BAKER, AIDAN Liminoid / Lifeforms (Alien8 Recordings) cd 15.98
The latest from the always impressive, and always prolific Aidan Baker, who creates thick wall of sound doomgaze in the duo Nadja, and much more personal, hushed drone music under his own name, but more and more has been expanding his scope with various collaborations and large ensembles. This might be the biggest ensemble he's worked with, 8 players, all contributing vocals, three guitars, two drummers, violin and two cellos. And it does sound like what you might imagine, a sort of Aidan Baker drone record / chamber music hybrid, long languid tones, plenty of cymbal shimmer, the strings moan and sing, the sounds ebb and flow, swelling ominously, building to swirling crescendos, before slipping back into something more minimal and contemplative, "Liminoid" is split into 4 movements, and is about as close to classical music as Baker has come, at least in the first part, the second part shifts gears dramatically, transforming into something more jazzy and propulsive, a sort of krautrock thing, but with a jazzy slow shifting Necks vibe, eventually building to a dense tribal workout, before slipping into part 3, all shimmery blissy drift, soft focus and sun dappled, the drums an understated slowcore shuffle, leading up to the 15 minute final movement, where the vocalists team up for a haunting bit of choral drama, which explodes into full on free jazz freakout wall of sound, finishing off with a long form spaced out drone jam, that definitely reminds us of a super stripped down White Hills, psychedelic and washed out and very hypnotic.
The second piece, the nearly 30 minute "Lifeforms" is a smaller ensemble, Baker on guitar, with violin, cello and 'amplified metal works', the metal works had us expecting something clangy and bombastic, but instead, it's almost all warm whirling ambient shimmer, much more in keeping with Baker's solo sounds, near the end, the sounds shift, and the strings move to the fore, weaving dramatic melodies over the slow burning drone underneath, the result very cinematic. Quite nice.
MPEG Stream: "Liminoid 1"
MPEG Stream: "Liminoid 2"
MPEG Stream: "Lifeforms"

BAKER, AIDAN Live From The Rotunda (Philadelphia, PA, February 2007) (Gears Of Sand) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not one, but TWO new Aidan Baker releases this time around, the reissue of Nadja's out of print cd-r Bliss Torn From Emptiness, and this, an ultra limited live document, of Baker performing in Philadelphia in February of 2007.
A gorgeous set of deep dark ambient drones, minimal, ghostly, haunting, slow building, but never really reaching resolution, instead building all sorts of glorious tension, then slowly fading out again. The opener, is a slowly swirling sea of deep dark tones, almost bell like, but spread out into lugubrious melodies, softly pulsing and gently drifting. The middle two tracks are much less bass heavy, instead offering up hisses and whirs, the creepy exhalations of some old abandoned industrial wasteland, notes and tones and chimes, slowly making their way up from the abyss, through the hazy, gauzey atmosphere, indistinct and blurred, but gradually taking shape, and assembling themselves into almost-melodies.
The final and longest track, begins super spare, long tones, and single notes let loose in an expanse of soft shimmer and lots and lots of space, like someone playing a guitar, in slow motion, miles away, the sounds taking forever to reach the speakers, and once they do, they've degraded and changed, merely shadows of the original sounds they once were. But the track explodes near the end into a glorious polyphonic sonic sunburst, streaks of high end skree shot skyward, the crowd bathed in the white glow of this pulsing, organic, slowly expanding sound. And with all live shows like this, the smattering of applause at the end is so surprising, like there were only maybe 20 people there (which there probably were) as the sound is so massive, it's hard not to imagine that Baker wasn't in some huge cathedral, behind a massive bank of lights and soundmakers, instead of hunched over his gear in some dingy little club.
Recorded by Scott Slimm, who runs the aRCHIVE label (as well as recording many of the live aRCHIVE releases), and gorgeously packaged in an elaborate fold over origami style cardstock sleeve, silkscreened, each one hand numbered, with a full color insert, and of course... LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

BAKER, AIDAN Lost In A Rat Maze (Consouling Sounds) cd 14.98
Latest from musical polymath Aidan Baker, and by now, long time readers of the aQ list should be well aware of the scope of Baker's musical vision, solo, it ranges from deep drones to shimmery abstract jazz to hushed minimal ambience, and of course in his duo Nadja, the sound shifts from crushing slo-mo dreamgaze doom to lumbering metallic crush, with plenty of forays into more abstract minimalism. From what we'd read about this record, supposedly it found Baker expanding his seemingly boundary-free sound once again, by trying his hand at a sort of post rock, or more specifically, harnessing his incredible soundscaping skills into a slightly more song based form.
There does seem to be a bit more structure, but really, it's only a bit, the songs here drift and shimmer, sprawl and drift, most anchored by a minimal skeletal rhythm, but even then, the sound isn't rhythmic as much as atmospheric. The rhythm exists more as a pulse, adding to the texture more than the propulsion, at its MOST rhythmic, it adds a sort of looped mesmer, regardless, it seems that Baker can do no wrong, cuz this is a gorgeous chunk of ethereal drift.
The opening prelude is a lush, gauzy bit of piano flecked Jeck-like thrum, a warm, whirling soft focus abstract ballad, and it's yet another number that we would have been perfectly happy to see fill up the whole rest of the cd, but it is titled "Prelude" for a reason, and introduces us to the gorgeous soundworld that is Lost In The Rat Maze. We kind of expected the record to launch into something much more rocking, especially with all the talk of 'post rock', but instead, the title track unfurls dreamily like some Philip Jeck / Necks mash up, minimal and cyclical, the rhythm here more skittery and WAY abstract, wordless vocals drifting in the cloudy fuzzy mix, a definite looped feel too, the sound lush and layered, a little jazzy, but more than anything mesmerizingly dreamlike, even when guitars (recognizable ones at least) come in, they simple hover and shimmer, and add another layer of sound. And this track too, like the rest of them, could easily have been stretched out into their very own full lengths. In fact, there may not be better praise for this record than just that, the fact that this almost sounds like a collection of edits, it's not hard at all to imagine each of these tracks being their own fully contained album, but here, they're all woven into a single songsuite, the songs bleeding into one another, following an ethereal dreammusic arc, the sound shifting ever so subtly from hushed shimmer, to soft rhythmic churn and back again, all the while bathed in a haze of warm sonic hum, which gives the whole record that sort of washed out otherworldly sound we can't seem to ever get enough of. Feels foolish to proclaim every new Baker record our favorite, but we're digging this one about as much as his recent Still Life, which is saying A LOT.
MPEG Stream: "Lost In A Rat Maze"
MPEG Stream: "Fanciful Flights"
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Stand"

BAKER, AIDAN Noise Of Silence (Essence Music) cd 14.98
We sold out of the pre-ordered super deluxe boxset version of the latest full length from dronescaper Aidan Baker, but fear not, for those of you who didn't want to shell out $52 for that deluxe edition, we've got this, the standard version, still quite swank, a deluxe black, blue and silver metallic, 6 panel digipak style sleeve, with the same amazing music at a much nicer price...
By now, long time readers of the aQ list know how much we dig Aidan Baker and all his various projects, and it seems that you all do too, based on how many of his records we sell. The sad thing is that so many of his most amazing records were released as super limited cd-r's, often so limited that we were never able to get any for the shop at all. Such was the case with 2007's Noise Of Silence. Originally released on Hyperblasted, the amazing Essence Music in Brazil has now stepped in to make this dark droney gem available again...
So what's the big deal about Noise Of Silence? Needless to say at this point, it's doozy, a gorgeous, haunting, 50 minute abstract drone/drift, super cinematic, rife with dark chordal swells, layered shimmer, mysterious disembodied voices, a strange bit of processed sibilance, that could be the vocals processed, but instead becomes weird little shards of soft focus white noise peppering the hushed soundscape, almost like the sonic equivalent of white caps on a blackened sea. It doesn't take long for the track to blossom into something far from tranquil and drifty, the sound growing more agitated, the vibe more noisy, the atmosphere more dense, the voices more strident, a swirling cacophony, that manages to build to an almost white noise squall, but even them the edges are smoothed out, and the sound, while harsh and heavy, still manages to be darkly droney and weirdly hypnotic, the sounds grinding and crunching, the various tones splintering and crumbling, a heady blown out wildly looped collage that gradually settles into something much more mellow, the last 20 minutes a slowly decaying stretch of ambient dronemusic, the whispery shadows of that cacophony still present, hissing and swirling just below the surface, seriously and surprisingly haunting and demonic Baker, we can definitely imaging this as the score for some experimental foreign horror / art film. Gorgeous stuff for sure, and definitely on the dark side of Baker's sound, one we don't get to hear as much as we'd like. Obviously WAY recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt"

BAKER, AIDAN Oneiromancer (Die Stadt) cd 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK, BUT ONLY THE SINGLE DISC VERSION.
There was a time not too long ago, when Aidan Baker and his various projects (Nadja, Arc) were an underground secret. Loads of super limited releases, a small but loyal following. But that is slowly beginning to change. It was unavoidable really. A quick look at Baker's website reveals the fact that there are over sixty releases, as well as a bunch of compilation appearances. And all of the ones we've heard display a deft hand at dark minimal drones, slow crushing sludge and krautrock flecked psychedelic drift (solo, Nadja and Arc respectively). Often some delirious mix of the three. On Oneiromancer, Baker flies solo, managing a small one man ensemble of electric guitar, bass guitar, tapeloops, piano, percussion, drum machine, vocals all recorded on recorded on 4-track, and woven into rumbling, cavernous dronescapes, filled with all manner of little sonic imperfections, haunting fragments of melody, noisy clatter, and ambient hiss and whir. Each track is a murky musical journey through thick washes of lowercase sound. Whether it's the subaquatic drift of the album's opener, floating weightless through a dark but sun dappled undersea world, or the conversation filled cavern of the second track, voices shimmer and echo, surrounded by soft billowing low end, and haunting footstep like click and thump. The whole record continues in the same vein, exploring lost worlds, at its darkest, Oneiromancer invokes a sense of dread, a feeling of claustrophobia, incorporating elements of industrial noise, processed vocals, creaking groaning metal and thick heavily effected guitar, at its dreamiest, it's a tranquil spacescape of soft shapes and liquid atmospheres, an eyes closed out of body sonic experience. So lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Wake Up"
MPEG Stream: "Death Too Wrapped In Dream"

BAKER, AIDAN Oneiromancer (Die Stadt) 2cd 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There was a time not too long ago, when Aidan Baker and his various projects (Nadja, Arc) were an underground secret. Loads of super limited releases, a small but loyal following. But that is slowly beginning to change. It was unavoidable really. A quick look at Baker's website reveals the fact that there are over sixty releases, as well as a bunch of compilation appearances. And all of the ones we've heard display a deft hand at dark minimal drones, slow crushing sludge and krautrock flecked psychedelic drift (solo, Nadja and Arc respectively). Often some delirious mix of the three. On Oneiromancer, Baker flies solo, managing a small one man ensemble of electric guitar, bass guitar, tapeloops, piano, percussion, drum machine, vocals all recorded on recorded on 4-track, and woven into rumbling, cavernous dronescapes, filled with all manner of little sonic imperfections, haunting fragments of melody, noisy clatter, and ambient hiss and whir. Each track is a murky musical journey through thick washes of lowercase sound. Whether it's the subaquatic drift of the album's opener, floating weightless through a dark but sun dappled undersea world, or the conversation filled cavern of the second track, voices shimmer and echo, surrounded by soft billowing low end, and haunting footstep like click and thump. The whole record continues in the same vein, exploring lost worlds, at its darkest, Oneiromancer invokes a sense of dread, a feeling of claustrophobia, incorporating elements of industrial noise, processed vocals, creaking groaning metal and thick heavily effected guitar, at its dreamiest, it's a tranquil spacescape of soft shapes and liquid atmospheres, an eyes closed out of body sonic experience. So lovely.
Limited to 600 copies. The first 300 contain a bonus live disc, recorded live in 2005. We'll have the double disc version as long as they last. The live set, recorded using only the sound of processed guitars, is just as lovely as Oneiromancer, but a lot more shimmery and dreamlike, muted and mumbled, a truly lovely exploration into the guitar, revealing a mysterious stringed soundworld far removed from strumming and picking, a distant land of abstract beauty.
MPEG Stream: "Wake Up"
MPEG Stream: "Death Too Wrapped In Dream"

BAKER, AIDAN Only Stories (The Kora Records) lp 19.98
Latest from the uber prolific Aidan Baker, of mighty doomdronedirge duo Nadja, and as we've discovered in the past, Nadja is Baker's outlet for the heavier stuff, while working under his own name he tends to veer toward the minimal, ambient and drone side of the spectrum. So that's what we were sort of expecting from this, and while it definitely does lean more toward those sounds that the crush of Nadja, it's actually something else entirely, a solo acoustic record. That's right, just acoustic guitar and voice.
And Baker actually manages to pull it off. He doesn't lace his hushed abstract folk with heaving low end or thick drones, instead he weaves surprisingly lush expanses of minimal drift, and barely there strum, his voice an intimate croon, the sound dark, and doleful, melancholy and moody.
This dark hushes psychedelia stretches out over three songs and two sides, the pace glacial, the guitars buzzing and shimmering, whispery and abstract, there are occasional bits of overdubbing, but used judiciously, to create sweet vocal harmonies, or an unexpected melodic counterpoint. But no matter, the sounds always seem to shift back and settle into something barely there and dreamlike. But this is Baker after all, so on the second side he does manage to coax some buzz and drone and metallic shimmer from those steel strings, and those bits of metallic filigree simply add to the already rich, lush sound, and offer more texture, and another layer of sound to interact with the subtle strum and mumbled croon. Really nice.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES! Incredibly elaborate packaging too, a striking letter pressed inner sleeve, displayed through a die cut, origami style fold over outer sleeve. Wow.

BAKER, AIDAN Pendulum (Gears Of Sand) cd 11.98
Another fantastic release from Aidan Baker, who when he's not making beautiful sounds on his own also spends time making beautiful sounds in the groups Nadja and Arc.
Soundmaking and creating music has to be as compelling and interesting for the maker as it is for the listener, especially when it's improvised music. Often the process is as important as the resulting sounds, even if the listener has no idea what is involved. But often as a listener, it's pretty exciting to know just how the sounds were created. For Pendulum, Baker recorded an electric guitar in a single take, doubled it, and then reversed the double. That probably makes more sense to you guitar / tech nerds out there, but it is cool to think about the path the sounds here took from the guitar to our ears.
Listening to this, it's difficult to pick out actual guitars, although they do surface here and there. Instead Pendulum is a smeared soundscape of blurry sounds. A wide open expanse of slowly moving tonal colors, drifting by one another, occasionally mixing together, forming new colors. Muted and understated, a twilit soundscape of churning low end and glistening high end, mixing together and forming all sorts of subtle sonic shadings. Subtlely melodic, a gorgeous deep droning drift, another one of those records destined to find a permanent home in the late night listening pile. So gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "Centre"
MPEG Stream: "Nowhere"

BAKER, AIDAN Periodic (Crucial Bliss) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Aidan Baker is a very busy man. Not only is he a writer, he also plays music under no less than three monickers. His drone metal outfit Nadja, his avant prog experimental group ARC, and of course his solo work under his own name. Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find two other releases from Nadja, big beautiful lumbering slabs of slow motion sound, but here, on his latest solo endeavor, it's an entirely different situation. Gone are the beats and the downtuned guitars, the sludge, the doom, the dirge, leaving nothing but the drone. And even that is practically washed out into nothingness. Periodic is very subtle and quiet, ultra minimal drifts of microscopic sound. A few spikes pop up here and there, but for the most part it's a near flatline, a barely there wash of creaks and shimmers, whirs and rumbles, totally abstract soundscapes that require active listening to full grasp. Headphones transport the listener to another world. Under the sea, in some lost cave, floating in space, hard to tell exactly where you are with a head full of these sounds, which is why Baker is so good. Eyes closed, ears full, we are drifting lost in some parallel universe, where everything is tiny, a world of slowly shifting little pixels, or a world where everything is massive, so all we see are huge expanses of color and shape. So mysteriously dreamy. And of course highly recommended.
Packaged in a gorgeous oversized blue and white sleeve adorned with billowing clouds and (of course) the periodic table.
MPEG Stream: "Periodic 1 (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Periodic 2 (excerpt)"

BAKER, AIDAN Pure Drone (Beta-Lactam Ring ) lp 21.00
STILL A HANDFUL OF THESE LEFT! Get 'em while you can...
The first installment in a new series on Beta-Lactam Ring called the Drone Compendium series, curated by none other than Mr. Aidan Baker, he of mighty dronedoomdirge duo Nadja, and as is befitting his status as curator, the first installment is in fact a Baker record, entitled Pure Drone, and the record delivers precisely what the title promises. Recorded live in 2010, the A side, while pure drone, is definitely more than a single tone, or a simple bit of minimal hum. Instead, the sound is lush and layered, a sprawling, smoldering expanse of dreamlike drift, a soft focus slow build, rife with subtle melodies that gradually reveal themselves, beneath subtly shifting textures, laced with streaks of high end and pulsing almost-rhythms and shimmering overtones. The B side is a bit more subdued, a little more minimal, but still lush and lovely, the tonal colorations surfacing in the second half, after a long dark droney bit of hypnotic thrum, the sounds seeming to blossom, the light up, it sounds like watching a star appear from behind a planet as the orbits shift, that sort of fundamental, monumental sonic power, the melodies glimmering and glittering in the alien starlight, so gorgeous.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES, packaged in super swank heavy jackets!

BAKER, AIDAN Scalpel (The Kora Records) cd 11.98
Usually, on Aidan Baker's solo records, the list of instruments almost doesn't matter in terms of the actual music. Voice, flute, whatever, Baker tends to smear and blur all of the various pieces into one fluid and gently flowing organic whole. Even in Nadja, his doom metal duo, the guitars are rendered fairly un-guitar like. Instead, the riffs are delivered as huge swaths of molten granulated sound. On Scalpel, his latest solo record, guitar is again the main instrument, but unlike most of the time with Baker, you can actually hear the guitar, and it sounds, well, like a guitar. In fact the first two tracks, the shortest of the five, sound almost like pure folk music, albeit a dark and minimal and lugubrious folk. The guitars wispy and ethereal, chords gently strummed, melodies softly fingerpicked, Baker's voice a gruff whisper. Quite lovely, but surprisingly straight ahead, reminding us of Loren Connors or Hisato Higuchi, a dark languorous folky shimmer, the only hint of Baker's penchant for sound processing, at least in the first two songs is the blur of shortwave interference separating the tracks, a woman's voice, hissy white noise, but it quickly subsides and the sound dials back down to a dreamlike crawl.
The last three tracks, all well over 10 minutes, seem to have the same root, that soft shimmery folk, but here's where Baker's deft hand and soundscaping and sound processing finally surfaces. "Our Needs Bear No Relation To Our Desires" is a slow gentle strum, the various overtones gradually building into moody swells, eventually joined by bits of textural grit, muted buzz, what almost sounds like field recordings, but it's all very subtle, the focal point still that lonely minor key melody, marching resolutely forward through a fuggy dreamlike haze. "Indifference" also begins with a lilting folksy strum, but is also soon nearly subsumed by dizzying whirls of sound, subtle backwards sonic swoops, fuzzy smears of effects, turning that heart of folk into something much more glimmering and glittering. And finally, "Drawn Like A Moth, Slip Like A Snail", returns, mostly, to the unadorned folk of the opening two tracks, another gorgeously drawled, barely audible vocal line, and a lovely main melody, but for its entire 11+ minutes, the guitar and vocal lines drift in an gauzy expanse of humid minimal whir and soft focus high end flutter, various bits of vocal flecked with FX and occasional bits of backwards blur.
Yet another beautiful Aidan Baker disc, and while this one will of course appeal to the Baker / Nadja faithful, it just might hit the spot for dark freek folk fans as wellÉ
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!! Each one hand numbered. Gorgeously packaged, fold over die cut sleeve, silver metallic ink on maroon textured paper, a black and white insert / cover image visible through the diecut.
MPEG Stream: "K"
MPEG Stream: "Our Needs Bear No Relation To Our Desires"

BAKER, AIDAN Songs Of Flowers And Skin (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 16.98
Originally released (albeit only digitally) in 2005, Songs Of Flowers & Skin reveals a side of Aidan Baker we love, but only rarely get to see, and it's his slowcore side, channeling the spirit of groups like Codeine and Bedhead and Seam, creating dark, drifting slow motion pop songs, that creep and crawl and unfurl gorgeously and gradually. Like we said, those moments do surface in his discography, especially solo, where he seems more inclined to introspection and less to doomgaze, but this record offers up a whole disc of proper songs, slow, languorous, dark, haunting, melancholy songs, with singing and lyrics and proper rock band instrumentation, augmented by trumpet and violin, it's really quite lovely.
The record opens with "Skin Like Sand", a serpentine guitar figure wraps around simple minimal skeletal drumming, vocals are crooned softly, actually sung, but this IS Aidan Baker, so it's not nearly that simple, the track is laced with bits of glitch, streaks of crackle, and the vocals are strangely processed, so in the background, little vocal snippets echo the main voice, making it sound ghostly and dreamlike. The next few tracks get almost jazzy sounding, upping the tempo a bit, but keeping the mood dour and depressive, "Dance Dance Dance" is a smoky trumpet flecked ballad, all reverbed guitar and sizzling cymbals, "Second Selves" sounds almost Spanish, a little bit of a Morricone vibe, a regal almost march, the horns and strings, sweeping and dramatic, very cinematic, "Take Me Out Of My" is another skittery slow groove, that sounds almost like it could be American Music Club, if it weren't for the strange static and whirling organ drones.
Almost the entire second half of the disc is taken up by the nearly half hour long "Flowerskin" (although some of that is silence hiding a secret track, more on that in a second), begins as a slowly building driftscape of long tones, mysterious electronic glitches and truncated rhythms, before the song proper kicks in, another brooding meander, the glitch and crackle and hiss even more pronounced here, sometimes almost blotting out the song completely, there is an almost Nadja worthy climax, but it's more soft focus and subdued, a swirling cloud of warm washed out drones and tangled streaks of buzz, before sputtering out and leaving nothing but silence. Which is eventually supplanted by a gorgeously dark and melancholy dirge folk ballad, just acoustic guitar and vocals, hushed and haunting and quite beautiful.
Maybe not for the Nadja doombliss dronemetal obsessives, but fans of past AB solo outings, as well as anyone into dark, intimate, minimal slowcore and dark brooding doom pop, will definitely want to check this out.
MPEG Stream: "Sand Like Skin"
MPEG Stream: "Feed Me Yr Kiss"
MPEG Stream: "Dance Dance Dance"

BAKER, AIDAN Still Life (Primary-Numbers) cd 15.98
Seems like the constant supply of Nadja / Aidan Baker releases has slowed down a bit. There was a time when a week wouldn't go by without a new releases from one or both. But if fewer releases means more like this new solo record, we're perfectly happy with the trade off.
As most Baker/Nadja fans know, Nadja records tend toward the bombastic and the metalgaze, seeing as that's what the duo is all about, but Baker's solo records are where he really gets to experiment. In the beginning it was mostly like a more minimal version of Nadja, the same sort of droned out drift, just with the volume and heft dialed way back. But then Baker began trying out new sounds, varied approaches, with different instrumentation, which brings us to Still Life, which just might be the prettiest, and maybe even best, solo record we've heard from Baker yet. Ostensibly his 'jazz' record, recorded using just piano, drums and upright bass, but this isn't like JAZZ jazz, this is like Necks jazz, droney and minimal, slow building and hypnotic, and Baker adds cool bits of weird production which only enhances the sound. Four loooong tracks, each one a dark miniature epic, the bass muted and minimal, the drums more like the skitter and sizzle of cymbals, while the piano plucks out the melancholic minor key melody, a repeated motif, that unfurls like a slowly mutating loop, it's not until about 9 minutes in that the rest of the drum kit comes into play, and even then it's just some barely there snare skitter, and the melody is wrapped in cool swooping effects, very subtle, but it makes the notes sound like they're swooping in. The first track leads directly into the second, almost as if they were two parts of a single song, this part though is even more spare, the chords on the piano, separated by long expanses of minimal drum shuffle and the slow decay of the bass. This track eventually builds a bit of momentum, the drums subtly more driving, the sound a woozy, mournful lope, definitely falling within the realms of 'doom jazz', Baker surprisingly adept on the kit, playing the rims, and unfurling busy little flurries, that manage to add texture without being distracting, and much like the first song, you never really want it to end.
Track three begins with a flurry of piano notes, all upper register, flecked with the occasional bass pulse, the piano getting more and more blurry, Baker subtly affecting the notes, blurring them, smearing them, transforming them into a sort of Lubomyr Melnyk style shimmer, all the while Baker underpins the proceedings with the wood-on-wood click and clatter of stick on drum shell, and at about 7 minutes in, the song shifts, and the low end swoops in, the drums coalesce into a proper rhythm, and the song becomes an ominous creep, all the while that initial flurry of piano plays on in the background, the vibe dark and drowsy and late night, the low end thrum and drums eventually fade out, leaving the song to end how it began with a swirling cloud of tinkling notes on the piano.
And finally, the record finishes off with another stretched out sprawl of hazy, droney hypno-jazz, again the piano offering melody and color, while the bass thrums and rumbles, and Baker keep simple time with stick on shell again, and so it goes, for nearly 14 minutes, an epic haunting minimal drone jazz drift equal parts the Necks, Bohren and Circle at their most murky and minimal. Gorgeous, haunting, beautiful stuff.
Fans of the Necks will definitely want this, as will anyone into dark, brooding minimalism and abstract doom jazz drift.
MPEG Stream: "Still Lives"
MPEG Stream: "Complex Iconographical Symbiology"

BAKER, AIDAN The Sea Swells A Bit (A Silent Place) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've joked in the past about Baker and his seemingly inexhaustible output. But we are always quick to point out that we absolutely never ever wish it to stop. Thankfully there seems to be no possibility of that happening anytime soon. The Sea Swells A Bit, released on Italian label A Silent Place, finds Baker musically moody and contemplative, as we've come to expect from records he releases under his own name. The ingredients are similar to those employed in his other projects, bass, guitars, tape loops, drum machines, but here those instruments are not so much played as, turned on and set free. There are riffs, and vocals, but in the opening track, those elements are so soft and airy, you have to listen close to distinguish where one ends and the other begins. Like laying on the ocean floor listening to M83 jamming inside a bathysphere half way to the surface. Murky and mumbly and underwater sounding. Which ties in with the album's title, song titles, and what might in fact be the sonic theme. The drum machine is in there too, but it sounds more like bits of static than any sort of rhythm. But it hardly matters, all the rhythm you need, a sort of barely there primal pulse, is in the drifting disembodied riffs.
The second track is a little bit more structured, the dreamlike murk of the opening track is still present, and is buried beneath even more layers of sonic silt and shimmering swells, the rhythm floats to the surface though, and almost jazzy krautrock groove, loping and propulsive, almost like an old Circle record dosed with thorazine and left in the sun too long, blown out, blurry, blissy, but still shuffling into the light.
The final track is another rhythm driven drone rocker (although it doesn't really 'rock' as such). Thick cottony swells of gentle buzz and swaying swells of warm whir beneath languorous ambling percussion. A lazy hazy slowed down spacerock dirge. Like a Spacemen 3 forty-five played at 16 rpm, druggy and deliriously dreamlike.
Packaged in a nice thick, super swank, textured and lacquered cardstock sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "The Sea Swells A Bit"
MPEG Stream: "Davy Jones' Locker"

BAKER, AIDAN The Sea Swells A Bit (A Silent Place) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've joked in the past about Baker and his seemingly inexhaustible output. But we are always quick to point out that we absolutely never ever wish it to stop. Thankfully there seems to be no possibility of that happening anytime soon. The Sea Swells A Bit, released on Italian label A Silent Place, finds Baker musically moody and contemplative, as we've come to expect from records he releases under his own name. The ingredients are similar to those employed in his other projects, bass, guitars, tape loops, drum machines, but here those instruments are not so much played as, turned on and set free. There are riffs, and vocals, but in the opening track, those elements are so soft and airy, you have to listen close to distinguish where one ends and the other begins. Like laying on the ocean floor listening to M83 jamming inside a bathysphere half way to the surface. Murky and mumbly and underwater sounding. Which ties in with the album's title, song titles, and what might in fact be the sonic theme. The drum machine is in there too, but it sounds more like bits of static than any sort of rhythm. But it hardly matters, all the rhythm you need, a sort of barely there primal pulse, is in the drifting disembodied riffs.
The second track is a little bit more structured, the dreamlike murk of the opening track is still present, and is buried beneath even more layers of sonic silt and shimmering swells, the rhythm floats to the surface though, and almost jazzy krautrock groove, loping and propulsive, almost like an old Circle record dosed with thorazine and left in the sun too long, blown out, blurry, blissy, but still shuffling into the light.
The final track is another rhythm driven drone rocker (although it doesn't really 'rock' as such). Thick cottony swells of gentle buzz and swaying swells of warm whir beneath languorous ambling percussion. A lazy hazy slowed down spacerock dirge. Like a Spacemen 3 forty-five played at 16 rpm, druggy and deliriously dreamlike.
Packaged in a nice thick, super swank, textured and lacquered cardstock sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "The Sea Swells A Bit"
MPEG Stream: "Davy Jones' Locker"

BAKER, AIDAN The Spectrum Of Distraction (Robotic Empire) 2cd 14.98
The latest from the super prolific Aidan Baker, who is one half of aQ doomdronedirge faves Nadja, not to mention responsible for about a million solo records we love, comes in the form of this sprawling, epic double disc set, featuring no less than ninety eight songs, ranging in length from six seconds to seven minutes, over two hours of music, and all designed to be played in SHUFFLE mode, producing a unique combination, and essentially a new record, with every listen. Similar in form to his collaboration with Tim Hecker, Fantasma Parastasie, which while we don't think was meant to be played in shuffle mode, was also divided into lots of super short tracks.
And while this one IS designed for shuffle play, the songs themselves, when listened to in proper order, are in fact proper songs. And for the purpose of reviewing, it might make more sense to describe the songs, and then maybe what it's like when they become all jumbled up. It's actually a super varied collection of songs and sounds, that seem to draw on every facet of Baker's considerably all over the map discography, from skittery abstract jazz, to almost Torche like sludge pop, to glitched out psychedelic skitter (and that's all actually in the same 'song'!), from groovy, almost hip hop sounding beat heavy shuffle, to mathy sort-of noise rock, to blackened doomy dirges, from abstract gristly droney drift to woozy krautrocky psych, to IDM like programmed electronica, to dense metalgaze drift, and from meandery post rock to murky downtempo groove, and on and on and on. The two discs are appropriately labeled ADD and OCD, definitely referencing the constant flitting from sound to sound and track to track, even more so once things are set to shuffle.
One interesting element is that there are loads of different drummers, Mac McNeilly from Jesus Lizard, Steven Hess from Locrian, and Ted Parsons from Swans and Prong, just to name a few, and it's pretty fun to hear Baker collaborate, and it does definitely speak to there being so many disparate sounds.
As for the whole shuffle thing, we tried it a bunch of different times, and it definitely get seriously OCD / ADD, the fragments very abrupt and jagged, and not necessarily flowing the way say a serious of swooshy shimmery drones might, and while it's definitely interesting, and it almost forces your brain to understand the segues, even if they don't seem to make sense, which definitely adds a cool element to the proceedings, although to be totally honest, we find ourselves digging it a lot more UNshuffled.
Cool packaging too with some super striking comic style cover art.
MPEG Stream: "War With The Evil Power Master, Pt. 4"
MPEG Stream: "War With The Evil Power Master, Pt. 7"
MPEG Stream: "Blood On The Handle, Pt. 2"
MPEG Stream: "The Antimatter Formula, Pt. 6"
MPEG Stream: "Trouble On Planet Earth, Pt. 1"
MPEG Stream: "The Phantom Submarine"

BAKER, AIDAN Thoughtspan (Blackest Rainbow) lp 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of the weirder (and more distinctive, i.e., not specifically a drone record) Aidan Baker discs, long out of print, now available again, on vinyl for the first time! Ultra limited of course, here's what we had to say about the record when we first reviewed the cd a while back:
If he wanted, Aidan Baker could cruise along making the same record over and over, but a restless musical soul this man must have as even successive releases by his various projects tend to diverge greatly from their various sounds. While Nadja tends to be the most sonically consistent project, existing in the nether gloom of black ambient dream doom or whatever we feel like calling it, his work under his own name has shown the most breadth, veering from clattery noisy experimentation, to ultra minimal drone, to strange collaged jazzscapes, to dreamy slowcore, and one and on...
For Thoughtspan, Baker handles the guitars, drums, bass and vocals, with some help on live drums, violin and trumpet, to weave a gorgeously expansive soundscape of laid back, shuffling yet propulsive, krautrocky jazz. Dark and smoky, dreamy and smoldering, the closest sonic comparison might be the Necks, but where the Necks lock into extended cyclical grooves, Thoughtspan plays more like a 'rock' band, albeit a looped, mesmeric one, locked into a seemingly never ending groove, but as the record progresses the music begins toÊgradually crumble, becoming more and more distorted, everything slowly collapsing inward, the scraping of a violin heralding the shift, as any 'rock' is rent asunder, and all that is left is a strange whirring, creaking ambient dronescape. And that's just the first half...
The second half begins with strange buzzes and metallic shimmers, a very percussive soundfield, peppered with backwards sonic swoops and buzzing steel strings, eventually the drums kick in, and the band is loping into some dense reverbed jam, the buzzing strings stretched out over the propulsive rhythmic framework, eventually fading back into the backwards droning buzz of the first few minutes.Ê
Finally, the end of the record finds Baker creating a strange wide open expanse, distant drones and all sorts of strange muted melodies, with moaned, barely decipherable vocals, and in the middle of it all, a drummer, playing on the rims and the floor and on wood and metal as much as on the kit, the whole vibe is very abstract and freak folk, it's not difficult to hear some Avarus or one of those tribal outfits, but unlike those folky forest dwellers, Baker begins to gradually affect the sounds here, smearing everything into warm droning swells and jagged streaks of resonant buzz, beneath which the drums lock into a staggering sort of midtempo lope, it's dirge-y and dramatic, but still sort of blown out and ambient, before finishing off with a burst of blinding distorted radiance.
MPEG Stream: "Thought Climate"
MPEG Stream: "Thoughtspan"

BAKER, AIDAN Thoughtspan (Tosom) cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If he wanted, Aidan Baker could cruise along making the same record over and over, but a restless musical soul this man must have as even successive releases by his various projects tend to diverge greatly from their various sounds. While Nadja tends to be the most sonically consistent project, existing in the nether gloom of black ambient dream doom or whatever we feel like calling it, his work under his own name has shown the most breadth, veering from clattery noisy experimentation, to ultra minimal drone, to strange collaged jazzscapes, to dreamy slowcore, and one and on...
For Thoughtspan, Baker handles the guitars, drums, bass and vocals, with some help on live drums, violin and trumpet, to weave a gorgeously expansive soundscape of laid back, shuffling yet propulsive, krautrocky jazz. Dark and smoky, dreamy and smoldering, the closest sonic comparison might be the Necks, but where the Necks lock into extended cyclical grooves, Thoughtspan plays more like a 'rock' band, albeit a looped, mesmeric one, locked into a seemingly never ending groove, but as the record progresses the music begins toÊgradually crumble, becoming more and more distorted, everything slowly collapsing inward, the scraping of a violin heralding the shift, as any 'rock' is rent asunder, and all that is left is a strange whirring, creaking ambient dronescape. And that's just the first track, although it is 22+ minutes...
The second track, another long one, begins with strange buzzes and metallic shimmers, a very percussive soundfield, peppered with backwards sonic swoops and buzzing steel strings, eventually the drums kick in, and the band is loping into some dense reverbed jam, the buzzing strings stretched out over the propulsive rhythmic framework, eventually fading back into the backwards droning buzz of the first few minutes.Ê
Finally, the final 16 minute track, finds Baker creating a strange wide open expanse, distant drones and all sorts of strange muted melodies, with moaned, barely decipherable vocals, and in the middle of it all, a drummer, playing on the rims and the floor and on wood and metal as much as on the kit, the whole vibe is very abstract and freak folk, it's not difficult to hear some Avarus or one of those tribal outfits, but unlike those folky forest dwellers, Baker begins to gradually affect the sounds here, smearing everything into warm droning swells and jagged streaks of resonant buzz, beneath which the drums lock into a staggering sort of midtempo lope, it's dirge-y and dramatic, but still sort of blown out and ambient, before finishing off with a burst of blinding distorted radiance.Ê
Packaged in a mini, plastic dvd style case, full color artwork and full color photographic inserts.Ê
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Thought Climate"
MPEG Stream: "Thoughtspan"

BAKER, AIDAN & BETA CLOUD An Open Letter To Franz Kafka (Laughing Bride Media) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another new Aidan Baker record, another new collection of soft sonorous ambience (as opposed to another new Nadja record, another collection of crushing fuzzy blissed out doom), either way, this guy continues forward with the latest in his seemingly never ending, near monthly release schedule, and assuming one has the dough and the diligence to keep up, one shall continue to be rewarded in gorgeous sonic shimmer and whispery blurred ambience.
This newest release is a collaboration with Beta Cloud, whom we had never heard of until now, and while we don't know what BC sounds like on his own, he does seem a perfect match for Mr. Baker. The instrumentation is quite strange, Baker on flute, Beta Cloud aka Carl Pace on trumpet, synth and guitar, but you might now know it from the sound. Present of course are the thick clouds of ambient blur, the soft flurries of smeared distortion, and the slow shifting slabs of staticky whir, but on the first track of An Open Letter, there is a haunting melodic component, spare piano like melodies, drifting sprite like above the low end swirl, very hypnotic and almost new age-y sounding (in a good way), the notes wreathed in reverb and sent rippling into the ether, very reminiscent of Ambient Eno for sure, but with a much darker edge. Everything cloudy and grey, soft edged buzzing smoother into shimmering swells.
The other three tracks (all four tracks are loooooong) aren't quite as ambient and blissful, instead, they roil and seethe, like the sea beneath an impending storm, still dark and soothing, but pregnant with a subtle malevolence, laced with melodic fragments and strange sonic shards. There are a few moments, where the intensity builds to a fever pitch, causing us to briefly wonder if we hadn't accidentally thrown on a Nadja record instead, and here and there, the sound thickens into deeply resonant chordal washes or slips into what sounds like thick streaks of bristly solar flare guitar feedback, but always seems to settle back into a much more subdued, almost hushed drift, albeit one with an ominous edge, a brooding sonic intensity, always just below the surface...
MPEG Stream: "Brief An Den Vater"
MPEG Stream: "Brief An Felice"

BAKER, AIDAN & BRANDON VALDIVIA Live 2008-14-11 (Universal Tongue) 3"cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another killer release From Universal Tongue, and the first Aidan Baker / Nadja release in THREE New Arrivals lists! That might be a record, hope nobody was going through withdrawals! And fear not, we should be back on our biweekly schedule of Nadja and/or Baker releases, we'll have the Nadja collaboration with Pyramids on the next list, and now, we have this super limited Aidan Baker jam, another collaboration, this one with drummer Brandon Valdivia, a way spacier jazzier direction that most of what we've heard from Baker, but still blissed out and dreamy enough to appeal to folks who dig the usual Baker action.
The drums here shuffle and skitter, lots of sizzling cymbals, the guitars moan, the thrum, drift and shimmer, the single minute track here, recorded live in 2008 at a festival in Germany, twists and turns, going from minimal bliss out, to gnarled jazzy crunch, to moaning abstract drift to heavy avant pound. Cool stuff for sure.
This one is a proper cd, NOT a cd-r, but still limited to only 323 copies. Like the other UT releases, packaged in a cool 5" mini dvd case, with a full color cover/insert, with artwork by Mories aka Gnaw Their Tongues!!
MPEG Stream: "Live 2008-14-11"

BAKER, AIDAN & THISQUIETARMY A Picture of A Picture (Killer Pimp) cd 11.98
Long overdue rematch between Mr. Aidan Baker, who is as you probably know also of Nadja, and Thisquietarmy, whose previous collaboration, Orange, cause quite a stir around here. And it still gets a lot of play at home, it's the perfect hazy moonlight drifting off to never never land sort of dreamy drone record. Almost like M83 with everything removed but that glorious soft buzz. Sorry if you missed out that one, it was limited to 200 copies and is long gone, but the good news is, that A Picture Of A Picture sounds like it could be part two. In fact it sounds like it could very well have been culled from the same sessions that produced Orange.
Four long long tracks, each a slow swirling amorphous cloud of gauzy half melodies and thick layered textures, the sound slips from gritty and pixilated, to glistening and soft focus in a heartbeat. These two soundscapers are a fantastic match, it's really impossible to tell who's doing what, and where the work of one ends and the other begins, and it hardly matters, as the two together have created something ethereal and ephemeral, a sun dappled drift, equal parts minimal new age hush, and warm languid dreamdrone shimmer. A few moments find the duo ramping it up, but even then, it's only loud or heavy or intense, relative to the rest of this record, which does in fact spend most of its time hovering, whispering, floating lazing, gradually changing color and shape, it's the musical version of watching clouds drift across a brilliant blue sky, so tranquil and mesmerizing and meditative, even the occasional storm cloud, only serves to infuse the afternoon's siesta with some greys and browns, which perfectly balance the rest of the record's endlessly prismatic palette. So gorgeous. Definitely a new nighttime sonic soporific. Released on Killer Pimp, who also released the Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words cd, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list (psst... it's one of the Records Of The Week!).
MPEG Stream: "Imagistic Continuity"
MPEG Stream: "Loss Of Perspective"

BAKER, AIDAN & TIM HECKER Fantasma Parastasie (Alien8 Recordings) cd 15.98
Expectations were pretty high for this one. Two long time aQ favorites, both with similar yet distinctive sounds, but with incredibly different bodies of work. Aidan Baker, who releases records a mile a minute, averaging 1 or 2 a month, thankfully managing to hit the bullseye almost every time. And Tim Hecker, who has produced 5 or 6 full lengths in as many years, every one practically perfect. Both Baker and Hecker explore similar sonic spectrums, utilizing fuzz and buzz and shimmer, Baker taking it a step further with his doom duo Nadja, taking the lurch and lumber of the genre and adding swirls of gauze and haze and bliss, while solo, he tends toward the more ambient and abstract. Hecker on the other hand takes what appears to be pop music and subverts it, sublimates it, pulls it apart and recontextualizes the sound, which usually involves wrapping everything in washed out whirs and blurred hiss, and all manner of glitch and crackle, like listening to music through headphones made out of steel wool and insulation. But with two such strong sonic personalities, the potential for this collaboration to be a bit of a mess was fairly high, and then of course there was also the possibility that each would just do their own thing, allowing the other to add bits here and there. But somehow, the sounds on Fantasma Parastasie manage to transcend, allowing glimpses of familiar sounds, hints of each artist's own work, but woven into a whole that is unto itself, a gloriously abstract swirl of sound, longform landscapes of bliss and blur, of buzz and even roar, extended movements, in which the various elements drift and shimmer, overlap and intertwine, melodies and songcraft meet texture and soundscapery, guitars unfurl tangled melodies one second, bleary eyed chordal blurs the next, harmonics glisten and hover amidst deep soft swells, distortion and buzz build into fierce walls of blown out psychedelia, the sounds crumbling and decaying before our ears, threatening to collapse, and in this fragile state lies the beauty of those sounds, effulgent, incandescent, but at the same time, blackening, beginning some unnamable process of inevitable decay. And eventually it does decay, those thick roiling sounds dissipate, leaving something soft and shimmery, glistening on a bed of shed buzz and crumbled crush, floating heavenward, its notes and melodies catching the sunlight, and offering up prismatic reflections.
The strange thing about this record is that each song is separated into super short pieces, eleven in most cases, each part between 15 and 45 seconds (it's obviously much more noticeable on the cd). We tried listening to it on shuffle, presuming that was perhaps the intention, and while it still sounds cool, it was a bit too and took too much away from the overall effect. Instead, the various parts, played in order, slip seamlessly into one another, so much so that if you weren't watching the tracks tick by on player, you wouldn't even notice.
The two work amazingly well together, bits of guitar, fragments of riffs, looped and repeated, swathed in thick smears of digital crunch, of buzzing rumble, much of the record sounds like a heavier William Basinski, as if the two were experimenting with they own Disintegration Loops. A few of the tracks are quite tranquil, abstract and minimal, but for the most part, Baker and Hecker seem more interested in distressed sounds, in distortion, in pushing the limits, composing in the red, needles pegged, but taking what in other hands could be harsh and abrasive, and crafting those sounds into something simultaneously soft and dreamlike. Even the various movements, drift smoothly into one another the entire record almost like a single piece, expansive and varied and sprawling, epic and majestic, but inward looking, introspective, melancholy, imbuing the crumbling crunch and blown out minimalism, with emotion, with distinctive mood, at once dark and mysterious, but also strangely hopeful.
The album closer and title track, is the only one not split up into movements, and is easily the most abstract, the most minimal, a stretch of lugubrious low end, so soft, so weightless, a hushed musical murmur, no distortion, no buzz, just a simple swell and sway, drifting fading, and finally disappearing.
Absolutely breathtaking.
MPEG Stream: "Phantom On A Pedestal IV"
MPEG Stream: "Hymn To The Idea Of Night V"
MPEG Stream: "Gallery Of The Invisible Woman VIII"
MPEG Stream: "Dream Of The Nightmare V"

BAKER, AIDAN & TIM HECKER Fantasma Parastasie (Alien8 Recordings) lp 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Expectations were pretty high for this one. Two long time aQ favorites, both with similar yet distinctive sounds, but with incredibly different bodies of work. Aidan Baker, who releases records a mile a minute, averaging 1 or 2 a month, thankfully managing to hit the bullseye almost every time. And Tim Hecker, who has produced 5 or 6 full lengths in as many years, every one practically perfect. Both Baker and Hecker explore similar sonic spectrums, utilizing fuzz and buzz and shimmer, Baker taking it a step further with his doom duo Nadja, taking the lurch and lumber of the genre and adding swirls of gauze and haze and bliss, while solo, he tends toward the more ambient and abstract. Hecker on the other hand takes what appears to be pop music and subverts it, sublimates it, pulls it apart and recontextualizes the sound, which usually involves wrapping everything in washed out whirs and blurred hiss, and all manner of glitch and crackle, like listening to music through headphones made out of steel wool and insulation. But with two such strong sonic personalities, the potential for this collaboration to be a bit of a mess was fairly high, and then of course there was also the possibility that each would just do their own thing, allowing the other to add bits here and there. But somehow, the sounds on Fantasma Parastasie manage to transcend, allowing glimpses of familiar sounds, hints of each artist's own work, but woven into a whole that is unto itself, a gloriously abstract swirl of sound, longform landscapes of bliss and blur, of buzz and even roar, extended movements, in which the various elements drift and shimmer, overlap and intertwine, melodies and songcraft meet texture and soundscapery, guitars unfurl tangled melodies one second, bleary eyed chordal blurs the next, harmonics glisten and hover amidst deep soft swells, distortion and buzz build into fierce walls of blown out psychedelia, the sounds crumbling and decaying before our ears, threatening to collapse, and in this fragile state lies the beauty of those sounds, effulgent, incandescent, but at the same time, blackening, beginning some unnamable process of inevitable decay. And eventually it does decay, those thick roiling sounds dissipate, leaving something soft and shimmery, glistening on a bed of shed buzz and crumbled crush, floating heavenward, its notes and melodies catching the sunlight, and offering up prismatic reflections.
The strange thing about this record is that each song is separated into super short pieces, eleven in most cases, each part between 15 and 45 seconds (it's obviously much more noticeable on the cd). We tried listening to it on shuffle, presuming that was perhaps the intention, and while it still sounds cool, it was a bit too and took too much away from the overall effect. Instead, the various parts, played in order, slip seamlessly into one another, so much so that if you weren't watching the tracks tick by on player, you wouldn't even notice.
The two work amazingly well together, bits of guitar, fragments of riffs, looped and repeated, swathed in thick smears of digital crunch, of buzzing rumble, much of the record sounds like a heavier William Basinski, as if the two were experimenting with they own Disintegration Loops. A few of the tracks are quite tranquil, abstract and minimal, but for the most part, Baker and Hecker seem more interested in distressed sounds, in distortion, in pushing the limits, composing in the red, needles pegged, but taking what in other hands could be harsh and abrasive, and crafting those sounds into something simultaneously soft and dreamlike. Even the various movements, drift smoothly into one another the entire record almost like a single piece, expansive and varied and sprawling, epic and majestic, but inward looking, introspective, melancholy, imbuing the crumbling crunch and blown out minimalism, with emotion, with distinctive mood, at once dark and mysterious, but also strangely hopeful.
The album closer and title track, is the only one not split up into movements, and is easily the most abstract, the most minimal, a stretch of lugubrious low end, so soft, so weightless, a hushed musical murmur, no distortion, no buzz, just a simple swell and sway, drifting fading, and finally disappearing.
Absolutely breathtaking.
MPEG Stream: "Phantom On A Pedestal IV"
MPEG Stream: "Hymn To The Idea Of Night V"
MPEG Stream: "Gallery Of The Invisible Woman VIII"
MPEG Stream: "Dream Of The Nightmare V"

BAKER, AIDAN & ULTRA MILKMAIDS At Home With (Infraction) cd 14.98

BAKER, AIDAN (PREORDER) Noise Of Silence (Essence Music) cd+cd-r+handmade box 52.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
By now, long time readers of the aQ list know how much we dig Aidan Baker and all his various projects, and it seems that you all do too, based on how many of his records we sell. The sad thing is that so many of his most amazing records were released as super limited cd-r's, often so limited that we were never able to get any for the shop at all. Such was the case with 2007's Noise Of Silence. Originally released on Hyperblasted, the amazing Essence Music in Brazil has stepped into re-release it, and as with all their releases, they've pulled out all the stops. This is in fact a PRE-ORDER!! For the super deluxe, boxset version of Baker's reissued Noise Of Silence. We will have the regular single cd non-boxset version, but this right here, this is for the Baker obsessives, like us, like YOU, limited to 122 copies, almost entirely sold out from the label, Essence has graciously set aside about 20 boxes, the LAST 20, for aQ customers, so if you want one, order it now, we'll get them in sometime in the next few weeks, and they can either ship with your current order, or on their own. You will be charged for the box now, but then the shipping will be sorted out when we actually send the box (and it'll ship by weight, not as 1 item).
So what's the big deal about Noise Of Silence. And this fancy box? Well, more on the packaging (and the bonus cd-r) further down, but Noise of Silence, is a doozy, a gorgeous, haunting, 50 minute abstract drone/drift, super cinematic, rife with dark chordal swells, layered shimmer, mysterious disembodied voices, a strange bit of processed sibilance, that could be the vocals processed, but instead becomes weird little shards of soft focus white noise peppering the hushed soundscape, almost like the sonic equivalent of white caps on a blackened sea. It doesn't take long for the track to blossom into something far from tranquil and drifty, the sound growing more agitated, the vibe more noisy, the atmosphere more dense, the voices more strident, a swirling cacophony, that manages to build to an almost white noise squall, but even them the edges are smoothed out, and the sound, while harsh and heavy, still manages to be darkly droney and weirdly hypnotic, the sounds grinding and crunching, the various tones splintering and crumbling, a heady blown out wildly looped collage that gradually settles into something much more mellow, the last 20 minutes a slowly decaying stretch of ambient dronemusic, the whispery shadows of that cacophony still present, hissing and swirling just below the surface, seriously and surprisingly haunting and demonic Baker, we can definitely imaging this as the score for some experimental foreign horror / art film. Gorgeous stuff for sure, but definitely on the dark side of Baker's sound, a side we don't get to her so much any more.
This new version of Noise Of Silence, is presented as a super deluxe, hand made and hand assembled box, painted in blacks and blues, nicely textured, with what appears to be branches or veins, inside the cd is housed in a gorgeous full color digipak, and held in place by black elastic bands, while right next to it, unfold black triangular flaps, and pull out the accordion like set of cards, each one hand painted like the outside of the box, all unique and surprisingly tactile, to reveal the bonus cd-r, a collection of early works and demos, many of which would in fact show up on later releases in altered forms, all culled from the period spanning 1991-1995, and an eclectic collection of early works, that tend toward the raw, the noisy, the aggressive, but still beautiful and lush and droney, some acoustic ballads, some droned out noisescapes, some hushed minimal acoustic drift as well as some darkly psychedelic and dreamy guitar ragas, incredible stuff for sure, and well worth a proper release on their own, but ONLY available as part of this super limited box.
As we mentioned above, we'll be able to get about 20 copies of this box, and that's IT. So if you want one, order it now. We'll charge you and let you know when it arrives. If you're after the normal version, let us know and we can put you down for one of those, but this listing is for folks who want to nab one of these before they are gone for good.

BAKER, AIDAN / LEAH BUCKAREFF / NADJA Trinitarian (Important ) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Much like the Trinity cd we listed a while back, Trinitarian, finds the Canadian doomdronebliss duo Nadja offering up a whole lp of new material, including a solo piece by each member as well as a brand new massive sidelong dreamdirge.
Baker's contribution is a gorgeous expanse of breathless shimmer, all billowy and dreamlike, soft swirls of muted chimes and bell-like tones, woven into almost choral sounding passages, warm and hushed and reverent, but with a slightly ominous tinge that only grows more pronounced as the track progresses.
Buckareff balances Baker's more tranquil contribution, with a piece much more sinister, a deep, dark and creepy soundscape of crumbling distorted buzz and shimmering metallic whir, lots and lots of space creating a bottomless black ambience rife with minor key melodic fragments and undulating layers of textured drone. Intense and intensely haunting.
The Nadja track takes up all of side 2, and begins with blissed out harmonized guitars, super spare drums, a digitally treated, slightly glitchy soft minimalism that drifts delicately until the inevitable crush, but this time the crush is not only massive, it's weirdly warped and warm and soft, processed and distorted making it sound a bit alien and otherworldly, almost more warm and washed out than heavy, a bit like a doom metal Galaxie 500, sun dappled and multihued, dreamy and ethereal, while somehow managing to remain incredibly heavy. The song grows slightly less blissy and more intense and ominous by the end of the side, but even then, the sound is still mysteriously transcendent.
LIMITED TO ONLY 200 COPIES!!! These are probably the only copies we'll ever get!

BAKER, AIDAN / LEAH BUCKAREFF / NADJA Trinity (Die Stadt) cd 24.00
You read that right, this is indeed another new Nadja AND another new Aidan Baker, at the same time! Even after the world record FIVE Nadja's on a recent list. And while we joke about how prolific this guy is, even we're a bit overwhelmed by what is basically, counting reissues, maybe the 10th or 11th new release in a matter of a month or two. Sure we can whip out reviews like nobody's business, but even we're run a little ragged. But we'll do our best.
Obviously fans will need this, lots of us bought copies, after all, we've yet to hear a bad record from Baker or Nadja, and this one is no different. However it is special for two reasons, one, it's crazy limited, only 500 copies, hand numbered. When we run out of the ones we have it will be gone for good. And two, it features the first (as far as we know) solo jam from the non Aidan Baker half of Nadja, Leah Buckareff.
Three long tracks, released to coincide with a German live performance in April. The Baker solo track is a pretty glistening drift, a bit more dense and thick than past solo efforts, a surprisingly busy sonic swirl, ethereal effects, murky drones, fragments of melodies, bits of feedback and rumble and twinkle, all set in a warm whirring expanse of soft sound.
The Nadja track begins all dark and serene, but quickly builds to an incendiary blown out doom trudge, quite possibly the heaviest and most distorted we've heard the duo, the guitar thick and crumbling and so distorted it almost obscures any melody, the drum machine a chaotic splatter, the last few minutes so intense and heavy and freaked out, the squall of swirling black psych and drum machine sputter almost completely obscures the churning riffage below.
The big surprise here, although we suppose it shouldn't really be a surprise, is Buckareff's contribution. We're tempted to suggest that she start releasing her own records, but that's just what we need! More kick ass records to buy. Anyway, Buckareff's track, is all low end whir, whispery static, and barely there percussion, that builds to a caustic dirgedrone as heavy and intense as anything Nadja has released, but the cool thing is that even when the sound is a wall of heaving roiling black buzz, beneath it lurks that opening bass melody, the strange pit pat percussion, a mournful lope, slowly being swallowed by a massive swell of muted murky washed out heaviness, that quickly fades out, leaving that minimal bassy shuffle to fade out into silence.
Ok, fine, fuck it, bring it on, more Buckareff solo stuff! We can take it. Even if we can't afford more musical obsessions. But after this we need to hear more. Once again, three for three. Nadja, Baker, Buckareff, essential listening for the doomdronedirge inclined.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, hand numbered, in a cool matte paper fold over sleeve.
MPEG Stream: LEAH BUCKAREFF "Socorro"
MPEG Stream: NADJA "Jornada Del Muerto"

BAKER, AIDAN / NOVELLER Colorful Disturbances (Divorce) lp 17.98
A pretty perfect matchup, Aidan Baker, 1/2 of doom drone duo Nadja, and avant-drone guitarist / filmmaker Sarah Lipstate aka Noveller, who both offer up some of their prettiest sounds for this collection of Colorful Disturbances.
Lipstate starts things off with a gorgeous smoldering driftscape, a sea of tinkling chiming high end melodies draped over soft swells of buzz and crunch, while within a pulsing blur holds it all together. Dreamy and divine, definitely the sort of track that could have been double or triple the length. Her second contribution is just as good, a bit more minimal, slightly glitchier and buzzier, but still serene and dreamlike, with a slightly ominous vibe, reverbed guitars are left to float in a constantly swirling cloud of sonic grit and soft focus hiss, that hiss constantly changing shapes and revealing partially obscured sounds and voices and melodies. So nice, this too could have filled up the whole side and we would have been perfectly happy.
Baker contributes a single 20 minute sidelong drift, all washed out glimmery tones, long and blurred and smeary and indistinct, creating a slow shifting layered landscape of gauzy soft focus colors, sun dappled and prismatic, warm and muted and totally lovely. Easily one of the prettiest tracks we've heard from AB for sure. Like we said, a perfect match!
Vinyl only and limited, so grab one before they disappear...

BAKER, AIDAN / THISQUIETARMY Orange (Thisquietarmy) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Managed to get a final handful of these back in, but once they are gone, it will be out of print forever, so probably your last chance...
Another super limited release from Mr. Aidan Baker, the first since, well, since the last list in fact, but as with that disc, Figures, this one too holds up just as well as any of his other numerous releases, and as usual the more we listen to it, the more we discover and dig about it. Unlike Figures, which was Baker in slowcore band mode, this is the slow languorous drone sound we originally fell in love with way back when. Orange finds Baker hooking up with another sonically like minded individual, Eric Quach, who records as Thisquietarmy. It seems both have a thing for the dark and drone-y, the lush and laid back, a world of expansive slowly shimmering deep ambience, as Orange demonstrates. Four tracks clocking in at 30 minutes, Orange is a darkly gorgeous drift in four movements, shifting lazily from dense rumbling reverberant low end explorations, to airy soft focus flutter, to lumbering slow motion whir, to subtly melodic epic cinematic ambience. It's hard to know what else to say about this stuff, other than it's gorgeous, dreamy, serene, haunting and so so so beautiful. As if there was anything else you needed to know.Ê
Packaged in anÊorange, yellow, red and white sleeve and pressed on a cool matching silver/orange cd-r.Ê
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Agent"
MPEG Stream: "Mandarin"

BAKER, CHET Chet (Doxy) lp 24.00

BAKER, CHET Chet (Doxy) lp 24.00

BAKER, CHET Sings (Pacific Jazz) cd 13.98

BAKER, JOHN The John Baker Tapes (Trunk) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If 79 tracks over two volumes was a little too much to digest of John Baker's strange and jazzy electronique miniatures, than this vinyl version might be just the thing for you, as it condenses the most interesting 25 tracks from both volumes.
Delia Derbyshire may embody the otherworldly beauty and mystique behind the sounds of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, but John Baker was its alchemical heart. Who else could take a simple tone from air being blown over a bottle and make it into a warm and electrifying panorama of melodious sound? In this LP, we find TV adverts, library pieces, jazzy soundtracks, radiophonic pieces and home recordings as well as an interview on how he made the sounds contained here, and his broadcast obituary. Baker had a knack for melody, and often imbued his mechanically made recordings with a warmth and playfulness that his more mathematically-inclined contemporaries lacked. The jazz and library compositions (made for the Southern and Peer International organizations) are similar in form and sound to Basil Kirchin and Michael Garrick (two other Trunk luminaries), urgently spright and pastoral, sometimes soft and spacey. Yet he could also establish veils of mystery and drawn out suspense in his carefully composed themes. Our favorite in particular is "Jazz Advert" a track we suspect Broadcast or Stereolab must have been very aware of. However, Baker's real talent is brevity. With most of the tracks contained here lasting under a minute, he evokes a complex and engaging sound world that is perfectly encapsulated within its miniscule timeframe.
Covering his entire musical career from 1954 up until his death in 1985, and exhaustively culled from boxes and boxes of often unmarked tapes, this is a great and essential purchase for anyone interested in early British electronic music.
MPEG Stream: "Codename"
MPEG Stream: "Vendetta: The Sugar Man"
MPEG Stream: "Jazz Advert"
MPEG Stream: "Piano Strokes"

BAKER, JOHN The John Baker Tapes, Volume 1 (Trunk) cd 16.98
Delia Derbyshire may embody the otherworldly beauty and mystique behind the sounds of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, but John Baker was its alchemical heart. Who else could take a simple tone from air being blown over a bottle and make it into a warm and electrifying panorama of melodious sound? This is the first of two volumes of rare and unreleased pieces from the heyday of the BBC; this one covering the years 1963-1969. In it we find TV adverts, library pieces, jazzy soundtracks, radiophonic pieces and home recordings as well as interviews on how he made the sounds contained here. Baker had a knack for melody, and often imbibed his mechanically made recordings with a warmth and playfulness that his more mathematically inclined contemporaries lacked. Yet he could also establish veils of mystery and drawn out suspense in his carefully composed themes. But Baker's real talent is brevity. With most of the 49(!) tracks contained here lasting under a minute, he evokes a complex and engaging sound world that is perfectly encapsulated within its minute long timeframe. Baker is the first of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop composers to get such a retrospective overview. Hopefully this means we'll see more individual overviews from this important laboratory of recorded sound very soon.
MPEG Stream: "Big Ben News Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Codename"
MPEG Stream: "John Baker Interview"
MPEG Stream: "Tom Tom (Theme)"
MPEG Stream: "Vendetta: The Sugar Man"

BAKER, JOHN The John Baker Tapes, Volume 2 (Trunk) cd 16.98
Volume number Two of BBC Radiophonic workshop guru, John Baker's amazing recorded output. This time focusing on his jazz compositions, homemade electronic experiments and library music, most of it largely unheard. Less small themes and interludes than volume one, which also means less of what he made exclusively for the BBC. But that should not deter the BRW fanatics out there from picking this up. It's even stranger because it's so varied, covering his entire musical career from 1954 up until his death in 1985. Exhaustively culled from boxes and boxes of often unmarked tapes, there's homemade musique concrete pieces made early in his musical development, as well as his early recordings with a jazz combo. The jazz and library compositions (made for the Southern and Peer International organizations) are similar in form and sound to Basil Kirchin and Michael Garrick (two other Trunk luminaries), urgently spright and pastoral, sometimes soft and spacey. There is also soundtrack music for an early Ridley Scott short film, Boy on A Bicycle, and advert music, one of which we suspect the group Broadcast must have been very aware of ("Jazz Advert"). A great and essential companion to Volume One, and for anyone interested in early British electronic music.
MPEG Stream: "Requioso "
MPEG Stream: "Jazz Advert"
MPEG Stream: "Power Source "
MPEG Stream: "Pot's 'n'Pans"
MPEG Stream: "Piano Strokes"

BAKER, MICKEY Wildest Guitar (Sepia Tone) cd 13.98
Mickey Baker is best known as half of the duo Mickey & Sylvia, but did you know that this formidable R&B / rock 'n roll guitarist enjoyed a varied and eclectic career playing sessions on such hits as "Money Honey", "Shake Rattle and Roll", "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean"? And then in 1959 he released his first solo album, an all instrumental gem featuring four Baker originals as well as his singular renditions of "Autumn Leaves", the Third Man Theme, "Night and Day", etc. The wildest guitar record ever made? Well, for 1959, yeah okay maybe. The guitar tone is clean yet gritty, the reverb sparkles. Really good!
RealAudio clip: "Third Man Theme"
RealAudio clip: "Autumn Leaves"

BAL-SAGOTH Atlantis Ascendant (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The four-color sci-fi fantasy evoked by bombastic British metal band Bal-Sagoth is perhaps best explained by their long-winded, esoteric song titles: "The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath The Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire (Part III)", "Star Maps of the Ancient Cosmographers", "In Search of the Lost Cities of Antarctica", etc. Great stuff. Completely over-the-top (and tongue-in-cheek?), with blazing drums, majestic guitars, and symphonic keyboards massed in battle. The vocals switch from a black-metal style rasp to a very British baritone voice-over narration (I love the way he intones the words "primordial ooze" for instance). Imagine a more colorful Cradle of Filth, not obsessed with evil and perversion, but with the arcane adventure pulp tales of R.E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. The thick cd booklet give not just the lyrics/narrative, but also includes entries "from the journal of Professor Caleb Blackthorne III, discovered May 1899, near the Great Temple at Tiahuanaco, Peru"... If you're into metal and have ever played the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, this is for you. As it says in the liner notes, you may "explore the fantastic and arcane multiverse of Bal Sagoth" at their website, www.Bal-Sagoth.co.uk.
RealAudio clip: "Atlantis Ascendant"

BAL-SAGOTH The Chthonic Chronicles (Candlelight) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Invocations Beyond The Outer-World Night"
MPEG Stream: "Six Score And Ten Oblationss To A Malefic Avatar"

BAL-SAGOTH The Power Cosmic (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Britain's most bombastic barbarian metallers soar forth with a new disc, taking their epic heavy metal ballet music into outer space with this scifi-themed album. The insane keyboards, keyboards, keyboards, frenetic drums, and a theatrical voice intoning the cosmic/comic lyrics to songs like "The Thirteen Cryptical Prophecies Of Mu" and "Behold, The Armies Of War Descend Screaming From The Heavens" make for some awe-inspiring ridiculousnes all right, yet despite making fun of this both Andee and Allan somehow had to own copies...

BALAM ACAB See Birds (Tri Angle) cd ep 11.98
REPRESSED, BACK IN STOCK!!
Another 'witch house' luminary gets their first proper (non cd-r or download) release in the form of this gorgeous 5 song ep. For those who have somehow missed out on the whole witch house thing, it's sort of hard to describe, a new self proclaimed genre that seems to mix electronic music with dark creepy samples, everything slowed down and murky and witchy, ethereal vocals, distorted production, there's already a serious backlash because of the ridiculous witch house hype, which is pretty funny, considering probably all but the very hippest folks have barely even heard any witch house.
We reviewed the debut 12" from oOoOO a while back (all the witch house bands tend to have names that borrow heavily from the zapf dingbats font and the special keys on your keyboard), a fantastically dreamy chunk of electronic ghostly minimal dream pop, we also made Salem's King Night our Record of the Week, with its bombastic shoegaze bliss meets chopped and screwed Southern style crunk, but Balam Acab definitely tends toward the former, the two part title track a fuzzy, almost dubsteppy bit of gently glitchy gauziness, angelic vocals, wreathed in reverb, drifting over swirling industrial loops and shimmering synths, the second part totally blissed out and otherworldly, the beats spare and skeletal, the vocals floating on clouds of whirling effects and blurred melody, while in between, basslines buzz ominously, beats careen in slow motion, voices loop and hover, melodies fragment and drift apart, the sound like some eighties MTV pop slowed way down and dipped in drugs and left in the afternoon sun to warm, fuzzy streaks of sound wrapped around stuttery glacial beats, "Big Boy" offering up a hook on par with "See Birds", while "Dream Out" sounds like a warped Kate Bush record playing at 16rpm, while kids play video games in the next room.
Awesome stuff. And we could care less really if the hipster intelligentsia has decided witch house is dead, cuz we're definitely dying to hear more...
MPEG Stream: "See Birds"

BALAM ACAB See Birds (Tri Angle) 12" 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another 'witch house' luminary gets their first proper (non cd-r or download) release in the form of this gorgeous 5 song ep. For those who have somehow missed out on the whole witch house thing, it's sort of hard to describe, a new self proclaimed genre that seems to mix electronic music with dark creepy samples, everything slowed down and murky and witchy, ethereal vocals, distorted production, there's already a serious backlash because of the ridiculous witch house hype, which is pretty funny, considering probably all but the very hippest folks have barely even heard any witch house.
We reviewed the debut 12" from oOoOO a few lists back (all the witch house bands tend to have names that borrow heavily from the zapf dingbats font and the special keys on your keyboard), a fantastically dreamy chunk of electronic ghostly minimal dream pop, we also made Salem's King Night our Record of the Week, with its bombastic shoegaze bliss meets chopped and screwed Southern style crunk, but Balam Acab definitely tends toward the former, the two part title track a fuzzy, almost dubsteppy bit of gently glitchy gauziness, angelic vocals, wreathed in reverb, drifting over swirling industrial loops and shimmering synths, the second part totally blissed out and otherworldly, the beats spare and skeletal, the vocals floating on clouds of whirling effects and blurred melody, while in between, basslines buzz ominously, beats careen in slow motion, voices loop and hover, melodies fragment and drift apart, the sound like some eighties MTV pop slowed way down and dipped in drugs and left in the afternoon sun to warm, fuzzy streaks of sound wrapped around stuttery glacial beats, "Big Boy" offering up a hook on par with "See Birds", while "Dream Out" sounds like a warped Kate Bush record playing at 16rpm, while kids play video games in the next room.
Awesome stuff. And we could care less really if the hipster intelligentsia has decided witch house is dead, cuz we're definitely dying to hear more...
MPEG Stream: "See Birds"

BALAM ACAB Wander / Wonder (Triangle) cd 16.98
Pretty much every one at aQ loved that first Balam Acab ep, especially the track "See Birds", a song and sound that managed to at once define the already maligned genre 'witch house' and move beyond any sort of genre specific strictures, a dark dolorous drift, a slowed down RnB pop that managed to mesmerize and transport, that vocal line so distinctive, the strangely stuttery rhythm, it was pure magic for sure. And while there's maybe nothing quite approaching the mainstream-baiting hookiness of "See Birds", Wander/Wonder does have much to offer, and on repeated listens, many of the tracks most definitely approach the electronic pop mastery of "See Birds".
Take opener "Welcome", which begins with a stretch of burbling underwater sounds, a theme that seems to define much of Balam Acab's sound, a sense of submergence, but this opening track just drifts and shimmers, that burbling underpinned by a barely there sonic pulse, and then BAM, the beat bursts in, and it's not at all what you might have expected, a strange reverbed fragment, and with it comes a haunting bit of operatic vocalizing, the sound so haunting and mysterious and otherworldly, and the track just creeps along ominously, the vibe very cinematic, the sound super spare and abstract, and the perfect launching point for a record of what is essentially radical modern minimal electronica, the following track starts out again with a hushed bit of shimmer, before blossoming into a woozy bit of slo-mo soul, sped up vox somehow slowed down and melded to some blurred shuffle and skitter. "Motion" turns Pop Ambient shimmer into a hazy stretch of melting radio pop, while, "Expect" adds low end synth buzz, to shimmering strings, angelic vox, and more water sounds, for something dreamlike and ethereal. "Await" is a barely there underwater lullaby, with more sped up vocals, wistful piano melodies, and still more water sounds, and finally, "Fragile Hope" transforms dripping water and whispered breaths into the rhythm for a smoldering bass heavy ballad, that sounds like a slightly tweaked version of something that you could hear on the radio, some sweetly soulful slow motion soul. So good. And while not quite as dark and witch house-y as the See Birds ep, for folks into the new breed of warped RnB and slowsoul, as well as fans of How To Dress Well, Hype Williams, Soft Metals, D'eon and the like, this could be your new favorite record...
MPEG Stream: "Welcome"
MPEG Stream: "Apart"
MPEG Stream: "Motion"

BALAM ACAB Wander / Wonder (Triangle) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Pretty much every one at aQ loved that first Balam Acab ep, especially the track "See Birds", a song and sound that managed to at once define the already maligned genre 'witch house' and move beyond any sort of genre specific strictures, a dark dolorous drift, a slowed down RnB pop that managed to mesmerize and transport, that vocal line so distinctive, the strangely stuttery rhythm, it was pure magic for sure. And while there's maybe nothing quite approaching the mainstream-baiting hookiness of "See Birds", Wander/Wonder does have much to offer, and on repeated listens, many of the tracks most definitely approach the electronic pop mastery of "See Birds".
Take opener "Welcome", which begins with a stretch of burbling underwater sounds, a theme that seems to define much of Balam Acab's sound, a sense of submergence, but this opening track just drifts and shimmers, that burbling underpinned by a barely there sonic pulse, and then BAM, the beat bursts in, and it's not at all what you might have expected, a strange reverbed fragment, and with it comes a haunting bit of operatic vocalizing, the sound so haunting and mysterious and otherworldly, and the track just creeps along ominously, the vibe very cinematic, the sound super spare and abstract, and the perfect launching point for a record of what is essentially radical modern minimal electronica, the following track starts out again with a hushed bit of shimmer, before blossoming into a woozy bit of slo-mo soul, sped up vox somehow slowed down and melded to some blurred shuffle and skitter. "Motion" turns Pop Ambient shimmer into a hazy stretch of melting radio pop, while, "Expect" adds low end synth buzz, to shimmering strings, angelic vox, and more water sounds, for something dreamlike and ethereal. "Await" is a barely there underwater lullaby, with more sped up vocals, wistful piano melodies, and still more water sounds, and finally, "Fragile Hope" transforms dripping water and whispered breaths into the rhythm for a smoldering bass heavy ballad, that sounds like a slightly tweaked version of something that you could hear on the radio, some sweetly soulful slow motion soul. So good. And while not quite as dark and witch house-y as the See Birds ep, for folks into the new breed of warped RnB and slowsoul, as well as fans of How To Dress Well, Hype Williams, Soft Metals, D'eon and the like, this could be your new favorite record...
MPEG Stream: "Welcome"
MPEG Stream: "Apart"
MPEG Stream: "Motion"

BALANESCU QUARTET Maria T (Mute) cd 16.98

BALANESCU QUARTET Possessed (Mute) cd 12.98
String quartet versions of popular songs are nothing new, in fact they're now so ubiquitous, that the other big independent store in San Francisco, has a HUGE section of nothing but string tributes to bands like Radiohead, Nickelback, Rush, even Slayer and other metal bands. But back in 1992, when the legendary Balanescu Quartet released Possessed, we were definitely a little surprised. A fairly well respected world class quartet, tackling songs by krautrock legends Kraftwerk, and unlike the current glut of 'string tributes', this was not a bunch of studio session hacks pounding out whatever music was put in front of them, instead this was an homage, a respectful interpretation, a series of cover songs that spoke to the link between classical music and popular music, and played passionately, by musicians who no doubt were influenced by the originals.
Most of the covered songs are from Kraftwerk's later, more electronic period, which is interesting, considering that the early Kraftwerk records were actually not that electronic, much more acoustic and organic in fact, and featured the flute quite prominently, itself more often a classical instrument than a rock one. But these songs translate surprisingly well, the melodies are immediately recognizable, but are given an extra sort of gravitas by the new instrumentation, "Model" especially, the main melody becoming way more melancholy and aching, the mood somber and haunting. And in all the tracks, the pizzicato strings are used to great effect to create a propulsive krautrock feel, that when fused to the classic string quartet sound, definitely creates something pretty wonderful and original.
Besides the 5 Kraftwerk covers, there are also 3 Balanescu originals, which are quite dynamic and dramatic, unlike a lot of string quartet music you've probably heard, the title track is super jagged and intense, but also moody and cinematic, lots of aggressive bowing and plucking, that slips seamlessly into some sort of Eastern European sounding gypsy folk tango. "Want Me" is another very European sounding piece, this one including mysterious ethereal choral female vocals which definitely give the song a whole different vibe. "No Time Before Time" is about as traditional as these guys get, sounding like a very stately sort of 'classic' string quartet music, the sort of sound you might expect to hear in some royal court, but even then, still quite lyrical and filmic.
And finally, the record closes with Balanescu's version of a David Byrne piece, and it's pretty delightful, playful, and super melodic, again quite soundtracky, something you might here in some cool indie film, equal parts brooding and minor key, warm and sweetly melodic. Fantastic stuff, especially the Kraftwerk covers of course, and while we'd recommend this to pretty much anyone, folks who dig Kronos Quartet, who have yet to hear Balanescu, are in for a treat!

MPEG Stream: "Robots"
MPEG Stream: "Model"
MPEG Stream: "Pocket Calculator"

BALBOA / ROSETTA Project Mercury (Level Plane) cd 13.98
As we've no doubt mentioned before, metallic post rock seems to be its own little cottage industry, spawning more bands that it's possible to keep up with, and causing lots of bands to suddenly shift their sound, to be either more metal (for the post rock bands), or more post rock (for the metal bands). But as we've also mentioned before, it's tough to complain about a sound that combines two of our favorite musics. Metal, heavy and crushing, doomy and massive, and post rock, with its mathy rhythms, moody melodies, and soaring arrangements.
One of our favorite purveyors of this sound is Rosetta, from Philadelphia, who gave us one of our favorite postrockmetal records a few years back in the form of The Galilean Satellites. The approach for that release was unique, in that one disc was song based, with all the requisite crushing riffs and mathy metallic crush, while the second disc was all ambient, long tracks of swirl and shimmer, drone and rumble.
With the postrockmetal feeding frenzy, we were sure Rosetta were on the fast track to being big names in the scene, but they seem to still remain just below the spotlights, which seems to have done them no harm in terms of new music, their half of this split destroys. Albeit beautifully and dramatically. Two tracks, both topping 10 minutes. Both beginning with plenty of soaring jangle and Godspeed like cinematic build. Guitars chime and ring out, the drums are simple, perfectly supporting the rest of the instruments as they drift skyward. The first track builds and builds in intensity, only becoming truly metallic near the end, when the chiming high end guitars drift off leaving a churning downtuned riff, but even that riff is wrapped in effervescent streaks of glistening far away guitar harmonics, and strange vocal snippets, and rumbling whirring low end drones.
The second track follows a similar pattern, but the heavy parts STAY heavy, with howled guttural vocals, and a very Neurosis-y riff, but again, still surrounded by all sorts of incandescent guitars and dense swirls of ambient buzz.
Rosetta are teamed up with fellow Philly noisemakers Balboa, who also do their own version of the metal math rock, but theirs has a foot firmly planted in punk rock, hardcore to be exact. The first track starts off like a super charged nineties math rock jam, with angular guitars and BIG drums, vocals that are sort of sad boy, but build into full on howls, when all of a sudden, the band lurches into an almost blast beat, a furious punk rock blast, that shifts gears again, into a seriously hooky hardcore groove, sounds like a weird mix, but it sounds amazing. And a perfect foil to the languid expansiveness of Rosetta. The other two songs, don't get as punk rock as the opener, instead, mining more of that nineties math rock sound, Polvo, Dazzling Killmen, Hoover, the songs are loping stretched out grooves, the bass and guitar locked in tight, the drums almost tribal, everything crashing together in huge bursts of metallic emo fury. Pretty great.
And as if that weren't enough, the two bands combine forces for the closer, the title track, which to be honest sounds like it could be either band, as easy as both, BUT, it's amazing, a seriously gorgeously executed, heavy and hooky chunk of mathy metallic rock. From the beginning, a propulsive, almost krautrock jam, that slowly and steadily builds into a seriously thick bout of massive roiling guitars, and chaotic drumming, all downtuned and dripping with distortion, the only hint that this is actually two bands is about three quarters of the way through, when the drummers engage in a relentless double kick dual, over which ALL the guitarists spit out spidery glistening guitar lines, a huge glimmering tangle of melodies that sparkles and shimmers, and as you might expect is quickly sucked under another crushing wave of grinding growling guitar. Awesome stuff. Fans of the usual suspects (Isis, Baroness, Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, Pelican, Tides, Conifer, Minsk, etc..) most definitely NEED this.
MPEG Stream: BALBOA "Kaddish"
MPEG Stream: ROSETTA "Tma-1"

BALDELLI, DANIELE & MARCO DIONIG Cosmic Disco?! Cosmic Rock!!! (Eskimo) cd 17.98

BALDWIN, MATT Imaginary Psychology (self-released) cd-r 8.98
Man, Matt Baldwin just seems to get better and better, taking his already wonderful celestial spaced out guitar playing and constantly pushing his sound further and further out. This super limited self released outing finds Baldwin positioning one short track inbetween two epic 15 minute sprawls which evoke the spirit of Robert Fripp playing a Terry Riley composition or Michael Rother and Steve Reich teaming up for some hypnotic psychedelic kraut guitar drift. Exploring cosmic guitar explorations similar to folks like Mark McGuire and Phil Manley, this is such a wonderful record of truly tripped out and densely dreamy solo guitar. We could go on and on about how much we love this, but considering these are the very last copies left of this cd-r we should probably just say act super fast as we only have ten of these left!
MPEG Stream: "Lindsay And Her Duplicates"
MPEG Stream: "Imaginary Psychology"

BALDWIN, MATT Paths Of Ignition (American Dust) cd 14.98
We love our modern Appalachia, tangled steel strings, gorgeous sprawling avant bluegrass, Fahey, Jack Rose, James Blackshaw, Ilyas Ahmed, it's a crowded field, but all the key players manage to create something much more special than just a Fahey rehash. Sure there are tons of folks out there with a guitar, a heavily worn copy of Death Chants, and not an original musical idea in their head, but there are the few, like the above folks mentioned, who took that sound, and were inspired to create their own soundworlds. You can add Matt Baldwin to that list.
It's a little hard to put a finger on what exactly makes Baldwin's sound so special, it could be more of a focus on classic melody, than on pick and strum, the opening track on Paths Of Ignition darkly unfurls into a warm whirring pastoral guitarscape, lots of major key melodies, unlikely harmonies, strange bits of slippery slide, and plenty of electric guitar buzz, some soaring growling leads, all woven into some haunting raga infused psychedelic space folk. The whole track is laced with tangles of wild almost-shredding guitar, deep resonant drones, swirling little melodic flourishes, it all transforms -his- take on Appalachia into something much more tripped out, psych rock and almost poppy in its prettiness.
The rest of the disc hews a little closer to the neo-Appalachia party line, but even then, his tracks slither and buzz, lots of haunting guitar rumble, intricate finger picking, delicate melodies, dreamy and drifty, mysterious and timeless. Except the one cover, the song that actually got us interested in Baldwin in the first place. It's only 4 minutes long, but it's a killer. Baldwin takes on Judas Priest's "Winter" and nails it. The main riff of the original sounds perfect on a steel string, brooding and ominous, beneath that guitar deep swells of buzzing guitardrone pulses and throbs, and the vocals, Baldwin does a pretty excellent Halford, a reverb drenched high pitched croon, complete with vibrato and little trills, the track finishes off with some killer lead guitar, sprawled over that gorgeous languorous main riff, that seems to slither and drift on forever.
Any one into the current crop of modern Appalachian / neo-folk / whatever-you-call-it guitar music will definitely dig this, and while it's worth it for the Priest cover alone, the whole record is pretty fantastic. Now it's up to Blackshaw to cover some old Scorpions, or Rose to take on a classic UFO or Uriah Heep track, so if either of you guys is reading this...
MPEG Stream: "Winter"
MPEG Stream: "Weissensee"

BALDWIN, MATT Paths Of Ignition ( American Dust) lp 14.98
This list highlight from a couple weeks back is NOW ON VINYL! And, we noticed, also now the Record Of The Month for July on Julian Cope's Head Heritage website, which we love. Read our review, then go read his... from which we learned something we should have realized, that the first track is a Neu! cover! So, here's what we said before about the cd version:
We love our modern Appalachia, tangled steel strings, gorgeous sprawling avant bluegrass, Fahey, Jack Rose, James Blackshaw, Ilyas Ahmed, it's a crowded field, but all the key players manage to create something much more special than just a Fahey rehash. Sure there are tons of folks out there with a guitar, a heavily worn copy of Death Chants, and not an original musical idea in their head, but there are the few, like the above folks mentioned, who took that sound, and were inspired to create their own soundworlds. You can add Matt Baldwin to that list.
It's a little hard to put a finger on what exactly makes Baldwin's sound so special, it could be more of a focus on classic melody, than on pick and strum, the opening track on Paths Of Ignition darkly unfurls into a warm whirring pastoral guitarscape, lots of major key melodies, unlikely harmonies, strange bits of slippery slide, and plenty of electric guitar buzz, some soaring growling leads, all woven into some haunting raga infused psychedelic space folk. The whole track is laced with tangles of wild almost-shredding guitar, deep resonant drones, swirling little melodic flourishes, it all transforms -his- take on Appalachia into something much more tripped out, psych rock and almost poppy in its prettiness.
The rest of the disc hews a little closer to the neo-Appalachia party line, but even then, his tracks slither and buzz, lots of haunting guitar rumble, intricate finger picking, delicate melodies, dreamy and drifty, mysterious and timeless. Except the one cover, the song that actually got us interested in Baldwin in the first place. It's only 4 minutes long, but it's a killer. Baldwin takes on Judas Priest's "Winter" and nails it. The main riff of the original sounds perfect on a steel string, brooding and ominous, beneath that guitar deep swells of buzzing guitardrone pulses and throbs, and the vocals, Baldwin does a pretty excellent Halford, a reverb drenched high pitched croon, complete with vibrato and little trills, the track finishes off with some killer lead guitar, sprawled over that gorgeous languorous main riff, that seems to slither and drift on forever.
Any one into the current crop of modern Appalachian / neo-folk / whatever-you-call-it guitar music will definitely dig this, and while it's worth it for the Priest cover alone, the whole record is pretty fantastic. Now it's up to Blackshaw to cover some old Scorpions, or Rose to take on a classic UFO or Uriah Heep track, so if either of you guys is reading this...
MPEG Stream: "Winter"
MPEG Stream: "Weissensee"