NADJA Touched (Alien8) cd 13.98
While not a 'new' record per se, Touched, by AQ dreamdoom faves Nadja is in fact their newest release, a collection of older tracks, from a long out of print cd-r, reworked and retooled into arguably one of the prettiest, heaviest, most blissed out doom records of recent memory.
Which makes sense when you consider the fact that Nadja mastermind Aidan Baker, spends the rest of his time creating gorgeous, fuzzy dark ambient soundscapes, all of which end up informing his more metallic alter ego, turning what could have been a run of the mill funereal downtuned trudge, into a mind bending, ear melting psychedelic drift.
Quite possibly the heaviest Nadja record yet, this is a serious slab of spaced out, acid fried, FX drenched doom, all wrapped in thick swirls of soft fuzz, and dense clouds of blurry buzz, a monstrous caveman plod through a thick, smeary sonic storm. It's like Godflesh wrapped in My Bloody Valentine filtered through some Wolf Eyes, or the Swans covered by the Jesus And Mary Chain, remixed by Tim Hecker. Or even Mogwai's Young Team run through a bank of effects pedals and played back at 16rpm. Heavy and pretty, punishing but strangely serene.
And then there are the vocals, soft and lilting and dreamy, fluttering and floating amidst the crash and cacophony, like mysterious spectres, an amazing juxtaposition of industrial throb and glistening shimmer, which ends up sounding almost more Jesu than Jesu.
The guitars are massive, but instead of sounding like the black tar rumble of impossibly downtuned strings, or the jagged crunch and black buzz of other purveyors of metallic slowmotion, Nadja transform their guitars into thick washes of textured sound, constantly pulsing and throbbing, changing shape and color, thick and dense and suffocating, like being submerged in some strange viscous liquid, warm and syrupy, heard from inside this strange sonic cocoon, the outside world becomes a buzzy blur, all the beats and vocals, when they finally make it to your ears, are dull murky plods, or distant wisps of melody.
Each track, at its center, contains a perfect little pop core, some gorgeously melancholy melody, a seriously sublimated hook, which is summarily stretched and twisted into long black stretches of blown out sound, an impossibly heavy slowcore, the poppiness, all but totally obscured by the coruscating sheets of sonic rumble and whir, the pumelling pound, and the gauzy swaths of dreamy shimmer. A never ending (we wish) trudge through epic landscapes of black beauty and bleak mystery.
Doom was never meant to sound this pretty, but we're sure as hell not complaining!
MPEG Stream: "Mutagen"
MPEG Stream: "Stays Demons"
MPEG Stream: "Incubation"

V/A Hyphy Hitz (TVT) cd 15.98
Living in the Bay Area, we've obviously been hearing all about Hyphy for about a year now, a distinctly Bay Area sound, not all that dissimilar to Crunk or the chopped and screwed sound of the Dirty South, but with a vibe that was distinctly, well Hyphy (a mix of hype and fly btw). A sound that supposedly just sort of sprouted up in the beginning of 2006. We'd heard tracks by all the main movers in the scene, Keak Da Sneak, Mac Dre, E-40, and while we dug it, it didn't really sound all that different from the Bay Area hip hop we'd been hearing for years, and it sort of smacked of the great hype machine, coming up with a catch phrase to make something old and tired sound new and fresh again. But maybe we weren't hearing the right tracks, cuz we got our hands on this comp, featuring all the best Hyphy bangers from the first year, and HOLEEEEEEEEE SHIT, is this stuff amazing. Fucked up and funny, funky and fun and so totally over the top. Absolutely irresistible. In fact we sold one to a customer, who called us from his car ten minutes later FREAKING OUT about how great it was, and how every track was so good, he'd skip to the next one, expecting it to be a dud, only to discover it was even better. We had the exact same experience. We listened to a few minutes of each track, constantly skipping forward, not believing that every track could be that fucking great. But they were, and they are!
We've been freaking out about grime for ages, a killer UK hybrid of hip hop and jungle (Dizzee Rascal, Lady Sovereign, Wiley...), we can't get enough of that grimey sound, so fucked up with killer beats and weird loops, and some of the funniest freaked out flows we've ever heard, dense and tongue twisting. With our new found love of grime, we had been lamenting the sad state of US hip hop, the same beats, the same boring gangster rap, the same glossy MTV stuff, but damn if these tracks don't push the exact same buttons that grime does, sounding fresh and thrilling all over again.
But what does Hyphy actually sound like? It's kind of hard to pinpoint, it may be about location as much as sound, the scene as much as the music, but most of the tracks have some common elements. Synths for one. Lots of synths, thick and fuzzy, often the main hook is just a massive buzzing synth melody over a shuffling laid back rhythm. And the rhythms, they don't bang and pound as much as sort of slink. And the rapping, some seriously strange flows, from marble mouthed mumbles, to urgent whispers to Lil' Jon style hollerin' but it's not just the delivery, it's the actual words, a confusional mix of Hyphy slang that has you scratching your head as often as laughing out loud. Check out "I Got Grapes", the main lyric being a wailed "I got graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapes" over a super stripped down beat. Or "Yadadamean" where the main hook is a strangely affected "Yadadamean" repeated over a weirdly epic cinematic synth line. WTF?!? So amazing.
I wish we could describe it more explicitly, but you just gotta hear it. If you're anything like us, you'll be grabbed in the first 30 seconds and won't be able to stop. Normally we're pretty skeptical of 'hits' collections like this, but it's hard to argue with a comp this jam packed with stunners, and we're not about to. Did you dig the B'more Music comp? The Science Faction: Grime comp? The Rio Baile Funk comps? The Warrior Dubz comp? The Razor X Productions comp? Well, you just might have a new favorite. THE dance party record of the year. Whether you're slow rolling with the top down, cranking it through the headphones, or bumpin' and sweatin' up the dancefloor, this disc is THE ONE.
MPEG Stream: THE A'Z "Yadadamean"
MPEG Stream: MESSY MARV "Get On My Hype"
MPEG Stream: NUMP "I Got Grapes"
MPEG Stream: THE TEAM "Hyphy Juice"

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ACRE Candyflipping (Yarn Lazer) cd-r 7.98
A common practice amongst the modern noisemakers, the free folkies and the drone set, is to use everything they can lay their hands on, from run of the mill musical instruments, to random bits of furniture, to strange noise making devices. Lots of cd-r's these days feature "instrument" lists longer than a metal band's thanks list! Often including toothbrush or stained pair of pants, or handful of hair or whatever. A lot of the time it works, and that speaks to the artist's skill in transforming a jumbled mess into something listenable, but just as often, it can become just a massive chaotic cacophony, which again, is not always bad. But there is definitely something to be said for the whole 'less is more' angle. Look at Niblock for example, letting instruments and their overtones create the music, allowing minimal shifts in sound and subtle alterations in melody, duration and timbre to transform those sounds into subtly complex soundscapes. This less is more approach is specially suited for dealing with the drone.
Such is the case with Acre, whose Candyflipping was just released on Honey Owens' (aka Valet) Yarn Lazer label. Using just mixer feedback, a sampler and various filters and phase-shifters, Acre whips up some seriously delirious ultra minimal drone. A hypnotic trance like pulsing buzz, that is constantly shifting, the overtones drifting and swirling subtly, soft shimmers that build into thick streaks of downed power line buzz. The strange thing is, it almost sounds like a guitar a lot of the time, certain bits are definitely reminiscent of that sort of Spacemen 3 style raga drone. Especially on the second track, where the sounds become more active, the different drones falling out of phase and beating hypnotically against each other, creating strange rhythms, and barely discernible melodies.
The third and final track takes that same sort of static buzz, but drops the pitch and ups the distortion, turning the dreamy drift of the previous tracks into some seriously ominous low end rumble, the sort of dirgey drone that would most definitely appeal to fans of more metallic downtuned lower register exploration.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! Hand screened with glow in the dark covers!
MPEG Stream: "Together We Are Posion"
MPEG Stream: "Drifting"

AFFLICTED MAN The Complete Recordings (Senseless Whale) 2cd 22.00
A while back we remember running across a bootleg-looking vinyl reissue of an LP called Get Stoned Ezy by some British band from the early '80s called High Speed and The Afflicted Man. This obscurity was supposed to be an unknown precursor to the blown-out psychedelic speed freaks sound of Japan's High Rise -- in other words, a holy grail of wah and fuzz. Tom Lax wrote a review of it on his Siltblog that said it sounded like Saint Vitus covering Les Rallizes Denudes! Can anything live up to that? Heck, if Get Stoned Ezy even just remotely came close to living up to its excellent title we'd be curious. Are you curious too?
Well that LP is long gone, but all the tracks from that and more are to be found on this new double cd collection of everything ever recorded by guitarist Steve Hall's DIY punk-psych outfit Afflicted Man (aka Afflicted, aka High Speed and The Afflicted Man). Ramshackle, lo-fi, outsider guitar blurt that reminds us of everything from The Heads to the Stooges to Human Instinct to Michael Yonkers to Zippo Zetterlink to Baby Grandmothers to Acid Mothers Temple and the Pink Ladies Blues. It's psychedelic hard rock done "Messthetics" style.
There's over two hours of music here. Disc one features Afflicted Man's three Bonk label 7" singles, and their The Afflicted Man's Musical Bag LP (which dates from "probably 1979"). The songs from the 7"s are all fairly rockin' punkers, while the Musical Bag LP is weirder and more damaged, with tracks like "Hippy Punk" and "Hippy Skin" (that's what these guys were?), the downer blues of "Glue Sniffing", and the krautrockish "Musically Insane", a track that's really a reinterpretation of their first single "I'm Afflicted", extended to eight minutes and buried amidst shimmering piano and freeform FX. It's what that song would sound like if it was covered by Moolah!
Disc two is where the really fuzz really hits the fan, comprising both the I'm Off Me 'ead LP (1981) and the aforementioned Get Stoned Ezy (1982). On both records, Hendrix and Hawkwind are obvious references, playfully roughed up by these punks n' skins. The three long tracks of Get Stoned Ezy, especially, take that hippy psych sound into a back alley and fuck it up, but all in good weird fun.
While this reish features interesting liner notes from an Aussie fan, we're not really told what happened to the Afflicted Mr. Hall after Get Stoned Ezy. At least he went out at the end of his highest and heaviest half-hour ever!
MPEG Stream: "Get Stoned Ezy"
MPEG Stream: "I'm Afflicted"
MPEG Stream: "Dustbins"
MPEG Stream: "Zip 'Ead"

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #1-7 (self released) MP3 cd-r 10.98
For those of you who missed out on the first seven installments of Astral Social Club's limited series of self released cd-r's (us and probably most of you), the ASC swoops in to save the day with this massive MP3 cd-r, containing every track from all 7 of those discs, 589 mb's, 57 tracks, over FIVE HOURS!!! All for 11 bucks! Hard to beat, and as we've only made it through the first three, we can tell you already, it's well worth it.
Astral Social Club just so happens to be Mr. Neil Campbell, the mastermind behind the genius Vibracathedral Orchestra as well, who for years, has been spending his days off from VCO, recording disc after amazing disc of deliriously spaced out drone, blown out extended ragas, and seemingly endless slabs of hypnotic pulse and drift. Pick any track on any of these seven releases and you'll be instantly transported to some other world, where sounds are alive, everything is glistening, the sky is full of vivid blinding streaks of sound, synths pulse and throb, it's like Terry Riley or Steve Reich transported to some imaginary sci-fi future where they spend all their time composing for Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh.
These seven discs cover a whole lot of ground, from epic droning raga like bliss a la Skullflower or Sunroof!, to simple mesmerizing minimalism a la Riley or La Monte Young, sometimes both at the same time. All of it amazing.
MPEG Stream: "1.1"
MPEG Stream: "1.2"
MPEG Stream: "7.1"
MPEG Stream: "7.2"

BAKER, AIDAN Broken & Remade (Volubilis) cd 12.98
The Aidan Baker / Nadja musical onslaught shows no signs of letting up any time soon, but we're sure as heck not complaining. This week's Record of the Week is the blissy doom of Nadja's Touched, we also have the vinyl reissue of Bodycage, and then we've got this, Broken & Remade, a definite new direction for Baker, who for this disc, used 4 to 8 second samples of live recordings of analog instruments -- guitar, bass, flute, drums, violin, trumpet, and voice -- to construct these moody, almost jazzy soundscapes.
If you're not listening to close it does just sound like some modern jazz band, crawling through a particularly blissy and smokey jam, the Necks for sure come to mind, as does Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore. The drums shuffle, the guitars buzz, the melodies are serpentine and dreamy, the obvious looping is kept to a minimum, at least in the beginning. Imagine the Bad Plus covering Oval or some Fennesz / Necks remix and you might get a rough idea. The second track, is a bit more glitchy and obviously sampled, but it doesn't take Baker long to build a killer groove, turning all of those little sonic fragments into some sort of Spring Heel Jack, Boards Of Canada dreamy almost IDM shuffle. Even at its smoothest and most straight ahead, Baker laces the proceedings with little bits of digital filigree, a kick drum sputtering repeatedly, a simple lick chopped and reassembled into a little burst of stuttery fuzz, a note here or a drum beat there flipped backwards, it all adds subtle bits of weirdness to the proceedings.
Later in the record things get decidedly more aggressive and freaked out, with thick slabs of distorted sound turned into stuttering fuzz drenched drones, chopped into staggered sonic pulses over drifting mariachi trumpet. Intense post rock workouts gradually become more and more dense until they are dizzying squalls of skittering drums and tangled guitar melodies. Pretty far out, but the songs never become unhinged, this is not any kind of Shitmat style mashup, this is a lot more subtle than that, some seriously deft composition, creating an immensely appealing alien post rock jazz, unlike anything we've heard before.
While Baker fans and Nadja obsessives will NEED this, folks into Boards Of Canada, Spring Heel Jack, Bohren, the Necks, the Bad Plus, and even stuff like Portishead and other late night groove merchants might really dig this as well.
MPEG Stream: "Debra Modern Ken"
MPEG Stream: "Ab Mad Kern One Te"

BE PERSECUTED I.I. (No Colours) cd 15.98
According to No Colours, the strangely named Be Persecuted are in fact the first Chinese black metal band. Not sure how one determines if a band is in fact the first from a country, especially one as big as China, but Be Persecuted are certainly the first Chinese black metal band -we've- ever heard, and I.I. is really pretty fantastic.
Strange song titles like "Painful Assemble" and "Be Resented For Livelihood" barely hint at the strange mournful melancholia inside. Beginning with a very Eastern style synth intro, the band launch into some blasting buzzing super grim classic sounding black metal. But then the keyboards surface, and for the rest of the record seem to always be lurking in the background giving the sound a very creepy sorrowful vibe. And the distortion. Not sure what these guys use for distortion pedals, but holy shit, it's some of the harshest and thickest fuzzy hiss we've heard in ages. Like Darkthrone and Burzum if they ran their guitars through a thousand hair dryers set on high.
The best tracks are the more midtempo numbers, where the band totally excel in finding their own Burzumic path, like on the 13 minute "Wilderness", a slow loping buzz drenched midtempo plod, as depressive and doomy as any BM we've heard. But the track that seals the deal is "Some How", which is the only song here actually sung in Chinese, and that begins with a lovely lilting acoustic guitar, gently fingerpicking a melancholy melody, before the distortion and drums kick in, but the song doesn't really change, it's the same lilting lope, just wreathed in a dense field of crackling buzzing distortion. It's almost like some slow core rock ballad but dipped in a boiling cauldron of Burzum! Pretty weird for sure, but so fucking cool. The record winds down with a reprise of the intro, only this time the notes are dirty and distorted, grinding and buzzing through the same melody but with a completely different result...
Awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Suicide Forest"
MPEG Stream: "Painful Assemble"
MPEG Stream: "Be Resented For Livelihood"

BLACK TO COMM Wir Konnen Leider Nicht Etwas Mehr Zu Tun... (Dekorder) 2lp 21.00
A brand new record from one of our new favorite drone outfits, the strangely named Black To Comm, who do indeed share their monicker with a killer MC5 track and a bad ass magazine, but whose sound is well removed from any sort of garage stomp, instead, these guys occupy some glorious netherworld where the sounds of Fennesz, SUNNO))), Earth, Merzbow and Troum all blend into one epic organic whole.
Utilizing a relatively limited musical palette, organ, tape loops, feedback, vinyl loops, computers, voice as well as the less obvious kitchen gamelan and harmophon, Black To Comm weave epic slow motion doomscapes, as textural and dreamy as they are dense and heavy.
The disc opens with huge organ drones, reminiscent of Niblock or Palestine, rumbling and whirring, massive waves of thick sound, while beneath lurk microscopic squeaks and creaks. The tones and layers subtly shift as does the stereo panning, making the sound intensely immersive and almost dizzying. It eventually builds into an impressive squall, with the addition of swooping and bleeping spacey FX buried beneath the cascading organ tones. And that's just the first track!
The second track begins with a constant foghorn tone, mesmerizing and thickly layered, while far off in the distance tiny sonic events occur, melancholy pianos record crackle, the whole thing transforms into a cacophony off brass-like skree, piled atop warbly snippets of sound, somehow managing to remain dreamy and hypnotic, even at its most chaotic.
The flip side of the first disc begins with a super dense blast of blinding sonic effulgence, so rich and thick and glistening, sparkling with a million fluttering notes all swirling and whirling and beginning to crumble in that gorgeous dying sun sort of way. This intensity eventually gives way to a strange acoustic second half, all serene steel strings and distant kitchen sink clatter.
Side C is all rumbling low end warble, draped thickly over strangely twisted fun-house-mirror melodies and little alien squiggles of sound, the low end pulsing and beating offering up super subtle almost-rhythms.
And finally, the record closer, which takes up ALL of side 4, and epic droning monster, that begins like just another slab of rumble and shimmer, before some serious dissonance is introduced, more brass-like tones that give the sound a very Nitsch like quality. If you can imagine a Pop Ambient Hermann Nitsch you might be close. And c'mon! Pop Ambient and Hermann Nitsch in the same sentence, in the same review, that is all you should need to hear. Way recommended.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

BORFUL TANG On The Back Of A Dying Beast (Gigante Sound) 2cd-r 9.98
First things first, please don't let the dvd-style case fool you! Contained within are not one but two cd-rs by the cryptic entity known as Borful Tang. If you need this mysterious being's back story, please refer to our review of his last release titled Root from a couple years ago.
As a brief recap though, legend has it that Borful Tang is not an earthly being, and its human conduit is Bay Area man-of-many-hats Dominic Cramp. On The Back Of A Dying Beast zeroes in on a select few of the key passages of the previous release (sadly tho' they don't include his previous churning NoMeansNo-isms), and explores them thoroughly -- fleshing out what was only glimpsed fleetingly on Root.
Disc One floods the air with effects-heavy layers of BBC Radiophonic style analog synth wanderings, sporadic android chatter and sludgy lumps of drone. Disc Two on the other hand is far more spare, hushed and calm even.
We suspect that with the consumption of the right, ahem, 'enhancing' substances this could really take you places. Quite the transportive listen. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Juggernaut Soliloquy"
MPEG Stream: "The Tides Of Land"

BORIS WITH MERZBOW Walrus / Groon (Hydra Head) 12" 15.98
More than a year after it was first announced, it's finally here. The anxiously awaited new lp from Japanese psych doom heavyweights Boris, and their Japanoise partner in sonic crime Merzbow. This is Boris / Merzbow matchup number FOUR for those of you keeping score. Now we know, that as with most new Boris releases, no description is really necessary, most of you probably haven't even made it this far, in fact, just seeing the word Boris triggers the perfect Pavlovian response, your finger immediately clicking on the BUY button. And who are we to argue, let's take a second and let the Boris freaks take care of business, then we'll go into a little more depth for those of you who might need to hear a bit more about the long overdue Walrus...


Okay, a brand new Boris record, we know you're excited. We are too. Boris have again teamed up with Merzbow. The two outfits had previously worked together on the absolutely killer drone record Megatone, the epic and sludgy Sun Baked Snow Cave, and the ear shredding live lp 04092001, and now here. The strange thing, is that these two tracks were recorded waaaaaaay back in 2001. So they may even in fact be from the same sessions that spawned one or all of those other releases. Back to business, two tracks, relatively brief, and as with all Boris releases, so completely gorgeously packaged. Deluxe thick gatefold, the front a sort of green to yellow fade, with the Boris / Merzbow logo done all Roger Dean 'Yes' style, the inside, a surreal landscape, also in the style of Roger Dean with some strange turtle/seal creature in the foreground. So completely beautiful. When the bottom drops out on the doom-sludge-drone market, these guys will be some seriously in demand graphic designers. But what does it sound like? Well that's funny too, cuz it's not at all what we expected.
The A side is actually in fact a cover of the Beatles "I Am The Walrus", and a pretty straight cover to boot, minus the noisy ministrations of Merzbow. Beginning with some simulated seal (or seagull?) sounds, the band launches into a fuzzy, laid back version of "Walrus", pretty cool for sure, but here it's all about Merzbow, adding all sorts of hiss and fuzz, most of the time it sounds like some spastic DJ scratching, relentless and dense, elsewhere it's snatches of white noise and weird industrial whirs. The middle chunk of the song finds Boris kicking it up a notch with Wata unfurling some killer Hendrixian leads, but it's almost drowned out by the Merzbow's noisy squalls. Minus the noise, this might not have been so exciting, a pretty straight ahead cover of an oft covered tune, but the strange textures and noisy backdrops manage to transform it into something pretty interesting.
The B side is what does it for us, a massive, overblown super distorted dirgedrone. A thick wall of crumbling guitars, and buzzing crackling electronic hiss, over a wild drum jam, the drums recorded super blown out. It's like Skullfower, Gate, SUNNO))), Yellow Swans and Birchville Cat Motel all jamming at once while a drummer tries desperately to kick up a competing din. Very free, VERY noisy, but pretty kick ass as well.
As with a lot of Boris releases, this is not necessarily one for the newbie, although it could make a decent 2 song sampler for the curious. Fans already know they MUST have it, Boris virgins might want to check out Flood, or Amplifier Worship, or if they are looking for more rock than dirge, maybe Pink, first, but if you're at all curious, don't dawdle, as with all things Boris this will be gone and only available on eBay before you know it...
All right, we got about 100 copies, as far as we can tell there were four different colors, including black. Here's how it works, first come first served on the colored vinyl, once we run out, it's back to black, if you won't be happy with black, then do not order AT ALL, we will not accept orders for ONLY the colored vinyl, we're going to assume, that the reason people buy records, and yes, even Boris records, is to listen to them, and to enjoy the music (wait, these collectible discs contain music??!?) so while it might be cool to have colored vinyl, it's the music you're after, so black will do just fine (and black sounds better as everybody knows), so go ahead and order it, if you're in time to get colored vinyl, you will, if not you'll get black. And as with most things like this, it's SUPER LIMITED and thus is limited to ONE PER CUSTOMER.

CHECKER, CHUBBY Goes Psychedelic (Underground Masters) cd 21.00
When you think deep soulful psychedelic tinged rock the first name that probably does NOT come to mind is Chubby Checker. But guess what, he did in fact brew up a totally potent batch of psych rock burners that somehow slipped completely under the radar.
Apparently Chubby was living in Holland in 1971 when he hooked up with some eccentric and unknown hippie rockers who all seemed to be smoking some seriously good stuff and together they recorded this batch of seriously scorching tracks! Forget everything you know about Chubby Checker. This is not "The Twist", or the golden-oldies or a novelty come-back with the Fat Boys in the '80s. This is impassioned psychedelic rock killer with deep grooves and a super emotional and intense vocal delivery from Chubby. Every time we play this in the store someone thinks it's some rare Hendrix track or an unreleased Arthur Lee gem or some amazing group like Black Merda finally being resurrected. In fact just about all of these songs could have appeared on any of the recent spate of psych reissue comps that we have fallen so in love with (Nuggets, Cherrystones), and actually we were given our first sneak peak into this secret world of Chubby Checker a few years back on the great collection Mr. Toytown Presents Vol. 2: Nightmares at Toby's Shop. We never thought we'd finally hear the whole disc, heck, we didn't even think there -was- a whole disc. Turns out there was, now on cd as Goes Psychedelic though it was originally released on some budget labels variously under the titles New Revelation and Chequered.
There are some mind blowing songs here. Songs that aren't just cool cause it's neat and weird and interesting that they are actually being sung by Chubby Checker but songs that stand on their own two feet and grab your and shake you and sound so damn good! What's also so cool about this recording is that 9 of the 11 songs were actually written by Chubby, so it's not like some hip producer just grabbed a bunch of great songs and slapped his name and voice on them. He shows such an amazing range, from scorching stingers ("Love Tunnel") to druggy cookers ("Stoned In The Bathroom") to darkly solemn tales ("He Died"). What an absolute surprise of a record! We haven't been able to stop playing it since it arrived to AQ. We're completely addicted! And we think you will be too.
MPEG Stream: "Love Tunnel"
MPEG Stream: "How Does It Feel"
MPEG Stream: "Goodbye Victoria"

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS Communal Rust (Community Library) cd 16.98
Ok, so this has been passed around the store for a little while with a rotation of different people assigned to review it. Why the hesitation? It seems the folks around here who had no idea who Christmas Decorations are, took a look at the cover and thought it was perhaps another Christian psych-folk reissue from the seventies or some twee homey Americana and kept putting it below their priority list. And the folks around here who DID know who Christmas Decorations are, from their Kranky debut a few years ago, didn't like that album very much at all, mainly due to its atonal vocalizing over quirky electronica. Well, when we finally put this on, we were pleasantly surprised, if not out and out AMAZED at what we heard. First of all, there are thankfully no vocals, and while this is not the Christian folk or Americana record some of us thought it to be, there is a strain of, er rustic folkiness through the presence of slide guitar as it barely permeates through the murky minimal ambience of shifting electronics. It seems that Christmas Decorations have cleaned house since their debut, removing all the unnecessary elements of song-forms from their compositions, and reducing their sound to layers of decayed and drifting abstractions barely hinting at the melodies beneath them. Think the winter equivalent to Fennesz's Endless Summer. Like the sounds of oxidation on old and rotting wood, subtle and melancholy with the textures of wet dirt and leaves burbling under slowly melting ice. So beautiful! We think fans of Jasper TX and Machinefabriek and similar outfits of dreamy drift would dig this a lot. What a surprise!!
MPEG Stream: "Closer To the Carpet"
MPEG Stream: "Twig Harpoon"
MPEG Stream: "Aphid Text"

DE GENNARO, MATTHEW A Guide For The Perplexed (Epigonic) cd 9.98
Another dose of dreamy acoustic guitar haze from Matt De Gennaro. We loved his last record, Humbled Down, and here he continues in a similar vein through a 5-piece suite of gently finger picked and slide guitar compositions. Although comparisons to the recent primitive guitar school of Fahey, Jack Rose, and Sir Richard Bishop will abound, we feel De Gennaro's airy and spacious compositions are more closely related to William Eaton's pastoral paean's to nature's lonely loveliness. Beautiful.
MPEG Stream: " Part One"
MPEG Stream: "Part Four"

DROMMER Black Moon Float (E.E.E.) cd-r 8.98
Another blast of un-blackness from the E.E.E. camp, the home to some of the most amazing un-black metal we've ever heard. What the heck is unblack metal you ask? In a nutshell, well, it's Christian black metal. And any avid readers of the AQ list will remember us raving about pretty much everything we've heard: Light Shall Previal, Agathothodion, Glaciial and this here band, Drommer.
Unlike the buzzing black hordes these guys call labelmates, Drommer is A. not buzzy, and B. not religious. So what we have is some serious secular black ambience. Or maybe still un-black ambience. Drommer unfurl two epic slabs of spaced out shimmer. The first is a gorgeously layered drone, lots of high end draped over deep resonant whirs, the sounds beating against each other like all the best minimal drone music, creating all manner of subtle tonal variations and gorgeous abstract overtones. Sixteen minutes, simple tones stretched all the way out, all the action and the color and the musical movement comes from the interaction between the various tones, subtle, but utterly hypnotic.
The second track, is more in the dark ambient vein, a nearly 30 minute trawl through some haunting mysterious landscapes. There's some definite Lustmord action going on, which is always a good thing, but where Lustmord is abject and utterly desolate, Drommer lace their dour drones with shimmers of glistening melody and stray beams of sunlight. But even with these brief glimpses of blue sky, for the most part, it's a gorgeous black cloud of sound, chimes are muted and spread into dreamy blurs and laid over a sluggishly flowing stream of mumbled murk and dark dolorous glimmer.
As with all E.E.E. stuff, this is ultra limited, usually only 50 copies, so once these are gone, that may very well be it.
MPEG Stream: "Den Lovet Fremtidig Aeons Av Evig Sporsmal"
MPEG Stream: "For Evig Er Enna Mournful For Det Noensinne Begynt"

EARTH Hibernaculum (Southern Lord) lp 14.98
NOW ON VINYL!!
Holy crap, a new Earth album! Since the full-scale return (and reinvention) of Dylan Carlson's Earth project with last year's highly regarded studio album Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method (a Record Of The Week here at Aquarius when it came out) and subsequent tour, fans of the slow and low have had plenty to be happy about. That album took the extreme drone-metal Earth invented in the early '90s (a sound appropriated by SUNNO))) some years later) and turned it into a bleak n' desolate hybrid of post-rock and country-western! Spacious desert drone dirge with lap steel, something like Low meets Calexico meets the old Earth. Most Earth fans, ourselves included, had to give Hex a spin or two just to be sure we were hearing things right. But then, we all knew we were hearing it right and right it was. Such a great album.
What manner of follow up then is this new Hibernaculum? Well, some of it is gonna sound familiar...yet different. Since Earth's approach has morphed so much over the years, Dylan and co. have decided to revisit and re-record some old Earth compositions in the style of Hex, the way they've been playing 'em on tour, like when we saw them here in SF last year. Not a bad idea at all! You get to hear 'em do the classic "Ouroboros Is Broken" from their 1991 debut Extra-Capsular Extraction, "Coda Maesoso In F (Flat) Minor" from their final Sub Pop album, 1996's Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons, and the obscure "Miami Morning Coming Down" from a 1997 compilation on the Ash label called Scatter. These tunes all get the Hex treatment and wind up as windswept and lovely as you'd expect. There's also a fourth track, a new mix of the 16+ minute "A Plague Of Angels" which originally appeared last year on a very limited edition split vinyl release with SUNNO))). All of these pieces are simply gorgeous. Minimalist, Morricone-cinematic, twangfuzzdrone. Glacial twilight shimmer, velvet-hammer heavy. Droning deep and dark but uplifting as well. Weirdly we realize that Earth now sounds more like Bohren & Der Club Of Gore than Bohren & Der Club Of Gore ever sounded like Earth, if you know what we mean. And their instrumentation is a lot more like Bohren's now, including Hammond B-3, piano, upright bass, and trombone among other things (not the typical doom arsenal).
In the recent Earth documentary, "Within The Drone" (available with the cd version of Hibernaculum), Earth mainman Dylan Carlson, discusses LaMonte Young and suchlike inspirations, but he's got no pretentious theories of "the drone" to espouse, though he does opine interestingly that for him, the more complex music becomes the closer it is to noise. So a simple sound, slowly repeated -- a drone -- is much more to his liking. Aha. Hmm. But it's clear from the sounds on Hibernaculum that simple does not mean "easy". Supreme precision and feel is needed. To play music this slow, they've got to be good -- and they are.
MPEG Stream: "Ouroboros Is Broken"
MPEG Stream: "A Plague Of Angels"

ENCOMIAST Winter's End (Lens Records) cd 9.98
Ever since we first listed Havens, a cd-r by one man free-noise/drone outfit Encomiast, folks around here just haven't been able to get enough. So we tracked down another older release, Espera, reviewed back on list #259, and that too flew out of here like crazy, so we grabbed a handful of another old title, Winter's End. Not sure how available this still is, we got a bunch direct from the man himself, but as it's been out for a while we may not be able to get more once these are gone.
So what is it exactly about Encomiast that has people all in a tizzy? A delirious blend of dark dreamy blackened drones and shimmering cinematic ambience, both deftly woven into long expanses of glacial, oceanic dreaminess. It's a crowded field for sure, anyone with a computer and a cd burner seems to have a label, or at least a drone record our, but there are a select few who are masters at sculpting sound, at creating music with depth and emotion. It's not as simple as notes sustained for the length of a disc. It's all about layer and texture and composition.
Winter's End, more than maybe anything else we've heard from Encomiast, is incredibly evocative and cinematic, in fact listening to this, it's hard not to imagine what images should be accompanying these sounds. From drifting fog banks of bleary fuzz and minimal shimmer, to haunting, string-like smears of minor key melody, rife with ominous longing and sublimated terror, to spacious expanses of murky thrum, hovering around drifting mysterious female vocals. From grinding buzz drenched blurs to abstract modern classical, this is music so visual and visceral, it's hard to just classify as 'drone music'. And it's equally hard not to think in terms of cinematic sound. This is the music of some mysterious journey, a lost kingdom, a tragic loss, impossible loves, restless spirits, an abandoned village, it's pretty remarkable that a single disc can invoke all of these thoughts and images, but Winter's End does. Definitely a new favorite...
MPEG Stream: "Io"
MPEG Stream: "Embrace:Betrayal"
MPEG Stream: "Without Fear Of Wind Or Vertigo"

HOOR-PAAR-KRAAT The Absurdity Of Symbolism (Goat Eater Arts) cd-r 9.98
Brand new record from the always amazing Hoor-Paar-Kraat, whose last few ultra limited cd-r's have flown out of here in no time (we have a tiny clutch of the most recent one, The Nagaraja Movements, but those will probably be gone soon too) and like we've mentioned before, it kills us that music this good, in packaging this gorgeous and elaborate will never be seen or heard by more than the 90 or so folks able to get their hands on them, so c'mon, some big label needs to step up and shower these guys with money. The mind boggles at what they might come up with.
Anyway, this is a brand new full length from Anthony Mangicapra and his band of not so merry men, and they've managed to kick up another serious din, this one even more dark and creepy and noisy than the last. The opening track is like a lo-fi cd-r modern free-noise version of Whitehouse, a dense field of guitar hum and amp buzz, all manner of strange wailing and moaning, distant percussive thumps, little squalls of grinding glitch and high end skree, over which a voice intones some strange tale of record stores and Steven Stapleton and David Tibet and butterflies, only brief bits of the story are audible over the swirl of feeding back guitar and roaring buzz, weird but strangely compelling and listenable. At times it also reminds us of Dutch black ambient technicians Stalaggh, the way they stir up a dense chaotic skree and then have mental patients wail and gnash their teeth over the top, this opening track is like a more subdued version of that.
The rest of the record is also noisy, but in a much more subtle fashion. Guitars and amps buzzing and humming seem to bee the constant, each track offering up various levels of general din, with each, twisting it into a unique shape, sometimes it's muted monklike chants and haunted house creaking, sometimes it's a whirring world of mumbled melodies and strange clicks and skitters, sometimes it's a series of high pitched teapot whistles over a blur squeaks and tinkles, and other times it's reverb drenched loops of girlish laughter and weird crackly static, but it's always dense, and always mysterious and creepy, and always so completely amazing.
And like the music, the package is mind blowing, Mangicapra is an accomplished visual artist as well as a musician, and it shows. A gorgeous oversized dark blue cardstock sleeve, with a thick textured silkscreened band (a bit like a Japanese obi) affixed to the bottom with two brass rivets, and then wrapped around the whole sleeve where it tucks in the front and seals it shut. Inside, the liner notes are pasted to the inside of the strip and on the sleeve beneath the strip is a cool silkscreened symbol, Mangicapra's signature and the number denoting which disc it is (out of a mere 93). So awesome.
LIMITED TO 93 COPIES!!! We will never be able to get more so don't blow it!!
MPEG Stream: "I Am Taking You With Me"
MPEG Stream: "Comfort Was The Culprit"

ISLAJA Ulual Yyy (Fonal) cd 16.98
On her first two records, Finland's Islaja completely swept us off our feet and delivered us to an enchanted world of mystery, warmly wrapped in delicate layers of a unique beauty that just doesn't come around that often. Definitely reminiscent of Brigitte Fontaine's experimental leanings or maybe what we imagine Bjork might sound like stuck deep in a Finnish forest.
With her latest outing Islaja has done it again! She's conjured up a handful of songs that immediately begin to melt into your consciousness the roots going deeper and deeper with every listen. With the subtle addition of horns and electronics to her already dense and seductive sound, Islaja shows once again what a unique vision she possesses. Imagine Patty Waters joining White Magic at a late-night seance... Ulual YYY is like sinking into some warm dreamy state, eyes clouded with wisps of smoke until everything becomes a hazy blur. You're not sure where you are or what to do, but you are absolutely sure there is no where else you would rather be than deep inside Ulual Yyy's alluring and mystifying world. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Pete P"
MPEG Stream: "Muukalais-Silma"
MPEG Stream: "Sydanten Ahmija"

ISLAJA Ulual Yyy (Fonal) lp 17.98
On her first two records, Finland's Islaja completely swept us off our feet and delivered us to an enchanted world of mystery, warmly wrapped in delicate layers of a unique beauty that just doesn't come around that often. Definitely reminiscent of Brigitte Fontaine's experimental leanings or maybe what we imagine Bjork might sound like stuck deep in a Finnish forest.
With her latest outing Islaja has done it again! She's conjured up a handful of songs that immediately begin to melt into your consciousness the roots going deeper and deeper with every listen. With the subtle addition of horns and electronics to her already dense and seductive sound, Islaja shows once again what a unique vision she possesses. Imagine Patty Waters joining White Magic at a late-night seance... Ulual YYY is like sinking into some warm dreamy state, eyes clouded with wisps of smoke until everything becomes a hazy blur. You're not sure where you are or what to do, but you are absolutely sure there is no where else you would rather be than deep inside Ulual Yyy's alluring and mystifying world. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Pete P"
MPEG Stream: "Muukalais-Silma"
MPEG Stream: "Sydanten Ahmija"

KLABAUTAMANN Der Ort (Heavy Horses) cd 17.98
A few lists back we reviewed a killer disc from a German band called Woburn House, who traffic in a killer blend of repetitive hypno rock a la Dutch outfit Gore, but blended with a heaping dose of mathy post rock, a combo that totally kicked our asses. But then we discovered that there was in fact a Woburn side project called Klabautamann, who were supposedly a super weird black metal band!! This we had to hear. So after some internet sleuthing, we got in touch with the band and managed to get a bunch of the Klabautamann debut cd Der Ort, and if anything, it's even cooler, and WAY WAY weirder than we would have ever hoped.
Take the first track, it begins like most black metal songs, with a buzzing insectoid riff, which explodes into some epic blackened riffing, we love it already, but then suddenly, the guitars drop out, and leave a skeletal post rock jam, lilting clean guitars, but with blasting double kick drums and growled demonic vocals, a weird combo for sure, but so good. Then the song transforms into some mathy metallic breakdown, before blissing out into some dreamy melodic drift, before bursting back into full on black blast again. And that's just the first track.
The second track begins with acoustic guitars and drums, a dreamy strum and pound that could easily be some weird indie rock band, the vocals kick in, a sort of sing song monotone, with little melodic curlicues underneath, until the song lurches into some complex stop start groove, with wild octopoidal drumming and little bursts of squiggly guitar leads. After a gorgeous classical breakdown, the drums kick in, a blazing blast beat accompanying this lovely finger picked guitar, another bizarre juxtaposition that sounds amazing.
The next track is a dense tangled black angular workout, all impossibly convoluted Voivod-ish riffs over furious drumming, before again breaking into a weird loping post rock jam, punctuated by brief bursts of blazing blackness.
It's hard to explain exactly what's going on, but whatever it is, it's awesome. Every track is dense with riffs and parts, gorgeous clean sections are butted up against filthy frosty blackness, acoustic guitars routinely jam alongside metallic blast beats, crazy complicated riffs are chopped into stuttery fragments, and rearranged around mathy rhythms...
Then there's the final track, a total out of the blue mind blower, a nine minute epic, that is still sort of black metal, but also sounds like Tool or Coheed And Cambria, chugging riffs, wailing vocals, both male and female, all tangled up in killer harmonies, the whole thing shoegazey and kind of emo and super poppy, the guitar weaving elaborate textures, but it's the vocals, so weird and cool, it almost has us wishing the whole record had singing like this. So unexpected and so goddamn great.
After the recently reviewed Lifelover, probably our most listened to new 'black metal' disc for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Der Ort"
MPEG Stream: "Forlorn Sea"
MPEG Stream: "Winternacht"

KUUPUU Unilintu (Dekorder) lp 16.98
Yet another blurry, bleary eyed, sleepy and soft, dreamlike missive from the mysterious KuuPuu, another of the Finnish forest denizens who have captured our hearts.
Unilintu is the second of two vinyl only releases compiling the best tracks from long out of print cd-r's. The record begins with a burst of blown out electronic buzz and stuttering machinelike rhythms seemingly crafted from a skipping record, but don't be scared off, once you've waded through this brief blast, you'll find yourself in a dark and wondrous abstract forest folk wonderland. Soft and warm, whirring organs drone and drift over lilting sing song vocals, various lines all lazily intertwined,ultra lo-fi acoustic guitars wrapped in all sorts of natural ambience, the sounds of rain and thunder, and again those dreamy ghost like vocals. The whole record has that rainy day back porch vibe, or sometimes that late night dark forest campfire feel, both so intimate and personal.
Old pianos plinked and plonked in big echoey empty rooms, wheezing violins, atonal detuned guitars, warm washes of fuzzy ambience, occasionally interrupted by little chunks of noise drenched 4-track fuckery, but for the most part, Unilintu is one long sweet sonic dream. Definitely for fans of Islaja, Grouper, Fursaxa, Valet and the like.

LIGHT SHALL PREVAIL I Long To Destroy The Darkness Forever (E.E.E Recordings) 3xcd-r 15.98
This whole unblack metal movement is still relatively new for us, having only discovered this burgeoning scene within the last year, but we've become sort of obsessed, going totally nuts for records from Drommer (reviewed elsewhere on this list), Glaciial, Agathothodion, and the band that seems to sort of rule and define the scene, Light Shall Prevail, whose main man also runs the mighty E.E.E. label, home to pretty much all our favorite unblack artists.
We've reviewed two LSP discs, the Goatcrush ep (featuring what Andee considers to be maybe one of the greatest black metal songs of all time, the stuttering convoluted title track) and the most recent full length Defeat The Reign Of The Horned One Through The Light Of Christ. Both completely mindblowing, buzzy and blasting but super strange and not at all like the rest of the black metal we hear. Well, apparently, LSP has been recording like crazy for the last few years and I Long To Destroy The Darkness Forever contains every bit of recorded material to date, excluding the two proper releases. And while there's plenty of blasting buzz and epic un-blackness, it's the early lo-fi stuff that is totally blowing our mind. It's easy to see why the newer more polished stuff is still so weird, cuz the early stuff is so completely damaged and bizarrely brilliant.
Going all the way back to 2003, the majority of the first disc is culled from one of the first LSP recording and goes from ultra lo-fi grim buzz, to strange mechanical, almost industrial buzz and stutter, at times almost sounding like a skipping cd, or some 4 tracked industrial house music, but with creepy keyboards and growled vocals, the drums and guitar so distorted that a few tracks almost sound like some sort of weird fuzz collage, underpinned by impossibly quiet beats, and creepy gurgles, but sometimes blissing out into what almost sounds like some weird jangly buzz pop. The last three tracks on the first disc are the earliest, and are pretty killer too, not quite as fucked up sounding, more like a killer grim practice space recording, all blown out cymbals and muted insectoid buzz, but as with future E.E.E. productions, completely unhinged vocals, impossible low vomitous growls that spill over the rest of the music like some spewed black bile. So good.
Disc two jumps ahead 2 or 3 years, and things are still pretty weird, fuzzed out indie jangle, lots of tape hiss, but the metal is much heavier, with louder guitar, weird programmed drums, and another bizarre vocal inflection, a screeched anguished mewl that sometimes dips into a growly grunt. The riffs totally slay and the groundwork is being set for future LSP aktions. Some track still veer into some serious fucked up sonic territory, cymbals so hot and sizzling they swallow up everything around them, long expanses of Skaters' style lo-fi murk, and a few moments of strange black balladry.
Finally, disc three, culled from two split releases from last year, finds LSP sounding pretty much like they do now, a confusionally brilliant and baffling black metal buzz, from furious thrashing blasts, to loping midtempo lurch, to strange ambient strum and shuffle, to doomy trudge, to blissy drift and back again, with fucked up vocals, amazingly convoluted drum machine programming, incredible riffs, all sorts of fuzzy and buzzy ambience, just absolutely some of the most original and intense (un) black metal we've ever heard.
Packaged in a slim triple jewel case with NO tray card, so don't panic, that's the way they come. A photocopied cd booklet with all the track info and liner notes inside.
And of course, this is ULTRA LIMITED! And ALREADY OUT OF PRINT! We took more than half of the pressing, but even so, these won't be around long...
MPEG Stream: "Stuck In The Black Ice"
MPEG Stream: "Lay Flowers On My Grave"
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Three"

LOCUST, THE New Erections (Anti) cd 13.98
Holy shit... New Erections indeed! While in the past The Locust have been frequently typecast as just another obnoxious, bratty, fuck-you band of perpetual malcontents, they've grown to be one of the most tight, virulent units around. This album's first track alone ("Aotkpta") turns the hardcore and metal contingents on their collective ear. Old Locust fans fear not, there's still plenty of splatter and thunder, but there's also a fierce precision that sets them apart from the pack. If there was any question, New Erections confirms that the band's four members have got chops to spare. Unlike many of their contemporaries who equate the punk rock ethos with rushed and raw sloppiness, The Locust slice through your ear cartilage with speed and exacting mathematics, leaving them a bloody heap of complex tatters. Exceptional musicianship at every turn coupled with their consistently concentrated tenacious count-that-shit! fury, not to mention Joey Karam's obvious thorough knowledge of analog synthesis makes for a huge, awesome sounding end result. With regards to the latter, Karam's synthesizers are all analog which means each gnarly sound (of which there are many!) needed to be individually dialed in, honed and crafted. Furthermore, it's not an overstatement to say that at this point Gabe Serbian can go toe to toe with any of today's top drummers. Another new development that was immediately noticeable was that their multi-part vocals have been pitched down from their trademark screech-bark making the nihilistic lyrics somewhat more decipherable.
Still as short-winded as ever, The Locust are the lean mean masters of succinctness, executing all of the above in less than twenty four minutes. Fucking great!
MPEG Stream: "Aotkpta"
MPEG Stream: "We Have Reached An Official Verdict: Nobody Gives A Shit"
MPEG Stream: "The UnwillingŠLed By The UnqualifiedŠDoing The UnnecessaryŠFor The Ungrateful"
MPEG Stream: "One Manometer Away From Mutually Assured Relocation"

MACHINEFABRIEK Hapstaart (self released) 3"cd-r 9.98
Wow! Another cd-r from Machinefabriek, who seems to be in some sort of competition with his sometime partner in sonic crime, Jasper TX, who seem to in the throes of trying to out release each other. But that is most definitely not a complaint. We're all winners in this contest. But for those of you keeping score, it's 6 to 5 Machinefabriek, but heck, that's only counting the ones we got here.
Anyway, we're just happy to have more Machinefabriek to listen to. This 20 minute 3" bucks the usual trend of most 3" cd-r's and instead of offering up one ultra long sprawling epic, splits his 20 minutes into 11 bite size pieces, which actually suits the sounds on Hapstaart as well.
Unlike the blissy gauzy ambience of his other releases, on Hapstaart, Rutger Zuydervelt, the man who is Machinefabriek, pushes his sounds to the extreme, ending up with a disc that has more in common with Ryoji Ikeda than it does any of his drone bliss peers. The whole disc seems to be based on a massive, barely audible low end thrum, that pulses and throbs subtly over the course of the 20 minutes, sometimes dipping to near silence, other times threatening to blow the speakers. Textures and layers are ultra minimal, with the volume turned waaaaaaaay up, you can hear these little drones twist and shimmer. The record is peppered with bits of crackle, of little pops, brief exhalations of hiss, or static, crumbling sine waves, intense streaks of jagged high end, but these intrusions are typically brief, fading out as fast as they appeared, only to leave the records active ultra low-end to slither almost silently on its way.
An awesome slab of microscopic sound. Headphones recommended!
MPEG Stream: "track 5"
MPEG Stream: "track 8"

MIDDIAN Age Eternal (Metal Blade) cd 13.98
We know a lot of you, like us, are fans of the supreme sludge majesty of Portland, Oregon's mighty Yob. Over the course of four albums, Yob reigned as one of the heaviest, spaciest doom-prog outfits ever, sounding something like a tripped-out Rush on 16rpm, mixed with the riffs of Sabbath and Sleep, all super epic, doomy and psychedelic. What's not to love? Not only that, but they always stopped in to shop at Aquarius whenever in town.
So, we were certainly sad when Yob broke up, a while ago. But now, we're very glad to report that Yob mastermind Mike Scheidt has bounced back with a new band, Middian, who have just made their debut on Yob's old label Metal Blade. And Middian pretty much take up where Yob left off. It's again a trio, it's again totally doom, and Mike's trademark combination of soaring, electronically effected clean singing and growling gutturalisms is still in place. But the five new tracks that comprise Age Eternal's 57 minutes are if anything darker and denser than anything Yob had yet achieved, yet also maybe more melodic. Middian is at times faster paced (not all doom, even with songs as long as these, has to be slow all the time) than Yob ever was, but Middian's songcraft embraces a wide array of emotions and dynamics. The aggro impetus of opener "Dreamless Eye" definitely reminds us that Mike was often looking for death metal records when visiting our shop, while elsewhere on this album the listener is enveloped by blissful swirling layers of slo-mo, melodic drone. If you liked Yob, if you like Mammatus, if you like Neurosis, if you like Lesbian, this should be right up your alley. However we're not sure if Metal Blade's marketing idea (as expressed on the cover sticker-blurb) that this is for fans of The Sword, High On Fire, and the Obsessed is quite correct... while fans of those bands could and should love Middian, this is still quite a bit more sonically and structurally "extreme" than any of those. Maybe add Boris and Ufomammut to that list, at least, to come closer to Middian's mean between psychedelic stoner metal and brutal doom.
PS we noticed online that Middian is playing a record release party for this album in Portland tonight, Friday April 13th, with both Asunder and Slough Feg also on the bill -- damn, wish we could be there!
MPEG Stream: "Dreamless Eye "
MPEG Stream: "The Blood Of Icons"

NADJA Bodycage (Equation) lp 28.00
One of our favorite slabs of crushing glacial dirgedoomdrone beauty, available on vinyl for a super limited time. Released by Equation Records, so you know it's super swank (they released gorgeous looking and sounding lps from Fear Falls Burning, Landing, Troum and Bunnybrains). Ultra thick vinyl, deluxe gatefold sleeve, sealed shut with a sticker, each copy hand numbered. Most on black vinyl, a handful on white, but DON'T ASK for colored vinyl, it's random, just cross your fingers and maybe you'll get lucky. Plus we all know black vinyl sounds better. And black vinyl is so much darker and more evil and... well, BLACKER!! Never understood why folks wanted their Xasthur or SUNNO))) or Boris on yellow or pink vinyl instead of BLACK. Anyway, limited to 400 copies, we got less than we asked for, so be quick, or be prepared to be disappointed...
We have a friend who has become so obsessed with the work of Nadja and its mainman Aidan Baker, that he spends way more time than is healthy trolling the internet looking of long lost 7"s and rare out of print cd-r's. It's easy to see why though. Baker's sonic explorations are as mesmerizing as they are ominous. A truly unique musical voice in a suddenly way too crowded microniche. Call it doom. Or drone. Or dirge. Or better yet deathdoomdronedirge. It's a sound we can't get enough of, the logical extension of our obsession with the drone. And while we still love to drift off to the soft shimmer of a distant rumble, when you imbue a drone with more power, and more volume, and more wattage it becomes something new, a fearsome sonic beast, whether it's a subtly snarling growl of grit and grime, or a massive undulating wave of black hole fury, a drone possessed of power becomes a glorious thing to behold. And no one has as deft a hand with the drone than Baker, and Nadja is the ultimate drone via rock band.
Beyond the ultra minimalism of SUNNO))), way prettier than the filthy dirges of Moss or Monarch, Nadja are almost like some indie slowcore band but lit from within by some otherworldy source. Every track is suffused with a warm rich glow that is almost blinding, but at the same time warm and inviting. It's heavy, sure, but it's more just plain beautiful. Like staring into the sun until your eyes start playing tricks on you. Imagine listening to a sound so loud, so bright, that the synapses in your brain misfire, and your ear scrambles to make sense of this sound, and in doing so, forges all kinds of unlikely connections, subtle melodic threads, paints a lush sonic portrait. Now imagine a music that was played to already sound like that, before it even got to you. Just imagine what your mind and your ears would do with a sound like that. Some sort of unreachable aural nirvana suddenly within reach. That's the music of Nadja. It's like watching a sunset slowed down so each subtle shimmer stretches out forever, each ray of sunlight is tangled up with another, writhing in sparkling glistening knots, slowly unraveling, stretching, into endless streaks of gorgeous muted color. Imagine Jesu, but dosed to the gills on Prozac, a shiny happy Godfleshian dirge, or a My Bloody Valentine riff looped and repeated forever, underpinned by some Can drum loop at 16 rpm, or a Teenage Filmstars 45 played at 33. This is epic ultradoom metal, but with the metal replaced by soft billowy clouds of fuzzy distortion, the howling fury twisted into dreamlike tranquility, the blasting beats pulled apart and sprinkled here and there like percussive raindrops. This is as soft and pretty as a dirge-y drone can get while still retaining its inherent doomic mass. Utter and absolute loveliness drenched in a thick patina of crushing heaviness. Impossible but perfect.
MPEG Stream: "Autosomal"
MPEG Stream: "Clinodactyl"

NULL, KK Fertile (Touch) cd 15.98
The veteran Japanese noisician (and guitarist of heavy prog act Zeni Geva) K.K. Null is back with his first solo album on the Touch label, and it's one of KK's best solo efforts we've heard to date. Perhaps inspired by labelmate Chris Watson (with whom he collaborated a few years ago, in conjunction with Z'ev), K.K. has brought some field recordings (birds, bugs, frogs, fire...) he made on a trip to a national park in Northern Australia to this project, mixing those with his own studio-conjured electronic sounds. No wonder, then, that Fertile is a spooky soundscape of nocturnal hiss and buzz, parts of it sounding like video games played by insects, others ominous with ghostlike voices buried beneath... chattering rhythmic components underlie what sound like shortwave freakouts, tracks often building to stactic-y explosiveness, droning and noisy, extremely dynamic and distorted. You could almost imagine that this is what a hybrid of a John Carpenter soundtrack and a Japanese noise record would sound like. Null calls it "cosmic noise maximal/minimalism." We don't know what to call it, exactly, but we like it!
MPEG Stream: "01"
MPEG Stream: "04"

ORCHESTRA BAOBAB African Classics (Sheer Sound) cd 14.98
This collection of sure-shot classics from this veritable Senegalese institution has been making us seriously crave hammocks and sunshine. All you're gonna want to do when you hear these songs is rock back and forth ever so gently as the wind blows and the sun shines and you forget all your worries at least for just a little while. The way Orchestra Baobab mix their Senegalese musical roots with elements of Latin, Caribbean and Cuban musical styles meshes so perfectly. Soulful vocals, call and response delivery, and a masterful use of horns. So good! All too often horns are brash and upfront and nothing but a shiny annoyance, but Orchestra Baobab know how to use horns, subtly and seductively, making them ring in our ears with such delight. The perfect lazy Sunday afternoon record for sure. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Liiti Liiti"
MPEG Stream: "Ndeleng Ndeleng"
MPEG Stream: "On Verra CA"

PINHAS, RICHARD Single Collection 1972-1980 (Captain Trip) cd 26.00
Richard Pinhas is the mastermind behind French '70s synth-prog-proto-industrial pioneers Heldon, who combined spacey analog electronics with punkish attitude, hypnotic rhythms, and Robert Fripp-style flights of electric guitar. Next to Magma they're one of our all-time favorites from France.
Japan's Captain Trip label has been digging into the Heldon/Pinhas vaults, bringing us some cool live recordings reviewed here not long ago, and now this. Packaged in a handsome silvery metallic mini-LP styled jacket, this cd collects Pinhas's various singles releases as a solo artist, under the Heldon moniker, and in various other earlier guises -- starting with his heavy psych act Schizo from 1972, who were obviously heavily influenced by Hendrix, sounding also quite a bit like the "heavy metal thunder" of Steppenwolf! Those tracks, such as "Schizo (And The Little Girl)" and "Paraphrenia Praecox", certainly fit with the so-called Francais Metal de Proto scene we've been digging lately, bands like Les Variations and Docdail. Cool! That's only the first four tracks and already we're pretty excited.
This disc also contains singles from Heldon, one-off spin-off band T.H.X., and Pinhas solo, all progressively getting more and more into a space age new wave prog thing that fans of the band Zombi will love, cult sci-fi writer Norman Spinrad even showing up for a guest vocals on the paranoid groove of "Houston 69". While some of these singles are are in fact extracts from albums (Heldon's "Baader-Meinhof Blues" for instance), others were only available in this format (like T.H.X.'s version of Joe Meek's classic instrumental "Telstar"!). So this is essential for any dedicated Heldon fan -- and in a lot of ways a great single-disc introduction to the the Pinhas oeuvre, one that's more eclectic and extreme than we'd previously imagined, ranging from Schizo's ponderous psych to the circa-1980, NYC Disco-Not-Disco cool of his solo singles! And as we said, this comes handsomely packaged, with a cd booklet including track details and images of each 7" release compiled here.
MPEG Stream: SCHIZO "Paraphrenia Praecox"
MPEG Stream: HELDON "Perspectives 1"
MPEG Stream: RICHARD PINHAS "Houston 69"

QUELLET, ISRAEL Oppressum (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98
Just who the heck is Israel Quellet? Somebody who sent a really cool home-recorded cd-r in to the Sub Rosa label that's who. The back cover of this digipack contains text all about finding Quellet's demo in their office slush pile, giving it a listen, and realizing, hey, here's something that really doesn't sound like anything else! And thus, it's now a Sub Rosa release.
Quellet's intimate and unique sound-world is built from simple sounds, generated by ordinary means like striking a metal oil tank, dragging a bucket across the ground, tapping a telephone keypad, or playing with a noise-making toy. Quellet's French-speaking voice, laughter and "throat sounds" also are heard to much mysterious and evocative effect. But actual musical instruments? Who needs 'em? About the only "real" instrument appearing here is his Swiss town's church organ, and even that still fits into his "field recording" aesthetic. (Oh, and there's also several percussion instruments here too: a bass drum, gong, timbales etc.)
As depicted on the cover, which features a photo of a stereo-mic'd electric sander, Quellet's REAL instrument is the microphone and with it he zones in on a level of a level of blown-up, microscopic detail that makes "saturation" (or distortion) another common and crucial element to his "music". He then mixes and edits these recordings of his various sound-ingredients, musique-concrete style, never adding too much, keeping it simple, focussing on just a few specific sounds and employing them to their fullest. Some tracks are percussively rhythmic, others distorted and droning, some simply bursting with joyous cacophony. All these pieces are carefully constructed, though, never randomly noisy. It's about method, not madness.
Something this abstract needs verve and vision to be a good listen, and this has all that to a fascinating degree. Always bold and surprising and alive. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "01 (For tank strokes, percussion & voice)"
MPEG Stream: "04 (For percussion and sound toys)"
MPEG Stream: "08 (For percussion, sander & telephone keyboard strokes)"

SANTA MARIA s/t (Slottet) cd 15.98
Just what we've been hankering for, some perfectly breezy and colorful pop done just right. And lucky for us Santa Maria has got a perfect batch of the good stuff for us to enjoy. Leave it to the Swedes to make some of the most infectious and smart pop we've heard in ages. Best known as the guitarist in The Concretes, Maria Eriksson, aka Santa Maria steps into the spotlight with fantastic results. Joined throughout the record by some of Sweden's best and brightest, including members of Sagor & Swing, Tape, and Laakso, this is the kind of pop music we never ever ever get tired of. Equal parts peppy and bittersweet. Proving once again that pop doesn't have to be dumb or simple to be catchy and infectious. While her former Concretes bandmate, vocalist Victoria Bergsman stole the show with her contributions to the latest Peter Bjorn & John album, we're pretty sure that Maria Eriksson deserves the ears of all those who appreciate smart pop as well. With a sound similar to the great Concretes debut, Peter Bjorn & John, Camera Obscura, and The Aislers Set, this is one of the best pop records we've heard so far this year!
MPEG Stream: "Dogs"
MPEG Stream: "Face Blank"
MPEG Stream: "Icestorm"

SCHARPLING & WURSTER The Art Of The Slap (Stereolaffs) cd 16.98
Hilarious. Bizarre. Amazing. As always. Can you tell we're fans?
The humor of Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster is one of the reasons that New Jersey's WFMU is one of the best radio stations anywhere. Every time a new cd from these two comes out (there's been four previous releases) we drop everything to put it on in the store and listen and laugh our asses off. And every time, customers previously unfamiliar with Scharping & Wurster start laughing too, ask what the heck we're playing, and instantly buy copies. Basically, the S&W formula is that easily-bemused regular-guy DJ Tom Scharpling is taking calls on this show, when some weirdo and/or jerk (not always obvious as such at first) calls in to talk and the two of them get into some ridiculous verbal battle. Said caller always being played by Jon Wurster. It's a theatre of the absurd, with Scharpling & Wurster spinning some really strange and incredibly funny scenarios which they somehow make almost believable -- in part 'cause they have an uncanny ability not to crack each other up, dunno how they do it, especially since a lot of these calls/tracks go on for upwards of 20 minutes!
Originally we got into S&W 'cause of the indie-rock connection, they love to make fun of rock snobbery (like Wurster's character Ronald Thomas Clontle on the classic Rock, Rot, & Rule). But they don't limit themselves to music-related humor at all -- though the bonus third disc here is devoted entirely to the efforts of the would-be rock star guy originally introduced on New Hope For The Ape-Eared to have his band Mother 13 play on Mount Everest. Meanwhile, disc one features "Jock Squad" (think Geek Squad but different), "The Auteur" (a self-important slasher film director), and "Philly Boy Roy" (a lampooning of such supposed Philadelphia pastimes as the "running of the cheesesteaks" and "Laser Allin"). Disc two has "Andy From Lake Newbridge" (who turns out to live in, not on the lake, and in fact is a carp), "Tornado Todd" (a guy whose life-changing escape from death doesn't stop him from being a total sleazeball), and "Postal Slap Fight" (wherein Tom gets threatened by a guy whose uncle is the Postmaster General). You've got to hear these to understand why they're hilarious, but trust us, they are. Recommended to anyone with a funny bone.
MPEG Stream: "Jock Squad"
MPEG Stream: "The Auteur"
MPEG Stream: "Postal Slap Fight"

SHANKAR, ANANDA A Musical Discovery Of India (Cloud Forest Recordings) cd 17.98
A few lists ago you might remember us gushing over the work of India's Dilip Roy. His record Namaskar was the perfect musical open armed welcome to the India we always see in our dreams. We mentioned in our review of that record how Roy had done production and arrangements for Ananda Shankar. And then just a few weeks after basking in the glory of Roy's great early 80's masterpiece we were met with the reissue of two great Dilip Roy arranged Ananda Shankar albums on this cd. A Musical Discovery of India was originally a 12" made for the India Tourism Development Corporation in 1978. It makes obvious sense why this would be used to sell travel to India because after listening to these lush arrangements, who in their right mind would not want to jump on the first plane to India?! The second record collected here is the fiery and frisky Sarrega Machan. On this album Shankar was once again joined by Dilip Roy and his majestic arrangements for a record with bizarre themes, of twilight and playful animals, a record that ignites a full sensory experience, like some soundtrack to a wildly colorful nature adventure filled with suspense and intrigue. Ananda always possessed a lighter, groovier and more playful touch then his much revered brother Ravi, but these two records prove once again that in his own approach he added so much richness to Indian music and culture. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Kaziranga Beat"
MPEG Stream: "Charging Tiger"
MPEG Stream: "Jungle Symphony"

SIAMESE TEMPLE BALL Welcome to the Land of the Smile (S/R) cd 14.98
We recently received an lp simply called "Thai Record". Hmmm, very mysterious we thought, so we threw it on, and were instantly smitten. At the same time, it sounded sort of familiar... but how could that be, what were the odds that some random Thai recording would just so happen to be one we had heard or already owned. It finally clicked, this was no mysterious "Thai Record", this was an old AQ favorite, renamed and pressed on vinyl. Not to infer that it's not mysterious, it most certainly is, it just so happens to be a mystery we had faced before. The record, titled Siamese Temple Ball, was one we had reviewed years ago and was always a steady seller, and for good reason, it's an amazing album. The lp was gone as quick as it came, but it reminded us, that many of you probably missed out on the Siamese Temple Ball cd when we first listed it waaaaaay back, so now here's your chance. A brief discussion of this musical mystery from our original review:
Not much information comes with this disk at all, on the shrink wrap there's a faux pidgen English description claiming: "Flight comes to Thailand in the Year of the Rat. Siamese Temple Ball provide the lilting soundtrack for a chemical journey. Schoolgirls dance bashfully for the expectant throng. Life continues at a comparatively slow pace away from the rigours of fierce sun-light." Which is followed by the (label's) description: "In the tradition of Sun City Girls, Ya Ho Wha 13, The Spacious Mind, Taj Mahal Travellers, Mu, Word of Life, Group 1850, and Ghost, Siamese Temple Ball give maximum pleasure for thirsty brains." Quite a roster of comparisons, the most fitting of which is definitely the Sun City Girls. So while we assume that this record was recorded by a group of precocious, dilettante, ethnomusicologist hipsters, we like to suspend our disbelief and imagine this to be a genuine Folkways-style field recording, as the recording certainly has a genuine field recording presence - a single stereo microphone in a good location. The music itself is a catchy and mesmerizing steady pulse of various and sundry percussion instruments (metal, wood, skin), hollers, yelps, and rococo melodic lines spun out by tinny electric guitars, xylophones, flutes and Khan (mouth organ.) And yes, it's quite good.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 2"

SIMULACRA Eidolon (Triple Bath) cd-r 5.98
Ultra limited cd-r release from Belgian outfit Simulacra, the black ambient project of NOTHingness head honcho Miguel Boriau. NOTHingness is responsible for a handful of AQ faves, including the dark doomy ambience of Tenhornedbeast and the epic doom of the recently released Morkheim. Boriau's Simulacra project falls more in line sonically with the former, although it's less doomy and more glacial and lovely. Imagine a more blissed out Lustmord, or Coleclough and Chalk tackling some sci-fi dark ambience and you'll be getting warm. Two epic tracks, each clocking in at over 20 minutes, each a slow burning, outer space drift, deep resonant swells, sweeping majestic vistas of low end shimmer and fuzzy dreamy drift. Mesmerizing and meditative, but still pretty dark and ominous. It's hard not to picture the vastness of space, or barring that, some endless series of underground caverns, this is the sound of black holes drifting through a starry sky, of our bodies hurtling through space in slow motion, gorgeously bleak and barren, warm and immersive, a dreamily dense slab of sonic swoon, the perfect soundtrack for your own late night interplanetary drift.
LIMITED TO 96 COPIES! Each disc individually numbered, we got a handful and will probably be unable to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Wandering The Spirit World"
MPEG Stream: "Disintegrate Into Nothingness"

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS Live Stockholm July, 1971 (Walhalla) 2cd 33.00
In the AQ canon of all time essential artists, of groups who have shaped all the music that followed in their wake, somewhere very near the top spot would be Japan's Taj Mahal Travellers. This sprawling seventies psych drone unit led by Fluxus legend Takehisa Kosugi, were crafting gorgeous abstract drone drenched ambience long before most of the current crop of dronesters were even born.
The Taj Mahal Travellers were masters of the organic, of vibration, texture, timbre, utilizing bowed cymbals, violins, loudspeakers, tape loops and all sorts of unique source material, this collective created some of the most enduring and unique psychedelic music ever recorded. Their music and performances were the physical embodiment of a philosophy, a way of life more than just simple 'playing music.'
It's hard to imagine the Skaters or Birchville Cat Motel or the Yellow Swans or even Wolf Eyes without the Taj Mahal Travellers. Often referred to by the press as "La Monte Young on acid", in a review of another, unfortunately out of print TMT album, we described their sound as "epic higher key improvised drone extravaganzas performed on beaches, deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated into the sound. Feedback, time-space lag, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound."
The music of the Taj Mahal Travellers thought is stubbornly indescribable. No words can possibly do justice to the spirits they were able to invoke, the atmosphere they were able to create, dark and dense and mysterious and ominous, but at the same time beautiful and brilliant and epic and spacious.
This double cd features nearly 100 minutes of improvised droning captured live in Stockholm, Sweden in 1971, the group run stand-up bass, tuba, trumpet. select percussion, violin, flutes, mandolin, harmonica and synthesizer through primitive tape loops and delay effects for an awesome ritualistic performance, predating the likes of Zoviet France and about a million others by decades!
The live sound is just as amazing as their records, which makes sense since their albums were essentially documents of live aktions.
The first disc is a single nearly hour long low end ritual, strings buzz and reverberate, as do voices, and bits of bowed metals, all beating against each other and creating all manner of cosmic vibrations, all accompanied by simple bells, or a single plucked note repeated over and over. Near the end, the vocals are soaring, and the tones have become long buzzing streaks, with plenty of spacey echo and strange damaged FX, it's hard to hear this and not wonder where in the hell Sunburned Hand and No Neck get off, these guys were creating the same sort of primitive primeval sounds, nearly 4 decades earlier, and with so much more depth and emotion. The fact that a music so minimal and abstract can be so utterly moving is testament to the Travellers' unparalleled skill.
Disc two is much less low end rumble, and more a dizzying swirl of strange sonic events, here the horns are in full affect, sounding like a herd of alien elephants, moaning and bleating, the tones stretched out and draped across all manner of lower register rumbles and whirs. Percussion surfacing now and again like an angry rattlesnake roused from a midday nap, or a swirling cloud of tiny buzzing insects. Vocals drift in and out, shamanistic and chant like, moaning out strange melodies, mostly low and throaty but sometimes like curious feline mewling, all intertwined with the various other drawn out sounds. An incredibly intense organic ritual, purified by it's intransitive nature, the improvisation guaranteeing that each performance belonged to the time and the place as much as the players. Absolutely and utterly breathtaking.
A really nice reissue of this long out of print two disc set, with liner notes, a history of the band, the story of this recording as well as amazing photos. Not sure how long we'll be able to keep these in stock, so please be patient if we run out, and it takes us a while to track down more.
Absolutely essential, and probably more recommended that nearly any record we've ever reviewed!
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation, Part 1 (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation, Part 1 (excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation, Part 2 (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation, Part 2 (excerpt 2)"

TAKAYANGI, MASAYUKI & NEW DIRECTIONS Independence - Tread On Sure Ground (Tiliqua) cd 25.00
Oh man. Over the past year or so we've been lucky enough to get a hold of reissues of a bunch of rare albums by Japanese jazz legend Masayuki "Jojo" Takayangi performing with his New Direction(s) unit: Axis Another Revolvable Thing Parts 1 and 2, Eclipse, La Grima. Lucky 'cause we LOVE way-out-there improv electric guitar, which Takayangi provides in spades, 'specially when he and his group are off on one of his "mass projection" freakouts. Well this here cd reissue (a deluxe gatefold mini-LP sleeve styled import on the always interesting and well-packaged Tiliqua label) is another must have for any Takayangi fan, documenting his first recording session in 1969 as leader of the initial incarnation of his New Directions group, a trio consisting of drummer Sabu Toyozumi and bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa along with Takayangi. That's right, no saxophone for you sax haters out there! Just amped-up, feedback-filled guitar skree, brutally bowed bass and crashing drums on such lengthy mass projections as "The Galactic System" and "Piranha". There's also quieter, "gradually projection" pieces here too, some really beautiful, abstractly atmospheric ones including "Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain" (with Yoshizawa on folk-pipe) and the interludes "Deepnight...Swamp" and "Sick...Sick...Sickness...My Aunt". Wow what great titles!!
This Tiliqua reissue of this classic adds a bonus track, from the 1970 compilation LP Guitar Workshop, that in fact is maybe the most intense thing on here. There are also liner notes from the perceptive and well-informed Alan Cummings, who proceeds to really set the scene for this music with his evocative description of the seedy Tokyo jazz quarter of Shinjuku in the sixties and early seventies, a place where Takayangi's revolutionary jazz explorations fit right in with experimental artists and acid rock radicals.
MPEG Stream: "The Galactic System"
MPEG Stream: "Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain"

TOLL Christ Knows (Cold Spring) cd 15.98
Long lost legendary slab of classic British industrial music, originally released in 1986 on the amazing Broken Flag label. The most noteworthy thing about Toll, besides it being a killer record, is the fact that it just so happens to feature a pre-Stereolab Tim Gane (!) as well as Paul Lemos from Controlled Bleeding. But Stereolab fans won't necessarily dig this, Toll is grim stuff. Cold and harsh, lots of metallic percussion, looped rhythms, skipping records, bits of shortwave radio, disembodied voices, plenty of metal on metal clang, thick distorted drones, all held together by huge lurching basslines, that give the whole thing a definite depressive miserablist vibe, like a seriously industrial Joy Division.
At their most musical, like on the loping mantra like "Broken Frame", they do sound quite a bit like the darkest of Factory bands, with simple plodding percussion, and hypnotic low end throbs, all beneath a dramatically crooned vocal line. Imagine any of the current crop of new wave revivalists, Interpol for example, slowed waaaaaaaaaaaaay down and wrapped in plenty of rumble and clang, and you'll get an idea of the sound of Toll.
But that's only one element of their sound, the other being much more abstract, epic, wide open expanses of industrial crunch and shimmering drone, mournful melodies drifting in and out of machinelike rhythms, and crumbling landscapes of sound, wheezing hisses and keening feedback, jagged shards of buzzing electronics, all sorts of strange vocals, dripping with reverb and delay, grinding whirs and thick moaning low end, very dark and dreary and very prescient of the whole modern Wolf Eyes and friends noise scene.
In addition to the entire Christ Knows LP, the cd includes 3 bonus tracks, two that sound like they could be lost Wire jams, all blown out and relentlessly throbbing, with wild squalls of feedback and buzzing guitars over bouncy bass lines and simple propulsive rhythms, while the other is an epic drone-y crawl, thick with layered voices, pulsing bass lines, muted percussive thumps and shuffles and tangled guitar scribbles, all swirled into a dense cloud of slow shifting sound. So awesome.
Fans of old school industrial (Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, Nurse With Wound), classic post punk / new wave (Wire, Joy Division, the recently reviewed Arkansaw Man, etc) as well as mode modern outfits like Skullflower, Wolf Eyes, Dead C and the like, will seriously dig!
MPEG Stream: "Broken Frame"
MPEG Stream: "As We Live And Breathe"
MPEG Stream: "Brute Freeze"

TROLLMANN AV ILDTOPPBERG Tolling Beyond The Tombs Of Ancient Grimnity (Monolith) cd-r 10.98
It's finally here. The fourth part of the Trollmann quadrilogy, a mysterious assemblage of four recordings, once kept together in a hidden temple, far beneath the Earth's crust. But over millennia, scattered far and wide. We have long been searching. It took us years to find all four. We first searched in the Forest Of Doom, and soon discovered the first recording, wrapped in a blood soaked cloth and kept at the bottom of a deep well, protected by a strange group of deformed bear like creatures. Once this was in our possession, we struck out in search of the second piece of this mysterious dronedoom puzzle. We soon discovered the second sacred recording by reciting a series of Arcane Runes which Adorned The Ice-Veiled Monoliths Of The Ancient Cavern Of The Stars. We holed up in our secret lair, every time the two recordings were brought together they gave off an unearthly glow and emitted some impossibly slow heavy dirgelike sound. We knew we were on the right path.
Years passed, and we found ourselves in a truly strange land, arid and barren, always dark and freezing cold, when suddenly, Dark Clouds Blackened The Sky and it became apparent that it was in fact The Eve Of The Thousandth Sacrifice, and had we tarried a moment longer, the third recording would have been lost to us. Three pieces collected, each recording, a bleak rumbling world of black sound leading us closer and closer to whoever, or whatever is Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg. Perhaps we will never know. We may perish before we have discovered the truth.
Here it is, seemingly ages since we first set out upon this quest, with our final breath, our last ounce of strength, we began Tolling Beyond The Tombs Of Ancient Grimnity, and lo and behold, there it was, the fourth part, the key, the last part of the fourfold sonic grail that is Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg. We may be bidding farewell to this plane, and it may have taken us many lifetimes, but we shall die with a smile on our lips, and ears full of black buzz and cavernous rumbling. Adieu.
What the hell are we talking about? Well, if you're just tuning in, only our most favorite, caveman ultra doom duo EVER, Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg, who we first discovered years ago and as the story above suggests have ever since been trying to track down the rest of their recordings. Recently we finally did, and have been wallowing in Trollmann's peculiar brand of funereal ambient doom ever since. Just bass and keyboards, no drums, no guitars. Each record sonically similar, but each with its own particular sound, every one a different facet of Trollmann's strange sonic world. First their was Forest Of Doom, then there was Arcane Runes Adorn The Ice-Veiled Monoliths Of The Ancient Cavern Of The Stars, after that there was Dark Clouds Blacken The Sky On The Eve Of The Thousandth Sacrifice, and now, we have Tolling Beyond The Tombs Of Ancient Grimnity, quite possibly the prettiest and most ambient of the four, but no less ominous and dark.
Tolling begins with a simple, subtle slow motion bass line, over which drifts a dreamy melancholy synth melody. Dark and mournful and vaguely foresty, this drifts on and on an on, very trance like, until about half way through the track's 15 minutes, the bass suddenly becomes distorted, and the track becomes somehow creepier and more intense, the same melody, the same loping rhythm, but wrapped in a tattered cloak of crumbling distortion. Some strange blend of new age, dark ambience and doooooom. At times it almost sounds like a doom metal Three Mile Pilot.
Track two is another epic, 17 minutes, beginning with a simple buzzing low end, a rumbling drone, that seems to spread like some viscous black liquid, gradually growing more and more dense, the low end pulses closer and closer together until a rhythm seems to surface. The keyboard joins in, offering haunting atonal notes, that hover and drift above the monotonous throb, angular and ultra creepy. The bass and keyboard all tangled up in unlikely melodies and weird dissonant tangles, almost like abstract free jazz Trollmann if you can imagine such a thing. But even at its most jagged and atonal, it still manages to be dark and droney. And really really creepy.
The album closer, the 11 minute long title track, begins with some shimmery harmonics, before the bass kicks in, all super fuzzy and ultra blown out, not so much weaving a melody, as laying down layer after layer of thick fuzz, a haunting black riff stretched out into long stretches of rumbling whir, while the harmonics in the background become more and more dense. The entire track building in intensity, a furiously buzzing lugubrious crawl, that suddenly fades to silence.
We've written plenty about the mysterious men behind Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg, Belegur on "Cosmic keys to gates unknown" and Thundarr on "Rumblings Of Doom and Prophecies Of Times To Come", and the other recordings, just check elsewhere on the AQ site, but Tolling is as good a place to start as any, and if you're anything like us, you too will be mesmerized by the strange sounds of Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg, and will embark on your own spiritual quest to track down all of their sacred recordings (we've made it a bit easier, as we carry 'em all! Including an amazing live record, AND a live dvd, where the men of Trollmann reveal their mortal forms!)
Needless to say, utterly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Aether"
MPEG Stream: "Dooms Children"

TROUM Ryna (Transgredient) cd 14.98
I believe it was 1997 when a small posting came my way stating that Maeror Tri had dissolved. At the time, this German trio had become one of my (Jim's) favorite ensembles alongside the likes of Organum, Skullflower, and :zoviet*france:. Maeror Tri's dedication to grimly focused atmospheric music harbored all of the things that succeeded in the campaigns of industrial and ambient music; and the Maeror Tri anonymity (or at least a mysteriousness about the group that lead to such a reading of their collective persona) certainly enhanced their charm. Albums such as Emotional Engramm and Multiple Personality Disorder had achieved heavy rotation status on my stereo (and still get pulled from the shelves quite often in this day and age); so the news that Maeror Tri was no more was met with sadness. Fortunately, two thirds of the Maeror Tri ensemble had decided to continue on but under the moniker Troum. While the name of this duo was an archaic German word for dream, Troum's pursuit of unconscious symbolism through their heavily processed guitar drones still maintained the ashen darkness that Maeror Tri perpetuated, as was evident on their first CD release Ryna, which originally came out in 1998 on the Belgian label Myotis. It should be noted that Ryna is not the first Troum recording; that honor is held by a cassette called Dreaming Muzak that came housed in a tiny pillow. Ryna quickly went out of print, along with much of the Maeror Tri back catalogue; but thankfully, Troum have repressed this early gem through their own Transgredient imprint. An album of constantly billowing black clouds, Ryna achieves the same dark ambient / dronescape signature that had marked so many great Maeror Tri / Troum releases. On occasion, cracked / decayed loops of rhythmic surging emerged from beyond the horizon of Troum's guitar suites, alluding to a Norse mythological bellow of impending doom and apocalyptic battle. While I've not done the side-by-side taste test of the two albums, the 2007 redux of Ryna appears to much louder and cleaner. Regardless, it's a pleasure to hear this record once again!
MPEG Stream: "Ennoia"
MPEG Stream: "Rigis"
MPEG Stream: "Tochar"

V/A Creeping Dawn Vol. 3 (Students Of Decay) 4 x 3"cd-r box 30.00
Students Of Decay, the label run by Alex Cobb aka Taiga Remains, seems unable to do anything wrong. Pretty much every release so far has been amazing, discs from Ghosting, Flash Lights, Jade Emperor, David Kirby, Heavy Winged, and of course a bunch of Taiga Remains discs, including the breathtaking Ribbons Of Dust series.
Creeping Dawn is another Students Of Decay series, one so limited, the first two volumes came and went without us even noticing. But we jumped on volume three, and grabbed as many copies as we could of the criminally limited pressing (50 COPIES!!). We got about a third of all the copies made, but these won't be around for long so don't dawdle or you'll be sorry.
A killer combo for sure, this quadruple 3" cd-r boxset collects a handful of luminaries from the underground free noise cd-r scene and gives each of em a disc to do with as they will. And the results are as good as we would have hoped.
The first disc teams up the Nether Dawn (aka PseudoArcana head honcho Antony Milton) with Little Skull, otherwise known as Dean Brown. The two incorporate guitars, violins, clarinets, tape loops, feedback and vocals into their slow abstract ambient crawl. Guitars drift like wisps of smoke, everything is slightly off kilter and warbly as if the tape machine was slightly busted, dreamy, indistinct melodies hover and drift away, very sun baked and druggy. Like Loren Mazzacan Connors recorded on an old 4-track after way too many bong hits. Gloriously laid back and spaced out.
The second disc features legendary Kiwi noisemaker Clayton Noone, who does his thing as CJA. Here, he takes his guitar, and wraps it in a thick layer of crumbling distortion, and proceeds to unfurl a dreamily lugubrious minor key jam, repetitive and hypnotic, a strummy folk bathed in fuzzy ambience. For track two, the guitar is supercharged and allowed to sort of sprawl out, into a thick pulsing layer of downtuned chug, sprinkled with little bits of random mechanical whir and little fragments of melody. The final track is another ultra murky stripped down jam, the guitar almost lost completely beneath the roiling surface, melodies getting all twisted up and tangled in the thick shards of guitar grrr.
The third disc features the group Pefkin, who we had never heard of before, but who fits perfectly in this set, with long drawn out wheezing drones, haunting minor key melodies, the opening track almost sounds like a Parisian cafe in the midst of some sort of sonic storm. Disc two adds some killer backwards melodies (we love anything backwards) and some percussive steel string buzz, the rest of the disc meanders from warbly drone to blissy abstract Appalachia and back again. We definitely need to hear more from these guys.
Finally, wrapping things up, is the ubiquitous duo of Bjerga / Iverson, who weight in with an epic 20 minute soundscape of speaker rattling low end, buzzing electronic glitch, thick fuzzy stretches of rumbling drone and muted melody, all whipped up into a glacial crawl, but rife with under-the-surface activity, plenty of weird little stuttery squiggles, layers of sound shifting and shimmering, all submerged beneath a rich resonant low end thrum.
Four discs, all of them kick ass, and all exclusive to this release.
Gorgeously packaged, each disc in a mini 3" jewel case, with full color artwork, housed in a little white box, with cool abstract green artwork affixed to the top, inside is an insert, with the liner notes, each one hand numbered. And again..
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!!! These will be gone in no time so if you want one, act fast...
MPEG Stream: NETHER DAWN AND LITTLE SKULL "A Dog's Hair Reverie"
MPEG Stream: CJA "Ich Lieb"
MPEG Stream: PEFKIN "The Other Room"
MPEG Stream: BJERGA / IVERSEN "Cosmic Recovery"

V/A New York Latin Hustle (Soul Jazz) 2cd 23.00
The streets of New York in the '60s and '70s were brimming with a melting-pot of musicians.
Puerto-Rican, Latino and African-Americans, all bringing together their musical histories and legacies to create all new sounds like booglaoo, latin jazz, salsa, and a brand of disco that just can't be denied. This Soul Jazz collection brings together some of the biggest names in Latin music (Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Candido, Ray Baretto) along with some more obscure folks (Ismael Quinones Nature Zone, Johnny Zamot) all of whom know lots about creating songs that splash with color and vivacious energy. As always the Soul Jazz packaging is top-notch with informative and well written liner notes and some pretty amazing photos. Every time we need a lift in our spirits we've been blasting this really loud and the next thing we know we're moving just a little bit faster and cracking big ol' smiles! New York Latin Hustle does the trick every single time. Forget about St. Johns Wart this is our sure way to get in a better mood. So great!
MPEG Stream: LOUIE RAMIREZ "Do It Any Way You Wanna"
MPEG Stream: CHARLIE SANTIAGO & EDDIE MONTALVO "El Bollinski en D7"
MPEG Stream: CORTIJO "Sorongo"
MPEG Stream: SEGUIDA "Om Marreo"

V/A New York Latin Hustle Vol 1 (Soul Jazz) 2lp 24.00
The streets of New York in the '60s and '70s were brimming with a melting-pot of musicians.
Puerto-Rican, Latino and African-Americans, all bringing together their musical histories and legacies to create all new sounds like booglaoo, latin jazz, salsa, and a brand of disco that just can't be denied. This Soul Jazz collection brings together some of the biggest names in Latin music (Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Candido, Ray Baretto) along with some more obscure folks (Ismael Quinones Nature Zone, Johnny Zamot) all of whom know lots about creating songs that splash with color and vivacious energy. As always the Soul Jazz packaging is top-notch with informative and well written liner notes and some pretty amazing photos. Every time we need a lift in our spirits we've been blasting this really loud and the next thing we know we're moving just a little bit faster and cracking big ol' smiles! New York Latin Hustle does the trick every single time. Forget about St. Johns Wart this is our sure way to get in a better mood. So great!
MPEG Stream: LOUIE RAMIREZ "Do It Any Way You Wanna"
MPEG Stream: CORTIJO "Sorongo"

V/A New York Latin Hustle Vol 2 (Soul Jazz) 2lp 24.00
The streets of New York in the '60s and '70s were brimming with a melting-pot of musicians.
Puerto-Rican, Latino and African-Americans, all bringing together their musical histories and legacies to create all new sounds like booglaoo, latin jazz, salsa, and a brand of disco that just can't be denied. This Soul Jazz collection brings together some of the biggest names in Latin music (Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Candido, Ray Baretto) along with some more obscure folks (Ismael Quinones Nature Zone, Johnny Zamot) all of whom know lots about creating songs that splash with color and vivacious energy. As always the Soul Jazz packaging is top-notch with informative and well written liner notes and some pretty amazing photos. Every time we need a lift in our spirits we've been blasting this really loud and the next thing we know we're moving just a little bit faster and cracking big ol' smiles! New York Latin Hustle does the trick every single time. Forget about St. Johns Wart this is our sure way to get in a better mood. So great!
MPEG Stream: CHARLIE SANTIAGO & EDDIE MONTALVO "El Bollinski en D7"
MPEG Stream: SEGUIDA "Om Marreo"

VALET Blood Is Clean (Kranky) cd 14.98
One of our favorite blasts of murky, moody cd-r bliss finally re-issued as a REAL cd by the fine folks at Kranky. And what a fine fit it is too.
Originally released on her own brilliantly named Yarn Lazer label, Valet is the work of one ex-San Franciscan called Honey Owens, who also does time now and again in Jackie O Motherfucker. We've mentioned it the past a few times, but there definitely seems to be a preponderance of vocal based music surfacing lately, Grouper, Bastard Wing, Pump Kinn, Lichens, and now Valet, who all use the voice as a major component of their sound. For Blood Is Clean, Owens twists and stretches her voice into broad sonic strokes and dreamy drones. But it's not just vocals, she also weaves darkly delicate little sound worlds, of muted tribal percussion, dark cavernous rumbles, lots of buzz and creak, alien transmissions, clattery minimal percussion, crumbling guitar grit, murky swirls of reverb and delay, the perfect sonic backdrop for all manner of processed and unprocessed vocals, ranging from sultry chanteuse like croon, to chopped and delayed Boredomsy "boop boop"s to breathy ambiance. Really beautiful and understated.
Packaged in a simple and striking cardstock sleeve, an expanded version of the original cd-r artwork...
MPEG Stream: "April6th"
MPEG Stream: "Blood Is Clean"

ZARPA ROCK Los 4 Jinetes Del Apocalipsis (Iberian) cd 23.00
Geeze, will you look at that cover?? A gory painting of a severed, hairy hand, dripping blood with hanging sinews and jutting bone, clawing at a wall. For 1978, when this album was first released, that had to be considered pretty extreme! It would be at least another ten years before the likes of Cannibal Corpse would make such "shocking" images commonplace on album covers. So perhaps it will come as no surprise that apparently this band went on to become an important part of the '80s heavy metal scene in their native Spain. But this debut album of theirs, recorded when the guys in the band were in their mid-teens (!), actually harks back more to the proto-metal heaviness of the early '70s and even '60s, to which we say, right on! It's fuzzed-out, garagey psych, tons of fierce, heavy acid rock guitar, sounding something like Stray or Sir Lord Baltimore, or seventies Spanish older-brethren Tapiman and The Storm.
The first three tracks are all vicious stormers. Really raw and riffy!! Tracks four and five mellow out just a bit, balancing the heaviness with more melody. They've got a balladic '60s psych pop element to 'em, but they definitely don't wimp out in the end. We've gotta say, wow. Apparently the original of this is an expensive, rare-ass record (some collectors, we're told, even doubted its existence) but thanks to this cd reissue it's alive and well and and bloody and clawing at the walls. Recommended to all proto-metal freaks.
MPEG Stream: "Los 4 Jinetes Del Apocalipsis"
MPEG Stream: "Lacontaminacion"

ZECHARIA, ZADIK Kurdish Melodies On Zorna - REMIXES (Something On The Road) cd-r 11.98
About a year ago we were completely floored by the cd release of a cassette recording made in Jerusalem circa 1980 of the intense and trance inducing zorna playing of Zadik Zecharia. His Kurdish Melodies On Zorna had the kind of fire and intensity that appealed not only to Middle Eastern music aficionados, but also noise freaks, drone lovers and experimental music-heads of all stripes. So when we heard that the Israeli label Something On The Road had compiled a remix cd of Zacharia's masterful record we were both intrigued and a little skeptical. We'll be the first to admit that most remix records tend to miss the mark, adding generic beats and kind of killing the original spirit of a work that we love. And the first couple tracks on this collection while ok weren't totally doing it for us but then...oh my god!!! after a few tracks things started to heat up FAST! While most records, especially compilations and remix albums, tend to be top heavy, this is in many ways quite the opposite. Things start off with a nice smoky Planet Mu almost dubstep kind of vibe and then as the record goes on the beats start to diminish in favor of drone and noise and buzz. We love how Something On The Road have such a good sense of continuity, mood and pacing, something most remix records completely ignore. We weren't familiar with most of the Israeli bands and DJ's involved in this record but now we will for sure try to seek out more music by the likes of Nemoi, Gal Tushia and David Ovadia. The one artist we were familiar with was Poochlatz an amazingly bleak and primitive noise project out of Israel who always whip up beautiful and chaotic doom & gloom! We love the tidal wave that erupts as this remix record unfolds. Like the best moments of Muslimgauze, this is Middle Eastern experimental electronica that resonates so strongly and does it's source material proud!
MPEG Stream: NEMOI "Zecharia Remix By Nemoi"
MPEG Stream: GAL TUSHIA "Zecharia Remix by Gal Tushia"
MPEG Stream: POOCHLATZ "Zecharia Remix by Poochlatz"

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CREBAIN / LEVIATHAN split (tUMULt) cd 13.98
Finally back in print and available again. The ultimate Bay Area USBM matchup, the sky turns black and the rolling hills of SF are covered in frost, as these two black metal behemoths meet up on the bloody field of battle. The brilliantly fucked up bizarre blackness of the mighty Leviathan and and the grim black buzz of Crebain. Apologies to all the folks that were forced to pay outrageous sums for this on eBay, but patience is a virtue and those patient few, shall now be rewarded....
The black cloud over sunny California grows and grows, with each addition to its dark army and each new missive from one of its elite! Black metal has found a strong foothold in this unlikely location. Xasthur, Leviathan, Draugar, Crebain and a small dark likeminded legion lurk in the shadows, far away from the fun and the sun, unleashing some of the most raw and uncompromising black metal we've ever heard.
AQ pal Wrest and his genius one man avant black metal outfit Leviathan return with what may quite possibly be his best, most intensely weird material to date. We just can't get enough of his dark and violent, totally skewed take on grim frosty black metal. And for this release he teams up with relative newcomer Ancalagon The Black and his outfit Crebain. Not quite as weird as Leviathan, Crebain channels his darkness through a more thrashing Darkthrone/Mutiilation style.
On this split, Wrest takes his ultra distorted inhuman vocals, pummelling hyperspeed blasts, and violent riffery to a whole 'nother dimension, and moves even further away from his contemporaries, both in terms of sound and concept. There are certain sonic similarities for sure, but Leviathan has such a personal and undiluted take on the black sounds that so obviously flow through is veins. For every blast beat and every buzzing riff, there's some stuttery, fucked up breakdown, or extended blissed out ambient soundscape, or rhythmic mathrock workout, or strummy clean guitar jangle, or weird production with all sorts of glitches and strange sounds. The ambient parts here are definitely some of the most beautifully creepy we've ever heard, from a metal band or otherwise. And the metal, well, by now you should know few can touch Leviathan when it comes to black metal brilliance. And the thing is, Wrest doesn't think any of this is weird. He just makes the sounds he hears in his head, and they sound right to him. And they are right, but in such a beautifully weird way. Can't wait for the upcoming full length Tentacles Of Whorror. His half of the split ends with a straight ahead and super necro cover of cult early '90s San Francisco metallers Von's "Blood Angel." Nice.
The other half of this is Crebain's first official cd release, having previously only released a super limited cd-r demo last year, and it's just as good as that demo led us to hope. This is as raw and buzzing and blazing as it gets. Where Wrest is a master of arranging, creating moods and ambience, Ancalagon is a master of the riff. An unbelievably good guitarist, these riffs are lightning fast and swarm into your ears like a plague of locusts. Thrashing and chaotic, Crebain is a furious no-nonsense metallic onslaught. Programmed drums allow the rhythms to keep up with the madness inducing riffery. Occasionally things slow down to midtempo, and then it becomes quite obvious that Crebain is actually writing catchy songs, not just an insane series of parts. Melodies and almost-groovy riffs propel loping hypnotic dirges towards their eventual obliteration via hyperspeed blasts and that blurry Crebain riffery. Fucking great.
This split is another nail in the coffin containing the corpses of the Nordic metal elite, as black metal's California contingent threatens to thaw their frosty corpses with the soul shearing rays of its black sun! Aieeee!
MPEG Stream: CREBAIN "Retribution"
MPEG Stream: CREBAIN "The Burden Of My Despair"
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "Ruminating In Hatemagick"

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----* New On Celebrate Psi Phenomenon :
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SLOW LISTENER Only On My Own Am I Truly Loved (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 11.98
First in a new batch of releases from Campbell Kneale and his Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. This one from some mysterious UK outfit called Slow Listener. Kneale has dubbed them slumberpunk which is as good a descriptor as any. Five tracks, the shortest 7 minutes, the longest 14, each an expansive sonic sprawl, from distantly drifting soft fuzzy warbles, to silvery slivers of high end twinkle and glimmer, from full on lo-fi vacuum cleaner hum, to crumbling soundscapes of muted melody and mumbled industrial clatter, from cavernous scrape and shriek, to effulgent streaks of white hot guitar grind, from gauzy soft focus melodic whir, to thick swirling shimmer, from dense blistering abstract space psych blow outs, to upper register sun dappled ur-drones, a gorgeous and utterly dreamy cacophony of sound.
Birchville, Skaters, Yellow Swans, Quetzolcoatl, Bonecloud, Bonus, Ghosting, you can now add Slow Listener to that ever growing list...
SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
MPEG Stream: "Bad Santana"
MPEG Stream: "Sarcasm My Old Friend"

TAIGA REMAINS Unfamiliar Sphere, Thin As Light (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 11.98
Alex Cobb, aka Taiga Remains, has been a busy boy of late, with a whole clutch of cd-r's, a brand new proper cd full length, as well as finding time to run his Students Of Decay label. This, his first for Celebrate Psi Phenomenon is a bit of a departure from his usual modus operandi, trading in an electric guitar and a suitcase full of FX for an acoustic guitar, an organ and a delay pedal. And the results are pretty fantastic. It's a little bit difficult to believe that the majority of this disc was made with an acoustic guitar, there's so much jagged scrape and mysterious shimmer. The opening track alone is a strange slow shifting stretch of insectoid buzz, with little bits of melody drifting up here and there, but for the most part, it sounds like a dentist's drill, or as if he were somehow playing the guitar with a tiny fan, an endlessly oscillating reverberation, that is rife with subtle overtones and barely discernible melodic color. At first it sounds a bit harsh, but as you sink in, it's strangely soothing and dreamy. The second track somehow whips the acoustic guitar into billowing clouds of glistening metallic whirs, again transforming any trace of a typical acoustic guitar into blissful drifts of soft focus drone. The third track is the most acoustic sounding of the bunch, almost like a slowed down, stretched out bit of abstract Appalachia, the guitar humming lazily upon a thick layer of wheezing organ. The final track is another gorgeous expanse of dreamlike sound, the organ and acoustic guitar whirled into a looped hypnotic drone, thick with lo-fi detritus, room sound and all manner of buzz, sounding quite a bit like Birchville Cat Motel oddly enough.
SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
MPEG Stream: "Upon Reflection On Think Language"
MPEG Stream: "Blown Ash Firmament"

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BECKER, JIM & COLLEEN BURKE Interkosmos: A Film By Jim Finn (Shrug) lp 21.00
Awesome soundtrack to some strange low budget film about the failed East German space program. Haven't seen the movie yet, but the soundtrack definitely has us curious. Especially considering the players, Jim Becker of Califone, Jim White from the Dirty Three, and lots of other folks who have backed up indie luminaries like Smog, Bright Eyes and more...
Beginning with some creepy shortwave radio, and some spoken German (Conet Project anyone?) the record quickly switches gear and launches into some awesome (Turkish style?) fuzz psych, blown out and wildly rocking, but with the strange addition of mandolin over the top. Ends up sounding like Calexico meets Erkin Koray!!
But like any soundtrack, the music is dictated by the scenes on the screen, so the sound are all over the place. That said, they gel surprisingly well on their own, it helps that many of the tracks are linked by strange radio broadcasts, mysterious German voices, and other distressed broadcast sounds. The rest of the music is a blast, from soft rock big band jams with horns, albeit imbued with a strange buzzy steel string element, to lonesome strings and wheezing accordion, shuffling percussion, a full on free-jazz drum solo that gives way to a primitive Logan's Run space rock synth drone, laid back blues rock, weird off kilter pop, and near the end, that opening blast of fuzzy psych gets revisited, this time with vocals, and it's even cooler.
Pressed on 180 gram swirled pink cotton candy vinyl, housed in an amazing jacket, an oversized matchbook style sleeve, screen printed and letter pressed, black and metallic silver ink on thick brown paper, liner notes printed on the attached inner sleeve, quite striking.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!

BLONDE REDHEAD 23 (4AD) cd 13.98
While we were listening to this new Blonde Redhead we found ourselves musing about how they'd probably do a really great theme song for a James Bond or David Fincher movie. Dark, brooding and mysterious with a seriously palpable tension, 23 finds the band cementing its place at the meeting point between Sonic Youth and Radiohead. With a production that sounds much more sleek in a modern rock sort of way, there is no denying that despite the new gloss and freshly polished suit of sonic armor there still lies utterly great songs at the core of Blonde Redhead's sound. There are some moments where the band explores some totally new directions, like on the track "Silently" which sounds a lot like Abba covering the Four Seasons' "Too Good To Be True"... which is of course a very good thing! But overall, all the ingredients that made Blonde Redhead such a great band are still present. The swirling melodies, the sensuality, the lush arrangements. So while we still kind of wish Guy Piccoto (Fugazi) had worked his production magic on 23, we still can't help but be in head over heels in love with the sweepingly epic music of this amazing trio.
Comes with a ltd. edition 7" while supplies last!
MPEG Stream: "Silently"
MPEG Stream: "SW"
MPEG Stream: "23"

BLONDE REDHEAD 23 (4AD) lp 10.98
While we were listening to this new Blonde Redhead we found ourselves musing about how they'd probably do a really great theme song for a James Bond or David Fincher movie. Dark, brooding and mysterious with a seriously palpable tension, 23 finds the band cementing its place at the meeting point between Sonic Youth and Radiohead. With a production that sounds much more sleek in a modern rock sort of way, there is no denying that despite the new gloss and freshly polished suit of sonic armor there still lies utterly great songs at the core of Blonde Redhead's sound. There are some moments where the band explores some totally new directions, like on the track "Silently" which sounds a lot like Abba covering the Four Seasons' "Too Good To Be True"... which is of course a very good thing! But overall, all the ingredients that made Blonde Redhead such a great band are still present. The swirling melodies, the sensuality, the lush arrangements. So while we still kind of wish Guy Piccoto (Fugazi) had worked his production magic on 23, we still can't help but be in head over heels in love with the sweepingly epic music of this amazing trio.
Comes with a ltd. edition 7" while supplies last!
MPEG Stream: "Silently"
MPEG Stream: "SW"
MPEG Stream: "23"

BRIGHT EYES Cassadaga (Saddle Creek) cd 14.98
Conor Oberst sure keeps his legions and legions of adoring Bright Eyes fans happy... that is, contentedly weepy'n'wallowin' in a steady stream of his unmistakable melancholia. He follows up his two 2005 Bright Eyes albums and a sprawling 2006 rarities collection with something considerably more concise and accessible. Oberst opens Cassadaga with a swirling collage of orchestral strains which borrow a thing (or two or three) from The Beatles' "Revolution 9". Singing in an unexpectedly restrained, low register, Oberst's voice is almost unrecognizable. So much more muted and soft than usual, he could almost be mistaken for Dean Wareham. From there he sweeps into more familiarly Bright Eyes-ian folk pop territory with rollicking fiddle and his voice receding back to the withered weepy range you know and love. With this his sixth album, Oberst fully sheds his well worn indie folk cover boy beginnings as he assumes a more broadly appealing veteran Americana singer/songwriter stature. He does so with absolute ease and composure, and some very welcome support from M. Ward and Gillian Welch. Solidly onwards and upwards!
MPEG Stream: "Clairaudients (Kill Or Be Killed)"
MPEG Stream: "If The Brakeman Turns My Way"

BRIGHT EYES Cassadaga (Saddle Creek) 2lp 17.98
Conor Oberst sure keeps his legions and legions of adoring Bright Eyes fans happy... that is, contentedly weepy'n'wallowin' in a steady stream of his unmistakable melancholia. He follows up his two 2005 Bright Eyes albums and a sprawling 2006 rarities collection with something considerably more concise and accessible. Oberst opens Cassadaga with a swirling collage of orchestral strains which borrow a thing (or two or three) from The Beatles' "Revolution 9". Singing in an unexpectedly restrained, low register, Oberst's voice is almost unrecognizable. So much more muted and soft than usual, he could almost be mistaken for Dean Wareham. From there he sweeps into more familiarly Bright Eyes-ian folk pop territory with rollicking fiddle and his voice receding back to the withered weepy range you know and love. With this his sixth album, Oberst fully sheds his well worn indie folk cover boy beginnings as he assumes a more broadly appealing veteran Americana singer/songwriter stature. He does so with absolute ease and composure, and some very welcome support from M. Ward and Gillian Welch. Solidly onwards and upwards!
MPEG Stream: "Clairaudients (Kill Or Be Killed)"
MPEG Stream: "If The Brakeman Turns My Way"

BURIAL HEX s/t (Snse) lp 13.98
On first glance, one might assume this would be some seriously grim black metal. The cover is skeletal branches against a washed out sky. All of the text is in a distressed olde English font. On the insert lurks a strange cloaked skull figure hidden in the darkness. The songs have titles like "Nightstalking The Unsilent Boneyard", "The Storm Of Ancient Nightcrawler", "Feasting The Nightsoil Communion".
But lo and behold, this is anything but black metal. According to the legend inside, this is OPPRESSIVE NECRO ELECTRONICS! Which indeed it is.
The opening track does in fact sound like nightstalking an unsilent boneyard, foot steps, crunching gravel (bones underfoot?), electronic rumbles, harsh demonic whispers, streaks of fuzzed out high end, and corrosive rumbling drones underneath. Strange pulsing riffs seem to be smeared into indistinct blurs, all wrapped in spikey caustic buzz and lots of rumble and crackle.
Elsewhere, grinding electronics drift amidst dense industrial whirs, fragmented melodies bob on the surface like corpses, the background a roiling black sea of thrum and buzz, constantly swirling and changing shape. Seriously dark and demonic. A killer slab of black ambience. OPPRESSIVE NECRO ELECTRONICS indeed!

CASHMORE, MICHAEL The Snow Abides (Durtro Jnana) cd 12.98
ANTONY alert!!! CURRENT 93 alert!!
OK, now that we have your attention, we can tell you about this gem of an ep recorded over a few years back in '99-'01 and now finally seeing the light of day. Michael Cashmore is best known for his stellar contributions to Current 93 over the years. Playing a major role on C93 classics like Thunder Perfect Mine, Soft Black Stars, All The Pretty Little Horses and the latest C93 outing Black Ships Ate The Sky. Last year he released an amazing solo album of guitar and bass compositions, and now we have The Snow Abides, which finds him collaborating with one of our favorite vocalists, Antony of Antony & The Johnsons. Antony croons in his immediately recognizable style with David Tibet providing the dark and moving lyrics, oh what melancholy bliss! Piano, violin, oboe, cello, flute and percussion all woven into a gloriously dramatic whole with grace and style, making the instrumentals on the record just as captivating as the tracks with Antony's show stopping vocals. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "The Snow Abides"
MPEG Stream: "My Eyes Open"

CIBO MATTO Pom Pom: The Essential Cibo Matto (Warner / Rhino) cd 17.98
Many a Cibo Matto fan wept when Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori decided to go their separate musical ways back in 2001. Sure, each of their solo endeavors has been engaging and impressive in its own right, but there was a special groovy chemistry (not to mention a penchant for food obsessed song lyrics) between the two ladies that oomph'd their music into an irresistible confection. Very distinctly Japanese in both its meticulous craft and adorable, effervescent charm. With an appeal that reached far beyond the initial NYC art school / hipster Hello Kitty set, they could just as effortlessly disarm the big boys with a candy coated rap, bust out a shuffling jazz-inflected romp, 'love u down' with an r'n'b soul styled ballad, and lure the indie pop kids onto the dancefloor long before the dance-punk frenzy. Along the way, they also dabbled in Tropicalia, downtempo, lounge, Bacharachian dream pop among other things.
Super puffed with nineteen tracks including two previously unreleased ones ("Sword And A Paintbrush" and a Dan The Automator remix of "King Of Silence"), rarities and b-sides, Pom Pom is indeed an essential for CM fans, and it makes for a thoroughly cool CM primer for those that missed out the first time around. Yes, you get to have your "Birthday Cake", "Sugar Water". "Know Your Chicken", "Beef Jerky", "Artichoke", "Apple" and "White Pepper Ice Cream", and eat it too!
MPEG Stream: "Know Your Chicken"
MPEG Stream: "Swords And A Paintbrush"

CLUSTER II (Lilith) lp 21.00
Cluster's Second album continues where Cluster '71 left off. Produced and engineered by Conny Plank, who, as on Cluster's debut, acts as a third member. More pulsating and serpentine than before with broader hints at melody, Cluster II still retains the concrete textures and industrial tenacity of their debut yet lacks the characteristically rhythmic propulsion that has marked their subsequent output. Feels right in line with the kraut-y sonic forays of early Ash Ra Tempel and Cosmic Jokers.

COCKER, JARVIS Jarvis (Rough Trade) cd 15.98
When a front man steps away from his main band to go solo, his loner works will oftentimes resemble a single key facet of said band or conversely it will escape madly in a diametrically opposite direction. However, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker is infamous for not being one to go with the flow. Why start now? With Pulp on indefinite hiatus, he took full advantage of his footloose and fancy freedom tacklin' a little of everything for this solo album. Yet even despite this, as well as the fact that he's done plenty of guest and collaborative work in recent years with the likes of Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nancy Sinatra, Marianne Faithfull and Harry Potter (well, not really... he did do some songs for one of the HP movies), his voice is inextricably synonymous with Pulp.
That said, the overall results are a little odd even by the notoriously willful and eccentric Cocker standards. To be honest, we initially weren't sure what to think of this. What's particularly unexpected is just how 'normal' this usually outrageous, cocky and irrepressible gent comes across at times. He applies various mostly American '70s rock tropes -- from the all-out anthemic (the strangely uplifting refrain of "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time") to the solidly straightforward and straight laced ("I Will Kill Again" which features sober piano reminiscent of Carole King, Carly Simon or The Carpenters) to the voluptuously glammy (hey, is that the melody from "Crimson And Clover" in "Black Magic"?). However, we eventually came to the conclusion that this uncharacteristic normalcy seems to be Cocker's sly 'wolf in sheep's clothing' guise. His trademark enigmatic charisma, absurd braininess and glinting razor-sharp black humor (check out "Fat Children"... 'nuf said) make their presence felt throughout. Oh Jarvis, how could we have ever doubted you? Silly us! Give this one time, it'll surely lay down some roots, and prove itself to be a dear favorite. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time"
MPEG Stream: "Black Magic"
MPEG Stream: "Fat Children"

DAVID & THE CITIZENS Until The Sadness Is Gone (Friendly Fire) cd 14.98
David & The Citizens have received bountiful accolades in their home country (including a nomination for 'best pop band' in Sweden's Grammy Awards!), and it's easy to hear why. The Swedish sextet make some dandy rustic indie rock with a twist. They've infused the songs on their latest album Until The Sadness Is Gone with Klezmer elements as well as some gorgeous string arrangements courtesy of the Ebrelius Quartet. A crafty yet unassuming bittersweet beauty. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Graycoated Morning"
MPEG Stream: "On All American Winds"

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE Something About Airplanes (Sonic Boom) lp 12.98
AVAILABLE AGAIN ON VINYL FOR A LIMITED TIME.
An all time AQ perfect pop favorite! Here's our brief yet concise review from way back in the 20th century before these guys had gotten HUGE:
At the risk of slipping into hyperbole, which we try avoid at all costs (snicker...), this is hands down, one of the best (and possibly most overlooked - we almost missed it ourselves, gasp!) indie rock records ever. Landing somewhere between 'There's Nothing Wrong With Love' and 'Perfect From Now On', Death Cab craft a Built-to-Spill-ian universe, full of lazy sad pop, intricate compositions, jangly melodies, shifting structures, odd time signatures, and haunting cellos. This record has been an unbelievable hit in the store. It's pretty much never ever been played without at least one person buying it, sometimes 2 or 3!

DEERHUNTER Cryptograms / Fluorescent Grey (Kranky) 2lp 16.98
The popular Cryptograms record from Deerhunter is now available on vinyl as a double LP with includes their new 4-song EP Fluorescent Grey (the cd version of which is now available separately, we just got it in today so we'll give it listen and list it next time)!! But here's the review of Cryptograms if you missed it:
This band from Atlanta is sure to create quite a stir this year with Cryptograms, their sophomore release and their first outing for Kranky. Don't be expecting the usual Kranky fare with this one, as Deerhunter possess a distinct flair for taking their music in all sorts of directions. As influenced by blissed out and spacey drones as they are rocking momentum and pop sensibility, Deerhunter's kind of like an early Factory band doing covers of songs from the first couple U2 and R.E.M. records. We could see this creating the same kind of refreshing splash that Broken Social Scene did a few years back as this is a record with enough texture to reel in more experimental minded folks, but with enough sleek pizzazz and edgy rock moments to win over the indie-rock crowd. For fans of Trans Am, the sadly short-lived Beautiful Skin, and the much more earthbound late Man Or Astro-Man? Really good!
MPEG Stream: "Cryptograms"
MPEG Stream: "Red Ink"

DISPARITION Transmutations (self-released) cd 10.98
After a couple years of seeming hibernation (or incubation?), IDM and Drum'n'Bass appear to be flourishing again with a whole bunch of new artists.
Take for instance last week's aQ pick of the week Boxcutter (who blend IDM with dubstep) and this album from the Bay Area's Disparition. These folks are crafting some dark and heady electronic music. We're curious if mainman Jon Bernstein's decision to name his debut Permutations was inspired by the likes of Praxis and Amon Tobin -- the former (aka Bill Laswell with Buckethead) have an album by the same title, and the latter released an album titled Permutation back in 1998. Another rather appropriate point of reference might be Twilight Circus Dub Soundsystem, but considerably less densely packed and more vaporous. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Atom And If"
MPEG Stream: "Mitteleuropa"

EARTHLESS Sonic Prayer Live (Gravity) 10" 10.98
We're looking forward to the upcoming full-length studio album on Tee Pee from these San Diegan psychedelic blown-out blooze mongers, but we also know that they're essentially at their best as a live act, as documented here with the two side-long, semi-improvised heavy jams on this 10" vinyl-only release. Guitarist Isaiah Mitchell can ably and endlessly peel off the electric acid blues leads, never failing to impress!

EL-P I'll Sleep When You're Dead (Definitive Jux) cd 16.98
EL-P's highly anticipated I'll Sleep When You're Dead may be one of the best produced hip-hop records thus far in the new millennium. Produced by EL-P himself, the record could stand alone on it's carefully arranged beats and backgrounds and samples but offers so much more, with killer rhymes that are equal parts political, dark and personal, and seriously humorous. EL-P spits lyrics that toe the line of a fucked up paranoid world in such a way that by the end of the record you too may find it hard not to imagine a bleak droidian future. The album features a slew of interesting guests including Trent Reznor, Aesop Rock, and in case you were wondering how Cat Power's Chan Marshall would fare hip-hoppified, the final track may leave you with yet another wonder -- did she miss her calling? Or, it may be just another testament to the El-P's deft production and incredible vision, you decide. Trust us, I'll Sleep When You're Dead is a must even the most casual of hip-hop headz.
MPEG Stream: "EMG"
MPEG Stream: "Habeas Corpses (Draconian Love)"

EMPEROR Scattered Ashes: Decade of Emperial Wrath (Candlelight) book+cd 17.98
Believe it or not, this is a big book of sheet music and guitar tabulature devoted to the songs of Norwegian black metallers Emperor!! Includes lyrics too. Wow. You know you you've made it when someone publishes a fancy 129 page book of your tunes, so that fans can read your music as well as listen, and presumably learn to play it all, though this stuff is waaaaay beyond our resident beginning guitar student (Allan). Maybe years from now if he really really practices.
13 of Emperor's "greatest hits" are detailed here, including such favorites as "Cosmic Keys To My Creations And Times", "I Am The Black Wizards", "Thus Spake The Nightspirit", and "The Loss And Curse Of Reverence".
It's page after page of horizontal lines machine-gun 16th note repetition, more rhythm than melody. It looks like this music was printed out by a runaway computer. We've never seen sheet music that looks this dense and linear. It's just kinda cool to look at!
These songs were transcribed by Emperor guitarist Ihsahn himself, by the way, who also pens a humble introduction to this tome. Includes a cd (disc two of the greatest hits/rarities collection Scattered Ashes: Decade of Emperial Wrath, featuring all of the songs in the book).

ERASERHEAD OST (Subversive Cinema / Absurda) cd 21.00
Here's the soundtrack to David Lynch's infamous, career defining early cult film Eraserhead. It's a work that lead actor Jack Nance was so dedicated to that he kept the same extreme cumulonimbus hairdo for the five year duration of its filming! It's a work so claustrophobic, nightmarish, perverse, anxiety ridden, bleak and black humor heavy that it continues to this day to be unsurpassed in many strange and wonderful ways.
Many movie soundtrack cds these days are just glorified rock compilations. Not this one! It's a genuine soundtrack, and a strange and beautiful one at that. Filled with intrusive industrial scrapes and discomfiting silences, the soundtrack unquestionably plays an integral role in brewing up the unsettling atmospheres that Lynch navigates with an unchartered dream logic. Unfriendly cold sweat drones, prickly electrical charges, choked guttural gurgles, distant echoes of carnival organ melodies and dialogue snippits lurch in and out of focus, but out of all this grey dankness emerges the Lady in the radiator's "In Heaven (Everything Is Fine)". So good.
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1 (regular chickens)"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2 (in heaven) "

FALL, THE Reformation Post T.L.C. (Narnack) cd 14.98
We're sitting on the fence about this one. Fretting about which is worse -- the cd's album cover photo (which features Mr. Smith's latest crop of gawky teen bandmates... ok, that's sort of an exaggeration) or the music contained within! With his admirably (and maddeningly) willful, prolific music career closing in on three decades, does Mark E. Smith get some slack cut with regards to the follow-up to his great 2005 album Fall Heads Roll? That would follow the line of thinking that everyone's bound to have an occasional stinker in a body of work that immense.
Or on the other hand, does he finally get cut off because anyone with his esteemed track record and tough-love'd yet still rabid fans should have better judgment than to release an album this indigestible. Sure The Fall's musical confrontations are seldom a pretty sight, but... this is gawdawful... at least on sober ears. Maybe after we've dulled our senses with a few pints we'll see things differently. Either way, we're sure Mark E. Smith could care less 'bout what we think. File under 'for masochistically diehard fans only'.
MPEG Stream: "Fall Sound"
MPEG Stream: "Insult Song"

GHOSTING / ROBEDOOR Split (Not Not Fun) 7" 6.98
Two AQ faves together for the first time: Portland Oregon's Ghosting and L.A.'s Robedoor.
Been a little while since we've heard from Ghosting and it's mighty fine to have them back. Their half of the split begins with warm whirring drones beneath buzzing and scraping steel strings, intense and dramatic, and maybe a bit more aggressive than their usual sound. The track grows in intensity, the drones becoming thicker and thicker, eventually becoming an almost Sunroof! style roar, swallowing up any of the drifting melodies completely.
Robedoor, a recent discovery, and a new favorite for sure, counter with what might be their -prettiest- track yet. Very serene, warm swells in the distance, strange submerged rhythms, silver streaks of muted feedback, moaned melodies way down in the mix, the whole thing crawling and slithering darkly through buzzy blurry murky cloud of sound.
Gorgeous packaging, hand screened, one side artfully torn, limited to 325 copies, each sleeve hand numbered, pressed on black streaked white vinyl. Nice!

GIANT ROBOT Issue #47 magazine 5.98
Another killer new issue of Giant Robot, the magazine of "Asian pop culture and beyond!" Always an amazing read, jam packed with killer stories and eye popping photos. And tons of far out shit you can't or wouldn't read about anywhere else. This month they've got: a sampling of Martin Giant Robot's Asian themed t-shirt collection, the Know1edge clothing line, a whole bunch of kick ass toys and jewelry and clothing, Cassandra Nguyen and her giant plush squids, book and comic book reviews, SoCal surfer Kio Inagaki and his Yellow Rat clothing line, poet Beau Sia, flammable household items as improvised weapons, Una Kim and her Keep line of sneakers, Linda Linda Linda: the saga of an all girl garage band, Mountain Mountain collectable toys, The Host director Joon-Ho Bong, the Nice Rainbow Film production studio, tennis pro Paradorn Srichaphan, the Suicide Bomb Button!, tons of record reviews, modern new wave noise rockers VHS or Beta, post Versus rock combo +/-, artist Long Nguyen, Journey From The Fall director Ham Tran, a Vietnam film diary, Installation artists Pattara Chanruechachai and Pratchaya Phinthong, anime reviews, Japanese TV reviews, comics and somehow even more!!!

GIL, GILBERTO Gil Luminoso (DRG) cd 16.98
Brazil's beloved Gilberto Gil, as one of the originators of the Tropicalia sound, has written and recorded some of the most beautiful and politically-minded music ever made. We are huge fans of his first three records, especially Cerebro Electronico from 1969, but like a lot of the older Brazilian artists, including Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso and Milton Nascimento, Gil has been releasing a series of increasingly bland world-beat and jazz-fusion records for quite a while now.
It seems though, that his recent appointment as Brazil's Minister of Culture, has left him little time to record and rehearse with a full band, and so he has thankfully returned to recording and touring with just his voice and acoustic guitar. If you haven't seen him perform recently, you HAVE to, he's truly a magical presence, and hearing the Brazilian members in the audience sing along to every song is a more rewarding experience than you would expect. There's just so much love. Gil Luminoso is a nice return to form with a few visits back to his older catalog (including "Cerebro Electronico"), but containing mostly new songs. At an hour's length, with just voice and guitar, it runs a bit long, but for the most part, it's quite a beautiful record. So put down that Seu Jorge record and get a dose of the real thing! Viva Gil!
MPEG Stream: "Cerebro Electronico"
MPEG Stream: "Raca Humana"
MPEG Stream: "O Compositor Me Disse"

GONZALES Solo Piano (Sunnyside) cd 16.98
A few years ago electro wizard/producer Gonzales surprised us all with the release of an immaculate and beautiful solo piano recording. For some weird reason the record seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye, but thankfully the Sunnyside label has saved the day and made this gorgeous record available once again. Best known for his production work with the likes of Peaches, Feist and various artists on the Kitty-Yo label as well as his own forays into electro-pop and hip-hop, Gonzales shows that you just never know what somebody has up their sleeves. Playing piano since he was a young child, Solo Piano is the work of an obviously gifted musician but also someone with a keen sense of rich melody and elegant execution. Conjuring up the spirit of Erik Satie and George Gershwin, Solo Piano is that perfect mix of skill and simplicity. Short tracks, breezy and tranquil and beautiful. Oh so nice!
MPEG Stream: "Overnight"
MPEG Stream: "Meischeid"
MPEG Stream: "Basmati"

GROUPER Way Their Crept (Type) lp 15.98
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON VINYL!! But only for a limited time. Limited to 500 copies...
Imagine Arvo Part if he was a punk rock woman from Oakland. Or imagine an ultra lo-fi Morton Feldman jamming with Matthew Bower of Skullflower, backed up by a ghostly choir. This is one of those records that is so perfectly aQuarius it sounds like it was composed and recorded just for us. And you. A perfect blend of warm textured ambience and thick corrosive drones, delicate melodies wrapped in a gorgeously crunchy gritty hissy production. The whole record is a ghostly shimmer, warm washes of otherworldly vibrations swirling in a thick morass of processed vocals, murky keyboards and guitars rendered so unguitarlike they more resemble warm wiggles of sound, like slinky's stretched as far as they will go, slightly vibrating, barely disturbing the air around them, small waves of sound like ripples in a pond building and building and piled atop one another until it's a massive, thick blanket of sound. Imagine the saddest slowest band you've ever heard playing at absolutely deafening volume, then imagine stuffing your ears full of cotton, and listening from behind a closed door, through a wall of mud and straw, warm wispy tendrils of sound creeping and crawling through the cracks, wrapping themselves in thick coils around your arms and legs, the whole room slowly filling with sound, until soon you're totally ensconced, submerged, surrounded by thick billows of slow shifting sound. Melodies become indistinct whispers stretched across minutes instead of seconds, guitars and keyboards become blissed out blurs, like floating weightless in a warm dark mysterious place made entirely of soft sound. Wow. Totally haunting and captivating.
MPEG Stream: "Way Their Crept"
MPEG Stream: "Hold A Desert, Feel Its Hand"
MPEG Stream: "Sang Their Way"

GRUFF, RHYS Candylion (Team Love) 2lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl!!!
Here's what we had to say about the cd version:
We know we're only a few months into 2007 but we're pretty sure that Candylion will be right there at the top of the list of our favorite pop records of the year! While we've always sort of liked Super Fury Animals, we have to say this solo outing by front man Gruff Rhys surpasses anything they've ever done! So totally catchy, quirky and impeccably crafted, Candylion is pretty much everything you could want in a pop record. It's so fitting that this record showed up right when Spring finally sprang on SF... this is the perfect soundtrack to carefree afternoons, balmy evenings, topdown freeway excursions as the wind blows in and the sun glows in the sky. Rhys demonstrates great taste and a pretty impressive knowledge of obscure psych rock/pop of the past, in creating his own timeless masterpiece. Whether singing in English or his native Welsh (as he does on a couple tracks), he's a master of vocal melodies and the perfect instrumental accompaniment. When you listen closely you realize there is so much going on from Gameboy beats to flute to pedal steel to stylophone, but like all great pop maestros Rhys knows so perfectly how to incorporate all those elements smoothly and subtly to create dense and dreamy near perfect pop. So totally recommended!
MPEG Stream: "The Court Of King Arthur"
MPEG Stream: "Cycle Of Violence"
MPEG Stream: "Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru"

HALLIWELL, GRAHAM / RHODRI DAVIES / STEVE RODEN / MARK WASTELL Recorded Delivery (Sound 323) cd 13.98
Graham Halliwell is one of the practitioners of what has been dubbed the New London Silence, a taxonomic distinction which may have more to do with geography than stylistic differences. Lowercase, microwave, and onkyo have been other adjectives applied to Halliwell's particular sensibility, in defining quiet compositions and improvisations within the avant-garde (e.g. Alvin Lucier, Morton Feldman, Phill Niblock, etc.). Regardless of what you want to call it, Halliwell has applied a reductionist methodology to his instrument of choice: the saxophone. On Recorded Delivery, Halliwell presents a series of duets with likeminded musicians, two of which could fit into the New London Silence school as well (being that they're also from London) and the other being the Los Angeles sound artist Steve Roden. The first track finds Halliwell with harpist Rhodi Davies; and the two generate a quiet soundfield that is deceptively dangerous as the intersection of their acoustic drones from sax feedback and ebowed harp can manifest headsplitting frequencies even at very low volumes due to the purity of those sounds. The second duet is between Halliwell and Steve Roden; and while Halliwell's input appears to be minimal (perhaps just giving Roden some quiet tones), Roden's manipulation of Halliwell's sound is spectacular. If you've ever had the opportunity to see Roden live (and in all likelihood, been blown away by his breathtakingly minimal / gorgeous sets), then you'll know what to expect. He's got two delay pedals through which he captures looping passages that build into a mass of hypnotic shimmer and mirrored sinewave drone that have an impressive melodic quality. The third and final contribution is between Halliwell and tam-tam player Mark Wastell, who together concoct a sparkling drone of metallic vibration and wave pattern. Beautifully done.
MPEG Stream: HALLIWELL / DAVIES "Beat"
MPEG Stream: HALLIWELL / RODEN "Resonantlighttones Revisited"
MPEG Stream: HALLIWELL / WASTELL "Vibra 3"

HARVIST He Who Rises (God Is Myth) 3"cd-r 7.98
This is volume two in God Is Myth's 3" cd-r series paying homage to the late great H.P Lovecraft. The first came courtesy of UK experimental black metal outfit Caina, this, the second comes via Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist. Based, according to the label website, on awakening/conjuring of the "Outer Gods": Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath and Cthulhu (who is actually one of the Great Old Ones, according to our resident Lovecraft Mythos expert Allan). So what does that sound like? Well for Harvist, that sounds like relentlessly pounding black buzz, thick washes of overblown guitars, chugging downtuned riffs, killer blast beats and some seriously anguished howls. Also plenty of grunts and "uuuh"s. Wrest from Leviathan might call this "goat metal", but it's fast and black and furious, heavy and epic.
The first two tracks a straight ahead grim frosty old skool black metal. Raw and brutal. The third track adds keyboards and tolling bells, and is more melodic and moody, but it's track 4 that pushes this over the edge, an 'actual' Chaos Magic Ritual dedicated to the awakening of the essence of Cthulhu!! Lots of ambient sound, what could be surf (but also sounds like cars driving by), whispering wind, massive rumbling drones and of course, creepy processed vocals, reciting the unholy incantation to summon the mighty Cthulhu! Pretty weird. But the perfect tribute to the genius and legacy of Lovecraft.
Awesome cover painting of Cthulhu, and each disc includes an insert with information on Lovecraft as well as a killer creepy portrait.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We only got 15 and it's already out of print from the label so once these are gone we will not be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "He Who Rises From The Deep"
MPEG Stream: "Rites Of The Outer Gods"

HUNTER, JANA There's No Home (Gnomonsong) cd 13.98
This sophomore album for Gnomonsong shows Jana Hunter in fine form. Moving away from the folky 4-track recordings of her debut, the songs on There Is No Home have a catchier and more powerful indie rock feel to them yet without too much unnecessary polish. Sure the influence of older Cat Power (especially Dear Sir) and PJ Harvey is still evident, but it stills sounds fresh and maybe even better than what Cat Power is doing right now, so who can fault it. A lot of these wonderful songs stay stuck in our heads for days. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Palms"
MPEG Stream: "Vultures"
MPEG Stream: "There's No Home"

HUNTER, JANA There's No Home (Gnomonsong) lp 13.98
This sophomore album for Gnomonsong shows Jana Hunter in fine form. Moving away from the folky 4-track recordings of her debut, the songs on There Is No Home have a catchier and more powerful indie rock feel to them yet without too much unnecessary polish. Sure the influence of older Cat Power (especially Dear Sir) and PJ Harvey is still evident, but it stills sounds fresh and maybe even better than what Cat Power is doing right now, so who can fault it. A lot of these wonderful songs stay stuck in our heads for days. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Palms"
MPEG Stream: "Vultures"
MPEG Stream: "There's No Home"

JESU Silver (Hydra Head) lp 25.00
Now available on vinyl! For a SUPER limited time (we only have a small handful)...
Wow, is this ever a surprise. The sensitive side of Jesu. Which is weird since Jesu was sort of the sensitive side of Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Final, Techno Animal, Napalm Death). Maybe sensitive is not the right word. Poppy? Yeah, that might fit too. Hot on the heels of two epic mindblowers, the self-titled full length and the Heartache ep, Silver finds Broadrick exploring the pop side of his personality. Writing proper songs, even SINGING. Weird but still cool. Just a bit... unexpected.
The two previous Jesu records took the bleak mechanical pummel of Godflesh and doused it with My Bloody Valentine guitar bliss out, and huge swaths of M83 guitar fuzz. A truly unique blend of ominous crunch and swirly shimmer. Pulsing, lengthy epic jams, sparkling, glistening and gauzy, a sort of soft focus alien krautrock. We were obviously immediately smitten.
So this half hour long 4 song ep is basically a pop record. Seriously. Hard to believe but it's true. Melodically and songwriting wise, these tracks sound like they came straight off of an early nineties Sebadoh or Superchunk record. Lilting and sort of bittersweet. Classic sounding early nineties indie rock wrapped in thick glistening swirls of fuzz guitar, that guitar being the only thing keeping it from sounding like something on Merge records. Not sure what to call it, maybe industrial indie rock, fuzzy jangle dirge, both are pretty accurate. Too bad this ISN'T a nineties college rock record, it easily would have been my instant favorite back then. Sweet sad boy bedroom mope rock but with super fuzzed out METAL GUITARS!!?? C'mon, how much would that have trumped every record you had back then? But even now because of the unlikely mix of moody indie rock and pounding dirgey fuzz, this still sounds pretty fresh. Thick walls of fuzzy guitars, warbly warped melodies, sweet melodic jangle, some killer catchy hooks, and those sort of classic plaintive, mopey Mac / Lou sad boy vocals. Track three is the first one to get all M83, blissy and blown out and sweetly shimmery, a plodding sun dappled dirge, but the more we listen the more this sounds like a record Codeine would have made if they were still making records. Sort of sweetly depressive, but with a dark tail dragging vibe. On first listen, we were sort of bummed out, this is SO different than the other two Jesu records, but the more we listen, the more we're beginning to think this jus might be our favorite yet. A record that is both soft and sweetly melodic, but thick and heavy and blown out is a rare beast indeed. And now that we hear the Codeine in Jesu, we're even more sold. For our money, Codeine left a gaping hole when they called it quits, slowcore or moperock or whatever continued to move forward but never with the same intensity or emotion, until now perhaps. The final track is the strangest. A sort of M83 / Jesus And Mary Chain style effects laden bliss out, with loads of swooshing backwards loops, shimmery stretches of light as air vaporous guitar, and even a super chunky Godfleshy break part way through. Awesome. The best industrial dirge jangle indie bliss slowcore doom pop ep ever??
MPEG Stream: "Silver"
MPEG Stream: "Star"

KIRCHIN, BASIL Particles (Trunk) cd 16.98
The late great Basil Kirchin's final work, that was years in the making, is not always an easy listen. Finally realized after years of working with what he called "particles" of music (some recorded as early as the sixties) while his body was riddled with cancer, it's difficult to separate what is happening in the music from what was happening with the man. Book-ended by spirited pastoral compositions of the British jazz variety that we are accustomed to, most of the body of Particles falls into the realm of the atonally challenging. He even calls the main suite, "The Atonals". Even so, it would be unfair to casually dismiss this. One needs to understand Kirchin's process, a laborious attention to recording, editing and filtering that works through primarily conceptual guidelines rather than compositional ones. For instance, "The Atonals", subtitled, "The Secret Conversations Between Instruments", began as recordings of between-session banter with the musicians without their knowledge they were being recorded. Then these hours of tapes were edited into snippets of conversation until each had a clear line of its own, orchestrated together with other lines, then run through a series of processes that remove the words and the voice sounds and are replaced with sounds of instruments that fit closest to the original "voice". It may take a few listens to Particles to unleash its power, but it's a fitting and uncompromised finale of one of the most innovative experimental composers of our time.
MPEG Stream: "Tzuris Oy Vey"
MPEG Stream: "The Die Is Cast"
MPEG Stream: "E+Me"

KIRCHIN, BASIL Particles (Trunk) lp 16.98
The late great Basil Kirchin's final work, that was years in the making, is not always an easy listen. Finally realized after years of working with what he called "particles" of music (some recorded as early as the sixties) while his body was riddled with cancer, it's difficult to separate what is happening in the music from what was happening with the man. Book-ended by spirited pastoral compositions of the British jazz variety that we are accustomed to, most of the body of Particles falls into the realm of the atonally challenging. He even calls the main suite, "The Atonals". Even so, it would be unfair to casually dismiss this. One needs to understand Kirchin's process, a laborious attention to recording, editing and filtering that works through primarily conceptual guidelines rather than compositional ones. For instance, "The Atonals", subtitled, "The Secret Conversations Between Instruments", began as recordings of between-session banter with the musicians without their knowledge they were being recorded. Then these hours of tapes were edited into snippets of conversation until each had a clear line of its own, orchestrated together with other lines, then run through a series of processes that remove the words and the voice sounds and are replaced with sounds of instruments that fit closest to the original "voice". It may take a few listens to Particles to unleash its power, but it's a fitting and uncompromised finale of one of the most innovative experimental composers of our time.
MPEG Stream: "Tzuris Oy Vey"
MPEG Stream: "The Die Is Cast"
MPEG Stream: "E+Me"

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM Sound Of Silver (DFA) cd 13.98
Sophomore slump? No Way!! If anything the newest outing from DFA head honcho James Murphy is even better and more satisfying then his debut full length from a couple years back. While his singles and remixing skills are undeniable we still had our doubts about whether the full length format was well suited for LCD Soundsystem. Sound Of Silver proves that indeed Murphy has found out how to create a cohesive group of songs that feel just right next to each other and not just like a bunch of singles slapped together. Striking us as more earnest and even more carefully crafted then past efforts this is a great record of infectious electronic pop. The goosebump-inducing "Someone Great" might be the best LCD song yet, and instead of hipster ramblings or name checking lyrics its sentiment is bittersweet if not sad and so totally sincere. But not to fear, the party and dance floor have not been forgotten, as tracks like "North American Scum" make it pretty impossible not to crack a smile and start shaking some ass. Smart, sincere and sassy. That's a pretty great combination!
MPEG Stream: "Someone Great"
MPEG Stream: "Get Innocuous!"
MPEG Stream: "Time To Get Away"

LONEY, DEAR Loney, Noir (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
Loney, Dear is a one man band from Sweden whose given name might not be Loney, but his music is very very dear. In fact, his name is Emil Svanangen and he makes fey, verging-on-twee, pop. Loney, Noir is shaded in soft pastel hues with ultra high male vocals. We thought it fit quite well alongside Arcade Fire. What do you think? Super charming and breezy, no?
MPEG Stream: "Sinister In A State Of Hope"
MPEG Stream: "I Am The Odd One"

LUSTMORD Juggernaut (Vault Works / Hydra Head) cd 16.98
Back in 2004, Lustmord and The Melvins released what turned out to be a truly magnificent collaboration in the form of the album Pigs Of The Roman Empire. For Juggernaut, Brian Lustmord entered the studio with the Melvins' King Buzzo once again. The result is less of a collaborative project and more of a Lustmord album with Buzzo contributing vocals and guitars to Lustmord's dark, dark ambient sound design. The album opens with some signature Lustmord moves: cavernous bass drones, tectonic plods for a rhythmic underbelly, and loops of weeping violin. All of this points to the same creep show ambience that worked so well on Lustmord's seminal albums Heresy and The Monstrous Soul; yet, when King Buzzo's guitar comes into focus, the two signatures couldn't sound any more mismatched. It's really quite baffling: a hardly distorted chug of the guitar that sounds more like a teenager who's just figured out that you can downtune an E chord rather than a legend of dirge and doom. And Lustmord just lets it sit there; no manipulation, no augmenting sounds, nothing else. And so it goes. Towards the end of the record, Lustmord brings in some screeching Ligeti strings that do improve upon the previous 30+ minutes of tedium. Given that Stephen O'Malley and Pita raised the bar pretty high for avant-garde doom metal hybrids with their recent KTL collaboration, Juggernaut needed to be a hell of a lot better than this.
MPEG Stream: "Prime"
MPEG Stream: "Able"

LVTHN Sentinel Hill (God Is Myth) 3"cd-r 7.98
This is volume three in God Is Myth's 3" cd-r series paying homage to the late great H.P Lovecraft. The first came courtesy of UK experimental black metal outfit Caina, the second from Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist. This volume features the strangely monickered LVTHN, pronounced Leviathan, and not to be confused with our own Leviathan.
LVTHN just so happens to be the black ambient ritualistic alter ego of one Gaendaal from the band Wraiths, whose Paradigms disc we reviewed recently, and if you dug the Wraiths disc, you'll for sure want to check this out.
This is gorgeously bleak and mysteriously abstract, an ambient world of strange sonic events and ominous drones. Inspired by the Dunwich Horror, Sentinel Hill is one long, slow crawl through the blackest of terrors, distant tolling bells, crumbling wastelands of blood drenched hills and drone drenched swells, rhythms are muted pulses, layer after layer of black sonic gauze is wrapped in billowing clouds around every sound no matter how slight, disembodied vocals and clanging metal are smeared into still more layers of blackness. Truly dark and dense and harrowing. Another perfect sonic tribute to the master.
Each disc includes a full color booklet as well as an insert with information on Lovecraft as well as a killer creepy portrait.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We only got 15 and it's already out of print from the label so once these are gone we will not be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "track 1 (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "track 1 (excerpt 2)"

MERCH The Modern Hunter (Luck Song) (self released) 7" 4.98
Two artfully infectious lo-fi power pop songs from local trio of guitar, drums, and one rockin' cello. Very catchy songs with quirky lyrics, hummable hooks and back-up vocals. Good stuff, but try to see them live if you can, we're guessing you'll find it pretty hard to keep from dancing.

MODEST MOUSE We Were Dead Before The Ship Sank (Epic) 2lp 21.00
Now available on vinyl for a limited time!!
There is a certain level of possessiveness that seems to go hand in hand with being an independent music enthusiast. Sometimes this possessiveness turns to snobbery in thought or can often be expressed in comments like: "they were never as good as their first 7 inch" or "I only like the OLD stuff", etc... It's hard to pinpoint exactly why, but part of it is definitely the fact that discovering cool bands is a lot of work, and when you do discover a band, even though you're eager to share them with all your friends, you're NOT eager to share them with the rest of the world. The rest of the world discover their new bands by simply turning the radio to some random top 40 or even lower 100's college station, while the indie music obsessive is reading zines and going to shows and checking out opening bands and reading music blogs or whatever. Sometimes the indie music nerd (okay, snob) can feel ripped off when their special "find" becomes popular. It's safe to say that Modest Mouse is no longer a special find (if your aforementioned possessiveness is contained check out the American Idol contestant's cover of "Float On" for a Mustang commercial; if your possessiveness is not so easily contained, steer clear...it might make you blow your top!)
Most of us remember the first time our bodies came alive to the sound of Modest Mouse. For some of us no record will ever compare to This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About or Lonesome Crowded West (or maybe even actually, their first 7 inch!), while others will find themselves flailing uncontrollably to the angsty lispy yells of Isaac Brock for the first time with the band's latest, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. Brock's folky growl may be the only thing that has remained constant over the years as the band's instrumentation has turned from raw ruckus to structured madness. The highly anticipated recruitment of The Smith's guitarist Johnny Marr is subtly felt throughout the band's most recent project and The Shin's James Mercer contributes some nice airy backing vocals on "Florida" and "We've Got Everything," but it is clear that Brock still holds the reigns...and let's them go at exactly the right moment. Whether this is the first or fifth full length you've heard by Modest Mouse, we think you'll be pleased. And who would have EVER thought Modest Mouse would be #1 on the Billboard charts?!?! Wow.
MPEG Stream: "Dashboard"
MPEG Stream: "Florida"

OUGENWEIDE Ohrenschmaus / Eulenspiegel (Bear Family) cd 17.98
More medieval minstrelry!! Last list we reviewed the cd reissue of the first two albums by Germany's Ougenweide, early '70s German krautfolksters produced by Achim Reichel. Here's the another disc of their mainly acoustic "Mittelalter-Rock", featuring their third and fourth albums Ohrenschmaus and Eulenspiegel, both from 1976. Again this cd is a delight for anyone who can dig a Teutonic twist on ye olde folk, with dash of hippie psych/prog, played by people who wouldn't look out of place in a Joanna Newsom video.
Singing in Old German -- sometimes in Latin -- Ougenweide took their obsession with the Middle Ages quite seriously indeed. They set old poetry to music, putting 'em in the same realm as that wonderful Kay Hoffman album Floret Silva from circa '77 we reviewed last year, and also reminding us a bit of the approach taken by a more recent (and more metallic!) German band, In Extremo -- remember them?
The vocals are lovely, the various stringed things in the band get an, um, incredible workout, alongside hornpipes and jangling percussion... the mood ranges from melancholic atmosphere to pure reeling energy, and if you let yourself get into it, let your mind dance about in Ougenweide's ancient forest glade, you'll find that their melodies and rhythms are utterly infectious.
Germany's Bear Family label, best known for their elaborate (and expensive) box sets, of course do a nice job with the packaging here, the thick cd booklet full of liner notes (in English and German), lyrics (not in English), and photos. Just turn to page 33 in the booklet for a gander at the appalling original album cover of Eulenspiegel -- the band playing tug-o-war in full RenFaire get-up, with a jester-garbed child dancing on the rope! This is a LOT cooler, and generally less silly, than that picture would suggest!
MPEG Stream: "Kommt, ihr Jungfern, helft mir klagen"
MPEG Stream: "Wol mich der stunde"

OZKENT, MUSTAFA Genclik Ile Elele (Finders Keepers) lp 28.00
NOW ON VINYL!!
B-Music's "Anatolian Invasion" continues. We reviewed the Selda album a few weeks ago, now it's time for the one with the monkey on the cover, the incredibly groovy 1973 instrumental album from this super-obscure Turkish artist Mustafa Ozkent and his "orkestrasi". We're told (and we believe it) that this is one REALLY obscure album, definitely a find for any digger and a welcome reissue from the discerning heads at Finders Keepers/B-music. It's simply jazzy, sazzy, dancefloor fodder here folks, nothing but a party y'all. Fuzz guitar and Turkish trad. folk grooves like we like, but done all badass as if the JBs, "funky drummer" included, were ushered into the studio with a bunch of Turkish musicians, each teaching the other some new tricks. '70s funk, Istanbul-style! Totally full of beats and breaks that pioneering hip hop DJs woulda been all over, had hip hop originated in the on the banks of the Bosphorus rather than in the Bronx... The acid organ spasms and rhythmic workouts found here are still fresh and fun today. We know a lot of you dig the Turkish psych reissues we've been freaking on, this one should definitely appeal to those who liked the '70s cop show car chase sounding numbers found on the Edip Akbayram reish. Ten tracks, 30 minutes, and your body WILL be moving long before you need to hit "play" again to start it over.
MPEG Stream: "Burcak"
MPEG Stream: "Silifke"

POLE Steingarten (Scape) cd 16.98
If memory serves us correctly, the previous Pole album (which was the eponymous 2003 release) was a complete dud, as it ventured into clunky jazz tropes that didn't meld with Pole's murky dubbed electronica. Steingarten arrives four years later; and while it's a vast improvement upon that aforementioned album, it can't be said that this is a 'return to form' necessarily. No, the days of druggy Chain Reactive soundscapes are gone for Pole. Stefan Betke (the German artist behind the Pole moniker) still sees the merit in bringing an organic ethos to digital produced electronica, and frosts his downtempo breakbeats with acoustic basslines, playful vibraphones, and fizzing psychedelic guitar noise, all of which have been sampled and framed tightly into place. If this sounds like a digitized version of early Tortoise or a more tight-laced Fridge recording, that's because it does.
MPEG Stream: "Warum"
MPEG Stream: "Pferd"

POLE Steingarten (Scape) lp 17.98
If memory serves us correctly, the previous Pole album (which was the eponymous 2003 release) was a complete dud, as it ventured into clunky jazz tropes that didn't meld with Pole's murky dubbed electronica. Steingarten arrives four years later; and while it's a vast improvement upon that aforementioned album, it can't be said that this is a 'return to form' necessarily. No, the days of druggy Chain Reactive soundscapes are gone for Pole. Stefan Betke (the German artist behind the Pole moniker) still sees the merit in bringing an organic ethos to digital produced electronica, and frosts his downtempo breakbeats with acoustic basslines, playful vibraphones, and fizzing psychedelic guitar noise, all of which have been sampled and framed tightly into place. If this sounds like a digitized version of early Tortoise or a more tight-laced Fridge recording, that's because it does.

PSYOPUS Our Puzzling Encounters Considered (Metal Blade) cd 14.98
Ok, hold on a second, got to turn off the music and wait 'til I'm not so dizzy anymore to write this review! Yep, it's the second album of ultra spazzy brutal metalcore from Psyopus. Once again, it's a heavy chops-explosion of technicality, testosterone and tomfoolery with slashes of jazz fusion amidst the metal madness. We know a lot of people might like this, just to marvel at the band's insanely complex compositions and performance thereof, but you have to have a taste for some mean nasty vocals shouting at you the whole time (not something you always get with other, more tame varieties of metal, jazz and/or prog), but Meshuggah fans should have no problem with it! However, we don't recommend listening to the hidden, 28 minute bonus track...most of which consists of the word "annoying" looped over and over, though that's not the worst part! You've been warned.
MPEG Stream: "The Pig Keeper's Daughter"
MPEG Stream: "Our Puzzling Encounters Considered"

SKYSCRAPER Issue #24 magazine 4.99
Another jam packed issue of this amazing music magazine, that somehow manages to slip through the cracks when in fact it's as good or better than any of its modern music contemporaries (The Wire, Terrorizer, Magnet, Sound Projector). With a distinctly indie rock bent, Skyscraper manage to still touch on all sorts of amazing music, reading like maybe the most AQ magazine of them all. This month: Neurosis, Jesu, Baroness, Panda Bear, Black Lips, Explosions In The Sky, Converge, An Albatross, Hot Cross, John Wiese, Die! Die! Die!, Demonstrations, Athletic Automaton, Foreign Islands, the Willowz, Graham Coxon, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, VietNam, Unsane, a focus on Now Wave Chicago and of course tons and tons of reviews!!

SOUND PROJECTOR, THE 15th Issue magazine 13.98
You've been waiting, we've been waiting, here it is! The 15th handsomely red-black-and-white, thick-as-a-brick issue of one of the best magazines for weird music obsessives currently going, The Sound Projector out of the UK. As we always say, sort of an underground, 'zine-style counterpart to The Wire, but more diverse and genuinely enthused. And as always, this 148 page issue is made up mainly of record reviews (we know you love record reviews, you're reading our list after all!). Interesting stuff new and old sorted into a bewildering array of micro-genres and categories, from "Maladroit Rhythms Of Rock" to "The Crackling Ether" to "The Nordic Realms" to "The Droning Ones"... improv, folk, industrial, international, black metal, everything, There's hundreds of reviews here, with special attention this issue to "Noisy Rock, Evil Noise, and Black Noisy Music" alongside "marginal musics" of other sorts from around the world. On one page you'll be reading about Phill Niblock, on another Emit / Vrolok, on another Cellutron and the Invisible, on another Rehtaf Ruo, and on yet another Getatchew Mekurya...
And the SP's reviewers are perfectly willing to slag stuff they find lacking, no matter what the "received wisdom" about an artist is, and indeed, some of 'em we find a bit too harsh upon occasion. But that generally makes for good readin' and plenty of arguments. There's also a batch of interviews with music-makers on the fringes: Russ Waterhouse (The SB, Blues Control), Peter Strickland (Sonic Catering Band), Clay Ruby (Davenport Family), Mudboy, and UW Owl.
All in all, another essential slab of reading material for all dedicated AQ customer-types. We love it.

STOOGES, THE The Weirdness (Virgin) cd 14.98
Sorry. Sorry folks. We're very sorry. In fact, we've been putting this off, so maybe we won't be the first to tell you, that this new, eagerly-awaited Stooges reunion album sucks. That's just the way it is. No songs to speak of. Terrible lyrics ("She Took My Money", "Free & Freaky In The USA"). It's just not good. Iggy's made way better solo albums than this, even in recent years. For a leathery old guy Iggy still has the long hair and rambunctious energy of someone much, much younger, that's true. But that doesn't mean that getting together after thirty some years with the surviving Stooges to do anything other than play their old songs was a good idea. We wish we could tell you different, we were excited before we heard it too. But it's bad and we've yet to talk to anyone who didn't agree. Oh well, we bet they'll still be worth seeing on tour, as long as they don't do too many of these tracks...
MPEG Stream: "Trollin'"
MPEG Stream: "The End Of Christianity"

STOOGES, THE The Weirdness (Virgin) 2lp 22.00
Sorry. Sorry folks. We're very sorry. In fact, we've been putting this off, so maybe we won't be the first to tell you, that this new, eagerly-awaited Stooges reunion album sucks. That's just the way it is. No songs to speak of. Terrible lyrics ("She Took My Money", "Free & Freaky In The USA"). It's just not good. Iggy's made way better solo albums than this, even in recent years. For a leathery old guy Iggy still has the long hair and rambunctious energy of someone much, much younger, that's true. But that doesn't mean that getting together after thirty some years with the surviving Stooges to do anything other than play their old songs was a good idea. We wish we could tell you different, we were excited before we heard it too. But it's bad and we've yet to talk to anyone who didn't agree. Oh well, we bet they'll still be worth seeing on tour, as long as they don't do too many of these tracks...
MPEG Stream: "Trollin'"
MPEG Stream: "The End Of Christianity"

TOMUTONTTU (Beta-Lactam Ring) 7" 9.98
Originally intended to be released with a super limited version of the recently listed vinyl of Kemialliset Ytsavat's all time AQ favorite Alkuharka. We missed out on the limited version, but managed to get a handful of the 7" from the label, but once these are gone they are gone for good.
The strange thing is it's not actually a Kemialliset single, but rather a Tomutonttu record, which is in fact the solo project of kemialliset mainman Jan Anderzen (whose recently reviewed lp we still have a few copies of). The sound is similar though and this 7" is a doozy, in fact, the A side might be one of our favorite tracks from these Finns EVER.
Strange percussive acoustic guitar, all sprawled out and spidery, wrapped in lots of grit and grime and crackle, with distant keening feedback and bizarre percussion that sort of sounds like a rubber ball in a tin can, but the two woven deftly together produces the most divine results. All manner of buzz and rattle wrapped warmly in a shimmery, soft focus ambience.
The B side is a bit more far out, but still pretty bad ass, clouds of buzzing and glitched out electronics hover over mournful plinking piano, which gives way to a weird looped rhythm, some backwards melodic buzz, simple drumming and weird disembodied vocals. And then it gets weird, tooting horns, raspy growls, all sort of tribal and spacey, when suddenly it launches into a brief spate of turntable abuse, finally finishing off with a blown out crumbling ultra distorted coda. Phew. Weird, but so nice.
Thick vinyl in a full color eye popping sleeve...

TWILIGHT SAD, THE s/t (Fat Cat) cd ep 7.98
Imagine Interpol, Arab Strap and My Bloody Valentine havin' a menage a trois.... nine months later you'd have The Twilight Sad. Ooooooh la la! With the moody melancholic poetics of this their debut release filling our ears in the bestest of ways, what else can we say, except that we've got another Glasgow band to adore! This ep's been released exclusively here in U.S, and was mixed and produced by Max Richter, an artist who himself has please our ears plenty. Epic waves of washy shoegazerly guitar distortion and emotive Scottish inflected male vocals. What's not to love? Sooo lovely!
MPEG Stream: "But When She Left, Gone Was The Glow"
MPEG Stream: "Last Year Rain Didn't Fall Quite So Hard"

VOLT Rorhat (Exile On Mainstream) cd 13.98
The sinewy, scary sounds of The Jesus Lizard, Melvins, Rapeman? All sorta rolled into one?? Yes, that's the kind of punch that this new German trio packs. And they're not shy about it. If you have a soft spot for that style of post-HC noise-rockin' heaviness, with whipcrack rhythms, angular guitars and rubbery bass brawniness, backing up some wretchedly angsty vox, you'll get a kick out of Volt. Indeed, they'll be kicking you in that soft spot with a steel-toed boot!
The noise-rock scene that apparently inspired Volt may have peaked way back in the early '90s but these kids (along with Noxagt) are bringing it back with a vengeance. This debut album exhibits an energetic, precise, metallic attack that grabbed us as soon as we heard it, and almost didn't believe it. Then we were like, cool!
MPEG Stream: "Griffel"
MPEG Stream: "Stativ"

XIU XIU Remixed & Covered (5 Rue Christine) cd 14.98
Whoa, when Xiu Xiu's music gets all remixed and covered, it becomes something altogether new, lovely and unrecognizably 'Xiu Xiu'. This new double cd presents nine varied covers (Larsen, Oxbow, Sunset Rubdown, Marissa Nadler, Good For Cows, Kid 606, Why?, Her Space Holiday and Devendra Banhart) and nine remixes (Gold Chains, Warbucks, Cherry Point, Son, This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, Kid 606, Grouper and To Live And Shave In LA).
Shining standouts on the covers disc are Nadler's version of "Clowne Towne" and Banhart's take on "Support Our Troops". Meanwhile on the remix disc, Gold Chains busts out a rump-thumpin', female sung "Hello From Eau Claire", and Xiu Xiu traumatize, errrr, remix their own anguished, tortured version of New Order's "Ceremony".
MPEG Stream: LARSEN / XIU XIU "Mousey Toy"
MPEG Stream: NADLER, MARISSA / XIU XIU "Clowne Towne"
MPEG Stream: GOLD CHAINS / XIU XIU "Hello From Eau Claire (Remix)"
MPEG Stream: XIU XIU "Ceremony (Remix)"

YELLOW SWANS / THE GOSLINGS The Bored Fortress 7" Club (Not Not Fun) 7" 6.98
Latest in Not Not Fun's Bored Fortress 7" series, featuring two long time AQ faves.
Former Bay Area freenoise duo the Yellow Swans check in with probably their harshest heaviest sounds yet. A full on white hot soft noise assault, totally blown out and drenched in distortion, dripping with speaker melting crumble, a seriously punishing blast of brutality, BUT, hidden beneath it all is some serious dreaminess. A simple lilting melody, a bit melancholy, a bit mournful, drifts beneath a veritable sonic shitstorm imbuing the noise with emotion and feeling. Very few folks can make caustic noise sound this pretty, you gotta hand it to these guys...
The flipside features the Goslings, a husband / wife sludge rock duo from Florida, who we have been totally obsessed with when we first heard them back in 2005. This track demonstrates they still got it going on, so heavy, so impossibly pretty, so damaged and amazing.
Outrageously distorted guitar, so much so that it's not just crumbling, but melting into a weird black puddle, the amp literally falling to pieces, so in the red, that the riffs keep overwhelming the recording device adding all sorts of alien buzz and damaged Basinski like drop outs. It's a bit like Boris or SUNN))) produced by Faxed Head, but it's the Goslings, so you gotta toss in a dorky little Casio rhythm, and some drifty throaty female vocals. So what was once just a crumbling heap of melted guitars and chunks of desiccated amplifier, albeit an insanely cool one, becomes some sort of blissy dream sludge. And then there's the weird melodic slowcore outro, which sounds like Low run through a million broken distortion pedals...
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!

ZU & NOBUKAZU TAKEMURA Identification With The Enemy: A Key To The Underworld (Atavistic) cd 14.98
From the downright aggro get-go, it seems that Zu is the dominant force in this new collaboration with laptopper Nobukazu Takemura. The Italian trio's thick and heady free jazz muscles its way out of these eight glowering and at times violently dismembered pieces. On the other hand it could be that perhaps we're catching a frightful glimpse of Takemura's dark side as he takes the album's title to heart? Whatever it is, Identification With The Enemy: A Key To The Underworld is definitely a whole different beast from the pretty electronic effervescence of his solo endeavors. Bringing together such disparate styles, could be a recipe for confusion / disaster or it could make for a tightly wound intense work. We think the latter!
MPEG Stream: "Alone With The Alone"
MPEG Stream: "New Buddhas In Stock"



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CHEVY BOYS, THE (Anthem) dvd-r 12.98
With the current deluge of 'reality this' and 'reality that' on the TV and the internet, it's hard to watch this dvd-r without wearing irony goggles, but this footage and the kids on it are real and truly from back in the day. Much like the pre-YouTube old VHS classics Heavy Metal Parking Lot and Metallica Drummer, The Chevy Boys is a document of regular ol' American teens doin' what regular ol' American teens do. But when viewed from a third person perspective their antics, activities and conversations are nothing short of irregular, unintentionally hilarious, and at times downright homoerotic. Perversely fascinating. Shot in Anytown, USA (actually Eugene, OR) circa the late '80s, these sixteen minutes are packed with flailing body moves that vaguely resemble kung fu and breakdancing, butchered renditions of Bon Jovi and Skid Row tunes, and assorted other fucking around. Heck, the boys' haircuts alone are unflinchingly donned by today's fashion mavens and Vice Mag readers far and wide. And no doubt some of you, like us, will recognize some cringeworthy moments not all that far removed from some of your teenage antics. You'll definitely find yourself laughing your ass off, and thanking your lucky stars it isn't you captured in your awkward teenage metal mullet break dancing prime...



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31 KNOTS "The Days And Nights Of Everything Anywhere" (Polyvinyl) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
40 BANDS / 80 MINUTES (Sounds Are Active) dvd 11.98
ACRE "17:34" (EMR) 3" cd-r 7.98
AIRWAY "Live At Lace" (Harbinger Sound) cd 14.98
ALVA NOTO "Xerrox" (Raster-Norton) cd/2lp 17.98/26.00
AMERICAN HARDCORE: THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PUNK ROCK 1980-1986 dvd 35.00
ASBESTOSDEATH "Dejection, Unclean" (Southern Lord) cd 10.98
ASSEMBLE HEAD IN SUNBURST SOUND "Ekranoplan" (Tee Pee) cd 13.98
ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "Star Guzzlers" (Qbico) lp 26.00
AZRAEL "Act III: Self & Act IV: Goat" (Moribund) 2cd 14.98
BADGERLORE "We Are All Hopeful Farmers" (Xeric) cd 16.98
BAIKAL "s/t" (Important) cd 14.98
BALBOA / ROSETTA "Project Mercury" (Level Plane) cd 13.98
BEE GEES "Horizontal" (Reprise) 2cd 23.00
BEE GEES "Idea" (Reprise) 2cd 23.00
BIANCHI, MAURIZIO / M.B. "Das Platinzeitalter" (Incuna Bulum) cd 17.98
BIG BUSINESS "Here Come The Waterworks" (Hydra Head) cd 13.98
BLACK SABBATH "The Dio Years" (Rhino) cd 16.98
BORATTO, GUI "Chromophobia" (Kompakt) cd 15.98
CAVE, NICK & THE BAD SEEDS "The Abattoir Blues Tour" (Mute) 2cd+2dvd 33.00
CEYLEIB PEOPLE "Tanyet" (Vault) lp 14.98
CHINESE STARS, THE "Listen To Your Left Brain" (Three One G/Skin Graft) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
CHRIST ON PARADE "Sounds Of Nature" (Neurot) cd 10.98
CJA "Pink Metal" (PseudoArcana) 2cd-r 16.98
CJA "Vintermanederne" (Celestial Jars) cd-r 10.98
CLARK, GENE "With The Gosdin Brothers" (Sundazed) cd 17.98
CLOUDS "Legendary Demo" (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
COCOROSIE "Adventures Of Ghosthorse And Stillborn" (Touch And Go) cd/2lp 14.98/14.98
COLEMAN, ORNETTE "Whom Do You Work For?" (Get Back) lp 16.98
DALEK "Abandoned Language" (Ipecac) cd 15.98
DAME DARCY "DVD Hi-Jinx" (Press Pop) dvd 21.00
DEAD CHILD "s/t" (Cold Sweat) cd ep 10.98
DEAD MEADOW "Howls From The Hills" (Xemu) cd 14.98
DEERHUNTER "Flourescent Grey" (Kranky) cd ep 9.98
DEVILLOCK "These Graves" (Tone Filth) lp 15.98
DON'T NEED YOU: THE HERSTORY OF RIOT GRRRL (Urban Cowgirl Productions) dvd 17.98
DR. DELAY "Rajaz Meter" (Funk Weapons) cd-r 15.98
EL FOG "Reverberate Slowly" (Moteer) cd 15.98
ENOCKSSON, ERIK "Farval Falkenberg" (Kning Disk) cd 15.98
FIELD, THE "From Here We Go" (Kompakt) cd 15.98
FLYING LUTTENBACHERS "Destroy All Music Revisited" (Skin Graft) cd 14.98
FOLKSWINGERS, THE "Raga Rock" (Fall Out) cd 17.98
FORGOTTEN TOMB "Negative Megalomania" (Avantgarde) cd 14.98
FURSAXA "Alone In The Dark Wood" (Eclipse) lp 16.98
GRAILS "Burning Off Impurities" (Temporary) cd 14.98
GRINDERMAN "s/t" (Anti) cd/lp 14.98/11.98
HAVOK UNIT / ANDOCEANS / THE SIN:DECAY (V/A) "Synaethesia - The Requiem Reveries" (Vendlus) cd 9.98
HENRIKSEN, ARVE "Strjon" (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
HIGGS, DANIEL "Armageddon Lullabye / Recitation" (Endless Series) 10" lathe cut 33.00
HOOKER, D.R. "The Truth" (Subliminal Sounds) cd 16.98
HORNA "Aania Yossa" (Moribund) cd 14.98
HUSH ARBORS "Under Bent Limb Trees" (Digitalis) 2cd 21.00
HYPOTHERMIA "Rakbladsvalsen" (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
KALEIDOSCOPE "Faintly Blowing" (Tapestry) lp 29.00
KALEIDOSCOPE "Tangerine Dream" (Tapestry) lp 29.00
KAN MIKAMI "Live Kolian 2006" (Mikami Komuten) cd 22.00
KLABAUTAMANN "Our Journey Through The Woods" (self released) cd 17.98
KLAXONS "Myths Of The Near Future" (Geffen) cd 10.98
LARSEN "Musm II" (Important) cd 14.98
LIK "Lekamen Illusionen Kallet" (Agonia) cd 15.98
LINDEN, VIVIAN "Watch The Light Fade" (Tarnished) cd 13.98
LIZZIE BORDEN "Master Of Disguise" (Metal Blade) cd 14.98
M'LUMBO "Sacrifices To The Neon Gods" (Mulatta Records) cd 16.98
MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "L'Autre Cap" (K) cd/lp 14.98/13.98
MERZBOW "Merzbear" (Important) cd 14.98
MOEBIUS / PLANK "Material" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00
MOEBIUS / PLANK "Rastakraut Pasta" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00
MOEBIUS / PLANK / NEUMEIER "Zero Set" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00
MOVING GELATINE PLATES "s/t" (Musea) cd 21.00
OBSCURUS ADVOCAM "Verbia Daemonicus" (Battle Kommand) cd 14.98
ONO, YOKO "Open Your Box" (Astralwerks) cd 14.98
OOIOO "Eye Remix" (Thrill Jockey) cd ep/lp 5.98/6.98
OPTIMO "Walkabout" (Endless Flight) cd 16.98
OTOMO, YOSHIHIDE "Multiple Otomo" (Asphodel) dvd+cd 16.98
P.G. SIX "Slightly Sorry" (Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
PAGAN ALTAR "Mythical & Magical" (Oracle Records) cd 21.00
PARKER, WILLIAM & HAMID DRAKE "Summer Snow Vol. 2" (Aum Fidelity) cd 14.98
PETITE M'AMIE "Girl Friend - Baby Doll" (Tiliqua) cd 24.00
PIERSON, DAX AND ROBERT HORTON "Pablo Feldman Sun Riley" (AA / Nosordo) cd 14.98
POWERHOUSE SOUND "Oslo/Chicago: Breaks" (Atavistic) cd 17.98
RAMESES III "Honey Rose" (Important) cd 9.98
REDMAN "Red Gone Wild" (Island Def Jam) cd 14.98
ROTH, DAVID LEE "Sonrisa Salvaje" (Friday Music) cd 15.98
SECHT "True Narcotic Black Metal" (Sublife Productions) cd 15.98
SECRETS OF THE MOON "Antithesis" (Southern Lord) cd 12.98
SENKING "List" (Raster-Norton) cd 17.98
SHIRE, DAVID "The Hindenberg (OST)" (Intrada) cd 30.00
SHIRE, DAVID "Zodiac (OST)" (Varese Sarabande) cd 16.98
SHUTTLE 358 "Frame" (12K) cd 14.98
SILMARIL "The Voyage Of Icarus" (Locust) cd 14.98
SIR LORD BALTI,ORE "Kingdom Come" (Tapestry) lp 29.00
SOLID GROUND "Made In Rock" (Mellotronen) cd 17.98
SOLITUDE AETERNUS "Alone" (Soul Food) cd 17.98
SPLINT! "Moro" (Lampse) cd 17.98
STARCHASER NETWORK "s/t" (Tarot Productions) cd 14.98
SUNBURNED, THE "Z" (Ecstatic Peace!) cd
THROBBING GRISTLE "Part Two The Endless Not" (Mute) cd 16.98
THRONE OF KATARSIS "An Eternal Dark Horizon" (Candlelight) cd 13.98
THUNDERBOLT "Apocalyptic Doom" (Agonia) cd 15.98
TIMBALAND "Timbaland Present: Shock Value" (Blackground) cd 15.98
TIMES NEW VIKING "Present The Paisley Reich" (Siltbreeze) cd/lp 13.98/13.98
TINARIWEN "Aman Iman: Water Is Life" (World Village) cd 19.98
TORAL, RAFAEL "Space Solo 1" (Quecksilber) cd 15.98
TRANSMISSION 0 "Memory Of A Dream" (Candlelight) cd 13.98
UNSANE "Visqueen" (Ipecac) cd 16.98
USAISAMONSTER "Geronimo" (Lovepump United) 7" 9.98
USTINOV, PETER "The Grand Prix Of Gibraltar!" (Riverside) cd 15.98
V/A "For The Sick: A Tribute To Eyehategod" (Emetic) 2cd 13.98
V/A "Lovin' Fire: 20 Obscure Gems From The UK And Europe" (Psychic Circle) cd 16.98
V/A "Paper Rad Uniform" (Vicious Pop) 7" 8.98
V/A "Si, Para Usted: The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba Volume One" (Waxing Deep) cd 17.98
V/A "White Bicycles" (Fledg'ling) cd 16.98
VALENCA, ALCEU "Molhado De Suor" (Som Livre) cd 19.98
VEIRS, LAURA "Saltbreakers" (Nonesuch) cd 15.98
VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA "The Sun Balance" (Qbico) lp 26.00
VOG "s/t" (Shifty) cd 11.98
WE ALL TOGETHER "Singles" (Repsychled / Lion Productions) cd 15.98
XBXRX "Wars" (Polyvinyl) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
XENAKIS, IANNIS "Dmaathen - Eonta - Epei - Herma - Palimpsest - Evryali" (Bvhaast) cd 17.98
XYNFONICA "A Feast For Famished Ravens" (Hekaloth / Cyclops) cd 15.98
YOUNG, NEIL "Live At Massey Hall 1971" (Reprise) cd + dvd 24.00
ZIDANE (MOGWAI) "OST" (Play It Again Sam (PIAS)) cd 28.00
ZORN, JOHN "Six Litanies For Heliogabalus" (Tzadik) cd 16.98
ZOZOBRA "Harmonic Tremors" (Hydra Head) cd 13.98


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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


----} real soon
Pharaoh Overlord "Live in Suomi Finland" cd on Vivo
Piotr Zabrodzki & Tatsuya Yoshida "Karakany" cd on Vivo
The Magic Carpathians & Lechistan's Electric Chair "Mirrors" cd on Vivo
Musica Transonic "XYOSFBIGKOU" cd on Vivo
Merzbow "Bloody Sea" cd on Vivo
DHG (Dodheimsgard) "Supervillain Outcast" cd on Moonfog/The End
Kool Keith "Ultra-Octa-Doom" cd

----} April 20th
Twink "Ice Cream Truckin'" cd on Mulatta

----} April 24th
Stinking Lizaveta "Scream Of The Iconoclast" cd on At A Loss
Mammatus "The Coast Explodes" cd on Holy Mountain
White/Lichens "s/t" cd on Holy Mountain
Cornelius "Sensuous" cd domestic release
Vibracathedral Orchestra "Wisdom Thunderbolt" cd on VHF
Destroy All Monsters "Grow Live Monsters" DVD on MVD Visual
Seefeel "Quique (Redux Edition)" 2cd on Too Pure
Blutch "Materia" cd on At A Loss

----} May 1st
Dungen new album on Kemado

----} May 5th
Jakob Olausson "Moonlight Farm" cd on Destijl

----} May 8th
Electrelane "No Shouts, No Calls" cd/lp on Too Pure
Lavender Diamond "Imagine Our Love" cd/lp on Matador

----} May 15th
KTL "2" cd on Editions Mego
Boris w/ Kurihara "Rainbow" domestic cd version on Drag City
Revelation "Never Comes Silence" cd reissue on Leaf Hound

----} May 21st
Orthodox "Amanecer en Puerta Oscura" cd on Alone Records

----} May 29th
Richard Youngs & Alex Neilson "Electric Lotus/Lotus Edition" LP+cd on VHF
Blues Control "s/t" cd on Holy Mountain

----} also in May
Forgotten Woods "Race Of Cain" cd on 20 Buck Spin (yes, a new album!)

----} June 28th
Striborg "Ghostwoodlands" cd on Displeased

----} also in June
Revelation "Unreleased Album" + "Salvations Answer" cds on Leaf Hound

----} also upcoming sooner (maybe real soon) or later (possibly much later)
Slough Feg "Hardworlder" cd on Cruz Del Sur
Secret Chiefs 3 "Path Of Most Resistance" cd on Mimicry
Alva Noto "Xerrox" cd/2lp on Raster Music
Larsen & Friends "Abeceda" cd w/ dvd on Important
Inquisition "Nefarious Dismal Oration" cd on No Colours
Neurosis "Given To The Rising" cd on Neurot
Boris w/ Kurihara "Rainbow" LP version on Inoxia
Velvet Cacoon "Genevive" 2LP version
Velvet Cacoon "Northsuite" 2LP version
v/a "Portland" 3lp on RRR
v/a "Texas" 3lp on RRR
v/a "Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word 2" cd on Delay 68
Sonic Youth "Daydream Nation" 4lp reissue on Goofin'
Vibracathedral Orchestra "Thunderbold Wisdom" cd on VHF
Richard Youngs / Alex Neilson "Electric Lotus / Lotus Edition" cd on VHF
Thunderstorm "As We Die Alone" cd on Dragonheart
Baroness / Unpersons split cd/lp on At A Loss
Baroness cd on Relapse
Cephalic Carnage "Xenosapian" cd on Relapse
Pig Destroyer "Phantom Limb" cd on Relapse
Black Cobra "Feather & Stone" cd/lp on At A Loss
Doomsword "My Name Will Live On" cd on Dragonheart
Powers Court "The Red Mist Of Endenmore" cd on Dragonheart

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aQuarius Records co-presents:

telemagnetic psychedelia from SF:
I AM SPOONBENDER (incl. THE RESIDENTS' Nolan Cook)
w/ guest STEVEN STAPLETON
(aka NURSE WITH WOUND. direct from the UK with a specially prepared DJ set)

and more tba

Friday, May 11th at MEZZANINE SF
 
Advance tickets are on sale now.

IAS' 2004 album BUY HIDDEN PERSUADERS will be released that evening as a cd-in-deluxe-gatefold-12" vinyl-size packaging (ltd. ed. of 500). It will be available only at the show and via mailorder through aQ (pre-order to reserve your copy now).

Don't miss IAS' first live show in three years!

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanLaurenAshleyPamJasonChristineIrwinMattScott and Sally