ALVA NOTO Univrs (Raster-Noton) 2x12" 23.00
After a multitude of records filled with austere expanses of ultra minimal, cold and clinical beep and click, or warm lush dreamlike ambience, Alva Noto, aka Carsten Nicolai, finally seemed to embrace the funk a few years back - which for some of us, would not have been a good thing necessarily, if it weren't Nicolai, cuz Alva Noto funk is something utterly unto itself, a wild super dynamic robotic funk that takes all manner of glitch and whir, hum and click, beep and hiss, and weaves those minimal building blocks into something incredibly and impossibly groovy. This might be the best Alva Noto funk record yet. Weird and minimal enough for the dancefloor hating avant experimental headphone set, but holy shit, we can barely imagine what would happen if some big time DJ just unleashed one of these jams at full volume, besides everyone going apeshit, it seems like everybody's brains and eardrums would just melt, these sounds so pure, the lows so intense and rib cage rattlingly low, the highs piercing sine waves, and in-between, all manner of hum and hiss that we imagine would blow your hair back if you were standing in front of a big pile of speakers. But in headphones, this is total bliss out alien robofunk, that sounds better than anything we can imagine! But this is Alva Noto, so there's lots of other stuff going on, long stretches of glitched out super ominous buzz, over some looped skitter, or some weird swirling lush drones, or some dizzying rapidfire percussive stutter, some full on speaker shredding noise, some gorgeously serene electronic ambience, but it always eventually returns to the funk, or the groove, or whatever you call the thing that makes these weird beeps and clicks take over your body and force it to move along to the music. So goddamn great!
MPEG Stream: "Uni C"
MPEG Stream: "Uni Fac"
MPEG Stream: "Uni Rec"

ALVA NOTO Xerrox Vol.2 (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98
Part two of Alva Noto's Xerrox series takes up right where the last one left off, continuing on in a much more buzzy, blissy, droney vein, way more textural and melodic than many of the AN records that have come before. In the review of volume one we mentioned Pop Ambient, and if anything volume 2 is even more washed out and shimmery, right out of the gate, AN offers up a warm wash of muted buzz, and thick gristly whir, softly pulsating, layered and warm, seemingly gone are the harsh tones and glitchy clicks and pops found on most Raster-Noton releases. Could be that Xerrox is just a concept record, but we have to say, as much as we loved the clipped minimalism of other Alva Noto records, the sounds here are quite divine. But this is an Alva Noto record, so even these warm whirls of drifting ambience, are laced with bits of static and hiss, super high end sine waves, but they're woven deftly into the sound, and serve to simply add more texture. There's a brief bit of super minimal beep and rumble, but then it's right back into that gorgeous drifty haze, that could just as soon be a Tim Hecker record.
"Xerrox Meta Phaser" follows suit, at least in the beginning, a soft whirring soundscape, that quickly escalates into an almost Sunn like dirge before exploding into a squall of blown out white noise. And then we're back to the dreamy dronemusic, this time, stretched out strings, smeared into soft summery swells, laced with a patina of gritty hiss, and so it goes, the whole record is a dark swirling expanse of muted minimal melodies, warm textures, mysterious drones, and delicate hazy drifts, the usual glitch and buzz, relegated to accents and filigree, rarely interfering in the rest of the record's blissy sprawl. Any one of these tracks would be right at home on the newest, more Kranky-fied Pop Ambient comp, and thus, this might be the first Raster-Noton record that might just appeal to all the drone and dirge folks as much as the glitch and pop people.
Like all R-N stuff, gorgeously designed and packaged, an oversized diecut, 8 panel sleeve, the cd nestled within the diecuts, the art spare and minimal and striking.
MPEG Stream: "Xerrox Phaser Acat 1"
MPEG Stream: "Xerrox Soma"
MPEG Stream: "Xerrox Meta Phaser"

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Insen (Asphodel) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Insen is the exquisite follow-up to Vrioon, which was the first collaborative outing for seminal electronic musicians Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) and Ryuichi Sakamoto that came out in 2003. As on their first album, Insen centers upon the balance between the impressionist piano passages of Sakamoto and the cold yet graceful production of Nicolai. While the differences between the two records are subtle, they are certainly noteworthy as Nicolai slices up Sakamoto's piano into fine slivers of time-stretched fragments, terse rhythms, and blurred ambience. In turn, Nicolai realigns these sounds with Sakamoto's untreated notes, providing a complex interplay between the piano and its fractured electronic mimesis. In structuring all of the pieces on Insen, Nicolai occasionally situates his electronics along a parallel path to Sakamoto's piano, and slowly moves the two paths toward different directions, with Nicolai's rhythms achieving velocity and tension whereas Sakamoto's pointillist notes remain weighless and transient. Yet, Nicolai always teases with losing control over the composition, as he often snaps back into a somber atmosphere of minimalist smears, resorting to a similiar strategy as heard on Eno's epic Thursday Afternoon. Stunning.
MPEG Stream: "Aurora"
MPEG Stream: "Logic Moon"

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Insen (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98
Formerly released on Asphodel, now on Raster-Noton!
Insen is the exquisite follow-up to Vrioon, which was the first collaborative outing for seminal electronic musicians Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) and Ryuichi Sakamoto that came out in 2003. As on their first album, Insen centers upon the balance between the impressionist piano passages of Sakamoto and the cold yet graceful production of Nicolai. While the differences between the two records are subtle, they are certainly noteworthy as Nicolai slices up Sakamoto's piano into fine slivers of time-stretched fragments, terse rhythms, and blurred ambience. In turn, Nicolai realigns these sounds with Sakamoto's untreated notes, providing a complex interplay between the piano and its fractured electronic mimesis. In structuring all of the pieces on Insen, Nicolai occasionally situates his electronics along a parallel path to Sakamoto's piano, and slowly moves the two paths toward different directions, with Nicolai's rhythms achieving velocity and tension whereas Sakamoto's pointillist notes remain weighless and transient. Yet, Nicolai always teases with losing control over the composition, as he often snaps back into a somber atmosphere of minimalist smears, resorting to a similiar strategy as heard on Eno's epic Thursday Afternoon. Stunning.
MPEG Stream: "Aurora"
MPEG Stream: "Logic Moon"

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Insen (Raster-Noton) lp 15.98
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! Be warned though, that the vinyl version only contains -some- of the music on the cd! Here's what we had to say about that cd:
Insen is the exquisite follow-up to Vrioon, which was the first collaborative outing for seminal electronic musicians Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) and Ryuichi Sakamoto that came out in 2003. As on their first album, Insen centers upon the balance between the impressionist piano passages of Sakamoto and the cold yet graceful production of Nicolai. While the differences between the two records are subtle, they are certainly noteworthy as Nicolai slices up Sakamoto's piano into fine slivers of time-stretched fragments, terse rhythms, and blurred ambience. In turn, Nicolai realigns these sounds with Sakamoto's untreated notes, providing a complex interplay between the piano and its fractured electronic mimesis. In structuring all of the pieces on Insen, Nicolai occasionally situates his electronics along a parallel path to Sakamoto's piano, and slowly moves the two paths toward different directions, with Nicolai's rhythms achieving velocity and tension whereas Sakamoto's pointillist notes remain weighless and transient. Yet, Nicolai always teases with losing control over the composition, as he often snaps back into a somber atmosphere of minimalist smears, resorting to a similiar strategy as heard on Eno's epic Thursday Afternoon. Stunning.
MPEG Stream: "Aurora"
MPEG Stream: "Logic Moon"

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Revep (Raster-Noton) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When the dollars-to-minutes ratio eeks close to 1:1, we tend to get a little uncomfortable. Really, what's the big deal about David "Organum" Jackman doubling or even tripling up the sounds on his $15.00 singles that clock in at a couple of minutes? There's also been talk of this marketing psychology from this mathematical ratio due to a pending Boris LP, which is not going to be cheap (not surprising), but also isn't one of their monstrously long drone-doom pieces either... well it's just sorta long. So the question always comes down to the quality of the merchandise, is Boris worth the price of admission? The same question should be asked of the third collaboration between Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) and Ryuichi Sakamoto, which clocks in a little under 20 minutes. Again, the division of labor puts Sakamoto at the piano and Nicolai at the laptop, with Sakamoto providing a series of impressionist clusters of piano notes and elegant repetitions, and Nicolai smudging those sounds through his pixel crunching software. Harmonically crisp and deftly performed, the three pieces on Revep offer a nice variation on the theme set by the first two collaborations Vrioon and Insen. Sakamoto fans will delight that he's offered a new arrangement for his classic piece "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence," which Nicolai aerosolizes into a fine mist of digital ephemera and pin-pricked ambience. Certainly as lovely as the first two!
MPEG Stream: "Siisx"
MPEG Stream: "ax Mr. L"

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Vrioon (Raster-Noton) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Vrioon" is a collaboration between Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto (of Yellow Magic Orchestra) in which Sakamoto provided source material of impressionistic piano pieces to Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto), who blurred many of the edges into a beautiful ambience and added clusters of slow-moving rhythms. It's very simple and very effective and very beautiful...
RealAudio clip: "Uoon 1"
RealAudio clip: "Noon"

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO WITH ENSEMBLE MODERN UTP_ (Raster Norton) cd+dvd 32.00

ALVA NOTO + RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Insen Live (Raster-Noton) dvd 30.00

ALVA NOTO + SCANNER Uniform (SFMOMA) cd ep 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This limited edition cd ep was released by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with the exhibition "010101: Art in Technological Times". Carsten Nicolai (Noto) and Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) did a three-hour set as part of the opening of the show, and this cd ep is the result of the two of them editing down and manipulating their live recording into a 26-minute work.
Both the digipak design and the sounds on the cd lean towards the Raster-Noton aesthetic -- minimal clicks and cuts style, starting with a pleasant insectoid buzz and gradually adding layers of crackle and drone (and what sounds like crickets chirping or frogs croaking!). As the piece progresses, these "synthetic late summer night" sounds are augmented by high, wavering electronic tones. Really a gorgeous listen!
RealAudio clip: "Uniform (excerpt1)"
RealAudio clip: "Uniform (excerpt2)"

ALVA NOTO / SIGNAL / BYETONE / KOMET Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat) 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is basically the Raster-Noton allstars: Alva Noto, Byetone, Komet, and Signal (which is a collaboration of the aforementioned three artists) recording for Staalplaat's acclaimed "Mort Aux Vaches" series. Alva Noto's piece is a live documentation of the material found on his debut, with its terse electron pinpricks evolving amidst very slowly developing pure-tone, post-techno structures. Nicolai's performance of "Prototypes" clearly incorporates the same sounds found on his studio album, but the arrangement is one very long track and is completely different than the original. Byetone (aka Olaf Bender) is the least prolific of the Raster-Noton founders, with only a couple of releases. His 30 minutes for the Raster "Mort Aux Vaches" is a solid replication of Mika Vainio's crystalline "Metri" album for Sahko, as a surgical presentation of acid house bleeping grooves. Komet, who has recently simply been recording under his given name Frank Bretschneider, is the most effects-happy amongst the Raster-Noton family, warbling his pure tones through ring modulation and ample delay patterns to give the whispered clickery and alarm call bleeps a Frippertronic feel. The Signal recordings may be the weakest amongst the group, Pan Sonic / Goem throwaway tracks with electronic loops are set up and left unchanged, as if nobody amongst the group wanted to change anybody else's sounds. It is the slippages between melody and rhythm that make the Raster-Noton sound so appealing. While the rest of this double set is well worth checking out, Raster-Noton's collaborative efforts prove they are perhaps better as solo artists.
RealAudio clip: ALVA NOTO "Prototypes"
RealAudio clip: BYETONE "1:2"
RealAudio clip: KOMET "Glas"
RealAudio clip: SIGNAL "Light Pipe"

AMBARCHI, OREN Triste (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
Finally, a cd reissue of this long out of print, previously LP-only release from Australian minimalist guitar improvisor Oren Ambarchi. The reissue comes, oddly enough, from the fine folks at Southern Lord, who until now have pretty much exclusively focused on the heavy and or sludge-y. Not sure if it's because Ambarchi is an outspoken metalhead (he is one of the only non-metal guests on the upcoming SUNNO))) Black 1 album) or if Southern Lord decided they just dug these dark and mysterious soundscapes, either way, it's about time this record made it onto cd, so all you non LP-playing folks can finally get a taste of some of the most gorgeous, understated ambient guitar work we've ever heard. You may remember some time back we made Ambarchi's Grapes From The Estate a record of the week, and damn if this record, released well before Grapes, isn't just as good. A gorgeous and glitchy, shimmering and subtle exploration of the guitar, and not just the strings and the notes and chords coaxed from them, but also the sound of faulty cords, subtle distortion, woozy warbly effects, all deftly interwoven and creating the effect of laptop manipulation, or skipping cd fuckery, but all managed with just a guitar and some pedals. Delicate, barely-there improvisations, wispy and ethereal, floating dreamily from the speakers towards your ears taking thier own sweet time. Notes hang suspended in space shimmering and slowly fading, until another note comes to join it or move it on its way. Eventually, during the last few minutes of the second twenty minute piece, the sounds of the guitar grow into a strangely alien sounding codes of glitch and creak, stutter and drone, equal parts high end skree and pulsing feedback squeals, a surprisingly noisy culmination to such a introspective record. The cd includes the two tracks that were included with the lp as a bonus 7", both remixes by Tom Recchion, who adds Hammond organ, tape loops, synthesizer and cds to the mix, turning the ultra minimal originals into extra dense soundscapes, adding layer upon layer of warble and whir, increasing the drone factor and giving the last two tracks a definite Philip Jeck feel, sounding all warm and washed out. So lovely! Comes packaged in a gorgeous miniature reproduction of the original gatefold sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "One "
MPEG Stream: "Three"

AMBARCHI, OREN Triste (Idea) 2lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another gorgeously packaged, impeccaby recorded piece of modern minimalism from Idea records. We raved about the now out of print COH double lp a few lists back, and this release is just as nice. This time it's Australian Oren Ambarchi, who's delicate, barely-there guitar improvisations are gorgeously wispy and ethereal and float dreamily from the speakers towards your ears taking thier own sweet time. Notes hang suspended in space shimmering and slowly fading, until another note comes to join it or move it on its way. Super thick gatefold sleeve in an extra thick plastic sleeve. Double lp on super heavy 220 gram vinyl. The copies we have also come with a 7" featuring two extended remixes by Tom Rechion of the Los Angeles Free Music Society. So nice.

AMBIENT BATTLE SAMPLES Phase One (Crypticon) lp 11.98

AMM / MERZBOW split (12") Fat Cat 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The latest in this high profile series of split 12"s. Merzbow is at his most melodic, coming up with an almost hummable bit of white noise. The AMM side is all rhythm, primarily beautifully meandering chimes and bells.

AMOEBIL 200 Pills (a034 Pharmaceutical Labs / Black Bean & Placenta) cd 11.98
Skwidchy, fluttering, minimal breakbeats that keep going and going and going... from Italy. Go on, give those glo-sticks a workout. Eight tracks o'techno, two of which are live sets.

AMP Stenorette (Kranky) cd 13.98
I had begun to wonder if Richard and Karine would do anything worth while again, as their debut Sirenes clearly stands above everything they have done... until Stenorette. Working with producer Robert Hampson (Main, Loop), Amp has traded in their four track fuzziness for the crystal clear digital purity of Hampson's studio. In doing so, they have written a beautiful album of gossamer electronica / pop songs that nonetheless maintains their ghostly sadness.

AMP Stenorette (Kranky) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I had begun to wonder if Richard and Karine would do anything worth while again, as their debut Sirenes clearly stands above everything they have done... until Stenorette. Working with producer Robert Hampson (Main, Loop), Amp has traded in their four track fuzziness for the crystal clear digital purity of Hampson's studio. In doing so, they have written a beautiful album of gossamer electronica / pop songs that nonetheless maintains their ghostly sadness.

ANAGNOS, PHILIP / BRUCE HAACK Haack - The King Of Techno (Koch) dvd 21.00
King Of Techno??? Hmm. Well, the story of Bruce Haack is a tough one to tackle. He was an introvert of sorts, wildly imaginative, innovative and certainly the odd man out. A small town boy from Alberta, Canada that moved to NYC to make it big, only to become disillusioned by the soul sucking corporate music industry. What remained constant was his cosmic vision and communication through his visionary and otherworldly music. Until the late nineties, he was an obscure footnote in the history of early electronic music. But thanks to underground tape trading and rabid fans spreading the word, reissues and compilations have surfaced, resurrecting the legacy and world of Bruce Haack. Thankfully, we can now place a visual element to the imaginative sonics of Bruce's electric language via this newly produced film documenting the composer's life. In addition to archival television appearances and rarely seen photographs, we get wonderful stories from Bruce's colleagues and collaborators (Ted Praxiteles Pandel, Miss Esther Nelson, Chris Kachulis), and anecdotes from some of the original children featured on the Dimension 5 records! The rare television segments are the highlight of this documentary, including the legendary I've Got A Secret episode in which Bruce plays his Dermatron (*see footnote below*) on pianist Ted Pandel, as well as the 1968 episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in which Bruce demonstrates his musical computer! Unfortunately, the television appearance of Bruce performing the Dermatron on twelve girls (each pitched according to the western standardized chromatic scale) is not mentioned or shown.
And there are a few other omissions...for instance, as Don Bolles (Germs, 45 Grave, Kitten Sparkles, Three Day Stubble) was integral to the introduction of Bruce Haack not only to the filmmaker himself, but to the American underground throughout the nineties via his radio shows and travelling sound system, it would have been interesting to hear his take on Haack. Bolles, a longtime Haack fan and record nerd, was largely responsible for spreading the word as well as the distribution of cassette dubs to many friends. In fact, my first introduction to Bruce's music was via his gushing words about the man. Furthermore, experts like Irwin Chusid, Robert Moog, Russell Simmons (who commissioned the unreleased, yet widely pirated Party Machine) and like minded folks who long knew of the genius of Bruce Haack could have brought forth some insightful perspective.
So while Philip Anagnos' debut as a documentary filmmaker is a wildly ambitious one, some fans of Bruce's music will certainly have issues with context and some of the interview subjects. The large work of Bruce Haack transcends the limitations that the word "techno" conjures, as there is a massive genre of electric music that isn't necessarily "electronic". Once again, techno is a topic of controversy here as Anagnos got a lot of flack for this film's subtitle. Admittedly, he states that he called it as such simply because it "sounded really good", so don't let that turn you off this film completely. Definitely a door opener for those new to the music of Bruce Haack, just don't close that door on the way out...
*footnote* FYI The Dermatron was an early invention of Haack's, somewhat similar in design to the theremin. With the theremin, human hands control electronic capacitance via metal rods connected to the oscillators which emit variable frequencies. The Dermatron's capacitance is controlled not through metal rods, but through two separate currents which are connected to two separate human bodies. These two bodies act as the controllers of the oscillators, so when the two bodies touch, variable frequencies are created with the variable placement of flesh to flesh. Or something like that...cool!

ANDREWS, AMEN VS. SPAC HAND LUKE s/t (Rephlex) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "I Shot Killer Pussy"
MPEG Stream: "Screwface"
MPEG Stream: "Multiple Stab Wounds"

ANDROID SISTERS, THE Best Of The Android Sisters (EM Records) cd 24.00
The robots are coming, indeed! And their latest invasion (released with much thanks and gratitude to our favorite record label of late, Japan's EM!) takes the form of this sexy electronic pop concept duo, The Android Sisters. Originally created by ZBS studios, a nonprofit audio production company from upstate New York whose purpose was to raise consciousness through media, namely via new-age-tinged sci-fi inspired radio plays, The Android Sisters began life in the early eighties as the house band in the radio series, Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe. Taking cues from Bruce Haack's electronic children's records from the '60s and '70s, The Sisters perform satirical "speak-songs" in a polyphonic monotone that goofily riff off of everything from Philip K. Dick inspired silliness ("Electronic Sheep") to Old McDonald ("Down On The Electronic Farm"). They soon developed their own cult following, so an album was released on Vanguard in 1984 called Songs of Electronic Despair. Using wonky keyboards, funky beats and spacey synthesizer passages, The Sisters frequent use of terrible puns and android-inspired humor didn't quite fit in with the wry detachment of the New Wave music of the time and has since been relegated to the realms of pop oddity, occasionally resurfacing as samples in trance, techno and hip-hop ("Ray-Dee-Oh", Sss-x Minus One"). But as radio-plays they are highly entertaining and engaging, silly and goofy for sure but as The Android Sisters themselves say, "Dumb is Fun! " Includes 48 page booklet with song lyrics and illustrations for each song.
MPEG Stream: "Invasion"
MPEG Stream: "Robots Are Coming"
MPEG Stream: "Dumb Is Fun"
MPEG Stream: "Sss-X Minus One"

ANEURYSM Quim (Slowleak) 12" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Four song debut 12" from Oakland's DJ Aneurysm. Side one features dark, aggressive digital destruction that would be right at home beside your DHR and Ambush records. Side two is more dance-y and melodic, with distorto beats and (unfortunately outdated and cheesy) spoken voice samples.

ANGEL 26000 (Editions Mego) cd 16.98
The intermittent project Angel might become something more prolific, now that Pan Sonic has decided to terminate its mission leaving Ilpo Vaisanen to pursue other matters. Since 2000, Vaisanen has collaborated with Dirk Dresselhaus of Schneider TM under the guise of Angel to produce a peculiar set of electro-acoustic abstractions, often finding them working with the avant-cellist Hildur Gudnadottir. On thie new album for Editions Mego, 26000, Angel can come across like an even more plodding and menacing Supersilent attempting to remove all of its jazz references, leaving weird squiggles and gestures within a cavernous dank reverberation offset by crystalline electronics and found object manipulation. Such events were not uncommon in the narcoleptic sound collages that Pan Sonic would wander into at the end of some of their records. Gudnadottir's cello (and something called a "halldorophone" that sends a controlled feedback loop into the strings of a modified cello) appears on the glacial finale of the album "Paradigm Shift" with isolationist passages and radiotone flicker. All of this is set in contrast with the monstrous form destruction of "Before The Rush" composed with the help of BJ Nilsen. Here, Angel takes up the sheer hellish miasma torch with an explosion of digital abuse bracketed by leaden seas of grey drones and all sorts of post-Tudor scabrous noises and nervous scratches.
MPEG Stream: "Before The Rush"
MPEG Stream: "In"
MPEG Stream: "Paradigm Shift"

ANGEL 26000 (Editions Mego) lp 21.00
The intermittent project Angel might become something more prolific, now that Pan Sonic has decided to terminate its mission leaving Ilpo Vaisanen to pursue other matters. Since 2000, Vaisanen has collaborated with Dirk Dresselhaus of Schneider TM under the guise of Angel to produce a peculiar set of electro-acoustic abstractions, often finding them working with the avant-cellist Hildur Gudnadottir. On thie new album for Editions Mego, 26000, Angel can come across like an even more plodding and menacing Supersilent attempting to remove all of its jazz references, leaving weird squiggles and gestures within a cavernous dank reverberation offset by crystalline electronics and found object manipulation. Such events were not uncommon in the narcoleptic sound collages that Pan Sonic would wander into at the end of some of their records. Gudnadottir's cello (and something called a "halldorophone" that sends a controlled feedback loop into the strings of a modified cello) appears on the glacial finale of the album "Paradigm Shift" with isolationist passages and radiotone flicker. All of this is set in contrast with the monstrous form destruction of "Before The Rush" composed with the help of BJ Nilsen. Here, Angel takes up the sheer hellish miasma torch with an explosion of digital abuse bracketed by leaden seas of grey drones and all sorts of post-Tudor scabrous noises and nervous scratches.
MPEG Stream: "Before The Rush"
MPEG Stream: "In"
MPEG Stream: "Paradigm Shift"

ANGEL Kalmukia (Editions Mego) cd 17.98
Oooh, moody. Ilpo Vaisanen of Pan Sonic and Dirk Dresselhaus (aka Schneider TM) have recorded as Angel before, exploring the realms of noise and drone with discs on the Bip-Hop and Oral labels, bringing in guest cellist Hildur Guonadottir for the latter. Now they're officially a trio, and offer up a fantastic third album, released on Editions Mego, where this four part, hour long, totally epic album fits in nicely alongside the digitaldoomdrone likes of O'Malley and Rehberg's KTL.
Kalmukia opens with the evocative "Bones In The Sand" which definitely has a desert-y feel, the wide open spaces, barren badlands. Desolation. Dunno about you, but it had us immediately thinking Earth (Hex-era and after Earth), with cavernous slide guitar riffs echoing forth across the wastes...
The tremulous electric humming of the title track is next, nearly 20 quietly mysterious minutes long, graced with droning cello on the edge of feedback. The creepy loveliness continues on through "Effect Of Discovery", which builds up into a shimmering drone laced with metallic electronic whip-cracks and waverings. Full on distorted rumble is kept in reserve, hinted at throughout the thick buzzing beauty of album-closer "Aftermath: The Mutation", which is also filled with delicate percussive chimings and some of this album's most melodic moments.
Packaged all fancy-like in an oversized rectangular sleeve, this is definitely one that fans of the most abstract/ambient side of Southern Lord's output (Oren Ambarchi for instance) should appreciate, along with those into Pan Sonic, KTL, etc.
Satan was an angel, once, too.
MPEG Stream: "Bones In The Sand"
MPEG Stream: "Aftermath: The Mutation"

ANGEL & HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR In Transmediale (Oral) cd 16.98
Angel is the work of Pan Sonic's Ilpo Vaisanen and Dirk Dresselhaus (aka Schneider TM); and Hildur Gudnadottir is an Icelandic cellist whose resume is dotted with numerous collaborative projects through the Reykjavik based arts collective Kitchen Motors. Back in 2004, the three musicians collaborated at the Club Transmediale in Berlin, sparking not only this album but also an ongoing collaboration between Pan Sonic and Gudnadottir. It's Gudnadottir's cello that takes the center stage on this guttural drone album of languorous acoustic scrapings and sustained monotone, with the two other gentlemen augmenting the cello drones with Kosmische electronic sweeps, nervous sinewave aggregates, and bellowing gasps of noise.
MPEG Stream: "In Transmediale (excerpt 1) "
MPEG Stream: "In Transmediale (excerpt 2) "

ANGLE OF REPOSE My Escaping Shoes (In Your Eardrums) cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Angle Of Repose's My Escaping Shoes is comprised of a dozen ominous, looming downtempo hip hop tracks laced with samples of dialogue, horns and a little flute too -- very much in the DJ Shadow Endtroducing camp. If there's to be any escaping to be done by this Bay Area artist, it'll be a sneaky creep through the shadows, not a mad frenzied run-for-it. Limited pressing of 100.
MPEG Stream: "Children Of Phoebus"
MPEG Stream: "The Phalanx"

ANIKA s/t (Stones Throw / Invada) cd 15.98
Here comes the sizzle! We have been totally seduced by this steamy, dubby delight of a record, which pairs the detached, sexy & haunting vocals of Anika with the production and musical mastermind of Geoff Barrow from Beak and Portishead. Together they make a perfect match in creating a hypnotic, sensual sound that invokes in the listener a dangerously dazed and drugged out state of mind. Anika's vocals are like Nico's, but paired with a stripped down post-punk sound. Or like Kim Gordon singing for The Slits. The music is so spot on in its classic minimalism transporting us right back to the early '80s, bands like ESG, Gang Of Four, and A Certain Ratio, but Anika and Barrow turn the sound into something much more detached, smoky and sensual. We also hear a hints of French cold-wave pioneers, like Ruth, and the way underrated dubbed out project of This Heat's Charles Bullen, Lifetones.
For all the records that have come out in the last couple years desperately trying to capture a cold wave, or now witch house sound, Anika stands well above that crowded scene as there is something so much more impactful and singular about her vision, that's just so entrancing and mesmerizing....
FYI, several of the tracks are interpretations of tunes by the likes of Yoko Ono, Bob Dylan, and Ray Davies!!
MPEG Stream: "Terry"
MPEG Stream: "I Go To Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "Sadness Hides The Sun"

ANIMOSITY + DRUMCORPS Altered Beast (Man Alive) 10" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We went a little crazy for Aaron Spectre's Drumcorps project, a crazed manic electronic workout featuring live metal guitars and chopped to bits metal and grindcore, all mashed up into some incredibly head spinning, neck snapping, dancefloor destroying moshpit annihilating heaviness.
So the latest bit of Drumcorps brutality, finds Spectre teaming up with Bay Area thrashmetal titans Animosity for a 3 track one sided 10", which takes up right where the Drumcorps record left off and pushes this whole metal / electronic hybrid even further out. This time, Animosity wrote three tracks, and Spectre got to fuck them up. But weirdly enough, unlike on the last Drumcorps disc, where it sounded like a record assembled from bits of metal and grind and breakbeats, this disc sounds more like an Animosity record, where they just happen to be incorporating bits of jungle and techno and drill+bass and whatever grinding buzzing weirdness Spectre could come up with. And the results are pretty stellar. And its core, this is a grindmetal record, but the guitars are super clipped and processed, often stuttering and chopped up into impossible rhythms, the beats are revved up and transformed into frantic breakbeats, some of the super fast blast beats just keep getting faster and faster until they turn into impossible digital stutters. Huge riffs grind and churn, often separated by squalls of jungle, freaky beats, it's a mash up, but neither side is in control, it veers back and forth from metal to jungle to grind to breakbeat often exploding into everything at once. This is the sort of shit that could get us non dancers out on the floor. Or maybe get you dancers into the pit. Either way, fucking awesome.
And we talk about insane packaging all the time, but once again, holy shit, these guys are pushing the limits of how over the top you can get - eye popping full color screened sleeves, incredible, garish illustrations, inside and out, but it's the vinyl, some are clear and white swirled, some are red and blue and clear swirled, but then the non playing side features and abstract thick metallic ink silkscreened image, either gold or silver, it's hard to explain, but the first time we slipped one out of the sleeve, everyone working had to gather around to see.

ANNA, DJ Live At The Den Of Iniquity (Beta Lounge) cd-r 9.98

ANNIE Anniemal (679 Recordings) cd 14.98
Here's Annie! Cruisin' along in her '80s dance pop revival mobile with the top down and the stereo on 10. The songs on Anniemal are not unlike modernized versions of those by formulaic party girl combos the Belle Stars, Bananarama, Men's Room or early Madonna, but Annie's also got the additional cache of being from Norway. Oooh! Unlike other current female dance music singers (such as Kylie Minogue), Annie's tracks are far less slick and hugely produced and considerably more heavy on the saccharine. She floods the dancefloor with lip-smackin' marshmallow fluff. There's a time and place for the deliciously vacant, and it seems like that time is now. We could get all grumpy about this and dismiss it as yet another force-fed hipster flavor of the day, but really, how would you rather expend your energy during these summer months? Dancin' yer ass off or stompin' your foot in disapproval?
MPEG Stream: "Chewing Gum"
MPEG Stream: "Anniemal"

ANTENNA FARM s/t (Phthalo) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Working with a huge arsenal of equipment (the press release lists guitars, the springs from an old reverb unit, shortwave static, VLF signals, closed circuit feedback loops, turntables, surface damaged CDs, etc.), Antenna Farm offers an album of grim collages from digital signal processing reconstructions of that source material. Twitching timestretched scrapings and harsh noises develop into interlocking loops, emerging as a dynamic convolution of the Raster-Noton structuralist glitch mixed with Merzbow's molten explosiveness. Antenna Farm is the work of Alastair Leslie and David Howell (who I believe runs Fat Cat Records), and they recently released an album in collaboration with Main.
RealAudio clip: "Smoked Out / Dead River"
RealAudio clip: "Hesh Round"
RealAudio clip: "Prowler"

ANTENNE #2 (Korm Plastics) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is an odd release for Korm Plastics, a subsidiary of Staalplaat, who have, in the past, released some truely nasty pieces of electro-shock noise. Antenne is a Danish trip hop ensemble which completes rainy electronic grooves with bleary-eyed female vocals that sound an awful lot like Heidi Berry. The album opens with an cover of Nick Drake's "Black Eyed Dog." Strange.
RealAudio clip: "Black Eyed Dog"

ANTIPOP CONSORTIUM Arrhythmia (Warp) cd 16.98
First new full length since the waaay expensive Japanese import 'Shopping Carts Crashing' which we also carry, and it's a good one. With every release, the NY avant hip hop crew of rapper/producers Beans, M Sayyid and High Priest along with engineer extraordinaire E. Blaize continue to surprise us and isolate themselves from the rest of the pack. With "Arrhythmia", their highly anticipated debut long player from the premier UK electronic label Warp, the once abrasive and sonically confrontational crew take an unexpected, much more 'conventional' and accessible production route (ala Timbaland), yet remain fresh and highly original. Rather than relying on recycled breakbeats and appropriations of sounds vaguely familiar, APC whip up their own brand of electro street funk: hiccuping, misshapen beats complement speaker-rattling analogue synth stylings, topped with a generous amount of modulation, vocal transformation treatments and other studio stunts. APC are certainly more true to the classic electro sound, making bandwagon revivalists and overnight laptop superstars sound like it's fucking amateur night. Plus the fact that they independently produce their shit is astounding, a hip hop outfit that makes an electronica record better than most electronic artists. Jesus, I haven't even started on the dope flow, amazing wordplay, alliteration or street surrealist lyricism. Nor do I think I'm qualified. All I know is it's slammin'. And then there's "Mega", in which an aggressively arrhythmic syncopated beat underlies a dissonant algorithmic melody that suspensefully climaxes with an amazingly rendered faux operatic orchestration. Amazing, I say. Another great record from true hip hop visionaries.
RealAudio clip: "Mega"
RealAudio clip: "Dead In Motion"
RealAudio clip: "Ping Pong"
RealAudio clip: "Bubblz"

ANWORTH KIRK Avonwaith (Pre-cert) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The return of the mysterious Anworth Kirk, an offshoot of hauntological electronica alchemists Demdike Stare, a 'groop' which professes to be a whole different entity, although as far as we're concerned, we imagine we might be hard pressed to find anyone that loves Demdike Stare, who wouldn't also love these guys (this guy?). Sonically similar, but more shrouded in mystery, and plenty of bizarrely esoteric descriptive psychobabble, the label explains that Avonwaith "constructs dense melodic and narrative sound poems upon a skeletal framework of non-musical elements such as basic magnetic communication, secular religion and primitive mechanical industry. Composed and compiled around fake-loric nonlanguage/electric codes and forbidden information, Anworth Kirk uses the phonographic format as an archive of sonic and poetic commentary (evidence) concerning corruption in pre-war local industry, perverted belief systems and scientific invention. Part musique concrete, part folklore, part-pulp-fictitious, part Neorealist, this indulgent patchwork of mechanical folk/pop and non-music combines essential influences of electric Smithsonian releases, sound poetry, Zden?k Liska, Ilhan Mimaroglu, basic Carnatic music, Letterism, Pierre Henry, Oramics in Ardwick, Massiera, Lloyd M. Williams, Stella Crenshaw, Bruno Nicolai, Suzanne Ciani, Eastern European fiction, AgitProp, L.S. Lowry, J.G. Frazer, Gurdjieff, Kommune pop groups and futen theater."
Phew. And yeah, while perhaps that is all in fact maybe sort of true, it might be easier to say, that it sounds a lot like much of Demdike Stare's Tryptych, equally hauntological, each track a miniature soundworld of electronic ephemera, of skeletal beats and bleep bloop electronics, haunting grey atmospheres, looped tribal rhythms, like a collection of mysterious transmissions from the ether.
Tracks are hazy, their borders constantly bleeding into one another, snippets of gauzy old timey easy listening, lightly dusted with distortion and reverb transformed into some sort of ghostly retro slo-mo electro pop, drifting through fields of tinkling chimes and echo drenched melodic swirls, peppered with muted glitchy pulses, field recordings of unknown provenance, soft focus smears of sun dappled shimmer, chanting children's rhymes, all woven into something strange and magical, very cinematic, a definite seventies giallo vibe in places, a little Euro, a lot jazzy, moody and atmospheric, the record unwinding in it's final movement with a distinctly horror movie like feel, brief melodic motifs repeated (a la Halloween), nestled in a black cloud of thick ominous synths, collaged voices, and laid over what sounds like some ritualistic pagan forest folk, skeletal and otherworldly, all flecked with odd buzz and Eastern melodies, darkly dreamy and beautifully bewitching.
LIMITED TO 420 COPIES, and one final recommendation from the label/groop: "Parts of this disc are presented in both Stereo and Mono and it is to be played at 45RPM with a low-gram stylus pressure." Indeed.

ANWORTH KIRK s/t (Pre-Cert Home Entertainment) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Demdike Stare fans listen up! There's a new dark mysterious stranger in town by the name of Anworth Kirk, and for fans of Demdike Stare's haunted dub sound paintings or that Broadcast and The Focus Group record we keep raving about, or any of the vintage horror soundtracks from Trunk Records, you will surely want to give this a listen. No, Anworth Kirk is not really a person, or a band, as far as we can tell, but it's the first release on the new archival imprint Pre-Cert Home Entertainment that will be devoted to releasing a series of limited vinyl missives of contemporary musical and non-musical strangeness. Most definitely associated with DJ Andy Votel and the B-Music crew as well as Demdike Stare themselves (in fact, we're pretty sure Anworth Kirk IS Andy Votel and Sean Canty of Demdike, who run the Pre-Cert label), the music presented here is a mind-bending collage of haunting creaking loops, far away noises of babies crying and dogs barking, slow motion creeping synths, library music, and eldritch incantations culled from dusty corners of British horror. So haunting and beautiful! Limited to 500 copies, it is basically already out of print, so grab one of the few we have while you can!

AOA Emotion Vacation (Psy-Harmonics) cd 16.98
AOA is a Boredoms related group featuring newest member E-da and bassist Hilah (formerly Hira). "Emotion Vacation", their second full length, was recorded in Melbourne, Australia by "deep house / industrial techno / trance" producer Ollie Olsen. Eye supposedly makes a guest appearance on one track -- playing gong -- nothing exceptional, though. Very drum heavy and trancey, but unfortunately doesn't quite live up to our high expectations or overall high quality of most Boredoms-related projects (Z-Rock Hawaii, anyone??). Certainly worth seeking out for hardcore fans, but if you're looking for more psychedelic drum circle trance-out, best to seek out Psycho-Baba first.

AOKI, TAKAMASA + TUJIKO NORIKO 28 (Fat Cat) cd 15.98
28 pairs up the always lovely Ms Tujiko Noriko with Aoki Takamasa. Both are Japanese artists living in Paris, both are 28 years old (hence the title of the record). The pair initially met over 3 years ago at an event for the Cartier Foundation in Paris. Their collaboration, originally intended for just one song, worked out so well that they decided to work on a full length together, exchanging and sewing more sound bits with the loving attention of a precocious collage prodigy. A patchwork quilt of blissful, Morr-esque electronics, broken toy IDM, lilting, tender vocals, and gently textured raindrops-on-a-corrugated-roof beats. The album is silky and caressing, less jagged than Noriko's recent collaboration with Lawrence English. Reminiscent as well as Japanese chanteuse, Salyu's vocal pieces for the film, "All About Lily Chou-Chou."
MPEG Stream: ""
MPEG Stream: ""

APHASIC Bass & Superstructure (Ambush) cd ep 10.98
Crushing noise breaks and musique concrˇte from Jason Skeet, co-owner of Ambush along with DJ Scud, whom
Skeet has collaborated with regularly. Harsh.

APHELION I-VI (Iris Light ) cd 15.98
Former Cradle of Filth guitarist Stuart Anstis offers a solo album on the experimental Iris Light label (Szeki Kurva, Aube, Maeror Tri, Band of Pain, etc.). It's not black metal, but more of an electronic soundscape thing with beats...not bad, but not too exciting either. At least, it's much better than the solo techno record done by one of the guitarists from Dissection a while back. But when Iris Light's website goes off saying that Aphelion is "possibly one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2001, especially after the disappointment of CoFs' last album" that's a bunch of bullshit. Unlikely levels of anticipation aside, the Filthies' Stuart-less "Midian" is a good record and certainly this doesn't compare to that or any CoF disc!!

APHEX TWIN 26 Mixes For Cash (Warp) 2cd 22.00
During the early '90s, the remix became a new marketing tool to help salvage or lend credibility to A&R debacles -- signings that otherwise would have been relegated to bargain bins and been tax write-offs. With the unexpected explosion of Nirvana on one side of the world and grassroots fervor of rave culture spreading out of the UK, the confusion of A&R reps was somewhat understandable. This is exactly the context in which Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) was approached to remix The Lemonheads! Perhaps the mythology behind this remix is true -- that James had forgotten all about his commission and when the courier came around to pick up the remix, he randomly grabbed a DAT which obviously had nothing to do with the Lemonheads. When the label protested, James argued that he had sped the entire song up to build one of the snare fills! Or so the myth goes. Regardless, Aphex came away with the cash, and fans of Lemonheads' heart-throb punk image were confused if not irritated by a jackhammered blast of 909 discomfort!
Accused of rank cynicism, or of the post-ironic facade of cynicism, or of an inability to render any consistent conceptual agenda, James remains cryptic as to his intent: "I like doing it sometimes. Basically, I'll take a song and make it into something that I like. The original comes to me in a form that I hate, then I have to do a serious bit of alteration to it, and sometimes I don't even bother. I just give them a track that has nothing to do with the song."
Thus, "26 Mixes For Cash" is what it is, a collection of unrelated projects branded with the Aphex Twin trademarks: slippery ambience, klanging breakbeats, and mercurial electronic melodies. True to his own admission, the songs vary in degrees to his attachment; and those that he feels most passionately about (either love or hate -- e.g. Baby Ford, Curve, St. Etienne, and Seefeel) are rendered with the greatest panache, and others are delivered with an offhanded nonchalance (e.g. Buck Tick, Nav Katze, and Nobukazu Takemura). Certainly, this is not for Aphex neophytes. For those readers out there new to Aphex, please check out his albums "Richard D. James" or "I Care Because You Do." However, completists will be more than happy with this batch of tracks.
MPEG Stream: CURVE "Falling Free, Aphex Twin Remix"
MPEG Stream: BABY FORD "Normal, Helston Flora Remix by AFX"

APHEX TWIN 51/13 Aphex Singles Collection (Warp / WEA Australia) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Since Richard D. James has recently been hiding from the public with no indications as to when or if another Aphex Twin album will be happening, this rare Australian import collection of Aphex Twin's mid '90s singles is certainly a welcome arrival! "51/13" compiles the "On","Ventolin", and "Donkey Rhubarb" EPs which are still available individually through Warp in the UK. Even at this import price, it's cheaper than buying all of the singles individually.
During this period of Aphex Twin's sound, he was continuing his mutations of hardcore techno breakbeats, which had been popularized by the likes of The Prodigy, Meat Beat Manifesto, and XL Records. For those who care about such things, this breakbeat sound was instrumental in the birth of drum 'n' bass, yet is drastically different in that the hardcore breakbeats are internally constructed by a drum machine (usually a Roland 909), whereas drum 'n' bass actively sampled its breakbeats from the history of soul, funk, and jazz. As a result of the technological process of the creation of the breakbeat, these three Aphex Twin singles have a particularly cybernetic feel to them. However, Aphex Twin uses this sound as a counterpoint to the oddly whimsical melodies from his re-wired and re-programmed MIDI patches for piano, harp, calliope, and bells. These are the same sounds that the Aphex Twin droned out on his beautiful "Selected Ambient Works Volume 2." "51/13" also features the seemingly incongruous collaboration between Aphex Twin and Philip Glass! For this piece called "Icct Hedral," Glass scored a dramatic orchestral piece around the repetition of a distinctly Aphex Twin melodic phrase. It's surprising how well this particular piece works.
For a lot of electronica, history tends to date and make obsolete certain sounds and artists... But this has never been the case with Aphex Twin.
RealAudio clip: "Donkey Rhubarb"
RealAudio clip: "Icct Hendral"
RealAudio clip: "On"

APHEX TWIN Classics (Rough Trade) cd 21.00

APHEX TWIN Come to Daddy EP (Sire) cd 9.98
The title track of this ep scared the pickles out of me. And the video will do the same. Must hear. Must see. Richard D. James, you rule.

APHEX TWIN Drukqs (Warp / Sire) 2cd 21.00
It's been five years since the Aphex Twin unleashed his Surrealist-tainted slab of brilliance "The Richard D. James Album," which jauntily skipped around the accepted boundaries of contemporary electronica with surprising ease and an almost voiceless black humor. "Drukqs" (which is supposedly pronounced 'drugs', and despite his typically weirdo spelling may be the easiest Aphex title to decipher yet) finds Aphex Twin again accepting the challenge of circumnavigating all of electronica's current micro-styles within a single album. As electronica has expanded almost exponentially through technological advances and divergent aesthetic mutations during Aphex' five year sabbatical, you can almost hear him audibly gulping at the task that is in front of him. As a result, he is forced to offer a double album in this attempt to once again become the eccentric scientist who has a knack for the dancefloor.
From the get-go, Aphex Twin wisely sidesteps the currently hip clickery of the Ritornell / Raster labels, jumping straight into his tried and true forms of bastardized drum 'n' bass punctuated by delicate piano-ambient interludes. Unfortunately, Aphex has been following the rather tepid stylings of 2 step and speed garage, instead of the vibrant spasticity of Lesser or the mentally damaged dancehall of DJ Scud. Thus, the ambient artifacts -- which come across as Satie's "Furniture Music" for the H.R. Giger set, being both deliciously macabre yet tonally beautiful -- are the more interesting moments found on the first half of the album. Disc two offers a few classic Aphex sounding tracks of smoldering acid squelchiness, time-stretched vocal snippets, and complex grooves built out of constantly counterpointing rhythms. Again, these are spaced between delicate halcyon piano ambience, something which at times appears as dinner jazz for the IDM set.
While certain individual tracks flash a programming brilliance cast with his ever-present sideways smirk, easily putting his contemporaries to shame, "Drukqs" as a whole never really finds a direction; nor, does it makes much progression though all of the various electronica agendas. Nevertheless, those of you already cardcarrying members of the Aphex fanclub won't be disappointed.
RealAudio clip: "Meltphacc 6 "
RealAudio clip: "Vordhosbn"
RealAudio clip: "Ziggomatic 17"

APHEX TWIN Drukqs (Warp) 4lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The new Aphex Twin now available on vinyl, you know if you want it, I'm sure. It ain't cheap, and you're going to have trouble filing it with your other LPs, 'cause it's in a "deluxe" package that consists of an unnecessarily large 12" x 18" box containing the 4 lps and a stupid piece of cardboard that holds 'em in place and fills the space. I mean, it looks cool from a distance, sure, but where are you going to put it? At least they should have put something interesting in there to justify the larger dimensions, other than a folded piece of cardboard! In case you missed it last time, we'll now recap our review of the actual album (no, there hasn't been enough time since the cd came out for us to have come up with any new, revised opinions, although that may still happen):
It's been five years since the Aphex Twin unleashed his Surrealist-tainted slab of brilliance "The Richard D. James Album," which jauntily skipped around the accepted boundaries of contemporary electronica with surprising ease and an almost voiceless black humor. "Drukqs" (which is supposedly pronounced 'drugs', and despite his typically weirdo spelling may be the easiest Aphex title to decipher yet) finds Aphex Twin again accepting the challenge of circumnavigating all of electronica's current micro-styles within a single album. As electronica has expanded almost exponentially through technological advances and divergent aesthetic mutations during Aphex' five year sabbatical, you can almost hear him audibly gulping at the task that is in front of him. As a result, he is forced to offer a double album in this attempt to once again become the eccentric scientist who has a knack for the dancefloor.
From the get-go, Aphex Twin wisely sidesteps the currently hip clickery of the Ritornell / Raster labels, jumping straight into his tried and true forms of bastardized drum 'n' bass punctuated by delicate piano-ambient interludes. Unfortunately, Aphex has been following the rather tepid stylings of 2 step and speed garage, instead of the vibrant spasticity of Lesser or the mentally damaged dancehall of DJ Scud. Thus, the ambient artifacts -- which come across as Satie's "Furniture Music" for the H.R. Giger set, being both deliciously macabre yet tonally beautiful -- are the more interesting moments found on the first half of the album. Disc two offers a few classic Aphex sounding tracks of smoldering acid squelchiness, time-stretched vocal snippets, and complex grooves built out of constantly counterpointing rhythms. Again, these are spaced between delicate halcyon piano ambience, something which at times appears as dinner jazz for the IDM set.
While certain individual tracks flash a programming brilliance cast with his ever-present sideways smirk, easily putting his contemporaries to shame, "Drukqs" as a whole never really finds a direction; nor, does it makes much progression though all of the various electronica agendas. Nevertheless, those of you already cardcarrying members of the Aphex fanclub won't be disappointed.

APHEX TWIN I Care Because You Do (Warp) cd 10.98
Quite possibly Mr. James' best album. Electronic music of the maddest genius kind. Pure twisted brilliance.
MPEG Stream: "Acrid Avid Jam"
MPEG Stream: "Ventolin"

APHEX TWIN Richard D. James (Warp/Sire) cd 12.98
Finally released in the USA, this includes a whole album plus the Girl/Boy e.p. we love so much. Instrumental lovesong features soaring violins & chiming xylophone, comes complete with chorus, tension, progression and melody (yes melody) that -emotes- more than unneccessary lyrics ever could. Richard James' first foray into jungle rhythms is wildly successful in no small part because it FEELS exactly like the best rock song but doesn't sound at all like rock. You know?

APHEX TWIN Richard D. James Album (Warp) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

APHEX TWIN Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (R&S Records) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.