COMITY ...As Everything Is A Tragedy (Candlelight) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "17"
MPEG Stream: "28"
MPEG Stream: "42"
MPEG Stream: "59"
MPEG Stream: "83"

COMMIT SUICIDE Human Larvae (Willowtip) cd 14.98
Remember the old days, when if you sang about suicide, or even hinted at suicide in your songs, dipshit kids all over the world would listen to your records and kill themselves, and then their parents would sue you and ultimately lose since it's absurd to blame anyone but the kids or their parents. We always joked about having songs called 'You Suck, Give Up And Kill Yourself' or 'Nobody Likes You, You Might As Well Die' and stuff like that. But a lot sure has changed since the old days. Movies are more violent, TV is more nasty, music and especially lyrics are way more extreme. You have to go soooo much further to even seem the least bit shocking or offensive. This band just reminded me of how cool it would have been 'back then' to have a band called Commit Suicide. No beating around the bush, no backward masking, no subtle lyrics, just a big 'kill yourself' sort of band name! And in keeping with the misanthropic band name, Commit Suicide spew ugly gobs of grinding death metal, or metallic grindcore with lots of blazing guitars, chugging downtuned riffs, insane blast beats, stop start ultra complex songs and glass-gargling cookie monster vocals. Good stuff.
RealAudio clip: "Ablation"
RealAudio clip: "Silence Beyond The Delicate"
RealAudio clip: "Cyclic Vomiting"

COMMIT SUICIDE Synthetics (Willowtip) cd 14.98
Pittsburgh grinders return with their second full-length of fierce death metal, and it's a doozy indeed. With Synthetics, Commit Suicide have achieved that rarest of accomplishments -- delivering a follow-up album that stays completely true to all of their original elements while bolstering every component that made them such an immediately powerful force on their debut. Everything seems just punched up a notch here. Be forewarned, this is relentless death metal without the slightest breach of accessibility for those not interested in the fastest most aggressive style of music possible. But if you're willing to submit, the execution is flawless. Non-stop blazing riffage with a million stops and changes between speeds varying from fast to pretty fast to full-on blasting, with a vicious growler roaring overtop. There really isn't a single stand-out member though -- the band functions seamlessly as a whole, with all changes felt on guitar bass and drums as one. For fans of Death, Dying Fetus, Morbid Angel and the like, look no further for uncompromising brutality.
MPEG Stream: "Earthly Cleansing"
MPEG Stream: "Resonance"

COMMIX Be True (Burial Remix) (Metalheadz) 12" 11.98
Never heard of Commix? Neither had we. They're a Metalheadz drum and bass outfit, who traffic in the sort of mellow-ish jungle we never got that into, lots of soulful vocals, the beats clipped and minimal and everything bathed in ravey washes, but hold up, you might wanna give this a chance, as this is essentially a new Burial track, a remix that totally transforms Commix's sound into something way more washed out and ethereal, dark and druggy, a sleepy sprawl of ambient dubstep drift, it's the first new music from Burial in AGES, and it RULES. We sort of forgot how much we loved this stuff, deep softly swirling synths, muted buried melodies, clipped skeletal beats, disembodied vocals, chopped and looped and woven into mysterious moody sonic smears, all occasionally washed over by lush swells of hazy shimmer, total late night, chill out dubstep dreaminess. Might help hold you over until the next Burial full length.

COMMON Be (Geffen) cd 15.98
A highlight on here is Common's dad who offers some free-style spiritual poetry. Cool.

COMMON Universal Mind Control (Geffen) cd 15.98
Not to bum out those of you in colder parts of the world, but we've been experiencing an amazing Summer-In-Winter this January. Sunny days that have had us flocking to the park and riding around with the top down (ok none of us have convertibles, but in our imaginations we're totally riding around with the top down!). So we've been yearning for some new summer-ish jams to blast as we catch the rays and soak it all up while it lasts. Common's latest was made for sunny days that feel like they're going to last forever. Uptempo hip-hop made to be played loud during BBQs and outdoor get-togethers. With guest appearances from Pharrell Williams and Kanye West, Common shows that he can let loose and have fun with the biggest names in hip-hop. While it seems like he's taken a break from some of his more mindful lyrics and expansive and risk taking sounds, he's still sounding pretty good and perfect for whenever that feeling of summertime hits you.
MPEG Stream: "Universal Mind Control"
MPEG Stream: "Announcement (Feat. Pharrell Williams)"
MPEG Stream: "Inhale"

COMMON EIDER, KING EIDER Amnesia (Elder Press) 12" 17.98
Hot on the heels of their stellar Root Strata release Worn, SF's Common Eider, King Eider are back with a brand new, VERY limited, splendidly dark dose of somber, atmospheric folk. After being so instantly won over by Worn, we couldn't wait to hear what kind of grim beauty lay behind this gorgeous one-sided 12" picture-disc.
Amnesia patiently opens with deep stretches of weeping violin, quiet vocal haze creeps into the murky horizon, subtle cymbal splashes accent the deeply ambient swells and the piece grows into a huge orchestral bellow. A single composition that breathes and changes like a sweeping ocean tide, a wash of crystalline tones wavering from the forest floor, long-form melodies echoing from the evening sky, the strings, vocals and minimal percussion all melting together into a gloriously kaleidoscopic fever dream! So gorgeous!
Packaged in a cool heavy PVC silk screened sleeve, the record pressed on white vinyl, the B side also silkscreened, super striking looking, and criminally LIMITED TO JUST 100 COPIES, these will be gone in no time, so be quick!

COMMON EIDER, KING EIDER Figs, Wasps And Monotremes (Root Strata) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Record number two from the peculiarly monickered Common Eider, King Eider, the one man project of Mr. Rob Fisk, formerly of Deerhoof, currently of Badgerlore, and much like the first disc, Figs, Wasps And Monotremes, is another haunting missive of long drawn out drones, and minimal folk mesmer.
The intro is a smoldering shimmer of scraped strings, wavery falsetto vocals, and all manner of overtones and harmonics, mysterious and hypnotic, we would have been quite happy if it had gone on just like that for the record's entire 32+ minutes, but the record soon shifts to something more songy (only slightly though), deep distant swells, dense soft drones and more ethereal falsetto vocals, all drift over insistently sawed strings, the string unfurling an almost looped sounding rhythmic melody. The record drifts lazily after that from spare melancholic reverb drenched sun dappled soft folk, all shimmery and washed out, to still more keening high end drones, looooong tones allowed to howl and buzz and slowly decay before being overtaken by still more growling, scraped strings, sounding almost like a 20th century string quartet slowed down to no beats per minute, to fractured free folk, steel string buzz, angular abstract riffage wrapped in haunting gauzy lo-fi hum, to super intense, almost Sunroof! worthy sheets of high end ur-drone, the notes crumbling and distorted and gorgeously blown out, and back to more introspective folky flutter.
A gorgeous sprawling, abstract record, the listener drifting dreamily from song to song, sound to sound, sinking ever deeper, falling in slow motion, Common Eider's blurred soundscapes moving past, like a film slowed way down, so each frame flickers gently before slipping away, allowing another to take its place. Absolutely lovely.
Gorgeous packaging too, as with all Root Strata releases, a three panel white cardstock sleeve, printed in silver ink, adorned with images of fruits and branches and a platypus!
MPEG Stream: "Wasp Tunnels (Intro)"
MPEG Stream: "Monotreme Mom (For Jamie & Andrew)"
MPEG Stream: "Brown Trumps White (Harry's Mix)"

COMMON EIDER, KING EIDER How To Build A Cabin (Yik Yak) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest bit of abstract beauty from Mr. Rob Fisk, formerly of Deerhoof, now of Badgerlore, a gorgeous slow burning expanse of soft and shimmery minor key Appalachian guitar, buzzing bowed viola, and reverb drenched vocals. Each track is a slow build, a musical new dawn, the guitar sprawled out like dew on grass, the vocals like a gauzy fog hugging the ground, a tranquil blissful drift, the viola offering bits of blurred grit and melody, so so gorgeous. Imagine some impossible blend of Grouper, Henry Flynt and Jack Rose. The surprise here, is the occasional blast of jagged super distorted guitar. Not sure how many folks remember the amazing Slap Happy Humphrey record, a long out of print Japanese disc featuring Jojo from Hiokaidan, one of the Angels In Heavy Syrup and one of the Subvert Blaze guys, long soft swirls of lilting dreamy folk occasionally interrupted by huge crashing psychnoise guitar. Bits of this disc definitely remind us of a sort of modern freakfolk version of that disc, although the psychnoise intrusions here are much less frequent, and even at their noisiest offer up some gorgeous keening melodies.
Barring the bits of coruscating heart-of-the-sun guitar freakouts, most of this disc is delicate and gentle, the vocals indistinct and plaintive, wrapped in soft billows of reverb, the guitar spare and lovely, the viola adding just the right bit of raga like drone... Fans of any of the above mentioned bands will love this for sure. And anyone into the current crop of dreamfolk would do well to check this out as well.
GORGEOUS packaging. A thick white textured paper booklet printed with silver metallic ink, sewn together, the cd in a clear plastic sleeve, the artwork featuring images of ducks and instructions on how to build a cabin (of course), all held together by an extra wide Japanese style obi. Wow.
MPEG Stream: "Steal Your Hair"
MPEG Stream: "Hollemn"
MPEG Stream: "Please Don't Drill In Anwr"

COMMON EIDER, KING EIDER Worn (Root Strata) lp 16.98
Another gorgeous outing of hushed acoustic sprawl and hauntingly grey ambience from San Francisco's Common Eider, King Eider. It's record number three from this mysteriously monikered band of outsiders, now expanded into a four-piece, still led by Rob Fisk, former member of both Badgerlore and Deerhoof.
We've always been impressed with the ghostly decay that seems to be so effortlessly flowing through CEKE's sound, a perfect balance of organic drone and instrumental songwriting, all bundled together into a seamless journey into the coldest, deepest woods. We must say that Worn immediately appears more melancholic and somber than past CEKE releases, whether it's the doom laden vocal drawls of Grouper on "Ennui" or George Chen's heaaaaavy buzzing guitar riff on "All They Will Find Is Blood", we're totally blown away!
Swells of gorgeously shimmering vocal melodies weave in and out of the rumbling distorted guitars like some shoegazing doom opera, an ocean of distortion buzzing under a glowing sky, so serene and moving. What we really love about Worn is while there are defiantly heavy moments of sheer epicness, there are also moments of precise composition and gently guided ambience. "The Rabbits Will Come Again" unfolds with gracefully bowed notes ringing out into the moonlit sky, while distant bells and shimmering feedback melt into the mournful piano. Vocal sighs and whispers set the mood for a deep forest seance, super chilling and super amazing. In addition to the special appearance made by Miss Grouper, don't miss out on Tom Carter's whirlwind cameo on "Earth Liver"! And don't forget, this one is limited to 300 copies, complete with lp covers that fold out into full size posters, lovely packaging for this ice cold, psychedelic epic!

COMMON EIDER, KING EIDER Worn (self-released) cd-r 14.98
NOW ON CD-R!!! We'd thought it was gonna be a cd, but still cool for the turntable-impaired, as this was previously a vinyl-only release. And the packaging is special too.
Another gorgeous outing of hushed acoustic sprawl and hauntingly grey ambience from San Francisco's Common Eider, King Eider. It's record number three from this mysteriously monikered band of outsiders, now expanded into a four-piece, still led by Rob Fisk, former member of both Badgerlore and Deerhoof.
We've always been impressed with the ghostly decay that seems to be so effortlessly flowing through CEKE's sound, a perfect balance of organic drone and instrumental songwriting, all bundled together into a seamless journey into the coldest, deepest woods. We must say that Worn immediately appears more melancholic and somber than past CEKE releases, whether it's the doom laden vocal drawls of Grouper on "Ennui" or George Chen's heaaaaavy buzzing guitar riff on "They Want To Dig For Gold But All They Will Find Is Blood", we're totally blown away!
Swells of gorgeously shimmering vocal melodies weave in and out of the rumbling distorted guitars like some shoegazing doom opera, an ocean of distortion buzzing under a glowing sky, so serene and moving. What we really love about Worn is while there are defiantly heavy moments of sheer epicness, there are also moments of precise composition and gently guided ambience. "The Rabbits Will Come Again" unfolds with gracefully bowed notes ringing out into the moonlit sky, while distant bells and shimmering feedback melt into the mournful piano. Vocal sighs and whispers set the mood for a deep forest seance, super chilling and super amazing. In addition to the special appearance made by Miss Grouper, don't miss out on Tom Carter's whirlwind cameo on "Earth Liver"! And don't forget, this one is limited to 300 copies, complete with oversized cover that folds out into a full size poster, lovely packaging for this ice cold, psychedelic epic!
MPEG Stream: "The Rabbits Will Come Again"
MPEG Stream: "Ennui"
MPEG Stream: "They Want To Dig For Gold..."

COMMON GRAVE Il Male Di Vivere (Eerie Art) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's tough to resist a black metal record that is, according to the label: "an ambitious and profound concept album about the "spleen", the suffering of everyday life". Hmmm. Do they really mean the spleen? Does the spleen represent the suffering of everyday life? Weird. Guess they must be archaically referencing the melancholy humor, not the internal organ. Although a customer suggests it could very well be the Baudelaire poem Spleen, which makes way more sense! Regardless, these Italian miserablists have crafted a single massive 64 minute epic, divided into eight movements, each flowing smoothly into the next, a sprawling doomic depressive emotional black metal, that spends as much time soaring majestically, or drifting melodically as it does blasting grimly.
The perfect mix of classic old school doom, a la My Dying Bride or Paradise Lost, and the more modern depressive folk infused black metal like Drudkh as well as plenty of darkened suicidal buzz (think Shining, Forgotten Tomb). Bleak and austere, the guitars seem to weep and moan, the melodies mournful and emotional, the vocals an anguished wail, a deep bellowing howl more than a black shriek, the drums relentless, even the midtempo parts underpinned by frenetic double kicks, all very moody and evocative, sweeping long stretches of epic blackened doom, separated by lilting clean guitar folk interludes as well and bursts of furious blackness, even some gnarled bits of mathy Deathspell style weirdness, but through it all runs a weary black sonic stream, a melodic thread that turns these songs into one epic songsuite, a gorgeous sprawling expanse of doom-ed melodic blackness.
MPEG Stream: "Il Male Di Vivere"
MPEG Stream: "Memories"

COMMON LOON The Long Dream Of Birds (Hidden Agenda) cd 15.98
A pop lover's delight! Common Loon's debut album dishes the most marvelous of drowsy psych-tinged pop we've heard in ages. It seems to glow with the warmth of the '70s California sun despite the duo's homebase of Illinois. Oh so good! Their record label namechecks these artists as points of reference... Sparklehorse, Sebadoh, Spacemen 3, Grandaddy, Apples In Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control. Hmmm, there just happen to be plenty of aQ faves in there, n'est pas? Of those bands, we'd say that we concur with the inclusion of Grandaddy and O.T.C. most definitely. The rest are somewhat subtler nods. We'd actually add the Posies, early Quasi and Death Cab For Cutie to the list. Each song strikes a sweet balance of melodic hooks, hazy noise-pop guitars and mellow lulling boy vocals. This just might be the perfect antidote to cast away those lingering winter's chills and make way for spring. Needless to say, The Long Dream Of Birds has charmed us to no end! Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Ho-Hum Apocalypse"
MPEG Stream: "Dinosaur Vs. Early Man"
MPEG Stream: "Palestine Everywhere"

COMPANY FLOW and Cannibal Ox... Aesop Rock... RJD2 (Definitive Jux) cd 13.98
The long awaited new Company Flow, does not disappoint, but does take an unexpected turn towards the normal. The last CF record was a crazy confusional mess of sputtering, disorienting, ultra strange nonsensical hip hop madness. On '...and Cannibal', the weirdness is sort of focused into more traditional 'songs', but the fucked lyrical bent and unlikely samples (Wall of Voodoo?!) remain. Still miles ahead of most new hip hop. Essential.
RealAudio clip: "Simian D aka Feeling Ignorant"
RealAudio clip: "Iron Galaxy"

COMPANY FLOW Little Johnny From The Hospital: Breaks and Instrumentals Vol.1 (Rawkus) cd 17.98
Finally back in print, 'Little Johnny' is the only Company Flow record that counts. Their first, 'Funcrusher', hinted at what was to come but didn't really stand the test of time, weak beats with silly samples and an overall lightweight sound. 'Little Johhny' is ALL instrumental and features some of the best hip hop production EVER (courtesy of DEF JUX main man El-P!). All the stuff we love about Cannibal Ox records and Mr. Lif records comes down to one thing, El-P's crazy ass production. Timbaland for the backpacker set. Big stuttering beats, distorted haunted house basslines, fucked up samples and a wicked ear for arranging them all into, brutal, funky, sinister futuristic hip hop. All you who flipped over the Cannibal Ox record NEED this.
RealAudio clip: "Friend Vs. Friend"
RealAudio clip: "Linoleum"
RealAudio clip: "Suzy Pulled A Pistol On Henry"

COMPUTER COUGAR Rough Notes On High Stress (Gern Blandsten) cd 12.98
Following his time in Rorschach and prior to forming (the sadly now defunct) Beautiful Skin, Nick Forte made feisty music in a band known as Computer Cougar. This album fills in the mysterious gap between the two groups, illustrating how Nick got from point A to point B. Raw, sparse recordings of the propulsive retro-wave art rock sounds (maybe think Wire-meets-Soft Boys) he went on to hone and synth up along with Ross Totino in Beautiful Skin.
RealAudio clip: "Too Much"
RealAudio clip: "Leonard Street Revival"

COMSAT ANGELS It's History (Nano ) 4cd 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Our first experience with the Comsat Angels was on an old old Silkworm record. Silkworm covered the Angels' brilliant "Our Secret" and it immediately became out favorite song on the record. And of course hearing that cover sent us on a mad quest to find some actual Comsat Angels records. Ended up that records by these Sheffield, England post-punks were pretty damn hard to come by. Managed to find some later era stuff but it just wasn't the same. So we were super excited by this 4 cd collection that compiles their first 3 albums, Waiting For A Miracle (1980), Sleep No More (1981), and Fiction (1982) all with extra tracks and B sides, as well as a fourth disc of unreleased rarities! So what do they sound like you ask? Well, think early eighties post punk / new wave, with lots of jangly guitar, chiming harmonics, super effected drums, fuzzy fafisa organs, reverbed vocals, but with lots of Factory records gloom and doom. Dark and bass heavy, minor key and melancholy, grey and overcast and so goddamn good. The songs sort of meander and build, with vocals over simple bass and drum passages, flecked with fuzzed out keyboards and punctuated by occasional guitar skronk and spacy swoosh. Repetitive and hypnotic and ultra moody. The vocals are rich and full reminding us of bands like the Fixx or Modern English, but they take on a whole different cast when nestled in the Angels' depressive and dark-skied sonic world. Sometimes they sound like a suicidal Elvis Costello on quaaludes or maybe the Jam if they recorded for Factory. Or a slightly more upbeat / punk rock Joy Division. All you folks who have been getting way into this resurgence of eighties musical culture: industrial, electro, death disco, Factory, DFA, whatever, should definitely check these guys out. You can hear so much of that stuff in these guys, but it's so much darker and grittier and genuine, and the songs are so depressing and intense and catchy. Been listening to this non-stop since we got it in!
Packaged in a weird (but kind of cool) plastic DVD style case, and pressed on black cds (which we originally assumed to be cd-r's but have been assured that they are indeed cds) and limited to 2000 copies worldwide, so we're not sure how long we'll have these and how many more we'll be able to get!
MPEG Stream: "Our Secret"
MPEG Stream: "Missing In Action"
MPEG Stream: "Total War"
MPEG Stream: "Eye Dance"
MPEG Stream: "Sleep No More"

COMSTOCK, FRANK Music From Outer Space (Mr. Nobody ) cd 17.98
Seems like it's been a while since we've had a really nice, classic space-aged bachelor's pad kind of reissue hit our shelves. Frank Comstock's Music From Outer Space from 1962 fits the bill quite nicely. In the original liner notes -- reproduced here along with the original cover art -- it is declared that "special effects" are used sparingly. Comstock, it appears, was a man of melody, who wanted to create his out space symphonettes using his arranging talents and not "electronic gimmickry". Don't let that scare you away though, he actually uses quite a lot of both to great effect. For starters, there's theremin all over this album and when there isn't thermin there's electric violin. Add to these a full studio orchestra, Hammond B-3, Novachord (an early tone-wheel organ that Hammond introduced in 1939), electric guitar, bass and drums and some serious stereo effects, reverb and delay and you've got quite a bit of gimmick going on; though maybe not as much as what was going on in the day, what with cement mixers and car horns being fair game. His use of the theremin to supplant Hawaiian guitar is... otherworldly. Elsewhere Comstock makes use of the pitch control on the tape machines and actually running tape backwards to achieve some creepy sounds. But musically Mr. Comstock can really give himself a pat on the back for some freaking bizarre arranging. "A Journey To A Star", from the film The Gang's All Here, has some seriously neurotic turns. A nominally pastoral melody, Comstock twists the melodic resolutions to make every statement a question mark. Other adaptations from films aren't much different and have a tendancy to make you feel a little uneasy, like getting out of the chair at the dentist's office a little too abruptly. His own composition "On the Dark Side of the Moon" is borderline maniacal with its augmented twists and tritonal embelleshments. Another original by Comstock, "Journey To Infinity" is a lightspeed collision course of Cole Porter with George Gershwin in the Beach Boys' studio. Far out!
MPEG Stream: "On the Dark Side of the Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Journey to Infinity"

COMUS East Of Sweden (Gnostic Dirt) cd 17.98
"Live reunion album" aren't three words (in sequence) that we normally get too excited about. But when the band is the legendary British pagan acid folk rock act Comus, who are responsible for having made one of our very favorite albums of ALL TIME (their 1971 debut on Dawn, First Utterance), one that Andee here in fact ranks as his absolute favorite record ever, well, that's another story.
With their cult following growing and growing over the years (with big fans like Opeth and Current 93 helping to keep their name out there), Comus finally reunited to play the Melloboat Festival in Sweden in 2008, and at the time we seriously considered buying plane tickets to fly over and attend. They've done some more gigging since, and Allan was in fact lucky enough to get to see 'em at last year's Roadburn festival. He can attest to them being pretty darn incredible, it's hard to imagine that their younger selves could have done much better of a job, though they might have looked the part of pixies and freaks a bit more - not everyone in the band still has long hair these days, though some of 'em do, and actually their female singer Bobbie Watson looked like she practically hadn't aged at all, still a bewitching blonde beauty, with a lovely lovely voice... and they really, really were enjoying themselves. As they obviously were at this historic Melloboat gig as well, and sounding fantastic especially considering it was the first time they'd played together in 34 years!!!
We've heard a bit of this recording already, the song "Diana" from their Melloboat performance appeared on a limited edition split 7" we listed a while back, and we noted that it sounded perhaps "even more woozy and carnivalesque and maniacal than they did back in the day". They definitely nailed it, maybe it's some pagan magic, 'cause remember, Comus is the ancient god of revelry, and he wasn't gonna let anybody on that boat down.
While it's not the same as having actually been there, of course, we figure some diehard Comus fans are gonna be curious to hear this. Especially since it includes, in addition to renditions of five of the seven songs from their debut, a cover of "Venus In Furs" by the Velvet Underground! A song we guess they also did back the '70s, the VU being an influence on them that we wouldn't have considered, but it totally fits, creepy and catchy, with sawing violin, sounding like something that they could have written themselves for inclusion on First Utterance.
The full tracklist: "Song To Comus", "Diana", "The Herald", "Drip Drip", "The Prisoner", "Venus In Furs", "Song To Comus (encore)". That's right, they did "Song To Comus" twice, but omitted two other songs from First Utterance, "The Bite" and "Bitten", oh well. At least they didn't do a bunch of stuff from their not-so-critically-acclaimed second album... You can decide for yourself if you want to hear this, or just stick with the mystical original, some folks (including some of us) may prefer to leave live Comus to the incomparable realm of our own imaginations, where they have long dwelt...
Released on a new imprint co-run by C93's David Tibet, this cd includes photos, lyrics and liner notes in the booklet.
MPEG Stream: "Song To Comus"
MPEG Stream: "The Herald"
MPEG Stream: "Venus In Furs"

COMUS East Of Sweden (Rise Above) 2lp 34.00
NOW ON IMPORT GATEFOLD VINYL!!!
"Live reunion album" aren't three words (in sequence) that we normally get too excited about. But when the band is the legendary British pagan acid folk rock act Comus, who are responsible for having made one of our very favorite albums of ALL TIME (their 1971 debut on Dawn, First Utterance), one that Andee here in fact ranks as his absolute favorite record ever, well, that's another story.
With their cult following growing and growing over the years (with big fans like Opeth and Current 93 helping to keep their name out there), Comus finally reunited to play the Melloboat Festival in Sweden in 2008, and at the time we seriously considered buying plane tickets to fly over and attend. They've done some more gigging since, and Allan was in fact lucky enough to get to see 'em at last year's Roadburn festival. He can attest to them being pretty darn incredible, it's hard to imagine that their younger selves could have done much better of a job, though they might have looked the part of pixies and freaks a bit more - not everyone in the band still has long hair these days, though some of 'em do, and actually their female singer Bobbie Watson looked like she practically hadn't aged at all, still a bewitching blonde beauty, with a lovely lovely voice... and they really, really were enjoying themselves. As they obviously were at this historic Melloboat gig as well, and sounding fantastic especially considering it was the first time they'd played together in 34 years!!!
We've heard a bit of this recording already, the song "Diana" from their Melloboat performance appeared on a limited edition split 7" we listed a while back, and we noted that it sounded perhaps "even more woozy and carnivalesque and maniacal than they did back in the day". They definitely nailed it, maybe it's some pagan magic, 'cause remember, Comus is the ancient god of revelry, and he wasn't gonna let anybody on that boat down.
While it's not the same as having actually been there, of course, we figure some diehard Comus fans are gonna be curious to hear this. Especially since it includes, in addition to renditions of five of the seven songs from their debut, a cover of "Venus In Furs" by the Velvet Underground! A song we guess they also did back the '70s, the VU being an influence on them that we wouldn't have considered, but it totally fits, creepy and catchy, with sawing violin, sounding like something that they could have written themselves for inclusion on First Utterance.
The full tracklist: "Song To Comus", "Diana", "The Herald", "Drip Drip", "The Prisoner", "Venus In Furs", "Song To Comus (encore)". That's right, they did "Song To Comus" twice, but omitted two other songs from First Utterance, "The Bite" and "Bitten", oh well. At least they didn't do a bunch of stuff from their not-so-critically-acclaimed second album... You can decide for yourself if you want to hear this, or just stick with the mystical original, some folks (including some of us) may prefer to leave live Comus to the incomparable realm of our own imaginations, where they have long dwelt...
Released on a new imprint co-run by C93's David Tibet, this cd includes photos, lyrics and liner notes in the booklet.
MPEG Stream: "Song To Comus"
MPEG Stream: "The Herald"
MPEG Stream: "Venus In Furs"

COMUS First Utterance (Victor) cd 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What has to be our favorite British pagan folk psychedelic prog rock album ever (in other words, quite possibly our favorite album ever, period!) is finally available again on cd, and in a gorgeous Japanese mini-lp gatefold sleeve to boot, with the disc itself all state-of-the-art remastered, sounding great.
THIS RECORD SCARES US. Hearing it is like stumbling upon some forbidden ancient ritual that scares you to death. You stand paralyzed, too afraid to look away. Comus's singular, frightening sound and violently poetic lyrics have kept them from taking their rightful place alongside Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, and the rest of Britain's psychedelic folk royalty.
And we don't write the words psychedelic folk royalty without a certain amount of trepidation. At first glance Comus would seem to fit squarely in the Ren-Faire camp: bongos, flute, oboe, 12-string guitar, and no drummer. But never has the whole of a band so completely defied its parts; their sound is as mesmerizing as it is repulsive. Upon the record's initial release, one British music journalist wrote that she "didn't get past the first track, which sounded like a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth, and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death." Funny thing is, that's a fairly apt description. Tales of murder, rape, insanity, and witchcraft unfold amid a swirling abyss of seething acid folk. Squalls of shamanistic wailing jut uncomfortably from serene, tranquil melodies; guttural growls battle a delicate angelic chorus, echoing the violent struggle of the lyrics. Flutes, hand drums, acoustic guitars, and a violin clamber atop one another in a chaotic melee, creating a pagan folk not unlike that of The Wicker Man soundtrack gone totally bonkers.
Although the band has been resolutely ignored by mainstream music fans, the press, and the majority of the underground, a small rabid following has kept a reverential vigil beside the corpse of Comus.
Nurse with Wound cronies Current 93 modeled their '90s sound after '70s British folk, Comus especially. They even went so far as to cover "Diana," Comus's only single, on their album Horsey. Swedish progressive black metallers Opeth have always been outspoken about their love of Comus. Their acclaimed 1998 album was called My Arms, Your Hearse, after the lyrics of "Drip Drip" (on First Utterance). And it's not surprising. This record is so powerful and frightening and totally devastating even 30 years later.
And never would I have thought that a record as old as me, with flutes and bongos fer chrissakes, could be so absolutely malevolent, both sonically and lyrically! But like I said, this record scares us. And we know you like to be scared too!
We were hoping that this new cd edition would include the two bonus tracks from from an early single that the Italian vinyl reissue included as a bonus 12", but such is not the case. Oh well. Still ranks as one of our all time favorites.
MPEG Stream: "Diana"
MPEG Stream: "Drip Drip"
MPEG Stream: "The Herald"
MPEG Stream: "Song To Comus"

COMUS First Utterance (Breathless) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For those of you who are not yet COMPLETELY OBSESSED with Comus' beautiful and bizarre seventies pagan folk, WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!? Well, we now have yet another chance to convince you that First Utterance is indeed (especially if you ask Allan or Andee) quite possibly the greatest record of all time EVER! The recent double cd reissue, Song To Comus, which compiled First Utterance and their slightly less thrilling and somewhat baffling second album To Keep From Crying, may have been a bit much for the uninitiated, especially with its $27 price tag. That said, any serious Comus fans or full on seventies freakfolk obsessives should throw caution to the wind and pick up Song To Comus immediately! For the less obsessive among you and those of you who are more apt to take a chance for under $20, we have this new version on Breathless.
Here's what we had to say about First Utterance:
Let's get this out of the way first: most folks around these parts consider Comus' First Utterance to be the greatest seventies pagan tribal folk prog psych freakout record ever. Hard to debate that. But among those folks, about 99 percent also consider First Utterance to be one of the greatest records ever, regardless of genre! One listen and you'll be convinced. Or you'll run away screaming in terror. Either way, it's hard to not be totally blown away and / or thrillingly confused by the mad musical world of Comus.
First Utterance has now been reissued a total of seven times, most recently as a UK import double cd version which marked the very first time that the three tracks from the pre-First Utterance maxi-single (i.e. the bonus 12" ep included with the lp reissue) has been released on cd. Thankfully this new single disc version includes those three tracks, but for some reason excludes the really rare bonus track from the First Utterance sessions that was on the double disc! Only a minor quibble once you sink your ears into the glorious sounds of First Utterance...
THIS RECORD SCARES US. Hearing it is like stumbling upon some forbidden ancient ritual that scares you to death. You stand paralyzed, too afraid to look away. Comus's singular, frightening sound and violently poetic lyrics have kept them from taking their rightful place alongside Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, and the rest of Britain's psychedelic folk royalty.
And we don't write the words psychedelic folk royalty without a certain amount of trepidation. At first glance Comus would seem to fit squarely in the Ren-Faire camp: bongos, flute, oboe, 12-string guitar, and no drummer. But never has the whole of a band so completely defied its parts; their sound is as mesmerizing as it is repulsive. Upon the record's initial release, one British music journalist wrote that she "didn't get past the first track, which sounded like a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth, and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death." Funny thing is, that's a fairly apt description. Tales of murder, rape, insanity, and witchcraft unfold amid a swirling abyss of seething acid folk. Squalls of shamanistic wailing jut uncomfortably from serene, tranquil melodies; guttural growls battle a delicate angelic chorus, echoing the violent struggle of the lyrics. Flutes, hand drums, acoustic guitars, and a violin clamber atop one another in a chaotic melee, creating a pagan folk not unlike that of The Wicker Man soundtrack gone totally bonkers.
Although the band has been resolutely ignored by mainstream music fans, the press, and the majority of the underground, a small rabid following has kept a reverential vigil beside the corpse of Comus. Nurse with Wound cronies Current 93 modeled their '90s sound after '70s British folk, Comus especially. They even went so far as to cover "Diana," Comus's only single, on their album Horsey. Swedish progressive black metallers Opeth have always been outspoken about their love of Comus. Their acclaimed 1998 album was called My Arms, Your Hearse, after the lyrics of "Drip Drip". And it's not surprising. This record is so powerful and frightening and totally devastating even 30 years later.
And never would we have thought that a record as old as us, with flutes and bongos fer chrissakes, could be so absolutely malevolent, both sonically and lyrically! But like we said, this record scares us. And we know you like to be scared too! One of our ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS EVER!!!
Interesting facts culled from the liner notes of the double disc import version, whihc are not included in the liner notes of this single disc version: After First Utterance, there was actually a Lord Of The Rings inspired suite of songs (a proper follow up) already written called Malgaard, that the band had begun performing live but never got around to recording! We flipped when we read about that. Can you imagine? Sadly, it just wasn't meant to be. And they also never recorded their live version of "Venus In Furs", either (apparently Comus started out doing lots of VU covers!). Ah well. But still, we're more than happy with the amazing musical malevolence Comus left as their legacy.
So any of you who haven't discovered Comus, what else can we do to convince you that you NEED this record? Folkies will love it, but it's plenty dark and creepy and sinister enough for all you metalheads, and way weird enough for all you experimental music lovers. And of course Comus obsessives (like Andee and Allan) who already have multiple versions of First Utterance will for sure need this one as well! Let your pagan prog rock psych folk freek flag fly!
MPEG Stream: "Diana"
MPEG Stream: "Drip Drip"
MPEG Stream: "The Herald"
MPEG Stream: "Song To Comus"

COMUS First Utterance (Rise Above Relics) lp 36.00
One of our ALL TIME favorite records, if not THEE favorite, the untouchable genius debut from UK pagan folkies Comus, perhaps the ultimate seventies British acid folk document, has been lovingly reissued once again, this time as another deluxe vinyl version (180 gram too!), finding a home (a quite suitable one we think) on British label Rise Above... And for those of you who are not already COMPLETELY OBSESSED with Comus' beautiful and bizarre seventies pagan folk, WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!? Let's just get this out of the way: most folks around these parts consider Comus' First Utterance to be the greatest seventies pagan tribal folk prog psych freakout record ever. Hard to debate that. But among those folks, about 99 percent also consider First Utterance to be one of the greatest records ever, regardless of genre! One listen and you'll be convinced. Or you'll run away screaming in terror. Either way, it's hard to not be totally blown away and / or thrillingly confused by the mad musical world of Comus.
THIS RECORD SCARES US. Hearing it is like stumbling upon some forbidden ancient ritual that scares you to death. You stand paralyzed, too afraid to look away. Comus's singular, frightening sound and violently poetic lyrics have kept them from taking their rightful place alongside Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, and the rest of Britain's psychedelic folk royalty.
And we don't write the words psychedelic folk royalty without a certain amount of trepidation. At first glance Comus would seem to fit squarely in the Ren-Faire camp: bongos, flute, oboe, 12-string guitar, and no drummer. But never has the whole of a band so completely defied its parts; their sound is as mesmerizing as it is repulsive. Upon the record's initial release, one British music journalist wrote that she "didn't get past the first track, which sounded like a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth, and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death." Funny thing is, that's a fairly apt description. Tales of murder, rape, insanity, and witchcraft unfold amid a swirling abyss of seething acid folk. Squalls of shamanistic wailing jut uncomfortably from serene, tranquil melodies; guttural growls battle a delicate angelic chorus, echoing the violent struggle of the lyrics. Flutes, hand drums, acoustic guitars, and a violin clamber atop one another in a chaotic melee, creating a pagan folk not unlike that of The Wicker Man soundtrack gone totally bonkers.
Although the band has been resolutely ignored by mainstream music fans, the press, and the majority of the underground, a small rabid following has kept a reverential vigil beside the corpse of Comus. Nurse with Wound cronies Current 93 modeled their '90s sound after '70s British folk, Comus especially. They even went so far as to cover "Diana," Comus's only single, on their album Horsey. Swedish progressive black metallers Opeth have always been outspoken about their love of Comus. Their acclaimed 1998 album was called My Arms, Your Hearse, after the lyrics of "Drip Drip". And it's not surprising. This record is so powerful and frightening and totally devastating even 30 years later.
And never would we have thought that a record as old as us, with flutes and bongos fer chrissakes, could be so absolutely malevolent, both sonically and lyrically! But like we said, this record scares us. And we know you like to be scared too! One of our ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS EVER!!!
Interesting facts culled from the liner notes of various versions of this record over the years: After First Utterance, there was actually a Lord Of The Rings inspired suite of songs (a proper follow up) already written called Malgaard, that the band had begun performing live but never got around to recording! We flipped when we read about that. Can you imagine? Sadly, it just wasn't meant to be. And they also never recorded their live version of "Venus In Furs", either (apparently Comus started out doing lots of VU covers!). Ah well. But still, we're more than happy with the amazing musical malevolence Comus left as their legacy.
So any of you who haven't discovered Comus, what else can we do to convince you that you NEED this record? Folkies will love it, but it's plenty dark and creepy and sinister enough for all you metalheads, and way weird enough for all you experimental music lovers. And of course Comus obsessives (like Andee and Allan) who already have multiple versions of First Utterance will for sure need this one as well! Let your pagan prog rock psych folk freek flag fly!
MPEG Stream: "Diana"
MPEG Stream: "Drip Drip"
MPEG Stream: "The Herald"
MPEG Stream: "Song To Comus"

COMUS First Utterance (Get Back/Abraxas) 2lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wow! From the lost, misty past (England, 1970) comes this pagan folk-psychedelic masterpiece. Decribed by one (negative) critic at the time as a cross between the witches Sabbath in MacBeth and "Marc Bolan being squeezed to death"! While it does sound a bit like that, it is actually quite brilliant. Scary, demented, acid acoustic/electric rock epics with utterly unhinged vocals, about death, insanity, and the worship of ancient gods! There's been a hard-to-find cd reish, but this lovely lp reissue (beautiful cover repro, 180-gram pure virgin vinyl) includes a bonus 45 rpm 12" with three songs taken from their rare debut single. Christians beware.

COMUS First Utterance (Earmark) 2lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What has to be our favorite British pagan folk psychedelic prog rock album ever (in other words, quite possibly our favorite album ever, period!) has finally been repressed!!! Also soon to be re-issued on cd as a double disc set with bonus tracks (which were previously only available on this vinyl version) and Comus' second (not as good as the first) album! But even cd lovers will find it's hard to resist this lovely lp reissue (beautiful cover repro, 180-gram pure virgin vinyl) which includes a bonus 45 rpm 12" with three songs taken from their rare debut single. Here's how much we LOVE this record:
THIS RECORD SCARES US. Hearing it is like stumbling upon some forbidden ancient ritual that scares you to death. You stand paralyzed, too afraid to look away. Comus's singular, frightening sound and violently poetic lyrics have kept them from taking their rightful place alongside Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, and the rest of Britain's psychedelic folk royalty.
And we don't write the words psychedelic folk royalty without a certain amount of trepidation. At first glance Comus would seem to fit squarely in the Ren-Faire camp: bongos, flute, oboe, 12-string guitar, and no drummer. But never has the whole of a band so completely defied its parts; their sound is as mesmerizing as it is repulsive. Upon the record's initial release, one British music journalist wrote that she "didn't get past the first track, which sounded like a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth, and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death." Funny thing is, that's a fairly apt description. Tales of murder, rape, insanity, and witchcraft unfold amid a swirling abyss of seething acid folk. Squalls of shamanistic wailing jut uncomfortably from serene, tranquil melodies; guttural growls battle a delicate angelic chorus, echoing the violent struggle of the lyrics. Flutes, hand drums, acoustic guitars, and a violin clamber atop one another in a chaotic melee, creating a pagan folk not unlike that of The Wicker Man soundtrack gone totally bonkers.
Although the band has been resolutely ignored by mainstream music fans, the press, and the majority of the underground, a small rabid following has kept a reverential vigil beside the corpse of Comus.
Nurse with Wound cronies Current 93 modeled their '90s sound after '70s British folk, Comus especially. They even went so far as to cover "Diana," Comus's only single, on their album Horsey. Swedish progressive black metallers Opeth have always been outspoken about their love of Comus. Their acclaimed 1998 album was called My Arms, Your Hearse, after the lyrics of "Drip Drip" (on First Utterance). And it's not surprising. This record is so powerful and frightening and totally devastating even 30 years later.
And never would I have thought that a record as old as me, with flutes and bongos fer chrissakes, could be so absolutely malevolent, both sonically and lyrically! But like I said, this record scares us. And we know you like to be scared too! One of our ALL TIME FAVORTIE RECORDS EVER!!!
MPEG Stream: "Diana"
MPEG Stream: "Drip Drip"
MPEG Stream: "The Herald"
MPEG Stream: "Song To Comus"

COMUS Out Of The Coma (Coptic Cat) cd 16.98
We're not sure which is more exciting, the first new music from legendary UK seventies acid folk legends Comus in FORTY YEARS, or a lost track, from back in the day, a song from the never released (or recorded) follow up to the godlike First Utterance, a song never heard by anyone outside of the band before NOW. Thankfully, this new record from this aQ revered combo gives us both, three brand new songs, and one, that aforementioned legendary lost recording. Our very own Andee actually wrote some of the liner notes for this release (alongside some by Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth), specifically talking about that long lost track, so we figured we might as well just reprint that part here (more on the new tracks afterwards):
"For those of us who consider Comus' debut album First Utterance the pinnacle of psychedelic seventies demonic acid folk (and we are quite suspicious of anyone who doesn't), the prospect of a lost second record is nearly too much to even imagine. And the idea that such a record was written, and performed, yet never recorded, is nearly heartbreaking. While subsequent recordings from the band veered into much poppier and more commercial territory, the Comus faithful continued to believe in the existence of an elusive song suite, forever convinced that there had to have been more, an untapped reservoir of dark sonic energy, the unleashing of which was held at bay by unscrupulous record label executives and their profit driven machinations, or even more ominously, those songs were in fact actually recorded and hidden away in some sort of dusty vault. And while the truth may be less sensational and conspiratorial than we perhaps imagined, the Comus faithful have indeed finally been rewarded, with this, a sprawling almost classical sounding psychedelic folk epic, unearthed after nearly 40 years, a fragment of the never completed follow up to First Utterance, the Malgard Suite, which offers a glimpse of what might have been, a fork in time's path untaken, an alternate timeline in which the band continued along that selfsame dark path, the sinister sound of First Utterance expanded upon, less immediately maniacal and harrowing, more expansive and lush, the vocals intricate and intertwined over swirling strings, and delicate crystalline guitars, fluttering flutes and the moaning melodies of the bassoon (played by Lindsay Cooper, who would go on to join art rockers Henry Cow post Comus). And while there's plenty going on here that foreshadows the sound of Henry Cow, there is also a darkly classical vibe, with much of the Malgard Suite sounding a bit like a more diabolical Prokofiev. Those elements are woven deftly into that classic Comus sound, frenzied and fraught with drama one second, soaring and majestic the next, always lush and lovely and dreamily psychedelic. And even in this, which is quite possibly the only existing recording of the Malgard Suite, a rough raw live performance captured on a handheld cassette player, it's impossible to deny the power and emotion in the music, a lyrical sonic fever dream, delivered in this mysterious missive from another time, lost for decades and resurfacing only now, and convincing us, the Comus faithful, that it was worth the wait."
So yeah, Comus fanatics will pretty much need this for just that track. There's also a spoken word intro from band leader Roger Wooten, describing the providence of that track, when and how it was recorded, and how it came to be rediscovered. And it's well worth the price of admission on its own. Which brings us to the new material, and while we have to admit we were a little wary of new songs, especially after FORTY years, our fears were definitely unfounded, cuz for the most part, these new songs sound like they could have come straight from the First Utterance sessions. Sure, some things are different, the vocals are maybe not quite as frenzied and maniacal, but they still sound pretty incredible, and the female backup vox still sound as harrowing and haunting as before. And the music, still so lush and layered and dense, and yeah, a bit demonic, incredible guitar playing, intricate finger picking, wild hand drumming, mournful violin, fluttering flute, the songs drifting into the same sort of dark psychedelic jam territory as those old classics, the lyrics appropriately morbid, the production lush and lovely, the sax being perhaps the only real difference, adding a different dimension to the sound, but it still sounds like Comus, classic Comus at that, and no one sounds like Comus, now or then, and we have to say, these new tracks were worth the wait as well!
MPEG Stream: "Out Of The Coma"
MPEG Stream: "The Sacrifice"
MPEG Stream: "The Maalgard Suite"

COMUS Out Of The Coma (Rise Above) lp 34.00
We're not sure which is more exciting, the first new music from legendary UK seventies acid folk legends Comus in FORTY YEARS, or a lost track, from back in the day, a song from the never released (or recorded) follow up to the godlike First Utterance, a song never heard by anyone outside of the band before NOW. Thankfully, this new record from this aQ revered combo gives us both, three brand new songs, and one, that aforementioned legendary lost recording. Our very own Andee actually wrote some of the liner notes for this release (alongside some by Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth), specifically talking about that long lost track, so we figured we might as well just reprint that part here (more on the new tracks afterwards):
"For those of us who consider Comus' debut album First Utterance the pinnacle of psychedelic seventies demonic acid folk (and we are quite suspicious of anyone who doesn't), the prospect of a lost second record is nearly too much to even imagine. And the idea that such a record was written, and performed, yet never recorded, is nearly heartbreaking. While subsequent recordings from the band veered into much poppier and more commercial territory, the Comus faithful continued to believe in the existence of an elusive song suite, forever convinced that there had to have been more, an untapped reservoir of dark sonic energy, the unleashing of which was held at bay by unscrupulous record label executives and their profit driven machinations, or even more ominously, those songs were in fact actually recorded and hidden away in some sort of dusty vault. And while the truth may be less sensational and conspiratorial than we perhaps imagined, the Comus faithful have indeed finally been rewarded, with this, a sprawling almost classical sounding psychedelic folk epic, unearthed after nearly 40 years, a fragment of the never completed follow up to First Utterance, the Malgard Suite, which offers a glimpse of what might have been, a fork in time's path untaken, an alternate timeline in which the band continued along that selfsame dark path, the sinister sound of First Utterance expanded upon, less immediately maniacal and harrowing, more expansive and lush, the vocals intricate and intertwined over swirling strings, and delicate crystalline guitars, fluttering flutes and the moaning melodies of the bassoon (played by Lindsay Cooper, who would go on to join art rockers Henry Cow post Comus). And while there's plenty going on here that foreshadows the sound of Henry Cow, there is also a darkly classical vibe, with much of the Malgard Suite sounding a bit like a more diabolical Prokofiev. Those elements are woven deftly into that classic Comus sound, frenzied and fraught with drama one second, soaring and majestic the next, always lush and lovely and dreamily psychedelic. And even in this, which is quite possibly the only existing recording of the Malgard Suite, a rough raw live performance captured on a handheld cassette player, it's impossible to deny the power and emotion in the music, a lyrical sonic fever dream, delivered in this mysterious missive from another time, lost for decades and resurfacing only now, and convincing us, the Comus faithful, that it was worth the wait."
So yeah, Comus fanatics will pretty much need this for just that track. There's also a spoken word intro from band leader Roger Wooten, describing the providence of that track, when and how it was recorded, and how it came to be rediscovered. And it's well worth the price of admission on its own. Which brings us to the new material, and while we have to admit we were a little wary of new songs, especially after FORTY years, our fears were definitely unfounded, cuz for the most part, these new songs sound like they could have come straight from the First Utterance sessions. Sure, some things are different, the vocals are maybe not quite as frenzied and maniacal, but they still sound pretty incredible, and the female backup vox still sound as harrowing and haunting as before. And the music, still so lush and layered and dense, and yeah, a bit demonic, incredible guitar playing, intricate finger picking, wild hand drumming, mournful violin, fluttering flute, the songs drifting into the same sort of dark psychedelic jam territory as those old classics, the lyrics appropriately morbid, the production lush and lovely, the sax being perhaps the only real difference, adding a different dimension to the sound, but it still sounds like Comus, classic Comus at that, and no one sounds like Comus, now or then, and we have to say, these new tracks were worth the wait as well!
MPEG Stream: "Out Of The Coma"
MPEG Stream: "The Sacrifice"
MPEG Stream: "The Maalgard Suite"

COMUS Song To Comus: The Complete Collection (Castle Music) 2cd 22.00
Let's get this out of the way first: most folks around these parts consider Comus' First Utterance to be the greatest seventies pagan tribal folk prog psych freakout record ever. Hard to debate that. But among those folks, about 99 percent also consider First Utterance to be one of the greatest records ever, regardless of genre! One listen and you'll be convinced. Or you'll run away screaming in terror. Either way, it's hard to not be totally blown away and / or thrillingly confused by the mad musical world of Comus.
First Utterance has now been reissued a total of six times now (by our count, with maybe yet another edition on the way!) but this UK import double cd version marks the very first time that the three tracks from the pre-First Utterance maxi-single (i.e. the bonus 12" ep included with the lp reissue) has been released on cd as well. AND this also includes another totally unreleased bonus track from the First Utterance sessions! Holy crap! Every time a new cd reissue would be announced, we'd be thinking to ourselves "please please please include the extra tracks..." but somehow it never happened. Until now! That should be enough to have you Comus obsessives and seventies psych prog freeks all in a tizzy, but that's not all. Also included is their second album released a few years later after the band reformed, as well as a final solo single from Comus frontman Roger Wooten. But we'll talk about that stuff in a moment. First, let's explain just what it is about First Utterance that has us so excited!
THIS RECORD SCARES US. Hearing it is like stumbling upon some forbidden ancient ritual that scares you to death. You stand paralyzed, too afraid to look away. Comus's singular, frightening sound and violently poetic lyrics have kept them from taking their rightful place alongside Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, and the rest of Britain's psychedelic folk royalty.
And we don't write the words psychedelic folk royalty without a certain amount of trepidation. At first glance Comus would seem to fit squarely in the Ren-Faire camp: bongos, flute, oboe, 12-string guitar, and no drummer. But never has the whole of a band so completely defied its parts; their sound is as mesmerizing as it is repulsive. Upon the record's initial release, one British music journalist wrote that she "didn't get past the first track, which sounded like a cross between a frenzied version of the witches chorus from Macbeth, and Marc Bolan being squeezed to death." Funny thing is, that's a fairly apt description. Tales of murder, rape, insanity, and witchcraft unfold amid a swirling abyss of seething acid folk. Squalls of shamanistic wailing jut uncomfortably from serene, tranquil melodies; guttural growls battle a delicate angelic chorus, echoing the violent struggle of the lyrics. Flutes, hand drums, acoustic guitars, and a violin clamber atop one another in a chaotic melee, creating a pagan folk not unlike that of The Wicker Man soundtrack gone totally bonkers.
Although the band has been resolutely ignored by mainstream music fans, the press, and the majority of the underground, a small rabid following has kept a reverential vigil beside the corpse of Comus. Nurse with Wound cronies Current 93 modeled their '90s sound after '70s British folk, Comus especially. They even went so far as to cover "Diana," Comus's only single, on their album Horsey. Swedish progressive black metallers Opeth have always been outspoken about their love of Comus. Their acclaimed 1998 album was called My Arms, Your Hearse, after the lyrics of "Drip Drip". And it's not surprising. This record is so powerful and frightening and totally devastating even 30 years later.
And never would we have thought that a record as old as us, with flutes and bongos fer chrissakes, could be so absolutely malevolent, both sonically and lyrically! But like we said, this record scares us. And we know you like to be scared too! One of our ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS EVER!!!
So yeah, there it is. Well worth it for First Utterance alone, and the First Utterance era bonus tracks (especially when you consider this version is a buck cheaper than the single disc, non-bonus-track havin' Japanese import version). But you also get, for the first time on cd, Comus' second album To Keep From Crying (1973), as well as the post-Comus "Fiesta Fandango" solo single from Wooten. Pretty exciting stuff for Comus fanatics indeed, but be warned, the Comus found on To Keep From Crying bears very little resemblance to the Comus of First Utterance. Some would go so far as to say that where FU is one of the best records ever, TKFC is perhaps one of the worst...yet not without its charms. Not sure if it was a bid to find pop success, or just a case of lightning already having struck once, but TKFC is not malevolent or really all that intense, instead it's a very light, very jaunty, lush seventies UK pop record, a little glam, a little Beach Boys, a little Free Design, a little Eno, not bad (well, some of it isn't), but not really all that good. It's as if the original Comus were given entirely different drugs (not bad trip acid but something more "happy") and were forced to attempt to make a Top 40 hit. You can still tell it's them, though (the vocals are just as tweaked as before) so it's pretty darn strange. A few of the songs are quite nice acid folk numbers, just not as dark as the nightmarish folk found on FU. But some of the other tracks, well, they're at least amusing in a so bad it's good kind of way. Even the band members themselves in the liner notes talk about how much they dislike that record now. Andee even bought the original LP a few years back on eBay, even though the description warned "Not as good as First Utterance." Who cares? he thought, it was ANOTHER RECORD BY COMUS!! But alas he too soon discovered for himself that it was no First Utterance. While almost any record would pale when set up against First Utterance, TKFC was a particularly watered down follow up, and outside of that equally weak solo single, that was the end of the band.
Song To Comus' booklet contains lots of photos and amazing liner notes, which include this tantalizing and totally frustrating tidbit: before TKFC, there was actually a Lord Of The Rings inspired suite of songs (a proper follow up to First Utterance) already written called Malgaard, that the band had begun performing live but never got around to recording! We flipped when we read about that. Can you imagine? Sadly, it just wasn't meant to be. And they also never recorded their live version of "Venus In Furs", either (apparently Comus started out doing lots of VU covers!). Ah well. But still, we're more than happy with the amazing musical malevolence Comus left as their legacy.
So those of you who haven't discovered Comus, what else can we do to convince you that you NEED this record? Folkies will love it, but it's plenty dark and creepy and sinister enough for all you metalheads, and way weird enough for all you experimental music lovers. And of course Comus obsessives (like Andee and Allan) who already have multiple versions of First Utterance will for sure need this one as well, probably for the curiousity factor of the second album, just to satisfy your all consuming love of Comus, but certainly to finally have the bonus 12" on cd and DEFINITELY for the unreleased First Utterance outtake "All The Colours Of Darkness"! Let your pagan prog rock psych folk freek flag fly!
MPEG Stream: "Diana"
MPEG Stream: "Drip Drip"
MPEG Stream: "The Herald"
MPEG Stream: "Song To Comus"

COMUS / RAMESES III / SIMON FINN The Forum - London 28th / 29th May 2010 (self-released) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
To commemorate the recent 25th anniversary Current 93 performances in London, a super limited number of these commemorative 7"s were pressed up (only 300 copies!), featuring exclusive tracks from three of the bands that performed with C93, psych drone combo Rameses III, psychedelic folk legend Simon Finn, and most excitingly, legendary seventies acid folk outfit, the mighty Comus!!
The Comus track might be what gets folks most excited, and rightfully so, a recording of the group performing "Diana" on the Melloboat, in Sweden, in 2008, their first show together after nearly 40 years!!! We tried to watch clips on YouTube, but the crowd was so amped, and howling and clapping and singing along, you could barely hear the band. Thankfully this recording is pristine, and the band sound incredible, even more woozy and carnivalesque and maniacal than they did back in the day, the player practically perfect, the vocals incredible for the many decades that have passed, definitely makes us wish we had flown over.
Rameses III contributes a gorgeous thick swath of densely layered dronemusic, very minimal, softly pulsing, rife with swirling overtones, hypnotic and raga like, really super nice.
And finally, Simon Finn unfurls some dark brooding psychedelic folk, lovely and haunting male / female vocal harmonies, over warm soft melodic swells, the sound stripped down, the arrangement minimal, the structure skeletal, but the overall feel still darkly lush and lovely.
A pretty fantastic 3 way split, we can only imagine how great the shows must have been. A gorgeous sonic artifact too, sturdy full color cover, pressed on thick colored vinyl, and again limited to only 300 copies!

CONAN Horseback Battle Hammer (Aurora Borealis) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Obviously, if you're gonna call your band Conan, your sound had better be pretty darn burly! And barbaric. Well, this UK doom outfit is definitely worthy of the name. Their music is not by, nor for, wimps. Slow, low, and loud = HEAVY. Even Arnold might have had trouble bench pressing these riffs! The plodding, shuddering distortion on display here is kinda like ultradoom in the vein of Moss or Bunkur, but not quite so slow, speeding up as necessary when the crushing riffs are really ready to go in for the kill. The production is amazing, as are the downtuned sounds these dudes get out of their guitars and amps, sooooooo bludgeoningly blown out. Conan's a guitar/bass/drums trio but sounds more like bass/bass/bass/bass/bass/bass/bass... oh yeah and drums which hold up their end of the heaviness equation just fine. Meanwhile, the vocals, when there are any, are a distant bellow, a high wailing, soaring over and staying out of the way of the massively occupied bass frequencies. They make us think of Yob for sure, but quite not so Geddy Lee, a bit more shout-y, so Harvey Milk would be another good comparison. For a lot of this, actually, not just the vocals. And the Melvins too, say one of their epic sludgeathons like "Charmicarmicat" or "Night Goat". And as long as we're namechecking other bands, how 'bout godheadSilo? Corrupted? Early Sleep (circa Volume One)? Yeah Conan is worthy of being cited amongst such legends. Again, they'd better be, with a name like Conan.
Originally released on limited vinyl last year by Throne over in Spain, sadly, we didn't get any of those. But now thanks to Aurora Borealis, we have it on compact disc, in a nice silver and black digipack. 4 songs, 33 minutes, infinite heaviness.
MPEG Stream: "Krull [excerpt 1]"
MPEG Stream: "Krull [excerpt 2]"
MPEG Stream: "Satsumo"

CONAN / SLOMATICS split (Burning World) cd 14.98
Kick ass doom / sludge split from these two UK outfits, and in the spirit of the split, we figured we oughta do a split review as well, so Allan will tackle Conan's half, and Andee's got the Slomatics half. Allan's up first...
I just know Andee's gonna write, like, a novel about Slomatics, and to do the mighty Conan justice, I should give them an equally lengthy writeup too. Or, on the other hand, maybe I should just keep my bit short. After all, there's really not much more to say about the barbaric doom-drone metal that Conan offers up here, than we already said in our review of their 2010 cd on Aurora Borealis, Horseback Battle Hammer. To wit, "Their music is not by, nor for, wimps. Slow, low, and loud = HEAVY. Even Arnold might have had trouble bench pressing these riffs! The plodding, shuddering distortion on display here is kinda like ultradoom in the vein of Moss or Bunkur, but not quite so slow, speeding up as necessary when the crushing riffs are really ready to go in for the kill." We went on to compare 'em to Yob, the Melvins, and Corrupted, among others, as well. These 3 new tracks are in the same vein what we'd heard before from Conan, meaning bass-heavy blown-out bludgeon, though there's a subtlety here we should note as well. Their first cut, "Older Than Earth", is a six+ minute miasmic trudge. That's followed by the brief, unexpected electronic interlude of "Obsidian Sword", and then the epic "Retaliator" rounds out Conan's contribution to this disc, being an eleven and a half minute creepy-crawl that melds Conan's brawniest rumble and howl with more atmospheric synth-sizzle, kinda reminding us of Thrones. Very cool.
Now for the Slomatics half, take it away Andee...
It's been two years since we last heard from UK slo-mo heavies Slomatics, who we discovered initially via an impending split with late great prog-sludge combo Like A Kind Of Matador (whose great full length on tUMULt is still available btw), and whose full length debut was a huge hit with the doomlords (and ladies) around these parts, their sound a heaving, churning morass of murky tarpit sludge, heavily beholden to Harvey Milk, Eyehategod, Bongzilla, the Melvins of course, even Electric Wizard, thick crumblingly distorted riffage, massive tectonic drum pound, laced with little bits of melody, short stretches of mellow drift, but for the most part all about the pound and pummel. We got another taste of the Slomatics' heaviosity on a split with Seelah, their sound slightly more rocking, and a wee bit poppier, but ultimately more of the glorious dirgey same. Which brings us to this brand new split, with another band of heavy aQ faves, Conan, and while much of that Slomatics sound is intact, something has definitely changed. There's definitely a slight pop edge, which did seem to be present on past outings, but here is much more openly on display, especially on the first track "Lose The Five", which peppers the thick Sabbathy riffage, with cool harmonized melodies, and buried hooks, with the song dangerously close to sludge-pop territory at times, definitely like a murkier, less poppier Torche (which weirdly is how we described one of the tracks on the Seelah split). There's also some seriously majestic Harvey Milk like moments too, that sort of creep anthemic epicness. "Black Blizzard" find the group ditching all of the above poppiness, for some pure grimey, filthy dirgery, reverbed vocals over death march downtuned trudge, but wait, strap those headphones on, and you'll hear all manner of melody buried in the murk and the mire, not to mention some super cool dynamic stop/starts, and a crazily blown out production that gives the sound a trippy washed out vibe. Finally, Slomatics finish off the split with "Mont Ventoux", which begins all abstract and psychedelic, cards-in-spokes skitter, over off-in-the-distance drumming, then some howled reverbed vox give way to another stretch of doomic churn, this time sounding weirdly dubbed out and a little bit industrial, a bit of a Godflesh vibe all tangled up with the bands more gnarled and grinding chug. So ruling! Still hard to fathom why these guys aren't in everyone's doom/sludge pantheon...
This split sure makes sense, these two bands belong together, and well deserve the super bad ass sci-fi, mysterious warrior, snail steed, dual mooned, skull mountain cover art!
MPEG Stream: CONAN "Retaliator"
MPEG Stream: SLOMATICS "Lose The Five"

CONAN THE BARBARIAN (OST) (Varese Sarabande) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CONCENTRICK Aluminum Lake (Drag City) cd 14.98
Tim Green is a busy fellow. Among probably many other things he runs a recording studio, rocks out with his band The Fucking Champs, occasionally sits in with fellow Bay Area band Crime In Choir, and records in solo mode under the moniker Concentrick. His past Concentrick recordings have been often serene, occasionally krautrock rhythm'd electronic soundscapes that stand in stark, revealing contrast to his rock band endeavors. So we were surprised not only to hear some blissed out guitar work, but also to see a full band's worth of musicians make an appearance on his latest release Aluminum Lake. Then, we were even more thrown for a loop when the third track burst out of our speakers! On "White Bear" Green allows his 'Champs rock side to barge its way into his Concentrick zone with some nut-bustin' electric guitar riffage and bombastic drums. From there he, along with Jon Theodore (drums), Seth Lorinczi (bass), Lorraine Rath (flute), Jackie Perez-Gratz (cello) and Adria Otte (violin), roam freely through passages hewn from prog, metal, Kraut and pastoral inspirations. Who'd have thought we'd be describing Concentrick as being dark or propulsive or heavy? Not us! Those are words we'd normally reserve for the 'Champs. Not anymore! Seems Concentrick has become Green's catch-all for his various musical whims and moods. Quite cool nonetheless.
MPEG Stream: "Waterfall"
MPEG Stream: "White Bear"

CONCENTRICK Lucid Dreaming (Emperor Jones) cd 14.98
For almost ten years Tim Green, while living in Olympia, moving to & setting up Louder Studios here in SF, and wielding the guitar in The (Fucking) Champs, has quietly been making solo experimental electronic music. The three Concentrick albums are the fruit of those efforts. On the guitar, piano, Wurlitzer organ, plus an endless array of vintage synths (Micromoog, mellotron, Poly 61) and other quaint machines, he's constructed a quiet electronica album that issues forth unhurriedly and softly. Like Krautrock pioneers Cluster and Harmonia, or early Brian Eno circa Discreet Music, the sonic elements are invitingly simple -- rounded notes are held for many slow seconds, one imperceptibly dissolving into the next. The music exudes a sense of sustained drama without piling on layers or percussion (except in a few cases), or messing with the purity of the sounds of the vintage electronics, the added cello and the flutes. Very peaceful and serene. Practically new age... in a good way.
RealAudio clip: "Secret in the Shallows and the Sky"
RealAudio clip: "Lucid Moments"

CONCENTRICK Music For Tunnels (Louder) cd 11.98
Solo project of Tim Green of The (Fucking) Champs. No, it's not metal. It's actually some really great drone music, kind of a multi-layered celestial grinding symphony, with interludes of tinkling clickery, hissing, stutter, etc. Quite varied and lovely, a good listen indeed. This cd is a reissue of Tim's 1996 cassette, although it sounds more like a reissue of a lost LP by some electronic krautrock experimentalist from the seventies.

CONCENTRICK Tender Machines (Deluxe) cd 13.98
Following up the recent re-worked cd re-issue of his 1996 cassette "Music For Tunnels" comes this new cd from Tim Green's Concentrick persona. Tim Green you may know as a member of The Fucking Champs, an ex-member of Nation of Ulysses, or as the producer/engineer to many of your favorite bands at his Louder Studios. With Concentrick he adds another line to his varied and impressive musical resume. Electronic pop musician? Where "Music For Tunnels" was all about the drone, this new disc is more about bubbling beats and melodic dreaminess. The '70s krautrock electronica influence is definitely still present, it's just that Concentrick has shifted focus from the placid soundscapes of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream to the more rhythmic territory associated with Kraftwerk and late-'70s Cluster. But there's more: strings, sampled voices, frenzied percolating percussion, cinematic lushness...and you can definitely hear real drums and guitar on here, at parts it's like a band playing Aphex Twin music! (and at others, it's...just like Aphex Twin music, circa "The Richard D. James Album". Not a bad thing!) If you liked the lovely "techno" interludes on the first Champs cd, or always thought that the Champs could make a better Trans Am record than Trans Am, you'll want this! Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Just Walk Away"

CONCEPT BUREAU Identity Encoder (self-released) cd-r 6.98
Concept Bureau is the name of this Bay Area project who generate a plethora of sounds using a machine they call The Identity Encoder. According to the liner notes the mysterious mechanism "translates personal facts and preferences into sound". These particular recordings were done just down the street from us at Artists' Television Access (ATA for short, it's a cool center for d.i.y. underground media works). The fourteen tracks of the fourteen participants range from soothing womb-y pulses and blips to a cavalcade of wind-up and squeak toys run amok. If you didn't know the story behind this release you could easily believe that these are some home recordings made by an old BBC Radiophonic engineer.
Limited to 50, packaged in hand-numbered, hand-sewn cardboard sleeves.
MPEG Stream: "Heather Dewey-Hagborg"
MPEG Stream: "Charlie Kayamoto"

CONCERN Caesarean (Arbor Infinity) lp 16.98
Gorgeous new full length from Gordon Ashworth (aka little brother of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone's Owen Ashworth), and like the previous Concern album, Truth And Distance (reissued on vinyl and reviewed elsewhere on this week's list!), Caesarian is another meticulously crafted series of looped and processed soundscapes, equal parts Philip Jeck, Tim Hecker and William Basinski, full of lush drones, crumbling decaying tapes, and hazy atmospherics, all assembled from a surprising array of acoustic instruments: piano, clarinet, banjo, sruti box, acoustic guitar, augmented with processed tapes and various reverbs, resulting in a sound that's both human and alien, organic and processed, beautiful and mysterious.
"Discrete Memorial" might be one of our favorite tracks yet from Ashworth, a strange loopscape of melancholy piano, mournful horns, all captured on a crumbling bit of tape, repeated into a mesmerizing refrain, but the various elements stuttering and glitching out, like some beautiful bit of sad pop, recorded on an old damaged tape, and played back on a malfunctioning tape player, gorgeously hypnotic, but similar to Basinski's recordings, much of the sound is derived from what surrounds the music, strange drop outs, bits of hiss, subtle squelches here and there, the tones and notes changing speed and pitch, it's all woven deftly into a warped and warbly, beautifully imperfect bit of looped droning melodic drift. The cool thing though is that by the end of the track, the sound has shed all of the imperfections, having grown gradually more lush and less lo-fi as the song progressed, eventually ending up a gorgeously swirling Lubomyr Melnyk like flurry of rich harmonics and warm melodies.
The rest of the record is equally moving, and sonically breathtaking, from the warm whirling swells and metallic buzz of "Mending", to the fractured murky folk drift and eventual psychedelic drone effulgence of "From Warmth And From Violence", to the glitchy almost Oval sounding shimmer of "Leaving Gold", and finally, the sprawling 34 minute "Immersed In Envy, Porous With Forgetfulness", which manages to somehow bring all of those various sounds together, insectoid buzz, hazy abstracted minimal shimmer, mysterious field recordings, washed out whirring organs, sunshiney dronepop drift, blurred hiss drenched ambience, all woven into a lovely, slow shifting expanse of lush minimal beauty.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!

CONCERN Truth & Distance (Digitalis) lp 16.98
This awesome 2009 cd release, now available on vinyl!! Here's what we said about it before:
One of several new releases on the always kick ass Digitalis label, this one from a one man band called Concern, that one man being Gordon Ashworth, little brother of Owen Ashworth of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, as well as a member of the late great Peyote Calamity, a weird heavy outfit, who sadly never released a proper record, but neither of those bands necessarily hint at the sounds to be found here. Utilizing a vast collection of instruments and noise making devices, zither, lap harp, mbira, banjo, piano, clarinet, trombone, accordion, acoustic guitar and alto horn, Ashworth blurs all those various instruments into long streaks of hazy drone-y dreaminess. Three tracks, all long, all gorgeously lush and textured, strangely melodic and propulsive for a sound that tends toward a more static drift.
Opener "Truth And Distance" bristles with energy, a glowing warm shimmer, the edges growing ever sharper as the songs sprawls outward, from a hushed whisper to a mighty heart of the sun ur-drone, the sound raw and organic, the core a deep unwavering drone, but the sound is like a stream, carrying all manner of glitch and hum, stray bits of disembodied guitar, melodic fragments, eventually transforming into a strange abstract Appalachia, a soft swirling tangle of upper register buzz and and skittery processed tones, definitely some of the most divine drones we've heard.
The first track is well over half the total length of the record, but the second two tracks, while shorter, are just as beautiful and epic. "Young Birth" builds from hushed whir to almost symphonic sounding majesty, a warped otherworldly new age, all tranquil and blissed out, the various tones overlapping and intertwining before fading out in a soft flurry of crackle and hum. While the final track, "Heartsink", begins all raw and fuzzy and almost heavy with a Tim Hecker sort of vibe, only to shift gears, and allow the sound of the various instruments to become distinct and identifiable. Which in no way means the sound is any less dreamlike, soft shimmers of heavily reverbed piano drift weightlessly in an expanse of soft muted melodies, the overtones creating distant drone-y swells, the result a lovely abstract sort of classical chamber dronemusic, so so so nice.
Essential listening for the drone inclined, and any one into Tim Hecker, Aidan Baker, Fennesz, Belong and the like might just have a new favorite record.
MPEG Stream: "Truth And Distance"
MPEG Stream: "Young Birth"

CONCERN Truth and Distance (Digitalis) cd 12.98
One of several new releases on the always kick ass Digitalis label, this one from a one man band called Concern, that one man being Gordon Ashworth, little brother of Owen Ashworth of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, as well as a member of the late great Peyote Calamity, a weird heavy outfit, who sadly never released a proper record, but neither of those bands necessarily hint at the sounds to be found here. Utilizing a vast collection of instruments and noise making devices, zither, lap harp, mbira, banjo, piano, clarinet, trombone, accordion, acoustic guitar and alto horn, Ashworth blurs all those various instruments into long streaks of hazy drone-y dreaminess. Three tracks, all long, all gorgeously lush and textured, strangely melodic and propulsive for a sound that tends toward a more static drift.
Opener "Truth And Distance" bristles with energy, a glowing warm shimmer, the edges growing ever sharper as the songs sprawls outward, from a hushed whisper to a mighty heart of the sun ur-drone, the sound raw and organic, the core a deep unwavering drone, but the sound is like a stream, carrying all manner of glitch and hum, stray bits of disembodied guitar, melodic fragments, eventually transforming into a strange abstract Appalachia, a soft swirling tangle of upper register buzz and and skittery processed tones, definitely some of the most divine drones we've heard.
The first track is well over half the total length of the record, but the second two tracks, while shorter, are just as beautiful and epic. "Young Birth" builds from hushed whir to almost symphonic sounding majesty, a warped otherworldly new age, all tranquil and blissed out, the various tones overlapping and intertwining before fading out in a soft flurry of crackle and hum. While the final track, "Heartsink", begins all raw and fuzzy and almost heavy with a Tim Hecker sort of vibe, only to shift gears, and allow the sound of the various instruments to become distinct and identifiable. Which in no way means the sound is any less dreamlike, soft shimmers of heavily reverbed piano drift weightlessly in an expanse of soft muted melodies, the overtones creating distant drone-y swells, the result a lovely abstract sort of classical chamber dronemusic, so so so nice.
Essential listening for the drone inclined, and any one into Tim Hecker, Aidan Baker, Fennesz, Belong and the like might just have a new favorite record.
MPEG Stream: "Truth And Distance"
MPEG Stream: "Young Birth"

CONCRETE RUBBER BAND Risen Savior (Hidden Vision) cd 15.98
Hallelujah! Here's a new version of this, now reissued by "Jesus Freak" psych specialists Hidden Vision Records, with two bonus tracks and a slightly cheaper price tag than before, too!
Church music? Yeah, sorta. The first (and title) track is real churchy all right with folky singing and organ... and of course it's called "Risen Savior". These guys (and gal) were indeed a Christian rock trio, from Kansas. But they did their thing in the late sixties / early seventies and thus thankfully (for our purposes) bring in some of the acid rock psych action of the era to their musical worship. With track two, "What Shall We Do?", the Concrete Rubber Band aren't quite as soft and innocuous, getting into some wilder, keyboard-driven garagey psych. Not that they turn into Iron Butterfly or anything -- though, their name seems to derive from a similar, psychedelic logic! Overall, this is really pleasant, with gentle and earnest male and female vocals dueting over guitar, percussion, and variety of keyboard instruments (organ, synth, electric piano/harpsichord). Standout tracks include the cultish "Wicked" with its burbling electronic intro, and the dreamy "Dreamers". If you're a fan of "Jesus Freak" psych (a la The Search Party, The New Creation, and that Resurrection comp, to mention three things we've reviewed in that vein) then you might dig the CRB too. Yeah, we're all into black metal here at AQ, but sometimes bands that sing about God in a nice way we like too... all depends on the music!
Originally released on vinyl in 1971 by the band themselves to sell at Christian bookstores, in an edition of 500.
MPEG Stream: "Passover"
MPEG Stream: "Wicked"

CONCRETES Boyoubetterunow (Up) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Definitely walking a raucous and veering path to your ear... it's The Concretes. Decidedly Swedish and experimental. Okay, allow me to elaborate: quirky, strolling pop that takes many stylistic turns. Perhaps this is due to the fact that this group sometimes swells to include up to 18 members, with Horns, organ bits, sing song-y melodies. The vocals bring to mind those of Smack Dab (if you're unfamiliar with them, they were an odd little pop band with a precariously fragile female vocalist that released two albums on Homestead Records in the early '90s.) Fans of Stereo-Total should certainly check this out.

CONCRETES, THE Hey Trouble (Licking Fingers) cd 11.98
Found a few more of these imports hidden away in the back room, and figured we'd knock down the price a bit too!!
The Concretes have been blissing out indie pop fans for well over a decade but their steadily growing spiked big time over the past year. The Swedish dreamboats were drawn further into the limelight by former Concretes singer Victoria Bergsman's appearance on the omnipresent Peter Bjorn And John single "Young Folks". Yes, you heard correctly. Former! The PBJ guest vocalist who charmed everyone and brought attention to the Concretes has jumped ship in favor of a solo career. But fret not, despite the album's title, this is by no means a 'man overboard!' emergency. Although you're not going to be hearing Ms. Bergsman's sweet and distinctly quirky voice on any of these dozen songs, you will be hearing the just as sweet and distinctly quirky voice of Lisa Milberg. Her performance makes for not such a drastic transition after all. Slightly off kilter and bittersweet. Yes, if you like Peter Bjorn And John's Writer's Block, what are you waiting for? The soft serve dream whip sounds of Hey Trouble are like a more girlie counterpart.
MPEG Stream: "A Whale's Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Oh Boy"

CONDENADOS A Painful Journey Into Nihil (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98
Shadow Kingdom sure has become one of those labels, that whatever they put out, whether it be some rare '80s metal reissue by a band we've never heard of, or an equally unknown release by a brand new band, we know want to hear it, 'cause the label is definitely focused on the sort of obscure cult metal we love, usually doomy, often epic, quite classic and sometimes a bit eccentric. From lost NWOBHM treats like Wolfbane and Deep Switch to modern day doom like Garden Of Worm and Crowned In Earth, they've been bringing it.
So, listen up, here's another good one from 'em. A Painful Journey Into Nihil is the debut full-length from Chilean doomsters Condenados (which means "Doomed" in Spanish, we're not surprised to learn). Of course, we immediately thought of Procession, another doom trio from Chile that we happen to love (and who have a new album out we hope to be getting soon!), and that's not far off the mark. Both bands traffic in trudge, extruding glacially epic dark doom that sounds a bit like Swedish gods Candlemass, but even more bummed out and despairing, maybe 'cause Candlemass was actually a pretty successful band, while these guys are struggling away in the depths of South America...
The six sluggish songs on here, the first two sung in Spanish, the others in English, are straight up serious quality old school doom all right, heavily weighted with lumbering, fuzzed out riffs in ye olde Sabbathy style, but even sadder and slower, their grinding graced with deep, somber vocals (rising to a higher pitch at some choice moments), and some nicely gnarly guitar solos amidst the melody. And we're pleased to report that Condenados has thrown a little flute in here too, just to make the album even better (and proggier). Keyboards and samples are also used to atmospheric effect. But none of that wimps this out, at all, it's HEAVY, regally so. A track like "Centuries Of Darkness" sounds like a classic that true doom devotees should have already been (slowly) banging heads to for, well, centuries.
Highly recommended to fans of the likes of Candlemass, Warning, Reverend Bizarre, The Wizar'd, Procession... and something about "Welcome To My Grave" reminds us a bit of The Obsessed.
MPEG Stream: "Las Puertas De La Catedral"
MPEG Stream: "Centuries Of Darkness"

CONDO FUCKS Fuckbook (Matador) cd 13.98
Yeah, when we heard this band's name, we were all "WTF?! What's Matador dishing up now?!" But then we took a closer look at the album's title (hmmm, Fuckbook sounds a lot like... Fakebook!) and the band photos on the back (hmmm, they look a wee bit familiar!), and we knew we were in the presence of our beloved old faves Ira, James and Georgia! Yup, Condo Fucks are a very thinly disguised Yo La Tengo tearing and tumbling though a raucous garagey setlist packed with messy covers of Beach Boys, Electric Eels, Flaming Groovies, Richard Hell, Slade, The Small Faces, and Troggs songs. Very very silly, sloppy and fun fun fun!
MPEG Stream: "Accident"
MPEG Stream: "Come On Up"

CONDO FUCKS Fuckbook (Matador) lp 14.98
Yeah, when we heard this band's name, we were all "WTF?! What's Matador dishing up now?!" But then we took a closer look at the album's title (hmmm, Fuckbook sounds a lot like... Fakebook!) and the band photos on the back (hmmm, they look a wee bit familiar!), and we knew we were in the presence of our beloved old faves Ira, James and Georgia! Yup, Condo Fucks are a very thinly disguised Yo La Tengo tearing and tumbling though a raucous garagey setlist packed with messy covers of Beach Boys, Electric Eels, Flaming Groovies, Richard Hell, Slade, The Small Faces, and Troggs songs. Very very silly, sloppy and fun fun fun!
MPEG Stream: "Accident"
MPEG Stream: "Come On Up"

CONDOR A Big One (Narnack) cd 11.98
Comprised of three SF scene vets, Wendy Farina, Kurt Keppeler and Joshua Richardson, the group rumble, churn and jolt through eight brooding, dissonant songs. Each song is darkly catchy, built around a wall of buzzing, hissing analog synths and thick bass guitar through which the trio sneer, shout and spit out their vocals. Frantic and quite carnivalesque at times, and yes, very Fall and Sonic Youth influenced too. If you've enjoyed the very late 70s/early 80s-ish live-wire art-punk angularities from recent Bay Area bands like Erase Errata, Numbers or Phantom Limbs, Condor might be just the thing for you!
MPEG Stream: "Pokerface"
MPEG Stream: "Suntan"

CONDOR Do It Everywhere (Birds Go South) cd 13.98
If you've dug the recent angular herky jerk sounds of Bay Area bands such as Numbers and Phantom Limbs... as well as Man Or Astroman?'s final two albums... or for that matter their forefathers Sonic Youth, The Fall and Gang Of Four, it might be time for you to check out this trio known as Condor! Their sophomore release Do It Everywhere is a whole lot tighter and a bit more melodic and poppy (hence the MOAM? comparison) than their 2003 debut full length A Big One, but still very propulsively punchy and dissonant with fitting Mark E. Smith-esque spoken/shouted/sung vocals, edgy guitar shards, thick analog synth splatters, throbbing chunks of bass, and uncluttered thumping drums. Cool!
MPEG Stream: "Here You Go"
MPEG Stream: "Poltran"

CONET PROJECT, THE (Irdial Disc) 4cd+book 62.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, the wait is over! Feels like we spend a whole lot of time waiting for the Conet Project to come back into our lives. We sell these like crazy when they're in stock, but it always seems to go out of print before we know it and we're forced to wait again for the re-emergence of one of our all time favorite "musical" documents. And hell, if there was ever a quadruple cd / book of shortwave transmissions worth waiting for, this is the one!! We're now on the FOURTH pressing of the Conet (or maybe even the fifth?) and we still can't get enough! This is one of our ALL TIME favorite releases EVER, as evidenced by the fact that EVERYONE who works here owns at least one copy, and to date, we've sold 680 copies! And counting! We'd probably have broken 1000 if this darn thing would stay in print. This version is again exactly the same as the others EXCEPT that this one includes a postcard seeking "cold warriors" with personal knowledge of numbers stations. As stated on the card, if you are one of those warriors, contact Irdial immediately. Your identity and whatever information you are able to share will be kept strictly confidential. If you are not one of those warriors, pass the card on, in the hopes that it will find its way into the right hands. Why so mysterious? What's with the cloak and dagger stuff? Well, my friends, read on, and learn all about the beautiful and mysterious Conet Project:
If there's one recording we have sold here that is most identified with Aquarius Records, or that at least we mention most often when trying to explain to people what it is that we're all about here, it'd be the Conet Project. Some others come close: Sounds of North American Frogs, Os Mutantes, Burzum "Filosofem", Comus "First Utterance", Boris, Circle, Philip Jeck, Village of Savoonga...and there's of course many other discs and LPs near and dear to our hearts (for instance, hearing the first Neutral Milk Hotel album always makes me nostalgic for the old 24th street store). But for some reason it's the Conet Project that really seems to sum it all up. It's all the things we really love: completely ridiculous (four cds!), completely fucked (secret government spy transmissions), droning, weird. It's just so interesting and evocative on so many levels, both musical and totally non-musical, as a listening experience and also as a geopolitical cold war and beyond artifact. Definitely a big AQ fave: Allan's got the whole thing on his iPod, Andee has multiple copies, many of which found their way into his old band's live perfomances, Jim has steadfastly maintained that this is the greatest record of all time, and we all are a little bit obsessed.
If you've been in the store, you've probably noticed that we have a chart on the wall behind the counter keeping a tally of Conets sold. It went up to 387 (yes, three hundred and eighty seven!) before it became unavailable/out of print a few years ago, then again up into the 400's, and then again into the 600's always forced to wait patiently until it becomes available again -- there's even snapshots of some of the happy purchasers (#382, Mike Patton) beside it. Now we're ready to start checking off more boxes on our chart, as we at last are able to offer you The Conet Project once again!! After several years of going in and out of print, the Irdial label has finally done another re-press! We're not sure if the re-presses are still funded by the $30,000+ settlement they recieved from Wilco's record label, who Irdial sued for the unauthorized use of a Conet Project sample on their breakthrough Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album, whose title itself comes from that Conet sample. (Read more about that here http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,63952,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_7.) We're not sure if we understand or agree with the legalities behind Irdial's lawsuit, but we're happy at least that the outcome resulted in more Conets to go around (if that's where Irdial got the money to repress, as we suspect). There was also the use of a Conet track in that Tom Cruise movie Vanilla Sky...
Basically, the Conet Project is a four-cd compilation of recordings of mysterious shortwave radio broadcasts, known as "numbers stations". These numbers stations are generally believed to be encrypted spy transmissions, but no concrete evidence has ever surfaced proving that suppostion. However, no credible *alternate* explanation has ever been demonstrated, either. For years (ever since the start of the Cold War), amateur radio enthusiasts have come across these sinister signals, and they continue to this day, broadcast in many languages all over the world (the theory is that some are CIA, some are KBG, some are Mossad, etc).
In general, the transmissions consist of a deadpan voice (sometimes an old man, sometimes a young woman, etc.) reading a seemingly random, meaningless series of numbers over and over. Sometimes the broadcsts are preceded by a musical cue (the "Swedish Rhapsody" music box one being a favorite of ours), and sometimes the numbers are not conveyed by voice but by even more cryptic electronics (as with "The Buzzer", and other noisy, abstract stuff found mainly on disc four).
Needless to say, hearing those amazing and baffling sounds collected on these four cds is an unnerving experience. Not only does knowledge of the supposed purpose of these transmissions imbue them with a disturbing quality, but the repetition of the numbers combined with the background of shortwave radio static makes for a aurally hypnotic experience. If merely regarded as a piece of experimental ambient sound scupture, the Conet Project would be a brilliant and affecting piece of work, yet with the added context of international intelligence and conspiracy theory, it becomes even more intriguing and creepy. The four cds come with a large book (housed in its own jewel box) that provides a great deal of description of, and speculation about, the many recordings. Very well done. The Conet Project is possibly the most incredible, and weirdest, item of sound art/documentation that we've EVER had here at Aquarius. Mesmerizing, fascinating, unique, massive, scary, but sometimes even soothing. 100 percent recommended to the adventurous listener ('cause it's not for everyone!). And once you have it you'll understand why it had to be a full four cds--being overwhelming is part of the obsessive allure of this Project.
MPEG Stream: "Swedish Rhapsody"
MPEG Stream: "5 Dashes"
MPEG Stream: "Iran/Iraq Jamming Efficacy Testing"
MPEG Stream: "Magnetic Fields"
MPEG Stream: "Tyrolean Music Station"
MPEG Stream: "The Buzzer"

CONEY HATCH Outa Hand (Rock Candy) cd 17.98

MPEG Stream: "Don't Say Make Me"
MPEG Stream: "Shake It"
MPEG Stream: "First Time For Everything"