EXPO 70 Sonic Messenger (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More epic and dense heart-of-the-sun blissed out heavy space drones from Expo 70. And the thing is, we're running out of superlatives, we can only gush so much before we run out of new things to say, which is especially difficult when every record is as good as if not better than the last. So do forgive us if we're repeating ourselves, but hell, any one into spaced out heaviness, and droneprogbliss, who hasn't heard Expo 70 is missing out on one might just be their favorite band EVER.
Like past records, Expo 70 suck the essence out of every Hawkwind record, the soul of every Tangerine Dream record, and filter it through filter of SUNNO))) black hole heaviness, and come up with their own unique psychedelic space rock krautdrone, a sound we just can't get enough of. Expansive and sprawling, dark and meditative, washed out and dreamy, heavy and layered, the opening track on Sonic Messenger is a crushing chunk of low end rumble and pulse, which immediately gives way to some ultra hushed bliss, which smolders and flickers and expands in slow motion like a time lapse film of a planet being birthed. And so it goes, rhythms surface and blink out, guitars groan and whir and weep, synths wheeze and unfurl glimmering sheets of sound, the guitars sometimes coalesce into psychedelic almost-leads, but more often than not fade into clouds of hazy reverb and ethereal delay, the record closes with a 21 minute slow burn that is subtly fierce, a muted ominous swell of sound, wrapped in airy tendrils of fragmented melody, and swaths of gritty texture, a brooding and intense stretch of dreamy darkness.
Once again Expo 70 deliver the divine drugged out sonic space drone bliss.
And while they last (only 150 copies!!), included is a whole extra disc, an actual cd, not a cd-r, 50 more minutes of blissed out krautdrone space psych ambience. Three long long long songs, much more hushed and almost new age sounding that the record proper, except for the first 22 minute jam, that builds to a frenzied psychedelic freak out coda.
Deluxe packaging too, a glossy full color mini hardcover book-like sleeve, while the bonus disc comes in a cardboard sleeve, but there are instructions how to get some bonus stuff for the limited cd via the label's website. Cool!
MPEG Stream: "Amplifying Umbras"
MPEG Stream: "Analog Dreamscape"
MPEG Stream: "Hamadryad"

EXPO 70 Sonic Messenger (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2lp 33.00
NOW ON VINYL, this Expo opus from last year!!
More epic and dense heart-of-the-sun blissed out heavy space drones from Expo 70. And the thing is, we're running out of superlatives, we can only gush so much before we run out of new things to say, which is especially difficult when every record is as good as if not better than the last. So do forgive us if we're repeating ourselves, but hell, any one into spaced out heaviness, and droneprogbliss, who hasn't heard Expo 70 is missing out on one might just be their favorite band EVER.
Like past records, Expo 70 suck the essence out of every Hawkwind record, the soul of every Tangerine Dream record, and filter it through filter of SUNNO))) black hole heaviness, and come up with their own unique psychedelic space rock krautdrone, a sound we just can't get enough of. Expansive and sprawling, dark and meditative, washed out and dreamy, heavy and layered, the opening track on Sonic Messenger is a crushing chunk of low end rumble and pulse, which immediately gives way to some ultra hushed bliss, which smolders and flickers and expands in slow motion like a time lapse film of a planet being birthed. And so it goes, rhythms surface and blink out, guitars groan and whir and weep, synths wheeze and unfurl glimmering sheets of sound, the guitars sometimes coalesce into psychedelic almost-leads, but more often than not fade into clouds of hazy reverb and ethereal delay, the record closes with a 21 minute slow burn that is subtly fierce, a muted ominous swell of sound, wrapped in airy tendrils of fragmented melody, and swaths of gritty texture, a brooding and intense stretch of dreamy darkness.
Once again Expo 70 deliver the divine drugged out sonic space drone bliss.
MPEG Stream: "Amplifying Umbras"
MPEG Stream: "Analog Dreamscape"
MPEG Stream: "Hamadryad"

EXPO 70 Sunglasses / Transcending Energy From Light (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.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
The only real downside to an Expo 70 single, is that it's ultimately frustrating in its brevity, as the music of Justin Wright, aka Expo 70 (or Expo '70, they seem to have lost the apostrophe on recent releases) is far better served by longer formats, lps, cds, and while both of these songs are indeed fantastic, it's almost criminal to cut them off after only 4 or 5 minutes, these are the sorts of sounds meant to sprawl and ooze and spread and extend for ages and ages. But as far as complaints got, it's a minor (and not entirely negative one), you'll just have to stick close by the turntable so you can lift the needle and set it right back at the beginning again.
No great surprises or strange sonic twists, just more of that thick dark gloriously heavy space kraut drone we've come to expect. The A side is some seriously deep and drone-y outer space exploration, warm languorous tones over a softly grinding and pulsing buzz, sweeping and epic and darkly mysterious, glistening melodies shifting from speaker to speaker, very new age-y for sure, but a sort of dense and blackened new age.
The B side begins all growling buzzing low end thickness, laced with space-y squiggles, long high end streaks and glimmering tones, beneath the blissy drift is a warm whirring and a softly corrosive crumble, all wound up into epic slow building swells of deeeeep deeeeep buzz. So nice.
Gorgeous full color covers, and of course LIMITED, it's already sold out from the label, so these will be the last copies we can get.

EXPO 70 Where Does Your Mind Go? (Immune) lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest (vinyl-only) chunk of kosmische spacekraut exploration from long time aQ faves Expo 70, for this recording expanded to a duo, consisting of Expo 70 main man Justin Wright, along with his occasional collaborator Matt Hill, aka recent Record Of The Week honoree Umberto. Together they conjure four sprawling smoldering tracks of galaxian space drone mesmer spread out over four vinyl sides. While it seemed like on other recent Expo 70 records, that Wright and Co. were slowly moving toward a heavier sound, dipping into occasional SUNNO))) territory, the sounds here are seem more tranquil and blissed out, although the addition of Hill gives some of these songs a distinctly haunting soundtrack vibe...
The opening track offers up some subtle minimal drum machines, more textural than rhythmic, drifting on a warm whirling sea of shimmering sonic swells and hazy soft focus drones, everything gauzy and washed out, the soundtrack to a sky full of solar flares, blurred and indistinct, bleary eyed and blissful The guitars do gain some momentum, wrapped in reverb and sent spinning into the ether, but everything stays grounded, a dreamlike abstract soft sonic drift.
The second track definitely seems to reflect the presence of Umberto mainman Hill, immediately unfurling a thick swatch of buzzing drone, a haunting ominous tense bit of ambience, streaks of minor key melody, all underpinned by squelchy low end synths and warm washes of synthesized strings, the whole thing sounding like Umberto or Zombi filtered through Expo 70. There are some brief stretches where the low end becomes a bit more corrosive, but it dissipates quickly, leaving synth shadows and melodic traces, to gradually fade into the cosmos.
The second record begins again with some thick droning synths, layered into softly pulsing streaks, wheezing and whirring elegantly, and ominously, building a mysterious background, over which the duo lay swoonsome strings and maudlin piano, it's all very cinematic and soundtracky and classical, like the score to some lost Italian giallo, again like some hybrid of Umberto and Expo 70 (which it essentially is), one can almost picture the strange psychedelic colors, and constantly flitting shadows, some crumbling old villa set atop a hill, beneath a burnt black sky, tense and moody and gloriously creepy.
The final track/side begins with a cloud of processed guitars, wreathed in delay and reverb, a warm swirl of buzz and pulse, that gradually grows more lush and full, hazy and druggy, the drum machine from the first track returns, again adding texture (but this time a little propulsion as well), the swirl of guitars smooth out into something much more hypnotic, before everything seems to meltdown in a soft psychedelic squall, streaks of spaced out effects, fragmented melodies, shuffling rhythms buried beneath clouds of hiss and whir and static buzz, a warm whirling stretch of soft chaos, that soon morphs into a muted murky bit of outer space shimmer, that gradually disappears into the vast endless blackness, like a dying star. Epic and fantastic.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, pressed on super thick virgin vinyl, and housed in a fancy old style tip-on gatefold jackets. Includes a download code as well...
MPEG Stream: "Ancient Hawk Soul Takes Flight"
MPEG Stream: "Close Your Eyes And Effortlessly Drift Away"

EXPO 70 Where Does Your Mind Go? (Immune) cassette 6.98
This previously vinyl-only chunk of kosmische spacekraut exploration from long time aQ faves Expo 70, now available on CASSETTE!
Where Does Your Mind Go? was one of the first Expo records to find the group expanded to a duo, consisting of Expo 70 main man Justin Wright, along with his occasional collaborator Matt Hill, aka recent Record Of The Week honoree Umberto. Together they conjure four sprawling smoldering tracks of galaxian space drone mesmer. While it seemed like on other recent Expo 70 records, that Wright and Co. were slowly moving toward a heavier sound, dipping into occasional SUNNO))) territory, the sounds here seem more tranquil and blissed out, although the addition of Hill gives some of these songs a distinctly haunting soundtrack vibe...
The opening track offers up some subtle minimal drum machines, more textural than rhythmic, drifting on a warm whirling sea of shimmering sonic swells and hazy soft focus drones, everything gauzy and washed out, the soundtrack to a sky full of solar flares, blurred and indistinct, bleary eyed and blissful The guitars do gain some momentum, wrapped in reverb and sent spinning into the ether, but everything stays grounded, a dreamlike abstract soft sonic drift.
The second track definitely seems to reflect the presence of Umberto mainman Hill, immediately unfurling a thick swatch of buzzing drone, a haunting ominous tense bit of ambience, streaks of minor key melody, all underpinned by squelchy low end synths and warm washes of synthesized strings, the whole thing sounding like Umberto or Zombi filtered through Expo 70. There are some brief stretches where the low end becomes a bit more corrosive, but it dissipates quickly, leaving synth shadows and melodic traces, to gradually fade into the cosmos.
Track three begins again with some thick droning synths, layered into softly pulsing streaks, wheezing and whirring elegantly, and ominously, building a mysterious background, over which the duo lay swoonsome strings and maudlin piano, it's all very cinematic and soundtracky and classical, like the score to some lost Italian giallo, again like some hybrid of Umberto and Expo 70 (which it essentially is), one can almost picture the strange psychedelic colors, and constantly flitting shadows, some crumbling old villa set atop a hill, beneath a burnt black sky, tense and moody and gloriously creepy.
The final track begins with a cloud of processed guitars, wreathed in delay and reverb, a warm swirl of buzz and pulse, that gradually grows more lush and full, hazy and druggy, the drum machine from the first track returns, again adding texture (but this time a little propulsion as well), the swirl of guitars smooth out into something much more hypnotic, before everything seems to meltdown in a soft psychedelic squall, streaks of spaced out effects, fragmented melodies, shuffling rhythms buried beneath clouds of hiss and whir and static buzz, a warm whirling stretch of soft chaos, that soon morphs into a muted murky bit of outer space shimmer, that gradually disappears into the vast endless blackness, like a dying star. Epic and fantastic.
MPEG Stream: " Ancient Hawk Soul Takes Flight"
MPEG Stream: "Close Your Eyes And Effortlessly Drift Away"

EXXASENS Polaris (ConSouling Sounds) 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.
For a while there, Belgian label NOTHingness was one of our favorite sources for grim droning black ambience. Pretty much everything they released was fantastic. Well, NOTHingness sadly is no more, but in it's place, has risen Consouling Sounds, a new label focusing less on dark ambient and dronemusic and more on post rock, space rock and drone rock, with a distinct focus on up and coming unknown artists. The label is split into two distinct entities. They recently released the Bungled & The Botched cd from Nadja (now out of print, sorry) via the 'Soul' imprint, home for established acts, and this, the debut from Spanish metallic post rockers Exxasens is the first release in their 'Con ' series, limited cd-r releases of unknown bands, offering people an inexpensive chance to check out some new sounds.Ê
As mentioned above, these particular sounds come via Spain, and the weirdly named Exxasens, who while choosing a somewhat overpopulated style, do manage to do their own thing. Their sound while definitely rocking, is more on the math/post side of things than the metal, at their heaviest, they sound like a lighter Isis or maybe more like a slightly more metal Mogwai, and those heavy parts soar more than pummel, but they balance well with the more loping introspective bits. Regardless, math rockers and post rockers will definitely be in heaven, these guys certainly push all the right buttons, the drumming is intricate and mathy with some intense squalls of rapid fire double kick, the guitars ring out, chiming majestically, there also seems to be some sort of keyboard action, or perhaps that's just some extra guitars, either way, it adds all sorts of texture to the proceedings. There are some cool production tape speed tricks, a bunch of samples, but of course no vocals, this is all instrumental, every track rife with slow building elaborate arrangements, epic melodies, and some killer chops, as well as a flair for crafting some subtly catchy tunes.Ê
Explosions In The Sky, Pelican, Isis, Mogwai, Mono, Irepress, Souvenir's Young America, if that reads like your iTunes library, then, you probably will want to pick this up too...
Packaged in a cd sized dvd style plastic sleeve, with a full color insert. LIMITED TO 170 COPIES in two editions, both already sold out, so these are the very last copies.
MPEG Stream: "Polaris"
MPEG Stream: "Your Dreams Are My Dreams"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Space"

EYE s/t (CMR) cd-r + lathe cut 7" 10.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
We won't go into too much detail with these as we only got a tiny handful of each. Latest batch of ultra limited lathe cuts from New Zealand label CMR. Each one packaged in a super striking, simple cardstock jacket, most with printed inner sleeves, Limited to 60 copies, of which we got the remaining stock. Once these are gone, they are gone forever.
We had never heard Eye before, but they seem to be the new outfit of NZ underground luminary Peter Stapleton (Flies Inside The Sun, Sleep, A Handful Of Dust) and no surprise, fans of any of his past work will for sure dig this.
The 7" is a crumbling soundscape of shortwave interference, wavering tones, constantly shifting drones, all very sea sick and dizzy sounding, bits of whispery static, all swaddled in a thick buzz, with lots of strange effects, and what sounds like the hiss and whisper of an army of ghosts that builds and builds to a fever pitch.
The flipside is more of an old school NZ freerock jam, all tribal rhythms under a swirling sea of fuzz and distortion and bits of skree. Layer after layer of constantly shifting grit and grime, propulsive and blown out, but still sort of shimmery and almost ambient.
This lathe cut comes with a cd-r, which contains a single 38 minute track, more glorious abstract soundscaping, bits of rhythms here and there, lots of buzz and hiss, strange disembodied melodies, lo-fi and constantly shifting and drifting, eventually building into a seriously heavy fuzzed out jam, complete with strange horns and bursts of random musical snippets. Cool.

EYE / ZORN DUO John Zorn 50th Birthday Celebration, Vol. 10 (Tzadik) cd 15.98

EYEBALLS The Invisible Castle (Blackest Rainbow) cd 16.98

EYELESS IN GAZA Plague of Years (Songs And Instrumentals 1980-2006) (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98
We figure that since AQ pal Loren Chasse is so obsessed with Martyn Bates and Eyeless In Gaza, we figured we oughta just let him review this new one:
In the endless stream of comps, there's got to be something pretty special to get this listener to take notice.Ê For most listeners, when an anthology by a favorite band comes out there's the feverish question, "Are there any unreleased tracksÉ raritiesÉdemos?!"ÊandÉ "What about the packaging -- any unseen art from some original pressing?" The new Eyeless in Gaza compilation Plague of Years: Songs and Instrumentals 1980-2006 released by Sub Rosa offers only token fulfillment of the first obsession by including a track from a yet unreleased Eyeless record, Summer Salt and Subway Sun (supposedly due out in 2006...guess not?).ÊThe rest of the songs and instrumentals are all from full length records in the Eyeless catalog, but for three semi-rare songs from an old Sub Rosa Myths compilation from the early Eighties. So what's left for someone who's already 'in the know' about this legendary Cherry Red Records band? Not much but for a sensitively-mixed document of the musical prowess of Martyn Bates and Peter Becker, including some of their best songs -- "Fever Pitch" and "Bite" (is that a typo on this release, labeling it "Ever Pitch"...?), and "One by One" -- mixed among examples of their more mysterious and beautiful instrumental pieces. For a potential initiate to Eyeless In Gaza -- that is, someone who's perhaps all over the New Weird Now folk freakout and who might also have a soft spot for the drone and clang of such artists as Organum, Andrew Chalk or :zoviet*france: -- this comp would indeed be the perfect introduction. And if that potential initiate harbors a taste for beautifully fruity vocals (used only in adoration and reverence, Martyn!), then this could be a heavenly match, especially on those nights alone, rain pounding the window, black candles throwing moody shadows. If things worked out, of course, this comp might very well end up getting checked into the used bin on one's way toÊconsuming the entire Eyeless in Gaza catalog.ÊSoÉ while offering little to the fan other than reassurance that Eyeless in Gaza is still awesome 26 years after its first record, Plague of Years succeeds as a flare for alerting new ears!
MPEG Stream: "Ever Pitch and Bite"
MPEG Stream: "Lights of April"

EYES LIKE SAUCERS Parmalee, Tribute To A Dog (Ikuisuus / Ruralfaune) cd 13.98
We first heard from Eyes Like Saucers back in 2007, when we reviewed the record Still Living In The Desert, which found ELS, aka Jeff Knoch, fomerly of hypnotic psych folkers Urdog, abandon his band, and his friends, ditch all the usual rock band instrumentation, and head off for places unknown, with nothing but a VW van, a handful of acoustic instruments, most importantly, an Indian harmonium, and his faithful canine sidekick. That record, was a fantastic bit of hypnotic dronemusic, a wheezing, druggy droniness, whirring and shimmery and meditative, steeped in the traditions of Indian ragas and modern minimalist drone music more than the psychedelic sounds of his former outfit.
Parmalee is the follow up, and is dedicated to his canine companion, as the subtitle suggests: "Tribute To A Dog". Hopefully this is just an expression of love for his dog, and they are still wandering the wilds together. Our first assumption was that perhaps Parmalee had died, and this was a musical eulogy, the sounds are definitely dark and moody and contemplative enough to be some sort of sad send off, but either way, these are some fantastic psychedelic space drone ragas, all wheezing organs, warm whirling chords, the sound thick and lush, but definitely ragged around the edges, urgent and intimate, captivating and totally mesmerizing. It's impossible to not fall immediately under their spell. Once again, we're reminded of nineties NZ dronerockers Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos, but this is much more ritualistic, much more home spun drone folk. The rest of the record introduces strange percussion, electronic synths, chimes and bells, slipping from alien folk ritual, to spare almost Appalachian sounding strum, to sea shanty like ballad, all culminating in the gorgeous woozy three part 23 minute epic Warrigal, a lush harmonium workout, the chords and notes wheezing lazily, all sun dappled and drone drenched, the sounds so organic and hypnotic, laced with bits of percussion and tinkling chimes, so haunting and hazy, meditative and dreamy.
MPEG Stream: "Sun And Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Warrigal Part One"

EYES LIKE SAUCERS Still Living In The Desert (Last Visible Dog) cd 13.98
Urdog was one of our favorite groups, a primitive psych folk ensemble, hypnotic and heavy and surprisingly prog, with a bit of space rock and a whole lot of drone. What was not to love?! The band called it a day a while back, but then a year or two later this little gem surfaced, a solo record from Eyes Like Saucers, which just so happens to be ex Urdog-er Jeff Knoch. But For ELS, Knoch has abandoned all the trappings of a proper rock band (ie drums, bass, guitar, etc), and he and his faithful canine companion took off in a VW van for the desert, armed only with an Indian harmonium, a toy piano, a glockenspiel, an oscillator, a Farfisa minicompact organ, a ukulele and presumably some sort of recording device.
The results are much how you might imagine from the instrumentation, long warm, warbly whirring dronescapes, the organ(s) pulsing, and wheezing, the chords shifting subtly, dense and layered, and drifting slowly, contemplative and dreamlike. Super obscure reference: reminds us a bit of NZ outfit Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos, but blurred into something much more static and meditative.
The record begins with a twinkling field of bells and chimes (the toy piano we're guessing) a playful high end field of plinks and plonks, melodies like sunlight through icicles, but then quickly the record gets slower and lower, transforming into a glorious shamanic drone record. Some of the tracks are rich and melodic, almost playful, jaunty, a bit like sea shanties (or desert shanties in this case), while others are lugubrious slow crawls, all whirring shimmer and blurred slow motion slither, some are peppered with the chiming toy piano percussion, or laced with Knoch's buried in the mix monotone vocals, others are left unadorned, just the notes and the melodies, the timbre and the tone, tangled into soft smears, drifting like a warm evening fog over the wide open sands of the desert.
So great. And there's even a Robert Wyatt cover! Quite recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Ideas Of Reference"
MPEG Stream: "Sea Song"
MPEG Stream: "Delusion Of Reference"

F-SPACE Preliminary Impact Report (Mobilization) cd 12.98
F-Space is the brainchild of Scot Jenerik and Ethan Port, two veterans of the West Coast noise / punk community. In many ways, Jenerik fully embodies the Burning Man ethos (or at least the way Burning Man presented itself about a decade ago), still proclaiming that the apocalypse is coming and when it does, he'll be out in the desert celebrating the destruction of society along with a bunch of other Mad Max renegades with their recycled art cars and homebuilt flamethrowers. His solo performances and installations find Jenerik in a literal circle of fire while hammering out post-Neubauten jack-hammer rhythms on abused pieces of metal. This visual appeal for immolation infiltrates the stage presence of F-Space, while the musical side shows much greater ties to his creative roots harkening back to his days in Savage Republic and Death Ride 69. Sprawling blasts of dueling monochord guitars drive the F-Space sound which marches through pounding tribal drums (compliments of Aleph Kali of Chrome) and slow-burning gritty walls of guitar sound which situate themselves somewhere between the early Skullflower albums and a slightly less psychedelic Acid Mother's Temple. On occasion, the Arabic motifs which haunted the later Savage Republic recordings emerge on F-Space as well. If DIY destruction is your bag, then boy do we have a record for you!
MPEG Stream: "Through The Night Softly"
MPEG Stream: "Sans Soleil"

F/I A Question For The Somnambulist (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This 2003 release went out of print WAY too fast, so the kind folks at Strange Attractors Audio House have swooped in to save the day. And they didn't just make it available again, they repackaged it in a super swank silkscreened sleeve and added a killer bonus track!
F/i have been somewhat of a buried treasure since the early eighties, spewing a rich brew of buzzy psychedelia, sludgy stoner doom, and extended space jams over the course of numerous lps and cassettes, but never really reaching out beyond the space rock underground. That's a shame as there has been a recent plenitude of reissues, making available again some of F/i's most seminal recordings, on cd for the first time, reminding us what a psych/space rock powerhouse these guys were. And still are! These guys never really stopped kicking out the jams. A Question For The Somnambulist finds the band back to its original lineup with the return of founding member Richard Franecki, and while one might hope this would mean a fiery, triumphant comeback of amp melting, spine crushing intensity, you also have to consider that it's been 20+ years since the launch of F/i, and these guys are getting older, and wiser, and mellower. So while there are moments where the whole thing threatens to combust and leave your stereo a charred husk, most of AQFTS is more on the dreamy, hypnotic, Krautrocky side, reminding us quite a bit of Finnish drone rockers Circle or local psych rock tribe Subarachnoid Space, with warm fuzzy riffs, swirls of squiggly Moogs, propulsive infinitive rhythms, and the occasional squall of freakout guitar.
MPEG Stream: "A Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Daisy Cutter"
MPEG Stream: "Hit The Kill Switch Eugene"

F/I Blanga (Lexicon Devil) cd 16.98
Since the beginning of the eighties, the strangely monickered F/i have been turning their amps up to 11, firing up the bongs, filling their space ship with all manner of effects and illicit mind altering substances and setting the controls for the heart of the sun. Here we are more than two decades later and F/i are still drifting in a dreamy and drug addled Hawkwind meets Loop meets Acid Mothers Temple meets Spacemen 3 meets way too many drugs sonic stupor and it still sounds so good. Music to take drugs to make music to take drugs by for sure! Huge streaks of reverb drenched distorted guitar, swirls of synthesizer swoop and sizzle, electronic beeps and bloops and burbles, throbbing, rumbling basslines, Hendrixian psych guitar freakouts and simple krautrock rhythms keeping the whole thing from floating off into the atmosphere. From full on Stooges-y psych stomp, to blissed out shimmering space trance, to smeary echoey ambience to almost Stereolab / Neu! style synth heavy krautrock, F/i manage to take whatever sonic course they're laid and make sure it also involves flying way too close to a black hole and thus being doused by white hot radioactive guitars or dense clouds of thick fuzzy synths or being bombarded by blown out cymbal sizzle, and burning up in a gloriously dreamy and druggy white hot space rock ball of flame!
MPEG Stream: "In The Garden Of Blanga"
MPEG Stream: "Blanga's Transformation"

F/I Blue Star / Merge Parlour (Lexicon Devil) cd 14.98
Final blast from the past in this F/i reissue blitz of late and it's a doozy. The first half is a reissue of the Blue Star lp, three lengthy tracks of spaced out fucked up Hawkwind meets Gore meets Acid Mothers Temple outer-space-psych. Sludgy riffs are pounded into oblivion, splintering into shards of psychedelic swoosh and druggy shimmer. Endlessly and gorgeously hypnotic. The second half is the F/i half of their split with Vocokesh, and is way more electronic. Same vibe and feel as the first half, but with the riffs becoming weird modulated tones, and the propulsive drumming turning into mechanical throbs and pulses. Imagine a krautrock Wolf Eyes or Factrix covering Sabbath. This is some awesome shit. As recommended as the rest of the recent F/i reissues!
MPEG Stream: "Om Twenty-One"
MPEG Stream: "Pleasure Centres / The Beach"

F/I Paradise Out Here (Lexicon Devil) cd 16.98
Maybe the most anxiously awaited release in Lexicon Devil's comprehensive series of F/i reissues. Paradise Out Here, originally released in 1989, might just be the heaviest, most freaked out, most spaced out of all the F/i records. All it takes is about one minute of opener "From Poppy With Love", an acid fried, ultra freaked out, swirling psychrock blowout to understand why. A chugging scuzzy garage rock riff scratches out a relentless spacey stomp beneath a massive roiling cloud of FX that make Acid Mothers Temple's arsenal look like a broken down collection of Casio distortion boxes and Fisher-Price keyboards. So heavy and so spacey. Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, AMT, Colour Haze, UFOmammut, White Hills, Comets On Fire, the Heads, the Telescopes, Atomic Bitchwax, Loop. If those are the kind of bands that get your blood boiling and your bong bubbling then this record is definitely for you. Extended excursions into the outer reaches of deep deep deep space, where the stars blink and twinkle in dizzyingly psychedelic colors, everywhere you look guitars are all twisted and distorted, thick slabs of rumbling bass plow through reverbed swirls of shimmer, melodies explode and splinter into jagged bits in gloriously incendiary bursts, everything is blurry and swathed in a thick drug rock haze, and everywhere you look huge slabs of blown out wah guitar drift past, like fluffy prismatic clouds, underneath it all, drums pound a never ending rhythm, while being endlessly pelted with synth squiggles and a veritable hail storm of bleeps and bloops and beeps. Woah. This record is so relentless and about as tripped out and psychedelic as a record can get without completely collapsing in on itself.
If there was ever a record that made us want to get super high, turn off all the lights, rock the fuck out and drift WAY WAY WAY OUT.... it's this one.
MPEG Stream: "From Poppy With Love"
MPEG Stream: "The House Of The Pharoah's Daughter"

F/I Space Mantra (Lexicon Devil) cd 15.98

F/I The Past Darkly / The Future Lightly: Rare & Unreleased 1983-1989 (Lexicon Devil) 2cd 17.98
The Australian label Lexicon Devil has certainly picked an unusual scene to ressurrect from the mires of terminal obscurity, as they've been reissuing a handful of records from the mid-'80s psych-electronic-noise rock scene of Milwaukee. It's probably a stretch to qualify this as a 'scene,' since the bands in question had only a handful of rotating members in a couple of guises, specifically F/i, Boy Dirt Car, and Vocokesh. F/i began as a trio with Richard Franecki, Greg Kurczewski, and Brian Wensing, although Franecki parted ways in 1990 to form Vocokesh and record solo albums, leaving Wensing in charge of F/i, which theoretically is still operational. Despite its subtitle as being rare and unreleased, "The Past Darkly / The Future Lightly" was originally issued as a 3LP set on RRRecords with a tiny pressing of 300 copies in 1989, and makes for a pretty good overview of F/i's diverse history that runs from gritty electronic passages to dusted psych rock explosions. The earlier electronic pieces are clearly the best work in F/i's catalogue coming across as droning fields of sound not unlike Conrad Schnitzler or MB. The move to distorted and wah-wah heavy hypno-space-rock never quite rises above bearing a passing resemblance to Hawkwind, Blue Cheer, or the early Skullflower rock explosions. Pretty great stuff though.
RealAudio clip: "Dormant"
RealAudio clip: "Standing In The Garden"

F/I Why Not Now?... Alan! (Lexicon Devil) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another grimy blast of drugged out psychedelia from unheralded underground psych gods F/i. This is the third or fourth F/i reissue in the last several months (and definitely Andee's favorite), finally restoring their epic and long out of print back catalog. Why Not Now?...Alan! was originally released on lp way back in 1987 on RRR and suffered sonically from poor mastering, as well as cohesively from the fact that several of the tracks were chopped to fit on a single lp. This cd reissue finds the chopped songs restored to their original extended versions, and the sound remastered and beefed up significantly! F/i around this period were a noisy, abstract, psychedelic juggernaut, equal parts Hawkwind, Lustmord, Skullflower, Amon Duul and a healthy dose of free noise gleeearghhh like some of their RRR labelmates. Glitchy, sputtering, malfunctioning instruments, amp buzz, and crackly bursts of short wave radio whirl chaotically into a sonic supernova, until a propulsive rhythm struggles and emerges from the chaos, a krautrock behemoth, lumbering through a landscape of swirling wah guitars, squalls of shrieking, space-y bleeping swoosh, clattery 'pipe fights', rumbling subsonic drones, super distorted drum / car horn industrial crunch and all manner of drugged out grit, but throughout it all, the hypnotic riff powers on, head down, chugging into oblivion. Think a massively damaged Neu! Or maybe Hawkwind on a really, really bad trip, or Circle, drugged and forced at gunpoint to do their best Agitation Free until their fingers bleed, or Amon Duul II, if instead of German hippies, their commune consisted mostly of American noise rockers from the eighties. As the record progresses, some of the extraneous noise is shed in favor of a more sleek psych/kraut rock, relentless and hypnotic, repetitive and mesmerising, but even streamlined, it still sounds seriously damaged and dangerous. Fucking awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Zombie Theme 2"
MPEG Stream: "Number 27"
MPEG Stream: "QR (Z)"

FABRIC A Sort Of Radiance (Spectrum Spools / Editions Mego) lp 21.00
Fabric is the work of Chicago's Matthew Mullane, who could be seen as a one-man doppleganger of Emeralds. Not only does Mullane have an album of acoustic solo guitar work on Vin Du Select Qualitite, following Emerald's guitarist Mark McGuire in such an honor; he's released this stunning piece of liquid electronica that could fool even the most die-hard Emeralds fan. To further matters, A Sort Of Radiance had caught the attention of Emerald's John Elliott, who released the album through his Spectrum Spools imprint manufactured by Editions Mego. Present throughout A Sort Of Radiance are the percolating cosmic synths with the same classical overtures to Cluster, Fripp & Eno, and Schulze that Hauschildt and Elliott would adopt on those brilliant Emeralds records (especially What Happened and Does It Look Like I'm Here?). Even with very similar synth programing through step sequencing and hypnotic iterations of electronics, Mullane also seems to tap into the same bittersweet expressivity found on those Emeralds album. The same rounded notes which brought Emeralds' What Happened to a conclusion are reprised on Fabric's "Light Float" (an apt name for this levitational track with all of its fizzing lines of patterned electronic static), and even the harpsichord sounding electronics which girded Emeralds' near poptune "Candy Shoppe." The similarities can be unnerving; but when you forget about this and just listen to the wonderful music within... A Sort Of Radiance is a thing of beauty.

FACTRIX Artifact (Storm) 2cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After months of digging, we were finally able to track some of these down. For those of you not in the know, Factrix just happen to be AQ faves Wolf Eyes favorite band, so much so that not only do they try to sound like them, but to this day they continue to send their industrial-doom heroes letters of gratitutde and worship! Factrix originally manufactured their proto-Wolf Eyes sound in San Francisco some 20+ years ago. The history of underground music on the West Coast in the late '70s is not an easy one to trace. Unlike the punk explosion in England or New York, the influences and disturbances of the musical circuits manifested collusions of ideas that never really fit into the marketable ideas of punk or new wave. Even before those terms were commonplace, California was home to such anomalies in artrock as the Residents and the Los Angeles Free Music Society, who both experimented freely with technology, dadaism, culture jamming, and the detritus of post-psychedelia and bad acid trips. This was the environment that also spawned such genre unfriendly projects as The Screamers, Savage Republic, Non, Survival Reseach Laboratories, Nervous Gender, Negativland, and -- Factrix.
In truth, SF's Factrix belonged to the original Industrial culture of Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Cabaret Voltaire, although their take on trangressive themes and their grim abuse of technology never reached as wide an audience as those icons of Industrial Records. In their short lifespan from 1978 - 1982, Factrix developed a language that clearly rivalled that of their European comrades; but in many ways, Factrix owed their sound to their San Francisco roots, as they inverted the paisley pretenses of psychedelia into a grim seance of sound in which free love became sexual taboos, universal peace became soul-crushing dread, and transcendence became morbidity. This inversion of psychedelia used many of the same tools of Haight-Ashbury in composing through non-structured improvisations as well as through a steady diet of psilocybin mushrooms; but the sound came out all wrong. Factrix devolved '70s pop banalities into dissonant slabs of noise with squiggling guitar feedback and all-encompassing dirges from over-distorted basslines, with a continuous, tinny pulse from an abused drum machine. The process of free association carried over in the vocal duties, which were typically shared amongst the chief protagonists Bond Bergland, Cole Palme, and Joseph Jacobs, although industrial culture celeb Monte Cazzaza was also known to offer his demented lisp to Factrix.
While not presented as a 'best-of' collection, "Artifact" features the best material that Factrix had produced, including all of the tracks from their seminal "Schentot" LP on Adolescent Records and a ton of live material, which has been digitally salvaged so as to sound great. "Artifact" is an essential artifact, in fact and a great surprise!
MPEG Stream: "Empire Of Passion"
MPEG Stream: "Snuff Box"

FAHEY, JOHN Hard Time Empty Bottle Blues (1-4) (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ultra limited, one sided clear vinyl 12" from the late John Fahey. Recorded live in 1996 at Table Of The Elements' Yttrium Festival, these four tracks harken back to his pre-electric period, a gorgeously melancholy, dreamily casual, wandering, and melodic appalachia that only Fahey could produce. Spare and unhurried, this four part suite unfurls lazily, melodies blossoming shyly, with each part ending quite abrubtly, as if Fahey just decided to stop when he felt like it, reminding us how intimate and playful Fahey could be live. Beautifully silkscreened woodcut image in mauve ink on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve. Striking. Oh, and did we mention...LIMITED!

FAHEY, JOHN Hitomi (LivHouse) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Fahey's first studio album since "Womblife" so many moons ago finds the guitarist/theologian/ ethnomusicologist fingerpicking his way through an assortment of folk, blues, and garage numbers played with all of his lovely tonality.
The press release claims that this is the first album since 1964 that "John has produced and recorded entirely unfettered from 'correction' by commercial interest." Is this a happy John Fahey? What has the world come to?!

FAHEY, JOHN Hitomi (Important) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Fahey's first studio album since "Womblife" so many moons ago finds the guitarist/theologian/ ethnomusicologist fingerpicking his way through an assortment of folk, blues, and garage numbers played with all of his lovely tonality.
The press release claims that this is the first album since 1964 that "John has produced and recorded entirely unfettered from 'correction' by commercial interest." Is this a happy John Fahey? What has the world come to?!

FAHEY, JOHN In Concert and Interviews 1969 & 1996 (Vestapol / Rounder) dvd 24.00
About ten minutes into this I came to the conclusion that I had to buy one. This is awesome. Any Fahey fan will freak out watching this dvd. The 1996 material by itself is great -- a concert at Berkeley's Freight and Salvage that maybe some of you reading this were lucky enough to attend, plus backstage interview footage wherein ol' John Fahey reveals both some of his history, and his humor. But it was the 1969 portion of this I watched first, which consists of a much more youthful, clean-shaven John Fahey guesting on some sort of guitar-oriented TV talk show, hosted by a woman who is clearly both a big fan of Fahey's playing and also somewhat bemused/confused by his musical eccentricities. She even almost scolds him for doing something that she tells her own guitar students not to do, though they determine that he had a good reason for it... Fahey proves himself to be quite a charming character, smoking a cigarette as he answers the host's questions and demonstrates his techniques, playing quite a few lovely lovely songs. It's amazing viewing for anyone already under the spell of the man's music and persona. Fans, get this!

FAHEY, JOHN The Mill Pond (Important) cd 14.98
If this was truly John Fahey returning from the dead, we'd be afraid that he had not moved on to a better place. Taken from a rare out of print double 7" release from 1997, The Mill Pond has got to be one of Fahey's doomiest outings. Recorded with the help of Jeff Allman who adds some electronic elements, it features Fahey on vocals (!), delivering some ghostly shamanistic moans over washes of intense treated, distorted guitar. Titles like "The Mill Pond Drowns Hope" and "You Can't Cool Off In The Mill Pond, You Can Only Die" up the creep factor into an antithesis of baptismal redemption.
Fahey fans will be fascinated, especially those who looking for a Fahey release in a more (or most) experimental vein -- this is it. Or if you're not so sure about Fahey's usual acoustic mode, if you need your music to have a more malevolent edge, check this out! We think fans of the doomdirge likes of Nadja might even dig this. Also, his vocals bring to mind the most out-there trips of '70s psych-cult Yahowha 13.
Comes with an extensive booklet featuring Fahey's paintings, drawings and collages that offer a unique glimpse into Fahey's eccentric peculiarities. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts"
MPEG Stream: "You Can't Cool Off In The Mill Pond, You Can Only Die"

FAHRES, MICHAEL The Tubes (Cold Blue) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "The Tubes"
MPEG Stream: "Savan"

FAILING LIGHTS s/t (Intransitive Recordings) cd 14.98
Failing Lights is the solo project of Mike Connelly, who's better known for the cacophony he produces in the Hair Police and Wolf Eyes. The lo-fi soundsculpting embraced by both of those aforementioned projects is present here as well, but the capacity for ultra-violence and raw explosiveness is replaced by an unsettling atmosphere of dread. The album opens with a somber metallic klang repeating over a building rumble of controlled low-end feedback, and electronic bleeps all set off in various delay patterns. It's a very primitive, but very evocative form of cold industrially-minded musique concrete, coming pretty damn close to what Premature Ejaculation had done in the '80s. This band itself was something of an obtuse performance-art cross-pollination of LAFMS wild-eyed experimentation and Los Angeles goth chic (after all Rozz Williams of Christian Death was in Premature Ejaculation.) Anyway, Connelly is one to leave lots of space between his episodes of grim rumblings, lazer shot electronics, tape machinations, and sporadic bursts of power electronics overdose. By the middle of the record, Connelly uses these empty spaces to push forward an unstable, Jandekishly strummed guitar through a murk of tape decay. This can be hardly qualified as a song; it's more of conscious disintegration of a song, slumping into a stupor right before crumbling out of existence. The finale of the album comes by way of a crusty chord organ, that expands from a reedy whine into a scruffy powerdrone that's equal parts Charlemagne Palestine and Gate. Disquieting to say the least!
MPEG Stream: "Moon On The First Hunt"
MPEG Stream: "Serve In Silence"
MPEG Stream: "The Comfort Zone"

FALL OF THE GREY WINGED ONE Aeons Of Dreams (Supernal) cd 15.98
This was an unexpected surprise. We ordered a bunch of these just on the strength of it being a new release on Supernal, the label that brought us the mighty Benighted Leams, as well as Meads Of Asphodel, Drudkh, Dark Ages, Hate Forest, we could go on. So we threw this on expecting some sort of demented damaged grim black metal, but instead discovered that this was in fact a colossal slab of hellishly heavy deathdoomdronedirge!
It takes a lot for us to get SUPER excited about another doom dirge record, it's a lot more than just tuning your guitar down and letting it go, and in fact this is not so much the sonic analogue of groups like Sunn 0))) or Noisegate or Earth, instead, FOTGWO takes the same elements and turns them into something much more fierce, much more aggressive, and somehow much heavier.
Three songs, one hour, of crumbling super distorted dronescapes, a suffocating avalanche of slow motion sound, waves of impossibly distorted guitar spread out like a viscous black sea, while huge simple pounding beats drop through the murk occasionally, like empty steel containers being dropped from a crane onto concrete. A dark sort of industrial droneworld, ominous and foreboding. The centerpiece of the record though is the 40+ minute title track, in which the crumbling crush of the opening salvo is pushed to the background, a distant din of swirl and churn, a rough sea of vicious distorted guitar and roiling low end, while in the foreground, abstract melodies are played out by soft swells of clean guitar and what sounds like chimes or bells. So strangely dark and lovely, so beautiful yet pants shittingly frightening. The track wavers between delicate ambient drone and a twisting tangle of low end guitar that sounds like the revving of a million motorcycles slowed waaaaaay down. The final track is a ravaged wasteland of industrial pummel, ominous tolling bells and creepy haunting drifts of mournful melody beneath some of the meanest grinding buzz and reverberating crunch we've ever heard.
Fall Of The Grey Winged One have definitely pushed the whole doomic dirge sound to a completely new level, existing in a dark and dangerous, skull splittingly brutal sonic world, where no others dare to tread.
Strange purple and black, 3-D geometric artwork, that barely hints at the gorgeous malevolence inside.
MPEG Stream: "Hate Me"
MPEG Stream: "Aeons Of Dreams"

FALSINI, FRANCO Cold Nose (Naso Freddo) (Spectrum Spools / Editions Mego) lp 22.00
Spectrum Spools has been killing it lately with a string of amazing unearthed cosmic electronic artifacts. We raved about the recent Robert Turman Flux reissue from 1981 and now they dig deeper back to 1975 for this little known work of Italian kosmiche from Franco Falsini. We know of Falsini through the amazing seventies space prog synth outfit, Sensations' Fix (please someone reissue their records!!!), but this solo outing originally recorded as a soundtrack for an obscure film was completely unknown to us.
Made through a strange bio-electronic process that had us thinking of Masaki Batoh's recent Brain Pulse Music Machine record, Falsini recorded this album while having his brain activity monitored by a mechanism from the Bio-Electronic Meditation Society. Whenever his brain would produce Alpha/Theta waves, he would commit his music to tape. Alpha waves are generally created when defocusing one's attention, creating an alert relaxation found with meditation. Theta waves are produced with deeper meditation and often in periods of REM dream sleep. Composed in three suites, Cold Nose is a spiralling composition of EMS and Moog washes and floating guitar lines that remind us of krautrock legends Michael Rother and Manuel Gottsching, but with a distinct spaced-out Italian prog feel, especially when Falsini breaks out into stratospheric guitar leads over the organically pulsating synth treatments. Gorgeously cinematic, with constantly shifting and shimmering progressions. Beautifully remastered, anyone into the long form take on vintage psychedelic new age music should snag this while they can. If you dug the spacier psych moments of Italian progsters, Picchio Dal Pozzo, then this will be right up your alley!

FAMILY BATTLE SNAKE Brain Fried Eternally (Arbor) cd-r 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
MPEG Stream: "Other Needs For Sick Human Prey"
MPEG Stream: "Brain Fried Eternals"

FAMILY UNDERGROUND Ancient Shadows (Qbico) lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

FAMILY UNDERGROUND Black Hole (Weird Forest) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Warehouse find! Dug up just three copies of this sprawling psychedelic epic, formerly a tour only cd-r from these tripped our psych rocking Danes, it was expanded with 30 minutes of extra material, and pressed on two slabs of vinyl, a 4 sided psychedelic free for all, murky, swirly, lysergic. blurred and druggy and wildly amorphous, heaving slabs of smoldering sound oozing into clouds of tinkling percussion, the sound ritualistic and primitive, loose and free, chanted wordless vocals, deep low end thrum, smears of feedback, squalls of soft cacophony, occasional dreamy bits of ethereal drift, the whole thing woozy and washed out and gloriously abstract and spaced out, hits of Avarus and Sylvester Anfang abound, but these guys take those sounds and melt them down into something much more gooey and viscous and potent. Rad stuff for sure. Packaged in a super deluxe full color gatefold sleeve. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

FAMILY UNDERGROUND Demond Parade (DNT) lp 14.98

FAMILY UNDERGROUND Demond Parade (DNT) lp 14.98

FAMILY UNDERGROUND Riven (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98

FAMOUS BOATING PARTY, THE Silvery Branches (Jewelled Antler Library) 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.
This fifth entry (it says here sixth but we think they skipped one) in the so-far-totally-great Jewelled Antler Library series of cute lil' 3" cd-r eps is something a bit different, yet familar too to Jewelled Antler aficionados. It features the Blithe Sons (Glenn Donaldson and Loren Chasse, both also of Thuja and much else besides) joined by Eleanor Harwood on vocals. This trio's music is totally inspired by '70s art rock ensemble Slapp Happy, it's actually an intentional tribute of sorts. Eleanor is the heart of this, and we must say that for an untrained vocalist in an improvised setting, she's very impressive! Singing lyrics taken from a book of Kenneth Patchen poetry that was near to hand, "The Famous Boating Party", she totally inhabits the Dagmar Krause role, her vocals all wonderfully warbly and birdlike and lovely. She reminds us of Bjork at times too, no bad thing! Backing her up/leading her on, Glenn strums melodically on his 6 & 12 string guitars and adds comforting keyboard coloration, while Loren's "percussion & noises" both provide a steady beat and contribute the usual detailed, natural Jewelled Antler ambiance. It's very hazy and folky and fairytale like, a summer's afternoon encapsulated in a magical music box. Maybe not to everyone's taste (Slapp Happy certainly isn't either) but for some this will be a highlight in the Library series.
MPEG Stream: "White Butterfly"
MPEG Stream: "The Orange Bears"

FANTOM AUDITORY OPERATIONS / MICHAEL ESPOSITO The Child Witch Of Pilot's Knob (The Tapeworm) cassette 8.98
We listed three new tapes from aQ beloved tape label The Tapeworm on the last list, of a batch of four new releases. This one, #4, got left behind by the post man and only just now showed up. Which was a bummer at the time, cuz it might just be our favorite of the bunch, and the reason why can be summed up in one word: EVP! Okay, maybe three words: Electronic Voice Phenomena, which is the sound of the spirit world communicating through radio static, or lost transmissions, little snippet of voices, often just a word here or there, seemingly reaching across from the other side.
This particular set of recordings comes to us from Michael Esposito, an experimental artist and EVP researcher, who over the course of his life has collected thousands of EVP recordings and who has appeared on various television programs and in a number of films and documentaries. According to the label, Fantom Auditory Operations is "an attempt is to take EVP research a step further, developing a body of work researchers and scientists may use in the future to unlock the mysteries of our own mortality", but to these ears, it actually sound more like EVP set to music, strange bits of dark ambience, fields of hiss and whir, tolling bells, rumbles and whirs and various layers and textures, as well as field recordings, wild animal calls, crackling fires, all set amidst a series of fractured melodies and undulating drones.
Apparently the recordings here were captured in a Kentucky cemetery, where in the 1800s a woman and daughter were convicted of witchcraft and burned alive. The daughter was buried in this cemetery, while the mother at another location. There is also apparently spectral figure that has been sighted, perhaps trying to get to the girl (or her spirit), but who is kept at bay by the crucifix decorated fence surrounding her grave.
It almost doesn't matter if you believe any of that or not, cuz ultimately it's all about the sounds, and the sounds here are truly captivating, ominous and otherworldly, woven into a soundscape that's tense and haunting and super cinematic, with snippets of classical music, looped bells, the tape speed constantly fluctuating, everything warped and woozy, the only constant, the crackling sound of the fire, that presumably haunts the girl and her mother to this day.
So cool. And if you love the Ghost Orchid, a long time unanimous aQ fave, you're gonna want this too!

FANTOMAS Delerium Cordia (Ipecac) cd 17.98
Mike Patton's musical terror squad returns. Or should we say medical terror squad, judging by the graphics: photos taken from Max Aguilera-Hellweg's "The Sacred Heart" book of surgery pictures, images both clinically compelling and quite gory (the likes of "Irrigating Wound Before Closing" and "Organ Donation For Cornea Transplant" are not for the squeamish!). Drs. Patton, Lombardo, Osbourne and Dunn here perform an operation both physical and psychological, as befits those cd graphics. It's dark, grim chamber music for rock instruments and electronics. Some of this is almost-ambient, delicate and beautiful. Other parts are bombastic and spastic as you'd expect. Slayer drummer Lombardo exercises much restraint, but gets to roil and toil at times. Patton of course displays a range of vocals, including some truly sweet singing in fact. This hour-plus composition (expansive yet claustrophically, it's but one long track) almost seems like a DJ set constructed from the darkest, artiest LPs in Patton's collection. Indeed, Fantomas' list of acknowledgements gives some clues as to what this sounds like: Bohren & Der Club of Gore, Matmos, Nitsch, Messiaen, Komeda, stethoscopic heart recordings... We're also definitely reminded of Jonathan Bepler's scores for Matthew Barney's Cremaster films -- there's even a passage with buzzing insect sounds not unlike Lombardo's cut on the Cremaster 2 soundtrack.
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 2"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 3"

FANTOMAS Suspended Animation (Ipecac) cd 17.98
Animated, yes. Suspended, no -- except for the listener's disbelief, perhaps. Sheer carnivalesque carnage here, folks, just like you expect from these guys. After the relatively calm, droned-out ambience of their epic Delerium Cordia album from last year, for this release Fantomas now take us back to the Naked City/Melt-Banana inspired short sharp shock style they delivered on their self-titled debut in '99. There's 30 (!!!) tracks here, each one a violently freaked out, spastic collision of metal, electronics, cartoon music and avant-garde composition that likey adds another unexpected sonic ingredient to the mix. Utterly dizzying and complex, executed by pros. Seriously, you couldn't think of four guys more well-suited to the task: Mike Patton, Dave Lombardo, Buzz Osbourne and Trevor Dunn (past and present members of such notable noise-makers as Mr. Bungle, Melvins, Slayer, and Faith No More, as we're sure you're aware). I mean, they could have added John Zorn or Eye Yamataka or Brian Chippendale to the line-up but it would hardly be necessary, these four already have this stuff DOWN. And the brief Osbourne/Patton vocal duet in track ten is a special thrill. We're at a loss to provide much more in the way of description, it's something you just need to experience for yourself, if you're up for it. Definitely if you're into the genre of music that is ALL genres rolled into one, the Attention Defecit Disorder frenzies of Suspended Animation will provide utmost entertainment. And for the moment, we have the version of this that, for some reason we don't know but won't question, comes in limited-edition packaging incorporating a spiral-bound April 2004 calendar designed and illustrated by hip Japanese artist Yoshitmo Nara. Pretty cool! Too bad April is just about over. But it's not like you were gonna use it as a dayplanner anyway, just admire it for the art.
MPEG Stream: "04/09/05 Saturday"
MPEG Stream: "04/13/05 Wednesday"
MPEG Stream: "04/21/05 Thursday"

FANTOMAS / MELT BANANA split (Unhip) 3" square shaped cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This most definitely has to be the shortest cd we've ever reviewed. And also the smallest. A tiny little two inches by two inches, square shaped cd, clocking in at a whopping two minutes and forty three seconds. Pretty ideal actually for this particular two band, two song match up. Mike Patton and his Fantomas group give us a 44 second Melt-Banana-ish, burst of cartoonish, buzzy, chaotic, short attention span cinematic grind, a brief flurry of staccato downtuned guitar chug and blasts of bizarre vocalization. Melt-Banana go all out timewise with almost two whole minutes of that squeaky, grind pop madness that is so immediately and recognizably Melt Banana. A confusional swirl of MB's usual mind melting ultra complex brutality, with a more than usual bit of melody and harmony intertwined with MB's impossibly dense and serpentine song structures, all chirped indecipherable vocals and rapid fire punk splatter. Short but sweet! Comes in a cool little cardboard sleeve with a tiny full color card affixed to each side.
SUPER LIMITED!! We got a handful of these, not entirely sure we can get more, so once these are gone there's a god chance we'll never be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Animali In Calore Surriscaldati Con Ipertermia Genitale"
MPEG Stream: "Cat In Red"

FANTOMAS / MELT BANANA split (Unhip) 5" record 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This most definitely has to be the shortest piece of vinyl we've ever reviewed. And quite possibley the smallest. A tiny little 5" chunk of vinyl, heck 2 inches smaller than a 7"!!, and clocking in at a whopping two minutes and forty three seconds. Pretty ideal actually for this particular two band, two song match up. Mike Patton and his Fantomas group give us a 44 second Melt-Banana-ish, burst of cartoonish, buzzy, chaotic, short attention span cinematic grind, a brief flurry of staccato downtuned guitar chug and blasts of bizarre vocalization. Melt-Banana go all out timewise with almost two whole minutes of that squeaky, grind pop madness that is so immediately and recognizably Melt Banana. A confusional swirl of MB's usual mind melting ultra complex brutality, with a more than usual bit of melody and harmony intertwined with MB's impossibly dense and serpentine song structures, all chirped indecipherable vocals and rapid fire punk splatter. Short but sweet! Comes in a cool little cardboard sleeve with a tiny full color card affixed to each side.
SUPER LIMITED!! We got a tiny handful of the vinyl, not entirely sure we can get more, so once these are gone there's a god chance we'll never be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Animali In Calore Surriscaldati Con Ipertermia Genitale"
MPEG Stream: "Cat In Red"

FAR BLACK FURLONG HAIDD (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.
LAST COPIES EVER!!!
From the same label that brought us discs by James Blackshaw, the Floating World, Robert Horton, Lamp Of The Universe and Rameses III comes this limited cd-r from Far Black Furlong. Recorded live, outdoors, in the barley fields on the Welsh / English border, Haidd is a half hour of moon lit free folk drones. The sound of pale moonlight washing over the landscape like a soft grey coat of paint. A squirming shuffling, scritchy scratchy crosshatched backdrop, over which slow foghorn like drones drift and hover, horns wheeze out long mournful melodies that float just above the whirling background ambience. Like floating on the ink black sea, slowly drifting, little swells lifting you up and letting you back down, gently and so barely rhythmically. It's the sea, or the forest, or the desert, the sound of space and sky and dark nighttime colors that go on forever and ever.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! Already sold out at the label. Once those are gone, we won't be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "HAIDD"

FAR BLACK FURLONG s/t (ICR) cd 17.98
Far Black Furlong is a Welsh ensemble of mystical folk minstrels, whose work straddles the realms of apocalyptic British folk (i.e. Current 93, Comus, the Wicker Man soundtrack, etc.) and the nocturnal, loosely sewn psychedelia of Fursaxa and the Blithe Sons. Their sound would be expected as Far Black Furlong's Richard Moult has previously collaborated with David Tibet and with their preceding album of narcotic folk tunes landing on the exceptional Barl Fire cd-r imprint. With this album, they've received the nod from Colin Potter, who has released this through his exceptional ICR label alongside the likes of Nurse With Wound, Ora, Monos, Jonathan Coleclough, etc. Here, oboes, flutes, ducilmers, and drifting guitar picking spiral around field recordings of twittering finches and the ominous crash of the ocean. Much of the melodic ambience through instrumental arrangements are the product of Far Black Furlong performing in the Welsh forests and barley fields during the long summer nights. Beautiful, shimmering, atmospheric, and maudlin.
MPEG Stream: "Three"
MPEG Stream: "Four"
MPEG Stream: "Six"

FARMACIA Crucial Sky In The Land Of Premonitions At Lorenzo's Weekend (Psych-O-Path) cd 14.98
We all agree here at AQ that this is a really amazing disc. We also all agree that it's tough to describe! Which is maybe why we didn't manage to review it right when it first appeared a few months back. But now we'll try, since we like it so much and want you know about it. Simply put (which is impossible), Farmacia from Argentina straddle the line between minimal dance music and rhythmic noise. Crucial Sky In The Land Of Premonitions At Lorenzo's Weekend (there, doesn't that title tell you all you need to know? no? uh, yeah, you're right) is the work of a trio who are making their OWN original music first and foremost, not something we hear everyday. There's an experimental, home-brewed, kit-bashed approach here that possesses some of the charming weirdness of Argentine AQ faves Reynols without sounding like them... much more user-friendly, these guys! It's a sort of playful industrial/electro music, part Throbbing Gristle, part Aphex Twin, part Mouse On Mars, part Ratatat. One track even reminds us of Itavayla, or Trans Am. There's bopping abstract noises, wordless vocals, distortion and drone and disco-friendly beats. Surprisingly beautiful, beautifully surprising. The three members are credited with the use of plenty of analog synths, samplers, computers... an array of ethnic flutes... eggs, noises, and "atmospheric crucial voices"... y'know, the usual stuff. And the results are, as we said, tough to describe. But we figure it's got a wide appeal, to fans of Kraftwerk and Cluster back in the '70s... to fans of Lindstrom yesterday. Totally recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Doctor Krupa"
MPEG Stream: "Estas Tecnicas"
MPEG Stream: "Que Se Le Va A Hacer"

FARMERS MANUAL RLA (Mego) dvd 32.00
In theory, this DVD produced by Austrian electronic experimentalists Farmer's Manual consists of "every locatable live recording and more dating from 1995 until 2003." The press release goes on to describe that these performances were "about algorithms and their artifacts. Clicks and textural discontinuities were rampant. The demeanor of the performers was stoic: that of accountants working a spreadsheet program rather than artists expressing themselves. Despite the apparent detachment of the performers, the musical pace was extremely rapid, both in terms of events per second and the speed of textural change." Despite the claim of a total running time of whopping 03:21:38:03 (d:h:m:s), all that could be extracted from computers-as-DVD-players we rely on here at Aquarius was 17 minutes of footage of 3 guys aimlessly breaking through a cheaply constructed wall. But maybe it's just as well we didn't find three whole days of that! Caveat emptor.

FASSETT, JIM Symphony Of The Birds (EM Records) cd 25.00
We recently discovered a completely amazing Japanese label called EM Records. Pretty hard to pin down what exactly it is that they specialize in but that's precisely why we're so smitten. From not one, but -several- singing saw records, to acid psych reissues, long lost singer songwriters, early experimental tape music, bizarre robot disco, fifties rock and roll, Australian dub, Isophonic boogie woogie (?) and tons more. We've only begun to dip into the wonderful world of EM, but we're going to start listing them one at a time. This record was initially the release that convinced us to get in touch with EM. Jim Fassett's Symphony Of The Birds is bizarre and beautiful and had AQ written all over it. The liner notes are mostly in Japanese so it's hard to know too many of the details, but Symphony Of The Birds is an amazing example of early tape music, it just so happens that all the tapes used were recordings of songbirds, which Fassett chopped, and cut, spliced and sequenced into a totally unique symphony of bird calls.
The record opens with Fassett's explanatory comments featuring our favorite line: "But keep in mind, as you listen, that nothing has been added. If you think you hear something that sounds like a particular musical instrument, or a human voice, or anything else other than birdcalls, YOU'RE WRONG." The first movement is definitely the best, whistles and chirps, chopped and stretched into dense swirls of psychedelic sound, if you weren't paying close attention, you'd be hard pressed to hear that it was birds making these sounds. Very trippy and spacey and alien sounding, like some crazy analog synthesizer freakout. The second movement involves a lot more itch shifting and changes in tape speed, resulting in sort of clunky purposeful melodies, the same bird call in different pitches to assemble very simple sing songy melodies. The third movement gets back on track, with some of the bird call slowed WAY down so they becomes rumbling drones, while others are sped up and repeated rapidly making impossible trills that almost sound like some blast of Sunroof!-y skree.
The last three tracks feature Fassett narrating an imaginary trip through a meadow, allowing us to study closely the bird song of each different bird isolated from the others, with some deft mixing and stereo panning, and the affect is actually quite stunning, with each bird getting 30 seconds to a minute right up on the mic! Cool!
The whole thing comes packaged in a super tough oversized (to accommodate the massive booklet) jewel case. The booklet contains lots of great photos, liner notes in Japanese, transcriptions of Fassett's spoken word segments on the disc, the album's original liner notes, and strangest of all, a pictorial guide to various and random birdcall records, separated by theme it seems: whistling accompaniment of instruments or big band, field recordings, canary training, instrumental, experimental happening (?) etc. Weird!
MPEG Stream: "Explanatory Comments"
MPEG Stream: "First Movement"
MPEG Stream: "Second Movement"

FASTEST Divine (self-released) cd-r 9.98
andeee

FASTEST Divine (self-released) cd-r 9.98