CIRCLE OF OUROBORUS Eleven Fingers (Handmade Birds) lp 22.00
The latest limited release from the the Handmade Birds label, a new and already insanely prolific sonic imprint run by Pyramids' R. Loren, comes from long time aQ faves, Finnish outsider black metal weirdos Circle Of Ouroborus. And a new record from CoO means it's time again to wonder why we even still consider these guys black metal, since it's been several years and many records since they were a proper black metal band (if they ever were at all). We are constantly baffled by groups like CoO, who are so beloved by so much of the black metal world, and we're talking the true grim hordes, yet they continue to create music that we imagine would not be pleasing AT ALL to such folk. Maybe we're selling black metallers short. Or it means the appeal is more than purely sonic. It speaks to the spirit of the sound, the black energy put into the music, which eventually must come out, even if it does as some sort of twisted Jandekian fractured folk or some minimal synth wave weirdness, at its core, the sound is dark, black, evil.
All of this talk in some ways is moot, as this latest record finds the band doing what they do, which is sort of black metal, sort of post rock, sort of whatthefuck, but it's all objective, and this music's 'blackness', or even its 'metalness', by most typically metal measures would be found wanting, but as far as we're concerned, this is exactly the sort of metallic blackness we love, murky, muddy, washed out and woozy, warped and stumbling, equal parts dark pop, fragmented folk, otherworldly creep, oh yeah and a little black buzz.
It only takes a few seconds to realize this is not at all like any black metal you've heard (unless of course you've heard lots of Circle Of Ouroborus!), the band launch into what almost sounds like Ariel Pink playing black metal, or some murky chunk of mysterious James Ferraro style lysergic pop, which just so happens to be laced with some evil vox, the riffs are blurry streaks of melody, that almost sound more like horns or keyboards (which they could be), warbly synths wheeze and sputter, the vocals alternate between gruff growl and dramatic croon, the drums distorted and stumbly, everything wreathed in a druggy haze, the sound like some alternate universe pop, or some strange mutant strain of new waves, especially when the drums switch to an almost disco beat, the blackness really only represented by the vokills, otherwise this is some gloriously warped melodic doom pop weirdness.
The B side brings things down even further, unfurling a haunting mournful bit of balladic dirgery, the sound bleary and blurry and drowsily depressive, the vocals doused in echo, those weird keyboard/horn guitars continuing to undulate and oscillate, surge an swell, creating strange ethereal melodies, which remind us of synth guitar weirdos Xynfonica / Shevalreq, the same sort of medieval majesty, but here buried in sonic murk and mire, the vocals so expressive, and strangely plaintive, the drums slipping from lazy plod to urgent pound and back again. In fact, the B side seems pretty evenly split between druggy propulsive post pop warble, and downright dreamy drift, all ephemeral and gauzy, the whole thing laced with chiming harmonics, warped melodic tangles and weirdly fluctuating production, the sound occasionally slipping into near perfect (albeit extremely damaged) pop, but more often then not, oozing and billowing, the sound seeming to melt before our ears into a warm whirling, almost liquid sound. A strangely soporific and somnolent sprawl of blurred blackness and murky melodicism, that truly is some of the weirdest, most beautifully baffling shit you will ever hear.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES! Gorgeous packaging too, super striking artwork on a gatefold reverse board jacket, with a big booklet, featuring hand inked artwork, black and white, with gold and silver metallic detail. Gorgeous!
MPEG Stream: "Warpath"
MPEG Stream: "Staining The Paper To Create"

V/A Wallahi Le Zein!!: Wezin, Jakwar, And Guitar Boogie From The Islamic Republic Of Mauritania (Latitude) 2cd 22.00
We got our first real taste of Mauritanian music via the Hadrami Ould Medeh single that we reviewed on the last list, which we described like this: "fluttering flutes, muted wah wah guitars, shuffling drums, and the vocals, emotional and oh so lovely", which it most definitely was, but it definitely did not prepare us for this a collection of, as the title suggests: Wezin, Jakwar and GUITAR BOOGIE From The Islamic Republic Of Mauritania. Guitar boogie? Sure some of those Sublime Frequencies comp featured some guitar playing that loosely resembled boogie, a little bit of buzz and distortion, Group Bombino let loose once in a while, but we sort of assumed that the above title was a bit of a creative exaggeration, that is until we pushed play. And immediately, some heavy, fuzzy, circular riffing, all wound around a muted rhythmic pulse, the sound slipping from low end riffy chug to wild psychedelic tangle. This is most definitely psychedelic boogie, it just so happens it's being played in some backyard or living room on the other side of the world.
The history of Mauritanian music is pretty fascinating, as is the provenance of this music, and the booklet/liner notes go into great detail, but for now, all you need to know, is originally, music in Mauritania was played either on the tidinitt, an hourglass shaped lute with 4 or 5 strings, which is played exclusively by men, and has since been replaced by an electric tidinitt, which became popular as a faster form of dance music developed. Then there was the ardin, a type of many stringed harp, played only by women. But as this comp, and the liner notes make clear, the electric guitar has become the instrument of choice, originally the amplification made it easier to play for bigger crowds, but soon, a style of playing was adapted to this new music, and the classic Mauritanian music was transformed into something totally new. This heavily distorted, strangely flanged groovy boogie flecked African folk. The songs here may drift and shimmer, but they inevitably explode into some super droned out cyclical buzz drenched riffage, the drums following along, sometimes the sound growing so intense and frantic, one can almost imagine the sort of energy this evokes in a crowd. And that's the other interesting thing about Mauritanian music, there is no music industry, no record labels, no real recording studios, yet music is happening all the time, in homes, and weddings, parties, every night, in town squares, and when someone hosts a function and has musicians perform, they record the performance, as a sort of keepsake, which is often thrown into a drawer, or an old box. So Matthew Lavoie, who compiled this collection, over the course of years and many visits, gathered up as many recordings as he could and sifted through boxes and boxes of tapes, as many of them were unusable, recorded on broken boomboxes, or with a microphone in the back of a room capturing more conversation than music, but the selections here, hand picked, are indeed divine, and so powerful, the music trancelike, raga-like, melding certain Western musical tropes with traditional African sounds, and the traditional sounds that over the years have grown less and less traditional, or in fact have simply created new musical traditions.
Just listen to the samples, this stuff is so hard to describe, to do it justice, this is the ultimate instance of 'you just gotta hear it', the sounds are cyclical, repetitive, looped sounding, mesmerizing, hypnotic, heavy, and buzzy, and distorted, the melodies so completely enthralling, the rhythms as propulsive as the guitar playing, the recordings too, raw, in-the-red, intimate and urgent and emotional, so passionate, unfettered by any concerns removed from the actual joy of music making, and the interaction between performer and audience is evident in the vocal response to these jams, the crowd singing along, hooting and hollering, the vibe wild and loose and alive, the music magical and incredible. Easily some of THEE most amazing sounds we've ever heard. And definitely our new favorite world music comp.
Housed in a nice 6 panel full color digipak, with a massive booklet, jammed with liner notes as well as tons of photos, and lots of info on the musicians, the various songs, a history of Mauritanian guitar playing and more!
MPEG Stream: MOHAMMED GUITAR "Banjey & Medh"
MPEG Stream: KEBROU "Banjey 'Boogie'"
MPEG Stream: BAB OULD HEMBRA "El Shams W'Al Qamar"
MPEG Stream: MUHAMMED CHEIKH OULD SYED "Chewr"
MPEG Stream: JEICH OULD CHIGHALY "Wezin"

RODEN, STEVE I Listen To The Wind That Obliterates My Traces (Dust-To-Digital) 2cd + book 49.00
With the first track on this anthology being a recording of wind from a 1935 sound effects record, AQ beloved sound artist Steve Roden makes a very literal introduction to I Listen To The Wind That Obliterates My Traces. Released by Dust-To-Digital, this beautifully constructed hardback book filled with images both from and ephemeral to Roden's collection of 78s, as well as two discs worth of sounds from that antique vinyl. Yeah, the idea is pretty much the same as what the Climax Golden Twins presented via Dust-To-Digital on their also-awesome Victrola Favorites anthology a few years back; but Roden's collection trends more to the mid-part of the 20th Century and is focused on Americana (including a couple of Hawaiian tracks made before the islands were granted statehood). Following that crackled recording of the wailing wind from that sound effects record, is the unmistakable voice of John Jacob Niles, the 'mountain tenor' whose spooky falsetto and maudlin melodic wanderings predated Devendra Banhart by a good 60 years... Afterwards, there's plenty of bluesmen, blueswomen, gospel belters, Appalachian balladeers, and barbershop crooners, many of which seem quite world-weary in singing their tales of lust, money, and liquor (or the lack thereof). Some of the names are familiar to us (e.g. Clara Smith, Roy Smeck, Sol Hoopii), but there are plenty of anonymous recordings from home-cut discs as well. The arrangements for many of the songs tend to be very sparse, just voice and guitar is pretty much all you get on every track; and the album is dotted with tracks from antique sound effects records of birds, ice, and even "night noises!" For those of you aware of Roden's own compositions of understated field recordings, quiet ruminations on found objects, and soft looping techniques, this shouldn't be a big surprise.
The vintage photos inside this 184 page book are completely lovely, with all of their rumpled edges, ruddy patinas, and cracked surfaces, with some far more poignant - such as the shot of a bunch of violas suspended outside in the sun perhaps to allow a coat of shellac to dry. There's the silhouette of G.J. Jessup decked out in his one-man drum and bugle corps regalia, and the glum looking fellow with the unkempt mustache leaning against his Funnygraph contraption (sadly, there's no corresponding recording for either photograph). Pages and pages of interesting images to provoke curiosity and evoke reverie. Altogether, Roden has compiled over 150 photos and 51 tracks for this stunning document of sonic obsession from Dust-To-Digital! Hard to imagine NOT wanting this.
MPEG Stream: HMV WEATHER EFFECTS "Wind"
MPEG Stream: JOHN JACOB NILES "John Henry"
MPEG Stream: ANONYMOUS HOME RECORDING "Mandolin"
MPEG Stream: GENNETT SOUND EFFECTS "Rainfall And Thunder"
MPEG Stream: CLARA SMITH "My Good Fur Nuthin' Man"

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3DS, THE We Bury The Living - Early Recordings 1989-90 (Flying Nun) cd 13.98
Any indie rocker worth their salt already knows, and most likely loves, noisy NZ jangle poppers the 3Ds, their sound unknowingly a template for much of what was to follow in their wake. This collection was compiled by the Dead C's Bruce Russell, whose first label Xpressway was briefly home to the 3Ds, and while for most folks the 3Ds were always considered a Flying Nun band, many of the tracks here were recorded for Xpressway. Included are remastered versions of the band's first two eps (Fish Tails and Swarthy Songs For Swabs) as well as a whole mess of unreleased demo and comp tracks.
For those who've never heard the 3Ds, you might be shocked by their sound, considering how many bands we know and love seem to have borrowed quite a bit from them, Pavement to Superchunk, indie rock as we know it definitely owes a huge debt, plus the usual croon and jangle is augmented by distinctly dour Wipers-ish miserablism not to mention some swaths of good old NZ noise. Have a listen to the first few tracks and odds are you'll be smitten, or if you're already a fan, it'll remind you just why you (and we) loved these guys so much in the first place.
"Meluzina Man", the version from the Xpressway Pile Up compilation, is as close to perfect as this stuff gets, hushed and dreamily jangly, with sweet boy/girl harmonies, slithery Joy Division basslines, thick buzzy guitars, a hushed haunting first half gives way to an explosive second half, noisy and distorted, wildly psychedelic, dark and droney, the crooned vocals transformed into a passionate howl. The perfect mix of jangle and buzz, of brooding darkness and sweet melodicism. Up next is "First Church", from the first ep, and finds the band fierce and rocking, the guitar super fuzzy and distorted, the drums pounding, all over a roiling backdrop of swirling sounds and mysterious voices, the vibe snarly and swaggery, a little bit sludgey and dirgey, and those vocals, a little reminiscent of Gordon Gano from Violent Femmes, the perfect balance to the churning low slung buzz, propulsive and hypnotic, almost like some indie rock band channeling Hawkwind. And then there's the equally awesome "Evocation Of W.C. Fields", the demo version a super lo-fi version of what is essentially some perfect NZ pop, quirky, a little bit new wavey, with driving basslines and killer fuzzjangle guitar. Later on there's a proper studio version, which is different, more lush and heavy and a little bit shoegazey, but that demo version, there's something special about it. Hell there's something special about all these tracks. We've been playing this like crazy, and going through a little bit of a 3Ds revival. So great!
Includes a massive booklet with extensive liner notes by Brice Russell, all about the early years of the band!
MPEG Stream: "Meluzina Man"
MPEG Stream: "First Church"
MPEG Stream: "Evil Kid"
MPEG Stream: "Ritual Tragick"

40 WATT SUN The Inside Room (Metal Blade) cd 14.98
The Inside Room is the debut from highly touted UK melodic doom outfit 40 Watt Sun, a group born from the dissolution of the late great Warning, both bands fronted by vocalist Patrick Walker, whose unique and passionate singing style pretty much defined Warning and continues to define his new band. Unlike most doom bands, who employ either an over the top near operatic wail, or conversely, some sort of demonic guttural gurgle, Walker actually sings, his voice emotional, but not ridiculously dramatic, he definitely sounds like a proper pop singer, who just so happened to start a doom band. Which will no doubt rub some troo doomlords the wrong way, but for the rest of us, it's pretty awesome. Definitely reminding us of Katatonia, the same sort of sweeping bombast, a similarly mournful melancholia, but that voice, it's really all about the voice, driving the songs, defining them, passionate and emotive, it helps that those vocals are supported by big booming drums, guitars so thick, and so distorted, the chords seem to crumble, occasionally wreathed in a sitar-like buzz. It's actually a little difficult to keep from imagining these songs sans distortion and drums, just say an acoustic guitar and vocals, these would be instantly transformed into some sort of heart rending ballads, but when coupled to some churning downtuned heaviness, the sound becomes a sort of glorious, emotional doom pop, or gloom pop, the pop element is definitely everywhere, and while the sound is definitely not that far removed from the sound of Warning, it is most definitely poppier, and Walker's vocals much improved, his delivery so heartfelt, like a soul laid bare, definitely transforms this from run of the mill doom, to something special. If there was ever an actual doom band that had the potential for some sort of crossover appeal, it would be these guys (there's a sort of Alice In Chains gone doom vibe going on that's actually pretty pleasing), with their keen melodic sense, and that voice. And while the track do occasionally get dynamic, with some cool stop/start arrangements, for the most part the music is languid and flows darkly, thick layered chords, a lush doomscape that perfectly meshes with Walker's gorgeous vox.
This is definitely WAY too melodic for the most extreme of ultradoomlords out there, but for anyone after some darkly melodic heaviness, this might just hit the spot! Domestic cd release and import vinyl available.
MPEG Stream: "Restless"
MPEG Stream: "Open My Eyes"

40 WATT SUN The Inside Room (Cyclone Empire ) 2lp 40.00
The Inside Room is the debut from highly touted UK melodic doom outfit 40 Watt Sun, a group born from the dissolution of the late great Warning, both bands fronted by vocalist Patrick Walker, whose unique and passionate singing style pretty much defined Warning and continues to define his new band. Unlike most doom bands, who employ either an over the top near operatic wail, or conversely, some sort of demonic guttural gurgle, Walker actually sings, his voice emotional, but not ridiculously dramatic, he definitely sounds like a proper pop singer, who just so happened to start a doom band. Which will no doubt rub some troo doomlords the wrong way, but for the rest of us, it's pretty awesome. Definitely reminding us of Katatonia, the same sort of sweeping bombast, a similarly mournful melancholia, but that voice, it's really all about the voice, driving the songs, defining them, passionate and emotive, it helps that those vocals are supported by big booming drums, guitars so thick, and so distorted, the chords seem to crumble, occasionally wreathed in a sitar-like buzz. It's actually a little difficult to keep from imagining these songs sans distortion and drums, just say an acoustic guitar and vocals, these would be instantly transformed into some sort of heart rending ballads, but when coupled to some churning downtuned heaviness, the sound becomes a sort of glorious, emotional doom pop, or gloom pop, the pop element is definitely everywhere, and while the sound is definitely not that far removed from the sound of Warning, it is most definitely poppier, and Walker's vocals much improved, his delivery so heartfelt, like a soul laid bare, definitely transforms this from run of the mill doom, to something special. If there was ever an actual doom band that had the potential for some sort of crossover appeal, it would be these guys (there's a sort of Alice In Chains gone doom vibe going on that's actually pretty pleasing), with their keen melodic sense, and that voice. And while the track do occasionally get dynamic, with some cool stop/start arrangements, for the most part the music is languid and flows darkly, thick layered chords, a lush doomscape that perfectly meshes with Walker's gorgeous vox.
This is definitely WAY too melodic for the most extreme of ultradoomlords out there, but for anyone after some darkly melodic heaviness, this might just hit the spot! Domestic cd release and import vinyl available.
MPEG Stream: "Restless"
MPEG Stream: "Open My Eyes"

AGALLOCH Marrow Of The Spirit (Profound Lore) 2lp 25.00
NOW ON VINYL!!! This critically acclaimed as best-of-2010 metal album gets an lp release, something we know folks have been waiting for... Here's our review of the cd version from last year:
When we reviewed the (now already out of print!) 1996-1998 demos collection by this Pacific Northwest based cult, we mentioned we now realize we were quite foolish in not having paid sufficient attention to their career. Considering how much we ended up liking those early demos, seriously delving into the subsequent bulk of their discography seemed to be in order, though potentially a daunting task. Making things easier though, they've just come out with a new album, so let's focus on that. This latest from these difficult to describe grim blackened metal artists is via the Profound Lore label, who have established an admirable and eclectic track record lately of signing the best in the underground - their two other most recent releases were by extreme doomsters Salome and epic true metal rockers Slough Feg! Agalloch fit right in, in the sense of not fitting in, as they, like those bands, are nothing if not unique. Well, ok, Agalloch are nominally black metal, and "arty", and thus always draw Opeth comparisons, but that's just 'cause it's tough come up with something -really- accurate in that dep't. Another would be Wolves In The Throne Room. Or Ludicra, though they're supposedly so citified, and Agalloch are definitely of the forest.
Fans will know that Agalloch recently enlisted our pal Aesop from Ludicra on drums. One of Aesop's bandmates from that outfit told us that Agalloch sounds like Weezer doing black metal. Maybe that was meant as a criticism (of Agalloch, Weezer, and/or black metal) but for some of us it sounds like a recommendation!! And while we're not sure we really hear that anyway, we guess there is a "pop" side to Agalloch, at least, some occasional clean vocals crop up alongside the usual raspy style ones, and certainly plenty of melancholic melody factors into their exquisitely crafted, carefully orchestrated black metal onslaught, a warm and -gentle- onslaught some of the time we must say, one that even veers into post rock territory a bit, a la Explosions In The Sky or Godspeed or something like that gone black metal, maybe. And the whispery "To Drown" hints at Current 93, tremulous and atmospherically epic. So chamber rock, art rock, post rock, folk rock... Agalloch are perhaps all these things and sundry, in some small measure. But definitely black metal is the crux of this, with those vokills, and blasting beats, and the crunch and whine of the guitars much of the time... whilst Moog and piano, cello and glockenspiel, field recordings and vibraphone, even "petrified bone, glass & metal sheet percussion", all are also woven into the compositions here, making for a lulling sound easily associated with woods, smoke, antlers, mists - even without support from the artwork that suggests such things.
NB. for those into "six degrees of separation" games, a glance at the credits here will allow you connect Agalloch to krautrockers Faust in approximately one move! Amber Asylum also.
MPEG Stream: "Into The Painted Grey"
MPEG Stream: "The Watcher's Monolith"
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts Of The Midwinter Fires"

ASH BORER s/t (Pesanta Urfolk) lp 16.98
What is it with bands not naming records? We're all for the 'self titled' record, but when they're ALL self titled, it gets a little confusing. By record number two or three at least start numbering 'em, fer chrissakes. Anyway, another rad reissue of a tape from this West Coast avant black metal horde, that was so limited on its initial release, we never managed to even see a single copy. Originally put out in a run of 150 copies on Psychic Violence, this is our, and quite possibly your, first exposure to this monumental chunk of progressive blackness, opening with a lumbery dirgey doom, that pounds and creeps, beneath anguished wails, before exploding into some of the most intense and emotional black metal we've heard, due in some part we would imagine to the structure and the melody, unlikely for most black metal, in fact, it almost sounds like post rock sped way up and blackened, soaring and hauntingly melodic, majestic and moody, these blasts are separated by still more emotional sonic stretches, midtempo sprawls of soaring guitar trills, and angular math rock riffs, all wreathed in black beneath grim howled vokills, before closing with a blast of frenzied riffage and a final movement of dirgey weirdly melodic doomic plod.
The B side starts off all shimmery synths and smoldering angular guitar melodies, before launching into another stretch of frantic blasting buzz, here alternating between furious blackness, blissed out reverbed psychedelia and churning mathy doom, the record epic and constantly shifting, but woven together into a single epic movement, the final part of which might be the best bit on the record, a slow build blackened post rock, that eventually explodes into a totally epic blowout of blackened Godspeed-style majesty.
LIMITED TO 777 COPIES, pressed on 160 gram red vinyl, housed in super swank matte black gatefold sleeves, printed on the front and back in red metallic foil.

AYLER, ALBERT Love Cry / The Last Album (Impulse) cd 16.98
We have a trifecta of free jazz "twofers" this week from way deep down in the Impulse catalog. Check out the reviews elsewhere on the list for Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. While the Coltrane features two of our favorite titles from her, the Ayler and Sanders releases are from albums we're less familiar with, or at least hadn't reviewed before, but have been psyched to (re-)discover. While perhaps not the best place to be introduced to these artists, these records reward those seekers of the overlooked deep cuts without the hefty collector/import price!
Love Cry from 1967 was Ayler's first release on Impulse. Like the Impulse recordings of John Coltrane, Ayler's signing to the label did not mean a shift towards commercialization, though the music is perhaps more accessible than his ESP recordings. Yet Love Cry is still a weird record. It was the last recording he made with his younger brother Donald on trumpet, before Donald was fired from the band and committed for a short time to a mental institution. So their horn interplay has a tempestuous yet strangely sullen vibe given the fact that most of the music stems from militaristic bugle calls and marches and nursery rhyme fugues. The baroque dirge quality is emphasized further with the odd inclusion of harpsichord in sometimes sallow expositions of New Orleans funeral music. Yet despite all of the chaotic atmosphere, there is a tight focus and flow.
Not sure that can be said for the other record, The Last Album from 1969. Though it wasn't technically Ayler's last ever album, it came out of the same sessions as Music Is The Healing Force, though that album was released first, plus if you really want to get technical, there were two other records released from a live concert performed a year later... Yet The Last album has the feeling of something ending, as it contains a lot of experimentation that didn't venture as far out as a lot of his other recordings. Yet the odd musical pairings continue with opener, "Untitled Duet" featuring Ayler on bagpipes cutting angular phrasing with Canned Heat guitarist, Henry Vestine. Sun Ra-like cosmic vocal excursions mark the poetic "Again Comes The Rising of The Sun" and the strange "Desert Blood", a heady dirge featuring plodding piano cascades and scattershot rhythms. Though perhaps not regarded as his best outing, paired together with Love Cry, both albums provide a shored up visionary quality of range and mystique than they would yield as single releases.
MPEG Stream: "Love Cry"
MPEG Stream: "Zion Hill"
MPEG Stream: "Again Comes The Rising of The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "All Love"

BAKER, AIDAN Pure Drone (Beta-Lactam Ring ) lp 21.00
The first installment in a new series on Beta-Lactam Ring called the Drone Compendium series, curated by none other than Mr. Aidan Baker, he of mighty dronedoomdirge duo Nadja, and as is befitting his status as curator, the first installment is in fact a Baker record, entitled Pure Drone, and the record delivers precisely what the title promises. Recorded live in 2010, the A side, while pure drone, is definitely more than a single tone, or a simple bit of minimal hum. Instead, the sound is lush and layered, a sprawling, smoldering expanse of dreamlike drift, a soft focus slow build, rife with subtle melodies that gradually reveal themselves, beneath subtly shifting textures, laced with streaks of high end and pulsing almost-rhythms and shimmering overtones. The B side is a bit more subdued, a little more minimal, but still lush and lovely, the tonal colorations surfacing in the second half, after a long dark droney bit of hypnotic thrum, the sounds seeming to blossom, the light up, it sounds like watching a star appear from behind a planet as the orbits shift, that sort of fundamental, monumental sonic power, the melodies glimmering and glittering in the alien starlight, so gorgeous.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES, packaged in super swank heavy jackets!

BERNIER, NICOLAS Usure.Paysage (Hronir) cd 17.98
This hot shit musique concrete album is now available on cd! There are so many stuffy compositions and constructions that look back to the salad days of tape experimentation in the '50s and '60s. Works can get so conceptual with each sound being meant to allude to some particular phrases of Beckett or recapitulate the Merz of Schwitters that the interplay between this found sound and that electronic blorp is totally lost amidst a dull and boring concoction that serves little more than an execution of a grant application. This is certainly not the case for Canadian composer Nicolas Bernier, whose dexterous yet ominous concrete album has landed in the good hands of Hronir, a label which has a small catalog of brutal collage artists (e.g. Sudden Infant, Raionbashi, GX-Jupitter Larssen) to accompany more oblique voices from the academic world. While Bernier's work isn't nearly as toxic as those jackbooted noiseniks, his compositions are wholly discomforting, and we mean that in the best possible way. Within the avant-garde pantheon, Bernier's work follows that of Michel Chion and Luc Ferrari doing their finest work, through dynamic juxtapositions blurting concrete sounds (bellowing car horns, steam engine growls, leaden explosions, etc.) against unsettled atmospheres and spackled dronings that start and stop with a series of repeating punctuations not unlike the strategy that Nurse With Wound mastered on Homotopy To Marie. He's aware of the cinematic urge for acousmatic works, and pushes "Les chambres de l'atelier" towards a Lynchian noir with a soft-focus melody warbling in the background to a series of crunched abrasions and eerie footsteps, ruptured by ghostly noises. Excellent, through and through!
Oh! The cd is super limited to 150 copies (and no, it's not a cd-r!), comes with a 9-minute bonus track (not listed on the artwork, though), and is housed in the same 12" sleeve as the LP.
MPEG Stream: "Paysages Articules No. 4"
MPEG Stream: "10 Passages"
MPEG Stream: "Les Chambres De L'atelier"

BITCHIN' BAJAS Water Wrackets (Kalliste) lp 14.98
On the last list we reviewed a split record featuring Bitchin Bajas, aka Cooper Crain from hypno rockers Cave, and Faceplant, aka Aaron Coynes from Peaking Lights. Only after did we realize there there was a whole Bitchin Bajas full length that somehow just slipped right by us. So here it is, Water Wrackets, what is essentially full length number two from Crain's kosmische synth side project, this one a soundtrack apparently, to a modern remake of a 1975 film by Peter Greenaway.
Crain's soundtrack is divine, some super minimal krautdrone kosmische synthscapery of the highest order, from the opening track, "Water 1", all long layered tones, rich with shifting tonal colors and overtones, channeling the spirit of Riley and Reich perhaps, to the more distinctly krautrocky "Water 2", with a simple super minimal stripped down rhythm, beneath deep low end pulses and some shimmery sunshiney melodies. "Water 4" is hazy and lush, sun dappled and new agey, the sound warped and warbly as if it was transferred from some old filmstrip, while "Water 3" is the krautrockiest of the bunch, a darkly driving bit of rhythmic minimalism, the drums looped and locked to a slithery synth bassline, pulsing and pulsating, while all around notes and chords drift and shimmer, a hazy dreamlike swirl all anchored by that motorik rhythm. After a brief bit of synth swirl, the record finishes off with "Water 1 (Reprise)" which in fact does just that, unfurling another stretch of minimal layered drones, lush and warm, allowing the interaction between the tones to provide the motion, creating a dreamy otherworldly sonic swirl. So nice.
Packaged in super heavy tip-on style sleeves, along with a bonus dvd and a poster.
MPEG Stream: "Water 1"
MPEG Stream: "Water 2"

BLANK REALM Hey Little Child (Negative Guest List) 7" 12.98
Latest from this Australian psychedelic garage synth combo, and it comes in the form of a pricey, one sided (at 45rpm!) 7" single, and it's a cover! The first in a series of Negative Guest List jukebox singles (named for the Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments tune we assume), ostensibly, at least according to the sticker on the front, this single is for your jukebox, and the series is intended to get bands to pick covers, and in redoing the song, overcome the idea of simply 'covering' a song, and while the cost may be prohibitive for some, we can't think of a jukebox that would love to include this little doozy among its musical ranks. BR take on Alex Chilton's "Hey! Little Child" and totally make it their own, adding plenty of organ and synth to a pounding rhythm that drives the proceedings, that rhythm wreathed in pulsing synth melodies, beneath some tripped out echoey vocals, loads of reverb, warbling whirring organs, some killer riffing (it is a killer riff to begin with), some wild leads, the sound crunchy and fuzzy, with a freaked out psychedelic second half where things get wild and loose and noisy. Killer stuff.

BULLET The Entrance to Hell (Angel Air) cd 22.00
Our proto-metal pick of the week! Bullet were an early '70s UK power trio led by guitarist/vocalist John DuCann, previously a member of The Attack, Andromeda, and Atomic Rooster. A while back, when we reviewed a reissue of Atomic Rooster's classic Death Walks Behind You, we talked about DuCann, calling his post 'Rooster band Hard Stuff "one of proto-metal's best kept secrets", and guess what? The existence of these recordings by Hard Stuff precursor Bullet were an even bigger secret...
After being booted from Atomic Rooster (despite having written several of that band's biggest hits), DuCann formed this new group, Bullet (briefly before that called Daemon), with a fellow former 'Rooster, drummer Paul Hammond, along with bass player John Gustafson (ex-Quatermass), who could sing and write as well. The idea, it seems, was to play music even harder and darker than Atomic Rooster did... and the results were some high energy, riffy, rippin' stuff indeed, with song titles like "Sinister Minister" and "Hell: Demonic Possession". Distorted, fuzzed out jams for sure, but with a pop side to 'em too. They soon changed their name (for legal reasons) to Hard Stuff, and produced two excellent albums full of heavy-duty "hairy funk", Bulletproof (1972) and Bolex Dementia ('73), before a near-fatal car accident on the German autobahn involving 2/3rds of the band ended their career prematurely.
But it turns out that while they were still called Bullet, back in 1970-'71, they'd privately demoed this rough disc-ful of music, now properly released for the first time (sort of, see below) after resting for decades in DuCann's vaults. Since, currently, there don't appear to be any reissues of the Hard Stuff albums available to us, this is the next best thing. Now, if you already have yourself some Hard Stuff, you might not need this...but you'll probably want it. Many of the best songs did wind up being re-recorded by HS for their debut, but there's also lots of other cool jammy tracks on here where you get to hear DuCann really go off on his guitar, plus it's certainly rad to hear the raw early versions of catchy Hard Stuff staples like "No Witch At All". There's 17 tracks total (well, 15 really, as two of 'em, "Door Opens" and "Door Closes" are both but brief sound FX), that remind us of other proto-metal faves like Dust, James Gang ("Taken Alive" in particular), Stray, Leaf Hound, and Granicus...
The cd booklet contains extensive liner notes, in the form of an interview DuCann himself, getting in depth into the whole Bullet/Hard Stuff story. Though he doesn't have a lot to say about Daemon, who at one point had a singer named Al Shaw who perhaps appears here too. And FYI, this same material was once previously reissued on cd (a bootleg?) under the Daemon name by the Kissing Spell label.
MPEG Stream: "No Witch At All"
MPEG Stream: "The Orchestrator"
MPEG Stream: "Time Gambler"

CABOLADIES Renewable Destination (Students Of Decay) lp 16.98
Latest analog onslaught from this Midwestern duo who add a distinctly kitchen sink aesthetic to their brand of guitar/synth/effects soundscapery. After a brief bit of simulated field recording, cricket like electronic chitter and deep low end thrum, the record slips right into a swirling soft cacophony of warm whirring tones, wild electronics careening every which way, fragmented rhythms, clatter and crunch and bloop and bleep, spidery guitar melodies, on the surface it's a big old swirling mess, but there does seem to be a method to their madness as the various and disparate sounds seem to coalesce into something that does in fact have design, and ends up somehow listenable and not a little bit dreamy. The record continues on, shifting into something a bit more blissed out, a hazy smoldery shimmer peppered with tinkling chiming melodies, and a blurred gauzy drift, before finishing off the side with a weird bit of cartoony sonic chaos.
The B side begins with what sound like it could have been a prime slab of heroin house or minimal dub, but here it's gone totally haywire, all robotic glitch and sputter, everything reverby and echoey, clicks and pulses swooping to and fro, simultaneously dizzyingly disorienting and mesmerizingly hypnotic. The rest of the side plays out as a hazy, druggy, blurred soft psych drift, everything woozy and washed out, before finishing off with another brief bit of twisted electronic faux field recording.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Already sold out from the label, these could very well be the last copies we're able to getÉ
Includes a download coupon as well.
MPEG Stream: "Counterfeit Reflection"
MPEG Stream: "Collector"
MPEG Stream: "Woodn"

CALL BACK THE GIANTS The Rising (Kye) lp 17.98
Record number two from this Shadow Ring offshoot, and it's another strange sonic trip, the framework in some ways similar to the Shadow Ring, in that the songs here are droned out and drifty, with the occasional vocals delivered in a haunting deep spoken word (or occasionally a hushed female croon), but the sounds in CBTG are much more dreamy and drifty, still a bit twisted and atonal in places, but the record starts with a surprisingly lush and warm bit of almost new agey soundscapery, before slipping into a short stretch of kosmische synth shimmer, it's not until a few tracks in that things begin to darken, the sound turning a bit more grim, a gurgling electronic dronescape, rumbling beneath those aforementioned hauntingly intoned spoken vocals, the whole thing peppered with sci-fi squiggles and shards of synth buzz, the A side finishing off with a sonic bookend, a reprise of the opener, another bit of warm ambient swirl, which quickly gives way to a bit of hazy synth-folk drift, that sounds a bit like Fastest / Xynfonica, the sounds slightly atonal, the melodies subtly sour, which is balanced by the sweetly crooned female vox that hover ghostlike above.
The flipside flits restlessly from epic synth prog to murky droney creep, occasionally slipping into long sprawls of low end shimmer, laced with overlapping voices, and hazy washed out melodies, bits of skittery IDM electronics surfacing here and there, and still more hauntingly intoned vox, culminating in what has to be the strangest track on the record, the weirdly riffy, dirgey, droney closer, "Passage Of Arms", a muddy stretch of muted tinny riffage, like some sort of transistor radio alien doom, the vocals sung (at least compare to the rest of the record), and while this might be the most 'rock' thing CBTG have ever done, fear not, it's still appropriately weirdly twisted and woozily warped into the perfect coda for what was already and beautifully baffling collection of sound.

CEREBRAL BALLZY s/t (Adult Swim) cd 14.98
When we first went to the South By Southwest music conference in Austin, we were sort of overwhelmed by how many bands were playing, often at the same time, and everywhere, in clubs, on street corners, in bars, in empty lots, and we were even more shocked by how many bands were playing that we had never heard of. Literally thousands. And of all of those bands, there was only really one we wanted to see. Based entirely on their name. Yep, it was these guys. Cerebral Ballzy. The worst band name ever? Hardly. The best? Maybe. Needless to say, we were never able to actually see them, so we comforted ourselves by just assuming they must be amazing, cuz how could a band name themselves that and NOT be?
Funny thing is, we had no idea what they sounded like. We were guessing some sort of angular new wave, or some sort of snotty garage rock, we imagined they must be from Brooklyn, and it seemed like Vice would be fans, but really what kind of assumptions can you realistically draw from a band name like theirs? So out of the blue, their debut record dropped, and before even hearing it, we were still more impressed, the cover sporting a sticker that proudly proclaimed "'We Hate This Band' - Pitchfork Media", the Pettibon cover art, the faded photocopied old punk flyer booklet and their 'logo', a skeleton flipping the bird, wearing a cholo style buttoned-up-to-the-top shirt and a Suicidal cap with the flipped up brim (although instead of Suicidal it says Cerebral), which did all start steering us in a more punk rock direction, which is in fact what these guys sound like, old school classic punk rock, a little skate punk, a little Hermosa Beach, a little Suicidal, but filtered through a more modern sonic aesthetic. They ARE from Brooklyn, and Vice DO dig em, but beyond that, we were way off. This is classic punk rock, snooty, snarly, swaggery, pounding, knuckle dragging, sweat soaked, bruised and bloody, short sharp blasts of crunch and pound that we imagine would most definitely get that pit roiling, but whether they meant to or not, that sound is peppered with some surprising melodies, some subtle post rockisms, a killer production, and loads of hooks, but those moments are definitely fleeting, as this is, at its core, PUNK RAWK. And we dig it.
MPEG Stream: "On The Run"
MPEG Stream: "Drug Myself Dumb"
MPEG Stream: "Sk8 All Day"
MPEG Stream: "Anthem"

CEREBRAL BALLZY s/t (Adult Swim) lp 19.98
When we first went to the South By Southwest music conference in Austin, we were sort of overwhelmed by how many bands were playing, often at the same time, and everywhere, in clubs, on street corners, in bars, in empty lots, and we were even more shocked by how many bands were playing that we had never heard of. Literally thousands. And of all of those bands, there was only really one we wanted to see. Based entirely on their name. Yep, it was these guys. Cerebral Ballzy. The worst band name ever? Hardly. The best? Maybe. Needless to say, we were never able to actually see them, so we comforted ourselves by just assuming they must be amazing, cuz how could a band name themselves that and NOT be?
Funny thing is, we had no idea what they sounded like. We were guessing some sort of angular new wave, or some sort of snotty garage rock, we imagined they must be from Brooklyn, and it seemed like Vice would be fans, but really what kind of assumptions can you realistically draw from a band name like theirs? So out of the blue, their debut record dropped, and before even hearing it, we were still more impressed, the cover sporting a sticker that proudly proclaimed "'We Hate This Band' - Pitchfork Media", the Pettibon cover art, the faded photocopied old punk flyer booklet and their 'logo', a skeleton flipping the bird, wearing a cholo style buttoned-up-to-the-top shirt and a Suicidal cap with the flipped up brim (although instead of Suicidal it says Cerebral), which did all start steering us in a more punk rock direction, which is in fact what these guys sound like, old school classic punk rock, a little skate punk, a little Hermosa Beach, a little Suicidal, but filtered through a more modern sonic aesthetic. They ARE from Brooklyn, and Vice DO dig em, but beyond that, we were way off. This is classic punk rock, snooty, snarly, swaggery, pounding, knuckle dragging, sweat soaked, bruised and bloody, short sharp blasts of crunch and pound that we imagine would most definitely get that pit roiling, but whether they meant to or not, that sound is peppered with some surprising melodies, some subtle post rockisms, a killer production, and loads of hooks, but those moments are definitely fleeting, as this is, at its core, PUNK RAWK. And we dig it.
MPEG Stream: "On The Run"
MPEG Stream: "Drug Myself Dumb"
MPEG Stream: "Sk8 All Day"
MPEG Stream: "Anthem"

CINDYTALK Hold Everything Dear (Editions Mego) cd 16.98
Prior to Hold Everything Dear, the resurrected Cindytalk had been the work of Gordon Sharp sitting down at his computer by himself to experiment with digital glitches and abstracted electronic drones. The Crackle Of My Soul from 2009 felt more like the first fruits of Sharp wrangling with his ideas in a digital environment with a few too many compositional rough edges that were in need of refinement. Up Here In The Clouds was a marked improvement through the glassine drones and fizzing noise; but Hold Everything Dear is the first Cindytalk album that truly feels like it has a connection to those brilliant post-punk records from the early '80s. While Sharp hasn't returned to the noise-rock abjection of Camoflage Heart and he has yet to sing on any of these recent albums, the fragmented smears from bowed metals, haunted clanging bells, watery field recordings, and impressionist piano of Hold Everything Dear harken to those post-noise ambient constructions found on the Eno-esque album Wind Is Strong and which concluded In This World. Many of the cavernous sounds on the album are probably sourced from the late Matt Kinnison, who had been Cindytalk's bassist since 1982 and who died in 2008. Sharp has cast a bleary atmosphere throughout the album through subterranean passages of sodden drones, cobwebbed dark elegance, and decayed textures. Sharp pocks this album with plenty of piano interludes whose somber half melodies and shadowy ambience are pulled from the same mold as those earlier piano works. They were beautiful then, and they are still beautiful now.
MPEG Stream: "In Dust To Delight"
MPEG Stream: "Fly Away Over Here"
MPEG Stream: "From Rokko-San"
MPEG Stream: "I See You Uncovered"

CINDYTALK Hold Everything Dear (Editions Mego) 2lp 29.00
Prior to Hold Everything Dear, the resurrected Cindytalk had been the work of Gordon Sharp sitting down at his computer by himself to experiment with digital glitches and abstracted electronic drones. The Crackle Of My Soul from 2009 felt more like the first fruits of Sharp wrangling with his ideas in a digital environment with a few too many compositional rough edges that were in need of refinement. Up Here In The Clouds was a marked improvement through the glassine drones and fizzing noise; but Hold Everything Dear is the first Cindytalk album that truly feels like it has a connection to those brilliant post-punk records from the early '80s. While Sharp hasn't returned to the noise-rock abjection of Camoflage Heart and he has yet to sing on any of these recent albums, the fragmented smears from bowed metals, haunted clanging bells, watery field recordings, and impressionist piano of Hold Everything Dear harken to those post-noise ambient constructions found on the Eno-esque album Wind Is Strong and which concluded In This World. Many of the cavernous sounds on the album are probably sourced from the late Matt Kinnison, who had been Cindytalk's bassist since 1982 and who died in 2008. Sharp has cast a bleary atmosphere throughout the album through subterranean passages of sodden drones, cobwebbed dark elegance, and decayed textures. Sharp pocks this album with plenty of piano interludes whose somber half melodies and shadowy ambience are pulled from the same mold as those earlier piano works. They were beautiful then, and they are still beautiful now.
MPEG Stream: "In Dust To Delight"
MPEG Stream: "Fly Away Over Here"
MPEG Stream: "From Rokko-San"
MPEG Stream: "I See You Uncovered"

COLTRANE, ALICE Universal Consciousness / Lord of Lords (Impulse) cd 16.98
For all their majestic beauty, it can sometimes be forgotten that some of Alice Coltrane's greatest records posses an intensity and power that most noise bands these days only wish they could achieve. We can't tell you how happy we are that Impulse has reissued two of her most overlooked, and jaw dropping albums, Universal Consciousness and Lord Of Lords.
Here's what we said about these two records (now on one disc together) when we reviewed them on their own years back.
Universal Consciousness: Wow. Of the many recent Alice Coltrane reissues, we have to say this might be the best one yet. Recorded in 1971, the record swells with beauty and emotion. It is serene and drone-y, a state of suspended bliss and yearning that is colored with propulsive drumming courtesy Rashied Ali and Jack DeJohnette, tensely high-pitched violin from Joan Kalisch, shimmering bells, and of course Alice's manic improv on the harp and ocean-lulling notes on the organ.
This record is so incredibly unbelievably beautiful, there's not a track that fails to attain superlative heights. Fans of modern experimental work like Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunroof! should also definitely check this out.
Lord Of Lords: An incredibly spiritual album by Alice Coltrane from 1972. Her music reaches some of the most "Godly" moments on here, aptly named Lord of Lords. Highlights are her excerpt of Stravinsky's "Firebird" which she performed after a "ghostly visitation" by Stravinsky who offered Coltrane musical and spiritual advice and blessings, and her orchestral version of the gospel spiritual "Going Home". Further proof that Alice Coltrane was an artist who transcended genre, while we file her in jazz for convenience, she really was also a 20th century composer, a spiritual conjurer of musical magic!
MPEG Stream: "Universal Consciousness"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpts from The Firebird"
MPEG Stream: "Sita Ram"
MPEG Stream: "Going Home"

COOPER, BIRCH Weird Lesson (MSHR) cassette 5.98
Earlier in 2011, we were introduced to the heavy-drift shoegaze of The Slaves through their impeccable Ocean On Ocean album. While we eagerly await the follow-up to that album, we were stoked to discover that The Slaves' Birch Cooper has been up to quite a lot on his own beyond the tapestries of drug-drone synth and blisswave noise of The Slaves. He's collaborated with Heavy Winged / Operative drummer Jed Binderman in The Greys, worked within the metaphysical collective known as the Oregon Painting Society, and tinkered with homebuilt electronics that are just as much sculptural as they are functional. Weird Lesson bears the first fruits of Cooper's explorations with those aforementioned synths, and it's pretty damn amazing although quite a detour from The Slaves. Here, Cooper embraces his inner Conrad Schnitzler (RIP) through these semi-improvised constructions of highly stratified electric squiggle, zonked noise, and disjointed sawtooth tones with plenty of patch-bay cuts and scattershot trajectories for all of Cooper's sounds. "Physical Dream" entertains a lovely Tim Hecker like cascade of spectral, semi-melodic wash behind all of those polyphonic electronics; and here, Cooper comes closest to what he had been presenting in The Slaves. Limited to 100 copies, with just a handful of those here in our shop.

DOPE BODY Nupping (Hoss) lp 16.98
With a name like Dope Body, at first we kinda expected this Baltimore band to be some kind of sludge metal thing. But as we learned a while back from their split lp with NYC's Orphan, they're something else entirely. A very hard to define, WTF?, but totally enjoyable, something else indeed, that reminds us of everything from the mathy spazzcore of Lightning Bolt and USAisamonster to the DIY electronic ethno grooves of freakin' Konono No.1, wow. While some of this, their debut studio full-length, is stoner rock heavy (and one song is called "The Shape Of Grunge To Come"), it's more of a crazy melange of all sorts of wild, loud, uber-distorted, rhythmic good times! Quite catchy too.
One thing that we can't help but notice is that part of the Dope Body equation, beneath the noise-rock chaos, is a good dose of punk-funk. We get a whiff, in a good way, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, somehow (the rubbery bassline of "Bangers & Yos", c'mon). And heck, the band in fact claim Rage Against The Machine as an influence... but we think that Dope Body themselves would appeal more to fans of Cave, Melt Banana, Health, old Boredoms, Geronimo, Shit & Shine, and Rusted Shut. Not that any of those bands sound like Dope Body either exactly, but they might if they all jammed together. Though, that would be a mess, while Nupping isn't actually as messy as it might initially sound, 'cause what Dope Body manage to do is turn all their crunching looping riffs, damaged breakbeats, skronky guitar noise, R-rollin' vocal holler, and weird dude energy, into songs - songs you could dance to! Songs you WILL dance to, furniture and small breakable objects be damned.
Bringing a sweaty warehouse party to your stereo, Dope Body deliver. We loved 'em on that split, and this full-length does not disappoint. Crank it!!
FYI, we were shorted on our order of cds, so we're listing just the vinyl now, the cd hopefully next time, though we might have a couple cds in stock now.
MPEG Stream: "Enemy Outta Me"
MPEG Stream: "Bangers & Yos"
MPEG Stream: "Falling Down"

DZIEWANSKI, ADRIAN Orbital Decay (Vacant Tapes) cd 14.98
The author of the exceptionally well-written Scrapyard Forecast blog which focuses on all things droned-out, Adrian Dziewanski has also been slowly developing an exceptional sensibility of his own tonefloat minimalism from acoustically sourced drones. There were a couple of cassettes and cd-rs which had been floating around, mostly under the moniker Empress; but Orbital Decay is the first one that has made it to aQ. In perusing his blog, it can be something of a Nurse With Wound list of stellar minimalists and dronologists who have all informed Dziewanski on how to proceed with his own music: Pandit Pran Nath, Andrew Chalk, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Manu Holterbach, Barn Owl, Organum, etc. The warm cascading shimmer that pours from the speaker is a timeless drone, reminiscent of those sustained harmonic intervals that any number of the high-holy minimalists from the '60s might have produced, complete with the rasping buzz of strings that could have been sourced from a sitar, a hurdy gurdy, or even a well-tuned piece of sheet metal. Dziewanski laces this central drone with monochromatic, airy passages of levitated white noise bathed in reverb. These wisps ebb and flow in melodic currents that work into a beautifully rendered hypnosis. Does anybody remember Jim O'Rourke's 1993 album Remove The Need, of prepared guitar drones? Orbital Decay is somewhere between that record, those Keith Fullerton Whitman albums of bliss-out on Kranky, and the Nurse With Wound ambient opus Soliloquy For Lilith. Very well done and very limited. Just 125 copies of this professionally replicated cd (not a cd-r!).
MPEG Stream: "Orbital Decay"

FACTUMS Gilding The Lilies (Assophon) 2lp 21.00
Weirdo Seattle gloompunk artrock experimentalists Factums have always been tough to describe, and somehow it seems with each new record, they push their sound even further into indescribable sonic realms. Which bring us to this, a sprawling double lp called Gilding The Lilies, which seems to be a much expanded version of the 2010 tape of the same name on Night People. And like past records, it sometimes feels like you're listening to a compilation, 'cause the songs are so totally varied, and even within songs the sound is constantly shifting, from gloomy creep, to organ driven dirge, from gothy lo-fi electro, to gorgeous Eastern style buzz drenched ragas... it's fantastic, yet also fantastically confusing. But once immersed in Factums' twisted soundworld, the songs seem to make a sort of sense, fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle where all of the pieces are different shapes, but that can be assembled in any order to create an unlimited series of final images, if that makes any sense, and even if it doesn't, that almost seems more appropriate.
There was a time where these guys had a sort of Captured Tracks / Sacred Bones vibe going on, and while that does surface here and there, the group definitely seem to to have moved well beyond any sense of pop music, only dabbling here and there, while spending most of their music crafting strange soundscapes, and conjuring up mysterious sonic spirits. Dense drone out buzz is draped over skeletal percussion, everything wreathed in billows of low end warble, that warble shaped into propulsive pulsations and wedded to a lo-fi distorted sort-of-electro rhythm, over which a deep voice wreathed in a metallic shimmer croons dramatically, only to slip right back into some sitar like buzz, long layered tones, that are soon swallowed up by an undulating sine wave tone and laid out beneath a skittery jazzy drum beat, only to dissipate into a cloud of low end thrum, and rubbery electronic rhythms, surrounded by industrial crash and clatter, which then slips darkly into a rhythmic bit of buzzy drift, and, well you get the idea. Now imagine that constant meandering sonic exploration going on for wholly three more lp sides and you've got Gilding The Lilies, a fantastic head spinning sonic descent into some abstract alternate dimension soundworld, one you might find yourself in no hurry to escape...
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Another Place"
MPEG Stream: "Lady In The Sand"
MPEG Stream: "Gilding The Lillies"
MPEG Stream: "The Trap"

FANTOM AUDITORY OPERATIONS / MICHAEL ESPOSITO The Child Witch Of Pilot's Knob (The Tapeworm) cassette 8.98
We listed three new tapes from aQ beloved tape label The Tapeworm on the last list, of a batch of four new releases. This one, #4, got left behind by the post man and only just now showed up. Which was a bummer at the time, cuz it might just be our favorite of the bunch, and the reason why can be summed up in one word: EVP! Okay, maybe three words: Electronic Voice Phenomena, which is the sound of the spirit world communicating through radio static, or lost transmissions, little snippet of voices, often just a word here or there, seemingly reaching across from the other side.
This particular set of recordings comes to us from Michael Esposito, an experimental artist and EVP researcher, who over the course of his life has collected thousands of EVP recordings and who has appeared on various television programs and in a number of films and documentaries. According to the label, Fantom Auditory Operations is "an attempt is to take EVP research a step further, developing a body of work researchers and scientists may use in the future to unlock the mysteries of our own mortality", but to these ears, it actually sound more like EVP set to music, strange bits of dark ambience, fields of hiss and whir, tolling bells, rumbles and whirs and various layers and textures, as well as field recordings, wild animal calls, crackling fires, all set amidst a series of fractured melodies and undulating drones.
Apparently the recordings here were captured in a Kentucky cemetery, where in the 1800s a woman and daughter were convicted of witchcraft and burned alive. The daughter was buried in this cemetery, while the mother at another location. There is also apparently spectral figure that has been sighted, perhaps trying to get to the girl (or her spirit), but who is kept at bay by the crucifix decorated fence surrounding her grave.
It almost doesn't matter if you believe any of that or not, cuz ultimately it's all about the sounds, and the sounds here are truly captivating, ominous and otherworldly, woven into a soundscape that's tense and haunting and super cinematic, with snippets of classical music, looped bells, the tape speed constantly fluctuating, everything warped and woozy, the only constant, the crackling sound of the fire, that presumably haunts the girl and her mother to this day.
So cool. And if you love the Ghost Orchid, a long time unanimous aQ fave, you're gonna want this too!

FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION, DJ INRI (self released) cd-r 9.98
Latest mix from this aQ beloved audio alchemist, who when he's not whipping up these murky mixes and strange sonic concoctions is playing guitar in local druggy space rockers 3 Leafs, or touring with Acid Mothers Gong or performing in a play, or even lending his voice to some video game.
But in his guise of DJ Female Convict Scorpion (yep, named for that Japanese series of women in prison flicks), his main concern is taking cool records, and melting them down into something totally new, a blurred otherworldly soundscape melding obscure jazz to lost krautrock, twisted grooves to mysterious ambience, shimmery washed out drifts wrapped around spaced out riffs and everything wreathed in old record crackle and pop. This is the sort of dark and downer DJ we want spinning records when we go out. But then listening to this stuff we imagine going out to some dark, dank, stone-walled cave-like dive, populated with all manner of shadow figures, everything lit by candlelight and firelight, the threat of violence heavy in the air...
This latest mix was presented to us as 'perfect for aQ' and then with the added descriptor 'the most evil and dark mix yet', indeed. Right down to the cover, an upside down, upside down cross (meaning rightside up) superimposed on a proper pentagram, the evil version rotated 180 degrees. And sonically, right out of the gate, some sort of black mass incantation, draped over a murky muted krautrock rhythm, laced with squalls of church organ, swirls of whipping wind, until finally, the beat kicks in, and we're off, wild psychedelic drumming, sampled fist fights, swoonsome woozy basslines, shimmery strings, strange effects and backwards loops, the various records shifting pitch, making everything warbly and trippy, and that's just the first track!
And it only gets better from there, long stretches of shimmery star field effects, some super cool rhythms, lots of slinky slithery grooves, bleating horns, field recordings, soulful vox, plenty of low slung slo-mo grooves, some killer mash ups of blackened creep and sweet soul, but also some full on horror movie soundtrack music, and so it goes slipping easily from bass heavy thrum to blissed out ethereal drift, psychedelic spaced out chaos to brooding cinematic swirl, all seemingly underpinned by a haunting sinister vibe, sometimes it's thick undulating bass buzz, othertimes it's less the sound and more just the arrangement, DJ FCS deftly conjuring up some serious audial evil. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Benedictus Satanas"
MPEG Stream: "Endful Summer"
MPEG Stream: "Dante's Towering Inferno"

FRENCH RADIO Abandoned Children (Petit Mal) 2cd-r 11.98
The occasionalist project French Radio is the semi-improvised work of Bruce Anderson, Jim Kaiser, and A.C. Way. Anderson, of course, is the stalwart art-punk guitarist from MX-80; Kaiser and Way are two of the more prolific participants in the damaged improv / noise scene in the Bay Area. As all three of these gentlemen of the avant-garde have their fingers in too many pies to count here, French Radio gigs have been few and far between; and Abandonded Children is only the second album from the trio. Fortunately, they are making up for lost time with two discs worth of gloop, din, murk, and turgid abstraction. The instrumentation for French Radio puts Anderson behind a large semi-circle of effects pedals that occasionally do allow for archetypal sounds to come from the guitar that connects them; Kaiser wields his now signature bicycle wheel with contact mic contraption and some reel-to-reel tape decks; and Way has a lo-tech set-up for turntable, cheap samplers, and microphones through which he utters monotone howls bathed in blackened reverb. The trio is at their best when they dive deep into a subterranean noise, nearing the depths of something oozing from Locrian or Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, as metallic clanks from Kaiser's wheel lumber against strangely soothing blasts of cold noise; but when Anderson's lonesome guitar strums through the din, French Radio is as compelling as anything that Barn Owl has mustered. Each of the three lengthy tracks were studio recordings, made without any overdubs. A limited cd-r release, mind you!
MPEG Stream: "Ingrid"
MPEG Stream: "Carousel"
MPEG Stream: "Bells"

FRUIT BATS Tripper (Sub Pop) cd 14.98
Latest chunk of quirky twang flecked pop from this band whose lineage includes loads of long time aQ faves including the late great Red Red Meat. And while that lineage does show itself in Fruit Bats' country folk leanings, they really are much more of a pop band, and seem to be getting poppier with every release, the sort of pop though that few bands seem to make anymore, heartfelt classic old time pop, lush arrangements, subtle orchestrations, swirling strings, soaring vocals, gorgeous harmonies, tinkling chimes, buzzing steel string guitars, swirling synths, and frontman Eric Johnson has one of THOSE voices, delicate, but strangely powerful, high and keening, often compared to Gram Parsons, which is perfect for the constantly shifting, ever lush popscapes that make up the bulk of this record. Fans of popgroops like the Shins and Death Cab, will find much to love here, but we like to think Johnson and Co. are just a tad too far out for the masses, which is really the only thing that explains their lack of mainstream popularity, cuz to these ears, while the sound and songs here do bear the hallmarks of many, more popular and commercially successful groups, the devil is in the details, and the details here are what make this way more subtly twisted that your average pop record. Yet another incredible album, by a group who seems to be incapable of making a bad one...
Super swank diecut packaging, the front cover with a big pyramid shaped cutout revealing the artwork from the inner sleeve, while on the back cover there's a much smaller triangular cutout, revealing another little glimpse of the artwork inside.
MPEG Stream: "Tony The Tripper"
MPEG Stream: "So Long"
MPEG Stream: "Tangie And Ray"
MPEG Stream: "Shivering Fawn"

FRUIT BATS Tripper (Sub Pop) lp 16.98
Latest chunk of quirky twang flecked pop from this band whose lineage includes loads of long time aQ faves including the late great Red Red Meat. And while that lineage does show itself in Fruit Bats' country folk leanings, they really are much more of a pop band, and seem to be getting poppier with every release, the sort of pop though that few bands seem to make anymore, heartfelt classic old time pop, lush arrangements, subtle orchestrations, swirling strings, soaring vocals, gorgeous harmonies, tinkling chimes, buzzing steel string guitars, swirling synths, and frontman Eric Johnson has one of THOSE voices, delicate, but strangely powerful, high and keening, often compared to Gram Parsons, which is perfect for the constantly shifting, ever lush popscapes that make up the bulk of this record. Fans of popgroops like the Shins and Death Cab, will find much to love here, but we like to think Johnson and Co. are just a tad too far out for the masses, which is really the only thing that explains their lack of mainstream popularity, cuz to these ears, while the sound and songs here do bear the hallmarks of many, more popular and commercially successful groups, the devil is in the details, and the details here are what make this way more subtly twisted that your average pop record. Yet another incredible album, by a group who seems to be incapable of making a bad one...
Super swank diecut packaging, the front cover with a big pyramid shaped cutout revealing the artwork from the inner sleeve, while on the back cover there's a much smaller triangular cutout, revealing another little glimpse of the artwork inside.
MPEG Stream: "Tony The Tripper"
MPEG Stream: "So Long"
MPEG Stream: "Tangie And Ray"
MPEG Stream: "Shivering Fawn"

GENERAL SURGERY Necrology (Relapse) cd 13.98
We love reissues. We love discovering new music, or more accurately OLD music that we had somehow never heard before. But we also love the reissues that give us the opportunity to rave about records we love, and have loved for years, that for whatever reason, we never got to review on the aQ list. Which is the case with this sick chunk of sounds right here. The debut from Swedish gore grinders General Surgery, who did what any young band might do, and started a band with the intention of sounding EXACTLY like their favorite band, which in GS's case would be none other than the legendary Carcass. But where other bands might take that as a jumping off point, forging their own way, General Surgery seemed to do just the opposite, crafting a pitch perfect slab of grinding medical themed metallic heaviness that KILLS, and that sounds SOOO much like Carcass it's criminal, which it would be if it weren't so goddamn great. We often joke, always in the company of Carcass fans, that General Surgery's Necrology is the best Carcass record, mostly to get their goat, but there is a little truth to that too. Released the same year as Carcass' Necroticism (coincidence? we think not), Necrology is pitch perfect, in fact, opener "Ominous Lamentation" basically IS Carcass' "Genital Grinder", and from there on, it's pure Carcass style gore/grind goodness, check the song titles: "Slithering Maceration Of Ulcerous Facial Tissue", "The Succulent Aftermath Of A Subdural Haemorrhage", "Grotesque Laceration Of Mortified Flesh", the guitar tone, the riffs, the vokills, it's insane. BUT, and this really is a big but, for all of its Carcass aspirations, they aren't Carcass, so in attempting to be a band they are not, they manage, perhaps inadvertently, to make something weirdly sort of original, with a sound that does sound like Carcass, but is also in its own way, purely General Surgery. We know that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But lots of bands start off emulating their favorite bands, but in trying to sound like that band, end up finding their own sound, it just so happens that General Surgery's own sound is like a slightly twisted version of their favorite band's sound. It really depends on your mindset, some aQ-ers love Carcass like crazy, and think this is sorta bullshit, but others, also love Carcass like crazy, but recognize this for what it is, the best Carcass record Carcass never made!
The new version of Necrology finds the disc getting a swank digipak packaging upgrade, as well as tacking on four bonus tracks, all alternate versions of tracks from the record proper, in a slightly more raw and noisy version.
MPEG Stream: "Ominous Lamentation"
MPEG Stream: "Slithering Maceration Of Ulcerous Facial Tissue"
MPEG Stream: "Grotesque Laceration Of Mortified Flesh"
MPEG Stream: "Severe Catatonoia In Pathology"

GERE, DON Werewolves On Wheels (OST) (B-Music / Finders Keepers) cd 16.98
It'd normally be enough that Finders Keepers / B-Music decided to reissue a soundtrack, we'd assume it was awesome just 'cause they gave it their stamp of approval. That's true. But this one, though, well how could it NOT be good, with that title/concept?? Awesome music aside, heck we wanna see the movie. Werewolves On Wheels, for reals? As one of the radio adverts included here as a bonus track puts it: "Here comes the most eerie, the most chilling, the most terrifying motorcycle horror film ever made... Werewolves On Wheels - in color - is the most unusual bizarre film yet... Werewolves On Wheels is the ghoulish story of a wild motorcycle gang lost in the desert, mocking the supernatural... one by one they die... unnatural unbelievable deaths... they are afraid of nothing but they cannot fight what they cannot see and do not understand!" Sounds good, doesn't it? As lovers of another Satanic psychedelic '70s motorcycle horror film, Psychomania, we're sold. And like Psychomania, this has a way cool soundtrack. Which can also be filed alongside another biker B-Music release, Billy Green's Stone OST.
This 1971 low budget chiller thriller's "Main Theme" is 5+ minutes of percussive rhythms adorned with flashes of fuzz guitar, simple and effective, as hypnotic as it is haunting. Groovy! That's followed by the hippie country rock of "Mount Shasta Home", and there's another cool slice of country tonk later on with "One Foot In Heaven", but the majority of the soundtrack is devoted to more abstract, weirdly stumbling, atmospheric stuff, perhaps trying to evoke a tripped out Native American desert vibe, with ringing and rattling and what sounds like wrasslin'... there's sudden stabs of synth and the occasional line of campy movie dialog. Several of the tracks (the three spooky "Ritual" ones in particular) could be sinister krautrock jams, full of thumping hand drums, crackling fire, and synthesizer sounds. Other tracks are more groovadelic, yet creepy too, with propulsive rhythms, acid guitar licks, droning FX, and of course revving motorcycle engines and screams of terror.
For all we know, the movie, the directorial debut of Roger Corman/Russ Meyer associate Michel Levesque, isn't even so bad it's good. But the soundtrack, it's for sure fantastic! If The Byrds had teamed up with Goblin to do a soundtrack, maybe this is what the results would have sounded like!?! We're also reminded of Ry Cooder's Cyleib People - if they jammed with Sylvester Anfang, perhaps. The label suggests a Sandy Bull/Amon Duul team up, and we won't argue with that comparison either. Another winner - of course - from the Finders Keepers folks!!
MPEG Stream: "Werewolves On Wheels (Main Theme)"
MPEG Stream: "Ritual 2"
MPEG Stream: "One Foot In Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "Burning Grass"

GIANT SAND Glum (Fire) cd 21.00
Giant Sand are probably most well know for featuring the rhythm section of John Convertino and Joey Burns, who left to form aQ beloved Calexico, and who would end up becoming WAY more popular than Giant Sand. But they are so much more than that, and so much of their music directly informed the sound of Calexico.
This reissue celebrates 25 years of Giant Sand, and is part of a comprehensive reissue of all the GS records. Glum, originally released back in 1994, was many folks first exposure to the band, which was a bit ironic considering it was their ELEVENTH album, but it was their first for a big label, and their first with a big budget, but none of that did anything to temper the group's experimental proclivities and difficult sonic tendencies, which is precisely why it might just be thee best. Sand mastermind Howe Gelb gathered up everyone who had ever played with them in the past and assembled what was essentially a Giant Sand big band. And the band set out to make Glum.
For those who have never heard Giant Sand before, as we mentioned before there's definitely a line that can be drawn from Calexico, the same sort of deserty shuffle, a dark countryish twang, but with Gelb's super distinctive drawl, and cool distorted guitar playing, like a warped Neil Young, blasts of gnarled psychedelia or bursts of squealing feedback erupting from the most tranquil of tracks. Just check out the title track, which is definitely one of our favorites, a dark twangy shuffle, Gelb crooning over muted minor key fingerpicking, and whirring organ, a sort of slowcore country, but then bam, the sharp crack of a snare, and some super distorted angular riffing, very Marc Ribot like in fact, which becomes a warm wash of chords, only to fade out again leaving that original dark shuffle.
"Yer Ropes" is more of a rocker, and could have bit a hit in some alternate universe, the sound lush and warm, the guitars thick and fuzzy, the drums muscly, and Gelb's voice sounding better than ever.
This whole record is just magical, and the family/big band vibe of Giant Sand is evident everywhere, from the sweet vocals of Victoria Williams, the oh so sweet "Bird Song", written and sung by Gelb's daughter, in a bid to prolong her bedtime, with Gelb adding some creepy chords, and the family pitching in on drums and bass, or the heartbreaking version of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", a gorgeous version sung by long time GS collaborator Pappy Allen, who passed away, soon after, featuring both his wife and daughter on backup vocals, and it's those sorts of songs, that most bands would leave off the record proper, that so defined Giant Sand's idiosyncratic approach to music making, one born of a seemingly pure love for, and joy in, creating, in singing and playing and performing, and that totally seeps into every note, every song, and every sound here.
The rest of the songs on Glum are just as great, the band getting heavy and distorted as often as hushed and melancholic, the songs peppered with strange sampled sounds, lush layers, whatever they could think of, all woven into something special and unique, their sound falling somewhere between Sparklehorse, Uncle Tupelo, Neil Young, Calexico and other similar country rockers, but there's something about Giant Sand that is utterly unlike any of the others. Which is probably why they never really got super popular. But then that's probably also exactly why we love them, and this record in particular, so much.
This reissue tacks on six extra songs, that sound like they could have come from the same sessions, and if that is indeed the case, it's kind of hard to figure out why they were left off, cuz they're pretty goddang great, beautiful and strange, like the band itself. Also included is new liner notes written by Gelb, about the making of the record, the songs, and what all was going on with GS way back in 1994.
MPEG Stream: "Glum"
MPEG Stream: "Yer Ropes"
MPEG Stream: "Happenstance"

GILSON, JEF The Best Of... (Jazzman) cd 17.98
The last time we were this jazzed (sorry, couldn't help it!) about a jazz reissue of an artist we had very little or no knowledge of beforehand, was the great Lloyd Miller collection, A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz. So it makes perfect sense that Jazzman, the amazing label who brought us Lloyd Miller, is now introducing us to the musical world of Jef Gilson, a talented French musician, arranger, band leader, sound engineer, music teacher, label owner, and multi instrumentalist. The songs that make up this best of collection are some of the most irresistible, suave, soulful and surprising that we've heard in any form in such a long time.
Spanning a period from the early '60s into the '90s this shows so many different facets of Gilson's recording career. From bebop, to orchestral pop, to multi cultural intersections, to hypnotizing operatic excursions. This is forward thinking jazz, filled with exquisite playing but more importantly an endlessly creative and explorative mindset that has left every track on this collection feeling so fresh and alive all these years later. This is one of those records we would like Yo La Tengo to check out next time they were in the store, as we could really imagine Ira and Georgia at home in their living room reading and relaxing while the sounds of Jef Gilson provided the perfect ambience to a crisp fall morning.
80 minutes of music, 32 pages of in depth liner notes, this might just be a contender for jazz we'd never heard of before reissue of the year! Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Up To The Light"
MPEG Stream: "Un Pas, Deux Pas, Cent Pas"
MPEG Stream: "Blue-Bizz"

GILSON, JEF The Best Of... (Jazzman) 2lp 29.00
The last time we were this jazzed (sorry, couldn't help it!) about a jazz reissue of an artist we had very little or no knowledge of beforehand, was the great Lloyd Miller collection, A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz. So it makes perfect sense that Jazzman, the amazing label who brought us Lloyd Miller, is now introducing us to the musical world of Jef Gilson, a talented French musician, arranger, band leader, sound engineer, music teacher, label owner, and multi instrumentalist. The songs that make up this best of collection are some of the most irresistible, suave, soulful and surprising that we've heard in any form in such a long time.
Spanning a period from the early '60s into the '90s this shows so many different facets of Gilson's recording career. From bebop, to orchestral pop, to multi cultural intersections, to hypnotizing operatic excursions. This is forward thinking jazz, filled with exquisite playing but more importantly an endlessly creative and explorative mindset that has left every track on this collection feeling so fresh and alive all these years later. This is one of those records we would like Yo La Tengo to check out next time they were in the store, as we could really imagine Ira and Georgia at home in their living room reading and relaxing while the sounds of Jef Gilson provided the perfect ambience to a crisp fall morning.
80 minutes of music, 32 pages of in depth liner notes, this might just be a contender for jazz we'd never heard of before reissue of the year! Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Up To The Light"
MPEG Stream: "Un Pas, Deux Pas, Cent Pas"
MPEG Stream: "Blue-Bizz"

GNIEU / LASCOWIEC Marching With TheBlizzard's Rage (A.M.F. / Wulfrune Worxxx / Werewolf) cassette 5.98
Latest from Bay Area black metal duo Lascoiec, a split with a band (person) called Gnieu, from Belarus, who we had never heard before, but who, after about a minute of the first track, might just be one of our new favorite bands. After a brief bit of doomic creep, the song erupts in a flurry of twisted tangled buzz, the drums a chaotic stutter, the riffs, so blurry and black, they're just a wall of thrum, while a strange melody, played on another guitar, or a keyboard, hard to say, flutters and flits and gets all tangled up, and eventually the sound seems to coalesce into something more traditionally buzzy and black, but then continues to constantly shift and transform, exploding into impossibly fast burst of blackbuzzblur, the drums completely bizarre, skittery and super intricate, the sound stumbling into wildly chaotic crush, before exploding again in a wild squall of bleary eared blur, there seems to be some keyboards too, but instead of making obvious keyboard noises, they just thicken the sound, adding texture and buried melody, the result is something warm and washed out, epic and majestic, black and buzzy, and in its own way sort of free and abstract, but also weirdly haunting and pretty, without losing any of its grim mystery. As the record progresses, the sound remains firmly in some sonic netherworld, guitars are swathed in reverb, unfurl surfy almost riffs, only to slip into a weird bit of minimal ambient jangle, before building to some sort of dirgey drift, only to again lurch into an explosive sprawl of warped blackness. Pretty sure we're gonna have to track down every single thing from these guys.
And we haven't even gotten to the Lascowiec side, who start things off with a bit of natural ambience, a dreamy bit of folky guitar over birdsong, lilting and dreamy, laced with some subtle mysterious sounds and effects, but for the most part very pretty, only to abruptly switch to some murky minor key black buzz, the sound warm and washed out, the vocals a buried demonic croak, the sound haunting and majestic, grim and depressive, and like all the Lascowiec we've heard managing to sound both intense and black, yet weirdly haunting and lovely, could be partially the production, wrapping everything in a gauzy veil of blurred shimmer, but it also seems to be the melodic structure and the arrangements, definitely frantic and frenzied, but muted and a muddied, dreamily lo-fi, but without ever losing its blackened brutality.
A pretty fantastic split, a new discovery (and obsession) and an old favorite, both sides getting much repeat play around here for sure.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Each one hand numbered.

HAIL! HORNET Disperse The Curse (Relapse) cd 14.98
Latest from this Southern doom/sludge supergroup, featuring none other than Dixie Dave of Weedeater and Buzzov*en as well as T-Roy Medlin from Sourvein, and members of Beaten Back To Pure and Alabama Thunder Pussy, and while you might be expecting the usual dose of NOLA drug induced slo-mo downtuned sludge-dirge bliss, you'd only be half right, cuz these guys spend much of their time on Disperse The Curse blasting and thrashing and pounding away, cranking up the tempo, channeling Motorhead and High On Fire, spitting out a sort of blackened sludge thrash, with furious riffing and flurries of frantic double kick drumming, the songs lurching from tarpit creep to Sabbathy swagger to full on blasting thrashed out riffrock heaviness. The vocals a glass gargling rasp, the band unfurling some surprisingly melodic stuff here and there, leads, guitar harmonies, which pepper the otherwise feedback drenched pound and pummel.
Opener "Shoot The Pigs" is a killer, some seriously hook filled heaviness, with wicked drumming, equally wicked riffing, and a downright proggy arrangement, it's all pretty fast except for a half time churning riffy creep that KILLS.
"Gifted Horse" is more of the same, the double kick drums adding some serious heft to the already thrashing blackened pummel, the band slipping to sludgey grooves here and there, but it's not until track three, the title track, that things get downright sludgey and dirgey, sounding like some Southern Rock band on Quaaludes. And so the rest of the record goes, swinging wildly from tarpit crush to blown out blast, culminating in the epic doom sludge crawl of record closer "Blacked Out In Broad Daylight", that beyond pounding and creeping and howling and buzzing, manages to get downright psychedelic to boot!
MPEG Stream: "Shoot The Pigs"
MPEG Stream: "Gifted Horse"
MPEG Stream: "Disperse The Curse"

HATEFUL ABANDON Move (Todestrieb) cd 14.98
Record number two from this hateful harsh suicidal black metal band turned dark gothy gloom wave outfit, and the band continue to shed the black vestiges of their past incarnation, moving ever toward a more purely darkwave pop sound, and like on their debut, Famine (Or Into The Bellies Of Worms), the sound here is all warm muted buzz, propulsive drum pound, low slung slithery basslines, all woven into a droned out darkly psychedelic chunk of sweet sonic miserablism, the vocals this time a bit more strident in places, and powerful, making this sound more like Killing Joke than anything. Although the deep dramatic croon from the first record remains, and seems to be again channeling Andrew Eldridge from Sisters Of Mercy. There are also long droned out tones, that sound like horns, but could be guitars or synths, the effect is the same, adding a sort of mournful funeral quality, which is balanced by the chiming melodies, and the almost Cure-like songcraft, although it's more like Cure filtered through Circle, as the tracks have a looped krautrock like mesmer to them, hypnotic and trancelike.
Some of the tracks are peppered with weird squelchy synths and electronics, adding a weird spaciness to the proceedings, but for the most part, the sound here is a dark, driving minimal gloom pop, with the guitars occasionally slipping into an almost metallic chug, but tending more toward the angular crunch of echo drenched jangle, there are samples too, but really with music like this, it's all abut the bass and drums, that sort of Joy Division foundation that's in full effect here, and is dark and driving and dreamily depressive, mournful and melancholic, Hateful Abandon like the darker grittier version of Nuit Noire gloom pop offshoot Soror Dolorosa, and really anyone who dug that (did anyone not?) will love this too!
Released on the always kick ass UK label Todestrieb.
MPEG Stream: "The Way It Ends"
MPEG Stream: "Human Clockwork"
MPEG Stream: "The Lost"

HEAD AND THE HEART, THE s/t (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
Anyone here looking for black buzz or grimnoise or punked out heaviness or bizarre metal, should turn back now. Cuz as much as we love that stuff, and sure we subsist on a steady diet of buzz and howl, pound and crunch, but one most definitely can't survive on that stuff alone. And most of us here, if you dig past the buzzy droney exteriors, will find a heart of pop. Which is exactly why we've been loving this, the debut from Seattle folk pop outfit The Head And The Heart, who apparently sold 10,000 copies of this record on their own before Sub Pop swooped in to repackaged and reissue this. Which is a good thing, cuz we would have never heard it otherwise. The first track is all it'll take to convince you if this is your cup of tea or not, a sub two minute chunk of dreamy folky strum, with gorgeous vocal harmonies, simple acoustic guitar strum, some sweet piano, all woven into a perfect little chunk of folky pop, that sounds like it would fit somewhere between Fleet Foxes, Iron And Wine and Belle And Sebastian, there's maybe even a little Decemberists in there too. And some classic power pop a la The Zombies, The Kinks, Beach Blys, etc. The vibe is definitely pop, leaning a bit toward old timey pop, mixing in lots of classic twang and folk, the vocal harmonies are a little bit gospel-y, the songs slipping from brooding and ballady to rollicking and rocking, to soaring and bombastic, hooks a plenty, but also plenty of moody atmosphere. It's hard to say exactly what it is about this record that hooked us, but it did, big time, and we find ourselves listening to it more than we thought we would, so much so, that a few of these songs have gotten lodged solidly in our heads, and show now sign of leaving any time soon, which is just fine with us!
MPEG Stream: "Cats And Dogs"
MPEG Stream: "Coeur D'Alene"
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts"
MPEG Stream: "Down In The Valley"

HEAD AND THE HEART, THE s/t (Sub Pop) lp 17.98
Anyone here looking for black buzz or grimnoise or punked out heaviness or bizarre metal, should turn back now. Cuz as much as we love that stuff, and sure we subsist on a steady diet of buzz and howl, pound and crunch, but one most definitely can't survive on that stuff alone. And most of us here, if you dig past the buzzy droney exteriors, will find a heart of pop. Which is exactly why we've been loving this, the debut from Seattle folk pop outfit The Head And The Heart, who apparently sold 10,000 copies of this record on their own before Sub Pop swooped in to repackaged and reissue this. Which is a good thing, cuz we would have never heard it otherwise. The first track is all it'll take to convince you if this is your cup of tea or not, a sub two minute chunk of dreamy folky strum, with gorgeous vocal harmonies, simple acoustic guitar strum, some sweet piano, all woven into a perfect little chunk of folky pop, that sounds like it would fit somewhere between Fleet Foxes, Iron And Wine and Belle And Sebastian, there's maybe even a little Decemberists in there too. And some classic power pop a la The Zombies, The Kinks, Beach Blys, etc. The vibe is definitely pop, leaning a bit toward old timey pop, mixing in lots of classic twang and folk, the vocal harmonies are a little bit gospel-y, the songs slipping from brooding and ballady to rollicking and rocking, to soaring and bombastic, hooks a plenty, but also plenty of moody atmosphere. It's hard to say exactly what it is about this record that hooked us, but it did, big time, and we find ourselves listening to it more than we thought we would, so much so, that a few of these songs have gotten lodged solidly in our heads, and show now sign of leaving any time soon, which is just fine with us!
MPEG Stream: "Cats And Dogs"
MPEG Stream: "Coeur D'Alene"
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts"
MPEG Stream: "Down In The Valley"

HORSEBACK / LOCRIAN split (Turgid Animal) 7" 10.98
A few lists back we reviewed a 12" collaboration between blackened metallic dronelord Horseback, and blackdoomdrone duo (and sometimes trio) Locrian, which was a gorgeous slab of black drone heaviness, fusing the power of both groups. Here, in a sort of sonic coda, each group goes it alone.
Horseback unfurl a hazy droned out raga, the track centered around a glorious high end drone, all shimmer and reverberation, the sound sun dappled and gloriously effulgent, very much like Sunroof!, mesmerizing and dreamlike, to which HB adds, some twisted gnarled vocals, all hissy and demonic, wreathing the whole thing in little melodic tendrils, the sound blissed out and gauzy, the blackness seemingly held at bay by this shining sonic light, the sort of track that is WAY too short on a 7", we could listen to stuff like this forEVER.
Locrian counter with something much more dark and grim, a churning bit of blurred tarpit riffage, a dirgey bit of SUNNO))) like thrum, but that low end creep is soon swaddled in delicate crystalline melodies, and thick hazy streaks of high end shimmer, that weird doomy dirge immediately transformed into something more dreamlike and ethereal. Vocals drift in, deep liturgical chanting, draped over the dirgey riffage and swaddled in the chiming melodies, the sound seeming to grow ever hazier and more ephemeral before fading out completely.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: HORSEBACK "Oblivion Eaters"
MPEG Stream: LOCRIAN "In The Absence Of Light"

LEFT BANKE, THE Walk Away Renee / Pretty Ballerina (Sundazed) cd 16.98
Stereolab named a song after them, Belle & Sebastian and the Magnetic Fields have made careers of taking their influence from them, and we hope the Left Banke finally get the widespread love and attention they so deserve all these decades later. Born out of the orchestral pop strands of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", The Left Banke were the teenage pioneers of the Baroque Rock sound, marrying minor key melody with chamber pop arrangements of harpsichords, string sections and woodwinds. Though the sound ultimately took off more in Britain, The Left Banke were the sole innovators stateside giving them an edge as their two biggest (and sadly only) hits, "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina", propelled them towards a short-lived wider recognition. Sundazed has done a great service reissuing both of the bands records to show that they were much much more than just a two-hit band.
And that may be hard to gather from a debut record named after those two biggest hits, but Walk Away Renee / Pretty Ballerina from 1967 is one of the finest sixties pop albums ever! Fronted by vocalist Steve Martin-Caro and keyboardist/songwriter Michael Brown, The Left Banke were the more melancholy and introspective counterpoint to the Beach Boys sunny outgoing harmonies. We bring up the Beach Boys because both bands had further similarities. Both bands employed session musicians and both had managers who were also fathers of the main bandmembers that were subsequently fired when they started getting more successful. Further rifts occured right away when Brown, taking cues from Brian Wilson, didn't feel he had to to tour with the band, complicating band dynamics to the point of him leaving the band after this record, only to return to record one last single ("Desiree" featured on Too) that sadly didn't chart.
But band complications aside, this record is on par with the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle and Something Else by the Kinks. Seriously. Songs like "She May Call You Up Tonight", "Let Go Of You Girl", and "Barterers and Their Wives" show that their antiquated look and arrangements were far from a gimmick, but a means to get into some deeply complex and heartfelt songwriting. These records sound better than ever. Essential!
MPEG Stream: "Pretty Ballerina"
MPEG Stream: "I've Got Something On My Mind"
MPEG Stream: "Walk Away Renee"
MPEG Stream: "I Haven't Got The Nerve"

LEFT BANKE, THE Walk Away Renee / Pretty Ballerina (Sundazed) lp 21.00
Stereolab named a song after them, Belle & Sebastian and the Magnetic Fields have made careers of taking their influence from them, and we hope the Left Banke finally get the widespread love and attention they so deserve all these decades later. Born out of the orchestral pop strands of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", The Left Banke were the teenage pioneers of the Baroque Rock sound, marrying minor key melody with chamber pop arrangements of harpsichords, string sections and woodwinds. Though the sound ultimately took off more in Britain, The Left Banke were the sole innovators stateside giving them an edge as their two biggest (and sadly only) hits, "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina", propelled them towards a short-lived wider recognition. Sundazed has done a great service reissuing both of the bands records to show that they were much much more than just a two-hit band.
And that may be hard to gather from a debut record named after those two biggest hits, but Walk Away Renee / Pretty Ballerina from 1967 is one of the finest sixties pop albums ever! Fronted by vocalist Steve Martin-Caro and keyboardist/songwriter Michael Brown, The Left Banke were the more melancholy and introspective counterpoint to the Beach Boys sunny outgoing harmonies. We bring up the Beach Boys because both bands had further similarities. Both bands employed session musicians and both had managers who were also fathers of the main bandmembers that were subsequently fired when they started getting more successful. Further rifts occured right away when Brown, taking cues from Brian Wilson, didn't feel he had to to tour with the band, complicating band dynamics to the point of him leaving the band after this record, only to return to record one last single ("Desiree" featured on Too) that sadly didn't chart.
But band complications aside, this record is on par with the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle and Something Else by the Kinks. Seriously. Songs like "She May Call You Up Tonight", "Let Go Of You Girl", and "Barterers and Their Wives" show that their antiquated look and arrangements were far from a gimmick, but a means to get into some deeply complex and heartfelt songwriting. These records sound better than ever. Essential!
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LEFT BANKE, THE Too (Sundazed) cd 16.98
Stereolab named a song after them, Belle & Sebastian and the Magnetic Fields have made careers of taking their influence from them, and we hope the Left Banke finally get the widespread love and attention they so deserve all these decades later. Born out of the orchestral pop strands of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", The Left Banke were the teenage pioneers of the Baroque Rock sound, marrying minor key melody with chamber pop arrangements of harpsichords, string sections and woodwinds. Though the sound ultimately took off more in Britain, The Left Banke were the sole innovators stateside giving them an edge as their two biggest (and sadly only) hits, "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina", propelled them towards a short-lived wider recognition. Sundazed has done a great service reissuing both of the bands records to show that they were much much more than just a two-hit band.
Too is the bands lesser known and last release from 1968 and while the band lost main songwriter and keyboardist Michael Brown for most of it (he returned to record the single, "Desiree" which baffingly didn't chart!), there is plenty to recommend it. Slightly more upbeat than the first album, the vocal harmonies (including the presence of Steven Talarico aka Aerosmith's Steven Tyler on backing vocals!) push the feel toward sunshine pop, sounding much closer to the Beach Boys than before. Yet the melancholy of Brown's contributions plus the beautiful but quirkily titled "Dark is The Bark" give the overall mood a complex prettiness. Lush orchestrations and studio wizardry (lots of backwards effects and psychish phasing) make this album just as gorgeous as the first, and we're glad its lost status is finally seeing some well-deserved light. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "There's Gonna Be A Storm"
MPEG Stream: "Nice To See You"
MPEG Stream: "In The Morning Light"

LEFT BANKE, THE Too (Sundazed) lp 21.00
Stereolab named a song after them, Belle & Sebastian and the Magnetic Fields have made careers of taking their influence from them, and we hope the Left Banke finally get the widespread love and attention they so deserve all these decades later. Born out of the orchestral pop strands of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", The Left Banke were the teenage pioneers of the Baroque Rock sound, marrying minor key melody with chamber pop arrangements of harpsichords, string sections and woodwinds. Though the sound ultimately took off more in Britain, The Left Banke were the sole innovators stateside giving them an edge as their two biggest (and sadly only) hits, "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina", propelled them towards a short-lived wider recognition. Sundazed has done a great service reissuing both of the bands records to show that they were much much more than just a two-hit band.
Too is the bands lesser known and last release from 1968 and while the band lost main songwriter and keyboardist Michael Brown for most of it (he returned to record the single, "Desiree" which baffingly didn't chart!), there is plenty to recommend it. Slightly more upbeat than the first album, the vocal harmonies (including the presence of Steven Talarico aka Aerosmith's Steven Tyler on backing vocals!) push the feel toward sunshine pop, sounding much closer to the Beach Boys than before. Yet the melancholy of Brown's contributions plus the beautiful but quirkily titled "Dark is The Bark" give the overall mood a complex prettiness. Lush orchestrations and studio wizardry (lots of backwards effects and psychish phasing) make this album just as gorgeous as the first, and we're glad its lost status is finally seeing some well-deserved light. Recommended!
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LITTLE DRAGON Ritual Union (Peacefrog) cd 15.98
Without a doubt one of the most creative and pleasurable groups making electronic tinged dance pop these days. What sets Little Dragon so far ahead of the crowd is that they are such innovative music makers as well as having the amazing talents of lead singer Yukimi Nagano, who really does have one of the most soulful and seductive voices around. Ritual Union is one of the most perfect electro pop albums of the year. The songs and sounds on the record let you go deep into you body. But it's not just a surface high that makes you shake it for a moment, but instead something you feel dig into you deeper and actually grab a hold of your spirit and soul. Like some of the best work that Herbert & Dani Siciliano made together, or if Prince in his prime teamed up with Lykke Li to make a record smart enough to want to spend intimate time with, yet fun enough to want to blast so loud when your friends are around. Colors, shapes and melody all swirling together into something so intoxicating, and so totally good for you. This is becoming our absolute summer jam!
MPEG Stream: "Brush The Heat"
MPEG Stream: "Ritual Union"
MPEG Stream: "Nightlight"

LITTLE DRAGON Ritual Union (Peacefrog) lp 19.98
Without a doubt one of the most creative and pleasurable groups making electronic tinged dance pop these days. What sets Little Dragon so far ahead of the crowd is that they are such innovative music makers as well as having the amazing talents of lead singer Yukimi Nagano, who really does have one of the most soulful and seductive voices around. Ritual Union is one of the most perfect electro pop albums of the year. The songs and sounds on the record let you go deep into you body. But it's not just a surface high that makes you shake it for a moment, but instead something you feel dig into you deeper and actually grab a hold of your spirit and soul. Like some of the best work that Herbert & Dani Siciliano made together, or if Prince in his prime teamed up with Lykke Li to make a record smart enough to want to spend intimate time with, yet fun enough to want to blast so loud when your friends are around. Colors, shapes and melody all swirling together into something so intoxicating, and so totally good for you. This is becoming our absolute summer jam!
MPEG Stream: "Brush The Heat"
MPEG Stream: "Ritual Union"
MPEG Stream: "Nightlight"

MAFOUKA Closet Crown (self-released) 3"cd-r 5.98
Second solo record from Preston Nunez, whose 'day job' is playing in cosmic synth drone outfit Scantily Clad, whose three cd-r's were all big hits around here. A little while back Nunez sent us some copies of the debut record from his new group Guisher, which while bearing virtually no relation to Scantily Clad, still totally hit the spot, a head spinning bit of slice and dice audio collage weirdness, rhythmic and groovy and noisy and all over the sonic map. So we weren't entirely sure what to expect from this new project, Mafouka, which definitely has more in common with Guisher than with Scantily Clad, but where Guisher was a relentless sonic barrage, Mafouka sounds more measure and composed, at least a bit, it's still a bit of a barrage, 14 songs in a little under 20 minute, short bursts of hypnotic soundscaping. The opening track is all woozy and warped, a rhythms created from what sounds like a needle scratching across the surface of a record, not to mention some slowed down beats, looped female vocals, shimmery synths, it's like a super raw, primitive home brewed Portishead almost, that sort of washed out, late night vibe, then the next three tracks, all clocking in at well under a minute each, offer up brief snippets of sound, from a layered and looped but of easy listening, to some dialogue heavy, drum addled ambience, to a killer chunk of super distorted dirgey doom, again laced with bizarre samples, until finally another song that breaks the 2 minute mark, a synthy distorted creeper, the sound panning from speaker to speaker, laced with chopped up bits of drumming, layered voices, warm swirling melodic shimmer, which leads directly into another twisted, surprisingly melodic loopscape, from which unfurls the rest of the record, a sprawling selection of primitive sampledelia, equal parts Art Of Noise and Negativland, but all woven into something much more moodily musical, a glorious bit of home brewed 4-track alchemy that in some way plays out like a bedroom indie pop Endtroducing, albeit a bit more freaked out and fractured.
More super extravagant home mad packaging, this time, colored jewel cases with the art printed onto clear stickers which are affixed to the front, no tray, the 3" disc affixed to the inside of the trayless jewel case, over some photocopied artwork pasted into the bottom, which is also visible through the back of the jewel case, which has yet another clear sticker affixed to it. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!

MANILLA ROAD The Deluge (Shadow Kingdom) cd 14.98
A few months ago, we listed After Midnight Live, and also Mark Of The Beast, and now, The Deluge - it's a deluge indeed, of Manilla Road reissues and archival releases! Manilla Road? They're the ultimate obscure American fantasy metal band from the '80s, a cult group if there ever was one, having a bit of a resurgence these past few years, both via reissues like these, and some pretty good brand new albums too (their most recent being 2008's Viking themed Voyager, with a new one called Playground Of The Damned coming out sometime soon).
The Deluge was originally unleashed in 1986, and is one of the Road's best efforts, being suitably epic, baroque, thrashy, and doomy. Guitarist/vocalist Mark "The Shark" Shelton belts 'em out in his usual eccentric manner, and drummer Randy "Thrasher" Foxe lets his kit have it in the worst way. Displaying the then-modern influence that Metallica had on Manilla Road at the time, it's a rager! But with a majestic, melancholic vibe that this band, with its roots in '70s space rock and prog, always possesses. Amidst the epic and aggro, mention should also be made of the spooky horror movie organ interlude cleverly titled "Morbid Tabernacle"...
As always, definitely recommended to fans of the equally cult and eccentric The Lord Weird Slough Feg. We used to have an earlier reissue of this, as an expensive Italian import digipack. That went out of print years ago, but now via Shadow Kingdom it's been reissued again, domestically, in a jewel case. And they've also put it out on vinyl as well!
MPEG Stream: "Shadow In The Black"
MPEG Stream: "Hammer Of The Witches"
MPEG Stream: "Friction In Mass"

MANILLA ROAD The Deluge (Shadow Kingdom) lp 28.00
A few months ago, we listed After Midnight Live, and also Mark Of The Beast, and now, The Deluge - it's a deluge indeed, of Manilla Road reissues and archival releases! Manilla Road? They're the ultimate obscure American fantasy metal band from the '80s, a cult group if there ever was one, having a bit of a resurgence these past few years, both via reissues like these, and some pretty good brand new albums too (their most recent being 2008's Viking themed Voyager, with a new one called Playground Of The Damned coming out sometime soon).
The Deluge was originally unleashed in 1986, and is one of the Road's best efforts, being suitably epic, baroque, thrashy, and doomy. Guitarist/vocalist Mark "The Shark" Shelton belts 'em out in his usual eccentric manner, and drummer Randy "Thrasher" Foxe lets his kit have it in the worst way. Displaying the then-modern influence that Metallica had on Manilla Road at the time, it's a rager! But with a majestic, melancholic vibe that this band, with its roots in '70s space rock and prog, always possesses. Amidst the epic and aggro, mention should also be made of the spooky horror movie organ interlude cleverly titled "Morbid Tabernacle"...
As always, definitely recommended to fans of the equally cult and eccentric The Lord Weird Slough Feg. We used to have an earlier reissue of this, as an expensive Italian import digipack. That went out of print years ago, but now via Shadow Kingdom it's been reissued again, domestically, in a jewel case. And they've also put it out on vinyl as well!
MPEG Stream: "Shadow In The Black"
MPEG Stream: "Hammer Of The Witches"
MPEG Stream: "Friction In Mass"

MISTER HEAVENLY Out Of Love (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
We didn't really expect to like this all that much. A sort of indie rock super group, featuring members of Modest Mouse, The Unicorns and Man Man, it was only once we discovered that the band described their music as "doom-wop", that we became really intrigued, and while we're not sure if this really sound like doom-wop, what we do know is that we like it a LOT. Somewhere between the indie rock of Built To Spill and the propulsive electronic rockisms of modern Britpop (Killers, Arctic Monkeys, etc.), this is at its core indie pop, but with a definite retro old timey vibe, the band infusing the usual jangle with sixties girl group-isms, pounding piano, twangy guitars, lots of ooh ooh back ground vox, some slithery swagger, and yeah, a little '50s doo wop, but all of those elements are blurred into a sound that is its own distinctive thing, with no real nods to any of the members' other groups (thankfully), instead, crafting a super, hooky, jangly, crunchy, fuzzy, and occasionally brooding and dark, chunk of catchy as hell indie rock.
Our favorite moments are, not surprisingly, the darker jams here, opener "Bronx Sniper" might be our fave, a heavy bombastic bit of indie prog stomp, that definitely sounds like it could come courtesy of the latest UK art pop sensation, or the song "Doom Wop", a chugging, droned out, fuzz drenched brooder, with big drums and weirdly effected vocals, and while there are some straight up '50s style throwbacks, there are some killer indie pop gems, all these different sounds woven into something that we just can't seem to stop listening to.
MPEG Stream: "Bronx Sniper"
MPEG Stream: "I Am A Hologram"
MPEG Stream: "Charlyne"
MPEG Stream: "Doom Wop"

MISTER HEAVENLY Out Of Love (Sub Pop) lp 16.98
We didn't really expect to like this all that much. A sort of indie rock super group, featuring members of Modest Mouse, The Unicorns and Man Man, it was only once we discovered that the band described their music as "doom-wop", that we became really intrigued, and while we're not sure if this really sound like doom-wop, what we do know is that we like it a LOT. Somewhere between the indie rock of Built To Spill and the propulsive electronic rockisms of modern Britpop (Killers, Arctic Monkeys, etc.), this is at its core indie pop, but with a definite retro old timey vibe, the band infusing the usual jangle with sixties girl group-isms, pounding piano, twangy guitars, lots of ooh ooh back ground vox, some slithery swagger, and yeah, a little '50s doo wop, but all of those elements are blurred into a sound that is its own distinctive thing, with no real nods to any of the members' other groups (thankfully), instead, crafting a super, hooky, jangly, crunchy, fuzzy, and occasionally brooding and dark, chunk of catchy as hell indie rock.
Our favorite moments are, not surprisingly, the darker jams here, opener "Bronx Sniper" might be our fave, a heavy bombastic bit of indie prog stomp, that definitely sounds like it could come courtesy of the latest UK art pop sensation, or the song "Doom Wop", a chugging, droned out, fuzz drenched brooder, with big drums and weirdly effected vocals, and while there are some straight up '50s style throwbacks, there are some killer indie pop gems, all these different sounds woven into something that we just can't seem to stop listening to.
MPEG Stream: "Bronx Sniper"
MPEG Stream: "I Am A Hologram"
MPEG Stream: "Charlyne"
MPEG Stream: "Doom Wop"

MUSIKA, MICHAEL Spells (self released) cd 9.98
We get so many records submitted to us for consideration, and like we've said before we really do listen to everything that comes our way (though it does sometimes take us forever!) and it's always worth it because of gems like this. We haven't heard a pop record with this much ambition, depth and dynamic range of sound in a long, long time. Michael Musika has a really unique approach to crafting not only songs but an overall feeling that flows throughout the album. With interludes filled with beautiful bells and dreamy vibes which cast an interesting spell, and then proper songs which tap into a side of quirky, orchestral pop that you just don't hear done that often or this well, these days. Taking elements of Emmit Rhodes, Biff Rose, and Van Dyke Parks, San Francisco's Micheal Musika has created his own world of cinematic pop glory.
MPEG Stream: "Translating The Bird's Song"
MPEG Stream: "A Song Is Swallowed By A Fish"
MPEG Stream: "The Clever Thief Hides Inside The Clock"
MPEG Stream: "Playing The Violin With Broken Strings"

NEGATIVE QUEEN s/t (Linear B) cassette 4.50
Longtime readers of the aQ list might remember Myles Of Destruction, fronted by long time aQ pal Myles Donovan. A kick ass trio of drums, bass and violin, a little bit metal, a little bit grind, a little bit gypsy stomp, an unlikely cross between Amps For Christ, Warlock Pinchers, Emperor and Magnetic Fields maybe. Well Myles is back with a new band that's a bit darker and a whole lot doomier, the evocatively monikered Negative Queen, which we initially surmised came from the Pansy Division song, but according to the liner notes is actually something someone said to Donovan at one point, oh and it might be worth pointing out at this point then Negative Queen are purveyors of QUEER DOOM. And while we weren't sure what to expect sonically, would it be ultra blown out sludge, or downtuned metallic plod, we were pleasantly surprised to discover it was neither, instead, something more spare and sparse, more moody and melodic, tapping into a sort of swampy apocalyptic creep more than anything, hints of Woven Hand and Nick Cave, a sort of gothy grim moodiness that wreathes the minimal drumming, the spidery minor key guitars, the warm low slung bass, and the deep dramatic croon. And while it's definitely heavy and dark enough that metalheads should give this a chance, it definitely sounds like something that would be way more at home alongside the darkwave and slowcore in your collection. Did we mention Swans? The Swans vibe is huge too. The sound lush and layered, hauntingly atmospheric, just instead of pounding and pummeling, it creeps and slithers, drift and plods, dark and doomy for sure, but also strangely dreamy.

NOOTHGRUSH Failing Early, Failing Often (Emetic) cd 14.98
Available again, this killer compilation of early material from legendary Bay area slo-mo sludge/doom crushers Noothgrush, who recently reformed and are about to play a show with the also together-again East Coast doomlords Winter.
Back in the nineties, Noothgrush were a ubiquitous presence, playing all the time, and releasing records at a crazy clip, splits to be precise, Noothgrush were the master of the split 7", sharing records with Corrupted, Gasp, Agents Of Satan, Deadbodieseverywhere, Black Army Jacket, Carol Ann, Wellington and more. And the interesting thing is the band never actually recorded a proper full length. In fact, the two 'albums' they released were both compilations, collecting all the comp tracks and singles. We reviewed Erode The Person, which is sadly now out of print again, which gathered up the later recordings of the band, and in the review we lamented the fact that this one was sadly out of print. Well it's available again, and is here to again remind the world, that there was some serious downtuned pummel and tarpit doomsludge creep happening LONG before Boris / SUNNO))) / Whitehorse and all the rest threw their dirge-doom hat into the ring. And like we mentioned before, Noothgrush were just about a decade too early.
So Failing Early, Failing Often, originally released on Bay Area powerviolence/fastcore label Slap A Ham, is brimming with Sabbath-at-16rpm dirgery and creeping blackened crawls, loads of feedback, the drums a glacial stumble, provided by the cute and diminutive Chiyo (she most definitely a nineties SF metalhead crush), the vocals a howled raspy bellow, lots of samples too, from movies, and politicians, the sound crusty and blackened, with many of the tracks here from the WAY early days, old demos and cassettes, which means the sound on those is even more filhty and lo-fi and raw. Punishing and heavy as fuck, droned out and dreary and druggy and so good, even all these years later.
Fans of the current crop of doomlords and dirge merchants, who somehow missed out on these guys (and gal) would do well to check this out. And if you loved Erode The Person, well this is the second part to what with EtP is essentially one massive compilation/career retrospective.
MPEG Stream: "Oil Removed"
MPEG Stream: "Extraction"
MPEG Stream: "Encasing"
MPEG Stream: "Bric-A-Brac"

NOOTHGRUSH Failing Early, Failing Often (Emetic) 2lp 27.00
Available again, this killer compilation of early material from legendary Bay area slo-mo sludge/doom crushers Noothgrush, who recently reformed and are about to play a show with the also together-again East Coast doomlords Winter.
Back in the nineties, Noothgrush were a ubiquitous presence, playing all the time, and releasing records at a crazy clip, splits to be precise, Noothgrush were the master of the split 7", sharing records with Corrupted, Gasp, Agents Of Satan, Deadbodieseverywhere, Black Army Jacket, Carol Ann, Wellington and more. And the interesting thing is the band never actually recorded a proper full length. In fact, the two 'albums' they released were both compilations, collecting all the comp tracks and singles. We reviewed Erode The Person, which is sadly now out of print again, which gathered up the later recordings of the band, and in the review we lamented the fact that this one was sadly out of print. Well it's available again, and is here to again remind the world, that there was some serious downtuned pummel and tarpit doomsludge creep happening LONG before Boris / SUNNO))) / Whitehorse and all the rest threw their dirge-doom hat into the ring. And like we mentioned before, Noothgrush were just about a decade too early.
So Failing Early, Failing Often, originally released on Bay Area powerviolence/fastcore label Slap A Ham, is brimming with Sabbath-at-16rpm dirgery and creeping blackened crawls, loads of feedback, the drums a glacial stumble, provided by the cute and diminutive Chiyo (she most definitely a nineties SF metalhead crush), the vocals a howled raspy bellow, lots of samples too, from movies, and politicians, the sound crusty and blackened, with many of the tracks here from the WAY early days, old demos and cassettes, which means the sound on those is even more filhty and lo-fi and raw. Punishing and heavy as fuck, droned out and dreary and druggy and so good, even all these years later.
Fans of the current crop of doomlords and dirge merchants, who somehow missed out on these guys (and gal) would do well to check this out. And if you loved Erode The Person, well this is the second part to what with EtP is essentially one massive compilation/career retrospective.
MPEG Stream: "Oil Removed"
MPEG Stream: "Extraction"
MPEG Stream: "Encasing"
MPEG Stream: "Bric-A-Brac"

OAKHELM Betwixt And Between (Parasitic) lp 14.98
NOW ON VINYL! Here's our review of Oakhelm's debut from when it came out on cd back in 2007:
If your cover art looks like a lost Unleashed album, sign us up. Portland's Oakhelm arrived at our fortress walls with axes in hand - both electric guitars and battle weapons, yes. Their debut album, Betwixt & Between, shows these rookie Vikings doing some serious shredding that would easily make it onto Dan Swano's iPod, possibly even Peter Tagtgren's just because of the vocals. That being said, these North-Westerners probably don't think you should be laughing because this ain't no joke, it's a call to arms. What are we fighting? Our best guess is dragons and Christian invaders. But seriously, all of the necessary ephemera is here, while a sense of irony is thankfully conspicuously absent. A very good thing. Now that that debate is over, you're free to embrace everything fantastic and mystical that died out alongside the popularity of many of the classic Century Media bands of the past. This is a die-hard attempt to re-create the glory of mid-'90s Northern-European death/black/Viking metal. We're especially reminded of ol' Viking horde Mithotyn at their most dark and doomful. Go ahead and headbang, but make sure not to fall off your horse. Did we mention that they have members of Fall of Bastards, Wormwood, L'Acephale, Black Queen and Assuck among their ranks?! Well, they do. Recommended!
Hopefully we'll have their new album soon too...
MPEG Stream: "Of Wood And Blood"
MPEG Stream: "These Boundaries"

OXYKITTEN The Streets Were Paved With Circuit Boards (Field Hymns) cassette 7.98
Full length number two from this mysterious cinematic lo-fi synthscaper from the Pacific Northwest, whose first record was a surprise hit around these parts. A surprise in part because of the strange band name, that didn't and doesn't even begin to hint at the creepy synthy bliss that lurks inside. And if anything, this new one takes everything we loved about the first tape, and shapes it into something less lo-fi summer-synth party jam, and more haunting John Carpenter style cinematic 8 bit mood music. And holy shit is this stuff good. All the bands out there peddling their particular brand of retro futuristic synthesized sound, would do well to keep an eye on this guy, cuz if this stuff gets the attention it truly deserves, the rest of the synth wranglers out there are really gonna have to up their game.
Needless to say, if you're a fan of folks like Gatekeeper, Bitchin Bajas, Xander Harris, Nightsatan, Stellar Om Source, Umberto, Majeure, Roll The Dice, Solar Bears and all the rest, then odds are you're gonna love this. But Oxykitten definitely has his own take on that sound, adding flurries of old school 8 bit bleepage and bloopage, or some darkly propulsive krautrock groove, often in the same song. Robotic space funk turns into alien eighties soundtrack turns into droned out analog kosmische drift and back again, "Nar Nar Dargarstar" might be our favorite, a buzzy creep, with dense swaths of thick low end buzz, warped minor key melodies, and cool little high end trills, like the soundtrack for the NES version of Deep Red Or Suspiria. AWESOME.
Includes a download code as well.
MPEG Stream: "Nar Nar Dargarstar"
MPEG Stream: "Black Light Ejaculation"
MPEG Stream: "Standing On the Edge of Getting On the Verge"

PARADE GROUND The Golden Years (Dark Entries) lp 15.98
Parade Ground are a Belgian duo, born in the new wave / post-punk explosion in the early '80s finding a sympathetic ear and an ongoing relationship with Patrick Coydens and Daniel B of Front 242. Despite the members of 242 encouraging, producing, and collaborating with Parade Ground, these Belgian lads didn't really fit within the EBM crowd that began to flourish in the mid-to-late '80s in their country. Their synth-pop melodicism drew more from the Brits, especially Wire and OMD. This collection, curated and released by Dark Entries, maps out Parade Ground's development from spiky post-punk into darkly tinged synth pop. Their 1987 anthem "Gold Rush" is featured here, as are the two collaborative tracks Parade Ground did with Colin Newman of Wire.

PERSISTENCE IN MOURNING Confessions Of An American Cult (Land Of Decay) cassette 9.98
Latest blast of twisted druggy slo-mo heaviness from this Oakland outsider doomlord, whose sound seems to have reached some sort of bizarre apex with Confessions, the first song alone tells the tale, plonked funeral piano, all manner of sampled voices, the vocals a demonic shriek, the riffs blackened and buzzy, what sounds like crickets, beneath spidery minor key melodies, it's haunting and harrowing, almost like a more 'musical' Gnaw Their Tongues, the same sort of sprawling cinematic vibe, the sound weirdly industrial too, an ominous creep, that in places reminds us of Wolf Eyes.
And the whole record pretty much follow suit, like some twisted soundtrack, the sound a bleak, miserable drift through various horrifying tableaus, the voices croon, weep, howl, the piano seems to underpin it all, some mysterious bit of miserable melodicism, underpinning the grinding, buzzing blackness above, the sounds coalescing into riffs here and there, laced with spidery acoustic guitars, occasionally splintering into metallic shards, clattery and cacophony, blown out and blackened, all the while, strangely melodic, utterly haunting, definitely noisy, but muted and muddy, as if these sonic horrors were being viewed through a dirty blood smeared window, in a dilapidated old house, or through a crack in the wall of an old musty cellar. And it's almost as if all of these sounds, and all of this music, was fighting some unseen black force, an invisible hand reaching from the beyond, the music in a constant state of struggle, of anguish, the sound of a tortured soul, a sonic glimpse into the blackness that lurks beneath the everyday, a sound desperately clawing its way heavenward, while some grim force forever drags it right back down into the depthsÉ
WAY recommended for fans of Gnaw Their Tongues, Bunkur, Celestiial, HQO, Loss, Monument Of Urns and other purveyors of bizarre bleak blackness.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!

PRURIENT Bermuda Drain (Hydra Head) cd 15.98
Dominick Fernow who runs Hospital Productions, a record store AND label, has had to keep his main, mostly noise project, that would be Prurient, on the back burner for a while now, as he is now also a full fledged member of electro cold wave pop troupe Cold Cave, and what with touring and recording, it's seems like it's been quite a while since we've heard anything new. In the past, Prurient records could go one of two ways, blistering noise and caustic crunch, or dark thick brooding blackened dronemusic, often some mix of the two. But after all this Cold Caving, we weren't sure what to expect, but it definitely wasn't this. We did expect some of the CC sound to rub off on him, how could it not, but orthodox noise freeks will be very confused and disappointed, cuz this is essential a blackened synth heavy coldwave noise rock blowout, and it actually kind of rules! The liner notes instruct the listener to "Listen on headphones at night while driving through tunnels in Europe", and that is sort of what it sounds like, a few of the tracks like supercharged noise drenched versions of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn", while others like meaner more brutal takes on Cold Cave. Fear not, there's still plenty of noise, and howling hateful vox, but those elements are doled out judiciously this time around, and its the juxtaposition between those harsher elements, and the more synthy/krautrocky/propulsive bits that make this so goddamn good.
Opener "Many Jewels Surround The Crown" begins with a wild distorted shriek, and a wall of distorted crumbling blackness, but then in swoop synths, swirling strings, it almost sounds like it could be the soundtrack for some Tron like film, all sleek and reflective, but a bit decayed and decrepit, a futuristic post apocalyptic soundscape, a voice intones beneath pulsing kosmische synths, barraged by blasts of distorted crunch, and thick swaths of blackened bass. This is quickly followed by some pounding electro-punk, the vocals a gruff bellow, over thick driving synths and blasting programmed drums, all laced with warm whirling melodies, total new wave for sure, but sounding like Majeure or Zombi remixed by Alec Empire.
The rest of the record plays out like some beautiful and bizarre soundtrack, slipping easily from sprawls of crunchy droned out noise, to lush, swirling string laden shimmer, to lumbering bass heavy synthbuzz thrum, to total Depeche Mode-is electro pop, but again, that pop flecked with shrieked almost black metal vocals, which totally changes the tenor, while other tracks drift along blissfully, layering distant muted throbs beneath ethereal streaks of washed out synth and sweetly melancholy melodies, and finally finishing off with the epic "Sugar Can Chapel", a sort of noise drenched M83 slow build shoegaze psychedelic synth blowout, that manages to be darkly atmospheric and blackly blissed out.
Easily the most accessible Prurient record yet, and anyone who wishes that new wave of retro synth stuff had a lot more blackened bit to it, well, this might just be what you were looking for.
NB we got this on vinyl too, but not as many as we'd hoped, we might still have just a couple so ask if you're interested...
MPEG Stream: "Many Jewels Surround The Crown"
MPEG Stream: "A Meal Can Be Made"
MPEG Stream: "Bermuda Drain"
MPEG Stream: "Sugar Cane Chapel"

RAMONES Road To Ruin (Sire) lp 14.98
While the debut Ramones album, gets much of the punk rock history glory, (as it should, cuz it really one of the greatest albums of all time!) we could still make a strong argument for Road To Ruin being our favorite Ramones album. Their fourth album, released in 1978, Road To Ruin is pretty much as good as pop music gets! Filled with classic Ramones blitzkrieg fast punk pop, as well as showing another side of themselves on their awesome cover of the Sonny & Cher classic "Needles & Pins". All we really have to say is that this is the album that inspired the Bad Brains to become a band, as they got their moniker from the song "Bad Brain". We love this record so much because besides the well known Ramones songs on here like "I Wanna Be Sedated", "I Wanted Everything", and "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" there are so many awesome songs that somehow never end up on any of the many different Ramones best-of collections. While they really are a band who have been immortalized on so many of those collections, all their records deserve individual attention. They really just didn't slip up that much, or ever actually. Not one throwaway song on Road To Ruin, it all rules!

SANDERS, PHAROAH Village of The Pharoahs / Wisdom Through Music (Impulse) cd 16.98
We have a trifecta of free jazz "twofers" this week from way deep down in the Impulse catalog. Check out the reviews elsewhere on the list for Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. While the Coltrane features two of our favorite titles from her, the Ayler and Sanders releases are from albums we're less familiar with, or at least hadn't reviewed before, but have been psyched to (re-)discover. While perhaps not the best place to be introduced to these artists, these records reward those seekers of the overlooked deep cuts without the hefty collector/import price!
Village of The Pharoahs is from 1974, and while that may be a late year for most cosmically-minded free jazz (most jazz at the time was hurtling towards fusion), this record does not disappoint. Fans of classic Sanders records like Thembi and Karma will find lots to love in the opening three part title suite. Sitars, piano, clattering percussion, and chanting vocals evoke a majestic marching groove rife with drama as soon as Sanders comes in with his elliptical eastern horn phrases, culminating later in a hypnotic three part tribal chant breakdown. Deeper spiritual vocalising permeates the short track, "Myth" as well, before building onto the long-form piano-led meditation "Mansion Worlds". The final two tracks, "Memories of Lee Morgan" and "Went Like It Came" venture more into Blute Note territory as he eulogizes the late trumpeter with a wistful pastoral piece that also includes flute and piano, then ends the album with a kind of rollicking skronky blues bop with a soulful female vocalist.
That last track would probably read as a bit out of place on the album proper, but paired up with 1972's Wisdom Through Music, that kind of hard stylistic change-up is a perfect segue into one of Sander's more diverse outings. Opening with the energetic "High Life", Sanders channels the exuberant vibe of percussive African horn music followed by the celebratory and soulful "Love Is Everywhere". The title track that follows brings us back into cosmic mode with harp trills, tampura, and majestic waves of droning reeds, followed by the lyrical string excursion of "The Golden Lamp" and the final long-form vocal incantation, "Selflessness". Quite Stunning!
MPEG Stream: "Village of The Pharoahs Part One"
MPEG Stream: "Memories of Lee Morgan"
MPEG Stream: "Wisdom Through Music"
MPEG Stream: "Selflessness"

SINISTER REALM The Crystal Eye (Shadow Kingdom) cd 14.98
Album #2 from Allentown, PA's Sinister Realm, and if you're looking for the most metal thing on this week's list, this is it! Well, next to the other Shadow Kingdom release, their reissue of Manilla Road's The Deluge. But that's an underground '80s metal classic, while this one is brand spankin' new. And it smokes. Sinister Realm are very epic and '80s sounding indeed, in the grand tradition of such bands as Judas Priest (livin' waaaay after midnight), Mercyful Fate, Manowar, Maiden, Candlemass... The kind of rockin' heavy metal that Satan actually listens to, 'cause you know he's at least as old as your dad, right?
Yeah, Satan would love this, with its headbanging riffs and commanding vocals... Especially on the slower, Sabbathier numbers like the title track, vocalist Alex Kristof really gets his Dio on. Dude's got a classic voice, and puts it to good use here, being Sinister Realm's main draw, though the prominent bass and the dual wailing/weedly guitars vie for supremacy as well. This is trudging and triumphant ("With swords held high we ride") all the way through to the ambitious album ender "The Tower Is Burning", nearly nine majestic minutes long, with eerie choirs and orchestration giving the definite impression that they love Satan right back.
Wow. Horns up! Another top contender in the string of excellent trad metal albums to come out this year thus far: Argus, In Solitude, Portrait, Twisted Tower Dire...
MPEG Stream: "Winds Of Vengeance"
MPEG Stream: "The Crystal Eye"
MPEG Stream: "At The Hands Of The Tormentor"

SOFT METALS s/t (Captured Tracks) cd 13.98
Soft Metals have really upped the ante with their sophomore effort, as they have created one of the most sensual and seductive albums of the year. Female vocals that melt with an icy detachment, and Euro-synth stylings that walk the line between the dancefloor and somewhere darker and weirder. Like a lo-fi Goldfrapp adding vocals to a lost Goblin score, or Fever Ray hosting an after hours party at an alternate universe Studio 54, the album flows and comes together so perfectly, the music is just as important as the vocals and together they swirl, sway, and achieve absolute late night bliss. We've been playing this nonstop, a record that pleases so immediately, but that you want to keep around you as on repeated listens it delves and burrows even deeper into our subconscious...
MPEG Stream: "Psychic Driving"
MPEG Stream: "Eyes Closed"
MPEG Stream: "Always"

SOFT METALS s/t (Captured Tracks) lp 16.98
Soft Metals have really upped the ante with their sophomore effort, as they have created one of the most sensual and seductive albums of the year. Female vocals that melt with an icy detachment, and Euro-synth stylings that walk the line between the dancefloor and somewhere darker and weirder. Like a lo-fi Goldfrapp adding vocals to a lost Goblin score, or Fever Ray hosting an after hours party at an alternate universe Studio 54, the album flows and comes together so perfectly, the music is just as important as the vocals and together they swirl, sway, and achieve absolute late night bliss. We've been playing this nonstop, a record that pleases so immediately, but that you want to keep around you as on repeated listens it delves and burrows even deeper into our subconscious...
MPEG Stream: "Psychic Driving"
MPEG Stream: "Eyes Closed"
MPEG Stream: "Always"

STRIBORG / VEIL OF DARKNESS Cold Winter Moon / In The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death (Finsternis) cd 12.98
It's been a while since we've heard from Tasmanian one man black metal band Striborg. There was a time, that nary a list would go by without a new release, featuring that distinctive Striborg sound, plodding, miserable blackness doused in sheets of distortion and buzz that were so thick and hissy, they almost sounded like field recordings of rain on steel rooftops.
Ostensibly this is a split, between Striborg, and a band called Veil Of Darkness, who we had never heard before, but who in fact, just so happens to be Sin-Nanna as well, Mr. Striborg himself. Strange. Both Halves of this split were recorded a while ago, 1997-2000, and in fact the Striborg stuff predates the VoD stuff, so not sure what was going on. What we do know, is that everything we love about Striborg is in full effect here, maybe even moreso, the opening track is super distorted, the sound crumbling and blackened, the buzz so thick and blown out, that the riffs are barely discernible, after a brief bit of doomic plod, the sound lurches into a dense frenzied blast, all blurred and murky, the drums a machinelike pound, the vokills a sinister croak, and minus the vocals, the music is locked and looped into a trancelike blur that doesn't let up for the rest of the song. And so it goes, from brittle blasting blackness, to murky ambient drift, the sound super lo-fi, raw and grim, but infused with a seriously sinister vibe, especially on the droned out ambient tracks, with Sin-Nanna growling over thick churning drones, and weird bits of random electronics, hiss and static, before finishing off with a brief blast of start and stop black buzz, with maybe the weirdest production of the bunch, the vocals heavily reverbed, almost dubby, and the drums, the snare sounds like a video game bleep, and the cymbals sound like old tin buckets, but those weird sounds are woven into some blurry murky blasts and a closing blast of atonal organ buzz. Weird and so cool.
So how does Striborg's Veil Of Darkness alter ego stack up? Pretty well in fact, although now we have an idea why Sin-Nanna required a different musical vehicle, as VoD is all ambient, laced with stretches of power electronics, and black buzz. Creepy and otherwordly, darkly droney, disembodied voices, swirling effects, tinkling melodies, sheets of static and thick swirls of buzz, wheezing keyboards, chanted monklike vox, and finally on the closer "Pure Black Energy", some seriously intense pure black sonic energy, an ultra distorted buzzscape constructed from what sounds like super processed drum machines, all chopped up and doused in effects and cranked WAY into the red, for a strange crunchy, crumbling bit of rhythmic weirdness, that sounds almost like it should be on a Will Over Matter record. Killer stuff, from both 'bands'.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: STRIBORG "Misanthropic Isolation"
MPEG Stream: STRIBORG "Path To The Gate Of Beliar"
MPEG Stream: VEIL OF DARKNESS "Pale Shadow Of The Undead"
MPEG Stream: VEIL OF DARKNESS "As The Mist Casts Across The Haunted Cemetery"

SUN CIRCLE Tapes (Autumn) 2cd 23.00
Originally released for a Japanese tour with Grouper and Ben Vida, Tapes is a collection of, yep, you guessed it, tapes, from this drone duo, whose last two records were big hits around here, SC's sound a super minimal blend of hushed layered dronemusic and cosmic ragas, often creating epic pieces from single sound sources, like the gong piece on the Lessness lp, which might be one of our favorite Sun Circle tracks ever, a sprawl of deep sonorous shimmering metallic thrum.
Tapes, as we mentioned, collects a handful of previously released, and now out of print, cassette releases, and offers them on cd for the first time, along with two previously unreleased tracks, none of the songs here titled, instead, presented with a description of where they came from, how they were created and sometimes how limited the original release was.
Six tracks, the longest 22:24, the shortest 13:05, all gorgeously minimal, and each displaying a different side of Sun Circle's sound. The opener is from a 2007 split tape limited to just 50 copies, and is a 21+ minute synthscape/rage, beginning with pulsing analog synths, very tranced out and hypnotic, before a metallic buzz begins to form, and slowly builds, eventually blossoming into a thick layered drone, rich and lustrous, there also seems to be voices, all these sounds woven into thins softly undulating streak of warm effulgent sound, which continues on even as that initial synth fades out, finishing with a hazy bit of metallic shimmer and buzz. the second track is from another split tape, this one from 2008 and limited to 100 copies, and begins as a slow burn bit of abstract drone/drift, smoldering and humid, that initial drone laced with streaks of complimentary sound, longform tones, swirling overtones, the whole thing almost sounding like a symphony in slow motion. Hazy and shimmery and dreamy. The final track on the first cd is a collage of ALL of the live sets from a 2007 tour, just voice and organ, but 11 different performances layered on top of each other, resulting in a sweet slab of thick warm blur and buzz, super mesmerizing, culminating in an explosive noisy final movement.
The second disc begins with a live track, taken from a 2009 tour tape, limited to 100 copies, and begins as a delicate drift, which is soon joined by some bagpipe like buzz (harmonium?), wheezing chords over that warm minimal shimmer, very ritualistic sounding, just drifting and drifting, until the second half where the sound seems to become more muted, the edges worn to a dull glow, the sound a bleary blurred expanse of soft metallic shimmer, driven by a simple rhythmic beating drum. The second track is taken from the same tour tape, and was recorded in 2009 right here in SF at the Swedish American Hall, and is the most rhythmic of the bunch, starting out with some tribal drumming, all over a distant low end thrum, it's not until about 3 minutes in, that a buzz begins to surface, quickly burying the drums beneath its unwavering, slow shifting whir, some serious soft noise mesmer, that goes on and on and on, completely sucking the listener in, before fading out about 12 minutes later, leaving just those drums to finish things off.
Finally, the last track is previously unreleased improvisation, overtone singing performed in a acoustical echo chamber, and then layered over recordings of gongs from an earlier tour, and if there's anything we can think of that could sound better than that, we sure don't know what. The voices and gongs wreathed in reverb and natural echo and delay, the notes stretching way out, all manner of harmonies and overtones, totally heavenly minimal dronemusic, and barring a brief squall of crunchy distorted noise, the whole track is hushed and delicate, drifty and dreamlike. So good.
Nice packaging too, two color silkscreened origami style folded cardstock sleeves, with a printed insert, featuring all the liner notes.
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

SUNCHARIOT Climbing The Avalanche (Brotherhood Of Light) cassette 5.98
Ultra limited tape from this Russian black metal horde, whose sound is anything but traditionally black metal, whether this is by design, or by chance, the sound of Sunchariot is a thick, washed out, blurred bit of murky buzz, that minus the bellowed vox, could very well be mistaken for a weirdly rocking bit of Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker, the riffs smeared into warm gristly swells, the machinelike pound of the drums, buried under the heaving blackened swells of crumbling melody, and weirdly swoonsome synths, that only reveal themselves when the blast and buzz recedes. The vocals two, transform into a sort of raspy croon during those brief moments, only to revert to a gruff bellow. All the while, a second guitar unwinds a twisted bit of melody that sounds strangely processed, pulsing over the top, a sort of of twisted, atonal lead, that seems to be melting into the roiling blackness beneath it.
Definitely fierce and heavy and intense and most definitely black metal, it's also twisted and off kilter enough, that the sound here almost transcends black metal, and is transformed into some sort of buzz drenched apocalyptic folk, or some soft noise industrial dronemusic, the songs and melodies almost sounding like some mysterious traditionals all twisted up. And when the vocals also slip into the fuzz and buzz, it becomes even more blearily bizarre and darkly dreamy.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Each one hand numbered.

SURT Muspellsheimr (Brotherhood Of Light) cassette 5.98
Super limited tape from this local one man band, who traffics in a sort of folk flecked lo-fi acoustic blackened ambience, all darkly strummed acoustic guitars, shimmering synths, spidery melodies, disembodied voices, whirling atmospheres, the sounds wreathed in reverb, everything just a bit warped and woozy, reminds us a bit of an acoustic ambient version of German black metal weirdos Varghkoghargasmal, a stumbling bit of windswept kosmische drift, that slips easily from hushed mesmer to urgent tension, the sounds unfurling dramatically and cinematically, occasionally slipping into long expanses of spare and sparse, almost chamber music sounding minimalism, but just as often a sprawling bit of chiming strum that sounds like a black metal interlude that blossomed into a full song, lots of soft focus haze and warm tendrils of tape hiss, while the guitars emit soft melodic tangles and blurred gauzy ambience.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Each one hand numbered.

TRIMBLE, BOBB The Crippled Dog Band (Yoga) cd 14.98
Wonders never cease. About four or five years ago, the Secretly Canadian label did a big favor to obscure music lovers everywhere and brought out deluxe, at long last legit reissues of the two rare private press albums that obscure DIY psych pop genius Bobb Trimble released in the early '80s. We love those two so much, we made both reissues Records Of The Week. Trimble's Iron Curtain Innocence (1980) and Harvest Of Dreams (1982) are timeless, cult artifacts, of which we said: "...you have just been handed the key to a secret realm, an alternate rock n' roll universe of dark despair, fragile hope, and gossamer beauty, a haunting personal soundworld that will always stay with you, within you...", and favorably compared to everyone from Lennon/McCartney to Pink Floyd to Roy Harper to Marc Bolan to Richard Youngs to Ariel Pink.
Well, we had no idea that those two albums weren't the entirely of Trimble's discography. But now, happily we learn that there was a THIRD even rarer Trimble lp, and it's just been reissued as well!!! And it too is a doozy.
Turns out that a year or two after Harvest Of Dreams was released into an uncaring world, the 20-something Trimble teamed up with a local Worcester, Massachusetts gang of teenagers (some of whom we think had been in the even younger group, The Kidds, who are heard on some songs on a song or two on Harvest Of Dreams) called The Crippled Dog Band, named after the three-legged dog seen on the cover of this album, presumably. Who doesn't love a three-legged dog? Together, they played shows - and, better yet, for us today - made an album, this one, in '84, which captures the outsider psych-pop brilliance of Trimble's songwriting in exuberant collision/collusion with youthful rock n' roll energy.
Yeah, compared to Trimble's two "solo" albums, this could be considered to be more rockin', more "punk", more band-like. And more '80s as well, if only 'cause of the sci-fi video arcade game sounds that appear here on the intro and outro tracks! The songs, while typically Trimble-poppy (and graced with his delicate, high and whispy vox) are also often loud and raucous and awash in feedback and FX. At times we're kinda reminded of The Dickies.
Most are in the 2-3 minute range, though they do a version of one of our favorite Trimble songs, "Armour Of The Shroud", that stretches out for over six minutes, as per the epic original that appeared on Harvest Of Dreams. They also do "Galilean Boy", a demo of which appeared as a bonus track on SC's reissue of HoD. The other "cover" here is a reinterpretation of The Beatles' "All Together Now", which Trimble and The Crippled Dog Band really make their own, converting it into a theme song of sorts, near the beginning of the album: "Singin' the Crippled Dog anthem / ruff ruff / ruff ruff!"
There's something so wonderfully charming about that, eh? And the teenage spark of Trimble's cohorts here is infectious, the band tearing it up, gritty garagey psych stomp style across much of this disc. Ferinstance, there's the distortodelic Eastern vibe of "Camel Song", and "Angel Eyes" is another that offers up some pretty heavy-duty, driving psych gunk for your earholes. And those are only a few of the punked up Pepperisms to be found on this delightful disc. Some songs are darker ("Undercovers Man"), others, pure fun ("Poker Game Of Life").
Apparently, the story goes, The Crippled Dog Band came to an end shortly after this was recorded, for whatever reason, and with no hope of selling 'em, almost all of original pressing of 500 lps was unceremoniously disposed of by Bobb in a dumpster! Good grief. Thankfully, the actual recordings weren't lost, and this reissue has finally arrived to allow The Crippled Dog Band to be heard again - it's certainly getting a lot of play here at AQ! Recommended, ruff ruff!!
MPEG Stream: "All Together Now"
MPEG Stream: "Live Wire "
MPEG Stream: "Angel Eyes"

TRMRS Surf Titties (Words & Dreams) cassette 5.98
These guys kicked out asses recently with the distortion drenched blown out garage rock jangle pop of their debut Sea Things, positioning them firmly alongside sonic brethren like Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Sic Alps, Waaves, Surfer Blood, Soft Pack, and all the rest. This new tape offers up a handful of new songs, paired with a selection of tracks from Sea Things, so for those who somehow missed out on that gem, or who were waiting for the cassette version (?), well here's what we had to say about Sea Things (the rest of you can skip this part):
Jangly, super hooky, slightly surfy, psychedelic garage rock. And while there may be a glut of folks going for that sound, these guys do it way better than most, and totally make it their own. Self described as 'trash pop', that's pretty much what this sounds like, trashy and poppy, and loose and super rocking, the guitars are crunchy and jangly, the vocals a melodic yelp, the drums propulsive, reverb all over the place, and the songs are hooky as hell. More garagey and raw, than purely poppy, but that raw garage is infused with plenty of poppiness, reminding us a bit of a slightly more song oriented Coachwhips, you can definitely tell that live these guys probably have the crowd bouncing and sweaty and losing their shit. And it's easy to hear why.
The new tracks here, are as you might have guessed, more of the same, cut from the same sonic cloth, with maybe a bit more production polish here and there, some cool backwards effects, a slightly less lo-fi sound, but then the sound is as much of this music as the songs are, so the sound stays appropriately fuzzy and washed out and reverby, and in places gets even more noisy and crunchy than before, the 4 jams here offering up another heaping helping of gloriously buzzy Sixties influenced surf rocky fuzz pop that could have (and probably did) come straight from the same sessions that produced Sea Things, but hell, we're not complaining, more TRMRS is what we were hankering for anyway, so here it is. And the new songs do kill, hooky and rocking, sweat drenched and distorted, and catchy as all get out. And like we mentioned before, we're surprised these guys haven't yet landed on some big label (Mexican Summer? In The Red?) yet, but we're guessing it's only a matter of time.
Comes with two stickers, one of which has a download code for a digital version of the whole tape! Sweet occultic skull artwork too!

TROUM (PREORDER) Saiws (Equation) 7" 42.00
This is a preorder, for what might be the most extravagantly packaged 7" we've ever seen, and quite possibly the most expensive. Which is precisely why this is a preorder, as it's incredibly pricey, so we can only afford to get as many copies as we get orders for, and it's extremely limited (only 179 copies!!), and even with the crazy price tag, they're going fast, so if you want one, now is the time to order one, cuz again, we'll only be getting enough copies for the people who actually order them. What's the hubbub you ask? Well have a look at the picture, the record is a gorgeous picture disc 7", pressed on super thick vinyl, and housed in a transparent waterproof plastic die cut sleeve, filled with blue gel and shimmery glitter, which when combined with the picture disc, creates psychedelic underwater effects, it's really quite breathtaking, and considering the packaging, and how few they made, well, that's exactly why they are so crazy expensive.
But it is a record after all, not just an object d'art, and as always, it's another fantastic collection of "guitar drone-muzak" from this German duo, the A side a lush and luxurious, almost symphonic soundscape, all chiming melodies, hazy loops, lush orchestral swells, warm swirling chordal shimmer, very epic and cinematic, sprawling and majestic, laced with strange effects and glimmering electronics. The B side is darker and more minimal, but still hauntingly cinematic, woven from softly undulating drones, dreamy and melodic and a little dirgelike, a slow dramatic build that begins hushed and abstract, but soon blossoms into another miniature soundtracky epic.
As with pretty much all Troum releases, sonically totally recommended, and as for the packaging, well, we've maybe never seen such a deluxe and over the top 7".
Again, this is a PRE-ORDER, which means if you want one, order one now, you will be charged for the price of the record, but it won't ship until later, at which point it can either ship with your current order, or we can calculate the postage when the records arrive, and charge you the shipping then.

V/A Fanafody: A Collection Of Recordings & Photography From Madagasikara Volume II (Mississippi) lp 14.98
MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!
It's really getting to where we barely have to describe these at all. And not just because of the Mississippi obsessives. The collections are so lovingly curated, every step of the process, from the actual recording of the music, to the booklets and the jackets, and most importantly the amazing sounds inside, any one with even the slightest bit of interest in world musics, would be foolish to pass any of these up. Including this, volume two in this series of field recordings from Madagascar, the first volume so limited we were never able to get any copies at all. The sounds here were gathered by Canadian field recordist Charlie Brooks, and most were recorded on a trip there in 2002, focusing mostly on violin players and throat singers, although the sounds here are quite varied. There is so much info in the liner notes about the region, and the history, and that alone makes this a worthwhile purchase, but the music, it's fantastic, haunting, and lovely and beautiful, incredible vocal harmonies, the violins emit sweet melodies one second, intense buzzing the next, there are wheezing accordions, some of the tracks sound almost Hawaiian, the strings reminding us of ukeleles, throughout the songs are laced with street sounds, birds chirping, cars driving by, children laughing, conversations, all just adding to the vibe, and the energy, with a few of the tracks droned our and mesmerizing, sounding a bit like some mysterious variation of American Appalachia. Incredible!
Housed in a super heavy old school tip-on style jacket, and includes a massive booklet filled with liner notes on the music, the region, the performers, as well as lots of photos.

V/A Horse Meat Disco III (Strut) 2cd 16.98
Third thrilling blast of disco/house greatness curated and mixed by the Horse Meat Disco crew out of the UK. These boys know their vintage disco and house, so we always look forward to their compilations to get turned on to so much obscure vintage gay discotheque glory, as well as getting to hear some of our favorites in a mix of dance floor bliss.
This time out the the Horse Meat crew tag team a mix on each of discs / records here. What makes this edition of this series unique is how they really span many generations of dance music with seamless ease. From Sylvester to Dimitri From Paris, Two Tons O' Fun to Todd Terje edits. And it's on this collection that the Horse Meat crew really show the transition from disco into the beginnings of house. These are the sounds blasting at the best San Francisco steamy, sketchy and sassy gay discos. Claudja Barry blasting at Tubesteak Connection at Aunt Charlies in the Tenderloin, Tambi moving all kinds of hot messes at a Honey Soundsystem party. As fun as those parties are, we still wish we could get to the UK sometime to experience one of the Horse Meat Disco parties in the flesh. We know their taste and brilliant mixing makes for an epic night of dancefloor bliss. It really is the kind of dance music that makes you throw out any negative or stale energy you might have, and allow yourself to get moved into a sweaty blissed out euphoria.
MPEG Stream: CLAUDJA BARRY "Sweet Dynamite (Todd Terje Edit)"
MPEG Stream: SYLVESTER "Stars"
MPEG Stream: ELAINE & ELLEN "You Made Me Do It AGain"
MPEG Stream: IDRIS MUHAMMAD "For Your Love (Disco Mix)"

V/A Horse Meat Disco III (Strut) 2lp 28.00
Third thrilling blast of disco/house greatness curated and mixed by the Horse Meat Disco crew out of the UK. These boys know their vintage disco and house, so we always look forward to their compilations to get turned on to so much obscure vintage gay discotheque glory, as well as getting to hear some of our favorites in a mix of dance floor bliss.
This time out the the Horse Meat crew tag team a mix on each of discs / records here. What makes this edition of this series unique is how they really span many generations of dance music with seamless ease. From Sylvester to Dimitri From Paris, Two Tons O' Fun to Todd Terje edits. And it's on this collection that the Horse Meat crew really show the transition from disco into the beginnings of house. These are the sounds blasting at the best San Francisco steamy, sketchy and sassy gay discos. Claudja Barry blasting at Tubesteak Connection at Aunt Charlies in the Tenderloin, Tambi moving all kinds of hot messes at a Honey Soundsystem party. As fun as those parties are, we still wish we could get to the UK sometime to experience one of the Horse Meat Disco parties in the flesh. We know their taste and brilliant mixing makes for an epic night of dancefloor bliss. It really is the kind of dance music that makes you throw out any negative or stale energy you might have, and allow yourself to get moved into a sweaty blissed out euphoria.
MPEG Stream: CLAUDJA BARRY "Sweet Dynamite (Todd Terje Edit)"
MPEG Stream: SYLVESTER "Stars"
MPEG Stream: ELAINE & ELLEN "You Made Me Do It AGain"
MPEG Stream: IDRIS MUHAMMAD "For Your Love (Disco Mix)"

V/A Lukk Opp Kirkens Dorer: A Selection Of Norwegian Christian Jazz, Psych, Funk & Folk 1970-1980 (Plastic Strip Press) cd 17.98
Maybe this will make up for all the Satanic Norwegian church-burning music we sell! A compilation of, as the subtitle puts it, "A Selection Of Norwegian Christian Jazz, Psych, Funk & Folk 1970-1980". And it's quite fantastic. Quasi-kitschy Xtian funky and folky fun, with an acid-rock edge, really good stuff indeed, and 'cause the lyrics are all in Norwegian, those of us with an aversion to God-talk can comfortably listen to this without feeling like we're being preached to! Well you can tell when they sing "Hallelujah" and "Jesus" but the accent makes it cool. Apparently, there was quite a burgeoning youth-oriented Christian music scene and attendant recording industry in Norway in the '70s, kickstarted in the late '60s by something called the Ten-Sing or Teenage Singing movement, a kind of Norwegian version of Up With People!, further powered by the whole Jesus Freak thing that came along when hippies everywhere started to find God. So, this music, while Christian, isn't exactly square. It's full of fuzz guitars and fuzzy analog synth, gorgeous female vocals and bombastic brass, and is moving not just in spiritual way, but also movin' in more of a GROOVY kind of way. And is very delightfully very seventies sounding, from jazzy disco fusion to rock opera to delicate singer-songwriter stuff. There's 20 tracks in all on this import cd (13 on the vinyl version), sunshiney testifyin' from the following artists: Joyful Singers, Good News, That's Why, Arnold Borud, Keryx, The Crossing, Angelos, Sky Sing, The Heralds, Jan Simonsens, Kari Hansa & Gregers Hes, Grete Salomensen, Soli Deo, Reflex, and Presens. The digipak cd comes with a 36 page booklet, and the lp too has a printed insert, featuring extensive liner notes and vintage photos.
Hip '70s Norwegian groovy gospel music, who knew? Hallelujah! Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: JOYFUL SINGERS "Kort Appell"
MPEG Stream: GOOD NEWS "Konklusjon"
MPEG Stream: THAT'S WHY "Dyp Av Nade"
MPEG Stream: GRETE SALOMENSEN "I Ham"
MPEG Stream: SOLI DEO "No Smoking"

V/A Lukk Opp Kirkens Dorer: A Selection Of Norwegian Christian Jazz, Psych, Funk & Folk 1970-1980 (Plastic Strip Press) lp 23.00
Maybe this will make up for all the Satanic Norwegian church-burning music we sell! A compilation of, as the subtitle puts it, "A Selection Of Norwegian Christian Jazz, Psych, Funk & Folk 1970-1980". And it's quite fantastic. Quasi-kitschy Xtian funky and folky fun, with an acid-rock edge, really good stuff indeed, and 'cause the lyrics are all in Norwegian, those of us with an aversion to God-talk can comfortably listen to this without feeling like we're being preached to! Well you can tell when they sing "Hallelujah" and "Jesus" but the accent makes it cool. Apparently, there was quite a burgeoning youth-oriented Christian music scene and attendant recording industry in Norway in the '70s, kickstarted in the late '60s by something called the Ten-Sing or Teenage Singing movement, a kind of Norwegian version of Up With People!, further powered by the whole Jesus Freak thing that came along when hippies everywhere started to find God. So, this music, while Christian, isn't exactly square. It's full of fuzz guitars and fuzzy analog synth, gorgeous female vocals and bombastic brass, and is moving not just in spiritual way, but also movin' in more of a GROOVY kind of way. And is very delightfully very seventies sounding, from jazzy disco fusion to rock opera to delicate singer-songwriter stuff. There's 20 tracks in all on this import cd (13 on the vinyl version), sunshiney testifyin' from the following artists: Joyful Singers, Good News, That's Why, Arnold Borud, Keryx, The Crossing, Angelos, Sky Sing, The Heralds, Jan Simonsens, Kari Hansa & Gregers Hes, Grete Salomensen, Soli Deo, Reflex, and Presens. The digipak cd comes with a 36 page booklet, and the lp too has a printed insert, featuring extensive liner notes and vintage photos.
Hip '70s Norwegian groovy gospel music, who knew? Hallelujah! Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: JOYFUL SINGERS "Kort Appell"
MPEG Stream: GOOD NEWS "Konklusjon"
MPEG Stream: THAT'S WHY "Dyp Av Nade"
MPEG Stream: GRETE SALOMENSEN "I Ham"
MPEG Stream: SOLI DEO "No Smoking"

V/A Not The Spaces You Know, But Between Them (Three Lobed) 4lp box 80.00
This is another one of those compilations that seems custom made for aQuarius. And one that needs very little in the way of a description except for a list of the bands who contribute exclusive material to this sprawling quadruple lp celebration of Three Lobed's tenth anniversary. The packaging is out of this world, totally over the top, but before we get to that, let's give you that list, and odds are, some of you can stop there and add this gem to your cart and be done with it:
SUN CITY GIRLS
SONIC YOUTH
BARDO POND
COMETS ON FIRE
ETERNAL TAPESTRY
STEVE GUNN
MOUTHUS
D.CHARLES SPEER / WOODEN WAND
Not too shabby for sure!
Each band gets a whole side, and here's some more details on the contributions. The Sun City Girls tracks are live recordings from Emo's in Austin Texas from their final US show EVER. The Sonic Youth tracks were recorded over the space of 10 years, one in 2010, the other in 2000. The Comets On Fire side is a collage of various recordings made between 2006 and 2010. The Bardo Pond side is a 20 minute long exclusive track recorded in 2010. The Eternal Tapestry side is a reworking of an old track, slowed down, with lots of added organ! The Mouthus side features two new exclusive tracks recorded in 2010. The Steve Gunn side features a new recording, made earlier this year of a live staple, and finally, D. Charles Speer & The Helix and Wooden Wand share a side, the Speer tracks feature Dave Nuss from No Neck Blues Band. Phew. And that's just the music. This box is also a serious chunk of musical art.
The vinyl is all pressed on super thick 140 gram vinyl, and each lp is housed in a full color printed inner sleeve. There's a big folded insert with liner notes from Wire / Pitchfork scribe Marc Masters, there is also a download card for mp3s of all the music, and the whole thing is stashed in a gorgeous, heavy Stoughton lp box. It's definitely incredible, and well worth the price. It is HEAVY though, so if you order this, it will NOT count as a single item, whatever your shipping, whether it's just this box, or this box along with other stuff, it will ship by weight.
And besides all that, this thing is CRAZY limited. We got a whole bunch, but we're not sure how many are left, or how many we will be able to get (if any) once we run out, so best to grab one quick before they are gone for good.

V/A Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love: Motowns Mowest Story 1971-1973 (Light In The Attic / Mowest) cd 16.98
Out of all of Motown's small subsidiary labels, Mowest may have been the most stylistically diverse. Created as an outlet for Motown's West Coast based artists, its brief existence between 1971-1973 before Motown set up shop in Los Angeles full time, covered a fertile period of music-making that was freed from pre-defined genre constraints. Where else could the soulful exuberance of the Commodores, the slow proto-disco groove of Odyssey and The Sisters Love, the late-period vocal pop of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and the stoner hippie vibes of Lodi commingle together? As usual, Light In The Attic does a stellar job of highlighting the amazing aspects of this brief label, re-introducing to the world some of its lesser known artists such as The Nu Page, Suzee Ikeda, and G.C. Cameron, while showing the early career promise of Syreeta and Thelma Houston. This is a side of Motown at its most adventurous yet relaxed, letting the sunny soulful vibes wash over us like warm ocean waves. Super Recommended!
MPEG Stream: ODYSSEY "Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love"
MPEG Stream: THE SISTERS LOVE "Give MeYour Love"
MPEG Stream: FRANKIE VALLI &THE FOUR SEASONS "The Night"
MPEG Stream: LODI "I Hope I See It In My Lifetime"
MPEG Stream: THE NU PAGE "A Heart Is A House"

V/A Street Musicians Of Yogyakarta (Mississippi) lp + 7" 15.98
MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!
One of two new Mississippi releases we're listing this week, both incredible additions to the already impossibly impressive Mississippi catalog, and as we often mention, there are plenty of people who buy every single Mississippi release, regardless, and most aQ-ers definitely fall into that category, but really, any one at all interested in world music, and we're not talking the Starbucks / Paul Simon variety, we're talking real world music, the sounds you here on the streets and in the homes played by real people in real places all over the world, if that stuff holds any interest for you, then pretty much every single Mississippi release is essential, and without fail, each one will open up a whole new world of sound, and reveal all manner of musical magic to jaded Western ears.
The tracks here were recorded in Indonesia in the late seventies by a field recordist named Jack Brody, and this sampling offers up lots of the different flavors of street musicians at the time, displaying the various influences from Indian Bollywood music, American rock and roll as well as traditional Javanese folk musics, all wound into these unique and personal sonic expressions. The sound seems to be mostly vocal driven, with the majority of the vocalists female, the voices high and clear and soaring, lots of call and response and unique harmonies, strings buzz over simple hand drums and minimal percussion, many of the tracks here are simple and spare, but others are impossibly lush. And as these are all recorded on the streets, the music is peppered with the sounds of life, cars and buses, kids playing, adults talking, babies crying, horns honking. There are a couple of tracks featuring male vocalists, one in particular stands out, the vocalist singing in a super raspy Popeye/Tom Waits voice, over just intricate drumming, his vocal delivery rapid fire and super dexterous, the result dizzying and exhilarating. We could go track by track, but every song here is a gem, and like most Mississippi releases, we find ourselves spinning this over and over and over and getting totally lost in these incredible sounds.
Housed in a super heavy old school tip-on style jacket, and includes a massive booklet filled with liner notes on the music, the region, the performers, including lyrics and actual musical notation, as well as lots of photos and a bonus 7"!

V/A True Soul: Volume 1 (Now Again) cd + dvd 22.00
Watch your back Numero Group, as Now Again has also been releasing some amazing soul reissues over the last few years. With this compilation they put their soul discovery focus on the True Soul label from Arkansas during the 1960s and 1970s. Much like the US punk/hardcore scene that would arise in the early '80s, the underground soul scene embodied a similarly DIY spirit, and thus shared many parallels, regional labels, record stores being magnets for the scene, sharing practice spaces and recording time, playing in unusual venues, and doing it all for the love of the music, even if fame and fortune never came, no matter how much these fellas sound like James Brown! Billed as 'Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax', this really is deep hitting, nitty gritty soul and funk that isn't about flash and appearance as much as it is really getting to the heart of things. We blast this in the store, imagining being in some musty, smoke filled lounge in Arkansas as folks like Thomas East, Albert Smith, Ren Smith, and The Leaders play sweat dripping sets. Don't worry if none of the above mentioned names don't ring a bell for you, they didn't for us either. But this collection further proves how much amazing soul was created during this special era that never got the wide attention it so totally deserved. Super swank packaging, in a thick hardback book with tons of text, color photos, and record graphics, definitely giving these musicians their due! Plus there's a whole dvd disc featuring local TV performances by a bunch of these artists, 1973's True Soul Review, wow, amazing they dug this up too, way cool to see.
MPEG Stream: THOMAS EAST "Slipping Around"
MPEG Stream: THE RIGHT TRACK "I Gotta Move With The Groove"
MPEG Stream: ALBERT SMITH "Come Together"

VAINIO, MIKA Life (...It Eats You Up) (Editions Mego) cd 16.98
Sure, this is the solo album on which Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio picks up the guitar, but the sounds that he wrangles from that instrument are not all that dissimilar from those he crafted on the final Pan Sonic album Gravitoni, and especially on the first half of their 4cd opus Kesto. There's long been a swagger to the low-slung electronic rhythm and noise that brought Pan Sonic closer to an electro-punk rockabilly sound by simulating a snarling guitar with accelerating riffs of synthesized distortion that had more in common with the growl of a motorcycle than the squelch of an 808. So, when Vainio switches out his tone generators for a guitar, he's still got all the tools to distort, corrode, and disintegrate the sounds of six strings with considerable aplomb. The drum machines, the spatialized approach to editing, the white hot shards of electricity, the swarming noise, and Vainio's ability to control all of his cacophonic sounds are all present on Life (...It Eats You Up). "Mining" is an exemplary track displaying Vainio's ability to work a brutalist noise-guitar riff into his jittery industrial groove, sounding something like a downtuned Big Black or loosened-up Godflesh. Many will comment on Vainio's cover of The Stooges "Open Up And Bleed" which strikes a glam rock strut with drum track and smolderingly dissonant guitar riffs. It must be said that Vainio's cover of Pink Floyd's "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" on Oleva was a better choice; but this one is pretty damn good too. The rock-n-roll mimesis of these tracks disintegrates over the remainder of the album, where splinters of guitar noise pop through walls of electrified drone, ominous hums, and demolished doom-laden ambience which aren't too far from the realms of KTL or Black Boned Angel. Pretty fucking great.
MPEG Stream: "Mining"
MPEG Stream: "Open Up And Bleed"
MPEG Stream: "Conquering The Solitude"
MPEG Stream: "A Ravenous Edge"

VAINIO, MIKA Life (...It Eats You Up) (Editions Mego) 2lp 27.00
Sure, this is the solo album on which Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio picks up the guitar, but the sounds that he wrangles from that instrument are not all that dissimilar from those he crafted on the final Pan Sonic album Gravitoni, and especially on the first half of their 4cd opus Kesto. There's long been a swagger to the low-slung electronic rhythm and noise that brought Pan Sonic closer to an electro-punk rockabilly sound by simulating a snarling guitar with accelerating riffs of synthesized distortion that had more in common with the growl of a motorcycle than the squelch of an 808. So, when Vainio switches out his tone generators for a guitar, he's still got all the tools to distort, corrode, and disintegrate the sounds of six strings with considerable aplomb. The drum machines, the spatialized approach to editing, the white hot shards of electricity, the swarming noise, and Vainio's ability to control all of his cacophonic sounds are all present on Life (...It Eats You Up). "Mining" is an exemplary track displaying Vainio's ability to work a brutalist noise-guitar riff into his jittery industrial groove, sounding something like a downtuned Big Black or loosened-up Godflesh. Many will comment on Vainio's cover of The Stooges "Open Up And Bleed" which strikes a glam rock strut with drum track and smolderingly dissonant guitar riffs. It must be said that Vainio's cover of Pink Floyd's "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" on Oleva was a better choice; but this one is pretty damn good too. The rock-n-roll mimesis of these tracks disintegrates over the remainder of the album, where splinters of guitar noise pop through walls of electrified drone, ominous hums, and demolished doom-laden ambience which aren't too far from the realms of KTL or Black Boned Angel. Pretty fucking great.
MPEG Stream: "Mining"
MPEG Stream: "Open Up And Bleed"
MPEG Stream: "Conquering The Solitude"
MPEG Stream: "A Ravenous Edge"

WINTER FAMILY Red Sugar (Sub Rosa) cd 16.98
This came highly recommended from one of our distributors, but we were wary at first, as we've generally had bad luck with the whole spoken word / band combo. There are of course exceptions, and this is definitely one, Winter Family whipping up a gorgeous expanse of brooding, smoldering, slow building post rock ambience, heavy on the harmonium and organ, seeing as one half of the WF duo is keyboardist Xavier Klaine, who has partnered with 'vocalist' Ruth Rosenthal, for this haunting series of songscapes, that as the label suggest, do in fact harken back to groups like Godspeed You Black Emperor and A Silver Mount Zion. Mournful and melancholy, haunting and ethereal, just check out the opening track, the oddly named "Searching Donkeys", with its thick layered minor key organ, the sound rich and lustrous, Rosenthal's vocals settled down in the mix, her mysterious intonations peppered with brief bits of proper singing, lush little bits of harmonized vocalizing, the sound almost chorale, perfectly matching the ever intensifying music, the vibe strangely liturgical.
The title track unwinds a thick, slowly pulsing sprawl of crumbling buzz, warped and a little bit seasick, throbbing ominously, Rosenthal's mush mouthed lyrics delivered in a creepy deadpan, the track peppered with bits of abstract ambience, field recordings of crowds and tolling church bells, distorted voices, broadcast through what sounds like a bullhorn, always returning to that thick ominous buzz, creepy and so sonically unnerving.
The record is super varied, a few moments definitely veer dangerously close to 'spoken word' for us, but Rosenthal pulls it off, her delivery intense and moving, and quite lyrical, even slipping into actual singing now and again, the music in those moments is darkly delicate, with elegiac pianos, chirping birds, hazy and ethereal, the sound occasionally jazzy, other times more post rocky, but our favorite moments are definitely the more drone based tracks, Klaine layering sound upon sound, weaving lush, slow building, ultra tense soundscapes, cinematic and mysterious, Rosenthal's voice, drifting atop, within and beneath Klaine's lush otherworldly drones, the two conjuring up something so much more than its constituent parts, mysterious and eerie and lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Searching Donkeys"
MPEG Stream: "Red Sugar"
MPEG Stream: "Y"

YEN POX Universal Emptiness (Substantia Innominata / Drone) 10" 13.98
Universal Emptiness is an apt title for this limited 10" from this stalwart, if far from prolific dark ambient project. The Yen Pox duo of Michael Hensley and Steven Hall began craf their Lovecraftian atmospheres with cavernous washes of sound, ashen drone, and a sonic death-drive to match anything emanating from early Cold Meat Industries or Brian Lustmord's laboratory for the dark arts. With protracting gaspings and bellowings, Yen Pox articulate soundtracks for nightmares where these ventilating references could be bodily, industrial, alien, chimerical, oceanic, or something profoundly unknown. On both sides of this 10", Yen Pox present a metaphysical emptiness, but this is certainly not an emptiness that is devoid of sound. Their constructed ambience has the weight and fluidity of cold plasma - as it's constantly shifting to the foreground from the blackest spots on the event horizon and churning through luminous hazes akin to the chemical afterglow of phosphorescent magnesium. As could be seen on Hensley's latest album as Blood Box, the horror laid within their sonic darkness tends to dissipate as you sit in their drones and let the heavy waters wash over you. First edition of 500 copies.

YOB Atma (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
Dooming ever onward, Oregon's re-activated Yob are back with their 2nd Profound Lore release, the 6th full-length overall from this heavier-than-thou trio, and all Yob and/or doom fans (like us) should be well chuffed! After several years hiatus (during which singer/guitarist Mike Scheidt stayed doomy in his ill-fated Middian project), Yob's 2009 comeback album The Great Cessation emphasized the darker side of Yob, black metal influences to the fore, Yob still spacey and sludgey to be sure, but sounding way more EVIL and nihilistically negative than ever. They haven't brightened up much on Atma, either. There's something primal about these proceedings, Yob calling upon ancient powers with their heavy sonic rituals. It's serious business.
Scheidt still busts out his best, very metal, strangled shriek (a distorted blend of Ozzy, Geddy Lee, and the gargly Dan McCafferty of Nazareth) when he wants to soar (yay, that's what we came for!), but he also goes for a diversity of sore-throat wretched vokills as well; his melodic guitar leads likewise occasionally are heard, snaking out from the murky mire of rumbling riffage, the tarpit black hole in which Yob make their crusty cosmic home... the band's lumbering swing always buried beneath dirty piles of steel-wooly abused amp torture, Atma's production far from clean, instead filthy and cruel.
It's like some unholy combination of the Sabbathy sludge of Eyehategod, the brutal/beautiful bombast of Neurosis (whose Scott Kelly shows up as a guest on a couple of these songs), the most malevolent and monolithic of Melvins, and hint of the denim and leather of old school metal as well. The five loooooong songs here weave atmospheric gloom (the rainy forest field recordings found on the title track ferinstance), fist-in-the-air metallisms, post-rock dynamics, and angsty artiness into their sheer crushing DOOM, and do it all damn well. Make no mistake, this is hellishly heavy, including album-ender "Adrift In The Ocean", even with its semi-acoustic passages and whooshing ambience. Epic, awesome, utterly everything we expect from Yob and then some.
MPEG Stream: "Prepare The Ground"
MPEG Stream: "Atma"
MPEG Stream: "Upon The Sight Of The Other Shore"

YONKERS, MICHAEL BAND Microminiature Love ( Sub Pop / De Stijl) lp 15.98
This long time AQ fave, a former Record Of The Week, is finally again reissued on vinyl! De Stijl first did it on wax about 10 years back, which quickly went out of print, then Sub Pop did the cd version which we still sell steadily to this day. But now, Sub Pop have done a new vinyl reissue! Here's our review from before, our first taste of Michael Yonkers' unique rockin' dementia, and if you're gonna have just one Yonkers album, this is the one:
Every so often a gem will get dredged up out of the murk of history that is so unlike anything else it can only give us hope for the future of music. An obscure late-sixties rock n' roll visionary, Michael Yonkers' stuff was like nothing anyone had heard back then (or even now, really): fucked up garage psych with dementedly genius lyrics, unhinged vocals and crazy acid-fried guitar. Yonkers, a legendary Minneapolis-area figure, built his own effects pedals, cut his Fender Telecaster down to a plank, and played like no one else ever. It's hard to describe this. It's sort of like a damaged fusion of stripped down Black Sabbath, The Troggs, Pere Ubu, and The Cramps?? Or something like that. When this was unearthed on vinyl last year by the Destijl label, we heard it and freaked out. It became a big favorite 'round here. So we were thrilled to find out that Sub Pop was gonna do a cd version of that now out of print lp, with pretty much a whole 'nother lps worth of bonus tracks tacked on! Definite Record Of The Week material - as psychedelic proto-punk goes, if anything it's even more raw, original and insane than that wonderful Simply Saucer reissue we raved about recently. Yonkers recorded these tracks in 1968 and they've been sitting in the can more-or-less unheard these past 35 years - Microminature Love being shelved by its original label back in '69 we'd assume 'cause it was just so ahead of its time. Listening to it today it sounds not only fresh, but as if it could have been recorded in, say, 1981 or this year as well. Music seems to have grown up around it in its Rip Van Winkle state of hibernation. While part of what makes Michael Yonkers' sound so unique was his obsessive electronic tinkering - making custom delay, distortion and vibratto units (some of which he successfully manufactured on a commercial level) - it was also shaped as much by accident. The story goes that during a live performance in an earlier group, Michael's guitar fell to the floor and was knocked into an open tuning. Playing out the rest of the set with this off key tuning, Michael was inspired to pursue this course further, both with his guitar sound and, seemingly, his vocals too! All over Microminiature Love he exploits these semi-out-of-tune drones which make his music all the more heavy and wigged out. Imagine the Stooges playing with a water damaged electric sarod, then replace Iggy with Jello Biafra pitched down a minor third and you get an idea of the beginnings of the Michael Yonkers Band. While some may find Michael's singing a bit hard to get used to at first, its well worth giving him a couple listens because I can guarantee it'll grow on you. Once again, we hail Yonkers as a brilliant "outsider artist" of '60s garage rock. Not like the Shaggs, though - this is killer rock n' roll, make no mistake.
MPEG Stream: "Microminiature Love"
MPEG Stream: "Kill The Enemy"
MPEG Stream: "Hush Hush"

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BEE MASK Elegy For Beach Friday (Spectrum Spools) 2lp 27.00
BACK IN STOCK!!
Here stands the monumental gatefold double vinyl anthology, culled from the numerous cassettes and cd-rs that Chris Madak has released over the past decade or so, under the moniker Bee Mask. Like Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never, Madak is single-minded in his retrogarde aesthetic for synthesized compositions based on a vintage 1970s' cosmology. But where many of the '70s synth revivalists have coyingly adopted a full-fledged new age aesthetic through effervescent prettiness and soft-focus ambient swirl, Bee Mask offers up his own dysptopic take on psychedelic electronics through a crucible of cracked circuits, tape splutter, infernal field recordings, and a hell of a lot of sustained synth drones oscillating into crescendos of dissonant thumming. The zoner tracks on Elegy For Beach Friday (and there are a number of them) never sit in the background seeking a sublimated hypnosis, rather Madak zooms in on the placid pools of sound to unveil intense percolations and swarming vibrations. There's a scientific rigor to his pieces that finds Bee Mask orbiting around the dense, alienating electronics from Matt Shoemaker, Rick Reed, and Bernard Parmigiani. But, Madak is also one to tease with the subtle swelling melodies that harken to the more emotive works from Omit and Emeralds. If his work shares anything with the retro electronic tapestries that are the forgotten soundtracks for a summer sunset, Madak would rather blind the audience with the intensity of the sun, complete with blisters on the skin and technological mishaps from sunspots. Brilliant!

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN Come On Sister (Rough Trade) 12" 9.98
Belle & Sebastian remixed??!! On paper that sounds like a potential recipe for disaster. And we have to be honest, when we first saw this 12" we were kind of hesitant to listen to it at all, but after really digging the Interpol remix 12" we decided to give it a spin. We're glad we did cause the Cold Cave remix of "I Didn't See It Coming" from the last Belle & Sebastian album, Write About Love, is one of the best remixes of the year. Cold Cave turns the twee indie pop song into a soft synth stunner. They don't try to make Belle & Sebastian all techno and dark (which we had feared) but instead give it a slight dancefloor push, reminding us a lot of the sound of Stephen Merrit's electro-pop project Future Bible Heroes. The other two remixes come from Richard X, and Tony Doogan, and there's also a brand new song called "Blue Eyes Of A Millionaire."

COLD MOURNING Colder Than Thou (Buried By Time and Dust) 2lp 29.00
BACK IN STOCK!!
The Buried By Time And Dust label, as their name implies, specialize (mainly) in digging up dusty old treasures from the vaults... of DOOOOM! In the past, they've brought us vinyl reissues by such doom metal legends as Witchfinder General, Pagan Altar, and Solstice.
This latest release digs even deeper into the underground. Cold Mourning were (are?) a bona fide cult doom metal band, from the '90s, based in the "misty and miserable" locale of Monterey, California. They released one full-length cd back in the day, Lower Than Low on Game Two Records, and also did a lot of splits, with the likes of While Heaven Wept, Officium Triste, and Twisted Tower Dire.
If you haven't heard of Cold Mourning before, you might still be familiar with their guitarist Angelo Tringali 'cause he's member of AQ faves Slough Feg (he replaced Hammers Of Misfortune's John Cobbett on second lead guitar some years back). While Slough Feg have their occasionally doomy moments, Cold Mourning are a much sludgier proposition, inspired especially by Saint Vitus, but more grim and freezing.
Their songs from the abovementioned splits are all found here, along with demos, previously unreleased rehearsal recordings, and more, circa 1995-'98, including their track "Boggy Creek" from the Miskatonic Records cd comp At The Mountains Of Madness.
True doom fiends will definitely want to get their doom on with Colder Than Thou. 'Tis for fans of Vitus as well as The Gates Of Slumber, for instance.
Deluxe gatefold double vinyl, packaged with an eight page booklet full of b&w live photos, demo tape covers, lyrics, etc. Suitably thick and heavy, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

DECIBEL #83 September 2011 magazine 4.95
On the cover this issue of our fave US metal glossy, Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth, previewing their upcoming new album Heritage, which we're looking forward to hearing. Then there's also the likes of Seidr, Disma, Argus, Decapitated, Toxic Holocaust, King Fowley of Deceased (mostly not enjoying the music they're playing him in the "Call & Response" feature), Skeletonwitch (a studio report), and more... Rorschach's Protestant enters the Decibel Hall of Fame (yeah!!), and A.C.'s notorious Seth Putnam gets eulogized (RIP Seth). Plus the usual plethora of reviews, news, and funny stuff.

FIRE Could You Understand Me (Killroy) lp 25.00
Now reissued on vinyl!
Good grief! FUZZ. Don't you love it? These guys do. Or, should we say did, since this was recorded back in 1973. Fire were a power trio from Yugoslavia, relocated for the purposes of playing and recording to Holland. Could You Understand Me is the only album they made - though they cranked enuff fuzz guitar on this sufficient for ten albums! Aside from one run of the mill bar band blues cut (track three), this disc BURNS (as per their name) with heavy duty psych guitar mayhem. The last and gnarliest track here is even called "Flames". It's an instrumental, nearly nine minutes of extremely distorted, repetitive, pedals mashed, goin' for broke brainmelt. Dunno how they recorded it, musta done something wrong, but it's brilliant. They can also pen a decent tune, with the title track fer instance having a nice melodic element amidst the fuzz riffage.
Their influences were most likely Hendrix and Cream and possibly Blue Cheer. But when Fire really get burnin', we think this sounds more like current psych-mongers The Heads from the UK, or Japan's motorpsycho outfits High Rise and Mainliner.
MPEG Stream: "Could You Understand Me"
MPEG Stream: "Flames"

IMAGINARY SOFTWOODS The Path Of Spectrolite (Amethyst Sunset) lp 19.98
As if all of the projects that Emeralds' synth wrangler John Elliott weren't enough, he's adopted a pseudonym to record under the Imaginary Softwoods banner. The name's Blue O'Randa here, although there's little doubt as the authorship of the sounds. With the exception of the bittersweet attitude of "Rainbow Obsidain Key" and its faux-harpsichord melodies, The Path Of Spectrolite fully embraces the New Age path that Elliott, ummm, O'Randa has been teasing us with through all of his recordings. With all of the aquatic bubbling, bright-eyed synth pads, cosmic shot dream-drone, and harmonic tonal shimmer, Imaginary Softwoods bare more than passing resemblance to the likes of Iasos. Limited to just about 500 copies.

OPEN MIND, THE s/t (Sunbeam) lp 24.00
Now reissued on vinyl!
In their vigilant unearthing of one-off psych and folk obscurities, the Sunbeam label has been one of our favorite reissue labels even if their catalog can sometimes be hit and miss. Their vision, however is remarkably consistent, never reissuing a rare record just for the sake of it being rare, and making a practice of working with the original artists whenever possible to put together these reissues, like this one, a 1969 British psych rock rarity by The Open Mind, who were a mop-topped gang of guys from the paisley era. They liked to stroll on the harder, rockier side of the '60s psych-pop street, and this album contains a few gems for sure, *especially* the first of the four bonus tracks included, their truly great single "Magic Potion". That's the one for which they'll really be remembered (and it can be found on the Speaking My Mind: New Rubble Volume 2 compilation as well). It was also later covered by '90s space rock band Sundial. We think some proto-metal fans might dig it too!
MPEG Stream: "Horses And Chariots"
MPEG Stream: "Cast A Spell"
MPEG Stream: "Magic Potion"

SHARROCK, SONNY Monkey-Pockie-Boo (BYG) lp 14.98
This legendary slab of classic psychedelic free jazz, available on vinyl once again. Here's our review from when we first listed this way back in 2001:
The amazing Sonny Sharrock cranks out three lengthy tracks for the BYG/Actuel label, accompanied by his lovely wife Linda, bassist Bob Guerin, and drummer Jacques Thollot. "27th Day" is a seventeen minute free psych epic that begins with minimal abstraction (and Sharrock on a slide whistle!) and slowly builds into a massive freakout fireball. "Soon", written by Linda Sharrock, is another ferocious jam that doesn't let up for its eight heart-stopping minutes. Finally, the closing "Monkey-Pockie-Boo" is more abstract and mellowed out, with Sonny and Linda chanting back and forth in an indecipherable, unconventional vocal style. The combination of Sonny's guitar playing and the voice of wife Linda on tracks like "27th Day" and "Soon", could definitely be a major influence on Japan's free noise guitar god Keiji Haino. Very psychedelic at times, totally out there and intense. Like most releases in the BYG/Actuel catalogue, recorded in the legendary Studio Sarawah in Paris, this one laid to tape on June 22, 1970. Like other reissues in this series, pressed on heavy 180 gram wax and housed in a swank full color old school gatefold jacket which faithfully reproduces the original BYG / Actuel cover art.

TELESCOPES, THE Taste (Bomp!) lp 19.98
NOW ON VINYL (but, without the bonus tracks from The Perfect Needle ep that were added to the recent cd version):
In the past we've taken every opportunity to rave like crazy about this band of British noise/space/psych/drone rockers, and with the current lust for all sounds psychedelic and spaced out, and the popularity of a new wave of psychedelic space rockers: The Heads, White Hills, Carlton Melton, Spyrals, Wooden Shjips, etc, it seems like the perfect time for folks who somehow missed out on the Telescopes to figure out just what it is they've been missing. And what better way than with this, a reissue of their very first full length, originally released way back in 1989, a year after their debut 7", a split with aQ beloved dronerockers Loop, and just the fact that they shared a split with Loop should tell you most of what you need to know. With a sound that veers from hushed, droney, druggy drift, to full on heavy, noisy, distorted dronepsychspace crunch, the Telescopes were like a super charged version of Spacemen 3, injecting some swaggery Stooges-y stomp into their hazy psychedelic mesmer. Think the classics, Hawkwind, Loop of course, Monster Magnet, Spacemen 3, F/i, but then mix in some My Bloody Valentine, and some Jesus And Mary Chain, a little Swervedriver, and the aforementioned Stooges, and what you're left with is a big beautiful noisy chunk of blissed out hypnp-heaviness.
The record opens up with the very Spacemen 3 beholden "And Let Me Drift Away", with it's chiming melodies and simple acoustic strum, all hushed croon and sun dappled glimmer, laced with elegiac piano, violin and even French horn, a definite Velvets vibe happening too, but before you lay back and prepare for a warm whirling druggy drift off as the title implies, DO strap yourself in for the next track, "I Fall, She Screams", a pounding noise rock freak out, wild raspy vocals howled over wild squalls of tangled psych guitar, pounding drums and tons of FX, occasionally locking into some droned out repetition, but then veering right back into wah wah drenched sonic chaos. But then the sound shifts gears again, "Oil Seed Rape" wraps gauzy clouds of distortion around a strummy acoustic lament, all woozy and washed out, but of course peppered with brief blasts of full on noise rock crunch.
And so it goes, the record deftly juggling those two disparate sides of the Telescopes' schizophrenic personality, managing to fuse the two into something simultaneously heavy and heady, dense and dreamy, noisy and hypnotic, offering up some of THEE best droned out psych rock ever: the very Spacemen 3-like "The Perfect Needle" (a nod to Spacemen 3's "The Perfect Prescription?) alongside some of the hookiest heaviness of the era: "Please, Before You Go" which seems to foreshadow the punked out pop of Nirvana or the sludge pop of Torche, alongside full on extended amp destroying psychedelic space rock workouts that rival the masters: the 8 minute chaotic freak out "Suicide".
Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "And Let Me Drift Away"
MPEG Stream: "I Fall, She Screams"
MPEG Stream: "Oil Seed Rape"
MPEG Stream: "Suicide"

TEMPORAL MARAUDER Makes You Feel (Spectrum Spools / Editions Mego) lp 21.00
BACK IN STOCK!!
Another amazing release from Spectrum Spools, the Editions Mego sublabel, who over the last few months has given us records from Mist, Bee Mask, Fabric and Forma, all of them fantastic, and this one is no different. A killer collection of hypnokraut synth psych, that purports to be vintage recordings from back in the day, but we're guessing is more likely the work of a modern music maker raised on a steady diet of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze.
The record slips back and forth between propulsive almost chaotic krautrock grooves, and more blissed out percolating kosmische synthscapes. Warped loops and swirling effects wrap around a motorik pulse, glistening electro grooves throb hypnotically amidst swirling streaks of blooping and bleeping effects, soft billowing swirls of arpeggiated synths blur into gauzy soundtacky stretches, sometimes splintering into dirgey IDM skitter, or still more noisy electronic pulses. Much of this actually sounds like Astral Social Club at their most electronic.
Every song here is a warm glowing chunk of kosmische bliss out, whether it be a murky sprawl of synth burble and skeletal skitter wreathed in squiggles and chirps, or percolating melodies doused in bleary eared shimmer, all like the work of some sonic mad scientist, whose cauldron is a burbling concoction of classic krautrock, abstract electronica, and dreamy ambient minimalism. So good!

TERRORIZER Issue #212 magazine + cd 9.99
If you love metal, you really ought to be reading the two metal mags we carry regularly, Decibel and the UK's Terrorizer. Years from now, you'll wish you had a copy of this issue so you can nostalgically look back on 2011 and remember cover star... Tom G. Warrior!! Hey the former Celtic Frost / current Triptykon front man is a good interview. Weird dude. Also this issue: Premonition 13, Toxic Holocaust, Opeth, Runhild Gammelsaeter of Thorr's Hammer, Decapitated, Iwrestledabearonce, Book Of Black Earth, and plenty more including short bits on Disma, Volture, and others. The occasional Decibel/Terrorizer overlap happens with a Skeletonwitch studio report (really?). And there's the usual big batch o' reviews etc. Oh, and a free cd sampler stuck to the cover, with everyone from Twisted Tower Dire to Orthodox on it...

XASTHUR Portal Of Sorrow (Viva Hate) cd 14.98
Back in print and available again, and yeah, we did actually relist this a few lists back, but what we forgot to mention then was that there are in fact BONUS TRACKS! One totally unreleased song, and one alternate version with REAL drums instead of programmed drums. All housed in a spiffy new digipak version, now on Viva Hate (after originally being released on Xasthur's own Disharmonic Variations label). Here's what we said about this last year when we made it a Record Of The Week:
There are lots of remarkable things about this latest Xasthur disc. It was released on his own Disharmonic Variations label for one thing, instead of Hydra Head, his home for the last few records. It features the vocals of folk chanteuse Marissa Nadler quite prominently, which was definitely a bit of a surprise! Even more surprising is that according to Malefic, the man behind Xasthur, now referring to himself by his given name Scott, this is the very last Xasthur record. EVER. He's not giving up music, just black metal. Which might seem less surprising once you've heard Portal Of Sorrow. Whose sound is at once a continuation of the last few Xasthur records, but at the same time, a total departure. Right out of the gate, the title track, is all acoustic guitars, and cooing wordless vox, more some sort of ethereal depressive doomfolk than black metal. Haunting atonal chords, folky guitar strum, wheezing organs, everything warped and warbly and really quite beautiful. Some more 'metal' guitars enter into the picture but they just serve to add filigree to the folky gothic dirge. Pretty weird and fantastic for sure. And for sure to bum out legions of true grim black metallers. The second track is more black metal, but if anything it's WAY weirder than the first track, with what is either the worst, or best production yet, the guitars detuned and atonal, the drums insanely produced cardboard box thumps WAY up in the mix, Nadler's often wordless vocals again soaring and dramatic, while Malefic croaks along in the background, a gloriously stumbling bit of blackened freak folk buzz, moody and murky, with some serious chug part way through, but that chug is accompanied by PIANO, which renders it more some sort of blackened chamber music.
And so it goes, the whole record is not only strangely composed, but the sound itself is totally alien, it sounds accidental, but a sound this twisted and warped and idiosyncratic MUST be by design.
"Shrine Of Failure" begins with clean guitars and floppy bass, a constantly descending melody, the vocals singing right along, before the heavier guitars kick in, but instead of making the song heavier, they seem to float above the already in progress weirdness, adding a layer of distorted buzz, and alternately wild psychedelic squiggles of tangled lead guitar. "Stream Of Subconsciousness" is another washed out doomic dirge, driven by Nadler's angelic croon, and Malefic's warbly guitars, the swoonsome synths, leading to an ambient drift, and then more murky stumble. "Horizon Of Plastic Caskets" is all minimal drumming, swirling synths, distant vocals, a sort of black ambient post rock lope, peppered with Malefic's maniacal screams, which do nothing to take away from the track's haunting cinematic vibe.
"The Abyss Holds The Mirror" opens with some seriously lovely multitracked vocals from Nadler (she's credited with "choir, vocal flashbacks, vocal instrumentation") before the song proper kicks in, and it's a dirgey doomy deathmarch, with church organ, croaked demonic vocals, all set to a heartbreakingly melancholy melody, the whole second half is just organ and vocals, and is the last thing you'd expect to hear on a black metal record.
"Released From This Earth" is all struggling drumming, atonal piano pound, and more of Nadler's heavenly crooning, in some ways, this almost plays out like a Marissa Nadler record, with Xasthur as his band, no disrespect to Malefic, in fact, that's what makes this record so good, it's less about having some token guest vocals, and more about true collaboration, which is exactly what makes this record so fucked and far out and special. Even at it's blackest, it's about as far removed from black buzz and grim blast than you could imagine. Which is what keeps us from mourning the death of Xasthur, and instead has us anxiously awaiting the future rebirth, and phoenix like ascension of whatever comes next.
MPEG Stream: "Portal Of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Broken Glass Christening"
MPEG Stream: "Shrine Of Failure"
MPEG Stream: "Stream Of Subconsciousness"
MPEG Stream: "Released From This Earth"

ZODIAC FREE ARTS CLUB Floating World (Permanent Vacation) lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl.
This is some seriously blissed out cosmic exploration. No doubt named after the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, ground zero in late '60s Berlin for the burgeoning experimental art/music scene that would blossom into the sounds of Krautrock. All these years later the amazing sounds of many who emerged out of the Zodiac Free Arts Lab, like Ash Ra Temple, Popul Vuh, Cluster, and Harmonia have had such a huge influence on a new generation eager to get lost in that cosmic trance.
Zodiac Free Arts Club, who hail from Berlin themselves, nails that sound and vibe spot on. In fact every single time we've played this in the store someone has asked what Brain Records reissue we were playing. Using analog synths with warm perfection, one can close their eyes and think they're listening to wonderful outtakes from Harmonia's Deluxe sessions. Reaching the same level of excellence in capturing this sound as folks like Arp, Jonas Reinhart and Majeure, this is some authentic modern day kraut-tronica indeed. The kosmische glow is alive and well in 2011!
MPEG Stream: "Celephais"
MPEG Stream: "Iridescent Love Triangle"
MPEG Stream: "Sonntags In Altona"

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If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart!

AERIAL RUIN "Valleys Of The Earth" (Vendlus) cd 12.98
AHMED, MAHMOUD "Jeguol Naw Betwa" (Mississippi) lp 15.98
ALDEBARAN "Buried Beneath Aeons" (Parasitic) cd 12.98
ANGELS FROM HELL "(OST)" (Reel Time) cd 17.98
AUTHORITIES, THE "Puppy Love" (Get Hip) cd 14.98
AUTRE NE VEUT "Body" (Hippos In Tanks) 12" 11.98
BAMBA, SORRY "Volume One 1970-1979" (Thrill Jockey) cd/2lp 15.98/21.00
BORDEN / FERRARO / GODIN / HALO / LOPATIN "Frkwys Volume 7" (RVNG) cd/lp 14.98/23.00
BURNSIDE, R.L. "Sounds Machine Groove" (Sutro Park) lp 16.98
BYE, MATTI "Dromt" (Rotor) cd 12.98
BYE, MATTI "Korkarlen: Music For The Silent Film The Phantom Carriage" (Rotor) cd 12.98
BYE, MATTI "The Saga Of Gosta Berling" (Rotor) cd 12.98
CARROLL, CORKY & FRIENDS "Laid Back" (EM) cd 22.00
CASH, JOHNNY "Sings Hank Williams" (Doxy) lp + cd 29.00
CASSLE "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98
CHARLATAN "Triangles" (Digitalis) lp 19.98
CIRCUIT DES YEUX "Portrait" (De Stijl) lp 17.98
COSMONAUTS "s/t" (Burger) lp 16.98
CROSS, SANDRA (AND VARIOUS BUFFET CAR ATTENDANTS) "The MMs Bar Recordings" (Trunk) cd/lp 9.98/19.98
DADFAG "Probably" (Broken Rekids) lp 10.98
DANQUAH, GEORGE "Hot & Jumpy" (Secret Stah) lp 17.98
DEAD MOON "Defiance" (Mississippi) lp 14.98
DEAD MOON "In The Graveyard" (Mississippi) lp 14.98
DEAD MOON "Unknown Passage" (Mississippi) lp 14.98
DEEPCHORD "Hash-Bar Loops" (Soma Recordings) cd 16.98
DEKHA JAYE GA / UF YEH BEVIAN "OST" (Finders Keepers) cd 23.00
DIKES OF HOLLAND "s/t" (Sundae Records) lp 14.98
DIRTY GHOSTS "Shout It In" (Classic Bar Music) 7" 5.98
DMZ / LYRES "Radio Demos / Live At Cantones" (Munster) cd 17.98
DOPE BODY "Nupping" (Hoss) cd 14.98
DREAMS, THE "Morbido" (Kill Shamen) lp 16.98
DRONAEMENT "Cosmic Tapes" (Dying For Bad Music) cd-r 11.98
DRONAEMENT + MIRKO UHLIG "Farewell Fields" (Dying For Bad Music) cd 21.00
DUKES, THE "s/t" (Red Lounge) cd 23.00
EMME YA "Atavistic Dreams & Phallic Totems" (Cold Spring Records) cd 17.98
GLITTER WIZARD "Solar Hits" (Archers Guild) lp 16.98
GRAVE BABIES "Pleasure / Deathwish" (Hardly Art) 7" 5.50
GREEN DOOR KIDS, THE "Muzikal Yooth" (Optimo Music) lp 16.98
HEY COLOSSUS "RRR" (Riot Season) cd 16.98
HOLE "Pretty On The Inside" (Plain) lp 16.98
HTRK "Eat Yr Heart / Sweetheart" (Ghostly International) 12" 13.98
HURLEY, MICHAEL "Fatboy Spring" (Mississippi) lp 13.98
IKEDA, RYOJI "+/-" (Touch) cd 15.98
ILSA "Tutti Il Colori Del Buio" (Dark Descent) cd 11.98
IMPERIAL DOGS, THE "Live! In Long Beach (October 30, 1974)" (ID Music) dvd 22.00
JARSE "Alas" (Fonal) 7" 13.98
KENNEY, JESSIKA & EYVIND KANG "Aestuarium" (Editions Mego / Ideologic Organ) lp 21.00
KLEYN, CAROL "Love Has Made Me Stronger" (Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/17.98
KOOL MOE DEE "s/t" (Traffic Entertainment Group / Jive) cd 16.98
KRYPTIC MINDS "Can't Sleep" (Black Box) cd 16.98
MAJUTSU NO NIWA "Ecstatic Crystalization" (Musik Atlach) cd 16.98
MERRITT, STEPHIN "Obscurities" (Merge) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
NOTHING PEOPLE "Late Night" (S.S.) cd 13.98
ONEIDA "Absolute II" (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98
PABLO, AUGUSTUS "Dubbing In A Africa" (Get Down) cd 14.98
PIKACYU / MAKOTO "Om Sweet Home: We Are Shining Stars From The Darkside" (Riot Season) cd 16.98
PILLARS AND TONGUES "Pass And Crossings" (Empty Cellar) lp 14.98
PLANET PATROL "s/t" (Traffic Entertainment Group / Tommy Boy Records) cd 16.98
PLUMMER, BILL & THE COSMIC BROTHERHOOD "s/t" (Impulse / Get Down) cd 16.98
PRISONERS GO GO BAND "Live! At The Butchery With Special Guests On Fire" (S.S.) lp 17.98
PSYCHIC ILLS "Telestheic Tape" (Skrot Up) lp 14.98
RAY, BRENDA "Starlight" (EM) 12" 17.98
REALMBUILDER "Fortifications of the Palace Architect" (I Hate Records) lp 25.00
REBEL, THE "Five Year Plan" (Monofonus Press) lp 13.98
ROOMMATE "Guilty Rainbow" (Antephonic) lp 14.98
ROTA, NINO "Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (OST)" (Get Back!) lp 29.00
ROTA, NINO "La Dolce Vita (OST)" (Get Back!) lp 29.00
RUSSOM, GAVIN "Night Sky" (DFA) 12" 9.98
SANDHY & MANDHY "Para Castukis" (Lion Productions) cd 14.98
SIMONE, NINA "Here Comes The Sun" (4 Men With Beards) lp 19.98
SIMONE, NINA "Sings The Blues" (4 Men With Beards) lp 19.98
SIMONE, NINA "To Love Somebody" (4 Men With Beards) lp 19.98
SIMONETTI, MIKE "Capricorn Rising" (Italians Do It Better) cd/lp 13.98/13.98
STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ "Mantra" (Doxy) 2lp 36.00
STONE COAL WHITE "s/t" (Cali-Tex) lp 17.98
SUBMERGED "Before Fire I Was Against Other People" (Ohm Resistance) cd 15.98
SWIMMER, THE (MARVIN HAMLISCH) "OST" (Film Score Monthly) cd 17.98
SYDNEY DUCKS "Stray Dogs" (Sydney Town) 7" 4.98
TANGERINE DREAM "Ultima Thule: The Electronic Magic Of Tangerine Dream" (Landmark) 2cd 9.98
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS "Join Us" (Idlewild) cd 14.98
THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS "Burning Trash" (Negative Guest List) 7" 12.98
TONES ON TAIL "Weird Pop" (Beggars Banquet / Beggars Archive) 2lp 22.00
TRAMPLED BY TURTLES "Palomine" (Banjodad) cd 14.98
TRIMBLE, BOBB "The Crippled Dog Band" (Yoga) lp 16.98
TUNNELS "The Blackout" (Thrill Jockey) lp 16.98
TURNER, VELVERT GROUP "s/t" (Flash Back) cd 25.00
TWISTED SISTER "Under The Blade" (Armoury) cd+dvd 15.98
V/A "ÁChicas! Spanish Female Singers 1962-1974" (Vampisoul) cd 17.98
V/A "Back And 4th" (Hotflush) 2cd 17.98
V/A "Beat Jazz Volume 1" (Pesky Serpent) cd/lp 16.98/16.98
V/A "Brand New Wayo: Funk, Fast Times & Nigerian Boogie Badness 1979-1983" (Comb & Razor Sound) cd+book 24.00
V/A "Casual Victim Pile II" (12XU) lp 14.98
V/A "Cult Cargo: Salsa Boricua De Chicago" (Numero Group) cd/2lp 17.98/24.00
V/A "Groove Club Vol. 2: Cambodia Rock Spectacular!" (Lion / Get On Down) cd 14.98
V/A "Groove Club Vol. 3: Cambodian Rock Intensified!" (Lion / Get On Down) cd 14.98
V/A "Ongaku 70: Vintage Psychedelia In Japan" (Hiruko) lp 25.00
V/A "Ongaku 80: Alternative Waves From Japan" (Hiruko) lp 25.00
V/A "Record Store Record" (RRR) 2lp 42.00
V/A "Red Hot and Rio 2" (Red Hot Organization / eOne) 2cd 17.98
V/A "Rhythm" (Gruenrekorder) cd 16.98
V/A "Secret Museum Of Mankind: Central Asia - Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48" (Outernational) 2lp 28.00
V/A "Son Of The Transcendental Maggot" (Tsuguri Records) cd-r 8.98
V/A "The Hidden Tapes" (Minimal Wave) lp 26.00
V/A "True Soul: Volume 2" (Now Again) cd + dvd 22.00
V/A "Welcome To The Beat Generation" (Beatnik) lp 16.98
V/A "West Indies Funk Vol. 2" (Trans Air) lp 19.98
V/A "Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies: A Treasury Of Caucasian-American Gospel" (Social Music) lp 13.98
VRAHLAZEL "s/t" (Pesanta Urfolk) lp 17.98
WHITE FANG "Younger" (Marriage) 7" 6.98
WHITMAN, KEITH FULERTON / MIKE SHIFLET "Split" (Amethyst Sunset) lp 19.98
WHODINI "Escape" (Traffic Entertainment Group / Jive) cd 16.98
WIDOWSPEAK "s/t" (Captured Tracks) lp 16.98
YO LA TENGO "Painful" (Matador) lp 14.98
ZAHIR, AHMAD "Hip 70's Afghan Beats!" (Guerssen) lp 28.00
ZOMBIE ZOMBIE "Plays John Carpenter" (Versatile) cd 14.98

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-------------------------------- 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.)

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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 beÊinternational postal money orders purchased at a post office. Additional processing fees may apply.Ê

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
Peste Noire "L'Ordure A L'Etat Pur" cd on Transcendental Creations / De Profundis / Rosenkrantz
v/a "Groove Club Vol.1: La Confiserie" 2cd on Lion

----} August 23rd
Corrupted new cd!!!!!
Sun Araw "Ancient Romans" cd/2lp on Drag City/Sun Ark
High Spirits "Another Night" cd on Planet Metal
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks "Minor Traffic" cd/2lp on Matador
Howe, Susan & David Grubbs "Frolic Architecture" cd on Drag City/Blue Chopsticks
George-Edwards Group "Archives" lp on Drag City
Newbury, Mickey "An American Triolgy (Deluxe Regular-Edition)" 4cd box on Drag City
Nig-Heist "s/t" lp reissue + live cd on Drag City
P.G. Six "Starry Mind" cd/lp on Drag City
Razika "Program 91" cd/lp on Smalltown Supersound
Sic Alps "Breadhead" 7" on Drag City
Sonic Youth "Hits Are For Squares" cd on Geffen
Patti Smith "Outside Society" cd/lp on Sony

----} August 30th
Beirut "The Rip Tide" cd/lp on Pompeii Records

----} also in August
Bong "Live At Roadburn 2010" lp version on Roadburn
Dead Elephant "Thanatology" cd/lp on Riot Season
Pageninetynine (PG.99) "Singles" lp on Robotic Empire

----} September 6th
Boss-De-Nage "ii" cd/lp on Flenser

----} September 13th
Wooden Shjips "West" on Thrill Jockey
Barn Owl "Lost In The Glare" on Thrill Jockey
Glenn Jones "The Wanting" on Thrill Jockey
Anthrax "Worship Music" cd on Megaforce

----} also in September
Brutal Truth "End Times" cd/lp on Relapse
Fennesz "Seven Stars"cd on Touch

----} November 15th
Olivia Tremor Control "Music From The Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle" 2lp reissue + 3 hours of bonus mp3s on Chunklet
Olivia Tremor Control "Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One" 2xLP 2lp reissue + 3 hours of bonus mp3s on Chunklet

----} also upcoming sooner or later or sooner or later or sooner or later or whenever or we don't remember
Male Bonding "Endless Now" cd/lp on Sub Pop
Cave "Neverendless" cd/lp on Drag City
Grouper "Water People" 7" on Ballroom Marfa (better preorder if you want one!!)
Erkin Koray "Meashul: Singles And Rarities" lp on Sublime Frequencies
Omar Souleyman "Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts" 2lp on Sublime Frequencies
High Wolf "Atlas Nation" lp on Holy Mountain
Water Borders "Harbored Mantras" cd/lp on Tri Angle
Clams Casino "Instrumentals" 2lp on Type
Roedelius Schneider "Stunden" cd/lp on Bureau B
Gui Borrato "III" cd/2lp on Kompakt
Walls "Coracle" cd/lp+cd on Kompakt
Oakhelm "Echtra" cd on Forest Moon Special Products
Simon Scott "Bunny" cd/lp on Miasmah
Les Rallizes Denudes "Double Heads" 6cd box on Phoenix
Midnight Priest "s/t" cd on Stormspell
Wild "La Nueva Orden" cd on Stormspell
Futur Skullz "s/t" lp on Kemado
High Spirits "Another Night" lp version on High Roller
Amen Dunes "Through Donkey Jaw" cd/lp on Sacred Bones
Bee Mask / Envenomist "Bee Mask v. Envenomist" lp on A Soundesign Recording
Kourosh "Back from the Brink" 2cd collection on Now-Again
Case Studies "The World Is Just A Shape To Fill The Night" cd/lp on Sacred Bones
Erkki Kurenniemi & Circle "Rakkaus Tulessa" lp on Full Contact / Svart
Pumice "Pebbles" remastered vinyl lp reissue on Soft Abuse
v/a "This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw, African-American Gospel On 45rpm (1957-1982)" 3cd on Tompkins Square
Circle "Maxim (live)" lp on Full Contact / Svart
Takayanagi Masayuki "Guitar Solo" cd on Jinya Disc
Takayanagi Masayuki "Meta Improvisation"cd on Jinya Disc
Low "Long Division" lp reissue on Plain
v/a "Groove Club Vol.1: La Confiserie" lp version on Lion
Circle "Infektio" cd/lp on Conspiracy
Tecumseh "Return to Everything" cd on Beta-Lactam Ring
Marijata "This Is Marijata" cd on Academy
Marijata "Pat Thomas Presents Marijata" cd/lp on Academy
Nurse With Wound "Skrag" cd on United Dairies
Jonathan Coleclough "Flutter" 2cd-r on October
Boduf Songs "Strait Gait" cd/lp on Latitudes
Anton Batagov "Passionate Desire To Be An Angel" cd on Long Arms Records
Leviathan "True Traitor True Whore" cd on Profound Lore
Dalek "Untitled" lp version on Latitudes

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickJonandAndrew