BELL Seven Types Of Six (Soul Jazz) cd 18.98
You might be more familiar with this label for their awesome string of reggae, soul, funk, disco and post-punk re-issues and compilations, but every now and again they'll toss into the mix a release by a current artist. This time it's the second full length from UK electro-funk artist Bell. Seven Types Of Six contains a dozen tweaked and bloopy electronic tracks with chopped up soul vocals, an unwavering 4/4 beat, and lots of analog synth, video game-y accents. Check out the very Playstation2 REZesque third track... it's almost like he just recorded himself playing the game (this is the same sneaking suspicion we had for one of the tracks on DJ Shadow's Private Press from a couple of years ago -- see that review for more clarification on the game). A kinetically fun and engaging release.
MPEG Stream: "Rhythm Machine"
MPEG Stream: "Winning Signal"

BENGA Buzzin (Tempa) 12" 12.98

BENGA Comb 60s / Killers About (Planet Mu) 12" 9.98
Still more grime and dubstep madness from the only label that seems to be really bringing us the grime-y goodness we want. THAT WE NEED!! And it's another killer. Benga is a big deal in the tiny world of dubstep, but this is the first we've heard from him outside a handful of comps.
Side A is some super stripped down dubstep with BIG BIG beats that had our speakers shaking off the shelves, fuzzy blown out basslines, droning warbles in the background and some weird haunting Hitchcockian synth melodies.
The B side has some of the most killer low end we've ever heard. HUGE foundation rattling low end rumble, wrapped in thick reverb and spaced out dubby FX, like King Tubby gone grime, with cinematic pizzicato strings, like the soundtrack to some dubstep thriller. Nice!

BENGA Crunked Up (Tempa) 12" 10.98

BENGA Diary Of An Afro (Tempa) 3lp 27.00

BENGA Diary Of An Afro Warrior (Tempa) cd 17.98
Having released a superhuman amount of singles and split 12"s for Tempa, Big Apple, Planet Mu, and Hot Flush labels, Benga is most definitely one of the key figures bringing dubstep to a wider audience. That's mainly due to the UK club success of "Night", Benga's collaboration with Coki, his Tempa labelmate. The quivering nervous build-up to a massively skittery and surfy air-raid siren release cemented the producer's reputation as one to watch. Now with this full length, Benga is given room to expand the boundaries of what dubstep can be. Utilizing plaintive jazz horns, synth squelches, moody electro, warmer textures and beats that veer more towards house than genremates Burial or Kode 9, Diary of An Afro Warrior is more than a series of strung together singles but a richly complex and diverse dancefloor manifesto that is amongst the best the genre has to offer. Highly Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Night"
MPEG Stream: "B4 The Dual"
MPEG Stream: "26 Bsslines"

BENGA Newstop (Beng) cd 16.98

BENGA Southside (Southside Dubstars) 12" 13.98

BENGA The Invasion (Big Apple) 2x12" 23.00

BENGA & COKI Night (Tempa) cd 6.98
Hot single from Benga's latest!
MPEG Stream: "Night"

BENGA & WALSH / MARLOW / GRAVIOUS split (Hot Flush) 12" 12.98

BENGA & WALSH / WALSH & KROMESTAR Military / Panik Room (Hot Flush) 12" 11.98

BENGE Twenty Systems (Expanding) cd+book 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There are unfortunately, some non-musical factors that contribute to what records we choose to be our Record Of The Week. Cost is one. There have been plenty of $30, or $40, or even $50 records that we've chosen to not make ROTW just because a record like that is often well outside a lot of folks' range of affordability. Once in a while we do make an exception, but that's usually when a record is SO good we just can't say no. Another factor is availability. No matter how great a record is, if we can only ever get 5 or 10 or 20 copies, often not knowing how long it will take to get more, or if we'll be able to get more at all, then we usually choose to highlight it, or if the numbers are super small, not list it at all (which is another reason visiting aQ in person is always a good idea, there's plenty of stuff that doesn't make it onto the list!). Anyway, the point of all this, is that we have been LOVING this Benge record, and until now we've only been able to get it in dribs and drabs, 5 copies here, 2 copies there, but we finally managed to get a bunch. A bunch in this case being about 15 copies. So fair warning, this disc is AWESOME, everyone is gonna want one, so when we sell out, please be patient, we're already doing our best to get more in, it just might take a while. So quick on the trigger, or be ready to wait patiently.
And what kind of record deserves all of these disclaimers? What kind of record can we be so sure all aQ list readers will want? How about a miniature hardcover book, containing a cd with 20 tracks, each track performed on a different synthesizer, from a different year, spanning the years 1968 to 1998, a sonic roadmap of the evolution of the synthesizer, from the first commercially available synths in the late sixties, to the introduction of fully digital synthesizers in the late eighties. Each page of the book featuring a full color photo of the synthesizer used to create that track, along with a schematic of that synth, as well as liner notes all about the synthesizer, as well as how the track was created. That all still might not be enough if the music wasn't amazing, but it is. Somehow strangely cohesive, even though 20 different instruments were used, the sounds here are uniformly blissed out and dreamy, a sort of new age droney drifty washed out shimmer, peppered with beautiful melodies and occasional percussion. Did you love the recent Bogner record of the week? Do you love Tangerine Dream? Popol Vuh? That Edmond De Dyster reissue? Deuter? The William Eaton reissue on EM? Steve Hillage's Rainbow Dome Music? Any number of avant electronic dronemusic cd-r's? Then you'll love this. Or if you're just a music geek that loves these sorts of 'objects', or tech-heads who love vintage gear. Hard to really imagine anyone not digging this big time.
So beyond the book, and the photos and the liner notes and the cool packaging, the music within is truly divine, and fairly diverse, from long slow oceans of sound, swirling and shimmering and sun dappled, to space aged glitch and skitter, hum and buzz, primitive robot disco bleep and bloop, to haunting Goblin-y synthscapery, to fluttery ethereal electronica rife with crystalline melodies and simple rhythms, to super creepy and dark cinematic ambience, to playful electronic shuffles, to blown out expansive cosmic shimmerscapes and on and on.
This could very well have been a super boring demonstration style record, and granted, most of us probably would have bought it anyway for the book and the pix and the strange sounds, being the huge music geeks we are, but thankfully, even with all the extras stripped away, we'd still be left with a gorgeous, playful, pretty, blissed out, warm and shimmery, slightly ominous, dramatic and epic, bleepy and bloopy experimental space age new age ambient electronic record. Which is even better.
Needless to say, WAY recommended. Amazing packaging, a miniature hardcover book, with tons of photos and liner notes and schematics, as well as an introduction by Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner. And again, these have been tough to keep in stock, so if we run out, please be patient while we wait for more to arrive.
MPEG Stream: "1968 Moog Modular"
MPEG Stream: "1969 EMS VCS3"
MPEG Stream: "1976 Yamaha CS80"
MPEG Stream: "1980 Korg Trident"
MPEG Stream: "1983 Fairlight CMI"

BERBER OX The Great Parenthesis (Stunned Tapes) cassette 6.98
Latest release from this Australian soundscaper / dronologist, another collection of self described "weird-ass psychedelic drone/field recording/collage", and really, no matter how many ways of describing the oddly monikered Berber Ox, we have yet to come up with a more succinctly accurate description. But while that is a pretty accurate thumbnail descriptor, it doesn't really do justice to Berber Ox's dark and surreal dronescapes. Four lengthy tracks, the shortest, 7:41, the longest a whopping 28:07, the sourced field recordings are for the most part blurred into impressionistic smears, layered tones, lush drifts of muted electrical crunch fused to shimmery soft focus chordal whir, a deft balance of grit and gristle, thrum and drift, the opener begins with some strange grinding bits of low end, almost rhythmic, which are quickly stretched out and subsumed by a whirring flow of tangled tones and blurred ambience. There does seem to be some fragments of the original field recordings, bits of click and skitter, but those elements merely add texture to the tracks glacial forward momentum. The much longer second track, is another bit of breathless shimmer, all soft swells and softened edges, it's not until well into the track, where the vibe begins to feel mildly industrial, with the background whir and hiss gradually overtaking the more melodic hum in the foreground. Darkly dreamy and utterly meditative.
The flipside begins with another short one, the awesomely titled "Bear And Vortex", which unfurls an ultra minimal rumble, that sounds almost like the wind whooshing past a microphone (and could very well be just that), and doesn't really move much beyond that, a hushed murky murmur of a track, with other haunting incidental sounds creeping into the picture, the result much like the sound of exploring some old abandoned underground bunker, a low level thrum, distant reverb drenched barely there ghostlike echoes, all softly blurred into an ultra minimal expanse of hushed grey ambience.
Finally, the record finishes off with the nearly half hour long "Kong", which again continues Berber Ox's dark and delicate exploration of some otherworldly / subterranean sound work, another dark expanse of layered softnoise shimmer, and buried melodic fragments, the field recording are most noticeable here, the occasional clang, tolling bells, what could be animal sounds, everything wreathed in a foggy sonic haze, until about three quarters of the way through, when the fog seems to dissipate, leaving something much more overtly musical, melodies become more fully formed, the background noises, almost rhythmic, the tolling bells, woven into something lustrous and lovely.
Fans of all things dark and dreamy and droney will dig this, Berber Ox definitely deserves a spot on your shelf alongside Tim Hecker, Thomas Koner, Philip Jeck, Machinefabriek and the like, assuming of course you have a very strange way of alphabetizing your records...
Printed bright yellow cassettes, housed in super colorful J-cards, limited to just 111 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Do That Twice"
MPEG Stream: "Bicycle Thief"

BERG SANS NIPPLE, THE Along The Quai (Team Love) cd 14.98
Tortoise-tronica! That's the one word which sprung to our mind after listening to the first few tracks on this album by this peculiarly named duo. The Berg Sans Nipple are Lori Sean Berg and Shane Aspegren, a couple of scruffy fellows who hail from France and Nebraska respectively. They take the jazz infused post-rock influence of that venerable band and funnel it through a primarily electronic focused instrument palette. Then they add some Notwist-y murmured male vocals, a little smooth soul, and the results are something fresh and new that sits just as comfily alongside Broken Social Scene and Air as it does the above mentioned Windy City veterans. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Ghost"
MPEG Stream: "Of The Sung"

BERIDZE, TUSIA The Other (Max Ernst) cd 16.98

BERING, JONAS Bienfait (Kompakt) cd 17.98
Jonas Bering's "Beinfait" represents a recent strain of German experimental techno which has been jacking up the tempo of the Chain Reaction sound just above the motorik speed of the Cologne sound (i.e. Wolfgang Voigt, Michael Meyer, Modernist, etc). With the quickly paced matrix of hardly stompin' beats, Bering elicts ghostly yet soulful melodies common in Carl Craig and even a few Giorgio Moroder synth arpeggiations. Excellent headphone listening...

BERING, JONAS Sketches For The Next Season (Kompakt) cd 16.98

BERKOWITZ LAKE AND DAHMER Drain Salmon Forgery (Fflint Central) cd-r 9.98
Fflint Central is a U.K. label run by two extraordinarily nice guys and darn fine hosts (good enough to befriend a sick and bedraggled on-tour Andee and buy him Cokes). Fflint specializes in experimental electronics and harsh abstract noise. One would think that there's enough, or too much of both, but the men from Fflint have that something special (fuck-you attitude? undefinable sound? sense of humor?) that makes these records way better and way more interesting than the majority of the 'electronica' we hear these days. Fans of VV/M, Lesser and other 'troublesome' electonica will dig this stuff. Affordable CD-Rs. Go ahead and take a chance. You may regret it...
Besides having the greatest band name ever, BL&D whip up a malfunctioning maelstrom of stuttering, fuzzed out synth and hiccupping bursts of skull pounding glitchery.
Sputtering clicks and oscillating low end rumbles are draped over chest rattling modulated pulses, creating some of the fiercest, coolest experimental electronica we've heard in a while. Like music for that video game the devil forces you to play in hell, for eternity. Awesome.
RealAudio clip: "Homunculus"

BERKOWITZ LAKE AND DAHMER Lunge Howler e.p. (Fflint Central) cd-r 7.98
Fflint Central is a U.K. label run by two extraordinarily nice guys and darn fine hosts (good enough to befriend a sick and bedraggled on-tour Andee and buy him Cokes). Fflint specializes in experimental electronics and harsh abstract noise. One would think that there's enough, or too much of both, but the men from Fflint have that something special (fuck-you attitude? undefinable sound? sense of humor?) that makes these records way better and way more interesting than the majority of the 'electronica' we hear these days. Fans of VV/M, Lesser and other 'troublesome' electonica will dig this stuff. Affordable CD-Rs. Go ahead and take a chance. You may regret it...
Record number two from the brilliantly named BL+D. This is a little more droney and hypnotic than the first Berkowitz record, but equally as fucked.
Spazzy organ solos degrade into super distorted, hypnotic pulsing, slowly evolving like a Charlemagne Palestine piece, albeit with a full battery of broken down machinery, malfunctioning effects, and distorted alien transmissions. Noisey but still musical, BL+D are like a thinking man's VV/M.

RealAudio clip: "Tinklebox"

BERNOCCHI, ERALDO & HAROLD BUDD Music For 'Fragments From The Inside' (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98

BETA BAND Hot Shots II (Astralwerks) cd 16.98
The Beta Band are still really skilled at mixing together a total hodgepodge of sounds, from ethnic drumming to tinkling piano, dub, weird atmospherics, space age melodica, and shuffling breakbeat percussion. The Pink-Floyd-style hushed unison vocals have this epic chanting quality to them that's pretty addictive. It all adds up to somewhat original rock music for the twenty-first century, but I have to say this album isn't nearly as good as the 3 EP's release, cool Carole King and Nilsson samples notwithstanding (the Beta Band have good taste). In my opinion (presumably that's why you're reading this list, uh, right?) it unfortunately sounds a bit canned, tired and formulaic (and I'm a fan!). Or maybe it's just their "mellow" and "delicate" album.
RealAudio clip: "Won"
RealAudio clip: "Life"

BETTY BOTOX Mmm, Betty! (Mule Musiq) cd 16.98
Betty Botox is none other than JD Twitch, one half of Scotish super-duo Optimo. Yes, they named themselves after the Liquid Liquid song of the same name, and you may remember them from the inimitable Kill the DJ series a few years back. The one that had beats and mashups of everything from Laibach to Arthur Russell to Sun City Girls to Ricardo Villalobos - in a DANCE mix! Huh?! Anyway, this disc compiles various re-edits and remixes completed by Ms. Botox himself. Whatever you do, don't get scared. Yes, this is music you can dance to, but it has mixes of fucking Hawkwind and that Italian industrial group Pankow. Remember them? This guy is digging pretty deep, and thanks to artists like this we still have some faith in dancing. Did we mention that there's even an edit of The Jellies "Jive Baby on a Saturday Night?" Well, listen in as Ms. Botox warps and rearranges this super weird, psychedelic disco trip-fest. Hell, we might even bust out our eye-liner if and when he decides to tackle Fini Tribe's bizarre cover of "I Want More" by Can. Yes, that really happened. Fans of fun, this is for you.
MPEG Stream: THE JELLIES " Jive Baby On a Saturday Night"
MPEG Stream: RESIDENTS "Diskomo"

BEYOND DAWN Frysh (Peaceville) cd 14.98
There seems to be a trend over the last few years in Norwegian metal. A serious obsession with techno, that when combined with the distinctly Black metal notion that maturing musically means becoming LESS metal, results in all sort of new permutations, that while definitely pushing the boundaries, tend to disappoint long time fans. Look at Manes, Arcturus, Ulver, etc. So what does this have to do with Beyond Dawn? Well...they started out as a seriously grim black metal band, whose unlikely use of a trombone was the only clue to their future direction. They soon moved in a distinctly dirge-y, melancholy, gloom pop direction, sounding more like Katatonia and even the Swans (due in no small part to the vocalist's uncanny Michael Gira like croon) and less like Darkthrone of Mayhem. At the same time, they began to incorporate all sorts of electronic glitchery: drum machines, weird processing, and studio trickery. On Frysh, their latest and weirdest record to date, things have gone about as far away from metal as humanly (or inhumanly) possible. They've pretty much given up the metal ghost entirely, opting for a melancholy techno-doom-pop. Weird bleeping synth melodies hover over skittish almost-techno rhythms, shimmering washes of synthesizer hum, and even some slide guitar! The sticker on the cd calls them "Norwegian's Loungecore Kings". Not sure how accurate that really is, but this definitely has more in common sonically with Depeche Mode or the Pet Shop Boys that it does with any metal bands I can think of. But don't get the wrong impression. This record RULES! Finally a metal band, that instead of talking about how much they love Depeche Mode or some other gloomy pop bands, and maybe even covering a Depeche Mode song once in a while, actually writes gorgeously catchy and sweetly depressive songs that rival those of any of their influences. To me this sounds like a more electronic Angels Of Light, or a metal flecked Magnetic Fields, or Dntel or the Postal Service covering Katatonia with Michael Gira on vocals. So so good. Took me a while to get over the silly and garish cover and the 'loungecore kings' sticker and the goofy new band member names (Clubshoes, Tore Jazztobakk, Hi-Fi Haavik, and Espen Weltschmertz). I was smelling 'jokeband' for sure. But the more I listen to Frysh, the more it reveals itself as a decidedly rich, multi-layered tapestry of perfectly morose, exquisitely crafted, bewitchingly dreamy techno pop gems. SO recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Far From Showbiz"
MPEG Stream: "Increasing the Gravity"
MPEG Stream: "Among the Sedatives"

BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & TELEPHERIQUE The House Of Mourning (Radiotarab) cd 14.98
Found a handful of these hidden way in the back room, most likely the last copies we'll see of this...
Some collaborations find a way to strike a balance between two strong aesthetics, and others resolve themselves with one aesthetic absorbing the other. Maurizio Bianchi has been a force to be reckoned with in recent years, thanks to his return to powerful, cold electronics featured on an avalanche of recent releases; yet, it's a little difficult to discern where he is on The House Of Mourning. Ostensibly, this is his collaboration with the German industrial project Telepherique; and from the sounds of the album, it's Telepherique who clearly are in the driver's seat. The looping MIDI-synth electronics, the life-support system rhythms, and the heavy use of sampled Arabic media lend themselves towards the realms of Cabaret Voltaire and Muslimgauze; and it's hardly the all consuming swarm of Bianchi drone that we've come to expect. That said, Telepherique's industrialist klank and threatening atmospheres are well articulated and quite pleasing in their own right. Limited to 500 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Sad News"
MPEG Stream: "Shock"
MPEG Stream: "Sorrow"

BIBIO Fi (Mush) cd 14.98
Apparently the artist known as Bibio (aka Stephen Wilkinson) is a particular fave of Boards Of Canada's Marcus Eoin. So much so that Eoin recommended that Mush Records check him out, and clearly they agreed 'cause here's Bibio's debut album on that very label. Each of the seventeen tracks is amply processed and arranged from his collections of cassette-recorded field recordings, as well as samples of his own performances on various instruments. According to his bio, Wilkinson's list of influences runs the gamut from Joao Gilberto to My Bloody Valentine, from Incredible String Band to Tortoise, but you really wouldn't be able to tell simply from listening to Fi. Not at all, unlike many other current artists who wear their influences on their sleeves to the point of simply aping their idols, Bibio hasn't fallen into this trap. Furthermore, although many of the tracks may fall under the flavor-of-the-day description of "acoustic guitar melodies with electronic and field recording textures", unlike many other current (dare we say lazy?) artists, Wilkinson doesn't just plop a static-y cloud atop a folk song. No, he fully integrates his sonic elements into a fully enveloping listening experience -- brittle and fuzzy like they've being transmitted out through a rickety antique radio. If we had to come up with a point of reference, we might say that the hazy and dreamlike Fi sounds much like an expanded, modernized take on the outro to the mid-70s 10CC hit "I'm Not In Love". At once, it's atmosphere is intimate yet glisteningly space-y.
MPEG Stream: "Bewley In White"
MPEG Stream: "Puddled In The Morning"

BIBIO Hand Cranked (Mush) cd 14.98
Following up his shimmery, celestial debut album Fi, Bibio brings his music more down to earth with his no less warm 'n' blissful second album, Hand Cranked. Really pretty, willowy, pastoral soundscapes crafted from slightly woozy sampled loops of delicately picked guitar, piano, recorder and other found sounds from his collection of cassette-recorded field recordings. Can't tell for sure if they're real or not (probably are), but adding to the outdoorsy breezy atmosphere of the fifth track "Marram" are some sounds that resemble twittery birdsong. Another stand-out is the final fluttery track "Overgrown". Conjures visions of butterflies, raindrops and babbling brooks. Very very nice!
MPEG Stream: "Marram"
MPEG Stream: "Woodington"

BIBIO Mind Bokeh (Warp) cd 15.98

BIG PINK, THE Future This (4AD) cd 14.98

BIG PINK, THE Future This (4AD) lp 16.98

BIG PINK, THE Tapes (!K7) cd 14.98
Don't be expecting the awesome droned out druggy gothy smeary shoegazey electro pop of The Big Pink's A Brief History Of Love debut we raved about a while back, cuz this is not in fact a new Big Pink record, instead, it's a killer mix tape those guys compiled, that is very reminiscent of the recent F*>k Dance, Let's Art comp, a killer collection of witch house, nu-gaze, glow-wave, weirdo electronica and all the other twisted microgenres we've been digging lately. And like all good comps, a handful of familiar faces, and a bunch of new bands that we are now dying to hear more from.
Witch house is definitely heavily represented, which is cool since, most of the witch house stuff has only been available on super limited cd-r's or as downloads, up first is GrillGrill (although typed properly the 'i's are little asci crosses), who unfurl a creepy stripped down slithery bit of slowcore electronic creep, with haunting atmospheres and weirdo sped up vox, Balam Acab's witch house anthem "See Birds" shows up, a fuzzy, almost dubsteppy bit of gently glitchy gauziness, with angelic vocals, wreathed in reverb, drifting over swirling industrial loops and shimmering synths, an old out of print Salem jam pops up too, a gloriously murky slow-mo shoegaze hip hop cough syrup doom pop crawl, there's also "Mumbai" by oOoOO, another witch house anthem, a slithery Portishead-y skittery downtempo drift with sped up vocal snippets, and super distorted synths.
There's also Gang Gang Dance, who do a spaced out psychedelic Kate Bush meets the Boredoms sort of ethereal jam, dubstepper Joker chops up soul vocals and creates a super witchy stuttery dubbed out groove, the Big Pink do show up, with a heavily remixed (by Gang Gang Dance) slab of fuzzy synths, looped samples and tribal rhythms, Actress unfurl some super minimal laid back murky psychedelic techno, the Xx get all moody and sultry and smokey and dreamy, and that's about it for the names we know.
But almost all of the tracks here are pretty great: Love Distance, Active Child, Henry Moan, Sewn Leather, Yusuf B, Light Asylum, Horse Macgyver, No Bra, the sounds ranging from looped swirling collaged sampledlic easy listening, to shoegazey eighties style new wave electropop, to fuzzy distorto hip hop creep, to fractured anthemic rhythmic indie pop, to various shades of what to these ears sounds very witch house-y, and on and on.
Definitely anyone who dug that F*>k Dance comp will dig this too, but really, anyone with a voracious appetite for new sounds, who has been digging these latest strains of twisted electronica and warped electro pop, this is probably the mixtape you wished someone would make you!
MPEG Stream: GRILLGRILL "Slow Dancing"
MPEG Stream: JOKER "Snake Eater"
MPEG Stream: SEWN LEATHER "Smoke Ov The Pvnk"
MPEG Stream: OOOOO "Mumbai"
MPEG Stream: BALAM ACAB "See Birds"

BIG UP Issue #4 magazine 6.99

BIOSPHERE Autour De La Lune (Touch) cd 15.98
This latest release from Norwegian sound artist Geir Jenssen is a much darker, and less rhythmic affair than past releases. Based on an early sixties' dramatisation of Jules Verne's De La Terre A La Lune, Jennsen has sampled bits of dialogue, sounds from the MIR space station, and assorted other atmospheric detritus, incorporating them into his original sounds, resulting in an expansive nine part, minimal soundscape, that is darker and creepier than the subject matter would suggest. The record starts off quite tranquil, dreamy and somnambulent, simple melodies smeared into washes of minimal shimmer, but the sound rapidly takes on a quite ominous hue, sinister and subtly nightmarish, with buzzing sinewaves and threatening rumbles. This ominous drone forms the basis of the entire record, occasionally shifting into fuzzy shortwave interference, mysterious transmissions from the ether, buried rhythms, and subtle variations on Biosphere's glacially shifting low end. This actually sounds like it would be perfect horror movie music, haunting and tense, pregnant with the possibility of the sustained minor key drones erupting into something much more terrifying. But the fact that it never does only makes it that much more effective.
MPEG Stream: "Rotation"
MPEG Stream: "Modifie"

BIOSPHERE Cirque (Touch) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Still embracing mid-90s ambient electronica, Biosphere fabricates sub-zero atmospheres out of digital swoops, complete with buried radio samples and exotic percussion. It ends up sounding not unlike the ambient realms for Muslimgauze, if the political agenda were based on the plight of the French (whatever that might be) rather than the Palestinians.

BIOSPHERE Dropsonde (Touch) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When this came out on vinyl a couple months back, we sort of let is slip by; but the cd is a different matter. It's probably not that the music is all that different (other than the obvious fact that the cd is almost 25 minutes longer than the LP), but Biosphere's ambient beatitudes work so much better through the extended / not-having-to-rise-from-the-couch format of a cd. Biosphere is the work of Norway's Gier Jenssen, who has been producing some mighty fine ambient based electronica for nearly 15 years. Dropsonde retains all of Biosphere's lovely ambient swaths, arctic lullabies, and hypno-dreamtime loopings, not too warm and not too cold. Just right! The one detour to this records is found in Jenssen's occasional splashes of skittering jazz percussion, rendering Dropsonde the Norwegian parallel to the noirish timbres that Amon Tobin had crafted on his brilliant Supermodified and Permutations albums. Unlike so much "ambient" music which disguises a lack of good ideas behind tasteful synth patches and sultry grooves, Biosphere has always stood out in the slightly misnamed genre (after all, how can ambient music have beats?), and Dropsonde is yet another feather in his cap.
MPEG Stream: "Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings"
MPEG Stream: "Fall In Fall Out"

BIOSPHERE Mysterier (Touch) 7" 7.98
Two lovely tracks of nocturnal electronica from the perennially exceptional Biosphere (aka Geir Jenssen). While he recently produced the N-Plants album, a disc rippling with taut rhythms amidst his signature warm ambience, the tracks here date back to 2006 when he was working on the Dropsonde album. Both of these tracks represent some of the darkest work we've heard from Biosphere, marking a considerable detour away from his typical work; and we're certainly not complaining at all. Glacial and arctic references abound in this Norwegian's work, but on the A side "Fluvialmorfologi," they take on the ominous pall of what BJ Nilsen mustered under his older Hazard moniker, through sodden drones and rasping sinewave tones. The B side "Feber" is more in keeping with the somber nature of the aforementioned Dropsonde album, built upon a languid loop of minor-key strings topped with subtle effects and melodic interludes, not too far from the work of Leyland Kirby or the Konigsforst period of Gas. Great stuff, but we would expect no less from Biosphere!

BIOSPHERE N-Plants (Touch) cd 15.98
Overt rhythms had seemingly disappeared from Biosphere's work over the past decade, as he had been building his lush ambient electronica from orchestral loops and samples. Dropesonde may have broken into an electronic jazz shuffle for a moment or two, but all of his signature ambient-techno structures seemed to be something of the distant past (especially from his 1994 album Patasknik). That is until the 2011 release of N-Plants, which is the first album from Biosphere to feature the drum machine with any regularity since maybe Cirque in 2000. Gier Jenssen hasn't lost his touch, that's for sure, as a clean, mechanical breakbeat punches through the slow-as-molasses basslines and heavenly ambient swooshes on "Shika-1." Blooping melodies march alongside the clockwork rhythms of "Joyo" and "Ikata-1," and "Genkai-1" could be some missing Boards Of Canada track from Music Has The Right To Children with its off-kilter sub-melody locked in step with a warmly cybernetic tumble of algorithmic notes and a gliding hip-hop breakbeat.
This is all well and good as simply a great Biosphere record, but Jenssen actually finished this album in early 2011 as a study on the architectural designs of the Japanese nuclear power plants built during the reconstruction period in the middle of the 20th century. On completion of N-Plants, he saw this as a soundtrack to those plants, their relationship to the turbulent landscape, and the potential damage caused by radiation contamination if something were to happen. Little did Jenssen know that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant would succumb to the damage from an earthquake and subsequent tsunami. While his precognition is downright spooky, the album is not. It's quite lovely and lilting even in its mechanical design.
MPEG Stream: "Shika-1"
MPEG Stream: "Ikata-1"
MPEG Stream: "Genkai-1"

BIOSPHERE N-Plants (Touch) 2lp 36.00
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!!
Overt rhythms had seemingly disappeared from Biosphere's work over the past decade, as he had been building his lush ambient electronica from orchestral loops and samples. Dropesonde may have broken into an electronic jazz shuffle for a moment or two, but all of his signature ambient-techno structures seemed to be something of the distant past (especially from his 1994 album Patasknik). That is until the 2011 release of N-Plants, which is the first album from Biosphere to feature the drum machine with any regularity since maybe Cirque in 2000. Gier Jenssen hasn't lost his touch, that's for sure, as a clean, mechanical breakbeat punches through the slow-as-molasses basslines and heavenly ambient swooshes on "Shika-1." Blooping melodies march alongside the clockwork rhythms of "Joyo" and "Ikata-1," and "Genkai-1" could be some missing Boards Of Canada track from Music Has The Right To Children with its off-kilter sub-melody locked in step with a warmly cybernetic tumble of algorithmic notes and a gliding hip-hop breakbeat.
This is all well and good as simply a great Biosphere record, but Jenssen actually finished this album in early 2011 as a study on the architectural designs of the Japanese nuclear power plants built during the reconstruction period in the middle of the 20th century. On completion of N-Plants, he saw this as a soundtrack to those plants, their relationship to the turbulent landscape, and the potential damage caused by radiation contamination if something were to happen. Little did Jenssen know that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant would succumb to the damage from an earthquake and subsequent tsunami. While his precognition is downright spooky, the album is not. It's quite lovely and lilting even in its mechanical design. Limited to 1000 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Shika-1"
MPEG Stream: "Ikata-1"
MPEG Stream: "Genkai-1"

BIOSPHERE Shenzhou (Touch) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Most of the sensorially depressed semantics of the Chill-Out subculture that arose out of the rave scene had the pretense of such cutesy catch phrases as "I Think Therefore I Ambient." Ugh. The majority of the music that was championed within that early '90s Ambient scene has failed to age with any dignity or grace, instead fading away as mindless New Age drivel. Biosphere - the Ambient project of Norwegian Geir Jensen - has always been the exception to that rule, by never allowing his music to comfortably fall into the regions of aural wallpaper. His first two albums "Microgravity" and "Patashnik" would probably transcend their status as minor classics in their thoughtful recomibinations of Techno propulsion and Ambient utopianism, if it weren't for the ill-advised (though fashionable at the time) use of extra-terrestrial imagery. At the height of the Ambient-Techno phenomenon in 1995 or so, Levi's licensed a Biosphere track off of "Patashnik" for a jeans commercial, which had the same steroid-injected effect on Biosphere's sales as those of Spiritualized, Trio, and Nick Drake with their Volkswagen. Wisely, Jensen took the money and ran from commercial success. He has since declared his permanent base of operations to be Tromso, Norway - located some 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle - and has signed to the exceptional Touch label. Both decisions have resulted in a profound maturation of the Biosphere sound far away from the puerile Chill Out agendas.
"Shenzhou" is the third Biosphere record for Touch, and continues to describe aural environments that are at once decidedly Arctic, yet wholly inviting and warm. Jensen has drawn a very direct line on this album back to Impressionist composer Claude Debussy by basing this album on some very old vinyl recordings of various Debussy pieces. The surface noise crackle may parallel that of the recent Touch production from turntablist Philip Jeck, but "Shenzhou" doesn't extend the comparison beyond their similar source materials. This is distinctly a Biosphere album filled with synaesthetic driftings, subtle rhythmic pulsations, and hypnotic loopings, all culled from the muted instrumentation of those Debussy compositions. Biosphere has yet again succeeded in crafting an exceptionally poetic album that is as accessible as it is subtly expressive. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Ancient Campfire"
RealAudio clip: "Two Ocean Plateau"
RealAudio clip: "Fast Atoms Escape"

BIOSPHERE Substrata (Biophon / Touch) 2lp 36.00
Substrata is often heralded as the grand statement of Biosphere, and gets lumped alongside Boards Of Canada's Music Has The Right To Children and Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. II as one of the best electronica records from the '90s. There's little to argue with such claims, even with a half-dozen or so of stellar records that followed this album. Originally released back in 1997 on All Saints Records and repackaged as a double-disc with Biosphere's soundtrack to the Russian silent film Man With A Movie Camera in 2001, now the album gets released on vinyl for the very first time, alongside the vinyl of Biosphere's latest, N-Plants.
Like all great ambient records, Substrata works because of its subtlety, balancing soft-focus melodies that never assert themselves too much, but never fade so far into the background to become irrelevant. Given that his previous records smoothed out contemporary techno for the chill-out crowd, Substrata is a logical extension of Biosphere's sound for billowing synth-pad sequences and time-suspending ambience that never has to give over to the release of a big 909 backbeat. "Chukhung" cycles through muted arpeggios with layered chiming strings that gently rasps against the pastoral ambience to give the piece a crescendo of drama and softened tension. "The Things I Tell You" refines the tremolo / delay ambience that Pete Namlook was churning out into a quintessential Biosphere number rippling in time with an arctic wind pushing flecks of snow across a landscape lit by the midnight sun. Vocal snippets swimming in echo, aqueous passages, reverberant acoustic guitar plucks, and looped field recordings dot the album's resonant ambient hum, providing small signposts more to mark the passage of time than to assign any particular allusion. Biosphere rounds out the vinyl edition with a 14 minute bonus track entitled "Laika", although it's unclear as to when this track was produced. This album offers up beautiful music for lucid dreams.
MPEG Stream: "The Things I Tell You"
MPEG Stream: "Hyperborea"
MPEG Stream: "Antennaria"

BIOSPHERE Substrata / Man With A Movie Camera (Touch) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After a few very nice ambient techno albums for the R&S sublabel Apollo, Biosphere released the purely ambient album "Substrata" in 1997 on All Saints. Now a member of the Touch Records roster, Biosphere has reissued that album as a double cd with the unreleased sountrack to "Man With A Movie Camera" originally commissioned for Biosphere's hometown Tromso International Film Festival in 1996. With its numerous references to Eno's "On Land," "Substrata" has often been hailed as one of the great ambient albums of the 1990s. Yet, "Man With A Movie Camera" is certainly the better of the two offerings, with reverb drenched smattering of gritty vocal samples and distant techno rhythms breaking through the deep 'n' dreamy wash of sound, at times sounding like a more approachable Zoviet France.
RealAudio clip: "Silent Orchestra"
RealAudio clip: "Endurium"

BIOSPHERE Wireless Live (Touch) cd 15.98
Wireless is a pristinely recorded live album from Biosphere, the Norwegian pioneer of silken ambient techno, who has released a handful of stellar albums over the past two decades now. The set is a seamless interweave of various tracks from his previous records including the jazz inflected rhythms extracted from his Dropsonde album back in 2005 to the locomotive digital breakbeats on track "Kobresia" from his 1997 Substrata album, and sampling from Cirque dotted amongst the tracks. There are three cuts which hadn't appeared previously including a interlude of soft-focus static with field recordings and the book-ending "Pneuma" tracks that feature Biosphere recontextualizing the maudlin bellows of a trombone amidst his ambient wash and drift. For better or for worse, Biosphere leaves behind all of the Apollo recordings from the early '90s; after all, this was performed for a Touch Festival and released on Touch. So why not 'play' all of the hits from his ongoing Touch years?
MPEG Stream: "Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings"
MPEG Stream: "When I Leave"

BIOSPHERE / DEATHPROD Nordheim Transformed (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
Using the recently reissued electro-acoustic masterpiece "Electric" by Arne Nordheim as the sole source material, Biosphere's and Deathprod's remixes are ice-laden, mesmerizing abstractions of sweeping electronic darkness.

BIOSPHERE / DEATHPROD Nordheim Transformed (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
Using the recently reissued electro-acoustic masterpiece "Electric" by Arne Nordheim as the sole source material, Biosphere's and Deathprod's remixes are ice-laden, mesmerizing abstractions of sweeping electronic darkness.

BIOWIRE Disparation (Kindercore) cd 13.98
Pulsating electronic euro-pop from Sweden. Co-released by syrup-pop label Kindercore and light'n'fluffy electronic pop label Emperor Norton. The perfect place for this release to be. At times sounding very much like the soundtrack to Sega Saturn's Bomberman videogame. Soothing, swirling and sweet.

BIRDS & BATTERIES Nature Vs. Nature (self-released) cd-r 8.98
Ah folks, proof that you shouldn't judge a book (or cd) by its cover! When Mike Sempert first dropped off a copy of this new cd-r release of his solo project Birds & Batteries its appearance (cover art, title, handmade sleeves, etc) initially struck us as perhaps a Jewelled Antler related or inspired release. Listening to it brought very different impressions. Blending together rootsy Americana, post-rock and electronica, the first song's stuttery programmed rhythms and hypnotic loops of arpeggiated melodies contrast well with Sempert's deep, melancholic vocals and guitar, bass and drums. Winding its way around the proceedings are some slippery stringy sounds that we guess is pedal steel or an e-bowed electric guitar or perhaps a synthesizer. He also enlists his friends to contribute saxophone, clarinet, female vocals (by Ms Heather Masse) and percussion in the form of a box of sugar! A very cool introduction to this recent SF transplant (from the far reaches of the Eastern Seaboard)!
MPEG Stream: "Summersalts"
MPEG Stream: "Goodbye Lullaby"

BIRMINGHAM The Lucy Parr 7 (Hot Air) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Nic Birmingham (one half of Dummy Run, whose other member may very well be in Stock, Hausen & Walkman) presents a whole lot of maniacal drill & bass that pushes much more drill than bass (it's all on the high-end register, folks) with whip snap hard disc scratching over digitally crispy lego beats.

BIS Plastique Nouveau (Spin Art) cd 12.98
You just might hear this on Wild 94.9, the Bay Area's dance station! Gentlemen, the transformation is complete. Bis are totally pumpin' out the dance tracks. Not a single glimmer of their past Scottish elfin indie pop selves. This album is even eons away from their Powerpuff Girls theme song. Sounding like they're shooting for a more mature audience, they've stripped away any of the sweet charm and energy of their past releases (particularly "Social Dancing" which successfully fused all of these key Bis elements). Alas, what we're left with is decent, if almost faceless, music. If you just wanna dance the night away in fluffy '80s discoland, this might be for you. Also features mixes by Adult., Tommie Sunshine and Ectomorph (Perhaps hoping to move a few more units, SpinArt Records threw the "electroclash" tag on the shrinkwrap. Argh!).
RealAudio clip: "Don't Let The Rain Come Down"
RealAudio clip: "Robotic (Adult. Almost Instrumental Mix)"

BISK Moonstruck Parade (Quatermass) cd 16.98
Poppy and bright electronica from this Japanese artist. Low-attention span stuff (but not frenzied) cutting from one thing/loop and back again...like having a tv playing old reruns on in one room, a ballroom dancing class in the other, and a dj in the middle mixing the two, whilst adding beats from her crate of contemporary trip hop and whatnot. Nice (if inexplicable) Levi's Red Tab reference in the artwork, by the way.

BIZZ CIRCUITS Very Best Of (Deluxe) cd 13.98
Sebastien Meissner, aka Bizz Circuits, has also released albums as Random_Inc and Open_Source, among other names. Here, he plunders his record collection for samples that are recontextualized in a pretty much unrecognizable way, allowing the resultant electronic fuzz to take on meanings completely separate from their sources, which (according to Meissner) include everything from Ornette Coleman to Metallica to other contemporary electronic and micro-sound artitsts. Apparently, the package relates to Meissner's childhood pop obsessions, referenced by titles such as "Blinded With Science" and "Can't Get No Satisfaction (Thank God)." An interesing, pleasant puzzle to be enjoyed by appreciators of the Mille Plateaux aesthetic.
RealAudio clip: "Breaking Hands"
RealAudio clip: "She's Hit"