MUGSTAR Sun Broken (Important) cd 14.98
It was inevitable really. After a handful of 7"s, and a single mostly overlooked and way under appreciated full length that we raved about way back when, these guys are finally getting their due. This new full length on Important should finally position these guys at the head of the class, in the pantheon of modern spacerockers. White Hills, The Heads, Burnt Hills, Gnod, 3 Leafs, Bardo Pond, Gunslingers, Eternal Tapestry, Heavy Winged, Sleepy Sun, Plastic Crimewave, Titan, we love em all, but they're all gonna have to step up their games, cuz Mugstar has definitely thrown down the drug rock heart of the sun gauntlet. Sun, Broken is a colossal slab of speaker shredding, in-the-red, druggy, psychedelic, hypnotic Hawkwind channeling space rock bliss. Heavy, lush, dense, mesmerizing, sprawling and expansive, epic and majestic, incredible drumming, tangled guitars, warm whirring organs, complex mathy almost proggy arrangements, songs that lock into looped stretches of near static throb and pulse, before splintering into convoluted freakouts only to explode moments later into black hole supernova psychspace blowouts.
"Technical Knowledge As A Weapon" pretty much sets the stage, a swirling cloud of effects gives way to a tribal chunk of primal hypnorock pound, which lurches into a killer stop start Hammond organ stutter, before launching right back into the fray, the track growing ever more urgent and explosive, peppered with organ breaks, the whole thing dense and repetitive, and so so epic. "Ouroboros" starts out all tangled and mathy, a churning hypnotic almost looped sounding sprawl of metallic prog, which slowly transforms into a sort of muted pulsing minimal space rock, swirling effects surround a static guitar melody, and dense drum flurries, and tripped out vox, before the inevitable psych-skree outro, all tangled and jagged fucking FIERCE.
"Labrador Hatchet" is the record's first breather, a two and a half minute space-y trip out, all thum and throb, through a billowing cloud of heavily effected scrapes and clicks and glitches, which gives way to "Today Is The Wrong Shape", a dead ringer for Finnish hypnorockers Circle at their leanest and meanest, the main riff and the pounding krautrock rhythm, like a super charged way revved up Circle, with a cool, angular proggy breakdown, before yet another crushing bout of extreme spaced out damaged FX heaviness.
Another brief bit of swirly psychedelic effects weirdness leads into the nearly 14 minute closer, "Furklausundbo", which begins with warm melodic swells, before the bassline slips in, then the simple stripped down rhythm, and from there it's a totally mesmerizing slow build, locked and looped, riff and rhythm in perfect sync, while all around, streaks of sound swirl and swoop, unlike the other tracks, there's no explosive climax, no freaked out space rock free for all, instead the songs twists and transforms, slipping into a doomy plod at one point, getting downright twangy at another, the main groove getting doused in clouds of reverbed high end guitar at another, but all the while, the pulse, the beat, stays solid, and unfailing, total mind trancelike hypnotic dronerock mesmer, that eventually dissipates in a blurred smear of layered organ and washed out drones.
Easily the space rock, kraut drone, buzz drug, psych swirl jam of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Technical Knowledge As A Weapon"
MPEG Stream: "Ouroboros"
MPEG Stream: "Furklausundbo"

XASTHUR Portal Of Sorrow (Disharmonic Variations) cd 10.98
There are lots of remarkable things about this latest Xasthur disc. It was released on his own Disharmonic Variations label for one thing, instead of Hydra Head, his home for the last few records. It features the vocals of folk chanteuse Marissa Nadler quite prominently, which was definitely a bit of a surprise! Even more surprising is that according to Malefic, the man behind Xasthur, now referring to himself by his given name Scott, this is the very last Xasthur record. EVER. He's not giving up music, just black metal. Which might seem less surprising once you've heard Portal Of Sorrow. Whose sound is at once a continuation of the last few Xasthur records, but at the same time, a total departure. Right out of the gate, the title track, is all acoustic guitars, and cooing wordless vox, more some sort of ethereal depressive doomfolk than black metal. Haunting atonal chords, folky guitar strum, wheezing organs, everything warped and warbly and really quite beautiful. Some more 'metal' guitars enter into the picture but they just serve to add filigree to the folky gothic dirge. Pretty weird and fantastic for sure. And for sure to bum out legions of true grim black metallers. The second track is more black metal, but if anything it's WAY weirder than the first track, with what is either the worst, or best production yet, the guitars detuned and atonal, the drums insanely produced cardboard box thumps WAY up in the mix, Nadler's often wordless vocals again soaring and dramatic, while Malefic croaks along in the background, a gloriously stumbling bit of blackened freak folk buzz, moody and murky, with some serious chug part way through, but that chug is accompanied by PIANO, which renders it more some sort of blackened chamber music.
And so it goes, the whole record is not only strangely composed, but the sound itself is totally alien, it sounds accidental, but a sound this twisted and warped and idiosyncratic MUST be by design.
"Shrine Of Failure" begins with clean guitars and floppy bass, a constantly descending melody, the vocals singing right along, before the heavier guitars kick in, but instead of making the song heavier, they seem to float above the already in progress weirdness, adding a layer of distorted buzz, and alternately wild psychedelic squiggles of tangled lead guitar. "Stream Of Subconsciousness" is another washed out doomic dirge, driven by Nadler's angelic croon, and Malefic's warbly guitars, the swoonsome synths, leading to an ambient drift, and then more murky stumble. "Horizon Of Plastic Caskets" is all minimal drumming, swirling synths, distant vocals, a sort of black ambient post rock lope, peppered with Malefic's maniacal screams, which do nothing to take away from the track's haunting cinematic vibe.
"The Abyss Holds The Mirror" opens with some seriously lovely multitracked vocals from Nadler (she's credited with "choir, vocal flashbacks, vocal instrumentation") before the song proper kicks in, and it's a dirgey doomy deathmarch, with church organ, croaked demonic vocals, all set to a heartbreakingly melancholy melody, the whole second half is just organ and vocals, and is the last thing you'd expect to hear on a black metal record.
"Released From This Earth" is all struggling drumming, atonal piano pound, and more of Nadler's heavenly crooning, in some ways, this almost plays out like a Marissa Nadler record, with Xasthur as his band, no disrespect to Malefic, in fact, that's what makes this record so good, it's less about having some token guest vocals, and more about true collaboration, which is exactly what makes this record so fucked and far out and special. Even at it's blackest, it's about as far removed from black buzz and grim blast than you could imagine. Which is what keeps us from mourning the death of Xasthur, and instead has us anxiously awaiting the future rebirth, and phoenix like ascension of whatever comes next.
MPEG Stream: "Portal Of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Broken Glass Christening"
MPEG Stream: "Shrine Of Failure"
MPEG Stream: "Stream Of Subconsciousness"
MPEG Stream: "Released From This Earth"

CHERRY, DON Brown Rice (A&M / Jazz Heritage) cd 17.98
We don't believe this is a new reissue, but it's one of our favorite jazz records ever, a real classic, and this is the first time we've been able to get a bunch to list. Perhaps it's even our most favorite Don Cherry album, which is saying a lot since there are so many of his records we love (this is the third we've made a Record of the Week) and there's been much spirited discussion around here between this one and Orient, a former record of the week from, egad, eight years ago! But hell, they're both really amazing so if you dug Orient, or the collaboration with Latif Khan we made Record of the Week a year ago, you'll definitely want to get this, and if you have no Don Cherry in your collection, you might as well start right here. Why we've never been able to list this before is a huge mystery, but let's just make up for lost time and tell you why this is so great.
Released in 1975 on the A&M label, Brown Rice is just 4 songs clocking at about 39 minutes. It's as focussed as Orient was sprawling, mining the same African, Indian, and Arabic influences, but in much tighter and dynamic, almost rock-oriented arrangements. Penetratingly deep on a spiritual level but also engaging and propulsive in its accessibility, Brown Rice is a record that gets right to the point the second the opening electric piano riff and female wordless singing of the title track begin. With wah'd out guitars and electric bongos building up into a groove, this is Cherry at his funkiest with ghostly trumpet shrieks off in the background, vocalised rhythm syncopations and Charlie Haden's underscoring bass swirling around Cherry's whispered chanting. "Malkauns", the longest track at 14 minutes lays down a lackadaisical vibe with tamboura and bass slowly unfolding a wide ground for Cherry's plaintive trumpet to eventually arrive and build up momentum with Billy Higgins' drumming pushing the proceedings upward and outward, eventually floating down back to earth. The third track "Chenrezig" begins deep and solemn with bass rumbles, chimes and Cherry's low and shaman-like vocals sometimes delving into Tuvan throat level buzz and whispering, augmented by high piano tones and lilting trumpet trills before the energy unleashes, not so much in a blind fury as it is a concentrated and feverish ritual extraction of sound. The final track, "Degi-Degi" brings us back to the driving rhythms and grooves of "Brown Rice", with Cherry's whispered chants and some of his brightest and most lyrical trumpet playing really feeling the space.
We can't help but wonder how much of Cherry's soundtrack work for the film Holy Mountain had an influence on his direction for this record, as Brown Rice is that rare hybrid of jazz, rock and film score, one we could easily see visualized on film. In the same line as Bitches Brew, Herbie Hancock's Sextant, or the recent Love Cry Want reissue, but also with the same sort of deep spiritual core we treasure so much in records by Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra. Essential!
MPEG Stream: "Brown Rice"
MPEG Stream: "Malkauns"

V/A Cold Waves + Minimal Electronics : Volume One (Angular Recordings) 2lp 32.00
First off, anyone who bought the Minimal Wave Tapes compilation, another recent aQ Record Of The Week, is most definitely gonna want this too, another killer collection of, like the title says, Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics, a perfect part two, or companion, and fear not, the only overlap is one single band, who do appear on both comps, but with different tracks, so this is essentially an all new (old) collection of vintage coldwave dark synth sonics, which, if you're anything like us, and we're beginning to think you are, you can't get enough of.
It's pretty strange how cold / dark / new / synth wave have made such a huge comeback, bands like the Cure, Depeche Mode, Human League, Front 242, Soft Cell, are now cited as huge influences on a new breed of dark synth driven combos. Also funny considering something similar happened 8 or 9 years ago, when a rash of bands were exploring similar territory: Adult., The Faint, Fischerspooner, Erase Errata, etc. But music is definitely cyclical, and as a new generation discovers the treasures of the past, they start bands mining that past, and revist that past via reissues. The most recent issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian offers a mini primer on the difference between the various waves: darkwave was early industrial and goth rock, cold wave the French version of darkwave (as we first discovered on the amazing So Young But So Cold comp), Synth wave was like cold wave but more sparse and moody, and new wave, well everyone should know what that is by now.
Lately, it seems most folks make little distinction between the various waves, instead lumping them all together as cold wave, or minimal wave or whatever, since regardless of the variations, they definitely all share a similar sound and vibe, and speaking for ourselves at least, it's a sound we dig big time. But then most of us never really stopped digging that stuff to begin with. Lots of former goths here for sure. And every time we discovered a band exploring the sounds we dug so much back in the day, we went way out of our way to gush about them big time, like one of our 2009 Records Of The Week, from Soror Dolorosa, a black metal side project that sounded like some lost Joy Division jam, or rare cold wave antiquity, and more recently records by groups like Blank Dogs, who may not have grown up listening to this music, but if they didn't then must have had a super hip older brother.
But as was demonstrated on the Minimal Wave collection, there were tons of bands outside of the obvious above mentioned references, who were just as cool, if not cooler, the underground of a scene that for a while was very mainstream, on the Minimal Waves comp, it was Crash Course In Science, Tara Cross, Das Kabinette, Ohama, Das Ding, Martin Dupont, Deux, Bene Gessert, Turquoise Days, and others, a few of the more wave-informed folks here knew many of those bands, but to the rest of us, it was a revelation. So much amazing music, so many new groups. On this Cold Waves collection, it's Absolute Body Control, Ruth, The Neon Judgement, Stereo, The Vyllies, Days Of Sorrow, Land Of Giants, End Of Data, Eleven Pond, Ausgang Verboten, Nine Circles and more more more. And like before, a few groups we're familiar with, but a whole bunch of mysterious new names, all of which contribute killer tracks, and most definitely have us hankering for more from all of them.
The obvious ones, Ruth of course, a long time aQ favorite, whose track here also appeared on the out of print So Young But So Cold, sort of Kraftwerk meets Gary Numan, Linear Movement, who also had a track on the Minimal Wave comp, whose track here is awesome, catchy and swirly, with super hypnotic synth melodies and awesome vocals, groovy bass and that clipped new wave drum machine rhythm, Absolute Body Control, who recently received the deluxe Vinyl On Demand boxset treatment, with some awesomely gothy gloom pop, in fact, this collection sounds WAY poppier than the Minimal Wave collection, so much so, that almost all of these bands sound like they should have been right up there with Depeche Mode and the Human League.
Needless to say, this is another fantastic comp, with some incredible songs, and already has us hankering for volume 2!
Nice thick gatefold sleeve, tons of liner notes, and pix, also comes with a download card. CD coming soon too...

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AKITSA Au Crepuscule De L'Esperance (Hospital Productions) cd 12.98
For all the black metal bands, trafficking in raw, primitive, crusty, blackened d-beat driven minimal metal, few can touch mighty Canadian BM horde Akitsa. Active for over a decade, every record from Akitsa is a grim black testament, an unholy writ, rendered in greys and blacks and blood reds, a sonic assault equal parts frosty blast and thrashing crush, but infused with stray elements of pop and drone and classic metal, those elements subverted and transformed and absorbed into the bands twisted take on classic black metal. Feral like punk, buzzy like black metal, doused in noise, Au Crepuscule De L'Esperance might be the weirdest Akitsa yet, which makes perfect sense as it's their first for Hospital, run by the man behind Prurient and Ash Pool among others.
Past Akitsa records were experimental, but subtly so, here the band digs deep, explores their sound in ways only hinted at before, so between bouts of blast and bash, there are long stretches of manipulated sound, of dark drones, and sculpted noise.
The record begins with a brief nearly 3 minute stretch of crumbling distortion, of hiss and glitch, a swirling cloud of corrosive noise, but wrapped around a strange haunting melody, the sort of thing you might hear on a Prurient disc, but not normally on black metal records. But here it sounds perfect, a caustic blown out blacknoise intro, leading right into still more weirdness, a hazy melodic dirge, weirdly loping drums, soaring majestic riffing, what sounds like organ, a mysterious minor key slow burn, the harsh vokills hardly distracting from this blurred melodies and almost regal sounding crush.
"Morsure" is really the first old school Akitsa jam, pounding, the guitars grinding and super distorted, the vocals a hellish bellow, the drums, a punkish pound, trancelike and repetitive, killer of course, but even more so set amidst all this fucked up far out experimentation.
Then there's tracks like "Loyaute", dirgey and almost groovy, sorta like some Stooges-y garage rock coated in filth and slowed down, again way melodic, but still fierce and with weirdly whined almost glammy sounding vox, and a killer main riff, which explodes into the blown out drone drenched chugscape of "Cercueil National", with it's howled vocals, and looped tranced out riffage.
The title track is another chunk of outsider black noise, or metal noise, totally in the red, meters pegged, layered drone, crumbling distortion, the various layers throbbing and pulsing, super hypnotic and noisy, but weirdly dreamy too, a sort of shoegazy melodic thrum, but super charged and blackened.
The rest of the record plays out like a more traditional Akitsa record, blasting, pounding, thrashing, simple and stripped down, but WAY distorted, until the final song, which sounds like a Japanese Brainbombs, or something, an insanely distorted riff, seemingly assembled from white noise, a lumbering drum plod, and some awesome croaked, almost throat singing style vocals, super creepy and fucked up and GENIUS.
MPEG Stream: "Crematorium"
MPEG Stream: "Les Sentinelles"
MPEG Stream: "Morsure"
MPEG Stream: "Loyaute"

ALVA NOTO For 2 (12K) cd 14.98
Part two of Carsten Nicolai's (aka Alva Noto) apparently ongoing 'For' series, in which he composes songs for specific people, the first volume featured tracks dedicated to and composed in honor of John Cage, Jhonn Balance, TVPow, Jeff Wall, Peter Roehr, Ernie And Bert (!) and several others. This time around it's A Garment, Chain Music, Marta Feuchtwanger, two for Heiner Muller, Andrei Tarkovsky, Camera Lucida, two for Dieter Rams, Phill Niblock, Evgeny Murzin and the kingdom of Elgaland-Vargaland. Don't recognize most of those names? Neither do we, it doesn't matter that much though really, the important thing is that these people inspired Nicolai to create some of the warmest and most melodic music of his career. Like the first volume, this is anything but cold sterile glitch and click. The tracks here and lush, and elegant, warm and melodic, rhythmic, dreamy and quite lovely. Opener "Garment" could have gone on forever, a woozy downtempo groove composed from short bursts of static, beeps, smears of hiss, all draped over a looped low end melancholic melody. Some of the tracks are quite brief, field recordings, room sounds, planes passing overhead, lush bell-like tones stretched into hushed streaks of whispered ambience, glitched out high end bleeps and bloops, but those act more as interludes for the longer form pieces. "Argonaut" is breathtaking, long slow tones woven into a sweet soft melody, peppered with looped melodies, soft streaks of barely there hiss, tinkling chimes, while "Stalker" is a haunting stretch of subterranean outer space minimalism, the various tones and textures heavily reverbed, wrapped in a blurred sonic gauze, while that low melody from the previous track resurfaces, plus a creepy spoken word part, intense and beautiful.
Elsewhere Nicolai dabbles in glistening crystalline pop ambience, fuzzy spaced out dream dub minimalism, thick layered dronemusic, and the cool thing is, the more you listen, and the further you get into the record, the more you realize, Nicolai is using mostly the same sounds, recontextualized for each track, for each person, a slowly shifting, interconnected song suite culminating in a strange snare driven buzzscape, and the almost jaunty sounding final track, that sounds almost like traditional chamber music, filtered through Nicolai's buzz/click/glitch/hiss/hum approach to soundmaking. Gorgeous!
MPEG Stream: "Garment (For A Garment)"
MPEG Stream: "Argonaut (For Heiner Muller)"
MPEG Stream: "Early Winter (For Phill Niblock)"

ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT Coconut (Domino) cd 14.98
Though we've never gotten around to listing anything by this awesome UK trio, we were impressed with their two previous full lengths from years back, and we're definitely stoked to have this new release. Coconut comes 4 years after the band's last record, and the production courtesy of ex-DFA dude Tim Goldsworthy helps to bring their sound to new territories. Pinning down Archie Bronson Outfit's music is not the easiest thing in the world, but at the same time, there's nothing not to get here. The effects are immediate and the band doesn't fuck around with abstract experimentation, even though the songs themselves are quite adventurous. It seems like there were more British bands going for this kind of thing a few years ago, and maybe this is a better representation of what all those bands actually wanted to sound like. ABO do what they do well, better than most to be perfectly upfront. This causes us to wonder why they aren't a bigger deal here in the states, especially being on Domino and all. It seems like many reviews don't know what to make of it, and maybe ABO hasn't done themselves any favors by touring as support for bands whose audiences could probably care less for this kind of thing. But whatever, Coconut is a superb album. The band is bluesy and quite psychedelic at times, but thankfully without a trace of any hippie bullshit or rock dude posturing. Instead, they seem like garage punk circa 1965 (you know, right before things started getting really weird) played by stoned guys with beards in button up shirts, with a nod to the dance floor (hence Goldsworthy's presence), rhythmic psych propulsion in the vein of Cave (especially on opening track "Magnetic Warrior"), and some major post-punk influences as well (some of us were reminded of The Fall and the Talking Heads, both apt comparisons). Sometimes things get pretty frenzied, but they also know when to hold back and get into a groove, always a good thing. Everything is held in place by the singer's urgent yelp, and the songs flow together really well. Nothing seems forced, and the songs take you where you want to go with their catchiness and overall rocking approach. Throughout it all, the melodies just pour out. It's dark, it's sexy, it's mysterious. It's f'n Coconut, and we hope you dig it as much as we do.
MPEG Stream: "Magnetic Warrior"
MPEG Stream: "Wild Strawberries"
MPEG Stream: "Run Gospel Singer"

ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT Coconut (Domino) lp 22.00
Though we've never gotten around to listing anything by this awesome UK trio, we were impressed with their two previous full lengths from years back, and we're definitely stoked to have this new release. Coconut comes 4 years after the band's last record, and the production courtesy of ex-DFA dude Tim Goldsworthy helps to bring their sound to new territories. Pinning down Archie Bronson Outfit's music is not the easiest thing in the world, but at the same time, there's nothing not to get here. The effects are immediate and the band doesn't fuck around with abstract experimentation, even though the songs themselves are quite adventurous. It seems like there were more British bands going for this kind of thing a few years ago, and maybe this is a better representation of what all those bands actually wanted to sound like. ABO do what they do well, better than most to be perfectly upfront. This causes us to wonder why they aren't a bigger deal here in the states, especially being on Domino and all. It seems like many reviews don't know what to make of it, and maybe ABO hasn't done themselves any favors by touring as support for bands whose audiences could probably care less for this kind of thing. But whatever, Coconut is a superb album. The band is bluesy and quite psychedelic at times, but thankfully without a trace of any hippie bullshit or rock dude posturing. Instead, they seem like garage punk circa 1965 (you know, right before things started getting really weird) played by stoned guys with beards in button up shirts, with a nod to the dance floor (hence Goldsworthy's presence), rhythmic psych propulsion in the vein of Cave (especially on opening track "Magnetic Warrior"), and some major post-punk influences as well (some of us were reminded of The Fall and the Talking Heads, both apt comparisons). Sometimes things get pretty frenzied, but they also know when to hold back and get into a groove, always a good thing. Everything is held in place by the singer's urgent yelp, and the songs flow together really well. Nothing seems forced, and the songs take you where you want to go with their catchiness and overall rocking approach. Throughout it all, the melodies just pour out. It's dark, it's sexy, it's mysterious. It's f'n Coconut, and we hope you dig it as much as we do.
MPEG Stream: "Magnetic Warrior"
MPEG Stream: "Wild Strawberries"
MPEG Stream: "Run Gospel Singer"

BADU, ERYKAH New Amerykah Pt. 2: Return Of The Ankh (Universal Motown) cd 15.98
Erykah Badu is one of those singular artists who is able to create such a devotional and personal relationship with her listeners. Where New Amerykah Pt. 1 had a fiery political undertone, New Amerykah Pt. 2: Return Of The Ankh, is much more personal and relationship minded. But no matter what Erykah's songs are about, there is always a sense of authenticity and integrity that runs so strongly through them. In many ways this is the closest in sound and theme to her breathtaking debut Baduizm, as it shares a similar slow melting groove and such rich instrumentation that you just don't come by on many contemporary soul records. The amazing thing about Erykah Badu is how she is both so modern, futuristic yet an integral link to the history of powerful and spiritual soul. She doesn't rehash, or mimic, instead she's created a sound and style that is so totally her own.
New Amerykah Pt. 2 is as seductive as it is psychedelic. You can tell she has a deep love of pioneers like Ramp, The Rotary Connection, and Dorothy Ashby, but she has learned from her deep love of true hip-hop how to take from her influences yet create something totally new and unique out of it. There is no one like Erykah Badu around, she has proven she is a musical visionary, and her live shows only further prove that she is the real deal, capable of creating magic with her music that hits the soul in such deep and true ways. She also stands out in the way she is still very committed to the artform of the album. From start to finish this is a record that takes you on a journey that you want to revisit over and over again. The thing that makes Erykah Badu albums so remarkable is how they slowly seep into your subconscious. They are never about the latest trends or a quick fun ride, instead they are the kind of records you turn to at those crucial moments of your life and become a narrative that becomes as much a part of your journey as it is hers. These are songs that empower, comfort and challenge. Once again Erykah Badu has proven to be one of the strongest and most unique musical voices of our time!
MPEG Stream: "Window Seat"
MPEG Stream: "Love"
MPEG Stream: "20 Feet Tall"

BARN OWL Conjurer (Root Strata) cd 12.98
The lp may be out of print, but this gorgeous collection of blackened drift and smoldering shimmer is now finally available on cd!!
Barn Owl, the local duo of Jon Porras (aka Elm) and Evan Caminiti (aka Higuma), have always tread a similar path to later era Earth, a sort of blackened twang, Morricone by way of the Melvins, slow motion soundscapes as evocative and slow burning as they are epic and heavy, dark and delicate. With the addition of a drummer, Barn Owl move even closer to their sonic brethren creating a gorgeous songsuite of Western tinged, slow motion psychedelia, dark, dolorous, warm and haunting, heavily reverbed, a sort of dark skeletal doom, rife with warm chordal clusters, gauzy clouds of muted feedback, and epic expanses of effected guitars that sound almost choral.
The mood is both warm and inviting, haunting and tense, emotional and intense. The various bits of steel string guitar are draped over dense swells of roiling downtuned drone, everything wreathed in streaks of high end shimmer, all blurred into a burnished black guitar blur, washed out and hazy, yet surprisingly lush and heavy. The second half of the record gets a bit more Appalachian, with delicate finger picked guitars drifting over deep layered drones, stately melodies unfurling like the black tendrils of smoke from a recently extinguished candle, or the fuzzy fog of late afternoon, painted deep blues and reds by the fading daylight. The record builds to a soaring finale, that revisits that choral sound, and infuses it with an hypnotic ur-drone vibe, like some glorious hybrid of Sunroof! and Arvo Part. Hypnotic and transcendent.
MPEG Stream: "Into The Red Horizon"
MPEG Stream: "Across The Deserts Of Ash"

BURZUM Belus (Byelobog Productions) cd 21.00
Who would have thought? A new Burzum record, after his release from16 years in prison. Has it really been 16 years? And who would have thought the new Burzum would actually be really really great?! Certainly not us, especially after the last two stinkers, the made-in-jail, all-synth Daudi Baldrs and Hildskjalf. And the last one of those was more than 11 years ago! And let's not forget Varg's prison conversion, becoming a neo fascist, a Nazi, spouting white pride rhetoric, hell, this record was even originally titled "The White God", not to mention that he's in fact a convicted murderer and an arsonist. But it's always been like that with Burzum, and much of black metal, but in Burzum's case in particular, we try to not confuse/conflate the man with the music, and to be fair, for some that's not possible, no one could fault a person for not wanting to support a musician who espouses reprehensible views, and one way is by not listening to their music, and not buying their records. But as we've posited before, your record collection would begin to get pretty sparse, once you eliminated records made by assholes, and by people whose politics you disagreed with, but again, it's perfectly fair to do just that.
But for those of you who can in fact separate the music from the musician, then Belus is a pretty serious and solid return to form. Not so much Filosefem as Det Som Engang Var and Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. The same guitar tone, the same epic riffage, the same raspy vokills, for someone who was not allowed a guitar for the last decade plus, it's pretty amazing that in the space of less than a year, he somehow managed to come up with this. Granted some of these tracks are older, but for the most part this is a brand new record, could be that it was formulated over the past decade, the result of all that pent up emotion, this fierce and furious chunk of black buzz, weirdly melodic in places, very trancelike all the way through, with lots of spoken word mixed into the frantic riffing and blasting beats... The record is at its strongest when it's the most Burzumic, blown out buzz, frenzied riffing over loping midtempo rhythms, the riffing surprisingly layered and complex, check out "Morgenroede" with the relentless main riff shifting from fast picking, to dizzyingly looped arpeggiation, making the whole song swoon and warble, before lurching back into a buzz drenched lumber. The closing track, "Belus' Tilbakeomst (Konklusjon)" is pretty incredible as well, super intense and droney and atmospheric, the riffing almost static, building all sorts of tension, layer upon layer, various notes and overtones ringing out, the playing frantic and frenzied, but with very little forward momentum, almost like some weird sort of black raga drone, rendered in black buzz. There's lots of that sort of unlikely innovation going on here, every time we play this in the store, people come to the counter to find out what the heck it is, and then they can't believe it's Burzum. Or, rather, they might very well have thought it was Burzum, but can't believe it's the NEW Burzum.
It's too bad for Burzum, and for this record, that Belus will forever be saddled with so much non musical baggage, though it's his own damn fault, cuz once you dig through all the shit, get past all the politics, all the rumors and racist rhetoric, past all the expectations and the various scenesters and tastemakers, past the fact that he's really just a total fuckhead, if you can forget just for a second what led up to the creation of this record, Belus could very well end up being one of the best black metal records of the year.
NB. There IS vinyl, or rather WAS, but the first pressing is sold out, and the copies we got are long gone, but eventually they'll do another pressing.
MPEG Stream: "II. Belus Doed"
MPEG Stream: "III. Glemselens Elv"
MPEG Stream: "IV. Kaimadalthas Nedstigning"

CARY, TRISTRAM It's Time For... (Trunk) cd 16.98
We highlighted the vinyl last time, and now it's available on cd too!
It's funny to think that if you could somehow remove someone you probably have never heard of from existence how remarkably changed things would be. Case in point, British electronic composer and inventor Tristram Cary, considered by some "the father of electronic music" who gets this loving and long overdue retrospective treatment from Trunk Records (hopefully it's the first of many). Perhaps not as well known as Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire, or John Baker, Cary made an indelible mark on modern music, not just for his soundtracks to such Hammer classics as Quartermass and The Pit, and his sound effects work for the first Dr. Who series, but one of his most important contributions was his role in the creation of EMS (Electronic Music Studios), the UK's first ever synthesizer company. Without their first major products, the VCS 3 synthesizer, the suitcase Synthi[A] and the Delaware, The BBC Radiophonic workshop, Brian Eno and Pink Floyd (just to name a few artists) would have had sounded completely different.
Born the third son of novelist Joyce Cary, Tristram Cary learned electronics not through artistic or musical means but as a radar operator in the Royal Navy where he first encountered modern German tape equipment. He soon became interested in working with recorded sound, and after studying composition and learning a few instruments, he started building up his first electronic studio. Subtitled, Works For Film, Television, Exhibition and Sculpture, the pieces included here are mostly from his commissions as an industrial sound designer creating sound pieces for industrial films and sculptural World Expo exhibitions. Highlights include "Divertimento" a piece that Olivetti commissioned for the grand opening of their UK training center in Surrey. Combining the cold sounds of Olivetti's business machines against the warmth of the human voice (represented here by the Ambrosian singers ) and a jazz drummer. "Shapes For Living", a short film about product design, premiered at EXPO 70 and most of the non-instrument sounds were created by enhanced and exaggerated recordings of bad packaging, poor design and users struggling with it. "A Hill, Some Sheep and A Living" was for a 1967 television documentary and features an instrumental ensemble. The final track "Narcissus", features a flute player and two tape recorders that starts off soft and pastoral and ends up all kinds of weirdly terrifying as the flute playing through the recorders gets more layered and processed and sped up. Cary died two years ago and Johnny Trunk had been working with him and Cary's son John on this compilation for a couple of years before, so it's nice that this retrospective highlighting a little known, but highly influential player in the development of British electronic music finally sees the light of day!
MPEG Stream: "Music For Light (Red /Green/White)"
MPEG Stream: "A Hill, Some Sheep and a Living"
MPEG Stream: "The Curious History of Money"
MPEG Stream: "Divertimento (Start)"
MPEG Stream: "Narcissus"

COMMON LOON The Long Dream Of Birds (Hidden Agenda) cd 15.98
A pop lover's delight! Common Loon's debut album dishes the most marvelous of drowsy psych-tinged pop we've heard in ages. It seems to glow with the warmth of the '70s California sun despite the duo's homebase of Illinois. Oh so good! Their record label namechecks these artists as points of reference... Sparklehorse, Sebadoh, Spacemen 3, Grandaddy, Apples In Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control. Hmmm, there just happen to be plenty of aQ faves in there, n'est pas? Of those bands, we'd say that we concur with the inclusion of Grandaddy and O.T.C. most definitely. The rest are somewhat subtler nods. We'd actually add the Posies, early Quasi and Death Cab For Cutie to the list. Each song strikes a sweet balance of melodic hooks, hazy noise-pop guitars and mellow lulling boy vocals. This just might be the perfect antidote to cast away those lingering winter's chills and make way for spring. Needless to say, The Long Dream Of Birds has charmed us to no end! Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Ho-Hum Apocalypse"
MPEG Stream: "Dinosaur Vs. Early Man"
MPEG Stream: "Palestine Everywhere"

CULTED Of Death & Ritual (Relapse) cd 11.98
We recently reviewed the debut full length from this mysterious intercontinental doom combo, whose members are spread across Canada and Sweden, and who have never met in person, and thus obviously never been in the same room together, which made that record, and this new one, all the more impressive.
But perhaps proximity isn't critical to tapping into whatever sinister spirit inspires the sort of filthy doomic crust these guys conjure up. And the sound here is plenty filthy, crusty, AND doomy, and like the first record, a little industrial. Their sound borrows a little from the likely suspects, Winter, Khanate, Electric Wizard, Neurosis and the like, but Culted take those influences and filter them through some seriously blackened sludge, some avant post rock, some industrial crunch, and twists them all up into something gnarled and psychedelic and heavy as fuck.
The two minute opener, is a lumbering chugscape, that sounds like the slower bits from say Spektr or Blut Aus Nord, stop / start churning riffage, over swirls of filthy ambience, a machine like groove, super distorted vox, a black industrial juggernaut, over way too soon, which leads into the 10 plus minute, awesomely titled "Black Cough, Black Coffin", a slow smoldering creep, droned out downtuned guitars, glacial riffage, more hellish vokills, eventually building to a lumbering blackened plod, again, the rhythm almost industrial, the guitars distorted and crushing, the track allowed a brief bit of shimmery drone, before returning to the grim grinding sonic churn, the vocals growing more and more distorted, almost Ministry style, a pounding black doom dirge juggernaut. "Dissent" is a bit more poppy, but that's really relative, a little Jesu / Nadja infused into Culted's grim black crush, with some spaced out clean guitar, billowy clouds of washed out chordal blur, the vocals buried WAY down in the mix, a strange headtripping ambient doom drift, that lurches back into caveman plod, before finishing up all post rocky, with spare percussion, hushed ambience, spidery minor key guitars, a surprisingly lovely outro.
The record finishes with the sub 5 minute "Whore", a Swans cover, which in the hands of Culted becomes a seriously twisted black doom crawl, with a woozy slippery ascending main riff, some more seriously fucked up and harrowing vokills, the sound eventually shifting to something more traditionally doomy, but still infused with Culted's sick twisted take on Swans abject clang and crunch.
MPEG Stream: "Black Cough, Black Coffin"
MPEG Stream: "Dissent"

DARK AGES Twilight Of Europe (Inferna Profundus / Primitive Reaction) cd 14.98
Finally available again, the gorgeously dark debut of mesmerizing blackened ambient dronemusic from Dark Ages, the solo project of Roman Saenko, who plays in a whole bunch of black metal bands we love, Hate Forest, Drudkh, Blood Of Kingu, Lucifugum, but Dark Ages is a whole 'nother beast. This new version is in a super swank digipak, and includes a bonus track not on the original release, which we described like this:
What would you expect from a band called Dark Ages? With cover art from some Bosch / Breughel style painting depicting hell and misery and war and famine? With song titles like "Breath Of The Black Plague" and "Birth Of The Antichrist" and "Formulas Written In Blood"? A disc released on Supernal, the label that brought us Benighted Leams, Drudkh, Meads Of Asphodel, Hate Forest and the rest? What would you expect? Well, definitely not this. Dark Ages are not metal, are not even heavy actually, instead they offer up a series of dark ambient medieval dronescapes, beautifully creepy, dark and haunting and endlessly mesmerizing. There are definite sonic similarities to our favorite drone artists: Chalk, Coleclough, Mirror, Maeror Tri and the like, but Twilight Of Europe has a sort of looped hypnotic quality lending the sound a much more Jeck, Basinski vibe. But always cloaked in the tattered black cloak of the dark ages, a lonely sonic stroll through the ruins of a long gone Renaissance Faire, a stroll that slowly shifts to an actual wander through a ruined post plague, European village, of grey stone walls, lit blue by the moonlight, casting shadows that dart and dance in the glow of torchlight, the blackened remains of fires long since burnt out, colorful tents faded by the sun now lay in ruined heaps, the stench of death and decay in the air. The sound is rich with resonant church organs, bells and buzzing strings, haunting chant like vocals all wrapped in gauzy fuzzy drones and subterranean rumbles, each track a dreamy repetition of a haunting, ghostly medieval loop. Over and over and over as you drift off, as the city around you crumbles and the sky above you darkens.
MPEG Stream: "Breath Of The Black Plague"
MPEG Stream: "Birth Of The Antichrist"
MPEG Stream: "Dungeons"

DARKTHRONE Circle The Wagons (Peaceville) cd 17.98
Today's Darkthrone is a totally different beast than the Darkthrone of old. Back in the day, Darkthrone conjured up visions of mysterious corpse painted figures, of epic Norwegian black metal, of vast fields of ice, of shadows dancing in firelight, they were THEE ultimate black metal band. Transylvanian Hunger, A Blaze In The Northern Sky, Under A Funeral Moon...
But at some point, the punk and classic metal influences that so obviously informed the music of Darkthrone, really took over, and the sound of Darkthrone, instead of being influenced by that music, began to SOUND like that music, WAY more punk, with smatterings of classic NWOBHM, which we definitely dug, and with that sonic shift, came a shift in, well, seriousness? Their public persona became goofier. Photo ops consisted almost entirely of shots of the group on camping trips. And there's drummer Fenriz, outspoken as always, consistently holding court, schooling the kids on cool metal records, weird obscure bands, to the point of filling cdd booklets with liner notes, comparing their songs to classic metal jams, as well as including a list of albums to buy.
So while a lot of troo grim black metalheads probably jumped ship by now, the rest of us can dig these crazy punk metal jams, the goofy lyrics, the over the top vocals, the squiggly guitar leads, totally retro, but all twisted up into something distinctly Darkthrone.
The sound here is less classic metal, and almost kinda more like any of those "NWOFHM" metal Circle side projects, Steel Mammoth, Mercedes Hell, Motorspandex, and well, let's let the track-by-track liner notes from Fenriz point out their actual sonic inspirations: Motorhead, Inepsy, Agent Steel, English Dogs, old Metallica, Deathside, Puke, old Slayer, Omen, Savage Grace, one song is even described by Fenriz as a "Mix of speed metal and hard rock, with 40s nostalgic notes in the verse-riff". Not sure what else to say. When asked in a recent interview if Darkthrone performed "extreme metal", Fenriz responded by saying that Darkthrone is "moderate metal. With UGLY vocals." Which pretty much nails it. It's heavy, punk as fuck, definitely metal, loose and sloppy, but super melodic, weirdly catchy, with some seriously killer riffs, some ridiculous and over the top vocals, and some of the best liner notes you'll ever read. Plus more bad ass Dennis Dread artwork. Recommended of course, but only for those of you who know what you're getting into!
MPEG Stream: "Those Treasures Will Never Befall You"
MPEG Stream: "Running For Borders"
MPEG Stream: "I Am The Graves Of The 80s"
MPEG Stream: "Stylized Corpse"

DIGNAN PORCH Tendrils (Captured Tracks) cd 13.98
Another Captured Tracks band, whose recent 7" had us all in a tizzy, with its reverby jangle and slouchy sad boy indie rock shuffle. We compared that Dignan Porch release to Sebadoh and Guided By Voices, which totally hit the spot.
The full length offers up more of the same, but with some subtle changes, a swirling folky, jangly swirl of weirdo distorted vocals, heavily effected guitars, short short songs, most hovering around the two minute mark, the vibe melancholy and minor key, the sound raw and rough and lo-fi, the hooks subtle, but definitely there, the indie jangle of the 7" infused with more of a dour doom folk vibe here too, with lots of acoustic guitar, hazy reverb, washed out ambience, the songs lilting and darkly personal, with vocals that shift from cockney croon, to distorted howl, to high keening falsetto, the tracks laced with buzz, a patina of grit, layered and murky and mysterious, and definitely poppy, but almost as if the poppiness was an accident, a byproduct of this soul baring, home brewed folk pop, a darkly dreamlike, bedroom-recorded, old crummy cassette, late night, druggy, summery mixtape, of strummy, starry mystery. Whew!
MPEG Stream: "The Game We Made"
MPEG Stream: "As You Were"
MPEG Stream: "Flowers In May"
MPEG Stream: "Footsteps"

DISAPPEARS Lux (Kranky) cd 14.98
After a few singles and an awesome live cassette on PlusTapes, Chicago psych dudes Disappears finally unleash their proper debut album, and it's something that should find itself at home in the record collections of people who enjoy groups like Wooden Shjips, Thee Oh Sees, and the Fresh & Onlys. In fact, your initial reaction may be that Disappears could be at home here in San Francisco with those bands, but closer inspection reveals a dark grit that is perfectly evocative of the Windy City.
The band features Brian Case, from cult faves 90 Day Men and more recently, the Ponys, and there is definitely a bit of a post-punk influence on display here, but Disappears inhabit a darkly psychedelic world with steady rhythms and lots of reverb that hits the spot pretty dang well. They never lose themselves to insane psych rambling, and these songs are nice and compact, averaging around the 3 minute mark. This allows the band to craft actual songs, and they are clearly a tight, well oiled machine of swaggering psych goodness with a nice bluesy touch. The overall sound here is very, ahem, organic, and it has a nice analog feel. There's just something about the sound of old guitars and tube amps (duh), and that sound can't be replicated by a quick stop at Guitar Center. What we're meaning to say is that this album just SOUNDS great in addition to be catchy as hell while still coming off as kind of dark and mysterious. Recommended big time.
MPEG Stream: "Gone Completely"
MPEG Stream: "Magics"
MPEG Stream: "Pearly Gates"

DISAPPEARS Lux (Kranky) lp 14.98
After a few singles and an awesome live cassette on PlusTapes, Chicago psych dudes Disappears finally unleash their proper debut album, and it's something that should find itself at home in the record collections of people who enjoy groups like Wooden Shjips, Thee Oh Sees, and the Fresh & Onlys. In fact, your initial reaction may be that Disappears could be at home here in San Francisco with those bands, but closer inspection reveals a dark grit that is perfectly evocative of the Windy City.
The band features Brian Case, from cult faves 90 Day Men and more recently, the Ponys, and there is definitely a bit of a post-punk influence on display here, but Disappears inhabit a darkly psychedelic world with steady rhythms and lots of reverb that hits the spot pretty dang well. They never lose themselves to insane psych rambling, and these songs are nice and compact, averaging around the 3 minute mark. This allows the band to craft actual songs, and they are clearly a tight, well oiled machine of swaggering psych goodness with a nice bluesy touch. The overall sound here is very, ahem, organic, and it has a nice analog feel. There's just something about the sound of old guitars and tube amps (duh), and that sound can't be replicated by a quick stop at Guitar Center. What we're meaning to say is that this album just SOUNDS great in addition to be catchy as hell while still coming off as kind of dark and mysterious. Recommended big time.
MPEG Stream: "Gone Completely"
MPEG Stream: "Magics"
MPEG Stream: "Pearly Gates"

DUM DUM GIRLS I Will Be (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
We fell in love with the Dum Dum Girls at first listen, back when we heard their self titled 12" from a year ago, it was this awesome blown out girl group inspired garage pop that just totally satisfied. With their/her jump to Sub Pop they have cleaned up their sound a bit, but oh my god we think it's totally for the best. When it comes down to it, the songs have to stand up for themselves. You can pour all the reverb and lo-fi glory on top of your music but if that's all you got it's going to get old and tired pretty quick. Luckily that's not all Dum Dum Girls are about. I Will Be shows that what they are about is totally heartfelt, addictive and impactful songs. But don't worry, it's not like its gotten all slick or smoothed out, it's still totally immediate, rocking, punchy, sassy and also so sincere.
Dee Dee (who as it turns out is pretty much the fiery force behind Dum Dum Girls) recorded all these songs at home and then sent them to the legendary producer and hit maker Richard Gottehrer, whose resume is pretty damn drool worthy. In the '60s he wrote totally amazing songs that have become party of our cultural landscape like "I Want Candy" and "My Boyfriend's Back", and in the '70s he went on to produce the debut records by both Blondie and The Go-Go's as well as being a cofounder of Sire records (home of The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Dead Boys, etc.). So awesome to see how this collaboration turned out so damn perfect. Gottehrer knew it wasn't his job to sugarcoat or generically polish the Dum Dum Girls songs, but instead he did use his wisdom to help them jump out with so much vibrancy and color.
While his contribution can't be overlooked, it's still all about Dee Dee's songs and charisma. Whether she's totally rocking out, or melting hearts with her cover of Sonny & Cher's "Baby Don't Go", there's an authenticity and unhinged passion that can't be denied. She's also so smart and economic about her songs, no fat, no wasted notes, just the good stuff. The album is over before you know it but it works out just fine because all you're going to want to do is play it right over again. This one is going to be a strong candidate for record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Jail La La"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Don't Go"
MPEG Stream: "It Only Takes One Night"

DUM DUM GIRLS I Will Be (Sub Pop) lp 14.98
We fell in love with the Dum Dum Girls at first listen, back when we heard their self titled 12" from a year ago, it was this awesome blown out girl group inspired garage pop that just totally satisfied. With their/her jump to Sub Pop they have cleaned up their sound a bit, but oh my god we think it's totally for the best. When it comes down to it, the songs have to stand up for themselves. You can pour all the reverb and lo-fi glory on top of your music but if that's all you got it's going to get old and tired pretty quick. Luckily that's not all Dum Dum Girls are about. I Will Be shows that what they are about is totally heartfelt, addictive and impactful songs. But don't worry, it's not like its gotten all slick or smoothed out, it's still totally immediate, rocking, punchy, sassy and also so sincere.
Dee Dee (who as it turns out is pretty much the fiery force behind Dum Dum Girls) recorded all these songs at home and then sent them to the legendary producer and hit maker Richard Gottehrer, whose resume is pretty damn drool worthy. In the '60s he wrote totally amazing songs that have become party of our cultural landscape like "I Want Candy" and "My Boyfriend's Back", and in the '70s he went on to produce the debut records by both Blondie and The Go-Go's as well as being a cofounder of Sire records (home of The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Dead Boys, etc.). So awesome to see how this collaboration turned out so damn perfect. Gottehrer knew it wasn't his job to sugarcoat or generically polish the Dum Dum Girls songs, but instead he did use his wisdom to help them jump out with so much vibrancy and color.
While his contribution can't be overlooked, it's still all about Dee Dee's songs and charisma. Whether she's totally rocking out, or melting hearts with her cover of Sonny & Cher's "Baby Don't Go", there's an authenticity and unhinged passion that can't be denied. She's also so smart and economic about her songs, no fat, no wasted notes, just the good stuff. The album is over before you know it but it works out just fine because all you're going to want to do is play it right over again. This one is going to be a strong candidate for record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Jail La La"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Don't Go"
MPEG Stream: "It Only Takes One Night"

ELEH Location Momentum (Touch) cd 15.98
After about ten years of existence, and a bunch of limited vinyl-only documents, including a fairly recent LP with Nana April Jun, also on Touch, the mysterious dronological entity Eleh releases their first ever compact disc. Eleh's aesthetic of low frequency, (often) low volume drones fits in well on the Touch label. On Location Momentum, there's an hour of Eleh's vibrations, five tracks, all but one quite lengthy, some barely audible. At low volumes, Eleh's "minimalist noise" will slowly, almost imperceptibly insinuate itself into your consciousness, it becomes part of the surrounding sonic environment, instead of something you're specifically listening to. Track one, "Heleneleh", is a subtle, slowly evolving, stretched-out presence, less heard than felt. A hum, a throb, a wavering drone. It's meditative, like a subliminally sensed Buddha machine loop, under a microscope... But turn up the volume, and it becomes physical, starts squeezing your head just a little bit. Near the end of this 20+ minute track, before it fades, Eleh decides to start modulating the pitch up and down, getting jiggy with it Eleh style, or maybe just saying, something's happening, almost done, waving goodbye. But really it's only the beginning.
The next track, the shortest one here, does a backwards-sounding whip-whip-whip for about two and half minutes. It becomes lulling quite quickly, and you might wish it was still doing its slowly stuttering thing when track 3, "Circle One: Summer Transcience" starts up, utilizing a temporarily annoying high pitched test-tone sound, but that's soon joined by deeper pulsations, and begins to get interesting. This one's for the Ryoji Ikeda fans out there! A subtle bassy thump-thump-thump picks up the pace, your heartbeat perhaps quickening along with it, the test tone become more of a buzz, some white noise wind sound also enters the mix in the background, and with such simple elements Eleh creates a compelling 13 minute, 33 second composition, for those willing to take the time to absorb it. Actually, a lot of this disc reminds us of Ikeda, also Alva Noto most definitely, and Mika Vainio and the like.
The disc continues on with two more tracks of similar length, but their own identities, some elements louder and more overt than what's come before, some more "clicky" in Geiger counter fashion, yet again, there's a spooky, "is that sound coming from my stereo or outside or somewhere upstairs or inside my brain???" aspect to these.
As with so many Touch releases, recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Heleneleh"
MPEG Stream: "Circle One: Summer Transcience"
MPEG Stream: "Rotational Change For Windmill"

FENN O'BERG In Stereo (Editions Mego) cd 17.98
Fenn O'Berg is the on-again / off-again collaborative project between Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke, and Peter Rehberg, who had made their last splash into the realm of glitched-out electronics back in 2002. All three of these artists have involved themselves in various laptop improvisational ensembles with sporadic success (certainly nothing as wondrous as their individual solo recordings), and the previous two Fenn'O'Berg albums were simply spliced collages of live presentations. In Stereo was recorded in Japan over a couple weeks, entirely in the studio. There's a bit more of a structured sentiment emerging from the perpetual motion of digital effects and obliterated samples, setting it apart from the earlier albums. There's plenty of Rehberg's wracked digitality, splattered through ring-modulated, time-stretched deconstructions and digital cluster bombs of pixilation; there's episodes of those amniotic, post-guitar washes that Fennesz has gracefully produced for years; and Jim O'Rourke ever the chameleon fits his multi-tasking production well within the poles of his collaborators. Amidst the pantheon of digital effects, the trio are not averse to working in analog tones, repetitions, and sweeps. The fourth track on the album (titled "Part I") begins with an interesting set of cylon drones before the trio unleashes a percussive frenzy of glistening piano and tumbling drums that could almost have come from an Alice Coltrane composition. Outside of this expressive outburst, In Stereo for the most part comes across as something of a kosmiche-digital-psychedelic hybrid that might fit between Klaus Schulze and Oval.
NB: The vinyl is out of print on this release (oh so quick!), but we might have one or two copies kicking around. Just ask, you might get lucky!
MPEG Stream: "Part III"
MPEG Stream: "Part V"
MPEG Stream: "Part I"

FENNESZ Szampler (The Tape Worm) cassette 7.98
This one probably needs very little in the way of description, a new archival release from guitar/laptop maestro Christian Fennesz, the latest from limited edition UK tape label Tapeworm, gathering up an eclectic collection of samples, which were used to create various recordings from 1989 until 1996. Which means maybe some of these will definitely sound familiar, even here in there yet to be Fennesz-ed state, offering a glimpse into the creative process for sure, but functioning fairly well as an album proper, albeit a somewhat fragmented album, short sonic selections, from murky glistening shimmer, to strange creaks and glitches, to warped acoustic guitar strum, to skipping stuttering electronic dronescapes, to psychedelic textural noise blowouts, to haunting loops, a dizzying array of sound and texture and timbre, many of these pieces already sounding practically finished (if it weren't for their brevity), gorgeous and hazy and melodic, mysterious and otherworldly, others simple, obvious building blocks for a bigger whole, the (perhaps hundreds of) fragments seamlessly sequenced into a constantly shifting, ever evolving, fractured and fantastical soundscape, that would also appeal to fans of Philip Jeck, with its weird sensation of skipping and glitching and recontextualization, the short sample format reminiscent of flitting from record to record, but this is obviously essential listening for Fennesz fans, a perfect companion for his records proper.
LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES. With cool Savage Pencil cover art!

FISCHER, TOM GABRIEL Only Death Is Real - An Illustrated History Of Hellhammer And Early Celtic Frost 1981-1985 (Bazillion Points) book 38.00
Is your coffee table sturdy enough to support this book? 'Cause it's HEAVY! It's not just that it's a lavish, oversized, hard cover tome, with 290 glossy pages, weighing in at almost 4 pounds, but it's also about HELLHAMMER, and the very early daze of the band Hellhammer morphed into, the late great Celtic Frost. Anyone into death, doom and/or black metal should be salivating.
Tom G. (with the assistance of fellow former Frostie Martin Eric Ain, and quotes from others) delves deeply into the history of this seminal extreme metal entity, the text accompanied by a plethora of amazing vintage photos, you've never seen so many studded armbands, bullet belts, and draped chains in your life! There's also lots of fliers, demo tape covers, stuff like that. Total eye candy for any metalhead.
There's always been all this mystique about Hellhammer, and now for all diehard fans it's incredible to get this book of pictures and stories that really put you into their teenage Swiss bunker making all that unholy noise. Also, it's wonderfully ironic for a band widely considered at the time to be TERRIBLE, so raw and primitive, to now be considered so influential, true pioneers (cf. Gallhammer, also reissued on this week's list!) and be honored with this totally over the top deluxe coffee table book - they definitely got the last laugh!!
You probably already know if you want this or not, we knew as soon as we heard about it, and it lives up to expectations and then some. So cool.
NB. For shipping purposes, if you're a domestic mailorder customer, please note that this will have to go at the UPS rate, or the cheaper media mail way. No fitting it in one of our priority mail flat rate boxes, that's for sure!

FONTAINE, BRIGITTE & ARESKI L'Incendie (BYG Records) lp 14.98
Issued once again on vinyl, it's great to see this beautiful record available once more. Released in 1974, L'Incendie is an amazing collection of avant-folk French pop songs. Not as difficult as some of her other recordings, the songs here are rather simple and short, with spare arrangements of guitar and percussion, with occasional electric guitars and other studio effects coming into play. Both Fontaine and Areski sing together and the blend of their voices work the best here than on other recordings they did together. Fans of Emmanuelle Parrenin, the recent Francoise Hardy cd we reviewed, La Question, or Nico's more pop-folk moments should definitely check this out!
MPEG Stream: "Ragilia"
MPEG Stream: "L'engourdie"

FRESH & ONLYS, THE Play August In My Mind (Captured Tracks) lp 13.98
Lately it seems that between Captured Tracks and Sacred Bones, there's some sort of label competition to see who can release the most stuff. It's definitely a close race, with both constantly churning out record after record, the weird thing is, it's pretty much all great. This latest one from SF's own Fresh & Onlys though, just might be the best yet. It's definitely the best F&O record so far, the songs, the vibe, the sound, the production. Everything that was hinted at on past records seems fully realized here. It's short, a 6 song 12" at 45 rpm, but it's plenty.
As always, the songs are ace, catchy and hooky, the guitars jangle and crunch, the vocals wrapped in reverb, the drumming propulsive, the bass fuzzy, but it's a lot darker and more minor key that past F&O records, it's also the lushest and loudest recording, which all contribute to making this the perfect F&O to end up on Captured Tracks.
While still jangly and poppy, it's also a little gloomy, a lot new wave, with buzzy Joy Divison bass, squalls of wild psychedelic guitar, plenty of ooooh's and aaaah's, tribal drumming, angular riffing, a perfect mix of sixties jangle, and cold/new wave gloom. The production is lush, but also weird, and tripped out, ethereal and gauzy, and this time around the sound reminds us not just of other likeminded contemporaries, but also of darker groups, like the Wipers, Abecedarians, Kommunity FK, that sort of thing, albeit filtered through the F&O's perfect pop jangle. It's heady and hypnotic, kick ass and catchy, but also haunting and moody and a bit murky. That and the fact that these might be the best songs Tim Cohen and company have written so far, make this a definite contender for year end best ofs, even though it's only April. WAY recommended.

GLACIERS And The Sea Won The Battle (s/r) lp 10.98
First proper full length (after a super limited cd-r), of gorgeously blissed out post rock from this Bay Area ensemble. Lush and textured, rhythmic and hypnotic, slow burning and sprawling, epic and super rocking, these guys take that nineties sound we love so much and make it their own, the songs smolder and pulse, before exploding into dense roiling Godspeed / Mogwai style blowouts. Meandering prettiness, gives way to loping mathy minimalism, chiming guitars, simple spare drumming, looped melodies, a slow build to near metallic crush, the bass throbbing, the guitars tangled up in psychedelic squalls, the drums muscled and propulsive. The sound moody and minor key, cinematic and soundtracky, brooding and intense, heavy and emotional and harrowing. If you dig stuff like Mogwai, Aereogramme, Mono, Pelican, Grails, Explosions In The Sky, Magyar Posse, Red Sparowes, Snowblood, that Temporary Residence instrumental rock sound, that heavy post POST rock, well, Glaciers does it as good if not better than most of your favorites. Not sure how these guys slipped under our radar, since they're from right here in the Bay Area, but it's time to right that wrong, RIGHT NOW.
Pressed on gorgeous ice blue vinyl, comes with a download coupon, and yeah, it's probably limited too...

GLASS CANDY Feeling Without Touching (Italians Do It Better) 12" 9.98
Awesome new 12" from one of our favorite seductive late night dance floor duos. What makes this 12" extra cool is that it's not just one song and throwaway unessential different versions of the same track, instead the record features two brand new new totally melt worthy tracks, the stand out and weirdest one being "Covered In Bugs" which is a demented paranoid sensual freak out, complete with some sexy screaming from Ida No, and a wonderfully stretched out and hypnotic instrumental ending that gets locked in a smoked out hazy trance. And that ending is kind of a preview for what comes next on the scene-stealing flipside of this 12". "Shine Like Gold & Diamonds" an instrumental track that really shows off how damn talented Johnny Jewel is, the track is like some amazing version of someone like Oneohtrix Point Never covering an instrumental passage from a classic Kraftwerk track. The next two tracks are also mostly instrumental versions of two of the songs from the first side, but totally given a different feel and sound. Beyond suave and seductive. At over 26 minutes of music, this is a total must have for Glass Candy fans, and even those who might not always love the the vocals, as the majority of this wax is about Johnny Jewel's ability to capture such a specific vibe and feeling with the beats and music he creates. So good!

GNAW THEIR TONGUES / HALO OF THE SUN / THE ARM AND SWORD OF THE BASTARD GOD / THE SLAUGHTERED LAMB In Hoc Signo Vinces (Black Goat) cd 11.98
Killer 4 way split of extreme outsider heaviness, most folks will probably grab this for the two new Gnaw Their Tongues tracks, but will probably end up digging the other three bands nearly as much.
But since GTT might be the reason most folks are here, let's talk about those tracks first. No huge departures, just more of that same, grim, apocalyptic, industrial, cinematic doom. "Crawl" is just that, a harrowing sonic crawl, with blown out distorted drums, heaving downtuned guitars, moaning miserable melodies, hysterical shrieks, shimmering strings, dense drones, a freaked out apocalyptic soundtrack to the death of mankind. "Paleness" is more of the same, but more metal, the main riff a blurred bit of undulating buzz, the vocals insane, the drums and industrial plod, long stretches of creepy ambience, the final half of the song a dense, thick, layered bit of blackened slow motion dronemusic, that is as weirdly hypnotic as it is hellish. Definitely worth it for fans, to get those two tracks, but there's much more metallic misery to be had.
The Arm And Sword Of A Bastard God (killer name!) are a Southern California doomkult, and traffic in plodding blackened doom, minimal and murky, big guitars, pounding drums, and some sick slowed down death metal style vocals. Halo Of The Sun contribute their own bit of UK style doom-ed blackness, a frantic bit of black metal laced with wild squiggly guitar harmonies, harsh vox, a definite Cradle Of Filth vibe, weirdly melodic, but way more lo-fi and underground, the track breaks down into a lurching doomy trudge, there are even some weird processed clean vocals, but it's soon back into the dense black grind and churn. Cool stuff for sure. Definitely be into hearing more from these guys.
And last up, from LA come The Slaughtered Lamb, who also do the black doom thing, their sound way more akin to Gnaw Their Tongues, super distorted, almost industrial, the guitars crumbling and nearly formless, the vocals dripping in effects, a filthy abject sonic crawl through broken glass and bloody entrails, leading to the 26 minute closer, an sprawling bit of epic and dismal black ambience, from hushed shimmer, to distorted thrum, to black buzz creep and back again.
All four bands impress, so buy it for the Gnaw Their Tongues, but stick around for the Slaughtered Lamb!
MPEG Stream: GNAW THEIR TONGUES "Crawl"
MPEG Stream: HALO OF THE SUN "Fenriz"
MPEG Stream: THE ARM AND SWORD OF A BASTARD GOD "GutterMotherCreator"

GOLDFRAPP Head First (Mute) cd 14.98
A very welcome return to form for Goldfrapp. Sometimes it's best to know what you do best and just take it to its highest level of excellence. And what Goldfrapp do best is create total modern day disco delights that flow with such ease and pleasure. We hadn't been too crazy about their last couple outings which found them trying to veer in a more folk and rock based sound, but Head First is making us fall in love with them all over again. Songs that take off high to the sky and float in clouds of smoke with such an infectious glow. The first time we played this in the store one of our customers nailed it, saying "It's like the best part of the '80s with better production." And for sure there is a very nice '80s feeling on Head First, with so many folks going back to the detached and cold side of '80s glory, it's really nice to hear the more colorful and pure fun side of '80s dance glory updated in such a wonderful way. Listening to Head First makes you feel like you are dancing in the ending credits of Fame, or amidst all sorts of beautiful people in a fantastical club with Xanadu being projected onto the sparkling dancefloor while Giorgio Moroder is on the decks, the confluence of all these sights and sounds sweeping you away. Welcome back Goldfrapp!
MPEG Stream: "Rocket"
MPEG Stream: "I Wanna Life"
MPEG Stream: "Dreaming"

GREAT NORTHWEST, THE The Widespread Reign Of The Great Northwest (The Kora Records) cd 14.98
The Great Northwest combine hazily effected guitar textures, clean acoustic pick'n'strum, chiming toy box melodies, and sleepy head vocals into one lush, lullingly lovely listen. So inviting, you can't resist melting into these warm, drowsy songs. Each one is drenched with dreamy atmosphere, but never drifts too far from its central pop song structure. Grand and expansive. Whimsical and intimate with a gentle plaintiveness. We sense that the band draws ample inspiration from the Beatles and Pink Floyd as well as the unmistakably '70s west coast soft rock. Thus, they fits in splendidly alongside bands such as Radar Brothers, Sparklehorse or their labelmates Fredrik. Speaking of which, this was released on The Kora Records who treated us to the sounds of Fredrik and Stricken City a few months back. With such a wonderful recent one-two punch, we figured we'd better pay closer attention to this fine label who also put out the Aidan Baker Scalpel cd and a couple of Gregor Samsa albums a few years back. What a terrific track record so far! So yeah, we're backtrackin' a little bit, but figure even though this came out in 2008, it's still new to us and perhaps to you as well. Very recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Chief John"
MPEG Stream: "Reverie"

HANOI JANES Year Of Panic (Captured Tracks) cd 13.98
We dug the recent Hanoi Janes 7" on Captured Tracks, two killer tracks of hooky jangly distorto garage pop, reverby and psychedelic, catchy as all get out and so crunchy and fuzzy. We've played that single about a million times since we got it and have been DYING for more. And we're happy to report that the full length is just as kick ass as the single, every track a warped chunk of jangly fuzz pop that could very well end up stuck in your head for ages. The songs on the full length seem a bit more, well, quirky for lack of a better word, the arrangements more herky jerky, the vocals more sing songy, the hooks weirder and thus somehow hookier, not obvious at all, wrapped around, weird stop / start bridges, bouncy warbly keyboards, twisted warped effects, the new wave vibe cranked way up which totally suits the sound. Listening to this, you'd never guess it was a one man band from Germany, the sound so fun and sunny, we were picturing a bunch of shaggy haired, West Coast slackers, which should give you more of an idea of what's going on here. Definitely a perfect fit for Captured Tracks, but on the sunshinier side of their roster, more Beets than Blank Dogs, more Gary War than Silk Flowers. And fans of Nice Face and Night Control, past aQ Records Of The Week, will probably dig this too, as it's similarly fragmented quirky and catchy noise pop, and is quickly becoming one of our new favorites.
MPEG Stream: "The Boys Are Out"
MPEG Stream: "Crystal Veins"
MPEG Stream: "Bad Attitude"
MPEG Stream: "Beach Kids"

HEX MACHINE Omen Mas (Minimum Underdrive) cd 9.98
This was a nice surprise, just showed up in the mail one day, and knocked our fucking socks off. These Richmond Virginia noisemakers kick out the face melting, head spinning jams, equal parts gnarled Voivod-ish math metal and grunge infused Amrep style noise rock, the guitars chug and howl and churn, the drums pound, the vocals are all over the place. From howled feral shriek, to punk yelp, to weirdly melodic croon, all wound up into killer, sprawling, epic SONGS. Catchy, tangly, dense, and so heavy.
From pounding midtempo dirges, all Jesus Lizard swagger and lurching Ved Buens Ende lope, to chugging nineties style post rock math metal, the Voivod-ness on tracks like "Lunatic Sun" are undeniable, but they're all tangled up with more modern noise rock like Young Widows or Daughters, a sound at once familiar and retro, but forward looking and utterly headbangable.
"Black Skeleton" opens with a flurry of tangled riffage and chaotic drumming, before locking into a stuttery groove, the vocals wound around the constantly shifting arrangement, and somehow, while all this weirdness and complexity is going on, it manages to be CRAZY catchy and super rocking.
"Godheads Full Of Candy", the 8+ minute centerpiece of the record, unfurls a weird, lumbering, almost Godflesh sounding industrial dirge, with some cool gnarled chug, flurries of double kick, clouds of tripped out processed guitar, eventually launching into some twisted, super mathy angularity, and for the rest of the track, flitting back and forth between the two, with some surprisingly melodic vocals, and yet another bunch of weirdly irresistible hooks.
The second half of the record, sounds weirdly way poppier than the first, to these ears, which is in no way a bad thing, hints of Bleach era Nirvana for sure, especially on record closer "Vivisection", as well as OLD Queens Of The Stoneage, but all twisted up with plenty of the aforementioned noise and math, the result a killer collection of convoluted pop flecked mathy and metallic, noise rock bliss, that we find ourselves unable to stop listening to...
MPEG Stream: "Nurse Me Back To Hell"
MPEG Stream: "Lunatic Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Black Skeleton"
MPEG Stream: "Godheads Full Of Candy"

HOLTERBACH, M. & JULIA ECKHARDT Do-Undo (In G Maze) (The Helen Scarsdale Agency) cd 14.98
Without much fanfare, The Helen Scarsdale Agency may have just released one of the best drone records of 2010 with this collaborative outing from Manu Holterbach and Julia Eckhardt, two relatively obscure sound artists from France and Belgium, respectively. The only other time we had come across anything from either of these artists was by way of an mini-album that Holterbach had released through the ill-fated Clouds Of Static label, showcasing an ingenious instrument that Holterbach built out of modified wine glasses whose stems had been hollowed out, so that the water in the glass harmonica could be raised or lowered, thus changing the instrument's pitch while playing the rims of those wine glasses. The resulting sounds were absolutely stunning constructions of tonebending arches of pure drone - just dissonant enough, but wholly beautiful nonetheless. Since then, he has begun the process of sifting through Eliane Radigue's archive, being responsible for the Triptych and Vice Versa discs which came out in 2009. Julia Eckhardt comes from more of an academic / classically trained tradition, and has performed in a number of avant-garde string ensembles over the past few years, including a stint or two performing with Phill Niblock. Those two titans of minimalism certainly loom large in this exceptional Do-Undo recording, with both Holterbach and Eckhardt strong enough in their own right to further those heavy-minded drone constructs with their own agenda.
For some time now, Eckhardt has been collecting recordings of her long-passages for droning viola performed exclusively in the key of G, and she had been presenting those recordings to various artists to repurpose those sounds as they see fit. Holterbach had met Eckhardt at a residency program in Belgium, the two hit it off, and Eckhardt gave him the initial recordings that went into constructing this album, which was completed through Holterbach's production and very impressive field recordings.
The slow repetition of a temple bell being struck opens the album, gradually accompanied by a tactile scrabbling produced from branches scraping together during a windstorm. Eckhardt's viola elegantly moves from the event horizon to the foreground in the form of a radiant if rasping sustained drone whose acceleration in density hits those headwrangling harmonics and overtones that Tony Conrad, Niblock, Yoshi Wada, LaMonte Young, and Charlemagne Palestine have promoted for a decade or four. Holterbach doesn't linger much upon a crescendo with this thickened drone mass, gradually pulling back upon those tones to reveal further field recordings of that aforementioned windstorm alongside a quiet buzz from a chorale of crickets. Shockingly beautiful and shockingly simple. And that's just the first half of the record.
The second piece grafts field recordings of various electrical phenomenon onto Eckhardt's viola drones, with Holterbach taking considerable care in collecting buzzes, hisses, pierced tones, vibrations, and rumbles which were already in the key of G. It's pretty fucking crazy to think that Holterbach is going out and collecting field recordings from power substations and Parisian subways, but only those which were tuned to G! Here, the composition is a bit more reductivist in the use of those sounds advancing into several glacial movements of sustained tonal vibration. Pure transcendence.
Fans of Andrew Chalk, Jonathan Coleclough, BJ Nilsen, Thomas Koner, Organum, Harry Bertoia, Brendan Murray, and any of those aforementioned proponents of 20th Century minimalism we mentioned earlier should definitely take note of this album.
Very nice letterpressed artwork, in an edition of ONLY 300 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Julia's Ecstatic Spring Phenomena "
MPEG Stream: "Two Stasis Made Out Of Electricity"

HOODED MENACE Never Cross the Dead (Profound Lore) cd 11.98
We don't list a lot of death metal, really. But when it's on Profound Lore, comes from Finland, sounds more like doom metal, super slow and sludgy, is obsessed with cult horror cinema of the '70s, and features the dude (Lasse "Leper Messiah" Pyykko) from Acid Witch, we do!* And recommend it, too. This here's the second album from Hooded Menace, eagerly awaited by many ever since their 2008 debut on the Razorback label (who also released the amazing Acid Witch album Witchtantic Hellucinations, as well as a couple of the prolific Pyykko's other projects, Claws and Vacant Coffin), and it's a doomful, deathly doozy.
Never Cross The Dead plods forth with such wonderfully wretched heaviness, there's an immediate "this is for me" or "this isn't" reaction you'll have, needless to say, we're in the former camp. Pyykko's crushing guitar tone is massive yet morose, sounding quite Cathedral-like its despairing doomishness, also possessed by some of the buzzing bite of that old school Swedish death metal Sunlight studios sound. We're talking about early Cathedral (the UK doom metal band), circa Forest Of Equilibrium, yeah!!! Which is akin to Sabbath at their most molasses-like, guitar parts warped under their own weight, weeping and creeping, leaden and lachrymose, over which Pyykko's guttural crypt-breath exhalations (aka singing) put the ill in vokill.
Hooded Menace revel in riffs that trudge like the midnight procession of a coven, or hopelessly heave (metaphoric, musical) shovelfuls of earth like a victim compelled to dig their own grave... though they'll also often break into a gallop, or bust out some soloing, with melodic old school metal fervor, clawing forth like undead attackers from that very same grave! And as you can guess from our purple prose in this review, atmospherics are important, and indeed there's a palpable eeriness over it all, if not utter seriousness, horror fans having a sense of humor y'know (by the way, we noticed Pyykko happens to be wearing a hoodie in the band photo under the digi tray, wonder if that's intentional, ha).
Never Cross The Dead concludes with a cover of Anton Garcia Abril's "Theme From Return Of The Evil Dead", a lot more metal than the version that originally appeared in that 1973 film, for sure! Return Of The Evil Dead, aka Return Of The Blind Dead, aka El Ataque de los Muertos Sin Ojos, being the second in the "Blind Dead" series of Spanish horror films directed by Amando de Ossorio, featuring evil, hooded, zombie-like Knights Templar risen from the dead to terrorize humanity, from which Hooded Menace take their name, and inspiration for more than a few songs, though they also celebrate the likes of Hammer Horror flicks ("The House Of Hammer"), Frankenstein ("Terror Castle"), and other good things. If you like horror, you like heaviness, you like metal, Hooded Menace is for you. And thus for fans of the following, too: Cathedral, Hellhammer, Incantation, Winter, Acid Witch, Skeletal Spectre, etc.
FYI, Profound Lore is doing a special sale deal with us on these, so they're $2 cheaper than normal (regular price would be $13.98) for the next two weeks!
*Heck even just two of those attributes will do, the doomy death of another Profound Lore act, Vasaeleth, also getting the nod from us a couple lists back as well, even though they're not Finnish and take a more serious, less cinematic approach to the occult than Hooded Menace and those other Razorback acts...

MPEG Stream: "Never Cross The Dead"
MPEG Stream: "Terror Castle"
MPEG Stream: "From Their Coffined Slumber"

IRR. APP. (EXT.) Josephine & Elsewhere (Errata In Excelsis) cd-r 14.98
Performances from irr. app. (ext.) are rare spectacles, often sporting bizarre costumes and crumbling masks, staged rituals with mutated / mutilated stuffed animals, audio collages spiralling about found object mistreatment, outer-space / prog-tastic guitar explorations, ashen black takes on scatological humor, and a choice cover or two. Josephine & Elsewhere documents the results from three performances that irr. app. (ext.) foisted upon the Seattle public in 2009, at the request of Blue Sabbath Black Cheer (who have employed irr. app. (ext.) figurehead M.S. Waldron as a producer from time to time). What's quite unique about these recordings is that Waldron did not recruit from his reliable pool of California miscreants to assist in the performance, choosing to perform alone. In pairing everything down to a guitar, a ukulele, a drawerful of kitchen utensils, some effects pedals, and some backing tracks, Waldron has done quite well to achieve the same density of sonic eccentricities and surrealist intentions found on his ever impressive recorded output.
Many of the irr. app. (ext.) live 'standards' are present including Waldron's Tuvan-throated vocalisations accompanied by the motorized purr of a vibrator rubbing against his bald head, Waldron's diabolical growls and squeals in duet with a miniature scrabblings (which here really resemble the guitar freakouts on the Nurse With Wound debut Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table), and his uncanny use of field recordings - notably a man screaming his head off in erratic bursts which doesn't seem to phase the incessant chatter of birds. Very odd. While Waldron focuses mostly upon the abstract and expressive through these atypical sonic juxtapositions, the one cover he presents is something to witness: a clippedy-clopping cover of the Aphrodite's Child tune "The Four Horsemen." Limited to 200 copies only!
MPEG Stream: "The Four Horsemen Of Natural Science"
MPEG Stream: "Rogue Gluons Castigated By The Strong Nuclear Force"
MPEG Stream: "O, Wistfully Cantillating Paraceratherium"

JABLADAV Trostlosigkeit (self released) cd-r 8.98
Seems like only yesterday we were listing a Jabaldav record... Well it was in fact the last list, but where that one was a Buddha Machine driven drift of dreamy dronemusic, Trostlosigkeit finds the Jabladav sound moving back to the Burzumic black buzz we love so much. And Burzumic is right, the first track begins as a sprawl of slow moving glacial buzz, laced with a haunting, very Filosefem sounding synthesizer melody, haunting and dreamy, but it's not long before Jabladav swing back into his Weakling meets Black Flag gnarled blackness. But the sound here is much more melodic, and blissful, lots of acoustic guitar woven into the proceedings, more midtempo then blast, and that synthesizer melody resurface throughout, giving the opening track a definite woozy melancholy vibe. "Loss" is similarly dark and dreary, like Jabladav got a depressive black metal makeover, spidery guitars give way to a muddy, murky dirgey doom-ed black buzz, more dreamy synth, the overall sound is way more lo-fi than usual, but it definitely suits the new mood and sound, weirdly pretty, but still grim and mysterious and heavy.
The title track is a sprawling 19 minute doomscape, all tangled glacial guitar, muted chug, hissed hellish vox, super spare drumming, lots of space, almost ambient really, peppered with bursts of insectoid riffing and buzzing black blasts, but always slipping back into that lugubrious doomdrone crawl, the guitars especially distorted, a weird warped bit of blackness that definitely ranks with the best we've heard from Jabaldav.
But if you though 19 minutes was epic and sprawling, prepare yourself for the record closer, "Reflection", clocking in at a hefty 33 minutes, no black metal to be found here, just some serene tranquil shimmering dronemusic, washed out and ethereal, a dreamlike drift, trancelike and meditative, and really quite lovely.
As always with Jabladav stuff, EXTREMELY LIMITED. This one to ONLY 50 COPIES, of which we got about half, housed in a DVD style case, with a full color cover, inside there's an elaborately folded insert, sealed with wax, the case also features a wax seal, the liner notes, case AND disc are all numbered and signed, grab one of these before they're gone, cuz these will blow out of here...
MPEG Stream: "My"
MPEG Stream: "Trostlosigkeit"

JAMESON RAID Just As The Dust Has Settled (Shadow Kingdom) cd 14.98
Ah, the glory that was NWOBHM! (Do we need to spell it out? The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, a wondrous musical phenomenon of the late '70s/early '80s, yeah, you know.) A couple lists back, in our review of the killer Wolfbane disc released by Shadow Kingdom, we mentioned there were several other cool recent NWOBHM reissues we'd be listing soon, here's one of 'em, also on Shadow Kingdom, an archival collection of material by this fairly obscure Birmingham band (named for a historical incident from the Boer War) who never made proper full-length record but nonetheless did put out some cult classic tracks, including a contribution to the Metal for Muthas II compilation. For some reason, that one's not here, but you do get 14 tracks taken from various eps and demos, etc., among them the three songs from Jameson Raid's 1979 debut single, starting off with the triumphant "Seven Days Of Splendour" (a positive story about a UFO encounter, which, for those of you who were paying attention to our Roxxcalibur review a while back, was one of the songs covered by that NWOBHM tribute band on their highly enjoyable album). The other two are the punky "It's A Crime" (which reminds us of Crushed Butler!), and "Catcher In The Rye" (that's right, inspired by the J.D. Salinger novel). While this band boogied hard for sure, they also apparently liked to have their songs be -about- something, it's thinking man's NWOBHM in a way, quite melodic too, and a bit garagey, really more '70s hard rock proto-metal than anything '80s metallic, harking back to early UFO and Thin Lizzy. Good stuff, and all the tracks here share these charms, some of the songs with sad and weary vibe derived perhaps from Lizzy, others rockin' out like greasy AC/DC...
Packaged with a thick cd booklet stuffed with lyrics, liner notes (including reminiscences from original band members), vintage photos, etc.
MPEG Stream: "Seven Days Of Splendour"
MPEG Stream: "It's A Crime"
MPEG Stream: "Do It The Hard Way"

JOHNSON, TOMMY Cool Drink Of Water Blues (Monk) 2lp 30.00
Monk Records continues their winning streak with these amazing late '20s recordings from Delta Blues legend Tommy Johnson. Johnson was the owner of a unique set of pipes capable of hitting high falsetto notes as well as reaching the gravelly depths you would expect from Mississippi's finest. At some points, Johnson's voice resembles that of Blind Willie McTell, and we wouldn't be surprised if his style may have had an impact on Devendra Banhart, whose falsettoed warbles bear more than a passing resemblance to Johnson's. Other songs feature a more restrained and down and out vocal approach. Johnson's take on the blues is quite unique, perhaps a bit more refined than some of the other Delta bluesmen, maybe a bit more composed and less fiery in its delivery. Strange then, that Johnson was not only known as an irrepressible boozehound, but also rumored to have dabbled in some dark matters with the devil.... something about selling his soul or something (and no, we're not confusing this with the story of Robert Johnson, to whom Tommy was not related.) The recording quality varies but is always great for the songs themselves, the crackling pulses on the second record in particular give you the impression that, yes, this is some OLD stuff from a world that no longer exists. Some essential listening here, and right up there with the best blues.

JOOKLO DUO High (Troglosound) cd-r 9.98
We had never even heard of Jooklo Duo until recently. Even though they have oodles of records and cd-r's out, many of them on their own Troglosound imprint. No use kicking ourselves, all we can do is dig in and catch up, which we're doing big time. Not only do we have this kick ass, super limited tour only cd-r, available only at shows on their current US tour OR from aQuarius, nowhere else, we're copresenting their show at Cafe Du Nord on April 21st (more on that elsewhere on this week's list), we're also hosting a Jooklo Duo instore on April 20th (also more about that elsewhere on this list). So by all means, come to the instore, go to the Du Nord show, and buy one of these cd-r's before they're gone, you won't regret it.
So for those of you, like us, who are relatively new to the magic of the Jooklo Duo, are the Italian duo of Virginia Genta on sax, flute and voice, and David Vanzan on drums and percussion, they're sort of free jazz, but also just sort of spaced out avant improv, as at home jamming with Burnt Hills or No Neck as they are on a jazz bill, maybe more so. They incorporate all sort of haunting vocals and chants, into their constantly shifting skittery improvised mystical sound explorations. Eastern melodies, Gamelan sounds, it's free, and improvised, but also mystical, occultic, spiritual, the sound of revolutionary sixties free music, channeled through the spirit of today.
On High, available only at aQ and at shows, the duo are on fire, maybe one of their most intense recordings ever, the sax is blown out, in the red, fierce and fiery, the drums, wild and octopoidal, the two instruments, dancing around each other, frenzied and frantic, and about as heavy as free music gets, they're heavily influenced by Coltrane and Ayler and Cherry and Coleman, and it's easy to hear that on High, it's like post post POST bop, the sax is a lethal weapon, the drums laying down suppressive fire, a totally transcendent, epic, mind blowing, next level, free jazz blowout. WAY recommended, as are the upcoming shows.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES. Each one hand numbered. We got about half, you can only get them here at aQ, or at the shows on this tour, they're packaged in super swank paste on cardstock sleeves, with a super striking miniature full color version of the SF show poster inside. For more on the tour, the SF show, the other bands playing, the cd-r, and the Jooklo Duo in general, go here: http://troglobloger.blogspot.com
MPEG Stream: "Serpents Now"
MPEG Stream: "Pawa Now"
MPEG Stream: "All Sounds"

KARKI, BHARAT & PARTY International Music (EM Records) cd 17.98
It's on kick ass Japanese reissue label EM. It's a cd reissue of a 1978 Indian private press lp of far out and freaky Indian psychedelic funk. And it RULES! Really what else do you need to know?
One of our favorite EM releases in a while, every time we play this people flip out and need to figure out what the heck it is. And what it is, is a fantastical, dizzying collection of wild percussion, fluttery flutes, reverbed guitar jangle, chaotic drumming, heavy fuzzy bass, sexy grooves, wheezing organs, surf guitar twang, skronky horns, awesomely twisted Moogs, all wound up into totally off the hook seventies Indian party music, lots of influences from the US, from the Middle East, from Latin America, Eastern melodies wind around more traditional rock and pop, Indian folk music gets tweaked and twisted, old fashioned Indian pop gets a Joe Meek style kitchen sink makeover, guitars are distorted, processed, reverbed, melodies are playful and sunshiney one second, murky and mysterious the next, the sounds are festive and funky and so fun, definitely reminiscent of Dengue Fever's Cambodian pop, of some of the Sublime Frequencies collections, but somehow, more freaky and far out and psychedelic. We seriously can't stop listening to this. One of our favorite reissues this year so far...
MPEG Stream: "A Trip To Kathmandu"
MPEG Stream: "International Peace"
MPEG Stream: "Calcutta Calcutta"

KID 606 Songs About Fucking Steve Albini (Important) cd 14.98
Along with folks like J. Lesser and Matmos, Kid 606 has been one of the key figures in bringing the world of techno and electronica to a more punk minded listenership. And over the years the music of Kid 606 has taken many twists and turns, never one to shy from diversity and eclecticism he's put out everything from hardcore four on the floor techno to drill n' bass to ambient blissed out dreamscapes.
We have to admit we haven't always been the biggest fans of all his releases, but he's hit us with enough moments of total musical bliss and magic that we make sure to at least check out every new release he puts out. And while we weren't in love with the last few, we are beyond BLOWN AWAY with what he's created on this deliciously smart-ass-titled new outing. In fact there is something to be said for how smart ass the title and back cover artwork on this record is, because for as clever and mindfucking as Kid 606 can be, it's sometimes the problem with his music. Fortunately he's gotten the snarkiness out of his system via the non musical aspects of this record, and allowed the sounds within to just totally flourish in immaculately crafted, wide ranging electronic sounds.
The albums opener, is almost like some amazing lost kosmiche kraut gem, tones that are so rich, patient and inviting. We were immediately reminded of some of our favorite Kid 606 releases from the past that get overlooked as they show off the non techno side of his musical leanings and are more about creating rich atmospheres with true emotion. Records like The Soccer Girl EP, PS I Love You, PS I Love Me, and the utterly beautiful Resilience. As the record unfolds, Kid 606 still shows that he can draw from a wide range of electronic palettes but it never veers into techno land, instead it reminds us of those glorious days when IDM actually meant something. Those records by Oval, Aphex Twin, Matmos, Autechre, that made so many of us embrace a form of music we had for so long no relationship with.
But this isn't just some kind of IDM rehash, Kid 606 also shows that he can soar, drone and bliss out with the best of them. As there are so many amazing moments on this record that you could think was coming from AQ favorites like Emeralds, Tim Hecker or Oneohtrix Point Never. He also works in some influences of some of our favorite 20th century minimalist composers like Terry Riley and Steve Reich, especially on one of the album's hypnotizing standout tracks "Periled Emu God". And fear not, for those who like a bit of dissonance with their electronica, the Kid still interweaves some more challenging sounds into these tracks, yet manages to do so in a way that creates something larger and organic instead of just being difficult for the sake of being difficult. While there are brief moments with an almost Mego vibe (mostly just on the album's closer) the record while touching on many shades of electronica has an overall unique viewpoint that just sound so so perfect. This is the kind of electronica we haven't been able to find lately. Sure we love dubstep, space disco and drone, but we've been craving the kind of innovation and nuanced composition that so many of our favorite electronic albums of a prior age intoxicated us with. Somehow channeling both the best of electronica's past and creating a vision of its future at the same time, Kid 606 has proven that someone who has created something you love in the past, is surely capable of doing it again. Totally stunning!
MPEG Stream: "DIm Ego Prelude"
MPEG Stream: "Periled Emu God"
MPEG Stream: "Lou Reed Gimped"
MPEG Stream: "Die Rumpled Ego"

KOWALSKY, GREGG Tape Chants: Early Experiments (Arbor) cassette 8.98
Oof. Already out of print from Arbor, but we've got as many of these as we could!
It makes perfect sense that a selection of the early experiments from Kowalsky's ongoing collection of Tape Chants would end up as a cassette release. More of a method of working than a complete body of work, the Tape Chants material involves a bunch of drones, tones, and clustered notes that are played back on an arsenal of handheld cassette decks in any given performance space. The spiralling web of crossed frequencies and compacted echo patterns always make for one hell of a good performance, and they made for a pretty damn good album as well, like the one Kowalsky released on Kranky in 2009. This tape is a collection (as the title suggests) of his earliest manifestations of his Tape Chants, selected by Darwinsbitch. For the most part, Kowalsky presents grey smears of pedal driven feedback tones and electrical sinewave drones that are caught in loop patterns and abraded with some occasional distortion (possibly an effect, possibly an artifact of overdriven 4-track compression). There's one extract on the first side that is more percussive in nature, with Kowalsky gently tapping out pseudo-Gamelan rhythms on various bells, gongs, and resonant metals. Limited to 125, and as we mentioned already out of print.

LEWIS, FURRY I Will Turn Your Money Green (Monk) 2lp 30.00
Memphis blues legend Furry Lewis was one of the first of the original bluesmen to reach wider recognition with modern audiences, thanks in part to, well, not dying first of all, and secondly, for his decision to come out of retirement in the '60s and share his tunes with a new generation, including stints opening for the Stones and playing on the Tonight Show.
The songs collected here are from Furry's initial run, with recording dates spanning 1927-1928. The first session, recorded in Chicago, features some additional musicians providing guitar and mandolin to Furry's powerful vocals. These songs are cool, slow but steady, and kind of easy going. It basically sounds like a bunch of guys hanging out just playing for the fun of it, and it's really likable stuff. But things take a darker, and frankly, way better turn when Lewis goes at it alone. Thankfully, these songs make up the bulk of this collection. Songs like "Rock Island Blues" move with a sinister vibe, while "Jelly Roll" rides at a nice lazy pace. Lewis also offers his take on classics like "Stack O'Lee" and "John Henry", all featuring some impressive guitar work and a classic blues drawl. Then you have songs like "Furry's Blues", with such timeless themes as killing your woman and leaving home in the lyrics. Classic stuff for sure, this nice looking double lp is presented in Monk's always striking packaging and comes highly recommended.

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Amarok (Glacial Movements) cd 16.98
"The spookiest work I've ever done," states Francisco Lopez. His work very rarely embodies much in the way of emotional resonance, instead there's more often than not a manipulation of field recordings into stoic monuments of grey drone reflecting the physicality of sound. If there is a 'coldness' to his work, it's usually by way of his rather dry, often disembodied aesthetics which draw heavily from the conceptual models of musique concrete and acousmatic musics. So, it's quite unusual for Lopez to arrive (intentionally or otherwise) at this bleak recording on this isolationist label with this title (Amarok is the Inuit name of a monstrous wolf who destroys anyone foolish enough to hunt alone at night). The album is a single 64 minute piece, that like many a Lopez production begins in near silence for about two minutes; but slowly the first of three major movements begins through a slow acceleration of low-end rumblings that coalesce into an aerated growling that builds out of wind-whipped drones only to fade to black after a rather tense 18 minutes or so. The rest of the album is much quieter affair with the clatter of ice, metal, and distant voice hung in an evocatively black space of Lustmord / Koner shadow. A Promethean plod of slowly churning rhythmic subsonics introduces the slow finale of Amarok with distant moans and howls that could be human or lupine defaced by frigid Arctic winds. It's certainly spooky, and fortunately, Lopez is deft enough of a composer to avoid some of the ham-fisted theatrics that tend in many of the lesser dark ambient / isolationist practitioners. Recommended, for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Amarok 1"
MPEG Stream: "Amarok 2"
MPEG Stream: "Amarok 3"

MAEROR TRI Multiple Personality Disorder (Purplesoil) cd 14.98
Multiple Personality Disorder was the first cd and first major release for the seminal post-industrial ensemble Maeror Tri; and yes, the album's title does allude to one line of psychological research into the delineation of (in this case) four personalities that often correspond with acute cases of multiple personality disorder. On one hand, this thematic application does make a parallel to the pseudo-diagnostic aesthetics promoted by SPK and Lustmord in the early '80s; but on the other, Maeror Tri's Stefan Knappe was studying psychology throughout university, and those ideas clearly impacted the way he approached music, smearing dark drones and ethereal melodies out of heavily processed guitars, bass, synths, and other instruments through Maeror Tri to provide an evocative, enveloping, atmospheric, and occasionally threatening form of dark ambience.
The four suites of the album include "The Administrator," "The Anaesthetizer", "The Revenger", and "The Protector," each seeking to encapsulate the metaphoric sounds of those aforementioned personality traits. Hence, the first seeks something of a balance that's neither too dark nor too warm in the shimmering guitar drones and backwards masked swells of monochromatism. The second piece is a opiating, druggy drone track, that has a serpentine, oozing quality in the densely stacked rumbles of low-end distortion and shadowy murk. "The Revenger" is a suitably menacing track of down-pitched vocal snarls and demonic growls that grate against a noisescaping drone backdrop. The finale is downright beautiful certainly looking forward to the post-Maeror Tri project Troum and their luminous, billowing drones sculpted with lilting melodies buried under tons of smeared reverb. Multiple Personality Disorder was always one of the best Maeror Tri albums, and one that succeeded through this conceptual framework (which would have caused lesser artists considerable trouble). The reissue does do away with the original Korm Plastics artwork, which wasn't anything really to write home about; so, if you don't have the original and are keen on anything dark and droning, pick this up!
MPEG Stream: "The Administrator"
MPEG Stream: "The Anaesthetizer"

MARBLEBOG / DRAUGURZ split (Tour De Garde) cd 11.98
Originally released in 2005 as a cd-r limited to a mere 55 copies, and then later as a tape, limited to 144 copies, this killer split FINALLY gets a proper reissue, with new art, and an extra track, thanks to the always kick ass Tour De Garde label.
Ben a while since we've heard from Hungarian horde Marblebog, although they've been doing tons of split releases over the last few years, this one though is with Brazilian black metallers Draugurz, who long time aQ metalheads will probably remember from their raved about A Yell From The Past record.
Marblebog open the proceedings with some swirling drones and creepy black ambience, before introducing some spidery melancholic guitar, a tangled web of crystalline melody, which gives way to a burst of murky lo-fi buzz, a pounding midtempo depressive dirge, all weepy minor key chords and booming basement drums, with some seriously raspy and hellish vox, reminiscent of Hypothermia for sure, that sort of blackened post rock lope, but the band definitely get grim, exploding into blurred blasts of old school blackness, interspersed with strangely melodic stretches of meandery drift and shades of gloom pop. The other Marblebog track is all solo guitar, a distorted woozy blackened riffscape, creepy and solitary and haunting, a strange tension, as if at any point the drums might kick in, or the song might begin proper, but instead, the riff, twists and transforms, a dense sprawl of mournful buzz and trancelike drone. So cool.
Draugurz counter with some ultra raw, primitive black crunch, punkish guitars, stumbling drums, howled distorted vox, the songs sometimes slowing down into woozy warped doomy plods, with tangled minor key leads, sometimes locking into mesmerizing chunks of hypnodrone black metal, like a grim frosty Circle, building to dense blown out crescendos before slipping into more primitive pound.
This cd version tacks on an extra Draugurz track, a creepy ambient synthscape, all majestic percussion shimmering layered mournful buzz, with a super strange tripped out synth flute interlude, all clipped bleats and alien flutters, before returning to the stately march that started the track.
Killer stuff, from both bands, and probably still limited...
MPEG Stream: MARBLEBOG "A Silent Hermit"
MPEG Stream: DRAUGURZ "Hatestorm"

MEKURYA, GETATCHEW & THE EX Moa Anbessa (Mississippi) lp 14.98
MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT!! MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT!! MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT!!
This big time aQ fave, back in stock on cd, and also released on vinyl thanks to the kind folks at Mississippi!
A wild live blowout from legendary Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria, jamming with Dutch avant rockers The Ex and other like minded friends. It's time to once again get your Ethiopian groove on...
But with a twist. The twist being The Ex, everyone's favorite Dutch avant rockers who have always had a thing for world music, so much so that members of the Ex are directly involved in the running of Terp. So it makes sense that given the opportunity, they would jump at the chance to jam with the legendary Getatchew Mekuria. So here we have it, what sounds like one of the wildest musical parties ever! Oh how we would have killed to be there. Must have been a stone cold blast, but at least we have this here recording to ease our pain...
The record seems to be split right down the middle, half the songs are Ethiopian classics, given a bit of an angular post punk vibe, due in no small part to the fact that the band playing them is in fact the Ex, and the other half, the ones with vocals, sound like Ethiopian flavored Ex songs... We lean more toward the former, but both are pretty great. 
Imagine your favorite Ethiopiques record, but way more bass heavy, a fuzzy distorted throb, along with jangly angular guitars, all underneath that oh so recognizable sax, wailing and soaring, practically singing, emotional and gorgeous. A few tracks are groovy and smokey and sultry, sounding like they could have come straight off of Ethiopiques 4, and even the all time Ethiopian groove classic "Musicawi Silt" here gets a sort of funkgroove makeover, with percussive guitar clang, blooping bass, the song was already funky, but in a different way, the new version is a little more tightly wound, but in a good way, you could maybe call it Ethiopian postpunkgroove or something. And there's also an amazing solo jam "Tezeta", with Mekuria just making the sax sing, an extension of his being, going from full on skronk, to melancholy drift, oozing emotion and passion. The crowd reaction afterwards says it all. The rest of the record is packed with the above mentioned Ethiopian Ex style jams, which are awesome and wild and are definitely kinetic and ebullient, but the vocals are definitely an acquired taste...
MPEG Stream: "Musicawi Silt"
MPEG Stream: "Aynamaye Nesh"
MPEG Stream: "Tezeta"

MI AMI Steal Your Face (Thrill Jockey) cd 15.98
There aren't too many bands you can say sound "unlike anything else". San Francisco's own Mi Ami is one of those rare groups. For the past few years they have been setting SF, and more recently a good deal of the rest of the world, on fire with their spastic blend of skronky rhythmic awesomeness. Things are constantly moving, and the band's secret weapon is no doubt drummer Damon Palermo, who pulls double duty in cosmic explorers Jonas Reinhardt (whose Powers Of Audition record we recently listed). Of course, the other two members, guitarist/shrieker Daniel Martin-McCormick and bassist Jacob Long (both former members of legendary Dischord band Black Eyes), are just as essential in contributing to the sonic maelstrom that makes up Mi Ami's sound. Warmly distorted guitars howl and slash relentlessly, while the grooving basslines hold the foundation as the drums carry the songs all over the place without letting up. And then there are Martin-McCormick's feral screams, practically an instrument on their own. They manage to sound totally fun but with a firebeathing delivery that will also make you stop to think about songs like "Native Americans (Born In The U.S.A.)". The band has been expertly building up its sound over the past few releases, and they possess a keen production sense which makes Steal Your Face their strongest effort yet. The sound is frantic and ridiculously fun most of the time, but they also know how to slow things down, like on the mellow yet tense groove of "Dreamers", which rides slow and steady in a haze of dubbed out, feedback laced atmospheres. There is a constant sense of adventure here, and in never limited themselves Mi Ami have arrived at a seriously unique sound, one where amazing whirlwind rhythms and quirky electronics merge perfectly with a punk aesthetic. Ten years ago, this would have been a pretty difficult combination to imagine, but this is 2010 and Mi Ami own this sound. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Harmonics (Genius Of Love)"
MPEG Stream: "Latin Lover"
MPEG Stream: "Native Americans (Born In The U.S.A.)"

MINKS Funeral Song (Captured Tracks) 7" 6.98
One of the catchiest slabs of vinyl we've heard yet from the crazily prolific and pretty much always awesome Captured Tracks camp. With nice undertones of a warbly and disjointed demeanor along the lines of Blank Dogs, but taken in a more sleek and shoegazey direction. It's got this awesome hint of past C86 glory while infusing darker elements into those swirling and seductive hooks. Kind of like The Cure's mid/late '80s sound trimmed of its fat and recorded on a four track, or Ride at their most focused and infectious. What's so exciting about the Minks is that these two songs prove they know how to write totally infectious and melodic songs that evoke that perfect kind of hazy and blurred emotion. It's not just nailing a style and aesthetic, as these two songs are just so damn good, so good that we've been flipping it over and over playing it more times in a row then is probably healthy. But when a band starts making us obsessive we know that's a pretty great sign. We're super excited to hear more, and this is a fucking awesome introduction!

MONTGOMERY, GEN KEN Drilling Holes In The Wall (Monochrome Vision) cd 15.98
A name that pops up quite a bit in discussions about the '80s noise underground and the global network of cassette culture is Gen Ken Montgomery. He and Al Margolis founded Pogus Productions out of Margolis' Sound Of Pig cassette label; and in 1989, he expanded his Generator record store into the first sound art gallery in NYC of the same name. His own work eludes easy description as it centers upon process-oriented sound construction, exploring the cohabitation of cheap electronic gadgetry with objects from every day life. More of an extension of the eccentricities of Fluxus, Montgomery's work involves the process of adding and negating sound through those aforementioned tools; and as such, his work doesn't really fit into the Controlled Bleeding / Haters axis of ear-splitting noise deconstruction.
Inspired by the demolition of the Berlin Wall in late 1989 (where Montgomery was taking up residence at the time), Drilling Holes In The Wall was originally released as a cassette a year later. Montgomery had recorded the material in Conrad Schnitzler's studio in Berlin, initially conceiving the piece as an 8 channel cassette concert with overlapping lurches of cancerous electronics, mechanical exhortations, uncomfortable abstract groans, and power-tool atonality. That 30 minute piece is reprised here on cd, with four additional lengthy tracks, including two more tracks recorded at Schnitzler's place a couple years earlier. The "New Age Machines" suites are much more spacious than "Drilling Holes" with spooky sound-effects laced around sci-fi paranoid atmospheres and plinkety-plonking electronics, almost recreating the computer music aesthetic of the '60s through cheap consumer-grade electronics. Scattered, convoluted, and highly rewarding.
MPEG Stream: "Drilling Holes In The Wall"
MPEG Stream: "New Age Machines Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Icerbreaker"

MOON DUO Catch As Catch Can (Agitated Records) 7" 5.98
What do you really need to know here? A NEW MOON DUO 7" (their first?), and the inaugural release for new UK label Agitated Records. We know by now that the Moon Duo of Erik "Ripley" Johnson (um, of Wooden Shjips if you haven't already heard...) and Sanae Yamada are unstoppable, and once again, they deliver. "Catch As Catch Can" is the band's most energetic song to date with a super distorted fuzz organ riff and a guitar that sounds like a shimmering sheet of white noise. It's relentless and catchy as hell, sure to stick in your mind for days. The B-side is a cover of a Scientists tune, and in contrast to the A-side, this represents Moon Duo's slower, more groove oriented persona. The stuttered beat is accompanied by heavily saturated fuzz chords and pleasant little synth blips before rising to a crazy and amazing fuzz solo. Bonus points for the cool as fuck magic eye cover art. Yep, this one kills, and at only 1000 copies worldwide, just know it won't be sticking around for long.

MOSES Changes (Shadoks Music) cd 17.98
1971 strikes again! Proto-metal freaks, rejoice! Connoisseurs of the "early heavy" have reason to be excited about this, the lone album from this raw n' heavy psychedelic blues rock power trio from Denmark, originally released in '71, finally available as a legit cd reissue complete with liner notes and vintage photos in the cd booklet.
Recalling Vincebus Eruptum era Blue Cheer (big time!!) and early, bluesy Black Sabbath a bit too, Moses deliver blown-out, fuzz-bombed, acid-laced, hairy hippy proto-metal of Biblical proportions. Full of stoned vocals, loping riffs, and lots of wailing, wasted acid rock guitar soloing (worthy of Blue Cheer's Leigh Stephens and/or Randy Holden), Changes is highly recommended to anyone whose interest has been piqued by anything we've just mentioned or referenced. There's six songs here, nothing complex, certainly catchy though, what more to say? Each one provides the good vibes of ye olde primitive proto-metal, starting with the thudding blues brutality of title track "Changes" (which has nothing to do with the Black Sabbath piano ballad of the same name, by the way). Later on, "Beginning" gives the drummer some, ready for some DJ to mine for a crude breakbeat. "Skaev" is the only one here sung in Danish, but the lurching, surging riffage requires no translation. We're glad the final track, 7 minute track "Warning" is in English, though, 'cause we're getting a kick out of the lyrics, a story of a "straight" falling in with a turned-on crowd, which include lines like: "...and suddenly the girl gives him two feeling good pills, eat them if you can, a little after in a big discussion, forgotten everything about his wife, moving with the others in a big procession, he shouts out, this is life!" Awesome.
So, anyone into early Blue Cheer, Randy Holden's Population II, and the recently reissued Speed Glue & Shinki from Japan, stuff like that, will dig Moses for sure. Also, having just reviewed a bunch of '70s garage fuzz monsters from Africa, like Ngozi Family and Witch, we're hearing a lot of similarities here (minus the African thing, of course, but not the fuzz and groove). We bet if we said this was from Zambia or Nigeria, people would be freaking! Denmark is less "exotic", but that's not what's important when banging your head to these 1971 sounds.
MPEG Stream: "Changes"
MPEG Stream: "I'm Coming Home"
MPEG Stream: "Skaev"

MURRAY, BRENDAN / PERISPIRIT split (Semata Production / Razors & Medicine) lp 15.98
Here's the first piece of vinyl from one of our favorite drone artists - Brendan Murray. Here, he's working with his Boston neighbors Perispirit, whose earlier recordings seem to lean much more toward the power-noise end of the soundscraping underworld, but actually ends up being a worthy compliment.
Brendan Murray offers an interesting twist upon his electrical orchestrations of uneasy minimalism for his contribution to this split. Here, Murray is working with the voice of Noell Dorsey as the only source material. Not all that sure of the background of Ms. Dorsey, aside from a few avant-improv performances in various spots in Boston; and Murray repurposes her voice within a churning insectoid drone which elegantly descends into a soft hum whose calm is disrupted through signal ruptures of Dorsey's cackling. These witchy vocalizations have all of the bloodcurdling empathy of Diamanda Galas, but Murray is more interested in dissembling that voice into a swarm of disquieting drone.
The Perispirit half of the record begins with a lurching splatter of air-compressed noise, broken up with tiny jittery silences and heavily gated signal processing, only to snap into a shadowy, lonesome ambient passage of lilting guitar tones, which gradually acquire a leaden sheen of heavy, downtuned distortion before cutting back to a rupture of those aerated noises from the first moments of the record. Another razor edit back to silence, and Perispirit makes another ramp of guitar-sourced dronescaping through atonal loops and layers of sound, whose density has the rapturous quality of those Chatham / Branca guitar armies, but coupled with some low-impact noisemongering below. Limited to 250 copies, pressed on off-white vinyl, and certainly recommended!

NO BALLS s/t (Permanent) lp 14.98
Back in print and available again, the first full length of dense churning noise drenched crush from this twisted Brainbombs offshoot! Slighty different artwork, WAY cheaper, domestic release, still limited, 500 copies this time, but even so, these will most likely disappear pretty quick. Here's what we had to say about No Balls when we first reviewed the import version of this lp last year:
FINALLY! It's here, the first full length from NO BALLS. The new project from TWO of the Brainbombs, and it's just like the No Balls 7" we reviewed a while back (which is sadly now out of print): a noisier, more metal, more stripped down, more mesmerizingly hypnotic, even more fucked up and fractured and RAW, nearly instrumental Brainbombs which means this is fucking AMAZING!!!
If you love the Brainbombs, and how could you NOT, then you'll love this. Looped, motorik rhythms pound away relentlessly, through thick clouds of crumbling distortion, the recording super fucked up and in the red, with a super freaked out spatial thing going on, some of the drums seem to be blasting away right up front, while other drums sound off to the side, while the distorted guitars seem to seep into EVERYTHING, the result is head nodding (banging?) and totally dizzying. It's like these guys took unreleased Brainbombs jams and stripped them down to their bare essentials, then dipped them in a boiling cauldron of blown out distortion, hurling them into the void, picking out just a single riff from each track, and looping it, over and over and over, pounding away at that same riff FOREVER, total maximalist minimalism, like some impossible hybrid of Brainbombs, Gore, Black Flag and Lubricated Goat, hypnotic and mesmerizing, filthy and raw, metal AND punk, post everything noise rock, this shit is so fucked up and fierce.
Angular slashing riffage, buried super distorted vocals, but only here and there, some of that old dented BB trumpet bleat pops up every once in a while too, but those elements are practically swallowed whole by the churning black mass of sound that is No Balls, a gloriously sludgey and psychedelic kraut punk doom, mantra like, but also totally rocking, and simultaneously the best and the worst thing that's ever happened to your stereo. And your ears.
Totally ruling, utter sonic destruction, total musical bliss, filthy and fantastically and utterly recommended. Some of us are thinking... RECORD OF THE YEAR. Oh yeah...

NOTHING PEOPLE Soft Crash (S.S.) lp 14.98
What a kick ass slab of fucked up driving and dark yet totally rocking and catchy post-punk sounds! Nothing People offer up one of the most addictive full lengths in recent memory, chock full of pummeling, paranoid and no-wave tilted garage burners! Taking cues from the likes of The Birthday Party and Chrome, these songs have a hint of danger and dystopia without feeling forced or contrived. We also think a lot of bands like A Frames, Simply Saucer and a more seductive and melodic Mayyors. In fact Nothing People are like this awesome blend of a lot of the fucked up warped garage sounds that have come out on labels like Captured Tracks and Sacred Bones, but with a much heavier and meaty old school Amphetamine Reptile vibe that really fuels the fire of these smoking songs.

NOVELLER Wolf (FTAM) 7" 6.98
After two full lengths on No fun, a split with Aidan Baker from Nadja, as well as a handful of limited releases and comp tracks, comes this latest, short sweet burst of beautiful avant drone, from Sarah Lipstate, who besides making beautiful drone music, also plays (or played?) guitar for the group Parts & Labor, and is an accomplished filmmaker. Over the course of her recordings, we've become quite enamored of Noveller's approach to drone music and minimal ambience, and this 7" just continues to demonstrate that she deserves the same sort of hype afforded to groups like Emeralds, considering the similar sonic terrain they explore.
Warm liquid buzz, hazy and otherworldly wrapped around swirling FX and looped processed guitar, deep rumbling tones, shimmering synths, all floating on a wheezing chordal drift, an amorphous cloud of sound, soothing and tranquil and hypnotic. The A-side builds to a bit of a Sunroof! style climax before drifting off into a muted thrum. The B-side adds a loping guitar figure, a mesmerizing looped melody, bathing the sounds in an ethereal glimmer, creating a gorgeous slab of gauzy dreamlike pop ambience. So nice!

NURSE WITH WOUND Automating Vol. 3 (United Dairies) cd 14.98
In 1986, Steven Stapleton released Automating Vol. 1, filled with some choice selections he had produced for various compilations during his previous eight years of existence as Nurse With Wound. Given just how much amazing material Stapleton produced in the prolific NWW catalog, it's not surprising that his tracks for compilations were pretty damn good even as some of these pieces were drastic remixes and edits of material already on other albums, or they were tracks that didn't quite 'fit' onto one of his already eccentric takes of industrial-psychedelic-concrete constructions by way of classic Surrealism.
So, jump to 2010, and Stapleton has now released Automating Vol. 3 (yes, there was a Volume 2), with equally astounding results again demonstrating his studio magic.
The compilation moves mostly in chronological order, starting with a track from 1984 and traversing almost to the present with a 2008 piece. The earliest number came from a Japanese compilation called Sound Cosmodel, spliced from metallic slashes and the spoken word of a breathy French woman, providing a typically unsettled Nurse collage. The comedy side of NWW comes by way of "Antacid Cocamotive 93" with a funhouse cover of the early '60s hit "Do The Locomotion" that nearly spins off the rails with Diana Rogerson offering her zombified vocals to accompany the warbling silliness of the tune. Another Rogerson duet appears by way of the track "Beetle Crawls Across My Back" recontextualizing the material that she and Stapleton used on one of the Chrystal Belle Scrodd records. Very creepy, dark atmospheres, with almost ritualist percussion buried way down deep upon which Rogerson snarls her nightmarish tale, you guessed it, about insects crawling on her back."Ubu Noir" is a 2006 redux of "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair" - the Appalachian standard that grew notorious via Patty Waters' version in the 60s. Here, Stapleton's cybernetic vocals rasp above blackened loops and leviathan plods. But perhaps the most atypical track is the remix that Stapleton did for the death metal band Cadaverous Condition. Given the uncanny success Stapleton had with the SUNNO))) remix a few years back, this shouldn't be too much of a surprise, as he stretches out the thunderous rhythms, adds haunted chorale loops, and smears the chugging riffs into chunks of mutant noise. Yeah, it's a diverse mix of material; but what Nurse With Wound album isn't? And yeah, it's definitely recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Beetle Crawls Across My Back"
MPEG Stream: "Ubu Noir"
MPEG Stream: "Nosedive (remix of Cadaverous Condition)"

ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER A Pact Between Strangers (Gneiss Things) cd-r 12.98
So, Gneiss Things made a small batch of discs for this Oneohtrix Point Never album back at the end of 2008, probably not anticipating that OPN would become something of a big deal via his cyborg meditation music. A Pact Between Strangers was the second recording for OPN, predated only by the Betrayed In The Octagon album, which first came out as a cassette on Deception Island and later got released on LP through No Fun. By now, most everything that Dan Lopatin has released as Oneohtrix Point Never has gone out of print; so Gneiss Things wisely decided to make another run down to Kinkos, run off some more color copies of the artwork, and press up another batch of discs. But it will inevitably be a small window of time in which we'll be offering these discs.
That said, A Pact Between Strangers is not all that dissimilar to the long sprawling sci-fi tracks of Betrayed In The Octagon with shimmering synth patterns gliding along those day-glo lazer tones without much use of the sequenced arpeggiations that Lopatin had featured so prominently on Zones Without People or the KGB Man material.
Limited as fuck, and just as recommended.
MPEG Stream: "The Pretender"
MPEG Stream: "A Pact Between Strangers"
MPEG Stream: "When I Get Back From New York"

ORCHID Through The Devils Doorway (The Church Within) cd 13.98
Uh, can you say Black Sabbath? 'Cause that's about EXACTLY what this new band from San Francisco sounds like, same vocals, same chugging sludgy riffs, same swinging groove, same apocalyptic hippie vibe, even moreso than other bands also on The Church Within label that admittedly have Black Sabbath as a major influence (Lord Vicar, Lord Of The Grave, Seamount...). Courting confusion with the screamo punk band Orchid, they're naturally named after a Black Sabbath song (amusingly, one of those acoustic-y guitar solo numbers Tony Iommi liked to do now and then amidst all the heaviness, "Orchid" appearing on Master Of Reality). You don't get "Fluff" like that here, though, it's all about the heaviness and rockin' doominess. And it IS super heavy, and super Sabbathy, make no mistake. Maybe TOO Sabbathy... They've got mega riffs that Iommi might come asking for back someday, those unmistakable incantatory Ozzyish vocals, and an authentically Sabbathy sounding production, all of which puts 'em in the same camp as Sabbath worshippers Sleep (circa their Holy Mountain album), sHeavy, Iron Man, etc. We're reminded of Trouble too, though they were never quite such copyists. So, not too many points for originality, none at all really, but plenty for verisimilitude. And, we can't help it, we're sorta suckers for this, being the huge Black Sabbath fans we are, this scratches that itch, y'know?
So, this ep from Orchid comprises four songs you could throw on after listening to Vol. 4 or Sabotage and, if you squint your ears a bit, consider hitherto unreleased Black Sabbath "bonus tracks" (which all Sabbath lovers know are in very short supply). Of course we'd be even more impressed with 'em if they'd somehow managed to write truly 100 percent NEW songs as good as Sabbath's, rather than what's closer to pastiche, but that's easier said than done, and it's still a fun listen if you want to hear a shockingly similar Sabbath sound-alike, fun too trying trying to figure out which specific Sabbath album/song each Orchid song is emulating, which isn't too difficult really... "Into The Sun", despite its "Into The Void" like title, reminds us more of "Symptom Of The Universe". "Eastern Woman" has a Technical Ecstasy feel, we think, while "Son Of Misery" sounds more like the first album Sabbath. And "No One Makes A Sound" is primarily in the style of stuff on the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath LP, with a bit of an "Iron Man" interlude in it too. You won't believe it's NOT Sabbath, that should be their slogan.
We will say, though, that we hope they add a little more of their own flavor in the future, 'cause when we saw 'em live the other day (opening for the Pentagram/Ludicra/Slough Feg show) they seemed a bit... well there's no nice way to put it... like posers. They had the '70s look, the vintage gear (well except the bassist wasn't playing a Rickenbacker for some reason, WTF dude, get with the program, what would Geezer think?), it all seemed a bit too calculated, not really "real" enough, and without anything of their OWN in the mix it they might as well have just played actual Sabbath covers, rather than the cleverly rewritten Sabbath songs it appeared they were playing. That said, listening at home, we can't help but enjoy this ep quite a bit, the worshipful spirit of the thing comes across better here somehow! Like we said a while back in our WhiteBuzz review, sometimes you want more of a certain band's sound, and if another band can channel it too, let 'em! And we ALWAYS want more Sabbath... Orchid obviously feel the same way.
By the way, it's funny that we originally found out about these guys 'cause they're on a cool German label that we order from, even though they're a local band!
MPEG Stream: "Eastern Woman"
MPEG Stream: "Son Of Misery"

OUTER SPACE Demonstrations (Deception Island) 2 x cassette 17.98
If you didn't know already, Emeralds synth-advocate John Elliott is one hell of a busy man. Yeah, there's a ton of Emeralds cd-r's and tapes that disappear before we even know about them, and the same goes for a bunch of Elliott's side projects. Outer Space is one of those projects, which has been hailed at times as a solo venture of Elliott's, but sometimes he's wrangling fellow Cleveland jammers to zone out on the electronics with him. Needless to say, this double cassette from Deception Island is the first time we've heard the sounds of Elliott's Outer Space, but it's certainly a very different animal from his Mist project, whose eponymous LP we've managed to stock from time to time. Where the Mist recordings tend toward the airy, effervescent, brighter end of the kosmische electronic spectrum, Outer Space swings toward the darker, grey smears of industrial din through electronic means. Long filter sweeps push the spectral tones and static laced synthesis towards a leaden oblivion via a turgid application of twin Moogs (with Elliott being joined by Jeff Hatfield).
Smartly packaged in a jumbo double cassette case... but be careful with it, we have no idea where you'd be able to find another, if it were to slip out of your hand and smash upon the floor. Super limited to 200 copies, and destined to be out of print shortly after we type these words.

OV HELL The Underworld Regime (Prosthetic) cd 15.98
After a protracted legal battle over the name Gorgoroth, various members went their separate ways, with Infernus keeping the Gorgoroth name, and recently releasing a decent slab of black metal under that moniker. Meanwhile former Gorgoroth guitarist King Ov Hell and vocalist Gaahl went on to form the oddly named God Seed, but before the duo could release a record, that band fell apart, resulting in the formation of this group right here, Ov Hell, which finds King (now sans the Ov Hell) teamed up with Dimmu Borgir vocalist Shagrath, along with a pretty serious supporting cast: Frost from Satyricon, Ice Dale of Enslaved and Teloch of Nidingr and 1349! But initial reports had been grim (and not in a good way), with a pretty much across the board dismissal of the new record. So we were prepared for the worst, which could be why we find ourselves digging this so much.
It's not groundbreaking or revolutionary (then again little black metal is), but it's also not terrible, in fact, it's pretty dang good, and not that far removed from what you might expect from the various contributors. Plenty of the record is blasting blackness, all furious beats and insectoid buzzing, and Shagrath's demonic vokills, but the record is surprisingly varied, with some cool warped dirgier numbers, with strange samples, and tangled spidery guitars, some definite grooves, gnarled riffing, epic melodies, all under a seriously glossy modern production, and every song that seems to be on the surface some sort of a throwaway black metal by the numbers jam, has a lot more going on than meets the ear, and there's plenty of awesomely twisted, blasting and brutal tracks that stand up pretty well to any of the bands in Ov Hell's pedigree. It takes a few listens, definitely, and if you were hoping for some sort of return to classic Gorgoroth, you'll probably be disappointed, but every spin we dig this more and more...
MPEG Stream: "Devil's Harlot"
MPEG Stream: "Post Modern Sadist"
MPEG Stream: "Hill Norge"

PANTHA DU PRINCE This Bliss (Dial / Kompakt) cd 16.98
After flipping out over PdP's Black Noise record, a gorgeous collection of lush minimal avant techno, that owed as much to minimal pop music, and avant garde soundscapery as it did to Kompakt or Chain Reaction, we became obsessed with tracking down the two earlier albums, Diamond Daze and This Bliss, but unfortunately, both were out of print, and available only for way too much on eBay.
Then whattaya know, a couple months later and both get reissued, and both are just as fantastic as Black Noise.
The template is the same, spares, spare, skeletal, minimal throb and pulse, click and skitter, house music, techno, the template is classic electronic music, but those tropes get all twisted up and remargined as something lush and otherworldly, sexy and organic, This Bliss couldn't be a more appropriate title for this record, as it is truly blissful. Not so much geared toward the dancefloor, this is like after hours chillout music, but imbued with light and warmth and energy and emotion, propulsive, but also washed out, hazy and shimmery, the sounds are prismatic and crystalline, makes sense that this would get reissued via Kompakt, as it's a pretty perfect fit, but unlike some of the Kompakt stuff, that can tend toward the clubby, the sounds on This Bliss remain rooted in sounds more minimal, and more abstract and avant, besides the muted beats, the swooshing ambience, PdP incorporates soaring strings, epic and cinematic, tracks are given the impression of motion, the soundtrack to speeding along some highway in the middle of the night, notes ring out, chiming bell like loops are layered and allowed to drift into the ether.
On the surface, the sound is definitely minimal techno, but it's so well crafted, it ends up revealing itself as so much more on repeated deeper listens. This is the sort of electronic music that could reasonable convert the skeptical, lure in the non believers with it's lustrous nuanced sounds, and gorgeously moody mystery.
TOTALLY RECOMMENDED. We think it's as good as Black Noise, likewise with Diamond Daze, which we'll review soon, and like This Bliss is destined to join the other two records on non stop heavy rotation around these parts...
MPEG Stream: "Asha"
MPEG Stream: "Saturn Strobe"
MPEG Stream: "Seeds Of Sleep"

PELT A Stone For Angus Maclise (self released) lp 17.98
Killer two sided single track raga drone epic from these masters, dedicated to legendary musician Angus Maclise, this jam is a magnificent mesmerizing sprawl of harmonium, gong, singing bowls and more, all woven and smeared and blurred into a smoldering slow motion raga, that pulses and throbs, seemingly near static, but so alive, overtones everywhere, constantly shifting layers, deep rumbling tones surfacing now and again, slipping from lush and warm and lustrous to delicate and crystalline, from melodic and dense to atonal and alien, like a Reich or Riley piece smoked out and spread way out into some seriously next level ur-drone bliss. The flipside / part 2 adds still more layers, more shifting tones, as well as wordless vocals, moaning and crooning, another layer of hypnotic sound, veering into frenzied chaos, but remaining utterly dreamy and hypnotic.
In lots of reviews a band does something incredible and we always wish they would take that one track, and stretch it out to fill up a whole record, the result being something like this, although in the case of A Stone For Angus Maclise, we find ourselves wishing this sprawling extended lp length raga drone was stretched out even farther, an endless expanse of looped and layered buzz extending forever and ever, into the unknown.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Cool metallic stickered cover with tiny printed insert.

REVOLUTIONARY ENSEMBLE Beyond The Boundary Of Time (Mutable Music) cd 15.98
There are very few contemporary jazz ensembles that get us excited, that remind us of the good ol' days, you know, Jazz Actuel, free jazz, REVOLUTIONARY JAZZ, so it should come as no surprise really, that one of the new bands that does do it for us, is made up of players from the old days, still making music as exciting, powerful and emotionally charged as ever.
Revolutionary Ensemble is Leroy Jenkins on violin, Sirone on bass, and Jerome Cooper on drums and a variety of other sound making devices, and Beyond The Boundary Of Time, captures the trio's 2005 final performance, live in Poland, recorded 2 years before Jenkins' death.
We've long been obsessed with Sirone, ever since the Chicago Art Ensemble days, one of the few players who could mesmerize and entrance us with an hour of solo bass, and he gets to do his thing here too, opening the set with 4 plus minutes of scrapes and drones and rumbles, until the song kicks in proper, and violin is such a strange non traditional jazz instrument, but Jenkins makes it sing, so melodic and haunting and mysterious, soaring over the strange rubbery basslines, and the abstract percussive skitter. The opening track gives us chills every time we hear it. The playing so lyrical and emotional, it's definitely jazz, but with elements of classical music, chamber music, intense, but also raw, and loose, and so free. Utterly beautiful. And that's just the first track.
The whole record is magical and mysterious, and sonically unique, Jenkins' violin and Sirone's bass are perfect foils, tangling and sparring, sometimes in perfect harmony, other times exploding into different directions, but the result is always the same, lush, expressive, otherworldly, some alien strain of jazz, that just seems to unfold and flower and splinter into all sorts of different shapes and sounds as the set progresses, seeing this in person must have been incredible, cuz recorded, it's pretty breathtaking.
The set ends with two lengthy improvisations, and the players go for it, the first, an endless avalanche of strange tones and layered skitter, lots of space, but also strange sonic molecules darting to and fro, the band occasionally locking into some serious droney dreaminess, but just as quickly breaking down into near chaos. The final track, lush and abstract, seriously melodic, until what sounds like some strange drum machine kicks in, and the track is transformed into some almost new wave free jazz freakout, fucking AWESOME.
Definitely one of the best performances from one of our favorite, and sadly now defunct, modern free jazz ensembles. Dedicated, as it should be, to the memory of Leroy Jenkins.
MPEG Stream: "Configuration"
MPEG Stream: "Usami"

ROBEDOOR Burners (Important) lp 19.98
Latest chuck of spaced out doom drone from these long time aQ faves, Burners finds the group getting seriously melodic, sort of. Where on past records, RD trafficked more in abstract drones and ambient doom, and psychedelic soundscapery, the three extended tracks here are more slowcore than doomdrone, more space rock that soundscape, a new direction for sure, but without losing the various drone and doom elements that made past records so compelling.
The record opens with a loooooong stretch of moaning ambience, heaving slabs of muted crumbling distortion, before the drums kick in, a simple, skeletal, almost krautrock beat, and then the rest of the band launch into a droney, fuzzed out space rock dirge, tons of reverb and echo and delay, distant tinkling melodies buried in the mix, the vocals processed to the point that they become just another layer of swirling sound, a plodding, hypnorock workout that builds to a blown out, seriously in-the-red finish. The second track dials it back a bit, all tribal drumming and warm whirring organs, more reverbed vox, washed out and ethereal, murky and muddy, a gorgeously blurred bit of slowcore lumber.
The second side is all one track, which begins with keening soft melodies over buzzing layered low end, and epic slowburning dirge, almost like White Hills or the Heads, at 16 rpm, a blown out space rock, slowed waaaaay down and wrapped in layer after layer of haze and grit and buzz. Majestic, melodic, melancholic, the bass thick and billowing and blackened, the guitars howling above it all, total, with a blurred tribal outro, garbled vox, chiming guitars, tons of effects, all drifting beneath a ever shifting layers of sonic murk, total space kraut doom dirge bliss!

SEAMOUNT Light And Truth (The Church Within) cd 16.98
One of two new releases on this week's list from the German doom metal label The Church Within, the other being by extremely Sabbath-styled San Francisco doomsters Orchid, this one is also significantly Sabbathy, although in much more of an original way. Their singer definitely sounds a lot like Ozzy, he's the guy from another (amazing) band with a new record we'll hopefully be reviewing soon, called Hour Of 13. Not sure how he ended up in Seamount, or how they work things regarding live performances, since he's American, living in Connecticut, but the rest of the band is in fact German, based in Bavaria. In any case, we like his vocals, which on opener "Out Of The Dark" gives Seamount not only a Sabbath vibe, but maybe more of a solo '80s Ozzy feel, a la Diary Of A Madman or Bark At The Moon! Meanwhile, as long as we're making comparisons, another band Seamount sometimes remind us of is Monster Magnet. Turns out the singer can do a good Wyndorf drawl too, check out the lumbering "Together Wear The Cross". And heck, Monster Magnet meets Ozzy sounds damn good to us! Stoner metal nirvana really.
But it doesn't stop there, 'cause actually the songs we've mentioned are just the first two on the disc, over the course of this 13 track, 75 minute (!) album, Seamount touch upon plenty of other classic, doomic, metallic sounds, from The Obsessed (big time) to the NWOBHM, synthesizing all the above influences into something into what is indeed, all told, a signature "Seamount" sound, super heavy but also totally rockin', full of thick, catchy riffs, twin guitar power, tight playing, gloomy melody, some quiet moody parts, and other occasional surprises. This isn't their first album either, which now we want to hear! Impressive to say the least, as is the packaging, a nice gatefold miniature LP style sleeve, with lovely 28 page booklet, with evocative artwork to illustrate each and every one of the songs.
MPEG Stream: "Out Of The Dark"
MPEG Stream: "Together Wear The Cross"
MPEG Stream: "Honey Flower"
MPEG Stream: "Vampyropoda"

SESAME STREET Old School Vol. 1 (E1 Entertainment) 3cd 22.00
Yeah, we're bustin' it out super old school. No joke, the three records in this set were released four decades ago! Each remastered album comes packaged in a cardboard sleeve with its original cover art, and all three are bundled together in a slipcover. We only wish they'd included a booklet of some sort, but alas, 'tis not to be. Oh well, since these Sesame Street treasures have never been previously released on cd, this is still a very welcome reissue! Anyhoo, let us stress that while we're for sure having some warm nostalgic fuzzies, we're definitely not on some irony-laden trip here. Although the show was originally meant for preschoolers, anyone who is young at heart will surely find the music delightful. It's silly and playful and educational, but not vacuously happy nor excessively simple. The television show's musical staff featured some totally exceptional musicians and some totally ace hook-writing composers. Of course, the latter was ideal for the purposes of facilitating the learning of mathematics, language skills, social studies, geography, science, art, and of course music, but it also just makes for a super fun listen! Musical styles run the gamut from straight-laced Welk-ish orchestrations to ragtime follies to banjo jamborees to kicky bass'n'tambourine funkiness and beyond.
The first album from 1970 starts with (what else but) the theme song sung by the original cast of kids, then slips right into a meeting of Gordon (the first "Gordon" Matt Robinson), Susan, Big Bird, and the alphabet (note: this song also appears on the second disc for reasons that become readily apparent). The nineteen songs touch on a well rounded variety of youngster focused subjects, and in true '70s album fashion, The Sesame Street Record works just as well as a single start-to-finish listening experience or broken up into individual tunes. It's definitely the most traditionally educational of the three, but inarguably the standout tracks are Oscar The Grouch's "I Love Trash" and Ernie's "Rubber Duckie".
1974's Big Bird Sings (love the cover!) is next, and despite its title it features fourteen songs not just sung by the giant yellow feathered friend, but also duets with Oscar, Snuffleupagus, Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster and others friends from the neighborhood (including the second "Gordon" Hal Miller). While this record didn't have any obvious hits, it did have a subplot about Big Bird and his poetic endeavors. Think of this one as the Sesame Street sleeper!
1975's Bert & Ernie Sing-Along follows with yes, a sing along! The cast (including "Gordon" #3 Roscoe Orman) all squeeze into the bathroom for the tuneful festivities while Bert is in the tub because as Ernie states "everyone sounds better singing in the bathroom." The twenty one song selections on this album include a mix of Sesame Street originals like "C Is For Cookie", "What's The Name Of That Song?" and "Bats In My Belfry" (yes, it's sung by The Count!), as well as some old standards such as "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" and "Row Your Boat".
With the recent flurry of fine'n'dandy children's albums by contemporary artists such as They Might Be Giants, Jon Langford and Kelly Hogan's Wee Hairy Beasties or Duplex from Vancouver, it's really great to be able to visit (or revisit) some of the O.G. purveyors of the genre. The upstarts come close, but who can hold a candle to the Sesame Street gang?! We have a sneakin' suspicion that these albums were a prime source of inspiration for them as well as for countless other 40-ish (non-kids-related) music artists back in their own formative years. Recommended for young'uns and older'uns too. We can't wait for Volume 2!
PS: And for those of you wondering why we are singling out the Gordons? Well, somewhat puzzlingly, there was never any explanation given for each casting change. Did they think no one would question it? Little Cup sure did!
MPEG Stream: "I Love Trash"
MPEG Stream: "The Number Five"
MPEG Stream: "Y'All Fall Down"
MPEG Stream: "What's The Name Of That Song?"

SKULLFLOWER This Is Skullflower (VHF) cd 13.98
Finally available again, this essential recording from the legendary Skullflower, notable in that it was the last record before that band shut down operations for 7 years, before returning with the Exquisite Fucking Boredom release on tUMULt, which found Skullflower reborn, channeling Hawkwind and proto-metal and creating their own sort of spaced out hypno riff rock.
This Is, finds the band right in between, having slowly been moving away from the industrial thud of previous discs, toward something much more spaced out and hypnotic, definitely reflecting SF mainman Matthew Bower's raga drone explorations in Sunroof!
Record opener "Lounge", sets the tone for the whole record, sounding less like Skullflower, and more like No Neck Blues Band or Sunburned Hand or Avarus, a sort of meandering free jazz / free noise freakout, with skittery abstract rhythms, pounded piano, squalls of psychedelic wah guitar, but lots of space too, not a heaving mass of crush, more like a spaced out bit of psych rock abstract drift, underneath it all did definitely lurk a slab of dense drone, but here it stays in the background. Which leads directly into the slightly more ominous "Creaky Rigging", which unfurls as a loose hazy raga, long drawn out tones, spidery guitars, clouds of cymbal shimmer, barely there drums, the sound very Eastern, the sound building and building into something much more intense, but retaining that essential raga-drone-buzz core. Super hypnotic and dense, like a way looser Pelt or something, or Flying Saucer Attack minus the songs.
"Glider" ups the ante a little, adding some more traditional drum pound, to it's billowing sheets of white noise guitar and streaks of squealing feedback, anchored by a pounding piano, a bit like The Dead C, working their way through a lightning storm of layered high end skree and clouds of psychedelic fried amp crunch.
The record closes with a nearly 40 minute live jam "The Pirate Ship Of Reality Is Moving Out", which begins all clean guitar jangle, striped with spidery bits of atonal guitar melody, a slow avant raga, that lurches and sways, threatening to coalesce into a proper rock song, but always veering into much more abstract territory, eventually exploding in a frenzy of sawed strings, and howling psychdrone screech, before slipping into something much more spacious and contemplative, spending the next ten minutes or so navigating a field of blackened shimmer and hushed drift, before in the last few minutes, returning to the fiery salvo of the song's climax.
An incredible record of avant psychedelia and abstract raga, definitely worth revisiting, especially for those who may have found Skullflower's recent releases too intense or harsh, and anyone into the above referenced bands, Pelt, The Dead C, Avarus, No Neck, Sunburned Hand, will for sure dig this, as it charts similar sonic territory, while managing to sound distinctly and uniquely like Skullflower.
MPEG Stream: "Lounge"
MPEG Stream: "Creaky Rigging"

SOFT MOON, THE Breathe The Fire (Captured Tracks) 7" 6.98
Damn, it's getting hard to keep up with Captured Tracks. Every time we blink it seems they have put out a new record of some sort. But keeping up pays off, because they have a pretty amazing record when it comes to fucking great releases. Before we even heard The Soft Moon, we heard so many of our customers in the store asking when we were getting it in. And we can see what all the anticipation and excitement was about as this is for sure one of the finest slabs of wax yet to be released on Captured Tracks. Minimal, driving and sensual post punk. Almost like a sexier Moon Duo, as it shares a similar repetitive and drugged out psychedelic post-Suicide/Spacemen 3 aesthetic, but much more sleek and song based. Makes it even cooler that its all the work of one guy from right here in San Francisco. For sure he fits well in the world of folks like Blank Dogs, Cosmetics, and Pearl Harbor. You can hear that he must have a love for everything from Tones On Tail to Suicide to Slowdive as these two songs melt as much as they slowly burn with such pleasing fire. Fucking great!

SUMMER CATS Your Timetable (Slumberland) 7" 5.50
We kind of think the Summer Cats have gotten a bit overlooked in the awesome rebirth of Slumberland records. We loved their peppy and additive full length and this new 7" is making us hope that more folks get turned on to their totally upbeat, immediate and yes, totally Summer soaked sounds, in the tradition of the glory days of sugary pop fueled indie rock like Superchunk, Velocity Girl, Rocketship, Tiger Trap, Heavenly, Henry's Dress, and Boyracer. And with all the disjointed and warped lo-fi sounds we've been bombarded with lately it sounds so damn cleansing and beyond refreshing to hear some seriously sunhsiney pop. Summercats understand that to play this kind of music it has to be all killer and no filler, and they totally get that. Both these songs immediately jump into their hooks and pop glory and leave no room for wasted space or lingering moments. It's immediate, way catchy and gloriously sunny.

TEENAGE FANCLUB Deep Fried Fanclub (Fire) cd 16.98
Anyone who somehow doesn't own any Teenage Fanclub records, should probably buy this, a pretty decent introduction to one of the best pop bands ever, but might as well also find copies of A Catholic Education and Bandwagonesque, their first two proper records. Equal parts Big Star / Byrds jangle, and wild psychedelic Neil Young guitars, Teenage Fanclub were born of the same Glasgow scene that would also give us Mogwai among others, and while they shares a proclivity for extended jams, their sound was way more rooted in classic pop, as was evidenced not only by their sound, but their choice of covers (Beatles, Beat Happening, Alex Chilton, Gerry Love). Their star shone pretty brightly during the nineties alt rock explosion, but a surprising number of folks missed out on these guys completely, which is a shame, especially considering all the pop bands of today, who owe much of their sound to these guys whether they know it or not.
Deep Fried Fanclub gathers up all the songs the band recorded during their brief stay on Paperhouse Records in the early nineties and also tacks on their K records single.
The opener "Everything Flows" is pretty much perfect, in a single song, demonstrating what makes them so great, perfect jangle pop, with big crunchy guitars, sweet vocals, incredible melodies, extended jam outro, so impossibly catchy, in a weird way like a way janglier poppier Swervedriver. "God Knows It's True" is another classic, big guitars, big hooks, heavy and poppy. There's some weird demos and some odd covers, their version of the Beatles "Ballad Of John And Yoko" sounds like Redd Kross / Tater Totz, but the K single finishes thing off pretty perfectly, a killer rendition of Alex Chilton's "Free Again", sounding weirdly like a way more rocking Partridge Family, and Beat Happening's "Bad Seed" reimagined as some sort of dirgey garage rock jam with a verse that almost sounds like the Suicidal Tendencies.
Still one of the best pop bands around, this collection is essential for fans, and anyone into heavy hooky pop, these guys could be your new (old) favorite band!
MPEG Stream: "Everything Flows"
MPEG Stream: "Primary Education"
MPEG Stream: "Speeder"
MPEG Stream: "The Ballad Of John & Yoko"

TO BLACKEN THE PAGES + KORPERSCHWACHE A Way Dark (Colony) 2cd 10.98
It's been close to a year since we've heard from Irish one man doomdronedirge guitarrorist To Blacken The Pages, we've been pretty obsessed with every record we've heard so far, this being number FIVE, which is also notable for being a collaboration with Korperschwache, an Austin based Skullflower style guitar noise juggernaut, long time faves of some of us here, who somehow has never made it onto the aQ list, even with a ton of strange and limited releases over the last decade, but we'll solve that problem right... Now.
Regardless of the collaboration, a new To Blacken The Pages is always cause for celebration around here, TBTP continually manages to conjure up all sorts of low end fury, from blown out shoegazey drift, to crushing SUNNO)))-like dirgery, to harrowing black ambience, to spaced out kraut drone, more often than not some dizzying mix of all of those. Korperschwache is similarly versatile, leaning toward the noisy and heavy, dipping into extreme harsh noise, but also gorgeous guitardrone ambience, UK industrial style skree, and rhythmic hypnorock riffery. So what this collaboration would actually sound like was pretty much a total mystery.
What we did know, was that this would be some mysterious, dark and heavy shit, which we're happy to report is indeed the case, but there's much more to the gorgeous blackened soundworld these two sonic soundscapers have conjured up here...
Thick swaths or rumbling low end fog underpin delicate fragmented shards of softly reverbed guitar, almost like some sort of SUNNO))) / Scenic mash up, a little Earth twang, a lush, ominous churning driftscape that builds to a full on doomic crush, all hazey and blown out and in the red, before drifting into more slowcore territory, a simple motorik drum machine laced stretch of hypnotic post rock, with swirling melodies and buried in the mix deep vocal croon. Big billowy sheets of black crush splinter into feedback drenched noise rock, the drum machine cranked way up, the guitars corrosive and caustic, like an ultra heavy Loop track gone haywire. The first disc finishes off with two extended tracks of guitar drone, "A New Seat In Hell", and "Shallow", the first muted and murky and minimal, the second exactly the opposite, like recent Skullflower, a speaker shredding onslaught of full on psychedelic guitargrind freakout.
The second disc begins all dreamy and washed out, the drum machine set to lope and lumber, the guitars warm and gauzy, infused with tendril like melodies, the Jesu comparison is certainly apt here, hazy shoegazey and druggy, the perfect lead in to the "Inside The Mariana Trench", an even more spaced out bit of reverb drenched psychedelia, guitars spitting out blinding gouts of keening high end tones, laid over skeletal programmed drums, and a bleary eared swirl of delay and echo and smeared effects, so nice.
"Absent Friends" is a haunting post industrial bit of minimal dronemusic, again peppered with bits of guitar melody, and streaks of mysterious effects, hushed vocals, simple strums, the root sound a lush layered metallic whir, which leads to the final track, the nearly 40 minute "Stranded In The Hertzsprung Crater", a sprawling spacious, abstract epic, which beings thick and distorted, but soon evolves into something much more spare, effected guitars careening over a bleak landscape of hiss and whir and hum, soft arcs of feedback, a haunting barren world of drift and shimmer, a pretty perfect way to end such an epic sonic journey.
Needless to say, totally and utterly recommended, for fans of minimal guitar music, dirges and drones, dark ambience, doom, outsider metal, shoegaze, whatever, this stuff is dark and blissed out, ominous and abstract, dense and heavy and gorgeous.
Will do our best to get more Korperschwache to list, and we'll of course wait patiently for the next To Blacken The Pages, but in the meantime, we'll just stay gloriously lost in the epic and sprawling soundworld of A Way Dark.
MPEG Stream: "Lovecraft"
MPEG Stream: "Sonic Kingdom"
MPEG Stream: "Black Dawn"

TRIPTYKON Eparistera Daimones (Prowling Death / Century Media) cd 13.98
Celtic Frost is dead, long live Triptykon! Yes, this is the debut disc from the new project of Celtic Frost and Hellhammer mainman Tom G. Warrior (aka Thomas Gabriel Fischer), a band he formed after the recent implosion of Celtic Frost. It's billed as an "official" continuation of the CF legacy by other means, and it's even got an H.R. Giger cover painting to prove it. Well, that's not all that proves it, just listen! This album contains several songs originally written for CF's aborted followup to their 2006 highly-regarded comeback album Monotheist, and is much in the tradition of that excellent album: an oppressively heavy juggernaut of black/doom metal mastery with avantgarde elements. Parts are speedier than Monotheist, though others trudge with riffage on the slower side... While a long way from the raw primitive dirge of Hellhammer so many years ago (the subject of a lavish new book by Tom G., also reviewed this list), Triptykon IS plenty dirgey, just not so "garagey", with high tech production. And all Celtic Frost and Hellhammer fans will be relieved to know that Tom's trademark death grunts made the transition to Triptykon intact, along with his more gothic and guttural, spoken/sung/chanted vocal style. Furthermore, just like when we saw him on Frost's final US tour, he's still wearing that knit hat pulled down to just over his raccoon-painted eyes...
The nine, mostly long songs on Eparistera Diamones (which means, uh, what's it mean?) are proof that even 28 years after Hellhammer's formation, and 26 after Celtic Frost's, Tom G. is still relevant to today's "extreme metal" scene, matching anyone out there for relentless density, negative expressivity, anti-religious artistry, and sheer heaviness. If we have to cite his previous band(s) as a reference point, that's no surprise. If CF didn't exist, or all we had ever heard was Triptykon, maybe we'd be comparing 'em to Neurosis or something. Heck, the female vox and classical grand piano that appear on track 7 "Myopic Empire", and the similarly moody experimentation that continues onto the entirely un-heavy, atmospheric track 8 "My Pain", is not only worthy of latter-day, trip-hopped Ulver, but in its Teutonic seriousness could be Tarwater or something, yet is followed by the pounding "You shall perish I shall live" metallic affirmation of "The Prolonging" (which also lives up to its title by being almost 20 minutes long!), ending the album leaving nobody wondering about Triptykon's place in the hierarchy of hell.
Reverently packaged with a thick cd booklet that includes not only more sexy/scifi perverted alien H.R. Giger art, but also portraits of each band member by another equally disturbed artist, as well as lyrics to each song AND personal liner notes from Tom G. about each track too. While in these the sometimes self-important, self-absorbed nature of the whole Celtic Frost thing is evident, so is Tom's artistic torment and sincerity (if you're read his autobiography, Are You Morbid?, which we recommend, you know what we mean). Hail!
MPEG Stream: "Goetia"
MPEG Stream: "Abyss Within My Soul"
MPEG Stream: "Myopic Empire"

TRIPTYKON Eparistera Daimones (Prowling Death / Century Media) 2lp 17.98
Celtic Frost is dead, long live Triptykon! Yes, this is the debut disc from the new project of Celtic Frost and Hellhammer mainman Tom G. Warrior (aka Thomas Gabriel Fischer), a band he formed after the recent implosion of Celtic Frost. It's billed as an "official" continuation of the CF legacy by other means, and it's even got an H.R. Giger cover painting to prove it. Well, that's not all that proves it, just listen! This album contains several songs originally written for CF's aborted followup to their 2006 highly-regarded comeback album Monotheist, and is much in the tradition of that excellent album: an oppressively heavy juggernaut of black/doom metal mastery with avantgarde elements. Parts are speedier than Monotheist, though others trudge with riffage on the slower side... While a long way from the raw primitive dirge of Hellhammer so many years ago (the subject of a lavish new book by Tom G., also reviewed this list), Triptykon IS plenty dirgey, just not so "garagey", with high tech production. And all Celtic Frost and Hellhammer fans will be relieved to know that Tom's trademark death grunts made the transition to Triptykon intact, along with his more gothic and guttural, spoken/sung/chanted vocal style. Furthermore, just like when we saw him on Frost's final US tour, he's still wearing that knit hat pulled down to just over his raccoon-painted eyes...
The nine, mostly long songs on Eparistera Diamones (which means, uh, what's it mean?) are proof that even 28 years after Hellhammer's formation, and 26 after Celtic Frost's, Tom G. is still relevant to today's "extreme metal" scene, matching anyone out there for relentless density, negative expressivity, anti-religious artistry, and sheer heaviness. If we have to cite his previous band(s) as a reference point, that's no surprise. If CF didn't exist, or all we had ever heard was Triptykon, maybe we'd be comparing 'em to Neurosis or something. Heck, the female vox and classical grand piano that appear on track 7 "Myopic Empire", and the similarly moody experimentation that continues onto the entirely un-heavy, atmospheric track 8 "My Pain", is not only worthy of latter-day, trip-hopped Ulver, but in its Teutonic seriousness could be Tarwater or something, yet is followed by the pounding "You shall perish I shall live" metallic affirmation of "The Prolonging" (which also lives up to its title by being almost 20 minutes long!), ending the album leaving nobody wondering about Triptykon's place in the hierarchy of hell.
Reverently packaged with a thick cd booklet that includes not only more sexy/scifi perverted alien H.R. Giger art, but also portraits of each band member by another equally disturbed artist, as well as lyrics to each song AND personal liner notes from Tom G. about each track too. While in these the sometimes self-important, self-absorbed nature of the whole Celtic Frost thing is evident, so is Tom's artistic torment and sincerity (if you're read his autobiography, Are You Morbid?, which we recommend, you know what we mean). Hail!
MPEG Stream: "Goetia"
MPEG Stream: "Abyss Within My Soul"
MPEG Stream: "Myopic Empire"

TROUM Eald-ge-streon (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2cd 16.98
Eald-Ge-Streon reveals a much different Troum than we're used to. This German duo, long time favorites of folks around here (ever since their pre-Troum outfit Maeror Tri) has always delivered gorgeous guitar driven drone music, dark and haunting and hypnotic, which makes sense since Troum also operate the quite excellent Drone label, which specializes in, yep, you guessed it, drones.
Eald-Ge-Streon is a strange record in that it's a sort of odds and ends collection, various recordings begun years ago, left unfinished, or reimagined for various live performances, many finally finished here for the first time, and while the sound is still essentially dronemusic, it's much less guitar driven, much more ethereal and shoegazey, reminding us of Jesu and Nadja and Lovesliescrushing more than the usual suspects. Which is not a bad thing at all.
Epic, majestic, fuzzy, dreamy, washed out, the first track sounds almost pop ambient, thick gauzy swaths of sound drifting, layers upon layers, totally mesmerizing, ethereal, ephemeral, quite beautiful. The second track takes a looped machinelike rhythm, and builds a doom bliss dirge around it, a sort of post industrial shoegaze, that ends up sounding like some recently unearthed gem, except they never really made music like this. "Eolet" is deep drones, but infused with lots of melody, the sound cinematic, soundtracky, dreamy and pretty, not at all gritty or underground, which again is not at all a bad thing.
The rest of the record slips from motorik rhythm driven doom bliss, to soft billowing dreamlike ambience, to tangled blown out almost new wave sounding post industrial crush, to the 16+ minute closer "Crescere", an epic bit of muted drift, that slowly builds to a blackened heaving slab of pulsing pop ambience, laced with gorgeous psychedelic backwards guitar flutter, processed percussion, distant almost new age melodies, all building to an epic, super emotional climax of metallic buzz and sweet swirling shimmer. Fantastic. Comes housed in a super deluxe gatefold digipak designed by Stephen O'Malley with photos by Seldon Hunt.
And while they last, the compact disc version of Eald-Ge-Streon comes with a bonus disc, featuring a brand new 33 minute track, another gorgeously epic chunk of dronemusic, the first nearly ten minutes, a hushed barely there whisper, before the sound thickens, and dark wisps become haunting melodies, the soft buzz grows more rough and dense, transformed into an extended stretch of crumbling distorted low end drift, before the surprisingly melodic, washed out dreamy outro.
MPEG Stream: "Elation"
MPEG Stream: "Usque Sumus Lux"
MPEG Stream: "Eolet"

TROUM Eald-ge-streon (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2lp 32.00
Eald-Ge-Streon reveals a much different Troum than we're used to. This German duo, long time favorites of folks around here (ever since their pre-Troum outfit Maeror Tri) has always delivered gorgeous guitar driven drone music, dark and haunting and hypnotic, which makes sense since Troum also operate the quite excellent Drone label, which specializes in, yep, you guessed it, drones.
Eald-Ge-Streon is a strange record in that it's a sort of odds and ends collection, various recordings begun years ago, left unfinished, or reimagined for various live performances, many finally finished here for the first time, and while the sound is still essentially dronemusic, it's much less guitar driven, much more ethereal and shoegazey, reminding us of Jesu and Nadja and Lovesliescrushing more than the usual suspects. Which is not a bad thing at all.
Epic, majestic, fuzzy, dreamy, washed out, the first track sounds almost pop ambient, thick gauzy swaths of sound drifting, layers upon layers, totally mesmerizing, ethereal, ephemeral, quite beautiful. The second track takes a looped machinelike rhythm, and builds a doom bliss dirge around it, a sort of post industrial shoegaze, that ends up sounding like some recently unearthed gem, except they never really made music like this. "Eolet" is deep drones, but infused with lots of melody, the sound cinematic, soundtracky, dreamy and pretty, not at all gritty or underground, which again is not at all a bad thing.
The rest of the record slips from motorik rhythm driven doom bliss, to soft billowing dreamlike ambience, to tangled blown out almost new wave sounding post industrial crush, to the 16+ minute closer "Crescere", an epic bit of muted drift, that slowly builds to a blackened heaving slab of pulsing pop ambience, laced with gorgeous psychedelic backwards guitar flutter, processed percussion, distant almost new age melodies, all building to an epic, super emotional climax of metallic buzz and sweet swirling shimmer. Fantastic. Comes housed in a super deluxe gatefold digipak designed by Stephen O'Malley with photos by Seldon Hunt.
And while they last, the compact disc version of Eald-Ge-Streon comes with a bonus disc, featuring a brand new 33 minute track, another gorgeously epic chunk of dronemusic, the first nearly ten minutes, a hushed barely there whisper, before the sound thickens, and dark wisps become haunting melodies, the soft buzz grows more rough and dense, transformed into an extended stretch of crumbling distorted low end drift, before the surprisingly melodic, washed out dreamy outro.
MPEG Stream: "Elation"
MPEG Stream: "Usque Sumus Lux"
MPEG Stream: "Eolet"

TRUE ENDLESS, THE Polaris (God Is Myth) 3" cd-r 9.98
Latest in the ongoing series of super limited 3" cd-r's, paying musical tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. Past installments have come courtesy of UK avant black metaller Caina, Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist, black noise occultists LVTHN, Kentucky one man USBM outfit Sapthuran, blackened French metal combo Smohalla, legendary Italian dark metallers Frostmoon Eclipse, aQ faves, Texan black metal Lovecraft worshipper Brown Jenkins, Frostmoon Eclipse side project Stroszek, and now, Italy's The True Endless, whose split with Angmar was a big favorite around here (we still have a few copies, just ask), and whose sound we described as buzzing black Mayhem worship, and very little has changed, the guitars buzz maniacally, the drums pound relentlessly, the songs are epic and majestic, blazing and frenzied, but often slowing down into churning chugging stretches of lumbering doom, before exploding back into another burst of frenetic Norwegian style classic blackness.
The True Endless here sound a bit like some weird hybrid of Khold and newer Funeral Mist, with midtempo almost-grooves, killer stuttery start stop arrangements, some super intense and epically anguished guttural vokills, woozy melodic guitar melodies, all wrapped in a gauzy blurred black buzz production, and surrounded on all sides by furious bouts of blown out blasting blackness. Awesome.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES, we got 20, and can't get more, so grab one quick, cuz these always disappear right quick. Packaged in a slim jewel case, with a 4 panel booklet and a thick card insert with a photo of Lovecraft on one side and an essay on the other. And it's always worth mentioning, that TTE bassplayer Soulfucker, is still quite possibly the foxiest babe in black metal...
MPEG Stream: "Under The Horned Waning Moon"
MPEG Stream: "The Mission"

V/A China: Lost Sounds of the Tao: Chinese Masters Of The Guqin In Historic Recordings (World Arbiter) cd 14.98
This longtime AQ favorite is finally available again!
Recorded in 1970 and '71 at his countryside home outside of Hong Kong, the elderly (but spry) Lo Ka Ping will captivate you here with his performances on the qin, a type of ancient Chinese seven-stringed zither with a soft, subdued sound. Confucius' favorite instrument, the sound and style of the qin in the hands of Lo Ka Ping really evokes both Buddhist music and the blues. In his sparse, soulful performance on these ten tracks (four of Ping's own composition and six traditional numbers) you'll hear echoes of the the likes of Son House and Blind Willie Johnson - you could almost imagine this is a lost backporch recording by an unknown gospelish slide guitarist, playing a mysterious, alien blues. Parallels to Indian classical music can be heard as well, to which there is a link to the qin tradition in fact as well as in spirit.
This cd is rounded out with a couple of older, crustier recordings circa 1946-48 by two other "Chinese Masters of the Guqin", Zheng Yingsun and Xu Yuan Bay, who alongside Lo Ka Ping make this a lovely, raw, spiritually resonant document indeed.
MPEG Stream: "Teals Descending On Level Sand"
MPEG Stream: "Meditaion In The Dead Of Night"

V/A Ethiopiques 24: Golden Years Of Modern Ethiopian Music 1969-1975 (Buda Musique) cd 15.98
Finally! Another installment in the incredible Ethiopiques series, and while many of the collections focused on a particular artist, this latest gathers up a whole bunch of classic tracks from, as the title suggests, the golden years of Ethiopian Music.
And the second you push play you'll be transported, and in fact, the sounds you hear may sound strangely familiar, as legendary Ethiopian vocalist Seyfou Yohannes croons over a track we've definitely heard before, on Ethiopiques 2 we think, but it hardly matters, Yohannes' vocals transform the song completely, still smokey and sexy, but reimagined and reinterpreted. And fantastic!
According to the liner notes, which are as always, copious and incredibly well researched, the bulk of Ethiopian records were produced in a single 10 year period, 500 singles, 30 lps, all produced between 1969 and 1978, of those, the tiny Amha label released 103 two song 45's and a dozen lps, between '69 and '75, most of which have been delved into heavily for the Ethiopiques series, and now with volume 24, nearly all of those recordings have been reissued.
But here's one more chance to luxuriate in these magical sounds from the Amha label, before the Ethiopiques series delves into other labels, and digs up more lost gems.
These tracks are all incredible, of course, most of the names are new to us, no Mahmoud Ahmed, no Getatchew Mekurya, a couple tracks from Mulatu Astatke, but more folks like Syfou Yohannes, Ayalew Mesfin, Getatchew Kassa, Tamrat Molla, the sound though is so distinctly Ethiopian, warm languid horns, moody minor key piano, simple shuffling rhythms. and of course the vocals, lush crooning, the perfect compliment to the music's dark sultry mystery. There seem to be two distinct styles represented, the soulful funky slow burning grooves, haunting, late night, sexy, and the more festive and funky, a sort of Ethiopian reinterpretation of American rhythm and blues, with soaring sunshiney melodies, acoustic guitars, and more more horns, both are irresistible, and anyone who has even been dabbling in this series, will dig this big time. Just perfect for the impending warm summer days, and lazy summer nights...
MPEG Stream: SEYFOU YOHANNES "Metche Dershe"
MPEG Stream: AYALEW MESFIN "Lene Antchi Bitcha Nesh"
MPEG Stream: GETATCHEW KASSA & SOUL EKOS BAND "Bey Lesenabetsch"
MPEG Stream: WUBSHET FISSEHA & EXCEPTION FIVE BAND "Sew Endayhon Yellem"
MPEG Stream: TAMRAT MOLLA & VENUS BAND "Ber Anbar Seberelewo"

V/A Excavated Shellac: Strings (Parlortone) lp 17.98
First proper lp release from aQ pal, 78 collector, and curator of the awesome Excavated Shellac blog, Jonathan Ward, appropriately enough on Parlortone, "The Phonographic Arm And Limited Edition Leg" of longtime favorite reissue label Dust-To-Digital. And it's a doozy, before we get into it, anyone who buys everything on Mississippi is gonna want one of these, if you loved the Black Mirror collection, or the Victrola Favorites, for anyone into world music, into lost gems, old sonic obscurities, this is about as good as it gets, the song selection, the curation, the sound, the detailed liner notes, utterly fantastic, and sonically breathtaking. But of course we would have expected nothing less.
For those not familiar with it, Excavated Shellac is a blog dedicated to "78rpm recordings of folkloric and vernacular music from around the world", and besides having an incredible collection, Ward also is a fantastic write, who writes extensively about each record he posts (almost all unavailable anywhere else in any format), detailing the recording, the style of music, the history, a musical lesson in every post, and the music, well needless to say, it's easy to get lost and subsequently obsessed.
So Excavated Shellac: Strings, is an analog extension of the ES blog, with all the things we love about the blog intact. Of course there's the music, impeccably chosen, deftly cleaned up, and perfectly sequenced, the writing, informative and funny, educated and informed, about the record, the project, and each track and artist, and of course the object itself, beautifully laid out, pressed on thick vinyl, lots of amazing archival photos, so great.
This first volume focuses on string instruments from around the world, Armenia, India, Bolivia, Congo, Vietnam, Georgia, Iran, Turkey, Uganda, Lebanon, Japan, Norway, Croatia and Paraguay. Every song a gem, haunting solos on Middle Eastern lutes, tangled frantic, droney sitar like buzz from India, playful festive dance music from Bolivia played on small guitars fashioned from gourds, gorgeous acoustic guitar music, lush and melodic, with soulful call and response vocals, from Congo, home recorded duets on 2 string fiddle and 'moon guitar' from Vietnam, solo violin from Iran, traditional folk music from Georgia, we could go on and on and on and on. But you know already if you need this, and it seems likely you probably do. We had been hearing rumblings about a Jon Ward / Dust-To-Digital project in the works, and had been anxiously awaiting it ever since. Now that we're playing this to death, we find ourselves already looking forward to future volumes. So incredible, and so totally recommended.
Beautifully printed matte finish sleeve, heavy vinyl, with a printed cardstock 4 page insert, with liner notes and photos and more!

V/A Paper & Plastic (Suitcase) 2cd 19.98
Here's to persistence! Eric Blevins of Suitcase Records began curating Paper & Plastic, a compilation from the global experimental-noise-collage-drone-n-destroy underground back in 1991, and thought that he was coming to a conclusion by 1998 when he had organized an installation / happening / performance thing in Atlanta with Achim Wollscheid, Yeast Culture, TAC, and Blevins' own a4 project that was to coincide with the release of this 2cd set. Unfortunately, the mastering was done at the wrong speed (remember DATs?) and the project was shelved for well over a decade. Whatever the reason Blevins had for the long delay, it remains unstated. Surely the artwork that Abo of Yeast Culture provided must have caused some of that delay, which is pretty ridiculous / stupid / awesome with its numerous hand-painted, silkscreened, and hand-stamped inserts and envelopes stuffed in the oversized DVD clamshell (which is also screened and painted); but would it be realistic to say this would take a whole decade? Is this why Abo started up the Incubator press once again (remember those Yeast Culture and Small Cruel Party cassette reissues from early in 2010)? Who knows? Ultimately, this is just another long-winded introduction to inform you that the contents within are fucking great.
So, there's Small Cruel Party, Yeast Culture, Sudden Infant, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Emil Beaulieau, Native X (supposedly featuring the Hafler Trio's Andrew McKenzie), Inzekt, TAC, a4, Kapotte Muziek, Chop Shop, Agog, Ios Smolders, and what noise compilation wouldn't be complete without Merzbow.
The material is split between the relatively droned-out, more spatialized Paper disc and the volatile, jump-cut frenzy of the Plastic disc. Los Angeles home-taper Agog offers a NWW-styled collage of cut-ups from found object manipulation that slides nicely into the damp field recording of subterranean drips from Ios Smolders. Blevins' a4 track is a minor-masterpiece with a sustained drone of hazardous environmental rumbling girding a patient scrabbling of various objects. Very simple, but very compelling. Such a strategy had been perfected by Small Cruel Party, who turns in a recording of crunched textures that sounds like a macro-recording of and army of ants crawling over a pile of safety glass, while deep echoing booms within some huge concrete structure resonate underneath. The Yeast Culture meditation on industrial wastelands settles upon crusty flutes occasionally popping above a mechanical grind and accreting dinscapes. Chop Shop's corroded drones of noxious low-end bursting into ferric noise completes the first disc in exemplary fashion.
On the Plastic disc, Achim Wollscheid offers 10 miniature "brakes" most being just a couple seconds long. These shortened bursts of rasping noises, serve to further slice and decentralize the listening experience of the already abraded, punctured, infernal noises that come by way of numerous tape-cut ups, turntable abuse, Dada sound poetry, vocal screaming, electrical ruptures, shortwave static, distortion pedals, and generalized noise-junk from Emil Beaulieu, Merzbow, the Schimpfluch members, Kapotte Muziek, and the like. Blevins should be commended for curating such a fine noise album out of so many different artists, as it's virtually impossible to discern when the tracks begin and end. Seamlessly cut-up noise is definitely a contradiction, but definitely a compliment!
MPEG Stream: A4 "Rustle"
MPEG Stream: SMALL CRUEL PARTY "Lrpsti Ipp Pauaeeteq"
MPEG Stream: CHOP SHOP "30 Degrees Reamur"
MPEG Stream: NATIVE X "Cognition"
MPEG Stream: MERZBOW "Habeus Corpus"

V/A Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol. 1: Ethnic Music Classics 1925-48 (Outernational) 2lp 32.00
Somehow we slept on reviewing this series when the Yazoo label began issuing them on cd back in the mid-nineties (the cds are still available by the way). It wasn't that we didn't love them, of course we did! But we started carrying them way before our website was in its current form, and they just never made the transition in the usual hectic shuffle of putting together these bi-weekly new arrival lists. Besides, this series really didn't need our help to move them. They always looked very cool and mysterious, promising the discovery of some very far out and lost old world of music that folks here were naturally drawn to while shopping for cult metal, field recordings or obscure psych.
But now that Mississippi, Sublime Frequencies, Honest Jon's, Parlortone, and other like-minded revival labels have spearheded a much renewed interest in obscure early ethnographic recordings on vinyl, it was only a matter of time that this highly influential series would make the transition to wax, here's the first volume, and it's an amazing and beautiful package. Like The Black Mirror, String of Pearls, Mata La Pena, and Sprigs of Time compilations, this is an eclectic but choice collection of music from many different regions and covering many styles and traditions, starting in Nigeria with a church choir and pump organ, and working through Sardinia, Russia, Ceylon, Rajahstan, Cuba, Romania, Vietnam, Macedonia, Tahiti, Morocco, South Africa, Japan, India, the Basque country, Sweden, Poland, Jamaica, Abyssinia, Andalucia, Visayan Islands, and finally leaving us on Fiji with a lonely love song sung by school girls. Sigh.

V/A Wolf's At The Door: Lost Recordings From The Spirit Of The South (Sutro Park) lp 17.98
When seeing this record, most people will assume it's a killer new comp from Mississippi. In fact, it is a killer new comp, only from the Sutro Park label, which gave us those amazing Sandy Bull lp reissues a while back. Wolf's At The Door features 12 field recordings from the late '60s and early '70s, when a 19 year old Swede named Bengt Olsson decided to travel through the depths of the American South in search of the authentic sounds presented here. All of the artists on this record are unknown to us, and as the liner notes point out, Olsson's odyssey was marked by his introduction to many of Memphis' older, more obscure bluesmen, and many of the performers' stories remain unknown. As far as we can tell these recordings were unreleased before this, and the material offers a stark, powerful glimpse into the lives of these performers. The edges are rough and raw, but the fidelity is surprisingly clear. The songs here are even more interesting when you take into account the time in which they were recorded, as they seem completely oblivious to the innovations that had been rapidly shaping the music industry for better and/or worse. What you have here are some real sounds representative of a culture that managed to avoid all that, and the results are quite powerful. Recommended stuff which will no doubt appeal to fans of labels like the aforementioned Mississippi, Monk, and the like.

VIVIAN GIRLS My Love Will Follow Me / He's Gone (Wild World) 7" 5.98
Two awesome non album tracks from the always great Vivian Girls. This slab of wax finds them embracing wall of sound girl group glory in full force. Not the more rocking side that shows up in many of their songs, instead this is the wonderful woozy and warm side of the band. The A-side could be some lost Phil Spector treasure and the B-side might even steal the show. It's a cover of "He's Gone" by '50s girl group The Chantels, which they perform with help from their buddy Kyle Thomas (Happy Birthday, Feathers, Witch, King Tuff) playing guitar, and we gotta say they totally kill it, keeping it as warm and intoxicating as the original. One of those 7"s that really makes you wish you could put a quarter in the jukebox as you sit at the counter of a diner sipping on your milkshake and enjoying the simple pleasures in life. So awesome!

VOICE OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS s/t (T Chant) cd 14.98
Some of you aQ folk-headz out there might remember Rick Tomlinson's first project Voice of the Seven Woods. Well Tomlinson is back with a slightly new band name and a drastically different sound. Voice of the Seven Thunders have plugged into some big amps and expanded into a fiery, heavy rocking trio. A huge shift from the quiet woodland finger-picking of Tomlinson's old outfit, the addition of a bassist and drummer bring the project to a whole new level of pretty straight-shootin' rock. Bluesy baselines plod on and on into a Blue Cheer-type groove, layers of strummed guitar add to the bed of fuzz that shimmer below soaring, neverending solos... Really, the ripping solos never end, not sure if that's a good or bad thing. The trio touch on some more ethnic or Eastern sounding territory, we're hearing a touch of North African flair, think Sublime Frequencies meets Sylvester Anfang.  We love the few, nice quiet moments of acoustic reflection that break up the heavy rockin' momentum of most of the tracks. "Cylinders", one of the quieter pieces, opens with distant flute and slowly rising synth wash, only to slowly crescendo into a strummy, cosmic commune jam. The album comes to a close with "Disappearances", a conventional classic rock sounding jammer, complete with proper lyrics and vocal harmonies. Though the band have made quite a drastic aesthetic shift, we think fans of VOT7W will be just as enthusiastic about VOT7T, I mean who can really deny some heavy, old fashion blown out psychedelic rock n' roll?
MPEG Stream: "Kommune"
MPEG Stream: "Out Of The Smoke"

WILD NOTHING Cloudbusting (Captured Tracks) 7" 6.98
It's come to that awesome point where just seeing the Captured Tracks logo on a new piece of vinyl from a band we have no idea about is cause enough to throw it on right away and check it out. We actually didn't even need the Captured Tracks motivation with this one as we could tell the A side was a cover of one of our favorite Kate Bush songs ever "Cloudbusting", so the many Kate Bush fanatics that work here wasted no time in finding out what the sounds of Wild Nothing were all about. So while we set the bar pretty damn high when it comes to covering Kate Bush (we did think The Chromatics did a nice job with "Running Up That Hill") Wild Nothing for sure respect the song and the male vocals and lo-fi synths give it a really nice hazy feel. The flipside "Two Promise" might have us hooked even more, a total slow burning late night bedroom jam somewhere between a hazier Neon Indian and a a male led version of Nite Jewel. Dark, catchy and seductive.

WINER, LESLIE & That Dead Horse (The Tape Worm) cassette 7.98
Another list, and another batch of obscure tapes from UK tape label The Tapeworm, this one from someone called Leslie Winer, a mysterious former model, a pal of William Burroughs and Jean-Michael Basquiat, a sometime guest vocalist on records by groups like Bomb The Bass, who ditched modeling, dropped off the map, but not before making a record called Witch, considered to be an essential early chunk of proto trip hop, and this batch of tracks, dating just a year or so after Witch, does indeed offer up a gorgeous murky bit of skittery, downtempo weirdness. Obvious references are Tricky, Massive Attack, even Portishead, the same sort of creepy crawly late night shimmer, dark and dubbed out, the rhythms skeletal, the vocals, hushed and whispered, a sort of slow motion toasting, dark croons over billowing clouds of thrum and whir, loping rubbery basslines, slowed down samples, bits of reggae guitar, druggy and dubby, woozy and warbly, everything wrapped in a gauzy haze of record crackle, tape hiss, blurred ambience.
Here and there the drums are cranked up into something more block rocking, but even then Winer transforms it into something more murky and surreal, the bass gets super distorted and fuzzed out (some dubstep foreshadowing for sure), everything wrapped around effected acoustic guitars, more sampled vox, strange little flurries of percussive filigree, all smeared into a mesmerizing bit of shuffling tripped out, psychedelic downtempo moody muddy groove.
LIMITED TO ONLY 250 COPIES!

WOLFMANGLER They Call Us Naughty Wolves (God Is Myth) cd 11.98
Smolken has always been a confounding personality, the man behind both Wolfmangler and Dead Raven Choir, releasing records on proper metal labels, but also on weirdo avant free folk microlabel Jewelled Antler, mixing black metal, folk music, country, bluegrass, whatever the hell he feels like really, the results sometimes brilliant, often baffling, but always weird and wonderful in their own way.
They Call Us Naughty Wolves marks the return of Smolken as Wolfmangler after more than two years of relative inactivity, and to be honest, we were approaching this with a bit of trepidation. It was after all a record called They Call Us Naughty Wolves, and according to the label was blackened burlesque chamber music, a sort of channeling of pop from yesteryear, not to mention that some of the cds come with a pair of Wolfmangler undies (really! more on that in a second). But really, conceptually and sonically, this is no stranger than past Smolken projects, so we threw it on, and were pleasantly surprised, if one can find this sort of music simply 'pleasant'.
The sound is creepy, and dark, and creaky, and mysteriously ominous, strings moan and groan, a slow lugubrious chamber music, transformed into something much blacker and creepier, the melancholic gloom and string laden dirgery accompanied by a blackened croak, vokills that gurgle and growl, although they are sometimes accompanied by an angelic female counterpoint. The guitar or bass is more a fuzzy blur, a droney rumble, that underpins the strings, cellos or violins driving the tracks, creating the muted melodies, and it's that weird guttural vocal and string combination, that can't help but remind us of those groups like Xynfonica, Shevelreq, Gluttony, Thursar, the twisted metal vox with gnarled guitar synths emulating exotic instruments. So right off the bat, if that stuff is to your twisted taste, then this will definitely hit the spot. But Smolken's vision isn't so damaged or demented, it's definitely rooted in sounds more traditional, a sort of blackened doom chamber folk, which will appeal to fans of dark slow low moody weirdness. Although some of it is definitely WAY weird. The band occasionally slipping into some strangely jaunty jig like Renn Faire folk music, but for the most part, it's just some seriously brooding, surprisingly beautiful, freaked out and fucked up outsider darkness, like Tom Waits' Black Rider blurred and muddied and blackened into some woozy warped soundtrack to a filmic fable of wolves and woods.
Two lucky aQ customers who order this, will also get a companion pair of red (riding hood), women's panties, with a screenprinted image of a wolf dressed up like grandma on the butt, They Call Us Naughty Wolves after all, it'll be totally random, so cross your fingers...
MPEG Stream: "Flying Shoes"
MPEG Stream: "Lullaby Of The Leaves"
MPEG Stream: "House On The Ocean"
MPEG Stream: "Lili Marleen"
MPEG Stream: "Carry Me Urn To Ukraine"

ZWISCHENFALL Heute (Dark Entries) lp 12.98
While revered by hardcore fanatics of '80s synth/dark wave sounds, none of us here were familiar with Zwischenfall, an early '80s band out of Germany with a Danish lead singer who made some totally engaging and compelling synth based sounds back int he day. What's striking us the most about this record which originally came out in 1983, is how organic it all sounds. Yes they were very interested in synthesizers and used them with amazing results, but they also incorporated acoustic and electric guitar, trumpet, and bass, years before others really grasped how to intertwine the use of electronics and more traditional instruments in a very fluid and moving way.
Some of the tracks come off like a less stiff Tuxedomoon or an electronic version of 23 Skidoo (the untrained post-Cosey trumpet blurting on "Heimatlose" lends to that reference). We are also reminded of Fad Gadget's synthetic quirkiness, and the early albums of Front 242, which makes sense as Patrick Codney of Front 242 was one of the band's biggest cheerleaders and producers.
There is a dramatic and emotional quality that makes us really fall hard for the songs of Zwischenfall. The emotive vocal delivery of Martin Urban was even compared to Klaus Nomi back in the day (we don't really hear that so much though) but it is for sure a strong and forceful presence that sometimes makes us think of the same kind of drama that folks like Japan were able to communicate through their music. Like all the great releases on Dark Entries the album is lovingly packaged, this time with the bands original press kit, and is quite limited, only 500 copies... so act fast!
MPEG Stream: "Atemlos"
MPEG Stream: "Millionen"
MPEG Stream: "Katastrophe"

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AMON DUDE & THE HOOPO / NUSLUX split (self-released) 7" 9.98
Lal Lal Lal sent us these, though technically it's private release not on that tiny Finnish label, the reason they had 'em being that Nuslux is a project of Roope from Lal Lal Lal, who's also in Maniacs Dream, Pylon, and Avarus. Meanwhile the Amon Dude (haha) is Arttu, also from Avarus, Anaksimandros, etc. It's limited, it's weird, it's vinyl, and it's Finnish. We only have a handful. What else need we say? Oh, what's it sound like? Well the Dude's side, "In Full Flight", is a live recording of their distorted, danceable (?) electronic shenanigans, while Nuslux jam on the flip, using mostly self-built analog instruments to make their "good-humored and chilled out" electronic minimalism. Basically if you liked that Lal Lal Lal festival cassette we listed not long ago, this is for you too.

AUTECHRE (Oversteps) (Warp) 3lp 41.00
Also on vinyl, expensive, yes, but fancy, triple LP. We've just got one at the moment...
Long gone are the days of Autechre albums like Incunabula, Amber, and LP5 where spiralling electronic melodies tumbled upon algorithmic breakbeats with ghostly allusions to hardcore techno and hip-hop. Over the past five records (LP5 being perhaps the last Autechre album to embrace the 'classic' IDM sound), abstraction for the sake of abstraction has been the order of the day. The atonal squiggling set upon a wooden breakbeat on "Treale" is about a close as (Oversteps) comes to a classic Autechre track, but much of this album seems to be wandering without much clear intention as to what might happen next. Just a fizzing sound here, and a blobby splutter of jazzy midi-synth there. That said, at least some of us have been digging this quite a bit, not for it's Autechre-ness, but rather for the fact, that much of the weird mopey rhythms and synthy splutter, remind us of all of those fucked up weirdo guitar synth bands we're so obsessed with: Xynfonica, Shevalreq, Thursar, Gluttony, somehow, and in some weird way, the less rhythmic, more ambient tracks on (Oversteps) sound like cleaned up, less obviously fucked up versions of that outsider weirdness, which to most ears might not be a plus, but to some of us, makes this Autechre pretty cool, and weird, and we definitely find ourselves drawn to it, listening to it more often that we might have expected...
MPEG Stream: "Pt2ph8"
MPEG Stream: "Treale"
MPEG Stream: "Os Veix3"

BABY HUEY The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend (Curtom) lp 14.98
This longtime AQ fave, always a steady seller on cd, is now available as a vinyl reissue! Here's what we said when it was first reissued on cd:
I've always wanted to hear this heavily-sampled, late '60s funk/soul rarity, and now here it is at last reissued! Does it live up to its reputation? Well, first, for those who haven't heard of him, Baby Huey's "story" is a sad one. The soul singer from Chi Town known as James Thomas Ramey, aka Baby Huey, only made one album, unfortunately released posthumously. Drugs and obesity (he weighed somewhere near 400 pounds -- a big guy, with an Afro to match!) contributed to his death from a heart attack in 1970 at age 26. RIP Baby Huey. That's one reason that the original LP is such a collectable... and also because heck, it DOES boast some mighty funky grooves. Including three numbers by Curtis Mayfield (who also produced the album) plus a powerful cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Going To Come" and a flute-filled, funked-up instrumental version of "California Dreamin'" among other groovy gems. This is very 'of its era', for sure, which means it's got lotsa brassy horns, DJ-friendly drum breaks, lush arrangements, some slightly psychedelic touches...and great vocals. If you're into Mayfield and Otis Redding and other '60s soul/funk, chances are you'll dig this.
MPEG Stream: "A Change Is Going To Come"
MPEG Stream: "Hard Times"

CITAY Dream Get Together (Dead Oceans) lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl!
It's been a couple years since Citay's great sophomore outing Little Kingdom, and since then the band has experienced significant lineup changes which included the loss of former guitarist Jesse Reiner who left to concentrate on his awesome new band Jonas Reinhardt. Luckily Citay mastermind Ezra Feinberg was able to get some bigtime heavy hitters to become part of this new incarnation of Citay including virtuoso guitarist Sean Smith and the multitalented and super-prolific Josh Pollock (3 Leafs, Auricle, etc.), joining the already present guitar powerhouse that is Tim Green, who was the original cohort of Feinberg when Citay was first born.
So while this is in some ways a more beefed up and full sounding Citay, the elements that made us fall in love with them in the first place still shine so bright. Their ability to create songs that feel epic yet never indulgent. The way they are able to inhabit so many worlds at once while never feeling disjointed. Citay truly are a gateway band. They can lead you to heavier psychedelia, they can show you the intricacy and dreaminess of West Coast pop, they can take you to the woods, the sky, the forest, and the backyard yet every turn they take feels so right and true to their own unique vision.
Dream Get Together has a rushing current of lush and full sounds that makes you want to blast it so loud and just get swept up in its sound. Long passages without vocals that let their wide arrange of instrumentation take center stage and then Feinberg's wonderful expansive vocal delivery adds another layer of depth to the experience. Meryl Press and Thaliah Harbour add their beautiful voices throughout, maintaining that awesome balance of masculine/feminine that has been such a refreshing aspect of Citay's sound. There is also a really nice guest vocal by Merril Garbus of Tune-Yards. Citay really have carved out such an instantly recognizable and unique sound that is so much all their own. We could tell you that Dream Get Together kind of sounds like Heart hijacked by Robert Fripp and Dungen, but the truth is Citay continue to create music that has its feet in so many musical worlds that the sound they've created is undeniably deep and exists entirely in their own wonderful world. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Careful With That Hat"
MPEG Stream: "Dream Get Together"
MPEG Stream: "Mirror Kisse"

DECIBEL #67 May 2010 magazine 4.95
Out of jail, on the cover: Burzum! "Facing off with metal's most controversial figure". Also in this issue of America's foremost glossy extreme metal magazine: Dillinger Escape Plan, Tom G. Warrior's Triptykon, Hour Of 13, Hooded Menace, White Wizzard, Immolation, Autopsy, and, among other things, Motorhead's Ace Of Spades inducted into Decibel's Hall of Fame, with the usual fascinating the-making-of article.

GALLHAMMER Gloomy Lights (Peaceville) cd 17.98
REISSUED, in a new, deluxe edition! This was the debut from these Hellhammer worshipping Japanese ladies. (We bet they all got copies of the Only Death Is Real book reviewed elsewhere on this week's list!) This new edition of Gloomy Lights comes packaged in a fancy hardback digibook kind of thing, all white with metallic silver and black print.
And it boasts 2 rare bonus tracks, "Blossom In The Raven River" and "Lust Satan Death". Nice. Here's what we wrote about it when we first heard Gallhammer, five years ago:
Hmmm... This band should be an easy sell, really. Start with this: DOOM. A la Hellhammer (Tom G. Warrior's adolescent pre-Celtic Frost outfit that helped pioneer death/doom metal from a basement in Switzerland back in the early eighties), Eyehategod, and maybe Corrupted too. They're Japanese (so we can make more Corrupted comparisons). And this trio consists entirely of girls. One of our distros described Gallhammer thusly: "All female Japanese Hellhammer worship Band. Not ugly girls doing ugly, ugly music!". The high-contrast black and white photo on the back cover of band members Mika Penetrator (guitar/vocals), Vivian Slaughter (bass/vocals), and Risa Reaper (drums) reveals that "not ugly" comment apparently to be correct, with some vaguely corpse-paint-like mascara adding to their sex appeal. Not that that should be the selling point. After all, listening to this, you'd have *no idea* they were female. Throaty, demonic screams belch forth amidst pummelling drum battery and distorted, feedbacking guitar. Female? Male? They don't even sound human, really. Though the emotions expressed are all too human. Nihilistic bleak hateful depressive stuff. It's raw, primitive doom that captures that Hellhammer vibe by following a similar learning curve as those guys did back in the '80s - Gallhammer's offical bio on their website states: "February 2003: We start Gallhammer" followed by "Feburary 2003: Each member start to play instrument." And then Gloomy Lights was recorded in 2004. Yep, what Gallhammer does is simple and effective: heavy, plodding music and rough, croaking vocals, with plenty of ominous ambience in the breaks and build-ups. There's eight grim and spooky tracks here culminating in the 10-minute "Color Of Coma", which features a great deal of atmospheric drone. Think Hellhammer meets Angelblood, perhaps.
MPEG Stream: "Crucifixion"
MPEG Stream: "Endless Nauseous Days"

GONJASUFI A Sufi and A Killer (Warp) 2lp 22.00
Now available on vinyl!
One of our favorite tracks from Flying Lotus's excellent Los Angeles record was the penultimate track "Testament" that featured a singer we imagined was discovered in some remote smoky opium den in Morocco. The voice felt ancient, a weezing whispering mixture of Jimmy Scott and Billie Holiday that we thought could have been a sample from an old dusty recording. Well, it turns out that voice is one Sumach Ecks (aka Gonjasufi), a San Diego based yoga instructor and one-time rapper and DJ who in a chance meeting with The Gaslamp Killer and Flying Lotus in Las Vegas, struck up a bond with the two producers and they started working together. A Sufi And A Killer is an amazing debut, a perfect fit between the dark off-kilter beats of Flying Lotus, Burial and King Midas Sound. But it also surprisingly displays a lot of vocal and musical range, moving into some rockier moments, tripping out on short interludes or sometimes delving down strange, mysterious but always interesting sonic tangents. Supposedly it took much longer to mix than it did to record, showing a dedication to detail that is truly rewarding to listen to. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Kobwebz"
MPEG Stream: "Ancestors"
MPEG Stream: "Candylane"
MPEG Stream: "Klowds"

GROUPER Wide (Weird Forest) lp 17.98
Re-pressed and available once again!!! Though, presumably also once again somewhat limited...
We made the debut full length from this Bay Area one woman dream drone outfit Record of the Week when it came out originally, and ever since, we've been waiting patiently for every new release. We just can't get enough of her beautifully dense ghostlike soundscapes. Since then though, it seems like any one with a microphone and a delay pedal has decided to make some atmospheric vocal based drone record. And while some of those have indeed been quite good, few can come close to the utter abstract beauty of Liz Harris and her Grouper project.
When describing Grouper, the most mentioned comparisons seem to be Arvo Part and Morton Feldman, Part no doubt because of the vocal/choral aspect, and Feldman because this is definitely a sort of dreamlike minimalism, but Grouper is definitely something else entirely. A murky dreamworld of shimmering guitar and indistinct voices, swirling clouds of smeared melody, drifting whirls of warm thick delay, and dense layers of mumbly reverb. It's the sonic equivalent of wandering through some ghost town, almost everything obscured by thick fog, the streetlights, like distant lightning bugs, warm orange glows, staining the fog like a child's fingerpaints, even sound can barely travel so you exist sonically in a tiny muffled and muted cocoon, like listening to the world around you with ears full of wet cotton. Drifting disembodied vocals drenched in thick dubby FX are spread out paper thin into nearly transparent sheets of gauzy whir, like a chorale of ghosts, singing in some vast underground cavern. Within all of this murk and fog, lurk heartbreaking melodies, perfect little melancholy pop songs, but almost completely obscured from view, so instead of hearing songs, it's like barely remembering a little melody, or getting a tune stuck in your head only to have it fly away moments later, and struggling to remember just how that song went. A strangely emotional sonic trigger for lost memories, and indescribable landscapes, amorphous sounds, and a world both familiar and completely alien.
Unlike her freenoise / dronerock / whatever contemporaries, who are happy to just make a big loud sound, or push a few buttons and start a low rumbling drone, with Grouper, it's more like the songs started out as proper songs, verses, choruses, sweet little melodies, gentle lilting vocals, but those songs were left in a corner, and allowed to get dusty, then set outside where they leaned for weeks, propped up against the side of the house, getting rained on, dappled with morning dew, they began to rust, and decay, weeds grew up around them, small animals made nests in them. Eventually, they were collected, and placed in a dusty old wagon, where they spent the majority of the journey, getting bumped and jostled, pieces breaking off, bits smearing into other bits, becoming less and less obviously songs, and more like the decayed husks of songs, still beautiful, and lovely in their own way, but lonely, and forgotten, until one day, they were all gathered up and placed in order, dusted off, polished up until they glow with some dim inner light, and thus they become Wide, and we close our eyes and listen...
MPEG Stream: "Little Boat / Bone Dance (Audrey)"
MPEG Stream: "Imposter In The Sky"
MPEG Stream: "Agate Beach"

JONSI Go (XL) cd 13.98
Happy, peppy, catchy, sugary, colorful and cute. Those are all words that have probably NEVER been used to describe Sigur Ros. Yet the band's front man, Jonsi, has proven to be a person of many sides and personas. Last year he and his boyfriend put out a really nice and subtly drone based soundscape record called Riceboy Sleeps, and now Jonsi is ready to really go and branch out on his own in another totally different direction.
Go is a total catchy, upbeat pop record. Filled with lush instrumentation and electronics, we hear the sunnier side to Jonsi's voice and songwriting. Much more akin to folks like Sufjan Stevens and The Postal Service. And after years of singing in a made up language, he sings in both his native tongue and English on this record, as it really does feel like he's not interested in making things seem mysterious but instead he's laying his heart on the line and making the kind of sweet sounding pop record he's probably been wanting to get out of his system for years, especially after spending so much time creating such epic and shoegazing sounds with Sigur Ros.
MPEG Stream: "Go Do"
MPEG Stream: "Around Us"
MPEG Stream: "Boy Lilikoi"

JONSI Go (XL) lp 14.98
Happy, peppy, catchy, sugary, colorful and cute. Those are all words that have probably NEVER been used to describe Sigur Ros. Yet the band's front man, Jonsi, has proven to be a person of many sides and personas. Last year he and his boyfriend put out a really nice and subtly drone based soundscape record called Riceboy Sleeps, and now Jonsi is ready to really go and branch out on his own in another totally different direction.
Go is a total catchy, upbeat pop record. Filled with lush instrumentation and electronics, we hear the sunnier side to Jonsi's voice and songwriting. Much more akin to folks like Sufjan Stevens and The Postal Service. And after years of singing in a made up language, he sings in both his native tongue and English on this record, as it really does feel like he's not interested in making things seem mysterious but instead he's laying his heart on the line and making the kind of sweet sounding pop record he's probably been wanting to get out of his system for years, especially after spending so much time creating such epic and shoegazing sounds with Sigur Ros.
MPEG Stream: "Go Do"
MPEG Stream: "Around Us"
MPEG Stream: "Boy Lilikoi"

K Final Drums On Earth: Chapter 1 Revelations (Labyrinth) cd 14.98
We're always so pleasantly pleased to receive music from and by our mailorder customers from around the globe! K is from Portugal. In case you couldn't tell from the album's title, this is some intensely ominous music. Rolling swells of dank guitar generated drones dominate the seven tracks. Industrial grindings and IDM-esque rhythmic sequences occasionally emerge from the deep smothering roar. Chill-inducing and apocalyptic.
MPEG Stream: "Everything Will Be Dissolved"
MPEG Stream: "In The Future I See"

LUSTMORD [Transmuted] (Hydra Head) 12" 10.98
Two lengthy remixes of Lustmord tracks from the 2008 album [Other], one by Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh, etc.) and the other by Lustmord himself. Neither of the sides on this limited 12" are labeled, so it's anybody's guess as to who's responsible for which side. There are dubby electronic breakbeats lacing the signature Lustmord dark ambience on both sides, and neither really give away much either. Both sides incorporate the doomy guitar riffs that were present on the Lustmord tracks, and actually tend to work pretty well with the rhythms, dub production, and dark dark dark ambience swirling about, pretty much sounding a lot like the classic Scorn sound from the mid '90s. We definitely dig!

MAMIFFER Hirror Enniffer (Sige) 2lp 23.00
NOW ON VINYL!!
What might you expect from a band made up of one part Everlovely Lightningheart and one part These Arms Are Snakes? What if we told you some of the guys in Isis, Helms Alee and a few of the other These Arms Are Snakes fellas helped out? You still probably wouldn't imagine the sound of Mamiffer, which does share some elements with those bands, but is definitely its own unique entity.
Martial snares, grinding drones, melancholy piano, a strange sort of murky chamber ensemble, like a fucked up malevolent Rachels, that slips smoothly into some jazzy almost post rock. Moody and moving and dramatic and pretty dang cool. And that's just the first track. The rest of the tracks are all over the place, but held together by the everpresent piano, from glitchy buzzing dronemusic that swells to an incendiary Jesu / Nadja-like roar, piano laced folky slowcore, all moaning cellos, and cinematic piano, again underpinned by fuzzy buzzing drones, Godspeed style slow burn epics, Necks like slow jazz shimmer wrapped around a glowing black rumble, wrapped in a hazy shimmer, Fahey-esque Appalachian guitar strum that gradually slips into something much more distorted and heavy, laced with ethereal female vocals, and a distant whirring hiss, all woven into one epic and moving cinematic songsuite.
While this might not hit the spot for most Isis / These Arms Are Snakes / Helms Alee fans, it will almost for sure please fans of all things moody dramatic post rock, Rachels, Godspeed, Explosions, Mono, Magyar Posse and the like...
MPEG Stream: "This Land"
MPEG Stream: "Death Shawl"

MEKURYA, GETATCHEW & THE EX Moa Anbessa (Terp) cd 16.98
At long last, back in stock (to go with the Mississippi vinyl version, reviewed elsewhere this list):
A wild live blowout from legendary Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria, jamming with Dutch avant rockers The Ex and other like minded friends. It's time to once again get your Ethiopian groove on...
But with a twist. The twist being The Ex, everyone's favorite Dutch avant rockers who have always had a thing for world music, so much so that members of the Ex are directly involved in the running of Terp. So it makes sense that given the opportunity, they would jump at the chance to jam with the legendary Getatchew Mekuria. So here we have it, what sounds like one of the wildest musical parties ever! Oh how we would have killed to be there. Must have been a stone cold blast, but at least we have this here recording to ease our pain...
The record seems to be split right down the middle, half the songs are Ethiopian classics, given a bit of an angular post punk vibe, due in no small part to the fact that the band playing them is in fact the Ex, and the other half, the ones with vocals, sound like Ethiopian flavored Ex songs... We lean more toward the former, but both are pretty great. 
Imagine your favorite Ethiopiques record, but way more bass heavy, a fuzzy distorted throb, along with jangly angular guitars, all underneath that oh so recognizable sax, wailing and soaring, practically singing, emotional and gorgeous. A few tracks are groovy and smokey and sultry, sounding like they could have come straight off of Ethiopiques 4, and even the all time Ethiopian groove classic "Musicawi Silt" here gets a sort of funkgroove makeover, with percussive guitar clang, blooping bass, the song was already funky, but in a different way, the new version is a little more tightly wound, but in a good way, you could maybe call it Ethiopian postpunkgroove or something. And there's also an amazing solo jam "Tezeta", with Mekuria just making the sax sing, an extension of his being, going from full on skronk, to melancholy drift, oozing emotion and passion. The crowd reaction afterwards says it all. The rest of the record is packed with the above mentioned Ethiopian Ex style jams, which are awesome and wild and are definitely kinetic and ebullient, but the vocals are definitely an acquired taste... 
As with all Terp stuff, tons of photos and extensive liner notes...
MPEG Stream: "Musicawi Silt"
MPEG Stream: "Aynamaye Nesh"
MPEG Stream: "Tezeta"

MOJO April 2010 magazine 9.99
Always a great read, and lots of it, 146 pages this ish. Peter Gabriel is on the cover, also inside you'll find stuff on everyone from the 13th Floor Elevators to Courtney Love to Serge Gainsbourg to Judy Collins to the Eels... plus all the usual reviews, news, etc. And also you get a free compilation cd devoted to "Dream Pop" featuring tracks by Cocteau Twins, Sigur Ros, Panda Bear, Felt, Mercury Rev, Cluster & Eno, Beach House, Galaxie 500, etc. Nice.

ROGUE WAVE Permalight (Brushfire) cd 15.98
Permalight is the fourth full length from this fine Bay Area band. Rogue Wave don't whip out an album a year, but take their time (usually about 2-3 years) crafting their absolutely wonderful heartfelt gems. Always well worth the wait! With each one the band maintains a remarkable consistency, and yet also continues to grow and evolve. This time we noticed a few more electronic elements blipping and bleeping dreamily around their buoyantly wistful pop/rock core of guitar, keyboards, bass and drums. Also, it could just be our ears, but lead singer Zach Rogue's vocal phrasing and intonation seem a bit different than we remember. We can't quite put our finger on just what it is yet (maybe a shortening of vowel enunciation?), but what we can say though is if you swoon over the lovely pop sensitivities of bands such as Death Cab For Cutie, Postal Service or Nada Surf, or perhaps reaching further back Simon And Garfunkel, you just gotta give Rogue Wave a spin. Really good!
MPEG Stream: "Good Morning"
MPEG Stream: "Right With You"

SHE & HIM Volume Two (Merge) lp 17.98
ALSO ON VINYL!!!
Most people probably already have an opinion on She & Him before they even hear a note of music. That's fair enough, after all, it would be easy to automatically hate the musical project of doe eyed actress Zooey Deschanel and her collaborator M. Ward. But if you actually take a few minutes to give this a chance, the less cynical of you might be pleasantly surprised, provided you aren't expecting a drastic redefinition of the sonic landscape. She & Him make easygoing, upbeat pop music with lushly orchestrated production (courtesy of Ward, who clearly knows a thing or two about makin' music) and a sunny vibe that will no doubt bring up thoughts of worry free summers and young love. Deschanel's voice is girlish and innocent, never forceful or attempting to wander beyond her range, instead just keeping things sweet and simple, and she certainly has a knack for crafting songs that are catchy, heartwarming, and fun. While there isn't too much stylistic variety on display here, the songs do flow together as a whole quite well, with plenty of acoustic guitar leads, sweet sounding string accompaniment, and lots of dreamy, layered vocals. This should definitely appeal to fans of Camera Obscura, Velocity Girl, and other similar sounding outfits, and hopefully people can overcome whatever hangups they might have and just enjoy this for what it is, a totally likable seet and sunshiney pop record.
MPEG Stream: "Thieves"
MPEG Stream: "Ridin' In My Car"
MPEG Stream: "Home"

TERRORIZER issue #194 magazine+cd 9.25
Out of jail, on the cover: Burzum! "The man behind the myth." Also in this issue of the UK's foremost glossy extreme metal magazine: High On Fire, Borknagar, Negura Bunget, Immolation, Wolf, Skeletonwitch, Kerasphorus, and, among other things, part two of their Metalcore special begun last ish, featuring the likes of Converge and Earth Crisis. Plus the usual bonus sampler cd.

TINARIWEN Imidiwan: Companions (Independiente) lp 22.00
Now available on vinyl!
While the origins and history of this Tuareg nomadic group are so interesting and epic, these days what truly stands out is the amazing records they make. Their last outing Aman Iman, was a bigtime AQ favorite and this follow up does not disappoint.
On each release, Tinariwen tend to ease into their sound with more flow and a tranquil intensity that's very hard to achieve, yet it comes to them so naturally. Their guitars, vocals, hand claps, and percussion all come together to create such a hypnotizing intensely moving musical experience. For sure following blueprints laid down by the late great Ali Farka Toure but truly finding their own voice and signature sound that rings with so much soul and such undeniable authenticity. Tinariwen are one of the few African bands who have managed to slightly cross over into a larger following without losing one ounce of their integrity or musical vision. They truly have crafted a sound that's instantaneously recognizable as their own and it's so awesome that we've begun to hear their influence on lots of American indie bands like Brightblack Morning Light, The Drift, OM, and Wooden Shjips. The album closes with "Desert Wind" which really captures the desolate feeling of sand blowing across the desert sky, a track that most drone acts would kill to call their own. Once again Tinariwen has made a record that we're sure will stand the test of time.
MPEG Stream: "Tahult In"
MPEG Stream: "Lulla"
MPEG Stream: "Kel Tamashek"

XIU XIU Dear God I Hate Myself (Kill Rock Stars) lp 16.98
Now available on vinyl!
Jamie Stewart. Some people love him, and some people hate him and some people REEEAAAALLYY love him. Anyone who can inspire that much passion one way or the other has some kind of gift that most do not. Or is it a curse? Anyway, Dear God, I Hate Myself (a Jamie Stewart album title that seems overdue) is most definitely a Xiu Xiu album that will make longtime fans love him that much more and dismissers keep on dismissing. Parts of it harken back to the cacaphony and sweet angst of Knife Play or Fabulous Muscles. Other tracks lean more towards straight (no pun intended) dance music ("This Too Shall Pass Away") and even a little country ("Cumberland Gap"). Through it all, though, is the excellent drum machine programming mixed with all kinds of live percussion and whisper/screamed vocals that give Xiu Xiu their unique sound. The vinyl version comes with a download code for the album.
MPEG Stream: "Gray Death"
MPEG Stream: "Apple for a Brain"
MPEG Stream: "This Too Shall Pass Away (For Freddie)"

XLR8R #132 Mar/Apr 2010 magazine 4.99
Electronica, techno, indie rock and more, as always in this magazine, this issue featuring rave shoegazers (?) Delorean on the cover, also Oneohtrix Point Never, Xiu Xiu, Daptone Records, Anthony "Shake" Shakir, Kyle Hall, Mosca, Natalie Storm, and much more.

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----* Compilations :
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V/A Good God! Born Again Funk (Numero) lp 19.98
Repeating this review from last list, 'cause apparently for some weird reason nobody noticed it, which MAKES NO SENSE. Awesome Numero group funk comp on vinyl, c'mon! So, again:
Now Available On LP!!!
You know music is beyond powerful and soulful when it can be all about faith in something you don't personally believe in, yet you can't stop listening to it! The sentiment, passion and energy put into the music transcends any one specific belief and becomes more about the music and its ability to truly tap into raw spirit and deep conviction.
Such is the case for the amazing gospel jams compiled once again by the always dependable Numero Group, in their second volume of gospel burners that we think might even outshine their first installment from a few years back. These are the reeeeal deal, unfiltered sounds that were blasting in black churches in the 1960's. Informed by the soul and deep funk of popular secular music, folks took that inspiration into their churches to create sweaty, impassioned deep grooved fiery and catchy songs that spoke of their deep running spirituality and beliefs. And it's just impossible not to get swept up in the spirit of these songs. Musically it's just some of the most solid, groove filled and exquisitely performed soul music we've ever heard. The equivalent of getting to hear Aretha Franklin or James Brown let it all hang out in the house of the Lord. Most of the tracks here come from Chicago, whose long history of spiritual soul is reaffirmed once again.
While most of us here are everything from Atheists to Buddhists to Jewish to Quaker to Agnostic to worshipers of nature and sometimes even Satan (got to represent out black metal tendencies) we all can't help but testify to the righteous sounds in this collection. For the duration of the eighteen songs on Good God! Born Again Funk, we are all devout believers! Vinyl version coming in a few weeks, by the way...
MPEG Stream: T.L. BARRETT & YOUTH FOR CHRIST CHOIR "Life A Ship"
MPEG Stream: THE INSPIRATIONAL GOSPEL SINGERS "The Same Thing It Took"
MPEG Stream: SENSATIONAL FIVE "Coming On Strong"

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----* DVD's :
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V/A The T.A.M.I. Show (Shout Factory) dvd 21.00
Whoo-hoo! Awesome to have this on dvd at long last, in a nice, complete "collector's edition" with various bonus features. One of the most exciting rock/R&B audio-visual documents ever, The Teenage Awards Music International Show live concert film was originally screened in theaters in 1964, and has never been on dvd before.
It features James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, Jan and Dean, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Supremes, Lesley Gore, and more... including, in footage cut from most previous versions of this film, the Beach Boys. Watch Mick Jagger trying to cop James Brown's moves, watch James Brown do stuff that Mick could never do in a million years, watch garage band The Barbarians bash out their mop topped pop backed by a drummer with a hook for a hand, it's all here... an all time classic, now you can take in the whole thing rather than just watching individual clips on YouTube!
Restored and remastered. Bonus features include director's commentary, the original trailer with commentary from John Landis, and radio spots.



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----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed :
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If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart!

AGENCEMENT "Early Works 1983-1986" (Edition Omega Point) cd 27.00
ANDREW W.K. "Close Calls With Brick Walls / Mother of Mankind" (Steev Mike) 2cd 17.98
ANGER, KENNETH "The Complete Magick Lantern Cycle" (Fantoma) 2dvd 40.00
ANGST SKVADRON "Sweet Poison" (Agonia) cd 15.98
BEALE STREET SHEIKS "Chicken You Can't Roost Behind The Moon" (Monk) lp 22.00
BHATTACHARYA, DEBASHISH "O Shakuntala!" (Riverboat) cd 16.98
BLACK OATH "s/t" (Subject To Suffering) cdep 9.98
BLEAK HOUSE "Suspended Animation" (Buried By Time And Dust) cd/lp 11.98/25.00
BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY & THE CAIRO GANG "The Wonder Show Of The World" (Palace / Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/17.98
BRACEY, ISHMAN "Suitcase Full Of Blues" (Monk) 2lp 30.00
CALLAHAN, BILL "Rough Travel For A Rare Thing" (Sea Note) lp 19.98
CARIBOU "Swim" (Merge) cd/2lp 14.98/22.00
CASSIS CORNUTA "Mag Ik Eens Even In Uw Broek Pissen?" (Ultra Eczema) lp 30.00
CENTURIONS GHOST "Blessed & Cursed In Equal Measure" (Church Within) cd 16.98
CHARALAMBIDES "Three-Lane Blacktop" (Two Lane Blacktop) lp 17.98
DAVIS, MILES "Lift To The Scaffold (OST)" (Doxy) lp 24.00
DECREPITAPH "Beyond The Cursed Tomb" (Razorback) cd 10.98
DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, THE "Option Paralysis" (Season Of Mist) cd 16.98
DOKURO "The Black Room" (self-released) cd-r 8.98
DRUNKDRIVER "Born Pregnant" (Parts Unknown) lp 13.98
EQUATICS, THE "Doin It!!!!" (Now Again) cd 17.98
FEHLMANN, THOMAS "Gute Luft" (Kompakt) cd/2lp + cd 15.98/19.98
FINNTROLL "Nifelvind" (Century Media) cd 13.98
FLUXION "Perfused" (echocord) cd 16.98
FURSAXA "Mycorrhizae Realm" (ATP) cd/lp 14.98/17.98
GAINSBOURG, SERGE "Du Jazz Dans Le Ravin" (Doxy) lp 24.00
GIL, GILBERTO "Bandadois" (Geleia Geral / Warners) cd 17.98
GLANDS OF EXTERNAL SECRETION "Meat Receiving" (Ultra Eczema) lp 27.00
GOSTA BERLINGS SAGA "Detta Har Hant" (Transubstans) cd 15.98
GREY, RUDOLPH "The Real Evelyn McHale?" (Foreign Frequency) 7" 6.50
HORAFLORA "Gland Canyon" (Instal Records) cd-r 8.98
HOWE, CATHERINE "What A Beautiful Place" (Numero) lp 17.98
IKONIKA "Contact, Love, Want, Have" (Hyperdub) cd 17.98
INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, THE "The 5,000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion" (Fledg'ling / Carthage) cd 16.98
INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, THE "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" (Fledg'ling / Carthage) cd 16.98
INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, THE "Wee Tam & The Big Huge" (Fledg'ling / Carthage) 2cd 16.98
JARNOW, AL "Celestial Navigations: The Short Films Of Al Jarnow" (Numero) dvd 28.00
JOHANNSSON, JOHANN "And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees" (Type) cd 15.98
JONES, SHARON & THE DAP-KINGS "I Learned The Hard Way" (Daptone) cd/lp 15.98/19.98
JUCIFER "Throned In Blood" (Alternative Tentacles) lp 13.98
KLEENEX / LILIPUT "Live Recordings, TV-Clips & Roadmovie" (Kill Rock Stars) cd + dvd 19.98
KNIFE, THE (IN COLLABORATION WITH MT. SIMS & PLANNINGTOROCK) "Tomorrow, In A Year" (Rabid / Mute) 2cd 19.98
LANDSCAPE "From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars .... To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus" (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
LAST ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC SPACE JAZZ & PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE, THE (MADLIB) "Miles Away" (Stones Throw) cd/2lp 17.98/19.98
LEMONADE "Pure Moods" (True Panther Sounds) 12" 8.98
LISA O PIU "Behind The Bend" (Subliminal Sounds) lp 22.00
LOS CAMPESINOS "Romance Is Boring" (Arts & Crafts) cd 14.98
LOTHAR AND THE HAND PEOPLE "Presenting..." (Microwerks) cd 12.98
LOWE, ROBERT & ROSE LAZAR "Eclipses" (Thrill Jockey) lp 14.98
MAZZY STAR "Among My Swan" (Plain Recordings) lp 16.98
MAZZY STAR "She Hangs Brightly" (Plain Recordings) lp 16.98
MAZZY STAR "So Tonight That I Might See" (Plain Recordings) lp 16.98
MEBUSAS "Blood Brothers" (Academy) cd 13.98
METH, GHOST, AND RAE "Wu Massacre" (Def Jam) cd 14.98
MOUNT EERIE "Fog Movies Live" (P.W. Elverum & Sun) dvd-r 15.98
MOUNT FUJI DOOM JAZZ CORPORATION "Succubus" (Ad Noiseam) cd 23.00
MURVIN, JUNIOR "Police & Thieves" (Island) cd/lp 16.98/15.98
NABAY, AHMED JANKA "Bubu King" (True Panther Sounds) 12" 9.98
NEGURA BUNGET "Maiastru Sfetnic" (Lupus Lounge) cd 15.98
NOISE NOMADS "s/t" (Ultra Eczema) lp 30.00
NUCLEAR DEATH WISH "s/t" (self-released) cassette 5.98
OTTO; OR, UP WITH DEAD PEOPLE "OST" (Crippled Dick Hot Wax!) cd 17.98
PANTHA DU PRINCE "Diamond Daze" (Dial / Kompakt) cd 16.98
PANTHA DU PRINCE "Stick To My Side" (Rough Trade) 12" 8.98
PULSE EMITTER "Sunset Into Night" (Gneiss Things) cd-r 12.98
ROMEO, MAX "Crazy World Of Dub" (Jamaican Recordings) cd 14.98
ROSE, JACK & GLENN JONES "The Things That We used To Do" (Strange Attractions) dvd 20.00
SAFT, JAMIE "Black Shabbis" (Tzadik) cd 16.98
SARKE "Vorunah" (Indie Recordings) cd 21.00
SCIENTIST "Heavy Metal Dub" (Lock Tower) lp 13.98
SCUBA "Sub:Stance" (Ostgutton) cd 16.98
SERENA MANEESH "#2: Abyss In B Minor" (4AD) cd/lp 13.98/14.98
SERPENT'S KNIGHT "Silent Knight...Of Myth And Destiny" 2cd 17.98
SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA, THEE "Kollaps Tradixionales" (Constellation) cd/cd+book 15.98/21.00
SJOB "Movement" (Academy) cd 13.98
SOCIETY OF ROCKETS, THE "Future Factory" (Underpop) cd/2lp 11.98/19.98
SONODA, SATOSHI "Everything Lies Beyond The Boring Summer Grasses: Early Works Of Satoshi Sonoda 1977->1978 Memories Of Yashushi Ozawa" (PSF) cd 16.98
SPECIAL INTERESTS "Volume 2" magazine 3.98
SPEED, GLUE & SHINKI "Eve" (Phoenix) lp 24.00
SUN RA AND HIS MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA "The Antique Blacks" (Art Yard) cd 21.00
SWEET APPLE "Love & Desperation" (Tee Pee) cd 14.98
TAINT "All Bees To The Sea" (Destructure) cd/lp 16.98/22.00
TANGERINE DREAM "Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares" (Lilith) lp 26.00
TANLINES "Settings" (True Panther Sounds) 12" 9.98
TEKHTON "Alluvial" (Church Within) cd 16.98
THOMAS, PRINS "s/t" (Full Pupp) cd 17.98
THOU / LEECH "We Pass Like Night, From Land To Land" (Gilead Media) lp 16.98
TRANS AM "What Day Is It Tonight : Live 1993-2007" (Thrill Jockey) 2lp 21.00
V/A "Absolute Belter" (B-Music / Finders Keepers) cd 17.98
V/A "Harder Shade Of Black" (Pressure Sounds) cd/lp 15.98/14.98
V/A "Karl Rove: Courage And Concequence" (Seismic.Wave) lp 14.98
V/A "La Belle Epoque" (EMI / Zonophone) cd 14.98
V/A "Nigeria Afrobeat Special" (Sound Way) cd 16.98
V/A "Reportage: Spela Sjalv" (Expo Norr) lp 17.98
V/A "Teenage Heaven: The Fifties Girl Group Phenomenon" (El Records / Cherry Red) cd 16.98
V/A "Watch How The People Dancing: Unity Sounds From The London Dancehall, 1986-1989" (Honest Jon's) cd/2lp 17.98/22.00
VEX'D "Cloud Seed" (Planet Mu) cd/2lp 14.98/17.98
VHS HEAD "Video Club" (Skam) cd 9.98
WINDREN, JANA "Energy Field" (Touch) cd 15.98

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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.


NEW DOMESTIC SHIPPING RATES :
--------------------------------
STANDARD (DEFAULT):

    1 CD (or cassette or DVD or 7") : $2.95 USPS First Class                                                                                               

    1-3 CD (or cassette or DVD, but not 7"s) : $4.95 USPS Priority Mail via flat rate box                                                          

    4+ CD, or any package with LPs in it (also books & box sets), any number of items: $9.95 UPS Ground    
     
Also, please note that UPS will not ship to PO Boxes, so those packages that would have gone UPS will be sent USPS Priority for $9.95,
or you may select  USPS Media Mail instead, see below.

UPS shipments are automatically trackable and include insurance up to $100.        
USPS shipments (First Class, Priority, and Media Mail) are all automatically trackable.

OR, you can choose instead to have your order shipped by MEDIA MAIL:

    1-3 items (i.e. w/ LPs) : $5.95 USPS Media Mail 

    4+ items : $7.95 USPS Media Mail


Special shipping needs (e.g. UPS Next Day) are also doable, just ask for a quote.
Also, if you are just getting 1 item that would therefore ship USPS First Class, and for some reason you would rather have it sent Priority, then you could say so in the comments field. (Note: however, 7"s are too big for the Priority flat rate boxes.)

NOTE: UPS permits their drivers to determine if there is a secure location at the shipping address to leave the package if no one is there to receive it (unfortunately some are less cautious than others!). If you'd prefer that they not do this or if you have specific instructions for the driver, please include a note in the comments section of your weborder form.

PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK SHIPPING ADDRESSES BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR ORDER. Aquarius is not responsible for orders delayed or returned due to incorrect or undeliverable addresses provided by the customer. Returned packages will be reshipped at the customer's expense.

Shipping rates are charged per shipment.


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, but only in $USD. International customers please note that they must be international postal money orders purchased at a post office. Additional processing fees may apply. 

If you wish to pay by money order, you must confirm the order with us through email or phone BEFORE you send any payment. It's best to just use the secure order form on the website, and when checking out mark money order as your payment choice. We will then process your order and respond with all the crucial payment info.

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.

Unfortunately, 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 right now, here real soon, seriously
Pagan Altar "Judgement Of The Dead" vinyl reissue on Buried By Time And Dust
v/a "Pomegranates" vinyl version on Finders Keepers
Billy Green "Stone (OST)" vinyl on Finders Keepers

----} also real soon
Dead Meadow "3 Kings" cd+dvd/2lp on Xemu

----} April 13th
Golden Triangle / The Fresh & Onlys "Cold Bones" 7" on Hardly Art
MGMT "Congratulations" cd on Sony
Brilliant Colors "Never Mine" 7" on Slumberland
Thou "Baton Rouge, You Have Much To..." 12" on Robotic Empire
Capsule "Tape + Demo + Tour + More" lp on Robotic Empire
Crazy Dreams Band "War Dream" lp on Holy Mountain
Ocean "Heliocentric" cd on Metal Blade

----} April 17th (RECORD STORE DAY)
Moon Duo/Bitchin Bajas split 7" on Permanent
The Flaming Lips with Stardeath and the White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches "Doing Dark Side Of The Moon" lp on Warners
Built To Spill "Water Sleepers" 7" on Warners
Beach House "Zebra" 12" on Sub Pop
The Album Leaf "There Is A Wind" 12" on Sub Pop
Cocorosie "Lemonade b/w Surfer Girl" 7" on Sub Pop
Soundgarden "Hunted Down" 7" reissue on Sub Pop
v/a "SP20 Casual Nostalgia Fest" cd on Sub Pop
Black Moth Super Rainbow "Eating Us" lp edition
and plenty more stuff, we'll see, just come by and find out...

----} also in April
Daniel Higgs "Say God" 2cd/2lp on Thrill Jockey
Trans Am "Thing" cd/lp on Thrill Jockey
Lali Puna "Our Inventions" cd/lp on Morr Music
Roky Erickson "True Love Casts Out All Evil" cd on Anti
Growing "Pumps" cd on Vice
Black Francis "Nonstoperotik"
Sylvain Chauveau "Singular Forms" cd on Type
Kayo Dot "Coyote" cd on Hydra Head
Sloath s/t lp on Riot Season
Acid Mothers Temple "In O To Infinity" cd on Important
Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg s/t (aka "Je T'aime") cd/lp on Light In The Attic
Ken Camden "Lethargy & Repercussions" cd/lp on Kranky

----} May 4th
The New Pornographers "Together" cd/lp on Matador

----} June 8th
Watain "Lawless Darkness" cd/lp on Season Of Mist

----} also upcoming sooner or later or sooner or later or whenever
Expo 70 "Sonic Messenger" and "Black Ohms" vinyl editions on Beta-lactam Ring
v/a "Cold Waves & Minimal Electronics Vol. 1" cd edition on Angular
Wet Dog "Frauhaus" lp on Captured Tracks
Jean-Pierre Massiera "Horrific Child" cd/lp reissue on Finders Keepers
The Sticks "s/t" cd/2x7" on Upset The Rhythm
Xasthur "2005 Demo" 12" reissue on Hydra Head
Harvey Milk "s/t" vinyl edition on Hydra Head
Torche / Boris "Chapter Ahead Being Fake" split 10" on Hydra Head
Pyramids w/ Nadja "Lustmord / Ulver Remix" 12" on Hydra Head
Flying Lotus "Cosmograma"
Alps "Le Voyage" cd/lp on Type
Grasslung "Feeding Your Horizon" on Root Strata
Jim Haynes "Rocks. Hills. Plains" on Root Strata
Nurse With Wound "Skrag" cd on United Dairies
Jonathan Coleclough "Flutter" 2cd-r on October
Johann Johannsson "And In The Endless Pause" lp on Type
Jay Reatard "Blood Visions" lp on Fat Possum
King Khan & BBQ Show "Invisible Girl" cd/lp on In The Red
Felix "You Are The One I Pick" cd on Kranky
Papercuts "Where Are The Waves" cd on Gnomonsong
The Roots "How I Got Over" cd
Max Richter "Memory House" cd
Crispy Ambulance "Plateau Phase" cd reissue on LTM
Ocean "Pantheon Of The Lesser" 2lp version on Important
Grumbling Fur (Guapo + Jussi from Circle) cd
Combat Astronomy "Earth Divided by Zero" cd
Anton Batagov "Passionate Desire To Be An Angel" cd on Long Arms Records
Japancakes "If I Could See Dallas"
Jazzfinger "The Sun's Golden Blood" cd on Beta-Lactam Ring
v/a "Noise Room" cd on Soniq
Country Teasers / Ezee Tiger split lp on Holy Mountain
Erase Errata TBA cd on Kill Rock Stars
Rodan TBA cd/lp on Quarterstick
Deftones "Eros" cd on Warner Bros.
Swell Maps "International Rescue" clear vinyl LP reissue on Alive
Loss "Despond" cd on Profound Lore
Trans Am "What Day Is Tonight" cd on Thrill Jockey
Boduf Songs "Strait Gait" cd/lp on Latitudes
Current 93 "BS:SO" cd on Coptic Cat
The Fall "Future Our Clutter"
Panda Bear "Tomboy"

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23five presents:

Activating The Medium XIII : Ice : Chapter One
April 16, 2010
G*Park
Joshua Churchill
Adam Sonderberg
Panel / Lecture hosted by Cheryl Leonard
The Lab, San Francisco
co-presented by Swissnex
www.thelab.org :: www.swissnexsanfrancisco.org

Activating The Medium XIII : Ice : Chapter Two
April 17, 2010
Cheryl Leonard
Pedestrial Deposit
Jesse Burson
Rale
The Lab, San Francisco
www.thelab.org

Activating The Medium XIII : Ice : Chapter Three
April 16 - 23, 2010
G* Park video installations : Soylent Green, Daphnia Magna, & 3 Small Clips
Swissnex
www.swissnexsanfrancisco.org

23five Incorporated, in collaboration with Swissnex and The Lab, present the thirteenth annual Activating The Medium festival, with two nights of performances from local and international sound artists. Each year, 23five curates Activating The Medium around a specific theme that seeks to underscore the connectivity between artists working with various methods and materials. Previously, Activating The Medium has explored sound ecology, audio mimesis, and the relationship between sound and architecture. For the 2010 festival, 23five presents a theme of ice -- the physical, geographic, metaphoric, and mythological attributes to ice as manifested through sound.

More information:
www.23five.org

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Friday, April 16, 2010. 7:30PM & 9:00PM $6

THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME
The Mountain Goats in solo and duo performance
A FILM BYRIAN JOHNSON

The Mountain Goats in solo and duo performance at Pomona College. In this
film by Rian Johnson (Brick, the Brothers Bloom), John Darnielle performs
"The Life of the World to Come" on piano and guitar. Shot in the same
building where, as an eight-year-old piano student and new transplant to
Claremont, he performed Bach minuets for the state examiner, "The Life of
the World to Come" takes the songs from the album and restores them to
their raw original states: skin, blood, and bone. TRT 51 minutes.


film clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ-zZJu6LKI

For more information about the Mountain Goats, please see:
http://www.mountain-goats.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountain-Goats/17314008126
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/115150-get-holy-an-interview-with-john-darnielle/

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickSallyJonandAndrew