BRAN FLAKES, THE Bounces! (Happi Tyme) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Seattle-based duo The Bran Flakes have put together another cherry of an album. Sonic plunderers who must have ridiculous amounts of thrift-store $1 records, The Bran Flakes painstakingly yet assuredly cut everything up -- macabre children's songs, sleigh bells, latin percussive rattles, afro cuban drumming, tooting horns, minor key strings, occasional drum 'n bass, bad disco, some goofy approximations of dub, wurlitzer organ, noir film samples, oompah oompah in the left channel, funky drummer-style breakbeat on the right -- and arrange everything into precise sonic juxtapositions, resulting in a very confident and enjoyable trip from beginning to end (in fact the end is a three minute long recitation of people's names, jesus how long did it take them to cut *that* stuff together?)
The album's highest point comes when they cut up (Terry Riley "You're Nogood"-style!) everyone's favorite muppets Kermit and Fozzie Bear singing "Movin' right along...". It's so frickin' wonderful and happy go lucky -- can't you just see 'em in the Studebaker? While most comparisons to fellow cut 'n pasters involve names like Wobbly and Negativland, I think the group will fit nicely right next to your Kid Koala tape, your People Like Us cd, and maybe even your 12" collection of solemn DJ Shadow, who uses the same tools -- vinyl -- but never cracks a smile, whereas The Bran Flakes are all about hilarity. Look at what moog pioneer Jean Jacques Perrey says about 'em:
"I enjoyed your record very much, it is so fresh, so cool, made for people who have a 'child soul' and at the same time perfectly elaborated harmonically and technically with some funny winks to other composers."
Recommended for the lighthearted!
RealAudio clip: "Good Times a Go Go"
RealAudio clip: "Autumn"
RealAudio clip: "If She Was a Spy"
RealAudio clip: "Bottom"

BROTHERS UNCONNECTED, THE Unrock The House (Unrock) 2lp 43.00
Most fans of legendary (should we say infamous?) world music / punk / surf / WTF? subversives Sun City Girls probably know that a crucial one-third of the trio, SCG's drummer Charles Gocher, sadly met his demise due to cancer in 2007, thus bringing the band's 27-year long career to an end, with their final album being Funeral Mariachi released in 2010. But, their vast corpus of bizarre music lives on, as does the memory of Charles Gocher, at least if the two surviving ex-SCG's have anything to do with it. To that end, brothers Alan "Alvarius B" Bishop and "Sir" Richard Bishop have been touring under the name The Brothers Unconnected, performing an acoustic set of SCG tunes and screening a collection of Gocher's unusual video works. This double lp release documents the uncut entirety of such a show (minus the video portion of course), recorded live in Germany in 2011, with the Bishop bros. delving deep into the SCG catalog, going as far back to such albums as 1987's Horse Cock Phepner and 1990's Torch Of The Mystics to revisit an extensive selection of songs, all of 'em weird and wonderful (to varying extremes of both descriptors). Not only is this intended as a tribute to Gocher, and is something that any SCG devotee will enjoy, it could also serve as wide-ranging semi-introduction for noobs to the beauty, humor, and terror inherent in the SCG's utterly unique oeuvre!
Here's the full tracklisting: "Nyn De Gris Sang", "My Painted Tomb", "The Flower", "The Multiple Hallucinations Of An Assassin", "I Always Felt Sorry For The Monster", "The Brothers Unconnected", "Don't Fuck With The Squid", "Six Kids Of Mine", "Wild World Of Animals", "Academia Nuts", "Soi Cowboy", "Rookoobay", "I Deal A Stick", "Cruel And Thin", "Cooking With Satan", "Eyeball In A Quart Jar Of Snot", "Ali Baba", "Black Orchid", "Bitter Cold Countryside", "Dreamland (For Dinah)", "Horse Cock Phepner", and "Shining Path".
Handsome gatefold sleeve, with one lp on black vinyl, one lp on white vinyl, limited pressing!

BUGALOOS Songs From Sid & Marty Krofft's Original Television Series (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
All kids should be raised on psychedelic children's television shows! The world would be a way better, or at least way crazier place! The Bugaloos was the follow up show to Sid & Marty Krofft's other totally out there children's TV show HR Pufnstuf. Both shows were filled with psychedelic metaphors and totally infectious rainbow colored pop melodies. Kind of touted as the UK version of The Monkees, but of WAY more airy, trippy and psychedelic, the Bugaloos were a band of insects (cute interracial teens in tight clothes with cute little wings on their backs) who lived in Tranquility Forest, where they flew in the sky, battled the evil Benita Bizarre (played by Martha Raye) and spread their glorious pop, a heady concoction of lush string arrangements, candy coated harmonies and an overall Wizard Of Oz on acid vibe that made them a big hit, not just with the tots but with older folks too. We were so delighted that this was finally made available here in the states. There was a Japanese reissue a few years back but it was still hard to get and was quite pricey. Fans of The Free Design take note as this possesses that same kind of over the top poppy, happy and slightly warped cheerfulness. One listen and you can totally tell that there had to have been plenty of... um... well let's just say all sorts of mind altering goodies, involved in the creation of this far out show and the amazing and sweetly trippy pop soundtrack. Electric kool-aid for all the kiddies!!
MPEG Stream: "Gna Gna Gna Gna Gna"
MPEG Stream: "The Bugaloos"

BUMBLE, B. & THE STINGERS s/t (Collectables) cd 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
An old favorite, that we just got a few (drilled, but cheap!) copies of in stock. B. Bumble & The Stingers were an early '60s combo composed of a bunch of talented studio veterans, who notched a few chart hits with their boogie woogie rock n' roll piano-led instrumentals, often versions of familiar classical and jazz themes. You know ELP's "Nutrocker"? Well The Stingers did it first, taking that Tchaikovsky chesnut to number 23 in '62. That's here, plus their "Bumble Boogie" (Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight Of The Bumble Bee"), Clarence "Pinetop" Smith's "Boogie Woogie", Duke Ellington's "Caravan", Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" and others, often with a gimmick like the underwater-sounding "Nautilus" (with vocals, even) or the vaguely-Asiatic "Chicken Chow Mein". Sometimes frantic, sometimes slinky, certainly quaint but totally fun novelty stuff. Like we said, an old favorite.
RealAudio clip: "Bumble Boogie"
RealAudio clip: "Nut Rocker"

BYETONE Symeta (Raster-Norton) cd 17.98
It doesn't happen very often, but occasionally, TWO aQ staffers accidentally review the same record, and usually, we try to just cram them together into one (sort of) cohesive single review, but this time we figured, screw it, here's two different aQ-er's takes on the latest from Byetone, a record we liked so much we reviewed it twice! See if you can guess who wrote which!!
Review one:
It's weird to say, but it seems like the most compellingly funky electronic music is coming from a camp that pretty much perfected the ultimate cold clinical electronic sound. Raster-Noton for years has been home to icy cold collections of bleep and click, him and hiss, taking music and seemingly reducing it to it's most elemental form, and arranging it into machine like rhythms. Don't get us wrong, we LOVE that stuff, and hearing pristine arrangements of ultra low, rib cage rattling lows, and dog whistle highs, rhythms created from clipped static and 1 bit bursts, total mad scientist genius. But all along, it seemed like something lurked just below the surface. A funkiness that the artists seemed to be combating, as if the whole thing was an elaborate sonic ploy to keep the funk at bay. And then suddenly, one of the brave ones, decided to let a little of the funk seep into his audio experiments, and it was good. Too good. Too good to not let more in. And soon, it was too late, and then against all odds, and in an ironic twist of sonic fate, people like Alva Noto were crafting some of THEE funkiest sounds we'd ever heard, all assembled from the same elements, beeps and clicks, 1 bit bursts and sine waves, culminating in the recently reviewed Univrs record.
But then along comes Byetone, not to be outdone, takes those same elements, and decides to not just let the funk seep into his sounds, but to go all out, and craft lush expansive soundscapes, epic and cinematic, proving that those same ingredients could be twisted up into all new shapes, which brings us to Symeta, a gorgeously lush collection of electronica, that slips easily from super clinical click and buzz, to warm lush chordal swells, often in the same song, the various elements arranged into killer grooves and funky beats, with some of the tracks sounding almost Pop Ambient, that lush and lovely, while others stayed more clinical, and still others found a middle ground, which strangely enough sounds like a weird take on the whole Goblin/Carpenter sci-fi future-retro synthscape thing, but somehow cooler, and more -actually- sci-fi sounding, and more hauntingly futuristic, with Byetone coaxing some seriously gristly buzz and tripped out psychedelia from his strange sonic laboratory.
Awesome!
Review two:
Olaf Bender's Byetone project is hardly prolific, but he has proven to be strongly consistent in his clinical electronica, which nudges the signature Raster-Noton sound of glitch 'n' tone on a trajectory that might not be all that averse to the dancefloor. Symeta comes three years after the much acclaimed Death Of A Typographer; and like that earlier record, this one also owes quite a bit to the formative work of Pan Sonic and Mika Vainio's solo album Metri. The hypnotic, adrenaline-pulsed piece of minimalist techno on "Opal" is right out of the Vainio playbook, slowly ramping a militant drum-roll from Bender's drum machine out of a throbbing basspulse radiating ominous hisses and x-ray frequencies. "Helix" and "Black Peace" nod toward the latter Pan Sonic works of gnarled, distorted electronica through an excellent track of grimy blocks of electronic riffage, caustic blasts of noise, and dubstepping electro backbeats, in the construction of some exceptional, high-pressure chamber electronica. Lest you think that it's all Vainio all the time, the first three blips from the album opening "Topas" are devilishly close to the robotic sequencing that Kraftwerk used to build their onomatopoeic "Boing Boom Tschak." Another great record from Raster-Noton.
MPEG Stream: "Topas"
MPEG Stream: "T-E-L-E-G-R-A-M-M"
MPEG Stream: "Neuschnee"

CACCIAPAGLIA, ROBERTO Sei Note In Logica (Mupymup) lp+cd 29.00
Released in 1979, the same year as The Ann Steel Record we raved about awhile back, Roberto Cacciapaglia's second release, Sei Note In Logica, exists in an entirely different sonic universe, one closer to his minimal classical leanings. While The Ann Steel Record was a retro-future pop album, Sei Note In Logica is an avant-garde systems composition for voices, orchestra and computer, that takes a six note melodic phrase and runs it through every possible musical combination with a choir of female vocalists (including the processed spoken voice of Ann Steel!) and the instrumentation of marimbas. strings and woodwinds and computer-based electronics. Its emphasis on repetition and rhythm puts Cacciapaglia rightfully in a more well known circle of minimalist composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley and is a beautifully epic piece of economic means. Recorded in two parts, this vinyl reissue includes a cd of the vinyl recording plus a bonus version of the acoustic version of the piece with the ensemble without the computer derived enhancements and Ann Steel vocal. It's great to see this on vinyl, but don't hesitate as these great deluxe reissues have a way of disappearing fast! Highly Recommended!

CACCIAPAGLIA, ROBERTO The Ann Steel Album (Half Machine) lp 17.98
It took a while for us to be able to list these - first our supplier ran out, then we got copies that were damaged, but now we've got more and we're glad to be able to review it, 'cause few records in recent memory have brought us as much unbridled joy as this one. We've heard inklings here and there about this record over the years and when we heard it was being reissued several months ago, our excitement grew with each new report. Straddling the lines between post-disco and new wave electronica without quite being either, The Ann Steel Album from 1979 is the product of avant-classical composer Roberto Cacciapaglia, a multi-instrumentalist that performed on Franco Battiato's Pollution (a unanimous aQ favorite!) and who is mostly known for composing works of progressive classical minimalism (Wah Wah recently reissued his debut Sonanze from 1975, and Sei Note in Logica from the same year as this, is also worth seeking out). But The Ann Steel Album is an entirely different animal, not only because of its skewed electronic dance-pop leanings, but because it features the beautifully strange and charming vocal presence of American model Ann Steel, who obviously is the real star of this record. She sings like a warm bodied android in clipped chirps and strange phrasings like a machine with english language programming for public interaction. Think Siri with a higher register. In the awesome opening song, "My Time", she's ready to sell you on the artificial wonders of modern society, where consciousness is akin to commodification: "My life runs smooth like a highway / Billboards show me the way" (Belgian synth trio, Telex covered this in a smoother, more well known version on their debut a year later). Every song on here fully rejoices in the positive joys of the synthetic present, making this an infectiously grooving pop art statement with any trace of irony fully camouflaged under layers of glossy surface. It's easy to tell that retro-futurist bands like Stereolab and Sweden's Komeda were influenced heavily by this record, and it fits right in with the brilliant like-minded eccentric synthesis of Bruce Haack and Giorgio Moroder. Not sold yet? Go here to see an awesome clip from Italian dance show, Tilt, from 1980 and just try and remain unconvinced that this is awesome!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu2ESLpe-rE
Thank you Half-Machine for bringing this record back to life! Might just be reissue of the year! And apologies to you non-vinyl folks as this looks like for the present to be vinyl only.
MPEG Stream: "My Time"
MPEG Stream: "Sport et Divertissement"
MPEG Stream: "Portrait"

CANINUS Now The Animals Have A Voice (War Torn) cd ep 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We know you've been waiting for this one. At least judging by the rabid (tee hee) reaction to the recent 7" by the band Hatebeak, a death metal outfit fronted by a parrot. Well now, along comes Caninus to up the stakes. Sure, the parrot in Hatebeak is able to squawk up a storm, and his maniacal screechings fit perfectly amidst the churning riffs but a parrot on its own is hardly a scary proposition. But with Caninus, you've got the same crushing, downtuned metal juggernaut, only this time the vocals come from the drooling fanged mouths of Budgie and Basil, two snarling pitbulls! That's right, pitbulls. Thankfully, barking is kept to a minimum, and instead Basil and Budgie spend most of the time growling furiously, their guttural grunts and grrr's WAY more evil than even the scariest of death metal vocals. Unlike some big fat long haired metal guy doing his best cookie monster grunt, who at the most could drink you under the table, these two canine vocalists could literally rip your guts out, and maybe even would given the chance. When Budgie and Basil, spittle flying, and teeth bared, growl ominously over huge downtuned riffs, it is genuinely pants-shittingly scary. The way metal should be. The booklet has the lyrics and liner notes on each track from the dogs themeselves! "Are we owned by you, or are YOU owned by us? Let's see, you pick up our shit, take us for walks, buy us food, feed us everyday, drive us around, wash us, take us on trips...looks like YOU are OUR SLAVES. Sleep tight tonight, maybe I'll wake you up if I smell smoke. maybe I won't. Remember WE own YOU!" Not all of the liner notes are so downright hostile. Some of them are pretty cute, as the dogs detail their rescue from the shelter, and discourage breeding and teaching dogs to be violent. Plus the slogan "Go Vegan" is displayed prominently on the sleeve as well. The cd has two tracks not on the 7" (both demos of songs NOT on the record) but 7" buyers get spiffy colored vinyl. Guess you gotta get both! PITBULL GRINDCORE!
MPEG Stream: "Bite The Hand That Breeds You"
MPEG Stream: "Fear Of Dog (Religious Myths)"

CANINUS Now The Animals Have A Voice (War Torn) 7" 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We know you've been waiting for this one. At least judging by the rabid (tee hee) reaction to the recent 7" by the band Hatebeak, a death metal outfit fronted by a parrot. Well now, along comes Caninus to up the stakes. Sure, the parrot in Hatebeak is able to squawk up a storm, and his maniacal screechings fit perfectly amidst the churning riffs but a parrot on its own is hardly a scary proposition. But with Caninus, you've got the same crushing, downtuned metal juggernaut, only this time the vocals come from the drooling fanged mouths of Budgie and Basil, two snarling pitbulls! That's right, pitbulls. Thankfully, barking is kept to a minimum, and instead Basil and Budgie spend most of the time growling furiously, their guttural grunts and grrr's WAY more evil than even the scariest of death metal vocals. Unlike some big fat long haired metal guy doing his best cookie monster grunt, who at the most could drink you under the table, these two canine vocalists could literally rip your guts out, and maybe even would given the chance. When Budgie and Basil, spittle flying, and teeth bared, growl ominously over huge downtuned riffs, it is genuinely pants-shittingly scary. The way metal should be. The booklet has the lyrics and liner notes on each track from the dogs themeselves! "Are we owned by you, or are YOU owned by us? Let's see, you pick up our shit, take us for walks, buy us food, feed us everyday, drive us around, wash us, take us on trips...looks like YOU are OUR SLAVES. Sleep tight tonight, maybe I'll wake you up if I smell smoke. maybe I won't. Remember WE own YOU!" Not all of the liner notes are so downright hostile. Some of them are pretty cute, as the dogs detail their rescue from the shelter, and discourage breeding and teaching dogs to be violent. Plus the slogan "Go Vegan" is displayed prominently on the sleeve as well. The cd has two tracks not on the 7" (both demos of songs NOT on the record) but 7" buyers get spiffy colored vinyl. Guess you gotta get both! PITBULL GRINDCORE!
MPEG Stream: "Bite The Hand That Breeds You"
MPEG Stream: "Fear Of Dog (Religious Myths)"

CARPENBORG, STAFF AND THE ELECTRIC CORONA Fantastic Party (No Label) cd 21.00
All right, we'll admit that we were a bit doubtful about this at first, just from reading the hypesheet/liner notes, which claim, in part, that this is one of the "last great Kraut secrets" and because of its discovery, "the history of Krautrock has to be rewritten". And we're still not entirely sure if the person who wrote that was actually joking or not. But, while this is definitely not some undiscovered classic on the order of a Can, Faust or Neu! (or even the more obscure likes of Siloah, Kalacakra, Necronomicon, etc.) it IS pretty cool. And weird. Especially weird. Imagine Reynols or Yahowha 13 gone lounge, trying to entertain a bunch of jet-setters at some hip, swinging '60s party... It's called Fantastic Party after all and that's what it was meant as, a party record! Some cheesy German record label in 1970 put this together, presumably paying (with drugs?) a bunch of studio musicians to create a one-off psychedelic exploitation album by a nonexistent "band". A dime a dozen back then, maybe, but these guys really really went for it. It is pretty darn tripped out. Groovy but really off kilter and demented. Maybe we'd compare it to the children's songbook funk of Stark Reality, if you've heard the reissue of that. Or some totally dosed jazz combo doing porno music. Good times. Yup, it's got stinging fuzz guitar solos, flute warbling, hiccuping percussion, damaged "singing", bizarro titles... this has LSD written all over it. If you went to this "fantastic party" you'd know that Peter Fonda would be there for sure. And go-go dancers with dayglo body paint. And Timothy Leary, and midgets, and people who look like extras from a Terry Southern penned movie too.
A track from this appeared on the Kraut! Demons! Kraut compilation from a few years back, and if you have that, well rest assured, the entirety of this album is of the same high quality of fucked-upedness. So, true krautrock classic or not, we're glad it's been reissued, we're digging it! We only have to wonder, why did the reissuers hate the original cover so much that they felt the need to provide a new, totally ugly one?? Fortunately the LP's real (and actually quite rad, despite what they thought) cover is reproduced on the tray card, featuring a bevy of good-looking, polyester-clad partygoers truly having a FANTASTIC time.
MPEG Stream: "The Every Day's Way Down To The Suburbs"
MPEG Stream: "P.A.R.T.Y."
MPEG Stream: "Shummy Poor Clessford Idea In Troody Taprest Noodles"

CARY, TRISTRAM It's Time For... (Trunk) cd 16.98
We highlighted the vinyl last time, and now it's available on cd too!
It's funny to think that if you could somehow remove someone you probably have never heard of from existence how remarkably changed things would be. Case in point, British electronic composer and inventor Tristram Cary, considered by some "the father of electronic music" who gets this loving and long overdue retrospective treatment from Trunk Records (hopefully it's the first of many). Perhaps not as well known as Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire, or John Baker, Cary made an indelible mark on modern music, not just for his soundtracks to such Hammer classics as Quartermass and The Pit, and his sound effects work for the first Dr. Who series, but one of his most important contributions was his role in the creation of EMS (Electronic Music Studios), the UK's first ever synthesizer company. Without their first major products, the VCS 3 synthesizer, the suitcase Synthi[A] and the Delaware, The BBC Radiophonic workshop, Brian Eno and Pink Floyd (just to name a few artists) would have had sounded completely different.
Born the third son of novelist Joyce Cary, Tristram Cary learned electronics not through artistic or musical means but as a radar operator in the Royal Navy where he first encountered modern German tape equipment. He soon became interested in working with recorded sound, and after studying composition and learning a few instruments, he started building up his first electronic studio. Subtitled, Works For Film, Television, Exhibition and Sculpture, the pieces included here are mostly from his commissions as an industrial sound designer creating sound pieces for industrial films and sculptural World Expo exhibitions. Highlights include "Divertimento" a piece that Olivetti commissioned for the grand opening of their UK training center in Surrey. Combining the cold sounds of Olivetti's business machines against the warmth of the human voice (represented here by the Ambrosian singers ) and a jazz drummer. "Shapes For Living", a short film about product design, premiered at EXPO 70 and most of the non-instrument sounds were created by enhanced and exaggerated recordings of bad packaging, poor design and users struggling with it. "A Hill, Some Sheep and A Living" was for a 1967 television documentary and features an instrumental ensemble. The final track "Narcissus", features a flute player and two tape recorders that starts off soft and pastoral and ends up all kinds of weirdly terrifying as the flute playing through the recorders gets more layered and processed and sped up. Cary died two years ago and Johnny Trunk had been working with him and Cary's son John on this compilation for a couple of years before, so it's nice that this retrospective highlighting a little known, but highly influential player in the development of British electronic music finally sees the light of day!
MPEG Stream: "Music For Light (Red /Green/White)"
MPEG Stream: "A Hill, Some Sheep and a Living"
MPEG Stream: "The Curious History of Money"
MPEG Stream: "Divertimento (Start)"
MPEG Stream: "Narcissus"

CARY, TRISTRAM It's Time For... (Trunk) lp 17.98
It's funny to think that if you could somehow remove someone you probably have never heard of from existence how remarkably changed things would be. Case in point, British electronic composer and inventor Tristram Cary, considered by some "the father of electronic music" who gets this loving and long overdue retrospective treatment from Trunk Records (hopefully it's the first of many). Perhaps not as well known as Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire, or John Baker, Cary made an indelible mark on modern music, not just for his soundtracks to such Hammer classics as Quartermass and The Pit, and his sound effects work for the first Dr. Who series, but one of his most important contributions was his role in the creation of EMS (Electronic Music Studios), the UK's first ever synthesizer company. Without their first major products, the VCS 3 synthesizer, the suitcase Synthi[A] and the Delaware, The BBC Radiophonic workshop, Brian Eno and Pink Floyd (just to name a few artists) would have had sounded completely different.
Born the third son of novelist Joyce Cary, Tristram Cary learned electronics not through artistic or musical means but as a radar operator in the Royal Navy where he first encountered modern German tape equipment. He soon became interested in working with recorded sound, and after studying composition and learning a few instruments, he started building up his first electronic studio. Subtitled, Works For Film, Television, Exhibition and Sculpture, the pieces included here are mostly from his commissions as an industrial sound designer creating sound pieces for industrial films and sculptural World Expo exhibitions. Highlights include "Divertimento" a piece that Olivetti commissioned for the grand opening of their UK training center in Surrey. Combining the cold sounds of Olivetti's business machines against the warmth of the human voice (represented here by the Ambrosian singers ) and a jazz drummer. "Shapes For Living", a short film about product design, premiered at EXPO 70 and most of the non-instrument sounds were created by enhanced and exaggerated recordings of bad packaging, poor design and users struggling with it. "A Hill, Some Sheep and A Living" was for a 1967 television documentary and features an instrumental ensemble. The final track "Narcissus", features a flute player and two tape recorders that starts off soft and pastoral and ends up all kinds of weirdly terrifying as the flute playing through the recorders gets more layered and processed and sped up. Cary died two years ago and Johnny Trunk had been working with him and Cary's son John on this compilation for a couple of years before, so it's nice that this retrospective highlighting a little known, but highly influential player in the development of British electronic music finally sees the light of day!
MPEG Stream: "Music For Light (Red /Green/White)"
MPEG Stream: "A Hill, Some Sheep and a Living"
MPEG Stream: "The Curious History of Money"
MPEG Stream: "Divertimento (Start)"
MPEG Stream: "Narcissus"

CHANCE, BOB It's Broken (Trunk) cd 16.98
Vanity Records don't get much stranger or funkier than this one. We thought it odd that Trunk Records would put this out since it was originally recorded in 1980 in Anaheim, CA, far from Trunk's usual English oddity realm. But we're glad somebody finally released this, as we've been hearing about it for years, namely the unlikely stellar post-disco jam title track,"It's Broken". We say unlikely, because looking at the cover and pictures of Bob Chance singing and recording, it kind of reminds us of our '70s dad having a mid-life crisis moment and living his dream of being a real rock and roll musician, or something like that. And there are moments on this record that TOTALLY sound like that, like the opening blues rocker, "Brown Skinned Girl", but then things get even weirder. What starts out as an anachronistic take on sixties blues-folk pop a la Tim Rose and Tim Hardin, becomes a ten-minute funky slow disco excursion that fans of Giorgio Moroder and Cerrone will most definitely dig. Its long form hypnotic breaks and peaks are executed quite flawlessly. But then what to make of the stalker ode, "The Van Man", which not only makes light of mobile date-rape units, and the creeps who ride in them, but also sounds remarkably like some obscure Bollywood pop production. "I See Her" is a candy coated kaleidescopic folk-ballad, while "Colors" is more of a Herb Alpert cruise ship show tune reminding us of that Michael Farneti album, Good Morning Kisses. The final track, "Jungle-Talk" is a psychedelic instrumental Nino Nardini like Library groover full of exotic bird calls, congos and sultry temperatures. Quite the oddity, and yet totally infectious!
MPEG Stream: "It's Broken"
MPEG Stream: "The Van Man"
MPEG Stream: " Jungle Talk"

CHANCE, BOB It's Broken (Trunk) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Vanity Records don't get much stranger or funkier than this one. We thought it odd that Trunk Records would put this out since it was originally recorded in 1980 in Anaheim, CA, far from Trunk's usual English oddity realm. But we're glad somebody finally released this, as we've been hearing about it for years, namely the unlikely stellar post-disco jam title track,"It's Broken". We say unlikely, because looking at the cover and pictures of Bob Chance singing and recording, it kind of reminds us of our '70s dad having a mid-life crisis moment and living his dream of being a real rock and roll musician, or something like that. And there are moments on this record that TOTALLY sound like that, like the opening blues rocker, "Brown Skinned Girl", but then things get even weirder. What starts out as an anachronistic take on sixties blues-folk pop a la Tim Rose and Tim Hardin, becomes a ten-minute funky slow disco excursion that fans of Giorgio Moroder and Cerrone will most definitely dig. Its long form hypnotic breaks and peaks are executed quite flawlessly. But then what to make of the stalker ode, "The Van Man", which not only makes light of mobile date-rape units, and the creeps who ride in them, but also sounds remarkably like some obscure Bollywood pop production. "I See Her" is a candy coated kaleidescopic folk-ballad, while "Colors" is more of a Herb Alpert cruise ship show tune reminding us of that Michael Farneti album, Good Morning Kisses. The final track, "Jungle-Talk" is a psychedelic instrumental Nino Nardini like Library groover full of exotic bird calls, congos and sultry temperatures. Quite the oddity, and yet totally infectious!
MPEG Stream: "It's Broken"
MPEG Stream: "The Van Man"
MPEG Stream: " Jungle Talk"

CHILDISH, WILD BILLY AND THE BLACK HANDS Play Capt. Calypso's Hoodoo Party (EM Records) cd 21.00
Billy Childish is a man of many hats -- writer, painter, rocker -- and his three decade spanning body of work while wearing each of those chapeaux has proven to be remarkably varied. Nothing would really surprise us, but Childish and EM Records have thrown us for a loop with this reissue of a rare album from 1988. Calico Jack alias Wild Billy hooked up with his backing band The Blackhands (aka Bill, Ludella, Kyra, Richard, Dave, and Seamus) to slip into, of all things, a calypso kind of mood! Fear not diehard fans, he's still got his trademark reckless snarl though as he rambles through loose and light hearted renditions of "Rum And Coca Cola", "I Love Paris" and "Anarchy In The U.K." Raw and gritty, and recorded with one microphone. Rad! EM does it again!
Oh, and EM fans, look out for this summer's "EM Under Water Series" of five surfing-related reissues from '60s/'70s Australia, all really cool stuff.
MPEG Stream: "I Love Paris"
MPEG Stream: "Anarchy In The U.K."

CHRISTINE 23 ONNA Shiny Crystal Planet (Alchemy) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Christine 23 Onna is a collaborative effort between Fusao Toda and Maso Yamazaki, better known as Masonna. While the presence of one of Japan's most frightening noisicians should be enough the scare away all of the too-hip-and-too-stoned kids who only care about 'rare grooves,' Christine 23 Onna's "Shiny Chrystal Planet" is actually a pretty damn funky record. Yeah, it's noisy, but in a swirling, synth-overload, super psychedelic way, not like Masonna's usual electronic scream-skree. And really uptempo breakbeats set the rhythmic backbone for some awesome trance-rock much like the latest grooves from their countrymen the Boredoms (a la "Super Are" and "Vision Creation Newsun)". The phase shifting fuzz guitar and cosmic space dusted synthesizers get jammy, but fortunately never too wanky. Those of you familiar with the '60s spy thrillers of Jerry Van Rooyen may recognize one of his tempestous songs covered by Christine 23 Onna (we think we do, anyways, although it's not credited as such...). Wild, spacey groov-adelia. All around great stuff! Amazing cover art recreating Ash Ra Temple's "New Age Of Earth"!
RealAudio clip: "Christine Hop #1"

CIANI, SUSAN (SUZANNE) Voices Of Packaged Souls (Dead-Cert) lp 27.00
One listen to this and you can see why the likes of Andy Votel and Demdike Stare would rush to release this radiophonic electronic gem on a newly created subsidiary label, Dead-Cert, (a subsidiary of an already subsidiary label Pre-Cert which released lps by Slant Azymuth, Apple Head, and Anworth Kirk). Dead-Cert's mission statement, we've been told, is to reissue albums that virtually no one has heard before and this by all means is one of the rarest of that ilk. Recorded in 1970 for an art installation by Harold Paris in Brussels, there were only 50 copies of Voices of Packaged Souls made, and were given away at the opening. Unlike the material on the recent Suzanne Ciani archive reissue, Lixiviations, Voices of Packaged Souls is 13 experimental sound pieces made on the modular Buchla synthesizer, each one introduced by a male narrator in both English and French, with mystically ominous titles: "First Voice: Sound of Hair Bleeding" "Eight Voice: Sound of Bones Growing", "Seventh Voice: Sound of an Eye Tearing", "Fourth Voice: Sound of Wetness", "Tenth Voice: Sound of A Lighted Window", that suggest a clinical litany of library sounds and actions, similar to the remote feel of a Demdike Stare recording. But what separates this from just a standard bloop-bleep electronic record is the impeccable sound design, with high relief-textural dynamics that jump around the audio spectrum, sometimes sounding right against your ear and other times receding away from you. Would have been neat to see this sound / sculptural installation in person.
Beautifully spooky! And beautifully packaged, too.

CIRITH UNGOL Servants Of Chaos (Metal Blade) 2cd+dvd 17.98
True '80s metal doesn't get much more cult than the late great Cirith Ungol, they're up there with Manilla Road and Brocas Helm in the realm of eccentric, epic-er-than-thou Swords n' Sorcery style metal mastery. With ripping guitars and rasping banshee wails, Cirith Ungol tore it up on four albums from 1980-1991, to little commercial avail. They weren't the mainstream of '80s metal that's for sure. If you're into traditional metal that is both hot rockin' (they were from LA after all) and also gloriously doomy, with a definite '70s vibe, and you haven't yet delved into the works of Cirith Ungol, then we'd recommend finding copies of their debut album Frost And Fire, and its 1984 follow-up, King Of The Dead... But, those are both sadly out of print at the moment. Which brings us to this, their rarities collection, an archival anthology entitled Servants Of Chaos. Originally released only in Europe, ten years ago, it's just been reissued domestically, in a digipack, now with an extra dvd disc of live video footage in addition to the two cds of unreleased demos, live tracks and other early ephemera dating back to 1978 that already comprised this set.
Obviously it's for fans. And if you're not (yet), well, maybe it's not the place to start - but then again, maybe it is! 'Cause we know there's a certain type of absurdity-loving AQ customer who will probably dig this MORE than Cirith Ungol's proper albums. Such as, those of you into the wackiness of the NWOFHM (Steel Mammoth, Pharaoh Overlord, Krypt Axeripper, etc.). And anyone who digs the somewhat trippy, outsider metallic stylings of such private-press gems as White Boy And The Average Rat Band or Dwarr, too... This will be right up your alley, 'cause a bunch of the tracks here, some of 'em songs that later did appear on later CU albums, are, in these demo versions, outrageously overloaded with psychedelic sci-fi synthesizer insanity! As the amusingly self-deprecating liner notes by original guitarist Greg Lindstrom put it, these date from "before [he] grew out of the 'I think this could use some more synthesizer' phase". Raw and ridiculous, these are. We played some of this stuff on Brian Turner's WFMU radio show a few years back, and we know that turned Brian, whose metal tastes run to the "weird" exclusively, into a rabid Cirith Ungol fan. Or at least, a fan of this collection!
Elsewhere, you'll find plenty of long lost tracks that were never again recorded, including several even synthier instrumentals, along with (on disc 2) lots of killer live cuts from the band in their heyday. Oh, and a couple quirky covers, including a version of "Secret Agent Man"! Though maybe the oddest track on this anthology is "Ferrari 308QV On Dyno At 8000 RPM", which is nothing but a 23 second recording of a revving Ferrari sports car engine. These guys loved Ferraris.
So, though some of this is a mite more bizarre than "real" Cirith Ungol, it'll give even the uninitiated a good idea of how and why these fantasy metal madmen ruled. Definitely check out their actual albums if you can, wherein they eliminated the silly synthesizer excess, but the songs themselves are rad either way, and always, in any case, pretty darn over the top. (As is the dvd footage, mostly from a show in '84, when metal was METAL!).
MPEG Stream: "Hype Performance"
MPEG Stream: "Frost And Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Return To Lankhmar"

CLOUD, DAVE All My Best (Thee Swan) cd 14.98
Nashville is best known as a magnet for songwriters, musicians, and performers looking to break into the country music business; at the same time, it continues to house a small yet viable collection of exceptional artists and outlandish freaks within its genteel Southern city limits. Nashville should be proud of its eccentrics, especially the atypical songwriter Dave Cloud, who can be regularly found parked at the Springwater (a dive bar which happens to be next to Hog Heaven which slow-cooks some the best BBQ in Middle Tennessee ... make sure to try the white sauce). Cloud's alcoholic croon caught the ear of the members of Lambchop who as the Gospel of Power helped Cloud realize his second album All My Best. Cloud affects a number of vocal styles; on occasion, it's a baritone that ripples with excessive vibratto like Isaac Hayes on a motley selection of prescription drugs; on others, he's stuck in a locked groove like Philip Jeck record picking unusual phrases to repeat a few too many times. It becomes quite clear that Cloud's head is not quite screwed on right; but fortunately, the Gospel of Power keep true to Cloud's outsider aesthetics, as opposed to the Wesley Willis albums which found him working with a bad metal-funk fusion band or later Daniel Johnston records which that suffer from too much production. All My Best includes a wide selection of idiosyncratic covers such as the Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend The Night Together" and KC and the Sunshine Band's "Get Down Tonight," plus a smattering of originals.
MPEG Stream: "Evil Dracula Man"
MPEG Stream: "Get Down Tonight"

COMSTOCK, FRANK Music From Outer Space (Mr. Nobody ) cd 17.98
Seems like it's been a while since we've had a really nice, classic space-aged bachelor's pad kind of reissue hit our shelves. Frank Comstock's Music From Outer Space from 1962 fits the bill quite nicely. In the original liner notes -- reproduced here along with the original cover art -- it is declared that "special effects" are used sparingly. Comstock, it appears, was a man of melody, who wanted to create his out space symphonettes using his arranging talents and not "electronic gimmickry". Don't let that scare you away though, he actually uses quite a lot of both to great effect. For starters, there's theremin all over this album and when there isn't thermin there's electric violin. Add to these a full studio orchestra, Hammond B-3, Novachord (an early tone-wheel organ that Hammond introduced in 1939), electric guitar, bass and drums and some serious stereo effects, reverb and delay and you've got quite a bit of gimmick going on; though maybe not as much as what was going on in the day, what with cement mixers and car horns being fair game. His use of the theremin to supplant Hawaiian guitar is... otherworldly. Elsewhere Comstock makes use of the pitch control on the tape machines and actually running tape backwards to achieve some creepy sounds. But musically Mr. Comstock can really give himself a pat on the back for some freaking bizarre arranging. "A Journey To A Star", from the film The Gang's All Here, has some seriously neurotic turns. A nominally pastoral melody, Comstock twists the melodic resolutions to make every statement a question mark. Other adaptations from films aren't much different and have a tendancy to make you feel a little uneasy, like getting out of the chair at the dentist's office a little too abruptly. His own composition "On the Dark Side of the Moon" is borderline maniacal with its augmented twists and tritonal embelleshments. Another original by Comstock, "Journey To Infinity" is a lightspeed collision course of Cole Porter with George Gershwin in the Beach Boys' studio. Far out!
MPEG Stream: "On the Dark Side of the Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Journey to Infinity"

CONET PROJECT, THE Recordings Of Shortwave Numbers Stations (Irdial Disc) 5cd+book 78.00
The Conet Project, originally released in 1997, has attained near mythical status around here. Many folks associate The Conet Project inextricably with our store itself. Which makes sense. We championed the Conet Project relentlessly, everyone here is obsessed, most of us owning multiple copies, some of us incorporating sounds from The Conet Project into our own music, and The Conet Project still ranks as probably THEE best selling release ever at aQuarius. Even more remarkable for the fact that it's not really music at all, at least not in the typical sense, and it is and always has been pretty expensive, as a deluxe 4-cd set initially, and import to boot. In fact until it went out of print for the last time a few years back, we had sold close to one thousand copies, and that's just in our little store. We even used to have a big chart on the wall, where we kept track of the sales, and for a while, we were even taking Polaroids of people who bought the Conet Project to display in the store, a snapshot of them holding what we can only imagine would become their new favorite record (buyer #382: Mike Patton!). Which all leads to the question some of you may have, what the heck is The Conet Project, and why are we (and many of you) so obsessed with it? And so thrilled that it's finally available again?! Yes, available again and obviously a big time Record Of The Week.
Basically, the Conet Project is a now FIVE-cd compilation (more details on the new 2013 edition's additional fifth disc is down below, near the end of this long review!) of recordings of mysterious shortwave radio broadcasts, known as "numbers stations". These numbers stations are generally believed to be encrypted spy transmissions, but no concrete evidence has ever surfaced proving that supposition. However, no credible *alternate* explanation has ever been demonstrated, either. For years (ever since the start of the Cold War), amateur radio enthusiasts have come across these sinister signals, and they continue to this day, broadcast in many languages all over the world (the theory is that some are CIA, some are KBG, some are Mossad, etc).
In general, the transmissions consist of a deadpan voice (sometimes an old man, sometimes a young woman, etc.) reading a seemingly random, meaningless series of numbers over and over. Sometimes the broadcasts are preceded by a musical cue (the "Swedish Rhapsody" music box one being a favorite of ours), and sometimes the numbers are not conveyed by voice but by even more cryptic electronics (as with "The Buzzer", and other noisy, abstract stuff found mainly on disc four).
Needless to say, hearing those amazing and baffling sounds collected on these cds is an unnerving experience. Not only does knowledge of the supposed purpose of these transmissions imbue them with a disturbing quality, but the repetition of the numbers combined with the background of shortwave radio static makes for a aurally hypnotic experience. If merely regarded as a piece of experimental ambient sound sculpture, The Conet Project would be a brilliant and affecting piece of work, yet with the added context of international intelligence and conspiracy theory, it becomes even more intriguing and creepy. Lots of information is included that provides a great deal of description of, and speculation about, The Conet Project. Which is possibly the most incredible, and weirdest, item of sound art/documentation that we've EVER had here at aQuarius. Mesmerizing, fascinating, unique, massive, scary, but sometimes even soothing. 100 percent recommended to the adventurous listener ('cause it's not for everyone!). And once you have it you'll understand why it had to be so many cds - being overwhelming is part of the obsessive allure of this Project. And it's not just us, The Conet Project has popped up in lots of unlikely places, most notably it was sampled on Wilco's breakthrough Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album, the title of which in fact comes from The Conet Project itself. Wilco were also famously sued by Irdial, the label who released it, and they lost! Some sounds from the Conet Project also popped up in that Tom Cruise movie Vanilla Sky, and over the years, we've heard it in various films and on various records, it shouldn't be surprising that so many weird music obsessives love The Conet Project.
Really, as we said, if there's one recording that seems to be most identified with aQuarius recOrds, or that at least we mention most often when trying to explain to people what it is that we're all about here, it's most definitely The Conet Project, and yeah, over the years there have been plenty of others, including Sounds of North American Frogs, Os Mutantes, Burzum's "Filosofem", Comus' "First Utterance", Boris, Circle, Philip Jeck, Village of Savoonga, and loads more since, many other records near and dear to our hearts (for instance, hearing the first Neutral Milk Hotel album always makes us nostalgic for the old 24th street store). But for some reason it's The Conet Project that really seems to sum it all up. It's all the things we really love: completely ridiculous (4, no, now 5 cds!), completely fucked (secret government spy transmissions), droning, weird. It's just so interesting and evocative on so many levels, both musical and totally non-musical, as a listening experience and also as a geopolitical cold war and beyond artifact. Definitely an all time perpetual aQ fave: Allan's got the whole thing on his iPod, so does Andee, he also owns multiple copies of the set, many of which found their way into his old band A Minor Forest's live performances, Jim has steadfastly maintained that this is the greatest record of all time, and who are we to argue? If it's not obvious, we all are a little bit obsessed.
And what this is all leading up to is that YES, finally after literally YEARS of being out of print and unavailable, The Conet Project, has been reissued AGAIN, but this time, with a WHOLE EXTRA DISC, with its own jewel case and booklet!! That's right, the new Conet Project is FIVE discs, not four, and if you're big Conet nerds like most of us, you might just have to buy a second (or even third!) copy. The new disc is not just another numbers station disc though, instead it's a collection of "noise stations", which essentially sound just like the numbers stations MINUS the numbers. So it's a series of gorgeous buzzes and strange hissing fields of blurred melody, lots of crunch and crackle, buried rhythms, whistling tones, strange textures, in fact, much of it is downright musical, so much so that we were musing, hmm, what if this new disc is in fact a hoax, a series of number/noise station like soundscapes created by some electronic musicians like Hrvatski? Naw... But there was in fact talk of a Conet remix project for years now, so it's not that far fetched, and in a way, if it WAS a hoax, it would be even cooler. But as far as we can tell, and according to our resident numbers stations / shortwave expert Jim, these are in fact that kind of weird alien sounds you can hear, tuned in to these mysterious stations. As much as we love the other four discs of The Conet Project, this new one is pretty exciting, and we have to say, definitely makes a case for buying it AGAIN! But for all the rest of you who have yet to discover the bizarre sonic mysteries of the Conet Project, there is no higher recommendation we can give, an all time unanimous aQ fave, our best selling record EVER. Sonically, and conceptually mind blowing. We never made it Record Of The Week before for some reason, but in our hearts, it has always been, and always will be, a perpetual aQ Record Of The Week!!! FOREVER.
BTW, this counts as a "box set" for shipping, it won't fit in the USPS flat rate box we use, so it'll have to go media mail or UPS if you're mailordering it domestically.
MPEG Stream: "Swedish Rhapsody"
MPEG Stream: "5 Dashes"
MPEG Stream: "Iran/Iraq Jamming Efficacy Testing"
MPEG Stream: "Magnetic Fields"
MPEG Stream: "Tyrolean Music Station"
MPEG Stream: "The Buzzer"
MPEG Stream: "Data Bursts, 5.201kHz (USB And AM) [Disc 5]"
MPEG Stream: "Exotic Cipher, 6.215kHz/AM October 5th, 2008 19:27 GMT [Disc 5]"
MPEG Stream: "Descending Jammer, 7.969kHz/USB [Disc 5]"
MPEG Stream: "Drone, 17.964kHz [Disc 5]"
MPEG Stream: "Oscillating, 5.178kHz, March 12th, 1997 [Disc 5]"
MPEG Stream: "348|10|13|36|19|21, 11.573kHz, 19:17 GMT [Disc 5]"

CROCODILES & DUM DUM GIRLS Merry Xmas, Baby (Please Don't Die) (Hell, Yes!) 7" 8.98
Yeah, we know, Christmas is over, but you can keep that Christmas spirit alive with this super limited collaborative one sided, single song 7" from the Crocodiles and Dum Dum Girls, a gorgeous, darkly dreamy, fuzzed out, echo drenched Christmas classic if there ever was one. The guitars are blown out, the drums massive, LOTS of feedback, the production total sixties wall of sound, noisy and fuzzy but warm and woozy, with dueling boy / girl vocals, some wild squalls of psychedelic guitars, and a dreamy crazy catchy chorus. Maybe a stocking stuffer for NEXT Christmas?
Either way, you better act fast, we have just SIX copies left. It was LIMITED TO 300 COPIES (each one hand numbered of course), and is already sold out and out of print. Which means you better grab one of these before they're gone, or at least try...

CROM Hot Sumerian Nights (Underdogma) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Crom are funny guys. Their first record, The Cocaine Wars, featured one of the best album covers EVER, a Heavy Metal Magazine style painting of a hot babe in armor, riding a huge polar bear, across a vast tundra, covered in a thick layer of snow, that once the booklet was opened, was revealed to actually be mounds of cocaine being sniffed by a mighty Viking! The new record, features the band painted in the same style as the first record, all Vikings, wearing armor, swords at their side, one flipping the bird, trudging across another snowy expanse, that this time, once the booklet opens, becomes the fluffy bedspread of a sleeping Viking, warm and cozy beneath a polar bear skin, his arm around his sleeping wench. Needless to say we were sold before we even heard a note.
And musically, these guys are pretty goofy too, tons of short short tracks, as many skits and interludes and weird sonic experiments as there are proper songs. But the key to Crom is that A. They really are funny, and the skits, while often dumb or puerile or pointless, are in fact pretty hilarious, and B. The riffs KILL. To the point of being incredibly frustrating, as each song cuts off after only a minute or two, leaving the listener wanting more. Way more. But somehow, all of those metallic fragments, and all of the fucked up silly non-musical moments, are woven into one awesomely over the top, confusional genius mess.
The sound is part black metal, part classic metal, part grind, a little Fucking Champs, some death metal, a little doom, it's obviously the work of some seriously obsessive metalheads, with seriously short attention spans, but the songs when they kick in totally destroy, from furious thrashing blackness, to grinding churning chug, to what-the-fuck metallic free for all, to total classic old school majestic metal, often all in the same song, and then there's all the snippets from movies, the bits of dialogue, the weird whispered vocals chanting 'join us', the entire track made of the sniffle of cocaine sniffing (we assume), weird epic fade-in's that fade in to nothing, some seriously Melvins-y sludge, confusional collages of samples and downtuned riffage, but none of that shit would fly if the band weren't capable of rocking like mother fuckers, which they most certainly are.
And be sure and stick around for the hidden last track, crickets, burbling brook, some distant humming, some Orc-ish growling, monks chanting, incantations, a bunch of crazy Jesus samples, and then a furious blown out lo-fi blast of chaotic metallic grind, the whole thing finishing off with one of those little chunk of music from an after school special or one of those "one to grown on" TV spots.
Hot Sumerian Nights will probably frustrate the shit out of a lot of folks, but they could be quickly won over with a polar bear, a warrior babe, a wall of amps and lots and lots of blow...
MPEG Stream: "Wee Hours Of The Snowgoat"
MPEG Stream: "Thorgrimm's Lament"
MPEG Stream: "The Lurker Within"
MPEG Stream: "Grim Grey Gods"

CROM Hot Sumerian Nights (Forest Moon Special Products) lp 12.98
NOW ON VINYL!
Crom are funny guys. Their first record, The Cocaine Wars, featured one of the best album covers EVER, a Heavy Metal Magazine style painting of a hot babe in armor, riding a huge polar bear, across a vast tundra, covered in a thick layer of snow, that once the booklet was opened, was revealed to actually be mounds of cocaine being sniffed by a mighty Viking! The new record, features the band painted in the same style as the first record, all Vikings, wearing armor, swords at their side, one flipping the bird, trudging across another snowy expanse, that this time, turns out to be the fluffy bedspread of a sleeping Viking, warm and cozy beneath a polar bear skin, his arm around his sleeping wench. Needless to say we were sold before we even heard a note.
And musically, these guys are pretty goofy too, tons of short short tracks, as many skits and interludes and weird sonic experiments as there are proper songs. But the key to Crom is that A. They really are funny, and the skits, while often dumb or puerile or pointless, are in fact pretty hilarious, and B. The riffs KILL. To the point of being incredibly frustrating, as each song cuts off after only a minute or two, leaving the listener wanting more. Way more. But somehow, all of those metallic fragments, and all of the fucked up silly non-musical moments, are woven into one awesomely over the top, confusional genius mess.
The sound is part black metal, part classic metal, part grind, a little Fucking Champs, some death metal, a little doom, it's obviously the work of some seriously obsessive metalheads, with seriously short attention spans, but the songs when they kick in totally destroy, from furious thrashing blackness, to grinding churning chug, to what-the-fuck metallic free for all, to total classic old school majestic metal, often all in the same song, and then there's all the snippets from movies, the bits of dialogue, the weird whispered vocals chanting 'join us', the entire track made of the sniffle of cocaine sniffing (we assume), weird epic fade-in's that fade in to nothing, some seriously Melvins-y sludge, confusional collages of samples and downtuned riffage, but none of that shit would fly if the band weren't capable of rocking like mother fuckers, which they most certainly are.
Hot Sumerian Nights will probably frustrate the shit out of a lot of folks, but they could be quickly won over with a polar bear, a warrior babe, a wall of amps and lots and lots of blow...
MPEG Stream: "Wee Hours Of The Snowgoat"
MPEG Stream: "Thorgrimm's Lament"
MPEG Stream: "The Lurker Within"
MPEG Stream: "Grim Grey Gods"

CROWLEY, ALEISTER 1910-1914: Black Magic Recordings (Cleopatra) cd 16.98
Folks had been bugging us to track down this disc for ages, Black Magic Recordings by none other than the "wickedest man in the world" (at least when he was still OF this world), but we hadn't been able to figure out where to get them. We assumed it must have been released on some tiny obscure microlabel, or maybe it was a bootleg or something, but lo and behold, it was right under or noses, released on good old Cleopatra Records. Home to much modern goth and industrial. And while we can definitely see how this stuff might appeal to the industrial goth kids, it is evil after all, and black magic, but it seems to us the folks that would be way more into this, are aQ customers, fans of the obscure and mysterious, found sounds and field recordings, this would fit perfectly between your Conet Project and your Ghost Orchid disc of EVP recordings (depending, we guess, on what strange alien alphabetization you use).
These recordings have been available before in various quasi bootleg editions, probably most notably as 1910-1914 Wax Cylinder Recordings released on the Transparency label. But they are the same recordings, since these are the only recordings of Crowley in existence.
It's been a while since we listened to the Transparency disc, but these tracks definitely sound a little cleaned up, which is almost too bad, but fear not, there's still plenty of hiss and crackle and warble and buzz and fuzz, it's taken from wax cylinders after all. Basically, this is a collection of Crowley recording various stories, poems, writings, incantations and magical spells. His delivery very songlike, chantlike at times, fans of the Doomsday Cult recordings will also probably love this. The highlight probably being the Call Of The Aethyr tracks, each delivered both in English, but also in Enochian, a magical language supposedly discovered and used by John Dee, magician to the court of Queen Elizabeth. It may sound like speaking in tongues, but it is in fact a real language, with grammar and syntax, rumored to be a degenerate form of the language spoken in the lost city of Atlantis.
Comes in one of those new fangled rounded-corner jewel cases, includes extensive liner notes, nothing about the recordings, but a fairly comprehensive history of Crowley's life. And while they last, it also comes with an Aleister Crowley patch AND pin!
MPEG Stream: "The Call Of The First Aethyr"
MPEG Stream: "The Pentagram"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpts From The Gnostic Mass"

CROWLEY, ALEISTER 1910-1914: Black Magic Recordings (Cleopatra) lp 16.98
Now available on vinyl!!
Folks had been bugging us to track down this record for ages, Black Magic Recordings by none other than the "wickedest man in the world" (at least when he was still OF this world), but we hadn't been able to figure out where to get them. We assumed it must have been released on some tiny obscure microlabel, or maybe it was a bootleg or something, but lo and behold, it was right under or noses, released on good old Cleopatra Records. Home to much modern goth and industrial. And while we can definitely see how this stuff might appeal to the industrial goth kids, it is evil after all, and black magic, but it seems to us the folks that would be way more into this, are aQ customers, fans of the obscure and mysterious, found sounds and field recordings, this would fit perfectly between your Conet Project and your Ghost Orchid disc of EVP recordings (depending, we guess, on what strange alien alphabetization you use).
These recordings have been available before in various quasi bootleg editions, probably most notably as 1910-1914 Wax Cylinder Recordings released on the Transparency label. But they are the same recordings, since these are the only recordings of Crowley in existence.
It's been a while since we listened to the Transparency disc, but these tracks definitely sound a little cleaned up, which is almost too bad, but fear not, there's still plenty of hiss and crackle and warble and buzz and fuzz, it's taken from wax cylinders after all. Basically, this is a collection of Crowley recording various stories, poems, writings, incantations and magical spells. His delivery very songlike, chantlike at times, fans of the Doomsday Cult recordings will also probably love this. The highlight probably being the Call Of The Aethyr tracks, each delivered both in English, but also in Enochian, a magical language supposedly discovered and used by John Dee, magician to the court of Queen Elizabeth. It may sound like speaking in tongues, but it is in fact a real language, with grammar and syntax, rumored to be a degenerate form of the language spoken in the lost city of Atlantis.
Includes extensive liner notes, nothing about the recordings, but a fairly comprehensive history of Crowley's life. And while they last, it also comes with an Aleister Crowley patch AND pin!
MPEG Stream: "The Call Of The First Aethyr"
MPEG Stream: "The Pentagram"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpts From The Gnostic Mass"

CROWLEY, ALEISTER The Evil Beast (Cleopatra) lp 23.00

CULTS PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE s/t (Trunk) cd 16.98
You wouldn't expect an ensemble of 14 year old school girls playing all manner of vibraphones, marimbas, glockenspiels, xylophones and timpani drums to have a name like Cults Percussion Ensemble, but it's highly appropriate as this is not only a totally obscure record from 1979 sold only on European festival tours, but Cults also happens to be the name of the Scottish suburb of Aberdeen that the group and their bandleader, Rob Forbes, hailed from. And it makes perfect sense that it would end up getting reissued on the uber eclectic Trunk label. This is a beautifully charming new releases of hypnotically cascading mallet music that is shimmering and strange, dreamlike and diaphanous, so pretty but also at times a little cartoony, reminding us of Carl Orff's wonderful children's music, Sea World's Sparklett's Dancing Water Show (a fave attraction from our childhood, now sadly dismantled) or the incidental music on the Addam's Family. The girls' deft performances and light airy touch are delightfully enchanting, and though not as sinister or as ominous as the title would suggest, the music is nonetheless spellbinding and mysterious and comes highly recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Autun Carillon"
MPEG Stream: "Circles"
MPEG Stream: "Polymers"

CULTS PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE s/t (Trunk) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You wouldn't expect an ensemble of 14 year old school girls playing all manner of vibraphones, marimbas, glockenspiels, xylophones and timpani drums to have a name like Cults Percussion Ensemble, but it's highly appropriate as this is not only a totally obscure record from 1979 sold only on European festival tours, but Cults also happens to be the name of the Scottish suburb of Aberdeen that the group and their bandleader, Rob Forbes, hailed from. And it makes perfect sense that it would end up getting reissued on the uber eclectic Trunk label. This is a beautifully charming new releases of hypnotically cascading mallet music that is shimmering and strange, dreamlike and diaphanous, so pretty but also at times a little cartoony, reminding us of Carl Orff's wonderful children's music, Sea World's Sparklett's Dancing Water Show (a fave attraction from our childhood, now sadly dismantled) or the incidental music on the Addam's Family. The girls' deft performances and light airy touch are delightfully enchanting, and though not as sinister or as ominous as the title would suggest, the music is nonetheless spellbinding and mysterious and comes highly recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Autun Carillon"
MPEG Stream: "Circles"
MPEG Stream: "Polymers"

DB'S, THE Christmas Time (Collectors Choice) cd 16.98

DENNIS DUCK Goes Disco (Poo-Bah) cd 14.98
Awesome slab of early turntablism, from a member of the legendary LAFMS, the Los Angeles Free Music Society, a loose group of artists, writers and musicians active in the seventies and eighties. Dennis Duck, aka Mehaffey originally released this disc as a cassette tape, limited to 20 copies, each one hand decorated and signed.
So here we are almost 30 years later, and heck if this doesn't still sound amazing. Raw and simple and ultra primitive turntable manipulation, none of the techniques here are mind blowing, in fact, odds are most of them are something we all tried with our own record players at one time or another. Lots of changing the pitch, placing the record on the spindle so it wobbles up and down, placing a seven inch atop a 12" and letting the needle be bumped back every time it touched the seven inch, adjusting the anti-skating setting to cause the record to skip or the needle to jump, it all comes down to two things, the choice of records, and the random behavior of the needle and the records. The records Duck employs are fantastic, weird and wonderful, strange children's records, bizarre jazz, spoken word as well as a handful of discs that end up so fragmented and transformed it's hard to say what they were pre-fuckery. And while some of these tracks don't do a whole lot other than play at the wrong speed, or skip haphazardly, others DO, their bits and fragments looped into strange rhythms and bizarre arrangements, something weird and new and totally mesmerizing.
Our favorite track might just be the nearly 8 minute "One O'Clock Jump", a dense swirling assemblage of strange percussion, jazzy horns, sped up and skipped into incredibly complex patterns, a few minutes in it's difficult to discern the various sounds, or even remember what it is you were listening to, it sounds like some primitive lo-fi lost piece by Reich or Riley, or Lubomyr Melnyk's Wave-Lox performed on turntable instead of piano, swirling and spinning and skipping and looping and hiccuping and blurring into impossible patterns and textures. Hard to believe that it could possibly be just a turntable and a couple records, it sounds like some modern processed piece done on a computer and -treated- to sound like an old piece of vinyl. A few other lengthy tracks near the end of the disc explore similar territory, weaving dense sprawling flurries of loops and skips, and those tend to be our favorites, although the shorter ones do have their own magic, leaning more toward the brief and playful, percussively skipping little sonic vignettes between the longer stretched out skipscapes. Awesome!
Definitely for fans of Marclay, Jeck, Strotter Inst, Yoshihide, Bastien, Brinkmann, Tetriault , Gum, Saule, Cordier, Loop Orchestra, the recently listed Prehistoric Fuckin' Moron(s) and other like minded turntable tinkerers...
MPEG Stream: "Intro "
MPEG Stream: "Do The Fence"
MPEG Stream: "4xie"
MPEG Stream: "Nice Shave"

DENNIS DUCK Goes Disco (Poo-Bah) 2lp 29.00
Awesome slab of early turntablism, from a member of the legendary LAFMS, the Los Angeles Free Music Society, a loose group of artists, writers and musicians active in the seventies and eighties. Dennis Duck, aka Mehaffey originally released this disc as a cassette tape, limited to 20 copies, each one hand decorated and signed.
So here we are almost 30 years later, and heck if this doesn't still sound amazing. Raw and simple and ultra primitive turntable manipulation, none of the techniques here are mind blowing, in fact, odds are most of them are something we all tried with our own record players at one time or another. Lots of changing the pitch, placing the record on the spindle so it wobbles up and down, placing a seven inch atop a 12" and letting the needle be bumped back every time it touched the seven inch, adjusting the anti-skating setting to cause the record to skip or the needle to jump, it all comes down to two things, the choice of records, and the random behavior of the needle and the records. The records Duck employs are fantastic, weird and wonderful, strange children's records, bizarre jazz, spoken word as well as a handful of discs that end up so fragmented and transformed it's hard to say what they were pre-fuckery. And while some of these tracks don't do a whole lot other than play at the wrong speed, or skip haphazardly, others DO, their bits and fragments looped into strange rhythms and bizarre arrangements, something weird and new and totally mesmerizing.
Our favorite track might just be the nearly 8 minute "One O'Clock Jump", a dense swirling assemblage of strange percussion, jazzy horns, sped up and skipped into incredibly complex patterns, a few minutes in it's difficult to discern the various sounds, or even remember what it is you were listening to, it sounds like some primitive lo-fi lost piece by Reich or Riley, or Lubomyr Melnyk's Wave-Lox performed on turntable instead of piano, swirling and spinning and skipping and looping and hiccuping and blurring into impossible patterns and textures. Hard to believe that it could possibly be just a turntable and a couple records, it sounds like some modern processed piece done on a computer and -treated- to sound like an old piece of vinyl. A few other lengthy tracks near the end of the disc explore similar territory, weaving dense sprawling flurries of loops and skips, and those tend to be our favorites, although the shorter ones do have their own magic, leaning more toward the brief and playful, percussively skipping little sonic vignettes between the longer stretched out skipscapes. Awesome!
Definitely for fans of Marclay, Jeck, Strotter Inst, Yoshihide, Bastien, Brinkmann, Tetriault , Gum, Saule, Cordier, Loop Orchestra, the recently listed Prehistoric Fuckin' Moron(s) and other like minded turntable tinkerers...
MPEG Stream: "Intro "
MPEG Stream: "Do The Fence"
MPEG Stream: "4xie"
MPEG Stream: "Nice Shave"

DETSORGSEKALF Troo Grim Warriors Ov The Necrokkult (self-released) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK, SO BOW TREMBLING BEFORE THESE TROO GRIM WARRIORS, THESE BLACKENED FROST GIANTS FORM THE NORTH, in other words, if you didn't get one of these self released ep's last time we listed 'em, now's your chance...
By now all readers of the aQ list understand our obsession with fucked black metal. Demented, damaged, bizarre and brilliant. We can't get enough. From Benighted Leams to Rehtaf Ruo to Furze to Necrofrost to Striborg. Now, bow before the mighty black metal warriors of Detsorgsekalf.We discovered them quite by accident. Andee saw their video online (check it out here: http://www.eyeblister.com/inframe_main_1.html) and was so immediately smitten that he emailed them and first offered to play drums for them (they were drummerless, see the video), and barring that, offered to release a record for them. So with a forthcoming release on tUMULt in the works, we managed to get a handful of copies of their first self released cd-r, and if anything it more than lives up to the promise of the video.
Once you see the band and the video, you might get the impression that there's some sort of humor going on, maybe it's some sort of joke, but be aware this is as troo and grim as it gets. So serious in fact, that the band has already received numerous death threats from other disgruntled black metalheads, the contents of which will provide the concept and story for the upcoming full length. Lead vocalist Balfobar Nosugref is a massive behemoth of a man (literally, he's a really big guy!), clad in spiked armor and smeared in corpsepaint as he spews all sorts of necro wisdom in a demonic screech WAY up in the mix. Then there's the ultrahot Morksjal The Necrowench, who wields a bloodied black axe like a woman possessed. The whole band is a motley crew of blackened misfits from the bowels of the earth, sprung forth to spread musical disease and pestilence. The sound is a Burzumy buzz, with blasting drum machine beats and no bass! Just buzzing guitar after buzzing guitar, a swirling droney blast of black frost. Balfabar's vocals are absurd and insane, spouting all manner of satanic drivel as well as rants about his girlfriend and other evil thoughts. There are some strange falsetto vocals, some random funk bass, strange samples, all mixed in amidst the evil buzz. Sometimes things get almost a bit too goofy, reminding us a little bit of a necro Steven Schultz (who we obviously love), but the band is at their best when they are in full on black buzz mode, then they can hold their own with any of the above mentioned black metal bands. The demented elite for sure.
They may be true and grim and evil, a black metal fist crushing all false metal, but Detsorgsekalf (their name being "frosted flakes" backwards but with a "g" instead of an "f" we just figured out, maybe) manage, in the process of being evil and true, to take the wind out of the sails of all those black metal blowhards that take themselves too seriously. Not that this isn't serious, because it is. Really.
Just check the bonus tracks "Keyboard Solo" and their holiday chestnut "Black Xmas." Or the video. And enjoy the Troo Grim Warriors Ov The Necrokkult while you anxiously await the new full length: A.B.B.A. -- Apocaalyptic Blasphemed Battle Anthems!!
MPEG Stream: "The Embers Of Your Church Burn So Bright"
MPEG Stream: "Troo Grim Warriors Of The Necrokkult"
MPEG Stream: "Frostburn Upon The Winter Of Mankind's Discontent"

DISSEVELT, TOM / KID BALTAN Song Of The Second Moon (The Omni Recording Corporation) cd 17.98
Sometimes it's easy to see an aQ Record Of The Week staring you in the face before even hearing a note. Case in point, this here album. All the indicators were immediately present: it was put out by Omni, whose masterful grasp of obscure country music is equaled only by their masterful grasp of obscure electronic awesomeness; a vague but intriguing album cover with the words "Song Of The Second Moon: The Sonic Vibrations Of Tom Dissevelt / Kid Baltan"; and, a quick glance at the back cover with song titles like "Moon Maid", "Sonik Re-Entry", "Twilight Ozone", and "Night Train Blues", recorded between 1957-1961. So yeah, we were pretty much sold, but as we read on it was clear that this would be even more rad than we could have hoped for. Before getting started on this album itself, it helps to start with some historical background, so here goes:
Holland's Phillips Research Laboratories ("Natuurkundig Laboratorium") was founded in 1914 with the goal of furthering technological innovation. To make a long story short, they did just that, having invented the first artificial reverberation, modern loudspeaker design, early attempts at surround sound, the cassette tape, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, among many other things. All very nice and essential to the way music effects our lives, for sure. But damn if the creation of this album isn't the coolest thing on that long list of achievements, leading us to wonder how exactly something this amazing could have remained such a mystery - not a soul among us was even aware of its existence, despite being great enough for Stanley Kubrick to consider using it as the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey - ironic, as 2001 was the year Natuurkundig Laboratorium would go kaput. Perhaps not surprisingly given the way things often go Songs Of The Second Moon was a commercial failure, but we are thankful to have it presented here with the "rare" stereo mix, along with some outtakes and alternate versions.
The men responsible for this album, Tom Dissevelt and Dick Raaijmakers - aka Kid Baltan - were employed by the Natuurkundig Laboratorium to research acoustics, but eventually ventured into more exotic waters with some of the earliest synthesizer experiments. Using tone generators in addition to traditional instruments like a grand piano, the time consuming process of capturing and creating these strange and wondrous sounds was carried out over a period of about 3 years, during which time the composers experimented with tape loops (often for rhythmic purposes), delays, and filters to create something that went beyond just sound experimentation. Dissevelt himself had come to the job as a highly respected musician and arranger with an interest in Stockhausen's twelve-tone and serial compositions, while Raaijmakers is recognized as a pioneer in the field of electronic and tape based music. The greatest thing about the album is just how musical it is, with songcraft never taking a back seat to the all encompassing technological aspects of the project. Soundwise, things are on par with the majesty of Delia Derbyshire and other pioneers of BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, and anyone keeping up with recent reissues from Daphne Oram, F.C. Judd, and Bruce Haack (whose Electric Lucifer masterpiece was also rescued by Omni) will find plenty to obsess over. The 1950s idea of "The Future" is exactly what this sounds like, with adventurous electronic tones for the Cold War era. As such, there are the hints of the paranoia, tension, and fear that tend to accompany widespread technological innovation and a standoff between two trigger happy superpowers, with plenty of nightmarish melodies, electronic pulsing, and harrowing white noise. Of course, there are also moments that sound happy, fun, and quirky, like strange disembodied jazz music with heavy drones. This stuff could have (and probably did) inspire the electronic pop of Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley. The results are cinematic and elegant, while standing well on their own for a unique listening experience that STILL sounds light years ahead of us.
Kudos to Omni for introducing this lost classic to an unsuspecting but eternally grateful public. Record Of The Week indeed.
MPEG Stream: "Song Of The Second Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Maid"
MPEG Stream: "The Ray Makers"

DOCTOR MIX AND THE REMIX Wall Of Noise (Acute) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Can you improve on The Stooges' "No Fun"? No, but the combination of a really weird French guy, a primitive drum machine and incredibly distorted electric guitar is a good try! Eric Debris, leader of the seminal French synth-punk act Metal Urbain (and, subsequently, Metal Boys) also had a recording project in the late '70s/early '80s under the Doctor Mix And The Remix moniker. It was his solo project for (the most part) doing stripped-down, fucked-up cover versions of classics like "No Fun" and the Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself". The first Doctor Mix singles featured "versions" on the flip (included here) that are even more messed up. Those are all here along with the entire 1979 Wall Of Noise album, wherein songs by Bowie, The Seeds, the Velvet Underground (an amazing take on "Sister Ray"), Roxy Music and others are all operated on by Doctor Mix, who gives the original artists reason to sue for malpractice! A further Doctor Mix ep is included as well, with a few originals and, among other things, the perenial cover tune "Hey Joe". With Debris singing in Anglais with a snotty French accent, it's all kinda goofy but full of Gallic-punk charm. And if you didn't already check 'em out, we still have Acute's recent reissues of the Metal Urbain and Metal Boys albums in stock, both come highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "No Fun (single version)"
MPEG Stream: "Six Dreams"

DR. DELAY Rajaz Meter (Funk Weapons) cd-r 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Dr. D is a New York DJ best known to us for mashing up obscure '60 psych with current, crunken hiphop hitz. This limited edition cd-r mix, however, is pretty much all '60s and '70s grooves as far as we know -- no hiphop anyway. And it's got our number, 'cause so much of what he's spinning is that Turkish psych stuff we love, mixed in with some old and new Afrofunk a la Ethiopiques and Tinariwen, along with some further exotic flavors that fit. Some names we know/tracks we recognize: Selda, Bunalim, Edip Akbayram, Les Mogol, Erkin Koray, Baris Manco... and of course there's a bunch more we don't, all of it pretty cool though. It's a bit like that Trap Door mix, in a romantic mood. Plus this is a true turntablist mix, featuring 31 short selections (mostly 1-2 minute edits), flowing quite nicely, occasionally enhanced with some scratchy-scratch whip-whip-whap. The discs we have are from the first numbered 250 copy edition, in screenprinted cardboard sleeves.
MPEG Stream: BEYBONLAR "Nenni"
MPEG Stream: VINGUEN "Crazy Heart"

DUBUISSON, PIERRE Sept Regards Sur L'Esprit De La Mort (The Guild Of Funerary Violinists) cd-r 12.98
Another strange and mysterious collection of lost and forgotten musicks, perhaps the last volume (of four) in this series of archival recordings, collecting the very few existing performances and recordings that fall under the umbrella of a mysterious movement of musicians and composers known as The Guild Of Funerary Violinists.
Pierre Dubuisson was France's foremost Funerary Violinist, having made his name in the great funerary duels that became a bit of a fashion for a brief spell, where the deceased would leave a bit of melody to be performed after his death, two violinists would then improvise on the theme doing their best to wring more tragedy from the notes than their opponent, the winner of course was the one who drew the most tears from onlookers. Dubuisson eventually became president of the French branch of the Guild Of Funerary Violinists, and helped to integrate Funerary Violin into the Catholic ritual before disappearing under dubious circumstances during the infamous Funerary purges.
These recordings were made by Pierre's grandson Jacques, who after running away from an abusive home and an overbearing father, was discovered playing some of his grandfather's pieces at a concert in 1913, by an archivist from the Biblioteque Nationale De France, who convinced Jacques to make wax cylinder recordings of some of his grandfather's recordings. Jacques is of course not the player his father was, or his grandfather before him, but the pieces carry their own powerful emotion which easily overcomes any sort of deficiencies in the performances.
Oh, right, we always seem to forget the most important part, none of the above is true? Not a bit. Or is it? Hard to say. Or so a few of us think. Some here choose to believe (Mulder?) since the mythology is almost as fascinating and nuanced as the recordings, and imagining this lost art is so much more fun, while others are just happy to listen to this amazing music. And amazing it is. Perfectly and beautifully rendered to sound as old and antique as it most likely is not. Wailing, plaintive funereal laments on solo violin, sad and morose, lilting and so completely lovely, bathed in all manner of grit and hiss, fuzz and antique distortion, sounding like the old wax cylinders these recordings purport to be. Imagine some old timey violin music treated by Tim Hecker, and spun in some ultra morose DJ set by Philip Jeck...
The music is so evocative, of dark clouds at dusk, rain swept fields, huge brooding stone houses, lush gardens beneath grey skies, and of course, funerals, and the slow stately trudge of the funeral procession to the grave site. We've gushed about pretty much every volume so far, and by now are probably just repeating ourselves, but we just love these discs, read the other Funerary Violinist reviews for more on the music and the mythology, and you'll realize just why it seems impossible to us to not fall totally in love with such a well executed piece of what ultimately amounts to performance art. The music, dark and delicate, creepy and so beautiful, even removed from the mythology is totally amazing, the story and the text is as well (there's even a book you can track down, detailing the entire recorded history of the Guild) but the two together, are simply magical....
MPEG Stream: "Marche Funebre - Lent Pose Et Majestueux"
MPEG Stream: "Vol - Magnanime Et Degage"
MPEG Stream: "Marche Funebre - Sombre, Pourtant Ouvert Sur L'Avenir"

DUNCAN, RONALD & DAVID CAIN (BBC SCHOOL RADIO SERIES : DRAMA WORKSHOP) The Seasons (Trunk) cd 17.98
We could easily imagine the odd school children in the film The Wicker Man as being the tailor-made audience/participants for this 1969 educational record from the BBC Drama Workshop, the educational arm of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. These recordings were designed for creative movement and improvisation exercises for young school children, though it would be surprising to see a record for kids quite like this today.
With poetry written by Ronald Duncan (recited by Derek Bowskill) and electronic music by David Cain, this is one of those Arcadian British recordings that are so often referenced audibly and visually by the hauntological Ghost Box label and the filmstrip nostalgia of Boards of Canada. Bowskill's classically-trained oration evokes Duncan's romantic yet visceral natural imagery with slightly sinister undertones, while Cain's score is both alien and lilting, its robotic sing-song melodies sometimes wistful yet bracingly warped. For this recording a piece was done for each month and each season with the final track an instrumental culmination of all the musical themes simply called "The Year". Though we can see children of the time easily getting into the odd melodies to convey visual pantomimes of leaves and wind, we can only assume that some of the spoken imagery must have gone over their heads. "Falling leaves like Severed Hands", in "October" for instance; or descriptions of nightfall where the night is characterized as a predator and the day "as a fallow deer is bled"; or the lurid connotations of the poem, "March" where Bowskill speaks of the Earth as a woman, and in a series of harvest ritual descriptions, to be woken, washed, dressed and then taken????
But what is admirable about the educational side of this recording is that it doesn't talk down to children or Disney-fy nature with anthropomorphic happy/sad emotions, but rather it emphasizes a more complex set of emotional tropes to act out like awakening, longing, fearfulness, loneliness, and indifference that points to a more mature and frank attitude toward the cycle of nature and the passing of time. Though we're not sure what kids today would make of its strange antiquated quaintness, for adults its perhaps a nostalgic trip back to a bygone era where there was government funded organizations that were allowed to produce such cool shit for kids, or at the very least plenty of cool interlude fodder here for DJs and mixtapes.
MPEG Stream: "March"
MPEG Stream: "August"
MPEG Stream: "October"
MPEG Stream: "Winter"

DUNCAN, RONALD & DAVID CAIN (BBC SCHOOL RADIO SERIES : DRAMA WORKSHOP) The Seasons (Trunk) lp 21.00
We could easily imagine the odd school children in the film The Wicker Man as being the tailor-made audience/participants for this 1969 educational record from the BBC Drama Workshop, the educational arm of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. These recordings were designed for creative movement and improvisation exercises for young school children, though it would be surprising to see a record for kids quite like this today.
With poetry written by Ronald Duncan (recited by Derek Bowskill) and electronic music by David Cain, this is one of those Arcadian British recordings that are so often referenced audibly and visually by the hauntological Ghost Box label and the filmstrip nostalgia of Boards of Canada. Bowskill's classically-trained oration evokes Duncan's romantic yet visceral natural imagery with slightly sinister undertones, while Cain's score is both alien and lilting, its robotic sing-song melodies sometimes wistful yet bracingly warped. For this recording a piece was done for each month and each season with the final track an instrumental culmination of all the musical themes simply called "The Year". Though we can see children of the time easily getting into the odd melodies to convey visual pantomimes of leaves and wind, we can only assume that some of the spoken imagery must have gone over their heads. "Falling leaves like Severed Hands", in "October" for instance; or descriptions of nightfall where the night is characterized as a predator and the day "as a fallow deer is bled"; or the lurid connotations of the poem, "March" where Bowskill speaks of the Earth as a woman, and in a series of harvest ritual descriptions, to be woken, washed, dressed and then taken????
But what is admirable about the educational side of this recording is that it doesn't talk down to children or Disney-fy nature with anthropomorphic happy/sad emotions, but rather it emphasizes a more complex set of emotional tropes to act out like awakening, longing, fearfulness, loneliness, and indifference that points to a more mature and frank attitude toward the cycle of nature and the passing of time. Though we're not sure what kids today would make of its strange antiquated quaintness, for adults its perhaps a nostalgic trip back to a bygone era where there was government funded organizations that were allowed to produce such cool shit for kids, or at the very least plenty of cool interlude fodder here for DJs and mixtapes.
MPEG Stream: "March"
MPEG Stream: "August"
MPEG Stream: "October"
MPEG Stream: "Winter"

DUPLEX Ablum (Mint) cd 14.98
We've always had customers askin' for kids music, but there's also always been a dearth of suitably AQ-ilk releases... until now! The recent flood of children's music compilations arrivin' here (so many in fact that we've made a children's section in the store!) has spurred us to ask, "just what does it take to categorize something as 'child worthy'?" Okay, besides the obvious 'no swear words' rule, what other criteria is there? Lots of the recent stuff we've received that's been hailed as kinder-oriented has just been light, bubbly, electronic musicbox-y melodies. Pleasing enough to listen to, but not particularly attention-grabbing nor attention-keeping. What?! Don't the artists think the kids wanna rock too? Really, with the exception of They Might be Giants' Here Are The ABCs album which is both thoroughly educational and engaging, most of the releases seem to be offering sedation rather than stimulation. Hmm, maybe it's the musician-parents' sly way of seeking some respite from their kids' hyperactive behaviour? Well, unlike most of the current pre-school poseurs (wink!), this cd features honest to goodness kids! Duplex is a band whose members' ages range from 3 years old up to 37! Much like TMBG there's some pretty fine pop songwriters in the Duplex camp -- the elder members also play in a number of Vancouver bands (including A.C. Newman's). Ablum is filled with eighteen delightful story songs and singalongs (topics include salad, multiplication, camels, a character called Mr. Slim, and uhh, pooing and peeing). Apparently it's even been accepted for distribution to all of the elementary schools up in Vancouver. How's that for a stamp of approval?
MPEG Stream: "Yr Mama"
MPEG Stream: "Hanu"
MPEG Stream: "Multiplication Treehouse"

EARLES & JENSEN PRESENT Just Farr The Record (Matador) lp 19.98
An ultra-limited single LP of outtakes by Earles & Jensen from last year's smash comedy album Just Farr A Laugh. Limited edition, hand numbered 300 or so copies.

EDLER, HANS Elektron Kukeso (Boy Wonder) cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
ONCE AGAIN, REPRESSED AND BACK IN STOCK FOR THE LAST TIME! This is the final pressing, and the last time we will be able to get these, we got a bunch, and once these are gone this will be gone forever so don't miss out!
This is definitely a weird one. And a record that no self respecting lover of strange music should be without! As soon as we were told about this record (thanks, Brian at WFMU) we suspected that this was most likely going to have to be an AQ Record Of The Week. And once we finally heard it, we knew for sure (record of the week on list #190, 6/18/04)!
Originally released in 1971, in a ridiculously limited edition on his own label, Hans Edler's Elektron Kukeso sounds to us like a lost electronic music classic, although when it first came out, it was apparently a baffling disappointment to most, since at that point Edler was known to the masses as a former teen idol, having fronted the popular Swedish '60s rock bands The Ghost Riders and We 4. And even though Edler didn't even remember this record when he was first contacted recently about reissuing it, he claims that this was the first computer programmed lp in history. Not so sure about that (what about Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples Of The Moon or Bruce Haack's Electric Lucifer?), but it IS definitely unique and way ahead of its time. A simultaneously lo-fi and high tech concoction of simple electronic melodies, pecked out on primitive synthesizers, hissing, rumbling and fluctuating in timbre and volume, creating creepy alien outerspace lullabies. Each track is a warm and fuzzy, throbbing analog swirl, an antiquated pop song vaporized into abstract clouds of white noise and pink noise, under 3 and 4 note melodies, occasionally dark and dense, but more often completely simple childlike chromatic scales, up and down, up and down, very haunting and hypnotic. But then there are the vocals. Vocals that turn an experimental electronic novelty record into a bizarre outsider pop classic. In a chant-like monotone, very liturgical sounding, and with a very limited range, Edler croons mournful minor key laments, urgent and dramatic like Jandek or Scott Walker. In fact this record sounds a bit like Brian Wilson producing a Jandek record using only one battered old analog synthesizer. Or Scott Walker backed up by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Very dreamy and psychedelic. Creepy and cool. It also reminds us a bit of old '80s New Zealand / Expressway stuff like Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos, the Terminals and the like. And whether they know it or not, Suicide and the Silver Apples apparently weren't the first (or the most original) to tread down the path of electronic pop weirdness. We're also fairly certain that Brian Eno must have heard this album once upon a time, since there are definite melodic and sonic similarities betwixt Edler and Eno. And hell, if Thurston Moore knows about this record (he offers a few superlatives on the obi) then Eno, always the musical hipster, must have this in his collection somewhere as well!
Deluxe digipak includes 7 unreleased bonus tracks, a poster, and a massive booklet with extensive liner notes and loads of photos (plenty that show Edler as a kinda creepy looking long haired mod rock and roller, in tight trousers and flowery shirts, posing in front of a bank of computer synth equipment in his space age sonic laboratory!)
MPEG Stream: "Vi Hor Ett Skrik"
MPEG Stream: "Leka Med Ord"
MPEG Stream: "Romantiken"

EICHSTAEDT, BJOERN House Of Horror... 7" 2.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Volume 1 in 7" series of duos featuring German experimental/improv musician (and Italian suspense film fan) Eichstaedt. Side one, "House Of Horror" features Bjoern on keys and samples and Thomas Maos on guitar, creating an appropriately spooky soundscape to go along with the title. Side two, "Samuel Chillian vs. Batman (And His Mad Dogs From Transsylvania)" continues the fun with conspirator Leoon Gruenbaum.

ELIZALDE, PETER Winter Playground Mystery (Riverman) cd 19.98
The crude cover painting is sorta psychedelic, and though this album dates from 1982, the breathless obi text claims this to be the work of an "unknown brilliant all original outsider loner singer songwriter who completely sounds trapped in 1972 not '82!!", so we kinda had to check it out, being big Bobb Trimble fans after all, who also fits that description. But, we were also a bit wary, 'cause while it's true that the reissue label Riverman, based in South Korea, HAS put out some pretty cool stuff - including the George-Edwards Group and Ted Lucas discs we've reviewed recently - they also have reissued a lot of things that, uh, we don't quite "get". They seem to have a thing for American '70s singer-songwriter soft rock, maybe it's more "exotic" for them than it is for us, but a lot of their catalog seems to consist of justly-forgotten thrift store mediocrities that we have a hard time understanding why collectors (in Korea or elsewhere) care about. But yeah, once in a while they nail it. So we're always curious about their reissues, hoping they'll come up with a really amazing, acid folk obscurity or something like that. Plus they sure look good in their mini-lp style sleeves, with beguiling blurbs on their obis - that, again, they rarely really live up to. However, guess what? Peter Elizalde's oddly titled Winter Playground Mystery, kinda actually does! There is certainly something "outsidery" about it, that's for sure. Your mileage may vary, indeed ours already has, some of us here are totally digging on this (enjoying it a bit ironically, maybe, but for reals too), others like Andee gave it the gong...
Here's the deal. While there's elements of psych and prog here, what this really is, is "yacht rock"! Outsider yacht rock, but yes, yacht rock. Even though it's from '82, the Berkeley-based Elizalde, an obviously talented multi-instrumentalist, was super into seventies soft rock and jazz fusion, and we figure exceedingly influenced by the likes of Todd Rundgren and Steely Dan. So, much of this is synth laden, sprightly '70s sounding AM radio pop, with, naturally, the occasional cheesy saxophone solo. And oh boy is it poppy, these songs sound like hits that never happened, y'know, totally like they should be familiar, and in fact soon will get stuck in your head... yet they're just a bit weird and warped at the same time. In part that's 'cause Elizalde has an ever so slightly strange singing voice, often oddly high and nasal, which might have to do with the fact that he grew up in Peru, perhaps that's a little trace of a Spanish accent we're hearing? Or more likely he was a big Al Jarreau fan. Besides that, this disc is also full of surprises. For instance, track 5, "Passion Play", an exuberantly uptempo, POP-PUNK song that we definitely weren't expecting, which would have opened the original lp's second side with a bang. Really cool though, especially with its slightly incongruous keyboard lines, like some sort of super happy new wave. The wild guitar soloing on this one is also pretty choice. Later on, the album's big finale, "Day Dreamer", is another stop-and-stare-at-your-stereo number. It's one of the catchiest cuts on the record, with high pitched Bee Gees style vocal harmonies, but Elizalde also cranks up the distortion on his guitar, and also indulges in some over the top synth soloing, turning the track into a burnin' jazz fusion freakout by the end of its rather proggy 7+ minutes! Wow.
Overall this album is an eccentric mix of goofy pop pleasures, synth shred, and moments of truly emotional beauty. We also wonder if the several songs with a lyrical focus on winter, are somehow part of an exercise in Beach Boys/Brian Wilson emulation, but just about the opposite season to summer?
Well, you'll either love this or hate it, if the AQ staff is anything to go by. Enough of us love it, though, to suggest you open your heart to it, those of us here who did are happier for it. If we're gonna listen to "yacht rock", this gets our boat afloat... Though Elizalde is no Bobb Trimble, this is still pretty cool, and catchy, and quirky, and equally kitschy.
MPEG Stream: "Winter Playground Mystery"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Reflexions (sic)"
MPEG Stream: "Passion Play"
MPEG Stream: "Day Dreamer"

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

ENTOURAGE MUSIC AND THEATRE ENSEMBLE Entourage (Folkways) lp 16.98
From the minute we saw the cover, we knew this had to be something special! I mean we can easily see this psychedelic graphic of a hooded horn-playing figure with a gnarled tree emanating from below being a new record by any number of druggy experimental outfits from psych-folk to pagan eco-metal, but this Smithsonian Folkways reissue is from the Entourage Music and Theatre Ensemble, a modern ambient classical outfit who hailed from Baltimore. Recorded in 1973, the ensemble of musicians performed with a dance troupe making these strange tripped out pieces of abstracted sound and movement heavy on viola, keyboards, percussion and guitar, with an emphasis on interesting harmonics, organic percussion and textured melody. The music is impressionistically gorgeous conjuring all kinds of mental sound pictures, reminding us of a combination of The Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Harry Partch, but also Barton Smith, or perhaps a hippie folk version of Philip Glass. The ensemble was active until 1983 when the founder and director Joe Clark died. They put out two records, this and The Neptune Collection from 1975, both produced by Moses Asch, founder of Folkways Records, and both incredibly amazing!!

ESQUIVEL Merry Xmas from the Space Age Bachelor Pad (Bar None/BMG!/RCA!) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yes, it is every bit as GREAT as you'd think it would be.

ESQUIVEL Music From a Sparkling Planet (Bar None) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is Esquivel's second compilation on Bar None.

ESQUIVEL Music From a Sparkling Planet (Bar None) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is Esquivel's second compilation on Bar None.

ESQUIVEL, JUAN GARCIA Mexico Days (El) cd 17.98
You know that anyone who can count creative and talented folks like Brian Wilson, Matt Groening, Frank Zappa, and Stereolab as their biggest fans had to be doing something quite amazing with their music. Such is the case with Juan Garcia Esquivel, better known by just his last name, to all of us with a big love for the exotica sounds he helped make famous. This disc brings together his earliest recordings, which have been pretty impossible to find until this reissue, and even if you could find them, they would have been crazy expensive! His first album from 1957 Las Tandas de Juan Garcia makes up the first half of this cd and the second half is packed with rare singles and tracks from 78's that he recorded in Mexico from 1954-57. It's actually those songs that really stand out the most with their dazzling space age pop sounds bursting with flare and that special charismatic touch that Esquivel would soon make famous.
MPEG Stream: "Goya Universidad"
MPEG Stream: "To Love Again"