V/A Antologia de Musica Electronica Portuguesa (Tomlab) cd 16.98

V/A Archipelago: Islands (Foundry) 6cd 40.00
Embracing the decentralized nature of artists working in isolation outside of the club circuit and disconnected from the current rhetoric of Raster-Noton glitch worship or Mille Plateaux micro-house, the musicians on "Archipelago" have attempted to forge a community that exists out of the cooperative spirit, rather than by commodifying yet another posse of knob twiddlers. That said, the 6 mini 3" CDs which make up this compilation hold a tentative common thread in supporting the ambient techno which dominated the Bay Area some five years ago with the flourishing of labels like Reflective and Silent.
Rhomb's disc (disc one) opens the proceedings with subterranean drips, trippy electric tones, sparse rhythmic clicks, and lots of space to drive home a mysterious cosmology. Csero's (disc two) glitch-music with static irradiating the pointillist bleeps and blips sounds sort of like a composition made from a broken nintendo game-boy. Seofon (disc three) offers a dodgy amount of hippy space music laced with electronic tribal rhythms very much like the recent work from Brian Eno or Bill Laswell. Thermal's (disc four) ambient techno noodles around a very Pete Namlook analogue synth line and some downtempo rhythms. The biggest break from the San Francisco ambient sound comes from Dean Santomieri (disc five) who has produced a grizzled piece of spartan media cut-ups and industrially-minded musique concrete. eM (disc six) completes the series by mutating clipped speak-and-spell tones into erratically forming ambient passages. Nice.

V/A Archiv 1.1 (Asphodel) cd 13.98
Originally released as a bonus cd for subscribers to the Wire magazine, this sampler is a perfect introduction to the super clinical, ultra minimal Raster-Noton sound featuring a who's who of the avant / minimalist / techno / experimental world: William Basinski, Signal, Senking, Bytone, Komet Noto, M. Akiyama, Pixel and more. Also worth picking up if you're already into this stuff as some of the tracks here are out of print, rare or previously unreleased. A gorgeously bleak, sometimes lush world of clicks and beeps and whirs and drones and crackle and whir and hum and rumble. Awesome!
MPEG Stream: 0 (NULL) "Mikro Makro"
MPEG Stream: SENKING "Stand"
MPEG Stream: BYETONE "Oacis"

V/A Asian Travels (Six Degrees) cd 16.98
"Asian Travels" documents current strains of optimistic globalism as musical hybrids of the West's downtempo electronica and the East's rich traditions of vocal melodies. Ambient trance, drum & bass, and trip hop all appear in their most basic club-friendly forms alongside Pakistani & Indian vocals, melodic lines, and sitar drones. Featuring Fila Brazillia, Nursrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook, Banco De Gaia, Shankar, Euphoria, Cheb i Sabbah, Fun Da Mental, and more. Ethno-music for the honky.

V/A Asthmatic Worm (Mobile) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This nice comp of electronic tracks that feature the accordion and/or melodica turns out to be a good idea! Although the pieces have all been previously-released on the participating musicians' solo albums (except for the Dntel track), that fact has worked in the comp's favor, because it made it possible for the compilers to choose only tracks they love and which work with the other choices. (As opposed to too many comps that are spotty bad listening, their raison d'etre being to impress people with a hip roster of participants rather then come up with good listening, grrr.) As you would expect, the melodica and accordion are both very easy to play; beginners can elicit lovely sounds from them immediately, so it makes perfect sense that the laptop jockeys, who can't exactly play anything but their computers or samplers, would turn to these simple acoustic instruments. Many of the songs are ultra simple and yes, everyone could do it, but as the liner notes convey, the artists will be the first to admit it... There's dub lite, some Parisian-cafe-style downtempo, layers and layers of treated acoustic sounds -- very few heavy beats, high speed workouts, or showing off. While I could've used a few more challenging tracks (the most succesful ones here being pieces like Doctor Rockit's which is layered and cut up so much that it would be impossible to play live), the mood is consistent throughout and the sequencing is perfect. With Dntel, Doctor Rockit, Mum, Markus Nikolai, Gonzales, The Gotan Project, Burnt Friedman & Jaki Leibezeit, and a few more. A nice record that rewards careful listening while working quite well as easy listening (but not "easy listening"... er...)
RealAudio clip: DOCTOR ROCKIT "Cafe de Flore"
RealAudio clip: MUM "I'm 9 Today"
RealAudio clip: DNTEL "Your Hill"

V/A Asthmatic Worm (Mobile) 2lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This nice comp of electronic tracks that feature the accordion and/or melodica turns out to be a good idea! Although the pieces have all been previously-released on the participating musicians' solo albums (except for the Dntel track), that fact has worked in the comp's favor, because it made it possible for the compilers to choose only tracks they love and which work with the other choices. (As opposed to too many comps that are spotty bad listening, their raison d'etre being to impress people with a hip roster of participants rather then come up with good listening, grrr.) As you would expect, the melodica and accordion are both very easy to play; beginners can elicit lovely sounds from them immediately, so it makes perfect sense that the laptop jockeys, who can't exactly play anything but their computers or samplers, would turn to these simple acoustic instruments. Many of the songs are ultra simple and yes, everyone could do it, but as the liner notes convey, the artists will be the first to admit it... There's dub lite, some Parisian-cafe-style downtempo, layers and layers of treated acoustic sounds -- very few heavy beats, high speed workouts, or showing off. While I could've used a few more challenging tracks (the most succesful ones here being pieces like Doctor Rockit's which is layered and cut up so much that it would be impossible to play live), the mood is consistent throughout and the sequencing is perfect. With Dntel, Doctor Rockit, Mum, Markus Nikolai, Gonzales, The Gotan Project, Burnt Friedman & Jaki Leibezeit, and a few more. A nice record that rewards careful listening while working quite well as easy listening (but not "easy listening"... er...)

V/A Attitude (Tigerbeat6) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The excellent, now out-of-print 3" cd gets the vinyl treatment it fully deserves. Fourteen artists pay "tribute" to the notorious gangsta crew from straight outta Compton. NWA get the Plunderphonics treatment from Kid 606, Lesser (with a ridiculous version of "Fat Girl on my Jock"!), Matmos, Hrvatski, Cex, Pimmon, Pisstank, Dat Politics, Christoph de Babalon, V/VM, Team Doyobi, Electric Company, Din S.T. and Pure! Manic and ridiculous and really really great. If you missed out on the cd, here's your chance!

V/A Attitude (Tigerbeat6) 3"cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The ubiquitous Kid 606 rounded up some like-minded electronic terrorists to contribute to this little 3" cd compilation, a tribute to NWA! Digital fuckery meets gangsta rap, as Cube, Dre, Eazy, et. al. are "covered" here by the likes of Hrvatski, Lesser (with a ridiculous version of 'Fat Girl on my Jock'), Dat Politics, Matmos, Pimmon, V/VM, Christophe de Babalon, and Kid 606 himself, among others... Manic and ridiculous and really really great.

V/A Auralism Therapy 1.1 - Mixed By Jason Short (Auralism) cd 12.98
Heads up! Here's the first release from the new Bay Area based cooperative electronic music label Auralism! The 'therapy' in this compilation's title comes in the form of a kinetic mix of IDM, techno and experimental electronica from SF and beyond... it's almost like a little slice of Berlin right here in the Bay Area! Auralism Therapy 1.1 features fourteen tracks and remixes by the likes of Jason Short, Clint Stewart, Roman Stange, Le Chous Chous, Miguel Colmenares, Luther Mandross, Alland Byallo, Billy Dalessandro, Coalition Of The Killing, Kyaro, Dead Seal, and Kenneth Scott.
MPEG Stream: STANGE, ROMAN "Paratroupr (Jason Short Remix)"
MPEG Stream: DEAD SEAL "Sparks"

V/A Axiom Dub: Mysteries of Creation (Axiom) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bill Laswell brings together the likes of Sly & Robbie, Material, Mad Professor, Dub Syndicate, New Kingdom, Techno Animal, DJ Spooky and a bunch of other dub/ambient innovators on these 2 discs.

V/A Azadi!: A Benefit Compilation For RAWA (Fire Museum / Electro Motive) 2cd 14.98
Longtime supporter of the rights of Afghani women, AQ-customer Steven Tobin has produced benefit shows and now this double disc benefit cd -- and what a comp it is. The musical choices are all over the genre map yet it works nicely as a sit-down listen, and it will certainly introduce you to many groups you've never heard. Includes experimental indie rock (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Deerhoof, Zmrzlina, The Intima), ethnicky female vocal theatrics (D'yara, Charming Hostess, Jou Jou, Samsara), avant electronics (Blevin Blectum, Bran, Planetsize, Zeek Sheck), quirky weirdness as only East Bay bands can do it (Spezza Rotto, Charming Hostess, Faun Fables, Mono Pause), world-class improvisers (Dave Slusser, Saadet Turkoz, Miya Masaoka), underground hip hop (DeepDickCollective), and much more. All proceeds benefit RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, an organization founded in 1977. Pick this up, feel great about it, and get a genuinely good listen to boot.
MPEG Stream: GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR "George Bush Cut Up While Talking"
MPEG Stream: THE INTIMA "The New Savage"
MPEG Stream: DEERHOOF "Bring Down the Nutritious Pigs"

V/A Back And 4th (Hotflush) 2cd 17.98

V/A Back To Black (Lo Recordings) cd 14.98

V/A Bangs & Works Vol. 1: A Chicago Footwork Compilation (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
Avid readers of the aQ list have no doubt noticed out new found obsession with 'jukin' and 'footwork', and the music that is the soundtrack to this new style of dance battling. We reviewed collections by DJ Nate and DJ Roc, both big names in a scene that most folks had never even heard of until recently, and masters of a sound that is equal parts twisted genius, and maddeningly repetitive insanity. It's easy to imagine this being the perfect music to get out there and dance your ass off, the manic music matching the speed of the frantically moving bodies, or vice versa, but removed from the dancefloor or street corner, the sound takes on a life of its own and has proven to very divisive. Most of us can't get enough, the looped repetition, the ridiculously relentless skitter and stutter, but some folks are driven totally batty after a matter of minute. But frankly, we just don't know what the heck is wrong with those folks. This stuff is totally brilliant, baffling, confusional, and weirdly funky and freaky and WAY far out.
This collection gathers up jams from the better known names in Footwork music, DJ Roc and Nate are both represented, but so are a whole legion of others, who take the sound of dance music and twist it all up, the formula being super intricate 808 beats, chopped and spliced and layered, into intricate mathy patterns, while snippets of soul songs are sped up and repeated over and over and over, bits of rapping, or fragments of a vocal line are also lifted, chopped and then looped, a variant of ghetto tech, the sound is so intense, and groovy, and funky, and in its own way psychedelic too.
From the weird low end synth stutter of DJ Rashad's "Teknitian", with its warbly sci-fi melodies and skeletal skitter, to Tha Pope's "Jungle Juke", which takes "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and speeds it up, loops it, and transforms it into a hiccupping avant soul groove, to DJ Spinn's "2020", which does sound strangely futuristic, and to these ears approximates Majeure or Zombi making Footwork music, to DJ Yung Tellum's creepy soundtracky "Freddy Vs. Jason", all the songs here rule, and are totally mesmerizing, and hypnotic, and weirdly impossibly addictive, and odds are you won't be able to resist either.
MPEG Stream: DJ ELMOE "Whea Yo Ghost At, Whea Yo Dead Man"
MPEG Stream: DJ RASHAD "Teknitian"
MPEG Stream: THA POPE "Jungle Juke"
MPEG Stream: RP BOO "Total Darkness"
MPEG Stream: DJ KILLA E "Star Wars"

V/A Bangs & Works Vol. 1: A Chicago Footwork Compilation (Planet Mu) 3lp 23.00
NOW ON VINYL!!!
Avid readers of the aQ list have no doubt noticed out new found obsession with 'jukin' and 'footwork', and the music that is the soundtrack to this new style of dance battling. We reviewed collections by DJ Nate and DJ Roc, both big names in a scene that most folks had never even heard of until recently, and masters of a sound that is equal parts twisted genius, and maddeningly repetitive insanity. It's easy to imagine this being the perfect music to get out there and dance your ass off, the manic music matching the speed of the frantically moving bodies, or vice versa, but removed from the dancefloor or street corner, the sound takes on a life of its own and has proven to very divisive. Most of us can't get enough, the looped repetition, the ridiculously relentless skitter and stutter, but some folks are driven totally batty after a matter of minute. But frankly, we just don't know what the heck is wrong with those folks. This stuff is totally brilliant, baffling, confusional, and weirdly funky and freaky and WAY far out.
This collection gathers up jams from the better known names in Footwork music, DJ Roc and Nate are both represented, but so are a whole legion of others, who take the sound of dance music and twist it all up, the formula being super intricate 808 beats, chopped and spliced and layered, into intricate mathy patterns, while snippets of soul songs are sped up and repeated over and over and over, bits of rapping, or fragments of a vocal line are also lifted, chopped and then looped, a variant of ghetto tech, the sound is so intense, and groovy, and funky, and in its own way psychedelic too.
From the weird low end synth stutter of DJ Rashad's "Teknitian", with its warbly sci-fi melodies and skeletal skitter, to Tha Pope's "Jungle Juke", which takes "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and speeds it up, loops it, and transforms it into a hiccupping avant soul groove, to DJ Spinn's "2020", which does sound strangely futuristic, and to these ears approximates Majeure or Zombi making Footwork music, to DJ Yung Tellum's creepy soundtracky "Freddy Vs. Jason", all the songs here rule, and are totally mesmerizing, and hypnotic, and weirdly impossibly addictive, and odds are you won't be able to resist either.
MPEG Stream: DJ ELMOE "Whea Yo Ghost At, Whea Yo Dead Man"
MPEG Stream: DJ RASHAD "Teknitian"
MPEG Stream: THA POPE "Jungle Juke"
MPEG Stream: RP BOO "Total Darkness"
MPEG Stream: DJ KILLA E "Star Wars"

V/A Bangs & Works Vol. 2: The Best Of Chicago Footwork (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
Here's the second volume in Planet Mu's Bangs & Works series of compilations focusing on Jukin' and footwork and the infuriatingly genius music that serves as the soundtrack to those new strains of dance battling. As we mentioned in the first volume, this stuff is maddeningly repetitive, so much so that when we play it in the store, it's usually another employee that ends up taking it off, but somehow, it always gets played, cuz most of us can't get enough.
The sound is loosely hip hop, but imagine hip hop if the initial loop was just repeated endlessly, the melody constantly recycling, all over a jittery skittery rhythm, while some snippet, sung, spoken or sampled, is also repeated, it's mesmerizing and trancelike, and its easy to just get lost and zone out completely, that is if you're not one of the people pulling their hair out.
But odds are if you're anything like (some of) us, this might just hit the spot, super minimal, hyper cyclical, circular electronica, that is dubby and housey, skittery and stuttery, groovy and funky, and yeah, crazily OCD. Check out the opener RP, Boo's "Heavy Heat", which takes the loop from Pharoahe Monch's "Simon Says"(which was sampled from Akira Ifukube's "Godzilla's Resurrection"), clips it and loops it and sets it on endless repeat. Under that loop there's a skeletal skitter, there's a weird samples bit of soundtrack, a soul vocal loop, and a couple other vocal snippets, but it's that awesomely maddening main loop that will get lodged in your brain FOREVER. Check out the sample, all it will take is a minute or two to figure out if it's your cup of maniacally repetitive tea or not. It's most definitely ours!!
MPEG Stream: RP BOO "Heavy Heat"
MPEG Stream: JLIN "Erotic Heat"
MPEG Stream: DJ EARL "Hit Da Bootz"
MPEG Stream: DJ SPINN "Crazy 'N' Damaged"
MPEG Stream: DJ ROC "Get Buck Juice"

V/A Bangs & Works Vol. 2: The Best Of Chicago Footwork (Planet Mu) 3lp 23.00
Here's the second volume in Planet Mu's Bangs & Works series of compilations focusing on Jukin' and footwork and the infuriatingly genius music that serves as the soundtrack to those new strains of dance battling. As we mentioned in the first volume, this stuff is maddeningly repetitive, so much so that when we play it in the store, it's usually another employee that ends up taking it off, but somehow, it always gets played, cuz most of us can't get enough.
The sound is loosely hip hop, but imagine hip hop if the initial loop was just repeated endlessly, the melody constantly recycling, all over a jittery skittery rhythm, while some snippet, sung, spoken or sampled, is also repeated, it's mesmerizing and trancelike, and its easy to just get lost and zone out completely, that is if you're not one of the people pulling their hair out.
But odds are if you're anything like (some of) us, this might just hit the spot, super minimal, hyper cyclical, circular electronica, that is dubby and housey, skittery and stuttery, groovy and funky, and yeah, crazily OCD. Check out the opener RP, Boo's "Heavy Heat", which takes the loop from Pharoahe Monch's "Simon Says"(which was sampled from Akira Ifukube's "Godzilla's Resurrection"), clips it and loops it and sets it on endless repeat. Under that loop there's a skeletal skitter, there's a weird samples bit of soundtrack, a soul vocal loop, and a couple other vocal snippets, but it's that awesomely maddening main loop that will get lodged in your brain FOREVER. Check out the sample, all it will take is a minute or two to figure out if it's your cup of maniacally repetitive tea or not. It's most definitely ours!!
MPEG Stream: RP BOO "Heavy Heat"
MPEG Stream: JLIN "Erotic Heat"
MPEG Stream: DJ EARL "Hit Da Bootz"
MPEG Stream: DJ SPINN "Crazy 'N' Damaged"
MPEG Stream: DJ ROC "Get Buck Juice"

V/A Barry 7's Connectors (Lo Recordings) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Continuing in Lo's series of today's electronic artist's selections of "classic" unheard music (the first being Luke Vibert's Nuggets), Add N to (X)'s Barry 7 scours the libraries of Chappell, Southern and PIL for some rare gems screaming to be heard. For those unfamiliar, these libraries house music created by top session musicians in the 1960's and '70's specifically as background music for television and radio, and never intended for commercial release. This excellent collection covers everything from breezy, lush pop to wicked moog exotica, and (to my limited knowledge on the subject) mostly from France, Italy and the UK. There's the playful giddiness of Jiri Bezant / Jiri Malasek. The jarring echo-laden creepiness of Georges Teperino's "Weird Sounds No. 1". Lush exotic orchestrations ala Morricone courtesy of (another Italian film composer) Nino Nardini and Paul Piot / Paul Guiot. The spacey minimal electronic oddities of Cecil Leuter, The Johanna Group and J. Matthews. Straight up Moog exotica from Anthony King and France's largely recorded, but rarely acknowledged Roger Roger. Again, an excellent collection not just for seekers of prime "library music", but also for adventurous music enthusiasts looking for tweaked out exotic and early electronic music! Smooth!
RealAudio clip: ANTHONY KING "Forgotten World"
RealAudio clip: GEORGES TEPERINO "Wierd Sounds #1"
RealAudio clip: NINO NARDINI "Catch That Man"

V/A Barry 7's Connectors (Lo Recordings) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Continuing in Lo's series of today's electronic artist's selections of "classic" unheard music (the first being Luke Vibert's Nuggets), Add N to (X)'s Barry 7 scours the libraries of Chappell, Southern and PIL for some rare gems screaming to be heard. For those unfamiliar, these libraries house music created by top session musicians in the 1960's and '70's specifically as background music for television and radio, and never intended for commercial release. This excellent collection covers everything from breezy, lush pop to wicked moog exotica (and to my limited knowledge on the subject) mostly from France, Italy and the UK. There's the playful giddiness of Jiri Bezant / Jiri Malasek. The jarring echo-laden creepiness of Georges Teperino's "Weird Sounds No. 1". Lush exotic orchestrations ala Morricone courtesy of (another Italian film composer) Nino Nardini and Paul Piot / Paul Guiot. The spacey minimal electronic oddities of Cecil Leuter, The Johanna Group and J. Matthews. Straight up Moog exotica from Anthony King and France's largely recorded, but rarely acknowledged Roger Roger. Again, an excellent collection not just for seekers of prime "library music", but also for adventurous music enthusiasts looking for tweaked out exotic and early electronic music! Smooth!

V/A Basic Channel (Basic Channel) cd 15.98
Finally re-pressed and back in stock!
Basic Channel had a short existence, but was incredibly influential on the future of techno. Between 1993 and 1995, Basic Channel released nine singles that infused the jack hammering acid tracks of Detroit Techno with the ghostly hiss that accumulated on Lee Perry's dub productions in the '70s. However, this was not the electronic dub of Pole or Kit Clayton, although both were obviously huge fans of Basic Channel. Rather, Basic Channel offered a hyper-abstract vision of techno that never sacrificed the integrity of the rhythm. Amidst the aerosolized sounds, gray modulations, and purposefully murky timbres, the Basic Channel producers Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus (who would later go on to form Rhythm And Sound) always centered their work along the skeleton of a propulsive techno beat.
This Basic Channel compilation is now in its FOURTH pressing; the original came out in 1995 in a fittingly non-descript cardboard sleeve and later in the metal tin designs that were used for their later Chain Reaction series. This compiled the more ambient and abstract and blissed out cuts on those singles while some of the heavier Chain Reaction tracks were compiled on the "Scion Arrange and Process Basic Channel Tracks" cd (now unfortunately out of print).
But if you just want to bliss out and drift off and be narcoticized by throbbing pulses and fuzzy grit, you can't do much better than this.
MPEG Stream: "G Loop"
MPEG Stream: "E2E4 Basic (Reshape)"
MPEG Stream: "Mutism"

V/A Basic Channel 2 (Basic Channel) cd 17.98
Basic Channel began in 1993 and produced nine 12" singles of hyperminimal techno, with very little information on the labels, very little of what information there was being easily legible, and no real marketing campaign to speak of. If anything, the Basic Channel duo of Mark Ernestus and Moritz Von Oswald seemed to propagate the mystery of anonymity behind their project, aggravating rumors that Basic Channel productions were based out of Detroit (and possibly by Mad Mike of Underground Resistance) rather than their native Berlin. By 1993, both Berlin and Detroit had formed an unusual axis through their mutual appreciation for the other's techno sound, so such a claim wasn't impossible; but over time, Ernestus and Von Oswald had to fess up to authoring these singles. Between then and now, Basic Channel (the label) re-emerged as Chain Reaction which released works outside of the Ernestus / Von Oswald collaboration; and Basic Channel (the ensemble) transformed into Rhythm & Sound for an equally hypnotic form of hyper-minimal dub. As such, Basic Channel became something of a godhead with the techno mythology. They promoted an aesthetic that always worked on the dancefloor but never dated, and always sounded adventurous without being too weird. In other words, Basic Channel made perfect techno.
In 1995, the duo released their first cd, consisting of exclusive edits and remixes from a handful of those 12" singles, mostly highlighting their abstracted ambience highjacking the 808 rhythmic underpinnings. Some 13 years later, Basic Channel has finally unleashed a collection of complete tracks from those nine singles! Despite the full 80 minutes of music you get on this disc, there are only 6 tracks (each track well over 10 minutes); hopefully leaving the door open for future compendiums. But the chosen tracks are all corkers. Throbbing techno 4/4 beats cut through the clouds of accumulated metallic hiss, reverb, and delay which have all been processed in accordance with the percolated patterns of acid house electricity. Often times, Ernestus and Von Oswald set their electronics in cruise control, just letting a small squiggling refrain and walloping beat run before they tweak their arsenal of filter banks or slide in a high-hat in the mix. It's breathtakingly hypnotic and endlessly propulsive.
Along with the Gas 4cd box, this Basic Channel compilation is an absolutely essential techno album.
MPEG Stream: "Phylps Trak"
MPEG Stream: "Inversion"
MPEG Stream: "Octagon"

V/A Beans & Rice / Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare (Beta Bodega) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Beta Bodega collective has issued this confusingly entitled compilation, officially called "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare" but our daft policy of qualifying titles as the biggest words on a cover will call this "Beans & Rice." Confusing titles and political agendas aside, this experimental electronica compilation features Jake Mandell, Takeshi Muto (Schematic), Datathief (Skam, V/VM), Goem, :leekon (Musik Aus Strom), and more taking on Cristian Vogel / Supercollider stylings of mutant house, dark UR / Skam electro grooviness, and microsonic squiggly laptoppery.

V/A Belly Of The Whale (Important) cd 13.98

V/A Below the Radar (ROIR) cd 14.98
Collection of dub tracks originally released on the Wordsound label. Those who are already familiar with Wordsound and the "Crooklyn" dub sound probably have most of the tracks found here, but this make an excellent introduction to the unique world of Wordsound. Includes tracks from Spectre, Slotek, The Weakener (Mick Harris), Bill Laswell, Dubadelic and much more.
RealAudio clip: WORDSOUND I-POWA "Dungeon of Dub"
RealAudio clip: SPECTRE "Mayday / Nightstalker"

V/A Best Bootlegs In The World Ever (No Label) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's crass and laughably simple; but when done well, it's damn good. This is, of course, the current 'bootleg' phenomenon of plunderphonics which drops a hip-hop / top-40 club a capella track on top of a vastly different (but instantly recognizable) instrumental track, all the while perfectly matching both tracks' rhythms and sometimes harmonies. The origin of these culture jamming pisstakes can be traced back to the Evolutionary Control Committee's infamous "Whipped Cream Mixes" in which the a capella tracks from Public Enemy merge perfectly with the swingin' horn-y grooves of Herb Albert. The success of the ECC (aka Mark Gunderson) was principally based upon the lack of hi-tech gear, just two turntables and a mixer.
This import compilation - released on the anonymous No Label - features the current onslaught from likeminded DJs and MP3 wranglers lacing the vocals of one track with the instrumentals of another. While not all of the tracks on "The Best Bootlegs In The World Ever" live up to the compilation's name, about half of them do. The tracks that work best are the ones that manage to not only have the same rhythm, but also match chord progressions. The aforementioned ECC "Whipped Cream Mix" that spots PE's "Rebel Without A Pause" with the Tijuana Brass Band is simply perfect and is prominently featured on "The Best Bootlegs." Other gems include the Christina Aguilera / Strokes mix by Freelance Hellraiser, the Dead Kennedys / Destiny's Child mix by DJ French Bloke, the Girls On Top mix of TLC and Human League, the amazing fusion between The Cure's "Lovecats" and Missy Elliott's "One Minute Man" by Kurtis Rush, and the Sigur Ros / Celine Dion mix that justifies Aquarius' belief that Sigur Ros is nothing but Muzak fodder. Aside from a few duds and a couple more "Funk Soul Brothers" than were ever needed to sampled, this record is brilliant.
These have been really hard for us to track down, due to its odd popularity and its willfully underground distribution. So, when we run out of this... please don't be mad, we'll try to get more.
RealAudio clip: KURTIS RUSH "One Minute Lovecat"
RealAudio clip: GIRLS ON TOP "we don't give a damn about our friends"
RealAudio clip: FREELANCE HELLRAISER "Smells Like Booty"

V/A Best Foot Forward (Pussyfoot) cd 18.98
Smooth and mellow, crowd-pleasing electronica on Howie B's label.

V/A Between Two Points (12K) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Between Two Points" is yet another compilation of electronic glitches and lowercase music. Disc one is more rhythmic in its nature with morse code bleeps and rhythmic sine wave modulations from Noto, Taylor Deupree, Sogar, Mikael Stavostrand, Komet, Dan Abrams, Kim Cascone, and Vend. Disc two is barely there with Bernhard Gunter providing the most activity of sound amongst the likes of Richard Chartier, Steve Roden, Immedia, Roel Meelkop, *0, Miki Yui, and Duul_Drv.
Please will somebody issue a moratorium on compilations as predictable as this one? I'll give you 20 bucks if you make it happen. Well, maybe just 10. But it's gotta happen.

V/A Beyond Istanbul: Underground Grooves Of Turkey (Trikont) cd 19.98
While only one of us here has actually been to Turkey (that would be Allan, the lucky bastard), we'll all pretty obsessed with Turkish psych/prog/folk music for quite a while now, as is evidenced by the fact that we review pretty much everything we can get our hands on. Edip Akbayram, Erkin Koray, 3 Hur-El, Mogollar, Bulent, Selda as well as comps galore, Love Peace And Poetry, Turkish Delights, Hava Narghile, we just can't get enough. The one aspect of Turkish music we haven't really explored is 'club' music. Could be that we generally don't even like American club music, as none of us are or ever were really what you might consider clubkids. Or it could be that there was never any really comprehensive collection of Turkish club music. Probably a little of both.
But leave it to Germany's mighty Trikont label to set us straight. With such a big Turkish population in Germany, the Istanbul music scene has a following there too, and Trikont asked popular DJ Ipek Ipekcioglu to put this collection together. Underground Grooves Of Turkey covers a wide expanse of Turkish sounds, from straight up dance floor pop, to weird guitar heavy grooves, to dub and hip hop, and pretty much every stop in between. While the sound veers dramatically all over the sonic map, there are definitely aspects that seem to be present in most, if not all of these tracks. We hear LOTS of Bollywood music stylings. The more playful upbeat tracks, the ones with big beats, wild rhythms and strings all over the place, it's hard not to imagine huge big budget dance scenes, dancers twirling, epic and massive and WILD. The more low key, laid back tracks alternately remind us of Muslimgauze, Dead Can Dance, and Jaz Coleman and Anne Dudley's Middle Eastern themed Songs From The Victorious City released several years back. As well as obviously all of the vintage Turkish music we have been digging.
Every single one of these songs is totally unique in its own way, and distinctly Turkish, incorporating all manner of other sounds while managing to sound fresh and original. The first track on the comp, The Night Session's "La Mirage" had us at hello. Imagine 50 Cent's "In Da Club" with its loping laid back swagger, mashed up with haunting minor key, Eastern tinged strings, fluttering flutes and soaring Arabesque vocals. Pretty kick ass. Could definitely be a club hit here. Surprised this track hasn't already been snapped up by that whole Sounds Of The Asian underground scene. With a comp this varied, probably the best way to approach it is track by track. Worth it for the opening song alone, but the rest of the disc is dense and dizzyingly wonderful as well:
-- A soundscape of dense swirls of playful, festive Bollywood exuberance, with amazing vocals from Sivan Perwer, one of the most famous Kurdish vocalists, now living in Germany.
-- Cay Taylan from Vienna, doing a more modern take, a downtempo triphopped version of a traditional Turkish dance, with lots of strings, Eastern percussion, lots of spacey FX and some groovy dubbed out rhythms.
-- A super pop gem from Nil Karaibrahimgil. A mix of drum and bass and hip hop, a childlike rhyme about the weaknesses of men, a sort of Eastern version of the Spice Girls or M.I.A., kind of sassy, and playful, fun, and funky,
-- Baba Zula mixes traditional jazz with Eastern psychedelia, a heady swirl of dreamlike vocals, traditional percussion and melodies, and plenty of late night jazzy shuffle. Some of his past recordings were produced by Mad Professor!
-- Orient Expressions are from Istanbul and carry on the musical tradition of Alevites, a religious minority of Turkish Islam, with a track based on a Kurdish folk song, taking traditional religious music and giving it a dubby electronic makeover, with washed out atmospheres, lilting vocals and super laid back beats, almost like a much more Eastern Enigma or Dead Can Dance
-- Ayhan Sicimoglu is the first Latin musician in the Turkish music scene and offers up a bad ass dancehall jam, a stuttery funky beat over a buzzing kazoo-like melody played on a Zurna, a traditional Turkish folk instrument with just a hint of the dreaded Reggaeton sound (which sounds KILLER here)!
-- dZihan & Kamien are a Swiss / Bosnian duo from Vienna, who craft epic trip hop dubscapes of shuffling slithering rhythms, minor key strings, strange vocal snippets, all wrapped into super catchy laid back grooves.
-- Ceza is one of the biggest names in the still developing Turkish rap scene. He gets compared to Eminem all the time, cuz of his rapid fire flow and whiney voice, and that's not far off the mark. If you can imagine Eminem rapping IN TURKISH over a killer bed of swooping Bollywood strings, fuzzy bass, and skittery almost dancehall rhythms... Wow!
-- The music of Burhan Ocal is really hard to describe, VERY Bollywood sounding, epic and dense, lots of funky rhythms, strings soaring and stirring, elements of Turkish traditional folk music, and some really strange female vocals from Emal Sayin, "the dame of Turkish art-music". She has a strangely strangled sounding mewl that goes from guttural growl to throaty croon, all over super dense and complex string parts and skittery electronic drums. Cool!
-- Baba Cay unfurls a groovy laid back ambient chillout groove, a sort of blissed out R+B, a little hint of new age swoosh, and plenty of Turkish filigree BUT it's not sung in Turkish, instead he sings in a made up language a la Magma or the Ruins.
-- The band with the very un-Turkish sounding name of Brooklyn Funk Essentials are all about super festive party music, equal parts USA and Turkey, with elements of Klezmer, ska, acid jazz, funk and hip hop, a wild block party groove, with loads of horns, that go from ska bounce to dizzying Klezmer swirl in the blink of an eye. Almost like a Turkish / Klezmer version of Jurassic 5!
-- Burhan Ocal is a famous Turkish percussionist, who weaves an intricate percussive backdrop over which traditional instruments like saz and oud buzz and swirl, a droning gorgeous rhythmic ritual, simultaneously ancient and modern, near the end a drum kit kicks in and then it sounds like some modernized Zakir Hussein jam. So good. Very reminiscent of Muslimgauze.
-- Goksel is a modern Turkish pop singer, with a breathy passionate voice, very melodramatic, performing here some sort of displaced modern American pop ballad, filtered through a distinctly Eastern vibe, reverbed guitars and traditional percussion mixed into soft focus Turkish moody pop, with a slight Western (as in country and western) twang. Her voice actually sounds remarkably like Nina Persson from the Cardigans!
-- Replikas are a guitar heavy underground rock band, who have been written up in the Wire and have even worked with Sonic Youth (and downtown NY) producer Wharton Tiers. Big distorted guitars, pounding drums, driving rhythms, sprinkled with distinctly Turkish bits here and there, soaring vocal melodies, moody strings, all makes for a gorgeous and strangely affecting track...
Not sure how this fits in with the rest of these "underground grooves" but pretty cool nonetheless.
-- Finally, the last track comes from Taner Demiralp, a young conductor / composer who delivers an almost liturgical sounding piece based on a traditional poem, praising the sultans, composed in the style of court music from the Ottoman Empire, including the lyrics and vocals, which are sung and composed in a traditional style no longer in use. Gorgeous crooned melodies over mournful minor key strings, all over a shuffling stuttering electronic beat. creepy and quite beautiful.
Absolutely essential for fans of Turkish music, and anyone who loved any of the Turkish psych compilations we've listed in the past. And all you folks who dig stuff like Kruder And Dorfmeister, Tosca, Peace Orchestra, Kid Loco and the like and just might be open to something a little more exotic, might really dig this stuff.
Like all Trikont releases, Beyond Istanbul is packaged in a full color digipak, and includes a massive set of liner notes, with a history of modern Turkish music, notes on each song and artist, as well as lots of photos!
MPEG Stream: THE NIGHT SESSION "La Mirage"
MPEG Stream: NIL KARAIBRAHIMGIL "Butun Kizlar Toplandik"
MPEG Stream: BURHAN OCAL & TRAKYA ALL STARS "Tekirdag Karsilasmasi"
MPEG Stream: REPLIKAS "Omur Sayaci"

V/A Bip Hop Generation v.3 (Bip Hop) cd 14.98
Third in the series of international blip-bleep compilations from this French label. This edition features 14 tracks of previously unreleased music from six electronic musicians: AQ-fave Neotropic from England, Austrialian "lowercase" artist Pimmon, Bovine Life (UK), Novel 23 (Russia), Zonk't (France), and Atau Tanaka (Japan).

V/A Bip Hop Generation Vol 1 (Bip Hop) cd 16.98
From one of our favorite labels, France's Pandemonium (home of Hint, Guapo, and others) is born a new all electronic label called Bip Hop. Their first release (actually a series of releases) "The Bip Hop Generation" looks to be an interesting collection of experimental electronics, digital glitch worship, and IDM abstractions. The first in the series compiles tracks from Marumari, Schneider TM, Massimo, Goem, Phonem, and Ultra Milkmaids, and ranges from darkish, abstract, drum & bass to sinewave based techno minimalism to ticklish pop electronica. Really Nice.

V/A Bip Hop Generation Vol. 2 (Bip Hop) cd 15.98
Of the increasing volume of electronic music compilations that continue to flood the markets, the two "Bip Hop" compilations hold the unique distinction of being more than a document of who's hot and who's not in electronica. Instead of cramming 20 tracks into 72 minutes of space, "Bip Hop Generation 2" only features 6 artists -- Bernhard Fleischmann, Arovane, Warmdesk, Kohn, Wang Inc, and Laurent Pernice -- who are each given much longer amounts of time to showcase their wears, often with several smaller contributions which allows the artist to stretch out a bit and flex some musical muscle.
Fleischmann, Pernice, and Warmdesk generate off-kilter techno similar to early Aphex Twin and Plaid, while Arovane continues down the Boards Of Canada path of moody melody. Wang Inc and Kohn offer a handful of wistful and melodic analogue sketches.
Even for those of us who think there should be a moratorium on electronica compilations, this is worth checking out!
RealAudio clip: BERNHARD FLEISCHMANN "Aube"
RealAudio clip: AROVANE "Plecq"
RealAudio clip: WARMDESK "Nynl Square"

V/A Bippp: French Synth Wave 1979 - 85 (Everloving) cd 14.98
Ah those French and their electronics, if there's one thing we've learned, they're really good at busting out catchy synth lines and addictive dance tunes. France in the late '70s to mid '80s particularly, held an abundance of innovative and distinct synth-based cold-wave acts, many of whom where under the radar and less popular than the likes of Jean Michel Jarre or Richard Pinhas, but still rich in texture and just as brilliant. We read somewhere that Ruth sold just 50 copies of their (amazing) album released in 1985. The fact that we know next to nothing about any of the artists on this comp makes it even better!
If the Tigersushi Collection, So Young But So Cold that we listed a while back tickled your fancy, Bippp will not disappoint. The folks here at aQ have been eating this up! This compilation, put out by Everloving, licensed from the French label Born Bad, is a marvelous collection of raw futuristic energy and minimalist beats. In it you hear the beginnings of cold wave, dark-wave, post punk, and electro pop. Act's "Ping Pong" suggests everything from The Police to early New Order while the quirky efforts of "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" by The Comix is fast, spastic and bouncy with minimal drum machine effects, slicing synth stabs, and swirly, grinding melodies similar to Kraftwerk or early OMD. CKC's "20h25", catchy as all hell, stands out the most with backing robotic vocals, eerie Casio lines, and a somewhat random slap bass break mid-song. In the pulsing, metronomic works of "Pretty Day" by Mary Moore, another gem in the collection and one of the only two tracks with English vocals, Mary sings about love and death in equally coy tones. TGV's "Partie 1" is sort of a punk anthem (as are a couple others in the collection) with interlocking key patterns and quick, nervous yelps.
Seems a little out of place that the last song, "Rainbow Man", is a tune by Ed Banger (present day French electro monarch) label frontman Busy P (who samples the "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" track by The Comix listed earlier on in the comp) though the Collection's title suggests French New Wave "1979-85"..?? Still a damned good track regardless. And maybe the bait to get some of the young 'uns interested in this cool old stuff. Really it's astounding how fresh in quality the bulk of these songs are as well, as if they could've been released within the last five years, on a label like Ed Banger...
Most of the bands on the compilation apparently released vinyl runs of 1000 or less the first time around. Lacking an aboveground hit by a homegrown version of Depeche Mode or Soft Cell, the scene portrayed on Bippp remained largely hidden. As brilliant and often catchy as the tunes are, they remained weirdly confidential. We can only hope that the release of Bippp leads to reissues of full albums by these acts! We already knew we needed that Ruth record back in print.
MPEG Stream: CKC "20h25"
MPEG Stream: MARIE MOORE "Pretty Day"
MPEG Stream: DEUX "Game And Performance"

V/A Bippp: French Synth Wave 1979-85 (Born Bad) lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Also now available on vinyl!! Yay!
Ah those French and their electronics, if there's one thing we've learned, they're really good at busting out catchy synth lines and addictive dance tunes. France in the late '70s to mid '80s particularly, held an abundance of innovative and distinct synth-based cold-wave acts, many of whom where under the radar and less popular than the likes of Jean Michel Jarre or Richard Pinhas, but still rich in texture and just as brilliant. We read somewhere that Ruth sold just 50 copies of their (amazing) album released in 1985. The fact that we know next to nothing about any of the artists on this comp makes it even better!
If the Tigersushi Collection, So Young But So Cold that we listed a while back tickled your fancy, Bippp will not disappoint. The folks here at aQ have been eating this up! This compilation, put out by Everloving, licensed from the French label Born Bad, is a marvelous collection of raw futuristic energy and minimalist beats. In it you hear the beginnings of cold wave, dark-wave, post punk, and electro pop. Act's "Ping Pong" suggests everything from The Police to early New Order while the quirky efforts of "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" by The Comix is fast, spastic and bouncy with minimal drum machine effects, slicing synth stabs, and swirly, grinding melodies similar to Kraftwerk or early OMD. CKC's "20h25", catchy as all hell, stands out the most with backing robotic vocals, eerie Casio lines, and a somewhat random slap bass break mid-song. In the pulsing, metronomic works of "Pretty Day" by Mary Moore, another gem in the collection and one of the only two tracks with English vocals, Mary sings about love and death in equally coy tones. TGV's "Partie 1" is sort of a punk anthem (as are a couple others in the collection) with interlocking key patterns and quick, nervous yelps.
Seems a little out of place that the last song, "Rainbow Man", is a tune by Ed Banger (present day French electro monarch) label frontman Busy P (who samples the "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" track by The Comix listed earlier on in the comp) though the Collection's title suggests French New Wave "1979-85"..?? Still a damned good track regardless. And maybe the bait to get some of the young 'uns interested in this cool old stuff. Really it's astounding how fresh in quality the bulk of these songs are as well, as if they could've been released within the last five years, on a label like Ed Banger...
Most of the bands on the compilation apparently released vinyl runs of 1000 or less the first time around. Lacking an aboveground hit by a homegrown version of Depeche Mode or Soft Cell, the scene portrayed on Bippp remained largely hidden. As brilliant and often catchy as the tunes are, they remained weirdly confidential. We can only hope that the release of Bippp leads to reissues of full albums by these acts! We already knew we needed that Ruth record back in print.
MPEG Stream: CKC "20h25"
MPEG Stream: MARIE MOORE "Pretty Day"
MPEG Stream: DEUX "Game And Performance"

V/A Biting On Ravecore (Fukdup / Reactionary) lp 11.98
From the sam e label that brought us that amazing Shitmat grunge cover split (the one that came packaged in actual flannel shirts!) comes this new vinyl only comp of totally fucked up and genius junglized drill and bass ravecore, featuring the best Shitmat track in ages!
A sort of cover of Oasis' "Champagne Supernova" but all sped up and doused in drum damage with manic synth stabs and chopped up jungle beats and that Oasis track is all cut up so the line about "getting high" is repeated over and over, all tangled up with Shitmat's completely insane spastic beat freakout. So good. And the rest ain't so shabby either. Mochipet offers up a murky and manic jam, plenty of glitch, pounding beat, all sorts of garbled sounds, chopped up samples, eventually transforming into a crazed jungle blowout. The Foxdye take a Pointer Sisters track, speed it up, twist it all around, add some seriously frenzied drill and bass, and turn it into the dance party JAM OF THE YEAR for sure!
The flipside is pretty great too, Blaerg revs up some FM radio chestnut dousing it in THICK jungle bass and wild spastic drum skitter. The H8RS go all old school rave but add plenty of jungle, the whole thing getting all stuttery and skittery. Graz offers up some classic nineties style jungle rave, and finally Selector Catalogue takes some old school B-Boy jam, revs it up, flips the speed to 78, adds a heap of distortion, and tangles the whole thing into a gnarled squall of hiccupping stop start, ultra dense skipping and stuttering droned out fractured drum damaged ravecore. Fuck yeah.
Gorgeous packaging too. Eye popping full color cartoon cover, each one hand customized, and each one hand numbered (LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!), pressed on thick green and yellow swirled vinyl.

V/A Blu Tribunl (Inflatabl) cd 12.98
Second installment in what's now apparently a series. Two years ago (to the day, oddly enough) we wrote about the Dub Tribunl CD on Inflatabl. That disc featured Atom Heart, The Rip Off Artist and Small Rocks (Matt Wand of Stock, Hausen & Walkman) and consisted of fairly off kilter, if not outright irreverent homages to Jamaican dub. This time round The Rip Off Artist is joined by Akufen and Freeform and the genre being dismantled is the Blues. 78 rpm discs meet the modern age head on. You ever chuck a 78 at a laptop? They shatter into pieces. Those silly shellac discs are no match for the durable plastic material they make laptops out of these days. Stupid 78's! Blues sources are mixed, looped, stretched and plundered. It's sure to make the biggest analog and roots music purists cringe, but it's equally likely to put a smile on everyone else's face. A definite must for fans of Atom Heart and Stock, Hausen & Walkman.
MPEG Stream: THE RIP OFF ARTIST "What Kind of Blue"
MPEG Stream: AKUFEN "The World Wanna Know"

V/A Blue Skied An' Clear (Morr Music) 2cd 16.98
Slowdive's "Pygmalion" was the album that broke the band up and got them dumped from Creation just weeks after its release back in 1995; yet, that album has become one of the templates for the current strain of electronic melancholia. That album was ostensibly a solo album for Neil Halstead, who indulged in a majestic piece of electro-acoustic minimalism disguised as mope rock. "Pygamalion" displayed very little of the sublime tapestries of shoegazing guitars, and often blurred the fragile song structures into beautiful mirages and haunted echoes. For the business minded Creation, it was a commercial disaster and never got any serious consideration for licensing or even distribution for that matter. Which is a real shame, as it was a fantastic album.
While they didn't reissue that album, Morr Records did produce this tribute album to the Slowdive and their contribution to electronic music. Disc one of "Blue Skied An' Clear" (the name of a song off of the aformentioned "Pygmalion" album) is a collection of Slowdive covers by Morr musicians and likeminded artists. This collection as a whole - like everything on Morr - is pleasant, moody, rainy-day electronica with wistful guitars and vocals prominent in the mix. Disc two features tracks 'inspired' by Slowdive. Artists include Future 3, Isan, Lali Puna, Ulrich Schnauss, B.Fleischmann & Ms. John Soda, Limp, Solvent, Styrofoam, Skanfrom, Komeit, Manual, Herrmann & Kleine, Mum, Guitar, Populous, Icebreaker/Manual.
RealAudio clip: ULRICH SCHNAUSS "Crazy For You"
RealAudio clip: MANUAL "Blue Skied An' Clear"
RealAudio clip: ISAN "Waves"

V/A Bollywood Breaks Sampler (Outcaste) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another label recognizes the brilliance of the wildly prolific Indian film industry's musical scores, puts its money where its mouth is, and releases a compilation. Good on you, Outcaste. This comp is heavily influenced by soul, funk, jazz, and latin music -- and since the record was made specifically for djs, it's purposefully heavy on the groove and not so much into quick changes and challenging juxtapositions, like the more pop-oriented Bollywood Funk records (which we highly recommend). That's not to say the non-DJ can't get into this -- it'd be excellent for your next party. Fans of Bombay the Hard Way will like this.
RealAudio clip: "Cosmic Flute"
RealAudio clip: "Tonight My Love"

V/A Bombay the Hard Way (Motel) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wild Indian Soundtrack music from the 1960's, made by the Shah brothers Anandji and Kalyanji, that has gotten the 90's production by The Automator, who enlisted DJ Shadow to add a couple of beats here and there throughout the record. It's pretty good, though somewhat same-y after the first half hour. And I have to say that both myself and the Automator are so damn tired of lazy, ignorant food-based one-liners used to describe music made by Asians and Asian Americans. Naming a song on this cd "The Good, The Bad, and The Chutney" just shows that the only familiarity too many Westerners have with Asians and Asian Americans is through food. How pathetic.

V/A Box Of Dub (Soul Jazz) cd 21.00
When we first heard about this Box Of Dub comp on Soul Jazz, we were super so psyched. Regular readers of the AQ list by now have heard us grouse about the paucity of grime and dubstep releases in the US. And a quick look at the lineup here, had us convinced this would be a killer collection of modern dubstep. Which it is. Sort of.
In fact, more than 'dubstep' as we've come to know it, Box Of Dub is exactly what it purports to be. A box of dub. Modern dub, maybe. Future dub, also maybe, but not always dubstep per se. In fact, most of the tracks on Box Of Dub remind us more of stuff like On U Sound and The Bush Chemists and Adrian Sherwood and African Head Charge and the whole legion of modern electronic dub. Which is not a bad thing. Not at all, just wasn't what we were expecting. That said, there are lots of distinctly dubstep moments, sudden bursts of blown out bass lines, super fuzzy distorted synths and the like. "Dread Cowboy", credited to Tayo Meets Acid Rockers Uptown, would be a straight ahead dub jam, complete with melodica melodies, but draped over the whole track is that trademark dubstep oscillating superdistorted bass line. And "Respirator" by Scuba, is a thick, lurching bass heavy dubstepper for sure. Kode9 contributes "Magnetic City", a dark shuffling dubstep jam, but it too is heavy on the melodica and classic dub guitar lines.
But most of the rest of the record, is more killer modern electronic dub than dubstep, blissed out beats, plenty of reverb, that reggae rhythm, lots of melodica, reggae crooning, but with bits of dubstep mixed in here and there. The beats are slightly darker and distorted, the synths and basslines are thicker and more raw, pulsing and throbbing. In some ways, if you didn't know what dubstep was, this might be the ultimate dub compilation, all the best parts of dub, stripped down, skeletal, but with the bass pumped and all sorts of extra synthy buzz and rhythmic skitter.
It may all just be semantics. Whatever you call it, we can't stop listening to it. And it sounds sooooooo good turned way up with the bass on ten, makes the whole shop rattle. Fans of recent AQ faves like Burial, Kode9 (both on here!), Milanese, the Skull Disco comp, the Science Faction: Dubstep comp, will absolutely need this too...
MPEG Stream: TAYO MEETS ACID ROCKERS UPTOWN "Dread Cowboy"
MPEG Stream: SKREAM "Irie"
MPEG Stream: SCUBA "Respirator"

V/A Box Of Dub (Soul Jazz) 3lp 28.00
Now available on vinyl!!
When we first heard about this Box Of Dub comp on Soul Jazz, we were super so psyched. Regular readers of the AQ list by now have heard us grouse about the paucity of grime and dubstep releases in the US. And a quick look at the lineup here, had us convinced this would be a killer collection of modern dubstep. Which it is. Sort of.
In fact, more than 'dubstep' as we've come to know it, Box Of Dub is exactly what it purports to be. A box of dub. Modern dub, maybe. Future dub, also maybe, but not always dubstep per se. In fact, most of the tracks on Box Of Dub remind us more of stuff like On U Sound and The Bush Chemists and Adrian Sherwood and African Head Charge and the whole legion of modern electronic dub. Which is not a bad thing. Not at all, just wasn't what we were expecting. That said, there are lots of distinctly dubstep moments, sudden bursts of blown out bass lines, super fuzzy distorted synths and the like. "Dread Cowboy", credited to Tayo Meets Acid Rockers Uptown, would be a straight ahead dub jam, complete with melodica melodies, but draped over the whole track is that trademark dubstep oscillating superdistorted bass line. And "Respirator" by Scuba, is a thick, lurching bass heavy dubstepper for sure. Kode9 contributes "Magnetic City", a dark shuffling dubstep jam, but it too is heavy on the melodica and classic dub guitar lines.
But most of the rest of the record, is more killer modern electronic dub than dubstep, blissed out beats, plenty of reverb, that reggae rhythm, lots of melodica, reggae crooning, but with bits of dubstep mixed in here and there. The beats are slightly darker and distorted, the synths and basslines are thicker and more raw, pulsing and throbbing. In some ways, if you didn't know what dubstep was, this might be the ultimate dub compilation, all the best parts of dub, stripped down, skeletal, but with the bass pumped and all sorts of extra synthy buzz and rhythmic skitter.
It may all just be semantics. Whatever you call it, we can't stop listening to it. And it sounds sooooooo good turned way up with the bass on ten, makes the whole shop rattle. Fans of recent AQ faves like Burial, Kode9 (both on here!), Milanese, the Skull Disco comp, the Science Faction: Dubstep comp, will absolutely need this too...
MPEG Stream: TAYO MEETS ACID ROCKERS UPTOWN "Dread Cowboy"
MPEG Stream: SKREAM "Irie"
MPEG Stream: SCUBA "Respirator"

V/A Box of Dub 2: Dubstep and Future Dub (Soul Jazz) 2cd 21.00
Much like volume one, which we raved about a while back, this latest installment of Soul Jazz's Box Of Dub collection of dubstep and 'future dub' is as much a straight dub record as it is a dubstep record. Maybe even more so. Hence the 'future dub' descriptor in the title. Could well have called it modern dub or something similar. The dub element, while sometimes totally twisted into new shapes, is more often left relatively pure, a slab of classic old school dub, just slightly modernized, maybe with a bit of extra bass, or some haunting effects, but not much else. The power, as always, is in the BASS.
And just like the first volume, this is an absolute killer. All the tracks here, whether they be shuffling classic dub or super creepy skeletal dubstep, are dark and slithery, with huge thick basslines, skittery dubbed out percussion, vocal fragments, warbly loops, hypnotic rhythms, all hovering somewhere between late night bliss out, and bumping slow motion dance floor destruction.
The tracks are all distinctly dub, but in all sorts of shapes and forms, from Ramadanman's swirling dizzy shuffle, with strange little sonic flares and vocal snippets over a looped bassline and some modern electro shimmer, to the straight up soulful dub of Pinch's "Step 2 It" featuring the smooth soul croon of Rudey Lee, but like most of the tracks here, peppered with fucked up FX, thick undulating basslines, and all sorts of random sonic weirdness. The Cult Of The 13th Hour track sounds like a Kode9 outtake, super minimal, lots of record crackle over a looped Eastern Melody and an ominous spoken word vocal line, growling and muttering over a revved up Portishead rhythm track. Cotti's "Tamil Dub" sounds like a dubstep Muslimgauze, with buzzing sitars, and a killer throbbing bassline stutter, creepy animal calls, and slowed down vocal samples. Digital Mystikz contribute two tracks, the first some classic sounding dub, channeling the modern British sound of On-U Sound and the Dub Chemists, the second a more dubstep number, but with clanky kitchen sink percussion and horns, sounding like a slowed down Specials. Pinch offer up more dark and dangerous dubstep with their second track "Chamber", a super spare slab of low end sprawl, the drums a hiccupping stutter, the bass surfacing in big roiling waves, everything murky and mysterious, and ultra minimal. The disc closes out with Skream's "Sublemonal", another nod to the old school, with a super reverbed horn refrain over an ultra stripped down barebones dub workout, the snare reverbed into the ether, the bass smooth and shimmery.
The more we listen to this, the less distinctly 'dubstep' it sounds, and the more it just sounds like some freaky outer space dub record, which is in no way a bad thing, just a bit surprising. Because of the dearth of decent dubstep and grime in the US, we're always hankering for more, so whenever a 'dubstep' record pops up, we're pretty excited and order it right away, but lest we forget, long before this new fangled dubstep, we loved us our dub, BIG TIME. So when someone takes a dub record and adds all sorts of buzzing bass, gets it all space-y and tripped out, low slung and speaker melting, haunting and ominous, pulsing and throbbing, we're pretty much sold.
MPEG Stream: RAMADANMAN "Every Next Day"
MPEG Stream: CULT OF THE 13TH HOUR "Wickedness"
MPEG Stream: KING SOLY "Tamil Dub"

V/A Box of Dub 2: Dubstep and Future Dub (Soul Jazz) 3lp 25.00
Much like volume one, which we raved about a while back, this latest installment of Soul Jazz's Box Of Dub collection of dubstep and 'future dub' is as much a straight dub record as it is a dubstep record. Maybe even more so. Hence the 'future dub' descriptor in the title. Could well have called it modern dub or something similar. The dub element, while sometimes totally twisted into new shapes, is more often left relatively pure, a slab of classic old school dub, just slightly modernized, maybe with a bit of extra bass, or some haunting effects, but not much else. The power, as always, is in the BASS.
And just like the first volume, this is an absolute killer. All the tracks here, whether they be shuffling classic dub or super creepy skeletal dubstep, are dark and slithery, with huge thick basslines, skittery dubbed out percussion, vocal fragments, warbly loops, hypnotic rhythms, all hovering somewhere between late night bliss out, and bumping slow motion dance floor destruction.
The tracks are all distinctly dub, but in all sorts of shapes and forms, from Ramadanman's swirling dizzy shuffle, with strange little sonic flares and vocal snippets over a looped bassline and some modern electro shimmer, to the straight up soulful dub of Pinch's "Step 2 It" featuring the smooth soul croon of Rudey Lee, but like most of the tracks here, peppered with fucked up FX, thick undulating basslines, and all sorts of random sonic weirdness. The Cult Of The 13th Hour track sounds like a Kode9 outtake, super minimal, lots of record crackle over a looped Eastern Melody and an ominous spoken word vocal line, growling and muttering over a revved up Portishead rhythm track. Cotti's "Tamil Dub" sounds like a dubstep Muslimgauze, with buzzing sitars, and a killer throbbing bassline stutter, creepy animal calls, and slowed down vocal samples. Digital Mystikz contribute two tracks, the first some classic sounding dub, channeling the modern British sound of On-U Sound and the Dub Chemists, the second a more dubstep number, but with clanky kitchen sink percussion and horns, sounding like a slowed down Specials. Pinch offer up more dark and dangerous dubstep with their second track "Chamber", a super spare slab of low end sprawl, the drums a hiccupping stutter, the bass surfacing in big roiling waves, everything murky and mysterious, and ultra minimal. The disc closes out with Skream's "Sublemonal", another nod to the old school, with a super reverbed horn refrain over an ultra stripped down barebones dub workout, the snare reverbed into the ether, the bass smooth and shimmery.
The more we listen to this, the less distinctly 'dubstep' it sounds, and the more it just sounds like some freaky outer space dub record, which is in no way a bad thing, just a bit surprising. Because of the dearth of decent dubstep and grime in the US, we're always hankering for more, so whenever a 'dubstep' record pops up, we're pretty excited and order it right away, but lest we forget, long before this new fangled dubstep, we loved us our dub, BIG TIME. So when someone takes a dub record and adds all sorts of buzzing bass, gets it all space-y and tripped out, low slung and speaker melting, haunting and ominous, pulsing and throbbing, we're pretty much sold.
MPEG Stream: RAMADANMAN "Every Next Day"
MPEG Stream: CULT OF THE 13TH HOUR "Wickedness"
MPEG Stream: KING SOLY "Tamil Dub"

V/A Brain in the Wire (Brainwashed) 3cd 43.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Brainwashed.com is an indispensible website dedicated to all sorts of musical arcana, publishing an insightful number of reviews and hosting the official domains for such diverse artists as Nurse With Wound, V/VM, Matmos, Mirror, Labradford, Trans Am, Legendary Pink Dots, etc. In 2000 and 2001, The Wire commissioned Brainwashed.com to assemble two albums that were to be distributed to all The Wire's subscribers in conjunction with one of their issues. Unlike so many of those crappy free CDs that usually come with magazines, The Wire and Brainwashed.com got it right, with mostly exclusive tracks from interesting artists (including Matmos, Bedhead, Stars Of The Lid, Diamanda Galas, Gordon Mumma, Cex, Thighpaulsandra, Fridge, Twilight Circus, Windy & Carl, Current 93, and plenty more). "Brain in the Wire" features both of those CDs, plus a third disc of 'surprises.' If we can indulge The Wire's monthly "Invisible Jukebox" feature (which must have been the intent of not providing any information), this is our guess at those unknown artists on "Disc X." Track one is Wire editor Rob Young talking about how he wouldn't want to be Richie Hawtin, which makes me believe that track two - a thumpin' Detroit acid production - is Richie Hawtin, or maybe not. Track three, well, this is a prepared piano piece with fragments of tape manipulation behind it. Sam Shalabi? Keith Rowe? David Tudor? Gordon Mumma? It could even be Matmos, after all, their next record is a piano record. Man, I really hope track four is Coil, and it's a hint of their "Backwards" record, but I've got to say that it's Cabaret Voltaire, with the synthetic Fairlight melody and heady breakbeat propulsion. Track five. Well I know that Hrvatski has something on this compilation... and this laptop tricked out drone piece with microscopic buzzing and glitches of orchestral instrumentation could easily be Mr. Whitman. Track six. Easy. That's Panacea. Track seven, slowcore indie strum that could be Bedhead, could be Windsor For The Derby, but never really explains itself more than being slow. Track eight is 3 seconds of filler static. No way I'm guessing who that is. Track nine. Jeff tells me this has to be !!!, and I'll believe his analysis on this badly recorded live track of '80s punk / funk revisionism. Track ten. This sounds like Sonna to me, the quietest indie-rock band Steve Albini has ever produced, but have they been known to filter their guitar strum and hammond organ sadness with Max / MSP filters? Track eleven with its corny organ grind and 'funk-soul-brother' whiteness, just sucks... I don't want to know who this is. Track twelve has got to be Bowery Electric, with their gritty atmospheric trip hop electronics and shoegazing guitars. Track thirteen has got the introduction right out of "Bring It On" and fizzy electronica breakbeats, so this is certainly from the Tigerbeat 6 crowd, so I'll guess Cex.
Hey, we're not claiming these to be right! Have fun with it yourself, we sure did!
Where this compilation succeeds in its musical content, it royally fails in packaging: three loose cds in a metal tin which requires the booklets to be bent in order to fit, accompanied by a cheap keychain, a cloth patch, and a q-tip (???). All of this is wrapped with an unkempt piece of wire. Arrggg.

V/A Braindance Coincidence, The (Rephlex) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This bargain sampler celebrates ten years and over 100 releases on Richard D. James' REPHLEX label. 16 tracks clocking in at 76 minutes by µ-Ziq, Cylob, DMX Crew, The Gentle People, Bochum Welt, Chaos A.D. (Squarepusher), Global Goon, D'arcangelo, The Railway River, Baby Ford (Remix by AFX), Vulva, Vibert Simmonds (yes, Luke Vibert), Bogdan Raczynski, Mike Dred with Peter Green, Leila, and Ovuca!

V/A Branches And Routes (Fat Cat) 2cd 14.98
This is a rather good collection of 22 tracks taken from the consistently great Fat Cat catalog, plus five previously unreleased ones (including one by SIGUR ROS). Fat Cat has released a lot of navelgazing music, especially at their start, but have since branched out and in doing so are forming their own wideranging aesthetic particular to their own logic (as all good labels should do). It's almost all uniformly slow to midtempo, ranging from bedroom electronic melancholia like that of Transient Waves and Mice Parade; to the abstract deconstructions of Fennesz; to the outer edges of postrock and/or postfolk typified by David Grubbs and Set Fire to Flames; to exuberant post punk of Programme, Giddy Motors, and Party of One; to the noisier experimentalism of Black Dice and Xinlisupreme. But none of the Fat Cat stuff ever gets too 'out there', if you know what I mean, so in that nice way it's a great safe label to trust, especially if you're wanting a listen on the more accessible side of nonetheless experimental genres.
With all of the abovementioned artists, plus Kid606, Matmos, Bjork mit Funkstorung, the Dylan Group, Mum, Grain, Sylvain Chaveau and more.
MPEG Stream: DAVID GRUBBS "Transom"
MPEG Stream: THE DYLAN GROUP "Avila"
MPEG Stream: SIGUR ROS "Eg Mun Laeknast!"
MPEG Stream: XINLISUPREME "Murder License"

V/A Brian Alfred: Fall 2002 (Max Protetch) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Published as the catalogue for an exhibition at the respected Max Protectch gallery in NYC, this is an enhanced CD that features a well crafted slide show of Brian Alfred's slick illustrative paintings that offer irony clad observations of corporate culture in paint-by-numbers graphic displays, and a soundtrack (playable on all CD players) collected from a number of electro-glitch artists including Nabukazu Takemura, E*Vax, Pulseprogramming, E*Rock, Ultra Living, Opiate, Lulltone, Loscil, Static, Jeremy Boyle, and Pan American. To the best of our knowledge, all of the music is previously unreleased.
RealAudio clip: NOBUKAZU TAKEMURA "Untitled"
RealAudio clip: OPIATE "A Song For Brian Alfred"

V/A Brutal Police Menace (Brooklyn Beats) cd 13.98
Pretty cool comp of lesser known beat mashers gathered on this here compilation to protest police violence. Lot of lo-fi, blurred and bombastic beats, from digital hardcore skull snap to more sort of lower impact hip hop flecked beatscapes. You'll probably recognize Nettle and maybe Zipperspy, and there's a DJ/Rupture remix, but other than that, this comp is chock full of possible new discoveries. Check it out.
MPEG Stream: NETTLE "End Of Public Space"

V/A Bucolique Vol 01 (Arbouse) cd 10.98
Arbouse is a new label out of France offering the obligatory compilation as an introduction to what they're all about. "14 titres inŽdits, entre post rock, ambient et electronica," is all they have to say about it; but it does include tracks by Twisted Science (mutilated drum & bass), Sink (a really nice Autechre / Third Eye Foundation piece of electronica), Rothko (a very nice piano and bass drone piece), Chessie, Electric Birds, Bertuf, Kohn, D'iberville, Hood, Acetate Zero, Rothko, Kiln, Billy Mahonie, Paloma, and Chirs Brokaw.
RealAudio clip: ROTHKO "Zurich Trains"
RealAudio clip: SINK "Iltra"

V/A But Then Again (Scape) cd 16.98

V/A Caipirissima (Caipirinha) cd 15.98
While featuring established Brazillian artists like Amon Tobin, Arto Lindsay, and Soul Slinger, this compilation should be seen as an introduction to the Brazillian musicians producing potent amalgamations dubbed "batucada eletronica." Joao Parahyba, DJ Dolores, Apollo 9, and Chelpa Ferro are a few of the Brazillian exports fusing the timeless beauty of Bossa Nova and the daring psychedelia of Tropicalia with the contemporary groove of breakbeat culture. As electronica compilations have always been a dime a dozen, Caipirinha (which has been guilty of a few useless compilations) should be credited as releasing this exceptional document.