J CHURCH / STORM THE TOWER Split CD (Honest Mike's Broken Rekkids) cd 14.98
Maybe it's just 'cause we miss our ol' pal Lance Hahn, ever since he moved off to Austin, TX a little while back, that reviewing this release by his melodic, energetic pop-punk band J Church just makes us all nostalgic, thinking about when we could count on seeing Lance almost everyday hanging out here at Aquarius. But of course we're happy he's happy over there in Texas, and we're also happy to report that J Church is as vital as ever. This split teams five tracks performed by Lance Hahn's new Texan J Church lineup with four cuts by another Austin-based band, Storm The Tower, who play a Black Flagish, vaguely metallic style of hardcore. Their side is no let down, while J Church's half adds five fine new songs to the vast J Church discography, ranging from galloping pop punk anthems to explorations in guitar noise texture. Opening track "Terror Or Love" we almost thought was '80s metal before Lance's distinctive, earnest, diy vocals kicked in on the chorus!
MPEG Stream: J CHURCH "Terror Or Love"
MPEG Stream: STORM THE TOWER "Feeding The Filth Eater"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN split (Very Friendly) cd 14.98
This is volume three in My Cat Is An Alien's series of split lp's/cd's. The lps are limited to 100 copies and contain original MCIAA artwork, but sell out immediately and more importantly cost over $100 so we wisely passed on those since the cds are way more nicely priced. And sound exactly the same! For volume three, MCIAA is joined by Jackie-O Motherfucker, who offer up a twenty minute musical joyride, equal parts tribal clatter, vocal experimentation, music concrete, skittery free jazz, ambient drone, studio fuckery / tape splicing / turntable weirdness and found sound collage. Sounds like it could be a mess, but it somehow works. A chaotic convoluted sonic freakout that's more mesmerizing than maddening. Quite cool actually. For their half of the split, MCIAA deliver a keening wash of glistening ambience, with lots of space-y swoosh and futuristic bleeps and bloops, that slowly morphs into an almost nursery rhyme like ditty with affected vocal melodies, simple chimes, and reverberating steel string shimmer.
MPEG Stream: JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER "Breaking"
MPEG Stream: MY CAT IS AN ALIEN "Blank View"

JAPANESE INDEPENDENT MUSIC (Sonore) book+cd 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Originally published in France (and in French) in 1998, this exhaustive, indispensable encyclopedia of Japanese independent music is, well, once again published in France, but now in English! Totally revised and expanded threefold, this is currently the most comprehensive overview to what's been happening in Japan's underground for the past 25 years or so. With contributions from many experts from various continents, including Tokyo resident Alan Cummings and Ongaku Otaku editor/AQ pal Mason Jones, as well as many artists themselves, we finally have a Trouser Press for a musical culture which tends to be frustratingly mysterious to Westerners. In addition to the hundreds of artists biographies and discographies (which are expanded beyond the small "selected" discographies of the first edition), there are essays and Q&A's that give insight into why and how so much unusual and amazing music is being produced. In addition there's a huge list of label contacts, websites for artists, online resources and maps with brief descriptions of major cities. Finally, an eighteen track cd is included with exclusive tracks from: Ruins, eX-Girl, KK Null, Hair Stylistics (Violent Onsen Geisha), Sachiko M. with Toshimaru Nakamura, Harpy, Gaji, Yuko Nexus6, Wono Satoru, Kangaroo Pow, Jyoji Sawada, The*Saboten as well as tracks previously available (but only with the first edition of Japanese Independent Music) by: Acid Mothers Temple, Keiji Haino, Hoppy Kamiyama, Tetsuo Furudate, Haco and Bondage Fruit. By no means is this book complete, nor does it profess to be the be-all-end-all of the Japanese underground. Indeed, a quick glance by AQ's resident Japanophiles revealed a few errors and omissions (don't trust the discographies -- they'll say CD when they mean LP or 7"!), but overall it's an impressive work and a useful resource.

JAZZFINGER / A WAY Split (Mallard Lake) cd 9.98
The UK's Jazzfinger hit us again with another slab of their gorgeous free rock abstract drone wonder, but here they're sharing sonic space with a band we had never heard before. A Way are from Finland, and seem to fit somewhere between their countrymen Avarus, Anaksimandros, Kemialliset Ystavat and like-minded groups like No Neck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Ghosting, Bonus and of course Jazzfinger. A Way's 4 tracks are brief little snippets of low end weirdness. Drones, but dense with disembodied non-melodies, fragmented chunks of rumble and shimmer, rhythms, but the sort of rhythms you can only see when you stand way back, up close, they're just dizzying whirls of random percussive shuffle and stumbling flutter, the warm whir of machinery, a smeared industrial drift, sparkling with tiny harmonics and muted tonal color. An ambient world of soft and spooky sweet submerged.
Jazzfinger counter with a 20 minute wall of crumbling guitar. Layer after layer of pealing, keening, roaring, buzzing amps and strings. Dense but also sort of lo-fi. It almost sounds like some sort of installation where a gallery was outfitted with 1000 crappy tape players, all playing poorly dubbed copies of live Sunroof! bootlegs. A gloriously epic tangle of high end guitars, a massive sun dappled Ur-drone, hovering and shimmering, while beneath lurks a swirling world of tinkling music boxes, plucked strings, sing songy melodies, random percussion, thick strum and abstract riffage. Nice!
SUPER LIMITED. We only have a dozen or thereabouts, so act fast. Packaged in thick plastic pouches with two hand screened squares of textured paper and secured with a tiny piece of twine.
MPEG Stream: A WAY "Around Under"
MPEG Stream: JAZZFINGER "The Sun Is Your Enemy The Wind Is Your Friend"

JAZZFINGER / NUMBER NONE Penny Dreadful / Lichfields (Gold Soundz) cd-r 9.98
We won't go into too much detail on this one, as it's an oldie, from way back in 2003, we never had enough to list it until now, and even now we probably don't have enough, but we do have a bunch, so if you want one of these act fast, cuz it's pretty dang great. 
Longtime AQ faves, UK duo Jazzfinger (at least a duo here) battle it out free rock, abstract ambient drone style with fellow noisemakers Number None, who we've actually been fans of for a while, but this will mark their first appearance on the AQ list. 
The Jazzfinger tracks, are more of what we've come to love, hissy lo-fi soundscapes of warble and shimmer, clattery chaotic percussion and rumbling drones, the eleven minute second track is the shows the band at their best, stretching way out, and meandering from soft focus drone to foresty free folk, to No Neck clatter jam and back again, washed out, grinding buzzing and so gloriously mysterious. The rest of the tracks play out similarly, like some strange mechanical music making contraption, wound up and let loose, on some old 1800's dirt road, wobbling beneath bruised purple skies and sending the villagers skittering back to their houses, to peek warily through the curtains. 
Number None, are like minded maybe, but their execution is completely different. More minimal and hushed, their tracks are stretched out streaks of muted metallic buzz, buried mumbled vocals, dark industrial hiss, haunting melodic fragments, all drifting weightless in some murky alien sea. The final track, the 15 minute long "High Noon On The Negative Plane" sounds exactly like that. Dark shimmers of ringing metal, smeared into barely shifting slabs of soft sound, an orchestra of Tibetan bells, dropped into the sea, their subtle vibrations recorded as they descend into the blackness, then broadcast toward the surface, where they arrive as a warm watery warble. So nice. 
And again, SO LIMITED, already out of print, so needless to say, these will be gone in a flash...
MPEG Stream: JAZZFINGER "1"
MPEG Stream: JAZZFINGER "2"
MPEG Stream: NUMBER NONE "6"
MPEG Stream: NUMBER NONE "7"

JENERIK, SCOT : R. H.Y. YAU Meat (Auscultare Research) cd 12.98

JODOROWSKY, ALEJANDRO The Films Of Alejandro Jodorowsky: Fando Y Lis, El Topo, The Holy Mountain (Anchor Bay) 4dvd/2cd 49.00
Visionary cult cinephiles get ready to drool! If you were as excited as we were about the recent reissue of Kenneth Anger's early films, then this incredibly packaged and affordable 4dvd+2cd box set of the early films of Chilean theatrical genius Alejandro Jodorowsky will surely make your head explode!!! Fando Y Lis! El Topo!!, HOLY MOUNTAIN!!!! Marvelously restored and beautifully remastered, there is so much amazing material here that has either never been available before, or only available previously as extremely hard to find poor quality transfers from mediocre prints.
AND there's more! This set also includes the absolutely killer SOUNDTRACKS to both El Topo and yes, Holy Mountain!!! The Holy Mountain Soundtrack has never been released before and it so totally kills, and why wouldn't it, Don Cherry is all over it! But more about that in a minute, there's also bonus features, interviews, deleted scenes, audio commentary, a documentary and a short film from 1957 that was presumed lost until it was found early last year.
So for those who may be unfamiliar with Jodorowsky's films, a bit of back story:
Born in Chile and struggling to become an actor, Jodorowsky became fed up with the idea of scripted theatre and moved to Paris to study mime. Working with the great mime, Marcel Marceau while at the same time influenced by the Surrealists, Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty, Jean Cocteau's mythical fantasias, and the European Art House cinema of Fellini and Bunuel, Jodorowsky relocated to Mexico to form the theatre troupe, The Panic Movement, which would stage early happenings (involving lots of nudity and rotting food) and existentialist plays by Ionesco, Beckett and Fernando Arrabel. It was Arrabel's play, "Fando Y Lis" that would inspire him to move away from the theatre into cinema, but far from any structured or direct form of filmmaking. Jodorowsky wanted to re-interpret Arrabel's play by filming it completely from memory and in a remote and ruggedly extreme locale. Here he would bring together all the soul-baring psyche of experimental theatre, the role-playing excess of costumes, props and pageantry, the ritualistic entanglements of violence and beauty as catalysts of transformation, and most importantly the notion of existence as a journey through all kinds of personal and mystical revelations both sacred and profane. All of these qualities permeate each of the three films here.
Ok, you get the idea. So let's just break it down for you, what you get from this awesome box set:
--Fando Y Lis (1968): Jodorowsky's first full length black and white feature started riots at its premiere at the Acapulco Film Festival and was banned in Mexico due to its violent sexual imagery and ritualistic mocking of church beliefs. Based on Arrabel's play about a pair of dysfunctional lovers (one impotent, the other paralyzed) in a Fellini-esque quest for the spiritual city of Tar.
Extras on this disc include the 1994 French documentary, La Constellation which features interviews with Marcel Marceau, Peter Gabriel (who was inspired by El Topo, when he wrote The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway), and the French sci-fi illustrator, Moebius, who began working with Jodorowsky on the failed attempt to film Frank Herbert's Dune, which sparked Jodorowsky's interest in graphic novels.
--El Topo (1970): The bloody surreal western that spawned the Midnight Movie. Funded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, this film is like a Sergio Leone film on a serious dose of brown acid.
Extras include an interview with Jodorowsky about the Midnight Movie phenomenon.
--Holy Mountain (1973): The ultimate spiritual quest film. Jodorowsky takes us through every imaginable belief system only to completely shatter our preconceptions about spiritual enlightenment.
Extras include deleted scenes and commentary about Jodorowsky's continuing interest in the Tarot.
--La Cravate (1957): A 35 minute silent film in color based on Thomas Mann's The Transposed Heads about a girl who sells heads and the men who are her customers. This film was presumed lost until its discovery last year in someone's attic in Germany!
--El Topo Soundtrack: 18 tracks composed by Jodorowsky and John Barham inspired by both the soundtrack work of Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota. Full of flutes and droning horns, accordions and organs and twisted Mariachi styles.
--Holy Mountain Soundtrack: 24 tracks composed by Jodorowsky, Don Cherry and Ronald Frangipane. Ranging from spiritual free drones to acid rock to Moroccan desert jams to pensive marches to soft jazz and everywhere in between. There are even themes for each of the nine planetary characters. Such a wild, weird, and wonderful soundtrack and it alone is worth the price of admission.
Phew! So can you guess, that this is totally and absolutely recommended!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "La Catedral De Los Puercos (The Pigs Monastery)"
MPEG Stream: "Vals Fantasma"
MPEG Stream: "Las Flores Nacen En El Barro (Flowers Born In the Mud)"
MPEG Stream: "Trance Mutation"
MPEG Stream: "Psychedelic Weapons"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Snakes"

JOHN MCENTIRE / SEA AND CAKE Music from the Motion Pitcure: Reach the Rock (Hefty) 7" 3.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Sea and Cake track appears on the straight-to-video John Hughes film called Reach the Rock, and although the McEntire track does appear in the film, it's not gonna be on the full length cd soundtrack, so we guess that's your reason for getting this single (although its similarity to Windham Hill-style Shadowfax new age lite might turn you off just a bit). Yikes.

JOHN WILKES BOOZE Five Pillars Of Soul (Kill Rock Stars) cd 14.98
For those of you who missed out on the super limited handmade Five Pillars Of Soul cd-r's JWB released one at a time over the last couple years, you can once again thank your lucky stars, you've been saved. And those of you who did manage to get em, well, why not get this handy disc that collects all 5 cd-r's onto a real cd with even more extensive liner notes added.
While this is purportedly a tribute to soul music, the soul music seems to be mostly implied here, like 'soul' in spirit, in concept, in intention, but not in execution. Which is not a bad thing. This -is- soul music, but the way it can only be played by middle class, white, mid-western boys. All shrieking, skronking, sweaty, pounding, rocking and GROOVING. You can catch glimpses of the Make Up, the Blues Explosion, the White Stripes, New York Dolls, as well as Alice Donut (especially in the vocals). Weird and pretty wonderful. Spazzy, soulful, glammy ROCK AND ROLL. There are 5 volumes. Short and sweet (each clocking in at 10-15 minutes) and all in honor of JWB's peculiar ideas of the pillars of soul: Melvin Van Peebles, Tania Hearst (Patty Hearst with her SLA name), Albert Ayler, Marc Bolan and Yoko Ono. They also throw in some covers of the Zombies, the Fugs, and Mission Of Burma but turn them into punky soul-fuck explosions... Good stuff. Although I'm still clinging to the belief that the sixth pillar must be BRUCE WILLIS!!!
MPEG Stream: "Sweetback's Gonna Make It"
MPEG Stream: "See Through Sound"

JOHNSTON, DANIEL & VARIOUS ARTISTS The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered (Gammon) 2cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Daniel Johnston has been a staple of underground DIY indie rock for as long as we can remember. From his early homemade cassettes, to his rock records, some time spent on Shimmy Disc, always totally unique and bizarre and beautiful. Johnston is the ultimate outsider artist. Innocent and childlike, troubled by demons, some we all have to deal with, and of course some of his own invention. A talented artist as well as musician, he has influenced everyone from Yo La Tengo (who has covered his songs) to the Butthole Surfers (who used to play shows and tour with Johnston). This double disc is such a fantastic testament to Johnston's talent and legacy. The first disc is all covers, various well known 'fans' offering up their own versions of Johnston classics. Flaming Lips with Sparklehorse, Death Cab For Cutie, Vic Chesnutt, TV On The Radio, Teenage Fanclub with Jad Fair, Bright Eyes, Tom Waits, M. Ward, Mercury Rev, Beck and more. The second disc consists of 19 tracks, all the hits everyone knows and loves as well as some less well known jems, spanning his 15 year career. Johnston's immediately recognizable keening childlike voice, over plinking guitars, warbly toy pianos, wezzing squeezeboxes and all sorts of weird home taped sound bites. So good. Essential listening for sure, hopefully the star studded selection of indie rock luminaries will get people less inclined to indie weirdness to check out the genius of Daniel Johnston. Who sure does look remarkably like Captain Kangaroo these days....
MPEG Stream: SPARKLEHORSE WITH THE FLAMING LIPS "Go"
MPEG Stream: DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE "Dream Scream"
MPEG Stream: VIC CHESNUTT "Like A Monkey In The Zoo"

JUNO OST (Rhino) cd 14.98
Haven't seen the movie yet, but we think Juno's soundtrack cd is like a really good mixtape from your closest pal! A variety of old and new faves that pushes all the right nostalgia buttons. It includes Mott The Hoople's "All The Young Dudes", Belle & Sebastian's "Expectations" and "Piazza, New York Catcher", The Kinks' "A Well Respected Man", Buddy Holly's Dearest", Velvet Underground's "Sticking With You", Moldy Peaches' "Anyone Else But You", Cat Power covering the 1959 tune "Sea Of Love" (previously covered by The Honeydrippers), Sonic Youth doing The Carpenters' "Superstar", and a bunch by former Moldy Peach Kimya Dawson... who must be pretty stoked that the star of the film suggested that her character would be a fan, thus leading to Dawson's inclusion on this soundtrack and a big boost to her career.
MPEG Stream: MOLDY PEACHES "Anyone Else But You"
MPEG Stream: VELVET UNDERGROUND "Sticking With You"

K. / LOW split (Tiger Style) cd ep 9.98
A lovely split release between Low and Karla Schickele of Ida (and formerly of Babe the Blue Ox and Beekeeper). As expected, this is a slow, quiet dreamy gathering of like-minded souls. Tara Jane O'Neil adds drums and organ on the k. tracks. Mr. Warn Defever recorded the Low tracks and remixed one by k.

K. / LOW split (Tiger Style) 7" 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A lovely split release between Low and Karla Schickele of Ida (and formerly of Babe the Blue Ox and Beekeeper). As expected, this is a slow, quiet dreamy gathering of like-minded souls. Tara Jane O'Neil adds drums and organ on the k. tracks. Mr. Warn Defever recorded the Low tracks and remixed one by k.

K.O., DJ For Wearing A Phone W/Q- (K Records) cd 12.98
A mix cd along the lines of K7's "DJ Kicks" series by dj K.O. of ICU (now IQU) and with ultra-minimal cover art (plain jewel case.) Contains tracks by: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Plone, Andre Estermann, AEMIC, Michael Fakesch, Illianthal, Red Snapper, Boom Boom Satellites, One True Parker, Hexer, Jon Forte vs. London Electricity, BOB Sound System, Palm Skin Productions, E.V.A., and Aphex Twin.

KARP/RYE Split CD (Troubleman Unlimited) split cd 12.98
This cd contains the Rye debut 7", the Karp/Rye split 12" and an entire live radio performance by Karp.

KAYO DOT / BLOODY PANDA Don't Touch Dead Animals / Fever / Circle And Tail (Holy Roar) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've long been fans art metallers Kayo Dot (who were born from another band we loved, metallic chamber prog weirdos Maudlin Of The Well) and they just keep getting better and better, weirder and weirder. And who better to get matched up with for a split lp, that outsider art sludge combo Bloody Panda? Who, much like Bathtub Shitter, we liked before we even heard em cuz how can you not with a name like that?! And thankfully their sound more than lived up to the high expectations we had because of the name.
Anyway, these two groups are pretty well matched, different enough to keep things interesting, but similar enough to ensure that most folks who dig one, will most likely dig the other.
Kayo Dot start things off with the side-log "Don't Touch Dead Animals", which begins with some creepy female spoken word before lurching into some woozy dark jazz, blissy and warbly underpinned by thick (yet subtle) metal guitars. The sound is slithery and late night, like a metal tinged Bohren or DJ Shadow. Eventually, this dark lounge groove builds into some serious metallic crunch, with wailing horns and anguished female vocals, and truly killer drumming. A glorious trainwreck, blown out free jazz groove all tangled up in some dirgey heaviness. Pretty great.
Bloody Panda counter with what starts out as just a simple caveman plod, with distant moaning metallic guitars, a weird sort of doomy ambience, but it pretty quickly amps up into a massive churning slab of doomy sludge. Guitars are huge and downtuned, poured over everything like viscous goop, the vocals are bizarre, some chanted and crooned, others garbled and alien sounding. There are brief bits of post rocky bliss, and some weird ambient spaciness, but for the most part, this is the sound of a huge Bloody Panda, trudging through tarpits and molten rock, leaving a swath or ruin behind it, crushing everything in its path.
Pressed on super swank grey and brown splattered vinyl, and housed in an eye popping full color gatefold sleeve.

KECAK GANDA SARI Kecak From Bali (Bridge) cd 15.98
We've had plenty of compilations that featured excerpts of Balinese Kecak performances, but never a recording of the complete Ramayana Monkey Chant, and it's pretty phenomenal! Recorded in 1987 by David Lewiston, who recorded most of the music featured on Nonesuch releases of Indonesian music, this release is not new but it's definitely a classic and totally worth checking out. An old fave indeed, Allan here first heard this 'round about the same time he first got into the Boredoms, and they're somehow linked in his mind, makes sense, 'cause we'd imagine Kecak like this could in fact have been an inspiration for some of the Boredoms' wilder stuff!
Those new to the sights and sounds of "Balinese Monkey Chants" might think that these performances and pieces are long passed on oral traditions and rituals from centuries ago, but in truth they are a modern cultural invention. They were created with the help of a Russian-born German artist named Walter Spies living in Bali between the World Wars, who was a strong advocate for the advancement of Balinese arts in order to appeal to the tourists who visited the island. Spies saw potential in the traditional Balinese trance rituals such as Sanghyang, a spirit communication usually during troubled times. One of the main features of these rituals was the Cak (pronounced chak) chorus, a group of males who chant in highly syncopated and precise rhythms. Spies thought that the Cak chorus would appeal to tourists if it could be made into an entertainment involving a story. So working with a Sanghyang group in the early nineteen thirties, they fashioned a drama from the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana, a story well known to the Balinese people and to many of the foreigners who frequented the island. Using dancers and performers to act out the main parts of dramatic adventures of Prince Rama and his wife Sita, her abduction by the evil Rawana and her rescue with the help of Hanuman and the King of The Monkeys, the role of the Cak Chorus became greatly transformed by not only expanding their variety of sounds by exploring the Balinese language abundant use of onomatopoeia to mimic gamelan rhythms, but also by integrating themselves into the action through choreographed waves of dramatically intense synchronized movements. Sitting in a large group of 5-6 semi-circles, the male chorus use their arms in unison to great effect, sometimes waving up or to the sides or forward while at other moments of the drama, the chorus representing the advancing armies of Rawana, half of the group will stand and lurch forward to display aggression while the other half lies back in surrender (James Cameron borrowed heavily from this for the Na'vi rituals in Avatar). While it is amazing to watch, it's also quite incredible to listen to as the waves of chanting hover between chaos and control in precise furies of sound. You'll hear what we mean about maybe influencing the Boredoms... If you don't have any Kecak in your collection, you don't know what you're missing!
MPEG Stream: "Introduction"
MPEG Stream: "Sita's Abduction"
MPEG Stream: "Interlude"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT / SUNROOF! split (Fat Cat) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest in this long running series of split 12"s, each volume's number in the series denoted by the number of holes punched in the plain white cover, this volume thus being number 19! And this time number 19 is the magic number as both bands sharing the split are LONG time aQ faves, Kemialliset Ystavat from Finland, and Sunroof!, the more droned out and blissy project of Skullflower's Matthew Bower. Both groups sound amazing as usual, but display different sounds than we're used to here.
Let's start with Kemialliset, whose usual sound is a gloriously ramshackle abstract foresty folk, and it still is, sort of, but it sounds like someone in the group got a computer (or at least finally figure out how to use one), as this is easily the most polished sounding KY record yet, and the most rife with strange electronics and effects, but by no means does that mean it's less out there, in fact it's probably the weirdest and most twisted KY record yet.
Woozy twisted lullabies, warped music box melodies, haunting vocal harmonies, it's still foresty and folky, but way more fractured, with strange edits and tons of swirling effects and electronics, way more experimental and abstract, pretty and lilting for sure, but totally twisted. The final track is fantastic, a playful groove, only mildly effected, hypnotic and beautiful, but still a bit off kilter.
The flipside finds Sunroof!, one of our favorite purveyors of glistening high end ur-drone, and technically these tracks still qualify but they're a bit more abrasive and harsh, the opener is brittle and caustic, a field of shrieking feedback, and hiss drenched high end, sputtering horns(?) and all manner of NOISE. The second track is all warped radio transmissions, still droney and minimal, buried beneath a sea of pulsating buzz. And the final track explodes with sheets of corrosive buzz, all high end, grinding and fuzz drenched, a mighty ur-drone bordering on Merzbow territory, but always with a haunting melodic undercurrent that transforms what could be near white noise into something thick and layered and organic and in some strange abrasive way, quite beautiful.

KID 606 PS You Love Me (Mille Plateaux) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On Kid 606's website, he's peddling a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan: "I did a remix for Kid 606 and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." At least the Kid is recognizing his ubiquity within the electronica scene with a good sense of humor. "PS You Love Me" is the requisite remix album of his Mille Plateaux "PS I Love You," featuring the production techniques and electronic twiddle of Matmos, Atom TM, Farben, Pan American Rechenzentrum, Electric Company, Twerk, The Posterboys of the Apocalypse and the Kid himself adding some new but similar tracks. As a whole, "PS You Love Me" maintains the archetypally purist Mille Plateauxisms of shuffling house rhythms and glitched-out stereo effects, with the highlights being the Matmos "Twirl: Photoshoot Rmx" featuring a running commentary from Drew Matmos and J Lesser as they mock the Kid during one of his photoshoots and the beautifully quiet and somber Pan American remix.
RealAudio clip: "Twirl: Photoshoot Remix by Matmos"
RealAudio clip: "Unleft Remix By Pan American"
RealAudio clip: "Sonqizzon"

KID 606 & ELECTRIC COMPANY / KEVIN BLECHDOM $, Vol. 6 (Tigerbeat6) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Volume six in the notorious Tigerbeat singles series, Kid 606 teams up with Electric Company as Kevin Blechdom does "Long Thong Silver", a ridiculous cover of Sisqo's "Thong Song" that's just wrong-wr-wrong-wrong-wrong. I guess it was funny the first time, though... Yes, these are limited.

KID 606 / ASCDI / PRINTED CIRCUIT '$' Vol. 8 (Tigerbeat6) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Number eight in the Tigerbeat6 '$' series of limited split singles. Kid606 takes on two lesser known artists from across the globe, ASCDI (not to be confused with ASCII) and Printed Circuit (aka Claire Broadley, with releases on Irritant and Elefant as well as a remix disc on Catmobile).

KID 606 / CEX Oh, So Now You Fuckers Wanna Dance (Violent Turd) cd 10.98
The third installment of Shotgun Wedding, Violent Turd's strictly limited soundclash series. A speedy mash-up of a million hiphop songs along a brutal beat assault. Each of the three tracks has its own flavor with Cex's a bit gentler. It has moments of softness, subtlety and electronic contemplation spanning the length of the piece. And then bam! 606's "Gizm Collission" is a smashup of recycled techno trash and pieces of familiar hip-hop that hits you in the brain. I can almost hear a whistle. Whoah.
MPEG Stream: KID 606 "Up From DaBassment"
MPEG Stream: CEX "DJ No Evil BaltiMix 6000"

KID 606 / COM.A "$" vol. 1 (Tigerbeat6) 7" 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The first in a series of proposed split 7" singles on the über-hip Tigerbeat6 label. Oakland based Kid 606 on the A, Japanese artist Com.a takes the B. High price to pay for a 7", but you're gonna have to pay a shitload more on eBay when these babies are gone...

KID 606 / DJ/RUPTURE '$' Vol. 7 (Tigerbeat6) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Number seven in the unstoppable Tigerbeat6 '$' series of split singles. This time the Kid steps in the ring to take on Madrid's unstoppable DJ/Rupture, who if you recall, put out one of the best hardcore fuckstep/hiphop/ragga/noise mix discs last year. Watch for his upcoming "Minesweeper Mix CD" coming very soon... Limited, so act fast!

KID 606 / JOSEPH NOTHING "$" Vol. 4 (Tigerbeat6) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Volume four in the super limited $ series of split singles. Oaktown's Kid 606 once again plunders Ice Cube while Japan's Joseph Nothing runs around in ritalin fueled hip hop circles. Backwards.

KID 606 / KID COMMANDO split (Ache) 7" 6.98

KID 606 / KID COMMANDO split (Ache) 7" 6.98

KID 606 / POSTERBOYS OF THE APOCALYPSE That's What I Got / No Angels (Tigerbeat6) 7" 6.98
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Volume 5 in Tigerbeat6's "$" series. Kid 606 throws down another hip-hop slammer. Posterboys make a bunch of noise. Limited.

KID 606 / TIMEBLIND $ vol. 3 (Tigerbeat6) 7" 7.98
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Third in the $ series of split 7"s on Tigerbeat6. One track each by Oakland's Kid 606 and Brooklyn's Timeblind. Limited to 750 copies, so act fast!

KID 606 VS. 5IVE'S CONTINUUM RESEARCH PROJECT split (Tortuga) 12" 11.98
Huh? Aside from the fact that both artists have numbers in their names, this seems like quite the strange bedfellows sort of team up. The electronic mish mash mayhem of Kid 606 on one side of the 12" colored (pink or blue) vinyl, the bludgeoning stoner rock instrumentals of the Boston duo known as 5ive (or, to use their new, full name, 5ive's Continuum Research Project). Weird, eh? And that's just the idea. Of course, if you've heard the 2XH vs. HHR Vol. 1 compilation, which featured a bunch of grind/doom bands as well as drone and electronic acts (including the ubiquitous Kid 606) you know that the Hydra Head/Tortuga guys have an affinity for the Kid's brand of electronic fuckery in addition to sheer metallic heaviness. Hey, just like us! So, maybe it all makes sense. The two tracks from 5ive are in their usual awesomely sludgey bass and drums style, excellent. Then on the flip, there's three from Kid 606, the first of which features processed, distorted solo guitar and loops, almost as if he's making an effort to fit in with 5ive. Very cool actually. His next track is some Casio-beat goofiness, but that's then followed by a third track again with guitar, but spacier and more psychedelic. All in all, the Kid's tracks here are a lot more subdued and 'musical' than we expected.

KID BEYOND Amplivate (self-released) cd 8.98
Took a while for these to materialize from the man and his peeps, but better late than never we s'pose! Bay Area lone mouthpiece Kid Beyond takes his moniker seriously taking the art of beatboxing beyond the hip hop common place. And though he definitely isn't a youngster (when we saw him perfom live a while ago he resembled a life size Barney Rubble!), he keeps energies and spirits youthfully high and welcoming as he loops and layers his oral utterances and sputterances into a catchy grooviness. Who'd think a beatboxer would cover Portishead? Seems like an unlikely choice, but KB does it style and it totally works!
MPEG Stream: "Wandering Star"
MPEG Stream: "Mothership (Mutaytor Dublab Remix)"

KINSKI / ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE s/t (Sub Pop) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This lovely (and bargain-priced) record is the result of a beautiful band-meets-band story. You know, two bands with beards meet and make friends for life. Actually, does Kinski have beards? We're just guessin'. (Note: there's ladies in both bands, we're not accusing them of having beards or anything.) Seattle cosmonauts Kinski and guitarist/guru Kawabata Makoto of the popular Japanese underground musical commune Acid Mothers Temple go way back, to when Kinski opened for Mainliner's 1999 US tour. Sooner or later they had to collaborate, and we're not complaining. Even if you find AMT a mite too prolific, at least this release is 50% Kinski, who haven't yet reached the product overload stage that AMT share with Merzbow and precious few others. Thus no need to feel guilty about adding this to your shelf of AMT releases.
So, we get four tracks to absorb here. First up, is Kinski's "Fell Asleep On Your Lawn". Its ten minutes start off all quiet n' pretty before going into spacelaunch mode. They fire their rockets, come back to earth, and then blast off again. Maybe they don't fly as high as the best of their recent Airs Above Your Station album, but it's still a good track. Then, track two sees Kinski visiting Japan, playing a pre-dinner jam at AMT "dancin' king" Higashi Hiroshi's flat, with Higashi and Kawabata sitting in on guitar. It's really beautiful, almost ambient, hushed space drone stuff that's so sleepy that I woulda thought it was an after-dinner jam instead. Lovely. The third track comes from the same 'session' but has extra added AMT overdubs, so you hear from the whole AMT crew plus the Kinski quartet. It has a similar mood to track two but is denser. Lastly, track four is just AMT, offering their companion to Kinski's opening cut, though it's twice as long, called "Virginal Plane 5:23". It's a swirling stoned jam not unlike their Electric Heavyland album. All in all, real nice disc from these international cosmic comrades, packaged in some cool Boredoms-meet-Man Or Astroman? lookin' cover art. Vinyl limited, cd not.
MPEG Stream: KINSKI "Fell Asleep On Your Lawn"
MPEG Stream: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE + KINSKI "Planet Crazy Gold"

KINSKI / ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE s/t (Sub Pop) 2lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This lovely record is the result of a beautiful band-meets-band story. You know, two bands with beards meet and make friends for life. Actually, does Kinski have beards? We're just guessin'. (Note: there's ladies in both bands, we're not accusing them of having beards or anything.) Seattle cosmonauts Kinski and guitarist/guru Kawabata Makoto of the popular Japanese underground musical commune Acid Mothers Temple go way back, to when Kinski opened for Mainliner's 1999 US tour. Sooner or later they had to collaborate, and we're not complaining. Even if you find AMT a mite too prolific, at least this release is 50% Kinski, who haven't yet reached the product overload stage that AMT share with Merzbow and precious few others. Thus no need to feel guilty about adding this to your shelf of AMT releases.
So, we get four tracks to absorb here. First up, is Kinski's "Fell Asleep On Your Lawn". Its ten minutes start off all quiet n' pretty before going into spacelaunch mode. They fire their rockets, come back to earth, and then blast off again. Maybe they don't fly as high as the best of their recent Airs Above Your Station album, but it's still a good track. Then, track two sees Kinski visiting Japan, playing a pre-dinner jam at AMT "dancin' king" Higashi Hiroshi's flat, with Higashi and Kawabata sitting in on guitar. It's really beautiful, almost ambient, hushed space drone stuff that's so sleepy that I woulda thought it was an after-dinner jam instead. Lovely. The third track comes from the same 'session' but has extra added AMT overdubs, so you hear from the whole AMT crew plus the Kinski quartet. It has a similar mood to track two but is denser. Lastly, track four is just AMT, offering their companion to Kinski's opening cut, though it's twice as long, called "Virginal Plane 5:23". It's a swirling stoned jam not unlike their Electric Heavyland album. All in all, real nice disc from these international cosmic comrades, packaged in some cool Boredoms-meet-Man Or Astroman? lookin' cover art. Vinyl limited, cd not.

KINSKI / BARDO POND Sonic Attack (Lords Of Light) (Trensmat) 7" 5.98
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Where to even start... HAWKWIND. The mighty lords of drugged out space rock, without whom, most of the bands we love might not even exist. These four Hawkwind records: Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall Of The Mountain Grill, In Search Of Space, and Space Ritual, are pretty much all anyone needs to know about space rock. Or whatever it is that Hawkwind do, long sprawling jams, extended psychedelic workouts, heavy and trippy, totally drugged out and divine, while at the same time, surprisingly catchy. But yeah, aQ folks probably already know how much we love Hawkwind.
So if we were to pick six bands to cover classic Hawkwind tunes, we might not have picked these six, but then again, we very well might have: Mudhoney, Mugstar, Acid Mothers Tempo And The Cosmic Inferno, White Hills, Kinski, Bardo Pond. Holy hell! If this were just a comp with those bands, we'd be all over it, but the fact that they're covering Hawkwind seems like it was made just for the aQ faithful, and who knows, maybe it was. Spread out over three 7"s, we almost didn't list these separately, but as a set, 'cause to our minds, who the heck would only want one or two of these? But you never know, so for those of you who didn't already freak out and toss all three into your cart, here's a brief bit about each specific 7":
On volume three, "Lords Of Light", Kinski definitely get their Hawkwind on, covering "Master Of The Universe", and like Mugstar on the first volume, not so much making it their own, as transforming themselves into a vessel through which the spirit of Hawkwind can flow, and flow it does. That main riff is such a killer, all the band have to do is ride it out, adding plenty of freaked out effects and psychedelic leads, the vocals buried in the mix, not getting in the way of the endless spacepsych jamming.
And finally, the series is closed out by another group of modern psychedelic masters, Bardo Pond, who add female vocals to their take on "Lord Of Light", the vocals drifting ethereally, over a roiling black cloud of FX drenched guitars and some seriously pounding drums, even a bit of flute (we think), and maybe more than any of the others managing to meld the sound of the original with their own, plenty of wah wah guitar, loads of effects, most of the track spent drifting through space, cloaked in blown out super distorted psych guitar and shimmering outer space ambience. Surprisingly heavy and totally blissed out.
The packaging is brilliant, perfectly tripped out psychedelic acid flashback, naked lady, geometric design, cribbed from the original Hawkwind artwork (or at the very least, an incredible simulation), the sleeves are printed complete with shelf wear and corner creases (so don't complain, they're meant to look like they've been on your shelf for decades), each one SUPER LIMITED, and already sold out at the label, we have a bunch, but these will be the only copies we'll ever have!!

KINSKI / PAIK / SURFACE OF ECEYON Crickets And Fireflies (Music Fellowship) cd 13.98
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There's over 70 minutes of high-flying, low-droning instrumental space rock on this here split cd! AQ-faves Kinski start things off with "Keep Clear Of Me, I Am Maneuvering With Difficulty", a twenty-minute long improv which gives them plenty of time to build from quiet, outer-space atmospherics to the sort of loud, fuzzed-out mantric heaviness that we love 'em for. Their driving rock mayhem attains levels of distortion that the Acid Mothers Temple would envy, before Kinski bring things down into a nice cosmic drone zone to end the piece. Easily as good as anything on their excellent new Sub Pop album Airs Above Your Station reviewed here last list. Next comes a band with whom we were not familiar, Paik (named after artist Nam June?). Their two tracks clock in at about twenty minutes total too. Ponderous yet shimmery, you probably won't realize you're not still listening to Kinski -- no complaints there. Real nice & pretty. And then Surface of Eceon (another AQ-fave, related to Landing) take a half-hour to soothingly drone their way through this disc's finale. Blissful. These three were definitely a good choice of bands to share a split, style AND quality-wise. Kinski definitely get up to the most rock action, but the other two bands space out beautifully. Recommended to all you psychedelic post-rock drone-heads.
RealAudio clip: KINSKI "Keep Clear Of Me, I Am Maneuvering With Difficulty"
RealAudio clip: PAIK "Eva"

KIRBY, LEYLAND Memories Live Longer Than Dreams: Part Three (History Always Favours The Winners) 2lp 26.00
The third and final volume of this sprawling 6lp (two lps in each volume) drone haze ambient masterpiece from the man behind the Caretaker, and V/VM! All three 2lps have been compiled onto a triple cd, this week's Record Of The Week, but for vinyl folks, who have the first two, grab part three while you can...
For a couple of years now, Leyland James Kirby has been releasing a highly acclaimed catalog of maudlin ambient recordings culled from melodic phrases looped and blurred from old 78s. The bulk of these recordings (typically released under the Caretaker moniker) didn't seem to leave England or at least they didn't arrive in California. Now that the distribution has improved, we've finally been able to hear what the fuss has been all about. This album belongs to a trilogy called Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was that Kirby has made now that he finds himself living under the grey skies of Berlin having relocated from grey skied Manchester; lo and behold, he's still making cold, rainy grey music for cold, rainy days. And yeah, he's pretty damn good at it.
Like the other two double LP sets, Memories Live Longer Than Dreams eschews titles (even this title is nowhere to be found on the LPs artwork!) and doesn't even give us any information what so ever on the artwork, a paint-smeared canvas. It works as an endless loop of flipping the two records, forgetting which track you've drifted in and out of, and wondering where to start next. These pieces of blurred ambience, obfuscated field recordings, and sad piano melodies hint at the furniture music of Erik Satie, the mood engineering of Angelo Badalamenti, and the emotional resonance of William Basinski. Limited to 450 copies, these will not last.

KIRBY, LEYLAND When Did Our Dreams And Futures Drift So Far Apart: Part Two (History Always Favours The Winners) 2lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Volume two of this sprawling 6lp (two lps in each volume) drone haze ambient masterpiece from the man behind the Caretaker, and V/VM!
For a couple of years now, Leyland James Kirby has been releasing a highly acclaimed catalog of maudlin ambient recordings culled from melodic phrases looped and blurred from old 78s. The bulk of these recordings (typically released under the Caretaker moniker) didn't seem to leave England or at least they didn't arrive in California. Now that the distribution has improved, we've finally been able to hear what the fuss has been all about. This double lp is the second in a trilogy called Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was, and finds Kirby now living under the grey skies of Berlin having relocated from grey skied Manchester; lo and behold, he's still making cold, rainy grey music for cold, rainy days. And yeah, he's pretty damn good at it.
Like the first volume, When We Parted My Heart Wanted To Die, Memories Live Longer Than Dreams also eschews titles and doesn't even give us any information what so ever on the artwork, a paint-smeared canvas. It works as an endless loop of flipping the two records, forgetting which track you've drifted in and out of, and wondering where to start next. These pieces of blurred ambience, obfuscated field recordings, and sad piano melodies hint at the furniture music of Erik Satie, the mood engineering of Angelo Badalamenti, and the emotional resonance of William Basinski. Limited to 450 copies, these will not last. However, there's now a 3cd set containing the whole vinyl trilogy.

KIRBY, LEYLAND When We Parted My Heart Wanted To Die: Part One (History Always Favours The Winners) 2lp 26.00
For a couple of years now, Leyland James Kirby has been releasing a highly acclaimed catalog of maudlin ambient recordings culled from melodic phrases looped and blurred from old 78s. The bulk of these recordings (typically released under the Caretaker moniker) didn't seem to leave England or at least they didn't arrive in California. Now that the distribution has improved, we've finally been able to hear what the fuss has been all about. This album belongs to a trilogy called Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was that Kirby has made now that he finds himself living under the grey skies of Berlin having relocated from grey skied Manchester; lo and behold, he's still making cold, rainy grey music for cold, rainy days. And yeah, he's pretty damn good at it.
As a piece of vinyl, When We Parted My Heart Wanted To Die eschews titles and doesn't even give us any information what so ever on the artwork, a paint-smeared canvas. It works as an endless loop of flipping the two records, forgetting which track you've drifted in and out of, and wondering where to start next. These pieces of blurred ambience, obfuscated field recordings, and sad piano melodies hint at the furniture music of Erik Satie, the mood engineering of Angelo Badalamenti, and the emotional resonance of William Basinski. Limited to 450 copies, these will not last. However, there's now a 3cd set containing the whole vinyl trilogy.

KNIFEHANDCHOP / DJ ANEURYSM Shotgun Wedding Vol 2 / Evil Doppleganger (Violent Turd) cd 10.98

KNIT SEPARATES / ORANGE CAKE MIX Ghost Of A Ghost / Zenith Power Shell (3 Acre Floor) lp 8.98
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A split LP between San Francisco's Knit Separates and Orange Cake Mix, both of whom exemplify the art of holing up in a bedroom and quickly banging out evocative, yet quirky 4-track psychedelic folk. The Knit Separates -- comprised of Jason Honea, Glenn Donaldson, and Loren Chasse -- offer a charmingly innocent homage to all of their childhood musical heros: Martyn Bates (who is clearly heard in Honea's soaring vocals), Nikki Sudden (especially his really fucked-up on heroin guitar strum), and the Durutti Column. Orange Cake Mix continues down the hazy path of 4-track indie-pop and electronica that has warranted him so many releases on the Darla label.

KRIEGER, ULRICH Early American Minimalism, Walls of Sound II (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98

KRISTIAN, DAVID /SIAN acoma Narrows Bridge/Someday Anywhere (Alien8 Recordings) split cd 13.98
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Split cd of minimal, ambient electronics from Canadian drum 'n' bass experimentalist Kristian and Japanese artists Sian (a duo formed by the guys from noisemakers Aube and Monde Bruits). Haunting stuff, eerie sounds that sneak up on you.

LANDED / SNAKE APARTMENT Tip Of The Whip / Ugly Poltergeist (Corleone) 7" 3.98
The legend on the back of this split seven inch reads "Ugly Providence Boogie Rock". Well it most definitely is ugly and from Providence, but boogie rock might be stretching it a bit...
We're still grooving to that last Landed 12" that found the ever shifting outfit unleashing some alien scuzz rock dancefloor technology, but this track here is a bit of the classic Landed sound, grungy and sludgey, blown out rhythms and buzzing guitars, super thick distorted bass, the whole thing a sort of plodding dirge, but peppered with wild squalls of angular mathiness and freaked out new wave damage. Pretty awesome stuff.
The flip side is by fellow Rhode Island noise makers Snake Apartment, who do their own sludgy dirgey kind of thing. Channeling the Brainbombs through thick sheets of East coast art rock, and dipped in the black tar of classic old school Amrep noiserock, lots of stretched out guitars, strangled vocals, throbbing bass, all tangled up into swaggery Stoogesy grooves, that is surprisingly catchy.

LASCOWIEC / MARBLEBOG / VERZIVATAR Deep Horizons Of Eternity (Turanian Honour) cd 9.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
We've been trying to get our hands on enough of these to list for ages, a killer 3 way split of obscure strangely melodic blackness, released on Hungarian label Turanian Honour, featuring long time aQ faves Marblebog, Bay Area depressive black metal duo Lascowiec and Verzivatar, another Hungarian horde we had never heard until now.
Lascowiec, whose killer demo compilation we raved about a while back (which we still have a small handful left), returns with four more tracks of washed out black beauty, darkly depressive and beautifully buzzy, the music of Lascowiec is a blurred and smeared minor key mystery, remove the distorted vokill croak, and you'd be left with a deep swirling shoegazey bit of soft focus buzz. The riffs are muted and muddy, lo-fi but still lush, locked into trancelike loops, woozy and warbly and hypnotic, about as pretty as black metal can sound without ceasing to be black or metal. Spidery tangled little melodies, wreathed in otherworldly effects, distorted but not harsh or jagged, more smoothed out and blissy, the vocals the grimmest element, but for the most part, it's the music that carries Lascowiec, gorgeously mournful, and hauntingly lovely buzzy blackness.
Marblebog offer up two songs, epic and majestic, melodic too, but with some super twisted way UP in the mix vocals, that transform an otherwise loping mysterious minor key dirge into something creeped out and harrowing. The main melody is gorgeous, almost power metal sounding, albeit slowed down and draped over a monotonous doomy drum plod, but those vocals, the perfect blend of harsh and hellish, brooding and pretty. Their second track is another strange blend, this time the guitars and drums are buried beneath thick swirling keyboards, and some fucked up demonic gurgled croaking vocals. Again, the effect is the same, a sort of woozy softly buzzing prettiness transformed into a fractured, Burzumic, off kilter depressive black dirge.
Finally Verzivatar deliver two tracks of fierce and frantic blasting blackness, but like the other two bands on the split, their sound is marked by an unlikely melodiousness, the riffs, frenetic and buzzy are also soaring and majestic, the vocals here too are weird, but less black metal, or really metal at all, more like a raspy punkish howl, or a strangled mewl. Gives Verzivatar a sort of crusty punkish vibe, reminding us a bit of French faerical black metal punks Nuit Noire. Definitely need to hear more from these guys.
All three bands offer up some seriously gorgeous melodic grimness, some surprisingly blissed out black metal buzz, unfortunately this is LIMITED TO 666 COPIES, and has been out for a while, so not sure we can get more. Each one is hand numbered, with a big full color booklet, liner notes, lyrics and the works.
MPEG Stream: LASCOWIEC "By Eight Hooves To Asgard"
MPEG Stream: MARBLEBOG "Rivers Of Eternity"
MPEG Stream: VERZIVATAR "Final Catharsis"

LAVENDER DIAMOND / QUEENS OF SHEEBA split (Cold Sweat) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Aaah, a Devendra Banhart sighting! While in Europe back in 2004, this neo-folk troubadour recorded with the band known as Queens Of Sheba. This lil' record features one of the resulting songs of that session -- "It's A Christmas Time Celebration". Yes, we are well aware that it is already the middle of January, but who are we to squelch a little belated holiday themed music? The flipside is the elegantly attired "Impossible Occurances" by LA's dream-folk combo Lavender Diamond. Artwork by Ron Rege. Limited pressing of 2500.

LEONARD COHEN I'M YOUR MAN OST (Verve) cd 15.98
Here's a unique kind of movie soundtrack, and an excellent one at that! Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man features live recordings of Martha and Rufus Wainwright, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Teddy Thompson, Nick Cave, Antony (of And The Johnsons), Beth Orton, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, The Handsome Family, Perla Batalla, Julie Christensen, U2 and the man himself, Leonard Cohen. The performances (except for the Cohen/U2 one) were part of Hal Willner's production "Came So Far For Beauty: An Evening Of Leonard Cohen Songs" which took place twice in Brighton, England (2004) and Sydney, Australia (2005). Cool!
MPEG Stream: ANTONY "If It Be Your Will"
MPEG Stream: RUFUS WAINWRIGHT "Chelsea Hotel No. 2"
MPEG Stream: JARVIS COCKER "I Can't Forget"

LES SAVY FAV / DAVID CROSS Obsessed With The Excess (Chunklet) 7" 4.98
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Not so much a split or even a collaboration really, this is basically two tracks from spastic indie noise-rockers Les Savy Fav with a David Cross intro / outro on each track. The LSF songs are great, falling somewhere between Deerhoof, Grandaddy and Interpol, equal parts moody throbbing hypno rock, and skronky indie splatter. And the Cross stuff is pretty funny, mildly un-PC as you'd probably expect, but unfortunately quite brief.

LESBIAN / OCEAN split (Roadburn / Senor Hernandez) 10" 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've mentioned it before, but it definitely bears repeating. It's always good to print the speed a record is meant to be played at. If your band is slow and sludgey, droney and dirgey, then odds are it will sound good at both 45 -and- 33, and if you're like us, you'll probably think it sounds better slower, dirgier, heavier, so we're gonna review this split at 33, cuz it sounded better that way. If it was meant to be played at 45, well, everything we're about to say, only slightly higher pitched and a bit faster.
Lesbian are from Seattle and feature a bunch of dudes who have done time in other heavy bands, most notably Asva. They released an awesome album on Holy Mountain a year or two ago. And here, they offer up one track of classic sounding doom, at least at first, soaring minor key guitars, wrapped around crushing drums, harsh demonic vox, strangely haunting and pretty, but as the song develops it gets weirder and weirder, introducing some blasting double kick, some old school eighties style chug complete with guitar harmonies, and some streaks of blurred almost-black metal. Like Khanate meets Iron Maiden, but weirder, and even cooler than that already sounds.
The flipside is a new track from Ocean, from Maine, not to be confused with THE Ocean from Germany, the sound here is brooding post rocky metal, a simple strum, all murky and Godspeedy, slow building, before exploding into a churning low slung sludge, that at 33 is thick and viscous, but maybe slightly less so at 45. Heavy and murky and pummeling, before giving way to a pretty droned out abstract outro.
Packaged in sturdy full color sleeves, pressed on thick opaque yellow vinyl, and most likely limited.

LESSER / ROB CROW Split (Vinyl Communications) cd 14.98
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LEVAN, LARRY Journey Into Paradise (Rhino) 2cd 22.00
Awesome collection of many of the jams Larry Levan would play (and many he mixed) at the legendary garage in the heyday of the New York disco scene. Everyone from Talking Heads to Gwen Gutrhie, Teen Gardner to Patrice Rushen. Carefree, groovin and so much fun!
MPEG Stream: TEENA GARDNER "Heartbeat"
MPEG Stream: MANN FRIDAY "Love Honey, Love Heartache"
MPEG Stream: GWEN GUTHRIE "It Should Have Been You"