V/A Le Jazz Non: A Compilation of Norwegian Noise (Smalltown Supersound) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A "reply" by Bruce Russell of Corpus Hermeticum to his own compilation of New Zealand noise released in 1996. Hearing the aesthetic connections in the outside music styles of New Zealand and Norway, Bruce put together this compilation to promote his comrades in Norway. Featuring AQ-faves Kjetil D. Bransdal, Supersilent and a score of other cold, northern hemisphere noise makers. Like most comps, not 100% great, and we can't rate it as highly as the original New Zealand one, but it's certainly interesting. Check this out especially if you liked the first comp.

V/A Less Self is More Self (Ecstatic Peace) cd 16.98
As some of you might know, last March, Tarantula Hill, the home-base and performance center of Baltimore's Nautical Almanac burned down in a fire. Luckily some of their friends in the wide world of the noise/experimental music scene have been coming to their rescue. This double-cd comp put out by Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace is a benefit for them with all proceeds going directly to Tarantula Hill. With folks like Aaron Dilloway, Chris Corsano, Burning Star Core and Mouthus you know there will be some serious havoc waiting for your ears. But there are some other folks like Jack Rose, The Haunting and Pengo to bring some more mesmerizing trance inducing sounds into the mix. Good noise for a good cause.
MPEG Stream: BURNING STAR CORE "Let's Play Like Violins Do"
MPEG Stream: JACK ROSE "Amp"
MPEG Stream: THE HAUNTING "A Living Room"

V/A Live From The Complex 3 (Entartete Kunst) cd 7.98

V/A Live From The Complex II (Entartete Kunst) cd 7.98

V/A Live From The Complex Vol. 1 (Entartete Kunst) cd 7.98

V/A Live Sets At Ego 1998-2000 (Ego Recordings) 2cd 19.98
Two disc set documenting live performances by Sutekh, Khan, Senking, Thomas Brinkmann, Kit Clayton, Monolake and Noto among many others.

V/A Locations Volume One ((CT) Project) cd-r 11.98
"Locations Volume One" is the first in a series from the Chain Tape Collective, a global community of field recordings artists who actively explore the indigenous sounds around them and apply any number of compositional techniques to those field recordings. I've never heard of any of these artists before, except for San Francisco's Matt Davignon, who has been responsible for some interesting experimental music events throughout the Bay Area and had coordinated the release of this album. The end results are far from the purist field recordings of Chris Watson or Douglas Quin; rather, all of the artists revel in digital tricknology which punctuates the various recordings of water, rain, geese, crickets, etc. Thus, it's not uncommon to hear bursts of crowd noise, or obvious varispeed manipulation, or erratic, Mego-like digital mulching, or mechanical concrete loops. In the liner notes, each artist offers his thoughts and insights into the contexts of the recordings and all the gear that went into making the pieces.
MPEG Stream: PETR DOLAK "In The Shade of Jan Hus"

V/A lockERS (ERS) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Lost In The Humming Air (Music Inspired By Harold Budd) (Oktaf) cd 17.98
While we haven't had the the opportunity to list very many of his works, we have listed a few, and it should be obvious from those reverent reviews that some folks here at aQ are big, big fans of Harold Budd's special brand of ambient artistry. Just take a look at our write up of Budd's most recent opus, In The Mist: "Forget about the Pop Ambient series, and other modern dreamy music makers, when it comes to simply stunning, calming and beautiful sounds it just doesn't get better than Harold Budd." But of course, we ARE also huge fans of the Kompakt label's ongoing Pop Ambient compilation series (and by saying we, that probably includes you). So, that's why this new release (on a label distributed by Kompakt) is so perfect and makes for a great Record Of The Week, as it brings together a host of current electronic/ambient/lowercase artists, including AQ faves like Biosphere, Xela, and Deaf Center, all paying tribute to Budd. But, it really wouldn't matter at all if you've never heard any Harold Budd before, we'd recommend this as much as any Pop Ambient comp, and that's a big recommendation indeed. Lost In The Humming Air (that title referring perhaps to one of Budd's own inspirations, the telephone wires humming in the wind out in the Mojave Desert where he lived) has become our current go-to disc for our falling-to-sleep-music needs, and as always we mean that in a good way.
Budd, originally an avant garde academic composer back in the '60s who went on to ambient/new age glory in the '70s and beyond, collaborating with Brian Eno and others, certainly does have lots of devoted fans, who love his recordings of atmospheric, usually piano-based bliss... Many of those fans are musicians too, for whom the music of Budd is a touchstone, and who got the good idea of doing this disc, with profits being donated to Budd's favorite charity.
The thirteen recordings here aren't necessarily specific interpretations of Budd's own music, but are pieces inspired and informed (perhaps even moreso than usual for these artists) by Budd's aesthetic, making references to his work, from opening cut "Plateaux" by Deaf Center, with its drifting deep dark bass drones and exquisite, sparse piano... all the way through to the end of the disc, Brock Van Wey's collaboration with his mother, pianist, Criss Van Wey on the elegiac "My Father, My Friend". Along the way, there's plenty of glimmering drones and muted melodies, and even a gently pulsating "Harold Dubb" from Mokira.
Besides the names already mentioned, you'll find the following on here: Loscil, Martin Fuhs, Marsen Jules, Andrew Thomas, Christopher Willits, Taylor Deupree, Rafael Anton Irisarri, and Porn Sword Tobacco.
We won't try to describe this track-by-track, suffice to say that each artist present reveals their own appreciation of Budd's special sort of ambience, and all share a soft, shimmering, swelling magic, so the listener will indeed be Lost In The Humming Air the whole way through...
MPEG Stream: DEAF CENTER "Plateaux"
MPEG Stream: MARTIN FUHS "untitled.eleven"
MPEG Stream: MOKIRA "Harold Dubb"
MPEG Stream: RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI "Gloaming"

V/A Loud :: Quiet (BOXmedia) 2cd 17.98
2nd edition of a comp originally released in 1999, featuring 15 international noise/experimental artists doing one "loud" track and one "quiet" track apiece. Contributors include Otomo Yoshihide, Voice Crack, Kapotte Muziek, MSBR, TV Pow, Stillupsteypa, Kazumoto Endo, Shifts, Taku Sugimoto and Tetuzi Akiyama, Pita, Lasse Marhaug, and others. Interesting stuff, but the oversized envelope the discs come packaged in isn't too exciting (sez packaging snob, Allan).

V/A Love Comes Shining (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
Compilation from this always-excellent and invariably eclectic Norwegian label. Exclusive tracks by the previously-known and explictly AQ-approved Supersilent, Deathprod, Alog, Biosphere, Arne Nordheim, plus many others by a variety of (more) mysterious names. From electronic dronescapes to improv noisejazz...there's even experimental music by the guy from A-ha on here!

V/A Love, Peace & Poetry: American Psychedelic Music (Shadoks Music) cd 15.98
American version of the above. It's not nearly as immediately catchy as the Latin American comp, but nonetheless is a great way to sample the sounds of Damon, Darius, Hickory Wind, and the New Tweedy Bros.

V/A Lowercase (Bremsstrahlung Recordings) 2cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
'Lowercasesound' is a term that was spawned by LA sound artist Steve Roden to define the microsonic work of close listening network of artists like Bernhard Gunter, Richard Chartier, and himself. This compilation is a lengthy double cd documentation of ultra quiet sound investigations from Roel Meelkop, Artificial Memory Trace, *0, Pimmon, Taylor Deupree, Oren Ambarchi + Matthew Thomas, Kid 606, Ios Smolders, the aforementioned artists, and a whole lot more. Along with the set of 5" x 5" cards which were designed by all of the artists, there's also an EXTRA double cd set (of the same material) that is to be given to "another curious listener."

V/A Lowercase - Sound 2002 (Bremsstrahlung) 2cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The term 'lowercase' was coined a few years back by Steve Roden as a means of describing his music, reflecting a very quiet, contemplative compositional strategy that focused on the minutae of sound. Since then, a Yahoo newsgroup has taken shape as an unmoderated forum for discussion and announcement, concerning musics that emphasize the exploration of sound at low volumes. While there have been a number of semantic arguments in that newsgroup stating rigid parameters for what is 'lowercase' and what is not, this compilation offers an overview of two of the dominant forms within the 'lowercase' sound. Disc one deals with almost Fluxus like procedures that document physical gestures as a sonic form, and disc two holds the purely electronic manipulations of sound. On the first disc, highlights include works from Gal (with an excerpt from recordings of an installation of amplified teakettles and hotplates set on timers, in which the boiling water and the cooling metal becomes the action in question), Matt Shoemaker (with an evolving crackling of nervous textures, deep rumbling, and whirring drones for the most action packed recording on the 2 disc set), and Reynols (with an unreleased take from their great "Blank Tapes" sessions). Others include the Beige Channel, Tucker Dulin, Josh Russell, Bob L. Sturm, Dale Lloyd, Yannik Dauby, Electric Company, Joseph Seimion, Animist Orchestra, Radu Malfatti, Jason Lescalleet, David Gross, Under Quartet, and John Hudak.
Disc two with its focus on electronic composition features the more well known names although tends towards the subaudible end of the 'lowercase' sound. Artists include Francisco Lopez, Akira Rabelais, Stephan Mathieu, Otaku Yakuza, Rsundin, Immedia, Dan Abrams, Peter Van Hoesen, Michael Schumacher, Carl Stone, Tetsu Inoue, Taylor Deupree, Kim Cascone, Toshimaru Nakamura, Jonas Lingren, and Civyiu Kkliu. As with the first 'lowercase' compendium, this also comes with an extra set of discs thar are intended to be given to friends who may be curious as to what this incredibly quite music is all about. How thoughtful of them!

V/A Lurking In The Shadows (Black Horizons) cassette 9.98
Now this is a weird one. Not that we would expect anything less than totally twisted and whtthefuck from Smolken, he of Dead Raven Choir and Wolfmangler, both of whom offer up their very last tracks EVER, in the form of covers of tracks by eighties Swedish dance pop outfit Army Of Lovers. Told you! Weird. And somehow, Smolken recruited some other aQ faves to also try their hand at reinterpreting some AoL tracks: Gnaw Their Tongues, Persistence In Mourning, Josh Lay. A pretty serious lineup for sure, for something that at first blush seems as unserious as it gets, but all it takes is a few seconds of Dead Raven Choir's version of "Crucified" to convince us that maybe this is way more serious than we thought. A grinding, super distorted, lumbering sprawl of buzzing, shrieked black folk cacophony, that manages to retain enough of the original's poppiness to make it weirdly 'catchy', but that onslaught is countered by Josh Lay, whose version of "Requiem" is a gorgeously murky crawl, all muted pulsations, a sort of heroin-house vibe, slowed down voices and plenty of buzz and drone blurred into a swirling blackened morass, the vocals delivered in a demonic croak, twisted, but weirdly moody and mesmerizing. The side is finished off with Gnaw Their Tongues, who transform Army Of Lovers into an epic symphony of black buzz and gargled demonic vokills, of blasting beats and frantic black riffing, it's GTT at its most traditionally black metal, which is odd considering the circumstances, and the murky blasting buzz is laced with all manner of cool melodic flourishes and dense layered textures, although all that subtlety is ground into one massive heaving wall of frenzied black fury.
The B side begins with Persistence Of Mourning, who open up with a squalls of electronics and sci-fi buzz, and weird samples, eventually smothering that in a sprawling oozing black doom, thick glacial riffage, pounding Teutonic rhythms, the sounds all blurred and smeared into a woozy downtuned creep, haunting and heavy, and in its own abject way, darkly dreamy, and then finally, Wolfmangler finishes everything off with what is Wolfmangler's final track EVER, in which Army Of Lovers becomes a cello driven doom folk crawl, grinding low end tones, moaning mournful melodies, urgently whispered vocals, a haunting hellish chamber doom that slithers and groans, and unwinds woozily before finally fading to black.
INSANE packaging, the tape wrapped in a black rubber glove, the rubber wrapped tape bundled with a thick full color printed insert, all wrapped inside of a full color O-card, and then everything housed in a eye popping full color outer sleeve, almost like the limited cassette version of a Russian nesting doll! LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!!!

V/A Maan Matoset (Pohjoisten Kukkaisten Aanet) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For a mere $14.98, what could be better than a cd (in hand-assembled, colorful felt-tip art adorned sleeves) featuring fifteen tracks from such Finnish underground free-freak-folk luminaries as Kiila, Lau Nau, Kemialliset Ystavat, Paivansade, Avarus, Kuupuu, Pekko KŠppi, Islaja, and a host of others whom we've mostly never heard before (Hertta Lussu Assa, Sala-Arhimo,Taikuri Tali, Lauhkeat Lampaat, Keijo & Jussi Karsikas, Tomutonttu, and SewerPyysalos) but prove to be equally as wonderful as the ones already mentioned?? Well, how 'bout such a cd, with all those folks on it, and... a twig? Yep, Maan Matoset is referred to 'round these parts as "the Finnish twig comp" because it comes with an authentic twig, borrowed from some Finnish tree or bush, and built right into the packaging. We've already sold a lot of these in the store -- maybe the twig caught people's attention -- and listing it now we hardly need to give it a recommendation, 'cause we know AQ customers love all things Finnish, and twigs too. But it is indeed recommended, if you like haunting gentle sounds from the forest, including nature noises, female voices, electronics, bells, flutes, and myriad creaking things... The tracks range from abstract dronology to melodic, structured song singing, always hazy and mysterious in that imaginative, experimental, Finnish folk-psych fashion. A must have for fans of this scene and great introduction for those just tuning in!
By the way, should we start a section in the store for discs that come with twigs? Ok, so far there's only a few we can think of, mainly out of print cd-rs on the Jewelled Antler label, but then there was Romanian avant-black metal act Negura Bunget's deluxe digibook cd that came with a twig. Of course that's out of print too. So, I guess if you want a twig with a cd you've gotta get this. You won't be disappointed.
MPEG Stream: HERTTA LUSSU ASSA "Meri on maailman veri"
MPEG Stream: LAU NAU "Keinu taipuu alla"
MPEG Stream: KUUPUU "Aava"

V/A Magnetic Traces (Swarming / Metamkine) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This cultural exchange of sound artists from Australia and France was curated by sonic ecologist Eric La Casa and the electro-acoustic composer Philip Samartzis, having presented a series of performances and installations in both countries, exploring secret channels of communication through post-concrete composition and experimentation. The compilation as a whole is a fantastic listen, dynamic presentations of field recordings, found object manipulation, tuned instrumentation, and/or pure acousmatic works, with contributions from plenty of exceptional artists (e.g. Tarab, Cedric Peyronnet aka Toy Bizarre, Camilla Hannan, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Thomas Tilly, Thembi Soddell, etc.). From an overhead view, many of the tracks seamlessly blend together in the rustlings of damp earth and scrabbled soil juxtaposed with drones engineered out of environmental sources, cut with decontextualized snippets of language. It's hard not to see the connections of all of artists - both Australian and French - to the early '70s concrete pieces of psychologically agitated collages and concrete constructions. Throughout the compilation, there are some inevitable highlights. Tarab, as always, delivers a gem of a piece, overlaying rusted water drips upon a spatialization of huge objects being wrangled in a vacant architecture. Not surprisingly, these sodden sounds originated from the Estonian netherlands of post-Soviet crumble and toxic ruin. Cedric Peyronnet's aggressive drones spiral and collapse like the best minimalist pieces of Charlemagne Palestine or Jim O'Rourke. By contrast, Lizzie Pogson's layered atmosphere from harpischord is hauntingly beautiful. Philip Samartzis's composition of breath and aerated sound is at once creepy as hell and strangely seductive. One of the best things we've heard from him since his days in Gum! Camilla Hannan's insectoid miniatures extracted from the Amazon begins with delicate clicking of beetle shells and ant thoraxes and blossoms into a huge organic chorus that transitions nicely into Eric La Casa's buzzing swarm of processed bees. Like we said, an excellent listen through and through, showcasing the best and brightest coming out of the French and Australian sound communities these days.
MPEG Stream: TARAB "Vald"
MPEG Stream: CEDRIC PEYRONNET "kdi dctb 039"
MPEG Stream: PHILIP SAMARTZIS "Insect Woman"
MPEG Stream: CAMILLA HANNAN "Mamori Spectre"
MPEG Stream: ERIC LA CASA "Zone Sensible"

V/A Malpractice: A Fflint Central Primer (Birdman) cd 14.98
We've long been champions of the mighty mysterious Fflint central label and their beautifully bizarre droning electronic weirdness. And we've raved about every single one of their cd-r releases. So we were pretty excited when the kind folks at Birdman decided to collect the best bits from all those releases and compile them on a real cd to create the ultimate Fflint primer. Essential for those of you who have yet to discover the amazing sonic world that is Fflint Central; absolutely necessary for those of you who have worn your old Fflint cd-r's down to spinning plastic nubs; and don't think you Fflint obsessives are getting off easy, there are several exclusive tracks never before released that you of course need! We could go on and on and gush endlessly, but since our very own Andee wrote the liner notes, we might as well just let you read what he had to say:
What the fuck is Fflint anyway? A place? A label? A bunch of cheeky bastards who have, in the matter of a few short years, rendered all other UK electronica obsolete? Umm, a place?
In the world of popular music, world-changing things get old fast. With the advent of punk rock, it was a thrill realising that anyone could start a band, but that wore off -real- quick, once everybody did. And then, when the laptop replaced the guitar as the "instrument" anyone could buy and thus have their own" band", it wasn't long before we found ourselves at shows, watching nerds check their emails on stage while we sipped overpriced drinks and fantasized about slipping into the bar to play some Galaga. And then came the cd-r. Christ, you thought the tape was bad. At least with tapes you always had something laying around to dub the new Van Halen or Motley Crue record on. But cd-r's, c'mon. Fuck. Not only can you not tape over them, but even my mom has a limited cd-r release. (And it's not half bad!)
So when you discover some mysterious group, who are quietly releasing cd-r's filled with sounds that are beautiful and perplexing and dreamy and annoying and dark and mesmerising and fucked beyond all possible comprehension, you cling to them like you were a mama bear and these cd-r's were your newborn cubs. But at the same time you are constantly wondering why -- knowing that these sounds exist and are somewhat readily available -- anyone would knowingly choose to listen to the rest of the shit out there.
Well that's all about to change.
And I guess that brings us back to the big question. What the hell is Fflint anyway? Obviously it's music, after all you're holding their cd in your grubby little paws as we speak. But is it electronica? Noise? Dark ambience? Twentieth century? Twenty First Century? Who the hell knows? And honestly, who gives a shit.
This is sound, pure and not so simple. An endless series of unlikely musical events. Some soothing and serene, some droning and delirious, and some so harsh it hurts to even listen. But all of it, every single bit, is unlike anything you've ever heard. Or ever will hear again. It's not just music, but the sounds of music. And the music of sound, entering your ears from the inside, filling your wide open skull with malfunctioning maelstroms of stuttering, fuzzed out synth and hiccupping bursts of thundering glitchery colliding with sputtering clicks and oscillating low end rumbles, draped over chest rattling modulated pulses. Ultra harsh noise smeared over a strange man humming into a broken telephone, while an orchestra of detuned guitars tries desperately to compete in the background. Thousands of tiny hands unwrapping cellophane candies in a hyperbolic chamber, while little girls in tap shoes run laps around your eardrums. Epileptic bagpipes and faraway seal calls rub up against scratching and scraping woodblocks, timestretched into sinister growls or raw and ultra distorted high end melodies, while player pianos are reverbed to death until they become an ominous hum, like a swarm of mechanical wasps pinned down by loping, stumbling Autechre-ish loops and rhythmic workouts: all stuttering thumps and slow motion handclaps, like Timbaland being held down in your bathtub struggling for air. Mysterious and sing-songy Krautrock, jangly and noisy, rambling and shambolic, giving way to shimmery skree, melodies shifting and eventually splitting apart and forming new more abstract melodies, while chirping birds and guttural Orc-ish vocalisations convulse atop a bed of keening chimes and high end swells. Abstract IDM gets deconstructed into shards of jagged dance refuse, beats, shuffling and skittering beneath shifting chords and slabs of minor key sound. Rich sheets of dense sound, layers of sweet ambience, and the metallic hum of excited strings, eventually becoming clipped and static, a hypnotic looped rhythm over accordions, crowd sounds and more bird calls. Grinding scraping pulsing drones unfurl like a small village being over run by snakes made out of bowed cymbals and broken samplers. A dense, crushing melodic downpour, like laying prone in a pool of Rephlex 12"s while hundreds of 'electronica artists' piss on you from above. Hissing ambience created by a choir of tracheotomy patients with malfunctioning hearing aids spewing intercepted shortwave transmissions, interrupted by occasional gunfire; only the bullets are Masonna cassettes and Merzbow cd-r's. A skittery but smooth drone-dirge, like someone drugged Boards of Canada and then pushed them down the stairs, while outside the Fflint guys try desperately to start the getaway car.
Yes, but is it music? Can I dance to it? Will it make the opposite sex swoon and want to sleep with me? No, probably not. Actually, most definitely not. This is not like the music you're used to. This is not music you'll hear on the radio or download from iTunes or hear on a car commercial. This is not music to dance to, or fuck to, or headbang to. Or maybe it is. At least for some of us. But that's precisely what makes Fflint and their divine din so special. And so goddamn important. This is pure sound, sound outside of music. But music the way we wish all music could be: Pure and freed from all the constraints that keeps "popular music" so boring and pointless and well, popular.
This is unpopular music. We are unpopular people.
And we couldn't be happier.
MPEG Stream: THE GIDEON LEECHES "Burra Folly II"
MPEG Stream: COUSIN SILAS "Setting The Clinch"
MPEG Stream: CAVENDISH SANGUINE "Halzaphron"
MPEG Stream: BERKOWITZ LAKE & DAHMER "Occidental Bowl"

V/A Masonic. (Hymen Records) 2cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The "Masonic." compilation celebrates five years of operation for the Germanic tekno / noirish IDM label with a bunch of mostly unreleased tracks from m2 (aka Panacea), Funkstorung, Scorn, Lilienthal, Venetian Snares, Somatic Responses, Lusine ICL, Bochum Welt, Neutral, Dead Hollywood Stars, Beefcake, Immanent, Gridlock, Xingu Hill, Substanz-T, Starfish Pool, Noosa Hedz, and tons more. Pretty much acts as the missing link between contemporary IDM and Skinny Puppy's lineage throughout the '80s.
RealAudio clip: NEUTRAL "Blue Paper"
RealAudio clip: FUNKSTORUNG "Beinh"
RealAudio clip: TRIFFIC PROJECT "Psalm 66"

V/A Matter 10.2007 (Tape Of The Month) (self-released) cassette 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in September we got the first installment in what was meant to be a sort of tape of the month thing organized and recorded by two local guys, one who you all might know from his weirdo black metal band Amacoma (he also plays in Black Fiction and 3). It was a huge hit (we do have a few copies left if you missed it) and so they immediately got to work on the October installment. So we know what you're thinking, but it wasn't all our fault, just mostly. We got the October tape, right at the end of the month, but then stuff got crazy and we're only now getting around to reviewing it and it's December! But fuck it, just imagine that ten is a twelve and we'll be fine, it's just as cool and weird and varied as the first volume, with each dude taking a side of the tape, and this one like the first is essential for lovers of weirdo black metal as there's a brand new Amocoma track!
And it's a doozy, worth the price of admission alone. So buzzy and washed out, it's barely even black metal, it's more like some cavernous black ambient epic, the riffs more like throbbing pulses, the vocals hissy clouds of static, grim and fuzzed out, but because of the extreme blur and smear it's almost like black metal pop ambient. Here and there, the riffage does coalesce into extreme blackness, or splinters off into some spare clean guitar slither, but it always returns to the blossoming avalanche of black buzz.
There's a track by a band called Hash Hashish, that's a serious slab of gorgeous distorted dreampop, with some weird almost death metal vocals mixed in as well as some circusy keyboards and a dense wall of My Bloody Valentine blur. The 3 Leafs song is an awesome stretch of super spaced out druggy ambience, all whirling FX and disembodied voices, percussive thud and dark rumbling whir.
The flip side is packed with sonic weirdness, it's hard to differentiate which is which (ah, good old tapes!), but there are two tracks by Debre Damo, and two by Atom Eve, they all sort of blend into each other, but it's all awesome. Abstract electronic experimentation, bleeps and bloops, whirs and shimmers, very musiq concrete, woven into dense tripped out garagey space rock with thick guitars and pounding drums and of course lots and lots of FX. Weird alien guitar experiments are stretched out into crumbling glitchy ambience, it seems like maybe the names are just to keep it interesting as the whole side plays like a single piece.
As always, dying to hear more from all of these outfits, and keep listening to that Amocoma track over and over...

V/A Matter 9.2007 (Tape Of The Month) (self-released) cassette 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
First in a new series of monthly tape releases from two local guys, one who AQ customers might know from his weirdo black metal band Amocoma (as well as playing in Black Fiction and 3 Leafs among others) and the other, his partners in musical crime. For this inaugural tape, the two decided to each compile one side of the tape, offering their own take on the sounds they've been making, discovering, and digging.Ê
Side A begins with a blast and never lets up, the first bandÊBereavement delivers aÊsuper dense blast of thrashing black noise, drenched in reverb, a furious chaos, a whirling dervish of sound, with strange little interludes that are just as quickly swallowed up again. Black Fiction deliver some damaged tribalism, all simple drumming, reverbed chanting, jagged shardsÊ of upper register guitar, streaks of feedback, some creepy ritualistic ambience for sure. Then there's an unreleased track from Amocoma, a glorious muddy murky soundscape of black buzz and blown out drone (anyone who missed out on the full length should buy it NOW)... the side continues on, leaning toward the chaotic and heavy, another track from Bereavement, as well as more Black Fiction and tons of other cool stuff.Ê
The B side begins with two tracks from the awesomely monickered Death Cheetah, who traffic in a weird sort of lo-fi, Hella meets Justice, synth and drums ramjam, funky and chaotic, heavy and weird as all get out. The cool thing about this tape (or frustrating thing depending on your angle), is that it's sort of difficult to tell where one song ends and another begins, they're all sort of tangled up, blending into one another, some groups sound similar, so their tracks almost sound like two parts of the same track. The B side continues with a bunch of songs from Atom Eve (we think), who sound like some crossbreeding experiment between Finnish folk and NY free noise a la NNCK or SHOTM, fluttering flutes, tribal drumming, simple guitar riffing, looped and circular... and this side continues on, more from Death Cheetah, some spaced out ambient glitchiness (Man In San Diego?) and a bunch more Atom Eve.
A killer glimpse into the mad musical minds of these mystery men, a nice sampling of some SF underground sounds, and a brand new Amocoma track to top it all off! Can't wait to hear what October's installment has in store...

V/A May 6, 2001 (And/OAR) cd 13.98

V/A Meme 001 (Meme) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Minimalist packaging for minimalist music. A stark white cover exercises its visual austerity while the delicate pulsings of CM Von Hausswolff, Stillupstyepa, Ryoji Ikeda, and Rehberg & Bauer (Mego) stand next to the melancholic Fahey strum of Jim O'Rourke and Loren Mazzacane Connors. This is the first release from this label and a very interesting one at that!

V/A Merzbow - Frog - Remixed And Revisited (Misanthropic Agenda) 2cd 14.98
Ok, I know what you're thinking. A remix record?!?! A Merzbow remix record fer chrissakes?!?!? But c'mon, look at who's on this, it reads like an Aquarius who's who: Boris, When, Ulver, Fennesz, Sunn 0))), Hrvatski, Pita, House Of Low Culture and more! And they are remixing one of the best Merzbow records of recent memory, Frog. Surprisingly, all of the "remixes" are pretty cool, but the best results come from folks taking Merzbow's 'noise' in a decidedly more drony, dreamy, minimal direction, as opposed to making -his- noise sound more like -their- noise. Sunn 0))) offer up a gorgeously gritty, minimal rumble-scape, warm and languorous, with far-away guitars and slowly building static that threatens to, and eventually does, disrupt the murky ambience. Ulver minimalise as well, creating a grinding, lethargic rhythm from static, and slight blips of Merz-noise, all under a creepy, horror movie landscape of, ghostly theremin-like wails and warbly minor key melodies. And When take the noise, turn it way down until it's just soothing static, add distant carnival music, chirping cricket like sounds, a heartbeat like pulse, with occasional monster sounds (or maybe croaking frogs, but slowed down they sound like monsters!), rumbling, groaning and creaking ominously as proceedings build in intensity. But it's the Boris track that really makes this all worth while. An epic 20 minute dirge, with glacial guitars throbbing and moaning, creating a doleful, funereal threnody that sounds like Earth or Sunn 0))) buried under waves of shortwave static. The slow motion riffs stretch waaaay out, wailing mournfully almost like whale calls. So beautiful and haunting. Not bad for a remix record! Packaged in a gorgeous psychedelic fold out sleeve.
MPEG Stream: BORIS "Froggie Bee Baa"
MPEG Stream: ULVER "Denki No Numa (Frog Voice Mix)"
MPEG Stream: WHEN "Dark Side Of The Pink Frog"

V/A Minima-List (List) cd 14.98
The "Minima-List" compilation of contemporary electronic minimalism could have easily fallen into the banalities of so many of the microsound compilations. Fortunately, the new French label List had enough sense to put together a collection that celebrates the diversity and experimentality of minimalism and not its homogeneity or hero worshipping propensities. While Komet, and Taylor Deupree are the 'big names' on this compilation, neither of their tracks reverse the aesthetic downward spirals indicative of their most recent work. Otomo Yoshihide appears with 8 minutes of brutally caustic sinewave manipulation, and Alan Licht adds a surprisingly nice track of delicate tremolo guitar tones. *0 and Richard Chartier offer only the extremes of the sonic spectrum for some tracks that near complete inaudibility. But it is the unknown factors that make this compilation so nice, with Matthieu Saladin providing sustained notes on an oboe (or some sort of reed) transformed into a statospheric eerie drone with a thick haze of tinny distortion, Sol smearing layers of whirring tone fuzz into an uncomfortable drone track, and Speakering and Fabriquedecouleurs both transforming guitar distortion that has been digitally fragmented into gritty bits 'n' bytes. It's a promising start for this label, hopefully they won't blow it down the line by trying to sound like every other microsound label.
RealAudio clip: FABRIQUEDECOULEURS "Ninjiski"
RealAudio clip: ALAN LICHT "Retrograde"

V/A Ministry of Shit (Spasticated) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Just what the world needs right? ANOTHER electronica compilation. Well, you might actually need just one more. A few household names Knifehandchop, Wobbly, Kevin Blechdom but mostly unknowns (at least to us) this is a wild and wooly, fun and funky, mashed up pisstake of all things MTV and top 40 radio. The sound is glitched out, punishing, big beat, dancehall, drill and bass madness, but the songs are all (barely) recognizable chunks of hits you know and love (or hate). And as much as maybe I wasn't prepared to, I ended up digging this a lot. And listening to it all the time. A sped up/chopped up version of that Eminem song from Eight Mile, Old Dirty Bastard and Mya's Ghetto Superstar with a DHR dancehall makeover, Madonna's James Bond theme run through the sonic shredder and tons more. Pretty fucking great!
MPEG Stream: DSP WANKER "Lost In Glottal Stops"
MPEG Stream: KNIFEHANDCHOP AND KEVIN BLECHDOM "Superstars"

V/A Molten Strings, Train Wrecks, And Birdsong (Students Of Decay) cd 12.98
Not sure we could've come up with a better comp if we had organized it ourselves. A tribute to the buzzing steel string, featuring a who's who of AQ faves: Birchville Cat Motel, Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood, Peter Wright, C. Spencer Yeh, The North Sea, Robert Horton and more.
Each band approaches the steel string in their own unique way, so much so that instead of bands creating music to go with the theme, bands who just inherently embody the theme were specifically chosen. Either way, this is a dandy little sampler of the current crop of string slinging free sound explorers. Creaking abstract reverb drenched soundscapes, peppered with metallic buzz, thick washes of downtuned distortion swirled into near static drones, dizzying assemblages of detuned guitars, random clatter and fluttering Renn Faire flutes, minimal industrial crunch and glitch, buzzing droning solo violin skree, deep cavernous washes of warm melodic sound, slippery slide guitars nestled in abstract smears of keening high end whir, simple near-traditional Appalachian guitar strum, murky fuzzed out blurry drifts of gristly reverberations, and some ear piercing high end sine wave screech, all in some way born of the steel string. Very nice!
MPEG Stream: BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "Twin Copper Hydra"
MPEG Stream: BROTHERS OF THE OCCULT SISTERHOOD "Seraphim"
MPEG Stream: PETER WRIGHT "Paralytic Sonata Pt. 1"

V/A Money Will Ruin Everything (Rune Grammofon) book + 2cd 45.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, right up front, be warned. We only got twenty of these and we were already told by our distributor that we will NOT be able to get more. Pity too, because this is an amazing compilation, gorgeous looking AND sounding. This definitive document of Norwegian improv/electronica/ambient/jazz/whatever label Rune Grammofon, a full sized, full color hardcover book / double cd compilation is the sort-of-sequel to the Love Comes Shining compliation from a few years back, and celebrates 5 years and thirty releases. The book, designed by Kim Hiorthoy, includes an interview with RG bossman Rune Kristofferson, essays from Rob Young of the Wire magazine and designer Adrian Shaugnessy, and features tons of album covers, sketches for covers, photos, and design elements that will no doubt be quite familiar to fans of the labels uniquely minimal aesthetic. It's all a little self congratulatory but what the hell, it's their party! The cds contain exclusive tracks from Supersilent, Biosphere, Alog, Food, Deathprod, Jaga Jazzist, Arve Henriksen, Kim Hiorthoy, Nils Okland, Phonophani, Archetti/Wiget, Lasse Marhaug, Information, Martin Horntveth, Fe-mail, Svalastog, Skyphone, Andre Borgen, Isak Anderssen, Stronen/Storlokken, Oivind Idso, Andreas Meland and Susanna and the Magical Orchestra as well as previously released tracks from SPUNK, Maja Ratkje, Tove Nilsen, Scorch Trio, Arne Nordheim, Jono el Grande and Monolight. Really good stuff. So act fast!
MPEG Stream: SUPERSILENT "C-5.1"
MPEG Stream: BIOSPHERE "Colpa Mia"
MPEG Stream: ALOG "St Paul Sessions II"

V/A More Arctic Hysteria / Son Of Arctic Hysteria - The Later Years Of Early Finnish Avant-Garde (Love Records) cd 25.00
We've said it before, but let's say it again. WE LOVE FINLAND. We know you do too. That's why we get along so well. C'mon, Circle, Pharoah Overlord, Avarus, Anaksimadros, Paavaharju, Islaja, Kemialliset Ystavat, Aavikko, Doktor Kettu, Ektroverde, Es, Lau Nau, Kuupuu, Keuhkot, Kiila, Tiermes, Worms, Magyar Posse Pan Sonic, Uton, Thergothon, Skepticism, Finntroll, heck we could go on and on an on. And that's just the music. All the Finnish folks we know are amazing, the art and the films, the places, and don't get Andee started on Finnish pizza (the best thing I have ever eaten says Andee!!). So okay, we've established that we're all a little mad for things Finnish, especially music. Which goes a little toward explaining why we all dug the Arktinen Hysteria compilation of early experimental Finnish music from the 60's and 70's (now back in print and available again, by the way!). A perfect collection to help understand where the modern crop of Finnish experimental musicians were coming from. So maybe it was inevitable that there would be a second volume, this time covering the seventies, eighties and early nineties, and drawing an even more direct line between the above mentioned bands and their sonic forefathers. A glance at the cover, a photo of the group Reinin Myrkky (featuring a young Jimi Tenor) nude, heavily made up and all sporting tubas, is pretty much all it takes to convince you you're in for a wild ride.
The tracks on this second volume are a bit more musical and a lot less primitive than the first volume, but no less strange and wonderful. From Pekka Streng's haunting psychedelic spoken word soundscapes to the Sun City Girlish avant garde folk of Karelia, to the skronky abstract jazz of the Samsa Trio, to the droning free jazz freakout of the Omar Williams Experience (sounding not a little bit like the No Neck Blues Band) to the award winning electronic experimentation of Osmo Lindeman and on and on. None of these names were at all familiar to us (outside of Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio, and Jimi Tenor, who before making it big with his cheesy easy listening music fronted a noisy industrial outfit!) but the sounds are amazing and perplexing and you can definitely hear glimpses here and there of what the musical future held for Finland, swooping analog synths, ominous space drones, full on analog synth freakout, Beefheartian jazz rock, rumbling droning free jazz skree, bizarre cabaret, pusling lo-fi proto-techno, haunting abstract ambience, Schwitters style vocalizations, gritty gauzy plunderphonic cut-ups and more!
Includes a huge booklet with tons of photos, extensive liner notes as well as notes on each track, all in English this time!
MPEG Stream: PEKKA STRENG "Olen Vasynyt"
MPEG Stream: KARELIA "Kahella Sarvella"
MPEG Stream: SAMSA TRIO "Kiven Poiminta"
MPEG Stream: OMAR WILLIAMS EXPERIENCE "Democracy"
MPEG Stream: OSMO LINDEMAN "Ritual"

V/A Motorlab #1 (Kitchen Motors / Bad Taste) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In 2000, the Icelandic arts collective Kitchen Motors began organizing a series of monthly events which featured commissioned collaborations between artists from differing backgrounds. The first production is dominated by the presence of two of Iceland's most prolific experimental / electronic outfits Stilluppsteypa (who originate from Iceland but now live in the Netherlands) and the Hafler Trio (whose sole member Andrew McKenzie has left his homeland of England for the odd Atlantic island). Stillupsteypa opens the album with a collaboration with Fluxus artist Magnus Palsson, whose monologue on banking, spiritualism, and alcohol runs amok through the Stilluppsteypa trio of powerbook digital crunch. Stillupsteypa have always had a far more bizarre and interesting take on digital errata than most of their contemporaries, and their sonic disruptions are more than welcome in comparison to the utopian purity found in the 12K / Raster ilk. Hilmar Jensson, Ulfar Haraldsson, Johann Johannsson, and the Caput Ensemble collaborated on an interesting idea of harnessing the microcurrents of the wind within a controlled improvisation for processed guitar, string ensemble, and electronics... sounding like a droning cross between Morton Feldman and Hermann Nitsch, if such a thing were possible. Hispirslausi Sextettinn offers a crawling piece of pipe fighting, and Andrew McKenzie, Curver, and the aforementioned Johannsson recreate Alvin Lucier's "I Am Sitting Alone In A Room" but with cel phones, shortwave, and datacrunching laptops to generate a cybernetically inhanced resonant frequency of a given room.
Altogether a conceptually rich compilation that has been executed to near perfection. Hopefully the first of many interesting things to come!
RealAudio clip: STILLUPPSTEYPA & MAGNUS PALSSON "Kort Kort Kredit"
RealAudio clip: CAPUT ENSEMBLE, ET AL. "Veltipunktur"
RealAudio clip: ANDREW MCKENZIE, ET. AL. "Telefonia"

V/A Motorlab #2 (Kitchen Motors / Bad Taste) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The second installment from Kitchen Motor's series of cross-platform Icelandic collaborations takes a much more lively route than the previous collection of conceptual drone work featuring Stilluppsteypa and The Halfer Trio. The first collaborative effort is between Reykjavik's electronica darlings Mum and playwright Sjon. The script (all in Icelandic) is a monodrama about a housewife who longs for the intellectual prowess of an academic woman she sees on a tv chat show. Having forgotten all that she learned in school, she has to start from the beginning. If we understood Icelandic, we might offer more insight... yet it sounds promising to those who know the language. However, the Mum score is worthwhile, with more of their melancholic electronica following the Morr / Boards of Canada path, but with much more emphasis upon the richness of non-digital instrumentation (strings, xylophone, wurlitzer, moog, etc.). The Apparat Organ Quartet and TF3IRA offer the best work on this compilation, with the self-evident Quartet accompanying another quartet of shortwave radio enthusiasts. Thus, the latter pulled various hetreodynes, morse code transmissions, and random vocal elements from the airwave, while the organists (with one drummer) performed theatrical yet simple Morriconesque melodic passages. Altogether not dissimilar to a rough Sigur Ros (and thankfully without those horrible vocals). Allan's pick is, of course, the Big Band Brutal soundtracks for Huglekur Dagsson's splatter cartoons. Nicely counterpointing the Apparat Organ Quartet's keyboard sound, the Big Band Brutal's organs are heavy, caustic and sound as if they could be the Mr. Quintron score to a Tim Burton phantasmagoria. Altogether a great compilation!
RealAudio clip: MUM & SJON "She Introduces Herself"
RealAudio clip: APPARAT ORGAN QUARTET & TF3IRA "Ondula Nova"
RealAudio clip: BIG BAND BRUTAL "The Hamburger That I Ordered"

V/A Mottomo Otomo (Trost) cd 17.98
The Music Unlimited festival is a 3-day Austrian event focusing on all aspects of modern experimental music, from jazz to rock to classical. Since 1991, the festival's performers have been selected by different artists. In the past, Fred Frith, Zeena Parkins and Jon Rose have organised the festival. In 1999, Otomo Yoshihde (of Ground Zero) was the events programmer and he selected a remarkable selection of modern experimental music: Radian, the Incapacitants, Kaffe Matthews, Martin Tetreault, Novo Tono, Keith Rowe, Sugimoto Taku, Poire-Z, Hoahio and of course Otomo himself.
RealAudio clip: OTOMO YOSHIHIDE ""
RealAudio clip: RADIAN ""
RealAudio clip: TETREAULT-LABROSSE ""

V/A Musics In The Margins (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98

V/A Musiques Electroniques En France: 1974-1984 (Gazul) cd 14.98
When you think weird '70s spacey synthesizer music, you might usually think of Germany and all the kosmic krautrockers over there. But as we've learned, France had their fair share of analog synth-psych pioneers too, experimenting with Moogs and ARPs and other machines... from academic electronics to proggy astral travel to noisier new wavey proto-industrial, this comp covers some fantastic stuff.
We got this in when we got the Pierre Bastien 1968-1988 collection we highlighted last time, it's on the same French prog label, Gazul. But we had to wait and order more of these before reviewing it, 'cause the copies we got the first time flew out of here without us even putting it on our list. We guess customers in the store just saw the cover and were taken in by the b&w image of a vintage EMS Synthi AKS, and a few words in French. But maybe it's not just the evocative graphics that got 'em, it's the lineup on this comp: Richard Pinhas/Heldon, Gilbert Artman/Lard Free, Verto, Camizole, Video-Adventures, and Pascale Comlade (collaborating with Victor Nubla and David Cunningham). Here's the deal: if you know those names, you probably already want this compilation. If you don't know 'em, and we'll admit we weren't familiar with a few, that's all the more reason to get this. 9 tracks, 70 minutes, much of it never-before-released material exclusive to this comp. However, the Pinhas, Heldon and Lard Free tracks we know are from albums that some folks might already have, all are amazing, though, and well worth hearing again in this context... Meanwhile, we'd never encountered the likes of Verto before, ferinstance. And their 15+ minute cut has to be one of this disc's highlights, an epic for Fender Stratocaster guitar and electronics ("Modules RSF"), that sounds something like a cross between Fripp & Eno and SUNNO)))... Fairly heavy stuff for '76, when it was recorded! There's lots of other treats here, from Pinhas's masterful minimalist Moog pulsations on "Variations VII" to the drifting droning synthscapes of Camizole's "Electronic Alarm" to the dense, dubby rhythmic swirl of Lard Free's supremely tripped out 17+ minute "Spiral Malax", the disc's most out-rock selection. Video-Adventures provides the more playful gurgling and burbling, blipping and bleeping sci-fi noises, while Comelade and Cunningham's collaborative 15:07 of blissful waves of grinding hypnosis seems a lot more serious... And there's more, all of it excellent.
The liner notes are all in French, unfortunately. But there is a selected discography that's not to hard to decipher, and photos of both musicians and their machines... Quite recommended!
MPEG Stream: CAMIZOLE "Electronic Alarm"
MPEG Stream: VERTO "Alice"
MPEG Stream: LARD FREE "Spriale Malax"

V/A My Malady (Mental Monkey) cd 12.98
Managed to get a few more of these back in!
Compilations are all about the concept. Come up with a good concept, and a good compilation is sure to follow. So how can you go wrong with a bunch of noisy bands, rock and otherwise, penning odes to their favorite sicknesses?! You can't. And if you make sure the list of contributors includes lots of AQ favorites, like Bomb 20, the Bran Flakes, the Evolution Control Committee, V/VM, and Deerhoof and maybe throw in some tUMULt bands like Burmese, Iran, 7000 Dying Rats and Berkowitz Lake And Dahmer and you've got it made. Songs about Gonorrhea, Gingivitis, Tinnitus, Priapism, Arthritis, Rickets, Gangrene, Alzheimers and more with sounds ranging from full on noise attacks, to silly cut up collages, to crushing ultrathick drones, to digital glitch-crunch, to dreamy lullabies. Sickness has never sounded so good.
MPEG Stream: DEERHOOF "Weak In The Knees"
MPEG Stream: IRAN "A Little Girl In A Car"
MPEG Stream: BERKOWITZ LAKE AND DAHMER "Gangrene"

V/A My Own Wolf: A New Approach To Ulver (Cold Dimensions) 2cd 22.00
We've given tribute albums a bit of stick in the past. After all, the things seem to be a dime a dozen, sometimes the result of genuine fannish enthusiasm but often just a commercially-motivated exploitative exercise. Yet, it's still hard not to be tempted by the concept, as long as the former rather than the latter motivation is in force. (In fact, our own Andee has plans for a tribute album of sorts on his tUMULt label: I'm Sorry And I Miss You, a black metal reimagining of Slint's Spiderland! So we can't bag on 'em all.) Hard to argue with a bunch of your favorite bands doing songs by another favorite, really. And those are obvious rules of what makes a good tribute: a worthy honoree (who has SONGS, not just a "sound"), and a roster of participants from whom you also want to hear. One good example, on this very list we highlight a highly enjoyable tribute to Syd Barrett that certainly obeyed all those rules.
The black metal realm has spawned a few tributes, the most worthwhile we can think of being the brilliant (and out of print) Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone. It certainly met those two basic tests of what would make a good tribute, featuring bands equally as famous and influential as Darkthrone themselves (which also made it that much more significant of a tribute, to see the likes of Emperor and Immortal bowing down to Darkthrone).
Likewise, in this case, Ulver is certainly a worthy subject. Early on, they were a true Norwegian black metal force to be reckoned with, whether in their acoustic folk mode or when doing their own tribute of sorts to Darkthrone, the brilliant Nattens Madrigal. Later, they morphed in many surprising ways, pretty much leaving the confines of black metal entirely but still somehow staying Ulver. In fact, if you put together an anthology of Ulver's "greatest hits" it would sound a bit like a various artists album itself, since their career has been so stylistically diverse, from grim black metal to experimental electronica... In some ways, it's cool to have this tribute just to provide a perspective on the wide range of Ulver's output. 'Cause one byproduct of a good tribute is to get you to go back and listen to the originals, maybe even giving some attention to songs you had previously overlooked. That said, we're also pleased to see that a chunk of the bands appearing on My Own Wolf chose to cover stuff from Nattens Madrigal...
The next question is, are the bands appearing here worthy? Well, we'll admit we haven't heard of rather many of them. It is a double cd, though, with a ton of tracks. And the ones we know, like Aidan Baker (Nadja) are all pretty interesting, kinda avant-garde metal bands that probably all really do look up to Ulver. Some play industrial-metal, others acoustic folk, everything in between and beyond, from trip-hop to psychedelia to dooooooooom, each finding at least one if not several aspects of Ulver's multifaceted career to worship, really. There's songs here from probably every Ulver release ever, including their demos! And these bands are from all over the place, a lot from Russia and France in particular, but also from Finland, Ukraine, Australia, Israel, Germany, Latvia, USA, Canada, Italy, Norway, Portugal, and Brazil!
Here's the lineup: Unfurl, Avathar, Mura Hachigu feat. Nokturnes, Smohalla, Asmodee, Selvmord, Sael, Otzephenevshiye, Wardaemonic, FB[Force], Karna, Fluoryne, Year Zero, Sinestesia, Pryapisme, Joey Hopkins Midget Factory, Aidan Baker, Panacea Enterpainment, project:a, Catapulus, Jaaportit, Wheel Of Knowledge, Zweizz, Bosque, Noises of Russia, and Ashtar.
While there's already one "official" tribute to Ulver of sorts (the remixes disc 1st Decade In The Machines) this one is perhaps more honest in its tributor-to-tributee relationships, i.e., no hipster cred required. It's certainly more "metal" but plenty of other things besides. Obviously, compared to some tributes, the lineup on My Own Wolf is drawn from far deeper underground. No A-list black metal acts here like on that Darkthrone tribute. But you have to imagine that any band interested in doing an Ulver cover is at the very least not an "ordinary" band. And, indeed, some of 'em here are pretty interesting, and we wouldn't have heard about 'em otherwise. You gotta hand it to Ulver: who else could inspire tribute from such a diverse selection of bands/genres?
MPEG Stream: MURA HACHIGU FEAT. NOKTURNES "Blinded By Blood"
MPEG Stream: OTZEPHENEVSHIYE "Wolf And Destiny (Forest Fire Version)"

V/A Myopic Bookstore Improvised Music Workshop Vol. 1 (BOXmedia) cd 14.98
Starring (in various combinations) Jim O'Rourke (of course), Kevin Drumm, Weasel Walters, Brent Gutzeit, Michael Colligan, Liz Payne, Josh Abrams, Ernst K. Long, Adam Vida, Matt Weston, Carrie Biolo, Todd Carter, Doug Lussenhop, Dave Stone, Ben Vida, Steve Butters, Terri Kapsalis, Robbie Hunsinger, Todd Rittman, Robert J. Wilkus, Diane Lena, Jeb Bishop, Jim baker, and Chad Taylor.

V/A Nanoloop 1.0 (Disco Bruit) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A collection of tracks produced utilizing Nanoloop, a realtime synthesizer and sequencer for the Nintendo Game Boy developed by Oliver Wittchow at HfbK in Hamburg. Given the limited capabilities inherent in a 4-bit sound chip found on portable game modules, the results are quite impressive and undoubtedly fun (some even downright unbearable given the microtonal capabilities). Many artists in the past have used midi-rigged Game Boys as synthesizers in composition, these are among the first to use the newly developed sound editing cartridge. Artists involved include creator Oliver Wittchow himself, Keith Fullerton Whitman as Hrvatski *and* ASCIII, Merzbow, Agf/Dlay (Vladislav Delay & Antye Greie Fuchs), Stock Hausen & Walkman, Blectum From Blechdom, Pita, Felix Kubin, Dat Politics, Scratch Pet Land, Pyrolator (ex Der Plan!), Ostinato and Bruno & Michel Are Smiling! On the wonderfully cool Hamburg-based Disco Bruit label.
RealAudio clip: ASCIII "401K"
RealAudio clip: BLECTUM FROM BLECHDOM "Burbanked"
RealAudio clip: STOCK, HAUSEN & WALKMAN "Pillion Passenger"

V/A Nart Nibbles (Kitchen Motors / OMI ) 2cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Icelandic art / music organization Kitchen Motors presents their third compilation of recordings from their series of monthly events. Apparat Organ Quartet opens the compilation with a faux-'70s horror music score much like the mellower, incidental music of Italian creepsters Goblin. The Big Band Brutal (favorites from the earlier Kitchen Motors compilation Motorlab #2) contradicts the implications of their name with an eerie composition for sonar bleeps and isolationist e-bowed guitar. Hilmar Jensson (a much acclaimed, but little heard multi-instrumentalist) teams up with Petur Halldrumsson for a jazzed-out, wacky take on Silver Apples style psychedelic electronic squiggles and driving drums music.
Disc two opens with "Helvitis Symphony no. 1 for 13 electric guitars" -- kind of like an Icelandic version of a Glenn Branca symphony, based around the basic tonality of the guitar's E chord. Instead of this small army chugging away at a E-chord (like Branca does), this ensemble featuring Jon Por Birgisson (the cello-bowin' guitarist from Sigur Ros), the aforementioned Hilmar Jensson and 11 other Icelandic guitarists, gradually introduces each guitar beginning at first with lilting drones that intensify into simple melodies and dramatic crescendos. As you probably know, we're not big fans of Sigur Ros, BUT if Sigur Ros were an instrumental outfit, then perhaps they would sound like this and we'd probably love 'em. Jensson returns for the compilation's finale, in collaboration with electronica outfits Biogen and Plastik, for a fresh take on the Raster-Noton style of digital click and sine-wave hum, with nicely done Biosphere-like digital ambience.
Another great compilation of adventurous music from the finest that Iceland has to offer!
RealAudio clip: BIRGISSON, JENSSON, HALLGRIMSSON, ETC. "Helvitis Symphony no. 1 for 13 Electric Guitars"
RealAudio clip: PETUR JENSSONHALLGR AND HILMAR JENSSON "Soren Kirkegaard dropateljari"
RealAudio clip: APPARAT ORGAN QUARTET "Nafnlaust uppklapp"

V/A Naturalism (Nature Tape Limb) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
All you Jewelled Antler / Celebrate Psi Phenomenon / Pseudo Arcana / obscure cd-r nerds get ready. Got a new compilation from a new label, and featuring some new sonic architects (as well as a few familiar ones). The label is called Nature Tape Limb and the compilation is called Naturalism, and will most likely hit the spot for all you folks into found-sound-outsider-folk-noise-ambience or whatever. Rumbles and creaks, drones and shimmers, jangly guitars, off kilter melodies and warbling woodwinds, fuzzy walls of buzz, random snippets of conversations and bits of sonic detritus from the great outdoors. Neil Campbell from Vibracathedral Orchestra contributes a track as well as CJA (featuring AQ pal Antony Milton). The rest of the folks on here are new to us: The Nether Dawn,The Wooden Cupboard, The Skaters, The Candle Magicians, Calf, Gnome Eaters and more. The names alone should give you a clue as to where this dark and twisted path leads. Fans of the above as well as folks into Sunroof!, the Dead C and all that business would do well to throw on the headphones, lay in a pile of leaves and let these weird and wonderful sounds keep you warm there on the forest floor. In VERY handmade /collage sleeves.
MPEG Stream: THE WOODEN CUPBOARD "Cabin In The Sky"
MPEG Stream: NEIL CAMPBELL / ROBERT HAYLER "Live Excerpt Summer 2002"

V/A Need For A Crossing: A New New Zealand Vol.1 (Xeric) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
New Zealand's not a big country, but it sure produces its share of amazing experimental drone and indie rock musics, don't it?! The underground scene there, as documented of late by such prolific cd-r labels as Celebrate Psi Phenomenon and PseudoArcana, has been booming for years. If you've been having trouble keeping up, or never tried but would like to delve a bit now into the murky sounds of NZ, then this compilation is pretty much essential. Not a comprehensive primer (impossible on just one disc, anyway) but one that will definitely interest the uninitiated -- as well as be needed by even those who've already got stacks of NZ cd-rs at home, as all ten tracks here, from the likes of Birchville Cat Motel and Peter Wright and other crucial names in the NZ underground, are exclusives to this disc as far as we can tell! If you're new to the "new New Zealand" then this would be an excellent starting point for exploration of the varieties of home-recorded yearning, droning, gritty and beautiful musics coming from that far off, Middle Earth a-like land... On here, you'll find everything from the heavy, almost-doom grind of Campbell Kneale's Birchville Cat Motel to the 3-guitars-at-once avant-folk of Greg Malcolm (who has two tracks here, one a stately ceremonial drone raga, the other a cover of John Coltrane's "Naima"). Presented with artist info in a nicely appointed, thick cd booklet, illustrated with old photos of empty New Zealand roads, printed in silvery and black ink on glossy white paper, this cd was put together by the Xeric sub-label of Table Of The Elements with the assistance of New Zealand natives Stefan Neville and Antony Milton, both of whom appear here of course. Really well done and recommended. We're looking forward to further volumes!
MPEG Stream: BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "Skies Crimson Tears"
MPEG Stream: GREG MALCOLM "Unknown Rembetika"
MPEG Stream: PUMICE "Stars"

V/A Neu Konservativ (God Mountain/DSA) cd 16.98
Tokyo-based label God Mountain put out this compilation a year or two back, and now it's the first release on the more reasonably-priced "God Mountain Europe" imprint. Intense, insane instrumental prowess, strange prog/jazz concepts, beyond "out" rock dementia. A great intro to the God Mountain scene, which takes all that downtown NYC stuff and, like, cubes it. Also available on GMEurope, Ground Zero's self-titled (like a less calculated Naked City, and both Zorn and Eye guest) and Optical*8's "Bug" (comparable only maybe to the first Praxis album) for the same reasonable price.

V/A New Forms (Raster-Noton) 2cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Contemporary Electronic Music in the Context of Art" with Disinformation, Scanner, Thomas Brinkmann, Richie Hawtin, Kim Cascone, Goem, Ryoji Ikeda + Noto, Byetone, Pan Sonic, Signal, Coh, Pomassl, Marc Behrens, Francisco Lopez, General Magic, and a few others. In a cool, but ridiculously cumbersome folding package with the cd nipples attatched perilously to the paper.

V/A New York Noise 2 (Soul Jazz) cd 21.00
When Soul Jazz released the comp "New York Noise" a few years back it was not only an amazing collection of lost gems from NY circa '78-'82, it was also the perfect document showcasing the blueprints of sounds that were beginning to be echoed again all over the globe. Dance-Punk, electro-clash, no wave, dub infused funk..all sounds that were blossomed in the heyday of the NY Underground music scene, now were being mimicked everywhere you looked. With Volume 2 we weren't sure if they would be able to put together as cohesive and overall exciting package as they did with the first one, but low and behold they have. It starts off with pt.2 of "Ungawa" by the rhythmically chaotic all female outfit Pulsallama. Along the way we got hit so nice and hard by Rhys Chatham, the person who basically channeled his studies of minimalism with LaMonte Young into blissed out and blistering no wave. Y Pants demonstrate their everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to pre-riot grrrl glory. Red Transistor show off no-wave at its rough and tumbling best. Glorious Strangers provide the best funk/dub leaning track on the record with instrumentation that you could mistake for a new Tussle single. Jill Kroesen melds pop and skronk like they've always meant to be together. Sonic Youth reminds us of their glory days (and makes us feel old). Damn, this is making us wish we were back in NYC during this era...such vibrant and distinct energy!
MPEG Stream: PULSALLAMA "Ungawa Pt.2 (Pulsallama)"
MPEG Stream: RHYS CHATHAM "Drastic Classicism (Rhys Chatham)"
MPEG Stream: Y PANTS "Favorite Sweater (Y Pants)"

V/A New York Noise 2 (Soul Jazz) 2lp 24.00
When Soul Jazz released the comp "New York Noise" a few years back it was not only an amazing collection of lost gems from NY circa '78-'82, it was also the perfect document showcasing the blueprints of sounds that were beginning to be echoed again all over the globe. Dance-Punk, electro-clash, no wave, dub infused funk..all sounds that were blossomed in the heyday of the NY Underground music scene, now were being mimicked everywhere you looked. With Volume 2 we weren't sure if they would be able to put together as cohesive and overall exciting package as they did with the first one, but low and behold they have. It starts off with pt.2 of "Ungawa" by the rhythmically chaotic all female outfit Pulsallama. Along the way we got hit so nice and hard by Rhys Chatham, the person who basically channeled his studies of minimalism with LaMonte Young into blissed out and blistering no wave. Y Pants demonstrate their everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to pre-riot grrrl glory. Red Transistor show off no-wave at its rough and tumbling best. Glorious Strangers provide the best funk/dub leaning track on the record with instrumentation that you could mistake for a new Tussle single. Jill Kroesen melds pop and skronk like they've always meant to be together. Sonic Youth reminds us of their glory days (and makes us feel old). Damn, this is making us wish we were back in NYC during this era...such vibrant and distinct energy!
MPEG Stream: PULSALLAMA "Ungawa Pt.2 (Pulsallama)"
MPEG Stream: RHYS CHATHAM "Drastic Classicism (Rhys Chatham)"
MPEG Stream: Y PANTS "Favorite Sweater (Y Pants)"

V/A No Noise Compilation (Even Stilte) cd 12.98
This international, experimental comp from the Japan-based Even Stilte label features a couple big AQ faves, Birchville Cat Motel and Reynols, among others. The comp's called No Noise, but that title is ironic or something. Somebody call the Better Business Bureau with a truth in advertising complaint. Yes Noise is more like it. And if you don't think the first track (by Japanese skreemongers Dustbreeders aided and abetted by vocalist Junko from Hijokaidan) is noisy enough, first of all you're either deaf or crazy, and second of all, ok see what you think of track two, from Japan's even noisier Guilty Connector. We literally had to leap to the stereo to turn it down. It's noise all right, of the universe collapsing all around you in a howling tumble of feedback and fuzzed out, fucked up distortion variety. Damn. Halfway through, though, this track takes a turn into much less loud realm of insectoid buzz and freeform clatter, which actually is more the sort of "noise" that this comp itself is mostly about. Instead of the full-on, speaker-shredding, ear-shrivelling noise, of the first track and a half, this delves into some smaller noises as well. And also even some shambolic, avant-rock ritual strangeness from Argentina's wonderful Reynols. But mostly abstract, soundscapey drone stuff for the most part. Such as, the aforementioned BCM turns in a track that seemingly tunes in the zings of long thin wires. Electric zapping and humming and hissing.
We were also interested to hear from the artists that we weren't so familiar with, like Sky Burial, whose track is a moody drift, rising and falling in rumbling, soothing swells. Someone or something named Phrog provides even more minimal, "microscopic" sounds, vaguely field-recording-ish, as is Dave Phillips' lengthily-titled yet barely-there "From Wars Over Control and Oil to Environmental and Mental Destruction and Renewable Sources and Minds (at a Loss for Words)". Kyoshi Mizutani's "Yamaokmai Tunnel" is another one probably constructed from environmental sources. And Acid Mothers Temple member Tabata, if he used field recordings, they must have been loops of someone shooting down aliens in an anonymous videogame, processed into something much calmer. Somewhat more active is the track by Rudolf Eb.er (of Runzelstirn & Gurglestock infamy), a chopped-up soundscape, that settles into an uneasy, clomping rhythm. (Eb.er also provided the "Body World" styled cover painting for this cd.) So, while far from "No Noise" this comp is a good way to get to -know- some noise, in all its extremes, from around the world.
All the tracks here are apparently exclusive, except possibly the GC one. So we were told by the Even Stilte label boss, from whom we picked up just handful of these comps, when he stopped by the store whilst passing through SF recently.
MPEG Stream: BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "Noise Is Everpresent"
MPEG Stream: SKY BURIAL "Awakening From Someone Else's Dream"
MPEG Stream: GUILTY CONNECTOR "Heremsaurus at Ant-Anna"

V/A No W... Now! A Musical Petition Against George W. Bush (Passive Aggressive) cd 13.98

V/A Noise Is All In Your Head (Gold Soundz) cd 10.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Found a couple of these killer comps stashed in the closet. Figured there would probably be one or two noiseniks out there would flip for this. Just have a look at the groups/folks involved: Oren Ambarchi, Thurston Moore, Noxagt, Lass Marhaug, Volcano The Bear, Neil Campbell, Dylan Nyoukis, and a whole bunch more. House in a cool oversized cover. Pretty sure this is long out of print so these are definitely the last copies ever. And on sale to boot!

V/A Noise vs. Subversive Computing (Computationally Infeasible) usb stick 21.00
We kind of always wondered why more people didn't do a release like this sooner. Not a cd or an lp or a tape, but a little mini usb drive, packed with sights and sounds, for this particular releases much more appropriate as it's a collaborative project, in which Noise / Experimental Artists go head to head with Subversive Technologists aka Computer Hackers. Ten from each group were asked to contribute a piece of work, which could be anything, music, sound art, images, text, a video, even software, anything that could be converted to binary! The musicians had the theme of "Subversive Computing" while the hackers had "Noise" as theirs. A pretty rad concept for sure, and the result is pretty cool. Most of the songs are in FLAC form, so you'll have to have the appropriate decoder installed. Most of the bands were new to us, although some familiar names popped up: Sarah's Charity, Francisco, Lopez, Family Battle Snake, the sounds are all over the map, from drone to glitch to 8-bit to, well, you get the drift, it's a strange comp, but definitely cool.
Then there's the subversive computing portion, which is super interesting, but for the Luddites it might be hard to figure out what to do, and / or what the various programs do. From hiding information in noise music, sample generating software (we think), producing transcripts of random audio, generating a rainbow of sound out of the colors of noise, bitmapped chaos, a poem about noise, a video depicting the visual representation of noise, software that uses hacking to create art, a project that creates awareness of the controversial and incomprehensible privacy policies on the net, and more!
Definitely need to spend some time at home, listening, and reading, and exploring, all of these digital goodies are housed in a cool, printed mini usb drive, with a strap, so you can wear it around your neck!
Noise freaks, weirdo sound obsessives, computer nerds, and everyone in between, should definitely check this out!!

V/A Not Alone (Jnana / Durtro) 5cd 37.00
Talk of this compilation has been making the rounds for months, and now that it's here we can see why. We can also see why it took so dang long. But it was well worth it. The final product, the lineup, the songs, the packaging, the cause, WOW. The bands are a who's who of indie / avant / alternative rock / folk / electronica / experimental, all over the map. It's dangerously close to being SO eclectic that it's just a mess, but if you approach it as the worlds longest mixtape, made by your coolest friend with the best record collection it all starts to make some sort of skewed sense. But who cares? Look at this lineup:
Angles Of Light, Michael Yonkers, Antony And The Johnsons, Thighpaulsandra, Devendra Banhart, William Basinski, Bevis Frond, Teenage Fanclub, Sundial, Six Organs Of Admittance, Suishou No Fune, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Richard Buckner, Vashti Bunyan, Damon And Naomi, Shock Headed Peters, Isobel Campbell, Dolly Collins, Shirley Collins, Bill Fay, Marissa Nadler, Tom Recchion, Colin Potter, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, Linda Perhacs, Max Richter, Current 93, Jad Fair, Simon Finn, Edward Ka-Spel, Pearls Before Swine, Nurse With Wound, Jarboe, Charlemagne Palestine, Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke, Mirror, Matmos, Alex Nielson & Richard Youngs, Larsen, Faun Fables, James William Hindle, The Hafler Trio, Keiji Haino, Allen Ginsberg, Howie B, Ghost, irr.app.(ext)., Cyclobe, Fursaxa and more more more!
The liner notes make it impossible to tell just which tracks are exclusive or unreleased and which are album tracks, but again it hardly matters in this context. Like borrowing some cool kids Ipod and setting it on shuffle. And of course the most important part of all this, and the whole reason this compilation exists is that all proceeds go to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) to support their work in fighting HIV / AIDS in Africa.
Packaged in a cool slipcover box, with individually printed cd sleeves, a HUGE book with liner notes from Mark Logan who runs Jnana records as well as information about Medecins Sans Frontieres, as well as track by track notes from each band.
MPEG Stream: IRR.APP.(EXT.) "Fly Away - And Then What?"
MPEG Stream: FURSAXA "In Lieu Of"
MPEG Stream: MATMOS "A Song For The Appeal"
MPEG Stream: DEVENDRA BANHART "A Sight To Behold"