V/A Victrola Favorites (Dust To Digital) book + 2cd 45.00
We're beginning to think, in addition to our biweekly Record(s) of the Week, we might just have to institute a Box Set of the Week. There's so many amazing reissues, so many collections of lost gems, we'd probably just make them Records of the Week proper if they weren't so expensive... this item is would be a good example. But you know what, screw it, for what you get, $45 bucks is not that much, a massive gorgeous book and two cds. So much amazing music, and fascinating graphics. Let's just do it. Record of the Week!!!
Alright. Feel better already. And it makes sense. If you're anything like us, and you sort of must be since you're reading the AQ list, this kind of HAD to be record of the week, everything we love, strange sounds from all over the world, dusty record crackle, tape hiss and vinyl warble, a beautiful music related objectŠ A total slam dunk. And there's the fact that EVERYONE who works here has one or wants one. Dust-To-Digital are like the new Smithsonian Folkways, constantly unearthing sonic treasures and then assembling them into beautifully curated collections. And we just can't get enough.
There was the Goodbye, Babylon box, collecting classic gospel music, housed in a huge wooden box with raw cotton and a huge book, the Fonotone Records box, 5 cds and a huge book in a cigar box with a bottle opener, The Art Of Field Recording set, that WAS just like a continuation of the Smithsonian Folkways series, and assorted other single disc reissues, all meticulously researched, fantastically laid out, and packed with some of the most amazing sounds you'll ever hear.
But this new one, Victrola Favorites: Artifacts From Bygone Days, just might be our favorite yet. Not only is it an amazing and head spinningly varied collection of musics, from African folk to country yodeling to Cantonese Opera, big band jazz to Hawaiian guitar to rhythm and blues, music from all over, Burma, Japan, Greece, Thailand, Portugal, China, Egypt, but the design is fantastic, a cloth bound hard cover book, with almost NO text, what text here is thoughtfully sequestered at the very end of the book. Where most boxes are packed with notes and recording info, the bulk of this handsome book is made up of gorgeous archival images, 78 labels, old record tins, posters, pamphlets, old greyed photographs, mailing labels, instruction booklets, all sort of Victrola ephemera. It would be well worth it just as an art book. Makes you dread the oncoming MP3 takeover, what will future generations discover of our music, old busted hard drives? None of these cool old sleeves, decaying from years of moisture and insects, gorgeous little visual artifacts offering clues as to the music contained inside.
But of course it's NOT just a book, included are two cds, a collection of various recordings drawn from the ongoing Victrola Favorites project, masterminded by AQ faves the Climax Golden Twins. Where old 78s are played on a vintage Victrola, and recorded with a microphone placed in front of the Victrola, none of that digitizing and cleaning up the sound, removing pops and clicks, this is all about the experience of listening to old 78's, sitting in a darkened parlor, in a big overstuffed chair, the air alive with dust motes, gorgeously crackly and timeworn sounds washing over you. And listening to these tracks, it does in fact feel just like that, or alternately, it's like hopping on a sonic time machine and traveling all over the world, different places, different times, a modern day Folkways, hopping in and out of times to capture brief snippets of sound and then moving on. So fantastic. If you love the Sublime Frequencies releases, and the Secret Museum Of Mankind series, this is essential listening. And the amazing thing is that even with all of these disparate sounds and styles, as a whole the collection flows if not seamlessly, in a way that is oh so pleasing to the ears.
Korean bamboo flute solos, amazing and amazingly insane yodeling, a bit of Arabian country dance music, super dramatic Greek folk music, super festive jug band music, Japanese kabuki, dark droning Indian ragas, recordings of Big Ben and traffic sounds in the UK and so much more. It's almost overwhelming. But not enough to keep us from wishing that there were ten more discs of this stuff!
So absolutely recommended.
And the packaging. WOW. Like we mentioned before, a clothbound hardcover book. In either red or white, with a Japanese style obi, packed with the above mentioned images, the liner notes and essay left for the final few pages, the cds, are uniquely held inside the front and back cover, in circular cut outs, beneath which lurk drawings of lac bugs, the insects whose secretions were used to make the resin used in the making of shellac records. Cool!!
MPEG Stream: GROUPO DE TOTOKO FRANCOIS "Bololo O Kolilo"
MPEG Stream: GUANGZHOU CANTONESE OPERA TROUPE "The Crow Flies Back To The Forest"
MPEG Stream: STELLA HASKIL "Mes Tis Polis Ta Stena (Alleyways Of Istanbul)"
MPEG Stream: MOZMAR CAIRE ORCHESTRA "Raks Baladi Hag Ibrahim (Country Dance)"
MPEG Stream: YIORGOS PAPASIDERIS/YIORGOS ANESTOPOULOS "Tora To Vrady Vrady (Now That Evening Has Come)"

V/A Victrola Favorites (Dust To Digital) book + 2cd 45.00
AT LAST, REPRESSED and REPRINTED and back in stock, this Record (Book) Of The Week honoree finally available again... Here's what we said when we made it ROTW, on list 284 earlier this year:
We're beginning to think, in addition to our biweekly Record(s) of the Week, we might just have to institute a Box Set of the Week. There's so many amazing reissues, so many collections of lost gems, we'd probably just make them Records of the Week proper if they weren't so expensive... this item is would be a good example. But you know what, screw it, for what you get, $45 bucks is not that much, a massive gorgeous book and two cds. So much amazing music, and fascinating graphics. Let's just do it. Record of the Week!!!
Alright. Feel better already. And it makes sense. If you're anything like us, and you sort of must be since you're reading the AQ list, this kind of HAD to be record of the week, everything we love, strange sounds from all over the world, dusty record crackle, tape hiss and vinyl warble, a beautiful music related objectŠ A total slam dunk. And there's the fact that EVERYONE who works here has one or wants one. Dust-To-Digital are like the new Smithsonian Folkways, constantly unearthing sonic treasures and then assembling them into beautifully curated collections. And we just can't get enough.
There was the Goodbye, Babylon box, collecting classic gospel music, housed in a huge wooden box with raw cotton and a huge book, the Fonotone Records box, 5 cds and a huge book in a cigar box with a bottle opener, The Art Of Field Recording set, that WAS just like a continuation of the Smithsonian Folkways series, and assorted other single disc reissues, all meticulously researched, fantastically laid out, and packed with some of the most amazing sounds you'll ever hear.
But this new one, Victrola Favorites: Artifacts From Bygone Days, just might be our favorite yet. Not only is it an amazing and head spinningly varied collection of musics, from African folk to country yodeling to Cantonese Opera, big band jazz to Hawaiian guitar to rhythm and blues, music from all over, Burma, Japan, Greece, Thailand, Portugal, China, Egypt, but the design is fantastic, a cloth bound hard cover book, with almost NO text, what text here is thoughtfully sequestered at the very end of the book. Where most boxes are packed with notes and recording info, the bulk of this handsome book is made up of gorgeous archival images, 78 labels, old record tins, posters, pamphlets, old greyed photographs, mailing labels, instruction booklets, all sort of Victrola ephemera. It would be well worth it just as an art book. Makes you dread the oncoming MP3 takeover, what will future generations discover of our music, old busted hard drives? None of these cool old sleeves, decaying from years of moisture and insects, gorgeous little visual artifacts offering clues as to the music contained inside.
But of course it's NOT just a book, included are two cds, a collection of various recordings drawn from the ongoing Victrola Favorites project, masterminded by AQ faves the Climax Golden Twins. Where old 78s are played on a vintage Victrola, and recorded with a microphone placed in front of the Victrola, none of that digitizing and cleaning up the sound, removing pops and clicks, this is all about the experience of listening to old 78's, sitting in a darkened parlor, in a big overstuffed chair, the air alive with dust motes, gorgeously crackly and timeworn sounds washing over you. And listening to these tracks, it does in fact feel just like that, or alternately, it's like hopping on a sonic time machine and traveling all over the world, different places, different times, a modern day Folkways, hopping in and out of times to capture brief snippets of sound and then moving on. So fantastic. If you love the Sublime Frequencies releases, and the Secret Museum Of Mankind series, this is essential listening. And the amazing thing is that even with all of these disparate sounds and styles, as a whole the collection flows if not seamlessly, in a way that is oh so pleasing to the ears.
Korean bamboo flute solos, amazing and amazingly insane yodeling, a bit of Arabian country dance music, super dramatic Greek folk music, super festive jug band music, Japanese kabuki, dark droning Indian ragas, recordings of Big Ben and traffic sounds in the UK and so much more. It's almost overwhelming. But not enough to keep us from wishing that there were ten more discs of this stuff!
So absolutely recommended.
And the packaging. WOW. Like we mentioned before, a clothbound hardcover book. In either red or white, with a Japanese style obi, packed with the above mentioned images, the liner notes and essay left for the final few pages, the cds, are uniquely held inside the front and back cover, in circular cut outs, beneath which lurk drawings of lac bugs, the insects whose secretions were used to make the resin used in the making of shellac records. Cool!!
MPEG Stream: GROUPO DE TOTOKO FRANCOIS "Bololo O Kolilo"
MPEG Stream: GUANGZHOU CANTONESE OPERA TROUPE "The Crow Flies Back To The Forest"
MPEG Stream: STELLA HASKIL "Mes Tis Polis Ta Stena (Alleyways Of Istanbul)"
MPEG Stream: MOZMAR CAIRE ORCHESTRA "Raks Baladi Hag Ibrahim (Country Dance)"
MPEG Stream: YIORGOS PAPASIDERIS/YIORGOS ANESTOPOULOS "Tora To Vrady Vrady (Now That Evening Has Come)"

V/A Messthetics #105: D.I.Y. 77-81 Scotland I (Hyped To Death) cd 13.98
This deep and delightful series of late '70s/early '80s UK post-punk DIY indie pop weirdness continues its ongoing region-by-region march! This volume, Messthetics #105, brings us 24 tracks (33 counting bonus mp3s) of super freakin' obscure tracks from 7" singles and demo cassettes by Scottish bands circa 1977-81, with a focus on the extremely underground, art-school spawned "Sound Of Young Scotland". Best known band here is probably Fire Engines. And let's not forget Scrotum Poles. But for sure there's plenty of gems (as usual with these comps), in fact, track for track this may be one of the best so far. This also includes the likes of 35mm Dreams, The Exile, Fakes, Metropak, Radio Ghosts, Rapid Dance, Restricted Code, Brills, Dirty Reds (pre-Fire Engines), He's Dead Jim, and many more.
Lots of lo-fi bands that formed before they either owned instruments or knew how to play them. And they were only tangentially inspired by the '77 punk explosion down London way. The band Vertical Smiles even offer a critique of the commercial aspect of the punk movement on their sarcastic song "New Clash Single". Some of the acts here go for an energetic attack but we're most taken with the more moody, melodic, sometimes monotonic skinny tie new wavey ones...
As usual, this labor of love is packed to the max with photos, art, and well-researched, extensive track notes in the super thick cd booklet. This is the comp to pick up before you go getting anything else by, say, Franz Ferdinand.
MPEG Stream: VISITORS "Moth"
MPEG Stream: RADIO GHOSTS "My Room"
MPEG Stream: VERTICAL SMILES "New Clash Single"

V/A Dr. Boogie Presents: Rarities From The Bob Hite Vaults (Sub Rosa) cd 15.98
Search on the keyword "boogie" on our website and you'll get, uh, let's see... 133 hits. This item being the latest, one that would go right to the top if we had the appropriate relevance algorithm at work. And there's actually 19 boogie hits here (well, obscurities actually), rare tracks circa 1941 to 1958. What's this compilation of American oldies music doing on the Belgian avantgarde label Sub Rosa?? And not, say, on Arhoolie or Bear Family? Well we're not sure exactly, but it has something to do with this Dr. Boogie character, he's a DJ from Belgium who has compiled this collection of boogie tracks, all of 'em from awesomely crackly old 78 rpm records that had been amassed over the years by boogie fanatic Bob "The Bear" Hite, better known as the lead singer of Woodstock-era hippie blues rock band Canned Heat (y'know, "Going Up The Country"), who passed away in 1981. Dunno if any of you folks are fans of Canned Heat, but regardless, it makes sense (and is pretty cool) that their vocalist had such a deep record collection devoted to old time rock n' blues boogie woogie. Apparently back in the sixties, he used to host all-night listening parties in his Topanga Canyon pad, and the cuts collected here ought to give you an idea of what those sessions must have 29 like. Wild boogie fun!
How couldn't it be, when it starts off with the excellently titled "Death Ray Boogie" by piano player Pete Johnson? And there's no slack on the next track, Googie Rene's "Wiggle Tail". There's a bunch more uptempo, jumpin' numbers like that one (such as rock n' roll pioneer Bill Haley's "Birth Of The Boogie"), while other tracks here are more languidly bluesy (like guitarist Clarence's Brown's smokey "Taking My Chance"). It's all pretty great old time good times. Other names here, some famous, some now more or less forgotten except by hardcore collectors: Earl King, Etta James, Elmore James, Clarence Brown, Johnny Otis, Otis Rush, Chuck Higgins, Eddie Hope, The Hot Shots, and some crazy cat called Mad Mel Sebastian!
Recommended... and we're happy to hear that more volumes drawn from Hite's historic collection are forthcoming.
MPEG Stream: GOOGIE RENE "Wiggle Tail"
MPEG Stream: ELMORE JAMES "Please Find My Baby"
MPEG Stream: CLARENCE BROWN "Taking My Chance"

AHOUSEN s/t (PSF) cd 16.98
"Lunatic avant-free-rock, honed in guerrilla street performance" we're told. Hmm, we know the streets of Tokyo are crowded, but we bet Ahousen cleared the block they were rockin'. Of course, had we been there to see 'em, we'd have stayed put in the street, digging Ahousen big time. This is some serious psychedelic guitar grit, drum tumble, distorto-bass trudge, avant-sax blat, and angsty-screamy vocal burble, from a Japanese band we first heard on PSF's Tokyo Flashback vol. 6 comp. The guitarist, Katsu, played in a band called Lizard back in the '70s, the drummer is Tail from Suishou No Fune. The quartet is rounded out by Suu on sax and vocals, and Akira on bass. Dunno what other bands they may be from, but being part of Ahousen seems cool enuff! Wild and wooly but also sometimes achingly melodic and melancholic, Ahousen (aka Ship Of Fools in English) is part free jazz, part psych rock, and part Japanese folk. It's like Albert Ayler meets Blue Cheer. Or Musica Transonic with sax and a hint of Enka.
Beginning auspiciously enough with the energetic onslaught of "All Creatures", Ahousen's self-titled debut consists of four tracks in total, ranging in length from 7 minutes to an epic 28 ("Ophelia", which occupies the 2nd half of the album, certainly is a dramatic performance, compelling throughout, moving from moments of delicate frolic to heavy duty freakdom). Speaking of drama, even in the album's less fierce, more folky moments (like on the relatively lovely "A Leaf"), Suu's nervous breakdown, primal scream vocals up the emotional ante on everything else, his extreme outbursts being a major element of Ahousen's sound, and impact. Compared to other Tokyo Flashback style acts we like from the Tokyo psych scene, such as LSD-march and Up-Tight, these guys somehow sound more '70s underground, and more OUT there - in part due to the free jazz factor, in part due to those vocals... Radical. Fans of Fushitsusha and Kaoru Abe now have a dream date. And let's not limit ourselves merely to Japanese references, anyone into intense underground noisemaking from like likes of, I dunno, Raccoo-oo-oon, might want to sail into the maelstrom with this Ship Of Fools too. Pretty fantastic.
MPEG Stream: "All Creatures"
MPEG Stream: "A Leaf"

BOREDOMS Live At Sun Flancisco May 2005 (Commons) cd + dvd 56.00
Yeah, we know that this Japanese import dvd+cd set isn't cheap, unfortunately. But we also know that a few of you are died-in-the-wool Boredoms fans who are gonna want it regardless. And it IS pretty cool of course. The dvd portion (NTSC, all-region, 65 minutes) features a full show filmed live in San Francisco, we mean Sun Flancisco, at The Independent back in May of 2005. Several of us here attended that show and this DVD lives up to our cherished memories of that night, a fantastic display of the Boredoms' current psychedelic, rhythmic power. If you haven't seen 'em lately, the lineup here is bandleader/vocalist Eye Yamataka on various electronics and weirdness, alongside not one, not two, but three drummers (ATR, Yoshimi, and Yochan), pounding away. Andee, who participated in the Boredom's 77 drummer Boredrum extravaganza in Brooklyn last summer, says this is a similar piece to the one they played then, minus 74 drummers, but still pretty much the bomb.
The DVD starts off backstage, actually, with the Boredoms, friends, and kids hanging out, then moves to the show itself. At first it's all dark but for some blurry, colorful, moving light-spots and initially we wondered, is this what the whole thing is gonna look like? We wouldn't put it past 'em. But after about five minutes the scene comes into focus, the show having begun with Eye doing a bizarre ritualistic dance with intense sound-making electric "lighting balls" held in each hand. And then it's off to the races, as the drummers attack their kits and do their best to send the Boredoms' special vibrations to the far ends of the cosmos.
The other disc found in this lavishly designed, bright orange package is an audio cd. It's only about twelve minutes long, but what a great 12 minutes (11:40 to be precise)!! Billed as "Yamataka Eye Original Breakbeats" there's two new tracks here, "U-bus" and "Relerer" and both are definite percussive party-pleasers... if your party digs the freaky Bore-tronics, that is!
MPEG Stream: "Relerer"

V/A Asian Flashback: Underground Music From Asia (PSF) cd 16.98
Since 1991, Japanese label PSF has brought us six volumes in their essential underground psych-rock-noise-improv sampler series Tokyo Flashback. Now they've released a new compilation that's similarly cool, but broadens its geographic scope to include artists from Korea and China as well as Japan, most of whom we'd never been exposed to before. Some of the only familiar folks appear on the very first track, a live-in-Tokyo "improvised trio showdown" featuring Chinese guitarist Li Jianhong (of the noise band D!O!D!O!D! who have a disc out on PSF, and who also had his own awesome solo cd on aRCHIVE recently) teamed up with free jazz drummer Shoji Hano and High Rise guitarist Narita Munehiro, both from Japan. That's an amped-up freakout as you might expect. There's also a noisy D!O!D!O!D! track on here too, but beyond those, it's all new names to us. From Korea: Mustangs, Kim Young Jin, Amature Amplifier, and Soonie. From China: Mafeisan, Xiao He, Li Daiguo. From Japan: Kiyasu Orchestra, Sato Yukie, Yoshiteru Koga Jizo. Also there's a boy-girl Japanese-Korean project called 10, whose track "U-A-U" is a hissing, droning, throbbing backdrop to bizarre vocal expression.
All the tracks are interesting, it's an eclectic mix of experimental/underground styles, from full-on noise chaos to mellow, minimal acoustic guitar balladry, all sorts of stuff... ferinstance the energetic squawk of Kiyasu Orchestra's psychedelic free jazz exotica sits side-by-side here with the Mustangs' sixties style garage psych rock. And perhaps most surprisingly, there's even a dreamy, indie-folk cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" by Korean chanteuse Soonie at the very end of the disc.
The booklet boasts brief liner notes about each contributor, in four languages (English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese). Let's hope that this Asian Flashback is just the start of another series! PSF's antidote to all the mass market J-pop, K-pop, and HK-pop karaoke blandness out there.
MPEG Stream: MUSTANGS "Sativa"
MPEG Stream: XIAO HE "Bird And Water"
MPEG Stream: 10 "U-A-U"
MPEG Stream: SATO YUKI "Solo Improvisation"

ZENI GEVA Maximum Money Monster (Cold Spring) cd 15.98
Swans. Godflesh. Big Black. Melvins. Eyehategod. Unsane. Zeni Geva. We're concerned here with the latter, who maybe aren't as well known as the first half dozen bands mentioned, but sure as heck belong in that illustrious company... and sound VERY much like some unholy, heavier-than-thou hybrid of all of 'em!! It's been a long time since we've had a new Zeni Geva album to write about... and no this isn't actually a new album. But we're still pretty excited. Every once in a while, we have the opportunity to list and review an old favorite. Something that's been out of print for longer even than we've been doing the Aquarius website and New Arrivals emails, that we'd never had the chance to stock and recommend before, that finally at long last gets a well-deserved reissue and is cause for much celebration 'round here. For instance, to name a couple of recent examples, Harvey Milk's My Love Is Higher Than Your Assessment Of What My Love Could Be. And Skullflower's IIIrd Gatekeeper. You'll note the examples we just cited are all on the "heavy" side... well that's 'cause what we're about to recommend here also pretty darn heavy. To say the least.
You may already be familiar with Japan's Zeni Geva, as they've been around for years and years. This cult "progressive hardcore" trio is the brainchild of guitarist Kazuyuki Kishino Null, also well-known for his "nullsonic" solo recordings. Definitely influenced by early Swans, KK Null started up the doomy and noisy ZG in about 1987. Previously he'd done time in Tokyo underground industrial noise-terrorists Absolut Null Punkt, and with prog act YBO2, which also featured drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, who of course later went on to lead the incredible Magmoid duo Ruins. Meanwhile, post-YBO2, Null formed the far more metallic* Zeni Geva. Null did draft Yoshida in to play drums on some early ZG material (wouldn't you?), and you'll here him here on about half of this disc's tracks, contributing his distinctive vocals as well to a couple songs. Ikuro Taketani (ex-Hanatarashi) plays drums on the other half. The lineup also includes Tabata Mitsuru (ex-Boredoms and Leningrad Blues Machine) on guitar. That's right, there's no bassist in Zeni Geva which is pretty incredible considering how hellishly heavy they are! And it's clear that ZG are something of a underground Japanese rock supergroup.
MMM was ZG's first cd release, coming out originally in 1990 on the UK's now long-gone Pathological label. It's a lumbering juggernaut fully blessed and bloated with everything we LOVE about Zeni Geva that would also be heard on later, Albini-produced releases like Total Castration and Desire For Agony: Utter headbanging, slo-mo, dirt-plowing destruction. Molasses thick riffs dripping from electric axes. Frenzied, technical bashing. Mathy post rock song structures. High-end guitar solo skree. Mean misanthropic attitude. Pounding repetition. Pounding repetition. Pounding repetition.... adorned with the aforementioned guitar soloing, providing a crashing, crushing soundscape to underscore the throaty proclamations of "Sweetheart!" or "War Pig!" or "Blackout!" from gruff vocalist/guitarist Null -- the lyrics to these tracks being little more than the song title shouted over and over with fervent anguish. Glorious stuff, massive and mesmeric.
From the first track, the 16 minute harrowing dirge-stomp "Slam King" that ends terrifyingly with waves of unaccompanied, effected vocals, to the last, the rhythmic and witchy "On Suicide", featuring lyrics borrowed from Bertold Brecht, this is scary, monolithic, artistic heaviness of the highest order.
Let's give a big thanks to Cold Spring for making this classic available once again (as part of a wave of Japanese releases including a new disc from noise legends CCCC). Though we don't see why Cold Spring felt the need to replace the original, much more colorful, and in our opinion, superior artwork, we are happy to note that they did make one major improvement. While the eight songs on the original disc were inexplicably presented as one loooong track with no separate-song indexing (annoying!) they're thankfully corrected that. Now you can skip right to "Guystick Bodie", or put "Skullfuck" on repeat. And in addition to the eight original tracks, they've added three previously unreleased bonus cuts as well! Devastating live versions of album cuts "War Pig" (a Zeni Geva song, not Sabbath's "War Pigs" plural) and "Skullfuck", along with "Dead Car, Sun Crash" (an early ZG number not included on the album proper), recorded in Tokyo circa 1988-89. Whee! Like we said, we're so stoked to get to list/review/recommend this!
*Though not metallic enough to be accepted by the online metal authority Encyclopedia Metallum it must be noted...
MPEG Stream: "Slam King"
MPEG Stream: "Sweetheart"
MPEG Stream: "War Pig (live)"

WADA, YOSHI Lament For The Rise And Fall Of Elephantine Crocodile (EM Records) cd 21.00
EM Records of Japan is a label from which we *always* are eager to hear more, specializing as they do in the most odd, obscure, awesome reissues EVER. Without them, we wouldn't have such a great selection of musical saw cds here at Aquarius. Or '70s New Age weirdness. Or psychedelic surf music soundtracks. Or (most recently) steel drum jazz funk!
While the steel drum jazz funk might have appealed mostly to the more eccentric crate digging DJ types, we know that THIS release is gonna really take off here. That's 'cause it's all about the DRONE. And y'all love drone we know.
Yoshi Wada is a Japanese artist who relocated to New York City in the late '60s and (just like another Japanese expatriate, Yoko Ono) got heavily involved with the conceptual art movement known as Fluxus. Doing sculpture, performance, and sound installations, he rubbed elbows with the likes of minimalist maverick LaMonte Young, studying with both him and Indian vocal guru Pandit Pran Nath. That's very evident on this album, the intriguingly titled Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile, which was originally released on vinyl in 1982 by the avant garde label India Navigation (responsible for important Dreyblatt and Niblock documents as well). Wada only made two records, of which this one is considered his most significant, not to mention rarest.
There's two long tracks here (over a half-hour each). Both are utter drooooooooooone nirvana. Track one, "Singing" (31:06), is ALL voice, Wada giving long guttural throat-bleatings (waaaaah waaaaaah ooooooooo....) that he builds into a gorgeous, rising and falling soundscape of overtones and drones. He recorded it in an empty swimming pool for extra bass and natural echoing effect... the results are serene yet joyous, somehow liturgical, suggestive of blissful monkish raptures. Wada certainly got into it, actually spending the night before this recording *sleeping* alone in the pool, and (he says) almost experiencing auditory hallucinations due to the resonant acoustics of the space.
The second track, side two of the original LP, is a continuation of the first with even MORE drone. Entitled "Bagpipe" (33:17), it adds to Wada's vocal intonations the sound of experimental homebuilt reed instruments of Wada's own devising, "adapted bagpipes with sympathy" made of plumbing tubes, powered by an air compressor. Improvising with voice and "bagpipe", this piece is much louder, denser, and grindingly trance-like than the far more delicate first track. The two instruments he used are pictured on this cd's back cover. One is called The Elephantine Crocodile, and another The Alligator. Both are Partch-like sound-making sculptural objects in their own right. They're carefully tuned to take advantage of higher octave harmonics and microtonal partials and other things that we'd need more study of music theory to understand exactly, but obviously with which Wada is fully conversant. What we do know for sure is that with his voice and unusual instruments he's conjured a deeply psychedelic and meditative dronescape that we're darn glad EM (in conjunction with another cool Japanese label, Omega Point) have seen fit to unearth and reissue!!
If you like drones, this not only a worthy historical document, but also would be a fantastic listen even if it had just been recorded yesterday. In fact, it compares interestingly to another drone release reviewed this list, Schmickler and Chisholm's Amazing Daze. But Wada achieved these drones without the aid of electronics or computers. About the only complaint we could make about it is the rather abrupt ending! We realize that it can't go on forever (as much as we'd like it to) but its sudden cessation (instead of a gradual fade out) can harsh one's mellow... though if you're like us you'll listen to this going to sleep at night and won't ever make it conscious to the end anyway.
This has been digitally remastered from the original tapes, with the two pieces restored to their original intended lengths (they'd been edited down to fit on the LP release). And as usual, it gets a fabulous EM packaging job, complete with vintage b&w photos and extensive 1982 and 2007 liner notes in both English and Japanese, written by Wada himself. This one is definitely up there in the pantheon of EM essentials, and that's saying a lot.
MPEG Stream: "Singing"
MPEG Stream: "Bagpipe"

GERONIMO s/t (Three.One.G) cd 14.98
It was sort of inevitable that this disc would end up being an aQ record of the week. But before we tell you the strange tale of how we got to this point, how we discovered this band and this disc, let's offer up a quick, succinct, three word description that might render the rest of this rambling review moot:
CAVEMAN THIS HEAT.
Sold? We would be. Imagine Man Is The Bastard transported back to the early seventies and let loose in This Heat's Cold Storage recording studio, or take the black hypno kraut noise of former aQ record of the week, Aluk Todolo and strip it down to its bare essence, a sound based almost entirely on rhythm. A pounding, Neanderthal groove, pelted with squelches, and laced with a strangled inhuman mewling, huge chunks of grinding minimalism and long swaths of dreamy shimmering bliss, an ultra intense slab of kraut-doom power violence for sure.
The weird thing is, the first time we hear Geronimo was several years ago, when Circle came to play some shows on the West Coast, and so I (Andee) was happily drafted to drive them around, roadie for them, all that stuff. So one of the shows was at Arthurfest in LA Circle were playing with SUNNO))), in a way-too-small seated theater, based on how many angry folks were turned away (as in HUNDREDS!). I spent the whole time, running back and forth, up and down the stairs, trying to sneak as many people into the show as possible, through the emergency exit, the backstage door, every time I went back out I would run into someone who wanted me to get them inside. While this was all going on, a band started playing, and they were AMAZING. A bunch of cholo looking dudes, handkerchief headbands, all sort of just standing there, behind huge racks of busted looking equipment, making the most unholy racket, a gorgeously destructive rib cage rattling pummel, eventually I had to stop running back and forth, cuz this band was totally sucking me in, and so I just sat down on the floor and let the band's vibrations wash over me, the floor literally shaking violently with every note.
Well, we later discovered they were called Geronimo, but no one knew anything about them, and the folks waiting for Circle and SUNNO))) didn't seem to get it or be that into it at all. We never got to talk to them in the chaos of getting Circle sorted. And eventually it sort of just slipped my mind.
So flash forward two years to the end of 2007, when we highlighted that No Skull Left Unturned comp a list or two back, collecting the various offshoots of Power Violence pioneers Man Is The Bastard. And we were particularly taken with the band Sleestak, a doomy math rock variant on MITB's bassy grind, and their sound reminded us of THAT band, the one that opened for Circle back in 2005. Then we sort of randomly stumbled across this here disc, and suddenly everything clicked, THIS was the band we saw and loved so much, and whaddayaknow, Geronimo just so happens to feature folks from both Man Is The Bastard and Sleestak. And it sounds even better than I remember, heavier, groovier, way more fucked up and WAY more freaked out. So here's a song by song breakdown of this devastating chunk of brutal beauty and monstrous minimalism:
The opener, the 18 minute "Firewater", is perfectly placed to test the listener's mettle, an endless epic stretch of looped high end klaxons and choked cymbal crashes, like a metal intro stretched into an entire song. All around this constant crunch and whine, whip flurries of electronic glitch and crunch, swaths of grinding crumbling analog buzz, while beneath it all a rumbling minimal bass line lopes lazily, until about half way through, when the track suddenly switches gears, and turns super abstract, minimal smears of drone and muted feedback, LOTS of space, and huge percussive crashes spread WAY out. It's like a super minimal abstract doom. But with bits of atonal keyboard and strangled vocals. Like the rhythm section of Khanate scoring a Dario Argento movie. That soaring high end from the beginning of the track returns, along with some speaker destroying analog buzz, still spaced out around long stretches of silence, finishing off with a brief burst of intense fury, distorted vocals, thick wall of crumbling distortion, If you survive the first track, then track two, "Headdress", is your reward, a short sharp shock of rhythmic groove, it's all about the drums, a simple, killer rhythm, the drums slightly distorted, locked into a relentless loop, while all around it, malfunctioning synths and skittering shards of glitch and skree soar and swoop, until it too shifts suddenly, into a mathy breakdown, another mesmerizingly minimal and hypnotic looped drum fill, pounding its way through a sky filled with creaks and groans and whirs and garbled grinding lo-fi squelch, finishing off with another furious blast, this time a spray of super distorted bass riffing, howled ultra effected vocals, and total drum destruction.
"Spiritwalker" offers up another side of Geronimo, the strange homemade electronics muted and smeared into much softer shapes, allowed to drift and shimmer, the drums a muffled pulse, lots of low end rumble and whir, darkly droning and cinematic, thick swells of minor key melodies, over a wasteland of glitch and buzz, slow motion tribal percussion, everything wrapped in a gauze-y haze of psychedelic textures, low end murk, and abstract FX, a gorgeous soundscape, of slow black krautrock ambience. "Medicine Man" is another brief chunk of abstract doom. A simple plodding rhythm, a thick grinding rumbling low end synth, huge blasts of effects-drenched crunch, and ominous spoken vocals and shrieked demonic howls,
And then there's "Facepeeler", which begins with a propulsive drum part, a serious metallic jam, huge bass riffs, shrieked maniacal vocals, and speaker shredding, super stereo panned effects, until suddenly the song slows down into a lurching doomic plod, the drums blown out and in the red, locked into another super simple, but completely intense and relentless slow motion rhythm, again, the sky full of FX, squealing and grinding and buzzing and screeching, but now sprawled over Geronimo's angular what-the-fuck minimal math doom, are some of the most fucked up and intense vocals ever, alternately growling, roaring, howling, whispering and mewling, it sounds a bit like an industrialized Wolf Eyes-ian Oxbow, until you realize that the vocals in question belong to one David Yow, of Jesus Lizard and Scratch Acid (if only Qui sounded this bad ass). The suddenly it begins to sound like some Jesus Lizard outtake, slowed down, pulled apart and run through a bank of rusted and duct taped effects. One of those songs that easily could have been stretched out to the length of a whole record. Abrasive and brutal and hateful and super intense and heavy as fuck, but somehow weirdly hooky, and impossibly catchy, it's almost like having your pain and pleasure centers swapped, so having that anvil dropped repeatedly on your head ends up feeling so so divine. Definitely the song we keep coming back to, and playing over and over and over and over...
Finally, the band finish things off with the uncharacteristically mellow "Prints Tie", wrapped around a fluid almost jazzy bassline, drifting keyboard melodies, and shuffling abstract percussion, the Neanderthal electronics are still present, but used much more sparingly, gorgeous and glimmering, a soft smeared minimal workout that almost sounds like a more lo-fi Necks. Super dreamy and darkly shimmery, and just pretty enough to almost make you forget the 47 minutes of glorious sonic punishment you just endured. Almost.
So so so recommended. The minute we threw this one, we knew, THIS WAS THE ONE. Definite contender for record of the year (and actually, since I got it in December, it WAS my record of the year for 2007, even having only had it less than a month!) Folks who dug the Aluk Todolo will for sure dig this too. Likewise if the idea of, say, Mammal doing This Heat songs sounds cool to you too. Basically anyone into brutal rhythms and abstract minimal heaviness NEEDS this...
MPEG Stream: "Headdress"
MPEG Stream: "Facepeeler"
MPEG Stream: "Spiritwalker"

NECKS, THE Townsville (ReR Megacorps) cd 17.98
Finally a new Necks record! And as usual, it's a single epic, slowly shifting jazzscape, shuffling and hypnotic, circular and completely gorgeous. Folks around here have been totally smitten by this Australian minimal jazz trio for years now. Every record another new 'song', most of their releases are one long piece, which makes sense once you understand the Necks.
If Circle are the masters of repetitive, motorik hypnorock, then the Necks are their jazz equivalent, unfurling endlessly looping, slow shifting Steve Reich-ian dark jazz epics, and like Circle, while there is a motorik element to the rhythm and the groove, it's much more fluid, almost like some strange living shape, and it seems like maybe these guys aren't playing it so much as trying to control the sound, pushing and pulling, stretching and shaping. And the songs are only limited by the length of a compact disc, they all sound like they could, nay should, go on forever (there was a rumor of a Necks 24 hour performance!!).
We sometimes joke about Necks records all sounding quite similar, and sure they sort of do, but only on the surface. Each record is a subtle and entirely unique collection of sounds. Much of it has to do with the compositions themselves, but also the fact that many of the recordings are live performances, which capture a piece, but only the way it was performed that one time. Some are more propulsive (Drive By), and some like this one, are more abstract and ambient.
On Townsville, a single 54 minute performance recorded live in Australia on February 15th 2007 (Andee's Birthday btw), the band reel in their rhythmic tendencies, instead opting to float and flutter, to drift and swirl, the drums are barely even present over the first half of the performance, offering up soft sizzles and billowing clouds of metallic shimmer, the bass too is merely support, offering up dark dense tendrils of low end sprawl and blurred low end whir. It's all about Chris Abrahams' piano, gorgeous glimmering flurries of notes, tossed in the air like confetti, or falling from the sky like snowflakes. It almost sounds like Lubomyr Melnyk is sitting in, offering up some of his swirling 'continuous music' piano. The whole track is one long slow build, the bass and the drums lurking in the background, offering a soft warm sonic bed over which the various notes and chords from the piano dance and drift, moody and melodic and so mesmerizing.
Further into the track, the bass and drums become much more animated, subtly sparring with the piano, the whole band engaged in a series of fluttery swells, but still with the piano leading the way.
Easily one of the jazziest of the Necks discs, but without losing its drone-y minimal psychedelic vibe, so much so that certain parts definitely remind us of the more ambient Circle records, like Tower, Empire or Miljard. Imagine Circle featuring Lubomyr Melnyk on the piano, performing a piece co-written by Steve Reich and Terry Riley, and you'll have an idea of what to expect from Townsville. As with all Necks records, totally divine and totally recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Townsville (excerpt)"

SMITH, STEVEN R. Owl (Digitalis) cd 12.98
Reverberant electric crackle opens the album, like you've got your ears wedged right there next to the pickups on Steven R. Smith's guitar. In a surprise move for S.R.S. fans, his unadorned, dolefully sonorous voice then wails gently and lamentingly over this sometimes thick, sometimes sparse, very droney music. This disc is mostly just vocals and guitar (and occasional other, acoustic instrumentation), slow and sad and distorted. It's a very intimate, raw duet for hushed, humming folky singing and whale-call psych guitar, dissonant yet melodic ...oooh lovely. Definitely something that fans of recent Richard Youngs and Six Organs Of Admittance and Dan Higgs should check out. Steven R. Smith fans too without question, even though you've never heard him like this before (singing)! At times his vocals come across like Kurt Cobain's at his most mumbled...thus kinda Neil Young-y too.
Basically we've liked pretty much EVERYTHING that S.R.S. has been involved with, from Mirza to Thuja to Hala Strana to various solo recordings to this here new album. On Owl, while musically similar to, say, his Kohl album, he's still doing something new and different for him, really sticking his neck out with the addition of his own vocals... very admirable and thankfully in fact successful! The lonely, spacious, dreamy, plugged-in folkiness of this, and especially the emotion in S.R.S.'s singing, reminds us a bit of that band Rex, from back in the day, dark and lush, moody with a bit of twang. Heck this almost takes Steven R. into the territory of another, unrelated Smith, Elliott. Recommended!
And stay tuned for another new Steven R. Smith project due out soon on the Soft Abuse label, Ulaan Khol. It's equally as S.R.S. as this, but in the other direction...
MPEG Stream: "Across The Flats"
MPEG Stream: "Bindery"
MPEG Stream: "Cleft"

SOUND PROJECTOR, THE 16th Issue magazine 14.98
Holy crap. This thing weighs a ton. 184 pages, a thicker even than usual A4 sized tome wrapped in their trademark red, black and white cover graphics. England's Sound Projector is back with its 16th issue, as always a must read for the sort of folks likely to be reading this review -- that is, if you're an avid AQ-list reader, you're gonna love Sound Projector, 'cause each enthused (yet sometimes scathingly critical) issue of this fanzine consists in large part of many, many music reviews, exploring the unusual, underground, avant-garde sonic territory that we at AQ love. And we usually learn a lot from each issue, from their obscure selections and thoughtful opinions. This time the 'zine is broken into five sections, starting with an international record review survey ranging the USA and UK to the "The Nordic Realms", where you'll find the "world music" likes of Getachew Mekurya and Raushan Orazbaeva right next to sundry "Free Folk" folks... Section two is also right up our alley, "Noisy Rock, Evil Noise, and Black Noisy Music", where you'll find reviews of the first three Earth albums (that's right, did we mention that the Sound Projector could care less about release dates, and just reviews whatever they want to from whenever it came out?) along with Darkspace, Forgotten Woods, Burning Star Core, and Darsombra among many more... Section three is all interviews rather than reviews (actually, there's reviews too), featuring talks with Japanese avant-guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama, UK experimentalist Philip Sanderson (of Storm Bugs and Snatch Tapes fame, among other things), German tape composer Frank Rothkamm, sound collagist Joe Frawley, and UK '80s "postpunk electronic ensemble" Cultural Amnesia. Then with Section four it's back to the reviews, of wide ranging "Art Music" from Annea Lockwood to Nurse With Wound... Finally there's section five, "Remainder", a miscellany of cassettes, drones, jazz, and much much more. Happily, page 184 of the magazine is an index, in very tiny type! Ackamoor, Idris right above Aethenor. Khlyst next to Kirchin, Basil. Softwar followed by Sombres Forets... nearly 400 reviews in all! A lot of things that we've listed too (now's your chance to get a second opinion) -and- lots of stuff we haven't even heard of at all! Recommended, even at the unavoidably steep import price (but it is the biggest Sound Projector yet).

STRIBORG Trepidation (Displeased) cd 14.98
We figured that before the brand new record Autumnal Melancholy drops from Tasmanian black metal misanthrope Striborg (just showed up today, reviewed on the next list!), we oughta finally list the last of the reissues. So here it is, Trepidation, another damaged and deliriously freaked out, fucked up and grim grim grim slab of rain forest black metal as only Striborg can do it.
Like all of the other Striborg records, this is absolutely essential for fans of outsider black metal, and actually anyone into super challenging, confusing, weird-as-fuck sounds needs to dig into some Striborg. It rarely gets more outsider than this.
Striborg is Sin Nanna, who lives in Tasmania, supposedly sans phone or internet, communing with nature, offering up his blackened soul to the spirit of the forest. In the form of impossible buzz drenched blasts of black metal. And we talk about BUZZ all the time, but Striborg takes it to a whole other level. The guitars and riffs rendered almost dronelike, suspended in a wall of shifting crumbling fuzz, in fact wall might be off the mark, the sound isn't so much a wall, nothing so massive and foreboding, instead it's like some sort of flowing black river, churning and choppy, but blurred into something almost static. The drums sound inhuman, and probably are, a monotonous relentless beat pounding away but again, pounding connotes heaviness, and the sound here isn't really heavy, it's atmospheric more than anything. Super lo-fi, a wash of keyboards draped over the blurry buzz, the vocals are the biggest disruption, howling and shrieking, a wicked maniacal cackle, but just as often they vocals fade away leaving just that droning buzz to almost lull you into a trance.
Primitive, and raw, stumbling and chaotic, a dizzyingly confusional strain of metal cloaked in blackness and doused in drone, the guitar tone like a vacuum cleaner, the drums like cardboard boxes and trashcan lids, the arrangements convoluted and complex when they're not locked into a seemingly never ending loop. Fucked up for sure, brilliant? Without a doubt.
There are plenty of other Striborg reviews on the aQuarius site, if you want to read more about the man, the band, the sound. Needless to say, the metalheads around here consider Striborg one of our all time favorites, possibly the most freaked out and fucked up, damaged, and completely and utterly baffling of the bunch. And Trepidation definitely ranks up there with Striborg's best. Fans obviously need it if they don't already have it, and if you're new to this black metal weirdness, and were looking for a good place to start, to bravely enter the dark damaged world of Striborg, Trepidation, even heeding the title, might just be the one...
Deluxe reissue (originally released in 2005), with all new artwork, tons of photos of snow and forests and trees, all printed in black and metallic silver.
MPEG Stream: "Journey Of A Misanthrope"
MPEG Stream: "Dismal Snow Set In The Sombre Forests"
MPEG Stream: "Catawampus"

SUN RA Disco 3000 (Art Yard) 2cd 32.00
Hard to resist a Sun Ra record with a title like that, eh? And drum machine, too! The late, great, interplanetary legend of Afro-cosmic jazz and his band recorded this newly reissued album live on planet Earth (precise location: Milan, Italy) back in 1978, at the height of disco fever. But of course it ain't really disco!! Instead it's far out free jazz grooviness, full of futuristic synth freakouts and even tinny, metronomic drum machine shuffle. All of which you'll find on the worth the price of admission alone 26 minute title track, which also incorporates the Arkestra's signature "Space Is The Place" chant at one point. Nor does this set stint on screaming horns and energetic battery. Or for that matter mellow, melodic moodiness. Highlights are many, among them the gurgling chaos and solar sax blurt of "Sun Of The Cosmos", and the eerie, glistening, jittering "Dance Of The Cosmo Aliens".
Featuring the lineup of John Gilmore (tenor sax, drums, voclas), June Tyson (vocals), Michael Ray (trumpet, vocals), Luqman Ali (drums, vocals) and last but not least Sun Ra himself (piano, organ, Moog synth, rhythm machine, vocals), this expanded double cd reissue of Disco 3000 is definitely cause for rejoicing amongst Sun Ra (and cosmo alien) fans. Over two hours total, this includes the original three tracks from the '78 vinyl release along with NINE more bonus tracks taken from the thankfully well-preserved tapes of the same performance, is packaged in a handsome trifold digpack, and comes with a cd booklet with photos, graphics, and liner notes by trumpeter Michael Ray, who had just hooked up with Sun Ra not long before this recording took place. His mind is still blown! Share something of his experience here...
MPEG Stream: "Disco 3000"
MPEG Stream: "Sun Of The Cosmos"
MPEG Stream: "Dance Of The Cosmo Aliens"

ROTHER, MICHAEL Fernwarme (Water) cd 16.98
Along with the Harmonia Live 1974 cd that we're making Record Of The Week, the Water label has reissued the first four solo records of Harmonia, Kraftwerk, and Neu! veteran, Michael Rother. We're reviewing our two favorites here, the others we should get to on a later list.
We'd assume that the majority of AQ regulars are largely familiar with at least one of Michael Rother's projects. Whether it be his his work with Kraftwerk, Neu!, Cluster, or Harmonia, Rother's contributions to the last 30 plus years of music are innumerable. Still, his solo work that has been conspicuously absent from most write-ups and record shelves. Perhaps that's because the early '80s saw Rother in a bit of transition period from his Krautrock glory days to a point where he embraced New Age with arms wide open. Despite naysayers, New Age isn't necessarily a four letter word. Not necessarily. But fear not, while embracing New Age, Rother didn't -- or perhaps couldn't -- completely abandon his musical past. Thankfully, the fine people at Water have made the first four Rother albums available once again, lovingly remastered and repackaged with original art and new liner notes.
Like the three preceding releases, 1981's Fernwarme finds Rother accompanied by drummer Jaki Leibezeit of fellow uber-famous Krautrockerers Can. Unlike the first three solo albums, this one shows Rother returning much closer to his days with Harmonia than attempting to incorporate elements from anything like, say, Kitaro. In fact, despite the lead guitar of opening number "Silberstreif" relying heavily upon the "Do-Re-Mi" tune taught in grade school music class, Fernwarme is an excellent contribution to an incredibly impressive career, full of simple beauty, a warm embrace of blissed-out pop melodies. Jaki's lightly propulsive motorik shuffle is the heartbeat pulse that underpins the harmonized guitar lines spun by Rother, his harmonies at times making us think of Citay's most exquisite moments... elsewhere Rother delves into darkly droning keyboards, and Fernwarme starts to sound not unlike a much mellower Zombi. Very very nice, a highly recommended early '80s spacey prog kraut classic!!
MPEG Stream: "Silberstreif"
MPEG Stream: "Klangkorper"

ROTHER, MICHAEL Flammende Herzen (Water) cd 16.98
A few weeks back, we made the newly unearthed and amazing Harmonia Live 1974 album our Record Of The Week, and also highlighted two of the four solo albums by Harmonia's Michael Rother that were also reissued at the same time. That's a lot of krautrock goodness to absorb at once, so we are just now getting around to listing those other two Rother solo discs, Flammende Herzen (1976) and Katzenmusik (1979), chronologically his first and third solo efforts. On both of these, as with the previous pair, Rother's beautifully harmonized, multitracked guitars and synths are joined by the incomparable, propulsive drumming of fellow krautrock hero Jaki Liebzeit of Can. And another legendary figure in the scene, Conny Plank, produces.
Flammende Herzen, which means Flaming Hearts in English, is a blissful concoction of motorik beats beneath Rother's trademark shimmering, soaring melodies. It's easy to see why it was a big hit when it was first released (apparently outselling all of Rother's albums with Neu! combined!). Truly gorgeous instrumental compositions that will brighten your day, being sources of both relaxation and energy... ok, that sounds a bit New Agey, doesn't it? But fans of the kosmische krautrock stuff should be comfortable with that, after all, there's a definite overlap, with Ashra, Tangerine Dream, Deuter, and Popol Vuh among others being krautrockers later to cross over to careers in the New Age field... and it's not like you have to get into a yoga pose to enjoy this album (though you could). Such nice music for a drive in the country, or lazing at home on a rainy afternoon, as well. Definitely a fine follow up to his work in Harmonia, tracks like "Feuerland" certainly not ignoring the r-o-c-k part of the krautrock equation in the process of being all spacey and hypnotic.
While we can solidly recommend Rother's solo debut, the other one under review here, Katzenmusik, is a bit iffier (though some folks actually consider it his masterpiece, cf. allmusic.com). On it, Rother moves more and more in that much-maligned New Age direction, mellowing out even further. The blue sky, fluffy white clouds, and arcing jet-trail of the cover photo are well-evoked by the music inside. Twelve untitled, again all-instrumental tracks, all very airy-fairy. Gently uplifting guitar confections ride along on the tick-tock of Jaki's drumming... It's quite nice all right, just without any edginess. If you love Rother, you'll probably want it, but get the others first.
These are both, again, nicely done reissues from the Water label, with the original art and new liner notes.
MPEG Stream: "Flammende Herzen "
MPEG Stream: "Karussel"

ROTHER, MICHAEL Sterntaler (Water) cd 16.98
Along with the Harmonia Live 1974 cd that we're making Record Of The Week, the Water label has reissued the first four solo records of Harmonia, Kraftwerk, and Neu! veteran, Michael Rother. We're reviewing our two favorites here, the others we should get to on a later list.
We'd assume that the majority of AQ regulars are largely familiar with at least one of Michael Rother's projects. Whether it be his his work with Kraftwerk, Neu!, Cluster, or Harmonia, Rother's contributions to the last 30 plus years of music are innumerable. Still, his solo work that has been conspicuously absent from most write-ups and record shelves. Perhaps that's because the early '80s saw Rother in a bit of transition period from his Krautrock glory days to a point where he embraced New Age with arms wide open. Despite naysayers, New Age isn't necessarily a four letter word. Not necessarily. But fear not, while embracing New Age, Rother didn't -- or perhaps couldn't -- completely abandon his musical past. Thankfully, the fine people at Water have made the first four Rother albums available once again, lovingly remastered and repackaged with original art and new liner notes.
Sterntaler is from 1977 and is Rother's second solo work recorded by Conny Plank and featuring Can's Jaki Liebezeit on drums. Similar in scope and feel to Cluster's more pastoral efforts, namely Sowiesoso, Rother's signature gliding guitar playing is recognizable throughout. Think Neu! light. And that's not a diss, although Andee thinks it sounds like an eighties movie montage or the background music in a timeshare video presentation. But you have to remember, Andee doesn't like Can either... And put in context that Rother's first solo album Flammende Herzen sold more than all Neu! records combined, we might understand why Rother would pursue this more New Age-ish direction. And if you're gonna listen to New Age, then stuff like Rother and fellow (former) krautrockers Ashra and Deuter is the way to go. In any event, Sterntaler definitely reaches to the heights of late-period krautrock a la Cluster and for curious fans is very worthy of your time. Lovely and recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Sterntaler"
MPEG Stream: "Fontana Di Luna"

HARMONIA Live 1974 (Water) cd 16.98
Record covers like this one just aren't fair. Michael Rother, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius hiply dressed on a platform in an abandoned train station with their backs turned to the audience playing all manner of amazing looking analog electrical equipment: synths, farfisas, banks of tone generators, oscillators, patch bays, stacks of amps, leaning guitars, and cords everywhere, amongst racks of machines with all sorts of knobs and levels. It just makes us soooo jealous. Not only for such beautiful equipment, but also nostalgic for this period of time in Germany in the early seventies when so much thoughtful and incredibly inventive music was being produced. First Amon Duul II, Can and Faust then Kraftwerk, Cluster, and, Neu!, with Harmonia being the perfect synthesis of the latter three bands both in sound and personnel. Especially when you see the back cover and you get a closer look at the band and you can tell the trio just have this alchemical connection with each other and the sounds they make. Each member is focused but self-assuredly calm. Not exactly what you would expect from a band whom Brian Eno once called "the world's most important rock band". Not that much of the world had ever heard of them. Nor is it what most folks consider rock music to be.
So this is it! We've been reading about this for months, and it's finally here: a live document of a now legendary show on March 23rd, 1974 at Penny Station in Griessem, Germany. Not that it really matters that this is live, as their is no applause or chatter to clue you in, just bits of mumbled talking as the songs wind down at the very end. Harmonia members attribute this to there being only 50 or so people in the audience most of which were either too stoned to clap or too unsure at what points the songs begin and end. Doesn't seem to matter to the band anyway as we've already seen their backs were to the audience the entire time. But for a live document the sound quality is impeccable and what's even better all of the tracks performed weren't on any of their recordings, giving us, thirty-three years later, 5 new vintage Harmonia tracks to pore over. Most of which are over 9 minutes long.
Recorded between Harmonia's woozy debut, Musik Von Harmonia, and its more rock-leaning follow-up, Deluxe, Live 1974 is the logical conglomeration of both sounds, sort of like the merging of Terry Riley-ish repetitions with Robert Fripp's or Heldon's spacey and searing guitar extrapolations. But unlike conventional rock bands, Harmonia's music doesn't climax or necessarily change all that much, making their deceptively simple musical structures more akin to trance, electronica and slow disco. Beginning with the slow burn of "Schaumberg", an 11 minute epic of Rother's sinewy guitar lines that build and loop over gentle pulses of Moebius's programmed percussion and Roedelius' repetitive tonal keyboard patterns merging into a more sped-up and hypnotic version with bass rhythms on "Veteranissimo", an extended 17 minute meditation on "Veterano" from Musik Von Harmonia that breaks down to quiet heartbeats before slowly building again. "Arabesque", the shortest track at five minutes, does away with the percussive elements altogether, instead focussing on overlapping patterns of melodic synth and guitar before slamming into the loping quarter-hour stoner lurch of "Holta-Polta", then finally culminating in the blissful pastoralism of "Ueber Ottenstein".
It's been a stellar year or two for krautrock reissues as most of the Klaus Schulze, Cluster, Harmonia, Popol Vuh and Michael Rother catalogs have been reissued, re-introducing to the world the proto-new age realms of seventies German kosmiche music at a time when we can easily see its influence weaving through so many new bands like Arp, The Alps, White Rainbow, Lichens and Sylvain Chaveau. Always timeless, and never dated, Harmonia, like most of their German contemporaries mentioned above, were the most important rock band in the world simply because they cared about what they did, kept it simple, never indulged, and always left us wanting more.
MPEG Stream: "Schaumberg"
MPEG Stream: "Veteranissimo"
MPEG Stream: "Holta Polta"

HERELLE, JEAN-LUC Jurassic Soundscapes: A Scientific Interpretation (Fremeaux & Associes) cd 15.98
What's the last "nature sounds" disc we reviewed on our list? There was the cd-r of bat sounds we listed last time. But we'd had bats before. However, we can safely say that this is the first, and probably only recording we've ever heard... of dinosaurs!! Ok, obviously this isn't a "real" field recording. No time machines were involved. Or experimental genetic science out of a Michael Crichton novel. Nor are we being told any stories about how, through some improbable process, sound waves were frozen in amber millions of years ago, waiting to be decoded and heard by us today through the miracle of modern technology. Nope, this is fake fake fake. But it has the imprimatur of a real field recording, being brought to us by Jean-Luc Herelle, the recordist/naturalist responsible for the AQ fave Pastoral Bells, and others on the illustrious and Sittelle label, and the cover proclaims it a "scientific interpretation" (to the extent of relying on audio experiments done with fossils).
Knowing that AQ customers go gaga for environmental sounds, the weirder the better, it probably won't take much to convince you all that a disc of Jurassic Soundscapes belongs in your collection. So here it is, the grunts and growls and splashings about of the DINOSAURS! Or, they could simply be scary monsters... or, birds with a pitch shifter. That's right, since we all know that modern day birds are the descendants of dinosaurs, Herelle has constructed these imagined dinosaur calls out of genuine field recordings of birds, digitally altered to sound like what he thinks (based on the best current scientific theory) these dinosaurs would have in fact sounded like. (Is there a commercially available "Dinosaur effect"? If so, death metal bands should investigate.) Herelle also made good use of recordings of various amphibians, who also have their dinosaur connections, insects and mammals too...
The first of the four tracks on this disc is a 21+ minute number entitled "Moving Back To The Trias Period, To The Marine Environment Of Early Jurassic", between 230 and 200 million years BC. It starts of with watery drippings and what sound like backwards tape effects (!), soon joined by rumbling cries of eight meter long Plateosaurus, which is then scared off by the equally even more terrifying carnivorous Coelophysis!
Apparently, there was tons of reverb in the Jurassic period. It's a bizarre listen, for sure. The electronic effects are obvious, but one soon suspends one's disbelief, and becomes absorbed in the rather eerie world that Herelle has cleverly conjured.
The second track finds Herelle exploring a "Forest Of Giant Sequoyas Of The Later Jurassic", 170 million years BC. In the distance, *something* cries for a mate. And at one point, some sort of leathery winged flying reptile flaps by. Track three takes us to a "Swamp Forest Of The Cretaceous" (144 million years BC) for about half an hour. Scaly beasts moan and coo and moo and bellow. Our friends the Rutting Red Deers would possibly feel right at home conversing with the denizens of the Jurassic. And then as a finale, Herelle presents a "Time Slide Into Prehistory"...
In the liner notes, Herelle explains his procedures for this project, and helps to detail for the mind's eye the scenes he has set, these aural dioramas if you will. Each track is provided with a narrative, of what creature is plodding, swimming or flying about, and why, making for this imaginative, varied "natural" symphony. While the label admits that some might find it hard to take this disc seriously, it does have solid educational basis, paleontologist-approved. This is definitely the closest you're gonna get to hearing the sounds of prehistory, the cries of the baby Iguanadon and of the mighty Tyrannosaurus, the growls of the Stegosaurus and the twitterings of the Archaeopteryx... who could pass that up? Recommended of course!
MPEG Stream: "Moving Back To The Trias Period, To The Marine Environment Of Early Jurassic"
MPEG Stream: "Swamp Forest Of The Cretaceous"

DAUNER, WOLFGANG (QUINTET) The Oimels (Long Hair) cd 24.00
We've heard tell of record for a long time, but this is the first occasion that a cd reissue has wound up in our bins. It's about time 'cause it is indeed a pretty cool little album! Multi-instrumentalist Wolfgang Dauner was an innovative German jazz musician who in the late '60s started to move into more experimental and "krautrock" territory. The Oimels, originally released in 1969, was supposedly his attempt at a "pop" album...
It starts off with the funky, quirky instrumental "Oh, Baby, I Don't Love You Anymore", wherein ivories are tickled, flutes are flaunted, and there's some silly serious stabs of fuzz guitar from Siggi Schwab (an MPS label vet that you've heard before if you're familiar with the Vampyros Lesbos soundtrack!). Reminds us a bit of that bizarre exploito-kraut "party album" by Staff Carpenborg & The Electric Corona we reviewed a couple years ago. Neat enough, should appeal to the same folks digging those "In-Kraut" and "Instro-Hipsters" compilations... but with an extra dose of something. Uh, LSD?
Sitar twang is added to the next track, the faux-Eastern hippy jam "Take Off Your Clothes To Feel The Setting Sun", the vocals blissfully, mantrically suggesting that one disrobe as per the song title. That's followed by another bright n' slinky lounge instrumental, "My Man's Gone Now", that would have Austin Powers sayin' "Groovy, baby" and whooping it up. So far, so good... a groovy jazzy album yeah, with some freaky pop leanings, but a psychedelic krautrock classic? Well then you hit the positively CRAZED track four, "Come On In On In" and you realize that The Oimels are seriously trippin'. It's a hard one to describe, totally unhinged, almost hyperactively punked-up like The Monks, with chaotic chanting vocals and infectious rhythmic glee. Wow, wild! Ok, now we're convinced. And as the album continues, the freakiness does too. It's such a weird blend of smooth jazz grooves and psychedelic spasms. Dauner and his Quintet were definitely on to something (or on something) with their sound. Some of the other surprises in store for listeners include a swingin' version of "Greensleeves", and, to end the record, a pretty amazing cover of "A Day In The Life" by the Beatles. The elegiac mood of the original is maintained, enhanced even, yet also subverted with insane atonal fuzz-jazz soloing.
We're now definitely interested in hearing Dauner's other progressive jazz and fusion albums of the era, if we can find 'em...
MPEG Stream: "Come On In On In"
MPEG Stream: "Take Off Your Clothes To Feel The Setting Sun"

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS August 1974 (P-Vine / Columbia Japan) 2cd 41.00
Once again, repressed and back in stock, but who knows for how long?! THE ULTIMATE DRONE RECORD!! We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second lp, the reissue has gone in and out of print, and has been unavailable for several years now, but when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossible grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long hairded seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching it drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his instrument, sending a sonic response, until these messages, these sounds weave into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. ONE OF OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS!!
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

BURNING SAVIOURS Nymphs & Weavers (Transubstans Records) cd 17.98
Long hair, bellbottoms, loud guitars, Swedish accents... and they spell fire "phyre". It's the new Burning Saviours. What more do you need to know?
Ok, here's the quick recap. First there was Witchcraft, the Swedish band that magically conjured an authentic sounding seventies stoner/doom/psych thing a la Pentagram, Black Sabbath, and a host of other early '70s bands more obscure (many of them wielding both flutes and Mellotrons along with the heavy, proto-metal riffs). Then we discovered *another* seemingly timelost Swedish band, Burning Saviours, who were almost more Witchcraft than Witchcraft. Not a case of one band ripping off the other, more a case of both bands liking Pentagram, Sabbath, and the self-same host of obscure '70s proggy proto-metal acts... and being equally talented at bringing their influences to life. They both debuted with self-titled albums. Then Witchcraft released Firewood, and Burning Saviours released Hundus. It was kind of like having four Witchcraft (or Burning Saviours) albums instead of two! Fans debated which band was "better" but why bother, we love 'em both.
Earlier this year Witchcraft released their third album, the much-lauded The Alchemist. A definite step forward for them, if not a break with the past. And now Burning Saviours have come out with their third album, Nymphs & Weavers. For them too, something a bit different. Maybe a lot different, 'cause they have had to make some lineup changes. Their original vocalist/guitarist decided to leave the band to pursue his academic studies, so they replaced him with a new singer -and- a new guitar player.
The new Burning Saviours is still a heavy-riffed '70s-styled retro-proto-metal affair, never fear. But they have diverged from the "Witchcraft" sound of their previous albums to some degree, perhaps in large part due to the different voice and style of their new singer. Unlike his predecessor, he sounds nothing like Bobby Liebling of Pentagram (remember, Burning Saviours is named after a Pentagram song). He definitely brings in with him more of a traditional Swedish folk influence (he plays flute too). They had that before, of course, the folkiness, but it's more pronounced now, more like a metal Dungen or something. His sometimes solem, soaring vocals remind us a bit of the the singer on New Dark Age, the pagan masterpiece by UK epic doomsters Solstice. Apart from the singer, who Burning Saviours fans will either get used to or not (we're certainly warming to him but do miss the old guy), the this album already seems as comfortably classic as something actually from 1971 or so, full of the usual righteous heavy rock riffage, stick-in-your-head melodies, Heepish organ jamming, electric folk-prog jiggery, and, like Witchcraft too when they ham it up on stage, a bit of whimsy -- it features the heaviest song ever to boast a title like "Dreaming Of Pastries"!
MPEG Stream: "Pondhillow's Finest"
MPEG Stream: "The Spellweaver"
MPEG Stream: "Hillside Mansion"

SKULL DEFEKTS, THE Polonium (Kning Disk) 3"cd-r 13.98
Not only is this limited 3" cd-r release on one our our newest favoritest labels, Sweden's Kning Disk (who brought us both the Erik Enocksson Record Of The Week and Balroynigress reviewed on our last list) but it's also by one of our newest favoritest bands, The Skull Defekts (also Swedish). You know why we love Kning, and if you read our reviews of a handful of their previous releases, you also know what we think is so great about The Skull Defekts... they're abstract technicians of noisy mechanical rhythm n' glitch, masters of repetitive industrial improv thrum n' stutter. Like their Stateside colleagues (and Kning labelmates) Wolf Eyes, they've also been quite prolific (we have several other new Skull Dfx titles in stock and awaiting review, in fact!).
Polonium (named for a rare, radioactive element, used in the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning) is a heavy, hypnotic electrical noise construct about 20 minutes long, recorded live on the radio (Resonance FM) in London, England, January 6th 2007. Although performed by a stripped down duo version of the band, normally a quartet, it's a good example of what we love about this outfit and would make a good introduction to their sound, though we're listing it now mainly 'cause we know fans are gonna want to get their hands on this before it's gone, as this release, in its second and possibly final edition, is LIMITED TO 100 NUMBERED COPIES. We only have a few...

HARPER, ROY Stormcock (Science Friction) cd 25.00
BACK IN STOCK, in a new, DELUXE version. Which means, it's now packaged in a cd-sized hardcover book-like sleeve, with 20 pages of new photos, prose and poetry not found in the previous edition... also it's been digitally remastered for better sound to Roy Harper's specifications. This helps make up for the higher price, also due the pathetically weak US dollar at the moment. But it's well worth it, this is one of the best albums EVER, a steady seller here at AQ that you should hear if you haven't.
Here's what we said about it previously: To those of us who grew up listening to Led Zeppelin, Roy Harper might already be something of an implied legend, stuck in our adolescent memories as the name referenced in the Zeppelin III song, "Hats Off To Roy Harper". Some of us may even have noticed in the liner notes to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here that it was Roy Harper belting out the vocals on "Have a Cigar". Sadly, for most of us from this generation we have heard very little or none of this man's own music.
Harper's life story (as raw material for some of the best songs ever written -- seriously, just surrender your ears to "Goldfish" or "Tom Tiddler's Ground") is full of drama and obsession: joining the RAF in order to escape a Christian upbringing, Harper's "legendary" self-inflicted nervous breakdown in order to get out of his military service provided the prima materia for some of his first songs (e.g. "Committed" on his debut album Sophisticated Beggar). After escaping a mental institution in order to elope with a pregnant girlfriend, Roy headed off into London where his rebellious ways got him arrested. Serving a prison sentence, he spent most of his time in the library reading and evolving his creative spirit. Following his release in 1964 he busked around North Africa and then returned to London to join the folk club scene alongside the Incredible String Band, Donovan, Joni Mitchell, Bert Jansch and Nick Drake. During the recording of his first record he hosted the vagabonds of London in his flat and sermonized, guerilla-style, to the church-goers across the street from his flat window. So Roy's records were full of such expressions of protest against religion, politics, and the countless social forces subverting individuality and the imagination of the day. With every Roy Harper record, the listener gets extensive stream-of-consciouness rants, often surreal and often quite funny, complementing the songs with a voice that is at once confounding and endearing. The spirit in Roy's songs, one complicated by fits of great joy, sadness and absurdity, where the most banal things in life are rendered the most beautiful (such as "How could you say such terrible things with a wonderful wife like yours?") still coheres as the voice of a truly singular spirit.
So...why can't we find Roy Harper sections in most record stores? After all he has dozens of albums and is still very much alive and making music. Well, a rare and wonderful thing in light of the typical artist versus the record industry scenario is that Harper has somehow managed to own all rights to his records and now distributes his material exclusively under the name Science Friction. But doesn't distribute very widely as his is but a small operation, based in Ireland. However, we've gotten in touch with Science Friction and are now happy to offer our customers, at long last, a selection of what we consider to be some of Roy's best. Starting with Stormcock!
Recorded in 1970 at Abbey Road, Stormcock is a four-song, 41 minute opus of folk-rock genius (what has been dubbed by one critic a masterpiece of its own genre, "epic progressive acoustic"). Basically, the sort of thing that, despite the current upswing in the underground of psych-tinged folky songsmithery, you just don't get to hear much these days. A rare talent, fully on display here, and without some of the confounding eclecticism and eccentrities that may make some other Harper albums take a bit more work to get into. No, this is a definite "wow" from the very first few bars of the first song, continuing solid and stellar all the way to the end of the album. Gorgeously melodic, slow and langorous, sparkling with Roy's brillant acoustic guitar playing, otherworldly arrangements, and of course his voice, phrasing and lyrics. Roy wrote all the songs and sings and plays most of the music -- there's a few additional musicans on hand at times to help flesh out Roy's sound-world, among them one S. Flavius Mercurius (aka Jimmy Page) contributing lead guitar on "The Same Old Rock", as well as the orchestral musicians employed for the magnificent album-closer "Me And My Woman".
Anyone who digs Six Organs Of Admittance or Devendra Banhart or the like owes it to themselves to experience some Roy Harper. Likewise anyone who loves the quieter, folker sides of the aforementioned Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Packaged with lyrics, art, and Roy's cryptic latter-day liner notes.
MPEG Stream: "One Man Rock And Roll Band"
MPEG Stream: "Me And My Woman"

SNIVELLING SHITS, THE I Can't Come (Damaged Goods) cd 16.98
This one came out of nowhere and kicked our asses. And to be totally honest, as is often the case, we ordered it almost entirely because the band had an awesome name, heck, they're called the Snivelling Shits. Fingers crossed we threw it on, and what do you know? The sound was as snotty and snarly and snarky and catchy and punk as fuck as the name implied.
The 'Shits were a joke band, formed by music journalist Giovanni Dadamo in 1977, designed to take the piss, but they ended up whipping up a batch of songs as good as if not better than any other groups at the time. Some impossible blend of the Buzzcocks, the Undertones, the Modern Lovers, The Sex Pistols, the Damned and the Velvets. Propulsive drumming, looped hypnotic riffing, and Dadamo's high pitched invective over the top. Take "I Can't Come", a bawdy sex tale about bedroom misadventure, with an insanely long list of other luminaries who couldn't come, culminating in the classic "Jesus Of Nazareth, heeeeeee can't come!" delivered in a snotty nasal whine. The rest of the tracks are just as funny: "Only 13", "Terminal Stupid", "I Wanna Be Your Biro", the all in French "Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi" and the impossibly catchy "Bring Me The Head Of Yukio Mishima". Every song here is a stone cold classic. Why these guys weren't huge it's hard to say. Might be because they didn't take it all that seriously, or the fact that they only ever recorded EIGHT tracks in their whole brief career, all collected here, along with some demos as well as the holiday chestnut "There Ain't No Sanity Claus" with the Damned (Dadamo also wrote a couple songs for those guys) and the previously released "isgodaman?" which was included on a comp under the pseudonym Arthur Comix because the record label didn't want the word Shits on their record cover.
Bottom line is this stuff is amazing. Hooky and haughty, frenetic and so bad ass. If you dig ANY of the above mentioned bands or have been digging on the current crop of snotty punk rock: the Catheters, the Thermals, Times New Viking, and the like, this will DESTROY YOU!!
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Come"
MPEG Stream: "Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi"
MPEG Stream: "Bring Me The Head Of Yukio Mishima"

PRIMORDIAL To The Nameless Dead (Metal Blade) cd 14.98
Empires fall, Rome burns, and the heathen tribe that is Primordial sing a gallows hymn, both grim and grandiose, from their rugged emerald isle... gosh and begorra, these Irish metallers have outdone themselves on this, their sixth album. It's sweeping, weeping, epic wall o' metal, some serious shit indeed. You can get a good idea of the mood To The Nameless Dead conveys just by perusing the song titles, several of which we referenced in the first sentence of this review. Ancient pride and the sadness of loss mix masterfully on this album, the barbarians at the gates of the fallen empire knowing that their pagan glories too are fated for ruin and doom in the end...
Primordial are a band that doesn't fit neatly into any category. Perhaps black metal comes the closest, with a folky vibe and a fair share of aggression. Primordial's vocals are sometimes clean and melodic, sometimes quite harsh, always super emotive and stirring -- as is their music. They're certainly heavy, so let's just call them an Irish extreme heavy metal band that can stand tall next to the likes of Scandinavia's Opeth and Enslaved.
A lot of the time the black metal we recommend is all about being the quote unquote most fucked up ever. But once in a while, tribute must be paid to a band like Primordial whose massive and melancholic art -isn't- brutally primitive or inadvertently avant garde, but is just plain excellent, from writing to performance to production. In all respects, powerful.
MPEG Stream: "Empire Falls"
MPEG Stream: "Heathen Tribes"

BACHDENKEL Lemmings (Ork) cd 17.98
Several cool things about this newly reissued album, originally released in 1973 (recorded in 1970). First, it's called Lemmings. Who doesn't have a soft spot for those doomed little critters? And then there's the cover art, a black and white drawing depicting a flood of rather spooky looking lemmings, under a starry night sky, with an owl hovering ominously above... But most importantly, the music! The music on Lemmings makes it a bit of a cult classic in the annals of British prog rock. Darkly melancholic, super melodic and gentle, yet quite powerful too, as the guitarist occasionally lets loose with some really tasty, acid psych soloing... the warm vocals are another strong suit, both feeding into emotional epics, songs of alienation (as Lemmings is subtitled) and Eastern-influenced hippie philosophy.
Bachdenkel began as a Birmingham UK psych pop outfit called The U NO Who. They then changed their name to the much more you-don't-know-who Bachdenkel, and finding little success in England, hove off to France where they could really indulge themselves in going fully prog, though they never lost their knack for the '60s psych pop side of things, reminding us sometimes of AQ faves Kaleidoscope, with the heavier edge of a T2 or NSU.
Maybe 'cause they were based in France, and did their own unique untrendy thing, focussing on songs more than flash, they remained fairly obscure, but this album (the first of two, the second of which, Stalingrad, we've yet to hear) is nonetheless worthy of consideration as a prog masterpiece, up there with the much better known likes of early King Crimson.
Reissued by Ork, a division of Cherry Red, this disc is has been remastered by original producer Karel Beer, and features 3 bonus tracks including an unreleased single from 1969. Also, the cd booklet is stuffed with liner notes and photos detailing the whole Bachdenkel story.
MPEG Stream: "Translation"
MPEG Stream: "An Appointment With The Master"
MPEG Stream: "The Settlement Song"

LES RALLIZES DENUDES (AKA HADAKA NO RALLIZES) Yodo-Go-A-Go-Go (aka Flightless Bird Needs Water Wings) (10th Avenue Freeze Out) cd 17.98
With the publication of Julian Cope's long awaited Japrocksampler tome, interest in Japan's underground psychedelic rock scene in the '70s has gotta be running at an all time high. A big portion of Cope's book dealt with the legendary Les Rallizes Denudes aka Hadaka No Rallizes, a long running (since the late sixties, still "active" today) and influential act led by guitarist Takashi Mizutani. Without Les Rallizes, more modern day bands like Up-Tight and LSD-march wouldn't exist. Rallizes were also a big inspiration for Keiji Haino's equally significant Fushitsusha group. Their style (musical and sartorial), their distortion, their sunglasses... blown-out minimalist rock throb, carving delicate and/or devastating beauty out of guitar feedback and reverby pop simplicity. Unfortunately for readers of Cope's book, pretty much the entire catalog of Rallizes LPs, cd, cd-rs, cassettes etc. falls into the category of near-myth, hard to find at the very least. It used to be, you could go into a record shop in Japan and spend hundreds of dollars for a handful of live Rallizes cd-rs. We've stocked what we could, but Rallizes cds are few and far between.
In other words, good timing that this disc just materialized (and maybe no coincidence that it was written up as a Record Of The Month on Cope's Head Heritage website a few months back). Titled either Yodo-Go-A-Go-Go or Flightless Bird Needs Water Wings, this cd offers up eight tracks of prime Rallizes, a "best of" of sorts drawn from rare recorded relics circa the early/mid '70s, though it goes back to '67 for track one. The disc opens with that garagey raver, "Otherwise My Conviction", then ventures into a gentler but no less distorted drone pop territory with "Valle d l'eau". The mood stays mellow until Mizutani busts out his searing Neil Young eat your heart out style guitar scorch for the end of the 13 minute third track, "Enter The Mirror". Has Wooden Shjips heard this? We're pretty sure they have. "Smokin' Cigarette Blues" is next, supremely lo-fi (with this band, that's a virtue), about as murky a 19 minutes of "blues" as you'll ever hear...it's all ambient low rumble and clatter, so abstract it's hard to tell if there's a band involved or not... this could be the Dead C for goshsakes! Wow. Following that, the fiery "Flames Of Ice" is propulsively distinct in comparison, and these 17 minutes should weigh heavily as a reason to pick this up. Then they plow into "Field Of Artificial Flowers", another heavy one, something like Link Wray's "Rumble" ultra-distorted into white hot sizzle and stretched out for ten minutes. What can they do to follow that? Being Les Rallizes Denudes, they go "Deeper Than Night" of course, which perfectly condenses everything that's wonderful about Les Rallizes into a mere two minutes and 24 seconds -- the mantric plod, the screeching sheets of sound wrenched from still bleeding guitars and amps. And then we're back to "Otherwise My Conviction", another version ending this disc much like it began. Whew. While any Rallizes cd is almost by definition essential, this really covers all the bases. Definitely one to get -- and it's also one of the only ones you CAN get.
MPEG Stream: "Enter The Mirror"
MPEG Stream: "Field Of Artificial Flowers"

RASTAN (Taito) video arcade game 0.25
Allan's always wanted his own Rastan machine, and finally, thanks to the magic of eBay, he got one, and for relatively cheap too, considering that he probably spent as much in quarters playing it in the arcade back in the day! As you've probably noticed, it's here in the store and up and running, along with Andee's prize Tron machine (reviewed last list). We thought we'd write a little bit about each machine in the usual AQ New Arrivals list style, just for kicks. No, you can't add this to your cart, but you can stop in and drop a quarter or two into it in person...
So, for those of you without the experience of wasting your adolescence and lunch money loitering in video arcades, and don't know the (vintage 1987) Rastan game, here's the rundown: the title character, Rastan, is your basic Conan the Barbarian style swords & sorcery adventurer running around, jumping and stabbing things and collecting treasure. If you're good enough, you'll advance from level to level (there's six levels of three screens each), beating each boss, exploring new and ever-more dangerous fantasy realms, and perhaps eventually finishing the game. Haven't made it to the end yet ourselves -- it would take a several hours of play and many many credits, even if we were skilled enough at the game.
What's so awesome about Rastan? Well the graphics are pretty cool, especially the backgrounds which are totally D&Dish and mystically evocative. There's wilderness scenes (from jungles to rocky barrens) and also castle and cavern interiors, complete with flaming pit traps and rolling bolders and Tarzan style rope swings. It's a two dimensional, moving left-to-right game, using what's called "parallax scrolling" to give an illusion of depth to the backgrounds. The monsters are pretty cool too -- four armed boomerang flingers and fire spitting hydra and (at higher levels) scary Medusa ladies whose green snakey hair extends to entrap you... But the most dangerous monsters have got to be the bats. Individually they don't seem that scary, but they're tough to hit, there are a lot of them and they'll come for you if you're taking too long getting from point A to point B. We've lost more lives to those pesky bats than anything else in the game... Another cool thing about the graphics is that they've left out a lot of the usual video game clutter -- there's no point values popping up on the screen when you slay something, it's more "realistic" than that... well sort o