HAACK, BRUCE The Electric Lucifer (Omni Recordings) cd 21.00
Can you imagine if "Music To Moog By" maestro Gershon Kingsley had dropped acid, joined a commune, got religion, and jammed with the Silver Apples and Lothar And The Hand People? That might approximate what the unique, wondrous psych-pop "Mooglove" of 1970's The Electric Lucifer sounds like!
YES!!! It's about time. We've always wanted this album to come out on cd. This HAD to be our Record Of The Week. Heck, years and years ago, Allan (long before he worked at Aquarius) became a bit obsessed with this record. He'd found a beat-up old LP of it at a yard sale, bought it mainly 'cause of the title and the freaky colorful cover graphics, and then was blown away by the weird music within. It's what we've described as being "perhaps the most awesomely bizarre psychedelic pre-Kraftwerk electronica album ever to be released on a major label (Columbia) or elsewhere." Allan actually went so far as to try to track down Bruce Haack for an interview, but without any luck (turns out Haack had already passed away back in 1988, a couple years before Allan discovered the record). And Allan's not the only one here at AQ to have a longtime soft spot for this record... so we're all so happy that it's finally, FINALLY been given the cd reissue treatment. It's absurd, really, that this wasn't reissued sooner. The legend of eccentric electronica pioneer Bruce Haack has only grown in recent years. There's been several compilations of his work (Hush Little Robot was the best, since it featured a couple tantalizing cuts from this album), expensive imported Japanese reissues of several of his Moog music albums for kids, a posthumous Electric Lucifer sequel from the vaults, and even a documentary released on DVD, entitled Haack - The King Of Techno! But Haack's crowning glory, his masterpiece The Electric Lucifer, wasn't available at all. Until now. And The Omni Recording Corporation (a label new to us) have done it right, even down to the very welcome notion of including a 5-minute track of silence to separate the 13 tracks of the album proper from the over thirty minutes of additional bonus material that they've added on -- which consists of a 1970 Canadian radio interview with Haack on the subject of Electric Lucifer and an alternate take of "Electric To Me Turn". The packaging is top notch as well, reproducing the amazing artwork and Haack's trippy sleevenotes from the original LP (wherein he discusses his concept of "Powerlove"), plus cramming tons of additional stuff into the thick cd booklet. There's loving liner notes by several of Haack's friends and colleagues and lots of vintage photos and graphics. Nicely done.
How can we explain the utter charm of this album? Well it's about as psychedelic as you can get, a concept album that's futuristic and Biblically ancient at the same time. Haack used an electronic "computer voice" (long before it was cliche) that he named FARAD, as well as regular human vocals, to convey deep Age of Aquarius astrological/philosophical concepts, sometimes in the form of sinister liturgies, at others like playful rhyming lullabies. These Moogy, moody and groovy compositions feature churchy organ sounds, bleeps and bloops, and rhythmic percolations that wouldn't sound out of place in the Star Wars cantina. There's lugubrious droney passages, mechanical beats, switched-on classical flourishes, and musique concrete style sound collage. Very weird *and* oh-so-catchy. It's definitely every bit as wonderful and essential as the Silver Apples albums, which we know so many AQ patrons love dearly. Again, we're so happy this has been reissued. Highest recommendation. Listen to the love angel, people!
MPEG Stream: "Electric To Me Turn"
MPEG Stream: "National Anthem To The Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Program Me "
MPEG Stream: "Word Game"

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AKITSA Sang Nordique (Hospital Productions) cd 13.98
Another long overdue reissue from these French Canadian masters of stripped down black buzz. We reviewed their amazing 2001 debut, Goetie, a few lists back, and now we've got Sang Nordique originally released in 2002, it's just as black and buzzy, offkilter and strange. And as hard as it is to believe, maybe even better than the debut, certainly weirder!
Beginning with a damaged super reverbed guitar intro, that sounds like some impossible cross between blackened surf music and a Morricone western score, featuring a gorgeously melancholy, super distorted guitar buzzing within a cloud of thick reverb, the band immediately launch into some gloriously relentless Darkthrone-ish pounding old school blackness, with looped riffage, killer blastbeats, and some super harsh hellish howls. But by the next track, they've switched gears, and are spitting out some weird sort of crusty punk rock, flecked with a little old school classic metal, sounding for the most part, minus the blackened vocals, like this could be Doom or Discharge or some missing D-beat band from the eighties. Track three, the title track, has them switching it up once again, with a strangely melodic midtempo groove, pounding out a garage-y sort of stomp, sounding not a little bit like the Brainbombs, filthy and blown out, in the red and dripping with crumbling distortion, lots of swagger and groove, but painted all sorts of black. 
The next two tracks are straight ahead D-beat black thrash, furiously frenzied blasts of buzz and howl, veering from full on black metal, to more of that sort of blackened crusty punk. But then things get super strange... The second to last track, "La Nature De Mon Pans", begins as a loping swinging dirge, all demonic howl, caveman pound, and some super stripped down riffing, until the -other- vocals come in, a monotone Jandekian drawl, a slightly atonal croon, that suddenly gives this a Circle Of Ouroborus vibe, and the track is transformed into a lurching demented, seasick downer slab of doomy crust pop, complete with soaring minor key lead guitar. Whatthefuck?!? So goddamn good! It had us almost wishing the whole record sounded like this. 
At least until the final track, a 10+ minute drone and buzzscape of rumbling low end glitches, distant reverbed drum pound and haunting vocals, like a black metal Whitehouse maybe, the whole track a grinding rumbling glacial dirge, with those creepy vocals drifting ghostlike over the machinelike murk. Another seriously amazing WTF moment on a record packed with 'em. Definitely one of our favorite weirdo black metal bands, and Sang Nordique is one of their best records for sure. We can hardly wait to get their most recent full length La Grande Infamie (from 2006) reviewed and on the list! But until then, this should most certainly hold you over...
MPEG Stream: "Riposte"
MPEG Stream: "Frontiere"
MPEG Stream: "Sang Nordique"

ANGELIC PROCESS, THE We All Die Laughing (Decaying Sun) cd ep 9.98
We went from discovering what we believed to be the only recording from this Southern blissed out doomdrone duo, to suddenly being inundated with a bunch of recordings, old AND new. We're not complaining, cuz if you're anything like us, you can NOT get enough of this sort of My Bloody Valentine metal, epic swaths of blown out beautiful heaviness that drifts and shimmers as much as it pounds and pummels. 
It's hard to know what to say about We All Die Laughing that we haven't already said about all of the other Angelic Process records, if you're a fan of stuff like Jesu, Nadja, Hjarnidaudi, odds are you're already hip to the gorgeous sounds of the Angelic Process. In iTunes, the genre comes up as 'new age' which in a way it sort of is, but it's OUR sort of new age, blissy and dreamy and washed out and soft focus and blurry and abstract, but also heavy as fuck, massive and crushing and completely overwhelmingly intense. We All Die Laughing is no exception, from the first track, which begins with a simple machinelike rhythm, and swirling ambient swells, a barely there guitar, before an avalanche of guitars drops from above, obliterating everything, somehow at once dense and heavy, yet so completely beautiful and packed with melody. Which is pretty much how the whole record stacks up, there are long stretches of low end shimmer, and simple tribal drumming, bits of ambient whir and fragmented melodies, but these are just breathers between the crushing black holes of sound, the million vacuum cleaners tuned to 'E' roar of their impossibly heavy sonic crush. You can read more of our AP gushing in any of the other reviews, but what more do we need to say, if you want it heavy, and want it beautiful, it really doesn't get more beautifully heavy than the Angelic Process. 
Packaged in slimline cases, with full color artwork, professionally printed cd-r's, each one signed by both members of the band! 
MPEG Stream: "We All Die Laughing"
MPEG Stream: "Bleedbeliever"

ASHBY, DOROTHY The Rubaiyat Of Dorothy Ashby (Dusty Groove) cd 13.98
Man, are we ever so excited to get this title, Dorothy Ashby's third and most originally authorial album with Richard Evans, The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby. Based on the mystical poetry of the eleventh century Persian astronomer, Omar Khayyam, Ashby has created ten original compositions that feature an array of far eastern instrumentation and for the first time, her voice. Sung and recited, sometimes in bewitched multi-vocal incantations, the mystical vibe is heightened by electrified harp, distorted kalimba and koto but grounded in the driving percussive and bass grooves of Richard Evans' majestic production which evokes Egyptian, Middle Eastern and Pan-Asian sensibilities. The opener, "Myself When Young," has the cinematic power of a James Bond ballad. Her voice, commanding but never over-powering, becomes more intriguing and mysterious as the album progresses, immersing us deeply into the esoteric cosmos of her muse. A truly magical record and it can't be recommended enough!
MPEG Stream: "Myself When Young"
MPEG Stream: "Wax & Wane"
MPEG Stream: "Joyful Grass & Grape"

BAKER, AIDAN / THISQUIETARMY Orange (Thisquietarmy) cd-r 8.98
Another super limited release from Mr. Aidan Baker, the first since, well, since the last list in fact, but as with that disc, Figures, this one too holds up just as well as any of his other numerous releases, and as usual the more we listen to it, the more we discover and dig about it. Unlike Figures, which was Baker in slowcore band mode, this is the slow languorous drone sound we originally fell in love with way back when. Orange finds Baker hooking up with another sonically like minded individual, Eric Quach, who records as Thisquietarmy. It seems both have a thing for the dark and drone-y, the lush and laid back, a world of expansive slowly shimmering deep ambience, as Orange demonstrates. Four tracks clocking in at 30 minutes, Orange is a darkly gorgeous drift in four movements, shifting lazily from dense rumbling reverberant low end explorations, to airy soft focus flutter, to lumbering slow motion whir, to subtly melodic epic cinematic ambience. It's hard to know what else to say about this stuff, other than it's gorgeous, dreamy, serene, haunting and so so so beautiful. As if there was anything else you needed to know. 
Packaged in an orange, yellow, red and white sleeve and pressed on a cool matching silver/orange cd-r. 
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Agent"
MPEG Stream: "Mandarin"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Birds Call Home Their Dead (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 17.98
Latest blast of brutal beauty from the Kiwi king of soft noise, Campbell Kneale, aka Birchville Cat Motel. Birds Call Home Their Dead is a three track epic, packaged in new ultra fancy packaging (more on that in a sec) and as always as lovely and dreamy as it is harsh and heavy. The opener, the title track, is nearly a half hour, beginning with layers of slowly shifting keyboard swells, little clouds of glitch and buzz, and a slowly developing krautrock beat. The keyboards sound like some damaged loop, yanked out of "Baba O'Reilley" and turned inside out, allowed to shimmer and shake, and to eventually erupt into a thick coruscating wash of jagged buzz and swirling noise. The drums remain an incessant pulse, like a Can rhythm track dropped into a Dead C b-side, and everything run through Kneale's magical bank of special FX. Like a supercharged outerspace noiserock Godspeed or something, that builds and builds and builds until the whole thing explodes into a full on in the red space rock free jam, like Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, F/i, Mugstar, the Telescopes, Circle and the Heads all jamming simultaneously. A dense cloud of FX, psych guitar, clouds of swirl and shimmer, streaks of feedback, walls of amp buzz and high end skree, all hovering over that unstoppable motorik beat. Eventually, the guitars drift off leaving just some strange random clattery and the sound of birds and insects and nature. 
The second track is a brief burst of gorgeously languid high end shimmer, layers of guitar and tangled melodies as well as deep reverberant swells all woven into a swaying static sound field of notes beating against one another amidst a dreamlike raga drift. A pretty killer one two punch. 
And as if that wasn't enough, for those of you who snoozed and losed on the recent ridiculously limited tour only cd-r Her Anger Is Limitless, well, you're in luck, cuz that whole disc is tacked on here as track number three. A single half hour track, created out of what sounds like manipulate samples of voices, is transformed into a massive glistening technicolor shower of sound. You know how when it's crazy hot, kids open up the hydrants and just run around in the street as tons of cool water rains down on them. Imagine a similar situation, except when the hydrant is cracked, out comes thick torrents of billowy fuzz and grinding whir, all sparkling and dense and warm and thick, and you just close your eyes and let the sounds wash over you and fill your ears. It sounds like a million guitars, and guys outside cutting down trees and tossing them in the wood chipper and some sort of futuristic synth battle and thousands of little bells and chimes and a roomful of amps turned on and buzzing with no instruments plugged into them, all smeared into one gorgeous glimmering sonic deluge.
As always, so absolutely amazing. And as we mentioned before, this is the first release in the swank new Celebrate Psi packaging, a full color, eight paneled digipak style sleeve, the outside retaining the CPsiP wallpaper motif, but the inside offering all sorts of gorgeous photos and some minimal liner notes, with the cd affixed to a little foam nub on one of the panels. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Birds Call Home Their Dead (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Her Anger Is Limitless (excerpt)"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Bird Sister Blasphemy (Battlecruiser / Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 11.98
Bird Sister Blasphemy is the most recent release on Battlecruiser, the outsider metal sublabel of the mighty Celebrate Psi Phenomenon which in the past has birthed such hellish AQ faves as Black Boned Angel, Mirag, Mrtyu, Wardagger, Wings Of Vengeance, Wolfskull, You Should Have Slain Me, Ghoul, Ming, Cicadashrine and The Cops among others. This is the first time a Birchville disc has found its way onto Battlecruiser, but once you hear it you'll understand why. A sort of a dark side addendum to the also just released (and reviewed elsewhere on this list) full length Birds Call Home Their Dead. Four songs, twenty six minutes, a no brainer if you're a BCM fan obviously, and especially if you just bought Birds Call Home Their Dead. The first track begins a dark meandering drone before the band launches into what sounds remarkably like a blown out version of the intro to Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher", and the song just sort of locks into step right there, turning that sort-of-intro, into a looped free-rock space jam, relentless drum pound, swirling clouds of freaked out FX, throbbing rumbling bass, and squiggly guitars and synths all over the place. The second track is like the harshest buzziest black metal record, made somehow even more harsh and buzzy, a relentless blast of blown out white noise fury, with some semblance of rock, buried way way way way down in the mix. Track three is some sort of tribal ur-drone free-skree raga workout, with layers of buzz and drone, what sounds like guitars and bagpipes and clouds of feedback and amp buzz and thick swells of screech and shimmer, all underpinned by a relentless drum corps krautrock rhythm jam. The title track finishes things off, and manages to take all the sounds from the first three songs and blow them to smithereens, whatever color comes after red as in "in-the-red", that's where this track is, pegged WAY beyond the red, a wall of vacuum cleaner guitar and squealing horn skree and some wild tribal drumming, relentless and circular, threatening to shred ear drums and speakers, before drifting off in a soft swirl coda of chants and mumbled percussive flutter. Phew. Maybe not as metallic as many  of the Battlecruiser releases, but in no way is this the softest or the easiest on the ears. Fierce and furious and dense and harsh, but as with most BCM stuff with plenty of melody lurking within the chaos. 
Bird Sister Blasphemy definitely holds up on its own, and is as good as anything in the series, but once you dive in, it's easy to hear the sonic connection to its Birds Call Home Their Dead big brother, and it's equally easy to see that you probably need both!
MPEG Stream: "Powder Slave"
MPEG Stream: "Tonal Fire Antichrist"

BLARKE BAYER / BONE SHERRIFF Split (Sweatlung) cd 9.98
More amazing and freaked out noisy bliss from down under, this time a tag team match up between Black Widow, aka Rob MacManus from the Grey Daturas, and Blarke Bayer, Ben from Aussie grinders Agents Of Abhorrence, who have probably toured together a million times and played in tons  of bands together, but this is the first recorded document we've seen of the two teaming up for some serious noisemaking. 
Although noisemaking might be misleading, as this is actually more drone-y and ambient than it is noisy. Thick washes of crumbling guitars move glacially over bits of percussive skitter, slivers of feedback surface here and there, some simple tribal thump, all nestled amidst lots of low end rumble. Imagine a much more subdued SUNNO))) and you might have a rough idea. But that's only the first track (of three). The second track sounds like someone playing the inside of a piano, lots of buzzing steel strings, scraping and haunting low end reverberations, someone is obviously on the outside of the piano too, pounding out simple creepy low end chords, the result is like some super abstract Argento soundtrack, moody, mysterious and intense, becoming more and more abstract and 'free' as the piece progresses, as if each player, on the inside AND outside of the piano are quickly pulling it apart into a pile of splintered wood and broken steel strings. 
The final track, the shortest of the three, is also the dreamiest, with a simple minor key guitar figure drifting in a wide open expanse of muted percussive swirls, and dense tangles of finger picked melodies, the whole thing sounding like the soundtrack to some experimental western, like if anyone ever dared remake Jodorowsky, it wouldn't be a long stretch to imagine this as the perfect music to accompany some of that gorgeously unsettling Jodorowsky imagery.
Surprisingly subtle and really cool. 
MPEG Stream: "Maria Of Puerto Montt"
MPEG Stream: "Alone In Tierra Del Fuego"

BROTHERS OF THE OCCULT SISTERHOOD Enter The Cult Until The Dust To Represent The World Has Discovered The Hallucinogens And Bent Us To Their Use (Music Your Mind Will Love) 3cd-r 24.00
Latest expansive excursion into the wild forests of sound and the unexplored sonic wilderness of this Australian outfit. We first heard Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood back in 2005, when they released a disc on Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label, and since then a slow but steady stream of releases have surfaced on other underground labels like Root Strata, Digitalis, Students Of Decay and now Music Your Mind Will Love. Fans of any or all of those labels will undoubtedly know what to expect, a ramshackle assemblage of fractured folk, abstract ambience, and rambling shambling free rock drift. Much like the title, Enter The Cult Until The Dust To Represent The World Has Discovered The Hallucinogens And Bent Us To Their Use, this musical missive is looooong, a massive triple disc sonic sprawl, the band's sound allowed to unfurl and spread out unchecked, and as with most bands of this ilk, it suits them, they definitely flourish given enough space, their music like weeds in a garden, getting all tangled up with everything, and then when you least expect it, blossoming with multi colored flowers and gorgeous foliage. 
A dizzying swirl of stumbling acoustic guitar, fluttering flute. simple childlike rhythms, voices chanting and shouting as often as singing, primitive FX, analog synths, hand drums, shakers and chimes, handmade electronics, crumbling distortion, industrial clatter, psychrock guitars, all cobbled together into a super inventive, Rube Goldberg-esque musical contraption held together by vines and branches, sticks and twigs and stones, that emits, delicate spidery folk rock, intense damaged psychedelic freakout, wandering ambient clatter, percussive free noise, primitive tribalism and every variation in between. 
No Neck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Avarus, Kemialliset Ystavat all travel a similarly shambolic and spiritual sonic path... so amazing. 
Super limited, packaged in a massive eight panel handpainted fold out sleeve, every one unique, with two printed inserts and held shut by a textured paper obi.
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"

COLTRANE, ALICE Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana (Wounded Bird) cd 15.98
Last year, a few months before her passing a few of us here were lucky enough to see Alice Coltrane live at one of her last performances ever. It was a night we will never forget. She is one of the few people whose mere presence gives us goosebumps and effects our soul in such a tangible way. We thought it would be nice to shine some light on one of her lesser known albums which we feel is one of the best records she ever made. Alice Coltrane would always be the first to say that she was not just a jazz musician. There was a higher calling to her music making, a wider sphere of influence she was drawing from. Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana is one of the most beautiful examples of her extraordinary range. While much of her music had a huge Eastern influence it's on this record where she really let the spiritual side flourish with most amazing results. A series of devotional chanting songs, with Alice backing a vocal choir on Fender Rhodes and organ along with a couple traditional Indian songs, Coltrane absolutely soars on these tracks. One number here is a short but stunning song with her majestic harp accompanied only with Tamboura and the albums closer is an 18+ minute fantastical odyssey with Alice on her Wurlitzer organ channeling outerspace sounds like only she could, with John Coltrane Jr. on drums. The chanting songs are fantastical psychedelic hymns with elements of pop mixed in, throbbing and pulsating, elevating the songs to a greater place. We can imagine that this record has had a huge influence on folks like Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) as it's a striking example of using vocal chants, repetition and melody to reach harmonic bliss!
Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana is an album from the heavens. While words like soulful and spiritual are used so much that they often lose their meaning this is the real deal. These are sounds that not only uplift the spirit but also move us in a way few artists are ever able to. Alice Coltrane was one of the truly special ones. Of course we have to urge you to get many of her other albums too, as they are some of the best records ever made (all hyperbole aside, really)! Check out Journey In Satchidananda, World Galaxy and A Monastic Trio which are three of our all time favorites... We will miss her so much but luckily her spirit lives on within her amazing music.
MPEG Stream: "Govinda Jai Jai"
MPEG Stream: "Prema Muditha"
MPEG Stream: "Om Namah Sivaya"

DOOMRIDERS VS. BORIS Long Hair And Tights (Daymare) 2lp 49.00
First in a super limited series of lp-only releases from everyone's favorite Japanese doom-drone-psych-rock overachievers Boris! For this limited double lp, they've teamed up with Boston's Doomriders, which just so happens to feature members of Converge, Old Man Gloom, There Were Wires and more...
These records capture live shows recorded back in 2006 when the two bands toured together. 
The Doomriders for those who don't know, are a straight up Motorheady rock and roll band, they even start their set with a bellowing roar: "We are the Doomriders from Boston, and WE PLAY ROCK AND ROLL!!!" And they do, pounding and simple, not thrashing or blasting just riff heavy big drum blasts of kick ass RAWK. The perfect sonic match up for the more rock side of Boris. 
The first track, though, on one of Boris' two lp sides had us fooled, a massive churning droned out low end sludge, the heaviest thing we've heard from them since Flood (not counting the Altar collab with SUNN) but after that it's back to the full blown, in the red, ultra distorted pedal to the metal blasting Pink-style wild psychedelic garage rock stomp that have become their modern sound. And it sounds great. Super saturated production, amazing sound, loud Loud LOUD!!! Obviously essential for all you Boris freeks...
And of course super elaborate packaging as always. Deluxe metallic gold gatefold, super thick stock, killer Screaming For Vengeance Judas Priest homage artwork, clear yellow vinyl...
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, half red, half yellow, the copies we have are yellow, and this is ALREADY SOLD OUT and selling for crazy $$$ on eBay. We tried to get 100 copies, and got less than half that. Needless to say these will be gone before you know it. ONE PER CUSTOMER. 

DROMMER Oceans (E.E.E. Recordings) cd-r 8.98
Still more bizarre and amazing unblackness from one of our favorite new record labels, E.E.E. Recordings. The home of the cream of the UNblack metal crop. For those of you who have yet to discover unblackness, well, quite simply, it's christian black metal, which we know, seems like it would not compute, and for lots of folks it doesn't, since black metal is predicated on the message more than the music, but fuck it, some of the best black metal we've heard in the last few years has been from un-black bands. However, we almost don't need to have this discussion here since Drommer are not Christian, and are not really black metal. The are, according to the label 'non-religious dark ambient', but the music of Drommer is way to weird and varied to be summed up that simply. It most certainyl is dark, and ambient, at least sort of, hard to gauge the religious part as they are instrumental and ambient. 
But dark ambient gives the impression of swooshiness and dreaminess and drifty droniness, but this, the third disc we've reviewed from Drommer is so much more. 
Our favorite track might be "Shallow Water Residence", a swirling squall of crumbling white noise chopped and layered over moody mournful piano, the two elements constantly battling, it's quite intense and dramatic. But the rest of the record is just as unexpectedly amazing. The opener, "Oceans", is a long stretch of decayed drones, wavering and beating against one another, emitting sporadic rhythms, and coalescing occasionally into fragmented melodies, all very buzzed out and fuzzy, and with a constant tense minor key quality to it, almost like a Niblock piece recorded onto some old tape in William Basinski's attic. A lot of the record sounds like the sort of ambience one might expect to find on a Wold record. All damaged and corrupted, the sound quality so degraded that the imperfections are like another part of the composition. But then all of a sudden, the band will whip out some crazy majestic slab of moody instrumentalism like on "Ashen Sea Of Grey", the beginning of which sounds like it came straight off a Daniel Higgs record, before halfway through it splinters into shortwave interference, and becomes some murky childlike lullabye. Then there's the final track, all simple percussion and dramatic acoustic strum, like the rough mix of some lost Woven Hand song or a Nick Cave outtake, albeit peppered with strange digital glitchery and buzzy reverb... 
This record is just so gorgeously demented, and unpredictably intense. Imagine if you can, Tim Hecker making (un)black ambient music, and you'd get a rough idea, but Drommer is way more schizophrenic, somehow without losing cohesiveness, every bizarre twist, or jarring shift, sounds completely natural, it's almost like Oceans is the soundtrack for the strangest film you've never seen. One of our new favorite records for sure... black, unblack or otherwise. 
MPEG Stream: "Oceans"
MPEG Stream: "Black Moon Float"
MPEG Stream: "Alive In Tears"

EGONOIR Der Pfad Zum Fluss (Amortout) cd 11.98
From the same label that brought us music from Bethlehem, Costes and the debut/swansong recording from SF's The Gault (featuring members of legendary SFBM outfit Weakling) and which just so happens to be run by the guys in Diamatregon (who have a record out on Andee's tUMULt label, and a new one on the way!) comes this bizarre black beauty, the debut full length from bizarre German black horde Egonoir. 
The label mentions the usual blackbuzz culprits in their description of Egonoir: Burzum, Leviathan, Bethlehem, Strid, Manes, and while it does have much in common with those obvious influences, it is somehow so much more. Darker, moodier, more melancholy, prettier, and definitely weirder. 
The root sound is a slow crawl, a barely midtempo buzzing Burzumic plod, with harsh vocals, and blown out guitars, but the whole thing is wreathed in a strange smoky production, making everything fuzzy and murky and muted and strangely lovely. The tracks often drift into swirling ambience, with the buzzing guitars transformed into amorphous clouds of foggy blurry guitar, a backdrop to the lilting melodies in the foreground. 
Then there are the vocals, that range from harsh howls, demonic growls to haunting crooning, but the strangest thing, and what makes Egonoir sound so unique, is the bizarre humming/crooning that lurks beneath the more traditionally blackened vocals, almost like American Music Club or Crash Test Dummies or Leonard Cohen, drifting darkly and melodically beneath the buzzing crawl... at some points female vocals drift into the picture, and suddenly it's a black metal Mazzy Star, almost, it's these creepy beautiful vocals that make this sound like some ultra depressing black metal lounge band, performing at some blackened dive perched on the edge of the abyss, flames licking at the foundation, the facade illuminated by buzzing black neon signs, and packed with a motley crew of hellish beats and down on their luck, southward headed earthlings. 
Lots of acoustic guitars (a couple tracks are mostly acoustic), muted wandering bass lines, gorgeously sorrowful melodies, those crooning humming vocals, loping seasick tempos, arpeggiated guitars, hushed monk-like chants, snippets of German wartime speeches, all wrapped in thick swaths of buzz and reverb, slowly drifting, like some buzzy black dream. 
Fans of all things depressive and slow, blackened and Burzumic, fuzzy and washed out, will freak for this. If Make A Change... Kill Yourself, Burzum, Xasthur, Nortt, Inferi and the like are your late night downer black metal soundtrack, Egonoir might just be perfect for those bleak early morning hours after a long night of misery and hopelessness...
Or as the label so succinctly puts it: "Total psycho dark metal, noir, noir, noir."
MPEG Stream: "Der Pfad Zum Fluss"
MPEG Stream: "Ego Noir Teil7"

ELGIBBOR Apolutrosis (E.E.E. Recordings) cd-r 8.98
More unblack metal, this time from way off in Poland, probably most notable, metalwise at least, for the mighty Graveland, but this, the 2004 release from Elgibbor, now remastered, remixed and re-released, has very little to do with Graveland, sonically, religiously, or politically. 
The sound of Elgibbor like much of the stuff on E.E.E., the home to most of the crucial white metal being produced and released these days, is utterly bizarre, all over the map, with a wide range of sounds and songs and even production qualities. The opener is super fast, completely distorted and ultra blown out, the drums and guitars and vocals, become one thick layer of buzz, so fast and distorted it almost sounds like some sort of noise record, but close listening does reveal some furious blasting and some intense buzzing riffage, the weirdest part is the keyboard, which hovers and lurks underneath the buzz, almost as if it had nothing to do with the songs themselves, a bit of random ambience, deep keyboard swells that ebb and flow hauntingly in the background, beneath a thick sheet of blacknoise. But then there's the second track, all clean reverbed guitars, distant chug, simple way-up-in-the-mix drumming, and super emotive actual singing. Like some strange deconstructed metallic pop. Song number three confuses things even more, with some midtempo Burzumic buzz, but with some strange glitched out rhythms, and some ultra distorted garbled vocals, it almost sounds like some sort of unearthed DHR demo. It goes on and on like that, some swirly ambient swirl, muted black metal blurred into soft focus fuzzed out dreaminess, some super strange techno-black metal, with rhythms that sound like boiling liquid, while all around it guitars churn and vocals howl, and probably our favorite song "Awesome God", that sounds like a choir singing hymns with black buzz wrapped all around it, the results are less evil than they are totally bizarre, it's like a Merzbow remix of Wold covering Incredible String Band. Worth it for that track alone, but the rest of the record is just as far out and fucked. Once again, the unblack bands are upping the ante on truly damaged demented and inspired musical 'blackness'.
MPEG Stream: "Annouchnou Ro'im (We See Jesus)"
MPEG Stream: "Psalm 42"
MPEG Stream: "Isaiah 60: 19-22"
MPEG Stream: "Psalm 43 (My God)"

EROC Eroc 1 (Universal) cd 17.98
This is a Krautrock masterpiece!!! This cd reissue of the 1975 debut release by Eroc has totally floored us. Eroc's the solo project of Joachim Heinz Ehrig, who was the drummer in Grobschnitt. He used his solo project as a way to explore electronics, cutups and sound collage all surrounding totally beautiful & harmonic instrumental pieces. Of the albums he made under the Eroc moniker this is the one that shimmers with the most beauty while still showing his crazy range and unpredictability. From the blissed out to the bizarre, Eroc 1 is one of those records that you can't believe you've never heard before, and one that once heard will surely go down as one of your favorite psych/kraut/prog gems of the '70s.
Every time this plays in the store, someone in the back inevitably comes up front to see what the heck is playing. And often they begin to think that if this keeps up, they just might just have a new favorite record. Striking the perfect balance between experimentation and melody, Eroc melded the use of modular synthesizers, tape, overdubs, sound generators, guitars and percussion into an incredibly forward thinking, densely layered, crazily original sound. There is a golden sonic glow reminiscent of the best moments of Cluster / Harmonia, every track is fantastic and original, each one drives us wild, and the four bonus tracks on this collection are just as good as any of the tracks on the album proper! You can hear the early blueprints of so many musical movements that would take shape in the decades following Eroc's 1975 debut. Moments of dreaminess that foreshadow Durutti Column, glimmering electronics that anyone on Morr Music would kill for, and an integration of so many elements that sonically predate groups like Fridge by decades! We can imagine Andy Votel (Prog Is Not A 4 Letter Word, Finders Keepers) freaking out over this album much like Julian Cope who sang this disc's praises on his Head Heritage website.
And certainly all of us here at AQ have discovered a record that is pretty much a shoe-in for many of our all time favorite lists!
MPEG Stream: "Kleine Eva"
MPEG Stream: "Norderland"
MPEG Stream: "Sternchen"

FOVEA HEX Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent 3: Allure (Die Stadt) cd 16.98
The third and final installment in a series of short-form but jewel-like eps from this ethereal and esoteric collective project. Centered by Clodagh Simond's (Mellow Candle, Current 93) magisterial vocals and featuring a superstar roster of players, which this time around includes Robert Fripp, John Contreras, Steven Wilson, Michael Begg, and Percy Jones with overall production overseen by Colin Potter. Subtitled "Allure" (the first was "Bloom", the second "Huge"), the arrangements are still haunting and cathedral-like but at the start tethered in more traditional structures with harmonium, zither and strings setting up the mood before dissipating into the gossamer of treated guitars, tonal harmonics and ambient drones. The appearance of Robert Fripp's beguiling guitar theatrics on "Long Distance" nicely underscores Simond's climactic vocal incantations and treated bohdran percussive rhythms before settling into the third and final act, a beautifully charged and vocal-less epiphany of melancholy and fragility that like its title is neither spoken nor silent, but exists in that rarified space of being satisfyingly unsolved.
MPEG Stream: "Allure"
MPEG Stream: "Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent"

GARRICK, MICHAEL TRIO Moonscape (Trunk) cd 16.98
British pianist and bandleader Michael Garrick is probably not too well known in these parts, but his 1964 debut, Moonscape is still something of a legend in England. Released as a 10" record in a run of 100 copies, it's probably one of the most collectable British Jazz records ever made and for good reason. Sprightly and pastoral, yet tightly wound and at times completely unhinged, the piano melodies, reminiscent of the best Vince Guaraldi albums, wrap swimmingly around your head while the drums and bass propel your body with mad-dog intensity. Perplexing titles like, "Music for Shattering Supermarkets" and "Man, Have You Ever Heard" coupled with the enigmatic titular cover art lend an intriguing figure to the sounds inside. Not quite cosmic, yet anything but pedestrian. Since this was originally a 10" record, this is rather a short set, clocking in about 22 minutes. We suggest you put your player on repeat, because it's worth hearing all day.
MPEG Stream: "Music For Shattering Supermarkets"
MPEG Stream: "Sketches of Israel"

HORSEBACK Impale Golden Horn (Burly Time) cd 13.98
Drone records are a dime a dozen these days. Not that we don't love drone records, we do. In fact, often we're way too easy on the purveyors of drone, since the very essence of that sound, is so simple, and yet so completely satisfying to listen to. A guitar against the amp, a handful of keys on a keyboard held down, a loop cycled over and over and over, almost any sound smeared into a near static drift, we could listen to that stuff forever, and often do. But it's the rare drone record that uses the drone as just the jumping off point, as a foundation upon which to build a fragile and ephemeral structure of minimal melody and movement, instead of the beginning AND end. Stars Of The Lid are a good example, as is William Basinski, Tim Hecker and a handful of others. 
Horseback too. We were sent this disc out of the blue and immediately fell in love. Only later to discover that this was the work of a faithful AQ mailorder customer by the name of Jenks Miller! Small world. Horseback is most definitely a drone record, but manages to incorporate plenty of not specifically drone-like sounds. At once massive and dense, dark and distorted, but also ephemeral and airy, soaring and dreamlike. The root of the sound is a guitar, or guitars, allowed to reverberate and ring out, unfurling billowing clouds of distorted buzz and whir, that settles on the speaker like a thick blanket of snow, glistening and blinding, but at the same time warm and enveloping. The guitars pulse and swell, melodies drifting in and out, streaks of feedback, all wound up into a huge softly roiling glowing orb of sound. 
It's almost unfair to call this a drone record, as it's so lush, and rich, and full of motion, sprawling out like some sort of sonic sunrise, the sounds gradually changing color, everything shifting and shimmering and transforming subtly as the record progresses. So much more than just a simple 'drone' record. In fact, it's easy to hear Galaxie 500, Spacemen 3, Loop, Flying Saucer Attack, that sort of spaced out doped up drift, all smeared into Horseback's haunting sun dappled world of slow burning sound.
Elsewhere piano drifts amidst the dense guitar swells, and rhythms are provided by pulsing guitars and various sounds beating against one another. Vocals hover way below the surface, barely audible, but adding another layer of lilting mystery, near the end, the guitars peel back gradually revealing a blurry expanse of swirling cymbals and splattery free jazz percussion, all spread out into a buzzy sizzling swirl, over which the final haunting piano notes drift and fade. So gorgeous. Absolutely one of our favorite new records, a practically perfect fade-out-drift-off-drone-dream-disc, and quite an auspicious start for this brand new label...
MPEG Stream: "Finale"
MPEG Stream: "The Golden Horn"

KHANATE It's Cold When Birds Fall From The Sky (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
Those heavier (and angstier) than thou sludge dooooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooom lordz Khanate may have called it quits, but thanks to the aptly named aRCHIVE label, their fans still have some lost, low-end transmissions from beyond the grave heading their way.
This one was previously released a while back by aRCHIVE in a 500 copy edition, and has now been remastered and repressed in an edition of 1000, with new layout, tri-fold cover, vellum obi -- all the expected excellent design for which both Khanate's Stephen O'Malley and the aRCHIVE label are known -- and comes sealed in one of those silvery metallic plastic "static shield" bags. Recorded live in the USA during Khanate's final tour in 2005, it features three long tracks, renditions of "Capture", "Release", and "Pieces Of Quiet". Each track is utterly agonized, distorted bass drones split by shrieks and silence, with drumming that gives this a perverse free jazz feel. As tombstones go, this (and also its companion, Live In Stockholm) is awful dense and heavy, cracked and crumbling.
SICK AND LIMITED! Buy now and/or cry later (either way).
MPEG Stream: "Capture"

KHANATE Live In Stockholm (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
Those heavier (and angstier) than thou sludge dooooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooom lordz Khanate may have called it quits, but thanks to the aptly named aRCHIVE label, their fans still have some lost, low-end transmissions from beyond the grave heading their way.
This one was previously released as a tour-only cd-r limited to fewer than 75 copies, but is now available (for the moment!) as a remastered cd pressing in an edition of 1000 copies, with new layout, tri-fold cover, vellum obi -- all the expected excellent design for which both Khanate's Stephen O'Malley and the aRCHIVE label are known -- and comes sealed in one of those silvery metallic plastic "static shield" bags. The three long tracks here, "Fields", "Pieces Of Quiet", and "Under Rotting Sky", were recorded live on tour in Sweden in 2004. The sound of wretched life, wretched death incarnate, extended trawls through ugly feedback and gorgeous shimmer, lumbering dirge catastrophe to the utter extreme that pretty much only Khanate has pushed it. We hope it was cathartic for them, and any listeners who didn't just run for cover, or curl up under the hot water in the bathtub with bleeding wrists...
SICK AND LIMITED! Buy now and/or cry later (either way).
MPEG Stream: "Under Rotting Sky"

LIFELOVER Pulver (Goatowarex) cd 14.98
Finally, the debut from these Swedish twisted doom pop black metal freeks is available once again. We listed record number two, Erotik, a while back, and like us, everybody freaked out, digging these guys' strangely off kilter black melancholia, so much that we had trouble keeping it in stock. Like a damaged, blackened Katatonia, Lifelover are creating some of the most original and not entirely black, black metal we've heard in ages. 
On the same label that brought us discs from Bone Awl, Urfaust, Planet Aids, Vrolok, Emit, Gauhaert, Lifelover's sound couldn't have been further from what we were expecting. Our first clue should have been the cover art. A series of photos of a nude blonde woman, covered in blood, reclining in lush grass and blossoming wildflowers. Inside, old woodcuts, photos of boats, apartment buildings, and then the creepy band photos, featuring all four members, the strangely named (), B, LR and 1853.
But what exactly does it sound like? Well, Katatonia is definitely a good starting point, super moody and melancholic, soaring and dramatic, guitars that do almost everything else but buzz, jangle, strum, shimmer, keen, roar, and ok, maybe they buzz a bit, but they tend to be much more melodic than textural, although the sounds is definitely lush and layered. The arrangements are simple, but never straight forward, there is piano all over the place, the vocals are wild and unkempt, howling and hysterical,  sometimes haunting and spoken, drenched in reverb, the drums go from simple time keeping to strange stumble to thunderous pound usually during the same song, and amidst and within the music are all manner of samples and found sounds, Swedish folk songs, panicked crowds, weird voices, record crackle, amp buzz, and lots of other indescribably sonic events. 
It's easy to hear some Factory records here, some Joy Division for sure, definitely a bit of the Fall, Gang Of Four. Minus the metallic buzz and the unhinged vocals, these guys might even be entering Interpol / Editors territory. A sort of modern moody new wave. Downcast and introspective, but with Lifelover, it all ends up completely twisted and damaged and a bit buzzy. In a very very good way. There's been much discussion here about which Lifelover record is better, Pulver or Erotik, and the split is pretty even, but no matter which side anyone falls on, they definitely agree that BOTH are absolutely essential.
MPEG Stream: "Nackskott"
MPEG Stream: "M/S Salmonella"
MPEG Stream: "Mitt Oppna Oga"
MPEG Stream: "Stockholm"

MOLJEBKA PVLSE Sadalsuud (Some Place Else) cd 15.98
Latest disc of sonic exploration from this Swedish dronescaping ensemble. With such a darkly minimal sound, it's amazing that, at least for this recording. Moljebka Pvlse included ten members! Credited, with among other things, sounds (yep, just 'sounds'), no-input mixing board, synthesizers, melodica, field recording, cymbals, guitar, voices, flute, electric piano, text, didgeridoo, mbira and supercollider(!), this expansive ensemble takes all of that and manages to distill it into the darkest and simplest of sounds. A nearly seventy minute single piece, slowly sprawling out from a stretch of barely there shimmer into gradually more and more active low end minimalism. Long drawn out tones, mysterious bits of glitch and click, haunting voices, moaning and mumbling, chanting and intoning, bits of creaking and tiny swirls of FX, deep swells of synth and barely discernible rhythms, everything constantly shifting and gradually changing shapes, some parts almost coalescing into fragmented bits of actual pop (albeit stripped down and smeared), while others are mostly melody free, remaining stretched out and abstract. Quite sinister and lovely, dark and subtly intense, not all that far removed from the sounds of Troum and Thomas Koner and other practitioners of the drone and drift. Which as avid AQ customers should realize, is indeed a very good thing. 
MPEG Stream: "Sadalsuud (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Sadalsuud (excerpt 2)"

NAV Halls Of Death (Assault Records) cd 13.98
We had the lp version of this bleak black slab of blown out Russian blackness from Nav (featuring folks from AQ faves Old Wainds) a while back, and now we finally got it on cd...
Very much like how all the black metal bands in the Ukraine seem to be made up of the same 5 or 10 people, just in different combinations, black metal bands in Russia also tend to revolve around the same 2 or 3 visionaries, along with whatever black legions they can enlist from their little scene to help shape their black musical world.
We've reviewed a handful of discs from Russian cult underground legends Old Wainds over the last year, who as we mentioned in those reviews, are THE grim cult horde of choice among the black metal elite. And almost appropriately, all of their records seem to be way more difficult to track down than they should be, and thus of course, seem to always eventually end up seriously big ticket items on eBay.
So here we have the group Nav, also known in Russian as HABb, a black metal band made up of 50 percent of Old Wainds, primarily the project of Old Wainds drummer Izbor, so as you might imagine, the sound does not wander far from Old Wainds' grim frosty buzz. Which is of course a good thing. The same sort of fuzzed out primitivism, a gloriously murky production. But Nav add plenty of their own unique style, everything is so strangely mixed, with loud LOUD drums and guitars that swirl into a nearly impenetrable blackened haze. Demonic vocals that go from buried way down in the mix to a blown out raspy roar often within the same song, and bits of chaotic rhythmic stumble and haunting ambient weirdness, complete with the thunderous sound of horses hooves.
And unlike the straight black buzz of Old Wainds, Nav sounds a slight bit more melodic, with much of the riffing displaying a classic metal vibe, as well as rhythms that vary from the old black stand-by, the blast beat, lurching lopes, galloping thrash, pounding doom, lots of fuzzed out midtempos, all twisted amidst some strange breakdowns, where the rhythms constantly shift and the riffs contort and morph into slightly different shapes, there are even some super demented LEADS! Still, all the while the band continues to forge a wholly unique pitch black path. Fans of all things dark and frosty and cult and grim would do well to bow before the black knights of Nav!
MPEG Stream: "Halls Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Galloping From The Blizzard's Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Icy Armour On The Peak Of The World"

OSWALT, PATTON Werewolves And Lollipops (Sub Pop) cd+dvd 14.98
Try some Werewolves And Lollipops on your funny bone! If you share our sense of blackened humor, we're sure you'll find Patton Oswalt's second album to be a perfect fit... especially because this cd of his live stand-up in Austin, TX in December 2006 comes with a dvd of his live stand up in Athens, GA two months earlier (and doin' some other stuff too)! In our opinion his Athens show is not as 'on' as the one in Austin, but nevertheless his Jonathan-Winters-in-miniature, stubbled, disgruntled grimace is just as entertaining to see as it is to hear. While he certainly shares with his buddy David Cross the deep influence of the Bill Hicks and George Carlin school of scathing yet insightful social political humor, he also shares with another fellow stand-up Dave Attell a penchant for liquor'd up, absurdist, saucy bon mots. He deftly juggles all of that while infusing the proceedings with his own ever present pottymouth, comic book geekiness and self deprecation.
This show took place at the Cap City Comedy Club in December 2006, and the only segments here that we recognize from a previous recording are the reworked versions of his Racist Cell Phones and Best Baby In The Universe bits (not that we're complaining... the latter is one of his best). You might recall that the original appeared on his unedited 222 Live & Uncut double cd that was released a few years back by the Chunklet Magazine folks (it didn't appear on the edited version of that show which was titled Feelin' Kinda Patton though). That means for those of you who haven't seen him perform live in the last couple years, you get 21 tracks of previously unheard hilarity. Awesome! Keep your ears peeled for his mention of Brian Dennehy and his explanation of the birds and the bees. Holy shit, it'll have you in wicked stitches. Need we say? Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Beautiful People And A Bridge Troll"
MPEG Stream: "The Best Baby In The Universe"

SHINING PATH, THE s/t (Holy Mountain) lp+cd 15.98
Wow! Holy Mountain hits the bullseye once again. This time out it's with the rock incarnation of Monosov Swirnoff, who first showed us the Shining Path on the second volume of their vinyl only series of lps on Eclipse. This is some seriously blown out and ecstatic raw and relentless rock that is equally influenced by the amazing early punk scene in Australia (think Primitive Calculators) as it is the menacing hypnotic qualities of Suicide, the blasting moments of Can and the psych guitar overload of Japan's High Rise. We love how the Shining Path offer us a taste of what can happen when punks get psychedelic. This isn't just '70s psychrock rehash/worship, instead there is a really cool urgency and momentum that's often lacking in modern day psych excursions. The Shining Path is kind of like the sweat and guts of early punk rock under the influence of Les Rallizes Denudes. While Monosov and Swirnoff reside on opposite sides of the country and thus are rarely able to perform live they did manage a short tour last summer with outsider genius Little Howlin Wolf, those lucky enough to catch them in the East got a total treat. Here's hoping that The Shining Path are able to play some shows around here as we would love to hear and feel these radiating scorchers in the flesh, but until that happens this record is gonna be blasting through our speakers nonstop!
The LP comes with a cd as well, so you get the best of both worlds for the same price...
MPEG Stream: "The Day When He Himself Shall Wipe Away My Tears"
MPEG Stream: "Moroccan Summer"
MPEG Stream: "Hadliku Ner"

SLOUGH FEG Hardworlder (Cruz Del Sur) cd 16.98
San Francisco heavy metallists Slough Feg (aka The Lord Weird Slough Feg), led by vocalist/guitarist Mike Scalzi, have built up a deserved cult following over the years, whom we guarantee will NOT be disappointed with the contents of their latest epic, eccentric metal opus Hardworlder, their sixth full-length album. Indeed, Slough Feg's fans should be quite thrilled. And with luck Hardworlder will recruit some new devotees to the cult of 'Feg as well, they deserve it 'cause nobody but nobody makes albums with this sort of peculiar panache anymore these days. Not since the '80s, or even the '70s, from whence the guitars of Hardworlder seem to hail, and there's a heckuva lot of guitar here... memorable riffs and virtuoso solos and Maiden-ized twin axe harmonies... guitars guitars guitars! It's evident that Slough Feg's latest revised lineup (which features a change of drummer, and "Don" Angelo Tringali of cult doomsters Cold Mourning replacing Hammers Of Misfortune's John Cobbett on second lead guitar) has if anything only enhanced the "guitariness" of this band, as if that was imaginable. The Scalzi/Tringali dual guitar teamwork is phenomenal, and both guys peel off leads left and right, not just to impress with the notes they can play but because they simply can't contain their love for the raw beauty that can flow from fully cranked Gibson Les Pauls. They've got the power, and the responsibility, to play like they've taken up the torch of every great heavy metal band from the '70s and the '80s that's fallen by the wayside...
This album's title is a word they coined themselves, referring to the idea of a space-travelling adventurer bumming around on a rough planet in a bad part of the galaxy, a loner toughened by life on a "hard world" -- typified by Gully Foyle, the protagonist of sci-fi author Alfred Bester's 1956 classic The Stars My Destination (read it sez Allan and Andee!!). A book and character which provides the inspiration for the track "Tiger! Tiger!" as well as for the Kirby-esque comic-book illustration that graces this album's cover.
Interestingly, if you Google "Hardworlder", you'll find that Slough Feg managed to come up with a term that ONLY exists in connection with this album. You'll find their website, their MySpace page, their Wikipedia page, the review of Hardworlder in last week's Village Voice (yes, strangely enough, right next to the new Pharoahe Monch and Smashing Pumpkins -- how'd that happen??? The Village Voice says, "Badass sci-fi metal that it's finally cool to listen to"...we've been telling folks that for years...). You might also run across someone else's MySpace page, who goes by the handle Hardworlder -- but it turns out it belongs to an Australian university student who's a huge Slough Feg fanatic. He's gonna be happy when he hears this!
The album's opening one-two punch is hard to beat: the relentless build-up of adrenaline instrumental "The Return Of Dr. Universe" which leads us breathless into the impactful majesty of "Tiger! Tiger!", destined to be considered an instant classic in the Slough Feg canon we're sure!
But the rest of the album is up to that mighty task -- the majesty continues with midtempo maritime lament "The Sea Wolf", and thence through to the doomy riffs of the album's title track, and onward... Hardworlder seems to possess an anthemic, sweeping, saddened grandeur, a more uniform overall feel than its shorter and more schizo predecessor Atavism, although you'll find that Slough Feg sashay down all the (un)usual skyways and byways you might expect from them. The manly, melodic doom-paced epics coexist here with rollicking '70s styled hard rockers (such as "Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Blues", obviously a nod to Atavism's equally boogie-riffed "Starport Blues"). "Insomnia" starts off Thin Lizzyish to the max, but halfway through the band rides into the Halls Of Manowar, and a wordless Viking chorus rings out... The galloping requiem of the psychological tragedy "Poisoned Treasures" (reprised from their split 7" with Bible Of The Devil) will get stuck in your head, as will much more on this impossibly catchy album... And one of our favorite tracks here is the lengthy show-stopping instrumental "Galactic Nomad", with an almost-Allmans level of gorgeous guitar interplay, that could illicit a "we're not worthy" from The Fucking Champs themselves.
And while Hardworlder's obviously working the science fiction angle that proved popular for 'em on their concept album Traveller, it also serves up ye olde Celtic folk in the Slough Feg tradition -- in fact, one of the two (2) cover songs here is a version of "Dearg Doom" by '70s Irish folk-rockers Horslips. The other cover is "Street Jammer", originally by '80s American epic metal weirdists Manilla Road. Both are tributes to Slough Feg's influences in a general, not specific sense, since we happen to know that they'd never heard either band until years and years after Slough Feg's inception. Speaking of influences, if you listen close to "Street Jammer" you'll hear some Chuck Berry licks thrown in not found on the original... and we'll also note that Slough Feg deliberately selected an early Manilla Road song, that's a lot more hot rockin' than what people usually think of in connection with that band. Further, while we're usually more into covers that DON'T sound so much like the originals, in the case of these two songs it's OK that they do since a) they're pretty obscure and b) both still totally sound like Slough Feg could have written them.
Ok, we're rambling, and you get the idea... Hardworlder is another ripping masterwork from a band that will either dominate your metal-addled mind, or you just won't get. We hope you do. 'Nuff said.
MPEG Stream: "Tiger! Tiger!"
MPEG Stream: "Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Blues"
MPEG Stream: "Dearg Doom"

SOLSTICE New Dark Age (Cyclone Empire) cd 17.98
Originally released back in 1998 on the fabled Misanthropy label, this terminal masterpiece from England's truest champions of epic DOOM, Solstice (R.I.P.?), has now at long last been reissued, with two bonus tracks to boot. Old fans can take pleasure in purchasing this again (because it's an album so good, you'll WANT to buy it twice, so maybe you can fool yourself into that feeling of hearing it for the first time) and those that missed it the first go-round now have a chance to prove themselves as discerning metalheads.
When we first reviewed this, we said it was a grower. A record we came to consider one of the best of that year, of any year. In the near-decade since, this has only gained greater stature. In the realm of true metal, of epic metal, of doom metal, of pagan metal, of just plain pure heavy metal -- we proclaim New Dark Age to be an all-time classic. And believe us, few other albums from the late nineties qualify in that regard.
Such riffs. Such sheer heaviness -- heaviness that actually seems to be signifying something. Such FEELING. This is possibly the apex of epic doom. The guitar leads and harmonies are to die for, the sad Celtic-folk motifs and Lovecraftian lyrics of weird fantasy argue for an ancient intellect at work. The clean, somewhat delicate vocals of Morris Ingram and his abstruse vocabulary ("vermivorous", "tervous", "perpetuum", "axiom abhorrent, protean triumvirate"?) are at first a bit odd, but ultimately utterly fitting with the sombre and arcane, monolithic and melodically grand mood of this album. Certainly his performance on the acoustic "Blackthorne" would make any fan of '70s Brit-folk weep, while the other, fully amped tracks will make headbangers ready to both shed tears and storm the proverbial castle.
FYI, the bonus cuts consist of two NWOBMH covers ("The Prophecy" by Iron Maiden and "Stormchild" by Trespass). Cylcone Empire has also reissued Solstice's two prior discs, Lamentations and Halcyon, just like this one remastered, with bonuses, new liner notes and layout. We've got those as well and will get 'em listed when we can -- they're good too but THIS is definitely Solstice's finest.
Have we really heard the last of Solstice? Rumor has it that guitarist Rich Walker is assembling a new line-up, possibly featuring the singer from Primordial, to do a new album. If it actually happens we'll be eager to hear it, though it's hard to imagine they could ever top this!
MPEG Stream: "Hammer Of Damnation"
MPEG Stream: "Cimmerian Codex"
MPEG Stream: "Cromlech"

SPARKS No. 1 In Heaven (Oasis / Repertoire) cd 16.98
No.1 In Heaven was a match made in pop genius heaven! The matching of the super smart snappy pop chops of Sparks with the golden electronic touch of Giorgio Moroder at the prime of his magical production prowess, FANTASTICO!!! The year was 1979 and disco was at its zenith and lots of very non-disco folks were jumping on the bandwagon with pretty bland and lame results. But the collaboration of Moroder's spaced out and fantastical production with Sparks sharp wit and knack for ultracatchy melodies was such a perfect match! With Sparks still punching out fast paced pop and Moroder adding an element of electronic spacey wonder to the mix, this is simply one of the best records in the extensive Sparks catalog. 25 years after its release and folks like Hot Chip and Of Montreal are getting the kids all worked up with their brand of super fun and smart dancey pop that can find it's roots right here on No.1 In Heaven. While this is not a new reissue we never realized it had been issued on cd so we had to jump at the chance of sharing this long time favorite with as many new ears as possible!
MPEG Stream: "La Dolce Vita"
MPEG Stream: "Tryouts For The Human Race"
MPEG Stream: "Beat The Clock"

SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge) cd 14.98
First things first, we've gotta tell y'all that "The Underdog" otherwise known as the first single off of this new Spoon album sounds SOOOOOOO much like Billy Joel! Go on guys, give us a few bars of "I don't care what you say anymore, this is myyyy life!" Not a bad thing in our books really. We bet they'd do an awesome cover of it. Billy Joel has made some fine fine music over the years, hasn't he? Anyways, this is Spoon at their most buoyantly upbeat and poppy. Their usual whip smart core arrangement of drums (and hand claps!) well defined guitars, undercurrents of piano and Britt Daniel's softly husky voice is polished off with some deliciously effervescent horns. Great!
Really the only problem we have with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is its abrupt end... and it comes much too soon. Thirty six minutes of Spoon? Simply not enough in our books, but...
Note: the limited edition cd which we currently have in stock includes a bonus disc of 22 more minutes of Spoon -- basically a mishmash of odds'n'ends like rough renditions of album tracks such as "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb", effected guitar abstractions and the like. Don't know how long they'll last, so if you want one of 'em you'd better act fast!
MPEG Stream: "The Underdog"
MPEG Stream: "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb"

SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge) lp 16.98
First things first, we've gotta tell y'all that "The Underdog" otherwise known as the first single off of this new Spoon album sounds SOOOOOOO much like Billy Joel! Go on guys, give us a few bars of "I don't care what you say anymore, this is myyyy life!" Not a bad thing in our books really. We bet they'd do an awesome cover of it. Billy Joel has made some fine fine music over the years, hasn't he? Anyways, this is Spoon at their most buoyantly upbeat and poppy. Their usual whip smart core arrangement of drums (and hand claps!) well defined guitars, undercurrents of piano and Britt Daniel's softly husky voice is polished off with some deliciously effervescent horns. Great!
Really the only problem we have with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is its abrupt end... and it comes much too soon. Thirty six minutes of Spoon? Simply not enough in our books, but...
Note: the limited edition lp which we currently have in stock includes a bonus 7" (with a demo version of "The Underdog" and a b-side titled "It Took A Rumor To Make Me Wonder, Now I'm Convinced I'm Going Under") plus a free full album download. Don't know how long they'll last, so if you want one of 'em you'd better act fast!
MPEG Stream: "The Underdog"
MPEG Stream: "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb"

SUNNO))) Oracle (Southern Lord) lp 14.98
The ominous revving of a juggernaut engine. Shifting tectonic plates. Glacial drone-riffs as death-knell backing for the sinister intonations of ritualistic incantations in a foreign tongue... That's SUNNO))) we're talking about, all right!
Imagine a sealed white room, an otherwise-empty space with the cowled-in-black SUNNO))) set up on black risers, their massive backline of amplification and instruments also duplicated as full-scale frozen white sculptures manufactured of cast resin and salt by NYC artist Banks Violette. Entombed within, the band plays alone to no audience, the massive resonation of their sub-sonic prayers self-referentially worshipful, a cosmos unto itself. This LP contains music written as the soundtrack to such a performance, which took place at a gallery in London, England in June of 2005. These actual recordings, though, were studio-recorded in 2006 and feature the core SUNNO))) duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley joined by guests Atsuo (of Boris), Joe Preston (of Thrones), and Hungarian black metal icon Attila Csihar (of Mayhem). There's two side-long tracks: "Belulrol Pusztit" is a creepily quiet, hushed ceremony, Attila's whispering reptilian rasp met with rattlings and rumblings, hinting at the waves of distortion and feedback to be unleashed on the louder, heavier Skullflowering of "Orakulum"... DOOM!!
This limited (black) vinyl version of Oracle is probably the only format we're gonna get, though there IS (or was...) a compact disc edition, a double cd in fact, containing everything on this LP plus an extra disc's worth of live material called "Helio)))sophist", but it was only available for sale at SUNNO)))'s recent shows. If, and it's a big IF, they have any copies left over after their tour then we're told we may get a few, but considering that copies of that 2cd are already selling for hefty sums on eBay (fie on limited editions!!) we won't necessarily count on getting any... So probably best to grab one of these while you can...
MPEG Stream: "Belulrol Pusztit"
MPEG Stream: "Orakulum"

TAMAM SHUD Evolution (EM Records) cd 21.00
Last list we highlighted two somewhat unusual "surf music" reissues, by Farm and Peter Martin & Finch, both brought to us by our favorite Japanese reissue label, EM Records, as part of their Summer 2007 "EM Under Water Series"! Those were quite cool, and now we've got the remaining three discs in the series, all of 'em (like those first two) soundtracks to several now-legendary surfing movies from back in the sixties/seventies. With the exception of Farm (from the USA) all the bands in EM's series are Australian, and in all cases the movies they were doing soundtracks for were Australian productions and/or featured Australian surfers. And as before, this isn't your typical SoCal Jan & Dean, Beach Boys style surf music... it's *psychedelic* surf music. Well 2 out of 3 of these anyway (the Tim Gaze Band album being more of a yacht rock outing).
Now this one is a bonafide Australian garage psych rock classic! It's also the only disc in the "EM Under Water" series that we'd ever actually heard before, as there'd been at least one (possibly non-legit) cd reissue in the past, and so we already know it was a good 'un, which boded well for the series as a whole. Tamam Shud, who took their name from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (it's Persian for "The End"), were a heavy (for the era), fuzz-drenched psych pop combo who recorded two albums in their brief career. This was their first, from 1969, and it served as the soundtrack to a motion picture on the subject of surfing (natch) called Evolution. Which was appropriate 'cause these guys were indeed surfers, even if their music sounded a lot more like The Amboy Dukes, The Litter, and The Count Five than, say, The Ventures (though apparently earlier in the sixties they did, when they were called The Sunsets). It's total Nuggesty stuff (why "Mr. Strange" or one of the other 11 tracks on Evolution didn't appear on the Nuggets II box set is puzzling), with a "progressive", Sgt. Peppers bent, full of ripping wild FUZZ guitar soloing, stomping riffs, and catchy hooks. The Shud could do wigged out blues rock jamming, or they could do totally poppy vocal cuts...as long as there was plenty of freaky freeform fuzz action to go 'round, which, there was. Like we said, a classic, one any '60s psych lover will be happy to spin. This reish is of course presented with the usual deluxe-level of care and attention characteristic of EM Records, complete with lyrics, photos, graphics, movie stills, and extensive liner notes by both Aussie "surf music historian" Peter J. McParland and Evolution's director, Peter Witzig. And EM has also dug up three bonus tracks, from a 1972 ep called Bali Waters, material which appeared on the soundtrack to another surf move, Morning Of The Earth. Who knows, maybe there will be another "Under Water" series next year wherein EM will reissue The Shud's second album, 1970's Goolutionites And The Real People, which was a concept album against pollution... we can hope.
MPEG Stream: "Mr. Strange"
MPEG Stream: "Music Train"
MPEG Stream: "Too Many Life"

TIM GAZE BAND, THE Band On The Run (EM Records) cd 21.00
Last list we highlighted two somewhat unusual "surf music" reissues, by Farm and Peter Martin & Finch, both brought to us by our favorite Japanese reissue label, EM Records, as part of their Summer 2007 "EM Under Water Series"! Those were quite cool, and now we've got the remaining three discs in the series, all of 'em (like those first two) soundtracks to several now-legendary surfing movies from back in the sixties/seventies. With the exception of Farm (from the USA) all the bands in EM's series are Australian, and in all cases the movies they were doing soundtracks for were Australian productions and/or featured Australian surfers. And as before, this isn't your typical SoCal Jan & Dean, Beach Boys style surf music... it's *psychedelic* surf music. Well 2 out of 3 of these anyway (the Tim Gaze Band album being more of a yacht rock outing).
Whoa. Or, "whoa-whoa". 'Cause that's what they're singing. Sunshiney '70s soft rock mellowness abounds here, disco-era goodtimes on a sandy beach Down Under. Surfer-musician Tim Gaze (the guitarist on Tamam Shud's second album, who also played with proggers Kahvas Jute) and his Band recorded this music in 1979 as the soundtrack to a surfing film entitled Band On The Run (nothing to do with Wings by the way). The original soundtrack LP was only released in a limited promotional run in 1982, and also featured several songs by J.J. Cale as well as the eight cuts by the Tim Gaze Band found here on this cd reissue. Such vocal tracks as "Lazy Day Fever", "Brothers And Sisters" and "Beautiful Lady" are full of melodic lushness, some rockin' with a smile, others more laidback and gentle. There's also some more jazzy, "soundtracky" instrumentals, our favorite being the spacey, organ-jammy "Bermuda". All of it conjures up images of sunsets and bikinis -- even if you weren't looking at the movie-poster album cover painting. Kitschy, yes, quite, but hey "yacht rock" is the new big thing isn't it?? This pretty yacht-y.
Includes liner notes both from Aussie "surf music historian" Stephen J. McParland and also Tim Gaze himself, along with lyrics and lots of vintage photos and graphics. Ok, this is probably the weakest entry in the EM Under Water Series as far as our tastes are concerned, but if you get into the spirit of the thing you'll want it, also to complete the collection -- and did we mention "yacht rock"?
MPEG Stream: "Lazy Day Fever"
MPEG Stream: "Bermuda"
MPEG Stream: "Give Me Life"

TULLY Sea Of Joy (EM Records) cd 21.00
Last list we highlighted two somewhat unusual "surf music" reissues, by Farm and Peter Martin & Finch, both brought to us by our favorite Japanese reissue label, EM Records, as part of their Summer 2007 "EM Under Water Series"! Those were quite cool, and now we've got the remaining three discs in the series, all of 'em (like those first two) soundtracks to several now-legendary surfing movies from back in the sixties/seventies. With the exception of Farm (from the USA) all the bands in EM's series are Australian, and in all cases the movies they were doing soundtracks for were Australian productions and/or featured Australian surfers. And as before, this isn't your typical SoCal Jan & Dean, Beach Boys style surf music... it's *psychedelic* surf music. Well 2 out of 3 of these anyway (the Tim Gaze Band album being more of a yacht rock outing).
Tully were apparently a pretty successful sixties rock act in their native Australia, despite playing total "head" music, not anything you could boogie to. They were popular enough to do a TV show, and even played with the Sydney Orchestra! They came from the same "alternative surf" scene as Tamam Shud, and were just as musically progressive, having the freedom to develop their material while touring as the backing band for an Australian production of "Hair", getting into poncho-garbed spirituality and electronic experiments (being the first band Down Under to possess a Moog). Somewhere along the way they merged membership with acid folk outfit Extradition, before recording their very freeform second album, this one, the 1971 soundtrack to Sea Of Joy, a surf movie directed by Paul Witzig (same guy who shot Evolution, for which Tamam Shud did the soundtrack).
Angelic female vocals, gentle organ grooves, hippie folk blissfulness, mellow instrumental textures -- it's truly glorious, lovely stuff. Quite exploratory too, with a freeform, organic feel. Tully's Sea Of Joy can be sunshiney (quite literally, on songs like "I Feel The Sun" and "Brother Sun") one moment, almost spooky the next (on such sinisterly electronics-laden tracks as "Follow Me" and "Down To The Sea"). And their interest in Eastern Indian mysticism comes through on the raga-like "Syndrone", for instance. EM says this moody, mesmeric album is the one in the series that's been selling best for them, and we're not surprised.
MPEG Stream: "Sea Of Joy (Pt.1)"
MPEG Stream: "Follow Me"
MPEG Stream: "I Feel The Sun"

V/A Bound By Skin (Skulls Of Heaven) 5cd 45.00
This is another one of those compilations that barely requires a description for several reasons. The first is the list of bands. Like an aQ customer's sonic wet dream: Tomutonttu (Jan Anderzen of Kemialliset Ystavat and Avarus), the Skaters, Ashtray Navigations, Zodiac Mountain, Wooden Wand And The Vanishing Voice, Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood, Armpit, Fursaxa & Zaimph, Axolotl, Astral Social Club, Excepter, Uton, Anla Courtis, Wolfskull, United Bible Studies and Kyrgyz (featuring our very own mailorder maven Christine, along with Loren Chasse, Tom Carter and Robert Horton). Phew. And that's just the bands we know, include these new-to-us sonic treasures: Navy Black, Clixcx, Watersports, Pan To Scratch, Taikuri Tali, PW Best, White Dog and Maths Balance Volumes, and we're talking nearly 5 hours of strange sonic explorations. The other reason this might not need a typically expansive AQ description is the fact that this compilation is crazy limited, to only 500 copies. So odds are we're gonna run out mighty quick, and it's unclear whether we'll be able to get more...
So what's it all about? Skulls Of Heaven sent out a call for artists to contribute their most challenging and bizarre recordings, the only stipulation that the track be between 6 and 13 minutes long. These 25 are the best of the contributions, and they are indeed challenging and bizarre, from a group of artists who traffic in the bizarre and challenging anyway. 
The sounds are all over the map as you might imagine, processed vocals all tangled up in stumbling atonal guitar plink and reverbed swirls, mechanical barnyard symphonies, murky psych-drone crawls, muffled muted ragas, thick buzzy drones and drifting clouds of piano tinkle and creaking machine-like ambience, serpentine Eastern melodies draped over slow shifting sonic shimmers, ultra minimal glitchscapes peppered with haunting growls and alien transmissions, epic washes of roaring growling guitar and quavering theremins, thick sepia toned expanses of soft focus flutter and dark moody drift, mysterious vocal experiments, chanting howling, whispering, crooning, buzzing static drenched electronic fuckery, hiccuping childlike rhythms, primitive percussion, creepy landscapes of Goblin-esque organ and outer space FX and it goes on and on and on. A totally tripped out, mind melting sonic travelogue, from the forests of Finland, to dusty basements in abandoned buildings, to strange undersea caves dripping with reverb, to mysterious cities floating in the clouds to the farthest reaches of outer and inner space...
These are REAL cd's. not cd-r's. Each disc in its own slipcase, both the discs and the sleeves featuring original artwork from Shayde Sartin (Flying Canyon, Giant Skyflower Band, Skygreen Leopards, Kelly Stoltz, Wooden Wand), held together by a thick textured paper cardstock obi, all tied up with a leather cord. Super striking. And again, limited to 500 copies...
MPEG Stream: TOMUTONTTU "Samaan Aikaan Toisaalla"
MPEG Stream: THE SKATERS ".:~:~:."
MPEG Stream: AXOLOTL "Anola (For ERA)"
MPEG Stream: ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "Uroo Uroo Uroo"

V/A Prins Thomas Presents: Cosmo Galactic Prism (Eskimo) 2cd 22.00
The latest Euro-dance burners from beardo Swedes Prins Thomas and his often collaborator Lindstrom have been pretty popular around here, and riding fast on the tail of their Reinterpretations album, we get this two disc mix from Prins Thomas that shows he's as good a compiler as he is producer. Featuring all kinds of unusual choices and sequences from bands we know and don't know in just about equal measure including Joe Meek, Holger Czukay. Hawkwind, Zombi, Boards Of Canada, Lindstrom, The Electric South (featuring Bob Lind), Glissandro 70, Bob James, Metalchicks, and Parliament among many many others. Keeping a proggy cosmic disco vibe that varies in pace but not in momentum, this is great for those long lit hot summer nights. Awesome!
MPEG Stream: THE ELECTRIC SOUTH "Sing"
MPEG Stream: HAWKWIND "City Of Lagoons"
MPEG Stream: VISNADI "Racing Tracks"
MPEG Stream: ZOMBI "Sapphire"
MPEG Stream: HONEYMOON KILLERS "Decollage"

VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA Wisdom Thunderbolt (VHF) cd 13.98
First proper full length in a while from these ur-drone space explorers, which is long overdue, considering the protracted near silence of VCO, and Matthew Bower all but abandoning his Sunroof! in favor of the noisier Hototogisu. Whatever you call that sort of music that Sunroof!/VCO traffic in, very few other outfits have managed to channel the same sort of ferocious guitar freakout and blissy ambient swirl into the magical metallic drift that those two groups did.
So here we have Wisdom Thunderbolt, featuring the VCO usual suspects (Neil Campbell, Mick Flower, Bridget Hayden, Adam Davenport) with a whole mess of special guests, underground drumlord Chris Corsano, the aforementioned Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!, Hototogisu, etc.), Pete Nolan of the Magik Markers and John Godbert (Skullflower, Total) and the sound is exactly as we remember it.
Thick and dense, swirling and blissed out, druggy and blurry, smeared and shimmering. There is percussion, it mostly tinkles and skitters, but occasionally pounds and swings, organs and synths are woven into weird little buzzing soundscapes, horns wail and skronk, guitars growl and jangle...
While the opening track is a ramshackle stumble, all over the place, but in a very good way, the second track is where the band locks into that perfect groove they've always been capable of. A blown out stretch of raga like buzz, tribal drums underpinning a simple riff, a spacey sea sick shimmer, all wrapped up in layers of guitar buzz and hissy synth, rich and thick and totally mesmerizing.
The rest of the record is more of the same, longform buzz drenched krautrocky drone jams, with some notable exceptions. The 12+ minute "Rainbow Whirlwind, which sounds like some lost Spacemen 3 jam, the guitars pulsing and throbbing, tones beating against other tones, the synths and guitars creating constantly shifting rhythms, interrupted in the middle by a blown out free noise fest, before slipping back into spaced out pulse and dreamy drift.
And, the uncharacteristically 'rock'-y intro to "Sway-Sage" that sounds like the Guess Who's "American Woman", before quickly slipping back into some super distorted space jam, with a glitchy buzz laid over a relentless rhythm, and with thick ropy swirls of guitar and synth buzz burying everything in that distinctly VCO warm washed out sonic blur.
MPEG Stream: "Wisdom Thunderbolt"
MPEG Stream: "A Natural Fact"

WAREIKA HILL SOUNDS s/t (Honest Jons) cd 18.98
Our Reggae section is by no means gigantic but we like to think that what we lack in quantity we make up in quality. But one thing that is apparent about our reggae section is that it's all about the classics and it's very rare that we hear newly recorded reggae that sounds as good to our ears as the old stuff. Sadly most new reggae (even by those who once delivered the good stuff) is riddled with cheesy keyboards and ultra-slick production while most newer dub is plagued by a generic paint-by-numbers ambience that lacks the grit and guts of what makes roots reggae and classic dub so special. So we were super psyched to find out that this Wareika Hill Sounds record we've been falling in love with was not some classic reissue as we first thought because of its totally warm and authentic sound, but is in fact a brand new recording by Calvin Cameron, who has played with the likes of Count Ossie's Mystic Revelation and Light of Saba. Smoking dubwise roots reggae that can not be denied! With an element of afrobeat in the fold (Tony Allen even makes an appearance!), there is a warmth and strength in these songs that has kept us coming back to this record over and over again. By far our favorite new reggae recording in a long time!
MPEG Stream: "Coconut Head Special"
MPEG Stream: "Uhuru Pujama"
MPEG Stream: "One People"

WHITE HILLS / WHITE PEE Wish You Weren't Here (self released) cd-r 9.98
We reviewed the super limited wooden cover version of this disc on the last list and sold out immediately. So here's the even more limited jewel case version, still with hand made covers, only this time housed in, you guessed it, a jewel case. There were only 85 copies made in total, 50 of the wood ones, and 35 of the jewel case version. We're the only store in the world to carry these, and we have about 25 of the jewel case version in stock. Once these are gone, they are gone for good, so this is probably your last chance to pick this up...
Even though it wasn't all that long ago that we were served with the serious space rock wallop of White Hills' most recent full length Glitter Glamour Atrocity, it was only a matter of moments before we were already jonesing for more. And while this is not a proper WH record per se, it is at least another heaping helping of that spaced out sound we can't get enough of.
Here, White Hills team up with SF noise outfit White Pee for a nearly 30 minute single track of space-y, druggy, krautdrone ambient noise. And it's a killer. Never heard of White Pee before, and because this disc is so abstract and sort of shapeless, it's hard to put a finger on what exactly they bring to the table, but these two groups together sound like one. The noise is relegated to brief bursts here and there, for the most part, this is gloriously tranquil blissed out dronescapes. Long expanses of slow flowing Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh synth sprawl, the FX are muted but wrap their shimmery tendrils around everything.
Here and there, the meditative shimmer is disrupted by dense gnarled squalls of gritty guitar growl, arranged into strange almost-rhythms, a stretched out lurching throb plodding along over long ominous streaks of sci fi synth. The synths got from ethereal and whispery, to throbbing and fuzzy, from dreamy and barely there, to pulsing and propulsive, almost like some disembodied Gary Numan rhythm track.
The second half of the disc is wide open and spare, shades of Tim Hecker and Machinefabriek and that sort of buzzy blurred soundscapes, guitars ebb and flow, keening high end melodies drift WAY off in the distance, dense washes of distorted guitar crumble bathe everything in grit and buzz, plaintive piano drifts in and out like some unearthly transmission, all hazy and indistinct, darkly dramatic and so lovely.
This is a SUPER limited edition, except for the copies the band kept, these are ONLY available from aQuarius. LIMITED TO 85 COPIES!! The first 50 in hand made wooden sleeves, the other 35 (these) in jewel cases, but also hand made and each one unique.
MPEG Stream: "Wish You Weren't Here (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Wish You Weren't Here (excerpt 2)"

WHITEHORSE s/t (20 Buck Spin) 2cd 14.98
Finally, the first widely available full length (and then some!) cd release, after a handful of live eps, from Australia's masters of monstrous sludge, a double disc set collecting tons of previously released material from some of those long out of print cd-r's, a couple tracks from the long gone Conspiracy lp, and most importantly, a brand new studio recording in the form of the 22 minute track "The Unwelcome Return"! We'll get to that in a second, but first, a primer for those new to the downtuned brutality of Australia's Whitehorse, and folks who may have missed out .
Falling somewhere between the ultra doom of Khanate, the metallic post rock pummel of Isis, and the shrieking feedback / bowel-loosening dirge of Earth / SUNNO))), Whitehorse kick up a serious racket. Rumbling ambient drones slip into screaming feedback which in turn become huge unstoppable walls of noise, occasionally interrupted by beautiful mellowed out melodic interludes. Crashing drums all over the place, high end guitar melodies shriek like sirens, and of course the howled hyper intense vocals add another layer of sonic skree to the mix, plodding drum beats are set at least a mile apart, moans and drifting guitars and cymbal sizzle drift like tendrils of black smoke between each Teutonic crush. These guys are a massive slow moving lumbering sludge metal behemoth, trudging through graveyards, and ruined villages, the depths of hell and everywhere in between
Each track a massive slow build, like an apocalyptic metal tinged Godspeed, swirling cymbals, keening guitars, thick drifts of distorted fuzz, underneath gargled demonic vocals struggle to be heard above the swirling din, super abstract and nearly ambient, it takes forever before the songs kick in properly and then you're done for. Slow motion math metal sludge jams of unprecedented proportions. Stumbling and crushing, swathed in space rock FX, sounding very Corrupted like, an unstoppable dirge, with some wild off kilter drumming and strange arrangements, so strange in fact, that occasionally, the band bursts into spastic chaotic almost 'free' sonic freakouts, like Neurosis doing free jazz. Nicely compliments their unstoppable glacier like brutality. But the pace is not always so funereal the vibe is as much Eyehategod as it is Khanate, still harsh and abrasive and brutally heavy, but there's almost a groove going on here and there. Which definitely lends the proceedings a sort of stonery doom vibe. It's easy to hear bits of Corrupted, Khanate, Eyehategod, Bunkur, Moss and the like, but Whitehorse definitely add their own twisted slow motion spin.
A good chunk of this stuff is previously released. Avid AQ doomhounds may very well have 75% of this stuff, but odds are, due to the limited nature of the eps, and especially the Conspiracy lp (of which we only ever had 20 copies), a lot of you missed out on at least some of it. And besides all that, there's the brand new 20+ minute "The Unwelcome Return" to contend with... and whaddayaknow, another crushing, head caving slab of slow motion sonic dirgery, like Electric Wizard on some serious downers, spun at 16 rpm, a lumbering gargantuan crush, with a long stretch of swirling bass heavy ambience in the middle. A loping bassline amidst lowend rumbles and strange shuffling drumming, all wrapped in constantly shifting swells of white noise and buzzy hiss, before the whole track explodes again, trudging hellward and crushing every goddamn thing in its path. Including us. And we LOVE IT. 
Worshippers of all things doom and drone and sludge would do well to prostrate themselves before these mighty and unmerciful doomlords, and to welcome the oncoming sonic annihilation...
Packaged in a killer black on black, gloss on matte, mini gatefold lp style cd sleeve, with a full color insert!
MPEG Stream: "Fire To Light The Way"
MPEG Stream: "Everything Ablaze"

WILD MAGNOLIAS, THE They Call Us Wild (Sunnyside / Universal France) 2cd 21.00
In the long wake of Hurricane Katrina, it's good to remind ourselves of the amazing musical legacy of New Orleans. So what better time than now to get this 2 disc reissue of one of the more unique and underrated funk groups of the early seventies, The Wild Magnolias. The first Mardi-Gras Indian group to get signed to a major label (they're not real Native Americans, but African-Americans partaking in a long-time tradition of street­based competition with rival tribal factions fully decked out in elaborately ornate, feathered Indian regalia), The Wild Magnolias were known for their gospel like call-and-response vocal chants over driving funk rhythms provided by The New Orleans Project led by keyboardist Willie Tee. Compiling their 1973 self-titled debut, and 1975 follow-up, They Call us Wild, the Magnolias mix up original songs sung in native-sounding patois ("Handa Wanda", "Ho Na Nae") with interesting takes on New Orleans folk standards such as "Saints" and "Shoo Fly". Includes a PDF version of a 68 page book about their impressive history. An awesome reissue of some bad-ass funk and an amazing peek into one of New Orleans most unique street traditions!
MPEG Stream: "Smoke My Peace Pipe (Smoke It Right)"
MPEG Stream: "Ho Na Nae"
MPEG Stream: "They Call Us Wild"
MPEG Stream: "Ah Anka Ting Tang Boo Shanka Boo"

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM Diadem Of 12 Stars (Southern Lord) 2lp 17.98
Finally available on vinyl! Super deluxe, double lp, extra thick colored vinyl, incredibly thick gatefold jacket, amazing layout, just the sort of epic treatment this sort of epic blackness deserves.
Here's our review of the cd from a while back:
We'd been selling Wolves In The Throne Room cd-r demos like crazy since we first discovered these guys a few years back (2004). And how could we not? You gotta love a band that unfurls massive fuzzed out epics, 10+ minute bursts of swirling droning black metal, dirging, lurching and gorgeously blown out. The obvious comparison is SF black metal legends Weakling, and you know we wouldn't make that comparison lightly. The same sort of fierce brutality and chaotic ferocity mixed with impossibly anguished emotionalism all wrapped up in a blackness that is informed as much by suffocating dark ambience and mesmerizing drones as it is grim black metal.
If you thought the WITTR demos sounded great, HOLY SHIT does their first proper release and debut full length, blow those out of the water. Which is a good thing as two of the songs here are actually from the demos, but they have been massively reworked and completely re-recorded. It's got a huge wall of guitar sound, surprisingly heavy for a black metal band, in place of more typical reedy buzzy BM mosquito guitar. There's thick snarling monster riffs, dense and multilayered, spread thick over furious pounding drumming and howled strangulated vocals (very Weakling-esque). Now you might think the world needs another Nordic style black metal band like a hole in the head, no matter how amazing they are. BUT, Wolves In The Throne Room do it SO WELL, and write amazing songs, and manage to mix it up like crazy, incorporating all sorts of un-BM elements, gorgeous folky ambience, weirdly TRUE metal riffing, even some ethereal angelic female vocals (courtesy of Jamie Myers, ex-Hammers Of Misfortune). It all somehow fits, and makes the Wolves' black metal black enough to remain true, but fucked up enough to matter. Plus they probably do think the world needs a hole in the head...
You'd never guess from listening to this record that the WITTR are a bunch of short haired, furry vested, tight panted, scruffy indie dudes from Olympia. But don't let that put you off, impossibly true metal nerds, just close your eyes, listen close, and all you'll see are grim, 10 foot tall, spike encrusted leather clad warriors of the misty, ancient northwestern forests...
MPEG Stream: "(A Shimmering Radiance) Diadem Of 12 Stars"
MPEG Stream: "Face In A Night Time Mirror Pt. 1"

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LEVIATHAN Verrater (tUMULt) 2cd 15.98
By now, pretty much every blackmetalhead who hasn't been lost in a grim and frostbitten forest for the last 5 years is well aware, and most likely a huge fan of the mighty Leviathan, which is just one man, Wrest, who along with likeminded outfits Xasthur, Draugar, Crebain and a handful of others have managed to reinvent and reinvigorate black metal in the last few years, while turning California into a land as grim and as black as the Norwegian clime that spawned the genre. But there was a time, when Leviathan hadn't released any proper records at all, outside of a handful of cassettes and home made cd-r's. This double disc collects the best bits from all of those releases and was the first glimpse many folks would get of the blackness that would come to define modern USBM. After one 'final' pressing a while back (the second), which sold out in the blink of an eye, tUMULt overlord Andee managed to convince Wrest to let him keep Verrater in print for at least a while longer, so once again, eBay be damned, Verrater is available again, for at least the immediate future, but considering how fast these are flying out of here already, who knows how long they'll last...
Here's what we had to say about Verrater the first and second times around (with some minor updates and adjustments):
Those of you who live in San Francisco may have seen or even bought some of the many self released cassettes by the mysterious one man black metal band called Leviathan. Or some of you may have seen Andee or Allan sporting their Leviathan shirts, or you may have even seen Wrest, the man behind Leviathan lurking around AQ...regardless, Leviathan is the latest and certainly one of the greatest of the Bay Area black metal bands (Ludicra, Sangre Amado, Crebain, Draugar and the godlike Weakling [both also on tUMULt], etc...) who seem to exist in some sort of vacuum here while elsewhere, band after unoriginal band keep getting signed to huge labels and hyped to death even though most of them suck.
For this release Andee and Wrest went through the 13 full length Leviathan cassettes/cd-r's (as of the release of Verrater that number had leapt to 15!) Leviathan had recorded since 1998 to compile a good overview. But they couldn't whittle it down enough so one disc became two, with the first disc being the newer stuff, and disc two being the older, raw-er material.
Verrater is pure, primitive, cult, home recorded evil. Two discs, twenty two tracks, one hundred and forty three minutes of buzzing, howling, pummelling, black metal. Think Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal, that sort of thing, but with all sorts of weird twists and sonic surprises. Yes, Leviathan is grimmer than grim metal that the frost & forest lords of Norway should bow down to, but it's also pure expression unfettered by genre restraints, although informed and inspired by them. Like Weakling, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Caacrinolas, Ludicra, Potentiam, Enslaved, and some other AQ-championed black metal acts, this is not just one for fans of black metal only! It's dark, weird, noisy, disturbing art embodying one man's vision that should be heard by anyone into avantgarde, experimental, psychically and physically powerful rock music. From blasting howling fury to moody ambient blackness to off kilter weirdness to droning riffery to soul crushing heaviness. What's truly remarkable is that one man, playing all the instruments himself, and recording at home, can evoke such strong emotions and invoke such musical demons. Original, evil, hateful, misanthropic, bizarre and truly black metal.
MPEG Stream: "Courtship Of The Discarded"
MPEG Stream: "In This Slaveship"
MPEG Stream: "The Whole Of Deceit"
MPEG Stream: "Shed This Skin"

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AMP All Of Yesterday Tomorrow (Rroopp) 3cd 21.00
Well over a decade ago, Bristol was the birthplace of a community of psychedelically inclined art-rockers. At first, there seemed to be an open door policy to the projects that emerged, with members rotating between Flying Saucer Attack, Third Eye Foundation, Crescent, and AMP. Eventually, all of these projects settled into their own particular aesthetic with Flying Saucer Attack continuing an overblown 'rural psychedelia,' Third Eye Foundation completing the project that Kevin Shields never finished of bridging darkcore drum 'n' bass with snarling guitar distortion, and Crescent sinking into an abject grit of narcolepsy. AMP had been the most elusive of the four, shifting between luminously smeared space rock and ungrounded electronics-plus-guitar noodling. When AMP were focused on their somber tunes, the smoldering washes of distortion and fuzz worked very well (i.e. their debut album Sirenes and their two proper albums on Kranky); but the exploration of guitar drone and post-Eno ambience proved to be less successful for AMP. This triple cd collection of singles, compilation tracks, and rare material from AMP showcases the highs and lows of their career. Fortunately, the less than inspired ambient noodling merely drifts into the background of this collection. It's never offensive, but just lulls and drifts, waiting for one of AMP's exceptional, slow burning crescendos balancing between Bardo Pond at their druggiest and the early '90s shoegazing contingent.
MPEG Stream: "Remember"
MPEG Stream: "Get There"
MPEG Stream: "Baudelaire"

ASBESTOSDEATH Unclean / Dejection (Southern Lord) 10" 10.98
Now available on vinyl! Here's our review from when we first listed the cd...
Thanks to AQ pal Matt for the low down on this slab of pre-Sleep heaviness, long out of print singles finally available again, collected on a single cd:
We used to see Asbestosdeath in the very early '90s around the Bay Area, at the East Bay punk institution 924 Gilman and various punk rock parties. They released two singles, the latter on the Minneapolis label of anarcho-punk stalwarts, Profane Existence. The band that evolved into Sleep -- who fans would like to think of as a "doom" or "stoner" band today -- was actually more akin to the then crust-influenced Neurosis, Christ on Parade and various UK anarcho and post-Discharge bands.
Slowed waaay down, of course. At the time, liking Asbestosdeath was a seriously guilty pleasure. Their worship of Neurosis and Melvins was obvious. If you liked the sound of those bands -- and lots of people did -- this band was not all that surprising. Highly enjoyable, but not groundbreaking.
Upon re-recording slower and more polished versions of these tracks for Sleep's debut album "Volume 1," they officially entered the arena of the world's slowest, heaviest bands... a field then dominated by the Melvins and perhaps Drunks with Guns but soon to be populated by the likes of Eyehategod, Grief, Buzzov-en and Earth, among many. Over time, they definitely got better. Their songs got more interesting. And they added wizards. And doobies. And the rest is history.
Sonically, these tracks belong squarely alongside Neurosis' The Word As Law and Melvins recordings up to Bullhead. They're gritty and more aggressive than what you'd expect. But they still sound fresh, and the arrangements have a sparse, atmospheric quality that typifies the aesthetic of most of the bands on Southern Lord today.
MPEG Stream: "Nail"
MPEG Stream: "Scourge"

BEASTIE BOYS The Mix-Up (Capital) cd 14.98
A surprise of sorts comin' at ya from those beloved lil' Beasties. They've dished out a completely instrumental album! That's right no samples and no vocals whatsoever! The absence of their telltale voices allows for the tracks to reveal more clearly the deep and broad influences that other musical genres and elder artists have had on the Boys over the years -- '70s funk and soul, '60s spy movie kitsch, old school hip hop, Perrey & Kingsley, Afrika Bambaataa, The Meters, Santana and Run DMC. They checked their youthful, snotty, smartaleck, punky 'tudes at the door long ago, but despite their tempered maturity and composure, they clearly haven't lost their rambunctious playfulness. This is some solid fresh and funky goodness from start to finish. And yes, the ultra groove pop meister Money Mark is along for the ride too!
If you dug their 1996 In Sounds From Way Out! collection of instrumentals from their Ill Communication and Check Your Head albums, you won't wanna miss this.
MPEG Stream: "Suco De Tangerina"
MPEG Stream: "Dramastically Different"

BUMPS s/t (Stones Throw) cd 14.98
How many Tortoise drummers does it take to make a totally great breakbeat album? Nah this isn't the set up to some dumb post-rock joke, the answer is three. Dan Bitney, John Herndon and John McEntire in fact. These three use their percussive chops to make a killer record that showcases some awesome breaks from all over the map: funk, African, Brazilian, Latin music and more. Makes perfect sense too that this would be on Stones Throw and not Thrill Jockey... as a bunch of these are the kinds of breaks most of the groups on the Stones Throw roster would be drooling over and sampling left and right if they found 'em on some obscure piece of wax. In fact, we're quite excited to see if there will be plans for some sort of remix record where different folks like Madlib, Peanut Butter Wolf, and Four Tet take these breaks and make 'em into actual tracks. While we wouldn't want to hear just any three drummers these 23 short tracks get right to the point and bump so delicious.
MPEG Stream: "Dawn At Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Fun Injury"
MPEG Stream: "A Safe Balm"

CLOUDS Legendary Demo (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
One of the Cave In dudes (guitarist Adam McGrath) goes nuts with hard rock/punk/psych/dub side project. Yes, that's what we just said. And name-checks Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa in the thanks list. It's all over the place but actually pretty cool. In fact, it's one of those side projects that make you wonder why dude didn't save some of these ideas to spice up his main band's next album, y'know? Blowing off some creative steam on a "legendary demo" put together with some hometown friends is just psychologically easier we guess. So we're glad Hydra Head pressed this to cd, and even if you don't care about the proggy metalcore of Cave In you still might totally dig Clouds.
This starts off with a couple shitkicking tracks of behind-the-chicken-wire hard rock/metal with badass boogie '70s riffage and guitar wailing, a bit like Bay Area heroes Drunk Horse. As this goes on, a few short, sharp punk rock turns are taken, things quickly steaming back into the stoner rawk realm tho ("Party Grunge" being a minute-long, aptly titled blast from both angles). Penultimate track "Magic Hater" manages to segue from a hardcore intro into a freaked out, blues'd n' boozed Beefheart homage. That barely preps you for this album's psychedelic 20 minute finale, "Quartulli Dub", featuring Funhouse saxophone skronk, backwards guitars, and yeah, dubby rhythms and FX. By the time all's said and done, you'll realize your Comets On Fire albums have a new best friend.
MPEG Stream: "Mountain Jim"
MPEG Stream: "Quartulli Dub"

DELAY, VLADISLAV Multila (Huume) cd 16.98
Yay, this long out of print Chain Reaction classic from Finnish minimalist Vladislav Delay is now reissed by Huume... here's what we said about it long ago, the first time 'round:
The scope of the anonymous metallic techno sound of the Chain Reaction / Basic Channel core of artists has been fractured by the simple fact that Berlin is no longer the locus of activity. Rather, Fluxion, Hallucinator, and Vladislav Delay (the latest wave of Chain Reactors) come from lands quite far from Berlin. Finland's Vladislav Delay retains only a semblance of the Chain Reaction 'heroin house'. Instead of stripping the already minimal techno to its most hypnotic particles, Delay densly layers murky percolations of dubbed pattern phases with the teutonic 909 thump only sporadically emerging from the sonic substrata. An exceptional variation on a proven theme.
MPEG Stream: "Ranta"
MPEG Stream: "Raamat"

DILLOWAY, AARON & C SPENCER YEH The Squid (Hanson) lp 17.98
Two AQ favorites team up together for one great lp that shows a more pensive side to these noise rock heavyweights: Aaron Dilloway (Wolf Eyes) and C Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core). Squid delivers on its title as the sounds on this lp make you feel like you're deep underwater tangled by up in the undersea world. Using tape loops, bowed tape, tape delay, violin, voice and electronics, Dilloway and Yeh create dark, moody textures brimming with mystery, suspense and restraint. We could totally hear this as the score to some Matthew Barney piece, as it shares much of the same influence as his films. As much as we love Wolf Eyes there is something pretty magical and always unexpected about what happens when Dilloway steps away from the world of his main band. And C Spencer Yeh continues to show that he has one of the most unique visions in the noise scene. And together it's pretty fucking magical. Excellent!

DR. DELAY Rajaz Meter (Funk Weapons) cd-r 15.98
Dr. D is a New York DJ best known to us for mashing up obscure '60 psych with current, crunken hiphop hitz. This limited edition cd-r mix, however, is pretty much all '60s and '70s grooves as far as we know -- no hiphop anyway. And it's got our number, 'cause so much of what he's spinning is that Turkish psych stuff we love, mixed in with some old and new Afrofunk a la Ethiopiques and Tinariwen, along with some further exotic flavors that fit. Some names we know/tracks we recognize: Selda, Bunalim, Edip Akbayram, Les Mogol, Erkin Koray, Baris Manco... and of course there's a bunch more we don't, all of it pretty cool though. It's a bit like that Trap Door mix, in a romantic mood. Plus this is a true turntablist mix, featuring 31 short selections (mostly 1-2 minute edits), flowing quite nicely, occasionally enhanced with some scratchy-scratch whip-whip-whap. The discs we have are from the first numbered 250 copy edition, in screenprinted cardboard sleeves.
MPEG Stream: BEYBONLAR "Nenni"
MPEG Stream: VINGUEN "Crazy Heart"

EXMAGMA 3 (Daily Records) cd 30.00
Previously unreleased 3rd (double) album from cult krautrock trio Exmagma (no relation to French prog masters Magma). Recorded in 1975 at Conny Plank's studio, this excellently-produced opus somehow eluded release for over thirty years. Now finally here it is, with vintage artwork, informative liner notes, and most importantly, 17 tracks, 69 minutes of quirkily wacky krautrock that had lain dormant for far too long. If you've heard either of their first two albums (the self-titled from '73 or Goldball from '74, both of which were once available together on a single cd reissue that's now sadly out of print) then you know they're a freaky band, a bit like Guru Guru but with more jazz-fusion stuff going on. This is still pretty jazzy but more rock than before -- with more singing too. Definitely betrays the influence of Captain Beefheart (with the track "Torpedo Tits" perhaps coming uncomfortably close to Frank Zappa lyrical territory) but also that of Miles Davis as well. A lost krautrock effort that we'd wager doesn't sound like too much else in your cd collection, with hard, angular grooves, druggy concepts, zany rock, confusional hippie humor, and journeyman jazz chops -- for a gonzo Frankenstein of an album only Exmagma would dare design and build.
MPEG Stream: "Box 25"
MPEG Stream: "The Pope"
MPEG Stream: "Stoned Chicken"

GRAVY TRAIN All The Sweet Stuff (Cochon) cd 13.98
Yay! It's a new outing from one of the most wildest, sassiest & sauciest bands anywhere on the globe. Of course they live right here in the Bay Area doing us proud and carrying the torch for carefree, queer & proud, all-out fun in your face pop that draws just as much from bubble-gum and girl-groups as it does garage rock, electro-pop and riot grrl. All The Sweet Stuff is by far their best album so far, with guests like Sugar & Gold on a few tracks and Hey Willpower adding his sexy voice to a Frenchified version of Dee-Lite's "Call Me." Filling that great American void of party-pop that folks abroad have been doing so well (CSS, Bonde De Role, Stereo Total). There is no one else we'd like to play our party than Gravy Train. They are like the bouncy offspring of the Cockettes & The B-52's. They make you wanna stay up late and see midnight movies, and have a slumber party, eat lots of candy, make crank calls, and play a scandalous round of spin the bottle. If the kids know what's good for them they'll all be jumping on the Gravy Train and so should anyone with a young heart and a taste for trashiness done so right!
MPEG Stream: "D.A.N.N.Y"
MPEG Stream: "Wutcha Wutcha Wutcha Wutcha Wutcha Wutcha Doin' Tonite?"
MPEG Stream: "Call Me In French"

GRAVY TRAIN All The Sweet Stuff (Cochon) lp 13.98
Yay! It's a new outing from one of the most wildest, sassiest & sauciest bands anywhere on the globe. Of course they live right here in the Bay Area doing us proud and carrying the torch for carefree, queer & proud, all-out fun in your face pop that draws just as much from bubble-gum and girl-groups as it does garage rock, electro-pop and riot grrl. All The Sweet Stuff is by far their best album so far, with guests like Sugar & Gold on a few tracks and Hey Willpower adding his sexy voice to a Frenchified version of Dee-Lite's "Call Me." Filling that great American void of party-pop that folks abroad have been doing so well (CSS, Bonde De Role, Stereo Total). There is no one else we'd like to play our party than Gravy Train. They are like the bouncy offspring of the Cockettes & The B-52's. They make you wanna stay up late and see midnight movies, and have a slumber party, eat lots of candy, make crank calls, and play a scandalous round of spin the bottle. If the kids know what's good for them they'll all be jumping on the Gravy Train and so should anyone with a young heart and a taste for trashiness done so right!
MPEG Stream: "D.A.N.N.Y"
MPEG Stream: "Wutcha Wutcha Wutcha Wutcha Wutcha Wutcha Doin' Tonite?"
MPEG Stream: "Call Me In French"

INTERPOL Our Love To Admire (Capitol) cd 14.98
If slow and steady wins the race, Interpol's third album will surely be in the winner's circle. Moody post punk pop for the masses? Maybe! Their first release on a major label happens to be their most moderate and perhaps most broadly appealing. Few studio pyrotechnics and overarching productions, Our Love To Admire is simply a solidly crafted and executed. Tastefully tame, it is. In particular Paul Banks sullenly tormented vocals are more restrained that on either of their previous albums. In some ways this is a plus. That is, his performance comes across as much more effortless, but we do miss some of his bombastic anguished ennunciations. After a couple listens we can say that none of the songs have jumped out and bitten us on the nose nor nailed us in the heart quite yet. However much like Antics did, we have a sneakin' suspicion that this will be a 'grow on you' album, gradually taking root with each listen. (Andee listened to it on the plane back from New York, in an exhausted sleep deprived stupor, and emerged with Our Love To Admire as one of his new favorites, its languid droniness and laid back dolor the perfect soundtrack for being lost in strange cities, being trapped in grey walled airports, staying up all night, and wandering through sweltering summer city streets!)
Psst, for super fans and collectors, there's also a limited deluxe version which comes in an elegant black hardcover book style package with a 24-page booklet and 18"x24" poster. Don't know exactly how limited it will be, so hop to it if you wanna secure a copy for yourself.
MPEG Stream: "Pioneer To The Falls"
MPEG Stream: "Mammoth"

INTERPOL Our Love To Admire - Deluxe Edition (Capitol) cd 21.00
If slow and steady wins the race, Interpol's third album will surely be in the winner's circle. Moody post punk pop for the masses? Maybe! Their first release on a major label happens to be their most moderate and perhaps most broadly appealing. Few studio pyrotechnics and overarching productions, Our Love To Admire is simply a solidly crafted and executed. Tastefully tame, it is. In particular Paul Banks sullenly tormented vocals are more restrained that on either of their previous albums. In some ways this is a plus. That is, his performance comes across as much more effortless, but we do miss some of his bombastic anguished ennunciations. After a couple listens we can say that none of the songs have jumped out and bitten us on the nose nor nailed us in the heart quite yet. However much like Antics did, we have a sneakin' suspicion that this will be a 'grow on you' album, gradually taking root with each listen. (Andee listened to it on the plane back from New York, in an exhausted sleep deprived stupor, and emerged with Our Love To Admire as one of his new favorites, its languid droniness and laid back dolor the perfect soundtrack for being lost in strange cities, being trapped in grey walled airports, staying up all night, and wandering through sweltering summer city streets!)
This deluxe version comes in a hardcover book style sleeve, with a bunch of extra photos and a poster, but no extra music....
MPEG Stream: "Pioneer To The Falls"
MPEG Stream: "Mammoth"

IRON AND WINE Boy With A Coin (Sub Pop) cd ep 3.98
A little sneak peek at what's to come on the new Iron & Wine album which isn't comin' out until September. Oh cruel world, can we wait that long?! Well, we're just gonna have to. So in the meantime let's enjoy this one album track and two b-sides. Fifteen quality minutes of Iron & Wine is better than nothing. There's no drastic departures, maybe a few variations in instrumentation is all. Sam Beam sticks to his tried and true sleepyhead folk pop dreaminess.
MPEG Stream: "Carried Home"
MPEG Stream: "Boy With A Coin"

JAZZFINGER The Glass Key (Classic English Womb) cd-r 27.00
We just discovered a tiny stash of this way out of print classic from UK sound sculptors Jazzfinger. We only have 6 or 7, and once these are gone they are gone! Here's our review from when we first listed this a while back:
Another new Jazzfinger release! If it was any other band, we might scoff, but hell, Jazzfinger are making up for some serious lost time. In a big way. And while there are plenty of bands we can't get enough of, Jazzfinger are one of our favorites. For years we subsisted on their debut, assuming the band had broken up or disappeared, until discovering that they were indeed still a band, just not a very prolific one. But that all changed fairly recently, and the band has been spitting out new releases, like one a month. But we're not complaining. Not at all. In fact we've been waiting for the Glass Key for ages, having heard rumors of it's existence. The second in a series of insanely elaborately packaged cd-r's. The first, The Well Of Used Dreams is long gone, and when we did have it, it flew out of here in to time flat. Which makes sense once you see it. And hear it.
For those new to Jazzfinger, they exist in the same sonic orbit as groups like Skullflower, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof! crafting epic worlds of drone and buzz, strange little fragments of some undefinable musical whole. Unlike their sonic brethren, they are not as concerned with massive walls of sound, or huge swirls of guitar or clouds of keening reeds, instead, Jazzfinger explore texture and shape, shrinking themselves down and crawling physically through the minutiae of music, drifting through strange alien worlds of sounds, surrounded on all sides by vast expanses of sonic wonder.
The Glass key is a wonderfully mysterious song suite, a varied sampling of Jazzfinger's musical wares. With all the songs and sounds connected, a distinctive, yet hard to describe musical thread running clean through. Spread out over 70+ minute the band takes us along, on their tripped out psychedelic journey. Haunting pianos drift beneath a thick layer of fuzzy grit, distant warbly organ, and a scraped violin that either sounds like a crying baby or a meddlesome mosquito. Jack Hammers are muted and smeared into soothingly rhythmic flutters, epic expanses of cavernous echo and cymbal shimmer underpin buzzing distorted guitars that slither dirgelike through fields of chimes and coruscating feedback. Voices are chopped up and spread out over wheezing smears of huffing harmonica, warm clouds of Eastern melodies and raga like buzz hovering like a storm cloud over a loping funereal piano. So totally amazing.
Packaged in a massive oversized cardboard sleeve with super tripped out collages affixed to the front and the back, while on the inside the liner notes are affixed to the rocket shaped cardboard insert that functions as a sort of pull out tray, with the black cd-r in a sleeve attached to the front. Quite stunning. And incredibly elaborate, and totally time consuming to hand assemble. Needless to say, there were very few of these made, they are sold out and out of print, and we will never be able to get more, so don't blow it. You'll definitely be sorry.
MPEG Stream: "Premeditated Obsolescence"
MPEG Stream: "Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been?"
MPEG Stream: "Hung Jury"

LEFT SENSORY BYPASS Temporal Exclusion (Paradigms) cd 12.98
We carried a cd-r version of Temporal Exclusion a short time ago, but the Paradigms label has scooped it up for a proper cd release, albeit a limited pressing of 750. In the interim, mainman Kris Berry fleshed out the 4-track ep into a 7-track full length. It now comes in cardboard sleeve within one of the series' now familiar printed envelopes.
Berry is joined by Ronald Aveling (voices and samples), percussionists Ches Smith, Stephen Flinn and Mike Hoffman, Faraz Minooei on Santour, and Monica Aiken on cello. Their strings, percussion, vocals and collaged samples weave together and apart in this an industrial edged dismemberment which inhabits a dank, gloom filled theatrical setting. It's a work haunted by intercepted television or radio broadcasts and other mysterious transmissions encountering pregnant pause piano strikes, the chanting of monks, deep choral intonations and other anguished distorted voices which often offer more texture than words. Enshrouded and somber.
MPEG Stream: "Tabula Rasa"
MPEG Stream: "Nue Ardante"

LUGUBRUM Bruyne Troon (Skramasax) cd 13.98
BACK IN STOCK!
A classic release of "Boersk Blek Metle" from Belgium's carrot-brandishing metal mavericks Lugubrum, one of our favorite black metal (blek metal? brown metal?) bands ever! We just listed their new one, De Ware Hond, and when re-ordering more of those direct from the band's own Old Grey Hair label, we decided to get some of Bryune Troon too 'cause we'd somehow never had this particular disc in stock before. It's a 2001 release, recorded 'round about the same time as their now out of print Al Ghemist album, which was the one that started our sick fascination with this bizarre band in the first place, and if you like Lugubrum as much as we do, you're gonna want it.
Unlike some of their more recent output, Bryune Troon strikes a balance of metal vs. not-metal weighted more towards the metal side of things. You won't hear much saxophone, for instance (though we think maybe we hear it on the track "Low Dog", is that what's credited as "Lovendegm chainsaw vomitor"??), but there certainly is plenty o' weirdness creeping in around the edges of everything here, Lugubrum's blasting, wretching black metal already twisting away from the Darkthrone/Emperor/Mayhem template into beyond-Ved-Buens-Ende madness. "Recorded...under handicapped and alcoholic conditions", this incorporates loping, lumbering low-end dirge, atmospheric drone, weird watery field recordings, banjo riffage, scatological subject matter, Viking stoner psych ("Holebeard Blues") and gypsy folk... plus gobs of fuzz and buzz in the best black metal tradition. All this and more has swirled down into the clogged-pipe-plumbing of Bryune Troon, leaking brown liquids all over "side midget" and "side dung".
As we've said before, Lugubrum MIGHT be joking around. They almost have to be. Yet when you listen, it's not silly. It's serious, even scary. Some of the songs here are sung in English and the lyrics, about "moldy cloaks" and "flab" and "red hot sauce" that we can understand...we can't understand. Any jokes they're making are the obverse of funny ha ha in -our- universe, which surely ain't where these folks dwell.
MPEG Stream: "Low Dog"
MPEG Stream: "Pump Room Brawl"

MANSBESTFRIEND (SOLE) Poly.Sci.187 (Anticon) cd 14.98
Poly.Sci.187? Hmmm, instead of political science, we get the impression that the lesson Mansbestfriend (aka Sole) is teachin' on this cd is that this is what DJ Shadow's album after Endtroducing -should- have sounded like. It's a lush, but somewhat lo-fi, sample laden instrumental doom hop collage. Alternately bleary and bracing. Pretty fucking great...
MPEG Stream: "High Noon And Sobered"
MPEG Stream: "Allieverwanted"

MANSON, JEFFREY Dozing in The Abandoned Gunnery (Recolote Music) cd-r 9.98
Jeffrey Manson is a new indie folk troubadour from right here in SF. This lo-fi home recorded album is filled with rootsy, rough hewn tunes which seems very much inspired by the earnest heart baring voice of Jeff Mangum. Best listened to in the great outdoors, far from the roar of the city. Dozing In The Abandoned Gunnery was released on the new indie label Recolote Music whose roster already includes a number of other likeminded homespun Bay Area artists such as Chinatown Bakeries, Ryan Stively & His Poison Band, and Port O'Brien. They release mostly limited run cdrs in lovingly handmade packaging.
MPEG Stream: "Commanding Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Corn Husk Head"

MCGINTY, KATHY s/t (Hamburger Records) cd 11.98
BACK IN STOCK! If you missed out on this all-time AQ "comedy" fave before, now's your chance... here's what we said about it when it was first reissued on cd back in 2001, and we made it Record Of The Week:
FINALLY! We've been waiting ages for this to get reissued and the wait is now over! Easily one of the funniest, weirdest, most fucked up records ever. As I'm writing this, everyone else here is laughing hysterically while this plays in the store. In fact, I'm having trouble concentrating or even typing with this playing. It is so goddamn funny. But also kind of creepy and totally bizarre. But mostly very very funny! Originally released as a cd-r, later bootlegged by an unscrupulous LA record label, Kathy McGinty is now available as a professionally pressed cd (no longer a cd-r) with new liner notes and bonus material not included on the original cd-r release!! Here's what we had to say about the original:
You ever have that problem where you're in an internet sex chat room, and you make a date with some pervy girl for a phone sex session, and then when you call her up it's actually some jerk with a sampler loaded with a sexy female voice telling you things like "Taco Bell is sooo good?" Well if you did, chances are you're one of the crank call victims on this extremely funny and fucked up cd. We guarantee, if you hear this stuff you'll die laughing (unless you're a total prude, of course). It's really unbelievable how pathetic the guys are who attempt to carry on a phone sex chat with "Kathy McGinty", who is pretty obviously a recorded voice triggered by someone's Yamaha SU10 sampler. They don't seem to mind that she sounds like she's talking to them over a CB radio, or that most of what she says is absurd and nonsensical, like a random sound collage from a porno movie. Her Taco bell comment just gets a moan of agreement from the hapless caller.
A few of the callers figure it out, and then it gets even more pathetic as they continue to masturbate, being such geeks that they're turned on by the technical details of the joke (one guy asks, excitedly, about if the sampler is triggered by keyboard or mouse). But most of the guys are so clueless and horny that they're completely unfazed by Kathy's bizarre comments ("I think you might be racist", "I want to have your retarded babies", "I've got a pickle in my ass", "You know I'm only 12?", "I sell used cars", "Check out my hairy balls", "I'm all fucked up from huffing Scotch Guard", "I think I might be having a miscarriage") and limited vocabulary (she says "Yesssss!" the same way every time), or her deafeningly noisy, Merzbow-level obviously-looped screams of orgasmic ecstasy. We could go on, but we don't want to reveal too much. Just get this, it's the best crank call disc we've heard in a long time. You'll be playing it for everyone you know, except maybe your mom. Absurdly funny.
MPEG Stream: "Very Large Hands"
MPEG Stream: "OK, This Is A Recording"
MPEG Stream: "This Is Damien"
MPEG Stream: "I Look Like A Cock"
MPEG Stream: "How Many Fingers?"

MILTON, ANTONY The End Of This Short Road (Deserted Village) cd 13.98
Another unearthed jem from our perrenially messy back room, a few copies of this gorgeous gem just surfaced, if you missed out last time, now you've got another chance...
Antony Milton is one busy man, not only does he run the amazing PseudoArcana label, but he also makes tons of music as A.M., Mrtyu, in the Stumps, the Nether Dawn and more. Did we also mention he's a postman?
The End Of This Short Road is the latest from this underground dynamo, and is most definitely the most song oriented. We know full well Milton is capable of weaving gorgeous expanses of droney bliss, as well as monstrous slabs of downtuned brutality, but who knew he had such a deft hand at delicate songsmithery, but he does, and pretty much every track on The End Of This Short Road is a gem. Fear not, the weird lo-fi warbles and buzzy drone drenched whirs are still present and accounted for, but they tend to be beneath bits of jangle and croon, instead of on their own (although that does happen here and there).
The quieter pretty songs sound a bit like a more lo-fi Sparklehorse, with a little Alastair Galbraith mixed in and maybe with Roy Montgomery on guitar. Soft whispery vocals over delicate melodies, all filtered through that distinctly NZ filter. While the more rocking songs, are super psychedelic, with aggressive strumming, lost of reverb and delay, intense little squalls of minor key jangle and crunch, that manage to be both noisy and pretty, intense but strangely sad and wistful. Recommended for soft hearted noisies and noisy hearted folkies...
MPEG Stream: "Day Of The World"
MPEG Stream: "The End Of This Short Road"
MPEG Stream: "Hops"

MOHA! Norwegianism (Rune Grammofon) lp 17.98
NOW ON VINYL!
Second Rune Grammofon album from this extreme improv duo from Norway! It makes sense that they'd have an exclamation point as part of their name, as their music is indeed punctuated with glitchy outbursts, zaps of loud guitar/drums/electronics. Meanwhile, "MoHa" simply references their names: Morten J. Olsen and Anders Hana, both of whom are members of Ultralyd as well. We compared their first disc of hyperactive skree to some of Mick Barr's stuff, and to the most nutty bits from their labelmates Supersilent. Now we can add that shortly after our first listen to Norwegianism, we put on a classic avant-garde electro-acoustic album from 1970 by Luciano Berio, and after a few minutes got confused and thought we were still listening to MoHa!, when the Berio got into a particularly crinkly and chaotic passage of electronic bleepage. We like it best, though, when MoHa! pace themselves, give the music space to breathe, maybe even settle into some broken-down rhythm for a while (which are the parts that remind us of Supersilent), as on the track "Home Two".
We guess they may have titled this album Norwegianism 'cause they recorded it in Geneva and mixed it in Berlin, and felt that they were bringing some Norwegian noise to those locales. Also it could be in recognition of the fact that they get monetary support from the Arts Council Norway -- apparently Norwegian taxpayers are a lot more musically open-minded than the typical US citizen!
MPEG Stream: "Gay One"
MPEG Stream: "Home Two"

MOURNING DAWN s/t (Total Rust) cd 13.98
Another back room find. A little stash of this utterly amazing slab of gorgeously melancholy doom. If you missed this one before check it out, you won't be sorry...
You know that Ed Wood movie, where the guy is sitting on his throne, atop a pile of gold, waving his arms dramatically, shouting "More gold!!! Mooooooore gold!! Sometimes we feel like that, only instead of gold, it's doom we're after. "Moooore dooooooom!!! Mooooore doooooooom!!!" And the powers that be seem to have heeded our call. And indeed blessed us with more doom.
This time around it, it has come in the form of French outfit Mourning Dawn, who traffic in an epic and majestic blackened doom.
Huge mournful riffs, simple plodding drums, but unlike most doom, the vocals are a blackened shriek, closer to Xasthur or Weakling than any traditional doom band. Harsh and raw, the vocals drift atop a relentless flow of classic doom. This is not so much filthy and funereal as it is epic and timeless. Less Moss and more My Dying Bride, more Solitude Aeturnus and less Esoteric. But this is not nearly as polished as that might lead you to believe, Rough edges still abound, but the root of Mourning Dawn's sound definitely lies with Cathedral, and My Dying Bride, Katatonia, Paradise Lost, and the like. Doom certainly, but with plenty of death and black swirled into the mix.
The songs are intense and emotional, dark and sorrowful, soaring melodies wrapped around dense slabs of sonic misery, gorgeous stretches of plodding doom joining blasts of midtempo buzz, but everything, always, wrapped in a black fog of abject misery, a neverending melancholia that seeps into every note like spilt blood. Killer.
MPEG Stream: "From The Torrent & The Fountain"
MPEG Stream: "Grey Flood"

NIHIL PROJECT Plough Plays (Barl Fire) cd-r 11.98
We've been doing some Spring cleaning (um, okay, Summer cleaning) and have discovered a handful of discs we thought to be long gone. So we have a handful of these, not sure how long they'll last, it's already way out of print, so this is definitely the last copies available anywhere.
UK label Barl Fire has a darn near perfect record with kick ass releases from James Blackshaw, Rameses III, Robert Horton, Lamp Of The Universe, Floating World, United Bible Studies, The North Sea, Uton and more. Their focus seemingly on drone folk and free rock. Their last two releases however, this one, and the James Reid (reviewed elsewhere on this list) have begun to drift more toward straight ahead folk, or at least the sort of modern folk of New Weird America and similar minded hippies. Where as the James Reid channels the spirit of Nick Drake, the Nihil Project is more of a pagan ritual, a sort of Renaissance Wicker Man mystickal magickal folk. Sitars and zithers, tablas, harpischords, violins, along with more traditional acoustic guitars and flutes as well as some little more modern electronic flourishes. Crooning vocals, lilting melodies, occasionally dark and ominous, but just as often playful and festive. Definitely for fans of the Wicker Man, Pentangle, Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Forest, Comus, as well as the new breed of modern folk a la Devendra, Brightblack, Newsom and the like...
MPEG Stream: "Unquiet Grave / Twa Corbies"
MPEG Stream: "Weaving Wheat"

NORTH SEA, THE Underneath The Jesus Tree (Barl Fire) cd-r 11.98
Another 'warehouse' find (which actually means, messy back room find, but you know what we mean), a little box of these surfaced which is exciting since we thought these were long long gone. So we've got a handful, they are already way out of print and thus this is probably your last chance with these...
Recorded way back in 2004, in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma, this is the latest from Digitalis mainman Brad Rose's solo psych folk project The North Sea. Utilizing a free folk arsenal of acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, melodica, kalimba, bouzouki, field recordings and a bunch of other stuff, Rose crafts glistening folkscapes of twang and drift. Less free and abstract than many of his sonic brethren, Rose often writes actual songs, with riffs and parts and lyrics, lovely lilting forest folk, that just seems to glow and shimmer. His soft falsetto drifting above lush steel string guitars and random sounds of nature, birds and wind and running water. But he can get loose and free with the best of them, offering up primal forest drones, rife with percussive clatter and steel string buzz, abstract ragas, plenty of soft shimmer and warm warble, but even those tracks are infused with a certain lyricism that ties them to his more song oriented side. So lovely. Definitely another essential addition to your already bursting at the seams modern free folk collection.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!! Packaged in a swank white digipak, with full color insert and pasted-on front cover artwork by George Parsons of Dream Magazine.
MPEG Stream: "Asleep Underneath The Jesus Tree"
MPEG Stream: "Marigold Perfume"

PINHAS, RICHARD Iceland (Cuneiform) cd 13.98
Did you know electronic music pioneer and guitarist for the mighty '70s prog rock band Heldon, Richard Pinhas was recently in the Bay Area to play two criminally underpromoted shows? Yes, fortunately the word of mouth reached our ears at the very last minute, and some of us were able to attend this rare event. It was his first time performing in SF and only his second visit to the city in twenty five years. Less than ideal sound and somewhat awkward stage set up aside, Pinhas on guitar, his laptop collaborator Jerome Schmidt and drummer Antoine Paganotti made the most of the situation, holding the small audience rapt for the duration of their performance. Quite possibly the most intimate and casual setting in which he's performed in years. Pinhas' musical path has travelled from early loose rock jams into absolutely tight prog precision and outwards through richly textured atmospheric soundscapes.
Iceland is his third solo album which was released back in 1979. It focuses on the latter two directions, flowing seamlessly from one into the other and back again. The sixth track "The Last Kings Of Thule (Part 2)" highlights the deep influence Robert Fripp's snaking sinewy guitar work has had on Pinhas who slinks his way into far more dystopic territory. While the eighth track titled "Greenland" flows out into an epic expanse of overlapping cyclical synthesizer sequences. The album closes with the twenty four minute long Eno-friendly frosty shimmering dronescape of "Wintermusic". Meditative and beautiful. The album as a whole could be the perfect soundtrack to a winter night's Aurora Borealis. A majestic, hypnotic wonder.
MPEG Stream: "The Last Kings Of Thule (Part 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Greenland"
MPEG Stream: "Wintermusic"

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE Era Vulgaris (Interscope) cd 15.98
Era Vulgaris is Josh Homme and co's fifth album. At this point he's got quite the well oiled stoner rock cruise mobile. Willfully poppy amid his more testosteroned hard rock brethren, Homme ably brews up some big beef and grit from the guitars and drums while his unmistakable multilayered vocals satiate any sugar fix with those candy-coated choruses. He definitely doesn't shy away from the tasty hooks. It's a full course stick-to-yer-ribs meal. Always great late night driving music. Distinctly west coast-y, and almost sun baked as his old outfit Kyuss. Features a guest appearance by The Strokes' Julian Casablanca.
MPEG Stream: "Turnin' On The Screw"
MPEG Stream: "I'm Designer"

RAMESES III Honey Rose (Important) cd 9.98
Such pastoral bliss is on display within the cozy confines of this ep by the UK's Rameses III. One of the prettier discs we've heard all year, these mostly instrumental tracks (there is some hushed vocals on a couple songs) glisten with glimmering guitar ambiance that had us thinking of a slightly twangier Robin Guthrie or Durruti Column or even the wonderful instrumental guitar albums of Tom Verlaine. Timeless and mellow like a late summer sunrise. Makes so much sense that this was music recorded for a film, as it's so easy to close your eyes and visualize wide open landscapes of long winding roads, huge blue skies and fields of shimmering wet green grass. So so nice...
MPEG Stream: "Theme 1"
MPEG Stream: "Theme 2"
MPEG Stream: "Theme 3"

READ THIS TO GET YOUR ENJOYS zine 4.00
Maria Forde, one of our most favorite local artists ever, came in the other day and quietly dropped these beautifully handmade zines (and a bag of the sweet-tartest plums from her yard, Yum!). Enlisting the help of some of her closest Midwestern pals who write, draw, complain, and heap praises on whatever they were obsessed with at the time, Forde put together this absolute gem of a zine. There's odd comics about girls' mouths, funny portraits of annoying co-workers, anecdotes about coke dealers, tripping on drugs, obscure musicians, an ode to Lungfish, a review of The Elephant Man movie, and a small removable pamphlet about Moms. All this and a stick of gum! As fun to read as it is to look at. Funny, silly, clever and sort of fucking brilliant. Needless to say, we LOVE Maria Forde, and we're guessing you will too.

REED, LOU Hudson River Wind Meditations (Sounds True) cd 16.98
We had to remember one of the most important rules we learned as kids when it came to this record. Don't judge a book by its cover. Man, was it hard not to. When we first heard that Lou Reed made a record for meditation that was mostly being sold and marketed at new age stores it got lots of eyes rolling and lots of jokes flying around here. But then we tried to listen without prejudice, per the above mentioned rule, and guess what? Truth be told, this is really pretty damn good! Once you get past the packaging and non-musical baggage that comes with this disc of "New Age" music, you remember that if anyone has the right to make a record of drones it's someone who was in the goddamn Velvet Underground, as they were one of the first bands to really introduce the drone into (semi)mainstream rock and pop. Originally recorded by Reed for his own meditation and Tai Chi practice, many of his friends heard it and asked him to make copies for them. Much like David Bowie's instrumental work in the '70s mostly given to friends, it's easy to hear that these are sounds coming from a place that has nothing to do with wanting to make a hit record, but instead come from a deeper place. And that's a very good thing considering he hasn't made much music in recent years that we've been too excited about. If this record came to us as a mysterious cd-r with stark packaging and a cultish name (like many AQ favorites do!) we probably would have been lauding its meditative drones and intense ambience. This could be something you could almost imagine coming out on Yarn Lazer or Root Strata or Faraway Press. Even when the music seems peaceful there is still sonic tension underneath, which really does set this apart from most meditation music. In the end it's just a really good record filled with deep drones that allow the listener to close their eyes and ignore the outside world and go to a different state. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Move Your Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Find Your Note"
MPEG Stream: "Wind Coda"

S.O.B.-KAIDAN Noise, Violence & Destroy (Alchemy) cd 21.00
Holy shit. The title kinda says it all. This is a reissue of an older Alchemy classic, originally released on cd in 1992 (recorded live a few years before that, circa 1988-89), that pits Japan's Kings Of Noise, Hijokaidan, featuring guitarist Jojo Hiroshige, against seminal Japanese grindcore act SxOxB, who started back in 1983 and whose discography includes several full albums released internationally in the '90s, as well as a split 7" with Napalm Death amongst others...
Or rather, it pits 'em both together vs. YOUR eardrums and sanity. Makes sense these two Osaka-based bands would collaborate, being leading proponents in Japan of two strains of quote unquote extreme quote unquote music as it existed at the time!
With "song" titles like "Fuck Or Die", "Rising Hell", "Look Like Devil", this is about as punk as you can get, really. There's short blasts, and extended workouts. Gruff shouting (throat abuse from original S.O.B. vocalist Tottusan, who tragically ended his life in 1995 by jumping in front of a train) rains hell over psychedelic sheets of guitar skree from the 3 guitarists on hand, each pretty much doing their own thing all at the same time -- grinding riff frenzy, spaced out soloing -- as loud as possible to compete with the constant drum pummel. It's an abstract cacophony of noise, violence & destroy, yes it is. And guess what? 10 of the 12 tracks feature special guest (on, what else,"noise") Eye Yamatsuka of Boredoms. Good grief, did they think they really needed the help?
MPEG Stream: "Noise, Violence & Destroy"
MPEG Stream: "Not Me"

SUISHOU NO FUNE Writhing Underground Flowers (Lotus) cd 16.98
3rd album of super bleak, slo-mo deep drone psych from these Tokyo Flashback vets, the follow up to their 2006 Holy Mountain release Where The Spirits Are. There's three loooong tracks here in the gently morose mode you'd expect, with distorted whale-call guitars and hollow, lonely vocals... what you might not expect is the distressed psychedelic harmonica soloing that now features prominently (on track two)! Who knew the wheeze of the harmonica could be so fitting with such mysterious and murky surroundings? The gasping, dying breaths of monomaniacal melody it brings to the proceedings are usually appropriate however.
And we've gotta say, that's a great title ain't it? Writhing Underground Flowers. Like you've wandered into some gloomy cave full of bleached-white fungal growth, trembling in a subterranean breeze, a living mockery of true sunlit floral splendor... beautiful yet terrible too.
MPEG Stream: "track 2"
MPEG Stream: "track 3"

TOTEM s/t (I Hate Records) cd ep 13.98
This disc has occasioned major debate here at AQ as to its merits... or demerits. Released on Sweden's usually pretty reliable I Hate Records label, home to such doomy acts as Gates Of Slumber, Fall Of The Idols and big AQ faves Burning Saviours, this debut ep from Wisconsin's Totem is a three-song doom trip of '70s inspired hippie heaviness in the retro-proto-metal vein of both Witch and Witchcraft, those three tracks being "Kagemni", "Luna Moth Speaks", and the 11-minute "Tauti" (featuring a major freeform freakout). Their backwoods pagan image and DIY production are probably a big part of what attracted I Hate to this band, as Totem really do capture a special, "authentic" vintage stoned doom vibe. The riffs are worthy. And the truly blown-out low end bass heaviness, psychedelic wah wah guitar and Hammond organ jammage are fully to this band's credit. Sounds pretty good so far, eh? So what's the problem? Well, simply put, most of us here at AQ simply couldn't stand the singing. The vocal stylings of Jex Thoth, or whatever her name is, are presented as Totem's main draw when we think this would be so much better without her. Granted, liking someone's voice or not is a fairly subjective thing, and we know people who don't mind hers at all, but since the entire AQ staff gives it the thumbs down, you might want to check out the sound clips before buying, that's all we're saying. Part of what's hard to take about her singing isn't just the timbre of her voice, it's that she just *enunciates* everything way too clearly, like she's doing musical theater. It's not very rock and roll. That said, Allan DID end up digging this, after spinning it a bunch and performing the mental exercise of pretending the singer was a guy, which made it seem that much weirder, like he was some sort of insane androgynous metal weirdo, making up for the cringe inducing elements of her vocals that everyone else here just couldn't get past. And it's truly her singing that bugs us, not the idea of another set of indie psych folksters jumping on the doom bandwagon (as this is actually a Wooden Wand side project!), really. Heck, half of Witch are members of Feathers and we LOVE Witch.
FYI, this band has a full-length coming out on I Hate, as well as a split 7" with cult British doomsters Pagan Altar! And Allan at least is curious to hear those upcoming efforts. Also, apparently they've changed their name from Totem to Jex Thoth... so it seems unlikely they're gonna take our advice to ditch the singer, eh? Ah well...
MPEG Stream: "Kagemni"
MPEG Stream: "Luna Moth Speaks"

VON SUDENFED Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino) cd 15.98
In case you hadn't heard, Von Sudenfed is the collaboration between Mark E. Smith and Mouse On Mars. Given that Smith had once quipped that The Fall could involve anybody's grandmother on bongos accompanying Smith and his cantankerous slurred vocals, it's a bit surprising that this isn't considered a Fall project. Nonetheless, Tromatic Reflexxions is clearly the best album that Mark E. Smith has been part of in years. The same goes for the Mouse On Mars side of the equation. We're not going to stray too far from the conventional wisdom regarding Tromatic Reflexxions, as we basically agree that it really does sound like LCD Soundsystem, even though Mark E. Smith wants nothing to do with any of those comparisons. Musically, the combo produces a smarty-pants concoction of post-everything rhythms with dubstep density, disco-punk punchiness, and electro grooviness all mashed up into an infectious squelch, which clearly resembles the LCD Soundsystem singles of a couple years back. Smith is just as cranky, irritable, and insufferable as he's ever been on any give Fall recording. Perhaps not surprisingly, Smith's presence in an electronica context offers an obvious comparison to James Murphy's smug delivery on the LCD Soundsystem recordings. Many of us here hadn't thought that this collaboration would work in the least, but more than a handful have been clearly won over. In all likelihood, Tromatic Reflexxions will stand out as one of the best art-rock / electronica albums of 2007. Well worth checking out.
MPEG Stream: "The Rhinohead"
MPEG Stream: "Flooded"

VOTOLATO, ROCKY The Brag And Cuss (Barsuk) cd 13.98
One customer thought this was Jeff Tweedy, while another could have sworn it was Ryan Adams, but no, it's Rocky Votolato! He might be a bit lesser known, but in addition to the vocal resemblance we'd also venture to say that his songwriting chops are pretty on par with those two fellows' too.
Hell, as far as we can tell Rocky's not prone to sonic experimentation nor alternate identities, which makes him generally more even-keeled temperamentally and stylistically speaking than both of them.
As you may well know, we absolutely loved his last album Makers -- it was our record of the week back in January 2006 -- and we recently got in the reissue of his debut ep A Brief History. So we were primed and ready to hear some new Rocky tunes. We'd heard there were a few changes brewing with his new album, but despite its title, don't be expecting The Brag And Cuss to fill your ears with expletives and exclamations. No, it's nothing but hushed earthy twang pop... an ol' reliable! Whereas Makers was considerably barebones and intimate, this album was recorded with a full band featuring James McAllister (who also plays with Sufjan Stevens), Bill Herzog (who is also in Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter), Pedro The Lion's Casey Foubert and Rick Steff (who also accompanies Cat Power and Hank Williams Jr.). They play together beautifully, complementing each other with nuanced performances. There's definitely more heft to the production, but it doesn't crowd his songs. If anything the company adds to the emotional gravity of his lonesome words. Real good!
MPEG Stream: "Lilly White"
MPEG Stream: "Postcard From Kentucky"

WARD, M. Duet For Guitars #2 (Merge) cd 12.98
Some releases go in and out of print with remarkable and frustrating frequency. Such was the case with the early M. Ward album Duet For Guitars #2. It was first released in 1999 by Co-Dependent Records. Then Howe Gelb took a shine to it and re-released it on his own Ow Om label in 2000. 'Twas quite the perfect place for it to be! Seems Mr. Gelb was absolutely overcome by Ward's music, and chose Duets For Guitars #2 to be the first non-Giant Sand release on his label. Perhaps, it'll have the same effect on you!
Now pretty much a decade since it was originally recorded, Mr. Ward has settled into the comfy label home of Merge Records. This early album is getting its re-re-release into a stable environment to an eager, adoring and ever-growing legion of fans.
To get y'all caught up... yes, this wonderful album actually predated M. Ward's 2001 'debut' full length End Of Amnesia which we loved so much. Duet For Guitars #2 was a set of instrumentals and vocal numbers which he recorded back in 1997. If you like the somber, gruff deep voiced Americana beauty of Gelb's band Giant Sand or that of Tom Waits, Neil Young or Bob Dylan even, well then, M. Ward is definitely not to be missed.
MPEG Stream: "Duet For Guitars #2"
MPEG Stream: "Beautiful Car"

WOLFMANGLER Cooking With Wolves (Aurora Borealis) cd 13.98
The newest slab of blackened wyrd doom-folk from the misty moors of... Texas? Poland? Mordor? Well, wherever main-mangler Smolken makes his home these days. Smolken, also the man responsible for the equally dark and fucked up Jandekian "black metal" of Dead Raven Choir, always has had a skewed take on his favorite subgenres of music, in the case of Wolfmangler entering the realm of doom metal riding a swaybacked country-folk steed, but eschewing the cinematically Western wide-open spaces that Earth has been roaming of late, to plow deeper into the muck and mire of the direst of wagonwheel-sucking mudflats... There's 14 doleful and dirgey tracks here, Smolken sawing away on some classical-sounding stringed instrument like an uber-depressed, one-man chamber music outfit. Besides those suicidal strings, this is sparse and skeletal, there's not much more here... some background ambience, clanking percussion, and creepy whispers... all of which work for us in a Dead Raven Choir like fashion. But then Smolken airs some almost-spoken, sorta-theatrical clean vocals (on tracks 12 and 13 fersinstance) and we're not quite as into it. For DRC fans surely, but maybe not doom metallers this time out (unlike Wolfmangler's earlier split with Moss).
MPEG Stream: "track 4"
MPEG Stream: "track 13"

WOODEN WAND James & The Quiet (Ecstatic Peace) cd 11.98
It seems James Toth is distancing himself more and more from his free-dirge forest folk group, the Vanishing Voice and settling deeper into full-blown singer-songwriter mode. Channeling Dylan even further than last years Second Attention, he enlists the help of Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo (who also produces) and Steve Shelley to round out the mostly acoustic band along with his wife, Jessica Toth who provides vocal accompaniment. Less compelling than Second Attention, the spare arrangements only serve to emphasize Toth's affected vocal style which mimics later Dylan but also comes dangerously close to Phil Ochs' more cringe-worthy folk-isms with pseudo-visionary lyrics that miss more than they hit. With such high profile talent present, we wish it was much better showcased. Alas.
MPEG Stream: "The Pushers"
MPEG Stream: "Wired To The Sky"

XIU XIU Chapel Of The Chimes (Nail In The Coffin) lp 11.98
Now on vinyl!
A brief but sweet 5 song ep from this often misunderstood, experimental, heartbreakingly sad, depressing, eclectic indie rock band. As we previously opined: The lead singer's voice is this super intense, desperate, achingly sad, warbly moan (a la The Cure / Talk Talk / Ultravox), and we're used to hearing that kind of voice accompanied with Brit-style synthpop stuff (i.e. Talk Talk's "It's My Life"). Yet with Xiu Xiu the backup to that incredible voice is trumpets and saxophones and clattery percussion (bells, gongs, perhaps even pots 'n pans), with a solid yet obviously lo-fi Casio beat keeping time, and a far away echoey tone placed sporadically throughout. Totally accessible pop with an arty creative craziness to it. Xiu Xiu also plays with song structure and tense silences. What a breath of fresh air to find an "indie rock" band who pretty much throw all the predictable stuff out the window, leaving only originality. If you can get past the singer's voice, then you oughta give this a try. Former aQers Sadie and Windy gave this the thumbs up.



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V/A Disco Deutschland Disco (Marina Records) 2lp 19.98
NOW ON VINYL!
Oh how we've adored the Germans' take on various musical styles over the years, and we're not just talking about their obvious kosmiche krautrock brilliance. No, it's German musicmakers' handling of the more unexpected genres that have deepened our love affair tenfold. The hip '60s kitten heeled go-go pop of the In-Kraut compilations? The spaghetti (er, sauerkraut?) westerns of the Wig Wam Weste(r)n Weisse Wolfe collections? Yes and yes! Those two genres are unquestionably more commonly associated with French chanteuses and American cowboys, so the unmistakable German inflections that surface always make for a delightful twist on the familiar.
Now Marina Records, who brought us those In-Kraut comps, takes it (or is it retakes it?) to the dancefloor with this compilation of German disco and funk music circa 1975 thru 1980. They're not messin' around. This is straight-up boogie wonderland business. Awesome.
Some highlights include the 8+ minute Supermax track, a lowdown I'm so sexy unstoppable groover... the Giorgio Moroder studio band Munich Machine's classic "Get On The Funk Train"... and a disco-era hit from In-Kraut alumnus Peter Thomas and his Sound Orchestra... among 15 other mainly killer, glitterball dazzlers. Now, if the weird thing is, this isn't really that weird. Heck disco's even back "in" now. Don't go expecting krautrocky craziness, instead just get yer dancing shoes on and yer ass in gear. Seriously, this has been getting spun in the store by AQ staffers just as much or more than anything else lately, and when it's on we've been getting our work done with just a little more groove.
Includes a 14-page booklet of informative liner notes, with such interestin' tidbits as that Berry Lipman's track "Sex World" was used as the theme song for an American porno film, but originated as an instrumental from the German sci-fi TV series Star Maidens...
MPEG Stream: SUPERMAX " Love Machine"
MPEG Stream: LIPMAN, BERRY "Sex World"
MPEG Stream: PETER THOMAS SOUND ORCHESTRA "Opium"

V/A GBV And Robert Pollard Present: Crickets - Best Of The Fading Captain Series (Fading Captain) cd 17.98
When you think the impossibly prolific Robert Pollard couldn't possibly eke out another tune, another whole cd lands in your lap. How does he do it!? Well, you better brace yourself dear fans! Because although this is not a new Robert Pollard album, it is a fifty six track double cd collection which compiles a broad array of tracks from the various Robert Pollard fronted bands on Robert Pollard's Fading Captain label. Some of the groups include Go Back Snowball, The Moping Swans, Circus Devils, Airport 5, Lifeguards, Alien Mofo, Radiation Feeder... the list goes on and on... and yes, it includes Guided By Voices.
And what do you know, you also get six previously unreleased tracks and a 50-page full-color book to boot! This release marks the forty fourth and final release of the Fading Captain Series. Ahoy matey!
MPEG Stream: AIRPORT 5 "Total Exposure"
MPEG Stream: GUIDED BY VOICES "Sister I Need Wine (Cromag Demo)"

V/A Studio One Dub 2 (Soul Jazz) cd 21.00
Pessimistic as it sounds, there's not much in life you can really depend on. Luckily Soul Jazz and its series of Studio One releases have never let us down and we think it's pretty safe to say that they never will. How could they as they get to dip in the richest of vaults mining the sounds of Studio One in Jamaica. This time out it's the second in the series of dub's best offerings from the '60s and '70s. With Studio One's house band Sound Dimension, Marcia Griffiths, Soul Vendors, The Gladiators and more you know you can't go wrong. Thank you Soul Jazz and your always such right-on selections from the stellar vaults of Studio One. We could say more, but why bother, this music speaks for itself, just listen to the sound samples...
MPEG Stream: MARCIA GRIFFITHS "Feel Like Jumping Pt.2"
MPEG Stream: ST. CT & THE GLADIATORS BAND "Soul Locks"
MPEG Stream: SOUNDSTORM "Dub Rock"

V/A Studio One Dub 2 (Soul Jazz) 2lp 21.00
Pessimistic as it sounds, there's not much in life you can really depend on. Luckily Soul Jazz and its series of Studio One releases have never let us down and we think it's pretty safe to say that they never will. How could they as they get to dip in the richest of vaults mining the sounds of Studio One in Jamaica. This time out it's the second in the series of dub's best offerings from the '60s and '70s. With Studio One's house band Sound Dimension, Marcia Griffiths, Soul Vendors, The Gladiators and more you know you can't go wrong. Thank you Soul Jazz and your always such right-on selections from the stellar vaults of Studio One. We could say more, but why bother, this music speaks for itself, just listen to the sound samples...
MPEG Stream: MARCIA GRIFFITHS "Feel Like Jumping Pt.2"
MPEG Stream: ST. CT & THE GLADIATORS BAND "Soul Locks"
MPEG Stream: SOUNDSTORM "Dub Rock"

V/A Thank You For Being You (Electric Honey) cd 14.98
Awwwwww, snuggle up kiddies! Here's a compilation of Scottish indie pop and rock from Scottish indie labels (Electric Honey, Pema, Postcard Circa 1980, Fence, Chemikal Underground, Codex / Pop Aural, Domino / Geographic, Shoeshine, and Creeping Bent. Mostly jingle jangle sweetness comin' from the old faves like The Pastels, Belle And Sebastian, The Delgados, Teenage Fanclub and Future Pilot A.K.A., but Josef K, How To Swim and The Nectarine No. 9 add a teeny bit of edginess and variety to this soft argyle and cardigan wearin' set. A delightful trip down a tartan pop memory lane.
MPEG Stream: DELGADOS, THE "Monica Webster"
MPEG Stream: HOW TO SWIM "Logical Man"

V/A Yasujiro Ozu : Hitokomakura (And/OAR) 2cd 15.98
Yasijiro Ozu was a Japanese filmmaker (1903-1963) who had emphasized restraint throughout the 54 films of his career, offering emotionally rich, if purposefully understated narratives about the simple pleasures and pains of everyday life. This compilation is a tribute to Ozu's tableaux; and given that Ozu quietly punctuated his tales with shots of clouds, arrangements of bottles, industrial landscapes, and other environments, the tribute features a handful of suitably quiet sound artists who often use field recordings or environmental space within their work. Steve Roden is the perfect artist for such a tribute; and fittingly, he opens this compilation. His circular softness for chimed guitar and tapped drum patterns is a wonderful departure in which Roden pushes his sound design closer to the post-rock elegance of Bark Psychosis. Roden's piece is one of the better tracks on this compilation, with other highlights including Keith Berry's mournful grayscapes of drone and slow-motion crackle, Toshiya Tsunoda's impeccable recording of aerated hiss, a series of lilting lullaby chimes from John Hudak, There's plenty of raw phonography from the likes of Hitoshi Kojo (aka Spiracle), Kiyoshi Mizutani, Michael Shannon, and Ralph Steinbruchel. Taku Sugimoto's piece has to be noted for its sheer blankness except for six piano notes that emphatically emerge after 3 and a half minutes of silence.
This happens to be the second tribute to filmmakers from And/OAR, following the now out-of-print compilation homage to Tarkovsky Another Kind Of Language.
MPEG Stream: STEVE RODEN "Tapping The Inside Of Sitting Still"
MPEG Stream: KEITH BERRY "Hatsu Yume"
MPEG Stream: AONO JUKKEN ENSEMBLE "Tsuiso (Chasing Memories)"

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----* New DVD's :
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ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE Dokonan (AMT) dvd 24.00
*Acid Mothers Temple alert!* *Acid Mothers Temple alert!* *Acid Mothers Temple alert!* Those alarm bells are ringing extra loud 'cause it's not just ANOTHER always amazing cd release from these Japanese hippie-kraut-psych-prog freaks... no, it's a tour documentary, their first-ever DVD, with live footage of fan faves "Pink Lady Lemonade", "La Novia", and big improv jam... also plenty of off-stage, on-the-road, behind-the-music, culture shock stuff (Japanese band, French filmmakers, USA tour). Bonuses on this DVD include a clip of AMT playing at the WFMU studio, and more. Limited to 1000 copies!

MAGMA Mythes Et Legendes Vol 3 (UZMK) dvd 35.00
Here it is, drooling Magma fans -- the third, penultimate "Epok" in the eternal French "Zeuhl" gods triumphant live four-disc DVD series, Mythes Et Legendes, celebrating 35 years of their utterly unique, heavy prog sounds. Recorded in May of 2005, the nine compositions performed here begin with a full 32 and a half minute rendition of their epic "Kohntarkosz" from 1974, continuing on to include such classics as "Emehnteht-Re", "Hhai", and "Zombies", hitting (at least some of) the highlights of the Magma songbook up to 1977 or thereabouts, drawing from such albums as Kohntarkosz, Hhai/Live and Attahk. If you've got the first two dvds (hard to imagine you'd be getting just this one) then you know that Magma drummer/vocalist/mastermind Christian Vander's current band totally KICKS ASS. Besides Vander himself, the Magma documented here features the vocals/percussion squad of Stella Vander, Antoine Paganotti, Himiko Paganotti and Isabelle Feuillebois, alongside James Mac Gaw on guitar, Emmanuel Borghi on Fender Rhodes, and Philippe Bussonnet on bass. Former keyboardist Bentoit Widemann guests on Fender and Minimoog as well. Brilliant. NTSC, all-region, 115 minutes totale!
(A bonus feature on this disc is the special DRUMS-ONLY viewing angle available for the Attahk track "The Last Seven Minutes". They know their fans!)


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----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed :
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( R ) "In Pink" (Important) cd 14.98
16 BITCH PILE-UP / MIKE SHIFLET "Split" (Ecstatic Peace) 12" 13.98
3 INCHES OF BLOOD "Fire Up The Blades" (Roadrunner) cd 13.98
AFGHAN WHIGS "Unbreakable: A Retrospective 1990-2006" (Rhino) cd 17.98
AIR CONDITIONING / VEGAS MARTYRS / COUGHS / THE NEW FLESH "Tiger Tongue Pussy Cactus: Terminal Fantasies For Malefic Youth" (Hospital Productions) lp 14.98
ALOG "Amateur" (Rune Grammofon) cd/2lp 16.98/27.00
ANGELIC PROCESS, THE "Sigh" (Decaying Sun) cd ep 7.98
ANGELIC PROCESS, THE "Weighing Souls With Sand" (Profound Lore) cd 12.98
ANTIGAMA "Resonance" (Relapse) cd 14.98
ANTIGAMA / DRUGS OF FAITH "split" (Selfmadegod) cd 10.98
APOCRYPHAL VOICE "Still Trapped" (Candlelight) cd 16.98
ARCADE FIRE "Intervention" (Merge) 7" 4.98
ARCTIC MONKEYS "Favorite Worst Nightmare" (Domino) cd 14.98
ART FLEURY "I Luoghi Del Potere" (Die-Schachtel) cd 27.00
ASSEMBLE HEAD IN SUNBURST SOUND "Ekranoplan" (Tee Pee) cd/lp 13.98/14.98
ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "Neon Pibroch" (Important) cd 14.98
ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "Super Grease" (Important) lp 16.98
AUGHRA & MOSH PATROL "Is There Anyone Else Outside?" (Magic Bullet) cd 12.98
BABICZ, ROBERT "A Cheerful Temper" (Systematic) cd 16.98
BACHI DA PIETRA "Non Io" (Die Schachtel) cd 19.98
BAD BRAINS "Build A Nation" (Oscilloscope) cd 14.98
BAIKAL "s/t" (Important) cd 14.98
BAMBHALAM "Total Mixer" (Freak Out) cd-r 10.98
BANN "Antiochia" (Grief Foundation) cd ep 8.98
BARDO POND / PRE "Keep Mother Split" (Fire) 10" 7.98
BARK! "Contraption" (PSI) cd 21.00
BARONESS / UNPERSONS "A Grey Sigh In A Flower" (At A Loss) cd 13.98
BASINSKI, WILLIAM "El Camino Real" (Musex International) cd 14.98
BAYER, BLARKE / BLACK WIDOW "Arctic Blast" (Heathen Skulls) cd 15.98
BIRDS OF AVALON "Bazaar Bazaar" (Volcom) cd 14.98
BIRDS OF DECAY / DREAMCATCHER "split" (Not Not Fun) 7" 6.98
BLACK MAGIC DISCO "s/t" (Important) cd 14.98
BLOOD ISLAND RIDERS "s/t" (Invada) cd 14.98
BLOODY PANDA "Pheromone" (Level-Plane) cd 13.98
BLOSSOM TOES "If Only For A Moment" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98
BLOSSOM TOES "We Are Ever So Clean" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98
BOLA "Kroungrine" (Skald) cd 15.98
BORBETOMAGUS & HIJOKAIDAN "Both Noises End Burning" (Victo) cd 15.98
BOSETTI, ALESSANDRO "Expose" (Die Schachtel) cd 19.98
BRAINTICKET "Cottonwood Hill" cd 21.00
BROOM DUSTERS "Sound From The Bottom Of The Tokyo Underground" (Siwa) lp 24.00
BURIAL "Ghost Hardware" (Hyperdub) 12" 11.98
BURNING BRIDES "Hang Love" (ModArt) cd 14.98
CAACRINOLAS "Vargtimmen" (self-released) cd-r 11.98
CAINA "Mourner" (Profound Lore) cd 12.98
CARAVAN "If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over With You" (Eclectic Discs) cd 17.98
CARAVAN "In The Land Of Grey And Pink" (Eclectic Discs) cd 17.98
CARIBOU "Melody Day" (Merge) cd ep 3.98
CASSERLEY, LAWRENCE & SIMON DESORGHER "Music From Colourdome" (PSI) cd 21.00
CEPHALIC CARNAGE "Xenosapien" (Relapse) cd 14.98
CHANCE, JAMES AND THE CONTORTIONS "Soul Exorcism Redux" (Roir) cd 14.98
CHINESE STARS, THE "Listen To Your Left Brain" (Three One G/Skin Graft) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
CHROMEO "Fancy Footwork" (Vice) cd 14.98
CLINE, NELS SINGERS "Draw Breath" (Cryptogramaphone) cd 16.98
COBALT "Eater Of Birds" (Profound Lore) cd 14.98
COFFINS / OTESANEK "s/t" (Parasitic) lp 14.98
CUB "Betti-Cola" (Mint) cd 15.98
CUB "Come Out Come Out" (Mint) cd 15.98
DARKEST HOUR "Deliver Us" (Victory) cd 15.98
DARKSPACE "II" (Avantgarde) cd 14.98
DAVID COPPERFUCK "Chalet Chalet" (Party Turtle) 7" 5.98
DEADBEAT "Journeyman's Annual" (Scape) cd 16.98
DEATH AMBIENT "Drunken Forest" (Tzadik) cd 16.98
DEATHSPELL OMEGA "Fas- Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum" (Ajna / Southern Lord) cd 15.98
DELAY, VLADISLAV "Whistleblower" (Huume) cd 16.98
DEMBELE, DACUDA "s/t" (Yaala Yaala) cd 14.98
DIGITALISM "Idealism" (Astralwerks) cd 14.98
DILLOWAY, AARON "Beggar Master" (Hanson) cd 14.98
DIMENTIANON / RIGOR SARDONICOUS "split" (Largactyl) cd 14.98
DIREWOLF "Beyond The Lands Of Human Existence" (Blastard Entertainment) cd 14.98
DISSECTING TABLE "Awake In Hell" (UPD Org.) cd 14.98
DODHEIMSGARD "Supervillain Outcast" (Moonfog) cd 13.98
DOPPLEREFFEKT "Calabi Yau Space" (Rephlex) cd/2lp 16.98/19.98
DRAKE, NICK "Family Tree" (Tsunami Label Group) cd 15.98
DREXCIYA "Grava 4" (Clone) cd 14.98
ELEGI "Sistereis" (Miasmah) cd 17.98
EMBRYO "Steig Aus" (Revisited) cd 17.98
ETERNAL MAJESTY "Wounds of Hatred & Slavery" (Candlelight) cd 16.98
EXCEPTER "Streams 01" (Fusetron) cd 15.98
EXIAS-J "Live Document 2003-2005" (P.S.F.) dvd 27.00
EXPO '70 "Audio Archive 001 - Music From Inaudible Depths" (Kill Shaman) cd-r 5.98
EXPO '70 "Audio Archive 002" (Kill Shaman) cd-r 5.98
FAMILY BATTLE SNAKE "Brain Fried Eternally" (Arbor) cd-r 8.98
FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION, DJ "Constance Towers" (self released) cd-r
FINAL WARNING "s/t" (Southern Lord) cd 12.98
FOR CARNATION, THE "Promised Works" (Touch & Go) cd 12.98
FORGOTTEN TOMB "Negative Megalomania" (Avantgarde) cd 14.98
FORGOTTEN WOODS "Race Of Cain" (20 Buck Spin) cd
FRIAR TUCK "And His Psychedelic Guitar" (Fallout) cd 16.98
GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER "#7" (Drag City) magazine 15.98
GALAX "Never Ending Space Trackin'" (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
GHQ / EX-COCAINE "split" (Not Not Fun) 7" 5.98
GOBLIN "Profondo Rosso (OST)" (Deltadischi) 2cd 27.00
GOGOL BORDELLO "Super Taranta!" (Side One Dummy) cd 14.98
GREENHAM, LILY "Lingual Music" (Paradigm) 2cd 26.00
GREENLEE, SHAWN "Nysa" (Utech) cd 14.98
GROUNDHOGS "Thank Christ For The Bomb" (EMI) cd 14.98
GROUNDHOGS "Who Will Save The World" (EMI) cd 12.98
GUSTAFSSON, MATS & YOSHIMI "Words On The Floor" (Smalltown Supersound) cd 16.98
HAIR POLICE "Blind Kingdom" (Ultra Eczema) lp 29.00
HANNU "Worms In My Piano" (Osaka) cd 17.98
HAYWARD, RICK "s/t" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98
HORNA "Aania Yossa" (Moribund) cd 14.98
HORNA "Sotahunto" (Grievantee) cd 13.98
HORNA / MUSTA SURMA "Vihan Vuodet" (Moribund) cd 14.98
HOTOTOGISU / HIVE MIND "split" (Not Not Fun) 7" 6.98
JANDEK "Manhattan Tuesday" (Corwood Industries) 2cd 12.98
JAZZY JAY "Cold Chillin' In The Studio" (Strong City) cd 14.98
JESUS LIZARD, THE "Live" (MVD Visual) dvd 16.98
JUSTICE "(cross)" (Vice / Ed Banger) cd/2lp 14.98/27.00
KAHVAS JUTE "Wide Open" (Aztec Music) cd 21.00
KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF "Jinx" (Staubgold) cd/lp 15.98/15.98
KAWABATA MAKOTO "Osaka Loop Line" (AMT) cd 17.98
KELLY, R. "Double Up" (Zomba) cd 16.98
LADY SAW "Walk Out" (VP) cd 15.98
LICHENS "Omns" (Kranky) cd + dvd 16.98
LIFE ON EARTH "Look!! There Is Life On Earth!" (Subliminal Sounds) cd 16.98
LUTOMYSL "Catharsis" (Mercenary Music) cd 14.98
MAGICAL POWER MAKO "s/t" (Hagakure) cd 33.00
MAGICAL POWER MAKO "Super Record" (Hagakure) cd 33.00
MANES "How The World Came To An End" (Candlelight) cd 12.98
MANNING, BARBARA "Super Scissors" (Rainfall Records) 3cd 23.00
MANSON, CHARLES "The Summer Of Hate - The '67 Sessions" (Arte Lupo) cd 15.98
MARDUK "Rom 5:12" (Regain) cd 14.98
MARGINAL CONSORT "s/t" (Improvised Music From Japan) 4cd 79.00
MEKURYA, GETATCHEW & THE EX "Moa Anbessa" (Terp) cd 18.98
MIKAMI, KAN "Barking Practice" (PSF) cd 22.00
MIKAMI, KAN "Live Kolian 2006" (Mikami Komuten) cd 22.00
MINDFLAYER / DEEP JEW "split" (Not Not Fun) 7" 6.98
MODESELEKTOR "Boogybytes Vol.3" (Bpitch) cd 15.98
MONKEES, THE "Headquarters - Collector's Edition" (Rhino) 2cd 23.00
MONKEES, THE "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. - Collector's Edition" (Rhino) 2cd 23.00
MORI, IKUE "Bhima Swarga" (Tzadik) dvd 30.00
N.I.L. "s/t" (Battle Kommand) cd 14.98
NADA SURF "Karmic" (Hi-Speed Soul) cd ep 10.98
NAMELOSERS "Fabulous Sounds From Southern Sweden" (Got To Hurry) cd 17.98
NARROWS, THE "Benjamin" (Wantage USA) cd 12.98
NAUGHTIEST GIRL WAS A MONITOR, THE "s/t" (Vinyl On Demand) lp 26.00
NEED MORE SOURCES "Shed" (Moteer) cd 15.98
NEGATIVE PLANE "Et In Saecula Saeculorum" (AJNA) 2lp 27.00
NORDVARGR "In Oceans Abandoned By Life I Drown... To Live Again As A Servent Of Darkness" (Essence) cd 15.98
NORTH SEA, THE "Exquisite Idols" (Type) cd 15.98
NOSTALGIA 77 "Everything Under The Sun" (Ubiquity) cd 16.98
NOSTRADAMOS "S/T" (World Psychedelia) cd 17.98
NOVALIS "s/t" (Revisited) cd 17.98
OBSCURUS ADVOCAM "Verbia Daemonicus" (Battle Kommand) cd 14.98
OS MUNDI "43 Minuten" (Revisited) cd 17.98
OXBOW "The Narcotic Story" (Hydra Head) cd 13.98
PAGAN ALTAR "Lords Of Hypocrisy" (Oracle Records) cd 21.00
PANTHEON I "The Wanderer And His Shadow" (Candlelight) cd 13.98
PATRON SAINTS, THE "Fohhoh Bohob" (Time-Lag) cd/lp+7" 18.98/33.00
PENTANGLE "The Time Has Come 1967-1973" (Sanctuary) 3cd 57.00
PEOPLE "Ceremony - Buddha Meet Rock" (Teichiku) cd 17.98
PESTE NOIRE "FolkFuck Folie" (De Profundis / Rosenkrantz) cd 13.98
PESTE NOIRE "K.P.N. / La Sanie Des Siecles - Panegyrique De La Degenerescence" (De Profundis / Rosenkrantz) cd 13.98
PETIT, CHRISTOPHER "Radio On" (Plexifilm) dvd 22.00
PETRONELLA, ANGELO "Sintesi Da Un Diario" (Die Schachtel) cd 18.98
PHAROAHE MONCH "Desire" (Universal / Motown) cd 14.98
PIERSON, DAX AND ROBERT HORTON "Pablo Feldman Sun Riley" (AA / Nosordo) cd 14.98
PIG DESTROYER "Phantom Limb" (Relapse) cd 14.98
PRIESTBIRD "In Your Time" (Kemado) cd 13.98
PROFUNDI "The Omega Rising" (Profound Lore) cd 15.98
PULSEFEAR "Perichroresis" (Profound Lore) cd 10.98
PUMICE "Pebbles" (Soft Abuse) cd 14.98
QUI "Baby Kisses" (Heart Of A Champion) cd 12.98
RA "Ev.Panic Redone" (Planet Mu) cd 10.98
RAAIJMAKERS, DICK "Complete Tape Music Of Dick Raaijmakers" (Basta) 3cd 33.00
RAMESSES "Misanthropic Alchemy" (Feto) cd 14.98
RIBOT, MARC "Asmodeus" (Tzadik) cd 16.98
ROKY ERICKSON "You're Gonna Miss Me" (Palm / Manga) dvd 33.00
RUNEMAGICK / OCEAN CHIEF "The Northern Lights" (Chapter 53) cd 14.98
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (BEE GEES) "OST" (Warner) cd 19.98
SAXON "S/T" (EMI) cd 12.98
SAXON "Strong Arm Of The Law" (EMI) cd 12.98
SAXON "Wheels Of Steel" (EMI) cd 12.98
SCHENKER, MICHAEL GROUP "s/t" (EMI) cd 12.98
SCORPIONS "Lonesome Crow" (Brain) cd 17.98
SHIRE, DAVID "The Hindenberg (OST)" (Intrada) cd 30.00
SHIRE, DAVID "Zodiac (OST)" (Varese Sarabande) cd 16.98
SKULL DEFECTS, THE "The Sound Of Defekt Skulls" (Utech) cd 14.98
SKULL DEFEKTS, THE "Open The Gates Of Mimer" (AA / Nosordo) cd 14.98
SKULL DEFEKTS, THE "Skkull" (Release The Bats) cd 14.98
SKYSCRAPER "#25" magazine 4.99
SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM "In Glorious Times" (The End) cd 12.98
SMASHING PUMPKINS "Zeitgeist" (Martha's Music) cd 16.98
SNARES "Sabbath Dubs" 10" 12.98
SOLSTICE "Halcyon" (Cyclone Empire) cd 16.98
SOLSTICE "Lamentations" (Candlelight) cd 16.98
SONDE "En Concert" (Oral) cd 16.98
SONDE "En Ordes" (Oral) cd 16.98
SONIC YOUTH "Daydream Nation" (Goofin) 4lp box 34.00
SPIRITUALAIRES, THE "Singing Songs Of Praise" (CaseQuarter) cd 14.98
SPOOKY, DJ "System Error. Al-Yamamah Mix" (Horus) cd 17.98
STARCHASER NETWORK "s/t" (Tarot Productions) cd 14.98
STEVENS, MEIC "Sackcloth and Ashes: The EPs Vol. 2" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98
STORMCROW / SANCTUM "split" (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98
STRIBORG "Nocturnal Emissions / Nyctophobia" (Displeased) cd 14.98
STRIBORG "Spiritual Catharsis" (Displeased) cd 14.98
SUN RA "Strange Strings" (El Saturn) cd 15.98
SUN RA "The Creator Of The Universe" (Transparancy) 2cd 16.98
TARWATER "Spider Smile" (Morr Music) cd 16.98
THEE MORE SHALLOWS "Book Of Bad Breaks" (Anticon) cd 14.98
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS "The Else" (Idlewild) cd 16.98
THUNDERBOLT "Apocalyptic Doom" (Agonia) cd 15.98
TORTURIUM "Black Lunatic Chaos" (Aura Mystique) cd 15.98
TOTAL FUCKING DESTRUCTION "Zen And The Art Of Total Fucking Destruction" (Translation Loss) cd 14.98
TRANSMISSION 0 "Memory Of A Dream" (Candlelight) cd 13.98
TRAVELING WILBURYS "Traveling Wilburys Collection" (Rhino) 2cd+dvd 29.00
TUNNELS "On A Body Of Nothing But Radiance" (self released) cd-r 8.98
TUNNELS "Vexations" (self released) cd-r 8.98
TUNNELS "What Happens To Us Is Pure" (self released) cd-r 8.98
TUSS, THE "Rushup Edge" (Rephlex) cd 16.98
UFFIE "First Love" (Ed Banger) 12" 13.98
UFO "Force It" (EMI) cd 12.98
UFO "Phenomenon" (EMI) cd 12.98
ULTRALYD "Conditions For A Piece Of Music" (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
UPSILON ACRUX "Galapagos Momentum" (Cuneiform) cd 16.98
V/A "Crows Of The World" (Last Visible Dog) 2cd 16.98
V/A "Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label" (Numero) cd 17.98
V/A "Glastonbury Fayre Festival" (Akarma) 2cd+dvd 60.00
V/A "Nouvelle Vague Presents New Wave" (District 6) 2cd 21.00
V/A "Phoning It In" (West Main Development) cd 11.98
V/A "Reactions To Raaijmakers" (Basta) cd 21.00
V/A "Searchin' For Shakes" (Amigo) cd 17.98
V/A "Silver Monk Time: A Tribute To The Monks" (Play Loud) 2cd 21.00
V/A "Speicher 3" (Kompakt) cd 15.98
V/A "War II (The Turd Hunt Continues)" (Hip Hop Slam) cd 11.98
V/A "Women Take Back The Noise" (Ubi Ubi) 3cd+pouch 30.00
VAN ZANDT, TOWNES "Delta Momma Blues" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98
VAN ZANDT, TOWNES "Flying Shoes" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98
VAN ZANDT, TOWNES "Our Mother The Mountain" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98
VAN ZANDT, TOWNES "Townes Van Zandt" (Fat Possum) cd 14.98
VEX'D "Degenerate" (Planet Mu) 2cd 14.98
VILE CHERUBS "The Man Who Has No Eats Has No Sweats" (Afterburn) cd 13.98
VIRUS SYNDICATE "Present: Contagious Vol. 1" (Tyke) cd 17.98
VOLCANO THE BEAR "Egg And Two Books" (VIVO) cd 14.98
VXPXC "Porchmass" (Digitalis) cd 11.98
WHITE STRIPES, THE "Icky Thump" (Warner Bros.) cd 16.98
WORLD "Can You Feel It Coming In The Air Tonight?" (Onomato) cd-r 8.98
YAALAII, BOUGOUNI "s/t" (Yaala Yaala) cd 14.98
YEAR OF NO LIGHT "Nord" (Crucial Blast) cd 15.98
ZWEINSTEIN "Trip / Flip Out / Meditation" (Captain Trip) 3cd 88.00
ZWEIZZ "The Yawn Of The New Age" (Vendlus) cd 15.98

_______________________________________________________________________

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[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

----} sometime soon, or even sooner
Nordvargr / Drakh "The Betrayal Of Light" cd on tUMULt
Abigor "Fractal - Possession" cd
v/a "Tokyo Flashback 6" cd on PSF
Baroness / Unpersons split cd/lp on At A Loss
Robbers On High Street "Grand Animals" cd
Ulrich Schnauss "Goodbye" cd
The Ace Of Clubs (Luke Vibert) "Benefist" cd on First Cask

----} July 17th
Meat Puppets "Rise To Your Knees" cd
Nile "Ithylphallic" cd on Nuclear Blast
Candlemass "King Of The Grey Islands" cd on Nuclear Blast

----} July 24th
Tiny Vipers "Hands Across The Void" cd on Sub Pop
Talib Kweli "Ear Drum" cd
Tegan & Sara "The Con" cd
UNKLE "War Stories" cd

----} July 31st
Common "Finding Forever" cd

----} also in July
Crebain "Night Of Stormcrow" cd with bonus tracks on tUMULt

----} August 8th
Magnolia Electric Co. "Sojourner" 4cd+dvd
Architecture In Helsinki "Places Like This" cd
Kevin Drumm & Daniel Menche "Gauntlet" cd on Editions Mego
v/a "Thai Pop Spectacular: 1960s-1980s" cd on Sublime Frequencies
v/a "Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan Vol.2" cd on Sublime Frequencies

----} August 21st
ONJO "Live V.2: Parallel Circuit" 2cd on Doubtmusic
New Pornographers "Challengers" cd
M.I.A. "Kala" cd
Caribou "Andora" cd
Baby Grandmothers "s/t" 2lp on Subliminal Sounds
Life On Earth! "Look!! There is..." lp on Subliminal Sounds

----} August 28th
Aesop Rock "None Shall Pass" cd
Liars "s/t" cd
Concentrick "Aluminum Lake" cd on Drag City
The Howling Hex "XI" cd/lp on Drag City
Mick Turner/Tren Brothers "Blue Trees" cd on Drag City

----} also upcoming sooner (maybe real soon) or later (possibly much later)
White Heaven "Levitation" cd edition on Farside
Anton Batagov "Passionate Desire To Be An Angel" cd on Long Arms Records
ESG "South Bronx Story 2" cd/2lp on Soul Jazz
Signal "Robotron" cd on Raster Music
Harvey Milk "My Love Is Higher Than Your..." cd reissue on Relapse
Harvey Milk "The Pleaser" cd reissue on Relapse
Bobb Trimble "Harvest Of Dreams" and "Iron Curtain Innocence" reissues on cd and lp on Secretly Canadian
Larsen & Friends "Abeceda" cd w/ dvd on Important
Boris w/ Kurihara "Rainbow" LP version on Inoxia
Orthodox "Amanecer en Puerta Oscura" cd on Alone Records
Baroness cd on Relapse
Black Cobra "Feather & Stone" cd/lp on At A Loss
Powers Court "The Red Mist Of Endenmore" cd on Dragonheart
Buried At Sea posthumous release on Neurot
Skeletonwitch new album on Prosthetic (this fall)
The Heads tba 2cd 'best of' on Leafhound
Grey Daturas "Dead In The Woods" remastered, repackaged cd reissue on Crucial Blast
Souvenir's Young America new cd on Crucial Blast
16-17 "Gyatso" cd reissue on Savage Land

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23five presents John Duncan, John Wiese, and Joshua Churchill
at The Compound in San Francisco on July 21. 

Born in the United States and currently working in Italy, JOHN DUNCAN has constructed a radical body of sonic provocation through noise, field recordings, installation, and perhaps most notably shortwave. His interests have long been grounded in the psychological implications of sound, and how it has the ability to bring ecstasy, hostility, empathy, abjection, etc. to the listener. Always questioning himself and the world around him, Duncan remains one of the most dynamic artists of the contemporary era.

JOHN WIESE is a solo artist and serial collaborator from Los Angeles, California. He has worked with many artists as diverse as Sunn O))), Wolf Eyes, and Merzbow and in ongoing units such as LHD and Sissy Spacek. He has toured and performed across the US, Europe, UK, Scandinavia, Australia, Greece, Japan, and Canada.
JOSHUA CHURCHILL is a San Francisco based cross-disciplinary artist that works primarily with sound and light in the context of site-specific, and often reactive, installations, live performances, and recordings. Churchill challenges the traditionally passive role of the audience by immersing them within his work and compelling them to become critically aware of their relationship to their surroundings on both global and intimate scales. His solo noise work is often performed/recorded under the moniker T/R, while he also performs/records experimental guitar work under his own name, and is involved in a number of duos including Vis Viva and Frlgrnd.

John Duncan
with Joshua Churchill and John Weise
Saturday, July 21
9 PM
RML Compound
1070 Van Dyke Ave
San Francisco

directions to the RML Compound
1: Take the US-101 Freeway South to CESAR CHAVEZ EAST Turnoff
2: Go down CESAR CHAVEZ heading East to THIRD STREET
3: Turn RIGHT at THIRD STREET heading SOUTH for two miles
4: Notice that street names go in alphabetical order
5: Turn LEFT on THOMAS heading EAST 8 Blocks to DEAD END
6: Turn RIGHT onto GRIFFITH Dirt Road
7: Proceed thru open gate Stop for gate person.
8: Turn Left at VAN DYKE and park your car.
9: Go into warehouse courtyard to far right red door...

for more information:
http://www.23five.org


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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanLaurenAshleyPamChristineIrwinMattScottSally and Antaeus