GIBBS, JOE Productions (Soul Jazz) cd 21.00
Collection of Joe Gibbs productions from the late seventies and early eighties tracing the evolution of dancehall and Gibbs' role within it. Working with Sly & Robbie and their group (under Gibbs they were known as the Professionals) Gibbs produced a number of successful tracks and, more importantly, helped establish a modus operandi which would become de rigeur among producers through the eighties on to the present. Most importantly, inspired by Bunny Lee, was the concept of the recycled rhythm -- done to save money (no need to come up with and rehearse a new rhythm, hoping it would become a hit) -- the bulk of which initially came from classic Studio One tracks. Another was the requisite dub side for every single released. While Bunny used King Tubby, Gibbs went to Errol Thompson. Soul Jazz has culled together 19 tracks, both classic and rare, typifing the Gibbs production sound from his most successful period. Included are classics like Culture's "Two Sevens Clash", Junior Murvin's "Cool Out Son", oddballs like the Joe Gibbs & The Professionals sound effects laden dub "Massive Fire" and the troll like vocal track "Dreader Mafia" by Snuffy And Wally. Includes a 14 page booklet of liner notes and historic photos.
MPEG Stream: JOE GIBBS & THE PROFESSIONALS "Massive Fire"
MPEG Stream: CULTURE "Two Sevens Clash"

GIBBS, JOE Productions (Soul Jazz) 2lp 24.00
Collection of Joe Gibbs productions from the late seventies and early eighties tracing the evolution of dancehall and Gibbs' role within it. Working with Sly & Robbie and their group (under Gibbs they were known as the Professionals) Gibbs produced a number of successful tracks and, more importantly, helped establish a modus operandi which would become de rigeur among producers through the eighties on to the present. Most importantly, inspired by Bunny Lee, was the concept of the recycled rhythm -- done to save money (no need to come up with and rehearse a new rhythm, hoping it would become a hit) -- the bulk of which initially came from classic Studio One tracks. Another was the requisite dub side for every single released. While Bunny used King Tubby, Gibbs went to Errol Thompson. Soul Jazz has culled together 19 tracks, both classic and rare, typifing the Gibbs production sound from his most successful period. Included are classics like Culture's "Two Sevens Clash", Junior Murvin's "Cool Out Son", oddballs like the Joe Gibbs & The Professionals sound effects laden dub "Massive Fire" and the troll like vocal track "Dreader Mafia" by Snuffy And Wally. Includes a 14 page booklet of liner notes and historic photos.

GIFFONI, CARLOS / THE RITA Two On A Match (No Fun Productions) 2lp 25.00
By all accounts, this double LP of pure brutality finds the Canadian noise outfit The Rita remixing source sounds from Brooklyn noise king Carlos Giffoni and vice versa. In the press release for this album, The Rita's Sam McKinlay offers a cogent argument about the aesthetic differences which stem from The Rita's 'dirty' methods of overdriving sound through daisy-chains of pedals contrasted against Carlos Giffoni's pulsing synths which cruise beneath the turbulent noise surfaces. While there are some notable differences on both of these pieces of vinyl, they are secondary to the overwhelmingly harsh noise which persists throughout. This is all about the noise, and this noise is an abject, blackened sound which has the feeling of particulate soot from a very dirty coal power plant given to the force of a sandblaster used not on a brickwall, but your eardrums to penetrate as a viral agent. On occasion, thicker chunks enter this jet-powered stream of sound, smashing against each other like massive sheets of shattering glass. The first of the two LPs uses these sounds within a series of erratic compositions that gradually build to cut-the-power conclusions. The second LP unleashes the flood gates from beginning to end with very little variation to the punishment. In both cases, it's still all about the quality of that noise, as an extremely aggressive tool of harsh, ugly, vile blackness. Limited to 300 copies!

GOATSNAKE / BURNING WITCH split (Hydra Head) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two of the LA doom metal scene's heaviest slug (and sludge) it out on this split release, with two songs each, of course played slow enough to make this a full-length! Goatsnake (featuring ex-members of The Obsessed and Engine Kid) even do a cover "Burial At Sea" by LA's godfathers of doom, the late great Saint Vitus. Sabbarific!!!

GOG / APPARATIA split (Sounds Of Battle And Souvenir Collecting) cd-r 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The return of the peculiarly monickered Gog, a one man practitioner of the dark musical arts, able to whip up huge swaths of drifting droney shimmer as easily as a crushing avalanche of corrosive slow motion riffage. More often than not some glorious grey area right in the middle. 
Here Gog is teamed up with the unknown to us Apparatia, who proves to be a worthy match up. 
Gog begins the proceedings with a 25 minute epic, blown out and buzzy, recorded SUPER hot and way in the red, a strange creepy soundscape of metallic clang, and huge reverbed guitar, not riffing, just sort of shimmering and vibrating, everything suspended amidst a barren sprawl of decay and delay, until everything explodes, and the track is transformed into an impossibly distorted, barely moving glacial wall of sound, the production so hot, the speakers seem on the verge of collapse, a massive spacious dirge that like other Gog stuff, manages to be lovely amidst all those jagged edges and crumbling chaos. Partway through, the guitars blur into just a long stretch of distorted whir, while beneath, the bass and drums continue to plod along, a strange slowed down groove buried beneath roiling clouds of fuzz. Gog finishes off his half the split with a little minute or so long chunk of random sound, peppered with vocals, a haunting little fragment of creepy ambience. 
Apparatia are in fact a grim buzzing black metal behemoth, who right out of the gate, first song, launch into some seriously grim blasting, super distorted and ultra sick, the vocals a demonic croak, the guitars a blurry buzz, the drums another static roar buried in the mix. But the band do mix it up, weaving haunting clean guitar interludes, with the harsh super affected vocals crooning hellishly over the top. Raw and primitive, and gloriously intense and brutal, the vocals and guitars in a constant battle of the buzz, the recording quality sort of damaged and lo-fi, making for some Faxed Head like audio damage. Pretty fucking cool for sure. Definitely need to hear more from these guys. But for now, this is a seriously killer one two punch, one part slow motion sludge, one part grim, buzzing fury. 
AMAZING PACKAGING. A printed sheet of metal, black on silver, super heavy, like the music inside, text and images affixed to the back, the cd housed in a black and silver metallic paper sleeve, with mysterious blurred images and liner notes. Sticker on the front, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!! Each one hand numbered. We got 40 and that's it. Once these are gone, we will not be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: GOG "The Fruition Of The Occult"
MPEG Stream: APPARATIA "I Devoured Her Black Soul"
MPEG Stream: APPARATIA "Chamber Of Silents"

GOLDIE Goldie.co.uk: A Drum & Bass DJ Mix (Moonshine) cd 15.98

GOSSIP / TRACY AND THE PLASTICS Real Damage EP (Dim Mak) cd ep 5.98
Wait a second... Weird. These two bands usually sound nothing alike -- The Gossip's all about beltin' out their raw indie soulful blues whereas Tracy And The Plastics whoop it up with used and abused lo-fi electronics -- but on Real Damage it's super hard to tell where one band ends and the other begins. There's a potent devil-may-care grittiness that runs throughout this four-song EP. These Olympia scene faves end up being a great match for a split release, each kickin' out their respective hot licks. Super frantic and empassioned, and sure to please fans of both bands. Rad!
MPEG Stream: "Left Out Now"
MPEG Stream: "Dawn Feather"

GOSSIP / TRACY AND THE PLASTICS Real Damage EP (Dim Mak) 7" 4.50
Wait a second... Weird. These two bands usually sound nothing alike -- The Gossip's all about beltin' out their raw indie soulful blues whereas Tracy And The Plastics whoop it up with used and abused lo-fi electronics -- but on Real Damage it's super hard to tell where one band ends and the other begins. There's a potent devil-may-care grittiness that runs throughout this four-song EP. These Olympia scene faves end up being a great match for a split release, each kickin' out their respective hot licks. Super frantic and empassioned, and sure to please fans of both bands. Rad!
MPEG Stream: "Left Out Now"
MPEG Stream: "Dawn Feather"

GRASSLUNG / PULSE EMITTER s/t (Phaserprone) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is a split cd-r of pure analogue synth sweeping and Kosmische dirges from Grasslung and Pulse Emitter. Portland's Daryl Groetsch has been pumping out the micro-edition releases with anybody willing to release his gnarled take on '70s electronic expansiveness; whereas Grasslung, the solo project of Jonas Asher who also hails from the incredible UW Owl and operates the Phaserprone label, has been much more particular in releasing his sounds. On first investigation into this work, it seemed to be a collaborative project with uniformly blackened surfaces of smoldering saw-tooth noise generation and undulating surfaces that spoke of dead-eyed electronics and sci-fi bleakness. As plausible as this seems, the first track of rippling electronics, half-consumed melodies, and amorphously twisting drones is that of Pulse Emitter; and the second two pieces of chilling, horror tonefloat mired in sickening gloom, hail from Grasslung with equal aplomb. Think Expo '70, Omit, Emeralds, and even Kevin Drumm's Imperial Distortion, and you won't be far from the mark on this great piece of modular synth sprawl. Packaged in very impressive letterpress / die-cut packaging, and limited to something like 200 copies.
MPEG Stream: PULSE EMITTER "1."
MPEG Stream: GRASSLUNG "2."
MPEG Stream: GRASSLUNG "3."

GRAVES AT SEA / ASUNDER split (Life Is Abuse) cd 10.98
BACK IN STOCK, if you missed it before:
Imagine that this split release is a see-saw, with Graves At Sea on one side and Asunder on the other. They're both so heavy that the teeter-totter wouldn't totter, but simply snap in the middle, leaving both bands sitting there, glaring at one another, having no fun at all. But no fun sounds good, if you like doom like we do. And both of these bands do the doom quite well, ultra low and slow -- so slow that just to make it through a song they need at least ten minutes (the two Graves At Sea tracks clock in at 10:45 and 11:16 while Asunder's contribution lasts 18:59) and you'll need a dose of anti-depressants. I mean, is this a split release or a suicide pact?
Graves At Sea (who had a cd-r release a while ago, but as yet no full-length cd) are from LA and basically are along the lines of Khanate, Burning Witch, or Corrupted -- nasty, feedbacking, hateful sludgecore, with a dreadlocked vocalist (known as the "bloody guy" around here) who spits out a screech like Edgy from BW or Khanate's Alan Dubin. And they're not to be confused with Buried At Sea, by the way, although both bands play music dug from the same charnel pit!
Graves At Sea make a perfect pairing with Asunder, who are the Bay Area's contribution to the "funereal doom" subgenre, aligning with the likes of Skepticism, Evoken, and Disembowelment. Majestic and morose metal played at a glacial pace, with both the use of cellos and the presence of ex-Weakling guitarist/vocalist John Gossard giving 'em extra dismal atmosphere. Their track here is definitely in the vein of their epick A Clarion Call album from last year.
MPEG Stream: GRAVES AT SEA "Reclamation"
MPEG Stream: ASUNDER "Whited Sepulcher"

GRAVES AT SEA / ASUNDER split (Life Is Abuse / 20 Buck Spin) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on vinyl, in a killer gatefold, with a huge poster! And as with most things like this, LIMITED! Here's what we had to say about the cd:
Imagine that this split release is a see-saw, with Graves At Sea on one side and Asunder on the other. They're both so heavy that the teeter-totter wouldn't totter, but simply snap in the middle, leaving both bands sitting there, glaring at one another, having no fun at all. But no fun sounds good, if you like doom like we do. And both of these bands do the doom quite well, ultra low and slow -- so slow that just to make it through a song they need at least ten minutes (the two Graves At Sea tracks clock in at 10:45 and 11:16 while Asunder's contribution lasts 18:59) and you'll need a dose of anti-depressants. I mean, is this a split release or a suicide pact?
Graves At Sea (who had a cd-r release a while ago, but as yet no full-length cd) are from LA and basically are along the lines of Khanate, Burning Witch, or Corrupted -- nasty, feedbacking, hateful sludgecore, with a dreadlocked vocalist (known as the "bloody guy" around here) who spits out a screech like Edgy from BW or Khanate's Alan Dubin. And they're not to be confused with Buried At Sea, by the way, although both bands play music dug from the same charnel pit!
Graves At Sea make a perfect pairing with Asunder, who are the Bay Area's contribution to the "funereal doom" subgenre, aligning with the likes of Skepticism, Evoken, and Disembowelment. Majestic and morose metal played at a glacial pace, with both the use of cellos and the presence of ex-Weakling guitarist/vocalist John Gossard giving 'em extra dismal atmosphere. Their track here is definitely in the vein of their epick A Clarion Call album from last year.
MPEG Stream: GRAVES AT SEA "Reclamation"
MPEG Stream: ASUNDER "Whited Sepulcher"

GREGOR SAMSA / RED SPAROWES Split (Robotic Empire) cd 12.98
This split is a super interesting match up, pairing two bands who ostensibly play the same sort of music, but who have dramatically different approaches to their sound.
Up first are the Red Sparowes, who take the metallic post rock angle, stretching their tracks out into loping epics, that loop and repeat hypnotically building to a massive crescendo, all soaring guitars and keening melodies. Eventually breaking back down into mesmerizingly mathy rhythms and melancholy ambience. The drumming is awesome, Simple but so powerful and propulsive, definitely driving the band, helping shape these aggressive epics.
Gregor Samsa, come at their post rock from a whole 'nother direction, choosing to drift instead of pummel, to float and hover instead of pound and wail. In addition to the typical rock band instrumentation, GS are augmented by cello, violin and upright bass, which adds to their simple understated majesty. Both tracks here are spacious near ambient affairs. Simple, spare reverbed guitars, tons of glistening reverb, hushed, near whispered vocals, sounding very much Low or Galaxie 500. So dreamy and lush and laid back. Eventually the first track builds into a super dramatic sweep of soaring strings and crashing drums, not heavy, just intense and emotional. So nice. The second track starts with a blissed out drone, shimmering and sparkling, before the drums and guitars kick in, turning the track into something more Loop or Spacemen 3 or Swervedriver than any sort of metallic post rock. Again the strings swoop in to add all sorts of emotion and urgency, turning the track into a fuzzy minor key dreamdrone fuzz rock epic! Man, we love this band. In fact we love BOTH these bands. An absolutely killer split.
MPEG Stream: RED SPARROWES "I Saw The Sky In The North Open To The Ground And Fire Poured Out"
MPEG Stream: GREGOR SAMSA "Young & Old / Divine Longing"

GREY DATURAS / MONARCH Dawn Of The Catalyst (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98
A while ago we were informed that French ultradoom combo Monarch had called it a day. We were crushed. One of our favorite purveyors of filthy slow motion doooooooooom, fronted by a woman, a rarity in doom for sure, and with a penchant for smiley skulls and Hello Kitty. A band that seemed tailor made for the very bizarre tastes of the AQ faithful, seemed to be no more. 
But before we could begin our campaign of mourning, black clothes spray painted with cute skulls, black Hello Kitty armbands, we discovered that in fact we were misinformed, or maybe the band had taken a break, or something, but we cared not, for whatever reason, Monarch was still alive, and would live to doom another day. And doom they did. Gracing us with more and more glorious downtuned heaviness, including their bad ass cover of Turbonegro's "I Got Erection"!
So now that we're pretty comfortable with the continued existence of our favorite cute doomsters, we can wait patiently for each new, massive slab of harsh slow motion glacial dooooooooooooooooooooom. And for folks new to Monarch, don't go expecting this to actually -sound- cute. They may be fronted by an adorable French girl, who spins playfully on the beach in their videos, but when she opens her mouth to sing, it's the sound of blackness and misery, a demonic caterwaul, unrivaled by most male metal vocalists. And sure the art on their records may be cute cartoon burning churches and big eyed ghosts, but the sounds inside are slow and black as tar, guitars tuned so low they rumble instead of roar, drum beats so far apart, the drummer can probably smoke a cigarette between beats. And we're happy to report that this 16+ minute chunk of doom is all that and more. The more being the haunting ethereal female vocals partway through... Crushingly heavy, weirdly beautiful. A plodding symphony in slow motion. Essential Monarch beautiful brutality.
The surprise here is the Grey Daturas track, also a 16 minute epic, that on first listen sounds surprisingly doomy, and a lot like the Monarch track. The Daturas are often heavy, but rarely doomy like this, but it suits them. And they pepper their doom with all sorts of sonic weirdness, bits of electronic fuckery, strange modulated feedback, subtle FX, until about 13 minutes in, when the song suddenly morphs into a muted wall of smeared and crumbling white noise, a blast of blurred sound that eventually fades into nothingness. 
Pretty amazing stuff, from both bands. Doom hounds will be well pleased. Super fancy gold inked black cardstock gatefold sleeve too...
MPEG Stream: MONARCH "Rapture"
MPEG Stream: THE GREY DATURAS "Golden Tusk The Endearing"

GROUND ZERO / BASTARD (Pandemonium) 7" 3.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
GZ: One long, live track. Heavy on the sampling mayhem and turntable fuckery.
B: Truly bizarre, repetitive, turntablized hypno-rock.

GROUPER / CITY CENTER False Horizon / This Is How We See In The Dark (City Center) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Super limited split single from aQ beloved Grouper, and the new-to-us City Center.
Grouper continues in her slow drift away from the lo-fi murk of early recordings into something distinctly more folky, with softly strummed acoustic guitars, and a gorgeous swirl of voices, overlapping harmonies, ethereal and almost choral sounding, the result, while still psychedelic and lo-fi, just might be the best sounding, and strangely enough, poppiest, track we've heard yet from Grouper!
City Center fares just as well, offering up a hazy lo-fi murk-pop gem that leaves us definitely wanting more. Beach Boys style harmonies doused in effects and buried in buzz and girt, laced over woozy guitars and a mechanical looped rhythm, delay and reverb everywhere and all over everything, warped and underwater sounding, with some incredible hooks barely audible through the hazy fug wrapped around the whole track. Think John Maus, Ariel Pink, Kurt Vile, that same sort of otherworldly seventies radio station vibe, but even more psychedelic and pretty.
AWESOME!

GROUPER / PUMICE split (self-released) 7" 7.50
So this past spring Grouper and Pumice graced New Zealand with a small tour, and we were lucky enough to track down a few of the highly limited splits they brought along. Grouper's side is a hazy, dream-like offering of her Way Their Crept type drugged out drone-pop. And Pumice's side is not unlike the material on the recent Quo album. Both previously unreleased tracks for these bedroom pop heavyweights, limited to 500 copies, don't even think about missing out on this one!

GROWING / MARK EVAN BURDEN split (Zum) cd ep 8.98
Split ep between Olympia, WA trio Growing and former Get Hustle member Mark Evan Burden with each contributing a 16 minute track. Growing's track "Firmament" begins as a bubbling analog synth warble, progressing to ever more dark and ominous waters, but stripped of the guitar and bass parts that made their full length works remind us of SUNNO))) or Earth. Burden's piece, "10724/02", is a striking contrast. His electronics accompanied piano improvisation ranges between the maniacal pounding minimalism of Charlemagne Palestine and the atmospheric soundscapes of Harold Budd (sans the nuage tendancies). Quite nice!
MPEG Stream: GROWING "Firmament"
MPEG Stream: MARK EVAN BURDEN "10/24/02"

GROWING / MARK EVAN BURDEN split (This Generation) lp 11.98
NOW ON VINYL! A split ep between Olympia, WA trio Growing and former Get Hustle member Mark Evan Burden with each contributing a 16 minute track. Growing's track "Firmament" begins as a bubbling analog synth warble, progressing to ever more dark and ominous waters, but stripped of the guitar and bass parts that made their full length works remind us of SUNNO))) or Earth. Burden's piece, "10724/02", is a striking contrast. His electronics accompanied piano improvisation ranges between the maniacal pounding minimalism of Charlemagne Palestine and the atmospheric soundscapes of Harold Budd (sans the nuage tendancies). Quite nice!
MPEG Stream: GROWING "Firmament"
MPEG Stream: MARK EVAN BURDEN "10/24/02"

GUAPO/OHARU (Pandemonium) 7" 3.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
G: Proggy post rock. O: Dazzling Killmen style precision math metal.

GUNTER, BERNHARD / STEVE RODEN Japan (Trente Oiseaux) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Minimalist composers Bernhard Gunter and Steve Roden had intended on selling this split CD exclusively on their tour in Japan in November 2001, but became so fond of the recordings they decided to let the rest of the world have access to them as well. Gunter offers very very very quiet musing on the textures of shortwave radio. Beginning with extended silences, Gunter allows for tiny scrapes to come through his shortwave as if some electrical field (like lightning or sunspot activity) were crackling through an empty shortwave channel. Gradually, other shortwave sounds of grounding static and modulating heterodynes filter up through the mix, forming structural loops and delicate fluctuations. Steve Roden temporarily turns away from the extremely minimalist ethos usually found within Trente Oiseaux's tableaux with one of his two pieces being a performance on a zither, being both bowed and plucked. His second piece is far more indicative of the typical ice-floe constructions of Trente Oiseaux, as recordings of the same steel strung instrument have been processed with various computer ring modulators.
RealAudio clip: BERNHARD GUNTER "Particles / Waves"
RealAudio clip: STEVE RODEN "Every Color Moving"
RealAudio clip: STEVE RODEN "Eden"

HARKONEN / THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES split (Hydra Head) cd 11.98

HAVOK UNIT / ANDOCEANS / THE SIN:DECAY Synaethesia - The Requiem Reveries (Vendlus) cd 10.98
From Finland, a three-way split of chaotic industrial metal, chock full of noisy distortion, dance beats, and scary samples. Two of these bands are actually the SAME band, they just changed their name (Havoc Unit was known for the past ten years as AndOceans, who did several previous albums of avant-garde black metal that we liked in the past). So you get the first ever Havoc Unit track, and the last from And Oceans, plus two (very different) remixes of each. And then there's the third band, The Sin:Decay, also in the same brutal industrial-metal vein, and it turns out it's a side project of one of the members of Havoc Unit/And Oceans... So despite being a "split", this could easily be heard as an album by just one band, Havoc Unit we'll say for simplicity's sake. And Havoc Unit, oddly enough, sound a bit like the '90s band Canadian Malhavoc, if you remember them. So well worth checking out if you're any of the following: a fan of AndOceans / a fan of Malhavoc / just into some blackened industrial metal weirdness. Brought to us by the rather off-the-wall metal label Vendlus (Wolves In The Throne Room, Grayceon, Audiopain, etc.).
MPEG Stream: "With Discipline Upon Mankind"
MPEG Stream: "Mvsn (Atyd Rmx)"

HAYES, SEAN, JASON WEBLEY AND GUESTS (V/A) Ace of Spades Series Volume 5 - January 2005 (E14) cd-r 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ace Of Spades is a cd-r series of live recordings showcasing the intimate acoustic music of a variety of local indie artists. The series so far boasts consistently strong performances from all participants (well played and well recorded at Mama Buzz Cafe in Oakland).
Of the Volume 5 - January 2005 edition's seven featured artists, AQ customers will probably be most familiar with Sean Hayes. His three songs include "Diamond In The Sun", "Rattlesnake Charm" and a fine rendition of the title track of his beloved Alabama Chicken album. Other stand-outs are the haunting spartan female sung three songs from Black Bird Stitches, the easy-going pop folk double-shot from Songs From The Living Room and the rousing intoxicated gypsy strings of Sour Mash Hug Band. L.Carey, Jason Webley, and P. Panamarenko (who also appears on the Vol. 6 and Vol. 8 editions).
MPEG Stream: BLACK BIRD STITCHES "Snapshot Memories"
MPEG Stream: SOUR MASH HUG BAND "Song 1"

HEADS, THE / WHITE HILLS Collisions Volume 1 (Rocket Recordings) 12" 17.98
Another record that barely needs a description at all. Essential listening for all psych nerds, space rock freaks, and anyone into shredding, spaced out, druggy, dreamy heaviness, which we would imagine would be most of you!
Two sidelong tracks, one each from aQ faves White Hills, and another aQ fave, UK space rockers The Heads. Both exclusive tracks, both kick ass, gorgeously packaged, super limited, you know the drill, if you haven't already thrown one of these into your shopping cart already, well then heck, here's a quick rundown of each track:
The Heads launch right into it, almost as if someone just randomly pushed the record button mid epic jam, there's nothing, then suddenly the band is crushing! Buzzy and blown out, tons of guitar shredding, wild wah wah, crumbling distortion, tearing up a storm a la Monster Magnet or Acid Mothers Temple, stoned and wasted and wild, until about halfway through, the song shifts, and the group stagger wildly through a lurching start stop freakout, very off kilter, tons of space, the band definitely getting a bit freaky, until finally, the track coalesces again and we're back in full on hear-of-the-sun ur-jam mode. Awesome.
The flipside finds Whitew Hills, in a contemplative mood, or if not contemplative, super drugged out and lysergic, their sound less blasting and wildly shredding and more sort of drifting, a Spacemen 3 vibe runs throughout, woozy, meandering, loping rhythms wreathed in a druggy haze, the guitars all tangled up in swirling clouds of distorted buzz, super effected vocals, drawled and washed out, the whole track tripped out and Loop-ish, baked and sooooo psychedelic, this track definitely had us drifting off into some other WAY more outer space. So good.
Incredible packaging, the thick vinyl housed in a super psychedelic full color die cut sleeve, the record label visible through the hole, and inside a full color 12" by 12" printed insert. Needless to say (but as is our style, we'll say it anyway), ESSENTIAL. Oh, and very very limited...

HEAVY WINGED / WINDY & CARL Monolith: Earth (Music Fellowship) lp + cd 24.00
Less a split, than a sort of adjustable collaboration, Monolith: Earth is the first in a series of single sided lps, where two bands are paired together, and each contributes a single mono track, one track stereo left, the other stereo right, so depending on how the listener dials it in, he or she can listen to just one of the bands' tracks, or some easily adjusted blend of the two. Thankfully, the lp comes with a cd featuring stereo version of both the tracks, as well as an extra track or two.
For the first volume, the to bands are pretty stellar choices, dreamdrone duo Windy & Carl, and distorto psych rock trio Heavy Winged. For this experiment to really work, without turning into a sonic clusterfuck, one or both of the bands has to be the ambient half, and Windy & Carl are more than happy to take on that role, their track being a slow burning shimmer, all processed and effected guitars, smeared and blurred into long smeary streaks, layered and woven into subtle soft melodies and warm gauzy expanses, there's some buzz buried way down in the mix, but for the most part it's all glorious drone and drift.
Heavy Winged take on the other role, which is not that different from their usual sound, super blown out distorted guitars, pounding drums, super lo-fi and high end, the guitars not riffing so much as offering up thick sheets of sound and dense squalls of feedback and psychdrone freakout. Which suits the concept perfectly, as it's basically like two drones wrapped around each other, leaving the drums to meander and skitter and do what they will. Perfectly happy to listen to each track on its own, but they do sound pretty badass together, and the picture disc image spinning round and round is quite mesmerizing.
The extra track on the cd is an actual collaboration, or seems to be as far as we can tell, but ends up sounding more like a Heavy Winged track with some extra texture and ambience, as HW's super blown out distorted heaviness overwhelms the Windy & Carl's shimmery sounds, but with the picture disc, you can control the levels, creating quite possibly one of the few instances where Windy & Carl sonically overwhelm Heavy Winged!
We only have a dozen of these, the label was sold out, we got all the copies the band had too, so once these are gone, that's probably it...

HELLA / DILUTE split (Sick Room Records) 2cd 15.98
Here's a good buy for fans of either or both bands: a double cd, featuring a disc each of Hella and Dilute performing live. SF's Dilute do "Apple", "Alphabet", "Sickroom", "Balloon Song" and "Sold" while Sacramento's Hella play "Republic of Rough and Ready", "Better Grab a Broom!", "Cafeteria Bananas", "Biblical Violence", and "City Folk Sitting, Sitting". If this was a competition, we'd have to say Hella has the better song titles. But it's not a competition and both bands are winners, with Dilute being one of the Bay Area's best, most creative post/indie rock combos and Hella being NoCal's answer to Lightning Bolt, a two-piece instrumental tour de force. Go see both bands if/when you get the chance, and in the meantime don't miss out on this double live document (which maybe could have fit all on one disc, but whatever).
MPEG Stream: DILUTE "Apple"
MPEG Stream: HELLA "Republic of Rough and Ready"

HELLA / FOUR TET split (Ache) 7" 5.98

HELLACOPTERS/GLUECIFER Respect the Rock America (Man's Ruin Records) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HEY COLOSSUS / DOT [.] split (Shifty) lp 14.98
We don't hear a lot from Japanese sludgelords Dot [.], which is a shame, cuz they could really give Boris and Corrupted a run for their money. In fact, now that Boris have become more of a proper 'rock' band, Dot [.] and Corrupted are pretty much the only two bands left carrying the slow motion Japanese doomdirge torch. But both bands seem to be on an entirely frustrating one record every couple years schedule. Thankfully, we've just discovered something to keep our doomdeathdronedirge hunger sated, a brand new Dot [.] track. Only a track? Fear not, it's a side long and heavy as fuck. Massive crumbling downtuned dirge. Pounding and lurching, a pummeling behemoth stumbling through black tar and thick sludge. With super tripped out affected vocals, a cookie monster growl, wrapped in delay and echo, so each growled lyric, goes spinning dublike off into the ether. Like Corrupted with King Tubby handling the vocal production. Pretty cool. This is the second or third time we've noticed some bits of dub finding their way into massive doom tracks. When is someone gonna just go for it, and record the first ever DOOMDUBSLUDGE record? We can hardly wait. Dot [.]'s partners for this low slung musical split are the UK's Hey Colossus, who bring their own slant to the whole sludgy downtuned rock thing. HC offer up a much more spacious and epic sounding concoction. A definite post rock influence infuses their crusty sludge. A sort of Boris via Mogwai by way of Slint, or something. Creeping grooves that build into thick waves of grinding downtuned riffage, with weird shouted vocals, thick with Hawkwind FX and sent drifting over HC's spiky psychedelic krautrock stoner sludge grooves. Pretty freaking awesome, and a darn near perfect foil for Dot [.]'s more traditionally sludgy sound.
Packaged in cool printed Rorschach design sleeves with a two color insert.

HI-GOD PEOPLE / ZOND split (Spanish Magic) lp 29.00
The problem with a split lp featuring two bands who are somewhat unfamiliar, when there is no specific info on the record labels or cut into the grooves on the vinyl, is deciding which band is which, going on number of track (here both bands have three), instrumentation (HGP list no instruments, Zond have a guy credited with skateboard, which seemed like it would be a dead giveaway but sadly we could hear no skateboard), but then, usually we decide fuck it. It doesn't really matter until you decide you need more by either / both bands, which unfortunately (or fortunately!) you probably will after listening to this twisted slab of sonic weirdness.
We'll tackle the B side cuz that's what we threw on first, and we'll assume that this is actually Zond, who we have never heard before, but are digging BIG TIME. Super distorted and blown out, sludgey dirgey noise rock, howled vocals barely audible over the din of downtuned riffage and in-the-red psychrock squalls, the drums a buried muffled pound, the whole thing a churning, grinding, gloriously filthy trudge. Maybe imagine a more Dead C-ish Brainbombs and you'd be close. That is until the extended final track, the eschews all the damaged outrock that came before, and offers up a stretched out expanse of buzzing shimmering ambient drone, not really tranquil, still a bit noisy, a little off kilter, the sounds bathed in distortion, wrapped in feedback, but stretched out into a weirdly hypnotic noisescape.
So working under the assumption, that the B side is Zond, then the A side must be Hi-God People, who we have heard once before on a split with none other than the Dead C, but the sound here is dramatically different, which is probably what threw us off in the first place. The first and longest track, is a sort of fractured free folk, detuned acoustic guitar twang, sitar like buzz, crooned atonal vocals, wreathed in shimmery effects, swirling clouds of wah wah guitar, strange bleepy bloopy ambience, it almost sounds like some sixties hippy jam, but completely fried and fractured. A more spaced out, free folk, No Neck, or maybe a Sunburned Hand / Avarus musical summit. Until the track slips into something a little different, unleashing more of a krautrock vibe, a subtle pulsing propulsive jam, underneath all of the twisted twang and abstract strum.
The second track is much more abstract, a tripped out buzzy dronescape with random clattery percussion, wheezing organs, swooping melodies, fluttery woodwinds, all very creepy and somewhat cinematic, finally finishing off with the brief closer, a gorgeous, hazy, druggy buzz drenched psych jam, that begs for a whole 'nother side for it to drift and unwind.
Good stuff, from both bands, whichever is which. Super limited of course, and housed in super swank hand screened sleeves!

HIDDEN HAND, THE / WOOLY MAMMOTH split (Meteor City) cd 14.98
Ok, Wino/stoner rock fans. Time to decide how big a fan you really are. This split features two quite excellent new tracks from Wino's current outfit, The Hidden Hand. Like their debut album from last year, they have injected a greater dose of conspiracy theory and musical chops into the music of Wino's previous outfits Spirit Caravan and The Obsessed, resulting in what we might term "advanced stoner rock". Heavy in so many ways. Then there's also two tracks from newcomers Wooly Mammoth, another stoner rock outfit who play music that's kinda groovy and grungy and almost as heavy as The Hidden Hand. In addition, there's a bonus Meteor City label sampler disc, with unreleased/upcoming tracks from the likes of Atomic Bitchwax, Black Nasa, The Obsessed, Weedeater, Yob and others. So, here's the decision part. Are you into Wino enuff to pay $15 for two songs? And/or are you into stoner rock enough to pay $15 for the sampler and the two Wooly Mammoth tracks, along with the two Hidden Hand cuts? Time for some careful cost/benefit ratiocination. If it helps, remember that the sampler has an old Yob demo track on it from '99.
MPEG Stream: THE HIDDEN HAND "Welcome To Sunshine"
MPEG Stream: WOOLY MAMMOTH "Master Cut + Charisma"

HIGH DEPENDENCY UNIT / DIE! DIE! DIE! split (Shoot The Freak) 7" 4.98

HIGH ON FIRE / RUINS split single & comic (Skin Graft) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yay! So many good things combined here with this release, it's like a crazy cosmic convergence of cool. First off, it's a Skin Graft comic book single. That's right, this colored-vinyl 7" record comes with a full-color comic book by the guys at Skin Graft, getting back to their roots as a combo of weird-music label and underground comix publisher. They haven't released anything in this format for ages, but we have fond memories of similar releases from way back by UFO or Die, Zeni Geva, Dazzling Killmen, Space Streakings, Mount Shasta, Brise-Glace... The comic doesn't have much to do with the music, but it's pretty cool.
And yeah, then there's the music. Side A: High On Fire. You know 'em you love 'em (or you should). Motorhead on Sabbath on Slayer on 11. They contribute a song from their latest, probably greatest release Blessed Black Wings, called "Brother In The Wind". And on Side B: Ruins. You know 'em you love 'em (or you should). Magma meets Lightning Bolt. Their track is a previously unreleased number entitled "Gwodhunqa" that encompasses everything that's great about Ruins: nimble, bass-heavy grooves and crazed yet catchy complexity. Parts of this sound like it's on 45, even though it already is on 45, if you know what I mean.
Never thought High On Fire and Ruins would share a split, but why not? Whoever thunk this up, give 'em a raise.

HILL, MATT / DUANE PITRE / JUSTIN WRIGHT (EXPO '70) Live At The Pistol Social Club+ (Kill Shaman) cd-r 5.98
***Expo '70 alert*** ***Expo '70 alert*** ***Expo '70 alert***
That's right, we're sounding that alert 'cause you might not know these names... suffice to say though that Justin Wright is better known (to AQ customers) as the guy behind Expo '70, whose new full-length cd Black Ohms happens to be our Record Of The Week this list. And Matt Hill is his touring partner, whom you've seen together with Wright if you caught 'em recently in SF at the Hemlock with Wooden Shjips, or elsewhere on tour. Also, their pal Duane Pitre is another guitar-wielding dronester with tendencies in line with the cosmic Expo '70 aesthetic. The prolific Expo '70 being an outfit we've continually championed as they constantly amaze us with their sooooo gorgeous, '70s krautrock inspired, spaced out instrumental drone musick.
There's four tracks here on this solid black cd-r. The seventeen minute long track one, finds Wright, Hill and Pitre playing together, droning out mightily, live at someplace called The Pistol Social Club. The credits have 'em all playing guitar, all responsible for "textures, drones", with Pitre also on "prepared percussion, disjointed lines" and Wright handling "melodic lines" as well. It starts as a hushed ambient soundscape, at once spacious and intimate, hesitantly melodic and repetitiously trancelike; raw, rough edges softened by gentle whirr, their guitars' volume gradually increasing, eventually building into a quite dense, distorted finale.
Then there's one track apiece from Hill, Pitre, and Wright. Hill's seven minute contribution is all acoustic guitar and field recordings, sparse pickings and pluckings, sounding like a broken music box, crank turned at half-speed, backwards, amidst nighttime insect buzz. Unidentifiable crackle, rustle, and hiss infuse the plinking proceedings, which could be a mellowed out Derek Bailey with Jewelled Antler production. Pitre's piece, "Motorized Music for Electric Guitar (live)" is what that says: a live performance, at a church in Brooklyn, with Pitre applying a "handheld high-speed rotary tool" to the strings of his electric guitar. The result is a twelve minute Niblockian drone divine, slow-building and shimmery. Wonderful. And then Wright bats cleanup, ending the disc with a live improv guitar piece featuring the use of two amps, and, we're told, a squeaky chair. It's ten and a half minutes of dreamy, subtle cosmic throb and drift, with sci-fi electronic FX whispering from outer space to swirl around this piece's glowing meditative center. So nice.
For Expo '70 fans and anyone into the guitar-drone-zone, this here's a varied four-part treat indeed!
MPEG Stream: HILL / PITRE / WRIGHT "Live At The Pistol Social Club April 29th, 2007"
MPEG Stream: DUANE PITRE "Motorized Music For Electric Guitar (live)"

HIM/THE DYLAN GROUP (Bubble Core) split cd 11.98
Dub/Tortoise-y stylings. Him is the drummer of Rex by the way.

HINT/UNSANE (Pandemonium) 7" 3.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
U: NY 'core noise rock/metal.
H: Hypnotic and rythmic drone rock ala Circle. Easily the best, perhaps the only, noise rock song featuring Tuvan throat singing.

HOLMES, DAVID Come Get It I Got It (13 Amp) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two things I could never quite get into: funk/soul compilations, and David Holmes. As far as the compilations, they always seemed either too familiar, or too "Whoo, let's dance and get funky". Ugh. Especially when there's so much seriously intense and dark funk and soul floating around. And as for Holmes, he always seemed on the right track, his 'film' music always just barely missed the mark, falling too much in the 'chill-out music for the Kruder and Dorfmeister set' when you could somehow tell he was capable of so much more. So imagine my surprise when one record proves me wrong on both counts. Holmes has picked out some ridiculously obscure soul gems, but more importantly, these tunes are amazing: dark and sultry and so catchy. Once in a while, he masterfully mixes beats and atmospheres into some of the soul jams turning them into modern, bumping, top-down, cruising classics. The interludes here are performed by Homes in his 'classic soul' guise as The Free Association. Occasionally these interludes kind of break the flow, with 'LSD' clips and stuttery samples and that sort of thing, but even more often, he manages to emulate the tunes found elsewhere, coming up with some dirty grimy neo-soul. Plus, this features what has to be the most amazing and intense flute tune ever, taking Roland Kirk's speaking/screaming/hyperventilating flute solos about as far out as you can. Been listening to this non stop!
RealAudio clip: HAROLD ALEXANDER "Mama Soul"
RealAudio clip: SIXTO RODRIGUEZ "Sugarman"
RealAudio clip: REX GARVIN AND THE MIGHTY CRAVERS "Strange Happenings"
RealAudio clip: HODGES, JAMES, SMITH AND CRAWFORD "Nobody"

HORNA / PESTE NOIRE split (Debemur Morti) 7" 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What more do you need to know? Finland's Horna. France's Peste Noire. Hard to imagine a more kick ass black metal match up. And sonically, a surprisingly suitable one.
The Horna track is epic and majestic, beginning with a cool backwards buzz guitar part, that segues into furious blackened riffing and a surprising amount of melody, sounding at moments like old At The Gates only blacker. The songs is laced with weird melancholy pounding, and haunting arpeggiated melodies, but all tangled up within dense blasts of hyper speed grimnity.
The Peste Noire track, some folks might already have, as it was a bonus track on the recent Peste Noire record Folkfuck Folie. Tangled and convoluted, the song structure constantly shifting, the guitars fuzzed out and insectoid, the vocals howling, it's definitely buzzing black metal, but in the hands of Peste Noire it becomes something else entirely, infusing the sound with bits of pop, melody, angular weirdness, turning it into an impossible catchy slab of black weirdness.
Obviously essential. And probably equally obvious is the fact that this is seriously limited, we got a bunch, but imagine they will be gone in no time. And yeah, they're a bit pricey, but you can blame the currently very sad US dollarŠ
Super thick vinyl, thick cardstock inner sleeves, and a super striking woodcut style outer jacket.

HORRORS, THE / SUICIDE / NIC VOID Shadazz / Radiation / Rocket U.S.A. (Blast First Petite) 10" 15.98

HOT HOT HEAT / THE RED LIGHT STING split (Ache Records) cd 10.98
Hot Hot Heat's contributions to this split cd feature their earlier temper-tantrum vocals (courtesy of former HHH vocalist Matty Marnik) and darkly catchy Juno 60 keyboard lines (courtesy of current vocalist Steve Bays) -- very angstful and angular late 90s San Diego / post punk influenced (a la Gold Standard Laboratories label). Recorded back in 2000, these songs are a great deal more abrasive, flailing and uneven than those on their recent finely tuned, punchy pop album Make Up The Breakdown, but this older material fits well with the other band with whom they share this cd. The Red Light Sting are HHH's friends and fellow British Columbians. Their sound is quite similar to HHH as mentioned above, but it's got much more aggressive hardcore tendencies like Convocation Of, The VSS or The Locust, but add female vocals to the already blistering fray. Check 'em out! Oh, by the way, we also wanted to let you know that this is an enhanced cd that includes live footage. Pop it into your computer and go!
MPEG Stream: HOT HOT HEAT "I Blew A Fuse In My Personality"
MPEG Stream: RED LIGHT STING "Cork Up The Stink"

HOTTEST STATE, THE OST (Sony) cd 13.98
The soundtrack for Ethan Hawkes' latest movie (based on his first novel) sure reads like a who's who of the hip and the cool: Cat Power, Feist, Bright Eyes, The Black Keys, M.Ward, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Brad Mehldau, Rocha, Tony Scherr, and Jesse Harris... Uhh, wait a sec, that last name on the list might not ring any bells as clearly as the rest of the bunch... yet! But he's the fella who wrote all of the songs on this soundtrack. Close pal Mr. Hawke thought Harris' songwriting skills would be a perfect match for The Hottest State. Not having seen the movie, we can't say for certain whether it fits or not, but as a stand alone compilation it's pretty darn solid. Heck, this should come as no surprise really because we've all probably unwittingly heard his superlative songwriting abilities before. He wrote Norah Jones' "Don't Know Why" single for gosh sake. And how's this for timing? Harris' own album Feel was just released last month so if you find your ears itching for more....
MPEG Stream: NELSON, WILLIE "Always Seem To Get Things Wrong"
MPEG Stream: CAT POWER "It's Alright To Fail"

HUM OF THE DRUID / FIRE IN THE HEAD split (Audio Immolation Industries / Cipher Productions) lp 15.98
We recently reviewed a full length lp from Hum Of The Druid, Raising The New Wing..., a mighty caustic slab of noise drenched drones and fucked up ambience. For a record that harsh and harrowing, we really couldn't stop listening to it (and yeah, we have a few copies left). So we were psyched to discover a new record by them (him?), a split with another noisemaker we dig, but have yet to review anything by.
The Hum Of The Druid side is more of what we've been hankering for. A dense sea of crumbling distortion and blown out grit, a spray of grizzled amp buzz and all manner of hum and crackle and glitch. There are brief interludes of abstract ambience, laced with bits of feedback, but those are merely brief respites from the relentless onslaught. The HotD side ends with some super creeped out blackened drones, lots of distorted in-the-red low end, and tortured anguished howls buried way down in the mix, culminating in a super jagged speaker destroying crunch and glitch outro.
Fire In The Head most definitely hold their own, opening with slithery slowed down guitar drones, underneath creepy fucked up samples, plenty of buzz and glitch, all over a thick sea of processed rumbles and whirs, there's definitely an old school industrial vibe, intense and haunting, lots of vocal samples. It all builds to a seriously fired filed of static, underpinning cool super effected demonic vokills, doused in distortion and reverb. Super super creepy. The side ends with some awesomely distorted blown out rhythms, all stuttery and chopped up, like some damaged metallic noise dub. Cool.
Super nice packaging. Thick black sleeve with paste on covers on each side, and Rudimentary Peni fans take note, the Fire In The Head side features original Nick Blinko artwork! Also includes a printed insert / lyric sheet, and of course, it's ultra limited, and we only got a handful.

HUNDRED DOLLAR BAND Waves And Particles (Emperor Jones) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "Hope"
MPEG Stream: "Midnight Blue"

HYPOTHERMIA / DURTHANG Lead Yourself To Failure (Northern Sky Productions) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You might remember Hypothermia from their amazing split with Dimhymn a while back, and we review the killer Durthang tape elsewhere on this list. But these two Swedish purveyors of bleak lifeless doomic black metal are the perfect match up.
Hypothermia's side is an ultra lo fi blast of midtempo buzz, super murky, almost like a practice space recording, with strangled vocals, and some killer riffing. Definitely some serious cult black brutality.
The flipside is two loooong tracks from Durthang, and further convinces us that this could very well be one of our new favorite black metal hordes. A strangely clean sound, but nice fuzzy riffing and way up in the mix drumming. Mournful melodies over relentless double kick drumming. Cool arpeggiated guitar lines over swirling buzzing blackness and blown out distorted vocal shrieks. A darkly depressive Burzumic buzz wrapped around melancholy minor key misery. So good. And so far the only Durthang recording available are on ultra cult cassette tape only!!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

I'M NOT THERE (V/A) OST (Sony) 2cd 19.98
Here's the double disc soundtrack to the new movie about Bob Dylan which stars no less than six actors, including Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, and Richard Gere, ALL as Bob Dylan. Whoa. It's like Casino Royale. As a matter of fact, both the movie and the soundtrack are star studded to ridiculous proportions! Thirty four covers of Dylan songs performed by a mix of hip young things and venerable veterans such as Sonic Youth, Eddie Vedder, Calexico, Willie Nelson, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, Tom Verlaine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O, Antony & The Johnsons, John Doe, Stephen Malkmus, Iron & Wine, Richie Havens, Roger McGuinn, Los Lobos, Jeff Tweedy, The Black Keys, Mark Lanegan, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Sufjan Stevens, The Hold Steady, Charlotte Gainsbourg and The Band! A perturbing thing we noticed about these renditions though is that it seems like many artists were trying to sound like Dylan... and strangely enough many ended up sounding like Neil Young instead! Weird.
MPEG Stream: SONIC YOUTH "I'm Not There"
MPEG Stream: CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG & CALEXICO "Just Like A Woman"

IKEDA, RYOJI / CARSTEN NICOLAI Cyclo (Touch) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Cyclo" is the inevitable collaboration between glitch maniplulators Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai, who quite obviously state that "the error itself becomes the topic for this release." This album sounds exactly as anyone familiar with both Ikeda and Nicolai would imagine... with Ikeda's patented sinewave aggression molded into Nicolai's slow algorithmic modulations of techno patterns.
As with the packaging of the "20' to 2000" series on Raster with the then little seen clam shell cases, Raster has found a nifty new prefabricated case that houses the CD tightly inside until the adjoining plastic lever is pulled down, pushing the disc out of its case (like a manual toaster. There's probably a name for it... but we'll call it the Prest-O-Matic for now
RealAudio clip: "C1"
RealAudio clip: "C8"

IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2002-2003 (Improvised Music From Japan) magazine + cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The entity that released the phenomenal and weighty 10-cd wooden box set known as "Improvised Music From Japan" (box, label, website) is now also a magazine. Printed in both English and Japanese, this squarebound, digest-sized debut issue runs to about 132 pages (with the Japanese text occupying the second half, or first if you read it back-to-front Japanese style). And, it comes with a cd compilation bound inside the front (or back) cover. Reviews, interviews and essays by and about the likes of Otomo Yoshihide, Seiichi Yamamoto, Ami Yoshida, Uchihashi Kzuhisa, Phew, Aki Onda, Taku Sugimoto, Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura, Utah Kawasaki, and many others make for fasinating reading if you're the sort of avant-garde music fan at all curious about the underground Japanese improvising scene. There's a review of, and translated excerpts from, a book called "The History Of Japanese Free Jazz" which us English-only types will find to be extremely tantalizing. Perhaps a full English translation of the book could be future project for the industrious Improvised Music From Japan folks? Info about such artists as Masayuki Takanyangi, the Taj Mahal Travellers, and Kaoru Abe is certainly hard to come by in the West, so it would be nice...
Meanwhile, on the compact disc, there's works by Toshimaru Nakamura, Haco, Yoshio Machida, Masahiko Okura and others. Creaking door ambience, silence, acoustic guitars, shortwave static crackle, field recordings, laptop computers, trombone drone... it's a really nice disc, proof of why this scene deserves such a journal.
RealAudio clip: HACO / VIEW MASTERS "Start Up + No Wave"
RealAudio clip: YOSHIO MACHIDA "MALHAR"

IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2004 (Improvised Music From Japan) magazine + 2cd 32.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Oh Lordy, it's here. Weren't you just asking us about when the next issue of Improvised Music From Japan was going to arrive? All 200 pages (half in English, half in Japanese) of it, plus two compliation cds. Do any of these names interest or excite you: Kazue Sawai, Aki Onda, Kazuo Imai, Tetuzi Akiyama, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Sachiko M, Taku Sugimoto, Haco? Then this is for you, and you probably *were* asking us about it... All those folks and more appear in these pages, along with a bunch of tantalizing reviews. And there's a special section from Otomo Yoshihide all about making connections with the Korean free jazz scene, in which he interviews saxophonist Kang Tae Hwan. So, if Japanese free jazz / 'onkyo' / improv electronics etc. is your thing, here you go, plenty of good readin'. Not to mention listenin', as the two discs are crammed with all sorts of interesting and diverse performances from many of the artists mentioned above. We were particularily chuffed to check out the "improvised extreme optical core unit" Optrum who provide five noisy tracks on disc two.
MPEG Stream: OPTRUM "New Motorhead Banging & DC/DC"
MPEG Stream: MI YEON "untitled"

IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2005 (Improvised Music From Japan) book+ 2cd 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The wait is over -- now that it's 2006, the 2005 edition of Improvised Music From Japan is here! It's an indispensable journal to those of you, like us, who are confirmed musical Japanophiles and/or into the extremes of improvised sound activity. This time around, IMJ consists of a beautifully designed 128 page digest-sized book accompanied by two cds tucked under its front and back covers. The print portion of this is devoted entirely to write-ups about new albums from 2004 and 2005, over 350 of them (of which 21 are Merzbow releases!). Some are full articles all about a particular artist, others are briefer descriptions or impressions of the music, sometimes written by the artist in question (so we won't call these "reviews" in the consumer-guide sense, though this could be used that way). As always, the text is presented in both Japanese and English, along with thumbnail album cover pics. Besides all the Merzbow, there's plenty of names you might know here, and plenty more you probably don't. And you also find some non-Japanese artists in here as well (David Grubbs, Bastard Noise, Carl Stone, etc.) included because they've been released on a Japanese label or have collaborated with Japanese musicians.
Perusing this, you're gonna start making a list of releases you hadn't heard of before to try and hunt down -- we certainly did. One revelation was that Omoide Hatoba released a new album in 2004, we hadn't known that!! Gosh. Gotta get a hold of that somehow.
Meanwhile, the cds, like the magazine, feature both relatively well-known improvisers and (to us) newcomers. Among the 21 tracks spread across these two cds, you'll find pieces by familiar names like Toshiya Tsunoda, Merzbow and Kiyoshi Mizutani. But also you'll be introduced to the likes of VOIMA, sim and Tetsuya Umeda (whose track "Error Piano", featuring Yasuhisa Mizutani improvising on the piano whilst Umeda "loiters" nearby, with a portable radio, is indicative in its peculiarity and spontaneity of the variety of music to be heard on these discs and read about in the pages of the magazine). Out-jazz, mimimal electronics, brutal noise, all of the above and everything in between, that's the IMJ aestheticŠa good match for many curious AQ customers wethinks.

IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN EXTRA 2003 (Improvised Music From Japan) mag + 2cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second issue (sort of, they call it "Extra") of this print and audio journal devoted to the underground Japanese electro-acoustic improvisation scene. Definitely THE place to go to get enlightened about what's happening on that front. In both English and Japanese, this thick 128 page magazine features interviews with Ami Yoshida, Shoji Hano, and numerous others we're less familiar with, quite a few of 'em from a young generation of musicians here dubbed "Improv's New Waves". There's also a ton of reviews of intriguing cd releases that you'll probably only find out about here (and never see in a shop outside of Japan), and of course there's the magazine's audio portion: this time around, two discs full of cuts by artists from that "New Waves" scene, everything from jazz trumpet to turntables to death metal drums n' laptop. There's couple bonus cuts as well, including one from, um, old wave improvisor Shoji Hano.