BASINSKI, WILLIAM Water Music I (2062) cd 14.98
Back in 2003, Basinski released the Water Music series on his own 2062 imprint on cd-r curiously in editions of 500. Unlike his much acclaimed Disintegration Loops series, the Water Music series is an exercise in minimalism exclusively for the Voyestra synthesizer. Basinksi offers an incredibly simple composition with steady humming drones burying an quietly repeating, muted electric lullaby. Basinski returns to the same ideas that Eno mastered on his early ambient releases and executes them with a similar panache for soothing tranquility.
PACKAGING NOTE:
No. No. No. When will these very talented musicians learn that it's a terrible idea to house their splendid music in blank jewel cases, clam shells, or prest-o-matic cases? David Jackman, Jonathan Coleclough, and now William Basinski should be ashamed of themselves for presenting their work in such poor packaging! Of course, we all have Raster-Noton to blame as they instigated that design principle with their uber-clean aesthetic, but Mr. Basinski would be much better served in providing a visual accompaniment to his work rather than following the barely-there aesthetic of Raster-Noton, et. al.
MPEG Stream: "Water Music I (excerpt)"

BASINSKI, WILLIAM Water Music II (2062) cd 14.98
Back in 2003, Basinski released the Water Music series on his own 2062 imprint on cd-r curiously in editions of 500 also in a clam shell case. Unlike his much acclaimed Disintegration Loops series, the Water Music series is an exercise in minimalism exclusively for the Voyestra synthesizer. Basinksi offers an incredibly simple composition with a steady humming drones burying an quietly repeating, muted electric lullaby. Basinski returns to the same ideas that Eno mastered on his early ambient releases and executes them with a similar panache for soothing tranquility. The composition of Water Music is as good as the packaging is stupid.
PACKAGING NOTE:
No. No. No. When will these very talented musicians learn that it's a terrible idea to house their splendid music in blank jewel cases, clam shells, or prest-o-matic cases? David Jackman, Jonathan Coleclough, and now William Basinski should be ashamed of themselves for presenting their work in such poor packaging! Of course, we all have Raster-Noton to blame as they instigated that design principle with their uber-clean aesthetic, but Mr. Basinski would be much better served in providing a visual accompaniment to his work rather than following the barely-there aesthetic of Raster-Noton, et. al.
MPEG Stream: "Water Music II (excerpt)"

BASINSKI, WILLIAM + RICHARD CHARTIER 1-3 (Line ) cd 14.98
Originally, this collaborative album from William Basinski and Richard Chartier came out on the Japanese label Spekk in 2004. It quickly disappeared, but now it's back in print with two extra tracks (more on those down below) thanks to 12K imprint Line. Here's what we had to say about the album back then:
Things are not always as they seem. If you were to put on this album, a collaboration between experimental musicians William Basinksi and Richard Chartier, you might have the same reaction that we did. It appears that the album begins, drones quite beautifully for a brief period of time, and then ends, leaving us with the thought, "Hey, that was really short! What the hell?" Ah, but not so fast, for the album's running time is actually a full 73 minutes, and the perceived shortness of duration is a result of these two composers' mesmeric abilities!
William Basinski, of course, has explored temporal phenomenology before, most notably through his breathtaking documentation of tape decay on the Disintegration Loops series. While Chartier's ultra-minimalism tend towards stasis, his under appreciated Archival 1991 album imparts a similar slow-motion effect upon the listener. Working together, Basinksi and Chartier add a considerable amount to each other's work; and hopefully, they will be working together again as Basinksi provides an emotional center to Chartier's rationalism, and Chartier offers a reductivist edginess to Basinski's ghostly romanticism. For this album, Basinksi and Chartier present glacially slow shifts between extended passages of synthetic drones, occasionally haunted by shadowy whisps and windswept details. There's very little drama and very little activity, just an incredible piece of minimalism that has the ability to stop time.
The repress also features two bonus tracks that enjoy a similar time-stopping quality, centered upon the sounds that Chartier employed for his installation at the 2006 Bleeding Edge festival, and Basinski's work with the antique Voyetra 8 synthesizer. Each produced a different mix of this source material. Still just as recommended as before.
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"

BASINSKI, WILLIAM + RICHARD CHARTIER s/t (Spekk) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Things are not always as they seem. If you were to put on this album, a collaboration between experimental musicans William Basinksi and Richard Chartier, you might have the same reaction that we did. It appears that the album begins, drones quite beautifully for a brief period of time, and then ends, leaving us with the thought, "Hey, that was really short! What the hell?" Ah, but not so fast, for the album's running time is actually a full 57 minutes, and the perceived shortness of duration is a result of these two composers' mesmeric abilities!
William Basinski, of course, has explored temporal phenomonology before, most notably through his breathtaking documentation of tape decay on the Disintegration Loops series. While Chartier's ultra-minimalism tend towards stasis, his underappreciated Archival 1991 album imparts a similar slow-motion effect upon the listener. Working together, Basinksi and Chartier add a considerable amount to each other's work; and hopefully, they will be working together again as Basinksi provides an emotional center to Chartier's rationalism, and Chartier offers a reductivist edginess to Basinski's ghostly romanticism. For this album, Basinksi and Chartier present glacially slow shifts between extended passages of synthetic drones, occasionally haunted by shadowy whisps and windswept details. There's very little drama and very little activity, just an incredible piece of minimalism that has the ability to stop time. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

BASS COMMUNION Chiaroscuro (Headphone Dust) cd 14.98
Brand new record from dronelord / guitar deconstructionist Bass Communion, aka Steven Wilson, whose day job is playing with prog superstars Porcupine Tree, but who spends the rest of his time, crafting gorgeous sprawling guitardrones and minimal psychedelic landscapes. The latest of which is captured here, Chiaroscuro is a document of the very first live Bass Communion performance, which took place at the Frenzy Of The Absolute festival curated by Fear Falls Burning. And we're happy to report that BC live is something to behold, a buzzing shimmering cloud of washed out psyche guitar drift, dense blackened billows, floating heavenward, while deep downtuned tones keep the proceedings grounded, amidst the swirl and drift, little shards of melody, and high end fragments surface now and again, only to sink back into the glorious druggy haze. The track shifts gears a few times, an acid fried slow burn blow out gives way to soft focus chiming ambience which slips slowly into a deep meditative rumble, finally drifting off in a hushed whir.
The second track was originally released on a split 7" with Fear Falls Burning, available exclusively to attendees of the concert, and finds Wilson with his guitar plugged into his laptop, and again conjuring up some haunting otherworldly minimalism, delicate and abstract, before exploding into a wall of crumbling blown out droneblissdoom heaviness, a wild squall of frenzied psych guitar practically melts the speakers. Wow. Would have liked to hear him do that live.
Once again, gorgeous stuff, dark and droney and blissed out and occasionally heavy as all get out, essential listening for the guitardoomdronedirge obsessed among you...
Packaged in a super fancy, full color mini gatefold lp style cd sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Fusilier"
MPEG Stream: "Chiaroscuro"

BASS COMMUNION Ghosts On Magnetic Tape (Headphone Dust) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There have been far too many great projects cursed with terrible names. Terminal Cheesecake has to be at the top of the list, with contemporary punsters like Corn on Macabre and Cream Abdul Babar close behind. Bass Communion is another one of those projects that I (Jim) would typically shy away from, just because the name immediately brings associations to the day-glo, baby-pacifier factions of rave culture. Perhaps at one time, Steven Wilson started the Bass Communion project with that demographic in mind; but with the last couple of records Wilson has released as Bass Communion, he has dispelled whatever lame associations his moniker may invokes. Wilson, who also does time in the neo-psych / prog ensemble Porcupine Tree (and produces Opeth albums), continues down the darkly droning path found on his collaborative record with Jonathan Coleclough and Colin Potter. Inspired by the parapsychological investigations of Konstanin Raudive who claimed to have captured the voices of the dead on tape, Wilson manages an exceptional album of spectral dark ambience laced with the haunted crackle of old '78s struggling to gain a foothold amidst the billowing clouds of brooding drones. A perfect tide-me-over til the next Thomas Koner record.
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts On Magnetic Tape I"
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts On Magnetic Tape IV"

BASS COMMUNION Ghosts On Magnetic Tape (Headphone Dust) 2cd 21.00
We listed this a while back, a gorgeous record of dark dronemusick from Steven Wilson, whose day job is as a member of modern prog combo Porcupine Tree. No prog to be found here though,. just deep mysterious haunting ambience of the highest order. Now it's been re-issued / re-released with a whole extra disc, featuring the entire album reconstructed / re-imagined by sometime Wounded Nurse Andrew Liles.
Here's what we had to say about the original disc when we first reviewed it:
With the last couple of Bass Communion, Steven Wilson continues down the darkly droning path found on his collaborative record with Jonathan Coleclough and Colin Potter. Inspired by the parapsychological investigations of Konstanin Raudive who claimed to have captured the voices of the dead on tape, Wilson manages an exceptional album of spectral dark ambience laced with the haunted crackle of old '78s struggling to gain a foothold amidst the billowing clouds of brooding drones. A perfect tide-us-over 'til the next Thomas Koner record.
And as if that weren't enough, Liles' disc is just as good, a lot more minimal and abstract, but retaining much of the original's dark spirit. The opening turns Bass Communion's slow drift into something much closer to the pastoral chorale of Arvo Part. The rest of the disc rumbles ominously, shimmers dreamily, occasionally interrupted by electronic glitches, blurred fields of crackle, burnished streaks of glistening sparkle, mysterious voices, intercepted radio broadcast, deep cavernous whirs and long stretches of near silence. The perfect compliment to the original's almost nearly perfect dark dreamy drift.
Packaged in super deluxe, very striking, mini-gatefold style full color sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts On Magnetic Tape I"
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts On Magnetic Tape IV"

BASS COMMUNION II/III (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2cd 19.98
This double disc set from Steve Wilson's Bass Communion project reissues the second and third albums, both unavailable for some time now. II was originally released on Hidden Art back in 1998, and III had been an on-demand cd-r which Wilson offered through his website back in 2001.
On II, an elegiac violin spirals into a chorale loop with itself and sympathetic melodies, as a soft crackle of what could be icy rain or maybe even downtuned surface noise on a piece of vinyl. In many ways, this fits neatly next to the orchestrations that Godspeed! You Black Emperor were creating at the time, with a slow building crescendo hitting a dark majesty before the bittersweet comedown into subterranean drones and dappled ambience. There's a lot more going on here in terms of melodic interludes and discreet flourishes of sampled horns, strings, and post-IDM electronic rhythms, especially when compared to the bleak arctic environments of such Bass Communion masterpieces as Ghosts On Magnetic Tape or Loss. But it's still gorgeous and arresting ambience.
III is a collection of ephemera, most of which had predated II, including some pieces of television that Wilson had been commissioned to compose. Given the disparate sources, III doesn't flow as nicely as the other disc; but the opening track "Amphead" is clearly one of Wilson's best pieces. It's just filtered white noise transformed into a desolate piece of sweeping dronemusik on par with anything that Thomas Koner or Keith Berry has released. Some of the other tracks hit on the Biosphere tip with synthetic strings pocked with simple electronic underpinnings; but there's also some head-rattling digi-dub harkening back to the illbient aesthetic of Scorn or DJ Spooky many moons ago.
MPEG Stream: "16 Second Swarm"
MPEG Stream: "Dwarf Artillery"
MPEG Stream: "Amphead"

BASS COMMUNION Loss (Soleilmoon Recordings) picture disc 19.98
Now available on Picture Disc Vinyl!
Loss is an apt title in describing a sensibility that we find super compelling in music, each list tends to have at least one example of a record that taps into the ideas behind the nostalgic loss of memory and the triggers that cause those memories to flood back into consciousness. For an example, have a gander at the introductory paragraph of the review of Tim Hecker's Harmony In Ultraviolet. Bass Communion's Loss, while not exactly aesthetically sympathetic to Mr. Hecker's pixel smear masterpiece, shares the sensorial drama of residual sounds evoking things past. Steven Wilson, the sole proprietor of Bass Communion, has commented that Loss is an extension of the ideas he previously investigated on Ghosts On Magnetic Tape, which related to the parapsychological research into the Electronic Voice Phenomena, whereby voices (presumably from beyond the grave) break through mediated sound in order to communicate with the living. Of course, that record complete with its spectral droning clouds of sound went over quite well here at Aquarius; and its follow-up does not disappoint. Sourced from reverb saturated piano, old 78 RPM records, and supposedly a vibraphone, Wilson offers yet another compelling perspective upon the nature of memory and loss through a Spartan and occasionally grim unveiling of drones and low-end piano notes.
MPEG Stream: "Part One"
MPEG Stream: "Part Two"

BASS COMMUNION Molotov and Haze (Important) cd 14.98
While most folks probably know Steven Wilson as a member of modern prog rockers Porcupine Tree, or as the producer of several Opeth albums, around these parts, Wilson is best known as the man behind Bass Communion, an ever evolving drone project, whose last few records have definitely hit the spot for the aQ drone faithful. Treading similar sonic ground as Thomas Koner, Jonathan Coleclough, Andrew Chalk, and the like, he crafts expansive and delicate crystalline soundscapes, minimal and hushed, deep and resonant, deep tones, layered low end, all deftly assembled into a mysterious otherworldly droneworld.Ê
This latest disc finds Wilson dabbling in something a bit harder and heavier. Still using processed recordings of actual instruments as well as field recordings and apparently a laptop for the first time, two of the four tracks here are more in line with the more corrosive elements of the modern drone/dirge/doom movement. Instead of hushed and whispery, the opener here is caustic and crumbling, a field of ragged, distorted, blown out tones, a layered expanse of grinding buzz, but beneath it, angelic melodies shimmer and hum, transforming the track into something subtly beautiful, a sprawling prickly sonic squall wrapped around a dreamlike core. The other heavy track here is actually titled "Corrosive", and is again, well, corrosive, beginning with supercharged guitars, spewing fiery fields of freaked out high end, over a weird billowy bassline, which begins to define the track, as it becomes more propulsive and present, and that opening field of skree seems to move into the background, smoothing out into something weirdly more melodic.
The other two tracks, while more in line with the mood of past BC discs, also sound a bit more song-y. More composed and arranged, as opposed to more abstract and improvised. The sound is ethereal and ephemeral. Soft string-like swells define a mournful melody, traces of high end fill the sky above with streaks and melodic fragments, smoothed into clouds of chordal color, the whole thing very delicate, and subtly filmic, darkly moody and dramatic. The closer, appropriately titled "Haze", is indeed a hazy somnambulant drift, at least in the beginning, floating dreamily through a soft black expanse, a tranquil barely there ambience, supported by a deep pulsing low end. Part way through, a strange electronic buzz is introduced. It offers up a strange textural contrast, almost like someone is subtly shifting the dial on the radio, soft interference, buoyed by the music's sudden dramatic swells. The track gradually becomes more choral, the sounds resembling voices, woven into the softly swaying swell of the musical backdrop, culminating in an effulgent field of sun dappled high end, before fading softly into the background, as that unrelenting low end foghorn tone, leads us slowly and funereally to the finish.
MPEG Stream: "Molotov 1502"
MPEG Stream: "Glacial 1602"

BASS COMMUNION Pacific Codex (Equation) cd+dvd 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As much as we tried, and we have, we could just never get that into Porcupine Tree. And before you flood us with emails, we tried, we really did. And it's not that it's bad or anything, just not our cup of tea. Steven Wilson's other project though, Bass Communion is a whole 'nother story. Bass Communion as a project explores worlds of deep deep low end, a literal bass communion, how could it not appeal to the aQ drone obsessed?
This release was outrageously limited, and thus we ended up getting only a fraction of the copies we ordered (as in 17 copies is all we have) so we won't go into too much detail, just know that if you want one, best act fast.
Originally Pacific Codex was intended to be released on vinyl, but apparently the notes were so low and the bass so heavy and intense, that they could not be fully realized on vinyl, so the project was reimagined as a cd / dvd release as those digital formats could in fact handle the deep tones. And deep they are. This is some seriously deep, low end sound. At low volumes, much of it is barely audible, at high volumes, the room literally shakes, and the woofers vibrate so intensely the papers on the desk next to the speakers flutter and are blown across the table top. Woah.
And we love bass. We know you do too, so this is like the ultimate low end document, huge billowing metallic shimmers, deep rib cage rattling rumbles, melodies rendered in slow motion, transformed into glacial smears, the feeling is that of being underwater, but WAY underwater, maybe several miles below the surface, everything inky black, save for a few glowing fish, and stray bits of light that somehow made it down from the surface.
What else to say, drone obsessives will lose their mind over this. Imagine cranking your favorite most minimal Lustmord record with the bass cranked to 10 and the treble down to zero. This is the sort of record you don't hear as much as you feel. And yeah, it's minimal sure, but the low end is maximal, threatening to split your stereo right down the middle like some beautiful seismic serenade.
The accompanying dvd is dvd-AUDIO (5.1 surround), so don't try watching it, it's just a black screen, but it is sort of the perfect visual representation of the music within.
Two discs, one cd, one dvd, both housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve, with a full color perfect bound cd sized book filled with gorgeous textural photos of the sea and sky, a printed insert card on super thick textured paper each one hand numbered, all housed in a heavy gauge box / slipcase.
Again, we only have a handful, so when these are gone we will NOT be able to get more as it's already out of print at the label.
MPEG Stream: "Pacific Codex 1 (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Pacific Codex 2 (excerpt)"

BASS COMMUNION VS MUSLIMGAUZE s/t (Soleilmoon) cd 16.98
Steven Wilson may be known best from Porcupine Tree, although he has also been quite prolific as Bass Communion producing a whole slew of darkly tinged ambient records for the past decade or so. Back in 1996, Wilson began corresponding with Bryn Jones of Muslimgauze, at first merely to share his enthusiasm over the Muslimgauze album Blue Mosque. Without expecting anything, Wilson sent a set of recordings to Jones whose urge to improve upon the recordings was too great for him to deny; hence, a few days later, Wilson received several hours of recordings with his musics radically transformed into the fiery Arabic electronica that had been the signature for Muslimgauze for countless records. Thus began a collaborative process, whereby Wilson would mould the Muslimgauze sounds into something to his liking, only to have Jones reject those mixes in favor of his own. The Muslimgauze ethos is still the dominant force here, with a ghostly dark ambient lingering in the distance the only remnants of Wilson's contributions. The recordings that comprise this CD had been released previously as a long CD EP / short album (depending on who you ask) and a CD single; both of those discs had been out of print for sometime now, so it's nice to be able to hear this stuff again!
MPEG Stream: "Three"
MPEG Stream: "Six"

BASSDBLER Slow Blade Penetrates The Shield (Thistle Recording Laboratories) cassette 5.98
Super limited cassette of "retro futuristic dunestep" from aQ pal JD Short, aka Bassdblr, who made these tapes exclusive for aQuarius, limited to just 100 copies, and if you're not a sucker for experimental dubstep, and/or a sucker for DUNE themed electronica, there must be something really wrong with you. A bass player by trade, Short infuses his particular brand of dubbed out beat heavy stutter with REAL bass, so the sound is thick, and buzzy, a little proggy, and in its own way sort of heavy. The sound looped and hypnotic, cyclical and a bit tranced out. But then it's hard to pin down cuz the sound is all over the place.
Opener "Atrocity Arms The Future" is some seriously bass heavy dubstep electro prog ambience, sounding like a dubbed out soundtrack to some creepy eighties sci-fi epic, all looped beats, woozy distorted bass, and electronic pulses that give the sound a teensy bit of a Carpenter vibe. And that live bass also give it a sort of post rock feel too, but the beat is most definitely dubsteppy. "IX" is almost like Pinback crossed with Squarepusher scoring some zombie flick, all dark and tense and low slung and ominous, warm fluid basslines wrapped around a pulsing electronic rhythm, while "Long Live The Fighters" sounds like it could have come out on Not Not Fun, a fuzzy, percolating bit of retro electronica that is like a more progged out caffeinated version of the current crop of Goblin/Carpenter worship. "The Scattering" takes thick sludgey bass and wreathes it in fluttery flute like melodies, and crunchy electronic glitch for something swirly and almost psychedelic sounding, Bassdblr's dirgey basslines lending it some un-electronica sounding heft.
And so it goes, from stripped down, loping-bass-lined cinematic creep, to gristly, super distorted electro-buzz, from blissed out skittery / prismatic kosmische electronica, to old school VHS synth-funk, to grinding glitchy dirge dub stutter, to super melodic lilting electronic buzzpop, and from proggy, glitchy retro-futuristic electro ambience, to finally, a a last blast, a more distorted take on the opening dubsteppy jam, all anchored by Short's heavy cyclical dark-prog Dune-driven bass. Super rad stuff for sure.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Available only at aQ, includes a download coupon as well!!
MPEG Stream: "Atrocity Arms The Future"
MPEG Stream: "IX"
MPEG Stream: "Long Live The Fighters"
MPEG Stream: "The Scattering"

BASSETT, M. & J. GRAF Peradam (Utech) cd 14.98
Another new one from the always intriguing Utech label. This disc is a collaboration betwixt Marcia Bassett (of Hotogisu and Zaimph fame) and Jenny Graf of Metalux, two somewhat noisy gals who together construct a strangely compelling soundworld here, part frightened folk, part disturbing drone... The harrowing journey begins with "Zero As Sky", seventeen minutes that start with a dawning drone, eventually revealing gently layered and looped vocals... a girl's voice, singing something that sounds ancient and folky, but buried amidst a static-y keening buzz, and sudden reverberating sound effects. With severe bursts of distortion in conjunction with what sounds like Wicker Man chant and warble, this whole whispery wind tunnel of a track would be a shivery late night listen. Could be the electric moaning of malevolent spirits. Even the part in the middle that makes us think of a haunted video arcade enhances the weird mood! Just a bit spooky, yeah. And at its heaviest, competition for Urthona and Harvestman.
If that lengthy piece was akin to Bassett and Graf taking us for scary walk in the dark woods (with arcade detour), then the next is more like they're singing to us 'round the campfire. "Black Waters Glow" is a short(er) interlude, only six and half minutes, wherein the drones die down and the vocals rise up, quietly still, with gentle guitar slowly stalking along. The track is this disc's most melodic, sounding like a witchier Painting Petals On Planet Ghost, maybe. Or old timey Brit folk filtered through floorcore FX. Or even some strange Devendra Banhart/Richard Youngs hybrid.
That's followed by the disc's third and final track, the 15 minutes of "Phantasmagorical Mapping", another miasma of distorted drones and disembodied drifting vocals, with the addition, upon occasion, of some mechanical rhythms, gone a bit haywire... Again, messily mesmeric. Bassett and Graf have done unique good work here, and despite doubts about whether or not our sanity can stand it, we hope they continue to collaborate!
LIMITED TO 500 copies! Nice, slim, oversized Utech-style sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Zero As Sky"
MPEG Stream: "Black Waters Glow"

BASSHATERS Harsh Lovers Sick Zoo (Yik Yak) cassette 5.00

BASSHATERS Harsh Lovers Sick Zoo (Yik Yak) cassette 5.00

BASTARD NOISE A Culture Of Monsters (Deep Six) cd 10.98
We first got a glimpse of the newly invigorated, and newly METAL-ized Bastard Noise on the recent split with The Endless Blockade, with BN sounding like the second coming of Man Is The Bastard, all heavy and noisy and bassy, but still rife with noise and electronics, incorporating our favorite elements of Bastard Noise offshoot Geronimo into a dizzying hybrid, that hit the spot like crazy. So with this new full length, Bastard Noise have pushed that sound even further. Opening with a brief spoken word monologue, the band explode in an electronic flecked bass heavy crush, the bass and drums locked tight, a lumbering lurching dirge, proggy and intricate, and weirdly melodic, with some of the SICKEST vocals ever, alternating death metal growls and throat shredding shrieks, and all over the place, thick shards of damaged electronics and fractured effects, careening wildly until finally locking into a groove that just won't quit, chaotic drumming, low slung bass buzz, the heaviest, most bad ass thing we've heard in ages. "Me And Hitler" is another blast of Man Is The Bastard style bass driven powerviolence, but with the addition of those shrieked almost black metal vocals, and still more caveman electronics... and when the band again get all proggy and intricate and heavy and groovy, they almost sound like Nomeansno, if NmN were WAY meaner and brutal and caustic, which is in NO way a bad thing.
The whole record is a crushing downtuned post-punk avant prog powerviolence electronic kraut-dirge motherfucker, the songs lurch and swing and grind and blast and pound and pummel, bursts of double kick underpin shards of crackling electronic glitchery and analog skree, there are some really strange stretches of almost jazzy drift, crooned reverbed ambience, operatic abstraction, spaced out dronemusic and moody instrumental skitter, but those brief moments only serve to balance the otherwise insanely and genius-ly brutal heaviness. Fuck, this totally rules!
MPEG Stream: "Pincers' Movement"
MPEG Stream: "Me And Hitler"
MPEG Stream: "Interior War"

BASTARD NOISE A Culture Of Monsters (Deep Six) lp 12.98
We first got a glimpse of the newly invigorated, and newly METAL-ized Bastard Noise on the recent split with The Endless Blockade, with BN sounding like the second coming of Man Is The Bastard, all heavy and noisy and bassy, but still rife with noise and electronics, incorporating our favorite elements of Bastard Noise offshoot Geronimo into a dizzying hybrid, that hit the spot like crazy. So with this new full length, Bastard Noise have pushed that sound even further. Opening with a brief spoken word monologue, the band explode in an electronic flecked bass heavy crush, the bass and drums locked tight, a lumbering lurching dirge, proggy and intricate, and weirdly melodic, with some of the SICKEST vocals ever, alternating death metal growls and throat shredding shrieks, and all over the place, thick shards of damaged electronics and fractured effects, careening wildly until finally locking into a groove that just won't quit, chaotic drumming, low slung bass buzz, the heaviest, most bad ass thing we've heard in ages. "Me And Hitler" is another blast of Man Is The Bastard style bass driven powerviolence, but with the addition of those shrieked almost black metal vocals, and still more caveman electronics... and when the band again get all proggy and intricate and heavy and groovy, they almost sound like Nomeansno, if NmN were WAY meaner and brutal and caustic, which is in NO way a bad thing.
The whole record is a crushing downtuned post-punk avant prog powerviolence electronic kraut-dirge motherfucker, the songs lurch and swing and grind and blast and pound and pummel, bursts of double kick underpin shards of crackling electronic glitchery and analog skree, there are some really strange stretches of almost jazzy drift, crooned reverbed ambience, operatic abstraction, spaced out dronemusic and moody instrumental skitter, but those brief moments only serve to balance the otherwise insanely and genius-ly brutal heaviness. Fuck, this totally rules!
MPEG Stream: "Pincers' Movement"
MPEG Stream: "Me And Hitler"
MPEG Stream: "Interior War"

BASTARD NOISE Descent To Mimas (Ground Fault) cd 11.98
Take an hour-long sci-fi noise journey with John Wiese's and Eric Wood's latest Ground Fault release. These ex-Man Is The Bastard noiseniks provide all the squelching rumbling grinding hissing droning distorted sounds you love, but structure it like program music -- unlike the often monolithic sonic assaults of Japanese competition (Incapacitants, Hijokaidan, and Merzbow for instance), Bastard Noise's "Descent To Mimas" has (perhaps) a narrative concept: some sort of story about outer space exploration/adventure/disaster on some far off frozen asteroid or something (Saturn's icy moon Mimas, probably). At least, the titles to this four-part journey seem to indicate as much ("Lunar Nest Guard" , "Beneath Ice Skin", "Space Coffin") and the electronics are of course harsh (like space) and suitably alien. You can imagine everything from plasma bursts to malfunctioning HAL-like computers. Or maybe that's just me. Imagination is the key. All that aside, this is a damn fine noise album, quite listenable as these things go, with dynamics and a variety of textures.
RealAudio clip: "Descent To Mimas"
RealAudio clip: "Beneath Ice Skin"

BASTARD NOISE Skulldozer (Deep Six) cd 8.98
The return of long running Man Is The Bastard offshoot Bastard Noise, who now have a body of work that dwarfs their previous group's comparatively tiny catalog, but who took a long time to win us over. Not sure if it was the disappointment of no more MITB or that suddenly Bastard Noise seemed to release a million records, or that our heart belonged to Amps For Christ. Whatever the reason, it took a few years, but we learned to love BN, even more so lately as they've seemed to have become a real band, a real HEAVY band. Gone are the days of harsh noisescapes and power electronics, the band are now a serious sonic forces to be reckoned with, in BAND form, and on their latest, they continue on the path set forth on A Culture Of Monsters, melding tripped out psychedelic ambience, to lurching lumbering doom, the rhythm section as tight as MITB ever was, the shrieked vox seriously harrowing, a good foil for the monstrous guttural growls, and as we mentioned in our Record Of The Week review of A Culture Of Monsters, the bass tone, and the overall bass driven heaviness, had us not only thinking of the legendary Nomeansno, but also another MITB offshoot, former Record Of The Week-ers Geronimo, whose krautrock like rhythmic mesmer seems to have found its way into BN's new sound.
The opening title track might be the most epic thing BN has ever recorded, a creeping ambient drone/dirge, that finds the band churning and chugging, howling and pounding over a hazy shimmery smear, their metallic crush augmented by some hushed ethereal flutter, the sound almost Native American, it's a strange combo, but it works, weirdly, the track easing up partway through its 13+ minutes, the band unfurling a kosmische sci-fi shimmerscape, before lurching and lumbering back into action, and pounding out the last couple minutes.
Much of Skulldozer actually seems to have the band channeling their former group, with short bursts of jagged punkish power violence, but then the band slip right into their other incarnation, the other side of the band we love, their abstract psychedelic space drift ambience, last heard in full bloom on their awesome Rogue Astronaut record, and so goes the rest of Skulldozer, lurching from churning powerviolence crush, to glitched out abstract sci-fi drift, to experimental ambience, to blackened metallic pound and back again. Totally ruling, and most definitely a new favorite!
MPEG Stream: "Skulldozer"
MPEG Stream: "50 Million Light Years From..."
MPEG Stream: "Demise By Radiation"

BASTARD NOISE Skulldozer (Deep Six) lp 13.98
The return of long running Man Is The Bastard offshoot Bastard Noise, who now have a body of work that dwarfs their previous group's comparatively tiny catalog, but who took a long time to win us over. Not sure if it was the disappointment of no more MITB or that suddenly Bastard Noise seemed to release a million records, or that our heart belonged to Amps For Christ. Whatever the reason, it took a few years, but we learned to love BN, even more so lately as they've seemed to have become a real band, a real HEAVY band. Gone are the days of harsh noisescapes and power electronics, the band are now a serious sonic forces to be reckoned with, in BAND form, and on their latest, they continue on the path set forth on A Culture Of Monsters, melding tripped out psychedelic ambience, to lurching lumbering doom, the rhythm section as tight as MITB ever was, the shrieked vox seriously harrowing, a good foil for the monstrous guttural growls, and as we mentioned in our Record Of The Week review of A Culture Of Monsters, the bass tone, and the overall bass driven heaviness, had us not only thinking of the legendary Nomeansno, but also another MITB offshoot, former Record Of The Week-ers Geronimo, whose krautrock like rhythmic mesmer seems to have found its way into BN's new sound.
The opening title track might be the most epic thing BN has ever recorded, a creeping ambient drone/dirge, that finds the band churning and chugging, howling and pounding over a hazy shimmery smear, their metallic crush augmented by some hushed ethereal flutter, the sound almost Native American, it's a strange combo, but it works, weirdly, the track easing up partway through its 13+ minutes, the band unfurling a kosmische sci-fi shimmerscape, before lurching and lumbering back into action, and pounding out the last couple minutes.
Much of Skulldozer actually seems to have the band channeling their former group, with short bursts of jagged punkish power violence, but then the band slip right into their other incarnation, the other side of the band we love, their abstract psychedelic space drift ambience, last heard in full bloom on their awesome Rogue Astronaut record, and so goes the rest of Skulldozer, lurching from churning powerviolence crush, to glitched out abstract sci-fi drift, to experimental ambience, to blackened metallic pound and back again. Totally ruling, and most definitely a new favorite!
MPEG Stream: "Skulldozer"
MPEG Stream: "50 Million Light Years From..."
MPEG Stream: "Demise By Radiation"

BASTARD NOISE The Analysis of Self-Destruction (Alien8 Recordings) cd 13.98

BASTARD NOISE Throne Is Melting (Helicopter) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sixty-two more minutes of wonderfully harsh, grinding noise from John Wiese and Eric Wood of Man Is The Bastard. Features two long ass tracks previously available, one on a really limited Japanese tour 3" cd-r, the other on a one sided 12" that we've had before. And it says Man Is The Bastard as well as Bastard Noise on the cover, which is confusing 'cause while there's members of MITB on here, it's really a Bastard Noise album, not a split release or anything like that... Those jokers Byram and Jeff say they are going to open a bakery in Berkeley called "Man Is The Batard". Food Not Bombs! Ha ha.
RealAudio clip: "Denied Psychotic Human Pt. 2"

BASTARD NOISE, THE Rogue Astronaut (Gravity) cd 14.98
We love Man Is The Bastard. Always have. So we wanted to love Bastard Noise as well. And we did, once in a while, but we might as well fess up, the thing that kept us from truly embracing Bastard Noise, was in fact, the NOISE. Allan may be into his speaker shredding Japanoise, and Jim definitely loves his minimal grind and glitch, but for the most part, noise music has generally left us a bit cold. That's not to say there haven't been exceptions, there most definitely have, and those exceptions tend to be when the noise is less 'noisy' and more drone-y or textural or dynamic or all three. Our favorite Merzbow records tend to be the ones where Masami Akita isn't just spewing a face full of hot white noise. Our favorite noise records to tend toward the dronier more ambient side of the noise spectrum. So there have definitely been some Bastard Noise jams that have totally hit the spot, Descent To Mimas was one, released on Ground Fault, and Rogue Astronaut is definitely another, just out on Gravity. Rogue Astronaut seems to be sonically and thematically a sort of continuation of Descent To Mimas. Another noise opera of sorts, a tale of post apocalyptic space travel, of dead satellites and a withered Earth, of floating alone through space, of the endless expanse and the soul shearing loneliness of the Rogue Astronaut.
Much like Mimas, and our favorite noise records, the sounds on Rogue Astronaut are less harsh and heavy, and more atmospheric and textural, the ten minute opener, even features haunting falsetto vocals set amidst an expansive drift of analog buzz and electronic squelch, layered drone, and a symphony of upper register tones, the sounds are noticeably Bastard like, raw and corrosive and analog and lo-fi, but deftly arranged into epic sweeping dronescapes and noisescapes, slipping from minimal buzz and glitch to full on fuzzed out malfunctioning electronic roar.
Track two, "Ryobi Party" sounds a bit like another post Bastard project, Geronimo, only with the drums stripped away, and the addition of gurgling demonic vokills. The twenty minute title track is gorgeous and space-y, the tones and sounds and textures allowed to sprawl and spread out, set amidst a lush backdrop of reverbed black shimmer, and deep ominous drones, the squelches and glitches like lost radio broadcasts, drifting aimlessly through the inky blackness of space. Sheets of feedback are muted into layered high end whirs, the 'noise' is allowed to hover and float and change shapes and transform, the track is almost like some strange beast made out of sound, captured so we can observe it in captivity, watching as it morphs before our very eyes, a sonic representation of what lies beyond. The track is less about noise, and more about ambience, and mood, and it does create an intense and ominous and super evocative cinematic soundworld.
The last three tracks cycle through the various shades of noise and space, highlighted by the darkly delicate "Moonpool Team", which begins as a hushed ultra minimal drift, before it transforms into a groovy, moody, reverby almost Eastern sounding bit of abstract soundtrack music, like it could have come from some crazy lost sixties space epic, gorgeous soaring vocals, the grinding electronics muted and smeared into almost melodies, peppered with the occasional violent squall, but for the most part, a gorgeous languid landscape of deep bell like tones and swirling space-y noise flecked shimmer.
Gorgeous packaging too. Metal foil stamped booklet that folds out into a poster, with full color inserts/cards as well as a sticker.
MPEG Stream: "Tyranny Beyond Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Ryobi Party"
MPEG Stream: "Radioactive Sunrise"

BASTARD WING, THE Crystal Thicket (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98
Bastard Wing is the duo of Christina Carter from Charalambides and Andrew MacGregor who records as Gown. A while back we reviewed a cd-r collaboration between MacGregor and Carter, which was a strange and creepy affair, but also a fairly caustic and atonal one, with plenty of anguished Jandekian wailing and Keiji Haino like frenzied howling, cacophonous and bizarre, but beautiful in it's own damaged way. The Bastard Wing finds the two in a much more contemplative mood, spreading out warm thick blankets of psychedelic strum, swirling fuzzy ambience, over which breathy ethereal vocals drift and shimmer, gorgeous foggy soundscapes of distant blown out psych guitar, haunting disembodied vocals, crackling crunchy distortion, swooping vocals that seem to creep up right to the microphone before fading into the murky background, everything bathed in thick reverb, tons of delay and clouds of swirling outer space FX. Some tracks sound like deconstructed Mazzy Star, with any semblance of 'rock' taken out, so the ghostly remnants are allowed to drift incorporeally heavenward, while others are frenzied otherworldly rituals, dense with thick vocal swirl and damaged guitar histrionics, although even at their most manic, everything is muted and smeared into an indistinct haze. Creepy and lovely. Definitely for fans of Grouper, Lichens and of course Charalambides.
Like all Free Porcupine Society releases, nicely packaged, this time in a cool simple white cardstock folder, printed with metallic silver ink, spare and striking.
MPEG Stream: "Watch The Sun Rise"
MPEG Stream: "Reaching, Reaching"

BASTIEN, PIERRE Les Premieres Machines: 1968-1988 (Gazul Records) cd 21.00
So cool. We've been wanting to list this for a while, finally got a bunch of copies so we can. It's a disc collecting early pieces by one of our favorite idiosyncratic music makers and sonic visionaries, Pierre Bastien. For those who have yet to discover the joys of Bastien, imagine strange haunting lullabies, played BY ROBOTS. Real Robots! Well sort of. Bastien would take apart old turntables, use bits of random electronics, stuff laying around the garage, sometimes adding multiple tone arms to record players, sometimes using bits of metal and electronics to create little machines that would pluck strings, or make little rhythms, and he would play along usually on trumpet. It sounds strange, but the music he created was magical, mysterious, childlike, but strangely mechanical (obviously) and haunting. Like a super DIY bedroom Philip Jeck but with a band of homemade robots! Sold? We figured you'd have to be. We've been pretty obsessed with Bastien and his music ever since we first heard his Musiques Paralloidres album almost 10 years ago.
This compilation collects a bunch of early tracks, a handful never before released, all from well before his first proper album, mostly culled from the eighties although one track is from WAY back in 1968, an untitled track for prepared guitar and Metronome!
Soon, rather than utilizing a mundane metronome, he was indeed building his own mechanical music-making helpers, the "Meccano". Each one custom-designed to accompany Bastien on plucked strings, skipping record, scraped metal, automated percussion, whatever Bastien imagined as accompaniment for a specific song. The results are divine, tick-tocking, clicking and clacking, wavering and warbling, dark plucked melodies, dizzying fragmented loops, squiggle and scrapes, alternatingly mesmeric and gentle, chaotic and clattery, a sound like a ramshackle music box, gives way to a sweet child-like melody, the sound of a toybox coming to life once the children are asleep, a mini toy orchestra performed in the still of night, with only the moon and the stars looking on. Many of the tracks feature much more actual playing than later Bastien discs, but the robots are still out in full force, playing along, his own little mechanical band.
All of Bastien's records are fabulous, super creative, innovative, baffling, fun and funny, playful and sometimes silly, but just as often dark and beautifully brooding. Mecanoid, Pop, the recently reviewed Visions Of Doing, all of them deserve to be in the collection of any adventurous music lover, and Les Premieres Machines 1968-1988 most certainly does too!
The booklet features a few photos, liner notes in French only (unfortunately), and an extensive discography!
MPEG Stream: "Orphean Veranda"
MPEG Stream: "Talou VII"
MPEG Stream: "Alpinic Railway"
MPEG Stream: "Caravan"

BASTIEN, PIERRE Mecanoid (Rephlex) cd 17.98
We loved the last Pierre Bastien record, which consisted of broken down old children's turntables rigged to play simple loops while Bastien played along on a muted trumpet. Those rigged turntables have given way to even greater flights of mechanical fancy, that's right...ROBOTS. For 'Mecanoid' Bastien has constructed various robots that play different instruments, again constructing simple loops which he then accompanies. The 'robots' play castanets, marimba, tamborine, steel drum, casiotone, piano, plus tons more and of course turntables. While Bastien accompanies the loops on bass, organ, prepared trumpet, cornet, electric piano, buzz-trumpet and more. But the sound doesn't necessarily give away its robotic roots. 'Mecanoid' sounds like simple stripped down electronica with a sort of late-night-rainy-dark-alley-Tom-Waits kind of vibe. Sort of Boards of Canada with less equipment, or Boards Of Canada if they were 8 years old instead of 30. Makes me think of electonica made from scratch, with no drum machines, no samplers, just a bunch of crap in the garage, a tool box and a four track. Dark and melancholic and loping and hypnotic. With simple minor key melodies played over slowly fluctuating loops, creating completely alien soundtrack music. Would be perfect for some David Lynch film. Creepy but not depressing, just sort of sad and dreamy. One of my new favorite late night records.
RealAudio clip: "Damn Mad"
RealAudio clip: "Revolt Lover"
RealAudio clip: "No Eon"

BASTIEN, PIERRE Mecanoid (Rephlex) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We loved the last Pierre Bastien record, which consisted of broken down old children's turntables rigged to play simple loops while Bastien played along on a muted trumpet. Those rigged turntables have given way to even greater flights of mechanical fancy, that's right...ROBOTS. For 'Mecanoid' Bastien has constructed various robots that play different instruments, again constructing simple loops which he then accompanies. The 'robots' play castanets, marimba, tamborine, steel drum, casiotone, piano, plus tons more and of course turntables. While Bastien accompanies the loops on bass, organ, prepared trumpet, cornet, electric piano, buzz-trumpet and more. But the sound doesn't necessarily give away its robotic roots. 'Mecanoid' sounds like simple stripped down electronica with a sort of late-night-rainy-dark-alley-Tom-Waits kind of vibe. Sort of Boards of Canada with less equipment, or Boards Of Canada if they were 8 years old instead of 30. Makes me think of electonica made from scratch, with no drum machines, no samplers, just a bunch of crap in the garage, a tool box and a four track. Dark and melancholic and loping and hypnotic. With simple minor key melodies played over slowly fluctuating loops, creating completely alien soundtrack music. Would be perfect for some David Lynch film. Creepy but not depressing, just sort of sad and dreamy. One of my new favorite late night records.

BASTIEN, PIERRE Musiques Paralloidres (Lowlands) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Multiple turntables and trumpet, very interesting. Bastien takes portable turntables and attaches pieces of metal below, and directly to, the tone arm, causing the record to skip and forming simple and hypnotic loops. He then plays trumpet melodies over the looped records turning these disparate ingredients into sleepy, hiccuping lullabyes.

BASTIEN, PIERRE Pop (Rephlex) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We sure are suckers for unconventional music making. Be it accidental (ice melting, applause, junkyards, metal rusting, fire burning) or environmental (elephants, sled dogs, cats purring, FROGS!, bats) and most especially the mysterious or unexplained (the sounds of the dead, breaking through the radio waves, haunting shortwave spy transmissions). Then there is a whole other realm of unconventional music making: the mad scientist. Why form a band, when you can construct robots and machines to play all the instruments? Why actually play the piano, or the guitar, or the drums, when you can construct an elaborate set of pulleys and levers and gears and axles that will play them for you? Why be happy with a turntable that plays records with only one stylus when you can make music with a turntable equipped with multiple needles? We can only assume Pierre Bastien asked these same questions, and the answer he came up with is Pop. Forty five minutes of simple, repetitive, hypnotic and mesmerizing machine driven minimal krautrock. That's right, krautrock is what this sounds like.
In lesser hands a room full of self playing instruments would most likely result in a sterile series of sound events, but Bastien has a deft hand and a keen ear, and breathes life into his automatons, delicate contraptions that each contribute a unique element to a song, not just spitting out sounds -- strange gadgets that play simple chords on a keyboard, an apparatus to beat out simple insistent rhythms, all manner of haunting minor key plinkety plonk, crisp windup toy clickety clacks and disgruntled grinding large machinery groans and whines, some strange warped turntablizations, wearily wheezing woodwinds, all woven into spare stretches of minimally propulsive ambience. Sounds a bit like an army of tiny wind up toys assembled in an automated sonic ballet, an inhuman menagerie making music more human that it seems possible. The vibe is very fuzzy and washed out, droney and dolorous, smeary and sepia-toned, definite shades of Philip Jeck and Tim Hecker, with plenty of creak and crackle surrounding the minimal melodies and subtle rhythmic pulses within each song. It's easy to become obsessed with the method behind the music, and the amount of obviously painstaking preparation that went into creating these machines. And why not?! It's absolutely mind boggling to be sure, but even beyond the mere construction of these music making mechanisms, imagine figuring out how to get these 'things' to make these sounds, and THEN somehow to compose music this lovely and captivating. Seems impossible. Surely, Pop is too perfect to be accidental, too beautiful to be pure luck, too musical to be anything other than the work of a brilliant mad sonic scientist. Or better yet, and possibly more likely, imagine Bastien is nothing if not lucky, a man who somehow stumbled upon a secret world of machines, in some mysterious forgotten warehouse, in some dark overlooked part of town, an insulated little world populated by these devices, not a living breathing creature in sight, just shelves full of strange little contraptions, all running endlessly and self controlled, creating this beautiful music as if that's what they were designed to do, and he was just the first to stumble upon this place, these things, and was able to capture these mysterious sounds before one night, that building and those things were nowhere to be found. Sounds farfetched, maybe a little silly, but it's the sort of romantic story that befits music this warm and beautiful and mysterious, whether it was ultimately the work of a man, or the just the serendipitous sounds of a room full of machines.
MPEG Stream: "Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Noon"
MPEG Stream: "Deed"

BASTIEN, PIERRE Pop (Rephlex) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!!
We sure are suckers for unconventional music making. Be it accidental (ice melting, applause, junkyards, metal rusting, fire burning) or environmental (elephants, sled dogs, cats purring, FROGS!, bats) and most especially the mysterious or unexplained (the sounds of the dead, breaking through the radio waves, haunting shortwave spy transmissions). Then there is a whole other realm of unconventional music making: the mad scientist. Why form a band, when you can construct robots and machines to play all the instruments? Why actually play the piano, or the guitar, or the drums, when you can construct an elaborate set of pulleys and levers and gears and axles that will play them for you? Why be happy with a turntable that plays records with only one stylus when you can make music with a turntable equipped with multiple needles? We can only assume Pierre Bastien asked these same questions, and the answer he came up with is Pop. Forty five minutes of simple, repetitive, hypnotic and mesmerizing machine driven minimal krautrock. That's right, krautrock is what this sounds like.
In lesser hands a room full of self playing instruments would most likely result in a sterile series of sound events, but Bastien has a deft hand and a keen ear, and breathes life into his automatons, delicate contraptions that each contribute a unique element to a song, not just spitting out sounds -- strange gadgets that play simple chords on a keyboard, an apparatus to beat out simple insistent rhythms, all manner of haunting minor key plinkety plonk, crisp windup toy clickety clacks and disgruntled grinding large machinery groans and whines, some strange warped turntablizations, wearily wheezing woodwinds, all woven into spare stretches of minimally propulsive ambience. Sounds a bit like an army of tiny wind up toys assembled in an automated sonic ballet, an inhuman menagerie making music more human that it seems possible. The vibe is very fuzzy and washed out, droney and dolorous, smeary and sepia-toned, definite shades of Philip Jeck and Tim Hecker, with plenty of creak and crackle surrounding the minimal melodies and subtle rhythmic pulses within each song. It's easy to become obsessed with the method behind the music, and the amount of obviously painstaking preparation that went into creating these machines. And why not?! It's absolutely mind boggling to be sure, but even beyond the mere construction of these music making mechanisms, imagine figuring out how to get these 'things' to make these sounds, and THEN somehow to compose music this lovely and captivating. Seems impossible. Surely, Pop is too perfect to be accidental, too beautiful to be pure luck, too musical to be anything other than the work of a brilliant mad sonic scientist. Or better yet, and possibly more likely, imagine Bastien is nothing if not lucky, a man who somehow stumbled upon a secret world of machines, in some mysterious forgotten warehouse, in some dark overlooked part of town, an insulated little world populated by these devices, not a living breathing creature in sight, just shelves full of strange little contraptions, all running endlessly and self controlled, creating this beautiful music as if that's what they were designed to do, and he was just the first to stumble upon this place, these things, and was able to capture these mysterious sounds before one night, that building and those things were nowhere to be found. Sounds farfetched, maybe a little silly, but it's the sort of romantic story that befits music this warm and beautiful and mysterious, whether it was ultimately the work of a man, or the just the serendipitous sounds of a room full of machines.
MPEG Stream: "Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Noon"
MPEG Stream: "Deed"

BASTIEN, PIERRE Visions Of Doing (Western Vinyl) cd 14.98
Oooh. We're always excited about any new releases from French automated-instrument builder and trumpeter Pierre Bastien. How often do we get records featuring music made (in part) by robots? Not often enough. And such lovely music too. All these tracks were originally composed as soundtracks to projects by a Dutch experimental filmmaker by the name of Karel Doing (hence the title). But Bastien's music so readily stokes the imagination than Doing's cinematic visions are not necessary accompaniment.
We said 'automated-instrument builder', those instruments being what Bastien calls his 'Meccano', simple sound-making robots or kinetic sound sculptures, that make looping music box melodies and provide a backing of slow, steady mechanical clank for Bastien's own wheezing, muted trumpet. Bastien plays in a smokey jazz mode, breathy, beautiful, oh so melancholic, that in the this context reminds us of Chet Baker in some sort of Tom Waits-ish instrumental junkyard. The gamelan or thumb piano like plinkings of Bastien's Meccano - exotica for scrappy homebuilt robots - are rendered somehow more human by the sweet sighs of Bastien's trumpet. He also makes use of field recordings, unidentified underwater warblings, and other mysterious textures in constructing these tracks. Wonderful stuff, so languid and relaxed and full of life, animated indeed by Bastien's Visions Of Doing. Bastien's previous discs for Rephlex, and others, have all been 'late night faves' here at AQ, and this latest gentle gem from Bastien joins them for sure.
MPEG Stream: "The American On The Highway"
MPEG Stream: "Visions Of Shanghai"
MPEG Stream: "The Thermodynamic Orchestra"

BATAGOV, ANTON Music For The 35 Buddhas (Tummo) cd 14.98
We first discovered Russian pianist / composer Anton Batagov via his breathtaking triple cd release The Wheel Of The Law, a record EVERYone here loved, and one that we sold tons of and realized in retrospect, really should have been a Record Of The Week. Much of what made that record special was how rooted in Batagov's Buddhism the music was, a mesmerizingly hypnotic arrangement for organ, glockenspiel, xylophone, piano and percussion, it conjured up a tranquility and otherworldliness that we found quite moving, the various movements offering up gorgeously rhythmic and almost looped sounding figures, the sort of composition that we presume is how he ended up being described by some reviewer as "Reich on vodka". And while he is most definitely influenced by Reich and Riley and Glass, his sound is definitely something unique, we find ourselves sometimes reminded of another aQ favorite, Lubomyr Melnyk, the two have a similar flair for lyrical melodies and lush arrangements, although where Melnyk fills all the space with flurries of notes, Batagov is as much about the spaces between the notes as the notes themselves. Batagov is also quite the collaborator, often teaming up with rock musicians and other non classical performers, and has produced all manner of releases from straight up classical to soundtracks. Needless to say, we are obviously big fans.
So in the process of trying to track down more Wheel Of The Law cd sets, we discovered another Batagov record that we found equally amazing, from back in 2001, another composition based on Buddhism, which is obvious from the title, Music For The 35 Buddhas and like Wheel, it's another fantastic and dreamlike composition, mixing Batagov's lovely piano playing with vibraphone, Javanese gongs and antique cymbals. There's definitely a gamelan vibe, but in a whole different setting, the interplay between vibraphone and piano, deft and effortless, producing a dreamily cinematic sprawl of notes floating weightless in space, a sort of tranquil soundscape, that seems perfect for meditation, contemplation or even just relaxation. The tones ring out, the extended decay as much a part of the composition as the initial notes, making the whole thing sound very fluid and organic and full of a hopeful energy. Delicate and divine. And even at 40 minutes, way too short, the sort of piece that we imagine playing on forever.
The second piece is a bit darker, and is more overtly linked to the record's theme. Batagov unfurling darkly melodic figures, gamelan like melodies draped over the top, deep resonant tones, and tinkling chimes, over which two different voices deliver prayer-like incantations to each of the 35 buddhas by name, the music brooding and minimal, but utterly entrancing, and with the voices, it only becomes that more powerful. This is probably the most listened to record in the store recently, and it's easy to see why, Batagov achieves the seemingly impossible, creating a piece of music that is both tranquil and soothing, but one that still manages to be active, and engages the listener in active listening, if they so desire, the main melody/refrain is the sort of melody, that will stick in your head, and will surface constantly, which in a way seems like the perfect accompaniment to the Buddhist teachings that accompany it, a sonic mantra, that can be revisited throughout the day, to help the listener remain lost in the music, and perhaps help achieve a degree of inner peace, even when, or maybe especially when, the outside world seems to be at utterly at odds with such a state.
MPEG Stream: "Like Dust That Covers Mirror"

BATAGOV, ANTON The Wheel Of The Law (Listen Different) 3cd 38.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This incredible, gorgeous chunk of dreamy modern minimalism, finally back in stock, for a VERY limited time...
The very moment we we first heard this, we knew it was something special, and something we just had to list! Recorded in 1999, and originally released in 2002, The Wheel Of The Law compiles three epic pieces of gorgeous minimalism from Russian composer Anton Batagov. Three discs, three tracks composed for organ, glockenspiel, xylophone, piano and percussion, inspired by Buddhism and the Quest for Nirvana, and the practices involved: peace, meditation, deep thought, breathing, consciousness. Repetitive and melodic, lush and so so beautiful. Someone once referred to Batagov as sounding "like Reich on vodka", not sure we hear the vodka, or even any sounds distinctly and immediately recognizably Russian, but there is certainly plenty of Reich here, as well as Riley, and most definitely some Harold Budd, especially in the delicate, spare piano arrangements. The first disc, "Circle Of Time" is four long movements of warm rich swells of organ, flowing lazily beneath delicate cyclical chimes and abstract piano figures, very dramatic and hypnotic. The second disc, the 4 track Voidness cycle: "Appearances And Voidness", "Clarity And Voidness", "Bliss And Voidness", "Mind And Voidness", introduces the same delicate chimes found on the first disc, but this time over a repeating series of haunting moaning violin melodies. Minor key and mildly atonal, the melodies are spread out over a spare background of complex overtones, all drifting dreamily into space. The final disc: "Liberation Through Listening In The Between" is again a massive sprawl of lush static organ drones, wavering and subtly pulsing, with simple three and four note melodies played out over minutes instead of seconds, chiming and ringing, resonating above the organ's mesmerizing drone, the whole thing supported by a barely there framework of simple percussion, so subtle and simple that it's basically a single drum, muted and way down in the mix, offering a sort of pulse for the piece, a musical heartbeat, slowed down, as if in meditation or contemplation.
So completely and utterly breathtaking.
MPEG Stream: "Dus-Kyi Khor-Lo 1"
MPEG Stream: "Dus-Kyi Khor-Lo 4"

BATES, MARTYN / TROUM To A Child Dancing In The Wind (Transgredient) cd 14.98
For those well acquainted with the prose of Aquarius Records, the German duo Troum should be a familiar reference to any one keen on dark dronescapes; but Martyn Bates is something of an enigma to us despite being a stalwart of neo-romantic British art-rock thanks to wealth of recordings with his group Eyeless In Gaza. Blessed with the angelic voice of a classic crooner, Bates certainly fits in with the theatrically inclined singers such as David Sylvian, Scott Walker, and Gordon Sharp. Even when Eyeless In Gaza began under the banner of post-punk, Bates' impassioned delivery enveloped the anti-pop sensibilities with a majestic aura that probably repelled just as many potential fans that might be swayed by his rapturous clarion. To be completely honest, we've never been entirely convinced by Bates or Eyeless In Gaza, despite numerous attempts by lifelong fan and AQ pal Loren Chasse to convince us otherwise. In working with Troum on To A Child Dancing In The Wind, Bates has presented himself again as the occultish troubadour, but with Troum's dark elegance wrapped around his voice, we may need to reconsider. Nocturnal for sure, but hardly as overwhelmingly dark as some of the other Troum records (i.e. Tjurkurppa 2 or Sigqan); To A Child Dancing In The Wind has Troum wrapping shadowy drones and their slow motion churn of heavily processed guitar, accordion, harmonica, and bass as the tapestry for the celestial hymns scribed by Bates. For those transfixed by David Sylvian's collaborative efforts with Fennesz on Blemish, we would hazard to guess that you'll find this album equally as emotive and beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "To A Child Dancing In The Wind"
MPEG Stream: "Mad As The Mist And Snow"

BATOH, MASAKI Brain Pulse Music (Drag City) cd 14.98
Yep that's Masaki Batoh, the visionary leader of Japanese modern day hippie psych legends Ghost, looking rather more futuristic than his usual shamanistic self, on the cover of Brain Pulse Music, his new solo album for Drag City. The elaborate science fictional headgear Batoh is wearing, a tangle of wires, electrodes, metal bands, and for some reason goggles, is the eponymous Brain Pulse Music machine he helped invent. Apparently in clinical trials for therapeutic medical use, it somehow helps to stabilize one's brain waves, by electronically transmitting them in the form of audio signals that can be controlled via a biofeedback procedure. So this high-tech augmentation of Batoh's traditional acupuncture practice has applications to his musical activities as well, as heard here on this disc dedicated to the victims of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and ensuing nuclear disaster. According to Batoh, the BPM machine can promote healing for both the user employing it, and hopefully more widely as a tool for literally higher-minded music making.
So, what's it sound like? High pitched electronic drone-tones, rising and falling, sometimes soothing, sometimes noisy, not unlike the "onkyo" music of fellow Japanese experimentalists such as the sine-wave artist Sachiko M, for instance. We'd assume that depending upon the brains involved (of both user and listener!), the sounds the BPM machine produces could be perceived as either blissful or possibly piercingly aggravating. But, Batoh includes a lot more than straight BPM recordings on this album. The machine's drones are (usually) mixed with more traditional, ethnic Japanese acoustic instrumentation, such as wood block percussion, drums, gongs, bells, and shakuhachi flute. While some tracks are all about the BPM whines, others foreground the simple ceremonial ancient sounds (indeed, a few omit the BPM machines entirely), with the disc's 10+ minute final cut utilizing two BPM machines at the same time, alongside plasma theremin, springer FX, and shinto chant. That one is particularly amazing, pulsations indeed, by the end sounding like at least one of the BPM machines must have been plugged into Merzbow's brain.
Interesting stuff conceptually of course, but also the BPM meshes well with Batoh's less high-tech, more timeless Ghost-like musical rituals.
Nice silver-and-black graphics and design, with personal liner notes from Batoh himself.
MPEG Stream: "Eye Tracking Test"
MPEG Stream: "Kumano Codex 2"
MPEG Stream: "Aiki No Okami"

BATOH, MASAKI Brain Pulse Music (Drag City) lp 22.00
Yep that's Masaki Batoh, the visionary leader of Japanese modern day hippie psych legends Ghost, looking rather more futuristic than his usual shamanistic self, on the cover of Brain Pulse Music, his new solo album for Drag City. The elaborate science fictional headgear Batoh is wearing, a tangle of wires, electrodes, metal bands, and for some reason goggles, is the eponymous Brain Pulse Music machine he helped invent. Apparently in clinical trials for therapeutic medical use, it somehow helps to stabilize one's brain waves, by electronically transmitting them in the form of audio signals that can be controlled via a biofeedback procedure. So this high-tech augmentation of Batoh's traditional acupuncture practice has applications to his musical activities as well, as heard here on this disc dedicated to the victims of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and ensuing nuclear disaster. According to Batoh, the BPM machine can promote healing for both the user employing it, and hopefully more widely as a tool for literally higher-minded music making.
So, what's it sound like? High pitched electronic drone-tones, rising and falling, sometimes soothing, sometimes noisy, not unlike the "onkyo" music of fellow Japanese experimentalists such as the sine-wave artist Sachiko M, for instance. We'd assume that depending upon the brains involved (of both user and listener!), the sounds the BPM machine produces could be perceived as either blissful or possibly piercingly aggravating. But, Batoh includes a lot more than straight BPM recordings on this album. The machine's drones are (usually) mixed with more traditional, ethnic Japanese acoustic instrumentation, such as wood block percussion, drums, gongs, bells, and shakuhachi flute. While some tracks are all about the BPM whines, others foreground the simple ceremonial ancient sounds (indeed, a few omit the BPM machines entirely), with the disc's 10+ minute final cut utilizing two BPM machines at the same time, alongside plasma theremin, springer FX, and shinto chant. That one is particularly amazing, pulsations indeed, by the end sounding like at least one of the BPM machines must have been plugged into Merzbow's brain.
Interesting stuff conceptually of course, but also the BPM meshes well with Batoh's less high-tech, more timeless Ghost-like musical rituals.
Nice silver-and-black graphics and design, with personal liner notes from Batoh himself.
MPEG Stream: "Eye Tracking Test"
MPEG Stream: "Kumano Codex 2"
MPEG Stream: "Aiki No Okami"

BAUDRILLARD, JEAN Le Xerox et L'Infini (The Tapeworm) cassette 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second of two releases on the newly launched UK label Tapeworm, the other being a killer solo bass record from long time aQ fave and turntablist, Philip Jeck, while this one, well, this one is a bit harder to describe. A spoken word record by two mysterious ladies called Patrica And Ellen, reading a work by legendary (anti) post modernist Jean Baudrillard. Recorded By Vicki Bennet of People Like Us, these readings are riveting, due in no small doubt to Baudrillard's tangled wordplay, but also due to the strange delivery of the two women, who take turns, in their thickly accented voices, reading the texts, sounding like they're perhaps seeing those words for the first time, struggling through pronunciations, little giggles and asides, brief breaks as one hands the text to the other. We'll be the first to say, that we're not much for 'spoken word' records, but somehow this transcends, becoming some sort of art, or sound poetry, especially when the two are reading together, those moments are fantastic, playful, silly, and the delivery of the two, slightly off, with both randomly dropping out, or stopping for a breath, makes the reading sound less 'read', and more weirdly musical.
Obviously, this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's definitely fun, and interesting, and quite strange! Like the Jeck tape, LIMITED TO 250 COPIES, we got about a dozen...

BAUER, KARL AND ELISA AMBROG (AXOLOTL & MAGIK MARKERS) Psychic Hygiene (Spirit Of Orr) 7" 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Found a little stash of these. Already out of print so these are the last copies...
Another strange (but then again, maybe not so strange) collaboration. Karl from Axolotl and Elisa from Magic Markers get together to make some beautiful and slightly noisy music together.
Elisa's guitar seems to be taking center stage on the A side, scrabbly and angular, chaotic and scarping and grinding, dense tangles of high end squiggle and scrape laid over a distant hum of tape hiss and other abstract ambience.
The flipside is more bluesy, kind of. A sort of ghostlike disembodied folk, a bit of twang, lots of clunk and clatter, stumbly and spacious, the notes and melodies gnarled and twisted into strange atonal shapes, deep rumbling swells here and there, clouds of high end shimmer, soft washed out buzz, a dreamy creaky blissed out noiseflecked abstract guitarscape. Haunting and strangely pretty.

BAY / OSLO MIRROR TRIO s/t (Conrad Sound) cd 9.98
Oslo meets the Bay Area in this cross-continental collaboration, first brought to our attention by bay area drummer extraordinaire Jacob Heule, who also tears it up in both Basshaters and Ettrick, two bands particularly known for their explosive live shows and improvisational finesse. The Bay / Oslo Mirror Trio chronicles an exceptionally fierce meeting of 3 Norwegian improvisers (Guro Skumsnes Moe, Havard Skaset, and Kyrre Laastad) and 3 Bay Area improvisers (Jacob Heule, Ava Mendoza and Tony Dryer). Don't be fooled by the "trio" tag, really this is a 6 person collaboration that covers all kinds of sonic territory. The disc opens with low electronic rumbles, metallic drones and shimmering percussion that chime and corrode into demonic clatter and wailing distortion. The instrumentation becomes less mysterious as the album unfolds, spastic drum fills flutter beneath walls of guitar feedback and head-splitting noise, sizzling electronics burn holes in amps and glimpses of double bass peer through the mix. While we definitely love the moments of chaotic bombastic whirl, we can also hear the group's careful attention to space and detail as moments of quiet restraint offer shelter from the storm. So nice! An impressive showcase of modern improv, we can't get enough!
MPEG Stream: "V1"
MPEG Stream: "H1"

BAYER, BLARKE The End Of You (Numerical Thief) 3" cd-r 11.98
If we didn't know better, we'd think that Australia and New Zealand were both made up of nothing but experimental musicians and dudes who run cd-r labels. How else to explain the seemingly endless supply of weird and wonderful music coming to us from those two places. Here's another new name to add to the rapidly expanding roster of enigmatic soundmakers from down under, Blarke Bayer. Sharing a label with US noisemakers Yellow Swans and Aussie powerviolence outfit Agents Of Abhorrence, Bayer aligns himself more with the processed guitar soundscape school of folks like Fennesz, Ambarchi, and the like. Gauzy strips of sound, layered into drifting waves of gentle feedback, warm fuzzy swells of muted guitar growl, distant keening melodic fragments, occasionally disrupted by cavernous resonant rumbles or tiny glitchy squalls, but for the most part, The End Of You is one long languorous sea of tranquility, a washed out dream world of layered guitar warmth and shimmery ambience. Quite beautiful.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES! Packaged in a cool mini 3" printed gatefold sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "The End Of You"

BEACH, MICHAEL A Horse (Spectacular Commodity) 7" 5.98

BEAKS PLINTH Organo Saturado (Gigante Sound) cd-r 6.98
Who hasn't been moved by the churning, blanketing, droning, tickling, swooning sounds of an organ? A staple in retro garage pop outfits, tiki lounges, churches and skating rinks, under capable fingers it can be one of the most expressive and versatile instruments around. Jared Blum (the man behind the Beaks Plinth moniker) shares the love, exhuming an assortment of wildly varied vintage records featuring said instrument. On Organo Saturado (inspired by Juan Torres' Organo Melodica Volume 11), he's Frankenstein'd them into something very very different from their origin. One step in the process was adjusting the RPM speed of many of the pieces waaay down to a snail's pace. It is as if the vinyl itself has been melted into some molasses or clay-like substance, but with some texturous grit embedded in the mounds, courtesy of the old record vinyl's inherent scritchy crackles. Sounds are stretched, smeared and layered almost beyond the point of recognition. What once might have been a sprightly ice skating accompaniment or a solemn chord sequence rattling the stained glass panes of a cathedral has been dragged into the murky dyspeptic depths of Beaks Plinth's lair. As always, otherworldly atmospheres are stirred up to wonderful effect, shuffling unpredictably between the haunting, the rubbery, and the strange.
MPEG Stream: "Hey La"
MPEG Stream: "Mystic Morning"

BEAR BONES LAY LOW Djid Hums (Gipsy Sphinx) lp 17.98
We know close to nothing about this band, other than it's the work of an 18 year old Venezuelan kid who lives in Belgium (and is now a member of Silvester Anfang) and who in addition to having a cool and mysterious name, has managed to whip up a pretty seriously blissed out and beautiful record of gorgeous psych-drone.
Two sidelong krautrock drone jams, mining similar territory as fellow noisemakers like Astral Social Club, Hototogisu and Burning Star Core. The first side begins with glistening streaks of fuzzed out synths and decaying tape loops, all wrapped in smeared clouds of blissy FX, but it quickly transforms into a very SUNNO)))-like low end dirge, bombarded on all sides by hiss and glitch and crumbling effects before building into a fuzzed out epic, a wall of rich, thick, subtly shifting sound, droney, dreamlike and sort of cinematic.
The flipside is another slow building epic, this time a wash of fuzzy warble and layered drones, voices and melodic fragments all processed and blurred into a gorgeous abstract soundscape, peppered with bits of percussion and all sorts of swirling sonics. Eventually, the track begins to fall apart, until all that is left is a strange chaotic swirl of percussion, hissy and buzzy and murky, while a ghostlike super distorted melody drifts and sways in the foreground.
LIMITED TO 525 COPIES! Each cover is signed and hand numbered. Super striking paste on covers, SUPER thick sleeve, pressed on 180 gram vinyl, with a photocopied insert.

BEAUSOLEIL, BOBBY Dreamways Of The Mystic (Arcanum) 2cd 28.00

MPEG Stream: "Dreamways Of The Mystic - Part One: Overture"
MPEG Stream: "Return To Punjab"
MPEG Stream: "Songs Of The Forest People"

BEAUSOLEIL, BOBBY Lucifer Rising Sessions (Qbico) picture disc 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We were able to get Bobby Beausoleil's legendary Lucifer Rising soundtrack on cd for a brief time, but it seems to be unavailable again, so for now, this super limited picture disc may be your only chance to hear this awesomely freaked out music. Side A was recorded live in San Francisco in 1967, and features a killer live version of "The Magick Powerhouse of Oz". The B side is a different version recorded a decade later, in Tracy State Prison where Bobby and and least one other Manson family member was doing time. Here's a truncated version of our review for the now out of print cd version to give you more background on Beausoleil and the Lucifer Rising soundtrack:
The rare soundtrack to cult underground director and Crowley-ite Kenneth Anger's film Lucifer Rising (begun in the mid-'60s, completed in 1980). Originally Jimmy Page was supposed to do the score, but he bowed out and the music was instead handled by another cult figure, the musical visionary and imprisoned killer Bobby Beausoliel, who composed and performed this spacey psychedelic opus with his Freedom Orchestra (presumably all fellow prisoners with Bobby).
Bobby and the Freedom Orchestra play electric guitars, Fender Rhodes electric pianos, some synths and bass...there's two drummers, and a trumpet player. The result is a sometimes sinister, sometimes blissful, always beautiful and "cosmic" drifting soundscape. Gurgling old-school electronics blend with propulsive rock drumming, while psychedelic guitar soloing tears across the sunset horizon created by the synths...The combination results in what you might imagine an early '70s Tangerine Dream/Ennio Morricone collaboration might have sounded like. It's indeed a lost classic. And the composer's life story is at least as weird and interesting as the music...
In the late Sixties, Bobby was a rising star in the LA rock-pop scene, hanging with Zappa, the Beach Boys, and Love. But then a drug deal went bad and he was sent to death row for murder, arrested 3 days before the Manson killing spree. Fortunately for him, his sentence was eventually commuted, but he's spent like the last 30 years in jail. He's been a model prisoner, pursuing his talents in music and art despite his incarceration, and you'd think that the parole board would have let him out by now (he's been paying his debt to society longer than anybody else has for a similar crime, we're told) but sadly for Bobby, he's got to deal with his association with the notorious Charles Manson. While never a member of Manson's Family (a common misconception), he did play in a band with Manson, and the media hype surrounding anything to do with Manson hasn't helped Bobby's case, as you might imagine! (At least that's the way Beausoleil tells it. But the more one delves into the story of "Lucifer Rising", the weirder things get -- for instance, apparently Bobby was supposed to PLAY the role of Lucifer in the original 1966 version of Anger's film, but the two had a falling out and Bobby allegedly stole the footage and buried it in Death Valley! How this jibes with him later writing this soundtrack, we don't know.)
Although for obvious reasons Bobby wouldn't probably approve of the use of the word to describe himself and this soundtrack, in the Aquarius Records' musical context it's quite appropriate: Cult!

BEAUSOLEIL, BOBBY The Lucifer Rising Suite: Original Soundtrack And Sessions Anthology (Ajna) 4lp box 53.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've carried this longtime aQ fave several times over the years, in multiple formats, in varying degrees of availability, unfortunately, it never seemed to stick around for long. For a while we were even in contact with Beausoleil himself via his wife who was handling his business for a while, trying to get copies. Well, now you can thank the fine folks at Ajna, who have not only reissued it again, but added TONS of unreleased material, included all sorts of new, original artwork, pressed it up on VINYL and packed it all in a super deluxe box. These are expensive, but so worth it, after all, it's the only way to currently get Lucifer Rising, and of course it's a limited pressing, so these won't be around forever...
Ahhh Lucifer Rising, the rare soundtrack to cult underground director and Crowley-ite Kenneth Anger's film Lucifer Rising (begun in the mid-'60s, completed in 1980). Originally Jimmy Page was supposed to do the score, but he bowed out and the music was instead handled by another cult figure, the musical visionary and imprisoned killer Bobby Beausoleil, who composed and performed this spacey psychedelic opus with his Freedom Orchestra (presumably all fellow prisoners with Bobby).
Bobby and the Freedom Orchestra play electric guitars, Fender Rhodes electric pianos, some synths and bass...there's two drummers, and a trumpet player. The result is a sometimes sinister, sometimes blissful, always beautiful and "cosmic" drifting soundscape. Gurgling old-school electronics blend with propulsive rock drumming, while psychedelic guitar soloing tears across the sunset horizon created by the synths...The combination results in what you might imagine an early '70s Tangerine Dream/Ennio Morricone collaboration might have sounded like. It's indeed a lost classic. And the composer's life story is at least as weird and interesting as the music...
In the late Sixties, Bobby was a rising star in the LA rock-pop scene, hanging with Zappa, the Beach Boys, and Love. But then a drug deal went bad and he was sent to death row for murder, arrested 3 days before the Manson killing spree. Fortunately for him, his sentence was eventually commuted, but he's spent like the last 30 years in jail. He's been a model prisoner, pursuing his talents in music and art despite his incarceration, and you'd think that the parole board would have let him out by now (he's been paying his debt to society longer than anybody else has for a similar crime, we're told) but sadly for Bobby, he's got to deal with his association with the notorious Charles Manson. While never a member of Manson's Family (a common misconception), he did play in a band with Manson, and the media hype surrounding anything to do with Manson hasn't helped Bobby's case, as you might imagine! (At least that's the way Beausoleil tells it. But the more one delves into the story of "Lucifer Rising", the weirder things get -- for instance, apparently Bobby was supposed to PLAY the role of Lucifer in the original 1966 version of Anger's film, but the two had a falling out and Bobby allegedly stole the footage and buried it in Death Valley! How this jibes with him later writing this soundtrack, we don't know.)
Yet, not being one to simply sit in his cell and rot, Bobby has, as we said, kept quite busy within the clutches of the California Penal system.
This new vinyl box set, includes all the music on the various versions we've carried over the years, plus SO MUCH MORE.
This version includes newly remastered recordings spanning 11 years, from the original 1967 recordings to the Tracy Prison recordings in 1978. 4 lps, 2 of which are entirely unreleased material, nine new pieces of art by Beausoleil, 8 on the printed inner sleeves, and one 2 foot by 3 foot poster, a second poster, a massive booklet, with tons of new liner notes, and loads of photos, the box gorgeous and hefty, full color outside and inside, this is THE outsider lost seventies occult rock soundtrack holy grail for sure.
And although for obvious reasons Bobby wouldn't probably approve of the use of the word to describe himself and this soundtrack, in the aQuarius recOrds' musical context it's quite appropriate: CULT!

BEBEY, FRANCIS African Electronic Music 1975-1982 (Born Bad) cd 16.98
When we first heard a track from this album a few months ago, our immediate reaction was A) wow, we really had better find a way to get it for the store and B) if and when we do, it'll probably have to be a Record Of The Week. And that was just from hearing ONE song. Fortunately, we did manage to get some of these imports, and the rest of the record only confirmed and amplified our first impression. Record Of The Week it is! (Actually, some of us here, like Andee, were already Bebey fans from way back, but for others of us, gosh, what an introduction...)
As you know, we've certainly seen a bunch of great groovy African reissues lately (in fact, there's a couple others elsewhere on this week's list). But this collection of the late Cameroonian composer & writer Francis Bebey's music is rather unique, to say the least. And it's got something in common with another cool item we're reviewing this week, the vintage "electronic soul" compilation Personal Space. As the title indicates, the focus here is on the especially electronic side of his discography, from the era when multi-instrumentalist Bebey experimented with the latest gear - tape recorders, keyboards, drum machines - to record his own music at home in Paris, making for delightfully dancey, avant-garde Afropop.
The track we had heard was the first one here, "New Track", an over 8 minute long number that starts off with tinkling thumb piano before blaring synth stabs, burbling keys, and ticking drum machine rhythms kick in... pretty soon, the song has become dense with loops and layers, repeating vocals about bananas and potatoes and politics creating a kind of cheerfully confusing mantra. It's as fresh and charming and mesmeric and groovy today as it was when Bebey recorded it in back in '82.
Though this would pretty much be worth it just for that memorable song alone, the rest of this 14-track collection is full of further futuristic Afrofunk highlights. Meaning, more blurting synthesized horns, head bopping basslines, thumping electronic beats augmented by hand percussion, and laidback vocals - some spoken, some sung, in various languages (Duala, French and English). Bebey's talent on classical guitar is also evident. It's quite an amazing mix altogether; 'makossa' music from Cameroon meets "Blow Your Head" style Moog outbursts (as on the woozy instrumental track "Super Jingle", with its skronky synth shiver set amidst hypnotic percussive pulsations). Sometimes the mood gets emotive in other ways, Bebey bringing the beats down and singing sadly in a soft, ragged voice... Here we will go out on a limb, and make a wild hypothetical rock crit "cross between this and that" equation, of Konono No.1 + Arthur Russell, whattya think?
Basically, this is as cool as anything you could imagine something called "African Electronic Music 1975-1982" might possibly sound like! And maybe even cooler than that.
Packaged with liner notes in both English and French.
MPEG Stream: "New Track"
MPEG Stream: "La Condition Masculine"
MPEG Stream: "Pygmy Love Song"
MPEG Stream: "Savanah Georgia"

BEBEY, FRANCIS African Electronic Music 1975-1982 (Born Bad) 2lp 29.00
When we first heard a track from this album a few months ago, our immediate reaction was A) wow, we really had better find a way to get it for the store and B) if and when we do, it'll probably have to be a Record Of The Week. And that was just from hearing ONE song. Fortunately, we did manage to get some of these imports, and the rest of the record only confirmed and amplified our first impression. Record Of The Week it is! (Actually, some of us here, like Andee, were already Bebey fans from way back, but for others of us, gosh, what an introduction...)
As you know, we've certainly seen a bunch of great groovy African reissues lately (in fact, there's a couple others elsewhere on this week's list). But this collection of the late Cameroonian composer & writer Francis Bebey's music is rather unique, to say the least. And it's got something in common with another cool item we're reviewing this week, the vintage "electronic soul" compilation Personal Space. As the title indicates, the focus here is on the especially electronic side of his discography, from the era when multi-instrumentalist Bebey experimented with the latest gear - tape recorders, keyboards, drum machines - to record his own music at home in Paris, making for delightfully dancey, avant-garde Afropop.
The track we had heard was the first one here, "New Track", an over 8 minute long number that starts off with tinkling thumb piano before blaring synth stabs, burbling keys, and ticking drum machine rhythms kick in... pretty soon, the song has become dense with loops and layers, repeating vocals about bananas and potatoes and politics creating a kind of cheerfully confusing mantra. It's as fresh and charming and mesmeric and groovy today as it was when Bebey recorded it in back in '82.
Though this would pretty much be worth it just for that memorable song alone, the rest of this 14-track collection is full of further futuristic Afrofunk highlights. Meaning, more blurting synthesized horns, head bopping basslines, thumping electronic beats augmented by hand percussion, and laidback vocals - some spoken, some sung, in various languages (Duala, French and English). Bebey's talent on classical guitar is also evident. It's quite an amazing mix altogether; 'makossa' music from Cameroon meets "Blow Your Head" style Moog outbursts (as on the woozy instrumental track "Super Jingle", with its skronky synth shiver set amidst hypnotic percussive pulsations). Sometimes the mood gets emotive in other ways, Bebey bringing the beats down and singing sadly in a soft, ragged voice... Here we will go out on a limb, and make a wild hypothetical rock crit "cross between this and that" equation, of Konono No.1 + Arthur Russell, whattya think?
Basically, this is as cool as anything you could imagine something called "African Electronic Music 1975-1982" might possibly sound like! And maybe even cooler than that.
Packaged with liner notes in both English and French.
MPEG Stream: "New Track"
MPEG Stream: "La Condition Masculine"
MPEG Stream: "Pygmy Love Song"
MPEG Stream: "Savanah Georgia"

BECKETT, SAMUEL Whole Thing's Coming Out Of The Dark (Intermedia / Strunz) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN PRINT! (Now in a jewelcase, not digipack.)
This is such a strange cd. And we've all become completely obsessed with it. A bizarre series of spoken instructions and long droning notes. Easier to just share Forced Exposure's description:
"The playing directions for the instrumentalist on this CD are derived directly from the so-called sucking stones sequence in Beckett's Molloy, where the author has his protagonists invent three variations of the correct way to suck 16 pebbles -- distributed between two coat or trouser pockets. Everything takes place inside the head, and yet these image provoking speech rituals find their way to the outside. Everything becomes the listener's projection room. We look on the speakers as we would an open, exposed interior. Speech is its own dissecting instrument. Existence is transferred into speech, being is removed from its time. The images remain, the sound of speech remains -- in which the secret of an entire world is concealed." Simply, it's 3 actors, reciting instructions like: "Take a stone from pocket one. Put it in your mouth. Suck it. Suck it...." and so on. With the occasional moaning horn. Totally surreal and creepy and super great.
RealAudio clip: "Image 1"
RealAudio clip: "Rule Number 3"