KRISTIAN, DAVID /SIAN acoma Narrows Bridge/Someday Anywhere (Alien8 Recordings) split cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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 13.98
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
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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
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
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

LEVIATHAN / ACHERONTAS Sic Luceat Lux (Zyklon-B Productions) cd 21.00
Seems like rumors regarding the end of Leviathan were greatly exaggerated. Not only is Leviathan still a going concern, but then out of nowhere pops this brand new, bad ass split, with a Greek band called Achernotas, who we knew by name but had never heard until now.
Needless to say, most aQ metalheads won't need much more prodding than the words "new Leviathan record", then there's the fact that the cd AND vinyl version of this split are both insanely limited, which means once we sell out of these, odds are we won't be able to get more, which is a huge bummer, because not only are the Leviathan tracks awesome (obviously), but we're pretty psyched on Acherontas as well.
The Leviathan tracks sound like maybe they're a bit older, perhaps before the shift from electronic drums to acoustic drums, the sound is murky, but still gnarled and chaotic and dense, the arrangements furious and frenzied, the drumming insane, and that unmistakable demonic croak. Lots of glitch and buzz, tangled atonal melodies, a heaving wall of blackened chaos, but it is Leviathan, so there's plenty of dark brooding ambience, some classic metal sounding chug, some spaced out almost doomy sounding blackness, the sound here falls somewhere right between classic Leviathan and the more twisted sonic soundscapes of Lurker Of Chalice.
The Acherontas tracks start off with haunting reverb drenched piano, creating a creepy otherworldly vibe, before the band launches into some super grim sounding black pound, the drums simple but intense, the guitars super distorted, the riffs woozy and minor key, the sound slipping easily from loping Burzumic plod, to proggy almost folky swirl, with clean guitars and strangely complex drumming, smothered in ethereal effects, the vocals especially harsh, dripping with demonic intensity, then suddenly transforming into deep haunting croon, the guitars following suit, growing more and more melodic and lovely, still all wrapped in a haze of distorted buzz, eventually fading out in a blur of minor key miserablism. Really awesome stuff. Definitely need to hear more from these guys.
But for now, if you do want one of these, cd OR lp, act fast, these have been selling like crazy and we're down to about half of what we started with. The cds come in a nice digipak (although be warned, some of the edges are a little worn in shipping, nothing we can do about it, these are probably all we're gonna get), and the lp is a super striking pictured disc, that comes in a heavy sleeve with a printed 12" x 12" insert.
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "Crusted, Blackened"
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "To A Grotesque Of Swollen Flesh"
MPEG Stream: ACHERONTAS "Velvet Aurora"
MPEG Stream: ACHERONTAS "Kornugia"

LEVIATHAN / IUVENES The Speed of Darkness / Live In Eternal Sin (No Colours) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Managed to get just a few more of these in stock! Direct from Wrest of Leviathan. And we are told these will be the last copies ever so don't miss out AGAIN. Here's what we had to say about this split when we first got it in:
Finally a little more Leviathan to hold us over until his next forthcoming full length, Tentacles of Whorror! This time a round it's a split with European old schoolers Iuvenes who traffic in buzzy blurry black metal, Bathory style. Really simple blast beats over superdistrorted riffs and growled gutteral vocals with squiggly leads buried waaaay doooown in the mix. Droning and repetetive and very hypontic. But let's not kid ourselves, Leviathan is why we're here and Wrest does not diappoint. Grinding suffocating swarms of buzzing guitars, ultra creepy, deeply depressing ambience, completely and brilliantly fucked drumming, haunting Burzum-y keyboards, and that inhuman bowels-of-hell rasp that occasionally erupts into an utterly terrifying demonic shriek. But it's the songs, the songs are just so fucking good. So many black metal bands make all the right sounds, but can't actually write real songs. Wrest continues to explore and push the boundaries of black metal with Leviathan, exploring distinctly non-black metal sounds and ideas, but manages to stay grim and true the whole time. The songs here are punishing and crushingly dense, disturbing and evil as fuck, but days later, you'll find these riffs stuck in your head like a crown of thorns! Essential!
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "I Miss Watching You Die"
MPEG Stream: IUVENES "Necromatron"

LEVIATHAN / SAPTHURAN Split (Battle Kommand) cd 14.98
The mighty Wrest and his black metal behemoth Leviathan resurfaces once again, this time teamed up with fellow USBM outift Sapthuran. It's a good matchup in so much as Sapthuran sounds quite a bit like the current crop of West Coast black metal (Xasthur, Crebain, Draugar, etc.) which is definitely a good thing. Midtempo buzz and blur, with haunting clean guitar melodies in the background, that come to the forefront briefly on the second folky ambient track, only to be summarily obliterated by Sapthuran's closer, a dizzying blurry buzz of droning riffs buried vocal howl and splattery blast beats. Definitly need to hear more from these guys (we actually have Sapthuran's full length in stock, just ask).
But as always, Leviathan is the main event, the reason we all showed up, and once again Wrest does not disappoint. In fact if anything (and if it's even possible at this point) the Leviathan material on this split is even more fucked up and out there than ever. That Leviathan sound is present and in full effect, a blurry swirling buzz of crazy riffs, impossible drumming, those insane vocals, and completely bizarre song structures, almost proggy at points, never hesitating to stop and start, stutter through some improbably complex series of time signatures or bliss out into some strange ambient soundscape. And as if Wrest's compositional style and playing weren't unique enough, every track is rife with all manner of weird parts, bizarre sounds and fucked up sonic detritus. From strange tripped out drone-ambience, angular almost Greg Ginnish guitar freakouts, impossibly tortured and affected vocals that go from gutteral rumble to hellish howl, to creepy otherworldly keyboard like backgrounds, to sludgy almost doomlike breakdowns to full on krautrock / mathrock workouts, albeit slathered in plenty of buzz and fuzz. The final track finishes things off in a completely unexpected way, with a warm and fuzzy slow motion smear of gauzy muted My Bloody Valentine / M83 guitars and simple blown out drumming. As always, amazing!
MPEG Stream: SAPTHURAN "As A Tale Told By The Leaves And Whispered By The Wind"
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "Odious Convulsions (They Are Not Worthy Of His Name)"
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "Crushing The Proliapsed Oviducts Of Virtue"

LEXIE MOUNTAIN / LICHENS Split (Hoss) lp 14.98

LIFE AQUATIC, THE (OST) (Hollywood) cd 17.98
None of us were surprised by how good this movie was. After all, we pretty much all love Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tennenbaums, and of course Rushmore. And really none of us should have been surprised by how great this soundtrack is either, since Wes Anderson movies are as much about the music as the movie itself. But somehow the soundtrack was a surprise. For the content as much as the way it was incorporated into the movie. The focus of the soundtrack has to be the gorgeous acoustic numbers by cast member Seu Jorge. There are 5 of them, and they just happen to all be Bowie covers, and are all sung in Portugeuse! I'm not a huge Bowie fan, but the minute we walked out of the theater, I was hoping that the soundtrack would have those tracks, and it did! Warm and languid, melancholy and dreamy, Jorge's tracks are absolutely beautiful, giving those classic rock and roll numbers a totally different nuance. And once you see the movie, those tracks will make even more (non)sense! But that's not all. Classic tracks by the Zombies, Joan Baez, Scott Walker, and the Stooges! The Stooges' "Search And Destroy" has always been one of those songs that makes you want to rumble -- that RIFF! -- and it's put to excellent use in the film! Plus a killer score by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh. But a discussion of The Life Aquatic would not be complete without a quick digression into "The Cheadle". Not sure how many of you saw Ocean's Eleven, but Don Cheadle played a demolitions expert, with the WORST British accent ever. FOR NO REASON! Responding to every query with "Right guvnuh!" or "Cherrio!" Arghh. So infuriating. WHY WHY WHY? So consequently, pointless and poorly-performed accents are now referred to as "The Cheadle" (others refer to it as "The Kidman"). So in Life Aquatic, Owen Wilson is the one responsible for "The Cheadle", a Southern accent that at best is superfluous, and in execution is thick and impenetrable sometimes, totally non-existent at others. But fear not, that hardly detracts from how great this film is. Owen Wilson is still cute. Bill Murray still rules. The movie is still amazing and funny. And the music is still perfect!
MPEG Stream: "Rebel Rebel"
MPEG Stream: "Rock N' Roll Suicide"
MPEG Stream: "Life On Mars?"

LINDBLAD, RUNE RL (Firework Edition Records) lp + cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As decreed by the dual monarchs of the Kingdoms of Elgaland / Vargaland (those being CM von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren), Swedish composer Rune Lindblad should be held in the same canonical reverie as Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, and Pierre Schaeffer. For Lindblad engaged the spirit of ardent innovation, brash risktaking, and an unwavering social agenda that could easily be found in the works of those more well known composers. Von Hausswolff -- having studied under Lindblad in the '80s -- had already released a number of Lindblad's compositions on his Radium 226.5 label (all of which have been reissued through Pogus on CD), now he, Elggren, BJ Nilsen (aka Hazard), Edvard Graham Lewis (of Wire), Kent Tankred, and a few others have put together this compilation as an homage of Lindblad's work. Sprawling across a cd and an lp, "RL" begins with two pieces from Lindblad himself - which are haunting musique concrete / electronic music compositions that also appear to involve some amplifier / microphone feedback synthesis, in the end sounding like lo-fi recordings of Morton Subotnik topped off with emotionally charged spoken word snippets. The cd portion of this package continues with various experiments that follow the sonic intent of Lindblad with Edvard Graham Lewis and BJ Nilsen offering a dark, fluid pieces of Eno ambience, Tankred and Elggren sputtering through amplified motors and shortwave dissonance, Von Hausswolff laces distant vocal samples with the ominous pulse of a ventilator.
The lp is much more loose in its interpretation of Lindblad with Brommage Dub pulling off a good Monolake / Chain Reaction piece of minimalist techno, and Jean-Louis HuhtaJ offering some leftfield electronica a la Two Lone Swordsmen or Plaid. Nice work, but doesn't really hold much insight into Lindblad's work beyond distant samples. Nevertheless, this is an excellent overview of Lindblad's work and his influence over contemporary Swedish experimental electronics.
RealAudio clip: RUNE LINDBLAD "Worship Op. 196"
RealAudio clip: EDVARD GRAHAM LEWIS "A Strong Candidate For Isolation"
RealAudio clip: C.M. VON HAUSSWOLFF "Out Of Optica 1"

LINDSTROM (V/A) Late Night Tales (Azuli) cd 25.00
Latest Late Night Tales from Swedish Dancefloor impresario.

LOCUST, THE & VARIOUS ARTISTS Well I'll Be A Monkey's Uncle (Gold Standard Laboratories) cd 12.98
Finally on cd! Originally released as a double 12": one record containing less than a minute's worth of the trademark sonic pummelling by San Diego's The Locust plus an ultra stunning etched b-side, and the other record filled with the same song getting all remixed and electronically fucked up by a variety of their friends, from Christoph De Babalon (a 109-second carnivorous nightmare) to Kid 606 (much more Kid than Locust) to Bastard Noise (a truncated 47-second splatter) to I Am Spoonbender (abducting us on an epic 6-minute Locust adventure), and others. The only disappointment with this cd version would have to be the packaging. Let's face it, visually the military green camo cd is no match for the twin toxic lime, etched vinyl attack, but if you need some good morning music...so much better than an alarm clock.

LOCUST, THE & VARIOUS ARTISTS Well I'll Be A Monkey's Uncle (Gold Standard Laboratories) 2x12" 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Quite a package here. Two 12"s (note: if you're one of a lucky few, they will both be on marbled green vinyl... if not, it's one green and one black for you.): San Diego's The Locust do one of their trademark under-60-seconds sonic assaults, and then it gets all remixed and electronically fucked up by a variety of their friends, from Christoph De Babalon (a 109-second carnivorous nightmare) to Kid 606 (much more Kid than Locust) to Bastard Noise (a truncated 47-second splatter) to I Am Spoonbender (abducting us on an epic 6-minute Locust adventure), and others. With stunning etched artwork on one of the sides, to boot!

LOCUST, THE / MELT BANANA split (GSL) 7" 5.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We stocked up on this one, but it'll probably still go real fast 'cause, well, the word for fans of either band is "rabid". You know what I'm talking about if you're one of 'em. And it's on colored vinyl, a nice marbled orange color. The music? Extreme hardcore. 5 songs from San Diego screamo kids The Locust and 2 from Japanese spazzers Melt Banana. With disturbing cover art from Born Against's Sam McPheeters.

LONG AGO AND RIGHT NOW AUDIOZINE (self-released) 2cd-r 9.98
Such an SF treat! Former Erase Errata Sara Jaffe and Melissa Klein have assembled a spoken word and music audiozine all about San Francisco called Long Ago And Right Now. Brimming with thirty candid on-the-street recordings of stories and songs from and about the Bay Area. Intimate and engaging. Handcrafted in the same fashion as her Erase Errata tour diary that we carried last year (machine-stitch bound and screenprinted).
MPEG Stream: STREET VENDOR "Street Vendor's Place"
MPEG Stream: JAFFE, SARA "Sea Song"

LONGMONT POTION CASTLE Vol.4 (Attention Deficit) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I'll be honest. No one here likes this as much as me (Andee). BUT FOR GOD'S SAKE, TRUST ME THIS TIME! I WILL NOT LEAD YOU ASTRAY! Most fans of crank call comedy should already have the first few volumes of the brilliant (-ly insipid) Longmont Potion Castle. How can you not love a guy who gets off on torturing the clerks at radio shack and is obsessed with Tandy products?! A guy who spits out the most retarded and baffling products/names/etc: gugliata, voltor, leprechanjulius!! And on a previous cd, he continually harassed a foul mouthed cantakerous old man, but by the end of the disc, they were buddies, with the old man asking how the tape was going and LPC promising to send him a copy. FUCKING HEARTWARMING! How often do you get that on a crank call record?!!? Stupid and silly and once in a while totally inspired. This was constantly in the stereo on all of our road trips and so much Longmmont verbiage became vernacular for me and all of my San Diego friends. So buy this or I'll start talkin' whip, and may even bring a tennis racket toyaleyup!!!
RealAudio clip: "Theexcitementoftandy"
RealAudio clip: "Talkin'whip"
RealAudio clip: "Chess"
RealAudio clip: "Noteethtobust"
RealAudio clip: "Voltorforglick"

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / SCOTT ARFORD Solid State Flesh / Solid State Sex (Low Impedence) 2cd 16.98
Perhaps it took Scott Arford winning honorable mention at the 2005 Ars Electronica to get this split release with Francisco Lopez to come out. These two pieces were originally recorded back in 2002 and had been slated for release by a couple of different labels, until Low Impedence had the sense to finally just do it. Curiously enough, this is one of several releases to come pouring out of Arford's 7hz studios after a couple of years of silence. Electricity appears to the source material and subject matter for the two composers on Solid State Flesh & Solid State Sex. The latter is the work of Mr. Arford who has always had a penchant for hard, blistered noises and cacophonic feedback squallor; and those sounds are heavily featured here punctuating the deadened buzz of smoldering electricity. It's hard to think of this as being sexy music or even sexual music given the electrocutionist throb of Arford's sounds, thus lending to plenty of transgressive readings if you're so inclined. On the slightly more voluptuous Solid State Flesh, Lopez expands the monotone of 60 cycle hums and the hissing buzz of electrical static through his signature compositional strategy of slow-burning tumult which abruptly halt and annouce a prolonged passage of inactivity. Unlike some of his Belle Confusion pieces, Solid State Flesh adds a considerable menace to his self-professed absolute concrete, but nevertheless is very well done and an excellent companion to Arford's work.
MPEG Stream: SCOTT ARFORD "Discharge"
MPEG Stream: SCOTT ARFORD "Strange Attractor"
MPEG Stream: FRANCISCO LOPEZ "Solid State Flesh"

LORD, MARY LOU / SEAN NA NA Mary Lou Lord/Sean Na Na (Kill Rock Stars) cd 7.98
This six-song split cd includes Mary Lou Lord performing, as she often does, a song by Nick Saloman of the Bevis Frond. Also, the other half of this cd features Sean Na Na doing Andee's new favorite Pacific Northwest indie-rock hit: "Princess and the Pony". A nice surprise.

LOST IN TRANSLATION (VARIOUS ARTISTS SOUNDTRACK) (Emperor Norton) cd 16.98
If you're buying this for the four new Kevin Shields tracks, don't bother. Face it, I says to myself, My Bloody Valentine is no more and Kevin will never make Loveless again. Meanwhile we should not be encouraging mediocrity.
As for the other 11 tracks on this soundtrack to the Sofia Coppola film, there's only one by a Japanese artist even though the film is set in Japan; French band Phoenix do a decent Squeeze imitation; Squarepusher shows us his sensitive side; highly anticipated new stuff by pop-genius Roger Manning turns out to be merely moody soundtrack filler; Bill Murray croons a supposed-to-be-unlistenable version of Bryan Ferry's "More Than This"; you probably already know the Jesus and Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey" (and if you don't, pick up a $2.99 used LP of their entire debut instead of this soundtrack); and the rest of it is pretty forgettable.
MPEG Stream: "City Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Are You Awake"

LOVE DOC SKI EXPERIENCE At The Top Of The World (self-released) cd-r 9.98
Three veteran SF DJs B-Love, Doc Fu and Romanowski deliver one solid mix a piece. Doesn't Doc Fu's description pique yer interest and yer appetite!? "A Lumpia, Menudo, Irish stew megamix throwndown" Yo, check it!

LOW A Lifetime Of Temporary Relief (Chairkickers' Music) 3cd + 1dvd 44.00
Low fans are a mighty loyal lot, and this box set probably needs no introduction nor explanation for them. For those less devout, this is the slowcore royal family's highly anticipated ten year retrospective collection. Perhaps a bit daunting for a Low neophyte (psst, maybe start with Secret Name first)! However instead of releasing a 'greatest hits' or 'singles' type of thing, they've opted to reward their legions (who undoubtably own all their albums already and don't need to be told what the 'best' were!) with tons of obscure musical gems and visual delights. The fifty two rarities, demos and b-sides fill up three whole discs, and an additional dvd is packed with two documentaries and videos galore. One particular track on the third disc reminded us that Low have made some bizzare (but strangely appealing) cover choices over the years, like Journey's "Open Arms" (okay... granted they did it as a wedding gift for their friends, but still!). On the other hand, Disc 2 has their positively dreamy rendition of the George Harrison penned Beatles' song "Long Long Long". Gorgeous. And an absolute necessity for any Low fan.
MPEG Stream: "Venus"
MPEG Stream: "I Started A Joke"
MPEG Stream: "Long Long Long"

LOW / PIANO MAGIC / TRANSIENT WAVES (Rocket Girl) 7" 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Lovely 7" featuring the three bands collaborating on one side, and a solo Transient Waves track on the flip. On the great new label Rocket Girl (run by Vinita from Che) -- it's a UK import so buy now or cry later.

LOW / VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA split 7" (Misplaced Music) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Expensive split single from the UK. One of Low's best-loved but never-released songs, "David & Jude" is brief and starkly beautiful. The addition of Calvin Johnson on melodica is very nice. Leeds quintet Vibracathedral Orchestra offer up a cyclical groove of primitive percussion in a macabre carnival atmosphere. Worthy of your time.

LUGUBRUM / FINSTERNIS Split (Full Moon) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Starting with an introductory minute of electronic drone distortion, the half of this split cd by Belgian black metallers Lugubrum, entitled "Al Ghemist" is, simply, awesome. Unlike most black metal bands, Lugubrum aren't concerned with playing fast. But they do care about atmosphere. Slow, doomy, heavy, dirgey, dark, bleak atmosphere. The production is kinda lo-fi, but densely textured.
The opening noise piece leads into "Hunted Ordure", one of the best doom songs we've EVER heard. Buy it for this track alone and you'll be happy. Happily doomed. But the other Lugubrum tracks are good too. They do some faster stuff, but it still sounds like music from the bowels of the earth. The croaking vocals, fuzzed-out guitars, the weird non-standard rhythms, it's so nice. As they say, "Your discomfort and damaged speakers nourish Lugubrum eternally!!!"
Finsternis (a Lugubrum side-project) aren't quite as odd an outfit. They play good old-fashioned necro black metal, excuse me, "alcoholic bonesaw metal" exclusively. You've heard the likes of them before. But their half of this split does provide some hateful blasting rock n' roll for those that dig this sort of primitive, grimy black metal.
Oh, thanks to AQ customer Roberto for pointing out to us that the old man on Lugubrum's "Al Ghemist" cover art appears to be holding a carrot. For some reason that didn't convince Roberto that this was amazing, but it only added to our love for Lugubrum.
RealAudio clip: LUGUBRUM "Hunted Ordure"
RealAudio clip: FINSTERNIS "Haunting Hellfury"

LUNCH, LYDIA / SUICIDE Frankie Teardrop (Blastfirst Petite) 10" 15.98
This is one of two new entries in the ongoing series of Suicide related 10" singles, celebrating Alan Vega's 70th birthday (despite the fact that he was born in 1948, a mere 60 years ago). Both sides feature versions of the horrific electro-thud masterpiece "Frankie Teardrop" from the classic eponymous record released back in 1977. The A-side is a new cover from like-minded misanthrope Lydia Lunch, screeching out the vocals on top of a monophunk electronic arpeggiation. It's certainly the best we've heard from Lydia Lunch in many, many, many years. The B-side is a demo version of "Frankie Teardrop," which finds Martin Rev's musical accompaniment for ominous, analog synths pretty much worked out, even in demo form, but Alan Vega's story about Frankie Teardrop himself hadn't quite evolved into a tragedy about an everyman whose life just sucks. Instead, Frankie is cast as a Vietnam vet / detective given a particularly unfortunate assignment. It's not as clinically articulated as on the proper album, but has more of a Philip K. Dick vibe going on. Limited to 1500 copies.

M.S.B.R. + KENGO LUCHI (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
Japanese noise, three live duets plus a solo track from each artist. M.S.B.R. does musique concrete/electronics, Kengo Luchi does "death folk" with anguished vocals a la Keiji Haino. Together, it's meandering no wave folk with electronic freakouts, not for the faint of heart.

MACHINEFABRIEK (V/A) Kruimeldief: Machinefabriek Remixed (self-released) 2cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This massive remix disc from AQ dronedrift fave Machinefabriek, is composed entirely of remixes of the out of print Stofstuk cd, the shortest Machinefabriek release but quite possibly our favorite. Originally released as a little rectangular business card shaped 3" cd and clocking in at an impressive 5:31, Stofstuk was recorded with only a singing bowl, a contact mic, a vinyl record and a laptop, and originally created as a private pressing, and is easily one of the most gorgeous slabs of shimmery minimalism we've ever heard. It was also crazy limited and went out of print in no time. Thankfully, since all of these remixes are based on that same track, it's included here for those of you who missed out. So before we get to the remixes, best to probably quickly describe the source. For five glorious minutes, deeeeeeeep notes are loosed, lush and resonant, allowed to billow out like sonic ripples, every once in a while, some massive bass kicks in and washes over the listener like a huge slow motion wave, it's strangely transcendent, rich with intense emotion and sonic impact. Around these cavernous swells, various drawn out notes drift and shift, soft focus layers laid upon one another, gauzy and ephemeral, all hovering blissfully over a gorgeously muted field of barely there record crackle. Wow. Like a warm and dreamy Jeckian take on Raster-Noton, or some cosmic minimal meditation music. So totally beautiful. It almost seems a shame to remix something so nearly perfect to begin with, but thankfully, the majority of these mixes manage to subtly tweak the original, retaining much of the magic, while managing to imbue the revamped version with a bit of their own subtle style. 
If you loved the original version as much as us, this double disc is pretty much a no brainer. We complained in the first one about the 5 minute playing time, and how we just set the cd player on repeat and listened to it over and over and over, and that's almost what this is, but with each repeated play subtly and slightly altered (and a few dramatically different), but it's pretty tough to argue with 2+ hours of variations on Stofstuk. Plus check out the list of remixers: Alva Noto, Mitchell Akiyama, Xela, Svarte Greiner, Lesser, Freiband, Kim Cascone, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Luigi Archetti, Julien Neto, Pita, Adam Paccione, Henrik Rylander, Gert-jan Prins and loads more. As we mentioned, most of the versions are subtle variations, you might not even be able to tell the difference if you weren't paying close attention, but a few folks mix it up, Freiband adds a thick layer of caustic buzz and grind to the then barely audible original, Aaron Martin adds some glitch and microphone noise, Xela brings out the original's muted melodies and adds voices, Lesser adds a bit of grind and crunch, Henrik Rylander buries the original beneath layers of warm whirring fuzz, Julien Neto gives his version a soft focus, easy listening sheen and Gert-Jan Prins transforms the tones of the original into gritty buzzing grinding low end and piercing sine wave tones, but these are the exceptions, and even though the above descriptions make it seem like those tracks must stick out like crazy, in the context of a massive double disc set, they sound just perfect, nestled as they are amongst song after song of whispery droney drift. So gorgeous. 
Packaged in a soft cottony pouches, housed in a folded cardstock jacket and a thick vinyl outer sleeve. 
MPEG Stream: XELA "Stofstuk"
MPEG Stream: ALVA NOTO "Stofstuk"
MPEG Stream: SVARTE GREINER "Stofstuk"
MPEG Stream: LESSER "Stofstuk"

MACHINEFABRIEK / BLACK TO COMM Stofstuk / Stickstoff (Dekorder) 7" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Split singles are the perfect way to shove two bands together and see what happens. A successful split can go in either directions, two bands who have fuck all do to with each other, and do their own thing, or two bands who are together for a reason, best case scenario, because their sounds are in some way complimentary.
So consider this a best case scenario, two AQ faves, both masters of abstract drone and beautiful ambience, each given a side to do what they do, and it sounds like the two 'groups' worked off each others sounds. That's how great these two tracks sound together.
Machinefabriek goes way minimal, a super abstract, nearly static tone poem, each note stretched out into long barely pulsing streaks, rich luxuriant tones allowed to ring out and slowly subside, crystalline and gorgeously minimal, the lows deep and fluid, the highs soft and shimmery, a subtle sound that dissipates softly, as if it was designed to be a constant fade out from the very first note.
Black To Comm unfurl clouds of reverberating tones, thick billows of metallic shimmer, deftly (and VERY subtly) crafted into muted melodies, sounding like a louder, more dense reinterpretation of the Machinefabriek track. Chimes and bells, smeared into blurs of warm melodic drone, distant percussive twinkles, all wrapped up in BTC's gorgeous dreamlike sprawl.
Pressed on beautiful swirled grey vinyl, and packed with an original full color, hand painted collaged insert/cover, every one is different.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!!! We got 20. Once these are gone we will NOT be able to get more...

MACHINEFABRIEK / MATT DAVIES Onkruid / Sanctuary (A Room Forever) lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This long in the works vinyl project finally sees the light of day, and the results are more fantastic and striking, both sonically and visually, than we could ever have imagined. We'd been hearing about this series, a boxed set of vinyl records, each with one side of music, one side of field recordings, a sort of physical extension and manifestation of a long running podcast, both the podcast, and these lps, an experiment in the art of listening.
Each lp is limited to 300 copies, comes housed in an oversized box, with a gorgeous actually photographic print affixed to the cover, inside a metallic inked, letter pressed insert. You have to see them to believe them, well worth the price, as they are visually stunning, and the music is breathtaking.
The first volume is from a long time aQ fave, Rutger Zuydervelt, aka Machinefabriek, who handles the music on the A side, while someone called Matt Davies handles the field recording side. Zuydervelt is definitely up to the task, as he comes up with the dreamiest most beautiful Machinefabriek piece we've heard, a distant glistening shimmer, over a warm whir of slow surfacing melodies, muted buzz, and breathless soft focus drift. A looped landscape of pastoral shimmer. Part way through the track builds in intensity to a sort of soft cacophony, but quickly drifts back into bleary eyed dreaminess. The track goes on for what feels like forever, ending with a stretch of serene low end murmur, laced with muted sonar pulses and a deep ominous blurred melody that sprawls right beneath the surface. So lovely.
Davies' side is pretty much a straight field recording, sounding like some sort of wilderness, but not too far removed from civilization, the sound of wind and water, the twitter and tweet of birds, car horns (?) far off in the distance, traffic, wind and rustling branches, eventually some more close up sounds, something rubbing against the microphone, the crack of breaking branches, then a warm hiss that sounds distinctly like rainfall, the recording is sort of lo-fi and gives the ambience a washed out vibe, almost as if it was made, not recorded. Once the rain comes in, the other sounds fade to a distant hum, and the sound is not unlike falling asleep on your back porch on a warm, wet summer afternoon.
The cover photo is gorgeous, an ice field crisscrossed with tire tracks and other striations, all dark blues and washed out whites, the insert is silver ink on letter pressed textured black paper.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. We got a bunch, but they've been flying out of here, and once the batch we got is gone, it's unlikely we'll be able to get more...

MACROMANTICS Moments In Movement (Kill Rock Stars) cd 14.98
Listen up! We heart Macromantics (aka Australian hip hop gal Romy Hoffman). She rocks! We've carried her releases (Four Facets / Conspiracy Remix 7" and Hyperbolic Logic cd) for a few years now, and we're really happy to hear that more folks stateside have been gettin' hip to her hop. Case in point, the Kill Rock Stars label have jumped aboard and released her first domestic cd. Yay! Yay! Admittedly what initially charmed us about Ms Romy was her distinct vocal delivery, but there's acres more to her than an Aussie accent. She crafts tight, infectious tracks with an overriding super posi vibe. Lotsa punchy energy! On Moments In Movements though we've noticed a step or two towards considerably darker, edgier territory than that which she's traversed on her previous releases. it's an effective direction to take, broadening her scope while sharpening her attack. Guests include Ground Components and Sage Francis.
MPEG Stream: "Eerily Spookily"
MPEG Stream: "Love Thyself"

MAD ANJU / KID KURRUPT Look Gal / East (Killa) 7" 2.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "One Minute Man" (Missy Elliott).

MADLIB Blunted In the Bomb Shelter Mix (Antidote) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I'll try to not be a cynical bastard and talk about the fact that the last two critically acclaimed Madlib records have been nothing but mixtapes. Partially because they just happen to seriously kick ass mixtapes. This time around, Madlib plunders the Trojan catalog and comes up with a dangerously wicked 65 minute mega mix. Byram was less than impressed, but I'm way more of a neophyte when it comes to reggae, and find myself listening to this all the time. Features David Isaacs, King Stitt, I-Roy, Lee Perry, Dillinger, King Tubby, Gregory Isaacs, Barrington Levy, the Aggrovators, the Ethiopians, Mikey Dread, the Upsetters, the Skatalites, Roland Alphonso, Prince Jazzbo and loads more. Mixing and scratching is kept to a minimum letting these classic tracks speak for themselves.
MPEG Stream: "Blunted Mix One"

MAGNETIC FIELDS The Wayward Bus / Distant Plastic Trees (Merge) cd 13.98
The first two Magnetic Fields albums reissued by Merge Records on one disc! This is where you go when you need to hear the early genius of Stephin Merritt. Putting his lo-fi keyboards and drum machines to wonderful use. These two full lengths feature the vocals of Susan Anway. Merritt didn't take on vocal duties until subsequent releases. Her voice however is a fitting female counterpart to his deep croon - so droll, yet drenched with romantic longing. Alternately reminiscent of '60s Brill Building girl group pop and glistening, lush chamber pop. Classic heartbreak music. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "When You Were My Baby"
MPEG Stream: "100,000 Fireflies"

MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO. Sojourner (Secretly Canadian) 4cd+dvd 45.00
Geez, Jason Molina, what are you tryin' to do to us!? How the heck can we possibly sufficiently listen, watch, digest and report in on your new release that includes four cds and one dvd? If we did, well, it would probably take weeks and the release wouldn't be new anymore! We have heard some of it, and not surprisingly, the few songs we did hear were prime Molina fare -- well-worn, roaming loner melancholia -- but in the interest of timeliness, we'll let the sticker on the shrinkwrap of this special wooden boxed set say it all... "Secretly Canadian is proud to present The Sojourner Boxset. It is the accumulated work of thirteen musicians, five locations, four recording engineers, three filmmakers, two designers and one songwriter, including enough material for three full lengths, one EP and one DVD. Explore the celestial map of Jason Molina and the various constellations of his... Magnolia Electric Co."

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ / THE CURTAINS Make us two crayons on the floor. (Yik Yak) split cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The wonderful, willfully naive Japanese indie-pop psychedelic ensemble Maher Shalal Hash Baz takes the first half of this split cd with a live performance recorded in Scotland. Honking sax, wayward vocals, sad-sack percussion, helpless guitar, plinking piano, and even skipping rope make it into the mix. Somehow, it's gorgeous, in a melancholy off-kilter way that few bands could pull off. Following Maher Shalal Hash Baz's seventeen tracks there's ten more by San Francisco outfit The Curtains, who likewise manage to make a virtue out of simplicity and spontaneity, their technical abilities (or lack thereof) never hampering their expressiveness. A good pairing indeed. The Curtains are noisier and more 'plugged-in' than MSHB, with electronic keyboard sounds forming some of their most striking moments. With both bands, what's improvised and what's not is hard to suss out, but experiencing the results can be quite pleasant either way if you don't demand much precision from your 'pop'. To us, these 27 tracks are a pleasant jumble worth experiencing.
MPEG Stream: MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "Medicine For Melancholia"
MPEG Stream: THE CURTAINS "Bummer With Cakes"

MAIN / WHITE WINGED MOTH / FLYING SAUCER ATTACK Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Staalplaat continues their "Mort Aux Vaches" series of commissioned radio broadcasts with this split release between Main, White Winged Moth, and Flying Saucer Attack. These recordings find all three experimental guitarist artists at their quietest and on their best behavior. Flying Saucer Attack gets the most attention with 4 softly played acoustic guitar tracks that are buried underneathe a building wall of reverb -- sort of like the mellower pieces on FSA's recent album "Mirror". Main offers a 15 minute track for treated guitars that is quite active by the standards of Robert Hampson's increasingly inaudible outfit. Tiny samples of malfunctioning guitar cables and soft scrapes on the strings repeat throughout the composition along with a bell like tonal drone. White Winged Moth (aka New Zealander Dean Roberts) also presents a 15 minute piece, with his humid guitar drones. Altogether this is an excellent compilation of work.
RealAudio clip: FLYING SAUCER ATTACK "#2"
RealAudio clip: MAIN "Counterglow"

MALATESTA Critical Beats (Entartete Kunst) 12" 8.98

MAN IS THE BASTARD NOISE / GERRIT split (Misanthropic Agenda) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the label that brought us the amazing Merzbow 'Frog' lp comes this noisy 7" artifact. One side is Man Is The Bastard Noise, more commonly known as Bastard Noise and is the free/electronic/noise offshoot of sludge rockers Man Is The Bastard. BN is Wood from MITB and AQ buddy John Weise. Their side of this single is an almost tranquil blanket of high end whir, sounding like an orchestra of mosquitoes, helicopters, kitchen appliances and madly chirping birds. Almost dreamy in that peculiar noise kind of way. The B side comes courtesy of label honcho Gerritt Wittmer and is three tracks of affected sinister vocals, looped and chopped chunks of low end distortion, very eighties industrial sounding, and I mean that in a good way. Plus Misanthropic's usual impeccable packaging!

MAN IS THE BASTARD/MUMIA ABU JAMAL split cd (Alternative Tentacles) cd 10.98
Ultra PC "kick in the balls" to indie kid complacency. Mumia, accused of killing a cop, speaks from his cell on death row. MITB add their two cents by bashing in your skull with a two-bass-and-drums hash-induced 4 song assault. PC, my ass. (Includes contributions from Allen Ginsberg, Jello Biafra, Assata Shakur, and Bob Dole. Really.)

MAN IS THE BASTARD/MUMIA ABU JAMAL split cd (Alternative Tentacles) lp 7.98
Ultra PC "kick in the balls" to indie kid complacency. Mumia, accused of killing a cop, speaks from his cell on death row. MITB add their two cents by bashing in your skull with a two-bass-and-drums hash-induced 4 song assault. PC, my ass. (Includes contributions from Allen Ginsberg, Jello Biafra, Assata Shakur, and Bob Dole. Really.)

MANBEARD / AVARUS Split (Tour CDR 2007) (Secret Eye) cd-r 9.98
This is the first we've heard from the brilliantly named Manbeard, the fucked up freak folk cabaret offshoot of old aQ faves Urdog. Here they share a cd-r with furry Finnish folk combo Avarus, originally a tour only release, and while it might not seem like it, weirdly it's kind of a good match. Manbeard are tough to explain. Very jaunty and sing songy, almost like sea shanties, big drums, dramatic WAY over the top vocals, angular riffing, a little bit gloomy and dark, gothic even, with squiggly synths, damaged percussion, and really twisted songs. And really bizarre overdubs, strange characters making announcements, speaking to the listener, adding their 2 cents to various songs. Definitely an acquired taste, but if you're into the same weird stuff we are, then acquiring it might not be that difficult. The weird thing is, this disc is jam packed with short-ish Manbeard songs, then right in the middle, tack 5 in fact, is the ONE Avarus song, a massive half hour jam, recorded live, all ramshackle rhythms, and detuned guitars, chanted vocals, fluttering woodwinds, raga like buzzing, stumbling druggy far out freaked out damaged outsider genius for sure. It sounds like a blast, like they just set up on the street in the middle of rush hour, and their merrymaking just sucked in a massive crowd, dancing and howling and whooping and wildly frolicking through the streets of Helsinki. At least that's what it sounds like. 
Then it's time again for more Manbeard weirdness, fragmented song experiments, fucked up drones, lo-fi off kilter bedroom folk, fractured dada-ist pop and whatever else crossed their twisted musical minds. 
In cool hand screened color sleeves, with printed inserts. We got these direct from The Manbeard when he was in town, and he mentioned these might be the last copies, so if we run out that might be it.
MPEG Stream: MANBEARD "Original Performance Of The Manbeard Denizens Folk Classic, Manbearde Folk Classic, Manbeard Factory"
MPEG Stream: AVARUS "Mayra Syo Junkun Ihmiseh"

MANTRONIX That's My Beat (Soul Jazz) cd 21.00
Compiled by legendary musician / producer / remixer Kurtis Mantronik, this is a collection of tracks from the late '70s and early '80s, all of which he considers not only super influential on his own work, but also typical of the groundbreaking dance / hip hop / electro / disco / house music being made in New York at this time. If you're a fan of ESG or any of the music on the two "Disco not Disco" comps, you're gonna love this too. It's a fantastic collection of tracks covering everyone from Art of Noise to Yellow Magic Orchestra, Visage, Yello and T-La Rock. More than easily standing up to today's scrutiny, none of the tracks sound dated in a bad way at all. Another great comp from Soul Jazz, the London store/label that brought us the In the Beginning There Was Rhythm comp, the 100-400% Dynamite collections, etc. Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: FUNKY 4 PLUS 1 "That's the Joint"
RealAudio clip: YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA "Computer Games"
RealAudio clip: VISAGE "Pleasure Boys"

MARBLEBOG / VORKUTA Wanderings (Autopsy Kitchen) 7" 8.98
Hungarian black metal lords Marblebog have been a longstanding favorite here at aQuarius, and this split with fellow countrymen Vorkuta marks a triumphant return indeed. Both bands specialize in abject black metal with smatterings of goth and punk. Oddly enough, at various moments throughout the record, each band brought to mind Dance With Me era T.S.O.L. - but maybe that's just us. Either way, we're digging it.
The record begins with Marblebog's "Uttalan Utakon", a seven minute blast of furious black metal that also sounds surprisingly like early American hardcore, at least before the harsh goblin vocals croak their way into the mix. The momentum is kept going with super fast drums and buzzy guitars before a weird, gothy outro plays out over siren like feedback. Vorkuta's "Prophecies" is a three part display of classic, Darkthrone-esque black metal outlining the joys of killing. While the band doesn't have to work too hard to prove their metal credentials, they also work in an interesting instrumental middle part with backwards tape effects and slow, distorted drums suggesting a somewhat psychedelic approach to their music. Definitely looking forward to checking out more from these dudes, who seem to specialize in splits.
A glorious slab of concentrated blackness, limited to 500 copies and pressed on bonechilling pink vinyl.

MARINE RESEARCH/BUILT TO SPILL split single (k) 7" 3.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wherein Built to Spill cover a Heavenly song ("By The Way"), and the ex-Heavenly people now known as Marine Research do a Built to Spill cover ("Sick & Wrong").

MARL, MARLEY The Best Of Cold Chillin' (Cold Chillin') 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Double disc reissue of legendary producer Marley Marl's first two full length albums, released in '88 and '91 respectively. Queens-born Marley Marl *founded* the Cold Chillin' label whose Juice Crew in turn launched the careers of Roxanne Shante, Masta Ace, Biz Markie, Kool G Rap, etc. These two albums feature all of those mentioned above, also LL Cool J (Marl produced his million-selling Mama Said Knock You Out), Big Daddy Kane, Heavy D, and more. The cuts are bright and crisp with sampled 'n looped hooks galore. Cool.
RealAudio clip: "The Symphony"
RealAudio clip: "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"

MARLEY, BOB Chant Down Babylon (Tuffgong / Island) cd 17.98
In contrast to the exceptional compilation from Trojan records of 70's Jamaican producers and vocalists performing Marley's numbers, this reeks of major label exploitation. "Duets" with the legendary Bob Marley and contemporary chartbusters Erykah Badu, Krayzie Bone, Guru, Rakim, Busta Rhymes, Lauren Hill, Lost Boyz, MC Lyte, The Marley Brother & The Ghetto Youths Crew, Steven Tyler & Joe Perry, Chuck D, and The Roots.