V/A Skull Disco 2: Soundboy's Gravestone Gets Desecrated By Vandals (Skull Disco) 2cd 24.00
Skull Disco is dead. Hence this sonic gravestone, collecting a handful of the label's last few 12"s on one disc, and some remixes on the other. Definitely one of the most kick ass and ground breaking electronic labels of the last few years (certainly one of our favorites) Skull Disco took dubstep, minimal techno, and various other electronic offshoots and created their own incredibly distinct sound, murky and skittery, mysterious and otherworldly, with deep rumbling bass, skeletal rhythms, and the occasional vocal, usually some strange deep voice intoning rather than singing, making the sound even more ominous and harrowing. And while that sound is most definitely dubstep, as we mentioned in our review of the first collection, the sound is equally indebted to Muslimgauze, On-U-Sound and Spectre. Heck a few years ago, and Shackleton would probably have been putting out records on WordSound!
Shuffling abstract beats, rumbling bass, subtle shadings and effects, these are low slung late night grooves. More chillout than dancefloor, more dub really than dubstep. Some tracks get a little Kompakt, but even then, it's dialed WAY back, tinted windows, tinted shades, dark corner of the club, cruising moonlit streets, hanging out under bridges, gathered around flickering fires, this is brooding moody midnight shit. So good. Not sure what else to say, if you bought the other one (and if you didn't, why the heck not?!) you're need this one too, if you've been into all the dubstep we've been listing, you'll probably want this too, or if you're just looking for some killer dark anti-dance music, or some chill out bliss out drift off lullabies, then this will do the trick.
But wait! What about the second disc? All the remixes, some previously released, but others available for the first time. The Pole mix is a killer, and as unlikely as it may seem, it's LESS minimal than the original, the Rupture mix is cool too, but way too short at 2 minutes. Other remixers include T++. Geiomix, Brendan Moller, Bass Clef, Badawi and others, nothing too dramatic, just subtle variations on the original, the Badawi maybe being our favorite, looooong at 12+ minutes, and super spare, super dark, mostly drums, the sounds processed and effected, the whole thing even more dubbed out than the original!
Packaged in a super striking oversized mini gatefold lp style cd sleeve, with that immediately recognizable Skull Disco artwork.
MPEG Stream: SHACKLETON "The Rope Tightens"
MPEG Stream: PEVERELIST & APPLEBLIM "Over Here"
MPEG Stream: APPLEBLIM "Vansan"

V/A Skull Disco: Soundboy Punishments (Skull Disco) 2cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Dub is all about the bass. The darker and more cavernous the better. The more you feel it, the more your fillings rattle, the better. So it makes sense that the same would hold true for dubstep, but maybe to an even greater degree, as the sound of dubstep is even more spare and skeletal than dub, leaving nearly nothing except for the rhythm and the bass.
Soundboy Punishments collects the first 5 vinyl releases from UK label Skull Disco on cd for the first time, and while ostensibly this stuff is dubstep, it almost sounds more like Muslimgauze or old On-U sound stuff or even Spectre at times, but way more stripped down, way heavier, and with the sort of massive undulating bass that washes over everything like a thick black wave.
The first 5 12"s on Skull Disco, split pretty evenly between the artists Shackleton and Appleblim (with one track from Gatekeeper) are all epic slabs of blown out bass heavy skitter, with blurry distant synth and little Eastern flourishes, as well as the occasional dubbed out vocal, smeared into blurred ripples of reverb. Super abstract and minimal, hypnotic and groovy, the beats and shuffling and subtle, not the huge pounding of 'traditional' dubstep, or the manic grind of jungle, instead, the sound is laid waaaaaaay back. A sort of more modern digi-dub, varied percussion, tablas, hand drums, all woven into simple rhythmic frameworks, always with a rumbling low end pulse lurking right beneath the surface, until part way in, the bass DROPS, and suddenly everything has changed, what was a lazy lope is transformed into a throbbing lurch, a wall of gut churning low end, fuzzy and distorted and blown out, sounding almost like the hardest jungle track ever, slooooooooowed way down. The first disc is pretty blissed out, hard to imagine these tracks filling dancefloors, although they have been, it sounds more like music to get wasted, and sort of just lounge about, head nodding, the vibrations washing over you. With all the hype about this disc and these tracks, initially we were a bit let down, but gradually, this has grown on us like crazy to the point where we pretty much don't ever want to listen to anything else.
The second disc is where it gets weirder, and a bit harder, featuring unreleased cuts as well as non-Skull Disco tracks, including the long anticipated nearly twenty minute mix of Shackleton's "Blood On My Hands" by Ricardo Villalobos. Anyone who dug that last Villalobos disc, Fizheuer Zieheuer will definitely dig this. Simple shuffling and ultra minimal pulses, stretched out endlessly, so dark and hypnotic, with slow shifting synths in the background. Our only complaint are the vocals, a slowed down mysterious voice intoning apocryphal lyrics over almost the whole song, a la Spectre or the last Plastikman record, it's a little distracting, and we have to say we probably would have liked it without, but even so, it's beginning to growing on us too. The rest of the second disc is like a supercharged version of disc one, more synths, thicker bass, stranger arrangements and creepier melodies, a lot more like slowed down jungle, with heavy beats and reverb and delay everywhere, the more laid back abstract cuts definitely remind us of the Bush Chemists, a totally druggy and dreamy outerspace dub. So good. And based solely on how much this gets played in the shop, this just might be a brand new unanimous AQ fave.
Packaged in a cool, creepy black and white cardboard sleeve that looks way more metal that electronica...
WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: SHACKLETON "Blood On My Hands (R. Villalobos Apocalypso Now Mix)"
MPEG Stream: SHACKLETON "Stalker"
MPEG Stream: APPLEBLIM "Girder"

V/A Skull Disco: Soundboy Punishments (Skull Disco / Rough Trade) 2cd 22.00
Originally a pricey import, now available domestically WAY cheaper ($8 less!), one of our favorite recent collections of kick ass, bass heavy dubstep.
Dub is all about the bass. The darker and more cavernous the better. The more you feel it, the more your fillings rattle, the better. So it makes sense that the same would hold true for dubstep, but maybe to an even greater degree, as the sound of dubstep is even more spare and skeletal than dub, leaving nearly nothing except for the rhythm and the bass.
Soundboy Punishments collects the first 5 vinyl releases from UK label Skull Disco on cd for the first time, and while ostensibly this stuff is dubstep, it almost sounds more like Muslimgauze or old On-U sound stuff or even Spectre at times, but way more stripped down, way heavier, and with the sort of massive undulating bass that washes over everything like a thick black wave.
The first 5 12"s on Skull Disco, split pretty evenly between the artists Shackleton and Appleblim (with one track from Gatekeeper) are all epic slabs of blown out bass heavy skitter, with blurry distant synth and little Eastern flourishes, as well as the occasional dubbed out vocal, smeared into blurred ripples of reverb. Super abstract and minimal, hypnotic and groovy, the beats and shuffling and subtle, not the huge pounding of 'traditional' dubstep, or the manic grind of jungle, instead, the sound is laid waaaaaaay back. A sort of more modern digi-dub, varied percussion, tablas, hand drums, all woven into simple rhythmic frameworks, always with a rumbling low end pulse lurking right beneath the surface, until part way in, the bass DROPS, and suddenly everything has changed, what was a lazy lope is transformed into a throbbing lurch, a wall of gut churning low end, fuzzy and distorted and blown out, sounding almost like the hardest jungle track ever, slooooooooowed way down. The first disc is pretty blissed out, hard to imagine these tracks filling dancefloors, although they have been, it sounds more like music to get wasted, and sort of just lounge about, head nodding, the vibrations washing over you. With all the hype about this disc and these tracks, initially we were a bit let down, but gradually, this has grown on us like crazy to the point where we pretty much don't ever want to listen to anything else.
The second disc is where it gets weirder, and a bit harder, featuring unreleased cuts as well as non-Skull Disco tracks, including the long anticipated nearly twenty minute mix of Shackleton's "Blood On My Hands" by Ricardo Villalobos. Anyone who dug that last Villalobos disc, Fizheuer Zieheuer will definitely dig this. Simple shuffling and ultra minimal pulses, stretched out endlessly, so dark and hypnotic, with slow shifting synths in the background. Our only complaint are the vocals, a slowed down mysterious voice intoning apocryphal lyrics over almost the whole song, a la Spectre or the last Plastikman record, it's a little distracting, and we have to say we probably would have liked it without, but even so, it's beginning to growing on us too. The rest of the second disc is like a supercharged version of disc one, more synths, thicker bass, stranger arrangements and creepier melodies, a lot more like slowed down jungle, with heavy beats and reverb and delay everywhere, the more laid back abstract cuts definitely remind us of the Bush Chemists, a totally druggy and dreamy outerspace dub. So good. And based solely on how much this gets played in the shop, this just might be a brand new unanimous AQ fave.
Packaged in a cool, creepy black and white cardboard sleeve that looks way more metal that electronica...
WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: SHACKLETON "Blood On My Hands (R. Villalobos Apocalypso Now Mix)"
MPEG Stream: SHACKLETON "Stalker"
MPEG Stream: APPLEBLIM "Girder"

V/A Skulls Without Borders... V/A Sampler (Siltbreeze) 10" 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The home silkscreened sleeves make this 10" Siltbreeze sampler seem like it could have been just some old record discovered in a beat up cardboard box in the corner of some musty warehouse, the ink a little smeary, the sleeves a little rough around the edges, hand stamped, simple black on black skull cover, but have a peep at some of the names, Sic Alps, Kurt Vile, Dan Melchior... as well as some new to us outfits like Chickins, Tommy Jay Band and of course Puffy Areolas.
This is primo Siltbreeze lo-fi garage rock / sludge pop / whatever, from the super distorted garage murk of Dan Melchior, to the reverby stomp of Chickins, to the super distorted atonal stumbling groove of the Tommy Jay Band, to the surprisingly catchy lo-fi power pop of the Puffy Areolas, to the dreamy bedroom folk strum of Sic Alps, to the big classic rock via druggy garage pop blowout of Kurt Vile and his Violators, we're digging ALL of this. Big time.
What we're NOT digging though is the price, oof, but what can you do? It's probably crazy limited, 300 copies we think, we got all we could and that's not that many, plus they seem to have all been hand screened and stamped, and hell, the songs are pretty bad ass, and they're are all exclusive tracks as far as we can tell, so your call, for some folks, $25 won't be that steep a price to pay for these jams, and considering how fast these have been selling, you might not have to worry about that for long anyway...

V/A Skweee Cruise (Poisonous Gases) 2lp 23.00
Looks like, at least until folks run out of appropriate puns, we can count on more and more collections of skweee being released, thank god. We love the skeeee! It's a marvelous micro-genre that wouldn't exist without the '80s, video games, hip-hop, and the internet. Damaged, DIY retro-electro futurefunk that's spread from Scandinavia to a bevy of eccentric enthusiasts elsewhere across the globe, as this double lp Skweee Cruise proves. Released on the Poisonous Gases label from up in Portland, Oregon, who have previously brought us 7"s by such artists as skweee pro Daniel Savio and up-and-comer Lazercrotch.
We hope you're already as much into skweee as we are (a lot!). In which case, you will definitely want this exskweeellent comp. But it's not just for skweee obsessives like us, it'd be a good intro to skweee as well. From itchy, glitchy popping and locking grooves to moody synthscapes for sipping on gin and juice to some Middle Eastern exotica flavored cuts (a skweee sub-specialty), taking this cruise will help you get your "skweee-legs", that's for sure!
The eighteen new tracks spread across the four sides of this compilation include contributions from vets like Limonious, Daniel Savio, Joxaren, and Randy Barracuda (here under another moniker, The Golden Retrievers!). Plus there's plenty of funky folks fresh to us, including the first example of Japanese skweee of which we've heard (Shitaraba). The full line-up also includes: Coco Bryce, Easy & The Center Of The Universe, Razorsnatch, Boss Kite, Simple, Ben Butler & Mousepad, MO, Slow Hand Motem, mir, Michael Bruce, Wankers United, Hybakusha, and V.C. & Luc B.
Gatefold vinyl, LIMITED TO 300 COPIES ONLY!!!
MPEG Stream: EASY & THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE "Safwan The Crooner"
MPEG Stream: SHITARABA "Ochitsuke"
MPEG Stream: WANKERS UNITED "Bagels Of Love"

V/A Skweee Tooth (Ramp Recordings) cd 14.98
Pretty soon it won't be so skweeeasy to come up with good skweee-puns... As you may know, we definitely do have a sweet tooth (or, rather, ear) for skweee and thus are super stoked about this new compilation, which is totally in the tradition of the Museum Of Future Sound Vol. 1 and 2 comps we freaked out about last year and the year before... in fact, this may as well be Museum Of Future Sound Volume 3 (Volume Skweee?), 'cause the same Skweeedish, we mean Swedish label that brought us those, Flogsta Danshall, teamed up with the UK's Ramp Recordings to release this new collection, featuring tracks selected by Flogsta boss and skweee artist Pavan.
The vitality and variety of the cheeky skweee scene is certainly on display here. Some tracks are more dancey, some more minimal, some more chaotic. But it's all within the skweee realm of (mostly) instrumental, wacked out, synth damaged, chiptune-y, sometimes silly, glitchy grooves inspired by '80s electro, hiphop and video games. There's 13 cuts of that special Scandinavian DIY retrofuturefunk here, quite a few by names we already knew (Mesak, Liminous, Daniel Savio, Rigas Den Andre, Joraxen, Spartan Lover, Wankers United, Mrs. Queda) plus a few others we didn't (Beatbully, V.C., Easy & Center Of The Universe, Melkevlen, Slow Hand Motem). These skweee-boys bring it. Squelchy sizzly synths, 8-bit action, plenty of distortion, and fractured funk beats. It's the playfulness and fuckedupedness of skweee that made us love it so (plus that fact that the shit's so darn catchy), and you get plenty of all that on Skweee Tooth.
The compilation gets off to a surefire start with Easy & Center Of The Universe's cleverly titled "Legend Of Selda". Geddit, computer game geeks? That's right, the track takes the melody from a song we know we've heard before by '70s Turkish folkpsych singer Selda, one of the AQ crew's faves, and turns into skweee! ALL the tracks here are cool, though, ranging from the shuffle of "Frisco Bum" by Liminous, to the very video-gamey "Liikutuksla" by Mrs. Qeada, to "Distordelle", a thick, woozy one from Rigas Den Andre. One of the more manic, glitched out grooves is "Sex With A Woman" by Spartan Lover, with Joraxen's frantic "Fel I Facit" running a close second. Much moodier (skweee can be that too, actually) and more abstract is "Melkevlen" by Melkevlen Ft. Sagtann. And then at the very end of the disc, the crackly "Idea" by Slow Hand Motem surprises by including some mellow male vocals, alongside a synth lick that echoes the Middle Eastern psych element of Skweee Tooth's opening track. Heck we could go on about 'em all. There's never a dull moment, it's always wonderfully off-kilter, definitely fun stuff.
In a world where electronic music can sometimes take itself too seriously, all academic and IDM and Ars Electronica and everything, the unpretentious pun-loving skweee is a breath of fresh air, just what was skweeeded. More, please!
(And we promise, no puns next time, we couldn't possibly think of too many others anyway....ok one more: if one of these artists came over and did a tour of the States, we could say they were cross-country skweeeing!).
MPEG Stream: EASY & CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE "Legend Of Selda"
MPEG Stream: BEATBULLY "Rek Johnny Rek"
MPEG Stream: LIMINOUS "Frisco Bum"

V/A Skweee Tooth (Ramp Recordings) 2lp 25.00
Pretty soon it won't be so skweeeasy to come up with good skweee-puns... As you may know, we definitely do have a sweet tooth (or, rather, ear) for skweee and thus are super stoked about this new compilation, which is totally in the tradition of the Museum Of Future Sound Vol. 1 and 2 comps we freaked out about last year and the year before... in fact, this may as well be Museum Of Future Sound Volume 3 (Volume Skweee?), 'cause the same Skweeedish, we mean Swedish label that brought us those, Flogsta Danshall, teamed up with the UK's Ramp Recordings to release this new collection, featuring tracks selected by Flogsta boss and skweee artist Pavan.
The vitality and variety of the cheeky skweee scene is certainly on display here. Some tracks are more dancey, some more minimal, some more chaotic. But it's all within the skweee realm of (mostly) instrumental, wacked out, synth damaged, chiptune-y, sometimes silly, glitchy grooves inspired by '80s electro, hiphop and video games. There's 13 cuts of that special Scandinavian DIY retrofuturefunk here, quite a few by names we already knew (Mesak, Liminous, Daniel Savio, Rigas Den Andre, Joraxen, Spartan Lover, Wankers United, Mrs. Queda) plus a few others we didn't (Beatbully, V.C., Easy & Center Of The Universe, Melkevlen, Slow Hand Motem). These skweee-boys bring it. Squelchy sizzly synths, 8-bit action, plenty of distortion, and fractured funk beats. It's the playfulness and fuckedupedness of skweee that made us love it so (plus that fact that the shit's so darn catchy), and you get plenty of all that on Skweee Tooth.
The compilation gets off to a surefire start with Easy & Center Of The Universe's cleverly titled "Legend Of Selda". Geddit, computer game geeks? That's right, the track takes the melody from a song we know we've heard before by '70s Turkish folkpsych singer Selda, one of the AQ crew's faves, and turns into skweee! ALL the tracks here are cool, though, ranging from the shuffle of "Frisco Bum" by Liminous, to the very video-gamey "Liikutuksla" by Mrs. Qeada, to "Distordelle", a thick, woozy one from Rigas Den Andre. One of the more manic, glitched out grooves is "Sex With A Woman" by Spartan Lover, with Joraxen's frantic "Fel I Facit" running a close second. Much moodier (skweee can be that too, actually) and more abstract is "Melkevlen" by Melkevlen Ft. Sagtann. And then at the very end of the disc, the crackly "Idea" by Slow Hand Motem surprises by including some mellow male vocals, alongside a synth lick that echoes the Middle Eastern psych element of Skweee Tooth's opening track. Heck we could go on about 'em all. There's never a dull moment, it's always wonderfully off-kilter, definitely fun stuff.
In a world where electronic music can sometimes take itself too seriously, all academic and IDM and Ars Electronica and everything, the unpretentious pun-loving skweee is a breath of fresh air, just what was skweeeded. More, please!
(And we promise, no puns next time, we couldn't possibly think of too many others anyway....ok one more: if one of these artists came over and did a tour of the States, we could say they were cross-country skweeeing!).
MPEG Stream: EASY & CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE "Legend Of Selda"
MPEG Stream: BEATBULLY "Rek Johnny Rek"
MPEG Stream: LIMINOUS "Frisco Bum"

V/A Slatanic Slaughter (Black Sun Records) cd 16.98
Northern European tribute to Slayer, with ferocious covers by Dissection, At The Gates, Enslaved, Edge of Sanity and seven others.

V/A Slave To The Power: The Iron Maiden Tribute (MeteorCity) 2cd 17.98
Not one, but two cds of Iron Maiden covers! The 26 bands who took on the challenge of this tribute range from the well-known to the utterly obscure (well, ok, the most famous name on here is Sebastian Bach...you know, the former Skid Row singer, who belts out an admirable version of "Children of the Damned"). Many of the bands take a very straight approach to interpreting these metal classics but there are a few weirder ones, like the unknown (to us) Finnish band Hoyry-Kone doing "The Trooper" with trombone, cello, and saxophone; and Japanese doom metallers Eternal Elyisium's stoned, almost reggae-inflected but super heavy version of "Innocent Exile". Other participants: Solstice, Electric Frankenstein, Wardog, Crowbar, Iron Savior, Warhorse, The Quill, etc. A fun compilation that will soon have you dragging out the actual Maiden wax for sure.

V/A Slaying Since 1996 (Suicide Squeeze) 2cd 15.98
We have so man fond indie rock memories from the '90s. So many labels that came to birth and put out the 7"s that got us through many a summer and school year. The Pacific Northwest in particular always had a crazy amount of indie labels taking their cues from Sub-Pop and forging ahead with a love of all things indie, putting so much love and care into their releases and sharing the sounds of some bands that would later become much more well known. Suicide Squeeze is one of these labels. Starting out primarily as a 7" label, they have expanded over the years and are now a pretty serious label. Celebrating their 10th birthday they've released a 2-disc collection of previously released songs as well as some unreleased tracks. Modest Mouse, Elliott Smith, Iron & Wine, Of Montreal, Hella, The Black Heart Procession, The Unicorns, 764-Hero, The Aislers Set, Black Mountain, Les Savy Fav, The Melvins, Red Stars Theory, and that's only like half the bands included. This is pretty much essential for those wanting a crash course in indie rock over the last ten years or those who might have taken a little break from indie rock. A pretty great way to relive a decade of indie rock's best and brightest.
MPEG Stream: THE BLACK HEART PROCESSION "After The Ladder"
MPEG Stream: MODEST MOUSE "A Life Of Arctic Sounds"
MPEG Stream: SAM BEAM "Sleeping Diagonally"

V/A Sleeping In The Market: Ethiopian Music & Sounds From Amhara (Latitude) cd 14.98
Another new disc from Locust's Latitude imprint. This one, recorded by Yayehe Smon, documents a trip he and his brother took along with their father to Ethiopia. Being good documentarians they brought their recorders and started rolling tape (well, more likely they brought their mini-disc recorders and burned a lot of discs, but it doesn't slide off the tongue as well.) Five of the eight tracks here are from children and teens, some of them singing as they play in the streets, either spontaneously making up songs or singing a capella cover versions of local hits. The first track, sung by a nine year old girl, is reason enough to own the cd. She has to have the most insane vocal chords and singing technique in the world. We certainly haven't heard anything like it before. Imagine if Buffy Saint Marie (ie: super fast and intense vibrato) took up yodelling and you kind of get the idea. Except that she's singing this soulful Amharic tune with a melody that leaps all over the place. Never heard anything like it. The other songs by children, whether singing solo or in groups, are accompanied by fiddle. Of the non-children tracks, there's a nice solo flute piece performed by a blind beggar, a peasant singing as he threshes wheat, and one of a professional itinerant male/female duo with accordian accompaniment.
MPEG Stream: "Laluyeah"
MPEG Stream: "Bale-Whashinto"

V/A Slidin' On The Frets: The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Phenomenon (Yazoo) cd 16.98
Interesting compilation of recordings from the 20's and 30's which have in common the Hawaiian steel guitar as their backbone. From as early as 1916 Hawaiian music had become an obsession not only in the U.S. but throughout the world, and by the 20's ukuleles and steel guitars were out-selling guitars for many manufacturers. What is documented here are recordings of Hawaiian influenced hokum blues, calypso, country, jazz, as well as straight up Hawaiian music, captured in France, Greece, China, Argentina and the U.S.

V/A Slurped : Original Brainfreeze Flavors Vol. 1 (Magic Sneakers) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sixteen of the incredibly rare 7" tracks used by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist on their recent Brainfreeze performances. (It's just the tracks mind you, no mixing or scratching involved here.) This is a very strong collection. Incredible funk and raw soul and r'n'b. Featuring Odetta, Fried Chicken, Gary Byrd, Alvin Cash, Rufus Thomas etc. Probably not the most legal release, so buy now or cry later.
RealAudio clip: ODETTA "Hit or Miss"
RealAudio clip: FRIED CHICKEN "Funky DJ"
RealAudio clip: SINGING PRINCIPAL "Woman's Liberation"

V/A Slurped : Original Brainfreeze Flavors Vol. 1 (Magic Sneakers) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sixteen of the incredibly rare 7" tracks used by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist on their recent Brainfreeze performances. (It's just the tracks mind you, no mixing or scratching involved here.) This is a very strong collection. Incredible funk and raw soul and r'n'b. Featuring Odetta, Fried Chicken, Gary Byrd, Alvin Cash, Rufus Thomas etc. Probably not the most legal release, so buy now or cry later.

V/A Slurped: Original Brainfreeze Vol. 2 (Magic Smeakers) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If you wept when you missed out on the DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist "Brainfreeze" live 7" extravaganza cd last year, and then jumped for joy when "Slurped Vol. One" compiled a stack of those very 7"s, well, jump a little higher baby 'cause there's more where that came from! Yup, one volume wasn't enough... double your load of the incredibly rare 7" tracks used by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist in their recent Product Placement (aka Brainfreeze part 2) tour performances. Please note: these are just the raw tracks with no mixing or scratching. Nevertheless, this is quite the soul, funk and r'n'b party all rolled up on one disc. Super groovaliciousness including Pearly Queen, Funka Fize, Eddie Bo, The Soul Lifters, Sugar Billy Garner, Simtec & Wylie, Original Soul Senders, Giorgio, The Interpretations, and more.
RealAudio clip: PEARLY QUEEN "Quit Jivin'"
RealAudio clip: THE SOUL LIFTERS "Hot, Funky And Sweaty"
RealAudio clip: FUNKA FIZE "Because You're Funky"

V/A Slurped: Original Brainfreeze Vol. 2 (Magic Smeakers) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If you wept when you missed out on the DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist "Brainfreeze" live 7" extravaganza cd last year, and then jumped for joy when "Slurped Vol. One" compiled a stack of those very 7"s, well, jump a little higher baby 'cause there's more where that came from! Yup, one volume wasn't enough... double your load of the incredibly rare 7" tracks used by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist on their recent Brainfreeze performances. Please note: these are just the raw tracks with no mixing or scratching. Nevertheless, this is quite the soul, funk and r'n'b party all rolled up on one disc. Super groovalicious including Pearly Queen, Funka Fize, Eddie Bo, The Soul Lifters, Sugar Billy Garner, Simtec & Wylie, Original Soul Senders, Giorgio, The Interpretations, and more.

V/A Small Melodies (Spekk) cd 17.98
From the same label that brought us the latest from Tarentel mainman Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and the collected works of The Alps (both reviewed elsewhere on this list) comes this compilation called Small Melodies. And that is precisely what this is, each artist was asked to contribute a piece of music which represented their interpretation of small melodies, given simple guidelines such as "warm" and "calm" and the results are absolutely lovely. Exactly what you might imagine a record of warm, calm, small melodies might sound like. Each artist offers his own particular sound, but they all work surprisingly well together as a whole, a bit like a more varied Pop Ambient compilation, or how you might imagine a Morr Music Pop Ambient record would sound. Lots of familiar faces, Oren Ambarchi, Ultra Milkmaids, Stephan Mathieu, Taylor Deupree, Sogar, Tape, but even more unfamiliar ones: Naph, Aen, Mondii, RdL, Fenton...
Glistening expanses of digital glitch and sparkling drift, fuzzy muted melodies buried under thick swirls of dreamlike fuzz, blissed out post rock splintered into drifting shards of soft focus melody, ultra abstract field recordings wrapped in barely there drones, digital abstractions smeared into warm bleary blurs, thick swells of sound like distant bells wrapped in thick sheets of reverb, pretty pop pulled under a slowly spreading swirl of otherworldly thrum, wheezing accordions and intricate steel string fingerpicking tangled up in strange alien bleep and buzz, every track is the perfect soundtrack to a dream, the whole record an all night drift through a warm and calm world of small melodies.
Packaged in a cool, sleek oversized digipak style folder, with striking silver foil printing on white matte background.
MPEG Stream: ULTRA MILKMAIDS "My Electric Laddy Land"
MPEG Stream: SOGAR "For A Pulse Or Two"
MPEG Stream: OREN AMBARCHI "Thirsty Boots"
MPEG Stream: STEPHAN MATHIEU "Small Melody (Fur Richard)"

V/A Small Soldiers (Dreamworks) cd 17.98
Wow! Completely delightful soundtrack to the movie contains awesome reworkings of classic rock and roll: Edwin Starr's War performed by Bone Thugs'n'Harmony, Queen's Another One Bites the Dust remixed by Fugees' Wyclef Jean, Pat Benatar's Love is a Battlefield with additional vocals by Queen Latifah, The Pretenders' My City Was Gone with additional vocals by Kool Keith, Rush's Tom Sawyer remixed by AQ-fave Z-Trip, and more. It's really good!

V/A Smalltown Supersampler (Smalltown Supersound) cd 13.98
Smalltown Supersound is a Norwegian label that defines itself by the artists on the label and not through a unifying aesthetic; yet, they've decided to release a sampler of all of their artists, from the minimalistic and pulsing sounds of Elektro Nova/Electro Nova, to the melancholic beauty of Continental Fruit, to the abstract electronics of Lasse Marhaug, to Jazzkammer's glitch electronica, to Kim Hiorthoy's wonderful and warm mixture of the organic and the electronic, and to the slow, beautiful and hypnotic sound of Monopot.

V/A Smashits (Shitkatapult) cd 16.98

V/A Smooth Sounds - Various Artists Play The Future Hits Of Wckr Spgt (Shrimper) 2cd 9.98
What better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of your record label? Well if you you're Shrimper, home to the Mountain Goats, Sentridoh, Amps For Christ, Dump, Herman Dune, Refrigerator, Woods and loads more, you get some of those bands, and about 35 more, and you have them all cover songs by arguably your least popular artist, WCKR SPGT! Make sense? Of course it doesn't, but that's not the point. The real point is that WCKR SPGT were, and are awesome, and have been Shrimper mainstays since day one, so they wrote 36 brand new songs, sent them to all their friends, and had said friends record them however they wanted, and this is the result, a gloriously sprawling tribute to the last 20 years of low fidelity sound making, late night tape dubbing, and the power of DIY.
Some of the names here will definitely be familiar, Sentridoh, The Mountain Goats, Refrigerator, Breathlizor, Primordial Undermind, The Ah Club, Amps For Christ, Simon Joyner, Jad Fair, Soul-Junk, and those songs are indeed awesome, but so are any and all of the other 27 jams. But yeah, the Sentridoh track, nicely titled "Smooth Sounds For Your Fucking Face", sounds like it could have been pulled off a cassette from the nineties, lyrics and all, Soul-Junk's WCKR SPGT is all chaotic noise rock, laced with clouds of electronic noise and crumbling distortion, super lo-fi (of course), completely ramshackle, and wicked catchy, the Mountain Goats track is all acoustic guitar and vocals (again of course), but here augmented by cool tremolo guitar, some lush harmonies, not at all the lo-fi boombox howling of old, Refrigerator sounds like Refrigerator, those sad man vocals over trash can drums, detuned guitars, all wrapped in a cloud of tape hiss, with what almost sounds like cello (!), Jad Fair offers some rambling wisdom, over chicken scratch guitars, and a thumping looped rhythm, Amps for Christ transforms WCKR SPGT into twisted and warped electro-Jesus-folk, Breathilizor are as dumb and genius as always, spewing ridiculous lyrics over classic metal riffage, and on and on and on and on...
Some of our new favorites are Peephole Circus, sound like an extra lo-fi take on nineties math/noise rock, their WCKR track crazy catchy, Alan Smithee's woozy jangly drone pop, which is slowly overtaken by strange pulsing electronics, and faux strings, a seriously twisted hybrid that sounds awesome, Golden Boots whose track sounds like it could be the intro music to Mystery Science Theater 3000, with it's strange processed vox, and sing songy melody, Kukunuku's warbly creepy garbled mumbledrone dreaminess, sounding a bit like Ween, the Uncalled For with their fuzzy garage rock stomp...
This all just reminds us that Shrimper, and all the bands that sail with her, still rule, as much as when we were ordering $2 tapes through the mail in the early nineties. The cd features funny liner notes from Shrimper rockstar Franklin Bruno, and a super swank textured paper insert, the tape offers an appropriately more lo-fi and liner noteless version, and if the above raving didn't already spell it out for you, SUPER RECOMMENDED.
MPEG Stream: SENTRIDOH "Smooth Sounds For Your Fucking Face"
MPEG Stream: SOUL-JUNK "A Better Line"
MPEG Stream: THE MOUNTAIN GOATS "Predator Eyes"
MPEG Stream: ALAN SMITHEE "Kurt Cobain Will Have His Revenge On The City Of Los Angeles"
MPEG Stream: GOLDEN BOOTS "She Is Electric"

V/A Smooth Sounds - Various Artists Play The Future Hits Of Wckr Spgt (Shrimper) cassette 8.98
What better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of your record label? Well if you you're Shrimper, home to the Mountain Goats, Sentridoh, Amps For Christ, Dump, Herman Dune, Refrigerator, Woods and loads more, you get some of those bands, and about 35 more, and you have them all cover songs by arguably your least popular artist, WCKR SPGT! Make sense? Of course it doesn't, but that's not the point. The real point is that WCKR SPGT were, and are awesome, and have been Shrimper mainstays since day one, so they wrote 36 brand new songs, sent them to all their friends, and had said friends record them however they wanted, and this is the result, a gloriously sprawling tribute to the last 20 years of low fidelity sound making, late night tape dubbing, and the power of DIY.
Some of the names here will definitely be familiar, Sentridoh, The Mountain Goats, Refrigerator, Breathlizor, Primordial Undermind, The Ah Club, Amps For Christ, Simon Joyner, Jad Fair, Soul-Junk, and those songs are indeed awesome, but so are any and all of the other 27 jams. But yeah, the Sentridoh track, nicely titled "Smooth Sounds For Your Fucking Face", sounds like it could have been pulled off a cassette from the nineties, lyrics and all, Soul-Junk's WCKR SPGT is all chaotic noise rock, laced with clouds of electronic noise and crumbling distortion, super lo-fi (of course), completely ramshackle, and wicked catchy, the Mountain Goats track is all acoustic guitar and vocals (again of course), but here augmented by cool tremolo guitar, some lush harmonies, not at all the lo-fi boombox howling of old, Refrigerator sounds like Refrigerator, those sad man vocals over trash can drums, detuned guitars, all wrapped in a cloud of tape hiss, with what almost sounds like cello (!), Jad Fair offers some rambling wisdom, over chicken scratch guitars, and a thumping looped rhythm, Amps for Christ transforms WCKR SPGT into twisted and warped electro-Jesus-folk, Breathilizor are as dumb and genius as always, spewing ridiculous lyrics over classic metal riffage, and on and on and on and on...
Some of our new favorites are Peephole Circus, sound like an extra lo-fi take on nineties math/noise rock, their WCKR track crazy catchy, Alan Smithee's woozy jangly drone pop, which is slowly overtaken by strange pulsing electronics, and faux strings, a seriously twisted hybrid that sounds awesome, Golden Boots whose track sounds like it could be the intro music to Mystery Science Theater 3000, with it's strange processed vox, and sing songy melody, Kukunuku's warbly creepy garbled mumbledrone dreaminess, sounding a bit like Ween, the Uncalled For with their fuzzy garage rock stomp...
This all just reminds us that Shrimper, and all the bands that sail with her, still rule, as much as when we were ordering $2 tapes through the mail in the early nineties. The cd features funny liner notes from Shrimper rockstar Franklin Bruno, and a super swank textured paper insert, the tape offers an appropriately more lo-fi and liner noteless version, and if the above raving didn't already spell it out for you, SUPER RECOMMENDED.
MPEG Stream: SENTRIDOH "Smooth Sounds For Your Fucking Face"
MPEG Stream: SOUL-JUNK "A Better Line"
MPEG Stream: THE MOUNTAIN GOATS "Predator Eyes"
MPEG Stream: ALAN SMITHEE "Kurt Cobain Will Have His Revenge On The City Of Los Angeles"
MPEG Stream: GOLDEN BOOTS "She Is Electric"

V/A Snatch Paste: An Assortment of Snatch Tapes (Vinyl On Demand) lp 27.00
An amazing and elaborately packaged vinyl compilation of tracks originally released on the infamous Snatch Tape Compilations, volumes one through three, which were first released way back in the late seventies / early eighties. Some familiar names: David Jackman of Organum, Storm Bugs, Philip Sanderson (who also put together this comp) as well as some names we've never heard or seen before: Alien Brains, The N4's, Orior and more. The interesting thing, is sonically, almost all of these tracks could be some strange cd-r micro release from two weeks ago. It's hard to believe these tracks are from more than 25 years ago. Not sure whether it speaks to the prescience of these artists, or the mighty debt today's crop of noisemakers owe to those that came before. Probably a little of both.
Needless to say, this will appeal to fans of the modern field of limited cd-r label free noise ambient sound makers, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, PseudoArcana, Digitalis, if you've been loving all that stuff, this will absolutely hit the spot.
Jackman offers up "Blues", which is indeed some sort of blues, but dense with buzzing steel strings and distant clatter, The Storm Bugs unfurl huge slabs of cavernous rumble and whir, a little Dead C, a little Organum, some wailing crooned vocals drift in and out, everything doused in reverb, Sanderson unleashes some strange alien new wave, muted drum machine rhythms, bloopy synths buried under fog horn bass rumble, primitive FX swirl and swoop, everything wrapped in a crumbling lo-fi ambience. Other tracks explore damaged synths, garbled vocals, primitive Plunderphonic soundscapes, malfunctioning electronics, and all manner of abstract lo-fi buzz.
Pressed on outrageously thick vinyl, and packaged in a gorgeous sleeve, matte finished with subtle embossing. So nice. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each sleeve hand numbered.

V/A Snow Robots 1 (Suction) cd 14.98
An international electronic compilation from Canadian label Suction that features "Robot Music" by Lali Puna, Lowfish, Solvent, David Kristian, and Pest(e).

V/A Snow Robots 2 (Suction) cd 14.98
Volume Two of an international electronic compilation series from Canadian label Suction. This one features more "Robot Music" by isan, Pluxus, Lowfish, Solvent, G.D.Luxxe, D'Carangelo, Tinfoil Teakettle, Brioche Kretzaal, Pest(e), Perspects, and Skanfrom.

V/A So Much Fire To Roast Human Flesh (Bastet) cd 14.98
The latest compilation from Arthur Magazine's Bastet imprint wears that magazines politics on its sleeve on this collection of obvious and not so obvious protest songs. A lot of familiar names on this one -- Devendra Banhart, Feathers, Diane Cluck, Pajo, Josephine Foster and Matt Valentine. While the less obvious protest songs including Meg Baird's sublime "Western Red Lily" will probably resonate longer over time, there is something extremely exhilarating about the urgency of songs such as Charlie Nothing's "Fuck You and Your Stupid Wars", and Andrew Bar's "Don't Trust That Man". Play this often and loud!
MPEG Stream: FEATHERS "Dust"
MPEG Stream: MEG BAIRD "Western Red Lily"
MPEG Stream: DEVENDRA BANHART "I Know Some Souls (Demo)"

V/A So Young But So Cold: Underground French Music 1977-1983 (Tigersushi) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After being AWOL for a year or so, this longtime fave is now back in stock, and the timing is perfect since we've been raving about a bunch of similar comps of cool vintage French new wave/punk/electro stuff recently like Bippp and IVG and Des Jeunes Gens Modernes. If you liked those, you gotta check this out, 'especially if you're into the proggier side of things.
This one was kind of a sleeper hit when we first listed it. I mean, we knew it was a cool record, but boy did people like it. We sold a ton and then the label ran out. At last it's been repressed, so here it is again. Definitely recommended!
France. Synths. 1977-83. Intrigued? You should be. This comp, compiled by a couple of today's top trainspotting electronica mavens, highlights what are indeed some obscure, awesome French entries into the field of proto-techno. Richard Pinhas of Heldon we've talked about recently, also Metal Boys, and you might remember Ruth from a reissue a while back, but there's plenty of names here we're getting acquainted with for the first time: Nini Raviolette, Mathematiques Modernes, Kas Product, The (Hypothetical) Prophets, Moderne, The Droids... Sixteen tracks in all of sinister prog/pop electronics, droning ambience, Magmoid robotics, futurepunk, and sci-fi dance darkness. So young, so cold - so stylish.
MPEG Stream: NINI RAVIOLETTE "Suis-Je Normale"
MPEG Stream: BERNARD SZAJNER "Welcome (To Deathrow)"

V/A So-on Meikyu: Alchemy Mysterious Sound Collection (Alchemy) cd 21.00
And when Alchemy says it's a mysterious sound collection, it IS a mysterious sound collection! The ever-excellent Japanese noise/psych label has assembled a very interesting four-way split release here. Probably if we could read Japanese it would all be a little clearer, but from the Siamese twin motif of this cd's graphics, and the info on the artists featured, we'll conclude that this experimental, abstract sound compilation intentionally features only duos -- perhaps being duos formed soley for this comp (perhaps not...we don't know). We've never heard of any of these acts, though we have heard of several of the individuals participating in each duo.
The disc starts off simply and beautifully with Mr. So-&-So's "Unknown", which features the two electric guitars of Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba) and Masahiko Ohno (Solmania) -- so when some more extreme sounds begin to filter in it's no surprise. Next up is A X A, the duo of Aya Ohnishi and Akifumi Nakajima (Aube). With kazoo, drums, voice, field recordings and synths they make a fascinating soundscape which we won't really try to describe since, well, it is mysterious. As are the other two contributions to this disc, from Swastika (between them, members of CCCC, Incapacitants, Tangerine Dream Syndicate, etc.) and kishidashin (dunno who these two are). All are well worth investigating, if you're into the more controlled and crafted side of "Japanese noise". Maybe that's not the term to use at all, one could just as easily call this psychedelic industrial improv or somesuch. In any event, another worthwhile Alchemy release.
MPEG Stream: A X A "Lift Lock"
MPEG Stream: KISHIDASHIN "Fushicho"

V/A Soft Sounds For Gentle People (Pet Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Soft Sounds For Gentle People 2 (Pet Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Soft Sounds For Gentle People 4 (Pet Records) cd 14.98

V/A SoleSides Greatest Bumps (Quannum) 2cd 18.98
Long out of print singles and other rarities from the now-famous Solesides crew, as Jeff Chang will tell you in the liner notes, started off spinning and mixing records in the unused other studio at UC Davis college radio station while Chang DJ'd legit in the other room. The boys (Lyrics Born, DJ Shadow, Lateef, etc) went on to form Latyrx, Blackalicious, and other outfits, are famous all over the world now, and as soon as it started to get less than fun, they dissolved the label (which now lives on as Quannum so it's all good). Contains some downright gems, including the totally out of print Shadow track from the DJ SHADOW/CHIEF XCEL Mo'Wax 12". See audioclip.
RealAudio clip: "Hardcore [Instrumental] Hip-Hop"

V/A Solid Gold (Italians Do It Better) cd 13.98
No doubt we've loved so much of what Italians Do It Better has released recently, in so many ways they really helped reignite the love of dance music in indie culture. With different shades of smoky, slow burning spaced out disco, techno and house music, their roster really reads like an exciting list of some of our favorite synth heavy late night dance floor favorites. Solid Gold is a collection of tracks from 12" singles IDIB have released over the last few years by folks like Invisible Conga People, T&K, Bottin, Twisted Wires, and even Beyonce's sister Solange. We dig this collection so much because as much as we like so much of the Johnny Jewel fueled sounds that have come from the Italians Do It Better camp (Glass Candy, Chromatics, Desire), it's nice to hear a set of songs that have a bit of a different angle and perspective to dance music, than just one group/guy's vision. From total spaced out ravers to cold and thrilling chillers we've been listening to this loud and nonstop ever since it came in to the shop. We even noticed that folks who are usually a bit dance music shy are getting way into this as there are so many awesome prog and psyched out synth moments on this record.
Much like their last compilation After Dark, Italians Do It Better have once again provided us with a seamless compilation that flows so perfectly from start to finish and is making us move in the most sensual and satisfying ways. So smoking!
MPEG Stream: RUBIES FEAT. FEIST "I Feel Electric (Tiedye Remix)"
MPEG Stream: BOTTIN "No Static (Club Version)"
MPEG Stream: TWISTED WIRES "One Night At The Raw Deal (Guitar & Vocal)"
MPEG Stream: SOLANGE "Robots Are Dub American"

V/A Some Songs Stuck In My Mind (Crazy Apple Boutique) cd 21.00
We always like to have a good '60s/'70s psych-pop compilation to recommend, when we can. Happily enough, this list we do, it's Some Songs Stuck In My Mind, an international comp of utterly killer tracks from rare 45s by 18 different, totally obscure artists that we'll go ahead and list here for the hell of it, so you can feel all collector-music-nerd-snobby if you've heard of any of 'em before: Springwell, Manolo Y Ramon, Don Curtis, The Comforts, Michael, T.M.L., Eduardo Araujo, Bluebeard, Antonio Carlos & Jocafi, Serge Et Christine, La Metamorphosi, Adriano Celentano, Puzzle, Little Sammy Gaha, Francois De Louville, Les Playboys, Vincent, and Injun Joe. All of it wonderfully groovy, fuzzy, catchy and funkily far out. If this were a DJ set spun in a bar 'round here, there would be a either a stompin' dancefloor and/or a bunch of bearded guys bugging the DJ about what they were playing as each track came on.
The cd booklet's got liner notes talking 'bout each track, and lil' full-color pics of the cover art from the original singles. Recommended, in the tradition of Neurotic Reactions (from the same label), Andergraun Vibrations, Cherrystones Hidden Charms, Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils, Nightmares At Toby's Shop, all those cool Psychic Circle comps, etc.
MPEG Stream: BLUEBEARD "Sly Willy"
MPEG Stream: PUZZLE "Hey Medusa"
MPEG Stream: LES PLAYBOYS "I'm The Looser"

V/A Some Songs Stuck In My Mind (Crazy Apple Boutique) lp 27.00
Now On Vinyl!!
We always like to have a good '60s/'70s psych-pop compilation to recommend, when we can. Happily enough, this list we do, it's Some Songs Stuck In My Mind, an international comp of utterly killer tracks from rare 45s by 18 different, totally obscure artists that we'll go ahead and list here for the hell of it, so you can feel all collector-music-nerd-snobby if you've heard of any of 'em before: Springwell, Manolo Y Ramon, Don Curtis, The Comforts, Michael, T.M.L., Eduardo Araujo, Bluebeard, Antonio Carlos & Jocafi, Serge Et Christine, La Metamorphosi, Adriano Celentano, Puzzle, Little Sammy Gaha, Francois De Louville, Les Playboys, Vincent, and Injun Joe. All of it wonderfully groovy, fuzzy, catchy and funkily far out. If this were a DJ set spun in a bar 'round here, there would be a either a stompin' dancefloor and/or a bunch of bearded guys bugging the DJ about what they were playing as each track came on.
The cd booklet's got liner notes talking 'bout each track, and lil' full-color pics of the cover art from the original singles. Recommended, in the tradition of Neurotic Reactions (from the same label), Andergraun Vibrations, Cherrystones Hidden Charms, Who Will Buy These Wonderful Evils, Nightmares At Toby's Shop, all those cool Psychic Circle comps, etc.

V/A Something Is Wrong (Honest Jons) 2cd 26.00
Another fantastically curated collection of magical and mysterious and mostly unheard songs from Honest Jon's, these vintage recordings from East Africa, recorded between the years 1938 and 1957, and categorized as 'native records', in that this was music that was intended for sale to native Africans, not the white colonialists or various traders or laborers, and these recordings helped capture and preserve popular music, the various styles popular before the influence of imported sounds from abroad and various immigrants. These sounds were specific to various villages and represented many different languages and styles. The other cool thing about these performances, is that they were specifically by non professionals, since earning a living making music was nearly impossible, instead these were regular folks, who were often called upon to entertain, at weddings or parties, at markets or for various rituals. The liner notes, like all Honest Jon's liner notes, go into incredible detail, about the various styles of music, the difficulties in translating the languages, the musicians, the performances, the recording processes, it reads like a primer on East African music, and like it should be part of a college course, in fact, we often think smart schools would be snapping these guys up to teach courses in world music, but beyond the background, it's the sounds that count, and the sounds here are incredible, so strange and lovely and mysterious and at once warm and intimate and emotional and totally alien and fantastical.
The first track is the perfect example, a super hypnotic stretch of relentless vocalizing over a barely audible string melody, the sound distorted, the vocals more like testifying, it's not until the very end of the track where the vocals drop out that you can hear how strangely frantic the string playing really is. And from there on out, there's never a moment that's less that totally wonderfully lovely, whether the sound is super melodic and folky, or minimal and rhythmic, buzzy and droney, moody and emotional, we lack the vocabulary to truly describe these sounds, other to say that they move us, and that they're so absolutely beautiful, sometimes haunting and mournful, other times effusive and celebratory, always breathtaking.
The cd comes in a beautiful hardcover style book, with a massive booklet inside, filled with extensive liner notes and vintage photos. The vinyl version is spread out over two double lps, the first with the same title as the double cd contains all the music from the first disc, while the second, containing the music from the second disc, is titled Bellyachers, Listen!
MPEG Stream: SSEKINOMU "Wireless"
MPEG Stream: ALI AND PARTY "Enyi Wa Hiari"
MPEG Stream: J.P. NYANGIRA "Hongo Owiti"
MPEG Stream: WERE OMITO "Aoko"
MPEG Stream: WASONGA MUGA "Robert Opio"
MPEG Stream: SIMON OGAYA "Joseph Wamidha"

V/A Something Is Wrong (Honest Jons) 2lp 22.00
Another fantastically curated collection of magical and mysterious and mostly unheard songs from Honest Jon's, these vintage recordings from East Africa, recorded between the years 1938 and 1957, and categorized as 'native records', in that this was music that was intended for sale to native Africans, not the white colonialists or various traders or laborers, and these recordings helped capture and preserve popular music, the various styles popular before the influence of imported sounds from abroad and various immigrants. These sounds were specific to various villages and represented many different languages and styles. The other cool thing about these performances, is that they were specifically by non professionals, since earning a living making music was nearly impossible, instead these were regular folks, who were often called upon to entertain, at weddings or parties, at markets or for various rituals. The liner notes, like all Honest Jon's liner notes, go into incredible detail, about the various styles of music, the difficulties in translating the languages, the musicians, the performances, the recording processes, it reads like a primer on East African music, and like it should be part of a college course, in fact, we often think smart schools would be snapping these guys up to teach courses in world music, but beyond the background, it's the sounds that count, and the sounds here are incredible, so strange and lovely and mysterious and at once warm and intimate and emotional and totally alien and fantastical.
The first track is the perfect example, a super hypnotic stretch of relentless vocalizing over a barely audible string melody, the sound distorted, the vocals more like testifying, it's not until the very end of the track where the vocals drop out that you can hear how strangely frantic the string playing really is. And from there on out, there's never a moment that's less that totally wonderfully lovely, whether the sound is super melodic and folky, or minimal and rhythmic, buzzy and droney, moody and emotional, we lack the vocabulary to truly describe these sounds, other to say that they move us, and that they're so absolutely beautiful, sometimes haunting and mournful, other times effusive and celebratory, always breathtaking.
The cd comes in a beautiful hardcover style book, with a massive booklet inside, filled with extensive liner notes and vintage photos. The vinyl version is spread out over two double lps, the first with the same title as the double cd contains all the music from the first disc, while the second, containing the music from the second disc, is titled Bellyachers, Listen!
MPEG Stream: SSEKINOMU "Wireless"
MPEG Stream: ALI AND PARTY "Enyi Wa Hiari"
MPEG Stream: J.P. NYANGIRA "Hongo Owiti"

V/A Son Of The Transcendental Maggot (Tsuguri Records) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Got a few copies of this cd-r compilation via our pals the Oakland band Pigs, who have a track on it taken from their album Illuminati House Party, that we know a lot of you liked. Other acts also on here, and equally AQ-approved: US Christmas, Shit And Shine, Sons Of Tonatiuh, and a bunch more (13 in all) that are all pretty great. Although it's a diverse selection of bands, somehow the tracks that appear on this comp all go pretty well together. There's a tilt towards mathiness and heaviness, and also to weirdness and psychedelia, all good things as far as we're concerned. Lots of it is instrumental, as well.
We won't bother to describe the entire disc track-by-track (especially since it's cheap enough, just buy it!!) but will mention a few things that stood out... Shane Perlowin from prog-punk outfit Ahleuchatistas starts things off with a lovely bit of solo guitar action, vaguely exotic-sounding, something that Six Organs fans should enjoy, though the hypnotically jittery track by Ahleuchatistas proper that pops up later on the disc is more in line with the technically complex, frantic rockin' we've heard from 'em before on their Cuneiform albums. Meanwhile, Russian (???) band The Grand Astoria do a pretty rad space-rockin' cover of a song by Ash Ra Tempel. And then there's the oddly monickered yellowthief (a grindy duo consisting of drummer "yellowsun" and guitarist "yellowmoon") who contribute six tracks, all but one of 'em short sharp shocks of mathy spazz (and some moody melody) barely longer than 30 seconds apiece, with gibberish song titles. Ruins and Hella fans ought to dig, and we'll definitely be on the lookout for more from yellowthief in future.
Oh, and Pigs, if you haven't heard 'em yet, do their song "Lurch" which is exemplary of their Sabbathy, Melvinsy sound. The heaviest stuff here is probably by Sons Of Tonatiuh, though, who get two feedback-laden tracks to kick out the ugly doom jams, Eyehategod style. Shit And Shine don't wimp out, either, wrapping the disc up with a crushingly distorted atmospheric soundscape of sorts. And the other bands we haven't yet mentioned (The Wayward, The Asound, Akris, Enoch, Yuugen Syndrome) are all worthy too.
Certainly a cool comp that turned us on to some neat stuff we hadn't heard before, from denizens of a particular (and somewhat peculiar) underground scene that we hadn't quite conceptualized previously, though now it makes sense that these bands would all belong together on this comp - to the extent that you could almost listen to this and pretend it was ALL by the same, really amazing band! Comes with a sticker, too, by the way.
MPEG Stream: AHLEUCHATISTAS "Do What?"
MPEG Stream: YELLOWTHIEF "gbling gzilboggles"
MPEG Stream: AKRIS "Kentucky Russian"

V/A Sonar (Advanced) 4cd 29.00
Oh my god, are you ready for this? Mouse on Mars, Porter Ricks, Coldcut, Sloan, Noto, Neotropic, Pan Sonic, Farmer's Manual, Surgeon, Jimi Tenor, DJ Vadim...54 tracks total. From the annual electronic music festival in Spain.

V/A Sonar 2000 (Sonido Denso) 4cd 27.00
Low price 4 disk set commemorating the seventh annual "Barcelona International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Arts" that just happened this last June. We were pretty excited when we saw this, hoping we'd get to finally hear the much touted embarrassing Funkstorung "shout out" track, but alas this is not the live concert album we'd dreamed about along with sugar plums. Nope. Instead it's a compilation of all previously released tracks from a wide variety of artists in field of... ahem... "Advanced Music". Such notables as Pan American, Carl Cox, Rich Hawtin, Christian Vogel, Dr. Rockit, Kit Clayton, Autechre, Panacea, Mira Calix, Hecker, Francisco Lopez, Otomo Yoshihide w/ Sachiko m, Add n to (x), Merzbow and much more. But for anyone just dipping into the area of "IDM" and electronic music in general, this is a darn cheap and fairly rounded introduction.

V/A Song Of The Silent Land (Constellation) cd 13.98
When you think of the Constellation record label, the first thing that springs to mind is probably Godspeed! You Black Emperor, and the second thing that pops up is probably some other Godspeed! You Black Emperor related or likeminded majestic, soundscape-y project, and the third... well, you get the picture. This new compilation from the Montreal label does much to break that GYBE-centric identity. It's a remarkably diverse selection of rare and unreleased material from their complete roster of remarkably diverse of artists -- Fly Pan Am, Polmo Polpo, Do Make Say Think, Sackville, Exhaust, Hangedup, 1 Speed Bike, Silver Mt. Zion, Black Ox Orkestar, Re:, Frankie Sparo, Sofa, Elizabeth Anka Vajagic and yes, Godspeed! You Black Emperor. That said if you are a GYBE devotee, you'll find much to pleasingly challenge your eardrums. I kept checking to see what was playing when we had this on in the store, especially when one particularily heavy, noisy track came on...lots of surprises in other words!
MPEG Stream: VAJAGIC, ELIZABETH ANKA "The Sky Lay Still"
MPEG Stream: BLACK OX ORKESTAR "Toyte Goyes In Shineln"

V/A Songs About Stewart (Stew Man Chu) cd 12.98
Remember that scene-stealing, nunchaku-wielding lunatic in the movie Ghost World? What a fuckin' awesome character! Well, he left such an impression/scar on some folks that there's now a compilation of songs about him. Very slacker irony and hesher silliness packed. Kinda like the soundtrack to the Canadian indie film FUBAR with its indie rockers donning the hair metal / bad rock schtick, but quite not as hot shit... actually some of this is pretty goofy in a bad way and some is just plain gawdawful. If I were Stewart, I'd wanna serve these folks up a platter of greasy headbutts. Approach with caution or don't approach it at all, except Rob Crow completists, you'll have to buy this. Also features Black Heart Procession (in a very uncharacteristic turn), Furious Four, Chris Prescott, Danger Zone, Mike Lenart, and Gar Wood.
MPEG Stream: ROB CROW "Stew's Hungry For Love"
MPEG Stream: BLACK HEART PROCESSION "Beer Bash At Stew's"

V/A Songs For Nao (Chapter Music) cd 17.98
This children's album is completely by bands from Japan, but was oddly released by an Australian label (apparently someone at the label lived in Japan). On the surface a lot of Japanese pop music can be heard as being appropriate for kids, but often if you listen a little closer, you'll find a darker more mature core. Not the case here. Well, at least as far as we can tell (not being fluent in Japanese) this seems like it'd be great for kids. Might even get them singing in Japanese! Not only are there playtime-ready springy-sproingy lollipop delights as well as drowsier numbers perfect for gettin' ready for naptime, but they also don't completely coddle the child, including a couple of heavier, more rocking tunes. The first song is by a band who take their name from a Shaggs song, yup, My Pal Foot Foot! And it sounds as if they got one of those gals to come play wobbly trumpet on this tune. Actually the trumpet seems to be the continuous element on this comp. It pops up frequently. Another observation, Elliott noticed that the tenth song ("Temperature Of Windowsill" by Nikaidoh Kazumi) has a section that closely resembles The Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)". Hmm, that didn't make us too happy, but the final song "Telen Pa Wu" by Tenniscoats had us all giggling with glee. Give the audio sample a listen and see for yourself!
MPEG Stream: MY PAL FOOT FOOT "Here Is Very"
MPEG Stream: TENNISCOATS "Telen Pa Wu"

V/A Songs For The Jewish-American Jet Set (Idelsohn Society) cd+book 14.98
The latest release from the Idelsohn Society For Musical Preservation, an organization whose goal it is to preserve Jewish culture, musical and otherwise, comes in the form of this deluxe cd/book compilation that focuses on the Tivka label, according to the Idelsohn Society, "The greatest Independent Jewish record label of the 20th century", and who are we to argue?
The book goes into great detail about the history of the label, one that is surprisingly rife with drama and mystery, which makes a great read, but it's definitely too involved to get into here, but in a nutshell, the label was started in the '40s, and was a seriously DIY operation, one that included label owner Allen B. Jacobs stamping every single copy of every release by hand, spliced the master tapes himself using a rusty pair of scissors, an approached album cover design in a similar manner, cutting and pasting by hand in his basement. And in keeping with that entrepreneurial spirit, Jacobs set out to release the most accessible music possible, records and groups, no matter how disparate, that most appealed to the constantly shifting tastes of post World War II Jewish-American listeners, and since that audience was so varied, the releases on Tivka, while distinctly Jewish could be ANYTHING, children's music, opera, garage rock klezmer, wedding songs, Israeli folk tunes or even Yiddish language lessons. So with so many releases, in so many styles, and of varying quality, it seems it would take some digging to discover the gems, but gems there were, plenty of them, with 20 of the best gathered up here. A bevy of names, most unknown to us, but the music, so fantastic and varied, some tracks dark and dramatic, others playful and silly, still others haunting and mysterious, some of our favorites, the fuzzed out Yiddish garage rock of The Sabras, the gorgeous cantorial crooning of Jo Amar, that sounds surprisingly Bollywood-like, the kick ass Klezmer of Sam Musiker, the psychedelic dueling flute and doumbek groove of Sara Aviani And Her Yemenite Trio (which as the liner notes point out, is the sort of break, DJs would flip for), the surprisingly orchestral and almost operatic cantorial bombast of Moishe Oysher, and it goes on and on. Even if you don't fancy yourself a fan of Jewish music, this is a fantastic and fascinating listen (and might just turn you into one!), and like all great comps, it's had us trying to track down more by a bunch of the artists represented.
Fantastically packaged, in an oversized hardcover book style cover, with a smaller soft cover booklet inside, featuring extensive liner notes, on the label, as well as on each artist and their track(s), with tons of amazing photos as well!
MPEG Stream: LEO FULD "Mazzel"
MPEG Stream: SABRA "Ho Yaldonet"
MPEG Stream: JO AMAR "Ani Ladodi"
MPEG Stream: SAM MUSIKER "Shers"
MPEG Stream: THE YEMENITE TRIO "Kaduri On The Haliel"

V/A Songs in the Key of Z (Which Records) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It could be the product of a genetic disaster, alien abduction, drug excess, the lack of proper medication, or nothing easily quantifiable. Regardless of the cause, outsider art is dominated by a artistic compulsion / obsession so strong as to defy any lack of training or ability or good sense. Irwin Chusid's compilation "Songs In The Key Of Z" is a absurdist journey into the obtuse songwriting from The Shaggs, Daniel Johnston, Wesley Willis, Joe Meek (whose legendary tone-deafness couldn't be more self-evident as on the demo to "Telstar"), Captain Beefheart, Shooby Taylor, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Tiny Tim, Luie Luie, Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson, the ever lovable Jandek, and many more. We're working on getting the book itself too.

V/A Songs In The Key Of Z Volume 2 (Gammon) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Heads up! Irwin Chusid has unleashed another collection of what is sooo aptly described on the traycard as "ear-tingling outrephonics". Vibrant, electrifying, and yes often bizarre feats of sonic tunesmanship are contained within each of these seventeen tracks. If you've read the book and/or heard the first volume you probably have some idea of what to expect with this second compilation, but what's impossible to anticipate is the diversity of this unheard, absolutely earnest and untethered music. An acquired taste? Yes... many actually, but very rewardingly so. Andee took a particular liking to Bingo Gazingo & My Robot Friend's "You're Out Of The Computer", while all of our ears were left a-tingling by the sounds of Shooby Taylor and The Space Lady. Who else will you hear? Thoth, Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson Parker, Dick Kent, B.J. Snowden, Luie Luie, and many more. Please consider yourself forewarned: some may make you giggle, some may make you uncomfortable, some may make you cringe. Others may be uplifting, inspiring or disturbing. Some may as Alvin Dahn's song simply states "drive [you] mad". While it can certainly be said that Volume One was a hard act to follow, Chusid has unearthed and assembled an exceptional selection of perhaps even more obscure oddities.
RealAudio clip: BINGO GAZINGO & MY ROBOT FRIEND "You're Out Of The Computer"
RealAudio clip: THE SPACE LADY "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night"

V/A Songs In The Key Of Z: Volume 1 & 2 (Cherry Red) 2cd 16.98
Back in print, both volumes of classic outsider music weirdness as compiled by WFMU's Irwin Chusid, now together in one package as a double cd!
It could be the product of a genetic disaster, alien abduction, drug excess, the lack of proper medication, or nothing easily quantifiable. Regardless of the cause, outsider art is dominated by a artistic compulsion / obsession so strong as to defy any lack of training or ability or good sense. Irwin Chusid's compilation Songs In The Key Of Z (Vol. 1) is a absurdist journey into the obtuse songwriting from The Shaggs, Daniel Johnston, Wesley Willis, Joe Meek (whose legendary tone-deafness couldn't be more self-evident as on the demo to "Telstar"), Captain Beefheart, Shooby Taylor, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Tiny Tim, Luie Luie, Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson, the ever lovable Jandek, and many more. Funny how so many of those names seem so well-known now!
Digging further into the vaults of what he aptly describes as "ear-tingling outrephonics", Chusid also managed a second volume in the Key Of Z. Vibrant, electrifying, and yes often bizarre feats of sonic tunesmanship are contained within each of Volume 2's seventeen tracks. You probably have some idea of what to expect with this second compilation, but what's impossible to anticipate is the diversity of this unheard, absolutely earnest and untethered music. An acquired taste? Yes... many actually, but very rewardingly so. Andee took a particular liking to Bingo Gazingo & My Robot Friend's "You're Out Of The Computer", while all of our ears were left a-tingling by the sounds of Shooby Taylor and The Space Lady. Who else will you hear? Former SF local Thoth, Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson Parker, Dick Kent, B.J. Snowden, Luie Luie, and many more. Please consider yourself forewarned: some may make you giggle, some may make you uncomfortable, some may make you cringe. Others may be uplifting, inspiring or disturbing. Some may as Alvin Dahn's song simply states "drive [you] mad". While it can certainly be said that Volume One was a hard act to follow, Chusid unearthed and assembled an exceptional selection of perhaps even more obscure oddities on Volume Two, and they're both quite recommended, together on this handy reissue.
MPEG Stream: WESELY WILLIS "Rock'n'Roll McDonalds"
MPEG Stream: JOE MEEK "Telstar (Rough Demo)"
MPEG Stream: CONGRESS-WOMAN MALINDA JACKSON "Cousin Mosquito #1"
MPEG Stream: BINGO GAZINGO & MY ROBOT FRIEND "You're Out Of The Computer"

V/A Songs Of Faith And Inspiration (Sound Stories) cd 14.98

V/A Sonig Comp. (Sonig / Thrill Jockey) cd 13.98
Nine exclusive tracks licensed by Thrill Jockey from Mouse on Mars' Sonig label -- with f.x. randomiz, Microstoria, Vert, Wang Inc., Lithops, etc. Nice, layered, melodic electronica. Mellow and lulling. Recommended!
RealAudio clip: F.X. RANDOMIZ "metix v.1.0b7"

V/A Sonig Irregular Cd Vol. 1 (Sonig) cd 14.98
Irregular? Indeed! This compilation jumps around in total hyperactive fashion. It's made up of the fifteen tracks from three of the previously released, limited edition Sonig Irregular Series 12"s: Schlammpeitziger (the first four tracks), Jason Forrest (the second five) and Wevie De Crepon (the final six). It'll have you bouncin' off the walls in no time. AQ regulars might already be familiar with the first two fellows German gent Schlammpeitziger for his kooky, heavily squidge-laden Augenwischwaldmoppgefloete cd and Jason Forrest for his spasmodic glitchy jumble o' fun under his own name as well as the moniker Donna Summer. If you dig the sounds of People Like Us or Wobbly, you should definitely check out this trio of artists and vice versa. Oh yeah, and adding further to the irregular nature of this release, when we scanned the cover art into our computer, the image came out black instead of the bright kelly green that it actually is (at least to our eyes!).
MPEG Stream: SCHLAMMPEITZIGER / WEVIE STONDER "A Buddha Made Of Mud"
MPEG Stream: FORREST, JASON "Gonna Take You To Hell"