QUIN, DOUGLAS Antarctica (Miramax) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally managed to get more copies of this perennial AQ favorite, but unfortunately, the only distributor we've ever been able to get them from recently went out of business so we may not be able to get them again. So don't miss out! Here's our review from way back:
If you liked "Sounds of North American Frogs" or "Insect Noise In Stored Foodstuffs", or Chris Watson's exotic animal recordings, here's another discovery we recently made in the AQ-beloved field-recordings genre.
In a blind test, it would be impossible to tell these Antarctic animal sounds from the most cutting edge experimental electronica that we sell at Aquarius! And according to the liner notes, the recordings found on this disk received no processing aside from being recorded using a "multi-headed array of hydrophones [underwater microphones]" and then mixed down (for great stereo sound). But some of the recordings, most notably the underwater recordings of Weddell seals, really seem like they could be the first installment of some new modern minimal electronic series, as they would fit in nicely next to the likes of Noto and Pan sonic. The underwater seals track features sweeping squeals like a whale song being sped up and slowed down and mixed with Stephen McGreevy's recordings of electro-magnetic atmospheric phenomena. It's as if the seals are secret knob-twiddlers in an electronic music studio. In other words, you could have a field day getting your "clicks & cuts" lovin' friends to guess who this "new avant-electronica artist" is! Also included on this cd are several recordings from the surface of the Antarctic continent as well: seal mothers and pups, Emperor & Adele penguins, a six minute track of a shattering & creaking glacier, and the brief but beautiful "Wind Harps From The Taylor Valley". This disc became a "AQ-fave recommendation" practically the minute we first heard it!! Maybe we're jaded, and have to listen to penguins frolicking to get our musical kicks, but it just seems so amazing. Wait until you hear it! Incredible and so essential.
MPEG Stream: "Wind Harps From The Taylor Valley"
MPEG Stream: "Emperor Penguins"

FROG EYES The Golden River (Happy Home) lp 13.98
Now on lp, white vinyl, hand silkscreened covers!
Hailing from the same city that popped out Hot Hot Heat, Frog Eyes bring forth an altogether different sound from their Victoria, BC brethren. Imagine a baroque hybrid of the Brit-inflected melodrama of Interpol or Pulp and the more dissonant, hand-wringing instabilities of Xiu Xiu. Very high on moody affectation with the focus squarely on the vocals. In addition to the deeply emotional croon and warble of those mentioned above, singer Carey Mercer may also draw comparisons to Tom Waits' hoarsely heart-baring delivery or the slightly smoother sandpaper swoon of Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler. Lyrics and song titles are somewhat cryptic, obtuse and strangely poetic. The backdrop: electric guitar string churns and howls, shimmery cymbal washes, all anchored by some velvety piano melodies. FYI: More evidence of the Vancouver / Victoria music scene being quite a mighty tight knit family? Neko Case's Corn Sister co-hort Carolyn Mark lent her lovely voice to three songs (check out the luminous fifth song "A Latex Ice Age"), and Ms Mark's bandmate Tolan McNeil engineered the proceedings. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "A Latex Ice Age"
MPEG Stream: "Time Destroys Its Plan At The Reactionary Table"

MUSEE MECANIQUE The Zelinsky Collection Volume 3 (Mechanical Museum) cd 14.98
Everyone here at Aquarius was SO happy and relieved when the Musee Mechanique -- that wonderful place full of antique penny-aracade machines that's one of our favorite San Francisco cultural/fun spots -- found a new home at Fisherman's Wharf. Previously it had been a highlight to a trip out to the historic Cliff House next door to the ruined Sutro Baths up above Ocean Beach, but the Park Service decided the Cliff House needed a renovation and gave the Musee an eviction notice. Thankfully, rather than close up, they managed to make a move down to the Wharf, which while not as picturesque a location, still seems to have worked out well for 'em. You'll now find the Musee at pier 45, shed A, right alongside the Jeremiah O'Brien and that WWII submarine. Not only did the Musee find a new home, but now they've released a third volume of recordings documenting the player-piano-roll operated mechanical musical contraptions you'll find there. Vols. 1 and 2 were hits here at AQ and with good reason. Vol. 3 picks up where they left off, featuring more of the music made by their collection of lovingly preserved orchestras-in-a-box from decades and decades ago. For the first time ever, the machine pictured on the cover, the huge and impressive "Englehardth", finally appears in all its sonic glory on disc, as they finally got it fully restored into working order.
As with the other volumes, these are excellent recordings and each track starts with the coin drop, a nice touch. Musically, you can expect lotsa charming old timey tunes with titles like "Maurice's Irresistable Tango", "Grandpa's Spells", "There's A Shanti In Old Shantitown" and "My Song Of The Nile". Some you'll recognize, some won't be so familiar. All are quite quaint to modern ears, yet lively and spirited. There's 27 musical tracks here, from jaunty foot tappers to romantic melodies -- and then as always, the Musee's mascot, Laughing Sal, wraps things up with her disturbingly forced, truly hysterical laughter. Next best thing to actually visiting the Musee Mechanique, which we highly recommend.
MPEG Stream: "Maurice's Irresistable Tango"
MPEG Stream: "You Tell Me Your Dreams And I'll Tell You Mine"
MPEG Stream: "Grandpa's Spells"
MPEG Stream: "My Song Of The Nile"

PARLIAMENT Osmium (Sanctuary / Castle) cd 17.98
Got some of these in, thought we ought to get it up on our website. After all, in my (Windy's) opinion the best Parliament album is this, their first, released in 1970. Removing the "s" from their name heralded George Clinton's change from the Parliaments' doo-wop sound to a truly original mix of gospel / country / funk / rock / even classical. That they hooked up with a white woman from England, Ruth Copeland, who wrote several of their most devotional tracks is even more weird, but then you've got hear this album to believe just how weird, yet totally accessible and great, it is. Especially if you're only familiar with Parliament / Funkadelic's more shiny dancefloor-oriented later material, then this will be a full-on revelation to you, so be *sure* to give the soundclips a try. While some folks choose to take sides over liking either Funkadelic *or* Parliament, Clinton's bands existed simultaneously and there is so much crossover in personnel and style that they may as well be considered the same band. So I tend to divide their sounds into early and later, myself much preferring the early work of both Parliament and Funkadelic -- 1971's Maggot Brain is my fave Funkadelic masterpiece. Osmium comes with seven bonus tracks to round out the album's original 10. Essential essential essential!
P.S. This has been reissued several times, including as a Brit import some years back called Rhenium, so note that if you've got that one you already have all the stuff here except the bonus tracks.
MPEG Stream: "I Call My Baby Pussycat"
MPEG Stream: "Oh Lord, Why Lord / Prayer"
MPEG Stream: "Funky Woman"

OF The Infant Paths (Jewelled Antler) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Oooh this is good. Haunting, gentle, abstract-seeming but musically very pretty stuff, in the vein of the best folk/drone from Tower Recordings and Kemialliset Ystavat, Popul Vuh and Brian Eno. Perhaps you've heard the Atrium Musicae "Musique de la Grece Antique" disc? This too sounds like imaginary ancient music, maybe made by wood-spirits before the dawn of man. An elemental, atmospheric sonic ritual. Of is the new solo project of AQ-pal Loren Chasse. You might know him from Thuja, Id Battery, Blithe Sons, Child Readers, Coelacanth, numerous other "Jewelled Antler" projects... There was an Of track on Jewelled Antler's Heat & Birds compilation, and this cd-r is the debut full-length release from Of, dedicated to Loren's grandmother who passed away recently. Now maybe you're wondering, doesn't Loren already record solo as under his own name, putting out stuff like that great Hedge of Nerves cd on Anomalous, so what's with this Of moniker? Well, with Of, Loren takes the field recording / experimental sound collage ideas that he brought to Id Battery and his previous solo projects and brings it into a live-recorded, improvised *musical* context, where --this is important-- in addition to minidisc and contact mic, he's also playing more traditional sorts of musical instruments. Kinda like a one-man Thuja, or Blithe Sons or Child Readers. There's guitar, oud, bells, harp, pipes, whistles, bowed wires, harmonium, drumkit, and a 150 year old mellodion (pump organ) employed here, plus the usual assortment of rocks, sticks, and other natural debris that Loren "plays". Also to be heard is record crackle from an old Victrola, and recordings of wind and water made by his mother on her sailboat. All lovingly lo-fi home (and outdoors -- in California, Maryland, and Pennsylvania) recorded and mixed with handheld tape recorder, mindisc, and computer. Sleepy, dark, and meditative, "The Infant Paths" is a perfect example of the Jewelled Antler aesthetic, a musical methodology where lapping water sounds complement harmonium drones and carefully plucked guitar strings; tinkling bells and crackling branches accompany simple, fragile melodies found on broken organ keyboards; where nature and the environment are musical collaborators with poetic souls like Mr. Chasse.
Unlike Blithe Sons or Child Readers, this is all instrumental -- nope, you won't hear any vocals from Loren here, the only singing is done by birds. Someone else (Richard Youngs, Greg Weeks, the Blithe Sons themselves) might have been tempted to sing over these tracks, but they're plenty magical without any wispy vocals or lyrical content. Dense and detailed, suitable for your own dreams and reveries. Wow. We knew he had it in him, but still we're impressed. One of our favorite releases by Mr. Chasse yet!
MPEG Stream: "The Lamp Shell Path"
MPEG Stream: "Theodolites And Chains"
MPEG Stream: "Torus At The Sunrise Turn "

OXBOW Let Me Be A Woman (Ruminance) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
At last! This 1995 Oxbow opus, the third album from our favorite San Francisco fucked rock geniuses, has been reissued, with two never-before released bonus tracks appended. A Steve Albini production, the album proper features special guests the Rova Saxophone Quartet, while the bonus tracks see Oxbow collaborating with the late Kathy Acker, the feminist/punk writer. For those unfamiliar with the wonders of Oxbow, this album would make a fine introduction, and fans of course MUST OWN it. It shows off their weirdly catchy brand of aggro art rock, totally heavy and, what's the word, transgressive? When they're not kicking your ass, they can get into some hauntingly gorgeous droney territory as well (as on bonus track#1). But their forte is sliding seasick Led Zeppelin guitar riffage with wailing mental-breakdown vocals, songs loaded with hard-hitting, post-post-rock dynamics and complexity. Let Me Be A Woman, like all of Oxbow's best work, radiates a shuddering vibe of despair, angst, and seething violence. Terrible beauty indeed. Originally on Dutch label Brinkman, this now appears via the French label Ruminance, testament to the superior tastes of Continentals we suppose!
MPEG Stream: "Sunday"
MPEG Stream: "Gal"

GORGOROTH Twilight of the Idols (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98
Maybe all seems grim and dismal and you're in the mood for some truly wretched, nasty, evil-as-fuck black metal to match your mood? Or maybe you're perfectly well-adjusted, but like to explore extremes of mood and melody in a metal context? Look no further than this new disc from Norwegian black metal stalwarts Gorgoroth. Twilight Of The Idols provides eight delightful tracks featuring throat-ripped screams and distorto-riff-carnage to match. Carefully, artfully, Gorgoroth weave a complex tapestry, an ancient shroud, from these elements. Not as experimental and fucked up as Gorgoroth's Destroyer, nor as quirkily 'pop' as their last one Incipit Satan, this new album delivers the goods without any gimmickry at all (until, perhaps, you get to the final, what-the-fuck-? faux classical synth coda ending the album, that is). It's pretty much just straight-to-hell, do not pass go, do not collect 200 kroner. There's dense, downer epics of slow trudge, and trancey, higher BPM blur, both having about the same effect, a lot like a less overtly (overly?) prog Enslaved. With their sense of sick melody and technical execution, Gorgoroth are definitely one of the greats. Indeed, if these guys weren't hulking, face-painted, spike-draped Norwegians, but a bunch of skinny American metalcore guys, maybe we wouldn't take 'em for granted as much as we do, and we'd realize that all the praise heaped on the likes of Converge and Isis is also the level of worship worthy of this band...
MPEG Stream: "Exit - Through Carved Stones"
MPEG Stream: "Teeth Grinding"

HARVEY MILK The Singles (Relapse) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Who would've though this would ever come to pass?! Those of you who love things slow and sludgy and heavy, should be on your knees, thanking whatever god you pray to, for allowing this divine musical covenant to be placed in your dirty, filthy unworthy hands!
Harvey Milk were Atlanta's answer to the Melvins, but slowed waaaaaaaay down and spaced waaaaaay out. Songs so spare but somehow so impossibly heavy, riffs so thick that they threaten to clog your speakers and rhythms so stretched out that they can barely be called rhythms. Add in a serious free jazz + ZZ Top obsession and you've got the recipe for one of the greatest, heaviest bands EVER. They recorded two brilliant full lengths (with their original lineup), one of which was re-issued on Andee's tUMULt label a couple years ago. And we thought then, sadly that we had heard the end of HM forever. But along comes Relapse to save the day, collecting all of Harvey Milk's impossibly rare 7"s and compilation tracks onto one black-hole-heavy chunk of aluminum. Most singles collections allow you to trace the development of a band, watching them slowly turn into the band you already know and love, but this collection proves that HM spontaneously combusted, emerging from their tarpit womb a fully formed, lumbering, molten, sludge rock colossus. From plodding, 3 mph sludgy, dirgy Melvins's worship, to chaotic noisy caveman thud, to Codeine-ish slow motion mood rock, to spare, rhythmic bass and drums space-scapes with demonic, anguished howls and Hendrix like riffs dipped in tar and sprinkled with wild peals of head-shearing feedback, to semi-acoustic tear jerkers, with warbly barely-in-key vocals, I mean, they even do a fucking Peter Criss solo song! How brilliant is that! Harvey Milk confounds as much as they just flat out destroy. How the fuck does a three piece rock band actually sound like they're playing on the wrong speed?! It's as if the entire band had a pitch control knob, and they keep turning it down and down and dooooown. And playing drums for this band must be utter hell. Massive expanses of space, demarcated by pounding beats, spread so far apart they just barely make up a rhythm, with enough space between beats for the drummer to get up, go to the bar, have a cigarette, and make it back in plenty of time for the next beat. So minimal and hypnotic and difficult and heavy, it just blows all other sludge rock hopefuls back to the stoneage. And even in the context of a 'singles collection', songs that were never meant to be together on a record, this stuff falls so perfectly into place, you would never know this wasn't conceived as a proper record. Yet another testimony to the under-appreciated genius of the mighty Harvey Milk. Liner notes from AQ pal and Chunklet head honcho Henry Owings. Essential for those of you who love Boris, Corrupted, Earth, Sunn 0))) and the like, as well as their massively head crushing opus Courtesy And Goodwill Towards Men!
MPEG Stream: "Yer Mouse Gets My Dander Up"
MPEG Stream: "I Do Not Know How To Live My Life"

HUDSON, KEITH Playing It Cool & Playing It Right (Basic Replay) cd 16.98
Lotsa folks we know seemed real excited about the prospect of this reissue. Apparently this 1981 album, a collaboration between Hudson and fellow Jamaican turned Yank Lloyd Barnes (Wackies), was reknowned as an especially far-out dub treatment, way gone on the studio fuckery as these things go. Having now heard it, we agree that the production IS a big part of this record's appeal. But it's not THAT experimental, really. We think it's just as great that it's such a sunny n' soulful slice of Jamaican vocal/groove reggae. Sure it's super dubbed out at a times, with sped up/slowed down tapes, massive echo fx, filters, distortion, all that good stuff, but these songs are also really soulful and smooth, funky even. Actually, we're really reminded of the loose, swampy sound of Funkadelic's early efforts. Productionwise, this is druggy, sure -- not as wasted as the LSD-fried production of Funkadelic's "Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow", but close at times. Anyway we're talking about dub reggae here, laid back and head noddin'. Dub fans take note, this is a good 'un. It's over a half-hour long but seems kinda short just 'cause it's so good and groovy that you just want it to keep on keeping on...but that's what the repeat button is for. So, excellent call on the part of Basic Channel's new Jamaican reissue imprint Basic Replay for making this album available again!
MPEG Stream: "Playing It Cool"
MPEG Stream: "California"

3 HUR-EL Hurel Arsivi (World Psychedelia Ltd.) cd 17.98
The early nineties saw the big Krautrock revival, while more recently we've seen waves of interest in Swedish psychedelic folk reissues and Latin American garage rock of the sixties. But maybe now the next big old thing is '60s-'70s Middle Eastern psychedelic pop music. Really, soon we're gonna have to dedicate a bin here in the store for all the great (and popular) reissues that have been coming out lately, from the "Turkish Delights" and "Hava Narghile" compilations to albums by The Devil's Anvil and John Berberian's Rock East Ensemble, and most recently Erkin Koray's "Elektronik Turkuler".
Now, here's another one for that bin! It's apparently the second album from the three Hur-el brothers (Feridun, Onur, and Haldun), recorded between 1970 and 1975. A rare LP indeed, the original Diskotur pressing worth $1000+ today we're told. Dunno about that, but it's definitely worth eighteen bucks if you're into the undeniably kick-ass combination of traditional Turkish folk styles with the rock n' roll licks of the West. Middle Easternized rollicking pop rock with acid fuzz guitar and electric piano, plus Eastern ethnic percussion and stringed instruments, and emotive vocals in Turkish. Yup, 3 Hur-el play music that's been called "ethno-psychedelic" and "the heavy hashish sound"...real nice. One of the tracks here also appeared on the "Love Peace & Poetry: Asian Psychedelia" compilation. They also have a track on that "Hava Narghile" comp, but that was from an early single, not this album.
MPEG Stream: "Canim Kurban"
MPEG Stream: "Omur Biter Yol Bitmez"

ENSLAVED Eld (Osmose) cd 15.98
Allan and Andee's personal favorite album from these Viking metallers!! Epic, violent genius.

MOGOL, LES (MOGOLLAR) Danses et Rythmes de la Turquie (World Psychedelia Ltd.) cd 17.98
Like we said in the 3 Hur-el review, above, the Middle Eastern '60s/'70s psychedelic rock scene is quite a happenin' phenomenon here at Aquarius -- bands from Istanbul blending the "heavy" beat sounds of London, L.A. and San Francisco with their own ethnic musical traditions. So, along with that great 3 Hur-el disc, we're *really* pleased to have just gotten cd copies in stock of a 1971 album by the fantastic Mogollar (or Les Mogol as they were known in France, where this LP was first released). This band has been a super favorite of ours ever since we first heard 'em on the "Love Peace & Poetry: Asian Psychedelia", "Turkish Delights", and "Hava Narghile" compilations. Yep, they appeared on all three of those fab comps, deservedly so as they were not only one of Turkey's biggest pop bands of the time but also one of the best, near as we can tell. They formed in 1967, playing a style of experimental psychedelic rock based on the folk music of the Anatolian region of Turkey. Their unique Anatolian (or Anadolu) "pop" sound is simply a delight, as amply demonstrated by this particular album. It features 13 tracks (none of 'em to be found on the aforementioned comps) that are based on traditional songs -- but for sure the original versions didn't sound like this, so groovy and hip. They employ some standard sixties rock instrumention -- plenty of electric organ getting almost "In-a-gadda-da-vida"-ish at times -- but also really bring the traditional Turkish instruments to the fore, playing ikligs and baglamas and darbukas and kasiks...all kinds of stringed and percussion instruments, often used traditionally but more often just fiercely strummed to great rock 'n' roll heights. Compared to 3 Hur-el's "Hurel Arsivi" this almost-all-instrumental album is folkier *and* jazzier, the electric organ giving some tracks a kind of Martin Denny exotica vibe. Both discs, though, would make great party records. Highly recommended!!
(Windy's new favorite record -- thus proving once again that in her personal canon of favorite all time records, about 90% of them are from 1971-74. And she's delighted to find that the track "Wildflower" was liberally sampled by none other than AQ-fave Amon Tobin for his stellar "Verbal" song... thus proving once again what great taste Tobin has, we says.)
MPEG Stream: "Madimak"
MPEG Stream: "Fairy Chimneys"
MPEG Stream: "Wild Flower"

LEVIATHAN The Tenth Sub Level Of Suicide (Moribund) cd 14.98
Wrest and his one-man-black-metal-band Leviathan return, with the corpses of Christians and poseurs littering the bleak landscape evoked by his sonic barrage of inhuman vokills, majestic riffing, and punishing drums. Pure misanthropic musical mayhem. Surely you remember Leviathan -- Andee put out the debut double cd Verrater on tUMULt only nine months ago, and that's been a very successful release. But Verrater was only the tip of the blackened iceberg that is Wrest/Leviathan's ability and need to make intelligent and emotional extreme rock music. Hence, this suicidal statement spawned so soon. At AQ, we fancy ourselves connoisseurs of this kind of stuff, and believe us -- this guy is good (and evil)!! What we mean is, as raw as it gets, there's some intense talent on display here. Lots of San Francisco bands have gotten hyped recently, but here's one that really deserves worship. Chaotically complex, pitilessly crafted tracks like the nine-minute long "Sardoniscorn" somehow maintain this music's one-foot-in-the-grave old school spikes n' corpsepaint directive while simultaneously getting totally arty and out there with epic, prog, avant-garde elements. Doomy drone, weird downtempo percussive interludes, atonal piano, ambient psychedelia, extreme vocal unpleasantness, lots of distortion and feedback. Yes! So it's no surprise that tUMULt and Aquarius (and our customers) weren't the only entities to appreciate the grim genius of Leviathan, as Wrest's project has now been signed to multi-album deals with two black metal specialists, Moribund in the States and Drakkar over in Europe, this album being the first fruit of that deal. We even recently discovered that none other than pagan pop star and psych/krautrock maniac Julian Cope is a big Leviathan fan, recommending Verrater on his website! So, this is another one for both black metal freaks (who will find this worthy of keeping company with your Burzum, Satyricon, Immortal, etc. records) as well as any other adventurous music-lovers unafraid of dabbling in the weird and wretched...
MPEG Stream: "Fucking Your Ghost In Chains Of Ice"
MPEG Stream: "Sardoniscorn"

V/A Wooden Guitar (Locust Music) cd 14.98
This is a nice one. The Locust label has gathered together a quartet of today's notable, underground guitar experimentalists, all of whom are quite fond of the classic Takoma label solo guitar sound -- the "deltadelica" (their word) explored thirty years or more ago by guys like John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke. Paying tribute to that Eastern-tinged, American-folky tradition, there's Virginia's Jack Rose, whom you might know from drone-psych outfit Pelt and Appalachian folk twangers the Black Twig Pickers; obvious choice Steffen Basho-Junghans of Germany; Japanese "onkyo" guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama; and Sun City Girl Rick Bishop, excuse me, Sir Richard Bishop. During the 70 minutes of "Wooden Guitar" each one of 'em provides a lengthy, hypnotic acoustic guitar performance, totally unaccompanied. Actually Basho-Junghans appears twice, everyone else just once. Let's take a look-see... Rose's "Red Horse II" is a sad and lovely 14+ minutes of vaguely raga-like 12 string strumming n' picking, densely textured yet light and exactingly pretty. That's followed by the first of Mr. Basho-Junghan's two contributions to this compilation, which continues in much the same vein as Rose's -- it's even called "A North Thuringian Raga". The Berliner is a virtuoso and this is a fantastic, meditative track indeed. Next up, Tetuzi Akiyama's piece is a lot sparser and more "abstract" sounding than what's come before, less in the Takoma style (yet still in its spirit, and latter-day Fahey would certainly approve). Appropriately, it's called "Time Between" and is the longest cut on here, at over twenty minutes. It slowly, stumblingly, somberly unfolds. Haunting, raw, and quite beautiful, it's a masterful centerpiece to this collection. Basho-Junghans checks in again with a shorter piece, the five-minute "Smiling Penguins". Repetitive and bright, it sounds like some sort of thumb-piano minimalism. Then, we're into the home stretch with the final piece on "Wooden Guitar" -- Sir Richard Bishop's quarter-hour "Corpuscle" which encompasses dusty spagetti western Morricone, acoustic Jimmy Page, and flamenco flourishes. It's a grand finale for this disc for sure, and this disc itself is grand. Essential to anyone into sheer impassioned, inventive, gosh-darn gorgeous solo acoustic guitar playin'. And it's packaged with an eye to the old Takoma LPs -- this cd comes in a embossed, silkscreened cardboard sleeve [not any more, actually, now it's in jewel case, but looks nice all the same], very nicely done.
MPEG Stream: JACK ROSE "Red Horse II"
MPEG Stream: TETUZI AKIYAMA "Time Between"
MPEG Stream: SIR RICHARD BISHOP "Corpuscle"

DAFELDECKER.LANG Lichtgeschwindigkeit (Grob) cd 15.98
Bowed bass tones, sustained pipe organ chords. "Lichtgeschwindigkeit" is another attempt at attaining the drone supreme, and it's a good one, evocative of absolute darkness -or- blinding light, either way totally all-encompassing. This disc from Austrians Werner Dafeldecker (whom we've encountered before playing with the likes of Dean Roberts, Taku Sugimoto, Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm and many others) and Klaus Lang (whom we haven't) is a slowly developing, moodily pulsating, hour-long dronescape broken into seven tracks. Blissful, yet haunting. Gently soothing, yet massively ominous. There's enough variation soundwise to hold one's interest for the full hour -- for instance, the foghorn sounds and whistling blips of track five stand apart from the depths-of-space hiss of track six. We're told this was recorded in a church, on a snowed-in winter night. That seems about right. Recommended to all drone/improv fans for sure!
MPEG Stream: "1000101"
MPEG Stream: "1000110"

V/A Dutch Assault (Relapse) cd 14.98
Ok, so far this Relapse series has visited Brazil, Poland, Japan, the Czech Republic, and Sweden, and all of those comps were pretty great, solid purchases for any grind/death metal fan looking to do some armchair travel. So why make single out this Dutch entry as a highlight? Well we think that at least two of the four bands on here take extreme metal to extremes that maybe would appeal to not necessarily just metal fans. If you're the sort of AQ customer who revels in fucked up sonic fuckery, who digs silly weird noisy music of any variety, you should check this out.
A band called Suppository start things off in righteous grindcore mode, blasting through ten tracks at a zillion kilometers per hour, pausing only occasionally for a humorous audio sample as per grindcore standard operating procedure. Good stuff.
Then, Eindhoven's Last Days of Humanity take over with nine tracks of even faster and nastier grind, with titles like "Decrepitated Regurgitation In Foetal Leprosy". Wow, that's morbid and gross sounding, yes, but does it even make sense? Lyrics aside, what's really notable about this band are the amazing vocals. This singer may in fact have the most extreme, low-end, belching, vomitous voice we've ever heard. Incredible and inhuman, a rumbling drone instrument unto itself. And the band's music is as shreddingly-distorted to match.
But then, when you think *that* was some crazy grind, comes band number three, S.M.E.S., who are all about silly drum-machine dance beats, and super grunty vocals. Vocals that I'd say are even more bowel-scraping that those of Last Days of Humanity, but it turns out it's the same guy. Apparently S.M.E.S. is the solo project of Last Days singer Erwin. S.M.E.S. sorta sounds like an electronic polka mixed with a Chris Watson field recording (lion, rhinoceros, and birds perhaps). A grind rave safari? Erwin must be taking the piss, but regardless these five totally cracked tracks are pretty freaking great.
Batting clean-up, Inhume can't hope to compete with that sort of ridiculousness, so they just stick to providing four straight-forward tracks of killer grind. RRRRrrrrrrrragh!!
So, Holland makes a strong showing here. If you're only gonna get one foreign four-way split grind comp this year, Dutch Assault maybe oughta be it!
MPEG Stream: LAST DAYS OF HUMANITY "Morbid Phallus Grinder"
MPEG Stream: S.M.E.S. "Cricket Bat Man"

YONKERS, MICHAEL BAND Microminiature Love (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
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 -- Sadie especially was enamored. 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 '69 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. This edition comes nicely packaged with photos courtesy of Mr. Yonkers, nice liner notes from AQ-pal Karl Ikola, and the six aforementioned bonus tracks recorded in 1969, that only further cement our admiration of 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"

HUSBANDS, THE Introducing the Sounds of... (Swami) cd 14.98
Finally! The debut album from local garage rock trio The Husbands -- a band that just happens to feature AQ's beloved Sadie Shaw on guitar, maracas and backup vocals. In fact it's all girls on this record, though they've got a boy playing added percussion on stage with 'em now. In addition to Sadie's fabulousness there's the authentic, so-appropriate voice of Sarah Reed -- sexily raspy from whiskey and cigarettes, but she still hits the notes, the girl can sing; and then there's the rhythmic pound of drummer Nikki Sloate. This fierce, all-attitude band is really into rockin', with a deep love for and knowledge of their '60s inspirations / source material. Half the songs are well chosen covers that get the rough 'n raw Husbands treatment -- tunes by Half Pint and the Fifths, The Barbarians, Carole King, even a punk-energized version of Bo Diddley's "Cadillac". Definitely a super-fun live band (go see 'em if you get the chance, which you probably will 'cause they're so hard workin') who've managed to capture their energy and attitude on this lil' round disc.
MPEG Stream: "Orphan Boy"
MPEG Stream: "Dirty Mouth"

BARDO POND On the Ellipse (ATP Recordings) cd 14.98
Time to get high. Philly psych-jam outfit Bardo Pond seems to be best appreciated with some THC intake. Or maybe not, we wouldn't know, that's just what we've been told. But certainly, for those of us who don't smoke that stuff, they're one of those bands that could be used as an aural substitute for such illicit substances. Either way, this is definitely stoner rock, of the heavy-lidded, droney, downer variety. Compared to their recent Matador label albums (Set And Setting, Dilate), this new one for ATP seems somewhat heavier and sludgier -- it's one that could be appreciated by those into the likes of Dead Meadow, Sleep or even Electric Wizard. Yet it's still downy soft, too, with folky, acoustic songs living among (or within) the massive electric-psych-guitar wash ones. Delicate female vocals from flautist Isobel drift o'er the mellowed out, doped up distortion. It's as airy as it is hairy. Loping, slumbrous, gentle, melancholic, blissful, hazy... What Sleep was to Black Sabbath's "Lord Of This World", much of this is to Sabbath's "Solitude". Bardo fans of course will like, and even if you haven't been that into Bardo Pond before, we'd say this is defintely one to check out. Maybe their best in a while. Real nice. Play loud.
MPEG Stream: "Night Of Frogs"
MPEG Stream: "Walking Clouds"

MARS VOLTA, THE De-loused In The Comatorium (Universal) cd 15.98
Seeming galaxies away from their former band At The Drive-In, Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez have crafted a most artful and expansive major label debut which surges forth beautifully from their 2002 "Tremulant" 3-song EP. Bixler's vocals take untethered flight into the upper stratosphere bringing to mind the highly affecting vocal acrobatics of forefathers Jon Anderson of Yes or Rush's Geddy Lee. Actually at some points, Bixler's voice soars to near-Bjork heights of emotionality. Rodriguez's songwriting moves even further into mind-spinning prog, psych and jazz-imbued complexities.
The Mars Volta stampedes unrelenting through most of this album only occasionally slowing things somewhat to draw the listener through mysterious subterranean drones and pulses. Looming like the most foreboding of thunderheads, and coming down in taut, torrential downpours, the stirring tech-rock maneuvers are precise and skillfully executed.
This release will undoubtably receive much attention for the band members' lineage as well as the notable individual playing bass -- Flea! -- however this is by no means the Flea Hour. His playing fits seamlessly, but it's the chemistry between the five core players which is the dynamic key. The two fellows were joined once again by Jon Theodore, Ikey Owens, and the late Jeremy Ward. Produced by Rodriguez and Rick Rubin. A most challenging and rewarding listen. An additional note: Cover design by Hipgnosis mainman Storm Thorgerson and Coil's Peter Christopherson.
MPEG Stream: "This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed"
MPEG Stream: "Televators"

SOCRATES DRANK THE CONIUM On The Wings (Polydor, Greece) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not a new (re)release, but newly in stock here at AQ. Another one for all you fans of '70s proto-metal hard rock, one of Allan's faves (hence, we got some in when we got the chance). Socrates Drank The Conium were a Greek band, and "On The Wings" was their third album, originally issued in 1973. Psychedelic hard blues rock with ragged, rough-edged English vocals, and -- this is key -- UTTERLY RIPPING twin electric guitar. Definitely an early milestone in heavy acid rock guitar shred. Vangelis later joined this band, but you'd never guess there was any New Age connection from this kick ass album. The songs twist and snake around, with rockin' and doomy riffs, dual guitar harmonies, and crazy leads -- both guitarists playing entirely different, complex licks that somehow meld perfectly. Brilliant stuff. Kinda progressive and utterly powerful. None other than Julian Cope has described this as sounding "a lot like SABBATH VOLUME 4 with Family's Roger Chapman singing". So, if past AQ-reviews of bands like Night Sun, Toad, Wishbone Ash, Flower Travellin' Band, I Teoremi, Tractor, etc. have resulted in successful music purchase/listening experiences for you, then you certainly might want to give this Socrates Drank The Conium album a try. Of course, we only have a few in stock, so please be ready to be patient if/when we run out...
MPEG Stream: "Death Is Gonna Die"

PSYCHOMANIA (OST) (Trunk) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When I found out we were getting this record, I (Allan) just about flipped. Psychomania!? THE Psychomania?!? The soundtrack -- never before released, as it turns out -- to the creepy British zombie biker horror flick that has haunted my nightmares for years and years, ever since I saw it on TV, unsupervised by my parents I have to assume, when I was a little kid in the early '70s! Actually for a long time growing up I never knew it was an actual film, I kinda thought all these weird freaky mental images of maniac hippie bikers with British accents were my own imaginings from some bad dream but then as a teenager I found out the truth about my childhood trauma when I ran across the Psychomania VHS tape at a local video shop -- "Hey! That's the film I must have seen!" Perhaps you've seen it too, maybe even under similar circumstances (several people I've described it to have had long-buried memories come to the surface, and in fact one of the people who contributed liner notes mentions a similar experience to mine!).
As near as I can remember/surmise, it was about a gang of bikers who commit suicide and come back from the dead to terrorize innocents. Hence the cover tag line "Seven Suicides - and they roared back as The Living Dead!" But I also think that maybe someone gets turned into a frog? Or the bikers worship a frog, maybe? (Their must be a significant frog in the film, anyway, 'cause I remember one and there's a track called "The Frog" on here -- also the studio musicians on this soundtrack are billed as a band called Frog!)... Definitely some weird witchy LSD biker 'sploitation happenin's. A unique formula for a grade-Z flick to be sure. Released in 1972, this film about a cult has itself become a cult film, resulting a last in this release of composer John Cameron's soundtrack music.
While I can't really comment on the merits of the film (I still haven't seen it again since way back when, and while I'm tempted to find it and rent it now, I doubt it could compare to that initial experience!), it turns out that the soundtrack is KILLER. Yes indeedy. From the first track to the last, exploitation film scores don't get much better. It's got it all -- total Morricone/Goblin/Carpenter horror flick spookiness, interludes of suitably weird dialogue from the film (someone's mother telling him she's worried the police will arrest him and his delinquent friends gets the response: "the word, mother, is fuzz...the word, mother, is busted"), and lashings of evil acid rock/funk to further pander to and/or corrupt the long-haired kids to whom this must have been marketed. Repeatedly, you'll hear the band (that'd be "Frog") vamping on a simple but effective fuzz riff, presented slightly differently on every occasion. You can't argue with it, it's good. Oh, and let's not forget the folk-pop biker ballad "Riding Free" as sung by Harvey Andrews. Then it's back to the scary music and effects (was that a croaking frog?).
John Cameron explains in his liner notes that this was recorded before synths were in common use, so "every trick was used: Musser vibes through phase and wah-wah pedals, phased bowed bass, drumsticks inside a grand piano, electric harpsichord through a compressor, Hammond organ fed through a phase unit and Leslie speakers, and wordless solo voice." Thus, experimental ominous psychedelic bizarroid film music that gets our highest recommendation. And everyone we've played it for has been equally enthused. (We wouldn't make this Record Of The Week *just* 'cause of some repressed childhood memory...) Rev up your bikes and ride for the FROG. (Vinyl coming next week, for those who want even more of an authentic '70s experience.)
MPEG Stream: "Secret Of The Locked Room"
MPEG Stream: "Motorcycle Mayhem"
MPEG Stream: "Riding Free"
MPEG Stream: "One By One"
MPEG Stream: "The Trap"

MELECHESH Sphynx (Osmose) cd 14.98
Those crazy "Mesopotamian" metallers Melechesh are back, following up their last album, Djinn, considered a best of 2002 metal release 'round here, with this equally killer collection of tunes. The band consists of two Arab-Israelis now living in Europe and, perhaps the key to how Melechesh has become such a force to be reckoned with, percussion perfectionist Proscriptor of Texas black thrashers Absu. Dunno how they get together to practice or write songs, but whatever they do seems to work! As on Djinn, they meld traditional Middle Eastern music with black/death metal, kind of like an extreme update of the way those "Turkish Delights" garage-psych bands did it. They take their influences seriously -- in fact there's an enhanced portion of the cd that will fill your computer screen with lengthy explanations of their musicology, complete with guitar tabulature, drum beat analysis, and even pictures of the "oriental" instruments used alongside the usual electric guitars, bass and drums on the album! Then again, this is also state of the art metal. Sphynx is crammed with riffs, complex detail, constant changes, the utmost in headbanging tech. Totally adrenalized, thrashy and catchy. Fans should happily note that this includes their awesome track from the last Osmose World Domination sampler. Oh, and in case you're wondering, we found no overt references to the war in Iraq. These guys are more interested in ancient supernatural stuff than they are in our less-than-mystical world of strife.
MPEG Stream: "Tablets Of Fate"

SAULE Sentimental Journey (Sub Rosa) cd 16.98
This is the stuff we like! Slow moving vinyl crackle and click, achingly pretty. Droning melodiously, hum and repetition beautifully employed, this conjures a mood of reverie and melancholic bliss. Saule is the name used by Belgian composer Xavier Garcia Bardon for his turntable-based works, and this Sub Rosa cd is his debut release. The first thing we were reminded of when we heard this was Philip Jeck. You know how much we love that British looper of scratchy old vinyl, right? Like Jeck, Saule also finds music in the grooves of old records -- that is, in the sound of the needle on wax, as well as what's more commonly considered a record's musical 'content'. And like Jeck he's a careful listener, rather than a hyperkinetic whipwhipwhap dj. Futhermore, both Saule and Jeck use multiple turntables to elaborate an aesthetic enamored of dusty, glacially-paced drones. But although they have much in common, Saule isn't merely just another Jeck. No, Saule is more like Jeck crossed with a post-rock band! But there's no 'band', just Saule's prepared records, three turntables, a microphone, mixer, and "headphones (for feedback)". With Philip Jeck, the mesmerizing, crackling loops can be their own reward, but Saule will provide some rock-like resolution as well, as with the sudden burst of distortion that heralds the addition of a sampled, broken drum break toward the end of track one, "Hola". Especially when you get to "Lido", the third of three long tracks that comprise Sentimental Journey, you'll hear this post-rock thing we're talking about. Codeine mixed with Radian comes to mind. "Lido" was apparently originally conceived as a soundtrack to an independent film, stills from which enliven the cd packaging. And it, like the other tracks here, has a cinematic quality, though it might well overwhelm any visuals. This disc is a stellar example of 'turntablism' in a non-hip-hop context -- as we said, it's more like instrumental post rock instead, although we're sure DJ Shadow fans will like this! We suggest playing it loud, which will be especially effective when track three swells into something grand that Godspeed could never match.
MPEG Stream: "Hola"
MPEG Stream: "Lido"

PARTY OF HELICOPTERS Please Believe It (Velocette) cd 10.98
With this, the post-rock pop band Party of Helicopters' third album, some of us here at AQ can be considered fans for sure, as we've gotten more and more into 'em over their last couple releases. The original hype line on 'em -- My Bloody Valentine meets Iron Maiden -- was just too good to be true, and the inevitable disappointment took its toll. But we must admit, there is a kernel of truth to that description... These Ohio boys play a sort of emo/punk/pop hybrid with twisty guitar lines, hints of classic metal riffing, noisy shoegazer textures, and Pixies-ish catchiness. Musically their powerful guitars are mathy and a bit metally, kinda like post-hardcore outits The Great Unravelling and Universal Order Of Armaggedon, but with different, higher, breathy, near falsetto vocals. Not higher in an '80s metal way, though, it's more like you could imagine the vocals emanating from a tiny, precious perfumed box with a sensitive boy singer inside. We're reminded a bit of some San Diego bands -- the pop vocal arrangements of Rob Crow's Heavy Vegetable with the muscle and sinew of Drive Like Jehu's guitars, and the complexity of both bands. Very cool.
MPEG Stream: "The Good Punk"
MPEG Stream: "Cover Me"

ATRIUM MUSICAE DE MADRID Musique de la Grece Antique (Harmonia Mundi) cd 11.98
FINALLY BACK IN PRINT -- and still cheap! Now in a digipak. Here's Allan's old review of this AQ-favorite, originally released on LP in 1979, now in its 2nd or 3rd Harmonia Mundi cd incarnation:
Some records come out (say, a reissue of some strange '70s psych) and there's all this anticipation because of reading about it for years, or at least seeing it in a catalog or something (kinda like AQ-list subscribers hear about a lot of new things), but many of our favorite albums were first heard (and appreciated) with no prior information or expectations. You know, the kind of thing that really grabs you partially because you DON'T know anything about it, like a thrift store LP you picked up just 'cause of the weird cover art or something (like, how some of us first encountered Bruce Haack's "Electric Lucifer" for instance).
Now, this album we didn't originally find in a thrift store record bin, there wasn't even a cover associated with it: the story is, a friend had a tape of this in his car, it was obviously some sort of old recording (taped off a scratchy LP) of what our friend was told (by the person who'd given the tape to him) was traditional Greek music. But it was quite unlike any Greek music we'd heard before, sounding more like a soundtrack to a film featuring pagan rites, very ceremonial and mysterious in nature. Unlike any "real" recording of Greek music I could imagine. Eventually (last week) we decipered the handwritten info on the cassette and after only a few minutes of research on the sometimes miraculous internet, found out not only what it was but that it had been reissued on cd! And so now we have it here at Aquarius. Nice how that worked out!
What we now know is that the concept of this recording is that it's a partially-imaginary reconstruction by an unusual Spanish world-music ensemble of what the music of ancient Greece MIGHT have sounded like, based on what little historical documentation is available regarding musical practices of the period. Each track references some papyrii or other (so the spoken and sung texts are supposedly historically accurate) and the music is played on what are assumed to be authentic types of instrumentation (including a reproduction of an hydraulic organ!). As we said, much of the music is ritual-sounding, with chanting and bells. It has quite an occult vibe. There's also tracks of beautiful, folky female vocals backed by plucks of the lyre. Add to that stirring horns, droning flutes, percussive crashes, eccentric vocal flourishes, and much more. Liner notes explain the Atrium Musicae's intentions and procedure in trying to recreate this lost music. There's a definite sense of drama, and of the weight of the ages upon those trying to bring the fragments of Greek music back to life. This disc is sometimes creepy, often lovely, always fascinating.
Although I kind of wish that this cd had the scratchy surface noise found on our friend's tape of the LP, which gave it even more of a "lost treasure" vibe (as if some ancient Greek philosopher had invented some sort of anachronistic "marble cylinder" recording technology, recently unearthed by archeologists!) it's still totally amazing!
RealAudio clip: "Anakrousis.Orestes Stasimo"
RealAudio clip: "Hymne a la Muse"
RealAudio clip: "Hymne a Nemesis"
RealAudio clip: "Pean.Papyrus Berlin 6870"

WATSON, CHRIS Weather Report (Touch) cd 15.98
Oooh. We're super pleased to get this new Chris Watson field recordings album (see note below). He's one of our favorites in the realm of just going out in the world, shutting up, and listening. With really good equipment and recording skills, that is. In the past he's brought us up close and personal with a variety of African wildlife, as well as the fauna of his native England. Now with the perhaps too-obviously titled "Weather Report" he focuses on the bigger picture, not just animals but the places in which they reside, which means a lot of weather phenomena in the mix.
There's three long tracks, each providing an aural portrait of a location over time. Kinda like time-lapse film, but the action is not sped up here, just carefully edited together. They're all natural environments, not urban, the first ("Ol-Oloool-O") taking you on a virtual expedition into the wilds of Kenya's Masai Mara, one day in October 2002. The next, "The Lapaich" compresses four months of sound from a Scottish highland glen in the fall and winter. Lastly, "Vatnajokull" closely examines the slow flow of a glacier in Iceland, which sounds like drone piece from our experimental section. From animals, birds and insects to washes of wind and rain to quiet, creaking ice, this is all pretty darn magical. Newcomers to Watson's work should note that there's no processing of the sound to make it "experimental music", it's a straight-up documentary with no additions or interference (aside from the neccessary edits). Then again, I suppose it is "music" in the John Cage 4'33'' sense. And it's wonderful sound. Amazing, vibrantly real stuff that'll fire your imagination. If you've seen that amazing new documentary movie "Winged Migration" you've got a filmic analogy to the kind of thing Watson captures here.
NB. You know, it's a bit embarrassing, but we've never listed this man's releases in our database before, aside from the "Star Switch On" disc of remixes and his contribution to Hazard's "Wind".
Whoops! Dunno how that happened, 'cause we're all really big fans of his work. So, at least we can offer a timely review of this, his third proper release on Touch, and perhaps retroactively review his previous efforts "Outside The Circle Of Fire" and "Stepping Into The Dark" on a future list.
MPEG Stream: "Ol-Olool-O"
MPEG Stream: "Vatnajokull"

DEAD MEADOW Shivering King And Others (Matador) cd 10.98
Apparently time-travel is possible, 'cause there's just no way these guys could be of our day and age. With this, their third album and Matador label debut, Maryland thud-psych rockers Dead Meadow take things to an even higher, ahem, level of '60s/'70s inspired stoner delight. It's downer rock that swings like a pair of bellbottoms on a body hanging from a noose but is also certainly warm and enveloping, like a big fuzzy blanket. Heavy riffing with some nice mellow acoustic hippy jams as well. Basically drone-on bliss both ways. Kinda like if Sleep were a krautrock band.
We've said before that our only real problem with this band is the vocals. But on "Shivering King", although they're still super-nasal, they've managed via a combination of effects and mixing to somehow at last make 'em nicely palatable -- they're the high end counterweight to all the bass frequencies over which they drift. Fantastic!
NB. It's a bit weird Dead Meadow's on Matador now, but I guess they fit in with Bardo Pond (who've moved on to a new label, however) and it's not any stranger than the Champs being on Drag City!
Vinyl version is a double LP on 150 gram vinyl.
MPEG Stream: "Babbling Flower"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven"

LED ZEPPELIN s/t (Atlantic) 2dvd 31.00
Ok, first off, any real big Led Zeppelin fans don't even need to read any further -- trust us, just get this! Even if you don't have a dvd player, you should invest in one just to see this. And even if you're just a casual fan you probably should get this too. Really I'm not (or wasn't) that big of a Zeppelin fan myself, but I'm way more into 'em now after viewing this release... five and a half hours of rare vintage Zep footage, both pro shot and bootleg, all of it pretty awesome -- heck, for the clothes and hair let alone the music!
Breaking it down, disc 1 is mainly consists of a 1970 Royal Albert Hall concert, featuring a charmingly charmingly youthful Zep at an early peak, with the highlights there being Bonham's "Moby Dick" drum solo and the '50s rockers they cover towards the end of the show. With disc one you also get some other clips, including four songs in crystal-clear black and white from Danish TV (with kids sitting cross-legged on the floor, mere feet in front of the band, dangerously close to Page's amplifier -- did that kid ever hear again??)
There's lots of "Dazed And Confused" here, with their performance of that number on the British TV show "Supershow" being the best. It's the most EVIL sounding "Dazed And Confused" ever, Page's guitar *and* Plant's vocals oh-so-distorted just perfectly, due to the recording perhaps. With some crazy edits and the band becoming enveloped in a climactic fog machine miasma, this is worth $29 alone, seriously!
Disc two starts off with a brilliant "Immigrant Song" video constructed from 1972 Austrialian live video and 1972 Californian live audio. Then it's on to Madison Square Garden (1973) for some outtakes from The Song Remains The Same, the concert movie that this dvd blows out of the water. Good stuff though. Following that, you get their 1975 Earl's Court performance -- one of this dvd set's highlights, really. Just check out the blazing clavinet-and-Bonzo-driven mechanical funk workout of "Trampled Underfoot" -- damn! The dvd then moves on to Knebworth '79, their triumpant swansong UK performance where a band that has visibly aged in the four years since Earl's Court really smokes, with "Achilles Last Stand" standing out.
The non-performance footage on this set includes a young Page and Plant, very much the soft-spoken British rock aristocrats, fielding questions from reporters in NYC 1970, like what they think of the Beatles -- whom they just knocked out of the #1 chart position.
Really, about all we can complain about is the crappy dvd packaging. The so-called cover art is just lame, a Photoshopped mesa, desert plain, and Zeppelin-shaped cloud. Why didn't they just use a still from the footage on the darn dvd?? Watching it, you'll certainly see many a shot that would have make a much much better cover than what they used. However, the dvd itself is done with class, with an excellent interface -- the menus themselves feature additional looped Zep clips seen nowhere else in the dvd, so be sure not to overlook them while selecting the main features! Recommended, if you couldn't tell already!

SIMPLY SAUCER Cyborgs Revisited (Sonic Union) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Thirty or so years after first blasting off, the band known as Simply Saucer soars into view once again. Truly a twisted gem of the '70s pre-punk art-rock underground, the *Canadian* '70s pre-punk art-rock underground no less, this Hamilton, Ontario band was freaking people out back in 1974 with the material you'll find on this spiffy new cd reissue. The lucky and enlightened among you might already have the long out of print early-'90s cd version of this album, or even the original LP posthumously released in 1989, but this new edition of their half-studio, half-live "Cyborgs Revisited" adds 8 bonus tracks, including lo-fi demos, additional live stuff, and both sides of the Saucer's lone 1978 single. With or without these bonus tracks, it's a great fuckin' record, boldly owing allegiance to (early) Pink Floyd and the Velvet Underground and The Stooges. They've also got much in common with the likes of the Pink Fairies, Faust, NYC no-wave a la Von Lmo, and the contemporaneous crazy Ohio underground scene of the '70s (Rocket From The Tombs, Electric Eels). Yep, all these inspirations are immediately evident, not too far into side one of "Cyborgs Revisited": witness the the lengthy amazing repetitive Floydian effects instrumental "Mole Machine" as it segues into the acoustic intro of "Bullet Proof Nothing", Simply Saucer's idea of a love song, with lyrics like "Treat me like dirt/drive me insane" delivered in a sloppy Lou Reed drawl.
S.S. (unfortunate initials, hopefully nothing to do with their song "Nazi Apocalypse"!) were formed in '72 by a bunch of Canuck weirdos, notable among them lead guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Edgar Breau, and Sun Ra/Eno inspired electronics dude John LaPlante, aka "Ping Romany" -- Ping being a good stage name for the guy playing the primitive oscillators, tone generators, and theremin! They fought the good fight for a few years, cranking out freakish, space-fx laden proto-punk rock n' roll with sci-fi titles like "Dance The Mutation", eventually dabbling in Toronto's nascent "new wave" scene.
It's certainly no surprise that the Saucer never "made it" -- though that '78 single seems like a stab at poppier (or at least goofier) sound -- and, with no successful commercial career in the offing, they eventually disbanded. Dunno if they could ever be cited as an influence by anyone 'cause they were so obscure, but hypothetically anyway S.S. could be the warped template for today's garage artisans -- Comets On Fire, especially -- totally punk *and* psych, with skronked out guitar, snotty vox, oscillating noise waves and tumbling drums. Glad to have this back in print, and it's certainly a timely reissue considering how well this fits in with some of today's art-punk retro-electro trends!
MPEG Stream: "Nazi Apocalypse"
MPEG Stream: "Illegal Bodies"

SIMPLY SAUCER Cyborgs Revisited (Get Back) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This gem is now available on vinyl (without the bonus tracks on the cd reissue we raved about recently, though)! Here's some of what we said: Thirty or so years after first blasting off, the band known as Simply Saucer soars into view once again. Truly a twisted gem of the '70s pre-punk art-rock underground, the *Canadian* '70s pre-punk art-rock underground no less, this Hamilton, Ontario band was freaking people out back in 1974 with the material you'll find on this spiffy new reissue. The original edition of their half-studio, half-live "Cyborgs Revisited" LP was posthumously released in 1989, and simply is a great fuckin' record, boldly owing allegiance to (early) Pink Floyd and the Velvet Underground and The Stooges. They've also got much in common with the likes of the Pink Fairies, Faust, NYC no-wave a la Von Lmo, and the contemporaneous crazy Ohio underground scene of the '70s (Rocket From The Tombs, Electric Eels). Yep, all these inspirations are immediately evident, not too far into side one of "Cyborgs Revisited": witness the the lengthy amazing repetitive Floydian effects instrumental "Mole Machine" as it segues into the acoustic intro of "Bullet Proof Nothing", Simply Saucer's idea of a love song, with lyrics like "Treat me like dirt/drive me insane" delivered in a sloppy Lou Reed drawl.
S.S. (unfortunate initials, hopefully nothing to do with their song "Nazi Apocalypse"!) were formed in '72 by a bunch of Canuck weirdos, notable among them lead guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Edgar Breau, and Sun Ra/Eno inspired electronics dude John LaPlante, aka "Ping Romany" -- Ping being a good stage name for the guy playing the primitive oscillators, tone generators, and theremin! They fought the good fight for a few years, cranking out freakish, space-fx laden proto-punk rock n' roll with sci-fi titles like "Dance The Mutation", eventually dabbling in Toronto's nascent "new wave" scene. But with no successful commercial career in the offing, they eventually disbanded. Dunno if they could ever be cited as an influence by anyone 'cause they were so obscure, but hypothetically anyway S.S. could be the warped template for today's garage artisans -- Comets On Fire, especially -- totally punk *and* psych, with skronked out guitar, snotty vox, oscillating noise waves and tumbling drums. Glad to have this back in print, and it's certainly a timely reissue considering how well this fits in with some of today's art-punk retro-electro trends!
MPEG Stream: "Nazi Apocalypse"
MPEG Stream: "Illegal Bodies"

MANES Vilosophe (Code 666) cd 14.98
Questions, questions, questions. Boy does this new release from Norway's Manes raise some questions. Like, how did this exemplar of raw, primitive, droney black metal end up making melodic trip hop? And how did they get Ozzy Osbourne (or, in truth, his close sonic approximation) to handle the vocals?? And, with all these changes, didn't this genre-fucking, once-but-no-longer black metal act release this disc on Garm of Ulver's Jester label, alongside recent works by Ulver themselves, another band, along with Arcturus and to a lesser exent Mayhem, who delight in upsetting their (former) fans who obsess about "true" black metal? Certainly if it's old-school black metal purity you're looking for, forget about the new Manes, stick with their 1999 "Under Ein Blodraud Maane". The open-minded, however, might actually dig this. It's only about 10 percent metal, with lots of samples and beats and layers of noise, and tons of Survivor-esque melodic pathos. It all kinda sounds like one epic song, the Ozzy meets The Cure style vocals soaring over junglist / tech step Amen breaks, with what heavy metal riffing there is being gloom-pop catchy a la Katatonia. There's even a track that drops in what sounds like Spandau Ballet's saxophonist. Other parts have a Pink Floyd-gone-industrial vibe. In The Woods meets Aphex Twin, perhaps? Solefald meets Cyclefly at a rave? Quite a shocking transformation from the howling-at-the-moon, spikes n' corpsepaint black metalness of their earlier material!! Now, it might have been a more interesting progression if Manes had gone the other way, done this in 1999 and then come out with the black metal of "Blodraud"...especially since most metallers who get into the realm of electronica tend to produce albums that are at least 3 years behind the times. And Manes haven't avoided that problem. Yet, somehow, we can't help but enjoy this, it's got a certain sincerity and quality and spark, and sheer chutzpah to it that works for us.
MPEG Stream: "Death Of The Genuine"

ENSLAVED Below The Lights (Osmose / The End) cd 12.98
Norway's Enslaved are by now established as being at the top of the black metal heap, a band from which you can expect nothing less than sheer brilliance. As such, it's hard to write a review that doesn't simply revisit all the superlatives we've already applied to their previous releases. So we won't even try with this, their seventh full-length album, other than to say it's great and you should buy one! ...well okay, here's a little bit about what it sounds like:
A lot like previous album "Monumension" and the one before that, AQ-Record-of-the-Week "Mardraum"! Though, the lineup is a little different -- this marks the first appearance of new lead guitarist Arve Isdal (replacing Roy Kronheim). Longtime drummer Dirge Rep does play on this, but has since left the band. But anyway, more of the same in Enslaved terms is not a bad thing. Basically, they're in a similar situation career-wise as fellow metal masterminds Opeth. Can they get any better? You know what, they just don't need to! And also just like Opeth, Enslaved are brilliant at making juxtapostions of melody and heaviness (spacey psychedelic Pink Floyd interludes vs. raging thrash, clean singing/chant vs. death growls and screams).
For instance, in the very first track, you get the pairing of a slow, melancholy, even sappily beautiful guitar solo by Ivar with lower-than-low death metal belches and furious drums. The next song concentrates on utter metal ripping but also incorporates electronic embellishments that could have wandered in from a Radiohead album, and is followed by the disarming acoustic intro to the pummelling and majestic track three, a song which demonstrates Enslaved's command of heavy 'post rock' a la Isis. Total Kinski/Godspeed might mixed with andrenalized, angular riffing. The Fucking Champs doing spacerock maybe? Yet another track begins with some fruity leftfield chamber jazz/prog (w/ flutes!) to make you doublecheck your stereo, before the metal soars into view again, tumultous and epic. After that, martial progressive rock drumming is backed by a heathen choir.
Yet to me, the key to Enslaved's appeal is that, however weird they get, they always keep it kind of simple too, never losing sight of the rock n' roll imperative. So unlike, say, the last Emperor album, with all its jazz fusion parts and circusy convolutions, you can still definitely rock out to Enslaved. Avant art rock with Viking majesty and headbanging energy -- no wonder they're Allan's favorite black metal band!
MPEG Stream: "As Fire Swept Clean The Earth"
MPEG Stream: "The Dead Stare"

YEAH YEAH YEAHS Fever To Tell (Interscope) cd 15.98
After a couple of insanely hyped singles which altogether clocked in at about 18 minutes total, New York's garage-punk trio The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have mustered enough material to warrant their debut, full-length album "Fever To Tell." As expected the car-crash of thuggish rockabilly licks and punky-disco grooves guided by vocalist Karen O's snarling sexuality and blackened humor are present and sound an awful lot like a female fronted Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, or perhaps more appropriately Boss Hog when they were good. However, there's only about 15 minutes worth of sneering rock 'n' roll on the album; and the remainder of the album comes as a huge, but certainly not unwelcome surprise, as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs round out the album with a handful of slower, darker, and sentimental ballads. These later tracks are not unlike the recent works of PJ Harvey, transforming raucous punked-up energy into emotive songsmithery; however, they may not be exactly what fans of the previous EPs would expect. Hey, don't be discouraged though, "Fever To Tell" still has those 15 minutes of possessed blues to match those previous EPs.
MPEG Stream: "Date With The Night"
MPEG Stream: "Maps"

BOULDER DDASH Alien Folk Trash (Angelika Kohlermann) cd 16.98
This French band is seemingly named after an '80s video game, and aptly so, 'cause that's what a lot of this sounds like. Bleepage from dusty, vintage videogame consoles, but put to use in pretty lil' micro-songs with wistful singing. Simultaneously cute and sad. The title is also apt: alien (that's the video game sounds), folk (that's the melodic element) and trash (that's the distortion), sure. Imagine, say, the melancholic folky music of AQ-fave Greg Weeks colliding with some post-DHR distorted DIY electronics. Very pretty and fucked up. One track will feature acoustic guitar strum, the next quirky Aphex Twin-ish breakbeats. Some, both. It's very personal, homemade sounding stuff, which makes sense 'cause while we called this a band up top, actually Boulder dDash is really pretty much just one guy, a French fellow named Jean-Baptiste Hanak, with additional vocals on four of the twenty tracks by someone named The Very Ape (possibly Hanak's girlfriend?) who is even more sad sounding than he is. But as sad as the singing can be, this is a fun album. There's a song about comic book hero Fillerbunny, and another is dedicated to labelmates Electronicat. Oh, and this disc includes an entire bonus album of mp3s called "The Dark Side Of Boulder dDash" that's rather more crazed and stupid, like Hanak got really drunk and tried to make some hip-hop tracks. Weird.
MPEG Stream: "On The Road Again"
MPEG Stream: "Ur.So (feat. the Very Ape)"
MPEG Stream: "Antinordheim #1"

STARK REALITY Now (Stones Throw / Now-Again) cd 16.98
Here's a weird one. Imagine a late-sixties jazz-funk combo playing fucked up versions of children's songs written in the 40s and 50s by Hoagy Carmichael. Actually, you don't have to imagine that, if you just listen to this disc. 'Cause that's what's happening here. The first eight tracks on this cd were orginally released in 1970 as "The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop" LP. Dunno what kids thought of it, but the heads must have loved it, unless it tripped 'em out too much. The idea (hatched by Hoagy's son Bix, who worked at Boston's WGBH public TV station with musican Monty Stark, the leader of The Stark Reality) was to psychedelize ol' Hoagy's music for hippie youngsters. The result were these awkwardly funky, severely distorted (in every possible way), jazzed-out cuts, featuring Stark's crazily atonal fuzz-equipped vibes and bizarrely straight singing/rhyming. The music appeared in a WGBH kid's show, then was released on LP. That LP is apparently quite an expensive rarity these days, with those that have heard it either thinking it brilliant or insane or both. The LP track "Rocket Ship" was one of Windy's favorite cuts on Peanut Butter Wolf's recent "Jukebox 45" mix cd, and he has now reissued the whole album on his Stones Throw label, so we all can judge its merits, along with several non-Hoagy bonus cuts. The thorough liner notes do their best to explain the whole deal, and indicate that more than one lucky beat-diggin' hip hop DJ has made this their secret weapon.
It's utterly ridiculous yet oddly compelling. You'll either have to turn it off after two minutes or it'll become an all-time fave, that's the sort of record this is! Easily the most warped, heaviest jams ever on subjects like basic musical notation, remembering the number of days in each month, and recipes for cooking stew. I mean, some of this makes Sun Ra's wiggiest solos sound normal.
MPEG Stream: "Junkman's Song"
MPEG Stream: "All You Need To Make Music"

KORAY, ERKIN Elektronik Turkuler (Dogan / World Psychedelia Ltd.) cd 17.98
The Middle Eastern psych rock obsession continues to rage here at Aquarius! Nothin' better than the exotic sounds of swingin' sixties Istanbul (or a close approximation). Here's a cd reissue of a 1974 album by guitarist/vocalist Erkin Koray, known as the Jimi Hendrix of Turkey. Maybe that comparison isn't the most accurate (there's nothing as heavy as "Purple Haze" here), but at least it gives you an idea of the East-meets-West grooves found on Elektronik Turkuler. Two cultures, one counterculture, it seems. With sinuous "belly-dancing" tunes rocked up with distorted electric guitar, rock n' roll beats, some wild flute playing, and the occasional lysergic organ freakout, this is an authentic "magic carpet ride" as it were, culminating in the 9-minute "Turku" complete with spoken word incantations and freaky sound effects. The traditional-sounding vocals are all in Turkish, some of the tunes are clearly adaptations of traditional Turkish music as well. Anyone who really dug the John Berberian Middle Eastern Rock disc we listed a few months back, or loves those great Turkish Delights or Hava Nargile compilations (both of which feature Koray tracks), should check this album out.
MPEG Stream: "Karli Daglar"
MPEG Stream: "Inat"

OLSSON, BJORN s/t (crawfish) (Gravitation) cd 15.98
Sweden's Bjorn Olsson (a member of The Soundtrack Of Our Lives) returns with yet another album of nostalgic soundtrack-sounding stuff that'll have you asking yourself "where have I heard this before"? Of course, that may be because, when you get through the whole album, you'll have heard many of the songs twice! (Yep, for the same obscure reason he did so on his last album "UPA", ol' Bjorn put the same songs twice on one disc, though the second time around they're definitely different mixes at least.)
Anyway, after hearing these tracks a couple times (that is, after one spin of the disc, heh) we found ourselves -- store employees and customers alike -- fairly whistling along, mostly because Olsson's catchy melodies are quite irresistible, but also partly 'cuz several of the best tracks here indeed feature whistling as the melodic lead (think Morricone's "Giu La Testa"). Yep again, as with his previous two albums Bjorn continues to emulate Ennio Morricone, to the point where he's nearly out Heroded Herod. Along with his knack for melody -- super catchy and incredibly reminiscent of specific tunes that will rest on the tip of your tongue -- Olsson's arrangements are increasingly more brilliant to boot. Like a spaghetti western that takes place in a sunny, pastoral meadow or something. A very lovely album, that at first we thought might be a bit too "Hallmark card" pretty, but really really grew on us. Windy's new favorite album, and Byram likes it too!
[Note: this is the 2003 album from Bjorn that we used to designate as "lobster" before we learned it was supposed be crawfish, when the REAL lobster came out in 2005. Gaaah.]
MPEG Stream: "Juli"
MPEG Stream: "Gotenborg"
MPEG Stream: "Instrumental"

WIGRID Hoffnungstod (No Colours) cd 16.98
FINALLY BACK IN STOCK!!! One of our favorite black metal blasts of Burzumic mayhem. Here's what we said about it a few months ago:
Wigrid is a one-(Ger)man band that plays raw black metal definitely influenced by the notorious Burzum. Indeed, as you become enveloped in the depressive, distorted, plodding fuzz-forest of Wigrid's imagination, you'll be convinced that such unending grimness hasn't been inflicted upon the world since before the incarceration of Varg Vikernes, aka Burzum. Wigrid's massive, murky wall of fuzz, with desperate, screamed vocals lost behind it, marches slowly ever onward, with primitive, minor-key melodies subliminally effecting your soul. The sparse, pulsing drum machine hits are similarily buried in the repetitive guitar riff-stortion. Nothing fancy, or that original (the cover drawing even looks suspiciously like it was borrowed from Burzum's "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss"), but wholly satisfying if this is a mood that interests you. Submitting to Wigrid's monotonous yet majestic misery and cold, cold anguish is a release. It's trancey and hypnotic and ambiently ear-grinding. For fans of "Hvis..." / "Filosofem" era Burzum (duh), Weakling, and other troglodytic, minimal dirge metal.
MPEG Stream: "Leere"
MPEG Stream: "Ort der Einsamkeit"

MAINLINER Mellow Out (Riot Season) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
At last, a reissue of the debut album from Japanese heavy psych trio Mainliner. It came out on Charnel Music in '96, but has been out of print for a long while now and with its unavailability has grown in stature. Of course, it's a great record, the one that Acid Mothers Temple were trying to emulate on their recent "Electric Heavyland" set. And yep, it does feature AMT's Kawabata Makoto on 'motorpsycho' guitar, along with free jazzer Hajime Koizumi on drums and bassist Nanjo Asahito of the legendary High Rise. Mainliner always was just a slight variant on the High Rise template (themselves a variant on the Les Rallizes Denudes template it seems), formed originally by Nanjo 'cause his High Rise bandmates were averse to touring and he wanted to take his rock on the road, or so the story goes. Anyway, this disc was Mainliner's first and best, all players outdoing themselves in the realms of psychedelic heavy garage improv distortion overload. So, if you missed it the first time around, now's your chance to experience this classic. It's nice to have it back in just 'cause now we're listening to it again and we'd forgotten how great it is. Rock!
MPEG Stream: "Black Sky"

FINNTROLL Visor Om Slutet (Spikefarm) cd 14.98
As their name suggests, this is music by, or at least for, Finnish trolls. They should tour with Za Frumi, the Swedish orc band. Their self-described brand of black metal polka (or "humpa", as the Finns call it) has made 'em a fave here at Aquarius where anything less ridiculous gets barely a listen, after all.
This third album from Finntroll sports a sticker on the front reading "Special Price Acoustic Album". Well, the price isn't any more special than their others, and it's also not an acoustic album, so we're not sure what's going on there. It is, however, pretty special! Starting off with ominous forest noises, this soon builds into a doleful (is that an oboe?) square dance for monsters, stomping and growling. That's followed by some rather more lively jigs, that sound a bit like Czech maniacs Uz Jsme Doma, if they had a chorus of grim-voiced trolls backing them up. Other numbers are on the bombastic side, symphonic in scope even, very medieval and fantastical of course.
I guess the deep-woods hoedown aspect is what prompted Spikefarm to label this "acoustic" even when there's obviously lots of non-acoustic instruments (keyboards, electric guitars!) being used along with traditional Finnish/trollish instruments like jaw harps and handclaps... and it certainly is Finntroll's least "metal" album. Finntroll goes in the direction of early In Extremo, cool.
MPEG Stream: "Asfagelns Dod"
MPEG Stream: "Forsvinn Du Som Lyser"

V/A Wild Dub (Select Cuts) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Subtitled "Dread Meets Punk Rocker Downtown" this is a brilliant collection of dubbed out and reggaefied punk and new wave b-sides circa '77-'81, demonstrating the Jamaican dub influence on the youth culture of music and rebellion in England and elsewhere, back in the day. The underground dancefloor avantgardists of today can cop these styles, but this is the real deal, with tracks from well-known acts like The Pop Group, Killing Joke, The Slits, PIL, The Clash, Grace Jones and Stiff Little Fingers, plus some more obscure bands as well, like Red Beat, 4 Be 2, and Basement 5. Some cuts are actual echoey dubs, others are more about the Jamaican influence, and the dub concept of studio as instrument. All are pretty cool.
The Ruts' "Jah War" starts things off in deceptively ordinary fashion, pretty much straight up reggae (not a dub), though it does succesfully demonstrate this comp's thesis regarding the influence of reggae on punk (with The Ruts eventually becoming Ruts DC, subject of an anthology on Select Cuts we recommended a while back)... That's followed by Mikey Dread's dub version of The Clash's "Bank Robber" which of course sounds pretty much like The Clash, but dubbier. It's with track three, "Wild Dub" from Generation X, purportedly the first punk dub ever cut, that the punk-dub collision starts to get really interesting. And if Billy Idol's old band's dub attempt is cool, you can only imagine what more some of the more out-there groups came up with. For instance, dig the bizarre sounds of The Slits, whose disjointed dub of "Typical Girls" comes off like Italian 'rock concrete' deconstructionists Starfuckers by way of Jamaica, all cut-up and sparse and loopy. Definitely a highlight. Meanwhile, you've got The Pop Group setting an example for current acts like Out Hud/!!! to emulate, 4 Be 2's weird Irish hoedown skank, the throbbing "Turn To Red" by Killing Joke (from a super-rare 9" record), and Grace Jones' 1980 Chrissie Hynde penned dance classic "Private Life" with bass and drums from Sly & Robbie. And more... Former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten is a ubiquitous presence, in addition to PIL's quintessential "Death Disco", there's a bunch of other John Lydon productions on here, including a great track from Vivien Goldman ("Private Armies") dubbed up by Lydon and Adrian Sherwood. Goldman, former singer with the Flying Lizards and reggae writer for the punk weekly Sounds, contributes the disc's liner notes, with an enthusiastic, informed, she-was-there-then-and-cares-deeply-about-it-now perspective. So, totally, recommended -- everyone who loved those great Disco Not Disco and/or In The Beginning There Was Rhythm compilations will want to check this out for sure!
MPEG Stream: KILLING JOKE "Turn to Red"
MPEG Stream: THE SLITS "Typical Girls (Brink Style Dub)"
MPEG Stream: VIVIEN GOLDMAN "Private Agents (dub)"
MPEG Stream: GRACE JONES "Private Life (Dub)"

ALRUNE ROD Sonet Arene 1969-72 (Sonet) 2cd 29.00

JACKS, THE Vacant World / Super Session (Shagadelic Records) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Fans of current underground Japanese psych stuff (Acid Mothers Temple, Keiji Haino, Ghost, Nagisa Ni Te, etc.) who'd like to delve into the early psychedelic era precursors of those acts have been lucky lately, what with that Les Rallizes Denudes double cd finally having some availability, and the Flower Travellin' Band disc we recently recommended too. As we mentioned in our Rallizes review, The Jacks were the other crucial home-grown Japanese psych band, an admitted influence on Fushitsusha certainly, who once covered The Jacks' classic "Marianne". And we just managed to get a few imported copies of this 2-on-1 disc by 'em, released last year on the Japanese Shagadelic label. Not only does it have the ten tracks of their legendary "Vacant World" but also another 11 constituting their follow-up album "Super Session" (both 1968), plus three rare bonus tracks (two from singles, one live). The booklet provides discographical information and album/single art.
With stinging Quicksilver psych guitar leads and melancholy vocals, "Vacant World" is a truly gorgeous album of darkness and murk that words like delicate, dramatic, and timeless well describe. Its sparse, sad beauty makes it one of Allan's favorite '60s psych artifacts ever, though not everyone else here is so moved. Unlike other noted Japanese 'GS' bands like The Mops or The Challengers, these guys were not mainly, merely doing covers of the current rock hits of the day from San Francisco and London. While Western garage and blues and psychedelic rock certainly shaped their sound, The Jacks seem uniquely Japanese, uniquely Jacks as well.
Now for two warnings: The second album on here, Super Session, unfortunately does seem to delve into a more commerical, less special sound. It's as if some producer or record exec told 'em they had to be more like the competition. As a result, this does venture into a bar rock zone that's not at all on par with "Vacant World". And if you like saxophone, they get into that here too. A very different mood from the debut ind