SEABEAR The Ghost That Carried Us Away (Morr Music) cd 16.98
If your dream musical date would be with Postal Service and Pernice Brothers, well, the sweet sounds of Seabear come pretty darn close. Shufflin', soft and breezy pop tunes with shy boy lead vocals and angelic girly backing ones. Sure to please devotees of the Morr Music label, and anyone else whose ears need a snuggle!
MPEG Stream: "Good Morning Scarecrow"
MPEG Stream: "Libraries"

SEBASTIAN Motor Momy Army (Because Music) 12" 13.98
Ed Banger producer, Sebastian, really "revs" things up with this 12". The title track "Motor" is the epitome of rude! If you're tired of wimpy dance music and need something to put some hair on your chest, this is probably the biggest, hardest, grinding, pumping, and almost unbearable (in a good way) tune you could hope for. The jist of it is a sample of a motor revving faster and faster, chopped up, pitched in different ways, and arranged over some pretty sinister drum slappage. You'll either hate it or love it and we here at AQ are eating it up. The other 2 B-side tracks are definitely much more endurable and just as good if not better. "Momy" is actually more of a quintessential disco track compared to Sebastian's common production style, filled with strings, trills, and the normal choppery of course. "Army" sums everything up with Sebastian displaying his usual yet crafty beat trickery, throwing pounding drums mixed with more of that gritty, churning, distorted bass synth that we've always loved from him and the rest of the French Ed Banger family. Awesome!

SECOND DECAY La Decadence Electronique (Dark Entries) lp 17.98
Dark Entries made their debut as a label several months ago with the awesome reissue of the Eleven Pond LP and with that single release we knew we were witnessing the birth of a an awesome reissue label, one with its heart set on finding obscure synth-pop and darkwave and and shining the spotlight on records that never got the love, attention or distribution they deserved the first time around.
Second Decay were a German electronic-pop group who formed in the late 1980's dedicated to the sound of analog synthisizers, the album's back cover proudly remarks 'This album was produced without MIDI. It is dedicated to our beloved synthesizers.' And there is no doubt these guys had deep love for the sounds of synthesizers as they used them to craft very infectious, dark new wave with full on pop chops. While there have been tons of reissues and attention paid to the amazing music that was made in Germany in the 70's it's really cool to see someone digging up some of the gold in a post-Kraftwerk Germany as Second Decay have a sound that brings Neue Deutsche Welle to mind (e.g. Grauzone, Liaisons Dangereuses, etc.) and the more dark tinged blasts of electro-pop that folks like Depeche Mode and The Human League were making on their early records, or even early 80's Cabaret Voilatire, and of course you can tell they were WAY influenced by the mighty Kraftwerk. We also hear a cool similarity to the recently reissued Patrick Cowley & Jorge Socarras record Catholic, which kind of makes perfect sense as the man behind Dark Entries was instrumental in saving and preserving the cache of Cowley tapes from which that record was culled.
With new bands like Cold Cave and Xeno & Oaklander grabbing our attention lately with their awesome updated version of that classic vintage synthwave sound, it's pretty rad and perfect timing to hear a lost classic from folks who were making that sound almost twenty years ago. Limited to just 500 copies all screen printed and with an amazing remastered sound thanks to the work of the legendary George Horn at Fantasy Studios. This will make you want to wear all black and dance all night. Minimal wave/gothpop at its best!
MPEG Stream: "Poisonned Water"
MPEG Stream: "Enclose My Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Laboratorium"

SECONDO A Matter Of Scale (Soul Jazz) cd 21.00

SEEFEEL Quique (Redux Edition) (Too Pure) 2cd 14.98
We made this reissue a Record Of The Week back on list 265... then Too Pure let it go out of print again! But now, wisely, they've just repressed it and we happily have it back in stock. If you missed it before, please read on to find out why picked it as a ROTW:
God, we love this record! We've never stopped loving it. In its fourteen years of existence, it's never sounded tired or dated. Can't say that for a whole lot of other electronica records. So we are really glad to see our good old friend back in print again with this super nice 2cd deluxe re-issue. If you missed this the first time around, then you are in for a real treat, and if you bought this the first time around, you may just need to buy it again to get the whole extra disc of unreleased tracks and alternate mixes. We have been playing this daily since we got it, and we're surprised how many folks have never heard of Seefeel or experienced their incredible ocean of sound.
So what is all the fuss about, you say?
Well, Seefeel at their peak were one of the main players that spawned the nineties electronica genre, at a time when there were only Dance and Rock sections in most music stores. Their sound was a delirious mash-up between the shoe-gazing swirl of My Bloody Valentine, the machinic rhythm programming of Autechre, the ambient chill of Aphex Twin and the driving pulse of Stereolab, with an early hint toward the looping repetitions of William Basinski. They bridged ambient techno and indie rock by foregoing rock music's verse and chorus structures in favor of beats and loops wrapped inside icy motorik rhythms, industrial whirs, blurbs of female vocals and dubby bass lines. Like the best work of minimal composers, Seefeel's long-form compositions create a warmly hypnotic form of static movement that refused to fit neatly into music for either dance floors or chill out lounges.
Quique was their head-turning debut following two EP releases featuring remixes by Aphex Twin. That connection surely gained them a bigger following, but Seefeel was always one of those bands that should have been bigger. Of course such a potent and influential debut would lead to many of their contemporaries, bands such as Bowery Electric, Labradford, Boards Of Canada and Flying Saucer Attack, to take Seefeel's initial explorations in sound further into Post-Rock, Trip Hop, IDM and Neo-Psych territories, leaving Seefeel at a bit of a loss for a follow-up. Signing to Warp, they delved further into a dark ambient direction in the vein of groups like Main, Ice and Scorn, that was just too stark for a wider audience to appreciate. They put out two more albums before splintering off into various side projects such as Scala, Disjecta and Sneakster.
The bonus disc contains six previously unreleased tracks, and three alternate mixes from a limited white label 12" and two ambient compilations. Out of the unreleased tracks, "Clique" sounds like it just barely missed the cut from the original album line-up while "Silent Pool" is a longer version of Quique's closing track "Signals". "My Super 20" and "Is It Now?" are long beat-less swims that are a warmer hint at their future direction and the two other unreleased tracks are versions of opening track "Climatic Phase #3, and "Time to Find Me" from their first EP. It might sound like at first listen that there is some repetition between the two discs, but it's really more in line with classic ambient music's infatuation with the Dub tradition of versioning, the adding or removing of various elements in a song to give it a totally different spin. Each version really does give a different feel even if the basic structures seem similar. Seriously, the second disc is just more of what you love already, and gives us a little more of the stuff we've been missing for ages.
Listening to Quique fourteen years later, it has lost none of its powerful splendor and warmly chilled charm. Add this to the list of favorite one record bands like My Bloody Valentine and Stone Roses. So Amazingly Awesome!!!! Reissue of the year so far and so totally recommended!!!!!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Climatic Phase #3"
MPEG Stream: "Plainsong"
MPEG Stream: "Filter Dub "
MPEG Stream: "Signals"

SEESSELBERG Synthetik 1 (Plate Lunch) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Obscure reissues like this really make our day. This disc brings to light German brothers Eckhart und Wolf-J.'s experiments in instrumental electronic music circa 1971-73, a la early Kraftwerk, Kluster, Conrad Schnitzler, and the Silver Apples... Short, freeky pieces done with home-built synths in some Dusseldorf basement. Give me weirdo D.I.Y. krautrock electronics like this over the output of today's laptop dorks any day!
MPEG Stream: "Overture - Jeder Ist Heutzutage Glucklich"
MPEG Stream: "Speedy Achmed"

SEMIAUTOMATIC s/t (5 Rue Christine) cd 11.98
Rop, ex-Peechees member, has moved to New York where he hones his DJ and turntablist skills as DJ Ropstyle. Semiautomatic features the additional talents of Akiko. Fans of Kid Koala's funny style and ICU/IQU's lo-fi d'n'b will enjoy this.

SENKING 20' to 2000: June (Noton/Raster) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Definitely the 'summer album' for the stellar monthly series of minimalist electronica counting down to the year 2000. Bubbling pulses from banks of little black boxes build sounds that move from pretty drones into dense if rather sedate electronic dub. Senking's twenty minutes share a lot of the same tonalities and structures as Aphex Twin's monumental Selected Ambient Works Volume 2.

SENKING Forge (Raster-Noton) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Continuing his reconstructions of electro found on his previous releases from Raster and Karaoke Kalk, Jens Massel (aka Senking) digitally sanitizes what could easily be vinyl surface noise into elegant post-techno pulsations that are not unlike Pan Sonic's pioneering "Vakio" album. These rhythms with their clusters of pinprick glitchiness relentlessly clatter through out the short 26 minute program, whilst Massel builds feedback tones that shift in density, aggressiveness, and volume. As a whole, the shortened 26 minute program screeches up to a tense crescendo, plunges down to static minimalims, and rebounds through submariner ambience, all the while maintaining a continuous mix of variable rhythms. Quite nice.
Released as a part of the new "Raster-Post" series housed in nice silkscreened, fold-out cardstock folder and bound with an elastic band.

RealAudio clip: "Forge 1"
RealAudio clip: "Forge 2"

SENKING Ping Thaw (Karaoke Kalk) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Senking hails from Cologne, yet has developed an unusual electro-dub technique which is quite the detour from the usual Cologne fair of A-Musik's dadaist humor or Kompakt's techno minimalism. Starting off with rolling bass loops and sleek black ambience, Senking's dub goes so deep as to never really have a bottom, just an enveloping stroboscopic pulsation of bass tones. Jens Massel (aka Senking) has claimed his influences to be both the Aphex Twin's early work and 'Laughing Stock' by Talk Talk, and has left his sound with a spartan abstract way of constructing his pieces. This work culls two vinyl only EPs ("Ping" and "Thaw") on one CD, and predates his amazing "Trial" album for Raster-Noton.

SENKING Tap (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.
Yet another installment in Raster-Noton's similarly sleeved (simple black and silver diecut digipaks, quite nice) and sonically consistent Raster.Post series. Voulme four is the work of Senking and is another beauty (like the Komet elsewhere on this list), helping restore our faith in modern electronica, a genre that has been getting less and less fascinating with every compilation and same-sounding record. Unlike the warm dreaminess of the Komet, this is a much colder beast altogether, more ghostly and spare, chilly and skeletal, with skittery rhythms, glitching and shuffling across an epic expanse of blackness, and rhythmic pulses and ribcage-rattling swells of bass throb supporting almost-melodies that are barely there. Think a more clinical, more abstract, less dub-obsessed Pole, and you start to get the idea. Hard to say why this is so pleasing, but it really is. Quite possibly my favorite electronica record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Stand"
MPEG Stream: "Settle"

SENKING Trial (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.
Raster's conceptualism of electronic, almost utopian purity has some interesting theoretical leanings, but the cold minimalism of Raster/Noton succeeds more often than not through the novelty of subtle melodies and interesting rhythmic patterns. While most of the critical acclaim for Raster / Noton is deserved, they are undoubtably purveyors of The New; and Senking's "Trial" is no different.
With techno and dub each getting the digital deconstruction in the respective work of Thomas Brinkmann and Pole, Senking's work has been emerging as the reductivist reclamation of electro, sounding much like a clinical atomization of Andrea Parker or Depth Charge. Senking's deep grooves of thudding sub-bass plod boldly through the Raster / Noton signature sound of skittering digital errata. Certainly recommended to the already converted... and definitely a good start for any one interested in such things.

SENOR COCONUT Around The World (Nacional Records) cd 13.98
Senor Coconut is back with a new set of party favorites. His endearing covers over the years have included everyone from Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and Sade. This time out he's on a trip around the globe with each song being a cover of an artist from somewhere different in the world. But his eye is clearly on catchy and mostly familiar pop music (Eurythmics, Daft Punk, Telex, etc). Still totally fun and playful but not quite at the level of pure joy and innovative reinterpreting that his prior releases demonstrated. It kind of feels a little phoned in, but still filled with enough winners to keep us smiling.
MPEG Stream: "Around the World (Intro)"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Dreams"
MPEG Stream: "Moscow Discow"

SENOR COCONUT El Baile Aleman (Multicolor) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Few artists' music can guarantee to brighten your days and nights the way Atom Heart (and his numerous aliases) can. Any new release from this fella is received with a huge aQ grin! If you dug the recent Yellow Magic Fever tribute from the always deliriously delightful Senor Coconut and Los Negritos' Speed-Merengue Mega-Mix, you know what we're talking about and you definitely won't wanna miss these freshly reissued earlier Senor Coconut releases including this, his awesome Kraftwerk tribute! Even if you got 'em the first time around, heck, we're sure you know somebody who'd benefit from this festive treat!
Back in 2000, we had this to say about El Baile Aleman: Senor Coconut is actually the guy better known as techno/electronica artist Atom Heart. He's moved to Chile and gone all Latin and groovy on us. However, all the songs on this (high-) concept album are Kraftwerk covers! So this joins a long line of weird and wonderful tributes to Kraftwerk. Soon we'll be able to have a whole bin at Aquarius dedicated to such endeavors: the Balenescu Quartet one, the Terre Thaemlitz one, the one with all the Slovenian acts, the Japanese import one, the Miami Bass one, etc. etc. Anyways, so incredibly executed down to the tiniest detail, this one will sit at the top of the heap! Super duper fun.
MPEG Stream: "The Robots (Cha-Cha-Cha)"
MPEG Stream: "Neon Lights (Cha-Cha-Cha)"

SENOR COCONUT Electrolatino (Emperor Norton) 12" 7.98
It's been awhile since we last heard from Uwe Schmidt's latin playboy alter ego Senor Coconut. Not at all surprising with all of his other personas and projects in the works - Atom Heart, Mambotur, Los Samplers, Geeez'n'Gosh, Roger Tubesound, Disk Orchestra, Midisport and the list goes on! But at long last, here's a small vinyl dose. No Kraftwerk covers here, these are three versions of his effervescent track "Electrolatino" (one of them a DJ Rodriguez remix). Nice.

SENOR COCONUT Gran Baile Con Senor Coconut (Rather Interesting) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We finally got some of the first Senor Coconut cd back in stock: mambo-electronica-fuckery from German cum Chilean Atom Heart. Much more skittery and abrasive than his more recent Kraftwerk covers record, really innovative work that has more staying power without that gimmick. Think V/VM meets Stock, Hausen & Walkman, meets Rancho Relaxo All-Stars. Heavily entrenched in the drill & bass laptop / breakbeat damage employed by Aphex Twin and early Squarepusher, but using samples culled from the rich Cuban traditions of Cha Cha and Mambo. Highly recommended, but be forewarned as we're not sure how many of these are still available.

SENOR COCONUT Gran Baile Con Senor Coconut (Multicolor) cd 16.98
Few artists' music can guarantee to brighten your days and nights the way Atom Heart (and his numerous aliases) can. Any new release from this fella is received with a huge aQ grin! If you dug the recent Yellow Magic Fever tribute from the always deliriously delightful Senor Coconut and Los Negritos' Speed-Merengue Mega-Mix, you know what we're talking about and you definitely won't wanna miss these freshly reissued earlier Senor Coconut releases including his awesome Kraftwerk tribute El Baile Aleman! Even if you got 'em the first time around, heck, we're sure you know somebody who'd benefit from this festive treat!
Back in 2000, we had this to say about Gran Baile Con Senor Coconut: Mambo-electronica-fuckery from German cum Chilean Atom Heart. Much more skittery and abrasive than his more recent Kraftwerk covers record, really innovative work that has more staying power without that gimmick. Think V/VM meets Stock, Hausen & Walkman, meets Rancho Relaxo All-Stars. Heavily entrenched in the drill & bass laptop / breakbeat damage employed by Aphex Twin and early Squarepusher, but using samples culled from the rich Cuban traditions of Cha Cha and Mambo. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Chocolatina (Guaguanco Libre)"
MPEG Stream: "Suavito (Jive Eclectico)"

SENOR COCONUT Yellow Fever (Essay Recordings) cd 16.98
A German electronic artist living in Chile doing samba versions of Japanese electro-pop pioneers Yellow Magic Orchestra. Well it would only sound absurd if it were anyone else but the ever so loveable Senor Coconut. With him, it's a no brainer. After paying homage to Kraftwerk on the now classic and sadly out of print disc El Baile Aleman, and exploring all sorts of covers on his instant party hit "Fiesta Songs". This carries on in the same fun samba-with-a-twist spirit of those recordings while actually featuring all three members of Yellow Magic Orchestra at different points throughout the record. Also making appearances are members of Mouse on Mars, Deee-Lite and Nouvelle Vague. Senor Coconut has proven himself to be some sort of a hipster Les Baxter for his generation. Appropriating other musical cultures, with tongue in cheek and earnest respect living side by side. Most of all he continues to provide some playful fun to a world that is often all too serious for its own good.
MPEG Stream: "Yellow Magic"
MPEG Stream: "The Madmen"

SENOR COCONUT AND HIS ORCHESTRA Fiesta Songs (Emperor Norton) cd 17.98
Uwe Schmidt returns with another Senor Coconut record to tickle our ears. If you're not familiar with the chameleonlike Schmidt, these are just a few of the other aliases he's recorded as: Los Samplers (Perez Prado drill n' bass), XXX (Atom with Chilean rapper Tea Time), Midisport (Brazilian samba gets the midi hatchet), Bund Deutscher Programmierer (refried laptops a la Mille Plateaux), The Roger Tubesound Ensemble ("digital jazz" in Atom's own words). Wow!
Senor Coconut is where Schmidt works out his love for samba, the cha cha cha, merengue, etc, and to make it more fun for him, he likes to cover the most unlikely tracks. Here we've got tracks by Sade, the Doors, Elton John, even Jean Michel Jarre. Unfortunately there's also a Michael Jackson cover ("Beat It") which, of course, instantly calls to mind Weird Al and now I can't seem to listen to this record anymore without picturing the videos for 'Eat It', 'Fat' or 'Another One Rides The Bus'. Very fun, but you might want to start with the Senor's Kraftwerk tribute, El Baile Aleman. That one we can recommend start to finish.
MPEG Stream: "Riders on the Storm"
MPEG Stream: "Oxygene (Part III)"

SENOR COCONUT Y SU CONJUNTO El Baile Aleman (Emperor Norton) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Senor Coconut is actually the guy better known as techno/electronica artist Atom Heart. He's moved to Chile and gone all Latin and groovy on us. However, all the songs on this (high-) concept album are Kraftwerk covers! So this joins a long line of weird and wonderful tributes to Kraftwerk. Soon we'll be able to have a whole bin at Aquarius dedicated to such endeavors: the Balenescu Quartet one, the Terre Thaemlitz one, the one with all the Slovenian acts, the Japanese import one, the Miami Bass one, etc. etc. Anyways, so incredibly executed down to the tiniest detail, this one will sit at the top of the heap! Super duper fun.
RealAudio clip: "Tour de France"

SENSATIONAL & SPECTRE Acid & Bass (Wordsound) cd 11.98
We first got a teaser for this long promised full length matchup way back in 2002 on the Spectre record Parts Unknown, which featured super stoned rapper Sensational on 4 tracks, and it was solid gold, Spectre's creepy ominous dubscapes, and Sensational's mushmouthed mumble, twisted, druggy, off kilter and so good.
So who should come by Aquarius just now, but Spectre himself, dropping off this latest disc, a full length showdown / match up / tag team, and it's just as good as those 4 tracks from way back when. Seems like Spectre has dialed back the sinister, instead crafting some very Sensational appropriate tracks, loopy and loping, twisted and stuttery, muted and abstract, clipped and cracking, the perfect bed for Sensational to lay down his drugged out stream of consciousness fffffflow, woozy, warped and warbly, strings sing, horns bleat, a skeletal beat skitters, weaving an almost Hitchcock sounding backdrop for some drawled genius. Slowed down vocals, demonic and growly (remember those from Spectre records?) ooze over some crunchy stabs and some hiccupping beats, lazer fire from some sci-fi movie wraps around a hazy Wu-worthy should sample, looped Led Zep gives way to pizzicatto strings and looped birdsong, Spectre has always been a beat master, and this disc proves he's only gotten better, how come he's not doing beats for the big guys, if we were Kanye or Jay-Z or 50 Cent and heard this shit, we'd get Spectre up to the compound and get him crafting beats PRONTO. And along those same lines, why does everyone want T-Pain and Lil' Wayne to guest on their records? Hell, can you imagine some MTV hip hop jam breaking down into a cough syrup trudge and Sensational strolling out rapping some unintelligable weirdness into a pair of headphones? If only...
MPEG Stream: "The Way I Like"
MPEG Stream: "The Boom"
MPEG Stream: "Rip Like This"
MPEG Stream: "Boom Bash Shit"

SENSATIONAL MEETS KOUHEI s/t (Wordsound Recordings) cd 14.98
Dunno why we've taken so long to get around to listing this... not 'cause it's not cool. It is! Our favorite stoned (really stoned) sounding rapper teams up with a Japanese electronic noise dude!!

SHABOTINSKI (b)ypass (k)ill (Plag Dich Nicht / Charhiszma) cd 16.98
Shabotinski is the oddball Viennese electronica work from Christoph Kurzmann (from Orchestra 33 1/3) and Dafeldecker. Oval like digital skittering produce subtle melodic episodes linking irony laden jazz-electronica-pop medleys ususally found on Cheap Records. The song fragments sound remarkably similar to the electronic facets of Six Finger Satellite, if they had a sultry trumpet player meandering over the post Kraftwerk / Section 25 drum machines.

SHABOTINSKI Stenimals (Plag Dich Nicht) cd 16.98
Working from a similar blueprint as Tortoise, Shabotinski uses the studio as an instrument to warp and mutate the basic rock/jazz structure. Yet, the dissonant grinding tones so familiar to Mego's brand of electronica saves this from sounding like Tortoise, their offshoots or their disciples.

SHACKLETON Three EPs (Perlon) cd 17.98
For the dubstep obsessed among us, especially those of us who aren't scouring DJ shops for white labels and limited 12"s, this collection is a godsend. Gathering up, as the title suggests, 3 eps from one of our favorite dubsteppers, Shackleton, who faithful aQ-ers probably remember from the Skull Disco collections, the Steppas' Delight comps and the recent split with Mordant Music. The music of Shackleton is not just your regular old dubstep, it's super lush and expansive, skittery and groovy, dark and haunting, and these jams are no different.
Spare and skeletal, yet impossibly full and dense, minimal on the melodies as well as the beats, these eps are super stripped down, even by Shackleton standards, these tracks are not as bass heavy as you might imagine, more light and ethereal, not light in spirit, but in sound, the vibe is still dark and mysterious.
The strange vocal snippets in "(No More) Negative Thoughts", the twisted woozy melodies and stuttery hand claps on "It's Time For Love", the cool tabla laced drift of "Mountains Of Ashes", the super dark and noisy droniness of "There's A Slow Train Coming", which is about as sinister as it gets here, the record is jam packed with cool stark beats, and all sorts of moody melody and bleak ambience, culminating in the closer "Something Has Got To Give", with it's chopped up vox, creepy processed laughter, koto style strings, shimmering minor key drones and the brittle barely there beat, it's almost like a dubstep soundtrack for a lost giallo, malevolent and cinematic and seriously sinister!
MPEG Stream: "(No More) Negative Thoughts"
MPEG Stream: "Mountains Of Ashes"
MPEG Stream: "Asha In The Tabernacle"

SHACKLETON / HEADHUNTERS / T++ The Unofficial Mixes Of Moderat Pt #1 (50 Weapons) 12" 14.98

SHADOW, DJ Best Of Mo' Wax 12's: The DJ Shadow Collection (Mo Wax) cd 17.98
A nice reminder of why we love DJ Shadow comes in the form of this best of Mo' Wax Singles compilation that culls together all of his groundbreaking early sides and remixes that put the London-based label on the map. Spanning the years 1993-2000, some of the tracks are alternative versions of material from Endtroducing, and Pre-emptive Strike but also included are the Dark Days Soundtrack single and a handful of remixes, among them Depeche Mode, Folk Implosion, Massive Attack, and Blackalicious. It's cool to have all these tracks compiled together, sort of like a beloved old friend we haven't seen in ages.
MPEG Stream: "High Noon"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Days"
MPEG Stream: "Natural One (Folk Implosion Remix)"

SHADOW, DJ Endtroducing (MoWax) cd 14.98
Amazing.

SHADOW, DJ Endtroducing - Deluxe Edition (Universal) 2cd 30.00
Believe it or not, one of our fave albums and all-time best sellers, Josh "DJ Shadow" Davis' seminal Endtroducing debut, currently only has a one-word review on our website. Certainly it deserves more than that. Although, at least the word we chose is "amazing". The album's original release on MoWax in 1996 (almost ten years ago!!) more or less predated our obsessive reviewing schedule, so like quite a few other classics it never got its multi-paragraph due on our new arrivals list. And chances are, we figured that listing it our our site with the simple "amazing" recommendation was enough, 'cause it's hard to imagine that everyone hadn't heard of/heard/bought a copy by now. But since, after all, we still sell it steadily, clearly there must be those as yet to discover it. Now, with the release of a double disc digipack "deluxe" edition in a plastic slipcase (a treatment afforded by the same label to the likes of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, by the way, making this something of an honor for DJ Shadow!), we have the perfect excuse to basically take a few hundred words to say "amazing" again! Shadow's masterpiece (disc one, "The Album") is a brillant example of hip hop DJ-as-composer, sample-based songwriting, a mostly instrumental suite of songs built entirely from sounds, hooks and grooves sourced from the depths of Shadow's extensive record collection. He didn't invent the idea, of course, but he did do it better than almost anyone before (or after!) him, garnering for himself worldwide fame and heaps of deserved critical praise.
And even if you scratch (heh) your head when we talk about turntablists and sampling, rest assured that, process aside, this is a great album that transcends genre tags and easy categorization. It's dark, dramatic, bright, hip-hop, soul, and jazz. It is very accessible. Shadow picked cool samples (like the Pugh Rogefeldt bit that helped us sell a ton of reissued cds by that particular Swedish '60s psych-folkster so recently) AND also turned these samples utterly into his own, new music. Music that's groovy and moody and challenging, never all that easy to figure out, and not at all about turntablist hi-jinx or trickery, just about careful listening and the love of all kinds of old LPs!! Cut Chemist, in the liner notes, is quoted as calling DJ Shadow "The King Of Digging" and vinyl collecting/crate digging for sure is celebrated by Endtroducing, from the famous cover shot of the racks in the vast Sacramento shop simply called Records to the grooves reborn within. As Shadow himself put it: "this album reflects a lifetime of vinyl culture". He never topped it (opinions here were mixed about his many-years-later follow-up The Private Press in 2002) and probably never will. Not that anyone else has either! So if you don't have it already, what the heck are you waiting for? And to further underscore the point that this a great and important album, we're told that there's a book in the 33 1/3 Series coming out about it soon too!
Then there's disc two, what (aside from the packaging, which includes a booket of photos, essays, and track notes from Shadow himself) makes this a "deluxe" reissue. Disc two, entitled "Excessive Ephemera", features a slew of Endtroducing-era cuts -- alternate takes, demos, remixes, and a live radio performance. In addition to a few tracks that made it out on now-out-of-print MoWax singles, a bunch of these are unheard-before, work-in-progress versions of tracks from the album, so as bonus material this is more about providing insight into the creation of Endtroducing and less about any long-lost tracks that shoulda been on the album. It is kind of a way to listen to Endtroducing again with new ears. And it's nice to have the "extended overhaul" of the all-too-brief album track "Organ Donor", a mix that Shadow created expressly for James Lavelle's DJ use. So, a lot of added value for all Shadow fans who want to pick this up again and re-enter the world of Entroducing.
Amazing.
MPEG Stream: "Mutual Slump"
MPEG Stream: "Midnight In A Perfect World"

SHADOW, DJ The Outsider (Universal) cd 15.98
Not sure if the title of DJ Shadow's new production refers to himself or the listener, but there's no doubt there is something schizophrenically off-kilter here, and the jury is still out on whether this is a successful quality or merely a string of increasingly bad ideas. Chock full of guest appearances (mostly guest rappers-never a good sign!) including
local hyphy hip hop stars, Keak da Sneak and Turf Talk, Christina Carter from Charalambides and Chris James from Stateless doing his most earnest Chris Martin/Bono/Thom Yorke imitations. While the consensus from most of us here is that The Outsider as a whole is better than Shadow's last outing, The Private Press, what's missing here is that killer single track that makes the whole worthwhile. That said, we'll give Josh Davis the benefit of the doubt that The Outsider is definitely a grower with patient listeners reaping the most rewards from his erratic multiple personae.
MPEG Stream: "3 Freaks"
MPEG Stream: "Artifact"
MPEG Stream: "Erase You"

SHADOW, DJ The Private Press (MCA) cd 17.98
DJ Shadow's second full length is finally here, and I do believe I (Windy) am the only AQ-er who likes it. Well, Jim thinks it's ok, but the general consensus 'twixt my colleagues is that the rest of the field has caught up to him, and he hasn't hitched up his britches to keep ahead of the herd. Hmm. I disagree. Certainly The Private Press is no Endtroducing (his acclaimed debut full length), but neither should it be. It's a lot more accessible and crowdpleasing than the debut, the layers aren't as impenetrably mysterious, and yeah, it requires less work to like it (i.e. not as challenging). But there's nuthin' wrong with that. He's keeping it interesting for himself. The Private Press is a likable, listenable (might we even say, at times lighthearted?) trip. It's got everything from the moody arpeggiated piano lines that're DJ Shadow's signature, soul divas, sad minor key laments, funny Cut Chemist / Kid Koala-style spoken bits, super epic percussive climaxes, and an all over hip hop flavor. And the heartbreakingly sincere audio letters that bracket the album are incredibly well chosen, framing the songs as an emotional musical narrative. *Very* well done.
We have to wonder, though, why he used that old "pure energy" sample. Why don't ya just throw in "I got the power!" too? Not to mention the overused tired, sad android voice (y'know just like the one Radiohead used).
Cup sez: We had a DJ Shadow 12" here a little while ago, and I thought one of its tracks sounded as if he'd just plugged in his Playstation 2 system and recorded the sounds of someone playing the game REZ. If you're at all familiar with the game you'll undoubtedly find the Shadow track ringing familiar too. REZ is basically a shooter game, but with an astounding combination of rave-ready sounds and gorgeously trippy visuals - both of which are manipulated by your performance. Oh yeah, and the level bosses are pretty spectacular. Stunningly beautiful and deluxe fun! Really, you could just project the game action on a wall, pump the sounds through a bad-ass sound system, and *POOF!* instant party. Anyways, that track is included here too. And it sticks out like a sore thumb which makes the REZ theory all the more plausible!
RealAudio clip: "Fixed Income"
RealAudio clip: "Monosylabik"
RealAudio clip: "Giving Up The Ghost"
RealAudio clip: "Blood On The Motorway"

SHADOW, DJ The Private Press (MCA) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We finally got some copies of the vinyl version of the new Shadow album. Here's what Windy wrote about the cd a month ago:
DJ Shadow's second full length is finally here, and I do believe I (Windy) am the only AQ-er who likes it. Well, Jim thinks it's ok, but the general consensus 'twixt my colleagues is that the rest of the field has caught up to him, and he hasn't hitched up his britches to keep ahead of the herd. Hmm. I disagree. Certainly The Private Press is no Endtroducing (his acclaimed debut full length), but neither should it be. It's a lot more accessible and crowdpleasing than the debut, the layers aren't as impenetrably mysterious, and yeah, it requires less work to like it (i.e. not as challenging). But there's nuthin' wrong with that. He's keeping it interesting for himself. The Private Press is a likable, listenable (might we even say, at times lighthearted?) trip. It's got everything from the moody arpeggiated piano lines that're DJ Shadow's signature, soul divas, sad minor key laments, funny Cut Chemist / Kid Koala-style spoken bits, super epic percussive climaxes, and an all over hip hop flavor. And the heartbreakingly sincere audio letters that bracket the album are incredibly well chosen, framing the songs as an emotional musical narrative. *Very* well done.
And now for my co-workers to have their say:
We have to wonder, though, why he used that old "pure energy" sample. Why don't ya just throw in "I got the power!" too? Not to mention the overused tired, sad android voice (y'know just like the one Radiohead used).
RealAudio clip: "Fixed Income"
RealAudio clip: "Monosylabik"
RealAudio clip: "Giving Up The Ghost"
RealAudio clip: "Blood On The Motorway"

SHADOWHUNTAZ Valley Of The Shadow (Skam) cd 15.98
It's been so long since we had some crazy crew of brain meelting tongue twisting outer space hip hop visionaries. Disconnected rhymes, sputtering, glitched out beats, total mind melting confusional free funk freakouts. For a while Antipop Consortium were pushing the envelope, Anticon definitely have their own avant angle. But we've been hankering for someone like Kool Keith. Paging Dr. Octagon. We want some damaged stuttery beats, warped warbly synths and fuzzy glitched out grzzzzt. Most importantly, some maddening slurred, drug drenched, space age, conspiracy theory WHATTHEFUCK flows. Maybe that's why we've been leaning toward Grime so much lately. It just feels so much more dangerous and fucked up and unconcerned with hip hop convention. But now we've got the Shadowhuntaz. A rogue band of futuristic hip hop explorers, who mix the perplexing sci fi / high as fuck mush mouthed ramblings of Dr. Octagon with the glitched out hip hopped electronic squelch and thud, skitter and skid, slowed down IDM beatscapes of Antipop (they are on Skam after all) into a fucking killer trip hop skittery groove. The beats, hiccup and slither, bounce and bump, the music is a claustrophobic swirl of haunting loops, weird industrial clatter, moaning drones, and all sorts of production fuckery, effects swirl and shift, vocals are chopped and looped, skipping samples, warm washes of ambient whir, and then there's the vocals, all different and distinct, some laid back and stoned as fuck, some amped up and rapid fire, all dense with incredible tales of this or that, all sort of druggy and tripped out. Plus there's some totally fucked up scratching, little snatches of DJ freakout, but those scratchfests are run through the Shadowhuntaz supercomputer and spit out the other side a careening chaotic crush of chopped up, impossibly complex textural collages of scratch detritus, like they dropped 3 or 4 DJ's, wildly scratching and tearing shit up, into a huge blender, and then sprayed the resulting funk flecked gore funk all over these tracks.
Funky, fucked up, freaked out, cool and creepy and quite possibly contender for hip hop record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "2020"
MPEG Stream: "Massive"

SHANKAR, ANANDA Thoth to Eros (Bombay Beat) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Subtitled "The Best of Ananda Shankar", this is long overdue (the original LPs command hundreds of dollars) material from Ravi's brother. Completely whacked out psychedelic sitar music, albeit a little cheesier (he covers "Jumpin Jack Flash") but sometimes a lot weirder and more experimental than brother Ravi. Supposedly comes with CD-ROM visuals.

SHANKAR, ANANDA, EXPERIENCE, THE & STATE OF BENGAL Walking On (Real World) cd 16.98
Ananda Shankar (RIP) met up in '99 with British "Asian Underground" DJ State of Bengal for this sitar-funk-electronica session. Indeed an "illustrious cult figure in the secret history of pop culture", Shankar was famed for his East-meets-West psychedelic pop experiments decades ago, and this is a fun and fitting finale to his career. If you were into the "Untouchable Outcaste Beats" comp (which featured an old Shankar track alongside folks from the new Asian/UK DJ scene) and/or are a fan of the likes of Talvin Singh, you should check this out.

SHE-SATELLITES Poison Lips (Geist) cd 21.00
She-Satellites is the pseudonym for Atari Teenage Riot's noise programmer Nic Endo, whose second solo album (the first being Nic Endo's 'White Heat' on Digital Hardcore) reflects a more adventurous approach to noise and beats than her contributions in Atari Teenage Riot. The interplay between the digitized tones has an antiquated feel of the electronic music composers of the 60s (sounding very much like Arne Nordheim or Vladimir Ussachevsky) and accompanies a start-n-stop array of crunchy breakbeats. 'At its frequent best, 'Poison Lips' restores frissons of pleasure to noise zones, where punishment beatings had become the rule.' - Biba Kopf / The Wire

SHE-SATELLITES Poison Lips (Geist) lp 15.98
She-Satellites is the pseudonym for Atari Teenage Riot's noise programmer Nic Endo, whose second solo album (the first being Nic Endo's 'White Heat' on Digital Hardcore) reflects a more adventurous approach to noise and beats than her contributions in Atari Teenage Riot. The interplay between the digitized tones has an antiquated feel of the electronic music composers of the 60s (sounding very much like Arne Nordheim or Vladimir Ussachevsky) and accompanies a start-n-stop array of crunchy breakbeats. 'At its frequent best, 'Poison Lips' restores frissons of pleasure to noise zones, where punishment beatings had become the rule.' - Biba Kopf / The Wire

SHINING Grindstone (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
The previous Rune Grammofon album from Norwegian electronica/jazz outfit Shining (2005's In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster) we liked quite a bit -- and sold quite a few copies of as well. But we don't remember it being quite as hard and heavy as this new disc! Some of this is almost industrial-metal, seriously. Herky-jerky rhythms one moment, sheer droning heaviness the next, with moody male and female vox amidst the instrumental/electronic onslaught. This has a sinister circusiness that makes you think that Mike Patton (Fantomas/Faith No More/etc.) must somehow be involved, though of course he's not. Doubtless he'd like how spunky, brassy, swirly, and dark this is, and that Shining haven't lost their any of their intense cinematic Morricone-ish sensibility.
MPEG Stream: "In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster"
MPEG Stream: "Psalm"
MPEG Stream: "Fight Dusk With Dawn"

SHINING PATH, THE Chocolate Gasoline (Holy Mountain) 12" 13.98
Latest release from Holy Mountain, a new 12" from The Shining Path, the duo of Ilya Monosov, and Preston Swirnoff. We've dug pretty much everything we've gotten our hands on so far, and this 12" is no different. Well, actually it is, sort of.
And no we don't mean it's different as in we don't dig it, but no, as in it sounds WAY different than other SP releases. Where as other records were overdriven dubbed out druggy psych rock, Chocolate Gasoline has a bit of, well, a sort of calypso vibe mixed into their usual psychedelic stew. It's really strange, sort of sleazy sounding, WAY tripped out, but we still love it.
Stripped down percussion, moaning reverbed guitar, blown out FX drenched leads, strange vocals, that almost sound like Jamaican style toasting, and that calypso vibe. It continues on through most of the record, occasionally interrupted by dubbed out rhythms, clouds of electronic glitch, all dizzy and druggy, it actually sounds a bit like this: imagine the house band in some dark dingy calypso bar, a bar you just stumbled into after being heavily dosed with LSD, everything spinning and twisting into freaky shapes, the band jamming in the corner, begins to lift off the ground, their sounds becoming colors, the bar fading until just you and the band are standing on some other planet, watching the Earth melt in the background while the band jams on, and the little rock you're on drifts closer and closer to the sun.
Packaged in an eye popping 12" style sleeve, all reds and blues and yellows, just begging for some 3-D glasses!

SHINING, THE In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
Ah Rune Grammofon, what have you for us today? Another enticing digipacked cd of course, this one from a band called Shining, from Norway (but not to be confused with the black metal Shining from Sweden). What be they if not black metal? Hmm, let's listen...good grief, dunno the genre for this even...it's jazz we guess...of sorts. Powerful and freaky and technological. Lead by Jorgen Munkby (ex-Jaga Jazzist, as is the Shining's keyboardist) who plays (on here) everything from sax to accordion to church organ to guitar to mellotron to synths, and does drum programming too. But Shining is a five-piece band so as multi-instrumental as Jorgen is, he's doesn't have to do it all at once. And they leave the tubular bells to a guest musician. So, you get the idea that there's potentially a lot going on. The requiste Kim Hiorthoy cover art, which kinda looks like a blown-to-bits website, implies as much. The ten tracks here veer from booming bombast to melodic moodiness. Energetic ADD explosions of horns and percussion are calmed with weird wordless vocal parts, rhythmic frenzies give way to eerie grooves, and the players' jazz chops are chopped up. There's plenty of tension, and release, let's say! Just imagine some hotshot jazz guys gone on a dark, cinematic bender, unhealthily obsessed with Carl Stalling cartoon scores and arty prog rock and all possibilities of modern electronics. Your ears will feel fully exercised (and dare we say delighted) after a session with Shining. Very cool.
MPEG Stream: "Goretex Weather Report"
MPEG Stream: "Aleister Explains Everything"
MPEG Stream: "The Smoking Dog"

SHIPP, MATTHEW Nu Bop (Thirsty Ear) cd 16.98
Here's another new one from the prolific, AQ-fave jazz pianist Matthew Shipp, another entry in Thirsty Ear's forward-looking, Shipp-curated "Blue Series".
The futuristic jazz found on "Nu Bop" is quite similar to David S. Ware's recent "Corridors & Parallels", which featured three of the players found here: Shipp, bassist extraordinare William Parker, and drummer Guillermo E. Brown. On "Nu Bop", Daniel Carter handles sax & flute, and someone named FLAM is responsible for synths and programming (leaving Shipp to his customary piano, instead of the keyboards he played on the Ware disc). This group has produced a unique, enjoyable mix of electronic beats and droney synth atmospheres, and up-tempo, uh, "nu-bop" jazziness. The album's sci-fi theme is reflected in the somewhat hokey track titles, like "Space Shipp", "X-Ray", "Rocket Shipp", and "ZX-1". As with other Blue Series offerings (like that great Spring Heel Jack "Masses" disc from last year), these hybrid jazz/electronica experiments are both good places for the jazz-curious modern music listener to begin exploring, and for the avant-jazz-centric to branch out. The future sound of jazz? We'll leave that for others to debate. We just hope that Shipp doesn't take it *too* far (no DJ remix disc please!!).
RealAudio clip: "Rocket Shipp"
RealAudio clip: "Nu Abstract"

SHITMAT Full English Breakfest (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
We've said it once, we'll say it again, we CAN NOT get enough jungle. Especially the mutant strain of spastic junglized, hard raga drill and bass practiced by folks like The Bug, Kid 606 and of course Shitmat. And if we had to pick, Shitmat would most likely be our pick of the bunch. Amazing programming, keeping enough of that classic cheesy drum and bass sound to satisfy our nostalgia, but fucking it up just enough to hit the spot for those of us always in need of a head spinning, ear shredding blast of complete jungle mayhem. The first Shitmat record was just multiple versions of the same song albeit all drastically different, but it's still a huge thrill to finally get a new record of all new (well new in their current form, ya know?) songs. And blessed be, it's even weirder, funnier and harder than the first one. Originally released on 5 separate 12"s, this disc collects almost all of the tracks (one from each 12" was left off jsut to piss us off, but that's okay, we still have been spinning this like crazy). Just like the first album, this collection is a massive buzzing electrified briarpatch of ultra complex drum and bass, huge booming low end and sliced and diced hard ragga. Highlights of Full English Breakfast include the track "Day O," where Shitmat takes the "Banana Boat Song" and turns it inside out and shreds it to ribbons adding crashing amen breaks and booming low end, "There's No Business Like Propa' Rungleclotted Mashup Bizznizz," a totally fucked up take on Irving Berlin's classic show tune, and "Dis Dancehall Ting...", a chopped up, and junglized version of Aled Jones' "Walking In The Air", junglizing tunes by The Archers, Trisha and the Blue Peter theme, and loads more rumbling, pummelling raga dancehall gabber jungle dancefloor destroyers. WE FUCKING LOVE THIS STUFF!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "UK Swampcore Sucks"
MPEG Stream: "Night Of The Scorpion Scumland Riders"
MPEG Stream: "Dubplate Murder Sound"

SHITMAT Full English Breakfest Volume 1 (Planet Mu) 12" 8.98
We went on and on about the Shitmat record a few lists back. A massive buzzing electrified briars patch of ultra complex drum and bass, huge booming low end and sliced and diced hard ragga. So fucking good!! One of Andee's favorite records of the year by a longshot. So we were super psyched for this new series of five limited 12"s. Be forewarned, these 12"s are being reissued on cd eventually, but one track on each 12" will NOT be on the cd, and those are FIVE tracks you CAN NOT live without!!
Volume One is jam packed with that booming buzzing, speaker shredding old school jungle, new school drill and bass we love so much! FUCK YEAH!!

SHITMAT Full English Breakfest Volume 2 (Planet Mu) 12" 8.98
We went on and on about the Shitmat record a few lists back. A massive buzzing electrified briars patch of ultra complex drum and bass, huge booming low end and sliced and diced hard ragga. So fucking good!! One of Andee's favorite records of the year by a longshot. So we were super psyched for this new series of five limited 12"s. Be forewarned, these 12"s are being reissued on cd eventually, but one track on each 12" will NOT be on the cd, and those are FIVE tracks you CAN NOT live without!!
Volume two features the track "Day O," during which Shitmat takes the "Banana Boat Song" and turns it inside out and shreds it to ribbons adding crashing amen breaks and booming low end. Plus four more tracks of rolling pounding, stuttering drum and bass madness.

SHITMAT Full English Breakfest Volume 4 (Planet Mu) 12" 8.98
We went on and on about the Shitmat record a few lists back. A massive buzzing electrified briars patch of ultra complex drum and bass, huge booming low end and sliced and diced hard ragga. So fucking good!! One of Andee's favorite records of the year by a longshot. So we were super psyched for this new series of five limited 12"s. Be forewarned, these 12"s are being reissued on cd eventually, but one track on each 12" will NOT be on the cd, and those are FIVE tracks you CAN NOT live without!!
Another blast of all orignal (well, you know...) rumbling, pummelling raga dancehall gabber jungle insanity. Set your speakers for stun!

SHITMAT Full English Breakfest Volume 5 (Planet Mu) 12" 8.98
We went on and on about the Shitmat record a few lists back. A massive buzzing electrified briars patch of ultra complex drum and bass, huge booming low end and sliced and diced hard ragga. So fucking good!! One of Andee's favorite records of the year by a longshot. So we were super psyched for this new series of five limited 12"s. Be forewarned, these 12"s are being reissued on cd eventually, but one track on each 12" will NOT be on the cd, and those are FIVE tracks you CAN NOT live without!!
On the final volume, Shitmat indulges his goofy side (much like on his recent cd) by covering and junglizing tunes by The Archers, Trisha and the Blue Peter theme, as well as another 4 tracks of huge ragga dancehall gabber brutality. We can never get enough of this stuff!!!

SHITMAT Full English BreakfestVolume 3 (Planet Mu) 12" 8.98
We went on and on about the Shitmat record a few lists back. A massive buzzing electrified briars patch of ultra complex drum and bass, huge booming low end and sliced and diced hard ragga. So fucking good!! One of Andee's favorite records of the year by a longshot. So we were super psyched for this new series of five limited 12"s. Be forewarned, these 12"s are being reissued on cd eventually, but one track on each 12" will NOT be on the cd, and those are FIVE tracks you CAN NOT live without!!
Volume three's standout numbers are "There's No Business Like Propa' Rungleclotted Mashup Bizznizz," a totally fucked up take on Irving Berlin's classic show tune, and "Dis Dancehall Ting...", chopped up, and junglized version of Aled Jones' "Walking In The Air" as well as two other dancefloor destroyers.

SHITMAT Grooverider (Planet Mu) cd 14.98

SHITMAT Hang The DJ (Wrong) cd 15.98
We love Shitmat. A lot! As any regular reader of the AQ list must realize by now. But this new one sort of threw us for a loop. Shitmat was our go to guy for that blasting old school nineties heavy ragga jungle, bass bin rattling drum and bass, with super blown out synths, buzzing bass, and those hyper charged drum breaks. As we've said before, it's one of those sounds that we could listen to FOREVER.
Well, Hang The DJ starts off from a whole different angle. With a more mash-up vibe going on. In fact, the first few tracks could pass for Girl Talk tracks, with their million bits and pieces all cobbled together into a head spinning pop culture dance floor concoction. Well, once we got over our initial shock, we started to really dig it, sure it wasn't what we were expecting, but damn if it wasn't kicking our asses. Furious and freaky, skittering skipping and completely brilliantly baffling. Classic pop songs, old diva standards, heavy metal guitars, snippets of hip hop, and pretty much everything else under the sun. It began to almost sound like Girl Talk crossed with Venetian Snares. But the more we listened, the more we could hear the Shitmat sound. A bit obscured and all tangled up in there, but still that same cheeky sense of humor and flair for killer stuttery beats.
But about halfway through the disc something happened. The jungle returned, subtly at first, but soon, we were in full on dance floor destroying ragga jungle heaven, killer toasting, gnarled Amen breaks sliced and diced, huge drops, massive slabs of synth bass, some full on bursts of hardcore gabber...
And then before we knew it, it was gone, and we were back to stuttering skittering mash-ups, but suddenly it all made more sense. The next time through, those opening mash-ups sounded perfect butted up against those wild jungle tracks, and the jungle bits perfectly segued into the million-sample-a-minute freakouts, and all of a sudden, it seemed like we just might have ourselves a new fucked up electronic sort-of-jungle mash-up dance record....
MPEG Stream: "Badman And Robin'"
MPEG Stream: "Bloodclot Jungle Techno!"
MPEG Stream: "Jesus Was A Raver"

SHITMAT Hang The DJ (Wrong) lp 22.00
We love Shitmat. A lot! As any regular reader of the AQ list must realize by now. But this new one sort of threw us for a loop. Shitmat was our go to guy for that blasting old school nineties heavy ragga jungle, bass bin rattling drum and bass, with super blown out synths, buzzing bass, and those hyper charged drum breaks. As we've said before, it's one of those sounds that we could listen to FOREVER.
Well, Hang The DJ starts off from a whole different angle. With a more mash-up vibe going on. In fact, the first few tracks could pass for Girl Talk tracks, with their million bits and pieces all cobbled together into a head spinning pop culture dance floor concoction. Well, once we got over our initial shock, we started to really dig it, sure it wasn't what we were expecting, but damn if it wasn't kicking our asses. Furious and freaky, skittering skipping and completely brilliantly baffling. Classic pop songs, old diva standards, heavy metal guitars, snippets of hip hop, and pretty much everything else under the sun. It began to almost sound like Girl Talk crossed with Venetian Snares. But the more we listened, the more we could hear the Shitmat sound. A bit obscured and all tangled up in there, but still that same cheeky sense of humor and flair for killer stuttery beats.
But about halfway through the disc something happened. The jungle returned, subtly at first, but soon, we were in full on dance floor destroying ragga jungle heaven, killer toasting, gnarled Amen breaks sliced and diced, huge drops, massive slabs of synth bass, some full on bursts of hardcore gabber...
And then before we knew it, it was gone, and we were back to stuttering skittering mash-ups, but suddenly it all made more sense. The next time through, those opening mash-ups sounded perfect butted up against those wild jungle tracks, and the jungle bits perfectly segued into the million-sample-a-minute freakouts, and all of a sudden, it seemed like we just might have ourselves a new fucked up electronic sort-of-jungle mash-up dance record....
MPEG Stream: "Badman And Robin'"
MPEG Stream: "Bloodclot Jungle Techno!"
MPEG Stream: "Jesus Was A Raver"