CALE, JOHN Dream Interpretation: Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume II (Table Of The Elements) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second in a three-disc series of recordings culled from John Cale's personal archive of material from the late '60s. Upon listening to these visceral documents, one realizes that Cale, a founding member of the Velvet Underground, was more likely than not the one responsible for the wailing screech and howl that makes such Velvets songs as "Sister Ray" so stunning, and that it was the push and pull of his drone-leanings balanced with Lou Reed's more conventional songwriting that made the band great. Here, the Welshman Cale bestows upon us two pieces recorded with kindred spirit Tony Conrad on violin, with Cale on viola -- their twenty minute "Dream Interpretation" is a wonderful shimmering drone that is at once warm and organic yet also metallic and grating. "Ex-Cathedra", our favorite track here, is from 1967/68 and features Cale simply pumping on Vox organ, conjuring up yet another tense yet melodic, trebly drone that's macabre (isn't the sound of an organ often delightfully macabre?) and strangely lulling. Other tracks include Cale making solo electronic sounds, and a 'duet' with Angus Maclise (another founding member of the Velvet Underground) on cimbalon, an Eastern European hammered dulcimer. The only dud features Cale "playing" piano, innards and all, a rather been-there-done-that idea even in the late '60s.
If you're a fan of the noise-loving modern heirs to the Cale droneologist throne, bands such as Skullflower, Pelt, and Sunroof!, you've got to hear this. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Ex-Cathedra"

CALE, JOHN New York in the 1960's (Table Of The Elements) 5lp 64.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Totally gorgeous vinyl reissue of the three archival cds released by Table Of The Elements a few years back, that documented Cale's early sixties minimal explorations. This new version comes housed in a black lacquered 12" box, beautifully silkscreened, with a hand screened oversized booklet (including extensive liner notes and a libretto) inside as well. In addition to the material from the three cds, there are two bonus tracks also previously released, that appeared originally on the Jack Smith compilations also on Table Of The Elements. Here's what we had to say about the three volumes originally.
John Cale's "Sun Blindness Music" is the first in a trilogy of archival recordings from this founder of the Velvet Underground. Much has been made already about Cale's contribution to both the history of rock and the history of minimalism, so we'll cut to the chase and get to the contents of this album, which features three of Cale's earliest compositions from the mid to late '60s. The title track spans almost 45 minutes, with Cale sustaining clusters of notes on a Vox Continental Organ, before indeterminately hammering down Phillip Glass-esque arpeggiations and then returning to the open ended drone. The two following tracks are quite good representations of '60s minimalism - with the proto-Amon Duul guitar strum of "Summer Heat" and the eerie electronic modulations on "Second Fortress."
Second in this trilogy of recordings culled from John Cale's personal archive of material from the late '60s. Upon listening to these visceral documents, one realizes that Cale, a founding member of the Velvet Underground, was more likely than not the one responsible for the wailing screech and howl that makes such Velvets songs as "Sister Ray" so stunning, and that it was the push and pull of his drone-leanings balanced with Lou Reed's more conventional songwriting that made the band great. Here, the Welshman Cale bestows upon us two pieces recorded with kindred spirit Tony Conrad on violin, and Cale on viola -- their twenty minute "Dream Interpretation" is a wonderful shimmering drone that is at once warm and organic yet also metallic and grating. "Ex-Cathedra", our favorite track here, is from 1967/68 and features Cale simply pumping on Vox organ, conjuring up yet another tense yet melodic, trebly drone that's macabre (isn't the sound of an organ often delightfully macabre?) and strangely lulling. Other tracks include Cale making solo electronic sounds, and a 'duet' with Angus Maclise (another founding member of the Velvet Underground) on cimbalon, an Eastern European hammered dulcimer. The only dud features Cale "playing" piano, innards and all, a rather been-there-done-that idea even in the late '60s.
As with volume II of this series, there are a few great tracks on volume III that make the price of ths disc worth it, and some throwaways that are of limited interest. The 10-minute "Stainless Steel Gamelan" track is the highlight here, and it's excellent even though it has nothing to do with gamelan per se. It features the Velvet's Sterling Morrison and Cale both "playing" the same guitar at the same time, an experiment which resulted in shimmering atmospherics and metallic percussive pulses, sounds that're as usefully evocative for today's DJ Shadow or Aphex Twin as they are here, maybe 30 years earlier. Also included on this disc is a funny hoedown of a piece wherein Cale plays with tape delay, Angus Maclise pounds various hand drums, and Terry Jennings -- a free saxophonist and crony of Lamonte Young -- sings on soprano sax. There's also a tremendous piece with Tony Conrad on a Vox reverb unit and Cale on electric piano -- it sounds like the soundtrack to a nightmare that won't end.
If you're a fan of the noise-loving modern heirs to the Cale droneologist throne, bands such as Skullflower, Pelt, and Sunroof!, you've got to hear this. Recommended.

CALE, JOHN Stainless Gamelan: Inside The Dream Syndicate Volume III (Table Of The Elements) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Third in a three-disc series of recordings culled from John Cale's personal archive of material from the late '60s. Upon listening to these visceral documents, one realizes that Cale, a founding member of the Velvet Underground, was more likely than not the one responsible for the wailing screech and howl that makes such Velvets songs as "Sister Ray" so stunning, and that it was the push and pull of his drone-leanings balanced with Lou Reed's more conventional songwriting that made the band great.
As with volume II of this series, there are a few great tracks here that make the price of ths disc worth it, and some throwaways that're of limited interest. The 10-minute "Stainless Steel Gamelan" track is the highlight here, and it's excellent even thought it has nothing to do with gamelan per se. It features the Velvet's Sterling Morrison and Cale both "playing" the same guitar at the same time, an experiment which resulted in shimmering atmospherics and metallic percussive pulses, sounds that're as usefully evocative for today's DJ Shadow or Aphex Twin as they are here, maybe 30 years earlier. Also included on this disc is a funny hoedown of a piece wherein Cale plays with tape delay, Angus Maclise pounds various hand drums, and Terry Jennings -- a free saxophonist and crony of Lamonte Young -- sings on soprano sax. There's also a tremendous piece with Tony Conrad on a Vox reverb unit and Cale on electric piano -- it sounds like the soundtrack to a nightmare that won't end.
If you're a fan of the noise-loving modern heirs to the Cale droneologist throne, bands such as Skullflower, Pelt, and Sunroof!, you've got to hear this. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Stainless Steel Gamelan"
RealAudio clip: "Terry's Cha-Cha"

CALE, JOHN Sun Blindness Music (Table Of The Elements) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
John Cale's "Sun Blindness Music" is the first release in a planned trilogy of archival recordings from this founder of the Velvet Underground. Much has been made already about Cale's contribution to both the history of rock and the history of minimalism, so we'll cut to the chase and get to the contents of this album, which features three of Cale's earliest compositions from the mid to late '60s. The title track spans almost 45 minutes, with Cale sustaining clusters of notes on a Vox Continental Organ, before indeterminately hammering down Phillip Glass-esque arpeggiations and then returning to the open ended drone. The two following tracks are quite good representations of '60s minimalism - with the proto-Amon Duul guitar strum of "Summer Heat" and the eerie electronic modulations on "Second Fortress."
An essential artifact!
RealAudio clip: "Second Fortress"
RealAudio clip: "Summer Heat"

CALE, JOHN Sun Blindness Music (Table Of The Elements) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
John Cale's "Sun Blindness Music" is the first release in a planned trilogy of archival recordings from this founder of the Velvet Underground. Much has been made already about Cale's contribution to both the history of rock and the history of minimalism, so we'll cut to the chase and get to the contents of this album, which features three of Cale's earliest compositions from the mid to late '60s. The title track spans almost 45 minutes, with Cale sustaining clusters of notes on a Vox Continental Organ, before indeterminately hammering down Phillip Glass-esque arpeggiations and then returning to the open ended drone. The two following tracks are quite good representations of '60s minimalism - with the proto-Amon Duul guitar strum of "Summer Heat" and the eerie electronic modulations on "Second Fortress."
An essential artifact!
RealAudio clip: "Second Fortress"
RealAudio clip: "Summer Heat"

CAMINITI, EVAN Digging The Void (Students Of Decay) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been trying to get these in stock for a while now, solo record number two from Evan Caminiti, one half of psychedelic doom drone duo Barn Owl. The other Caminiti solo record, Psychic Mud Shrine, introduced us to a world not all that far removed from Barn Owl, or Elm, the solo project from Caminiti's partner in Barn Owl Jon Porras (who just so happens to work at aQ!), and Digging The Void does indeed delve even further into that same blissy druggy void.
Long, low, slow tones, throb, and pulse, layered tones emit subtle overtones, melodies are spidery and barely there, visible through the gauzy whir of the droning guitars, a series of spaced out otherworldly ragas, super minimal and intimate, but at the same time, sweeping and epic. Unlike Elm's, and to a lesser extent, Barn Owl's tendency to get HEAVY, and to dabble in some SUNNO)))-like density, Caminiti keeps it hushed and scaled back, these sonic rituals are not meant to conjure up the same sort of blackened mystery, instead they drift through soft clouds of hum and whir, fragments of Appalachian folk hover over deep rumbles, the sounds are ghostly, the arrangements spectral and ethereal, laced with twang, but just as likely to smooth all the notes and melodies into softened streaks of monochrome blur, and on at least one track, the drone is jettisoned, and an acoustic guitar unfurls long tendrils of steel string buzz and classic folky melody, a darkly mysterious coda, to an already haunting and murky songsuite. So gorgeous.
And of course, ULTRA LIMITED! These are probably the last copies we can get our hands on, you have been warned...
MPEG Stream: "Weaving The Great Smoke Loom"
MPEG Stream: "Glowing Corpse"
MPEG Stream: "Midnight Naked Swim"

CAMINITI, EVAN Distant Lights (Trensmat) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Barn Owl are turning into a regular cottage industry, with a record just out, a new one on the way, and a seemingly never ending procession of solo records from both Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti. Not that were complaining. We love this stuff and can't get enough. And seems like most folks out there feel the same. Which brings us to this, one of two new 7"s on Irish label Trensmat (the other is from Astral Social Club and is reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), the latest missive from Caminiti, and it's a good one, the A side is a thick billowing cloud of soft guitar noise, of swirling guitar whir, shot through with streaks of minor key melody, shards of buzz, the vibe is hazy and thick, and almost caustic in places, before giving way to a super serene bit of shimmery drift, all minimal thrum and slow motion melody, the whole track sounding like it could have come from the same sessions that produced Caminiti's most recent full length.
The flipside is another bit of hazy guitar sprawl, this one way more reminiscent of Caminiti's duo Barn Owl, with plenty of Earth-y twang, the sound deserty and desolate sounding, drifting and dusty, sun dapped and hauntingly cinematic, again finishing off with a more muted and minimal, darkly tranquil outro.
SUPER LIMITED, the label doesn't say how many exactly, but there's a good chance that these are the only copies we'll be able to get since we had to pre-order these, and the label only made as many as were ordered...

CAMINITI, EVAN Psychic Mud Shrine (Digitalis) cd 13.98
The first proper cd full length release from Evan Caminiti, who is 1/2 of drone duo Barn Owl, along with Jon Porras, who records solo as Elm. It seems like Elm has been cranking them out, but Caminiti has too, we just haven't been able to get his more limited cd-r releases, but we're so happy to finally get this. A dark and brooding psychedelic drone epic. Four tracks, nearly fifty minutes of heavy smoldering droneguitar bliss.
Long blurred chords, arcing streaks of feedback, slowly unfurling minor key melodies, thick blurry buzz smeared into drifting clouds of gauzy shimmer, layered and textured and expansive, the heavier moments remind us a bit of Skullflower or To Blacken The Pages or Fear Falls Burning, albeit with a folkier vibe, more melody infused into the coruscating buzz, while the prettier more delicate moments recall Steven R. Smith, Six Organs Of Admittance and other folkdrone guitarists.
The record drifts into shimmery contemplative twang here and there, evoking the open road, endless moonlit nights, loneliness and heartbreak, the blur of life moving past, the glimmer of reflections set in the endless black of night, but even those moments soon expand into full blown walls of guitardrone, of sheets of feedback melting into smears of high end glimmer. Elsewhere, deep abstract ambience is laced with minimal guitar twang, moaning distant melodies, sitar like buzz, only again to build into an avalanche of crumbling distortion and heart of the sunn soft focus skree, before slipping into a coda of warm, soft meditative buzz, and dreamlike drones. So gorgeous. So recommended for fans of Earth, Six Organs, Steve R. Smith and like minded dronescapers, and of course, if you love Barn Owl and Elm, then this is pretty much essential as well.
MPEG Stream: "Frozen Plains"
MPEG Stream: "Melting Temple / Plumes Of Babylon"

CAMINITI, EVAN West Winds (Three Lobed) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another gorgeous sprawling collection of smoldering guitarscapes and warm liquid lysergic drones from Evan Caminiti, one half of psychedelic drone-doom-duo Barn Owl, and while West Winds does in fact touch on some of the same sonic territory as past solo efforts, it definitely moves in a much darker, much heavier direction, exploring blackened sonic vistas that have only been hinted at in Barn Owl but that have been gradually becoming more of a focal point on Caminiti's solo ventures. Which is obvious from the opening track, "Night Of The Archon", which begins all tranquil and serene, spidery tendrils of guitars unfurling in a reverbed expanse of billowing shimmer and layered chordal drift, before the guitars begin to rumble and grind, the distortion a living breathing thing, crumbling and glowing like sonic magma, moving glacially, and engulfing the sounds all around, spitting sparks of fragmented melody, before finally spiraling back to ground, the crush receding, leaving an ethereal cloud of chiming harmonics and distant hushed whirr.
But even with the darker vibe, and the heavier overall sound, none of the emotional resonance has been lost, even the heaving slabs of rumble and crush, are shot through with subtle harmonies, with lush layered textures, the tracks slipping from thick swells of almost post industrial sounding blackdrone to gorgeous Arvo Part sounding chorales, a constantly shifting landscape of hazy streaks of blurred melody, gauzy flecks of folk, soft tangles of reverbed twang, slow motion melodies rendered in thick slabs of coruscating guitar crunch, blissed out dronedrifts laced with almost pop like melodies, a little shoegazey, a little Morricone, a little Earth, a little SUNNO))), and a lot of Barn Owl, this is epic, expansive, highly personal music for the soul, evoking the desert, of starry nights and of the landscape painted red with the blood of an burnt orange sun, "Path To The Sea" is maybe the most propulsive, like the score to a post apocalyptic Leone flick, wheezing harmonium melodies over rumbling burnt black guitars, bits of twang laid upon a woozy almost Western lope, which leads directly into the 10+ minute closer "Black Desert Blooming", which does in fact live up to its title, the vibe arid and sun baked, the sound black and bleak, beginning as maybe the most harrowing and intense track on the record, only to blossom into the most abstract, the thick rumbling crush peeling away, leaving just soft swirls of layered guitars, to overlap and intertwine hypnotically, a minimal blurred loopscape, growing ever more indistinct, and ever more hushed, until even the guitars drift off, leaving a gradually dissipating cloud of blackened rumbles, of distant metallic blur, all keening and moaning and finally fading out completely.
LIMITED TO 600 COPIES, pressed on thick vinyl, housed in a gorgeous matte jacket with original artwork by Caminiti, includes a printed insert and a download card. Plus, it's available at aQ two weeks before the official release date!!
MPEG Stream: "Night Of The Archon"
MPEG Stream: "Glowing Sky"
MPEG Stream: "Black Desert Blooming"

CAMINITI, EVAN When California Falls Into The Sea (Hand Made Birds) lp 14.98
Latest solo record from Barn Owl and Higuma member Evan Caminiti, and one of the first releases on Handmade Birds, a new label launched by R. Loren of Pyramids, White Moth and Sailors With Wax Wings. When California Falls Into The Sea finds Caminiti ditching the billowing brooding drones of recent Barn Owl records, and the humid dronedrift twang of past solo efforts, and instead, stripping his sound way down, crafting something much more intimate and contemplative, abstract and atmospheric, as rife with space and drift as notes and chords, the tone is still dark, and the sound lush, and there is a bit of abstract twang, bit these tracks are more like smoldering folk flecked ragas, smoldering swells of crumbling melody, spare serene stretches of hushed shimmer, hazy sprawls of hushed melancholia, spidery guitars underpinned by distant swells, streaks of fragmented melody, all wreathed in delicate echo, swaddled in spacey reverb, the sound soft, and soft focus, crystalline and fragile, but infused with a dark energy, a subtle power, that transforms muted minimal thrum into a sort of blackened blues. The various sounds shot through with serpentine tendrils, the chords drifting apart, into blurred and smeared expanses of dark moonlit sound.
A fantastic collection of introspective electric guitar meditations, each a hushed and haunting, otherworldly and tranquil, meditative and mesmerizing blackened spectral emanation. And every one spectacularly lovely.

CAMPBELL, NEIL Itinerant String Section (Freedom From) 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.
Founding member of the A Band, Sunroof, and Vibracathedral Orchestra, Campbell has been a stalwart in the British campaign for tinnitus alongside Matthew Bower and Simon Wickham-Smith. "Itinerant String Section" certainly falls into the catagory of amorphous gritty tonal screeches recorded with questionably wired equipment. The first track is dominated by a backing tape of one of the more noxious examples of shortwave radio jamming upon a morse code numbers station. Top it all off with Campbell scraping a rusty can across his pick-ups and some cheap effects boxes, and the result is some fine noise / grate / drone work. Yup, it's a cd-r.

CAMPBELL, NEIL Sol Powr (Music Mundane) cd 14.98
Finally, this long out of print vinyl only release, from AQ fave Neil Campbell (of the mighty Vibracathedral Orchestra, and Astral Social Club), gets released on cd. AND with a bunch of extra music. The lp was a huge fave around here, and we had trouble keeping it in stock, and even after it was out of print, people would email about it all the time, and for good reason. It's amazing. Originally released on Finnish label Lal Lal Lal, Sol Powr is some of the most beautiful stuff we've heard from Campbell, a gorgeous shimmering ambience of burbling and bubbling tones and melodies. Dreamy and hypnotic. A bit more soothing and 'ambient' than Vibracathedral but still with the same ur-drone aesthetic. There are couple tracks that stick out though, one is a rhythmic Krautrock workout complete with a pulsing drum beat and looped guitar, and the other is an almost-techno track that sounds like with a little less resistance it could've become pure house music!
Two of the extra tracks are from an insanely limited lathe cut 7" (40 copies!) released on Gold Soundz, the first a strange synthscape, like a way druggier, supercharged Tangerine Dream, lots of tangled squelches and tangled melodies, another track, that given a shove could have ended up on the dancefloor. The other, an intense and ultra minimal krautjam, simple pulsing bass line, swirls of distant FX, lots of whir and shimmer, like the intro to some freaked out space rock jam, looped into an endless motorik pulse. The other extra track, was originally available only as a download, and is a seriously dense slab of blown out sound, Skullflower, Sunroof!, a dubby groove way down in the mix, while in the foreground a squiggly space rock lazer battle of high end streaks of feedback and buzzing synth. Noisy, but so so pretty.
Packaged in a cool, dvd style cd-sized plastic clamshell case, with a blue on black cover/liner note insert.
MPEG Stream: "Fizzy Gristle"
MPEG Stream: "Sky Full Of Love"

CAMPBELL, NEIL Sol Powr (Lal Lal Lal) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From our pals at Lal Lal Lal, the Finnish label that introduced us to the mighty Avarus, and has released records by AQ faves Kemialliset Ystvat and Anaksimandros, who are kind of like the Finnish No Neck Blues Band, comes a limited 12" from the Vibracathedral Orchestra's Neil Campbell. And it's definitely some of his nicest stuff. A gorgeous shimmering ambience of burbling and bubbling tones and melodies. Dreamy and hypnotic. A bit more soothing and 'ambient' than Vibracathedral but still with the same ur-drone aesthetic. There are couple tracks that stick out though, one is a rhythmic Krautrock workout complete with pulsing drum beat and looped guitar, and the other is an almost-techno track that sounds like with a little less resistance it could've become a house track! Another gorgeous drone record and another fine addition to the Lal Lal Lal catalog. Be warned, this is very limted and won't be around for long!
RealAudio clip: "Excerpt 1"
RealAudio clip: "Excerpt 2"
RealAudio clip: "Excerpt 3"

CAMPBELL, NEIL / CAMPBELL KNEALE s/t (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.
The true heirs to the Cale / Conrad / Maclise / Palestine / Flynt throne just happen to be kindred souls thousands of miles apart. And in cosmic slip up (or inside joke) they've both been given the same name, only transposed! I mean, come on, it was only a matter of time before Campbell and Kneale (or Neil and Campbell) would realise their destinies, and realise how perfect this collaboration would be aesthetically, as well as sonically! And it couldn't be more perfect. Tinkling chimes, shimmery cymbals and bells, creaking feedback, wild splattery percussion, bowel loosening rumbles, warm late night drones, all woven together into a wild and free, gorgeously invigorating, but completely soothing, otherworldly tranced out raga. Absolutely sublime. Fans of NC's Vibracathedral Orchestra or CK's Birchville Cat Motel need this for sure.
RealAudio clip: "Superstarsign"
RealAudio clip: "Hibernation Stations"

CAMPBELL, NEIL / RICHARD YOUNGS How The Garden Is (Harpenden) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Flutes. For Andee that seems to be all that really matters for a record to be incredible. But for the rest of us who need a little more than flutes to convince of a piece of music's merits, we're quite pleased that Neil Campbell and Richard Youngs seemed to have used a hell of a lot more than flutes for their exceptional new collaboration "How The Garden Is." Both Campbell and Youngs are veterans of the psych-infused UK free noise scene that counts as members, Skullflower, Total, and Ax, as well as Campbell's project The Vibracathedral and Matthew Bower's Sunroof , and all of the Richard Youngs/Simon Wickham-Smith collaborations. Violin skree, the clattering of bells, the gentle metallic hammering of guitar strings, Youngs' distinctive Scottish wail, clunky Casiotone electronics, and those flutes are all woven together into a swirling mass of trebly sound and structural effervesence. Limited 500 copies.
RealAudio clip: "Holly Bush Lane"
RealAudio clip: "Soil"

CAMPBELL, NEIL / SPENCER CLARK Foment - Maximum Version For Astral Flora 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.
Should be enough right there, as this is indeed quite limited, only 50 copies were made, of which we managed to get only 15! An old Campbell piece, originally 7 or 8 minutes long, but here reworked and revamped into an epic hour long ur-drone. This piece was composed to accompany an installation of photos by Spencer Clark, which is part of the reason for the $15 price of a cd-r, as each cd comes with an original photo, all different, all totally beautiful. And the sound is vintage Campbell, a huge and expansive, slowly developing multi-layered drone, shimmering and humming, rumbling and keening. Absolutely stunning as always!
MPEG Stream: "Foment (excerpt)"

CAMPFIRE SONGS s/t (Catsup Plate) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This came out originally back in 2003... apparently it went out of print, but now Catsup Plate has repressed 'em. A good thing too, since it's a pretty cool record. Also a smart thing, since the Animal Collective is soooooo popular these days, and Campfire Songs is just another incarnation of that group! In fact, one of our suppliers has taken to offering this cd as an Animal Collective album entitled "Campfire Songs". And it may as well be, even if that wasn't how it was billed when it first came out. Here's what we wrote about it way back on list #160:
A really nice surprise from the mysteriously monickered Campfire Songs. Featuring members of Avey Tare And Panda Bear and the Animal Collective to which they apparently belong. Unlike the fractured electronic glitchery and damaged pop of Avey Tare and the costume rock buffoonery of many of their contemporaries, Campfire Songs is more akin to the murky Fahey-on-qualudes of World (Of Dreams) reviewed way back on list #81, or the dreamy, strummy ambient blur of Scott Tuma, but with a way more washed out, late night free-folk feel. Which makes sense since this was recorded late at night, live to three minidiscs, on a screened in porch in rural Maryland. Very repetitive and hypnotic, with lots of Sunroof!-ish shimmer and plaintive vocals, rhythmic strumming, and field recordings of the surrounding forest. Equal parts sixties hippy folk, nineties ambient free noise and deconstructed indie rock twang. Good stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Doggy"

CAN'T s/t (Ultra Eczema) lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As always, these Ultra Eczema lps are amazingly packaged, in gorgeously designed sleeves, pressed on nice thick vinyl, and limited to 400 copies, most of which are sold before we even realize they're out. So we only got a tiny handful of these (5-10 copies) so don't get your hopes up.
Soundartist / performer / designer Jessica Rylan gives us a super intimate disc of her peculiar brand of balladry. From vocal / piano duets, with extremely strained vocals and soft, lilting piano, to super abstract, ultradistorted solo vocal explorations, with her voice buried in muffled muted murk and stuttering squeaking electronics, with random bits of drum kit tossed in, to what sounds like some dark fuzzed out electronic dronegrind, a pulsing thick electronic industrial soundscape, to solo vocals, unadorned, swathed in natural reverb. Pretty weird, and alternatingly harsh and lovely.
Liner notes by Thurston Moore.

CANAVARRO, NUNO Plux Quba (Moikai) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Gentle, melodic, electronic minimalism from this obscure Portuguese composer who originally recorded this album in 1988. It sounds so much like Jim O'Rourke's electronic experiments that O'Rourke had to release it on his new label - Moikai.

CANAVARRO, NUNO Plux Quba (Moikai) lp 9.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Gentle, melodic, electronic minimalism from this obscure Portuguese composer who originally recorded this album in 1988. It sounds so much like Jim O'Rourke's electronic experiments that O'Rourke had to release it on his new label - Moikai.

CANDLESNUFFER s/t (Dr. Jim's Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"If you happen to live outside of the confines of the Australian experimental music scene, you'd be forgiven for uttering the word "Who?" when the name David Brown is mentioned. All others shall see me after class. Mr. Brown is one of the lynchpins in the Australian avant-garde, and has been for well over a decade.
Now in his mid '40s, his first big break, so to speak, was playing with AC/DC for roughly a month back in 1976; but, skip roughly ten years, in which he played around with various obscure jazz and experimental ensembles and concentrated heavily on his visual art (another story in itself), and land yourself in late '80s Melbourne. Definitely one of the most white-hot bands of their time, and one sadly obscured to just about everyone but to-the-letter obsessives like myself, were power-trio extraordinares, Dumb and the Ugly. With a wildly grimacing Brown on bass, six-string poser (and concurrent member in Ollie Olsen's No at the time) Michael Sheridan on guitar, and Man About Town (and elsewhere) John Murphy on drums (he being ex-News, Whitehouse, Nurse With Wound, Current 93, Nico and pretty much everyone else on earth), their mixture of Hendrix-style trio guitar psych and Swans-esque lard-arsed whump was an experience to witness and a pleasure to whack on one's turntable.
Cuurently, David Brown has recorded this solo CD under the name Candlesnuffer. Consisting mainly of heavily treated (and often unrecognisable) guitar spliced up occassionally with some percussion and other effects, the fourteen songs contained within run the gamut from A-Z: from Bailey/Chadbourne-esque guitar noodling to This Heat-meets-Touch/Mego electro experiments to NWW/Kraut-style drones to intense noise blasts and roughly all the points in between. I rarely ever listen to any "contemporary" experimental albums, much less purchase them. They simply don't hold my interest for usually more than a song or two. With painstaking attention to detail, the ability to really compose an otherwise seemingly disjointed piece of music, to pastiche all the different elements together to create a total album's worth of interesting material and make the songs move along, David Brown, AKA Candlesnuffer, has made a contemporary experimental album I've not only played many times, but one I'd be happy to purchase. I couldn't think of higher praise." - Dave Lang / Opprobrium

CANTELOUPE, PROFESSOR / DON BOLLES The Plasmodian World of Canteloupe & Bolles (self-released) 12" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If you're familiar with the radio show Glossolalia on KXLU in LA then you just might have heard some of the sound snippets that've found their home on this chunk of vinyl. A mad scientist's experiment gone a wee bit awry? This sonic collage was created by the mysterious Professor Canteloupe and the irrepressible Don Bolles (former member of the Germs, Celebrity Skin, 45 Grave, Three Day Stubble and engineer for Throbbing Gristle's 'Mission of Dead Souls'!!!). Comprised mainly of spaced out ambient drones that "end" with a lock-groove to keep your atmosphere rolling.

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Bloodsteam Sermon (Arbor Infinity) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Only got a little handful of these. 150 copies total, already out of print and we have less than 10. Latest bit of ultra minimal bliss out dronemusic from Cantu, he of Tarentel, the Alps and the mighty Root Strata label. On Bloodstream Sermon, Cantu creates softly billowing stretches of lush shimmer, using only a Roland Juno 60 synth, a pure wave oscillator and a handful of electronics, each of the two tracks gorgeous and hazy and warm, soft swells of dreamlike sound, constantly shifting tones and overtones, utterly tranquil and hypnotic, the first side much more dense and layered, a thick undulating sprawl of deeeeeep tones. While the second side/track is more abstract, a bit more whir and glitch, ambient and almost industrial sounding. A blurred symphony of muted machine-like buzz and rumble, peppered with little glimmers of glitch, all wrapped in a gauzy patina of washed out thrum. So lovely.

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Conversations With Myself (Shining Skull) cd 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Commissioned for a special event at the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art, this 'soundtrack' of sorts offers up a gorgeous collection of new age ambience and blissed out soft focus kosmische drift, five tracks, 55 minutes, each piece a hazy bit of looped guitar shimmer, equal parts ambient krautdrone and warm whirling dreamscapery. Cantu-Ledesma, a member of late great post rockers Tarentel, as well as one of the folks behind the Root Strata label, now has a handful of solo records under his belt, running the gamut from deep dark dronemusic to blown out shoegaze guitadrone, but this is most definitely his most hushed and intimate, delicate and crystalline. A series of slow soft focus smears of prismatic glimmer, hushed arrangements of softly tangled guitar harmonies and slow shifting textures, glorious slow motion cascades of echo drenched melody and hazy indistinct chordal swells, like watching a time lapse film of the universe being born, a slowly developing landscape of colors and shapes, all seeming to float weightlessly in a wide open expanse of star flecked emptiness, the swirling contrails of the drifting notes blurring and oozing into one another, transforming the sky into softly swirling clouds of washed out sound, an endless expanse of ebb and flow, the sound wrapping up everything in their warm ethereal embrace. So lovely.
Real cds too, not cd-r's, housed in simple handmade sleeves, and of course, LIMITED!!
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Floating Weeds (Twonicorn) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another batch of WAY too limited cassette releases from Twonicorn, whose releases seem to go out of print in the blink of an eye. This time we managed to get even more copies, in fact we took most of the copies from each pressing, but considering the fact that the pressing usually run between 40 and 100 copies, you know these won't last long either way.
Mr. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma should need no introduction by now. Not only does he play in AQ beloved blissed out drone rockers Tarentel, he also runs the kick ass Root Strata label (Starving Weirdos, Bonus, My Cat Is An Alien, John Davis, etc.). On Floating Weeds, JCL gives us super blissed out, ultra minimal drones, stretched out and darkly glistening, deep resonant tones intertwine into soft sonorous drifts of sound. Like staring at the sun with your eyes closed, a thick muted warmth that suffuses all your senses. So totally lovely.
LIMITED TO 90 COPIES. We got almost half the pressing and we will not be able to get any more.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Love Is A Stream (Type) cd 15.98
Before we blather on like we so often do, it seemed like it might be good to just toss out a first impression of Love Is A Stream, the fantastic new record from Root Strata label Head Honcho Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, his first for the type label. And heck, that first impression might be all you need:
Lovesliescrushing meets Flying Saucer Attack.
There. Hard to argue with that. Warped warbly, blurred shoegazey drift, long stretches of incendiary psychedelic guitar drone, streaks of soft noise, buried melodies, ethereal vocals, lush layered textures, dense and explosive, expansive and dreamily hazy, and in its own way, gorgeously heavy.
A new side of Cantu-Ledesma for sure, whose past records seemed to hover in a much more tranquil serene otherworld, unfurling hushed landscapes of whispery minimalism, of delicate crystalline shimmer, and of barely there soft focus ambient drift. Love Is A Stream is anything but, a fiery, fierce, yet ultimately lush and washed out series of bold shoegaze dreamnoise experiments, not so much pop songs swathed in distortion and effects, as carefully crafted sonic impressions, a series of gorgeous miniature epics, each a brief expanse of prismatic hypnogogic psychedelia, every one a unique a roiling concoction of fuzzpopbliss and murky melodic churn. On the surface, the record plays out like a series of textures, from warm whirling hum, to crumbling blown out white noise blur, to grinding muted pulse and throb, to gauzy bleary haze, to thick billowy low end rumble, to superdistorted effects-drenched synthnoise, and yeah, you're reading right, this is in fact a noisy record, but it's an artfully crafted, carefully sculpted noise. A thick, billowing, warm and gloriously enveloping melodic noise, like sinking into a swirling sea of burnished muted crush, a nearly overwhelming avalanche of whirling swirling crumbling throb and thrum, beneath it all lurk delicate melodies, tendrils of minor key guitar, ghostly voices, whirring synths, they rise to the surface here and there, but for the most part exist as shadowy impressions, infusing the noisy textures with a melodic core, a warm glowing sonic heart, which is what transforms these heaving slabs of shoegazey heaviness into something divine, and divinely dreamy.
There are brief moments, where the surface noise, and the distortion, and the walls of effects peel back, and we get to peek behind the curtain, which reveals the lush minimal underpinnings of the songs, a brief melodic smear here, a hushed little fragment of guitar there, but a glimpse is all we get, and really all we want, because it's how those bits of minimal songcraft interact with the intense sonic effulgence that is truly the magic that Cantu-Ledesma wields in conjuring up the sounds here. And like all magic, the joy is not in how it was done, but it how it makes us feel.
The lp version comes with a bonus cd, a collaboration with Type label mainman Xela, who took source material provided by Cantu-Ledesma, and fashioned his own bit of ambient dronemusic. Nearly 50 minutes of haunting drift, after a short burst of caustic super distorted crunch, Xela settles into a slow burning sprawl of washed out chordal shimmer, deep rumbling thrum and lush streaks of shoegazey buzz, a few moments as dense and psychedelic as the record proper, but for the most part, more of a chill out wind down coda, the perfect addendum to an already practically perfect record. Really quite lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Stained Glass Body"
MPEG Stream: "Loving Love"
MPEG Stream: "Mirrors Death"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Love Is A Stream (Type) lp+cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Before we blather on like we so often do, it seemed like it might be good to just toss out a first impression of Love Is A Stream, the fantastic new record from Root Strata label Head Honcho Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, his first for the Type label. And heck, that first impression might be all you need:
Lovesliescrushing meets Flying Saucer Attack.
There. Hard to argue with that. Warped warbly, blurred shoegazey drift, long stretches of incendiary psychedelic guitar drone, streaks of soft noise, buried melodies, ethereal vocals, lush layered textures, dense and explosive, expansive and dreamily hazy, and in its own way, gorgeously heavy.
A new side of Cantu-Ledesma for sure, whose past records seemed to hover in a much more tranquil serene otherworld, unfurling hushed landscapes of whispery minimalism, of delicate crystalline shimmer, and of barely there soft focus ambient drift. Love Is A Stream is anything but, a fiery, fierce, yet ultimately lush and washed out series of bold shoegaze dreamnoise experiments, not so much pop songs swathed in distortion and effects, as carefully crafted sonic impressions, a series of gorgeous miniature epics, each a brief expanse of prismatic hypnogogic psychedelia, every one a unique a roiling concoction of fuzzpopbliss and murky melodic churn. On the surface, the record plays out like a series of textures, from warm whirling hum, to crumbling blown out white noise blur, to grinding muted pulse and throb, to gauzy bleary haze, to thick billowy low end rumble, to superdistorted effects-drenched synthnoise, and yeah, you're reading right, this is in fact a noisy record, but it's an artfully crafted, carefully sculpted noise. A thick, billowing, warm and gloriously enveloping melodic noise, like sinking into a swirling sea of burnished muted crush, a nearly overwhelming avalanche of whirling swirling crumbling throb and thrum, beneath it all lurk delicate melodies, tendrils of minor key guitar, ghostly voices, whirring synths, they rise to the surface here and there, but for the most part exist as shadowy impressions, infusing the noisy textures with a melodic core, a warm glowing sonic heart, which is what transforms these heaving slabs of shoegazey heaviness into something divine, and divinely dreamy.
There are brief moments, where the surface noise, and the distortion, and the walls of effects peel back, and we get to peek behind the curtain, which reveals the lush minimal underpinnings of the songs, a brief melodic smear here, a hushed little fragment of guitar there, but a glimpse is all we get, and really all we want, because it's how those bits of minimal songcraft interact with the intense sonic effulgence that is truly the magic that Cantu-Ledesma wields in conjuring up the sounds here. And like all magic, the joy is not in how it was done, but it how it makes us feel.
The lp version comes with a bonus cd, a collaboration with Type label mainman Xela, who took source material provided by Cantu-Ledesma, and fashioned his own bit of ambient dronemusic. Nearly 50 minutes of haunting drift, after a short burst of caustic super distorted crunch, Xela settles into a slow burning sprawl of washed out chordal shimmer, deep rumbling thrum and lush streaks of shoegazey buzz, a few moments as dense and psychedelic as the record proper, but for the most part, more of a chill out wind down coda, the perfect addendum to an already practically perfect record. Really quite lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Stained Glass Body"
MPEG Stream: "Body Within Body"
MPEG Stream: "River Like Spine"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Phantom Harp (Root Strata) 3" cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A brand new, brief and lovely missive from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, frontman of Tarentel, member of The Alps, The Holy See, Two Suns, head honcho of the Root Strata label and a pretty handy drone alchemist on his own, this little 3" is no different.
Utilizing a borrowed autoharp and a handful of electronics, Phantom Harp is all glistening glimmering solar flares, shimmering sunlight filtered through green fields sparkling with dewdrops, a gorgeous soft focus glacial drift, an otherworldly, slowed down Appalachia, the chords slowly drifting apart, notes carried skyward like leaves on a summer breeze, sleep, bleary eyed dreaminess, which all gives way to a washed out, lugubrious lowercase smear of fluttering drones, and creeping moonlit fog, hushed and dreamy, an oceanic seascape of twinkling muted melody and near static shimmer. All arranged into a single twenty minute track, multiple movements woven into an epic organic constantly evolving sonic dreamscape. Gorgeous.
Packaged in a beautiful black on black fold over thick paper sleeve, inside a 3" cd in a tiny plastic jacket, and a printed insert.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "The Phantom Harp (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "The Phantom Harp (excerpt 2)"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Shining Skull Breath (Students Of Decay) lp 16.98
This ultra limited, and long out of print cd-r from 2007, finally available again, now as a super swank (and still quite limited) lp...
Another gorgeous sonic transmission from right here in the Bay Area, from AQ fave Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, the man behind Tarentel, and the Root Strata label. Those familiar with Cantu-Ledesma's music know that he usually speakers in hushed whispers, breathy and breathless, soft sonic shimmers allowed to drift like billowy clouds into your ears. But here, C-L is no longer whispering, instead he's breathing fire, his guitar a newly minted incendiary device. A sonic flame thrower, each track a layered assemblage of thick peals of sound, glowing tongues of distorted flame. A sonic assault more similar to Total or Sunroof! Than C-L's usual output. Makes sense that the first song is dedicated to Pete Swanson of the Yellow Swans (who also mastered it).
But all of this talk of fire and flame shouldn't scare you off, there is still plenty of delicate beauty to be had, it's just wrapped in thick sheets of sonic napalm, the guitar effulgent and glowing white hot, the chords washed out and the distortion crumbling. Melodies are jagged and dripping with hissy buzz, each track a glacial guitarscape turning your speakers to ash.
There are a few tracks, almost half of the 8 here, that drift in a soporific haze, and hew closer to C-L's usual aesthetic, but here, they sound less like individual pieces, and more like interludes, brief moments of tranquility, a chance to catch your breath, let your ears heal, allow time for your speakers to re-solidify, before launching the next buzzing crumbling divinely distorted salvo of gorgeous blown out guitar bliss.
Fans of stuff like Nadja, the Yellow Swans, Tim Hecker, the Angelic Process, Fear Falls Burning, will be quite pleased with Cantu-Ledesma's visit to the sonic dark side.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, comes with a digital download coupon as well...
MPEG Stream: "Distant Star (For Pete Swanson)"
MPEG Stream: "Shining Skull Breath"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Shining Skull Breath (Students Of Decay) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another super limited sonic transmission from right here in the Bay Area, from AQ fave Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, the man behind Tarentel, and the Root Strata label. Those familiar with Cantu-Ledesma's music, knows that he usually speakers in hushed whispers, breathy and breathless, soft sonic shimmers allowed to drift like billowy clouds into your ears. But here, CL is no longer whispering, instead he's breathing fire, his guitar a newly minted incendiary device. A sonic flame thrower, each track a layered assemblage of thick peals of sound, glowing tongues of distorted flame. A sonic assault more similar to Total or Sunroof! Than CL's usual output. Makes sense that the first song is dedicated to Pete Swanson of the Yellow Swans (who also mastered it).
But all of this talk of fire and flame shouldn't scare you off, there is still plenty of delicate beauty to be had, it's just wrapped in thick sheets of sonic napalm, the guitar effulgent and glowing white hot, the chords washed out and the distortion crumbling. Melodies are jagged and dripping with hissy buzz, each track a glacial guitarscape turning your speakers to ash.
There are a few tracks, almost half of the 8 here, that drift in a soporific haze, and hew closer to CL's usual aesthetic, but here, they sound less like individual pieces, and more like interludes, brief moments of tranquility, a chance to catch your breath, let your ears heal, allow time for your speakers to re-solidify, before launching the next buzzing crumbling divinely distorted salvo of gorgeous blown out guitar bliss.
Fans of stuff like Nadja, the Yellow Swans, Tim Hecker, the Angelic Process, Fear Falls Burning, will be quite pleased with Cantu-Ledesma's visit to the sonic dark side.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in full color cardboard sleeves, with printed inserts.
MPEG Stream: "Distant Star (For Pete Swanson)"
MPEG Stream: "Shining Skull Breath"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE The Garden Of Forking Paths (Spekk) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After a couple of super limited cd-r's and tapes, a release or two as Colophon, and a bunch as records as a member of the Alps and Tarentel, The Garden Of Forking Paths is Cantu-Ledesma's first proper full length, and it's a doozy. A subtle and immersive sound that belies the huge array of instruments used. Electric guitars, acoustic guitars, gong, sruti box, harmonium, singing bowl, cassette, microcassette, reel to reel tape machine, electronics, sound booster and ride cymbal, with help on one track with percussion, tapes and electronics. Somehow, all of those bits and baubles are melted down into a gorgeously lush, yet minimal series of slow crawls, deep rich drones, each adorned with subtle variations and bits of sonic color.
The multitude of tape machines used in the creation of this record gives the proceedings a raw, fuzzy analog vibe that definitely hits our Jeck-Hecker-Basinski spot. Fuzzy and indistinct, thick smeared sonic drifts, that occasionally glow with some sort of diffused inner light, but for the most part, slither darkly through the shadowy corners of your speakers. Here and there, some of the sound will spill from your speakers like black ink, shiny and shimmery, staining you ears with a mysterious darkness. The final track is the only track where you can hear the guitar, a mumbling buzzy melody buried way down in the mix, creeping through a moonlit landscape of shimmering warble and distant barely-there hum. A gorgeously murky minimal world of slow moving tape, vibrating metal, creaking buzz, whirling whispers and abstract dreamy drift.
Packaged in a cool, sleek oversized digipak style folder.
MPEG Stream: "Aberration Of Starlight"
MPEG Stream: "Bay Of Pearls"
MPEG Stream: "Feast Of Pentecost"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE & PAUL CLIPSON Corridors (Root Strata) dvd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second dvd collaboration from film maker Paul Clipson and Root Strata / Tarentel head honcho Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Another gorgeous and sonically blissed out tag team, Clipson's films this time around, again on Super-8, shot entirely in NYC, impressionistic shots of cityscapes, rolling hills, the texture of water, sun dappled evening skies, many of the shots textural, extreme close ups, patterns as much as images and shapes, sunspots, shadows, reflections, very active, the world flying past out the window of a train, power lines and bridges slipping out of eyeshot, setting suns and colored clouds, so lovely and dreamy.
Cantu-Ledesma offers up the perfect soundtrack, music culled from the same sessions that produced the huge aQ fave Shining Skull Breath, so even folks who don't care about the dvd, will want this for the sounds, which are thick and dense, whirring dronescapes, textured and layered, slipping from minimal shimmer to buzzing roar and back again, very much active, the intensity and propulsion of the sounds perfectly matching the motion of the visuals, in some cases, seemingly slowing it down, the drone dragging the landscape flashing by into sudden focus before letting it go again.
Either of these elements would be fantastic on their own, we can only imagine seeing these films projected against the side of a building, or on a huge movie screen, and these sounds would kill broadcast through some massive PA, the thick roiling drones washing over us, filling our ears with grit and grime, but together they work even better, even just viewed on the tiny screen of our computer, sonically and visually evoking all sorts of deep feelings and lost memories, of places never visited, of better times, of lost loves and of a past that keeps slipping further and further away. So lovely.
Packaged in an folded up origami style vellum sleeve with a printed insert. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! Already sold out at the label so these are the last copies EVER!

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE & PAUL CLIPSON The Phantom Harp (Root Strata) dvd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the age of YouTube and MySpace, the idea of the music video has changed dramatically since the days of MTV (or at least the days when MTV actually played videos). In the past, only bands on major labels could make a video, often hiring a real director and dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, plenty of bands have videos before they even have a record out. Super 8, digital video, Final Cut Pro, anyone can put together their own video and have it look as good if not better than the classic videos of old.
Old news maybe, but the thing is, most bands seems to use the video as simply a promotional tactic, or an excuse to fuck around and film it. Instead of, dare we say, ART. In the underground though, it's not at all uncommon for like minded musicians and filmmakers to join forces. In fact, with the advent of live performances featuring laptops and other sedimentary sound making devices (when is someone gonna make a laptop guitar, so left out laptoppers can windmill and leap about with the rest of the band?), often it's the accompanying films that are way more compelling. Often, a show is touted as some band performing "with films by so and so", but in fact, more often than not, it plays out more like seeing a film, that just so happens to feature live accompaniment by some band.
Few labels have really taken advantage of this new technology as much as Root Strata, who have quietly and steadily been releasing a series of super limited dvd-r's, each featuring new compositions by a small handful of artists, coupled with original films. The results have been pretty sublime, the films tending toward the abstract and impressionistic, the music following suit. When watching / listening to these, it's hard not to imagine laying on the floor, propped up on cushions, lights low, the film being projected on a huge blank wall, the band hunkered over their instruments in the corner, which makes sense as that's most likely how these films/sounds were conceived.Ê
So we have two new super limited dvd-r releases, one from Zelienople and one from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Paul Clipson, both limited to 100 copies, both already out of print, so these are the only copies we'll ever get.Ê
This is the third collaboration between filmmaker Paul Clipson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, who also plays in Tarentel, and runs Root Strata with his partner Maxwell Croy.Ê
The Phantom Harp, as the title might lead you to believe, is in fact a reworking of the piece of the same name, originally released as a 3" cd-r and now out of print. Not only has the piece been reworked, but no it is accompanied by Clipson's gorgeous abstract images. The Phantom Harp is a super minimal sun dappled stretch of glimmering shimmering dreaminess, soft notes float like leaves in the summer sun, smears of high end wreath each note in glimmering sonic haloes, the pace is glacial, the melodies stretched out over minutes instead of seconds, a little ambient, a little new age, a little free drone, all deftly blurred into one smoldering sonic dreamscape. The visuals are super striking, and manage to fit perfectly with the sounds, all black and white, images of rain slicked streets, sun shining through the treetops, car headlights at night, images sometimes overexposed, blurred, superimposed, but mostly left to just play out, cityscapes, buildings, people rushing to and fro, light reflecting on water, shapes and textures, walls, grills, neon signs, restaurants, a soft, a dreamy faded super-8 travelogue. So nice.
Packaged in printed, folded papers sleeves, and again, LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES, and already out of print.

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE & PAUL CLIPSON Within Mirrors (Special Edition) (Students Of Decay) dvd + 3" cd-r 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available, this long in the works compilation of the various collaborations between super 8 filmmaker Paul Clipson and musician Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, he of Tarentel and the Alps as well as one half of the team that runs the Root Strata label. Many (if not all) of these collaborations were previously available as ultra limited dvd-r's, some so limited (as in 50 copies!) we only got a handful, some so limited we never got ANY. This is the first time they've all been compiled on a proper REAL dvd (not a dvd-r), and we're the only store that has the ultra limited version which comes with a bonus 3" cd-r, but more on that in bit.
First, let's talk about the films and the music included here. First, The Phantom Harp from 2007. The Phantom Harp, was in fact a reworking of the piece of the same name, originally released as a 3" cd-r and long out of print. The reworked version found the music accompanied by Clipson's gorgeous abstract images. The Phantom Harp is a super minimal sun dappled stretch of glimmering shimmering dreaminess, soft notes float like leaves in the summer sun, smears of high end wreath each note in glimmering sonic haloes, the pace is glacial, the melodies stretched out over minutes instead of seconds, a little ambient, a little new age, a little free drone, all deftly blurred into one smoldering sonic dreamscape. The visuals are super striking, and manage to fit perfectly with the sounds, all black and white, images of rain slicked streets, sun shining through the treetops, car headlights at night, images sometimes overexposed, blurred, superimposed, but mostly left to just play out, cityscapes, buildings, people rushing to and fro, light reflecting on water, shapes and textures, walls, grills, neon signs, restaurants, a soft, a dreamy faded super-8 travelogue.
Then there's Corridors, also from 2007, which was the second dvd collaboration between Clipson and Cantu-Ledesma. Another gorgeous and sonically blissed out tag team, Clipson's films, again on Super-8, were shot entirely in NYC, impressionistic shots of cityscapes, rolling hills, the texture of water, sun dappled evening skies, many of the shots textural, extreme close ups, patterns as much as images and shapes, sunspots, shadows, reflections, very active, the world flying past out the window of a train, power lines and bridges slipping out of eyeshot, setting suns and colored clouds, so lovely and dreamy. Cantu-Ledesma offers up the perfect soundtrack, music culled from the same sessions that produced the huge aQ fave Shining Skull Breath, thick and dense, whirring dronescapes, textured and layered, slipping from minimal shimmer to buzzing roar and back again, very much active, the intensity and propulsion of the sounds perfectly matching the motion of the visuals, in some cases, seemingly slowing it down, the drone dragging the landscape flashing by into sudden focus before letting it go again.
Two Suns from 2005: A beautifully abstract and paranoid impression of Southern California, filmed on grainy Super8, with lots of dizzyingly hypnotic footage of telephone wires, helicopters, cityscapes, gorgeously blurred out traffic lights and tail lights and street lights. There's late afternoon silhouettes, fuzzy smears of neon, rain drops on glass, cranes and docks, abstract streaks of passing cars and slick roadways, hillsides covered in windmills, the sun reflected on the sea, highways and green hills. So lovely. And haunting. As are the accompanying sounds created, an ominous, buzzing, vocal drone, affected to the point that it still sounds organic, but not like a voice, more like streaks of sound, greys and blacks and browns, all smeared into blurred soundscapes of purr and whir and thrum, that perfectly compliment the shaky camera work, the grainy film stock, and the gorgeously and ominously mundane subject matter.
Constellations from 2006: A dreamlike drift through a dense visual latticework of plants, chainlink fences, branches, leaves, stoplights, neon signs, a delirious series of slow motion visual tangles and patterns. A bug's eye view of the world mysterious and wonderful, like cutting room floor super-8 plant studies and urban landscapes woven into soft focus home movies. All set to the warm glow of Ledesma's swelling dronescapes.
The other three films here may have been released before, but are new to us, Sphinx On The Seine from 2008, is another collection of gorgeous hazy landscapes, in washed out color and start black and white, the films flitting back and forth, industrial structures, glowing lights, moving textures and solar flares, all set to a dark and haunting melody laced low end thrum, meditative and ominous. There's also Within Mirrors, which is also from 2008, and is much more impressionistic, branches and leaves, constantly shifting in and out of focus, while Cantu-Ledesma's score shifts accordingly, from pulsing looped mesmer to warm washed out dreaminess.
And finally, there's Lights & Perfections from 2006, more patterns, this time a journey through ever shifting foliage, another bug's eye view, flowers and grass, and shifting leaves, blossoms, everything swaying gently in the breeze, the soundtrack equally breezy, soft focus, hushed and dreamy, soothing and tranquil and so lovely. In fact all the sights and sounds here are gorgeous. And as if that weren't enough, we have the super limited version, which comes with a bonus 3" cd-r, featuring an exclusive 17 minute track, a gorgeous hazy dronescape, of pulsing softly psychedelic shimmer, of strange hushed industrial whir, of grinding shoegazey crunch, of barely there whispery drift, of staticky dreamlike shimmer, so gorgeous.
EXTREMELY LIMITED, at least the deluxe version with the bonus disc, so grab one quick if you want the extra disc! The packaging is super swank too, an oversized complex multipocketed origami style cardstock sleeve, printed front and back. Nice!

CAPECE, LUCIO & MIKA VAINIO Trahnie (Mego) cd 17.98

CAPRICORNUS Halation (Infraction) cd 15.98
Halation is the debut release from Japanese dronologist Hiroshi Tanaka, aka Capricornus, and is two tracks and 41 minutes of gorgeously minimal, hazy, gauzy, ethereal, free floating, hushed ambient drift. Long tones are layered into gently undulating sonic swells woven into a blurred, meditative new age, melodies playing out over minutes instead of seconds, the overtones, creating subtly kaleidoscopic shades amidst the glacially unfolding drowsy tranquility, occasionally what sounds like guitars surface, but all the edges are worn away, transforming the chordal steel string whir into yet another layer of soft sound. The second track is a bit more moody, slightly darker, the sounds interacting similarly, muted and murmuring, drifting dreamily, but the tones have a melancholic cast, as if clouds had drifted over the opening track, still warm and lush and dreamlike, but more rainy day than sun dappled summer afternoon. Both equally lovely, a fantastic debut of washed out ambient dreamdronedrift.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "Cubes In Stereo"

CARCHESIO, EUGENE & LEIGHTON CRAIG Leaves (Naturestrip) cd 16.98
For well over twenty years now, Eugene Carchesio and Leighton Craig have been creating wayward recordings in barely-released editions on cassette and cd-r for their exploratory free-folk / semi-improvisational communions with the Australian landscape. Only recently have any of their recordings made their way across the Pacific, mostly by way of their contributions in the group Lost Domain, whose drifting, monochromatic ragas have been released by such shambolic stalwarts as Digitalis Recordings and PseudoArcana. Leaves is another such entry in their humbly spectacular wanderings; this time, it's through the exceptional Australian label Naturestrip. The easiest comparison that anyone could make to Leaves would be to The Blithe Sons and Thuja (or most any of the Jewelled Antler ensembles of sodden nature jams), where two dedicated listeners creating droning harmonics alongside the unpredictability of natural events. Carchesio and Craig often are found slumped over their battery powered keyboards, creating shimmering drone vibrations that accompany the cacophony of lorikeets, crows, cicadas, and wind in Leighton's Brisbane backyard, where these recordings were made. When the birds and insects allow it, Carchesio and Craig pick up an acoustic guitar, violin, and recorder (amongst other instruments) for some purposefully primitive arrangements pocked with dreamily psychedelic references and quietly clattered improv. Really, really nice!
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 7"

CARDEW, CORNELIUS Treatise (Hat Hut) cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Even though Cornelius Cardew composed this piece from 1963 - 1967, the world premier complete recording of "Treatise" did not see the light of day long after his death in 1998. That's not surprising, considering that the manuscript of the score is 193 pages long, and serves as an open ended graphical display rather than a collection of specific notations. There are no suggestions as to how many instruments should be played, or for that matter how the score should even be read. Cardew himself expressed that this score utilizes the metaphor of a vertebrae, with the musicians moving their sounds around this backbone however they see fit. For this performance, the conductor was Art Lange and the musicians included Jim O'Rourke (electronics), Jim Baker (piano), Carrie Biolo (vibes), Guillermo Gregorio (clarinet), and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello). These musicians took all the liberties that Cardew hoped they would take with this huge free-form improvisation. Although I have to say that the idea behind this piece is much cooler than these two and a half hours of fanciful wankiness.

CARDEW, CORNELIUS & THE SCRATCH ORCHESTRA The Great Learning (Cortical Foundation) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Cortical Foundation has been reissuing some amazing documents of avant-garde sound art from the past century, including this composition from Scratch Orchestra ringleader and AMM memeber Cornelius Cardew. This work presents three paragraphs from the much larger musical text of "The Great Learning" and is composed of sustained pipe organ tones in particularly malevolent chords, short stabs of police whistles, sheets of hammering tribal drums with human voices howling against the drums, and complex vocal choirs. All of the text that runs through the compositions are incantations from the Confucian text "The Great Learning" which lays down a basic ethical and political code. However, the recitation of these texts sounds very much like the perversions of Catholic liturgies from the black masses of the Satanic Church with an authoritative delivery, an almost Gnostic indecipherability, and a bleakly somber overtone. Cardew's intentions for using this text are to express the inherent human failings of attempting to live up to the most basic of moral codes. Despite his pairing the metaphor of failure with the distinctly sprirtual overtones in the work, Cardew may not be actually talking about spiritual collapse or the failure of religions. Rather, "The Great Learning" postulates that if there is a higher state than mankind, then it will be our goal to attempt to find a means to that state, even if that is an impossible goal. Altogether, this is an wonderful if at times terrifying work.
RealAudio clip: "Paragraph 1"

CARETAKER, THE An Empty Bliss Beyond The World (History Always Favors The Winners) cd 15.98
Now available on cd, record number two from Leyland Kirby's Caretaker project, whose last record, Persistent Repetition Of Phrases, was a unanimous aQ fave, and was of course one of Wire magazine's top 10 albums of 2008, and was, and still is, one of our best sellers, and it looks like this one is likely to follow suit.
A sonic meditation on memory and loss, The Caretaker, takes old jazz records, various effects, and what sounds like a battery of old beat up Victrolas, and weaves Philip Jeck like soundscapes, but unlike Jeck, the source sounds here are not obfuscated, in fact, in some respects, The Caretaker records are almost like spectral spiritual otherworldly mix tapes, especially on this new one, which sounds like old 78s left to play in a big old auditorium, the room's reverb lovingly wreathing the music in a gauzy old timey haze, the surface noise, hiss and crackle and pop, somehow accentuated by the cavernous space. Better yet, replace the auditorium with an old abandoned mansion. Imagine the great room, animal heads on the walls, old oil paintings, a massive fireplace, charred black, old decaying rugs, all the furniture covered in white cloths, looking like ghosts, cobwebs in all the corners, the floor beneath a layer of dust, and in the corner, an old record player, lit up, its turntable spinning slowly, some old dusty record, to a room full of spirits, a sonic requiem for a time that once was, the music seeming to reflect the ever fading memories, and that's what these songs sound like, some sort of haunted house jazz, old timey seance blues, mournful melodies played on an old piano, muted trumpet, swoonsome strings, shuffling drums, a slow motion big band performing live in the ether, a spectral band playing lament after lament, dedicating it to their lost loves, and loves lost.
An Empty Bliss Beyond This World plays like some archival collection of lost 78's, but where the records' provenance is unknown, timeless music that could have come from anytime, and anywhere, the imperfections and inconsistencies as much a part of the sound as the music itself, all of that hiss and crackle a warm wreath of time-transformed-into-sound detritus, the passing of time mad physical, a sonic memorial to the past. So utterly gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "All You're Going To Want To Do Is Get Back There"
MPEG Stream: "Moments Of Sufficient Lucidity"
MPEG Stream: "The Great Hidden Sea Of The Unconscious"
MPEG Stream: "Libet's Delay"

CARETAKER, THE An Empty Bliss Beyond The World (History Always Favours The Winners) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Repressed and back in print.
Record number two from Leyland Kirby's Caretaker project, whose last record, Persistent Repetition Of Phrases, was a unanimous aQ fave, and was of course one of Wire magazine's top 10 albums of 2008, and was, and still is, one of our best sellers, and it looks like this one is likely to follow suit.
A sonic meditation on memory and loss, The Caretaker, takes old jazz records, various effects, and what sounds like a battery of old beat up Victrolas, and weaves Philip Jeck like soundscapes, but unlike Jeck, the source sounds here are not obfuscated, in fact, in some respects, The Caretaker records are almost like spectral spiritual otherworldly mix tapes, especially on this new one, which sounds like old 78s left to play in a big old auditorium, the room's reverb lovingly wreathing the music in a gauzy old timey haze, the surface noise, hiss and crackle and pop, somehow accentuated by the cavernous space. Better yet, replace the auditorium with an old abandoned mansion. Imagine the great room, animal heads on the walls, old oil paintings, a massive fireplace, charred black, old decaying rugs, all the furniture covered in white cloths, looking like ghosts, cobwebs in all the corners, the floor beneath a layer of dust, and in the corner, an old record player, lit up, its turntable spinning slowly, some old dusty record, to a room full of spirits, a sonic requiem for a time that once was, the music seeming to reflect the ever fading memories, and that's what these songs sound like, some sort of haunted house jazz, old timey seance blues, mournful melodies played on an old piano, muted trumpet, swoonsome strings, shuffling drums, a slow motion big band performing live in the ether, a spectral band playing lament after lament, dedicating it to their lost loves, and loves lost.
An Empty Bliss Beyond This World plays like some archival collection of lost 78's, but where the records' provenance is unknown, timeless music that could have come from anytime, and anywhere, the imperfections and inconsistencies as much a part of the sound as the music itself, all of that hiss and crackle a warm wreath of time-transformed-into-sound detritus, the passing of time mad physical, a sonic memorial to the past. So utterly gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "All You're Going To Want To Do Is Get Back There"
MPEG Stream: "Moments Of Sufficient Lucidity"
MPEG Stream: "The Great Hidden Sea Of The Unconscious"
MPEG Stream: "Libet's Delay"

CARETAKER, THE Persistent Repetition Of Phrases (History Always Favors The Winners) cd 17.98
One of Wire magazine's best records of 2008, and an instant all time aQ fave, the Caretaker's Persistent Repetition Of Phrases is a gorgeous, hazy, sonic mystery, that when first released, was so limited, the cd went out of print before we even had a chance to review it at all. We did end up listing the vinyl, and selling TONS, but now finally, the cd version has been repressed, so prepare to again experience the magic of the Caretaker's haunting and evocative miniature blurred ghostjazz soundworlds, a gloriously sprawling, murky, looped and mesmeric dreamscape songsuite.
The Caretaker has two modes, slow shimmery gauzy ambience, and slowed down warped and blurred big band and jazz. Often combing the two into some sort of otherworldly slow motion spectral dream jazz. We've been joking that the Caretaker is sort of like the DJ Screw of the avant underground, seeing as he takes scratchy old jazz records and reworks them Philip Jeck style into, woozy buried drifts of jazz shadows and haunting otherworldly vocals. Most of the jazzier tracks, sound like the soundtrack to some super creepy dream sequence, a la the Shining, like when Nicholson finds himself in that bar filled with ghosts, you can almost imagine, a dusty old saloon, broken mirrors, cigarette burned tables, sawdust floors, a lone figure sitting alone, hunched over in a dark corner, while all around him, nearly transparent figures move about as if still alive, a ballet of phantom familiarity, spirits unaware that they've moved on, going on with the machinations of daily life, their essence flickery and indistinct, like an old filmstrip. And a filmstrip soundtrack is exactly what the music of the Caretaker evokes, warm, effusive, burnished, old timey, antiquated, the sounds are dark and woozy and and bleed together, blurring into fuzzy stretches of lost memory, of suspended time. The music here is the sound of faded old photographs, of old super 8 movies projected on a wall in a dark and dusty old room, of abandoned skating rinks, of boarded up windows, of black clouds filling a slate grey sky, of life slowing to a crawl, before even more slowly fading away. Absolutely and utterly breathtaking.
MPEG Stream: "Lacunar Amnesia"
MPEG Stream: "Persistent Repition Of Phrases"
MPEG Stream: "Rosy Retrospection"
MPEG Stream: "Long Term (Remote)"

CARETAKER, THE Persistent Repetition Of Phrases (History Always Favours The Winners) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of Wire magazine's records of 2008, the Caretaker's Persistent Repetition Of Phrases was in fact, when we finally got to hear it, incredible. Gorgeous, hazy, mysterious, destined to be one of OUR favorites as well. Unfortunately, when we tried to order it, intending to feature it prominently on the list, we discovered that it was in fact so limited that it was already out of print, not to be repressed. Argghhh.
Thankfully, the vinyl version showed up recently, so we grabbed as many as we could, so we could shower it with the praise it most definitely deserves. CD only folks are shit out of luck, but for now (and we mean NOW, these are crazy limited too) we have the vinyl, so grab one before they disappear.
The Caretaker has two modes, slow shimmery gauzy ambience, and slowed down warped and blurred big band and jazz. Often combing the two into some sort of otherworldly slow motion spectral dream jazz. We've been joking that the Caretaker is sort of like the DJ Screw of the avant underground, seeing as he takes scratchy old jazz records and reworks them Philip Jeck style into, woozy buried drifts of jazz shadows and haunting otherworldly vocals. Most of the jazzier tracks, sound like the soundtrack to some super creepy dream sequence, a la the Shining, like when Nicholson finds himself in that bar filled with ghosts, you can almost imagine, a dusty old saloon, broken mirrors, cigarette burned tables, sawdust floors, a lone figure sitting alone, hunched over in a dark corner, while all around him, nearly transparent figures move about as if still alive, a ballet of phantom familiarity, spirits unaware that they've moved on, going on with the machinations of daily life, their essence flickery and indistinct, like an old filmstrip. And a filmstrip soundtrack is exactly what the music of the Caretaker evokes, warm, effusive, burnished, old timey, antiquated, the sounds are dark and woozy and and bleed together, blurring into fuzzy stretches of lost memory, of suspended time. The music here is the sound of faded old photographs, of old super 8 movies projected on a wall in a dark and dusty old room, of abandoned skating rinks, of boarded up windows, of black clouds filling a slate grey sky, of life slowing to a crawl, before ven more slowly fading away. Absolutely and utterly breathtaking.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES.

CARETAKER, THE Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom (V/VM Test Records) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Caretaker spins really old vinyl for the most part much slower than intended and affects the lugubrious pace with assorted warbly effects. This collage of slo-mo waltzes and antique crackles is punctuated by a spartan use of distorto-breakbeat-crunch. Released on V/VM's label and certainly follows the V/VM - Speedranch - Janski Noise aethetic of neo-dada electronica, yet presented with a very sad overtone. In the end this could easily be some gossamer soundtrack to a deep sea nature show or an alternate score to the ballroom scenes in "The Shining".

CARNACKI, THOMAS Far Voyage From A Placid Island (Alethiometer) cd 11.98
Thomas Carnacki is the pseudonym of Berkeley's Gregory Scharpen who can be found lurking around the theater departments of various troupes as a sound designer and creative foil. On occasion, he's also been a member of the live ensemble for irr. app. (ext.) and has even taken the stage during a couple of Nurse With Wound gigs. Far Voyage From A Placid Island collects four of the compositions that Scharpen has created for stage in collaboration with a handful of eccentric Bay Area musicians. The first piece finds Scharpen working with Jesse Quattro for massing of breathy aerations, deep bellowings, and subterranean creakings above a sustained dark timbral hum. At first this piece has all of the acoustic richness of the brilliant Andrew Chalk / Jonathan Coleclough record Sumac bundled with horror film grimness and hymnal vocals from Quattro swathed in reverb. Scharpen's collaboration with Jesse Burson (who is the dapper gentleman from Big City Orchestra) is a much more cacophonous affair collaged from slurps and creaks that sounds like a sucking chest would above chiming bells and shards of glass. Jon Brumit (who you may remember from his exceptional album of recordings from things found at the SF landfill) and Scharpen bring crackling vinyl from 78s (you know how much we LOVE that!!!) to wintery ambience and eerie blurts from distant horns. The final track is a solo work, again featuring that unnerving horn sounds in the distance with cyclical metallic drones that bring Nurse With Wound's Homotopy To Marie to mind; a more accurate comparison would be Metgumbnerbone, but who the hell has heard of them? Very well done indeed!
MPEG Stream: "Polyp Ride Pt 2"
MPEG Stream: "Leaning Under A New Car"

CARNACKI, THOMAS No Reserve (Petit Mal) 3"cd-r 5.98
No Reserve is a limited run release of a radio broadcast care of KALX in Berkeley from the eccentric Thomas Carnacki, whose ooze-riddled sound collages are buttressed by the likes of Gregory Hagan (Common Eider King Eider), Jim Kaiser (NFOrchest, etc.), and Jesse Burson (Big City Orchestra). Carnacki's live performances are notoriously last-minute affairs with the ringmaster collecting his resourceful motley crew of sullen noise makers a few days before any given performance, almost always resulting in spontaneous madness of illogical sounds and colliding electro-acoustics. Strangely, the gigs almost always work wonderfully, and such is the case for this KALX transmission.
At the onset, the quartet finds themselves in a claustrophobic space, with metallic exhalations and looping scrapes reflecting all of the optimism of a bombed-out bunker. Gritty pulsations of electronics build out of residual drones, oscillating two and fro, with a thick clatter of that bunker-powered reverb settling at the bottom of the layering of sounds. Hagan's violin, which adds to those sadder-than-sad moods to Common Eider King Eider, creeps to the foreground at various intervals, amidst the cooing electronics, the crumblings of sand, rock, and debris, and the funereal tolls from a resonant bell. Think early HNAS, Cranioclast, and Nurse With Wound, and you'll be close to the unsettled atmospherics of Mr. Carnacki and his so-called Anti-Memorial Orchestra and Choir.
MPEG Stream: "No Reserve (extract 1)"
MPEG Stream: "No Reserve (extract 2)"

CARNACKI, THOMAS The Disappearance Of This Terrible Spool (Alethiometer) cd ep 6.98
Greg Scharpen is an artist who's never without a project at hand. While the bulk of his artistic career has been spent in the sound design realm of East Bay theater and dance troupes, he also dons the Thomas Carnacki pseudonym to conduct various exercises in audio surrealism. Over the years, Scharpen has been a noted contributor to the irr.app.(ext.) live presentations and has even made appearances in the Nurse With Wound's rotating cast. These two figureheads of paratactic collage and bizarro-world atmospherics loom large in the audio vocabulary of Mr. Scharpen, and that of course is a very good thing! The Disappearance Of This Terrible Spool is just the second release by Carnacki / Scharpen, following the 2006 album Far Voyage From A Placid Island. Thus it begins with deep swells of thick reverberations that ascend towards a clatter of indeterminant gizmos, only to collapse into a maudlin half-melody of vibrato drone and lost-at-sea undulation. Think Nurse With Wound circa Shipwreck Radio, and you would not be all that far off. The somber tone of this first track continues through the second, due in part to the central role of a mournful violin performed by Gregory Hagan also of Common Eider, King Eider. The final two tracks embrace the disjointed, disembodied, discombobulated cut-n-paste collage techniques with spluttering electronics and truncated gaspings for air - again NWW, irr.app.(ext.) or HNAS comes to mind. A tad brief at 24 minutes, but not a minute is wasted within!
MPEG Stream: "The Angela Carter Museum"
MPEG Stream: "The Fall Of Wappinger"
MPEG Stream: "Gansevoort Two-Step"

CARNIVAL IN COAL French Cancan (Kodiak/Season of Mist) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
To say this record is the most amazing thing I have ever heard wouldn't be all that far from the mark. But at the same time it would be fairly accurate to say that this record is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard.
This French duo is definitely metal, definitely on the black side of metal; raspy evil vocals, crazy leads, pounding programmed drums, but with healthy doses of electronics, crazy sound effects, some bizarre lounge style vocals, and some truly questionable cover songs. The record starts off with a fairly straight cover of Ozzy's 'Bark at the Moon', albeit with weird electronic warbles and silly over the top vocals. But then it gets really weird. They tackle the eighties classic 'Maniac' (the theme from Flashdance) and it's nothing short of baffling. So baffling in fact, that I can't even explain it. Then comes a cover of the fm radio classic 'Baker Street' by Gerry Rafferty, the infamous sax melody played by blazing electric guitars. So stupid , but so so great. Seriously. And to finish it all up, they do a truly inspired version of Pantera's 'Fucking Hostile', Phil Anselmo's shouted '1,2,3,4,' segues into a calypso cabaret that has to be heard to be believed, with a lisping chorus '....definitlely hostile...'. Andee recommends this. Above all other things on this weeks list. Everytime we play this in the store, someone laughs hysterically, someone looks perplexed, and someone buys it. You could be one of those people. Or probably all of those people.
Buy it.

CAROLINE K Now Wait For Last Year (Klanggalerie) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In 1979, Nigel Ayers and Caroline K began recording as Nocturnal Emissions, a project then that was spurned by the nascent Industrial Culture of Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, and SPK. Their early recordings - Tissue Of Lies and Drowning In A Sea Of Bliss especially - are classic recordings of information overload aesthetics through abrasive drum machines, electronic noise, tape psychosis, and aggressive sequencing. At the same time, the two began Sterile Records as a means to put out their own recordings and those of likeminded malcontents (i.e. Lustmord, MB, Controlled Bleeding, Konstruktivits, etc.). By the early '90s, Caroline left Nocturnal Emissions to Ayers and disappeared from the public eye; but she did manage one solo record in Now Wait For Last Year.
By the time that Caroline recorded this album, Nocturnal Emissions had grown disenchanted with Industrial Culture, especially all of the blood and horror from the requisite medical imagery that went hand in hand with the punishing electronics. At the same time, Sterile Records had transformed into Earthly Delights promoting an agenda of post-Eno driftscaping. Now Wait For Last Year was actually the first lp to land on Earthly Delights, standing as a fantastic and underappreciated swath of industrially tainted ambience.
Sodden loops of melancholic dronings open the album which all spiral into a 20 minute mantra of murky haze reminiscent of some of the Zoviet France recordings from around the same time period (Mohnomische, in particular), furthered along by a lurching set of mechanical rhythms buried deep in the background. This is followed by a nocturne synthesized from medieval chants and percussion not unlike, the earliest Dead Can Dance or the Fairlight driven works of Coil. The dirge-paced synth number Chearth is more in keeping with John Carpenter score (although certainly less bombastic). Klanggalerie had acquired three bonus tracks from Caroline's estate (she died in 2008), featuring her in more of a Suspiria meets Richard Pinhas vein of mood engineering.
MPEG Stream: "The Happening World"
MPEG Stream: "Tracking With Close-Ups"
MPEG Stream: "Between The Spaces 2"

CAROLINER An 1800s Affectuant in 'An Instrumental Revue' cd-r 5.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.