ECHOSPACE The Coldest Season (Baked Goods / Modern Love) cd 15.98
A few years back, we were enraptured by a strange alien sound, one that opened our ears to a whole genre we had ignored for the most part up until then, an offshoot of techno that eventually became affectionately (and surprisingly accurately) referred to as 'heroin house'. A strangely propulsive sound mired in dense fields of hiss and murk, of fuzz and blur, the beats relegated to a distant pulse. The label was Chain Reaction, and its tiny stable of bands, Fluxion, Matrix, Hallucinator, Substance, Vainqueur, Porter Ricks, Monolake and a few others, completely changed the landscape of techno, and had us all in a frenzy. Albeit a nocturnal druggy soporific one.
Chain Reaction folded, but the sound lived on, in the abstract dub of Rhythm And Sound (the same producers behind the Chain Reaction sound), in the sound of German Chain Reaction acolyte Pole, and the Pop Ambient of Kompakt, but as much as we love all that stuff, it wasn't quite the same. The sounds were similar, each twisted into some new shape, but there was just something so special about those Chain Reaction releases. So mysterious, the sound so haunting and otherworldly, like a rave on the ocean floor, barely audible through the walls of your submarine, further obscured by the hiss and low level buzz of all the onboard machinery. Or some DJ playing microhouse into the wee hours, 5 or 6 floors below you, or better yet, in the old concrete bunker across the street, the only hint of anything going on the muted throb felt more than heard.
It's one of THOSE SOUNDS we always go on about. Like old school ragga jungle or black metal buzz, a sound that is so pleasing to our ears, we could almost listen to a simple loop of those sounds forever. The Chain Reaction sound is another, gorgeous and creepy, moonlit and languorous, the perfect music to drift off to, or to troll the dark rainswept streets of some mysterious European city.
Thus we come to this debut full length from Echospace, the duo of Rod Modell and Soultek's Steve Hitchell, both legendary techno producers, who released a handful of 12"s at the tail end of the nineties, and who were taking the Chain Reaction sound in their own new direction. Years later, the duo returned to THAT SOUND and goddamn if it doesn't sound like being transported right back to mid-nineties Berlin. Using only old school analog equipment: Roland Space Echo, Echoplex, Korg tape delay, vintage signal processors, noise generators, Sequential Circuits 8-bit samplers and analog synthesizers, the sound these two have conjured up hews crazily close to Chain Reaction, but manages to make it sound modern and new at the same time.
All the tracks here are super creepy, slow motion, underwater muted blurs of abstract techno, where the beats seem like more a byproduct of the soundmaking than the reason for it. Some tracks do thump and bump but others merely drift in a thick haze of hiss and crackle. Basslines are deep and rubbery, drenched in reverb and pulled apart into super spare space dubs, bits of percussion are sent careening into a black void, but it's the textures and the ambience that make this record so special. The opener spends the first half of its 6+ minutes offering up huge slow motion crashing waves of surf like static, of buried melodies and off fuzzy shimmer, before any beats even surface, and when they finally do they pulse and throb for a couple minutes before they're swallowed up by the wash of soft white noise. In fact, in addition to sounding underwater, it sounds like the whole disc is being broadcast over a radio between stations, all the sounds wreathed in sonic gristle and buzzy static, but all smeared into huge billowing clouds of sound.
Most of the tracks definitely have a groove, a super slithery abstract alien funk, but more often than not, it's buried beneath gorgeous layers of constantly shifting sound, offering up some barely audible thump, a four on the floor framework for the glacially shifting tectonic sonic plates above. But there are some that don't, like the 11+ minute "Ocean Of Emptiness", a muted smeared ambient drift, that sounds like standing on some vast windswept snow covered plain, under a black sky, watching the snow fall, each snowflake a tiny bit of hiss or crackle, coming in epic waves, glistening and glimmering but strangely warm and inviting. Our favorite track might have to be "Winter In Seney", which sounds like a more dubbed-out Gas. A warm swirling hissy gristly minimal smear, sprinkled with bits of record crackle, and haunting echo drenched bits of glitch and melody, the whole thing wrapped in a gorgeously hypnotic, super spare rubbery bassline, the notes blurring into each other, spreading out like a thick black cloud of dub, totally and utterly mesmerizing.
There's been so much amazing techno lately, lots of Kompakt action, The Field, Gui Boratto, the last Pop Ambient comp, then there was the long overdue Vladislav Delay Chain Reaction reissue (C'mon! Someone reissue ALL those out of print CR discs!!), but this disc has been OWNING the cd player. At work, at home, and has quickly become the new drifting off, late at night, chill out, space out, record of choice. WAY recommended!
MPEG Stream: "First Point Of Aries"
MPEG Stream: "Abraxas"
MPEG Stream: "Ocean Of Emptiness"
MPEG Stream: "Winter In Seney"

EXIT-13 High Life (Relapse) 2cd 16.98
It's frustrating sometimes that lots of our all time favorite records came out well before the aQuarius list was established. We occasionally pick old favorites, like Rein Sanction, Archers Of Loaf, Hardship Post, Green River, stuff that's still available, and review them on the list. Cuz as far as we're concerned, released dates and the concept of 'new music' are pretty much useless. All records are new and exciting to someone who has never heard them. But often times those old favorites are long gone and out of print. So when one of those records does finally get reissued, we jump at the chance to be able celebrate and share that amazing music via the list. Which brings us to this double disc reissue from weirdo eco-radical doom drug grinders Exit-13.
A band we have loved for EVER (so much so, Allan even interviewed them for the first issue of his old fanzine, years and years ago), Exit-13 were only loosely a grind band, sure they were fast and furious, guitars buzzed, songs were short and complex, the vocals a monstrous gurgle, the lyrics way political, all about the environment, vegetarianism, etc.Š But for a grind band, they sure spent a lot of time spewing huge gory gouts of buzzing doomic plod, as well as incorporating convoluted jazz weirdness, freaked out psychedelic leads, thrashing punk rock, bizarre interludes with croony vocals, skittery rhythms, and noodly guitar jams, bits of angular retard-funk, Black Flag-ish gnarled riffing as well as confusional cut ups, dizzying collages of chopped and recontextualized vocals, Jello Biafra, bits of Jeopardy music, the theme from Underdog, Led Zep pastiche and whatever else they felt like tossing in there.
The best way we can describe it is John Zorn meets diSEMBOWELMENT meets Brutal Truth.
The original discs came with stickers that summed up the Exit-13 sound pretty succinctly:
"Mind warping philosophically contemplative environmental brain food from Pennsylvania's unique smoking grind rock extremists" (from Don't Spare The Green Love) and "An 80 minute head explosion of absolutely unique sonic intelligence from Pennsylvania's environmental grind rock hedonists. This band smokes, bud!" (from Ethos Musick)
Hard to argue with thatŠ
So, High Life collects almost everything the band has ever recorded (minus the ep of '20s and '30s cover songs, all about reefer, sung by the Pain Teens' Bliss Blood): their one proper full length, as well as all of their various singles, eps and splits (previously released as Don't Spare The Green Love). And by now, you've probably realized these guys were all about the pot. The songs buzz by in dense clouds of bong smoke, lots of samples about marijuana, lyrics about legalizing hemp and pot. The back of the booklet even features a huge pot leaf and the "Stop the madness - Legalize Marijuana" legend. But that's only one of their causes, a quick look through the lyrics, reveals a seriously 'green' agenda, environmentalism, vegetarianism, there's even a whole track that's just a snippet of the Phil Donahue show, on which he interviews members of Earth First!
But none of that would mean anything if this band didn't completely slay. And thankfully they do. Heavy and fucked, weird, but weirdly catchy, buzzing and blasting, then pounding and chugging. Furious blasts of blown out lightning fast grind are butted up against lurching doom sludge, peppered with super fucked up free jazz breakdowns. Guitars are serpentine, jagged and angular, the drums go from pound to blast beat and back
the vocals harsh and gurgly, there are bits of weirdly classic rock sounding jams, over sound samples, electronics and Goblin-like keyboards...
"Anthropocentric Ecocidal Conundrum" begins with an insistent folky strum over chirping birds and burbling brook, until the guttural death metal vocals kick in and the drums, then it's some sort of metallic death metal folk freakout, finally morphing into some gnarled convoluted math grind jam. Elsewhere, cool creepy acoustic guitars drift over moaning synths, and splattery drums, super cinematic and haunting on "Only Protest Gives A Hope Of Life". There is plenty of weirdness. Damaged is a descriptor that constantly springs to mind, as does demented, and most certainly fucked. Silly too. But at it's core, this is heavy, heady stuff. Brutal but musical, fierce and fractured, forward thinking and seriously far out.
The second disc is the older stuff, and is at once more furious and thrashing, much more grind, but also has lots more sound samples, songs dotted with all sorts of film snippets, voices, bits of dialogue all tangled up with the growling harsh vocals. "Spare The Wrench Surrender The Earth" is half funeral doom, before launching into a more grinding blast of punk rock. The stuff from the first 7" is almost like old school goregrind, with impossible gurgling loooooow vocals, the guitars a furious blur, the drums a furious splatter. Then there's "Fingernails" hinting at the weirdness to come, with its fake horns, and frog-like croaking super effected vocals, and that classic funeral march melody mixed into the chaotic rrroooaaar.
Any fan of heavy music, be it black, thrash, grind, doom, or sludge should be able to get into these guys. And they're just weird enough to maybe also appeal to the less metal inclined looking for something freaked out and heavy.
An interesting note: like any self-respecting grind band, Exit-13 made a regular practice of releasing records with different versions of the same songs, so the song "Disemboweling Party" appears three different times, while seven other tracks appear twice. But in most cases, the various versions, while not totally different, are varied enough to keep it interesting, even if it's just that one is super hot and in the red, and one is super muddy and lo-fi, or even just that different samples were used.
Our only complaint, is that this is only sort of the complete Exit-13, 'cause they left off the extended, potentially-speaker-damaging noisedrone jams that closed out both their records, the 28 minute "An Electronic Fugue For The Imminent Demise of Planet Earth" from Ethos Musick and the 21 minute "Snakes And Alligators" from the Just A Few More Hits ep. Most of us wouldn't have minded paying a few extra bucks for a third disc, and ruined speakers, but what can you do?
Killer packaging, all the original photos, images, lyrics, quotes and propaganda reproduced in a huge booklet.
MPEG Stream: "Societally Provoked Genocidal Contemplation"
MPEG Stream: "Ethos Musick"
MPEG Stream: "Facilitate The Emancipation Of Your Mummified Mentality"
MPEG Stream: "Legalize Hemp Now!"
MPEG Stream: "Oral Fixation"

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AQUARIAN, ISIS WITH ELECTRICITY AQUARIAN The Source: The Untold Story Of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 And The Source Family (Process) book + cd 24.95
An amazing compendium of facts (and some fantasy?) pertaining to the surprisingly under-documented '70s self proclaimed Aquarian tribe The Source Family and their freeflowing psychedelic jam branch Ya Ho Wha 13!
For years our awareness of this group was limited to the obscure recordings of the band (including the extraordinary giant box set God And Hair), and a smattering of vague and sensationalist 'cult' rumors. The members' secret oath and a marked absence of controversy, calamity and crime no doubt kept this group underwraps and off the pages of tabloids. Our fascination grew tenfold a couple of years ago thanks to the compelling dvd documentary "Yahowha 13: Re-visiting Father And The Source Family". It recounts the history of the movement founded by Father Yod (aka Ya Ho Wha, born Jim Baker) through interviews with original members and archive footage. Definitely recommended viewing. Fortunately for those whose interest has been piqued, we now also have this book. Isis Aquarian was one of Father Yod's fourteen 'women' or 'spiritual wives' and the group's appointed record keeper. Hence she was integral to the inner workings of the Source Family and has compiled an enormous archive of photographs, writings, and memorabilia. Her wealth of and deep connection to this knowledge makes for an immensely intimate and informative document. Lively and entertaining too, among other things, the book details living a utopic life in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills and a subsequent move to Hawaii, observing Father's integrated teachings of ancient philosophies and religions (strongly influenced by Yogi Bhajan and the writings of Manly P. Hall), practicing daily pre-dawn meditations and rituals, and eating a strictly vegetarian diet. In fact, the Source Family ran one of the very first and most wildly successful vegetarian / raw health food restaurants which was located on the Sunset Strip (recipes and photos from the restaurant are included!). Nowadays yoga has been mainstreamed into another physical fitness trend -- a glorified stretching if you will, the ancient spiritual teachings lost to the masses -- and terms like 'guru' and 'visionary' are bandied about with abandon, but back in the late '60s and early '70s there was a West Coast consciousness explosion goin' on, and these people lived it!
The bonus cd is a daunting experience unto itself featuring not only a mindblowing Ya Ho Wha 13 live performance at Beverly Hills High in 1974 (obviously not the most pristine recording quality nor anything resembling trained musicianship -- this is a sensory overloaded moment captured in time of opened channels and the cathartic power of music), but also fascinating radio interview segments, enlightening Father Yod lecture snippets, and Source Family chants! Anyone curious about Ya Ho Wha is gonna want the book, we'd think, and this bonus disc pretty much makes it essential, with its several tracks of unreleased Ya Ho Wha jams, freaky stuff to be found nowhere on the infamous God & Hair 13 cd box set...
MPEG Stream: "Beer Recordings (Ya Ho Wha 13)"
MPEG Stream: "KPPC Interview"

ARP In Light (Smalltown Supersound) cd 16.98
In Light is the sublime debut solo effort from local musician/writer Alexis Georgopoulos who has been a stalwart presence in many amazing bands around these parts including A Tension, The Alps and, until recently, Tussle. The tumultuous break from the latter band has worked in Georgopoulos' favor as we're not sure he would have delved as deeply into this project, as it is so far removed from Tussle's infectious party grooves. Instead on In Light, he channels the warmer elements of seventies German electronica (Cluster, Eroc, Popol Vuh), and the more organic qualities of twentieth century composition (Terry Riley, Jon Gibson) to make an album that has the strange effect of moving while standing still. Even Roedelius from Cluster has given his blessing by remixing an Arp track for an upcoming single release. Like the picture of the sunset on the cover, let Arp's warm and effervescent rays of sound wash over and envelop your psyche. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "St. Tropez"
MPEG Stream: "Potentialities"
MPEG Stream: "Premonition Of The Sculptor Steiner"

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #14 (self-released) cd-r 10.98
Latest in the ongoing series of self released cd-r's from Mr. Neil Campbell, aka Astral Social Club, formerly of divine dronesters Vibracathedral Orchestra. This is number 14, and sonically begins with a track (after a brief noisy intro) that had us thinking this might end up sounding like the recent releases on Important, taking the blessed out incandescent white hot ragas, and transforming them into some strange propulsive alien dance music. And yeah, on the Important discs, dance music might have been stretching it a bit, but here, at least on the opening track, the beat is definitely the focal point, insistent and pulsing, laying down a simple groove amidst flittering clouds of spacy FX and little bleeps and bloops.
But after that it's right back to business, the business of thick corrosive washes of overblown distortion and buzzing droning ragas, thick slabs of feedback, grinding chunks of guitarbuzz, processed vocals, all wound up into a snarled dronepsych blowouts.
A few of the track eschew the noisy psych side completely, choosing instead to tinkle and drift through tranquil smears of soft sound, but even those tracks eventually build to intense climaxes, high end streaks and tangled slivers of feedback all wound up into gorgeously shimmering upper register skreescapes.
Another gorgeous collection of dense freeform psychedelia, definitely for fans of all things Vibracathedral, Skullflower, Yellow Swans, Skaters and the like, and those afraid of beats, or dancefloor phobic, no matter how noisy and strange that particular dancefloor is, can just skip over that second trackŠ
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"

BALUSTRADE ENSEMBLE Capsules (Dynamophone) cd 13.98
An uncommonly sumptuous array of releases was just presented to us courtesy of the young music label Dynamophone. They've only been around since mid-2006, but already have a bountiful catalog of releases, and many more on the way. We think your ears will welcome them with a warm embrace. Particularly if you've been recently enjoying the aquatic drone releases on the Mystery Sea label, you might wish to check out the seemingly likeminded, but more melodically inclined Dynamophone artists. Really, the label is a treasure trove of shimmering and dewy listening delights. Delve in immediately (also see: Disinterested, Halou, Po, Pornopop, A Lily, Curium, and R/R Coseboom)!
This is the label's new release from Balustrade Ensemble, a group which features Grant Miller (also of the very different Mandible Chatter), singer/songwriter/pianist Liam Singer, and Scott Solter (whose worked with the likes of Singer, Mountain Goats, Spoon and Tarentel). Their intricate (mostly) acoustic (mostly) instrumentals are artfully woven from familiar instruments piano, guitar, cello, and pedal steel, and the less common mellotron, orchestron, claviola, and celeste. Each one seems to glimmer out through Victorian lace curtains yellowed and slightly threadbare from age, through shatters of antique crystal goblets dappled with droplets of deep red, through a flaking, clouded gilt mirror, through deep sea greens and azures. Very cinematic, in fact, the Dynamophone folks beat us to the punch at raising the darkly whimsical filmmakers the Brothers Quay as a point of reference. Very recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Glorianders"
MPEG Stream: "Incarnadine"

BASALT FINGERS s/t (Three Lobed) lp+cd 21.00
Basalt Fingers may not be a name immediately recognizable to most folks, but the various members most definitely will be. Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance, Elisa from the Magik Markers and Brian from Mouthus and White Rock. A pretty serious psychedelic / noise pedigree, so hopes were pretty high, and damn if this isn't some seriously dense, smoldering, abstract psychdrone.
Two sidelong chunks, the first starts out all murky and lo-fi, guitars sounding more like bubbling lava, strange subterranean shapes, all tangled and smeared. Some of the guitars sound like synths warm and whirring, hard to tell what exactly is going on as everything is so muddy and washed out, but that just makes it all the more swoonsome and dreamy. It's like listening to some wild psych jam, but through thick concrete walls, with cotton in your ears. A gorgeous abstract underwater psych blowout.
The flip side is similar, except one of the guitars wails wildly over the murk, keening in huge glimmering streaks, while the other two guitars churn beneath it. It's almost like some classic Santana jam broadcast through a stereo dropped into a tar pit. Or Keiji Haino dubbed onto shittier and shittier tapes, and then played back on a boombox with dying batteries. Pretty fucking cool.
Limited to 845 copies. Pressed on super thick 180 gram vinyl. And the lp comes with a cd (not a cd-r, an actual cd) with the same music for listening and Ipod-ing ease!!! Packaged in gorgeous heavy silkscreened covers, designed by Alan Sherry of Siwa.

BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW (WILKINSON, MARC) OST (Trunk) cd 16.98
Another underrated early seventies British horror soundtrack is brought back to life by Trunk Records, and this one is a doozy. Pastoral and creepily menacing, Marc Wilkinson's score for this 1971 Piers Haggard film is like a lost companion to The Wicker Man soundtrack or Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. Features the unusual instrumentation of the Ondes Martenot, one of the first electronic instruments, which provides the fiendish swoops and off-kilter tonal colors and the Cimbalom, an eastern European piano type instrument that's played with mallets providing the spine-tingling creep. The liner notes mention that the descending chromatic scale which features throughout the score omits the perfect fifth and therefore highlights the diminished fifth also known as the Devil's Interval! Truly spooky, and the gothic pics of ritual blood and female nudity make us all dying to see this film re-released. Obscure horror is what Trunk Records does best!!
MPEG Stream: "Fiend Discovered and Titles"
MPEG Stream: "Rosalind's Madness"
MPEG Stream: "Kathy's Rape and Death"

BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW (WILKINSON, MARC) OST (Trunk) lp 16.98
Another underrated early seventies British horror soundtrack is brought back to life by Trunk Records, and this one is a doozy. Pastoral and creepily menacing, Marc Wilkinson's score for this 1971 Piers Haggard film is like a lost companion to The Wicker Man soundtrack or Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. Features the unusual instrumentation of the Ondes Martenot, one of the first electronic instruments, which provides the fiendish swoops and off-kilter tonal colors and the Cimbalom, an eastern European piano type instrument that's played with mallets providing the spine-tingling creep. The liner notes mention that the descending chromatic scale which features throughout the score omits the perfect fifth and therefore highlights the diminished fifth also known as the Devil's Interval! Truly spooky, and the gothic pics of ritual blood and female nudity make us all dying to see this film re-released. Obscure horror is what Trunk Records does best!!
MPEG Stream: "Fiend Discovered and Titles"
MPEG Stream: "Rosalind's Madness"
MPEG Stream: "Kathy's Rape and Death"

BURIED AT SEA Ghosts (Neurot) cd 14.98
Buried At Sea's Migration cd from 2004 was one of Aquarius' steadiest, dooooooooooomiest best-sellers up until it went totally, sadly out of print. Seriously, we sold a ton of those. And deservedly so, as this Chicago band's debut really did compare favorably with the likes of both Khanate and Pelican, a sludge/postrock marriage made in the lowest reaches of Hell. Migration was followed by a one-sided collectable 12" vinyl ep... and that was that. We thought this band was dead and buried themselves. And maybe they are, but -hallelujah!- have visited upon us this new cd release on Neurot. Perhaps this is a posthumous release of lost recordings, it's called "Ghost" after all. We don't know. What we do know is that it's one megalithic track, just under 30 minutes of music, about as slow and heavy and dreary as anything we'd heard from them... or anyone else! A trance-inducing funereal trudge through realms of spaced-out swooshing psychedelic effects. Early on, "Ghost" establishes a grinding repetitive throb, not so much head banging as head nodding, and wrist slitting. This depressive doomdrone heaviness gives way eventually (at around the 12 minute mark) to a quiet passage of tolling chimes, and then cathartic vocals groan forth over more metallic, energized riffage as "Ghost" relentlessly steamrollers onwards... further into a phantom void of disturbing electronics and shuddering low-end despair. Obviously, recommended to all into Buried At Sea, as well as the likes of Corrupted, Khanate, Orthodox, Ufomammut, SUNNO))), etc.
MPEG Stream: "Ghost (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost (excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost (excerpt 3)"

CHALK, ANDREW The River That Flows Into The Sands II (Faraway Press) cd 24.00
The sequel to the River That Flows Into The Sand had originally been released through Andrew Chalk's Faraway Press imprint as a super-limited edition cassette in early 2006. We never managed to get a hold of those cassettes; and it goes without saying that they disappeared before we could even blink. Thankfully, Chalk has re-released all of that material on cd, remastered by the inimitable Colin Potter. As on the first part of The River, Chalk picks up the guitar for his minimalist explorations tightroping between the ghostly impressionism of Keiji Haino's Nijiumu project from many moons ago, the narcoleptic atmospheres of Maeror Tri / Troum, the oceanic ambience of Boris' Flood, and the time-reversal qualities of Eliane Radigue, all the while putting to shame every upstart drone artist with a cd burner and an Echoplex.
Just as the first River cd meanders through five variations of the cascade sound, Chalk produces another five tracks of rippling drones on this disc. Similarly, he has packaged the disc in the dotted decalcomania which graced the first cd. The major differences can be found in the gritty, growling distortion which exists just beneath the surface of these glassine drones. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "The River II, track 2"
MPEG Stream: "The River II, track 4"
MPEG Stream: "The River II, track 5"

CHROMATICS Night Drive (Italians Do It Better) cd 13.98
Ooooh Ahhhhh! This one has been sizzling in our ears pretty much on endless repeat since it showed up at the store. Chromatics have undergone a pretty radical change from their early herky-jerky no-wave inspired beginnings, as showcased on the amazing and scene defining After Dark comp that we recently listed, and are still so in love with. Chromatics now have a sound that is much more sensual, subdued and spaced out. And we have to say we are loving this new direction. I definitely suits them so much more naturally than their noisier punky past.
With a sound much more rooted in early drugged out disco and '80s Euro-pop, Night Drive is sparse and melancholic enough to reel in folks whose taste usually falls on the darker end of the spectrum yet with songs so damn sexy and enticing that those of us with dance and pop leanings are seduced by their sound as well. With Ruth Radalet's vocals sounding like they are being delivered in a dark room filled with fog and smoke, there is such an intoxicating late night vibe that Chromatics tap into which feels so vacant and so sexy in the best possible way. They take on the daunting task of covering Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" and manage to make it their own, no small feat as that is a song with such deep meaning for so many of us. It's only a matter of time before this record will be blasting in all the hip fashion stores and cafe's so get on board early so you don't have to ask someone at Urban Outfitters what's playing. So damn good!
MPEG Stream: "Night Drive"
MPEG Stream: "The Killing Spree"
MPEG Stream: "Running Up That Hill"

CITAY Little Kingdom (Dead Oceans) cd 14.98
It's quite remarkable that only two records into their existence Citay have managed to carve out a sound that is so instantaneously recognizable and distinctive. With their soaring guitars, glorious melodies and harmonies that sound as if they're raining down from the sky, this ensemble led by Ezra Feinberg has quickly become one of the shining lights of the San Francisco music scene, but we think that folks from all over the globe should be hearing them, so they too can be swept away by Citay's carefully crafted songs.
Little Kingdom is the follow up to their debut which was a unanimous AQ favorite when it came out around two years back. With a similar sound and feel as that first outing they have widened their reach as the songs descend with a much more expansive quality. Brimming with a crisp sensation Little Kingdom is matching our autumnal mood so perfectly.
We love how Citay always sound so monumental without resorting to the typical quiet...quiet...loud...eruption formula that so many post-rock groups use when they want to sound grand. What makes Citay so great is that they don't TRY to sound grand or monumental, it's just that the songs they make require a presentation that the band understand so well and do so effortlessly. Little Kingdom makes us want to run into leaves and feel the wind rushing against our skin, whisking us away, the sounds of the strings on guitars summoning us to a greater place!
MPEG Stream: "Eye On The Dollar"
MPEG Stream: "Little Kingdom"
MPEG Stream: "On The Wings"

CLOUDLAND CANYON Silver Tongued Sisyphus (Kranky) cd 9.98
One of our most unexpected surprises last year came from Cloudland Canyon who totally blew us away with Requiems Der Natur 2002-2004, a shimmering sonic concoction, that sounded a bit like Ash Ra Tempel being channeled through the more melodic side of The Dead C.
They've followed that remarkable outing with a record that contains only two songs, but what it lacks in length it more then makes up for in cosmic-kraut brilliance. Listening to the two long tracks on this record is like being transported away on some otherworldly helicopter co-piloted by LaMonte Young and a very spaced out Hawkwind. We keep listening to these two epic tracks over and over and every time we do a customer is inevitably convinced that we're playing some obscure vintage kraut gem that they somehow have never heard before. Folks are always stunned to find out that this is brand new, but what makes Cloudland Canyon so great is that they manage to tap into that magical moment of cosmic kraut bliss, but do so without merely sounding like a tribute band, as there is something very immediate and timeless to the sounds they create. With a brand new full length coming soon on the oh so hot Holy Mountain label we predict that everyone blasting their Wooden Shjips records right now will be blissing out and taking off with Cloudland Canyon very soon. We sure are! You can start now.
MPEG Stream: "Dambala"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Tongued Sisyphus"

COMMON EIDER, KING EIDER How To Build A Cabin (Yik Yak) cd 12.98
Latest bit of abstract beauty from Mr. Rob Fisk, formerly of Deerhoof, now of Badgerlore, a gorgeous slow burning expanse of soft and shimmery minor key Appalachian guitar, buzzing bowed viola, and reverb drenched vocals. Each track is a slow build, a musical new dawn, the guitar sprawled out like dew on grass, the vocals like a gauzy fog hugging the ground, a tranquil blissful drift, the viola offering bits of blurred grit and melody, so so gorgeous. Imagine some impossible blend of Grouper, Henry Flynt and Jack Rose. The surprise here, is the occasional blast of jagged super distorted guitar. Not sure how many folks remember the amazing Slap Happy Humphrey record, a long out of print Japanese disc featuring Jojo from Hiokaidan, one of the Angels In Heavy Syrup and one of the Subvert Blaze guys, long soft swirls of lilting dreamy folk occasionally interrupted by huge crashing psychnoise guitar. Bits of this disc definitely remind us of a sort of modern freakfolk version of that disc, although the psychnoise intrusions here are much less frequent, and even at their noisiest offer up some gorgeous keening melodies.
Barring the bits of coruscating heart-of-the-sun guitar freakouts, most of this disc is delicate and gentle, the vocals indistinct and plaintive, wrapped in soft billows of reverb, the guitar spare and lovely, the viola adding just the right bit of raga like drone... Fans of any of the above mentioned bands will love this for sure. And anyone into the current crop of dreamfolk would do well to check this out as well.
GORGEOUS packaging. A thick white textured paper booklet printed with silver metallic ink, sewn together, the cd in a clear plastic sleeve, the artwork featuring images of ducks and instructions on how to build a cabin (of course), all held together by an extra wide Japanese style obi. Wow.
MPEG Stream: "Steal Your Hair"
MPEG Stream: "Hollemn"
MPEG Stream: "Please Don't Drill In Anwr"

ELEGI Sistereis (Miasmah) cd 17.98
Hard for us to describe, but easy for us to enjoy... Elegi's Sistereis is an extremely moody, haunting soundscape, dismal and a-frighted, constructed around sparse, sad piano musings set amidst eerie ambient hiss and hum. What sound like close-mic'd "field recordings" of random background creakings, crackle and clatter, which are perhaps the nervous rustlings of the pianist himself, are layered with melancholic drones. Meanwhile, the aforementioned piano carries on, so slowly, and so lovely. The whole effect is like listening in to the near-silent, wordless "internal monologue" of the piano player, suffering quietly some mental/emotional distress. This Norwegian project reminds us in a way of the British band Reigns, in that you get a sense of hearing an audio document of events that are otherwise hidden from view, and perhaps should remain hidden. Elegi also brings to mind the similar "acoustic doom" sounds on the Type label, like Svarte Greiner and Xela, of which of course we're fans. This is actually released on the Svarte Greiner guy's own label, Miasmah.
The cd booklet is mysteriously evocative, with grey-toned Victorian photo collages depicting something of a dreary nautical theme, and text telling of a burial at sea... which all begins to make sense when you lean that the man behind Elegi, Tommy Jansen, supposedly has as a hobby (vocation?) diving down to explore wrecked ships in the watery depths! Depths which he evokes effectively on this disc...
MPEG Stream: "Despotiets Vesen"
MPEG Stream: "Time Lapse"
MPEG Stream: "Fyrtarnet part 3"

FEAR FALLS BURNING & BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL s/t (Conspiracy) cd 14.98
Here's another matchup that had to happen eventually. And it's the rare one of those that actually sounds as good as one might hope. Like all great collaborations, it's not just so much jamming together, as it is getting each contributor to not only give their all but to push the other collaborator to do the same. It's not a competition, but the spirit is similar, with both parties trying to get into the head of their counterpart, a push and pull, that can sometimes result in the players going places they don't normally on their own.
The long drawn out guitarscapes of Fear Falls Burning are the perfect foil to the more incendiary ambience of Campbell Kneale and his Birchville Cat Motel. Both are capable of face melting heaviness, but both are also quite comfortable crafting intimate worlds of soft sound and distant shimmer. This 49 minute single piece tends to fall more toward the latter at least in the beginning, with the incipient heaviness relegated to smoldering in the distance, while the foreground is a deliriously drifting set of abstract strums, folky fragments allowed to ring out and float freely amidst an almost Wolf Eyesian backdrop of keening feedback, grinding black whirs, and huge resonant swells. The sound is intense, humid, and very cinematic. Eventually the sounds build, layers upon layers, erupting into a blinding heart-of-the-sun nearly static raga, what sounds like a million guitars all left to drone endlessly amidst a cloud of tinkling glimmering sparkles.
The last twenty minutes or so, finds all the high end swallowed by the low, the guitars begin to grind and rumble, pulse and throb, until the sound becomes a dark viscous river of crumbling distortion, growing less and less distorted, until finally, all that's left is a warm, minimal whir, that gently shifts and drifts until it fades out completely.
Most folks (like us) see FFB and BCM and already know this is a must buy, but this is indeed pretty fantastic, even amidst the seemingly neverending (let's hope!) avalanche of amazing releases by both of these prolific noisemakers.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Satori (Phoenix Records) cd 16.98
While they last, at long last, here's another reissue of this all-time AQ fave, hot on the heels of the Japrocksampler conveniently enough! This version is packaged in a cardstock gatefold and is (unfortunately) limited to 1000 numbered copies.
Here's what we said about Satori last time we had a cd edition in stock:
A while back we listed this, just 'cause we happened to order a few in and some of the staff here who were previously unexposed to the wonders of the Flower Travellin Band, notably Byram, became obsessed with it (and them). It was a Japan-only import and we felt that while many might already know this album backwards and forwards, it had most certainly slipped through the cracks for too many others out there. So we listed it and got an overwhelming response. Now it's a constant seller here at AQ. And still to this day, almost any time you come into the store, you might well hear the Flower Travellin' Band blaring.
This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough -- possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album. From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one -- "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) -- from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit -- which it ain't -- the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" -- an instrumental -- picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part II"
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part III"

GREY DATURAS Path Of Niners (Rocket Recordings) cd 15.98
One of our favorite discs from one of our favorite purveyors of improvised psychedelic heaviness, the out of print Path Of Niners, from Aussie trio the Grey Daturas, originally released on their own Heathen Skulls label, has now been reissued by Rocket Records in the UK, now in a jewel case and with an extra track!
Australia's Grey Daturas are like our very own noise rock Santa Claus. They come about once a year, and every time they show up, they have a huge bag of sonic goodies. And while Santa probably doesn't come to punish our ear drums and pummel us to within an inch of our lives, crammed into some smokey sweaty little club, we'd probably have to take the Daturas over Santa any day!!! Unless this year is the year we finally get that pony...
A visit or two ago, the band brought with them Path Of Niners, a brand new record, technically an EP, but at nearly 40 minutes it's plenty long enough to be a record proper. We ran out quick like, but then what happens? The band show up again on their next visit with this here UK reissue version. And as we said before, it's a KILLER. Somehow, it seems to be their most structured and least chaotic, which in no way is a bad thing, nor does it mean that it still isn't packed freaked out noise rock or vast expanses of abstract psych guitar because it is. And then some.
The opener is definitely the Daturas at their most rock. Simple driving drums beneath an impossible dense swirl of HEAVY guitars, drenched in FX and churning wildly. It's like the blown out psych rock endless jam outro of every Hawkwind song jacked up and compressed into seven minutes. The rest of the record is a bit less rock, returning to their abstract noise rock ambience, like a heaver, more psychedelic Dead C, from abstract guitar jangle drift wrapped around random bits of drum flutter to an explosive noisrockmindfuck halfway through the disc, thick peals of distorted guitar that crash and crush but are almost immediately turned inside out and become a strange backwards guitar squall, all warped and warbly My Bloody Valentine / Teenage Filmstars blowout, with strange rhythms created from the ssssshhhhhht sound of the guitars being sucked through time in reverse. After that it gets a bit more minimal for a stretch, with some dark rumbling dronescapes, more snippets of backward guitar, distant swirling FX, some angular Sonic Youth style guitar rock until the final track, a massive and ultra dense guitarscape, rife with acidic riffs and distorted melodies, thick clouds of clang and rrrooooaaar, each guitar piled atop one another, layer after layer of rumbling, reverberating, shrieking, shimmering, coruscating steel string skree, a bit like Skullflower at their riffiest mashed up with Acid Mothers Temple at their least. The bonus track is brief and understated, sounding more like some strange Chris Watson field recording or something, all mumbled and muted, distorted and blurred, musical, but only subtly so, more sort of abstract and ambient. But really quite cool. Not sure if it's worth buying all over again for a single track (although for some of us it is), it's definitely a good chance for those who missed out first time around to finally pick this up.
MPEG Stream: "The New Neuralgia"
MPEG Stream: "Cretinism"

HARDWICK, GARETH & MACHINEFABRIEK s/t (Low Point) lp 16.98
Another month, and another new Machinefabriek release. This time though it's not a cd-r, instead it's a lovely lp, split with fellow dronescaper Gareth Hardwick. Each takes a side, and both come up with something sublime and gorgeous, each perfectly complimenting the other.
We were pretty sure we were gonna dig the Machinefabriek track anyway, he's yet to steer us wrong, so the real surprise here was the Hardwick track, a super slow, drawn out languorous soundscape of deep warm melodic swells. Soft and rounded, muted and dreamlike, endless and repetitive. Simple melodies, pulled apart into abstract notes, allowed to surface one at a time, like sonic detritus in an expansive sea of sound. Reminds us quite a bit of Stars Of The Lid, or maybe a Philip Glass piece slowed waaaaay down.
The Machinefabriek track is indeed also fantastic, another sidelong epic, it mirrors Hardwick's track sonically, a spare soundscape of soft swells, but of course, MF's treatment is not so tranquil and serene, instead, it sounds decayed, bits of glitch and hiss, crackle and tape drop out, add all sorts of unlikely texture and fuzzy distortion, still beautiful, but in that distinctly crumbling Machinefabriek way.
Pressed on super super thick clear vinyl, the sound is crisp and vibrant and amazing, housed in a super simple striking duotone sleeve. LIMITED TO ONLY 450 COPIES!!!

HELL MILITIA Canonisation Of The Foul Spirit (Debemur Morti) lp 21.00
The cd may be out of print, but for a limited time we have the super deluxe vinyl version of the foul and grim black metal brilliance that is Hell Militia's Canonisation Of The Foul Spirit. Slightly altered artwork, but still gloriously garish, thick vinyl, thick sleeve, and a gorgeous oversized booklet inside.
Holy shit. Or maybe we should say, Unholy shit! This record scare us to death. Not just sonically, but visually as well. Hell Militia is some sort of black metal super group, can't remember the constituent parts, but the sum of those parts has somehow conjured up the fabulously foul Canonisation Of The Foul Spirit, a sick, hateful, evil and abominable blackened alchemy, equal parts grim buzz, convulsive thrash, furious blast and some of the sickest, brimstone gargling, angel crushing, fire breathing vocals EVER. A relentless musical pummeling, like laying in a shallow pool of black pitch atop a rocky crag in the middle of an endless expanse of dark water, cowering and shivering and praying for death as fallen angels beat you to within an inch of your life with spiked clubs, the whole while horned heads held aloft, burnt wings hanging useless behind them, wailing and squealing like some demonic choir, as all around you squalls of buzzing guitars and fuzzed out bass and shards of blasting beats rain down, burning jagged chunks of flesh searing black metal. So amazing and frighteningly furiously heavy, and then those inhuman vocals just push it totally and completely into the nightmarish black. The artwork is stunningly creepy as well, perfectly capturing the hateful, Christ crushing fury within, gorgeous black and white photos of clergymen, nuns, bishops, all blended with skulls, and corpses, wolves and goats, and all manner of unidentifiable beats and creatures. Like an even more damaged Joel Peter Witkin. So totally freaky but quite striking and creepily alluring at the same time.
MPEG Stream: "Psalm I - Burning Human Pigs"
MPEG Stream: "Psalm II - Torture Of The Saints"
MPEG Stream: "Psalm III - Black Arts Of Crime"

HOLY FUCK LP (Young Turks) cd 13.98
How 'bout some blown out loops of space kraut-iness pushed into overdrive? Yes please, and could you make it with some wonderfully thick stewed synthesizer flatulence pouring across the driving drums? Okay, why not? Better hope nothing gets in their way 'cause when their full throttle music juices up your speakers it'll vaporize anything in its path. Imagine Stereolab meets Man Or Astro-man? but produced by David Fridmann. Hell, yeah! It might even make us exclaim the band's name! The fifth track "They're Going To Take My Thumbs" unexpectedly slams on the breaks, but for good reason. It reveals a different facet of HF in its super brooding dubby tones that brings to mind Massive Attack and Twilight Circus. Oh and did we mention that there's a sloth on the cd artwork? That always wins bonus marks. Very cool! And very very recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Lovely Allen"
MPEG Stream: "Choppers"

HORNA / PESTE NOIRE split (Debemur Morti) 7" 10.98
What more do you need to know? Finland's Horna. France's Peste Noire. Hard to imagine a more kick ass black metal match up. And sonically, a surprisingly suitable one.
The Horna track is epic and majestic, beginning with a cool backwards buzz guitar part, that segues into furious blackened riffing and a surprising amount of melody, sounding at moments like old At The Gates only blacker. The songs is laced with weird melancholy pounding, and haunting arpeggiated melodies, but all tangled up within dense blasts of hyper speed grimnity.
The Peste Noire track, some folks might already have, as it was a bonus track on the recent Peste Noire record Folkfuck Folie. Tangled and convoluted, the song structure constantly shifting, the guitars fuzzed out and insectoid, the vocals howling, it's definitely buzzing black metal, but in the hands of Peste Noire it becomes something else entirely, infusing the sound with bits of pop, melody, angular weirdness, turning it into an impossible catchy slab of black weirdness.
Obviously essential. And probably equally obvious is the fact that this is seriously limited, we got a bunch, but imagine they will be gone in no time. And yeah, they're a bit pricey, but you can blame the currently very sad US dollarŠ
Super thick vinyl, thick cardstock inner sleeves, and a super striking woodcut style outer jacket.

ICE BOUND MAJESTY A Tomb To Erect (Frequency Thirteen / Night Angels Serve) cd-r 7.98
We knew we were in for something special when we discovered the amazing Frequency Thirteen cd-r label (thanks to loyal AQ customer Andrew S. for turning us on to these guys). Bands with names like Ice Bound Majesty, Skultroll, Raperack, Black Vomit, Karaoke Vocal Eliminator. Each disc emblazoned with the label's mantra: TRUE SHEFFIELD BLACK PSYCHEDELIA. Which is pretty much the perfect description of this stuff. We might have also offered: grinding corrosive blackened hypnorock, or perhaps blacknoizemetal, or something similar, perhaps blackkrautnoizerock. Whatever you call it, this stuff is dark, and distorted, blown out and heavy as fuck, hypnotic, rhythmic, and seriously genius.
In the case of the geniusly named Ice Bound Majesty we might have to come up with an even more abstract descriptor, something like surreal free folk black metal ambient experimentalism, or epic melodic blackened folk flecked post rock. Actually, like all the best bands, these guys are pretty impossible to describe in a single sentence. The sound is heavy and distorted, blown out and of course black and psychedelic indeed, but IBM are seriously deranged, their songs are like sonic worlds unto themselves, weaving elaborate soundscapes, rhythmic and melodic, with keyboards, and flutes, fluttering flutes, harsh demonic rasps, simple riffing, warm thick black ambience, all woven into an incredibly intense and mind blowing space psych black noise fucked folk kraut rock jam.
The first track is the perfect example. Beginning with some Lustmordian dark ambience, that gives way to folky flute and distant shimmer, which is immediately crushed by a funeral doom plod, the tape speed fucked with so the riffs slow down mid-riff, adding to the tripped out vibe. The flute returns, drifting above the roiling blackness, distant chimes and muted harmonics surface too, then a killer clean guitar riff, and suddenly harsh shrieked vocals, the band sounding like it's about to launch into a frenzied grind, but instead, the sound sprawls out into a looped psych rock jam, with relentless double kick, and those harsh vocals, weird Western whistling, throbbing bass, it could go on forever and we'd be perfectly happy, but suddenly the doooooom returns, even more distorted and in-the-red and crumbling than before. The melancholy melody continues to drift in the background, until the band launches right back into that black kraut jam, this time, everything murky and bass heavy, finally leaving just that clean guitar riff to fade outŠ
How the fuck do you write a song like that, let alone play it? Just writing about it wore us out. The whole record is like that, chaotic, heavy, brutal, black, but strangely beautiful, mysterious and abstract, drifting in a shimmery haze one second, exploding into a black blast the next. Elsewhere the band do some sort of monklike chant over shuffling post rock grandeur, but even then, it quickly gets swallowed up by mechanical monster riffing, and processed evil vocals.
The title track, the 12 minute long "A Tomb To Erect" begins as a bleak, rumbling Wolf Eyes style abject expanse of glittering alien FX and slow slithery rumble, before the drums kick in, WAY distorted and blown out, pounding out a slow motion mathrock rhythm, while in the background, the drones get more and more intense, the track weaves from super hot, high end, to mumbly muddied low end, the drums remaining constant, pounding away relentlessly, until near the end, when a super catchy clean guitar riff joins the fray, and transforms what was sort of an abstract noise rock rhythm jam, into something super intense, emotional and cinematic. The bombastic booming distorted crashes exploding like land mines, spread out along the moody meandering melodic expanse of the songs newly found heart and soul.
Like we said, it's a bit hard to explain what these guys are doing, or even how, but all that means is it's something special, and something we can't stop listening to. Rare is the record as beautiful and mysterious as it is heavy and fucked up.
MPEG Stream: "Book Of Jalends"
MPEG Stream: "A Tomb To Erect"

INH HALENTROPY s/t (Metal Mind Control) cd-r 9.98
It's a whole new world now, discovering music. MySpace, Youtube, people emailing MP3's and JPEG's. Easier maybe, but not nearly as romantic or as exciting as receiving some mysterious package in the mail, or stumbling upon some strange looking record in a dusty old bin and some tiny record store. And to be totally honest, almost all of the amazing discoveries that have ended up being big AQ faves, began life as a weird little package that just showed up in the mail one day.
None maybe weirder than the package we got from a band called, wait for it, Inh Halentropy. Yep. They had us at Inh Halentropy. It's a weird enough name, but it's two words?!? So inside the package was a cd with that classic image of Bigfoot, walking through the clearing, staring at the camera, and over the top, the band logo, very eighties metal looking, in the middle of a hand drawn spiderweb. Still we had no idea what to expect inside. But we did discover a note. Which read in part: "Dark Greetings. For your grimnatious becryptlementŠ" signed appropriately enough: "In ancient solemnity, none so grimmŠ"
OK. We were sold, now all that was left was to actually listen to the cd-r. And as with most things, certainly the most exciting and satisfying things, the music was nothing at all like what we expectedŠ
Inh Halentropy seem to be a metal band, black metal more specifically, yet most of the disc is distinctly not metal. Or at least not typically metal. Beginning with the sound of surf on the shore, the calls of sea birds, the band crawls into action, a huge rumbling bass tone, clouds of electronic FX, a simple drawn out melody, clean guitars unwinding in an expanse of dark shimmer, when suddenly, a massive speaker destroying low end growl surfaces, and as far as we can tell, maybe those are the vocals. Church bells toll, the ambience gets thicker and more grim, the closest comparison might be funereal doom, but it's sort of ethereal. And sort of pretty. But definitely ominous and creepy. Like Low crossed with Goblin crossed with Esoteric. Elsewhere, the black clouded skies are filled with the clatter of chimes, strange harmonics ringing out, all over thick lustrous black ambience, the sound of rain, at times it almost sounds like a blackened new age, which sounds weird but is most definitely a very good thing.
"Golden Beast Altered Axe" might be the most trippy, a simple drum plod, spread out over a slowly squirming synthscape, everything wreathed in ephemeral clouds of twinkling electronic effects, a mournful melody drifts over the top, while running through the entire a track, a creepy ominous low end melody of buzz and whir, all beneath a constant sheet of rain. Very cinematic and evocative.
Our favorite track might be "A Door Is A Tomb", thee most propulsive of the bunch, but we're still talking a glacial crawl, more ambient forest sounds, water and wind, insects in the background, but here, flutes flutter over a backdrop of downtuned riffage, but smeared into a warm moaning blur, over the top, bells chime, mysterious vocals croak and growl, the drums a simple machinelike rhythm, everything eventually breaking down into a plodding bass-ic doom, wrapped in a midnight storm, and suffused with thick ropy drones and grinding minimal low end whir.
Really pretty fantastic, and totally baffling. New age doom? Black ambient nature music? Not sure what to call it, but it's completely killing us. Add to that, the fact that the date on the back of the disc says 1980, and other than the song titles and an email address (oh and a few more pictures of giant hairy beasts) there's really not much else to go on. But the music is plenty. A perfectly freaky, haunting cinematic slowcore new age black doom sprawl that should for sure hit the spot for those of you who could barely make it through that descriptor without thinking that this might already be your new favorite record. We are suitably grimnatiously becryptled. As shall you be, wethinksŠ
MPEG Stream: "Candlemath At Mid Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Greater Than The Night Sky"
MPEG Stream: "A Door Is A Tomb"

JACK ROSE & SILVESTER ANFANG split ((K-RAA-K)3) 7" 6.50
Most aQ customers will merely need to see the two bands sharing this split to know they need this. Then consider the fact that it's already out of print and we got the last 25 copies. We won't go into too much detail as these will most likely be gone in a heartbeat.
One side is Jack Rose, the modern master of neo-Appalachia, a demon with a slide guitar, which he demonstrates on the first track, and awesome Fahey cover. Elegant and effortless, the slide slippery and swooping, so smooth it almost makes it sound like the speed of the record is being altered. The second track is another cover, just as striking, this one a wicked bluegrass breakdown, all rapid fire fingerpicking and melancholy twang.
The flipside is one long track from Belgian funeral folk avant ambient doom collective Silvester Anfang, and it's a beauty, sounding like it could have come right off their recent Kosmies Slachtafval full length. Creepy and abstract, scattered percussion, haunting vocals, buzzing steel strings, little flurries of drumming, ominous chordal swells, building and building to a fever pitch. Some pagan musical ritual performed in a black forest in the middle of nowhere.
Cool creepy woodcut style cover, thick vinyl, and again, SUPER LIMITED, ONLY 250 COPIES and ALREADY OUT OF PRINT AT THE LABEL!

MAKES NICE, THE This Time Tomorrow (Frenetic) cd 13.98
This Time Tomorrow? As in, by this time tomorrow, all these songs will be stuck in your head! San Francisco power pop power trio The Makes Nice hit us with their second album, again crammed with catchiness, boasting a bunch more action-packed, altogether killer, no filler tracks. A pitch-perfect hybridization and revitalization of all of their varied retro influences, from '60s Nuggets style garage to Elvis Costello to the Raspberries to Cheap Trick to the pansiest of paisley psych to, even, Devo. All 14 numbers are poppy n' boppy, but there's definitely two general sorts of songs The Makes Nice like to knock out, to knock us out: one is the energetic, nay frenzied, punker fueled by whiplash Keith Moon-ish bashing, full of slashing guitar rippage. Or, we get foot-tapping, sunshine n' lollipops hooks and harmonies... but even then, the headspinning guitar licks are in full force, Josh Smith doin' proud such legends as Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Even though it's only 33:48 long, this album is an embarrassment of riches. Heck we made their debut Record Of The Week. This one's just as good, maybe even better. No sophomore slump here! 'Nuff said?
If anything, The Makes Nice sound even more assured and dangerous this time 'round. If they've got any competition, they sure shut 'em down. Their not-so-secret weapon remains the wham-bam-thank-you-mam soloing of guitar whiz Josh (still formerly of The Fucking Champs, and Weakling too if it matters) but drummer Jack Matthew and bassist Aaron Burnham hold up their sides solidly for sure, and actually it's the whole band's involvement in complex arrangements, clever boy-meets-girl lyrics, and vocal harmony that really makes The Makes Nice something special. That's the thing, despite how prolific they are (by this time tomorrow, they probably will have written another cool song or two!), their craftmanship is prodigious, little details get a lot of thought. And as a result, they're not for everyone. The scuzzy sloppy garage crowd may find them too accomplished, complex. While pure pop fans might not get into their raw garageiness. And both camps could be scared off by Josh's advanced Stratocaster chops. On the other hand, in our book those are all real good things. So get with the program!
MPEG Stream: "Do It Again"
MPEG Stream: "When It's All Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Don't You Understand"

MAKES NICE, THE This Time Tomorrow (Frenetic) lp 13.98
This Time Tomorrow? As in, by this time tomorrow, all these songs will be stuck in your head! San Francisco power pop power trio The Makes Nice hit us with their second album, again crammed with catchiness, boasting a bunch more action-packed, altogether killer, no filler tracks. A pitch-perfect hybridization and revitalization of all of their varied retro influences, from '60s Nuggets style garage to Elvis Costello to the Raspberries to Cheap Trick to the pansiest of paisley psych to, even, Devo. All 14 numbers are poppy n' boppy, but there's definitely two general sorts of songs The Makes Nice like to knock out, to knock us out: one is the energetic, nay frenzied, punker fueled by whiplash Keith Moon-ish bashing, full of slashing guitar rippage. Or, we get foot-tapping, sunshine n' lollipops hooks and harmonies... but even then, the headspinning guitar licks are in full force, Josh Smith doin' proud such legends as Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Even though it's only 33:48 long, this album is an embarrassment of riches. Heck we made their debut Record Of The Week. This one's just as good, maybe even better. No sophomore slump here! 'Nuff said?
If anything, The Makes Nice sound even more assured and dangerous this time 'round. If they've got any competition, they sure shut 'em down. Their not-so-secret weapon remains the wham-bam-thank-you-mam soloing of guitar whiz Josh (still formerly of The Fucking Champs, and Weakling too if it matters) but drummer Jack Matthew and bassist Aaron Burnham hold up their sides solidly for sure, and actually it's the whole band's involvement in complex arrangements, clever boy-meets-girl lyrics, and vocal harmony that really makes The Makes Nice something special. That's the thing, despite how prolific they are (by this time tomorrow, they probably will have written another cool song or two!), their craftmanship is prodigious, little details get a lot of thought. And as a result, they're not for everyone. The scuzzy sloppy garage crowd may find them too accomplished, complex. While pure pop fans might not get into their raw garageiness. And both camps could be scared off by Josh's advanced Stratocaster chops. On the other hand, in our book those are all real good things. So get with the program!
MPEG Stream: "Do It Again"
MPEG Stream: "When It's All Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Don't You Understand"

NADJA Radiance Of Shadows (Alien8) cd 14.98
As much as we love Aidan Baker's solo recordings, and we most definitely do, from gorgeous expansive minimal dronescapes to haunting melodic abstracts to dreamy deconstructed pop, it's all pretty genius, we have to admit that our hearts will always belong to Nadja. Everything we love about Baker, but presented in the form of a massive buzzed out doom. Even at its heaviest and most plodding, it glistens and glimmers, the melodies shimmering and ethereal, the heaviness washed out into a metallic blur.
Radiance Of Shadows is the latest offering from Nadja, a duo featuring Baker and his partner Leah Buckareff, and is shaping up to be at once the prettiest Nadjar release so far, and the heaviest.
Three 20+ minute tracks, each perfectly balanced between suffocating crush and hazy dreamy bliss. Most folks obviously focus on the heavy crushing riffage, but the magic of Nadja happens just as much if not moreso during the quiet parts, the rhythmic parts leading up to the bombastic climaxes. The build up is just as satisfying sonically as the pay off, the musical version of the whole journey / destination thing. But that said, the pay off is a massive and gloriously impossibly heavy crush, like being beaten to death with rays of sunshine or being suffocated under layer after layer of soft fuzzy concrete slabs.
Each track while hewing close to the Nadja sound we know and live is distinctly different, exploring all the various facets of the duo's dreamy metallic dronepop.
The opening track is a glistening slowcore crawl, a lush swirl of granular textures, and lurching crumbling riffage, but suspended in wide open space, languorous and woozy, with a strange staccato riff, that gradually blossoms into a blown out slow motion dream doom supernova, continually seesawing back and forth between the soft and the heavy, a hypnotic blown out two part doom symphony, wrapped around a dreamy slow motion pop core.
The second track is even dreamier and poppier, with hushed breathless vocals, buried in a swirling soft focus My Bloody Valentine / Galaxie 500 sun dappled blur, punctuated by heaving industrial metal riffing, like a softer prettier Godflesh.
The third track is maybe the strangest of the bunch, the quiet parts near silent, the heavy parts seriously and intensely punishing. The quiet parts are all haunting high end distant drones, glitched out minimal guitar strum, soft barely audible drumming, martial and machinelike, haunting near spoken vocals. The heavy parts pummeling and downtuned, but laced with haunting pianos, and some seriously aggressive growled death metal style vocals, roiling and furious, still plodding and slow, but within that plod, the various elements careening and crashing and threatening to crumble into jagged bits. The dynamic between the loud and the soft is super dramatic, culminating in a washed out buzzscape eventually dissipating and leaving that quiet, insistent melancholy strum.
The sound is so much more epic and massive, but warm and 'live' sounding. For the first time, it actually sounds like A BAND, more than a record constructed in a room by a guy (and a girl). Not sure if it's the songs, or the arrangements, the recording or all three, but whatever it is, made a sound we already thought perfect, even more perfect.
MPEG Stream: "Now I Become Death The Destroyer Of Worlds"
MPEG Stream: "I Have Tasted The Fire Inside Your Mouth"

NILSEN, BJ The Short Night (Touch) cd 16.98
Benny Nilsen is a man perfectly content living in the northern regions of Europe, having grown up in Sweden and living no further south than Berlin. For while the long nights of winter can gnaw at one's soul, the long days of summer are something to look forward to. If his collaborative albums with Stilluppsteypa were the existentially grim albums of drunken wintry behavior, then The Short Night is his portrait of the summer time dreaminess of sunflecked, arctic nights. Having been such champions of Nilsen's work back when he was recording as Hazard for Ash International, we find it a little strange that so many people have qualified The Short Night as 'dark.' True, if you were to compare this album to the lilting work of Colleen or even to fellow label mate Biosphere, The Short Night would appear quite dark; but in the context of Nilsen's entire discography, The Short Night is a dramatically colorful piece of work. Sure, Nilsen's sustained low frequencies and a few moments of growling noise do have their devilish undertones; but throughout the album, Nilsen punctures these impressionist clouds with elegant electronic chorales of ethereal melodies that are surprisingly beautiful for BJ Nilsen. There is a melancholy to Nilsen's work, but melancholy isn't always synonymous with dark, as is the case here. In many ways, Nilsen has found himself trekking into the territories previously ventured by Fennesz and Machinefabriek, creating a transcendent sound through the tension between shoegazing / drone-based driftwork and subtle discordant agitation. This record is highly, highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Front"
MPEG Stream: "Pole Of Inaccessibility"
MPEG Stream: "Viking North"

NO AGE Weirdo Rippers (Fat Cat) cd 14.98
Remember why you fell in love with punk rock? The fearless spirit, the ethos, the sweat, the youthful energy, the conviction, the elation. Remember why you eventually got bored with punk rock? The predictability, the empty slogans, the forced posturing, the generic delivery. Well lucky for many of us past punkers, No Age are doing an amazing job of reminding us of a time when it felt like punk rock could save lives.
No Age (not to be confused with the nineties musical movement) are a duo from Los Angeles who have gained a cult-following for their totally engaging and sweat filled live shows. Wild performances on their home turf, at the tiny LA club The Smell, are legendary. They've also put out a handful of kick ass, but now impossible to find 7"s. But lucky for those of us who missed the boat on those 45's, Fat Cat has put them all together on this here cd. Now we know why people have been freaking out over this band.
Imagine a youthful exuberance that feels so pure and sincere by guys who love Black Flag and Fugazi as much as they do My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. In fact there's a lot about No Age that makes us think of prime-era Husker Du, all kinds of great lo-fi feedback and shoegaze moments infused with some serious punk rock spirit. Unpredictable and so immediate, for once the hype is totally right!
MPEG Stream: "Boy Void"
MPEG Stream: "I Wanna Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "Everybody's Down"

PREFUSE 73 Preparations (Warp) 2cd 16.00
A return to form for Prefuse 73 in more ways than one. Experimental Hip-hop producer Scott Herren's main project (of many projects and monikers) has been slipping into mediocrity ever since 2003's One Word Extinguisher and it's follow-up Extinguished: Outtakes. While we loved those records, his follow-up releases have gotten bogged down by too many collaborations and outtake releases that rehashed more than they refreshed. Herren's signature cut-up staccato method is in full effect here (Even the cover art and graphics hearken back to his classic releases) and while it's not as fresh as it used to be, the tracks are underscored by bits of composed and orchestrated pieces which are featured in their full form on a bonus cd (also included with the lp!), called Interregnums. Interregnums is not a collection of outtakes but 15 suites of lush orchestral impressionist compositions that make this double disc worth the price of admission. After the stifling confinements of his many monikered projects zap all the life from the well, hopefully Herren will shed the personas and fully take off in this new and wonderful direction.
MPEG Stream: "Beaten Thursdays"
MPEG Stream: "Spaced and Dissonant"
MPEG Stream: "Sunbeamstress"
MPEG Stream: "Let It Ring Ensembles"

PREFUSE 73 Preparations (Warp) 2lp 22.00
A return to form for Prefuse 73 in more ways than one. Experimental Hip-hop producer Scott Herren's main project (of many projects and monikers) has been slipping into mediocrity ever since 2003's One Word Extinguisher and it's follow-up Extinguished: Outtakes. While we loved those records, his follow-up releases have gotten bogged down by too many collaborations and outtake releases that rehashed more than they refreshed. Herren's signature cut-up staccato method is in full effect here (Even the cover art and graphics hearken back to his classic releases) and while it's not as fresh as it used to be, the tracks are underscored by bits of composed and orchestrated pieces which are featured in their full form on a bonus cd (also included with the lp!), called Interregnums. Interregnums is not a collection of outtakes but 15 suites of lush orchestral impressionist compositions that make this double disc worth the price of admission. After the stifling confinements of his many monikered projects zap all the life from the well, hopefully Herren will shed the personas and fully take off in this new and wonderful direction.
MPEG Stream: "Beaten Thursdays"
MPEG Stream: "Spaced and Dissonant"
MPEG Stream: "Sunbeamstress"
MPEG Stream: "Let It Ring Ensembles"

RILEY, TERRY Music For The Gift (Elysium Fields) cd 14.98
Elysium Fields has reissued this fine collection of Terry Riley pieces that was the kick off release of a fantastic string of reissues put out by the Cortical Foundation years ago. Here's what we said, way back when...
This release compiles four early tape-works from Terry Riley that are linked by their common usage of jazz passages, even as they deteriorate over the course of the disc. Beginning with "Music For The Gift" (1963), Riley works with Chet Baker who provides his signature downer jazz warbly horn and a painterly stand-up bass, which Riley in turn tosses into his tape-loop mechanisms for some pretty tremendous, hallucinatory drones and phasing patterns. Think of the manipulations of "You're No Good" but with jazz instead of R&B. "Birds Of Paradise" (1965) is a tape-manipulation piece which loops seemingly random tape segments of jazz horns (probably from those Baker sessions) with a phasing delay predating the work of Zoviet France. "The Mescalin Mix" is a murky Robert Ashley-esque collection of neurotic whispers. The finale of the disc is "Concert for Two Pianos and Five Tape Recorders" which could easily be a No-Neck Blues Band pipe fight with an odd play-by-play narration of the concert. Certainly the current crop of drone artists can learn a thing or twelve from this collection of seminal recordings by the West Coast master of minimalism.
MPEG Stream: "Music For The Gift (part 3)"
MPEG Stream: "Birds Of Paradise (part 2)"
MPEG Stream: "The Mescalin Mix"

RST Axes (Last Visible Dog) cd 13.98
More mysterious six string sonic explorations from New Zealand guitar alchemist Andrew Moon, but unlike the last release (the triple cd-r Other Machines) a grinding thick heavy smear of SUNNO))) like low end rumble and Fear Falls Burning-ish smoldering amplified intensity, the sounds on Axes is pretty much exactly the opposite of what you might expect a record called Axes to sound like. Dark, dreamy, tranquil and contemplative. Where other RST releases tended toward the minimal, the static Niblockian drone, the guitar against the amp rumble, Axes features fluttering melodies, chiming harmonics, bits of simple strum. All appropriately nestled amidst distant whirs and soft shimmers.
There are some heavier moments, the ultra brief "The Gate Of The Sun" is a minute plus of corrosive distorted crawl, and "Adrift" is an extended throbbing dirge of amp buzz and guitar distortion, melodies carved out of grinding buzz, beneath a sky filled with streaks of feedback, gorgeous for sure, but also heavy and dark. The rest of the record though, while peppered with bits of guitardrone and crumbling distortion, does definitely tend toward the dreamy, and while we love us some glacial heaviness, we're pretty into the softer side of RST: long drawn out swirls of druggy sound, sounding a bit like a more abstract Spacemen 3 at points, while at others, the sound is delicate and mysterious, a barely there hum, glistening cricket like high end, all wound into tense cinematic ambience. Some tracks explore insectoid ragas, muted buzzing woven into expansive slow shifting soundscapes, others fall in more with the modern free folk, abstract soundscape movement, like the opener, the appropriately titled "Crystalline", a slowed down lullaby of chiming guitars and distant blurred whirs.
All of Axes is gorgeous, even at it's heaviest, the sounds are still imbued with some mysterious beauty, some otherworldly magic...
MPEG Stream: "Crystalline"
MPEG Stream: "Lords Of Space"
MPEG Stream: "L.A.S.E.R."

SARIN SMOKE (PETE SWANSON / TOM CARTER) Smokescreen (Three Lobed) lp+cd 21.00
We listed the first release from Sarin Smoke a while back. It now seems to be back ordered or our of print or for some reason unavailable, we're working on getting more back in, but in the meantime, they've returned with yet another lp only slab of dreamy, blessed out guitar explorations. The 'they' in this case being Pete Swanson from the Yellow Swans and Tom Carter from Charalambides.
This is absolute nirvana for guitardrone fanatics. Huge glowing arcs of grinding distorted guitars, massive swells of whirring low end incandescence, whispered minor key creep, creaking buzzing shimmering ambience, tinkling melodies, throbbing humid riffing, spare and spacious, contemplative and meditative, but with occasional stretches of almost straight rock riffing, and once in a while bursts of fiery psychdrone radiance.
Limited to 652 copies. Pressed on super thick 180 gram vinyl. And while they last, the first 287 lps comes with a cd (not a cd-r, an actual cd) with the same music for listening and Ipod-ing ease!!! Packaged in super heavy letter pressed sleeves with original artwork from Liz Harris of Grouper.

SKULTROLL s/t (Frequency Thirteen / Night Angels Serve) cd-r 7.98
We knew we were in for something special when we discovered the amazing Frequency Thirteen cd-r label (thanks to loyal AQ customer Andrew S. for turning us on to these guys). Bands with names like Ice Bound Majesty, Skultroll, Raperack, Black Vomit, Karaoke Vocal Eliminator. Each disc emblazoned with the label's mantra: TRUE SHEFFIELD BLACK PSYCHEDELIA. Which is pretty much the perfect description of this stuff. We might have also offered, grinding corrosive blackened hypnorock, or perhaps blacknoizemetal, or something similar, perhaps blackkrautnoizerock. Whatever you call it, this stuff is dark, and distorted, blown out and heavy as fuck, hypnotic, rhythmic, and seriously genius.
This is, as far as we know, the first full length from the duo known as Skultroll, just bass and drums, but it sounds like both are being run through a blender and a dumptruck and a black