Viking vibe. The whole thing is swathed in Burzumic ambient fuzz, and laced with mournful Xasthur-ish arpeggiated minor key melodies. Awesome. Can't wait for the forthcoming full length!
MPEG Stream: "Presence I"
MPEG Stream: "Presence II"

MODULAR SET Beached On The Half Landing (Howells Transmitter) cd 11.98
The pieces of Modular Set don't all necessarily fit together... uh, modularly. Some jut out at odd angles, some tumble away from the pack, some drift off into the ether. The group takes the conventions of no wave and post-rock into cryptic territory. Add a little free jazz and analog synthesizer explorations, and you have Beached On The Half Landing. The more synth-centric tracks are very reminiscent of the soundtracks coming out of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop back in the '70s. We only wish they'd connected each of the nine tracks so that it would be one seamless 38 minute journey, but 'tis not to be. Very cool nonetheless.
MPEG Stream: "Underhill"
MPEG Stream: "Show Me The Flower That Tried To Pick You"

MONSTER MOVIE All Lost (Graveface) cd 10.98
Early last year an album simply titled Transistor arrived on our doorstep. It swiftly swept us up in its wispy pop charms. We soon discovered that the band behind it was lead by Christian Savill of the wonderful Slowdive. Now that we're fondly acquainted we've eagerly anticipated a new Monster Movie full length, and here it is! The duo's third album is the musical equivalent of snowflakes caught on your eyelashes, golden tendrils brushing your cheek and dandelion puffs floating in a gentle breeze. The second song "Vanishing Act" is a total heartbreaker with its angelic male and female vocals (courtesy of guest singer Rachel Staggs). Oh so dreamy, ephemeral and achingly lovely imbued with shades of '60s pop and '70s soft rock. The cover art illustration of a fella scarfing down handfuls of candy hints at the sweetness within, but doesn't really do the album justice. Sigh inducing!
MPEG Stream: "Vanishing Act"
MPEG Stream: "Return To Yesterday"

MORRISSEY Ringleaders Of The Tormentors (Attack / Sanctuary) cd 17.98
The follow up to You Are The Quary, a record that many of us felt was probably the best and most charged album Morrisey had made since The Smiths were still around. At this point you either love the man or loath him, but we all lean way more towards the love. He continues to write such great songs, the perfect phrase, wit in tact, heart on sleeve - connecting with that outsider inside all of us. While this isn't quite as great as You Are The Quary this is still a good record for sure. The strong songs are amongst some of the best in his catalog. His dramatic flare on full flame, he even enlisted Ennio Morricone for arrangements on one track. Recently it was reported he turned down five million dollars to reunite The Smiths. Under his larger than life and iconic persona, Morrissey has proven that he does represent integrity, smart songwriting, and being a ringleader for all of us outcasts and underdogs.
MPEG Stream: "The Youngest Was The Most Loved"
MPEG Stream: "The Father Who Must Be Killed"

OCEAN, THE Aeolian (Metal Blade) cd 14.98
This is THE Ocean, not to be confused with Portland, Maine's Ocean, just Ocean. While Ocean is pretty darn heavy, The Ocean out heavy them in a way that seems impossible. THE Ocean is a German eight piece (that's right, EIGHT piece) now calling themselves the Ocean Collective. Lots of guitars, multiple vocalists, upping the heaviness quotient exponentially. The world, or at least our little underground rock corner of it, has gone nuts for this new metal / post rock hybrid, so much so that there's even a documentary in the works (which, if the footage makes the final cut, will feature Andee and Allan opining on all things metal and post rock). And we have to say we're digging it all too, Isis, Pelican, Cult Of Luna, Conifer, Minsk, each band doing their own version of that hybrid, adding their own unique particulars.... We seem to lean a bit toward the more metallic end of the spectrum (big surprise there) and the Ocean are right there at the extreme metal end, more a full on crushing metal band, with a bit of post rock weirdness mixed in insted of the other way around. This is massive pummeling extreme metallic brutality. The Ocean's riffs are huge, we mean HUGE, swirling and snarling, downtuned and so so so heavy. Pounding near industrial drums, and a phalanx of vocalists including Coalesce's Sean Ingram, mean this is a fucking shitstorm, in the best possible way. Everything we loved about their last record, Fluxion, is here, but expanded, heavier parts are heavier, weird parts are weirder (including some truly haunting German film music interspersed here and there). The basic formula is the same, massive crushing teutonic sludge / death metal, with all manner of post rockisms tossed in, blissy ambient interludes, grooved out rhythmic breakdowns, there are definitely hints of Isis, Neurosis, Dimmu Borgir, even Rammstein, as well as nods to more dramatic outrock outifts like Godspeed and Mogwai. But Aeolian is just so much more complicated and multilayered, convoluted and complex, dizzyingly so. One of the coolest, weirdest, heaviest metal records so far this year for sure.
MPEG Stream: "The City In The Sea"
MPEG Stream: "Austerity"

OCEAN, THE Fluxion / Aeolian (Throne) 3lp 35.00
Both amazing releases from Germany's The Ocean, last year's Fluxion, and the brand new Aeolian, now available on vinyl, a super limited triple lp set which includes each one of the three lps in a different color, packaged in a gorgeous silver inked 8mm-spine gatefold jacket, with a full color fold-out poster. Limited to 472 copies, already out of print, we have about 30 so act fast.
Here's what we think about Aeolian:
This is THE Ocean, not to be confused with Portland, Maine's Ocean, just Ocean. While Ocean is pretty darn heavy, The Ocean out heavy them in a way that seems impossible. THE Ocean is a German eight piece (that's right, EIGHT piece) now calling themselves the Ocean Collective. Lots of guitars, multiple vocalists, upping the heaviness quotient exponentially. The world, or at least our little underground rock corner of it, has gone nuts for this new metal / post rock hybrid, so much so that there's even a documentary in the works (featuring Andee and Allan opining on all things metal and post rock). And we have to say we're digging it all too, Isis, Pelican, Cult Of Luna, Conifer, Minsk, each band doing their own version of that hybrid, adding their own unique particulars.... We seem to lean a bit toward the more metallic end of the spectrum (big surprise there) and the Ocean are right there at the extreme metal end, more a full on crushing metal band, with a bit of post rock weirdness mixed in insted of the other way around. This is massive pummeling extreme metallic brutality. The Ocean's riffs are huge, we mean HUGE, swirling and snarling, downtuned and so so so heavy. Pounding near industrial drums, and a phalanx of vocalists including Coalesce's Sean Ingram, mean this is a fucking shitstorm, in the best possible way. Everything we loved about their last record, Fluxion is here, but expanded, heavier parts are heavier, weird parts are weirder (including some truly haunting German film music interspersed here and there). The basic formula is the same, massive crushing teutonic sludge / death metal, with all manner of post rockisms tossed in, blissy ambient interludes, grooved out rhythmic breakdowns, there are definitely hints of Isis, Neurosis, Dimmu Borgir, even Rammstein, as well as nods to more dramatic outrock outifts like Godspeed and Mogwai. But Aeolian is just so much more complicated and multilayered, convoluted and complex, dizzyingly so. One of the coolest, weirdest, heaviest metal records so far this year for sure.
And here's what we had to say about Fluxion:
With everyone freaking out about Isis, Pelican, Neurosis, Cult Of Luna, and all things massively and epically metal, all churning riffs and pounding majesty, it's hard to believe that most people have never heard, or even heard of German outfit The Ocean. Because in some ways, hard as it may seem to believe, they've almost managed to sonically outdo their obvious influences. The basic sound will be familiar for sure, massive guitars, pounding drums, propulsive, relentless riffing, blissed out, post rock parts that build and build and build into huge squalls of gargantuan guitarnoise, throbbing and pulsing, minor key and epic. But, in the case of The Ocean, they manage to add all sort of extra weirdness and not-so-subtle nuance than really makes Fluxion stand out. The presence of a full on string section (as well as some clarinets and other decidedly non rock instruments) is the first thing, which obviously lends the whole thing a much more stately, mournful feel, making them sound at times like a heavy metal Godspeed You Black Emperor. There's also a whole bunch of melodic flourishes scattered throughout, just here and there, that make what could be standard metal riffs become something a little bit out of the ordinary. The order of the day though is definitely metallic pummel, growled gutteral vocals over ultra thick Teutonic riffs, their German-ness shines through a bit in those instances, reminding us a bit of Rammstein, and when the keyboards kick in, there's definitely some Dimmu Borgir going on. And there is definitely a black metal vibe throughout, although it's bent and twisted to fit into The Ocean's moody metal framework. But the sound is so much more expansive and epic than most black metal, or most metal in general, especially when the guitars bliss out a bit, and strings are soaring, guitars picking out arpeggiated minor key melodies, everything eventually erupting into full on metallic bombast. And even in the midst of TOTAL METAL, the melodies are still moody and intense, the riffing is weird and the overal vibe is super dramatic and ultra intense. Fans of the 'new mood metal', a la Pelican, Isis, Cult Of Luna, as well as fans of the new metallic post rock (Conifer, Tides, Mouth Of The Architect, etc.) will be totally blown away!
MPEG Stream: "The City In The Sea"
MPEG Stream: "Austerity"

PAX s/t plus 7 Bonus Tracks (Walhalla) cd 21.00
Those of you who dig the '70s heavy rock proto-metal stuff like we do, need to check out this rad Peruvian band. This new cd reissue is better'n previous editions we've seen in terms of track inclusion, featuring as it does all of the eponymous 1970 Pax album plus, like it says, seven bonus tracks, including their cover of "Radar Love"! They also do "Smoke Of The Water" (sic), but hey back then that wasn't quite so tired.
Pax, featuring former members of Peruvian '60s beat combo Los Shains, were definitely one of the heaviest South American rock acts of their day (that we've heard, that is), easily competitive with American and British bands like Bang, Leafhound, and Sir Lord Baltimore. And they even have a bit of a groovy, Hendrix/Funkadelic (early Funkadelic) vibe as well. Yes indeed, Pax provide plenty of cowbell, wah-wah guitar, drug references, and all-right-now! rock n' roll attitude -- enough to make any fan of the aforementioned bands (not to mention the likes of Juan de la Cruz, Los Dug Dugs, and Modulo 1000) happy. They're not 100 percent heavy all the time -- few bands back then were -- but the lighter stuff is quite nice too and when they're heavy they're HEAVY, riffy with raw, in-your-face production and nicely rough-edged vocals, that you'll hear on such tracks as "A Storyless Junkie", "Deep Death", "Pig Pen Boogie", and "Firefly". Serious subjects, some of it (junkies, death) but they can be playful too, silly even, as on "Shake Your Ass". A '60 flowers and beads vibe comes through on the gentle, melodic likes of "Green Paper (Toilet)" and "For Cecilia" as well.
MPEG Stream: "A Storyless Junkie"
MPEG Stream: "Green Paper (Toilet)"

PELICAN Untitled (Cock of the Rock / Hydra Head) 12" 14.98
The limited edition vinyl version of Pelican's untitled debut that we listed a few years back disappeared in no time flat, never thought we'd see those again, but lucky us, it's available once again, for a limited time, so here's one more chance for you too slow suckas, don't blow it again!
Four massive tracks of instrumental heaviness here, folks. Chicago's Pelican, now 'the next big thing' it seems, debuted with this untitled document of dirge years back. Teetering on the cusp betwixt being a melodically melancholic and rhythmically clever post-rock band and being a punishing doom metal behemoth, Pelican don't let down either side. This is HEAVY. Epic, intense, and always interesting. Slow, trancey sludge riffs and chugging rhythms are interlaced with kinda pretty melodies and sudden tempo shifts. The result is a LOUD, almost psychedelic listen that should be very satisfying to fans of similarly droney and heavy outfits like 5ive, Tarantula Hawk, Boris, Pharoah Overlord... Gore and the Melvins and Harvey Milk too. Pelican are the kind of band that plays shows with Isis and High On Fire, and reference La Monte Young and Ash Ra Temple in interviews...i.e. our kinda band!
MPEG Stream: "Pulse"
MPEG Stream: "Forecast For Today"

PERKINS, DUDLEY Expressions (2012 A.U.) (Stones Throw) cd 15.98
Not sure what all the hype is about with Dudley Perkins. We half expected some empowered funk in the vein of Gil Scott-Heron or George Clinton, but Perkins gravelly singing/rapping style is just too clunky to carry a full record. And the one skit on this record, a clumsy jab at "Cops"­style domestic abuse cases, falls dead flat. Diehard Madlib fans may want to get this for the breaks and production, but we recommend they wait for the instrumentals version instead.
MPEG Stream: "Testin' Me"
MPEG Stream: "Come Here My Dear"
MPEG Stream: "Dear God"

PLOTKIN, JAMES & TIM WYSKIDA 8 Improvisations (Archive) cd 12.98
KHANATE ALERT!! ULTRA LIMITED CD ALERT!! ARCHIVE RECORDS RELEASE ALERT!! THIS DISC IS ALREADY OUT OF PRINT SO THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE ALERT!!
By now you should definitely know the drill. Archive records, who in the past have released the triple live Boris cd (now out of print), the live LSD-March (also out of print), the Khanate live cd (you guessed it, out of print), the live Growing cd (this too, out of print) and a live Earth double cd that ended up being so limited we never even got any, now offers up this newest ultra limited gem. As far as we know, by the time you read this review, this disc too will be out of print and we'll have the last 40 or 50, so, needless to say, ACT FAST! But why should you care? Well, howabout the fact that everything Archive releases is beautifully packaged, this release being no exception? Or howabout the fact that if you don't get this from us now, it's off to eBay with you! OK, the main reason to pick this up is it's 50 percent of mighty doom sludge behemoth Khanate. Guitarist James Plotkin (who you also might remember from such past glories as OLD and Phantomsmasher / Atomsmasher) and his rhythmic partner in Khanate, drummer Tim Wyskida. But, don't expect any downtuned slow motion doom and gloom here. There are some sludgy moments, even one track that sounds like a single guitar track plucked from a Khanate song, but for the most part it's a lot more abstract, with Plotkin coaxing all sorts of sounds out of his guitar, from scaping angular riffing, to scarbbly percussive skitter to shrieking high end skree, to warm muted warble, and even one track of delicate moody drift. Wyskida is right there along side him, offering up subtle little shuffles, simple plodding thuds or wild octopoidal squalls, depending on the mood and what best will balance Plotkin's guitar action. Cool stuff whether you're into Khanaate or not.
Packaged as gorgeously as always, a three panel fold out, adorned with simple text and abstract blurry shark photos, the cd affixed to a small plastic nipple on one of the panels. Comes in red and blue, the color you get will be totally random.
And we hate to belabor the point, but this is VERY LIMITED and almost for sure already out of print!
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"
MPEG Stream: "Four"

PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES Elan Vital (Matador) cd 13.98
Whoa! Pretty Girls Make Graves, we almost didn't recognize ya. Overall, Elan Vital is far less aggressive and 'punk' than its predecessor The New Romance. The band almost seems to be following a similar trajectory as the one taken recently by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. That is, rounding off the angular edginess, in favor of a more accessible, more perky pop sound with pretty girl vocals (oh, pun intended). In fact it really reminded us of early '90s bands such as Velocity Girl and Tsunami. That said, there's also appears to be some slight proggish tendencies making their way into PGMG. Although the first strains of the opening song might immediately bring to mind "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls, it progresses into something that approaches The Mars Volta's roaming propulsions. From that point on it's non-stop pop. Catchy and bright.
MPEG Stream: "The Nocturnal House"
MPEG Stream: "Parade"

PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES Elan Vital (Matador) lp 11.98
Whoa! Pretty Girls Make Graves, we almost didn't recognize ya. Overall, Elan Vital is far less aggressive and 'punk' than its predecessor The New Romance. The band almost seems to be following a similar trajectory as the one taken recently by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. That is, rounding off the angular edginess, in favor of a more accessible, more perky pop sound with pretty girl vocals (oh, pun intended). In fact it really reminded us of early '90s bands such as Velocity Girl and Tsunami. That said, there's also appears to be some slight proggish tendencies making their way into PGMG. Although the first strains of the opening song might immediately bring to mind "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls, it progresses into something that approaches The Mars Volta's roaming propulsions. From that point on it's non-stop pop. Catchy and bright.
MPEG Stream: "The Nocturnal House"
MPEG Stream: "Parade"

RANDOM s/t (Kyouei Ltd.) cd 22.00
It had to happen. It probably already has happened actually, but we love the weird, and the random, and we figured you probably would too. This is a Japanese import, not sure exactly who the artist is, but it's 99 tracks, each a rich lustrous tone, some deep and bell like, some soft and sonorous, some high pitched like a sine wave. All you have to do is set your cd player on random and away we go. A soft, subtle ambient journey, that ends up sounding a bit like Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel, only a bit though. It also sort of sounds like Tibetan bowls, or chiming bells, or soft ambient Japanese music (which I guess it is). Soft and lovely, and most importantly RANDOM. 99 seperate tones means the number of possible songs is an astronomical 9.33262154 x 10 to the 155th! And that's if you only let each tone play once... So even though the disc is actually only about 8 minutes long, set to shuffle it turns into 8 million billion trillion minutes! Or more!
Anyway, this seems to work best if you import the disc to iTunes, set to shuffle and with a decent crossfade, then just sit back and drift off, let the gorgeously soft and shimmery, sweet and serene ambience wash over you.
MPEG Stream: "One"

RUSSELL, ARTHUR First Thought Best Thought (Audika) 2cd 22.00
Fourteen years after his death, the music of Arthur Russell is more alive than ever. Mostly known as a left-field disco producer and classically trained cellist, Russell was also an accomplished avant-garde composer, as evidenced here. Audika records, who re-issued Russell's World of Echo and Calling Out Of Context releases, focus their attention here on two little known early pieces: Instrumentals Vols. 1 & 2, and Tower of Meaning. It's no wonder they are so little known. While Instrumentals Vol. 2 was released on Belgian label Les Disques Du Crepescule in 1984, and Tower of Meaning was previously released on Phillip Glass's label, Chatham Square in 1983, Vol. 1 was made only into a test pressing and for some reason shelved (this is its first official release).
The Instrumentals disc is the most interesting because for music so rooted in the New York avant-garde of the '70s and '80s, it's surprisingly accessible. Instrumentals 1 feels like Rhys Chatham playing with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra as harmonic variations of horns and strings play across bass and drum rhythms, while Instrumentals 2 leaves the rhythms behind. Towers of Meaning, a suite of 7 pieces, has a more classical Gavin Bryars vibe as the horns play out long melody lines with unusual intonations and harmonics with each piece stopping abruptly. Rounding out each disc are two other unreleased compositions, Reach One and Sketch for the Face of Helen. Known to obsessively tweak mixes of his songs (Supposedly, Let's Go Swimming, a left-field disco classic, was mixed *ninety-six* times) and then never release them, it's been rumored that Russell left one thousand tapes of unreleased music at the time of his death, making the title of this release a small inside joke. Hopefully Audika, unlike Russell himself, will be able to tell when enough is enough.
MPEG Stream: "Instrumentals 1"
MPEG Stream: "Instrumentals 2"
MPEG Stream: "Tower of Meaning"

SATYRICON Dark Medieval Times (Moonfog) cd 12.98
Now reissued and available again, this is the very very first black metal record (!) that I (Andee) ever bought, along with Cradle Of Filth's The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh, and upon my very first listen was immediately converted to the dark side. The circumstances of my introduction certainly helped. There are plenty of ways to be introduced to new music, getting a mix tape, having a friend play it for you, hearing it on the radio, whatever, but my introduction to black metal was a little different. And a whole lot better if you ask me. There was a cool punk rock collective record store here in SF years ago (Epicenter, now long gone). I used to work at the thrift store downstairs, so like any self respecting record nerd, I spent all my free time upstairs listening, browsing, shopping, hanging out. There was a woman who worked there who was a punk rock / metalhead dream come true. Super tall, lots of spikes and leather and denim, waist length dyed dreadlocks, earrings, noserings, huge black boots, tattoos, and on top of all that she was totally drop dead gorgeous. Almost like a super model dressed up as a metalhead. And as you might imagine she seemed absolutely and totally unapproachable. Well, one day, she started talking to me, handed me this disc and the Cradle Of Filth and insisted that I'd dig 'em. Not sure why she thought I would or how she may have known, but it hardly mattered, she was talking to me, and there was no way I was not going to walk up to the counter with her and leave proudly clutching those discs. Thankfully, I did in fact love both of them, and like I mentioned, I immediately became obsessed with black metal. My mysterious black metal angel drifted off and disappeared, but my love of black metal stuck.
Hard to imagine not being blown away by this record, Satyricon's debut, a gloriously dense, snarling black buzz, with plenty of loping Viking flecked riffage, haunting folky acoustic breaks, blasting double kick, howled guttural vocals. Coming long before the super polished black tech of Satyricon's later records, this is raw and furious, the production is lo-fi but still super thick and heavy, lots of reverb, lots and lots of buzz and fuzz, perfectly situated between the ultra complex blasts of Emperor and Mayhem and the plodding hypnotic buzz of Burzum. It's plenty weird too, huge too-loud keyboard swells, haunting angelic vocals, buzzing sing songy riffs, but already even way back then, you could hear the hints of Satyricon's future as black metal masters, so heavy and strangely catchy, weird and warped, but totally grim and utterly black.
MPEG Stream: "Walk The Path Of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Medieval Times"

SATYRICON The Shadowthrone (Moonfog) cd 12.98
Not sure why but Satyricon's second allbum, The Shadowthrone, originally released in 1994, is the one Satyricon record that always seems to be overlooked, which is a shame as it is most definitely one of the defining moments in Norwegian black metal. It could very well be that it was the transitional record, the sophmore slump, following hot on the heels of Dark Medieval Times, Satyricon's amazing debut, and right before Nemesis Divina, arguably one of the best black metal records ever. Thus positioned it's easy to overlook, but at the same time, it's the record where Satyricon were shifting from raw grim blackness, to a whole 'nother level. So in some ways it's the most interesting, a confusional mix of the ultra raw brutality of their debut and the dense complexity that was to come. The Shadowthrone is classic Norwegian black metal, buzzing and thrashing, mostly a seasick midtempo lurch, but occasionaly bursting into a buzzing lightning fast blur. The production is still thick and fuzzy, the riffs hover in a thick morass of reverb, with vocals that are totally grim and demonic as well as insane drumming courtesy of Frost who was already a fucking monster behind the kit. Like the records released on either side of it, The Shadowthrone is full of killer riffs, strangely catchy hooks, droney folky interludes, and some of the best black metal songs ever. Satyricon at this point were still drifting sonically betwixt the buzz and drone of Burzum and the technical blackness of Emperor (definitely not a bad place to be), but the Shadowthrone took them one step closer to their epochal release, 1996's Nemesis Divina. And even though Nemesis Divina is most definitely the bands defining moment, it would be a shame to let that record's reputation overshadow what is, on its own merits, a totally amazing and absolute classic black metal record.
The Shadowthrone also boasts some killer cover art as well as the best barcode ever (you'll just have to buy it to see!).
RealAudio clip: "Hvite Krists Dod"
MPEG Stream: "In The Mist By The Hills"

SHANKAR, RAVI Transmigration Macabre (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
Without a doubt one of the most psychedelic and experimental sounding records in the amazing recorded legacy of Ravi Shankar. Composed as a score for the British art film Viola, this finds Shankar experimenting and traveling with sounds that one might not always associate with him. Of course it's still his playing and several tracks have his unmistakable and totally influential sitar sounds, exactly the way you're familiar hearing them, but what's so nice about -this- record is that there are also moments where if you were listening without knowing it was Shankar you might guess it was any of a handful of psychedelic experimental bands from the last quarter century. Apparently the film is about a possessed man's belief that his dead wife has returned to life in the form of a cat that pursues him. Wow trippy stuff...and Ravi knew just the sounds to convey those otherworldly feelings. Really nice!
MPEG Stream: "Anxiety"
MPEG Stream: "Death"

SKY PILOTS s/t (Ghost Mansion) cd 8.98
Sky Pilots' self-titled debut release is packed with angstful male vocals, chunky guitars, and slabs of bass. This Bay Area trio's sound is very infused with the heavy raw Chicago Albini-isms, but with some Brooklyn hip styliness too. Cool stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Bridge Too Long"
MPEG Stream: "Hats Off To The Comeback"

SKYSCRAPER Issue #21 (Skyscraper) magazine 4.99
Latest installment of this badass music magazine. Over the course of a few years, Skyscraper has gone from a scrappy little zine into a serious chunk of music journalism, leaning toward the indie side of the spectrum but never shying away from ANY music as long as it's cool and weird and good. This time around articles on and interviews with Mogwai, Destroyer, Jon Langford, Dungen, Some Girls, Tristeza, Parts & Labor, Test Icicles, Rah Brahs, Witch, Aids Wolf, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, John Wilkes Booze, Pearls And Brass and loads more. And of course tons and tons of reviews!

SPARKS s/t (Wounded Bird) cd 14.98
Hot on the heels of Sparks latest effort, the wonderful Hello Young Lovers (reviewed two lists ago), we get these reissues of the first two Sparks albums, 1971's self-titled debut and A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing from 1972. It's amazing to see the bookends of an topsy-turvy 35-year career and how full circle the sound has become. These records sound as unique as they must have 35 years ago, because of course they are new to us, having never heard any recording before 1973's proto-glam masterpiece Kimono My House. It's funny how after hearing these two records back-to-back, we've been hearing the Mael brothers sound in everything from the new Fiery Furnaces to Jennifer Gentle. Please don't make us decide which one is better because they are both so good!
Produced by Todd Rundgren (MeatLoaf, Badfinger and New York Dolls) for his Bearsville Record label imprint, this must be one of the strangest debut records of 1971. Apart from early Alice Cooper, we can't quite think of a record or band so out of left-field as this (check out Ron Mael on the cover looking like early Prince with a Hitler 'stache!). While the dominant sound coming out of LA at the time was either mellow singer-songwriters or country inflected roots rock, Sparks arrived on the scene with art-y bombast, campy falsetto vocals, and strange time changes straight out of musical theatre. Never quite fitting in the confines of glam, classic rock, or power pop, Sparks infectious blend of smart, satirical song-writing and vocal theatrics would take awhile to connect with mainstream audiences. However they definitely set the stage for the likes of Queen as well as, of course, almost all of New Wave!
MPEG Stream: "Wonder Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Biology 2"
MPEG Stream: "(No More) Mr. Nice Guys"

SPARKS A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing (Wounded Bird) cd 14.98
Hot on the heels of Sparks latest effort, the wonderful Hello Young Lovers (reviewed two lists ago), we get these reissues of the first two Sparks albums, 1971's self-titled debut and A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing from 1972. It's amazing to see the bookends of an topsy-turvy 35-year career and how full circle the sound has become. These records sound as unique as they must have 35 years ago, because of course they are new to us, having never heard any recording before 1973's proto-glam masterpiece Kimono My House. It's funny how after hearing these two records back-to-back, we've been hearing the Mael brothers sound in everything from the new Fiery Furnaces to Jennifer Gentle. Please don't make us decide which one is better because they are both so good!
The second album from Sparks is just as delightfully non-conventional and non-commercial as its predecessor. This time, Thaddeus James Lowe handles the production and there is an even more emphasized glam feel in the rhythm section. The theatrics are also more amped up, most noticeably in their bizarre cover of "Do Re Mi" from the Sound of Music and the Sea-Chanty rock of "Beaver O'Lundy". "Whippings and Apologies" closes the album with an anthem on the par of Bowie's "Queen Bitch" and Queen's "Seven Seas of Rhye". Awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Girl From Germany"
MPEG Stream: "Underground"
MPEG Stream: "Whippings and Apologies"

SPRILLS OF ORE s/t (self-released) cd-r 5.98
There are no frills on Bay Area's Sprills Of Ore, and none are needed. Just intimate recordings of hushed folksy acoustic guitar, accordion (we think), cello and breathy soft female vocals by Ms Eva Kelly. Nine songs total, and each of them really really lovely!
MPEG Stream: "Midnight Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Blackened Skies"

STATON, CANDI His Hands (Astralwerks) cd 16.98
A few years ago Honest Jon's/Capitol released a collection of Candi Staton's classic southern soul sounds from her prime, 1969-1973. It was a collection that for many of us was an introduction to a Candi Station we never knew. Best known later on as a disco diva, these songs were a totally different and much more rewarding affair then her glitzy disco years. Such rich and right on soul packed with emotion and flare. This, her brand new album is a nod back to that past. It's really nice to see how her influence has begun to finally fall on new ears. On their recent visit to San Francisco, The Gossip couldn't stop drooling over their love of Candi during their guest DJ set at KUSF. Lambchop's Mark Nevers was such a big fan that he found a way to become the producer of this new record, which also boasts lyrics from Will Oldham on the powerful title track which he wrote specifically for Candi. With Cat Power recently releasing her take on Southern soul, it's so nice to hear from one of the originators of that sound/style. His Hands is a collection of tales of love gone so wrong. If you've recently had your heart hurt bad, then listening to this, alongside Edith Frost's latest heartbroken outing, could just be the good cry you need. It's done the trick for some of us who's hearts have been broken around here lately. Staton's ability to carry so much pain and power in her voice is what always keeps you coming back for more.
MPEG Stream: "His Hands"
MPEG Stream: "In Name Only"

SUBIMAGE Bernal Hill (self-released) cd 9.98
Subimage has gone through quite a remarkable transformation for this third release. Following the very '80s inspired effervescent electro-poppy Etoc and Fruitpacifist, Mainman Chris Campbell has opted for more of a Brit rock approach, and expanded his lone mission into a trio with the addition of bassist Ruba and guitarist Greg. It's still got the thumpin' dancebeat, but Bernal Hill is driven more by snarly electric guitars than burbly synthesizers. That's not even mentioning the vocals. Campbell is sing-sneering up a storm. The big picture is sorta reminiscent of That Petrol Emotion and Primal Scream or the more recent sounds of Radio 4, Franz Ferdinand and The Rapture. Punchy with a lot more attitude.
MPEG Stream: "Hardwire"
MPEG Stream: "Evolve"

TANAKH Ardent Fevers (Alien 8) cd 14.98
Drowsy Americana-laced Indie rock from Jesse Poe and his revolving set of collaborators, this time including Isobell Campbell on cello and backing vocals. Less improvised, and more song-oriented than on previous efforts, Poe's voice recalls early Badly Drawn Boy or even Leonard Cohen at times. Soft but dusty, this set is best served with whiskey and a little heartache.
MPEG Stream: "5 am"
MPEG Stream: "Hit the Ground"
MPEG Stream: "Restless Hands"

TAYLOR, STEVE s/t (self-released) cd-r 7.98
Five sunkissed, laidback pop songs make up this debut from this Bay Area singer/songwriter Mr. Steve Taylor. Very much along the lines of The Shins, Elliott Smith and Matthew Sweet... or the soft side of Sloan and The Posies... or perhaps actually reaching further back in the school of pop timeline there's a good deal of Big Star and '70s soft rock in there too.
MPEG Stream: "Trials"
MPEG Stream: "If The Summer Should Change To Winter"

TELEVISION PERSONALITIES, THE My Dark Places (Domino) cd 14.98
Long-awaited comeback record from British post punk psych jokers Television Personalities.
Believed to have either disappeared in a fog of mental illness or died mysteriously, frontman Dan Treacy has recently re-emerged after a long stint on a prison barge. Their sound is a hodge podge of noisy psych garage in the vein of Syd Barret, and the Pastels, The Manchester pop of the Charlatans, as well as the arch humor of Toy Dolls and Ian Drury and the Blockheads, that people seem to either really love or really hate. You decide.
MPEG Stream: "Special Chair"
MPEG Stream: "All the Young Children on Crack"
MPEG Stream: "You Kept me waiting Too"

TIME FLYS Reality (Is A Rock Band) (Birdman) 7" 3.98
All right! Three energetic new tunes for those of you who have been rockin' to these teenage (well, in spirit, anyway) '70s garage punk throwbacks' debut from last year. With their authentic vintage stylings, Oakland's Time Flys surely do belong on seven-inch black wax... you'd almost think you'd have to buy this from some collector scum on eBay but this is here and now and in print, for only $3.98.

TIMEOUT DRAWER Alone (The Consumers Research And Development Label) cd 8.98
A brief breezy follow up to Timeout Drawer's Nowonmai that we made record of the week a little while back. This six song, 22 minute ep acts as a asort of addendum to the blown out majestic epic loveliness of the full length. Following firmly in the footsteps of fellow postrock pioneers Mogwai, Godspeed and the like, but with their own strange little twists. On the full length it was massive thick fuzzy synths all over the place, on Alone, the synths are sort of moved into the background, while the band sort of explores different sounds, from the perfect quiet loud explosive rock of opener "Man Must Breathe" to the soft circusy shimmer of "Women And Children Line The Rocky Shore" to the strange DJ Shadowy trip hop shuffle of "There's Just An Empty Space". The last three tracks add some angular Slinty riffing, some My Bloody Valentine guitar wash, even some keening vocals, finishing off with the ultra aggressive "The Exorcist" (yes, they're covering the Tubular Bells music by Mike Oldfield!) with fuzzy synth, shuffling stuttering drumming and freaked out distorted psych guitar squalls over some downright metal riffing. Wow!
MPEG Stream: "Man Must Breathe"
MPEG Stream: "Women And Children Line The Rocky Shore"

TRETTIOARIGA KRIGET Krigssang (Mellotronen) cd 17.98
'70s prog of the harder, mathier variety here. Mellow grooves too. We've already turned some of you on to this Swedish band's first, eponymous album (also now back in stock in a new, upgraded edition) but this is the first time we've reviewed Tettioariga Kriget's second album (well, third if you count Glorious War as their first, actually) from 1975.
How to describe 'em? Uriah Heep meets Goblin??? No that's not it... but they are a band that mixes the bombast of Heep with the darkness and '70s synth kitschiness of Goblin, creating their own unique atmosphere.
Krissang ("War Song" in English) may remind some customers of a progged-out version of Dungen, due to the Swedish language vocals and intellectual Genesis-like aspects. The tracks here go from extremes of gentle melodicism and jazzy grooves to bombastic, jagged progginess, across the album -and- often within a single track. Odd time signatures are abundant. And though initally we were attracted to this band due to their displays of frantic, hard rockin' proginess -- screaming guitars, barking fat bass, hard-hitting drums -- we now appreciate 'em as much or more for their gentle side. There's simply some gorgeous songs on here.
This new edition comes packaged in a handsome digipack, with liner notes by lyricist Ollie Thornvall along with photos and lyrics and three bonus tracks in the same mold as Krigssang, including one ("Moln") that almost out-progs anything on the album proper!!
MPEG Stream: "Krissang"
MPEG Stream: "Mitt Mirakel"

TRETTIOARIGA KRIGET s/t (Mellotronen) cd 17.98
Back in stock, along with its previously un-listed by AQ follow-up Krissang. Both albums are among our biggest obscure prog faves, and they've now been reissued in sturdy, swank digipacks by the Mellotronen label, looking quite spiffy and boasting a bunch of bonus tracks as well! Here's what we said about this one, when we reviewed it before:
When Byram heard this, his first reaction was: Allan, dude, this has you written all over it! And it's true, *both* of AQ's resident prog-heads (proudly, Allan and Andee) are way into this band and this album -- that's why we ordered a few from overseas to share with our likeminded customers. On this, their 1974 debut album, Trettioariga Kriget (aka Thirty Years War) dish out jazzed-up but also kinda heavy '70s prog rock from Sweden, boasting some over-the-top falsetto vocals worthy of Amon Duul II's Renate Knaup or the guy from Flower Travellin' Band. Mathy, King Crimson-esque hard rock, that's also (in context of this sort of thing) quite catchy, actually. Vocal hooks coexist with the math jazz rock instrumental display and noisy skronk. Recommended, especially if you're among the many (?) AQ customers happy with our prior obscure prog suggestions (Il Balletto di Bronzo, Osanna, etc.)
Now even more recommended, nicely packaged with liner notes, lyrics, photos and (best of all) over twenty minutes of extra, previously unreleased music added!
MPEG Stream: "Kaledoniska Orogenesen"
MPEG Stream: "Fjarilsttityder"

TYMAH Transylvanian Dreams (No Colours) cd 14.98
Ahhhhh, grim, necro, frosty, raw black metal. It's an acquired taste, but once you've tasted that black blood, there's no turning back. Whether it's Darkthrone's Transylvanian Hunger, Ulver's Nattens Madrigal, or any one of the legion of lesser known black hordes, it's a sound that soothes like only raw fuzzy, buzzy, Burzumic guitardrones and blurry battle blasts can. Hungarian black metal horde Tymah's take on this bleak, harsh and blackened buzz doesn't veer far from their influences, this is as grim and as true and as black as you could hope for, the majority of Transylvanian Dreams a dizzying blur, a near dronelike wash of low end rumble and insect swarm guitars, while beneath, a relentless lightning fast blast, and above, pure tortured yowls and demonic shrieks, which is where Tymah do truly distinguish themselves, as vocalist / guitarist Dim is a woman, a rarity for sure in black metal (and metal in general), not that you necessarily could tell from her harsh and harrowing, truly anguished sounding screech (very reminiscent of Weakling at times), but still there's something truly inspiring about a corpsepainted, be-spiked, axe slinging, sword swinging she-demon lurking wraithlike in that same black forest, holding her own and then some with the black metal boys club. And if for some reason those sorts of things don't do it for you, just close your eyes and forget we said anything, and you'll soon be basking in (unisex) black metal bliss.
MPEG Stream: "Atoklatomas"
MPEG Stream: "Vihar"

VERLAINE, TOM Around (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98
Some 14 years ago Television guitar-god Tom Verlaine released an unexpected low-key beautiful late night guitar instrumental record called Warm & Cool (which was reissued just a year or so ago by Thrill Jockey). Now he's back with what seems to be the follow up to that outing, and what a nice follow up it is. Slow and steady with nothing to prove, Verlaine's playing is so earnest as he makes sounds perfect for long drives on grey days, as rain splashes against the windshield and your eyes get anonymous glimpses of the surroundings. There is a simplicity in delivery and a timeless quality to his playing that could make this the perfect soundtrack for a 1950's black & white film filled with empty highways and of course the flickering neon lights of a Coca Cola sign on the front of an all-night diner. Yet there is something so meditative and assured about the songs on this record that makes it not just an exercise in nostalgia but instead totally great and engaging mood music that sucks you in and allows to wander those same rainy streets. Each time we listen we go somewhere slightly different and equally as satisfying. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Brief Description"
MPEG Stream: "The O of Adore"

WEREWOLF The Temple Of Fullmoon (No Colours) cd 14.98
Werewolf are a mysterious Polish horde who specialize in murky, brittle, lo fi grimness a la their countrymen Graveland. Huge guitars swirl and buzz, the rhythms veer from seasick waltzes to buzzing blackened blasts, thick walls of guitarfuzz and swirls of chaotic ambience create a dense foresty murk, where drums pulse and throb way down in the mix, like tribal war chants barely heard drifting like the stench of death on the wind. The vocals are a growling gargle, another layer of buzz in Werewolf's chaotic sonic squall, the cymbals splash and shimmer like acid rain eating away at everything it touches. This is more of that glorious loping buzzy droning black metal we can never seem to get enough of. The mix is so thick and overblown that the riffs eventually blur and smear, the whole record becoming a super buzzy trancelike drone. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Wolfish Famine Of Blood"
MPEG Stream: "Return Of Black Ravens"

WITCH s/t (Tee Pee) lp 14.98
NOW ON VINYL!
We've all been loving the soft lilting new weird free hippy folk of the Feathers, who for us were a recent discovery. And we've always been big fans of J Mascis, the distorted psychedelic indie fuzz of Dinosaur Jr, but even in his stints with sludgy punk rock outift Deep Wound and behind the kit for weirdo metallers Upside Down Cross. But never in our wildest dreams did we imagine the twain would meet. But what do you know? It's either a seriously small world, or there is some not so secret bond joining the disparate music arcs of these long haired fellows. Witch is not necessarily what you might imagine a meeting of Dinosaur Jr. and the Feathers would sound like, although the frilly jackets and bell bottoms and long hair should give you a clue. This is total seventies proto metal meets sludgy groovy stoner rock. Big BIG riffs, groovy and sun baked, blown out and HEAVY. Seriously. We hear Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Trouble, even some Kyuss and more modern stoner/doom outfits, like Witchcraft and Dead Meadow. The vocals are drenched in reverb and are sort of soaring and whining, some definite Ozzy influence there, also at times verging on a reedy Marc Bolan/Comus folky warble. And the guitar sound, OOF! You'd be forgiven for thinking that was Mascis on lead guitar, but he's manning the drum kit here, no the guitars are fuzzy seventies metallic groove, with a guitar sound definitely reminiscent of Sub Pop drone guitar gods Rein Sanction, like Hendrix filtered through Iommi, laced with LSD, dipped in goat's blood, set in the sun to bake and of course slathered in warm distorted fuzz. But with a band like this it's all about the riffs. Everyone knows Sabbath took all the best riffs, that's why so many heavy bands have based entire careers on stealing 'em, but Witch prove that there are still some killer riffs left out there. Heavy and fuzzy enough to bear a passing resemblance to the Sabs, but weird and wooly and unique enough that they can unabashedly claim them as their own. This is definitely another one of those bands like Elope or the Want, that if you didn't know better, and were forced to guess, you could be forgive for thinking Witch were straight out of the seventies (though with maybe 'cause of J, a whif of '80s SST hardcore punk somewhere in there too). Sonically, production wise, the whole package. And while the whole record is heavy and sludgy and groovy, it's worth the price of admission alone for track 5, "Rip Van Winkle" with a riff that is one of THOSE riffs. The whole track is a stone cold classic, from THAT riff, to the crazy blown out psychedelic leads, to the bombastic drumming, the weird arrangement, the wailing vocals, it's hugely heavy, head noddingly hypnotic, head bangingly massive, but groovy and catchy, minor key melodies beneath thick waves of warm guitar fuzz, totally emotional and amazing, it's like the best Sabbath song that never was. Then there's the track right before it, "Changing", that ALSO has one of THOSE riffs, and sounds like some sort of incredible, exotic Saint Vitus/Flower Travellin' Band hybrid. Wow. And all the other songs are pretty amazing too.
We just wish that they could have come up with a name a little more original than Witch. If they were indeed dead set on some sort of Witch name, you can't go wrong adding some appropriately evil or mysterious second word to your band name, I mean, c'mon, we would have gladly taken Featherwitch or even better DINOSAUR WITCH!
MPEG Stream: "Changing"
MPEG Stream: "Seer"
MPEG Stream: "Soul Of Fire"

YAHOWHA 13 God And Hair (Captain Trip) 13cd 128.00
There are a handful of records that seem to truly define the unique (sometime ridiculous) aesthetic that we pride ourselves on here at Aquarius Records. The Conet Project is one, a four cd set of haunting mysterious shortwave transmissions of spy stations, hours and hours of numbers and music. Then there's the Thai Elephant Orchestra, a recording of gamelan playing elephants, or the Ghost Orchid, a recording of emanations from beyond the grave, but one release that is truly near and dear to our freaky musical hearts is the Yahowha box. Originally released on Captain Trip as a jumbo sized box with 13 cds in regular jewel cases with a huge LP sized booklet, with lots of amazing photos and loads of Japanese text, this massive collection has been re-issued in a gorgeous wooden box, sealed with gold cords and a wax seal, the jewel cases are gone and instead the discs are housed together in slim sleeves, and the all-in-Japanese-anyway booklet is gone now too (although we've yet to crack one of these open, so we suppose it might have been resized to fit in this much smaller box), but it's also cheaper and will now fit on your cd shelf. But why is this collection so essential and why should you absolutely drop everything and pick up one of these amazing boxes? Read on...
For 13 discs you better get the complete recordings... and here on God and Hair that is what you get. (Well, this was true until recently when The Operetta was released...but you do get plenty!)
Led by the late, legendary Father Yod (who supposedly died in a hang-gliding accident in the late 70s... just like Icarus!) YaHoWha 13 "epitomize the insanity of highly-personalized psychedelic exploration via the fringes of rock music and its subsequent private documentation better than anything else produced by the human race to date." (a glorious if over the top description from the fine folk at Forced Exposure)... This collection ranges from tribal acid pound to weird noisy float to dense aural freakouts, all accompanying Yod's megalomaniacal vocal output (as on the unbelievable masterpieces Penetration and I'm Gonna Take You Home). Then there's the other side of Yod and his minions, creepy cult-guru sermons over simple acoustic guitars (which give those tracks a vibe not unlike the recently reveiewed freak folk of Charles Manson's). Warning: this stuff is VERY hippie. But if you're anything like us that's maybe not so much of a warning as it is a promise!

YO LA TENGO Is Murdering The Classics (Egon) cd 17.98
Ahhh, Yo La Tengo! Such a band you gotta love... and such a band who loves ya back! With Ira, Georgia and James you get no fancy stuff, no gimmicks, no high fashion. You simply get Yo La Tengo, and they've endeared themselves to legions around the globe. Their hearts are in the right place whether it be making their own awesome music or in this case playing random musical requests to raise funds for beloved radio station WFMU. Released on the band's own label Egon Records, this 70 minute cd compiles the band's on-air performances of tunes requested by listeners in return for a monetary pledge during the station's annual fundraising marathon from 1996 through 2003. They tackle tunes by X-Ray Spex, Eurythmics, Jonathan Richman, Sun Ra, Brian Eno, Hues Corporation, Billy Joel, The Knack, Beach Boys, Yoko Ono, Bachman Turner Overdrive, T-Rex, Archie Bell, Sonic Youth, Rocket From The Tombs, Iggy Pop, Replacements, Petula Clark, and oh so many more. One thing's for sure -- despite their seeming encyclopedic knowledge of music they'll never cut it as a cover band! The title is not an understatement. Heck, they themselves have used the term "dreadful"! Still, it's YLT, and their valiant attempts, on-the-spot figurin' out, muffed lyrics, and strained singalongs played out with gleeful reckless abandon are nothing short of charming and often downright hilarious. The last panel of the terrific Adrian Tomine drawn comicstrip cover art sez it best, "Well, I guess it's for a good cause..."
MPEG Stream: "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!"
MPEG Stream: "The Hokey Pokey"
MPEG Stream: "Downtown"

ZAIMPH Unfolded Gold (Heavy Blossom) cd-r 11.98
Another blast of homespun free noise from Marcia Bassett of the Double Leopards, Hototogisu, GHQ and many more. Released on Hototogisu's Heavy Blossom label, this super limited cd-r, is another dark trawl through a noise strewn alley, processed synths, looped feedback, and ultra distorted vocals are stretched into wide dirty streaks of pulsing distorted sound, a throbbing rhythm surfaces from within the vocal murk, while strange scrapes and grunts become some sort of percussive framework, huge sheets of dog whistle skree leaned up against distant foghorn drone and moaning freenoise whir, grinding instrument grit and electronic malfunction drift into ghose like vestiges of song and melody. As always pretty darn great. Packaged in a handmade foldover paper sleeve with insert. And as always VERY VERY LIMITED!! (only 100 copies and we got but a handful!)
MPEG Stream: "Voice Strands"
MPEG Stream: "U.S.A. Idiom"


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V/A Hacienda Classics (Virgin) 3cd 36.00
Thanks in part to the movie "24 Hour Party People" there's been quite a revival in the last few years in curisoity about and reflections of the Manhester party/music scene of the late '80s/'90s. The center of all this dancing, drugging, and going on and on till the break of dawn was none other then the Nightculb Hacienda founded by New Order's Peter Hook. It was within the Hacienda's walls that much of the debauchery, indulgence, and fun/wasted times went down. This 3-disc box set put together by Hook himself compiles the sounds that were blaring out the speakers during its heyday. 808 State, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, Jaydee, Eric B & Rakim, Candi Staton and of course New Order are just some the groups found on this here collection. For those of you who have been craving th sights and sounds and tastes more tastes of that wonderfully wicked Manchester club-scene then this is a party in a box for you. Sorry no purple pills included.
MPEG Stream: NEW ORDER "Ruined In A Day"
MPEG Stream: 808 STATE "Pacific State"
MPEG Stream: ERIC B. & RAKIM "Juice (instrumental)"

V/A Hava Narghile (Dionysus / Bacchus Archives) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK!! Been waiting to see more of this old fave for a long time, here they are again at last. If you don't have it, get it!! It's such a good disc, compiled by Gokhan Aya and AQ customer Jay Dobis (who kindly showed Allan around to every record shop on Istiklal street when Allan visited Istanbul last year, thanks Jay!). Here's what we said about it originally:
Similar to the [now out of print] Turkish Delights compilation is this great collection of vintage psychedelic rock music from Turkey. With 22 tracks, spanning the years 1966-1975, this collection is a great introduction to the fanatastic, long-lost Middle Eastern acid rock scene. These bands raved it up in Istanbul nighclubs, blending the Western garage-psych rock of the era with Turkish folk influences (electic fuzz saz!), bellydancing beats, and all manner of "exotic" flourishes. Of the 17 artists on here, only a few names were already known to us, mainly from that aforementioned Turkish Delights lp or as the Turkish entries on the fab Love Peace & Poetry: Asian Psychedelic Music compilation. Those would be the amazing Mogollar (two tracks), guitar hero Erkin Koray, Mavi Isiklar, and Baris Manco. And none of their tracks are duplicated between this comp and those other two [and there's no overlap with anything on the more recent Turkish Love, Peace & Poetry volume either]. Of the many cuts on here, everyone will have their own favorites, certainly there's many killer ones. Dionysus' Bacchus Archives imprint has done a colorful job with the packaging, illustrated with promo photos and 7" sleeves. And every track gets a good paragraph of information, so by listening and reading you'll become hip to the history of the whole Turkish psych happenin'. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: ERSEN "Sor Kendine"
MPEG Stream: MELIK FARUK SERDAR SAYGUN "Gurbet Acisci"
MPEG Stream: BARIS MANCO & KAYGISIZLAR "Trip (Fairground)"

V/A Invaders (Kemado) cd 13.98
If you're into heavy rock, psych and metal the way we are, then just one glance at the tracklist for this new compilation should sell you on it without much trouble. Yep, there's a bunch of the heavies here, for sure. Witchcraft! Witch! Pelican! High On Fire! The Fucking Champs! The Sword! and a dozen others. And quite a few of these 18 tracks are previously unreleased, over fifty percent in fact. So not a bad dealio indeed, rockers. This focuses on current indie darlings and more obscure upandcomers as well -- including several from right here in San Francisco -- so chances are you'll hear from a favorite band or two and probably get into something new too. Though the cover art (swiped from an old Metal Massacre comp) seemingly promises old school '80s metal action, that's not really what this is about. We wouldn't even classify a lot of these bands as "metal", really. There's just as much stoner psych and post rock and prog and Melvinsy dirge punk, but it IS all on the heavy side. As far as retro inspiration goes, it's the '70s and Sabbath that get the most nods. Faves? Among the Sabbathy, we already love Sweden's Witchcraft (who contribute a live version of "Queen Of Bees") and Witch (a track from their awesome album) but were also stoked to hear Portland's Danava for the first time, so spacey and rollicking. Of course Dungen's song is great (flute!) and you can't argue with Comets On Fire's blown out psych-noise either. Or with the metallic Yessisms of Diamond Nights. We also dug the unreleased cut by SF's hard rockin' Night After Night quite a bit. Heck it's hard to pick stuff out, there's a lot of cool tracks on here, from a bunch of bands we (mostly) love or soon will...
Ok, here's the fairly drool-worthy list of bands found here (asterisks indicate that they're contributing previous unreleased material): Saviours, Danava*, Big Business*, Black Mountain*, The Sword*, Dungen, Witch, The Fucking Champs*, Torche, Pelican, High On Fire, Witchcraft*, Comets On Fire*, Diamond Nights*, Wolfmother, Night After Night*, Warhammer 48K, Parchman Farm*.
MPEG Stream: DANAVA "By The Mark"
MPEG Stream: NIGHT AFTER NIGHT "Backseat Astronaut"
MPEG Stream: BLACK MOUNTAIN "Behind The Fall"

V/A Messthetics Greatest Hits: The Sounds Of D.I.Y. 1977-1980 (Hyped To Death) cd 11.98
Maybe you remember some years back we used to stock compilation cd-rs in an amazing series called Messthetics, devoted to all kinds of cool tracks by obscure British DIY artpunk outfits from the late '70s/early '80s? Well those cd-rs are long gone now, but at last here's a real cd collecting a bunch of the "greatest hits" from that series! Since almost by definition these bands didn't really have "hits", it's really more the complier's choice. We're sure it was tough to pick and choose from all the good stuff (there were like eight cd-rs in the series) but definitely not hard to make this disc a good 'un, and they've certainly included quite a few of our favorites: Scrotum Poles, Instant Automatons, Steve Treatment, Take It, Thin Yoghurts, Danny & The Dressmakers, and more, 22 tracks in all, from rare singles, cassette comps and other dusty sources. Styles range from distorted new wave dance tracks to twee pop to utter experimental punk n' electronics. Some others on here include such bands as Anorexia, Digital Dinosaurs, Puritan Guitars, Mud Hutters, Reptile Ranch, O Level, and pre-Homosexuals formation the Rejects.
Seminal DIY outfit The Desperate Bicycles oddly enough aren't on here, but they are in spirit, as all these productions hold true to or were inspired by their slogan (a lyric from one of their songs), "It was easy, it was cheap: go and do it!" Yeah! The tracks compiled here remain equally fun and inspirational even today, twenty+ years later. As with the original Messthetics cd-rs, this release includes copious small-print liner notes about each band/track, as well as an essay about the whole messy aesthetics of the DIY movement, explaining how it differed from (and was a reaction to) the mainstreaming of the punk rock boom of '77. And there's full-color (but still mostly black and white xerox style) reproductions of flyers and singles cover art included too.
There's several full-length discs from Messthetics bands either already out or coming soon from this label, as well as an upcoming series of geographically-based Messthetics comps also on regular cds like this one. So stay tuned...
MPEG Stream: SCROTUM POLES "Pick The Cats Eyes Out"
MPEG Stream: TAKE IT "How It Is"
MPEG Stream: THIN YOGHURTS "Girl On The Bus"

V/A The Celluloid Years: 12"es and More... (Collision / Groove Attack) 2cd 17.98
We know lots of you probably had that early years of Hip-Hop torch reignited by the recent Soul Jazz Big Apple Rappin' comp. If you're anything like us you totally loved the feel good sounds on that collection but still wanted more from that era, but maybe with a bit of a weirder edge. Which makes this two disc collection of the Celluloid label's early hip-hop roster so appealing. Celluloid was the label founded by a former co-owner of BYG, a label known and adored by most avant/free-jazz lovers. With Bill Laswell on board as one of their talent scouts they built a roster of hip-hop artists with feet and beats crossing all lines and genres. Futura 2000 hooking up with The Clash. John Lydon alongside Afrika Bambatta. Nods to early graffiti culture, some raps in French, and beats that will make you wanna bust out your old breakdancing moves.
MPEG Stream: FUTURE 2000 W/ THE CLASH "Escapades Of Futura 2000"
RealAudio clip: FAB FIVE FREDDY "Change The Beat"
MPEG Stream: D.ST "Crazy Cuts"

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BARKLEY'S BARNYARD CRITTERS Mystery Tail (Load) dvd 14.98
A massive dose of drug drenched weirdness from Lightning Bolt / Load Records. This installment of Barkley's Barnyard Critters, a tale of an animal rock band, alchemy gone wrong, grave digging, and other bizarre mind bending ridiculousness, is the third, you may have glimpsed volume two on the Load Pick A Winner DVD from a few years back (the first was a super limited VHS tape, included here as a bonus feature!) and holy crap is this some gloriously demented stuff. AMAZING animation by Lightning Bolt's Brian Gibson, an incredible mix of computer animation, stop motion, and live action, totally amazing to look at, although the story is probably better understood high, but boy is it fun, crazy voices from a who's who or Rhode Island underground rockers, killer design, and again the animation! Wow. It goes from primitve and handmade, to totally high tech, often in the same scene. Gonna take a few viewings to totally understand what the heck is going on, but what a trip!
Bonus features include Wizardzz live (we made their most recent record a highlight a few weeks back), totally costumed up (how the hell do they play in those costumes?) the filmstock treated and colored to make it even more psychedelic, something called "Totem Tour", a four minute blast of brightly colored, spastic, psychedelic costume rock freakout, and the much more primitve first volume of Barkley's Barnyard Critters.
Highly recommended!

BUCKSHOT BOYS: DEER HUNTING, BRITISH CULTURE & ROCK MUSIC COLLIDE AT ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES (Chunklet) dvd 14.98
Those Chunklet ne-er do wells have been at it again, but we're not at all surprised. We know very well that team leaders Henry Owings and Brian Teasley have always got some sort of mischief in the works (whether it be in the form of their infamous magazine, a radio podcast, a dvd or ???) with their worthy accomplices (many of them members of various notorious bands). Nope, we can't imagine them ever sitting on their hands like well-behaved young'uns. Their last video offering "Brother Versus Brother: Civil War Reenactment & Rock Music Collide At SXSW" featured their gleeful antics at South By Southwest 2004. This new one has the gang on a collision course with another music festival. Their destination? All Tomorrow's Parties in the U.K. Lead by two oddly familiar looking good ol' boys Chuck B. Weegan and D.J. Clancy, they aggressively offer to all within earshot (or in this case buckshot) a lesson in deer hunting and indie rock irony whether it's wanted or not. Interviewees include the Melvins, Mogwai, Neil Hamburger, Polar Goldie Cats, Ted Leo, Need New Body, Deerhoof and Spoon among others (some of them already hip to the goings-on, others clearly much less so). Not for the faint of heart nor for the easily annoyed.

HAPPY FLOWERS 20th Anniversary Live (Lost Frog) dvd-r 23.00
Boy do we have a soft spot for Mr. Anus and Mr. Horribly Charred Infant. Otherwise known as the Happy Flowers. Most of you in your thirties (like most of us) grew up on classic college radio, loving everything on Merge, Homestead, Matador, Amphetamine Reptile, Touch And Go, Ajax, bands like Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, the Frogs, Bastro, Squirrel Bait, Killdozer and of course the HAPPY FLOWERS! for those of you who are either too young, or somehow missed out, the Happy Flowers were two guys who recorded totally improvised noise drenched records that explored the subtle nuances of being a kid, and all the pain that that entailed. The music was an ear blasting, exercise in chaotic noise, no riffs or melodies, just thick slabs of guitarnoise, feedback, and scabbling, scraping, squealing, while over the top, the duo screamed and shouted heartbreaking tales of toddler and teenage terror, "They Cleaned My Cut Out With A Wire Brush", "Mom And Dad Like The Baby More Than Me", "Charlie Got A Haircut", "More Mittens", "If This Gun Were Real (I Could Shoot You And Sleep In The Big Bed With Mommy)" and the legendary "Mom, I Gave The Cat Some Acid." Warped wailing brutality, an acquired taste for sure, but how could you not loved these guys. Totally giving the middle finger to the more 'typical' bands of the day, finding strange fans (James McNew of Yo La Tengo was a member at once point) and creating a truly infamous body of work. So, imagine how totally geeked we were to discover Mr Horribly Charred Infant was a mailorder customer of ours!!! We had a massive music nerd meltdown.
Anyway, back in 2004, Mr. Anus and Mr. HCI reunited for a 20th anniversary reuinion show, at the Tokyo Rose in Charlottesville, Virginia and before a small but appropriately worshipful crowd, they proceeded to totally and utterly destroy. Joined on stage by drummer Mike Malinin (from the Goo Goo Dolls, we kid you not!) the 2004 version of the Happy Flowers was a totally different beast (reflecting the later more refined hardcore side of the Flowers), songs that were just ear splitting smears of nasty noise, became pumelling hardcore jams, free noise freakouts got pinned down by the pounding drums and sheets of guitarnoise became actual riffs, and the band ripped through revamped versions of all their classics. They even revisit their unlikely version of Big Star's "Thirteen"! Who would of thought the Happy Flowers would ever try anything like that. But it works and totally kills. Well shot, the sound is great, the between song banter is a blast, makes me kick myself for missing it. Thankfully we managed to get a handful of these DVD-r's, released on Japanese label Lost Frog, and limited to only 100 copies, so act fast, or prepare to be very very disappointed. Insert and cover art by Mr. Anus.
Shhhhh... but rumour has it that our own Andee has been talking with Mr. Horribly Charred Infant about the possibility of some sort of Happy Flowers boxset, but that's all we're at liberty to say right now...

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----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed :
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If you want to order one of these, just do a search on the item you want, and when the result comes up just click on the BUY button!

7 YEAR RABBIT CYCLE "Ache Horns" (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98
A SCANNER DARKLY "s/t" (Gilead Media) cd 10.98
A-TRAK "Oh No You Didn't" (Disque Primeur) cd 15.98
ABOMINABLE IRON SLOTH, THE "s/t" (Goodfellow) cd 15.98
ACID MOTHERS GONG "Live In Nagoya" (Vivo) cd 15.98
ADAMS, JOHN LUTHER "The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies" (Cantaloupe) cd 21.00
AGENTS DEL FUTURO "Mydrone" (Dielectric) cd-r 11.98
ALOG "Catch That Totem" (Melektronik) cd 16.98
ANIMALS & MEN "Revel In The Static" (Hyped To Death) cd 13.98
AREA C "Traffics + Discoveries" (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98
ASTERIADI, POPI WITH LAKIS PAPPAS "Another Sunday Gone" (World Psychedelic Ltd.) cd 17.98
ATAVIST "s/t" (Invada) cd 15.98
JON AUER "Songs From The Year Of Our... " (Pattern 25) cd 13.98
BARR "Beyond Reinforced Jewel Case" (5 Rue Christine) cd 14.98
BATTIATO, FRANCO "Fetus" (Water) cd 15.98
BATTISTI, LUCIO "Amore E Non Amore" (Water) cd 14.98
BENGA "Newstop" (Beng) cd 16.98
BIRD SHOW "Lightning Show" (Kranky) cd 14.98
BLACK COBRA "Bestial" (At A Loss) cd 13.98
BLACKOUT "s/t" (World Psychedelic Ltd.) cd 17.98
BLACK OX ORKESTAR "Nisht Azoy" (Constellation) cd/lp 14.98/16.98
BOXCUTTER "Oneiric" (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
BRAZOES, OS "s/t" cd 21.00
BULLWACKIES ALL STARS "Dub Unlimited" (Wackies) cd 15.98
COLOSSAL YES "Acapulco Roughs" (Ba Da Bing) cd 13.98
CONGOS, THE & FRIENDS "Fisherman Style" (Blood And Fire) 2cd 17.98
COUNTRY TEASERS "The Empire Strikes Back" (In The Red) cd 13.98
COUP, THE "Pick A Bigger Weapon" (Epitaph) cd 13.98
COURT AND SPARK, THE "Hearts" (Absolutely Kosher) cd
DAEDELUS "Denies The Day's Demise" (Mush) cd 13.98
DANIELSON "Ships" (Secretly Canadian) cd/lp 14.98
DATURAH "s/t" (Graveface) cd 10.98
DIM MAK "Knives Of Ice" (Willowtip) cd 14.98
EDISON WOODS "Nest Of Machines" (Habit Of Creation) cd 13.98
EHLERS, EKKEHARD "A Life Without Fear" (Staubgold) cd 15.98
EMBRUJO "s/t" (Amort) cd 17.98
EMERGENCY "Homage To Peace" (America) cd 17.98
ERSEN "Dunden Bugune" (Underground Masters) cd 21.00
EXCEPTER / LEB-LAZE "split" (Hoss) 12" 11.98
FATHER YOD AND THE SPIRIT OF '76 "Contraction" (Swordfish) cd 17.98
FLAT EARTH SOCIETY / THE LOST "Waleeco / Space Kids" (Arf! Arf!) cd 16.98
GAMELAN SON OF LION "Metal Notes" (Locust) cd 14.98
GIBSON, JON "Two Solo Pieces" (New Tone) cd 24.00
GIBSON, JON "Visitations I & II + Thirties" (New Tone) cd 24.00
GULTSKRA ARTIKLER "Pofigistka" (Lampse) cd 15.98
HANS GRUSEL'S KRANKENKABINET "Happy As Pitch" (C.i.p.) cd 11.98
HEADS, THE "Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive" (Invada) cd 15.98
INSTANT AUTOMATONS "Another Wasted Sunday Afternoon" (Hyped2Death) cd 13.98
ISLANDS "Return To The Sea" (Equator) cd 14.98
JANDEK "What Else Does The Time Mean" (Corwood) cd 8.98
KAITO "Hundred Million Light Years" (Kompakt) cd 15.98
KALAS "s/t" (Tee Pee) cd 15.98
KALEVALA "People No Names/Boogie Jungle" (Walhalla) cd 21.00
KANE, JONATHAN "I Looked At The Sun" (Radium/Table Of Elements) cd 12.98
KAWABATA, MAKOTO "Inui 1" (VHF) cd 13.98
KUUPUU "Kulta Sulka" (self released) cd-r 8.98
LAZY FARMER "s/t" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98
LOPEZ, FRANCISCO "Absolute Noise Ensemble" (Blossoming Noise) 2cd 16.98
LYE, LEN "Composing Motion" (Atoll) cd 17.98
MAGIK MARKERS "Inverted Belgium" (Hospital) lp 16.98
MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "Live 1984-85" (P.S.F.) cd 21.00
MAJOR STARS "Synoptikon" (Important) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
MATADORS, THE "s/t" (World Psychedelia Ltd.) cd 17.98
MGR "Nova Lux" (Neurot) cd 14.98
MIDNIGHT CIRCUS, THE "s/t" (Hyped2Death) cd 13.98
MONSTER MAGNET "25 Tab" (SPV) cd 14.98
MONSTER MAGNET "Spine Of God" (SPV) cd 13.98
MOONKYTE "Count Me Out" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98
MORD "Christendom Perished" (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
MOULTON, TOM "A Tom Moulton Mix" (Soul Jazz) cd 23.00
MY CAT IS AN ALIEN "Cosmic Light of the Third Millennium" (Important) cd 14.98
OBSESSED, THE "Lunar Womb" (Meteor City) cd 14.98
ORIENTAL SUNSHINE "Dedicated To The Bird We Love" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98
OS BRAZOES "s/t" (RGE) cd 17.98
OS MUTANTES "Jardim Eletrico (#4)" (Universal / Polydor Brazil) cd 19.98
OS MUTANTES "Mutantes E Seus Cometas No Pais Do Baurets (#5)" (Universal / Polydor Brazil) cd 19.98
OTOMO YOSHIHIDE / BILL LASWELL / YOSHIDA TATSUYA "Episome" (Tzadik) cd 16.98
OVO "Miastenia" (Load) cd/lp 14.98/11.98
PALMER, CLIVE "Banjoland" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98
PEEESSEYE (PSI) "Oo-Ee-Oo (Burnt Offering)" (Evolving Ear) cd-r 8.98
PEKLER, ANDREW "Four B-Movies - Aim Jukebox Series" (Aim) 7" 4.50
PELT "Skullfuck / Bestio Tergum" (VHF) cd 13.98
PENTAGRAM "Be Forewarned" (Peaceville) cd 14.98
PINK MOUNTAINTOPS "Axis Of Evol" (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98
PLACE OF SKULLS "Black Is Never Far Away" (Exile On Mainstream) cd 14.98
PRINCE "3121" (Universal) cd 15.98
PUMICE "Yeahnahvienna" (Soft Abuse) cd 13.98
REIGNS "We Lowered A Microphone Into The Ground" (Jonson Family Records) cd 14.98
ROWE, KEITH / TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA "Between" (Erstwhile) 2cd 27.00
RUBINHO E MAURO ASSUMPCAO "Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei" (Discos Mariposa) cd 17.98
SAKHI, HOMAYUN "Music Of Central Asia Vol. 3: The Art Of The Afghan Rubab" (Smithsonian Folkways) cd+dvd 21.00
SALA "Arhimo" (Last Visible Dog) cd 12.98
SATA, KOKANKO "s/t" (Honest Jon's Records) cd 16.98
SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Blau" (Captain Trip) cd 25.00
SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Gelb" (Captian Trip) cd 25.00
SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Grun" (Captian Trip) cd 25.00
SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Rot" (Captain Trip) cd 25.00
SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Schwarz" (Captain Trip) cd 25.00
SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Zug" (Qbico) lp 25.00
SEIKAZOKU "Live In Japan" (Vivo) cd 15.98
SERENA-MANEESH "s/t" (Honeymilk) cd 13.98
SHANKAR, ANANDA "A Life In Music" (Times Square) 2cd 16.98
SICKOAKES "Seawards" (Type Records) cd 15.98
SMITH, CHES "Congs For Brums" (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98
SMITH, TERRY "Fall Out" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98
SNOWBLOOD "The Human Tragedy" (SuperFi / Lawgiver) cd 13.98
SONIC YOUTH "Helen Lundeburg / Eyeliner" ( SYR) 7" 4.50
SPECTRE FOLK "s/t" (3 Lobed) cd 14.98
STAX, MIKE, ANDY NEILL & JOHN BAKER "Ugly Things Magazine Presents: Don't Bring Me Down... Under - The Pretty Things In New Zealand, 1965" (UT Publishing) book 18.95
STORM, THE "s/t" (Wah Wah) cd 21.00
STORY, THE "Tale Spin" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98
SUBTLE "Wishingbone" (Lex) 2cd 11.98
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
SWAGGER JACK "The Feral Blood Of..." (Last Visible Dog) cd 12.98
TELESCOPES, THE "Taste" (Rev-Ola) cd 17.98
TERRESTRIAL TONES "Dead Drunk" (Paw Tracks) cd 14.98
THRALLDOM "A Shaman Steering The Vessel Of Vastness" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
TOYOZUMI, SABU & EXIAS-J "Son's Scapegoat" (Siwa) cd 14.98
TUSK "Get Ready" (He Who Corrupts Inc.) cd 14.98
V/A "Hijos Del Agobio Y Del Dolor" (Dro Atlantic) 2cd 37.00
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 "Never The Same: Leave-Taking From The British Folk Revival 1970-1977" (Honest Jons) cd 16.98
V/A "Panama!" (Sound Way) cd/2lp 16.98/21.00
VAN BOVEN "I.E.D." (Edgetone) cd 9.98
VOLCANO THE BEAR "Classic Erasmus Fusion" (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2cd 15.98
WARA "El Inca" (Revista) cd 17.98
WERREN, PHILLIP "Electronic Music" (Cast Exotic) 2cd 21.00
WHITMAN, KEITH FULLERTON "Recorded In Lisbon" (Kranky) cd 10.98
WITCHERY "Don't Fear The Reaper" (Century Media) cd 12.98
WORLD OF OZ, THE "s/t" (Repertoire) cd 24.00
WORMS OF SABNOCK "Dark Harmonies" (Firestorm) cd 14.98

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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


----} on the way any second now
Avarus "Vesikansi" cd on Secret Eye

----} May 2nd
Zombi "Surface To Air" cd on Relapse
Enslaved "Ruun" cd on Candlelight
Phill Niblock "Touch Three" 3cd on Touch
John Zorn "Moonchild" cd on Tzadik
Black Keys "Chulahoma" cd on Fat Possum
The Court and Spark "Hearts" cd on Absolutely Kosher
They Might Be Giants "Severe Tire Damage" cd
RJD2 "Magnificent Instrumentals" cd
Wolfmother "s/t" cd
Giuseppe Ielasi "s/t" cd on Hapna
Ekkehard Ehlers "A Life Without Fear" cd/lp on Staubgold

----} 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
Black Heart Procession "The Spell" cd/lp on Touch and Go
Danielson "Ships" cd
Art Brut "Bang Bang Rock and Roll" cd domestic release
Grandaddy "Just Like The Fambly Cat" cd on V2
Red Hot Chili Peppers "Stadium Arcadium" cd on Warners
Jonathan Kane "I Looked At The Sun" cd on Table Of Elements
John Cale "New York in the 1960s" cd on Table Of Elements
Zach Hill & Mick Barr "Shred Earthship" cd on 5RC
Neil Young "Living With War" cd

----} 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
Dissection "Reinkaos" cd on The End
Deathprod "6-track" 10" on Rune Grammofon
v/a "Until Human Voices Wake Us And We Drown" 5x10" on Rune Grammofon
Tied & Tickled Trio "A.R.C." dvd+cd on Morr
Year Of "Slow Days" cd/lp on Morr

----} May 23rd
Vetiver "To Find Me Gone" cd/2lp on DiChristina
Knut "Alter" remix cd on Hydra Head (w/ mixes by Francisco Lopez, Asmus Tietchens, Oren Ambarchi, Dalek, Spectre, and others!)
The Walkmen "A Hundred Miles Off" cd/lp on Record Collection
Mission Of Burma "The Obliterati" cd on Matador
Ocrilim "Anoint" cd on I And Ear
Earth "Phase 3: Thrones and Dominons" reissue on Sub Pop in May along with vinyl reissues of all the Sub Pop Earth albums!
Red Sparowes / Gregor Samsa split cd on Robotic Empire
Bloodhaag "Hell Bent For Letters" cd/lp on Alternative Tentacles
Kayo Dot "Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue" 2lp on Robotic Empire
The Goslings "Spaceheater/Perfect Interior" cd on Crucial Blast

----} May 30th
Celtic Frost "Monotheist" cd on Century Media

----} 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

----} June 13th
OCS "Cool Death Of The Island" cd/lp on Narnack
Spektr "Near Death Experience" cd on Appease Me / Candlelight
Smog "Rock Bottom Riser" cdep on Drag City
Six Organs Of Admittance "The Sun Awakens" cd/lp on Drag City

----} also in June
Solar Anus "Skull Alcoholic" 2cd on tUMULt

----} July 7th
Striborg "Embittered Darkness /Isles de Morts" cd domestic release on Southern Lord

----} July 25th
Gorgoroth "Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam" cd on Candlelight

----} also upcoming, sooner or later
Jacob Kirkegaard "4 Rooms" cd on Touch
Don Caballero "World Class Listening Problem" cd on Relapse
Om "Conference Of the Birds" lp on Holy Mountain
Kemialliset Ystavat "Varisevien Tanssi / Silmujen Marssi" cd version on Kevyt Nostalgia
Slint "tba" DVD on Touch And Go
Boris "Vein" limited LP on Important
Boris with Merzbow "I am the walrus" 12" on Hydra Head
Elope "Nine Distilled Dreams" cd on Gravitation (this fall)
v/a Conet Project II !!!!!!!!! (maybe a long ways off...)

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THE HUSBANDS!!!!!!

AQ pals the Husbands will be playing all over the place over the next few months, so those of you in the Bay Area do not want to miss


Sat. April 22nd
"THE PRICE OF YOUR SOUL"
The Husbands
DJ HardCore Danceable soul
At The Cassanova Bar at
16th and Valencia. Bar Time (21 and Up).
Bring your rug tearin slippers!- The price of your soul is...
FREE

Fri 5/5
The Husbands
Dream Date
The Makes Nice
At The Ivy Room
858 San Pablo Ave, Albany, 94706 - (510) 524-9220

Sat 5/13
The Husbands
Jeffrey Novak-1-man-band
The Ratraps
The Demolition Doll Rods
At The Knockout
3223 Mission St San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 550-6994
$8 9pm

Sat. 5/27
The Husbands
Watusi Zombie from Japan
At The Knockout
3223 Mission St San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 550-6994

Wed 5/31
The Husbands
Heavenly States
The Citizens Here and Abroad
At The Cafe Dunord
2170 Market St San Francisco,
CA 94114 (415) 861-5016
$8 advance $10 at door 9pm

Fri 6/9
The Husbands
(Release party for The Husbands 2nd Record "There's Nothing I'd Like More
Than To See You Dead")
The Makes Nice
The Losin' Streaks
At Annies Social Club
917 Folsom St. @ 5th.St. San Francisco, CA. 94107
This is gonna be a great party-Don't miss it!!!!

Sat 7/1
The Husbands
The Struts
DJ Tina Luchesi
(for Lauren's B-day)
At Benders Bar and Grill
806 S Van Ness Ave
San Francisco (415) 824-1800 Cross Street:19th St.

For those of you who have yet to check out the Husbands, here's what we had to say about their kick ass first record released last year (new one on the way!):

Finally! The debut album from local garage rock trio The Husbands -- a band that just happens to feature ex-AQ staffer, our beloved Sadie Shaw on guitar, maracas and backup vocals. In fact it's all girls on this record, though they've got a boy playing added percussion on stage with 'em once in a while. In addition to Sadie's fabulousness there's the authentic, so-appropriate voice of Sarah Reed -- sexily raspy from whiskey and cigarettes, but she still hits the notes, the girl can sing; and then there's the rhythmic pound of drummer Nikki Sloate. This fierce, all-attitude band is really into rockin', with a deep love for and knowledge of their '60s inspirations / source material. Half the songs are well chosen covers that get the rough 'n raw Husbands treatment -- tunes by Half Pint and the Fifths, The Barbarians, Carole King, even a punk-energized version of Bo Diddley's "Cadillac". Definitely a super-fun live band (go see 'em if you get the chance, which you probably will 'cause they're so hard workin') who've managed to capture their energy and attitude on this lil' round disc.

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OXBOW

CONIFER

MAUSOLEA

Live!!! Sunday June 6th

at the Hemlock Tavern
1131 Polk Street @ Post

Most of you should already know all about Oxbow, but if not, here's what we had to say about their most recent cd/DVD:

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!

And of course we've also LOVE Conifer. How much? This much:

Bands have been naming themselves after all manner of objects and creatures since the beginning of rock and roll. Heavy bands tending toward the mighty, the fierce or at least the very large. All manner of monsters and demons, various tigers and lions and even some sea creatures have been represented. But the largest, most imposing objects in nature have been sadly neglected as a source for inspiration and band-naming. TREES. So we have Conifer to right that wrong. And in doing so, judging from this ferocious slab of indie rock / metal sludge hypno-pummel, you'd certainly be forgiven for thinking this particular tree could take on any of the rock demons and metallic beasties that came before.
Conifer sleepily trawl through the dark recesses of post rock, taking the languorous slow burning churn of bands like Slint or Seam Or Bastro, all dark and brooding, simple and insistent, and stretching the riffs and melodies into expansive stretches of moody melancholy, swathed in Pink Floydian swoosh and whirl, before dropping the bomb. Massive downtuned guitars explode, splitting post rock atoms into clumps of corrosive riffage, peppered with raspy howls and screeching banshee melodies, sometimes gaining momentum and becoming unstoppable exercises in epic doomy drone-metal ala Neurosis or Isis, sometimes becoming glacial explorations into slow motion doom a la Khanate, and other times employing distorted ghostly computer vocals and buzzing psychedelia into Butthole Surfers-like sonic freakouts. A lot of this does definitely sound like Isis, Neurosis, Pelican or Buried At Sea, which is obviously a good thing, but more often it sounds like a doom-sludge A Minor Forest or a post rock Boris or a very metal Slint. Which is an even better thing!

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May 13th
8pm-12am
21+ with ID

(The Lord Weird) Slough Feg
Stinking Lizaveta

Onsix Gallery at Club 6
60 6th Street
San Francisco, CA
94109

----

THE SERENADE IS DEAD
May 12th, 2006
Art Opening from 7pm - 9pm
Afterparty from 9pm - 2am

SOLO ART SHOW BY
DERRICK SNODGRASS

GROUP ART SHOW BY
AUSTIN BARBER
VICTOR J. BLUE
FREDDY CORBIN
DAVID V. D'ANDREA
DRU DONOVAN
CHRIS DUNCAN
CHRIS FITZPATRICK
KYLE GARNER
CLAUDINE GOSSETT
MARY HOWE
BESSIE KUNATH
TIM LEHI
SHAWNA MCAFEE
KEEGAN MCHARGUE
RANDY MORDECAI
JOE O'NEIL
MICHAEL PAGE
JUAN PUENTE
JEFF RASSIER
ALBERT REYES
JASON ROBERTS-DOBRIN
MOSES SAARNI
SHAM
BETTY SHORT
CHARLIE SKINNER
GAVIN STEVENS
MOLLY STREET
SCOTT SYLVIA
ALISON THARP
AMY THOMPSON
ZEFREY THROWELL
JESSE TUESDAY
JEF WHITEHEAD
KATY ZAUGG

GUEST CURATED BY
JASON MCAFEE

LIVE PERFORMANCES
SAROS (record release party)
ASUNDER
TOTIMOSHI
DJ TINY BABY CIMS (gun club)
DJ BERTIE P. (paradise boys)

ONSIX GALLERY
60 6th Street
San Francisco, CA
21+ with ID
free before 9pm, $5

*Ticket holders for The Treasures of Long Gone John at SF DocFest
admitted free! See sfindie.com for info


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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanLaurenAshleyPamJasonChristineKerryIrwin and Scott