EGONOIR Der Pfad Zum Fluss (Amortout) cd 14.98
From the same label that brought us music from Bethlehem, Costes and the debut/swansong recording from SF's The Gault (featuring members of legendary SFBM outfit Weakling) and which just so happens to be run by the guys in Diamatregon (who have a record out on Andee's tUMULt label, and a new one on the way!) comes this bizarre black beauty, the debut full length from bizarre German black horde Egonoir.
The label mentions the usual blackbuzz culprits in their description of Egonoir: Burzum, Leviathan, Bethlehem, Strid, Manes, and while it does have much in common with those obvious influences, it is somehow so much more. Darker, moodier, more melancholy, prettier, and definitely weirder.
The root sound is a slow crawl, a barely midtempo buzzing Burzumic plod, with harsh vocals, and blown out guitars, but the whole thing is wreathed in a strange smoky production, making everything fuzzy and murky and muted and strangely lovely. The tracks often drift into swirling ambience, with the buzzing guitars transformed into amorphous clouds of foggy blurry guitar, a backdrop to the lilting melodies in the foreground.
Then there are the vocals, that range from harsh howls, demonic growls to haunting crooning, but the strangest thing, and what makes Egonoir sound so unique, is the bizarre humming/crooning that lurks beneath the more traditionally blackened vocals, almost like American Music Club or Crash Test Dummies or Leonard Cohen, drifting darkly and melodically beneath the buzzing crawl... at some points female vocals drift into the picture, and suddenly it's a black metal Mazzy Star, almost, it's these creepy beautiful vocals that make this sound like some ultra depressing black metal lounge band, performing at some blackened dive perched on the edge of the abyss, flames licking at the foundation, the facade illuminated by buzzing black neon signs, and packed with a motley crew of hellish beats and down on their luck, southward headed earthlings.
Lots of acoustic guitars (a couple tracks are mostly acoustic), muted wandering bass lines, gorgeously sorrowful melodies, those crooning humming vocals, loping seasick tempos, arpeggiated guitars, hushed monk-like chants, snippets of German wartime speeches, all wrapped in thick swaths of buzz and reverb, slowly drifting, like some buzzy black dream.
Fans of all things depressive and slow, blackened and Burzumic, fuzzy and washed out, will freak for this. If Make A Change... Kill Yourself, Burzum, Xasthur, Nortt, Inferi and the like are your late night downer black metal soundtrack, Egonoir might just be perfect for those bleak early morning hours after a long night of misery and hopelessness...
Or as the label so succinctly puts it: "Total psycho dark metal, noir, noir, noir."
MPEG Stream: "Der Pfad Zum Fluss"
MPEG Stream: "Ego Noir Teil7"

EGONOIR Die Saga (Amortout Productions) cd 13.98
It's been more than 3 years since we last heard from depressive German black metal weirdos EgoNoir, whose sound was equal part classic black buzz, and mournful moody melancholia. They have a new record that just came out, which we'll have soon, but this one is almost as exciting, a reissue of their 2004 demo Die Saga, recorded three years before their debut full length Der Pfad Zum Fluss, and if anything it's even more warped and twisted, more muted and murky and fucked up and freaked out. The same equation still applies, but the sound is so much more raw, the buzz thick, the distortion crumbling, the vocals doused in FX, all beneath a sheet of static and hiss, a lurching doomy plod, black metal riffage slowed down to a crawl, clean guitar filigree wrapped around croaked monstrous whispered vocals, the drums weirdly processed and effected, the guitars melty and lysergic, the fuzzed out drone an oozing black cloud, strange keyboards wheeze and shimmer, trumpets bleat and moan, strings soar beneath the roiling blackness, bits of electronics, weird glitch and grit, all add to the obscure moodiness.
Much of the record is spent stripped down and melancholy, weirdly mournful interludes with lush guitar strum, simple skeletal percussion, whispered vox, strange rhythmic thumps, haunting hushed ambience, but those interludes are constantly swallowed up by blasts of grinding black blast, or weirdly synth driven blackened new wave hypnorock, or mysterious choral drifts, awesome and totally demented.
The reissue includes a bonus track, a gloriously and insanely murky chunk of midtempo Burzumic blackness, that's SO muddy and muted, it practically makes Xasthur sound hi-fi, and turns some black metal into something much more blurred and washed out and trippy. So rad.
MPEG Stream: "Teil 1 - Das Neue Wesen"
MPEG Stream: "Teil 2 - Kurze Der Verwirrung"
MPEG Stream: "Up From The Graves"

EGYPT Become The Sun (Totem Cat) cd 13.98
A while back we reviewed a four song ep from this North Dakota stoner rock band who during their very brief lifespan, only ever managed to record those four tracks, which we dug BIG time, some seriously groovy stoner doom, heavy on the Kyuss, Sleep and the like, we even mentioned Deep Purple in our review of that other ep, and they just so happen to cover a Deep Purple jam this time around, but more on that in a second.
So after close to a decade, Egypt got back together to play a show, and ended up reforming officially and managed to finally record their first proper full-length, with many of the songs dating all the way back to the group's first incarnation, and the sound not that far removed, still Sabbathy, and sludgey, stonery and seriously groovy, all it should take is a few second of opener "Matterhorn" for you to figure out if this is your cup of THC laced tea, it most definitely is ours. Much like the recently reviewed record from stoner rock outfit Greenleaf, this is the sort of sound we never seem to get tired of - heavy and hooky, huge riffs, slithery and snarly, swaggery and sludgey, super long tripped out heavy psych jams, that slip easily from riffy churn, to blissed out sun baked space jam and back again. This is much more stoner ROCK, than stoner metal, in fact, it's almost more stoner BLOOZ, very reminiscent of some of our proto metal heavy blues faves, but with enough heft, and a crushing guitar tone that definitely makes this heavy enough for all you metalheads. The tempos are still swinging and Sabbathy, but tend toward the downright doomy, with at least one track sounding like classic true doom, and most of the songs, doomy or otherwise, do seem to always end up in stretched out space jam territory, the sort of heart-of-the-sun jams we wish would sorta go on forever, and in some cases kind of do.
And yeah, they cover Deep Purple's "Black Night", and while it's not do far removed from the original, it definitely fits pretty snugly amidst the rest of their originals. The one thing that might be a stumbling block for some folks are the vocals, which at least one aQ staffer found to be too growly and shouty, but that's definitely what the singer has going on, a rough, raw, growly bellow, that reminds us of Scissorfight, or Crowbar, and even more recently like Fucked Up, it's the sort of voice that seems like it can only come from a big burly bearded metalhead.
Fans of stoner rock, stoner metal, stoner doom, and yeah, stoner blooooz, WAY recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Matterhorn"
MPEG Stream: "The Village Is Silent"
MPEG Stream: "Orb Of The Wizardking"
MPEG Stream: "Black Night"

EGYPT s/t (MeteorCity) cd 14.98
We sold out of the vinyl version of this lost Midwestern stoner doom classic, but now finally it's available again, this time on cd!
How many bands can you name from Fargo, North Dakota? None. That's the number we came up with. Ever hear of the stoner doom outfit Egypt? We hadn't either.
But this here 4 song mini lp will change all that.
This short lived band hailed from North Dakota, and only managed to commit to tape these 4 tracks, but doomlords and stoner rock freeks will definitely wish there was more where these came from. Lurching doomic slow and low, heavy on the bass, heavy on everything really, but the songs were pretty reliant on thick bass grooves and the pounding drums, lazy sunbaked Kyuss-y riffs were then draped over the top, plenty of wah guitar, and wailed, SUNG not screamed vocals, that were also reminiscent of the late great Kyuss.
This is not funeral doom, or ultra doom, this is groovy stoner doom, classic metal filtered through the sound of old school doom. Sabbath, Pentagram, that sort of thing, heaped with some Kyuss, left out in the desert to bake, doused in LSD, just enough to give it a slightly psychedelic vibe, and let loose. Most of the songs slink along for ages, growling and simmering, slithering darkly, all low end groove, before exploding into furious space rock freakouts, wicked wah guitar solos, thick crunchy rhythms and those impassioned FX soaked vocals. The label suggests that Egypt will appeal to fans of Sleep, Sir Lord Baltimore and Deep Purple, which is definitely true, but expand that to include anyone into classic metal, fuzzy psych rock, and heavy doom metal. And again, fans of Kyuss, and THAT sound, will eat this up.
Mastered By James Plotkin. Cool eye popping packaging, mini lp style gatefold sleeve, black and white on the outside, full color and psychedelic on the inside, super super striking.
MPEG Stream: "Valley Of The Kings"
MPEG Stream: "Queen Of All Time (Red Giant)"

EGYPT s/t (Lyderhorn) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We sold out of this chunk of Midwestern stoner doom mighty quick, but finally managed to get another handful back in stock:
How many bands can you name from Fargo, North Dakota? None. That's the number we came up with. Ever hear of the stoner doom outfit Egypt? We hadn't either.
But this here 4 song mini lp will change all that.
This short lived band hailed from North Dakota, and only managed to commit to tape these 4 tracks, but doomlords and stoner rock freeks will definitely wish there was more where these came from. Lurching doomic slow and low, heavy on the bass, heavy on everything really, but the songs were pretty reliant on thick bass grooves and the pounding drums, lazy sunbaked Kyuss-y riffs were then draped over the top, plenty of wah guitar, and wailed, SUNG not screamed vocals, that were also reminiscent of the late great Kyuss.
This is not funeral doom, or ultra doom, this is groovy stoner doom, classic metal filtered through the sound of old school doom. Sabbath, Pentagram, that sort of thing, heaped with some Kyuss, left out in the desert to bake, doused in LSD, just enough to give it a slightly psychedelic vibe, and let loose. Most of the songs slink along for ages, growling and simmering, slithering darkly, all low end groove, before exploding into furious space rock freakouts, wicked wah guitar solos, thick crunchy rhythms and those impassioned FX soaked vocals. The label suggests that Egypt will appeal to fans of Sleep, Sir Lord Baltimore and Deep Purple, which is definitely true, but expand that to include anyone into classic metal, fuzzy psych rock, and heavy doom metal. And again, fans of Kyuss, and THAT sound, will eat this up.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Mastered By James Plotkin. Amazing eye popping packaging, super thick gatefold sleeve, black and white on the outside, full color and psychedelic on the inside, printed with a spot varnish, super super striking.

EGYPT IS THE MAGICK NUMBER How Many Pieces of the Puzzle Can the Mind Go Without? (Sound @ 1 / Psycho-Path) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our favorite No Neck Blues Band side projects back in stock!!
Egypt Is The Magick Number features Adam Mortimer and Dave Shuford both from NNBB but in a more tranced-out continuation of the way way out psyche improv damage of their No Neck mothership. Massive doses of delay, slow floating sheets of white hot psych guitar, shuffling minimal percussion, all dosed with acid, rolled in a hemp and lit afire. The first track is a 30 minute mother, easy to imagine two guys locked in a dark room with a hookah, a broken guitar with one string and a suitcase full of delay pedals. Super tripped out, wide eyed outer space drug drones. The other three tracks are similarly high flying, low crawling excursions into weird acoustic guitar-strum jams, the clattering of pots, and meandering twangy vocals. It's equal parts Sun City Girls, Jandek, and Yahowah. Which obviously means fucking great!
MPEG Stream: "Immortal Seeed Reignbeau"
MPEG Stream: "Rangoon Filly Stutter"

EHLERS, EKKEHARD A Life Without Fear (Staubgold) cd 15.98
What the fuck? We shouldn't be the only people baffled by this record; and A Life Without Fear was probably engineered with that confusion in mind. A few years back, Ekkehard Ehlers was the darling of the Max / MSP faction of electronic artists, recontextualizing any number of artists into a delirious pixel-pointed fizz of digitized sound fragments, following in the foot steps of Christian Fennesz and Stefan Mathieu. As great as Ehlers recontextualizations of Cornelius Cardew, John Cassavettes, and Albert Ayler were, this micro-genre of soundsculpting seemed a bit faddish and a slave to technology. Needless to say, Mathieu has shifted his focus to more organic materials and instrumentation, and Ehlers has followed suit by dropping his Max / MSP patches in favor a gritty blues minimalism. With the press release making comparisons to Jim O'Rourke's emulation of John Fahey, Ehlers' recapitulation of turn of the 20th century blues has a studied hollowness about it. While sonically, these rough-hewn guitar chords and back-porch stomps have all of the trappings of any old archival recording (i.e. scratchy sound, tinny production, etc), they nevertheless lack any real soul (unlike O'Rourke's jubliant finger-picking and carnavelesque arrangements on Bad Timing.) There's also an ill-conceived bout of West-African / Congolese thumb-piano playing to futher complicate the matters at hand. The avant-garde meets the assimilatory attributes of imperialism? A curious application of 'authentic' patinas? A miscalculated attempt of cross-cultural communication? How about a faux-Jandek outsider thing? Who knows? Again we return to the ultimate question about this record: what the fuck?
MPEG Stream: "Ain't No Grave"
MPEG Stream: "Maria & Martha"

EHLERS, EKKEHARD Betrieb (Mille Plateaux) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Using samples from Arnold Schšnberg and Charles Ives, among others, Ekkehard Ehler cyclically forms and dissolves structures creating swiveling metallic soundscapes and surging orchestral mayhem. Really beautiful.

EHLERS, EKKEHARD Plays (Staubgold) cd 15.98
You suckers without turntables get yet another temporary reprieve, as Ekkehard Ehlers' five lovely mini-albums, previously released only on vinyl, are here compiled onto one handy cd. And lovely is most certainly an understatement. This is some of the most gorgeous, sublime and moving electronic/glitch/sample based music we have ever heard. Sounds are completely recontextualised into cloudy, indistinct but somehow emotionally and sonically spot-on homages to some of Ehlers' influences. Falling somewhere between Stephen Mathieu and Oval, Ehlers adds remarkable depth and emotion to what is quite often a cold and clinical artform.
Tracks one and two are the "Plays Cornelius Cardew" lp and are lovely layered soundscapes as only Ehlers can conjure. Sampled sounds are seamlessly woven into dense, textural tone poems again highly reminiscent of Wolfgang Voigt's Gas. The second (track three and four) in the "Plays" series is a 'tribute' to the German beat poet Hubert Fichte. Where those previous tracks are dominated by ephemeral drone work with refined patinas of digital corrosion, this piece curiously sounds like Pole doing free jazz, with erratic squiggles of granular synthesized saxophone and really lazy strums from a guitar seeping up from an electronically sculpted metallic haze. Even those slowly developed basslines that Pole plops into his neo-dub show up in "Plays Hubert Fichte" although Ehlers disregards Pole's structuralism in favor of an amorphous improvisation of deep hovering movements. "Plays John Cassavetes" (tracks five and six) is part three in Ehler's series of 'tributes' and for these pieces he seamlessly weaves orchestral samples into beautiful landscapes of sonic reverberations. Very reminiscent of Wolfgang Voigt's work as Gas, or those brief, subtle moments of bliss found on My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" record. Tracks seven and eight find Ehlers sampling fragments of Albert Ayler. However, as with most of these pieces, it is debatable as to how much Ayler is actually present on this recording, musically. Consisting entirely of digitally altered cello recordings, these two sidelong pieces gently swell, teeter and expand, forming beautiful, haunting drones that lie beneath digital snippets of arrhythmic ephemera. Somehow, Ehlers manages to restructure a mundane cello recording into a wonderfully reticular songpoem. The final two tracks are from the 'Plays Robert Johnson' 7" which we were never able to get enough of to list. Two short tracks: the first is an abstractly plucked, slow-motion, Reynols-on-cough-syrup style tarpit blues jam, while the final track is all throbbing four-on-the-floor Kompakt style minimal/heroin house.
Trust us, we plow through a lot of pretentious electronic crap that takes itself too seriously -- and while the conceit of the five Ehler tributes might suggest that he could fall into this trap -- he does not. Ehlers delivers, and you'll love this. We all do.
MPEG Stream: "Plays Cornelius Cardew"
MPEG Stream: "Plays Hubert Fichte"
MPEG Stream: "Plays John Cassavetes"
MPEG Stream: "Plays Albert Ayler"
MPEG Stream: "Plays Robert Johnson"

EHLERS, EKKEHARD Plays Albert Ayler (Staubgold) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The second solo recording from the former Autopoeses member, in which Ehlers samples fragments of Albert Ayler. However, it is debatable as to how much Ayler is actually present on this recording, musically. Consisting entirely of digitally altered cello recordings, these two sidelong pieces gently swell, teeter and expand, forming beautiful, haunting drones that lie beneath digital snippets of arhythmic ephemera. Like Stephan Mathieu, whom Ekkehard has collaborated with on this year's "Heroin" cd, Ehlers simply restructures a mundane cello recording into a wonderfully reticular songpoem. Very highly recommended.

EHLERS, EKKEHARD Plays Cornelius Cardew (Bottrop-Boy) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another volume in the slew of vinyl only releases by German electronic artist Ekkehard Ehlers (Autopoieses, Auch) in tribute to various artists musical and otherwise. "Plays Cornelius Cardew" is two brief sides of lovely layered soundscapes as only Ehlers can conjure. Sampled sounds are seamlessly woven into dense, textural tone poems highly reminiscent of Wolfgang Voigt, most noteably in his work as Gas. But, like the rest of the series, one can only imagine what, if anything, Ehlers' music really has to do with the artist in question. What next? Stockhausen? Feldman? Brahkage? My Ass? I mean, really: marketing ploy or true artistic homage? Either way, we like the results.

EHLERS, EKKEHARD Plays Hubert Fichte (Staubgold) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Supposedly, this is Ekkehard Ehlers' finale in the "Plays" series of tributes / homages, a disparate grouping of artists which has previously included Albert Ayler, Cornelius Cardew, and John Cassavettes, and rounds out with the German beat poet Hubert Fichte. Where those previous releases had been dominated by ephemeral drone work with refinied patinas of digital corrosion, this album curiously sounds like Pole doing free jazz, with erratic squiggles of granular synthesized saxophone and really lazy strums from a guitar seeping up from electronically sculpted metallic haze. Even those slowly developed basslines which Pole plops into his neo-dub show up in "Plays Hubert Fichte" although Ehlers disregards Pole's structuralism in favor of an amorphous improvisation of deep hovering movements. An odd record.

EHLERS, EKKEHARD Plays John Cassavetes (Staubgold) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Plays John Cassavetes" is part two in Ehler's trilogy of mini-albums, whose concept is based on metacomplex emotion in the context of digital art. In the first volume, "Plays Albert Ayler", Ehlers composed one long piece for solo cello, which he then cut up and reassembled into two new compositions. Where the use of digital processes were once more prominent and noticeable, Ehlers this time seamlessly weaves orchestral samples into beautiful landscapes of sonic reverberations. Very reminiscent of Wolfgang Voigt's work as Gas, or those brief, subtle moments of bliss found on My Bloody Valenine's "Loveless" record. I'm guessing that Ehlers lifted The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" for the base of the second piece. Really gorgeous, and as the first volume, very highly recommended!

EHLERS, EKKEHARD Politik Braucht Keinen Feind (Staubgold) cd 14.98
An effusive title that roughly translates as "Politics Do Not Need An Enemy" and a cover photogragh of an individual wearing a t-shirt with a pre-9/11 image of the World Trade Center introduce this recording from German electronic music composer Ekkehard Ehlers. It's hard not to immediately qualify the music within as holding some sort of political agenda or at least some wry commentary about politics, culture, art, or whatever, simply because he's already loaded the metaphoric gun with rather powerful signifiers. For better or for worse, those political references remain an external device and Ehlers' music pursues a path entirely different.
Best known for the outstanding "Plays" series of homages to Cornelius Cardew, John Cassavettes, Albert Ayler, etc. and for his equally solid "Heroin" collaboration with Stefan Mathieu, Ehlers had developed a myopic fuzziness of digital pixelations from various samples, found sounds, and acoustic instrumentations. While the laptop is still the center of the Ehlers' world, the ephemeral drones which previously amassed from dense layerings of tiny sounds have subsided within "Politik Braucht Keinen Feind." Considering that the aesthetic flourishing of digital synthesis through programs like Max/ MSP and Supercollider has over-saturated the market, Ehlers' decision is certainly a good one. Here, he has culled strident samples from cello and bass clarinet performances and manipulated them into looped details. In turn, he has exaggerated many of those textures, such as through his increase of the bass frequencies from the bass clarinet into psychoacoustically potent tones and through his emphasis of the micro-abrasions between the bow and the cello's strings. These little events and gestures flutter into atonal orchestrations and psychically tense atmospheres which come across as something of a hybrid of Tony Conrad and Pierre Henry. Beautiful but uneasy listening.
MPEG Stream: "Maander III"
MPEG Stream: "Blind IV"

EHLERS, EKKEHARD / JOSEPH SUCHY / FRANZ HAUTZINGER Soundchambers (Staubgold) cd 15.98

EHNAHRE Taming The Cannibals (Crucial Blast) cd 13.98
Record number two (but the first one we've listed) from East Coast avant black/doom terrorists Ehnahre, featuring members of Kayo Dot and Biolich, whose sound is definitely on the confusional side of heavy, sounding more like a mash up of doom metal and free jazz than anything more traditionally metal.
Six, mostly looooong songs, that flit from skittery churning crunch to blurred black blast and back again, mixing in strings and horns, a swirling, dizzyingly complex exploration of abstract heaviness, that will probably be frustrating for those after something 'brootal', but for the adventurous listeners out there, who like their metal to confound and confuse, then Ehnahre should definitely hit the spot.
Just take opener "The Clatterbones", beginning with a splatter of manic free jazz drum splutter, underneath some atonal sprawling downtuned riffage, and some sick demonik vokills, lots of space, seriously 'free' and loose and abstract, horns belch and bleat way down in the mix, it's not until about 2 minutes in that everything seems to coalesce, and suddenly, it's a murky muddy blurred bit of avant death metal, churning and roiling, the drums wildly manic, the riffing gnarled and twisted, the arrangements super convoluted, horns skronking in the distance, the sound blurring into black metal buzz, before splintering back into abstract black noise free metal chaos.
And so it goes, a sound that is seemingly impossible to pin down from one minute to the next, slipping from chugging ultra doom, to mathy noise rock, to blissed out field recording laced psychedelic ambience, to glitched out dronescape, to haunting abstract drone metal, to freaked out art metal weirdness, to deconstructed death metal chug, to harrowing black ambient dirge metal, those various descriptors constantly shifting and bleeding into one another, the whole record a massively confusional, geniusly complex, fucked up epic chunk of avant heaviness. Wow.
MPEG Stream: "The Clatterbones"
MPEG Stream: "Foehn (Lullaby)"

EHRLICH, KEN / BRANDON LABELLE Surface Tension (Errant Press) book + cd 25.00
Brandon Labelle and Ken Ehlich offer a number of open-ended questions in forming the thesis for their book Surface Tension, which is centered on the nature of site-specificity and the conceptual ramifications of such cultural productions. As the ideas behind this book can get pretty heady, we'll just quote liberally from Labelle's and Erhlich's shorthand description found on the book: "This anthology explores site-specific practice and its legacy through critical and creative essays by leading theorists, architects, and artists from around the globe, including an insightful interview with Gordon Matta-Clark from 1976, an essay by Juli Carson on the linger controversy of Richard Serra's 'Tilted Arc,' and Kathy Battista's uncovering of London's women artists groups in the 1970s. These are complemented by historical and contemporary documentation of [sound] projects, including a rarely heard audio work by Bruce Nauman from 1969."
The list of writers included in the book is an impressive selection from academia as well as the art world with contributions from Lucy Lippard, Kim Abeles, Carol Brown, CopenhagenOffice, Octavio Camargo, Jeremiah Day, Dispute Resolution Services, Jennifer Gabrys, Jen Hofer, Melissa Dyne, Colette Meacher, and many more.
The accompanying CD is also packed with an allstar cast: Yoko Ono, Paul Panhuysen, Atau Tanaka, Stuart Dempster, Terry Fox, Bruce Nauman, undo, Alison Knowles, and more.

EIAFUAWN Birds In The Ground (Pillowscars) lp 17.98
Even though this band is from San Jose, we had to go all the way to Sweden to discover them, not literally of course, but Swedish label Pillowscars were kind enough to turn us on to these guys (this guy actually), and their warm blissy home brewed 4-track dreampop.
Guitars are strummed, harmonics chime, cymbals sizzle, the sound is surprisingly lush, but then again, this record had been in the works on and off for years, amazing what you can do with a 4-track given enough time, the vocals are weary and laid back, plaintive and emotional, gently wrapped up in the swaying jangle and loping tempo, the bass buzzes and growls, the melodies are lilting, pretty, dreamy, total bliss pop for sure, think Animal Collective, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sparklehorse, you know what we're talking about.
The weirdest part is that the man behind Eiafuawn, was a member of legendary hardcore/screamo titans Mohinder! Who knew?
Incredible packaging, thick 180 gram vinyl, and some super striking, gorgeous weird cover art!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

EIBON s/t (Aesthetic Death) cd 10.00
Another fantastic new grim musical missive from the mighty Aesthetic Death label, who we owe big time, for not only releasing records by Wijlen Wj, Stumm, Wreck Of The Hesperus, but for being the long standing and likely long suffering home of ultradoomlords Esoteric. THis here is the first full length from French sludge four piece Eibon, total classic doom drenched sludge, or sludgey doom, or whatever you want to call it. Massive downtuned guitars chugging and grinding away, pounding pummeling caveman drumming, gurgled beast-from-below bellows, plenty of feedback, but this isn't really ultra slow, we're not talking Monarch or anything like that, this is sludge-y more like Eyehategod or Grief or Bongzilla, midtempo, the guitars almost groovy, lurching and lumbering, the sound incredibly heavy and blown out, thick and dense, the distortion so thick that when a note is held for more than a second or two it seems to crumble before your ears. The band locked into a killer groove that barring a short stretch of feedback drenched ambience, never wavers, and occasionally explodes into dense bursts of furious tribal drumming and some seriously druggy downerpsychdoom guitar freakouts.
The second track begins oddly enough with acoustic guitar, but the riff is soon swallowed up by the same riff, albeit soaked in fuzz and buzz and distortion, even slower and doomier that the opener, the main riff is a killer, the guitars tuned sooooooo loooow, they seem to warp and warble, occasionally fading out, leaving a sort of space rock minimal jam rife with weird effects and even some super simple melodic leads draped over the top. Could be vintage Monster Magnet actually during those parts, but the band soon launches back into the lurching dirge that opened the track, eventually finishing off in a noise drenched feedback smothered squall of blown out psychedelic high end ur-drone.
MPEG Stream: "Asleep And Threatening"
MPEG Stream: "Staring At The Abyss"

EICHSTAEDT, BJOERN Herakleophorbia IV (Food Of The Gods) cd-r 8.98
Eclectic German musician Eichstaedt's many projects range from jazz keyboard grooves to free improv to Mr. Bunglized rock to bleepy electronica. The latter is what is evident on this limited-edition cd-recordable, as Bjoern experiments with washes of wheezing electronics, droning blippage, and what sound like dissonant guitar meanderings over the three lengthy tracks here. Similar in spirit to the output of the Corpus Hermeticum label, perhaps, especially the work of Kjetil Brandsdal. Very nice (hey if it wasn't we wouldn't have gotten him to send us these from Europe). He says he's already at work on his next project, apparently some sort of cold and grim solo black metal band! Can't wait to hear it.

EICHSTAEDT, BJOERN House Of Horror... 7" 2.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Volume 1 in 7" series of duos featuring German experimental/improv musician (and Italian suspense film fan) Eichstaedt. Side one, "House Of Horror" features Bjoern on keys and samples and Thomas Maos on guitar, creating an appropriately spooky soundscape to go along with the title. Side two, "Samuel Chillian vs. Batman (And His Mad Dogs From Transsylvania)" continues the fun with conspirator Leoon Gruenbaum.

EICHSTAEDT, BJOERN Music To Think Of Nancarrow By: 29 Studies (self-released) cd-r 8.98
From our eclectic, experimental German musician pal Bjoern, a new cd-r that kinda sounds like what the title suggests it might. Comes in cool perforated packaging. Limited to 50 numbered copies.

EIGHT BELLS The Captain's Daughter (Seventh Rule) cd 11.98
Ding, ding! (x4) Something ring a bell? That's cuz Eight Bells is the new group formed from the ashes of veteran spacerockers Subarachnoid Space, whose last album before they disbanded in 2010 was titled, Eight Bells. Since we liked that record a lot, we're happy to report that Subarachnoid Space guitarist Melynda Jackson has teamed with erstwhile Subarachnoid Space drummer Chris Van Huffel, plus bassist Haley Westeiner, to take up where Subarachnoid Space left off, this trio continuing Subarachnoid Space's latter-day trajectory into heavier and heavier territories, to the point that it makes sense that this would be recorded by Billy Anderson, and come out on Seventh Rule. And woah this is good, damn good. Mostly instrumental (even when there is singing, it's often kinda used as another instrument), and definitely progressive, with sinuous song structures and intricate epic arrangements, they play a kind of mathy, moody spacerock that at times even ventures into black metal territory - Cascadian black metal we guess, to be precise, since that's where they're based, up in the Pacific Northwest. Seriously, if you didn't know the context, there's stretches where you'd think it was a BM record for sure. And as space rock or post rock, it's definitely rockin'. Think Kinksi meets Wolves In The Throne Room...
A good example of Eight Bells' dynamic, apocalyptic mathrock is how the urgent angular quickstep of track two, "Fate And Technology" takes a sudden shift into slower, quieter, more placid territory adorned by dreamy, gentle female singing, but then builds up again to sheer, near black metal blasting complete with harsh, throatripped vokills. Those vokills and vocals are both handled by Haley, but the title track does bring in guest vocalist Kris Force of Amber Asylum to add her haunting pipes to the mix, for some extra atmosphere, that track reminding us, with its scrambling riffery, of Stinking Lizveta, at first anyway, then getting seriously epic in a postrock way, 12+ minutes full of drama and majesty (and intense chops!), climaxing with thunderous drum pound and wordless high end operatic vocalizations from Force. Here and elsewhere there's droning synths, echoing effects, and a thick, muscular bass presence, part of what makes Eight Bells so heavy and propulsive.
For fans of Subarachnoid Space (of course) and Liturgy and maybe the likes of Worm Ouroboros too. Recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Tributaries"
MPEG Stream: "Fate And Technology"
MPEG Stream: "The Captain's Daughter"

EIGHTEEN VISIONS s/t (Epic / Trustkill) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Our Darkest Days"
MPEG Stream: "Victim"
MPEG Stream: "Truth Or Consequence"

EIGHTIES LADIES Ladies Of The Eighties (Universal Sound) cd 21.00
Out of all the great rare-groove productions Roy Ayers did for other artists, Ramp, Ethel Beatty, Bobbi Humphrey, and Sylvia Striplin, the sole 1980 full length by Eighties Ladies may be the most sought after cult boogie classic. Their most well-known single, the monster jam, "Turned On To You", has been featured on so many DJ mixes and has been sampled rather heavily over the past couple of decades that for a long time, we thought that the track was their only output. Of course we're proven wrong by this hefty reissue. Hefty in the sense of the mean boogie (Rick James plays in the backing band!) and sass these five ladies bring to the groove, marrying Sylvester's sensual disco to Bettie Davis's harder-edged empowered funk. What the reissue lacks in backstory, more than makes up in eight fine jazz-laden funkified gems. These Eighties Ladies could have been better named, they were the template for all the eighties r&b/funk girl groups to come: Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Mary-Jane Girls, The Flirts and Klymaxx. Listen in and get schooled!
MPEG Stream: "Turned On To You"
MPEG Stream: "Ladies Of The Eighties"
MPEG Stream: "He Is Mine Forever"

EIGHTIES LADIES Ladies Of The Eighties (Universal Sound) lp 23.00
Out of all the great rare-groove productions Roy Ayers did for other artists, Ramp, Ethel Beatty, Bobbi Humphrey, and Sylvia Striplin, the sole 1980 full length by Eighties Ladies may be the most sought after cult boogie classic. Their most well-known single, the monster jam, "Turned On To You", has been featured on so many DJ mixes and has been sampled rather heavily over the past couple of decades that for a long time, we thought that the track was their only output. Of course we're proven wrong by this hefty reissue. Hefty in the sense of the mean boogie (Rick James plays in the backing band!) and sass these five ladies bring to the groove, marrying Sylvester's sensual disco to Bettie Davis's harder-edged empowered funk. What the reissue lacks in backstory, more than makes up in eight fine jazz-laden funkified gems. These Eighties Ladies could have been better named, they were the template for all the eighties r&b/funk girl groups to come: Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Mary-Jane Girls, The Flirts and Klymaxx. Listen in and get schooled!
MPEG Stream: "Turned On To You"
MPEG Stream: "Ladies Of The Eighties"
MPEG Stream: "He Is Mine Forever"

EIGHTY MILE BEACH Inclement Weather (Om) cd 13.98
One of the many diverse branches of Ms Beth Custer's formidable creative tree. This one takes her into a melting pot of electronics, dance and jazz.

EIH, A.L.K. AND BROTHER CLARK, DAMIN Never Mind (Nero's Neptune) cd 14.98
This one pretty much floored us when we first put it on. Track one, "Tourniquet", begins quietly, with a droning sound swelling up slowly, so we didn't expect the shocking outburst of sick fuzz that then erupts, the rest of the song alternating between distorted, disjointed riffs and gentler melodic parts. Its unhinged freakiness immediately made us think of Michael Yonkers' similarly crazed Microminiature Love album, a total genius AQ fave. So what the heck is this? The mysterious trio of Damin Eih, A.L.K. and Brother Clark (from Minneapolis, just like Yonkers) made this wonderfully twisted psychedelic rock record in 1973, privately releasing it into almost total obscurity and eventual psych-rock collector dreams. But thank the reissue gods, it's been deservedly rescued from oblivion and boy howdy is it ever something that we're happy to hear and we think you'll be happy about it too.
The eleven tracks feature fragile vocal melodies, delicate 12-string strum, weird trippy lyrics (telling you to "take off your eyes, lie down in your head" or chanting "world is ridiculous" over and over), and a few further doses of that aforementioned totally sick fuzz guitar (which doesn't really return in full force until the final track). Most of the album is fairly spaced out, the many mellower songs all delightfully druggy, dreamy, drifty... there's really some quite lovely stuff on here, in keeping with the trio's obvious interest in Eastern mysticism and inner mind trips. Furthermore, for an apparently underground DIY production, it's actually rather ambitious and accomplished, with effective vocal harmonies, electronic embellishments, ethnic instruments, and other interesting orchestration. Stuff like the Beatles' "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" sounds like an influence... as does that song's obvious inspiration too.
Along with Yonkers, another AQ fave we could compare this to would be the Alice Cooper Band's psychedelic debut Pretties For You... but more surreal and subversive. Alice, even in his later shock-rock showman guise, would have shied away from lyrics like "rape and kill your parents or the blacks, and if you're one of those you can rape and kill the others back", a line found here in the deviant blues rocker "Return Naked" that ends this album with tour-de-force of really warped hippie-punk attitude and ultra-distorted, rubbery megafuzz riffage (the idea behind the song, we think, being about how the war is over in Vietnam, so now what?).
Never Mind is an album that's also possessed of the same lost and lysgeric vibe we got from another early '70s private press rarity reissued a while back, Stone Harbour's Emerges. And '80s psych savant Bobb Trimble could be another good comparison in parts ("Thundermice" in particular). Oh, and if you're gonna get the Dwarr reissue we made record of the week, this would make a good companion purchase, though despite some heavy moments it's not in any way metal, it still seems to share some of the same outsider DNA, this is possibly what Dwarr would have sounded like in '73 instead of '86...
Sadly, this digipack contains no liner notes to speak of, just recording credits, too bad 'cause we're sure there's quite a story behind and beyond this album, from what we've been able to glean from other sources about main member Damin Eih vanishing to India not long after this was originally released.
MPEG Stream: "Tourniquet"
MPEG Stream: "Thundermice"
MPEG Stream: "Marching Together"

EIH, A.L.K. AND BROTHER CLARK, DAMIN Never Mind (Nero's Neptune) lp 37.00
This obscure reissue now available on vinyl!!!
This one pretty much floored us when we first put it on. Track one, "Tourniquet", begins quietly, with a droning sound swelling up slowly, so we didn't expect the shocking outburst of sick fuzz that then erupts, the rest of the song alternating between distorted, disjointed riffs and gentler melodic parts. Its unhinged freakiness immediately made us think of Michael Yonkers' similarly crazed Microminiature Love album, a total genius AQ fave. So what the heck is this? The mysterious trio of Damin Eih, A.L.K. and Brother Clark (from Minneapolis, just like Yonkers) made this wonderfully twisted psychedelic rock record in 1973, privately releasing it into almost total obscurity and eventual psych-rock collector dreams. But thank the reissue gods, it's been deservedly rescued from oblivion and boy howdy is it ever something that we're happy to hear and we think you'll be happy about it too.
The eleven tracks feature fragile vocal melodies, delicate 12-string strum, weird trippy lyrics (telling you to "take off your eyes, lie down in your head" or chanting "world is ridiculous" over and over), and a few further doses of that aforementioned totally sick fuzz guitar (which doesn't really return in full force until the final track). Most of the album is fairly spaced out, the many mellower songs all delightfully druggy, dreamy, drifty... there's really some quite lovely stuff on here, in keeping with the trio's obvious interest in Eastern mysticism and inner mind trips. Furthermore, for an apparently underground DIY production, it's actually rather ambitious and accomplished, with effective vocal harmonies, electronic embellishments, ethnic instruments, and other interesting orchestration. Stuff like the Beatles' "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" sounds like an influence... as does that song's obvious inspiration too.
Along with Yonkers, another AQ fave we could compare this to would be the Alice Cooper Band's psychedelic debut Pretties For You... but more surreal and subversive. Alice, even in his later shock-rock showman guise, would have shied away from lyrics like "rape and kill your parents or the blacks, and if you're one of those you can rape and kill the others back", a line found here in the deviant blues rocker "Return Naked" that ends this album with tour-de-force of really warped hippie-punk attitude and ultra-distorted, rubbery megafuzz riffage (the idea behind the song, we think, being about how the war is over in Vietnam, so now what?).
Never Mind is an album that's also possessed of the same lost and lysgeric vibe we got from another early '70s private press rarity reissued a while back, Stone Harbour's Emerges. And '80s psych savant Bobb Trimble could be another good comparison in parts ("Thundermice" in particular). Oh, and if you're gonna get the Dwarr reissue we made record of the week, this would make a good companion purchase, though despite some heavy moments it's not in any way metal, it still seems to share some of the same outsider DNA, this is possibly what Dwarr would have sounded like in '73 instead of '86...
MPEG Stream: "Tourniquet"
MPEG Stream: "Thundermice"
MPEG Stream: "Marching Together"

EIKENSKADEN 665.999 (tUMULt) cd 11.98
Andee's label tUMULt is a lot of things. From country dirge (Souled American) to avant-prog (Guapo) to experimental indie-pop (Iran). And then there's a black, leathery wing of tUMULt devoted to the art and science of black metal, with several examples drawn from the fertile local San Francisco scene (Weakling, Leviathan, Draugar) and one outlier from France (Diamatregon).
And now Eikenskaden, who also happen to hail from France. Andee and Allan here at Aquarius had been fans of Eikenskaden and related band Mystic Forest for some time, we've raved about 'em before. As it turned out, they happened to be fans of tUMULt in turn. Strange how things work out. So here's a new Eikenskaden on tUMULt! Like tUMULt's other black metal releases (or other releases, period), you can be assured that Eikenskaden is not quite the norm for its genre, which is a genre where norms are oft-perverted anyways. There's something just a little bit fucked about their approach, the extreme combo of nasty distortion and neo-classical melody perhaps?
Yup, you can say a lot about how this band (or guy, it's one dude, Mr. Stefan Kozak) revels in the wall-of-fuzz sound of Norwegian black metal primitivists like Burzum. But then he takes it and merges it with freakin' Beethoven! Not only that, but like the best metal (from Iron Maiden to Katatonia) he doesn't forget this is rock music and it's gotta have a pop element. There are simply just some great SONGS here beneath all the distortion and violence. We couldn't be happier -- not only did tUMULt get to put out an Eikenskaden album, but it lived up to all our expectations. Which means that even if you've never heard of Eikenskaden before, we'd recommend checking this out.
MPEG Stream: "Sharp Edged Iron Trees"
MPEG Stream: "Absolute Zero"

EIKENSKADEN The Last Danse (Sacral Productions) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A little while ago we gave a thumbs (and pointy spikes) up review to an album called "Green Hell" by a French black metal band known as Mystic Forest. As we mentioned then, Mystic Forest's main guy, one Stefan Kozak, has another band called Eikenskaden ("Oaken Shield") which is almost *exactly* the same. The line-up is different, but the songwriting, production, and even the graphic design bear marked similarity. Apparently Eikenskaden is the project in which Kozak blows off steam and indulges even further in ridiculous black metal concepts, and it's true that of the two bands, this one is perhaps the best, though it's a close call. "The Last Danse" is Kozak's second Eikenskaden album, and is as amazing as anything else he's done -- totally frenzied, quirky, and Burzumic, more distorted yet more melodic than you could imagine.
I was listening to this at home the other night, and my housemate thought it sounded like two things playing at the same time. The very pretty, baroque sounding keyboard lines coexist bizarrely with a hellish wash of fuzz and distortion. Raw yet extremely melodic. You can hear in Eikenskaden (and Mystic Forest) the gothic black/doom "pop" of Katatonia, as well as the neo-classical shred of Windham Hell. It's a weird combo, maybe, but it works really well. Imagine Burzum or Khold possessed by Mozart or something, with Immortal/Popeye vocal growls too. Really, it's so insanely full of reverb and distortion it's crazy -- HSShshshhHZZHZZCH!!!
Also new in stock and recommended: Mystic Forest's third album, "Waltz In the Midst of Trees" ($13.98, see review elsewhere on this list/site).
MPEG Stream: "Then I'll Erase Myself Forever"
MPEG Stream: "Lost Memories"

EIKENSKADEN The Last Danse (Weird Forest) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl! Super limited. Only 333 copies, each one hand numbered! Here's what we had to say about the cd:
A little while ago we gave a thumbs (and pointy spikes) up review to an album called "Green Hell" by a French black metal band known as Mystic Forest. As we mentioned then, Mystic Forest's main guy, one Stefan Kozak, has another band called Eikenskaden ("Oaken Shield") which is almost *exactly* the same. The line-up is different, but the songwriting, production, and even the graphic design bear marked similarity. Apparently Eikenskaden is the project in which Kozak blows off steam and indulges even further in ridiculous black metal concepts, and it's true that of the two bands, this one is perhaps the best, though it's a close call. "The Last Danse" is Kozak's second Eikenskaden album, and is as amazing as anything else he's done -- totally frenzied, quirky, and Burzumic, more distorted yet more melodic than you could imagine.
I was listening to this at home the other night, and my housemate thought it sounded like two things playing at the same time. The very pretty, baroque sounding keyboard lines coexist bizarrely with a hellish wash of fuzz and distortion. Raw yet extremely melodic. You can hear in Eikenskaden (and Mystic Forest) the gothic black/doom "pop" of Katatonia, as well as the neo-classical shred of Windham Hell. It's a weird combo, maybe, but it works really well. Imagine Burzum or Khold possessed by Mozart or something, with Immortal/Popeye vocal growls too. Really, it's so insanely full of reverb and distortion it's crazy -- HSShshshhHZZHZZCH!!!
MPEG Stream: "Then I'll Erase Myself Forever"
MPEG Stream: "Lost Memories"

EIKENSKADEN There Is No Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Blackmetal.com) cd 13.98
The French buzzing black metal cult of Eikenskaden ("Oaken Shield") returns with a new album, their fourth, the follow up to their numerically-titled 2004 release, 665.999, which appeared on our own Andee's tUMULt label! So of course we're excited. Eikenskaden is one of those genius one man BM bands (that one man being Stefan Kozak, also the main guy in Mystic Forest). Both Mystic Forest and Eikenskaden specialize in blending almost-classical, melancholic melodies with some of the most distorto-buzz Burzumic black metal out there, with Eikenskaden being the darker and harsher of the two acts. And, as the title of There Is No Light At The End Of The Tunnel already indicates, this cd is certainly dark! Quite "necro" and yet grandiose, this boasts some truly memorable compositions, which has always been one of Kozak's strong suits -- he writes actual songs, not relying entirely on atmosphere even though Eikenskaden's got plenty going on in that area too. Somehow he's got a knack for writing material that's both driving and depressive, with many interesting details amidst the distorted wash of sound. Recommended, especially if you like both Xasthur and Khold, for instance (and don't you?).
MPEG Stream: "Anthology"
MPEG Stream: "And I Left Tears In My Eyes"

EIKO, ISHIBASHI & TATSUYA YOSHIDA Slip Beneath The Distant Tree (Rhythm Tracks) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ok, if you're a fan of the Japanese prog-core duo Ruins and their amazing drummer and musical mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida, you already know he's a big fan of '70s progressive rock. Of course. It's pretty obvious, even if you've never experienced the Ruins' infamous "Prog Rock Medley". Ruins wouldn't be Ruins without the influence of classic '70s bands like Magma, Area, and Henry Cow. Here, Yoshida -really- gets proggy, though, paying tribute to some of his inspirations in that genre (and, classical music too) with both a batch of worthy originals and several exquisite cover versions as well.
At home in yet another duo situation, Tatsuya Yoshida (vocals, drums, programming, keys, acoustic guitar) teams up with Eiko Ishibashi (vocals, piano, keys, flute), to turn in 14 tracks of utter prog nirvana, stuff that's gorgeously melodic and mathematically mindboggling, both.
Fans of Ruins, Koenjihyakkei, Tairikuotoko vs. Sanmaykuonna, and other manifestations of Yoshida's prog-obsession will be drooling, from the sweet female vocals and quirky hectic changes of "Festival Of Teeth" to the amusing, impressive ADD-antics of the quite clever "Classic Medley" (all 1 minute, 21 seconds of it), from the dizzying "The Invention Of A Parachute" to the thickly synth-buzzed, heavy and haunting "Planet Of Reverberation" which ends the disc... Wow.
While that "Classic Medley" has a tongue-in-cheek, showoffish element we're sure, this duo also respectfully give props to a few of their influences with some other covers, including songs by This Heat ("Twilight Furniture"), Soft Machine ("As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still"), Genesis ("Time Table"), and Debussy ("Doctor Gradus Ad Pernassum")! You know what? Even if you've never ever heard Ruins before, we would still recommend this to the curious, who could just as easily as any old school prog diehard be thrilled by this elegant, intricate music. Especially since, with both the covers and originals, these two manage to strike a stellar balance between the technical, excitingly indulgent side of prog, and truly lovely, uh, songishness. So nice!
And now we're curious to hear more from Ms. Eiko...
MPEG Stream: "Sanctuary"
MPEG Stream: "The Invention Of A Parachute"
MPEG Stream: "Classic Medley"
MPEG Stream: "Planet Of Reverberation"

EIN HEIT The Lightning And The Sun (Temporary Freedom) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Silkworm hooks back up with ex-member and solo star Joel Phelps, changing the band name back to what they were called before they were Silkworm, and record a brand-new disc. Who woulda thunk it etc.

EINHERJER Blot (Tabu) cd 21.00

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN 1/2 Mensch (Potomak) cd 16.98
Halber Mensch ('half man' in German) originally came out in 1985, at the height of the apex of punk self-immolation, pure German expressionism, and industrial theatricality. The infernal vocal chorale of the title track is about as intense as a vocal piece could ever be, without resorting to pure guttural howling. Here is it a searing repetition of an atonal plainsong, buttressed by the always unique snarl of frontman Blixa Bargeld. The repurposed metals from junkyards and constructions site which have become synonymous with Neubauten immediately appear afterwards on their anthemic single "Yu-Gung (Fuetter Mein Ego)," whose insistent rhythm works almost Gamelan-like as the principal melody to this amazing tune. It should also be pointed out that Pussy Galore, who were already heavily indebted to EN, covered this on their Sugar Shit Sharp ep! later As a grand climax to the album, Neubauten again returns to hellish imagery through the symphony of bowed metals on "Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy," where these cacophonic scrapes amass into a dramatic arc of acoustic noise that easily parallels those same constructions that David Jackman built in Organum.
This is one of those seminal records that should always be in print, and one of those records that you should already have. But if not, you shouldn't pass this up!
MPEG Stream: "Halber Mensch"
MPEG Stream: "Yu-Gung "
MPEG Stream: "Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy"

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN 1/2 Mensch (Potomak) lp 16.98
A vinyl reissue of one of the best Einsturzende Neubauten recordings! Halber Mensch ('half man' in German) originally came out in 1985, at the height of the apex of punk self-immolation, pure German expressionism, and industrial theatricality. The infernal vocal chorale of the title track is about as intense as a vocal piece could ever be, without resorting to pure guttural howling. Here is it a searing repetition of an atonal plainsong, buttressed by the always unique snarl of frontman Blixa Bargeld. The repurposed metals from junkyards and constructions site which have become synonymous with Neubauten immediately appear afterwards on their anthemic single "Yu-Gung (Fuetter Mein Ego)," whose insistent rhythm works almost Gamelan-like as the principal melody to this amazing tune. It should also be pointed out that Pussy Galore, who were already heavily indebted to EN, covered this on their Sugar Shit Sharp ep! later As a grand climax to the album, Neubauten again returns to hellish imagery through the symphony of bowed metals on "Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy," where these cacophonic scrapes amass into a dramatic arc of acoustic noise that easily parallels those same constructions that David Jackman built through Organum. This is one of those seminal records that should always be in print, and one of those records that you should already have. But if not, you shouldn't pass this up!

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN 1991-2001: Strategies Against Architecture III (Mute) 2cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On September 12, Blixa Bargeld wandered into Aquarius after hearing that his US tour with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds had been cancelled. While I had never met the man before, his demeanor was certainly curt and somewhat cold, muttering his disapproval that we didn't have any of his records in stock. He bought a copy of The Wire and the new Bjork record (if you must know) and was off. I'll admit to being a little shaken to have encountered one of my teen heroes (and thus stumbled through a clumsy introduction), yet the timing of his visit to the States was even more unsettling; for here was a man whose main project has been imploring the metaphors of collapsed architecture as a means for personal and communal exorcisms. Due to my social blunder, I never got to ask for his thoughts on the destruction of the World Trade Center. It may be impossible to set the tragedy and horror of the 9/11 events aside to posit the question to leftist artists, commentators, and organizations: "Isn't the destruction of a symbol as weighty as the World Trade Center what you wanted all along?" Of course the answer predictably will be, "You asshole, how dare you ask that question!" But at sometime, every punk, anarchist, anti-WTO activist, and leftist thinker is gonna have to stop being in shock and answer that question. No, I haven't an answer myself, but I think it will scare me.
If I had been able to muster the courage to ask Bargeld for his thoughts, I could imagine that his answer would be something poetic but vaguely haunting, and maybe something a little bit more allegorical than Stockhausen's recent social gaffes. Or maybe, those are the attributes that I'd like his words to have, and he would just shrug it off as another stupid question from another stupid American. Yet, Bargeld and his stalwart project Einsturzende Neubauten have been engaged in presenting multiple possibilities for the end of the world within evolving musical theatres, ranging from their early brutalism of hammering infernal music out of metal and flesh to their more recent offerings of staged melodramas around Bargeld's lyrical complexities and restrained vocalizations. Thus, I would hope that Bargeld may have something intelligent and insightful to say about the WTC attacks.
"Strategies Against Architecture III," subtitled "A Comedy of Errors" was obviously never intended to be Bargeld's specific answer; but within the current cultural climate, it does address the general themes. Over the last decade, Neubauten has calmed their industrial clamour and embraced the tasteful palette of a chamber ensemble, with strings and horns fleshing out their recent sound. It is obvious that Neubauten has changed with age, looking back at their early work through eyes that no longer seek expression through self-destruction. Rather, Neubauten stands in the ashes of their attempts at self-destruction seeing that the epistomological forces of life may in fact be stronger than the will to destroy. The gleefully abject explosions that made up their earliest work now quietly smolder within the pleasant, strangely cabaret-like, and almost holistically beneficial music found within "Strategies III."
In essence, Neubauten's third compilation of rarities, alternate takes and 'greatest hits' finds their existential angst getting all warm and fuzzy. While I've been wholly disappointed by their work over the past decade, "Strategies III" makes for an nice condensed history for a time period in which existential answers were sought in lieu of taking aesthetic adventures.
RealAudio clip: "Three Thoughts (Devils Sect)"
RealAudio clip: "Wurst (Ballet Version)"
RealAudio clip: "Open Fire"

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Alles Wieder Offen (Potomak) cd 16.98
Admittedly, we approached this new Einsturzende Neubauten album with a little bit of apprehension. In our humble opinion, their recordings from the last decade and a half have fallen so far short of what you'd expect from a group that were absolute music groundbreakers (literally!). Seriously can Silence Is Sexy or Perpetuum Mobile hold a candle (or blowtorch) to Halber Mensch or Drawings Of Patient O.T.? We think not. So Alles Wieder Offen comes as something of a pleasant (hmmm, that's sort of a weird word to use with regards to this band, isn't it?) surprise. It's almost like Blixa Bargeld and co. had a wake up call (albeit a not so aggressive one) that shook them out of their velvet draped parlor and back into the rubble-strewn dank warehouse... at least for a brief spell. For one thing Bargeld is alternating his vocal croon with his former urgent bark. While there still isn't any of the early brutal thunder of heavy machinery, there are atmospheres filled with icy Germanic scowls and white knuckles. Hypnotic male chants, buzzing electronics, blunt object thuds, and metallic clatter too. At long last, Einsturzende Neubauten may have struck an affecting integration of what has long seemed disconcertingly at odds -- their early defiant dissonance and newer refined elegance.
MPEG Stream: "Nagorny Karabach"
MPEG Stream: "Weil Weil Weil"

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Faustmusik (Mute) cd 15.98

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Halber Mensch (Thirsty Ear) cd 14.98

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Kalte Sterne - Early Recordings (Mute) cd 16.98
Do you like early Einsturzende Neubauten (Kollaps, Strategies Against Architecture)? Yeah? Great; then you don't want to miss Kalte Sterne, the new collection of Einsturzende Neubauten's early 7"s, surrounded by many previously unreleased recordings. Most of these were impossible to find the first time around, and represent the beginning of the brilliant German group's (literally) metallic, Dadaist anti-music. Thirteen tracks of scraping atonal genius by the group arguably most responsible for connecting the ideas of 20th century avant-garde composers and '-isms' with the underground art-rock audience. Kalte Sterne reveals a dub sense not readily apparent on the first full length albums, as well as surprisingly well formed looks at their trademark post-Faust, homemade musique concrete. Early Einsturzende Neubauten is iconclastic, ubiquitous and absolutely unique. If you've ever wished for more early-style Einsturzende Neubauten, before they mellowed considerably and became more like 'regular music', here it is. Kalte Sterne is 'noise' in the truest and best sense, for every adventurous ear.
MPEG Stream: "Kalte Sterne"
MPEG Stream: "Tan-Ze-Dub"

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Kollaps (Potomak) cd 16.98
Kollaps. The first album from Einsturzende Neubauten, released back in 1981, found the band as a trio with the wild-throated frontman Blixa Bargeld buttressed by the anarcho-rhythmicists N.U. Unruh and F.M. Einheit. The band photo of Neubauten on Kollaps is quite telling, as a it parodies Pink Floyd's grand collection of instruments that emblazoned the back cover of Ummagumma. Instead of the marching band sized collection of drums and mallets, there's an assortment of hammers, pipes, a couple of drills, a cheap looking synth, an ax (yeah, there is a guitar, but there's also an ax!), and sheet metal twisted in the shape of drumheads. These are the instruments that Neubauten uses in the hyper-primitive, industrial-punk tracks found on Kollaps. Neubauten's amplified junkyard was a clearly a bold statement of DIY primitivism, this trio was not without their structural prowess, crafting anthemic blasts out of their rhythmic churns, bristling with sparkplug noise and rabid distortion. "Tanz Debil" is curiously catchy in its amplified shopping cart bashing which Unruh & Einheit hammer out to accompany the demon-then-zombie vocal delivery from Blixa Bargeld. The title track is a 8 minute monochord mantra, and the band actually pulls off an instrumental cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je T'Aime." Very rough around the edges, but there is a serious-minded, infernal poetry of pain, anger, and rage focused through these scrap metal arrangements. It's great to have this in stock, as Kollaps is a tremendous record.
MPEG Stream: "Tanz Debil"
MPEG Stream: "Kollaps"
MPEG Stream: "Negativ Nein"

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Listen With Pain: 20 Years Of Einsturzende Neubauten (Cherry Red Films) dvd 30.00

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Perpetuum Mobile (Mute) cd 16.98
It appears that as Einsturzende Neubauten near a quarter century of existence, they've set aside their cognac glasses and smoking jackets for the time being -- a good thing! Of course, that's not to say that they've returned to their early 80's groundbreaking visceral fury (see: Drawing Of Patient O.T. and Halber Mensch). No, sadly this is not the case. Like its predecessor, 2000's Silence Is Sexy, Perpetuum Mobile's focus is on subdued refinement and somber reflection with often quite beautiful percussive results. There is an overriding sense of heavy fatigue and mournfulness that resonates throughout the album, however, a particular low point of this despairing tone is Blixa Bargeld's tedious, uninspired chant in the fourth track "Selbstportrait Mit Kater" of "Life on other planets is difficult... so difficult". Had to hit the 'skip' button after his first few rounds.
MPEG Stream: "Ich Gehe Jetzt"
MPEG Stream: "Selbstportrait Mit Kater"

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Silence Is Sexy (Mute) 2cd 22.00
After Marc Chung and FM Einheit left Einsturzende Neubauten, Blixa ended up getting fat...and boring.

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Strategies Against Architecture IV: 2002- 2010 (Mute) 2cd 21.00

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Strategies Against Architecture IV: 2002- 2010 (Mute) 2cd 21.00

EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN Tabula Rasa (Mute ) 2cd 21.00
The differences between the Einsturzende Neubauten of the '80s and the Einsturzende Neubauten of the '90s are like night and day. The band's early days were spent mucking around junkyards and cold warehouses which proved to be the perfect setting for their spectacular investigations into 'the abject' through the physical abrasion of metal percussion, discordant guitars, and the pained yelp of Blixa Bargeld. These were the days of their best material, as found on such masterpieces of industrialized angst as Drawings of OT and Halber Menche. Much had been made about the fall of the Berlin Wall and Neubauten's aesthetic shift. Political allusions aside, it's quite clear that the Neubauten that produced Tabula Rasa had undergone a profound shift from their early days of blood, grit, and steel. Donning the finest Italian suits and moving with a theatrical swagger, Neubauten merely threatens to physically confront you with rhythmic intensity or the powers of horror. They've actually managed to stretch out their fading career with this strategy. If only we could all be that lucky. When they do launch into a big jackhammer rhythm as found on Tabula Rasa's "Headcleaner," their creaking joints and tired sinews don't really have it in them anymore.
This reissue features a bonus disc with all of the material from the Interim and Malediction singles which came out around the same time as Tabula Rasa.
MPEG Stream: "Die Interimsliebenden"
MPEG Stream: "Headcleaner"