AMM The Nameless Uncarved Block (Matchless) cd 17.98

AMM Tunes Without Measure or End (Matchless) cd 17.98
The guys from the seminal UK "free improv" group AMM, whose pioneering and still unique sounds first turned people's heads way back in 1965, are of course still very much in the, um, avantgarde of avantgarde music making, both as individuals and as the still-potent AMM ensemble. Here's some recent proof of their talents, recorded live in Scotland, May 2000. The trio of Keith Rowe (guitar), John Tilbury (piano), and Eddie Prevost (percussion) play experimental, improvised music that's not jazz, not drone, not really anything other than "AMM music" (providing inspiration to many makers of abstract, adventurous music -- everyone from Jim O'Rourke to the Kammerflimmer Kollektief to SF's Thuja). Prevost's percussion provides a sparse but turbulent backdrop while sometimes venturing to the forefront in explosive eruptions, Tilbury's piano drops in abstract-yet-melodic fragments of noir-ish key-plink, and Rowe's guitar all the while quietly growls like a lion with indigestion or produces other equally un-guitarlike sounds. Despite the disc's title, what you get here are six "tunes", ending after 57 minutes and 15 seconds, the playing time of this cd. AMM fans (and folks unfamilar with AMM, but interested in checking them out) should find this album to be a worthwhile investment.
RealAudio clip: "Tune Four"

AMM/MERZBOW split (12") Fat Cat 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The latest in this high profile series of split 12"s. Merzbow is at his most melodic, coming up with an almost hummable bit of white noise. The AMM side is all rhythm, primarily beautifully meandering chimes and bells.

AMNESTY Free Your Mind (Now-Again) cd 15.98
Wow! What an amazing discovery by the soul archivists at Stones Throw who obviously knew the world needed to hear this amazing early seventies Indianapolis funk band. Amnesty employ tasty vocal harmonies, horns that would make Antibalas drool, and a raw & gritty vibe that has had us listening to this over and over ever since we got our hands on it. A killer collection of mostly previously unreleased tracks, the socially conscious and physically addictive sounds of true soul. Think Parliament/Funkadelic and the finest moments of Roy Ayers with touches of Afrobeat, giving these songs a strength and resonance that has our ears ringing with perfect delight. So good!
MPEG Stream: "Mr President"
MPEG Stream: "Lord Help Me"
MPEG Stream: "Free Your Mind"

AMOCOMA Go To Hell (self-released) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The first thing that struck us about this debut release from Amocoma, a mysterious black metal horde from right here in San Francisco, was the cover art, a child-like pen and ink drawing of a pile of heads, but instead of being bloody or gory or horrific, they're sort of more cartoonish, like a whole slew of stick figures were decapitated, their heads tossed in a huge pile, beneath the scrawled band logo, wreathed in clouds of smeared ink. We were definitely intrigued. And if anything, once inside, we were even moreso...
Amocoma traffic in an ultra lo-fi, muddy murky blackness. It's definitely black metal, there is plenty of buzz and blast and howled vocals, but at the same time it's sort of stumbling and noise rocky, it's probably a little of both, but it's all rendered nearly indistinct by the incredibly FX drenched lo-fi production. 
Beginning with dreamy swirls of soft focus harmonics and distant rumbles, it doesn't take long for the band to lurch into action, a simple hypnotic riff, looped over and over, almost sounding more like a bass than a guitar, and not so heavy as it is trancelike. The drums are mechanical and repetitive, the vocals are howled and swathed in reverb, spread out over the proceedings like a black cloud, so much so that at times they just sound like another layer of buzz. And the more you listen, the more pretty it sounds, sure it's raw and harsh, but the melody is so hypnotic, and the swirling clouds of distortion and reverb give everything a sort of soft focus shimmer. 
We're definitely reminded of WOLD, in the sense that these little fragmented pop songs, are rendered black and buzzy by the application of super saturated distortion, tape hiss and amp buzz, reverb and delay, so even at its heaviest, it's washed out and abstract, and downright dreamy. The drone element is through the roof, and it's impossible not to hear Tim Hecker or Machinefabriek or any one of those masters of smeary dreamlike sound. At some points things get super psychedelic, like halfway through "Small Dark Sea That Was A Body" where the guitar drops out, leaving just the drums, to sort of pulse and putter in a wide open expanse of soft swirl, while drifting above are all manner of glistening guitar harmonics, spacey FX sparkles, and warm warbly melodic hum. 
Damaged and dreamy, freaked out and fucked, one of our new favorite slabs of black beauty for sure... 
MPEG Stream: "Cowards Live Forever"
MPEG Stream: "Small Dark Sea That Was A Body"
MPEG Stream: "These Are Your Chocies / ...Darkness"

AMOEBIL 200 Pills (a034 Pharmaceutical Labs / Black Bean & Placenta) cd 11.98
Skwidchy, fluttering, minimal breakbeats that keep going and going and going... from Italy. Go on, give those glo-sticks a workout. Eight tracks o'techno, two of which are live sets.

AMON DUDE s/t (Ikuisuus) cd-r 10.98
It had to happen. That's right, someone naming a band Amon Dude. And it probably had to happen in Finland. Which it did. This one man band just so happens to be one of the guys from Avarus, so we were sort of expecting some damaged foresty krautrock what with the name and all, but nothing could be further from the truth. This is some super psychedelic, ultra freaked out, dense and damaged cartoonish splattery improvised noise rock weirdness. And that barely does this stuff justice.
A cacophony or heavily affected percussion, damaged electronics, primitive vocal experiments, a swirling sonic chaos, clattery and explosive, jagged and head spinning, a totally mind blowing brain melting WHAT-THE-FUCK freakout. Hard to even describe what's going on, as it changes pretty much every few seconds. Imagine Carl Stalling orchestrating the No Neck Blues Band after an all night crystal meth binge, or the soundtrack to a Bollywood movie played by Violent Onsen Geisha, or a Perrey And Kingsley recording session after having taken WAY too many drugs and having some sort of musical mental breakdown or maybe even Casiotone For the Painfully Demented and Damaged.
Whatever you call it, this is one weird and wacked and WAY OUT record. Fans of the weirdest of musics from the Finnish fringe will definitely want one of these, as will those of you looking for a party clearer, head spinner, lease breaker, or sonic palate cleanser.
SUPER LIMITED CD-R!!! We got a handful but they will probably be gone pretty fast, and once they are, that's it...
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

AMON DUUL Disaster (Spalax) cd 16.98

AMON DUUL Para Dieswarts Duul (Spalax) cd 14.98

AMON DUUL II Carnival In Babylon (Repertoire) cd 17.98

AMON DUUL II Phallus Dei (Revisited) cd 17.98
Split apart from the more politicized fraction known as Amon Duul I (Psychedelic Underground, etc.), Amon Duul II emerged in 1969 when they released this fantastic debut album. It's a masterwork of drug-dazed guitar psych, long tracks, middle eastern influence, churning trance rock, etc. With the same four bonus tracks as found on the prior Gammarock label cd version: "Freak Out Requiem I - III", & "Cymbals In The End". Where the music of Amon Duul I flowed freely like the loose collective of hippies they were, Amon Duul II was a delirious explosion of psychedelia that, with small exception, always kept one foot firmly planted in structure. The extended jams, especially the title track, have the benefit of being both very accessible straight ahead, heavy, psychedelic rock while retaining the spontaneity of an improv sensibility. Hopefully this new, excellent-sounding digipak Repertoire-label reissue won't go out of print as quickly as previous versions did!
RealAudio clip: "Phallus Dei (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "Phallus Dei (excerpt 2)"
RealAudio clip: "Freak Out Requiem II"

AMON DUUL II Play Phallus Dei (Repertoire) dvd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK! If you missed 'em the other week, here's another chance:
Seminal Krautrockers Amon Duul II are captured here on film doing what the title says, playing their debut (and perhaps 2nd best, next to their masterpiece Yeti) album. It's about a half-hour long, a psychedelic transmission from a far off time and place: Munich, Germany 1968. Fans probably need this, but we should give you a little more info. First off, it's more of an art film (Wim Wenders was one of the cinematographers!) than a live-in-concert document. In fact, while the soundtrack is very definitely a live performance of the mind-blowing hippie hoedown that Phallus Dei is, it's not exactly synched to what you see the band doing on the screen -- they're two different performances of the same material. Apparently the reason the audio and visual don't match up is because the band refused to stop playing, or do anything over, even when some of the cameras malfunctioned. So edits were necessary. But in a way it doesn't matter -- the weird disconnect just makes this all the more psychedelic, as you hear the violin before the musican starts playing it, or the bongos continue even when the drummer stops to get his hair out of his face. Not that this needs much help to be super psychedelic -- the colorful light show alone will trip you out, superimposed as it is over the long haired hippies in the band grooving out. Messing with your mind still further, the first part of the film (after a lovely opening sequence of the rising sun, later mirrored by shots of the sunset) is a fairly close up shot of just the band's two singers, and remains fixed on them even during a largely instrumental portion of the song. Renate Knaup looks bored (but sexy), while Shrat does his best to freak out on a tamborine which you can't hear. Then there's the portions of the film that show scenes of an artifically blue-toned German countryside as the camera drives past, that's fairly mesmerizing. The overall effect is enhanced by the scratches and spots on the time-worn film -- freeze-frame the opening sunrise sequence with your DVD pause button and you'll find many wonderful abstract compositions. Anyway, it's a historical musical document as well as an intriguing art flick -- when it screened at the 1969 Edinburgh Film Festival, American director Samuel Fuller (Shock Corridor) was quoted as saying "It's rough, it's vicious, it's drama". And here's what that festival's program guide had to say, to put you in the mood: "This film will be shown without titles or credits. It is in colour and you will see the German rock group Amon Duul II -- which, apart from Amon Duul I, is the only true progressive and outstanding group from Germany -- on stage with their celebrated light show...Their sound is very heavy, weird, and wild. Imagine a cross between Hapshash, Spooky Tooth, Dr. John and Jethro Tull."
As a sort of bonus, this dvd also features a slide-show style discography featuring album artwork and snippets of songs from each of their umpteen releases. There's nothing else in the way of special features except for the surround sound in place of original mono option.

AMON DUUL II Tanz Der Lemminge (Repertoire) cd 17.98
Originally released back in 1971, "Tanz Der Lemminge" was the third album from the second incarnation of Amon Duul. Where the first incarnations of Amon Duul (along with Amon Duul I, there was supposedly an Amon Duul 0 from the mid-'60s) had much more of a anarchist / socio-political bent, Amon Duul II was the vehicle for the more musically minded folk from the collective, fully embracing the sonic potential of psychedelia. Oftentimes under-appreciated in comparison to the Krautrock triumvirate of Neu!, Can, and Faust, Amon Duul II had more than a fair share of moments that could rival the works of those three! That said, "Tanz Der Lemminge" may be one of the lesser works from Amon Duul II, but is still better than most of their Krautrock comtemporaries. This album is a sprawling psychedelic mess of free-form songs that filter early-Pink Floyd space-folk wispiness through some occasionally heavy prog leanings. Of particular note is the epic improv track "The Marilyn Monroe-Memorial-Church" as a meandering freakout with lots of organs, pianos, and phasing guitars that will make fans of Acid Mother's Temple very happy. "Tanz Der Lemminge" is recommended only after you've fallen in love with "Yeti" and "Phallus Dei," which totally kick ass.
RealAudio clip: "Telephonecomplex"
RealAudio clip: "Overheated Tiara"
RealAudio clip: "The Marilyn Monroe-Memorial-Church"

AMON DUUL II Vive La Trance (Repertoire) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

AMON DUUL II Wolf City (Revisited) cd 16.98
Oh, it's great to see old favorites back in print! The ever-reliable Revisited label has bestowed upon us the awesome Wolf City from Amon Duul II. Released in 1972, this is ADII's fifth album and a return to form after two not-as-hot releases, Tanz Der Lemminge and Carnival in Babylon. Much more structured than our two other ADII faves, Yeti and Phallus Dei, Wolf City doesn't waste any time establishing itself but instead gets right down to business. Relying heavily on Renate Knaup's demonic / angelic vocal style through shifting moods from epically dynamic and prog-inflected rock to spacerock jams, and gentle instrumentals. Each track takes us on an unpredictable ride of kraut heaviness with macabre organ, 12 string guitar, screeching violin and all sorts of strange background noises of odd laughing, grunts and choir-like ahhhs. So kickass! A great place to start for the uninitiated, containing as it does several ADII classic trax, among them "Deutsch Nepal". This new reish comes in a nice digipack and includes three bonus tracks: "Kindermoderlied", "Mystic Blutsturz", and "Duulirium".
MPEG Stream: "Wolf City"
MPEG Stream: "Wie Der Wind Am Ende Einer Strasse"
MPEG Stream: "Duulirium"

AMON DUUL II Yeti (Revisited Records) cd 16.98
It's been reissued again and again, as well is should 'cause this is one of the best albums EVER everyone at AQ agrees and should always be in print, and you should even own more than one copy it's that good. For some reason, the rights to this album (and ADII's others as well) seem to constantly be in flux from one label to the next -- this time it's in the care of an outfit called Revisited Records, who have put it in a digipack almost identical to its previous incarnation on Repertoire, but sadly without the two bonus tracks from singles that that one had.
Anyway, maybe you're wondering what the heck the big deal is with Yeti, so here's our review we wrote last time it got reissued:
The absolute hardest albums to write about are those we hold in the highest esteem and though we have an aversion to the general notion of a "desert island selection", this Amon Duul II disc is one of those albums that we could see as an definite inclusion on a short list of "must have" rock records! 1970's Yeti is the second album of Amon Duul II, succeeding Phallus Dei, and captures these krautrockers at their zenith. The album opens with the four movement opus "Soap Shop Rock", an amazing 13+ minute track that encompasses the gamut of psychedelia. It begins as an uptempo number with driving bass and drums in which vocals, guitars and amplified fiddles swirl around in a multitude of melodic variations in counterpoint before breaking down into one of the most kick ass tempo changes ever performed in rock; a heavy dirge that never fails to knock my knee caps loose, and it's got a guitar line that certainly must have been held in immense reverence by Kramer at some formative point in his career. The song doesn't settle down there, but continues in its focused meanderings for another ten minutes, retaining enough of an anchor of its beginnings to give it coherence as a unified whole. The rest of the album is equally amazing, touching everything from blasted proto-punk psych ("Archangels Thunderbird" and "Eye-Shaking King") to spacey drone improv (the fifteen minutes of "Yeti Talks To Yogi" and "Sandoz In The Rain"). Essential krautrock. In fact, one of the best records EVER.
It's one of those albums, like First Utterance by Comus and Satori by Flower Travellin' Band, that when it's playing, we think, why listen to anything else again??
MPEG Stream: "Soap Shop Rock - Halluzination Guillotine"
MPEG Stream: "Archangels Thunderbird"
MPEG Stream: "Soap Shop Rock - Flesh-Coloured Anti-Aircraft Alarm Clock"

AMOR BELHOM DUO s/t (Carrot Top) cd 14.98
The Amor Belhom Duo are "avant-french pop from Paris, France via Tucson, AZ" -- so sayeth their press kit -- however that tag may prove to be far too limiting for their sonic endeavours. They've collaborated with such artists as Valerie Leulliot of Autour De Lucie, French filmmaker Marianne Dissard (who pens a great deal of their lyrics) and the very likeminded Calexico. Wonderfully laidback and subtle, yet dramatic and sophisticated. At times, quite akin to the Tindersticks but far less structured and much more varied in tempo (check out the very appropriate-for-a-chase-scene track "The Closer"). A bit obtuse with a great deal of improv melding their plethora of inspirations. This is the re-issue of their second full length from 1999/2000.
RealAudio clip: "A Little Less Of Us"
RealAudio clip: "The Closer"

AMOR BELHOM DUO Wavelab (Carrot Top) cd 14.98
Kicking things off with a bizarrely animated turn into what might be described as a Man Or Astro-man? surfy motif that almost had me lighting up my tiki torch, is... hmmm, I think this is Amor Belhom Duo. Ah yes, the second track - an early version of "Elevator Baby" later to be reworked on Tete A Tete their ABBC collaboration with fellow Tucsonites, Calexico. Whew, from that point on it seems to be pure Naim Amor and Thomas Belhom - that is, dark, abstract, spartan - but then they throw in another twist and then another. This one may puzzle those who are familiar with this duo's more recent, slow, dramatic sounds, nevertheless an enjoyable if stylistically disruptive debut album from '98 now re-issued (reproduced, remixed and remastered) on Carrot Top Records. Originally called Wavelab Performance, and recorded live at Wavelab Studio in Tucson, AZ (recording base of Giant Sand, OP8, Calexico, etc) with appearances by Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico. For fans of the aforementioned artists and Milk Cult too.
RealAudio clip: "Introduction"
RealAudio clip: "Jambe En L'Air"

AMORES PERROS (SOUNDTRACK) (Universal) 2cd 23.00
I was waiting to review this soundtrack until I had seen the movie, which finally happened last week, and all I have to say is MAN IS THAT FILM AWESOME OR WHAT. I'm not going to review the movie here or give too much away, but suffice to say that in the same way that the movie mixed up three quite different stories into one seamless whole, the soundtrack has been brilliantly compiled and tracked in such a way that many different kinds of music work so well together. There's Cypress-Hill-style hip hop (very sassy and hard hitting), traditional Latin stuff (Celia Cruz), super earnest man-with-acoustic-guitar songs, The Hollies (? but it works), weirdo electronic alt-rock, some contributions from the popular rock group Cafe Tacuba, and the whole thing is held together with interspersed soundscapey incidental interludes courtesy Gustavo Santaolalla. Very, very well done... and there's two whole discs! Well worth your money.
RealAudio clip: GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA "Tema Amoera Perros"
RealAudio clip: CONTROL MACHETE "Si Senor"
RealAudio clip: LOS DEL GARROTE "La Cumbia del Garrote"
RealAudio clip: CONTROL MACHETE "de Perros Amores"
RealAudio clip: CAFE TACUBA "Avientame"

AMORT Dschungel / Fieber (Orobas) cassette 4.00
Another two songs from one man slow motion doom merchant Amort. We keep hoping for a full length, maybe even an lp or a cd, but there's something about this slow seep of Amort's miserablist music that just seems appropriate, the sound of some massive black beast painfully excreting each and every sound, captured on tape, which does in fact enhance the sound, this one especially, as some of the notes were so blown out, the tape so saturated, that it actually sort of made us dizzy listening to it on headphones.
While past missives have focused on ambience, sounding more cinematic, riffs and stretched into long sprawling dirges, the sound here is much more primitive funereal doom, at least on the A side. The guitar massive and churning, the vocals as deep and demonic as possible, any more and it would just turn into a puddle of black sludge. The cinematic element is restrained to haunting little interludes, a creepy speech over a gurgling sea of hiss and electronic burble, the massive riff always poised just out of earshot, ready to crash down and swallow everything whole.
The flipside begins with gently picked downtuned guitar, the low end cranked, a thick pulsing rumble, another guitar unfurling a plodding chug, another loosing little trills of high end shimmer into the blackness, the vocals again, a gurgling black cloud. But with a little flutter of clean guitar surfacing here and there, drifting through the throbbing black expanse.
Transparent green cassettes in black and white covers, and with a black and white hand numbered insert. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!

AMORT Weird Tales (Orobas) cassette 4.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This cassette just showed up in the mail one day, with a short note asking us if we wanted to sell it in the store. Hard to tell what it would sound like: band called Amort, two songs, cover image an oil painting of wild horses, very striking, but still no clear sonic picture. The tape came wrapped in a flyer, with the words "Slow end sonic destruction" printed in thick black letters across the top. Our first clue...
So we threw it on, and were first greeted with the sound of lilting piano, notes hanging suspended in wide open expanses of near silence, but soon that piano was joined by a slow lava like flow of glacial riffing, a downtuned low end thob, a la SUNNO))), Earth, Corrupted, but draped over a delicate slowcore background, then in came some incredibly low, gurgling vocals, and suddenly all was revealed to us, gloriously hauntingly beautiful slowcore sludge. The massive riffing and monstrous vocals, drift in and out, often leaving just a lilting minor key guitar, to gently pick out the melody, hushed and minimal, like some sort of super abstract post rock, before the guitars pour back in and the vocals croak forth, but even at its heaviest and sludgiest, it's strangely pretty, the melody a minor key lament, the sound more murky and muddy than pummeling and heavy, like Corrupted covering Low maybe... The tempo gets upped a notch or two, sounding like the band might lurch into full on rocking, but instead, the riff just loops over and over, becoming more of a rhythmic drone than an any sort of actual rock riff, eventually fading to black.
Side two creeps along similar ground, beginning with abstract minor key guitar figures, allowed to unfurl and drift through an empty space, joined by simple piano, before launching into a slow motion ambient doom, all burnt out guitar and reverb drenched vocals. Very reminiscent of the Tomb Of... cassette, a strange melding of abstract ambient piano and dirgey doom drenched sludge. The interesting thing about Amort is there are no drums, this is all just huge walls of guitar, harsh demonic vocals, and tinkling piano, on the second track, the guitar becomes weirdly harmonized, creating super tense harmonic melodies, like some displaced Iron Maiden lick, slowed down to 2 or 3 rpm. This track two sort of wanders back and forth between forlorn slow motion cabaret, just piano and undistorted guitar, and pummeling drone doom crush. But in the hands of Amort, they sound so perfect together. The ultimate post rock downer doom...
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!

AMORT Winter Songs (Orobas) cassette 4.00
Brand new tape from one of our favorite purveyors of 'ambient slowcore doom'. Influenced heavily by bands like SUNNO))), as well as bands on the blacker and more metal end of the sonic spectrum, Amort, have their own unique angle, at once mysterious and cinematic, heavy and atmospheric. Like most of their songs, the proceedings start out with plodding abstract piano, throbbing low end notes, ringing out and reverberating, drifting in vast expanses of near silent hiss. With hushed whispered vocals, and the occasional distant wail of anguish and oddly, NO DRUMS (although it took us a while to even realize there were no drums, the sound is so thick and dense). Eventually, the guitars roll in like some thick black fog, and the band becomes some sort of black glacial beast, slithering and lurching in slow motion. The piano picks out mournful melodies beneath a thick wash of rumbling crumbling distortion. It's definitely closer to Thergothon or Skepticism that SUNNO))), not so much a static drift as a plodding trudge, the guitars beating against each other, pulsing and throbbing, the piano pounding away, buried way down in the mix. Sort of what you might imagine SUNNO))) covering Low might sound like, or even some Mazzy Star / Khanate mash up! Essential listening for the ultra-doom obsessed, and slow core fans looking for something a little darker or heavier should definitely check this out....

AMORT / THE COMFORT WIVES Black Blood / Locusta (Orobas) cassette 4.00
Tape number two from ambient slowcore doom outfit Amort, whose first tape we dug heavily. A dense drifty blend of SUNNO))) style ultra doom, and lilting Low like atmospherics. This time they're teamed up with the strangely named Comfort Wives, who based on the name were ready to be disappointed by, but just like Mom always told us about books and covers, The Comfort Wives actually kick up a pretty mean din. The strange thing is how different Amort sound here. Actually to be honest, the labeling is sort of confusing and we just assumed Side A was the Comfort Wives but in fact appears to be Amort unless the tape was mislabeled. Either way, both sides are awesome, we'll go by the label for now. So Amort sound much more like a band, than a man crafting bleak dronescapes on his own. A plodding midtempo, noisy blackness, huge guitars so low and blown out they threaten to overwhelm the whole recording, which is in no way a band thing, in fact, it's the sort of guitar sound most bands would kill for. An in the red throbbing downtuned buzz, wrapped around a sort of melodic noise rock. The sound here is not so much black metal as it is taking bits and pieces of black metal and incorporating them into their own sound. And the sound here is more of a mournful minor key midtempo dirge rock, with super catchy melodies, simple drumming, some cool harmonies, all wrapped in a blacker than normal production, with some harsh howled vocals. Like a poppier, noise rockier version of Bone Awl or Beherit maybe? Cool stuff regardless, but a strange direction for Amort, while The Comfort Wives end up sounding more like Amort did on the last tape, but somehow darker and doomier and sludgier and much more black metal. An epic and corrosive sonic sludge, that unfurls like some thick black fog. Slow minor key guitar figures drift amidst wide open space, vocals gurgle and growl, all swallowed up by a MASSIVE glacial downtuned dirge, before the low end abates and leaves a simple strummed, almost out of tune guitar to sort of meander, before the blackness falls again. This is not so much BM as ultra doom, or black ambience, the guitars rumble and reverberate, single chords stretched out over vast expanses, the vocals another layer of low end, the riffs so slow they seem to be single plodding thuds that ring out and bleed into the next crusty note, a bit like Abruptum, a ritualistic black minimal doom, epic and murky and hellish and muddy and massive and seriously scary...

AMOS, TORI American Doll Posse (Epic) cd 17.98
Ms Tori embarks on another immersive concept album, this time embodying five starkly contrasted female personas over the course of twenty three songs. The music is just as startlingly varied in style as her satiny fashion choices for the cover photos. She has (or her team of stylists have) radically transformed herself in appearance with wigs and wardrobe. However, it's not to the degree of, say, Cindy Sherman or Laurie Anderson. No, Tori knows the market value of a flawless pretty face and doesn't sully hers to become anything unconventionally beautiful. No fat, no zits, no wrinkles.
Amos addresses her current concerns and critiques via Greek mythological references, rock star bombast, diva swoonings, earth mother embraces and battle cries. Of course, when you get right down to it, this kind of social and political criticism can be more than a little sticky, maybe even hypocritical at times -- lambasting the same systems (corporate, psychological, etc) in which she is profiting from the sales of her wares. Hence, our feelings about this album vacillate between thinking it preachy and long winded versus it being amazingly ambitious and her most spirited work to date. Seriously, there are moments on this album that are absolutely breathtaking (yes, some of them being her glorious, elaborate piano dramatics!), while others teeter into head-scratcher territory. Brace yourself.
MPEG Stream: "Body And Soul"
MPEG Stream: "Almost Rosey"

AMOS, TORI Boys For Pele (Atlantic) cd 16.98
Tori's music circa 1996 is very full and heavy, yet at times clear and light, as bent as PJ Harvey though of course imbued with Tori's own crotch-grabbing attitudinal eccentricities. Featured instrumentation: harpsichord, flugelhorn, bagpipes, harmonium, clavichord, and the very soft sound of her fingers depressing the piano keys.

AMOS, TORI Scarlet's Walk (Epic) cd 17.98

AMOS, TORI Strange Little Girls (Atlantic) cd 16.98
None of us here are huge Tori Amos fans, but part of me really wants to be. She is such a rock star. Bizarre and perplexing in interviews, aloof but good to her fans, and sort of political (as much as a rock star can be these days). In the past she's covered Nirvana, and on this new record she covers Slayer. SLAYER. Fucking "Raining Blood"... Just her and a piano. In fact the whole record is covers, 12 of 'em. Songs by: Lou Reed, Eminem, Depeche Mode, 10CC, Lloyd Cole, Tom Waits, Boomtown Rats, the Beatles, Stranglers, Neil Young, Joe Jackson, and of course Slayer. All done in her weirdly dark, Kate-Bush-on-quaaludes, piano bar at the end of the universe style. Strange little girl indeed.
RealAudio clip: "I'm Not In Love"
RealAudio clip: "Raining Blood"

AMOS, TORI The Beekeeper (Epic) cd + dvd 24.00
Attention all Tori lovers! Aw heck, you probably already know this but... she's just released a brand new full length and this version comes with a dvd! Taking a slightly different approach this time around, the ever enigmatic Ms Amos' eighth album The Beekeeper is a conceptual work. The cd is comprised of nineteen songs which, as the liner notes tell, have bloomed from a half dozen "gardens" such as "the orchard", "rock garden", "the greenhouse", etc (although rather puzzlingly this is not at all reflected in the songs' running order on the album - it comes across more as a random bouquet). Such a beautiful sentiment! This version even comes with a wildflower seed packet for your own garden. To boot, the dvd includes an interview and one exclusive song. This audio and visual release coincides with the publishing of her written autobiography, Piece By Piece which she co-wrote with music writer Ann Powers. This much Amos goodness is sure to delight her legions of fans!
MPEG Stream: "Parasol"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet The Sting"

AMP All Of Yesterday Tomorrow (Rroopp) 3cd 21.00
Well over a decade ago, Bristol was the birthplace of a community of psychedelically inclined art-rockers. At first, there seemed to be an open door policy to the projects that emerged, with members rotating between Flying Saucer Attack, Third Eye Foundation, Crescent, and AMP. Eventually, all of these projects settled into their own particular aesthetic with Flying Saucer Attack continuing an overblown 'rural psychedelia,' Third Eye Foundation completing the project that Kevin Shields never finished of bridging darkcore drum 'n' bass with snarling guitar distortion, and Crescent sinking into an abject grit of narcolepsy. AMP had been the most elusive of the four, shifting between luminously smeared space rock and ungrounded electronics-plus-guitar noodling. When AMP were focused on their somber tunes, the smoldering washes of distortion and fuzz worked very well (i.e. their debut album Sirenes and their two proper albums on Kranky); but the exploration of guitar drone and post-Eno ambience proved to be less successful for AMP. This triple cd collection of singles, compilation tracks, and rare material from AMP showcases the highs and lows of their career. Fortunately, the less than inspired ambient noodling merely drifts into the background of this collection. It's never offensive, but just lulls and drifts, waiting for one of AMP's exceptional, slow burning crescendos balancing between Bardo Pond at their druggiest and the early '90s shoegazing contingent.
MPEG Stream: "Remember"
MPEG Stream: "Get There"
MPEG Stream: "Baudelaire"

AMP L'Amour Invisible (Space Age) cd 15.98
Once closely affiliated with the Bristol post-rock crowd alongside Flying Saucer Attack, Movietone, Third Eye Foundation and the underappreciated Crescent, Amp has all but completely dissolved the post-MBV guitar luminescence found on their first records. Nevertheless, the core duo of Richard Walker and Karine Charff has held onto strains of that scene's sleepy miserablism in the form of languid, vaguely trip-hopped rhythms swathed in hazy atmospheres, distant guitar delicacy, and Charff's pleasantly downer voice. Strange as it may seem, Amp has slowly been turning into a rougher version of Coldplay or Doves.
RealAudio clip: "Crazyhead"
RealAudio clip: "Curious Smile"

AMP Saint Cecilia Sinsemilla (Space Age) cd 16.98
Amp's Richard Walker and Karine Charff were once members of a loose Bristol collective of "rural psychedelic" outfits featuring bands like Flying Saucer Attack, Movietone, Crescent, and Third Eye Foundation, all having sort of interchangeable members. Over time, each of those individual groups took on more distinct aesthetics and lost their member swappin' interconnectivity. While Third Eye Foundation pushed further towards electronica and Crescent took on a gritty, abject temperament, Amp's sound became more oceanic and romantic. "Saint Cecilia Sinsemilla" was recorded during their 1999 European tour (in support of their third proper album "Stenorette") and features additional recordings from their VPRO sessions. Like all of the Bristol bands, Amp's sound began as a lo-fi extension of My Bloody Valentine's lumenescent guitar distortion. But as can be heard on "Saint Cecilia Sinsemilla," Amp now relies less and less on the big MBV guitar sound, instead crafting a dense electronic psychedelia (duh, it's on Space Age -- home of Spacemen 3 and Spectrum) around Karine's haunting vocals.
RealAudio clip: "Get There"

AMP Stenorette (Kranky) cd 13.98
I had begun to wonder if Richard and Karine would do anything worth while again, as their debut Sirenes clearly stands above everything they have done... until Stenorette. Working with producer Robert Hampson (Main, Loop), Amp has traded in their four track fuzziness for the crystal clear digital purity of Hampson's studio. In doing so, they have written a beautiful album of gossamer electronica / pop songs that nonetheless maintains their ghostly sadness.

AMP Stenorette (Kranky) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I had begun to wonder if Richard and Karine would do anything worth while again, as their debut Sirenes clearly stands above everything they have done... until Stenorette. Working with producer Robert Hampson (Main, Loop), Amp has traded in their four track fuzziness for the crystal clear digital purity of Hampson's studio. In doing so, they have written a beautiful album of gossamer electronica / pop songs that nonetheless maintains their ghostly sadness.

AMP / WINDY & CARL (Blue Flea) split cdep 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Spacey and spacier...

AMPERSAND s/t (Fantastic) cd 12.98
The debut release from this SF pop combo. Eight highly hummable songs of pretty jangle and boy/girl vocals. Fans of the Swirlies, Marine Research, Go Sailor or Wedding Present, take note!

AMPS Pacer (4ad/Elektra) cd 15.98
Kim Deal's new band (all boys).

AMPS FOR CHRIST Circuits (Vermiform) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The newest release from this mostly one man folk/noise project. Barnes, the man responsible for the 'noise' in Man is The Bastard and Bastard Noise, returns with a surprisingly beautiful record of soothing songs his mum used to sing him played on a variety of homemade instruments that sound a bit like saws, harpsichords, and bagpipes, and sung by lovely voiced Tara. Like a impossible cross between His Name Is Alive, the Sun City Girls, and (at points) even the Ruins! Really a genius band.

AMPS FOR CHRIST Electrosphere (Shrimper) 2cd 14.98
More bizarre ethno-renaissance punk folk skree (performed mostly on homemade and invented instruments) from ex-Man Is The Bastard noisemaker Barnes. Sounds like an odd collection of electronically malfunctioing zithers and bagpipes and kazoos, all playing turn of the century traditionals from some other world. Beautiful and baffling.

AMPS FOR CHRIST Every Eleven Seconds (5RC) cd 14.98
AQ's favorite Xtian acid-folk n' electronics outfit (we could call 'em, in an attempt to classify the unclassifiable) Amps For Christ are back with a new album. Yay we say! We're always happy to check in with ex-Man Is The Bastard member "Ranger Barnes" and his coven of collaborators to see what's going on in their strange and wonderful world. And Every Eleven Seconds is about what we'd expect from AFC: a mutated take on traditional folk tuneage, Barnes the mad scientist instrument builder doing his thing on home-built stringed things, all sorts of distorted electronic wavelengths heightening the vibrations of soulful hippy-punk weirdness. Beauty, noise, and more beauty.
There's many gems on here, from the gentler side of power violence displayed by "I Hate This Dumpster" to the bagpipes-in-a-UFO stylings of "Scotland The Brave", though apparently these days it wouldn't be an AFC album without a few brief blips of unwanted "spoken word" poetry to wince at for a moment before the Amps with their fuzz and grit and old timey melodies kick in again...
We don't mind. This long-running outfit on the outskirts of "New Weird America" is the closest any of that crew have come to true Outsiderdom. They've definitely carved themselves a unique niche. Comparisons? Dunno, how 'bout psych-folksters Six Organs Of Admittance performing in a malfunctioning video arcade, with the ghost of Eddie Hazel sitting in on Maggot Brain guitar? Or you maybe could call 'em a Judeo-Christian Sun City Girls. While the SCGs can be rather smarmy and smartass, AFC are more emotionally sincere. Sure like the SCG's they're still plenty cryptic and confusional, but with a warm and holy embrace.
MPEG Stream: "Augmented / Demented"
MPEG Stream: "Out On The Moon (Slight Return)"

AMPS FOR CHRIST The Oak In the Ashes (Shrimper) cd 13.98
One of our favorite bands offers up another disc of their unique, unclassifiable sounds. This one really embraces a '60s hippie vibe, with occasional outbursts from their "power violence" past (AFC leader Barnes was the "noise guy" in California's seminal political-grind-crust band Man Is The Bastard). Electronically simulated Scottish bagpipes and the strains of other hand made, one of a kind instruments are blended in a tapestry of electric acid folk music. The instrumental passages are a wash of psychedelic electronics, while the delicate male vocals recall Nick Drake or early Meat Puppets. Unpredictable as always AFC is, "The Oak" also features female vocals in an exotic, faux-Middle Eastern mode, lo-fi dirge metal guitar freakout, horn-noodling free jazz improv, finally winds up with the nine minute carnival-noise abstraction of "Prepared Hammond For 5 Hands". Eclectic, but for the most part the focus of "The Oak" is the gorgeous folky songs, more-or-less layered with distortion and drone. Unfortunately we must give warning that there's several completely incongruous, godawful tracks of someone reciting bad beat poetry over too-loud drumming found here as well -- when listening to this, you should definitely make sure to program out tracks 4, 8, 11, 13, 16, 20, and 22 (which are short anyways, but they should have been shorter)! Regardless, skip them and this is a great 16-track AFC album, and thus recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Little Angel"
RealAudio clip: "Painter"
RealAudio clip: "As I Walked Out"

AMPS FOR CHRIST The People At Large (5RC) cd 14.98
DIY instrument-builder Barnes and friends are back with another Amps For Christ opus. And y'know, an Amps for Christ record is just a bit like a box of chocolates...well, you know in general that you're gonna get their unique brand of electronics-laden folk music but there's always the odd track out with punk rock mayhem or (bastard) noise or whatnot.
Because of this, compared to Terrascopian favorites like Six Organs of Admittance, there's something about Amps For Christ that's just so much more "authentic" in terms of psych-freakery. No slight against Six Organs, who are great, but Amps seems more like actual outsider folk music. Of course, it's some of their idiosyncracies that we don't always like, such as their recent prediliction for including spoken word beat poetry on couple tracks. But this naive hippy eccentricity is part of their charm, too. Who else would do Aud Lang Syne (twice!) on their record? Anyway, if you liked their last cd, The Oak And The Ashes, you'll definitely like this one too. As with TOATA, you might want to use the programming function on your cd player when listening to this. Not 'cause any of the 23 tracks here are bad (well, the spoken word ones kinda are) but 'cause even though I like the noisy/rock stuff, I'd rather hear their lo-fi drone, electric folk ragas uninterrupted.
MPEG Stream: "Freddie The Mockingbird"
MPEG Stream: "AFC Tower Song"

AMPS FOR CHRIST Thorny Path (Vermiform) cd 10.98
Solo noise (and folk guitar!) project from an ex-member of California political "power-violence" heroes Man Is The Bastard, in which various new forms of electronic amplification are built and abused. Diagrams included.

AMPS FOR CHRIST & TWO AMBIGUOUS FIGURES The Beggar's Garden (Shrimper) cd 12.98
A fine medley of acoustic & electric strings, tabla, piano. Barnes (ex-Man Is The Bastard) seems to be the mastermind here, with his own homemade instruments taking a lead role, but this disc develops a much more entrancing, subtle folk-noise than MITB's harsh "power violence". Recommended.

AMULET s/t (Monster Records) cd 12.98
Long-haired guitar rawk from the obscure Midwestern band known as Amulet, circa 1980. Reissued for your hessian pleasure by Monster Records, alongside the likes of Ultra, Full Moon, and Truth And Janey (all of whom we've previously listed). Amulet started off in '78 as a cover band doing stuff by ZZ Top, Van Halen, Hendrix, UFO and suchlike. Though a popular local concert draw, they still barely managed to save enough dough to record and self-release this album in 1980. No money for overdubs, so it's got that live feel, appropriate for their party hardy high power hard rock format. How much you're gonna like this kinda depends how you feel about lines like: "She was seventeen / young love machine" (from "Just Like A Woman"). Good times badass boogie rock wank fer shure. Actually, they had a heavier, more serious side too, with religious/philosophical themes ("Do You Live Again", "Life Is Living"). But don't look for a lot of sophistication and deep thoughts -- this mostly about groovy stuff like the unintentionally funny "Funk 'n' Punk" or "Radar Love" re-write "Person To Person". Fun and authentic.
RealAudio clip: "Sea Of Fear"

AMY & KAREN Play 15 "Old Time" Quality Tunes & Songs (self-released) cd 14.98
...and they play 'em so well! These two ladies have definitely captured that ol' homey country sound on their debut album with a barebones acoustic assembly of banjo, fiddle, guitar and voice. They cover the likes of The Carter Family, Bruce Springsteen, Woody Guthrie among others and a couple of traditional numbers as well. Lovingly packaged in a screenprinted cardboard sleeve too! For fans of Freakwater, Virginia Dare, Trailer Bride.
MPEG Stream: "Christmas Eve"
MPEG Stream: "Nebraska"

AN ALBATROSS Blessphemy (Of The Peace-Beast Feastgiver And The Bear Warp Kumite) (Ace Fu) cd 14.98
The Pitchfork blurb on the sticker proclaims this record to be "the trippiest record in the history of the world". While that might be a wee bit of an exaggeration, this most certainly is one of the weirdest wildest psychedelic spazz prog grind pop records EVER (C'mon, Pitchfork, at least when we spew some ridiculous hyperbole, it's absolutely true!! Haha)!! Not that there have been a whole lot of psychedelic spazz prog grind pop records, but there's a reason for that. This shit is NUTS. So freaked out and dense and complex and hard to pull of. Anyone can crank their keyboards and channel an inferior version of the Locust, but An Albatross seem to have some real link to classic prog, although it's filtered through some impossibly skewed, cracked and demented postpunk, grindcore sensibility. 18 songs, 26 minutes. One's even a three part epic clocking in at a whopping 4 minutes. Keyboards wiggle and slither, whipping wildly like a garden hose turned on full blast and let loose to swing like a mad cobra dosed with angel dust, striking at everyone within reach, drums are spastic, and hyperkinetic, like BB's fired from a cannon, a dizzying splatter, guitars grind and churn, melodic one second, harsh and screeching the next. ALl of these elements tangled up into hyper complex, ultra obtuse knots of super complicated, multi part mini grindprog epics, stop / starts, blazing bursts of hyper blast, brief stretches of serene acoustic dreaminess, warm washes of thick synth whir, blissed out drones and crunchy bouncy blasts of new wave, even some horns find their way into the chaos. Above it all, the vocalist screeches and growls, diving and twisting and turning, dodging and ducking, offering shrieked unintelligible platitudes tucked between jagged shards of post punk stutter and epic convoluted prog. This is like a spazzy, grindy, confusional 21st century Magma, mixed up with bits of Locusts and Lightning Bolts maybe, but with a truly unique sound, due perhaps to their prog rock heart of gold. One of our favorite new records. Furious and freaked out, fast and fucked up but still so goddamn catchy and listenable. And so so so great!!!
MPEG Stream: "In The Court Of The Bear King"
MPEG Stream: "Lysergically Yours, My Psychedelic Bride"
MPEG Stream: "Dimensional Gymnastics"
MPEG Stream: "Trust The Sun, The Symphonic Sunrise"

AN ALBATROSS Blessphemy (Of The Peace-Beast Feastgiver And The Bear Warp Kumite) (GSL) lp 13.98
The Pitchfork blurb on the sticker proclaims this record to be "the trippiest record in the history of the world". While that might be a wee bit of an exaggeration, this most certainly is one of the weirdest wildest psychedelic spazz prog grind pop records EVER (C'mon, Pitchfork, at least when we spew some ridiculous hyperbole, it's absolutely true!! Haha)!! Not that there have been a whole lot of psychedelic spazz prog grind pop records, but there's a reason for that. This shit is NUTS. So freaked out and dense and complex and hard to pull of. Anyone can crank their keyboards and channel an inferior version of the Locust, but An Albatross seem to have some real link to classic prog, although it's filtered through some impossibly skewed, cracked and demented postpunk, grindcore sensibility. 18 songs, 26 minutes. One's even a three part epic clocking in at a whopping 4 minutes. Keyboards wiggle and slither, whipping wildly like a garden hose turned on full blast and let loose to swing like a mad cobra dosed with angel dust, striking at everyone within reach, drums are spastic, and hyperkinetic, like BB's fired from a cannon, a dizzying splatter, guitars grind and churn, melodic one second, harsh and screeching the next. ALl of these elements tangled up into hyper complex, ultra obtuse knots of super complicated, multi part mini grindprog epics, stop / starts, blazing bursts of hyper blast, brief stretches of serene acoustic dreaminess, warm washes of thick synth whir, blissed out drones and crunchy bouncy blasts of new wave, even some horns find their way into the chaos. Above it all, the vocalist screeches and growls, diving and twisting and turning, dodging and ducking, offering shrieked unintelligible platitudes tucked between jagged shards of post punk stutter and epic convoluted prog. This is like a spazzy, grindy, confusional 21st century Magma, mixed up with bits of Locusts and Lightning Bolts maybe, but with a truly unique sound, due perhaps to their prog rock heart of gold. One of our favorite new records. Furious and freaked out, fast and fucked up but still so goddamn catchy and listenable. And so so so great!!!
MPEG Stream: "In The Court Of The Bear King"
MPEG Stream: "Lysergically Yours, My Psychedelic Bride"
MPEG Stream: "Dimensional Gymnastics"
MPEG Stream: "Trust The Sun, The Symphonic Sunrise"

AN ALBATROSS Eat Lightning, Shit Thunder (Bloodlink) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

AN ALBATROSS We Are The Lazer Viking (Ace Fu) cd 9.98
A little over 8 minutes total, 11 songs, each clocking in at WELL under a minute. That's all you need to hear to know that the curiously monickered An Albatross have sent The Locust to the back of the new-wave-metallic-skronk line. All of the elements that make us love The Locust, AA have in spades, but they also have some chops that The Locust don't, mixing in some seriously damaged, ultra complex prog, impossible math rock, and some almost black metal bursts. Think The Locust battling Melt Banana to the death, but with the guys from Orthrelm blasting Italian prog on their boombox and throwing rocks from a safe distance. Insanely chaotic, ultra precise, massively heavy, brutally noisy, and pretty fun n' catchy too. It's over before you know it, but you'll still feel like you got your $10 worth. Especially if you listen to it 6 times in a row like I just did!
MPEG Stream: "I Am The Lazer Viking"
MPEG Stream: "Let's Get On With It"
MPEG Stream: "Electric Suits And Cowboy Boots"

ANAAL NATHRAKH Domine Non Es Dignus (Season of Mist) cd 14.98
Look out! The Anaal Nathrakh attack continues, with the long-awaited full-length studio follow-up to what was pretty much THEE black metal album of 2002, The Codex Necro. Domine Non Es Dignus is still a mighty juggernaut of dense and diabolical black metal, but the Anaal guys have also introduced some new, more melodic elements, including some clean vocals that will make you think you're listening to a Hammers of Misfortune album for a moment. Seriously. And while some might look askance, we're stoked that they're always willing to do something new, while remaining necro to/at the core. How necro? Well the first song is a blast of distortion lovingly entitled "I Wish I Could Vomit Blood On You....People". So no, they haven't mellowed. You can expect a mind-boggling blend of wretched noise, blurring speed, distorted buzzsaw guitar, belching gargling throat-sore vocals, keyboards piled high, and yes, some oddly operatic male singing that makes this even more bombastic than they were before. Seat belts and crash helmets required -- except that seat belts and crash helmets aren't cool (or necro) so I guess you should just die, that's what these guys would want anyway. See you in hell.
MPEG Stream: "Do Not Speak"
MPEG Stream: "Procreation of the Wretched"