DEUTSCHE WERTARBEIT s/t (Medical Records) lp 19.98
We can probably count the major female figures of Krautrock on one hand. Most of them like Rosi Mueller of Ash Ra Tempel, Renate Knaup from Amon Duul II, Djong Yun from Popol Vuh, or Sabine Merbach from Gila were either singers or muses for their male-led bands. And don't even mention Clara Mondshine, which was a pseudonym for Walter Bachauer, a very real actual man. But even among those women, you don't find too many female krautrock composers. Actually, we really couldn't think of any, offhand. Can you? If so, please enlighten!
Thankfully, the brand new reissue label, Medical Records, who has bolted out the gate running with not only one but two amazing (and amazingly limited!) vinyl-only reissues, sets the record straight! The other reissue, Alexander Robotnick, reviewed elsewhere on this list, is a weirdo Italo-disco / French electro classic we've known about for awhile and we're super psyched to see finally reissued. But this one, Deutsche Wertarbeit , the solo project of Dorothea Raukes, is altogether completely new to us and what a fantastic discovery it is!
Released on Sky Records in 1981, Deutsche Wertarbeit was Raukes' first solo effort after years of being the singer for a German Progressive band we're not familiar with called Streetmark, who started in 1968, and released 4 lps between 1976 and 1981. Two of those were also released on Sky Records and one of them was even recorded in collaboration with Wolfgang Riechmann, the same year he was murdered. What? Really? Why didn't we know of this already? Just goes to show, there are still many treasures to be unearthed.
And if you dug Wolfgang Riechmann's Wunderbar reissue, that we raved about awhile back, or Klaus Schultze, Tangerine Dream, Cluster, Peter Baumann, or even some of the later Manuel Gottsching recordings such as New Age of Earth, then add Deutsche Wertarbeit to the essential kosmiche synthscape canon. But while she definitely fits in with those artists, she carves out her own defining sound of warm minimal hypnotic rhythms and vocoder voicings that display a joyous exhuberance you don't see as much in artists like Schultze or Baumann. In fact this would fit in well with the stuff on that Dirty Space Disco comp, as it sounds like a mystical combination of Vangelis and Popol Vuh, expansive and cosmic, upliftingly propulsive while keeping it all beautifully reigned in.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each 180 gram colored vinyl and hand-numbered. We're not sure how long we'll have these, so don't wait too long. Highest Recommendation!!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Guten Abend Leute"
MPEG Stream: "Auf Engelsflugeln"
MPEG Stream: "Der Grosse Atem"

FNS s/t (Miasmah) cd 15.98
Another fantastic Miasmah release, this one from FNS, aka Fredrik Ness Sandoval, who besides playing in a whole bunch of Norwegian bands we've never heard of, has collaborated with members of Acid Mothers Temple, 1/3 Octave Band, the Cranes, Zeni Geva, and Marble Sheep, but here on his solo debut, Sandoval crafts a gorgeous expanse of minimal psychedelic folk, that reminds us both of local dronefolk duo Barn Owl, but also space kraut astral travelers Expo 70.
Imagine folk music transformed into druggy drifty dreamy space ragas, and you'll be getting close, acoustic guitars unfurl gorgeous trancelike stretches of almost Appalachia like strum, while all around, effects swirl, other guitars are layered and woven into the original guitar, creating fantastical stretches of psychedelic drift, of abstract dronekraut minimalism, all infused with a subtle pathos, even the sunshiniest of the tracks here, brood with a somber undercurrent. The record opener sets the stage perfectly, an acoustic guitars strums a melancholy chord progression, while another guitar churns and chugs, a rhythmic counterpoint to the woozy drift of the acoustic, this undulating space raga is laced with tinkling chimes, swooping backwards effects, all wreathed in a sort of otherworldly shimmer, and allowed to loop and repeat and mesmerize, growing subtly more intense and loud, but never fully letting loose, instead, eventually shedding all the extra guitars and strange production, leaving just the warm strummed acoustic, and little streaks of backwards swoop. We say it a lot, but Sandoval could have stretched that out to 40 or 50 minutes and we'd STILL be raving about it. And that applies to all the tracks here.
"Sappelur" is a smoldering blackened dirge, roiling clouds of processed buzz, muted feedback, lots of layered tones and lush chordal blur, a lovely blown out psychedelic haze that just throbs and pulses and drifts, right into "Wooden Leg", which returns to the folk of the album opener, but unlike that track, the progression here is much more subtle, it's nearly 2 or 3 minutes before a strange drone begins to surface, along with gorgeous angelic female vocals, soon male vocals join in as well, not singing so much as sort of crooning along, the result is a darker, more menacing take on classic seventies British acid folk.
"I Think She's Asleep" is more abstract, a gorgeous shimmery dreamscape, all layered tones, and pulled apart melodies, haunting and otherwordly, hushed and lovely, very reminiscent of folks like Machinefabriek and Jasper TX. "Dream" is surprisingly less dreamy, sounding instead like some strange sonic ritual, spidery guitars wrapped around twisted damaged electronics, while the vocals transform the sound into something almost liturgical, lots of reverb and echo, as if it were being performed in some massive black cathedral, the effects swirling and swooping, and pushing the sound into the realms of spacekrautdrone for sure.
Finally, the record closes with the epic 12 minute "Flaggermusvingers Vift I Dimmet", which again begins as a slowly unfurling lush sprawl of melancholy Appalachia, all minor key and mournful, while just below the surface, some thick blackened buzzing is birthed, and as the track progresses, it grows more and more caustic, roiling and churning, eventually nearly swallowing the Appalachia whole, transforming the sound into some washed out doomgaze, all woozy and swirly, the low end swells laced with tangled psychedelic melodies, before dropping out completely, leaving just a soft focus cloud of distant reverbed shimmer, a distant cosmic vibration, that seems to gradually fade, like the stars disappearing behind the clouds.
Dark and dreamy and druggy and so so gorgeous... For fans of Expo 70, Svarte Greiner, Barn Owl, Jacaszek, Nadja, Jasper TX, Machinefabriek, Fear Falls Burning and other purveyors of doomfolk, krautdrone, spacefolk and all sorts of abstract minimal guitarscapery...
MPEG Stream: "Silence To Say Hello"
MPEG Stream: "Flaggermusvingers Vift I Dimmet"
MPEG Stream: "Dream"
MPEG Stream: "I Think She's Asleep"

FNS s/t (Miasmah) lp 19.98
Another fantastic Miasmah release, this one from FNS, aka Fredrik Ness Sandoval, who besides playing in a whole bunch of Norwegian bands we've never heard of, has collaborated with members of Acid Mothers Temple, 1/3 Octave Band, the Cranes, Zeni Geva, and Marble Sheep, but here on his solo debut, Sandoval crafts a gorgeous expanse of minimal psychedelic folk, that reminds us both of local dronefolk duo Barn Owl, but also space kraut astral travelers Expo 70.
Imagine folk music transformed into druggy drifty dreamy space ragas, and you'll be getting close, acoustic guitars unfurl gorgeous trancelike stretches of almost Appalachia like strum, while all around, effects swirl, other guitars are layered and woven into the original guitar, creating fantastical stretches of psychedelic drift, of abstract dronekraut minimalism, all infused with a subtle pathos, even the sunshiniest of the tracks here, brood with a somber undercurrent. The record opener sets the stage perfectly, an acoustic guitars strums a melancholy chord progression, while another guitar churns and chugs, a rhythmic counterpoint to the woozy drift of the acoustic, this undulating space raga is laced with tinkling chimes, swooping backwards effects, all wreathed in a sort of otherworldly shimmer, and allowed to loop and repeat and mesmerize, growing subtly more intense and loud, but never fully letting loose, instead, eventually shedding all the extra guitars and strange production, leaving just the warm strummed acoustic, and little streaks of backwards swoop. We say it a lot, but Sandoval could have stretched that out to 40 or 50 minutes and we'd STILL be raving about it. And that applies to all the tracks here.
"Sappelur" is a smoldering blackened dirge, roiling clouds of processed buzz, muted feedback, lots of layered tones and lush chordal blur, a lovely blown out psychedelic haze that just throbs and pulses and drifts, right into "Wooden Leg", which returns to the folk of the album opener, but unlike that track, the progression here is much more subtle, it's nearly 2 or 3 minutes before a strange drone begins to surface, along with gorgeous angelic female vocals, soon male vocals join in as well, not singing so much as sort of crooning along, the result is a darker, more menacing take on classic seventies British acid folk.
"I Think She's Asleep" is more abstract, a gorgeous shimmery dreamscape, all layered tones, and pulled apart melodies, haunting and otherwordly, hushed and lovely, very reminiscent of folks like Machinefabriek and Jasper TX. "Dream" is surprisingly less dreamy, sounding instead like some strange sonic ritual, spidery guitars wrapped around twisted damaged electronics, while the vocals transform the sound into something almost liturgical, lots of reverb and echo, as if it were being performed in some massive black cathedral, the effects swirling and swooping, and pushing the sound into the realms of spacekrautdrone for sure.
Finally, the record closes with the epic 12 minute "Flaggermusvingers Vift I Dimmet", which again begins as a slowly unfurling lush sprawl of melancholy Appalachia, all minor key and mournful, while just below the surface, some thick blackened buzzing is birthed, and as the track progresses, it grows more and more caustic, roiling and churning, eventually nearly swallowing the Appalachia whole, transforming the sound into some washed out doomgaze, all woozy and swirly, the low end swells laced with tangled psychedelic melodies, before dropping out completely, leaving just a soft focus cloud of distant reverbed shimmer, a distant cosmic vibration, that seems to gradually fade, like the stars disappearing behind the clouds.
Dark and dreamy and druggy and so so gorgeous... For fans of Expo 70, Svarte Greiner, Barn Owl, Jacaszek, Nadja, Jasper TX, Machinefabriek, Fear Falls Burning and other purveyors of doomfolk, krautdrone, spacefolk and all sorts of abstract minimal guitarscapery...
MPEG Stream: "Silence To Say Hello"
MPEG Stream: "Flaggermusvingers Vift I Dimmet"
MPEG Stream: "Dream"
MPEG Stream: "I Think She's Asleep"

PAN SONIC Gravitoni (Blast First Petite) cd 17.98
Here stands the final report from Finnish electronic music masters Pan Sonic, a heavy, super distorted, seriously aggressive swansong, as Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen have decided to call it quits, years after releasing their first ep on the now seminal Sakho label. Moire patterns of phase-shifting bleeps and spiralling waves held their Sputnik orbits around punishingly simple techno drum programming in their earliest incarnation, with much of their gear being hand-built or repurposed from Russian technology that occasionally crossed the border into Finland. Hence, the Pan Sonic take on techno has always been unique compared to even the most innovative of techno producers, with their typical arsenal of Roland gear. Throughout those 16 years, the rhythms of Pan Sonic have shifted away from the techno monophunk and towards a mechano-electro swagger. Ghosts of Suicide's rockabilly influence, the industrial foundations laid by Throbbing Gristle, and the psychoacoustics transmitted from Xenakis' electronic scores all manifest within Pan Sonic. Much of the poetics of the group's sound are based on the tiniest of objects, amplified through extraordinary means as to express the sublime power of X-rays, radio waves, and the energy housed within the atom itself. The title Gravitoni refers to a hypothetical particle that has been predicted within quantum physics to be related to gravitational force and its correlative relationship to spacetime.
The album begins with the Pan Sonic duo revving their electrical engines and expelling visceral riffs of cathode-ray noise grafted upon urgent breakbeat rhythms whose pace hurtles down the path of linear particle accelerators, smashing into anything that gets in their way. But gradually, the album sublimates the rhythm amidst arctic reverberations of electrical pings cast against the walls of a huge metallic chamber. This progression from the claustrophobic to the expansive harkens to Pan Sonic's masterful 4cd boxset Kesto which took a similar sonic route and which positions Gravitoni as a fantastic finale to an incredible career. So recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Voltos Bolt"
MPEG Stream: "Hades"
MPEG Stream: "Pan Finale"

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ALKERDEEL De Spleenzalvinge (At War With False Noise) cd 13.98
Brand new record from these blackened Belgian weirdoes, whose sound has changed dramatically from our first exposure to these guys, the grim noisy Luizig cassette, releases on Silvester Anfang's Funeral Folk label, which seemed apt at the time, a raw grim lo-fi sort of abstract black metal, along the lines of the blown out primitive fury of groups like Bone Awl and Akitsa, everything in-the-red, blown out and utterly chaotic and noise drenched. Not sure if you can just chalk it up to the natural progress of a band, but the now out of print 3" cd-r on Universal Tongue found the band shifting their sound considerably, tighter, not so distorted or damaged, yet they managed to make this shift and remain as head cavingly baffling as ever. Which thankfully remains the case here, three new loooong tracks of stripped down trancelike minimal black metal, that sounds almost more like some sort of noiserock or noisy krautrock. The band lock in a riff, and a blasting beat, and just pound away on it, over and over and over, the sound gloriously murky and muddy and blown out, the only things that really change are the vocals, which howl and mewl and shriek, occasionally becoming engulfed in reverb or delay (dub style) and spinning into a swirling cloud or processed voices, and the drums which shift from minimal pound, to super sizzly cymbal driven cacophony, the opening track finds the band spending most of their time pounding away relentlessly, only to shift gears about halfway through, get a little doomy, and then shift gears again and get all abstract and spaced out, sounding more like some weird sort of underground post punk band that any sort of black metal band. They do of course return to the murky muddy pound that started things off, only to stumble and collapse into heap of feedback and black buzz.
The second track is a super stripped down, minimal chunk of slowcore, abstract, doomy, but not heavy, just simple drumming, and skeletal guitars, it does eventually lurch into something more heavy, filthy and crusty, with sick vomited vokills and super distorted downtuned crunch, but it quickly slips right back into that doomy dirge complete with Sabbath style basslines, eventually exploding into a weirdly proggy almost Voivod sounding black metal workout, with long stretches of woozy bass driven doomy drift, and some super dense blowouts of churning riffage that is more dronelike than metal-like.
The final track is a 29 minute juggernaut, which begins with a cloud of grinding low end blackness, the drums eventually coming in, creating some sort of motorik hypnorock blackmetal dronedirge, which splinters into something way more frenzied and chaotic, and from there, the track is constantly shifting, long stretches of cinematic strings and mysterious samples, Khanate like ultradoom, more meandering downtuned metallic post rock, super spaced out minimal sludge, laced with ethereal vocals, and weirdly melancholy melodies, bursts of bass heavy prog, some Burzumic black metal, and finally a blast of frantic almost D-beat sounding blackened fury that finishes things off.
Another fantastic and fucked up batch of damaged doom and abstract avant black metal weirdness, needless to say this is the kind of shit that we live for. WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

AURVANDIL Ferd (Cold Void Emanations) cassette 7.98
The first we heard from French black metal crew Aurvandil was on a recent split with the Weakling worshipping Dead As Dreams, we described them as sounding very Norwegian, very Burzumic, drum machined buzzy midtempo blackness, and we were definitely primed to hear more, which brings us to this, the latest from Aurvandil, released on the same label as the Murmuure raved about elsewhere on this list, Aurvandil is not nearly as twisted or bizarre, but still totally slays. After a lengthy folky almost Viking sounding intro, all lilting acoustic guitar and programmed drum machine, the band burst into a buzzing electrified version of the same song, an odd way to kick off your record, especially considering that the next track EXPLODES in a frenzy of impossibly blasting frantic blackness, the programmed drums so fast they almost become a drone, the guitars frenetically riffing along, totally trancelike, a series of swells, beyond the furious buzz and black blast, it's mesmerizing and hypnotic and relentless, even when the track shifts gears, it's to another strangely frenzied blast, but it's not that simple, the guitars are still buzzing madly, but beneath the guitar a melancholic synth drifts and shimmers, and then the drums and vokills come back in, and it's a weird, hard to describe black metal that is impossibly intense, but also washed out and dreamy, a totally strange combo, that could not work, but instead, transforms this into some sort of ambient blackness, that still buzzes and blasts, but without shattering the strange spellbinding energy the songs invoke. There are strings, and cellos, and mysterious voices, the arrangements seem simple, but they are definitely simple in unexpected ways. The record finishes off with another weirdly folky chunk of blasting blackness, but the three songs in between those folky bookends, nearly 30 minutes, are an incredible suite of psychedelic avant trancelike black metal dronemusic, that would probably be ranking first in our new black metal obsessions, if it weren't for that Murmuure, but hell, it's a seriously close second!
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, these are the last of these we'll ever see...

BAKER, AIDAN Songs Of Flowers And Skin (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 16.98
Originally released (albeit only digitally) in 2005, Songs Of Flowers & Skin reveals a side of Aidan Baker we love, but only rarely get to see, and it's his slowcore side, channeling the spirit of groups like Codeine and Bedhead and Seam, creating dark, drifting slow motion pop songs, that creep and crawl and unfurl gorgeously and gradually. Like we said, those moments do surface in his discography, especially solo, where he seems more inclined to introspection and less to doomgaze, but this record offers up a whole disc of proper songs, slow, languorous, dark, haunting, melancholy songs, with singing and lyrics and proper rock band instrumentation, augmented by trumpet and violin, it's really quite lovely.
The record opens with "Skin Like Sand", a serpentine guitar figure wraps around simple minimal skeletal drumming, vocals are crooned softly, actually sung, but this IS Aidan Baker, so it's not nearly that simple, the track is laced with bits of glitch, streaks of crackle, and the vocals are strangely processed, so in the background, little vocal snippets echo the main voice, making it sound ghostly and dreamlike. The next few tracks get almost jazzy sounding, upping the tempo a bit, but keeping the mood dour and depressive, "Dance Dance Dance" is a smoky trumpet flecked ballad, all reverbed guitar and sizzling cymbals, "Second Selves" sounds almost Spanish, a little bit of a Morricone vibe, a regal almost march, the horns and strings, sweeping and dramatic, very cinematic, "Take Me Out Of My" is another skittery slow groove, that sounds almost like it could be American Music Club, if it weren't for the strange static and whirling organ drones.
Almost the entire second half of the disc is taken up by the nearly half hour long "Flowerskin" (although some of that is silence hiding a secret track, more on that in a second), begins as a slowly building driftscape of long tones, mysterious electronic glitches and truncated rhythms, before the song proper kicks in, another brooding meander, the glitch and crackle and hiss even more pronounced here, sometimes almost blotting out the song completely, there is an almost Nadja worthy climax, but it's more soft focus and subdued, a swirling cloud of warm washed out drones and tangled streaks of buzz, before sputtering out and leaving nothing but silence. Which is eventually supplanted by a gorgeously dark and melancholy dirge folk ballad, just acoustic guitar and vocals, hushed and haunting and quite beautiful.
Maybe not for the Nadja doombliss dronemetal obsessives, but fans of past AB solo outings, as well as anyone into dark, intimate, minimal slowcore and dark brooding doom pop, will definitely want to check this out.
MPEG Stream: "Sand Like Skin"
MPEG Stream: "Feed Me Yr Kiss"
MPEG Stream: "Dance Dance Dance"

BARE WIRES Seeking Love (Castle Face) cd 13.98
We love Matthew Melton, we love his Band Snake Flower 2, and we love these guys, Bare Wires. Melton is a master of pop songs, no matter how they're presented, whether as the druggy heavy Hawkwind / Monster Magnet space rock of Snake Flower 2, or the classic sixties garage jangle of Bare Wires, every song is perfectly crafted, melodic, catchy as fuck, super rocking. Even totally stripped down the songs get lodged in your head like crazy.
So here's the latest from Bare Wires, and Melton and Co.'s influences are even more obviously on display this time around, the Kinks, the Who, the Flamin' Groovies, classic seventies power pop, the Shoes, the Nerves, the Diodes, all bands we've referenced before with Melton, but considering how many modern retro garage rock outfits there are, it's a little fascinating that so many rely more on sound and production and attitude and vibe, than on songcraft, so when someone is approaching garage rock with impeccable songcraft, well, it doesn't take much to leave the rest of those bands in the dust, which these guys most certainly do.
On Seeking love, not only are the songs great, but the sound and the production seem totally vintage, if you played this for some garage rock collector and told them this was some lost 7" from some unknown group in the seventies, they would absolutely buy it. And the thing is, the sound suits the song. Sure, someone could have recorded these songs on a boombox, and run the whole thing through a million distortion boxes, and buried the vocals in reverb, and mastered it so all the levels were WAY in the red, and the legions of modern warped garage pop obsessive would be flipping their lids, but at the risk of sounding like your mother, why go to such lengths to disguise a fantastic song, and fuck all that noise, any on can spit out some generic by the numbers rock and roll, and fuck it up enough that it sounds twisted and far out and innovative, and probably people won't notice the lack of songs, but with a batch of songs this catchy, and groovy and jangly and goddamn great, well nothing to do but strap on the headphones and rock the fuck out!
MPEG Stream: "Seeking Love"
MPEG Stream: "Young Love"
MPEG Stream: "Romantic Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Family Heat"

BARE WIRES Seeking Love (Castle Face) lp 13.98
We love Matthew Melton, we love his Band Snake Flower 2, and we love these guys, Bare Wires. Melton is a master of pop songs, no matter how they're presented, whether as the druggy heavy Hawkwind / Monster Magnet space rock of Snake Flower 2, or the classic sixties garage jangle of Bare Wires, every song is perfectly crafted, melodic, catchy as fuck, super rocking. Even totally stripped down the songs get lodged in your head like crazy.
So here's the latest from Bare Wires, and Melton and Co.'s influences are even more obviously on display this time around, the Kinks, the Who, the Flamin' Groovies, classic seventies power pop, the Shoes, the Nerves, the Diodes, all bands we've referenced before with Melton, but considering how many modern retro garage rock outfits there are, it's a little fascinating that so many rely more on sound and production and attitude and vibe, than on songcraft, so when someone is approaching garage rock with impeccable songcraft, well, it doesn't take much to leave the rest of those bands in the dust, which these guys most certainly do.
On Seeking love, not only are the songs great, but the sound and the production seem totally vintage, if you played this for some garage rock collector and told them this was some lost 7" from some unknown group in the seventies, they would absolutely buy it. And the thing is, the sound suits the song. Sure, someone could have recorded these songs on a boombox, and run the whole thing through a million distortion boxes, and buried the vocals in reverb, and mastered it so all the levels were WAY in the red, and the legions of modern warped garage pop obsessive would be flipping their lids, but at the risk of sounding like your mother, why go to such lengths to disguise a fantastic song, and fuck all that noise, any on can spit out some generic by the numbers rock and roll, and fuck it up enough that it sounds twisted and far out and innovative, and probably people won't notice the lack of songs, but with a batch of songs this catchy, and groovy and jangly and goddamn great, well nothing to do but strap on the headphones and rock the fuck out!
MPEG Stream: "Seeking Love"
MPEG Stream: "Young Love"
MPEG Stream: "Romantic Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Family Heat"

BITTERS, THE East General (Mexican Summer) 12" 17.98
Another new release from Mexican Summer, this one from The Bitters, which just so happens to feature one of the dudes from post hardcore punk rockers Fucked Up, but don't be expecting Fucked Up style pummel here, although it is a lot noisier and more rocking than lots of Mexican Summer stuff, but more on that in a second.
First thing eagle eyed aQ customers might notice is the cover art, the same cover as the debut full length from Norwegian black metal horde Orcustus, that strange medical drawing of a woman's pelvis, legs and torso removed, and gestating baby inside, with the front of the pelvis removed so the baby as well as all the various muscles and organs are visible. Seemed a little more suited for a grim black metal group, which is probably why the garish cover is now hidden by a giant sticker featuring what we can only assume are the two band members looking shocked and horrified by what lies underneath. But enough about the cover, the music is not nearly so intense or gory or shocking, the template is definitely similar to what is essentially THE NOW SOUND, fuzzy, garage rock, with female vocals, lots of reverb, a sort of Phil Spector via In The Red, definitely a sound we dig, but it's kinda crazy how many bands are doing it now. But give the Bitters some credit, that may be the root of their sound, but they infuse their jangly reverby garage pop with a Way more jagged ramshackle post punk vibe, evoking the aesthetic of groups like the Swell Maps, and the vocals are super distinctive, a yowlly yelpy new wave caterwaul, that perfectly suits the bands surprisingly heavy sound (heavy at least for this kind of thing). If we had to pick a 'hit', it would most likely be "Travelin' Girl", super frenetic and propulsive, with a killer hook, some dueling boy/girl vocals, crunchy and fuzzy, with some twisty dizzying p[arts slipped in between the more poppy moments, and then there's the sort of psychedelic middle portion, not to mention the heavy shoegazey blow out at the end.
But the rest of the record is no slouch either, from dirgey in-the-red garage jangle, sounding like a slowed down, female fronted Oh Sees, too fuzzy and wild seat-of-the-pants angular post punk, to fuzzy sunshiney Best Coast-y garage jangle. And all these elements are made all the more interesting because of the production, super hot and live and distorted, so everything sounds really loud and crunchy and fuzzy, and gives even the lightest moments some serious oomph.
Needless to say, by now you know if this sort of thing is your bag, maybe you have enough, maybe you can never get enough, but The Bitters definitely have their own thing going, so even if you think you've heard all of THE NOW SOUND you'll ever need to, these two might just change your mind.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, each one hand numbered, comes with a download card as well.

BOSSE-DE-NAGE s/t (Flenser) cd 9.98
Hailing from right here in the Bay Area, this mysterious black metal horde recorded this, their debut, way back in 2007, and, except maybe for a few demo cassettes back then, it's only finally seeing the light of day now, which is a shame, cuz this utterly rules, some of the weirdest, coolest, most idiosyncratic black metal ever, a killer mix of Slint like post rock, grim true blackness, and blown out shoegazey drift, it's hard to imagine that most aQ metalheads wouldn't totally lose their shit over these guys, we sure did. And we know nothing about this band, who they are, where they're from exactly, why this record took 3+ years to come out, and how the fuck a band this cool and weird could remain so far and so long under the radar. Well, we're just glad this record is finally getting the attention it deserves. And that we an finally gush about this incredible, fucked up and far out slab of outsider blackness.
The record begins with the very Slintish "Marie", Spiderland guitars, simple spare drumming, lots of space, the only hint of blackness is the tortured vocals, draped over the song's skeletal framework, loping, hypnotic, mysterious, haunting, it's not until 2 minutes in that the blackness drops, frantic double kick, frenzied riffage, and the vocals, seriously tortured and anguished, but even then the minor key post rock vibe manages to still run through the rest of the track, and hell, the rest of the record. The track finishes off with a cool stretch of processed feedback, before launching into the second part of the 'Marie' suite, "Marie Pissed Upon The Count", a seriously frenzied black metal blowout, the vocals just incredible, emotional, not shrieked, more a guttural howl, the whole song manages to be almost a single extended blast, except for a brief respite part way through, where the band slips back into that Slinty lope, but just for a moment. And then there's the untitled third track, that is ridiculously melodic, hazy and shoegazey and washed out, still buzzy, but the melody is so weirdly sunshiney, and the song does eventually transform into something way more fierce and black, but that dreamy vibe infuses the whole track, a weird grim / glowing hybrid. And so it goes, the whole record is a constant sonic exploration, draping those sinister demonic vokills over pretty spidery guitar jangle, sending insectoid riffing into soaring swells of surprisingly major key melodies, injecting weird mathy almost progginess into long stretches of contemplative drift, while much of this sounds like classic Norwegian style blackness, lots of it sounds like some nineties math rock band, imagine a Don Cab / Darkthrone hybrid, or A Minor Forest crossed with Mutiilation, or some sort of Slint / Alcest / Burzum blend, the record lurches and swings from harsh heaviness to melodic lope and back again, finishing off with a long stretch of looped guitar and minimal drumming, that manages to be way more powerful and intense than a blown out black blast closer, which is precisely why this record is so special, and so fucking incredible. And even though technically this is from 2007, there's no way this isn't another black metal of the year contender...
MPEG Stream: "Marie"
MPEG Stream: "Marie Pisses Upon The Count"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

COLDSTREAM South Island (Under The Spire) cd-r 10.98
This mysterious gem was sent to us in the mail, and all it took was a quick listen to be totally smitten, and to know that probably lots of aQ folks would dig this as much as we did. So we got as many as we could, which was the last dozen or so copies of the super limited pressing of 150 copies, and here it is, the first we've heard from Coldstream, aka Daniel Mumford, four extended tracks of thick layered drone music, hazy shimmery drift, and mysterious minimal krautdrone ambience. The opening track is an almost static stretch of thick gnarled buzz, blurred into a slowly shifting expanse of dense drones, deep and mesmerizing, the sort of sound that we could listen to forever. The second track is much more melodic, spacious and abstract, with a cool skittery rhythm that surfaces about halfway through, epic and cinematic, super dramatic and ethereal, laced with muted buzz and soft sonic swells. The next track is also quite cinematic, like the soundtrack to some British nature documentary, hushed and dreamlike, fluttery flute like tones draped over undulating low end pulses, you can almost imagine time lapse images of clouds flitting across the sky, or plants blossoming and the closing up again, a musical dusk, all warm and wispy and dreamlike. Finally, the closing track smolders darkly, laced with minor key piano melodies, a brooding minimal drone ballad, again, haunting, and mysterious, and very very lovely.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, these are the LAST ones, housed in a cool origami like cardstock sleeve, with a full color insert, each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "South Island"
MPEG Stream: "Golden Road"

COMUS / RAMESES III / SIMON FINN The Forum - London 28th / 29th May 2010 (self released) 7" 8.98
To commemorate the recent 25th anniversary Current 93 performances in London, a super limited number of these commemorative 7"s were pressed up (only 300 copies!), featuring exclusive tracks from three of the bands that performed with C93, psych drone combo Rameses III, psychedelic folk legend Simon Finn, and most excitingly, legendary seventies acid folk outfit, the mighty Comus!!
The Comus track might be what gets folks most excited, and rightfully so, a recording of the group performing "Diana" on the Melloboat, in Sweden, in 2008, their first show together after nearly 40 years!!! We tried to watch clips on YouTube, but the crowd was so amped, and howling and clapping and singing along, you could barely hear the band. Thankfully this recording is pristine, and the band sound incredible, even more woozy and carnivalesque and maniacal than they did back in the day, the player practically perfect, the vocals incredible for the many decades that have passed, definitely makes us wish we had flown over.
Rameses III contributes a gorgeous thick swath of densely layered dronemusic, very minimal, softly pulsing, rife with swirling overtones, hypnotic and raga like, really super nice.
And finally, Simon Finn unfurls some dark brooding psychedelic folk, lovely and haunting male / female vocal harmonies, over warm soft melodic swells, the sound stripped down, the arrangement minimal, the structure skeletal, but the overall feel still darkly lush and lovely.
A pretty fantastic 3 way split, we can only imagine how great the shows must have been. A gorgeous sonic artifact too, sturdy full color cover, pressed on thick colored vinyl, and again limited to only 300 copies!

DADAWAH Peace And Love (Dug Out) cd 16.98
Reissued courtesy of the Dug Out label run by Mark Ernestus of Basic Channel and Mark Ainsley of Honest Jon's comes this beautiful 1974 work of reggae roots spiritual music unlike any we've ever heard. Deep and heady, slowly unfolding over four long tracks (most of them exceeding the 10 minute mark, and all melding into one another), it carries an earthy psychedelic vibe that unfurls like incense smoke over an expansive desert. With rolling bass, nyabinghi (ceremonial hand percussion), piano and spaced out guitar washes that weave around the central rhythm and vocalist Ras Michaels spiritual incantation like singing. We can see folks who are into bands like Om, Bright Black Morning Light, Sun Araw, or the hippie head trips of early Dr. John or Bruce Palmer getting way into this. Probably one of the most mystically stoned Jamaican head burners we've heard in a long time. Amazing!
MPEG Stream: "Run Come Rally"
MPEG Stream: "Seventy-Two Nations"

DADAWAH Peace And Love (Dug Out) lp 24.00
Reissued courtesy of the Dug Out label run by Mark Ernestus of Basic Channel and Mark Ainsley of Honest Jon's comes this beautiful 1974 work of reggae roots spiritual music unlike any we've ever heard. Deep and heady, slowly unfolding over four long tracks (most of them exceeding the 10 minute mark, and all melding into one another), it carries an earthy psychedelic vibe that unfurls like incense smoke over an expansive desert. With rolling bass, nyabinghi (ceremonial hand percussion), piano and spaced out guitar washes that weave around the central rhythm and vocalist Ras Michaels spiritual incantation like singing. We can see folks who are into bands like Om, Bright Black Morning Light, Sun Araw, or the hippie head trips of early Dr. John or Bruce Palmer getting way into this. Probably one of the most mystically stoned Jamaican head burners we've heard in a long time. Amazing!
MPEG Stream: "Run Come Rally"
MPEG Stream: "Seventy-Two Nations"

DUNES s/t (Mexican Summer) lp 26.00
Another batch of new releases from perpetually hyped vinyl label Mexican Summer, this one, the debut (?) from a band called Dunes, definitely travels a sonic path similar to many of their labelmates, but they do manage to twist the sound up into something a bit more their own. That said, if you dug all or most of the Mexican Summer releases so far: Kurt Vile, Pearl Harbor, Valet, Campfires, Woodsman, Washed Out, Weekend, Wooden Shjips, then this will most definitely be right up your alley.
It only takes a few seconds before your swept away by Dunes' murky retro pop, the first track super lo-fi, washed out and hazy, gloomy and haunting, liquid guitars shimmering in blacks and greys, heavily reverbed and distorted vocals, even at 45, this still sounds almost like it's at the wrong speed, ghostly and warped and warbly. The rest of the record though is not so dark and mysterious, in fact much of it sounds a bit like a more post punk Cocteau Twins, simple drumming, Joy Division-y basslines, guitars wreathed in effects, the vibe ethereal and atmospheric, the vocals slipping from abstract croon, to yelped and distorted. There's definitely a heavy sixties girl group feel, as is all the rave these days, but Dunes makes it more skeletal and spectral, occasionally transforming into something more dense and noisy and ramshackle, although it always seems to slip back into the glorious gloom.
The vocals are also quite reminiscent of Siouxsie, which then makes the Dunes sounds bit like a more jangly lo-fi garage rock post punk Zola Jesus, which is not a bad thing at all. The record finishes off much how it started, with another sprawl of muddy, blurred, ghostly low fidelity drift, a soft sonic crawl laced with scraped guitars and abstract percussion, distant barely there vocals, clouds of crystalline shimmer, and a gorgeous slow motion drone out ending.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Each one hand numbered. Comes with a download card too...

DURUTTI COLUMN LC (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
There are those certain records for all of us that just change things when they enter your world. For a few of us here, this 1981 album by Durutti Column is one of those records. An album that showed that music could be sparse and majestic at the same time. D.I.Y., yet and grandiose in how it evokes emotion, memory, longing and desire. The work of Vini Reilly, Durutti Column emerged out of Factory Records yet their sound was something completely of its own world. Merging impeccable guitar playing with subtle drum machines, soft vocals and a golden warmth that makes this one of those albums that makes you melt everytime you put it on.
Pastoral and blissful, LC is filled with both perfect restraint and full on flowing beauty. You can hear how traces of the more blissed out side of Krautrock influenced him, merging that with the stripped down emotional quality of British folk and placing it into a very modern moment. While not an obscure band by any measure, we are still blown away though by how many people who would love Durutti Column have never heard them. And with the reissue of their first two lp's we hope that so many of those folks finally do. We could go on and on listing folks whose music we love and who have undoubtedly been influenced by Durutti Column, and this record in particular: Felt, Fuqugi, Danny Paul Grody, Colleen, James Blackshaw, Ducktails, Fennesz, Manuel, A.R. Kane, My Bloody Valentine, and on and on. One of our favorite records of all time, so if you didn't have this before, now's the time!

DURUTTI COLUMN The Return Of The Durutti Column (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
We've got two great vinyl reissues of the first two lps from Manchester's Durutti Column this week. Despite the title, The Return of The Durutti Column was their debut release from 1980, originally on Factory Records. While the title is tongue in cheek (as was the original album cover, covered in sandpaper so that it would scrape and scuff any record filed next to it), it was truly a return, as by the time they were set to record, the original five piece group enlisted by Factory label boss Tony Wilson had dissolved into sole member, guitarist Vini Reilly. In less capable hands, this might of been devastating, but Vini Reilly, a true alchemist of the electric guitar, could more than hold his own. Working with Martin Hannet, who provided the atmospheric production and synth washes, and a couple of session players, The Return of... is a tour-de-force of warm pastoral instrumentals, soft textures and intricate jazz-like compositional dynamics.
Durutti Column didn't have the typical Factory Records sound associated with bands like A Certain Ratio or Joy Division. In fact, Reilly's interweaving filigree guitar lines and bright chiming tones sounded more like a group that would be on Crepuscule or even 4AD. "Sketch for Summer" is one of the most beautiful openers ever and completely sets the tone for the rest of the album. Sweeping and expansive, yet also introspective and labyrinthian, Reilly conjures beautifully spiraling melodies that glide and wander, sometimes letting themselves get lost in the exploration but never get aimless or muddled. Highly Recommended!

ECHOSPACE Liumin (Modern Love) 2cd 15.98
Latest disc of languid minimal abstract dub house bliss from the dynamic duo of Rod Modell and Steve Hitchell, who we've raved about in the past, the two have sort of taken that Chain Reaction heroin house sound, and Pole's skeletal dub, as well as a little Kompakt style Pop Ambience, and woven all that into their own hazy atmospheric drift, which often sounds more like some Philip Jeck turntable performance more than some techno producer, which is probably why we're so into it.
Case in point, opener, "In Echospace", a sea of staticky swells, softly churning, pulsing dreamily, all hazy and murky and washed out and otherworldly, very Jeck or Tim Hecker sounding, a slightly rhythmic blurred dronescape that could have been a Gas track, and that we find ourselves playing over and over. But when we don't press repeat, it glides right into "Summer Haze", which sounds anything but summery, the cloudy murk of the opening track remains, but a woozy reverby beat slowly surfaces, the sounds wreathed in crackle and hiss, a heartbeat like pulse, flecked with dub, and soft focus streaks of melody. The rest of the record follows suit, just check out the titles, "Firefly", "Float", "Warm", there's definitely a theme, although it's only loosely referenced, if at all, "Sub-Marine" ditches much of the gauzy hiss and blur, leaving just a loping rubbery beat, wrapped in subtle squelches, drifting on a layer of shimmery synth thrum, "Burnt Sage" is total heroin house, the beat sounding like it's coming from another building or a passing car or from underwater, the surrounding sounds soft and vaguely industrial, but all smoother out and smeared into soft focus streaks, the next few track find the beats getting bigger, thumps and crunches, still woozy and warbly, but about as close to block rockin' as this stuff will ever get, but as the record progresses from that point on, it seems to follow an arc, slowing down, and blissing out, gradually returning to the primordial sonic murk that started things off, ending with the aptly titled "Warm", which is indeed warm, and languid, soporific, a whirling blurscape of soft tones and muted melody, mixed in with the sounds of the city, voices, buses, cars, life, a gorgeously dreamlike soundtrack to late night life in some lost city...
And all those field recordings are not random, the duo have been obsesed with location recordings, and have actively been gathering sounds from all over, and the second disc here actually contains 80 minutes worth of those original raw field recordings...
MPEG Stream: "In Echospace"
MPEG Stream: "Summer Haze"
MPEG Stream: "Sub-Marine"

EUGENIUS Oomalama & Tireless Wireless (Fire) 2cd 23.00
If you ever wondered what the Vaselines might have sounded like, if they were a bit darker, and heavier and a little more shoegazey, well, look no further. Eugenius, the post Vaselines project of Eugene Kelly, briefly called Captain America before they were sued, and featuring members of Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits, is that band, taking the classic Glasgow pop sound and roughing it up a bit, adding a little Loop and Spacemen 3 and Swervedriver to the mix. Or according to Kelly it was actually Big Star, The Byrds and Neil Young And Crazy Horse, but same difference. Don't believe us? Go listen to "Flame On", then maybe "Oomalama", we'll wait...
What'd we tell you? Big fuzzed out heavy guitars, crashing drums, soaring choruses, wild psychedelic leads, all wrapped around classic Vaselines style pop, it might sound like a weird mix, but once you get into it, you kind of wish more bands sounded like that. And while some did attempt a similar melding of pop and power, in a distinctly NOT power pop fashion, these guys were just super special, due in a big way to Kelly's incredible songwriting. In fact it's pretty easy to imagine any of your favorite Vaselines tunes, redone Eugenius style, which is essentially what Eugenius was, a super charged grungier shoegazier Vaselines, and if that doesn't sound awesome, then go ahead and listen to those sound samples again, and if it still doesn't sound amazing, then we just give up.
Pretty much all the songs here are killer. "Flame On" might be our favorite, but "Breakfast" is jangly perfect pop, "One's Too Many" almost sounds like old punker Lemonheads, "Hot Dog" is a gorgeous string laden mix tape breakup jam if there ever was one, "Buttermilk" is fuzzy and distorted and catchy as hell and totally sounds like it could have / should have been a Vaselines tune, a bunch of the songs sound like Teenage Fanclub, which makes sense, but again, Kelly's songs are just magical. The music is incredible, but the lyrics too, funny, clever, sincere, goofy, this record still ranks up there as one of our all time pop faves. If you've never heard it you're in for a HUGE treat.
This reissue tacks on two old Captain America tracks, including a fantastic cover of Beat Happening's "Indian Summer", which sounds like it could be a Eugenius original, and there's also a bonus disc of acoustic radio sessions, which features stripped down versions of three Eugenius songs, two Vaselines songs, and "Indian Summer" again...
So so so so so great!!!
MPEG Stream: "Flame On"
MPEG Stream: "Oomalama"
MPEG Stream: "Hot Dog"
MPEG Stream: "Bed-In"

GHAST / ABANDONER split (At War With False Noise) cd 13.98
We're pretty sure we have this Ghast thing all sorted out, there's a Ghast that's Welsh, and whose May The Curse Bind just got reissued on vinyl, who traffic in a sort of doom laced black metal, then there's this Canadian horde, whose sound is way more filthy and fucked up, a sort of glacial blackened crawl, all downtuned sludge, crumbling distortion, and harsh gurgled demonic vokills, not to mention the strange swirl of grit and grime and buzz and hiss that seems to surround everything they do like a glorious black sonic cloud of hiss and crackle. And that's precisely what you get on these two tracks, two extended filthfests, crushing, lumbering dirges, each a lurching sonic behemoth, howling and hateful and despondent and depressive and heavy and brutal as fuck. These ultradoom crawls creep malevolently along, the vocals sometimes doused in reverb, sometimes just grunting and gurgling demonically, melodies played out over minutes, buried in the murk and mire, super dynamic, and a little bit bizarre, especially the second track, the vocals sounding almost like a Muppet, the sonic death march being bombarded by strange electronics and streaks of skittery static. Pretty goddamn great. These guys should really get the same love bands like Moss and Bunkur and Corrupted do...
We'd never heard of Abandoner before, but apparently, they're a sort of blackened post industrial drone outfit made up of members of US doom sludge juggernaut Unearthly Trance. Weirdly enough, UT would have been a perfect sonic match for Ghast, maybe too perfect, so instead, we're treated to, or punished by, Abandoner's caustic soundscapes, all wild bolts of feedback, strange processed noises, loads of buzz, and rumble, guitars not so much played and allowed to spew gouts of crunch and howl and skree, everything wrapped in a hazy field of murky thrum, laced with damaged electronics, noisy, but not NOISE, more like a sort of even more twisted, less melodic Wolf Eyes? But definitely cool stuff, and an interesting foil to Ghast's monstrous downtuned black doom trudge.
MPEG Stream: GHAST "Le Bouc Noir"
MPEG Stream: ABANDONER "Lament For Gilroy"

GREY MACHINE Disconnected (Hydra Head) 2lp 23.00
NOW ON VINYL!!! And super swank packaging too...
Finally, the full length has landed, a killer collection of industrial, electronic flecked, dubbed out metallic pummel from Grey Machine, three parts Jesu, one part Isis, the long anticipated team up of Justin Broadrick and Aaron Turner. We were treated to a teaser in the form of a super limited 12". We still have a few copies left, actually, with an exclusive super rad dubby remix B-side. The A-side, "Vultures Descend" is found on Disconnected as well, we described it thusly:
"A wild cacophonous chaotic noise jam, that features crunchy post industrial rhythms wrapped around a thick blown out blast of dubstep style bass, the vocals fuzzy and lo-fi buried way down in the mix, some woozy dark descending riffage, the timbre prickly and abrasive, but beneath all the churning and roiling heaviness (and it IS heavy) are some awesomely melodic guitar lines and some tripped out spacerock FX draped over the almost jungle bass and drums (or should we say drum + bass)."
Sounds good huh? Cuz it IS good. Really good. Although the whole record isn't quite as chaotic and abrasive, every song is pretty dense and sprawling, much of it sounding quite a bit like Broadrick's former outfit Godflesh, but with way more weirdness mixed in, be it extra programmed beats, layered guitars, explosions of thick oozing psych buzz, whatever. The opening track is the perfect example, with its low slung bass and industrial drumming, weaving trancelike through clouds of electronic hiss, mysterious creaks and groans, the vocals processed and chopped up, the song a lurching, unstoppable beast, but all around it, strange sounds are surfacing, transforming, becoming tangled up in that lumbering crush, as the guitars get thicker and more distorted, but seem to be twisting and warping... Eventually the drums drop out leaving just a sky full of high end streaks and a feedback skree drone drift.
So yeah, the sound here is Godfleshy, definitely not as blissy as Jesu, although some of those elements still remain, wrapped around a dense rigid industrial framework, with some surprising bits of modern electronic music (dubstep!) deftly woven into GM's sound without sticking out or sounding forced.
"When Attention Just Isn't Enough" begins life as another gloriously plodding dirge, but chiming guitars and fat fuzzy dubby bass transform it into something much more moody and groovy. "Wasted" begins with that sort of super heavy synth bass that defines most dubstep jams, but here it's laced over skittery metallic percussion and squiggly psychedelic leads, and lots and lots of noise. But it does rear up and buzz wildly every few measures, making it almost feel like some sort of industrial metal dubstep. But the wah guitars and squalls of freaked out FX also give it a distinctly Loop / Hawkwind sort of drug jam vibe as well. A killer combination for sure.
"Sweatshop" is the only really electronic sounding track, still thick ropy basslines, but with a killer loping programmed beat, super distorted and sort-of-funky, the whole thing super skeletal and dubby, with tons of texture and ambience, before giving way to the final track, probably the most blissed out of the bunch, still industrial and murky and washed out sounding, but everything is wreathed in a warm haze, the guitars muted, the drums minimal, the bass rumbling and fuzzy, lots of tape hiss and amp buzz, almost dreamy, but still appropriately ominous and intense.
And again, killer packaging, blacks and greys and metallic silvers, much like the cd, a look both modern, and classic, reminiscent of the old Earache / Godflesh days. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Wolf At The Door"
MPEG Stream: "Vultures Descend"
MPEG Stream: "...Just Isn't Enough"

GURUMANIAX s/t ( Bureau B) cd 17.98
Like a blast from the krautrock past, Bureau B brings us the debut album from Gurumaniax. But, unlike a lot of the German label's releases, this ISN'T a reissue - it's a brand new album featuring the two surviving members of krautrock legends Guru Guru, drummer Mani Neumeier and guitarist Ax Genrich. Hence the name, GuruManiAx, get it? Sadly, original bass player Uli Trepte passed away last year, so the trio is rounded out by new bassist Guy Segers from veteran art proggers Univers Zero (with guest Mario Engelter performing bass duties on two of the tracks as well). The final track here is entitled "For Uli T." but it's as if the whole thing is dedicated to his memory, doubtless he'd approve 'cause Gurumaniax is about the closest thing to ye olde Guru Guru as could be imagined, really it sounds like they went way back to the earliest albums by the original trio for inspiration (UFO, Hinten, and Kanguru, circa 1970-72). Dunno if they dropped some acid too, to get into the mood, we wouldn't be surprised...
It's card-carrying krautrock all right, freaky and psychedelic, meandering and mesmeric, mostly instrumental. Psy Valley Hill is full of lengthy, pulsating jams and drifting, echoing FX, with just enough (but not too much) of Guru Guru's trademark goofiness / weirdness (ferinstance, "Telefonladies", with the voices of telephone operators mixed into the music). Much of it is super spacey, with swirling electronics in all the nooks and crannies. Their MO seemingly involves lots and lots of improvisational freedom, yet each song finds structure and identity. Results range from the jauntily spaced-out free-rock-abilly of "Voodoo Touch" to, on the very next track, the chain-rattling abstract soundscape of "Electrosaurus", that could be something by Absolut Null Punkt.
Gurumaniax are good natured and generally mellowed out, but still venturesome, traipsing to the edge of the void and sometimes beyond. The splatter of Mani's percussion and the echoed unfurling of Ax's axe is often slow and steady, even somnolent or sedate, but elsewhere utterly urgent and agitated... Quite obviously, these guys know what they're doing, heck it was about 40 years ago they first started making these sort of sounds, now the bread and butter of bands like LSD-march, Circle, and of course Acid Mothers Temple, with whom the ever-energetic Neumeier has collaborated. And, speaking of Circle, we're really reminded of that Scandinavian band by track four, "Ghost Of Odin", a lazy almost dubbed-out jam, blissfully hypnotic, with occasional quirky vocal mutter, eventually building to a loud, distorted climax... nice!!
Mani is always making records, but it's especially exciting to hear again from Ax, whose last solo album back in 1995, Wave Cut, was quite fine. It's commendable that, without T., they decided not to officially bill this as a Guru Guru reunion. But, listening to it, they certainly could have. Gurumaniax is the real deal. Recommended! And not only to krautrock heads, but also to post rock types who like Tortoise and stuff like that, check this out and see if it's not too hippy for you!
MPEG Stream: "Drumoroto"
MPEG Stream: "Spaceship Memory"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost Of Odin"

GURUMANIAX s/t (Bureau B) lp 17.98
Like a blast from the krautrock past, Bureau B brings us the debut album from Gurumaniax. But, unlike a lot of the German label's releases, this ISN'T a reissue - it's a brand new album featuring the two surviving members of krautrock legends Guru Guru, drummer Mani Neumeier and guitarist Ax Genrich. Hence the name, GuruManiAx, get it? Sadly, original bass player Uli Trepte passed away last year, so the trio is rounded out by new bassist Guy Segers from veteran art proggers Univers Zero (with guest Mario Engelter performing bass duties on two of the tracks as well). The final track here is entitled "For Uli T." but it's as if the whole thing is dedicated to his memory, doubtless he'd approve 'cause Gurumaniax is about the closest thing to ye olde Guru Guru as could be imagined, really it sounds like they went way back to the earliest albums by the original trio for inspiration (UFO, Hinten, and Kanguru, circa 1970-72). Dunno if they dropped some acid too, to get into the mood, we wouldn't be surprised...
It's card-carrying krautrock all right, freaky and psychedelic, meandering and mesmeric, mostly instrumental. Psy Valley Hill is full of lengthy, pulsating jams and drifting, echoing FX, with just enough (but not too much) of Guru Guru's trademark goofiness / weirdness (ferinstance, "Telefonladies", with the voices of telephone operators mixed into the music). Much of it is super spacey, with swirling electronics in all the nooks and crannies. Their MO seemingly involves lots and lots of improvisational freedom, yet each song finds structure and identity. Results range from the jauntily spaced-out free-rock-abilly of "Voodoo Touch" to, on the very next track, the chain-rattling abstract soundscape of "Electrosaurus", that could be something by Absolut Null Punkt.
Gurumaniax are good natured and generally mellowed out, but still venturesome, traipsing to the edge of the void and sometimes beyond. The splatter of Mani's percussion and the echoed unfurling of Ax's axe is often slow and steady, even somnolent or sedate, but elsewhere utterly urgent and agitated... Quite obviously, these guys know what they're doing, heck it was about 40 years ago they first started making these sort of sounds, now the bread and butter of bands like LSD-march, Circle, and of course Acid Mothers Temple, with whom the ever-energetic Neumeier has collaborated. And, speaking of Circle, we're really reminded of that Scandinavian band by track four, "Ghost Of Odin", a lazy almost dubbed-out jam, blissfully hypnotic, with occasional quirky vocal mutter, eventually building to a loud, distorted climax... nice!!
Mani is always making records, but it's especially exciting to hear again from Ax, whose last solo album back in 1995, Wave Cut, was quite fine. It's commendable that, without T., they decided not to officially bill this as a Guru Guru reunion. But, listening to it, they certainly could have. Gurumaniax is the real deal. Recommended! And not only to krautrock heads, but also to post rock types who like Tortoise and stuff like that, check this out and see if it's not too hippy for you!
MPEG Stream: "Drumoroto"
MPEG Stream: "Spaceship Memory"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost Of Odin"

HEALTH Disco 2 (Lovepump United) cd 14.98
While Health were once a crazy amalgamation of fractured rhythms, crashing guitars, glitched out electronics, freaky noise and retro futuristic new wave, the band always had a thing for dance music, and their weirdo noise always definitely leaned in that direction, hell this is their SECOND record called Disco, and like the first it's a collection of remixes, mostly by groups we've never heard of, but who all do amazing things to Health's already pretty amazing music. So this is NOT a new record, although there is one new song, "USA Boys", which is a slow burning synth driven groove, big beats, hazy washed out vocal harmonies, a melancholy main melody, not dance music so much as some sort of dark electronic pop, reminding us a bit of M83, all hazy and shoegazey, definitely has us hankering for more new Health. The rest of the record, though, is all remixes, only two by bands we're familiar with, Tobacco, and Crystal Castles, whom Health seem to have a connection with, as this is at least the second Crystal Castles / Health remix, and they even shared a split.
The Crystal Castles mix is a murky dreamlike drift, a soft focus sonic fog, that gradually grows more manic and abstract, wild drumming, twisted bits of electronics, voices reverbed and washed out, it manages to be propulsive and new wave, but also weary and otherwordly at the same time, has us kind of wishing the two bands would just permanently join forces! The Tobacco remix is all motorik beats and synthesizer squelch, groovy and very Ed Banger sounding, the synths thick and fuzz and blown out, wrapped around serpentine basslines and some eighties style melodies, the vocals here too are doused in reverb and rendered ghostlike, the result, like the CC mix, is simultaneously groovy and dreamlike. The rest of the mixes are pretty much just as cool, transforming the originals into all shades of twisted electronic disco pop, lots of synths, all manner of beats, from soft skitter, to pounding crunch, there's some total Kompakt style house-y pulse, some new wave shoegaze throb and shimmer, some almost OMD / Erasure style dance pop, even one track where the beats are ditched completely for something much more atmospheric and mesmerizing, long synth tones, deep swells, soft focus vox, a sort of new wave dream ballad, so good.
And if that weren't enough, there's a whole extra collection of mp3 mixes, basically an extra entire album's worth, as good as the album proper (not sure why they didn't just make it a double cd), with mixes from Nite Jewel, Clipd Beaks, and another whole gaggle of unknown (to us) remixers who work their magic.
MPEG Stream: "USA Boys"
MPEG Stream: "Die Slow (Tobacco RMX)"
MPEG Stream: "Eat Flesh (Crystal Castles RMX)"

HOME BLITZ s/t (Gulcher) cd 11.98
We'd been meaning to review this for a while. After HB's unanimous fave and aQ Record Of The Week, O.ut O.f P.hase, and a kick ass, and way too short set at our South By Southwest showcase this year, we know we needed more more more. This comp collects all the early out of print material from these short sharp snotty noise poppers, their first two 7"s, a split cassette, a super limited 12", not to mention a couple unreleased track, and while this stuff is WAY more raw and lo-fi, it's easy to hear the ramshackle perfect pop juggernaut these guys would be come. And considering how noisy and unhinged and loose and on the verge of collapse these guys were on their newest record, you can imagine what a looser more fucked up version of THAT might sound like.
All the stuff we love about Home Blitz is already firmly in place, sharp angular riffage, jangly guitars, wild drumming, killer hooks and classic melodies, and that voice, an about to crack warbly yelp, that occasionally slips into a falsetto, the recording definitely low fidelity, but super bright and weirdly lush at the same time. And the songs, like total classic power pop / punk pop, but more homebrewed, most 1-2 minutes, rollicking and wild and super rocking, slipping from total chaotic freeforall, to crunchy jangle, to lo-fi bedroom pop, to faux arena rock out, to blasting garage punk, to woozy druggy Velvetsy drone rock, and back to full on blistering trash pop again, sounding like a band that would sound right at home on Siltbreeze, but with many of the songs sounding like they could have been plucked right off one of those lost pop comps like Yellow Pills.
There are a few tracks where the band gets more far out, "Bored" is a reverb drenched dirge, clouds of cymbal sizzle float over muted trashcan percussion, big clanging guitar chords, howled vox, or the 9+ minute "Yard", which almost sounds like some sort of Dead C ballad, all splattery percussion, detuned guitar, swaths of crumbling distortion and static, a stumbling chunk of free rock that gives way to a weird piano driven vamp, that sounds almost like Elton John via Sentridoh or something, eventually crumbling into some sort of abstract field recording driven noise rock workout. But then it's back to more loose unhinged noisy power pop bliss, including a killer glammy Slade cover! We love these guys!
MPEG Stream: "Apocalyptic Grades 2005 A.D."
MPEG Stream: "A.C. SS"
MPEG Stream: "Stupid Street"
MPEG Stream: "Right Cut Even"

HOWL Full Of Hell (Relapse) cd 14.98
What's not to love about these guys (and gal)? Crushing, riff heavy grooves, sludgey, and Southern sounding (even though they're from Rhode Island), downtuned, low slung, brutal, but weirdly catchy too, with a bit of a post rock vibe here and there, totally headbangable and epic. If you had to situate Howl sonically, they would probably fall somewhere between Baroness, High On Fire, Soilent Green, and Sleep, you get the drift, a sort of stonery Sabbathy sludge, that doesn't wallow in tarpit tempos, but instead bulldozes through dense clouds of grinding buzz, slipping from midtempo crush to woozy metallic swing, to blasting thrashing pummel, the drums like battering rams, the guitars murky and muddy, with occasional bursts of psychedelic leads, that help balance the band's predominant low low low end, the vocals a monstrous bellow, all that wound into churning, almost proggy arrangements, some of the moments recall the heaving might of Neurosis, while others, channel classic metal into something way more dark and dirgey, the whole record is a headspinning, neck snapping riff fest, but the final track, "The Day Of Rest" might be our favorite, the slowest and most sprawling of the bunch, slipping from serpentine Sabbathy slither to cool start stop ultra dynamic lurch and lumber, to almost Maideny melodicism, churning chug underpinned by pounding double kick drumming, while guitars harmonize over the top, before getting almost shoegazey near the end, finally winding down with some droned out layered guitar feedback. Fuck Yeah.
MPEG Stream: "Horns Of Steel"
MPEG Stream: "You Jackals Beware"
MPEG Stream: "Gods In Broken Men"

I SHALT BECOME Poison (Moribund Records) cd 15.98
A brand new record from Illinois one man black metal I Shalt Become is always cause for much excitement around here. The aQ metalheads can't get enough of ISB's haunting Burzumic creep, dirgey and doomy and depressive, but as we've mentioned before, ISB takes Burzum's black template and transforms it into something much more lush and washed out and dreamlike, incorporating strings, and swaths of shoegaze-y ambience, we often compare ISB's black metal to very UN black metal soundmakers like Philip Jeck and Tim Hecker, it's got that sort of warm gauzy quality, all blurred and bleary and otherworldly. Which is what we were expecting on Poison, and while that is still present, the sound seems to have shifted dramatically, with the blackness and the buzz taking a backseat, to the orchestration, cellos and violas, symphonies, synthesizers, pizzicato violin melodies, swirling clouds of frenzied cinematic strings, it's kind of shocking, not because classical music and black metal are strange bedfellows, but more because of how the two are mixed here, the result at first is jarring, and as much as we were imaging more of that lush textured murk, this is something way more far out, and fucked up and awesome. It's almost like a black metal score for some Hollywood blockbuster, dramatic and emotional and intense, but those soundtracky elements underpinned by howling metal shrieks, and droning buzzing riffage, that stuff in the background, as opposed to the other way around, it's weird, but seriously cool.
The opening track is all classical fanfare, until the drums come in, and some growled groaned vokills, but they're almost more textural, as horns moan, and the strings soar, it's depressive, but in a wholly different way than we're used to, the drums are matched up with booming tympanis, choral arrangements are rendered in shades of grey and black, there are moments of buzz, but those usually dissipate into something much more atmospheric, letting strings, or orchestral swells drive the tracks, the murky buzzing blackness off in the background, in some ways it's almost more like industrial music, that sort of martial neo classical, MZ412 or Toroidh or Von Thronstahl, Teutonic, epic, majestic, just a bit more metal, but only a bit.
Lots of metalheads will probably be screaming foul, as it was, ISB's sound was already bordering on the avant garde, more minimal and dreamlike, than grim and black, but this has definitely pushed the sound even further afield, but it sounds incredible to us, and just leaves us one question, when is some visionary Hollywood director gonna hit this guy up to score a film??
MPEG Stream: "No Quarter at the Somme"
MPEG Stream: "Harlow's Vertical Chamber Apparatus"
MPEG Stream: "Black Swan Events"

JACUZZI BOYS Bricks Or Coconuts (Mexican Summer) 7" 5.98
Awesome sun soaked lo-fi garage pop from Miami, that's overflowing with awesome hooks and colorful personality. Somehow these tracks are infused with a baked lackadaisical stoner vibe yet the songs are so damn fast, immediate and out of control catchy. Yes, lo-fi garage pop is a very crowded field these days, but damn, as long as folks keep cranking out shit that's this good, our ears still have plenty of room. And this really is that good. All three songs on this 7" totally rule, and we still love this format, the best for an introduction to a band. Show us you can make a few perfect songs, worthy of us getting up to lay the needle down over and over and then you have won us over for when your full length comes out. Fans of Wavves, Thee Oh Sees, Dum Dum Girls, Ty Segall, Best Coast, etc. will be all over this. Like all things Mexican Summer this is limited so grab one now so you don't have to go hunting on eBay later.
Comes with a coupon for a digital download of the songs as well.

KEEPAWAY Baby Style (Lefse) lp 14.98
First release from these Brooklyn psychedelic looped pop alchemists, featuring former aQ-er Frank, who is featured in all his badassness, along with the rest of the Keepaway crew, on the back cover, a goofy shot featuring much posturing, some gold medallions, and what appears to be some silver shiny panties on one of the pantsless band members, but don't be distracted by the visual silliness, cuz there's some seriously heady, sonic trippiness inside.
You might do an audio doubletake on first listen, within the first few seconds of "Yellow Wings" you'll immediately notice these guys bear an uncanny resemblance to fellow Brooklyn avant poppers Animal Collective, which is undeniable so we might as well just throw that out right here, these guys sound a lot like Animal Collective, but we love Animal Collective so we're already digging 'the sound', before we even begin to get into what it is that makes Keepaway their own (sort of) unique beast. The aforementioned "Yellow Wings" is probably the most Animal Collective-y track here, with its chiming guitars, chopped and looped samples, programmed percussion mixed with live drumming, the woozy vocals, which also remind us of Modest Mouse, but Keepaway add their own little twist with some gloomy almost new wavey eighties style riffs, just below the surface, it's a great pop jam for sure, and AC fans will eat this up, as will fans of other groups in the new wave of new wave, like The Drums, Surfer Blood and the like.
The rest of the record gets a little more spaced out, and only a little less Animal Collective-y, "Family Of The Son" begins all minimal and skittery, but once the warm guitars and wavery vocals come in, joined by some martial snares, and a hazy swath of warm shimmer, we're back in that sort of washed out hypno tribal psych groove otherworld Animal Collective, if not invented, at least REinvented. "I think About You All The Time" wraps woozy synths around skeletal rhythms, and some super sweet melodic vocals and handclaps, a retro electro love song that gets more trippy and druggy as it goes.
The last two tracks are just as fuzzy and sunshine-y and psychedelic and shimmery, stirring in some lush Beach Boys style harmonies, some spidery post rock guitars, a little old school indie jangle, some electronic glitch, thick fuzzy synths and of course loads of reverb and delay and other effects. Cool cool cool.

KNIGHT SCHOOL Revenger (Make A Mess) lp 14.98
Earnest raw and rocking sounds from two Brooklyn kids. But fear not, this isn't just posturing hipster flavor of the day lo-fi garage bandwagoning. While there is a very lo-fi feel to these garage pop burners, we hear more of that classic fuzzy indie pop sound we'll always be in love with a la early Guided By Voices, Rocketship, Unrest, Sentridoh, Grifters, etc. Songs that sound so stripped down and primitive yet are filled with such a great sense of melody and jammed with total hooks that would hit you hard over the head had they been mega produced but instead seep into your veins just right as they are buried in the overall fuzzed out mix. We're also reminded of some of our favorite early K Records bands as there is a sincerity oozing from these bedroom recordings that has us totally smitten. A very impressive debut!

KODE9 DJ Kicks (Studio K7) cd 14.98
By now most folks probably don't need to know much more than the fact that this is a DJ mix from aQ beloved dubstep producer Kode9, and not only features some of his own jams, but tracks by folks like The Bug, Zomby, Ikonika, Digital Mystikz, Terror Danjah, Ramadanman and loads more. And the fact that it rules. But fair warning, this is not at all a straight dubstep mix, there are some serious dubbed out jams, some thick bass warble, and all that jazz, but there's mostly plenty of seriously non dubstep stuff, that's just as cool. The first half of the mix is definitely more danceable and less dubby, the first two tracks are dreamy and housey and melodic, even Kode9's "Blood Orange" ditches dubstep for something more fuzzy and skittery, his "You Don't Wash (Dub)" is also more groovy and late night disco-y than dubby. It's not until the Ikonika track that things get dubby, but even there, it's almost more electro and 8-bit crunchy, Sticky's "Look Pon Me" is a driving, almost grime style groove, with some awesome female toasting, dramatic strings, an irresistible house-pulse, and some cool twisted production, in fact so far, this sounds more like something you'd here on Kompakt, albeit with more bass, and more synth buzz, and less of that 4 by 4 throb.
The second half starts off with a similarly weirdo vibe, Zomby's jam is an awesomely retro slab of video game skitter, swirling electronics, skeletal basslines, tripped out effects, which leads right into a short blast of Kode9 spaced out weirdness, which leads into some serious dubsteppery, Digital Mystikz unleash some super stripped down dubbed out crunch, Terror Danjah, chops up some vocals and adds some fragmented metal guitar, Zomby sprinkles the proceedings with some sparkly electronic fairy dust, before things slip right back into some pulsing grooves, and the mix continues on its curious electronic journey, again only dipping toes into dubstep instead opting for a more free form assemblage of modern electronic music, from house to electro to 2 step to garage, finishing off with a killer dubbed out dancehall jam from The Bug, all low slung bass, streaks of record crackle, spare minimal rhythms, woozy effected ambience and some fierce toasting from Flo Dan. Awesome stuff for sure, although dubsteppers and Kode9 fans should approach with caution, even though you'll probably dig this anyway... and anyone into recent joints from Zomby, Ikonika, Martyn, Ital Tek and other leftfield dubbed out electronic alchemists, grab this NOW!
MPEG Stream: KODE9 "Blood Orange"
MPEG Stream: GRIEVOUS ANGEL "Move Down Low"
MPEG Stream: STICKY "Jumeirah Riddim Sequel"
MPEG Stream: DVA "Natty"
MPEG Stream: TERROR DANJAH "Stiff"
MPEG Stream: THE BUG "Run (Featuring Flo Dan)"

LES RALLIZES DENUDES Blind Baby Has It's Mothers Eyes (Phoenix) cd 17.98
All right, time to crank the stereo! There's no way to listen to these, but loud. Two rather crucial entries in the distorto-delic discography of seminal '70s Japanese underground rock band Les Rallizes Denudes are now reissued, on proper compact disc for what we think is the very first time, these having being previously only "available", if you can call it that, as cd-rs. Blind Baby Has It's Mothers Eyes, and Heavier Than A Death In The Family, woah, you know with titles like that they've gotta be good. And before you go running to your Japrocksamplers to look 'em up, we'll save you the trouble: Julian Cope rated these two albums at #11 and #3, respectively, on his top 50 of Japanese psych artifacts. Deservedly so.
Heavily mythologized and mysterious, this lo-fi, in-the-red, sunglasses-wearing, Motown-loving, airplane-hijacking (??!), studio-recording-avoiding, raw outsider rock and roll unit provided the inspiration for every latter day underground Japanese psych band who have ever slipped on shades, cranked up their amps, and had a Tokyo Flashback. (Like Fushitsusha!) And these two discs, both equally recommended, are essential documents as to how and why.
Heavier Than A Death In The Family features six songs, all but one of 'em in the double digits, with some great titles, no less than three of 'em referencing the night in some form or other: "Strung Out Deeper Than The Night", "The Night Collectors", "Night Of The Assassins", "Enter The Mirror", "People Can Choose", and "Ice Fire". All were apparently recorded live in '77 (except one from '73). Blistering is the word. Super echoey, reverbed out, almost like Ariel Pink producing Wooden Shjips or Comets On Fire gone dub... Sounds also like some Siltbreeze shitgazers, or current psychsters like Heavy Winged, plodding and throbbing. And "Ice Fire" is 16 minutes of proto-Merzbow meets Hawkwind howl. Wow.
Frayed and fried, ULTRA fuzzed and feedback-y, of course, and yet for a Rallizes release, the sound isn't all that "bad", compared to some of their stuff we've heard wherein the tape hiss competes with the guitar for domination. Not that that's a bad thing, either, but this will take less getting used to.
Meanwhile, Blind Baby Has It's [sic] Mothers [sic] Eyes consists of three tracks, but clocks in at 54 minutes total: the title track, "An Awful Eternity" (aka "An Aweful Eternitie"), and "The Last One". Presumably also recorded live, we don't know when, sometime in the '70s, the sound here is similar sickness. More of their charismatically clangorous chaos, getting quite hypnotically repetitious across the lengths of these three wandering, wah-wah wailing epics. We'd recommend this as a good gift for your friend who likes the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray", Circle, and primitive black metal such as Striborg... if they haven't heard Les Rallizes yet they'll be thanking you!
Although due to the confusing nature of the Rallizes catalog, we imagine that some of these tracks might appear on other Rallizes discs that you may or may not have, but in any case these two albums are essentials in their entirety. Get 'em while they last.
Typical Phoenix no-frills cardboard "wallet" packaging, each cd numbered and limited to 1000 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Blind Baby Has It's Mothers Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "An Awful Eternity"

LES RALLIZES DENUDES Heavier Than A Death In The Family (Phoenix) cd 17.98
All right, time to crank the stereo! There's no way to listen to these, but loud. Two rather crucial entries in the distorto-delic discography of seminal '70s Japanese underground rock band Les Rallizes Denudes are now reissued, on proper compact disc for what we think is the very first time, these having being previously only "available", if you can call it that, as cd-rs. Blind Baby Has It's Mothers Eyes, and Heavier Than A Death In The Family, woah, you know with titles like that they've gotta be good. And before you go running to your Japrocksamplers to look 'em up, we'll save you the trouble: Julian Cope rated these two albums at #11 and #3, respectively, on his top 50 of Japanese psych artifacts. Deservedly so.
Heavily mythologized and mysterious, this lo-fi, in-the-red, sunglasses-wearing, Motown-loving, airplane-hijacking (??!), studio-recording-avoiding, raw outsider rock and roll unit provided the inspiration for every latter day underground Japanese psych band who have ever slipped on shades, cranked up their amps, and had a Tokyo Flashback. (Like Fushitsusha!) And these two discs, both equally recommended, are essential documents as to how and why.
Heavier Than A Death In The Family features six songs, all but one of 'em in the double digits, with some great titles, no less than three of 'em referencing the night in some form or other: "Strung Out Deeper Than The Night", "The Night Collectors", "Night Of The Assassins", "Enter The Mirror", "People Can Choose", and "Ice Fire". All were apparently recorded live in '77 (except one from '73). Blistering is the word. Super echoey, reverbed out, almost like Ariel Pink producing Wooden Shjips or Comets On Fire gone dub... Sounds also like some Siltbreeze shitgazers, or current psychsters like Heavy Winged, plodding and throbbing. And "Ice Fire" is 16 minutes of proto-Merzbow meets Hawkwind howl. Wow.
Frayed and fried, ULTRA fuzzed and feedback-y, of course, and yet for a Rallizes release, the sound isn't all that "bad", compared to some of their stuff we've heard wherein the tape hiss competes with the guitar for domination. Not that that's a bad thing, either, but this will take less getting used to.
Meanwhile, Blind Baby Has It's [sic] Mothers [sic] Eyes consists of three tracks, but clocks in at 54 minutes total: the title track, "An Awful Eternity" (aka "An Aweful Eternitie"), and "The Last One". Presumably also recorded live, we don't know when, sometime in the '70s, the sound here is similar sickness. More of their charismatically clangorous chaos, getting quite hypnotically repetitious across the lengths of these three wandering, wah-wah wailing epics. We'd recommend this as a good gift for your friend who likes the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray", Circle, and primitive black metal such as Striborg... if they haven't heard Les Rallizes yet they'll be thanking you!
Although due to the confusing nature of the Rallizes catalog, we imagine that some of these tracks might appear on other Rallizes discs that you may or may not have, but in any case these two albums are essentials in their entirety. Get 'em while they last.
Typical Phoenix no-frills cardboard "wallet" packaging, each cd numbered and limited to 1000 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Strung Out Deeper Than The Night"
MPEG Stream: "The Night Collectors"

MADLIB Madlib Medicine No. 6 : The Brain Wreck Show (Madlib) cd 15.98
We're up to number 6 in Madlib's 12 part Medicine Show series, all of them great, but THIS is the one we've been waiting for, a dizzying megamix of "global psychedelic, progressive and hard rock & funk circa 1968-1976", hell yeah, we were already way into Madlib, but the thought of him spinning a crazy selection of mysterious and amazing heavy funky jams, well shit, we were pretty much sold before we heard it. And it's pretty much just how you'd imagine, crazy fuzzy psych rock covers, buzzy guitars, fluttering flutes, exotic ballads, skittery rhythms, wild progged out organs, frenzied drumming, woozy grooves, lysergic jams, all chopped up and looped and woven together, laced with really funny spoken word bits, girls talking about all the drugs they've taken, Pee Wee Herman, comedy records, commercials, plenty of thrift store weirdness and tripped out effects peppering the otherwise heavy rocking proceedings. Separated into smaller mini mixes, each track is jammed with buzz and fuzz, howl and shimmy, tracks skipping and slowing down, voices sped up, garage rock colliding with surf rock, hard rock giving way to dreamy soul giving way to wah wah drenched acid rock, flutes and organs and jawharps and animal calls, wild crowd sounds, drum solos, totally drugged out musical meltdowns, this is definitely not a straight mix, or a selection of classic jams, instead it's a classic hip hop style mix, just sourced from prog and psych and hard rock records, and it's fucking awesome.
MPEG Stream: "World Leaders Plan Centralized Power & Remote Brain Control"
MPEG Stream: "It Has Widespread Support"
MPEG Stream: "Predicted 2000 Years Ago"
MPEG Stream: "It's Almost Here"

MAGIC BULLETS s/t (Mon Amie) cd 10.98
While Pains Of Being Pure At Heart perfectly tap into the breezy and carefree side of '80s glory in the vein of The Smiths, the Magic Bullets reside in a similar territory but there is more of an emotional urgency imbedded in their songs. We loved their debut 12" from last year, and when we heard they lost one of their members to the band Girls, we were worried that that meant the end of Magic Bullets. But luckily that is not the case as they have this brand new album and a new 7" (reviewed next time!) and the songs are sounding even more confident, catchy and punchy. While The Smiths are the band we're sure they'll get compared to the most, we actually hear much more of a Housemartians influence in their sound, which we think is awesome as we've always been surprised that the Housemartians never experienced the huge revival of praise and attention that they totally deserve. Magic Bullets have this great ability to tap into the best of romantic Manchester pop, yet never sound like a tribute or nostalgic act, as their songs are crafted so well with hooks and melodies that have been making us sway and swoon with total delight.
MPEG Stream: "A Day Not So Far Off"
MPEG Stream: "Sigh the Day Away"
MPEG Stream: "Young Shoulders"

MAGIC BULLETS s/t (Mon Amie) lp 14.98
While Pains Of Being Pure At Heart perfectly tap into the breezy and carefree side of '80s glory in the vein of The Smiths, the Magic Bullets reside in a similar territory but there is more of an emotional urgency imbedded in their songs. We loved their debut 12" from last year, and when we heard they lost one of their members to the band Girls, we were worried that that meant the end of Magic Bullets. But luckily that is not the case as they have this brand new album and a new 7" (reviewed next time!) and the songs are sounding even more confident, catchy and punchy. While The Smiths are the band we're sure they'll get compared to the most, we actually hear much more of a Housemartians influence in their sound, which we think is awesome as we've always been surprised that the Housemartians never experienced the huge revival of praise and attention that they totally deserve. Magic Bullets have this great ability to tap into the best of romantic Manchester pop, yet never sound like a tribute or nostalgic act, as their songs are crafted so well with hooks and melodies that have been making us sway and swoon with total delight.
MPEG Stream: "A Day Not So Far Off"
MPEG Stream: "Sigh the Day Away"
MPEG Stream: "Young Shoulders"

MOLOCH / THOU Tears That Soak A Callous Heart (Perpetual Motion Machine / Feast Of Tentacles) lp 12.98
Doesn't get much heavier than this. Louisiana sludgelords Thou matched up with UK ultradoom heavies Moloch (not to be confused with the Ukrainian black metallers Moloch).
By now, like us, you're probably pretty obsessed with Thou, of the multitudes of practitioners of the incredibly slow and low, Thou probably come closest to capturing the spirit of the bands who got us into that sort of heaviness in the first place, Eyehategod, Bongzilla, Weedeater, Noothgrush, disEMBOWELMENT, Winter, Sleep, 16, Buzzoven, the Melvins, but they do it so well and they do it in a way that few others can, and that's by infusing some serious pop into their sound. Fear not, it's not obvious, not at all, and most folks might not hear it, but it's there, and it transforms their sludge entirely.
The first track is the perfect example, sludgy and sour, everything wrapped in a warm distortion blanket. Great vokillz as always. The drums pounding away mercilessly, the guitars sounding like they're in slow motion, churning and chugging, the tone insanely corrosive and blown out, but then there are these intense chiming melodies, that change the vibe completely, some weird hybrid of the Melvins, Nirvana and Eyehategod, slipping from NOLA style Southern sludgey groove, to full on ultradoom plod, to what sounds almost like death metal slowed down to a crawl, to what sounds like their cover of Nirvana's "Sifting", which finally answers our prayers, whenever a killer band does a cover of another band, and it's amazing, and we can't help but wish there was just a band that sounded LIKE THAT, not just when they were covering songs by other bands, well, here you go!! The second track offers up more heavy bliss, opening with a riff like Sleep's "Jerusalem" before the rest of the band kicks in and things get all tense and dark before breaking out into some melodic serpentine riffery. So grim and doomy and sludgy but you can still hear all the definition of the song, before it eventually builds into an ultra depressive lament. Fuck yeah.
Moloch counter with some of their own filthy crusty sludge. Opening with a glacial squall of barely moving but steady black buzz riffage. Hardcore vocals and Neanderthal drum pound and knuckle dragging amp buzz that rides out with seemingly infinite sustain, evolving into an abject midtempo sonic beatdown. The second track introduces some groove, but Moloch's idea of groove is way less groovy and way more menacing, the lurching lumbering crush laced with hateful throat shredding howls, and some super harmonic riffage.
Super nice woodcut style packaging with a heavy printed inner sleeve and nice thick jacket, pressed on cloudy clear vinyl, LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES.

MURMUURE s/t (Cold Void Emanations) cassette 7.98
Believe it or not, it's been a while since we've been this excited about a black metal band, but this French horde sound like they could have been cooked up in a lab just for aQ. Heavy and fuzzed out, psychedelic and weird as fuck, melodic and sorrowful, abstract and all over the map, within the first minute you'll know exactly what we mean, starting out with this strange little snippet of exotica, that sounds a bit like that cursed idol theme from the Brady Bunch Hawaii movie, the intro becomes this warped soundtrack, all fluttery flutes and strange glitches, we would have been perfectly happy to have a whole record of that, but instead, Murmuure launch into some sort of twisted abstract avant black metal, that is pretty difficult to describe. The sound is echoey and blown out, the riffs aren't traditionally buzzy and black, they're more gnarled and warped and woozy, layered into heaving swells of blackened sound, and shot through with streaks of twisted melody, the drums totally chaotic, slipping from totally free, to stumbling dirge, the vocals are buried and barely there, there also seems to be all sorts of synth stuff happening, wheezing swatch of washed out chordal whir, as well as crunchy buzzing low end thrum. After a brief melodic interlude, the tape seems to crumble into a woozy circusy dronescape, all stuttering looped sounds, melancholy melodies, lots of hiss and crackle, and then those drums come in again, super loud, and weirdly produced, adding some structure to the whirling black cloud of twisted sound. Like some demented synth driven lo-fi black metal take on Godspeed but run through a whole bank of malfunctioning effects, not to mention the twisted mind(s) that conjured up these alien sounds.
Some of the tracks get downright shoegazey, all washed out and shimmery, the delicate melodies drifting through clouds of muted crunch, laced with an M83 style retro electronic haze, the drums driving this weird black pop into even further reaches of the know black metal universe, one moment it sounds like blackened Cocteau Twins, the next like some post rock band covering Abruptum as covered by Alcest, there are field recordings, long stretches of spaced out collaged soundscapes, but everything is woven together into a single multi movement gloriously blissed out, post black metal psychedelic drone drenched drift, and is just about the weirdest and coolest black metal record we've heard in FOREVER.
Here's one possible reason that this record sounds nothing like most black metal, according to the band:
"All the Murmuure material is based on a one hour guitar improvisation from November 2006. The selected parts were then further edited to fit a rhythmic structure, and merged with additional layers of sound. The percussions are a mixture of the original programmed drums, and some (extremely re-edited) additional live drumming. Vocals were recorded during a cathartic trance at a sacred place in the forest, with a mini-disc recorder. Being almost inaudible in the music, they're strictly conceived as a vocal sigil technique, a vehicle for intent."
Awesome. The sound is dizzying and confusional and so original, hell, if this were not a cassette, and not already out of print, this would be some serious Record Of The Week material for sure. But it is just a tape, and these are the LAST COPIES, saved just for us, and you, but fear not, we got a whole bunch, but considering how awesome, and awesomely fucked up this is, you still oughtta grab one of these quick, cuz without a doubt, this is our black metal record of the year!
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. ALREADY OUT OF PRINT. WE HAVE THE VERY LAST OF THESE TAPES!!!

NACHTMYSTIUM Addicts: Black Meddle Pt.2 (Century Media) 2lp 15.98
NOW ALSO HERE ON DOUBLE GATEFOLD VINYL!!
Within the last few years we have witnessed Chicago's Nachtmystium evolve from a grim exercise in nihilistic, kvlt as fuck black metal to a group that seems to be completely ignoring the accepted rules of the genre and pretty much surpassing all the competition. It would be flat out stupid to deny the blackness on display here, and yet it is so much more than just a black metal album. We've always loved Blake Judd and his cohorts (featuring here, in addition to long time guitarist Jeff Wilson and synth lord Sanford Parker, Will Lindsay of Wolves In The Throne Room and the incomparable Wrest of Leviathan on drums) but with the release of Addicts: Black Meddle Pt.2, it is now abundantly clear that they are one of the best metal bands in operation. The songs venture all over the place, never failing to surprise with their unique structures and brutal instrumentation, and the greatest success here is the fact that these are, get ready: some of the catchiest, blackest, and most psychedelic POP SONGS we have heard in forever. This album is just as amazing as the recent Twilight record, and not surprisingly, three of the players had a hand in that as well. And while Twilight caused some jaws to drop with things like emo breakdowns and beautiful choral vocals, the sick minds in Nachtmystium have found even more ways to astonish. Oh, and it's a bit of a concept album about, you guessed it, the fun and timeless subject of drug addiction.
Beginning with intro "Cry For Help", in which creepy, guttural voices spell out a negative statement (we won't ruin it for you) that sets the tone for the album over echoed drumbeats, the band then kicks into "High On Hate", a thick whirlwind of classic black metal riffs flying around some darkened vortex. It's melodic and catchy, but also terrifying and uncompromising, and Judd's vocals are as killer and harsh as always. It's surprising how many interesting ideas Nachtmystium is capable of injecting (ha!) into their songs, which take you on a crazy black metal journey in generally 5 minutes or less. Nothing here is formulaic, especially the next number, "Nightfall". Your first reaction will be along the lines of, "Holy fuck! Is that a tambourine?" It is, and by the end of the song Nachtmystium has also thrown in an awesome woah-woah gang vocals (wonder if they're Naked Raygun fans, being from Chicago and all) and a giant classic rock guitar solo. You may wonder where they can take things next, but then they hit you with the biggest mindfuck on the album, "No Funeral", which will be described as "new wave black metal" until a better term comes to light. The song is carried by Parker's spacey synth melody and a heavy industrial dance beat that is so damn poppy we kinda can't believe it. There's some mind altering progginess on display, like on "Blood Trance Fusion," but thankfully things never get too academic or concerned with shit like time signatures. Instead, synths squiggle like parasites worming through your veins and blast beats jolt you out of your trance as the band holds things down like it's what they were born to do. "Ruined Life Continuum" resurrects the, um, new wave black metal we heard earlier, another too catchy to ignore number, before ending on a suitably bleak note with "Every Last Drop", where acoustic guitars and throat singing are consumed by a lumbering dirge and some soaring clean vocals courtesy of Yakuza's Bruce Lamont. When the sounds of an oscillating synth note bring Addicts to a close, you will probably be just as blown away as we were.
So yeah, once again, these guys have furthered the cause and raised the bar higher for anyone who thinks they are up for the task of making black metal in 2010 and beyond. If there's a Part 3 in the works, we're down for it, if not, we can't wait to see what Nachtmystium cooks up next.
MPEG Stream: "High On Hate"
MPEG Stream: "Nightfall"
MPEG Stream: "No Funeral"

NEGURA BUNGET Virstele Pamintului (Aural Music / Code 666) cd 16.98
First record in more than 4 years from these Romanian black metallers, and longtime aQ faves, Negura Bunget. We had almost given up hope at one point of ever hearing new music from NB, as the band had broken up, only to recently reform with just one original member, and yet instead of recording a new record, they chose to RE-record some of their old music with the new lineup. But this, this IS in fact the first new music from the newly reformed Negura Bunget, and considering such a dramatic personnel shift, the sound is relatively consistent with recent NB records, although in many ways, Virstele Pamintului is in fact quite different than OM, the last proper full length.
The band do continue to move further away from their early sound which was a very Weakling-like blasting black Norwegian style metal, growing more and more atmospheric, more folky, more proggy, and at the same time somehow more simple. This is most definitely the folkiest record yet, as the first half of the record is mostly not metal, and the folk element definitely takes center stage here.
The record begins with a nearly 6 minute intro, performed on all traditional Romanian folk instruments, flutes and hand drums, wooden percussion, and buzzing strings, creating a lush, mysterious, foresty feel, until finally the band launch into some proper metal, but it's not blasting or fierce, instead, it's washed out and almost atmospheric, with thick swaths of synthesizer underpinning the melancholy buzz, soaring majestic guitar melodies, the vocals bellowed dramatically, and after less than two minutes, the band shifts back, and unveils a shimmery landscape of long glimmering tones, layered soft focus drones, choir like vocals, acoustic guitars weaving crystalline lattices of subtly tense melody, that had they been swathed in buzz, would make for some serious blackness, but instead here, they just help evoke a haunting dreamscape, finally the drums thunder in, the vocals too, spoken dramatically, but still, it's mostly folky and acoustic, until finally the metal erupts again, and instead of blackness, it's almost a sort of depressive doom pop, very melodic, and emotional and intense, still heavy, just more moody, and it suits them for sure.
After another stretch of dark Romanian folk flecked ambience, track four, again beginning with a dark folk intro, slowly mutates and intensifies, until it too explodes into some black metal, but even here, about as fierce and heavy as the record has gotten, the blackness is rife with acoustic guitars, fluttering flutes, swirling synths, all wrapped around a very Maiden-y melody, woozy serpentine guitars, chugging riffage, all still softened by those folk underpinnings.
And while there are indeed moments of blackened aggression, and bits of blasting fury, that doesn't seem to be what NB are really about anymore, the group seem to be more concerned with evoking emotion, creating a landscape of sound that reflects their philosophy and mythology, the black metal more just an element of the whole, and really not even that prominent of one at this point, instead the modern sound of Negura Bunget is some sort of blackened dark folk prog metal, epic and sprawling, intricate and intimate, not concerned with heaviness or kvltness or any false scene idea of 'true', because when it gets right down to it, the music of Negura Bunget is indeed as true as it gets, true to the self, and to their vision, and that sort of truth is the only thing that can create musical art like Virstele Pamintului.
MPEG Stream: "Pamint"
MPEG Stream: "Dacia Hiperboreana"
MPEG Stream: "Umbra"
MPEG Stream: "Ochiul Inimii"

NO JOY s/t (Mexican Summer) 7" 5.98
Two song blast from this rad new duo who tap into some shredding, grungy, post-punk shoegaze glory. There's a really cool late '80s Sonic Youth vibe to these songs too, recalling some of the awesome sprawling and rocking moments of SY records like Sister, Evol and Daydream Nation. We really like how these two songs if pushed one way or another could either be full on shoegaze or total post-punk rockers, but instead they are able to unite those worlds so beautifully. Claiming that a band is like a cross between My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth feels like both hyperbole and unfair to the band to ever live up to those epic influences, and to be honest there have been hundreds of bands who have tried and failed. But these two songs sound so damn refreshing and exude an element of cool that you just can't fake. We can't wait to hear more! And like most/all things on Mexican Summer this is limited so grab one now or see you on eBay later...

NORTH SEA, THE Bloodlines (Type) cd 15.98
It's hard to believe that at one time The North Sea, the solo guitar project of Digitalis head honcho Brad Rose, was more of a shimmery minimal folk thing, cuz at some point, the sound changed, and the North Sea became more about blackened heaviness, dense drones, thick layered wall of sound, still evocative and atmospheric, but way darker, and way more intense.
Based on the opening track of Bloodlines, things seem to have remained dark, and we're digging it, this time around especially as there seems to be more of a focus on electronics and synths, the opening track features a motorik pulse, a tolling bell, all beneath a squelchy synth drone, and little streaks of spaced out effects, ominous and creepy and a little bit alien, eventually exploding into a gristly crush of crumbling buzz and processed synth. Which leads directly into a sprawling dronescape, that begins where the first track left off, a cloud of synthdrone psychedelia, only to unwind into something much more minimal and dark, a creeping sort of bassline drifting along beneath a cloud of hiss and static, which smoothes out into a grinding stretch of muted heaviness, a bit like SUNNO))) but not distorted and downtuned as much as thick and dense and dark. It's not until a few more tracks in, that the clouds finally part, and let a little melody shine through, and even then, those melodies are still being pelted with synth buzz, and wreathed in blackened whirrs.
"Save Yourselves" might be our favorite track here, with its deep sinewy swells, that blossom into lush chordal drifts, the vibe growing ever more menacing, the soft sounds soon surrounded on all sides by intense, not-so-soft sounds, a swirling soft cacophony, the whole track seems to moan and groan, exploding into a frenzied climax, a soaring sonic ritual, where drums come in for the first time, abstract and spaced out, but it gives the track a really intense, propulsive feel.
The final two tracks continue on, the whirling roiling buzz, the sporadic drumming, the wild squalls of psychedelic noise, it's like a sort of free jazz / free noise / free drone hybrid, finally collapsing into the final track, a sea of soft tones, ominous synth pulses, distorted bass buzz, and clouds of cymbal shimmer, what began as tranquil and dreamlike becomes a sort of Carpenter style synth dirge, before transforming into a psych drone blowout and finally grinding to a halt. Epic. And awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Bloodlines"
MPEG Stream: "Missed Court Dates"
MPEG Stream: "Reunion"

NORTH SEA, THE Bloodlines (Type) lp 19.98
It's hard to believe that at one time The North Sea, the solo guitar project of Digitalis head honcho Brad Rose, was more of a shimmery minimal folk thing, cuz at some point, the sound changed, and the North Sea became more about blackened heaviness, dense drones, thick layered wall of sound, still evocative and atmospheric, but way darker, and way more intense.
Based on the opening track of Bloodlines, things seem to have remained dark, and we're digging it, this time around especially as there seems to be more of a focus on electronics and synths, the opening track features a motorik pulse, a tolling bell, all beneath a squelchy synth drone, and little streaks of spaced out effects, ominous and creepy and a little bit alien, eventually exploding into a gristly crush of crumbling buzz and processed synth. Which leads directly into a sprawling dronescape, that begins where the first track left off, a cloud of synthdrone psychedelia, only to unwind into something much more minimal and dark, a creeping sort of bassline drifting along beneath a cloud of hiss and static, which smoothes out into a grinding stretch of muted heaviness, a bit like SUNNO))) but not distorted and downtuned as much as thick and dense and dark. It's not until a few more tracks in, that the clouds finally part, and let a little melody shine through, and even then, those melodies are still being pelted with synth buzz, and wreathed in blackened whirrs.
"Save Yourselves" might be our favorite track here, with its deep sinewy swells, that blossom into lush chordal drifts, the vibe growing ever more menacing, the soft sounds soon surrounded on all sides by intense, not-so-soft sounds, a swirling soft cacophony, the whole track seems to moan and groan, exploding into a frenzied climax, a soaring sonic ritual, where drums come in for the first time, abstract and spaced out, but it gives the track a really intense, propulsive feel.
The final two tracks continue on, the whirling roiling buzz, the sporadic drumming, the wild squalls of psychedelic noise, it's like a sort of free jazz / free noise / free drone hybrid, finally collapsing into the final track, a sea of soft tones, ominous synth pulses, distorted bass buzz, and clouds of cymbal shimmer, what began as tranquil and dreamlike becomes a sort of Carpenter style synth dirge, before transforming into a psych drone blowout and finally grinding to a halt. Epic. And awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Bloodlines"
MPEG Stream: "Missed Court Dates"
MPEG Stream: "Reunion"

ODMENN s/t (Shadoks) cd 17.98
More rad psych rock reissue action here, courtesy of the Shadoks label. Their latest batch of cds delve into the prog rock past of a place known for interesting music (and volcanoes, and fairies), Iceland! Svanfridur, Trubrot, and this one, Odmenn, which we're reviewing first 'cause it's one we'd heard before, we already knew we loved it, and it's possibly the heaviest of the bunch. Poppy too, though, these songs are syncopated, swinging ear candy for those into what DJ Andy Votel over at Finders Keepers likes to call "hairy funk". The band formed in 1966, and after several years spent perfecting their groovy and rather heavy progressive blues rock, this record was to be their only full-length release. A double album, 15 tracks, originally released in 1970. All but one of the songs sung in their native Icelandic.
It's a joy, full of irresistibly loping grooves, fuzzy riffage, gentle folky parts, wild guitar solos, and lyrics pertinent to political protest and hippy ideals (so we're told, not understanding Icelandic), yeaaah! There's beautiful, blissed out melodies ("Kaerleikur") and sheer freaked out acid rock excess (the 20 minute, side-long album-ender "Frelsi") and lots of groovy stuff in between. Well, not in between those particular two tracks, as they follow one another, but in between those extremes, across the whole disc, we mean.
We'd recommend Odmenn to fans of other killer Scandinavian psychedelia such as Moses (another recent Shadoks reish), Baby Grandmothers, Mecki Mark Men, and, latterly, Dungen. And it comes with extensive liner notes, as well as vintage photos and graphics, in the thick cd booklet. Very cool.
MPEG Stream: "Betri Heimur"
MPEG Stream: "Eg Vil Pig"
MPEG Stream: "Saga Pjodar"

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, THE Say No To Love (Slumberland) 7" 5.98
Over the last couple years no pop band has won over our ears and hearts more then Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Their full length and follow up ep displayed a band capable of creating highly addictive, breezy and melodic pop crafted so meticulously. So two new songs from them is something to celebrate for sure. And they continue their amazing streak of not releasing a single dud yet. It's true every song on the amazing debut full length and the Higher Than The Stars ep were all absolute winners. The kind of records where every few weeks you listen, you have a new favorite song. These two new jams find the band at their most sun kissed, songs perfect for cracking the window and feeling the soft breeze on a warm summer afternoon. While it will always be hard to talk about them without mentioning the sound of classic romantic UK pop of the '80s like The Smiths, James, and The Field Mice, there is no doubt that Pains Of Being Pure at heart have employed those influences with greater results then so many others. And in the process they have created their own take on that classic sound, which all bands that follow in their footsteps will now be be judged by.

PASTELS, THE Truckload Of Trouble (Fire) cd 15.98
Time for Pastels fans to rejoice 'cause this wonderful compilation has been freshly repressed! Originally released back in 2007, Truckload Of Trouble collects a heap of these beloved Scottish popsters' singles which were released on Fire Records circa 1986 through 1993. Following on the heels of The Vaselines' Enter The Vaselines reissue, this is indeed a welcome resurfacing of another immensely influential UK indie twee band's music (as a matter of fact, The Vaselines' Eugene Kelly even joined The Pastels fold for a spell!). Sure, the playing chops and singing pitch of these early purveyors of lo-fi might've been somewhat rough-hewn and wobbly through the years, but their melodic hooks were consistently engaging, and their bittersweet lyrics utterly heartfelt. There was a delightful immediacy, an earnest yet wry humor and an abundance of puppy dog exuberance that always shone through. Theirs were the songs of cardigans and crushes which when strung together fashioned the sweetest, ramshackle, jingle-jangle twee pop daydreams! Their cover of Michael Nesmith's "Different Drum" is still one of Cup's favoritest songs for a rainy day. Other blithe standouts include the supremely singalong-able "Nothing To Be Done" and Daniel Johnston's "Speeding Motorcycle" later covered again by their early tourmates Yo La Tengo. You really can trace the sound of so many of our favorite bands back to the inspiration of The Pastels. From Belle & Sebastian, Henry's Dress, Black Tambourine, Camera Obscura, The Concretes, Sebadoh, Pavement, Seam, Jesus & Mary Chain, Dean Wareham (Luna, Galaxie 500, et al), Amelia Fletcher (Heavenly, Talulah Gosh, Marine Research, Tender Trap, et al) and on and on. Beyond the legendary impact their music has had, these songs still sound so damn great all these years later.
MPEG Stream: "Nothing To Be Done"
MPEG Stream: "Different Drum"
MPEG Stream: "Speeding Motorcycle"
MPEG Stream: "Comin' Through"

PELANDER, MAGNUS s/t (Svart Records) cd ep 11.98
Attention, all worshippers of WITCHCRAFT!! What we have here is the next best thing to new music from that more '70s than thou band of Swedish heavy prog downer doomsters, and huge AQ faves. It's the debut solo recording from Witchcraft frontman Magnus Pelander, a four song, 21 minute ep. If you're a real Witchcraft fan, you'll want this. Since Magnus is the prime mover in Witchcraft, and this highlights his distinctive, mellifluous voice as well as guitar playing and songwriting talents, it's one of those "solo" projects that doesn't sound too different from the main band.... except it's mostly acoustic! A few years back, one time when Witchcraft were playing in San Francisco, Magnus told us he had plans to team up with a friend of his back home, who's also his guitar teacher, to do an acoustic album. We'd been eagerly waiting ever since, and it seems that their project has finally borne fruit. Magnus plays 6 string acoustic guitar, electric as well, plus drums and percussion. And of course sings. Meanwhile, his friend Mike (first name only given here, he's shy or something) plays 6 and 12 steel string acoustic guitars, plus piano, bass, percussion, and handles the string arrangements.
AQ's Allan, actually, was lucky enough to get to see the duo's first ever performance, this year at the Roadburn festival in Holland. For him, it was definitely a highlight of the fest, though Magnus and Mike were frustrated by some technical difficulties during their set. Still, they rose to the occasion and delivered some of the most "musical" moments of the whole Roadburn experience. Let's put it this way: Magnus is no slouch on guitar, but this guy Mike was really phenomenal!
The glorious, intricate interplay of guitars Allan heard there is fully on display here, as is the manner in which Magnus bears his heart vocally and lyrically, these songs so personal and emotive, like a lot of the most moving Witchcraft tunes. Some of this has got that sad Sabbath "Solitude" vibe, though the ep starts out on the brighter side with "A Sinner's Child", featuring melodious whistling, and lovely female backing ah-ah-ah's, but also lyrics like "I am a sinner's child / you better wait a while / before you take my hand / can you see Satan smile?" keeping it well within the realm of something dark and occultic that Witchcraft themselves might do. "Hope", which begins just with voice and piano, getting even more intimate in feel than the first track, soon turns into even more of a showcase for this duo's impressive 6 and 12 string chops. They rip... acoustically. Track 3, "You Have Got No Friends To Turn To" is by far the heaviest offering here, Magnus busting out the electric guitar for some plodding riff stomp and amped-up psychedelic soloing, though the track is still adorned with plenty of acoustic filigree and hand percussion. Certainly another one that wouldn't be out of place on a Witchcraft album.
The last, and longest, track, "Stardust", is an achingly beautiful and melancholic ballad, Magus's singing starting off hushed, the strumming almost sacred, a string section gradually building up in the background, piano notes intertwined with the guitar lines, it gets pretty progged out and epic! Allan definitely remembers this one from Roadburn, even in the stripped down way they played it there.
This record recalls at moments the likes of Comus and Six Organs and Aztec Two-Step and even, unintentionally but awesomely, Tenacious D, just a teeny bit. Fellow Swedes Dungen and Bjorn Olsson would be other references. And while in our experience, most people into the whole current indie acid folk scene already do dig Witchcraft, those who haven't heard 'em might find this to be a particularly lush, gorgeous, somewhat mellowed out entree.
LIMITED IMPORT RELEASE, cd version limited to 500 copies. We have black vinyl, with nice thick sleeves.
MPEG Stream: "A Sinner's Child"
MPEG Stream: "You Have Got No Friends To Turn To"

PELANDER, MAGNUS s/t (Svart Records) 12" 13.98
Attention, all worshippers of WITCHCRAFT!! What we have here is the next best thing to new music from that more '70s than thou band of Swedish heavy prog downer doomsters, and huge AQ faves. It's the debut solo recording from Witchcraft frontman Magnus Pelander, a four song, 21 minute ep. If you're a real Witchcraft fan, you'll want this. Since Magnus is the prime mover in Witchcraft, and this highlights his distinctive, mellifluous voice as well as guitar playing and songwriting talents, it's one of those "solo" projects that doesn't sound too different from the main band.... except it's mostly acoustic! A few years back, one time when Witchcraft were playing in San Francisco, Magnus told us he had plans to team up with a friend of his back home, who's also his guitar teacher, to do an acoustic album. We'd been eagerly waiting ever since, and it seems that their project has finally borne fruit. Magnus plays 6 string acoustic guitar, electric as well, plus drums and percussion. And of course sings. Meanwhile, his friend Mike (first name only given here, he's shy or something) plays 6 and 12 steel string acoustic guitars, plus piano, bass, percussion, and handles the string arrangements.
AQ's Allan, actually, was lucky enough to get to see the duo's first ever performance, this year at the Roadburn festival in Holland. For him, it was definitely a highlight of the fest, though Magnus and Mike were frustrated by some technical difficulties during their set. Still, they rose to the occasion and delivered some of the most "musical" moments of the whole Roadburn experience. Let's put it this way: Magnus is no slouch on guitar, but this guy Mike was really phenomenal!
The glorious, intricate interplay of guitars Allan heard there is fully on display here, as is the manner in which Magnus bears his heart vocally and lyrically, these songs so personal and emotive, like a lot of the most moving Witchcraft tunes. Some of this has got that sad Sabbath "Solitude" vibe, though the ep starts out on the brighter side with "A Sinner's Child", featuring melodious whistling, and lovely female backing ah-ah-ah's, but also lyrics like "I am a sinner's child / you better wait a while / before you take my hand / can you see Satan smile?" keeping it well within the realm of something dark and occultic that Witchcraft themselves might do. "Hope", which begins just with voice and piano, getting even more intimate in feel than the first track, soon turns into even more of a showcase for this duo's impressive 6 and 12 string chops. They rip... acoustically. Track 3, "You Have Got No Friends To Turn To" is by far the heaviest offering here, Magnus busting out the electric guitar for some plodding riff stomp and amped-up psychedelic soloing, though the track is still adorned with plenty of acoustic filigree and hand percussion. Certainly another one that wouldn't be out of place on a Witchcraft album.
The last, and longest, track, "Stardust", is an achingly beautiful and melancholic ballad, Magus's singing starting off hushed, the strumming almost sacred, a string section gradually building up in the background, piano notes intertwined with the guitar lines, it gets pretty progged out and epic! Allan definitely remembers this one from Roadburn, even in the stripped down way they played it there.
This record recalls at moments the likes of Comus and Six Organs and Aztec Two-Step and even, unintentionally but awesomely, Tenacious D, just a teeny bit. Fellow Swedes Dungen and Bjorn Olsson would be other references. And while in our experience, most people into the whole current indie acid folk scene already do dig Witchcraft, those who haven't heard 'em might find this to be a particularly lush, gorgeous, somewhat mellowed out entree.
LIMITED IMPORT RELEASE, cd version limited to 500 copies. We have black vinyl, with nice thick sleeves.
MPEG Stream: "A Sinner's Child"
MPEG Stream: "You Have Got No Friends To Turn To"

PERNICE BROTHERS Goodbye Killer (Ashmont) cd 13.98
We've loved Joe Pernice ever since the Scud Mountain Boys, his classic alt-country Sub Pop outfit, the songs sad and wistful, the arrangements lush, and the voice, it was always about the voice, delicate and fragile and so emotional, after Scud Mountain Boys called it quits, Pernice went on to craft similarly evocative and moving country / pop in various guises, Big Tobacco, Chappaquiddick Skyline, and finally as the Pernice Brothers. But whatever name he used, and whatever sound he was exploring, whether it was soft pop, mournful country, or whatever, the sound and the voice were always recognizable.
We complained a little about the last Pernice Brothers, we still dug it, but were worried that Pernice's obsession with soft rock (Bread, the Raspberries, etc.) was dulling his songwriting pen, the hooks less hooky, the sound less sparkly and sharp. But on Goodbye, Killer, it sounds like nothing ever changed. This record would fit anywhere in Pernice's career, and that's not a bad thing at all, jangly, smart pop, flecked with country-ish twang, lush arrangements, big time hooks, and that voice, sounding as powerful as ever, but without losing any of its fragility.
Right out of the gate, we're utterly smitten, "Bechamel" opens with a perfectly lilting vocal melody over strummed acoustic guitar, and straight into not only a killer chorus, but a bridge that's just as memorable. "Jacqueline Susann" gets a little bit more rocking, reminding us a bit of Ted Leo of all people, but there's a certain sort of melody that only Pernice seems to be capable off, every band has had certain sonic shadings, the sort of thing, that no matter who was playing it, that chord progression, or the way the vocals interact with the music around it, total Joe Pernice, and this record is overflowing with that classic Pernice sound.
Those first two songs are definitely a killer one two punch, and we find ourselves playing those over and over, but the whole record plays out fantastically as a whole, the sort of bittersweet perfect pop that there's just not enough of these days.
MPEG Stream: "Bechamel"
MPEG Stream: "Jacqueline Susann"
MPEG Stream: "We Love The Stage"
MPEG Stream: "Not The Loving Kind"

RAM Lightbringer (AFM Records) cd 15.98
Been wanting to list this for a while, one of Allan's top "true metal" faves of 2009, now finally available via domestic distribution channels at a non-import price! We first became fans of RAM thanks to the inclusion of their track "Sudden Impact" on the excellent Earache comp Heavy Metal Killers a year or two ago. This is their second full-length, the first RAM we've been able to track down for the store. And it's quite a piece of work. While they're definitely inspired by a lot of '80s metal, and have recorded covers of songs by the likes Black Sabbath and Venom, RAM tend towards a more original, less overtly retro sound than some of their peers - like, for instance, fellow Swedes Enforcer, the slaying second album from whom we highlighted on our last list. As good as Enforcer is at energetically and enjoyably emulating their favorite '80s speed metal masters, RAM manage to do them one better by putting their old school melodic metal chops in service of something a bit more serious, and darker, and dare we say artistic. While we haven't delved deeply into all the lyrics, we get the idea that RAM's songs have a bit more to 'em than the usual metal cliches, they seem to be opining on occultic or philosophical concepts worth of the more erudite of black metal weirdoes, "religious" ones like Deathspell Omega. Or maybe it's just the stylish and meticulous glyphic art and graphic design, done by RAM's expressive vocalist, and evident visionary, Oscar Carlquist, that gives us this notion of unique genius. Well, the bottom line is the music, and there we're mighty impressed even without reference to the cd booklet (which, by the way, informs us that "this album is dedicated to the glory of the relentless truth").
Including a strikingly eerie and intense, mostly instrumental intro entitled "Crushing The Dwarf Of Ignorance", and similar outro "Prelude To Death" (both featuring text written and recited by Mexican poet Adelaida Caballero), you get ten tracks of varied and powerful metal, surging forth with stellar production values, super heavy, sometimes quite speedy, boasting vocals that soar high, but remain vicious, atmospheres arcane, and raging riffs that are worthy, oh so worthy of your headbanging attention. They do justice to the legacy of such assumed influences as Mercyful Fate and Manowar, Iron Maiden and Metal Church, yet while successfully striving to be their own (and more modern) band entirely. And without succumbing to any of the cheese endemic to the genre, they pump out pure power metal majesty, with tracks like the nine-minute epic "Suomussalmi (The Few Of Iron)" reminding us quite favorably of the melodic bombast of an old AQ fave, Blind Guardian. There's lots to capture one's imagination here, while also, as we said, causing heads to bang.
In a word, RAM rule!
MPEG Stream: "Lightbringer"
MPEG Stream: "Suomussalmi (The Few Of Iron)"
MPEG Stream: "Bloodgod"

RAPE & HONEY Issue Three: Weapon magazine 3.50
Finally, a new issue of Rape & Honey, the miniature metal magazine, that has taken the place of the now deceased Oaken Throne, easily one of the best metal periodicals ever. But when OT was retired, John Mincemoyer, one half of the Oaken Throne editorial team, decided he still wanted to do printed zine, but with a twist, that twist being that each issue is focused on a single band. Lovingly laid out, gorgeously designed and printed, well written and extremely interesting, Rape & Honey is almost like lengthy articles pulled from a magazine and transformed into their own slime volume, and like many of our favorite mags, it almost doesn't matter who it's about, it's great reading, and more often than not, you'll be dying to hear the band after reading all about their history, their beliefs, and most importantly their music.
The first issue focused on the relatively obscure black thrash outfit Razor Of Occam, issue two was all about aQ faves Funeral Mist, and now along comes #3, this time it's all about Weapon, whose Drakonian Paradigm record we raved about not too long back. Bangladesh via Canada, a killer mix of grim blackness and classic metal, with wild solos, loads of harmony guitars, actual melodies, weird production, extreme stereo panning, you can read our review on the aQ site, but you should also grab one of these and dig in. Besides all the interesting stuff in the article, the presentation is superb, this time it's up to 12 pages (not long before it becomes a proper magazine perhaps?), full color, with a super nice center spread, and as always, there are some inserts, a Rape & Honey postcard, and Ajna Offensive ad/insert, and a small printed transparency with Mincemoyer's review of Drakonian Paradigm!
If you read Terrorizer, and Decibel, and used to read Oaken Throne, then there's no reason you shouldn't be reading Rape & Honey!

ROBOTNICK, ALEXANDER Ce N'est Q'un Debut (Medical Records) lp 19.98
One of two amazing vinyl-only reissues on the brand new Medical Records label (the other is Record Of The Week Deutsche Wertarbeit). This one, a holy grail of sorts for all the cult disco seekers, a sexy, exuberant and at times wonderfully sleazy hybrid of Italo-disco, French electro, and Minimal Wave weirdness by the one and only Alexander Robotnick (aka Maurizio Dami).
Ce N'est Q'un Debut was released in 1984 after his first single, "Problemes D'amour" became a mega-cult hit in New York underground dance club circles a year earlier. The extended version of that track was prominently featured on the Strut label's Disco Not Disco 2 a few years back, and it fits right in with Giorgio Moroder, Bernard Fevre, Arthur Russell and other Mutant Disco aficionados as a defining dance staple of the era. This mini-lp features 6 killer tracks including the Moroderesque, "Dance Boy Dance", another popular cult single that was probably heard more in gay bathhouses than in mainstream discos due to its lurid minimal rhythms and suggestive whispered singing. Sooo good! Sweaty summer dancing begins here! Don't let this one slip away!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each 180 gram colored vinyl and hand-numbered. We're not sure how long we'll have these, so don't wait too long. Highest Recommendation!
MPEG Stream: "Problemes D'amour"
MPEG Stream: "Dance Boy Dance"

ROEDELIUS Lustwandel (Bureau B) cd 17.98
Along with the beautiful compilation of seventies recordings from Roedelius' Selbstportrait series (Diary Of The Unforgotten), we also have this lovely reissue of his 1981 recording Lustwandel. This was Roedelius' third solo record between the chamber baroque miniatures of 1979's Jardin Au Fou and the airy open-ended pastoralism of Wenn Der Sudwind Weht, recorded the same year as this. The music on Lustwandel is a perfect segue between the two approaches, comprised largely of solo piano works with subtle textural nuances of ambient atmospherics and classical inflected melodies, that occasionally transition into works for strings as well as harpsichord. But there are also some strange turns here and there into a warm angularity of soft martial rhythms and ballet moods, as well as some medieval sounding short pieces with pipes and hand percussion. It's a slowly sauntering set that takes its time to move from parlor to forest in an almost pageant like procession. Quite Beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "Lustwandel"
MPEG Stream: "Drausen Worbei"
MPEG Stream: "Wilkommen"
MPEG Stream: "Langer Atem"

ROEDELIUS Lustwandel (Bureau B) lp 17.98
Along with the beautiful compilation of seventies recordings from Roedelius' Selbstportrait series (Diary Of The Unforgotten), we also have this lovely reissue of his 1981 recording Lustwandel. This was Roedelius' third solo record between the chamber baroque miniatures of 1979's Jardin Au Fou and the airy open-ended pastoralism of Wenn Der Sudwind Weht, recorded the same year as this. The music on Lustwandel is a perfect segue between the two approaches, comprised largely of solo piano works with subtle textural nuances of ambient atmospherics and classical inflected melodies, that occasionally transition into works for strings as well as harpsichord. But there are also some strange turns here and there into a warm angularity of soft martial rhythms and ballet moods, as well as some medieval sounding short pieces with pipes and hand percussion. It's a slowly sauntering set that takes its time to move from parlor to forest in an almost pageant like procession. Quite Beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "Lustwandel"
MPEG Stream: "Drausen Worbei"
MPEG Stream: "Wilkommen"
MPEG Stream: "Langer Atem"

ROEDELIUS The Diary Of The Unforgotten: Selbstportrait VI (Bureau) cd 17.98
What a great time this is, and how lucky we are to be living in it, as the back catalogs of both Cluster members, Moebius and Roedelius, have been getting the long overdue reissue campaign they so rightly deserve. So many gems to be found in both of their discographies, in fact, they're almost all gems.
The Diary Of The Unforgotten is a collection of musical sketches that Roedelius made between the years 1973-1978. It never saw release until 1990, and sadly that pressing came and went quickly, so most of us here had never heard these amazing tracks before.
Shimmering with dreamy atmosphere, melancholic and flowing with a soft grace, you can tell Brian Eno was so in tune with these same sounds, sounds which would eventually evolve into their future collaborations as well as on Eno's own records like Before & After Science and Another Green World. What's so miraculous about these tracks is that while they flow with such a golden ease, they were actually recorded in such a lo-fi manner. Roedelius would just let the tape roll and would not add any overdubs afterwards. Perhaps that's why the emotional quality of these songs hits us so strongly. Nine of the ten songs range in the three to five minute range and then there's the epic twenty four minute centerpiece "Hommage A Forst". While we could argue forever about which Roedelius or Cluster offshoot release is our favorite, right now The Diary Of The Unforgotten is making a pretty great case for that honor.
MPEG Stream: "Remember Those Days"
MPEG Stream: "Du"
MPEG Stream: "Hommage À Forst"
MPEG Stream: "Ausgeredet"

ROEDELIUS The Diary Of The Unforgotten: Selbstportrait VI (Bureau) lp 17.98
What a great time this is, and how lucky we are to be living in it, as the back catalogs of both Cluster members, Moebius and Roedelius, have been getting the long overdue reissue campaign they so rightly deserve. So many gems to be found in both of their discographies, in fact, they're almost all gems.
The Diary Of The Unforgotten is a collection of musical sketches that Roedelius made between the years 1973-1978. It never saw release until 1990, and sadly that pressing came and went quickly, so most of us here had never heard these amazing tracks before.
Shimmering with dreamy atmosphere, melancholic and flowing with a soft grace, you can tell Brian Eno was so in tune with these same sounds, sounds which would eventually evolve into their future collaborations as well as on Eno's own records like Before & After Science and Another Green World. What's so miraculous about these tracks is that while they flow with such a golden ease, they were actually recorded in such a lo-fi manner. Roedelius would just let the tape roll and would not add any overdubs afterwards. Perhaps that's why the emotional quality of these songs hits us so strongly. Nine of the ten songs range in the three to five minute range and then there's the epic twenty four minute centerpiece "Hommage A Forst". While we could argue forever about which Roedelius or Cluster offshoot release is our favorite, right now The Diary Of The Unforgotten is making a pretty great case for that honor.
MPEG Stream: "Remember Those Days"
MPEG Stream: "Du"
MPEG Stream: "Hommage À Forst"
MPEG Stream: "Ausgeredet"

ROTHER, MICHAEL Flammende Herzen (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
Finally reissued on vinyl, this is the 1976 solo debut from from Neu!/Harmonia guitarist Michael Rother. This would be the first of several of records wherein Rother's beautifully harmonized, multitracked guitars and synths are joined by the incomparable, propulsive drumming of fellow krautrock hero Jaki Liebzeit of Can. And another legendary figure in the scene, Conny Plank, produces.
Flammende Herzen, which means Flaming Hearts in English, is a blissful concoction of motorik beats beneath Rother's trademark shimmering, soaring melodies. It's easy to see why it was a big hit when it was first released (apparently outselling all of Rother's albums with Neu! combined!). Truly gorgeous instrumental compositions that will brighten your day, being sources of both relaxation and energy... ok, that sounds a bit New Agey, doesn't it? But fans of the kosmische krautrock stuff should be comfortable with that, after all, there's a definite overlap, with Ashra, Tangerine Dream, Deuter, and Popol Vuh among others being krautrockers later to cross over to careers in the New Age field... and it's not like you have to get into a yoga pose to enjoy this album (though you could). Such nice music for a drive in the country, or lazing at home on a rainy afternoon, as well. Definitely a fine follow up to his work in Harmonia, tracks like "Feuerland" certainly not ignoring the r-o-c-k part of the krautrock equation in the process of being all spacey and hypnotic. Solidly recommended. 180 gram vinyl, nice "tip-on" jacket.
MPEG Stream: "Flammende Herzen "
MPEG Stream: "Karussel"

SABBATH ASSEMBLY Restored To One (Ajna) cd 14.98
And here it is, now on compact disc as well as the vinyl we highlighted last time, saying thusly:
Got something here for fans of Jex Thoth, the No Neck Blues Band, AND weird religious cults... there's probably some overlap there, we imagine! The Ajna Offensive, best known for black metal releases by the likes of Deathspell Omega and Funeral Mist, and also that fancy Bobby Beausoleil box set not long ago, now bring us the Sabbath Assembly, singing "glorious songs of praise to Lucifer, Satan, Christ, and Jehovah". Huh? These are indeed REAL hymns, and all from one church. Some would say, cult. The explanation: ever heard of the Process Church Of The Final Judgment? This is their music, "reProcessed" by a contemporary psychedelic (super)group of underground musicians, including Jex Thoth of, um, Jex Thoth on vocals, David "Xtian" Nuss (NNCK, Angelblood, Under Satan's Sun), and Randall Dunn (Master Musicians Of Bukkake)! So you can expect this will be ominous and esoteric.
The subject of a recent Feral House book, the Process Church was a '70s phenomenon, of course, a kind of apocalyptic Jesus-freak cult with radical political dimensions. We're told they wore black cloaks (always cool) and had German shepherds (really?). We first heard of 'em years ago thanks to George Clinton's band Funkadelic, who for a while in the early '70s were, if not followers, at least supporters of the Process Church, who presumably had a chapter in Detroit. Several Funkadelic lps feature Process Church teachings (propaganda?) on the sleeves. The music of the Sabbath Assembly doesn't sound much like Funkadelic, though. Not quite that funky! Nor are they metal as you might assume from the label... it's actually often pretty, mellow stuff, presumably sounding close to what the Process Church folks themselves sounded like when singing the Lord's (or Lucifer's?) praises back in the day, these hymns very hippie sounding, churchy and folky, but also garagey, with twangy guitar and groovy organ, building into throbbing rhythmic psych workouts. It even gets a bit jazzy in spots ("The Power That Is Love"). Still, while this isn't heavy in the guitar dep't the way Jex Thoth's regular band is, it is definitely "heavy" in terms of subject matter. Jex is the perfect vocalist for this, her dramatic, devotional delivery at once both innocent and intense, sincere and sinister. Her exaltations and exhortations rise from a delicate whisper to commanding, demanding heights, sometimes unaccompanied, at others, with backing vocals reinforcing the message.
Be warned, this ain't Sunday school. When Jex asks "will you serve the will of God?", it seems like you had darn well better answer (yes!). Dunno if the Process Church is still around (haven't read the book yet) but if they are, there's a good chance this record might recruit some converts... And at least, it's certainly making us curious to read that book. Creepy, yes, and quite catchy too, we can understand why these folks were drawn to reinterpreting these songs. Though of course curious about what the original source material was (lyrics? vintage recordings?). Perhaps it says somewhere inside the lp packaging, we haven't checked for liner notes as yet. This was produced in association with Feral House, so it would seem the Sabbath Assembly had access to whatever inside archival info there was on the Process Church's musical activities.
As "religious" recordings go, this is what we dig! For fans of Jex of course, and Yahowah 13, Family Jams, Sounds Of Ascension, and other "cult" audio... recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Glory To The Gods In The Highest"
MPEG Stream: "Hymn Of Consecration"
MPEG Stream: "Judge Of Mankind"

SAVAGE GRACE Master Of Disguise / The Dominatress (Limb Music) cd 17.98
We didn't even know this reissue was happening, but both Andee and Allan were so psyched when this came out recently. The first we heard of LA speed metal outfit Savage Grace was back in the day, they had a track on the Metal Blade Metal Massacre II compilation released in 1982, with other rad bands of the time like Aloha, Overkill, Obsession and all time aQ faves Warlord, among others. Even with all that tough competition, their song "Scepters Of Deceit" ruled, and weirdly enough, it featured Ozzy guitarist Randy Rhoads' brother on vocals. The next year, the band put out The Dominatress ep, which besides being their first proper release, featured a saucy lingerie clad dominatrix, er, dominatress on the cover, which was quite titillating for young metalheads like us at the time. A couple years later, the band released their killer debut full-length Master Of Disguise, featuring another infamous cover, this one with a naked woman handcuffed to a motorcycle, with a creepy red eyed cop leering at her, all wreathed in red fog, and the music inside was even better than the ep, not as raw, but still fast and heavy and melodic. This slipcased cd reissue contains both Master Of Disguise and The Dominatress, and tacks on 4 early eighties demo tracks, including their Metal Massacre contribution.
Most metalheads maybe remember these guys, but they might not realize how well this stuff has stood the test of time. It sounds better than ever, especially with the onslaught of retro metal and old school style thrash bands, this stuff just rules. Still. The riffs are killer, the songs are super hooky and stick in your head like crazy, the leads are super technical and catchy in their own way too, the kind of leads that you end up humming along to, the vocals soaring and high and perfectly suited to the music, the drumming intense and also super technical, and while these guys are generally considered to be speed metal, the band they most sound like in many ways is Iron Maiden, the same sort of epic song structures, harmonized guitar leads, there's definitely a serious NWOBHM influence, which makes this stuff so much more than run of the mill speed metal. Just check out the sound samples, if you can resist "Lion's Roar" or "Bound To Be Free", you really have no right to call yourself a metalhead... Oh, and if you liked the new one from Sweden's Enforcer we highlighted a few weeks back, THIS is definitely the kind of '80s speed metal that they're today's torch carriers of.
Includes a massive booklet with lyrics, liner notes, tons of photos, including alternate even saucier shots from the photo session for the Master Of Disguise cover! Recommended, metallers!!
MPEG Stream: "Lions Roar"
MPEG Stream: "Bound To Be Free"
MPEG Stream: "Fear My Way"
MPEG Stream: "Master Of Disguise"

SECRET PYRAMID Ghosts (Self-Released) cd-r 8.98
One of our favorite pastimes here at aQ is stumbling across those uncovered gems that may have otherwise remained hidden in internet obscurity. Vancouver, Canada's Secret Pyramid is the perfect example of one of these hidden gems, a humbly packaged cd-r that turned out to blow our freakin' minds. Apparently this guy is one half of Solars, another killer Vancouver psychedelic drone outfit whose tapes have sold-out of here like hotcakes. Picture those same smeared melodies washed away in fuzz, growing drones giving way to sedated vocal murmurs, strummed acoustic guitar embellished with cosmic layers of shimmering delay, all meticulously composed into something that resembles Flying Saucer Attack collaborating with Andrew Chalk. 
"Ghosts of the Sun / Oceans" opens with swirling washes of gently strummed acoustic guitar, layers of howling feedback and cosmic buzz weave themselves in and out of muffled vocal reflections, soft whispers in the dead of night that give way to deep buzzing dark ambiance. Creepy drones hover above the cavern floors like grey mist, distant feedback swells echoing like flutes or distant birds, all building up to a gorgeous fuzz drenched climax that unfolds like a warm jet stream arching across a dim coastal horizon. "Milk & Honey" begins with a deep, dooooomy wash that builds into an entrancing buzz, creepy and hushed FSA style vocals lurch in again, this time reminding us of a contemplative, more droney Suicide. Finally "Permanence" calmly lifts off with a beautifully whirling sound wall, something similar to the cryptic tones of Kevin Drumm's Imperial Horizon, but Secret Pyramid come off as less industrial, and offers up something more mystical, serene and ephemeral. Needless to say, we were really impressed by this debut release and can not recommend it more. "Ghosts" is criminally limited to an edition of 50, so act fast if you'd like to get your hands on one of these hand-assembled cd-r gems! 
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts Of The Sun / Oceans"
MPEG Stream: "Milk + Honey"
MPEG Stream: "Permanence"

SEVERIN, STEVEN Codex Astra: Circles Of Silver (Erototox Decodings) cd ep 13.98
Circles Of Silver opens Steven Severin's four-part limited edition Codex Astra cd series based on quotations by the infamous Aleister Crowley. On the inside of the digipak is inscribed, "I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning." Although a familiarity with the occult figure and his writings may offer the listener some insight into the former Banshee's inspirations for these recordings, it does not appear to be a prerequisite to be able to listen to (and enjoy) these instrumental compositions. A penchant for well-crafted drone music might be just as handy!
Creeping clouds of smotherous tones fill every crevice while vaporous hisses drift over top. A somber, beautiful 17-minute aural shroud that's sure to pique the interest of dronescape lovers far and wide.
FYI: The second volume of Codex Astra titled Hours Of Gold, the third Idols Of Glass, and the fourth Wand Of Flame will follow shortly. Each volume will be a limited cd pressing of 777. So be sure to get them while you can!
Note to those who prefer records to cds: the four volumes will eventually be compiled and re-released on vinyl as Codex Astra: ABRAHADABRA (release date tba).
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 2"

SPIRITUALIZED Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (Plain Recordings) 2lp 22.00
In the 13 years since its original 1997 release, Spiritualized's third lp has become something of a modern classic, and not without good reason. You'll probably want to ignore our original half-assed review of this landmark record, because this is the kind of album which has gotten better - monumentally better, in fact - with age. As the sticker on this handsome reissue states, Ladies and Gentlemen is "A psychedelic gospel album full of confessional songs about heartbreak and drug abuse, a flat out masterpiece." True dat. It is also the album where mainman Jason Pierce was able to bypass the whole "ex-Spacemen 3" tag (though, to be fair, that will probably stick with him for all of eternity, never mind the fact that the dude does go by the name J. Spaceman...) as Spiritualized had definitely come into their own at this point. So, by now many of you are familiar with this album's back story, in which Pierce's ladyfriend/keyboardist Kate Radley up and ran off with Richard Ashcroft of the Verve. Of course, she still found time to play on Ladies and Gentlemen, and Pierce's heartbreak is in full effect here. You will be hard pressed to find beauty and misery done better together than on this record. Instead of whining and whinging, Pierce comes off as legitimately despondent, channeling his deepest emotions to create a vast album that is stoic and ultimately quite triumphant, not to mention pretty rocking and aggressive at points. Pierce's voice sounds like that of a man questioning existence - sometimes sweet and desperate, others times pissed and snotty - as he navigates through a chemically induced state of confusion and sadness. The sophisticated string and horn arrangements are really something else, as are the addition of a full on gospel choir and the keyboard talents of none other than Dr. John. These elements are perfectly integrated into the dreamy, druggy haze Spiritualized has always shrouded themselves in, and it comes as no surprise that this is the big one for most of the band's fans.
The mood is established right away with the gentle and depressing title track/intro type thing, and the band then launches into the rocker "Come Together", complete with soulful female backup vocals and a sort of fuck all attitude. "I Think I'm In Love" rides on an interesting atmospheric groove with bluesy harmonica thrown into the mix and some cool wah wah guitar accents. "Electricity" is another supercharged rocker with some cool dirty slide guitar work and the generally perfect sound of a band with a budget to match their ambitions. "Cool Waves" is a warm, drug inspired gospel track that works great as the penultimate song before ending on the 17 minute closer "Cop Shoot Cop" with it's lazy but tense R&B groove and a middle part that sounds like some sort of sonic hurricane.
We suspect many loyal aQ readers will already own this, but it sure is great having this amazing album available on some nice 180 gram heavy duty vinyl, with deluxe packaging, and if for some reason you've missed out GET THIS NOW! Especially since it's limited (our supplier is already all out of 'em, for the moment at least).
MPEG Stream: "Come Together"
MPEG Stream: "I Think I'm In Love"
MPEG Stream: "No God Only Religion"
MPEG Stream: "Cool Waves"

STORMCROW / COFFINS Split (20 Buck Spin) lp 13.98
Yet another heavy hitting downtuned blackened blast and dirge matchup, this one between Oakland ultra heavies Stormcrow, and Japan's equally brutal Coffins. Stormcrow start things off with a trudging grim pummel, all sludge and trudge and pound, the vocals a hellish belch, eventually exploding into some thrashing blasting punishment, the band spewing a filthy brew that's equal parts Bolt Thrower and Winter, and over the course of nearly 13 minutes they drift from woozy mournful classic doom, to twisted crusty sort-of speed metal, to sprawling D-beat blasts but always back to crushing lumbering slo-mo sludge.
Coffins definitely exist right there next to Stormcrow in the sonic spectrum, their dirgey downtuned doom laced death metal creep, a grim and harrowing thing, lumbering and monstrous, the sound blow out, the guitars impossibly low, lurching along below some grunted vokills, and some WAY up in the mix drums, the cymbals adding a strange haze of sizzle to the proceedings, and like Stormcrow, Coffins mix it up, slipping from Corrupted style sludge to Hellhammerish primitive death metal and back again, some seriously crusty, crushing, amp destroying, head caving filth for sure. Awesome.

SUN CIRCLE Lessness (Arbor Infinity) lp 23.00
We first discovered the raga drone duo Sun Circle via a cd-r sent to the store, direct from the band, and as mentioned in the review of that very cd-r, somehow the disc got lost, only to be discovered literally YEARS later, only for us to finally listen to it, and be totally blown away. The band was as adept at growling howling humming dronemusic as it was at ephemeral atmospheric ambience, crafting their own variations of classic ragas, filtered through an aesthetic as informed by modern music, noise rock and who knows what else, as it was Indian classical music and 20th century minimalism.
On their newest, Lessness, as the title suggests, the band do indeed work with less, each side of the double lp performed on single instrument, either drums, tamboura or gong, but in doing so, manage to transform the minimal instrumentation into something lush and expansive, rhythmic and hypnotic.
The first side is just drums, and is most definitely the most minimal of the bunch, maybe too minimal for some, with just a very simple spare rhythm, pounded out on a drum, maybe several, but the sound is spare, and simple, but listen close, and listen for the whole of the side, and the sounds grow ever more complex, on the surface the rhythm never wavers, but as you get sucked in, the sounds do seems to come alive, the overtones, the subtle shifts in timbre, constantly evolving, but so subtly, it might not be noticeable unless you're in it for the long haul and have those headphones strapped on tight. Total rhythmic raga bliss.
The second two sides are both produced with just tambouras, and the sound is incredible, thick and layered, gorgeously lush, an organic, and living sound, the subtle colors of the sound reflective and prismatic, constantly shifting, intense and mesmerizing and strangely meditative and psychedelic. On the second tamboura side, the sound becomes a bit more structured, but only a bit, buzzing steel strings, subtly rhythmic, locked into a looped groove, deep rumbles beneath a repeated fragmented melody, the most traditionally raga sounding of the bunch, and like the two sides before it, seemingly unchanging, as if it really was looped, but this is the sort of sound that rewards deep listening, and blossoms into a world of complex sound, just below the surface.
Especially on the final side, which is all gongs, and very much like the Karen Stackpole records on Dielectric, the sounds is deep and resonant and so sonorous, ringing out, layered here and there, but more often left to just hover in space, before fading away, only to have another tone take its place, no processing, just the glorious sound of vibrating metal, dark and mysterious, meditative and hypnotic. So gorgeous.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!

SVARTE GREINER Penpals Forever (And Ever) (Digitalis Industries) lp 19.98
This long out of print cassette, from one of our favorite practitioners of gorgeous and haunting grimdrone doomfolk, finally reissued on cd and vinyl! And with a whole extra chunk of unreleased music...
Penpals Forever proper begins with a flurry of percussive guitar thrum, tons of reverb and buzz, a shimmering black forest of metallic shimmer and deep rumbles, all woven into what up close is a dizzying swirl of sound, but step back and the pattern is evident, a slow sprawling minor key melody, a haunting horror movie creep. A roiling black sea of huge slabs of glacial low end, that blot out the sun, swallowing the various guitars beneath it, moving like massive deathships, the shadows only allowing brief glimpses of the melody beneath. Truly ominous and cinematic. Eyes closed, these are the kind of sounds that would give the weak hearted nightmares, while the rest of us luxuriate in its thick blackened drone drenched buzz.
The unreleased bonus tracks, which are like a whole 'nother record tacked on, are just as good as the original tape. Three long tracks, all flowing together, the first a Philip Jeck like creepscape, all woozy and otherworldly, warbly tones, warped guitar buzz, everything stretched and smeared into languorous layers, while a fog of distant melody hovers in the distance, peppered with soft focus harmonies, drifting and reflective. Which gives way to a thick heady swirl of muted fuzz and slowed down sound, like some mysterious cityscape field recording played at 16rpm and wreathed in a haze of drone and buzz. Until finally the side finishes off with another smoldering dronescape, beginning quietly, while layers of grinding distorted guitars unfurl heaving blackened whirs and rumbles over a backdrop of streaked feedback and strange sounds buried in the murk.
MPEG Stream: "A1"
MPEG Stream: "A2"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II Commune Cassetten (Blackest Rainbow) lp 21.00
Repressed and back in stock!
Latest collection of gorgeous drugged out free folk rituals from these Belgian freaks, and as always, it's a fantastically weird and tranced out affair. Sonic ceremonies of shambling free percussion, layered guitar buzz, shimmery melody, and warped warbly drones, all woven into gorgeous occult psychedelia.
The record opens with a dark and mysterious bit of ambience, swirling blackness, muted effects, ghostly melodies, tinkling chimes, spidery guitars, but gives way to a full on seventies kraut psych jam that almost sounds like Comus, all hand drums, and strummed steel string guitars, fluttery flutes (?), it wouldn't be difficult to imagine stumbling onto some sonic coven in a dark forest, gathered around a fire, creating this dreamy din.
And that seventies psychedelic acid folk vibe continues right into the next track (and the rest of the record really), another hippy jam, all flanged guitar, motorik rhythms and swirly melodic buzz.
The second side begins with a druggy laid back meander, all wheezing organs, shuffling drums, detuned guitars, and mumbled chantlike vox, a shambolic minimal dronefolk that seems to be gradually melting right before our ears.
The next track is a full on chunk of seventies style psychedelic buzz, a squall of buzzing psych guitar, pounding tribal drummage, druggy and dirgey and divine. And finally, the record finishes off with part two of that krautrock jam from side one, this time way stripped down, a minimal kraut groove, laced with warped bits of melody, clattery spare percussion, crunchy riffs, drone-y buzz, all wrapped in a vintage lo-fi production haze, that makes this sound like it could be some lost kraut rarity a la German Oak. KILLER.
Pressed on CRAZY thick vinyl, with eye popping full color cover art.

TAIGA REMAINS Xiaguan' (Students Of Decay) 3" cd-r 7.98
It's been a while since we've heard from Taiga Remains, aka Students of Decay head honcho Alex Cobb, but this is not actually a new record, it's another one of those releases that somehow slipped through the cracks, and we only just now noticed we had a handful of these in stock, and had somehow never listed it, so here we go, Taiga Remains' Xiaguan', a 20 plus minute super limited 3" cd-r, well, super limited when it came out, now plain OUT OF PRINT, so these are the very last copies we'll see, so grab one while you can.
Like other Taiga Remains releases, Cobb takes guitars, and a small arsenal of other noise makers, and weaves them all into something ghostly and abstract, here it's an acoustic guitar, and it's paired up with electronics, bows, loops and chopsticks(!). The result is a strange shimmery dronescape, of bowed and scraped metal strings, lots of layered high end, creaks and groans, streaks of skree wrapped in reverb and left to drift in soft billows of soft focus whir, a dizzying expanse of soft soft noise, that about part way through slips into the lower registers, and the scrapes now in the background, behind a deep cavernous thrum, warm and languid and hypnotic, the thrum growing thicker and more intense, a slow smoldering build that eventually becomes a heaving swell of softly pulsing buzz and whir, before finishing off with a swirling high end cacophony. Good stuff, anyone into abstract guitar drones and minimal free dronescaping will dig this big time. And again, these are the last copies ever!

TONSTARTSSBANDHT Parson Sounds (Black Cheeks Tapes) cassette 7.98
How could we resist? This Canadian two piece (recently relocated to New York), two psych rock obsessed brothers, covering their favorite Swedish psychedelic folk drone jams of the geniuses known variously as Parson Sound, Harvester and International Harvester. Perfect timing too, as we've all been RE-obsessed with Parson Sound, after the deluxe triple lp reissue of their self titled masterpiece we made Record Of The Week last list. And while we're often skeptical of modern day folks covering CLASSICS, sure it's fun, but does everyone need to hear it, well, in this case the answer is hell yeah! These guys totally nail it, channeling not just the spirit, but the sound as well, from the lilting folky vocals, to the acid fried in-the-red guitars, to the pounding motorik drumming, right down to the recording, which sounds all murky and muddy and OLD, like it was itself some unearthed recording from the seventies. The duo lock into those incredible grooves, so thick and dense but lush and expansive and HEAVY, trancelike and mesmerizing, the sort of jams that should go on forever, slipping from fuzz drenched proto-metal, to dreamy, acid folk, to haunting acoustic laments, vocals doused in reverb, careening over roiling swells of super saturated fuzz and wild chaotic drumming.
If these guys can do this sort of justice to stone cold Swedish classics like these, we've definitely got to hear more. In the meantime, grab one of these before they're gone, whether you're a Swedish psych obsessive like us, or just dig on the sort of space psych drone dirge of bands like Heavy Winged, Eternal Tapestry and the like, this will hit the spot either way!

TURNQUIST, ALEXANDER As The Twilight Crane Dreams In Color (VHF) cd 13.98
We know almost nothing about Turnquist, other than he's a guitarist from New York, we even missed this when it first came out a little while back, but we're kicking ourselves now, cuz it's a thing of absolute hypnotic beauty. A gorgeous extended songsuite of looped 12 string guitar, vibraphone, glockenspiel, piano, violin, cello and harmonics, hovering somewhere between 20th century classical, and avant free folk, it's blissy and sun dappled, meditative, utterly lovely, each track a breathtaking expanse of washed out dreamlike drone folk minimalism, dramatic and cinematic but never overwrought.
The first track begins all delicate and crystalline, before the acoustic guitars begins to unfurl soft clouds of shimmery thrum, a small tangle of melody that constantly shifts, slowly changing shape, but retaining a trancelike core, occasionally being supported by tinkling chime, and a gorgeous counter point piano melody, that adds so much emotion and pathos. About midway through the nearly 20 minute track, everything fades out, leaving just the guitar, to spin a glimmering web of looped and layered soft focus guitar harmonics, hazy and gauzy and hushed, only to slip into a warm languid, slow build, like an extra minimal, spacious and spare Godspeed, note loosed one at a time, over a backdrop of soft sonic swells, and blurred pop ambience. So incredibly gorgeous.
The second track is another smeared field of abstract looped Appalachia, almost like a guitar version of Lubomyr Melnyk, a constantly shifting field of rapidly picked steel strings, melancholy melodies, again, anchored by a maudlin piano melody way in the background, softly frenzied and almost dizzying, the hypnotic drone folk give way to something more serene and tranquil, a string swept folk lope, the violin singing sorrowfully over a gorgeously looped steel string figure, evoking loss and memory, and places visited but forgotten.
The final track is the shortest of the bunch, but by no means the least powerful, with Turnquist again setting up the foundation by spinning reflective swirls of steel string guitar, this time the piano much more present, the guitar more a background thrum, the two instruments, dancing and interwoven, subtle but melodically complex, the melodies and overtones and subtly rhythms interacting, this track especially is super cinematic, not at all schmaltzy, just intense, and emotionally resonant, reminding us quite a bit of aQ fave Erik Enocksson, sweetly sorrowful, epic and so dreamlike and lovely.
So recommended, one of our new favorites for sure.
MPEG Stream: "The REM Cycle - Dream Phase"
MPEG Stream: "Statues In The Dark - Shadows Collide"

UFFIE Sex Dreams And Denim Jeans (Elektra / Ed Banger) cd 13.98
We're pretty sure there's not a person alive who hasn't heard Ke$ha's "Tik Tok", an insanely and inanely addictive chunk of electronic commercial pop, that at least a handful of aQ-ers have ended up digging despite themselves. But WAY before Ke$ha, there was Uffie, a spoiled bratty slutty teenager, who moved to Europe, fell in with the Ed banger crew, and ended up being an unlikely sort-of-star with her inane but AWESOME jam "Pop The Glock", dopey lyrics, autotuned vox, super catchy, we don't know anyone who didn't dig it, whether they wanted to or not, but that was YEARS ago, so it seems fortuitous that Uffie finally unleashes her proper full length debut, right when the climate is right for another vapid, gold digging, slutty, super hot electronic superstar. And of course "Pop The Glock" is here, it is her best song after all, and if it weren't for all the swearing, it's not hard to imagine this being all over the radio, although the vibe is more trashy euro than US mall punk, but still, it sounds as good as ever.
The only problem, is that "Pop The Glock" is so good, the rest of the record sort of pales, but even then, this is a pretty bad ass dose of sweaty, groovy, club bangers, "ADD SUV" should be blasting in every club, total coke and crystal, VIP room, stripper anthem, "MCs Can Kiss" sounds like a modern version of Roxanne Shante, a sort of dumbed down "Cars That Go Boom" (which as already sorta dumb), "First Love" is about as close to a sensitive ballad as Uffie can get, still all about sex, and laced with heavy beats and buzzy synths, and then there's the title track, that almost sounds like Best Coast, summery and sunshiney and fuzzy and poppy, which is weird, but besides "Pop The Glock" might be the best song here...
Obviously, this is poised to be THEE guilty pleasure of the year, but that's only if you feel guilty for digging this, which we don't really at all!
MPEG Stream: "Pop The Glock"
MPEG Stream: "ADD SUV (Ft. Pharell Williams)"
MPEG Stream: "MCs Can Kiss"
MPEG Stream: "First Love"

V/A Cloud Cuckooland (Finders Keepers) cd 14.98
Even if we weren't already aware that the early '70s output of the German record label Kuckuck was pretty darn cool, being a significant part of the whole incredible krautrock thing, we'd be eager to hear this new compilation, following as it does B-Music's other recent celebrations of labels like BYG in France (The BYG Deal comp) and Belter in Spain (the Absolute Belter comp), all of 'em awesome. This well-researched collection, part of the B-Music / Finders Keepers "krautsider music" series, is a tribute to the vision and dedication of the Kuckuck label's founder, Eckart Rahn (about whom several fascinating pages of the text and photo filled cd booklet are devoted). Presented with distinctive graphic style, Kuckuck's always adventurous and ever eclectic roster made records ranging from progressive pop to acid folk to out there kosmische electronics, in other words krautrock at its finest.
There's nine bands represented across the 20 tracks here. You get, among others, the heavy blues rock of Armageddon, the proto-New Age bliss of AQ fave Deuter, Antiteater's soundtracks to Rainer Werner Fassbinder films, the brilliant minimalist hypnorock of Out Of Focus (another AQ fave), the Moog synthesizer experimentation of American composer Sam Spence, and proggy pop pioneers Ihre Kinder (plus various spinoffs), and more. Of the several artists we hadn't ever heard before, Sam Spence was particularly intriguing, especially since the liner notes explain that his Moogs were paid for by the National Football League, for whom he made film soundtracks! We'd be curious to hear more of his Kuckuck recordings based on the two tracks from him included here, which sound something like a more tripped out Perrey and/or Kingsley.
Dunno why they didn't include some Murphy Blend, too, but it's a fine comp anyhow! Any Finders Keepers follower or krautrock fancier should be keen on this. Can't go too wrong with Kuckuck.
MPEG Stream: SAM SPENCE "Water World"
MPEG Stream: DEUTER "Der Turm"
MPEG Stream: IHRE KINDER "The Dice"

V/A Ethiopiques 25: 1971-1975 Modern Roots (Buda Musique) cd 15.98
Another fantastic entry in this incredible series, chronicling Ethiopian music past and present. Whereas previous installments have been thematically linked by era, or style, or performer, this one is a little bit more interesting, in that it focuses on the traditional Ethiopian music that became the roots for the music we're so familiar with today. Collecting various tracks that were attempts to modernize traditional Ethiopian music, without radically altering it. Folk music, wedding songs, nursery rhymes, traditional melodies, songs that have been passed down and passed on over generations, some musics and melodies so revered that they have been officially elevated to the status of "musical modes of reference" by official doctrine(!), all borrowed and reinterpreted by various singers and ensembles over the years.
The sound is not too different here than on other Ethiopiques collections, although the liner notes do point out that the tracks here are almost all acoustic, utilizing traditional instruments, as well as piano, mandolin and accordion, but to these ears it sounds fantastic, as good as ever, that sound that is so immediately recognizable as Ethiopian, horns and drums and percussion and handclaps, and of course the voices, it's so much about the vocalists, especially here, soulful croons, female back up vox, lots of call and response, deep and rough, smooth and silky, but always so expressive and emotional and powerful, and no Ethiopian comp would be complete without Tlahoun Gessesse, probably the most revered vocalist among Ethiopians, even though he is relatively unknown elsewhere, his vocals so expressive and intense, tackling complex melodies and making them sound like the simplest lullabies, so dulcet and lush, definitely a case of someone who could read the Ethiopian phonebook, and he's in good company here, with a fantastic gathering of Ethiopian vocalists, most of which we're familiar with from past Ethiopiques.
It occurred to us recently that the Sublime Frequencies compilations have a certain hipster cache, that compels folks to buy them or at least check them out, even if they're not that into world music, which made us think that all of those people should be checking these out too, these collections are just as mysterious and powerful and wonderful, each one a gorgeous glimpse into another musical tradition, one that is powerful and spiritual, as well as being funky and soulful!
As always, extensive liner notes, lots of photos, as well as information about the artists, the compilation, the tracks, the history of Ethiopian music, and the politics surrounding the music.
MPEG Stream: ABBEBE TESSEMMA "Gebre Guratch Gute"
MPEG Stream: TLAHOUN GESSESSE "Agul New"
MPEG Stream: FREW HAYLOU "Almaz Men Eda New"
MPEG Stream: ABBEBE HAYLE-MICHAEL "QonDJitye"
MPEG Stream: DAMTEW AYELE "Wefe Yelala"

V/A Milky Disco Three: To The Stars (Lo Recordings) 2cd 14.98
We loved the two previous comps in Lo's Milky Disco series, and this new installment might be our favorite one yet! This time out they get super spacey on us, more spacey than ever before even, it's like the Milky Disco meets the Milky Way, way out in the deeps of space amidst glittering stars, as the subtitle suggests. Driving that point home, they've included two tracks by AQ fave synth-scapers Oneothrix Point Never, at the end of each disc here, but before you get to those kraut-channelling blissout fadeouts, you gotta get down to the main blippity buzzity bizness, mostly instrumental rhythmic contributions from Leo Zero, Ghostape, Hatchback, Ichisan, Soft Rocks, Telespazio, Brassica, Black Devil Disco Club, Cos/Mes, Moscow, Jonny Nash, In Flagranti, NDV, Coyote, Weirdo Police, The Flying Sapphire, and Black Mustang. No, we weren't all that familiar with lot of those, aside from Bernard Fevre's BDDC and a few others, but that's sorta the point of digging into a comp, and we liked 'em all, as you will too if you like cosmic disco awesomeness (fans of minimal wave, Italo-disco, Prins Thomas, Lindstrom, labels like Italians Do It Better and DC Recordings, etc.).
Pulsating beats brings this most definitely to the discotheque dancefloor, of course, though some trax thump house-like more than others, while some are mellower and focus more moodily on minimalist throb and the sizzle of the synth, but they all groove. Disc one is unmixed, disc two mixed, but it hardly makes a difference, as Lo have selected likeminded artists for sure, so on both discs this flows freely from one futuristic funk workout to the next, each of 'em somehow shimmering with cosmic stardust and incorporating similar softly zappin' video arcade FX... While we're hardly ravers, we could stay up late to dance (or sway) to this stuff. Be good to hear DJ'd in a planetarium. And great at home too. Ultimately, utterly hypnotic! Another great Milky Disco odyssey, where to next we wonder? Since they've already gone so far out, to the stars...
Also, let's commend Lo on the handsome design job on the trifold sleeve. We especially like the stylized roman numerals, and alphabet letters, made out of squares, triangles and circles.
MPEG Stream: JONNY NASH "Metabolic"
MPEG Stream: SOFT ROCKS "Bobby's Revenge"
MPEG Stream: TELESPAZIO "Closer Space"
MPEG Stream: MOSCOW "Deep Heat"

V/A Psych Bites Volume Two (Past & Present) cd 17.98
The psych rock maven appropriately known as The Psychomaniac is back with another killer comp, one of the best we've heard from his comp-happy label in fact. Super groovy, super fuzzy, super psychedelic!! First off, though, you might be wondering, what happened to Psych Bites Volume One? Why start with the second volume in the series? Well there indeed is a Volume One, and it's probably very cool, but we haven't had a chance to check it out yet. Also that one's entirely devoted to Australian bands, so this new, geographically unfettered volume isn't precisely a sequel to the first. We'd like to review vol.1 too, but for the moment prefer to direct your attention to this disc, which has SO MUCH GOOD STUFF on it, it's kinda ridiculous. Stuff that, when you hear it, you'll be wondering, why haven't I heard this before? (Maybe you have, we knew a few of these tracks, but there's twenty of 'em here, so not to worry.) Recorded circa 1968-1974, with 1970 most heavily represented, and from all over the world, England, Germany (West -and- East), Holland, USA, Quebec, all the way to Nigeria, the unifying factor being only that these tracks are obscure classics to the max. And full of fuzz, let's not forget.
Let's touch on a few of the many highlights. The disc begins with a band with the bizarre name of Zappatta Schmidt, doing a horn-fueled, sweat-soaked, funky-drummed groover called "Someone In The Crowd" that's like if Otis Redding showed up on that old Chains and Black Exhaust comp... badass! That's followed by "Tomorrow Night", performed by the hopefully-named Chartbusters, more ye olde "hairy funk" with jamming organ, which might sound familiar though 'cause it's an Atomic Rooster cover, and a good one. We can't skip Spencer Mac's "Blues Up In Downtown", which keeps the party goin'. And that's followed by Milwaukee's Motown signings the Messengers telling us what it's like "In The Jungle"... good grief, we're mentioning ALL the tracks so far. Well, here's a few further highlights, though it's hard to choose, as you can see...
Gotta mention the kuriously monikered Kannibal Komix (aka Die Anderen) who offer up their klassic "Neurotic Reaction", which sounds like a cross between something by The Count Five and The Sweet, part freakbeat, part proto-glam, all unhinged and awesome. Heard it before on another comp or two, but always kool to hear it again. Another one we already knew was Ofo The Black Company's Afro-funk fuzz bomb "Allah Wakkbar" from '72 (a standout on the Love's A Real Thing comp from Luaka Bop, and also heard on Afrostrut's Nigeria 70 collection). But what's neat is that the almost as freaky flipside to that single, "Beautiful Daddy", is also included here too, new to us! (This disc also includes more Afro-rock from London-based Danta.) Madeline Chartrand's mesmeric "Ani-Kuni" we know we've heard somewhere before, as well, but can't remember where, so glad to have it here. Tranced out Native American chant meets space age psych, with some electric sitar thrown in for good measure. A treasure.
What else? There's the swinging sixties freakouts of Blackbirds 2000's "Let's Do It Together" and Janie's "Psycho", the latter being the sort of get everyone in the studio and get high and see what funny things wind up on the tape party that Kim Fowley was partial to, too. Oh, and this disc also provides a healthy dose of krautrockers: Frumpy, Krokodil, Orange Peel, and the prae-kraut pandaemonium of The Rattles. All good stuff. And the cd booklet provides notes on everything, plus full color graphix.
So, if you have been digging the comps done by the B-Music crew, or Psychic Circle, or similar various artists international fuzz-psych collections like Obsession, Neurotic Reaction, Cherrystone's Rocks, the best of those Electric Asylum comps (also put together by ol' Psychomaniac), etc., etc. then this is for you!
MPEG Stream: ZAPPATTA SCHMIDT "Someone In The Crowd"
MPEG Stream: KANNIBAL KOMIX "Neurotic Reaction"
MPEG Stream: MADELEINE CHARTRAND "Ani-Kuni"

V/A Smooth Sounds - Various Artists Play The Future Hits Of Wckr Spgt (Shrimper) 2cd 9.98
What better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of your record label? Well if you you're Shrimper, home to the Mountain Goats, Sentridoh, Amps For Christ, Dump, Herman Dune, Refrigerator, Woods and loads more, you get some of those bands, and about 35 more, and you have them all cover songs by arguably your least popular artist, WCKR SPGT! Make sense? Of course it doesn't, but that's not the point. The real point is that WCKR SPGT were, and are awesome, and have been Shrimper mainstays since day one, so they wrote 36 brand new songs, sent them to all their friends, and had said friends record them however they wanted, and this is the result, a gloriously sprawling tribute to the last 20 years of low fidelity sound making, late night tape dubbing, and the power of DIY.
Some of the names here will definitely be familiar, Sentridoh, The Mountain Goats, Refrigerator, Breathlizor, Primordial Undermind, The Ah Club, Amps For Christ, Simon Joyner, Jad Fair, Soul-Junk, and those songs are indeed awesome, but so are any and all of the other 27 jams. But yeah, the Sentridoh track, nicely titled "Smooth Sounds For Your Fucking Face", sounds like it could have been pulled off a cassette from the nineties, lyrics and all, Soul-Junk's WCKR SPGT is all chaotic noise rock, laced with clouds of electronic noise and crumbling distortion, super lo-fi (of course), completely ramshackle, and wicked catchy, the Mountain Goats track is all acoustic guitar and vocals (again of course), but here augmented by cool tremolo guitar, some lush harmonies, not at all the lo-fi boombox howling of old, Refrigerator sounds like Refrigerator, those sad man vocals over trash can drums, detuned guitars, all wrapped in a cloud of tape hiss, with what almost sounds like cello (!), Jad Fair offers some rambling wisdom, over chicken scratch guitars, and a thumping looped rhythm, Amps for Christ transforms WCKR SPGT into twisted and warped electro-Jesus-folk, Breathilizor are as dumb and genius as always, spewing ridiculous lyrics over classic metal riffage, and on and on and on and on...
Some of our new favorites are Peephole Circus, sound like an extra lo-fi take on nineties math/noise rock, their WCKR track crazy catchy, Alan Smithee's woozy jangly drone pop, which is slowly overtaken by strange pulsing electronics, and faux strings, a seriously twisted hybrid that sounds awesome, Golden Boots whose track sounds like it could be the intro music to Mystery Science Theater 3000, with it's strange processed vox, and sing songy melody, Kukunuku's warbly creepy garbled mumbledrone dreaminess, sounding a bit like Ween, the Uncalled For with their fuzzy garage rock stomp...
This all just reminds us that Shrimper, and all the bands that sail with her, still rule, as much as when we were ordering $2 tapes through the mail in the early nineties. The cd features funny liner notes from Shrimper rockstar Franklin Bruno, and a super swank textured paper insert, the tape offers an appropriately more lo-fi and liner noteless version, and if the above raving didn't already spell it out for you, SUPER RECOMMENDED.
MPEG Stream: SENTRIDOH "Smooth Sounds For Your Fucking Face"
MPEG Stream: SOUL-JUNK "A Better Line"
MPEG Stream: THE MOUNTAIN GOATS "Predator Eyes"
MPEG Stream: ALAN SMITHEE "Kurt Cobain Will Have His Revenge On The City Of Los Angeles"
MPEG Stream: GOLDEN BOOTS "She Is Electric"

V/A Smooth Sounds - Various Artists Play The Future Hits Of Wckr Spgt (Shrimper) cassette 8.98
What better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of your record label? Well if you you're Shrimper, home to the Mountain Goats, Sentridoh, Amps For Christ, Dump, Herman Dune, Refrigerator, Woods and loads more, you get some of those bands, and about 35 more, and you have them all cover songs by arguably your least popular artist, WCKR SPGT! Make sense? Of course it doesn't, but that's not the point. The real point is that WCKR SPGT were, and are awesome, and have been Shrimper mainstays since day one, so they wrote 36 brand new songs, sent them to all their friends, and had said friends record them however they wanted, and this is the result, a gloriously sprawling tribute to the last 20 years of low fidelity sound making, late night tape dubbing, and the power of DIY.
Some of the names here will definitely be familiar, Sentridoh, The Mountain Goats, Refrigerator, Breathlizor, Primordial Undermind, The Ah Club, Amps For Christ, Simon Joyner, Jad Fair, Soul-Junk, and those songs are indeed awesome, but so are any and all of the other 27 jams. But yeah, the Sentridoh track, nicely titled "Smooth Sounds For Your Fucking Face", sounds like it could have been pulled off a cassette from the nineties, lyrics and all, Soul-Junk's WCKR SPGT is all chaotic noise rock, laced with clouds of electronic noise and crumbling distortion, super lo-fi (of course), completely ramshackle, and wicked catchy, the Mountain Goats track is all acoustic guitar and vocals (again of course), but here augmented by cool tremolo guitar, some lush harmonies, not at all the lo-fi boombox howling of old, Refrigerator sounds like Refrigerator, those sad man vocals over trash can drums, detuned guitars, all wrapped in a cloud of tape hiss, with what almost sounds like cello (!), Jad Fair offers some rambling wisdom, over chicken scratch guitars, and a thumping looped rhythm, Amps for Christ transforms WCKR SPGT into twisted and warped electro-Jesus-folk, Breathilizor are as dumb and genius as always, spewing ridiculous lyrics over classic metal riffage, and on and on and on and on...
Some of our new favorites are Peephole Circus, sound like an extra lo-fi take on nineties math/noise rock, their WCKR track crazy catchy, Alan Smithee's woozy jangly drone pop, which is slowly overtaken by strange pulsing electronics, and faux strings, a seriously twisted hybrid that sounds awesome, Golden Boots whose track sounds like it could be the intro music to Mystery Science Theater 3000, with it's strange processed vox, and sing songy melody, Kukunuku's warbly creepy garbled mumbledrone dreaminess, sounding a bit like Ween, the Uncalled For with their fuzzy garage rock stomp...
This all just reminds us that Shrimper, and all the bands that sail with her, still rule, as much as when we were ordering $2 tapes through the mail in the early nineties. The cd features funny liner notes from Shrimper rockstar Franklin Bruno, and a super swank textured paper insert, the tape offers an appropriately more lo-fi and liner noteless version, and if the above raving didn't already spell it out for you, SUPER RECOMMENDED.
MPEG Stream: SENTRIDOH "Smooth Sounds For Your Fucking Face"
MPEG Stream: SOUL-JUNK "A Better Line"
MPEG Stream: THE MOUNTAIN GOATS "Predator Eyes"
MPEG Stream: ALAN SMITHEE "Kurt Cobain Will Have His Revenge On The City Of Los Angeles"
MPEG Stream: GOLDEN BOOTS "She Is Electric"

V/A The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol.II Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48 (Outernational) 2lp 31.00
Somehow we slept on reviewing this series when the Yazoo label began issuing them on cd back in the mid-nineties (the cds are still available by the way). It wasn't that we didn't love them, of course we did! But we started carrying them way before our website was in its current form, and they just never made the transition in the usual hectic shuffle of putting together these bi-weekly new arrival lists. Besides, this series really didn't need our help. They always looked very cool and mysterious, promising the discovery of some very far out and lost old world of music that folks here were naturally drawn to while shopping for cult metal, field recordings or obscure psych.
But now that Mississippi, Sublime Frequencies, Honest Jon's, Parlortone, and other like-minded revival labels have spearheaded a much renewed interest in obscure early ethnographic recordings on vinyl, it was only a matter of time that this highly influential series would make the transition to wax, here's the second volume, and it's an amazing and beautiful package. Like The Black Mirror, String of Pearls, Mata La Pena, and Sprigs of Time compilations, this is an eclectic but choice collection of music from many different regions and covering many styles and traditions, from regions including Bulgaria, Puerto Rico, India, Mozambique, Ukraine, Trinidad, Kazakhstan, Ceylon, and Tibet. Highly Recommended.

V/A This Comp Kills Fascists Volume 2 (Relapse) cd 14.98
Another lovingly compiled (by Scott Hull of Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Pig Destroyer no less!) sonically hateful selection of extreme heaviness, grind metal, powerviolence, hardcore, punk rock, and pretty much everything in between, buzzing and blasting and brutal as fuck. A handful of bands we already loved, and a whole bunch we'd never heard of before, it's kinda like the metal mix tape you wish your mean metal older brother would make you.
So let's start with the we know and love. California crew Lack Of Interest spit out 7 tracks in about 4 minutes, blazing blasting punk rock, Noisear spit out insane bursts of frenzied grind, impossibly fast, super dense and twisted and complex, Drugs Of Faith do their dirgey punkish death metal, sludgey and sloppy and chaotic, the mighty Crom offer up "Hags" the longest track on the comp, a grinding, thrashing slab of whatthefuck heaviness, slipping from punkish blast to churning doomy chug, the vocals shrieking and grunting and howling, it even gets sort of pretty for a moment, but only a moment, fuck we love these guys, Ohio pigfuckers Apartment 213 spit out some serious powerviolence, a Neanderthal sonic pummeling, grunted vox, even slipping in a little groove at one point, but mostly just beating your ears bloody with their closed fist crush, Despise you kick down 50 seconds of churning, blasting grind, 2 songs blow by in a blink, but they cram some serious sonic punishment into less than a minute, Voetsek are the only female fronted outfit in this boys club, and they lay it down with some super technical grind metal, and some seriously ball melting vox....
Then there's the bands we're hearing for the first time here: Hummingbird Of Death, Marion Barry, Owen Hart, Septic Surge, Population Reduction, Superbad, Three Faces Of Eve, Idiots Parade, Triac and more, our faves being Hummingbird Of Death, not just for having the best band name ever, but for their chaotic, frenzied on the verge of collapse powerviolence freakouts, Owen Hart's metallic grinding thrash, infused with plenty of classic old school metal riffage, Septic Surge who get their drummachinegun on, a dizzying hybrid of twisted electronic glitchery and caveman heaviness... We could go on and on, a head spinning selection of audial brutality, crushing heaviness, blasting brutality, an overwhelming 74 tracks, all jammed into 78 minutes, by 19 bands, for anyone who likes it fast and heavy. Comes with a massive booklet, all old school punk rock style with each band getting a page for lyrics and photos and contact info. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: LACK OF INTEREST "There Is No Tomorrow"
MPEG Stream: OWEN HART "My Grandma's Fucking A Tranny From Alaska"
MPEG Stream: NOISEAR "Atrophy Of The Mind"
MPEG Stream: HUMMINGBIRD OF DEATH "You Are Not Going To Heaven"
MPEG Stream: MARION BARRY "Nuclear Bio-Chimp Assault"
MPEG Stream: CROM "Hags"
MPEG Stream: APARTMENT 213 "Standoff"
MPEG Stream: SEPTIC SURGE "Budmonster"

V/A Three Locations (Recorded Fields) cd-r 12.98
More of a collaborative project than a compilation, Three Locations began with the invitation for a group of artists to contribute three field recordings to a pool, which would then be shared amongst all parties involved for them to use for separate compositions. Nice idea, and it's a pretty great collection of experimental musicians present, including Toy Bizarre, Tarab, Els Viaene, Felicity Mangan, and Klimek, whose presence on the compilation came as a bit of a shock to us, since we've known him for his very digital ambience for Kompakt and Anticipate. The liner notes don't provide all of the details as to the origins of the field recordings. Harbors in Norway, Japanese mountains, and an underground tunnel in Australia are mentioned; but outside of those locales, the sounds that appear throughout the compilation show a wide range between the natural and the industrial. Toy Bizarre offers a diptych of a piece that at first swells to a dramatic crescendo of clattering, metallic rasping that collapses into a somber extended passage of windswept gestures set against a black backdrop. The Belgian sound artist Els Viaene shaped those field recordings into a series of slow-moving, repeating phrases in a Spartan almost Koner-like composition. The ever-impressive Tarab delivers a fantastic track, showcasing much more of a musique concrete strategy that comes across like a John Duncan take on Luc Ferrari. The washed-out noises and environmental dinscapes have been densely layered and spliced into a very active sound field laced with rupturing events. Something's lurking around the corners of Tarab's sound that cannot be qualified as benevolent. Australia's Felicity Mangan counters Tarab's frenzied collage with a delicate tapestry of croaking frogs and aquatic percolations. As for Klimek's contribution, it' bloody fantastic. A fluctuating dronescape of pop-ambient tones hovering out of the extracted field recordings for an elegant construction. Altogether a fantastic end to a great compilation. Limited stock.
MPEG Stream: ELS VIAENE "Hori"
MPEG Stream: TARAB "Eicophobia"
MPEG Stream: KLIMEK "Drone Composition... "

V/A Zulu Stomp!! South African Garage Beats!! (Nosmoke) cd 25.00
There was a time when the idea of a record like this would blow our minds. "There was crazy psychedelic garage rock in South Africa in the fifties and sixties?" But by now, we're sort of spoiled, by the hundreds of world music reissue labels, not to mention the thousands of lost gems and rare records of all stripes from all over the world. So yeah, the fact that this record exists is not hugely surprising, but we are pretty thrilled that it's so good. That all these bands in white South Africa, still under Apartheid, emulating groups like The Beatles and Bill Hailey And The Comets, could come up with stuff this buzzy and psychedelic and super rocking. The root of the music on display here is definitely the early rock and roll we're so familiar with, but the bands here are fierce, the guitars buzz, the drums pound, even the simplest songs are transformed into barnstormers, almost uniformly these groups are characterized by super blown out, ultra distorted guitars, fuzzed out organs, and super intense yowled vocals.
Freedom's Children's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" is the perfect example. Covered probably thousands of times, it's barely recognizable here, until the vocals kick in, starting with a super distorted stop start intro, then some fuzzy psych leads over a dense groove, the verses are clipped and strangely arranged, with almost a new melody, played by a jagged guitar, the chorus too is drenched in distorted guitar, so goddamn good we almost forget that we're sick of that song. And the originals hold up just as well, the A-Cads, The Upsetters, John E. Sharpe & The Squires, The Bats, Finders Keepers, killer grooves, wild and rocking, loose and groovy and freaked out and frenzied, catchy as all hell and completely as good as if not better than the bands they were trying to sound like. Very few bands we'd ever heard of, but all of them kicking or asses. Maybe one of our favorite international garage rock reissues yet. Includes extensive liner notes, on the songs, the bands, and the political and social climate in South Africa at the time, and what part rebellious revolutionary music played.
MPEG Stream: A-CADS "Watch Yourself"
MPEG Stream: UPSETTERS "Daddy Rolling Stone"
MPEG Stream: FREEDOM'S CHILDREN "Satisfaction"
MPEG Stream: JOHN E. SHARPE & THE SQUIRES "LSD"
MPEG Stream: RONNIE SINGER "I Want You"

V/A Zulu Stomp!! South African Garage Beats!! (Nosmoke) lp 32.00
There was a time when the idea of a record like this would blow our minds. "There was crazy psychedelic garage rock in South Africa in the fifties and sixties?" But by now, we're sort of spoiled, by the hundreds of world music reissue labels, not to mention the thousands of lost gems and rare records of all stripes from all over the world. So yeah, the fact that this record exists is not hugely surprising, but we are pretty thrilled that it's so good. That all these bands in white South Africa, still under Apartheid, emulating groups like The Beatles and Bill Hailey And The Comets, could come up with stuff this buzzy and psychedelic and super rocking. The root of the music on display here is definitely the early rock and roll we're so familiar with, but the bands here are fierce, the guitars buzz, the drums pound, even the simplest songs are transformed into barnstormers, almost uniformly these groups are characterized by super blown out, ultra distorted guitars, fuzzed out organs, and super intense yowled vocals.
Freedom's Children's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" is the perfect example. Covered probably thousands of times, it's barely recognizable here, until the vocals kick in, starting with a super distorted stop start intro, then some fuzzy psych leads over a dense groove, the verses are clipped and strangely arranged, with almost a new melody, played by a jagged guitar, the chorus too is drenched in distorted guitar, so goddamn good we almost forget that we're sick of that song. And the originals hold up just as well, the A-Cads, The Upsetters, John E. Sharpe & The Squires, The Bats, Finders Keepers, killer grooves, wild and rocking, loose and groovy and freaked out and frenzied, catchy as all hell and completely as good as if not better than the bands they were trying to sound like. Very few bands we'd ever heard of, but all of them kicking or asses. Maybe one of our favorite international garage rock reissues yet. Includes extensive liner notes, on the songs, the bands, and the political and social climate in South Africa at the time, and what part rebellious revolutionary music played.
MPEG Stream: A-CADS "Watch Yourself"
MPEG Stream: UPSETTERS "Daddy Rolling Stone"
MPEG Stream: FREEDOM'S CHILDREN "Satisfaction"
MPEG Stream: JOHN E. SHARPE & THE SQUIRES "LSD"
MPEG Stream: RONNIE SINGER "I Want You"

VOSTOK From Lofty Peaks (self released) cd-r 8.98
Debut ep from this Scottish one man depressive doom laden black metal band and it's a good 'un, mixing lumbering downtuned riffage, howling chaotic blackness, and some serious melody, all wrapped up in a blown out, low fidelity production, that only serves to add a cool creepy vibe to the already grim proceedings.
After a short-ish intro, all sprawling chords, spare drumming and some cool layered super distorted minor key melodies, in come clean, melancholic finger picked clean guitars, weaving a haunting miserable atmosphere, before the song explodes into a murky pound, a stumbling blurred blackness, everything washed out and muddy, the vocals a demonic mush mouthed yowl, tortured and anguished, while the blurred smeared blackness underneath swirls darkly, the loping drumming anchoring the otherwise amorphous black sonic cloud. About 4 minutes in, the blackness flakes away, leaving spidery, distorted melodies, electronic sounding drum plod, all woozy and depressive, and as the track progresses, the sound grows slower and sicker and more dour, finishing off with several minutes of weirdly melodic ultra doom plod.
The vocals are super twisted, reminding us of Shining or even Abruptum, adding a seriously ominous fucked up vibe to what might otherwise me more traditionally depressive blackness. The record that transforms into some trudging spaced out doomic crunch, before slipping into some weirdly clean jangly post rock lope, reminiscent of later Hypothermia, before exploding into some seriously intense, yet still melodic black howling buzz, with those pounding drums, more gloriously inhuman screeching, the result trancelike and weirdly epic. Finally the record finishes off with a short stretch of woozy lilting doom, more pretty and washed out than heavy, thick minor key chords, simple percussion, a gorgeously miserable crawl, that grows more and more anguished, with the chords fragmenting into upper register skree, and the vocals growing more and more hysterical, still beautiful, but also beautifully harrowing.
SUPER LIMITED, and in super swank, hand made packaging...
MPEG Stream: "From Lofty Peaks"
MPEG Stream: "Badbea"

WOODSMAN Mystery Tape (Lefse) lp 13.98
Record number two from these modern post rockers, whose first lp on Mexican Summer was a big hit around here, and whose sound continues to explore similar sonic territory, meandery and melodic, spidery guitars, intricate interwoven melodies, subtly complex rhythms, washed out ethereal vox, reverbed and drifty and abstract, the sound is jazzy and spacey, a bit new agey here and there, very krautrock, all deftly woven into a sort of post Tortoise post rock drift.
Occasionally squalls of distorted guitar erupt, and the songs are laced with subtle sonic intricacies, swooping backwards rhythms, electronic bits, programmed beats, swirly effects, even some samples here and there, but the core of Woodsman's sound melodic and rhythmic, the players unfurling totally hypnotic jams, lushly textured, and yet still strangely catchy. The A-side closer is some totally blissed out krautdrone space rock, sounding almost like a mellower Circle, or pre-psych-blow-out White Hills, subtly druggy and trippy, but totally mesmerizing and hypnotic. And as if to drive that point home, turn the record over and dive into the sidelong "Smells Like Purple", way more loose and jammy, epic and sprawling, a total space trip head nod blow out, the drums motorik, the guitars distorted but still melodic, the whole track growing gradually spacier and spacier, until the song reaches an almost stasis, only to build it right back up again, the drums getting more and more busy and propulsive, the guitars more dense and layered, the sound shoegazey and dreamlike and totally psychedelic.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS Salt (Sensory) cd 17.98
A Danish prog / power metal band named for Emily Bronte's classic gothic novel? Scoff if you must, but much like their last record The Shadow Cabinet, Salt is another classic chunk of over the top, epic, folk-flecked power metal. As we've mentioned before, the true test of a record is the 'why do you like it' test, where when you hear a song, or a record, without any knowledge of who it is, and thus no preconceived notions, you're forced to decide based simply on the sounds. Which is why at aQ, if we ever ask another employee what's playing, we can expect the response 'Why? Do you like it?' Which has most definitely resulted in someone claiming that yes, they do indeed like something, only to discover, that it was something they hated, or at least thought they hated.
Well, one of us was in a record store in another country, and Wuthering Heights was playing, the whole record, and it was incredible, enough that it was quickly purchased, and then obsessed over, which also meant returning home and buying EVERY record these guys ever made.
So we were pretty thrilled to discover a brand new Wuthering Heights, and we're happy to report it's just as great, bombastic, epic, majestic, over the top, like power metal should be. But Wuthering Heights definitely do their own thing, sure there's nimble super technical leads, wild rapidfire chugging guitars, soaring super dramatic Iron Maiden style vocals, but WH slip into strange folky breakdowns, breakdowns that often continue right on into the heavy bits, resulting in blasting portions of heaviness, that almost sound like super charged folk music, or death metal jigs or black metal polka... As if that weren't enough, they're also super proggy, with tons of parts, complicated arrangements, and they do all this while crafting super catchy songs. Obviously if you're into groups like Lost Horizon, Blind Guardian, Hammerfall, and other power metal purveyors, then this is right up your alley, but if you're into classic metal, epic and heavy, with killer vox and lots of solos, this might be worth checking out. And again, for power metal, this stuff is pretty weird, and thus we find ourselves digging this big time!
MPEG Stream: "The Desperate Poet"
MPEG Stream: "The Mad Sailor"
MPEG Stream: "Tears"

ZUMPANO, JASON Room And Mansion (Inflight) cd-r 14.98
Jason Zumpano is perhaps most notable as the drummer and unmistakable namesake behind one of aQ's top pop faves of all time, Zumpano! Yeah, you've prolly heard us go off more that a few times gushing about the glorious pop greatness of that early '90s band, and pining for a reissue of their two albums. As many well know, their frontman Carl Newman went on to head the mighty New Pornographers. The rest of the band members moved on to more low key projects and lives. Mr. Zumpano for one has been keeping plenty busy with his piano'n'pop combo Sparrow as well as Attics And Cellars, Destroyer, and Loscil. Of course, aQ followers are probably already very acquainted with the latter two! Indeed, the Vancouver indie music scene remains very close knit even this many years down the line, playing together in a wide array of musical collaborations such as this one. Room And Mansion pairs Jason Zumpano's solo instrumental originals with the drawings of Ms Sydney Vermont (aka Mr Daniel Bejar's better half and partner in Hello Blue Roses). Zumpano's quite light on his fingers, gracefully weaving these lithe compositions of primarily piano with some cello and percussion embellishment. A lovely musical counterpart to Vermont's delicate color splashed, blue ink sketched figures. Limited edition of 150. Each copy includes two giclee prints.
MPEG Stream: "The Workman"
MPEG Stream: "A Red Spot Against the Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Some Run, Others Crouch"

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ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI Before Today (4AD) lp 14.98
Also now in stock on vinly, hopefully none of these actually have Christina Aguilera lps inside...
What a long strange trip it's been for Ariel Pink. Going from total outsider weirdo pop secret to the man pretty much single handedly responsible for inspiring a legion of like-minded leftfield pop peddlers like Kurt Vile, John Maus, Gary War, Blank Dogs, Wavves, Ducktails, Brian Glaze, Night Control, Neon Indian, and on and on.
Now finally, after all these years, AP's finally enjoying the respect and attention he deserves, and he's been rewarded with his first big time and widely distributed release, on 4AD, of all labels!! Anyone who has seen him and The Haunted Graffiti play lately know that while there is still a total weird and warbly vibe to their sound, they are a much more song based outift, and way more straightforward than their way more fractured and fucked up earlier sound. Not to fear though, Before Today is not some glossy makeover of the Ariel Pink we all know and love, but it is for sure the most coherent, produced and focused album he's created. From glam-like '70s rockers, to yacht rock on acid, to super colorful fuzzy pop bliss, this is a record that explores so many different sonic territories.
It's also, by far, the 'breeziest' record he's made, the sounds often has us feeling like we're swirling in pink tinged clouds while a '70s soft-rock radio soundtrack bleeds into something a bit more subversive, and all the while, candy coated cereal comes raining down from the skies. AP's been at it for about a decade now, way beyond the lifespan of most 'bands', carving out his completely singular idiosyncratic voice, and it really makes sense, that more and more people are embracing his twisted sound, and showering him with the love and praise he's been getting from folks like us for years...
MPEG Stream: "L'estat (Acc. To The Widow's Maid)"
MPEG Stream: "Round And Round"
MPEG Stream: "Revolution's A Lie"
MPEG Stream: "Reminiscences"

BATTLE DAGORATH Eternal Throne (Mercenary Musik) cd 14.98
Just dug up a small handful of these, the only release from this killer California black metal horde who weirdly enough craft a very wintery and frosty sort of ambient technical black metal, very reminiscent of the Norwegian elite, Emperor, Immortal, Satyricon, but stripped way down, like a more raw and primitive take on that sound, trancelike and hypnotic, the tracks super repetitive and hypnotic, pounding relentless drumming, soaring epic riffage, howled hellish vokills, blurred bursts of furious buzz and blast. The sound is awesomely murky and muddy, all the various instruments smeared together into heaving black swells, the band do get super moody and depressive, and those stretches are especially compelling, dark and intense, the minor key guitars creeping through clouds of swirling black ambience, the vocals growing more and more tortured, sorrowful and miserable, the perfect downer balance to the rest of the record's frantic sonic frenzy.
MPEG Stream: "Dead Eyes Of The Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Ruin Upon The Mountainside"
MPEG Stream: "The Dark Fire, The Black Gate"

BEHERIT Engram (Svart Records) lp 17.98
NOW ON VINYL!! Black metallers, bow down...
If you asked us at the beginning of the year what records we were anticipating the most, we wouldn't have mentioned anything from Finnish black metal pioneers Beherit, simply because their rebirth was really the last thing we expected. Following the band's super blasphemous and chaotic odes to Satan in the early '90s, leader Nuclear Holocausto took over the reigns to become Beherit's sole member, steering the project into dark ambient waters with nary a trace of metal remaining, eventually pulling the plug altogether in 1995. But here we are with Engram in 2009, and the big question is, duh, what does it sound like? After a brief glitchy noise, you are confronted by an accented voice that proclaims, "Because. I just fucking hate this world," and then we're off into the hate filled world of Beherit that we know and love best. These guys could certainly show the younger generations a thing or two, as it becomes immediately clear that Beherit has returned as a furious and totally unrelenting black metal force that retains plenty of what made the original band so great, but with enough surprises to show that there is plenty left to say.
Joined by his longtime partner in crime Sodomatic Slaughter on the skins, as well as two new members, Nuclear Holocausto has created an album that serves Beherit's legacy quite well indeed. In terms of the actual fidelity, it would appear that Beherit has embraced modern recording technology, as they sound significantly beefier than on their earlier efforts, which essential as they are, generally sound a few steps below "piss poor". This album sounds burly as hell, with thick, super heavy riffs and classic black metal blasts, all topped off with Holocausto's croaking vocals and plenty of atmospheric synths adding an exciting and unexpected element to the songs. Like the classic Drawing Down The Moon album, Engram is full of weird, spaced out keyboards that, even today, put Beherit in a realm of their own. The way the keyboards go against the main riffs really bring things into psychedelic territories, and while there are plenty of super fast numbers here, some of our favorite moments are when the band take things down a notch, like on the monolithic 15 minute closer "Demon Advance", a doomy two chord juggernaut with strange oscillating noises and some of the most vile vocals we've heard in a while.
Engram seems to have metalheads across the globe divided, but Beherit were never really an easy band to pin down. Of course, the use of synthesizers will always be an area of controversy when it comes to metal, but Beherit have always taken a unique approach with their electronics, venturing into spacey realms that most black metal bands don't even know exist. If you're willing to spit in the face of orthodoxy, and if you like hellish riffs, awesome puking vocals, and powerful drumming, Engram should be an obvious choice. It's good to have them back.
"Remastered DMM edition". Black vinyl. Gatefold sleeve. "The comeback album of the century" (it says on the sticker on the cover).
MPEG Stream: "Axiom Heroine"
MPEG Stream: "Destroyer Of Thousand Worlds"
MPEG Stream: "Demon Advance"

BURNING SAVIOURS Hundus (Svart Records) lp 14.98
Finally, finally, finally ON VINYL!
Here's what we excitedly said about the cd version back in 2006 when it originally came out...
Enjoying this so much right now, it's hard to actually write about it, I just want to sit and listen... but here's what I've managed to come up with so far:
Oh yeah! We've been looking forward to this second album from Sweden's Burning Saviours for months, it was supposed to come out earlier this year but got delayed until now. Basically, we can make this simple if a) you've heard the first Burning Saviours and liked it and/or b) you're a fan of that -other- Swedish band that channels Pentagram, Black Sabbath and all that good obscure early '70s proto-metal heavy prog psych stuff, namely Witchcraft. If those conditions apply, then get Hundus, 'cause this new Burning Saviours disc is just as good as their amazing debut, sounding (due to shared influences, and perhaps something in the water over there in Sweden) EXACTLY like Witchcraft's equally fine retro-proto-metal. But again, we don't see them as being blatantly unoriginal vis-a-vis Witchcraft or anything, it's just that both bands are so good at capturing the authentic vibe of their heroes, making music well worthy of the upper echelon of Vertigo swirl label heavies.
Those not already tuned in and turned on to Witchcraft / Burning Saviours / the current retro-heavy-psych scene, well, you're gonna think this sounds like Black Sabbath. And maybe a bit Led Zep too, especially some of the vocal phrasing on the epic "Lilly Marion". And some of the riffing and soloing reminds us of very early Judas Priest, in their pre-leather, psychedelic Rocka Rolla phase. So, obviously, lots of appeal here to classic rock lovers! One thing that really makes Burning Saviours sound so great is the "openness" of their sound, spacious and clean, every part hitting our ears just right... the more quiet n' pretty moments making us think of -another- current band of retro-obsessed Swedes who are favorites 'round here, Elope. Even the heavier riffing is still sorta laid back, loping.
Witchcraft definitely already have a cult following, and these guys deserve the same... but their name just isn't as good as "Witchcraft" is it? Burning Saviours are named after a Pentagram song, but maybe we'd have chosen a different one... coulda been called, uh, The 20 Buck Spins? No, that's no good either. Well anyway, another essential hippy-doom album that really seems like it must have been recorded in 1971 and recently unearthed!
MPEG Stream: "Dark Lady"
MPEG Stream: "Ballad Of Time"

CAVITY Supercollider (Hydra Head) cd 8.98
One of our suppliers found a few of these hidden in their warehouse someplace, sold 'em to us at a huge discount, we're not sure if it's even in print anymore. So if you didn't grab one of these already, now's the time!
With this 1998 album, Cavity's Sabbath-fried sludge from the swamps of Florida really earned them their rightful place in the pantheon of heaviosity peopled by the likes of the Melvins, Eyehategod, Boris, and Electric Wizard. We liked 'em already, but this record stood above and beyond. Sheer HEAVY pummel, riff repetition chug fulla feedback and nasty vocals. There's quiet respites now and then, making the monster riffage even more monstrous. Definitely the kind of thing that just takes you over, relentless, submersive, and hypnotic. So, we can't believe we never listed this before! It was a HUGE fave among a bunch of us here when it came out on Man's Ruin a few years ago. It's been sadly out of print ever since that label folded, but now Hydrahead has stepped up and reissued a remixed version, complete with new artwork/design and what appear to be 2 new tracks (but, one's missing - what happened to "Almost Blue"?). So apparently even if you have the Man's Ruin version, you've gotta buy Supercollider again. But this is one of those records you *would* buy again, it's that good! And if you don't have this already, and you like heaviness, GET IT. Cavity's best album (though their last one, On The Lam, was pretty great too). Thanks Hydra Head for giving us the chance to recommend this, again. [And thanks to that supplier for giving us another chance to recommend this, again, again!]
MPEG Stream: "Supercollider"
MPEG Stream: "How Much Lost"

DIAPSIQUIR Virus S.T.N. (Necrocosm) cd 14.98
We were never able to get enough of these to list, the 2005 full length from French avant industrial black metal weirdoes Diapsiquir, which is a bummer, cuz this is some of the most twisted, fucked up heaviness you'll ever hear. We did go on at great length about the Hospital double disc comp, which collected the band's first few demos, but this, holy shit, a head spinning, gut wrenching, skull cracking chunk of whacked and wrecked whatthefuck black metal damage. Be warned, we only have 3 or 4 of these, and we're not sure we can get more, but this way, at least a few loyal aQ-ers, who dig this sort of sonic sickness, can get their grubby mitts on one of these.
After a brief intro, of almost cheesy synth and skittery drum machine, which gradually grows more and more manic and frantic, the band explode into lurching, blasting, gnarled almost circusy blackness, the sound constantly changing direction, female vocals howling, pounding beats and frenzied dizzying riffage, with what sounds like kazoo solos, or someone singing through a kazoo, some seriously doomic chug, howled tortured vox, loads of effects, the song swinging wildly from sound to sound, mood to mood, a wickedly schizophrenic grinding black freakout. And that's just the first song. The record continues to get weirder and weirder, introducing bits of opera, wheezing organs, RAPPING(?), found sounds and sound effects, folk music, and whatever other weirdness these guys can think up, tangling all that stuff into their already WAY fucked up alien nightmare sound. A drug addled soundtrack for the listener as he gradually descends into madness.
WAY recommended. Had we been able to get more, we'd probably have highlighted this, or heck, some of us might have even pushed for Record Of The Week status, but as it is, weirdo music freaks have 3 or 4 chances to nab one of these, be quick, or be listening to something WAY less bizarre...
MPEG Stream: "Venin Intemperel Rouille Universelle Satan"
MPEG Stream: "Generation Maudite Penetration Interdite"
MPEG Stream: "Diapsiquir"

DICKS Hungry Butt (Hotbox Review) cd 11.98
For some strange reason, this has been sitting on the shelf, generally unacknowledged, for ages. Which makes no sense at all, the Dicks from Austin, TX are one of the most legendary and outrageous American punk bands from the early '80s. Their songs have been covered by the likes of Mudhoney and fellow Texas nutjobs Scratch Acid. Crossdressing lead singer Gary Floyd, along with Randy "Biscuit" Turner of the Big Boys and Dave Dictor of MDC, represented one of the most unusual and politically radical punk scenes in the country - hell, WORLD. All three singers were hulking madmen, all completely gay and proud, and completely capable of beating the living shit out of anyone who might cross their paths.
Hungry Butt contains two Dicks shows, one from 2005 and the main attraction, a show from 1980. The reunited Dicks, however, still sound unbelievable and as good as they did in their initial run. In both settings the energy level is beyond comprehension as Floyd spits out hateful but hilarious musings in front of the enamored audience. The band appears to be straddling that fine line between keeping it together and plunging into pure chaos, and GODDAMN does it sound good, not to mention surprisingly musical. The album also contains two outtakes from the band's mythical Hate The Police single, "Pigs Run Wild" and "Hate The Police" (one of the best songs EVER). You don't even need to know anything about the Dicks to appreciate the timeless punk rock on display here, and considering the difficulty in finding any of their stuff, we can't recommend this highly enough. We don't have too many copies and are kinda unsure whether we can get more (this was released five years ago...) but we figured it would be criminal not to let people in on this opportunity.
MPEG Stream: "Wheelchair Epidemic (live 2005)"
MPEG Stream: "Kill From The Heart (live 1980)"
MPEG Stream: "Dicks Hate The Police (outtake 1980)"

DIGNAN PORCH Tendrils (Captured Tracks) lp 16.98
Whoo-hoo! Now on vinyl!!
Another Captured Tracks band, whose recent 7" had us all in a tizzy, with its reverby jangle and slouchy sad boy indie rock shuffle. We compared that Dignan Porch release to Sebadoh and Guided By Voices, which totally hit the spot.
The full length offers up more of the same, but with some subtle changes, a swirling folky, jangly swirl of weirdo distorted vocals, heavily effected guitars, short short songs, most hovering around the two minute mark, the vibe melancholy and minor key, the sound raw and rough and lo-fi, the hooks subtle, but definitely there, the indie jangle of the 7" infused with more of a dour doom folk vibe here too, with lots of acoustic guitar, hazy reverb, washed out ambience, the songs lilting and darkly personal, with vocals that shift from cockney croon, to distorted howl, to high keening falsetto, the tracks laced with buzz, a patina of grit, layered and murky and mysterious, and definitely poppy, but almost as if the poppiness was an accident, a byproduct of this soul baring, home brewed folk pop, a darkly dreamlike, bedroom-recorded, old crummy cassette, late night, druggy, summery mixtape, of strummy, starry mystery. Whew!
MPEG Stream: "The Game We Made"
MPEG Stream: "As You Were"
MPEG Stream: "Flowers In May"
MPEG Stream: "Footsteps"

DRINK THE BLEACH s/t (self-released) cd ep 5.98
This came out a while ago, and for some reason we never reviewed it, but we were listening to it recently, and realized how fucking kick ass these guys were, and figured there were probably some other folks out there who would dig this as well.
SF heavies kicking out some serious skull crushing jams, falling somewhere between the punkish metal bombast of Northwestern groups like Karp and the Melvins, godheadSilo, and any of the heavier hitters from the classic Amphetamine Reptile stable, so you know what that means, relentlessly rocking churning chugging noise rock / punk metal blowouts, huge downtuned riffage, bad ass drumming, howled vox, the band locking into full on burly grooves, about as fierce and furious as it gets, not sure why these guys didn't blow up, never saw them live, but it sounds like they must have slayed, this stuff is dense and dark, loud and intense, frenzied but also right as fuck, with plenty of melodies, and lots of hooks hidden amidst the pound and pummel, fans of any of the above mentioned bands should grab these while they last, got a handful left, and as the band is dead and gone, we might not be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Freeway"
MPEG Stream: "There's Nothing"

ES Kesamaan Lapset (Fonal) lp 17.98
Also on lp, finally available for us to list for the first time! Here's what we said about the cd...
Brand new record from this Finnish aQ fave, every new album a slowly blossoming mystery in sound, whether it's manipulated chunks of old vinyl, rickety campfire psychedelia, or expansive soundscapes of delicate crystalline shimmer. Es is the musical monicker of Sami Sanpakkila, who also plays in some other aQ Finnish favorites, most notably Kemialliset Ystavat and Kiila, and who is often joined by various members of the ever shifting and constantly collaborating Finnish underground community.
Kesamaan Lapset seems to be a record composed and performed entirely on keyboards and synthesizers, the opening track is a gloriously sun dappled chunk of skittery sunshiney new age synths, lush swoonsome swells of fuzzy whir, tinkling little melodies, and soft tangles of squiggly glitches, looped and chopped, like a more kinetic caffeinated Oval. The follow up begins with some circusy lo-fi keyboard melodies, that get more and more dense and intricate before the vocals swoop in, super effected and lush, wrapped in delay and reverb, ghostly and otherworldly, drifting lazily and dreamily over the softly chaotic jumble of tones and melodic fragments, managing to be pretty and soft, but fractured and off kilter at the same time.
The first of the two long tracks is a slow building dronescape, thick swells of warm lush organ whir, beneath delicate spidery piano melodies, the whole thing growing ever brighter and more insistent, various keyboards beginning to stutter and skitter creating all manner of incidental rhythms before finishing off in a dense swirl of hissy soft focus drift.
The 21 minute title track is all woozy dream pop, female vocals, over a constantly undulating bed of looped pianos and swirling synths, male vocals offer up some unlikely harmonies, horns slowly surface as do gauzy clouds of effects, before transforming into a deep, dark, almost brooding bit of keyboard driven drift, replete with all manner of Oval like digital glitch, warbly and underwater sounding, super hypnotic and intense, eventually giving way to a strange bit of majestic fanfare before fading out in a brief blur of warm abstract melody.
The final brief track is a buzzed out coda, all electronic glitchery, fuzzy drones, plonked electric piano, howled vocals buried in the mix, tons of grit and texture, buzz and whir, like a way more abstract Animal Collective.
Certainly a bit different than any of the other Es releases, but in its own warm and warped, tripped out and twisted way, a logical extension of Es's ever expanding soundworld. And we dig it.
MPEG Stream: "Ennen Oli Huonommin"
MPEG Stream: "Kesa Ja Hymyilevat Huulet"
MPEG Stream: "Sateet Sun Sielusta"

FAR EAST FAMILY BAND Parallel World (Phoenix) lp 24.00
Now available on vinyl! (Gotta say, though, Phoenix coulda done a better job with the cover repro, looks kinda rough. Still, nice to have this classic on wax.)
Our '70s Japanese psychedelia section just keeps getting bigger and better, in part thanks to the UK reissue label Phoenix, who brought us Brast Burn last list, also recently Karuna Khyal, Far Out, and another Far East Family Band album, Nipponjin. That one was their second, from 1975, and if you liked it you'll like this, Parallel World being its 1976 follow up, boasting one of the most perfect cover paintings ever, showing the band sitting in a wooden boat, in space, flying through the colorful cosmos. (The guy with the headphones and shades is so cool!)
Once again produced by kosmiche electronics master Klaus Schulze (with Gunter Schickert as recording assistant), this proved to be the band's final album, but it's a fantastic one, that deserves honorary krautrock classic status even though the band are Japanese. It's certainly a space rock classic at any rate, beginning with "Metempsychosis", a trippy intro full of spooky synth squiggle and snip-snip-snip drumming that accelerates into a blissed out shimmer, a combo that they take to extended extremes on the next track, the 16 minutes of "Entering/Times", full of buzz and gurgle, propulsive rhythmic scatter-clatter, and grandiose prog moves... it sounds somewhere betwixt Acid Mothers Temple and Zombi, really!
Vocals make an appearance on "Kokoro", a mostly gentle, lovely sort of dreamy ballad, but one that also features some searing, soaring electric guitar action to bow down and worship. And THEN there's the title track, a suite, 30 minutes long! It's a doozy, encompassing funky wah guitars, thick synth fuzz, electronic tinkering tingling tinkling, even some dubbiness... At times it's urgently rhythmic, but that can give way to calm, spaced out drone, it's got parts that remind us of Can, parts that could be Funkadelic circa their most lysergic effort Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow, and parts that sound like Augustus Pablo. If every druggy hippy jam sounded like this, we'd be living in a Parallel World indeed!
Obligatory Japrocksampler chart position citation: Julian Cope put this at number FOUR in his top 50. We don't always agree with his rankings, but it's definitely worthy of being up there.
MPEG Stream: "Kokoro"
MPEG Stream: "Parallel World"

FRIDAY, GAVIN & DAVE BALL / THOMAS BRINKMANN / ALAN VEGA Ghostrider / Diamonds, Furcoats, Champagne / Puss On Tha Time Warp (Blast First Petite) 10" 15.98
The continued series of Suicide related 10"s from Blast First Petite offers three tracks here with Gavin Friday & Dave Ball, Thomas Brinkmann, and Alan Vega himself. The A-side is a thorough '80s throwback with former Virgin Prune frontman Gavin Friday paired with Soft Cell technician Dave Ball covering the classic Suicide tune "Ghostrider". A deft and faithful interpretation found here. Brinkmann's cover / remix of Suicide's "Diamonds, Furcoats, Champagne" had originally appeared on a 12" from 2006, engineered out of a one-note bassline topping a mid-tempo techno groove and sparkling washes of synths scattered from above. The arrangements share the Suicide spirit of cocaine-driven glitz set against an undercurrent of teeth-clinching paranoia, all of which are driven home with Vega's vocals. The Alan Vega track was also previously released from his 1999 album entitled 2007.

ITAL TEK Midnight Colour (Planet Mu) 2lp 17.98
NOW ON VINYL!
We're beginning to think if it wasn't for Planet Mu, we wouldn't be hearing any dubstep at all... Can't really figure out why more labels aren't getting more of that stuff over here, hundreds, maybe thousands of killer 12"s, DJ mix tapes, proper albums, and only a trickle actually makes it over here, bit the folks at Planet Mu obviously have great taste (or at least taste a lot like ours) cuz the stuff they do put out is the cream of the crop: Starkey, Vex'd, Distance, Milanese, Legion Of Two, Boxcutter, Pinch, Virus Syndicate, MRK1 and now Ital Tek. Not sure how we missed the last Ital Tek record, cuz this one is a doozy, not super dark or sinister, instead this definitely falls somewhere closer to stuff like Clubroot, Ikonika, Zomby, Burial, Shackleton, warm and fuzzy, the beats low slung and laid back, the usual dubstep bass warble toned way down, still thick and fuzzy, just less warbly, disembodied female vocals adding a subtle soul element, some of the tracks are super lo-fi and 8-bit sounding, others are more new wavey and sound a bit John Carpenter-ish, while others are dark and skittery, and still others are haunting and nearly ambient, but Ital Tek's unique vibe is the thread that runs through all the tracks, a little washed out, a little eighties, dreamy and dubby, shimmery and skittery, the lighter side of dubstep, with just enough darkness to keep things interesting...
MPEG Stream: "Neon Arc"
MPEG Stream: "Trails"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Bow"

MANDRE 4 (Rush Hour) cd 17.98
This is some major left of center space funk. Mandre had a brief moment on Motown but most of his music was released on his own private press label, which made finding any of his records nearly impossible. Wearing space helmets and adopting a mysterious alter-ego long before folks like Daft Punk, Mandre really was a pioneer of electronic funk. Originally released in 1980, 4 starts off with a couple of the most majestic and shimmering waves of space disco we've ever heard. The second half of the record veers way more into full on funk territory, still keeping a warped vibe but sometimes the vocals make it a bit hokey sounding. We wanted to be totally in love with this, and we do totally dig the first few tracks for sure, but not all of the tracks are as awesome as those two jams. No doubt folks like Dam-Funk have been hip to Mandre for years. Still a total must have for rare groove and electro-funk fiends.
MPEG Stream: "Rain"
MPEG Stream: "You're Freaky Girl"

MILDEW Flat On The Face (Heart & Crossbone) cd-r 12.98
Found a handful of these stashed away, pretty sure this is out of print now, so these are probably the last copies EVER of this chunk of head spinning sonic weirdness...
Another cd-r release from Heart and Crossbone, the label that brought us records from Israeli blackened spazz rock duo Barbara and one man thrash-grind band Cadaver Eyes. This Mildew cd-r is a bit high concept. The idea is that you download a script and the piece will play at random predetermined starting points, making the songs a bit different every time. Or something like that. Cool, huh? Musically this is a lot different that anything we've yet heard from Heart and Crossbone. All electronic, spastic programmed drums, squelching synths, occasional sampled metal guitars, jagged pounding industrial rhythms, moaning minor key melodies, brief spurts of drill and bass, some full on metal riffing sliced and diced, martial percussion, some blissed out dubbiness. Really cool. Definitely for fans of Aphex Twin, stuff on Planet Mu, or any of the more out there electronic stuff on Ulver's Jester label.
MPEG Stream: "Flat On The Face 1"
MPEG Stream: "Flat On The Face 2"

MOJO July 2010 magazine + cd 9.99
Special 200th issue of this always enlightening and interesting (and 154 pages thick) UK music mag. Guest-edited by cover star Tom Waits! Inside, they bring out the big guns: Johnny Cash, White Stripes, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, U2, Radiohead, Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, Nirvana, Arctic Monkeys, and more!! Lots more. Including the usual free cd stuck to the cover, compiled and sequenced by Mr. Waits.

PANTHA DU PRINCE This Bliss (Dial / Kompakt) 2lp 19.98
Now available on vinyl!
After flipping out over PdP's Black Noise record, a gorgeous collection of lush minimal avant techno, that owed as much to minimal pop music, and avant garde soundscapery as it did to Kompakt or Chain Reaction, we became obsessed with tracking down the two earlier albums, Diamond Daze and This Bliss, but unfortunately, both were out of print, and available only for way too much on eBay.
Then whattaya know, a couple months later and both get reissued, and both are just as fantastic as Black Noise.
The template is the same, spares, spare, skeletal, minimal throb and pulse, click and skitter, house music, techno, the template is classic electronic music, but those tropes get all twisted up and remargined as something lush and otherworldly, sexy and organic, This Bliss couldn't be a more appropriate title for this record, as it is truly blissful. Not so much geared toward the dancefloor, this is like after hours chillout music, but imbued with light and warmth and energy and emotion, propulsive, but also washed out, hazy and shimmery, the sounds are prismatic and crystalline, makes sense that this would get reissued via Kompakt, as it's a pretty perfect fit, but unlike some of the Kompakt stuff, that can tend toward the clubby, the sounds on This Bliss remain rooted in sounds more minimal, and more abstract and avant, besides the muted beats, the swooshing ambience, PdP incorporates soaring strings, epic and cinematic, tracks are given the impression of motion, the soundtrack to speeding along some highway in the middle of the night, notes ring out, chiming bell like loops are layered and allowed to drift into the ether.
On the surface, the sound is definitely minimal techno, but it's so well crafted, it ends up revealing itself as so much more on repeated deeper listens. This is the sort of electronic music that could reasonable convert the skeptical, lure in the non believers with it's lustrous nuanced sounds, and gorgeously moody mystery.
MPEG Stream: "Asha"
MPEG Stream: "Saturn Strobe"
MPEG Stream: "Seeds Of Sleep"

PEACHES / EFFIE BRIEST / ALAN VEGA Jonny / Universe / No Tomorrow (Blast First Petite) 10" 15.98
Another chapter in the Suicide related 10" series from Blast First Petite. This one features Peaches, Effie Briest, and Alan Vega. The cover of this 10" is the most shocking thing about the release with its illustration of an erect cock adorned with dragon tattoos and dripping with semen. You might think that Peaches would match this image with a dirty-dirty-dirty bit of electro, but her track is a more innocent than sultry cover of "Johnny" from Suicide's first album. Effie Briest takes up an odd track to cover, "Universe" from the little-known Why Be Blue album Suicide released in 1992. Their cover eschews electronics for an atmospheric post-punk dirge certainly worthy of the acclaim they received on their Sacred Bones lp. The Alan Vega track originally came from the 1990 album Deuce Avenue, with a narcoleptic arrangement of electronics and Vega's rockabilly, lip-curled vocals.

PIANOS BECOME THE TEETH Old Pride (Top Shelf) cd 10.98
Our Record Of The Week from List #347, back in stock!!
One genre in heavy music, that a whole bunch of aQ-ers consider critical to their musical development, is in fact WAY underrepresented on the aQ list, partially cuz much of the music that made up that genre happened well before the advent of the aQ new arrivals list, but also because so few contemporary bands can pull that sound off, at least convincingly. What the heck are we talking about? SCREAMO. Yep, wild, chaotic, short sharp post punk heaviness, some of our faves include Orchid, Mohinder, Swing Kids, Portraits Of Past, Heroin, Antioch Arrow... those live shows were legendary, heaving masses of sweaty flesh, the line between audience and band blurred or obliterated completely, sets as short as 10 minutes, still packed with 15 songs of furious hardcore frenzy, there were definitely politics going on too, but it was the sound that had us smitten, the energy, the passion, the emotion, that first wave of screamo was obviously heavily indebted to Rites Of Spring, Die Kreuzen and other early hardcore and post hardcore combos, but the screamo bands took that sound and cranked it up, supercharged it, shortened the songs and blew the living fuck out of it.
Very few bands today can pull off that sound, or even try, there's Comadre, and Ampere, and a few others, and now you can add Pianos Become The Teeth, but the cool thing about PBTT, are that they take that classic screamo sound and meld it to a seemingly diametrically opposed sound, that sort of Godspeed You Black Emperor, slow build epic post rock majesty! And somehow it works. The energy and passion, the bursts of furious howling musical catharsis wedded to something more smoldering and patient, and the mix is pretty fucking fantastic, the group lurching from dense tangles of wild punkish crunch to soaring epic psychedelic blow outs, the songs super complex, constantly shifting mood and emotion, but keeping the tension ratcheted way up. "Quit Benefit" features insane squalls of wild octopoidal drumming, stuttering arrangements and dramatic pauses, haunting stretched out sheets of feedback, cool hard panned guitar jangle, the song a non stop frenzy of ever shifting rhythms, incredibly lush and melodic but all snarled up, but with a distinct melodic vibe running through the whole thing. "Pensive" finds the band locking into a churning slow build, with still more intense and relentless drumming, the guitars sharp and angular, the vocals howled and oozing with pathos, every song is a dizzying mile a minute post punk emo screamo epic, the band slipping so easily from indie jangle to rabid grinding punk and back again, but after nearly 30 minutes of that incredible and insanely cathartic level of sustained energy, the band offer up the final track, "Young Fire", a gorgeous post rock drift, all clean spidery guitars, simple skeletal rhythms, woozy twangy melodies, a slow build part way through to something more heavy, but never letting go, never exploding into a wild freak out, instead, letting the song unfurl lazily, the various sounds slowly slipping away, eventually leaving just a single reverbed guitar to play the record out. So lovely.
And the whole record, so fucking heavy and epic and emo(tional), definitely a big new favorite around here, and for folks who have been missing the days of the Orchid and Mohinder and Gravity Records, this is as about as close as you're gonna get to making it back there, but as is obvious from the above, Old Pride is less about looking back, and more about taking that sound, and dragging it forward, into the NOW.
MPEG Stream: "Filial"
MPEG Stream: "Quit Benefit"
MPEG Stream: "Pensive"

SHINDIG! #17 magazine 9.98
Another issue of this colorful British magazine devoted to cool music from way back when, the psychedelic and punk eras in particular... The cover is shared this ish by the legendary Lee Hazlewood and the cheerful insanity of Giles, Giles, & Fripp (pre-King Crimson psych pop genius). Also inside, everything from the Damned's Captain Sensible, to proto-metallers Bang, to Michael Fennelley of The Millenium and Crabby Appleton, to UK heavy proggers Samuel Prody... and plenty more, old and new. Lotsa reviews, news, all the usual stuff. Basically if you read Mojo and/or Ugly Things, you should be reading Shindig! too.

SPIN July 2010 magazine 4.99
Oooh, Emo Andee's probably gonna be excited, Hayley Williams of Paramore is on the cover. Throwin' down! Inside, "The Tragic Life Of A Cult Hero": Vic Chesnutt. Sad. Also: Crystal Castles, Ozzy Osbourne ("Nazis, Guns, And Puppies"!), Big Boi, The Gaslight Anthem, and more.

URAL UMBO s/t (Utech) cd 14.98
Ural Umbo is the duo of Reto Mader (aka RM74, responsible for a more recent cd on Utech we really dug, highlighted last list) and Steven Hess of Haptic! Scary cinematic dark drone stuff with sudden percussion and electronic glitchery. Rattle and hum! Limited to 500 copies, typical handsome Utech packaging, including a b&w nude cover pic on translucent vellum.
MPEG Stream: "Theme Of The Paranormal Feedback"
MPEG Stream: "Stumbling Upon Blood And Mercury"

VON THRONSTAHL E Pluribus Unum (Cold Spring) cd 16.98
Found a few of these tucked away in the closet, one of our favorite records from this mysterious industrial martial folk neoclassical goth pop combo, 2001's E Pluribus Unum. While on all of the various VT records, the band does get seriously industrial, that side of their sound is balanced by their tendency to craft sort of woozy dour gloom pop that at its songiest sounds like some hybrid of the Doors, Spacemen 3, This Mortal Coil, and at its most abstract sounds like some darkly chilling soundtrack music, to some forgotten Dario Argento thriller, or some classic German art film.
The record starts off with tolling bells, and then a guitar riff, wait, it's AC/DC's "Hell's Bells", sampled, and looped, over and over and over, but instead of launching into the song, the riff becomes a weirdly mesmerizing groove, that main riff wrapped in strummed acoustic guitar, and softly swirling effects, laced with pounding martial drumming, all supporting a dreamy dramatic crooned vocal. Fans might remember the track on their Sacrificare record, where they took the Who's "Pinball Wizard" and similarly transformed it into their own weird sort of industrial goth pop.
The rest of the record is more traditionally neoclassical / neofolk, with mournful strings, swirling synths, militaristic drums, haunting samples, snippets of speeches, occasional gouts of crumbling distorted guitar, or growled demonic vox, it's a darkly gorgeous pseudo historical soundscape, a mysteriously varied, epic and majestic collection of otherwordly war songs, hazy sonic propaganda, and blackened doom pop.
MPEG Stream: "Bells"
MPEG Stream: "Mitternachtsberg"
MPEG Stream: "Inthronisation"

WARLOGHE The First Possession (Northern Heritage) cd 16.98
As it says in the cd booklet, Pure Unholy Black Metal! Indeed. Some seriously grim and frosty blackness from these legendary / infamous Finnish black metallers, totally kvlt, primitive and raw, recorded way back in 1998, murky and blown out, the production fucked and ever fluctuating, the drums way louder than everything, the guitars blurred and black and so buzzy they almost become black drones, but the atmosphere, fuck, this stuff is so dark and haunting and mesmerizing and mysterious, they seriously don't make music like this anymore, even the grimmest of the grim these days, can't conjure up the same sort of blackness, the same sort of hellish hateful ambience, and for all it's lo-fi-ness and sonic shortcomings, the 'sound' is untouchable, it's the sort of blackness we can never get enough of, total trance inducing drone drenched heaviness, that more than a decade later pretty much puts the rest of the black metal scene to shame...
MPEG Stream: "Black Metal Hell"
MPEG Stream: "Once More Against The Light"
MPEG Stream: "Witchcraft And Blood"

WARLOGHE Womb Of Pestilence (Northern Heritage) cd 16.98
Another reissue from this legendary Finnish black metal horde, Womb Of Pestilence was their second and final record, and is another frosty blast of buzzing black malevolence, sonically similar to The First Possession, in that it's murky and muddy and the drums are way too loud, and the riffs bleed into one another, but it's actually a bit more melodic, while remaining seriously necro. Warloghe are one of the few non French bands that truly sounds like they could have been a member of the Black Legions, think Mutiilation, Vlad Tepes, Belketre, Torgeist, the same sort of atmosphere, the same sort of raw primitive vibe, the feral lo-fi fury, the hellish ambience, in fact, unlike the relentless blasting of their debut, things get weird and creepy and downright experimental once in a while, like on the freaky creepy "Monolith Clad In Fog", a twisted drift of guitar harmonics, black drones, pulsing rhythms and raspy incantations, or the strange crooned almost operatic vocals on "Corpse-Altar-Light", but those moments are indeed brief, only serving to enhance the already grim atmosphere of Warloghe's "Pure Unholy Black Metal".
MPEG Stream: "Opened And Tainted Graves"
MPEG Stream: "Underneath The Seven-Fold Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Fires Burn Black"

WINDSOR FOR THE DERBY Against Love (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98
We had kind of lost track of Windsor For The Derby over the years, we weren't even sure if they were still around but when this new record arrived we realized that they've been at it all along, releasing a new record every couple years. This doesn't stray too much from what made many of us here dig them so much. Intimate and breezy indie rock with a a dreamlike shoegaze vibe. We really love when they get more into the atmospheric side of of their sound, conjuring up such beautiful hazy and wistful states. Against Love divides its time between those dreamy atmospheres and a more straight ahead intimate indie rock sound. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Autumn Song"
MPEG Stream: "Queen Of The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Shadows"

WITCHERY Don't Fear The Reaper (Century Media) cd 12.98
We were always big fans of Swedish blackened thrash/speed metal outfit Witchery, which makes sense considering that the group includes members of The Haunted, Seance, Satanic Slaughter, Brujeria, Arch Enemy, Nifelheim, Bloodbath, Spiritual Beggars, Mercyful Fate, etc. etc. it's like a Swedish metal supergroup, and recently, Legion joined the band, he of the mighty Marduk, but back in 2006 when this one came out, they still had their old vocalist and were trafficking in blasting, thrashing classic sounding occult blackened metal, that we dug big time. The weird thing is, the last few Witchery records got totally slagged, seemed like everybody hated 'em, especially this one, but we just realized we had a handful of these stashed away, and since we actually DO like it, we figured some of you might too. What's not to like, it's super heavy and thrashing, darkly atmospheric, the riffs are killer, it IS super polished, tight as all get out, a killer blend of modern black thrash, and retro speed metal, wild leads, plenty of midtempo groove, and some serious blasts of lightning speed thrashing that definitely verges on full black metal brutality, revisiting this again, we have to say we still dig it a LOT, and anyone into Swedish metal, black, thrash, speed or otherwise, should definitely check this one out. And pretty soon we'll review the new Legion-led 2010 Witchery as well, Witchkrieg, which we just got in stock...
MPEG Stream: "Disturbing The Beast"
MPEG Stream: "Stigmatized"

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V/A The Electric Asylum Volume 5: Rare British Freakrock ( Past & Present) cd 17.98
So, all good things must come to an end. Volume 5 of The Electric Asylum series is reputed to be the last, turning the lunatics loose. Uh-oh. For your next dose of musical electro-shock therapy you'll have to look elsewhere (maybe P&P's new series, curated as many if not all of these were by "The Psychomaniac", Psych Bites?).
Perhaps this is the last 'cause there seems to be a bit of bottom of the barrel scraping going on. A cover of "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin"? Really? Though, really, everything here has its charms, especially if you're in the mood for some obscure '70s glam. And there are a few quite solid surprises. We'd described earlier outings in this series as specializing in "Bubblegum Black Sabbath" bands. Well, ok, nothing was ever all that Black Sabbathy, but there was a kitschy occult vibe to some of the selections early on, certainly some heavy fuzz as well. Freakrock indeed. But this one definitely leans towards the Bubblegum, goofy more than freaky, which is fun too of course, but maybe not what we were hoping for after the relatively hard rock action of the previous volume, number 4.
As with all Electric Asylum entries, again with more silly names: Colonel Bagshot, Biggles, Squeek, Whistle, Mustard, Baby, Boston Boppers, Dunno... among others. 20 tracks in all by 19 artists. That's on account of them including both sides of the sole '74 single by singer Tracey Dean, a studio project produced by Giorgio Moroder, so that's pretty cool. Definitely one of the standouts here due to the catchy combo of Dean's weird wavery voice (kinda like the guy from Family) and the odd electronics of the production. Another neat one is Iron Horse covering "The Obeah Man", a voodoo-psych number originally by the amazing Exuma. And getting fully glam, the Jets' "Yeah!" is aptly named. So, Vol. 5 not the best in the series, mind you, the most hit and miss, but still not without some glammy, grin inducing gems and jams.
Includes excruciatingly detailed notes on each track in the thick cd booklet, with full color sleeve and label graphics reproduced. Nice. Too bad the cover art is another crappy CG job, dunno why they don't realize that doesn't jibe with the '70s aesthetic of what's been dug up here.
MPEG Stream: TRACEY DEAN "Boy On The Ball"
MPEG Stream: JETS "Yeah!"
MPEG Stream: MUSTARD "Good Time Comin"

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2+2=5, THE "Into The Future..." (Spittle) cd 21.00
A-FRAMES "333" (S-S) 3lp 36.00
ADVERTS, THE "Crossing The Red Sea With..." (The Devils Own Jukebox) cd 15.98
ANBB (ALVA NOTO & BLIXA BARGELD) "Ret Marut Handshake" (Raster-Noton) 12" 14.98
ARCHITEUTHIS REX "Dark As The Sea" (Utech) cd 14.98
BASTARD NOISE "A Culture Of Monsters" (Deep Six) cd/lp 10.98/12.98
BATHS "Cerulean" (Anticon) cd 14.98
BLACK KEYS, THE "Brothers" (Nonesuch) cd 14.98
BRUCE, MICHAEL "Lo Snap b/w Fiskemelk" (Poisonous Gases) 7" 5.98
CHEMICAL BROTHERS "Further" (Astralwerks) cd 16.98
CLINE, NELS SINGERS "Initiate" (Cryptogramophone) 2cd 16.98
COMMON EIDER, KING EIDER "Worn" (Root Strata) lp 16.98
CURE, THE "Disintegration (Deluxe Edition)" (Rhino / Fiction) 3cd 34.00
CURRENT 93 "Baalstorm, Sing Omega" (Coptic Cat) cd 14.98
DDAMAGE "Aeroplanes" (Ascetic) cd 19.98
DIVORCE "s/t" (Optimo) 10" 13.98
EAST BAY GREASE "Just Head" (Classic Bar Music) 7" 5.50
EMINEM "Recovery" (Aftermath / Interscope) cd 16.98
ENDTABLES, THE "s/t" (Drag City) cd 14.98
FOOT VILLAGE "Anti-Magic" (Upset The Rhythm) lp 17.98
GUITAR MAGAZINE / LEADERS "split" (Classic Bar Music) 7" 5.50
HOUR OF 13 "The Ritualist" (Eyes Like Snow / Northern Silence) cd 17.98
HTRK "Nostalgia" (Fire) cd 15.98
INTERNATIONAL HELLO "s/t" (Holy Mountain) lp 14.98
KNUT "Wonder" (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
LYNCH, JULIAN "Droplet On A Hot Stone" (Underwater Peoples) 7"+cd 8.98
MAGIC BULLETS "Lying Around" (Mon Amie) 7" 4.98
MAX PLANCK "Kill The Pain" (Buried By Time And Dust) lp 32.00
NEGURA BUNGET "Zirnindu-Sa" (Lupus Lounge) 2cd 17.98
NEON "Oscillator" (Spittle) cd 21.00
ONDSKAPT "Arisen From The Ashes" (Osmose Productions) cd 16.98
OPTIMO "Fabric 52" (Fabric) cd 17.98
PEOPLE LIKE US & WOBBLY "Music For The Fire" (Illegal Art) cd 16.98
PRIESTESS "Prior To The Fire" (Tee Pee) cd 15.98
RABELAIS, AKIRA "Caduceus" (Samadhisound) cd 16.98
RADIO BIRDMAN "Radios Appear" (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
ROOTS "How I Got Over" (Def Jam) cd 13.98
ROSE, JACK & GLENN JONES "The Things That We used To Do" (Strange Attractions) dvd 20.00
ROSE, JACK WITH D. CHARLES SPEER & THE HELIX "Ragged And Right" (Thrill Jockey) cd ep/12" 11.98/14.98
SANDWITCHES, THE "Duck, Duck, Goose!" (Empty Cellar / Secret Seven) 12" 9.98
SAVIO, DANIEL "Assassinn b/w Crimewave" (Poisonous Gases) 7" 5.98
SCISSOR SISTERS "Night Work" (Polydor) cd 12.98
SCOTT, SIMON "Traba" (Immune) lp 15.98
SUN RA "Egypt Strut" (Vinyl Lovers) lp 23.00
TEENAGE FANCLUB "Shadows" (Merge) cd 14.98
TO ROCOCO ROT "Speculation" (Domino) cd 14.98
TOP TEN "Girls Understand / Don't Talk About Us" (Classic Bar Music) 7" 5.98
TORTOISE "Why Waste Time" (Avex / Thrill Jockey) cd 23.00
TRANS AM "Thing" (Thrill Jockey) cd 15.98
TRAORE, ABDOULAYE "s/t" (Yaala Yaala) cd 14.98
TRAORE, TOBA SEYDOU "s/t" (Yaala Yaala) cd 14.98
V/A "Clicks And Cuts 5.0" (Mille Plateax) cd 17.98
V/A "Karl Rove: Courage And Concequence" (Seismic.Wave) lp 14.98
V/A "Milano New Wave 1980-83" (Spittle) cd 21.00
V/A "Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa" (Honest Jon's) cd 17.98
V/A "Solid Gold" (Italians Do It Better) cd 13.98
V/A "To Scratch Your Heart: Early Recordings From Istanbul" (Honest Jons) 2cd 26.00
V/A "Unheard Ofs & Forgotten Abouts" (Tomkins Square / Pawn) cd 14.98
V/A "Viva Negative! A Tribute To The New Blockaders Vol. 1: UK" (At War With False Noise) cd 14.98
V/A "Welcome Home / Diggin' The Universe" (Woodsist) lp 14.98
VANGELIS "Who Killed The Dragon? (The BYG Sessions)" (Finders Keepers) 12" 14.98
WARLOCK PINCHERS "Bomb The Franklin Mint" (self released) cd 13.98
WE LIKE CATS "Proper Eats" (Marriage) lp 13.98
WHITE HILLS / DER BLUTHARSCH "split" (WKN) 7" 17.98
WOLF PARADE "Expo 86" (Sub Pop) cd/lp 13.98/17.98
ZOLA JESUS "Tsar Bomba" (Troubleman Unlimited) lp 14.98

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Please place your order via our website.

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    4+ items : $7.95 USPS Media Mail


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

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

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

Shipping rates are charged per shipment.


INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING :
-------------------------------- For foreign customers we ship via US AIRMAIL ("First Class International"). Your price is based on the actual cost of shipping plus $1. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package" category and see the price for "First Class International". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)

We highly recommend insurance for your international package, but it is very expensive! You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package" category and see the price for "Priority Mail International". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound. 1 lp is usually a little over 1.5 pounds.)


INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE :
-------------------------------- You are hereby forewarned that Aquarius is not responsible if your international package gets lost in the mail. Insurance is your only recourse if your records never show up. Since the terrible events of 9/11, mail service has been slow and undependable... and while we haven't experienced any *confirmed* permanently lost mail, insurance might provide some additional piece of mind in this time of upheaval. We strongly recommend it. But yes, it is very expensive. It's your choice. Again: Aquarius is not responsible for lost mail, so if you aren't willing to take a (slight but real) risk, please buy the insurance.

International insurance is very expensive! In fact often the insurance costs more than the value of your package, in which case it obviously does not make sense to insure it. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package" category and see the price for "Priority Mail International", which is the way insured packages are sent. 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound. 1 lp is usually a little over 1.5 pounds.)

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

It is your reponsibility to check the international rate calculator in order to determine whether or not you want international insurance. If you tell us you want international insurance, we will add it to your order no matter how much it costs!


PAYMENT :
-------------------------------- We accept the following credit cards: Visa, MC, Discover, and Amex. We will not charge your credit card until your order is ready to ship.

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

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

We also accept payment by Paypal. If you opt for this payment method, we will send you a paypal total and payment instructions as soon as we've confirmed your order with you. Please do not send payment until you have received human contact from our mailorder department.

Unfortunately, we cannot take personal checks for mailorder, sorry!


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

----} on the way to us now we hope
Pharaoh Overlord "Siluurikaudella" cd on Ektro

----} July 6th
Alastair Galbraith "Mass" lp on Siltbreeze
Gypsyhawk "Patience and Perseverance" cd/2lp on Creator-Destructor Records
Big Boi "Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty" cd

----} July 13th
Autechre "Move Of Pen" cd/lp on Warp
Zoroaster "Matador" cd on E1

----} July 20th
Richard Youngs "20 Years" lp+3cd
Sleigh Bells "Treats" vinyl version
Endless Boogie "Full House Head" cd on No Quarter

----} July 27th
Gate "Republic Of Sadness" lp on Ba Da Bing

----} also in July
Evan Caminiti "West Winds" lp

----} August 6th
Son House "And The Other Great Delta Blues Singers" 2lp on Monk
Jelly Roll Morton "The Chant" lp on Monk
Blind Lemon Jefferson "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" lp on Monk
LCD Soundsystem "This Is Happening" 2lp on DFA

----} August 24th
Apocalyptica "7th Symphony" cd on Jive

----} also upcoming sooner or later or sooner or later or whenever
Blizaro "Nightmare City" cd on Razorback
Michael Hurley "Blue Hills" lp on Mississippi
Orchestre Regional de Mopti "Les meilleurs Souvenirs de la 1ere Biennale artistique et culturelle de la Jeunesse" (1970) lp on Mississippi
Charanjit Singh "Synthesizing: Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat" cd version on Bombay Connection
Svarte Greiner "Penpals Forever (And Ever)" cd version on Digitalis
Bitchin Bajas "Tones & Zones" cd on Important
Xasthur "Portal" vinyl on Hydra Head
On (reworked by Fennesz) "Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not" cd/lp on Type
Boris & Ian Astbury "BXI" ep on Southern Lord
Randy Barracuda "On The Low" 12" on Harmonia
Limonious "House Of Usher" lp on Flogsta Danshall
Ratto Ja Lehtisalo "UU Mama" cd on Ektro
Thor "Only The Strong" cd reissue on Ektro
Expo 70 "Sonic Messenger" and "Black Ohms" vinyl editions on Beta-lactam Ring
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
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
Grumbling Fur (Guapo + Jussi from Circle) 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
Swell Maps "International Rescue" clear vinyl LP reissue on Alive
Loss "Despond" cd on Profound Lore
Boduf Songs "Strait Gait" cd/lp on Latitudes
The Fall "Future Our Clutter"
Panda Bear "Tomboy"
Sloath s/t lp on Riot Season
Ken Camden "Lethargy & Repercussions" cd/lp on Kranky
LCD Sound System / Wooden Shjips "Drunk Girls" 7" on DFA

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickSallyJonandAndrew