ELLIOTT, DEAN Zounds! What Sounds! (Basta) cd 17.98
After many years of being one of the holy grails of much sought after LPs in the "incredibly strange" variety, Dean Elliott's legendary Zounds! What Sounds is now finally available (legitimately) on cd as part of Basta's aptly titled "essential" series of reissues. Working with cartoon sound effects wizard Phil Kaye (Tom & Jerry), the resulting Zounds! is perhaps the zenith of orchestral easy listening records with sound effect accompaniment -- an inspiration for novelty music dating back to Leroy Anderson's experiments in the early 50's. Elliot's tour de force, originally released in 1963, is about 15 times more frantically schizoid than Anderson's work and his rhythm loops most certainly must have been on Perrey & Kingsley's minds when they set out to do The In Sound From Way Out a few years later. Bowling pins, ping pong playing, clocks, water, sawing wood, police & train whistles, celery stalks, the sound man's coat ripping as he picks up his watch, a vintage cement mixer from 1920 struggling to turn over and countless other noises all take turns holding first chair in Elliott's orchestra. And to top it off, Elliott comes up with some over the top arrangements with the musicians at his disposal, making their instruments sound more like sound effects at times. This re-issue also includes a six page interview with Dean Elliot conducted on WBBM shortly after the album's release. Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Lonesome Road"
RealAudio clip: "All Of You"

ELLIOTT, MATT The Mess We Made (Merge) cd 14.98
As Third Eye Foundation, Matt Elliott was one of the pillars of the Bristol post-rock sound, producing a volatile concoction of drum and bass breaks suffocating under the weight of space-rock dissonance and apocalyptic references. It's been reported that Elliott was disbanding Third Eye Foundation and stepping away from music for good. Thankfully, those reports have turned out to be false and he's begun what we can only hope will be a long and fruitful 'solo' career. On "The Mess We Made," Elliott turns the corner on the rhythmic aspect of his work, instead building outward from melancholic piano melodies that fall between drunken-sailor waltzes, the paranoiac isolationism of David Shire's soundtrack to "The Conversation," and the more deconstructed renderings of Radiohead's "Kid A" or "Amnesiac." Using these morosely fragile melodies as the foundation for his music, Elliott saturates his music with theatrical orchestrations of french horns, accordions, lilting Spanish guitar lines, and windswept ambience. He furthers the creepy melodrama on "The Mess We Made" with an unusual production technique that warbles some of the sounds into an antiquated vibrato as if transmitted through a haunted Victrola from the 1930s. The title track to the album stands out with a two minute interlude of drum & bass, as Elliott tosses in a caustic Amen workout into the baroque cobwebs that dominate the remainder of this album. A very welcome return for Mr. Elliott!
MPEG Stream: "The Mess We Made"
MPEG Stream: "The Sinking Ship Song"

ELLIOTT, MISSY Get Ur Freak On Remixes (Combat Boots) 12" 9.98
These are some crappy two-step "remixes" of Missy Elliott's ever so popular "Get Ur Freak On". Apparently someone wants us to believe that they could shit a Timbaland beat on a 12" and people will buy it. These remixes have got nothing on the spartan "Bounce A Gal" (the Special Remix 7" of Lexxus plopped onto the GUFO rhythm), and the Capleton "Mi Food" single which uses the same rhythm track is also ten times better (we should still have both). This 12" does have something going for it though: it's got a really nice die cut of an assault rifle on the cover.

ELLIOTT, MISSY Miss E ... So Addictive (Elektra) cd 16.98
For those of you who don't have MTV, avoid mainstream hip hop radio, and thus may not ever have heard Missy Elliott before, take our advice and get this record. It's pretty damn worthwhile. Missy is a big and curvaceous hip hop diva (unlike the rail thin waifs we've become accustomed to seeing) whose cool 'n husky vocal delivery is here augmented by the manly talents of Ludacris, Redman, Ginuwine, Busta Rhymes, Jay Z, and Method Man, plus the divas-in-training lady vocalists Eve, Da Brat, Jade, etc. Girlfriend wrote or co-wrote almost all the songs with Timbaland, uh huh. But the production chops are what shines here -- with Timbaland behind the board you know that there are choppy melodies and stutttering, rumbling bass along with the all-important lurching rhythms and Timbaland's signature beats that are left OUT of the track, forcing YOUR ears to fill them in -- brilliant!
RealAudio clip: "Lick Shots"
RealAudio clip: "Get Ur Freak On"
RealAudio clip: "One Minute Man (featuring Ludacris)"

ELLIOTT, MISSY The Cookbook (Goldmind / Atlantic) cd 17.98
Whoa, man. Missy keeps bringing us hiphop gems. And this just might be the shiniest yet. We dig this album so much more than her last one (which was good too). Joined by Slick Rick, M.I.A., Neptunes, Mary J. Blige and Grand Puba, ME blends several different production and hiphop styles into one completely amazing album. Wird and wonderful, fun and funky. The songs sound fresh and interesting, mostly because they don't seem overly mixed or fussed with.
Her big hit on this one, "Lose Control", features a Cybotron sample and is thus pretty minimal and mesmerizing. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Lose Control featuring Ciara & Fat Man Scoop"
MPEG Stream: "Bad Man featuring Vybez Cartel & M.I.A."

ELLIOTT, MISSY Under Construction (Elektra / Warner) cd 16.98

ELLIOTT, RAMBLIN' JACK Bull Durham Sacks & Railroad Tracks (Collector's Choice Music) cd 16.98
Originally released in 1970, this album of influential folkster Ramblin' Jack Elliott features mostly covers of well known tunes such as: Me & Bobby McGee, Folsom Prison Blues, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Don't Let Your Deal Go Down, Lay Lady Lay, With God On Our Side, and more. Has a teeny weeny bit of Elliott's infamous "Ramblin'", but not enough to really amount to much on this disc.

ELLIOTT, RAMBLIN' JACK Young Brigham (Collector's Choice Music) cd 16.98
1968 release by Mr Elliott, now available on cd. Elliott performs If I Were A Carpenter, Tennessee Stud, Rock Island Line, and more.

ELLIS, ALTON I'm Still In Love With You (Heartbeat) cd 14.98
Classy!!! That's the first word that comes to mind whenever we think of Alton Ellis and his sister Hortense. Without a doubt, two of the smoothest and most elegant voices to ever be captured on tape. Alton Ellis is not only one of the greatest singers in the history of Jamaican music, he just might be one of the best singers ever! One of THE original artists in the early years of Clement S. Dodd's Studio One, Ellis helped usher in an era of rocksteady and ska that would influence generations to come. But truth be told, Ellis was a classic soul singer. Makin g words melt in ears, taking sentiments of longing, love, and heartbreak and making them sound so sweet, smooth and irresistible. We've yet to hear a bad track from Ellis which pretty much says it all.
With such warm and dreamy Studio One rhythms surrounding the vocals, it just doesn't get any more soulful and seductive then this. Every single one of these 18 tracks is pure gold. And 8 of them are graced by Hortense's equally delightful vocal stylings. The perfect record to mend a broken heart. Music that will make you melt!
MPEG Stream: "I'm Still In Love With You"
MPEG Stream: "Sitting In The Park"
MPEG Stream: "People Make The World Go Round"

ELLIS, ALTON & HORTENSE s/t (Heartbeat) cd 14.98

ELLIS, ALTON & HORTENSE s/t (Heartbeat) lp 14.98

ELLIS, HORTENSE Hortense's Last Stand (Creole) cd 14.98
As a proud rocksteady collector, I'm a little embarrassed to say I never gave Hortense Ellis much time until we got this nice collection in recently. Hortense was the sister of the much-more-famous Alton Ellis, and she dueted with him on many tracks, as well as providing back up vocals for many many folks during her 40+ year career -- she started performing at age 14 and died in the year 2000 at the age of 51. And somehow she also found the time to have FOURTEEN children! Let's all just pause and reflect on that fact for a moment. Anyway, what does she sound like? Hortense's strong voice is bell clear, and she uses that purity to great effect -- by letting the voice *break*, stumble, or get a tiny bit raspy during emotional parts that she wants to emphasize (see her big hit "Unexpected Places"). That's kind of Hortense's brilliance. In fact, my ultimate favorite rocksteady singer Phyllis Dillon was a big fan and tried to emulate her. Hortense did a lot of covers, as was the wont of many rocksteady artists who were deeply influenced by American soul music of the early to mid-'60s, including Streisand's "Unexpected Places", "Stand By your Man", etc. The music is mid-tempo, with trilling organs, sweet harmonies, plink plink guitars. The only problem is that there are no liner notes, so it's hard to tell when the damn tracks were recorded -- is the bulk of it from before and during the rocksteady era ('67-'69), or are some from later stages in her career (she held the torch for rocksteady her whole life, but some of these tracks display reverb and echo typical of '70s straight up reggae)? Still, despite a dud track or two, this is a very nice collection from one of the best -- yet somehow unfairly forgotten -- female reggae singers. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Unexpected Places"
RealAudio clip: "Dearest"
RealAudio clip: "Housewife Choice"

ELLIS, NOEL s/t (Light in The Attic) cd 13.98
Recorded circa 1979, this debut record from Noel Ellis (son of reggae legend Alton Ellis), has finally been reissued by the Light In The Attic label as part of their "Jamaica To Toronto" series, launched with the excellent comp of the same name. Vocalist Noel Ellis's hard to find album (originally released in '83) is really fantastic, six tracks of dubby, soulful, spacey reggae grooves, recorded at Summer studios outside of Toronto, a little bit of the West Indies in the Great White North, a place frequented by such local and visiting reggae luminaries as Johnnie Osbourne and Jackie Mittoo (both featured here). One of this album's tracks, originally released as a single in '79, is a killer version of "Rocking Universally", a song later to be covered by the Clash as "Armageddon Time". All in all, another treasure trove of rare reggae essential dug up and dusted off by Light In The Attic. Righteous.
In a digipak, with 16-page cd booklet full of in-depth liner notes and vintage color photos.
MPEG Stream: "To Hail Sellassie"
MPEG Stream: "Rocking Universally"

ELLIS, NOEL s/t (Light in The Attic) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL.
Recorded circa 1979, this debut record from Noel Ellis (son of reggae legend Alton Ellis), has finally been reissued by the Light In The Attic label as part of their "Jamaica To Toronto" series, launched with the excellent comp of the same name. Vocalist Noel Ellis's hard to find album (originally released in '83) is really fantastic, six tracks of dubby, soulful, spacey reggae grooves, recorded at Summer studios outside of Toronto, a little bit of the West Indies in the Great White North, a place frequented by such local and visiting reggae luminaries as Johnnie Osbourne and Jackie Mittoo (both featured here). One of this album's tracks, originally released as a single in '79, is a killer version of "Rocking Universally", a song later to be covered by the Clash as "Armageddon Time". All in all, another treasure trove of rare reggae essential dug up and dusted off by Light In The Attic. Righteous.
MPEG Stream: "To Hail Sellassie"
MPEG Stream: "Rocking Universally"

ELLIS, ROB Music For The Home (Leaf) cd 16.98
Rob Ellis spends a lot of time as PJ Harvey's full time producer and drummer. He's talented. But this solo album is another thing entirely. Not rock at all, it's pseudo-20th century new music for the synthesizer-inclined. So I listened to this at home like the title says, and have to say rather than being good home listening, it'd be better titled Music for Walking Around Staring at Bare Trees in the Winter. Stark synthesized piano/harpsichord, tinkling electronic chimes, typewriters, and programmed percussion all add up to a dreary minor key case of seasonal affective disorder suffered by Claude Debussy.
RealAudio clip: "Parade in Your Palm"

ELM Bxogonoas (Digitalis) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The original release of this, the debut release from Elm was crazy limited, only 90 copies, which means most folks missed out completely.Thankfully, Digitalis decided to do another run, almost equally as limited, but at least folks get another chance to pick this up, and it's worth it, a fantastic bit of washed out twang flecked dronemusic, this second version, housed in a hand stamped yellow envelope.
Seems foolish to write that much about this even though it's AWESOME. It's so crazy limited, again, that even this second pressing is already out of print, so all you need to know is it's Jon from the mighty drone duo Barn Owl (and loyal AQ staffer) solo, guitars, Fender Rhodes, harmonica, trumpet, harmonium and flute, all woven into a beautifully creepy expanse of slow burning twang flecked drone. Not all that far removed from more modern Earth, but much murkier and way more ominous.
Elm manages to be sweetly sinister, darkly brooding, and HEAVY without being heavy. It's all about the drone, and Elm manage to explore all sorts of dronemusick here, from soaring high end ragas, to glistening glimmering sun dappled shimmer, to crumbling downtuned buzz to spare spidery drift. This stuff is awesome. And beautiful, except when it's being intense and blown out and even then it still manages to be pretty, as anyone who lucked into seeing his uncharacteristically ferocious and LOUD set at the aQ / WFMU showcase at SXSW can attest to. Seems like such a shame to make it so limited. Again. So for now, at least a handful of you will get lucky enough to snag one of these. If you want to be one of those lucky ones, best act fast.... again.
Gorgeous packaging like the first edition, cool skeleton forest drawing, the cd and sleeve, in a yellow paper outer pouch, each one hand stamped with. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Dawn Unveils The Golden Thread"
MPEG Stream: "Offerings"
MPEG Stream: "Arboreal Lace"

ELM Woven Into Light (Blackest Rainbow) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second solo record from our very own Jon Porras, half of dronefolk duo Barn Owl, after his first disc on Digitalis, Bxogonoas, sold out in a matter of days. This one is crazy limited too, so if you want one, better be quick.
Woven Into Light is more of the glorious same, a druggy, bleary eyed hybrid of slow shimmery free folk and deep minimal dronemusick, taking later period Earth somewhere much dreamier and darker. Muted twang and deep smoldering shimmer, all stretched out in diaphanous sheets across heavy clouded moonlit skies. Spidery tendrils of skeletal guitar spread out like branches on leafless trees, but rather than sounding wintry, Porras wreathes his guitars in soft billows of warm whir, gauzy and lightly blurred, where other bands might turn these downtuned tones into something doomy, Porras lets them drift wraithlike, the sound windswept and barren, the sound of flickering lights above the never ending expanse of desert.
Occasionally, the guitars wind into thick sinewy streaks of coruscating buzz, spitting sparks but still wreathed in a halo or reverb and delay, soft whispery strum transformed into squalls of muted psychguitar and slow shifting almost symphonic buzz. The sound touches on some familiar territory, Sunroof!, Fear Falls Burning, Earth, Nadja, Birchville Cat Motel, and the like, there's some hints of Morricone, Scenic, but Elm most definitely occupies it's own magical mysterious sonic space.
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES. and if past releases are any indication, these will sell out quick, and there's a good chance this might be the last copies we ever see...
MPEG Stream: "Rising Smoke Woods"
MPEG Stream: "Fog Water Shroud"
MPEG Stream: "On Golden Wings"

ELOPE 3WD (Gravitation) cd 14.98
YES! Sweden's Elope are back. One of our favorite discoveries of 2004, their No Name Album was Beatlesly (or Wingsy), Neil Youngish, sorta stonery, and maybe a little Stonesy, authentically retro '70s classic rock sounding, utterly entrancing, mostly mellow pure POP genius! So we're excited to hear their new one, 3WD (three wheel drive?? somebody clue us in... maybe now we understand why their first album was more or less untitled). And additionally excited to learn that this is only the first of two new Elope albums due out this year, this one supposedly being the more rockin' one, with another cd coming this fall entitled 9 Distilled Dreams that will focus on mellower, slower, quieter material.
So how's 3WD? Well we couldn't be happier. It is on the uptempo side -- they even break out a boogie now and then -- but still has the wonderfully laidback vibe we loved about their debut. And their abilities in the pop songsmithery department haven't diminished at all. Elope's honeyed vocals and harmonies help give a gentle glow to the hard-rocking energy on display. Reference points, '60s/'70s retro and otherwise ('cause they sound modern too): The Pretty Things, Pink Floyd, Redd Kross (but not soo nyahh nyahh nyahh), and maybe even a little bit Elliott Smith if he had been more rockinger... And definitely if you like Dungen (especially the poppier side to their psych-pop equation) you should definitely be aware of their talented countrymen Elope.
Totally recommended, and now we're impatiently awaiting the next one!!
MPEG Stream: "Dragonstone"
MPEG Stream: "Friend Of Mine"

ELOPE 9 Distilled Dreams (Gravitation) cd 14.98
At last!! AQ faves Elope from Sweden, the world's mellowest and most melodic "stoner rock" band, are back with their third album of timelost psych rock beauty, 9 Distilled Dreams. It's the relaxed companion to last year's more rockin' 3WD, bringing to the fore the dreamiest side of the Elope equation.
First off, gotta mention that we're super flattered that the band was so appreciative of our reviews of their previous two albums that they wanted to thank us by putting a dedication "to Aquarius Records San Francisco" on this new album. Awww. We blush. Of course, that puts some pressure on us to come up with a worthy review of this their excellent third effort. We might have been able just to say something along the lines of: NEW ALBUM FROM ELOPE! IT'S AWESOME! GET IT! But though that's all very true, we feel we ought to rise to the occasion with something more in depth and, if possible, poetic.
Ok... like the snow-dusted winter trees in front of bright blue sky depicted in the photo on the slipcase of this cd, 9 Distilled Dreams is a thing of sunblessed natural beauty. Ambling, amiable, a bit sad, sweet... tugging at the heart with yearning vocals and irresistible pop songcraft. Yep, this long haired trio -- Sebastian Aronsson, Tomas Eriksson, and Anders Person -- have done it again, just even slower and softer this time. A couple of the songs ("Elope & Fuge") make judicious use of keyboards for gentle prog caresses. Other tracks, like "Not Even Close (Closer)", work their magic with just voice and acoustic guitar.
There's the usual '60s/'70s references we could make -- Beatlesy McCartneyesqe Neil Youngish Allman Brothersy bits in here and there. But for some more up-to-date citations, we're feeling the Cyann and Ben style layered three-note melodies. And are reminded of those Supergrass ballads... with that satisfying really good pop resolve. And in a weird way, with their harmonies and all, we're put in mind of old faves the Scud Mountain Boys, without the country slant. Also, need we say, if you're one of Dungen's many fans and haven't yet heard their fellow countrymen Elope, this would be a good place to start.
But hopefully, if you're a regular AQ customer, we've already turned you on to Elope and you like 'em as much as we do. If that's the case, then we probably can just say NEW ALBUM FROM ELOPE, etc.! Delicate, moody, gorgeous, and rather more like their debut The No Name Record than its intentionally uptempo-all-the-time predecessor. Happily recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Black Eyed Citizen"
MPEG Stream: "No Don't"
MPEG Stream: "The Core "

ELOPE The No Name Record (Parasol / Gravitation) cd 14.98
Here's an album from last year that we LOVED, and it turns out we're not the only ones who thought it was pretty special, 'cause our friends at Parasol decided to license it for release in the US. So now it'll be easier to keep in stock, and it's a buck cheaper than the previous import version was! So if you missed it before, here it is again...
And note that Elope hail from the same part of the world as the much hyped (and deservedly so) Dungen, and play music that similarily has got a decidedly retro bent. So if you've been impressed with Dungen, you might find Elope to be an equally wonderful addition to your cd collection. And maybe we should also mention another lauded band of Scandinavian '70s worshippers, heavy rockers Witchcraft...what is it with these Swedes and their mastery of the way-back machine??
Anyway, here's our Elope review again, from AQ list #190:
We get A LOT of records coming through here, as you might imagine, many of them great -- but very few that I (Allan) have listened to as many times upon acquisition as this one. I just can't stop spinning it. It's one of those special cases, the new purchase that actually achieves "heavy rotation" in my home. The Elope trio hail from Sweden and are on the same label, Gravitation, that's been bringing us those lovely Bjorn Olsson albums. They're a current, contemporary band but you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise 'cause this record sure sounds like it was recorded no later than 1973, if it was yesterday. They've captured a long-ago, classic rock, heavily Beatles-influenced vibe, and written songs with pop brilliance to match. They're retro but not self-consciously, calculatedly so. I mean, the album cover suggests indie rock along the lines of Death Cab For Cutie or Modest Mouse or something like that, way more than it does what the band actually sounds like. Which is the Beatles, Neil Young (they cover his "Bad Fog Of Loneliness"), a little country-Stones, a little Pink Floyd, maybe the Pretty Things circa their Parachute LP, and some Wings (or more Beatles). More obscurely, I'd say a lot of this has the same magical effect on me as do the albums by early '70s Peruvian Paul McCartney worshippers We All Together. (Some of you might be familiar with those guys, we used to stock the reissues of their two albums when we could get 'em). Relaxed, super melodic, stick in your head songwriting. Another kinda obscure comparison would be to the quieter, acoustic side of heavy British '70s rockers Budgie (!) who also were devoted Paul McCartney fans I'm sure. And, additionally, this has a restrained-but-effective hard/psych rock side to it that also could relate to the riffing of Budgie (a lot of critics apparently say Cream, but I don't hear that as much). Like the guy from Budgie doing their more sensitive songs, the intimate, gentle vocals here have an air of wistful melancholy I always find hard to resist. Pretty, exquisitely crafted songs that are so very seventies but also evoke the current folky indie-pop of, say, Belle & Sebastian. I wasn't entirely surprised to find out that Elope apparently includes some member(s) of stoner rock band Lowrider. Indeed, Elope had a release (a split with a band called Backbiter) on the defunct Man's Ruin label some time ago, and have been called "possibly the mellowest stoner rock band ever", although they certainly are capable of rocking out, as on the track "Pride Approaching". They do it rarely but they do it well. But unlike a lot of 'stoner rock' bands, whatever inclinations they have towards psychedelic guitar jamming are balanced by the melodic/structural needs of the song at hand. So good. I know I'll keep spinning this for some time to come. Quite possibly top ten 2004 material as far as I'm concerned!
MPEG Stream: "Anyone"
MPEG Stream: "Oh Patchouli"

ELPH.ZWOLF (AKA COIL) 20' to 2000 : December (Raster-Noton) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
With the datapanic in year zero amounting to next to nothing (just a lot of government money spent), the countdown series by Raster / Noton to the year 2000 may seem a little anticlimatic... especially since the last disc arrived in the middle of January 2000. Fortunately, the musical content of the finale completes the brilliant and nearly perfect series on a rather bleak note. Coil's contribution to the countdown series is recorded under their Elph moniker, whose 1994 release "Worship The Glitch" was the metaphoric precursor to this series as well as such digital fuckery by Oval, Pan Sonic, Ryoji Ikeda, etc... Coil's menace, which was oddly lacking on the "Musick To Listen To In The Dark", returns as creepy lunar drones shift into an oppressive digital dirge and followed by a recombination of contemporary digital skitter with 1960's concrete / academic bleeping.

ELTRO Information Changer (Absolutely Kosher) cd 12.98

ELTRO Past And Present Futurists (Absolutely Kosher) cd 12.98
On Eltro's third album Past And Present Futurists, it's nice to find that their sound is still very very sweet and soothing, but they seem to have ventured out into slightly darker, more trippy and expansive territory. This is definitely no less pretty, but much more active than the comparatively even keeled gentle drone'n'pulse dream pop of their previous record Velodrome. During a spin here at AQ, a customer likened them to a more languid and lil' bit druggy Stereolab. This was particularly in reference to the album's fourth song "On One". While we can certainly hear what he meant and if comparisons are to be drawn, then this album as a whole seems to be much closer to the undulating grooviness of Laika and the quirky pop beats of Solex or Cibo Matto. Laidback female vocals, trumpet blasts, funky melodies, percolating rhythms, smooth'n'steady basslines? It's all here, presented in fine, smoky latenight fashion.
A side note in the "maybe I'm crazy but was that...?" department: one thing that caught our ear in the third song "Fram" was a recurring melody that bore a striking resemblance to the Charlie's Angels theme. Odd!
MPEG Stream: "On One"
MPEG Stream: "Fram"

ELTRO Velodrome (Absolutely Kosher) cd 12.98
Absolutely Kosher traffics mostly in pop prettiness, and has discovered it in its many different shades and styles. A few examples? Well, the angular off kilter pop of PEE (r.i.p.), the complex loveliness of Optiganally Yours, the brooding melancholy of Telegraph Melts and more recently The Places and Jim Yoshi Pile-Up. Eltro is no exception. A glimmering, gliding earful. Actually the cover photos of a bicycle race track seem odd to me in relation to what I hear in the music. This seems much more an aquatic affair. A hypnotically lovely dreamboat album with sleepy girl/boy vocals, washes of milky way drones and gentle pulsing beats underlying the proceedings.

ELUVIUM An Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Last year's Temporary Residence debut from Eluvium aka Matthew Cooper, entitled Lambent Material, was an excellent ambient drone-drift record. For this follow-up, he's pared back his instrumental palette to *only* piano. An Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death is just Matthew sitting at his baby grand, letting his fingers play on the ivories, mellow and melodic. It's very relaxing and pretty, a bit Windham Hill-ish we have to admit, but nothing if not nice, quite nice!
MPEG Stream: "Genius And The Thieves"
MPEG Stream: "The Well-Meaning Professor"

ELUVIUM Copia (Temporary Residence) cd 14.98
Although it really really sounds like one, the new Eluvium album is not a film soundtrack. Copia breathes deeply with instrumental cinematic expanses. Much like what Rachel's and their label base Quarterstick did for chamber music back in the mid-'90s, Eluvium (aka Matthew Cooper) and his label home Temporary Residence are doing for ambient, new age and classical compositions, exposing it to a new audience, today's indie scene (even more so since he's hitting the road with Explosions In The Sky). Undeniably influenced deeply by genre patriarchs the sublime and venerable Phillip Glass and Brian Eno, Cooper's middle name just might be 'austerity'... well, with the exception of the muted cannon blasts in the final track. That said, we couldn't help but notice that the ninth track "Reciting The Airships" sounds more than a little like the intro to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing"! Nonetheless oh so very somber and beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "Reciting The Airships"
MPEG Stream: "Repose In Blue"

ELUVIUM Lambent Material (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Lambent...ambient and gentle like a lamb? Actually the word means luminous, which is appropriate as well, for music this light and pretty, casting a soft glow. Wispy, but not wimpy. Eluvium is the work of Portland Oregon's Matthew Cooper, a post-rock bliss-out artist if there ever was one. His music, constructed of layers of guitar, piano melodies, and some distant voices perhaps, swells and falls, wrapping the listener in pale, gauzy colors and textures. On the fourth and longest (15 min.) piece, "Zerthis Was a Shivering Human Image" Eluvium gets nicely fuzzed, warm and deep and droning -- not so light but still pretty. Whoosh. There's five lovely tracks here total, all of which should appeal to fans of Stars Of The Lid, Brian Eno, Landing, Labradford, Sonna, P. Jeck, etc. We like.
MPEG Stream: "Under The Water It Glowed"
MPEG Stream: "Zerthis Was A Shivering Human Image"

ELUVIUM Talk Amongst The Trees (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 14.98
Ambient music can really suck. Yeah sure, -all- music can really suck, but ambient music has a not so stellar history. The likelihood of music being actively touted as 'ambient' actually being closer to 'new age' is greater than we'd like to believe. We here at AQ have been a bit spoiled, since our idea of ambient music includes most things drone, and lord knows there is no shortage of amazing drone music. So when a specifically 'ambient' record comes our way (especially one that vehemently defends itself against the perceived stigma of being labeled ambient) we are pretty skeptical. No need with Eluvium, who over the course of several albums have demonstrated (like a select few before them) time and time again that ambient music need not be wimpy or boring, and in fact can be dark and deep and emotionally charged. The music of Eluvium on Talk Amongst The Trees has as much in common with Philip Jeck or William Basinski as it does Brian Eno or Tangerine Dream. Maybe more so. Slow, fuzzy melodies, constructed from processed guitars and pianos and voices, are stretched into blurry soundscapes, lazily looped into slowly shifting snapshots of long forgotten pasts, brief glimpses of barely there memories, stories told in smears of tonal color, emotions expressed in rumbles and reverberations. Eluvium manage to create a strangely luminous center to each song, a pulsing heart, whose glow suffuses the thick sonic sprawl around it, making the hazy and murky depths of each song breathe with hope and glow with a subtle warmth. So nice. A perfect late night drifting off record. Fans of Stars Of The Lid, Jeck, Basinski, Labradford, Eno, and other ambient luminaries should now add Eluvium to that list. If you haven't already.
MPEG Stream: "New Animals From The Air"
MPEG Stream: "Show Us Our Homes"

ELUVIUM When I Live By The Garden And The Sea (Temporary Residence) cd ep 10.98
Here's a new four-song ep from Eluvium aka solo instrumental soundscapist Matthew Cooper. When I Live By The Garden And The Sea is a slow-building stormfront of hazy distortion washes, gradually materializing contemplative note sequences and an occasional dialogue sample. This cd might be only four tracks long but they're quite lengthy -- plenty long enough for you to stretch out and sink into.
MPEG Stream: "I Will Not Forget That I Have Forgotten"

ELUVIUM / JESU split (Temporary Residence) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More limited vinyl madness, this time in the form of the hotly anticipated vinyl only split between Justin Broadrick's Jesu, and US ambient drifter Eluvium. So the skinny is this, a split release between Temporary Residence Limited and Hydra Head, the copies we got are the TRL version. The TRL version is already out of print, but the folks at TRL let us have a big bunch (only about 50) and even cooler, a handful of them are the mailorder only colored vinyl version. So first 30 or so folks will get colored vinyl, the rest will get black, and please don't ask for colored vinyl, and don't order unless you'll be happy with black, it's first come, first served...
Three new songs from Jesu, and as if we didn't already see Broadrick and Co. heading in this direction, they've almost entirely jettisoned the heaviness, in favor of a blissy new wave-t drift. Really! No massive sludge, no blissed out crunch, in fact, most of this sounds like Jesu doing the soundtrack to a John Hughes movie, all drift and croon and no crunch and pummel, but it's really nice, and pretty, and still suitably Jesu-like. Imagine Simple Minds or the Cure but raised on Slowdive and Chapterhouse and Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine, doing the theme song for Sixteen Candles 2007 (which if our calculations are correct would be more like Thirty Nine Candles). The first song would be a massive hit, sort of melancholy and romantic, dark and dreamy, but still sort of catchy and hopeful, like sunbeams barely making it through grey storm clouds. The final track sounds like it could be from that last scene in Sixteen Candles 2007, the one where the boy and the girl finally make it to the dance after all of the crazy mishaps and misunderstandings and are finally sharing that slow dance... lugubrious and fuzzy, and soft focus and so great actually. It's weird, and a bit unexpected, but as much as we love the glacial crush of past Jesu discs, this new-wave-y drift really suits them..
The flip side features a side long three part epic from Eluvium, aka Matthew Cooper, whose usual stately dreamlike ambience, is here rendered even fuzzier and blurrier. The first part could be some long lost Tim Hecker or Basinski jam, all dense washes of keyboards and crumbling shimmer. The second and third parts feature Coopers doleful minor key piano, more recognizable than on the opener, but still takes those notes and smears them into glacial stretches of glistening murmur. The perfect sonic match up for Jesu's new, less heavy, more drift-y sound.

ELYSIUM / MONARCH s/t (Shifty / Amanita / (((Parade))) / 213 / Throne / Amertume-Corruption #2 / Fidelio / Murder / Wee Wee / Solitude) cd 14.98
Back in stock. Might just be your final chance to pick one of these up!!
When we first heard about this record, a split release between some unknown band and ultradoom AQ crushworthy sludgelords Monarch, whose track was an hour long, we wondered how the heck that was fair to the other band. We then discovered that the other band was in fact French grinders Elysium, whose songs average around the one minute mark (one song here clocks in at a whopping 8 seconds) it started to make sense. And what an awesome idea, what a great combo, the two extremes, blazing buzzing hyperspeed grindcore and slow motion sludge. Two great tastes... er, sounds... So here we have 4 tracks from Elysium, total time 5:55, and one track from the mighty Monarch, total time 58:27. Fucking awesome!
So first up Elysium, fast and furious, guitars like squiggles of white hot lightning, the drums like rhythms being fired from a machine gun into your head at point blank range, vocals that screech and gurgle, everything a head spinning blur. Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Nasum, Rotten Sound, you might as well add Elysium to that elite list. 
But they're just the warm up, the appetizer, Monarch's "Amplifire Death March" is why we're here, and they do not disappoint.
So Monarch, for those who don't already know, are one of the slowest, heaviest bands in existence, whose artwork consists of weird Hello Kitty like crosses, skulls and burning churches, as is fronted by a very cute, non-tattooed, non-pierced, spikeless, leatherless, young lady in a sensible skirt and top, who howls like a banshee from the depths of hell and who write in the liner notes "Listen To Judas Priest"? How rad is that? RIDICULOUSLY RAD! And sure we'd be crushed out on Monarch just based on their lugubrious tarpit sonic sludge, we're just like that, but having an adorable frontperson just pushes it over the edge.
So yes, this rules, and is suitably funereal, appropriately slow and somber, so slow in fact it makes Khanate sound like speed metal. Okay, maybe that's stretching  it a bit, but this is some seriously slow motion shit. The riffs stretch out for ages, the drum hits are MILES apart, the vocals a screech / howl / moan, a mouthful of dirt and broken glass, a voice so harsh and hatefilled it seems impossible that it could come from Monarch's diminutive sensibly dressed leader. There are huge stretches of near ambience where it's just the hum of the amplifier, some soft lilting chords, a pounding single drum rhythm, vocals screeched across wide expanses of space, draped across fading riffs like flayed skin before the next chunk of sludge drops. It's almost as if some leather winged demon was flying above, soaring through the black night sky, hurling huge hundred ton chunks of sludge at the ground every few seconds, or few minutes, where they splinter into a million pieces, filling our ears with shards of searing sludge. A pounding ultra-dirge, a tempo well below 16rpm, the sort of creepy crawl that were it to slow down any more would be just a single tone, albeit a crushing pummeling one. So heavy, and so slow it's almost stops being sludge and simply becomes some abstract heaviness. By now you should know what we're getting at. This is doom, ultramegadoom, doom with a page full of 'o's, wallowing in the same murk as Moss, Rigor Sardonicous, Stumm, Catacombs, Esoteric, and all who bow before the power of dooooooooom.
This is a split release between TEN labels (count 'em: Shifty / Amanita / (((Parade))) / 213 / Throne / Amertume-Corruption #2 / Fidelio / Murder / Wee Wee / Solitude) which is kinda cool, but also kinda dumb, as each label only gets a handful of copies and therefore it goes out of print before you know it. We got 50 copies originally and those disappeared in a flash, and only now finally managed to get a handful more from one of the labels' secret stash! Probably the last copies ever.
MPEG Stream: ELYSIUM "Amen Jesus Je T'Aime"
MPEG Stream: ELYSIUM "Menteurs"
MPEG Stream: MONARCH "Amplifire Death March (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: MONARCH "Amplifire Death March (excerpt 2)"

EM All the Stars Burning Bright (The Foundry) cd 12.98
eM is the work of Michael Bentley, who also happens to run the local ambient label The Foundry. His own work is well entrenched within the proper definition of Ambient, or at least the aesthetics initially propagated by Brian Eno in the early '80s. "All the Stars Burning Bright" is conceptually a sci-fi album, with heavily processed sounds culled from NASA deep space recordings and Conrad Schnitzler-esque alien squiggles. eM's strength comes from infusing a quizzical mystery into his deep ambience of highly digitized sounds, that comes close to the "X-Files" sense of the unknown yet with none of the show's sense of horror.

EM Outward (Foundry/Hypnos) cd 5.98
Conceptually following the "All the Stars Burning Bright" album, "Outward" by eM (aka Foundry label boss Michael Bentley) is an ambient excursion that begins here on earth with a series of digitally manipulated recordings of insects, animals, and earthquakes, moves out towards the far orbits of our planet with processed sounds of satellite telemetry, and arrives quite optimistically in the quasi-mystical pulsations of deep space, implying the "infinity that lies beyond what we have explored." Bentley's methods for the construction of his ambience are conventional mostly achieved by overloading synthesizers and digital samples with tons of reverb and nebulous swooshing sounds, complementing most of the spacemusic ambience often heard of the Hearts of Space radio programs.
RealAudio clip: "Across The Milky Way"

EMACIATOR Reflection (Accidie) 2lp 17.98
Emaciator is the work of LA floorcore miserablist Jon Borges, who previously spat out gnarled cassettes galore as Pedestrian Deposit and Monorail Trespassing; and as Emaciator he's got a couple releases on Students Of Decay and Not Not Fun. But damn, this is the one for sure as Borges channels the psychic wasteland of Southern California through these four sides of vinyl for dour drones laced with ghostly melodies and grimly rendered distortion. The first side could be the logical extension of the shortened program that Emeralds gave us on Solar Bridge with an earthmoving hum emanating throughout the track amidst the linear movement of radioscopic static and a mournful loop of descending melodies. Throughout the track, these elements intertwine, build, fade, collapse, resurface, and self-immolate all at once. Quite stunning. Side B radiates with a fluorescent glow of simmering white noise softened just enough to take the edge off while uneasy rippled of low end frequencies push to the surface. The third side gets far more toxic in the blistering analog synth tones pushed through distortion boxes, but Borges still manages to push forward one of his urgent yet depressive phasing tones through the heavy wall of static. Very much on par with the classic Broken Flag sound. The fourth is a reprise of the first side (get it, the title is Reflection), with that looping melody at first appearing like a Basinski piece of hypnogogia, but gradually Borges suffocates that loop through at atomizing cascade of distortion. One of the most exhilarating if tragic pieces of noise+drone we've heard in quite a long time. Limited to a mere 300 copies!

EMBARRASSMENT Blister Pop (My Pal God) cd 12.98
Rough, raw and shambolic pop from midwest art rock / garage popsters the Embarassment. This is the perfect companion to the almost-comprehensive 'Heyday' compilation released a few years back. Live tracks and demos of some of their best (and for some reason unreleased / unrecorded) stuff.

EMBARRASSMENT Heyday 1979-83 (BarNone) 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There's 42 songs here, which we think is their entire recorded output, but one of you embo experts should come in and set us straight.

EMBRUJO s/t (Amort) cd 17.98
Wow! While Brazil gets most of the attention in terms of creating some of the best South American psychedelic music, we've recently been checking out the left coast of the continent, namely Chile, and have been digging some amazing stuff. Perhaps it's the epic geographical relationship of mountains and coast in close proximity that inspires such transcendent music or perhaps it's the constant political unrest of the period that cultivated a longing for the more earthy populace-empowered past. Smooth romantic harmonies, ancient flutes and dreamy textures of jungle and nature sounds are all key variables in the sound of great Chilean psych bands El Congreso, Congregacion (also reviewed on this list), Kissing Spell (featured on the Love Peace and Poetry Latin America comp), and their later incarnation, Embrujo. While Kissing Spell was more of a mellow psych-pop confection singing songs in English as was the trend of Latin groups seeking to become more commercially viable, the decision to become Embrujo stemmed from a revolutionary stance possibly inspired by the Brazilian Tropicalia movement both politically and sonically, to write songs almost entirely in Spanish and create a dynamic sound on their own terms upping the ante on their songwriting craft and musicianship. What they add to the equation is Gr-ooo-ve, driven along by fuzzy organ, simmering guitar and funky drumming, building on the traditional Chilean sound with fluid changes, solid rhythms, and like Os Mutantes, occasional wackiness. Tight hook-laden arrangements, lyrical breaks and progressive interludes are what make this sole 1972 album fetch astronomical prices amongst collectors of private press recordings. This is its first CD reissue and seriously, we haven't stopped playing it since it arrived in the store a few weeks ago. Finally we have enough to share this with the rest of you. Embrujo means "bewitched" in Spanish, and we are positive you too will be captured by its spell! Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Voy Hacia El Sol"
MPEG Stream: "Corre A Los Campos"
MPEG Stream: "Petilu"

EMBRYO Father, Son & Holy Ghosts (Garden of Delights) cd 21.00

EMBRYONNCK (EMBRYO AND THE NO NECK BLUES BAND s/t (Staubgold) cd 15.98
The weird thing about this wonderfully weird collaboration, between NYC's premier avant free folk tribalists and legendary German progrock/krautrock combo Embryo, is that it doesn't sound all that different from what we might have expected a new NNCK record to sound like. Not sure what that says, either the two groups were absolutely perfectly in sync, or NNCK are masterful channellers of classic Krautrock jams, or NNCK stole everything they know from Embryo and their sonic brethren, or Embryo are the true masters, aligning themselves with the manic primal tribal sound of NNCK's percussive rituals. Hardly mattters, whichever way you slice it, this record is stunning. Dense and lush, and packed solid with strange and wonderfuls sounds, tribal rhythms, chimes, woodblocks, drum kit, hand drums, hand claps, all sorts of buzzing strings, what sounds like sitars and harpsichords and autoharps, woodwinds, flutes and recorders, and vocals, an impossible array of chanting and moaning, gargling, mumbling, humming, whistling and singing in tongues. Dreamy super melodic grooves give way to full on Wicker Man pagan insanity which further gives way to some clattery free jazz minimalism but always returning to that transcendental tribalism we just can't get enough of. If Embryo add anything to the mix, it's a warmth and melodicism that sometimes seems to be missing from a a lot of the more abstract NNNCK jams. Folks who dug NNCK's recent Qvaris will most certainly find this to their liking as it sounds like a much more dense, much more melodic, much more vibrant exploration and expansion of the songs on that record. And we LOVED that record, so that should tell you something! The more we listen to these songs, the more we think it might not be such a bad idea for this NNCK / Embryo hybrid to just BE the new NNCK, those No Neck guys ought to just ask those Embryo guys to join the band, what the hell, the more the merrier, and judging from this one time jam, the thought of these guys moving forward as a single unit, and actively exploring the realms of inner and outer musical space, is almost too much for us to handle.
MPEG Stream: "Wieder Das Erste Mal"
MPEG Stream: "After Marja's Cats"

EMBRYONNCK (EMBRYO AND THE NO NECK BLUES BAND s/t (Staubgold) lp 21.00
Also, now on vinyl!
The weird thing about this wonderfully weird collaboration, between NYC's premier avant free folk tribalists and legendary German progrock/krautrock combo Embryo, is that it doesn't sound all that different from what we might have expected a new NNCK record to sound like. Not sure what that says, either the two groups were absolutely perfectly in sync, or NNCK are masterful channellers of classic Krautrock jams, or NNCK stole everything they know from Embryo and their sonic brethren, or Embryo are the true masters, aligning themselves with the manic primal tribal sound of NNCK's percussive rituals. Hardly mattters, whichever way you slice it, this record is stunning. Dense and lush, and packed solid with strange and wonderfuls sounds, tribal rhythms, chimes, woodblocks, drum kit, hand drums, hand claps, all sorts of buzzing strings, what sounds like sitars and harpsichords and autoharps, woodwinds, flutes and recorders, and vocals, an impossible array of chanting and moaning, gargling, mumbling, humming, whistling and singing in tongues. Dreamy super melodic grooves give way to full on Wicker Man pagan insanity which further gives way to some clattery free jazz minimalism but always returning to that transcendental tribalism we just can't get enough of. If Embryo add anything to the mix, it's a warmth and melodicism that sometimes seems to be missing from a a lot of the more abstract NNNCK jams. Folks who dug NNCK's recent Qvaris will most certainly find this to their liking as it sounds like a much more dense, much more melodic, much more vibrant exploration and expansion of the songs on that record. And we LOVED that record, so that should tell you something! The more we listen to these songs, the more we think it might not be such a bad idea for this NNCK / Embryo hybrid to just BE the new NNCK, those No Neck guys ought to just ask those Embryo guys to join the band, what the hell, the more the merrier, and judging from this one time jam, the thought of these guys moving forward as a single unit, and actively exploring the realms of inner and outer musical space, is almost too much for us to handle.
MPEG Stream: "Wieder Das Erste Mal"
MPEG Stream: "After Marja's Cats"

EMERALDS Allegory Of Allergies (Weird Forest) lp 25.00
Of the three Emeralds releases we've heard so far (Solar Bridge, What Happened, and now Allegory Of Allergies), Allegory has to be the most removed from the scene these guys seem most linked to. Whether the connection is geographic, or sonic, or social, Emeralds for better or for worse have been a part of Wolf Eyes' considerably noisy orbit, as well as a constant presence amidst the No Fun noisemakers. But even since that first disc, these guys definitely stood out, eschewing abject noise and rough raw grit, for something much more drifty and spacey and dare we say new age-y. Klaus Schulze is and has been an obvious reference, and Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, thus Emeralds belong more to a modern strain of kosmiche krautrock than any sort of noise or drone rock scene. Never moreso than on Allegory.
A sprawling double lp, the whole first side is filled with the billowy breathlessness of "Nereus (Spirits Over The Lake)", easily the groups, dreamiest offering to date, and the one that most taps into the sort of timeless new age drift we can't get enough of. Thick rounded tones, softly undulating, a gentle ebb and flow, melodies spread out over minutes, unfurling lazily, sun dappled, soft focus, we've already listened to side on 3 times in a row. So great,
The B side is split into three tracks, but they play out more like 3 linked movements, the sound here is a bit more ominous, minor key, slightly foreboding, but still darkly delicate, the multiple synths creating softly fluttering layers of sound, that by the second track build into something much thicker and fuzzier. Long tones, the various overtones creating buried rhythms and fragmented melodies, pulsing and throbbing thickly, before the final movement dials back the buzz, but cranks up the bottomless low end, offering a vast expanse of deep subterranean rumbles, both intense and heavy, warm and enveloping.
The other 2 sides are also side long epics, the first is about as corrosive as these guys get, layering sheets of buzz and fuzz and rumble into a heaving slab of washed out whir, that seems to breathe, growing thicker and thicker, the tones climbing gradually higher and higher in pitch, eventually locking into a soft focus Sunroof!-like divine ur-drone.
The final side returns to the spare tranquility of the first side, all barely there drift, hushed shimmer, deep softly swirling tones. Those tones are slowly subsumed by what sounds like crackle or glitch, or maybe even field recordings of rainfall, until eventually it's just that crack and glitch and buzz, the tones fading to near silence, before returning, in an altogether reimagined form, thick, viscous, aggressive, intense, a buzzing, softly corrosive rumble, that eventually thins out leaving just shadowy traces. So gorgeous.
Incredible packaging, super thick, full color gatefold sleeves, gold printed inner sleeves, pressed on nice heavy vinyl too! WAY RECOMMENDED!!

EMERALDS Solar Bridge (Hanson) cd 14.98
For some mistaken reason, we thought this was gonna be really noisy. Maybe 'cause it's on Hanson (home to such earhole excruciators as Wolf Eyes, Metalux, Smegma, and Hair Police just to name a few of the noisniks on the label). But we were wrong wrong wrong. Instead, this is totally calm and lovely electronic space music in the 'kosmiche' vein of '70s and '80s Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream and Ashra and the like. It won't harsh your mellow at all, quite the opposite! This is bliss-out droney stuff produced by a Midwestern trio using the equation: analog synthesizers x 2 + (electric guitar + effects). Something like that. Earlier in their career (this is the cd debut after lots of limited cassette and cd-r action) they used to use only TV sets as sound sources! Glad they gave that up, as Solar Bridge wouldn't be nearly so soothing if there were, like, breaks for commercials. You'd have to Tivo it.
Seriously, though, this is a droning delight. There's just two tracks here, but they are 'side-long' ones. The 12:34 "Magic" and the 14:14 "The Quaking Mess". It's almost New Age-y (as so much indie, experimental music is turning out to be, when you think about it) but not too too New Age-y. Though nicely mesmeric, it also has a quietly creepy edge to it, and a real grinding, full physicality at higher volumes. Emeralds create waves and layers of subtle, gently pulsating electronic gurble, but not in an overly wispy way. For instance, feedback whispers and glimmers through the cracks in the drone at the start of "The Quaking Mess", which then builds into more of a dense, fuzzy drone-sheen. The kind that radiates light, and that you want to wrap around yourself and your ears like a blanket. Definitely one of our faves from Hanson thus far, noisy or not!
MPEG Stream: "Magic"
MPEG Stream: "The Quaking Mess"

EMERALDS Solar Bridge (Hanson) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL! The cd ended up being a big fave 'round these parts last year, and made us keen for all the Emeralds releases that followed... here's what we said about the cd edition:
For some mistaken reason, we thought this was gonna be really noisy. Maybe 'cause it's on Hanson (home to such earhole excruciators as Wolf Eyes, Metalux, Smegma, and Hair Police just to name a few of the noisniks on the label). But we were wrong wrong wrong. Instead, this is totally calm and lovely electronic space music in the 'kosmiche' vein of '70s and '80s Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream and Ashra and the like. It won't harsh your mellow at all, quite the opposite! This is bliss-out droney stuff produced by a Midwestern trio using the equation: analog synthesizers x 2 + (electric guitar + effects). Something like that. Earlier in their career (this is the cd debut after lots of limited cassette and cd-r action) they used to use only TV sets as sound sources! Glad they gave that up, as Solar Bridge wouldn't be nearly so soothing if there were, like, breaks for commercials. You'd have to Tivo it.
Seriously, though, this is a droning delight. There's just two tracks here, but they are 'side-long' ones. The 12:34 "Magic" and the 14:14 "The Quaking Mess". It's almost New Age-y (as so much indie, experimental music is turning out to be, when you think about it) but not too too New Age-y. Though nicely mesmeric, it also has a quietly creepy edge to it, and a real grinding, full physicality at higher volumes. Emeralds create waves and layers of subtle, gently pulsating electronic gurble, but not in an overly wispy way. For instance, feedback whispers and glimmers through the cracks in the drone at the start of "The Quaking Mess", which then builds into more of a dense, fuzzy drone-sheen. The kind that radiates light, and that you want to wrap around yourself and your ears like a blanket. Definitely one of our faves from Hanson thus far, noisy or not!
MPEG Stream: "Magic"
MPEG Stream: "The Quaking Mess"

EMERALDS What Happened (No Fun Productions) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In their brief career beginning in 2006, the Ohio based trio Emeralds has associated themselves with the grit and rust-stained noise that has erupted in the mid-western underground, often sharing the stage with Aaron Dilloway, C Spencer Yeh, and Hive Mind. Their two major releases have come by way of Dilloway's Hanson Records and No Fun Productions, which typically rank as releasing some of the most aggressive and brutal pieces of noise of the contemporary era. While live performances have reportedly embraced the noise community's full-force fury of maximum volume, Emeralds instead favors a sound that harkens back to the era of Cluster, Manuel Gottsching, Fripp & Eno, and Klaus Schulze.
Last year's Solar Bridge was a spectacular lazer blast of cosmic droning and inner-space meditation; but with that album clocking in less than 30 minutes, we were left wanting more. Fortunately, more is what Emeralds bring on What Happened. Collected from their seemingly non-stop sessions of improvisations for guitar, Moog, and Korg plus ample effects boxes, these 5 tracks spiral and snake around the same deep-space psychedelia found on Solar Bridge, pushing their sound beyond the two extended crescendos which populated that album. Monochord guitars pulse hypnotically against the overlapping tapestries of the sawtooth hum and modulating tones from the analogue synths. Throughout What Happened, Emeralds shift in mood from alien percolations of '60s sci-fi sound design to graceful swells of tonefloat majesty to purely physical vibrations which rip through the nervous system and strike numbly at the bone. There is beauty to be found here, but also a sublime unease that haunts these recordings. Yup, this one comes highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Up In The Air"
MPEG Stream: "Living Room"
MPEG Stream: "Disappearing Ink"

EMERGE Immersion (Mystery Sea) cd-r 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've wanted to list so many releases by mysterious super limited cd-r label Mystery Sea. In the past, they've released cd-r's from all sorts of AQ faves, like Aidan Baker, Ultrasound, Moljebka Pvlse, Troum, mnortham, Paul Bradley and even Coelacanth (our own Jim and his partner Loren Chasse). But as each disc is strictly limited to 100 copies, and each one meticulously designed and hand assembled, we were never able to get enough, and often we were unable to get any at all.
Until now. We've finally managed to get enough to list of the latest Mystery Sea release, a gorgeous slab of minimal crawl by the group Emerge, who we first heard on a Drone Records 7" a while back. Which comes as no surprise, as Mystery Sea obviously takes its inspiration from the Drone label, but instead of vinyl, it's cd-r's. The label describes its music as "night-ocean drones" and Emerge's Immersion fits perfectly alongside previous subaquatic slabs of moody meandering abstraction. Every track is a dark dolorous deep listening experience, wide open stretches of murky moonlit shimmer, warm rippling rumbles, muted melodic mumbles, all swirling and whirling in soporific swells, barely visible somnambulant patterns, peppered with abstract rhythms, textural crackle and subtle sonic grit, distant pulses, smeary sonar ping and miles-below-the-surface throb. Some of the most gorgeous drone music we've heard. A dreamlike drift along the ocean floor, an abstract ambience floating weightlessly from your speakers.
Normally we would balk at $17.98 for a cd-r, but wait until you see how gorgeous these are, the artwork is all the image of an oceanic panorama, with the colors tweaked and twisted into some sort of abstract water colored seascape, the booklet, only half as wide as a normal cd booklet, allows half of the disc face to be visible as well. So striking.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Each is numbered on the tray card. Once these are gone, they are gone for good.
MPEG Stream: "Immersion 1"
MPEG Stream: "Immersion 2"

EMERGE Relativity / Profundity (Drone Records) 7" 7.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A paranoiac aesthetic runs through the work of Emerge, a new dark ambient project from Germany discovered by Drone Records. Emerge's short psychodrama appears to be set within a bunker being heavily bombarded during a late-night bombing campaign. Distant shockwaves resonate through concrete walls, mechanical giants rumble overhead, megaphone voices bark orders many miles away, and an uneasy atmosphere settles upon the grim proceedings in that tightly enclosed space. Limited to 300 copies with each cover burned with cigarettes and the vinyl pressed on flamboyant yellow and black vinyl. Very limited so act fast.

EMERGENCY Homage To Peace (America) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. For some reason these are incredibly limited, so these have been a bit tough to get, so we're going to list a few at a time as we can get them.
Emergency were a mysterious and unlikely group, even by the always seemingly esoteric standards of the world of free jazz, two African-Americans, two Japanese and one French gypsy. The most well known of the lot, Glenn Spearman, a protege of legendary ESP free jazz saxophonist Frank Wright, handled the soprano and tenor saxophones, while the group was rounded out by some lesser known, but incredibly skilled players who had done time with Peter Brotzman, Derek Bailey, Misha Mengelberg, Steve Lacy and Cecil Taylor among others: Takshi Kako on piano, Bob Reid on double bass, Sabu Toyozumi on drums, and guitar prodigy Boulou Ferret, who was only 21 when this session was recorded. The various members gravitated from their various homes toward Paris, the free jazz hub of the early seventies, and eventually found themselves jamming as Emergency. This performance, a live session from 1970, is a dense psychedelic jam, an acid rock free jazz fusion, swirls of abstract guitar, clattery shuffling tribal throb, flurries of piano sprinkled atop burbling slippery basslines, while horns soar and skronk and squeal above it all. Lots of tripped out guitar effects, occasional Art Ensemble-ish vocals, some stretches of doomy jazzy ambience, some super angular abstract freakouts, but it's ultimately Ferret's acid fired guitar that takes center stage, sometimes shrikeing and scraping, sending fiery strands of distorted wah into the stratosphere, sometimes, slow and smooth channelling a little Wes Montgomery, sometimes locked in heated battle, wildly butting heads with the other instruments, the musical equivelent to one of those cartoon clouds when a bunch of people are in a fight, a big wirling cloud of notes and rhythms, a horn poking out here, a drum stick there, just spinning wild and chaotic. So great.
Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet with the original album sleeve notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "People In Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Infidels"

EMERGENCY STRING QUARTET WITH CAROL GENETTI Motions (Last Visible Dog) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is an unexpected direction for Rhode Island cd-r label Last Visible Dog. Some sort of 20th century / chamber / avant / classical. Abstract, shimmering strings, soaring but leaving lots of space. With occasional bursts of percussive clatter that sounds like someone jumping in a giant pile of bubblewrap! Lots of pizzicato plucking and Bjork-ish howling, stuttered, non-sensical vocalisations, wild bowing/sawing on the strings, and percussive tapping/slapping on the instrument bodies. Wild and weird and truly out there.
RealAudio clip: "E Motion"

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER Beyond The Beginning (Sanctuary Records) 2dvd 27.00
We always seem to go on and on about loads of rare prog. We love that stuff. Lost Italian prog, rare South American prog psych. But let's not give short shrift to American and British progressive groups, especially the more popular mainstream acts. No prog lover worth his salt would dare deny the brilliance of Yes, or Jethro Tull or E.L.P. Especially E.L.P. In fact if you asked Andee who his favorite band was, not just prog band, but band period, he just might answer E.L.P. Why? Because they are the ultimate prog band. Excessive in everything they did, instruments, outfits, song choices, song lengths, solos, EVERYTHING. Plus all three members of E.L.P. were unbelievable players. When rock kids were worshipping at the altar of Neil Peart, some of us were bowing before the godlike drumming of Carl Palmer. This double DVD is jam packed with so much classic E.L.P. footage it's unbelievable. There's a bit of pre-E.L.P. stuff: the video for "Fire" by the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, which features a masked Carl Palmer on drums, King Crimson live in Hyde Park in 1969, the Nice on German TV show Beat Club in 1968, all amazing. Even just the DVD menu footage features lots of classic E.L.P. images, the band in their silk kimonos getting on stage in Japan, the infamous semi trailers, each printed with one band member's name on top, billboards, fireworks and pyrotechnics. Then there's just loads and loads of amazing live footage from Europe, the UK, Japan, including their debut performance at the Isle Of Wright festival with Carl Palmer disrobing during his drum solo and Keith Emerson playing his keyboard from the wrong side, pounding it, jumping over it, then launching cannons from either side of the stage. Holy fuck! They definitely don't make bands like that any more. There's lots of videos too, from European TV, including an amazing Carl Palmer drum solo filmed live on a TV show called Aquarius, where he plays chimes, timpanis, four bass drums and even rings a bell with his mouth! Disc two features E.L.P.'s whole California Jam set as well. Bonus footage includes an unseen rehearsal film from 1973, interviews with Bob Moog about his relationship with E.L.P., analysis of the album covers, videos and more. But even without the extras, heck, even without disc two, there is just so many amazing sights and sounds and performances here. This stuff is so absurd and so brilliant, and the songs are so classic, and the playing is so goddamn good, it just makes me feel like an old man for lamenting the state of modern music. Anyone out there who wants to start an E.L.P. for the new millennium get in touch with Andee via the store!

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER Brain Salad Surgery (Shout Factory) cd 14.98