SWUNG Voice And Key 1996-2006 (Pseudo Arcana) 3" cd-r 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**
Swung is New Zealand musician Zoe Drayton, and as the title would suggest, these five tracks are pieces for voice and piano recorded over the last twn years. Super sweet and incredibly intimate. The first track is solo piano, dark and dreamy, the chords ringing out, a sweetly melancholy lullaby. Track two is just the between song utterances, breaths, lip smacks, all woven into a strange soundscape, that leads into a simple piano piece recorded in a big empty room. The third track is super lo-fi, a dreamy vocal line and a barely audible pump organ, a fragmented lowercase pop song. Track 4 is a warm rich organ drone over some sort of creaking machinery, really haunting and lovely. The final track is soundscape created from chopped and manipulated song parts, mostly backwards vocals, recontextualized into a beautiful but alien little ditty.
We'd never heard of Drayton or Swung, but this lil' disc definitely has us hankering for more!
Packaged in a cool little full color 3" sleeve with a printed insert.
MPEG Stream: "Dudi"
MPEG Stream: "Shuf"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II Perzische Tapijten (The Great Pop Supplement) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another fantastic collection of tranced out shamanistic kraut-psych from these aQ faves, the first pressing sold out in a heartbeat, and disappeared before we managed to get even a single copy. This is the second pressing, limited to just 250 copies, and while we did get a bunch, odds are we're gonna sell out quick...
Like the Latitudes record that we listed recently, Perzische Tapijten again finds these Flemish psychedelic alchemists unfurling lush expanses of raga-like shimmer, and darkly propulsive krautrock infused droney druggy mesmer, this time with a bit more of an Eastern influence. The tracks smolder and drift, the opener sends snake charmer melodies slithering through clouds of swirling effects, the vibe sun dappled and dreamy, which darkens considerably in the following track, which churns ominously, the riffage dark and minor key, the drums more plodding and menacing, some serious German Oak dirgery going on, a grim chunk of wah wah-ed bunker psych that is WAY too brief at less than 4 minutes. The rest of the record unwinds drowsily slipping between the two, droning ominously, chugging and churning, then blossoming into warm swirling swells of heady psychedelic shimmer, and drifting back again. Some of the tracks veer into even stranger territory, like "Assassijn", which anchors its sound on what sounds like one of those cheesy Casio keyboard presets, the band burying the looped skitter beneath moaning horns, fluttering synths, swirling FX, and mesmerizingly minimal drumming, but then it's right back into it with "Etherik" a gorgeous slab of Eastern psychedelic raga, busy rhythms float atop low slung sinewy basslines, while a sitar-like guitar buzzes hypnotically above. Finally, the record finishes with a darkly drone bit of softly chaotic psychedelia, sounding like something you might hear on a Sublime Frequencies comp, the sound lo-fi and a bit murky, the guitars blurring into lush smears of chordal thrum, the drums shuffling beneath, totally tranced out, and utter drone-psych bliss. Obviously totally recommended. And also recommended, that you snap one of these up before they're gone for good...
MPEG Stream: "Buikdans"
MPEG Stream: "Episch"
MPEG Stream: "Geschudde Kaarten Liegen Niet"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II s/t (Aurora Borealis) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Brand new album of electronic flecked tribal spaced out druggy free folk krautrocky weirdness from the Belgian "Funeral Folk"collective known as Sylvester Anfang (now spelled with a 'Y' instead of an 'I' for some mysterious reason) who have continued to evolve with every record.
The now out of print Satanische Vrede lp introduced us to these guys, with a garish lp sleeve featuring the band shirtless, wearing white hoods, holding goats on leashes, an image that somehow reflected the music inside disturbingly accurately. A primitive, ritualistic, orgy of abstract percussion, tripped out psychedelia, wandering free folk, some serious space rock, and a hint of something blacker and much more sinister.
This is only technically the second proper full length, but things have somehow gotten even more space-y, more druggy, more krautrocky, and thus more ROCKING. The record does start off with a strange sonic ritual, all mysterious spoken word, squiggly electronics, chaotic noise guitar backdrop, tons of effects, streaks of feedback, long swirling tendrils of whirring shimmer, but then BANG, the record launches right into "Na Regen Komt Sondvlred" mid-jam, as if someone just walked in on the band and pushed record without the band even noticing, locked as they were in full on transcendental space psych jam mode, relentless motorik skeletal beat, warm warbly low end pulse, and guitar, LOTS of guitar, distorted and wah wah'd the fuck out, flitting from moaning croonsome melodies to dense tangles of freaked out chaos, the whole sound and vibe so druggy and trippy and divine. The first band we thought of was German Oak, as this also sounds like it could have been recorded in some massive underground stone bunker, then Hawkwind, then some mix of the two, a seemingly endless mind expanding, speaker melting ur-jam, and we're only two songs in!
The two part "The Devil Always Shits In The Same Graves" is a massive twenty minute songsuite, that seriously smolders, the guitars twangy and Morricone-esque, the vocals a distorted scowly growl, the guitars spidery and sitar like, buzzing lazily, the melodies Eastern sounding, the drums laid waaaaay back, like listening to the Wooden Shjips at 16 rpm, but turned way down, for some late night bliss out. The second half is almost like a mirror of the first, but doused (dosed?) in noise and delay and distortion, a blurred lysergic Hawkwind outro rendered in effulgent streaks of buzz and fuzz, even more abstract and drone-y and space-y than the first part.
The four tracks in between cover a lot of ground, although never straying too far from that psychedelic buzz drenched krautrock that forms their core, from warm languid muted dronescapes, a thick smear of undulating effects laden warble over what sounds like a buried pop song, to still more white hot (outer) space rock dirge-ery, thick ropy basslines supporting swirling garage fuzz organs and tangles of psychguitar as well as dense clouds of malfunctioning electronics and haywire effects, to dense swells of super intense spacekrautdronegroove that could/should go on forever, to long stretches of glistening high end guitar shimmer and moaned sorrowful vocals, all wrapped in soft billows of dreamlike delay, to woozy garage kraut dirges, all detuned riffage, and pounding machinelike pulse, blurred buzz and otherworldly effects.
The whole record seems to melt together into one oozing organic meta-sound, a glorious extended space jam with a trajectory set somewhere in the distant future, a dizzying journey through innerspace, a slow burning series of sounds, fragments of the whole, sent spinning into the ether, streaked with starlight and glimmering reflectively in the muted glow of distant suns, a glorious bit of space rock, beamed to earth, into a clearing, in the middle of a forest, lit by firelight, channeled through the figures gathered there, surrounded by a stone circle that on closer inspection is revealed to be a haphazard assemblage of amplifiers, the cords running along the dirt of the clearing like black vines, the various figures hunched over, each wielding some sort of implement, their movements downright demonic in the firelight, and the sounds that come drifting out of the clearing even moreso....
Try as we might (and see above, we are obviously trying!), words hardly do these sounds justice. One of the best records of the year so far for sure...
MPEG Stream: "Satan Like Mijn Hielen"
MPEG Stream: "Na Regen Komt Sondvlred"
MPEG Stream: "The Devil Always Shits In The Same Graves Pt1"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II s/t (Aurora Borealis) 2lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Brand new album of electronic flecked tribal spaced out druggy free folk krautrock weirdness from the Belgian Funeral folk collective known as Sylvester Anfang (now spelled with a 'Y' instead of an 'I') who have continued to evolve with every record.
The now out of print Satanische Vrede lp introduced us to these guys, with a garish lp sleeve featuring the band shirtless, wearing white hoods, holding goats on leashes, an image that somehow reflected the music inside disturbingly accurately. A primitive, ritualistic, orgy of abstract percussion, tripped out psychedelia, wandery free folk, some serious space rock,and a hint of something blacker and much more sinister.
This is only technically the second proper full length, but things have somehow gotten even more space-y, more druggy, more krautrocky, and thus more ROCKING. The record does start off with a strange sonic ritual, all mysterious spoken word, squiggly electronics, chaotic noise guitar backdrop, tons of effects, streaks of feedback, long swirling tendrils of whirring shimmer, but then BANG, the record launches right into "Na Regen Komt Sondvlred" mid jam, as if someone just walked in on the band and pushed record without the band even noticing, locked as they were in full on transcendental space psych jam mode, relentless motorik skeletal beat, warm warbly low end pulse, and guitar, LOTS of guitar, distorted and wah wah'd the fuck out, flitting from moaning croonsome melodies to dense tangles of freaked out chaos, the whole sound and vibe so druggy and trippy and divine. The first band we thought of was German Oak, as this also sounds like it could have been recorded in some massive underground stone bunker, then Hawkwind, then some mix of the two, a seemingly endless mind expanding, speaker melting ur-jam, and we're only two songs in!
The two part "The Devil Always Shits In The Same Graves" is a massive twenty minute songsuite, that seriously smolders, the guitars twangy and Morricone-esque, the vocals a distorted scowly growl, the guitars spidery and sitar like, buzzing lazily, the melodies Eastern sounding, the drums laid waaaaay back, like listening to the Wooden Shjips at 16rpm, but turned way down, for some late night bliss out. The second half is almost like a mirror of the first, but doused in noise and delay and distortion, a blurred lysergic Hawkwind outro rendered in effulgent streaks of buzz and fuzz, even more abstract and drone-y and space-y than the first part.
The four tracks in between cover a lot of ground, although never straying too far from that psychedelic buzz drenched krautrock that forms their core, from warm languid muted dronescapes, a thick smear of undulating effects laden warble over what sounds like a buried pop song, to still more white hot (outer) space rock dirgery, thick ropy basslines supporting swirling garage fuzz organs and tangles of psychguitar as well as dense clouds of malfunctioing electronics and haywire effects, to dense swells of super intense spacekrautdronegroove that could/should go on forever, to long stretches of glistening high end guitar shimmer and moaned sorrowful vocals, all wrapped in soft billows of dreamlike delay, to woozy garage kraut dirges, all detuned riffage, and pounding machinelike pulse, blurred buzz and otherworldly effects.
The whole record seems to melt together into one oozing organic meta-sound, a glorious extended space jam with a trajectory set somewhere in the distant future, a dizzying journey through innerspace, a slow burning series of sounds, fragments of the whole, sent spinning into the ether, streaked with starlight and glimmering reflectively in the muted glow of distant suns, a glorious bit of space rock, beamed to earth, into a clearing, in the middle of a forest, lit by firelight, channeled through the figures gathered there, surrounded by a stone circle that on closer inspection is revelaed to be a haphazard assemblage of amplifiers, the cords running along the dirt of the clearing like black vines, the various figures hunched over, each wielding some sort of implement, their movements downright demonic in the firelight, and the sounds that come drifting out of the clearing even moreso....
Try as we might (and see above, we are obviously trying!), words hardly do these sounds justice. One of the best records of the year so far for sure...
MPEG Stream: "Satan Like Mijn Hielen"
MPEG Stream: "Na Regen Komt Sondvlred"
MPEG Stream: "The Devil Always Shits In The Same Graves Pt1"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II Untitled (Latitudes) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's been more than 2 years since we last heard from this Flemish free-noise post-kraut avant-psych collective, and strangely, this Latitudes session was recorded back in 2010, so while it's technically a new releases, the actual status of this drone-psych outfit is definitely in limbo. But regardless of their present state, circa 2010, Sylvester Anfang II (an homage to Amon Dull II we assume) were in fine form, culling these 35 minutes from nearly 3 hours of continuous jamming, during which the band zoned out and unfurled some gorgeous sprawling psychedelic krautrock flecked jams, jams that seemed to gradually evolve into hazy drugged out ragas, all woozy bass lines, simple motorik drumming, wheezing organs, spidery guitars, and soft hazy clouds of effects, everything blurred and smeared into gauzy expanses of minimal ritualistic drift. But the magic of SAII is that for all of their abstract drug rock exploration, they're also masters of freaked out psychedelic space rock blissout, and the tracks here are the perfect blend of both.
The opener is a loping drug-psych dirge, all tangled up in tendrils of sitar like guitar buzz and anchored by a mesmerizingly hypnotic bass groove, while the second track slows things down to a murky woozy crawl, haunting and abstract, the drumming lose and almost jazzy, the various instruments floating weightless in wide open stretches of bass thrum and echoey shimmer. the third track (all the tracks are titled "Jam 1", "Jam 2", etc.), is minimal but darkly propulsive, the tightest we've heard these guys sound, still jammy, a little bit dubby too, but dense and driving and totally hypnotic. The fourth jam, cranks up the buzz and the murk, channeling Hawkwind through some swirling King Tubby like percussion, and wrapping everything in some strange space-y synths, underneath which a buzzy garage riff churns away, the drums again loose and free, the whole song seeming to drift heavenward, and finally, the closing jam is a total space-garage stomp, sounding like some lost sixties Nuggets artifact dipped in LSD and sent spiraling into the ether, super rocking and mesmerizing, this track especially has us thinking that everyone into Carlton Melton, Wooden Shjips, White Hills, Gnod, Burnt Hills, 3 Leafs, and the like, who somehow missed out on these guys until now, will definitely find themselves adding Sylvester Anfang II to their space / kraut / psych rock pantheon.
As with all Latitudes releases, the packaging is exquisite, the cd in that immediately recognizable white on brown origami style sleeve, each one hand number, with a full color insert, the vinyl featuring the same design with an intricate die cut letterpressed jacket, both formats LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Jam 1"
MPEG Stream: "Jam 2"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II Untitled (Latitudes) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's been more than 2 years since we last heard from this Flemish free-noise post-kraut avant-psych collective, and strangely, this Latitudes session was recorded back in 2010, so while it's technically a new releases, the actual status of this drone-psych outfit is definitely in limbo. But regardless of their present state, circa 2010, Sylvester Anfang II (an homage to Amon Dull II we assume) were in fine form, culling these 35 minutes from nearly 3 hours of continuous jamming, during which the band zoned out and unfurled some gorgeous sprawling psychedelic krautrock flecked jams, jams that seemed to gradually evolve into hazy drugged out ragas, all woozy bass lines, simple motorik drumming, wheezing organs, spidery guitars, and soft hazy clouds of effects, everything blurred and smeared into gauzy expanses of minimal ritualistic drift. But the magic of SAII is that for all of their abstract drug rock exploration, they're also masters of freaked out psychedelic space rock blissout, and the tracks here are the perfect blend of both.
The opener is a loping drug-psych dirge, all tangled up in tendrils of sitar like guitar buzz and anchored by a mesmerizingly hypnotic bass groove, while the second track slows things down to a murky woozy crawl, haunting and abstract, the drumming lose and almost jazzy, the various instruments floating weightless in wide open stretches of bass thrum and echoey shimmer. the third track (all the tracks are titled "Jam 1", "Jam 2", etc.), is minimal but darkly propulsive, the tightest we've heard these guys sound, still jammy, a little bit dubby too, but dense and driving and totally hypnotic. The fourth jam, cranks up the buzz and the murk, channeling Hawkwind through some swirling King Tubby like percussion, and wrapping everything in some strange space-y synths, underneath which a buzzy garage riff churns away, the drums again loose and free, the whole song seeming to drift heavenward, and finally, the closing jam is a total space-garage stomp, sounding like some lost sixties Nuggets artifact dipped in LSD and sent spiraling into the ether, super rocking and mesmerizing, this track especially has us thinking that everyone into Carlton Melton, Wooden Shjips, White Hills, Gnod, Burnt Hills, 3 Leafs, and the like, who somehow missed out on these guys until now, will definitely find themselves adding Sylvester Anfang II to their space / kraut / psych rock pantheon.
As with all Latitudes releases, the packaging is exquisite, the cd in that immediately recognizable white on brown origami style sleeve, each one hand number, with a full color insert, the vinyl featuring the same design with an intricate die cut letterpressed jacket, both formats LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Jam 1"
MPEG Stream: "Jam 2"

SYLVIAN, DAVID Died In The Wool (Samadhisound) 2cd 15.98

SYLVIAN, DAVID Manafon (Samadhisound) cd 15.98

SYLVIAN, DAVID The Good Son Vs The Only Daughter - The Blemish Remixes (Samadhisound) cd 17.98
Such a fantastic complement (and compliment) to David Sylvian's last album Blemish (which you may or may not know was a particular fave of Andee's)! You almost wouldn't think it possible, but on many of the remixes on The Only Daughter, Sylvian's chosen remixers have stripped down the tracks to an even more stark and austere state than that of the originals -- at times giving the impression that Sylvian has gone beat poet or is having intimate tete-a-tetes with a petulant piano or lonely horn. One of the best moments on this remix collection is Readymade FC's work on "A Fire In The Forest" with its gentle crunch-crackle-chime of an old neglected musicbox. Beautiful. The impressive list of participants also includes Ryoji Ikeda, Burnt Friedman, Yoshihiro Hanno, Tatsuhiko Asano, Jan Bang, Erik Honore, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, and Akira Rabelais -- all of whom have treated Sylvian's material with the utmost respect and furthered the haunting moods and atmospheres of Blemish in a most fitting manner.
MPEG Stream: "A Fire In The Forest - Readymade FC Remix"
MPEG Stream: "Blemish - Akira Rabelais Remix"

SYNB / HSDOM s/t (Phaserprone) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's one of those mysteriously dark, mysteriously packaged, and mysteriously produced records that we love here at aQ. It's hard to say really who is doing what on this album, which may be considered a collaboration, may be a split, may be a set of remixes, or somewhere in between. SYNB is the work of Matt Brinkmann who had a couple of releases on Load a while back as Mr. Brinkmann, of fuzzed clunk and bass, but more recently has acquired notoriety as a member of the Paper Rad comic 'n' video collective. HSDOM is the work of Jochen Hartmann, half of the mighty (if under-appreciated) UW Owl, whose deadtech rhythms and blackened noise conjure the best that SPK or Factrix had managed in their most feral and brutal period. Phaserprone states that this release features SYNB reworking HSDOM materials and HSDOM reworking SYNB's recording Black/Gold Chip, although there is very little to indicate which tracks are done by or to whom. No matter how you look at it, this album seems to follow more of the UW Owl monstrousness, and it fucking rules!
After a grim introduction of close-looped feedback pushed through subharmonic distortion pedals for a thicket of skinscraping noise, convulsive rhythms tread through a perpetually exploding minefield of analog synths and circuit bent chaos. Ash, soot, toxic rain, nuclear fallout, brimstone, and any other suitably apocalyptic residue seems to hang on every blast of electricity, whether that be the abject white noise turned black or the jacked-up beats overdriven with distortion and hotwired fuzz. Within these entirely instrumental tracks, SYNB and HSDOM offer an alternative course for where Wolf Eyes could have dramatically improved their strategies of making hellish robotic electronica.
Nicely packaged in a letterpressed cover in an edition of 200 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 4"
MPEG Stream: "Track 5"

SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS Astilbe Rubra (Small Doses) cd-r 7.98
Found a small stash of these in the closet, already out of print, these are likely the last copies we'll ever see...
Another killer release from sound artist Nicholas Szczepanik, this one on Small Doses, another micro-label whose releases we just can't get enough of, every one lovingly and extravagantly packaged, which is surprising considering how limited the releases are. This one is no different, only 104 copies, housed in a gorgeous screen printed diecut fold over sleeve, with a printed insert, liner notes, and each one is hand numbered.
Szczepanik offers this release as a work in process, each track an unfinished idea, meant to be pursued and fleshed out later, but to our ears, these tracks sound perfect as they are. Deep, rich, lustrous sprawls of drone and whir and ambient shimmer. Heck there's even a track called "Shimmer", although it doesn't shimmer so much as crumble and grind and rumble. The opening track begins with a wall of soft white noise, that unfolds gradually, eventually revealing a warm chordal whir within, that stretches out into a long, dreamlike crawl. Lots of the tracks experiment with glitch and hiss and buzz, recording inconsistencies, meshed with abstract field recordings, some tracks are seriously intense, brittle, sharp and jagged, while others are murky and minimal, muted and introspective. Hard to believe these are just works in progress, but if they are, we sure can't wait to hear them when they're finished.
MPEG Stream: "Tire"
MPEG Stream: "Merci Manu & Sophie"
MPEG Stream: "Shimmer"

SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS Dear Dad (Basses Frequences / Goat Eater) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest release from one of our favorite dronescapers, this one super minimal and shimmery, a gorgeously hushed piece of abstract ultra personal drone music, a sort of sonic letter to Szczepanik's father, the result of a request by his father that his son write him a letter, a request that a younger Szczepanik didn't really understand and thus ignored at the time, only attempting to write that letter, in sound, recently, the result is Dear Dad, one of those rare records where minimal instrumental music manages to convey a surprising amount of emotion, no small feat, transforming childhood emotions, kept in check until adulthood, into sound, gorgeous lush droning sound, a hazy, gauzy brooding slow building buzz, that begins in complete silence, before becoming a whisper, and over the course of the next 20 minutes eventually a howl, a dense, ragged, blown out, noise drenched blast of crumbling corrosive crunch, still infused with buried melodies, but so intense, cathartic, a gorgeous sonic release, culminating in a strange bit of tangled melody, still in-the-red and blown out, but hauntingly lovely and lilting, wrapped in a constantly swirling squall of grinding buzz and glimmering caustic shimmer.
The second, shorter track is much more tranquil and serene, as if the catharsis of the first track purged any negativity, replaced regret with hope, the title "Forgive To Forget" seems to suggest as much, as does the music, a warm softly pulsing whir, all washed out, the soft focus edges eventually coming in to focus as the track progresses, the shapeless forms and indistinct streaks, becoming sweet melodies, the hushed whirs almost like soaring strings, a lush drone glowing with an inner warmth, that permeates all of the surrounding sounds, transforming sound into feeling, music into energy, notes and chords, textures and timbres into emotion. Not sure if it was the kind of letter Szczepanik's father was expecting, but it seems to be more than he could have hoped for.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. This is a replicated disc (not a cd-r)! Gorgeously packaged in a thick dark brown matte finish sleeve, with a printed cardstock insert, and all wrapped in a Japanese style cardstock printed obi, each with an actual stamp, every one unique.
MPEG Stream: "When I'm No Longer Afraid Of You"
MPEG Stream: "Forgive To Forget"

SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS Dull In Color (200mg) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two new releases from sound artist Nicholas Szczepanik, a long time aQ customer, whose releases have some how so far eluded us, until now. After a handful of super limited cd-r releases, this is in fact the first time we managed to get enough to review and list.
This one comes from 200mg, the same label that brought us the amazing Man Is The Bastard No Skull Left Unturned collection, as well as a handful of other strange dark musics. Szczepanik's disc fits pretty much perfectly, a single long track, expansive and dense, shifting from soft breathless whispery drones, to throbbing crumbling distorted dirgescapes and back again.
Utilizing contact mics, field recordings, found sounds, keyboards, samples, shortwave radio and manipulated vinyl (in particular, according to the liner notes, Neil Young's Harvest!) Szczepanik manages to transform those various elements into a singular new sound, a buzzing, glowing streak of constantly shifting shimmer. Over the course of the track, the sound dips into melodic shoe gazey blur, growling industrial whir, delicate crystalline glimmer, haunting distorted chiming, and washed out soft focus hiss, each sound, every part, melting seamlessly into the next. Super nice.
Packaged in a cool oversized silkscreened cardstock booklet with a pasted on front image, inside a simple stark printed black and white booklet packed with abstract photos of trees and foliage.
MPEG Stream: "Dull In Color"

SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS Please Stop Loving Me (Streamline) cd 14.98

SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS The Chiasmus (Basses Frequences / Sentient Recognition Archive) cd 14.98
A split release between bad ass French microlabel Basses Frequencies, and Szczepanik's own Sentient Recognition Archive label, The Chiasmus is Szczepanik's latest collection of dronology, and the first proper cd we've had (quite possible his first proper cd release entirely). We've long been fans, being the dronelords and ladies we are around these parts, and past Szczepanik joints have demonstrated a mastery of the drone, creating surprisingly lush and lustrous expanses of low end minimalism. On The Chiasmus, Szczepanik continues to move ever deeper, ever darker, five long tracks, each a different variation of drone, drifting from minimal black shift, to near Pop Ambient bliss.
Record opener is cavernous, epic, Teutonic and slow shifting, peppered at the beginning with bits of glitch and hiss, the song soon settles into an uneasy sprawl, ominous and dangerously grim, but still somehow warm and expansive and enveloping. The second track shifts gears completely, unfurling a gauzy bit of chordal shimmer, all warm and sun dappled and delicate and gauzy, gentle tranquil melodies played out over minutes instead of seconds, a little Eno for sure, as the song drifts and flutters and hovers dreamily in midair. The final three tracks hover somewhere in between, deep moaning post industrial whirs laid over dense metallic buzz, the two layers slowly seeping into one another like some blackened sonic spill, deep bell like tones ring out, their tones frozen in time and stretched out into softly undulating sheets of sound, slightly reflective and iridescent and kaleidoscopic, glimmering and glistening underneath some alien black sun, and finally, a loooooooong stretch of grinding muted buzz, spreading out in slow motion, it's black shimmer infused with streaks of melody, as if some strange black sea was slowly growing warmer and coming to life before our ears.
Fantastic, gorgeous stuff. Essential listening for the drone obsessed...
MPEG Stream: "Another End Of New"
MPEG Stream: "Temporary Inundation Of Sleep By Open Windows"

SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS The Truth Of Transience (Isounderscore) lp 17.98
As a medium, the drone is liminal at best. Strip away too much and without making the very best of decisions, the drone gets boring very quickly. The success of any given composition grounded in the drone is often found at the sites of transition between ambient passages, atmospheric disturbances, and / or meditative properties. Whatever "truth" the Chicago-based dronemusician Nicolas Szczepanik may be seeking through the transience of the drone is dictated from one warm immersive drone into another. Szczepanik's tonal quality has brightened considerably in the past few years, his billowing, gaseous drones sounding radiant and hymn-like. Even when he dials up the distortion, as he does on the mesmerizing second-side of this album, the slow-burning intensity of smoldering noise refracts the fundamental drone with a jagged yet shimmering quality akin to a piece of pyrite reflecting sunlight. Szczepanik steers the track through a steady build, cutting the power at the end of the track. A nice trick for sure. The first-side of the album is more of a convoluted composition, with gong-tones and rasping digitalia dispersions jutting from Szczepanik's gilded hypnosis, almost sounding like Oren Ambarchi remixing Eliane Radigue, or vice versa. Really beautiful stuff.
Housed in a fluorescent lime-green sleeve with foil stamping, marking this another excellent album from Brandon Nickell's Isounderscore label. Limited to 300 copies.
MPEG Stream: "The Truth Of Transcience (Side A)"
MPEG Stream: "The Truth Of Transcience (Side B)"

SZELAG, AGNES No Summer Or Winter (Aphonia) cd-r 8.98
A wonderful new release by Oakland, CA electro-acoustic experimental artist Agnes Szelag! Despite this 24-minute EP's title and the fact that it was recorded during the summer and winter months of 2005 through 2007, the latter season definitely seems to have left its mark on her music. The four soundscapes do evoke frosty, overcast atmospheres - looming shadows of skeletal tree branches, moaning winds that chill to the bone, the slow flutter of snowflakes and the delicate bite of ice crystals on your cheek. Szelag's darkly dreamy compositions will surely appeal to fans of Nurse With Wound's creaky ghost ship of an album Salt Marie Celeste or the icy shimmering ambience of many releases on the SF based Dynamophone label (such as Fjordne, Balustade Ensemble, Curium). Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Lato"
MPEG Stream: "Inside And Out"

SZILARD Spokes (Palaver Music) cd 11.98
We mistakenly listed this as a 3"cd-r on the last New Arrivals list, when in fact it's a proper pressed cd, gorgeously packaged, and sonically spellbinding, check it out...
Spokes is the debut full length from aQ customer Jeremy Young and is a fantastic collection of impressionistic dronemusic and miniature guitar compositions, blurred into a sprawling sonic drift, it's a "conceptual tone-cycle" which incorporates text from Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs Du Mal (1857), and features a handful of aQ faves reading Baudelaire, Aki Ondo, Liam Singer, and others, and while we're often a bit put off by 'spoken word' records, Spokes is something else entirely, the brief bits of spoken word are in fact very brief, and are often deftly woven into the sounds surrounding them, in fact the 12 minute opener, features a spoken word intro, but then proceeds to unfurl a fantastically mesmerizing stretch of abstract minimalism, from droning upper register tones, to hushed dreamlike shimmer, from hazy almost pop ambience, to a folky soft focus psychedelia, not to mention a long stretch of what sounds like field recordings and tape experiments, and some cool electronic glitchery, all held together by a drone that seems to run throughout.
Elsewhere, the spoken word bits are laid upon soft billows of glistening shimmer, wreathed in gauzy streaks of warm thrum, or set amidst field recordings of rushing water and all manner of wildlife, but surrounding those brief bits are still more lush stretches of sound, Barn Owl like atmospheric twang, strange bits of sci-fi electronics wrapped in lush undulating Niblock like tones and overtones, cinematic soundscapes laced with melancholy melodies drifting through clouds of static and hum, it's all quite hushed and lovely and dreamily haunting reminding us of Machinefabriek, Jasper TX, and other explores of similarly hushed ambient beauty and abstract dreamlike songsmithery. So nice.
Packaged in a minimal, super striking 4 panel digipak, and wrapped in recycled hemp twin with a manilla tag.
MPEG Stream: "Spokes 1111"
MPEG Stream: "Spokes 222"

T.A.C. Splintered (Small Voices) cd 10.98
T.A.C. have been at it since 1981, operating on the rhythmic side of the industrial culture, finding home for their work on Insane Music, Ant-Zen, Tesco, Minus Habens, Discordia, etc. This Italian project seemed to have undergone a number of personnel upheavals over the decades with Simon Balestrazzi being the only founding member still active in the project. Splintered was recorded back in 2003 as something of a witchy / gothy take on click'n'cuts electronica. Crisp rhythms and ultra-minimal arrangements for synth, horns, and guitar are laced with the caterwauling female vocals of Monica Serra, all of which predate what The Knife were up to a couple years later and are somewhat prescient of the whole witch house thing, if T.A.C. would have dunked everything in a massive pool of reverb and delay like Mater Suspiria Vision.
WE ONLY HAVE 4 OR 5 COPIES OF THIS, it's out of print, the label folded, so these are the last copies we'll be able to get...
MPEG Stream: "Rain Some Nights"
MPEG Stream: "Broken"
MPEG Stream: "Sacred Drift"

T.A.C. Twilight Rituals (Small Voices) cd 10.98
The acronym T.A.C. stands for Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata, which for all of us Anglophones equates to a CAT-Scan, and this Italian post-industrial / dark-pop project has been producing work since the early '80s with quite a number of limited releases mostly on Italian labels. Small Voices was one of those Italian labels, who had specialized in a lot of obscure Italian post-industrial and experimental music; thus serving T.A.C. quite well. Here, T.A.C. is revolving around the founding member Simon Balestrazzi and vocalist Monica Serra. There's a minimalist sound design to their nocturnal electronics, which almost harken to Morricone's restrained atmospherics on his horror soundtracks with lugubrious basslines, radio-fuzz guitar, and skeletal Coil-esque electronic bloop to go with Serra's languid combination of Annie Anxiety and Beth Gibbons at their most somber.
WE ONLY HAVE 4 OR 5 COPIES OF THIS, it's out of print, the label folded, so these are the last copies we'll be able to get...
MPEG Stream: "This Language Of Flesh And Blood"
MPEG Stream: "Pulling Wings Off Butterflies"

T.A.C. Waiting For The Twilight (Small Voices) cd 10.98
Of the three T.A.C. album we managed to get in, Waiting For The Twilight is the earliest, recorded in 2002 and taking many of its cues from the '90s period of Coil, with skittering glitch based electronica gliding over downtempo breakbeats. All sorts of darkly baroque flares lay upon T.A.C.'s skeletal framework with ritualized hand percussion, occluded Spanish guitar excursions, and plenty of loping basslines that all set a dark-eyed atmosphere much on par with fellow Italian avant-rock occulists Larsen, further shaped by the evocative vocalist Monica Serra.
WE ONLY HAVE 4 OR 5 COPIES OF THIS, it's out of print, the label folded, so these are the last copies we'll be able to get... so as with all the Small Voices / A Silent Place stuff we're listing this week, probably a good idea to list alternates when ordering.
MPEG Stream: "Gleaming"
MPEG Stream: "Confidence In Chemicals"
MPEG Stream: "Enters The Worm"

T.O.M.B Total Occultic Mechanical Blasphemy II (Fall Of Nature) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Way back in 2008, we reviewed the debut full length from a mysterious East coast outsider black metal horde called T.O.M.B. (which stands for Total Occultic Mechanical Blasphemy, btw). That record, Macabre Noize Royale, was a weird one, the MO of the band unlike any black metal bands we knew about. Sure, some bands record in the forest, or a cave, but these guys recorded in all sorts of strange locations, based on the places themselves, whether a location was supposedly haunted, or where some tragedy took place, or even better, with some fucked up acoustical properties.
Those remote recordings definitely informed their sound, depending on the space, the sound could be brittle and tinny, or deep and reverby and resonant, and the songs themselves differed dramatically as well, blackened dronemusick one minute, buzzing blasting blackness the next, weird industrial clang and clatter the next, often incorporating the location into the sound, banging on pipes, scraping fences and whatnot.
We managed to get just a small handful of these, the second, and perhaps final release from these guys, a collection of various tracks, recorded over the last 14 years, at all sorts of mysterious locations, a cemetery, a mental institution, a mental hospital, and although these tracks span more than a decade, they hold together pretty well, and sound incredible, from frenzied shrieking blasts of blackness, to murky, chugging, dirgey almost industrial sounding crush, from blown out blackened psychedelia, to creeping, lumbering mechanical dirgery, all clanging metal, and inhuman howls, from noise drenched Teutonic Swans-like pummel spaced out abstract ritualistic Abruptum like weirdness, from super distorted crumbling Merzbowian blacknoize blowouts to blurred and blackened ambience, this stuff is pretty goddamn great. Sonically, Total Occultic Mechanical Blasphemy II is really not that far removed from Macabre Noize Royale, but then that's just fine with us!
And again, be warned, we only got a small batch of these, not sure if we can get more when we run out...
MPEG Stream: "Black Crypt Worship"
MPEG Stream: "Rekindle The Essence Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Wizard Funeral"
MPEG Stream: "Midnight In Sodom"

T.O.M.B. Macabre Noize Royale (Todestrieb) cd 14.98
So many bands use periods like they use umlauts, just throwing them into to make their band name seem more fucked up or evil or grim. So we fully expected that T.O.M.B. were doing just that, until we discovered it does actually stand for something: Total, Occultic, Mechanical, Blasphemy.
Which is in fact a pretty good name for these guys. Cuz this is indeed some seriously occultic mechanical blasphemy. This one man band from Pennsylvania is one of the new breed of black metallers, with a healthy appetite for NOISE, but in T.O.M.B., that appetite is sated in a fairly unique way. Every song here was recorded in a different location, various places in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, all in some way spiritual, whether they were the location of some tragedy, or perhaps they are supposedly haunted, each one adding their vibe and spirit to the recordings, not to mention their bizarre acoustics.
The tracks here range from blown out blurred dronemusic, thick with distortion and buzzing guitars howled vocals, and tons of reverb from the huge concrete environs, while others are more straight ahead blackened buzz, but even those tracks are far from straight ahead, the two disparate sounds often getting all tangled up in one another, or even overlapping, the more metal parts slipping from loping mathy black metal to furious thrashing, cool start stop dynamics, haunting minor key melodies...
But the best tracks are definitely the ones that sounds like some fucked up grim metal band set up at the bottom of some cistern or on the wide open floor of some burnt out factory. The drums a machine like pulse, the guitars a howling cloud of droney buzz, the vocals just adding to the din, every once in a while bits of guitar drifting to the surface, some tracks it sounds like the band is playing in another room, very much like it sounds standing right outside the door of a club, but way more murky and washed out. Because of the field recording aspect, the sound quality varies dramatically, and tends toward the raw and lo-fi, but that's the point, it's the industrial city version of Nordic bands recording in the woods, this is band out in 'the wild', incorporating the surroundings into their sound, almost creating a new kind of USBM, this is definitely not for everyone. The sound is damaged and really strange, the metal here is plenty buzzing and blasting, but more often than not is wreathed in reverb, or buried in murk, or just plain fucked up, but awesomely fucked up. Headphones help for sure, there's so much to hear, so much going on beneath the noise and within the black buzz. Definitely one of the coolest weirdest black metal records so far this year...
MPEG Stream: "The Inauguration"
MPEG Stream: "Immitis"
MPEG Stream: "Shaare Moth"
MPEG Stream: "Brazen Endurance"

TABATA, MITSURU Lumrapideco ( Utech) cd 14.98
Yay, here's another new solo album by Acid Mothers Temple member Tabata Mitsuru (who also has Zeni Geva and the Boredoms on his heavyweight Japanese underground musician resume). We mentioned this one in our review of his other recent solo disc We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun not long ago, and it's pretty similar, again getting the thumbs up from us, for it's gorgeous, droning blend of guitar, loops, backwards tapes, and noisy (but not too noisy) glitch. The tracks Mahhagogo parts 1 and 2 (with their cute little vocal intros) bookend this disc, being the hissingest, harshest dronewerks here. In between them you'll find four other pieces that are mostly much mellower, prettier and placid... mostly. All instrumentals, made from bits of simple guitar melody and swooshing pulses of gentle psychedelic electronics. The likes of "Hydrozoa" are a lazy drift of ambient abstraction, for a sundappled afternoon nap... So nice! Feedback and distortion transformed into utter, sweet blissfulness.
So, it's been two Tabata Mitsuru albums in a fairly short span of time, but we've been fans of him for forever and by Acid Mothers Temple standards, he's not really that prolific. So, if he keeps doing what he's been doing on these, we'd be happy with a few more this year please!!
MPEG Stream: "Mahhagogo Part 1."
MPEG Stream: "Dust To Dust "

TABATA, MITSURU We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun (Ruby Red Editora) cd 16.98
Japanese guitarist Mitsuru Tabata's name should be better known than perhaps it is... he was an early member of the Boredoms, is a current member of Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno, and has served as KK Null's axe associate in Zeni Geva for many many years, among other activities. He's also made some brilliant solo albums, of which this is one (his third -- a fourth, on Utech, also just came out)!
Rather than making much use of the heavier guitar blurt that so many of his other projects feature, on this solo disc Tabata works with layers of lovely loops, quietly cycling 'round a spacey cosmos of his own invention... well for the most part, though the track "Annihilation" does sound appropriately amped up and ferocious. But most of these pieces are built from backwards tapes, shortwave drones, guitars and synths spinning out gentle folky melodies amidst soothingly tripped-out electronic effects. Abstract psychedelic lullabies, calm and spacious and really nice! Highly recommended, all Acid Mothers Temple fans should check this out -- and not just them!
MPEG Stream: "Slave March"
MPEG Stream: "Seagulls"

TAGC (THE ANTI GROUP) Psychoegoautocratical Auditory PhysiogomyDelineated (Die Stadt) cd ep 21.00
The Anti Group has existed sporadically as a research and development project concentrating on specific ideas in numerous media and a fluctuating line-ups reflecting ideas of an egoless collective. It was initially founded back in 1978 by Clock DVA's Adi Newton and Stephen Turner, although very little has been heard from either Clock DVA or The Anti Group (who often abbreviate their name as TAGC -- with the C referencing 'corporation'). Psychoegoautocratical is the first output from TAGC in more than a decade and actually doesn't appear to feature any of the founding members; rather fellow Clock DVA technician Robert Baker joins M. Hogg, and Andrew McKenzie (best known as the mastermind of The Hafler Trio). Unfortunately, the trio only provides us with a 17 minute EP as their return to the public domain. It begins very quietly with some barely audible electric fluctuations that slowly increase in volume to resemble some of the hypnotic repetitions of William Basinski's epic Disintegration Loops. As hauntingly beautiful as these passages are, TAGC continue to press forward on the volume increase up to rather painful extremes with a brazen crescendo of digital aggression.
MPEG Stream: "Psychoegoautocratical Auditory (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Psychoegoautocratical Auditory (excerpt 2)"

TAIGA REMAINS Crushed Radiant Deities (Students Of Decay) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
First proper cd release from Students Of Decay cd-r label head honcho Alex Cobb's solo guitar project Taiga Remains. Collecting two tracks from a long out of print cd-r as well as including two brand new looooong tracks, Crushed Radiant Deities is sort of the more active side of Taiga Remains' sound. On the Ribbons Of Dust series of 3" cd-r's Cobb wove spidery, smokey ambient shimmer from slowly unfurling guitars, creating a sound more like a whisper or a ghost, where as the last few releases have been more dense, more noisy, and more from the Birchville / Vibracathedral school of drawn out raga drones. The interesting thing is, Cobb's weapon of choice is an ACOUSTIC guitar! Hard to believe some of these sounds were coaxed from just an acoustic guitar, electronics and voice.
The two new tracks are longform epics, slow shifting, layered and textural blurs of sound, gritty and fuzzy, layer upon layer, over the course of each track, building in intensity, becoming a near industrial blast of M83 fuzz and My Bloody Valentine swoon and Birchville skree all wound up into one thick pulsing shimmering wall of dense sound.
The two older tracks aren't so sharp or shimmery, instead, they are a bit more lo-fi, one track is muddy and murky with mumbled melodies, all the hiss and skree, smoothed into warm warbly smears, very dreamy and underwater sounding, a static drift, the various layers of sound shifting almost imperceptibly, the other is thick and fierce, another static wash of buzzing and whirring, like a symphony of lawnmowers and weed wackers and air conditioners, subtle melodies and barely there shifts in tone and timbre buried within a serious squall of swarming insectoid buzz. Awesome stuff.
Packaged in a super nice black white and red fold together cardstock sleeve, with a cool abstract splatter design on the outside, and liner notes and abstract little spirograph designs on the inside. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "Neone"
MPEG Stream: "Vistas"

TAIGA REMAINS Obelia (Barl Fire) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another lost recording from aQ faves Taiga Remains, one of two unearthed releases that have been lurking on the shelves but have somehow made it unreviewed until now.
This one came out on Barl Fire a while back, and since then the label has called it quits, so these are absolutely the very last copies, so act fast. It's too bad cd-r releases like this are so limited, when you think about the time and care and love that went into beautiful sounds like these, it seems almost criminal that they might only be heard by 50 or 100 people. And these are beautiful sounds, Taiga Remains, aka Alex Cobb, is as comfortable weaving haunting noisescapes as he is unfurling sweet minimal Appalachia, this one is begins as the latter, a spacious reverb drenched chunk of Fahey-esque soft strum, notes and chords drifting in a wide open expanse of reverby shimmer. So delicate and soft focus and lovely.
This is quickly followed up by a bout of extended buzz. A prickly electronic hum, the excited vibrations of steel strings rendered in a subtly undulating layer of insectoid whir, cloaking a deep rumbling drone and mysterious barely audible melodies. The closer is a 3 minute reprise of the opener, more delicate harmonics and fluttery strum, quivering like a dew dappled spider web spun across a sun dappled sonic glade. So so so nice.
Hopefully this will get reissued one of these days, but for now, a handful of you can feast on these lovely sounds.
MPEG Stream: "Absence-Frost"
MPEG Stream: "Shining Metal Spheres"

TAIGA REMAINS Ribbons Of Dust (Root Strata) cd 12.98
Finally the way too limited Ribbons Of Dust cd-r's get a proper cd reissue. Three volumes, each a 3" cd-r, from one of our favorite abstract drone outfits going. We raved about all three installments, so if you missed out on any or all, or just want to upgrade to actual cd, then now's your chance.
Seems like the impetus for starting a cd-r label must be born from a similar need to create music yourself. Considering how many microlabel bosses are also serious sound makers in their own right (Campbell Kneale and Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Antony Milton and PseudoArcana, Brad Rose and Digitalis, etc.) Makes sense, a passion for discovering new music can be fed directly by making that new music yourself. Taiga Remains is the solo electric guitar project of Alex Cobb, who also happens to run Students Of Decay, a pretty badass cd-r label. Volume 1 of Ribbons Of Dust is a slow moving, bleary eyed, slow moving morning of a track. The guitar is rendered riffless, instead it's transformed into a sparkling glistening glimpse of a sun dappled expanse of still water, foggy and fuzzy, a dream world of shimmering muted high end drift and warm soft hum. Reminds us a bit of ex-Souled American axeman Scott Tuma, and his abstract slow motion soundscapes. So totally lovely and blissfully otherworldly.
Volume 2 is made up of huge billowy clouds of dense but soft electric guitar drift. Melodies played out over minutes instead of seconds. Ambarchi meets Fennesz but with the bones removed, leaving just a drifting ghost of the guitar. It's hard to even think of this as a guitar. There's no strumming, or picking, or bowing, instead it's nothing but shimmering and glistening and sparkling and reverberating and drifting and shining and floating and twinkling and slowly fading away...
The final volume is all about late night, disembodied slow shifting guitar glimmer. Huge soft clouds of warm chords, thick swells of reverberating steel strings, minor key drifts of shimmer and whir, very oceanic, like drifting on some soft sleep sea, each note another gentle swell, lulling you into a state of complete bliss out. So beautiful.
Packaged in a super striking silkscreened origmai style fold over cardstock sleeve with a printed insert.
MPEG Stream: "Ribbons Of Dust"
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 2"

TAIGA REMAINS Ribbons of Dust (Students Of Decay) 3" cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Seems like the impetus for starting a cd-r label must be born from a similar need to create music yourself. Considering how many microlabel bosses are also serious sound makers in their own right (Campbell Kneale and Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Antony Milton and PseudoArcana, Brad Rose and Digitalis, etc.) Makes sense, a passion for discovering new music can be fed directly by making that new music yourself. Taiga Remains is the solo electric guitar project of Alex Cobb, who also happens to run Students Of Decay, a pretty badass cd-r label. This 3" cd-r is a slow moving, bleary eyed, slow moving morning of a track. The guitar is rendered riffless, instead it's transformed into a sparkling glistening glimpse of a sun dappled expanse of still water, foggy and fuzzy, a dream world of shimmering muted high end drift and warm soft hum. Reminds us a bit of ex-Souled American axeman Scott Tuma, and his abstract slow motion soundscapes. So totally lovely and blissfully otherworldly.
Packaged in a mini jewel case, with a pretty black on brown sleeve. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. And you know these will be gone quick...
MPEG Stream: "Ribbons Of Dust"

TAIGA REMAINS Ribbons Of Dust Pt. 2 (Students Of Decay) 3" cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Students Of Decay label head honcho Alex Cobb returns with part two of his Ribbons Of Dust series of solo guitar explorations under the name Taiga Remains. And since volume one is gone as is the super limited cassette we got a while back, you're gonna want to grab this one quick, cuz we'll be out before you know it and it's pretty dang great. Huge billowy clouds of dense but soft electric guitar drift. Melodies played out over minutes instead of seconds. Ambarchi meets Fennesz but with the bones removed, leaving just a drifting ghost of the guitar. It's hard to even think of this as a guitar. There's no strumming, or picking, or bowing, instead it's nothing but shimmering and glistening and sparkling and reverberating and drifting and shining and floating and twinkling and slowly fading away...
Packaged in a mini jewel case, with a pretty black on dark blue sleeve. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. These will be gone in no time!
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 2"

TAIGA REMAINS Ribbons Of Dust Pt. 3 (Students Of Decay) 3" cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Students Of Decay label head honcho Alex Cobb returns one final time (well, not final, he's not dead or anything) with the last installment in the Ribbons Of Dust trilogy, a series of 3"cd-r's, each featuring gorgeous dreamy late night solo guitar excursions performed under the name Taiga Remains...
If you have the first two, or he long out of print cassette tape, you'll know what this is all about and probably want this too.
But for those who have missed out on last few, Taiga Remains is all about late night, disembodied slow shifting guitar glimmer. Huge soft clouds of warm chords, thick swells of reverberating steel strings, minor key drifts of shimmer and whir, very oceanic, like drifting on some soft sleep sea, each note another gentle swell, lulling you into a state of complete bliss out.
So beautiful.
Packaged in a mini jewel case, with a pretty black on dark maroon sleeve. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. These will be gone in no time!
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

TAIGA REMAINS The Nothing and The Nowhere (Ruralfaune) cd-r 10.98
Not sure why we had this marked as out of print on our website, well, it IS actually out of print, but we still had 7 or 8 tucked away in the closet, so last chance to grab a copy of this gorgeous chunk of ultraminimal guitardrone ambience....
Taiga Remains is the solo guitar project of Students Of Decay label head honcho Alex Cobb and The Nothing And Nowhere is just that, a 40 minute expanse of the sound of nothing and nowhere. Almost. With just an electric guitar and some effect pedals, Cobb transforms his axe into some sort of drone producing dream machine, unfurling wispy, vapor trails of abstract melody, of glistening midnight shimmer, long drawn out tendrils of sound that seem to be on the verge of dissipating and disappearing completely.
Like Spacemen 3 with all the rock sucked out, leaving just a ghostly trace of that buzzing raga like guitar, let loose to drift foglike over moonlit landscapes. Or Loren Connors, playing at the bottom of a well, the sounds just barely making it to the surface, and by then, more soft shadows of the sound than the actual sound itself. Dreamlike, delicate and so completely captivating.
Packaged in a full color sleeve with a printed insert and sealed shut with an actual TWIG (note: some of our last copies may not have a twig)!!
LIMITED TO 95 COPIES!! Out of print at the label, but we've still got a few...
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

TAIGA REMAINS Under The Weather (Onomato) 3" cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's been a little while since we've heard from Taiga Remains, aka Alex Cobb, seems he's busy running the kick ass Students Of Decay label, but we've been doing some digging around and discovered a few Taiga titles lurking in the shadows. The first is this 3"cd-r, now long out of print, these are absolutely the last copies, released on Onomato, in a cool mini 3" jewel case, a single 17 minute song, a symphony of hiss, a wash of soft white noise draped over a swirl of dark drones, the reverberate and pulse beneath the staticky surface, eventually, as your ears become accustomed to the hiss, it sort of melts away and becomes another layer of drone, a warm billowy sonic halo, while the buried tones, spell out a slooooow drawn out melody, pretty intense when you realize this was recorded using just an acoustic guitar and some delay. Eventually much of the hiss does in fact melt away, leaving the buried tones revealed, as they begin to blossom into extended tones, muted high end, gently throbbing and pulsing hypnotically, eventually fading out completely.
As always super nice stuff. And again, LIMITED like crazy, OUT OF PRINT, these are the last copies ever...
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

TAIGA REMAINS Unfamiliar Sphere, Thin As Light (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Alex Cobb, aka Taiga Remains, has been a busy boy of late, with a whole clutch of cd-r's, a brand new proper cd full length, as well as finding time to run his Students Of Decay label. This, his first for Celebrate Psi Phenomenon is a bit of a departure from his usual modus operandi, trading in an electric guitar and a suitcase full of FX for an acoustic guitar, an organ and a delay pedal. And the results are pretty fantastic. It's a little bit difficult to believe that the majority of this disc was made with an acoustic guitar, there's so much jagged scrape and mysterious shimmer. The opening track alone is a strange slow shifting stretch of insectoid buzz, with little bits of melody drifting up here and there, but for the most part, it sounds like a dentist's drill, or as if he were somehow playing the guitar with a tiny fan, an endlessly oscillating reverberation, that is rife with subtle overtones and barely discernible melodic color. At first it sounds a bit harsh, but as you sink in, it's strangely soothing and dreamy. The second track somehow whips the acoustic guitar into billowing clouds of glistening metallic whirs, again transforming any trace of a typical acoustic guitar into blissful drifts of soft focus drone. The third track is the most acoustic sounding of the bunch, almost like a slowed down, stretched out bit of abstract Appalachia, the guitar humming lazily upon a thick layer of wheezing organ. The final track is another gorgeous expanse of dreamlike sound, the organ and acoustic guitar whirled into a looped hypnotic drone, thick with lo-fi detritus, room sound and all manner of buzz, sounding quite a bit like Birchville Cat Motel oddly enough.
SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
MPEG Stream: "Upon Reflection On Think Language"
MPEG Stream: "Blown Ash Firmament"

TAIGA REMAINS Vermillion Dusk (Twonicorn) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another batch of WAY too limited cassette releases from Twonicorn, whose releases seem to go out of print in the blink of an eye. This time we managed to get even more copies, in fact we took most of the copies from each pressing, but considering the fact that the pressing usually run between 40 and 100 copies, you know these won't last long either way.
A few weeks back we reviewed a killer 3" cd-r from Taiga Remains, aka Alex Cobb (the man who runs the amazing Students Of Decay cd-r label), a gorgeously bleary, dreamy solo guitar exploration that we couldn't stop listening to. So here we have the recently releases cassette only follow up, but unlike the cd-r, the tape is a lot more aggressive, less drifty and abstract, more growling and distorted. The vibe is still of the blissed out drone variety, but the drones here are constructed from buzzing snarling metallic rumbles, shimmering sharp edged distorted crunch, and thick slabs of murky whir. Still totally dreamy and otherworldly, but a lot darker and grittier, falling more along the lines of Sunroof! or Birchville Cat Motel. Which is not a bad thing at all!
LIMITED TO 85 COPIES. We got 20 and we will not be able to get any more.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

TAIGA REMAINS Xiaguan' (Students Of Decay) 3" cd-r 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's been a while since we've heard from Taiga Remains, aka Students of Decay head honcho Alex Cobb, but this is not actually a new record, it's another one of those releases that somehow slipped through the cracks, and we only just now noticed we had a handful of these in stock, and had somehow never listed it, so here we go, Taiga Remains' Xiaguan', a 20 plus minute super limited 3" cd-r, well, super limited when it came out, now plain OUT OF PRINT, so these are the very last copies we'll see, so grab one while you can.
Like other Taiga Remains releases, Cobb takes guitars, and a small arsenal of other noise makers, and weaves them all into something ghostly and abstract, here it's an acoustic guitar, and it's paired up with electronics, bows, loops and chopsticks(!). The result is a strange shimmery dronescape, of bowed and scraped metal strings, lots of layered high end, creaks and groans, streaks of skree wrapped in reverb and left to drift in soft billows of soft focus whir, a dizzying expanse of soft soft noise, that about part way through slips into the lower registers, and the scrapes now in the background, behind a deep cavernous thrum, warm and languid and hypnotic, the thrum growing thicker and more intense, a slow smoldering build that eventually becomes a heaving swell of softly pulsing buzz and whir, before finishing off with a swirling high end cacophony. Good stuff, anyone into abstract guitar drones and minimal free dronescaping will dig this big time. And again, these are the last copies ever!
MPEG Stream: "Music For Early Mornings"

TAIGA REMAINS / GARETH HARDWICK split (Low Point) 10" 8.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Another split record featuring two aQ faves, each offering up a sidelong slab of dreamy dronemusic, with each giving it their own subtle twist.
Taiga Remains, aka Alex Cobb, head honcho of the Students Of Decay label, unleashes a deep reverberant drone, all shimmery metallics and soft low end swells. As the track progresses though, the sounds gets more and more dense, thickening, sprawling, becoming more ominous, the bass deepening, within this viscous flow, lurk buried melodies, steel string buzz, super deep melodic rumbles that surface like some massive sea creature before slipping back under. Near the end the sound becomes almost orchestral before finally flickering out.
Gareth Hardwick takes the other side, and his sound is much more tranquil and gentle than the Taiga side, but still similar, almost like the same piece, just stripped to its essence, warm languid layers drifting to and fro, unfurling a soft slow motion melody, melancholy and wistful. About halfway through, electric guitars join in, pulsing and buzzing over the soft shimmery drift, adding an ominous edge, layer upon layer, constantly shifting, overtones appearing and disappearing, the whole thing warm and thick and mesmerizing. Almost metallic but managing to remain somehow soporific and soothing.
Pressed on ultra thick vinyl, housed in a plain green sleeve, and VERY VERY LIMITED!

TAIGA REMAINS / HEAVY WINGED s/t (Not Not Fun) 12" Picture Disc 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not sure why this never got listed, but if it had, we definitely wouldn't have any left. A killer match up, one man drone against blown out psych rock trio.
A deluxe vinyl version of a long out of print cd-r. Heavy winged kick up some serious shit with their sidelong jam, freaked out andheavy as fuck, a serious sonic pumelling for sure. Taiga Remains offers up a gorgeous thick fuzzed out dronescape, and tacks on a bonus track not on the original cd-r.
Packaged in over the top hand screened vinyl sleeves with cut out triangular stickers artfully arranged on top, Pressed on foggy clear vinyl. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES! We're guessing this is probably WAY out of print, we do have 5 or 6 in stock, and odds are that's all we'll ever get...

TAIGA REMAINS / RV PAINTINGS split (Blackest Rainbow) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Blackest Rainbow has been pretty damn consistent in their survey of the pharmacologically tainted realm of dronemusik, releasing great albums from Aidan Baker, Barn Owl, Elm, Tom Carter, Jazzfinger, more recently that Bong / Quttinirpaaq split, and certainly this incredible split between Taiga Remains and RV Paintings. The former is the work of Alex Cobb, who also runs the equally great label Students Of Decay; and the latter is a side project of the Starving Weirdos. Both sides of the LP dwell heavily upon reverb saturation grafted onto acoustic dronings from various sources - probably guitar, certainly some bells, maybe a long-stringed instrument. Such is a typical strategy for RV Paintings, but is somewhat novel for Taiga Remains, whose driftscape sensibility tends more towards the smooth surface arcing for tone and harmony. If Blackest Rainbow hadn't etched the names of each artist into the surface of the wax, you'd have a 50 percent chance of guessing who was doing each side. Perhaps Cobb was deliberately trying to coax more of a RV Paintings sound from his gear and vice versa. The major difference in these two sides only becomes apparent when RV Paintings begins to gently tap across sheet metal, gongs, and a drum kit a la Eddie Prevost from AMM. The drone is still the central feature, and the percussive serves to levitate and propel the drone forward. Really great stuff to be found here, and limited to a mere 400 copies.

TAIGAA s/t (self-released) cd-r 7.98

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS August 1974 (Columbia Japan) 2cd 41.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
FINALLY BACK IN STOCK. THE ULTIMATE DRONE RECORD.
We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second lp which has been unavailable for several years now, but when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossible grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long hairded seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching it drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his instrument, sending a sonic respone, until these messages, these sounds weave into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. ONE OF OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS!!
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TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS August 1974 (P-Vine / Columbia Japan) 2cd 41.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, repressed and back in stock, but who knows for how long?! THE ULTIMATE DRONE RECORD!! We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second lp, the reissue has gone in and out of print, and has been unavailable for several years now, but when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossible grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long hairded seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching it drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his instrument, sending a sonic response, until these messages, these sounds weave into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. ONE OF OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS!!
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TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS August 1974 (Phoenix) 2cd 25.00
Not sure how we never made this our Record Of The Week before, considering most aQuarians would probably rank this as one of their all time favorite drone records. Or all time favorite Japanese psychedelic records, heck, it's pretty much just one of our all time favorite records ever PERIOD. We've listed it in the past as a pricey import double cd, and an even pricier double lp, and maybe we thought it a bit too expensive before, but now with this new, more reasonably priced reissue, it seems like a no brainer to finally bestow the Record Of The Week honors on an album that has deserved it ever since we first heard it years and years ago. For those who have yet to discover the mysterious psychedelic beauty of Taj Mahal Travellers, you are in for a treat, and most likely a new musical obsession...
We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second lp which has been sporadically available over the years, and when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossibly grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long haired seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching them drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his own instrument, sending a sonic response, these messages, these billows of abstract shimmer and steaks of lush reverberation weaving into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. One of the most hauntingly mysterious and utterly beautiful drone records we've heard, and one of our all time favorite records!
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TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS August 1974 (Phoenix) 2lp 34.00
Made the latest cd reissue of this a Record Of The Week last time, now the same label has also done a fancy double vinyl version!!!
Not sure how we never made this our Record Of The Week before, considering most aQuarians would probably rank this as one of their all time favorite drone records. Or all time favorite Japanese psychedelic records, heck, it's pretty much just one of our all time favorite records ever PERIOD. We've listed it in the past as a pricey import double cd, and an even pricier double lp, and maybe we thought it a bit too expensive before, but now with this new, more reasonably priced reissue, it seems like a no brainer to finally bestow the Record Of The Week honors on an album that has deserved it ever since we first heard it years and years ago. For those who have yet to discover the mysterious psychedelic beauty of Taj Mahal Travellers, you are in for a treat, and most likely a new musical obsession...
We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second album which has been sporadically available over the years, and when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossibly grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long haired seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching them drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his own instrument, sending a sonic response, these messages, these billows of abstract shimmer and steaks of lush reverberation weaving into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. One of the most hauntingly mysterious and utterly beautiful drone records we've heard, and one of our all time favorite records!, Gatefold packaging, 180 gram vinyl.
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TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS July 15, 1972 (Showboat / Sky Station) cd 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Taj-Mahal Travellers double cd 'August 1974' has to be one of the most essential drone music documents of the 20th century. Our description of that record describes the Taj Mahal Travellers sound perfectly: "epic higher key improvised drone extravaganzas performed on beaches, deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated into the sound. Feedback, time-space lag, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound." 'July 15th, 1972' is the precursor to that seminal record and is equally as vital and musically breathtaking.
Three extended tracks of sublime and transcendental musique concrete/drone. Sparse and spacious. With vocals and electronic trumpets augmenting the violin, contrabass, harmonica, sheet iron, castanet, vibraphone, guitar, percussion and radio oscillators. Dreamy and otherworldly, three epic tracks of hum and rumble, squeak and skree, clatter and tinkle envelop you in a completely new world of sound. So essential.
RealAudio clip: "Between 6:20-6:46P.M."

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS Live at Sohgetsu Hall in Tokyo, 15th July 1972 (BB) lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS Live in Tokyo, 19th August 1974 (Part One & Two) (BB) lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS Live in Tokyo, 19th August 1974 (Part Three & Four) (BB) lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

TAKAGI, MASAKATSU Pia (Carpark) 2cd 17.98
Takagi Masakatsu's electronic ambience has been glitchified as another laptop excursion, yet he maintains a whimsical sense of melody rarely heard since Oval's "Diskont 94" and a sly use of the field recordings, allowing for the laughter of children and various sounds of domesticty to intervene in the subtly shifting glitch collages. Only disc one has audio, with disc two being a CD-Rom for both Mac and Windows.