VEX'D Cloud Seed (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
Cloud Seed marks the first appearance of Vex'd on the aQ list which makes no sense at all. Of all the outsider dubstep going on, of which there's more than you might think, but still not nearly enough, Vex'd might just be the coolest, and most compelling, at least amongst folks IN the actual dubstep scene. The core elements are still present, THAT skittery beat, the fuzzy warbly basslines, but beyond that, Vex'd drags the dubstep tropes through the sonic mud, and comes out the other side with something totally original and twisted, and with only a passing resemblance to dubstep proper.
From spare and skeletal do dense and dark, Vex'd's sound manages to be simultaneously lush and rough and raw, the recordings themselves as much a part of the sound, if anything, deconstructing the sound into weird ambience, and dark textural soundscapes, occasionally coalescing into something more dubsteppy.
The opener is super dubbed out, ultra minimal, lots of space, tons of reverb, with Warrior Queen's toasted vox laid over streaks of fuzz bass, loping clanky rhythm, almost like some sort of double dutch jam, but slowed waaaaay down.
But that's followed by some abstract experimental ambience. Hazy and washed out, very Tim Hecker-ish, but laced with some strange grinding skitter, lush string swells, and clipped sampled crunch.
"Heart Space" is maybe the most commercial of the bunch, like a dubstep Portishead, with some sultry female vocals, some awesome warbly bass, all tangled up into a druggy psychedelic dubby drift. But it's all a stumbling druggy descent into madness after that, from the ominous trancelike skitter of "Out of the Hills" to the blurred softly glitchy dreamdrone shimmer of "Out of the Hills", to the super grime-y blown out bass churn of "Slug Trawl Depths", to the warped cosmic hip hop bass heavy dub of "Disposition" with some awesome lugubrious vocals, dipping into Kode9 territory.
The comes the remixes, which are just as good as any of the tracks proper, Plaid's "Bar Kimura" is all swoonsome and swirly and skittery, with a subtle bit of dubstep bass, bleary eyed and sun dappled, with weird crooned vox, "Killing Floor" is the heaviest dubstep jam here, the bass fucking fierce and sharp, the beats jagged, about as hard as it gets, the Distance track "Fallen" gets reworked into something a bit more spaced out, with some serious bass warble, and some fragmented melody. Then there are two sort of classical mixes, one "Suite For Piano & Electronics", is all deeeeeeep drones, rumbling thrum, peppered with streaks of high end, fragments of melody, but overall dark and grim and intense, while Prokofiev's "String Quartet No.2" gets reworked into a stuttery string-ed lurch, super strange and very Timbaland-like, you can almost imagine some weirdo rapping over the top, with lots of grinding strings, and stop / starts.
Finally the record finishes off with two thick, almost doomy dubby dirges. The first layers a simple beat over a thick blackened rumble, an ominous minor key melody, deep thick swells, like a dubby Jesu almost, and then comes record closer "Nails", a creepy, thick swath of industrial crunch and buzz, big pounding beats, cinematic melodies, the bass thick and intense, finishing off with a killer collaged burst of sliced and diced death metal all tangled up with grinding pummeling industrial dub.
So awesome. And while this is definitely the best Vex'd record yet, and well deserving of Record Of The Week honors, this also maybe makes up for somehow not listing any of the other awesome Vex'd records. Another record to add to your aQ dancefloor destroying DJ kit!
MPEG Stream: "Take Time Out (Ft. Warrior Queen)"
MPEG Stream: "Disposition (Ft. Jest)"
MPEG Stream: "Killing Floor (Mah Mix)"
MPEG Stream: "Sutring Quartete No. 2 (Vex'd Remix - Original By Gabriel Prokofiev)"
MPEG Stream: "Oceans"

VEX'D Cloud Seed (Planet Mu) 2lp 17.98
Cloud Seed marks the first appearance of Vex'd on the aQ list which makes no sense at all. Of all the outsider dubstep going on, of which there's more than you might think, but still not nearly enough, Vex'd might just be the coolest, and most compelling, at least amongst folks IN the actual dubstep scene. The core elements are still present, THAT skittery beat, the fuzzy warbly basslines, but beyond that, Vex'd drags the dubstep tropes through the sonic mud, and comes out the other side with something totally original and twisted, and with only a passing resemblance to dubstep proper.
From spare and skeletal do dense and dark, Vex'd's sound manages to be simultaneously lush and rough and raw, the recordings themselves as much a part of the sound, if anything, deconstructing the sound into weird ambience, and dark textural soundscapes, occasionally coalescing into something more dubsteppy.
The opener is super dubbed out, ultra minimal, lots of space, tons of reverb, with Warrior Queen's toasted vox laid over streaks of fuzz bass, loping clanky rhythm, almost like some sort of double dutch jam, but slowed waaaaay down.
But that's followed by some abstract experimental ambience. Hazy and washed out, very Tim Hecker-ish, but laced with some strange grinding skitter, lush string swells, and clipped sampled crunch.
"Heart Space" is maybe the most commercial of the bunch, like a dubstep Portishead, with some sultry female vocals, some awesome warbly bass, all tangled up into a druggy psychedelic dubby drift. But it's all a stumbling druggy descent into madness after that, from the ominous trancelike skitter of "Out of the Hills" to the blurred softly glitchy dreamdrone shimmer of "Out of the Hills", to the super grime-y blown out bass churn of "Slug Trawl Depths", to the warped cosmic hip hop bass heavy dub of "Disposition" with some awesome lugubrious vocals, dipping into Kode9 territory.
The comes the remixes, which are just as good as any of the tracks proper, Plaid's "Bar Kimura" is all swoonsome and swirly and skittery, with a subtle bit of dubstep bass, bleary eyed and sun dappled, with weird crooned vox, "Killing Floor" is the heaviest dubstep jam here, the bass fucking fierce and sharp, the beats jagged, about as hard as it gets, the Distance track "Fallen" gets reworked into something a bit more spaced out, with some serious bass warble, and some fragmented melody. Then there are two sort of classical mixes, one "Suite For Piano & Electronics", is all deeeeeeep drones, rumbling thrum, peppered with streaks of high end, fragments of melody, but overall dark and grim and intense, while Prokofiev's "String Quartet No.2" gets reworked into a stuttery string-ed lurch, super strange and very Timbaland-like, you can almost imagine some weirdo rapping over the top, with lots of grinding strings, and stop / starts.
Finally the record finishes off with two thick, almost doomy dubby dirges. The first layers a simple beat over a thick blackened rumble, an ominous minor key melody, deep thick swells, like a dubby Jesu almost, and then comes record closer "Nails", a creepy, thick swath of industrial crunch and buzz, big pounding beats, cinematic melodies, the bass thick and intense, finishing off with a killer collaged burst of sliced and diced death metal all tangled up with grinding pummeling industrial dub.
So awesome. And while this is definitely the best Vex'd record yet, and well deserving of Record Of The Week honors, this also maybe makes up for somehow not listing any of the other awesome Vex'd records. Another record to add to your aQ dancefloor destroying DJ kit!
MPEG Stream: "Take Time Out (Ft. Warrior Queen)"
MPEG Stream: "Disposition (Ft. Jest)"
MPEG Stream: "Killing Floor (Mah Mix)"
MPEG Stream: "Sutring Quartete No. 2 (Vex'd Remix - Original By Gabriel Prokofiev)"
MPEG Stream: "Oceans"

MONARCH Mer Morte (Crucial Blast) cd 13.98
We've worshipped at the altar of Hello Kitty obsessed French ultradoom trio (now quartet) Monarch for years and years now, harboring a secret crush on Monarch frontwoman Emilie and a not so secret crush on their absolutely pummeling black cloud of sound.
Originally released as a super limited lp on Spanish label Throne Records back in 2008, this two part doom drone dirge epic, is now available on cd, the separate sides, "Mer" and Morte" now reunited into one single sprawling nearly 35 minute opus, a glacial expanse of creeping crawling detuned drift, of psychedelic black ambience, of tarpit doomic dirge, of extreme abstract heaviness, of near static pummel. As gorgeous as it is harsh, as heavy as it is atmospheric, the drums so spare, the drummer has time to go outside for a smoke between snare hits, riffage so lugubrious that SUNNO))) sound like speed metal in comparison.
Think Flood era Boris, Corrupted, Moss, Bunkur, Khanate, Orthodox, Catacombs, but then slow it down even more, take those sounds and smear them into washed out blurs, the vocals a distant mewl, an occasional shriek, the cymbals unleashed in hazy clouds of sizzling shimmer. The guitars heavy for sure, but the riffs allowed to ring out and fade to near silence, before the next one hits, more than any of the other Monarch records, Mer Morte finds the band exploring ambience as heaviness, allowing long stretches of guitar rumble to drift unaccompanied except for some hushed wordless crooning.
The second half, formerly just "Morte", cranks up the tempo to a blasting (well, for Monarch at least) 10 or 12 bpm, the vocals way more intense, and in the mix the Khanate vibe is much more obvious, a pounding hellish dirge, utterly intense and cathartic and emotional and brutal, but after a few minutes, the drums drop out, and the guitars are left to drone and undulate and pulse, streaked with feedback, a gorgeous blackened dronescape, peppered with occasional drum pound, but any semblance of 'beat' has been jettisoned, the record plays out, a trancelike stretch of downtuned doomic minimalism, laced with more of those ethereal ghostlike vox, haunting and mysterious and otherworldly, and grimly beautiful.
Gorgeous packaging too, a four panel gatefold Stumptown sleeve, with gold metallic ink on black matte. So cool.
MPEG Stream: "Mer"
MPEG Stream: "Morte"

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ABIGOR Time Is The Sulphur In The Veins Of The Saint (End All Life Productions) cd 12.98
We've loved Austrian black metal horde Abigor since we first heard them back in the nineties, their sound was total true kvlt blackness, every record, as grim and black as the last: Verwustung / Invoke the Dark Age, Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom), Opus IV, Supreme Immortal Art, Channeling the Quintessence of Satan, Satanized (A Journey Through Cosmic Infinity), every one of those a stone cold classic, at least to our ears, and then nothing for 6+ years, but something strange must have happened, because when they returned, with 2007's Fractal Possession, it was like a different band, with a new sound, a twisted, industrial avant blackness, that rubbed most black metallers the wrong way, tons of fans jumped ship, but not us, who expects a band to sound the same forever? Sort of how everybody seemed to hate the last 1349, it was too slow and experimental, people wanted more of the same. Well fuck it, folks who hated Fractal Possession are REALLY gonna hate Time Is The Sulphur In The Veins Of The Saint, and let em, cuz this is some serious fucked up, freaked out outsider electronic tinged avant black metal weirdness. It's hard to even describe, other than just going through the track part by part. Epic and sprawling and dizzyingly complex, a cacophony of voices and tangled melodies give way to some ambient drones, which in turn gives way to some pounding midtempo black metal, with weirdly effected vocals, TONS of weird effects, slipping into near silence, before exploding into some pumelling industrial blackness, but rife with wild squiggly leads, everything drops out except for those squiggles, some bizarre spoken word brings us right into what can only be described as a repeated almost hip hop style loop, before launching into some epic soaring power metal with harmonized lead guitars and blasting double kick, warbly basslines, arpeggiated melodies, thick synthesizer buzz, almost like dubstep, before the band spits out more churning chugging heaviness, and we're only halfway through the first song. Shall we go on?
Whirring black ambience leads into some Khold like midtempo metal, with minor key melodies, and super processed vox, finally exploding into some frenzied black metal freakout, before again blissing out into a haunting expanse of churning processed guitars, chant like vocals, some near silence, then some awesome stuttering grinding crunch, a sort of black metal but with deep crooned vox, and some weird industrial filigree not to mention wild warbly bass, fading out in a flurry of classic metal pound, only to then immediately launch into the second track / half of the record, which if anything is just s varied and far out and fucked up, the highlights being some super distorted buzzing blurscapery, some twisted almost punk sounding convoluted lurch and lumber, some incredibly dense and complex gnarled black metal blasts, culminating in a super trippy chanted vocal outro.
Fucking nuts, and totally genius, like mad metal scientist genius, not for the faint at heart, or the true grim hordes, this is for folks looking for the most twisted blackness they can find, technical, epic, and warped beyond all comprehension. Which in case you couldn't tell, means this is one of our new favorite records, and definite contender for weirdo black metal record of the year.
And while they last, we have the limited deluxe box version...
MPEG Stream: "Time Is The Sulphur In The Veins Of The Saint Pt.1 (Excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Time Is The Sulphur In The Veins Of The Saint Pt.2 (Excerpt)"

ADERLATING Devotional Hymns (Shadowgraph) cd-r 10.98
It's unclear what it is exactly that differentiates Aderlating from Gnaw Their Tongues, both are masterminded by mysterious noisemaker Mories, both feature garish frightening artwork, both feature extended wordy song titles like "And Thou Shall Breathe Sulfur As Last Breath" and "Travel The Fog As Death Reaping The Lands" and "The Ravenous Bloodlust Of Fallen Angels", and both bands are grim and blown out and epic and cacophonous and blackened and harrowing and loud as fuck. The key differences seem to be these: Aderlating is in fact a duo, whereas GTT is a one man band, and Gnaw Their Tongues is much more cinematic, and atmospheric, while Aderlating seems to be more dense and dark and layered.
Which is evidenced by the opening track here, a seemingly static wall of undulating layered dronemusic, the sound of 100 Sunroof!s playing simultaneously, a noise drenched ur-raga, a furious white hot sprawl of trancelike crumbling crunch, which over the course of nearly nine minutes goes from Merzbowian blast, to haunting black ambient creep, exploring all sorts of sonic mysteries in between. Devotional Hymns is a collection of sounds black and bleak, hymns perhaps, but to some fallen lord, grinding black shards collide with creaking ambient drifts, epic industrial wastelands, roiling, churning, every track a black hole of sound, when melody and light do escape, they are damaged, limping along, like some charred beast, some damaged machine, crawling through a soundscape of apocalyptic decay.
A few of the tracks here get rhythmic, sounding a bit like a blackened Wolf Eyes, a rotting sea of sounds supported by a rickety industrial skeleton, while others get almost black metal, but are so blurred and obscured that any riffage or blast beating, becomes blown out smears of grim sound, culminating in the hellish fury of the 12 minute title track, a sort of black industrial noise jam, that is simultaneously hypnotic and trancelike, filthy and raw, black and brutal. Incredible stuff as always.
Essential for Gnaw Their Tongues fans obviously, and anyone into buzzing black filth or crushing industrial black ambience. And these Shadowgraph cd-r's are in super swank digipaks, but are usually still quite limited, often to 100 or less, which means these will be gone before you know it...
MPEG Stream: "And Thou Shall Breathe Sulfur As Last Breath"
MPEG Stream: "Devotional Hymns"
MPEG Stream: "The Shallow Waters Of The Styx"

ANGST SKVADRON Sweet Poison (Agonia) cd 15.98
Trondr Nefas, aka T.B., is probably better known in black metal circles for fronting Norwegian heavyweights Urgehal and Beastcraft, among others, but odds are that might be about to change with Angst Skvadron, a blackened bastard offspring, that while still black metal is so much more.
This is record number two from this post black metal trio, whose sound, if we had to describe it, would be something more like post space black prog. And were this easier to get, don't doubt that this would have been a shoo-in for Record of The Week. For some of us it's already Record Of The Year!
Employing the usual instruments, but with an incredible arsenal of vintage and classic keyboards and synths, even a Mellotron, to add all sorts of texture and weirdness to their grim black sound. Did we mention ghostly female vocals? Yeah, these guys are a strange proposition, but have maybe catapulted themselves right to the front of the line, that line being our favorite new black metal bands.
Just take record opener "Valium Holocaust" (great title), opening with a cloud or reverbed piano rumbles, before launching into a lumbering midtempo dirge, equal parts Ved Buens Ende, Khold and Voivod at 16 rpm, the guitars warped and crumbling, the riffs woozy, the rhythm peppered with toiling bells, and laced with little glimmering tangles of melody, and super melodic basslines, and of course some haunting female vocals, that make the track either sound like some black metal Argento soundtrack, or some blackened version of Hundred Sights Of Koenji, gorgeous and creepy and far out and spacey and totally mesmerizing.
The whole record is so close to NOT being black metal. The riffs are gnarled and not at all typical, sounding almost grungy at times, like a way more grim black Skin Yard, which is definitely a good thing.
There are moments of blackness for sure, but even then, the band seem dead set on subverting any sort of true kvlt cred they might otherwise be developing, by twisting the songs all up, whether it's adding Mellotron strings, and creating weird carnivalesque slowcore, or adding all sort of strange crooning vocals, or taking an otherwise black blast beat, and transforming it into a mathy stutter. The slow atmospheric bits are incredible, not just randomly quiet for a minute or two like most BM bands, these are fully formed bits of minimal moodiness, with lush tangled melodies, ghostly harmonies, thick wheezing organs, often giving way to spaced out blackened krautrock, all clean guitars, hazy clouds of reverb, rubbery Joy Division basslines, some full on whatthefuck post industrial lumber and crunch, with thick buzzy bass riffs, and streaks of static and hiss, all wound around some incredible black metal grooves, some of the best riffs we've heard in ages, that in other hands could be the basis for perfect pop songs, but here just infuse the blackness with a weirdly irresistible pop element, that helps make these songs totally weird, totally catchy, and completely genius.
The record finishes off with an unlikely three song salvo, some warm almost sunshiney softly strummed minimal pop, all brushed snares, soaring strings, major key melodies, a lush gauzy dream pop dronescape, that gives way to possibly the most mathy and convoluted track on the record, all super tangled riffage, octopoidal math rock drums, serpentine basslines, super heavy and harrowing, with tortured super effected tripped out vocals, culminating in heaving doomic crush, before finally finishing off with the weirdly melodic title track, a wistful minor key dirge, all clean chiming guitars, simple spare drumming, strings and flutes (or at least the Mellotron version), gorgeous and dreamy and softly psychedelic, an appropriately unlikely finish to one of the most unlikely 'black metal' records in recent memory. And quickly becoming our favorite...
MPEG Stream: "Valium Holocaust"
MPEG Stream: "Aerophobia"
MPEG Stream: "Fucking Karma"
MPEG Stream: "The UFO Is Leaving"

BEALE STREET SHEIKS Chicken You Can't Roost Behind The Moon (Monk) lp 22.00
No, not the Mississippi Sheiks... this here is the Beale Street Sheiks, from Tennessee, comprised of legendary Memphis bluesman Frank Stokes and one Dan Sane. Those familiar with Stokes should know what's in store: prime Memphis blues with amazing rhythmic guitar playing and a powerful, highly emotive vocal delivery. The songs here make use of forceful jumping rhythms that are bluesy for sure, but also reminiscent of ragtime and other old time music. These songs certainly indicate why Stokes is recognized as such a force in the Memphis Blues, and the presence of Sane's guitar playing makes this duo sound pretty much unstoppable. The way the two lock in together implies an innate and unique understanding of the music, no wonder Stokes has been imitated by so many throughout the years. But this is the original source and another welcome addition to Monk's rapidly expanding catalog of the essentials.

BHATTACHARYA, DEBASHISH O Shakuntala! (Riverboat) cd 16.98
We've been waiting for this one for a while. The first time we heard the masterful playing of Debashish Bhattacharya was on his majestic and mind blowing Calcutta Slide Guitar album, a record which became an absolutely treasured all time favorite around here. Not only a master of Indian slide guitar, Bhattacharya also has the ability to infuse his playing with such truly transcendent emotion. It was a record that really felt like some magical amalgamation of Ravi Shankar and John Fahey. It's been several years since that release, but we had hoped something new might be on the horizon, as he performed live in San Francisco last year, a show that totally left us spellbound. It also made so much sense that when we looked around the audience, it was filled with so many of the Bay Area's best drone and bliss-out minded musicians, it was a little like seeing the teacher school his pupils.
O Shakuntala! is just as sublime and enchanting as Calcutta Slide Guitar was. This time out Bhattacharya merges two very classic Indian music traditions, Kanatic music from the South and Hindustani music from the North. But what makes his playing so special is that whether you have a rich knowledge of Indian music or are a total novice it doesn't matter at all, as he is able to cut through to the music's core and create an intimacy and intensity through his playing that is really the closest to absolute pure beauty we've heard in recorded form. Patient, slowly evolving, and with such innovation which most certainly elevates Bhattacharya to some entirely other level, a master among masters. He's backed by three percussionists on O Shakuntala!, including his brother on tabla, who completely blew us away when we saw them perform live. Some amazing genes that family must have!
The only negative thing we have to say about this disc has nothing to with the music, but there is no denying the cover art is pretty bad. Makes it seem like it must be some cheesy fusion record you would get at a store that sells incense and mood rings. But luckily it doesn't reflect the totally entrancing and stunning sounds inside. Highest of recommendations!
MPEG Stream: "Megha Re"
MPEG Stream: "Baarish!"
MPEG Stream: "Priyatameshu"

BLEAK HOUSE Suspended Animation (Buried By Time And Dust) cd 11.98
Lately we've been raving a lot about some cool New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) reissues. Ferinstance, there was Wolfbane a few weeks back, Jameson Raid last time, and this list we've got two: this one, Bleak House, and also Pagan Altar, below. And we're gonna tell you they're awesome. But, you might ask, what's the big deal about the NWOBHM anyway, why are we (and other discerning metal fans) so into it? Well, it's 'cause these NWOBHM bands, both the big-to-middling ones (Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Samson, Angel Witch, Diamond Head, Grim Reaper, etc.) and the more obscure, like the ones we've been listing lately, had SONGS. In a lot of ways, the NWOBHM was the last hurrah of heavy metal as song-based rock music. Sure, it also laid the groundwork for a lot of other more extreme metal genres that took off in the '80s, speed metal and thrash (Metallica was all about the NWOBHM), black metal (Venom!), and even the extreme glam of LA hair metal, which had songs too, yeah, but often poofy pop ones, whereas NWOBHM was hard ROCK most definitely. Not to make too much of a point of it, but we feel a lot of these one-shot wonders from the NWOBHM, kids who made a killer 7" and were never heard from again, are the sort of thing that appeals to us in the same way '60s garage rock nuggets do, or early '70s proto-metal psych, or '77 punk, they're just damn good catchy rock n' roll songs, heavy ones, that you can't deny. And, like in the '60s, there were a LOT of great little bands writing now-forgotten gems. It was a real phenomenon, and that's why we get so stoked about the NWOBHM, ok?
Anyway, that brings us to this, Bleak House, a band who released just two now-collectable 7" eps, Rainbow Warrior (1981) and Lions In Winter ('82). Those two account for seven of the 20 tracks here, the disc being rounded out with live tracks recorded in 1980. The band actually was formed as teenagers back in 1972, though, and these guys, like a lot of the NWOBHM stuff we've recently been reviewing, very much have a '70s, almost proto-metal vibe to 'em.
Bleak House are perhaps best known for the very first track here, "Rainbow Warrior", which has a riff that may or may not have been ripped off by admitted NWOBHM fanatics Metallica in their song "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" five years later, most likely inadvertently. Bleak House can't really complain, they've probably gotten more publicity over the years from that than anything. Great song, though, for which they deserve their due. And others here, such as "Isandhlwana" and "Down To Zero", are equally good. Classy, heavy, melodic, with memorable riffing and wailing, majestic vocals. And a haunted, vintage, British vibe to match their Dickensian appellation. Furthermore, there's some moments (like in "Flight Of The Salamander") that surprise with an almost anachronistic indie-rock jangle, or hint of such anyway.
It's a shame they never got to make a proper full length album, but what we have here is quite worthwhile, with the extensive live material as more than just a bonus - it looks to be a complete show, and includes versions of only three of the songs from the 7"s, the rest having never been documented in the studio. While rough and distorted to some extent, it still sounds pretty good. And you gotta give their singer a lot of credit for really going for it, even when it seems like maybe he's just about tapped out. Turn it up, close your eyes, hoist a pint, bang your head, and you can pretend you're one of the punters at an actual NWOBHM gig back in the day.
The jewel case comes with a Union Jack-adorned obi, and the cd booklet contains a band history as well as the original graphics from their 7"s, vintage color photos, and also reproductions of some old gig fliers.
Note: Buried By Time And Dust also released this collection on 180 gram vinyl, we sold out of 'em already though, we might be able to get more but we'll see, you can ask if you're interested...
MPEG Stream: "Rainbow Warrior"
MPEG Stream: "Isandhlwana"
MPEG Stream: "Nothing [live]"

BRACEY, ISHMAN Suitcase Full Of Blues (Monk) 2lp 30.00
Suitcase Full Of Blues collects the recorded works of Ishman Bracey, one of the more obscure Delta bluesmen whose work nonetheless comes highly recommended. Bracey ran in the same circle as Tommy Johnson, whose Cool Drink Of Water Blues (also issued on Monk) we reviewed last list. As with Johnson, many of Bracey's recordings also feature the guitar and mandolin talents of Charlie McCoy, which definitely helped to flesh out some of Bracey's ideas. Four of the songs here are previously unissued recordings ("Leavin' Town Blues", "Brown Mama Blues", "Trouble Hearted Blues", and "The Four Day Blues") featuring just Bracey, and while these tracks are good and provide an interesting look into his process, it is the versions with McCoy's talents added where everything falls into place. Also like Johnson, Bracey recorded for Victor and Paramount, which was notorious for sub par sound quality. The Paramount recordings make up the second lp, and yes, they are a little rough around the edges, but not enough to destroy the quality of the songs themselves, which also feature Charlie Taylor on piano and Kid Ernest Michall on clarinet (along with Bracey, this lineup was known as the New Orleans Nehi Boys). Throughout the course of both records, a fairly diverse array of styles is on display, often showing off Bracey's progress and his adaptability. His adept picking style and vocal technique, a nice slow drawl not quite as gruff as some of the other delta bluesmen, are really great on their own, but collaborations make up the bulk of the material, and the material with the Nehi Boys is particularly strong. The songs give off a nice, drunk sort of feeling and sound like a bunch of close knit musicians bashing tunes out for fun, which often betrays the bleakness of the songs.
Once again, Monk delivers, making this a highly welcome addition to everyone's collection.

CALLAHAN, BILL Rough Travel For A Rare Thing (Sea Note) lp 19.98
There is something so intimate about Bill Callahan's music. Whether recording under his name or his old Smog moniker, his songs evoke ghosts of memories, intense emotions, and such literate insights into the human condition. So a live record from Callahan actually makes a lot of sense. In some ways it seems strange to see him play in a hall full of people, as you want his songs sung directly to you in your own world. Rough Travel For A Rare Thing allows just that, a spot on live performance captured on tape and made for your private listening pleasure, on your turntable alone or with that special someone. Callahan's songs have a way of always cutting to the core, there is no questioning his integrity and singular voice. He's a story teller, a musician, and a force of nature. There is something commanding and immediate about his voice. In many ways he is like this generation's Leonard Cohen, with the ability to create songs that are both sensual, unnerving, sometimes bleak and always raw in their emotion. For this show, he plays songs from his Smog past and from what would be his first record under his own name. Stripped down and to the point, showing that his songs can be stripped down to a sparse statement that can evoke so much feeling. A total must have for Callahan/Smog fans.

CAPSULE s/t (Robotic Empire) lp 14.98
It's strange that Miami's Capsule managed to remain so below the radar, their grinding, short attention span math rock metal core post prog weirdness seems tailor made for folks looking for extreme obscure heaviness. We raved about their full length Blue, a dizzying chunk of million parts a minute chug/crunch/howl/shred/grind, a furious onslaught of extreme heaviness, but also surprisingly extreme tunefulness, summing their sound up pretty succinctly as 'grindmetal Polvo', that classic twisted math rock / post rock sound, complex rhythms, woozy off kilter chords, buried vox, lots of texture and mood, but sped up, super charged and blown out.
This lp collects all of the pre-Blue material, demos, splits, tour eps, cassettes, and amazingly it plays pretty much like a proper full length. Like Blue, but a bit more raw, a bit less polished, their ADD-core still fully intact, but with even more melody than the full length, still loads of stop / start lurching tempos, tangled gnarled riffage, blasting bursts of pummel countered with lots of cool, more restrained post rockisms, with the added strangeness of weird group vocals, not harmonies exactly, but it does sound like the whole band is singing simultaneously, which definitely gives the sound a super unique vibe.
Again not sure why these guys aren't huge, if you dig Dillinger Escape Plan, Hayaino Daisuke, Converge, Coalesce, Cavity, then Capsule should definitely be required listening.
Incredible packaging too, super nice design, thick colored vinyl, and yeah, probably WAY limited.

CARIBOU Swim (Merge) cd 14.98
Even dating back to the days when he was known as Manitoba, Dan Snaith's music has always been constantly evolving, changing and growing. He's never made the same record twice, and with the latest outing under his Caribou moniker he's probably made the most drastic stylistic change yet, and with the absolute greatest results!
Swim is a much more dance minded record then his last fine outing, Andorra, which was all about psych pop bliss. He's switched things up, using the same rich coloration that always marks his sound but bringing in new and different influences. This time out it sounds like he's been spending a great deal of time with many of the wonderful Arthur Russell releases, and with as we suspect Russell as his guide, has truly understood how to merge the worlds of avant pop and dance floor freedom. With an almost house-like sound done so totally right, he's made one of the most urgent, immediate and enjoyable records of the year. Think Arthur Russell reconstructed by Four Tet, Hot Chip, Junior Boys, and The Whitest Boy Alive and you start to get an idea of the overall sound of Swim. But what has always put Snaith ahead of the pack is that even though he tends to explore different sounds and styles, he always has a knack for writing great songs. It's never style over substance. What makes Caribou so awesome is that he's equally invested in his continual reinvention and explorations of different sounds as much as he is in crafting fucking great tunes. Record of the year contender for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Odessa"
MPEG Stream: "Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Bowls"

CARIBOU Swim (Merge) 2lp 22.00
Even dating back to the days when he was known as Manitoba, Dan Snaith's music has always been constantly evolving, changing and growing. He's never made the same record twice, and with the latest outing under his Caribou moniker he's probably made the most drastic stylistic change yet, and with the absolute greatest results!
Swim is a much more dance minded record then his last fine outing, Andorra, which was all about psych pop bliss. He's switched things up, using the same rich coloration that always marks his sound but bringing in new and different influences. This time out it sounds like he's been spending a great deal of time with many of the wonderful Arthur Russell releases, and with as we suspect Russell as his guide, has truly understood how to merge the worlds of avant pop and dance floor freedom. With an almost house-like sound done so totally right, he's made one of the most urgent, immediate and enjoyable records of the year. Think Arthur Russell reconstructed by Four Tet, Hot Chip, Junior Boys, and The Whitest Boy Alive and you start to get an idea of the overall sound of Swim. But what has always put Snaith ahead of the pack is that even though he tends to explore different sounds and styles, he always has a knack for writing great songs. It's never style over substance. What makes Caribou so awesome is that he's equally invested in his continual reinvention and explorations of different sounds as much as he is in crafting fucking great tunes. Record of the year contender for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Odessa"
MPEG Stream: "Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Bowls"

CARLTON MELTON / EMPTY SHAPES split (Mid-To -Late Records) lp 14.98
We sold tons of the last Carlton Melton full length, Pass It On. In fact we even sold a copy to J. Mascis who made it his top favorite record of 2009. No small feat, there! So the dudes are on a roll, and just before their first big tour, they release this awesome split with the equally heavy Empty Shapes from Delaware.
The Carlton Melton side is two tracks. The first, "Call and Response" is nearly side-loooong and begins with a heavy rumble of monolithic sludge eventually progressing into a slow wave of burnt-out blues riffage a la early Comets on Fire, that churns and steeps into a gnarly brew of molten fuzz. The closer, "Purer", is more cosmic and dreamy, built on a layer of percolating synth drones that give way to a more uplifting space rock jam trajectory.
This is the first we've heard from Empty Shapes, a 5 piece from Delaware, who contribute 3 tracks to their side. The first, "MLK" is a sprawling cloud of noise a la Bardo Pond, levitating around a repeating head-nodding riff with all kinds of instrumentation stretching the form and shape of the murky haze. "Hell of a Night" and "Lord" bring vocal elements into the works, but heavily effected and damaged, sometimes emotive yet incomprehensible channeling a primitive psych-blues through some New Zealandish free-rock space clutter!
Limited to just 300 on brown and white swirled vinyl! Dope!

CHILD'S WIFE 1 (Bad Recording Company) cd-r 9.98
What do you get when you mix Bay Area grind sludge noise rock sonic deconstructionists Burmese with local howling heavies Kowloon Walled City? You might guess something heavy? Brutal? Punishing? Pummeling? You would think. But this strange hybrid does in fact exist, and is called Child's Wife, and probably better described as tripped out, psychedelic, druggy, electronic, and heck even poppy!
Even we were confounded, we were sort of expecting some downtuned crush, something harsh and hellish, but heck, these guys get enough of that in their day jobs. We always wonder why the hell folks feel compelled to start new bands that sound exactly like their old bands anyway. So in that sense, it should maybe come as no surprise that Child's Wife sound NOTHING like either Burmese OR Kowloon Walled City. Instead, it's a twisted drum machine driven, psych pop of sorts. Lysergic and druggy, looped and woozy, but definitely pop. Guitars crunch and buzz, even jangle here and there, but are not metallic, not in the least, the rhythms are electronic, and skitter and pulse, and the vocals, well, the vocals are the focal point, much of the time at least, a distorted, reverbed croon, surprisingly melodic, the songs in some ways reminiscent of the poppiest Butthole Surfers moments, with a little Residents mixed in, a little industrial crunch and clatter, plenty of new wave / cold wave vibes, all mixed with a little, wait for it... XTC, yep, you heard us, sounds fucked and bizarre and impossible, and maybe it is, but it's also pretty cool. Twisted and tweaked, but definitely cool.
Probably not what most Burmese / KWC fans are looking for, but any one in the market for some freaky, outsider, psychedelic, noise rock new wave weirdness, well, this is definitely FOR YOU.
MPEG Stream: "Cemetary Joke"
MPEG Stream: "Light"
MPEG Stream: "Kmria"

CHIN CHIN Sound Of The Westway (Mississippi / Slumberland) lp 14.98
MISSISSIPPI ALERT! MISSISSIPPI ALERT! MISSISSIPPI ALERT!
After the awesome Chin Chin 7" we reviewed a while back, we were psyched to discover that Mississippi was teaming up with Slumberland to bring us this, Swiss all girl post punk outfit Chin Chin's 1985 full length, Sound Of The Westway.
When we reviewed the single, we mentioned that this Swiss combo would appeal to folks into recent girl groups like The Girls At Dawn, Black Tambourines, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls or their early eighties predecessors, Girls At Our Best, Shop Assistants, Bow Wow Wow or Lilliput (who came from the same Swiss scene as Chin Chin). And that definitely still holds true, even more so in fact, the full length finds the band way more polished and poppy, reminding us more of groups like Fuzzbox and the Belle Stars, not as urgently punk, more sort of pogo-y and poppy, the guitars thick and fuzzy, and of course jangly, lots of sweet harmonies, if one didn't know better, one might be forgiven for assuming this was in fact a new Slumberland signing, who like many of today's bands, are simply channeling the spirits of girl groups past. And listening to this now, boy would this sound pretty perfect right next to that Pains Of Being Pure At Heart record... which of course means RECOMMENDED!
Nice full color sleeve, with a 12" x 12" insert, and lengthy liner notes on the history of the band. And as with all Mississippi stuff, probably pretty limited...

COFFINWORM When All Became None (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
We never really thought about Indiana as a hotbed for blackened doom-ed sludge, but all it takes really is one band to change that, and by the sounds of When All Became None, that band just might be Coffinworm, whose sound is equal parts Unearthly Trance and Eyehategod with a healthy dose of black metal mixed in. Crusty, filthy, raw, punk as fuck, but WAY metal, super dynamic and melodic, there's really not much to like here.
The first song alone, lays it all out for you, after a super aggro, stop/start intro, the band lurch into some seriously detuned doom, laced with howled vox, woozy spidery guitar melodies, and downtuned chug, before transforming into some midtempo melodic post metal, occasionally interrupted by blown out blackened blasts and stumbling doomic breakdowns. The vocals are incredible, a sort of crusty punk black metal hybrid, the guitars are thick and dense, the riffs epic and heavy, with plenty of groove, every song a swirling psychedelic cloud of sonic bong smoke, an ever shifting hybrid of doom metal, crust punk, sludge - but also a weirdly keen melodic side, that the band seems to try to be keeping in check, but it still seeps into all their songs, which is not at all a bad thing, but shit this fucked up and fierce, shouldn't be catchy to boot.
How about the warped lurching, melting guitar crawl of "Start Saving For Your Funeral", or the churning Cavity-like chug of "Strip Nude For Your Killer", or the almost stoner rock sounding crust of "Spitting In Infinity's Asshole", with its almost Electric Wizard sounding intro?
Fuck it, these guys rule. That's all you need to know. If the words crust, doom, sludge, black, psych, grind, churn, druggy, crushing, pummel don't already have you frothing at the mouth, then wethinks you just might be in the wrong review...
MPEG Stream: "Blood Born Doom"
MPEG Stream: "Start Saving For Your Funeral"
MPEG Stream: "Spitting In Infinity's Asshole"

DAVIS, MILES Lift To The Scaffold (OST) (Doxy) lp 24.00
Deadly cool, existential, and cruelly absurd, Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (aka Lift To The Scaffold, or Elevator To The Gallows) is one of those brilliantly black humored French noir films about an ingenious murder plan gone awry due to a random turn of events. Directed by Louis Malle and starring Jeanne Moreau, this 1958 crime thriller also featured a beautifully understated score by Miles Davis. Working with French musicians on bass, piano and tenor saxophone, along with ex-pat American drummer Kenny Clarke, Davis alternates between mostly somber processionals with a slow stalking bass and plaintive trumpet motifs, to occasionally a scurrying and frenetic bop pace depicting the seductively modern lifestyle of these carefree and careless criminals. Davis handles the noirish vibe perfectly, resonating deeply with the doom-laden mood but with a light yet foreboding touch that draws you in and entraps you long before you realize you're a goner. Very Recommended!!!!!!

DEMDIKE STARE Forest Of Evil (Modern Love) lp 19.98
The first in a planned 3 part 12" series from this hauntological electronic duo, whose sound we had previously described as sounding like a black metal dub record on Chain Reaction, and we're pleased to report that the sound is indeed still blackened, and dubby, and weirdly house-y, and sprawling and epic and creepy and cinematic...
Two side long tracks, the first starts out all deep shimmer, with a softly melodic buzz, spidery acoustic guitars, long stretches of billowy black ambience, bits of shuffly jazzy drift, peppered with thick shards of buzzy fractured dub bass and Kompakt style skitter, giving way to glistening late night techno, whirling pop ambient, and blissed out ethereal dronemusic.
The flipside is cinematic and dramatic, epic and majestic, like some lost Italian soundtrack, big drums, orchestral and ominous, looped samples, blurred melodic smears over deep pulsing bass, whirling clouds of cymbal shimmer, insectoid FX buzz, jumbled atonal melodies (hints of Bernard Herrmann), the vibe tense and haunting, with some dubstep bass buzz, that slowly dissolves into a Caretaker like outro, all layered strings wreathed in hiss and crackle, hazy and druggy and divine.
So good. We're already anxiously awaiting part two...

EXPO 70 Psychic Funeral (Ruralfaune) 2x3"cd-r 10.98
This ultra limited, double 3"cd-r from one of our favorite space synth kraut drone explorers disappeared before we could get our hands on any copies at all. Thankfully, both the band and the label offered to do another (equally limited) pressing of the cd-r's, just for aQuarius, so we got a bunch of those, and we also got a handful of the cassette tape version, just released on Expo 70's own label, so this is definitely your last chance to grab one of these cd-r sets, odds are the tapes won't be around long either, and by now, you know pretty much everything Expo 70 is worth owning.
And Psychic Funeral is indeed another primo slab of glistening washed out space drone drift. Two 18+ minute missives from the farthest reaches of the solar system, the first, a hushed glistening sprawl, all stretched out tones, and upper register shimmer, minimal melodies wrapped around clouds of chordal whir, deep cavernous drones underpinning constantly shifting streaks, buried pulses, swirly and tangled, almost cinematic sounding stretches of lost soundtrack music, haunting and mysterious and otherworldly, building to a buzzing finale, before slipping into a strange looped outro.
The second disc / side is another wide open starscape of melodic fragments, of prismatic glimmer, a softly blurred expanse of tonal color and softly heaving swells, a Tangerine Dream of kaleidoscopic swirls and layered sonic smears, eventually billowing into some soft focus psychedelia, the guitars unfurling some gorgeously chiming reverb drenched melodic tendrils, before drifting back in the blackness of space. So gorgeous.
Killer packaging too, the cd version features hand screened 3" discs, housed in a folded plastic pouch with a full color insert. Tape has a swank full color sleeve. And again VERY VERY LIMITED.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

EXPO 70 Psychic Funeral (Ruralfaune) cassette 5.98
This ultra limited, double 3"cd-r from one of our favorite space synth kraut drone explorers disappeared before we could get our hands on any copies at all. Thankfully, both the band and the label offered to do another (equally limited) pressing of the cd-r's, just for aQuarius, so we got a bunch of those, and we also got a handful of the cassette tape version, just released on Expo 70's own label, so this is definitely your last chance to grab one of these cd-r sets, odds are the tapes won't be around long either, and by now, you know pretty much everything Expo 70 is worth owning.
And Psychic Funeral is indeed another primo slab of glistening washed out space drone drift. Two 18+ minute missives from the farthest reaches of the solar system, the first, a hushed glistening sprawl, all stretched out tones, and upper register shimmer, minimal melodies wrapped around clouds of chordal whir, deep cavernous drones underpinning constantly shifting streaks, buried pulses, swirly and tangled, almost cinematic sounding stretches of lost soundtrack music, haunting and mysterious and otherworldly, building to a buzzing finale, before slipping into a strange looped outro.
The second disc / side is another wide open starscape of melodic fragments, of prismatic glimmer, a softly blurred expanse of tonal color and softly heaving swells, a Tangerine Dream of kaleidoscopic swirls and layered sonic smears, eventually billowing into some soft focus psychedelia, the guitars unfurling some gorgeously chiming reverb drenched melodic tendrils, before drifting back in the blackness of space. So gorgeous.
Killer packaging too, the cd version features hand screened 3" discs, housed in a folded plastic pouch with a full color insert. Tape has a swank full color sleeve. And again VERY VERY LIMITED.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

FEHLMANN, THOMAS Gute Luft (Kompakt) cd 15.98
We had no idea that Thomas Fehlmann had been making music for more than 30 years, beginning with his time in the band Palais Schaumburg moving on to his work in Detroit/Berlin techno group 3MB (with Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald), finally playing in the Orb to this day, as well as tons of solo records, quite impressive for sure, but this one, this is something else, selections from a score Fehlmann did for a film called 24H Berlin, which is the longest documentary film in history, a full 24 hours long, the filmmakers employed 80 cameras, and followed various Berliners over a 24 hour period, documenting a day in the life in Berlin. It's hard to even fathom trying to compose 24 hours of music, thankfully, Fehlmann shared those duties with another composer, so he probably needed to only come up with 12 hours worth of music, but still, incredible.
And the sounds here are of course gorgeous, that Kompakt sound we love so much, a lush mix of old school techno, modern Berlin dub, and washed out dreamlike pop ambience, if you didn't know this was a soundtrack, you might just assume this was a regular Fehlmann release, which for listening purposes it might as well be. After some cool, late night skitter and thump, the record blossoms into some truly lovely dronemusic, prismatic and crystalline, before slipping back into some clipped stuttery dub and we're off.
The whole record is very warm, and soothing, dreamy, melodic, from the hushed pulse of "Speeding", definitely evocative of late night drives, to the almost Kraftwerk sounding "In The Wind II", lilting and lovely, but underpinned by a busy bit of warbly bass, to the hazy ethereal blurscape of "Von Oben", that eventually transforms into some minimal ambient techno, to the lush and warmly melodic closer "Schieben", which musically sounds like a time lapse photo of a city growing dark as the sun slips beneath the horizon, reminds us of Tim Hecker or Fennesz, so gorgeous.
The songs are balanced pretty evenly between beats and ambience, the two elements constantly blurring into one another, the result being a lush, easy flowing, drifting, dolorous electronic dreamscape.
MPEG Stream: "Alles, Immer"
MPEG Stream: "Falling Into Your Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Wasser Im Fluss"
MPEG Stream: "Schwerelos"

FINJARN & JENSEN s/t (Shadoks Music) cd 17.98
Last list we had the heavy, heavy Moses from Denmark, this list again another great Shadoks reissue of a Scandinavian psychprogpop album from the early '70s, the Norwegian duo Finjarn & Jensen's eponymous elpee from 1970. A one-off classic in the annals of Norwegian rock, it brought together a few key members of a late '60s supergroup called Jumbo. Svein Finjarn (guitars and vocals) and Leif Jensen (drums, plus additional guitars and vocals), with some help from, among others, Norwegian guitar hero Freddy Lindquist (also ex-Jumbo) and British producer John Mills, carefully crafted an exciting, entertaining, anything-goes slice of hard rock / pop that encompassed Beatlesy balladry and rockin' proto-metal umph, quite a bit like the UK's Blossom Toes, we'd say.
Sung entirely in English, it's indeed got an Anglophilic angle to it, being described by the label as "a real British psychedelic flower power album made in Norway". Irreverently so, though, as they're surely taking the piss with the silly-Brits, upper-class-twits skit in the middle of the track "Lady Windsor" (not that's not something Blossom Toes wouldn't have done too).
Lead off track "One More Day" has moments that remind us of Led Zeppelin (and also the White Stripes!). It features rollicking blues rock licks, a catchy vocal chorus (rising into an outrageous falsetto), and an overdose of burbling sci-fi spaceship noises. Brilliant! The remaining six songs on the record often include such elements as well, along with other proggy surprises. Some cuts are rather more gentle and melodic, others get heavier with the wah wah guitars. Oh, and drum solos! Jensen shows off a bit during the percussion-heavy "What Else Can We Do?" and "Grey Skies", especially. Plus, there's what's got to be the perfect title for a nearly 8 minute long acid blues jam, "Sorry Girl, But Now I Know Things Will Be Much Better Now You've Gone".
Quite delightful. And as usual, it's a nice Shadoks reissue job, the booklet containing vintage color photos, lyrics, and the original liner notes translated into English.
MPEG Stream: "One More Day"
MPEG Stream: "Lady Windsor"
MPEG Stream: "Sorry Girl, But Now I Know Things Will Be Much Better Now You've Gone"

FURSAXA Mycorrhizae Realm (ATP) cd 14.98
With all the attention folks like Grouper, Valet, Inca Ore, and Julianna Barwick have gotten in recent times, its easy to forget that it was the music of Fursaxa that predated their ethereal and ghostly sounds by a few years. Through the years, Tara Burke has consistently released music as eerie and haunting as those above with a distinctive pantheistic foresty vibe that is both ritualistic and witchy but mesmerizing and mystical as well. Previous efforts have been more lo-fi and acoustic, with lots of flutes and bells and blurry squalls of sounds. Her latest, Mycorrhizae Realm, is her more polished and composed to date, sounding like a lost album by Vashti Bunyan or Desert Shore-era Nico in its gentle grace and beauty.
Harmonium drones, bird-song flutes, harps, bells, acoustic guitar and her own floating harmonies accompany ancient sounding folk melodies from a lost civilization. Equal attention is placed on song-form as well as sound. Where previous releases had shown Fursaxa coaxing melodies out of the sound she creates, here melody takes center stage to the compositional decisions taking on a less improvisational feeling than before. This makes the songs more focused and constructed, but with the slow majestic unfolding that the mood she conjures require. Breathtaking!
MPEG Stream: "Celosia"
MPEG Stream: "Lunaria Exits the Blue Lodge"
MPEG Stream: "Sunhead Bowed"

FURSAXA Mycorrhizae Realm (ATP) lp 17.98
With all the attention folks like Grouper, Valet, Inca Ore, and Julianna Barwick have gotten in recent times, its easy to forget that it was the music of Fursaxa that predated their ethereal and ghostly sounds by a few years. Through the years, Tara Burke has consistently released music as eerie and haunting as those above with a distinctive pantheistic foresty vibe that is both ritualistic and witchy but mesmerizing and mystical as well. Previous efforts have been more lo-fi and acoustic, with lots of flutes and bells and blurry squalls of sounds. Her latest, Mycorrhizae Realm, is her more polished and composed to date, sounding like a lost album by Vashti Bunyan or Desert Shore-era Nico in its gentle grace and beauty.
Harmonium drones, bird-song flutes, harps, bells, acoustic guitar and her own floating harmonies accompany ancient sounding folk melodies from a lost civilization. Equal attention is placed on song-form as well as sound. Where previous releases had shown Fursaxa coaxing melodies out of the sound she creates, here melody takes center stage to the compositional decisions taking on a less improvisational feeling than before. This makes the songs more focused and constructed, but with the slow majestic unfolding that the mood she conjures require. Breathtaking!
MPEG Stream: "Celosia"
MPEG Stream: "Lunaria Exits the Blue Lodge"
MPEG Stream: "Sunhead Bowed"

G*PARK Reuters (Tochnit-Aleph) lp 25.00
BACK IN STOCK! We got a few more copies of this hard-to-find LP, when G*Park was in town for the 2010 Activating The Medium festival, where he floored the audience. It's unfortunate that we've not listed any G*Park recordings until now; but it's certainly better late than never. G*Park is the work of Marc Zeier who has been quietly generating some of the most evocative musique concrete / electro-acoustic whatnot / broken drones / softened noisejunk since the mid '80s. These recordings had mostly been on cassette back in the day, with a couple of discs appearing over the past decade thanks to Blossoming Noise and the defunkt Zabriskie Point label. He's also an auxiliary member of the aktionist Schimpfluch collective, although his work shares little of their scatological hyper-violence of smeared fish guts, vomit, and bloodletting. Yet, the G*Park recordings mirror the sinister vibe of Schimpfluch through his delicately disfigured field recordings and tape-cut manipulation. Zeier presents a masterful collage of disjointed repetitions from handcranked mechanisms that rupture with bellowing drones and aqueous gurglings. Elsewhere, air raid sirens explode through the laser-whipsnap recoil of cellphone tension wires being struck, and the reverberation of prepared piano abuse slams against densely packed drones into thunderous punctures. These pieces are clinical studies of decay amplified from a microscopic order; and considering that Zeier's occupation is a plankton fisherman (seriously!), perhaps these are the birth pangs and death throes of those tiny creatures. A very highly recommended piece of sound art!

GARY WAR Reality Protest (Sacred Bones) 7" 5.50
Another awesome slab of lo-fi intergalactic warped pop from Gary War. Seems like each of his releases keeps getting more damaged, drugged out, and space-y. This new single is brimming with hissing tape, changing speeds, acid drenched keyboards, and GW's distorted and enchanting vocals. Both songs sound like being trapped in some long gone 80's arcade game with all the wires and sockets disconnected creating all these weird glitches, pitch shifts, crumbling loops, electronic buzz, but somehow all wrapped around some insanely warped and catchy garage pop. While it might be frustrating for GW to always be lumped in with his pals Ariel Pink and John Maus, those comparisons are inevitable. But with Ariel Pink about to make his big 4AD debut with much higher production value, it might be up to Gary Way to carry the flame for totally fractured and fried outsider pop.

GOLDEN TRIANGLE / THE FRESH & ONLYS Cold Bones (Hardly Art) 7" 5.98
The last Fresh & Onlys full length was probably our favorite so far, but this SF garage pop combo don't seem to show any signs of letting up. Two new tracks, more of the same, big drums, jangly guitars, lush reverbed vocals, male and female, harmonies, hooks galore, total sweet sixties pop filtered through the more fuzzy blown out lo-if garage of today, few do it better, a little Kinks, a little Beatles, a lot of crunch and shimmer and shuffle and soar. Surfy, garage-y, hazy and washed out and summery and so goddamn catchy.
Teamed up with the F&O's here are Golden Triangle, hyped as the next big thing, we weren't super into their recent full length, but these two tracks have us reconsidering our position.
Fuzzy, crunchy riffs, sixties girl group vox, definitely fits perfectly alongside the current crop of 'Girls (Dum Dum, Vivian, etc.), but with way more of an eighties post-punk vibe, especially on the second track, with its chiming guitars, jungly tribal rhythm, two chord chug, and animal sounds. Cool!

GROWING Pumps! (Vice) cd 14.98
Most people know Growing as the drone duo of Joe Denardo and Kevin Doria. Well, welcome to 2010, where Growing are now a trio (again, for the first time in a long while) and where the drone seems to have taken a backseat to the band's more electronic persuasions. The new member comes in the form of Sadie Laska, whose vocals and sampling add some nice feminine energy to what was once primarily a dudefest (if two guys qualifies as a "dudefest"). We're sure there are some people wondering what happened, but we're too busy enjoying this new approach, because let's face it, two guys with guitars, E-bows, and a plethora of pedals is all well and good, but you can only go so far with that before wising up to the fact that there is much more to life. What makes Pumps! so great is not only the fact that Growing have switched things up, but how they went about doing it and how, at the end of the day, it still makes total sense that this is Growing. This is a much needed evolutionary step for sure, and the band sounds revitalized. Not only that, but without going too overboard or kissing ass to any trends, the new Growing does fit in quite well with many of today's electronic warriors like recent tourmates Fuck Buttons, Black Dice, and even Animal Collective if you downplayed some of their more hippie-ish tendencies. Growing's new home with the notorious Vice label will also assuredly lead to... well, some crazy shit we would imagine.
The album opens with "Short Circuit", and even though many of you have probably heard of the changes, your first reaction may still be, "Is this Growing?" It is, but with heavy beats and electronic squelches which soon become very melodic. Laska's voice comes in and seems to oscillate from speaker to speaker, creating it's own rhythmic flow that goes perfectly with the mutant dub production style. The sound here is hard to define but undeniably rad and definitely worthy of the title "Short Circuit". Elsewhere, you get some nice '80s video game inspired stuff, like on "Massive Dropout", with it's hi-hat beat guiding you to a portal opening into some weird dimension with laid back, easy grooves. We are tempted to use words like "sunny" and "summery", but those don't seem to indicate the weirdness of it all. On "Highlight" we picked up what seems to be a pretty heavy Kraftwerk influence, in fact some of us were even reminded of the song "Hall Of Mirrors", but maybe we're just crazy. Either way, awesome stuff that is super catchy and really good for headphone listening. Perhaps poking fun at themselves, or even their fans (lightheartedly, of course), "Drone Burger" does utilize a nice drone reminiscent of Spacemen 3's "Repeater" with little keyboard stabs punctuating the atmosphere. Closing number "Mind Eraser" makes good use of a thumping beat and electronic static. The overall feeling of paranoia is heightened by a voice proclaiming, "I love drugs" as other indecipherable voices shoot all over the place before the words "I love you" creepily take the song to it's fadeout conclusion.
Awesome stuff, and definitely a positive step forward for these guys and gal. It's great to see a band manage to surprise while also confirming the identity they already established, making it clear that Growing will remain Growing as long the musicians involved are willing to take risks and keep... growing (sorry, heh).
MPEG Stream: "Short Circuit"
MPEG Stream: "Hormone"
MPEG Stream: "Mind Eraser"

GROWING Pumps! (Vice) lp 16.98
Most people know Growing as the drone duo of Joe Denardo and Kevin Doria. Well, welcome to 2010, where Growing are now a trio (again, for the first time in a long while) and where the drone seems to have taken a backseat to the band's more electronic persuasions. The new member comes in the form of Sadie Laska, whose vocals and sampling add some nice feminine energy to what was once primarily a dudefest (if two guys qualifies as a "dudefest"). We're sure there are some people wondering what happened, but we're too busy enjoying this new approach, because let's face it, two guys with guitars, E-bows, and a plethora of pedals is all well and good, but you can only go so far with that before wising up to the fact that there is much more to life. What makes Pumps! so great is not only the fact that Growing have switched things up, but how they went about doing it and how, at the end of the day, it still makes total sense that this is Growing. This is a much needed evolutionary step for sure, and the band sounds revitalized. Not only that, but without going too overboard or kissing ass to any trends, the new Growing does fit in quite well with many of today's electronic warriors like recent tourmates Fuck Buttons, Black Dice, and even Animal Collective if you downplayed some of their more hippie-ish tendencies. Growing's new home with the notorious Vice label will also assuredly lead to... well, some crazy shit we would imagine.
The album opens with "Short Circuit", and even though many of you have probably heard of the changes, your first reaction may still be, "Is this Growing?" It is, but with heavy beats and electronic squelches which soon become very melodic. Laska's voice comes in and seems to oscillate from speaker to speaker, creating it's own rhythmic flow that goes perfectly with the mutant dub production style. The sound here is hard to define but undeniably rad and definitely worthy of the title "Short Circuit". Elsewhere, you get some nice '80s video game inspired stuff, like on "Massive Dropout", with it's hi-hat beat guiding you to a portal opening into some weird dimension with laid back, easy grooves. We are tempted to use words like "sunny" and "summery", but those don't seem to indicate the weirdness of it all. On "Highlight" we picked up what seems to be a pretty heavy Kraftwerk influence, in fact some of us were even reminded of the song "Hall Of Mirrors", but maybe we're just crazy. Either way, awesome stuff that is super catchy and really good for headphone listening. Perhaps poking fun at themselves, or even their fans (lightheartedly, of course), "Drone Burger" does utilize a nice drone reminiscent of Spacemen 3's "Repeater" with little keyboard stabs punctuating the atmosphere. Closing number "Mind Eraser" makes good use of a thumping beat and electronic static. The overall feeling of paranoia is heightened by a voice proclaiming, "I love drugs" as other indecipherable voices shoot all over the place before the words "I love you" creepily take the song to it's fadeout conclusion.
Awesome stuff, and definitely a positive step forward for these guys and gal. It's great to see a band manage to surprise while also confirming the identity they already established, making it clear that Growing will remain Growing as long the musicians involved are willing to take risks and keep... growing (sorry, heh).
MPEG Stream: "Short Circuit"
MPEG Stream: "Hormone"
MPEG Stream: "Mind Eraser"

HAUSCHILDT, STEVE Critique Of The Beautiful (Gneiss Things) cd-r 12.98
A 'repress' of a cd-r that we never got the first time around. Mr. Hauschildt is one of the three members of Emeralds; but unlike John Elliott and Mark McGuire, he doesn't seem to be as prolific in terms of solo and side projects, with less than a half-dozen tape and cd-r releases to speak of (compared to mountains of material from those other two). With The Critique Of The Beautiful, Hauschildt doesn't stray too far from the Emeralds sound of kosmiche dronescaping through analog synths and pedals. The album is dying to be made into a piece of vinyl, with the first four pieces acting as one suite that would be nicely matched by the lengthy finale. One of those first four - "What One Does To Another" - has almost a brightened Tim Hecker feel with percolating melodic phases piled below a thickened mass of warmly buzzed distortion. This is followed by "Runway" lovely post-Cluster track of pastoral synthesis built from a rhythmic arpeggiation anchored by a spiralling set of sequential notes and tone-bent phrases. And that extended finale opens with an oscillating flange of church organ minimalism, settling upon a melancholy melody which slowly shifts between just a few minor key notes which gradually wanders into zoned-out passages of electronic bubbling and fizzed textures. Very beautiful, very moving stuff.
Limited stock on this, so don't be surprised when this one sells out.
MPEG Stream: "What One Does To Another"
MPEG Stream: "Runway"
MPEG Stream: "Critique Of The Beautiful"

HORAFLORA Gland Canyon (Install Records) cd-r 8.98
Bay Area sound artist Raub Roy goes by the name of Horaflora; and his performances are really impressive exercises in controlled electro-acoustic chaos, with low-tech electronics skittering above various tactile scrapes counterpointed by reversed currents of placid bass frequencies and tonal undulation. One of his best performance stunts is to fill up large balloons, shove a trumpet mouthpiece inside the balloon, and drop the metal mouthpiece on a large drumhead. With two of these devices going, Horaflora can generate prolonged vibration and acoustically phased drones that are really amazing.
Gland Canyon is a small run edition released by Instal Records (which had released a Caretaker disc a while back, although this shares little aesthetic similarity), and works through many of the clamorous, decomposing sounds that Horaflora generates in a live setting. It can't be qualified as 'noise' as these collages are more in keeping with a tradition of automatic writing through sound, with idiosyncratic juxtapositions of electronic bloops, ring modulated flanges, minuscule clatter of wood and metal, mad-scientist weirdo percolations, and those sublimated balloon drones. As such it's more in keeping with some of the HNAS collages or something deconstructed from Small Cruel Party and old P.16.D4 tapes. The various tracks ebb and flow with an unhurried pace that slowly magnifies some of the many sounds into more sparse hypno-repetitive passages and then sweep everything into rather dense crescendos of scattershot sediment. Limited to 100 copies.
MPEG Stream: "oRFLooRE"
MPEG Stream: "Goargalor Fantasy '54"

IKONIKA Contact, Love, Want, Have (Hyperdub) cd 17.98
We were pretty into the Ikonika tracks we'd heard, especially on that kick ass Hyperdub comp. And we were pretty thrilled to discover that Ikonika was in fact a woman, a rarity in the dubstep boy's club for sure, and while many of us lean toward the harder and heavier, darker and deeper, in dance music, there are definitely some exceptions, the party music of Zomby being one, and Ikonika being another, her music is definitely dubstep, but it's weirdly retro, definitely reminding us of 8-bit video game music, and at the same time sort of futuristic, but that cheesy sci-fi future imagined by any thousands of late night straight to video movies. Apparently she used to be a drummer in a post hardcore band too, not sure that's relevant, but it's definitely cool!
A dizzying hybrid of spaced out dubbed out minimal electronica and old school synth pop, a little hip hop too, synths all over the place, sometimes glimmery and shimmery, other times ominous and foreboding and a bit Carpenter-ish, creating a weirdly lush backdrop for Ikonika's retro futurist beats, from skeletal skitter, to groovy stutter, to total eighties new wave MTV, to fuzzy funky groove, to pulsing house-y thump, the beats and synths constantly tangling, often locking into cool synchronous rhythm, but just as often colliding wildly in total chaotic video game dance floor mayhem. All the tracks here rule, our favorites are the ones that sound either like Commodore 64 jams, music from some bootleg Japanese Dance Dance Revolution knockoff, or the credits from some ridiculous eighties teen horror film, which thankfully is most of 'em.
MPEG Stream: "Ikonklast (Insert Coin)"
MPEG Stream: "Idiot"
MPEG Stream: "R.E.S.O.L."
MPEG Stream: "They Are Losing The War"

INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, THE The 5,000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion (Fledg'ling / Carthage) cd 16.98
Back in print!
Remastered with new liner notes, in a swank digipak with all the elements of the original packaging, these look heaps better than the Collector's Choice twofers that were the last reissued incarnation of these classic albums. The 5,000 Spirits and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter have been released separately this time around, while Wee Tam and The Big Huge are still bundled together as a 2cd set.
Here's what we said about them previously:
England's Incredible String Band were a late sixties/early seventies outfit who blended folk rock, psychedelia, and Eastern ethnic musics. Very sixties, very hippy - they played at Woodstock, in fact. With their folky male and female vocals and expertise with a plethora of exotic stringed instruments, a shorthand description might be that ISB was kinda like Fairport Convention with sitars, and crazy costumes. Perhaps less truly traditional than Fairport, they made a bigger splash with the LSD crowd of The UFO Club where they played often with the likes of early Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and Procol Harum. Their music encompassed British folk, Indian ragas, Dylan, blues, country, hoedowns, etc. - an eclectic stew indeed. Sometimes ISB can come off as a little *too* varied: you might be digging some Eastern drone track and find an abrupt switch to, say, music-hall country a bit jarrring. But that just means there's plenty of different things on these discs to like.
5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion dates from 1967 - it's their second album, featuring only the core duo of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron (Clive Palmer left after the first record to form his own band, C.O.B.) - and was the first solid fulfillment of their Brit folk + Middle Eastern + Indian raga equation, as they added the ouds an' sitars to their original Anglo-American folk interpretations with some wonderfully moody results.
We're always mentioning ISB in reviews of other folk-psych albums past and present, from Forest and Trees to P.G. Six and Tower Recordings, so it's nice to finally get these listed in our catalog once again...definitely if you're into that British folk-psych vibe you need to investigate this band if you haven't already!
MPEG Stream: "Chinese White"
MPEG Stream: "The Mad Hatter's Song"

INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, THE The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (Fledg'ling / Carthage) cd 16.98
Back in print!
Remastered with new liner notes, in a swank digipak with all the elements of the original packaging, these look heaps better than the Collector's Choice twofers that were the last reissued incarnation of these classic albums. The 5,000 Spirits and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter have been released separately this time around, while Wee Tam and The Big Huge are still bundled together as a 2cd set.
Here's what we said about them previously:
England's Incredible String Band were a late sixties/early seventies outfit who blended folk rock, psychedelia, and Eastern ethnic musics. Very sixties, very hippy - they played at Woodstock, in fact. With their folky male and female vocals and expertise with a plethora of exotic stringed instruments, a shorthand description might be that ISB was kinda like Fairport Convention with sitars, and crazy costumes. Perhaps less truly traditional than Fairport, they made a bigger splash with the LSD crowd of The UFO Club where they played often with the likes of early Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and Procol Harum. Their music encompassed British folk, Indian ragas, Dylan, blues, country, hoedowns, etc. - an eclectic stew indeed. Sometimes ISB can come off as a little *too* varied: you might be digging some Eastern drone track and find an abrupt switch to, say, music-hall country a bit jarrring. But that just means there's plenty of different things on these discs to like.
Their 1968 follow-up to The 5,000 Spirits, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter is one of the ISB's best-regarded efforts, taking the sound of their previous effort to more free-form extremes. Dolly Collins (sister of Shirley) helps out on this one. One of the pinnacle acid-folk records to inspire the likes of many modern bands from Current 93 to Devendra Banhart.
We're always mentioning ISB in reviews of other folk-psych albums past and present, from Forest and Trees to P.G. Six and Tower Recordings, so it's nice to finally get these listed in our catalog once again...definitely if you're into that British folk-psych vibe you need to investigate this band if you haven't already!
MPEG Stream: "Waltz of The New Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Three Is A Green Crown"

INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, THE Wee Tam & The Big Huge (Fledg'ling / Carthage) 2cd 16.98
Back in print!
Remastered with new liner notes, in a swank digipak with all the elements of the original packaging, these look heaps better than the Collector's Choice twofers that were the last reissued incarnation of these classic albums. The 5,000 Spirits and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter have been released separately this time around, while Wee Tam and The Big Huge are still bundled together as a 2cd set.
Here's what we said about them previously:
England's Incredible String Band were a late sixties/early seventies outfit who blended folk rock, psychedelia, and Eastern ethnic musics. Very sixties, very hippy - they played at Woodstock, in fact. With their folky male and female vocals and expertise with a plethora of exotic stringed instruments, a shorthand description might be that ISB was kinda like Fairport Convention with sitars, and crazy costumes. Perhaps less truly traditional than Fairport, they made a bigger splash with the LSD crowd of The UFO Club where they played often with the likes of early Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, and Procol Harum. Their music encompassed British folk, Indian ragas, Dylan, blues, country, hoedowns, etc. - an eclectic stew indeed. Sometimes ISB can come off as a little *too* varied: you might be digging some Eastern drone track and find an abrupt switch to, say, music-hall country a bit jarrring. But that just means there's plenty of different things on these discs to like.
This two-fer 2cd is consistent with these albums' original UK release in 1968, as both Wee Tam and The Big Huge were issued together as a 2lp set. Again the ISB mix their Celtic and Appalachian folkie roots with "world" influences, and although this is quite mellow and gentle, they also brought in some electric amplification at this point. With female vocals n' whistles n' fiddles n' sitar etc. this is quite pretty stuff, great summer morning sitting in a sunny meadow music. Both records are ISB fan favorites, with gorgeous four-part vocal harmonies, whimsical but sometimes dark moods, and of course lots of Incredible String-ed instrument playing.
We're always mentioning ISB in reviews of other folk-psych albums past and present, from Forest and Trees to P.G. Six and Tower Recordings, so it's nice to finally get these listed in our catalog once again...definitely if you're into that British folk-psych vibe you need to investigate this band if you haven't already!
MPEG Stream: "The Yellow Snake (from Wee Tam)"
MPEG Stream: "Air (from Wee Tam)"
MPEG Stream: "Maya (From The Big Huge)"
MPEG Stream: "The Iron Stone (From The Big Huge)"

IRR. APP. (EXT.) Dust Pincher Appliances (Crouton) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK! Jon Mueller's Crouton label closed up shop awhile back, and we've managed to get a hold of some of the last copies of this masterpiece which irr. app. (ext.) released on Crouton in 2004.
Invocations of Surrealism have come to reflect a Frank Zappa or Dr. Bizarro form of 'weird,' with little understanding and even less appreciation for the truly revolutionary nature of the Surrealism that dominated avant-garde culture in the early 20th Century. Fortunately, a few sound artists have truly succeeded in manifesting the spirit of Surrealism in their work. The most obvious being Nurse With Wound in keeping true to the Surrealists bawdy appropriation of Victorian aesthetics in exploring unsettling horrors; and to a lesser extent, there's the Hafler Trio who took the intense interrogations of Surrealism to a Gnostic conclusion. Somewhere in between these two giants of sound art is the work of irr. app.(ext.). For the past eight or nine years, irr. app. (ext.) has been toiling in obscurity, and producing a body of work that easily rivals his more well known compatriots.
Some of you may remember a stunning art exhibit here at Aquarius records back in the early spring of 2003 with all sorts of obtuse collages, exquisitely rendered nightmarish drawings, and shadow boxes loaded with peculiar juxtapostions and mixed messages. That was the work of Matt Waldron, who also happens to be the man behind the musical project irr. app. (ext.) along with a couple of likeminded delinquents. Unfortunately, Matt has had a ridiculous spell of bad luck with labels folding before releasing his work, or not being able to find the funding, or just being jerks. His luck has finally changed with the release of Dust Pincher Appliances, which in turn reissues a very early 10" originally released on Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson's Something Weird label back in 1995. Waldron has extended the original recordings with those of a follow-up 10" which was never actually released.
Though some eight years old, the recordings on Dust Pincher Appliances are still stunning. The album unfolds as an ever changing drama of Surreal events, evolving through time to reveal startling revelations, disquieting progressions, and atypical juxtapositions of sound. Eerie drones and atmospheres dominate the majority of the album, haunted by distant voices bathed in reverb or unrecognizable events that scurry malevolently like tiny monsters or robotic insects. Carnivalesque episodes often interrupt the proceedings with cackling sound effects, brash trumpet blurts, and toy piano discord.
Dust Pincher Appliances is a marvelous album and should be the harbinger of a wonderful catalog that the world needs to embrace.
MPEG Stream: "A Distended Particular"
MPEG Stream: "Wracking The Carcass For Residue"

ISIS Live V (Hydra Head) cd 12.98
This one barely needs a description, fifth in the ongoing limited series of cds documenting the Isis live experience. This one from way back in 2006 when the band was invited to play the All Tomorrows Parties Don't Look Back series, where bands play classic albums in their entirety, so for Isis it was Oceanic, a killer record for sure, although the liner notes point out that they weren't really sure about doing it, seeing as that record was not that old at the time. Buy they went for it, and in the liner notes discuss how they arrived to play their classic Oceanic set, not nearly as prepared as they thought they were, so some tracks, at least in their estimation were smooth and perfect, and others were on the verge of collapse, but as an objective listener the whole thing sounds pretty excellent, heavy, and majestic and moody, sprawling and proggy and heavy as fuck. There's a reason these guys rule the post/math metal roost. For sure a little loose, but in some ways some of these songs sound even better that way. And live engineering courtesy of Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh, etc.) probably didn't hurt either.
Gorgeous packaging as always, letter pressed green on green 6 panel sleeves, in a plastic envelope sealed with a sticker. Not necessarily the place to start for Isis newbies (that would be Oceanic proper), but hell, this sounds nearly as good as the studio version, and would definitely have us hankering for more, certainly essential for Isis fans, and as always, somewhat limited...
MPEG Stream: "The Beginning And The End"
MPEG Stream: "The Other"
MPEG Stream: "False Light"

JEX THOTH Witness (I Hate Records) cd ep 12.98
Yay, we mean uh oh, we mean yay, heck it's a new ep from the controversial ('round here anyway) psychedelic doom chanteuse Jex Thoth and her band of the same name. Controversial? Well, let's just say her trademark theatrical vocal stylings are a subjective, love 'em or hate 'em proposition, though we all pretty much agree the band's heavy, hazy music is awesome. And among the AQ staff, Allan at least has finally succumbed entirely (it was inevitable) and now proudly declares himself a true Jex Thoth fan, which means he was quite happy to see 'em play last week at the Roadburn Festival in Holland. In live performance, Jex's apparent thespian background proved quite effective, she had excellent stage presence not to mention witchy sex appeal, cape-draped and with candles burning. They played to a packed house and it was quite obvious they had lots of fans in the audience!
We also know Jex has plenty of fans out there among the AQ faithful, and they'll be pleased with Witness, comprised of three new recordings, suitably dramatic and lugubrious, clocking in at just over 15 minutes total: "Raven Nor The Spirit", "Slow Rewind", and "Mr. Rainbow", the latter a cover of a song by '70s European art rockers Slapp Happy (a good choice, if you didn't know better you'd think it was a Jex Thoth original). Bearing a dedication to the late Jack Rose, and again graced with cover art by Reverend Bizarre's Sami "Albert Witchfinder" Hynninen, this ep is a fine continuation of the eccentric underground doom-prog sounds heard on Jex Thoth's 2008 self-titled full-length, although apparently there's been another lineup change in the band since that release (for one thing, Silas Paine, aka Jewelled Antler's Glenn Donaldson, is no longer playing guitar). However, they still sound like a bit like Curved Air taking downers with Electric Wizard (or something), totally vintage, bass heavy '70s psych sounds with prominent Hammond organ action, both bombastic and atmospheric, over which Jex's cleanly-sung, clearly enunciated vocals soar. Probably if you're at all interested in this ep, you've already got the earlier full-length, and if you liked that, you'll like this, need we say much more? Uh, how 'bout for fans of Jacula, Blood Ceremony, The Devil's Blood, and Witchcraft (capital 'W' and otherwise)?
MPEG Stream: "Raven Nor The Spirit"
MPEG Stream: "Mr. Rainbow"

JONES, SHARON & THE DAP-KINGS I Learned The Hard Way (Daptone) cd 15.98
There is no stronger authentic soul voice in the present day then Sharon Jones. She is the real deal, a woman who's voice and presence is completely timeless, as it would have been right at home in the golden era of soul. Making her records even that much better is that her band, The Dap-Kings are by far one of the tightest, most skilled, and tasteful makers of soulful sounds around. Anyone who has seen them live knows that it almost seems like they could play the songs with their eyes closed and play every note spot on, they are just that damn talented. But you almost forget about that aspect because it's kind of impossible not to get swept up by the voice and power of Sharon Jones. Her voice takes you to another place, another era, yet it's no put on, no gimmick, no mere retro act. She is living proof that true soul can and will live on forever. I Learned The Hard Way is another wonderful achievement in an already great string of records. These songs are so damn sensual, intoxicating, smoky and groovy. Anyone of these songs could be mistaken for the best track on one of the Eccentric Soul compilations from the '60s and '70s that we all freak out about. Filled with more slow burners that full on stompers, yet all filled with a fire that smolders just under the surface. So damn good and totally recommended!
RealAudio clip: "The Game Gets Old"
MPEG Stream: "I Learned The Hard Way"
MPEG Stream: "Better Things"

KLEENEX / LILIPUT Live Recordings, TV-Clips & Roadmovie (Kill Rock Stars) cd + dvd 19.98
While they were only an active band for a few years, the legacy and impact of Kleenex's (later Liliput's) music is immeasurable. Along with their peers The Slits and Raincoats, they helped spearhead female fueled post-punk. Raw, angular catchy and free from any kind of commercial gloss. Their sound was the blueprint for the riot grrl scene that would be born a decade later, with bands like Bikini Kill, Excuse 17 and Team Dresch all most definitely inspired by the amazing and uncompromising sounds this Swiss band conjured up way back in the day. Kill Rock Stars (home to many of the best of the '90s riot grrl scene) do a great job in going back to the true source of much of the label's inspiration in releasing this loving cd/dvd collection. The music portion is all from live recordings, demonstrating how stripped down, and full of fiery energy these ladies were. While we're not usually a huge fan of live records, this one makes total sense. It's not as if their studio records were recorded with much, if any budget, so hearing them live actually seems like the most proper way to enjoy their already raw infectious sounds. What made them so cool was that there was a nice variety to their sound, they could go from being really fast and punk sounding one moment to bouncy and poppy the next, and underneath their scrappy aesthetic they always managed to infuse their sound with awesome melodies.
The list of bands they have influenced could go on and on. From the aforementioned leading ladies of the riot girl scene to folks like Erase Errata, Wetdog, Dog Faced Hermans, Silver Daggers, Brilliant Colors, Electrelane, Klang, Slant 6, Deerhoof, etc.!
The dvd features really cool footage from them on tour, all shot in super 8 which makes the visuals as raw and impactful as the sounds...
MPEG Stream: "Ain't You"
MPEG Stream: "Lust"
MPEG Stream: "Yours Is Mine"

KLIMEK Movies Is Magic (Extended Version) (Anticipate / Kompakt) lp 17.98
This former Record Of The Week, now available on vinyl, with swank new cover art...
Washed out, hazy, dreamy, shimmery, warm, droney, otherworldly, gauzy, ethereal, all perfectly describe a microgenre we've come to love, called simply Pop Ambient. A techno subgenre, that essentially removed the beats from electronic music, leaving just the shadows, the outlines, the colors, loosed from the stricture of rhythm (for the most part), those colors and moods and textures are free to seep and bleed and drift and vaporize, into whirring soft focus streaks of blurred, almost new age-y ambience. A sound that various other music makers have definitely referenced, Jeck, Tim Hecker, the Fun Years, anyone creating haunting drone music or textured minimalism, will no doubt find themselves drifting into a certain sort of pop ambience. But it seems, that pop ambience has a certain warmth, not quite sunshine-y, but definitely a glow, the imbues the majority of that music with a dreamlike luminescence. While the other folks traffic in something much darker, and while their sound may touch on pop ambience, it remains in the realm of the black, the grey, the sonic underworld.
Weirdly enough, we do find ourselves wondering about a pop ambience that was, well, less glowing, more ominous, something darker and more sinister, that could somehow remain ambient pop, without slipping into something else, into dronemusic, or some sort of minimal noisemusic. Strange that it would come from Klimek, who is responsible for some of the dreamiest prettiest pop ambient music we've heard, but Movies Is Magic, Klimek's 'film music' record, is in fact that rare beast, a gorgeous slab of pop ambience, that seethes with tension and emotion and drama, sure it shimmers and glistens, but it also creeps and hums ominously, drones are layered and pulled taut, melodies are minor key and are wrapped around looped cycling strings, field recordings, voices, organic instruments, all woven into Klimek's constantly mutating noir soundscape.
Gorgeous and haunting, these tracks evoke everyone from Bohren, to Autechre, Philip Jeck to Pole, Barry Adamson to Oval, this record would be a perfect fit for Kompakt if it weren't so dark, or Chain Reaction if there were some beats, instead, it exists in some strange rain soaked constant midnight nether region, the pop dialed way back, as is the ambience, this is anything but placid, or calm, this music is alive, crackling with dark energy, tense, and intense, very evocative and textural and moody. The songs are quite varied, but work perfectly together as a whole. Dark moaning horns surface here and there, Bernard Herrmann strings everywhere, the occasional skittery snare, rubbery bass, everything woven and smeared and layered, woozy and dreamlike, a few of the tracks sound all rural, a bit Morricone-ish and Western, subtly twangy with reverbed harmonica, others drift into flute flecked almost Kitaro sounding new age-y flutter, beneath a murmur of rainfall, disembodied reverbed voices, murky percussion, and hazy looped melodies.
Here and there, the record does get all dubby, with little synth stabs, and careening not-quite beats, all wrapped in whir, and exuding a serious sonic import, sometimes sounding almost sinister, but just as often pulling back into something much more melodic and mysterious, straddling the line between lush drift and blackened beauty.
Movies Is Magic is our new late night chill out drift off soundtrack, and should certainly appeal to folks who like us maybe always fantasized about a little darkness in their ambient drift. And folks into dark drone music, black ambience, and soundtrack music, might find this the perfect gateway to the fuzzy dreamy drifty world of pop ambience.
MPEG Stream: "Abyss of Anxiety (Unfolding the Magic)"
MPEG Stream: "Exposed to Life In It's Brutal Meaninglessness"
MPEG Stream: "Exploding Unbearable Desires"
MPEG Stream: "Tears of Happiness (Dismissed Into Mundanity)"

KOES BERSAUDARA Koes Bersaudara 1967 (Sublime Frequencies) cd 17.98
Another incredible archival discovery from Sublime Frequencies, this the first in a series of releases chronicling Indonesian popular music from the fifties through the seventies. Koes Bersaudara were a band of brothers, heavily influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Byrds, and this collection is the first ever reissue of two of their impossible to find recordings, most notably, To The So-Called "The Guilties", considered by music historians THEE Indonesian garage rock masterpiece. And it is fantastic, jangly guitars, soaring vocals, some awesome guitar playing, super catchy, very poppy, but with hints of darkness running though many of the songs, which is not surprising, considering how difficult it was to be a rock band in Indonesia at the time, especially one playing Western styled rock and roll. In fact at one point, the brothers were jailed for three months for performing Beatles covers. Another interesting fact, is that aQ faves Dara Puspita (whose PlusTapes reissues we carried a while back) were performing around the same time, and rumors were circulating about various power plays, the Koeswoyo brothers being perhaps considered too difficult to control, with their flagrant disdain for authority, not just covering the Beatles, but for writing songs about the leader that imprisoned them ("Poor Clown") and many songs chronicling their time in jail ("In Jail", "The Ballad Of Room 15")
Once out of jail, their old label didn't want to have anything to do with them, but as the climate became more conducive to the modern styles of music, they found a new home, and recorded To The So-Called "The Guilties", the first album in Indonesian history to challenge the ruling regime. Their story is so fantastic and inspiring, it's strange to hear this music, which on the surface seems so innocuous, knowing just how controversial it was and how much of a harbinger of change it would be for Indonesian music.
But for fans of classic '60s garage rock, regardless of the back story, this is some seriously good stuff, the power and energy of life surrounding the music only infusing it with a passion and energy that transforms it from simple rock and roll to something more. This reissue includes the To The So-Called "The Guilties" lp, a 10" recorded the same year, with a bonus compilation track, extensive liner notes, chronicling the history of the band, the recording of these albums, the producer, and the music scene in Indonesia at the time. Tons of photos too, all in a swank digipak, the nicest Sublime Frequencies packaging yet. WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Hari Ini (Today)"
MPEG Stream: "To The So-Called "The Guilties""
MPEG Stream: "Poor Clown"
MPEG Stream: "Balada Kamar 15 (The Ballad Of Room 15)"
MPEG Stream: "Djadikan Aku Domba Mu (Make Me Your Sheep)"

KONER, THOMAS La Barca (Fario) lp 26.00
My goodness. The arrival of a Thomas Koner recording has become an incredibly rare event, with the 2003 Zyklop album being the last album he released outside of his busy schedule traveling the world as a video/installation artist. La Barca parallels his globetrotting, as a travelogue presented through the glacial hush of his frozen ambient productions. Each of the tracks designates a GPS coordinate of a particular location, with ghostly remnants of human voices echoing in deep reverb amidst his signature darkened backdrops and slow-motion melodic phrasing. Many of the voices seem to be taken from the announcements from train stations, airports, and other non-placed environments that easily detach from the psychogeographic details of those specific places he designates in those coordinates. So, as much as this album is a travel narrative through various places, Koner intentionally presents the sonic artifacts as connected and unifying rather than endemic and localized. It's a feeling a profound melancholy and detachment that Koner succeeds in embedding into these pieces.
The cd of La Barca went out of print before anybody really had the opportunity to get a hold of it; and that will definitely be the fate of the 2lp version of the album, which features 4 extra tracks not on the cd, making up the entirely of Side D!!

LORD, MARK / MORGAN EGG Last Chance In Heaven / Discontinue Stardust (No Label) lp 17.98
BACK IN STOCK!!!
Ah, the second release from the Mimaroglu Music Sale sponsored "No Label" which probably will stick as a name, when it really was meant to be a private imprint with the absence of a label name. No matter, though as this split LP from Mark Lord (the pseudonym of Christopher Forgues) and Morgan Egg (who we know next to nothing about). Forgues has previous work under the Whitehouse inspired project Kites with blistering pierced noise surrounded by shock-horror tactics; and that sensibility has been tempered under the Mark Lord moniker. The only semblance of that former self appears in an appropriated dialogue of a '70s porn, buttressed by some fantastic retro-garde / minimal wave electronics. These looping synth modulations arpeggiate and expand along linear pulsations dappled by circuit bent twiddle and scrags of cheap noise. Sort of like a more progressive take on the Units without so much of the punk overdrive; or conversely, more of an Oneohtrix / Emeralds synth vibe jacked up a bit. The final cut "Warpath" tops the drum machine propulsion with an almost charmingly playful melody to the counter the insistent synth bass pulse. Really great stuff!
Morgan Egg's snarled drone tempests declares their influences from the classic Italian industrial work by Maurizio Bianchi and Giancarlo Toniutti. Washes of grey static and revolving chunks of leaden distortion meld into the grim atmospheres that Egg laces with oscillating electronics and curiously languid bell tones. Quite a departure from the Mark Lord side, but just as incredible.
Less than 300 copies in print!

LULL Like A Slow River (Glacial Movements) cd 16.98
From the punishing speed of Napalm Death through the narcotic dubstep of Scorn and into the isolationism of Lull, all of the projects from Mick Harris are connected by an utterly bleak outlook on the world and the human condition. This album was released in 2008, marking it the first proper Lull album in something like 8 years (outside of a one-off collaboration and two collections of rarities); and Like A Slow River stands as one of the better releases in his entire discography and it's certainly the best Lull album to date. The five pieces unfold into grey masses of mist, fog, and shadow without much in the way of delineation of shape or form. There are heavy rumbles of distorted basstones as if thunderous explosions were being set off many miles away, and there are slight filigrees of melody coaxed out of the purposefully amorphous drone passages. Ambient music has long favored a reductionist approach, and Harris (like Thomas Koner, BJ Nilsen, and at times Lustmord) instills his dramatic absences with an existential dourness that is signature of the isolationist aesthetic. It's very very cold, very very slow, and very very well done.
MPEG Stream: "Whiteout"
MPEG Stream: "Like A Slow River"
MPEG Stream: "Treeless Grounds"

MAGIC LANTERN Platoon (Not Not Fun) cd 14.98
Damn. If we didn't know better, we'd swear this was some obscure late '60s psych platter reissued by Shadoks or something. But nope, LA's Magic Lantern (featuring the guitar and keyboard talents of astral traveller Cameron Stallones, the man behind aQ faves Sun Araw) are real and current, and the uninitiated will be scratching their heads in amazement, while those who dug any of the band's past work will find no complaints either. The band expertly channels the sounds of Amon Duul II, Ash Ra Tempel, and blown out Japanese psych, and it's almost uncanny just how "authentic" these guys sound - wah wah pedals, dense organ, grooving krauty basslines, stony non-vocals, and drumming that is, as they say "in the pocket" - all that shit is the LAW here. And while these elements can very often lead to bad bad things, Magic Lantern sidestep whatever tends to snag so many bands, and instead they just kick complete ass. Let's face it, not many bands these days can pull off being, uh, "funky". But a good deal of the songs on Platoon fall into that category, and we seriously can't get enough. Magic Lantern do their thing, and they do it well. The spacious production courtesy of Bobb Bruno (Robedoor, Goliath Bird Eater, Best Coast, and a shit-ton more) certainly suits these songs well, giving them a nice thick haze to swirl about in. It has a nice live feeling to it, and while we're at it, Christ, this band must just destroy live (though it appears they may be on hiatus, bummer). Maybe this might be a bit jammy for some people, but if you like this kind of thing, you will love Magic Lantern.
The cd version of Platoon contains two bonus that comprised the recent Showstoppers 7".
MPEG Stream: "Dark Cicadas"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Lagoon Platoon"

MAGIC LANTERN Platoon (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98
Damn. If we didn't know better, we'd swear this was some obscure late '60s psych platter reissued by Shadoks or something. But nope, LA's Magic Lantern (featuring the guitar and keyboard talents of astral traveller Cameron Stallones, the man behind aQ faves Sun Araw) are real and current, and the uninitiated will be scratching their heads in amazement, while those who dug any of the band's past work will find no complaints either. The band expertly channels the sounds of Amon Duul II, Ash Ra Tempel, and blown out Japanese psych, and it's almost uncanny just how "authentic" these guys sound - wah wah pedals, dense organ, grooving krauty basslines, stony non-vocals, and drumming that is, as they say "in the pocket" - all that shit is the LAW here. And while these elements can very often lead to bad bad things, Magic Lantern sidestep whatever tends to snag so many bands, and instead they just kick complete ass. Let's face it, not many bands these days can pull off being, uh, "funky". But a good deal of the songs on Platoon fall into that category, and we seriously can't get enough. Magic Lantern do their thing, and they do it well. The spacious production courtesy of Bobb Bruno (Robedoor, Goliath Bird Eater, Best Coast, and a shit-ton more) certainly suits these songs well, giving them a nice thick haze to swirl about in. It has a nice live feeling to it, and while we're at it, Christ, this band must just destroy live (though it appears they may be on hiatus, bummer). Maybe this might be a bit jammy for some people, but if you like this kind of thing, you will love Magic Lantern.
The cd version of Platoon contains two bonus that comprised the recent Showstoppers 7".
MPEG Stream: "Dark Cicadas"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Lagoon Platoon"

MARBLEBOG / VORKUTA Wanderings 2008 (New Scream Industry) cd 9.98
Originally released in 2008 (hence the title) as a tape and a 7", this killer two way split is now available on cd, featuring two Hungarian hordes: long time aQ faves Marblebog, and Vorkuta, who have just one split to their name, but about a million splits.
Marblebog should need no introduction, a weird group of nature obsessed black metal warriors whose sound shifts easily from blackened atmospheric drift to blazing buzzing blackness. Their contribution here falls into the latter category, with some of the heaviest Marblebog we've heard, churning Burzumic riffage, over pounding drums, and some of the creepiest sickest vocals EVER, an impossibly distorted raspy gargle, demonic and alien, and so cool. The track is a long one, and slips from frenzied blast to almost doomy pound to woozy melodic midtempo lope, complete with reverbed guitar solos, to epic almost Viking sounding metallic majesty, to skeletal clean guitar post metal meander. So good.
Vorkuta, counter with an epic 3 part single track, that explodes out of the gate, super raw and primitive, buzzing insectoid riffing, pounding blast beats, and weird croaked sing songy demonic growls that follow the guitar melody exactly, making the whole song seem seasick and twisted, until it breaks down into a tribal drummed churning breakdown, only to lurch right back into the frantic blasting blackness. Vorkuta too dabble in some abstract ambience, clean spidery guitars over crystalline shimmer, cool effected backwards loops, distant chimes, before finishing off with a buzz drenched tangle of grinding black crunch.
Definitely need to hear more from these guys. Who knew that Hungary had such a serious BM scene, beyond just these two outfits too? Judging from the list of related bands, and the pedigree of both Marblebog and Vorkuta, we definitely have some more digging to do...
MPEG Stream: MARBLEBOG "Uttalan Utakon"
MPEG Stream: VORKUTA "Prophecies (Part 1: War / Part 2: Cleansing / Part 3: Triumph)"

MAZZY STAR Among My Swan (Plain Recordings) lp 16.98
With close to 20 years of hindsight, so much of what came out of the 1990s sounds dated and rather predictable, an obvious and angsty cheese, even less palatable than much of the 1980s synthetic curd. Plain Records has chosen wisely to reissue the three Mazzy Star LPs, that, despite containing countless guitar solos, have absolutely no cheesy moments. These three brilliant records draw from the bluesy drones of Spacemen 3 and The Jesus and Mary Chain (amongst others), dropping most of the irony and jagged edges to create music that might be described as the soft(er) psychedelia to Spacemen 3's harder stuff. As readers of this list know, Hope Sandoval, the singer, sometime rhythm guitarist, and (many would argue) the force behind Mazzy Star, has gone on to create amazing records with her new band the Warm Inventions. She has a voice that penetrates with a whisper, that carries like a wind floating above the music, that is instantly recognizable, and that influenced scores of singers. David Roback wrote most of the basic melodies on all three Mazzy Star records and plays all of the guitar solos. He has an innate sense of space and sound, a slightly twangy simplicity that might fade into just a few notes, or that can explode into reverb drenched ecstasy. You won't find better guitar tones anywhere, especially on So Tonight That I Might See. A lot of the arrangements are sparse, almost minimalistic, but the quality of the recordings and the melodies make even a track with only vocals, a guitar and an organ seem full. Especially through headphones, the warmth of Sandoval's voice is a magical compliment to Robeck's guitar. Everyone from Beach House to Grouper to Cat Power to PJ Harvey owes Mazzy Star a huge debt, or at least a big shout-out. All three of these records are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
She Hangs Brightly came out in 1990 and is the most "rocking" record of the three. The drums are definitely the busiest and the songs less dreamy, less laid back. This record establishes their reverby, slightly twangy sound but hasn't quite found the right mood. This is the Mazzy Star record to listen to with friends because it won't depress the hell out of you.
It's not until 1993's So Tonight That I Might See that Mazzy Star perfects their sonic elegance. The band's most commercially successful record, it's probably got the songs you remember: "Fade Into You", "She's My Baby", the title track. The beats have slowed way down, the vocals have decided to ride parallel to the music instead of right up on it, and the arrangements have become simple and piercing. A shoegaze classic.
Among My Swan is, in our opinion, maybe the best of the three Mazzy Star releases. The overt psychedelia has been taken away and replaced with a confident playfulness, a distinct melancholia. The reverb is turned way down, allowing for the simple compliment of acoustic guitar and Hope Sandoval's vocals to contrast with the sparser layers of fuzzed leads and harmonica. "Rhymes of an Hour" goes all Velvet Underground, losing almost all percussion, floating forward on a drone of strings. A moodier offering for those who find catharsis in despair and loneliness.

MAZZY STAR She Hangs Brightly (Plain Recordings) lp 16.98
With close to 20 years of hindsight, so much of what came out of the 1990s sounds dated and rather predictable, an obvious and angsty cheese, even less palatable than much of the 1980s synthetic curd. Plain Records has chosen wisely to reissue the three Mazzy Star LPs, that, despite containing countless guitar solos, have absolutely no cheesy moments. These three brilliant records draw from the bluesy drones of Spacemen 3 and The Jesus and Mary Chain (amongst others), dropping most of the irony and jagged edges to create music that might be described as the soft(er) psychedelia to Spacemen 3's harder stuff. As readers of this list know, Hope Sandoval, the singer, sometime rhythm guitarist, and (many would argue) the force behind Mazzy Star, has gone on to create amazing records with her new band the Warm Inventions. She has a voice that penetrates with a whisper, that carries like a wind floating above the music, that is instantly recognizable, and that influenced scores of singers. David Roback wrote most of the basic melodies on all three Mazzy Star records and plays all of the guitar solos. He has an innate sense of space and sound, a slightly twangy simplicity that might fade into just a few notes, or that can explode into reverb drenched ecstasy. You won't find better guitar tones anywhere, especially on So Tonight That I Might See. A lot of the arrangements are sparse, almost minimalistic, but the quality of the recordings and the melodies make even a track with only vocals, a guitar and an organ seem full. Especially through headphones, the warmth of Sandoval's voice is a magical compliment to Robeck's guitar. Everyone from Beach House to Grouper to Cat Power to PJ Harvey owes Mazzy Star a huge debt, or at least a big shout-out. All three of these records are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
She Hangs Brightly came out in 1990 and is the most "rocking" record of the three. The drums are definitely the busiest and the songs less dreamy, less laid back. This record establishes their reverby, slightly twangy sound but hasn't quite found the right mood. This is the Mazzy Star record to listen to with friends because it won't depress the hell out of you.
It's not until 1993's So Tonight That I Might See that Mazzy Star perfects their sonic elegance. The band's most commercially successful record, it's probably got the songs you remember: "Fade Into You", "She's My Baby", the title track. The beats have slowed way down, the vocals have decided to ride parallel to the music instead of right up on it, and the arrangements have become simple and piercing. A shoegaze classic.
Among My Swan is, in our opinion, maybe the best of the three Mazzy Star releases. The overt psychedelia has been taken away and replaced with a confident playfulness, a distinct melancholia. The reverb is turned way down, allowing for the simple compliment of acoustic guitar and Hope Sandoval's vocals to contrast with the sparser layers of fuzzed leads and harmonica. "Rhymes of an Hour" goes all Velvet Underground, losing almost all percussion, floating forward on a drone of strings. A moodier offering for those who find catharsis in despair and loneliness.

MAZZY STAR So Tonight That I Might See (Plain Recordings) lp 16.98
With close to 20 years of hindsight, so much of what came out of the 1990s sounds dated and rather predictable, an obvious and angsty cheese, even less palatable than much of the 1980s synthetic curd. Plain Records has chosen wisely to reissue the three Mazzy Star LPs, that, despite containing countless guitar solos, have absolutely no cheesy moments. These three brilliant records draw from the bluesy drones of Spacemen 3 and The Jesus and Mary Chain (amongst others), dropping most of the irony and jagged edges to create music that might be described as the soft(er) psychedelia to Spacemen 3's harder stuff. As readers of this list know, Hope Sandoval, the singer, sometime rhythm guitarist, and (many would argue) the force behind Mazzy Star, has gone on to create amazing records with her new band the Warm Inventions. She has a voice that penetrates with a whisper, that carries like a wind floating above the music, that is instantly recognizable, and that influenced scores of singers. David Roback wrote most of the basic melodies on all three Mazzy Star records and plays all of the guitar solos. He has an innate sense of space and sound, a slightly twangy simplicity that might fade into just a few notes, or that can explode into reverb drenched ecstasy. You won't find better guitar tones anywhere, especially on So Tonight That I Might See. A lot of the arrangements are sparse, almost minimalistic, but the quality of the recordings and the melodies make even a track with only vocals, a guitar and an organ seem full. Especially through headphones, the warmth of Sandoval's voice is a magical compliment to Robeck's guitar. Everyone from Beach House to Grouper to Cat Power to PJ Harvey owes Mazzy Star a huge debt, or at least a big shout-out. All three of these records are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
She Hangs Brightly came out in 1990 and is the most "rocking" record of the three. The drums are definitely the busiest and the songs less dreamy, less laid back. This record establishes their reverby, slightly twangy sound but hasn't quite found the right mood. This is the Mazzy Star record to listen to with friends because it won't depress the hell out of you.
It's not until 1993's So Tonight That I Might See that Mazzy Star perfects their sonic elegance. The band's most commercially successful record, it's probably got the songs you remember: "Fade Into You", "She's My Baby", the title track. The beats have slowed way down, the vocals have decided to ride parallel to the music instead of right up on it, and the arrangements have become simple and piercing. A shoegaze classic.
Among My Swan is, in our opinion, maybe the best of the three Mazzy Star releases. The overt psychedelia has been taken away and replaced with a confident playfulness, a distinct melancholia. The reverb is turned way down, allowing for the simple compliment of acoustic guitar and Hope Sandoval's vocals to contrast with the sparser layers of fuzzed leads and harmonica. "Rhymes of an Hour" goes all Velvet Underground, losing almost all percussion, floating forward on a drone of strings. A moodier offering for those who find catharsis in despair and loneliness.

MCHUGH, JONATHAN & MARK WASTELL Hydriotaphia (Confront) cd-r 9.98
London's Mark Wastell has been privy to some rather unexpected (and unexpectedly great!) collaborations in recent years. Best known for his work with various quiet, AMM-inspired improvisers from the New London Silence community, he's turned recently to working with electronic musicians with a proclivity for tension, intensity, and blackened soundfields. There's the rather impressive Oceans Of Blood & Blood project that Wastell has instigated with Skull Defekts' Joachim Nordwall, and now there's this duet with Jonathan McHugh. A sound designer of the same name has worked on the Saw series of movies, but we're pretty sure these are not the same character even if there is some rather psychoacoustically challenging noises to be found on Hydrotaphia. With Wastell on his 32" gong that he's been using for many years now and McHugh on an Arp synth, the two begin to coax a series of low-end rumbles very much on par with the Deathprod / early Thomas Koner constructions, with McHugh gradually injecting small squiggles of electrical fizzes that eventually coalesce into a pure high-end tone that will certainly clear out any earwax if you happen to be listening on headphones. This rather bracing duality of low-end rumbles and high frequencies subsides after about ten minutes leaving more of those enveloping, icy surfaces of gong resonance. McHugh dials in a growling drone towards the end of the 45 minute composition, building into a gnarled set of tempestuous, electronic noise with a bleak feel that lends much more to the Dilloway / Michigan axis of American noisemongering. Quite impressive!
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

MGMT Congratulations (Columbia) cd 16.98
For as much hype, attention and press these guys get we have to admit not many of us at the store even heard their debut. We caught a song here and there and we could tell it was fun catchy stuff but we weren't quite sure what all the fuss was about. With their new album we decided to dig in a bit and damn are we glad we did. Because at the end of the day, and all the fashion spreads, magazine covers, teenage adornment, blog hype, it all doesn't matter if the music doesn't hold up. And with Congratulations, MGMT have shown they are a band that can back up their good looks and youthful energy with totally awesome music!
While much had been made about how 'weird' this album was supposed to be compared to their debut, it might be 'weird' for people who are only used to top 40 music, but to us it sounds like delicious breezy psych pop. So awesome how they tap into a really cool Elephant Six vibe, reminding us of some of our favorite records from Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, and Apples In Stereo. The album truly is just that, an album. From start to finish they have created a work that flows with such ease and isn't about standout singles, but instead really is about the entire experience of listening to the record from start to finish. With Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3) enlisted to produce the record they knew where to go for just the right touch, a distinctly psychedelic feel that references more of The Beatles psych tendencies than lots of the modern psych peddlers. We also think a lot about one of favorite underrated bands of the past, Beachwood Sparks, as the sounds on Congratulations remind us a lot of some of our favorite BS jams. There is something so genuine sounding and less forced then we somehow were expecting in this record. If we would have received this as some random band's cd-r, we would all be freaking out about what an amazing pop discovery we just made. So just because they are on a huge label and get tons of hype and press, don't write this record off, it deserves your ears because it's really fucking good!
The first batch of the cds comes with a scratch off cover, a weird coin and a 32 page booklet. The first pressing of the lps also comes with a scratch off cover, and is pressed on 180 gram vinyl.
MPEG Stream: "It's Working"
MPEG Stream: "I Found A Whistle"
MPEG Stream: "Flash Delirium"

MGMT Congratulations (Columbia) 2lp 27.00
For as much hype, attention and press these guys get we have to admit not many of us at the store even heard their debut. We caught a song here and there and we could tell it was fun catchy stuff but we weren't quite sure what all the fuss was about. With their new album we decided to dig in a bit and damn are we glad we did. Because at the end of the day, and all the fashion spreads, magazine covers, teenage adornment, blog hype, it all doesn't matter if the music doesn't hold up. And with Congratulations, MGMT have shown they are a band that can back up their good looks and youthful energy with totally awesome music!
While much had been made about how 'weird' this album was supposed to be compared to their debut, it might be 'weird' for people who are only used to top 40 music, but to us it sounds like delicious breezy psych pop. So awesome how they tap into a really cool Elephant Six vibe, reminding us of some of our favorite records from Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, and Apples In Stereo. The album truly is just that, an album. From start to finish they have created a work that flows with such ease and isn't about standout singles, but instead really is about the entire experience of listening to the record from start to finish. With Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3) enlisted to produce the record they knew where to go for just the right touch, a distinctly psychedelic feel that references more of The Beatles psych tendencies than lots of the modern psych peddlers. We also think a lot about one of favorite underrated bands of the past, Beachwood Sparks, as the sounds on Congratulations remind us a lot of some of our favorite BS jams. There is something so genuine sounding and less forced then we somehow were expecting in this record. If we would have received this as some random band's cd-r, we would all be freaking out about what an amazing pop discovery we just made. So just because they are on a huge label and get tons of hype and press, don't write this record off, it deserves your ears because it's really fucking good!
The first batch of the cds comes with a scratch off cover, a weird coin and a 32 page booklet. The first pressing of the lps also comes with a scratch off cover, and is pressed on 180 gram vinyl.
MPEG Stream: "It's Working"
MPEG Stream: "I Found A Whistle"
MPEG Stream: "Flash Delirium"

MOONDOG H'art Songs (Kopf / Roof Music) cd 17.98
There are so so many sides of Moondog, and so many and incredibly varied sounds he's created throughout his long and eccentric life of music making. From inventing his own instruments to performing on street corners to incorporating field recordings into his songs, to collaborating with the London Philharmonic, the list goes on and on. While Moondog is mostly lauded for the sounds he created with his wide range of instruments, it's the sound of his voice in the songs he sang sprinkled throughout his catalog that have always left us in such awe, generating both bewilderment and delight. Originally released on LP in Germany in 1978, H'art Songs is an awesome disc of Moondog vocal tracks, a few of which we had heard on other collections and were already in love with, as well as a bunch that are brand new to our ears. With piano and his own percussion as the musical backdrop, it's Moondogs's totally unique and intimate vocal delivery and word play that makes these songs so weirdly enchanting. Playful and poetic while also emotional and personal. Just like everything else Moondog created in his life, these songs do feel like they are from a different world. So strange and so damn good. This is a must have for Moondog fans!
MPEG Stream: "I'm This I'm That"
MPEG Stream: "I'm In The World"
MPEG Stream: "Enough About Human Rights"
MPEG Stream: "Pigmy Pig"

MOSS Eternal Return (Fuck Yoga / SuperFi) lp 16.98
The most recent Moss record, previous to this, besides being an awesome chunk of crusty ultra doom, was a bit of a debacle, at least in terms of release and format. The outrageously expensive 10" format, was in fact meant to be a DOUBLE 10", but was not, although the price seemed to still reflect the missing second record. Then the cd came out, including TWO extra tracks, a Discharge cover, which had already been on a split with Monarch, and the 11+ minute "Eternal Return", both of which were apparently meant to be included as that second 10". Or something like that. Needless to say, vinyl folks missed out on "Eternal Return", and the Discharge cover too if they missed out on the Monarch split, even though they sort of already paid for 'em. So the bad news, or maybe the good news, depending on your perspective, and financial situation, is that the third proper Blind Drugged Moss track, "Eternal Return", which was included on the Tombs Of The Blind Drugged cd, but has never been on vinyl, is NOW actually ON VINYL. And it's gorgeously packaged and elaborately presented, so the only downside of that is shelling out another $17 to finally get that track, "Eternal Return", on wax, but c'mon! It's Moss!!
The track itself is a killer, it's Moss, so by now most of the aQ faithful should know what you're getting into, crushing, pummeling, doom drone dirge heaviosity, or as we described them in the Blind Drugged review:
All anguished and distorted, with distended guitar and bass strings hanging loose and low, vokillizations of sheer misery and madness torn from the singer's throat like a still beating bloody heart ripped from the sacrifice, and bits of bent and battered drum kit scattered across the rancid tundra that is Moss's metallic soundspace!
Indeed. We love Moss, and they RULE, and this is definitely worth the price of admission, just seems a tiny bit frustrating having to piece together Tomb Of The Blind Drugged one expensive chunk of vinyl at a time, but hell, we think Moss are worth it.
And the packaging, wow! A thick fold out cardstock gatefold, with not one, but TWO Japanese style obis, one along the side, one holding the sleeve shut right in the middle, plus inserts, a poster, all pretty spiffy. And CRAZY LIMITED. Maybe already out of print, which means these are the only copies we'll ever get.

NADA SURF If I Had A Hi-Fi (Mardev) cd 13.98
We have to admit, with all the super limited vinyl, weird 7"s, rare reissues, and all the other cool stuff that was being specially released to celebrate Record Store Day, we were (not so) secretly most excited about a new record from long time faves and two time aQ Record Of The Week honorees Nada Surf. A new record from these guys is always a thrill, and a full length is long overdue, but this is not the new Nada Surf, instead, it's a total Record Store Day release, with the band covering a bunch of their favorite songs, some we dig, some surprises, and some we'd never heard of.
Probably the most amazing thing about this collection, is if you weren't familiar with the songs being covered, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume they were Nada Surf originals, these guys take the originals and OWN then, totally make them their own. Even songs you've heard a million times, like Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence", get enough of a Nada Surf makeover to sound like an original, but fans will still dig hearing their old song reimagined.
Their Bill Fox cover ("Electrocution"), is total sunshiney harmony Byrds worship, and again, sounds like it could be from an old Nada Surf record. They do a Go-Betweens song, that again is a perfect match, it makes sense that they would pick these songs, it's almost the perfect sonic representation of the influences that created Nada Surf. One of the big surprises is the Arthur Russell (!) cover, a gorgeous hushed bit of lap steel laced minimal twang pop, WAY too short at just over a minute.
The rest of the record finds the band tackling The Dwight Twilley Band, Kate Bush, Spoon, The Moody Blues (!), recent aQ faves Soft Pack, Coralie Clement (another obscure choice), and then they finish with two total random covers by bands we had never heard of, Mecromina, their version a lush string laden slab of jangle pop, and the Silly Pillows, never heard the original, but the cover is a carnivalesque bit of piano driven pomp, to finish things off.
Totally fantastic, we've listened to this record about 100 times, and while it's definitely tiding us over, it also has us dying for a proper new Nada Surf record!!
MPEG Stream: "Electrocution (Bill Fox)"
MPEG Stream: "Enjoy The Silence (Depeche Mode)"
MPEG Stream: "Love Goes On (The Go-Betweens)"
MPEG Stream: "Janine (Arthur Russell)"

PAGAN ALTAR Judgement Of The Dead (Buried By Dust And Time) lp 36.00
We know you folks love limited edition vinyl releases, as Record Store Day just proved yet again. Well, here's something we just got a handful of copies of, and might not be able to get again - it's on the same label that did the Saint Vitus Die Healing vinyl that sold out so fast. And it's another one for vintage doom fanatics, a vinyl version of the debut album, aka Vol.1, from NWOBHM (aka New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, in this case, make that very very British) cult Pagan Altar! Songs written circa 1978-'81, recorded 1982, not released for the first time officially until 1998, and now available again in a deluxe gatefold vinyl edition. Obscure as it is, this is really a classic, '70s Sabbath/Priest styled (proto) metal, with an authentic occult vibe, powerful and melodic, up there with Angel Witch and, especially Witchfinder General - if you like them, you need to hear Pagan Altar as well!
Amazingly, the band is still around, still quite active, having released a couple other excellent albums, with work proceeding on a new one. They also did a split 7" with Jex Thoth not too long ago. As a matter of fact, Allan had the pleasure of seeing Pagan Altar play live just last week, at the Roadburn Festival in Holland! As far as he was concerned, one of the highlights of the fest (along with one of the only bands there to have been around longer, Comus!!!). When they came out on stage, the silver-haired singer (Terry Jones, brother to lead guitarist Alan Jones) was wearing a feathered top hat, that he gracefully doffed towards the audience, greeting us in a mellifluous Yorkshire accent. He possessed a theatrical, charismatic presence that made him seem not unlike one of the earlier incarnations of Dr. Who! They then proceeded to kick out an utterly classic sounding set of twin guitar NWOBHM, including of course many songs from this album, folkloric metal of witchery and doom, sung in a reedy voice that sounds a lot like a British version of Roky Erickson. They were really, really good.
So, if you're lucky enough to get a chance to see 'em, do so! And, at the very least, if doom and NWOBHM is your thing, check out their recordings, this being a great one to start with, except that we probably won't have it for very long (we only got, like, 8, and already have sold a few)...
MPEG Stream: "Pagan Altar"
MPEG Stream: "In The Wake Of Armadeus"
MPEG Stream: "Night Rider"

PANTHA DU PRINCE Diamond Daze (Dial / Kompakt) cd 16.98
The second of two long overdue reissues from this outsider avant pop techno technician, whose Black Noise record had us all in a tizzy, and any hope of that tizzy letting up went right out the window with the reissue of This Bliss, the -other- old title recently reissued, and now here we are with Diamond Daze, the second out of print PdP jam resurrected in the wake of Black Noise blowing up big time.
And like This Bliss, Diamond Daze doesn't deviate too far from what we loved about Black Noise, in fact all three records form this smooth, flowing continuum of blissed out minimal techno skitter, bleary late night pop ambient chill out, moody synthscapes, and throbbing, pulsing drone dance grooves. The weird thing is, if you threw some vocals on these tracks, you'd have a huge pop hit, Phoenix, Caribou, that sort of thing, but instead PdP takes these songs and strips them down, leaves them skeletal and abstract. Synths buzz ominously, beats skitter and shuffle, samples are looped and twisted, and stretched into streaks of washed out his, or lysergic shimmer, the result is not so much dance music or techno, but instead some sort of hypnotic trancelike electronica, a sound more conducive to blissing out, drifting off, than shaking it on the dancefloor.
That said, unlike the others, Diamond Daze features some seriously fuzzed out synth bass, that gives much of DD a way more fierce vibe, and while some of the beats do bang and boom, much of the record is more of a whisper than a howl, the darker more minimal tracks sounding like Kompakt meets Chain Reaction.
Another winner, a gorgeous fantastic, dark and haunting and mysterious collection of electronic mood music, and yet another nail in the coffin of any sort of techno hating we had hoped to ever engage in....
MPEG Stream: "Suzan"
MPEG Stream: "St. Denis Bei Licht"
MPEG Stream: "Glycerin"

PEEESSEYE & TALIBAM! s/t (Invada) cd 12.98
We had been hearing about this collaboration for a while now, definitely excited but not sure what to expect from a meeting of the warped musical minds between weirdo outsider noise jazz terrorists Talibam! and just plain weirdos Peeesseye, who would prevail, jazz or noise? Would it be unlistenable? Would it be unlistenable in a GOOD WAY? Would it rock?
So while the answers are both, both, no, yes, yes, all you need to know is this is a serious chunk of psychedelic spaced out jazz flecked heaviness. It is on Invada after all, home to both the Heads and White Hills, so in that sense, this does sort of fit. The opening track is basically a super charged jazz kraut blow out, the guitars fuzzed out, the organ warbly and wild, everything wreathed in thick clouds of buzz and hiss, loads of effects, total post Hawkwind psych drone free jazz freakout, which shifts gears at some point and becomes even more of a krautrock jam, crunchy and distorted, with some weirdo vocals buried in the mix, eventually exploding into a frenzied freakout, before finishing off with a super distorted, in-the-red churning chugging space drone dirge finale. Phew.
The next track offers some recovery time, a gorgeous raga like buzzscape, minimal percussion, weird production, some abstract twang, but the core sound a thick shimmering layered dreamlike drone. Ten minutes of pure cosmic bliss.
But c'mon, that can't last long with these guys, "Everything for Everyone" is a crumbling, fractured noisefest, weirdly melodic, but chaotic and harsh, some slice and dice weirdness, fields of feedback, and more upper register drones, "A Grey Mountain of Shit" is full on freaked out psychedelic free jazz, with some incredible drumming, wild tangled guitaring, and a weirdo stumbling whatthefuck outro, all Tom Waits like growls, warped synths, and more wild unhinged drumming.
The record closes with the 17+ minute "Year of the Moral Orgy / Grit of the Ghost", which begins life as a sprawling bit of psychedelic dronefolk, a distant buzz, little curlicues of high end melody, random percussion, a smoldering minimally tense dronescape, which grows more and more chaotic and intense, the drone threatening to swallow the song whole, never fully exploding, instead, stumbling to a confusional halt, complete with garbled vox and a slowly collapsing universe of sound.
MPEG Stream: "You Tried (To Eat It)"
MPEG Stream: "New Vitality In The Biomass"

REALMBUILDER Summon The Stone Throwers (I Hate Records) cd 15.98
Everything about this screams "Cult!!". Cult in the "epic true metal" style of Manilla Road, that is. But even doomier than those eccentric '80s metal masters, who are most definitely one of Realmbuilder's major influences. This band has that obscure, underground vibe for sure, as it should 'cause that's what it is, just two guys obsessed with a certain sort of metal and the imaginative realms of fantasy and history that that sort of metal evokes, those guys being one Czar (also of weird black metallers Charnel Valley), who sings and plays drums, and one J.H. Halberd, who takes care of rhythm guitar, bass, and keyboards, as well as harmony backing vocals, and on one track, trumpet! (Lead guitars are handled by a session axeman from the prog metal band Luna Mortis).
Now released by I Hate Records on compact disc after a limited edition vinyl issuance last year, Realmbuilder's debut album Summon The Stone Throwers really creates an unusual, ancient atmosphere, quite convincingly as if they're relating warriors' tales of long-lost ages. From the primitively painted album cover (featuring a mystic castle, wind-blown adventurer, and malevolently skulking wolf-creature all garishly rendered in sunset purples, yellows, and greens) which gives us a flashback to the cover to Manilla Road's Crystal Logic, it's obvious that Realmbuilder are for a select audience only, those with an innate feeling for the raw, doomy, almost psychedelic heavy metal on offer here. Melancholic, melodic, and above all majestic, the seven tracks here comprise chunky spiralling guitar riffs, expressive/depressive vocals, glorious guitar soloing, wordless oh-oh-oh choruses, effective chant-like repetition of the evocative lyrics (we love hearing the words "silver ziggurat" and "colossal glaciers" being sung over and over in the respective songs of those same names). The clean vocals are somewhat nasal and really not-so-metal, comparable maybe to Snake from Voivod and the guy from super obscure '80s Detroit doomsters Coven. And that really helps set this apart, and add to its strangeness and sense of sincerity.
There's much lumbering riffage and galloping rhythms and clashing of swords... with, also, weird quasi-poppy parts that sneak in amidst the grim bombast, which we think might actually cause this to appeal to fans of Steel Mammoth and other "NWOFHM" acts! Though, as we said, this comes across as serious and sincere. So most likely for fans of the aforementioned Manilla Road, and Coven if you've ever heard 'em... Other bands whose fans might dig this, for various reasons, include fellow I Hate recording artists The Wounded Kings, Doomsword, Dark Quarterer, Reverend Bizarre, The Gates Of Slumber, Slough Feg, Cirith Ungol, Manowar, Hyborian Steel, Ironsword, Ophthalamia, Cloven Hoof, Helvetes Port, even Dwarr and some moments of the more recent Darkthrones, just to throw a few names out there that may or may not be helpful without further explanation... Really, though, despite their obvious inspirations (they cite several bands, some of the above among them, before whom they "genuflect") Realmbuilder is ultimately its own unique thing.
Bottom line: the esoteric metallurgists here at AQ can't stop listening to this! As far as Allan is concerned, his favorite metal cd of the year, quite possibly. And although this is quite new, it still almost seems as if a relic from another time and place, like it should come with a papyrus scroll or better yet carved stone tablets, instead of a cd booklet (though the cd booklet it has, with thick, purple-printed paper, is quite nice). Join the cult and bow down before Realmbuilder!
MPEG Stream: "Bow Before The Oligarchy"
MPEG Stream: "Ninety-Nine Raids"
MPEG Stream: "Colossal Glaciers"

SHIT AND SHINE Bass Puppy (Badmaster) 12" 13.98
They pretty much had us at "dubstep Shit And Shine". Yep, UK mysterious masked multi drummer-ed noise rock weirdos, who recently destroyed at SXSW, and did a fair bit of damage in the Bay Area recently as well, return with their own take on dubstep, and it's just as fucked up and freaked out as we might have imagined (or hoped), and we have to say it's pretty much how we wish ALL dubstep sounded, heavy and super distorted, blown out, the beats pounding, the bass fuzzed out and crushing, a lurching hypnotic groove, surrounded on all sides by crumbling FX, distorted howls, a dizzying swirl of demented sounds, it's like the Butthole Surfers remixed by Burial, or Kode9 covering Rusted Shut.
The B-side is the blissier of the two, but only just barely, with deep undulating bass, a locked and looped main groove, weird grunts, and blurred voices, little bits of melody, twisted and tweaked, but weirdly tranquil and hypnotic. Some DJ somewhere is gonna whip this out midset and either utterly destroy the dancefloor, or seriously freak folks the fuck out. Much more likely the latter.
Best dubstep jam of the year? Quite possibly...

SHITTY LISTENER, THE Crying Sweater (Ruralfaune) cd 13.98
Latest from The Shitty Listener, still one of the greatest band names EVER, and the work of Jason Honea, a satellite member of the Jewelled Antler Collective, having done time in Child Readers, Franciscan Hobbies, Knit Separates, Chord Fort, Teenage Panzercorps and loads of others, but The Shitty Listener finds the Berlin-based Honea going it mostly alone, creating, delicate, hushed, ultra fragile minimal anti pop, gorgeous drifts of barely there sound, the various non musical elements as much a part of the sound as anything else. Organs whir, Honea's gentle croon hovers and flits, suspended in a cloud of tape hiss, while all around, children play, footsteps clomp by, dishes clank and crash, as if Honea was huddled in the corner, trying desperately to capture a sound, before the outside world intrudes, and only sort of succeeding, but in that partial failure lies the magic of the Shitty Listener. Each song is a captured moment, alive, and immediate, and organic, this is not music you can play in the store, or blast in your car stereo, this is music made to get lost in, the sonic equivalent of the musician, sneaking up to you and crooning directly in your ear. A pair of headphones, and your transported to the world of The Shitty Listener, where music is only a part of the sound.
The songs are not just home recorded, many are captured out in the open, on walks, in fields, by the beach, near the seaside, birds chirp, people walk by, oblivious to the fact that they are contributing to a magical micro moment of musical mystery.
And for all its low fidelity, the sound is strangely lush, and impossibly warm and enveloping. Hissing melodies and softly strummed guitars are whipped up into blurred swirling clouds of feedback drenched drones, but somehow it's never noisy, just dense, and layered, and even in these noisy moments, you can still hear the detritus of life surrounding the music.
"I Keep Dreaming To Myself" sounds as close to a proper song, until Honea stops midsong to talk, and again, lovely strummed guitar is wrapped around, weird moaning melodies, creaks and rumbles, distant bells, a slowly crumbling collage, which leads right into the 12+ minute "The Burst Heart", which begins with a cacophony of crunch and scrape before settling into an ultra minimal bit of dronefolk, which builds to some intense strumming, before slipping right back to a whisper.
The record plays out in a similar fashion, fractured folk gives way to abstract ambience, gentle croons set amidst fluttering flutes, and strange space-y melodies, loops and drones way off in the distance, while rattles rattle and bells tinkle, and voices chatter in a cloud of burnished hiss, finishing off with the Shitty Listener version of a Murder Ballad, melancholy and mournful, infused with a bit of blurred warmth, some streaks of feedback, some tinkling toy xylophones, some reverberant buzz, before Honea instructs everyone to stop playing, and Shitty Listener's buzz and chime finally stumbles to a halt. So strange and magical and fantastic.
MPEG Stream: "Seeing Through Eyes Of Tears"
MPEG Stream: "Area Women"
MPEG Stream: "Pray Me Away"
MPEG Stream: "Grow Up To Dreams"

SUN RA Space Is The Place (Sutro Park) 2lp 24.00
Not to be confused with the studio album of the same name, this is a fine deluxe vinyl reissue of the soundtrack to the 1972 freaky cosmic Afro-jazz film, Space Is The Place, the completely awesome fictional (or is it?) Sun Ra movie. If you've seen this already you know it's the best low budget science fiction afro-jazz freak film ever made. If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for? Sun Ra was a genius and also had a sense of humor, this film proves as he wrote all his own lines. Made here in the Bay Area by some public television guys and shot on the same sound stage (at the same time!) as the Mitchell Bros. famed porno opus Behind The Green Door (!) this is simply out of this world: the music (lots of live performances), the story, the visuals.
But it's the music we want to talk about here. If anyone needs a good introduction into the overall sound and philosophy of this visionary genius at his peak, this is perhaps the best place to start. The compositions are adventurous and grooving. Lots of chants and vocal call and responses by the one and only June Tyson, plus some stellar synth and organ excursions by the man himself. This is the record where you get all sides, uncompromising free jazz work-outs, and aggressive blasts of sound, but also cosmic dreaminess, contemplative blues and left-field funk, cinematically tied together in sound and vision. Brought to us, by the same folks who gave us the Sandy Bull and Peter Walker vinyl reissues as well as the awesome recent blues compilation, Wolf's At The Door. So fucking good!

TATE, DARREN Untitled (aka Snippets) (Fungal) cd-r 13.98
Yet another intriguing direction for Darren Tate can be found on this micro-edition. Tate's drone work, which began many years ago with his collaboration with Andrew Chalk piloting the seminal project Ora, has slowly given way to a hermetic, sci-fi sound of electronics augmented by occasional scrapes upon the guitar. Here, Tate has stitched together countless episodes of acoustics, electronic, and ecological soundmaking into a single piece, occasionally pushing toward the realm of the sound poetry aesthetics of Henri Chopin. Tate has never been one to hurry through his compositions and that trait is strongly featured here, as field recordings of birds, gentle drippings of water, intimate rounds of vocal ululations, electrically charged raga drones, percussive rhythms, and even some rather lovely post-Fahey / Mazzacane Connors fingerpicking on an acoustic guitar are positioned rather elegantly with a fine sheen of reverb connecting all of these sounds as a gossamer web of echo and decay. Limited to about 50 copies and already sold out from the source.
MPEG Stream: "Snippets 1"
MPEG Stream: "Snippets 2"
MPEG Stream: "Snippets 3"
MPEG Stream: "Snippets 4"

THOMAS, PRINS s/t (Full Pupp) cd 17.98
As much as we dig the collaborations between Lindstrom and Prins Thomas, we're beginning to think we might like these two Norwegians even more on their own, separately. With his latest solo outing, Prins Thomas has reminded us how masterful he is at creating glacial and spacious dance beats infused with waves of blissed out krautdisco. More so than on his collaborations with Lindstrom, Thomas demonstrates that he has a really nice range of sounds in his arsenal, with subtle hints of prog, psych and krautrock all mixed into a blend of his unique electronica. Lots of this record makes us think of some amazing remixed version of the cosmic kraut classic recording by Riechmann, or how Jonas Reinhardt might sound if they really allowed their more flowing and dance-y side to run wild. You can tell that Prins Thomas has a deep love of groups like Neu, Harmonia and The Phantom Band as much as he does of the space disco stylings of Giorgio Moroder, Patrick Cowley and Cerrone.
So many epic and nuanced tracks here, with one of the standouts being "Wendy Not Walter", you have to love the nod to Wendy/Walter Carlos. Further proof that Prins Thomas is not only a student of great electronic music but also one of its best creators these days!
MPEG Stream: "Wendy Not Walter"
MPEG Stream: "Ørkenvandring"
MPEG Stream: "Sauerkraut"

TROUBLE Psalm 9 (FRW Music) lp 22.00
REISSUED ON VINYL!!!
CLASSIC DOOM METAL. Can't get much more classic short of being one of the original Black Sabbath albums, really. Here's the long-awaited reissue of this, the 1984 debut from legendary Chicago doom-mongers Trouble. Alongside Candlemass and Pentagram and Saint Vitus, Trouble were the true heirs in the '80s to the Sabbath throne. And their mild case of Christianity only adds to the doomed vibe (ever read Revelations?) without being overtly preachy and goodytwoshoes like some other "white metal" bands were (Stryper ferinstance). And anyway, we really feel that religious belief totally adds to doom metal. Sabbath's "After Forever" made that official long before Trouble's Psalm 9... which isn't this album's original title, actually. It was self-titled when it first came out, but then they self-titled their fourth, Rick Rubin produced effort as well, so this got renamed. The Rick Rubin one is yet to be reissued, we're hoping it will 'cause it's quite possibly our favorite Trouble album, but this certainly is also an essential, containing several of their most awesome, best-loved tunes, including "The Tempter", "Assassin", "Bastards Will Pay" and eventual title track "Psalm 9". Plus it's also got the instrumental "Endtime" (later covered by Confessor), and their own cover of "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" by Cream!
If you haven't heard Trouble before, well... think Black Sabbath, yes, but different. They've got their own stamp on the trad. doom metal thing. It's fastern'd you'd think. And heavier than their forebears, due to the twin guitar lineup. And already here on Psalm 9, singer Eric Wagner has his raspy (almost Axl Rose-ish, actually) pipes tuned-up proper. It's one of those so recommended, that we're jealous of those of you who'll be hearing it for the first time things!
MPEG Stream: "The Tempter"
MPEG Stream: "Psalm 9"

TROUBLE The Skull (FRW Music) lp 22.00
REISSUED ON VINYL!!!
Nearby on this week's list we're highlighting the doomier-than-thou vinyl reissue of the 1984 debut from Chicago's classic doom metal squad Trouble. This here is the new vinyl reish of their equally heavy second album, The Skull, originally released on Metal Blade in 1985, which features such Trouble 'hits' as "Fear No Evil" and "Wickedness Of Man", along with its epic centerpiece, the nearly 12 minute "The Wish". As with the debut, you can expect plenty of Christian angst, ponderous Sabbathy riffage, and twin guitar duels! Heavy and moody, monolithic, classic TRUE doom for sure, but like the debut, Trouble for sure have their own vibe, due in no small part to vocalist Eric Wagner unique voice, one of the best in doom we'd dare posit, infusing every song the sort of doom-ed gravitas, few other vocalists can conjuure on their best days.
Folks who have been digging the current wave of retro doomlords, who have somehow gone this long without hearing Trouble, well, now's the time to fix that. Grab this AND the debut, and you'll be it true doom heaven (hell?)!!
MPEG Stream: "Fear No Evil"
MPEG Stream: "The Skull"

TWILIGHT Monument To Time End (Southern Lord) cd 15.98
Whoa. Just when we warmed ourselves to the idea that this would NEVER happen... it happened. The return of Twilight, described out of necessity as a "black metal supergroup", a bad description for something so awesome, but more or less to the point. The core lineup of Blake Judd (Nachtmystium), N. Imperial (Krieg), and Wrest (Leviathan/Lurker of Chalice) soldiered on without past contributors Hildolf (Draugar) and Malefic (Xasthur), and made themselves even more super with the additions, on this recording at least, of Sanford Parker (Minsk/Buried At Sea), Aaron Turner (Isis, etc.), Robert Lowe (Lichens, 90 Day Men, and now OM apparently), and Stavros Giannopoulos, who is new to us but whose presence is at the very least justified by the his awesome name. And yes, we realized how many bands we had to list in parentheses, but if anything, that should accommodate you to the awesome pedigree on display here, letting you know that there is no way in hell it could be anything except completely awesome.
Monument To Time End is not only great, but full of unexpected turns throughout. Unlike its self-titled predecessor, which was pretty much as black as black metal can get (opening song "Woe Is The Contagion" being one of the most terrifying things EVER), there is a surprising amount of diversity here. For example, would you have ever expected this horde to whip out an emo-ish breakdown with disco beats? Probably not, and the good news is that it doesn't suck at all, it just confounds in the best way imaginable and makes you love this band even more. And while the other album was created by swapping tapes through the mail with the fidelity being pretty much what you would expect from such, Monument is a work of well thought out, amazingly produced ART. This no doubt has much to do with Parker's presence and the use of his Volume Studios, not to mention the amount of time that has passed since the first album. Best of all, none of these upgrades in any way represent a more subdued or cuddly Twilight; on the contrary, this shit sounds even more dangerous, unstoppable, and out to kill. But enough rambling, let's talk songs here.
Doomy opener "The Cryptic Ascension" sounds a bit like a more evil Pelican, and Turner's signature is in full effect for the aforementioned emo-ish breakdown replete with disco beats. Imperial's vocals, however, definitely help bring things to another darkened realm. And while we really don't need to say this, we will: FUCK is Wrest an amazing drummer, and his bell heavy work on the ride cymbal helps carry this song to its amazing fadeout before everything is overtaken by Parker's spaced out synth buzz. The word "epic" is thrown around all the time in metal these days, to the point where it seems to have lost its meaning, but here Twilight completely own the term. Really no other word will do; this shit is EPIC. "Fall Behind Eternity" is up next, sounding a lot like Leviathan's creepy ambient moments with more spacey synth until the brutality kicks in with a dizzying blast. On "8,000 Years", things manage to be both soaring and pummeling, and the combined talents of these guys gives birth to some of the most adventurous and impressive metal we have heard in, well, forever. "The Catastrophe Exhibition" opens up with some ominous acoustic strumming and weird ambience with effected martial drums before venturing into unknown terrain where the band sounds a bit like an evil Don Cab being broadcast out of a portal to Hell. The album closes with "Negative Signal Omega", another awesome surprise that begins as a crumbling drone experiment and ends with a choraled vocal chant that is stunningly beautiful. Did you ever think we would use words like "stunningly beautiful" to describe this band when they first came out? Neither did we.
We say a lot of things about all the metal coming in these doors, but Twilight have set the bar pretty high with this album. Monument To Time End will without question end up on many year end best ofs, and with good reason. The greatest success here is the fact that everybody's dirty, blackened fingerprints are all over this project, but the end result is something totally of its own creation. Not many guys could pull this kind of thing off without seeming at least a little bit self-indulgent. Twilight have surprised us all by putting out one of the best metal records in recent memory. Until we fully understand what the fuck happened in Chicago, where the album was recorded, we're just going to be blasting it nonstop. While words may fail to convey just how amazing this is, we give it our highest seal of approval and have no doubt you too will agree...
MPEG Stream: "The Cryptic Ascension"
MPEG Stream: "Fall Behind Eternity"
MPEG Stream: "8,000 Years"

V/A Absolute Belter (B-Music / Finders Keepers) cd 17.98
B-Music / Finders Keepers are the masters of the mix, headed up by DJ / record collector extraordinaire Andy Votel, pretty much every compilation these guys put out is like getting a super far out mix tape from your weird music obsessed best friend who knows everything about ____ (Turkish psych, lost disco, weirdo proto metal, lost soundtracks, Pakistani film music, Hungarian psych prog, etc.). To that list, of music your imaginary best friend (aka Andy Votel and his B-Music gang) is well versed in, you can now add "Mid-Med-Mod-Rock & Spanish Psychsploitation From The 'Cradle Of Spanish Pop'". Phew. Absolute Belter collects a handful of classic jams from the Spanish label Belter, marking the label's 50th anniversary!! Lots of incredible stuff here, plenty of fuzzed out psych, groovy funk, and especially intriguing, weirdo covers of songs by The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Quincy Jones, and most excitingly, Curved Air's "Back Street Luv" done by a group called Control (which is also on that Radio Galaxia comp!). It's a fuzzy, but more poppy than proggy version, makes us wish someone would do a cool anthology of all Curved Air's stuff, so good! But we digress...
The highlights are too many to mention one by one, it's basically a whole record of highlights, but besides that killer Curved Air cover, there's Fusioon's, warm washed out wearily psychedelic "Tocata Y Fug", with its woozy organs, majestic melodies, and weirdo prog-isms, or Furia's theme song "Furia", a heavy psych groove burner, with some awesome harmony vocals, thick basslines, and a killer main hook. Or howabout Soledad Miranda, most famous for being nude in Vampyros Lesbos with some groovy, loungy exotica, all soaring strings and jazzy drums, very Bond theme sounding, and she actually has a great voice. There's Los Mismos' "Jefe Ironside", a sort of disco cop show theme meets hippy jam from the musical Hair, or Control's country flecked bass heavy psychedelia, Los Gritos' "Veo Visions" a sci-fi fuzz groove, with tons of out-there Joe Meek production weirdness, we could go on and on and on and on. Needless to say, but we shall anyway, if you're a fan of the label, and any of their collections, the BYG Deal, Well Hung, Pomegranates, The Sound Of Wonder, well then you're probably gonna want this, or if you're just into cool fuzzy freaky far out psychedelic sounds, this could very well be the mix tape of obscure stuff you've been hoping someone would make you!
MPEG Stream: FUSIOON "Tocata Y Fug"
MPEG Stream: FURIA "Furia"
MPEG Stream: CONTROL "Por Las Viejas Calles"
MPEG Stream: LOS MISMOS "Jefe Ironside"
MPEG Stream: SOLEDAD MIRANDA "La Verdad"

V/A Fragments From A Work In Progress (4AD) 12" 16.98
Of the hundred of Record Store Day special releases, we got as many copies of as many titles as we could, sold out of most of them, but a few we managed to get enough to list for out of town folks who might not have a local record store do visit on that oh so sacred of record nerd days, one of which is this, a super cool 5 track sampler, featuring new music from some names that most loyal aQ list readers will recognize right away: Blonde Redhead, Ariel Pink, Gang Gang Dance, The Big Pink, Tune Yards.
Most of these tracks will show up on forthcoming full lengths from these groups, but 4 of the 5 are different versions, demos, rough early versions, definitely worth it for fans of any of these groups.
It's weird enough that Ariel Pink is signed to 4AD, but with this first taste of the upcoming record, we hear a whole new side of AP and his gang, not nearly as lo-fi, or twisted, instead, loping, groovy, almost funky basslines, shuffling skeletal rhythms, reverbed guitars, and deep crooned almost gothic sounding vox, a sort of creepy broody ballad, but fear not, it does get pretty damaged by the end, all crumbling FX drenched psychedelic free-eak out meltdown, can't wait to hear more.
Blonde Redhead offer up a demo for a song from their new record, their first music in 3+ years, lush, woozy, electronic, warm and organic, less indie sounding, way more 'adult', like the most accessible Bjork tracks, still really dark and mysterious and beautiful, shimmery and dreamy, just more restrained and mature.
The Gang Gang Dance track, their first music for 4AD is awesome, a sprawling, super spare, stripped down dubscape, thick warbly bass, clipped samples, disembodied vocals, hazy and softly psychedelic, but really mesmerizing and beautiful.
The Tune Yards track is super soulful world music sounding demo, groovy and lovely, with crunchy looped samples, shimmery blurred acoustic guitars, sweet vocals, gradually growing more and more distorted. Cool.
And finally, a previously unreleased track from The Big Pink, all washed out and druggy, total Spacemen 3 / Jesus And Mary Chain vibe, buzzy guitars, buried barely there rhythms, reverbed and echoey and woozily hypnotic.
We have a bunch of these left, but once they're gone we won't be able to get more, so grab one while you can...

V/A Killing Melody: Instrumental Music From Japanese Pinky Violence Movies (Ethbo) lp 28.00
Lots of folks probably have no idea what Pinky Violence movies are, but avid readers of the aQ list, might have scene (or hopefully bought!) several records by a local turntablist called DJ Female Convict Scorpion, whose name is in fact borrowed from one of the more famous Pinky Violence series of films.
In the late sixties, traditional gangster movies in Japan were replaced with "Pinky Violence" movies, which embraced nudity and violence and bondage, women in prison, women gangs, who often fought topless, low brow, lowest common denominator, maybe, but many of the films infused the sex and violence with plenty of subtle social and political critiques, and as you might imagine, they caught on, and became a sensation. Often psych rock bands like the Jacks or the Flowers were tapped for music, but just as often, a small cadre of composers created the strange sonic hybrids that were the soundtrack to some of the most over the top films you'll ever see.
From Western style Morricone soundtrack music, all strings and whistles, haunting and ominous, to sultry smoky jazz, groovy fuzz funk, and full on psychedelic garage rock, the sounds here are all over the map. In some ways this could have easily been an installment in Sublime Frequencies' ever expanding catalog of world musics, so varied and catchy and wildly exotic. Jazzy drums underpin fluttery flutes, crunchy fuzz guitar all tangled up with woozy porno funk, sexy sax, wah wah guitars, soaring strings, Eastern melodies, all wound into groovy cinematic funk jazz, xylophones and marimbas, horn sections, strange sound effects, wild drumming, it's hard to imagine how this stuff hasn't been sampled to death by DJ's. super funky, but WAY out there and psychedelic, sometimes dark, but more often jubilant and unhinged and FUN.
Super extensive liner notes, with a history of the genre, the soundtracks, the composers, and of course the starlets, and besides simply being a killer collection of funky soulful cinematic sounds, hopefully it'll get some folks out there to track down some of these amazing movies...

V/A Radio Galaxia (B-Music / Finders Keepers) lp 21.00
Another special release for this year's Record Store Day, that we managed to get enough of to list and review for all the aQ peeps who weren't able to visit the shop in person.
By now most regular readers of the aQ list are well aware of just how much we love Andy Votel's B-Music label, the dizzyingly eclectic home of recordings from Jean-Claude Vannier, Selda, Mustafa Ozkent, Sarolta Zalatnay, as well as purveyors of all things Turkish psych, lost disco, weirdo proto metal, lost soundtracks, Pakistani film music, Hungarian psych prog and more more more.
We raved about the Pomegranates comp recently, as well as The BYG Deal collection, also, the Sound Of Wonder, Well Hung, if there's one thing these guys do better than anyone, it's make mixtapes, transformed into head spinning, ear tickling compilations, so it should come as no surprise that their Record Store Day sampler is another killer mix. And instead of just being ONLY a handful of tracks you can get on other releases (although some in fact are), it focuses on harder to find B-Music gems, whether from WAY out of print records, or not yet released jams.
Beginning with a killer chunk of slice and dice space synth disco from weirdo French mad scientist Jean-Pierre Massiera, the record flits from sound to sound, from country to country, from era to era, but somehow still manages to flow. Persian psych pop slips right into some gritty synth funk, which leads right into some woozy, tripped out Asian psych, finishing off with some awesome Italo fuzzfunk, wild and trippy and druggy and awesome.
The flipside begins with some warped easy listening which is transformed into some seriously far out skittery fuzzy outsider funk, followed by some "synth bass stoner funk", then a Curved Air cover, taken from the Absolute Belter comp reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, sequing into some exotic soaring string driven dancefloor Bollywood style groove, before finishing off with a bit of Welsh Rare Beat.
Awesome stuff. An absolutely killer mix, and maybe the ultimate party platter of the year. LIMITED too, we probably won't be able to get more of these, so best to snag one while they last...

V/A Reportage: Spela Sjalv (Expo Norr) lp 17.98
Reissue of this long lost seventies Swedish release, originally purported to be a Trad Gras Och Stenar album, when in fact, it's something much more interesting. Bo Anders Persson, a member of Trad Gras Och Stenar, as well as Harvester, International Harvester and Parson Sound, traveled around Sweden, collecting field recordings of amateur musicians performing (the title roughly translates to 'Play Yourself'). So this is essentially like a Swedish drone rock, gypsy hippy folk version of Smithsonian Folkways (or Sublime Frequencies).
Wild fluttery flutes, chimes and rattles, whistles and tribal drumming, much of this definitely reminds us of modern soundmakers like Avarus and Sunburned Hand.
Simple hypnotic drumming over acoustic guitars and hand claps, whoops and hollers, still more flutes, violins, strings, hand drums, simple skeletal guitar melodies, lots of jaw harp, will percussion freakouts, occasional stretches of groovy spaced out kraut psych jamming, the whole time, the surrounding sounds become a part of the music, people talking, crowds in the distance, tinkling bottles, birds singing, total idyllic outsider psychedelic hippy jam.
A couple tracks on the B side stand out, one that sounds almost African, gorgeous and moody, percussive, but super melodic, like some sort of marimba, looped and loping and rhythmic and so mesmerizing, and another sprawling rhythmscape, cool, and acoustic, all deep lo thrum, big strings buzzing, a warm whirring sound peppered with all manner of jaw harp buzz, and some almost throat singing, really haunting and mysterious and so gorgeous.
Definitely recommended for anyone into the above mentioned Swedish outfits, but also anyone into field recordings and abstract psychedelia.
Exact reproduction of the original 1970 lp release, and of course, LIMITED!

V/A SP20 - Casual Nostalgia Fest (Sub Pop) cd 10.98
Sub Pop these days is a seriously varied and eclectic label, they always were, but now more than ever, from folk to noise rock, electronic to power pop. But for most of us, Sub Pop will forver be associated with the much maligned, but frankly still KICK ASS genre they basically invented: GRUNGE. Sure it got watered down, like any scene, but that first wave of grunge is still untouchable: Green River, Soundgarden, Tad, The Fluid, Love Battery, Swallow, Blood Circus, Screaming Trees, Cat Butt, Skin Yard, U-Men, Malfunkshun, Pond...
So when we heard about Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary celebration in Seattle, one aQuarian in particular had to go, a chance to see Green River, Les Thugs, The Fluid, Vaselines, Pissed Jeans, Eric's Trip, Kinski, Comets On Fire, Beachwood Sparks, Seaweed, and loads more, well it was too good not to go. So go this aQ-er did, and it RULED, the old guard destroyed, but the new bands were pretty great too. Some performances were transformative, not hugely into Fleet Foxes at the time, something about seeing them play in a green glade, those vocals soaring beneath the blue sky, amidst all those trees, suddenly their music made sense. A new fan was born. Green River had to be the highlight, members of Pearl Jam and Mudhoney brought back together again to play someof the sickest, swampiest, glammy grunge ever, and it still sounded better than 90% of the bands today.
So to celebrate Record Stoe Day, Sub Pop decided to gather up some of the best recordings from the fest, and release them as a super limited cd. Which is what this is. Most of the above mntioned bands represented. The Vaselines do their classic "Dying For it", Beachwood Sparks sound magnificent, Obits seriously rock, as do Les Thugs, but probably the best moment of the fest, and of this comp is Green River, playing "Leech", a song popularized by the Melvins, but according to Mark Arm's before song banter, it's a Green River track, that was on a tape given to the Melvins way back when, which the band adopted as their own, but now that the legal might of Mudhoney and Pearl Jam are united, Green River plan to "Crush those bastards", which is met with a deafening roar, followed by a performance that makes the case for "Leech" being a Green River original, better than any lawsuit ever could. Joking or not, it's a magical moment, the fest was full of those moments, as is this comp!
MPEG Stream: GREEN RIVER "Leech"
MPEG Stream: THE VASELINES "Dying For It"
MPEG Stream: LES THUGS "Dirty White Race"
MPEG Stream: ERIC'S TRIP "Smother"
MPEG Stream: SEAWEED "Baggage"

V/A This Is Dubstep Vol. 2 (Get Darker) 2cd 17.98
This is, hands down, THEE best dubstep comp we've gotten in, well, maybe forever. So much of the dubstep we get is way too wussy, when what we really want basically is grime without the vocals, the beats banging, big and stuttery, the bass so think and heavy, a wall of throbbing fuzz, that warbly bassline, that distinctive dubstep stutter. And as if in answer to our prayers, This Is Dubstep Vol. 2 opens with what is essentially a killer grime jam, featuring some seriously grime-y flow, over the buzzing bass and hiccuppy rhythm. And we're of, and for the most part, 90 percent of the tracks here are fierce and fiery, dense and dark and way heavy, even the more mellow jams still work pretty well in the context of these two discs, our favorites though, are the ones that are HARD and HEAVY. Chase & Status manage to take one of those diva style dubstep grooves, but chop up the vocals, and add some bin rattling bass, Distance offers up a thick slab of bassy crunch, Joker & Ginz add warbly fuzzed out basslines to some awesome retro synths, Rob Sparx takes old video game music and dubs it out, an awesome lo-fi 8-bit dubstep jam, Demon's track is definitely demonic, weird samples, lurching rhythms, creepy ambience, and a killer drop and some haunting vocals, the Fused Forces track is short but so buzzy and bassy, could have filled up a whole disc with that one, Way Out West also take some diva driven dubstep and add a thick swath of lawnmower bass, Chasing Shadows offers up some of the meanest grinding basslines on the whole comp, and it goes on and on, easily some of the coolest hardest dubstep we've heard, EVER, with just enough melody and vocal parts to keep it interesting for folks who need more than beats and bass, but if you're like us, and it's all about the beats and the bass, then this is gonna be your mix of the year....
MPEG Stream: BREAKAGE & DAVID RODIGAN / NEWHAM GENERALS "Hard"
MPEG Stream: DISTANCE "Twilight"
MPEG Stream: JOKER & GINZ "Purple City"
MPEG Stream: FUSED FORCES "Chemical Reaction"
MPEG Stream: CHASING SHADOWS "III"

V/A Watch How The People Dancing: Unity Sounds From The London Dancehall, 1986-1989 (Honest Jon's) cd 17.98
Another fantastic collection from Honest John's, this one documenting Unity Hi-Power a London Sound System in the eighties, Jamaican dancehall, reggae and raga, influenced by US hip hop, but more importantly, a unique sound, the result of inner city life in the UK in the eighties, and while the lyrics occasionally discuss inner city problems, life on the streets, poverty, immigration and other similarly pressing issues of the time, the vibe was never that far removed from more earthly pleasures, smoking and partying, dancing in the streets and of course the sheer joy of music making.
And the music is what it's all about here, and the sound is super unique, not that different really from On-U Sound, Bush Chemists, and other purveyors of modern electronic dub, but the instrumentation sounds almost like old Casio keyboards, raw, and primitive and super lo-fi, which definitely gives it a special vibe, the dubs especially, most of the tracks here are paired with a dub version, and with the vocals removed, the keyboards and programmed rhythms really shine, bleeps and bloops, and super lo-fi synthy basslines, plenty of reverbed guitar, echo and delay, of course, but the core sounds are stripped down and skeletal, lo-fi and in some cases almost 8-bit sounding. The tracks with vocals are soulful and jubilant, expressive and emotional, and really fantastic, but we're sort of partial to the dubs, and their weirdly warbly, DIY lo-fi take on classic reggae and dub. So cool.
MPEG Stream: SELAH COLLINS "Pick A Sound (Version)"
MPEG Stream: MICKEY MURKA "We Try (Version)"
MPEG Stream: KENNY KNOTS "Watch How The People Dancing"
MPEG Stream: MICKEY MURKA "Control The Dancehall"

V/A Watch How The People Dancing: Unity Sounds From The London Dancehall, 1986-1989 (Honest Jon's) 2lp 22.00
Another fantastic collection from Honest John's, this one documenting Unity Hi-Power a London Sound System in the eighties, Jamaican dancehall, reggae and raga, influenced by US hip hop, but more importantly, a unique sound, the result of inner city life in the UK in the eighties, and while the lyrics occasionally discuss inner city problems, life on the streets, poverty, immigration and other similarly pressing issues of the time, the vibe was never that far removed from more earthly pleasures, smoking and partying, dancing in the streets and of course the sheer joy of music making.
And the music is what it's all about here, and the sound is super unique, not that different really from On-U Sound, Bush Chemists, and other purveyors of modern electronic dub, but the instrumentation sounds almost like old Casio keyboards, raw, and primitive and super lo-fi, which definitely gives it a special vibe, the dubs especially, most of the tracks here are paired with a dub version, and with the vocals removed, the keyboards and programmed rhythms really shine, bleeps and bloops, and super lo-fi synthy basslines, plenty of reverbed guitar, echo and delay, of course, but the core sounds are stripped down and skeletal, lo-fi and in some cases almost 8-bit sounding. The tracks with vocals are soulful and jubilant, expressive and emotional, and really fantastic, but we're sort of partial to the dubs, and their weirdly warbly, DIY lo-fi take on classic reggae and dub. So cool.
MPEG Stream: SELAH COLLINS "Pick A Sound (Version)"
MPEG Stream: MICKEY MURKA "We Try (Version)"
MPEG Stream: KENNY KNOTS "Watch How The People Dancing"
MPEG Stream: MICKEY MURKA "Control The Dancehall"

VELOSO, CAETANO Zii E Zie (Nonesuch) cd 17.98
There is John Coltrane's saxophone playing, Miles Davis on the trumpet, Jimi Hendrix on the guitar, Harry Partch's instrumental inventions, Erik Satie's piano compositions, all people who were undoubtedly masters of their craft, and right next to all those geniuses is the voice and songwriting of Caetano Veloso!
Now entering his sixth decade of releasing records and sounding as relevant and remarkable as ever. So crazy to think what a journey through life and music this man has had, being one of the forefathers of the Tropicalia movement in Brazil in the '60s, and then having to flee to London in exile for his heroic and uncompromising political resistance, all the while still finding a way to create such beautiful and meaningful music. We can't really think of anyone else who has made awesome records in every decade from the '60s to the present. Think of his musical peers still around from that era, when's the last time an entire album of new material from folks like Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Donovan or Van Dyke Parks actually blew you away? On the other hand Caetano continues to make music that is as challenging and creative as it is seductive and enchanting. His last album, 2006's Ce was one of the most charged, rocking and colorful records released that year. With Zii E Zie some of that same upbeat and rocking feel is still present, but there is also a lot of the more classic, sensual and hypnotizing side to Veloso's music making, as well of course as that voice, a croon that could melt even the most frozen of hearts.
Some of us had the chance to see him live just a week ago, and on the Ce tour, and they were two of the most sincere, engaging and electric shows we've seen in so long. Just goes to prove that you can age with grace and remain as brilliant and crucial as you were as a teenager, as long as you never lose touch with the spirit that has moved you, ever since the beginning. Thank the stars for souls like Caetano Veloso. He's made another wonderful album and continues to prove that he's an international treasure, using music in every possible way for all the right reasons. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Perdeu"
MPEG Stream: "Base De Guantanamo"
MPEG Stream: "Por Quem?"
MPEG Stream: "A Cor Amarela"

WHITE FENCE s/t ( Woodsist) cd 13.98
Totally awesome breezy lo-fi garage pop from Los Angeles, that we just can't seem to get enough of. While many of WF's lo-fi counterparts these days are all about fuzz and feedback, White Fence is so much more about infectious songs and deep running melody. Like some lost early recording of Chris Knox covering The Kinks or The Zombies, or imagine The Art Museums if they were a little more washed out and blurred and blissy. Also reminds us a bit of a more focused Ariel Pink, as WF are able to tap into such golden pop tones yet give them a nice warped and lysergic twist. While it's for sure going to get lumped in with a lot of our favorite recent garage pop faves like The Fresh & Onlys, Woods, Hanoi James, etc., there is something very timeless about the songs White Fence create. They could just as easily be lost nuggets from some obscure pastoral psych band out of the UK in the late '60s as it could be a Cherry Red band from the Paisley underground in the '80s, or a young Robert Pollard merging with the Elephant Six collective. For sure a strong outsider pop sound, with hints of Syd Barrett and Bobb Trimble. Bottom line is that this is top quality songwriting delivered in such a satisfying way. So damn good!
Don't think that Make-A-Mess pressed a ton of the vinyl so better act fast. But fear not, there's a cd on Woodsist too.
MPEG Stream: "Sara Snow"
MPEG Stream: "Baxter Corner"
MPEG Stream: "Tildas"
MPEG Stream: "Destroy Everything"

WHITE FENCE s/t (Make A Mess) lp 14.98
Totally awesome breezy lo-fi garage pop from Los Angeles, that we just can't seem to get enough of. While many of WF's lo-fi counterparts these days are all about fuzz and feedback, White Fence is so much more about infectious songs and deep running melody. Like some lost early recording of Chris Knox covering The Kinks or The Zombies, or imagine The Art Museums if they were a little more washed out and blurred and blissy. Also reminds us a bit of a more focused Ariel Pink, as WF are able to tap into such golden pop tones yet give them a nice warped and lysergic twist. While it's for sure going to get lumped in with a lot of our favorite recent garage pop faves like The Fresh & Onlys, Woods, Hanoi James, etc., there is something very timeless about the songs White Fence create. They could just as easily be lost nuggets from some obscure pastoral psych band out of the UK in the late '60s as it could be a Cherry Red band from the Paisley underground in the '80s, or a young Robert Pollard merging with the Elephant Six collective. For sure a strong outsider pop sound, with hints of Syd Barrett and Bobb Trimble. Bottom line is that this is top quality songwriting delivered in such a satisfying way. So damn good!
Don't think that Make-A-Mess pressed a ton of the vinyl so better act fast. But fear not, there's a cd on Woodsist too.
MPEG Stream: "Sara Snow"
MPEG Stream: "Baxter Corner"
MPEG Stream: "Tildas"
MPEG Stream: "Destroy Everything"

WINDEREN, JANA Energy Field (Touch) cd 15.98
Paralleling what the Australian sound artist Tarab achieves through his magnificent albums, Jana Winderen collects an impressive array of field recordings and edits them into her compositions without much (if anything) in the way of digital processing. For Energy Field, Winderen traveled to the barren land-and-seascapes of Greenland, Norway, and the Barents Sea, using high-end parabolic microphones for the above ground recordings and hydrophones for the seaborne sounds, capturing creaks from massive glaciers, the slippery resonance of ice crevasses, the sounds of crustaceans (remember her cassette for the Tapeworm label, The Noisiest Guys On The Planet?), the chatter of summertime birds, and huge passages of windswept vibration that sound more like one of BJ Nilsen's swarms of drone than anything produced via natural means. Winderen presents three extended pieces that steadily undulate and crest, much like the patterns of the ocean when viewed from a considerable distance, and have been pocked with various tactile recordings of ice cracking, water dripping, the strange bellows from mating fish, and whatnot. Hypnotic, beautiful, and wholly compelling, Winderen's Energy Field is another exemplary entry in the Touch catalog, and totally up our alley here at AQ.
MPEG Stream: "Aquaculture"
MPEG Stream: "Isolation/Measurement"
MPEG Stream: "Sense Of Latent Power"

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BADU, ERYKAH New Amerykah, Pt. 2: Return Of The Ankh (Universal Motown) lp 16.98
ALSO ON VINYL!!
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"

BLEEKER, ALEX AND THE FREAKS s/t (Underwater Peoples) lp 14.98
All most folks will probably need to know is that Alex Bleeker And The Freaks features a bunch of the guys from Real Estate, and the sound is a bit like a less twisted, more groovy, woozy, jammy Real Estate. But first you have to make it past the cover art, which as we discuss briefly in the review of the Frat Dad 7" elsewhere on this list, features what might be Underwater Peoples weirdo aesthetic, a sort of jock / dude / bro thing, the Frat Dad 7" features two bro-looking dudes doing karaoke, and this record features all the Freaks, poolside, in sweaters, and lost of flip flops, a little dog, plenty of khaki, collared shirts, sweaters, Dad style leather jackets. Hard to tell whether it's a put on, or if these guys are just in fact regular Joes, who just make music, when they're not doing whatever it is they do in their normal lives. It doesn't really matter, it's just the first thing that catches your attention.
The music though, sounds a bit 'regular guy' too, not in a bad way, but unlike the distorted lo-fi weirdness of Real Estate, the sound of AB&TF is more straight ahead rock, somewhere between the lugubrious country of Palace, with the tangled leads of Neil Young, a little Grateful Dead too, plenty of strum and jangle and shuffle, loads of tangled guitar melodies, the occasional psychedelic shred freakout, but for the most part, loping and strummy and laid back, a little druggy, but not lysergic, more just sort of fuzzy and baked. Definitely nice to listen to, but maybe not far out enough for folks who dig other UP bands like Real Estate or Ducktails...

BLOODY PANDA Summon (Profound Lore) 2lp+dvd 23.00
Released on cd last year, now on vinyl, which like the cd includes a bonus dvd as well!
New York doommongers Bloody Panda return with full length #2, this one courtesy of the always rad Profound Lore label. The band specializes in a style of glacial doom sounding like it was recorded in an enormous cathedral in the dead of night. Funereal keyboards and subsonic bass run alongside lumbering drums that put everything into a spiraling trance as the downtuned guitars puke out overwhelmingly negative sounding riffs. Then, there's the kicker, Bloody Panda's unassuming vocalist Yoshiko Ohara, whose beautiful and clear voice can just as easily switch from sweet croon to Yoko Ono howl to a throat ripping banshee scream to a guttural demon bark. Her super bleak lyrics focus on all the various aspects of mental instability that doom bands know and love, like a fever induced nightmare where Bloody Panda is the house band. Ohara's awesome and disturbing artwork perfectly mirrors the sounds within Summon, with lots of black space and faceless figures shrouded in slivers of hazy color. There are certainly some similarities to Neurosis' more, ahem, "tribal" moments, while the band's almost goth sensibility, not to mention the female vocals and organ, bring to mind Asva, but there is enough other stuff going on to make Bloody Panda stand out. This is only made clearer by the accompanying dvd, featuring a video for the 21 minute motherfucker of a song, "Miserere". Filmed by the band members themselves in various parts of Brooklyn in addition to shots taken in Indonesia, the dvd offers a stunning visual enhancement to Bloody Panda's sonic assault.
MPEG Stream: "Gold"
MPEG Stream: "Pusher"
MPEG Stream: "Miserere"

BOHEMIAN GROVE Age Of Retrogression (Hyperblasted Recordings) cd 10.98
BACK IN STOCK!!
Debut record from these Greek avant black metal warriors, oddly named after a redwoods retreat near here that should be familiar to the conspiracy-minded, whose sound is equal parts midtempo Burzumic buzz, furious blackened blast and gnarled experimental blackness, which means, awesome!
Five long tracks that slip from pounding primitive crush to insectoid frenzy and back again, with a sound that definitely harkens back to the Norwegian elite, the riffs epic and majestic, the vocals a gravelly demonic howl, the drumming crushing and intricate, the band deftly balancing their two sides. Pounding away relentlessly, before launching into a blazing blast at the drop of a dime, only to screech to a halt, and lurch right back into the pound, often shifting gears even more, slipping into some seriously doomy plod, or sprawling out into some weirdly melodic post-BM meander, but always finding their way back to the trancelike buzz.
The record finishes with the Deathspell-ish "Drowning In The Roar Of A Sinking World", a 12+ minute, post rock, black metal hybrid, loping and lurching, the riffs angular and atonal, the song a woozy waltz, the band spitting out intense little squalls of rapid fire double kick and grinding buzz, the track slows down even further eventually, becoming downright doomy, the vocals getting full on Popeye / Immortal, a hellish croak, the guitars getting more and more seasick and psychedelic, until they launch into an epic, blasting, midtempo, melodic outro.
Super swank packaging, 6 panel black on gold digipak, featuring super creepy evil artwork from Justin Bartlett, who among other things, designed an aQ t-shirt not too long ago. LIMITED TO 1000 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Wretched Men"
MPEG Stream: "Drowning In The Roar Of A Sinking World"

CRISPY AMBULANCE The Plateau Phase ( Drastic Plastic) lp 13.98
This long time aQ fave now reissued on vinyl!!
Thanks to a fateful Joy Division gig, where Crispy Ambulance singer Alan Hempsal successfully and secretly subbed for a missing Ian Curtis, The Ambulance seemed to be cursed with a reputation as pale imitatiors of Joy Division. But while at moments, Crispy Ambulance *are* dead ringers for Joy Division's post-punk pop, they were even more adept at crafting truly creepy gloom and haunting sound sculptures. At their best, they could create unsettling almost sci-fi soundscapes, and at their worst they could hold their own with their early '80s cronies Joy Division, In Camera, Wolfgang Press, etc. Totally excellent. Still sounds as fantastic as ever!

DEERHOOF Apple O' (Record Store Day Version) (Kill Rock Stars) lp 15.98
Thanks to RSD, back again on vinyl while they last. What we said when this first came out: Recorded "live" in the studio, this recording expands on the "rock" side of Deerhoof - those moments from Reveille that reminded us of The Who, with drummer Greg pounding mercilessly on his stripped down kit behind power chord outbursts. Those bits were sandwiched between more experimental fuckery, the whole thing rendered somewhat surreal by singer Satomi's high-pitched little-girl-on-acid vocals. On Apple O', the damaged noise has been toned down somewhat to make way for the aforementioned rock, but there are also some very sweet, gentle and even romantic numbers, with acoustic guitar strum and a bit of lovely fragile falsetto from Greg. They even get jazzy for a minute (damaged Beefheart lounge jazzy, that is). Even amidst romantic sweetness, Deerhoof still retain a sense of the bizarre, albeit an awfully cute kind of bizarre. It's their balancing act between fucked-up noise and twisted yet adorable pop, crazy huge rock n' roll and vulnerable beauty that make Deerhoof one of the best bands in San Francisco (at least in our opinion!). Apple O' isn't as mind-bendingly amazing as Reveille, but then it's difficult to repeat perfection. It's still super-awesome, and growing on us with every listen.

DEERHOOF Green Cosmos (Record Store Day Version) (Kill Rock Stars) lp 14.98
Thanks to RSD, back again on vinyl while they last. What we said when this first came out: For Green Cosmos, Deerhoof have kicked things up a notch on their already-deliciously frenetic art-rock quirk-o-meter, and they've done so in impressive style! They've not only branched off in ways that may appeal to a broader audience without alienating their old fans, but also locked into some more out-there planes. Quite a bit more melodic and composed, but also sorta like a tricked-out Beatles' "Revolution #9" mashed up with candy-coated anime soundtracks and of course some Capt. Beefheart and Melt-Banana too. At times very bizarre and epic with its grand assemlbage of tinkly toybox sounds, winky guitar stabs, tight rhythmic progressions and those pussycat-cooing vocals. You can easily imagine this accompanying a giant puppet show. Or if we were to compare it to an amusement park ride, it'd be some sorta mongrel mutant of a rollercoaster and a bumper car. Only seven songs (six new, two revised older ones "Come See The Duck" and "Byun") clocking in at around fifteen minutes, but oh such utterly splendid precision and chaos in every twisted adventure pop bite. Wheeeeeeeee!
MPEG Stream: "Spiral Golden Tower"
MPEG Stream: "Koneko Kitten"

ESOTERIC Epistemological Despondency (Aesthetic Death) 2cd 12.98
Two old doooooom favorites at last back in stock after a loooooong time! And at a way cheaper price. We've long been obsessed with bands like Skepticism, Earth, Burzum, Benighted Leams; all bands so "fucked" and/or with such a singular "vision" that they transcend the metal genre. And from the second we first heard Esoteric we knew they belonged on that list. Self-described as "dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical and barbaric doom", who are we to argue? Two double cds of ultra depressive, dirgey, near ambient drones. Each a murky morass of slow motion riffs, amphibious guitar solos and tortured cries. But also strangely beautiful, at times recalling the lugubrious soundscapes of Labradford or Magnog. Metal for the drone set, perhaps? Plus you gotta love any band that merits a "fuck you" on Electric Wizard's special thanks list!
These guys are the ultimate doomlords, brutally uncommercial, with an unapologetically ultra-positive drug stance, and an apparent disinterest in allowing anyone to buy their music, at least in the early stages, but a band this uncompromisingly crushing and confusionally kick ass couldn't remain a secret forever. And if you still need a reason to pick up BOTH of these double discs, Epistemological Despondency and The Pernicious Enigma, which in our minds can be considered a sprawling single 4 part dooooooom epic, just have a gander at the liner notes to Epistemological Despondency:
"FUCK OFF AND DIE: Society, the monarchy, the pigs (fucking bastards), politicians, the government, all holy denominations and followers of the 'right-hand path'. Moralistic bastards, the legal system, all oppressors and authority. All of the ignorant, narrow-minded, stupid humans who follow authorities without questioning. Love. All 'pretend' Satanists, who give the ignorant lease to ridicule 'true' Satanism. All bands who are 'out to put what the people like'. All the sad cunts who have turned underground music into pop-music full of cliches. All psychic vampires and scrounging wankers. All perpetrators of censorship. Those that use drugs, Satanism or music as a scapegoat in order to hide the true cause of their actions--you are as weak as the christians, you cannot fight for yourselves, so you cower in renunciation. To those who would interfere with us, beware!".
FUCK YEAH!
MPEG Stream: "The Noise Of Depression"

ESOTERIC The Pernicious Enigma (Aesthetic Death) 2cd 12.98
Two old doooooom favorites at last back in stock after a loooooong time! And at a way cheaper price. We've long been obsessed with bands like Skepticism, Earth, Burzum, Benighted Leams; all bands so "fucked" and/or with such a singular "vision" that they transcend the metal genre. And from the second we first heard Esoteric we knew they belonged on that list. Self-described as "dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical and barbaric doom", who are we to argue? Two double cds of ultra depressive, dirgey, near ambient drones. Each a murky morass of slow motion riffs, amphibious guitar solos and tortured cries. But also strangely beautiful, at times recalling the lugubrious soundscapes of Labradford or Magnog. Metal for the drone set, perhaps? Plus you gotta love any band that merits a "fuck you" on Electric Wizard's special thanks list!
These guys are the ultimate doomlords, brutally uncommercial, with an unapologetically ultra-positive drug stance, and an apparent disinterest in allowing anyone to buy their music, at least in the early stages, but a band this uncompromisingly crushing and confusionally kick ass couldn't remain a secret forever. And if you still need a reason to pick up BOTH of these double discs, Epistemological Despondency and The Pernicious Enigma, which in our minds can be considered a sprawling single 4 part dooooooom epic, just have a gander at the liner notes to Epistemological Despondency:
"FUCK OFF AND DIE: Society, the monarchy, the pigs (fucking bastards), politicians, the government, all holy denominations and followers of the 'right-hand path'. Moralistic bastards, the legal system, all oppressors and authority. All of the ignorant, narrow-minded, stupid humans who follow authorities without questioning. Love. All 'pretend' Satanists, who give the ignorant lease to ridicule 'true' Satanism. All bands who are 'out to put what the people like'. All the sad cunts who have turned underground music into pop-music full of cliches. All psychic vampires and scrounging wankers. All perpetrators of censorship. Those that use drugs, Satanism or music as a scapegoat in order to hide the true cause of their actions--you are as weak as the christians, you cannot fight for yourselves, so you cower in renunciation. To those who would interfere with us, beware!".
FUCK YEAH!
MPEG Stream: "Dominion Of Slaves"

FRAT DAD Greg The Nerd / Freak In Nature (Underwater Peoples) 7" 6.98
Could there be a worse band name than Frat Dad? Does it help having a song called "Greg The Nerd"? Or having your record cover a photo of two jocks doing karaoke? We're beginning to think this is some sort of secretly subversive aesthetic, spearheaded by the Underwater Peoples label (check out the Alex Bleeker lp reviewed elsewhere on this list, with its bros hanging out around the pool in khakis and flip flops cover art), but the label has definitely proved itself to be a reliable source for the sort of murky reverb drenched garage pop we've been digging so much lately, and this 7" from Frat Dad is just that, jangly, fuzzy, distorted power pop in garage rock's clothing, a sound that would most definitely appeal to fans of Ty Segall, Bare Wires, Thee Oh Sees, the same sort of hazy sixties vibe infused with that more modern retro thing that seems to be taking over. But it's a sound we dig, and these guys do it well. You might remember their tracks from the two Under Water Peoples Records compilations, and if you dug those, you'll dig these too.
The B-side is much more minimal and murky and moody and stripped down, spidery guitars, distorted vocals, shuffling drums, all woozy and washed out, with a distorted crunch of a chorus, and a killer hook. Which once again, just goes to show, you shouldn't judge a record by its dude/bro/frat rock cover.
Cool stuff.

GREEN, BILLY Stone (OST) (B-Music / Finders Keepers) 2lp 27.00
A recent Record Of The Week, NOW ON (IMPORT) VINYL!!
We've never seen this movie but if it's anything like the soundtrack, boy do we want to see it. It must be INSANE. And very, very groovy. 'Cause this is one trippy record, guitarist/composer Billy Green's psychedelic soundtrack to the 1974 biker flick Stone, today a cult classic (we hear it's out now on dvd, gotta find it!). It's from Australia, one of the early precursors to Mad Max in the so-called "Ozpolitation" genre (about which there's been a recent documentary that we also have to see!), doubtless full of violence, stunts, bikes, and girls.
We don't know much about the plot except that it involves the badass Gravediggers motorcycle gang (who, while as shaggy and dirty as any Hell's Angels, ride fancy new Japanese pocket rockets instead of the Harleys you might expect), characters with names like Dr. Death, Stone, Toad, Undertaker, Captain Midnight, most of whom get their own distinctive cues on the soundtrack. Beyond that, the liner notes mention acid trips and something about a political assassination, and well if you know what happens don't tell us 'cause we don't want to spoil anything for when/if we do see the film, we'll just enjoy the music for now!
Track one, the six minute, 35 second long "Eco Blue/Toadstrip" really dumps listeners in at the deep end, being a dark and unsettling musique concrete composition consisting of noisy electronic Moog synth bbrrzapp, and didgeridoo drone (ordinarily we detest the didge, but this IS an Australian movie), like a drug fuelled jam between aliens and aborigines. If you survive that (rather than report to the tent for those who ate the bad acid), the next track shifts mood considerably, being a funky freaky instrumental called "Race", full of wah-wah guitar and more electronic embellishments. Yep, just two tracks in and it's already totally awesome! As the disc continues, you'll get to hear all sorts of other strange and groovy sounds, including short interludes of sound effects and chanting ("Pigs"), lush, melancholic orchestration ("Cosmic Funeral"), bluegrass pickin' ("Septic"), classical strings and splashing cymbals ("Amanda"), Hendrix-y fuzzed fusion ("Stone"), mellow hippie blues-bliss ("Smoke"), heavy prog plus free jazz freakout ("Gravediggers"), and loads more that's either super groovy or super wacked, or both. Sometimes it sounds like a 'proper' film soundtrack, with the usual sort of suspenseful or sentimental cinematic stylings, but mostly it's all about sleazy, krautrocky chaos!
It's mostly instrumental, except for the bonus tracks, one which consists of dialogue from the film ("Hip's Rap"), one being a kinda cheesy soul-fuzz number ("Cosmic Flash"), and also two portentous versions of "Do Not Go Gentle (Rage)", a song based on the Dylan Thomas poem, set to music by Billy Green - we prefer the second one, sung by Jeannie Lewis, which was probably very important to the emotional impact of some crucial scene in the movie but here just seems awesomely over the top and incongruous.
The final bonus track is the audio from the original theatrical trailer for the movie, which starts off with someone screaming "SATAN!!!!!" followed by a dead pan voiceover intoning "Stone is a trip", and reciting further selling points, backed by a collage of sound effects and funky hard rock vamping, all snippets from the soundtrack. Again, it makes us want to see it... except, in a way, maybe we're realizing it's better to have the film exist (for us) only in our imaginations, 'cause the soundtrack is so far out it seems likely that the actual film couldn't possibly live up to it, could it? In any event, the soundtrack certainly stands by itself as a sizzlingly lysergic slice of '70s rock/electronic weirdness, part Bobby Beausoleil, part Amon Duul, a little bit Sly Stone, a little bit Sir Lord Baltimore... and altogether Stone(d).
Now, if you search on such keywords as "motorcycle gang", "fuzz", and "soundtrack" on our website, besides this you'll find our rave review of another Satanic motorcycle gang movie soundtrack that we ALSO made a Record Of The Week once upon a time, that'd be the music by John Cameron and session band Frog from the 1972 zombie biker flick Psychomania, reissued by Trunk some years back, and now sadly out of print again. Billy Green's Stone soundtrack is obviously the only thing that comes close. You could definitely file 'em together, Stone being a worthy successor (with a song called "Toad" instead of one called "The Frog"). It'd be a great double feature.
Also, remember that unusual series of Aussie psychedelic sixties/seventies surf movie soundtracks from the Japanese label EM, we listed a while back? The ones by Farm, Peter Martin & Finch, Tamam Shud, etc.? Though this is inspired by wheels rather than waves, and ain't so sunshiney, still fits in with the best of those.
Like we said, we've never seen Stone, though we want to. However, we've been fans of this soundtrack for some time. There was a previous, Australia-only compact disc reissue of this back in 1999, on the occasion of the film's 25th anniversary (which was celebrated with a 35,000 strong biker rally!). We were never really able to get any to stock though, so it's awesome to have this now, and it's been further expanded with additional bonus tracks. When we heard it was coming out again, we immediately thought, Record Of The Week. Finally folks everywhere will get a chance to hear this, and ride with Stone and the Gravediggers!
MPEG Stream: "Eco Blue / Toadstrip"
MPEG Stream: "Race"
MPEG Stream: "Amanda"
MPEG Stream: "Gravediggers"
MPEG Stream: "Stone Is A Trip (Trailer)"

HIGH ON FIRE Snakes For The Divine (E1) 2lp 26.00
Now on vinyl!
It's pretty much a given at this point: High On Fire can do no wrong. For over a decade now, they have been one of the most reliable and awesome metal bands on the planet... so reliable in fact, that it's easy to almost take them for granted. But every time a new album hits the streets, we have the same reaction, which includes foaming at the mouth, an increased heart rate, and the urge to destroy everything in sight. They're that good.
Snakes For The Divine is the band's first post-Relapse album, brought to us by E1 Entertainment, formerly Koch. Not sure what the deal is with this label, but the change has done the band some good for sure. The biggest surprise here is the slightly more polished production courtesy of hot shit producer Greg Fidelman, who you might remember from Slayer's recent World Painted Blood and, cough, Metallica's Death Magnetic. But fear not, because words like "polished" are really only used relative to the band's back catalog and do not in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER take away from the sonic beatdown Oakland's favorite sons have delivered since day one. They've just moved on, but there will be no mistaking who this is. Matt Pike's throatshredding vocals and guitar mastery (seriously, who else in metal today can rival this guy?) will tear you apart in the best way imaginable, and then you got the rhythm section, without question one of the best and most punishing in the biz. Des Kensel's intense whirlwind drumming and Jeff Matz's low end rumble are the perfect accompaniment for Pike's onslaught, making High On Fire sound like an uncontrollable force of nature, or maybe some ancient army storming across the mountains toward their ultimate victory. At the same time, this is the kind of metal that people who aren't really into heavier music can still dig, just because everything is done so perfectly. There's really nothing not to like here, and goddamn, this is some catchy stuff. Considering how brutal it is, that's definitely saying something. For a band that hasn't strayed too far from the sound they established early on, it's amazing that High On Fire can remain so vital and awesome. But they've once again delivered, in fact we'd go as far as to say that this is their best effort since 2002's Surrounded By Thieves, and we have no doubt Snakes For The Divine will have you raging into the next morning. Fuck yeah.
MPEG Stream: "Snakes For The Divine"
MPEG Stream: "Bastard Samurai"
MPEG Stream: "Fire Flood & Plague"

HOWE, CATHERINE What A Beautiful Place (Numero) lp 17.98
NOW AVAILABLE ON LP!!!
The Numero Group label starts 2007 on the softer side of things with this obscure British gem from singer Catherine Howe. For those of you who enjoyed the Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies Of The Canyon compilation, that the Numero Group released last year, then this might just be up your alley. Mellow and melancholic, Howe has a soulful voice that's similar to Dusty Springfield or Bobbie Gentry, underscored by soft orchestral jazz arrangements (courtesy of Bobby Scott) that remind us of early A&M records or John Cameron soundtracks like Kes. In fact this seems more like the kind of soft British album Trunk records would have re-issued, but that goes to show what an unpredictable label Numero Group really is. Recorded for Reflection Records in 1971, What A Beautiful Place sank into obscurity when the label folded shortly thereafter. While we have never heard of her before this, Howe recorded two more albums after this one and has recently started recording again. This is a perfect record for a rainy day or Sunday morning with a nice hot cup of tea.
MPEG Stream: "Up North"
MPEG Stream: "What A Beautiful Place"

POCAHAUNTED Make It Real (Not Not Fun) cd 14.98
Now available on cd!
The return of the female dronenoise dynamic duo, often referred to as the Olsen Twins of noiserock (not sure if that's a dis, or if they came up with it themselves), it's unclear if the band ever actually broke up, but regardless, Make It Real marks the duo's first record in a while.
The most noticeable difference here are the vocals, and well, the songs too, dialed back for the most part is the hazy drugged out psychedelia of old, and in its place is something much more rock, more fuzzy and propulsive and less abstract and spacey. From the first song, it almost sounds classic rock, big echoey drums, heavily reverbed guitars, fuzzy garagey organ, and some full on sixties girl group style vocals, finding their new sound more aligned with groups like Dum Dum Girls, the Beets, Brilliant Colors, Vivian Girls, than with their more tripped out labelmates. The sound suits them for sure, and even in their early days, they still dabbled in this kind of hazy psych-pop, it's just more pronounced here. The druggy groove of the Doors is all over this record (or for a more contemporary reference, Wooden Shjips or the Moon Duo), but things also get more jagged and angular as Pocahaunted channel some old school eighties post punk.
Definitely cool, just be prepared for more song and less space, more rock and less drift, it for sure sounds like maybe the shift in sound was organic, the seeds sewn on past records blossoming here, born from a natural progression, from sound to song, making both the recorded, and the live Pocahaunted experience, much more rocking and danceable. Which is not at all a bad thing.
MPEG Stream: "Touch You"
MPEG Stream: "Make It Real"
MPEG Stream: "U.F.O."

SKITLIV Skandinavisk Misantropi (Season Of Mist) lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl!
The first proper release from these Swedish metal misanthropes. Their last release, Amfetamin, while quite excellent, was more of a compilation, with only two studio tracks, the others recorded live, and thus wasn't super cohesive.
But that's not a problem here. We weren't sure what to expect really, considering our only exposure to Skitliv previously was the aforementioned Amfetamin, but whatever it is we thought we might here, this is way better, heavier, darker, catchier and creepier, which shouldn't be that much of a surprise really, after all, guitarist Kvarforth plays in Shining, Ondskapt, Manes, Den Saakaldte among others, and the band features Mayhem's Maniac on vocals, and this record in particular features a pretty bad ass set of guests, Gaahl, formerly of Gorgoroth, Attila (also of Mayhem, as well as Aborym and Tormentor), and of course David Tibet from Current 93, who also guested on the first record.
On Amfetamin, Skitliv trafficked in a sort of stumbling abstract doom, and that doom vibe is definitely present here, but the sound is at once more blackened, and more melodic, the grim riffing and harsh vokills wrapped around almost Lifelover style minor key melodies, the songs super catchy, almost like a black metal My Dying Bride or a more well produced Hypothermia, some of the tracks slipping into minimal moody drifts, creeping black ambience, and almost post rock sounding skitter, while all around, clouds of strange effects and processed electronics swirl and swoop, giving the proceedings a definite spaced out vibe.
David Tibet's contribution is immediately recognizable, his track sounding like a black metal Current 93, haunting and otherworldly, his manic vocals over clean guitars, even some piano, before the song explodes in a frenzy of howling buzz.
Elsewhere the tracks occasionally burst into full on blasting blackness, but just as often splinter into a swirling hazy almost pop sounding plod, with cool harmonized guitar leads, and more melancholic melodies. The record closes with the epic "ScumDrug", a smoldering gothic doomscape, all clean guitar, tinkling pianos, growling demonic vocals and distant distorted riffage, a woozy cabaret crawl that eventually morphs into a freaky collaged outro, all garbled voices and rumbling low end pulses, squalls of white noise hiss, and mysterious gurgles, an appropriately twisted ending to a seriously twisted record.
MPEG Stream: "Slow Pain Coming"
MPEG Stream: "Hollow Devotion"
MPEG Stream: "Skandinavisk Misantropi"

SOFT PACK, THE s/t (Kemado) 8x7" 35.00
We're almost sold out of these super deluxe 7" boxsets from the Soft Pack, a special Record Store Day release, which features the band's self titled debut, on multiple 7"s, including a bonus single with two unreleased tracks! Grab one while you can. Pretty sure we won't be able to get more. Here's what we had to say about the record when it first came out:
We've been going a little Soft Pack crazy lately, with the recent spate of releases from these guys, a 7" with a killer Cure cover, a 4 song 12", as well as a repress of their first record, recorded back when they were called The Muslims, their hooky jangle and stripped down garage pop just totally hitting the spot. Long touted as the next big thing, it's hard not to see how they WOULDN'T be, their sound right at home alongside the Strokes, probably the band they sound most like, sunshiney, jangly garage pop with drawled vox, each song only two or three parts, total classic power pop, but given a sort of modern day slacker makeover. Opener "C'Mon" is equal parts frantic jangle and Strokes-y indie sunglasses jangle pop, "Down On Loving" is a loping punk rock garage groove, laid back, but super rocking, with call and response vocals, but it's "Answer To Yourself", also on the recently reviewed 12" that is the stone cold hit here, a little like a way more rocking Hoodoo Gurus, surf guitars, and world weary vocals, garagey, with pounding muted verses and a soaring chorus, the Strokes vibe here is HUGE, but hell, those guys were awesome popsmiths, and these guys are too, and this is a killer jam, the one we find ourselves listening to over and over and over.
But don't get stuck for too long, or you'll miss out on a whole mess of other pop gems, tribal shuffling grooves, frantic clean guitar strumming, loads of jangle, simple bouncy basslines, shimmering synths, and hooks galore, every song more catchy than the last, not sure what's keeping these guys from blowing up, maybe it's the fact that they're not super hipster hunky, instead just regular dorky dudes, but hopefully that won't dissuade the rest world from getting hip to these guys.
Even if for some weird reason we felt like resisting, bucking the Soft Pack hype, not sure we could stop listening. Totally addictive, stripped down, jangly, garage pop bliss. WAY RECOMMENDED!! Now we can go back and play "Answer To Yourself" for about the tenth time today...
MPEG Stream: "C'Mon"
MPEG Stream: "Down On Loving"
MPEG Stream: "Answer To Yourself"

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V/A The BYG Deal (B-Music / Finders Keepers) 2lp 27.00
NOW ON (IMPORT) VINYL!
For a lot of us, buying comps and reissues and stuff put out by Finders Keepers / B-Music is pretty much a no-brainer. These folks know their stuff. They can DJ for us anytime! So mentioning that The BYG Deal is the latest from 'em might be all we need to say, though dropping some names like Brigitte Fontaine, Jean-Claude Vannier, Daevid Allen & Gong, Giorgio Gomelsky, Robert Wyatt, Vangelis, Ame Son, and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago couldn't hurt. Or perhaps a name like Inter-Groupie Psychotherapeutic Elastic Band - never heard of 'em before, no, but they've gotta be good, right!!? (And they are, their track "Floating" anyway being a blissful bit of la-la-la space psych ceremony).
What we have here is a collection of tracks released by France's BYG, a post '68 radical rock/jazz label that flourished 'til about 1974. We'd heard of 'em before mainly in conjunction with the famed BYG/Actuel series of African-American jazz releases, stuff by the Art Ensemble, Don Cherry, Sunny Murray, etc. But this disc demonstrates that BYG (which according to one graphic here stands for Beautiful Young Generation, though elsewhere we're told it's the initials of the three label owners) was as much about psychedelic pop rock and groovy "hairy funk" as it was about avant-garde free jazz... an awesome blend in our opinion, and blend they do, some of these tracks really hard to classify. Maybe it's the "Total Space Music" of which they speak. In any case, whatever discotheque played this stuff must have been REALLY hip and happenin'.
The music here is almost all super groovy, but often quite quirky too (take Gong's circusy nursery rhyme freakout "Hip Hypnotise You" for instance!), these various tracks loaded with flute, orgasmic female vocals, heavy psych guitar, and equally heavy prog organ (running wild alongside frenetically shuffling drums on Vangelis' "Stuffed Tomato", for example, among many standout spots here). From chanteuse Valerie Lagrange's ye-ye grooves to the poppy psychedelic stomp of Coeur Magique to Banana Moon's Beefheartian crunt, this is pretty far out and awesome.
Here's the complete lineup of artists appearing here: Alice (2 tracks), Francois Wertheimer, Brigitte Fontaine and Areski, Gong (3 tracks), Alan Jack, Couer Magique (2 tracks), Valerie Lagrange, Jacques Barsamian, Alpha Beta, Ame Son (2 tracks), Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Freedom, Vangelis, Paul Semana, Inter-Groupie Psychotherapeutic Elastic Band, Banana Moon, Joachim and Rolf Kuhn. Yep, the disc is crammed, 22 tracks, almost 80 minutes, and the thick cd booklet is equally full up with full color graphics and extensive liner notes, it's amazing the compilers could dig up so much info on this stuff, considering how obscure a lot of this is, but that's their biz!
There's a few tracks you could have run across elsewhere on other reissues, but most of 'em you haven't, that's for damn sure. For instance, the awesomely named track "Astral Abuse" from the rare 7" by Alpha Beta, a one-off Vangelis project. And there's plenty more from other collector's-only, never before on cd sources.
If you liked other B-music compilations like Andy Votel's Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, this ought to be right up your alley. Likewise if you enjoyed the two Pop Made In France comps we've listed, this is a bit like those (some of the same artists appear, in fact) but way weirder. And of course any fan of Jean-Pierre Massiera's strange productions is gonna find this of interest as well... in fact there's personnel connections to his Visitors project, and connections also to the likes of Magma and Aphrodite's Child for that matter.
Another keeper from Finders Keepers that's for sure!
MPEG Stream: BRIGITTE FONTAINE AND ARESKI "Ca Va Faire Un Hit"
MPEG Stream: ALAN JACK CIVILIZATION "Ny Change Rien"
MPEG Stream: INTER-GROUPIE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC ELASTIC BAND "Floating"
MPEG Stream: JOACHIM AND ROLF KUHN "Bloody Rockers"

V/A Willow Songs (Finders Keepers) 2lp 27.00
NOW ON (IMPORT) VINYL!
The original Wicker Man movie has got to be one of our all time favorite films as well as pretty much one of our all time favorite soundtracks. The movie falls into an elusive subgenre of psych-folk films like The Ballad of Tam-Lin, or Herzog's Heart of Glass, that mix pre-Christian folkloric musical elements and themes with a modern or counter-cultural revivalism often with darkly beautiful and sometimes terrifying results. There is no doubt that the Wicker Man as both a film and soundtrack was a key touchstone in the recent freak-folk movement. That the songs featured on that soundtrack with all their barely concealed bawdyness and lyrical waxing of the cycles of nature, sexuality and death were actually based on traditional British folk music is at this point no surprise either. Finder's Keepers does a lovely job here collecting much of the traditional material that formed the basis for the songs performed in the Wicker Man movie. Although the most remembered song from that movie, "Willow's Song" was not traditionally based, it's the song that let us into the perverse mysticism of the movie's characters and made us pay attention to the duplicitous meanings found in the traditional material. Here, that song is represented by a beautiful instrumental version taken from the original soundtrack recordings but not featured on the actual soundtrack release. The cd also features traditional versions of "Corn Rigs", based on a Robert Burns poem, "Gently, Johnny", the Maypole song "Rattlin' Bog", and "Highland Lament", as well as children's songs and instrumental jigs.
MPEG Stream: "Highland Lament"
MPEG Stream: "Gently Johnny, My Jingalo"
MPEG Stream: "Willow's Song (Instrumental)"
MPEG Stream: "Willy O'Winsbury"

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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
ARCHITEUTHIS REX "Dark As The Sea" (Utech) cd 14.98
BECKMAN, ERICKA "135 Grand Street New York 1979" (Soul Jazz Films) dvd 16.98
BON NO KUBO "s/t" (PSF) cd 16.98
BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY & THE CAIRO GANG "The Wonder Show Of The World" (Palace / Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/17.98
CASSIS CORNUTA "Mag Ik Eens Even In Uw Broek Pissen?" (Ultra Eczema) lp 30.00
CORNERSHOP "Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast" cd 15.98
COUNT RAVEN "Mammon's War" (I Hate Records) cd 15.98
DEAD MEADOW "Three Kings" (Xemu) cd + dvd/lp + dvd 21.00/35.00
DECREPITAPH "Beyond The Cursed Tomb" (Razorback) cd 10.98
ENDTABLES, THE "s/t" (Drag City) cd 14.98
FLEURY-STEINER, BEN "Keep A Weather Eye Open" (Infraction) cd 16.98
FLUXION "Perfused" (echocord) cd 16.98
GREY, RUDOLPH "The Real Evelyn McHale?" (Foreign Frequency) 7" 6.50
HOME BLITZ "Perpetual Night" (Almost Ready) 7" 7.98
JARNOW, AL "Celestial Navigations: The Short Films Of Al Jarnow" (Numero) dvd 28.00
JAWBREAKER "Dear You" (Blackball) 2lp 15.98
JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, THE "Darklands" (Plain) lp 17.98
JUCIFER "Throned In Blood" (Alternative Tentacles) lp 13.98
LANDSCAPE "From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars .... To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus" (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
LITTLE RICHARD "Here's Little Richard" (Doxy) lp 24.00
MOUNT EERIE "Fog Movies Live" (P.W. Elverum & Sun) dvd-r 15.98
MOUNT FUJI DOOM JAZZ CORPORATION "Succubus" (Ad Noiseam) cd 23.00
NEGURA BUNGET "Maiastru Sfetnic" (Lupus Lounge) cd 15.98
NOISE NOMADS "s/t" (Ultra Eczema) lp 30.00
NOTIC NASTIC "It's Dark But It's Okay" (Steadyworks) cd 16.98
ONNA "Katawa" (PSF) cd 16.98
ORTHODOX "Sentencia" (Alone Records) cd 21.00
OTTO; OR, UP WITH DEAD PEOPLE "OST" (Crippled Dick Hot Wax!) cd 17.98
PRIESTESS "Prior To The Fire" (Tee Pee) cd 15.98
ROSE, JACK & GLENN JONES "The Things That We used To Do" (Strange Attractions) dvd 20.00
SERPENT'S KNIGHT "Silent Knight...Of Myth And Destiny" 2cd 17.98
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
SPIN "May 2010" magazine 4.99
SWEET APPLE "Love & Desperation" (Tee Pee) cd 14.98
TAINT "All Bees To The Sea" (Destructure) cd/lp 16.98/22.00
TEKHTON "Alluvial" (Church Within) cd 16.98
V/A "135 Grand Street New York 1979" (Soul Jazz) cd 14.98
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
VHS HEAD "Video Club" (Skam) cd 9.98
WALLS "s/t" (Kompakt) lp/lp+cd 15.98/15.98

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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

----} real soon or something
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
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
Cathedral "The Guessing Game" 2cd on Nuclear Blast

----} May 4th
Woods "At Echo Lake" cd/lp on Woodsist
The New Pornographers "Together" cd/lp on Matador
The Austerity Program "Backsliders And Apostates Will Burn" cd on Hydra Head
Lazer Crystal "MCMLXXX" cd/lp on Thrill Jockey

----} May 18th
Daniel Higgs "Say God" 2cd/2lp on Thrill Jockey
Simon Scott "Traba" mini-lp on Immune

----} May 25th
Master Musicians Of Bukkake "Totem Two" cd/lp on Conspiracy

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

----} June 15th
Oval "Oh" 12" on Thrill Jockey
Jack Rose with D. Charles Speer & the Helix "Ragged and Right" cdep/12" on Thrill Jockey

----} also in June 
Xasthur "Portal" vinyl on Hydra Head

----} 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
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
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
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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COMMON LOON

Elbo Room on Wed. May 12th @ 9pm
w/Beehive Spirit and Alright
$6 day of show only.

We loved Common Loon's most recent record:

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!

Should be a great show. Don't miss it.

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickSallyJonandAndrew