RESIDENTS, THE Not Available (Ralph Records) lp 15.98

RETRO-A.K.A. Synaethesia (Staalplaat) cd 14.98
Volume 017 in the "Korm Plastics Introductory Paperback" series of previously unknown artists discovered by the acclaimed Staalplaat label. Not surprisingly, there is not much background information provided on Retro A.K.A., though one guess is that this outfit hails from Iceland as Heimer from Stilluppsteypa contributes some production work on one of the tracks. Or Retro-A.K.A. perhaps is Dutch, 'cause the Stilluppsteypa folk live in Holland now. Some of the sterile laptop glitchiness characteristic of the Raster and Ritornelle labels appears, but Retro A.K.A.'s cavernous, windswept drones really resemble the haunted loops of Omit, resulting in organic noise overlaid with digitized blast and skitter. Cool.

REUBER Kintopp (Staubgold) cd 15.98
Record number three from electronic/krautrock/spacedrone/experimental soundscaper Reuber, aka Timo Reuber, whose fifth and most recent record was an aQ Record Of The Week a while back, and whose second record we reviewed just last list, and now as we work our way through his catalog, we've got his 3rd record, and it's just as great and all over the map as the two previous ones.
Kintopp is German for cinema, and on Kintopp, Reuber creates mini soundtracks, twisted little electronic vignettes that range from playful to brooding, noisy to minimal, dark and haunting to twisted and abstract, and more often than not some dizzying combination of all of the above. A quick sampling would reveal: a strange bit of cabaret, rubbery basslines, looped mechanical rhythms, and a strange high end melody that sounds like it's being played by releasing air from a balloon, pulsing almost techno style throbs buried beneath a dubbed out expanse of melodic shimmer, a looped bit of bassy riffage, like some sort of spy theme, laced with backwards sonic swoops, and little flecks of melody and shards of glitched out electronics, that same sort of spy theme bass riff is wrapped around deep mysterious Tuvan style throat singing, hushed melancholy strings, soar over a deep expanse of rumble and thrum, a kaleidoscopic avalanche of pizzicato notes tumble like a hazy glimmering sonic waterfall, swirls of pop ambience spread out in clouds of gauzy blurred soft focus haze, a pounding almost industrial groove that sounds like a techno-fied themes song to some Miami Vice knockoff, the whole thing peppered with strange percussion, and wreathed in sweeping streaks of warm whirling sound, a weirdly looped collage of chopped and looped African folk music, wrapped in reverb and delay, a tinkling bit of piano driven cinematic ambience, like a more woozy, washed out Chariots Of Fire, all dramatic and epic and majestic, but slightly warped and warbly, and on and on and on.
A fantastically varied collection of beautiful but brief electronic soundscapes, woven together into a strangely cohesive whole. Oh and did we mention the cover photo, of Reuber (we presume), wearing a leather jacket, a cowboy hat, American flag pants, with his foot up on some sort of sports car, with a personalized REUBER license plate, holding a spear gun, standing next to a stuffed elephant, that has been speared, and appears to be bleeding spaghetti in tomato sauce. Woah.
MPEG Stream: "Stadtflucht"
MPEG Stream: "Uberlandweg"
MPEG Stream: "In Fernen Landern"
MPEG Stream: "Walzende Wirrnis"
MPEG Stream: "Schlusskuss"

REUBER Kintopp (Staubgold) lp 14.98
Record number three from electronic/krautrock/spacedrone/experimental soundscaper Reuber, aka Timo Reuber, whose fifth and most recent record was an aQ Record Of The Week a while back, and whose second record we reviewed just last list, and now as we work our way through his catalog, we've got his 3rd record, and it's just as great and all over the map as the two previous ones.
Kintopp is German for cinema, and on Kintopp, Reuber creates mini soundtracks, twisted little electronic vignettes that range from playful to brooding, noisy to minimal, dark and haunting to twisted and abstract, and more often than not some dizzying combination of all of the above. A quick sampling would reveal: a strange bit of cabaret, rubbery basslines, looped mechanical rhythms, and a strange high end melody that sounds like it's being played by releasing air from a balloon, pulsing almost techno style throbs buried beneath a dubbed out expanse of melodic shimmer, a looped bit of bassy riffage, like some sort of spy theme, laced with backwards sonic swoops, and little flecks of melody and shards of glitched out electronics, that same sort of spy theme bass riff is wrapped around deep mysterious Tuvan style throat singing, hushed melancholy strings, soar over a deep expanse of rumble and thrum, a kaleidoscopic avalanche of pizzicato notes tumble like a hazy glimmering sonic waterfall, swirls of pop ambience spread out in clouds of gauzy blurred soft focus haze, a pounding almost industrial groove that sounds like a techno-fied themes song to some Miami Vice knockoff, the whole thing peppered with strange percussion, and wreathed in sweeping streaks of warm whirling sound, a weirdly looped collage of chopped and looped African folk music, wrapped in reverb and delay, a tinkling bit of piano driven cinematic ambience, like a more woozy, washed out Chariots Of Fire, all dramatic and epic and majestic, but slightly warped and warbly, and on and on and on.
A fantastically varied collection of beautiful but brief electronic soundscapes, woven together into a strangely cohesive whole. Oh and did we mention the cover photo, of Reuber (we presume), wearing a leather jacket, a cowboy hat, American flag pants, with his foot up on some sort of sports car, with a personalized REUBER license plate, holding a spear gun, standing next to a stuffed elephant, that has been speared, and appears to be bleeding spaghetti in tomato sauce. Woah.
MPEG Stream: "Stadtflucht"
MPEG Stream: "Uberlandweg"
MPEG Stream: "In Fernen Landern"
MPEG Stream: "Walzende Wirrnis"
MPEG Stream: "Schlusskuss"

REUBER Ring (Staubgold) cd 17.98
Even though this is record number FIVE from Reuber (aka Timo Reuber), who is also a member of electronic duo Klangwart, Ring is the very first thing we've heard from him, and it immediately became one of our new favorite records, a dizzying assemblage of loops and samples and textures and effects woven into a series of super varied soundscapes, from hypnotic kosmische krautdrone, to hazy murky pulsing techno flecked electronica, to super frantic spaced out new wave, to murky electronic drone dirge psych rock to woozy minimal sci-fi techno, all of it rhythmic and hypnotic, lush and layered.
Self described as Reuber's "motorbike album", Ring finds Reuber trying to evoke a 'Reuber Principle' using a selection of sounds designed to sound different during each performance, depending on the venue, the audience and of course Reuber himself. All but one of the tracks are created using just two synthesizers, experimenting with rhythm and texture, creating constantly shifting collages of sound, all 'Ring' variations, the first "Ring Ring", the most blissed out of the bunch, a minimal electronic pulse, a slowly shifting melody, a deep buzzing vocal that sounds like Tuvan throat singing, a haunting bit of cinematic kosmische drift that ends way too soon. The upside being that it leads directly into the 17 minute "Ring", which takes the sound of the first track and explodes it into something much more celestial and cosmic, a supernova of sound, all blurred and washed out, hazy and shimmery, underneath which various bits of percussion pulse and pound, a buried rhythm that gradually moves to the fore, and the song transforms into a gorgeously hypnotic tribal psychedelic workout that sounds almost like modern day Boredoms. This tribal churn is laced with strange melodic bits, twisted effects, a roiling swirl of sound, that soon returns to the washed out cosmic shimmer of the song's beginning, only to again explode into some heaving crumbling rhythmic crush, and then slip right back into a hazy dreamlike outro.
"Ringer" offers up a swirl of looped repetitive synth, mesmerizing and cyclical, cinematic and sci-fi, gradually growing more and more distorted and intense, until some of the sounds coalesce into beats, and the track becomes a supercharged synth heavy sci-fi blowout that wouldn't sound out of place on a Zombi record, although with a bit more of a techno twist. "Ring Frei" counters the previous track with some low slung synthbass, some skittery skeletal rhythms, streaks of feedback and squealing electronic glitchery, and most importantly some seriously fat fuzzy, murky melodies, a crunchy, buzzy muddy krautjam, propulsive and motorik, almost like some far out Kraftwerk / Suicide / Electronicat hybrid. And finally "Ringfest" finishes things off with some Kompakt style throb and pulse, starting out sleek and late night and minimal, before blossoming into something buzzier and more twisted, with shards of rave-y synth, more of those buzzing throat singing style vox and some squiggly spacey Theremin like melodies. Wow. We really can't stop listening to this, so mesmerizing and psychedelic and hypnotic and tripped out and most definitely a new unanimous aQ fave!
MPEG Stream: "Ring Ring"
MPEG Stream: "Ring"
MPEG Stream: "Ringer"

REUBER Ring (Staubgold) lp 24.00
Even though this is record number FIVE from Reuber (aka Timo Reuber), who is also a member of electronic duo Klangwart, Ring is the very first thing we've heard from him, and it immediately became one of our new favorite records, a dizzying assemblage of loops and samples and textures and effects woven into a series of super varied soundscapes, from hypnotic kosmische krautdrone, to hazy murky pulsing techno flecked electronica, to super frantic spaced out new wave, to murky electronic drone dirge psych rock to woozy minimal sci-fi techno, all of it rhythmic and hypnotic, lush and layered.
Self described as Reuber's "motorbike album", Ring finds Reuber trying to evoke a 'Reuber Principle' using a selection of sounds designed to sound different during each performance, depending on the venue, the audience and of course Reuber himself. All but one of the tracks are created using just two synthesizers, experimenting with rhythm and texture, creating constantly shifting collages of sound, all 'Ring' variations, the first "Ring Ring", the most blissed out of the bunch, a minimal electronic pulse, a slowly shifting melody, a deep buzzing vocal that sounds like Tuvan throat singing, a haunting bit of cinematic kosmische drift that ends way too soon. The upside being that it leads directly into the 17 minute "Ring", which takes the sound of the first track and explodes it into something much more celestial and cosmic, a supernova of sound, all blurred and washed out, hazy and shimmery, underneath which various bits of percussion pulse and pound, a buried rhythm that gradually moves to the fore, and the song transforms into a gorgeously hypnotic tribal psychedelic workout that sounds almost like modern day Boredoms. This tribal churn is laced with strange melodic bits, twisted effects, a roiling swirl of sound, that soon returns to the washed out cosmic shimmer of the song's beginning, only to again explode into some heaving crumbling rhythmic crush, and then slip right back into a hazy dreamlike outro.
"Ringer" offers up a swirl of looped repetitive synth, mesmerizing and cyclical, cinematic and sci-fi, gradually growing more and more distorted and intense, until some of the sounds coalesce into beats, and the track becomes a supercharged synth heavy sci-fi blowout that wouldn't sound out of place on a Zombi record, although with a bit more of a techno twist. "Ring Frei" counters the previous track with some low slung synthbass, some skittery skeletal rhythms, streaks of feedback and squealing electronic glitchery, and most importantly some seriously fat fuzzy, murky melodies, a crunchy, buzzy muddy krautjam, propulsive and motorik, almost like some far out Kraftwerk / Suicide / Electronicat hybrid. And finally "Ringfest" finishes things off with some Kompakt style throb and pulse, starting out sleek and late night and minimal, before blossoming into something buzzier and more twisted, with shards of rave-y synth, more of those buzzing throat singing style vox and some squiggly spacey Theremin like melodies. Wow. We really can't stop listening to this, so mesmerizing and psychedelic and hypnotic and tripped out and most definitely a new unanimous aQ fave!
MPEG Stream: "Ring Ring"
MPEG Stream: "Ring"
MPEG Stream: "Ringer"

REUBER Ruhig Blut (Staubgold) lp 14.98
Now on vinyl!!
We made Reuber's Ring a Record Of The Week a little while back, the latest solo record from Timo Reuber, who is one half of the electronic duo Klangwart. Ring was fantastic, super varied, slipping from kosmische dronemusic to pulsing psychedelic techno to spacey new wave. We loved it so much, that many of us got a little obsessed, and decided to dig deeper and check out some of Reuber's other releases. Thus we have this, Reuber's second solo release, from 2001, the title translating to "Stay Cool", the bulk of which is made up of the two part title track, each part about 22 minutes. The first part, definitely in keeping with the album title, is an extended electronic dronescape, shimmery and crystalline, lush yet delicate, warm tones drifting from speaker to speaker, bathed in a hazy glow, meditative and dreamlike, new agey and a little bit krautrocky, soft flurries of notes dissipate into gauzy streaks, bits of electronic glitch and spacey effects surface here and there, like the score for some educational film about interplanetary travel. The sounds eventually coalesce into an almost rhythm, pulsing warmly, wreathed in strange atonal melodies, before quickly blissing out again, and spreading out into a barely there cloud of glistening, tinkling blur.
The second part of the title track is pretty much the opposite, a pulsing metallic buzz like rhythm, skeletal and mechanical, skitters and shuffles, the sounds growing more and more thick and buzzy, distorted and intense, eventually becoming almost Merzbowian, thick and corrosive, yet still somehow warm and melodic, a wildly buzzing chunk of hypnotic spaced out rhythm, the timbre constantly shifting too, from dense and layered, to brittle and tinny, finally to fully blown out and in-the-red. All the while managing to sound kosmische and psychedelic, under that coating of crunch and thrum and buzz and glitch.
Finally, the record finishes off with another bit of 'cool'ness, a relatively brief (7+ minutes), of hazy high end shimmer, a warm whirling drift of subtle overtones, slow shifting layers, of blurred melodies and glowing near static thrum, a perfect bit of tranquil mesmer to finish with.
Fantastic stuff, anyone who dug Ring will like this too, and anyone into kosmische drift, and spacey new age kraut drone, who is not averse to a little bit of crunch and buzz, this will definitely hit the spot.
MPEG Stream: "Ruhig Blut A"
MPEG Stream: "Ruhig Blut B"

REUBER Sudpol (Staubgold) cd 15.98
And we continue to dig deeper into the catalog of Reuber, aka Timo Reuber, whose most recent, fifth record Ring we made our Record Of The Week not too long ago, and whose other records we've been reviewing one at a time ever since. All different, but all pretty fantastic. This one is record number 4, following Kintopp which we reviewed last list.
Sudpol translates as "South Pole", not entirely sure if there's any meaning, or if there's some South Pole theme running through the record, but like Kintopp, Sudpol seems to simply be a super varied, and totally hypnotic collection of sonic experiments, ranging from propulsive electro krautrock workouts, to droned out fields of glitch and pulse, hazy pop ambient shimmer to super distorted industrial flecked skitter, groovy almost post rock sounding loopage to fuzzy playfully melodic techno-pop, Kraftwerky robotic electronic funk to blissed out sun dappled soundtracky synth wave, culminating in the epic 12 minute dronescape "Steppengraskrieger", with its billows of distant buzz and haunting almost operatic barely there vocals, buried electro beats, sounding as if they're being blasted on the stereo in the apartment next door, lush gauzy streaks of hazy whir and thrum, those buried beats constantly surfacing amidst the swirl and shimmer, until finally, the track transforms completely into a softly slow swirling tangle of looped and warped melodies, strange metallic buzz and soft focus flurries of glimmering tones and muted streaks of smeared sound. So nice. Another winner for sure, and and yet another record that has us wondering why Reuber is not way more of a big deal�
MPEG Stream: "Altweiber"
MPEG Stream: "Amundsen"
MPEG Stream: "Dominique-B"

REUBER Sudpol (Staubgold) lp 24.00
And we continue to dig deeper into the catalog of Reuber, aka Timo Reuber, whose most recent, fifth record Ring we made our Record Of The Week not too long ago, and whose other records we've been reviewing one at a time ever since. All different, but all pretty fantastic. This one is record number 4, following Kintopp which we reviewed last list.
Sudpol translates as "South Pole", not entirely sure if there's any meaning, or if there's some South Pole theme running through the record, but like Kintopp, Sudpol seems to simply be a super varied, and totally hypnotic collection of sonic experiments, ranging from propulsive electro krautrock workouts, to droned out fields of glitch and pulse, hazy pop ambient shimmer to super distorted industrial flecked skitter, groovy almost post rock sounding loopage to fuzzy playfully melodic techno-pop, Kraftwerky robotic electronic funk to blissed out sun dappled soundtracky synth wave, culminating in the epic 12 minute dronescape "Steppengraskrieger", with its billows of distant buzz and haunting almost operatic barely there vocals, buried electro beats, sounding as if they're being blasted on the stereo in the apartment next door, lush gauzy streaks of hazy whir and thrum, those buried beats constantly surfacing amidst the swirl and shimmer, until finally, the track transforms completely into a softly slow swirling tangle of looped and warped melodies, strange metallic buzz and soft focus flurries of glimmering tones and muted streaks of smeared sound. So nice. Another winner for sure, and and yet another record that has us wondering why Reuber is not way more of a big deal�
MPEG Stream: "Altweiber"
MPEG Stream: "Amundsen"
MPEG Stream: "Dominique-B"

REV, MARTIN s/t (Superior Viaduct) lp 15.98
Martin Rev without Alan Vega (the artist's other half in the mid-'70s minimal electronic punk duo, Suicide) seems like Oates without Hall, maybe even Donny sans Marie. But members of duos often make solo "me" time to try stuff they might not otherwise with their sonic partners, and synthesist Rev has been releasing solo records for most of his tenure with/since Suicide. In fact, we were really impressed with his 2009 Stigmata album. While Vega typically donned a rockabilly hat for most of his solo releases, Rev has tried on more than a few musical caps. This new vinyl reissue of his first solo venture from 1980 is one of his more minimalist efforts - think early Human League experiments like "Being Boiled".
"Baby Oh Baby" is the only one of the lp's six tracks that isn't an instrumental - and even there, the lyrics don't extend beyond what you see right there in the song title. The melody on the opening track, "Mari", carries an optimism you wouldn't associate with the dark and eerie downtown duo, and demonstrates Rev's exploration of other moods. It's so upbeat, you might expect Stephin Merritt's low croon to swoop in any second. The rest of the short album is filled with the synth washes and oscillations Rev basically patented as the vocabulary of the synth wave to come. Any fan in search of synth pop's origins will want to include this classic piece of cold electronic minimalism in their collection.
MPEG Stream: "Mari"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Oh Baby"

REV. KRISS HADES The Wind Of Orion (Modern Invasion Music) cd 14.98
This is not really new, but it's one of our favorite freaked out black metal records, and it was reissued last year (originally released in 2002) although we only now managed to get in touch with the label (they also released the Vorak, reviewed elsewhere on this list) but now finally we can list and review, this amazing slab of bizarre blackness.
Those familiar with the Rev. Kriss Hades, probably know him as the guitar player for Aussie black death metallers Sadistik Exekution, who while weird in their own right, are pretty much furious grinding blacknoise, a sort of sloppy psychedelic black mess, awesome by the way, but more simple and fast than freaked out and fucked up. Which is why this first album from Sadistik guitarist Hades is such a mind blower. This is super abstract, noisy, buzzy, outsider experimental black metal, peppered with stretches of black ambience, industrial soundscapes and plenty of whatthefuck heaviness. This record has been described as a mix of Einsturzende Neubauten, Beherit and Pink Floyd, and while the sound here is probably much closer to Beherit than the other two, their are definite moments of tripped out psychedelia and industrial grind and whir.
But from the first song, it's easy to tell this is some freaky mind blowing stuff. Beginning with haunting acoustic guitar, weaving mournful melodies amidst whipping winds, when the band kicks in, instead of launching into blasting blackness, it's more a sort of murky blown out buzz, the guitars super washed out, the riffing just a blackened smear, underpinned by epic swells of super dramatic keyboards, the drums a buried blast, WAY down in the mix, while over the top the vocals are a confusional pile up of grunts and growls, of shrieks and howls, mumbling and singing in tongues, the whole thing smeared and seasick, buzzing abstractly, almost more experimental black ambience than metal, but there are riffs, and drums blasting away, reminiscent of Wold and Velvet Cacoon in some ways. The first track finishes off with more acoustic guitar, this time though draped delicately over muted black riffing.
And the weird thing is, that's about as metal as the record gets, that first track, from then on it gets more and more unhinged, more psychedelic, less riffy and definitely less 'metal', but no less heavy. The next two tracks are reinterpreted Sadistik Exekution tracks, and while we're not that familiar with the originals, these versions definitely twist the originals into new shapes. The first is a blazing black blast of buzz, but beginning with a tripped out psychedelic assemblage of backwards guitars and processed vocals, then the song itself is super convoluted, riffs slipping and sliding everywhere, squiggly leads, a total damaged black psych freakout, while the other is a sort of blissed out ambient Godflesh / Pitchshifter thing, all industrial rhythms, the riffs, way down in the mix and doused in FX, haunting vocals and all manner of swirling shimmer and crumbling drones...
Right after that is the super brief "Luciferion", a super distorted, ultra fuzzed out shred fest, just guitar, buzzing riffs and wild leads, the whole thing blown out and in the red, followed by "Meditation Of The Midnight Candle Practice" an extended soundscape of warped distorted guitars, strangled effects, huge washes of glacial guitardrone, super affected leads, glitched out minimal rhythms buried way down in the mix, drifting lo-fi ambience and super tweaked studio sounds, all woven into a seriously cracked world of black sound. The record finishes off with a creepy haunted house horror movie church organ jam that morphs right at the end into a super thick corrosive deathdronedirge...
A seriously demented slab of damaged psychedelic black buzz. Which obviously means WAY recommended.
The reissue includes a thick booklet with lyrics, photos, an excerpt from an interview with Hades, and lots of Hades' super intense artwork...
MPEG Stream: "Winds Over Orion / Pyramids Of War And The Destruction Of Enemies"
MPEG Stream: "Black Mass Murder (Satanic Version)"
MPEG Stream: "Final Execution (Ouija Version)"

REVENANT Topolo (Prele) cd 14.98
Field recordings and the sounds of activated environments (e.g. the crunching of leaves, the tactility of sand, the resonance of an abandoned warehouse, etc.) are the building blocks for the compositions of many a musician championed here at aQuarius. You could look no further than the Jewelled Antler bunch, who marched out in the woods to craft much of their rustic psychedelia crowned with lichen, twigs, birdsong, and rocks. This Revenant project may share the spirited tromps out in the forest and even the revolving door approach found in Jewelled Antler; the but the results end up being quite different. The members of Revenant for this recording were Patrick McGinley (aka Murmer), John Grzinich, Hitoshi Kojo (aka Spiracle), Yannich Dauby, and Olivier Fernaud, all gathered together on the Slovenia-Italy border surrounded by an old growth forest and a few confounded birds. The idea behind Revenant is site-specific acoustic actions, or activated environments with each action being a document of a specific moment in time in a specific location. The five brought minimal equipment, just a few violin bows and a couple of digital recorders, and scrounged around the woods for the rest of their soundmaking devices: leaves, blades of grass, seedpods, heavy stones, etc. The violin bows were employed to atonal use on the first track as these five each took up a particular branch on a particular tree to scrape rasping tones that would even give Tony Conrad the shivers. The following explorations of tactile abrasions, weird gurgles, and gentle swoops enjoy a deliberate pacing; and the concluding track features what must be Hitoshi Kojo chanting in Japanese amidst a chorus of mouth organ drones, which ends up more like an Akio Suzuki meditation.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"
MPEG Stream: "Track 6"

REVERIES, THE Live In Bologna (Rat-Drifting) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We just listed the brand new Reveries album recently, a disc of all Willie Nelson covers, so we decided we'd get a few more of this live disc in for the folks who may have missed out on this last time around.
Like some dusty old 78, left in the basement for 20 or 30 years, wet and warped, gritty and scratched up, thrown onto the ol' Victrola as is, and allowed to unfurl a warped and warbly, rickety detuned slow motion blues crawl. That's exactly what this latest disc from the Reveries sounds like. Recorded live in Italy in 2004, the Reveries, fronted by Eric Chenaux (who for those of you up on your nineties indie math rock, fronted Toronto's godlike Phleg Camp), magically create this sound from another time. But there's more to it than that, the sound is strangely damaged, alien even, and for good reason. The band employ a technique as bizarre as it is brilliant. Each player, in addition to wielding guitar, harmonica, bass, saw, nose-flute and thumb-reeds (!?), holds a tiny cell phone speaker IN THEIR MOUTHS!!! WHILE THEY PLAY!! OR EVEN SING!! So each of the instruments is sent first to the speaker in the mouth of another player, who much like a Jew's harp, is able to shape and warp the sound with the shape of his mouth. So you're hearing guitar come out of the bass players mouth, the bass coming out of the guitar player's mouth, the flute through another player's mouth, and on and on...
Then there's the singing, which all three members do, and as you might imagine, it's pretty difficult to sing with a speaker in your mouth, and a speaker cable trailing out of your mouth to an amp or a bandmate's mouth. The result is a mumbled and warbly, mush mouthed drawl, fuzzy falsettos, a garbled croon, often sounding like a toothless old Nina Simone, but just as often, like some strange buzzing growl, perfectly complimenting the band's detuned twang flecked scrawl.
It's almost like the Starfuckers playing Django Reinhardt at 16 rpm, with a countrified Derek Bailey on guitar. Cracking, wheezing and skeletal, a demented yet lovely underwater slow motion Western Swing, plenty of downtuned buzz, scraping and shuffling, whispering and whistling, seasick and gorgeously woozy. There are stretches of garbled instrumental chaos here and there, but the majority of the set is spent slithering and shimmering, meandering drunkenly through some strange sonic haze, an old timey radio broadcast, from some strange musical alternate reality, bits of classic blues and jazz muted and smeared pulled apart and tangled up into haunting and perplexing shapes. So gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "You've Changed"
MPEG Stream: "Gone With The Wind"

REVERIES, THE Matchmakers Volume 1: The Music Of Willie Nelson (Rat-Drifting) cd 14.98
The Reveries were indeed a revelation. A modern slow-mo, off-kilter, creaky rickety avant country combo, whose sound was a bleary blend of campfire twang, woozy slowcore, and most notably, a system by which each player holds a tiny speaker in their mouths while they play, with the various other players sending their sounds and signals into the mouths of the other players, letting the various musicians shape and twist and contort those sounds, often combining them with their own vocal parts.
The result was truly unique, haunting, mysterious, and gorgeously fractured. The last Reveries disc, was titled Plays The Music Of Sade. We weren't sure if that was some high concept thing, and it was in fact inspired by the Marquis De Sade, or if they were indeed covers of songs by the pop vocalist Sade (pronounced shar-day). It's perhaps a testament to the Reveries skill at reinvention that we were unable to realize that they were actually Sade covers (or it might speak to our being wholly unfamiliar with her body of work minus THAT song) Regardless, just like the record before, the Reveries created a wholly otherworld of moaning melodies, and creeping tempos, of strange voices, of detuned guitars, warbly basslines, shuffling percussion, all warped and funhouse mirrored by their circuitous journey from instrument to amp to speaker to mouth to microphone to recorder to compact disc.
On this first volume, in a proposed ongoing series, the Reveries tackle, as the title suggests, the music of country music icon Willie Nelson, and it's a pretty fine match. The first track is a surprise though, fairly rocking by Reveries standards, a rollicking version on "I Let My Mind Wander", with propulsive drumming, some serious riffing, and that strange whistle like melody that the band seems to lace each song with, a sort of falsetto croon. And the vocals as always are a sort of mush mouthed garble, due in no small part to the singe having to sing around the speaker in his mouth.
The rest of the record unfurls lazily, all creaking back porch blues, the guitars often drifting by in disembodied twangs, each arrangement spare and abstract and seemingly always on the verge of collapse, the drums shuffling and minimal holding it all barely together, but it's the melodies that make it immediately the Reveries, each one, each vocal line wavery and woozy, unfurled and filtered through a jew's harp like warble, keening whistle like tones tangled and ghostlike. Even the most recognizable songs, like "Crazy", become something totally and utterly different.
The overall sound is dark and drunken, mournful and mysterious, some tracks add harmonica, nose-flute, singing saw, and while those elements add to the lushness of the Reveries' sound, they're almost unnecessary, their core sound is so delicate and alien even at its most stripped down, so beautifully creepy, that all it ever takes to suck us in is that slow languorous twang, some warbly vocals, and a sweetly sad minor key melody...
MPEG Stream: "Any Arms Won't Do"
MPEG Stream: "Didn't Sleep A Wink Last Night"
MPEG Stream: "I Let My Mind Wander"

REVERIES, THE Play The Music Of Sade (Bennifer Edition) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Past record of the week honorees the Reveries return with this super limited live cd-r, and while we're not always huge fans of live recordings, this one is worth it for two reasons, one, we've been dying for more Reveries, we can't get enough of their soporific warbly alien blues, and second, their sound is so strange and woozy, that the various crowd sounds, and the lo-fi recording, only add to their mysterious ambience.
The Reveries, for those of you who missed their AQ record of the week a while back, are a minimal blues trio, who take their somewhat standard instrumentation, guitar, bass, harmonica, musical saw, nose flute, and augment them with what the band calls 'mouth speakers', a tiny cell phone speaker, that each member holds in his mouth while they play, the various instruments being fed to the speaker in one of the other players' mouths, where the sound can then be altered by that player changing the shape of their mouth, or singing along to another instrument. The result is so gorgeous and so completely strange. The sound is off kilter and abstract, woozy and druggy, and totally beautiful. This live set finds the band augmented by a drummer, and various members playing stuff like streetsweeper bristle bass and thumb reeds, which only serves to give these songs a bit more propulsion, not quite as languorous as their last disc, a bit more 'rocking', with some simulated wah guitars (using their mouth speakers we figure) and more of a focus on the vocals, gorgeous mournful melodies, plaintive falsetto harmonies, all draped over the band's blurred bluescapes.
Folks who dig Bonny Prince Billy and Iron And WIne and the like should definitely check this out. It's that sort of modern blues twang, melancholy and melodic, but the Reveries, take that sound and twist it all up into something much stranger, and somehow much more moving.
SUPER LIMITED. Totally over the top packaging, a screen printed cardboard box, each one individually augmented by various glued on pieces of paper and art fragments, inside the box is stuffed with various inserts and found paper debris, flyers, newspapers, pictures cut out from magazines, and all manner of other strange visual detritus.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

REYNOLDS, BEN Book of Beyond (Last Visible Dog) cd 9.98

MPEG Stream: "Remedy For The Sirs"
MPEG Stream: "In Yeek Stars"

REYNOLDS, BEN Earth & Space Magics (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've got some serious catching up to do. We can barely keep up with the flood of new releases, especially when there are loads of amazing microlabels putting out disc after disc after bloody brilliant disc. So it is with Antony Milton's PseudoArcana label, and this gorgeous disc from Ben Reynolds. Five tracks, 30 minutes, of ultra dense, super lush droned out bliss. Reynolds weaves massive washes of near static sound, like Sunroof! or Vibracathedral Orchestra but smoothed out and stretched out into even more blissful realms, slow flowing rivers of warm warble and thick chordal thrum. Part way through there is a brief and delicate folk interlude of fingerpicked steel string guitar and tinkling chimes, very Fahey-esque, but it quickly segues into perhaps the heaviest track on the disc, the nine minute "Howlers", another extended Ur-drone, but this time augmented by the previous track's chimes, and strange alien chirps that sound a bit like bird calls (Howlers?). Truly gorgeous stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Sunward Mooned The Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Original Emptiness"

REYNOLDS, BEN Music Is The Music Language (Ikuisuus) cd 8.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
A gorgeous mysterious slab of dreamy droniness that we listed a long time ago. Just found a stash of these, about 7 or 8 left, already out of print as far as we know so one last chance...
The last time we reviewed a Ben Reynolds disc was way back in 2005, and even then we were sort of lamenting our inability to keep up with the constant deluge of amazing cd-r's and the proliferation of cd-r microlabels. We're still trying, but it's fighting a losing battle.
And with Reynolds, we've fallen even further behind, this being only the second release we've managed to review out of the probably twenty or so we've missed, but what the hell, let's make the most of it. Thankfully this is a real cd not a cd-r, which is a god thing as this is way too good to only be heard by a handful of folks.
Reynolds weaves a magical lower case world of buzzing synths, strange percolating rhythms, disembodied psychedelic guitars, simple folky strum, and dense sheets of processed drone and whir. Occupying a sonic space somewhere between the freaky forest folkies and the spaced out droney drifters, Reynolds wanders freely back and forth often pausing with one foot in each, wrapping sweet little bundles of buzzing steel strings in tripped out sci-fi buzz and bleep, while conversely taking washed out smears of outerspace ambience and spreading them out beneath melancholy acoustic guitar melodies. Fans of all thing Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, PseudoArcana, Digitalis, Last Visible Dog and the like will absolutely want to get a hold of this....
MPEG Stream: "Swing + Maths"
MPEG Stream: "Mother Legato"
MPEG Stream: "Spacious Yowl"

REYNOLDS, BEN Outmospheric Arts Of The Outmosphere (Digitalis) cd 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
MPEG Stream: "Outmospheric Arts Of The Outmosphere"
MPEG Stream: "Cracks Swoon Moon"

REYNOLS ------- (Blackbean and Placenta / Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The metaphysical world created by Reynols spins on a different axis than the world that the rest of us know. Guided by self-negating guru Miguel Tomasin (who has Down's Syndrome) and actualized by Anla Courtis and Robeto Conzalo, Reynols has previously slowed their world down to a nervous crawl to investigate the Kirlian glow of tape hiss, on their ultra-minimalist masterpiece "Blank Tapes" (which found a perfect home on Bernhard Gunter's Trente Oiseaux label). "-------" finds the Reynolsian globe spinning backward in time with this blast of atavistic noise rock, reminiscent of the earliest work of the Swans, Virgin Prunes, or Skullflower. Reynols' desire to invoke the tumultousness of rock is not anger, fear, or a sadistic need to control, rather it is the ecstacy of pounding: the ability of rock to channel the most primal connections between the body and sound. Musically, "-------" moves though Miguel's skittering mondo beats and the slashing guitar noise of Anla and Robeto, who develop primitive two or three note melodies out of the screeching cacaphony.
Miguel's whimsical, incessant, and non-linear banter runs throughout these noise rock slabs of sound, making all together a strangely magical experience.
RealAudio clip: "--- --"

REYNOLS Barbatrulos (Freedom From ) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Reynols is an Argentinian trio that certainly doesn't do much to fit within the user-friendly conventions of stablized musical aesthetics. The focal point in Reynols is Miguel Tomasin, the lead singer / oracle of the group who suffers from Down's Syndrone; yet despite his affliction, Tomasin brings a festive quirkiness and deeply poetic insight to the process of creating music for Reynols. After conjuring a myriad of unusual ideas and mystical pronouncements, Tomasin works with the classically trained engineers Alan Courtis and Roberto Conlazo to realize his transcendental neologisms within a sonic context. Miguel wants to release an album of blank tapes, and Reynols manufactures such an album that despite the absurd source material is a breathtaking piece of dronology... or Miguel wants to compose a symphony for 10,000 chickens, and behold Reynols goes to a farm, records a bunch of chickens and produces an eerie David Lynchian drone.
For "Barbatrulos," Miguel and company have situated themselves as a minimalist heroin rock band, but their sound is far abstracted from the canons of romantic abjection like the Velvet Underground or Spaceman 3. Rather, their fuzzed-out dinscrape dirges are infused with something inexplicably affirmative. I makes no bones about the fact that I don't understand them, but Reynols is one of the few bands that makes me very happy.

REYNOLS Blank Tapes (Trente Oiseaux) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Allan asked our friendly Forced Exposure rep (known to some as Hrvatski, Keith to others) what seemed to be a reasonable question: "So is that Reynols cd any good?" Keith's deadpan response, "It's blank tapes." Allan, phrasing the question a little differently, "Well, what does it sound like?" Again the response over the phone, "It's really just blank tapes." A silence persisted from Allan who was baffled and trying to formulate the next question. Keith then responded, "Look we got a lot of these things, so take as many as you want!" making his pronouncement of the ridiculousness of this record as well as his desire to get rid of them.
But let's face it: Reynols isn't one guy. It's a band with three people, recording the sound of blank tapes. They are from Argentina. They previously made a recording of 10,000 chickens. And you know what, you can actually hear these blank tapes, with more going on then the average Trente Oiseaux record (i.e. Bernhard Gunter, Steve Roden, and Francisco Lopez). Furthermore, it's really great.
RealAudio clip: "blank tapes 3"

REYNOLS Deportation Symphony (Riot Season) 7" 9.98

REYNOLS Fire (Digital Narcis) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Fire! Fire! Fire!! Sorry, couldn't help it. This new disc, a mini-album of exactly 20 minutes in length, is what happens when the surreal Argentine experimental rock band Reynols starts playing with matches. It's just recordings of the sound of fire, processed into what in Reynols' universe might be another element entirely. Crackling, popping, flickering, droning, sizzling, insectoid mutter. They've done this sort of thing with blank tapes, grass growing, and 10,000 chickens -- so this fire concept is almost mundane in comparison. What's gotten into 'em? You know a band is weird when a recording of *just fire* seems too "normal" for them!! Anyway, it's nicely done, though the packaging is minimal to say the least: aside from the fire photo on the cd itself, there's no booklet or cover or anything, just a cd in a slimline jewelcase.
MPEG Stream: "Fire (excerpt)"

REYNOLS Jaz Ronco Japi Javas Vol 1 (Valuba Mafiforo) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Taking the CD-R production into their own hands, the Argentinian outrock ensemble Reynols has started releasing CD-Rs of their music in an attempt to pull themselves out of the downward spiral that is Argentina's faltering economy. Fortunately, their country's economic plight hasn't deterred Reynols' spirit, which is still centered upon the self-described prophecies of frontman Miguel Tomasin who happens to have Down's Syndrome. While the "Jaz Ronco Japi Javas" series finds Reynols materializing in their rock guise, the music is far less claustrophobic and bleak than the classic noise rock primitivism of "Barbatrulos" or "-------," rather it takes on a celebratory free noise / drone skree typically found on Vibracathedral Orchestra recordings. On a couple of the tracks in the series, Reynols presents themselves as a jazz ensemble with piano, stand-up bass, and sax, but of course with their own charmingly alien signature. As in all of the rock Reynols albums, Miguel does feature prominently and even shows a greater range of instrumentation in playing organs, guitar, flute, marimba, and "Andino Sax," alongside his staple instrument, the drums. And of course, Miguel sings with his pronounced vocal warble and slurred syllables. Roberto "Moncho" Conlazo and Alan "Anla" Coutis continue in their supporting role, producing some nice drone tracks and monochromatic noise guitar work.
RealAudio clip: "Fermo Mogal"
RealAudio clip: "Trilo Avesario"

REYNOLS Jaz Ronco Japi Javas Vol 2 (Valuba Mafiforo) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Taking the CD-R production into their own hands, the Argentinian outrock ensemble Reynols has started releasing CD-Rs of their music in an attempt to pull themselves out of the downward spiral that is Argentina's faltering economy. Fortunately, their country's economic plight hasn't deterred Reynols' spirit, which is still centered upon the self-described prophecies of frontman Miguel Tomasin who happens to have Down's Syndrome. While the "Jaz Ronco Japi Javas" series finds Reynols materializing in their rock guise, the music is far less claustrophobic and bleak than the classic noise rock primitivism of "Barbatrulos" or "-------," rather it takes on a celebratory free noise / drone skree typically found on Vibracathedral Orchestra recordings. On a couple of the tracks in the series, Reynols presents themselves as a jazz ensemble with piano, stand-up bass, and sax, but of course with their own charmingly alien signature. As in all of the rock Reynols albums, Miguel does feature prominently and even shows a greater range of instrumentation in playing organs, guitar, flute, marimba, and "Andino Sax," alongside his staple instrument, the drums. And of course, Miguel sings with his pronounced vocal warble and slurred syllables. Roberto "Moncho" Conlazo and Alan "Anla" Coutis continue in their supporting role, producing some nice drone tracks and monochromatic noise guitar work.
RealAudio clip: "Apoloca"
RealAudio clip: "Jaz Ronco Mentalimo 2"

REYNOLS Jaz Ronco Japi Javas Vol 3 (Valuba Mafiforo) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Taking the CD-R production into their own hands, the Argentinian outrock ensemble Reynols has started releasing CD-Rs of their music in an attempt to pull themselves out of the downward spiral that is Argentina's faltering economy. Fortunately, their country's economic plight hasn't deterred Reynols' spirit, which is still centered upon the self-described prophecies of frontman Miguel Tomasin who happens to have Down's Syndrome. While the "Jaz Ronco Japi Javas" series finds Reynols materializing in their rock guise, the music is far less claustrophobic and bleak than the classic noise rock primitivism of "Barbatrulos" or "-------," rather it takes on a celebratory free noise / drone skree typically found on Vibracathedral Orchestra recordings. On a couple of the tracks in the series, Reynols presents themselves as a jazz ensemble with piano, stand-up bass, and sax, but of course with their own charmingly alien signature. As in all of the rock Reynols albums, Miguel does feature prominently and even shows a greater range of instrumentation in playing organs, guitar, flute, marimba, and "Andino Sax," alongside his staple instrument, the drums. And of course, Miguel sings with his pronounced vocal warble and slurred syllables. Roberto "Moncho" Conlazo and Alan "Anla" Coutis continue in their supporting role, producing some nice drone tracks and monochromatic noise guitar work.
RealAudio clip: "Flatdas Sutan"
RealAudio clip: "Contle Mante"

REYNOLS Pacalirte Sorban Cumanos (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 10.98
Finally back in stock! We just discovered that this, one of our favorite Reynols records, was not in fact out of print (as we were mistakenly informed) so we ordered up a bunch for all of you who may not have gotten one way back in 2002 when we first reviewed it. Here's what we had to say about Pacalirte Sorban Cumanos:
For some reason, this 'real' cd Reynols disc is cheaper than many of the cd-r albums of theirs we listed not long ago. Maybe 'cause it's domestic, not an Argentine import? No matter what, you're always getting a deal, 'cause we're convinced that this Reynols stuff is in fact priceless. Now, there's essentially two types of Reynols records: the 'rock' albums (like "------" and the Reynols/No Reynols double cd) and the conceptual ones (like Blank Tapes and the 10,000 Chickens 7"). This new disc falls into the 'rock' camp, such as it is: damaged, monomaniacal drumming, psychedelic, noisy guitar jamming, and of course Reynols' frontman Miguel Tomasin's otherworldy, shamanistic vocals. Good stuff, in other words.
As the first track of this 50-minute journey begins, you're lost somewhere, in a tunnel or cavern. There's an ambient rumbling sound, and some haunting, echoed cries from Miguel. Then, with track two the distorted rock n' roll drone kicks in, all heavy-like, building in noisy intensity until track 3 interrupts the storm with a calmer, mantric mood, only to be interrupted itself with more fierce feedback guitar at the four and a half minute mark. Other songs feature Hare Krishna -worthy warbling chant, acoustic strum, and rattling hand percussion, as well as more of their primitive psych rock dementia. From simple, vocal-led tracks of trancey emptiness to guitar-based fuzzed-out chaos, the results are only enhanced by the raw, reverby production. Reynols is always strange, and strangely compelling, appealing to us in sort of the same way that much of the music of Keiji Haino does. Listening to Reynols isn't just about enjoying some weird songs, it's about taking a trip into their world and trying to see and hear things the way Miguel and his compatriots do. These are field recordings from inside their minds.
MPEG Stream: "Agrando Disa"
MPEG Stream: "7 apolca baluba"
MPEG Stream: "Trilo Pampeho"
MPEG Stream: "Camio Flatdas"

REYNOLS Polos Mosco (Freedom From / Polyamory) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
With over 50 records under their belt (300 if you count all the ones that "don't exist"), Reynols has more to do with executing a concept than maintaining an aesthetic continuity, with previous wonders of aural conceptualism like "Blank Tapes" (a minimalist hour of blank tapes released on Trente Oiseaux). Fronted by Miguel Tomasin, the lead singer who claims he doesn't sing, and flanked by the sonic arsenal of Alan Courtis and Roberto Conlazo, Reynols presents an art-damaged rock album in "Polos Mosco." The songs from the album are structurally simple but dominated by an excess of vibrato reverb which warbles harmoniously with the garage-rock-meets-Sonic-Youth guitar attack as well as Tomasin's incantations. While AQ's Spanish is downright non-existent, it's probably safe to say that Tomasin is about as comprehensible as Jandek. With all of the oddball mythologies, Reynols may in fact turn out to be the Sun City Girls of the new millenium. Plus Allan and Andee think he sounds like Space Ghost's Brak!!

REYNOLS Pupola Ridos 192000 (Valuba Mafiforo) cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Pupola Ridos 192000" is the CD-R that the Argentinian avant-rockers Reynols sold on their 2001 tour throughout the US and is now available to a broader audience through Reynols' own production house Valubamafiforo. Reynols has toured the US several times, and each time the frontman of the group Miguel Tomasin has declined to venture up to the US because of his belief that the United States does not exist. Nevertheless, Miguel does claim to channel his spirit to these non-existant territories to help fellow Reynols members Roberto "Moncho" Conlazo, Alan "Anla" Coutis, and "Pacu Conlazo" get through their performances.
Regardless, this disc does prominently feature Miguel singing his atonal warbling, spluttering along behind the drum kit while the rest of the band produces creepy dronework similar to their Pauline Oliveros collaboration and their more abrasively bleak noise-rock as heard on "Barbatrulos" or "-------."
RealAudio clip: "Ranja Manama"
RealAudio clip: "Pupola Ridos"
RealAudio clip: "Cuaplo Gason"

REYNOLS Rampotanza Grodo Rempelente (Locust) cd 14.98
In their "Met Life" series, Locust Records has commissioned experimental artists to produce a field recording of a dynamic aural evironment and then respond to that recording using any methods of their choosing. So, the Argentinian out-rock ensemble Reynols presents the sounds of city workers in Buenos Aires jackhammering a ditch in a busy city street. While Reynols could be implying that this field recording is an obtuse channelling from Minecxio -- that's the mythical alternate dimension that Reynols have cited as the source of their 'musical' ideas, which have included in the past a symphony for 10,000 chickens and an album comprised entirely of blank tape (which is anything but silent). However, Reynols' field recording of jackhammers seems pretty straight. Their "response" to this field recording is another matter altogether. With gritty guitar noise freakouts lurking in the distance, Reynols sets up a psych-fug throb of primal percussion, close-fisted organ arpeggiations, and bellowing trumpets, turning the pneumatic monotony of the jackhammer into an atypical, instrumental waltz of cosmic melodies and drunken rhythms.
MPEG Stream: "Rampotanza Ronil Grodorempelente"
MPEG Stream: "Rampotanza Ronil Grodo Rempelente: Response"

REYNOLS Sosina Arada Mica (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another AQ favorite that we thought was out of print, but we managed to get a handful more (albeit at a slightly higher price)
The weirder-than-thou Argentinian trio Reynols have made a lot of records. That much we can all agree on. Some are conceptual (Blank Tapes, ten thousand chickens, even a 'dematerialized' cd) some are more rock -- messed-up, primitive, psychedelic rock. And this is one of those. It's also two other things: one of the best Reynols we've heard (which, from us, is high praise 'cause we love Reynols) and unfortunately quite limited in availability. From track one, side one (ok, it's a cd so there's only one side, but with Reyols you never know, there could be an imaginary 2nd side) it's a blissful marriage of Miguel's gentle soul singing and a throbbing bed of percussion, heavy amp-drone and stabbing, soothing guitar-skronk. Detours (like the very 2nd track) are made into celebratory, shambling grooves, like Reynols are busking for 'change' in the way I'm writing this review. But most of Sosina Arada Mica could be a Reynolisan religious ceremony, totally spacey and effects-laden. The drone-quotient is high, and so are you.
MPEG Stream: "Claquer"
MPEG Stream: "Mentalimo"

REYNOLS / NO-REYNOLS Rovatino Surido Almericamo (Last Visible Dog) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This new cd-r release from the always-colorful (and bizarre) Argentinian band Reynols sports a full color cover, perhaps a first for the no-frills Last Visible Dog cd-r label. Recorded live at the Fusa Auditorium in Buenos Aires, September 20th 2001, this is half performed by Reynols (Miguel Tomasin, Moncho Conlazo, Anla Courtis, and Pacu Conlazo) and half by their near-doppelgangers No-Reynols (Juan Manuel Acevedo, No-Moncho Conlazo, No-Anla Courtis, and No-Pacu Conlazo). But whether being led by the whim of Miguel Tomasin or Juan Manuel Acevedo, these groups both fully inhabit a noisy, droney, damaged, beyond-psychedelic, not-really-rock primal stomp territory explored by few others. The disc starts off quite mysteriously and quietly, sounding like a echoey exotica-plus-feedback session, punctuated by distant applause and what might be the strains of some commercial Latin pop.
Are they on stage, in the jungle, or in a void? It's hard to tell. Soon, a stiff, insistent percussion frenzy builds, accompanied by indistinct drone guitar and nonsense vocal interjections. This rapidly grows into a full fledged shamanic incantation of whirling dervish, junk-rock intensity. Howling, grinding, blowing "music" that makes the perfect warm yet alienated background to the throaty, wailing crooning of Miguel (or is it Juan Manuel?). It's so wacked and yet lovely. This umpteenth Reynols document shows that they're indeed an Acid Mothers Temple for those truly moved by authentic weirdness and emotional expression that trumps psychedelic pastiche.
RealAudio clip: REYNOLS "Rovatino Surido Almericamo"
RealAudio clip: NO-REYNOLS "Papapapapa Pa"

REYNOLS / NO-REYNOLS s/t (Freedom From) 2cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In keeping true to the uncanny laws of nature in the Reynolsian universe, No-Reynols came into creation because the world had slipped out of balance due to the invincible musical force that is Reynols. This is not to say that No-Reynols is the evil incarnation of Reynols or that No-Reynols is even the opposite of Reynols, but that the world hinges itself as interconnected series of counterbalances, and -- strange as it may sound -- too much Reynols may have been detrimental to the world as we know it. Thus, No-Reynols needed to exist. Just as Reynols draws its energy from the non-linear logic and mystical neologisms of Miguel Tomasin (who happens to have Down Syndrome), No-Reynols centers around the anti-agendas of Juan Miguel Acevedo (who also has Down Syndrome). Behind chugging guitars and skitteringly motorik 4/4 rhythms (think a really sloppy Neu!), Acevedo utters wavering vocal wails and monosyllabic chants that place his voice as a vehicle for additional tones and rhythms. There are obvious similarities between No-Reynols and Reynols in this primitive approach to musical content, yet the use of the voice is certainly a dividing point, with Tomasin in turn barking non-specific phrases in Spanish.
RealAudio clip: REYNOLS "N9 Colesio Americama"
RealAudio clip: REYNOLS "Amete Pulpo Un Groda"
RealAudio clip: NO REYNOLS "2"
RealAudio clip: NO REYNOLS "7"

REYNOLS / PAULINE OLIVEROS Pauline Oliveros In The Arms Of Reynols (Cream Garden ) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Within the Reynolsian post-rational pantheon, Pauline Oliveros holds the unique position of being the band's astral godmother. Oliveros has been in close contact with the Argentinian avant rockers since 1994 and only recently has their collaboration been documented, first as a super limited tape release, and now as this cd which is somewhat of a reworked version of that cassette release. Following the brilliant single-source-material manipulations found on "Blank Tapes" and "10,000 Chicken Symphony," Reynols reinterprets and recomposes recordings from Oliveros for just intonation accordion and voice. Reynols -- unlike most remix artists -- takes great care to add something that is distinctively of themselves without diluting the beautiful complexities of Oliveros' signature style. "Pauline Oliveros In The Arms Of Reynols" is a massive recording of the glacial swells of Oliveros' accordion which are matched with Reynols magically dark production -- adding distant (and somewhat threatening) bird choruses and glistening guitar distortion washes to the mix. This extended dronological investigation is broken near the end of the record by Reynols' Miguel Tomasin expounding his ideas about life and this recording. Even if our Spanish were better, his playful neologisms still would probably be beyond us, as our metal grasp of his idiosyncratic mythologies is somewhat limited. Nevertheless, this is an amazing document.
RealAudio clip: "We are still thinking about the title..."
RealAudio clip: "We are still thinking about the title?"

RH BAND 122701 (HP Cycle) lp 13.98
Latest missive from these mysterious dronesters. This being probably their most spare, minimal work to date. Shimmering tones and barely-there ambience. Think an even more STRIPPED DOWN Stars Of The Lid. It's that subtle and ethereal. Notes hover almost motionless like wisps of smoke frozen in midair. Super minimal, totally mesmerising, lowercase drone. You can almost feel the air suck out of your ears when the record stops. Totally obscure reference: Remember in the movie Phantasm, there was a gateway to another world, and the gateway was two vibrating metal posts (like a tuning fork) that disrupted the time space continuum creating a portal to that other world. This record kind of sounds like that gateway! Good stuff.

RH BAND First Tone (Drunken Fish) cd 12.98
The second full album of improvised dronology very similar to AMM or the more acoustic oriented Zoviet France played with circuits, wires, analogue feedback, things bowed, 'McNaughton' (what/whoever that is...), delay units, smoke, and 'that fucking flute'.

RHYTON Unity Bailout (self-released) cassette 8.98
We at aQ are big fans of Brooklyn-based psych-splorers Rhyton (made their Thrill Jockey debut a Record Of The Week in fact) and Rhyton it seems are fans of us too it seems, since they were nice enough to dub us an exclusive limited supply of a new cassette of theirs, originally something they made only for merch sales on a recent European tour. aQ is the only store carrying this release, and we only have 20 copies, that's it forever!
Unity Bailout is 30 minutes, four tracks, of live and rehearsal recordings, the sort of spacey, druggy, drifting jams we expect from these guys (members of No Neck Blues Band and Psychic Ills, by the way). The tape starts off with the 12 minute "Mold Channel", a sprightly, trippy-hippie improv session of head-nodding abstract humid burble all right. Then the darker, dronier "At Endless Buggy Pt. Alpha" begins, featuring more militant marching drum beats and skree-ier guitarwork. Flip the tape and that piece continues into "Pt. Beta", adding some more mumbled, distorted vox, the guitar (and electric saz?) lines getting more sinuous and scrambled, noise and volume building, that buggy of theirs heading down a bumpy road indeed, losing a wheel or two along the way! Such a style of caveman krauty damaged jam is in full effect on the tape's final track too, the almost ten-minute long "In Silent One", even louder and heavier and kinda Haino-esque, with fuzzy feedback guitar carving whale-calls through the murk, propelled by steady drum splatter. It gets pretty freaky, satisfyingly so, 'specially if you like the idea of Burnt Hills or Doktor Kettu jamming on some almost unrecognizable Dick Dale surf licks or something like that. The pulsating moldy walls of Rhyton's presumably subterranean practice space sure absorbed a lot of intense stoner vibes during the recording of this tape. Thanks, Rhyton, for letting us in.
The tape's covers are hand stamped metallic ink on black paper.
MPEG Stream: "Mold Channel"
MPEG Stream: "At Endless Buggy Pt. Alpha"
MPEG Stream: "In Silent One"

RIBOT, MARC Exercises In Futility (Tzadik) cd 16.98

RICE, BOYD / NON Terra Incognita: Ambient Works 1975 - Present (Mute) cd 15.98
Terra Incognita is the second retrospective of the work of Boyd Rice / Non, with the first being the emphatically abrasive Easy Listening For Iron Youth released back in the early '90s. For all of his Social Darwinist propaganda, deleterious noise, and semantic provocation, Rice has enjoyed a curious affinity for mood music throughout his 30 year career. For the most part, Muzak and mood music hold benevolent (if insipid) intentions; but this is not so for Rice, as his motivations are a forced communication, in which he directs, wills, or suggests a meaning upon the listener. Within the ambient work that dots his entire catalogue, Rice lulls the audience into relaxing their defenses, at which time he can then slip in any number of subliminally dark or subtly perverse themes. At times, these take the form of complex phase patterns as heard on the infamous Black Album pieced together from physically factured pieces of vinyl sounding like the noxious older brother of Philip Jeck; at other times, Rice presents a grandiously bleak form of isolationism. It's still surprising to hear how listenable these recordings can be.
MPEG Stream: "Father's Day"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 1"
MPEG Stream: "The Fountain Of Fortune"

RICHARDS, EMIL Stones - Journey To Bliss (The Omni Recording Corporation) cd 17.98
You may not necessarily know who Emil Richards is, but you've most definitely heard him play. The list of his musical accomplishments, is nearly Zelig like, seeming to appear everywhere and on pretty much every great recording, and having played with a who's who of performers, jazz, rock, underground, mainstream, even a small sampling of his music resume will have you wondering why he isn't a household name. He played with Charles Mingus, Lord Buckley, Lenny Bruce, Frank Sinatra, Nelson Riddle, Doris Day, Judy Garland, he performed frequently with Harry Partch, he plays the bongos that open Lalo Schifrin's theme to Mission Impossible, he's the guy snapping his fingers on the theme music from the Addams Family, he played tuned bowls and gongs on Jerry Goldsmith's iconic soundtrack to 1968's Planet Of The Apes. He later played with Frank Zappa, George Harrison (he even traveled to India with Harrison) as well as Blondie, and hundreds of other pop artists, and played on soundtracks like Taxi Driver, The Exorcist, Shaft, Chinatown, Dirty Harry, and again, HUNDREDS more.
But for weird music obsessives, he's no doubt best known for his record New Sound Element: Stones, originally released in 1967, which was a collection of 12 songs, each named for a month, and its specific birthstone, and which is infamous for the fact that it was in fact the first commercial recording to feature the Moog Synthesizer. But beyond that, it's a crazy record, some sort of twisted electronic jazz sci-fi exotica, the main instruments being ring modulated mallet instruments (marimba, xylophone, etc.) and synth, trippy and woozy, playful and silly, but at times, seriously twisted and darkly psychedelic. We're reminded of course of Perrey And Kingsley, after all for many of us, that was our first real exposure to early Moog pop, but Richards' compositions are a lot less goofy, less melodic too, more rhythmic, with the best tracks layering wild jazz drumming, over heavily effected marimba or xylophone, the sound locked into propulsive grooves, while the tones and overtones are constantly altered to created woozy warbly melodies, that's not to say this stuff isn't on the playful side, it most definitely is, the darker passages more than balanced by goofy, super melodic workouts, but the sound seems to always slip back into something a wee bit darker, whether it's the droney, swirly shuffle of "Emerald (May)", or the driving drum heavy psychedelic trip out of "Bloodstone (March)", the wild Moog swaddled xylophone shredding of "Moonstone (June)", or the fuzzy twisted jazzfunk of "Ruby (July)".
Imagine a drum/percussion driven sixties jazz record, re-engineered by some Moog mad scientist, and you'll get an idea of what Richards concocted on Stones, which has been floating around as a bootleg for years, but this is the first official reissue. And Stones is only the beginning. While it's most definitely the reason to pick this up, Omni has also tacked on a bunch of bonus tracks, first, a handful of songs from New Time Element, also originally released in 1967, which features a selection of pop and jazz standards, presented with odd time signatures and unique percussion, the original liner notes even give the listener breakdowns of the various rhythms of each song. It's not super far out, but a fun listen, and a nice chunk of sixties jazz. The final batch of extra tracks come from Richards' 1968 release Journey To Bliss, which is probably closest to Stones in sound, dialing back the electronic element, and heavy on the rhythms, lots of marimba, xylophone and percussion, some drum solos, a bit of fuzzy jazz funk, a heady psychedelic jazz excursion for sure, fans of the recent Spiritual Jazz collections will definitely dig, the album culminating in the final 18 minute six part epic "Journey To Bliss", which features a yogi like recitation, directions for meditation and inner peace, over Eastern raga style buzz, playful percussion, and more of Richards' wild psychedelic jazz.
Like all Omni reissues, gorgeous presented, with loads of pictures and extensive liner notes!
MPEG Stream: "Bloodstone (March)"
MPEG Stream: "Moonstone (June)"
MPEG Stream: "Opal (October)"
MPEG Stream: "Turquoise (December)"
MPEG Stream: "Journey To Bliss - Part III"

RICHTER, MAX Infra (Fat Cat) cd 14.98
Not many musicians and composers are able to create music as beautiful and elegant as Max Richter. Whether it be his stunning albums, soundtracks or arrangements for folks like Vashti Bunyan, Richter has proven to be one of the most restrained and versatile composers of the last decade. Infra was a work originally created as a score for a Ballet called The Waste Land. These fragile, subdued miniatures create such a dislocated and gray musical mood. Allowing your mind to wander or stay frozen in a numbing disbelief. Our only complaint regarding some of his previous work was the incorporation of unneeded and heavy handed spoken word/voices which tended to ruin the flow of the music, but luckily on Infra he smartly keeps that out of the mix and allows the haunting, cloudy sounds he's created to speak for themselves. While this may have been made for a ballet we are finding it the perfect soundtrack to those foggy/cold days we've been having in July (oh San Francisco summer) and those early mornings you find yourself awake but bleary headed and needing a musical companion to your clouded vision and foggy mind. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Infra 1"
MPEG Stream: "Journey 2"
MPEG Stream: "Infra 5"

RICHTER, MAX Infra (Fat Cat) lp 16.98
NOW ON VINYL!!!
Not many musicians and composers are able to create music as beautiful and elegant as Max Richter. Whether it be his stunning albums, soundtracks or arrangements for folks like Vashti Bunyan, Richter has proven to be one of the most restrained and versatile composers of the last decade. Infra was a work originally created as a score for a Ballet called The Waste Land. These fragile, subdued miniatures create such a dislocated and gray musical mood. Allowing your mind to wander or stay frozen in a numbing disbelief. Our only complaint regarding some of his previous work was the incorporation of unneeded and heavy handed spoken word/voices which tended to ruin the flow of the music, but luckily on Infra he smartly keeps that out of the mix and allows the haunting, cloudy sounds he's created to speak for themselves. While this may have been made for a ballet we are finding it the perfect soundtrack to those foggy/cold days we've been having in July (oh San Francisco summer) and those early mornings you find yourself awake but bleary headed and needing a musical companion to your clouded vision and foggy mind. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Infra 1"
MPEG Stream: "Journey 2"
MPEG Stream: "Infra 5"

RICHTER, MAX Songs From Before (130701) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Song"
MPEG Stream: "Flowers For Yulia"

RIDE FOR REVENGE Under The Eye (KVLT / Bestial Burst) cd 13.98
The thing about Finnish black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, is that really, they are hardly even black metal. Hell, hardly metal at all. Instead, they always seemed to traffic in a mysterious low slung, sludgy abstract blackened rhythmic minimalism that reminded us of Circle and Aluk Todolo way more than Darkthrone or Beherit. And then there's RfR offshoot Will Over Matter, who take that same sort of abstract rhythmic weirdness and harness it to primitive electronics, and have created a sort of tripped out blackened power electronics. So of course we were super excited for a new Ride For Revenge, and were expecting another disc of twisted rhythmic churn, or something similar, but what we were not expecting was THIS. After a truly strange intro, which is essentially just a Speak & Spell toy emitting all those 8bit bleeps and bloops and wreathed in echo and delay, which had us imagining maybe RfR had moved toward Will Over Matter sonically, but then when the first song proper kicked in, we were blown away. Metal. And we mean METAL. Dirgey and sludgey and super distorted. Right out of the gate, the band erupt into some seriously corrosive blasts of full on blast beat-ed GRIND, in between which, the band churn and lumber, the guitars filthy and crumbling with blackened distortion, the vocals a glass gargling gurgle, the drums a simple dirgey pound, so we were prepared for the band's return to full on primitive blackness, but then out of nowhere, in swoop all manner of weird warbly synths, and tolling bells, the whole song transformed into some sort of woozy avant buzz drenched doomic dirge, it's pretty ruling.
But then by track two, it's right back to the primitive bash and pound, the distortion even more blown out and in the red, the band sounding a bit like a blackened Brainbombs, which is not at all a bad thing, the songs peppered with ridiculous twisted drug addled guitar leads, super effected crooned gothic vox, some totally fucked up and freaked out Butthole Surfers style vocal garble, cool thick layered harmonies, that add a sort of warped majesty to some of the tracks, and at least one blast of weird bellowed, strident sermonizing beneath a cloud of in-the-red white noise skree.
There are a couple tracks that strip away some of the crumble and buzz, and harken back to the more purely rhythmic RfR of old, but those moments are brief, the band quickly slipping back into their woozy sea sick doom-sludge churn, but even then, pretty much every stretch of seemingly pure raw blackened doomic primitivism, is in fact seriously fucked up, whether that fucked upness is in your face, or buried way below the surface, it's there, and it keeps Under The Eye firmly rooted in whatever fucked Finnish tradition RfR oozes from...
MPEG Stream: "Second Gate Opened With Power"
MPEG Stream: "For Those About To Kneel"
MPEG Stream: "The Gutter And The Grave"
MPEG Stream: "Under The Eye"

RIDE FOR REVENGE Under The Eye (KVLT / Bestial Burst) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The thing about Finnish black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, is that really, they are hardly even black metal. Hell, hardly metal at all. Instead, they always seemed to traffic in a mysterious low slung, sludgy abstract blackened rhythmic minimalism that reminded us of Circle and Aluk Todolo way more than Darkthrone or Beherit. And then there's RfR offshoot Will Over Matter, who take that same sort of abstract rhythmic weirdness and harness it to primitive electronics, and have created a sort of tripped out blackened power electronics. So of course we were super excited for a new Ride For Revenge, and were expecting another disc of twisted rhythmic churn, or something similar, but what we were not expecting was THIS. After a truly strange intro, which is essentially just a Speak & Spell toy emitting all those 8bit bleeps and bloops and wreathed in echo and delay, which had us imagining maybe RfR had moved toward Will Over Matter sonically, but then when the first song proper kicked in, we were blown away. Metal. And we mean METAL. Dirgey and sludgey and super distorted. Right out of the gate, the band erupt into some seriously corrosive blasts of full on blast beat-ed GRIND, in between which, the band churn and lumber, the guitars filthy and crumbling with blackened distortion, the vocals a glass gargling gurgle, the drums a simple dirgey pound, so we were prepared for the band's return to full on primitive blackness, but then out of nowhere, in swoop all manner of weird warbly synths, and tolling bells, the whole song transformed into some sort of woozy avant buzz drenched doomic dirge, it's pretty ruling.
But then by track two, it's right back to the primitive bash and pound, the distortion even more blown out and in the red, the band sounding a bit like a blackened Brainbombs, which is not at all a bad thing, the songs peppered with ridiculous twisted drug addled guitar leads, super effected crooned gothic vox, some totally fucked up and freaked out Butthole Surfers style vocal garble, cool thick layered harmonies, that add a sort of warped majesty to some of the tracks, and at least one blast of weird bellowed, strident sermonizing beneath a cloud of in-the-red white noise skree.
There are a couple tracks that strip away some of the crumble and buzz, and harken back to the more purely rhythmic RfR of old, but those moments are brief, the band quickly slipping back into their woozy sea sick doom-sludge churn, but even then, pretty much every stretch of seemingly pure raw blackened doomic primitivism, is in fact seriously fucked up, whether that fucked upness is in your face, or buried way below the surface, it's there, and it keeps Under The Eye firmly rooted in whatever fucked Finnish tradition RfR oozes from...
MPEG Stream: "Second Gate Opened With Power"
MPEG Stream: "For Those About To Kneel"
MPEG Stream: "The Gutter And The Grave"
MPEG Stream: "Under The Eye"

RIDE FOR REVENGE Under The Eye (KVLT / Bestial Burst) cassette 7.98
ALSO ON CASSETTE...
The thing about Finnish black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, is that really, they were hardly even black metal. Hell, hardly metal at all. Instead, they seemed to traffic in a mysterious low slung, sludgy abstract blackened rhythmic minimalism that reminded us of Circle and Aluk Todolo way more than Darkthrone or Beherit. And then there's RfR offshoot Will Over Matter, who take that same sort of abstract rhythmic weirdness and harness it to primitive electronics, and have created a sort of tripped out blackened power electronics. So of course we were super excited for a new Ride For Revenge, and were expecting another disc of twisted rhythmic churn, or something similar, but what we were not expecting was THIS. After a truly strange intro, which is essentially just a Speak & Spell toy emitting all those 8bit bleeps and bloops and wreathed in echo and delay, which had us imagining maybe RfR had moved toward Will Over Matter sonically, but then when the first song proper kicked in, we were blown away. Metal. And we mean METAL. Dirgey and sludgey and super distorted. Right out of the gate, the band erupt into some seriously corrosive blasts of full on blast beat-ed GRIND, in between which, the band churn and lumber, the guitars filthy and crumbling with blackened distortion, the vocals a glass gargling gurgle, the drums a simple dirgey pound, so we were prepared for the band's return to full on primitive blackness, but then out of nowhere, in swoop all manner of weird warbly synths, and tolling bells, the whole song transformed into some sort of woozy avant buzz drenched doomic dirge, it's pretty ruling.
But then by track two, it's right back to the primitive bash and pound, the distortion even more blown out and in the red, the band sounding a bit like a blackened Brainbombs, which is not at all a bad thing, the songs peppered with ridiculous twisted drug addled guitar leads, super effected crooned gothic vox, some totally fucked up and freaked out Butthole Surfers style vocal garble, cool thick layered harmonies, that add a sort of warped majesty to some of the tracks, and at least one blast of weird bellowedcstrident sermonizing beneath a cloud of in-the-red white noise skree.
There are a couple tracks that strip away some of the crumble and buzz, and harken back to the more purely rhythmic RfR of old, but those moments are brief, the band quickly slipping back into their woozy sea sick doom-sludge churn, but even then, pretty much every stretch of seemingly pure raw blackened doomic primitivism, is in fact seriously fucked up, whether that fucked upness is in your face, or buried way below the surface, it's there, and it keeps Under The Eye firmly rooted in whatever fucked Finnish tradition RfR oozes from...
MPEG Stream: "Second Gate Opened With Power"
MPEG Stream: "For Those About To Kneel"
MPEG Stream: "The Gutter And The Grave"
MPEG Stream: "Under The Eye"

RILEY, TERRY / PIERRE MARIETAN Keyboard Study 2 / Initiative (Get Back) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two sidelong pieces recorded in 1969 and performed by Groupe d'Etude et R�alisation Musicale of France, or simply the GERM Ensemble. Riley's "Keyboard Study 2" is a twenty-four minute minimalist exercise for two pianists (executed here by G�rard Fr�my and Martine Joste). Due to substandard recording quality, this is not considered an "essential" Riley recording, but it is a beautiful and worthwhile document, nonetheless. Pierre Marietan, Swiss-born French avant composer, disciple of Boulez and Stockhausen and founder of GERM, offers an early composition for the emsemble. Repressed on hefty 180 gram vinyl with original artwork fully intact in a heavy gatefold sleeve. A rare non-jazz release in the mighty BYG / Actuel back catalogue!

RINALDI, RENATO Hoarse Frenzy (Last Visible Dog) cd 9.98
Last Visible Dog likes to come up with some "who's that?" artists to release on their label, that's for sure. Of course, if you're super-familiar with the catalogs of such equally underground and avant garde labels as Fringes, Public Eyesore and Fusetron perhaps you have heard of Italian guitarist/experimentalist Renato Rinaldi. We confess we hadn't. But spending the 40 minutes that the single track found on this Hoarse Frenzy disc lasts with the music of Rinaldi is a fine way to make his acquaintance! Spacious and pretty "outdoor" acoustic guitar improv is mixed with intriguing field recording textures, gentle singing, and the sounds of harmonium, unplugged electric guitar, piano, dulcimer, organ, and even harmonics played by a guesting string trio. It all comes together in a nicely flowing, rough-hewn suite as imagined and constructed by Rinaldi. Sounds like something you'd hear from the Jewelled Antler or Hapna labels. Quite lovely and droney and mysterious!
MPEG Stream: "Hoarse Frenzy [excerpt]"

RIP-OFF ARTIST The Kids Are Alright (Quatermass) cd 16.98