CARLOFASHION I Am The Crazy Hooverman (Hausmusik) cd 16.98

CARLOS Devil's Slide (Amazing Grease) cd 13.98
San Francisco mainstays Carlos finally return with a new record. Their quirky, heavy, punky, poppy sound hasn't changed too much, but they sure sound better than ever. A sparkling production and a batch of killer songs make this record a great pop surprise. The sound is a little Pixies, a little Weezer and a little Redd Kross. A really great record from one of the few San Francisco bands still around from what we here like to call 'the good old days'. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Always On My Side"
RealAudio clip: "Heavy Metal Monday"

CARLOS, WENDY A Clockwork Orange (OST) (East Side Digital) cd 16.98
Not only is Wendy Carlos a pioneer of electornic music as we now know & love it. Her transformation from Walter to Wendy led to a new beginning in music making for Carlos. No longer was there just an academic and novelty approached to a new form of music(see "Switched On Bach"), but her music started to take a much more intense and focused eye. Haunting sounds, creepy melodies, something bubbling under the surface. Her work is most heard in film scores she has done over the last few decades..with this, her score for A Clockwork Orange being a seminal moment and a great place to start the voyage into the magical mystery of Wendy Carlos.

CARLOS, WENDY Rediscovering Lost Scores - Volume 1 (East Side Digital) cd 16.98
One of the most engaging pioneers of electronic music Wendy (formely Walter) Carlos has made some of the most haunting and chilling sounds over the last several decades. The collaboration with filmakers was a very natural progression for Carlos as her sounds so perfectly match the images of equally creative and twisted filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick for whom she scored both The Shining and A Clockwork Orange. This new compilation of her lost scores contains the stunning sounds she crafted for The Shining which never made it to album form before as well as tracks from A Clockwork Orange that were not included on that soundtrack. Dark electronic soundscapes years before labels like Scape or Schematic even existed. The last few tracks are devoted to her score work for several UNICEF films..those don't quite do it for us but wow how much the first 25 tracks from Kubrick's films sure do. Totally creepy and trailblazing.
MPEG Stream: "Greetings Ghosties"
MPEG Stream: "A Haunted Waltz"
MPEG Stream: "Bumps In The Night"

CARLSON, MATT Particle Language (Draft) lp 17.98
Lots of radiophonic blorp, orbital bleep, and weird science are to be found on Matt Carlson's solo lp Particle Language. Carlson ranks amongst the more prolific members of the Portland experimental scene, starting out in the heavy-drone trio Bonus and moving onto the Vangelis-esque progressive electronic outfit Golden Retriever and the spasmodic DIY electronics of the Oregon Painting Society. Particle Language follows the retro-clad affairs of Golden Retriever, but his modular synths are dialed into a more cerebral, more academic approach to electronic music, with swarms of spiralling oscillations firing at every conceivable trajectory. Carlson gives the impression that he's set all of his careening, spiralling sounds in motion and allows them to crash into each other with regularity, as if they were all toy robots and remote control cars banging together. The violence of this atonal, electronic cacophony is all comedy, recalling the most playful explorations of Conrad Schnitzler in the '80s and the most angular / obtuse productions of Oneohtrix Point Never.

CARLTON MELTON aQ Hits (aQuarius recOrds) cd 12.98
aQ Hits is a new collection from beloved SF psychedelic space rock minimalists Carlton Melton, and is our second annual official aQuarius recOrds Record Store Day release. Last year's was a live disc called Black Valleys, a document of a killer aQuarius instore by NY psych rockers White Hills, and that one sold out in a flash. This year's looks to do the same - if you like White Hills, you like Carlton Melton, right?!
It's a super limited (just 300 copies) compact disc, collecting a handful of rare, and now out of print vinyl tracks, from various singles and split lps from the last couple years, including one super extended version.
Let's run through the various tracks... "Bottle Of Heat [Extended Version]", is, as you can probably tell from the title, the aforementioned alternate cut, which takes "Bottle Of Heat", originally released on the 2011 Agitated Records 12" comp I'm So Convoluted!, and offers up the unedited full-sprawl recording, stretching out to more than 19 minutes, thick smoldering clouds of soft focus psychedelia, drifting and blissed out, free form and abstract, a meandering epic of lush chordal swell and shimmery FX drenched swirl, all over a shuffling hypnotic and motorik kraut-psych beat. "Handling Snakes" is the A side from the group's Valley King 7" single, and is a jolt of heavy hypno-blues a la Wooden Shjips, but in the hands of Carlton Melton, somehow even heavier with wailing riffs and pummeling drums.
The next two tracks are from Carlton Melton's split 12" with Empty Shapes, originally released on Mid-To-Late Records in 2010: "Call and Response" is an epic (and originally nearly side-loooong) blowout, beginning with a heavy rumble of monolithic sludge eventually progressing into a slow wave of burnt-out blues riffage a la early Comets on Fire, that churns and steeps into a gnarly brew of molten fuzz. While "Purer", is more cosmic and dreamy, built on a layer of percolating synth drones that give way to a more uplifting space rock jam trajectory, total heart-of-the-sun zoner blissout.
And finally, the last two tracks are from CM's split 12" with Qumran Orphics, also originally released on Mid-To-Late Records, that one in the beginning of 2011. "March Of The Cicadas" is a glorious ten minute slab of psychedelic heaviness, that sounds exactly like the title implies, a slowmotion dirge over martial rhythms with buzzing electronic hisses and stratospheric guitar leads. And things finish off with "Murder Ridge", a noirish Bardo Pond-like spiral of burning sonic embers and sustained decay, a gorgeous hazy stretch of blurred lysergic drift, the perfect final movement, psych-drone comedown.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, each one hand numbered, the artwork is printed on metallic silver cardstock, everything housed in a slim dvd style case, only available here!
MPEG Stream: "Bottle Of Heat [Extended Version]"
MPEG Stream: "Handling Snakes"
MPEG Stream: "March Of The Cicadas"

CARLTON MELTON Country Ways (Agitated ) cd 14.98
Originally released on vinyl, this most recent batch of blissed out psychedelic space rock heaviness from aQ faves Carlton Melton now gets the cd treatment, with a whopping BONUS HALF HOUR of extra material not on the original lp. More on the bonus tracks in a bit, first, here's what we had to say about the record proper:
There's no shortage of psychedelic space rock in SF these days: recent Record Of The Weekers Lumerians, the Spyrals, Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun, and these guys, Carlton Melton, not a person, but a quartet, who conjure up epic stretches of spaced out psychedelia, and who, unlike many of their contemporaries, seem to be less concerned with the pulse, and the rhythm, and the groove, as they are with the SOUND, and the VIBE, weaving lush, expansive sprawls of effects drenched psychedelic ambience, drifting more often than driving, huge clouds of swirling wah guitars, and minimal spare drumming, which seems to exist more as a pulse, than a beat proper, everything murky and muddy and washed out, at once lo-fi, but impossibly dense and heavy, the band seeming to drift weightless though swirling starlit sonic skies, their sound loose and free and abstract and ephemeral, the first track here, is a fantastically entrancing space drone epic, a sound the drifts and buzzes and flutters and swirls, the sound emerging in swells, building into squalls of warm whirling chaos only to slip back into something more druggy and dreamy and meditative, it's not until the final couple minutes that the song finally explodes, and even then it doesn't really get heavier, the rhythm doesn't get any more intense, instead, it just sounds like the whole band crank it up a notch, the swirling clouds of effects and guitars suddenly become more volatile, and more chaotic, the melodies gradually swallowed up by slashes of distorted guitar crunch and crumbling walls of distortion, the sound gets more dense, and more thick, and the whole time the main groove, now buried beneath the roiling surface, continues on unwavering, the only thing keeping the track from drifting into the heavens and toward the heart of the sun.Ê
The remaining tracks, while shorter, are simply more of the glorious same, barring a brief bit of solo guitar, an interlude that is bookended by two more heaving walls of krautpsych swirl, the band unfurling droned out minimal hypnorock mini epics, that howl and thrum, buzz and shimmer, songs that obviously could have been stretched way out and turned this into a record two or three times as long.Ê
The extra tracks here are like a whole extra album, beginning with the nearly 6 minute shimmer of "Night Flight", all smoldering, softly burnished swells of washed out guitars and buried melodies, dreamy and drifty, a slow set up for the more typically explosive space psych of the 14+ minute "The One That Got Away (Extended Version)", which unfurls a heady hypnotic bit of motorik krautrock, sounding like German Oak or Can, and then wrapping it all in layer after layer of buzz and swirl, the effects growing more and more warped and wild, the sound getting more and more spacey and druggy, while all the while the rhythm section stays locked in tight, and keeps the song from lifting off entirely and disappearing into the night sky. The Hawkwind / Spacemen 3 vibe is big here, so drugged out and hypnotic, building to a serious crescendo of tangled leads and dense drum pound, before fading out into a stretch of slowly receding whir and thrum.
The final bonus track, recorded live on KZSU is another epic, nearly 13 minutes, and again, a psychedelic mix of kraut and space rock. A simple skeletal rhythm, wreathed in swirls of buzz, the group adding layers of melody and texture, clouds of ephemeral effects, buzzing synths, the sound growing more dense, yet at the same time, more free, and almost weightless, hypnotic and mesmerizing and totally tranced out, it's almost 4 minutes before things get properly riffy, and from there on out it's total heart of the sun Hawkwindy heaviness, the sound heady and hazy and so totally ruling.
Like we said about the lp version, this is fantastic stuff. Fans of the SF psych/space/drone/kraut rock contingent that aren't already into CM, get with it! And obviously, anyone into White Hills, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Cave, The Heads, Heavy Winged, Bardo Pond, White Noise Sound, Mugstar, Spacemen 3, and the like, these guys will definitely hit the spot.
MPEG Stream: "Country Ways"
MPEG Stream: "Full Moon Revisited"
MPEG Stream: "Harrington Fair"

CARLTON MELTON Country Ways (Mid-To-Late) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There's no shortage of psychedelic space rock in SF these days: recent Record Of The Weekers Lumerians, the Spyrals (who have a new tape reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun, and these guys, Carlton Melton, not a person, but a quartet, who conjure up epic stretches of spaced out psychedelia, and who, unlike many of their contemporaries, seem to be less concerned with the pulse, and the rhythm, and the groove, as they are with the SOUND, and the VIBE, weaving lush, expansive sprawls of effects drenched psychedelic ambience, drifting more often than driving, huge clouds of swirling wah guitars, and minimal spare drumming, which seems to exist more as a pulse, than a beat proper, everything murky and muddy and washed out, at once lo-fi, but impossibly dense and heavy, the band seeming to drift weightless though swirling starlit sonic skies, their sound loose and free and abstract and ephemeral, the whole first side here is a single track, the title track, and it's a fantastically entrancing space drone epic, a sound the drifts and buzzes and flutters and swirls, the sound emerging in swells, building into squalls of warm whirling chaos only to slip back into something more druggy and dreamy and meditative, it's not until the final couple minutes that the song finally explodes, and even then it doesn't really get heavier, the rhythm doesn't get any more intense, instead, it just sounds like the whole band crank it up a notch, the swirling clouds of effects and guitars suddenly become more volatile, and more chaotic, the melodies gradually swallowed up by slashes of distorted guitar crunch and crumbling walls of distortion, the sound gets more dense, and more thick, and the whole time the main groove, now buried beneath the roiling surface, continues on unwavering, the only thing keeping the track from drifting into the heavens and toward the heart of the sun.
The flipside is more of the glorious same, barring a brief bit of solo guitar, an interlude that is bookended by two more heaving walls of krautpsych swirl, the band unfurling droned out minimal hypnorock mini epics, that howl and thrum, buzz and shimmer, songs that obviously could have been stretched way out and turned this into a double lp.
As always, fantastic stuff. Fans of the SF psych/space/drone/kraut rock contingent that aren't already into CM, get with it! And obviously, anyone into White Hills, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Cave, The Heads, Heavy Winged, Bardo Pond, White Noise Sound, Spacemen 3 and the like, these guys will definitely hit the spot.
MPEG Stream: "Country Ways"
MPEG Stream: "Full Moon Revisited"
MPEG Stream: "Harrington Fair"

CARLTON MELTON Handling Snakes (Valley King) 7" 8.98
One of two brand new Carlton Melton releases this list, the other being their strange and culty split with Qumran Orphics. This one an amazing 7" on a cool brand new deluxe 7" label, Valley King (we also have a new Sweet Apple 7" on the same label to be reviewed later). Housed in a mini-gatefold sleeve with insert and sticker, with gorgeous artwork by Alan Fobres who also did Carlton Melton's Pass It On LP as well as their split with Empty Shapes.
"Handling Snakes" is a jolt of heavy hypno-blues a la Wooden Shjips but even heavier with wailing riffs and pummeling drums. The B side, "The One That Got Away", is more majestic and broodingly heavy with searing and weaving guitar lines and molten textures.
It's over before you know it, but it's just long enough to hit the spot. Limited to 500 copies. Grab this taste of radness while you can!

CARLTON MELTON Live In Point Arena, CA (self-released) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If you got the chance to record and play music in a Geodesic Dome off the coast of Northern California, wouldn't you form a band just for the occasion? Well that's the modus operandi of this strangely monikered band made up of former members of Zen Guerilla and friends, who ventured up to Point Arena (an area rife with Utopian minded dwellings including the Sea Ranch) for this once in a lifetime opportunity. But don't expect this to sound like Zen Guerilla's trashy MC5-inspired garage R&B, instead Carlton Melton experiment with a sound more sonically befitting to the dome's acoustic resonance, Space Rock! Equally krauty, droney, and at times cosmically ramshackle, Carlton Melton channel White Hills, Wooden Shjips, Cave, bits of Kinski, Steve Hillage, and of course the less proto-metal leanings of Hawkwind with dual guitars, bass and organ hypnotically riffing through the domed stratosphere. Trippy and Limited!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Happy Song"
MPEG Stream: "Fucking Funky Shit"
MPEG Stream: "Legion of Dome"

CARLTON MELTON Pass It On (Agitated) cd 14.98
Finally available on cd, with 3 bonus tracks, two of them previously unreleased - over 30 additional minutes of material!!!
The field of psychedelic hypno-drone rock in San Francisco keeps getting wider, and more amazing. Along with Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun and The Lumerians comes the slow growth space rock of Carlton Melton. We raved about their first self-released cd-r, Live at Point Arena, CA recorded in a genuine geodesic dome (sadly out of print now, but one of the bonus tracks comes from this disc!) and we're psyched that they have returned with a follow-up! While the first cd-r had a more rough around the edges shambling momentum to it (after all, the band had pretty much formed just to record in the dome!), Pass It On has a more penetrating and focused feel. Recording in the dome once again, the songs have the slow motion but still very heavy vibrations of White Hills, Moon Duo, Hawkwind and Pink Floyd. In fact, the album begins with a heavy cover version of Pink Floyd's "When You're In" from Obscured By Clouds, which builds with intensity setting up the stoned pillowy cushion freefall of follow-up track "Found Children". "Off The Grid" takes a more divergent path through the woods with freaked out tribal rhythms and strange loping pulsations and alien guitar swells. Side two begins with a reworking of a track from the Point Arena cd-r called "Fucking Funky Shit" now renamed "Digging In" that utilizes its bass and drum rhythmic foundation as a means for the guitars and organ to arc off into the stratosphere before descending into the final track "Sequoia", which burrows deep into the earth with a smoldering drone that leaves us, for the lack of a better analogy, cosmically wasted.
The two unreleased tracks, "Drizzle" and "Star of Hazel" are both slow motion epics. "Drizzle" is softer and prettier, more free-floating and cosmic, gently lilting and soaring. While "Star of Hazel" is more doomy, and heavy, drawing out its long repetitive riffs over burning simmering drones. Sandwiched in between the two tracks is the sweaty hypnotic ramshackle of "Against The Wall" from their first cd-r, that give off a glimpse of the sonic pummel of their live shows. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "When You're In"
MPEG Stream: "Diggin In (F.F Shite)"
MPEG Stream: "Against The Wall (Dome MIx)"
MPEG Stream: "Star of Hazel"

CARLTON MELTON Pass It On (Mid-to-Late Records) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The field of psychedelic hypnno-drone rock in San Francisco keeps getting wider, and more amazing. Along with Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun and The Lumerians comes the slow growth space rock of Carlton Melton. We raved about their first self-released cd-r, Live at Point Arena, CA recorded in a genuine geodesic dome, and we're psyched that they have returned with a vinyl only follow-up! While the first cd-r had a more rough around the edges shambling momentum to it (after all, the band had pretty much formed just to record in the dome!), Pass It On has a more penetrating and focused feel. Recording in the dome once again, the songs have the slow motion but still very heavy vibrations of White Hills, Moon Duo, Hawkwind and Pink Floyd. In fact, the album begins with a heavy cover version of Pink Floyd's "When You're In" from Obscured By Clouds, which builds with intensity setting up the stoned pillowy cushion freefall of follow-up track "Found Children". "Off The Grid" takes a more divergent path through the woods with freaked out tribal rhythms and strange loping pulsations and alien guitar swells. Side two begins with a reworking of a track from the Point Arena cd-r called "Fucking Funky Shit" now renamed "Digging In" that utilizes its bass and drum rhythmic foundation as a means for the guitars and organ to arc off into the stratosphere before descending into the final track "Sequoia", which burrows deep into the earth with a smouldering drone that leaves us, for the lack of a better analogy, cosmically wasted. On redwood colored vinyl. Recommended!

CARLTON MELTON / EMPTY SHAPES split (Mid-To -Late Records) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We sold tons of the last Carlton Melton full length, Pass It On. In fact we even sold a copy to J. Mascis who made it his top favorite record of 2009. No small feat, there! So the dudes are on a roll, and just before their first big tour, they release this awesome split with the equally heavy Empty Shapes from Delaware.
The Carlton Melton side is two tracks. The first, "Call and Response" is nearly side-loooong and begins with a heavy rumble of monolithic sludge eventually progressing into a slow wave of burnt-out blues riffage a la early Comets on Fire, that churns and steeps into a gnarly brew of molten fuzz. The closer, "Purer", is more cosmic and dreamy, built on a layer of percolating synth drones that give way to a more uplifting space rock jam trajectory.
This is the first we've heard from Empty Shapes, a 5 piece from Delaware, who contribute 3 tracks to their side. The first, "MLK" is a sprawling cloud of noise a la Bardo Pond, levitating around a repeating head-nodding riff with all kinds of instrumentation stretching the form and shape of the murky haze. "Hell of a Night" and "Lord" bring vocal elements into the works, but heavily effected and damaged, sometimes emotive yet incomprehensible channeling a primitive psych-blues through some New Zealandish free-rock space clutter!
Limited to just 300 on brown and white swirled vinyl! Dope!

CARLTON MELTON / MUGSTAR Company / Black Fountain (Trensmat) 7" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've said it before, and we'll say it again, sometimes it feels like some records were just made specifically for aQ. And this is one of em. So thanks Trensmat, for picking two of our favorite bands, and putting them together on one record, with exclusive (and killer) tracks from both. SF's very own Carlton Melton, offer up a gorgeous bit of thick psychedelic haze called "Company", a serious slow burner, and maybe one of their heaviest yet, a simple stripped down beat anchoring thick undulating layers of blurred guitar buzz, shot through with warm spidery melodies, a brooding chunk of pulsing hypnotic sonic mesmer with a seriously blown out heavy heavy explosive finish. Be sure to download the bonus material (the link's on the sleeve) to get the epic nearly 12 minute long version, which is how this was meant to be heard, sprawling and druggy and EPIC. Too short for us even at twelve minutes. Also with the bonus download you get another track, "Death Whisper", which is another murky brooder, a hazy minimal lo-fi raga, which lopes and lumbers dreamily through fields of buzz and static and dreamy chordal swirl.
Former aQ Record Of The Week-ers Mugstar offer up another fantastically epic psychedelic space jam, thick driving buzzing bassline, dense busy drumming, shimmery guitar jangle, churning moody riffage, a sinisterly slow build, that manages to grow more tense and ominous and intense, without ever actually getting louder or exploding into a crashing cacophonous climax, instead, weaving a dense sprawl of churning psychedelic krautrock-style hypnorock that almost sounds like a more muscly Circle. And with the bonus download, you get a second track, the hushed minimal "Never (Part 1)", which is all sun dappled and dreamy, hushed and hazy, all soft swirls, skittery rhythms, whirring organs, definitely shades of Spacemen 3 or Loop, a sort of druggy blissed out spacepsych drift. So great.
Nice full color sleeves, and as mentioned above, a download with tons of bonus material, SUPER LIMITED of course. Already sold out at the label, which means these are the last copies we'll ever be able to get.
MPEG Stream: CARLTON MELTON "Company"
MPEG Stream: MUGSTAR "Black Fountain"

CARLTON MELTON / QUMRAN ORPHICS Split (Mid-To-Late Records) lp 14.98
Brand new split of heavy freakiness from one of our favorite local bands Carlton Melton teamed up here with new-to-us bizarre shamanistic cult collective Qumran Orphics.
The Melton side is two 10 minutes slabs, the first, "March Of The Cicadas", sounds exactly like the title implies, a slowmotion dirge over martial rhythms with buzzing electronic hisses and stratospheric guitar leads. The closer, "Murder Ridge" is a noirish Bardo Pond-like spiral of burning sonic embers and sustained decay.
The Qumran Orphics side is a stranger beast altogether. Recorded from a live set at the Blank Club in San Jose, Qumran Orphics is led by KFJC DJ Cy Thoth (host of the show Firebunker, that plays lots of our favorite metal and experimental sounds), backed by an array of simmering guitars and shifting droning electronics. Like a strange and unfurling Crowleian ritual, Cy Thoth croakingly intones bizarre utterances one might hear in an H.P. Lovecraft story. It's a wild and charged performance. Not sure where this project will go next, all info on the group is rather scant or cryptic, but we're definitely curious!
Super limited to 259 copies, pressed on smoked wood and blood colored swirl vinyl. These probably won't last long....

CARNACKI, THOMAS Far Voyage From A Placid Island (Alethiometer) cd 11.98
Thomas Carnacki is the pseudonym of Berkeley's Gregory Scharpen who can be found lurking around the theater departments of various troupes as a sound designer and creative foil. On occasion, he's also been a member of the live ensemble for irr. app. (ext.) and has even taken the stage during a couple of Nurse With Wound gigs. Far Voyage From A Placid Island collects four of the compositions that Scharpen has created for stage in collaboration with a handful of eccentric Bay Area musicians. The first piece finds Scharpen working with Jesse Quattro for massing of breathy aerations, deep bellowings, and subterranean creakings above a sustained dark timbral hum. At first this piece has all of the acoustic richness of the brilliant Andrew Chalk / Jonathan Coleclough record Sumac bundled with horror film grimness and hymnal vocals from Quattro swathed in reverb. Scharpen's collaboration with Jesse Burson (who is the dapper gentleman from Big City Orchestra) is a much more cacophonous affair collaged from slurps and creaks that sounds like a sucking chest would above chiming bells and shards of glass. Jon Brumit (who you may remember from his exceptional album of recordings from things found at the SF landfill) and Scharpen bring crackling vinyl from 78s (you know how much we LOVE that!!!) to wintery ambience and eerie blurts from distant horns. The final track is a solo work, again featuring that unnerving horn sounds in the distance with cyclical metallic drones that bring Nurse With Wound's Homotopy To Marie to mind; a more accurate comparison would be Metgumbnerbone, but who the hell has heard of them? Very well done indeed!
MPEG Stream: "Polyp Ride Pt 2"
MPEG Stream: "Leaning Under A New Car"

CARNACKI, THOMAS No Reserve (Petit Mal) 3"cd-r 5.98
No Reserve is a limited run release of a radio broadcast care of KALX in Berkeley from the eccentric Thomas Carnacki, whose ooze-riddled sound collages are buttressed by the likes of Gregory Hagan (Common Eider King Eider), Jim Kaiser (NFOrchest, etc.), and Jesse Burson (Big City Orchestra). Carnacki's live performances are notoriously last-minute affairs with the ringmaster collecting his resourceful motley crew of sullen noise makers a few days before any given performance, almost always resulting in spontaneous madness of illogical sounds and colliding electro-acoustics. Strangely, the gigs almost always work wonderfully, and such is the case for this KALX transmission.
At the onset, the quartet finds themselves in a claustrophobic space, with metallic exhalations and looping scrapes reflecting all of the optimism of a bombed-out bunker. Gritty pulsations of electronics build out of residual drones, oscillating two and fro, with a thick clatter of that bunker-powered reverb settling at the bottom of the layering of sounds. Hagan's violin, which adds to those sadder-than-sad moods to Common Eider King Eider, creeps to the foreground at various intervals, amidst the cooing electronics, the crumblings of sand, rock, and debris, and the funereal tolls from a resonant bell. Think early HNAS, Cranioclast, and Nurse With Wound, and you'll be close to the unsettled atmospherics of Mr. Carnacki and his so-called Anti-Memorial Orchestra and Choir.
MPEG Stream: "No Reserve (extract 1)"
MPEG Stream: "No Reserve (extract 2)"

CARNACKI, THOMAS Oar Of Panmuphle (Alethiometer Records) cd 11.98
As described by the eloquent Thomas Carnacki, Oar Of Panmuphle is the 'long-threatened' full album for Mr. Carnacki - the pseudonym of sound designer and audio wrangler Gregory Scharpen who has worked with the likes of irr. app. (ext.) and Nurse With Wound for both projects' live presentations. Not surprisingly, his sensibility of off-kilter collage-based composition is not too far from either irr. app. (ext.) or NWW; but after a couple of teasing short-program discs, it's quite nice to witness a fully formed Carnacki presenting slow-motion, carnivalesque incantations of ectoplasmic horror spiced up with a few strange interludes of comedic appropriation. Clattering machines glide into a murky cut-up of organ-grinding Victoriana muffled by plenty of reverb and shadow to begin the album, leading into a similarly saturated loop from a Screaming Jay Hawkins track, with disembodied whispers, slapstick sound effects, and mechanical howls bounding maniacally alongside the purloined rhythm. With the wind-up springs and wooden percolation of noises on "Bedtime Story For The Most Fragrant Room In The Ward," Carnacki sets a perfectly spooky mood of mechanical toys coming to life and setting forth on an evil plot to revolt against their human creators, before snapping to another lifted sound segment - this time from Jon Ronson talking about his journalistic investigations into psychic assassins. The rest of the album drifts eerily with shapeless clouds of darkened thought with flourishes that hint at a hauntological semi-musicality but always slanted toward the odd and the surreal. Fans of Andrew Liles, irr. app. (ext.), and Nurse With Wound would be well served to check this album out.
MPEG Stream: "Death Dance Of The Ant Queen"
MPEG Stream: "Bedtime Story For The Most Fragrant Room"
MPEG Stream: "Wappinger Rises!"

CARNACKI, THOMAS The Disappearance Of This Terrible Spool (Alethiometer) cd ep 6.98
Greg Scharpen is an artist who's never without a project at hand. While the bulk of his artistic career has been spent in the sound design realm of East Bay theater and dance troupes, he also dons the Thomas Carnacki pseudonym to conduct various exercises in audio surrealism. Over the years, Scharpen has been a noted contributor to the irr.app.(ext.) live presentations and has even made appearances in the Nurse With Wound's rotating cast. These two figureheads of paratactic collage and bizarro-world atmospherics loom large in the audio vocabulary of Mr. Scharpen, and that of course is a very good thing! The Disappearance Of This Terrible Spool is just the second release by Carnacki / Scharpen, following the 2006 album Far Voyage From A Placid Island. Thus it begins with deep swells of thick reverberations that ascend towards a clatter of indeterminant gizmos, only to collapse into a maudlin half-melody of vibrato drone and lost-at-sea undulation. Think Nurse With Wound circa Shipwreck Radio, and you would not be all that far off. The somber tone of this first track continues through the second, due in part to the central role of a mournful violin performed by Gregory Hagan also of Common Eider, King Eider. The final two tracks embrace the disjointed, disembodied, discombobulated cut-n-paste collage techniques with spluttering electronics and truncated gaspings for air - again NWW, irr.app.(ext.) or HNAS comes to mind. A tad brief at 24 minutes, but not a minute is wasted within!
MPEG Stream: "The Angela Carter Museum"
MPEG Stream: "The Fall Of Wappinger"
MPEG Stream: "Gansevoort Two-Step"

CARNAL FORGE Firedemon (Century Media) cd 12.98
Blazing fast, super melodic swedish death metal, ala In flames/At the Gates.

CARNEY, RALPH I Like You (A Lot) (Akron Cracker) cd 13.98

CARNEY, RALPH This is! (BlackBeauty) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Welcome to the wonderfully eccentric world of SF's Ralph Carney - such an amazingly skilled musician able to jump genres and instruments at the witty wink of an eye and blends them together at whim. He's worked with an astounding array of artists, some of which include Tom Waits, Marc Ribot, the B52's, Bill Laswell, and William Burroughs. Plus, if you were one of the many who packed into AQ a few months ago to catch the Jonathan Richman in-store you would've also been entertained by Carney's accompaniment. Carney's music is as far from run-of-the mill as you can get, and his oft-bizarre aural trips might not be for everyone. Some might even find it all to be a bit overwhelming and disorienting at first, but that's the splendor of his work. He's so adept at completely transporting the listener to... somewhere else! You're never quite sure where he's led you nor where you're off to next! The record label makes reference to Roland Kirk and Capt. Beefheart and these are certainly right on the mark, but we'd also add the Residents, the Lonesome Organist and the criminally unsung, fellow-SF genius Graham Connah to the list of those dextrously imaginative akin. Just nine seconds shy of a full hour.
MPEG Stream: "Man Don't Come"
MPEG Stream: "Heckraiser"

CARNEYBALL JOHNSON s/t (Akron Cracker) cd 11.98
You might say that the illustrious, seemingly tireless Ralph Carney is sorta the musical equivalent of a colorful traveling circus... uh, carney! Such a remarkably chameleon-like multi-instrumentalist / entertainer both on his own in the spotlight and in collaboration or support of others (Tom Waits, Jonathan Richman, B-52s, Marc Ribot, Beth Custer, Bill Laswell, Tipsy, Victoria Williams, Drizzoletto, Jim White, and Oranj Symphonette, to name just a few of the folks he's played with over the years)! Ever on the go, you just never know what he's gonna pull out of his hat or his bag of tricks or his magical wardrobe next. But you can pretty much bet that it'll be a little (or maybe more than a little) bit tweaked with an unorthodox yet seamless blend of styles (Dixieland, prog, bluegrass, lounge, pop or any fashion of jazz -- you name it!), and that the chops (musical that is, not his mutton chop sideburns!) will be bulletproof. Such is the case with this, the debut cd by his latest mostly instrumental project he formed with Kimo Ball, Scott Johnson and Allen Whitman (fyi: they also released a live cd-r last year which we also have in stock). Their horns, woodwinds, guitars, piano, percussion and sporadic vocals come together, become pals and have a rollicking coloring fest, shading both neatly inside and more rambunctiously outside of each track's lines. For a particular highlight, check out the third number "Interstellar Low-ways / Watusa". Great stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Interstellar Low-ways / Watusa"
MPEG Stream: "(off)White Room"

CARNIVAL IN COAL Fear Not (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98
If you always buy the weirdest, most fucked stuff that we recommend on our lists, then doubtless you already have Carnival In Coal's previous disc in your collection, the absurd/astounding "French Cancan". That's the mostly-all-covers disc on which this ridiculous yet brilliant French electronic/metal band turned Pantera into lounge music and "Baker Street" into black metal! This new CiC album is equally fucked, but dispenses with covers in favor of their original compositions. Blending death metal, disco, electronics, and more into a chunky, surreal stew, "Fear Not" sounds like a cross between Rammstein and Mr. Bungle. We repeat: Mr. Bungle. There's lots of faux-Patton crooning on here. For some, a recommendation, for others, a warning!
RealAudio clip: "Yes! We Have No Bananas"

CARNIVAL IN COAL French Cancan (Kodiak/Season of Mist) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
To say this record is the most amazing thing I have ever heard wouldn't be all that far from the mark. But at the same time it would be fairly accurate to say that this record is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard.
This French duo is definitely metal, definitely on the black side of metal; raspy evil vocals, crazy leads, pounding programmed drums, but with healthy doses of electronics, crazy sound effects, some bizarre lounge style vocals, and some truly questionable cover songs. The record starts off with a fairly straight cover of Ozzy's 'Bark at the Moon', albeit with weird electronic warbles and silly over the top vocals. But then it gets really weird. They tackle the eighties classic 'Maniac' (the theme from Flashdance) and it's nothing short of baffling. So baffling in fact, that I can't even explain it. Then comes a cover of the fm radio classic 'Baker Street' by Gerry Rafferty, the infamous sax melody played by blazing electric guitars. So stupid , but so so great. Seriously. And to finish it all up, they do a truly inspired version of Pantera's 'Fucking Hostile', Phil Anselmo's shouted '1,2,3,4,' segues into a calypso cabaret that has to be heard to be believed, with a lisping chorus '....definitlely hostile...'. Andee recommends this. Above all other things on this weeks list. Everytime we play this in the store, someone laughs hysterically, someone looks perplexed, and someone buys it. You could be one of those people. Or probably all of those people.
Buy it.

CARNIVAL OF SOULS Original Soundtrack (Birdman) cd 13.98
This one's a long time fave! Gene Moore's creepy organ soundtrack of eerily offkey, slowed down carnival music for this low-budget 1962 cult classic by producer/director Herk Hervey set a lot of standards for the use of these sounds in future horror films. According to the liner notes by screenwriter John Clifford, the idea was for the music to take up as much of the soundtrack as possible, in order to save money on having actors read lines! So it's close to being a silent film, with the organ music music actually being integral to the plot of the film, which involves a talented young female organist, um, haunted by her involvement in a car accident. The music perfectly complements the film's striking black & white visual imagery, the hordes of dancing ghouls that increasingly inhabit her waking nightmare world... it's like she's lost in her very own, very goth, Day Of The Dead celebration. This soundtrack reissue consists of 37 tracks over 49 minutes, including some snippets of the film dialog, given titles like "First Trip To The Carnival", "You Can't Live In Isolation", "Church Is Just A Place Of Business", "Dark Entry", etc... 4 of 'em are cues that were actually unused in the film, and all were apparently sourced from slightly scratchy old acetates, which just gives this even more creepy atmosphere.
MPEG Stream: "Introduction"
MPEG Stream: "Departure"
MPEG Stream: "First Trip To The Carnival"
MPEG Stream: "Church Is Just A Place Of Business"

CAROL OF HARVEST s/t (Second Battle) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
German progressive folk-psych with female vocals from 1978, originally a private press rarity now reissued on cd with some bonus live tracks (including a song called "Sweet Heroin", not too pastoral that).
RealAudio clip: "You and Me"

CAROLINE K Now Wait For Last Year (Klanggalerie) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In 1979, Nigel Ayers and Caroline K began recording as Nocturnal Emissions, a project then that was spurned by the nascent Industrial Culture of Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, and SPK. Their early recordings - Tissue Of Lies and Drowning In A Sea Of Bliss especially - are classic recordings of information overload aesthetics through abrasive drum machines, electronic noise, tape psychosis, and aggressive sequencing. At the same time, the two began Sterile Records as a means to put out their own recordings and those of likeminded malcontents (i.e. Lustmord, MB, Controlled Bleeding, Konstruktivits, etc.). By the early '90s, Caroline left Nocturnal Emissions to Ayers and disappeared from the public eye; but she did manage one solo record in Now Wait For Last Year.
By the time that Caroline recorded this album, Nocturnal Emissions had grown disenchanted with Industrial Culture, especially all of the blood and horror from the requisite medical imagery that went hand in hand with the punishing electronics. At the same time, Sterile Records had transformed into Earthly Delights promoting an agenda of post-Eno driftscaping. Now Wait For Last Year was actually the first lp to land on Earthly Delights, standing as a fantastic and underappreciated swath of industrially tainted ambience.
Sodden loops of melancholic dronings open the album which all spiral into a 20 minute mantra of murky haze reminiscent of some of the Zoviet France recordings from around the same time period (Mohnomische, in particular), furthered along by a lurching set of mechanical rhythms buried deep in the background. This is followed by a nocturne synthesized from medieval chants and percussion not unlike, the earliest Dead Can Dance or the Fairlight driven works of Coil. The dirge-paced synth number Chearth is more in keeping with John Carpenter score (although certainly less bombastic). Klanggalerie had acquired three bonus tracks from Caroline's estate (she died in 2008), featuring her in more of a Suspiria meets Richard Pinhas vein of mood engineering.
MPEG Stream: "The Happening World"
MPEG Stream: "Tracking With Close-Ups"
MPEG Stream: "Between The Spaces 2"

CAROLINER An 1800s Affectuant in 'An Instrumental Revue' cd-r 5.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CAROLINER An 1800s Affectuant In An Instrumental Revue (Dolor Del Estamago) cd-r 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CAROLINER Rings On The Awkward Shadow - Sides 3 & 4 (Dolor Del Estamago) cd-r 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CAROLINER Toodoos (self-released) cd-r 11.98
A brand new cd-r version of the 1999 lp from these demented SF old timey, dayglo, detuned, industrial post bluegrass weirdos...
MPEG Stream: "Side One"
MPEG Stream: "Side Two"

CAROLINER Wine Can't Do It, Wife Won't Do 2lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CAROLINER RAINBOW FINGERS OF THE UNDERGROUND & THEIR BREAKABLE BONES The Sabre Waving Saracen Wall (self-released) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There was a time a few years back, that if you lived in San Francisco, you could stumble into a bar, or a club, and find yourself transported to some fucked up and freaked out otherworld, an eye popping blacklight, dayglo world of huge cardboard buildings, and weird costumed, big headed characters, a musical world, set to the strains of some sort of demented detuned, industrial post bluegrass, a noise drenched 1800's hoedown, all detuned banjos, screeching violins, wheezing organs, scattered percussive splatter, little bursts of frantic bluegrass with twisted falsetto vocals, set amidst, thick streaks of undulating drones, and shards of crumbling noise, it was a bit like a stage production of Oklahoma, as performed by members of Faxed Head, stumbling and demented and confusional, a massive crumbling sprawl of sonic whatthefuck for sure.
In keeping with their confusional / obscurist approach, Caroliner took on a different name for every record. The Sabre Waving Saracen Wall originally released on vinyl in 1992, found the band christened Caroliner Rainbow Fingers Of The Underground & Their Breakable Bones, and was yet another document of the group's fractured faux historical sonic explorations, equal parts avant rock prankery, pure demented songsmithery, and an unhealthy interest in musics of the past, not to mention a visual aesthetic that fell somewhere between special ed kindergarten and drug addled Keith Haring, all blobby shapes and retina burning patterns, geometric constructions, and of course gallons of dayglo paint. The perfect backdrop for the group's unhinged pageantry. On record, it plays out like some unearthed wax cylinder, a recording of some sort of educational radio play, about the old west, but translated into some alien language, the soundtrack a demented deconstructed noise drenched country / folk, complete with random sound effects, strange voices, and what sounds like a small chamber ensemble wrestling with a bluegrass band, as the various players begin to lose brain function, resulting in a gloriously stumbling, lurching soundtrack, that starts out weird, and only manages to get weirder.
Not sure why suddenly this reissue popped up, but Grux from Caroliner just popped in with a stack, packaged in that distinctly Caroliner fashion, all strange folded multi color papers, glued and photocopied, the sort of packaging that once you open, you can never reassemble, which when you think about it, suits the group's sound to a 'T'. Not necessarily limited, but they are pretty fancy and handmade, so when we run out, it might take us a little while to get more...
RealAudio clip: "Side 1"
MPEG Stream: "Side 2"

CAROLINER RAINBOW OPEN WOUND CHORALE Rise of the Common Woodpile cd 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CAROUSELL (RICHARD SKELTON) Black Swallow & Other Songs (Digitalis) lp 19.98
Originally released in a run of just 100 copies, Black Swallow & Other Songs is yet another gorgeous bit of minimal abstract ambient folk experimentation from this prolific musician. We've reviewed several of his releases under the name A Broken Consort, as well as his fantastic Landings record on Type, but that's only the tip of the iceberg, an iceberg consisting of multiple releases, all amazing, meticulously composed, recorded and packaged, each a musical love letter to his wife who passed away in 2004, thus each recording, besides being sonically compelling, carries serious emotional weight, emotion and energy that seeps into the sounds, only making them sound that much more personal and intense.
Black Swallow & Other Songs is a songsuite of dark wistful dronefolk, all spidery tendrils of melancholy melody and the droning buzz of violins and other bowed instruments. Long stretches of muted buzz underpin spaced out slow motion ragas, the vibe darkly contemplative, the arrangements spacious and spare. Lush garlands of dark hues piano are draped over haunting metallic shimmer, female voices surface here and there. The guitars are introspective and plaintive, mediations on loss and loneliness, miniature soundtracks to lives and loves gone but not forgotten. The sound evokes grey skies, wide expanses of rolling hills, skeletal branches on trees having shed all their leaves, a wintery twilight, lit by flickering firelight, these sounds, warm and hopeful, holding off the chill and the ever encroaching darkness. So so lovely.
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!!

CARPATHIAN FOREST Defending The Throne Of Evil (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "It's Darker Than You Think"
MPEG Stream: "Put To Sleep Like A Sick Animal!!!"
MPEG Stream: "Christian Incoherent Drivel"

CARPATHIAN FOREST Morbid Fascination Of Death (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
Their first record in three years, Norwegians Carpathian Forest return with their dark and primitve 'Misanthropic Black Metal' but with some new twists. Their overall sound hasn't changed too much, a noisy thrash metal assault tempered with the primitve buzz of Darkthrone, and the simple black metal slop of Venom or Bathory. But Carpathian Forest have always managed to make simple sounds seem sinister and completely diabolical, and this time around it's no different. Buzzing and howling, galloping old school thrash, with occasional blast beats and dark ambient interludes -- and "MFoD" has some surprises too. The most interesting tracks here are the opening track 'Fever, Flames and Hell' which sounds like Immortal mixed with old Human League, growling vocal hiss over industrial military rhythms and belching super-distorted synthesisers, and the track 'Cold Comfort', a loping dreary gothic nightmarescape that features buried strings and saxophone!!
RealAudio clip: "Fever, Flames and Hell"
RealAudio clip: "Doomed To Walk The Earth As Slaves Of The Living Dead"
RealAudio clip: "Cold Comfort"

CARPATHIAN FOREST We're Going To Hollywood For This (MVD) dvd 23.00

CARPENBORG, STAFF AND THE ELECTRIC CORONA Fantastic Party (No Label) cd 21.00
All right, we'll admit that we were a bit doubtful about this at first, just from reading the hypesheet/liner notes, which claim, in part, that this is one of the "last great Kraut secrets" and because of its discovery, "the history of Krautrock has to be rewritten". And we're still not entirely sure if the person who wrote that was actually joking or not. But, while this is definitely not some undiscovered classic on the order of a Can, Faust or Neu! (or even the more obscure likes of Siloah, Kalacakra, Necronomicon, etc.) it IS pretty cool. And weird. Especially weird. Imagine Reynols or Yahowha 13 gone lounge, trying to entertain a bunch of jet-setters at some hip, swinging '60s party... It's called Fantastic Party after all and that's what it was meant as, a party record! Some cheesy German record label in 1970 put this together, presumably paying (with drugs?) a bunch of studio musicians to create a one-off psychedelic exploitation album by a nonexistent "band". A dime a dozen back then, maybe, but these guys really really went for it. It is pretty darn tripped out. Groovy but really off kilter and demented. Maybe we'd compare it to the children's songbook funk of Stark Reality, if you've heard the reissue of that. Or some totally dosed jazz combo doing porno music. Good times. Yup, it's got stinging fuzz guitar solos, flute warbling, hiccuping percussion, damaged "singing", bizarro titles... this has LSD written all over it. If you went to this "fantastic party" you'd know that Peter Fonda would be there for sure. And go-go dancers with dayglo body paint. And Timothy Leary, and midgets, and people who look like extras from a Terry Southern penned movie too.
A track from this appeared on the Kraut! Demons! Kraut compilation from a few years back, and if you have that, well rest assured, the entirety of this album is of the same high quality of fucked-upedness. So, true krautrock classic or not, we're glad it's been reissued, we're digging it! We only have to wonder, why did the reissuers hate the original cover so much that they felt the need to provide a new, totally ugly one?? Fortunately the LP's real (and actually quite rad, despite what they thought) cover is reproduced on the tray card, featuring a bevy of good-looking, polyester-clad partygoers truly having a FANTASTIC time.
MPEG Stream: "The Every Day's Way Down To The Suburbs"
MPEG Stream: "P.A.R.T.Y."
MPEG Stream: "Shummy Poor Clessford Idea In Troody Taprest Noodles"

CARPENBORG, STAFF AND THE ELECTRIC CORONA Fantastic Party (Wah Wah) lp 29.00
Now available on vinyl!
All right, we'll admit that we were a bit doubtful about this at first, just from reading the hypesheet/liner notes, which claim, in part, that this is one of the "last great Kraut secrets" and because of its discovery, "the history of Krautrock has to be rewritten". And we're still not entirely sure if the person who wrote that was actually joking or not. But, while this is definitely not some undiscovered classic on the order of a Can, Faust or Neu! (or even the more obscure likes of Siloah, Kalacakra, Necronomicon, etc.) it IS pretty cool. And weird. Especially weird. Imagine Reynols or Yahowha 13 gone lounge, trying to entertain a bunch of jet-setters at some hip, swinging '60s party... It's called Fantastic Party after all and that's what it was meant as, a party record! Some cheesy German record label in 1970 put this together, presumably paying (with drugs?) a bunch of studio musicians to create a one-off psychedelic exploitation album by a nonexistent "band". A dime a dozen back then, maybe, but these guys really really went for it. It is pretty darn tripped out. Groovy but really off kilter and demented. Maybe we'd compare it to the children's songbook funk of Stark Reality, if you've heard the reissue of that. Or some totally dosed jazz combo doing porno music. Good times. Yup, it's got stinging fuzz guitar solos, flute warbling, hiccuping percussion, damaged "singing", bizarro titles... this has LSD written all over it. If you went to this "fantastic party" you'd know that Peter Fonda would be there for sure. And go-go dancers with dayglo body paint. And Timothy Leary, and midgets, and people who look like extras from a Terry Southern penned movie too.
A track from this appeared on the Kraut! Demons! Kraut compilation from a few years back, and if you have that, well rest assured, the entirety of this album is of the same high quality of fucked-upedness. So, true krautrock classic or not, we're glad it's been reissued, we're digging it!
And, unlike the cd version, this retains the cool original cover art featuring a bevy of good-looking, polyester-clad partygoers truly having a FANTASTIC time.
MPEG Stream: "The Every Day's Way Down To The Suburbs"
MPEG Stream: "P.A.R.T.Y."
MPEG Stream: "Shummy Poor Clessford Idea In Troody Taprest Noodles"

CARPENTER, JOHN Escape From New York (OST) (Silva Screen) cd 16.98
Why are we making a soundtrack for a movie from 1983 starring Kurt Russell (who hams it up in a piratical eye-patch) our Record Of The Week, this week? Well, we've got a few reasons... first off, the music is awesome and we love it (good reason right there). Secondly, this cd has been out of print and hard to find for several years now, going for silly sums on eBay, sought after by soundtrack collectors and electronic music fans. When we heard that Silva Screen was finally going to reissue it, we started thinking Record Of The Week thoughts immediately... and now, after some further delay, here it is at last!
While director John Carpenter is known for making quite a few classic films in the B-grade horror and sci-fi thriller genres (Halloween, The Thing, Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog, They Live etc.), it's perhaps not as well known that he personally composed the soundtrack music to many of his movies, starting with his first flick Dark Star back in 1974. Working out of a home studio with what was technically advanced equipment at the time (machines which would now be considered awesomely vintage), he composed electronic music soundtracks that some might say are even better than the movies themselves. Certainly they're worthy to stand on their own, anyway (just like Goblin's soundtracks for Argento's films). Carpenter's compositions have influenced other musicians, and not just soundtrack writers. Anyone who loved the Zombi album we recommended last year needs to have some John Carpenter in their collection for sure!
And we recommend Escape From New York as being one of his best. Somehow it combines a lot of stuff that we figure a lot of you like: suspenseful Goblinesque darkness, droning old school synths, kitchy Disco Not Disco style NYC '80s groove... Loaded with claustrophobic nervous tension, these tracks make use of taut, minimalistic, hypnotically repetitive rhythms that make us imagine an Electro version of AQ faves Circle. The atmosphere is further enhanced by the inclusion of sound fx from the film and snippets of dialogue -- the tough guy banter of Kurt Russell's wiseass anti-hero "Snake" Plissken is priceless, especially due to Russell's constipated Clint Eastwood delivery.
Set in a dystopian, wartorn then-future of 1997, Escape From New York sends "Snake" into the maximum security prison that the island of Manhattan has become to rescue (at pain of death) the President of the United States, who is being held captive there by the city's "inmates" after Air Force One made a particularily poor choice of a place to crash-land! The film also stars the likes of Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, Donald Pleasence, and Isaac Hayes, all of 'em capable of chewing the scenery right along with Russell. You definitely don't need to have seen Escape From New York to get a kick out of this soundtrack, but the movie is an enjoyable '80s action thriller worthy of its cult status and listening to this will probably get you to go rent it.
Carpenter composed and performed the score in association with sound designer Alan Howarth, whose home studio (stocked with an ARP Quadra, an ARP Avatar with 16 step sequencer, a Prophet 5 programmable analog synthesizer, and a Linn LM-1 drum machine) was used for the recording. Howarth was further responsible for remixing and remastering the album for the release of this "expanded edition" which first appeared in 2000. It includes several cues originally meant for scenes deleted from the theatrical release of the film, and runs to over 57 minutes in length. 'Bout time it was back in circulation!
MPEG Stream: "The Bank Robbery"
MPEG Stream: "Descent Into New York"
MPEG Stream: "Over The Wall"

CARPENTER, JOHN Halloween (OST) (Varese Sarabande) cd 15.98
The 20th anniversary edition soundtrack. It certainly is pretty damn cool that two of the pioneers of horror films (John Carpeter and Dario Argento) scored their own films. The soundtrack for Halloween is a tense pulsing score of piano and synthesizers that comes off as an evil fusion between Terry Riley and Mike Oldfield. Lots of soundbites from the movie also make their way onto this CD as the remastering of the disc was probably done directly off of a print of the film.

CARPENTER, JOHN John Carpenter's The Fog: New Expanded Edition Original Film Soundtrack, Music Composed And Performed By John Carpenter (Silva Screen) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The super spooky soundtrack to this 1979 horror film, newly reissued, complete with bonus tracks (including a radio interview with star Jamie Lee Curtis done back in the day, that kinda spoils the mood at the end of the disc, but is pretty funny, like when she talks about looking for diversity in the roles she takes: like the difference between her characters in Halloween and The Fog!). Anyway, this is great creepy horror music, similar to Carpenter's classic score to Halloween. If he wasn't already a filmmaker it seems that he could have found success simply as a composer.

CARRIER Home Movies cd-r ep 5.98
Seven tracks of absolutely positively soothing music. Very pretty and a bit wistful; full of reverb drenched, lilting guitar arpeggios. 'Home Movies' could very well have been issued on Temporary Residence or Kranky. Hop aboard the ambient post-rock hovercraft and drift along to the sounds of Carrier.
RealAudio clip: "Sunday Afternoon @ 12 fps"
RealAudio clip: "Skyline"

CARRIER BAND, THE Automatic Inscription of Speech Melody (iea) cd 14.98
A Pauline Oliveros project, with Peter Bode and Andrew Deutsch. For this release, they've taken stuff from the technical notebooks of electronic instrument pioneer Harald Bode (Peter's dad?) and with the use of the Bode Vocoder have made his writing part of their improvised drone composition. Other elements include Harald's demo tapes, Oliveros' "Difference Box" device, and Deutsch's synthesizer.

CARRION, THE The Crime Of Idle Hands (McCarthyism / Epicene Sound Systems) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CARROLL, BARTON Love & War (Skybucket) cd 15.98
Barton Carroll might not be a household name, but he's certainly made his presence felt on numerous other artists' albums and live performances. He's not only the multi-instrumentalist for Crooked Fingers, but he's also shared the stage with the likes of Azure Ray, Micah P. Hinson and Dolorean (not the metal band, duh). Love & War is his second solo folk album. The simple white text on black background on the front cover reflects the music's dark starkness, while the splash of green foliage on the back cover photo hints at Carroll's well manicured earthiness. His evocative lyrics' subject matter focuses on war history and literary works. Hence, the album's dominant mood is decidedly somber, at times evoking an almost funereal tone. Includes a stirring cover of "The Dark End Of The Street".
MPEG Stream: "Small Thing"
MPEG Stream: "Dark End Of The Street"

CARROLL, CORKY & FRIENDS Laid Back (EM Records) cd 22.00
If you know who Corky Carroll is, it's 'cause chances are, you're into surfing. But besides being one of the top champion pro surfers of his era ('60s/early '70s), and in fact considered possibly the first ever professional surfer, he was also way into music. In 1971, at age 23, he released this album, his first of many, on a private label called Rural that he ran with Dennis Dragon (of the Dragons and later of the Surf Punks, and brother to Darryl, aka Captain of the Captain and Tennille). Corky and Dennis brought mobile recording gear with them to visit fellow surfers/musicians all along the California coast, that's where the "& Friends" comes in, as this, in addition to Corky's own guitar strum, features contributions from a variety of fine musicians, including some exquisite Hawaiian slack-key guitar picking by island-born board-crafter Raymond Patterson. Also appearing: Denny Aarberg (lead guitarist from the Santa Barbara hippy-surf band Farm, also later co-writer of the John Milius surf film Big Wednesday), David Lyons, Al Oakie, Kathy Dragon, and the members of the band Hana. All of these people were serious surfers like Corky, though the music they made doesn't sound like your typical "surf music" (though it is warm and beach-ily idyllic).
Mellow, folky, mostly acoustic, largely instrumental, a little bit bluesy in spots, of course this would get reissued by Japan's wonderful EM Records, who have previously brought us a bunch of "psychedelic surf" albums in the past, in their "EM Under Water Series", like the Farm's soundtrack to The Innermost Limits Of Pure Fun.
Certainly this is aptly titled, Laid Back, being so sunshiney and stoned, what what some folks here, who (ahem) know what they're talking about, would consider a perfect "wake 'n' bake" album, that you could file with David Crosby's If I Can Only Remember My Name ferinstance.
Anyone who liked the These Trails album Drag City recently reissued and wants another trip to the islands in their imagination, should check this out!
Packaged in the usual EM cardboard gatefold sleeve, the insert bearing interesting liner notes from Corky himself. Pricier vinyl version also available, fyi.
MPEG Stream: "Haleiwa"
MPEG Stream: "War"
MPEG Stream: "Merrit"
MPEG Stream: "Easy Ride"

CARROLL, CORKY & FRIENDS Laid Back (EM Records) lp 39.00
Now also here on vinyl! Japanese import, pricey but nice.
If you know who Corky Carroll is, it's 'cause chances are, you're into surfing. But besides being one of the top champion pro surfers of his era ('60s/early '70s), and in fact considered possibly the first ever professional surfer, he was also way into music. In 1971, at age 23, he released this album, his first of many, on a private label called Rural that he ran with Dennis Dragon (of the Dragons and later of the Surf Punks, and brother to Darryl, aka Captain of the Captain and Tennille). Corky and Dennis brought mobile recording gear with them to visit fellow surfers/musicians all along the California coast, that's where the "& Friends" comes in, as this, in addition to Corky's own guitar strum, features contributions from a variety of fine musicians, including some exquisite Hawaiian slack-key guitar picking by island-born board-crafter Raymond Patterson. Also appearing: Denny Aarberg (lead guitarist from the Santa Barbara hippy-surf band Farm, also later co-writer of the John Milius surf film Big Wednesday), David Lyons, Al Oakie, Kathy Dragon, and the members of the band Hana. All of these people were serious surfers like Corky, though the music they made doesn't sound like your typical "surf music" (though it is warm and beach-ily idyllic).
Mellow, folky, mostly acoustic, largely instrumental, a little bit bluesy in spots, of course this would get reissued by Japan's wonderful EM Records, who have previously brought us a bunch of "psychedelic surf" albums in the past, in their "EM Under Water Series", like the Farm's soundtrack to The Innermost Limits Of Pure Fun.
Certainly this is aptly titled, Laid Back, being so sunshiney and stoned, what what some folks here, who (ahem) know what they're talking about, would consider a perfect "wake 'n' bake" album, that you could file with David Crosby's If I Can Only Remember My Name ferinstance.
Anyone who liked the These Trails album Drag City recently reissued and wants another trip to the islands in their imagination, should check this out!
Packaged in the usual EM cardboard gatefold sleeve, the insert bearing interesting liner notes from Corky himself. Pricier vinyl version also available, fyi.
MPEG Stream: "Haleiwa"
MPEG Stream: "War"
MPEG Stream: "Merrit"
MPEG Stream: "Easy Ride"