BLACK BONED ANGEL & NADJA Christ Send Light (Battlecruiser / Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another matchup that had to happen eventually, it was only a matter of time. Campbell Kneale's Black Boned Angel, and Aidan Baker's Nadja. Two modern groups redefining doom metal. Filtering doom through their own dronedirge aesthetics, each with a distinctly unique take on doom, BBA's more of a glacial noise drenched dirge, Nadja's more of a blissed out metalgaze.
The two together though churn out what can only be described as epic grandiose doom pop. Or something like that. Soaring vocals, over thick churning crumbling distortion. It almost sounds like a sludge metal Queen, or a bit like recent Record Of The Week honorees Torche, or even Harvey Milk at their most dramatic and over the top.
The main riff is a slowed down classic rocker, turned sludgey and lugubrious but not losing any of its might or majesty. Guitars screech and soar and grind all around it, what sounds like a piano plinks along with the vocals, a sunshiney melody, but it's the vocals, that turn this into glorious sludgepop, a minor key lament, delivered in a plaintive wail, way down in the mix as well, but loud enough to totally carry the song, that main melody lodged in your head, forever!
Not really sure what else to say. If the math of Nadja + Black Boned Angel = Harvey Milk + Torche + Queen x loads of blown out distortion and sun baked buzz doesn't add up for you, you just might be reading the wrong listÉ
This is an ep teaser for the forthcoming full length from the same team on 20 Buck Spin, but fear not, this song, all 21+ minutes of it, is available only on this disc!!
MPEG Stream: "Christ Send Light"

BLACK BOX, THE (Flingco) battery powered soundbox 16.98
We're not really pissed. Not really. After all, we're highlighting this aren't we? They beat us to it fair and square. And of course the fine folks at Flingco could have had no idea that WE at Aquarius, after having sold sooooo many of FM3's now famous Buddha Machine, had already thought up the idea of doing our own "Buddha Machine" style soundbox, in black, and calling it (wait for it) The Black Box. They actually did it though, we just thought about it, never actually tried to contact a factory in China to have 'em manufactured or anything. So kudos to Flingco for being the first folks out there to jump on FM3's Buddha Machine bandwagon with their own (completely different and equally cool) knock off.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Buddha Machine (hard to imagine at this point, since it seems like every AQ customer has bought at least 2, but possible), it's a little plastic battery operated gadget that plays short musical loops through a tiny speaker, though it could also be connected to headphones or a stereo. The "original" Buddha Machine was all ambient drone, meditative in nature. This Black Box is along those lines, featuring a finite (9) number of loops that you can randomly switch between by flicking a switch on the side of the thing. And it is sort of ambient too... just more DARK ambient we guess. The short, textural tracks on here come from several artists on the outskirts of the black metal scene, blackened but not at all metal, we'd say, much more mysterious... they're by folks we're already fans of from the Flingco stable. There's two loops by Wrnlrd, three by Haptic, and two by Cristal. Along with two "spoken word sound pieces" by one Annie Feldmeier Adams. We're not sure which are which (aside from Adams' two loops), but all are creepy and mesmeric, at least one particularly chaotic and mayhemic. A couple are whispery, windy, rattling drones. Another features higher pitched, wavering pulsations. One is like the tolling of an industrial-noise bell. One consists of white noise and distant clanking. And while at first we were a bit apprehensive when told that 2 of the loops were "spoken word", not to fear, those two actually really work well in this context, and are of sonic interest besides their textual content. The nasal, treated voice sounds like a mental patient, intoning lifelessly "I don't feel anything" and "Today I will not kill myself". The bummed out, mantric repetition of the latter phrase in particular is quite effective! All nine tracks are rather tinny and distorted, and, well, that's probably the idea.
Comparisons to FM3's Buddha Machine are of course inevitable. Thus: while the FM3 boxes are available in a variety of pleasing colors, this item comes only in BLACK, obviously, and is shaped rather like a cute little tombstone, rounded in a semi-circle at the top. Unlike the Buddha Machine, this is is constructed so that the speaker is on the same side as the compartment for the batteries (it takes 2 AA batteries, not included, and there's also a jack for a separate power supply), as well as the screws that hold it together. Nothing wrong with that, just a design difference. As with FM3's first Buddha Machine, you can control the volume, and skip from loop to loop, and that's it (the Buddha Machine II added pitch control, a luxury not found here). Sound-wise, this is of course a whole 'nother thing, we've already discussed the nature of the loops above. One other difference: it's cheaper!
What else to say? It's a neat little soundbox thingie. It's got weird downer sounds on it. We like it! Get one!! Oh, and it's LIMITED to just 2000 units!!
Meanwhile, OUR hypothetical Black Box was going to have actual black metal loops on it (blastbeats and screams and buzzing guitar riffs) and an inverted pentagram on the front of it too... that's quite a bit different from this, really, so who knows, it could still happen someday. But we won't be calling it the Black Box now... maybe the Satan Machine? (Nobody steal that idea or we WILL get pissed. Shoot, probably shouldn't even have mentioned it. Also don't use White Box 'cause that's apparently Flingco's planned follow up to this.). Anyway, we're happy to see the "battery powered soundbox" format take off in another direction, and we're pretty sure everyone with a Buddha Machine I or II or both will want to add this to their collection... and for those of a darker, more depressive disposition, this is definitely the soundbox for you. Move over FM3!
(Another good soundbox idea we just thought of that we'd like someone to steal: The Conet Box!! Or Numbers Station Machine.)

BLACK BUG I Don't Like You / You A Grave (Avant!) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Most female fronted, angry rock bands probably get tired of getting tagged Riot Grrl, especially since for all intents and purposes, Riot Grrl ceased to be relevant years ago, maybe even ceased to exist entirely. BUT, if anyone was hoping to spawn a revival, Black Bug would be the band to make it happen. The A side of this 7", "I Don't Like You" is a mother fucking ANTHEM. The main riff totally distorted and so in-the-red it threatens to just fall to pieces, but then the chorus kicks in, and another guitar, EVEN MORE distorted and heavy and high in the mix, lurches into action, and lays waste to EVERYTHING. The drums are a mere pitter pat when faced with such blown out riffage, but it doesn't even matter. The vocals, though, seal the deal, distorted, wrapped in effects, howled with haughty pissed intensity, as loud and corrosive as the guitars it snarls around. And the hook, shit, if you gussied it up and got rid of some of the guitars and re-recorded it in a real studio we're talking something like the Breeders' "Cannonball", but instead, as is, it's a fierce fucked up, filthy fucking ANTHEM!
Like the Raveonettes if they were 13 years old, obsessed with Turbonegro, and SO pissed at their shit for brains boyfriend. Or maybe Daisy Chainsaw, but with a singer who is less waifish and sexy, and more bad ass and scary as shit. Reminds us a bit of Monarch punk rock alter ego Rainbow Of Death.
The flipside is not quite the ANTHEM as the A side, but it still slays, processed synthy buzz, tons of effects, this one more groovy and almost dance-y, in a sort of robotic way, more sassy pissed girl vocals. It's not hard to imagine Black Bug waiting outside some dance club and then kicking the living shit out of Uffie. Hellz Yeah!!
Cool thick black and blue sleeve, pressed on coke bottle clear vinyl.
MPEG Stream: "I Don't Like You"

BLACK BUG Police Helicopter (HoZac Records) 7" 5.98
This is the first we've heard from Swedish new wave garage rock,synth punk trio Black Bug since their mind blowing full length on tUMULt from a while back. Which itself was a furious collection of, as we described it then: "equal parts cold wave gloom, riot grrl yowl, in-the-red punk rock, and ultra raw blown out garage pop - from howling pounding furious crunch, to warped woozy synthy drone, to dour pulsing minimal cold wave, to super anthemic almost emo garage rock, and every variation in between. The recording raw and lo-fi, the drums, the synths, the bass, the vocals, in various stages of blown out distorted crumble, the drums clipped and weirdly processed, pushed as loud as they can go, the synth too, fuzzy, buzzy, wreathed in a sort of decaying haze, the vocals wild and unhinged and super emotional, sometimes a playful yelp, sometimes a cold croon, other times a full on hysterical shriek." Indeed.
And even then we were wondering why the hell BB weren't HUGE. And this brand new three song 7" has us again wondering how long it's gonna take before the rest of the world finally catch on. Cuz this stuff is so good, heavy, fuzzy, poppy, groovy, synthy, noisy and catchy like crazy. The sound on this new 7" finds the band dialing back a bit on the blown out crunch, but only a bit, the opener sounds like some seventies cop show theme fused to the chase scene music from a long lost futuristic thriller, a sort of pulsing kraut synth crunch, the bass thick and fuzzy, the vocals a softly distorted howl over the top, all wreathed in surprisingly swoonsome melodies, the result weirdly dramatic and cinematic. The second track is more like old school BB, and definitely sounds like an outtake from the full length, skittery machine like rhythms, lo-fi synth buzz and echoey vox, a definite Riot Grrl / DHR / synthwave hybrid, a retro futuristic chunk of garage-y synthpunk laced with creepy Gobliny melodies, and infused with hooks galore.
The B side / title track is a killer, all dirgey and ominous, another sprawl of futuristic sinister synthwave, and another jam that could be some sort of soundtrack, only this time it's some seventies zombie sci-fi thriller, the creeping, moody cinematic synths all tangled up into impossibly poppy hooks, the sort of hooks that you'll find yourself humming days later, the track continues to shift back and forth from hooky synthy fuzz pop to creepy seventies psychedelic soundtracky synth buzz and back again. SO GREAT!!

BLACK DEVIL DISCO CLUB Presents The Strange New World of Bernard Fevre (Lo Recordings) cd 14.98
Lo previously brought us the most excellent, very much of the retro moment Black Devil Disco Club disc entitled 28 After, which was (supposedly) an archival document of the late '70s Parisian answer to Italo-Disco and Giorgio Moroder. We say supposedly 'cause the whole BDDC thing is intentionally shrouded in mystery, and it's been postulated that the contents of that disc are probably partly old and partly new. It's conclusively the case, though, that the man behind BDDC, one Bernard Fevre, WAS indeed active making music in the '70s. And now under the BDDC name, Lo has re-released Fevre's 1975 "library music" album, The Strange World Of Bernard Fevre. Sort of, that is. Being BDDC, things aren't that straightforward. First off, note that this cd is titled The Strange NEW World of Bernard Fevre, and features obviously all-new cover art. Furthermore, some research reveals that 7 of the 14 tracks on here appeared on the authentic, original LP, but 7 didn't... likewise, an equal number of tracks from the 1975 record don't show up on this disc (we're disappointed not to get to hear the likes of "Hell Ride" ferinstance). But not THAT disappointed, since what we have here, whenever and wherever it's from, is pretty neat!!
Super groovy and super moody, these rhythmic instrumentals are laced with sinister synth, driven by tick-tock drum machines and thick bass lines. Eerie Goblin-y atmospheres meet the icy electro robotics of Kraftwerk. Or imagine John Carpenter gone disco. With plenty of entrancing, elegant melody to make this a good at home in the evening listen.
Regardless of whether all these tracks were composed/recorded at the same time (the ones not from the original Strange World Of Bernard Fevre could be outtakes from that LP, or other unreleased material from the era, OR they could have been produced on vintage analog equipment just yesterday, we don't know, and for that matter we're not really sure if everything has been remixed or rerecorded recently), they certainly all SOUND like they all belong together. Anyone into minimal wave, or Italo-disco, or that "So Young But So Cold" comp of French synthwerks circa '77-'82, that sort of thing, should find themselves getting all tingly over this. Furthermore, if the slinky tempos were sped up just a bit, and you did some choppy edits and/or dropped in some glitchery, you'd practically have skweee!
MPEG Stream: "Dali"
MPEG Stream: "Dangerous Mixture"
MPEG Stream: "Pendulum"

BLACK DEVIL DISCO CLUB Presents The Strange New World of Bernard Fevre (Lo Recordings) lp 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now On Vinyl!!!!
Lo previously brought us the most excellent, very much of the retro moment Black Devil Disco Club disc entitled 28 After, which was (supposedly) an archival document of the late '70s Parisian answer to Italo-Disco and Giorgio Moroder. We say supposedly 'cause the whole BDDC thing is intentionally shrouded in mystery, and it's been postulated that the contents of that disc are probably partly old and partly new. It's conclusively the case, though, that the man behind BDDC, one Bernard Fevre, WAS indeed active making music in the '70s. And now under the BDDC name, Lo has re-released Fevre's 1975 "library music" album, The Strange World Of Bernard Fevre. Sort of, that is. Being BDDC, things aren't that straightforward. First off, note that this cd is titled The Strange NEW World of Bernard Fevre, and features obviously all-new cover art. Furthermore, some research reveals that 7 of the 14 tracks on here appeared on the authentic, original LP, but 7 didn't... likewise, an equal number of tracks from the 1975 record don't show up on this disc (we're disappointed not to get to hear the likes of "Hell Ride" ferinstance). But not THAT disappointed, since what we have here, whenever and wherever it's from, is pretty neat!!
Super groovy and super moody, these rhythmic instrumentals are laced with sinister synth, driven by tick-tock drum machines and thick bass lines. Eerie Goblin-y atmospheres meet the icy electro robotics of Kraftwerk. Or imagine John Carpenter gone disco. With plenty of entrancing, elegant melody to make this a good at home in the evening listen.
Regardless of whether all these tracks were composed/recorded at the same time (the ones not from the original Strange World Of Bernard Fevre could be outtakes from that LP, or other unreleased material from the era, OR they could have been produced on vintage analog equipment just yesterday, we don't know, and for that matter we're not really sure if everything has been remixed or rerecorded recently), they certainly all SOUND like they all belong together. Anyone into minimal wave, or Italo-disco, or that "So Young But So Cold" comp of French synthwerks circa '77-'82, that sort of thing, should find themselves getting all tingly over this. Furthermore, if the slinky tempos were sped up just a bit, and you did some choppy edits and/or dropped in some glitchery, you'd practically have skweee!
MPEG Stream: "Dali"
MPEG Stream: "Dangerous Mixture"
MPEG Stream: "Pendulum"

BLACK DICE Creature Comforts (DFA) cd 14.98
Following up their recent Miles Of Smiles ep, here's a full-length of organic, electro-acoustic glitch and wild rhythmic overload from this hard-to-pin-down, arty outfit. Always one step ahead of our expectations, I guess...whatever they are. This features eight sometimes melodic, mostly fucked-up tracks electronic and somehow seemingly "ethnic" experimentation, one of them recorded live on their tour with Animal Collective. True, some of these tracks just sound like one sound effect after another, but the best ones on here are somehow really songs, though full of tape warped textures, hen-coop hullabaloo, and noisy beats. Lots of sounds falling past yr ears on here!
MPEG Stream: "Treetops"
MPEG Stream: "Creature"

BLACK DICE Creature Comforts (DFA) lp 14.98
Following up their recent Miles Of Smiles ep, here's a full-length of organic, electro-acoustic glitch and wild rhythmic overload from this hard-to-pin-down, arty outfit. Always one step ahead of our expectations, I guess...whatever they are. This features eight sometimes melodic, mostly fucked-up tracks electronic and somehow seemingly "ethnic" experimentation, one of them recorded live on their tour with Animal Collective. True, some of these tracks just sound like one sound effect after another, but the best ones on here are somehow really songs, though full of tape warped textures, hen-coop hullabaloo, and noisy beats. Lots of sounds falling past yr ears on here!
MPEG Stream: "Treetops"
MPEG Stream: "Creature"

BLACK DICE Miles Of Smiles (DFA Records) cd ep 9.98
Despite being on DFA, this sounds rather more like an Anomalous release. This two-track cd ep from Brooklyn's always-interesting, ever-exploratory, formerly-punk outfit Black Dice is a pleasant blend of electronic drones and samples and ethnic/krautrock flavoring. The thirteen minutes of the first, title track are heavily based on processed field recordings -- nighttime cricket noises, a purring feline, Thuja-ish stick crackling and other indistinct sources -- a mix that's then interrupted (or augmented) by what sounds like a some sort of blurrily recorded jamboree maybe from Africa or Southeast Asia. Following that, the fourteen minute track two, "Trip Dude Delay", dabbles in simple melody, effects and drifting vocals and sounds a bit more like a 'band' than the soundscape sampling of track one. Very mellow, very nice, even when they get louder and noisier halfway through (when their Boredoms Super Ae stylings are made evident).
MPEG Stream: "Miles Of Smiles"
MPEG Stream: "Trip Dude Delay"

BLACK EAGLE CHILD / DONATO EPIRO split (Blackest Rainbow) lp 21.00

BLACK EAGLE CHILD / DONATO EPIRO split (Blackest Rainbow) lp 21.00

BLACK FOREST / BLACK SEA Radiant Symmetry (Last Visible Dog) cd 13.98
Black Forest / Black Sea are one of those folky, psychedelic, improvisational bands who are probably *always* playing, in their home, with their friends, always just making music. If you looked in right now, you'd probably find their cello sawing away, with their guitar singing an improvised lullaby in a foreign tongue, omnichord and electronic junk sometimes flickering on in the background, as the band (there's two of 'em, plus likeminded souls drawn into their orbit) whiles away a summer night on the front porch or in the basement. Somesuch scenario seems likely anyway. And once in a while, recordings of bits and pieces of their musical life wind up on cd. Radiant Symmetry is their third, documenting some improv sessions and shows that have happened with the BF/BS duo not at home but on tour, traipsing the globe from the British Isles to Spain to Finland. Thereby insuring that friends like Daniel Padden and Alex Neilson and Markus Maki and Jan Anderzen, among others, make an appearance on this disc.
MPEG Stream: "track 2"
MPEG Stream: "track 5"

BLACK FOREST / BLACK SEA s/t (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It seems the Last Visible Dog label can do no wrong of late, now bringing us this wonderful album of mellow, melancholy music full of folkish, creaky ambience from Black Forest/Black Sea. It's tailor-made for the Terrastock Nation, if you know what we mean. If you read Broken Face 'zine, or scarf up Jewelled Antler cdrs, or dig what the Wire calls "The New Weird America", or liked their track on the "Invisible Pyramid" compilation, well then this disc of psych-folk action ought to suit you like that shaggy beard suits Kawabata Makoto.
Black Forest/Black Sea are the Providence, RI duo of Jeffery Alexander and Miriam Goldberg (is one the forest and one the sea? dunno). Jeffery plays guitar and Miriam plays cello, primarily, but there's more than just guitar and cello in the mix. We know a couple of their friends help out at times with some shortwave, sax, and general knob-twiddling. But these songs mostly start with melodic guitar picking, oftimes unaccompanied, that may then be joined by doleful cello drone, wavering electronic organ, or perhaps some slow, steady percussion rhythm -- even, on one track, primitive electronic beats from a Casio or something -- always stirring echoes of old world folk and underground '70s kraut jamming. Much of this is instrumental, with what vocals there are -- it must be Miriam singing -- being quite haunting, sometimes simply lurking in the background, wordlessly, melding with the glitchy reel-to-reel tape noises and other non-instrumental, extra-musical textural effects this band employs that add depth and mystery to their simple but effective songs. From spacious droning, possibly improvised passages to downright tuneful 'folky' hooks, this works and works well. We can't see how any of AQ's psych/folk fan customers would want to pass this up. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Blackbird On Gray Sky"
MPEG Stream: "Banjo Song"

BLACK JOKER Watch Out (Olde English Spelling Bees) lp 21.00
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 the OTHER half of defunct noise duo the Skaters, after a slew of releases from James Ferraro comes this latest blast of rhythmic cosmic bliss from Ferraro's former partner, Spencer Clark in his latest guise as the Black Joker. Originally released as a super limited (80 copies!) cassette in Europe, this hazy gem is now available on vinyl, and still super limited...
Whereas Ferraro channels his eighties afterschool special cop show theme synthscapes through a bank of effects and a warm whirl of hiss and fuzz, Clark is more about the rhythm, two sidelong jams, each wrapped around a motorik groove, sounding like it was cobbled together from a junkyard gamelan, an amplified thumb piano (a la Konono No.1) and some bongos, locked into an endless loop, the rhythm is sent loping into swirling clouds of wheezing tones and tangled melodies, a soundscape of constantly shifting, spinning, twisting, contorting and expanding sounds, effects galore, sputtering synths, crumbling layers, all wreathed in soft noise, a blown out space psych ur-drone krautrock from another dimension. Hazy, glistening, sun baked and lysergic, mesmerizing and hypnotic, and so so good.

BLACK LEATHER JESUS Trocar (Sewer Records) cd-3 ep 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Harsh and brutal analog electronic noise from Texas. And I do mean harsh and brutal. Think Merzbow, Masonna, that sort of thing. A thick 20 minute slab of NOISENOISENOISE. This is only for the strong. And we only have a few of these left as it was a limited run of 50, so first come first served!
RealAudio clip: "Visitation And No Will"

BLACK MAGIC DISCO s/t (Important ) cd 14.98
This experimental supergroup, comprised of Tom Greenwood of Jackie O Motherfucker, the Opalia brothers from My Cat Is An Alien and frequent MCIAA collaborator, Ramona Ponzini, recorded these 4 untitled long-form improvisations live during a two month 2005 European tour. Sounding at times like early Ash Ra Tempel or Cosmic Jokers, the acid-y and druggily unhinged early krautrock influence is more apparent in this live setting than on previous studio-recorded outings from either camp, showcasing an immediate onstage chemistry that is refreshingly engaging!
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 1"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 3"

BLACK MAGIC DISCO s/t (A Silent Place) 2lp 12.98
WAREHOUSE FIND! Two copies on vinyl, at a VERY nice price...
This experimental supergroup, comprised of Tom Greenwood of Jackie O Motherfucker, the Opalia brothers from My Cat Is An Alien and frequent MCIAA collaborator, Ramona Ponzini, recorded these 4 untitled long-form improvisations live during a two month 2005 European tour. Sounding at times like early Ash Ra Tempel or Cosmic Jokers, the acid-y and druggily unhinged early krautrock influence is more apparent in this live setting than on previous studio-recorded outings from either camp, showcasing an immediate onstage chemistry that is refreshingly engaging!
MPEG Stream: ""
MPEG Stream: ""

BLACK MAYONNAISE Ttssattsr (Emperor Jones) cd 13.98
Our good pal Cayce, who sadly passed away back in 2007, was as obsessive about freaky and fucked up music as we are, and was the first to bring this record to our attention, which we might have otherwise ignored on account of the somewhat dodgy sounding band name they possess. Black Mayonnaise? Eww. But Black Mayonnaise are definitely AQ-material, Cayce was right. Self-described (it says it right on the back cover) as "Warped Lunar Sludge-core", this band is akin to a lo-fi melding of SUNNO))) and Godflesh. It is sludgy and doomy, but not so much heavy or riffy, more just ominous and creepy and droney and dubby and distorted... Imagine plodding, repetitive, hypnotic, echoey drum machine hits mixed with mellow Merzbow-ian drone, whilst gargling, not-even-vocals bubble up from a tarpit of rumbling bass, amidst sundry sci-fi synth noises and the distant wails of whales and wookies. And there's a 'cover' song on here too, "Graveyard" by the Butthole Surfers, a choice that speaks volumes.
Listening to this disc is like stumbling through a miasma AND slowly sinking into a mire. We love it! Chances are there's only one guy behind Black Mayonnaise, and he recorded this in his bedroom -- but it sounds more like it was recorded in a moist, dark cave...perhaps the cavernous stomach of some extraterrestrial monster. Gastro-intestinal, interstellar doom, anyone? If that sounds good to you like it does to us, then this is quite recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Narcotic Fog"
MPEG Stream: "Floating Body II"

BLACK MAYONNAISE Unseen Collaborator (Resipiscent) cd-r 11.98
Ahhhh, how we love Black Mayonnaise. Not the foodstuff. Although to be fair, we've never really tried it. No we're talking about the weird blackened musical one man band who years ago graced us with the mindblowing and soul melting Ttssattsr album, and who has now returned with a brand new disc of self described "Warped Lunar Sludge-core", and if anything it's even noisier, heavier and more freaked out and fucked up.
Ttssattsr, as best as we could describe it, sounded like some fractured blend of Godflesh and SUNNO))), and while that element is still present, things seem to have gotten a lot more abstract, with many tracks eschewing rhythms altogether, or burying them under an avalanche of grinding throbbing churning blackened buzz.
The first track is one long static drone, thick and tangled layers of blurred out buzz all tangled up into one huge ropy mass, above it float monstrous froglike croaks, impossible low end gurgles, while beneath a skittery rhythm lurks, barely audible, more like a thready pulse, all dubbed out, a rickety rhythmic skeleton supporting the blackened hide of the Black Mayonnaise beast. While heavy and intense, it's also weirdly dreamy and blissed out, a sort of soft doom-drone.
But the next track takes care of that, the drums finally kick in, the croaking frog still belching out noxious clouds of vocals, the guitars and drums locked into a doom plod, everything wreathed in space-y FX, like a slow motion doom metal Hawkwind.
Track three is super reminiscent of the first BM record, a very Godflesh sounding dirge, the industrial drumming, the thick riffing, but all melty and murky with those awesome croaked grunted rumbles over the top.
Probably the biggest surprise is the Flaming Lips cover, that sounds nothing like the Lips AT ALL, instead, it's a caustic slab of furious fuzzed out distorted in-the-red buzz and relentless blast beats, as close to blacknoise as BM gets, there are all sorts of groaning creaking sounds, as well as squiggly streaks of hiss, but they are practically swallowed whole. There's also a Flipper cover, which seems and sounds much more Black Mayonnaise appropriate, a murky lurching trudge through a world of sonic black tar. Everything black and dripping, but shot through with lazer blast FX, and those creepy vocals again.
The thirteen minute closer is totally out of left field, a garbled synthscape, very abstract and freaky, plenty of whirring buzz, and bleeps and bloops, slippery squiggles, like intercepted alien radio broadcasts, a sputtering, squelchy glitchy not-quite ambience that does manage to actually get pretty hypnotic.
Gorgeously packaged in a silkscreened black-on-black cardstock sleeve, while inside there's a black-on-metallic-silver printed insert, BUT be warned, it is in fact a cd-r, not an actual cd, but really it hardly matters, you'll forget about everything but what the hell is happening to your ears, and our brain, and your soul the second you press play.
MPEG Stream: "Low Twelve"
MPEG Stream: "Threshold"
MPEG Stream: "Pilot"

BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW Eating Us (Graveface) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After the tease that was the Record Store Day (2009) 7", it's finally here, a brand new full length from Black Moth Super Rainbow, who continue to create rainbow wrapped, keyboard drenched, big drummed, new wave-d outsider bliss pop. We can't seem to get enough.
The record opens with the track from that Record Store Day single, the excellently titled "Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Rise", all druggy and swirly and sun dappled and psychedelic. There are strings and warm whirring synths, and breathless dreamy vox, and lilting melodies, not super freaked out or spastic, although there are bits of swooping electronics and streaks of glitch and hiss, but for the most part this is just some awesomely new wave flecked jangly futuristic psych pop. Which pretty much describes this whole record. For some reason we thought maybe it would be super heavy or totally twisted, but if anything, the songs are more fully realized, the sound still lush and slightly cracked, but all of BMSR's drugged out psych tendencies are harnassed into proper songs, that wouldn't sound at all out of place in a mix between the Flaming Lips and M83. The drums hold it all together, big and booming, processed sometimes, but usually loud, if not, theyr sublte and skittery, and there are synths EVERYWHERE, soaring and buzzing and whirring and shimmering, the guitars are minimal, more for a bit of filigree here and there, except when a bit of crunh or chug is required. And the vocals, all dreamy and heavily effected, whether it's vocoder or autotuning, they're perfectly matched to the glimmering kaliedoscope of sound that is constantly swirling and changing shape and color.
The majority of the record is surprsingly laid back, blissed out and sun dappled, a lot of it sounds almost folky, a little new age-y for sure, we also hear bits of old school pop groups like the Free Design, the Cowsills, even a bit of Stereolab here and there, there are lots of fluttery flute, acoustic guitar, lilting melodies, soft drifty twang, but all tangled up with some of the more buzzy new waveiness, and everything shot through with just the right amount of space aged, futuristic polish. So good. The perfect late afternoon, cloudy day, mix tape, dreamy drifty, future chill out disc for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Rise"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Bubbles"
MPEG Stream: "Twin Of Myself"
MPEG Stream: "Gold Splatter"

BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW Eating Us (Graveface) lp 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BLACK SEAS OF INFINITY Amrita - The Quintessence (Autumn Wind Productions) cd 11.98
We first heard from Salt Lake City black ambient technicians Black Seas Of Infinity onÊThe Trinity Of Non Being, a killer three way split withÊKaniba and Ugegi Aoiveae A Aer, released on Autumn Wind, the same label that brought us multiple releases from AQ faves Vomit Orchestra. All three bands' contributions were amazing, bleak and barren, dark and drone-y, since then we'd been on the lookout for any other releases by all three.ÊAmrita - The Quintessence is the latest full length from one man band Black Seas Of Infinity, and the brief glimpses we got of his dark universe on that split are allowed to sprawl here, to spread way out, an inky black cloud of roiling industrial whir and crumbling abstract drones wrapping everything within earshot in dense swaths of sonic shadow.Ê
Every track here is a dark missive from some lost world, a barren soundscape of deep resonant swells, of epic cinematic ambience and strange percussive glitch and rumble. Like the best ambient music, the sounds here are not sonic or simple, instead, constantly shifting andÊchanging shape, tonal color, rhythms surface like flotsam on some mysterious sea of sound, disembodied voices drift like ghosts, melodies are broken into fragments, the bits and pieces tossed into the abyss and carried like dead leaves on some vile black wind, crumbling shards of buzzing synth intertwine with strange found sounds and bits of simple percussion, massive billowing sonic ripples spread slowly out, shimmering in greys and blacks...
Think Wolf Eyes, Nordvargr, Vomit Orchestra, Lustmord, Anenzephalia, Wolfskin, MZ412, Hlidolf, Ruhr Hunter and the like... another ultra intense trawl through the mysterious blackened underworld, lurking beneath, around and behind all things pretty and happy...
MPEG Stream: "Devourment"
MPEG Stream: "AIShtLa"

BLACK SEAS OF INFINITY / KANIBA /UGEGI AOIVEAE A SER The Trinity Of Non Being (Autumn Wind Productions) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the same label that brought us the amazing Vomit Orchestra discs comes this killer 3 way split, an exploration of black ambient, dark ritual, ambient drone music....
Up first is Black Seas Of Infinity from Salt Lake City. Having started life as a black metal band, they now find themselves, exploring a much more minimal dark ambient world of haunting melodies, mysterious vocals and muted industrial percussion. The first track is based around a mesmerizing melodic fragment, a bit of minor key melody that is looped hypnotically over a strange rhythm that sounds like someone trudging through snow or old brittle branches, while over the top, a slowed down, slightly distorted voice intones a strange litany, making the whole thing sound like some sort of liturgical rite. The next track is a dense martial soundscape of grinding industrial drones and distant distorted drumming, a simple militaristic march, like Wiseblood meets Death In June, before eventually transforming into a roiling wave of low end rumble and whir. BSOI's final track is a 12 minute epic, a series of haunting low end sonic occurrences, situated around a strange rhythm that sounds almost like the wheeze and clatter of an iron lung, the sounds around it constantly crumbling like the tape had decayed, very textural and creepy, like a more industrial Jeck or Tim Hecker almost...
Next up Is Kaniba, who offer up their own creeping crawling blackness. A rumbling soundworld of thumps and bumps, distorted and wrapped in dense sheets of black buzz, there are rhythms, but they don't drive the music, instead they are small creatures that scurry amidst it's black folds. The second of the two tracks is much more spacious and possibly much more harrowing. What begins almost serenely quickly becomes a monstrous moaning living black shadow of sound. Listening is almost like cowering amidst the ruins as some unseeable shape soars above, it's shadow cloaking you in darkness every time it passes. A symphony of low end, almost sounding like an orchestra slooooooowed waaaaaaay dooooown, its epic fanfare twisted into a shapeless squirming blackened thing.
Finally, the strangely named Ugegi Aoiveae A Ser wrap things up with a 16 minute drone coda. Much more minimal than the other contributors, but just as bleak and oppressive. A ringing harmonic shimmer slowly slips further and further into darkness, the high end peeling off like flayed skin, revealing a murky cloudy expanse of dark sound underneath. A slow moving swell, a static, barely shifting wall of sound, layers upon layer, like some hellish Phill Niblock composition. Ultra spare and quite intense.
Plenty here for the drone obsessed, lovers of weird music, and all the black souls in need of dark musical mystery...
MPEG Stream: BLACK SEAS OF INFINITY "To Receive The Perplexity Of The Soul Of Liberation"
MPEG Stream: KANIBA "When The Hurricane Comes"
MPEG Stream: UGEGI AOIVEAE A SER "Alignment In Opposition II"

BLACK SHEEP Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse (Invada) 2cd 31.00
Achtung! UK's Black Sheep are another wonderfully indulgent Julian Cope related heavy psych rawk unit (a la Brain Donor), not to be confused with the '90s hiphop group. If you're a regular at JC's Head Heritage website (you should be) you know all about the man's expert obsession with underground '70s freakrock, The Stooges, Faust, Hawkwind, all that good stuff. That's the idea here, two sprawling discs, Black Sheep jamming away giving musical expression to such political / subversive / revolutionary / radical chic topics as "Underground Resistance" and "Che" (the latter being a Suicide cover).
It all begins (of course) with disc one, track one, "Ernesto": urgent strum, field recordings of rain and thunder, it's like an Amon Duul acoustic ritual mashed up with the intro to Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath". The track reaches a screaming peak, then settles back to a simple throb... The throbbing continues on the more drum based "Protest-Underground", a tribal chant of that channels Ya Ho Wha and Edgar Broughton. The disc's third and final track starts off as a sparse voice/acoustic guitar ditty before pounding tom-tom drums join in to accentuate the song's apocalyptic character. Disc two boasts another three, long tracks, again full of chanting and strumming and drumming and gobs of droning spacey synth FX... There's some quite nice mellow parts mixed in, and it all really does sound like something recorded no later than 1976.
Probably coulda/shoulda highlighted this, but we do have to admit that unless you're totally hooked on Cope's Kool Aid, you might find, ferinstance, that someone chanting the phrase "underground resistance" over and over again (signifying what exactly?) IS sorta dumb... though that doesn't stop us from digging it. The title (also one of the songs) "Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse" is also a mite too clever, meaning dumb as well. Sounds like something Acid Mothers Temple would come up with, but of course we like them too, and if you also like Acid Mothers Temple, chances are you'll enjoy Black Sheep, their music and mindset are fairly well aligned.
MPEG Stream: "Ernesto"
MPEG Stream: "Protest-Underground"
MPEG Stream: "Leila Khaled"

BLACK SHEEP Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse (Invada) 2lp 39.00
Achtung! UK's Black Sheep are another wonderfully indulgent Julian Cope related heavy psych rawk unit (a la Brain Donor), not to be confused with the '90s hiphop group. If you're a regular at JC's Head Heritage website (you should be) you know all about the man's expert obsession with underground '70s freakrock, The Stooges, Faust, Hawkwind, all that good stuff. That's the idea here, two sprawling discs, Black Sheep jamming away giving musical expression to such political / subversive / revolutionary / radical chic topics as "Underground Resistance" and "Che".
It all begins (of course) with disc one, track one, "Ernesto": urgent strum, field recordings of rain and thunder, it's like an Amon Duul acoustic ritual mashed up with the intro to Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath". The track reaches a screaming peak, then settles back to a simple throb... The throbbing continues on the more drum based "Protest-Underground", a tribal chant of that channels Ya Ho Wha and Edgar Broughton. The disc's third and final track starts off as a sparse voice/acoustic guitar ditty before pounding tom-tom drums join in to accentuate the song's apocalyptic character. Disc two boasts another three, long tracks, again full of chanting and strumming and drumming and gobs of droning spacey synth FX... There's some quite nice mellow parts mixed in, and it all really does sound like something recorded no later than 1976.
Probably coulda/shoulda highlighted this, but we do have to admit that unless you're totally hooked on Cope's Kool Aid, you might find, ferinstance, that someone chanting the phrase "underground resistance" over and over again (signifying what exactly?) IS sorta dumb... though that doesn't stop us from digging it. The title (also one of the songs) "Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse" is also a mite too clever, meaning dumb as well. Sounds like something Acid Mothers Temple would come up with, but of course we like them too, and if you also like Acid Mothers Temple, chances are you'll enjoy Black Sheep, their music and mindset are fairly well aligned.
MPEG Stream: "Ernesto"
MPEG Stream: "Protest-Underground"
MPEG Stream: "Leila Khaled"

BLACK SUN Paralyser (At War With False Noise) lp 9.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
What the heck's up with Glasgow these days? Until recently, Glasgow was all sunshiney jangle pop and brooding epic post rock. Or so it seemed. Maybe we haven't been paying attention. Maybe it's been a while since we took a good hard look at the seedy underbelly of Glasgow's music scene, but something sinister is definitely going on over there, cuz all sorts of filthy, brutal, heavy, sick sounds are oozing across the sea and into our cowering frightened ears. Next list we'll probably be listing a record by another Glaswegian crew called De Salvo, who are scary as shit, and here we've got the latest from Black Sun.
Black Sun is a bit of a name over there, but they're a new name to us, although it only took a few minutes of this filth for us to realize folks over here, especially the ones into massive dronedirgedeathcrush and slow motion ultra doooooom will likely be freaking out big time.
Three tracks, all 'versions' of the same song, the first, 19+ minutes taking up the whole of side one, is all lurching downtuned lumber, squealing harmonics, all locked into step with the pounding drums, the vocals tortured and anguished and WAY up in the mix, the sound somewhere between Khanate, Eyehategod, and Neurosis. About halfway through the sound simmers down a bit, a low slung softly churning bass rumble, clean minor key guitar lines all spidery and skeletal, warm whirring keyboards, that eventually slip into a groove that sounds uncannily like a slowed down Three Mile Pilot. Clean crooned vocals, laid over the woozy rhythm, before exploding back into stuttering metallic stop start lurch, gradually growing more and more noisy and unhinged.
The flip side takes the same track and jacks up the industrial vibe, way more low end crunch, a bit murkier and muddier, the vocals buried in the mix, little streaks of feedback peeking out from behind thick caustic slabs of rhythmic pound. Very reminiscent of Godflesh or Pitchshifter, relentless and machinelike, but wreathed in swirls of strange keyboards, and mysterious effects and all manner of fucked up guitar filigree. In some ways superior to the A side, at least to these ears. And finally, the second half of the B-side offers up the 'dub' version, which takes the more industrial version of "Paralyser" even further, the rhythm stripped down, the guitars processed and clipped, the vocals twisted and doused in effects, the arrangement all spaced out, the drums pounding one second, careening from speaker to speaker the next, the whole track actually is panned pretty hard, making headphones essential for experiencing the full dizzy drift. Definitely left us wanting more...
Essential listening for the usual suspects. If your favorite sounds are most often described with the adjectives doomy, crumbling, blackened, pummeling, crushing, heavy, crusty, metallic, slow motion, glacial, filthy, then my friends, you should prepare to kneel in supplication, and stare directly into the Black Sun...
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, housed in a very Godflesh looking sleeve, with a heavy cardstock insert, liner notes on one side and strange bloody symbols on the other.
MPEG Stream: "Paralyser (Prison Of The Cross)"
MPEG Stream: "Paralyser (Dub Mix)"

BLACK SUN / THEY ARE COWARDS Code Black / First And Only (At War With False Noise) 7" 9.98

BLACK SWAN s/t (Experimedia) lp 14.98

BLACK SWAN The Quiet Divide (Experimedia) lp 16.98

BLACK SWAN NETWORK (A.K.A. OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL) The Late Music (Camera Obscura) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From Tony Dale's Australian Camera Obscura label (http://www.caber.net/obscura) comes this wonderful cd and the following description:
Camera Obscura is proud to bring you The Late Music (Volume One), a full-length CD of experimental/ambient tape manipulations by Olivia Tremor Control side-project Black Swan Network. In the unlikely case that you wondered what those strange interludes between the four-part harmony pop gems of OTC's Dusk at Cubist Castle would sound like developed into pieces in their own right, here is your chance to find out. The Late Music on conceptually from the two and four channel extravaganzas that can be found on the bonus disc of sound experiments shipped with early copies of the Dusk at Cubist Castle CD and also on OTC's The Opera House and Jumping Fences EPs. Any attempts to describe the seven pieces that make up this release are bound to fall short of the mark, because this is not much like anything we have ever heard before. The sounds created for this release only occasionally give any kind of clue about what was used to create them. For one track, Elephant 6 collective member Eric Ledford contributes an oblique cello improvisation. For another, the voices of infants laughing and crying are brilliantly multiplied and sequenced and processed for an effect that has been observed to create near hysteria in the listener. But on most of the seven tracks here, Black Swan Network have used the source material as an abstract resource to be sculpted into dreamlike Musique Concrete.

BLACK TO COMM Alphabet 1968 (Type) cd 15.98
When we first discovered Black To Comm, they were described to us as sounding like Fennesz, Pimmon, and Earth jamming with Merzbow, which at the time wasn't all that far off. Since then, they seem to have dialed back on the Earth and Merzbow, leaving their sound much more shimmery and blissy and looped and electronic. Oval was another good comparison, with that same sort of underwater digital looped soft focus glitchscape vibe going on.
The band have also seemingly become more of a band, letting the organic instruments show through, processed sure, but allowed to ring out and resonate, which makes their move to the Type label all the more appropriate.
Their sound is still woozy and washed out and hazy and warbly, but on the opening track, everything is driven by a piano, it's notes reverbed and repetitive, a sort of chamber music set amidst a field of static and crackle, the delicate melodies, wreathed in constantly shifting clouds of electrical interference. The second track loops backwards guitars over a field of warm crackle, letting the loop define the haunting melody, the background buzz gradually intensifying, eventually building to a blinding, glimmering high end ur-drone, all the edges rounded so instead of a field of skree, it's pulsing wall of crystalline shimmer and buzz.
Like a warped music box, the record plays out like some half remembered dream, delicate little melodies drift through a haze of moaning distant guitars, murky post rock is pulled apart into some strange spidery lo-fi dirgescape, pizzicato strings and urgently strummed harps are wound into a tense cinematic swirl, long streaks of clanging reverberating metal are laid atop warm vacuum cleaner drones, surrounded by clouds of clatter and clang, deep brooding rumbles finally give way to crackle and pop flecked soft focus easy listening pop ambience.
Another gorgeous collection of mysterious musical manipulation, essential listening for any one into dronemusic, minimal ambience, abstract electronica or just strange and beautiful far out sounds...
MPEG Stream: "Jonathan"
MPEG Stream: "Forst"
MPEG Stream: "Hotel Friend"

BLACK TO COMM Alphabet 1968 (Type) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When we first discovered Black To Comm, they were described to us as sounding like Fennesz, Pimmon, and Earth jamming with Merzbow, which at the time wasn't all that far off. Since then, they seem to have dialed back on the Earth and Merzbow, leaving their sound much more shimmery and blissy and looped and electronic. Oval was another good comparison, with that same sort of underwater digital looped soft focus glitchscape vibe going on.
The band have also seemingly become more of a band, letting the organic instruments show through, processed sure, but allowed to ring out and resonate, which makes their move to the Type label all the more appropriate.
Their sound is still woozy and washed out and hazy and warbly, but on the opening track, everything is driven by a piano, it's notes reverbed and repetitive, a sort of chamber music set amidst a field of static and crackle, the delicate melodies, wreathed in constantly shifting clouds of electrical interference. The second track loops backwards guitars over a field of warm crackle, letting the loop define the haunting melody, the background buzz gradually intensifying, eventually building to a blinding, glimmering high end ur-drone, all the edges rounded so instead of a field of skree, it's pulsing wall of crystalline shimmer and buzz.
Like a warped music box, the record plays out like some half remembered dream, delicate little melodies drift through a haze of moaning distant guitars, murky post rock is pulled apart into some strange spidery lo-fi dirgescape, pizzicato strings and urgently strummed harps are wound into a tense cinematic swirl, long streaks of clanging reverberating metal are laid atop warm vacuum cleaner drones, surrounded by clouds of clatter and clang, deep brooding rumbles finally give way to crackle and pop flecked soft focus easy listening pop ambience.
Another gorgeous collection of mysterious musical manipulation, essential listening for any one into dronemusic, minimal ambience, abstract electronica or just strange and beautiful far out sounds...
MPEG Stream: "Jonathan"
MPEG Stream: "Forst"
MPEG Stream: "Hotel Friend"

BLACK TO COMM Charlemagne & Pippin (Digitalis) cd 12.98
A brand new disc from this mysterious German outfit, long time aQ faves Black To Comm, who you might assume might be some sort of garagey rock thing based on their name, but nope, these guys make drones, epic twisting layered expansive beautiful drones, three guys, tones of instruments, but you might not know it by listening. Organ, tape loops, electronics, metal percussion, violin, toys, water, shruti box, bells, whistles, feedback and pictaphone, the recipe for sort of cacophonous Avarus style foresty free folk freakout is some hands, but in the hands of this trio, the sounds conjured up with those instruments is melted down, swirled and shimmered, smeared and blurred, into a looooooong single track. A gorgeously blissful hazy drift, at the center of it all is THE DRONE, a lush, softly shifting stream of layered tones, fluttering flickering notes and melodies, warm whirring textures and all manner of muted overtones, but all around it, a sea of other sounds swirl and spin, high end trills, mechanical creaks, slivers of feedback, glitchy electronics, and what starts out as serene and dreamy, grows ever so much more ominous, the sounds filling out, the edges sharpening, the heft seeming to expand exponentially.
Instead of some sort of lowercase minimal dronemusic, the sound here is epic, majestic, sprawling spacedrone, blinding blistering sonic effulgence, a whirling ur-drone rife with strange FX, and a dense throbbing core.
The last few minutes finds the spaced out drone wreathed in a soft cacophony of blurred noise, a patina of washed out distortion, a wild tangle of squiggly high end, the entire track a lurching, slow swelling spaced out loop, totally mesmerizing, and in its own way heavy and dense and intense. It's hard to get a feel for the power at work here with only a fleeting listen, but taken as a whole, these sounds surround you, and suck you in. Strap on your headphones and you'll find yourself falling willingly under Black To Comm's tripped out space drone spell, drifting endlessly throughout their gloriously and deliriously hazy, woozy and wildly psychedelic world of sound.
MPEG Stream: "Charlemagne & Pippin"

BLACK TO COMM Fractal Hair Geometry (Dekorder) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A brand new record from this weirdo German drone combo (or maybe it's a one man band), and it's a doozy. We have been pretty into everything we've heard from BTC, so we were pretty excited to get out hands on this new one.
In the past, we, and other folks have compares Black To Comm to groups like Oval, Pimmon, Fennesz, Earth and Merzbow, but the truth is in fact much stranger, and much more difficult to describe. This is definitely drone music, but it's so mysterious sounding, not all low end rumbles or shimmering high end skree, instead, it's a seemingly haphazard assemblage of sounds and musical fragments, looped and processed and chopped up, then woven into looooong undulating dronescapes, that churn and shimmer and buzz and whir, but also twist themselves into strange shapes, offering up incidental melodic overtones and subtle rhythms. And the strange thing is the parts really don't matter so much, in that they are eventually transformed into something entirely new. It reminds us of an exhibit at the museum, where a voice would repeat a single word or phrase over and over, and you would try to pick out the word, but it was practically impossible, the looped speech immediately turned into something sonically mysterious and impenetrable. Fractal Hair Geometry is similar in that the source sounds are super varied, but within minutes, even seconds, the source becomes meaningless, instead it is simple an element in a swooning and swaying and woozily hypnotic whole. Chanted vocals, whirring organs, mysterious shimmers, squiggly melodies, buzzing Theremins, electronic glitches, analog synths, wheezing harmoniums, and those are just guesses, cuz just like that museum exhibit, it's difficult to tell what the source sounds are. We also didn't try that hard. It's like trying to peek under the table to see how a magician does a trick. We don't want to know. It's more fun to get lost in these mysterious sounds. One track even introduces a muted techno throb, and for a brief second it sounds like the weirdest record Kompakt never released. It's really hard to describe this stuff, which is probably why we like it so much, check out the sound samples, and hear for yourself!
MPEG Stream: "Negative Volumes"
MPEG Stream: "Orange Record"
MPEG Stream: "Play Eggchess 3"

BLACK TO COMM Fractal Hair Geometry (Dekorder) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A brand new record from this weirdo German drone combo (or maybe it's a one man band), and it's a doozy. We have been pretty into everything we've heard from BTC, so we were pretty excited to get out hands on this new one.
In the past, we, and other folks have compares Black To Comm to groups like Oval, Pimmon, Fennesz, Earth and Merzbow, but the truth is in fact much stranger, and much more difficult to describe. This is definitely drone music, but it's so mysterious sounding, not all low end rumbles or shimmering high end skree, instead, it's a seemingly haphazard assemblage of sounds and musical fragments, looped and processed and chopped up, then woven into looooong undulating dronescapes, that churn and shimmer and buzz and whir, but also twist themselves into strange shapes, offering up incidental melodic overtones and subtle rhythms. And the strange thing is the parts really don't matter so much, in that they are eventually transformed into something entirely new. It reminds us of an exhibit at the museum, where a voice would repeat a single word or phrase over and over, and you would try to pick out the word, but it was practically impossible, the looped speech immediately turned into something sonically mysterious and impenetrable. Fractal Hair Geometry is similar in that the source sounds are super varied, but within minutes, even seconds, the source becomes meaningless, instead it is simple an element in a swooning and swaying and woozily hypnotic whole. Chanted vocals, whirring organs, mysterious shimmers, squiggly melodies, buzzing Theremins, electronic glitches, analog synths, wheezing harmoniums, and those are just guesses, cuz just like that museum exhibit, it's difficult to tell what the source sounds are. We also didn't try that hard. It's like trying to peek under the table to see how a magician does a trick. We don't want to know. It's more fun to get lost in these mysterious sounds. One track even introduces a muted techno throb, and for a brief second it sounds like the weirdest record Kompakt never released. It's really hard to describe this stuff, which is probably why we like it so much, check out the sound samples, and hear for yourself!
MPEG Stream: "Negative Volumes"
MPEG Stream: "Orange Record"
MPEG Stream: "Play Eggchess 3"

BLACK TO COMM Ruckwarts Backwards (Dekorder) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yeah, it's a legendary MC5 track, and sure, it's also a cool music 'zine, but now it's also a mysterious drone outfit from Germany. We were kind of intrigued when we read a description that described Black To Comm as sounding a bit like Fennesz, Pimmon, and Earth jamming with Merzbow. That's a lot to live up to, and while maybe that's not how we'd describe it, this disc is still pretty dang amazing. Dense collages of manipulated sound, processed samples and digital electronic improvisations, all woven into gorgeous dreamy drones and subtlely melodic sonic drifts.
The first thing that came to mind was Oval, but where Oval created lush underwater symphonies out of skipping cds, Black To Comm are starting out with source sounds that are more organic, so the resulting sounds and songs are that much richer and more sonically detailed. Dense soundscapes of looped samples are stretched and smeared, twisted and tangled until the constituent parts became something totally new, and are reborn into new sonic shapes, some warm and sun dappled, others cool and moonlit, all of them dreamlike and otherworldly.
And that's exactly why this record is so magical. The process may be fascinating, but it is quickly forgotten, once you're submerged in some murky mysterious new world of sound. There's nothing to do but look, and listen, to let the sounds and sights slowly sink in, like wandering through some alien world, where everything is fresh and new, every sound is a mystery. Each track is massive in microscopic scope. Look close and you can see forever in each of these songs, climb into your stereo and carefully work your way down, layer by layer, each layer a magical new world, until you arrive at the heart of the song, a warm, soft, dreamlike place, where you can lay down and curl up, and let the layers and sonic worlds wrap tight around you, drinking you in until you become part of the music.
MPEG Stream: "Laciffer Lacca"
MPEG Stream: "Bees"
MPEG Stream: "Levitation"

BLACK TO COMM Ruckwarts Backwards (Dekorder) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yeah, it's a legendary MC5 track, and sure, it's also a cool music 'zine, but now it's also a mysterious drone outfit from Germany. We were kind of intrigued when we read a description that described Black To Comm as sounding a bit like Fennesz, Pimmon, and Earth jamming with Merzbow. That's a lot to live up to, and while maybe
that's not how we'd describe it, this disc is still pretty dang amazing. Dense collages of manipulated sound, processed samples and digital electronic improvisations, all woven into gorgeous dreamy drones and subtlely melodic sonic drifts.
The first thing that came to mind was Oval, but where Oval created lush underwater symphonies out of skipping cds, Black To Comm are starting out with source sounds that are more organic, so the
resulting sounds and songs are that much richer and more sonically detailed. Dense soundscapes of looped samples are stretched and smeared, twisted and tangled until the constituent parts became something totally new, and are reborn into new sonic shapes, some warm and sun dappled, others cool and moonlit, all of them dreamlike and otherworldly.
And that's exactly why this record is so magical. The process may be fascinating, but it is quickly forgotten, once you're submerged in some murky mysterious new world of sound. There's nothing to do but look, and listen, to let the sounds and sights slowly sink in, like wandering through some alien world, where everything is fresh and new, every sound is a mystery. Each track is massive in microscopic scope. Look close and you can see forever in each of these songs, climb into your stereo and carefully work your way down, layer by layer, each layer a magical new world, until you arrive at the heart of the song, a warm, soft, dreamlike place, where you can lay down and curl up, and let the layers and sonic worlds wrap tight around you, drinking you in until you become part of the music.
The LP version is super extra limited and has a different cover, a super cool. sort of abstract silkscreen of a cats's face on a thick cardstock sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Laciffer Lacca"
MPEG Stream: "Bees"
MPEG Stream: "Levitation"

BLACK TO COMM The Soba Noodle Shop Incident / The Convenience Store Incident (Trensmat) 7" 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another cool single, discovered lurking in the nooks and crannies of aQ hQ, last copies, available one more time, sale priced too!!
One of two new seven inches from Irish label Trensmat, who most recently brought us those bad ass Hawkwind tribute 7"s. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the brand new Expo 70 "Sunglasses" 7", and this here's a new two tracker from German experimental dronelords Black To Comm, two mesmerizing loopscapes, strangely titled "The Soba Noodle Shop Incident" and "The Convenience Store Incident", both seemingly linked sonically and thematically, each crafter from a dense flurry of looped and repeated Reich / Riley style dronescapes.
The A side is like Riley doing Sunroof!, a high end symphony of overlapping tones, locked and looped, mesmerizingly repetitive, all underpinned by strange percussive bloops and blurred streaks of creak and squeak, eventually, the sound of whirring machinery surfaces and transforms the track into an almost Boards Of Canada bit of squelch and skitter.
The B side begins as another stretch of looped stuttering tones, faster and more frenetic this time, and within those looped tones, another series of strange sounds lurks, a fragmented melody, an off kilter counterpoint, playing out beneath, also chopped and looped, but strangely vocal sounding, as if it was some weirdly processed alien voice, the result is equally hypnotic and mesmerizing.
Cool stuff for sure, a dizzying hybrid of Sunroof!, Boards Of Canada and Terry Riley, meditative and space-y, but dense and very very layered and kinetic.
Packaged in cool full color sleeves, super LIMITED of course, already sold out at the label, so these are likely the last copies we'll see.

BLACK TO COMM Wir Konnen Leider Nicht Etwas Mehr Zu Tun... (Dekorder) 2lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A brand new record from one of our new favorite drone outfits, the strangely named Black To Comm, who do indeed share their monicker with a killer MC5 track and a bad ass magazine, but whose sound is well removed from any sort of garage stomp, instead, these guys occupy some glorious netherworld where the sounds of Fennesz, SUNNO))), Earth, Merzbow and Troum all blend into one epic organic whole.
Utilizing a relatively limited musical palette, organ, tape loops, feedback, vinyl loops, computers, voice as well as the less obvious kitchen gamelan and harmophon, Black To Comm weave epic slow motion doomscapes, as textural and dreamy as they are dense and heavy.
The disc opens with huge organ drones, reminiscent of Niblock or Palestine, rumbling and whirring, massive waves of thick sound, while beneath lurk microscopic squeaks and creaks. The tones and layers subtly shift as does the stereo panning, making the sound intensely immersive and almost dizzying. It eventually builds into an impressive squall, with the addition of swooping and bleeping spacey FX buried beneath the cascading organ tones. And that's just the first track!
The second track begins with a constant foghorn tone, mesmerizing and thickly layered, while far off in the distance tiny sonic events occur, melancholy pianos record crackle, the whole thing transforms into a cacophony off brass-like skree, piled atop warbly snippets of sound, somehow managing to remain dreamy and hypnotic, even at its most chaotic.
The flip side of the first disc begins with a super dense blast of blinding sonic effulgence, so rich and thick and glistening, sparkling with a million fluttering notes all swirling and whirling and beginning to crumble in that gorgeous dying sun sort of way. This intensity eventually gives way to a strange acoustic second half, all serene steel strings and distant kitchen sink clatter.
Side C is all rumbling low end warble, draped thickly over strangely twisted fun-house-mirror melodies and little alien squiggles of sound, the low end pulsing and beating offering up super subtle almost-rhythms.
And finally, the record closer, which takes up ALL of side 4, and epic droning monster, that begins like just another slab of rumble and shimmer, before some serious dissonance is introduced, more brass-like tones that give the sound a very Nitsch like quality. If you can imagine a Pop Ambient Hermann Nitsch you might be close. And c'mon! Pop Ambient and Hermann Nitsch in the same sentence, in the same review, that is all you should need to hear. Way recommended.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

BLACK TO COMM / AOSUKE split (Dekorder) lp 12.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Whereas past BtC releases have reminded us of Oval, in their manipulated glitchery and warm underwater shimmer, this latest, a split with Aosuke, is quite different, while managing to incorporate many of the same elements we loved so much about past releases.
A nearly sidelong track that begins with a wavering Goblin-y synth, that buzzes warmly and endlessly, an epic stretch of near static drone, drenched in overtones and subtly flickering variations in texture, and surrounded on all sides by distant barely audible sci fi melodies and field recordings. Eventually this synthdrone is joined by another tone, this one more grinding and distorted, that slowly builds and builds along side the first, the intensity growing and growing as well as the volume, and the various surrounding sonic events seem much more frenzied, until everything levels off in some sort of Niblock style drone, the various layers beating against one another, notes and tones shifting subtly, the sound seemingly alive, flecked with shards of melody and bits of buzz and swirling effects. It's a glorious sound that enraptures and entrances, eventually, fading out and releasing the listener from their glorious trance.
The side finishes off with a brief coda of humid late night soundscaping, the sound of the moors, or the plains, some mysterious dark emptiness, droning and ominous, with creepy reverbed vocals and all sorts of night sounds tangled up in the track's undulating shimmer.
The flip side features a group called Aosuke, who we weren't all that familiar with, but whose sounds are as dark and gorgeous and Black To Comm's. But where BtC focus on sound and drone, Aosuke focus on melody as much as texture, with guitar being the focal point, a blissy soft focus guitar ambience, crystalline notes drifting through clouds of space-y effects and strange processed and blurred vocals, it sounds almost like how you might imagine a Durutti Column record on Morr Music might sound. Organic melodies, natural sounds, all tangled up in strange electronic soundscapes, very meditative, a little krautrocky at times, and so so pretty.

BLACK VOMIT Let It Come Down (Frequency Thirteen) cd-r 7.98
These oddly monikered aQ faves return with a brand new full length, and return to the True Sheffield Black Psychedelia fold, aka their original label Frequency Thirteen, after a release on aQ beloved and now sadly defunct label Rusty Axe. And what a return! Like past records, Black Vomit's sound is one that's tough to pin down, an ever shifting tangle of blurred and blackened sound collage, blown out super rhythmic noise rock, field recording flecked spaced out psychedelia, they pretty much all apply at one point or another, and impossibly sometimes all at once. It takes a while for things to get rolling, a weird creeping noise drenched into, all strange samples and shimmery layered low end, all glitchy and warbly, then some Sunroof! style high end raga drone, then finally, a thick low slung bassline slithers into action, beneath a black cloud of growling croaked disembodied vox, and then finally, true to the track's title "Forbidden Dub", the various sounds peel off, leaving just a tripped out spaced out dub, everything wreathed in echo and reverb, the drums careening wildly through clouds of cymbal sizzle, more mysterious samples, moaning guitar melodies, it's like a way more grim and blackened version of Sun Araw almost, a bastardized dub, that is teetering on the edge of collapsing into full on doomy dirge.
Which is where things seem to be heading until the next track, "Riding Below A Sky Threatening Snow To The Very End Of An Empty World", explodes into what quickly reveals itself as some sort of fucked up dubstep jam, but Black Vomitized, so the sounds are all blurred and tangled, chaotic and abstract, a thick bass warble holding everything together, while beats stutter and stagger, and all of the other sounds blown out and in the red, before the record switches gears once again, laying down a bit of shimmery abstraction, before an avalanche of super distorted drums come crashing through a field of swirling electronics, the whole thing like an IDM Lightning Bolt. And so it goes, every song something entirely different, yet somehow linked to the song before it, and to the whole, a twisted songsuite of beats and buzz, of low end rumble and caustic crunch, slipping from synth heavy shoegaze blur, to tripped out reverb heavy space rock jangle, from creepy almost John Carpenter-ish soundscapery to bleary minimal low slung creep, and from distorted sun dappled dreambuzz ambience, to a final 20 minute slab of abstract synth-squelch, blur-bliss shimmer. So good.
SUPER DUPER LIMITED too, ONLY 40 COPIES!! we got 20 of those, which won't last long...
MPEG Stream: "Forbidden Dub"
MPEG Stream: "Riding Below A Sky Threatening Snow To The Very End Of An Empty World"
MPEG Stream: "The Loneliness Of A Rainy Dawn Enshrouded Me Quietly"

BLACK VOMIT / RAPE RACK split (Frequency Thirteen / Night Angels Serve) cd-r 7.98
More True Sheffield Black Psychedelia!!! Which is quickly becoming our new favorite microgenre. As the name implies, the sound is black metal, psychedelic, and of course from Sheffield in the UK. Although black and psychedelic only barely scratch the surface of what's going on with these discs. Post rock, blacknoize, krautrock, furious grind, blissed out ambience, hypnorock, all tangled up into fierce blasts of whatthefuck atmospheric heaviness. We've already listed amazing releases from Ice Bound Majesty, Skultroll and a split between Dukkha and Black Vomit (see the reviews on the AQ website for more on Treu Sheffield Black Psychedelia). And we were so smitten with Black Vomit, we figured we'd track down more from them.
So here's another blast of Black Vomit, this time teamed up with the equally distastefully monickered Rape Rack.
Black Vomit start things off with some haunting ambience, that quickly gives way to some crusty fuzzy drone, eventually erupting into some fuzzed out metallic groove, which transforms into some grunting psych power violence, the programmed drums occasionally shorting out DHR style, a blur of garage fuzz pound, murky blackness, and relentless hyperspeed krautrock. After a brief bit of ambience, the band kick out the jams on a super space-y, hyper processed Circle-style jam. Hypnotic, and relentless, the riff wrapped in FX, the drums slipping from motorik pulse to furious blast and back again, over the top, harsh howled demon vox, a weird washed out blackened krautrock, that after another brief bit of drone tranquility explodes into some straight up black buzz. Awesome. Black Vomit are like Immortal's Blizzard Beasts crossed with Circle's Zopalki. We definitely need a full length from these guys.
Rape Rack offer up their own take on black psychedelia, eschewing drums completely, for some intense textural black ambience, rough and gritty, hissy and crumbling, distorted and buzzing, melodies falling to pieces, being sucked under corrosive drones, the 16 minute epic that finishes things off, is smoother than all that, glistening shimmering cavernous expanses of digital buzz smeared into soft streaks of shadowy grey streaks.
Not sure about the last track, it's definitely too heavy and fucked up to be Rape Rack, maybe it's the two bands together, but it's a killer, furious lightspeed buzz, processed and heavily effected, the vocals deranged and over the top, huge echo-y bellows howling in clouds of reverb and delay, threatening to drown out the din below. A furious black coda, that leaves us wanting WAY more.
MPEG Stream: BLACK VOMIT "Dripping Red"
MPEG Stream: BLACK VOMIT "Witchtrial"
MPEG Stream: RAPE RACK "Gorgon"

BLACK WIDOW Night Of The Raven (Heathen Skulls) cd 13.98
While we all wait patiently for a new slab of abstract heaviness to come our way from the lovely folks who comprise the Grey Daturas trio, we can spend a little time immersing ourselves in the dronier dirgier darker side of Rob MacManus, aka one third of the aforementioned Gray Daturas.
So far we've only heard from BW (not to be confused with the -other- black widow), on a pair of collaborations with fellow Aussie noisemaker Blarke Bayer, so this here is the first real chance we've had to hear what BW is really all about, and we're psyched to discover it's all about the massive slow motion downtuned heavy dirgedrone. Like old Earth, or Sunn 0))) that sort of drawn out guitar drone action, but MacManus give it his own twist, sometimes letting the guitar just ooze and sprawl like some sort of viscous blackness, other times, offering some weird angular disembodied steel string thrum, but still drifting on a sea of droning shimmer, and still other times, unfurling a grinding, crumbling super distorted slow motion riff. Whichever way the sound veers, it's always infused with some haunting abstract melodic element, that in some cases is quashed by the sheer heaviness, while in others, it manages to float to the surface, glimmering and shimmering, while the grind and throb is relegated to the background. Good stuff, and more essential listening for the guitardrone legions...
MPEG Stream: "Haxan"
MPEG Stream: "Dementia"

BLACKBIRD Bird's Eye View (Alpha Pop) cd 12.98

BLACKSHAW, JAMES Celeste (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sure, all you drone obsessives and out rock freaks can't get enough Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, an endless fount of whir and rumble and skree and grrr and rrroooaarrr. But this new record from James Blackshaw is a whole 'nother ball of... um.. steel strings apparently. Celeste is made up of two 15 minute tracks (one played in open C major tuning, the other in open C minor) of totally mesmerizing Appalachian raga folk, performed mainly on 12-string acoustic guitar with occasional farfisa organ and cymbals. Fans of John Fahey, Jack Rose, Matt Valentine and all things free folk will be completely blown away. There's still an element of drone in the repetitive raga-like riffing, but this is mainly and most definitely a weird and wonderful modern avant bluegrass / folk record. Lovely! SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
MPEG Stream: "Celeste Pt. 1"

BLACKSHAW, JAMES Celeste (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.
Still can't figure out why a record as good as this is doomed to remain a cd-r. And why if a label could sell out its entire pressing in a matter of weeks, another label would then choose to reissue that record in another super limited run of 100 cd-r copies. But what can you do? Maybe it's the allure and collectability of cd-r's... Regardless, this is a damn fine record! So here it is, in a new spiffy pink flowery cover and hand numbered, so now you slow pokes who missed out last time have another chance!
Here's what we said about this record first time around:
Sure, all you drone obsessives and out rock freaks can't get enough Celebrate Psi Phenomenon (the label that originally released this cd-r), an endless fount of whir and rumble and skree and grrr and rrroooaarrr. But this new record from James Blackshaw is a whole 'nother ball of... um.. steel strings apparently. Celeste is made up of two 15 minute tracks (one played in open C major tuning, the other in open C minor) of totally mesmerizing Appalachian raga folk, performed mainly on 12-string acoustic guitar with occasional farfisa organ and cymbals. Fans of John Fahey, Jack Rose, Matt Valentine and all things free folk will be completely blown away. There's still an element of drone in the repetitive raga-like riffing, but this is mainly and most definitely a weird and wonderful modern avant bluegrass / folk record. Lovely! AND AGAIN, SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
MPEG Stream: "Celeste Pt. 1"

BLACKSHAW, JAMES Glass Bead Game (Young God) lp+cd 15.98
NOW ON VINYL!! (Includes free cd of the album too!)
So on his last album, Blackshaw stepped into new territory with some orchestral instrumentation, even laying down a few piano tracks. And even though we didn't think it was possible, he just might have outdone himself, yet again, with his most dynamic album to date, The Glass Bead Game, released on the infamous Young God Records. Most aQ costumers are well aware of the talent and mystery that surrounds Mr. Blackshaw and his twelve-string mastery. And while we've really dug all of his numerous past albums, it seems like Blackshaw has never sounded so confident in his mantra-like finger picking and ornate compositions. With the freedom to compose works for piano, strings, flute, clarinet and a choir, Blackshaw's vision has grown from a small sprout into a sea of blooming vines.
It baffles us how cinematic this stuff is. These tracks all tell epic tales of being lost at sea, nighttime woodland campfires, sad goodbyes and lonely mornings, all without any lyrics. Sometimes there are these moments where Blackshaw will simply change chords and suddenly the piece takes on a whole new feel, a whole new sound, and you can't help but feel emotionally struck. His playing is so recognizable and distinguished from his solo-guitar peers, a perfect marriage of patients and skill, droning and droning on one chord only to build suspense and anticipation before suddenly revealing the next movement, so good! And there's something about his playing that is so European, so different from the Americana-type sound of other finger pickin' contemporaries. Blackshaw's pieces seem to shimmer with an ethereal haze that faintly glows like an old lantern in the woods, casting flickering light on faces of spirits in the night.
The Glass Bead Games starts things off running with a lush harmonium drone and Blackshaw's quick, raga-esque finger picking soaring above. Gradually female vocals and strings creep in to blanket Blackshaw's guitar in a silky ambience, creating an almost dreamlike experience. We really love how the vocals have this Philip Glass or Steve Reich orchestral kind of vibe. Instead of long swells the voices are short, repetitive wordless ohs and ahs, kind of like some carousel organ or angelic harp. "Cross" builds and retreats in some cosmic ebb and flow, continually swirling with deep, melodic range and heartfelt emotion, all with the twelve string at its glowing core. "Bled", the second track, begins with a slow, contemplative mood. Notes plucked then left to dissipate into thin air. Somber and desolate, the piece only grows into a dark journey through Eastern ragas and into celestial radiance, only to return in the 9th minute to the opening, contemplative passage. ÊÊ
The album comes to a gorgeous close with the 18 minute "Arc". With James on the piano, he builds from quiet contemplative drops of rain into huge waves of quickly flourishing arpeggios, not all that different sounding from his guitar picking. We totally love how his style and aesthetic remains intact, whether he's sitting at the piano or with a guitar on his knee, his close attention to detail and use of hypnotic, emotionally captivating melodies shines throughout. Notes flickering and shimmering about as overtones soar above like clouds. There's so much about this record that you can get fully wrapped up in, so much detail it would be impossible to absorb it all in just one listen. We've already been listening to Glass Bead Game for over a week, and still new details keep popping out of the woodwork. And to top it off, beautifully fitting, earth-toned artwork of various birds of prey perfectly adorns the album with some magical visual hex. By far our favorite Blackshaw album to date and quite possibly his best, highly and fully recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Cross"
MPEG Stream: "Bled"

BLACKSHAW, JAMES Lost Prayers & Motionless Dances (Tompkins Square) cd 14.98
Of these three new James Blackshaw cd reissues of long out of print cd-r's, Lost Prayers & Motionless Dances is the only one of the three that we never managed to carry at all. We've long gone on and on about how records this good deserve to be heard by more than the 100 or 200 lucky folks who manage to get their hands on the limited cd-r's, and finally, someone (thanks Tompkins Square!) had the good sense to gussy these discs up and give them the actual proper cd reissue they so deserve.
Originally released as a cd-r on Digitalis, limited to 200 copies in 2004, this one slipped right under our radar, which is a huge shame as it is just as good as Sunshrine or Celeste. But it's also quite different. Where as the other discs focus on Blackshaw's deft fingerpicking, and mastery of the steel string guitar, this disc is just as much about the drone and the ambience. Not to say, Blackshaw doesn't get to unleash dexterous little tangles of Appalachian filigree, but those stretches of strum and shimmer are set amidst thick harmonium drones and blissed out field recordings.
The disc begins with a warm whirring drone, all thick wheezes and rich lustrous chords, Eastern melodies, drawn way out into long soft smears. Eventually the guitar joins in, but simple spare strums, soft chords, and gentle fingerpicking, nestled amidst the softly undulating harmonium in the background, the sounds of crickets chirping in the distance, bits of slippery sitar style squiggles. The sound gradually slips into something much more familiar, 'that' Blackshaw sound we love so much, a lot like the other reissued discs, until the guitar fades out, leaving a murky muted shimmer, which soon fades out as well, leaving nothing a strange high end hiss-scape of weird processed percussion and shortwave radio, peppered with bits of high end jangle and distant upper register guitar scrape and disembodied clatter, before the track finally shifts gears once again, filling the last few minutes with urgently strummed guitar, big chunky chords, moaning harmoniums, and billowing splashes of deep resonant cymbal shimmer, a glorious kinetic finish to a another gorgeous sprawling languorous guitardronedrift.
Remastered and with new artwork.
MPEG Stream: "Lost Prayers & Motionless Dances"

BLACKSHAW, JAMES O True Believers (Important) cd 14.98
We often lament the state of musical affairs that would render records that are as good as anything and everything we've heard by James Blackshaw to be so limited as to only be heard by a mere handful of people. But until now that has indeed been the case. Cd-r after gorgeous cd-r, limited to 200 copies, 100 copies, even less in some instances. But music this beautiful, this lush, this lovely definitely deserves a wider audience, even if its cd-r / underground / outsider / avant folk / new weird America cache suffers accordingly. Who cares? Who -can- care when faced with the sounds on O True Believers. Over the last few years, Blackshaw has found a home amongst free noise fellows and their fans (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Birchville Cat Motel, Rameses III, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof!, Avarus, etc.) even though his sound hewed much closer to Fahey and the like, a stark but sweet steel string Appalachia. Here, that sound is even more stark, more spare and oh so even sweeter. The opening two tracks will have you swooning, or drifting off, or swaying in some glorious mesmerized state or whatever it is you do when you find yourself submerged in some lush swirl of tonal dreaminess, 30 full minutes of guitar, mostly just guitar, spacious and grand, lilting and delicate, no whir or fuzz or rumble or any of the other sonic detritus that usually decorates most of the music like this we love -- no this is crystal clear and crystalline, shimmering and glistening, as if Blackshaw was some strange musical alchemist who discovered how to use a guitar to describe leaves covered in dew, green grass sparkling with morning frost, the sun reflecting on a placid pond, silvery streaks of sunlight filtered through the interwoven branches overhead. It's like wandering into a lost glade, laying in a thick soft patch of grass, and slowly sinking into the ground, until you BECOME the forest around you, sinking into a warm, wash of tranquil otherworldliness. Towards the end of track two, the guitars are joined by cymbalon, tamboura, and bells, and what was only moments earlier some sort of mysterious Appalachian folk, becomes a slow burning blissed out raga, steel strings buzz, each note smeared into warm drones, then sprinkled with delicate chimes and reverberating bells. Track three is equally as blissful, but is constructed quite differently, the guitar lines speed up and become intense and intricate tangles of notes, so snug that the melodies blur and stretch out melodic whirs, while lush major key swells, ebb and flow in the background, a swaying swooning sweetness. The final track is almost jubilant by comparison and 'rocks' as much as any foresty free folk Appalachia can be thought to rock, dense steel string strums, a simple percussive framework of cymbals and chimes, the whole thing wrapped in the wonderfully warm wheeze of a harmonium, adding a thick warm fuzzy patina to the sparkling steel shimmer beneath.
MPEG Stream: "Transient Life In Twilight"
MPEG Stream: "Spiralling Skeleton Memorial"

BLACKSHAW, JAMES O True Believers (Bo Weavil) lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK!!
NOW ON VINYL!! Expensive but really nice vinyl...
We often lament the state of musical affairs that would render records that are as good as anything and everything we've heard by James Blackshaw to be so limited as to only be heard by a mere handful of people. But until now that has indeed been the case. Cd-r after gorgeous cd-r, limited to 200 copies, 100 copies, even less in some instances. But music this beautiful, this lush, this lovely definitely deserves a wider audience, even if its cd-r / underground / outsider / avant folk / new weird America cache suffers accordingly. Who cares? Who -can- care when faced with the sounds on O True Believers. Over the last few years, Blackshaw has found a home amongst free noise fellows and their fans (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Birchville Cat Motel, Rameses III, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof!, Avarus, etc.) even though his sound hewed much closer to Fahey and the like, a stark but sweet steel string Appalachia. Here, that sound is even more stark, more spare and oh so even sweeter. The opening two tracks will have you swooning, or drifting off, or swaying in some glorious mesmerized state or whatever it is you do when you find yourself submerged in some lush swirl of tonal dreaminess, 30 full minutes of guitar, mostly just guitar, spacious and grand, lilting and delicate, no whir or fuzz or rumble or any of the other sonic detritus that usually decorates most of the music like this we love -- no this is crystal clear and crystalline, shimmering and glistening, as if Blackshaw was some strange musical alchemist who discovered how to use a guitar to describe leaves covered in dew, green grass sparkling with morning frost, the sun reflecting on a placid pond, silvery streaks of sunlight filtered through the interwoven branches overhead. It's like wandering into a lost glade, laying in a thick soft patch of grass, and slowly sinking into the ground, until you BECOME the forest around you, sinking into a warm, wash of tranquil otherworldliness. Towards the end of track two, the guitars are joined by cymbalon, tamboura, and bells, and what was only moments earlier some sort of mysterious Appalachian folk, becomes a slow burning blissed out raga, steel strings buzz, each note smeared into warm drones, then sprinkled with delicate chimes and reverberating bells. Track three is equally as blissful, but is constructed quite differently, the guitar lines speed up and become intense and intricate tangles of notes, so snug that the melodies blur and stretch out melodic whirs, while lush major key swells, ebb and flow in the background, a swaying swooning sweetness. The final track is almost jubilant by comparison and 'rocks' as much as any foresty free folk Appalachia can be thought to rock, dense steel string strums, a simple percussive framework of cymbals and chimes, the whole thing wrapped in the wonderfully warm wheeze of a harmonium, adding a thick warm fuzzy patina to the sparkling steel shimmer beneath.
MPEG Stream: "Transient Life In Twilight"
MPEG Stream: "Spiralling Skeleton Memorial"