V/A United Mutations (Lo) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Stellar, groundbreaking comp of strange electronica with Tortoise, Ui, Aphex Twin, Springheel Jack, Thurston Moore, Luke Vibert... all the tracks are great, no filler.

V/A United Sacred Harp Convention: The Alan Lomax Recordings, 1959 (Mississippi / Change) lp 14.98
Out of all the American folk musical forms, Sacred Harp singing is arguably the most strangely beautiful. With songs dating back to as early as 1840 and rooted in Northern European 'shape note' singing traditions, Sacred Harp singing is a white gospel musical form developed in the rural south as a means of social gathering and group worship. It was not designed to be performative nor were there really any formal touring groups (though early recordings have been miscredited to "The Alabama Sacred Harp Singers", they were more like rotating singing societies with designated song leaders centered around local church congregations and communities). For these 1959 recordings at the 56th Annual United Sacred Harp Convention in Fyffe, Alabama, singers were farmers, laymen, townsfolk and children who gathered every summer for all day singing functions, and it never mattered if they had good singing voices. The whole group is divided into four harmonic parts in a square formation with a group song leader situated at the hollow center of the square. Song leaders call out the hymn number and sing the tonic note of their section and each group follows suit with their section. Each participant is allowed to add their own embellishments to their designated section and all four parts sing off each other creating a cascading vocal round with astonishing peaks and valleys of harmony. Since each part is singing different lines simultaneously, it's hard to understand the actual words being sung, but the fervent energy brought out by so may singers is incredible to experience, reminding us of what could be the audio equivalent of the beautiful sight of large flocks of starlings flying in complexly shifting formations. This was the second of three times Alan Lomax had tried to capture the strange beauty of Sacred Harp singing, and the first time using stereo equipment. Nice vinyl on Mississippi with liner notes from Alan Lomax's three recording sessions. Incredibly beautiful!

V/A Unknown Deutschland: The Krautrock Archive Volume 2 (Virgin) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Volume 2 features The Nazgul, Temple, Golem, Cozmic Corridors.

V/A Unknown Deutschland: The Krautrock Archive Volume 3 (Virgin) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Volume 3 features Golem, Galactic Explorers, The Nazgul, Baal, Chronos.

V/A Untitled (Public Guilt / Epicene Sound Systems / Underadar) 3cd box 15.98
A totally mind blowing collection of artists, representing the state of 'noise' today. 55 bands, 3 cds, totally elaborate over the top packaging, a project so epic it took three labels to make it happen, but now that it's done, it was so worth the wait. So utterly gorgeous. And while we'd be the first to admit that we were a bit scared by the idea of a triple cd noise compilation, the actual state of 'noise' is actually that much of it is quite beautiful, almost all of it is surprisingly listenable, and a lot of it is downright lovely. It's not just hissing jets of white noise these days. Textural and moody, rhythmic and abstract, it might be more fair to describe this as an experimental comp rather than a noise one, but to be fair, many of these tracks are noisy in their own way. And like any comp, it's the bands you know and love that suck you in: Burning Star Core, Guilty Connector, Dead Machines, Thurston Moore, Strotter Inst., Leslie Keffer, Earwicker, Destructo Swarmbots, Mike Shiflet, Hum Of The Druid, Sword Heaven, The Cherry Point, Herpes O Deluxe, Travis Ryan (from Cattle Decapitation), Panicsville, Gerritt & John Wiese, but what keeps you in, and earns repeat listens, is the chance to discover new weird music from bands you've never heard before: OP Rechts, Bet Hell, Josh Lay, Cotton Museum, Big China & Little Trouble, Forbes Graham, Small Life, Lovae, The Heirs Of Rockafeller, Perfect Teeth, Tonight Golden Curls, Black Meat, Door, Noveller, Jason Zeh, Teeth Collection, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, Skullcaster, Steve Bradley, Wether, Mermaids, Wet Hearts, Magicicada, Oblong Box, Aughra, Donna Parker, Robert Inhuman, Yellow Tears, 1thousand Holy Shards, Back From Iraq, Sick III Cell, Scutopus, Ben S. Jacobs, Blango, Decimation Blvd., Ultra//Vires, Darsombra, Subterrane. Phew. We've yet to make it through all three discs, but what we've heard so far is awesome. So much so that every time we listen to this, someone comes up to see what we're listening to, after almost every song. In fact just while this review was being written, Allan asked what was playing 3 or 4 times. The tracks are that varied, and that good. It might be a bit daunting to do a track by track description, just know that we've listened to almost the whole thing, and loved pretty much all of it, even the noisiest tracks. And it's incredibly well sequenced too, the tracks are matched and segue into each other as if it were and album proper, not a compilation. So good. Our faith in noise may have been restored!
And we haven't even discussed the packaging yet. A sturdy rectangular box with a removable lid, held together by a thick textured paper obi, gold metallic ink on red, inside, 4 thick cardstock inserts, each with unique red and gold art on one side, while on the other, one contains liner notes, the other three the track listings and band info, with the cds affixed to the center, and each cd is adorned with unique and different art. Wow. It truly is gorgeous looking, so much so that it's hard to believe it's only sixteen bucks. But we're not complaining. Not sure how limited this is, but something this nice and labor intensive, we're guessing they won't be around for long. Essential listening for lovers of modern music, noise and otherwise, and recommended especially for even the most noise-phobic among you...
MPEG Stream: BURNING STAR CORE "Let's Name Her Snow Cuz It's Snowy Outside"
MPEG Stream: AUGHRA "Francoj"
MPEG Stream: DESTRUCTO SWARMBOTS "I'll Love Three Of Them Barbarian Cremes"
MPEG Stream: STROTTER INST. "Treibjagd"
MPEG Stream: THURSTON MOORE "Dickraymakerz"

V/A Untitled Songs (Sirr) 2cd 21.00

V/A Untouchable Outcaste Beats (Tommy Boy) cd 13.98
Ignore the stupid sticker on the cover of this cd ("a SPICED-OUT excursion..." --Hello! Asians are really fucking weary of the food comparisons! Can you say STEREOTYPE?) and check out the music contained herein. Psychedelic sitar and tabla drums mixed with easily digested electronica, kicking back in the chillout lounge. Everything from old school vibes-master Dave Pike to Ravi's brother Ananda Shankar to Ninjatunes' Up Bustle & Out to SF's own Better Daze. Every single time we play this record in the store, someone buys it.

V/A Up & Down Club Sessions, Volume 2 (Prawn Song/Mammoth) cd 14.98
Featuring Josh Jones with Don Cherry, Charlie Hunter and more.

V/A Up All Night (Past & Present ) cd 17.98
Proto metal fiends, come get your fix! This new collection of "20 Heavy Nuggets From The Golden Age Of Hard Psych" is definitely in the tradition of other cool comps like White Lace And Strange, Downer Rock Genocide, The Electric Asylum, A Visit To The Spaceship Factory, Psychedelic Minds, etc. Just check out the lineup, names we know (and love) include the likes of Highway Robbery, Bang, Sir Lord Baltimore, Granicus, Power Of Zeus, Haystacks Balboa, Yesterday's Children, Tin House, SRC, and The Litter. Heavy hitters, all of 'em. Now you might already have some of these cuts, if you really are a hard psych / proto metal fiend, but you surely don't have 'em all. And even though we were familiar with a bunch of these bands, there's plenty more here we'd never had the pleasure of hearing before, and these obscurities fit right in with such illustrious company. Most of these tracks are taken from LPs, not singles, usually the band's one and only album, many of which have never been properly reissued or even if they have been, aren't in print anymore anyway.
So what we've got here is a deep survey of vintage late '60s, early '70s North American hard rock action, (proto) metallic, garagey, and psychedelic, chock full of crunching riffs, wild wailing guitars, and rough n' tough vocals. It's all pretty darn heavy for the era, if not quite to the extreme reached across the pond by heavy metal progenitors Black Sabbath (though Bang comes quite close - and hey look there's a song titled "Wrought Iron Man" by a band called Steeplechase). This comp includes the the most fuzzed out and stompin' version of frat rock chestnut "Gimme Some Lovin'" you've ever heard (by Euclid, from their album Heavy Machinery). Of course, fuzz is in copious supply all across this disc, erupting perhaps most savagely on the classic "Kingdom Come" by Sir Lord Baltimore, a majestic six and a half minute epic mixing tripped out lyrics with bursts of ultra distorted guitar. Being one of the tracks, like a few others here, that'd we'd have chosen ourselves for an all time ultimate proto metal mix.
FYI, the other bands on this disc we haven't mentioned yet are: Liquid Smoke, The Finchley Boys, Damnation Of Adam Blessing, Dragonfly, Jamul, Third Power, Head Over Heels, and Landslide. Among all 20, it's hard to pick faves, some are heavier, some are weirder/proggier, some are blusier, some are groovier, some are more melodic, you'll have to decide for yourself. But this is definitely a pretty badass acid rock comp! And thankfully the cd booklet includes informative commentary on each band/track.
MPEG Stream: TIN HOUSE "Be Good And Be Kind"
MPEG Stream: SIR LORD BALTIMORE "Kingdom Come"
MPEG Stream: HAYSTACKS BALBOA "The Children Of Heaven"

V/A Urban African Club (Out / Here) cd 15.98

V/A Urban Renewal Program (Chocolate Industries) cd 14.98
Having greatly enjoyed the Rapid Transit compilation and the full length releases from While, Sluta Leta and Push Button Objects, I rejoiced at the sight of a new Chocolate Industries label compilation. Alas, while I know there are folks out there who'll like this, I have to admit it's not doing much for me. There are standout pieces from adventurous hip hoppers such as El-P and RJD2, Aesop Rock, Mos Def & Diverse, Aesop Rock, Souls of Mischief, and especially the mysterious, excellent Themselves, who cackle their verses in a way that must be heard to be believed. But the pieces in between these tracks are basically electronica filler, especially Prefuse-73's bland, jazzy groove that sounds like the trendy sort of mood music your local Urban Outfitters likes to play. Other disappointments include a Tortoise throwaway and stuff from Miho Hatori (Gorillaz, Cibo Matto), DJ Food, etc. Sigh. Get this for the smart hip hop (there's certainly enough here to make it worth it) and program out the stuff in between.
RealAudio clip: RJD2 "True Confessions"
RealAudio clip: THEMSELVES "Thisboutthecitytoo"
RealAudio clip: TORTOISE "C.T.A."

V/A Urban Revolutions (Future Primitive) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hard to believe it's been five years since Mark Herlihy and Mark Wasserman started the now-legendary Future Primitive Soundsession series, the good time turntablist and DJ parties that basically catapulted the West Coast DJ breakbeat scene to international stature. The parties are, of course, still happening, and this cd, the fifth in the Future Primitive Recordings series, winningly replicates the feel-good bright 'n upbeat nature of the parties themselves. Good job! Features everyone from the amazing Z-Trip to Rob Swift, DJ Disk, Romanowski, Faust and Shortee, plus a short segment from the infamous 7-11 Slurpee set of all 45s performed by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist. If you've never heard the fabulous Z-Trip/Radar and Cut Chemist/Shortkut Future Primitive discs, get those too.
RealAudio clip: AROMADOZESKI THERAPY FEATURING ROMANOWSKI & DEVIOUS DOZE "Strudel Strut"
RealAudio clip: DJ SHADOW AND CUT CHEMIST "Interlude"
RealAudio clip: DJ Z-TRIP "Downtime"

V/A Urban Revolutions (Future Primitive) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hard to believe it's been five years since Mark Herlihy and Mark Wasserman started the now-legendary Future Primitive Soundsession series, the good time turntablist and DJ parties that basically catapulted the West Coast DJ breakbeat scene to international stature. The parties are, of course, still happening, and this cd, the fifth in the Future Primitive Recordings series, winningly replicates the feel-good bright 'n upbeat nature of the parties themselves. Good job! Features everyone from the amazing Z-Trip to Rob Swift, DJ Disk, Romanowski, Faust and Shortee, plus a short segment from the infamous 7-11 Slurpee set of all 45s performed by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist. If you've never heard the fabulous Z-Trip/Radar and Cut Chemist/Shortkut Future Primitive discs, get those too.

V/A URSK Box Set (Utech) 10cd box 175.00
Wow. This is one amazing boxset, visually, sonically, and for a limited time we're selling em, taking preorders now in fact, so if you want one, by all means order away, cuz you are probably gonna want one. Our pal Keith Utech offered to let us sell these special fancy box sets that were otherwise only available via the Utech website; no other store has 'em! (Thanks, Keith!).
So, what's this all about? Well over the past couple of years, Utech put out a series of handsomely packaged cds featuring artwork by Stephen Kasner, discs by Skullflower, Heavensore, Runhild Gammelsaeter, The Stargazer's Assistant, Klangmutationen Schwarzhagel, RST, Final, Aluk Todolo, and Blood Fountains.
This box contains all 9 of those releases, PLUS an exclusive remix cd featuring one track apiece from each of those artists. Those ten discs, which come in a very nice custom engraved, matte black box, are accompanied by a folded booklet featuring text by Kasner and Jenks Miller. In addition, you get a folder, also black, signed and decorated in silver ink, containing nine cards of Kasner's art. Each set is numbered out of 90, signed, and no two are completely identical.
We've reviewed most, if not all of the releases within this fantastical box, so you can look elsewhere on our site for the write ups, though we imagine you probably already know if this is something you want or not. (And might be kicking yourself if you already bought all nine cds separately, yeah, we know...). Basically, very special packaging for a collection of some really great, dark, experimental, heavy, weird cds!!
If you want one, let us know, Utech will get 'em to us really quickly. But we probably won't hold your order for it, we'll either ship it separately when it comes in, or if you're a regular orderer, we can just inlcude it in your next order!!

V/A Valis II: Everything Must Go (Ion) 2cd 19.98
Man, oh man. A double disc sequel to the first Valis comp, again featuring some of the best in experimental dub/turntablist/hiphop/electronica. From the first Valis, Bill Laswell, Corporal Blossom, DXT, and Spectre return...with them, find Scanner, Eye Yamantaka, Scorn, Him, We, Praxis (with DJ Disk and Mix Master Mike of the Bay Area's beloved Invisible Scratch Picklz), Torture, Buckethead and more!

V/A Vancouver Special (Mint) cd 14.98
Let me say this right from the start, this compilation is worth having solely for the second track. An addictively catchy number by The New Pornographers and Neko. Yes, that is Neko as in the fabulous 'Neko Case and Her Boyfriends', this time taking a pop turn singing with her buddies Carl Newman (Zumpano, Superconductor) and Daniel Bejar (Destroyer). Ah, but there's so much more here! This is actually a benefit cd (all proceeds go to A Loving Spoonful which is a Meals on Wheels type service for HIV/AIDS patients) of all Vancouver artists. And what a good sampling of a healthy and diverse music scene it is. Bouncy retro-pop in the shape of Vancouver Nights and Capozzi Park. Noisy, messiness by July 4th Toilet and Thee Goblins (starring Nardwuar the Human Serviette). Space and synth rock from Pipedream and Radio Berlin. 24 songs in all.

V/A Variable Resistance: Ten Hours of Sound From Australia (23five) cd 14.98
"Variable Resistance" was the second 'listening room' event co-sponsored by SF sound art organization 23five, Incorporated and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Where the first collaboration between 23five and the Museum centered on Japanese experimental music, this one takes a southern route to Australia, which has enjoyed a healthy explosion of adventurous musicians exporting their wares across the globe. Assembled by noted sound artist Philip Samartzis, "Variable Resistance" is a title that encapsulates the tone and extent of the work on hand, referencing not only the electronic gizmo (the variable resistor) as key to many of the featured homespun constructions, but also as an applicable non-definition of those artists who "offer variable resistance in how they are defined and the positions they occupy in a broader cultural context, fragmented, and dispersed among remote cities and divided by enormous physical and psychological space." That said, Samartzis attempts to breakdown the Australian aesthetic into a number of sub-genres: Microphonics, Metallic Plates & Resonating Strings, Residue, Flutter & Flux, Malfunction & Resistance, Improvised Composition, Suspended Time & Expanding Space, Electrical Impulses & Variable Flow, Soundhackers, and Microwaves, Collisions, & Noise.
While each of these subgenres do offer some help in interpreting the work of these artists, those featuring on this cd (a condensed version of the SFMOMA event) are pretty good at resisting any imposed characterization. Much of the work on "Variable Resistance" is based upon live improvisation filtered through a number of DSP techniques (with obvious exceptions and detours) with tracks from Oren Ambarchi, Robbie Avenaim, Philip Samartzis, David Brown, Xonk, Thembi Soddell, Darrin Verhagen, Pimmon, and Delire.
RealAudio clip: OREN AMBARCHI "Stactedit"
RealAudio clip: XONK "Nevermind The Ruddocks"
RealAudio clip: PHILIP SAMARTZIS "Soft And Loud"
RealAudio clip: DARRIN VERHAGEN "P2"

V/A Various Alchemists On... (Alchemy) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This limited edition compilation of the current roster of Osaka's Alchemy Records includes a small 2001 desk calendar featuring images of the artists. Longtime artists include: GENBAKU ONANIES (veteran punk rockers); INCAPACITANTS (noise for bankers, Allan's favorite power electronics act); MASONNA (psychedelic phase shifts and oscillations); SOLMANIA (with a grinding "rock-ish" track, awesome!); SEIICHI YAMAMOTO (solo electric guitar from the guitarist of the Boredoms); HIJOKAIDAN ("The Undisputed King of Noise"); THE NIHILIST SPASM BAND (Canada's highly prolific improvisational group); MERZBOW ("The other Undisputed King of Noise" with a track of pulsing bass and breakbeats!); and JOJO HIROSHIGE (Alchemy kingpin and leader of Hijokaidan performing a quite touching song about love with a backdrop of grating feedback). New artists and lesser knowns are: CHRISTINE 23 ONNA (Maso of Masonna and Fusao of Angel in Heavy Syrup, pulsating exotic moog psychedelia!); MIKI SAWAGUCHI (Japanese porn godess, aka "Big Boobs"); TATSUYA KITAJIMA (folk artist, quite calm and unnerving cover of "All Along Watchtower"[sic]); and GARADAMA (dark folk music sung in English, not unlike Current 93's dark ballads, especially odd since their album on Alchemy is heavy-duty metal). As far as we can tell, all tracks are exclusive to this comp. A nice document of the current state of Alchemy Records and a great introduction to (or reintroduction to those who've forgotten) the Osaka noise scene! And, it's a calendar...
RealAudio clip: MERZBOW "Cannon Balls 2"
RealAudio clip: CHRISTINE 23 ONNA "Cool Bitch (Shiny Crystal Planet - Space Vixen Mix)"

V/A Velvet Tinmine (RPM) cd 16.98

V/A Velvet Underground & Nico By Castle Face And Friends (Castle Face) lp 14.98
Originally released last year some time, and available exclusively from the Castle Face website, due to some strange arrangement with the label and/or the band, this killer comp of all our Castle Face faves covering the Velvet Underground & Nico record in its entirety, is FINALLY more widely available, and should really not need that much of a description considering the lineup: Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Blasted Canyons, The Fresh & Onlys, The Mallard, Burnt Ones, Warm Soda, Kelly Stoltz and more! Plus we're guessing even this version is probably gonna disappear pretty quick. Fans of any and all those bands are definitely gonna want this and we can attest to the fact that even VU haters might find themselves digging this anyway.
Kelly Stoltz starts things off with his take on "Sunday Morning", which is lush and lovely and dreamily sun dappled, swirling synths drift beneath a slow stately rhythm, soaring strings and Stoltz's warm soft croon. Warm Soda, who are quick becoming our new Castle Face fave, crank up "I'm Waiting For The Man", into a cool, glammy lo-fi, jangle stomp. Ty Segall's "Femme Fatale", adds lots of feedback, and some Stoogesy swagger, noisy and chaotic and super rocking. Thee Oh Sees get seriously loose and free with "European Son", the whole thing a wild, loose, free-rock/free-jazz drift, all detuned guitars, fluttering flute, and wild splattery drumming. Blasted Canyons transform "Venus Furs" into an awesomely creepy sci-fi garage-synth dirge, while The Mallard add some tweaked guitar and woozy psych to their version of "There She Goes Again". Burnt Ones trip out Spacemen 3 style (which we know, is essentially also VU style), with their sprawling cover of "Heroin", and the Fresh & Only's turn "All Tomorrow's Parties" into what could essentially be a F+O original, adding thick swaths of swirling psychedelic synths shimmer. There's more, but by now you should definitely be sold.
MPEG Stream: TY SEGALL "Femme Fatale"
MPEG Stream: WARM SODA "I'm Waiting For The Man"
MPEG Stream: BLASTED CANYONS "Venus In Furs"
MPEG Stream: THEE OH SEES "European Son"

V/A Version Excursion: Soul, Funk & Jazz Covers of Quality & Distinction (Harmless) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You know how everyone thinks they can be a DJ now, right? Maybe one of the unlooked-for benefits of this trend is that there are that many more people sifting through dusty ole record bins in dusty ole record stores worldwide, searching for the good breaks to sample and scratch. And perhaps that explains the sudden number of recent, very tasteful, well-done compilations that have graced the shelves here at Aquarius, comps filled with original source material utilized during or created for the breakbeat era's heyday (mid to late '70s). And hey, now that these amazing tracks are collected in one place on cd or vinyl, we can listen to them in the safety of our own living rooms -- instead of having to brave yuppies and cigarette smoke and $6 drinks to hear perfectly good tunes mangled by DJs of mediocre skills.
The UK label Harmless collected a rowdy bunch of funkified covers here, from Dick Hyman doing "Give It Up or Turn it Loose" to a moaning diva version of "Light My Fire," the Staple Singers doing Stephen Stills, and of course one of the all time greatest covers ever -- Isaac Hayes' simmering twelve-minute rendition of Bacharach's "Walk On By" (which was recently sampled by Wu Tang Clan). Very extensive liner notes make reading and listening at the same time a great pleasure.
RealAudio clip: RAY BARRETTO "Pastime Paradise"
RealAudio clip: ISAAC HAYES "Walk On By"
RealAudio clip: RICHARD "GROOVE" HOMES & ERNIE WATTS "Come Together"

V/A Versus Rather Interesting (Quatermass) cd 16.98
Opinion is split here over this one, but a look at the folks on this record should be enough for you to know whether it's your cup of tea or not. A bunch of electronic artists plunder the Rather Interesting (Atom Heart/Senior Coconut's label) tape vaults and do their worst. Pram, Plaid, Dropshadow Disease, Pole, Lisa Carbon, Fonosandwich, Fibia and more, take themselves, each other and then some (including Atom himself) on.

V/A Vertigo Mixed ...by Andy Votel (Family Recordings) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
At long last, back in stock in a somewhat decent quantity! Here's what we said about this, back in June when we made it a Record Of The Week on list #218...
Been listening to this non-stop since we got it. And selling 'em too, as soon as customers hear it (or even just hear about it, if they're like us). Wow. Now, you probably know that here at Aquarius we're partial to the prog. So, when we heard that a DJ mix of obscure tracks from the catalog of '70s UK label Vertigo, who specialized in prog, heavy psych, and weird-ass jazz rock was to be released, we were, well, psyched. And jazzed. And, uh, progged? Indeed. We were thinking that this could be something really great, as after all there were a lot of great records released on Vertigo (home of the famed "swirl" label). And great it IS, both in terms of the source material and the "60 course psychedelic smorgasbord" medley-like sound-collage approach taken to putting it together, which maximizes the amount of brilliant hooks and grooves that could be packed into one cd, while making for one dizzying, "swirl" worthy ride.
The story there is that DJ Andy Votel (who compiled the Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word disc we listed last time, among other things) was asked, in a dream-come-true moment, to put together a "best of Vertigo" collection. But since, in his own words, progressive rock tracks are "not short, they're EPIC" he was faced with a dilemma. How to fit more than just three or four songs on the cd?? His solution was to boil down his favorite Vertigo LPs to short excerpts, stitching together these many "vinyl snippets" into a 68 minute mega-mix. The overall effect is still very "prog" indeed, as it's definitely a prog move to jump around from one motif to the next, dynamically or schizophrenically changing things up in a short span of time. Yet it all flows well together, this could almost be one tour-de-force album from one AMAZING band!!
The credits list 38 songs by 29 artists, all from Votel's personal Vertigo vinyl collection -- Aphrodite's Child, Gracious, Colosseum, Affinity, Juicy Lucy, Uriah Heep, May Blitz, Warhorse, Gravy Train, Baker Gurvitz Army, Cressida, Patto, Flied Egg, Nucleus, Atlantis, Frumpy, Freedom, and many more, most of 'em hailing from the UK but also some from overseas, including Japan, Germany and Greece. Vertigo's best known signing has to be Black Sabbath, and while they don't appear in the credits I trust you'll hear something from 'em on here too, first thing (and later on as well, when Votel mixes the harp blowing from "The Wizard" into a May Blitz tune).
Thusly loaded with heaviness, groove, and Mellotrons, you get everthing from (old school) acid jazz to flutey prog to raw proto-metal -- all kinds of what gets called "hairy funk" here. Votel also makes use of interjections from what might be radio promo spots for Vertigo -- voices exclaiming "Vertigo! Vertigo!" and the like -- in order to smooth up his segues. In some ways, this might remind you a little bit of DJ Shadow's Entroducing, actually, not that these tracks have been fully edited into new compostions. But the love of dusty old prog grooves is the same.
Votel provides liner notes elaborating his enthusiasm for Vertigo (the label's role in his musical development, as a hip hop DJ with a fondness for prog) and his agonies over this project. Also you get a profile of Barry Winton, famed as the world's foremost Vertigo vinyl collector. And in addition, a portion of the cd booket is devoted to an appreciation of Keef, resident cover artist/graphic designer for Vertigo...which makes us think it would have been cool if they also presented a selection of covers here to look at, ah well.
Could be the best comp/DJ mix we've heard in ages. Boiling down an entire label to its essence over the span of one cd has got to be a tough task, and of course what Votel has selected is only a portion of the whole Vertigo story. But we can't nitpick with what he's done, this is a classy piece of work and deserving of kudos from all lovers of ye olde prog/psych. It might even convert some new lovers too! Recommended!!!
MPEG Stream: "track one"
MPEG Stream: "track two"

V/A Very Best Bollywood Songs (Outcaste) cd 14.98
The Britain-based pan-Asian label Outcaste releases the third in its series documenting Indian film soundtrack songs from the country's incredibly prolific Bollywood industry. (The first two being Bollywood Breaks and Bollywood Funk.) The songs, called "filmi", found here are some of the biggest hits spanning 1969 thru the '90s. As the liner notes point out, that means there's no stuff from the '50s, or from South Indian cinema (hence no Vijaya Anand, whose AQ-staple Dance Raja Dance is one of our favorite and weirdest of all the comps out there -- you must hear it!), but that's a complaint only for purists as this is a *wonderful* sampler for beginners, and for those already familiar with parts of the Bollywood sound, which is so varied and all-encompassing that it incorporates dub, disco, sappy pop, psychedelic guitar, love ballads, rollicking techno, even (or so the thankfully detailed liner notes claim) ragtime and klezmer. The fact that the songs are all *big hits* means that about half of it sounds relatively more mainstream than we think of as the average AQ customer's taste... but that don't mean it ain't good, and enlightening, and just lovely. We all know there's good music everywhere, even in the mainstream -- and besides, Hindi mainstream isn't mainstream to us. Recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Chaiya Chaiya"
RealAudio clip: "Choli Ke Peeche"

V/A Very Best Of Bollywood Songs II (Outcaste) cd 14.98
Outcaste continues with their impressive Bollywood film music, or "filmi", series with a second volume of songs culled from India's ultra-prolific industry. This collection spans the greatest historical range of the industry yet, including tracks from as early as 1949 and as recent as 2001. Though, on first listen, it seemed a less successful collection than the previous installment -- all the newest songs included at the beginning of the disc -- it really began to grow on me with each listen. The newer tracks, as saturated with factory synth presets as they are, are still amazing arrangements. It's interesting to see how the industry, its composers, arrangers, studio engineers, etc. have developed over the years, continually innovating and throwing in elements from every possible musical genre worldwide. Be it the completely wacked out "Yeh Dosti Hum Nahin" from the film Sholay (1975) with its potpourri of analog synth, banjo-ukulele, harmonica, strings, bolero style horn, fuzzed out guitar and then some. Or how about "Zindagi Ek Safar" from the film Andaz (1971) with its crazy yodelling vocals. All the greatest singers and composers are included here, which leads me to the one small complaint I have about this collection: once again there's a bit of overlap. You'd think that, given the immense number of songs to choose from in such a productive industry, a resourceful label such as Outcaste could find a couple of songs that weren't so recently released on another relatively high profile collection. I speak of two tracks included here by Ahsa Bhosle -- "Chura Liya" and "O Mera Sona" -- that were also on the "Best of Asha Bhosle" anthology released by Manteca last year. For what it's worth, Manteca seemed to get a hold of a cleaner copy of "Chura Liya" for their collection, but I hope this doesn't turn too many people away from this disc.
RealAudio clip: BAKSHI, ANAND "Chalo Chale Mitwa"
RealAudio clip: BAKSHI, ANAND "Yeh Dosti Hum Nahin"
RealAudio clip: JAIPURI, HASRAT "Zindagi Ek Safar"

V/A Vibro No. 1 - The Inside Out Issue (Avence / Doubel Entendre) cd / box / cards 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Found one copy of this stashed in the closet, figured someone would probably want it, first order gets it...
The premiere issue in this amazing sound art magazine box series. Each issue comes in beautiful printed box, and contains a cd and a series of full color cards printed on thick card stock. Very nice. Published twice a year by a team of artists and journalists in France, Vibro is, as it says on the box, "A cross between an art piece and a specialized magazine. A sonic object, a chronicle of electroacoustic and lo-fi experiments." Indeed! Includes music from David Toop, Mika Vainio, Chris Watson and more.

V/A Vibro No. 3 - The Citizen Band Issue (#3) (Avence / Doubel Entendre) cd / box / cards 17.98
Just dug up THREE copies of this cool art box / audio mag, once these are gone, they're gone for good...
Latest issue in this amazing sound art magazine box series. Each issue comes in beautiful printed box, and contains a cd and a series of full color cards printed on thick card stock. Very nice. Published twice a year by a team of artists and journalists in France, Vibro is, as it says on the box, "A cross between an art piece and a specialized magazine. A sonic object, a chronicle of electroacoustic and lo-fi experiments." Indeed! This issue contains pieces by Stephen Vitiello, Kinglet, Joan Schuman, Mark Vernon, Eva Sjuve, Christian Zanesi, Zoe Irvine, Aland Dunn & Jeff Young, Tonic Train, Pete Stollery, SI_COM and Tereza Neuma and features a full color card for each artist, with a full color reproduction of the artist's original artwork on one side, and on the other a description of the artist, a description of the piece, and assorted other information about the artist and their work. The tracks on this issue's cd are really amazing, beautifully haunting music concrete crafted from the sounds of waterfalls, snatches of conversations, brief snatches of music, warm rich drones, strange chopped up soundscapes, haunting intercepted phone calls, creaking machinery, buzzing insects, chimes, crickets, short wave radio, mutated speech, footsteps, passing cars, piano, sine waves and tone generators, synthesizers, radio broadcasts and all manner of found sound.
MPEG Stream: ZOE IRVINE "Nightwalk (Torch Required)"
MPEG Stream: ALAN DUNN & JEFF YOUNG "Rachmaninov"
MPEG Stream: EVA SJUVE "Astro Turf"
MPEG Stream: STEPHEN VITIELLO "Maybe Waterfalls"

V/A Victrola Favorites (Dust-To-Digital) book + 2cd 45.00
AT LAST, REPRESSED and REPRINTED and back in stock, this Record (Book) Of The Week honoree finally available again... Here's what we said when we made it ROTW, on list 284 earlier this year:
We're beginning to think, in addition to our biweekly Record(s) of the Week, we might just have to institute a Box Set of the Week. There's so many amazing reissues, so many collections of lost gems, we'd probably just make them Records of the Week proper if they weren't so expensive... this item is would be a good example. But you know what, screw it, for what you get, $45 bucks is not that much, a massive gorgeous book and two cds. So much amazing music, and fascinating graphics. Let's just do it. Record of the Week!!!
Alright. Feel better already. And it makes sense. If you're anything like us, and you sort of must be since you're reading the AQ list, this kind of HAD to be record of the week, everything we love, strange sounds from all over the world, dusty record crackle, tape hiss and vinyl warble, a beautiful music related objectÉ A total slam dunk. And there's the fact that EVERYONE who works here has one or wants one. Dust-To-Digital are like the new Smithsonian Folkways, constantly unearthing sonic treasures and then assembling them into beautifully curated collections. And we just can't get enough.
There was the Goodbye, Babylon box, collecting classic gospel music, housed in a huge wooden box with raw cotton and a huge book, the Fonotone Records box, 5 cds and a huge book in a cigar box with a bottle opener, The Art Of Field Recording set, that WAS just like a continuation of the Smithsonian Folkways series, and assorted other single disc reissues, all meticulously researched, fantastically laid out, and packed with some of the most amazing sounds you'll ever hear.
But this new one, Victrola Favorites: Artifacts From Bygone Days, just might be our favorite yet. Not only is it an amazing and head spinningly varied collection of musics, from African folk to country yodeling to Cantonese Opera, big band jazz to Hawaiian guitar to rhythm and blues, music from all over, Burma, Japan, Greece, Thailand, Portugal, China, Egypt, but the design is fantastic, a cloth bound hard cover book, with almost NO text, what text here is thoughtfully sequestered at the very end of the book. Where most boxes are packed with notes and recording info, the bulk of this handsome book is made up of gorgeous archival images, 78 labels, old record tins, posters, pamphlets, old greyed photographs, mailing labels, instruction booklets, all sort of Victrola ephemera. It would be well worth it just as an art book. Makes you dread the oncoming MP3 takeover, what will future generations discover of our music, old busted hard drives? None of these cool old sleeves, decaying from years of moisture and insects, gorgeous little visual artifacts offering clues as to the music contained inside.
But of course it's NOT just a book, included are two cds, a collection of various recordings drawn from the ongoing Victrola Favorites project, masterminded by AQ faves the Climax Golden Twins. Where old 78s are played on a vintage Victrola, and recorded with a microphone placed in front of the Victrola, none of that digitizing and cleaning up the sound, removing pops and clicks, this is all about the experience of listening to old 78's, sitting in a darkened parlor, in a big overstuffed chair, the air alive with dust motes, gorgeously crackly and timeworn sounds washing over you. And listening to these tracks, it does in fact feel just like that, or alternately, it's like hopping on a sonic time machine and traveling all over the world, different places, different times, a modern day Folkways, hopping in and out of times to capture brief snippets of sound and then moving on. So fantastic. If you love the Sublime Frequencies releases, and the Secret Museum Of Mankind series, this is essential listening. And the amazing thing is that even with all of these disparate sounds and styles, as a whole the collection flows if not seamlessly, in a way that is oh so pleasing to the ears.
Korean bamboo flute solos, amazing and amazingly insane yodeling, a bit of Arabian country dance music, super dramatic Greek folk music, super festive jug band music, Japanese kabuki, dark droning Indian ragas, recordings of Big Ben and traffic sounds in the UK and so much more. It's almost overwhelming. But not enough to keep us from wishing that there were ten more discs of this stuff!
So absolutely recommended.
And the packaging. WOW. Like we mentioned before, a clothbound hardcover book. In either red or white, with a Japanese style obi, packed with the above mentioned images, the liner notes and essay left for the final few pages, the cds, are uniquely held inside the front and back cover, in circular cut outs, beneath which lurk drawings of lac bugs, the insects whose secretions were used to make the resin used in the making of shellac records. Cool!!
MPEG Stream: GROUPO DE TOTOKO FRANCOIS "Bololo O Kolilo"
MPEG Stream: GUANGZHOU CANTONESE OPERA TROUPE "The Crow Flies Back To The Forest"
MPEG Stream: STELLA HASKIL "Mes Tis Polis Ta Stena (Alleyways Of Istanbul)"
MPEG Stream: MOZMAR CAIRE ORCHESTRA "Raks Baladi Hag Ibrahim (Country Dance)"
MPEG Stream: YIORGOS PAPASIDERIS/YIORGOS ANESTOPOULOS "Tora To Vrady Vrady (Now That Evening Has Come)"

V/A Vietnam: Anthology of Ede Music (Buda Musique) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Collection of recordings of the music of the Ede people from the Dak Lak Plateau in Vietnam. The 30 tracks, organized by type of ensemble and are amazingly varied. A beautiful polyphonic blend of mouth organs and voices with timbres that disguise the origins of the sounds: double reed instruments that sound like voices and voices that sound like double reeds. There are a few tracks on here that sound AMAZINGLY like Reich's Phase Patterns, and that will remind Can fans of the sublime Vietnamese Boat Woman Song from Canaxis. But my personal favorite is track 29 in which the Bro' - a two string zither with gourd resonators - is accompanied, in a sort of call and response, by what sounds remarkably like a rooster.

V/A Vile Vinyl Vol 1 (Past & Present) cd 17.98

V/A Violin, Sing The Blues For Me (Old Hat) cd 17.98
Old Hat seems to be picking up the slack from Yazoo these days when it comes to reissuing American roots music. On the last AQL we got the "Music From the Lost Provinces" disc, which was great, and now comes a pair of great discs showcasing black fiddle players from the 20's and 30's. For while the fiddle was a prominent instrument in black string bands way back when, it's been all but disassociated from blues and jazz in the present. So what happened to the violin's place in black string bands to relegate it from lead instrument at the turn of the 20th century, to being all but unused before the century was half way through? And why isn't the violin used more often in the blues today? Maybe it comes down to ergonomics; the lone singer with a guitar not only has an easier time with singing and playing, but certainly cuts a more striking pose with his ax than a fiddler. While it's generally agreed that guitarists were indeed more popular than fiddlers at the dawn of commercial recording, the editors of these discs argue that recording companies were extraordinarily biased towards recording guitarists for the sole interest of profits from record sales. So what's new? That might explain the blues, but what about jazz? At the birth of jazz during the 1920's there were more violinists in New Orleans' Storyville (according to the local registry of musicians and bands) than the now ubiquitous horn players. That, I suppose, can be chalked up to volume. A loud horn section will always have an edge playing to large audiences in an urban setting such as New Orleans. What Old Hat has collected here are some of the finest examples of fiddle players who were, by some thankful foresight, preserved for our edification and enjoyment. And for what is lacking in quantity of fiddle recordings available from this period is made up for in quality. The majority of tracks here were recorded between 1926 and 1935 (with one straggler taken from a 1948 session). The greatest thing about the music on these discs is that it's not "jazz" and it's not "blues" per-se either. Performers themselves took the liberty of calling their tunes "_________ (insert word here) blues" even when the tunes didn't follow the rigid parameters of the blues chord progression. This in the hopes of capitalizing on the increasing popularity of the new genre. The popular form of the day, ragtime, spawned both blues and jazz. Among many greats included here are the wonderful Mississippi Sheiks (B's personal all-time favorite), a track with Charlie Patton backing up fiddler / vocalist Henry Sims on guitar and the legendary Howard Armstrong (a.k.a. Louie Bluie) & Ted Bogan [be sure to check out the documentary Louie Bluie about Armstrong & Bogan by Terry Zwigoff if you can]. Old Hat has done a fine job with both of these, as with all of their reissues, including excellent liner notes and historic photos. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: MISSISSIPPI SHEIKS "Stop & Listen Blues No. 2"
MPEG Stream: LOUIE BLUIE & TED BOGAN "Ted's Stomp"

V/A Visions: A Tribute To Burzum (Unholy) 2cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yes, a double cd tribute to black metal's most notorious one-man-band, the currently incarcerated Burzum aka Varg Vikernes. The twenty three bands on here are all mainly super underground black metallists obviously influenced (musically and perhaps in other ways, unfortunately) by Burzum to begin with and thus the cold misanthropic drone of Burzum's black metal is fully in evidence here, making it good listen for all those who appreciate Varg's music, if not his politics or actions (he's a murderer, churchburner, and a Nazi, in case you were wondering).
The liner notes are interesting, as each band gets a half page to share their thoughts on the tribute's subject. Most wax rapturously about his genius ("...Burzum's music speaks directly to the very essence of man, where dwells the truth. Burzum is like a starry, pure night sky where among light and darkness a perfect harmony reigns..." says the band Krigstrommer) but weirdly/thankfully several bands make a point of condemning (or certainly not condoning) Varg's political views even as they of course admit to their love of his music. The line-up includes Aborym, local boys Black Queen (?!), Nokturnal Mortum, Sarnath, DHR act Schizoid, Judas Iscariot, and a host of lesser-knowns (except to cult black metal followers of course) like Pagan Hellfire, Ewigkeit, Aegishjalmar, Fornost, etc. As we said, it's all very Burzumic indeed, with our favorite tracks being Aboryms twisted (but still true) dayglo machinelike blast of Varg worship and Schizoid's DHR-via-the-frosty-north industrial hyper-distorted droning buzz-take. Although all the tracks are pretty great!
Of course, we tend to prefer tribute comps where the artists *aren't* at all similar to the tributee to begin with, but that's not likely to happen with a Burzum tribute is it? And with Varg in a Norwegian prison making bad synth albums, hearing these guys reinterpret his old classics is as close as we're gonna get to a new "real" Burzum record...
MPEG Stream: SCHIZOID "En Ring Til A Herske"
MPEG Stream: ABORYM "Det Som Engang Var"

V/A Viva Negativa! A Tribute To The New Blockaders Vol. 1 (Vinyl On Demand) 4lp 75.00
Holy shit! The first of two box sets, paying tribute to one of the most adventurous noise projects, The New Blockaders. Despite having collaborated with Andrew Chalk during his '80s noise days, David Jackman, and more recently with Thurston Moore, The New Blockaders have steered clear of something resembling a public profile; yet at the same time, their incendiary abrasions of junkyard noise and sonic obliteration have had a huge impact on the global community of noise musicians. In listening to all of these tributes to The New Blockaders, it's easy for us to convince ourselves that we're actually hearing the Rupenus brothers (the principle authors for TNB). You'll find Z'ev's splattered / slashed metals and aggressive frequency modulation, Oren Ambarchi's twisted steel collage, Emil Beaulieau's typical onslaught of hellish noise, Prurient's blackened power electronics, the white hot psychoacoustic squallor of Jason Kahn, a return to brutish devastation from Controlled Bleeding, V/VM in kick-ass drummachinegun attack mode, Thurston Moore embraces his noise bag for sick tone excretions, as well as tracks from Scanner, KK Null, The Haters, Daniel Menche, Nocturnal Emissions, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Asmus Tietchens, Zbigniew Karkowski, Ashtray Navigations, John Wiese, MSBR, Vortex Campaign, and many many more.
This is very limited, very beautifully packaged, and very recommended for any one interested in noise culture!

V/A Viva Negativa! A Tribute To The New Blockaders Vol. 2 (Vinyl On Demand) 4lp 75.00
Well if you're going to get the first volume paying tribute to one of the most adventurous noise projects ever, The New Blockaders, there's no excuse not to get the second! This one has Merzbow offering a fitting bit of incendiary psycho-noise, Sudden Infant gargling into shitty condenser mics and pounding heavily on slabs of wood along turgid grinding noise, sunken feedback miasma from Withdrawal Method, a mindblowing session of industrial ritualism for scraping metal and cavernous reverb from Giancarlo Toniutti, retardo squeak & squiggle from RLW, chopped digital splatter from Achim Wollscheid reminiscent of his SBOTHI days, a very Organum-like acoustic drone piece from Brandon Walls, Violent Onsen Geisha being Violent Onsen Geisha (i.e. REALLY FUCKING LOUD AND PIERCING!), Damion Romero offering a snarling blast of junked speaker abuse, Spiracle transforming a seering noise into something almost hallowed in its shimmer, and Wolf Eyes just shit something out on an old cassette. Plus nasty bits of noise Jim O' Rourke, Dave Phillips, Aube, Cheapmachines, Courtis, Christian Renou, AMK, Aaron Dilloway, the Incapacitants, and many many more!

V/A Voguing And The House Ballroom Scene Of New York City, 1976-1996 (Soul Jazz) 3cd 24.00

V/A Voices From Valhalla: A Tribute To Bathory (Godreah Records) 2cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Few could argue with the influence of Bathory on all the black metal that would follow, and this double disc compilation bears testament to that, a pretty serious lineup of groups, many of them aQ faves, some more obscure, some of them only barely black metal, but all paying tribute. Just check out the list: Sigh, Meads Of Asphodel, Nokturnal Mortum, Gods Tower, Gnaw Their Tongues, Old Corpse Road, Wolves Of Avalon, Folkvang, Koldbrann, Darkest Era, Ravens Creed, Skyforger, and the list goes on. And while the songs are all Bathory, the sounds differ dramatically, from murky raspy, black buzz, to pounding punkish thrash, and from blown out black dirgery to epic, folk flecked power metal. Gnaw Their Tongues, who might be of the most interest to non black metallers, delivers his most black metal jam yet, which you'd be hard pressed to peg as a GTT track, a churning, buzzing black frenzy, that manages to sound as troo and grim as any of the other bands here. And of course Sigh choose to confound as usual, offering up their version of "Under The Runes", that sounds like some twisted electro-new wave groove, laced with Japanese melodies, cheesy slow jam sax, weird FX, and garbled vox. The rest of the comp is much more true to the originals, and at once speaks to the power and the timelessness of Bathory's songs, but also to how their influence inspired so many disparate variations of a sound that in some ways is one of the cornerstones of modern BM.
Also included is a 30 minute interview with Bathory's Quorthon (RIP), originally recorded in 1996 for the late great Godreah zine, which seems to hacve transformed into the label that released this!
MPEG Stream: SIGH "Under The Runes"
MPEG Stream: GNAW THEIR TONGUES "Call From The Grave"
MPEG Stream: GODS TOWER "Song To Hall Up High"

V/A Voices In My Lunch Box (Plug Research) cd 15.98
As the majority of abstract electronica / IDM is instrumental, Plug Research had commissioned a handful of artists to explore the voice in conjucntion with the electron twiddle. With tracks from Herbert, Phoenicia, Kit Clayton, Patrick Pulsinger, Ectomorph, and the rising star idiot-savant ironists Chicks on Speed, the compilation is a diverse mix of electron crackle sprinkled with house shuffle, with the additional vocals almost always ending up as Bjork impersonations. Originally this was released as a series of singles, now available on cd.

V/A Voltron Tower - A Compilation Of Short Experimental Video (Patriot Youth) dvd 5.00

V/A Voodoo Drums (Universal Sound /Soul Jazz) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Drums, all drums. Recorded in Haiti and featuring the drummers from the Societe Absolument Guinin playing the complex rhythms of Haitian Voodoo. Pretty impressive stuff, along with the tricky polyrhythms employed in the pieces, you can hear little bass lines and melodies fleshed out. The one bone I would pick with the album is that the tracks are a little short, 2 or 3 minutes a piece, where it seems as though they would be better served being let to go 5 or even 10 times longer. Your head begins to swell from the rhythms and just before it pops, the piece fades out. I want my head to pop damnit!
RealAudio clip: "Yanvalou"
RealAudio clip: "Petro"

V/A Voodoo Drums (Universal Sound /Soul Jazz) 2lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Drums, all drums. Recorded in Haiti and featuring the drummers from the Societe Absolument Guinin playing the complex rhythms of Haitian Voodoo. Pretty impressive stuff, along with the tricky polyrhythms employed in the pieces, you can hear little bass lines and melodies fleshed out. The one bone I would pick with the album is that the tracks are a little short, 2 or 3 minutes a piece, where it seems as though they would be better served being let to go 5 or even 10 times longer. Your head begins to swell from the rhythms and just before it pops, the piece fades out. I want my head to pop damnit!

V/A VPRO's De Avonden: Crossing Border 1998 (Cycle) 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Compilation of performances from the annual Crossing Border festival held in Holland. Adventurous radio station VPRO booked a stage, and this cd culls some of the best sets, with: Chris Knox, Lambchop, Songs:Ohia, Calexico, Kramer, Joost Visser, etc.

V/A Vs. Kitty-Yo (Quatermass) cd 16.98
The respected Belgian label Quatermass here releases a new "vs" comp (a couple previous ones being remixes of the work on Atom Heart's Rather Interesting label and the Kompakt label). Here they ask five of their artists to remix five artists from the German Kitty-Yo label. The originals *and* the remixes are found here, which is nice. The remixers are Add N to (X), Calla, Tal (aka Wolfgang Voigt of Gas), Fibla and Mira Calix. And the orignals reworked here are by Peaches, Gonzales, Rechenzentrum, Stol, and Couch. The Peaches tune "Lovertits" is handsomely cut up and reassembled in an appealingly lurching fashion; Add N to (X) actually make Peaches rapping sidekick Chilly Gonzales palatable (they mainly shut him up); Fibla punch up the warmth and melody of an already heavenly piece of hushed electronic mellowness from Stol; and the wonderful Warp artist Mira Calix makes a relatively ho-hum Chain-Reaction-style heroinhouse track from Rechenzentrum into a very interesting track full of unpredictable (hallelujah) beats.
All in all a nice compilation, relaxing but illuminating, with a variety of electronica subgenres nicely sequenced and nicely messed-with.
RealAudio clip: MIRA CALIX VS RECHENZENTRUM "Submarine"
RealAudio clip: FIBLA VS STOL "[010]"
RealAudio clip: PEACHES "Lovertits (Original)"
RealAudio clip: TAL VS PEACHES "Lovertits (Remix)"

V/A Wackies Sampler Vol. 3 (Wackies) cd 17.98
Another awesome sampler highlighting some of the best tracks that Rhythm & Sound / Basic Channel have unearthed in their continuing series of vinyl reissues of the premier '80s label for reggae sounds, Wackies, produced in the legendary Black Arc studio with Lloyd Barnes behind the board. While Soul Jazz has done a great job of sharing the wealth of the amazing sounds that came from Studio One in the '60s and '70s, there hasn't been as much reissue action documenting all the great warm and rich reggae that came out of the '80s. However, this compilation improves matters, including gems by some well known artists like Horace Andy (whose voice could melt an iceberg), Johnny Clark, and Sugar Minott, as well as more obscure yet totally great artists like Itopia, Jah Carlos, Max Romeo and Bullwackies All Stars (whose dub sounds we've fallen in love with - we hope to review their great recently reissued full length very soon!).
Such a nice mixture of dub delights, lovers rock, and soulful reggae. All these tracks were only released on 12"s which are pretty hard to find and this marks the first time that any of them are on cd. Great stuff!
MPEG Stream: PRINCE DOUGLAS "March Down Babylon Dub"
MPEG Stream: HORACE ANDY "Live In The City"
MPEG Stream: LITTLE JOHN "Tear Down The Dance Hall"

V/A Waking Up Scheherazade (Grey Past) lp 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Waking Up Scheherazade: Arabian Psych Nuggets (Grey Past) lp 28.00

V/A Walking With Ghosts (Paradigms) cd 12.98
We have no reason not to trust Paradigms. Since their inception, this UK label has bestowed upon us slab after slab of weird and wonderful music. From the Stooges-meets-Hawkwind krautrock jams of Titan, to the massive glacial beauty of the Angelic Process, to the tripped out prog of Blueprint Human Being, to the grim blackness of Throne Of Katarsis, to the mysterious moodiness of Amber Asylum, to the epic sun baked sludge of Hjarnidaudi to the classic Pagan grimness of Utlagr. We've yet to be disappointed, and are beginning to consider Duncan who runs Paradigms an auxiliary aQuarian. How could we not? His label seems to perfectly reflect the AQ aesthetic, or will as soon as he puts out a killer power pop record and some wicked grime (haha), but for the most part, Paradigms has been batting 100% as far as we're concerned. So we were pretty excited to receive the newest Paradigms release, a compilation of drone, dark ambient, slow core, tripped out glacial prog, sludge metal, ambient doom and all of the indescribable genre nooks and crannies in between. Band name will most likely mean nothing to you, as we haven't heard of a single one of these bands: And Machine Said... Behold:, Catonium, Selaxon Lutberg, Escape The Day, Throne Of Glaktus, Paul Mercer, Monarch, Le' Rue Delashay, The Victim's Shudder, The Walking Cold, Vulf Sentient, Annastatsea and The Visions, but the music on this comp, holy shit! If there was ever a more AQ sounding compilation, we sure as shit haven't heard it. The opening track is a sort-of-industrial dirge, huge Teutonic beats, with haunting minor key melodies and super distorted low end piano, circling the crushing rhythm like vultures circling some dead and desiccated carcass. Like a stripped down instrumental Swans track. Beautiful and brutal. And that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the record. Each track a different shade of black, from warm muted greys to pitch fucking black: from haunting elegiac piano dirges, wrapped in creeped out ominous atmosphere, an expansive cinematic ambience, so cold and washed out and utterly epic, it sounds like Basinski if he had scored a film consisting of one slowly panning shot of some arctic tundra, to creeping Codeine worship, with slowly unfurling minor key guitar and softly crooned sadboy vocals, from massive murky soundscapes of keening glistening ambience and throbbing moaning low end, to super blown out dirgey sludgy Swans-like grooves, with haunting angelic vocals and strange skittery percussion, from creepy reverb drenched chamber music, operatic vocals and moaning strings, to hellish black ambience woven from deep resonant metallic shimmers, and guttural low end rumblings...
Definitely for fans of SUNNO))), Earth, Boris, Corrupted, MZ 412, Nordvargr, Codeine, Nadja, Fear Falls Burning, Hwyl Nofio, Andrew Chalk, Jonathan Coleclough, Earth, Khanate, Catacombs or any one into musicks dark and dirgey, dreamy and droney, dense and doomy. So fucking good.
This is the first Paradigms release to not be packaged in hand printed paper sleeves, instead it's housed in a white DVD case, with a gorgeous black and white photograph cover.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: AND MACHINE SAID.. BEHOLD: "The Contortionist"
MPEG Stream: THRONE OF GALAKTUS "Bloodcloud"
MPEG Stream: MONARKH "Devore Par l'Hiver"
MPEG Stream: THE VISIONS "Vortex"

V/A Wallahi Le Zein!!: Wezin, Jakwar, And Guitar Boogie From The Islamic Republic Of Mauritania (Latitude) 2cd 22.00
We got our first real taste of Mauritanian music via the Hadrami Ould Medeh single that we reviewed on the last list, which we described like this: "fluttering flutes, muted wah wah guitars, shuffling drums, and the vocals, emotional and oh so lovely", which it most definitely was, but it definitely did not prepare us for this a collection of, as the title suggests: Wezin, Jakwar and GUITAR BOOGIE From The Islamic Republic Of Mauritania. Guitar boogie? Sure some of those Sublime Frequencies comp featured some guitar playing that loosely resembled boogie, a little bit of buzz and distortion, Group Bombino let loose once in a while, but we sort of assumed that the above title was a bit of a creative exaggeration, that is until we pushed play. And immediately, some heavy, fuzzy, circular riffing, all wound around a muted rhythmic pulse, the sound slipping from low end riffy chug to wild psychedelic tangle. This is most definitely psychedelic boogie, it just so happens it's being played in some backyard or living room on the other side of the world.
The history of Mauritanian music is pretty fascinating, as is the provenance of this music, and the booklet/liner notes go into great detail, but for now, all you need to know, is originally, music in Mauritania was played either on the tidinitt, an hourglass shaped lute with 4 or 5 strings, which is played exclusively by men, and has since been replaced by an electric tidinitt, which became popular as a faster form of dance music developed. Then there was the ardin, a type of many stringed harp, played only by women. But as this comp, and the liner notes make clear, the electric guitar has become the instrument of choice, originally the amplification made it easier to play for bigger crowds, but soon, a style of playing was adapted to this new music, and the classic Mauritanian music was transformed into something totally new. This heavily distorted, strangely flanged groovy boogie flecked African folk. The songs here may drift and shimmer, but they inevitably explode into some super droned out cyclical buzz drenched riffage, the drums following along, sometimes the sound growing so intense and frantic, one can almost imagine the sort of energy this evokes in a crowd. And that's the other interesting thing about Mauritanian music, there is no music industry, no record labels, no real recording studios, yet music is happening all the time, in homes, and weddings, parties, every night, in town squares, and when someone hosts a function and has musicians perform, they record the performance, as a sort of keepsake, which is often thrown into a drawer, or an old box. So Matthew Lavoie, who compiled this collection, over the course of years and many visits, gathered up as many recordings as he could and sifted through boxes and boxes of tapes, as many of them were unusable, recorded on broken boomboxes, or with a microphone in the back of a room capturing more conversation than music, but the selections here, hand picked, are indeed divine, and so powerful, the music trancelike, raga-like, melding certain Western musical tropes with traditional African sounds, and the traditional sounds that over the years have grown less and less traditional, or in fact have simply created new musical traditions.
Just listen to the samples, this stuff is so hard to describe, to do it justice, this is the ultimate instance of 'you just gotta hear it', the sounds are cyclical, repetitive, looped sounding, mesmerizing, hypnotic, heavy, and buzzy, and distorted, the melodies so completely enthralling, the rhythms as propulsive as the guitar playing, the recordings too, raw, in-the-red, intimate and urgent and emotional, so passionate, unfettered by any concerns removed from the actual joy of music making, and the interaction between performer and audience is evident in the vocal response to these jams, the crowd singing along, hooting and hollering, the vibe wild and loose and alive, the music magical and incredible. Easily some of THEE most amazing sounds we've ever heard. And definitely our new favorite world music comp.
Housed in a nice 6 panel full color digipak, with a massive booklet, jammed with liner notes as well as tons of photos, and lots of info on the musicians, the various songs, a history of Mauritanian guitar playing and more!
MPEG Stream: MOHAMMED GUITAR "Banjey & Medh"
MPEG Stream: KEBROU "Banjey 'Boogie'"
MPEG Stream: BAB OULD HEMBRA "El Shams W'Al Qamar"
MPEG Stream: MUHAMMED CHEIKH OULD SYED "Chewr"
MPEG Stream: JEICH OULD CHIGHALY "Wezin"

V/A Wantage Hits Omnibus (Wantage) 2cd 12.98
Comps can be really hit or miss. Mostly miss usually. But one solution is just to make your comp bigger and bigger. More and more bands. Multiple cds. The even with a handful of misses, the hits will almost surely outweight the misses. One could be forgiven for assuming that Wantage employed this clever tactic with their massive double disc 21st release label compilation. But that would barely to begin to explain the presence of so many fucking hits. And even the misses are pretty good!
We've known Wanatage label lord Josh for way over a decade now. He used to be a one man welcome wagon in Missoula Montana, offering up places to stay, friendly conversation, shows in his living room, and eventually a label to put out records for you. He is an amazing guy with amazing taste. Lots of chaotic, noisy, heavy weirdness just like we like. So this compilation celebrates 20 releases and includes all kinds of bands, loads of which never even had releases on Wantage. Definitely a man after our own heart. So what we have here is two discs running the gamut from fucked up stoner rock, metallic new wave, thrashy pop, dirge-y drones and every single sound in between. Lots of names we know: Japanther, Oneida, Drunk Horse, Fireballs Of Freedom, Oblio Joes (the band Andee's band A Minor Forest played with EVERY time they played in Missoula), Bloodhag, Federation X, Dub Narcotic, Stinking Lizaveta, Noxagt, The Fucking Champs and more. Lots of names we didn't know: Stars Of The Dogon, Ass End Offend, Sparkles, Wadsworth, Mico De Noche, Johnny X And The Groadies, The Planet The, Sasshole, Actual Technology and a whole bunch of Latvian (!) bands. Also a track from AQ pals Castro, and one from the Narrows, a band Andee just discovered, who he predicts will rule the world one day. Funny and insightful liner notes and a WAY low sticker price make this a must have!
MPEG Stream: STARS OF THE DOGON "Jogging"
MPEG Stream: DRUNK HORSE "If You Stand For Nothing..."
MPEG Stream: THE NARROWS "Blue Light Shade"

V/A WAR (If it feels good, do it!) (Hip Hop Slam) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
With this new release, local underground hiphop/turntablist label Hip Hop Slam goes to war -- against the war, that is. Subtitled Emcee Dubya vs. DJs of Mass Destruction, this anti-war comp takes a plunderphonic approach at the expense of our respected (ha) President and his invasion of Iraq. Contributors include Public Enemy (with a mix of their track "Son of a Bush"), Cat Five, Mr. Lif, Shingo2, Tino Corp, Azeem, and many others, some (like DJ Saddam and DJ Sars) with explictly topical monikers. There's even the inclusion of a track by Steinski & Mass Media, the pioneer of the "political cut-and-paste" electronic music genre whose work inspired so many of these folks. This kind of audio activism can only be applauded, getting out the message that not all Americans are so gung-ho on the Bush regime's program. Bring the noise, fight the power, c'mon. Proceeds from the sale of this not-for-profit project benefit a variety of peace orgs.
MPEG Stream: GUERRILLA NEWS NETWORK "Happy Ramadan Osama bin Laden"
MPEG Stream: TINO CORP FEAT. BEN STOKES "Dubya (Commander In Chief)"

V/A War II (The Turd Hunt Continues) (Hip Hop Slam) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.