THAI ELEPHANT ORCHESTRA s/t (Mulatta Records) cd 15.98
First it was Frogs of North America invading our record bins, then it was Antarctic Seals and Penguins, followed by Insects in Stored Foodstuffs... now it's Elephants from Thailand! Brilliant recordings by non-human, um, sound-artists that we just can't get enough of here at Aquarius. In this case, the elephants are not just making their natural noises, they are indeed playing instruments! You may have read about this project in the New York Times -- when we found out about it we immediately contacted the label and ordered a whole bunch (based also on the on-line sample we heard at www.mulatta.org) and now here they are. These are elephants from a elephant preseve in Thailand who have been trained to play specially-built instruments (many marimba-like instruments similar to the traditional Thai renat, as well as such things as harmonicas, drums, and even a stringed "electric bass"), but they haven't been trained *what* to play, it's all improvised with minimal human guidance! Yet it's definitely music. It was kind of an experiment to find out how the creatures might express themselves, and we'd say it was very successful indeed. If we didn't know these were elephants, we'd think this was a strange No Neck Blues Band recording or something. Imagine a stumbling, primitive hippy folk jam on gamelan instruments, but not one that's random or erratic. The elephants play steady beats, the struck gongs or chimes interspersed with their vocalizations as well. With no overdubs and few edits this is certainly a very impressive recording!
The Thai Elephant Orchestra was dreamed up, and this disc produced, by David Soldier (New York musician and academic) and Richard Lair (American expatriate elephant expert, who advises the Thai Elephant Conservation Center where this project goes on). The two came up with the idea that elephants, being social animals, might enjoy playing music together, and proceeded to investigate... Happily, not only did the elephants enjoy playing, they were good at it, demonstrating that they were able to decide what sounded good (to them) and what didn't.
The booklet features photos and detailed, fascinating liner notes by both men. Here is what Soldier says the criteria was for the construction of the instruments, which were made by New York instrument builder Ken Butler (of "Gravikords, Whirligigs..." fame):
"1. The instruments must be suitable to the elephant's anatomy, which means large instruments operated by the trunk.
"2. The instruments must withstand jungle heat, humidity -- and the elephants.
"3. The instruments should require minimum upkeep.
"4. The instruments should have a Thai sound, because the regular daily audience is Thai, the mahouts would enjoy the music more, and the elephants have heard Thai music all their lives."
Some more great tid-bits from the notes: "The elephants took easily to the harmonica, which sparked the first elephant music fad: one morning I arrived to hear the sound of harmonicas from all over -- from the hills and from the river. The elephants were walking in from the forest playing harmonicas, which they hold easily in the tip of their trunks."
"The elephants didn't seem interested in the bells or theremin. At first they were spooked by the synthesizer keyboard, but later two animals were entranced by it. They disliked playing Ken's reed instruments with a large mouthpiece, or rather, trunkpiece. A mahout told me they were afraid that a snake might jump into their nostrils!"
As sort of bonus tracks, in addition to the forty-plus minutes of elephant improv, there's also some non-instrumental elephant field recordings, several tracks of humans and elephants playing together, and even a few traditional Thai songs played by humans, about elephants.
Sure there's a bit of simple amusement to be found here just from the concept alone, but in actual fact the music these elephants make is, to our ears at least, quite beautiful. We could go on and philosophize about how this project speaks to the relationship between man and animals in this world, but we'll leave those thoughts for you to explore if you chose to check out this album, which we highly recommend! Amazing and wonderful.
RealAudio clip: "Jojo"
RealAudio clip: "Duo For Renats"
RealAudio clip: "Harmonica Music"
RealAudio clip: "Heavy Logs"

CODEINE Frigid Stars LP (Sub Pop) cd 10.98
Once in a while we like to step away from all the new (or newly reissued) music pouring in and devote our attention (and yours) to something that's not new, just an old favorite that hasn't gotten the full-on AQ review treatment. Here's a deserving example: the 1991 debut from Sub Pop slow-core specialists Codeine. Definitely one of those records that Andee, Allan, et. al. here will tell you, if you don't have it already, you oughta get one now...seriously. Emo, indie-rock, post-rock, whatever this is, it's a classic. A classic of majestic melancholia. For the Frigid Stars LP, this NYC-based trio consisted of Stephen Immerwahr on bass and vocals, Chris Brokaw on drums and guitar and John Engle on guitar. They employ the soft-loud dynamic that their former Sub Pop labelmates Nirvana already made famous (or would around that same year). Not that they sound much like Nirvana. They sound a bit more like Low, albeit a lumbering downtuned Low. Codeine's own brand of moody, melodic misery wouldn't, couldn't be an MTV hit. Indie-pop it was, but so sad and slow... The songs on here share slowly crawling tempos, and echoey drum hits and big distorted guitar chords crashing down to give extra weight to Immerwahr's weary vocals and love-lost lyrics. We've always wanted to hear a metal band do a cover of some track from this record, maybe "D". But even though this isn't really "heavy" in a metal sense, it still IS heavy. A great record for when you're sad and alone. Strange how something like this will make you feel better, but it will.
As a side note, Allan needs to mention that he first heard this album over the phone. Not the whole album, but sound clips much like the ones on our website. That's right, way back when before the internet and the mp3 and all that, somebody got the idea to do a dial-up music service where you'd get to check out new music over the phone, by calling a 900-number I think, and using a touch-tone phone to choose what you wanted to hear. It had something to do with the old Factsheet Five 'zine as I recall. I remember looking at the album cover reproduced in the 'zine -- a negative photo of black stars floating in white emptiness -- and hearing the long-distance sounds of those Frigid Stars like a transmission from that deep space void... even under those circumstances, maybe especially under those circumstances, Codeine were so effective. I think I might have selected it to listen to on the basis of the album cover and title alone, and was not disappointed.
MPEG Stream: "D"
MPEG Stream: "Cave-In"

FAUST IV (Caroline / Blue Plate) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's a top-ten essential krautrock record for sure. Indeed, it's even got a song entitled "Krautrock" on it! As crucial as Can's Tago Mago or Future Days, Amon Duul II's Yeti, or Neu! 1... Spacey (Andee thought we were listening to Spacemen 3) and weird and wacky and quite wonderful. Not in the Faust box, either.

MELVINS Bullhead (Boner) cd 13.98

MELVINS s/t (aka Lysol) (Boner) cd 13.98
Another fucked up Melvins classic, the one-track album of sheer heaviosity that pre-dates Sleep's Jerusalem...and visits both Flipper and Alice Cooper tuneage. Originally titled 'Lysol' then simply 'Melvins' due to legal reasons.

ANAND, VIJAYA Dance Raja Dance (Luaka Bop) cd 16.98
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Stellar compilation of South Indian film music. A great, complex hybrid of western pop and Asian classical & pop. A barrage of genres meet in beautiful and confounding ways. Sweet, perfect voices singing love songs -- translations provided. This is an absolutely essential, ALL TIME FAVORITE here at Aquarius.

BASHO, ROBBIE The Voice of the Eagle (Comet / Vanguard) cd 16.98
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Wow. This is one ridiculous record. Solo 6 & 12 steel string guitar and singing by '60s acoustic guitar hero Robbie Basho (plus a little South Indian Log Drum accompaniment by Ramnad V. Raghavan). This record (a reissue of Basho's 1972 Vanguard debut) might have been almost passable (for solo proto-nu-age guitar in the usual mode of Basho and his contemporaries Fahey and Kottke) had Robbie not opened his mouth to moan pseudo-Native American vocal stylings (with similarly themed lyrics that may have been quite sincere but come across as very silly). It's only a surprise that the Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God label (of "Celebrities At Their Worst" fame) didn't get around to re-issuing this themselves. Indeed, although the absurd, wavering vocals might ruin one's enjoyment of Basho's fine guitar playing, they also really do make this a hilarious listen. Connoisseurs of the weird/kitsch should check this out, it's like a cross between "Ein Wigwam" and a Fahey album. For fans of the Sun City Girls, Yahowah, Telly Savalas, and other absurdities. Allan finds this record to be quite enjoyable on those grounds, and once you're done laughing, you'll see that some of it is quite beautiful and Tim Buckley-esque as well. "I am the voice of thu-u-und-rrrrr" etc. Reissued in a nice mini-LP style sleeve.
RealAudio clip: "Voice of the Eagle"

BASHO-JUNGHANS, STEFFEN Inside (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 11.98
A great new record by Junghans, a soon-to-be much more well known guitarist from the former East Berlin. Solo acoustic steel string guitar is his thing. "Inside" is a folk-trance album of exquisite beauty that has been compared to his evident hero Robbie Basho as well as to Loren Mazzacane Connors. Obviously, John Fahey would be another reference point, and Junghan's sometimes quite repetitive minimalism also puts us in mind of Rod Poole. The disc is divided into three "movements", starting in a simple, rhythmic manner (sounding very avant-garde & "Eastern" & Rod Poole-like) before morphing into some equally radical intricacies. There's no overdubs, but lots of variation. It's all very beautiful and hypnotic, never too difficult (to listen to, that is -- to play this stuff I'm sure is difficult). With colorful liner notes by Byron Coley.
RealAudio clip: "First Movement"
RealAudio clip: "Second Movement, Part One"

APOCALYPTICA Cult ( Spitfire) cd 16.98
We listed this back on #108, when it first came out as an import (we were stocking the Canadian version, thanks to our friends at Scratch Records in Vancouver who ordered 'em for us and smuggled 'em down here) but it's taken over a year for this to get a proper US release. We never were able to get enough of the import to make a big deal about it, but now that it's out domestically we're ready to give this the big push -- it's one of the best "metal" albums of the year, despite not having a single electric guitar anywhere on it! This is what we said about it before:
We've been huge fans of this Finnish all-cello quartet for a while now, and how could we not be? Their first record was of them sawing away at all Metallica covers! Their second record was almost all covers too, not just Metallica, but Sepultura and Faith No More. It's not all that surprising that these pseudo classical instrumental versions of metal songs worked so well (sometimes better than the originals), especially considering the epic Wagnerian quality of a lot of metal, especially Metallica.
On their third record though, Apocalyptica have almost completely abandoned their metal/Metallica covers (except for a couple bonus tracks) in favor of originals, and the result is probably their best record yet. They have obviously learned all they can from the masters (classical and metal), and have struck out on their own, to create something new, certainly not conventionally metal, but not classical either. Definitely 'heavy' though! The four cellists (here augmented by double bass and all sorts of percussion) craft explosive and complex, super intense epics, fusing classical movements with traditional song structures, bizarre techniques with impeccable chops, all delivered with decidedly un-classical aggression, making for a record way heavier and better than anything Metallica themselves have done in the last few years. Not bad for a bunch of cellists!
This new US edition is a little different than the import -- the bonus tracks are the same (two Metallica covers plus their version of Grieg's "Hall Of The Mountain King"), but they've also included a new version of their song "Path" that adds vocals from the woman from the band Guano Apes (who I guess are popular in Europe), and there's also a cd-rom video included for that same cut. While it's neat to see them flailing away at their cellos in the stylish video, if you already have the import it's not enough to make you trade it in for this version. But if you *don't* have the import (and we know quite a few of you missed out), now's your chance to pick up this awesome album!
(Oh, quick note to the people who write press sheets for Spitfire: "Hall Of The Mountain King" is NOT a Savatage cover, guys!)
RealAudio clip: "Path"
RealAudio clip: "Pray!"
RealAudio clip: "Struggle"

ILITCH Periodikmindtrouble (Fractal) 2cd 19.98
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Expanded, remastered reissue of this French guitarist's first album, originally released in 1978. Thierry Muller (for he is Ilitch) makes use of "destructured" guitar, droning organ, harmonium, tapes, synth, etc. to create dark, electronic soundscapes comparable to countrymen Heldon or a scarier Fripp/Eno. Experimental, atmospheric stuff indeed. Primitive, eerie, abstract, sometimes violent. This double disc set includes the previously unreleased third and fourth sides of what was originally intended to be double LP, as well as quite a lot of other bonus material, all of it equally nightmarish and excellent. Trainspotters should note that Ilitch is one of the avant-garde obscurities that appeared on the notorious Nurse With Wound list found on NWW's first album, along with much other seminal krautrock/noise/experimental weirdness, more and more of which is thankfully being reissued every day...

OFFERING III - IV (Seventh) cd 17.98

CAN Soundtracks (Spoon/Mute) cd 15.98
Tracks from various indie films scored by Can in 1970. Features the 14 minute, psych guitar-heavy "Mother Sky" and the beautiful Malcolm Mooney-sung jazz-lounge piece "She Brings The Rain".

FUNKADELIC Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow (Westbound) cd 17.98
The funk equivalent to the Stooges' "Funhouse"! Very very LSD etc. damaged funk-rock, weirder even than it is funky. The second album from the Funkadelic.

FUNKADELIC s/t (Westbound) cd 17.98
1971 debut from Detroit's psychedelic freak-funk-rock army, led by chief funkateer George Clinton. Amazing, essential shit. Swampy, soulful, good ol' FUNK. If you need to find out more, well, track one is for you: "Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?"
MPEG Stream: "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?"
MPEG Stream: "I'll Bet You"
MPEG Stream: "I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody's Got A Thing"

GURU GURU UFO (Spalax) cd 18.98
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Heavy 1970 debut from this Krautrock power trio. Caspar Brotzmann was probably into this band when he was a baby... Very freaky ("Der LSD Marsch") and heavy. One of Allan's all-time Krautrock must-haves.

KING CRIMSON In The Court Of The Crimson King (EG) cd 15.98
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Debut from Robert Fripp & Company. Mini-LP sleeve version (with that great, disturbing cover painting).

KING CRIMSON Red (EG) cd 15.98
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Mini-LP sleeve packaged version of this essential Crim album. A must-have, certainly, for fans of Don Cab!!

MAGMA Attahk (Seventh) cd 21.00
Late '70s Magma, with more fusion and even gospel influences present. Fantastic cover by H.R. Giger! Much better sounding than the Tomato-label version some may be familiar with.

MAGMA Baba Yaga La Sorciere (Seventh) cd 19.98
"Quand Les Enfants Chantent Magma" actually: meaning this is a group of French school-kids singing Magma! Cool.

MAGMA Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh (Seventh) cd 21.00
One of the all-time Magma classics. Of all their Wagner-meets-Sun Ra output, this is perhaps the most dark and militaristic-sounding, despite the inherent spirituality of the concept. Vander's comments: "The 3rd movement of the trilogy 'Theusz Hamtaahk', 'MDK' is really my 'My Favorite Thing". The melodies are played infinitely, becoming more and more intense, attaining a kind of paroxysm, of zenith. It was composed in 1971-72; this trilogy which contains 'Theusz Hamtaahk' (1st movement),'Wurdah Itah' (2nd movement) and 'MDK' (3rd), has been recorded randomly. Indeed, I play a long time the themes before recording them and 'Mekanik' was the first of the three movements that was played live. The other ones have been developed later and recorded then: 'Wurdah Itah' in 1974, 'Theusz Hamtaahk' in 1980, in 'Retrospektiw 1&2'."

MAGMA Mekanik Kommandoh (Seventh / AKT) cd 19.98
1973 alternate version of "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh".

MAGMA Udu Wudu (Seventh) cd 21.00
Features the classic bass-heavy track "De Futura", which is more or less the basis for the Ruins' entire output! Much better sounding than the Tomato-label version some may be familiar with. Says Vander: "In this album we can hear 'De Futura', one of the rare tunes recorded by one of the most creative musician of Magma, Janik Top. Its beauty is icy and internally unbreakable. The tune is accompanied by other themes, some of them being composed by Bernard Paganotti, Janik Top or I; these are less interesting perhaps but in the same vein as 'De Futura'."

OFFERING A Fiieh (Seventh) cd 17.98
Christian Vander's post-Magma "jazz" project, along the lines of Alice Coltrane's or Pharoah Sanders' 70s stuff mixed with his drumming in Magma. Fantastic. Vander comments: "3rd album of Offering and a decisive new step in my evolution. For the very first time, I apply my theories: don't dream, be aware of reality, don't lose yourself in the maze of intellectual endless sentences; Dig profoundly to learn how to go higher but with your feet still on the ground. It's a key-album, which announces what will be my next albums."

PARLIAMENT First Thangs (HDH) cd 14.98
Early Parliament tracks (mostly from their debut "Osmium") circa '70 - '72. Some, like "Red Hot Mama" later were reworked for later Funkadelic output. Essential funk.

PARLIAMENT Mothership Connection (Casablanca) cd 12.98
This is it, the mothership has landed! If you wants to get funked up, start here.

PARLIAMENT Up For The Down Stroke (Casablanca) cd 12.98
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The 2nd Parliament album, from '74. Old Parliaments soul is updated to mid-'70s psychedelic funk specifications. A classic.

VANDER, CHRISTIAN Wurdah Itah (Seventh) cd 17.98
Early '70s Vander solo record that is really a scaled-down Magma in disguise, doing soundtrack music for a film version of Tristan & Isolde. I really want to see the movie after hearing this music, can't imagine how they work it into the action. Very hyper stuff -- Ruins fans be aware that is is the sort of Magma that will remind you most of that band. Recommended.

DEFLESHED Under The Blade (Hammerheart) cd 11.98
One of 1998's best metal releases gets a digipak reissue with a multitude of bonus tracks! Harkening back to '80s thrash masters Destruction (whose "Curse The Gods" gets covered here), this hyper-andrenalized Swedish power trio somehow created what might really be the heaviest and catchiest disc of the decade, briming with amazing amounts of metallic energy. If you didn't get this when it first came out, get it now!! Their subsequent album, Fast Forward, was good too, but this one's their best. Sheer maniac magic. For the reissue, we get an additional nine rare live, demo, and single tracks, including a cover Sepultura's "Beneath the Remains". Fucking headbanging nirvana!!
RealAudio clip: "Walking The Moons Of Mars"

CHEVAL DE FRISE s/t (Sonore) cd 14.98
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French duo of acoustic (but not quiet!) guitar and drums that play in an instrumental 'post-rock' vein -- a shorthand description would be to call them a cross between Don Caballero and Gastr del Sol (but better!). Complex, dynamic, and full of that delicate post-rock beauty...although we can't figure out why bands like this, with musicians this good, don't play metal instead. On the same label that brought us the last two Ruins releases.
RealAudio clip: "Connexion Monsturesue Entre Un Object Et Son Image"

METABOLISMUS Spriesswartsdrall (Amish Records) cd 13.98
Krautrock like they used to make, from these modern-day heirs to the glorious kosmiche tradition. The German collective Metabolismus has actually been around since the '80s, but this is only their second domestically released album (available last year on LP, but now on cd). Indeed, most of their other releases have been super-obscure rarities. But with their "Terra Incognita" album released on US label Blackjack a few years back, they turned a few ears around here, and we were excited to see the followup make it to cd. Wonderful, psychedelic stuff, mostly-instrumental explorations, experimental yet pretty, proving that the heyday of Faust and Can and Popul Vuh and Cluster and the like is not forgotten.

WARHORSE As Heaven Turns To Ash (Southern Lord) cd 13.98
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Debut cd from this Boston doom metal band (which we have been waiting for ever since we reviewed their "Priestess" 12" on list #99, which we still have in stock). In a word: heavy!! Devastatingly so. Compares well to very early Cathedral and Electric Wizard in that department. Indeed, they're going on tour with the Wizard! But their heaviness is moderated with occasional quiet parts -- piano, acoustic guitar, jazz bass interludes, all nice moves giving them an original sound, enhancing the heaviness when the electric guitars crush back to the fore, while also giving "As Heaven Turns To Ash" a bit of a psychedelic, '70s cosmic vibe. Highly recommended to those in the mood for doom!
Our good customer John Botz liked the record so much that he emailed us this mini-essay about it, which we asked him if we could print since it expands nicely (and enthusiastically) upon the points made above: "Let me say up front that of all of the retro movements in recent memory, this stoner/doom metal thing has me scratching my head the most. Yes, I admit that I really enjoy some of this "new"/old stoner metal myself, esp. bands like Eternal Elysium, but as great as old Sabbath was, I think that even Ozzy, Tony, Bill, and Geezer themselves, have to shrugging a bit to the degree in which their sludgy sound has been deified at the turn of the millenium. The other thing about this "movement" that amazes me is how little resemblance a lot of this new doom bears to the original (but, then again, I guess every retro movement only resembles that which spawned it by no more than half, since anything taken out of time by a generation or more is bound to be somewhat removed from the times from whence it came), for example, the "original" retro Sabbathy tribute stoner band was Saint Vitus, which was already quite a bit slower than most vintage Sabbath. Also, many of these new doom bands use gravelly, deathmetalesque vocals (i.e. Burning Witch, who to me, suck beyond being good, if you know what I mean) which bear little resemblance to any circa 1970 vocals, let alone Ozzy's plaintive wail which, in addition to the sludgy guitars and bass heavy sound is what I associate with stoner/doom metal. All of that said, the new Warhorse is damn good, and may actually live up to most of the pre-release publicity! Warhorse's website claims that this apocalyptic doom metal includes some of the "most vicious (I originally typed "viscous," but I suppose you could say that, too) sounds ever put to vinyl...Crushing Bass with Obscenely Overdriven Guitar (yes, they capitalized those words) melted with intense psychedelic effects...bludgeoning doom mixed with soothing, trance-inducing interludes...(sounds like) death metal on quaaludes..." blah blah blah...you've heard it all before, only this album may deliver the goods better than any other that's tried to make such cocksure claims...no, really! Most of the myriad albums that try to emulate the dynamics of "Master of Reality" come off sounding weak to me, but all of the quiet "flowers and beads" interludes on this album are quite effective, and authentic-sounding, with an eastern flavor, like you really are walking into a c.1970 drug den with beads hanging in the doorway. And you gotta love titles like "Lysergic Communion." The vocals? Well, they're of the gravelly kind, but they're effectively recessed into the sound stage so that they are not obtrusive. Anyway, you guys may already know all of this stuff, but I just thought I'd let you know that this collection of doomy dirges may very well be the best I've heard in this new retro stoner/doom metal craze -- in fact (throat clear), okay, here I go (drum roll, please) giving hostages to fortune by making a hyperbolic claim: this could be the stoner/doom metal album to end all such albums."--John Botz
RealAudio clip: "Lysergic Communion"
RealAudio clip: "Doom's Bride"

MEMORY GARDEN Mirage (Metal Blade) cd 16.98
Latest (third, I think) release by this Swedish band who are heavily influenced by the dark, epic, doom metal of countrymen Candlemass, circa '88. The chugging riffs, melancholic lead guitar, and the lamentations of their singer (whose soaring and sad wails are not quite as over the top as those of former Candlemass vocalist Messiah Marcolin, but close) all fit that doom blueprint, and will meet acceptance from fans of Solitude Aeturnus, Memento Mori, and the like as well. Really great stuff, actually, with some brilliant guitar solos.

SUNN O))) 00 Void (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
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The world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band oozes forth with their second album on Hydra Head sub-label HH Noise Industries. Some might question if there was more to be accomplished in their emulation of the glacial "power ambient drone" metal practiced by Earth, but this album should quell any skeptics -- it's slower and lower and sets yet another standard for heaviness. Thus, probably an essential addition to the cd-collections of AQ's extreme doom fanatic patrons! And this time the boys in Sunn go beyond their obvious Earth worship to acknowledge another influence: one of the four lengthy tracks found here is a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Richard"

SUNN O))) 00 Void (Dirter Promotions) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Out of the blue, this slab of heaviness is now available on vinyl! A real swank package with new artwork courtesy of the UK's Dirter. Here's our review of the original cd release from 2001:
The world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band oozes forth with their second album. Some might question if there was more to be accomplished in their emulation of the glacial "power ambient drone" metal practiced by Earth, but this album should quell any skeptics -- it's slower and lower and sets yet another standard for heaviness. Thus, probably an essential addition to the collections of AQ's extreme doom fanatic patrons! And this time the boys in Sunn go beyond their obvious Earth worship to acknowledge another influence: one of the four lengthy tracks found here is a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Richard"

HIGHWAY ROBBERY For Love Or Money (Collectables) cd 16.98
An obscure early '70s American power trio that we'd never heard of until a bootleg cd recently crossed our path. Intrigued by the cover photo of three long-haired stoner dudes, we checked it out (hoping for something akin to Sabbath or Budgie but perfectly aware that we were more likely to discover something more like unsuccessful ... wannabes). Lo! Highway Robbery turned out to be bonafide heavy-hitters, playing proto-metal in the Led Zep vein, with moments recalling Sabbath and the Who. Huzzah! Double huzzah, 'cause we then discovered that this, their only album (originally released by Capitol in 1973) had serendipitously just been reissued by Collectables, and we could share our discovery with the lucky patrons of Aquarius. It's almost all super heavy and rockin, despite the obligatory misguided pop efforts made by all not-metal-yet hard rockers of the era, it's got a singing drummer, they've got the look, what more do you want! Fans of current or vintage "stoner rock" should jump on this. Wow, it's always nice to find that there's stuff out there remaining to surprise us.
RealAudio clip: "Fifteen"
RealAudio clip: "Lazy Woman"

BLACK SABBATH Born Again (Castle) cd 14.98
Previously hard-to-find on cd, the last great Sabbath album, 1983's "Born Again" sees Ian "Deep Purple" Gillan stepping up to the mic, replacing Ronnie James. This lineup only lasted one album, but it's one of our favorites.

BLACK SABBATH Heaven And Hell (Castle) cd 14.98
First post-Ozzy outing, Dio's Sabbath debut.

BLACK SABBATH Live At Last (Castle) cd 14.98
Live with Ozzy in '74 or so. Finally remastered and available on a non-shoddy label.

BLACK SABBATH Mob Rules (Castle) cd 14.98
Their second album with Dio, and despite the absence of drummer Bill Ward, it's an all time metal classic with some of Sabbath's best songs.

BLACK SABBATH Never Say Die! (Castle) cd 14.98
The final Ozzy-era Sabbath disc.

BLACK SABBATH Sabotage (Castle) cd 14.98
Remastered version of the Sabs' most "prog" album, the masterpiece known as "Sabotage". Essential.

RILEY, TERRY You're No Good (Cortical Foundation) 2cd 31.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The unanimous AQ staff favorite of the week. Disc one is totally stuck in our cd player...it's only about 20 minutes long, but it may as well be infinite, 'cause we just keep playing it over and over. Appropriate, because, as with much of the late '60s work of American minimalist composer Terry Riley's work, repetition (with subtle changes) is the modus operandi here. The original source song "You're No Good", a pop-latin-boogaloo number released by Harvey Averne in 1968 (he's not credited in the liner notes to this, strangely) is a great tune in its own right. But soon after the original song's release. Terry Riley got his hands on it and created what oughta become one of his all time classic tracks. Riley used pedal-driven tape-loops and the Moog to take the infectious "You're No Good" chorus to extreme, abstract, mesmerizing lengths. It's looped over and under itself, at first sounding completely normal and then imperceptibly gets weirder and weirder until it's so odd that the customers in the store start looking concerned and asking if the cd player is skipping. It stutters wonderfully! Sometimes the left and right channels are playing different parts of the song simultaneously, to eerily beautiful effect.
That the original song is so insanely catchy and hook-filled (it's a "Dancing in the Streets"-style pop number) definitely contributes to the accessibility and fun of the piece. Disco minimalism? Hell yeah. Apparently it was commissioned as theme song for what must have been a very avant-garde Philly dance club, the operator of which was a Terry Riley fan present at the concert documented on disc one... Brilliant.
By the way, the original Averne song can be found on the compilation Dusty Fingers Vol. 2, and we've added a clip of the original below for you to compare.
Disc 2 of this archival set is live material from one of Terry's Poppy Nogood All Night Concerts held in Philadelphia in the fall of 1967. The lovely drones produced by his soprano sax and "time-lag accumulator" must have kept the attendees happy and hypnotized in their sleeping bags 'til dawn, and now we can experience a cd's worth of it now at whatever time of day or night we choose. Nice.
RealAudio clip: TERRY RILEY "You're Nogood"
RealAudio clip: HARVEY AVERNE "You're No Good (note: this does NOT appear on the Riley record!)"

ZUMPANO Goin' Through Changes (Sub Pop) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
So by now everyone knows how great the New Pornographers record is. I mean, the label sold out of 'em in a matter of months, it got written up in the New York Times, and we've sold tons of it. And while some of the credit goes to Neko Case's sublime vocals, the songs, and the vocals of lead pornographer Carl Newman, remind us of a band we were raving about 3 or 4 years ago, and that coincidentally featured one Carl Newman on vocals and keyboards. Zumpano put out two records of absolutely perfect pop, with enough musical bite and lyrical savagery to keep it interesting, even after all this time. Unlike all the pop groups that stole liberally from the Beach Boys and the Beatles and Supertramp, Zumpano, while obviously indebted to the above, dug much deeper and/or much farther back finding influences in the Zombies, Kinks, Chicago, Redd Kross, Jimmy Webb and even Neil Diamond. Amazing musicianship, crystalline production, beautiful harmonies, and some of the catchiest kick ass songs we've ever heard. Here's what we had to say about 'Goin Through Changes' way back on AQ list 38:
"THE pop record of the year. An amalgamation of all those AM radio anthems you heard day in and day out as a child yet it's somehow still wholly original. A pinch of Jimmy Webb, a dash of Chicago, a little Kinks, a little Zombies. Horns!... Piano!... Harmonies!... Somehow it still rocks!... Andee and Byram swear by this record & even Windy loves it. Allan loves it too but Andee refuses to believe him."
All of you that love the New Pornographers record should definitely give Zumpano a try, if you haven't already!
RealAudio clip: "Here's The Plan"
RealAudio clip: "The Millionaire Poets"
RealAudio clip: "The Sylvia Hotel"

CAGE, JOHN Empty Words (Parte III) (Ampersand) 2cd 17.98
What a fucking nut. Two discs of Cage reading, calmly and without expression, cut-up non-sensical passages from Henry David Thoreau's journals, live in Milan, 1977. The audience reaction is, however, quite expressive! Over the two discs the outcry builds: clapping, jeering, stomping, shrieking. Eventually the recording is more of the noise-making audience's near-riot than of Cage's performance, which is certainly in keeping with the man's philosophy of "music". Amazing and absurd. What a fucking nut!

CIRCLE Zopalki (Bad Vugum) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bizarrely enough, I don't believe that we've ever listed this before, one of our favorite records by one of our favorite bands. This, the second album from these Finnish space/prog rockers, from 1996, sees them really delving into neo-Krautrock sounds and psychedelic hypnosis complete with sinister string arrangements. This one's dark and murky and heavy and a contender for our favorite Circle record ever, and that's saying something! If you don't have this one already, you should get it!

ASANO, KOJI The Last Shade of Evening Falls 2/4 (Solstice) cd 14.98
Briefly, part two rachets the tension up even further with some insectoid drones, lonely and menacing.

ASANO, KOJI The Last Shade of Evening Falls 3/4 (Solstice) cd 14.98
Part three seems to have the most dynamism, with Asano's gurgling late-evening drones meeting with sudden, eerie, shudder-inducing stabs in the growing darkness.

ASANO, KOJI The Last Shade of Evening Falls 4/4 (Solstice) cd 14.98
...And the fourth and final installment of Asano's "Last Shade" wavers and keens like the mad monstrous pipers of Azathoth's court in the center of the universe trying to play a Tony Conrad composition!

ASANO. KOJI The Last Shade of Evening Falls 1/4 (Solstice) cd 14.98
Japanese composer/experimentalist (and AQ fave sound artist) Koji Asano is known not only for the quality of his work (almost always quite excellent) but for the sheer quantity of his releases over the last few years -- sixteen of 'em as of today, more if you count limited edition cd-rs -- which run the creative gamut from gorgeous piano meditiations, to computer noise, to chamber music, to rock guitar improv. Also unique about Koji is that ALL his music has been released on his own label, Solstice (now based, as he is, in Spain). And as if to cement Koji's reputation as a prolific composer, now Solstice presents the simutanous release of four new cds, comprising one extensive composition of abstract electro-acoustic drone, entitled "The Last Shade of Evening Falls". Now if there's one thing that drone-lovers can agree on, is that you never want 'em to end -- so what could be better than the over four and a half hours of this piece? Each disc is over an hour long, one track. Now it's not at all pure drone all the way through, that's but a part of the equation. Over the course of these four cds, Koji utilizes all sorts of slow groaning burbling tones, higher-pitched distortion, moaning echoes. His sounds are derived from violin and contrabass -- not that you'd guess, although you can tell they're from something "organic". Koji wrote music for those instruments that was recorded in Japan by his Koji Asano Ensemble, and then he spent the long dusks of a week in Barceleona near the time of the summer solstice to reconstruct and recompose the piece in his computer, processing and manipulating the original recording. Overall, "Last Shade" is dark, textural work that's going to take us longer than the running time to come to fully digest -- but what we've heard so far has been lovely. We're selling the cds seperately but obviously you need to get all four! However, a capsule review of "1/4" is that it's relatively more "melodic" than the other discs, and establishes a murder-mystery sense of tension as well.

CHASM, THE Procession To The Infraworld (Dwell) cd 14.98
Utterly intense and interesting, weird and sinisterly, secretly melodic death metal from this heretofore unhearalded (by us, anyway) band, from Chicago by way of Mexico. Kinda avant-garde in an un-selfconscious sense, reminding us a bit of that amazing Enslaved record from earlier this year. ("Procession To the Infraworld" is also from earlier this year but we only got turned on to it recently, and now must you be too). In comparision to that really quite psychedelic and meta-metallic Enslaved album, The Chasm is certainly more firmly rooted in your usual death metal brutality (as per vocalist/guitarist Daniel Corchado previous work with America's most doomy and deathly death metal outfit, Incantation), but The Chasm's grinding is tinged with a baroque, otherworldy flavor. A great death metal record, and you won't hear that from me (Allan) very often!

RealAudio clip: "Architects of Melancholic Apocalypse"