CLOUDDEAD Ten (Mush) lp 13.98
It's been quite a while, but the forefathers of this new fangled whiny white boy avant hip hop movement, Why? Oddnosdam and Doseone all finally reconvene and resurrect their slumbering supergroup cLOUDDEAD. Hot on the heels of a cover story in British magazine The Wire, comes Ten, a record the band claims may just be their last. A bold statement from a band/collective that seem to release a record every week or so...
The strange thing about cLOUDDEAD, and Anticon in general, is that they showed up all fresh faced, white boys into hip hop struggling to be taken seriously in the hip hop world, but as they progress, and with each successive record, the hip hop element becomes less and less an integral part of their sound. Which is a little disappointing, since instead of taking hip hop and reinventing it as folks claim they are doing, they basically become more and more like a weird experimental electronic pop band that digs and borrows a little bit from hip hop. Which on second thought is perfectly fine. In fact, it makes it easier to just enjoy cLOUDDEAD as a great band without all the "are they hip hop? are they not hip hop?" bullshit debates. So what does this record sound like, you ask? Well, the first track is definitely classic cLOUDDEAD, throbbing calliopes pulse over a shuffling hip hop beat with loopy stream of conciousness lyrics delivered in whiny falsettos. But after that the hip hop element is subsumed by grand Sgt. Peppery pop, glitchy ambient electronica, and skittery, electro pop with dreamy harmonies and warm ambient hum. The sound overall is closer to stuff like the Notwist or the Postal Service and all that poppy electronica, albeit with some of Doseone's bizarre nasal rapping tossed in here and there. This is just a really amazing and amazingly produced multi-layered pop record! So don't dive into this expecting to jam this in your boomin' system, but definitely dive in.
MPEG Stream: "Pop Song"
MPEG Stream: "The Keen Teen Skip"
MPEG Stream: "Rhymer's Only Room"

CLOUDLAND CANYON Fin Eaves (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98
Cloudland Canyon always seemed like some impossible classic krautrock / noise rock hybrid, their records equal parts German Oak, Faust, Amon Duul, My Bloody Valentine and the Dead C, a washed out sonic world of gritty hypnotic haze, of lumbering psychedelic grooves, of twisted FX drenched drift and looped druggy ambience, as likely to explode into a super rocking fuzzed out dronejam as they were to emit thick billowing clouds of swirling blurred psychdrone shimmer, but always, at the core of their sound was pop. Little hooks buried in the murk and the mire, catchiness subtly woven into the fabric of every bit of spaced out crush or raga-like skree, the thread that held their sound together was spun from melody and harmony, no matter how much those elemental forces were obscured.
Recently CC shared a split with Citay, both bands paying homage to fuzzy dream poppers Galaxie 500, CC's version was especially fantastic, drugged out and hypnotic, somehow transforming the original into what could have been a proper Cloudland Canyon jam, and in the process, revealing, more explicitly than ever, the warm glowing pop heart, that beat inside the buzzing, lysergic krautrock chest of Cloudland Canyon. Which it seems, lead to this, Fin Eaves, a fully realized exploration of pop music, filtered through CC's gloriously cracked kraut/drone/noise filter, the result, one of the fuzziest, most washed out, dreamiest noise pop / dream pop records in recent memory.
Every track a swirling morass of druggy effects, of muted melodies, of buried reverbed vox, of subverted jangle, muddy grooves, subtle hooks, a soft focus collision between My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Filmstars and Galaxie 500, a three way pileup where the various elements simply sink into one another, blurring and smearing into fantastically new shapes, a little bit of looped hypnotic Spacemen 3 style drug rock here, a little super distorted minimal Jesus and Mary Chain stomp there, slipping seamlessly from gauzy soft pop shuffle, to dense crumbling popnoise damage, to hushed loping slowcore haze, to soaring prismatic space psych bliss, each and every track is dense and spacious and layered, the various sounds constantly shifting, transforming, pealing melodies sloughing off only to reveal even more subtle melodies beneath, streaks of electronic glitch and clouds of warm whirling hiss drift amidst deep thrummed bass, and simple motorik rhythms, gorgeously out of focus vocal harmonies, and all manner of texture and timbre, a rare record as much about song as sound, strip away the sound, and you'd have a surprisingly perfect pop record, take away the songs, and you'd still have some fantastically abstract sonic earcandy, but combine the two, and you have this, an utterly gorgeous disc of otherworldly noise drenched lysergic dream pop. Fans of Teenage Filmstars, Beach House, Jesus & Mary Chain, Flaming Lips, Galaxie 500, Spacemen 3, Candy Claws, Mercury Rev, School Of The Seven Bells, and other psychedelic dream poppers, this is your new favorite record.
MPEG Stream: "No One Else Around"
MPEG Stream: "Fin Eaves"
MPEG Stream: "Sister"
MPEG Stream: "Pinklike / Version"

CLOUDLAND CANYON Fin Eaves (Holy Mountain) lp 14.98
Last week's Record Of The Week, now arrives on vinyl!!
Cloudland Canyon always seemed like some impossible classic krautrock / noise rock hybrid, their records equal parts German Oak, Faust, Amon Duul, My Bloody Valentine and the Dead C, a washed out sonic world of gritty hypnotic haze, of lumbering psychedelic grooves, of twisted FX drenched drift and looped druggy ambience, as likely to explode into a super rocking fuzzed out dronejam as they were to emit thick billowing clouds of swirling blurred psychdrone shimmer, but always, at the core of their sound was pop. Little hooks buried in the murk and the mire, catchiness subtly woven into the fabric of every bit of spaced out crush or raga-like skree, the thread that held their sound together was spun from melody and harmony, no matter how much those elemental forces were obscured.
Recently CC shared a split with Citay, both bands paying homage to fuzzy dream poppers Galaxie 500, CC's version was especially fantastic, drugged out and hypnotic, somehow transforming the original into what could have been a proper Cloudland Canyon jam, and in the process, revealing, more explicitly than ever, the warm glowing pop heart, that beat inside the buzzing, lysergic krautrock chest of Cloudland Canyon. Which it seems, lead to this, Fin Eaves, a fully realized exploration of pop music, filtered through CC's gloriously cracked kraut/drone/noise filter, the result, one of the fuzziest, most washed out, dreamiest noise pop / dream pop records in recent memory.
Every track a swirling morass of druggy effects, of muted melodies, of buried reverbed vox, of subverted jangle, muddy grooves, subtle hooks, a soft focus collision between My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Filmstars and Galaxie 500, a three way pileup where the various elements simply sink into one another, blurring and smearing into fantastically new shapes, a little bit of looped hypnotic Spacemen 3 style drug rock here, a little super distorted minimal Jesus and Mary Chain stomp there, slipping seamlessly from gauzy soft pop shuffle, to dense crumbling popnoise damage, to hushed loping slowcore haze, to soaring prismatic space psych bliss, each and every track is dense and spacious and layered, the various sounds constantly shifting, transforming, pealing melodies sloughing off only to reveal even more subtle melodies beneath, streaks of electronic glitch and clouds of warm whirling hiss drift amidst deep thrummed bass, and simple motorik rhythms, gorgeously out of focus vocal harmonies, and all manner of texture and timbre, a rare record as much about song as sound, strip away the sound, and you'd have a surprisingly perfect pop record, take away the songs, and you'd still have some fantastically abstract sonic earcandy, but combine the two, and you have this, an utterly gorgeous disc of otherworldly noise drenched lysergic dream pop. Fans of Teenage Filmstars, Beach House, Jesus & Mary Chain, Flaming Lips, Galaxie 500, Spacemen 3, Candy Claws, Mercury Rev, School Of The Seven Bells, and other psychedelic dream poppers, this is your new favorite record.
MPEG Stream: "No One Else Around"
MPEG Stream: "Fin Eaves"
MPEG Stream: "Sister"
MPEG Stream: "Pinklike / Version"

CLOUDLAND CANYON Lie In Light (Kranky) cd 14.98
Lie in Light shows Cloudland Canyon wearing their Krautrock worshiping influences fully on sleeve.
We have previously mentioned their cosmic-kraut influence on their debut and follow-up ep. But on those, the lysergic free music of Ash Ra Tempel, Faust, Hawkwind, and Amon Duul II, mixed with more contemporary experimental shimmers of Dead C and This Heat were the key influential touchstones. On Lie In Light, with song titles like "Krautwerk" (how obvious can you get??), "You & I" and "Scheiss Schatzi, Auf Wiedersehn!", Cloudland Canyon this time around channel the Kosmiche and Motorik pulse of Neu!, Can, Cluster, La Dusseldorf and Popol Vuh. More song-structured than their debut, but no less cosmically atmospheric, Cloudland Canyon have upped the ante on their sound and production. While their Krautrock inspirations and tongue-in-cheek song titles may sound derivative on the surface, they bring enough of their own unique perspective on things to make for a highly engaging listen. Recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Krautwerk"
MPEG Stream: "Heme"

CLOUDLAND CANYON Lie In Light (Kranky) lp 13.98
Lie in Light shows Cloudland Canyon wearing their Krautrock worshiping influences fully on sleeve.
We have previously mentioned their cosmic-kraut influence on their debut and follow-up ep. But on those, the lysergic free music of Ash Ra Tempel, Faust, Hawkwind, and Amon Duul II, mixed with more contemporary experimental shimmers of Dead C and This Heat were the key influential touchstones. On Lie In Light, with song titles like "Krautwerk" (how obvious can you get??), "You & I" and "Scheiss Schatzi, Auf Wiedersehn!", Cloudland Canyon this time around channel the Kosmiche and Motorik pulse of Neu!, Can, Cluster, La Dusseldorf and Popol Vuh. More song-structured than their debut, but no less cosmically atmospheric, Cloudland Canyon have upped the ante on their sound and production. While their Krautrock inspirations and tongue-in-cheek song titles may sound derivative on the surface, they bring enough of their own unique perspective on things to make for a highly engaging listen. Recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Krautwerk"
MPEG Stream: "Heme"

CLOUDLAND CANYON Requiems Der Natur 2002-2004 (Tee Pee) cd 16.98
This record totally knocked us for a loop. And the thing is, I'm not entirely sure we can explain why. This is one of those rare records that is darn near indescribable. The label suggest Cloudland Canyon would appeal to fans of Boards of Canada, Animal Collective, The Dead C., Ash Ra Tempel, This Heat, Gong, most of which we can definitely see (maybe not the Boards Of Canada), there is a definitely a far out krautrock vibe, some classic long lost, extra damaged super freaked out sixties or seventies psychedelia, but filtered through modern technology. It's almost like some super computer a million years in the future began picking up these strange transmissions from the old Earth, German Oak, Faust, Amon Duul, but after traveling billions of miles and being interpreted by some alien machinery, those songs and sounds came out sounding, well, completely fucking nuts!!!
It's like some sort of laptopped Dead C / Ash Ra mash up. Rich clouds of metallic shimmer surround looped guitars, creepy chanted vocals are submerged in demented spacey FX, dense deconstructed pop songs emerge from the chaos, rife with swirling vocals, and layer after layer of drone and processed harmonies, fuzzy shopping mall synth warbles beneath straining lo-fi vocals, the whole thing run through some intense stereo panning. Suddenly the band burst into some stomping propulsive psych rock jangle before the whole thing splinters into a gorgeous expanse of tranquil ambience, beneath delicately finger picked guitars, everything always within a cloud of mysterious sonic events. Dense cinematic soundscapes of keening high end and minor key pizzicato strings melt into super fuzzed out classic rock jams, with horns and pulsing basslines, but buried in a dense swirl of My Bloody Valentine haze, with relentlessly squiggly riffing, buried vocals, a dizzying array of chaotic sound, tinkling chimes and little bits of percussion. Strange collages of warped warbly sound drift into weird seventies circusy prog with calliope like organ, moody riffing, and awesome male / female vocals, like some totally drug drenched unhinged Fleetwood Mac. Nearing the end of the sonic journey, the record devolves into huge stretches of squiggly analog synth, tangled and intertwined into fuzzy warped low end drones, squirming and buzzing with the different layers constantly shifting and slipping in and out and around each other. Woah. Gorgeously and incredibly fucked. And thus completely recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Opening / Ice Of Rift"
MPEG Stream: "Clearlight Intry"
MPEG Stream: "Carolina Foxtail / Sea Chirp"

CLOUDLAND CANYON Silver Tongue Sisyphus (Holy Mountain) lp 14.98
Now on Vinyl! Here's what we said about the cd version when it came out in '07:
One of our most unexpected surprises last year came from Cloudland Canyon who totally blew us away with Requiems Der Natur 2002-2004, a shimmering sonic concoction, that sounded a bit like Ash Ra Tempel being channeled through the more melodic side of The Dead C.
They've followed that remarkable outing with a record that contains only two songs, but what it lacks in length it more then makes up for in cosmic-kraut brilliance. Listening to the two long tracks on this record is like being transported away on some otherworldly helicopter co-piloted by LaMonte Young and a very spaced out Hawkwind. We keep listening to these two epic tracks over and over and every time we do a customer is inevitably convinced that we're playing some obscure vintage kraut gem that they somehow have never heard before. Folks are always stunned to find out that this is brand new, but what makes Cloudland Canyon so great is that they manage to tap into that magical moment of cosmic kraut bliss, but do so without merely sounding like a tribute band, as there is something very immediate and timeless to the sounds they create. With another brand new full length coming soon on Kranky [Lie In Light] we predict that everyone blasting their Wooden Shjips records right now will be blissing out and taking off with Cloudland Canyon very soon. We sure are! You can start now.
MPEG Stream: "Dambala"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Tongued Sisyphus"

CLOUDLAND CANYON Silver Tongued Sisyphus (Kranky) cd 9.98
One of our most unexpected surprises last year came from Cloudland Canyon who totally blew us away with Requiems Der Natur 2002-2004, a shimmering sonic concoction, that sounded a bit like Ash Ra Tempel being channeled through the more melodic side of The Dead C.
They've followed that remarkable outing with a record that contains only two songs, but what it lacks in length it more then makes up for in cosmic-kraut brilliance. Listening to the two long tracks on this record is like being transported away on some otherworldly helicopter co-piloted by LaMonte Young and a very spaced out Hawkwind. We keep listening to these two epic tracks over and over and every time we do a customer is inevitably convinced that we're playing some obscure vintage kraut gem that they somehow have never heard before. Folks are always stunned to find out that this is brand new, but what makes Cloudland Canyon so great is that they manage to tap into that magical moment of cosmic kraut bliss, but do so without merely sounding like a tribute band, as there is something very immediate and timeless to the sounds they create. With another brand new full length coming soon on Kranky we predict that everyone blasting their Wooden Shjips records right now will be blissing out and taking off with Cloudland Canyon very soon. We sure are! You can start now.
MPEG Stream: "Dambala"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Tongued Sisyphus"

CLOUDLAND CANYON / LICHENS Exterminating Angel (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98
This is a match that makes perfect sense. As Lichens and Cloudland Canyon have both been making some of the most compelling and rewarding crystalline soundscapes of the last few years. One long track clocking in at around a half hour "Exterminating Angel" does sound like the sum of both of these artists' parts. With the first half sounding much more like Lichens, gorgeous deep in space hazy explorations while the krautier leanings of Cloudland Canyon come into focus in the second half of the track propelling the sounds into their kosmiche orbit. Fans of mid-late '70s Tangerine Dream and early Heldon will for sure want to jump aboard this cosmic adventure.
MPEG Stream: "Babylon"

CLOUDLAND CANYON / LICHENS Exterminating Angel (Holy Mountain) lp 14.98
NOW ON VINYL!
This is a match that makes perfect sense. As Lichens and Cloudland Canyon have both been making some of the most compelling and rewarding crystalline soundscapes of the last few years. One long track clocking in at around a half hour "Exterminating Angel" does sound like the sum of both of these artists' parts. With the first half sounding much more like Lichens, gorgeous deep in space hazy explorations while the krautier leanings of Cloudland Canyon come into focus in the second half of the track propelling the sounds into their kosmiche orbit. Fans of mid-late '70s Tangerine Dream and early Heldon will for sure want to jump aboard this cosmic adventure.
MPEG Stream: "Babylon"

CLOUDLAND CANYON / MYTHICAL BEAST split (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CLOUDS Legendary Demo (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
One of the Cave In dudes (guitarist Adam McGrath) goes nuts with hard rock/punk/psych/dub side project. Yes, that's what we just said. And name-checks Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa in the thanks list. It's all over the place but actually pretty cool. In fact, it's one of those side projects that make you wonder why dude didn't save some of these ideas to spice up his main band's next album, y'know? Blowing off some creative steam on a "legendary demo" put together with some hometown friends is just psychologically easier we guess. So we're glad Hydra Head pressed this to cd, and even if you don't care about the proggy metalcore of Cave In you still might totally dig Clouds.
This starts off with a couple shitkicking tracks of behind-the-chicken-wire hard rock/metal with badass boogie '70s riffage and guitar wailing, a bit like Bay Area heroes Drunk Horse. As this goes on, a few short, sharp punk rock turns are taken, things quickly steaming back into the stoner rawk realm tho ("Party Grunge" being a minute-long, aptly titled blast from both angles). Penultimate track "Magic Hater" manages to segue from a hardcore intro into a freaked out, blues'd n' boozed Beefheart homage. That barely preps you for this album's psychedelic 20 minute finale, "Quartulli Dub", featuring Funhouse saxophone skronk, backwards guitars, and yeah, dubby rhythms and FX. By the time all's said and done, you'll realize your Comets On Fire albums have a new best friend.
MPEG Stream: "Mountain Jim"
MPEG Stream: "Quartulli Dub"

CLOUDS We Are Above You (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
The first Clouds record, the project of Cave In guitarist Adam McGrath, was a freaked out hodgepodge of stoner rock, hardcore, prog rock and seventies boogie rock with definite nods to Beefheart, Zappa, Comets On Fire, the Cave In mothership, it all worked, the result a heavy slab of FX laden riff heavy RAWK with lots of twisted detours.
If anything, this newest Clouds disc takes all that same stuff a little further, with a bigger focus on the riffrock aspect, and a huge infusion of POP. Not always obviously so, but some of these hooks slay. Think the beefy lumbering almost grunge of Scissorfight, melded to the pounding retro metallic pound of Karp or Big Business, some of that Cave-In magic and voila!
The second track, "Feed The Horse" sounds like it was yanked off a late era Cave-in disc and given a serious metal makeover, while the opener "Empires In Basements" gives Torche a run for their sludge pop money.
And then the band go all strange and angular and off kilter with "The Bad Seat", sounding almost like Randy Newman if he was 20 years old and signed to Hydra Head, and we know that sounds weird, but it's actually quite cool.
The record is all over the map for sure, exploding into frenzied punk rock as often as sprawling out into huge lumbering sludgey doom, offering up soaring metallic pop gems, or stripping it down to chugging classic rock grooves, but no matter what these guys do, or what sound they're tackling and making their own, the songs rule, and the band kick out the jams big time. And like we've said before, in a perfect world, instead of Green Day and the Foo Fighters, you'd be hearing Torche and Clouds all over the radio. Ahhh, maybe some day...
MPEG Stream: "Empires In Basements"
MPEG Stream: "Feed The Horse"
MPEG Stream: "The Bad Seat"

CLOUDS We Are Above You (Hydra Head) 2lp 21.00
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!
And like all Hydra Head stuff, the packaging is amazing, incredibly beautiful printed sleeves, the the jackets SO heavy, the vinyl nice and thick, holding one of these in your hands, it has weight, and heft, it's absolutely an objet d'art, in addition to being a kick ass record!
The first Clouds record, the project of Cave In guitarist Adam McGrath, was a freaked out hodgepodge of stoner rock, hardcore, prog rock and seventies boogie rock with definite nods to Beefheart, Zappa, Comets On Fire, the Cave In mothership, it all worked, the result a heavy slab of FX laden riff heavy RAWK with lots of twisted detours.
If anything, this newest Clouds record takes all that same stuff a little further, with a bigger focus on the riffrock aspect, and a huge infusion of POP. Not always obviously so, but some of these hooks slay. Think the beefy lumbering almost grunge of Scissorfight, melded to the pounding retro metallic pound of Karp or Big Business, some of that Cave-In magic and voila!
The second track, "Feed The Horse" sounds like it was yanked off a late era Cave-in disc and given a serious metal makeover, while the opener "Empires In Basements" gives Torche a run for their sludge pop money.
And then the band go all strange and angular and off kilter with "The Bad Seat", sounding almost like Randy Newman if he was 20 years old and signed to Hydra Head, and we know that sounds weird, but it's actually quite cool.
The record is all over the map for sure, exploding into frenzied punk rock as often as sprawling out into huge lumbering sludgey doom, offering up soaring metallic pop gems, or stripping it down to chugging classic rock grooves, but no matter what these guys do, or what sound they're tackling and making their own, the songs rule, and the band kick out the jams big time. And like we've said before, in a perfect world, instead of Green Day and the Foo Fighters, you'd be hearing Torche and Clouds all over the radio. Ahhh, maybe some day...
MPEG Stream: "Empires In Basements"
MPEG Stream: "Feed The Horse"
MPEG Stream: "The Bad Seat"

CLOUGH, DANIEL A Trip To The Mountain Shark (Sentient Recognition Archive) cd-r 8.98

CLOUTER, ISOBEL & ROB MULLENDER Myths Of Origins : Sonic Ephemera From East Asia (And/OAR) cd 13.98
File this one right next to your Alan Lamb discs of singing telegraph wires and the Broken Hearted Dragonflies album on Sublime Frequencies, as the British sound art duo of Isobel Clouter and Rob Mullender have presented us with some seemingly implausible recordings of 'booming sand.' These are monotone frequencies generated by an avalanche of a sand dune under just the right environmental conditions. Such sounds have been reported in numerous times and places with Marco Polo recounting them on his excursions to China, and with Charles Darwin finding similar sounds in the deserts of Chile! At the onset of one of their recordings, we hear Isobel huffing and puffing up to the top of a massive sand dune, before she puts her ears to the ground (quite literally) in order to locate the origin of the rumbling drone. Such a bracketing episode of human presence is very useful to frame the stillness of the desert even as the booming sound resonates through the landscape. It also helps to distance these natural sounds from their manmade doomscape kin of a lowslung bass slumped in subharmonic stupor against a rumbling amplifier. Aside from these impressively heavy recordings, Clouter and Mullender offer some additional recordings from elsewhere in Asia: hissing textures from windswept sand comingling with cicadas buzzing in the summer sun, and a Tibetan prayer wheel revolving through its wooden cycles of creaks and moans. These are good extracts of pure phonography, but pale next to the thoroughly impressive booming sand phenomenon.
MPEG Stream: "Baoritaolegainuoer Natural Booming"
MPEG Stream: "Dune 3 Descent"
MPEG Stream: "Kotohiki-Hama/Kotogo-Hama Beaches"
MPEG Stream: "Tibetan Prayer Wheels, Xiahe"

CLOWN ALLEY Circus Of Chaos (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
Pre-Melvins punk reissued! Featuring Lori Black and Mark Deutrom, both future Melvins bassists.

CLOZIER, CHRISTIAN Chrysopee Electronique-Bourges (La Chant Du Monde) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Along with the awesome photographs of Vittori Gelmetti (as new wave buff) and Walter Marchetti (as polyester clad drunk) found on their recent reissued discs, this collection of two bodies of work from Christian Clozier also features another prime fashion statement from the 20th Century's composers. Sure he's donning the traditional suit & tie, along with the moppish hair and bugged-out Lennon glasses of the stereotypical mod. Beyond fashion statements, Clozier's music is quite spectaular, best described as the evil cousin of Subotnik's "Silver Apples on the Moon". The two pieces "Quasars" and "Markanian 205" are bleak pieces which teeter on the edge of the eye of some mythical cyclone, falling into violent swells of synthetic noise and back into calm (if nervous) ambient passages.

CLP Supercontinental (Shitkatapult) cd 17.98
CLP is probably a new name to most everybody, but the group's pedigree might ring some bells, as one half of the duo used to do time in Funkstorung. The sound of CLP has very little on common with the IDM funk of Funkstorung, instead, the sound of CLP is a wild and kick ass mix of old school hip hop, Miami bass, crunk, electro, ghetto-tech and the sounds of the Dirty South. The result musically, is kinda nuts, the ultimate dance party, and quite possibly one of the coolest, and maybe best hip hop records we've heard in forever, equal parts Missy Elliott, Timbaland, 2 Live Crew, Hyphy, and fuck knows who else. The duo used Myspace to track down obscure and unknown rappers from all over the world, primarily in the US and South Africa, which just pushes it over the top.
Every track is different, but they all share some sonic similarities, beats that slip from skittery to block rockin, fuzzy basslines, blown out distorted synths, soaring strings, stuttery grooves, off kilter loops, and some hooks that kill, if this wasn't some obscure hip hop record on Shitkatapult, this would and SHOULD be all over the radio. And the rapping is all over the place too, from sultry and sinister to goofy and over the top, from robotic bark to woozy laidback druggy drawl, but it all works, perfectly. Instead of skits, there are some musical interludes, that end up sounding just as off kilter as the songs themselves.
Not sure what else to say, other than hip hop record of the year. Last year? This year? Probably both...
MPEG Stream: "Flash Bakk (Featuring Rayzaflo)"
MPEG Stream: "I'm So Trill (Featuring Tunde Olaniran)"
MPEG Stream: "Party Hardy (Featuring Yo Majesty)"
MPEG Stream: "Spaceballs (Featuring Spoek, Damaged Good$ And Cerebral Vortex)"

CLUBROOT II - MMX (LoDubs) cd 14.98
The first Clubroot disc was our dubstep record of last year, and remains one of our favorites, a lush, expansive electronic record, that traded the skeletal skitter and ominous minimalism of most dubstep for something totally different, something otherworldly, bursting with warmth, synths and voices, everything gauzy and hazy and hauntingly beautiful, organic and dreamy. So hopes were high for this new one.
Number two more than lives up to our expectations, continuing to push the sound away from traditional dubstep. The only remaining vestiges being THAT beat, some low bass warble, but very little else. In every other way, the sounds on II are ethereal and ephemeral, washed out and spectral, melancholy and wistful, vocals play a much bigger part too, which we can tell you is what usually turns us off when it comes to jungle or dubstep, but this is no diva shit, instead, the female vocals are ghostly and soulful, drifting amidst the various other layers, adding a distinctly human dimension to Clubroot's sound.
Imagine some mysterious blend of the Orb and Portishead, a sort of dark, brooding, chill out sound, and you'll get a rough idea of what to expect here. Long stretches of gauzy synthy shimmer hovering over rumbling bass, but instead of just explosive squelches, the bass is sculpted into something way more melodic and textural, giving the songs heft and weight unconnected to the dancefloor. The vocals, while sometimes left to drift and float, othertimes are chopped and processed and become another rhythmic element, and the beats, well, while the 'beats' themselves hew pretty close to the dubstep standard, they deviate enough to keep things interesting, sometimes getting all shuffly and spare, but other times more tangly and dense like some sort of slowed down jungle, but always perfectly suited to the sounds swirling around it, and the beats remain unobtrusive, more a part of the overall sonic scenery, which helps to make the sounds here so soothing and mesmerizing.
For true dubsteppers, this might be so far removed as to not necessarily qualify as dubstep at all, but for the rest of us, that's not a bad thing at all, which is why Clubroot occupies a special space in our heart (and record collections) somewhere right between Kode9 and Burial...
WAY RECOMMENDED!

MPEG Stream: "Orbiting"
MPEG Stream: "Waterways"
MPEG Stream: "Dry Cured"
MPEG Stream: "Cherubs Cry"

CLUBROOT II - MMX (LoDubs) 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The first Clubroot disc was our dubstep record of last year, and remains one of our favorites, a lush, expansive electronic record, that traded the skeletal skitter and ominous minimalism of most dubstep for something totally different, something otherworldly, bursting with warmth, synths and voices, everything gauzy and hazy and hauntingly beautiful, organic and dreamy. So hopes were high for this new one.
Number two more than lives up to our expectations, continuing to push the sound away from traditional dubstep. The only remaining vestiges being THAT beat, some low bass warble, but very little else. In every other way, the sounds on II are ethereal and ephemeral, washed out and spectral, melancholy and wistful, vocals play a much bigger part too, which we can tell you is what usually turns us off when it comes to jungle or dubstep, but this is no diva shit, instead, the female vocals are ghostly and soulful, drifting amidst the various other layers, adding a distinctly human dimension to Clubroot's sound.
Imagine some mysterious blend of the Orb and Portishead, a sort of dark, brooding, chill out sound, and you'll get a rough idea of what to expect here. Long stretches of gauzy synthy shimmer hovering over rumbling bass, but instead of just explosive squelches, the bass is sculpted into something way more melodic and textural, giving the songs heft and weight unconnected to the dancefloor. The vocals, while sometimes left to drift and float, othertimes are chopped and processed and become another rhythmic element, and the beats, well, while the 'beats' themselves hew pretty close to the dubstep standard, they deviate enough to keep things interesting, sometimes getting all shuffly and spare, but other times more tangly and dense like some sort of slowed down jungle, but always perfectly suited to the sounds swirling around it, and the beats remain unobtrusive, more a part of the overall sonic scenery, which helps to make the sounds here so soothing and mesmerizing.
For true dubsteppers, this might be so far removed as to not necessarily qualify as dubstep at all, but for the rest of us, that's not a bad thing at all, which is why Clubroot occupies a special space in our heart (and record collections) somewhere right between Kode9 and Burial...
WAY RECOMMENDED!
While they last, the cd version comes with a bonus disc, featuring 3 tracks, that might be even better than the tracks on the record proper, but only the first 500 copies have the extra disc, and once the 20 or so copies we have are gone, they are GONE. And fear not vinyl folks, the sleeve for the lp version is oversized, just a bit, to leave space for the forthcoming 12" version of the bonus disc, which we'll have as soon as they're ready!
MPEG Stream: "Orbiting"
MPEG Stream: "Waterways"
MPEG Stream: "Dry Cured"
MPEG Stream: "Cherubs Cry"

CLUBROOT II - MMX (LoDubs) 2lp 21.00
The first Clubroot disc was our dubstep record of last year, and remains one of our favorites, a lush, expansive electronic record, that traded the skeletal skitter and ominous minimalism of most dubstep for something totally different, something otherworldly, bursting with warmth, synths and voices, everything gauzy and hazy and hauntingly beautiful, organic and dreamy. So hopes were high for this new one.
Number two more than lives up to our expectations, continuing to push the sound away from traditional dubstep. The only remaining vestiges being THAT beat, some low bass warble, but very little else. In every other way, the sounds on II are ethereal and ephemeral, washed out and spectral, melancholy and wistful, vocals play a much bigger part too, which we can tell you is what usually turns us off when it comes to jungle or dubstep, but this is no diva shit, instead, the female vocals are ghostly and soulful, drifting amidst the various other layers, adding a distinctly human dimension to Clubroot's sound.
Imagine some mysterious blend of the Orb and Portishead, a sort of dark, brooding, chill out sound, and you'll get a rough idea of what to expect here. Long stretches of gauzy synthy shimmer hovering over rumbling bass, but instead of just explosive squelches, the bass is sculpted into something way more melodic and textural, giving the songs heft and weight unconnected to the dancefloor. The vocals, while sometimes left to drift and float, othertimes are chopped and processed and become another rhythmic element, and the beats, well, while the 'beats' themselves hew pretty close to the dubstep standard, they deviate enough to keep things interesting, sometimes getting all shuffly and spare, but other times more tangly and dense like some sort of slowed down jungle, but always perfectly suited to the sounds swirling around it, and the beats remain unobtrusive, more a part of the overall sonic scenery, which helps to make the sounds here so soothing and mesmerizing.
For true dubsteppers, this might be so far removed as to not necessarily qualify as dubstep at all, but for the rest of us, that's not a bad thing at all, which is why Clubroot occupies a special space in our heart (and record collections) somewhere right between Kode9 and Burial...
WAY RECOMMENDED!
While they last, the cd version comes with a bonus disc, featuring 3 tracks, that might be even better than the tracks on the record proper, but only the first 500 copies have the extra disc, and once the 20 or so copies we have are gone, they are GONE. And fear not vinyl folks, the sleeve for the lp version is oversized, just a bit, to leave space for the forthcoming 12" version of the bonus disc, which we'll have as soon as they're ready!
MPEG Stream: "Orbiting"
MPEG Stream: "Waterways"
MPEG Stream: "Dry Cured"
MPEG Stream: "Cherubs Cry"

CLUBROOT Remixes Vol. 1 (LoDubs) 12"+cd-r 9.98
After two stunning full lengths of abstract ethereal dubstep, a sound utterly distinctive in a genre that seemed to be gradually growing more and more homogenous, comes this killer, super limited, 3 track remix 12" (which comes with a cd-r version as well), offering up 3 pretty dramatic reimaginings of two of our favorite Clubroot jams.
The first comes from a drum and bass producer called SPL, who takes the original and supercharges it, jacks it way up, and transforms it into a fucked up and fierce slab of buzzing dubstep, the beats jagged and booming, the bass thick and sinewy, and that low end wobble sooo thick it'll rattle your ribcage. Big blasts of buzz and wobble separated by stretches of washed out softly pulsing swirl, but EVERY time that bass drops, it just KILLS.
Up next is Bryan Zentz, a techno/dub producer, who keeps the mood of the original, just dubs it out a bit more, and adds a bunch of bass, but not that buzzing dubstep wobble, instead, just a warm whirring layer of thrum and throb, while the various beats get wreathed in echo and reverb, the whole track a bit more washed out and abstract, and the drops here too, manage to be just as dramatic, just more moody and minimal, and the bass, still manages to get the woofers woofing.
Finally, Vancouver dubstepper Kuma takes the original, and somehow manages to make it even more ghostly and haunting, all shadows and slow shifting textures, the dubbed out bass dialed way back, the ambience pushed to the fore, the whole vibe laid back, woozy and warbly, a bit foreboding and soundtracky, perfectly complimenting the original. Rare is the remix record where they all get it right, changing it enough to make it worthwhile, but without losing the spirit of the original...
Not sure how limited this is, but we do know it's already gone, we got about 15 copies, and we can NOT get more, so grab one while you can. Housed in a plain black sleeve, with a little built in pocket for the cd-r.
MPEG Stream: "Sempiternal (SPL Remix)"
MPEG Stream: "Dulcet (Kuma Remix)"

CLUBROOT s/t (LoDubs) cd 14.98
One of two discs vying for our personal dubstep disc of the year. The other is the recent Mordant Music disc, which we'll try to review next time, an unlikely collaboration between Mordant and the Skull Disco crew, and this, the first full length from mysterious atmospheric dubstep soundscaper Clubroot.
We know nothing about this guy (or these guys?), other than he takes that dubbed out skitter we love so much and sets it in expansive fields of swirling ambience, creeped out dronescapes and all manner of super evocative and gorgeously textural soundworlds. Where as most dubstep is super spare and stripped down, skeletal even, the sound here is lush and sprawling. Thick layers of synths whir and shimmer and buzz, deep swells throbbing and pulsing, everything hazy and gauzy and washed out, every song some sort of otherworldy dreamscape, shot through with some super bad ass bit of pounding churning dubstep stutter. The massive basslines and fluctuating synth buzz that usually adds texture to typical dubstep, here just becomes another element in Clubroot's mysterious mist shrouded sonic landscape.
The cover features a lonely tree, set atop a rocky outcropping, the sky dense with clouds, the picture all misty and hauntingly lonely seeming, which perfectly reflects the mood of the music here. Strip away the beats, and you'd still be left with an incredible bit of blackened new age swirl, of abstract kosmiche krautdrone, but add the beats, and these sounds become something entirely other. This is definitely not dancemusic, this is mind expansion music. Late night, lights off, starting at the stars drifting off, other dimension, spaced out, dream dub music.
Clubroot taps into the same darkside as Burial, and Kode9, and the more atmospheric beatmakers, but where those guys pull back before the fog grows to thick, Clubroot pushes forward, traveling through the dark forest, into some forbidden zone, some land lost in time, lost from time, a massive emptiness, as beautiful as it is lonely and ominous, and this is the soundtrack to that lost world. So intense and haunting and unlike any other dubstep, or electronic music even, that we've heard before. The rare sort of record that lets even the most jaded and heard-it-all listener get totally, and fantastically lost.
And if you need more than our effusive gushing praise, look no further than Fenriz, 1/2 of legendary black metal duo Darkthrone, a long time lover of techno and electronic music, who has this to say about Clubroot:
"This is the sort of soaring dubstep I'd never expect to come out of the US! I just transferred the adorable "Embryo" track to my MP3 player FAVES 09 list, as I am going tenting and swimming in a forest lake tomorrow with some connoiceur-friends [sic]. It's sleek and not nasty, the melodic kind and not the grimy. But wait a minute, it seems like the newest tracks are on first, as the last songs drift into some de-tranced balearic style, even with vocals stabs and 90s synths! Blimey."
And if you can't trust Fenriz on matters of dubstep, then who can you trust? WAY recommended. And quite possibly dubstep record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Low Pressure Zone"
MPEG Stream: "Embryo"
MPEG Stream: "High Strung"
MPEG Stream: "Dulcet"

CLUBROOT s/t (LoDubs) 2lp + cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our favorite records of the 2009 so far, and definite contender for dubstep jam of the year, has just been reissued as a super deluxe double lp, BUT, not only does it include the original cd as a bonus, the tracks on the vinyl are completely different mixes, so vinyl fiends are in luck, you get both versions, and if you missed out before, now's your chance, we got about 20 copies, it's already sold out, so once these are gone we won't be able to get more EVER.
Here's our review from when we first listed this back in June:
One of two discs vying for our personal dubstep disc of the year. The other is the recent Mordant Music disc, an unlikely collaboration between Mordant and the Skull Disco crew, and this, the first full length from mysterious atmospheric dubstep soundscaper Clubroot.
We know nothing about this guy (or these guys?), other than he takes that dubbed out skitter we love so much and sets it in expansive fields of swirling ambience, creeped out dronescapes and all manner of super evocative and gorgeously textural soundworlds. Where as most dubstep is super spare and stripped down, skeletal even, the sound here is lush and sprawling. Thick layers of synths whir and shimmer and buzz, deep swells throbbing and pulsing, everything hazy and gauzy and washed out, every song some sort of otherworldy dreamscape, shot through with some super bad ass bit of pounding churning dubstep stutter. The massive basslines and fluctuating synth buzz that usually adds texture to typical dubstep, here just becomes another element in Clubroot's mysterious mist shrouded sonic landscape.
The cover features a lonely tree, set atop a rocky outcropping, the sky dense with clouds, the picture all misty and hauntingly lonely seeming, which perfectly reflects the mood of the music here. Strip away the beats, and you'd still be left with an incredible bit of blackened new age swirl, of abstract kosmiche krautdrone, but add the beats, and these sounds become something entirely other. This is definitely not dancemusic, this is mind expansion music. Late night, lights off, starting at the stars drifting off, other dimension, spaced out, dream dub music.
Clubroot taps into the same darkside as Burial, and Kode9, and the more atmospheric beatmakers, but where those guys pull back before the fog grows to thick, Clubroot pushes forward, traveling through the dark forest, into some forbidden zone, some land lost in time, lost from time, a massive emptiness, as beautiful as it is lonely and ominous, and this is the soundtrack to that lost world. So intense and haunting and unlike any other dubstep, or electronic music even, that we've heard before. The rare sort of record that lets even the most jaded and heard-it-all listener get totally, and fantastically lost.
And if you need more than our effusive gushing praise, look no further than Fenriz, 1/2 of legendary black metal duo Darkthrone, a long time lover of techno and electronic music, who has this to say about Clubroot:
"This is the sort of soaring dubstep I'd never expect to come out of the US! I just transferred the adorable "Embryo" track to my MP3 player FAVES 09 list, as I am going tenting and swimming in a forest lake tomorrow with some connoiceur-friends [sic]. It's sleek and not nasty, the melodic kind and not the grimy. But wait a minute, it seems like the newest tracks are on first, as the last songs drift into some de-tranced balearic style, even with vocals stabs and 90s synths! Blimey."
And if you can't trust Fenriz on matters of dubstep, then who can you trust? WAY recommended. And quite possibly dubstep record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Low Pressure Zone"
MPEG Stream: "Embryo"
MPEG Stream: "High Strung"
MPEG Stream: "Dulcet"

CLUBROOT Solar Flares (LoDubs) 12" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been going pretty crazy around here for the epic atmospheric dubstep of Clubroot, heaping crazy effusive praise on both full lengths, the second of which, we managed to get a very few copies of a super deluxe edition, that featured a second bonus disc, that we thought was maybe even better than the album itself. Those tracks were not included on the vinyl version, or on the single cd version, but now, that bonus cd has been pressed up as a super limited 12", so folks who bought the vinyl, can grab one of these, to make their version of II-MMX complete, and folks who bought the cd but didn't get the bonus disc, now's your chance to nab those extra 3 songs, and trust us, it's well worth it.
And for those new to the magical musical mystery of Clubroot, the sound is lush and expansive, trading the skeletal skitter and ominous minimalism of most dubstep for something totally different, something otherworldly, bursting with warmth, synths and voices, everything gauzy and hazy and hauntingly beautiful, organic and dreamy.
These sounds are an ever evolving mutant strain of dubstep, ethereal and ephemeral, washed out and spectral, melancholy and wistful, vocals play a much bigger part on the second record, which we can tell you is what usually turns us off when it comes to jungle or dubstep, but this is no diva shit, instead, the female vocals are ghostly and soulful, drifting amidst the various other layers, adding a distinctly human dimension to Clubroot's sound.
Imagine some mysterious blend of the Orb and Portishead, a sort of dark, brooding, chill out sound, and you'll get a rough idea of what to expect here. Long stretches of gauzy synthy shimmer hovering over rumbling bass, but instead of just explosive squelches, the bass is sculpted into something way more melodic and textural, giving the songs heft and weight unconnected to the dancefloor. The vocals, while sometimes left to drift and float, othertimes are chopped and processed and become another rhythmic element, and the beats, well, while the 'beats' themselves hew pretty close to the dubstep standard, they deviate enough to keep things interesting, sometimes getting all shuffly and spare, but other times more tangly and dense like some sort of slowed down jungle, but always perfectly suited to the sounds swirling around it, and the beats remain unobtrusive, more a part of the overall sonic scenery, which helps to make the sounds here so soothing and mesmerizing.
For true dubsteppers, Clubroot might be so far removed as to not necessarily qualify as dubstep at all, but for the rest of us, that's not a bad thing at all, which is why Clubroot occupies a special space in our heart (and record collections) somewhere right between Kode9 and Burial...
The three bonus tracks from the original double cd bonus disc, take all of the above and weave them into something even more magical, incredibly captivating and catchy, but still haunting and otherwordly, groovy and funky for sure, but that's not really what it's about, as much as painting pictures in sound, or opening a portal to another dimension, these tracks are like the soundtrack to some space station chillout after hours session, or some early morning fog cloaked empty earth stroll, or an eyes closed, mind open astral projection inner space exploration. This stuff is both epic and cosmic, intimate and personal, and still ranks as some of the most incredible electronic music being made today.
And a note for vinyl folks who bought II-MMX on wax, the sleeve for the lp version is oversized, just a bit, to leave space for this here 12"!!

CLUE KID Halogen ('Earwax) 12" 11.98

CLUES s/t (Constellation) cd 16.98
The debut from Clues, cousins to Montreal's The Arcade Fire and Unicorns, might best be described as an amalgamation of those two bands, with a definite leaning towards the strange pop sensibilities of Unicorns. The record opens with an eclectic track that starts slow and noisy, with jangly guitars and Alden Penner's breathy and nasal (yet never annoying) Wayne Coyne-esque voice, building into an unexpected freak-out ending that lasts less than a minute. There's a lot of great stops and starts on this record. For example on the second track "Remember Severed Head", there's a few times when the drums all of a sudden disappear, replaced by a bit of noisy screeching and a deft guitar line, only to come back a few seconds later backed by a lot of distortion and Penner's vocals. On "Cave Mouth", a xylophone line in the left channel compliments the guitar and synth leads, flushing out the more traditional rock instrumentation of the rest of the record. There's a few anthem-like Arcade Fire elements - a bit of a sing-along chorus on the penultimate track "Ledmonton" and some horns here and there spice up the songwriting nicely. The slower/softer moments on the record, "In the Dream" and "Let's Get Strong" aren't quite as powerful as the more rocking tracks, though the shoegazey second half of "You Have My Eyes Now" blows us away every time the guitars punch in. A must have for fans of strange pop music.
MPEG Stream: "Haarp"
MPEG Stream: "Remember Severed Head"
MPEG Stream: "Cave Mouth"

CLUES s/t (Constellation) lp 17.98
The debut from Clues, cousins to Montreal's The Arcade Fire and Unicorns, might best be described as an amalgamation of those two bands, with a definite leaning towards the strange pop sensibilities of Unicorns. The record opens with an eclectic track that starts slow and noisy, with jangly guitars and Alden Penner's breathy and nasal (yet never annoying) Wayne Coyne-esque voice, building into an unexpected freak-out ending that lasts less than a minute. There's a lot of great stops and starts on this record. For example on the second track "Remember Severed Head", there's a few times when the drums all of a sudden disappear, replaced by a bit of noisy screeching and a deft guitar line, only to come back a few seconds later backed by a lot of distortion and Penner's vocals. On "Cave Mouth", a xylophone line in the left channel compliments the guitar and synth leads, flushing out the more traditional rock instrumentation of the rest of the record. There's a few anthem-like Arcade Fire elements - a bit of a sing-along chorus on the penultimate track "Ledmonton" and some horns here and there spice up the songwriting nicely. The slower/softer moments on the record, "In the Dream" and "Let's Get Strong" aren't quite as powerful as the more rocking tracks, though the shoegazey second half of "You Have My Eyes Now" blows us away every time the guitars punch in. A must have for fans of strange pop music.

CLUSTER Berlin 07 (Important) cd 14.98
Goin' a little Cluster crazy over here. This list we've got two archival Kluster releases, and this brand new Cluster disc. We've also got our memories of the Cluster duo Moebius and Roedelius playing here at Aquarius last month, which was amazing! If you don't know who or what we're talking about, please look to some of our other Cluster reviews elsewhere on our website for more information about this fantastic band of German electronic music innovators, who still kick ass (in their relatively calm, quiet, and well-crafted manner).
Cluster fans who missed their recent shows (in NYC, Chicago, LA, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, and SF) can get some kind of idea of what it was like from this live recording, documenting their historic "reunion" show in Berlin last year. Not only was it the concert that brought Cluster together again after about a decade-long hiatus, it was also the first time they'd performed live in Berlin since 1969! While this isn't exactly the set they were playing on tour in the States (it can't be, since they do different stuff every night, always creatively improvising), it'll give you an idea...
This disc is broken into two long tracks, textural soundscapes full of ambient shimmer, gently oscillating melody, mysterious noises, soothing drones, and occasional beats that sound sampled from a mad scientist's laboratory... or, it sounds like you're on some sort of twilight safari in an electronic jungle... definitely demonstrating the debt that the likes of Aphex Twin owe to electronica originals Cluster! And while this won't supplant their '70s classics like Zuckerzeit and Soweisoso in your collection, nor does it tarnish their legacy in any way.
Someone had told us that they now used laptop computers, which bummed us out just a bit... well turns out that's absolutely not true! Cluster had all kinds of gear, both digital and analog, but NO laptops, and Moebius jokingly told us that he'd probably be too dumb to figure out how to use one (doubtful). On this recording, both M & R are simply credited with playing synthesizers and "objects" though we bet there's techie nerds out there that would like to know more... And finally, in case you're worried we're just a bit too Cluster crazy, this disc also passed the "didn't have any idea what was playing in the front of the store and came out of the office just to find out 'cause it sounded so weird and interesting" test!
MPEG Stream: "1 "
MPEG Stream: "2"

CLUSTER Cluster '71 (Water) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Nobody did spaced out krauty ambiance better than Berlin's Cluster. Maybe best known for their collaboration with Brian Eno, it was their work leading up to those monumental records that helped usher in a new wave of sound that's been latched onto and updated by many over the years. It's hard not to hear their influence on folks like Mouse On Mars, Aphex Twin and the atmospheric moments of Kid-A era Radiohead. It's always so great to remember and be reminded that they did it all without synthesizers (really, they say so in the liner notes!). Instead Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conrad Plank were each armed with an organ, effect pedals, analog echo machines, alarm clocks, violin, etc. 3 songs and 40+ minutes long '71 is such a nice record to put the headphones on and begin to wander and fade away into their hypnotizing sounds. It was originally released by Philips, and of course never brought the commercial success a big label would hope for and since it went out of print there have been a few sparse reissues but luckily for us Water have flexed their wonderful reissue muscle and made it available once again with really nice informative packaging, finally giving due credit to one of the more influential groups of the last 35 years.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (15:33)"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (21:14)"

CLUSTER Cluster '71 (Bureau B) cd 15.98
Back in print, now in a nicer edition on Bureau-B!
Nobody did spaced out krauty ambiance better than Berlin's Cluster. Maybe best known for their collaboration with Brian Eno, it was their work leading up to those monumental records that helped usher in a new wave of sound that's been latched onto and updated by many over the years. It's hard not to hear their influence on folks like Mouse On Mars, Aphex Twin and the atmospheric moments of Kid-A era Radiohead. It's always so great to remember and be reminded that they did it all without synthesizers (really, they say so in the liner notes!). Instead Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conrad Plank were each armed with an organ, effect pedals, analog echo machines, alarm clocks, violin, etc. 3 songs and 40+ minutes long '71 is such a nice record to put the headphones on and begin to wander and fade away into their hypnotizing sounds.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (15:33)"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (21:14)"

CLUSTER Cluster '71 (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
Now on Vinyl! Here's our review of the cd reish from a little while back:
Nobody did spaced out krauty ambiance better than Berlin's Cluster. Maybe best known for their collaboration with Brian Eno, it was their work leading up to those monumental records that helped usher in a new wave of sound that's been latched onto and updated by many over the years. It's hard not to hear their influence on folks like Mouse On Mars, Aphex Twin and the atmospheric moments of Kid-A era Radiohead. It's always so great to remember and be reminded that they did it all without synthesizers (really, they say so in the liner notes!). Instead Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conrad Plank were each armed with an organ, effect pedals, analog echo machines, alarm clocks, violin, etc. 3 songs and 40+ minutes long '71 is such a nice record to put the headphones on and begin to wander and fade away into their hypnotizing sounds.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (15:33)"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (21:14)"

CLUSTER Curiosum (Bureau B) cd 17.98
We listed the vinyl reissue of this the other week, now it's also available again on cd!
It seems like the Bureau B label is bravely (and thankfully) treading all the murky Cluster corners that the Water label sadly deemed non-essential.
Curiosum from 1981 definitely is a curiosity being the last Cluster record before the duo took a 10 year hiatus, and if you're looking for classic Cluster, this isn't necessarily where you would want to start. The sound is more minimal, cold and less exploratory than their previous effort, Grosses Wasser. You might even call it difficult, not that it's noisy, grating or indulgent, but it tends not to over-elaborate the compositions with dynamic structures instead reducing the compositions into essential forms. Taking a less is more approach, seemingly inspired by the then current sound of post-punk and no wave, Cluster use plodding and lurching rhythmic motifs in shorter compositions with more subtle, purposely meandering, and oft-kilter melodic nuances: whirring sounds like a toy low on batteries, discombobulated waltzes, Radiophonic Workshop-like tape manipulations and loping loops. The last song "Ufer" (also one of the longest) plays up on Eno's Discreet Music, as an exercise in listening through near-silence. It almost seems like Curiosum was a missing link recording between Cluster II and Zuckerzeit as it sort of bridges those two sensibilities of formless composition and melodic structure with just enough form and just enough melody, but not too much that one would engage with it in mindless pleasure. Instead it dares you to feel it in the present but at a removed distance.
MPEG Stream: "Oh Odessa"
MPEG Stream: "Proantipro"
MPEG Stream: "Tristan In Der Bar"

CLUSTER Curiosum (Bureau B) lp 17.98
It seems like the Bureau B label is bravely (and thankfully) treading all the murky Cluster corners that the Water label sadly deemed non-essential.
Curiosum from 1981 definitely is a curiosity being the last Cluster record before the duo took a 10 year hiatus, and if you're looking for classic Cluster, this isn't necessarily where you would want to start. The sound is more minimal, cold and less exploratory than their previous effort, Grosses Wasser. You might even call it difficult, not that it's noisy, grating or indulgent, but it tends not to over-elaborate the compositions with dynamic structures instead reducing the compositions into essential forms. Taking a less is more approach, seemingly inspired by the then current sound of post-punk and no wave, Cluster use plodding and lurching rhythmic motifs in shorter compositions with more subtle, purposely meandering, and oft-kilter melodic nuances: whirring sounds like a toy low on batteries, discombobulated waltzes, Radiophonic Workshop-like tape manipulations and loping loops. The last song "Ufer" (also one of the longest) plays up on Eno's Discreet Music, as an exercise in listening through near-silence. It almost seems like Curiosum was a missing link recording between Cluster II and Zuckerzeit as it sort of bridges those two sensibilities of formless composition and melodic structure with just enough form and just enough melody, but not too much that one would engage with it in mindless pleasure. Instead it dares you to feel it in the present but at a removed distance.
MPEG Stream: "Oh Odessa"
MPEG Stream: "Proantipro"
MPEG Stream: "Tristan In Der Bar"

CLUSTER First Encounter Tour (Purple Pyramid) 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
German electronic music pioneers Moebius and Roedelius live on their first ever US tour.

CLUSTER Grosses Wasser (Water) cd 15.98
The later Cluster records, Grosses Wasser and Curiosum, recorded after the Cluster and Eno collaboration in 1977, often undeservedly get short shrift. Marked by a move back to Berlin to work with former Tangerine Dreamer, Peter Baumann, 1979's Grosses Wasser shows Cluster moving forward expansively in their "nature-man-machine" aesthetic while at the same time harkening back to the unformed melodies of their debut. This album is quite the grower, five short pieces with a nineteen minute closing track that is always a dramatically different listening experience each time we play it. Slippery and evasive, shifting subtlety from oceanic piano passages to lurching bell rhythms, trumpet call and responses, woozy funk, hints of klezmer, machine dub, even whale song, all soaking in an elementally warm haze that only Cluster could conjure. Soooo Nice!!!!!!!
Hopefully Water will consider reissuing Curiosum as well. AQ customer Wobbly, who is an avid Cluster fan, noticed that in the liner notes for this, that Water included the Cluster photo from the Curiosum album, sparking fears that a Curiosum reissue is not in the works. We can only hope this isn't so.
MPEG Stream: "Avanti"
MPEG Stream: "Prothese"
MPEG Stream: "Grosses Wasser"

CLUSTER Grosses Wasser (Bureau B) lp 17.98
Now available reissued on vinyl!
The later Cluster records, Grosses Wasser and Curiosum, recorded after the Cluster and Eno collaboration in 1977, often undeservedly get short shrift. Marked by a move back to Berlin to work with former Tangerine Dreamer, Peter Baumann, 1979's Grosses Wasser shows Cluster moving forward expansively in their "nature-man-machine" aesthetic while at the same time harkening back to the unformed melodies of their debut. This album is quite the grower, five short pieces with a nineteen minute closing track that is always a dramatically different listening experience each time we play it. Slippery and evasive, shifting subtlety from oceanic piano passages to lurching bell rhythms, trumpet call and responses, woozy funk, hints of klezmer, machine dub, even whale song, all soaking in an elementally warm haze that only Cluster could conjure. Soooo Nice!!!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Avanti"
MPEG Stream: "Prothese"
MPEG Stream: "Grosses Wasser"

CLUSTER II (Lilith) cd 24.00
Cluster's second album continues where Cluster '71 left off. Produced and engineered by Conny Plank, who, as on Cluster's debut, acts as a third member. More pulsating and serpentine than '71 with broader hints at melody, Cluster II still retains the concrete textures and industrial tenacity of their debut yet predates the characteristically rhythmic propulsion and kosmiche pastoralism that has marked their subsequent output. Feels right in line with the kraut-y sonic forays of early Ash Ra Tempel, Zweistein and Cosmic Jokers.
MPEG Stream: "Fur Die Katz'"
MPEG Stream: "Im Suden"

CLUSTER II (Lilith) lp 23.00
Cluster's Second album continues where Cluster '71 left off. Produced and engineered by Conny Plank, who, as on Cluster's debut, acts as a third member. More pulsating and serpentine than before with broader hints at melody, Cluster II still retains the concrete textures and industrial tenacity of their debut yet lacks the characteristically rhythmic propulsion that has marked their subsequent output. Feels right in line with the kraut-y sonic forays of early Ash Ra Tempel and Cosmic Jokers.

CLUSTER Japan 1996 Live (Captain Trip) cd 16.98
Famed electronic krautrock duo of Moebius & Roedelius, like it says, live in Japan.

CLUSTER Qua (Nepenthe) cd 14.98
We are totally in love with this new Cluster album. Not just because they are living legends of krautrock who helped shape electronic music as we know it. Not just because they are in their '70s and still making amazing music. Not just because their instore performance here at AQ a couple years ago left everyone in awe... those are all reasons why we love Cluster in general so it would be easy to just talk about all their past attributes, but the new record doesn't rely on the past, at all!
While Cluster have released a few live records recently, this is their first full on studio album in fourteen years! On Qua they do revisit some of the classic Cluster sounds immortalized on records like Zuckerzeit and Sowiesoso, but what we really love about the album is how they aren't just rehashing the Cluster of old. They continue to explore different sound palettes and the musical options and directions those new sounds open up to them. Using their synths they carefully craft these seventeen tracks and while each seems to have a life of its own they are woven together in such a compelling way. Listening to Qua is hearing two masters at their craft weaving sounds together, creating such interesting patterns, shapes and colors. Still at the top of their game all these decades later, Qua ranks high in their mighty back catalog.
MPEG Stream: "Formalt"
MPEG Stream: "So Ney"
MPEG Stream: "Ymstrob"
MPEG Stream: "Putoil"

CLUSTER Sowiesoso (Water) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This long awaited reissue of Cluster's stellar 1976 recording, Sowiesoso (So Not So So) sees Roedelius and Moebius at their most collaborative and creative. Recorded after moving to the tiny village of Forst from West Berlin, the progressive evolution of Cluster's solely improvised sound from free-form cavernous synth-scapes to percolating motorik pop had already been documented on their Zuckerzeit album from 1975. On Sowiesoso, that sound gets even more refined, with Moebius's machinist currents of whirs and klangs jutting up against Roedelius's serene Eastern pastoralism, resulting in a haunting mix of pensive ambient beauty that matches the idyllic countryside pictured on the front cover.
So Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Halwa"
MPEG Stream: "Es War Einmal"

CLUSTER Sowiesoso (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
Now on deluxe 180 gram vinyl!
This long awaited reissue of Cluster's stellar 1976 recording, Sowiesoso (So Not So So) sees Roedelius and Moebius at their most collaborative and creative. Recorded after moving to the tiny village of Forst from West Berlin, the progressive evolution of Cluster's solely improvised sound from free-form cavernous synth-scapes to percolating motorik pop structures had already been documented on their Zuckerzeit album from 1975. On Sowiesoso, that sound gets even more refined, with Moebius's machinist currents of whirs and klangs jutting up against Roedelius's serene Eastern pastoralism, resulting in a haunting mix of pensive ambient beauty that matches the darkly idyllic countryside pictured on the front cover.
So Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Halwa"
MPEG Stream: "Es War Einmal"

CLUSTER Zuckerzeit (Revisited / Brain) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! We can't even begin to tell you how long we have been waiting to list this. Forever going in and out of print and when available it was always super expensive, Cluster's 1974 album Zuckerzeit has finally been given the proper and readily available reissue (Thanks Revisited!) it absolutely deserves. Probably our favorite Cluster album, it is most notably famous for helming their transition from concrete synth dronescapers to their more well known persona as crafters of pastorally cosmic electronica. Adding crisp and propulsive drum programming to their haunting synth melodies, Moebius and Roedelius split the composing duties with Moebius leaning to the more experimental while Roedelius provides the melodic sheen. Zuckerzeit hailed a new direction and focus in German music of the early seventies, with groups like Kraftwerk, and Neu moving through similar reshapes in sound. Obviously, Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin have spent some time absorbing this album. Timeless and classic, we cannot recommend this album enough!
MPEG Stream: "Hollywood"
MPEG Stream: "Caramel"
MPEG Stream: "Heibe Lippen"

CLUSTER & ENO s/t (Water) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
At last, this wonderful wonderful album is back in print on cd! Water gets a big AQ thank you for reissuing one of our favorite Krautrock, or heck, just plain ol' records ever, the first of two collaborations between art rock / "ambient" music pioneer n' generally acknowledged genius Brian Eno and Krautrock electronics legends Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius aka Cluster! You know that's got to be good, and it is, paving the way for the likes of Aphex Twin so many years later. This self-titled disc (the one with the microphone stand silhouetted against a blue sky on the cover) dates originally from 1977. Water also just reissued the other Eno/Moebius/Roedelius album, 1978's After The Heat, which comes equally recommended (see our review elsewhere this list). On this one, they're joined by guests including Asmus Tietchens and Can's Holger Czukay, and construct warm, organic instrumentals utilizing both acoustic instruments and analog synths. This is soft and mellow and melodic but at the same time these songs are no push-overs, however gentle. To be honest, I (Allan) had never heard *anything* quite like Cluster before these got reissued on cd the last time that happened, on the Gyroscope label back in the mid '90s, but I very quickly fell in love with 'em (these Water reissues are much nicer, by the way, with liner notes and photos in the cd booklets -- the Gyroscope editions didn't even have booklets!). The discs with Eno are good starting places to get into the extensive Cluster and Cluster-related discography, and certainly they're Cluster's best-sellers... but anything with Moebius and/or Roedelius involved is worth hearing, we'd say. These new reissues haven't been accorded the fanfare of the Neu! discs on Astralwerks or the recent Can remasters, but we'd rate them just as highly.
MPEG Stream: "Ho Renomo"
MPEG Stream: "Schone Hande"

CLUSTER & ENO s/t (Bureau B) cd 15.98
With the band's blessing, Germany's Bureau B has taken over from the Water label, re-reissuing a bunch of crucial Cluster albums, on both cd and vinyl, including this one of our favorite Krautrock, or heck, just plain ol' records ever, the first of two collaborations between art rock / "ambient" music pioneer n' generally acknowledged genius Brian Eno and Krautrock electronics legends Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius aka Cluster! You know that's got to be good, and it is, paving the way for the likes of Aphex Twin so many years later. This self-titled disc (the one with the microphone stand silhouetted against a blue sky on the cover) dates originally from 1977. On it, they're joined by guests including Asmus Tietchens and Can's Holger Czukay, and construct warm, organic instrumentals utilizing both acoustic instruments and analog synths. This is soft and mellow and melodic but at the same time these songs are no push-overs, however gentle. To be honest, I (Allan) had never heard *anything* quite like Cluster before these got reissued on cd by the Gyroscope label back in the mid '90s, but I very quickly fell in love with 'em. The discs with Eno are good starting places to get into the extensive Cluster and Cluster-related discography, and certainly they're Cluster's best-sellers... but anything with Moebius and/or Roedelius involved is worth hearing, we'd say. Another chance to get with the Cluster & Eno program, people!
MPEG Stream: "Ho Renomo"
MPEG Stream: "Schone Hande"

CLUSTER & ENO s/t (Four Men With Beards) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now On Vinyl!
One of our favorite Krautrock, or heck, just plain ol' records ever, the first of two collaborations between art rock / "ambient" music pioneer n' generally acknowledged genius Brian Eno and Krautrock electronics legends Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius aka Cluster! You know that's got to be good, and it is, paving the way for the likes of Aphex Twin so many years later. This self-titled disc (the one with the microphone stand silhouetted against a blue sky on the cover) dates originally from 1977. On this one, they're joined by guests including Asmus Tietchens and Can's Holger Czukay, and construct warm, organic instrumentals utilizing both acoustic instruments and analog synths. This is soft and mellow and melodic but at the same time these songs are no push-overs, however gentle. To be honest, I (Allan) had never heard *anything* quite like Cluster before these got reissued on cd the last time that happened, on the Gyroscope label back in the mid '90s, but I very quickly fell in love with 'em. The discs with Eno are good starting places to get into the extensive Cluster and Cluster-related discography, and certainly they're Cluster's best-sellers... but anything with Moebius and/or Roedelius involved is worth hearing, we'd say.
MPEG Stream: "Ho Renomo"
MPEG Stream: "Schone Hande"

CLUSTER & ENO s/t (Bureau B) lp 17.98
With the band's blessing, Germany's Bureau B has taken over from the Water label, re-reissuing a bunch of crucial Cluster albums, on both cd and vinyl, including this one of our favorite Krautrock, or heck, just plain ol' records ever, the first of two collaborations between art rock / "ambient" music pioneer n' generally acknowledged genius Brian Eno and Krautrock electronics legends Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius aka Cluster! You know that's got to be good, and it is, paving the way for the likes of Aphex Twin so many years later. This self-titled disc (the one with the microphone stand silhouetted against a blue sky on the cover) dates originally from 1977. On it, they're joined by guests including Asmus Tietchens and Can's Holger Czukay, and construct warm, organic instrumentals utilizing both acoustic instruments and analog synths. This is soft and mellow and melodic but at the same time these songs are no push-overs, however gentle. To be honest, I (Allan) had never heard *anything* quite like Cluster before these got reissued on cd by the Gyroscope label back in the mid '90s, but I very quickly fell in love with 'em. The discs with Eno are good starting places to get into the extensive Cluster and Cluster-related discography, and certainly they're Cluster's best-sellers... but anything with Moebius and/or Roedelius involved is worth hearing, we'd say. Another chance to get with the Cluster & Eno program, people!
MPEG Stream: "Ho Renomo"
MPEG Stream: "Schone Hande"

CLYDE-EVANS, JOHN Apetal Thunderfall (Digitalis) cd 11.98