ETERNAL ELYSIUM / BLACK COBRA split (DIW-Phalanx) cd 24.00
Dug up a few more copies of this heavy heavy split...
When we ordered this Japanese import, we were like, a split release between Japanese psychedelic stoner/doom rockers Eternal Elysium and San Francisco's own metalcore two-piece Black Cobra? Gotta get that! When it showed up, we were surprised to discover that the entire Black Cobra half had exactly the same tracks as those found on their recent full-length Feather And Stone, which we've already reviewed and raved about. Whoops. So... some of you already have that. However, if you want to get it again, you'll also get 23 minutes of Eternal Elysium material that only appears here. More likely, this is a good call for those who haven't yet picked up the Black Cobra album and also like (or think they might like) EE. Or simply for EE fans who don't mind getting the Black Cobra stuff as well (why would you?) as a bonus. Even at the import price, it's still 2 for the price of 2 (or 1.5 more like it) on one handy disc, not too shabby of a deal, really. So, let's say somethin' about the music for those ignorant of EE and/or BC:
Eternal Elysium always has us a little confused. Strange band. Sometimes they're straight up Sabbath-meets-grunge complete with vocals hinting at Alice In Chains or Soundgarden... and then there's the NWOBHM influences... and the groovy retro-sixties stuff... that's all here, plus of course random weirdness like the brief track "Golden Seaweed", with sped-up chipmunk voices. They try hard to make a stoner drug thing you wouldn't understand, but certainly something that fans of Boris, Solar Anus, and Church Of Misery should check into, to rock out to.
As to the BC half, here's what we said about Feathers And Stone before: Two man heavy riff-machine Black Cobra return with another pummeling release... Picking up right where Bestial left off, Feather And Stone shreds from the start. Brutally punishing circular riffs, heavy as all hell doomy moments, throat ripping screams, and incredibly hard hitting and precise drums. The fact that this massive sound comes from two fellas is pretty damn amazing. The album has all kinds of peaks and valleys. Amidst the constant time signature shifting, and brain-burning riff heavitude, there are a couple of beautifully dark intros and outros thrown in, giving the album a very balanced feeling. But it's mostly just crushingly heavy and ripping. If you can imagine a heavier, much more misanthropic Karp, that's kind of what they remind us of. Feather And Stone is a must for anybody needing a little taste of thrashing triumphant, sometimes doomy and dark, sometimes fast and techy, but always heavy and punk as fuck ROCK music... For fans of Cavity, Karp, Floor, Torche, and things that kill shit! (Note though that unlike the domestic edition of the BC album, there's no cd-rom live footage included.)
MPEG Stream: ETERNAL ELYSIUM "Shadowed Flower"
MPEG Stream: BLACK COBRA "Five Daggers"
MPEG Stream: BLACK COBRA "Ascension"

EUBANKS, BRIAN / J. P. JENKINS Split (Olde English) lp 15.98
You might not recognize these two names, but you probably recognize the bands they call home, all big time AQ faves. Bryan Eubanks is the man behind GOD, whose last disc on Jyrk we raved about a while back, and J.P. Jenkins is a member of Portland outfit Ghosting (as well as the Portland Bike Ensemble).
Two sidelong tracks, both lovely, and neither are all that far removed from these guys' actual bands. Eubanks side is a never ending (well, almost) wall of grinding low level hum, a relentless buzz, warm and layered and slowly shifting, sounding like a lo-fi Phill Niblock, blissful and meditative, the sort of track that when it stops, your ears almost pop, so suddenly deprived of the drone that was filling them moments earlier. Sometimes the simplest sounds are the most pleasing, and this sort of fuzzy hum is the sort of thing we could listen to forever (and we listened to it with the record reverser, which we also sell, and it sounded even cooler backwards! But then again, what doesn't?!)
Jenkins side sounds like it could have come straight off a Ghosting record, which is not at all a bad thing. A cloudy expanse of simple finger picked guitar nestled amidst soft focus billows of reverberating metallic hum. Eventually the hum dissipates, and what's left is some haunting alien Appalachia, with various notes hurled skyward and stretched into long peals of moaning high end drift. So nice.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! Each one stamped on the lp label, housed in hand assembled and hand screened sleeves with a printed insert, two different color sleeves: gold on black cover or blue on white.

EVIL MOISTURE / HANATARASH Fatanarchy On Airtube (Harbinger / Tochnit Aleph) 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 we told Hanatarash fans that this new cd WASN'T chock full of totally insane, random, chaotic noise, they'd be disappointed. So -- don't worry, no disappointment! The first release from Boredoms leader Eye Yamantaka's noise project Hanatarash in many moons (10 years?) is finally here, and it's a collaboration with UK noise artist Evil Moisture, aka Andy Bolus, who's based now in France and has quite a few cassettes and cds of extremely difficult listening under his belt. Together (and you can't tell who's doing what) they've produced 35 brief tracks of ear-hole destroying noise, somewhat in the style of Hanatarash 4: Aids-a-delic from 1994. It's a crazy collage of cut-up sounds, some snippets of recognizable "music" sprinkled amidst a heckuva lot of distorted turntable and microphone abuse, whooshing groaning screaming overload that just keeps on keepin' on, an endless barrage with no discernible structure, noises constantly morphing into some new noises but never making any sense. It's a bit like the sounds you might imagine some truly nightmarish Rube Goldberg device might make. And you've gotta love the "song" titles: "Never Mind The Overdosing", "Fingertip Believer", "Atomichy in the LSD", "Bank Punks / Noise Bank"... Also this includes "covers" of songs by both Survivor and The Exploited, supposedly. Limited edition of 500 copies by the way.
MPEG Stream: "Sleepwalking Guaide Book At Ohio"
MPEG Stream: "track 34"

EX, THE / TORTOISE In The Fishtank (Konkurrent/Touch & Go) cd 9.98
From the liner notes: "Konkurrent invited Tortoise from Chicago to contribute some of their hypnotic, catchy instrumental pieces to our series. They gladly accepted and asked The Ex to join them. Both bands began from very different points when constructing songs. The Ex work with dynamics and tension building while Tortoise work at a more introspective and subdued level, adding layers and texture to their sound. Where they meet is in how they work with repetition and introduce very specific atmospheres into their songs." Recorded in Holland, this collaboration reveals much more of The Ex than of Tortoise. In faact, you may not even be aware of Tortoise's presence except for subtle hints here and there.

EX, THE / TORTOISE In The Fishtank (Konkurrent/Touch & Go) lp 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the liner notes: "Konkurrent invited Tortoise from Chicago to contribute some of their hypnotic, catchy instrumental pieces to our series. They gladly accepted and asked The Ex to join them. Both bands began from very different points when constructing songs. The Ex work with dynamics and tension building while Tortoise work at a more introspective and subdued level, adding layers and texture to their sound. Where they meet is in how they work with repetition and introduce very specific atmospheres into their songs." Recorded in Holland, this collaboration reveals much more of The Ex than of Tortoise. In faact, you may not even be aware of Tortoise's presence except for subtle hints here and there.

EX-COCAINE / YELLOW SWANS split (Not Not Fun) lp 15.98
Is it even necessary to point out that Noise nerds and Free Jazz freaks tend to keep the sort of the same company? Probably not, but if it were, then we would just play you this record and say goodnight. Those of you who don't like jazz, don't get scared off! The sensibility coloring this record with that spirit is really just one of genuinely free improvisation, so don't expect Coltrane or anything like that, this is still largely a Noise affair. Ex-Cocaine starts off with a loose instrumental guitar piece, accompanied by various drum sounds. The second track follows a similar trajectory, with the addition of vocals. If Aztec Camera were a lo-fi art rock band, this is what it might sound like. Side two features none other than the prolific -- and soon to be extinct -- Yellow Swans. Yes, it's true, after 7 years or so of trying to destroy both your ears and your speakers, Gabriel Saloman and Pete Swanson are calling it quits. They're not exactly going to disappear though, just saying goodbye to the Swans and starting some new things. If you saw our last list, then you probably noticed Mr. Saloman's collaborative effort with Aja Rose of In Flux. As for Pete Swanson, he's got a new label called Freedom to Spend -- check our review of it's first release, the album "Light Ships" by Axolotl off-shoot Bulbs. Okay, you're all caught up, now: the second side of the record. From mindfuck analog meltdown to blissful psych incantations, YS have certainly changed over the years, and, perhaps for the best, their final days have drifted into a more melodic, psychedelic direction. This track could not possibly better demonstrate that trend. In fact, if you didn't know who this actually was, it would be pretty dang impressive if you could guess. Meandering guitars, buried vocals, and a final showdown that dissolves into beautiful sheets of noise. Recommended!

EXCEPTER / LEB-LAZE split (Hoss) lp 11.98

EXCEPTER / PANDA BEAR Split (Paw Tracks) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.No offense to Excepter but man oh man Panda Bear steals the show on this split 12"! Best known as one of the members of the Animal Collective and one half of Jane we got to say we think we are most in love with Noah Lennox in his Panda Bear existence. Acid soaked Beach Boys harmonies tweaked to utter perfection! If his side of this split is any indication of how great his new album is gonna be then wow we are excited! Excepter's side is more of their really good take on murky analog electronics gone no-wave.

EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL / LIMITED EXPRESS (HAS GONE?) Experimental Express Explorer (Memory Lab) cd ep 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two tracks each from SF's own Experimental Dental School and Limited Express (Has Gone?) from Kyoto, Japan, whose Tzadik release from last year we likened to Melt Banana and Deerhoof. It's like an exchange program for avant-rock zaniness. Limited stock.
MPEG Stream: LIMITED EXPRESS (HAS GONE?) "Mophin' Fellet"
MPEG Stream: EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL "Poison Reverb"

EXPO '70 / BE INVISIBLE NOW! split (Kill Shaman / Boring Machines) cd 8.98
Latest from aQ faves Expo '70, masters of modern krautdrone, every record another chapter in their expanding sonic history of the universe, a tale in sound, of suns and planets, of drifting in space, of galaxies expanding, of stars dying, of black holes, and endless expanses, of timelessness and infinity.
Two tracks, each a slow building epic, the first rife with deep chordal swells, simple strummed acoustic guitars, crumbling distorted leads, mournful melancholy melodies, distant streaks of feedback, abstract whir and deep minimal rumble, a gorgeous slab of outer space drone folk, like a more spaced out kraut version of Kiss The Anus, or like a new weird America Santana fused with Hawkwind at their most acoustic and blissed out. The second track is a much dronier affair, a spaced out soundscape of rumbling, buzzing, shimmering synths, layered and textured, rhythmic and hypnotic. Like Tangerine Dream or Popol Vuh, but much darker and buzzier, but just as blissy and space-y. The sound building and building into a heaving wall of synths and guitars, various whirs and rumbles and tangled up minimal melodies, all wavering textures and timbres, eventually joined by strange outer space FX, and more pronounced funereal melodies. Some truly gorgeous spacey shit for sure.
For this cd-r, Expo '70 have teamed up with Italian drone rockers Be Invisible Now, who have a similar sound, but definitely manages to make it their own. Beginning like some Goblin Argento soundtrack, all creepy synths and swells of black ambience, delicate little spacey melodies and swooshing FX, that swirl and build, the track begins to distort and crumble, the effects becoming more agitated and intense, the whole track thickening, until drums come in, offering up a tribal framework, around which the sea of synths swirls and shimmers, a mysterious rhythmic space rock ritual, which quickly fades out, leaving the various layers of synths to slow down, to slip away, to darken and crumble, leaving just a soft, fading buzz.
The second BIN! track begins all heavy and distorted, almost like some spacier Wolf Eyes, wrapped in swirling effects, anchored by simple pounding percussion, the synths getting more intense and more buzzy, thick and blown out, the programmed rhythms growing skittery and chaotic, everything louder and more dense, more distorted, FX everywhere, the track erupting into some strange noise drenched new wave, like the soundtrack to some French new wave horror film, or some New Order remix rejected for being to noisy and fucked up and scary. Awesome.
A pretty good intercontinental space rock, krautdrone matchup for sure. Packaged in a full color eco-wallet digipak style sleeve, and of course LIMITED.
MPEG Stream: EXPO '70 "Heir Of Serpents"
MPEG Stream: BE INIVISIBLE NOW! "I Fiori Devono Morire"

EXPO '70 / I AM SEAMONSTER split (Short Forest / Small Doses) 7" 6.50
Another gorgeous chunk of spacey tripped out downtuned space kraut doom from aQ faves Expo '70. This time they're sharing a 7" with another favorite of ours, the droney, drifty I Am Seamonster.
Expo '70's track begins super minimal and SUNNO))) like, a slow motion riff, the guitar thick and heavy and distorted, riding a single chord, while all around effects whirl and swirl and streak, very mantra like and hypnotic, spaced out and druggy, part way through a second guitar offers some melodic counterpoint, some woozy spidery lysergic minor key leads that sound sun baked even as they drift through the inky blackness, the sound managing to somehow sound both desert and space-y simultaneously.
We hadn't heard anything from I Am Seamonster since their (sadly) now out of print Nebulum cd-r. The track here seems to expand on the IAS sound on Nebulum, crafting a gorgeous landscape of deep guitar swells, each one wreathed in different effects, crumbly and buzzy, blown out and blurred, the sound at its peak is white hot, but occasionally drift back to something cooler and washed out. Layers of high end settle atop the undulating rumbles and whirs, deep percussive guitars chime and ring out, everything bathed in a blurry shoegazey haze, the guitars slipping and shimmering, the result almost orchestral. So so nice.
Beautiful packaging too, silk screened, metallic blue and silver on black, the back side die cut to reveal the record and sleeve.

EXPO '70 / RAHDUNES split (Kill Shaman) lp 14.98
Expo '70 just keep getting heavier and heavier. Beginning as a spaced out drone-heavy krautrock-worshipping band, with swirling synths and drifting FX laden guitars, the band has gradually been altering their sound, guitars getting heavier and more distorted, the spaciness swallowed up by huge slow moving black walls of rumble and buzz, the low end slowly but surely taking over, their music drifting ever closer to some sort of SUNNO)))-baked crawl. This new record, a split with SF based Rahdunes, finds the band moving still further into their own dark sonic galaxy of black heaviness.
Cursory listens will reveal just that, a grinding roiling whirl of distorted guitars and throbbing bass rumble, but this is Expo '70, so even when they're channeling their inner doomsludge demons, they can't seem to help infusing their lugubrious crawl with streaks of outer space shimmer, buried melodies, subtly shifting textures, sure this is intense and heavy and loooooooow, but it's also blissed out, and fuzzy and dreamy and in its own weird way still sort of space-y and krautrocky.
Rahdunes take the high road, literally. It's almost like the two bands decided to split the frequency range right down the middle, with Expo '70 taking the low, and Rahdunes taking the high. Their tracks counter Expo's Earth-y throb, with some glistening druggy folky space drift. A swirling expanse of druggy ambience, guitars wreathed in effects drift by. vocals moan and wail, through thick curtains of fuzz and buzz and delay and reverb, percussion shuffles way off in the background. Imagine the Manson Family, and the Beach Boys, high as fuck, sitting in the grass, by the ocean, their faces lit by flickering firelight, as they chant and jam and conjure up some primal space drone energy, and you'd basically be tapped into whatever lifeforce feeds Rahdunes. The rest of the disc gets a little more rhythmic, reminding us of No Neck and Sunburned Hand, but never losing that bleary eyed druggy wonder, looped guitar, stumbling rhythms, more ethereal chanting, finishing off with a fuzzed out murky dreamscape of muted melodies, soft focus tones, buzzing synths, sputtering percussion, mumbled vocalizing and shimmery feedback, somehow perfectly complimenting Expo '70's doomic crawl on the flipside.
Gorgeous silver and black matte covers. And first time on vinyl for anything Expo '70!!!

EYEHATEGOD / CRIPPLE BASTARDS split (Southern Lord) 7" 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Last ever (again?) recording from New Orleans sludge masters Eyehategod. "I Am The Gestapo" is a typical (i.e. really good!) slab of their hateful, feedback-filled, crushing, churning doomcore. On the flip, this split release is shared by Italian grindcore maniacs Cripple Bastards, whose sludgier-than-usual, deathly track "Self-Zeroing" is well worthy of being teamed to EHG's supposed swansong on the A-side.

FAINT, THE Danse Macabre Remixes (Astralwerks) cd 16.98
Remixes can be pretty darn hit-or-miss. Among other things, they can breathe life into lackluster songs, or obscure the originals way far beyond any recognition, or fuse two sonic worlds into something new, magical and completely faithful to both artists. Not quite sure yet where these Danse Macabre remixes fall. On the first few listens, I was struck with the sense that most of the remix artists here seem to have very little affinity to the band - diluting the punch and catchiness of these Nebraskans' songs into just so-so, slick house and techno tracks. I mean, the original Danse Macabre songs are entirely capable of packing a dancefloor on their own, thank you very much! Participants includes Paul Oakenfold, Junior Sanchez, Ursula 1000, Tommie Sunshine, and Photek.

FANTOMAS / MELT BANANA split (Unhip) 3" square shaped cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This most definitely has to be the shortest cd we've ever reviewed. And also the smallest. A tiny little two inches by two inches, square shaped cd, clocking in at a whopping two minutes and forty three seconds. Pretty ideal actually for this particular two band, two song match up. Mike Patton and his Fantomas group give us a 44 second Melt-Banana-ish, burst of cartoonish, buzzy, chaotic, short attention span cinematic grind, a brief flurry of staccato downtuned guitar chug and blasts of bizarre vocalization. Melt-Banana go all out timewise with almost two whole minutes of that squeaky, grind pop madness that is so immediately and recognizably Melt Banana. A confusional swirl of MB's usual mind melting ultra complex brutality, with a more than usual bit of melody and harmony intertwined with MB's impossibly dense and serpentine song structures, all chirped indecipherable vocals and rapid fire punk splatter. Short but sweet! Comes in a cool little cardboard sleeve with a tiny full color card affixed to each side.
SUPER LIMITED!! We got a handful of these, not entirely sure we can get more, so once these are gone there's a god chance we'll never be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Animali In Calore Surriscaldati Con Ipertermia Genitale"
MPEG Stream: "Cat In Red"

FAUST Freispiel (Klangbad) cd 17.98
Legendary krautrock band Faust's 30th anniversary is being celebrated with not free pinball and fireworks, but remixes... The remix cd ep that preceeded this was ok, if unneccessary. Here's the full remix album, with one of that Soft Cell guy's mixes from the ep, plus mixes from other mostly Euro electronica folks (Kreidler, Howie B., Surgeon, Funkstorung among them). Dead Voices On Air and, interestingly, The Residents also appear. All the tracks remixed come from Faust's recent (and quite good) Ravvivando album. Our verdict: still unneccessary, and not ok. But at least the remixers aren't violating classic old '70s Faust tracks, like with Can's "Sacrilege" remix project. And electronica fans will find this to be a fine electronica comp, like so many others. But Faust fans aren't going to see any improvement over the originals (not to be expected anyway) OR any other reason to listen to this...it's just uninteresting and predictable. Too bad, 'cause Faust are such an interesting band. If they HAD to do a remix album for their 30th, they should have picked artists with more of their eccentric artistic spirit. We'd be more keen on Reynols or Boredoms remixes, maybe Philip Jeck or Aphex Twin...oh well.

FAUST / NURSE WITH WOUND Disconnected (Dirter) 2lp 42.00
Now on vinyl! The quintessential Krautrock projects - Faust, Can, Guru Guru, Amon Duul, and all things vaguely associated with Conny Plank - had been huge influences on Nurse With Wound's catalogue. So it goes without saying that when Steven Stapleton got the call that Faust wanted him to produce a record of theirs, he enthusiastically leapt at the chance. What he didn't expect was that Faust only passed on a series of sloppy studio improvisations to Stapleton with the instructions to make a Faust album out of them. We can imagine that Jim O'Rourke had been given a similarly loose framework when he was granted the opportunity to produce Rein back in 1995. Just as O'Rourke took those sounds and sculpted an album which was remarkable in its similarity to classic '70s era Faust (e.g. Faust Tapes, Faust IV, So Far, etc.), Stapleton with his trustworthy cohort Colin Potter at his side has crafted an excellent pastiche of that obtuse Faust sound of mutant psychedelia which guided the more experimental proponents of prog rock, industrial, post-punk, and post-rock. Disconnected is filled with dynamic tumbling percussive riffs, rolling acoustic guitar nestled into clouds of vibrating distortion, unsettled sweeping driftwork, and stoned basslines. In other words, Disconnected sounds like a fucking great Faust album.
MPEG Stream: "Lach Miss"
MPEG Stream: "Disconnected"
MPEG Stream: "Tu M'entends?"

FEAR FALLS BURNING Frenzy Of The Absolute (Conspiracy) cd 14.98
Drums are maybe the last thing you might expect to hear on a Fear Falls Burning record, which makes the opening of the new FFB, Frenzy Of The Absolute, all the more fascinating, since it opens with JUST drums, a huge crash, a doomy drum plod all spread out, spacious and spare. But eventually guitars enter the mix, and slowly take over.
Fear Falls Burning is the one man guitardrone project of axeman Dirk Serries, and over the last year has released numerous cds and lps, each filled with his unique take on the otherwise played out doomdronedirge sound. Fear Falls Burning is a much more musical take, no less thick or corrosive or caustic or heavy, but Serries makes his walls of downtuned drone, and whirring buzz, glisten and shimmer, shot through with melody and unlikely texture, about as poppy as a music this un-poppy can get. And it's no different here. Well minus the HUGE difference of having a drummer. Or should we say drummerS! Serries is joined by a series of guests on Frenzy, most notable the drummers from Swedish post-metallers Switchblade and Cult Of Luna.
At first we were worried that adding drums would just turn FFB's ethereal doomic drift into something much more generic and run of the mill, but just the opposite is true. Serries and his guests subtly transform the sound of FFB into something wholly different, the opening track says it all. That sprawling simple, spread out drumming, continues on throughout the first three quarters of the track, pounding away, not pummeling, but pounding, almost delicately if that were even possible, while Serries introduces soft shimmery delicate melodies, that drift dreamily in the background, the whole thing underpinned by a thick, gradually building Niblock like static guitar drone. But that little lullaby like melody, keeps the track from becoming pure dirge. There's way too much space. It's almost like a seriously metallicized and doomed up slowcore band. This is Low covering SUNNO))), a dreamy droney soporific downtuned dreamlike creep.
The guitars thicken, the ambience grows ever more woozy and buzzy, the various swells of distorted buzz, wash in and out, various melodies surface and then drift off, the song slowly transforming into something much blackened and sinister. Until with about 5 minutes left, the track switches gears and becomes a roiling blur of washed out industrial buzz, muted picked apart riffage, processed percussion, the drums slowly surfacing from below, creeping into earshot, like some black beast clawing its way up from the abyss, creating a dirgey sort of Godflesh / Jesu jam, but way more muddy and murky blown out, blurred and soft focused, and somehow still weirdly pretty.
The second track is way more in line with past FFB recordings, huge heaving slabs of buzzing low end, a vast expanse of fluttering, reverberating guitar growl, slow motion swells of whir, peppered with clouds of cymbal shimmer, shooting star streaks of high end, all blearily blurred into one fluid, constantly shifting dronescape. This track too grows in intensity, becoming more cacophonous, more ominous and atonal, a deep black hole of swirling black melody and thick textured guitarscapery. Like a dreamier, blissier Wolf Eyes.
The final track begins like some super charged Spacemen 3 jam, a crumbling distorted space rock riff, doused in delay, the last note allowed to pulse and skitter off into the ether, before the riff re-engages. Over the top, in swoop more layers of guitar buzz, synth sounding whir and warble, all very trancelike and mesmerizing, the drums don't even kick in until near the end, and even then, they just offer up a huge pulse like pound, a skeletal framework for the swirling buzzing blissy blackness above, the drums finally exploding into an actual rhythm with about 2 minutes to go, the guitars soaring into a serious frenzy, suddenly it sounds like the climax of an Explosions In The Sky song AND the finale of a Godspeed song all woven together into one explosive blown out finish.
As much as we love pretty much everything Fear Falls Burning, this record has us hoping this drum thing is not just a one off, but even if it is, we'll dig it while we can.
MPEG Stream: "Frenzy Of The Absolute"
MPEG Stream: "He Contemplates The Sign"

FEAR FALLS BURNING Frenzy Of The Absolute (Conspiracy) 2lp 36.00
Finally in on vinyl, and with one extra track, and one hidden track. That's two more than on the cd, described below:
Drums are maybe the last thing you might expect to hear on a Fear Falls Burning record, which makes the opening of the new FFB, Frenzy Of The Absolute all the more fascinating, since it opens with JUST drums, a huge crash, a doomy drum plod all spread out, spacious and spare. But eventually guitars enter the mix, and slowly take over.
Fear Falls Burning is the one man guitardrone project of axeman Dirk Serries, and over the last year has releases numerous cds and lps, each filled with his unique take on the otherwise played out doomdronedirge sound. Fear Falls Burning is a much more musical take, no less thick or corrosive or caustic or heavy, but Serries makes his walls of downtuned drone, and whirring buzz, glisten and shimmer, shot through with melody and unlikely texture, about as poppy as a music this un-poppy can get. And it's no different here. Well minus the HUGE difference of having a drummer. Or should we say drummerS! Serries is joined by a series of guests on Frenzy, most notable the drummers from Switchblade and Cult Of Luna.
At first we were worried that adding drums would just turn FFB's ethereal doomic drift into something much more generic and run of the mill, but just the opposite is true. Serries and his guests subtly transform the sound of FFB into something wholly different, the opening track says it all. That sprawling simple, spread out drumming, continues on throughout the first three quarters of the track, pounding away, not pummeling, but pounding, almost delicately if that were even possible, while Serries introduces soft shimmery delicate melodies, that drift dreamily in the background, the whole thing underpinned by a thick, gradually building Niblock like static guitar drone. But that little lullaby like melody, keeps the track from becoming pure dirge. There's way too much space. It's almost like a seriously metalicized and doomed up slowcore band. This is Low covering Sunn 0))), a dreamy droney soporific downtuned dreamlike creep.
The guitars thicken, the ambience grows ever more woozy and buzzy, the various swells of distorted buzz, wash in and out, various melodies surface and then drift off, the song slowly transforming into something much blackened and sinister. Until with about 5 minutes left, the track switches gears and becomes a roiling blur of washed out industrial buzz, muted picked apart riffage, processed percussion, the drums slowly surfacing from below, creeping into earshot, like some black beast clawing its way up from the abyss, creating a dirgey sort of Godflesh / Jesu jam, but way more muddy and murky blown out, blurred and soft focused, and somehow still weirdly pretty.
The second track is way more in line with past FFB recordings, huge heaving slabs of buzzing low end, a vast expanse of fluttering, reverberating guitar growl, slow motion swells of whir, peppered with clouds of cymbal shimmer, shooting star streaks of high end, all blearily blurred into one fluid, constantly shifting dronescape. This track too grows in intensity, becoming more cacophonous, more ominous and atonal, a deep black hole of swirling black melody and thick textured guitarscapery. Like a dreamier blissier Wolf Eyes.
The final track begins like some super charged Spacemen 3 jam, a crumbling distorted space rock riff, doused in delay, the last note allowed to pulse and skitter off into the ether, before the riff re-engages. Over the top, in swoop more layers of guitar buzz, synth sounding whir and warble, all very trancelike and mesmerizing, the drums don't even kick in until near the end, and even then, they just offer up a huge pulse like pound, a skeletal framework for the swirling buzzing blissy blackness above, the drums finally exploding into an actual rhythm with about 2 minutes to go, the guitars soaring into a serious frenzy, suddenly it sounds like the climax of an Explosions In The Sky song AND the finale of a Godspeed song all woven together into one explosive blown out finish.
As much as we love pretty much everything Fear Falls Burning, this record has us hoping this drum thing is not just a one off, but even if it is, we'll dig it while we can.
Pressed on 180 gram vinyl and again, includes an extra track AND a hidden bonus track!
MPEG Stream: "Frenzy Of The Absolute"
MPEG Stream: "He Contemplates The Sign"

FEAR FALLS BURNING Once We All Walk Through Solid Objects (Tonefloat) 5lp box 88.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This one has been a long time coming. Especially for us. The long rumored, even longer in the works 5lp Fear Falls Burning collaborative remix collection came out a while back, but when our box arrived from overseas, the box was smashed, and while the lps were all in perfect condition, the outer sleeves were not, so we had to wait patiently for them to make more sleeves, specifically for us, and then pray that the box of new sleeves showed up without also being crushed by the Postal Service.
Well, finally, the box arrived and the new sleeves were as close to perfect as we could hope. And thus we can finally list this ambient guitar drone masterpiece. One of our favorite purveyors of blissed out guitar doomdirgedrone, remixed, reworked and reinterpreted by a bunch of bands that couldn't be more kick ass if we had picked them ourselves!!! And gorgeously packaged to boot!
Let's start with the music. Five lps, twenty minutes a side, over three hours, one band to a side, the source material for each side original recordings by Fear Falls Burning, each artist, adding, removing, remixing, or reimagining the sounds given to them by FFB, the results uniformly gorgeous.
The first side is Bass Communion, who turn FFB's droning guitars into chiming choral blissy bell like tones, which eventually build into thick buzzing Spacemen 3 like drones, but which near the end slip back into whirling soft focus ambient drift. The flip side features Final, the solo guitar project of Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, etc.). Broadrick takes his FFB material and stretches it out into a moody meandering soundscape of layered distorted strum and thick crumbling swells, a lovely slowcore guitar drone, peppered with bits of melancholy melody and subtle harmonies.
The second disc starts off with Freiband, aka Frans De Waard, the most minimal of the bunch, a glistening dark ambience, a slow trawl through fields of ephemeral sonic sparkle and soft drones rumbling way off in the distance. The B side of disc 2 is Harvestman, the solo project of Neurosis' Steve Von Till, and his take on FFB is a haunting dark psychedelia, thick slabs of reverbed guitar allowed to drift through the ether, chunks of almost metallic riffing surface throughout, but are suffused with muted shimmer and soft whispered whirring.
The A side of disc 3 is Campbell Kneale's Birchville Cat Motel, and his FFB source material is transformed into a glorious keening ur-drone, all upper register buzz over a wash of shifting overtones and blurred chordal resonance, like drifting on some ominous black sonic sea, haunting and subtly ominous. The flipside is Byla, featuring one of the guys from Behold The Arctopus, but don't be expecting any weirdo tech metal, nope, the do Fear Falls Burning proud with a wall of grinding feedback that is smeared into a weirdly soothing high end drone, while downtuned guitars warble and pulse, shimmer and drift, abstract melodies floating atop the rumbling low end, like some disembodied Appalachia.
Disc 4's A side is occupied by perennial AQ fave Aidan Baker (Nadja), one of the only collaborators here who added nothing, no extra instruments, used only the original tracks given to him, but the results are just as unique, a mysterious landscape of ghostly echoes and whispered guitars, long stretches of blisssy drift and dark washes of distorted hiss. The B Side is occupied by Johannes Persson, whose track is a sea of big billowy downtuned riffs, reverberating and fading out above buzzy angular riffs, everything washed out and blurred beneath layers of fuzzy rumble, a strangely active ambience, with a bit of twang ala more modern Earth, eventually building to a gorgeous Godspeed like crescendo.
The A side of the final disc features another long time AQ fave, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma of local space drone alchemists Tarentel, who creates a dark murky dronescape rife with subtle glitches, and grinding distorted guitar smeared into smooth swells, a constant droning buzz running throughout, everything effulgent and haloed in glistening otherworldly glimmers, weirdly enough the darkest and most ominous of the bunch. And finally, finishing things off, is 3/4hadbeeneliminated's Stefano Pilia, who unfurls a warm folky drift, with occasional distorted drones surfacing here and there, all washed out sun dappled and so serene, finally building to an epic and intense soft shimmery crescendo.
Needless to say, if you're a fan of Fear Falls Burning, any of the collaborators, or experimental guitar ambience and dark droning drift, this is totally essential.
The packaging is pretty dang deluxe too. Each lp is pressed on ultra thick 180 gram crystal clear vinyl, the liner notes printed on the lp labels, each lp housed in it's own printed PVC sleeve, blue metallic ink, allowing the clear lp to be visible through the blurry blue images and text, all housed in a library / analogue tape style cardboard outer sleeve, printed in full color. So gorgeous.
A note to vinyl obsessives. These are not sealed in plastic. The design is such that the outer sleeve bends and gets damaged easily, so we removed the outer plastic wrap, and inserted a 12" cardboard flat inside the box alongside the lp sleeves, which protect the lps, and keep the outer sleeve from being damaged. And when shipped these will be extra carefully packaged for their arduous journey to your doorstep.
Already sold out and out of print. We have a bunch, but as always, these probably won't be around for long...

FENNESZ / JECK / MATTHEWS Amoroso (Touch) 7" 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Remember that Spire record on Touch a while back? A series of Organ works, by a handful of the usual avant drone suspects: Fennesz, Jeck, Biosphere, Tsunoda, Ambarchi, Watson and othersŠ
Well, this 7" is part of a series of limited eps, based on the Spire recordings. The first we think. And is a tribute to Arvo Part, and to "mystic minimalism". Charles Matthews who was featured on the original Spire recordings, playing the massive pipe organ, is the player here as well, and both Jeck and Fennesz get a side to do what they want with those original sounds.
Fennesz turns the sound of the organ into a minimal whir, gentle washes of grit and whispery buzz, long tones subtly pulsing, deep rich chords, soft swells, gently effected and transformed into haunting alien drones. Those drones infused with melancholic melodies and deep metallic reverberations. Truly mystical and minimal.
Jeck however is much less reverent. Choosing much like he did on the original Spire recording to try something more aggressive, more dark, more noisy, and much less soothing, his side is an almost industrial soundscape or crunch and buzz, the organ's notes transformed into bell like tones, chopped up into jagged melodies, almost like someone is flipping stations, the melody lurching suddenly from note to note, jarring and uneasy, but at the same time hauntingly compelling. The tones are dense and distorted, lots of smeared feedback, thick clouds of pixilated grit and deep droning walls of whir, a super intense and extraordinarily noisy approach from Jeck, something we're definitely interested in hearing much more of in the future.
As always, comes houses in an immediately recognizable Touch style sleeve, with gorgeous Jon Wozencroft photos and design.

FISCHERSPOONER (V/A) The Other Side New York (Time Out) dualdisc 17.98
Here's a novel concept... Why not let Fischerspooner be your tourguide to gettin' around New York City? Those obsessive who-what-where-when mavens at Time Out (makers of those hip city guides that are usually found in magazine and book form) thought it a dandy idea, and have issued a series of three travel guide dualdisc (cd one side, dvd on the other) sets compiled by select taste-makin' startlets from London (Damian Lazarus), Paris (Black Strobe) and New York (Fischerspooner).
The eclectic musical selections are a funfilled romp although they're oddly not limited to New York based artists -- Bloc Party, Fiery Furnaces, Au Pairs, Princess Superstar, Broadcast, David Carretta, Plastique De Reve, Big Boys, Lassigue Bendthaus, Electronicat, Thomas Schumacher, Model 500, Richard Bartz, Martin Rev, Pixeltan and Laurie Anderson. Of course, shrewd businessmen that they are, they also include one of their own in the mix -- a remix of "Emerge".
The dvd side of The Other Side is hosted by Casey Spooner and offers a glimpse of his choice picks around the Big Apple.
MPEG Stream: LASSIGUE BENDTHAUS "Jealous Guy"
MPEG Stream: PLASTIQUE DE REVE "Rodeo Mechanique"

FLAMING LIPS, THE Late Night Tales (Azuli) cd 17.98
For their installment in Azuli Records' Late Night Tales series, Wayne Coyne & Co. have apparently rummaged through their personal record collections and picked out eighteen of their faves. It's somewhat perplexingly and a tiny bit disappointing though 'cause there aren't really any big surprises nor any odd obscurities. The biggest surprise is in just how safe a selection it is -- sorta like one of those old 'As Seen On TV! K-Tel Greatest Hits' compilations. Okay, maybe it's not *that* predictable or mainstream, but see for yourself... Bjork, Radiohead, Nick Drake, Sebadoh, Chemical Brothers, Chris Bell, Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, Psychedelic Furs, Chameleons, Love And Rockets, Roxy Music, Lush, Miles Davis, Mice Parade, Alfie, Faust and 10CC! While this comp does stir up fond memories of those good ol' songs, we might've expected the Lips' to take this opportunity to share some more off-the-radar listening treats by including a couple of challenging curve balls in the mix. In fact, the only things here that comes remotely close to curve balls are Faust's "It's A Bit Of A Pain" and 10CC's "I'm Not In Love". That said, 'Lips fans will surely welcome the band's own contribution to the lot which appears halfway through the album. It's their cover of The White Stripes' tune "Seven Nation Army" (apparently this is the exclusive release of this song on cd, but you might also be able to find it on an unrelated limited edition 7"). A final added bonus on this volume of the Late Night Tales series is the second of five clips from multi-faceted Scotsman David Shrigley's Bits And Bobs.
MPEG Stream: FLAMING LIPS "Seven Nation Army"
MPEG Stream: FAUST "It's A Bit Of A Pain"

FLASKAVSAE / LIGHT SHALL PREVAIL split (E.E.E Recordings) cd 13.98
It's take a couple years and about a million cd-r's, but here it is, the first proper actual cd (not cd-r) release from both of these groups, two of our favorite UN-black metal bands. And for those out of the loop, un-black is another name for white metal, which is another name for Christian black metal, which does indeed seem like an oxymoron, but avid readers of the list by now are well familiar with the sound, and the groups, Glaciial, Agathothodion, Drommer, Elgibbor, Offerblod, Njiqahdda, and of course Flaskavsae and Light Shall Prevail.
LSP is the work of EEE records head honcho W.S. and prolificacy is so extreme, he fronts or is a member of at least 5 different outfits. LSP seems to be his main one and is definitely one of our favorites. Like on past releases, the sound here is a mix of classic grim black metal, and all sorts of fucked up lo-fi production, the core being a relentless buzzing riff, and furious blasting beats, but the sound is wrapped in strange sheets of hiss, and layers of murk and mire, the drum machine is strangely processed, the cymbals unleashing sprawling clouds of hiss, the guitars always buried in varying degrees of fucked up buzz or fuzz, turning riffs into streaks of blurred sound. The first LSP track here offers up a super strange, arpeggiated melody, very sing songy and major key, right in the middle of a roiling sea of blast and buzz. Ends up sounding quite mysterious and haunting. The big change this time around are the vocals, that are a dead ringer for Wrest from Leviathan's hellish corrosive howl, but within LSP, those vokills are simply another layer in the droning hypnotic buzzscapes, and that weird sing songy melodic element resurfaces throughout the other three tracks as well, culminating in the 15 minute closer, a sprawling, woozy and warped black metal, the guitars super blown out and washed out, the sound more of a blurred drone than black metal, even the drums are so static and relentless that they evoke a sense of mesmer as well.
Flaskavsae (a one man band, whose one man plays in Glaciial with Mr. LSP) are a perfect match, a similarly twisted take on (un-)black metal, but instead of speed and aggression, offer up something more depressive and midtempo, the guitars warbly and the distortion crumbling, the drums buried in the mix, except for the cymbals, that like LSP offer up sizzling streaks of hissy sibilance. Even when the songs launch into more furious tempos, something about the sound still manages to remain lugubrious and druggy, the riffs, less insectoid, and more blackened melting psychedelic. The final Flaskavsae track begins with a creepy almost classical sounding circusy melody, over a lurching almost industrial sounding rhythm, before the blackness and buzz seeps up from below, transforming the track into a weird droned out black buzzscape.
Packaged in a super glossy full color digipak.
MPEG Stream: FLASKAVSAE "Hymns Of Praise"
MPEG Stream: LIGHT SHALL PREVAIL "Epicism"

FLASKET BRINNER The Swedish Radio Recordings 1970-1975 (Mellotronen) 4cd 88.00
Thought we'd list this, 'cause we've had one copy for a while that's been sitting up behind/above the counter, alone and unlooked-at, alongside the our other box sets like that ZZ Top "barbeque shack" thing Allan said he'd buy if we didn't sell it by January 1st 2004 (hmm, it's still here...Allan?).
Flasket Brinner were a psychedelic, proggy, symphonic, very jazzy ensemble that featured key members of the '70s Swedish underground rock/jazz scene, and were known for their live performances (being what today might be called a "jam band" I guess). Thus a four-cd box set like this one, collecting their live radio sessions from the early '70s, is quite an appropriate release, presumably long-awaited by fans of the band. Perhaps of special note to AQ-customers is that you'll find featured on about half of this set, the Hammond organ of Bo Hansson! Indeed, these discs include several medleys of material drawn from Hansson's Lord Of The Rings album, plus other Hansson compositions. But Flasket Brinner's collective mood was wide-ranging, from Hansson's Middle Earth vibes to Ennio Morricone to traditional Turkish music to tongue-in-cheek covers of rock staples like "Wild Thing". Bewarned: you've gotta like extended jamming, and flutes and sax, to get into this. The box includes a big booklet full of photos and text, with notes on each session and song, along with a history of the band and an exhaustive discography of recordings by the various band members that makes it seem likely that Flasket Brinner alumni played on almost every cool record released in Sweden in the '70s, including LPs by such AQ faves as Algarnas Tradgard and Turid.
MPEG Stream: "Gunnars Dilemma"
MPEG Stream: "Lothlorien"

FORESHADOW No. 3 magazine + 2cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Attention doomsters! Doom metal alert! From Poland, one of the doomiest of all doom magazines we've ever seen. Interviews with and articles about Esoteric, Mournful Congregation, Spiritus Mortis, Swallow The Sun, Pantheist, My Shameful, Runemagick, Nadja, Until Death Overtakes Me and loads more! The best thing about this is that there's lots of cd-r and demo reviews of bands even we have never heard of, but now have to try and track down. Thankfully this 'zine also comes with a double cd-r (packaged in a DVD style case) with tracks from Moss, Skepticism, Swallow The Sun, Mournful Congregation, Mirror Of Deception, Unsilence, Dark Embrace, Chamber Of Sorrows, Cambian Dawn, Centurions Ghost, Nadja, Dysperium, Enoch, Forever Autumn, Stone Wings, The Gates Of Slumber, Tefra, Until Death Overtakes Me, Souls Entwined, Solicide, and Troglodyte Dawn (great name!).

FORREST, JASON / DONNA SUMMER Mastadon Razor / 100% Goodiepal (LJUD) 7" 9.98

FOUR TET DJ Kicks (Studio K7) cd 17.98
Most DJ mix cd's end up leaving us a bit cold. Either the selections are too obvious, or the need to scratch and make it "funky" kind of kills the mood and wastes the good tracks that might be there. But leave it to Kieren Hebden (aka Four Tet) to get it just right! We would kill to walk into a club to find him behind the decks. Especially if this is the stuff that was flowing from the speakers. His taste is pretty damn immaculate and refreshingly varied as well. Starting off with the avant pioneer David Behrman (cofounder of Sonic Arts Union) and along the way dipping into everything from Heldon, Curtis Mayfield, Gong, Madvillian, Cabaret Voltaire, Heiner Stadler, Stereolab and so much more. Like the best DJ's, Hebden is a master of timing, pacing and flow. Seamlessly spinning from an early '80s electro jam to a classic Nonesuch explorer series track from Zimbabwe like they were always meant to be side by side. Keeping your body twitching and your synapses firing... what else could you want from a DJ? Highly recommended!!!
MPEG Stream: "Les Soucoupes Volantes Vertes (Heldon)"
MPEG Stream: "Taireva (Shona People Of Rhodesia)"
MPEG Stream: "Leapday Night, Scene 1 (David Behrman)"

FREAK SCENE, THE / THE DEVIL'S ANVIL Psychedelic Psoul / Hard Rock From The Middle East (Collectables) cd 15.98
In light of recent events, we figured that this reissue of "Hard Rock From the Middle East" would make a great choice for record of the week...no, we don't mean 'cause of the current war, we mean because of the popularity of the "Turkish Delights" and "Hava Narghile" compilations 'round these parts. We've been super-into those collections of fuzzed-out '60s Middle Eastern psych-rock this year, as are quite a few of you, judging by their still-booming sales. So, when we recently discovered this 1998 cd that contains the reissued The Devil's Anvil album, it quickly became a favorite at AQ.
The cover art shows the band hangin' in the desert in front of the pyramids of Egypt -- but don't be fooled, they were actually mostly Arab-Americans, based in New York City. Still, their rock n' roll was as authentically "Middle Eastern" as their Turkish contemporaries. They could have held their own with the likes of Erkin Koray and Mogollar.
Ok, now we'd better explain about this particular cd (pay attention, it gets kinda confusing): Sony's Collectables has reissued two long-out-of-print 1967 albums by two totally different bands on *one* disc. The bands are tenuously connected through the friendship of The Freak Scene's Rusty Evans and Felix Pappalardi of The Devil's Anvil, as the two had played together four years previous. Okay, so maybe it's a bit of a stretch putting these two albums together on one disc. Whatever. The real treasure here is The Devil's Anvil album.
The Devil's Anvil got together in the happenin' mid sixties Greenwich Village scene, playing their Middle Eastern influenced music at folk cafes and rock clubs. Eventually they hooked up with classical musician-turned-rocker Felix Pappalardi (producer of Cream's "Disraeli Gears", later to play alongside Leslie West in Mountain). He began playing bass with the band and eventually scored the group a record deal. The resulting album was truly one-of-a-kind and would certainly made greater impact had it not been released on the very eve of the Arab-Israeli war in 1967. Thus, no New York radio stations would play it and unfortunately the album has remained an expensive collector's find until now.
The rock contained herein is absolutely kick ass, with bluesy and impassioned Arabic vocals, electric (or at least amplified) oud, bouzouki, tamboura, durbeki as well as the usual rock suspects of (fuzz!) guitar, bass and drums. The majority of the tracks here are either rock arrangements of traditional Middle Eastern and Greek numbers or original compositions, but a couple are actually straight traditional numbers with no western instruments at all. Plus there's an excellent Middle Eastern-esque rock arangement of "Misirlou" that's perhaps the best version ever recorded, IMHO. And the record ends with a Devil's Anvil original that kinda reminds us of one of the Beatles' more Eastern-influenced tunes. This is about as good as it gets. Even if the Freak Scene album doesn't interest you at all, this cd is still worth buying for The Devil's Anvil alone. Very, very highly recommended! Nay, ESSENTIAL.
(As for The Freak Scene -- you might guess from that band's name and album title, The Freak Scene were a bit of a psychedelic-era novelty, a studio project put together by producer/songwriter Evans for CBS Records. The record exploits all of the trippy tropes of the times, from Eastern-raga modes to LSD-inspired lyrics. It's no classic, but does include at least one truly great psych-pop track, the Nuggets-worthy "A Million Grains of Sand". The Freak Scene also indulges in dated but amusing free-form sound-collage experiments like "...When In The Course of Human Events (Draft Beer, Not Students)" which tries to make a statement about the whole sixties counterculture vibe. It's a mix of Pete Seeger, Laugh-In, an LSD party -- Vietnam-era pop culture hippie kitsch -- consider it a free bonus that comes with The Devil's Anvil album.)
RealAudio clip: THE DEVIL'S ANVIL "Wala Dai"
RealAudio clip: THE DEVIL'S ANVIL "Shisheler"
RealAudio clip: THE DEVIL'S ANVIL "Hala Laya"
RealAudio clip: THE DEVIL'S ANVIL "Basaha"
RealAudio clip: THE FREAK SCENE "Draft Beer, Not Students"
RealAudio clip: THE FREAK SCENE "A Million Grains of Sand"
RealAudio clip: THE FREAK SCENE "My Rainbow Life"

FROGSKIN / TAUNT Squirm / B.L.K. (Streaks Records) 7" 14.98

FUCKING AM, THE Gold (Drag City) cd 14.98
A couple years ago there was Trans Champs, now it's The Fucking Am. That's right, it's the second occurance of the unholy union of two bands whose identity you've hopefully figured out already. It's a good thing too, 'cause as you may or may not know, The Fucking Champs are down to just drummer Tim Soete and guitarist Tim Green after guitarist Josh Smith retired from their ranks a while back...and we weren't sure what Tim and Tim were gonna do without Josh in the band anymore. Actually we're still not sure, but at least they are keeping the Champs spirit alive with this project, which (although the Trans Am folks outnumber the Champs members) seems rather more Champsish than Transamy. First Trans Am record maybe. Anyway, Gold is an album of mostly instrumentals, a post-rock/prog/cock-rock concoction that finds the common ground betwixt the two parent bands and that means a lot of Thin Lizzy and a little bit of Kraftwerk/video game music, plus some of the Krautrocky psychedelia of Tim Green's Concentrick project as well... Tracks vary as widely as from the very '70s bar-rock blare of vocal number "Taking Liberties" to the lovely, folky jamming of "Acoustico Gomez" (one of the album-closing "Gomez" trilogy), but things seem rather more purposeful and fully realized than on these guys' initial ep collaboration (maybe 'cause for the Champs duo anyway, this was suddenly not really "just" a side project, but basically their next record?). So fans of either band ought to give this one a try. Hopefully this "group" will continue to work together...if so, next time, will it be The Transfucking Amchamps? Or, how 'bout the Amping Champ Trans Fucks?
MPEG Stream: "Bad Leg"
MPEG Stream: "The Gauntlet"

FUCKING AM, THE Gold (Drag City) lp 14.98
A couple years ago there was Trans Champs, now it's The Fucking Am. That's right, it's the second occurance of the unholy union of two bands whose identity you've hopefully figured out already. It's a good thing too, 'cause as you may or may not know, The Fucking Champs are down to just drummer Tim Soete and guitarist Tim Green after guitarist Josh Smith retired from their ranks a while back...and we weren't sure what Tim and Tim were gonna do without Josh in the band anymore. Actually we're still not sure, but at least they are keeping the Champs spirit alive with this project, which (although the Trans Am folks outnumber the Champs members) seems rather more Champsish than Transamy. First Trans Am record maybe. Anyway, Gold is an album of mostly instrumentals, a post-rock/prog/cock-rock concoction that finds the common ground betwixt the two parent bands and that means a lot of Thin Lizzy and a little bit of Kraftwerk/video game music, plus some of the Krautrocky psychedelia of Tim Green's Concentrick project as well... Tracks vary as widely as from the very '70s bar-rock blare of vocal number "Taking Liberties" to the lovely, folky jamming of "Acoustico Gomez" (one of the album-closing "Gomez" trilogy), but things seem rather more purposeful and fully realized than on these guys' initial ep collaboration (maybe 'cause for the Champs duo anyway, this was suddenly not really "just" a side project, but basically their next record?). So fans of either band ought to give this one a try. Hopefully this "group" will continue to work together...if so, next time, will it be The Transfucking Amchamps? Or, how 'bout the Amping Champ Trans Fucks?
MPEG Stream: "Bad Leg"
MPEG Stream: "The Gauntlet"

FUNKMASTER FLEX 60 Minutes of Funk, Volume IV: The Mix Tape (Loud) cd 17.98

FURZE Trident Autocrat (Apocalyptic Empire) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We haven't had these in ages, but since Furze is some of our favorite far out black metal EVER, we figured we oughta relist it since we just now managed to get some more copies (and we might not be able to get any more after this as the label is pretty much sold out!). Here's how much we love this stuff (from when we listed it the first time a few years back):
Everybody went so nuts for the newest Furze record we listed recently we figured we oughta track down the first one as well. And it's just as freaked out and damaged and totally brilliant. Unlike the weird droning doom of Necromanzee Cogent, Trident Autocrat is all black metal. But that doesn't mean it's not as bizarre, because it most definitely is. The song titles again are totally perplexing: "Zaredoo Knives Endows Thy Sight", "Devacamo Possessed Black", "Witchboundator", "Scolopendraarise" and the lyrics and imagery are quite ridiculous as well. The logo, which features three witches brooms and the slogan: "Trident Black Metal Feast", the back of the record that features a long exposure swirl of light in a spooky hallway, and lines like "The overall vibration of the preacher, The way of sneaking teeth and hypocrisy, It's the destruction ritual of the holy trinity" all combine to form the perfect framework for one of the coolest weirdest black metal records ever. All the BM hallmarks are present, buzzing riffs, growled vocals, chaotic lightning speed bast beats, but the black metal of Furze turns these seemingly typical elements into completely insane musical madness. The growling vocals squirm and morph from demonic growl, to howled distant anguish, heavily reverbed as if they were being recorded at the bottom of a well, to maniacal gremlin like chatter, and creepy cartoony chanting. The riffs, are super affected and sometimes sound totally heavy, sometimes completely brittle, lo-fi and tinny one minute, buzzing and snarling the next. The most surprising thing is how damn catchy some of these riffs are. The first song has been stuck in my head like crazy, and unlike most black metal, you'll no doubt find yourself humming along. Only a half hour long, but so much wonderful weirdness is crammed into those 30 minutes you definitely won't be left wanting.
MPEG Stream: "Zaredoo Knives Endows Thy Sight"
MPEG Stream: "Devacamo Possessed Black"

FUXA / ECTOGRAM Fuxa vs Ectogram (Ochre) cd 14.98
A split release between the two bands. Fuxa's entry is what you've come to expect, long drawn out melodic post-rock with vintage synth action. Welsh group Ectogram's contribution is the reason to buy this disc -- their repetitive groove will remind you of Stereolab, and the sing-song-y fragile female vocals sound ever so much like Pram. It's nice, if a bit pricey for 2 tracks.
RealAudio clip: ECTOGRAM "Opal soft green kumquat of the sun"

GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER #6 (Drag City) magazine + 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Plastic Crimewave's immense, amazing psychedelic music zine (almost also a comic book 'cause it's all hand lettered and drawn, and does indeed include some underground comix, as well as a feature on "psychedelic superheroes"), the one and only Galactic Zoo Dossier, returns with issue number six!! This time, you'll find interviews with quite an odd/interesting assortment of folks: Vanilla Fudge, Keith Rowe (ex-AMM), John Renbourn, and Pip Proud. Plus features and bits on psychsters old and new and heavy and obscure including Acid Mothers Temple, Debris, Stackwaddy, Rodriguez, Edgar Broughton, Uriah Heep, The Lemon Drops, Exuma, The Outsiders, etc.
And, beyond the 'zine, you get the second set of Crimewave illustrated "Damaged Guitar Gods" trading cards -- including John DuCann (Atomic Rooster), Michael Yonkers, Wally Gonzalez (Juan De La Cruz), Davy Graham, Dorothy & Helen Wiggins (The Shaggs), Erik Brann (Iron Butterfly), Erkin Koray, BoAnders Persson (Trad Gras Och Stenar) and dozens more. Pretty darn cool. Plus, that's not all: there's also a freakin' double cd compilation entitled Ascension Days When We Rise: Ultra-Rare Avant/Psych/Garage 1960's-1990. It features Acid Mothers Temple, The Heads, Six Organs Of Admittance, Miminokoto, The Hototogisu, Oneida, Michael Karoli, and a bunch more, some we've never heard of before but are eager to check out. This 'zine is just such a "turn on" regarding the underground sounds obsessed about within. Something about everything in the magazine being handwritten not only gives it more of an organic, '60s psych vibe but also utterly underscores how much of a labor of love this is, just how incredibly ENTHUSIASTIC Plastic Crimewave and Co. are about this stuff. Right on.

GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER #7 (Drag City) magazine + 2cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yay! It's another gigantic, illustrated issue of Galactic Zoo Dossier, all hand-drawn and lettered, always a treat for those into psychedelic rock and weird folk and underground comix and that whole scene, which is like, most AQ customers. The 100+ pages include interviews with the Incredible String Band's Clive Palmer, Ed Askew, Gary Panter, Kevin Coyne, Mammatus, Residual Echoes, etc.
Also features on The Stooges, Chicago funk mob Rasputin's Stash, psychedelic soul, The Nice, hippie horror flicks, Giorgio Moroder, the British acid blues underground, Sonny Bono, Tiny Tim and tons more... and a hall of fame of "Dark Psychedelic Classics" including LPs by Crushed Butler, Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come, and Billy Joel's Attila (yes!).
Plus, several more sheafs of GZD's trademark trading cards, 72 cards in all, this time divided between "Astral Folk Godesses" such as Brigitte Fontaine and Kim Jung Mi and "Damaged Guitar Gods" (Set Three), examples being Vincent McAllister and Martin Pugh...
AND, this comes with not one but TWO bonus cds as the soundtrack to this issue. One of 'em, entitled Teenage Meadows Of Infinity, is stuffed with "rare psychs and stomps" from both bonafide psychedelic heroes and unknown obscurities of the past, among them The Stooges, Blossom Toes, Gollum and Teska Industrua. The other disc, From The Ashes Perfect Attainment Shall Be, consists of "modern freaked sounds" from the likes of Vincent Black Shadow, Acid Mothers Temple, Plastic Crimewave, Ed Askew, Devendra Banhart, Charalambides, and more!
Good grief. Mindblowing.

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR / DEMARNIA LLOYD (Roof Bolt) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Both Kiwis, Alastair strums the guitar while Demarnia sings all breathy-like.

GARETH HARDWICK / TAIGA REMAINS split (Low Point) 10" 12.98
Another split record featuring two aQ faves, each offering up a sidelong slab of dreamy dronemusic, with each giving it their own subtle twist.
Taiga Remains, aka Alex Cobb, head honcho of the Students Of Decay label, unleashes a deep reverberant drone, all shimmery metallics and soft low end swells. As the track progresses though, the sounds gets more and more dense, thickening, sprawling, becoming more ominous, the bass deepening, within this viscous flow, lurk buried melodies, steel string buzz, super deep melodic rumbles that surface like some massive sea creature before slipping back under. Near the end the sound becomes almost orchestral before finally flickering out.
Gareth Hardwick takes the other side, and his sound is much more tranquil and gentle than the Taiga side, but still similar, almost like the same piece, just stripped to its essence, warm languid layers drifting to and fro, unfurling a soft slow motion melody, melancholy and wistful. About halfway through, electric guitars join in, pulsing and buzzing over the soft shimmery drift, adding an ominous edge, layer upon layer, constantly shifting, overtones appearing and disappearing, the whole thing warm and thick and mesmerizing. Almost metallic but managing to remain somehow soporific and soothing.
Pressed on ultra thick vinyl, housed in a plain green sleeve, and VERY VERY LIMITED!

GENERAL B / RAEGAN My Fans / Couchie (Killa) 7" 2.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hip hop remix.

GENERAL SURGERY / THE COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINERS Split (Razorback) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GENGHIS TRON Remixed (Temporary Residence) 12" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
First in a series of remix 12"s, each being released on a different label, each with a different collection of uber cool remixers, all tackling various songs from recent aQ highlight, Genghis Tron's Board Up The House. Off to a pretty good start with volume one, just check out the remixers: Justin Broadrick from Jesu, Steve Moore of Zombi, Eluvium and of course Mr. Rob Crow of Pinback and Heavy Vegetable.
First up is Steve Moore and as we might have expected (and hoped), he gets all Goblin / Heldon on our asses, transforming the original into some awesomely creepy and cheesy eighties soundtrack, all murky sci -fi synths and old school drum machine pulse, haunting and cinematic, definitely evokes all sorts of gruesome and scary images and ideas, why isn't this guy scoring movies??? This may be a GT remix, but boy it sure just sound like Zombi. Who's complaining?
Broadrick steps up next and takes a clunky chunky rhythm and chops it up a bit, loops it into a strange mechanized lurch, wrapping the whole thing in thick streaks of Jesu like fuzz, taking the vocals and drenching them in effects and burying them in the mix, adds in some soaring strings, streaks of feedback, and we're definitely in some metal bliss territory, the second half gets a bit heavier, much more doomy and ominous, but still quite shimmery and dreamlike.
On the flipside, Rob Crow tries his hand at a GT remix, and his ends up being the most schizophrenic of the bunch, mangling it into super strange shapes, stripping away all the metal guitars, adding acoustic strumming, only to flip it around and have it all come crashing back down, draping the vocals over some weird bloopy electronics, pulling up the drums, turning it all tribal, before letting it explode back into some face melting crunch. It's almost like they pumped Crow full of caffeine and let him loose in the control room where he proceeded to go nuts with the faders while they were mixing, but it sound pretty excellent.
Finally, GT transformed into deep shimmering dark ambience, fuzzy and gauzy and washed out and expansive, hushed melodic blur, over deep soft swells, eventually building to something a bit heavier and blissier, almost sounding more like a Jesu mix than the Jesu mix, or maybe more of a soft Sunroof! Either way, quite nice.
Pressed on cool grey and gold swirled vinyl, and SUPER DUPER LIMITED. We only got a fraction of the copies we ordered, so these will probably be gone soon.

GESEWA / UTTER BASTARD Rising Sun Fuckers / Kusottare Yankee (Bloodbath) cd 9.98
As much as some of us love grind, we definitely don't get enough grind on the list. This split cd, released we think to coincide with a Japanese tour, features unknown to us until now Japanese grinders Gesewa, and SF grindlords Utter Bastard, who since have broken up, but who happen to feature aQ pal Roberto behind the kit.
Gesewa definitely hit the spot, the songs mostly clocking in at less than 30 seconds, aren't so much blazing fast, although there are bursts of extreme grind, instead, Gesewa are of the weirdo, pounding metallic what-the-fuck school of grind, sharing more in common with say Bathtub Shitter than Unholy Grave. Lurching start stop arrangements, plenty of D-beat pound, wild hysterical dueling vocals, one grunty and low, the other shrieky and high, the guitars downtuned and chuggy, plenty of buzz and chaotic noise drenched thrashing, pretty awesome stuff.
Utter Bastard are much more technical and heavy than their twisted and bizarre Japanese compatriots, and tend toward a more classical grind sound, pounding and relentless, the guitars frenzied and furious, the drums pounding and blasting, with mathy complex arrangements, but UB too offer up some bizarre dueling vocals, only here and there, but for the most part, they chug and churn, spewing out some seriously crusty classic American grind. Rad stuff for sure. Too bad they're no more.
Beautifully designed cd as well, super striking layout, with liner notes and lyrics inside.
MPEG Stream: GESEWA "Gesewa"
MPEG Stream: GESEWA "Eikounohibi"
MPEG Stream: GESEWA "Watarase Suicide"
MPEG Stream: UTTER BASTARD "Morning Broke"
MPEG Stream: UTTER BASTARD "Broke Down Man"

GESSESSE, TLAHOUN Ethiopiques Vol. 17 (Buda Musique) cd 15.98
Okay, I know that the general consensus from people seems to be that the Mulatu Astatke disc (Ethiopiques #4) is the best in the Ethiopiques series. And yeah, it's a great disc. But to really experience the zenith of Ethiopian popular music from the golden era you really gotta have the vocals. The workouts these singers put their vocal chords through are as unbelievable as they are beautiful. Case in point is Tlahoun Gessesse. And we are thankfully blessed with a full CD of his passionately yodelled Ethiopian funk groove. Gesesse was the most popular Ethiopian singer of the times -- bigger than Mahmoud Ahmed, Alemayehu Eshete or any other singers. So great was his vocal stature that he was dubbed "The Voice". Pretty much says it all. And well applied the title is; his vocal control is insane, wavering vibrato all over the place and melisma stacked upon melisma. To boot he's backed by the best in the business: the Body Guard Band, All Star Band, Exhibition Band and Army Band. The usual arrangements of guitar, bass, drums, percussion, horns, piano and incredibly strange organs play the most haunting accompaniment to Gessesse's impassioned vocals. And for what its worth, several of the tracks here were even arranged by Mulatu Astatke. Though Gessesse's career dates back to the fifties, the recordings included here are all from the early seventies. Included is a 30 page booklet with biographical notes, photos (including a two page spread of 45 jackets) and lyrics. This one comes highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Aykedashem Lebe"
MPEG Stream: "Sethed Seketelet"

GHAST / RAPE-X Split (Obskure Sombre) cd 11.98
In stock again, some seriously grim blacknoise weirdness...
We first heard from Ghast on their split with Yoga, we were pretty obsessed with both bands and have been on the hunt for more from both ever since.
So Ghast have returned, on yet another split, offering up two more loooong tracks of their unique not-quite-doom, a dirgey crawl, that spends as much time shimmering and buzzing as it does pounding and lumbering. The opener here is 21 minutes of grinding corrosive soft buzz, think Tunnels, Wolf Eyes, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, that sort of thing, deep whirring low end, drifting beneath clouds of metallic buzz, plenty of fuzz and hiss, beneath it all, there does seem to be some sort of thick tarpit like riffing, but it's WAY down, more like a distant drone than anything overtly metal, but it does lend the track a serious sense of dread and foreboding, as if any second the track might splinter into pieces and explode into crushing doom, but it never does, instead ratcheting up the tension, like the soundtrack to some super abstract foreign horror film. An actual rhythm dose seem to develop, but it's cobbled together using hissy white noise, ominous whirring synths, buried and blurred vocals, and a super drawn out low end melody, creeping and creeping before the low end drops out leaving just a sea of high end electrical buzz, and weirdly enough the sound of sheep (!). The second track clocks in at nearly 12 minutes, and again, is more ambient than anything, bits of crackle, melted tape loops, field recordings, processed electronics, all blurred into a strange undulating drone, peppered with fragments of melody, some buried riffing, which finally crawls up from the murk, and the band, for the first time in nearly half an hour, launch into some lurching lumbering doom. But the sound is not massive or crushing, instead, it remains murky and muted, more bass heavy than anything, if there is guitar it's tuned WAY down and is locked in with the rumbling bass, the rhythm mechanical and machinelike, with a definite industrial vibe, the track slipping into brief stretches of ambient drone-like shimmer, before the band lurches back into action, pounding away, stripped down, but still heavy and doomy and mysteriously grim.
Rape-X existed until now, as an MP3 file someone sent us a looong time ago, a half hour slab of blown out metalnoise, industrial drone weirdness. We'd notice it on the computer every once in a while and fire it up, and always think, "wow, this is pretty great, I wonder when they'll have a record". Well here it is. And Rape-X is a pretty good match for Ghast, seeing as they traffic in a similarly abstract doomy ambience, falling closer to Wolf Eyes or Blue Sabbath Black Cheer than any classic sort of doom. The vocals are huge part of the sound, and are harsh and super processed, demonic and maniacal sounding, giving the track a bit of a Whitehouse feel, ranting and proselytizing over a constantly shifting backdrop of blackened noise and droning harsh ambience. A glorious metallic cacophony, wreathed in hiss and skree, a bit like a way more static Sunroof!, the sound roiling and churning below the surface like some rough black sea, while that hellish voice continues to testify, the unholy scripture from some lost black gospel.
Caveat Emptor, though: these have a pressing defect, it's minor, but it's definitely noticeable. The band was contacted about it, but apparently there's some bad blood with the label, so there will never be a new, corrected version, so we figured we would list it anyway, since otherwise it's pretty amazing, and the defect is so slight. Basically, the problem is, there's a digitial click at the beginning of each track. Annoying, distracting, yes, but it doesn't affect the songs themselves, so if you can handle that (you can also edit out the clicks yourself on your computer when you import it into your iTunes or whatever), then by all means pick this up, some seriously abject and harrowing doom-ed blacknoize.
MPEG Stream: GHAST "Tetanos"
MPEG Stream: RAPE-X "Civil Servant: I The Cop"

GHAST / YOGA split (TDS / Choking Hazard) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yoga is a pretty unlikely name for a black metal band. But then Yoga are a pretty unlikely sounding black metal band. So much so that we're not even sure they really are black metal. Or metal. But they are. Sort of.
The sound of Yoga takes the lo-fi practice space recordings of grimmest of the BM outfits, and combines it with the murky muddy noise drenched blur of bands like Wold. But then take it even further rendering their sound so muted and lo fidelity that even when they're blasting furiously, it still sounds like a busted music box or an old black metal 78. And then there's the fact that Yoga spend a good amount of their time not blasting blackly, but instead, crafting synth heavy Goblin style film music, all throbbing bass and buzzing synths, creepy minor key melodies and tons of haunting ambience. Those songs too are wreathed in a foggy night-on-the-moors sort of murk, which ties those songs closely to the more blackened ones.
The strange combination of grim and Goblin, the tripped out fucked up recording quality, the damaged arrangements, the looped hypnotic quality, turn Yoga into something totally out there, most likely way to abstract and psychedelic and deliriously lo-fi to appeal to folks looking for grim buzzing blackness, but for the rest of you, if you can try to imagine some impossible mix of Philip Jeck, Wold, Goblin, the Skaters and some of the super weird EEE unblack bands, all produced by John Maus and Ariel Pink, then you will flip for this.
The other band on this split, Ghast, are also not at all typical black metal, although they are much more distinctly metal than Yoga. Their sound is a super spare, slow motion blackened doom, still plenty lo-fi, the drums murky and down in the mix, the guitars more of a distant moan, sometimes soaring to the forefront, before drifting off again, the vocals super distorted and effected and harsh. All around this plodding blackness, creepy drones soar and shimmer, wail and keen, offering up a mournful abstract backdrop for Ghast's miserablist blackdoom. There's also a live track, where Ghast's sound is transformed into a crumbling blown out blackened drone, sounding almost like a metal band playing from behind a brick wall, the whole thing captured using a mic in a bucket of dirty water. The result is pretty fantastic, only the drums are at all identifiable, and then just barely, all the other instruments have been transformed into a mesmerizingly damaged, murky, muddy, sludgey pulsing drone. Awesome.
We got these direct from the band, and got the last copies, so once we run out, we might not be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: GHAST "La Noche Del Terror Ciego"
MPEG Stream: YOGA "Deep With-in The Cave Of Sesame"
MPEG Stream: YOGA "Littlefoot"

GHOSTING / BONECLOUD Catch Waves / Campfire (Yarnlazer) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
How awesome is the name Yarn Lazer?! If it wasn't already the name of this killer cd-r label, it would definitely be the name of my band, or my restaurant, or maybe my first born!! This is a super limited split between Portland drone ensemble Ghosting, a band AQ folks just can't seem to get enough of, and Irish stoned drone ensemble Bonecloud (also a possible name for the first born btw!).
Ghosting pretty much sound like their name. Their sound is a drone based wander through a ghost town, or better yet, a ghost world, the sound of floating wraithlike through a moonlit landscape, dreamlike and indistinct. Lovely but slightly ominous. Completely mesmerizing.
Bonecloud offer up their own sonic ghostworld, beginning as a shimmery high end drone, before slowly devolving into a murky subterranean crawl, muted voices, buzzing strings, thick whirs and pulsing white noise, all wrapped in a druggy fug and left to drift through along some Stygian stream, a dense murky fog, wrapping your head in muted fuzz and filling your ears with a warm thick sonic syrup. A bit like a modern day, lo-fi, cd-r Taj Mahal Travellers!
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!! Packaged in screen
printed and spray painted sleeves with a photocopied insert.
MPEG Stream: GHOSTING "Catch Waves"
MPEG Stream: BONECLOUD "Campfire"

GHOSTING / ROBEDOOR Split (Not Not Fun) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two AQ faves together for the first time: Portland Oregon's Ghosting and L.A.'s Robedoor.
Been a little while since we've heard from Ghosting and it's mighty fine to have them back. Their half of the split begins with warm whirring drones beneath buzzing and scraping steel strings, intense and dramatic, and maybe a bit more aggressive than their usual sound. The track grows in intensity, the drones becoming thicker and thicker, eventually becoming an almost Sunroof! style roar, swallowing up any of the drifting melodies completely.
Robedoor, a recent discovery, and a new favorite for sure, counter with what might be their -prettiest- track yet. Very serene, warm swells in the distance, strange submerged rhythms, silver streaks of muted feedback, moaned melodies way down in the mix, the whole thing crawling and slithering darkly through buzzy blurry murky cloud of sound.
Gorgeous packaging, hand screened, one side artfully torn, limited to 325 copies, each sleeve hand numbered, pressed on black streaked white vinyl. Nice!

GHQ / EX-COCAINE split (Not Not Fun) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GIBBS, JOE Love Of The Common People Anthology 1967-1979 (Trojan) 2cd 22.00
Double cd anthology of rocksteady and reggae tracks from producer Joe Gibbs. Gibbs started his career with a bang, recording Lyn Taitt & the Jets "Hold Them" in 1967 -- a song that would later be hailed as the first rocksteady release. Gibbs had the good fortune to secure the talents of Lee Perry to be the first engineer for his label (Perry had worked on Gibbs' first single while working for the studio that Gibbs had hired to record it) and when Perry left he was quick to hire Niney The Observer to take his place. Gibbs' reputation increased rapidly in his first years, enough to secure European distribution through Island in 1968 and by the mid seventies his success in producing tracks that would prove popular with both Jamaican and European audiences earned him enough to build a small recording empire replete with a 16 track recording studio and pressing plant. Featuring an impressivve roster of tracks by Lee Perry, The Pioneers, Sir Lord Comic, Peter Tosh, The Heptones, U Roy, Delroy Wilson, Dennis Brown, Big Youth, I Roy, Prince Far I, and much more. Also includes very complete bio liner notes.
RealAudio clip: SHIRLEY, ROY "Hold Them"
RealAudio clip: THOMAS, NICKY "Love Of The Common People"
RealAudio clip: BROWN, DENNIS "Money In My Pocket"