BLECTUM FROM BLECHDOM Haus de Snaus (Tigerbeat6) cd 14.98
Blectum from Blechdom's "Haus de Snaus" is a collection of the previously listed but currently out of print releases "Snauses And Mallards" (their first EP, originally on Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork) and "De Snaunted Haus" (their 4th release on Tigerbeat 6). And there's a few extra tracks.
So here's what we've previously written:
"Snauses and Mallards" from Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork label is from Blectum From Blechdom - the work of two local technicians showcasing their electronic output from the Mills College conservatory. This eight track 12", while playful and childlike, has a distinctly creepy and maniacal element, sort of like the sounds of scary funhouse at an evil carnival. Or something. It's full of dense sample mutilation, constructed into spasmodic yet anthemic rhythmic complexities. The music hints at both '80s electro and at early computer music with all of its nerdy whimsy & tinniness. Quality stuff for, say, fans of Matmos' textured 'organica' (to use Hrvatski's term for it).
Blectum From Blechdom keeps on getting better and weirder with each release. "De Snaunted Haus" is the fourth release this year for San Francisco's carnivalesque electro-shock / horror-techno duo. There honestly hasn't been much that sounds like Blectum From Blechdom, it's almost like somebody took a baseball bat to the head of Laurie Anderson and made her act, punch-drunk, in some really silly horror skits, scored on a Casio keyboard by somebody who has never listened to anything but Thinking Fellers albums at the wrong speed. Their warped electronica simulates child-like melodies as reflected through a funhouse mirror of distortion and exaggeration, and in-between these songs Blectum From Blechdom set up surreal skits that involve mad ducks, bloodied children, and the undead, all of which end in somebody screaming (nice touch). So we say: Blectoids, keep hammering away at Laurie Anderson's head with that baseball bat! If only.
RealAudio clip: "Son-Toe-Fury"
RealAudio clip: "Hotrodderdam"

BLECTUM FROM BLECHDOM Snauses And Mallards (Musork) 12" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The second release from Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork label is from Blectum From Blechdom - the work of two local technicians showcasing their electronic output from the Mills College conservatory. This eight track 12", while playful and childlike, has a distinctly creepy and maniacal element, sort of like the sounds of scary funhouse at an evil carnival. Or something. It's full of dense sample mutilation, constructed into spasmodic yet anthemic rhythmic complexities. The music hints at both '80s electro and at early computer music with all of its nerdy whimsy & tinniness. Quality stuff for, say, fans of Matmos' textured 'organica' (to use Hrvatski's term for it).

BLECTUM FROM BLECHDOM The Messy Jesse Fiesta (Deluxe) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After their "Snauses & Mallards" ep for Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork, the Bay Area computer / sampler duo Blectum from Blechdum has finally released their debut album. And what a debut it is too! Like V/VM's best moments, Blectum from Blechdum appear at times to be unconcerned with the bastions of good taste in attempts at unadulterated electronica silliness far removed from the stodginess of typical IDM. Whimsical vocal cut-ups and demented childlike melodies dominate their wacked machine music. But far from being a comedy ensemble, Blectum will turn to the bleep groove of early Warp singles filling their sound with stuttering percolations and warbled electronics.

BLECTUM, BLEVIN Gular Flutter (Aagoo) cd 11.98
There's a certain kind of electronic music we used to love that seems to have gone M.I.A. lately. That kind of off kilter abstract experimentalism that seemed to be an offshoot of IDM, like IDM's deformed younger sibling that was kept locked up in the basement, thankfully with a full complement of recording gear and electronics. Lesser was one of our favorites. And at times, so too were Blectum From Blechdom. A motley crew who sort of skirted the 'mainstream' creating their own sound, their own scene, taking the electronic music of the day and twisting it all up. While Lesser seemed to do no wrong, or if he did wrong, it was so gloriously wrong it was right, BfB were a bit more hit and miss. The two personalities pulling in two distinctly different directions. And to be honest, we much preferred Blevin's trajectory to Kevin's. As later records demonstrated, Kevin leaned more toward the bratty and puerile, a much more Chicks On Speed vibe, mixing Karaoke with damaged versions of commercial pop, while Blevin (aka Bevin) was much more academic, and experimental, with an ear for texture and rhythm not that far removed from her hubby Lesser. 
Apparently the two have reunited and are once again a going concern, but more immediately, Blevin has finally released a new solo record, the first in 4 years, and it's pretty damn great. And actually, the fact that the opening track is a cover of a song by the mysterious Reverend Fred Lane just blows our minds. We've been trying to track Lane down to reissue his long out of print Shimmy Disc records, some of the most twisted genius EVER. And BB's version is equally twisted, but in a whole different way. Lots of rhythmic skitter, thick throbbing bass, she sings too but here voice is twisted and processed into strange stutters and streaks, the whole thing has a weirdly prog feel, a bit like a damaged Squarepusher covering some obscure lost seventies prog rarity, but all chopped up and reassembled. It definitely doesn't sound that much like the original, but the concept! And the sound. Fucking awesome. The rest of the record holds up pretty well considering there are no more Fred Lane covers, "Cygnet" with its snippets of soaring strings layered over dark meandering beats and ominous whirring ambience, "Foyer Fire", a glitchy, hiss, static flecked 8-bit carnival jam, each track is totally unique but manages to link to the sounds before and after seamlessly, from chaotic cut and paste, to woozy backwards warble, to hiccupping warbly fractured jungle, to blissed out smears of skitter and flutter, reminding us quite a bit of a more subdued (slightly) and less caffeinated Stock, Hausen And Walkman. 
The record finishes off with the truly haunting closer "Avian Enamel", with its chopped and processed harmonies, muted rhythmic thump, mysterious voices, weirdly groovy beats, all peppered with little flurries of glitch and crackle, buried samples, woozy loops, everything smoothed out into a drone-y beatscape both moody and mesmerizing. A fine return for sure. Now if we can just tempt Lesser out of hiding...
MPEG Stream: "Real Live Escargot"
MPEG Stream: "Cygnet"
MPEG Stream: "Foyer Fire"

BLECTUM, BLEVIN Magic Maple (Praemedia) cd 10.98

BLECTUM, BLEVIN Talon Slalom (Deluxe) cd 13.98
During the past six months or so, Blevin and Kevin Blectum have taken separate paths away from the fictional agendas of Blectum from Blechdom, which earned the pair an honorable mention at the 2001 Ars Electronica festival. While Blevin had previously released an album for Phthalo as D84, this is her first album as Blevin Blectum and is, not surprisingly, a very silly piece of DSP-filter-happy electronica. While both Blevin and Kevin have put aside the punch-drunk deranged mythologies of snauses and mad mallards of their solo albums, they have maintained Blechdom's post-ironic stance of building electronica out of purposefully ugly, arrhythmic, or just conventionally 'wrong' fragments of whimsical sound, in direct contrast to their impressive technical prowess over their gear. The first half of "Talon Slalom" is a discombobulated mix of garishly bubbly 8-bit sonic cavacades, insipid melodies, drooling information overload, and whimsically clumsy rhythms. Occasionally some seasick techno develops over the course of the first half of the album, with asynchronous samples splattered randomly across the rhythmic scaffold of a simple 4/4 beat. While the first half of the album seems maybe a little too silly, Blevin makes a conscientious effort to develop like-minded funhouse fragments into spiralling passages of surreal looped electro-waltzes. And the results are actually quite impressive. Fun and funny, but still complex and thoughtful and truly inspired. This latter half is certainly enough to balance out the opening follies of "Talon Slalom."
RealAudio clip: "The Wicked Pair Were Dancing"
RealAudio clip: "Osxmas"

BLESSURE GRAVE Judged By Twelve, Carried By Six (Alien 8) cd 14.98
Cold winds hardly ever blow in the sunny climes of San Diego, California; but that city is the home to the goth-cult, dirge-punk duo Blessure Grave whose grim, icy moods certainly match any of their contemporaries like Zola Jesus, Former Ghosts, Blank Dogs, or any of the more grim tones pushed forward by Wierd Records. It's true that many of the current crop of post-punk and minimal wave revivalists are triangulating their sounds through very specific references. Zola Jesus' operatics harken to Diamanda Galas but with a very DIY grit about her arrangements; and Blank Dogs really enjoy a good Joy Division bassline, and who could find fault with that? But it took a while to place the exact references that Blessure Grave evoke. Alien 8 offers Killing Joke, Death In June, and The Cure, all of which are close, but not quite familar enough with Blessure Grave's dungeon claustrophobia and dour expressionism. To us, Blessure Grave suggests a Frankensteinian construct of the grim and twisted. On one side, there's the glum goth-punk band Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and on the other there's Michael Allen from the early '80s when he founded the quixotic post-punk bands Rema Rema, Mass, and The Wolfgang Press.
Judged By Twelve, Carried By Six is the debut album for Blessure Grave, following an acclaimed 12" for Captured Tracks, a split 7" with Cold Cave & Crocodiles, and a couple of tiny edition cassettes, creating quite an underground buzz around this band. All of Blessure Grave's songs are skeletal in nature, built around rumbling basslines, moody synths, minor key guitar melodies, booming vocals, and tons of chorus & reverb. The vocals from T.Grave on "Stop Breathing" bellow and chant in an untrained, art-punk manner, that pretty much follows the mannerisms of Mick Allen in his early days. And those drum machinations of the band do recall the Lorries, guiding the darkened, claustrophobic tunes along a militant lockstep. "Open Or Shut" is a bit more expansive through the slower plod that the band takes and the expressive guitars that alternate between an anxiety provoking drone and languid moping."A Thousand Drums" is downright frantic in all of those drum machine pulses sputtering behind the barked vocals and excessive reverb. "Hope For The Worse" is probably the closest that Blessure Grave come to anything off of Unknown Pleasures with the spiked guitar lines and galloping rhythms, although Martin Hannett would have made such a track sound completely different... and not the lo-fi, naked expressionism and sometimes atonally brutish constructs found here. This homecrafted grimness is certainly one of Blessure Grave's many strengths; and we're already eager to hear more!
MPEG Stream: "Stop Breathing"
MPEG Stream: "Open Or Shut"
MPEG Stream: "A Thousand Drums"
MPEG Stream: "Echo"

BLESSURE GRAVE Learn To Love The Rope (Captured Tracks) 12" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BLEY, PAUL Barrage (ESP) cd 14.98

BLEY, PAUL Improvise (America) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. Incredibly limited, these will probably be out of print before you know it.
Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet with the original album sleeve notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!

BLEY, PAUL TRIO Closer (ESP-Disk/Calibre) cd 14.98
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Not-as-free-as-a-lot-of-stuff-on-ESP New York free jazz from the Paul Bley Trio: Paul Bley, Barry Altschul, and Steve Swallow. Really nice and dark and sort of late night sounding jazz.

BLEY, PAUL TRIO Closer (ESP) cd 13.98

BLIGE, MARY J No More Drama (MCA) cd 16.98
Pretty cool new disc from R&B star Mary J., who also boasts a cool new haircut in her cool new video.

BLIGHT Detroit: The Dream Is Dead - The Collected Works Of A Midwest Hardcore Noise Band (Touch & Go) cd 10.98
Blight was a short lived and misunderstood band that came out of the vibrant early 80's Midwest (more specifically Michigan) hardcore scene along with better know groups like Negative Approach, Necros, Crucifucks, Meatmen, The Fix, etc. Blight was made up of former members of The Fix, along with Tesco Vee of The Meatmen doing vocals here as well as "playing" trumpet! Yeah, these guys all held Ph.D's in "Hardcore 101" but Blight was about branching out from what had become a confined attitude/scene and thus the racket these guys created together as a band was more akin to Flipper or the Germs or Throbbing Gristle. There's even a bit of NY No-Wave going on with all the repetition and discordance and skronk that that entails. During the time Blight was active they released one 7" EP and played out only a handful of times. 23 years later, Touch and Go finally does this band justice in releasing this long lost (and hard to find) EP along with five unreleased songs from that same session, a pair from an earlier demo and the disc closes with a short live set from 1982 in Detroit. Fucking killer! Anyone into Butthole Surfers, Stickmen With Rayguns, Scratch Acid, Flipper and all of those bands who trafficked in gloriously abrasive thud and chaos should hear this.
Great packaging and extensive liner notes help make this exactly how all posthumous releases SHOULD be, an amazing, well researched, perfectly assembled reissue designed to preserve the past and expose folks today to a band who should definitely not be forgotten.
A truly unique band that stood out in a sea of clones even back in the day...
MPEG Stream: "Blight"
MPEG Stream: "Dream Is Dead"
MPEG Stream: "Bludgeon"

BLIND Fragment (Ash) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is one of the earliest found sound documents from Ash International. To take the most literal definition of a UFO, Blind's 45 minutes of air traffic control broadcasts track the movement of an unknown vector traveling across the air space of the Atlantic. Tense silences are broken up by harsh eruptions of shortwave radio transmissions which merely recount the position of the craft as it passes eratically from one sector of air space to another. While no communication is made with the craft, the controllers maintain an absolute calm and lack of spectulation that is more than a little eerie.

BLIND BLAKE Back Biting Bee Blues (Monk) lp 22.00
Ever wonder, why are so many blues guitarists blind? Talk about an occupational hazard. This is the fourth blind blues guitarist the Monk label has featured after Blind Willie McTell, Blind Willie Johnson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Perhaps it's the visionary contradiction of their particular affliction, that gives them such an incredible insight into the human condition. Like biblical prophets and ancient oracles, the only ones who 'see' things as they truly are happen to be blind. Blind Blake (not to be confused with the calypso Blind Blake of the fifties) may be the most obscure of the four (at least to us), but he was immensely successful for the Paramount label in the twenties and early thirties. Hailing from Florida, Blake was known for being the "King of Ragtime Guitar", for his unique guitar style that sounded like he was playing ragtime piano using the six strings of the guitar. His technique was so formidable that it has been little copied. Recording at least 79 songs in his incredibly short life span (he died at the age of 40 under mysterious and rumored to be scandalous circumstances), this collection covers 17 of his earliest and most popular recordings and is not to be missed for any fan of vintage blues.

BLIND DOG Last Adventures Of Captain Dog (Meteor City) cd 13.98
Yet more stoner rock from the deserts of Scandinavia!

BLIND GUARDIAN A Night At The Opera (Century Media) cd 14.98
Jesus here it is, what might be the most highly anticipated 'power metal' release of 2002. German metal gods Blind Guardian are a worldwide phenomenon these days, even making headway in the US of A. At least, we here at AQ have been waiting ever since their 1999 "Nightfall In Middle Earth" masterpiece for another full-length installment of the splendid, grandiose power-pomp metal that these guys conjure up so well. And since they're such big Beach Boys fans, you know they put the those last few years time in the studio to good use. The obvious comparison Blind Guardian's music evokes is to Queen, what with their multitracked vocal choruses and Brian May style overdubbed guitars. It's like "Bohemian Rhapsody" done by Iron Maiden, but without the (intentionally) camp elements of Queen (or quite the brilliance of either band, but c'mon, that's a lot to expect). Indeed, BG may be a little *too* serious, 'cause if it's sheer absurd over the topness you want, they get outdone by sillier power metal bands like Lost Horizon and Rhapsody (but BG's still pretty over the top). Unlike the Tolkien-themed "Nightfall", this new disc isn't a narrative concept album, although several songs seem to share references to Jesus -- which makes sense, since now that the Lord of the Rings is such bigtime Hollywood fare, the next best thing would be the Bible... Anyway, it's a great album, as we expected, essential for fans of the genre and a great example of how amazing melodic, symphonic, epic power metal can be for curious 'non-metallers' as well. But we do have two complaints: Firstly, as mentioned, BG must be heavily into Queen, so you think they'd know that the album title "A Night At The Opera" was already taken -- by Queen! What's up with that? Maybe it's some weird German idea of a tribute. And secondly, if you've already picked up the recent "And Then There Was Silence" ep (reviewed on AQ-L #127), then you've already got the last 14 minutes (not counting the bonus track) of this disc -- didn't realize that was going to be an album track, oh well. But, quibbles aside, fans of uber-produced, epic metal have A LOT to enjoy here!
RealAudio clip: "Precious Jerusalem"
RealAudio clip: "Under The Ice"
RealAudio clip: "Sadly Sings Destiny"

BLIND GUARDIAN A Twist In The Myth (Nuclear Blast) cd 13.98
German power metal masters Blind Guardian take a long time between their albums. And there's a reason. No churning out of easy cookie cutter stuff here. Each BG opus is a magisterial production, epic in scale and breathtaking in execution. You can tell that they probably needed the three years since their previous album, just to record this. The Blind Guardian guys probably never see the sunshine, sequestered in a recording studio 24-7. But their pastiness is our gain! A Twist In The Myth is, of course, magnificent. All the bardic bombast and medieval pomp we could hope for! It's barreling full bore heavy metal (a new drummer, new energy?) with of course glorious, singalong choruses. In a uniquely spirited fashion, they've managed to mix Celtic folk motifs with much more modern metal moves on this album, successfully so.
And it bears repeating, Blind Guardian stand apart from their Euro-power peers with an extra dose of ballsiness in both the guitar and vocals departments.
FYI: true fans will want to stay tuned at the end of the disc for the bonus interview track, though we're not sure its inclusion rings as classy as this band otherwise is...
MPEG Stream: "This Will Never Hand"
MPEG Stream: "Otherland"

BLIND GUARDIAN And Then There Was Silence (Century Media) cd ep 8.98
It's not the long-awaited new full length album from these Tolkien-obsessed German heavy metallers, but it IS two new songs, one of 'em a bona fide epic clocking in at 14:07, and that's cause enough for rejoicing 'round these parts! We've been waiting for a follow-up to their amazing "Nightfall in Middle-Earth" for a couple years now, and this (along with the Lord of the Rings movie!) has really upped our anticipation! This uber-popular band (in German, Japan, Korea... and Middle-Earth, at least) specializes in Queen-meets-Maiden power prog pomp metal. But, unlike similar over-the-top contemporaries like Rhapsody and Lost Horizon, they somehow AREN'T as cheesy and absurd... No, you really have to respect 'em as artists. They have a certain dignity. You won't catch them running around in frilly shirts, waving swords (not that there's anything wrong with that, but...) -- indeed, in the cd-rom video that is included on this cdep, the band performs in t-shirt and jeans, looking a lot more like Kreator or some other non-fantastical metal band. But, musically, they surely create otherworldly, incredible epics. "And Then There Was Silence" has an ancient Greek theme, fitting for a band that themselves will someday be considered classic.
RealAudio clip: "And Then There Was Silence"

BLIND GUARDIAN Fly (Nuclear Blast) cd ep 9.98
Ouch. Three songs, ten bucks?? (Actually it was a more painful 13 but we knocked it down since that seemed like too much.) Um, well, you have to be a really, really big Blind Guardian fan to shell out for this. And we're guessing at least one of the songs will end up on their presumably upcoming album, making this even less of a value in the long run. However, Allan HAD to buy one for himself, not just 'cause he IS a really, really big Blind Guardian fan, but also 'cause they do a cover of Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" on here, believe it or not. And he loves Iron Butterfly too. Of course, a pomptastic German power metal band doing that song is a bit of novelty. The other two tracks here are excellent BG fare, by the way.

BLIND GUARDIAN Nightfall In Middle-Earth (Century Media) cd 15.98
Wow. This first domestic release by veteran German pomp-prog-power-metallers Blind Guardian kinda blew us away (Andee and Allan that is). Expecting ultra cheese in the vein of Hammerfall, we instead found this to be immense, amazingly produced (like, 124 track) epic concept album, at once lush, melodic and aggressive. Imagine a more metallic Queen doing a record about J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, and that's what you get here! No wonder they're so huge overseas.

BLING DAWG Make Hits (RMC) 7" 2.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "One Minute Man" (Missy Elliott).

BLING DAWG Massacra (Killa) 7" 2.98
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Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "One Minute Man" (Missy Elliott).

BLIR s/t (Raster-Noton) cd 15.98

BLITHE SONS Arm Of The Starfish (Family Vineyard) cd 14.98
You know how you can 'hear the sea' when you hold a conch shell up to your ear? Well imagine listening to a conch shell and hearing not just surf but also some gentle, haunting improvised psych-folk sounds inside there as well. That's what you get with this new Blithe Sons disc. Yes, Jewelled Antler drone minstrels Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson (1/2 of Thuja) return again with recordings from their travels to some of the more scenic, out of the way spots in the Bay Area. Did I say scenic? I mean sonic. The darkness of a dank old abandoned army bunker might not be the most picturesque sight 'round these parts, but the sounds Loren and Glenn conjure within its confines are a moody delight. Of course that bunker (and other sites these two visited) are near the quite picturesque Pacific, the ocean providing the seashore/undersea imagery and inspiration for Arm Of The Starfish. The hiss and hum of the Blithe Sons' field recordings of their own musical activities could be the sea in the distance... This cd is really lovely and droney and it makes me imagine that they have overloaded a ramshackle rowboat with their 'instruments' -- guitars, harmonium, bells, tape recorders, bits of driftwood, glassy pebbles, rusted metal, who knows? we're just guessing -- and floated out on an ancient lake, becalmed in the evening dusk, to sing softly as their boat slowly sinks and the sun sets.
MPEG Stream: "Sun Anenome"
MPEG Stream: "Foam"

BLITHE SONS Dirt and Clouds (Jewelled Antler) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Loren Chasse, proud owner of a brand new cd-burner, began the Jewelled Antler label as an outlet to release small cd-r pressings of a variety of warbled psychedelic projects that have spun-off from his bands Thuja and Knit Separates. The Blithe Sons is the first such release, featuring Chasse and Glenn Donaldson (from Mirza as well as Thuja / Knit Separates). Despite hailing from San Francisco, Chasse and Donaldson have tapped into a vein of melancholic UK psychedelia which runs from the Wicker Man soundtrack through to the early instrumentals of Eyeless In Gaza and the pensive sounds of Richard Youngs. While Donaldson's expressive guitar lines are central to the Blithe Sons arrangements, the album's uniqueness is found in the production work which often positions the quiet instrumentation in the pronounced foreground making the songs so intimate, as to seem played right inside your ears... or brings in some quite textural noises (very common to Chasse's solo sound investigations and manipulated field recordings) as a 'duet' with the melodic lines of the guitar. Very nice work! Based on this, the next Blithe Sons release deserves be a "real" cd release on a proper label (although the musical quality, beautiful packaging and reasonable price of this release shows that cd-r labels are sometimes quite worthwhile).
RealAudio clip: "Calamus Parade"
RealAudio clip: "Crescent-Shaped Sails"

BLITHE SONS Green Mansions (Jewelled Antler) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Blithe Sons are the duo of Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson, who last graced us with the lovely We Walk The Young Earth disc on Family Vineyard back in March. You know Loren and Glenn from Thuja and Franciscan Hobbies and much else as well. Now they're back with another Blithe Sons installment on their own Jewelled Antler cd-r label. And not only is it a great record in its own right, it's also a sort of present to us here at Aquarius, Loren and Glenn's way of celebrating Andee and Allan taking over the biz, as it's only gonna be sold here and we're burning the discs ourselves and reaping the profits -- it's sort of an AQ benefit disc, really. Thanks guys!!
As they tell it, the story of Green Mansions is thus: somehow (via a secret garden? a rabbit hole? a mystical waredrobe?) Loren and Glenn found themselves alone at an empty English manor house. Going out on the grounds of the estate, they set up various stringed instruments in the fields, strewing them with grains so as to attract woodland creatures to venture forth in the dusk to "play" the instruments. A nice story...and sure, yeah, Green Mansions does sound a bit like that! Magical, natural. Glenn's delicate, wispy vocals and the general folk-psych atmosphere remind us of Richard Youngs, and even Jandek a bit (in a good way). Warm warbly tape hiss, acoustic guitar, bell-like synth, harmonium, and field recordings amongst other sound sources are blended into beds of shimmering drones that make us imagine the pastel sounds of a child's mobile slowly twirling in the "heavens". Really really nice in other words, and we're not just saying that since it's "our" release. Seriously recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Patio Of The Cypresses"
MPEG Stream: "Place Of The Past"

BLITHE SONS Waves of Grass (Jewelled Antler) cd-r 9.98
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Recorded this past spring in the open air of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Waves of Grass is the second release from The Blithe Sons, an offshoot of the improv-drone ensemble Thuja, featuring Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson. Like miniatures of the legendary idiosyncratic performances of the Taj Mahal Travellers some three decades ago when they played their amplified sitars and cellos to the Japanese countryside, this work finds Chasse and Donaldson performing their semi-improvised songs for harmonium drones and gently sad guitar strum for a (perhaps) indifferent audience of grass, insects, and birds in the Park. These extended droning passages occasionally arppegiate into simple melodies and are often interjected by the cackle of a crow or the buzz of a marauding fly. Altogether, The Blithe Sons have again produced a very interesting sonic amalgamation.
RealAudio clip: "Sun & Rock / The Constant Leaf"
RealAudio clip: "Direction"

BLITHE SONS, THE The Great Orthochromatic Wheel (Family Vineyard) lp 14.98
Lo, the Great Orthochromatic Wheel (?) dost turn! And with it, comes a happenstance that shall bring happiness to Jewelled Antler fanciers the world over: yes, a new album from the very special Blithe Sons duo, our friends Loren Chasse (Of, Ov, Thuja, Child Readers, etc. etc. ETC.) and Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards, Thuja, The Ivytree, Jex Thoth, etc., etc., ETC.). They'd been on a bit of an unofficial hiatus for far too long, taking a little 'time out' as it were, and we were both surprised and pleased to hear tell of not only this album's impending release but also to attend the 'reunion' show they did a couple months back, opening for Van Der Graaf's Peter Hammill at The Great American Music Hall here in SF. At that show they previewed some of what you'll hear here, and it's the usual Blithe Sons naturalistic improv-folk magick conjured from stones and branches well as actual instruments like acoustic guitar, harmonium and recorder. Field recordings suggest the hum of twilight grasses, a pleasant place to find Glenn's gentle Richard Youngish vocals whispering elegiacally o'er the drones and chimes of the Blithe Sons' abstract, organic, mutedly melodic soundworld.
And, they've woven some cover material into their own compositions/improvisations here, doing Jewelled Antlerized interpretations of ye olde progge songs by, we believe Genesis, and perhaps others... prog fans, listen close. Makes sense they'd play with P. Hammill!
There's no cd version of this LP, but it does come with a coupon to allow you to download mp3s of these tracks to your computer.

BLITHE SONS, THE We Walk The Young Earth (Family Vineyard) cd 14.98
These days, any band that uses improvisation with heavy doses of loose, opiated psychedelia, lazy comparisons will inevitably be drawn to the No Neck Blues Band. It has to be said that The Blithe Sons, who have warranted a number of such comparisons, sound ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like the No Neck Blues Band. And actually they are much better off because of it... The Blithe Sons, of course, are the Jewelled Antler Collective's most active members Loren Chasse (Thuja, Child Readers, Id Battery, Coelacanth, etc.) and Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Skygreen Leopards, Bird / Ivy / Olivetree, etc.), having literally embraced their philosophy that "making music should be a picnic." Thus, they've taken to hiking all across coastal California, recording their pastoral avant-folk songs and empathic minimalist actions in direct communion with the landscape around them. The two sites which are particular to the Sons' third album "We Walk The Young Earth" were a wooden bridge in San Gregorio and the concrete bunkers scattered throughout the Marin Headlands. The latter were sites that have played a large role in many of the textural amplifications that Chasse produced in Id Battery; however, Chasse doesn't return the Blithe Sons to the smoldering abrasions of Id Battery. Rather, "We Walked The Young Earth" turns their minimalist hymns and melancholic drones toward a space that is even quieter, more introspective than anything yet produced by the Jewelled Antler collective, as if they've become hypnotized by their own reverberating drones in the confines of the bunker. It's true that in these spaces, Chasse and Donaldson spend a considerable amount of time listening to the environment around them, and shaping sounds that are sympathetic to those spaces. That's something with which the No Neck Blues Band has never really ever succeeded, instead opting for more of a druggy improv stumble. A sleepy album for sure, "We Walk The Young Earth" is another gorgeous album from these perennial AQ staff favorites.
MPEG Stream: "The Book Of Names"
MPEG Stream: "Green Patterns"
MPEG Stream: "All Children's Faces Looking Upwards"

BLITZEN TRAPPER War Is Placebo / Booksmart Baby (Record Store Day) (Sub Pop) 7" 5.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BLK JKS After Robots (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98

BLK JKS Mystery (self-released) cd ep 6.98

BLO Chapters And Phases: The Complete Albums 1973-1975 (RPM) cd 17.98
Years ago the Strut label wowed us with a collection of tracks from this band from Lagos, Nigeria. The disc was called Phases 1972-1982, touching upon Blo's output from their early psychedelic rock tracks to their later more disco dance stuff. As we put it in our review, first you'll pick up your bong, then put it down and put on your roller skates. Well, that's out of print, but now RPM has released this disc, compiling the band's first two albums, Chapter One from 1973 and Phase II from 1975. It's on the "bong-ier" side of Blo's discography, definitely, their earlier material being quite laidback, stoned, and super fuzzed out, especially the stuff from their first record. The trio of musicians in this group were previously part of the band Salt, formed by drummer Ginger Baker from Cream during his residency in Lagos in the early '70s. Striking out on their own as Blo, they effortlessly melded Afro-beat funk with trippy Western garage psych choogle. Afro-American influences, the likes of both Jimi and the JB's, are certainly heard here also. Wah wah fuzz guitars, sunny melodies, spaced out vocals, and rhythms from hand percussion, clanking chains and bells, all coexist here in blissful grooviness.
If you dig those Sound Way comps like Nigeria Rock Special (on which Blo appear, in fact) or other recent Afro-rock reissues like Ofege and Chrissy Zebby Tembo, you'll probably be into Blo! And, if you already have that out of print Strut collection of Blo stuff we mentioned, it only includes 7 of the 15 tracks here, so if you liked the earlier half of that comp you then need/want this too.
MPEG Stream: "Preacherman"
MPEG Stream: "Beware"
MPEG Stream: "Whole Lot Of Shit"

BLO Phases 1972-1982 (Afro Strut) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Funky afro-rock from this '70s Nigerian band. This compiles tracks from their four albums, and ranges from the mellow psychedelic rock (in a West Coast mode) of their early stuff to a much more dance-oriented, disco-inflected groove later on, that you could confuse with Kool & The Gang or a New Orleans combo. So, as you listen to this, you'll first pick up the bong, then put it down and strap on your roller skates...Byram prefers the earlier stuff but Allan thinks the whole thing is pretty fab and full of sunshine. Another prize-winning obscurity rescued from the vaults, courtesy of reissue/compilation label Strut!
RealAudio clip: "Miss Sagit"
RealAudio clip: "Chant To Mother Earth"
RealAudio clip: "Scandi Boogie"
RealAudio clip: "Number One"
RealAudio clip: "Get That Groove In"

BLO Phases 1972-1982 (Afro Strut) 2lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Funky afro-rock from this '70s Nigerian band. This compiles tracks from their four albums, and ranges from the mellow psychedelic rock (in a West Coast mode) of their early stuff to a much more dance-oriented, disco-inflected groove later on, that you could confuse with Kool & The Gang or a New Orleans combo. So, as you listen to this, you'll first pick up the bong, then put it down and strap on your roller skates...Byram prefers the earlier stuff but Allan thinks the whole thing is pretty fab and full of sunshine. Another prize-winning obscurity rescued from the vaults, courtesy of reissue/compilation label Strut!

BLOC PARTY A Weekend In The City (Vice) cd 15.98
Yep, this one is sure to have the Vice Magazine scene frothing at the mouth! And in this case, it's not just for love of irony, shock and grossout. This is a mighty fine album! Hopefully the anti-Vice crowd won't be dissuaded from checking it out... Anyhoo, much like a number of their hyped-to-the-moon hipster dance rock contemporaries of a couple years ago, Bloc Party have wisely shifted their focus and expanded their sound since their hot shit Silent Alarm debut. The band has risen to the challenge of shedding the decidedly one-dimensional '80s fueled dance punk trappings, but unlike many of those same contemporaries, they haven't desperately transformed themselves into something alienatingly unrecognizable. Although we did pause for a moment of uncertainty during the first song to make sure that this was indeed Bloc Party, as the album progresses the familiar voice of Kele Okereke rings through. On A Weekend In The City Bloc Party are definitely not in it for the vacuous, line cutting party time. Although the infectious, driving insistence of tracks such as "Hunting For Witches" and "Uniform" definitely getcha up and bring to mind The Faint and Pulp respectively, the shadowy, heady swoon of songs like "The Prayer" aligns them more with TV On The Radio. Darker, moodier, heavier, sturdier and above all else more deeply personal, Bloc Party are aiming for so much more than a one night stand, and they succeed enormously. Pretty great!
MPEG Stream: "Hunting For Witches"
MPEG Stream: "On"

BLOC PARTY Intimacy (Atlantic) cd 14.98

BLOC PARTY s/t (Dim Mak) cd ep 11.98

MPEG Stream: "Banquet"
MPEG Stream: "Staying Fat"

BLOC PARTY Silent Alarm (Vice / Dim Mak) cd 12.98
There's a bizillion bands right now (and surely many more to come) that sound *exactly* like this (Maximo Park, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand and Futureheads to name a few of the ones some of us here prefer). Y'know, young bands whose members grew up hearing their older brothers' and sisters' records by The Fall, XTC, The Clash, Gang of Four and Duran Duran. Yelped, emotive vocals strained through their Danish accents atop an electric guitar blend of furious strumming and effected chime-y picked notes, a punchy drum beat and a seeming after-thought addition of a synth line to give it that very 'now' 80s sound. No deep listening allowed, just fun fun fun! So the task at hand is to sift through the cookie cutter redundancy to find the really stand-out stuff (or you might say, the packaging style you prefer -- sharkskin suit? well-worn denim?). Even so, each band's album only seems good for at least one or two totally awesome solid pop songs with the rest of it serving as filler comprised of inferior versions of the same idea. Such just might be the case with Bloc Party's debut full length -- although no single song has jumped out and made us exclaim, "Hot damn!!!" like Maximo Park's "Apply Some Pressure" did. That said, this record could just be a slow grower, as the more it gets played, the more we're digging it. Which is a good thing too, since you might as well get used to this Silent Alarm 'cause much like other 'buzz bands' whether you like it or not you're not going to be able to escape hearing more than your share of this band in the next few months. But strangely, no matter how much we're digging this record, it still just makes us want to pull out Pulp's Different Class album and blast it at full volume! Funny that.
MPEG Stream: "Like Eating Glass"
MPEG Stream: "Positive Tension"

BLOC PARTY Silent Alarm Remixed (Vice) 2cd 15.98
We might as well stop denying it, we love this stuff. Maximo Park, Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs. How can you not. Modern twisted takes on stone cold classics, Gang Of Four, XTC, the Clash. Sure it's not entirely original, but so what, it sounds fan-fucking-tastic. And Bloc Party fits right in there, reanimating their own favorite postpunk corpses and getting them (and us) dancing like crazy.
So a popular band, a popular record, you know what that means. The dreaded REMIX RECORD. Once in a while however, whether it's the choice of bands, the song selection, pure luck, a remix record totally and completely blows away the original record. This is most definitely one of those cases. You know, when you hear a band cover another bands song, like say a metal band covering a Cure song, and you think "Why aren't there bands that just sound like that, a metal Cure? How cool would that be?" Or "Why aren't all that band's songs this good?" Substitute any band or any song, you know what we're talking about. A totally boring band can shine like a diamond when it's taking on a killer tune. Sometimes it reflects poorly on the band, demonstrating how weak their songs actually are when held up to some 'real' songwriting. But in the case of a remix record that eclipses the original, more often, it's a case of the remix record being so much weirder and varied and all over the map, while still retaining that connective thread that is the sound of the original record. Such is the case with Silent Alarm Remixed. A couple of these tracks showed up as bonus tracks on the import version, and were SO good that it got many folks we know to shell out the extra $$ for the 2 or 3 extra tracks (and who are now kicking themselves since those tracks are included here) but here, surrounded by a whole records worth of interpretations, makes us wish that this was Bloc Party's record proper. M83 offer up a buzzy, dense wall of fuzz, with layered vocals, thick synthesizers and just a HUGE sound. Four Tet's track is a smeary, shimmery, drone-y, dreamy, cloudy drone, that eventually kicks into a more jangly reverb drenched blur. Mogwai turn Bloc Party into moody post rock, their track a churning, slow building, pulsing epic. And the rest of the record follows suit, stretching Silent Alarm into strange new shapes: Ladytron turn their track into blissy electronic pop like Postal Service or Styrofoam, Whitey give their song some strummy post pock bounce, Blackbox give their version a bit of eighties new wave sheen with some aggro, angular post punk swagger, the Engineers' turn their Bloc Party into a super murky sexy dirge. Woah. Now, if someone had given us this Bloc Party record, we would have been completely blown away thinking this was the sound of one band, but maybe that's just too much to hope for. So what? Well, we like the remix record more than the record being remixed? Makes perfect sense to us. And for those of you who found Silent Alarm to be just a tiny bit too boring and predictable, this might just do the trick.
MPEG Stream: "The Pioneers (M83 Remix)"
MPEG Stream: "Plans (Mogwai Remix)"

BLOC PARTY Tulips (Dim Mak) cd single 5.98
Here's a new super-shortie CD from Bloc Party. It includes three renditions of their song "Tulips" -- the original version, a 'club version' remixed by Minotaur Shock and a video version. Gotta say I don't think I'd want to be at the club that plays the club version... it's a little too mopey melancholic... or maybe I just wasn't playing it loud enough and Lord knows our store stereo system doesn't pump out the boomin' bass of a nightclub, so who knows?! 'Though it could also be that the song sounds like Morrissey style lyricism over sped-up computer-krafted Brit pop. Hmmm, definitely more of an end-of-the-night wind-down song, and much less of the lively party atmosphere than we've come to expect from the Bloc kids. A new supposedly kick ass full length drops in a week or two!
MPEG Stream: "Tulips (Club Version)"

BLOCKS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE UNBROKEN CONTINUUM s/t (Sound 323) book+dvd 90.00
We here at Aquarius Records can be proud that we have an audience who is just as passionate and devoted as we are to a broad spectrum of musics. As much as we would like to, we just can't completely cover every amazing genre, sub-genre, regional dialect, and radical enclave of the world's musical community. We definitely try our best, but just imagine if we did somehow manage, those biweekly email lists would easily triple in size with our fingers spread even further than they already are. While it would be nice to expand our little aesthetic fiefdom, we have to admit that there are plenty of shops around the globe that fill in the gaps. One of those is London's Sound 323, whose niche market emphasizes all things dealing with academic composition, free improv, electro-acoustics, and in particular the pristine aspects of what has been dubbed the "New London Silence." In fact, one of chief protagonists of this London circle of Feldman-esque composers is Sound 323's proprietor Mark Wastell. He along with The Wire's scribe Brian Marley are the editors of a brick of a book published by Sound 323, handsomely designed as an art edition monograph and filled with articles by David Toop, Clive Bell, Brian Marley, Dan Warburton, Andy Hamilton and Will Montgomery as well as texts expounding upon the eroding distinction between improvisation and composition from the likes of Otomo Yoshihide, Bernhard Gunter, Phil Durrant, Steve Roden, Jerome Noetinger, Mattin, and many many other. The book also features a DVD of concert footage from the likes of Keith Rowe, Evan Parker, John Tilbury, Tetuzi Akiyama, Eddie Prevost, John Butcher, and more. Hmm, curious that all of the latest members of AMM make appearances, but no footage from the ensemble that pretty much started the whole push toward the decentered notion of what is composed beforehand and what is created in the moment.
With sound art becoming more and more of a cultural force in the art world (perhaps that should be art with a capital 'A'), Blocks Of Consciousness And The Unbroken Continuum is bound to be one of those historically important documents, detailing one particular cultural phenomenon as it happens by those who are making it happen. At 350+ pages bound in a hefty hardcover book, this is no easy tome to digest; but is well the effort you'll put into it.

BLODULV II (Total Holocaust Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I know we talk about buzzing, primitive, grim and frosty black metal all the time. What can we say? We love that stuff. But this Blodulv record is sooooo grim and ridiculously frosty and utterly primitive. And buzzing! Don't forget the buzz! The guitars are just a swarm of buzzing metal mosquitos, filling your ears with hellish blackness. The tempos are mostly mid, even the blast beats remain just on the edge of midtempo, and the vocals are hyper distorted, to the point of sounding like modulated white noise. And the riffs! The riffs hum and whir and drone, like some sort of devilish lullaby, a hypnotic siren's song that lulls you into a trance like state, all the easier for their satanic message to sink in. For fans of Burzum, Darkthrone, and all manner of ravishing grimness.
MPEG Stream: "Desolate"
MPEG Stream: "Stronghold"

BLODULV II (Knightmare) cd 13.98
This slab of black metal grimnity was originally unleashed upon the world by Sweden's Total Holocaust label. After being out of print for some time, it's now reissued in a digipack by a new label. Our prior review:
I know we talk about buzzing, primitive, grim and frosty black metal all the time. What can we say? We love that stuff. But this Blodulv record is sooooo grim and ridiculously frosty and utterly primitive. And buzzing! Don't forget the buzz! The guitars are just a swarm of buzzing metal mosquitos, filling your ears with hellish blackness. The tempos are mostly mid, even the blast beats remain just on the edge of midtempo, and the vocals are hyper distorted, to the point of sounding like modulated white noise. And the riffs! The riffs hum and whir and drone, like some sort of devilish lullaby, a hypnotic siren's song that lulls you into a trance like state, all the easier for their satanic message to sink in. For fans of Burzum, Darkthrone, and all manner of ravishing grimness.
MPEG Stream: "Desolate"
MPEG Stream: "Stronghold"

BLODULV III - Burial (Eerie Art) cd 15.98
We managed to get another batch of these black beauties in, not sure how long they'll last though...
Blodulv just continue to get more grim, more frosty, more creepy and blackened. How that's even possible at this point is beyond us. The last record, appropriately titled II, was about as grim as it could reasonably get, and yet their sound gets more and more impenetrably dense and buzzy. And we love it. This is most definitely not blazing fast black metal, this is more of the Burzum midtempo hypno-drone-buzz school. A doomy dirgey thrashy blackness, pulsing and throbbing, loping along with occasional stretches of grime-y vitriolic tarpit sludge. The vocals are recorded so hot and so blown out it sounds like the singer is standing right there in your face, shrieking with all his might, showering you with spit and sweat and blood (eww). So intense and so intensely black and heavy.
MPEG Stream: "Burial"
MPEG Stream: "Imperial Sanctum"

BLOGGS Music For Multiples (Frenzel Lensone) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Solo experimentalism from Joe Bloggs, (rhBand, ex-Ralph Haxton Collective). In keeping with rhBand's drone/krautrock intent, Bloggs utilizes metal bowls, contact mics, woodwinds, harmonium, pvc pipe, and more to create some lovely, repetitive, organic sounds.

BLONDE REDHEAD 23 (4AD) cd 13.98
While we were listening to this new Blonde Redhead we found ourselves musing about how they'd probably do a really great theme song for a James Bond or David Fincher movie. Dark, brooding and mysterious with a seriously palpable tension, 23 finds the band cementing its place at the meeting point between Sonic Youth and Radiohead. With a production that sounds much more sleek in a modern rock sort of way, there is no denying that despite the new gloss and freshly polished suit of sonic armor there still lies utterly great songs at the core of Blonde Redhead's sound. There are some moments where the band explores some totally new directions, like on the track "Silently" which sounds a lot like Abba covering the Four Seasons' "Too Good To Be True"... which is of course a very good thing! But overall, all the ingredients that made Blonde Redhead such a great band are still present. The swirling melodies, the sensuality, the lush arrangements. So while we still kind of wish Guy Piccoto (Fugazi) had worked his production magic on 23, we still can't help but be in head over heels in love with the sweepingly epic music of this amazing trio.
Comes with a ltd. edition 7" while supplies last!
MPEG Stream: "Silently"
MPEG Stream: "SW"
MPEG Stream: "23"

BLONDE REDHEAD 23 (4AD) lp 13.98
While we were listening to this new Blonde Redhead we found ourselves musing about how they'd probably do a really great theme song for a James Bond or David Fincher movie. Dark, brooding and mysterious with a seriously palpable tension, 23 finds the band cementing its place at the meeting point between Sonic Youth and Radiohead. With a production that sounds much more sleek in a modern rock sort of way, there is no denying that despite the new gloss and freshly polished suit of sonic armor there still lies utterly great songs at the core of Blonde Redhead's sound. There are some moments where the band explores some totally new directions, like on the track "Silently" which sounds a lot like Abba covering the Four Seasons' "Too Good To Be True"... which is of course a very good thing! But overall, all the ingredients that made Blonde Redhead such a great band are still present. The swirling melodies, the sensuality, the lush arrangements. So while we still kind of wish Guy Piccoto (Fugazi) had worked his production magic on 23, we still can't help but be in head over heels in love with the sweepingly epic music of this amazing trio.
Comes with a ltd. edition 7" while supplies last!
MPEG Stream: "Silently"
MPEG Stream: "SW"
MPEG Stream: "23"