NIGHT CONTROL Death Control (Kill Shaman) cd 9.98
A few months ago, a mysterious disc showed up in the mail. Or more accurately, discs. Four cd-r albums of fucked up fractured outsider pop. No information anywhere on the discs, or the packaging, other than the words Crystal Shards. Which seemed pretty perfect. That's exactly what that stuff sounded like. Jagged and fragmented and crystalline and shimmery and totally bizarre and beautiful. So of course, as is our way, we become a little obsessed, and decided we had to track more down, so we could share these sounds with the aQ faithfulŠ
But searches for Crystal Shards revealed almost nothing, and the label was sold out, and there were at that time no plans to make more Crystal Shards. SO we hd all but given up, until the label got in touch, and mentioned plans to release a proper cd, collecting various tracks from the Crystal Shards cd-r's, and we were thrilled, anxiously waiting its arrival, knowing that it would have to be a Record Of The Week.
And so here it is, but strangely enough, the band is no longer called Crystal Shards. In fact, there is no mention anywhere of Crystal Shards, instead, the band (actually, the man) is now called Night Control, and this disc, Death Control, collects some of our favorite Shards from those previous discs, and weaves them into a perfectly imperfect album of minimal murkiness, moody shimmer and lo-fi pop, generously dappled with effects and feedback and distortion, hooks and jangle buried in buzz and hiss. Woozy, dizzy, druggy, tripped out, and catchy as fuck. Think Ariel Pink, Gary War, John Maus, Ty Segall, Wavves, Blank Dogs, Kurt Vile, Night Control definitely fits pretty comfortably amongst those lo-fi fractured pop denizens, but definitely brings his own vibe to the party, offering up something folkier and prettier, more classically poppy, even Beatles-esque at times, but still plenty murky and freaked out and fucked up, and deliriously off kilter. We also hear some Grifters in there as well, which is never a bad thing.
Where as a lot of those other bands seem willfully obscure, the weirdness in Night Control's music seems more like a natural byproduct. As if the creation of these hauntingly perfect little pop fragments, invariably resulted in the sonic cast offs that litter the record, be they sheets of gauzy buzz, or jagged slivers of feedback, the songs at their very core, are pure pop, but that core is protected by layer after layer of noise and hiss and shimmer. Yet unlike many artists who make their pop 'weird' by adding random crap on top, or record on the shittiest equipment possible, the two sides of Night Control's sound, the jangly pop, and the lo-fi buzz, seem to meld into something totally new, a sound that couldn't exist with both those elements. The guitars jangle and strum, but often explode into blow out leads, or super crunchy textures, the bas burbles below the surface, but it too can sometimes crumble into a cloud of swirling buzz, the drums are simple and spare, but hold the whole thing together, along with the lilting vocals, always wreathed in reverb and delay. Every song here is a gem. And every song manages to reference classic pop, while filtering it through the new fractured noisepop style. Sebadoh covering Tom Petty, Cheap Trick as envisioned by Strapping Fieldhands, or imagine the Beatles or Kinks, if they were growing up today, and released handmade cd-r's. There may be noise and distortion and grit and buzz and hiss, but this stuff is way too poppy to really appeal to the noiseniks, instead this takes the sort of lo-fi pop of early Pavement records and Shrimper cassettes, and re-imagines it as some sort of alternate reality top 40, not like the bizarre alien FM radio of Ariel Pink, but something much more earnest and heartfelt. Total sad boy, late night mix tape nirvana for sure.
Hard to pick favorites, as this is a sort of greatest hits, culled from a catalog that as far as we're concerned is ALL hits, but two of our favorites are "Two Hard", with its lilting jangle, rubbery underwater bass, and some incendiary lead guitars, weaving lush sun dappled textures over a sort of repetitive post rocky drift, and "No Making", a woozy, drifty torch song, the bass driving the song, the whole thing warped and warbly, the tape speed subtly shifting throughout, causing the whole song to subtly shift and twist and making it feel like your speakers are melting, and as if that weren't enough, then there's an awesome soaring bridge / chorus, with some incredible lush guitar harmonies that could go on forever (and you'll wish they would).
Hopefully some of the other Crystal Shards stuff will surface in one form or another, but for now, there's plenty here to get lost in, a fantastic and phantasmagorical document of blissed out hallucinatory outsider noise pop. ESSENTIAL!
MPEG Stream: "Good Looks"
MPEG Stream: "Two Hard"
MPEG Stream: "No Making"
MPEG Stream: "Star 131"
MPEG Stream: "East Side"
MPEG Stream: "Those Girls"

V/A Pop Ambient 2009 (Kompakt) cd 15.98
Another year, another collection of gauzy, washed out atmospheric shimmer from Kompakt. The latest in their ongoing series chronicling the more ambient (and poppy?) side of techno, but unlike past installments, there has been a serious shift this time around. Not only are there a bunch of new artists, but the sound itself has definitely been transformed. Before, Pop Ambient seemed to be more about processed electronics and bleary eared synthscapes, like techno with the beats stripped away, but this time around, while those electronic and synth elements haven't been abandoned completely, the sound seems much more organic, more Kranky than Kompakt, more like a sound unto itself. We use Pop Ambient to describe much of our favorite drone music, hazy, shimmery, gauzy, dreamy, be it Tim Hecker, Aidan Baker, Jesu and the like, Pop Ambient, for us at least, has become a sort of analog to shoegaze, a drifting sound blurred and smeared and indistinct, while somehow remaining melodic and mesmerizing. Its relation to techno tenuous, if entirely nonexistent at this point, having taken off a life, and a sound of its very own.
Every Pop Ambient comp has been a huge hit around here, so much so that we just naturally assumed that we had probably made all of them Records Of The Week in the past, but upon checking, we realized only one had made ROTW. Well, now TWO.
2009's Pop Ambient focuses much more on real instruments, horns, guitars, pianos, all woven into the already familiar landscape of soft synths and barely there rhythmic pulses, a swirling slow moving ambience, that flits from haunting chamber music, to looped post rock, to deep drone.
The first thing you might notice, is some very aQ artists amidst the usual suspects, sure there's Klimek, Andrew Thomas, Burger / Voigt, but then also Tim Hecker and The Fun Years, as if they had asked for our 2 cents in putting together this year's comp. And sonically, we couldn't have done better ourselves. Much darker, and more mysterious than past installments, surprisingly varied, but it works beautifully as an album, not just a collection.
Warped orchestral fanfares are slowed down and blurred beautifully, with a subtle rhythmic undercurrent, warm woozy horns blurred into sun dappled streaks, shimmery dramatic strings wind around plaintive piano, gorgeous and soundtracky, moody free jazz records get spun at 16 rpm, the piano plucking out a funereal dirge, flutes woven into wavering sheets of sound, record crackle everywhere, bits of electronic shimmer get stretched out into gauzy looped soundscapes, simple repetitive guitar figures lope dreamily over long stretches of harmonized horns, epic sweeping swells of dramatic buzz ebb and flow over buried melodies, distorted guitars unwind amidst swirling clouds of gritty textured ambience, skittering Oval-like loopscapes stutter and glitch soft focus tendrils of electronic whir, spidery guitars tangle with looped samples, locking into impossibly dreamy drifts of hypnotic repetition.
It's a breathtaking collection of sonic wonder, of sounds we truly consider to be Pop Ambience, haunting and otherworldly, subtly dark, sometimes ominous, always gorgeous, and of course totally recommended. And while this is a no brainer for the Pop Ambient obsessed, the minimal techno folks, and the Kompakt fanatics, this record might prove to be a new favorite for anyone into Stars Of The Lid, Pan American, Labradford, Eluvium, Windy And Carl and other purveyors of deep drone and nocturnal drift.
MPEG Stream: TIM HECKER "Shosts In Silver"
MPEG Stream: THE FUN YEARS "I Am Speaking Through Barbara"
MPEG Stream: SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU "Nuage III"
MPEG Stream: ANDREW THOMAS "A Dream Of A Spider"

WORMSBLOOD Mastery Of Creation Demos (Barbarian) cd 13.98
A couple years ago we reviewed an obscure, DIY cd-r release, In The Stars, by this band Wormsblood. As you might guess from their name, they're an underground black metal free noise new weird America psych folk cd-r band... oh wait you might not guess that. But you'd get the idea this is something dark and strange and evil, right? Not some normal indie rock band that's for sure. And you know this, if you remember our review of that previous release. So, band leader Wyrdskull (an alter ego of Clay Ruby from freak folksters Davenport and psych doomsters Jex Thoth, we have reason to believe) and cohorts are back with a new release, an actual cd this time, though the music is still way DIY and lo-fi (like we like it!), consisting of three "demo" sessions recorded between 2004 and 2008. Though without that info you wouldn't know this wasn't conceived as all one album. Ten tracks total, about 38 minutes of very, very fucked up "metal". Like, if Ariel Pink did even -more- drugs and then tried to produce a black metal album. Or, imagine a black metal Faxed Head (as we said about 'em before). It's that weird, that WRONG. And thus damn right in our ears. 'Cause if we know anything, we know our fucked up black metal. Dead Reptile Shrine, Varghkogargasmal, Vorak, Dead Raven Choir's Cask Strength stuff, old Necrofrost, Wold, etc., this fits right in, not that it really fits in anywhere.
The disc starts off with the amazing/retarded "Fragments Of The Witch" which will either convince you this is the best thing you've heard since you played the Weakling album backwards through a malfunctioning Kaoss pad while screaming at the top of your lungs, or convince you to turn it off. Obviously, we're part of the former camp. A murky, palpitating admixture of primitive, clanking rhythms, truly over-the-top gargled and anguished kokills, dim distorted guitar riffs and woozy synths dealing out Skeptical doom plod. All of it mired in an echoey, almost dubby "production". The next track, "Hollow Cost Nothing", ups the ante with even more majestic, messed up melodies. It dawns on us that whomever is on guitar can really play. Somehow this makes Wormsblood sound even more insane. It also suggests that maybe one way to look at this isn't as an attempt at making tr00 cvlt black metal primitivism, but rather as simply a very, very, VERY damaged version of traditional '80s heavy metal (and we recall they did do a Manilla Road cover on the In The Stars cd-r)...
Then, there's a track that also appeared on that cd-r,"The First Dim Shinings (Of Those About To Awaken)", which takes a turn into ritualistic ancient folk musick, with a military snare and Muppet-on-meth vocals. It's like Ghost meets Abruptum. Or ESP-Disk's Cromagnon gone metal. That's followed by "Sig Bind", which begins with abstract, Jewelled Antler-y atmospheres before erupting with high-end guitar neck strangle, kind of like a Kemialliset Ystavat meets Krallice mashup. By the end of this track, it's a madhouse of maniacal voices, harshing the mellow with which it began. And on it goes, this disc of demos delving backwards in time, the recordings getting boombox-ier and buzzier, the songs even less songlike and more soundscapey if possible. "Goodnight" opens a can of that Striborg-style aersol spray, a grim sonic mist of vibrating electric strings and hissing exhalations. "Obsessed By The Bloodstone" (is that shout-out to cult pulp fantasist Karl Edward Wagner?) is an ambient piece for keyboard - and barking dog! And then sometimes, they get it together for an extended spasm of, uh, song, full of high pitched singing/shrieking and chaotic drums/guitars.
Now, you might be thinking, there's other black metal releases on this week's AQ list. Yet this is the only one we chose as a Record Of The Week. Does that mean it's BETTER than those other black metal albums? Better than Ayat, or Moloch, or Nav, or the new Satyricon, for example? Well, no, not exactly. But we're not judging this purely as a black metal release. We figured this was something that AQ customers into any sort of bizarre, fucked up music (many of whom love black metal, to be sure) would find intriguing. 'Cause as metal as this is (and it IS, really metal, if you listen close) it's equally something else entirely. There's whole passages of "music" here that sound more like that fake field recordings disc Jurassic Soundscapes, but with lonely werewolves wandering around in the prehistoric swamps. And drugged up pterodactyls swooping about overhead. Wormsblood's sound is as much recognizable metallic instrumentation (guitars, drums, vocals) as it is wyrd sound FX and destroyed noise, rustlings and clankings and howlings.
As befits this music, this comes packaged in black and white and grey, bearing disturbing, fantastical, hellish yet cartoonish line drawings that look a bit like Mike Diana's notorious art... get the LP if you want to study the drawings in detail.
MPEG Stream: "Fragments Of The Witch"
MPEG Stream: "Sig Bind"
MPEG Stream: "On A Burial Of Unsilent Night Soil"

WORMSBLOOD Mastery Of Creation Demos (Barbarian) lp 10.98
A couple years ago we reviewed an obscure, DIY cd-r release, In The Stars, by this band Wormsblood. As you might guess from their name, they're an underground black metal free noise new weird America psych folk cd-r band... oh wait you might not guess that. But you'd get the idea this is something dark and strange and evil, right? Not some normal indie rock band that's for sure. And you know this, if you remember our review of that previous release. So, band leader Wyrdskull (an alter ego of Clay Ruby from freak folksters Davenport and psych doomsters Jex Thoth, we have reason to believe) and cohorts are back with a new release, an actual cd this time, though the music is still way DIY and lo-fi (like we like it!), consisting of three "demo" sessions recorded between 2004 and 2008. Though without that info you wouldn't know this wasn't conceived as all one album. Ten tracks total, about 38 minutes of very, very fucked up "metal". Like, if Ariel Pink did even -more- drugs and then tried to produce a black metal album. Or, imagine a black metal Faxed Head (as we said about 'em before). It's that weird, that WRONG. And thus damn right in our ears. 'Cause if we know anything, we know our fucked up black metal. Dead Reptile Shrine, Varghkogargasmal, Vorak, Dead Raven Choir's Cask Strength stuff, old Necrofrost, Wold, etc., this fits right in, not that it really fits in anywhere.
The disc starts off with the amazing/retarded "Fragments Of The Witch" which will either convince you this is the best thing you've heard since you played the Weakling album backwards through a malfunctioning Kaoss pad while screaming at the top of your lungs, or convince you to turn it off. Obviously, we're part of the former camp. A murky, palpitating admixture of primitive, clanking rhythms, truly over-the-top gargled and anguished kokills, dim distorted guitar riffs and woozy synths dealing out Skeptical doom plod. All of it mired in an echoey, almost dubby "production". The next track, "Hollow Cost Nothing", ups the ante with even more majestic, messed up melodies. It dawns on us that whomever is on guitar can really play. Somehow this makes Wormsblood sound even more insane. It also suggests that maybe one way to look at this isn't as an attempt at making tr00 cvlt black metal primitivism, but rather as simply a very, very, VERY damaged version of traditional '80s heavy metal (and we recall they did do a Manilla Road cover on the In The Stars cd-r)...
Then, there's a track that also appeared on that cd-r,"The First Dim Shinings (Of Those About To Awaken)", which takes a turn into ritualistic ancient folk musick, with a military snare and Muppet-on-meth vocals. It's like Ghost meets Abruptum. Or ESP-Disk's Cromagnon gone metal. That's followed by "Sig Bind", which begins with abstract, Jewelled Antler-y atmospheres before erupting with high-end guitar neck strangle, kind of like a Kemialliset Ystavat meets Krallice mashup. By the end of this track, it's a madhouse of maniacal voices, harshing the mellow with which it began. And on it goes, this disc of demos delving backwards in time, the recordings getting boombox-ier and buzzier, the songs even less songlike and more soundscapey if possible. "Goodnight" opens a can of that Striborg-style aersol spray, a grim sonic mist of vibrating electric strings and hissing exhalations. "Obsessed By The Bloodstone" (is that shout-out to cult pulp fantasist Karl Edward Wagner?) is an ambient piece for keyboard - and barking dog! And then sometimes, they get it together for an extended spasm of, uh, song, full of high pitched singing/shrieking and chaotic drums/guitars.
Now, you might be thinking, there's other black metal releases on this week's AQ list. Yet this is the only one we chose as a Record Of The Week. Does that mean it's BETTER than those other black metal albums? Better than Ayat, or Moloch, or Nav, or the new Satyricon, for example? Well, no, not exactly. But we're not judging this purely as a black metal release. We figured this was something that AQ customers into any sort of bizarre, fucked up music (many of whom love black metal, to be sure) would find intriguing. 'Cause as metal as this is (and it IS, really metal, if you listen close) it's equally something else entirely. There's whole passages of "music" here that sound more like that fake field recordings disc Jurassic Soundscapes, but with lonely werewolves wandering around in the prehistoric swamps. And drugged up pterodactyls swooping about overhead. Wormsblood's sound is as much recognizable metallic instrumentation (guitars, drums, vocals) as it is wyrd sound FX and destroyed noise, rustlings and clankings and howlings.
As befits this music, this comes packaged in black and white and grey, bearing disturbing, fantastical, hellish yet cartoonish line drawings that look a bit like Mike Diana's notorious art... get the LP if you want to study the drawings in detail.
MPEG Stream: "Fragments Of The Witch"
MPEG Stream: "Sig Bind"
MPEG Stream: "On A Burial Of Unsilent Night Soil"

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A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW You Can't Hide Your Love Forever Vol. 1 (Geographic North) 7" 9.98
This Philly band captured our hearts a couple years back with one of the best shoegaze inspired records we had heard in ages, Scribble Mural Comic Journal, an album with which we fell more and more in love with every listen. So we were excited to see that they were picked to kick off this awesome new series of 7"s put out by Geographic North, called You Can't Hide Your Love Forever, which will also feature talented folks like Tarentel, Tussle, and more! These two new songs find ASDIG in perfect form, delivering more of their swirling daydream delights that remind us of brighter sunnier Cocteau Twins. Perfect for the 7" format as this is a band who creates songs that only get better with constant listens, we've been playing this over and over! Comes on cool blue vinyl and of course pretty limited as most of these sorts of things tend to be.

AFCGT (A FRAMES + CLIMAX GOLDEN TWINS) s/t (Uzu) lp 19.98
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!! This originally came out in early 2008 as a tiny self-released cd-r in an edition of only 50 copies. Of course, it disappeared instantly. But even so, it made the Aquarius Records best of 2008, and it even topped the charts of The Wire's Rewind for 2008. Well, now you have another chance to grab one of these. How good is it? Read on!
Holy shit, this is fucking great! And who would have ever thought that the A Frames and the Climax Golden Twins would make a record together? And who would have imagined that it would be this fucking awesome? It's all superlatives and all expletives in describing the first collaborative production from AFCGT. The A Frames had managed to raise some eyebrows here through their post-punk appropriations of early Wire and early Fall, but the vocals had always been something of a miss for them especially on the last Sub Pop album. But in working with the AQ-endorsed Climax Golden Twins who are a band accustomed to delivering exemplary instrumentals from literally every corner of the avant-rock landscape, the A Frames have the permission to shut the hell up and let the Climax Golden Twins dump the fucking kitchen sink all over A Frames rhythmic swagger. The album opens with a tumultuous blast of glue-huffing noise-rock, sort of like a fist fight between the Butthole Surfers and the Sun City Girls. Soon after, a series of bad-ass Birthday Party / Oxbow swamp rock riffs explode with spindly space-age gamelan leads; elsewhere, the No Wave ghosts of R.L. Crutchfield-era DNA emerge with of jagged chops across the guitar pick-ups, bloodied fingers and all. Fuck, it all sounds fucking great!
MPEG Stream: "New Punk"
MPEG Stream: "Old Spy"
MPEG Stream: "Thug"

ALVA NOTO Xerrox Vol.2 (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98
Part two of Alva Noto's Xerrox series takes up right where the last one left off, continuing on in a much more buzzy, blissy, droney vein, way more textural and melodic than many of the AN records that have come before. In the review of volume one we mentioned Pop Ambient, and if anything volume 2 is even more washed out and shimmery, right out of the gate, AN offers up a warm wash of muted buzz, and thick gristly whir, softly pulsating, layered and warm, seemingly gone are the harsh tones and glitchy clicks and pops found on most Raster-Noton releases. Could be that Xerrox is just a concept record, but we have to say, as much as we loved the clipped minimalism of other Alva Noto records, the sounds here are quite divine. But this is an Alva Noto record, so even these warm whirls of drifting ambience, are laced with bits of static and hiss, super high end sine waves, but they're woven deftly into the sound, and serve to simply add more texture. There's a brief bit of super minimal beep and rumble, but then it's right back into that gorgeous drifty haze, that could just as soon be a Tim Hecker record.
"Xerrox Meta Phaser" follows suit, at least in the beginning, a soft whirring soundscape, that quickly escalates into an almost Sunn like dirge before exploding into a squall of blown out white noise. And then we're back to the dreamy dronemusic, this time, stretched out strings, smeared into soft summery swells, laced with a patina of gritty hiss, and so it goes, the whole record is a dark swirling expanse of muted minimal melodies, warm textures, mysterious drones, and delicate hazy drifts, the usual glitch and buzz, relegated to accents and filigree, rarely interfering in the rest of the record's blissy sprawl. Any one of these tracks would be right at home on the newest, more Kranky-fied Pop Ambient comp, and thus, this might be the first Raster-Noton record that might just appeal to all the drone and dirge folks as much as the glitch and pop people.
Like all R-N stuff, gorgeously designed and packaged, an oversized diecut, 8 panel sleeve, the cd nestled within the diecuts, the art spare and minimal and striking.
MPEG Stream: "Xerrox Phaser Acat 1"
MPEG Stream: "Xerrox Soma"
MPEG Stream: "Xerrox Meta Phaser"

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Plug Music Ramoon (Dancing Wayang) lp 25.00
Ultra limited new vinyl only release from UK noisemakers Astral Social Club, a perfect follow up to their recent aQ Record Of The Week, Octuplex. But unlike Octuplex, which mixed ASC's new found obsession with beats and dance music (albeit of the very twisted and alien variety) and their more classic ur-drone sound, Plug Music Ramoon, tends toward the latter, 2 sides, 4 loooong tracks, revisiting the sort of old Astral Social Club / Sunroof! / Skullflower sound we're so fond of. Drawn out notes, layered and interwoven, lots of shifting textures and mesmerizing drones, lots of upper register tones, some seriously blown out space drone meditative bliss out for sure. ASC this time around, as evidenced by the insert, are a three piece here, synths, woodwinds, guitar, and LOTS of effects.
The first track is brief and glorious, a smoldering shimmer of looped melodies and layered drones, sun dappled and dreamily fuzzy, very very lovely and warm and hypnotic. The second track, taking up most of side 1, begins as a murky fuzzed out krautjam, like later Skullflower, a simple, motorik beat, buried beneath a swirl of processed sounds and fractured effects, before the swirl explodes into full on cacophony, a wild space rock free jazz freakout, dizzying and dense, fucked up and free, the rhythm all but swallowed up by the massive blown out ball of skree and buzz and glitch, but noisy as it is, still retaining some semblance of melody.
The second side begins with another krautjam, this one much more spare and stripped down, a tribal sort of drum circle workout, very little in the way of wall of sound, more a steady propulsive beat, augmented by subtle bits of clank and clatter, extra percussive filigree, subtle effects, sounding way more like something you'd hear from Avarus or Kemialliset, muted and minimal, slightly mechanical and totally mesmerizing, and most definitely a bit tripped out. The closer is another softly smoldering dronescape, woozy loops, lots of crunch and grind smoothed into further layers of warm buzz and mysterious melody, a little carnivalesque, dizzyingly off kilter, like a symphony of warped 78s, the end result is a short stretch of washed out, soft focus, subtly rhythmic ambient drift that would do Tim Hecker of Philip Jeck proud.
LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES! We had trouble getting enough in to list, so this might be it. Please don't cry if/when we run out. Super nice thick jackets, each one hand numbered, with a thick textured paper insert.

AYAT Six Years Of Dormant Hatred (Moribund) cd 14.98
So, do you really need another hole in the head, I mean black metal album? Well, yes you do, you just might want this one, it's a bit different and certainly on the extreme of extreme. On the other hand, Ayat could easily be too scary for some. We were intrigued with Ayat for several reasons. 1) It's on the Moribund label, and we always at least check out their releases, 2) the band hails from of all places, BEIRUT, and 3) we read an interesting interview with them recently in the venerable Metal Maniacs magazine (which, by the way, we're sad to hear is soon to cease publication, a seriously severe loss to the metal scene we grew up with).
In their interview, Ayat make some seemingly hyperbolic statements ("Moribund couldn't refuse this; they had no choice"), but also also sound like they have intelligent reason to believe them, and express some ideas that we don't think we've ever heard a band say, such as the notion that their listeners "are the people who don't give two shits about Ayat but have a life of their own. Every now and then, we give them a gift. The musician/listener relationship should not go beyond that." They also discuss what real war is like (something they know about, that most black metal bands don't), explaining "it's getting your hands dirty, and screwing everyone around you until you convince yourself you're not such an asshole after all". Their atypical background and evident intelligence already set Ayat apart. Then you should note that the guy quoted above calls himself Filthy Fuck. And the other guy in the band is named Sadogoat. Reconciling that, taking them seriously, definitely made us want to hear their music.
And of course, what really matters IS the music. And the music here, or should we say "music", is REALLY distorted and deranged and blasting and brutal. Up there with early Anaal Nathrakh and Revenge. It almost makes you wonder, why they don't just go all the way into Merzbow or Incapacitants style total noise? But then this would lose the frantic headbanging catchiness that underpins all the blurred, buzzing, screaming chaos. Ayat's relentless raw, rawarrrrghhh sound is really kind of punk rock (like Pissed Jeans x 666!!!), but the attentive listener will also realize there's quite a bit of artistry to how these tracks are constructed. It's a complex thing cramming all this craziness and violence into what are actual, rockin' songs. Considering that the band -sounds- like they'd rather be slitting their wrists or gargling alcohol or beating you up rather than doing anything constructive.
Ayat's song titles are just lovely, like "Puking Under Radiant Moonlight (Followed By A Century Long Ejaculation)" and "Thousands Of Pissed Motherfuckers". Filthy Fuck's vocals are often barked, rasped and sputtered like a hardcore Donald Duck and it's not always possible to tell what he's singing about (which may be just as well) but we get the idea it's nihilistic, not nice.
We were -really- worried about the singer towards the climax of the first track "Ilahiya Khinzir! (All Hail Allah The Swine)", but then realized what we were hearing was a recording of pigs squealing. The album is littered with tons of weird, disturbing samples, which sometimes extend into sinister soundscapey passages... but then it's back to the blasting, soon enough. There's actually lots of surprises within these tracks. Snippets of old timey music. The occasional perfunctory guitar solo surfacing. Once in a while, there's even some clean, chantlike singing (a la Root's Big Boss), most notably on the downtempo album closer "Such A Beautiful Day! (The Exaltation Of Saint Francis)" which combines plodding, morose melody with a subtle sheen of electronic drone. Whew! Many methods to their madness here.
Be warned, as you've undoubtedly already surmised, there's religious intolerance, heck, HATRED expressed (not entirely a surprise, as they are a black metal band, usually not known as fans of organized religion, or terribly concerned about offending anyone). This band, based in Lebanon as we mentioned, is avowedly anti-Islamic. Wonder how that works out for them?
MPEG Stream: "Ilahiya Khinzir! (All Hail Allah The Swine)"
MPEG Stream: "Fornication And Murder"
MPEG Stream: "Misogyny When We Embrace"

B.SON / CROWSKIN split (Vendetta) lp 17.98
We only have a handful of these in stock, and pretty sure this is already out of print at the label. We got them ages ago, but the covers were damaged in shipping, so we had been waiting for more covers, and when we finally did get more, they somehow ended up in a box in the back, until we found them a few days ago.
So lucky day for the doomlords, as this is another crushing slab of blackened ultra doom from German heavyweights, B.Son or Black Shape Of Nexus, teamed up with the new to us Crowskin.
B.Son operate somewhere between the spare spacious plod of Fleshpress, and the blood curdling speaker torture of Bunkur. It's slow, and thick, and viscous and harsh, and downtuned and HEAVY, but there's tons of space, the guitars are weirdly clean-ish, the arrangements are abstract, minus the vocals this could be some strange doom-ed post rock, but with the hellish howls, it is transformed into an oozing sprawl of glacial crush, of lumbering Teutonic lurch, shot through with some surprisingly pretty melodies, and some subtle sonic shading. There's a new full length out now too, which this has us dying to hear...
Crowskin are also from Germany, and are also somewhat doomy, but unlike the tarpit trudge of B.Son, Crowskin, are a bit more propulsive, a little more mathy, and a little more crusty / punky, but even more outwardly brutal, with long stretches of loping prettiness, moody atmospherics, which inevitably lead into massive churning swirls of distortion doused crustdoom, but they also have these strange parts, where a super clean guitar unfurls a haunting melody, WAY up in the mix, louder than everything else, making for something really off kilter and twisted sounding. Like Neurosis via Moss, Crowskin lumber monstrously through extended sprawls of buzzy drones and roiling low end crush.
A pretty lethal one two punch for the doom freeks out there. Too bad we only have 15 copies or so, and as mentioned above, it's very likely these will be the last copies ever...
Gorgeous, slightly oversized, super striking fold over cardstock sleeves, a few have barely bent corners (compliments of the post office), but these are the last copies we'll see, so we're all gonna just have to live with it, thankfully, the bends are very minimal and thus barely noticeable to all but the most anal of record nerds...

BARN OWL From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light (Digitalis) cd 13.98
We sold out of the deluxe version of the new Barn Owl lickety split, so now we have the regular version, much cheaper, the only difference is it doesn't come with the live cassette, same packaging, same two bonus tracks, just tapeless and cheaper!!!!
Here's our review from before:
Finally, From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light, originally released as an lp on Not Not Fun, now long out of print, is available again as a cd. And to make it worth your while, or bum out the folks who already bought the lp, there are indeed TWO extra tracks!!
Not only have Barn Owl become one of our favorite musical projects right here in SF, but they are now serious contenders to the throne of best purveyors of deep and emotional and soul satisfying drone music anywhere in the world. While just about everything they've released up to this point has been way too limited and thus are now all sadly out of print, this record included, we finally have a cd version, that while still limited will at least reach a lot more ears than previous releases. These sounds deserve to be heard by anyone with an appreciation for all things droney, stoney and drifty, all done so totally right.
While drone-folk bands have become a somewhat common entity in the last couple years, it's actually rare to discover one whose music exudes soul and spirited passion. From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light finds Barn Owl striking a perfect balance between sparkling sonics and commanding doom. Imagine Sleep/OM running in the mud with sticks and stones and then meeting up with Windy & Carl, Bardo Pond and Tom Carter. The songs are filled with deep and slowly swirling grooves. We just keep listening to this record over and over and over, every listen revealing something new, layers peeling back, revealing subtle melodies, and hidden textures, each song shifting and transforming before our very ears. There is much reward in patient listening to the music of Barn Owl. Their sound entrances and enthralls, but without letting go the melodies, or forgoing actual songwriting, these are not just chunks of droning sound, these are songs, dark, haunting, lovely mysterious songs.
Beautiful silkscreened cardstock sleeves, the two extra songs more of same, divine and otherworldly twang flecked doom folk drift, And as if we even needed to tell you, absolutely and wholeheartedly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Voice Of The Other"
MPEG Stream: "Lotus Cloud"
MPEG Stream: "The White Mountain Filled With Light"

BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW Don't You Want To Be In A Cult (Mexican Summer) picture disc 15.98
Another tasty and colorful slab of vinyl from BMSR. No one delivers warm, warped and fuzzy melodic electronic jams better then these guys. We've fallen deeply in love with their sound over the last few years and they have yet to disappoint. This picture disc offers two great new instrumental tracks that showcase their slower and more warped and warbly side. Still filled with such delicious hooks but we love that these longer tracks allow them to space out and get a little more cosmic and psychedelic. It's still unmistakably BMSR, their signature sound all oozy and melty and drippy and druggy and divine...
The picture disc comes with a coupon for a free download, but you can't beat listening to this on your turntable and watching the colored wax spin around and around as you get lost in their catchy orbit. Very limited so jump on this while you can!

BORGAZUR 2P3: Alchemists Earth of Aeon A. C (Nokternal Hemizphear) cd 22.00
There's white metal, there's UNblack metal, and then there's unabashed Christian black metal, all of which we find endlessly fascinating, due in no small part to the fact that black metal by definition is Satanic, certainly evil and grim, so reimagining black metal as something holy, something celebrating the Lord, is tantamount to blasphemy, if you can in fact blaspheme something inherently blasphemous. The other strange thing, is that unblack metal and Christian black metal, at least in our experience, seems WAY weirder. As if that was one way to create a separate more virtuous strain of black metal, the sound, the production, the arrangements, it always seems so much more bizarre and fucked up. And heck if there was anything that might lure us over to the other side, it would be a record like this, the debut from Dutch duo Borgazur. And yeah, beyond being buzzy and heavy and black, this is one weird record. Let's start with the non-musical elements. The record is called 2P3" Alchemists Earth Of Aeon A.C. Not really even sure what that means. The two members are called Kildreth The Elder and Knight Ilithrir. Some song titles: "Preface To Our Cogent", "The Repeat Of Underestimated Allures", "Prognostication Of Victorious Travail", and how about this one: "Alchemy Of Alleviation When A Fib Is Prevaricated"!! The cover art is a crazy collage of skulls and lions and Hitler and coins and all sorts of other stuff, superimposed over some mystical forest. The lyrics are printed within, and heavily footnoted, referencing various books of the Bible, even their names are culled from the Good Book. Phew. But then there's the music, which is equally bizarre.
Fast and furious, and almost symphonic, super complex and mathy, the drums lightning fast, the riffs gnarled and buzzy, tons of lurching stop start arrangements. There are some haunting clean vocals drifting in now and again, some clean folky bits, even some blackened drones, but for the most part this is frenzied epic blackness, like Solefald or Borknagar or Dimmu Borgir but mixed with a little Deathspell, or S.V.E.S.T., a strange blend of symphonic heaviness, and grim black buzz, but even then, totally its own black beast, a sound fucked up and fractured, dizzying, confusional and seriously and awesomely OUT THERE.
MPEG Stream: "Christian Anarchism"
MPEG Stream: "The Repeat Of Underestimated Allures"
MPEG Stream: "Prognostication Of Victorious Travail"

BURNT HILLS Over The Rainbow (Noiseville) lp 23.00
Another in Noiseville's awesome new Outer Bounds Of Sound lp series (Gary Mundy's Kleistwahr is reviewed elsewhere on this list), each release hand assembled, with custom paste on artwork, each one limited to only 300 copies!
Everyone went nuts for the most recent Burnt Hills full length, Tonite We Ride, reviewed here a while back, and rightfully so, a heavy dose of druggy improvised spaced out psych rock, recorded live in the basement of their house / jampad, as is everything they release, we think, all the product of a long running weekly jam, with an ever shifting lineup, but with a pretty consistent sound. In fact, it wouldn't be all that far fetched to posit that Burnt Hills NEVER stopped jamming, holed up in that basement wreathed in bong smoke, soaked in alcohol, playing on and on and on and on, every day, on through every night, and each release we get, is just a snapshot, a snippet of sound snatched from the frenzied endless riffing and the infinitized drone-space-kraut rocking. It does sound like that, these are not songs as much as movements, and they don't start and develop like a normal piece of music, it's the recorded equivalent of walking down the stairs, pushing the door open, and finding yourself immediately immersed mid-jam, and said jam continues until the record ends, or you get up off that ratty sofa in the corner, the one under the Christmas lights, and head to the stairway, the song only REALLY ending when you get up to the kitchen and finally slam the door.
Raw and lo-fi, chaotic and free, with brief stretches of lucidity, an extended free jam, wrapped in sheets of feedback and tangled riffing, the drums mostly locked into a simple motorik rhythm, but just as often splintering into flurries of free jazz splatter, the tracks themselves, two sidelong ones, veer from locked in distorted druggy groove, to total outsider abstract freeforall, drifting more toward Sunroof! or Skullflower than Acid Mothers Temple. It's a strange brew, equal parts heady experimental noisemaking, and classic garage rock riffing, blown out dronemusic, and tripped out space rock, those two disparate sonic sides get mashed together and the result is, well... THIS. A gloriously cacophonous effects drenched, outsider, heavy riffed, acid soaked, garage kraut space rock freakout. Which obviously means that this is WAY recommended.
Cool handmade covers, pasted on front and back, and again, LIMITED TO ONLY 300 COPIES!!!

CHICAGO THRASH ENSEMBLE Demon Cassette (PlusTapes) cassette 5.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We pretty much have a standing order for anything that PlusTapes releases. Much like Mississippi, PlusTapes has become the sort of label folks collect, which as we've mentioned before is pretty remarkable for a label so young. But so far, almost every release we've gotten from PlusTapes has flown out of here. And like Mississippi, they've also decided to dabble in more contemporary sounds, along with their ambitious reissue campaigns. Supporting their local scene, while paying homage to the past. Such is the case with these two latest releases, both limited to 100 copies, and we got less than 20 of each.
PlusTapes really couldn't get more eclectic. Indonesian pop, surf music from Singapore, dramatic cabaret folk from former industrial icons, Peruvian garage rock, and now thrash metal from Chicago. Hell yeah!
The appropriately named Chicago Thrash Ensemble are a furious thrashing four piece hell bent on wreaking utter musical havoc, blazing riffage, furious drumming, lightning speed tempos, raspy glass gargling vocals, some little bits of shred here and there. All recorded super raw and lo-fi and in-the-red like some lost eighties demo, what more do you need to know. How about it, the tape is blood splattered (okay, maybe it's red paint, but still!), the covers feature a weird hand drawn heavy metal kid binder beast, with the band's name in the mouth, and the evil eyes glowing red, thanks to an extra set of red eyes pasted on to the plastic case. Oh and they totally shred, it's hard to tell if these guys are true metalheads, or indie kids getting their thrash ya ya's out, but it hardly matters, it's heavy, thrashy, with plenty of nods to Slayer of course, with some wannabe "Raining Blood" and "Angel Of Death" moments, what's not to love? These guys probably destroy live, Chicago folks should definitely check them out. The rest of us will just have to make do with this little plasticky bit of old school thrash, and enjoy the vio-lence vicariously!
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We have less than 20. Cool hand drawn covers, lots of beasts and creatures, glowing red eyes pasted onto the tape case, the tapes themselves 'blood' splattered, each one hand numbered.

CHROME Half Machine Lip Moves (Noiseville) cd 16.98
Get out the tinfoil, draw the blinds, turn the television to static and brace yourself for the amphetamine-fueled paranoid mind-fuck of San Francisco's industrial wastoids, Chrome!
Their three seminal albums from the late seventies/early eighties, Alien Soundtracks, Half Machine Lip Moves, and 3rd From The Sun have thankfully been re-issued by the Noiseville label who have brought us stellar releases from Skullflower and Wicked King Wicker among others. Led by Damon Edge and Helios Creed, Chrome channeled The Stooges raw garage energy with Hawkwind's mindmelting space rock acid-psych and the electronic proto-art-punk of bands like Debris' and The Styrenes into a spazzy amalgam of sci-fi distortion, glam-punk chaos, and all manner of machine fuckery including television samples, bizarre tape manipulations and random fuzz-filled noise. Inspired by the future-shock visionary writings of J.G Ballard and Philip K. Dick, Chrome were cyber-punk before the term had even been popularized! In fact, they were one of those bands who became much more popular after their demise, when bands like The Butthole Surfers, Big Black and other Touch and Go bands started gaining notoriety in the mid-eighties college rock scene.
Half Machine Lips Move was the 1979 follow-up to Alien Soundtracks and it's definitely our favorite! The songwriting is completely fucked, with aggressively manic jump-cuts in and between songs. Sounding like the music analog machines would make if they just became sentient drug-taking monsters, the paranoid mind-control trip is full throttle, with nightmarish conspiratorial songs about the government and the media in cahoots with aliens to enslave the public ("TV As Eyes" "Zombie Warfare" and "You've Been Duplicated"). Rife with layers of sinister lo-fi electronic noises and television samples, over fast riff-heavy rhythm hooks and lysergic face-eating vocal effects. So awesomely damaged!! If you were to get only one Chrome album, this would be the one!
MPEG Stream: "TV As Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "You've Been Duplicated"
MPEG Stream: "Turned Around"

COLDWORLD Melancholie 2 (Cold Dimensions) cd 14.98
We've been so focused on the Paysage D'Hiver reissues lately, that we've barely had time to dig into the other releases on Cold Dimensions and Kunsthall, but there are at least two that we definitely need to highlight, the latest Trist, which we'll review soon, and this one right here. Melancholie2, from German one man band Coldworld, quite possibly, one of the best depressive black metal records we've ever heard. Although defining Melancholie2 as a depressive BM record might be a bit reductive. It will make more sense, read on...
A dizzying mix of lilting melancholia, furious blackened blasts, epic morose arrangements, awesome drumming (a definite shortcoming in most bands), kick ass and ridiculously catchy riffing, and most importantly, incredibly evocative atmosphere and ambience, even when a song is buzzing along frantically, beneath the surface there is always some sort of drifting crystalline melody, or whirring drone, or chant like vocal line, it sounds a bit confusing, but the mix is magical.
The sound on Melancholie2 is so dynamic, so majestic and heavy, no lo-fi boom box recording here, the guitars are massive, thick and crunchy and buzzy, the vocals raw and primal, the keyboards and synths lush and shimmery, the drums somehow perfectly audible amidst all the buzz. And as with most black metal records, buzz is a key component, and here that buzz is all encompassing, warm and expansive, coating everything in its warm embrace.
The slower tracks are definitely Burzumic, the lumbering riff, the plodding rhythm, underpinned by a gorgeous keyboard melody, the midtempo tracks are like a less weird Lifelover, the music hooky, and weirdly poppy, but still grim and black, slipping from melodic lilt to intense speaker shredding blowout, rare that a band, or man as the case may be is equally adept and crafting doomy dismal blackness AND intense blasting black metal. The ambient tracks are surprisingly effective, moving and lovely, most black metal bands use cheesy synth sounds, but here, those parts sound like antique music boxes, or the soundtrack to a soft snowfall in some forgotten forest, dark, and haunting, but definitely beautiful and breathtaking, only moreso when they lead directly into another intense burst of blackness.
Some of the tracks are dangerously poppy, but the band manages to pull it off, channelling the sweeping sound of Katatonia, but adds some truly bizarre, almost robotic sounding vocals, which definitely sounds goofy, but in fact, the effect is anything but. It's more some sort of abstract alien doom, that is truly creepy and otherworldly. A few of the tracks are gorgeous sprawls of washed out sorrowful doom, but at least one shifts part way through into a strange pounding bit of minor key midtempo black metal, before slipping back into that depressive plod.
It's really hard to do this music justice. It's at once so familiar, embodying so much of what we already love about this sort of music, at the same time, it manages to sound unlike anything we've heard before, every song manages to be both heavy and wistful, depressive, but weirdly rocking, as a whole it's an incredible, expansive song suite, culminating in the final track, a skittery glitched out ambient landscape, bits of static and hiss drift between simpler percussion, and a shuffling rhythm, moody minimal guitar, slightly twangy, all draped over a swoonsome bit of minor key drone, with a crunchy metallic middle, before slipping back into more skittery melancholic drift. So goddamn good.
Quite possibly one of our new favorite records, black metal or otherwise!
MPEG Stream: "A Dream Of A Dead Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Tortured By Solitude"
MPEG Stream: "Winterreise"

CONNELLY, CHRIS Lost Episodes (PlusTapes) cassette 5.50
We pretty much have a standing order for anything that PlusTapes releases. Much like Mississippi, PlusTapes has become the sort of label folks collect, which as we've mentioned before is pretty remarkable for a label so young. But so far, almost every release we've gotten from PlusTapes has flown out of here. And like Mississippi, they've also decided to dabble in more contemporary sounds, along with their ambitious reissue campaigns. Supporting their local scene, while paying homage to the past. Such is the case with these two latest releases, both limited to 100 copies, and we got less than 20 of each.
We immediately recognized the name Chris Connelly, and you probably should too - Revolting Cocks, Ministry, remember? But we figured it couldn't be the same Chris Connelly, it just didn't make any sense, but the more we thought about it, PlusTapes is in Chicago, Chicago is where Connelly lives, well it did sort of make sense which is good cuz it is in fact the very same Chris Connelly, but this is a whole different sound altogether.
Connelly recently released a full length album called The Episodes, that was a mysterious and haunting solo effort, owing much to folks like Leonard Cohen and Scott Walker, and other dark bards, very intimate and personal and dramatic, a few of the tracks were even recorded live in a Wisconsin forest. So this tape acts as sort of an addendum to that release, but even if like us you were unfamiliar with The Episodes, this is till a pretty intense and satisfying listen. Three unreleased versions, also recorded in the woods, aggressively strummed acoustic guitars, Connelly's plaintive croon, in the background you can hear birds chirping, other folks talking, very evocative, the lyrics personal and abstract, the voice weary and weathered, sometimes almost cracking, not at all what we expected from Connelly, but then all we had to go on was his industrial past.
Also included are two live tracks, with more lush instrumentation, even vibes, and the result is even more Scott Walker-y with a hint of Morrissey, the songs definitely sound more fleshed out, but beyond the songs themselves the various players get sort of trance-y and the songs get a bit abstract, droney, hypnotic, with the players sort of going off. Features some younger Chicago indie folks as back up, and the result is something that's not hard to picture on Thrill Jockey.
We weren't sure what to expect, but ended up digging this a lot, and will now probably have to track down a copy of The Episodes too.
LIMITED TOO 100 COPIES. We have less than 20, packaged with a black and white fold out cover, each one hand stamped and hand numbered.

EBTEKAR, ATA & THE IRANIAN ORCHESTRA FOR NEW MUSIC Ornamental (Isounderscore) 2lp 24.00
We first heard from Ata Abtekar under his pseudonym Sote, with a flurry of releases for Warp, then Dielectric, and a sound that definitely hit the spot, a deft amalgamation of fractured jungle, old school rave music, downtempo beatscapes, and shimmery dronemusic. More recently he helped compile a double disc compilation called Persian Electronic Music: Yesterday And Today (1966-2006), still to be reviewed, which collected the work of legendary Iranian new music composer Alireza Mashayekhi on one disc, and Ebtekar's more modern compositions on the other, drawing a sort of sonic timeline between Persian new music past and present, which leads directly to this double lp.
A long in the works 'collaboration' between Ebtekar and Mashayekhi. For these extended sonic explorations, Ebtekar took pieces composed by Mashayekhi, and performed by the Iranian Orchestra For New Music, and then applied various techniques to the sounds, taking live recordings, studio tracks, and then processing them, rearranging them, adding effects and samples, synthesizers, adding original sounds, harmonies and melodies, for a unique sort of modern classical Persian musiq concrete.
The original sounds are definitely present, this is most certainly not a case of the sample being rendered unrecognizable, those original sounds are as important to these pieces as anything Ebtekar had to add. Flurries of piano, moaning cellos, pizzicato plucks, soaring strings, subtle percussion, all surface here and there, and often, they are wreathed in fuzzy drones, or chopped into strangely percussive loops, or jumbled up into something much more chaotic, but just as often, Ebtekar's machinations are much more subtle, playing along as if he were not a remixer per se, but another player in the orchestra, only armed with a computer and effects instead of a flute or violin.
The sounds are varied and wondrous, from fantastical flurries of wild freaked out electronic flecked free form soft noise, to delicate tinklings and hushed moonlit drift, spacey metallic shimmers to haunting alien music box like lullabyes, Eastern sounding folk fragments drifting in soft swirls of rumble and hiss, long stretches of barely there melody and wispy streaks of distant rumble. Really quite mysterious and beautiful, whether you're into modern classical, electronic music, abstract dronemusic, or all of the above. ESPECIALLY all of the above.
Beautiful screened sleeves, with a printed insert, detailing the project, as well as the various performers and composers.

EMERALDS What Happened (No Fun Productions) cd 12.98
In their brief career beginning in 2006, the Ohio based trio Emeralds has associated themselves with the grit and rust-stained noise that has erupted in the mid-western underground, often sharing the stage with Aaron Dilloway, C Spencer Yeh, and Hive Mind. Their two major releases have come by way of Dilloway's Hanson Records and No Fun Productions, which typically rank as releasing some of the most aggressive and brutal pieces of noise of the contemporary era. While live performances have reportedly embraced the noise community's full-force fury of maximum volume, Emeralds instead favors a sound that harkens back to the era of Cluster, Manuel Gottsching, Fripp & Eno, and Klaus Schulze.
Last year's Solar Bridge was a spectacular lazer blast of cosmic droning and inner-space meditation; but with that album clocking in less than 30 minutes, we were left wanting more. Fortunately, more is what Emeralds bring on What Happened. Collected from their seemingly non-stop sessions of improvisations for guitar, Moog, and Korg plus ample effects boxes, these 5 tracks spiral and snake around the same deep-space psychedelia found on Solar Bridge, pushing their sound beyond the two extended crescendos which populated that album. Monochord guitars pulse hypnotically against the overlapping tapestries of the sawtooth hum and modulating tones from the analogue synths. Throughout What Happened, Emeralds shift in mood from alien percolations of '60s sci-fi sound design to graceful swells of tonefloat majesty to purely physical vibrations which rip through the nervous system and strike numbly at the bone. There is beauty to be found here, but also a sublime unease that haunts these recordings. Yup, this one comes highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Up In The Air"
MPEG Stream: "Living Room"
MPEG Stream: "Disappearing Ink"

FAUNA Rain (Aurora Borealis) cd 16.98
Hailing from the same Cascadian forest that Wolves In The Throne Room call home, come the mysteriously monickered Fauna, with their 2006 demo, Rain, available on cd for the first time. Much like WITTR, these guys traffic in a sort of naturalistic black metal, focusing on rain, the earth, the forest, the spirits, nature in general, creating a sound that is meant to evoke massive forests looming overhead, of flora and of course fauna, snow glowing blow beneath the moonlight, branches glistening and glimmering in the falling rain, the record begins with what could very well be the sound of the forest, a field recording of wind, and insects, leaves and footsteps, running water... until finally a lone guitar begins its funereal fugue, minor key, loping and lugubrious, a bit mournful and melancholy. Eventually the guitars grow more intense, strummed instead of picked, a deep voice emerges, a rich, mournful croon, and so it goes, a dark brooding forest folk, lush with reverb and delay, the guitars intense and dramatic, very reminiscent of Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, when suddenly, the track explodes and the band is blowing out a frenzied blast of furious black metal buzz, mesmerizing, trancelike, repetitive, the riffs totally blown out and drenched in distortion, the drums a relentless blast, which goes on for minutes, before the track shifts again, and the band lurch into a sort of lumbering blackened doom, super dynamic with lots of space, weirdly hypnotic and circular sounding, just a dark tangle of distorted guitar, until the drums join in again. But instead of blasting, the track slips into more of a woozy dirge, thick and warm and dense, for just a two piece, these guys can create a seriously expansive sound, after a few minutes, they explode back into frenzied motion, the blast even faster than before, so distorted and blown out it's almost like a blackened blur, the vocals a harsh bellow, the blast gradually breaking down again, until the duo are back to that hauntingly melodic doom-ic lurch, before finishing off in a blast of staticky buzz, leaving just a smear of warm soft chords, which slowly and dreamily drift into the darkness beyond.
One of the two members of Fauna also plays in pagan doom folk outfit Alethes, which makes perfect sense in the context of Rain, and the influence of their WITTR neighbors can definitely be heard throughout, but Fauna definitely make that sound their own, mixing long stretches of doomy folkiness with intensive blasts of blackened fury, and peppering the proceedings with bits of sprawling doom, and shimmery ambience, to create their own sonic representation of the forest they call home.
Gorgeous packaging too, black on black origami style fold over cardstock sleeve, with a simple booklet featuring just the lyrics and no other info. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Rain (Excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Rain (Excerpt 2)"

FEN The Malediction Fields (Code 666 / Aural Music) cd 16.98
First proper full length from these UK black metallers, who we once described as a black metal Polvo! There are definitely still hints of that here, but the metal this time around is also more furious. With the ep, we stressed that maybe troo grim metalheads might not find a lot to like, as much of that record sounded more like Pelican or Isis than Darkthrone or Deathspell, and even here, the first track begins with some post rocky clean guitar, but almost immediately launches into a seriously blown out squall of blasting buzz. But then a few seconds later, the band slip back into that loping post rock, only to again, explode into epic blackness. The track flits back and forth, and part way through there's even some Katatonia like clean vocals, which adds a definite pop element, and hints at what's to come. So, it's at once heavier and more black than the ep, but still manages to incorporate plenty of post rock rhythms and math rock arrangements, which basically makes this a massive favorite around here, but also means this is probably not black or brootal enough for some metalheads.
And since the opening track might just be the heaviest of the bunch, barring brief bursts here and there, this is the perfect record for the aQ metalhead, who when not enjoying true grimness, likes their black metal fucked up or freaked out or all shoegazey or all post rocky, which means odds are you'll dig this like crazy.
Much of the record follows the same pattern as the opener, long loping instrumental passages with simple drumming and clean crystalline guitars, peppered with bursts of frenetic riffing and wild blasting beats, but there's also plenty of strange haunting folkiness, bits of rainy day sad boy indie jangle, subtly complex math rock rhythms, all perfectly blended with chunks of intense riffery and buzzing black metal fury. And the thing is, the metal this time around IS way more furious, if you stripped out all the clean guitars and croony vocals, this would be some seriously paint peeling blackness, but those parts sound even MORE aggressive and heavy when butted up to some shimmery drift, or some jangly poppiness.
The closer is the other heavyweight here, nearly 12 minutes of roiling ultra heavy black metal, intense and frenzied, but still with plenty of loping midtempo grooves, occasional doom-ed out interludes, a brief flutteryfolky break, and a minor key string-ed outro, that manages to be super dramatic, and the perfect way for this strangely varied and super kick ass record to wind down.
Packaged in a super striking 8 panel digipak, and damn if Fen don't have one of the coolest logos...
MPEG Stream: "Exile's Journey"
MPEG Stream: "A Witness To The Passing Of Aeons"
MPEG Stream: "Colossal Voids"

FINAL Reading All The Right Signals Wrong (No Quarter) lp 13.98
A brand new record from Mr. Justin Broadrick, formerly of Godflesh, presently of Jesu, as well the sole member of this, his long running project Final. Originally an experimental solo guitar project, and actually maybe STILL an experimental solo guitar project, Final has definitely changed over the years, lately sharing more in common with Jesu than anything, the same sort of blissy drift, washed out drone drenched shimmer, but in Final, those elements are blurred into something more ambient and less propulsive, more soundscape-y and less post metal.
Four long tracks, each slow building and slow burning, the first all soft ethereal melodies over a grinding crunching minimal drone, those two elements all tangled up, with the melodies eventually blossoming into epic atonal harmonies, sheets of sound like a symphony of car horns, smoothed into something much more listenable but no less clamorous and chaotic, definitely reminds us of Sunroof! near the end.
The second track starts out all SUNN-y, a crumbling distorted downtuned dirge, although within that dirge lurks some surprising melody, and this track too builds to a blissed out high end shimmer, overlapping tones, washes of synthy warmth, bits of buzz and glitch, lovely, but still softly abrasive.
The flipside begins with some sort of abstract doom, thick, jagged chords, ringing out, and allowed to nearly fade out completely, before the next one comes crashing down, lots and lots of space, in the background a strangely active swirl of skree, streaks of feedback, shards of feedback, sine waves and upper register whir, roiling and churning beneath the lumbering riffage.
And finally, the record finishes off with something altogether different. Something pretty and strummy and yes, shoegaze-y, but weirdly looped and hypnotic sounding, as if they took a chunk from a Jesu track, a pretty undistorted bit, then doused it in effects and set it on repeat, allowing it to slowly shift, but to lock into a mantra like loop, so gorgeous, could have used a whole 'nother side of this stuff for sure.
VINYL ONLY (At least for now, cd coming someday)! LIMITED TO 1500 COPIES!!!

FOREST s/t (Werewolf) 2lp 22.00
One of our all time favorite black metal records EVER, now available on vinyl, in a super deluxe, totally gorgeous gatefold sleeve.
For those of you who somehow missed out on Russian black metallers Forest the first time around, they struck a particularly AQ chord with their impossible Jewelled Antler meets Burzum sound, and if Burzum-meets-Jewelled-Antler is not enough to get your black metal knickers in a twist, then there is something seriously wrong with you. Absolutely at the top of AQ's essential black metal listening list. Here's what we had to say about Forest when we first reviewed it way back when...
Ok, this is a black metal band, but non-metallers into the improv-drone sounds of the Jewelled Antler collective, Richard Youngs/Simon Wickham-Smith and the like should keep reading!
Not to be confused with the other Forest we've raved about (the psychedelic British folk band from thirty years ago), *this* Forest is a Russian black metal outfit, and a pretty good one belonging to the raw, primitive, corpse-painted end of the genre. The first four tracks on here consist of blasting, frozen Darkthrone worship, keeping alive the cult spirit that so few bands today still possess -- maybe because those tracks were actually recorded in 1996. Malevolent, majestic pagan metal full of Burzumic mayhem. Fans of this vein of true, trancey black metal darkness will be pleased. And if that was all that was on this disc we'd think it was cool. But then comes the fifth and final track, a surprise twenty-minute opus called "Winter Howl" taken from a 1994 rehearsal tape. Suddenly Forest isn't so obviously black metal at all, they've entered a psych-drone realm that's more akin to the aforementioned Jewelled Antler stuff (Thuja, The Birdtree, etc.) or Taj Mahal Travellers or Reynols or Amon Duul's krautrock jams, still as forest-y and primitive as the preceding metal songs though. A wavering whispy wordless vocal winds over a bed of lost, primal percussion and haunting washes of mild feedback. Simple melody lines on guitar wander through the increasing haze, with deeper vocals providing additional layers of drone. If you really heard this in a forest you'd be mesmerized and scared, but it's really nice and pretty (in a damaged way) when heard at home...pretty to us anyway, dunno if Kaldrad and Dagorath meant it to be so! The vocals, until they get a little more metal-ly, totally remind us of the bliss-out singing by British folk experimentalist Richard Youngs or Jewelled Antler's pop soul Jason Honea. If Finnish avant-forest-folk folks like Avarus and Kemialliset Ystavat or the Jewelled Antler collective decided to make black metal, this is what's we'd imagine it would sound like! Meanwhile, on the black metal side, fans of Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Caacrinolas, Potentiam, and other weird ones should dig this track, along with Forest's other more typical black metal sounds. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Enburnst The Christians"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Howl (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Howl (excerpt 2)"

FRANKLIN, MARTIN & MICHAEL NORTHAM An Opening Of The Earth: Recovered (Faria) cd 18.98
Martin Franklin and Michael Northam began communicating in the early '90s, both engrossed with the realm of possibilities extant in the laboratory that was the experimental cassette culture. At the time, Northam was beginning a career of sound-art globetrotting by way of festivals, residencies, and the generosity of others, having emerged from the Austin, Texas sound community that spawned the likes of John Grzinich, Olivia Block, Rick Reed, and Seth Nehil. Martin Franklin had gone on to form the British ambient ensemble Tuu, with releases through Beyond, Hic Sunt Leones, and Amplexus. It seems that Franklin and Martin enjoyed a single three hour session back in 1991, and out of that session came the original set of recordings which made their way on to a cassette, released by Sounds For Consciousness Rape, and later onto cd by SDV Tontrager. As both the cd and the tape have been long out of print, we can't comment on the differences between the original recording and this 'recovered' remix of the original source material.
Franklin and Northam settle organic textures from metal, dirt, and wood clattering against each other and building softened drones amidst the aggregated sounds. It makes perfect sense that Northam would later work with Darren Tate in one of the final Ora recordings, as these sodden ambient passages and quietly gritty noises share plenty of similarities. Northam had also brought to the session a cassette deck rewired to generate feedback systems, and Franklin had a handheld dictaphone with static and white noise broadcasting through the hypercompressed speakers. These elements give the recordings a rough hewn edge which counterpoint Franklin's sinewy ambience and ghostly half-melodies which are evidence of the contemporary remix work. Altogether, this redux has a darkly ritualized feel of isolationist drones divining something tactile out of the void, much like one would expect from the occluded sounds of the recent Drone Records catalogue.
MPEG Stream: "Tape 1, Pt. 2"
MPEG Stream: "Tape 1, Pt. 3"
MPEG Stream: "Tape 3, Pt. 2"

GROUPER / CITY CENTER False Horizon / This Is How We See In The Dark (City Center) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Super limited split single from aQ beloved Grouper, and the new-to-us City Center.
Grouper continues in her slow drift away from the lo-fi murk of early recordings into something distinctly more folky, with softly strummed acoustic guitars, and a gorgeous swirl of voices, overlapping harmonies, ethereal and almost choral sounding, the result, while still psychedelic and lo-fi, just might be the best sounding, and strangely enough, poppiest, track we've heard yet from Grouper!
City Center fares just as well, offering up a hazy lo-fi murk-pop gem that leaves us definitely wanting more. Beach Boys style harmonies doused in effects and buried in buzz and girt, laced over woozy guitars and a mechanical looped rhythm, delay and reverb everywhere and all over everything, warped and underwater sounding, with some incredible hooks barely audible through the hazy fug wrapped around the whole track. Think John Maus, Ariel Pink, Kurt Vile, that same sort of otherworldly seventies radio station vibe, but even more psychedelic and pretty.
AWESOME!

HANS GRUSEL'S KRANKENKABINET Blaue Blooded Turen (Resipiscent) cd 14.98
There are very few bands who truly baffle. Who confuse and confound, both musically and conceptually. Sure, plenty of bands are weird, or strange, or hard to describe, some might even be described as fucked up or damaged, but very very few truly baffle.
Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet is most definitely one of those bafflingly confusional elite. Supposedly featuring members of another baffling SF troupe, Caroliner Rainbow, Hans Grusel, and his Krankenkabinet create a bizarre cacophony of sound, theatrical, dramatic, noisy for sure, but weirdly melodic and playful and more than anything, confounding.
How to explain the peculiar world Herr Grusel inhabits? Hmmmm, abstract, obtuse, experimental, avant? All of those things for sure. The music of HGK is more sound than song, each 'piece' a slowly unfolding exploration of space, both inner and outer, rendered in synthesizers and effects, strange percussive thumps and grinding low end drones, all spread out across an expanse of scrapes and squeaks, and occasional squalls of buzz and glitch. Landscapes of twisted sound, tweaked and transformed, slipping from bloops and bleeps to abrasive crunch, what sounds like tables becomes fingers skittering across a fretboard, voices are processed and smeared into jagged streaks, bits of synth and electronics are chopped and looped into loping rhythms, faux horns unfurl minor key melodies, long stretches of minimal shimmer give way to a burbling concoction of malfunctioning keyboards and abstract clatter and thump, whirring alien machinery, the high end skitter of electronic crickets, warped tapes crumbling into warbly whirring flutters, bits of trumpet fanfare surface, and then get sucked under, bits of field recordings all tangled up with blurred buzz and thick sheets of reverberating low end.
This might be a collection of sorts, a few of the tracks are a soundtrack to Alice In Wonderland, which must add a whole 'nother harrowing aspect to the film, but even so, the whole thing plays like a proper album, all the tracks sort of melting into one another, like one massive sprawling musical bad trip.
MPEG Stream: "Stress (Auf Dem Meer) - Release"
MPEG Stream: "Pulse Withered Doors"
MPEG Stream: "Down The Rabbit Hole"
MPEG Stream: "Blooded Exits"

HAPPINESS s/t (Shit On) lp 9.98
Concept albums usually end up too overblown for their own good, or at least those that brand themselves as concept albums. All those secret messages and subtle hints at depth usually come down to nothing more than pretension and bong-ripping late-nights in the studio. Happiness, Gerard Patawaran's one man band, stages its self-titled LP as a marriage proposal to his girlfriend, with the ensuing songs passing through quite a few relationship-stages, most of which many of us have been through. The hesitancy of a crush to the passion of (what must be) true love; the pleasure of fucking in every room of the house to the Joy Division refrain of "love will tear us apart again."
There are no song titles on the jacket or the insert, so what we'll refer to as the "first song" sounds like a cross between The Psychedelic Furs and an elecrified Mountain Goats. The second song has a definite Magnetic Fields flavor and not just because of the "love" theme. With simple instrumentation, Gerard's melodic crooning creates an atmosphere that is larger than the simple drumbeat and jangly guitar. Sometimes there's little fuck-ups that endear the listener rather than seeming like fuck-ups, reminding us that no one is perfect and that even true love has the occasional hiccup. The whole album clocks in at around 22 minutes or so, weaving its way through the Psychedelic-Magnetic-Goats themes effectively.
There's something really sweet about this record that's hard to describe. The songs are short and diversely written, both happy and sad at the same time. It's a little late for Valentine's Day, but this is a perfect record for telling that certain special someone "I love you".

HELMS ALEE Night Terror (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
Review courtesy of Justin Foley, long time aQ customer, and member of fellow Hydra Headers The Austerity Program!
Long time readers of the AQ mailing list may remember Northwest sasquatch-metallers Harkonen, whose two EPs and full-length or two charted out a wooly mass of distortion-laden virility. Harkonen's pummel stumbled across the line between Cavity's fierce crust/metal and Schlitz-dripping barn burners. At the head of this obviously unshaven trio was Ben Verellen, pumping out distorted bass lines and howling a great rock yell that is probably a family heirloom.  
Harkonen broke up a few years back and after a while word got around that Ben was in a new band - Helms Alee. Putting on their first full length - Night Terror - those who know some or all of the history above won't be too surprised at first. Ben's driving, fuzzed-up bass starts things off with an off kilter riff that spins into the instrumental intro "Lefty Man Handle", sounding a bit like Harkonen dipped in the soundtrack to a Sergio Leone movie. At the beginning of the second track, the same voice that bellowed over Harkonen's amps builds up from a measured sing to a top-of-the-mountain whoop - I'm telling you he's got a set of pipes on him. And by the time the song really opens up, the drummer is slamming on the cymbals, the bass and guitar are locked in a hypnotic two note riff and that guy's just roaring at you.
Then something truly wonderful happens.
And this is why the Helms Alee is surely my favorite record from 2008. Because while I love the ripping stomp that the song had purposefully built into, the band suddenly drops out the bottom and the drums, takes a breath and shifts into a guitar shimmering break. A two part female harmony picks up the song and carries it to what you later realize was the only place that it could have gone. It's like coming out of a tunnel into early daylight. And for the next 35 minutes or so, they deftly weave the pounding, yelling sweat-rock of the best Harkonen stuff with the equally strong and bittersweet beauty of an unexpected melody and harmony. Some times this happens at the same time, at others they switch back and forth. But it's done nearly perfectly over the course of the whole record, resulting in a sound that's equally poignant and heavy.  
Make no mistake - it's still a loud rock record that probably eviscerates live. But the thing that's really special about this band is the unexpected space they've found in a type of music that often seems like it runs out of new room. Special mention should be made of two things. First, the recording work on this is great - clear, physical and very unobtrusive. Second, those who buy it and sit for a full listen will really be rewarded by "Shmnna" - a record closer (almost, there's actually a nice coda song) that's obviously the climax of what the whole thing's building toward. The song's final guitar bit absolutely brings down the house. So good!
I've noticed that AQ likes to give reference points, so I'd suggest anyone who craves the male/female juxtaposition of X or Barbaro, the aging prizefighter nobility of Tar, or even some of the more rock parts of My Bloody Valentine must buy this record now. There's probably whole other groups who I should target as well - anyone who's into other stuff on the label, anyone who likes loud rock music at all, anyone who is signed up for the AQ mailing list, anyone who's not my sister - because this thing is a real, unexpected treat.
MPEG Stream: "Left Handy Man Handle"
MPEG Stream: "A New Roll"
MPEG Stream: "A Weirding Away"

HELMS ALEE Night Terror (Robotic Empire) lp 15.98
Review courtesy of Justin Foley, long time aQ customer, and member of fellow Hydra Headers The Austerity Program!
Long time readers of the AQ mailing list may remember Northwest sasquatch-metallers Harkonen, whose two EPs and full-length or two charted out a wooly mass of distortion-laden virility. Harkonen's pummel stumbled across the line between Cavity's fierce crust/metal and Schlitz-dripping barn burners. At the head of this obviously unshaven trio was Ben Verellen, pumping out distorted bass lines and howling a great rock yell that is probably a family heirloom.  
Harkonen broke up a few years back and after a while word got around that Ben was in a new band - Helms Alee. Putting on their first full length - Night Terror - those who know some or all of the history above won't be too surprised at first. Ben's driving, fuzzed-up bass starts things off with an off kilter riff that spins into the instrumental intro "Lefty Man Handle", sounding a bit like Harkonen dipped in the soundtrack to a Sergio Leone movie. At the beginning of the second track, the same voice that bellowed over Harkonen's amps builds up from a measured sing to a top-of-the-mountain whoop - I'm telling you he's got a set of pipes on him. And by the time the song really opens up, the drummer is slamming on the cymbals, the bass and guitar are locked in a hypnotic two note riff and that guy's just roaring at you.
Then something truly wonderful happens.
And this is why the Helms Alee is surely my favorite record from 2008. Because while I love the ripping stomp that the song had purposefully built into, the band suddenly drops out the bottom and the drums, takes a breath and shifts into a guitar shimmering break. A two part female harmony picks up the song and carries it to what you later realize was the only place that it could have gone. It's like coming out of a tunnel into early daylight. And for the next 35 minutes or so, they deftly weave the pounding, yelling sweat-rock of the best Harkonen stuff with the equally strong and bittersweet beauty of an unexpected melody and harmony. Some times this happens at the same time, at others they switch back and forth. But it's done nearly perfectly over the course of the whole record, resulting in a sound that's equally poignant and heavy.  
Make no mistake - it's still a loud rock record that probably eviscerates live. But the thing that's really special about this band is the unexpected space they've found in a type of music that often seems like it runs out of new room. Special mention should be made of two things. First, the recording work on this is great - clear, physical and very unobtrusive. Second, those who buy it and sit for a full listen will really be rewarded by "Shmnna" - a record closer (almost, there's actually a nice coda song) that's obviously the climax of what the whole thing's building toward. The song's final guitar bit absolutely brings down the house. So good!
I've noticed that AQ likes to give reference points, so I'd suggest anyone who craves the male/female juxtaposition of X or Barbaro, the aging prizefighter nobility of Tar, or even some of the more rock parts of My Bloody Valentine must buy this record now. There's probably whole other groups who I should target as well - anyone who's into other stuff on the label, anyone who likes loud rock music at all, anyone who is signed up for the AQ mailing list, anyone who's not my sister - because this thing is a real, unexpected treat.
MPEG Stream: "Left Handy Man Handle"
MPEG Stream: "A New Roll"
MPEG Stream: "A Weirding Away"

HULL, SCOTT Audiofilm I (Crucial Blast) 3" cd 8.98
Silence... thunder... shudder... shadow... those are some of the things evoked even by the first minute or so of this isolationist dark ambient piece crafted by the multi-talented Scott Hull, best known as the guitarist of grind heroes Pig Destroyer, also of Agoraphobic Nosebleed fame. The whole thing, which mostly just gets darker and more disturbing as it flows on, is about 12:36 in length, one track fitting neatly on a 3" cd (not cd-r, cd). We love it when we get actual 3" cds! Though we really like it when they come in those tiny little jewel cases (like tUMULt's Bathtub Shitter and Professor 3" releases). Whereas this is packaged in a cardboard sleeve. Looks good though, with appropriately atmospheric graphics by Seldon Hunt.
Titled Audiofilm 1, this is presumably the first in a series of limited edition 3" cds on Crucial Blast. Hull's "audiofilm" is a scary one. Dramatic, sudden percussive clashings. Dronological whoosh. Nightmare heartbeat pulsations. The hiss and gurgle of some malevolent monster. Waves of whispery electronic terror... Don't worry, it's just a little 3" cd. It can't really hurt you. And some of it is actually lullingly beautiful, as with the gentle bell sounds tinkling about 7-8 minutes in.
LIMITED EDITION. 1000 copies only (which seems like a lot, but Pig Destroyer are pretty popular). We only got a few, and don't know if we'll be able to get more. (But we also have a Scott Hull solo full-length on Relapse, another imaginary soundtrack styled ambient effort, to be reviewed in future.)
MPEG Stream: "Audiofilm 1 (excerpt)"

HUMAN INSTINCT Stoned Guitar (Vintage / Rockadrome) cd 12.98
So as soon as we dove into the extensive liner notes of this seriously awesome reissue of New Zealand's heaviest (and only??) psych band Human Instinct, we realized that despite their failed commercial success, these dudes were really way ahead of their time. After relocating to the UK in the late sixties and undergoing a handful of line-up changes, Human Instinct hit the local bar circuit with an original formula of heavy ripping psych played at blistering, amp melting volumes. Inspired by Hendrix and other dudes pushing the limits of the newly evolved electric guitar, Human Instinct developed a sound that was completely unique and possibly influential on the heavy bands that followed. While we wouldn't exactly call this stuff proto-metal, more like heavy psych, it definitely was a major step in reaching the heavy blackened riffage that bands like Sabbath and Pentagram would later perfect. That said, the album definitely has songs worth listening to over and over and over, buuuuuut there are a few tracks ya might just want to skip over. Oh and did we mention these dudes were known for having a lead singer who ALSO plays drums standing up!!?? Yes its true, Maurice Greer not only has a wicked sweet voice, but his drumming style is truly unique!!
Track number one kicks things off with an awesome version of Dennis Wilson's "Black Sally". Definitely a track you can headbang to, it's easy to hear how their slow grooving heaviness could one day become the essence of doom. Needless to say, these guys were way ahead of their time, I mean according to the liner notes, they starting playing together in '58!! Crazy! "The Jugg-A-Jugg Song", our second favorite track on Stoned Guitar, starts off with a wall of psychedelic fury, blaring, amp frying guitar, rampant drum chaos, destroying eardrums and anything else that stands in the way! So good!! "Midnight Sun" follows with stoney (obviously), repetitive riffs layered with atmospheric fuzz solos that seem to launch into the sky, really kraut-like and hypnotic, not unlike Parson Sound or Wooden Shjips, sorta.
So this is basically the complete package, four bonus tracks, killer liner notes with photos and basically the entire history of this underappreciated heavy psych gem! Stoned Guitar is fried out, in-the-red type blues perfection for fans of the recently reviewed Jerusalem, Bedemon, or even Flower Travelin' Band. We even hear some similarities to new psychedelic jammers Magic Lantern or Eternal Tapestry too. Take our advice and don't miss out on this super influential piece of psych glory!! And maybe Rockadrome/Vintage will follow up with reissues of the other two Human Instinct albums, we used to have all three as imports but they've been AWOL lately.
MPEG Stream: "Black Sally"
MPEG Stream: "Midnight Sun"

JASPER TX Closet Ghosts (Fenetre) 3" cd 8.98
Latest disc from long time aQ fave Jasper TX (after 10 releases in 3 years, and those are just the ones we reviewed!), another lil' one, a 3" cd (not cd-r), six songs in just over 20 minutes, the first of which begins with a bang, almost knocked us out of our chairs, a super loud bit of metallic cacophony, which thankfully quickly gives way to something much more contemplative, but only a little less buzzy, a warm shimmering whir, that manages to be warm and meditative, but still a bit prickly and abrasive. The second track is much more song-y, a beautiful lilting arrangement for guitar, dark and folky, a bit Appalachian, before slipping into the third track, a gorgeous understated bit on ultra minimal drone, a subtle pulsing thrum, softly overlapping layers of low end, that seem to melt into one another.
A bit of ultra high end shimmer, a whispery barely there upper register ur-drone, gives way to a spare bit of piano laced minimal ambience. The notes wreathed in reverb- and floating through dusty sun dappled expanses of hushed near-silence, which slips quietly into the closer, a beautifully bleary bit of spidery guitar, unfurling through soft clouds of reverb, a super spare slow core sprawl, that manages to be both lovely and hauntingly ominous.
Another fantastic bit of abstract minimalism, and as some other reviewer opined, a pretty great way to spend 20 minutes. We of course concur, and thus say: RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: "I'm Asleep On The Floor While Sunbeams Grace My Tired Head"
MPEG Stream: "Gone, Away"

KLEISTWAHR The Return (Noiseville) lp 23.00
Legendary UK noise merchant Gary Mundy (Ramleh, Skullflower, Broken Flag collective) returns with Kleistwahr, a project that fits nicely within the legacy of a man known for harsh electronic noise. While we struggled to find any detailed information on Kleistwahr, we can say that anyone digging Skullflower's more recent forays into blown out guitar skree (and we know there are plenty of you out there) will find much to love here. The four songs making up The Return contain all the air raid siren guitars and eardrum pulverizing feedback we have come to love, but things take a surprisingly beautiful turn on side two, with warm droney keyboards weaving a haunting melody that perfectly compliments the album cover, a stark photocopied image of a building foundation sitting exposed in the snow surrounded by dead trees. Though the songs are instrumental, Mundy is able to perfectly convey a feeling of despondency and sadness, genuine emotions that definitely set Kleistwahr apart from the multitudes of floorcore outfits, all hunkered over effects pedals making lots of noise, but very little of it as compelling and emotionally charged as this.
Part of Noiseville's awesome Outer Bounds Of Sound series, with each lp limited to a one time pressing of 300. We received 20, so you know what that means...

KOJO, HITOSHI Ezo (Alluvial Recordings) 10" 13.98
Occasionally working in the past as Spiracle, Hitoshi Kojo presents this thoroughly amazing piece of ancient-sounding drone music. No doubt, Kojo's work will be compared to that of the classic Organum sound; but considering that very few have even come close to replicating the power and mystery of such classic Organum recordings as Ikon or Horii, such parallels should be taken as the highest praise. Kojo claims that all of the sounds originated from various found objects. He doesn't specify beyond that, but all of the objects must be metal in origin, probably large pieces of sheet metal, or flexible rods of steel, or long pieces of wire, or something equally resonant and with a dynamic timbral quality. Each of these objects is bowed in order to coax a controlled dissonance of metallic screeches, protracted tonal bellows, and various acoustic drones. The two compositions are simple in their moderate pacing of the ebb and flow between all of these sounds, not too slow... but certainly not too fast. Through these recordings, Kojo offers very little in the way of digital treatments or effects of any nature. Just a terse edit of one layer here, or a reversing of a metallic gong decay there. The results are a timeless set of interlocking metallic rasps and gasping drones that rivals what Harry Bertoia, Taj Mahal Travellers, LaMonte Young, and of course Organum had done so impeccably in the past. Beautiful, mysterious, and very highly recommended!

KOTTKE, LEO 6 And 12 String Guitar (Takoma) lp 16.98
Out of the major Takoma triumvirate of John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Leo Kottke, it is the latter who probably had the most mainstream appeal, but definitely the least hipster cred. Probably due to his early and sudden career switch from an amazing virtuoso instrumentalist to a rather mediocre singer/songwriter. But it's this debut recording of solo guitar work from 1969 of which listeners should take notice. Arguably, the most successful record on the Takoma label (it has sold over 500,000 copies), it is also one of the best. Definitely a student of Fahey school of tongue in cheek liner notes and eccentric song titles like "Vaseline Machine Gun" and "The Brain of The Purple Mountain", Kottke displays a knowing range of blues, pop, classical and folk styles. Though probably not as insistently ornery as Fahey's style could be, there is a pensive resonance that keeps Kottke's pastoralism from getting sappy. For sure, one of the best solo guitar records that actually helped create and popularize the genre originally! Nice to have it again on vinyl.

MALEFICIA s/t (Isounderscore) lp 14.98
Maleficia is the Bay Area duo of Andy Way (N.F. Orchest, French Radio, Carrion, etc.) and Ilysea Viles Sunderman, who crafted this desolate, post-industrial smear of voice, violin, and electronics for the always impressive Isounderscore label. With the titles of the two side long pieces being "Making" and "Remaking," Malecia offers a crucible of elemental sounds being obliterated into a charred dust and rebuilt into ashen constructions of misery and disgust. Sunderman's voice is sparsely employed emitting mournful wails that are not unlike those of Christina Carter, but detached from a freak-folk context and applied to this blackened, post-apocalyptic miasma. The industrialized loops that Way wraps around the voice and violin come across like a slow-motion Maurizio Bianchi on par with the downer records he did with Land Use or the grim power electronic phase in the early '80s. Nocturnal clatter and plumes of black smoke shroud the murkier, noisier side on "Making," while funereal strings ground the nightmarish "Remaking." Certainly for fans of Amber Asylum, early Lustmord, and the dark ambient aspects of Broken Flag.

MGR Y DESTRUCTO SWARMBOTS! Amigos De La Guitarra (Neurot) cd 14.98
Amigos De La Guitarra. Friends of the guitar. Funny. Both of these guys are most definitely friends of the guitar, although neither really plays the guitar the way nature intended. Well, maybe once in a while they do. Two Mikes. One called Mare, one called Gallagher. One also known to us as Destructo Swarmbots. The other, known around these parts as MGR, or sometimes, the guy from Isis. Both MGR and Destructo Swarmbots are long time faves around these parts, both creating epic expansive sprawling guitarscapes, occasionally heavy and intense, other times shimmery and ethereal, and while we never expected to find the two playing together, now that we're listening to it, it sort of seems like a pretty fantastic idea.
One 42 minute track, that begins all moody and melodic, finger picked guitars, melodies, harmonies, lilting and almost folky, a little post rocky, moody and minor key, gradually growing more and more intense, some of the guitars billowing out into clouds of rumble and blur, while the rest keep the main melodies going. Before it gets to noisy, the drones recede, once again leaving the guitars to drift delicately, weaving subtle sonic shapes, until once again, some of the guitars begin to growl and buzz, the chords and melodies growing more jagged and abrasive, the sound a roiling soft swirl, which is when things get really interesting and suddenly some of the guitars are chopped up and sent stuttering, creating a droned out rhythmic skitter, while the other guitar soars and wails in the background. All around, sheets of feedback fold in on themselves, shot though with jagged shards of corrosive high end crunch, before finally the chaos begins to dissipate, leaving just a tangle of guitar melodies, slowly unfurling, winding down through gauzy fields of crackle and muted buzz, until just shadowy echoes of the guitars remain, and then nothing at all.
In short: A gorgeous disc of trancey blissed out ambient heaviness, from two friends of the guitar...
MPEG Stream: "Amigos De La Guitarra (Excerpt)"

MOLOCH Deepression Of Surtr (Blackmetal.com) cd 13.98
Finally, the first proper full length from Ukrainian one man black metal horde Moloch. As we mentioned in our review of the split tape from a while back (the only thing we'd been able to get in sufficient numbers to list), we have been totally obsessed with Moloch, doing whatever we could to get a hold of everything and anything he's recorded. Which is quite a feat as he's released about 40 records, many of them box sets, and making it even more of a feat is the fact that most were limited to between 10 and 40 copies. Argghhh. Andee has even been emailing with Moloch about possibly releasing something on tUMULt, all in the interest of making these gorgeously grim sounds available to more than a handful of connected diehards.
So in steps the fine folks at BlackMetal.Com, who have released Depression Of Surtr, a best of compilation, gathering up various tracks from a handful or releases, as well as a bunch of unreleased tracks (although since barely anyone has heard most of this stuff, they're essentially ALL unreleased). So what has got us all in a tizzy about this Moloch character? Hard to explain, but with most black metal, it's as much about vibe as it is sound, and these tracks, besides sounding amazing, are so weirdly haunting and mysterious, the guitars so saturated and blown out, the drums buried in the mix, more of a pulse than a beat, and the vocals, somewhere between Weakling and Silencer, howled and wailed and utterly anguished. So tortured and over the top, again simultaneously adding to the vibe and mood as well as the sound. But besides the vibe, which is about as harrowing and haunting and GRIM as can be, the sound is fucking epic, Burzum by way of Abruptum, mostly midtempo, even the blasts are only slightly faster, the guitars are super distorted and droney, the sort of trance-y buzz that has us immediately entranced.
There are also some long stretches of black ambience, of shimmery drift and rumbling dronemusic, which makes sense, as Moloch has also released 10 or 15 entire discs full of ambient music, but here they nicely balance the blown out grimnity of the more buzzy blown out tracks. There's even a couple covers at the end, one a Burzum cover, all pianos and synths, lilting and minor key, the other a Darkthrone cover, which is totally bizarre, swooning synths over an awesomely cheesy drum machine (which sounds remarkably similar to the one built into the boom box in the back room). Not sure what to even make of it, so strange, and a little bit silly, but once you get immersed in it, it does seem to sound a bit more haunting. But only a bit. But then that's what we were talking about, the vibe, and the mood, and Moloch creates such a strange unpredictable vibe, with his skewed perspective on black metal, which is what makes his sound, and his records so amazing. And which is exactly why we're so obsessed...
MPEG Stream: "Ljosalfaheimr"
MPEG Stream: "Throught Halo Of Fire-Brands"
MPEG Stream: "En As I Dype Skogen (Darkthrone Cover)"

MOUNTAINS Choral (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98
Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp are the men behind these Mountains. The two met in Chicago in 1999 and now live in Brooklyn; yet despite their urban living, Mountains long for the great outdoors. The big sky of Montana. The thunderclouds of the Arizona high desert. The forests of upstate New York. In their effortless blur of elliptically strummed acoustic guitars and elegantly sculpted ambience, Mountains celebrate the natural world, as leaves, rain, dirt, and snow all seem to speak through their beautifully monochromatic compositions.
Choral happens to be Mountains third full album and their first for Thrill Jockey. It also stands as their best album to date and even surpasses the almost universally beloved Field Rituals solo album by Holtkamp on Type. The brightly rendered guitar which gilded Holtkamp's solo record features prominently in the mix for Choral, but it has been tempered with gaseous effects and post-shoegazing processes that swaddle the guitar chords with equally rich drones and electrified mist. Melodica, analog synth, piano, hand bells, something that sounds like a hurdy gurdy, even more guitar, and found object scrabbing a la Jewelled Antler make their way through the soft focus blur of the digital treatments, which give evidence for comparisons in equal measure to Fennesz and Cluster. As the shimmering tones of finger-picked guitars trickle out of the slow pulsing drone of the title track, Mountains conjure images of the bright orange sunlight saturating wind-blown leaves at sunset. Halos of light burst around each glistening layer of sound, but there is a bittersweet aura to many of the melodies that slip beyond their transcendent ambience, as if the summer sun they portray in their songs is soon to be lost to the blustery winds of Autumn and the cold nights of Winter. The maudlin atmospheres continue on the insistent acoustic guitar chords of "Telescope," a near perfect bliss-out instrumental, on through the broken-hearted bells and deep tonal flutter of "Melodica."
If there's any justice, this will be universally hailed as one of the best records of 2009. And for vinyl freeks: the lp version of Choral enjoys two additional tracks not found on the cd!
MPEG Stream: "Choral"
MPEG Stream: "Map Table "
MPEG Stream: "Melodica"

MOUNTAINS Choral (Thrill Jockey) 2lp 15.98
Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp are the men behind these Mountains. The two met in Chicago in 1999 and now live in Brooklyn; yet despite their urban living, Mountains long for the great outdoors. The big sky of Montana. The thunderclouds of the Arizona high desert. The forests of upstate New York. In their effortless blur of elliptically strummed acoustic guitars and elegantly sculpted ambience, Mountains celebrate the natural world, as leaves, rain, dirt, and snow all seem to speak through their beautifully monochromatic compositions.
Choral happens to be Mountains third full album and their first for Thrill Jockey. It also stands as their best album to date and even surpasses the almost universally beloved Field Rituals solo album by Holtkamp on Type. The brightly rendered guitar which gilded Holtkamp's solo record features prominently in the mix for Choral, but it has been tempered with gaseous effects and post-shoegazing processes that swaddle the guitar chords with equally rich drones and electrified mist. Melodica, analog synth, piano, hand bells, something that sounds like a hurdy gurdy, even more guitar, and found object scrabbing a la Jewelled Antler make their way through the soft focus blur of the digital treatments, which give evidence for comparisons in equal measure to Fennesz and Cluster. As the shimmering tones of finger-picked guitars trickle out of the slow pulsing drone of the title track, Mountains conjure images of the bright orange sunlight saturating wind-blown leaves at sunset. Halos of light burst around each glistening layer of sound, but there is a bittersweet aura to many of the melodies that slip beyond their transcendent ambience, as if the summer sun they portray in their songs is soon to be lost to the blustery winds of Autumn and the cold nights of Winter. The maudlin atmospheres continue on the insistent acoustic guitar chords of "Telescope," a near perfect bliss-out instrumental, on through the broken-hearted bells and deep tonal flutter of "Melodica."
If there's any justice, this will be universally hailed as one of the best records of 2009. And for vinyl freeks: the lp version of Choral enjoys two additional tracks not found on the cd!
MPEG Stream: "Choral"
MPEG Stream: "Map Table "
MPEG Stream: "Melodica"

NAV From Nav To Jav (ASSAVLT) cd 12.98
For those of you patiently awaiting the newest opus from Russian black metallers Old Wainds, expected any day now, this might just hold you over. Two demos of ultra raw black buzz from Old Wainds offshoot Nav, fronted by OW drummer Izbor, available on cd for the first time. Nav's last record, the surprisingly polished and weirdly melodic The Wolf Sun, definitely rubbed a few people the wrong way, with a sound way more NWOBHM than black metal, not so much blasting and buzzing as riffing and rocking. Sure it was unexpected, but we dug it anyway. Maybe precisely because it was so awesomely confounding.
But this is something else entirely. Something more like the Nav (and the Old Wainds) we know and love. Imagine the first Nav, Halls Of Death, via Old Wainds' Wither Of The Wainds, and you'll get something very much like From Nav To Jav, the sound on these demos, originally released in 1996 / 1997 is raw raw raw, super lo-fi, chaotic and frenzied, the guitars are murky and muddy, the riffing surprisingly complex, but plenty blurry and washed out, the drums wild and splattery, the vocals a harsh demonic croak, with long swaths of fuzzy warbly keyboards, the recording in the red and ultra distorted, causing the songs to seemingly warp and crumble as they come careening out of the speakers. Sort of like the EEE un-black releases, the recording here is as much a part of the sound as the songs. A sound so saturated and fucked up, it almost sounds like Faxed Head, but still with that unmistakable Russian sound, so distinctive and evocative, hateful and harsh, shot through with a drone drenched buzz, killer riffing, everything completely fried and fractured and gloriously blown out.
Essential obviously for fans of all things Nav, Wainds, Russian and black, but maybe just as crucial for anyone into raw metallic chaos, and droney distorted buzz (lots of overlap there wethink), or heck, even if you just wished Faxed Head were deadly serious and way more heavy, then this is most definitely for you.
MPEG Stream: "A Hymn To Cold Silence"
MPEG Stream: "The Warriros Of The Icy Wilderness"
MPEG Stream: "From Nav To Jav"

NORTHERN VALENTINE The Distance Brings Us Closer (Silber) cd 14.98
So this is one of those records where the cover totally gives away what's hiding inside. These Philadelphia drift-heads sent us this disc a few weeks ago, and we were totally blown away. The music so nicely reflects the cover photograph: beautiful, expansive oceanic horizons, almost glowing with a looming grayness. With keyboards, violin, three electric guitars and a bass, this five piece really hone in on a super liquidity, an organic, fluid type of drone composition. Their third album out of four, The Distance Brings Us Closer resonates with long, lush tones and delicate melodies that seem to blend and form chords in mid air. Always moving and turning like fog creeping along the forest floor, Northern Valentine has a distinct sound that kinda reminds us of a more darkened and coastal Windy and Carl playing with Rameses III in some giant cathedral. Very dark and mysterious, the record travels through blissed out walls of trance inducing drones and into more textural noisy Fennesz-like atmospheres. Though they call themselves a post-rock band, the guitars and instruments used are so dripping with reverb and delay that it might be more accurate to describe Northern Valentine as a dark and drifting ambient group. At least that's how they sound on this particular record, as word on the street is their other albums have drums and are more propulsive and less drifty. Either way we dig what they're doing A LOT, and couldn't wait to share it with all of you! If you like anything Type records related or that recently reviewed Elegi, you'll love this too! Completely and utterly recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Born Yesterday"
MPEG Stream: "Escaping Light"

RITCHIE, JEAN Ballads From Her Appalachian Family Tradition (Smithsonian Folkways) cd 16.98
We've been meaning to carry some Jean Ritchie for a long while. Our Appalachian folk cupboards seeming to be bone-dry bare without her exquisite interpretations of British traditional ballads of love, death and the supernatural filtered through the high lonesome rural-ness of the Kentucky mountains. Like fellow Kentuckian, John Jacob Niles, she was early on a noted student of musicology and folklore (as well as an amazing lap dulcimer player,) and keenly interested in the British roots of the songs she learned as a young girl. This anthology covers her interpretations of many of The Child Ballads, one of the first and most extensive catalogs of British traditional songs and their American variants put together in the late nineteenth century by Francis James Child, which includes songs with roots as far back as the thirteenth century, and deal with plenty of dark, gruesome and ghostly themes. Standouts on this anthology are Ritchie's version of one of our favorite morbid ballads, "Sweet William and Lady Margaret", also known just as "Lady Margaret" which was also featured on Karen Dalton's Green Rocky Road. So Beautiful!!!
MPEG Stream: "The Merry Golden Tree"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Wiliam and Lady Margaret"
MPEG Stream: "The Unquiet Grave"

SATYRICON The Age Of Nero (Koch) cd 16.98
All hail! Here's the 2009 release from the band who, along with Emperor, Immortal, Darkthrone, Mayhem and very few others, basically established the template/threw down the gauntlet for a vast majority of all the black metal we've raved about over the years. This Norwegian duo - frontman Satyr and drumgod Faust - have earned their rep as black metal legends. Yet they still keep pushing to get bigger and better... bigger at any rate. Their last couple of albums (Volcano and Now, Diabolical) saw them developing in a more commercial, or at least more mainstream metal, ROCK direction. While they didn't pull a Metallica, they definitely moved out of the underground. More power to 'em, even though they don't boast the best corpsepainted band photos in the biz anymore...
Now, with The Age Of Nero, we hear a Satyricon comfortable with their new, MTV-ready "black n' roll" status, but who also stand ready to remind their old fans just how grim and blasting and blackened they can be. With extra help from their old pal Snorre Ruch of the very cult Thorns, they've crafted a bombastic attack that's truly grim yet grooving, mostly midtempo and exceedingly tight. And quite catchy, a quality certainly not limited only to this disc's designated "hit single" / video clip "Black Crow On A Tombstone". (By the way, we dig that song, but sorry, the video is too funny, the slicked-back Satyr especially ridiculous, check it out on YouTube sometime...!) But if you only -hear- the song, it'll knock you on your ass. A massive, pounding "hit" indeed.
While some bemoan the overall "slowdown" of their sound, some of our favorite moments here are those more atmospheric ones, like the moody breaks in the midst of "The Wolfpack" for instance. And they can still grind you to dust beneath the lashing brutality of their distorted guitars, seasick riffage, and (when it kicks in) blazing battery. One of the album's other highlights is the epic closer, "Den Siste", which sees the return of the horn section that appeared on Now, Diabolical but also is sung/rasped entirely in Satyr's native Norwegian, old school style. Horns in black metal have always been all right with us, actually, from Potentiam to Sear Bliss to Den Saakaldte.
While we wonder if this band will every really surprise us again, that's ok. They can bring this brand of heaviness on album after album and we'll be happy!
MPEG Stream: " Black Crow On A Tombstone"
MPEG Stream: "The Wolfpack"
MPEG Stream: "Die By My Hand"

SATYRICON The Age Of Nero (Koch) lp 18.98
All hail! Here's the 2009 release from the band who, along with Emperor, Immortal, Darkthrone, Mayhem and very few others, basically established the template/threw down the gauntlet for a vast majority of all the black metal we've raved about over the years. This Norwegian duo - frontman Satyr and drumgod Faust - have earned their rep as black metal legends. Yet they still keep pushing to get bigger and better... bigger at any rate. Their last couple of albums (Volcano and Now, Diabolical) saw them developing in a more commercial, or at least more mainstream metal, ROCK direction. While they didn't pull a Metallica, they definitely moved out of the underground. More power to 'em, even though they don't boast the best corpsepainted band photos in the biz anymore...
Now, with The Age Of Nero, we hear a Satyricon comfortable with their new, MTV-ready "black n' roll" status, but who also stand ready to remind their old fans just how grim and blasting and blackened they can be. With extra help from their old pal Snorre Ruch of the very cult Thorns, they've crafted a bombastic attack that's truly grim yet grooving, mostly midtempo and exceedingly tight. And quite catchy, a quality certainly not limited only to this disc's designated "hit single" / video clip "Black Crow On A Tombstone". (By the way, we dig that song, but sorry, the video is too funny, the slicked-back Satyr especially ridiculous, check it out on YouTube sometime...!) But if you only -hear- the song, it'll knock you on your ass. A massive, pounding "hit" indeed.
While some bemoan the overall "slowdown" of their sound, some of our favorite moments here are those more atmospheric ones, like the moody breaks in the midst of "The Wolfpack" for instance. And they can still grind you to dust beneath the lashing brutality of their distorted guitars, seasick riffage, and (when it kicks in) blazing battery. One of the album's other highlights is the epic closer, "Den Siste", which sees the return of the horn section that appeared on Now, Diabolical but also is sung/rasped entirely in Satyr's native Norwegian, old school style. Horns in black metal have always been all right with us, actually, from Potentiam to Sear Bliss to Den Saakaldte.
While we wonder if this band will every really surprise us again, that's ok. They can bring this brand of heaviness on album after album and we'll be happy!
MPEG Stream: " Black Crow On A Tombstone"
MPEG Stream: "The Wolfpack"
MPEG Stream: "Die By My Hand"

SHADOW RING, THE Life Review (1993-2003) (KYE) 2cd 29.00
The Shadow Ring were a deliberately odd British trio, beginning in 1993, releasing a handful of improbably compelling records for Corpus Hermeticum, Siltbreeze, Swill Radio and their own Dry Leaf Discs, and then terminating the project a decade later for reasons unknown. So much of what The Shadow Ring offer just should not work: comedically sloppy lullabies played on toy instruments, atonal squeals from cheap electronics, and rhythms banged on tin cans and xylophones. Yet, their persistence at methodically fucking up the simplest of melodies not only became an instant signature sound, it also became a metaphor for a dour, anti-social discomfort which also featured heavily in the lyrics from alternating vocalists Graham Lambkin and Darren Harris. Lambkin's voice is somewhat musical in nature, wrapping around the tinny stringed melodies as a counterpoint; but Harris, on the other hand, employs a commanding bellow which he wields with the urgent rhetorical flourish of a BBC announcer reading off obituaries, but with a snide delivery as if he loathed each person who had died. While Lambkin may have been more of the musical anti-genius of the two, Harris has the voice that reaches out to grab you by the ears. Lyrically, the Shadow Ring coupled the abject and the mundane, with rats, bottom-feeding shrimp, lice, and wasps all playing heavily into the convoluted poetics of their very English dourness. Life Review is a retrospective culled from their eight albums, handful of singles, and archive of unreleased material, including one mighty odd re-interpretation of Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive." Revisting The Shadow Ring has been a very worthwhile experience for all of us here at Aquarius, conjuring thoughts of Jandek and The Shaggs working together through the Current 93 back catalogue. Brilliantly fucked up.
MPEG Stream: "Tiny Creatures"
MPEG Stream: "Horse Meat Cakes"
MPEG Stream: "Prawnography"
MPEG Stream: "Stella Drive (Live)"

SIC ALPS Fool's Mag (Folding) cassette 5.98
Another little chunk of fractured noise pop from local popkid Sic Alps aka Mike Donovan. This is not super new, but odds are most folks never got their hands on it, as the label (Donovan, actually) sort of stopped making them for a while. So after a bit of nudging and cajoling, Fool's Mag is finally available again... for the first time, sort of. An ep length collection of that fuzzy washed out pop we've grown to love, and that only Sic Alps seems to kick out. Folks who dig stuff like Iran and Oh Sees, who haven't heard Sic Alps should really give it a chance, as they traffic in the same sort of hook filled noise drenched poppiness.
Short and sharp, warm muted distorted guitars, simple Pavement-y drumming, whiney sad boy vox, that occasionally slip into a strained falsetto, awesome buzzy sort-of-leads, lush harmonies, all buried in hiss and murk, the sound WAY lo-fi, but somehow the pop still shines through, hooks galore, melodies that will stick in your head like crazy, some of the best Sic Alps songs so far.
Not sure how long we'll have these, we did get a bunch, but you never know...

SIGH Imaginary Sonicscape (The End) cd 13.98
Not only is this a welcome disc to have back in our shop, being our favorite album by this unique Japanese "black metal" band... but we (and you?) might have to buy it again 'cause this now features 2 bonus tracks and one "extended version" not on the original edition. Imaginary Sonicscape was Sigh's first domestic US release, originally on the Century Media label. It's the one with the Stephen O'Malley art/design. Now that they're signed to The End it's been re-released. When it first came out, we said we'd always been fans of their fucked-up genre-mangling horror movie soundtrack metal, and that this might be their best album yet! And while we like what they've done since, it's still our fave.
Though Sigh are considered a black metal band, that has more to do with their history (you'll read in the Lords of Chaos book that their first album was supposed to be released on Euronymous' Deathlike Silence label, before he got stabbed to death) and love of Venom (as evidenced by their recent Venom tribute album), than their actual sound, which manages to combine '80s heavy metal licks with everything from lounge-jazz to 20th century classical. At first listen, Imaginary Sonicscape might seem less crazed than some of their previous efforts, but that's just 'cause they've become masters at writing good metal songs whose weirdly juxtaposed components actually gel rather than jar (and also because the first track is one of the most conventionally accessible). You'll get totally into this as a heavy metal record, nodding your head to the riffs and so forth, and then suddenly "wake up" and wonder what the hell is going on with the sizzling '70s psychedelic synths and handclaps and disco breaks and pop hooks and classical piano solos, etc. Yet it flows so well, you'll still be nodding your head just the same. Imagine Venom, Ennio Morricone, Sleep, The Boredoms, Loudness, Boston, Goblin, and Satyricon (and their respective record collections as well) all rolled into one fat PCP-dusted joint. Hallucinogenic, catchy, absurd, fucking incredible.
The bonus tracks are worthy. One, "Voices" being a creepy/mellow 7-minute drift of processed voices, synth burps, and piano tinkling... the other "Born Condemned Criminal" (originally on the Japanese version of the album only) features a lot of snazzy organ jamming.
MPEG Stream: "Ecstatic Transformation"
MPEG Stream: "Nietzschean Conspiracy"
MPEG Stream: "A Sunset Song"

SILENT LAND TIME MACHINE & Hope Still (Time Lag / Indian Queen) cd 14.98
Imagine Penguin Cafe Orchestra at a krautrock bluegrass hoedown, and that's close to approximating the sonic mind trip of this one man band (but it sounds like ten!) from Austin, Texas. Built on uplifting repetitive grooves, there's a little bit of everything here thrown on top: acoustic guitar, accordion, ramshackle percussion, bits of studio banter and electronic noises. But the signature instrumentation is violin and viola played in an intense minimalist bluegrass style (yet not trying to be like Henry Flynt) that keeps the proceedings electric and nervously frenetic. It almost sounds like too much to take, but the underlying songforms are highly engaging and the hodgepodge collection of sounds work in such an alchemical way that it all just inexplicably comes together perfectly. Even the recording style seems like Anthem Of The Sun era Grateful Dead, where they took multiple takes of the same piece recorded in a range of fidelities (many of them low) and magically filtered them together. This is a collaborative release from Time-Lag and the band's own label Indian Queen, and we must say it's one of the most refreshing and unique records we've heard in awhile!
MPEG Stream: "Everything Goes To Shit"
MPEG Stream: "The Contours Of Perfect Distance"
MPEG Stream: "Down The Hill"

SMITH, ELDER UTAH / ABBOTT, LYNN I Got Two Wings: Incedents & Anecdotes Of The Two-Winged Preacher & Electric Guitar Evangelist Elder Utah Smith (CaseQuarter) book + cd 19.95
All right all of you Mississippi Records fans who have dug those amazing old school gospel compilations, do we have a book for you! One of the best tracks from The Life Is A Problem... compilation was from Elder Utah Smith, The Church Of God In Christ Pastor who played his electric guitar and wore two giant angel wings to preach the gospel and whip his revival audiences into an evangelical frenzy. For forty years from 1925 to 1965, Reverend Smith travelled across the country conducting his Holy Ghost revivals for his church, and this book collects amazing oral anecdotes, witness testimony and vintage photographs of this legendary gospel figure. Plus it comes with a cd of 18 tracks culled from extremely rare 78's, five tracks of which have never been issued before. So Awesome!!!

SOUVENIR'S YOUNG AMERICA s/t (self-released) lp 9.98
We discovered a stash of these in the back room, one of our favorite discs, on vinyl and in custom just-for-aQ packaging. Some of the sleeves have slightly bent corners, but for themost part are otherwise perfect. Pretty sure these are gone, just wanted to give folks another crack at grabbing one of these...
We were a little put off by the band name, quite a mouthful, but we were super psyched when we got an earful of these guys' super aggressive, epic, post metal crunch. Tough to stand out these days in the super saturated genre pool that is metallic post rock but these guys manage to pull it off big time, borrowing equally from nineties post rock, crusty sludge, epic instrumental chamber rock, and then adding in their own 2 cents. Obviously fans of Pelican and Mogwai and Isis and Snowblood and all that stuff will want this. But there's a whole lot more going on. Some Morricone-ish spaghetti western twang, complete with harmonica, some Krautrock-y groove, some bits of twangy slide guitar, thick swaths of fuzzy drifting guitar ambience, dizzying angular riffing, dense tribal drumming, buzzing almost new wave sounding synths, some long stretches of moody indie jangle. But it's the bands' deft hand with melody and songwriting and arrangement that makes this record so moving. The focus is way more on mood and texture than heaviness or brutality (although it is occasionally both heavy and brutal), with the epic slow builds often taking up the majority of a song, or a crushing dirge suddenly collapsing into the prettiest dang melody you've ever heard. And c'mon, let's mention the slide guitar again. We're such suckers for the slippery dreaminess of slide guitar. We sort of wish it was everywhere, on every song, but as it is, when it does kick in, we get goosebumps.
So yeah, there's always room for one more on the post rock epic metal sludge bandwagon, as long as they're doing something new and different with the sound, and thus working hard to knock someone else off.
MPEG Stream: "Thirteen For Centaurus"
MPEG Stream: "Still Like The Hummingbird"

STROTTER INST. Minenhund (Hinterzimmer / Public Guilt) cd 12.98
It's been almost 3 years since we've heard from turntable mad scientist and alchemist Strotter Inst., whose haunting mechanical record player mini-symphonies evokes mysterious worlds, populated with shadow creatures and amorphous figures operating strange turntable like machinery, everything shaded grey, with a patina of rust, or perhaps dust, the machines wheezing as turntables spin lugubriously, multiple tone arms like a child's mechanical toy octopus, everything held together by rubber bands and bits of strings, a Rube Goldberg style contraption, designed to create a new world of sound, the above mentioned shadowy kingdom, where we can wander and get lost.
Strotter Inst. is Swiss musician / tinkerer Christoph Hess, who customizes old turntables, using whatever is at hand, to create loop making machines, collages of skipping sounds, but unlike the playful melodiousness of Pierre Bastien, or the gauzy ambient drift of Philip Jeck, Strotter's sound is much more raw, and almost heavy, feral even, tons of low end, drones everywhere, hiss and buzz and rumble, in fact much of the time, the turntable sounds like it has been transformed into some sort of instrument of destruction, conjuring up some seriously abject Wolf Eyesian dirgescapes, heaving and roiling expanses of looped blackness, as if some evil genius unleashed his army of automatons, a landscape dotted with Steampunk style contraptions, all gears and ratchets, spewing steam and lurching forward in unison, in fact much of the time, if one didn't know better, one might not even realize that the music of Strotter Inst. was created with turntables. Until the sound shifts, and suddenly a staticky crackly record begins to skip, and becomes the rhythmic source for whatever might come next. Sometimes the sound will hew close to that stuttering skeletal framework, other times, the skipping record is immediately engulfed by thick slabs of sonic blackness, churning machinelike whirs, and percussive low end thrum, this is industrial music for sure, especially if the industry in question was antique turntables. Seriously though, the sounds here are occasionally pretty intense, and heavy and abrasive, which sort of shames the various noisemakers who need a table top full of pedals and a bunch of amps, and a million patch cords and cd players and mixers to make their music, especially when one old man with a handful of record players, a pocket full of rubber bands, a soldering iron and a pile of turntable parts, can kick up a rhythmic din just as hard and heavy as any of 'em. But it's definitely not all hard and heavy, those blasts are balanced by long loping stretches of motorik rhythms, looped and hypnotic, locked into totally mesmerizing grooves, a symphony of percussive thumps and twanging rubber bands woven into strange alien krautrocky dirges.
So fantastic! We often forget to include him in the aQ turntable pantheon, but he absolutely belongs: Jeck, Tetreault, Otomo, Bastien, Fun Years, and Strotter Inst.!!
Packaged in a beautiful cardstock sleeve, with a super striking fold out poster.
MPEG Stream: "#1"
MPEG Stream: "#2"
MPEG Stream: "#3"
MPEG Stream: "#4"

SUISHOU NO FUNE The Gold Labyrinth (Blossoming Noise) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What does Japanese underground psych-folk, limited to 300 copies, we only got a dozen mean to you? That we don't have to write a lengthy review of this? Thanks, we thought so.
It's criminal that they made this so limited, 'cause some fans of this band are going to be disappointed (the ones that don't get a copy, of course, not those that do). This disc is another bleak trip into the "mystic atmosphere" of Suishou No Fune's lo-fi soundworld, the six long tracks here wandering a metaphorical, musical labyrinth golden with the glow of a setting sun. Some tracks generate a droning din, others more languidly flow with fragile vibrations, the band almost nodding off, but *nervously* never quite achieving that sad bliss. It's a hazy and gauzy interplay of (mostly) subdued electric guitar, clattering drums, and morose, wailing vocals that sound like the singer is singing *to himself*, trying to stave off existential loneliness and despair in the depths of the labyrinth. The guitar will sometimes build up, threatening full-on psych storms, but only really reaches max volume on the disc's final track, "Exit From The Labyrinth".
We'd recommended this to fans of LSD-march, Fushitsusha, etc. but it's not necessary. Firstly those folks probably already know about Suishou No Fune and secondly, we only have enough of these for Suishou No Fune fans first and foremost.
MPEG Stream: "Fragments Of A Broken Glass"
MPEG Stream: "The World In The Mirror"

SUN CIRCLE s/t (Lichen) lp 17.98
Now available as a super limited lp, ONLY 525 COPIES, housed in cool heavy weight jackets with paste on artwork and a gold metallic sticker on the back. Includes an insert with liner notes, each one hand numbered. Here's what we had to say about the cd version:
This mysterious musical missive showed up here way back in 2007, and quietly slipped through the cracks, and sat huddled on a shelf in the closet, until just a matter of days ago, it was so long ago, we're ashamed to admit, we don't remember much about the band or what they're all about, so we'll go purely on sound (which is probably what we should do anyway).
Two looooong tracks, the first begins quite strangely, a thick undulating dronescape made from voices, howls and hums and croons woven into a strangely soothing wall of textured sound, we kept expecting it to shift but it never does, 19 minutes of pure voice raga, it's super intense, and so raw and intimate and organic, when it ends, like all dense drones, it feels like all the air gets sucked out of the room.
After the fervent intensity of the first track, the tranquil beginning of track two is almost jarring in it's softness, drifting clouds of bells and chimes, spread out over lots of space. Once again, we kept expecting the song to kick in, but instead, it's another exercise in space and tension, ultra minimal and percussive, the chimes and bells ring out and are allowed to decay to almost near silence, before the next flurry of tinkling and chiming. Really gorgeous and strangely zen.
This sort of stuff requires dedicated close listening, headphones help, but that sort of listening is indeed rewarded.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

TARENTEL You Can't Hide Your Love Forever Vol. 3 (Geographic North) 7" 9.98
The third in a new series of 7" singles from some very familiar names. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the first two volumes, one from local boys Tussle and the other from A sunny Day In Glasgow, and now this one, number three, comes from another bunch of local boys, Tarentel, who have been a bit quiet as of late, the various members pursuing their various solo projects, leaving us to enjoy little bits of Tarentel here and there, archival recordings mostly, as we wait patiently for a new full length.
We recently reviewed Tarentel's Live Edits disc on Digitalis, a collection of, well, live edits from various performances, and one of the things we noticed was how rhythmic and almost heavy some of the performances were. The A side, here, or the North side, in keeping with the series theme, sounds like it could have come from the same performance, very drum heavy, a loping groove that sounds almost looped, as the drums are subtly effected and all around them swirl bits of feedback and blurred noise, very krautrocky, with that noisy backdrop surprisingly caustic at points, but just as often smoothed out into buzzing snarling dronescapes, still littered with jagged shards of feedback, and still hovering over that relentless rhythm.
Turning South (to the B side) we find the band ditching the drums completely, for a brooding soundtracky drift, spidery abstract guitars, warm whirring buzz, lush smears of hazy ambience, subtle effects and mysterious rumblings, all woven into the theme music for some late night rainy day wander through some crumbling city, culminating in a haunting bit of cacophony, a corrosive blackened drone, that plays out to the very end of the side before suddenly blinking out.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES! Super simple, striking covers, mint green vinyl!

TUSSLE You Can't Hide Your Love Forever Vol. 2 (Geographic North) 7" 9.98
The second in a series of limited 7"s (the other two are from Tarentel and A Sunny Day In Glasgow) features local SF rhythm jammers, Tussle. The A-side track, "Animal Cop" begins as a lackadaisical dance rhythm with some fuzzy bass before breaking down into percussive clatter and switching gears into what sounds like a seventies cop theme, albeit one buried in fuzzy reverb. While the B-side, "Room 191", is a heavy slow dub with distorted synth crashes put through a wobbly syrupy filter that almost sounds like a Screw backing track.
Our only complaint is that it's too short! We could have easily listened to 5 minutes of that!

V/A Skull Disco 2: Soundboy's Gravestone Gets Desecrated By Vandals (Skull Disco) 2cd 24.00
Skull Disco is dead. Hence this sonic gravestone, collecting a handful of the label's last few 12"s on one disc, and some remixes on the other. Definitely one of the most kick ass and ground breaking electronic labels of the last few years (certainly one of our favorites) Skull Disco took dubstep, minimal techno, and various other electronic offshoots and created their own incredibly distinct sound, murky and skittery, mysterious and otherworldly, with deep rumbling bass, skeletal rhythms, and the occasional vocal, usually some strange deep voice intoning rather than singing, making the sound even more ominous and harrowing. And while that sound is most definitely dubstep, as we mentioned in our review of the first collection, the sound is equally indebted to Muslimgauze, On-U-Sound and Spectre. Heck a few years ago, and Shackleton would probably have been putting out records on WordSound!
Shuffling abstract beats, rumbling bass, subtle shadings and effects, these are low slung late night grooves. More chillout than dancefloor, more dub really than dubstep. Some tracks get a little Kompakt, but even then, it's dialed WAY back, tinted windows, tinted shades, dark corner of the club, cruising moonlit streets, hanging out under bridges, gathered around flickering fires, this is brooding moody midnight shit. So good. Not sure what else to say, if you bought the other one (and if you didn't, why the heck not?!) you're need this one too, if you've been into all the dubstep we've been listing, you'll probably want this too, or if you're just looking for some killer dark anti-dance music, or some chill out bliss out drift off lullabies, then this will do the trick.
But wait! What about the second disc? All the remixes, some previously released, but others available for the first time. The Pole mix is a killer, and as unlikely as it may seem, it's LESS minimal than the original, the Rupture mix is cool too, but way too short at 2 minutes. Other remixers include T++. Geiomix, Brendan Moller, Bass Clef, Badawi and others, nothing too dramatic, just subtle variations on the original, the Badawi maybe being our favorite, looooong at 12+ minutes, and super spare, super dark, mostly drums, the sounds processed and effected, the whole thing even more dubbed out than the original!
Packaged in a super striking oversized mini gatefold lp style cd sleeve, with that immediately recognizable Skull Disco artwork.
MPEG Stream: SHACKLETON "The Rope Tightens"
MPEG Stream: PEVERELIST & APPLEBLIM "Over Here"
MPEG Stream: APPLEBLIM "Vansan"

VANESSA VAN BASTEN Psygnosis EP (ConSOULing Sounds) cd ep 13.98
Vanessa Van Basten are from Italy and are a they, not a she. We were never able to get copies of VVB's last record, so we wanted to make sure we didn't miss out this time around. Two long tracks, total post rock nirvana, equal parts, Mogwai, Pelican, with plenty of nineties style mathrock mixed in, a bit of Polvo, a little Pitchblende, the result is a super rocking, epic and majestic sound that may borrow much in terms of sound and influence, but is totally all their own.
Anyone who's been digging any of the various post rock, math rock and shoegaze stuff on the list lately will no doubt be digging VVB's particular strain of instrumental rock, with the occasional sample filling in for vocals, these guys definitely rock, there are moments where the sound drifts and shimmers, but when the band are on, they are ON, super heavy, aggressive riffing, kick ass drumming (replacing the drum machine that drove the last release), and some awesome songwriting, super dynamic with plenty of push and pull, back and forth, not the usual start slow, get loud, although the title track does lean in that direction, beginning as a brooding drift, before the drums kick in and the song slowly transforms from minor key shuffle to super crunchy almost metallic heaviness, before getting all glimmery and shimmery and finally slipping back into a softly tangled mathy fade out.
It's definitely short, 2 tracks, 23 minutes, but these guys pack a lot into those two tracks, and again, any one digging on Pelican or Isis or Anapparatus or Conifer or any of that stuff, this will definitely hit the spot.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!! Packaged with a thick cd booklet in an oversized black and red sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Tutto Avanti All'indietro"
MPEG Stream: "Psygnosis"

VETIVER Tight Knit (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
Vetiver makes the major leap to Sub Pop and it's a good fit indeed! Vetiver's unique blend of airy Americana and sun-dappled country folk seems right at home with groups like Iron and Wine and Fleet Foxes. Using his last record of early seventies covers of obscure folk and country rock as a jumping off point, Andy Cabic makes a sublime record that could easily be mistaken for a lost seventies artifact. But don't expect this to be just a mere genre exercise. Warm soft breezy lullabies, perfect for early morning or late night listening, filled with gentle atmospherics and subtle flourishes of horns and cellos. A bit more introspective than the earlier records, Cabic imbibes the proceedings with plenty of well hewn songwriting heft and master musicianship, especially in the side closers, "Down From Above" and "At Forest Edge" where he performs mostly all the instrumentation himself. Here the lilting keyboard textures and treatments transport us to a different kind of cosmic place altogether. Wonderful!
MPEG Stream: "Sister"
MPEG Stream: "Down From Above"
MPEG Stream: "Strictly Rule"

VETIVER Tight Knit (Sub Pop) lp 14.98
Vetiver makes the major leap to Sub Pop and it's a good fit indeed! Vetiver's unique blend of airy Americana and sun-dappled country folk seems right at home with groups like Iron and Wine and Fleet Foxes. Using his last record of early seventies covers of obscure folk and country rock as a jumping off point, Andy Cabic makes a sublime record that could easily be mistaken for a lost seventies artifact. But don't expect this to be just a mere genre exercise. Warm soft breezy lullabies, perfect for early morning or late night listening, filled with gentle atmospherics and subtle flourishes of horns and cellos. A bit more introspective than the earlier records, Cabic imbibes the proceedings with plenty of well hewn songwriting heft and master musicianship, especially in the side closers, "Down From Above" and "At Forest Edge" where he performs mostly all the instrumentation himself. Here the lilting keyboard textures and treatments transport us to a different kind of cosmic place altogether. Wonderful!
MPEG Stream: "Sister"
MPEG Stream: "Down From Above"
MPEG Stream: "Strictly Rule"

WARD, M. Hold Time (Merge) cd 14.98
Busy guy, that M. Ward! Every precious second that he saves not writing out his full first name is surely put to good music-making use! All kidding aside, although his She & Him collaboration last year with actress Zooey Deschanel didn't really charm the pants off of many of us here, his solo offerings sure have. This time it sounds like he decided to try a little (or a lot) of something different. On songs such as his cover of "Rave On", it sure does sounds like he dusted off his Zeppelin and T-Rex albums for a bit more inspiration. And perhaps coming full circle, you can hear some similarities between M. Ward's music on Hold Time and that of one of his earliest boosters/benefactors Howe Gelb. Much more so than ever before. This unexpected eclecticism and eccentricities might toss a few of his devotees from the fan wagon, particularly those hankering for more of his familiar warm rustic Americana - as is found on his last two awesome, immediately captivating albums Post-War and Transistor Radio. Don't be too hasty though. We suspect this might be a 'grow on you' kind of album. Guests include the abovementioned Deschanel as well as Lucinda Williams, Grandaddy's Jason Lytle, and Devotchka's Tom Hagerman.
MPEG Stream: "Never Had Nobody Like You"
MPEG Stream: "Rave On"

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ANCESTORS Neptune With Fire (Tee Pee) lp 13.98
We got a small handful of these on vinyl! The sleeves are a bit rough around the edges, with a bent corner or two, thanks Post Office, anyway, we're selling 'em cheaper than we normally would for that very reason. Grab em while they last. we have 4 or 5 left...
Not to be confused with the -other- Ancestors, the noise drenched, blackened lo-fi, blown out raw as fuck punk metal outfit, no, this is something all together more stoned and groovy, spaced out and ROCK.
Don't know too much about these guys other than they're a 5 piece from LA, and man can they riff with the best of 'em. Two looooong songs, one nearly 17 minutes, the other almost 22, each a sprawling stoner rock psychedelic groovescape. Think Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, Earthless, Dead Meadow, Acrimony, Los Natas. The songs are less proper songs, and more epic jams, the actual verses and chorus and vocals relegated to popping up here and there, while the majority of the song is spent rocking the fuck out, unfurling majestic sun baked soundscapes of riff and groove and killer leads EVERYWHERE. Occasionally, the songs bliss out, and get all tripped out and druggy, with soft Santana-y guitar squalls, and tons of effects, but those parts inevitably build and build until suddenly the song is back in full swing, the band lurching and lumbering and grooving relentlessly. This is the sort of jam band we can get behind, epic heaviness and endless riffery.
The second track is almost Melvins-y at the beginning, howled vocals over slow churning guitar grind, before slipping back into something way more sixties and psychedelic sounding. Like the super kick ass outro of every killer space rock song all stitched into one epic mega-jam. Near the end, the track blisses out and transforms into a loping moody dirge, with reverbed guitars and haunting female vocals way off in the distance, finally kicking back into gear for the last few minutes, a whirring minor key organ making the groove seem melancholy and strangely funereal.
Killer stuff for sure. Any one into heavy heavy post rock, stoner rock, riff heavy jams, sweet leads, or ANY or any of the above mentioned bands will most definitely dig this.
Gatefold sleeve, with awesome artwork by Arik Moonhawk Roper!
MPEG Stream: "Orcus"
MPEG Stream: "Neptune With Fire"

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino) 2lp 25.00
Now on deluxe double vinyl!!!
There are already plenty of reviews out there proclaiming this album to be the pop equivalent of the second coming (at least for this year, anyhow). So we'll spare our readers the extensive details of our adoration and/or disdain and just say it's heaps better than last year's not so hot Strawberry Jam, displaying a nice fusion of both Avey Tare's and Panda Bears distinct sensibilities. Not so much a big difference in sound, just better production, more accessible songwriting, and heavier on the more blissful pop side than their spazzy oft-kilter folk side. We're a bit perplexed at the absurd amount of hype this has gotten and wish we got to hear it on its own merits free from the insane hyperbole doled out by critics, and that probably clouded our expectations a bit. It's certainly a good record but doesn't break much new ground in any real way, but then not everyone was hoping for progression, although for those who perhaps have never heard an Animal Collective record before, this will be pretty eye (or ear) opening. Not sure yet if it will top our favorites, Sung Tongs and Feels, but it could, over time, come pretty darn close. And we're even hearing some Vampire Weekend in the new retooled Collective sound in the very Highlife style vocal parts!
Fans of Panda Bear's Person Pitch will definitely dig this!
MPEG Stream: "My Girls"
MPEG Stream: "Bluish"
MPEG Stream: "No More Runnin"

ASOBI SEKSU Hush (Polyvinyl) cd 14.98
Asobi Seksu pick right up from where they left off with their bright 2006 album Citrus! That means Hush is filled with gloriously shimmering dew drop pop very much inspired by female-fronted bands from the late '80s and early '90s. Perhaps a bit more focused and straightforward than its predecessor, the album is sleekly styled with a sparkling swirly pastel hued effervescence that compliments Yuki Chikudate's flittering vocals. Once again they conjure warm memories of both Cocteau Twins and Velocity Girl. 'Tis very welcome during these grey grey days! So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Layers"
MPEG Stream: "In The Sky"

BORG I (Phaserprone) cd 12.98
Borg is a suitably anonymous project based out of Brooklyn, which has released two albums to date on Phaserprone. This is the first album, which was originally released back in 2007 and was thought to be out of print until Phaserprone uncovered a small (and we mean small!) stash of these for Aquarius. Dark, very dark techno that sounds like Chain Reaction heroin house as played through the Wolf Eyes suitcases of analog electronics and industrial stomp rhythm machines. Spooky atmospheres and really creepy samples from horror movies seem to emerge behind every bassbin crushing beat and every stalking bassline. This one is even better than Borg's 2009 I:A album, due to the shroud of darkness that envelops Borg's electronics. Just buy it. You won't regret it.
MPEG Stream: "Nancy Sang"
MPEG Stream: "Space Flight"
MPEG Stream: "Borg Rage"

BOSMANN, KARL Eskalation (You Don't Have To Call It Music) lp 26.00
We've had these for ages, we listed it a couple times, and somehow we still had a whole bunch of these, which is tragic cuz this is so great! Absolute essential listening for the drone doom dirfe obessed!! But it was priced at nearly $40, which is definitely prohibitve. So... because we'd rather have these spinning on turntables, filling the ears of the aQ faithful with fantastic sounds, rather than gathering dust, we're dropping the price as low as we can go. Basically at our cost. SO c'mon, if you missed out before, or were hemming and hawing because of the price, now's your chance. And these are actually out of print, so the copies we have are the last ones ever!
Her's our review from when we first reviewed it:
We almost didn't list this, as we only managed to get 5 copies of it, and all of our distributors told us it was out of print. But just for the heck of it, we contacted the label directly, and they still had a stash that they were willing to sell us, which is a good thing, cuz it's amazing! And it's CRAZY expensive, but when you see it (and hear it) you'll realize it's pretty much well worth it.
Never heard the name Karl Bosmann before, but he seems to be sonically aligned with the doomdreamdeathdrone crowd. And that's precisely what this is, although a bit more varied than usual, this one's definitely for the SUNNO)))-set (ummŠ sorry), a huge old chunk of low end drone. Multiple variations on the glacial near static crawl, some glimmering and effervescent, others grinding and thick, crumbling and abrasive, at least one seems to be all processed vocals, looped and smeared into some weird Steve Reich-ian drone and coupled with a wash of minimal low end shimmer, and one is all detuned guitar strum and disembodied buzz. Easy to hear some Wolf Eyes and definitely some Vulture Club. All of side 2 is a single slow burning sidelong epic, very Fear Falls Burning sounding, beginning as a whispery shimmer, building to a massive clamorous Sunroof! style din.
And let's not forget the packaging. Holy shit, it would be worth it even if the record sucked. Embossed metallic silver on matte black jacket, inside a metallic silver on black insert, a metallic silver on black sleeve, even the record labels are reflective silver, super striking and SO worth the extra scratch.

CHROME Alien Soundtracks (Noiseville) cd 16.98
Get out the tinfoil, draw the blinds, turn the television to static and brace yourself for the amphetamine-fueled paranoid mind-fuck of San Francisco's industrial wastoids, Chrome!
Their three seminal albums from the late seventies/early eighties, Alien Soundtracks, Half Machine Lip Moves, and 3rd From The Sun have thankfully been re-issued by the Noiseville label who have brought us stellar releases from Skullflower and Wicked King Wicker among others. Led by Damon Edge and Helios Creed, Chrome channeled The Stooges raw garage energy with Hawkwind's mindmelting space rock acid-psych and the electronic proto-art-punk of bands like Debris' and The Styrenes into a spazzy amalgam of sci-fi distortion, glam-punk chaos, and all manner of machine fuckery including television samples, bizarre tape manipulations and random fuzz-filled noise. Inspired by the future-shock visionary writings of J.G Ballard and Philip K. Dick, Chrome were cyber-punk before the term had even been popularized! In fact, they were one of those bands who became much more popular after their demise, when bands like The Butthole Surfers, Big Black and other Touch and Go bands started gaining notoriety in the mid-eighties college rock scene.
Alien Soundtracks from 1978 was Chrome's second album after the relatively straight forward rock of their debut The Visitation. But by then Helios Creed joined the band and Chrome's signature sound, centering on Creed's grinding pitch-shifting guitar attack and Edge's aggro drumming and damaged tape manipulations, were firmly in place. Supposedly recorded as a soundtrack for a live sex show, songs like, "Magnetic Dwarf Reptile" and "Slip It To The Android", display a sleazy suggestiveness with scuzzy rhythms and odd wailed crooning. While their fascination with science fiction's darker side (especially involving man-machine biologies and mind-controlling robots in a techno-industrial wasteland) manifested itself in vicious electronics and disturbing drones over the layers of buried vocals and speed-driven guitar riffage.
MPEG Stream: "Chromosome Damge"
MPEG Stream: "Pygmies In Zee Dark"
MPEG Stream: "Slip It To The Android"

CHROME Third From The Sun (Noiseville) cd 16.98
Get out the tinfoil, draw the blinds, turn the television to static and brace yourself for the amphetamine-fueled paranoid mind-fuck of San Francisco's industrial wastoids, Chrome!
Their three seminal albums from the late seventies/early eighties, Alien Soundtracks, Half Machine Lip Moves, and 3rd From The Sun have thankfully been re-issued by the Noiseville label who have brought us stellar releases from Skullflower and Wicked King Wicker among others. Led by Damon Edge and Helios Creed, Chrome channeled The Stooges raw garage energy with Hawkwind's mindmelting space rock acid-psych and the electronic proto-art-punk of bands like Debris' and The Styrenes into a spazzy amalgam of sci-fi distortion, glam-punk chaos, and all manner of machine fuckery including television samples, bizarre tape manipulations and random fuzz-filled noise. Inspired by the future-shock visionary writings of J.G Ballard and Philip K. Dick, Chrome were cyber-punk before the term had even been popularized! In fact, they were one of those bands who became much more popular after their demise, when bands like The Butthole Surfers, Big Black and other Touch and Go bands started gaining notoriety in the mid-eighties college rock scene.
3rd From The Sun from 1982 was the band's final outing, after a couple years in the wilderness of label and line-up changes. More accessible songwise then the previous two records we reviewed, 3rd From The Sun still displays the sonic weirdness and alien paranoia that is classic Chrome! Dirge-y and brooding but with a new and crisper sounding rhythm section, this is heavier and more feedback laden with a greater emphasis on Creed's psych guitar than Edge's tape manipulations. They're definitely building the darker atmosphere here, rather than aggressively filling the space, on some tracks feeling like they're going in a more Zodiac Mindwarp direction (read: black leather and sunglasses) that Helios Creed would pursue more fully on his solo records. Definitely the type of sleazy sinister vibe that would fit right in at a strip club owned by David Lynch!
MPEG Stream: "Armageddon"
MPEG Stream: "Off The Line"
MPEG Stream: "3rd From The Sun"

CRADLE OF FILTH Dusk And Her Embrace (Koch) lp 18.98
NOW ON VINYL, AGAIN! "Litanies of damnation, death, and the darkly erotic" from Britain's biggest (and best?) black metal act, the notorious Cradle of Filth. Andee was already a fan of their previous discs, but this is the one that convinced Allan that CoF were pretty darn great. Totally over the top, storming black metal mixed with Hammer Horror theatrics. It's fast, complex, and brutal. Definitely extreme despite their "sell-out" reputation. The CoF disc to get, to start with, we all agree.

CROWLEY, ALEISTER 1910-1914: Black Magic Recordings (Cleopatra) lp 16.98
Now available on vinyl!!
Folks had been bugging us to track down this record for ages, Black Magic Recordings by none other than the "wickedest man in the world" (at least when he was still OF this world), but we hadn't been able to figure out where to get them. We assumed it must have been released on some tiny obscure microlabel, or maybe it was a bootleg or something, but lo and behold, it was right under or noses, released on good old Cleopatra Records. Home to much modern goth and industrial. And while we can definitely see how this stuff might appeal to the industrial goth kids, it is evil after all, and black magic, but it seems to us the folks that would be way more into this, are aQ customers, fans of the obscure and mysterious, found sounds and field recordings, this would fit perfectly between your Conet Project and your Ghost Orchid disc of EVP recordings (depending, we guess, on what strange alien alphabetization you use).
These recordings have been available before in various quasi bootleg editions, probably most notably as 1910-1914 Wax Cylinder Recordings released on the Transparency label. But they are the same recordings, since these are the only recordings of Crowley in existence.
It's been a while since we listened to the Transparency disc, but these tracks definitely sound a little cleaned up, which is almost too bad, but fear not, there's still plenty of hiss and crackle and warble and buzz and fuzz, it's taken from wax cylinders after all. Basically, this is a collection of Crowley recording various stories, poems, writings, incantations and magical spells. His delivery very songlike, chantlike at times, fans of the Doomsday Cult recordings will also probably love this. The highlight probably being the Call Of The Aethyr tracks, each delivered both in English, but also in Enochian, a magical language supposedly discovered and used by John Dee, magician to the court of Queen Elizabeth. It may sound like speaking in tongues, but it is in fact a real language, with grammar and syntax, rumored to be a degenerate form of the language spoken in the lost city of Atlantis.
Includes extensive liner notes, nothing about the recordings, but a fairly comprehensive history of Crowley's life. And while they last, it also comes with an Aleister Crowley patch AND pin!
MPEG Stream: "The Call Of The First Aethyr"
MPEG Stream: "The Pentagram"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpts From The Gnostic Mass"

DARSOMBRA + VARIOUS ARTISTS Nymphaea (Public Guilt) cd-r 9.98
Got a few more copies of this back in stock!
Hopefully you already know Darsombra, seeing as we made their last Public Guilt release, Eternal Jewel, a Record Of The Week not too many moons ago. Atmospheric dark doom-drone experimentation not unlike a more sinister Expo '70 or a proggier Nadja. If you don't know 'em, get this and you'll get to know at least one of their songs really really well, in a way.
Track one here, "Nymphaea", is a head-nodding exercise in bass heavy, slow-building psychedelic instrumental throb. It starts out with plenty of distortion, and only gets heavier and more blown-out as it plods forth, adding a snakily melodic guitar line to further entrance the listener. It originally appeared as Darsombra's contribution to the "untitled" 3cd comp PG help put out last year, and now it has spawned this collection of remixes, a dozen of them, tracks 2-13!
It's pretty fascinating to hear this single song morph from track to track, 'cause they're all very different, the each remixer definitely making it their own, from blissed out vocal pop (Max Bondi & Bleeding Heart Narrative's "Hyena Amp mix") to big-beat crash-boom electro (Pulsoc's "True Love Never Dies remix") to creepy drone-noise ambience (Guilty Connector's "Dotonburi Neonnights") and that's just the first three mixes on here! Elsewhere, Ala Muerte adds eerie female voice doing Latin chant, Destructo Swarmbots strip the track down to a minimal low-end hum, The Heirs Of Rockefeller crank up the fuzz, focussing on the song's incessant hypnotic plod... all these and the rest of the remixers generally fucking with this track in many compelling and often unexpected ways. Darsombra have every reason to proudly approve what's been done with, or done to, their "Nymphaea" here. Remixers not already mentioned above also include Perfekt Teeth, Magicicada, Strotter Inst., Decimation Blvd. & Darla Hood, Blood Fountains, and le knell.
LIMITED EDITION! 250 COPIES ONLY! We only got 20! On a black cd-r in a slim, screen printed sleeve with vellum obi.
MPEG Stream: DARSOMBRA "Nymphaea"
MPEG Stream: BLOOD FOUNTAINS "Nymphaea Seance remix"
MPEG Stream: PULSOC "Nymphaea True Love Never Dies remix"
MPEG Stream: THE HEIRS OF ROCKEFELLER "Nymphaea The Drugs Won The Drug War Mix"

DARWINSBITCH Steel Hum (Digitalis Ltd.) cassette 11.98
A member of Myrmyr and Date Palms, Marielle V. Jakobsons has been a busy bee lately. Since graduating from the prestigious Mills College where she was involved in various sound art installations (including building a self-oscillating violin!!) she's been recording constantly, and honestly we can't get enough of what we've heard so far. Steel Hums is her debut tape release on Digitalis Ltd. under the name Dawrwinsbitch, and it's a mystical venture to unknown crossroads where Indian classical music meets modern composition. Combining the ever-growing possibilities of tape manipulation with long tone violin composition, Steel Hums is dark, dim, and somehow lush and beautiful. Kinda sounds like a lost recording of some ancient violinist, dug up in midst of some industrial ruins, or if Henry Flynt went gothic. Really awesome stuff!! AND Darwinsbitch has also just released a debut cd on Digitalis, much more on that once we get a hold of it. But for now, feast your ears on this little slab of gorgeously dark ambient beauty. And as usual for stuff on Digitalis Ltd., this shit is super super limited. Like, so limited we only have four. So if ya got your heart set on this little gem, we suggest you act fast. Oh and also, this tape ain't cheap, but trust us, the music on here is totally worth it!! Don't miss out this limited release from one of Oakland's finest female artists!!

DEERHUNTER Microcastle / Weird Era Continued (Kranky) 2lp 17.98
Newly repressed on -double- vinyl with the original cd artwork!
Due to a little thing called the interwebs (we've never heard of it), the tracks for Deerhunter's long-awaited follow-up to last years much loved Cryptograms were prematurely leaked. So to give those of us who still like their music packaged in physical formats more bang for their buck, they recorded an EXTRA full length, called Weird Era Continued, and included it now on vinyl as an added bonus. Very nice of them! This time around they fused their pop sensibilities and their more experimental hazy dronescape leanings together into songs that recall the best of classic 4AD shimmer with sixties wall of sound pop. There isn't too much difference between the two records, but the song-writing is strong enough and the production nuanced enough to keep our attention through both. While we might have liked some more spacier instrumental moments like the ones found on Cryptograms, it seems Bradford Cox has begun to channel his more experimental side into his other project, Atlas Sound, where it is actually better suited. Still this is pretty damn solid!
MPEG Stream: "Agoraphobia"
MPEG Stream: "Neither of Us, Uncertainly"
MPEG Stream: "Dot Gain"
MPEG Stream: "Calvary Scars II / Aux Out"

EIBON s/t (Aesthetic Death) cd 14.98
Back in stock!
Second of two new releases from the mighty Aesthetic Death label, who we owe big time, for not only releasing records by Wijlen Wj, Stumm, Wreck Of The Hesperus, but for being the long standing and likely long suffering home of ultradoomlords Esoteric. Check out the Murkrat elsewhere on this list for a whole different take on doom, but this here, the first full length from French sludge four piece Eibon, is classic doom drenched sludge, or sludgey doom, or whatever you want to call it. Massive downtuned guitars chugging and grinding away, pounding pummeling caveman drumming, gurgled beast-from-below bellows, plenty of feedback, but this isn't really ultra slow, we're not talking Monarch or anything like that, this is sludge-y more like Eyehategod or Grief or Bongzilla, midtempo, the guitars almost groovy, lurching and lumbering, the sound incredibly heavy and blown out, thick and dense, the distortion so thick that when a note is held for more than a second or two it seems to crumble before your ears. The band locked into a killer groove that barring a short stretch of feedback drenched ambience, never wavers, and occasionally explodes into dense bursts of furious tribal drumming and some seriously druggy downerpsychdoom guitar freakouts.
The second track begins oddly enough with acoustic guitar, but the riff is soon swallowed up by the same riff, albeit soaked in fuzz and buzz and distortion, even slower and doomier that the opener, the main riff is a killer, the guitars tuned sooooooo loooow, they seem to warp and warble, occasionally fading out, leaving a sort of space rock minimal jam rife with weird effects and even some super simple melodic leads draped over the top. Could be vintage Monster Magnet actually during those parts, but the band soon launches back into the lurching dirge that opened the track, eventually finishing off in a noise drenched feedback smothered squall of blown out psychedelic high end ur-drone.
MPEG Stream: "Asleep And Threatening"
MPEG Stream: "Staring At The Abyss"

ENO, BRIAN & DAVID BYRNE My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (Nonesuch) 2lp 35.00
Now on deluxe thick double vinyl with bonus tracks!!!
Mixing elements of world, funk, dub, and electronic music has for the most part turned out to be a recipe for disaster. All too many have attempted this mix with a glossy shine and a clumsy hand and without fail have produced pretty tepid attempts at cross cultural imagination. From 1979-1980 Brian Eno and David Byrne recorded -their- take on this fusion years before it became chic and of course with just the right kind of careful and talented hands, and were actually able to make those elements come together and create a brand new language. What's so nice about hearing this reissue is how it's both ahead of its time but also so OF it's time as well. With moments that bring you back to the bits on early Talking Heads records that you could listen to over and over, and with a recording quality so refreshingly raw and primitive. This record was recorded by a large ensemble cast including Bill Laswell who was just then starting his band Material with lots of the same ideas and elements. While not totally related in exact sound we can totally see how many of today's cross cultural sonic explorers were influenced by this record. There's no doubt these were sounds soaked up by the best hip-hop & electronic producers of the '80s and '90s as well as folks like Animal Collective, Excepter and even Glissandro 70, whose record we review elsewhere on this list. This reissue adds a handful of bonus tracks not on the original version and unlike most extras these are in fact all essential.
Fully remastered on 180 gram vinyl with 7 previously unreleased tracks as well as selections from the multi-tracks (drum track, vocal track and ambient track) of "Help Me Somebody" and "A Secret Life" !!!!
MPEG Stream: "Very Very Hungry"
MPEG Stream: "Mea Culpa"
MPEG Stream: "Solo Guitar With Tin Foil"

ENSEMBLE PITTORESQUE The Art Of Being (Minimal Wave) lp 24.00
The Art Of Being comes courtesy of Minimal Wave, the label that has been digging deep, very deep into the realms of post-punk and new wave to uncover many a release that might have been lost otherwise. For those who have procured plenty of terminal obscurities from such blogspots as Mutant Sounds, No Longer Forgotten Music, or Systems of Romance, some of the vinyl-only reissues on Minimal Wave may be familiar. But these are no grey area reissues. Minimal Wave has assured us that they have taken great care to procure the rights for each of these recordings!
Ensemble Pittoresque was an obscure Dutch electro-punk band, who managed to release a couple of LPs in the mid '80s. Having been averse to performing live, they didn't garner that much of a following beyond the small distribution they had managed throughout the Netherlands and a few neighboring countries. The Art Of Being is a collection of lost recordings, none of which had been released until this edition for Minimal Wave. Ensemble Pittoresque submitted some of this material as a demo to Polydor in 1982, only to fail to move beyond opening negotiations. The recordings are very synth heavy, drawing in equal parts from John Carpenter's soundtracks, Fripp and Eno's Evening Star, and the early albums by the Human League. Amidst the icy bellowing from the synth melodies and sci-fi eerieness, Ensemble Pittoresque dotted their songs with acoustic guitars and vocals buried deep in the mix. Really great stuff, we must say!

GRAYCEON This Grand Show (Vendlus) cd 14.98
San Francisco's own Grayceon follow up their self-titled 2007 debut with This Grand Show, a moody and majestic work that seamlessly merges gothy cello (yes, cello) dirges with more metallic riffage, resulting in a highly textured album, further augmented by the cleanly sung female/male vocals that bring to mind a sort of British folk/doom metal hybrid. Think Amber Asylum (of which cellist Jackie Perez Gratz is also a member) meets a less overtly crushing ASVA, with a bit of Pentangle thrown in. The complex, multifaceted songs take you on a dreamlike journey full of serpentine guitar riffs, plodding drumbeats and gloomy atmosphere. All the while, the cello keeps things nice and mournful, and just when you've serenely slipped into Grayceon's beautiful world of despair, the band effortlessly shows their METAL pedigree with hyperspeed blastbeats and an almost black metal heaviness. The result is hypnotic, beautiful, and intense. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Still The Desert"
MPEG Stream: "Sleep"

LINDSTROM Where You Go I Go Too (Special Edition) (Feedelity / Smalltown Supersound) 2cd 16.98
This is a bonus deluxe reissue of Lindstrom's debut full length, which comes with an extra disc of re-edits of all the tracks from Lindstrom's beardo-disco partner in crime, Prins Thomas. We don't think this is entirely worth re-purchasing if you have already bought it once, but for those of you haven't already, you get an extra treat!
Here is what we said about the original:
It would be difficult to say that Lindstrom has finally come into his own, but it's really not his fault. Given the retro-modern angle of his entire project, it's not really even a good or bad thing. The sounds, the composition, the melodic structures, they're all questionably '80s. Not '80s like Giorgio Moroder or Daniele Baldelli - as most commonly referenced, but more like a blend of Jan Hammer, Rick Astley, and, like, Paul Lekakis? Sure, a little John Carpenter even. If you can overlook all the kitsch, the bizarre nostalgia for music that may or may not have really been necessary, then Lindstrom is your guy. This particular release shows him both more minimal and more maximal, restrained and indulgent. Each of the three tracks unfold slowly, releasing one arpeggiation after another, deftly resting upon various analog drum sounds and sampled percussive devices. The production is great as usual, and no doubt the guy must have an impressive collection of vintage synths, etc. So far as songwriting, it's suspiciously absent. As with the majority of his releases, the focus is on process, development, and a definite amount of abandon as a listener. Just sitting back and seeing where he wants to take you, which is more often than not just some '80s soundtrack. Sure, "I Feel Space" was a great track, and undoubtedly helped to spark the fairly recent explosion of space disco and gave people a strange justification to somehow openly talk about Todd Rundgren as a musical hero, or something. However, the promise of that single has largely fallen flat. Truth be told, this release is a better than his usual fare, but not really essential for anyone other than completists or huge fans.
MPEG Stream: "Grand Ideas"
MPEG Stream: "The Long Way Home"

LINEAR MOVEMENT On The Screen (Minimal Wave) lp 24.00
This gem appears thanks to the folks at Minimal Wave, the label that has been digging deep, very deep into the realms of post-punk and new wave to uncover many a release that might have been lost. For those who have procured plenty of terminal obscurities from such blogspots as Mutant Sounds, No Longer Forgotten Music, or Systems of Romance, some of the reissues on Minimal Wave may be familiar. But these are no grey area reissues. Minimal Wave has assured us that they have taken great care to procure the rights for each of these recordings!
Linear Movement was a short-lived project by Peter Bonne that ran from 1982 and 1984, paralleling his work in the bands Autumn and Twilight Ritual. While neither of these projects mean much to us, his later project A Split Second was one we are quite familiar with, as one of the seminal Electronic Body Music projects alongside Front 242, Neon Judgement, and everything on Antler-Subway circa 1988. But given the earlier time frame, Linear Movement is a much more primitive affair, melding electro-pop to bits of post-punk disco grooves, amidst punchy synth stabs and occasional detours towards darker, somber arppegiations. Altogether, Linear Movement falls somewhere near the Bippp compilation that Ed Banger resurrected, Vince Clarke era Depeche Mode, and yes, early Front 242. Lieve Van Steerteghem is the female vocalist who pops up on perhaps the best tracks on the album.

LONEY DEAR Dear John (Polyvinyl) cd 15.98
No, the name is not Lonely, Dear!!! Can't tell you how many times we've seen this one-man band's moniker spelled incorrectly. It irks us, and we imagine it must drive him nuts too! Anyhoo, all that business aside, we've been diggin this Swedish gent's new album plenty. It starts out far more driving and far less sweet than 2007's Loney, Noir. Last time he drew easy vocal comparisons to Arcade Fire, but his fifth album Dear John finds him slipping gracefully in line with the elaborate high tech bedroom recordings of Postal Service. Hmmm, haven't heard from them in quite a while, so it's a fine time for Loney Dear's dreamily wistful electronic pop to fill the void. Lovely, dear!
MPEG Stream: "I Was Only Going Out"
MPEG Stream: "Summers"

LONEY DEAR Dear John (Polyvinyl) lp 15.98
No, the name is not Lonely, Dear!!! Can't tell you how many times we've seen this one-man band's moniker spelled incorrectly. It irks us, and we imagine it must drive him nuts too! Anyhoo, all that business aside, we've been diggin this Swedish gent's new album plenty. It starts out far more driving and far less sweet than 2007's Loney, Noir. Last time he drew easy vocal comparisons to Arcade Fire, but his fifth album Dear John finds him slipping gracefully in line with the elaborate high tech bedroom recordings of Postal Service. Hmmm, haven't heard from them in quite a while, so it's a fine time for Loney Dear's dreamily wistful electronic pop to fill the void. Lovely, dear!
MPEG Stream: "I Was Only Going Out"
MPEG Stream: "Summers"

MARTIN DUPONT Lost And Late... (Minimal Wave) lp 24.00
Here's another lost gem from Minimal Wave, the label that has been digging deep, very deep into the realms of post-punk and new wave to uncover many a release that might have been lost. For those who have procured plenty of terminal obscurities from such blogspots as Mutant Sounds, No Longer Forgotten Music, or Systems of Romance, some of the reissues on Minimal Wave may be familiar. But these are no grey area reissues. Minimal Wave has assured us that they have taken great care to procure the rights for each of these recordings!
Martin Dupont was a French new wave band with a brief run in the mid '80s, and according to Minimal Wave, the band had acquired something of a cult status in their homeland for their peculiar take on synth-pop. Amidst the catchy melodies and mechanoid drum machines, Martin Dupont alternated between the wailing, barking vocals of Alain Seghir and the ethereal voices of Catherine Loy and Brigitte Balain. Kraftwerk and Joy Division are the references that the band claimed as their own; but their sound resembles the crypto-weirdness of Fad Gadget complete with splatters of trumpet, disjointed left-field rhythms, and purposefully over the top theatrics care of Seghir.

OTESANEK / LOSS / ORTHODOX / MOURNFUL CONGREGATION Four Burials (Battle Kommand) cd 13.98
BACK IN STOCK! Somehow managed to score another 8 or 10 copies!
The good news, is that this disc will be absolute heaven (or hell if you prefer) for the doom obsessed, for those who NEED utter and extreme heaviness, who thrive on massive walls of sludge, of creeping crumbling downtuned riffage, of skull splitting rib cage rattling drum pound. And the fact that this disc contains exclusive tracks from four of THEE heaviest and THEE doomiest bands around. The bad news though, is that somehow, this disc is already sold out at the label, so this could very well be the last we see of Four Burials. We did get a bunch of these, but since so many of the aQ faithful are of the doomier persuasion, odds are these will disappear in no time.
So most doomlords will see the above names and that's all it'll take, four exclusive tracks, LONG ones, from Loss, Orthodox, Mournful Congregation and Otesanek. For avid readers of the aQ list, you too are probably familiar with 2 or 3 of those. But just in case, we'll give a quick rundown of the bands / tracks that make up the Four Burials here...
Otesanek is up first. Last heard from splitting a disc with Japan's Coffins. They are definitely doomy, obviously, but might also be the heaviest of the bunch, a sort of Eyehategod meets Moss thing going on, and one of the few bands this slooooooow, to also fuck things up big time. Super strange arrangements, ultra dynamic, lots of weird starts and stops, angular riffs, crazy vocals (both male and female, both super intense and harsh). Definitely for fans of Khanate and Bunkur and all that sort of ultradoomdirge, but weirder and more fucked up. Definitely dying to hear more from these guys.
Next up is Loss, whose approach to doom is much more classic and melodic, beginning with some unnerving samples, woven into a spare doomy plod, the band slip into some seriously melodic post rock, all clean guitar and sparse drumming, eventually morphing into a sound majestic and massive, a bit like old My Dying Bride, impossibly loooow vocals, super mournful melodies, very dramatic and miserable. The song weaves back and forth between that classic doom-ic crush and the melancholy loping post rock, eventually somehow fusing the two.
Then comes longtime faves Orthodox, from Spain, whose sound, especially here, is way more spacious and spare, very minimal. with long stretches that are practically inaudible over the daily din of the store (this is headphone doom for sure!). Chanting, monk-like and somber, clean guitars drifting and shimmering, simple stripped down drumming, some wailing dramatic vocals, the sound an abstract mysterious slowcore that seems to get more and more strangely psychedelic, without ever getting overtly heavy. Really strange, but fans of Orthodox will already be well used to their, umm... un-Orthodox approach to all things doom.
Last up, legendary purveyors of true doom, Australia's Mournful Congregation, whose sound is sad and sorrowful, melancholy and miserable, a gorgeously epic lugubrious crawl, super melodic, but totally washed out and painted in sweeping shades of black and grey. Think Skepticism, Thergothon, Esoteric, Asunder, the sort of dark, slow motion, soul stirring creep we could listen to forever.
MPEG Stream: OTESANEK "Seven Are They"
MPEG Stream: LOSS "(To Pass Away) Death March Towards My Ruin"

RADIANT HUSK Several Potem (Bezoar Formations) cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Holy shit, 30 seconds into this mysteriously packaged cd-r from SF's own M. Erickson and we're totally sucked into his hypnotic world of saxophone, synths and other various droning devices. Long tones enveloping and luring us through the darkened doors of a stone temple, beams of light pouring from an ominous orb that hangs above its dreary entrance. Mystical, entrancing and all-the-while darkly sinister. Dreary loops that move in a rhythmic march while trembling vocals ring out from the bowels of an empty cave. If Terry Riley ever spent a year alone in the deep dark woods of Norway, the final product might sound similar to this. Forested alchemic nightmare-ish minimalism, perfect for fans of Bonecloud, Ghosting or even Expo 70. But be forewarned, you WILL be left wanting more, as this limited cd-r from Bezoar barely even lasts thirty minutes. Short, sweet and to the point, highly recommended and a must have for all those who bow at the gates of the mystic minimalism temple.
MPEG Stream: "Bell Peel"
MPEG Stream: "Water Margins"

SLOWBLOW s/t (Mobile) cd 16.98
Hurray, available again! Back in 2004, this Icelandic duo's self titled album made its way across the pond and into our welcome ears. Mind you, we had to turn every noisy machine in the store and hope for a respite from the jackhammering road work outside... yes, their music is really that hushed and hanging-by-a-thread intimate. Maybe best listened to late at night in a darkened room or deep in the woods? Daylight would surely overwhelm it.
Here's what we said about it the first time around:
Slowblow whisper out the gentlest of folk-pop, and they're assisted in their quiet mission by some baby-girl cooing vocals courtesy of Kristin Anna Valtysdottir from fellow Icelanders Mum. Some of their songs are so frail that a full drumkit would surely overwhelm them, thus instead a soft beat is tapped out on a woodblock. The livelier numbers do feature a more fleshed out rhythm section complete with handclaps. Although most of the album is of the hushed and earthy nature, every so often Slowblow take an unexpected musical detour or two. For instance, while the fourth song "Second Hand Smoke" sounds like a secret menagerie of wooden and tin toys, the very next track is a raw, almost garagey and Fall-ish tune with distorted vocals and clatterous percussion. Then, it's back into a somber, countrified number with plucked banjo and beleaguered Arab Strap-y male vocals. Depending on your sugar tolerance, you might find the songs with Kristin's vocals a bit cloying, but overall this album is ultra wistful and pretty.
MPEG Stream: "I Know You Can Smile"
MPEG Stream: "Aim For A Smile"

SOULEYMAN, OMAR Highway To Hassake: Folk & Pop Sounds Of Syria (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
THIS GREAT ALBUM FINALLY RE-PRESSED AND BACK IN STOCK!!
The ever-reliable Sublime Frequencies label opens our ears to new frontiers of amazing sounds, AGAIN. "World music" isn't just what Putumayo puts out, y'know. Any adventurous music-fan should by now know to pick up each and every Sublime Frequencies release as they appear, you won't be disappointed. This latest cd presents some "Folk And Pop Sounds Of Syria" in the form of a "best-of" collection of tunes by one Omar Souleyman, selected (and explicated in the liner notes) by AQ pal Mark Gergis (of Porest, Neung Phak, Mono Pause). Mark was the compiler of previous Sublime Freq faves like Choubi Choubi, Molam: Thai Country Groove, and Cambodian Cassette Archives. Already we hope you're eager to hear this disc, which features a variety of traditional folk forms from Souleyman's homeland and nearby countries supercharged with synth, the rapid fire results sounding something like a Middle Eastern version of Aavikko, almost. It'll make you sweat just listening to it. This stuff simply shreds. And when it's more mellowed-out, Souleyman's music is gorgeous too.
Now, we don't usually like to quote label press-releases whole-hog, but Sublime Frequencies has provided a lot of factual info on Souleyman and his music that any potential purchaser will find of interest, and so rather than paraphrase, here's what they said about this, it should certainly pique your curiosity all the more (though we'll tell you right now without further ado, GET THIS):
"Omar Souleyman is a Syrian musical legend. Since 1994, he and his musicians have emerged as a staple of folk-pop throughout Syria, but until now they have remained little known outside of the country. To date, they have issued more than five-hundred studio and live-recorded cassette albums which are easily spotted in the shops of any Syrian city. Born in rural northeastern Syria, he began his musical career in 1994 with a small group of local collaborators that remain with him today. The myriad musical traditions of the region are evident in their music. Here, classical Arabic mawal-style vocalization gives way to high-octane Syrian dabke (the regional folkloric dance and party music), Iraqi choubi and a host of Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish styles, among others. This amalgamation is truly the sound of Syria. The music often has an overdriven sound consisting of phase-shifted Arabic keyboard solos and frantic rhythms. At breakneck speeds, these shrill Syrian electronics play out like forbidden Morse-code, but the moods swing from coarse and urgent to dirgy and contemplative in the rugged anthems that comprise Souleyman's repertoire. Oud, reeds, baglama saz, accompanying vocals and percussion fill out the sound from track to track. Mahmoud Harbi is a long-time collaborator and the man responsible for much of the poetry sung by Souleyman. Together, they commonly perform the "Ataba," a traditional form of folk poetry used in Dabke. On stage, Harbi chain smokes cigarettes while standing shoulder to shoulder with Souleyman, periodically leaning over to whisper the material into his ear. Acting as a conduit, Souleyman struts into the audience with urgency, vocalizing the prose in song before returning for the next verse. Souleyman's first hit in Syria was "Jani" (1996) which gained cassette-kiosk infamy and brought him recognition throughout the country. Sublime Frequencies is honored to present the Western debut of Omar Souleyman with this retrospective disc of studio and live recordings spanning 12 years of his career, culled from cassettes recorded between 1994 and 2006. This collection offers a rare glimpse into Syrian street-level folk-pop and Dabke - a phenomena seldom heard in the West, not previously deemed serious enough for export by the Syrians and rarely, if ever, included on the import agenda of worldwide academic musical committees."
Got it? Get it. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Leh Jani"
MPEG Stream: "Atabat"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Wear Black, Green Suits You Better"

TERRORIZER issue #179 January 2009 magazine + cd 9.25
THE magazine of "extreme" metal (all metal, really, except for really wimpy glam/pop/hair metal stuff that doesn't really exist much in this day and age), England's Terrorizer, presents their first issue of 2009, which includes their '2009 Preview' of exciting upcoming releases (from Absu to Voivod), the results of the 2008 Reader's Poll, their writer's picks for the top 40 albums of '08 (number one: Enslaved, and hey, Jex Thoth clocks in at 30), and all sorts of other stuff. There's the usual massive review section, and news flashes, and ads for insane European metal festivals you'll never get to go to. Then of course interviews, with the likes of cover stars Children of Bodom, Ephel Duath, Saxon, Architects, and others, including a ton of brief bits on less-known bands, among whom we noted The Wizar'd and The Devil's Blood. What else? A scene report on Swedish metal new and old, a look back at the making of ...And Justice For All, and more - including the usual bonus cover-mounted cd sampler w/ tracks by Behemoth, Kreator, Bullet, and others. Lots to delve into here, headbangers!

TRAVELLERS The Sound Of Travellers (PlusTapes) cassette 5.50
LAST FEW COPIES!!!!
Very few record labels attain the sort of iconic status usually reserved for artists, and those that do, often spend YEARS cultivating a roster, and developing a fanbase, made up of the sort of fans that will buy ANYTHING and everything on the label. In the past, Sub Pop, Touch And Go, Homestead, tUMULt (sez Andee!), but lately a couple labels have managed to make that leap in a matter of months rather than years. Mississippi of course. Reissuing all manner or blues, gospel and punk rock rarities on vinyl, and now Plus Tapes, who are doing the same, albeit with international sounds instead, and focusing on the cassette tape as the format of choice. Always limited, and always guaranteed to sell out in a heartbeat.
And this latest reissue from Plus Tapes will most likely be no different, aside from those folks who will buy ANYTHING, regardless of what it is, before they hear it or even know anything about it, this collection from Travellers, will be of great interest to fans of all the Sublime Frequencies releases for sure. From Singapore, Travellers, traffic in a sort of groovy jazzy surf pop, rife with Morricone-isms, plenty of twang, groovy Mariachi horns, fluttering flutes, simple shuffling drums, spidery guitar melodies, cheesy synthesizers and lots of reverby surf rock , occasional wild rock saxophone, all with a distinctly Eastern vibe.
Lots of this sounds like the soundtrack from some long lost Western or kung fu epic, surfy, jazzy, funky, folky, playful, slipping from minor key moodiness to fun sunshine-y poppiness, always dramatic and evocative and most definitely always groovy.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! Already sold out at the label, we have the last copies, more than a third of the pressing came to aQ, but these still probably won't last long. Full color covers, hand numbered, green tapes, correspondingly numbered!
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 2"

VIETUS MORTUUS The Cursed And The Blessed (self released) cd-r 4.98
We got this disc a while back, but like many things around here, it got overlooked in the day to day hustle and bustle, and we only just rediscovered them a couple days ago, and figured we should get it reviewed and up on the list. Cuz it's from a year or two ago, and cuz you know we gotta represent, this horde of black metal warriors is from right here in the Bay Area, Oakland to be exact, and have been playing around town like crazy.
This demo is super raw, practice space style, lo-fi for sure, with loud drums, loud vocals, and the guitars murky and muddy and a little lost in the mix, but the various parts tend to bleed into one another, making for a fuzzy blown out bit of blasting blackness. Chaotic and primal, noisy and almost punky at times, and weirdly enough, there seems to be some super melodic poppy elements creeping in here and there. Which gives the sound (especially the opening track) a really strange vibe.
MPEG Stream: "This Is Not A Dream"
MPEG Stream: "The Cursed And The Blessed"

WINTERS Black Clouds In Twin Galaxies (Candlelight) cd 13.98
We've had this record by British band Winters (not to be confused with seminal doom-dirge act Winter) for some time now, but as with so many deserving things, didn't find time to review it until now, and it's a shame 'cause it's a great album we probably should have highlighted back when. Well, great if you love Nirvana and things that sound like Nirvana. The worst criticism (unoriginality) that could be leveled against Winters is also their biggest draw - how much they sound like good ol' Nirvana!! That's right. Though this came out (in '07) via England's hairy, heavy Rise Above label (home to the doomy, stoner likes of Electric Wizard and Witchcraft, among others), Winters are a bit poppier than you might expect. With loads of fuzzy, crunchy guitar riffs, yeah - but definitely poppy in an old school GRUNGE way, complete with slightly whiney, sometimes sing-songy vocals very reminiscent of Kurt Cobain's. The Melvins and Black Sabbath and '60s garage psych are all obvious influences (the band also cites The Creation, The Kinks, Elliott Smith, and Witchfinder General, among other inspirations). Their song "Aftershown" is what "Iron Man" would have sounded like if it had been ripped off by Kurt for inclusion on Bleach! And there's plenty more of those sorts of Sabbath meets Shocking Blue riffs and hooks on here, both languid and lurching. Aside from Nirvana, we'd also figure that fans of old Soundgarden and Fudge Tunnel might dig this, among others... or for more recent reference, how 'bout imagining a hybrid of the first albums from Burning Brides and Witch?
MPEG Stream: "Aftershown"
MPEG Stream: "I'm A Destroyer"

XLR8R #124 January / February 2009 magazine 4.99
We've been stocking this popular magazine regularly for a little while now and thought we ought to put it on our website so mailorderers looking for more readin' material could get in on the XLR8R action. Focusing primarily on electronica type stuff, XLR8R also dabbles with the rock... This issue features Mr. Oizo on the cover, plus Zomby, the Vivian Girls, Telepathe, Senor Coconut... and much more, including ex-AQ'er Antaeus' band Lazer Sword. It's pretty packed, with reviews, columns, all sorts of stuff. And if that wasn't enough, the plastic bag it's wrapped in also contains an even bigger, BONUS magazine, the very first issue of XLR8R's Vis-Ed publication, devoted to visual arts! Featuring hip artists Rinzen, Kustaa Saksi, Catalina Estrada, Brent Rollins, Brian Roettinger, Laurent Fetis, Seripop, JK5, Freegums, Superdeux...




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V/A Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture Vol. 1 (Soul Jazz) 2lp 25.00
Never listed this on vinyl before, here it is... Avid readers of the list know we love dancehall, from classic dancehall reggae, right up to the more aggro super heavy junglized ragga dancehall. And those same readers are probably well familiar with the Soul Jazz label, and their amazing, elaborate, painstakingly assembled, meticulously researched reissue compilations. Every one packed with classics and rarities in equal measure, always with a massive booklet packed with liner notes, info about all the tracks, anecdotes, photos and whatever else they can squeeze in there. You probably can tell where this is heading. Soul jazz releases now number in the hundreds, but they have yet to release a bum disc. This double cd keeps the streak alive BIG TIME.
An awesome and comprehensive primer on dancehall reggae, done in the inimitable Soul Jazz style. Have a look at the artists: Yellowman, Tenor Saw, Chaka Demus And Pliers, Barrington Levy, Sister Nancy, Cutty Ranks, Super Cat, Cornell Campbell, Gregory Isaacs, Eek A Mouse, Clint Eastwood, and that's just the ones we know, there's also Half Pint, Reggie Stepper, Horace Ferguson, Toyan, Early B, Trinity, Lone Ranger, Michigan & Smiley, Triston Palmer, Lady Ann, Brigadier Jerry, Conroy Smith and more and more and more.
And the tracks! A bunch of essential jams, some have found there way onto other comps, but many have NOT. If you're like us, that dancehall rhythm is just irresistible, such a killer groove, whether it's wrapped around mellow guitar and smooth crooning, or jagged melodies and rough and raw toasting, we just can't get enough. Pretty sure you're feel the same after filling your ears with all these jams.
Includes tons of amazing photos as well extensive notes on each track, and each artist.
MPEG Stream: TENOR SAW "Pumpkin Belly"
MPEG Stream: CHAKA DEMUS & PLIERS "Murder She Wrote"
MPEG Stream: CUTTY RANKS "Chop Chop"
MPEG Stream: SUPER CAT "Trash And Ready"

V/A Dancehall: The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture Vol. 2 (Soul Jazz) 2lp 25.00
Never listed this on vinyl before, here it is... Avid readers of the list know we love dancehall, from classic dancehall reggae, right up to the more aggro super heavy junglized ragga dancehall. And those same readers are probably well familiar with the Soul Jazz label, and their amazing, elaborate, painstakingly assembled, meticulously researched reissue compilations. Every one packed with classics and rarities in equal measure, always with a massive booklet packed with liner notes, info about all the tracks, anecdotes, photos and whatever else they can squeeze in there. You probably can tell where this is heading. Soul jazz releases now number in the hundreds, but they have yet to release a bum disc. This double cd keeps the streak alive BIG TIME.
An awesome and comprehensive primer on dancehall reggae, done in the inimitable Soul Jazz style. Have a look at the artists: Yellowman, Tenor Saw, Chaka Demus And Pliers, Barrington Levy, Sister Nancy, Cutty Ranks, Super Cat, Cornell Campbell, Gregory Isaacs, Eek A Mouse, Clint Eastwood, and that's just the ones we know, there's also Half Pint, Reggie Stepper, Horace Ferguson, Toyan, Early B, Trinity, Lone Ranger, Michigan & Smiley, Triston Palmer, Lady Ann, Brigadier Jerry, Conroy Smith and more and more and more.
And the tracks! A bunch of essential jams, some have found there way onto other comps, but many have NOT. If you're like us, that dancehall rhythm is just irresistible, such a killer groove, whether it's wrapped around mellow guitar and smooth crooning, or jagged melodies and rough and raw toasting, we just can't get enough. Pretty sure you're feel the same after filling your ears with all these jams.
Includes tons of amazing photos as well extensive notes on each track, and each artist.
MPEG Stream: TENOR SAW "Pumpkin Belly"
MPEG Stream: CHAKA DEMUS & PLIERS "Murder She Wrote"
MPEG Stream: CUTTY RANKS "Chop Chop"
MPEG Stream: SUPER CAT "Trash And Ready"

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3 INCHES OF BLOOD "Battlecry Under A Winter Sun" (Minion Music / Sonic Unyon) cd 14.98
ABE VIGODA "Reviver" (Post Present Medium) cd 11.98
AGITATION FREE "Live '74" (Revisited / SPV) cd 17.98
ANNEXUS QUAM "Osmose" (Captain Trip) cd 33.00
ATOM TM "Liedgut" (Raster-Norton) cd 17.98
AURA NOIR "Hades Rise" (Peaceville) cd 15.98
AXIS OF PERDITION, THE "Urfe" 2cd 23.00
BARRACUDA, RANDY & MESAK "Black Vaseline" (Harmonia) 12" 16.98
BARRETTO, RAY "Acid" (Fania) lp 14.98
BATTLE DAGORATH "Eternal Throne" (Mercenary Musik) cd 14.98
BEASTIE BOYS "Paul's Boutique (20th Anniversary Edition)" (Capitol) cd/2lp 16.98/26.00
BEE GEES "Odessa" (Reprise) 3cd 45.00
BEIRUT "March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland" (Pompeii Records) 2cd/2lp 13.98/15.98
BLACKOUT BEACH "Skin Of Evil" (Soft Abuse) cd 14.98
CAPRICORNS "River, Bear Your Bones" (Candlelight) cd 14.98
CLARO INTELECTO "Wharehouse Sessions" (Modern Love) cd 14.98
CRANES "s/t" (Dadaphonic) cd 17.98
CRIME IN CHOIR "Gift Givers" (Kill Shaman) cd 14.98
CURSE, CHARLES "Rain In Skull" (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 23.00
DALEK "Guitar Tactics" (Ipecac) cd 16.98
DAM FUNK "Rhythm Trax Vol.4" (Stones Throw) lp 14.98
DEAD PENI "2-4+1" (Blossoming Noise) cd 12.98
DJ / RUPTURE "Uproot" (The Agriculture Records) cd 16.98
DUSK & BLACKDOWN "Margins Music" (Keysound Recordings) cd 15.98
ELDER "s/t" (Meteor City) cd 15.98
ELOY "s/t" (Revisted) cd 17.98
EMPIRE, ALEC "Plays Staubgold: Rauschgold" (Staubgold) cd 14.98
ENERGY VAMPIRES "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 12.98
FAXED HEAD "From Coalinga To Osaka: Live In Japan 1985" (Web Of Mimicry) dvd 14.98
FRUMPY "2" (Philips) cd 17.98
FRUMPY "All Will Be Changed" (Philips) cd 17.98
GAINSBOURG, SERGE "Aux Armes Et Caetera" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
GAINSBOURG, SERGE "Histoire De Melody Nelson" (Light In The Attic) cd 16.98
GAINSBOURG, SERGE "L'Homme A Tete De Chou" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
HANCOCK, HERBIE "Fat Albert Rotunda" (Rhino) lp 15.98
HENKE, ROBERT "Atom / Document" (I/CM) cd 17.98
HULL, SCOTT "Requiem" (Relapse) cd 15.98
HYATARI "They Will Surface" (Caustic Eye) cd 15.98
ICHIYANAGI, TOSHI / AKIKO SAMUKAWA / TOMOMI ADACHI "Experimental Music of Japan: Live Document, Hommage For Space" (Omega Point Archive) cd 27.00
ICHIYANAGI, TOSHI & YOJI KURI "Drip Music: Obscure Tape Music Of Japan Vol.9" (Omega Point Archive) cd 34.00
IELASI, GIUSEPPE "Aix" (12K) cd 14.98
ILLA J "Yancey Boys" (Delicious Vinyl) cd 15.98
JAZZFINGER "Mole and The Morning Dew" (Spirit of Orr) lp 16.98
JEPSON, WARNER "Totentanz and Other Electronic Works, 1958 - 1973" (Melon Expander) cd 19.98
JONES, GRACE "Hurricane" (Wall Of Sound) cd 21.00
JOY DIVISION "Closer" (London) lp 24.00
JOY DIVISION "Unknown Pleasures" (Factory Records) lp 24.00
KAMPFAR "Heimgang" (Napalm) cd 16.98
KID 606 "Die Soundboy Die" (Tigerbeat 6) cd/lp 10.98/24.00
LINES, THE "Memory Span" (Acute) cd 14.98
MERZBOW "Eucalypse" (Soleilmoon) cd 28.00
MI AMI "Watersports" (Quarterstick) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
MINOR THREAT "Out Of Step" (Dischord) lp 10.98
MINOR THREAT "s/t" (Dischord) lp 10.98
NANA APRIL JUN "The Ontology Of Noise" (Touch) cd 16.98
NEGATIVE SPACE "Hard, Heavy, Mean & Evil" (Vintage) cd 12.98
O'MALLEY, STEPHEN "Keep An Eye Out" (Table Of The Elements) lp 15.98
OVERHANG PARTY "s/t" (Mutant Music) 12" 13.98
OVERTON BERRY ENSEMBLE, THE "s/t" (Tobe Productions) cd 16.98
PAN AMERICAN "White Bird Release" (Kranky) cd/lp 14.98/13.98
PANSY DIVISION W/ JELLO BIAFRA "Average Men" (Alternative Tentacles) 7" 5.98
PARSONS, GRAM "G.P." (Reprise) lp 16.98
PARSONS, GRAM "Grievous Angel" (Reprise) lp 16.98
PORTLAND BIKE ENSEMBLE "Live In Japan - 2006" (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 17.98
SANHEDRIN "s/t" (Breathing Bass) cd 19.98
SAROS "Acrid Plains" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
SCHISTOSOMA JAPONICA "Kankei" (PSF) cd 22.00
SEIICHI, YAMAMOTO & ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE "Giant Psychedelia" (AMT) cd 25.00
SIN FANG BOUS "Clangour" (Morr Music) cd 16.98
SPRINGSTEEN, BRUCE "Working On A Dream" (Columbia) cd 16.98
STUDIO 1 "s/t" (Studio 1 / Kompakt) cd 16.98
SVARTI LOGHIN "Empty World" cd 16.98
THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES "Tail Swallower And Dove" (Suicide Squeez) cd 14.98
THIN LIZZY "Black Rose" (Vertigo) lp 21.00
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Please place your order via our website.

[1] We will contact you to verify your order and let you know when it will be shipped. Please note that occasionally it may take a day or two for us to reply. We are not a faceless bunch of computers replying to your order -- we are human beings!

[2] If we are out of some of your items and we think we will get them within the same week, we can wait to ship. Or... If it's going to be more than a few days to complete your order, we will ship what we have and then will contact you as the remainders arrive.

[ note ] Due to the everchanging nature of the independent record business, we are not responsible for listed price changes (due to supplier price changes) and often cannot update our site fast enough to reflect these changes, but we will always try to let you know of any differences.


DOMESTIC SHIPPING :
--------------------------------

1-2 items    $4.75 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 $4.75 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 at the $6.50 rate. 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 ("First Class International"). 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" category and see the price for "First Class International". 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" category and see the price for "Priority Mail International". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound. 1 lp is usually a little over 1.5 pounds.)


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" category and see the price for "Priority Mail International", which is the way insured packages are sent. 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound. 1 lp is usually a little over 1.5 pounds.)

For example: for a one-pound package worth $18 going to England, shipping without insurance is about $11.00. But with insurance, the shipping / insurance total is over $26.00!

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 :
-------------------------------- We accept the following credit cards: Visa, MC, Discover, and Amex. We will not charge your credit card until your order is ready to ship.
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 also accept payment by Paypal. If you opt for this payment method, we will send you a paypal total and payment instructions as soon as we've confirmed your order with you. Please do not send payment until you have received human contact from our mailorder department. We cannot take personal checks for mailorder, sorry!


QUESTION?
-------------------------------- Email the mailorder department: mailorder@aquariusrecords.org
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SOME SELECTED UPCOMING RELEASES

----} on the way to us now
Doktor Kettu "Soft Delerium" cd on Super Metsa
Solitaire "Predatress" cd on Ektro
Falcon "Die Wontcha" cd on Liquid Flames
Serpent Throne "Battle Of Old Crow" cd on Vessel
Lord Vicar "Fear No Pain" cd on The Church Within

----} also real soon
P.H.O.B.O.S. "Anoedipal" cd

----} February 24th
Absu "s/t" cd/2lp on Candlelight
Blut Aus Nord "Memoria Vetusta II / Dialogue With The Stars" cd on Candlelight
Throne Of Katarsis "Helvete - Det Iskalde Morket" cd on Candlelight (delayed)

----} also in February
Oaken Throne 'zine issue #6
Wildildlife "Peas Feast" 12" vinyl version on Crucial Blast
Amber Asylum tba cd on Profound Lore
Psyopus "Odd Senses" cd on Metal Blade
Saros "Acid Plains" cd on Profound Lore
Irepress "Sol Eye Sea" cd on Translation Loss

----} March 6th
US Music with Funkadelic "s/t" lp reissue on Westbound UK

----} March 10th
Stinking Lizaveta "Sacrifice And Bliss" cd on At A Loss
Circle "Saturnus Reality" dvd on No Quarter
Arbouretum "Song Of The Pearl" cd/lp on Thrill Jockey
Extra Golden "Thank You Very Quickly" cd/lp on Thrill Jockey
Health/Disco "You Will Love Each Other (remix)" 2lp on Lovepump United

----} March 17th
Reigns "The House On The Causeway" cd on Monotreme
Swell Maps "International Rescue" clear vinyl LP reissue on Alive
Black Lips "We Didn't Know..." green vinyl LP on Bomp!
Mazes "s/t" cd on Parasol
Funkadelic "Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow" 180 gram vinyl LP reissue on 4 Men With Beards
Funkadelic "Cosmic Slop" 180 gram vinyl LP reissue on 4 Men With Beards
Flipper "Generic Flipper" 180 gram vinyl LP reissue on 4 Men With Beards
Flipper "Sex Bomb Baby!" 180 gram vinyl LP reissue on 4 Men With Beards
Flipper "Public Flipper Limited" 180 gram vinyl LP reissue on 4 Men With Beards
Flipper "Gone Fishin'" 180 gram vinyl LP reissue on 4 Men With Beards
Sandy Bull "Inventions" 180 gram vinyl LP reissue on Sutro Park
Sandy Bull "Fantasias For Guitar And Banjo" 180 gram vinyl LP reissue on Sutro Park
Sandy Bull "E Pluribus Unum" 180 gram vinyl LP reissue on Sutro Park
Anita Carter "Songbird" cd collection on Omni Recording Corporation
v/a "Plantation Gold" 2cd on Omni Recording Corporation
Zenlo "Skelethal Antics" cd on Porter

----} March 24th
Serge Gainsbourg "Historie De Melody Nelson" cd reissue on Light In The Attic

----} also in March
Amesoeurs tba cd on Profound Lore
Deftones "Eros" cd on Warner Bros.
Circle "Hollywood" cd on Southern
Lustmord "Dark Places Of The Earth" cd on Vaultworks
US Music with Funkadelic "s/t" cd reissue on Westbound

----} April 7th
Thermals "Now We Can See" cd/lp on Kill Rock Stars

----} April 28th
Lord Mantis "Spawning The Nephilim" cd on Seventh Rule

----} also in April
Loss "Despond" cd on Profound Lore

----} May 18th
SUNNO))) "Monoliths & Dimensions" cd on Southern Lordss

----} also in May
Bloodhorse "Horizoner" cd on Translation Loss
Minsk tba cd on Relapse

----} also upcoming sooner or later or sooner or later
Bunkur "Nullify" cd on Displeased
Emeralds "Solar Bridge" lp version on Hanson
Tortoise "tba" cd/lp on Thrill Jockey
Mokira "Persona" cd on Type
Tall Firs "Too Old To Die Young" lp version on Ecstatic Peace
Grumbling Fur (Guapo + Jussi from Circle) cd
Der TPK (Teenage Panzerkorps) "Games For Slaves" lp on Siltbreeze
Oxbow "Fuckfest" cd reissue on Hydrahead
Combat Astronomy "Earth Divided by Zero" cd
Ovens "s/t" cd on tUMULt
Diamatregon "Crossroad" cd on tUMULt
Amocoma "Go To Hell" cd on tUMULt
Rosetta "Wake/Lift" vinyl version
Mariana Topley-Bird w/ Dangermouse
Anton Batagov "Passionate Desire To Be An Angel" cd on Long Arms Records
The Heads tba 2cd 'best of' on Leafhound
Black Boned Angel / Nadja collaboration cd/lp on 20 Buck Spin
Japancakes "If I Could See Dallas"
Iro "Tamafuri" cd on PSF
Diza Star "Contact High Diza Star" cd on Fractal
DDAA "Action and Japanese Demonstration" cd reissue on Fractal
Wolfgang Voigt "Freiland - Klaviermusik" 12" on Profan
When "Are You Silent" cd on Jester
Sean Smith "Eternal" cd on Ultra Hard Gel
Risto "Live!" cd on Fonal
Sperm "Shh!" lp reissue on Destijl
Jazzfinger "The Sun's Golden Blood" cd on Beta-Lactam Ring
Troum "Eald-Ge-Streon" cd/2lp/2cd on Beta-Lactam Ring
Bohren & Der Club Of Gore "Mitleid Lady" cd/lp on Latitudes
Slough Feg "Ape Uprising" cd on Cruz Del Sur
Pan American "White Bird Release" cd/lp on Kranky
Last Step "1961" cd/3lp on Planet Mu
v/a "Noise Room" cd on Soniq
Distance "Repercussions" on Planet Mu
Country Teasers / Ezee Tiger split lp on Holy Mountain
Erase Errata TBA cd on Kill Rock Stars
Xiu Xiu TBA cd on Kill Rock Stars
Crystal Antlers TBA cd/lp on Touch And Go
The Black Heart Procession TBA cd/lp on Touch And Go
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists TBA cd/lp on Touch And Go
Rodan TBA cd/lp on Quarterstick


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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickSallyJonandAndrew