BONARELLI, CLAUDIA Everything Happens Only a Certain Number of Times (Mitek) cd 14.98
It's such a formula. I'm finding it hard not to scoff. [1] ALBUM COVER: blurry photo of wall, stairwell or Eames chair (graphic designer friend happens to have a pair in living room). [2] MUSIC: endlessly repeating rhythms resembling depressed heartbeat, overlay arty record crackle. [3] INNER SLEEVE: not there to convey information; must be totally blank except for more blurry photos of horizons and shit. [4] LABEL: must be German or Austrian; if you release it on an American electronica label no one will pay attention to you. Et voila. Electronica-by-numbers.
RealAudio clip: "Commune"

BOND, BILLY Y LA PESADA DEL ROCK AND ROLL s/t (Cloud Forest Recordings) cd 17.98

BOND, BILLY Y LA PESADA DEL ROCK AND ROLL Volume 3 & 4 (Cloud Forest) cd 17.98

BOND, BILLY Y LA PESADA DEL ROCK AND ROLL Volume I & II (Cloud Forest) cd 22.00

BONDAGE FRUIT IV (Maboroshi No Sekai/Musea) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japanese prog-rock band Bondage Fruit, starring guitarist Kido Natsuki and violinist Katsu Yuji (as well as folks on drums, bass, and...vibraphone). Less hyper-grand and Magma-like than some of their earlier efforts, "IV" is more focused on the instrumental heroics of the aforementioned duo.

BONDE DO ROLE With Lazers (Domino) cd 14.98
If you've been caught up in the zesty kinetic fizz of the Rio Baile Funk compilations and the Brazilian band CSS like we have, you won't wanna miss their friends Bonde Do Role. In fact, they've even done remixes for Edu K (Rio Baile Funk) and CSS. Yes, it's all connected! We were initially smitten a couple months ago by a maxi cd single containing three versions and a video for their song "Solta O Frango" and one other track called "Rap Do CB". It was so short'n'sweet to the point of being cruel, but it was enough to get us all rabid and tingly for the imminent release of their full length With Lazers which is the album we present before you now. Yaaay!!! Championed by tastemakin' dj/producer Diplo, Bonde Do Role are like a hyper-hued combination of the tweaked playfulness of Senor Coconut, the dizzying sun stroked energy of CSS, and a healthy dose of down'n'dirty electrified grittiness. Look no further, this is the perfect summer album. Let the sparks fly!
MPEG Stream: "Solta O Frango"
MPEG Stream: "Office Boy"

BONE AWL Bog Bodies / Magnetism Of War (Goatowarex) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Man, this one sure has been a mess, apologies to all the folks who waited months and months, but this completely killer slab of raw primitive grim blackness is now FINALLY back in stock. We originally listed it ages ago, sold out, and then tried to order more, and suddenly everything went wrong, our first box of lps got lost, and it took forever to get in touch with the label to get more, they finally showed up out of the blue after almost 9 months, but they were missing sleeves and there weren't enough covers. So we finally got it all sorted out, and we have a bunch of these in stock, for sure for the very last time. Once we run out these are gone for good. In fact since these showed up, we haven't heard a peep from the label, even after repeated emails, so if you want one of these, and you really should, then grab it while you can, once these are gone, these are truly and finally gone for good.
Since we first discovered local primitive black metal outfit Bone Awl, on a tip from Leviathan's Wrest, we've been pretty much totally obsessed. As have most AQ customers considering how fast we fly through their limited cassette only releases.
So finally, two of those long out of print demos (so long out of print in fact that we never actually had ANY) reissued on super deluxe 180 gram vinyl. Two demos, one on each side. Bog Bodies on side A, originally released as a cassette in 2003, limited to 300 copies, now LONG out of print, and on side B, Magnetism Of War, originally released as a cassette in 2002, limited to 150 copies and also long out of print.
So this vinyl reissue, is also of course limited. Only 400 copies. Each sleeve is cut and paste style, to sort of keep with the aesthetic of the Bone Awl cassettes and as you can well imagine, this stuff is SICK SICK SICK. Bone Awl play super lo-fi black thrash, simple throbbing, furious and fucked up. Murky and primitive, just guitar and drums, manned by the brilliantly named duo of He Who Gnashes Teeth and He Who Crushes Teeth! Simple riffs pounded into your skull, a crushing static black buzz, that is totally trancelike in its simplicity. Tape hiss wraps it's blackened tendrils around downtuned guitars, the drums a simple pounding framework, the vocals a guttural demonic howl. Actually, Bone Awl sound strangely like some sort of black metal Brainbombs, and we shouldn't have to tell you how goddamn good that sounds. As far as we know this is already out of print at the label. We have 25 or 30 copies, and once they are gone, they are GONE FOR GOOD.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!!

BONE AWL By Ropes Through Dirt (Worship Him) cassette 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wrest from Leviathan had been bugging us forever to carry records by local black metal horde Bone Awl for ages. And we usually trust him when it comes to all things black, However there were a few problems, the first being that we always thought he was saying Bonall, or some other one word variation. The other problem was as far as we could tell they didn't really have any proper releases. Well, we finally managed to track down the guys in Bone Awl and discovered that they did indeed have a bunch or releases, they just happened to consist of several out of print 7"s and a couple cassettes. So we figured what the hell, cd-r's may be the cool cult format, but if that's the case, then it's time to head back to cassettes, the true underground format. So we managed to get a handful of Bone Awl's last two cassettes, and we're happy to report that they're both packed with minimal blackened thrash, 'goat metal' Wrest would probably call it, murky and primitive, simple riffing smeared into dense droney slabs of galloping black metal crush, from just a two piece band of guitar and drums (played by He Who Gnashes Teeth and He Who Crushes Teeth!). But while the lineup is minimal the sound is still thick and snarlingly fierce. Imagine a stripped down Darkthrone (if you can): a single riff pounded mercilessly into submission, gruff gargly vocals buried in the mix, sloppy and raw recorded super hot and totally blown out. This is true underground black metal for sure. By Ropes Through Dirt is the older title and was limited to 500 copies. We have about ten copies and that's it, it's already out of print. Up To Something is the most recent, released last year, and is also limited to 500 copies, we have a bunch but they're going fast and will most likely be gone for good pretty soon.

BONE AWL Meaningless Leaning Mess (Nuclear War Now! Productions) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For the latest installment in their ongoing, all-analog blackened onslaught, local raw, primitive, black-thrash duo Bone Awl unleash another full length lp, the third by our count, not including a clutch of limited run cassette tapes and 7"s. And as always, it's another fantastically furious and filthy slab of relentlessly pounding buzz, hateful howl and sheer black force.
For the uninitiated, Bone Awl are the duo of He Who Gnashes Teeth and He Who Crushes Teeth, just guitar and drums, but the two are a whirling dervish of harsh negative energy, not so much blasting and buzzing black metal style, as pounding and pulsing, a blown out D-beat style garage thrash pummel. Every track takes a single black riff, and pounds it into the ground, the guitar a swirling cloud of dark energy, the drums some sort of harnessed chaos, hewing closer to the abject blown out pound of the Brainbombs than perhaps any of their more metal forebears. No real blast beats to be found, instead the sound is a blackened punk rock, crusty and crumbling, on the verge of total collapse, barreling hellward with unstoppable momentum.
Pressed on super thick 180 gram vinyl, housed in a thick cardstock inner sleeve, printed with lyrics, and housed in a gorgeous black and white poster sleeve, that opens to be pretty massive. The whole thing tucked in a plastic jacket with a sticker affixed to the front. And as always, probably crazy limited...

BONE AWL Not For Our Feet (Klaxon) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally more blasting primitive blackness from this local black metal duo. After a handful of ultra limited tape and vinyl releases and at least one box of lps lost in the mail (folks who are waiting, we are getting more we swear, thanks for being so patient), we've all been left with a Bone Awl shaped hole in our black souls. Originally released on Nuclear War Now, Not For Our Feet (and the accompanying Undying Glare 7", also reissued and reviewed elsewhere on this list) disappeared before we could get our hands on a single copy, so were were psyched to discover that the band had formed their own label and will start to release their own records, beginning with this 9 song blast of pummeling black thrash.
Not For Our Feet is dripping with atmosphere, it's crusty and dark, it's simple, and straight forward, but chaotic and messy, it's wild and unrestrained, but relentless and impossible concise, most songs are stripped down and blown out, one riff, maybe two, sometimes three, never more, the drums are relentless, usually not blasting, but pounding furiously, and the vocals howling above the din, but the sound is so intense and emotional and so very black. There's definitely a D-beat influence, a lot of the time Bone Awl don't even really sound like black metal, more a white hot pounding noise rock outfit, with buzzing insectoid riffing and some seriously blackened tendencies. Which is part of what makes them so appealing. They go from galloping black thrash, to buzzing blast, to simple cavemen pound often in the same song. And the sound itself is as intense as the music, super hot, in the red, needle pegged, speaker shredding, high end buzz and blast that threatens to blow your speakers even at the lowest of volumes.
As with most Bone Awl stuff, not sure how long this will be around, hopefully longer than usual, but don't risk it, this is some of the most intense and visceral, raw and hateful, brutal and punishing music we've heard in ages, black metal or otherwise. You definitely won't want to be left behind.
All new artwork, cool distressed black and brown sleeve with collaged olde English text cover image, includes a printed insert with all the lyrics.

BONE AWL So I Must Take From The Earth... ...And Make It My Own (Hospital Productions) 2x7" 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
While we struggle desperately to get the guys in Bone Awl to bring us more of their cassettes, and while we wait impatiently for the boxes of Bone Awl lps to finally show up after being lost in the postal system for going on three months now, at least we have these here 14 inches of brand new analog Bone Awl to tide us over.
Keeping true to their old school ethos (as in NO CDS!!) the band give us a brand new double 7", released on Hospital Productions (run by the man behind Prurient) and it's just what you might expect. And just what we can never seem to get enough of. Super raw, stripped down two piece black metal buzz. Harsh and hateful, buzzing and brutal, thrashing and totally trancelike. The duo of He Who Gnashes Teeth and He Who Crushes Teeth whip up a frenzy of lo-fi blackened ultra violence, relentless and so sick. We described Bone Awl as sounding a bit like a black metal Brainbombs and that still holds true. Each track, a single riff, guitar and drums, pounded into your skull, over and over and over and over. Fucking awesome!
Probably limited but we got a bunch...

BONE AWL Undying Glare (Klaxon) 7" 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Originally released with the Not For Our Feet lp in a super limited cloth bag deluxe version that disappeared almost before we even heard about it, Undying Glare might possibly be primitive black metal combo Bone Awl's harshest, heaviest, noisiest, and thus finest moment yet, which is saying something, especially with a band whose limited release history is pretty much nothing but finest moments.
Undying Glare is three tracks, but they all sort of blur together into one glorious white hot burst of blown out black buzz. And when we say blown out, we mean, completely and utterly in the red to the point where these songs are a breath away from collapsing into straight white noise.
Squeals of feedback give way to a blinding deafening blast of hissing, hateful high end buzz, the guitars have become some sort of impossible noise, merely in the shape of riffs, but when the song kicks in those riff shaped chunks of sound are swallowed up by a wave of pure black noise, the drums and cymbals are all sizzling sibilance, just another layer of hiss and buzz, as are the vocals, all three tracks smeared violently into one sprawling black beast.
Pressed on grey vinyl, one sided, super striking cover art, and again, like all Bone Awl stuff, we have no idea how long these will be around or if we'll ever be able to get more...

BONE AWL Up To Something (Klaxon) cassette 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wrest from Leviathan had been bugging us forever to carry records by local black metal horde Bone Awl for ages. And we usually trust him when it comes to all things black, However there were a few problems, the first being that we always thought he was saying Bonall, or some other one word variation. The other problem was as far as we could tell they didn't really have any proper releases. Well, we finally managed to track down the guys in Bone Awl and discovered that they did indeed have a bunch or releases, they just happened to consist of several out of print 7"s and a couple cassettes. So we figured what the hell, cd-r's may be the cool cult format, but if that's the case, then it's time to head back to cassettes, the true underground format. So we managed to get a handful of Bone Awl's last two cassettes, and we're happy to report that they're both packed with minimal blackened thrash, 'goat metal' Wrest would probably call it, murky and primitive, simple riffing smeared into dense droney slabs of galloping black metal crush, from just a two piece band of guitar and drums (played by He Who Gnashes Teeth and He Who Crushes Teeth!). But while the lineup is minimal the sound is still thick and snarlingly fierce. Imagine a stripped down Darkthrone (if you can): a single riff pounded mercilessly into submission, gruff gargly vocals buried in the mix, sloppy and raw recorded super hot and totally blown out. This is true underground black metal for sure. By Ropes Through Dirt is the older title and was limited to 500 copies. We have about ten copies and that's it, it's already out of print. Up To Something is the most recent, released last year, and is also limited to 500 copies, we have a bunch but they're going fast and will most likely be gone for good pretty soon.

BONE AWL / THE RITA split (Klaxon) cassette 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The return of the Bay Area's very own lo-fi black thrash terrorists Bone Awl, and holy fuck is this stuff fierce. Brutal and chaotic and lo-fi as always, but for this cassette, they've teamed up with Canadian harsh noise outfit The Rita and the two bands sound perfect together. When we first put this on we assumed it would follow a traditional split release format, one band plays their songs, then the other band plays theirs, or at least each band gets their own side of the tape. But no, here, the bands switch back and forth, and The Rita's noisy dronescapes sound almost like they could be Bone Awl's ambient interludes. In fact, we assumed the first track WAS the intro to a Bone Awl song until we figured out what was going on. Bone Awl are a two piece killing machine, who spew a downtuned and murky, pounding midtempo thrash drenched in tape hiss and fuzzed out noise, turning their thrash into some weirdly dirge-y black Brainbombs thing. The Rita take the same sort of sonic grime and murk, but instead of harnassing it into some sort of metallic framework, they let it soar skyward, unchained and uncontrollable, all the meters pushed into the red, smearing the buzz and fuzz into crumbling Merzboic masses of snarling, slithering scuzz drenched power electronics. Together these two hordes whip up a gloriously noisy, punishingly harsh, druggy and buzzed out expanse of free noise thrash dirge brutality, and we LOVE IT!
Super limited as always. We've got about 30 so act fast.

BONE AWL / VOLKURAH / HAMMER / VORDR Vinland / Finland (Northern Sky Productions) cassette 4.00
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 handful more of these back in stock. Not sure how long they'll last...
Bone Awl!!! You know you want it. We can't seem to keep their shit in stock. It flies out of here everytime we get a new title. We're still waiting on two huge boxes of Bone Awl lps to finally arrive. Sorry for the folks who are still waiting. We're as frustrated as you are. AND we're still waiting for the sort of flakey band members to come by and bring us more copies of their old cassettes.
But thankfully, we just got a new tape in to tide you over! Yep, you heard us tape. These guys are old skool. No cds, just tapes and vinyl. All super lo-fi and primitive, visually and sonically.
Vinland / Finland was previously available as a super limited lp on Grievantee (now WAY out of print, so don't ask) and now as a super limited tape on Northern Sky. Four different bands, all brutal, primitive, and ultra grim black metal, Bone Awl (USA), Hammer (Finland), Volkurah (Canada) and Vordr (Finland). We obviously love Bone Awl as do you all it seems, and we are super into Vordr (although we've never been able to get enough copies of their discs to list), we had never heard of either Hammer or Volkurah, but both fit comfortably along side the other two.
So if you're in the mood for some stripped down, ugly, crusty black brutality, then this is exactly what you've been hankering for. And as much as we hate to say it, this is of course super limited. And while we did get a whole bunch, they still probably won't last long.

BONE SHERIFF Huh Again (Diagnosis...Don't! ) 3"cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of three new 3" cd-r releases on the Grey Daturas' Diagnosis ... Don't! label, each super limited, and housed in cool hand made packaging.
Bone Sheriff is another sort of supergroup style match up (sort a like the Stumps, made up of members of Gate, Mrtyu, Sandoz Lab Technicians, Seht, Nether Dawn, With Throats As Fine As Needles) that should have AQ customers frothing at the mouth. One part Simon Taylor of Aussie dirge sludge combo Whitehorse and Rob Mayson of the Grey Daturas and Maggoted, teaming up to make some serious noise, armed with a seriously unlikely arsenal of soundmaking implements: cymbals, glass, contact mics, bass and keytar. The disc's centerpiece is a 13 minute + wall of densely layered guitardrone, crumbling and rumbling, bits of distorted melody spread out over an expansive stretch of rough raw chordal hum. Heavy as fuck, but kinda pretty at the same time. This glorious drone is surrounded on all sides by a handful of super short tracks, tiny jagged fragments of freaked out sound, from grinding Wolf Eyes like glitchy splatter, to Merzbow-ian splintering noise, to squealing sinewaves to barely audible extreme high/low Ikeda style minimalism.
Packaged in thick textured paper black mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "track 4"
MPEG Stream: "track 7"

BONE SHERIFF Moonee Ponds (Sabbatical) cd-r 8.98

BONE SHERIFF / 1/16TH HEADED split (self-released) 2xcassette 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Just a single copy of this in stock, a double cassette featuring Bone Sheriff, which just so happens to feature members of longtime aQ faves Grey Daturas and Whitehorse, sharing a split with the oddly named band 1/16th Headed, who we know nothing about.
Bone Sheriff do that blissed out heavy noisy guitar drone thing, no idea what 1/16th do, but we're guessing it's probably of a similarly noisy and droney ilk.
The packaging is super sweet. An oversized plastic case, silkscreened, with a sewn canvas pouch inside housing the two tapes, a silkscreened patch, and a printed cardstock insert. Nice. And the ONLY copy...

BONE SICKNESS Alone In The Grave (20 Buck Spin) lp 15.98
Alone In The Grave is the 7 song, 18 minute debut lp from this old school punked out death metal crew who hail from Olympia Washington, and whose sound is totally beholden to the old days, classic death metal punked up into something crusty and noisy and filthy, short sharp songs, most of which begin with feedback drenched creepy lurching doomy intros, which inevitably explode into churning downtuned riffage, belched and bellowed demonic vokills, furious caveman drum pound, the whole thing laced with wild leads and tons of oozy blackened atmosphere. A little grind, a little doom, a little classic metal, but a lot of grunting, head banging death metal heaviness. Not to much to say, these guys aren't reinventing the death metal wheel or anything, instead they're paying homage to all who came before, and injecting the sound with a little of their own punkish Northwestern energy. Fans of recent releases by outfits like Howling, Antediluvian, Knelt Rote, Abyssal and others will dig big time.
Primitive black and white cover art by one of the sickos behind the Chips & Beer magazine!

BONECLOUD Chrysalis 1951-1926 (Twonicorn) cassette 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another transmission from on high, channelled through the earthly vessel known as Bonecloud, a mysterious drone duo from Ireland, who share at least one member with equally beloved outfit Quetzolcoatl. Two twenty minute slow burning epics, wide open expanses of scrape and shimmer, looped and cyclical soundscapes of metallic shimmer and blurred melody, Taj Mahal Travellers playing a piece by Phill Niblock, reinterpreted by the Jewelled Antler collective and recorded by William Basinksi. Long stretches of shapeless vocals, wheezing chords stretched out forever, woven into some glistening sonic fabric, twisting and changing shape, and color, and texture, fuzzy and warbly, blurry and buzzy, washed out and smeared, gauzy and smoky, a super abstract, ephemeral raga. The sound of an old tape dubbed over and over and over, broadcast through rusted loudspeakers mounted on trees, listened to with eyes closed, wet grass against your back and warm wind and soft rain on your face...
As with all Twonicorn, gorgeously packaged, pro printed tapes, textured paper sleeves, and of course super limited, ONLY 100 COPIES!! Each tape hand numbered.

BONECLOUD Drawing Spirits In Crystals (DNT) cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Already out of print at the label. Once these are gone they are gone for good.
MPEG Stream: "Drawing Spirits In Crystals"

BONECLOUD s/t (2cd-r) (Haunted Trail) 2cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bonecloud sure is an evocative name. We can picture a big swirling black cloud cut a swath across the land lifting skeletons out of the ground, emptying graveyards, a sky full of re-animated bones, or some strange otherworldly beast that manifests itself on this plain as some sort of amorphous pile of skulls that can float skyward or crawl along the ground like some bony blob, or a grey cloud that covers a wasted landscape in soot-like dust, a huge billowing fog of ground up bones and vaporized skeletons, some sort of post apocalyptic fallout. All very creepy and haunting. Which pretty much perfectly suits the music of the Irish stoned drone ensemble that does indeed bear the name Bonecloud.
We first heard from these murk mongers on a split with Portland drifters Ghosting. And were instantly blown away. They took the droney drift of all our favorite abstract noise makers, and added a seriously ominous vibe, a hellish halo of Stygian gloom, mixing the usual subterranean shimmer with thick sick slabs of Lustmordian throb and Organumish rumble.
This is a self released double cd-r we got direct from the band and expands on the sound of the split, taking full advantage of the extra space to let their gloomy sonic sprawl as it was meant to. Huge expanses of muddled mire, a thick morass of ambient drift, drenched in a shower of grit and grime, allowed to slither and shift, a haunting glacial epic soundscape of darkness and drone. Like the Taj Mahal Travellers covering the Dead C, a disembodied noise rock, allowed to drift from speaker to speaker, floating above a barren wasteland, covering the Earth in shadow. So fucking awesome.
SUPER LIMITED... of course. Packaged between two thick pieces of cardstock, with a full color image affixed to each, all housed in an oversized plastic sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Drowning In The Tides Of Space"
MPEG Stream: "Sea Burial"

BONECLOUD s/t (3") (Diagnosis...Don't!) 3"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.
Finally, another new missive from Irish druid-drone collective Bonecloud, a brief but glorious ep, one of three new releases in the ongoing super limited 3"cd-r series on the Grey Daturas' Diagnosis...Don't label.
Featuring members of equally loved dreamdrone combo Quetzolcoatl, Bonecloud conjure up some gorgeously expansive and disorientingly otherworldly wide open expanses of shimmer and crawl, managing to create soundscapes that are at once murky and mysterious, yet strangely melodic and mesmerizing. Bonecloud are definitely the closest any of the modern breed of abstract ambient soundscapers have come to conjuring up the primal ur-drone magic of legendary seventies Japanese psych legends Taj Mahal Travellers. Sounds drift and float, like the band was set up on a rocky outcropping on some strange alien planet, sending their hymns skyward, sonic offerings to some cosmic deity, a timeless drone ritual, performed under a blackened moon (or moons) beneath a dense canopy of skeletal branches. Crackling fires, crashing surf, bird calls and the sounds of insects are sucked up into these glacial drones, and transformed into sonic smears adding more texture to Bonecloud's already densely layered whirs and rumbles. Awesome.
Packaged in thick textured black paper mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. Nice.
And as usual, these are of course SUPER LIMITED, and we're pretty sure we won't be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: "This Heart Of Sand"
MPEG Stream: "Watching The Rock Erode For A Thousand Years"

BONECLOUD Teenage Lycanthropy (Leaf Trail) 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.
It's really hard to keep up with the ever expanding legion of prolific cd-r outfits, with bands often averaging a release every month or two, but in the case of Irish drone collective Bonecloud, it's well worth it. This is the 6th or 7th release we've carried from these guys, and no doubt we missed tons of super limited microreleases, but as with all the previous ones we reviewed, Teenage Lycanthropy is another breathtaking slab of deep organic dronemusic.
For those new to the sonic world of Bonecloud, a quick glance at the song titles should definitely clue you in as to what sort of vibe to expect from these guys: "Ecstatic Stabs Of Light", "Infinite Rain Prism", "Clouds Of Butterflies"É And that's sort of what the music of Bonecloud sounds like. We tend to always mention legendary Japanese seventies psychdrone outfit Taj Mahal Travellers, and it's still appropriate here. This is drone music, but it's quite musical, multilayered, organic, an organized chaos, shimmering clouds of abstract percussion and disembodied voices, all above a constantly shifting backdrop of subtle whirs, pulsing rumbles, bowed metals, all smeared and blurred and washed out, the tracks long slow indistinct blurs of sound.
"Sea Cave" is the surprise here, too bad it's only 3 minutes long, a thick cinematic orchestral loop, bathed in record crackle and settled on a sea of dense drones, sounding like it could have come straight off a Pop Ambient compilation. Thankfully, this 3 minute chunk of blurred ambient pop, is surrounded on all sides by Bonecloud's deliriously dreamy sonic drifts, fluttering and flickering, glimmering and sparkling, but beneath a soft focus patina of lo-fi murk and muted shimmer. Another practically perfect disc of late night drifting off mood musicÉ
Packaged in oversized full color sleeves, with color printed inserts.
MPEG Stream: "Ecstatic Stabs Of Light"
MPEG Stream: "Infinite Rain Prism Pt.2"

BONECLOUD XI:XI (Buried Valley) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A brand new brief burst of druidic drift from these Irish dronelords. The closest we've come to discovering the second coming of Japanese seventies psych drone legends Taj Mahal Travellers. Bonecloud seem to have tapped into the same primal sonic instinct, merging a knack for soft noise and dark drone, with a balance of subdued melody, of organic drift and pure mystic energy.
Every thing they touch turns to gorgeous murk, emitting dense clouds of dark black energy, that glows with some ineffable energy, it's like an alien sun wrapped in black gauze, a strange grey glow, with glimmers and glints of melody and rhythm occasionally surfacing amidst the constant swirl of shimmering sound. Incredibly dense and dreamy, like pop songs crushed and smeared into bits and pieces, buried in the earth, and allowed to slowly make their way to the surface, where they begin the slow shimmering ascent into the heavens.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!! We only got a handful. The cassettes are hand painted and are housed in printed full color covers each one hand numbered.

BONES OF SEABIRDS Sacrament (Small Doses) 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.
First release from Bones Of Seabirds, aka Ryan McGill, and it's a deft blend of blown out free noise ambience a la Sunroof! and Birchville Cat Motel, dreamy soundscape drift and churning low end doomdrone.
The minimal liner notes inside credit Mcgill with strings and synths, and both, while in full effect, are blended and blurred into a sound less distinct, more ethereal and abstract. The opener is all gritty gristly high end, sheets of feedback, coruscating layers of buzz and glitch, all pulsing and throbbing, melodies buried within, strange harmonies, culminating in a wall of downtuned near static guitar buzz, a blackened blizzard of sound. The second track is a roiling lowendscape of rumbles and blurred drones, off in the distance bits of high end glimmer, shards of crackling grind and chordal whir, dense and ominous but still strangely pretty. The third track, is a haunting landscape of reverb drenched harmonics, long stretched out tones, mysterious melodies, softly heaving textures, bits of electronic tracery, whirring and shimmering, all wrapped in a skein of murk and blur.
And so it goes for the rest of the disc, the tracks dipping into those three sounds, blending and blurring and creating whole new sonic worlds from its constituent parts. Needless to say, most folks who like this kind of thing have already added this to their cart and moved on, but for the rest of you, fans of SUNNO))), Birchville, Vulture Club, Acre, and Tunnels among others, who are into all things that drone and rumble and whir and roil and swirl and shimmer and throb and grind and pulse and drift, will most likely want to pick one of these up PRONTO.
LIMITED TO 138 COPIES! Each one in a gorgeously handmade package, black ink printed on thick cardstock, housed in a hand cut full color vellum overlay, inside a printed vellum insert, with liner notes, each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Belial"
MPEG Stream: "Serpent"

BONFIRE MADIGAN 88 (Little Echoes) cdep 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Easily drawing comparisons to the dramatic, fearless artists Tori Amos and PJ Harvey, Ms Madigan belts out her songs with such abandon, so high on emotion, that it's just as much a cathartic experience for the listener as it seems to be for her. And she plays her faithful cello with equal ferocity. On this EP, the group known as Bonfire Madigan also includes Sheri Ozeki (contrabass), Egg (drums, lap steel, guitar), Christine Lehmann (violin), Shelley Doty (electric guitar), and Biggs (drums). Five songs in all. 17+ minutes that'll leave you wonderfully spent. Limited pressing of 1000.
RealAudio clip: "O' Sanity"

BONG Bethmoora (Infinite Exchange) 2cd-r 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
LAST COPIES! We've got a half-dozen (they made a few more for us) but that's it... What we said before:
A new double disc of crushing slow motion space doom from UK doomlords BONG, and be warned, this thing is limited to maybe 100 copies, we tried to order half of those and ended up with more like a dozen. So normally we would highlight this, make a huge deal about it, and sell a ton, cuz this is exactly the format required to fully enjoy the epic glacial cosmic drift of Bong, 2 discs, 3 songs, an epic multi part blackened expanse of slowly unfurling low end doomdronesludge, spaced out and druggy, single riffs spread out to forever, meditative, mesmerizing, a sound somewhere between Electric Wizard, Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg and Bohren. Two originals on disc one, and the whole of disc two is filled up with an epic, ultra minimal cover of Pink Floyd's "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun", a surprisingly restrained, deep, dark, smoldering space rock slow jam, total late night chill out come down dream doom for sure.
So we won't make a big deal out of it, but grab one of these while you can, they're already out of print...
MPEG Stream: "Stone Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Bethmoora"
MPEG Stream: "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun"

BONG Beyond Ancient Space (Ritual Productions) cd 17.98
The return of Bong! We may have had the amazing Live At Roadburn disc to tide us over, but what we were really hankering for was a brand new full length from these UK psychedelic space doom heavies, and we're not and here it is. Beyond Ancient Space is three loooooong tracks, titled "Onward To Perdondaris", "Across The Timestream" and "In The Shadow Of The Towers" respectively, and described on the cd sleeve as 'unsere kosmischen musik', and after a creepy deeply intoned, reverbed spoken word intro, delivered over a glimmery spacescape of twinkle and shimmer, we are suddenly sucked into the strange world of Bong, as massive guitars come cascading down, a plodding ultra heavy doomic lumber, the drums spare and loose, the churning rumble and thrum laced with some sitar like buzz, which is no doubt the Shahi Baaja, an electrified Indian zither / drone harp with typewriter keys, that figures prominently in Bong's sound.
"Onward To Perdondaris" is a sinister creeping crawl, a nearly 25 minute, tranced out buzzing space doom mediation, the guitars not so much riffing as unfurling sheets of rumbling low end, a sprawling layered expanse of thick blackened thrum, a spaced out dirge, the buzzing Shahi Baaja transforming the sound into something exotic and alien, the vocals too, a monk like chant, long low tones, all very mesmerizing and meditative but still heavy and buzzy and droney, like Hawkwind covering SUNNO))), or Ravi Shankar jamming with Earth, or maybe some blurred confusional mix of the two.
"Across The Timestream" is another 25 minute epic, beginning with a crumbling, rumbling bit of corroded guitar buzz, it's not until nearly 3 minutes in that the drums surface, and even then, they're barely there, a skeletal rhythm underpinning the group's smoldering blackdrone, finally, the Shahi Baaja begins to buzz, and the track locks into a mesmerizing, motorik space psych dirge that will carry us through the whole 25 minutes, this is not headbanging music, this is blissed out drug drone music, a zoner cough syrup space rock soundtrack to some serious innerspace exploration, the track does build gradually, growing more intense, but subtly and slowly, they're called Bong for a reason, it's 25 minutes, but it could be 2500, or 2.5, time does not exist, once you're lost in these sounds, time becomes liquid, it's the perfect sonic tranceout, drifting off, alternate plane, next level, ur-drone ur-dirge bliss out.
Finally, there's the nearly 30 minute final movement, "In The Shadow Of The Towers", which begins with a SUNNO))) like riff, all foghorn moan and blurred slo-mo melody, the drums way more up front here, a slow, meandery lope, pounding away, the rumbling guitar a lush backdrop, the cymbal sizzle spilling over, a slow burning space rock dirge, blurred and bleary, hypnotic and lysergic, druggily monochromatic, it's not until about 20 minutes in that things get seriously intense, the drums wild and chaotic, the sound blown out and in the red, a sonic squall climax, that quickly gives way to a smoldering blackened slow fade outro.
Like all the Bongs that have come before, a heady chunk of krautrocky psychedelic dirge-y doom recommended for fans of SUNNO))), Gnod, The Heads, White Hills, Grails, Sylvester Anfang, Electric Wizard, Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg, Monster Magnet, Black Sabbath, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore and their slow and low doom dirge alchemist brethrenÉ
And it's not just us, our customer Glenn was so blown away by the new Bong he felt compelled to send HIS review which is way more succinct than ours:
"Album of the year so far. Absolutely fucking amazing. Imagine if Hawkwind had taken downers rather than acid and you played their albums at 16rpm. A total kosmische trip into another dimension."
Fuck yeah! Bong on!
MPEG Stream: "Onwards To Perdondaris"
MPEG Stream: "Across The Timestream"

BONG Gilgamesh Lives (Blackest Rainbow) cd 16.98
The last missive from these drugged out UK doomlords, the criminally way-too-limited double cd-r Bethmoora, disappeared before most folks could grab one. Rumors of a repress have been going around, and we'll of course grab as many as we can get when and if that happens, but for now, this new chunk of slow and low space doooooom (on an actual cd) should tide you over if you missed Bethmoora.
Two tracks, recorded live (although you might not know it), one 32 minutes, one 18 minutes, both massive sprawling slow motion doomscapes, minimal spidery guitars, and sitar strum, all laid over a thick miasma of rumbling buzz, a thick low end raga, a black sonic fog threatening to envelop the delicate melodies above. The drums come in slowly, when they do, they're spare and sparse, spread way way out, letting the music continue to drift, it's not until nearly 20 minutes into the first track that things begin to ramp up, still slow, and minimal, but the drums are harder, the guitars more distorted, the melodies congealing into woozy riffage, synths beginning to swirl, adding another layer of buzz and rumble, some space-y swoosh, the guitars get all wah wah'd, the band build and build and build, to the edge of a full on psychedelic space rock blowout, but before anything can happen, they reign it back in, and get all meditative once again before fading out. The second track fades right back up, as if it was the same song, the way they used to split long songs on an lp, part one, flip it over and voila, part two, but THIS part two starts off already revved up, the drums pounding the guitars growling and buzzy, backing up a mournful chiming minor key melody, this part too builds and builds, but the band aren't about loud / soft, aren't about the payoff, or the destination, it's all about the journey, and for 51 minutes, Bong do just that, once again taking us on a blissed out drug fueled space psych kraut doom journey to end all journeys!
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

BONG Live At Roadburn 2010 (Roadburn Records) cd 14.98
It wasn't so long ago, that UK heavies Bong were just an amusingly-named band that counted one of our customers as a member. It took a while, but eventually we got 'em to send us some records (you can imagine, a band named Bong isn't the most businesslike and efficient bunch, nice folks though they are). And their brand of stoned, psychedelic, Eastern-tinged doomdrone improv proved to be right up our alley, and appropriate to their moniker.
Now, a couple years later, we've sold many, many Bong lps, cds, and cd-rs - and one of us here even got to see 'em live, last year. That'd be Allan, when he went to the amazing Roadburn festival in Holland (sadly, he missed out on going again this year, darn it). Of course, being a fan, he was excited about seeing Bong in person. And even though they're not the sort of band to move around much on stage, they weren't boring. In fact, they were TERRIFIC. Allan was also told afterwards that their performance was recorded, and would be released on by Roadburn's label. Beyond that, strangely enough, Allan doesn't remember much else specific about the show (there may have been a contact high involved from their music that affected his memory faculties) but now at long last here's Bong's Live At Roadburn 2010 release to remind him! And for the rest of us to enjoy as well, and not have to be so jealous that we didn't go to Roadburn too.
After some enthused hails from the crowd, the first of two loooooong tracks ("Onwards To Perdonaris", 33:24) starts up, or seeps in, eerie and airy and understated, quite lovely really, not at all heavy, but nicely hypnotic...until a few minutes in when one may be rudely startled (depending on how high you have your volume set) by some deep voiced declamations, dunno what the fellow is on about, but that's ok, 'cause it serves to alert you that right about NOW the band is really gonna get LOUD, everything stepping up a big notch, to accommodate a constant drone backing, yeah now it's heavy, but still keeping the hypnotic lovely thing going too, slow rhythmic pulsations punctuated by an exotic zing of the strings (that's the "Shahi Baaja", an electrified Indian zither / drone harp with typewriter keys that one of the Bong-sters plays), once in a while joined again by more near-throat singing... It's rolling, rumbling, atmospheric, Eastern, with something of the quality of a cult ceremony or religious rite, in part due to the those occasional low monkish vocals. At times, "Onwards..." drifts back down into lulling stretches of spacey warbling electronic FX, and hippy-kraut hand drumming, coming across like a sinister Siloah or doomy Amon Duul. Or imagine the Master Musicians Of Bukkake making an ambient album for Miasmah, maybe.
The equally epic second track, "Wizards Of Krull" (previously recorded for the first side of their self-titled lp debut in 2009), continues in this vein, with more powerful percussion, though. It's 24 minutes of ritualistically pounding drums and crashing cymbals, low drone from bass and voice both, gobs of distortion and spooky psychedelic effects, those Shahi Baaja note clusters chiming in with regularity. "Wizards..." gets (slowly) more and more intense as it goes, really ramping up towards the end with rhythmic urgency. Damn this is good!
Bong bring it, all right, quite recommended, definitely for fans of Om, SUNNO))), Grails, Sylvester Anfang... and of course Bong. And bongs! Most if not all Bong releases thus far have been live, and this one is much less of a lo-fi recording than some of those, making for an essential document of Bong's unique trance-inducing potency.
MPEG Stream: "Onward To Perdondaris"
MPEG Stream: "Wizards Of Krull"

BONG Live At Roadburn 2010 (Roadburn) lp 25.00
NOW ON VINYL, BONGLOVERS!!! In a gatefold sleeve, the shrinkwrap stickered with a quote from the review you are just about to read! (Originally written for the cd version.)
It wasn't so long ago, that UK heavies Bong were just an amusingly-named band that counted one of our customers as a member. It took a while, but eventually we got 'em to send us some records (you can imagine, a band named Bong isn't the most businesslike and efficient bunch, nice folks though they are). And their brand of stoned, psychedelic, Eastern-tinged doomdrone improv proved to be right up our alley, and appropriate to their moniker.
Now, a couple years later, we've sold many, many Bong lps, cds, and cd-rs - and one of us here even got to see 'em live, last year. That'd be Allan, when he went to the amazing Roadburn festival in Holland (sadly, he missed out on going again this year, darn it). Of course, being a fan, he was excited about seeing Bong in person. And even though they're not the sort of band to move around much on stage, they weren't boring. In fact, they were TERRIFIC. Allan was also told afterwards that their performance was recorded, and would be released on by Roadburn's label. Beyond that, strangely enough, Allan doesn't remember much else specific about the show (there may have been a contact high involved from their music that affected his memory faculties) but now at long last here's Bong's Live At Roadburn 2010 release to remind him! And for the rest of us to enjoy as well, and not have to be so jealous that we didn't go to Roadburn too.
After some enthused hails from the crowd, the first of two loooooong tracks ("Onwards To Perdonaris", 33:24) starts up, or seeps in, eerie and airy and understated, quite lovely really, not at all heavy, but nicely hypnotic...until a few minutes in when one may be rudely startled (depending on how high you have your volume set) by some deep voiced declamations, dunno what the fellow is on about, but that's ok, 'cause it serves to alert you that right about NOW the band is really gonna get LOUD, everything stepping up a big notch, to accommodate a constant drone backing, yeah now it's heavy, but still keeping the hypnotic lovely thing going too, slow rhythmic pulsations punctuated by an exotic zing of the strings (that's the "Shahi Baaja", an electrified Indian zither / drone harp with typewriter keys that one of the Bong-sters plays), once in a while joined again by more near-throat singing... It's rolling, rumbling, atmospheric, Eastern, with something of the quality of a cult ceremony or religious rite, in part due to the those occasional low monkish vocals. At times, "Onwards..." drifts back down into lulling stretches of spacey warbling electronic FX, and hippy-kraut hand drumming, coming across like a sinister Siloah or doomy Amon Duul. Or imagine the Master Musicians Of Bukkake making an ambient album for Miasmah, maybe.
The equally epic second track, "Wizards Of Krull" (previously recorded for the first side of their self-titled lp debut in 2009), continues in this vein, with more powerful percussion, though. It's 24 minutes of ritualistically pounding drums and crashing cymbals, low drone from bass and voice both, gobs of distortion and spooky psychedelic effects, those Shahi Baaja note clusters chiming in with regularity. "Wizards..." gets (slowly) more and more intense as it goes, really ramping up towards the end with rhythmic urgency. Damn this is good!
Bong bring it, all right, quite recommended, definitely for fans of Om, SUNNO))), Grails, Sylvester Anfang... and of course Bong. And bongs! Most if not all Bong releases thus far have been live, and this one is much less of a lo-fi recording than some of those, making for an essential document of Bong's unique trance-inducing potency.
MPEG Stream: "Onward To Perdondaris"
MPEG Stream: "Wizards Of Krull"

BONG Live At St. Mary's Old Church (MIE) lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We only got about ten of these, and that's all we'll ever be able to get. Criminally limited to just 250 copies and already out of print, this review is essentially just a sort of sonic starting pistol for all the aQ shopping Bong obsessives to ready-set-go and push add to cart before these are gone for good. Two lengthy live tracks, recorded, as the title helpfully explains, live at an old church AND burial ground, the perfect setting for Bong's sprawling, undulating wash of droned out doom-ed psychedelia. And live is definitely where these guys shine, building up thick clouds of swirling mesmer, all blurred chords and woozy buzz, the sound of voices and the buzz of the unplayed snare drum, adding a strange sort of rattling buzz to the proceedings. The vox here are much more dramatic, and way higher in the mix, delivered like some demonic preacher in a crumbling old cathedral, the guitars build and build, roaring instead of growling, and then finally, the drums kick in, and the band lurches to life, some massive lumbering behemoth, filling the church to the eaves with a noxious sonic black fog, which seems to pour out of the shattered stained glass windows, and drifts along the muddied ground, cloaking the old weather worn tombstones in a grey haze, warped and washed out spectral doom, spaced out and darkly druggy, the sound super lo-fi, but in a way that definitely suits the sound, lots of echo and reverb, and random noise, woven into the bands buzzed out psych doom trance.
Again, EXTREMELY LIMITED, just 250 copies, which are essentially sold out already minus this batch. Like all MIE releases (Gate, Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides, Pelt, Chord, etc.), gorgeously packaged, pressed in heavy vinyl, and this one includes a 12"x12" poster of the cover art as well.
NB. we also have another new Bong vinyl release as well on this list, the lp version of Mana-Yood-Sushai.

BONG Mana-Yood-Sushai (Ritual Productions) cd 16.98
By now, we're pretty sure most regular AQ customers are familiar with Bong. The name rings a bell, right? (Hahaha.) While there's plenty of stoner/sludge type bands with "bong" in their name, and a lot of 'em are pretty good (Bongzilla, Bongripper, and the recent Belzebong, for instance), this Bong, the one true Bong, have deservedly earned the appellation of Bong by itself without any cute suffixes or prefixes. This UK band's sweet sonic smoke does indeed send the listener into an altered state. On this, their latest, recorded by Esoteric's Greg Chandler, they've come from beyond ancient space (the title of their previous album, also released on the aptly named Ritual Productions) to bring us another two looooonnng tracks of their trademark slomo, spaced out, dronedirge dooooom. Dunno though if we should even be calling Bong doom, or dooooom, actually, though we do. What's heralded here is perhaps something more transcendentally wondrous, psychedelically blissful. Tune in, turn on... the first, 27+ minute track is "Dreams Of Mana-Yood-Shushai", its title referencing the poetic, pre-Lovecraft mythology of early 20th century fantasist Lord Dunsany. Mana-Yood-Shushai is the sleeping god, creator of all, the god of "having done", to whom none may pray, for when he wakes the world will end... Bong do a good job of conjuring the gentle, yet ominous mood of such a god's dreams here, as near as we mere mortals can tell. Heaving waves of down-tuned guitar riffage and rolling, rumbling softly thunderous percussion accompany droning monkish vox doing some sort of seemingly ceremonial chant. The deep, Earth-like bass frequencies emanating mountainously from Bong's amps provide a solid foundation also for the exotic East Indian zing of Bong's secret weapon, the Shahi Baaja (an electrified zither / drone harp with typewriter keys) to play its part in the unfolding phantasmagoria of the endless innerspace odyssey that is Bong's gift to you... Massive, meditative. Sinister, somewhat, and sensuous, the Shahi Baaja contributing to the sense of snake-charmer sway.
Next, track two, "Trees Grass And Stones", we must assume is a nod to legendary Swedish psychsters Trad Gras Och Stenar! Certainly not just the name, but the somewhat more pastoral feel of the mesmeric music, supports such an interpretation. If not, then it's a case of great minds... some sort of psychic psychedelic communion between two of our faves. In any event, it's a thick, 19 minute slab of sturdy, stately krautdrone hypnorock, that stirs up a mite more rhythmic umph than what came before.
Once again, highly recommended by all of us here at aQ, especially of course to fans of Bong (or the use of bongs), Megaton Leviathan, OM, Earth, SUNNO))), Hawkwind, and all other bands that could have used the name Bong but didn't, leaving it to this groop to take up the challenge, and succeed. All bow down and pray to Mana-Yood-Shushai! (Whoops!)
MPEG Stream: "Dreams Of Mana-Yood-Shushai"
MPEG Stream: "Trees Grass And Stones"

BONG Mana-Yood-Sushai (Ritual Productions) lp 25.00
NOW ON VINYL!!!
By now, we're pretty sure most regular AQ customers are familiar with Bong. The name rings a bell, right? (Hahaha.) While there's plenty of stoner/sludge type bands with "bong" in their name, and a lot of 'em are pretty good (Bongzilla, Bongripper, and the recent Belzebong, for instance), this Bong, the one true Bong, have deservedly earned the appellation of Bong by itself without any cute suffixes or prefixes. This UK band's sweet sonic smoke does indeed send the listener into an altered state. On this, their latest, recorded by Esoteric's Greg Chandler, they've come from beyond ancient space (the title of their previous album, also released on the aptly named Ritual Productions) to bring us another two looooonnng tracks of their trademark slomo, spaced out, dronedirge dooooom. Dunno though if we should even be calling Bong doom, or dooooom, actually, though we do. What's heralded here is perhaps something more transcendentally wondrous, psychedelically blissful. Tune in, turn on... the first, 27+ minute track is "Dreams Of Mana-Yood-Shushai", its title referencing the poetic, pre-Lovecraft mythology of early 20th century fantasist Lord Dunsany. Mana-Yood-Shushai is the sleeping god, creator of all, the god of "having done", to whom none may pray, for when he wakes the world will end... Bong do a good job of conjuring the gentle, yet ominous mood of such a god's dreams here, as near as we mere mortals can tell. Heaving waves of down-tuned guitar riffage and rolling, rumbling softly thunderous percussion accompany droning monkish vox doing some sort of seemingly ceremonial chant. The deep, Earth-like bass frequencies emanating mountainously from Bong's amps provide a solid foundation also for the exotic East Indian zing of Bong's secret weapon, the Shahi Baaja (an electrified zither / drone harp with typewriter keys) to play its part in the unfolding phantasmagoria of the endless innerspace odyssey that is Bong's gift to you... Massive, meditative. Sinister, somewhat, and sensuous, the Shahi Baaja contributing to the sense of snake-charmer sway.
Next, track two, "Trees Grass And Stones", we must assume is a nod to legendary Swedish psychsters Trad Gras Och Stenar! Certainly not just the name, but the somewhat more pastoral feel of the mesmeric music, supports such an interpretation. If not, then it's a case of great minds... some sort of psychic psychedelic communion between two of our faves. In any event, it's a thick, 19 minute slab of sturdy, stately krautdrone hypnorock, that stirs up a mite more rhythmic umph than what came before.
Once again, highly recommended by all of us here at aQ, especially of course to fans of Bong (or the use of bongs), Megaton Leviathan, OM, Earth, SUNNO))), Hawkwind, and all other bands that could have used the name Bong but didn't, leaving it to this groop to take up the challenge, and succeed. All bow down and pray to Mana-Yood-Shushai! (Whoops!)
MPEG Stream: "Dreams Of Mana-Yood-Shushai"
MPEG Stream: "Trees Grass And Stones"

BONG Novum Castellum (Turgid Animal) 3cd 27.00
It always seems to happen this way, we spend ages and ages trying to track down recordings from an elusive band, hearing rumors about 7"s and cd-r's and tapes, and then suddenly, BOOM. Or in the case of these guys, Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom... the recordings come bursting forth, and again, in this case, the sounds spew from speakers and headphones like some viscous black torrent. Which can only mean one thing, the return of drugged out sludge drone mavens Bong. If ever a band was more appropriately named, Bong are ready to take them on. In fact, the only way a band could prevail monicker-wise, they'd have to be called Bong Blood Hell Froth, or Bladed Bong Skullorb, or something, and even with a name all ready for battle, it's doubtful their pathetic sounds would be any match for Bong's thick, sprawling doomscapes of sitar like buzz, churning bottom heavy crunch, and at least on one of the tracks here some serious drum pummel.
Three discs, five tracks, three hours, recorded in pubs, under bridges and in restaurants, one can only imagine the smoldering ruins these guys left in their lumbering drug-doom wake. Their live sound much more rocking then their doomed out minimal records might lead you to believe.
The opener on its own is worth the price of admission, a relentless buzzy, space-y sludgey groove, with some killer drumming, chaotic, mathy, but locked in pretty tight, the cymbals offering up a layer of warm swirling sizzle, the vocals a haunted demonic chant, the rest of the sonic space taken up by woozy washed out buzzing sitar like strings, a sort of Sleep meets Circle meets SUNNO))), a downtuned krautrock crunch, smeared into an endless drug drenched space rock groove. The second half of disc two offers up more of the same, with the drums even more frantic, the band rocking propulsively, not so sludgey as heavy and fierce, the song slipping into a tranced out sonic tarpit partway through, before exploding into a tangled doom-math outro.
The two tracks on the second disc see the drums pulling back a little, letting the guitars and vocals interlock, the result some sort of ritualistic groove, albeit wrapped around some serious percussive heft, the second of the two tracks blissing out pretty nicely, the band slipping comfortably into something a bit more meditative and slowcore sounding, but still the guitars smoke and smolder, the drums, while restrained, still sound urgent, the track seething with dark intensity, and minimal doomic menace.
The final disc, a nearly 40 minute single song set, is the heaviest and densest of the bunch, somehow fusing the blown out ur-drone of groups like Sunroof! with a fuzzed out garage doom space stomp. Think White Hills, the Heads, Monster Magnet, this is the sort of doom that's bursting with barely restrained psychedelia, like watching some black star explode, swirling red and yellow gouts of sonic fire spilling forth from a heaving black hole of sound. The sound lo-fi, lots of noise and reverb and distortion and ambient noise, the sound crumbles and breaks apart here and there, the band slipping easily from ponderous trudge to blissed out shimmer, often merging the two into some soul shearing psychedelic doom.
A few of these tracks were already released, but as a cd-r in a limited run of 50 or something crazy like that, so odds are, like us, you never even saw 'em. These are proper, real cds (NOT cd-r's), packaged in a dvd style case, with printed inserts. And is also limited, this time to 300 copies!
MPEG Stream: "Trillians / January 08 (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Under Byker Bridge Space / 1st June 08 (excerpt)"

BONG s/t (Ritual Productions) cd 15.98
This long out of print debut lp from these UK psychedelic space-rock drone-doom aQ faves, now reissued on cd!! With an unreleased 17 minute bonus track NOT on the original lp (skip to the end of the review for more on the bonus track)!!!
Here's what we had to say about the record when we first reviewed the lp version way back in 2009:
Oh Bong. How we have longed for thee. Ever since we first got wind of a stonery slow motion doom sludge outfit called BONG, we knew we had to have it, even the non-bong inclined around these parts became disturbingly obsessed with tracking down the BONG. Finally it's here, so prepare to partake.
Before we get to the music, they're called Bong, two sprawling sidelong [on the lp] tracks, one called "Wizards Of Krull", the other called "The Starlit Grotto". The cover is gorgeous a washed out painting in all blacks and browns of some creepy alien landscape, and some strange looking flora or fauna (hard to say which). [Actually, a customer informed us it's from a painting by J.M.W. Turner!] No info anywhere, except the names of the songs, the last names of the players (one of whom happens to be an aQ mailorder customer!) and the word BONG.
Deep buzzy layered drones, peppered with little bits of banjo-y (?) buzz, creepy and minimal and abstract, cymbals sizzle over the undulating black backdrop, the bass a simple single deep thrum, and then the vocals, deep and ominous and (almost overly) dramatic, which when we first heard them reminded us of the Mighty Boosh. The guitars thicken, the drums begin to pound, and suddenly the shapeless miasma begins to take the shape of some seriously drugged out stoner doom sludge. Distorted and downtuned and Sabbathy and sloooooooooooow, that voice begins to chant, the banjo returns only now it's a sitar, and we're neck deep in some primal doomdrone stonersludge ritual and sinking fast!
The second track is more of the same, beginning with a smattering of drums before the guitar slither in and the track becomes another plodding chunk of druggy doom, the drums are brief blasts, the riffs so slow they're barely riffs at all, that reverby croon returns, but this track explodes in the second half, the guitars going wild, unfurling swirling clouds of warped and wild wah wah drenched leads, tangled and frenetic, drifting over the churning sludge below, all woven into a dense and drug addled chunk of blown out lysergic and psychedelic dooooooom.
And this new cd version tacks on an extra track, "Asleep". It's a sprawling seventeen minute stretch of glacial doom, woozy downtuned churn, laced with little curlicues of sitar buzz, a murky droned out death march, that for the first ten minutes, remains locked in looped cyclical mesmer, before the deep dramatic vox surface, and extra guitars swoop in, swaddled in FX, spaced out and noisy, one eventually blossoming into a wild tangle of psych guitar freakout, transforming the dirgey doomy creep into a weirdly groovy slo-mo psych rock crawl, before the extraneous sounds are shed, and the track reverts to the opening doomic churn, eventually also shedding the distorted downtuned rumble, leaving just a hazy stretch of sitar buzz and a washed out soft focus whir.
MPEG Stream: "Wizards Of Krull"
MPEG Stream: "The Starlit Grotto"

BONG s/t (Heidenwut Productions) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Oh Bong. How we have longed for thee. Ever since we first got wind of a stonery slow motion doom sludge outfit called BONG, we knew we had to have it, even the non-bong inclined around these parts became disturbingly obsessed with tracking down the BONG. Finally it's here, so prepare to partake.
Before we get to the music, they're called Bong, two sidelong tracks, one called "Wizards Of Krull", the other called "The Starlit Grotto". The cover is gorgeous a washed out painting in all blacks and browns of some creepy alien landscape, and some strange looking flora or fauna (hard to say which).
(Actually, a customer informed us it's from a painting by J.M.W. Turner!) No info anywhere, except the names of the songs, the last names of the players (one of whom happens to be an aQ mailorder customer!) and the word BONG.
Deep buzzy layered drones, peppered with little bits of banjo-y (?) buzz, creepy and minimal and abstract, cymbals sizzle over the undulating black backdrop, the bass a simple single deep thrum, and then the vocals, deep and ominous and (almost overly) dramatic, which when we first heard them reminded us the Mighty Boosh. The guitars thicken, the drums begin to pound, and suddenly the shapeless miasma begins to take the shape of some seriously drugged out stoner doom sludge. Distorted and downtuned and Sabbathy and sloooooooooooow, that voice begins to chant, the banjo returns only now it's a sitar, and we're neck deep in some primal doomdrone stonersludge ritual and sinking fast!
The second side / track is more of the same, beginning with a smattering of drums before the guitar slither in and the track becomes another plodding chunk of druggy doom, the drums are brief blasts, the riffs so slow they're barely riffs at all, that reverby croon returns, but this track explodes in the second half, the guitars going wild, unfurling swirling clouds of warped and wild wah wah drenched leads, tangled and frenetic, drifting over the churning sludge below, all woven into a dense and drug addled chunk of blown out lysergic and psychedelic dooooooom.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!!

BONG / GNOD split (Box) 7" + 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.
A split waiting to happen if there ever was one, both by name, and by sound, blissed out ambient soundscapers Gnod, best know for their split with White Hills, and beloved drugged out space rockers form the UK Bong.
The real bummer is that we tried to get a ton of these and only managed to wrangle TEN. Otherwise this would have been up with the highlights and the review would be about 10 times as long. But since odds are we'll probably get more orders for this than copies we actually have, we'll keep it brief.
Gnod offer up a warbly looped pianoscape, peppered with distant percussive rattles, draped over slow deep ambient swells, all building to a dense blackened rumble. Nice. Bong counter with more of that thing they do, rad tripped out FX drenched space rock, replete with sitar like buzz, kosmiche krautrock drumming, incendiary guitar buzz and deep chanted vocals, the sort of song that could, and probably should go on forever, but here fills up the side with gloriously dense hypnotic psychedelic heaviness.
The 7" comes with a cd-r, with over 50 minutes of extra stuff, one massive 30+ minute Bong jam, and three shorter Gnod tracks. Again we have less than ten, we really did try, all but the very quickest on the trigger, prepare to be disappointed.

BONG / QUTTINIRPAAQ split (Blackest Rainbow) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been dying for more Bong. Ever since we got our ears around their long awaited debut lp a little while back, two side long tracks of crushing Sabbathy slow motion dooooooooom, we've been jonesing for another fix. Which has finally arrived, in the form of this split 12". Bong on one side, and fellow (new to us) doomlords Quttinirpaaq on the other.
Bong sound even heavier and more sluggishly propulsive than on their debut. Like space rock slowed waaaaaay down, Bong unleash a dark, dense roiling dirge drone doom, that slowly and gradually, and yes, druggily develops into something super rocking and ultra heavy. Crushing low end, lugubrious stoner doom riffs, pounding drums, and this time around some buzzing sitar (or at least it sounds like a sitar), adding a woozy Eastern vibe to the otherwise sludge-y proceedings. This is a total druggy lumbering stoned slow motion doom groove drug jam, channeling Monster Magnet, Black Sabbath, SUNNO))) and especially some Electric Wizard. The second half gets pretty rocking, seriously upping the churning downtuned chug, and upping the tempo from plod to rocking plod! It's heavy for sure, but still lo-fi and murky and muddy and mysterious - and that sitar, playing the same melody over and over and over the whole track gives it a super hypnotic and trancelike vibe. So good.
The flipside belongs to the impossible to pronounce Quttinirpaaq who counter with their own chunk of ultra low doom exploration. Beginning all blissed out and space-y and krauty and new age-y, with swirling effects and soft synths all shimmering and glistening over deep sweels of muted feedback, the band easily slip into some serious dronedoomdirge, kicking out a thick wall of downtuned buzz that will have SUNNO))) fans frothing for sure, and then the drums kick in, and the band lock into an impossible slow, ultra doom jam, the drums not so much a rhythm as occasional accents to the crushing crunch of guitars, beneath the surface, headphones reveal all sorts of weirdness going on, strange sonic events, mysterious voices, all churning and roiling underneath the layers of buzz and that impossible slow drum plod, think Khanate, Habsyll, Bunkur, Moss, that sort of thing, but more spaced out and abstract. Killer stuff for sure, and a perfect match for the mighty Bong!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! Plain black sleeves with paste on red and black front cover.

BONG-RA VS. SICKBOY Shotgun Wedding Volume 5 (Violent Turd) cd 10.98
We've never really reviewed any records by either of these cats, even though they've both been causing quite a stir in the electronic underground and have a bunch of releases under their belts. But what better way to induct them into AQ land than with this two way split.
Dutch mash up master Bong-Ra presents a massive forty minute mix, dumping in everything and the kitchen sink, HI NRG techno, nineties rave music, reggae, drum and bass, gabber, two step garage, even some Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. We barely recognize any of it, but it's all so good, and the mix is so perfect, it -almost- sounds like all of these bits and pieces were meant to be together. Gloriously schizophrenic, super manic and relentlessly fun and funky. Some essential dance party music for sure.
But never one to be outdone, Belgian dancefloor destroyer Sickboy offers up his own 30 minute megamix, another dizzying swirl but this one is HEAVY on the hip hop, lots of killer rappers and classic joints all tangled up with manic drill and bass, European house music, dancehall and pretty much everything else under the sun. The rhythm stays pretty constant, a relentless techno throb peppered with bits of Sean Paul, soul and RnB and lots of stuttery synth stabs, hiccuping beats, chopped and screwed vocals, and tons of random samples. Phew. We don't even dance and we're exhausted.
MPEG Stream: BONG-RA "Ra Is For Rave, E is for Ebenezer Mix (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: BONG-RA "Ra Is For Rave, E is for Ebenezer Mix (excerpt 2)"

BONGRIPPER Great Barrier Reefer (Emetic) cd 13.98
We've long been fans of these Midwestern instrumental psychedelic drug obsessed doom dirge heavies, their Satan Worshipping Doom record was a huge seller around here, the first time around a couple years back, but we could barely keep the recent reissue of that record in stock either. The doom fans around here went to great lengths to track down every single one of their (mostly self released) cd-r's, and ever since we've done what we could to get enough to review/list, so the rest of you could revel in Bongripper's gloriously tranced out heavily psychedelic drugdoom epics.
Thankfully, it seems as if there's a Bongripper reissue campaign afoot, the aforementioned Satan Worshipping Doom a few weeks back (we're hoping Hate Ashbury and Hippie Killer will be reissued soon too!), and now the even more awesomely titled The Great Barrier Reefer, a sprawling, epic nearly eighty minute psych-doom tripout that most definitely gives Sleep's Jerusalem / Dopesmoker a run for its single-track-stoner-metal money. But unlike the more Sabbath beholden heaviness of Sleep, Bongripper ditch the vox, and spend a lot of time locked into tranced out repetition, just check out the first EIGHT minutes, which is spent drifting along, a muted, cyclical strum, mesmerizing and stripped down, beneath a subtly garbled, effected sample of a preacher, the result is seriously creepy, and it's easy to forget this is in fact a doom record, but eventually, the band kicks in, exploding into a droned out dirge, crumbling downtuned riffage, and blown out drum pound, the band lacing their metallic churn with spidery melodies, loads of texture, streaks of feedback, the guitars deviating from the main riff BIG time, splintering into weird angular fragments, or woozy looped strums, drifting over smears of distorted buzz and slithery basslines, the sound shifting from head caving pummel, to dark droney muted metal mesmer, to intricate tangled mathiness, and we're still only 25 minutes in!
The sound is in constant flux, at times it sounds nearly improvised, the band spiraling into weird stretches of near kosmische drift (albeit, still swaddled in crumbling buzz), or hazy almost classic rock sounding clean guitar dirgery, rife with slippery slide guitar melodies, channeling the Allman Brothers or maybe recent aQ faves Blackwolfgoat, weaving a sort of FX flecked droney riffscape, a little bit twangy, a little bit psychedelic, backwards guitars swooping in the background, beneath a cloud of echo drenched harmonics, fading out to near silence, before bursting into a massively heavy chug-fest, that over the course of the remaining 25 minutes lurches from grinding heaviness, to weirdly melodic poppiness, to tarpit sludge, before finishing off with a stretch of washed out feedback, and detuned slo-mo bass buzz.
Fuck yeah. Super psychedelic eye popping cover art too, much like the crazy cover of Satan Worshipping Doom, although this time featuring some sort of underwater sci-fi tentacled monsterscape!
MPEG Stream: "Great Barrier Reefer (Excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Great Barrier Reefer (Excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Great Barrier Reefer (Excerpt 3)"

BONGRIPPER Great Barrier Reefer (Emetic) 2lp 26.00
We've long been fans of these Midwestern instrumental psychedelic drug obsessed doom dirge heavies, their Satan Worshipping Doom record was a huge seller around here, the first time around a couple years back, but we could barely keep the recent reissue of that record in stock either. The doom fans around here went to great lengths to track down every single one of their (mostly self released) cd-r's, and ever since we've done what we could to get enough to review/list, so the rest of you could revel in Bongripper's gloriously tranced out heavily psychedelic drugdoom epics.
Thankfully, it seems as if there's a Bongripper reissue campaign afoot, the aforementioned Satan Worshipping Doom a few weeks back (we're hoping Hate Ashbury and Hippie Killer will be reissued soon too!), and now the even more awesomely titled The Great Barrier Reefer, a sprawling, epic nearly eighty minute psych-doom tripout that most definitely gives Sleep's Jerusalem / Dopesmoker a run for its single-track-stoner-metal money. But unlike the more Sabbath beholden heaviness of Sleep, Bongripper ditch the vox, and spend a lot of time locked into tranced out repetition, just check out the first EIGHT minutes, which is spent drifting along, a muted, cyclical strum, mesmerizing and stripped down, beneath a subtly garbled, effected sample of a preacher, the result is seriously creepy, and it's easy to forget this is in fact a doom record, but eventually, the band kicks in, exploding into a droned out dirge, crumbling downtuned riffage, and blown out drum pound, the band lacing their metallic churn with spidery melodies, loads of texture, streaks of feedback, the guitars deviating from the main riff BIG time, splintering into weird angular fragments, or woozy looped strums, drifting over smears of distorted buzz and slithery basslines, the sound shifting from head caving pummel, to dark droney muted metal mesmer, to intricate tangled mathiness, and we're still only 25 minutes in!
The sound is in constant flux, at times it sounds nearly improvised, the band spiraling into weird stretches of near kosmische drift (albeit, still swaddled in crumbling buzz), or hazy almost classic rock sounding clean guitar dirgery, rife with slippery slide guitar melodies, channeling the Allman Brothers or maybe recent aQ faves Blackwolfgoat, weaving a sort of FX flecked droney riffscape, a little bit twangy, a little bit psychedelic, backwards guitars swooping in the background, beneath a cloud of echo drenched harmonics, fading out to near silence, before bursting into a massively heavy chug-fest, that over the course of the remaining 25 minutes lurches from grinding heaviness, to weirdly melodic poppiness, to tarpit sludge, before finishing off with a stretch of washed out feedback, and detuned slo-mo bass buzz.
Fuck yeah. Super psychedelic eye popping cover art too, much like the crazy cover of Satan Worshipping Doom, although this time featuring some sort of underwater sci-fi tentacled monsterscape!
MPEG Stream: "Great Barrier Reefer (Excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Great Barrier Reefer (Excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Great Barrier Reefer (Excerpt 3)"

BONGRIPPER Hate Ashbury (self-released) cd 7.98

BONGRIPPER Hippie Killer (self-released) cd 7.98

BONGRIPPER Live At Roadburn 2012 (Roadburn) 2cd 15.98
That's right a double disc live recording from these Satan worshipping, weed obsessed instrumental ultra-doom sludgelords, a live document of their two night stint at 2012's Roadburn Festival. The first night, they performed a sort of greatest hits, including a few even hardcore fans might have missed out. Sure the faves are all here, "Hate Ashbury", "The Great Barrier Reefer", "Reefer Sutherland", etc. But also two songs from a 7" we have yet to track down: "Sex Tape" and "Fisting". Then, the second disc finds the band doing their whole Satan Worshipping Doom record in its entirety! Both nights sound killer, the recordings loud and raw, the band on fire, massive riffs, gut pummeling drum pound, the songs slipping easily from downtuned churn to blasting almost punked out thrash, and lots of long tripped out psychedelia in between, like the segue between "Fisting" and "Hate Ashbury" on the first disc, that weird swirling psych shimmer drifting quite a ways into the next song proper. And the band never let up, no between song banter, no nothing, just pure, relentless, non-stop, sludgey doooooomy dirgey bliss. In fact you might not even know these recordings were live, until the very end of the first disc, when we finally hear the thoroughly pummeled crowd show their appreciation. And the same goes for the second disc. Satan Worshipping Doom is presented essentially as a sprawling single 53 minute 4 part mega-epic songsuite, and like the studio record, it's a seriously epic slab of psychedelic-urdoom that should have metalheads, doomlords and drone obsessives equally entranced. Normally, a live record might be the last place for someone to start, but if you've yet to dip your toes into the lysergic waters of the mighty Bongripper, this is as good a place to start as any.
Comes packaged in a super swank six panel digipak, with lots of live shots of the band tearing it up live at Roadburn.
MPEG Stream: "Sex Tape"
MPEG Stream: "Hate Ashbury"
MPEG Stream: "Hail"

BONGRIPPER Satan Worshipping Doom (Universal Tongue / Feretro) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
OK, they're called BONGRIPPER. The record is called Satan Worshipping Doom. The song titles, and there are four of them, are as follows: "Hail", "Satan", "Worship", "Doom". Both the front and back covers are adorned with eye popping Bosch-ian paintings of weird goat headed demons and naked ladies, and flames and birds, and strange plants, and lots of wrong heads on wrong bodies, and flames, and demons, and well, you get the drift.
So one guess as to what this sounds like.
Epic, monstrous, big riff slo-mo satanic sludge doom heaviness from these Midwestern miscreants. We've been fans for a while, having dug their first few hippie hating outings, Hippie Killer, and Hate Ashbury (which featured killer cover art of a big set of hedge clippers about to snip the fingers off a hand making the peace sign), but this is the first one we could get in enough numbers to review / list. Which is a shame, cuz these guys rule. But at least now, with Satan Worshipping Doom, the rest of the world can finally revel in the epic downtuned riffage and filthy crusty pummel of these doomlords. And the best part? NO VOCALS. Yep, all instrumental, so if you hate the sort of hysterical shrieking, or can't stand the howling bellow, or are annoyed by the cookie monster gurgle, well, you're in luck, cuz this is ALL RIFFS, and nothing but, sludgey, doomy, Sabbathy, a little bit of swing, a little stonery, lurching, and lumbering, staggering and stumbling, pounding and pummeling. But the band do mix it up, adding some cool minimal leads, that almost sound more like vocals than guitars, what sounds like synths here and there, even some electronics, the sound and songs super dynamic, slipping from all out assault, to swoonsome droned out dirge, to Sabbathy Swing, to full bore glacial crush, to epic ultra doom trudge, but somehow, even sans vocals, these guys manage to keep it interesting, the songs catchy as hell, heavy and hateful, doomy and moody and sometimes a little melodic, but always fucking crushing and heavy as hell.
You shouldn't even need a list, but just in case, this is totally essential for anyone who digs The Body, Cough, Thou, Electric Wizard, Bong, Sleep, Bongzilla, Cavity, Church Of Misery, Om, Dopethrone, Eternal Elysium, Los Natas, Reverend Bizarre, Ufomammut, and all that sort of stonery, Sabbathy, doomy, sludgey, riffy heaviness...
MPEG Stream: "Hail"
MPEG Stream: "Satan"

BONGRIPPER Satan Worshipping Doom (Great Barrier ) cd 13.98
BACK IN PRINT!! And available again...
OK, they're called BONGRIPPER. The record is called Satan Worshipping Doom. The song titles, and there are four of them, are as follows: "Hail", "Satan", "Worship", "Doom". Both the front and back covers are adorned with eye popping Bosch-ian paintings of weird goat headed demons and naked ladies, and flames and birds, and strange plants, and lots of wrong heads on wrong bodies, and flames, and demons, and well, you get the drift.
So one guess as to what this sounds like.
Epic, monstrous, big riff slo-mo satanic sludge doom heaviness from these Midwestern miscreants. We've been fans for a while, having dug their first few hippie hating outings, Hippie Killer, and Hate Ashbury (which featured killer cover art of a big set of hedge clippers about to snip the fingers off a hand making the peace sign), but this is the first one we could get in enough numbers to review / list. Which is a shame, cuz these guys rule. But at least now, with Satan Worshipping Doom, the rest of the world can finally revel in the epic downtuned riffage and filthy crusty pummel of these doomlords. And the best part? NO VOCALS. Yep, all instrumental, so if you hate the sort of hysterical shrieking, or can't stand the howling bellow, or are annoyed by the cookie monster gurgle, well, you're in luck, cuz this is ALL RIFFS, and nothing but, sludgey, doomy, Sabbathy, a little bit of swing, a little stonery, lurching, and lumbering, staggering and stumbling, pounding and pummeling. But the band do mix it up, adding some cool minimal leads, that almost sound more like vocals than guitars, what sounds like synths here and there, even some electronics, the sound and songs super dynamic, slipping from all out assault, to swoonsome droned out dirge, to Sabbathy Swing, to full bore glacial crush, to epic ultra doom trudge, but somehow, even sans vocals, these guys manage to keep it interesting, the songs catchy as hell, heavy and hateful, doomy and moody and sometimes a little melodic, but always fucking crushing and heavy as hell.
You shouldn't even need a list, but just in case, this is totally essential for anyone who digs The Body, Cough, Thou, Electric Wizard, Bong, Sleep, Bongzilla, Cavity, Church Of Misery, Om, Dopethrone, Eternal Elysium, Los Natas, Reverend Bizarre, Ufomammut, and all that sort of stonery, Sabbathy, doomy, sludgey, riffy heaviness...
MPEG Stream: "Hail"
MPEG Stream: "Satan"

BONGRIPPER Satan Worshipping Doom (self-released) 2lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
OK, they're called BONGRIPPER. The record is called Satan Worshipping Doom. The song titles, and there are four of them, are as follows: "Hail", "Satan", "Worship", "Doom". Both the front and back covers are adorned with eye popping Bosch-ian paintings of weird goat headed demons and naked ladies, and flames and birds, and strange plants, and lots of wrong heads on wrong bodies, and flames, and demons, and well, you get the drift.
So one guess as to what this sounds like.
Epic, monstrous, big riff slo-mo satanic sludge doom heaviness from these Midwestern miscreants. We've been fans for a while, having dug their first few hippie hating outings, Hippie Killer, and Hate Ashbury (which featured killer cover art of a big set of hedge clippers about to snip the fingers off a hand making the peace sign), but this is the first one we could get in enough numbers to review / list. Which is a shame, cuz these guys rule. But at least now, with Satan Worshipping Doom, the rest of the world can finally revel in the epic downtuned riffage and filthy crusty pummel of these doomlords. And the best part? NO VOCALS. Yep, all instrumental, so if you hate the sort of hysterical shrieking, or can't stand the howling bellow, or are annoyed by the cookie monster gurgle, well, you're in luck, cuz this is ALL RIFFS, and nothing but, sludgey, doomy, Sabbathy, a little bit of swing, a little stonery, lurching, and lumbering, staggering and stumbling, pounding and pummeling. But the band do mix it up, adding some cool minimal leads, that almost sound more like vocals than guitars, what sounds like synths here and there, even some electronics, the sound and songs super dynamic, slipping from all out assault, to swoonsome droned out dirge, to Sabbathy Swing, to full bore glacial crush, to epic ultra doom trudge, but somehow, even sans vocals, these guys manage to keep it interesting, the songs catchy as hell, heavy and hateful, doomy and moody and sometimes a little melodic, but always fucking crushing and heavy as hell.
You shouldn't even need a list, but just in case, this is totally essential for anyone who digs The Body, Cough, Thou, Electric Wizard, Bong, Sleep, Bongzilla, Cavity, Church Of Misery, Om, Dopethrone, Eternal Elysium, Los Natas, Reverend Bizarre, Ufomammut, and all that sort of stonery, Sabbathy, doomy, sludgey, riffy heaviness...
MPEG Stream: "Hail"
MPEG Stream: "Satan"

BONGRIPPER / HATE split (self-released ) lp 17.98
Another blast of bong ripping Satan worshipping stoner sludge doom, from just one of our many favorite bong-bands (Bongzilla, Belzebong, etc.), and like Great Barrier Reefer and Satan Worshipping Doom before it, Bongripper once again, crank it up and smoke us out with a sprawling sidelong epic, that starts off surprisingly atmospheric, weird voices, sheets of undulating feedback, swirls of hiss and static, and electronic glitch, eventually joined by some super distorted bass buzz, and finally, after about three minutes, the 'Rippers unleash a churning juggernaut of downtuned riffery, and wild tribal drumming, which seems poised to explode into some sort of frenzied freakout, but instead, lumbers into full on doom creep, a tarpit trudge, that's laced with wild tangled of revved up mathiness, which at least at one point explodes into what sounds like a full on death/black metal blast. But fear not, 'cuz even then, the sound seems to melt and ooze into its original shape, a sludgey Sabbathy swing, and so it goes, the song unwinding in an instru-metal bongsmoke stupor, continuously seeming to battle between slow and low, fierce and frenzied, with the black hole gravity of the bands doom dirgery prevailing.
Bongripper are matched up here with Hate, who are the perfect balance for BR's serious sludge, with short sharp blasts of thrashing, grinding metallic power violence, frantic riffing, frenzied blasts, shrieked glass gargling vokills, some seriously bombastic punk-metal chaos, that over the course of close to eight minutes, dips into AmRep style noise rock, chugging old school metal mastery, tangled mathy almost tech metal freakouts, culminating in the 4 minute closer, that is a serious slab of ferocious dirge metal density, the guitars blown out and crumbling beneath the weight of all that distortion, the vokills sick and throat shredding, a definitely Today Is The Day vibe for sure, which has us really wanting to hear more more more from these guys!
Includes a digital download code as well!
MPEG Stream: BONGRIPPER "Fisting"
MPEG Stream: HATE "Bone Char"
MPEG Stream: HATE "Invisible Man"