AMBARCHI, OREN Suspension (Staubgold) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
While Christian Fennesz has been very active in working with a diverse group of musicians, few of his collaborators have exhibited the likemindedness found in Sydney's tinkering guitarist Oren Ambarchi. For both Ambarchi and Fennesz, the guitar is the jumping-off point for making ultimately electronic music. Within the oblique electric shards of Fennesz' "Endless Summer," the jangling strum of his guitar is certainly heard; likewise, a gentle plucking from Ambarchi's guitar still resonates through his work, despite all of the processing. "Suspension" is Ambarchi's second recording for Touch, and stands miles above his previous album "Insulation." Citing Lucier as an influence (though much more in terms of tonality than methodology, as Lucier is far more interested in the execution of a system than Ambarchi), he has transformed the guitar into a strangely archaic tone generator that chimes with the color of a well weathered bell.
This beautiful record has been licensed from Touch to Staubgold for release on vinyl, which gets a couple of bonus remix treatments from the likes of Jim O'Rourke, Phill Niblock, Brendan Walls, and Micahel J. Schumacher.
RealAudio clip: "Vogler"
RealAudio clip: "This Evening So Soon"
RealAudio clip: "Gene"

AMBARCHI, OREN Triste (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
Finally, a cd reissue of this long out of print, previously LP-only release from Australian minimalist guitar improvisor Oren Ambarchi. The reissue comes, oddly enough, from the fine folks at Southern Lord, who until now have pretty much exclusively focused on the heavy and or sludge-y. Not sure if it's because Ambarchi is an outspoken metalhead (he is one of the only non-metal guests on the upcoming SUNNO))) Black 1 album) or if Southern Lord decided they just dug these dark and mysterious soundscapes, either way, it's about time this record made it onto cd, so all you non LP-playing folks can finally get a taste of some of the most gorgeous, understated ambient guitar work we've ever heard. You may remember some time back we made Ambarchi's Grapes From The Estate a record of the week, and damn if this record, released well before Grapes, isn't just as good. A gorgeous and glitchy, shimmering and subtle exploration of the guitar, and not just the strings and the notes and chords coaxed from them, but also the sound of faulty cords, subtle distortion, woozy warbly effects, all deftly interwoven and creating the effect of laptop manipulation, or skipping cd fuckery, but all managed with just a guitar and some pedals. Delicate, barely-there improvisations, wispy and ethereal, floating dreamily from the speakers towards your ears taking thier own sweet time. Notes hang suspended in space shimmering and slowly fading, until another note comes to join it or move it on its way. Eventually, during the last few minutes of the second twenty minute piece, the sounds of the guitar grow into a strangely alien sounding codes of glitch and creak, stutter and drone, equal parts high end skree and pulsing feedback squeals, a surprisingly noisy culmination to such a introspective record. The cd includes the two tracks that were included with the lp as a bonus 7", both remixes by Tom Recchion, who adds Hammond organ, tape loops, synthesizer and cds to the mix, turning the ultra minimal originals into extra dense soundscapes, adding layer upon layer of warble and whir, increasing the drone factor and giving the last two tracks a definite Philip Jeck feel, sounding all warm and washed out. So lovely! Comes packaged in a gorgeous miniature reproduction of the original gatefold sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "One "
MPEG Stream: "Three"

AMBARCHI, OREN & JIM O'ROURKE Indeed (Editions Mego) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Killer collab between Aussie experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi and jack of all trades (although in this case those trades happen to be strings, synth and percussion) Jim O'Rourke, who have collaborated together in the past, always with other players though, so this is their first as a duo. And it's darkly lovely, a post minimal bit of synthscapery, liberally laced with mysterious percussion, and unlikely edits, all woven into a single track, separated into two movements/sides. The first of which begins with a bit of distorted crunch, which quickly gives way to a dreamy bit of chiming melody, and softly swirling synth, tinkling tones and washed out drift, still retaining some of the residual crunch, but in fragmented form, all over a deep shimmery thrum, peppered with muted heartbeat like pulses. As the piece progresses, gamelan like melodies surface, as do thick swaths of rumbling buzz, the sound a little bit glitchy, wreathed in warm swirls of soft focus feedback, all warm and drifty and dreamlike, lush swells washing over disembodied Appalachia, streaks of skree, strange bits of percussion, a softly swirling sea of overtones and sympathetic sounds, slipping from minimal abstraction to melodic dronemusic, all arranged with jagged edits that don't distract so much as add occasional texture. The second movement/side seems to add more tolling bells, more buzz and low end rumble, the sounds softly cacophonous, the tone more ominous and foreboding, but still hauntingly dreamy, and mysteriously lovely. Gorgeous stuff.

AMBARCHI, OREN & MARTIN NG Reconnaissance (Staubgold) cd 16.98
Feedback is as much about the context of recording as it is about musicians who set their guitars up against their amps while they step out for a bite to eat. Australia's Oren Ambarchi and Martin Ng have taken great care to find the right space to manufacture the lustrous feedback on Reconnaissance. The feedback here resists the urge to violently screech; rather it floats like the gentle waver of a Theremin. While the complex harmonics from this feedback loop situation might be sufficient for a Phill Niblock or a Bruce Russell recording, Ambarchi & Ng further slipped these recordings through laptops in order to crystallize elements of the feedback into fragile shimmers of high-end tonalities. Reconnaissance is an impressive fusion of guitar exploration and digital trickery.
RealAudio clip: "Procession"
RealAudio clip: "Surfacing"

AMBARCHI, OREN & Z'EV Spirit Transform Me (Tzadik) cd 16.98

AMBARCHI, OREN / GUNTER MULLER / VOICE CRACK Oystered (Audiosphere) cd 15.98
The latest (number six) in Audiosphere's "Invisible Architecture" series of super-sized-jewel-cased collaborative cds brings together up-and-coming Austrialian experimentalist Oren Ambarchi, the veteran Swiss "cracked everyday electronics" duo Voice Crack, and well-known improv percussion/electronics specialist Gunter Muller. Muller and Voice Crack have worked together before, and their aesthetic of mostly quiet, abstract chaos meshes well with Ambarchi's Fennesz-ish guitar and electronics. Not that you can really tell for sure exactly who is making what noises on this recording. Always dense and occasionally building in volume, there's a lot of interesting "microsounds" to catch here. Four tracks, 41 minutes of carefully crackling drone squeak buzz thwump brrr crzz whhhh.
MPEG Stream: "Walking Oysters"

AMBARCHI, OREN / JOHAN BERTHLING My Days Are Darker Than Your Nights (Hapna) cd 14.98
Pure drone bliss on offer here from the prolific Australian guitar experimentalist Oren Ambarchi (whom you may already know) and Swedish musician Johan Berthling (a less familiar name -- he's brother to Andreas Berthling, and with him a member of the field recordings group Tape, who are also to be found on Hapna). These two got together in a studio in Stockholm last year with the intent to drone, and drone they did, Ambarchi on electric guitar and Berthling playing the harmonium. They recorded what, with some editing, became this single track, thirty minute long cd release. "My Days Are Darker Than Your Nights" is a totally pleasant -- assuming that serious drones are yr cup of tea to begin with, that is -- shimmering, buzzing, faintly grinding drone piece. Ambarchi's guitar eventually, occasionally engages in some wavering tones, cyclic and repetitive in the vein of some '70s minimalist Reich/Riley thing, while Berthling's harmonium always pulsates mechanically, and ever so slightly melodically, in the background. The sound of both merges into a gorgeous whole. Good stuff, a strong n' steady drone release that really mesmerizes (though it's got a high end that might not allow peaceful sleep, a la some of Tony Conrad's drones). Is this sort of thing the religious music of the 21st century? Could be....
MPEG Stream: "My Days Are Darker Than Your Nights"

AMBER ASYLUM Still Point (Profound Lore) cd 12.98
Esteemed chamber music goddess Kris Force returns with what is quite possibly her most stark compositions to date. She's joined by some of the Bay Area's finest and most beloved of the indie metal and rock community including John Cobbett (Hammers Of Misfortune, Ludicra), Jackie Perez-Gratz (Grayceon), Tim Green (The Fucking Champs, Concentrick), Lorraine Rath (The Gault), and Sarah Schaffer (The Gault, Weakling). Still Point begins with three songs that slowly drift in on droning strings (violin, viola and cello) and ghostly choral vocals. From there the gothic proceedings build gradually with the entrance of minimal piano, guitar, flute, trumpet and percussion. As always, absolutely haunting and stunningly gorgeous!
MPEG Stream: "In The Still Point He Remains"
MPEG Stream: "Black Phoebe"
MPEG Stream: "The Summation"

AMEN DUNES Dia (Locust) cd 14.98
When we first got this in, we were convinced it was some reissued lost psychedelic gem from the sixties or seventies. From the blurry red and black cover, the dearth of information, and heck it's on Locust, a label well known for killer reissues. So we threw it on, and we were still convinced, although we were blown away by its raw feral blown out psychedelic poppiness. Were there really bands making this sort of inspired and drug fueled racket 30 or 40 years ago? Perhaps, but Amen Dunes wasn't one of them. No, Amen Dunes is apparently the work of one man, a guy called Damon McMahon, who spent an extended stretch holed up in his house in the Catskills (although apparently now, he's holed up in his new house, in CHINA!) channeling some serious demons, and creating a brain melting, warped and distorted, fucked up and freaked out psychedelic classic.
There are definitely hints of the new wave of noise rock, all that shit gaze stuff, and lo-fi garage, Eat Skull, Psychedelic Horseshit, Wavves, Oh Sees, etc, but Amen Dunes' sound is much more old school, going all the way back to drugged out sonic visionaries like Roky Erickson and George Brigman and the like.
Super distorted, everything doused in reverb and delay and distortion, the recording super lo-fi, tape hiss all over the place, murky and muddy, and gloriously fuggy, the vocals slipping from feral shriek, to swoonsome moan, to almost Beach Boys like croon, but even at their most melodic, they remain a bit off kilter, slightly ominous, the rantings of some inspired lunatic right on the edge. The music is rough and raw, but catchy as hell, guitars buzz and jangle, detuned into bizarre Eastern sounding modalities or whipped up into a frenzied squall of Hendrixian freakout. The bass is a huge part of the sound too, rubbery and warm, thick and undulating, sometimes just offering up a layer of deep rumble, other times creating some truly haunting melodic counterpoint. The drums are simple and sporadic, a shuffling pound, a minimal skitter, a loose rickety framework for the Dunes' constantly-on-the-verge-of-collapse echo drenched drone pop, a sort of chilled out Dead C vibe permeates the proceedings as well, a way more damaged and even more druggy Velvets vibe too, all of this shit through with some old timey folkiness, it's a bit of a hodge podge, but it works.
The fractured looped psych drone weirdness of "Fleshless Esta Mira Wife Of Spades" is followed by the almost countryish "Patagonian Domes", before the woozy atonal Supreme Dicks worship of "By The Bridal", with some serious shades of Neutral Milk Hotel (we kid you not).
The rest of the record is equally as tripped out and all over the place, while managing to sound like an actual record, not just a collection of songs. "White Lace" is a gorgeous chunk of softly strummed murk, with super catchy vocals, layers of hiss and buzz, and a smattering of strange electronics, "Castles" is total Laurel Canyon country folk, but infused with just a little more pathos, the vocals a super gorgeous, on the verge of cracking wail, the hand claps, shakers and simple strumming underpinned by a warm wheezing organ. A handful of the songs sound almost Beatles-esque, super classic jangly pop, just barely psychedelic, with the guitars subtly warped, but the killer hooks totally intact, and then the record closes with "Breaker", maybe one of the most moving and intense tracks on the record, the musical accompaniment, minimal, simple softly strummed guitar, and some soft organ shimmer, but the vocals, so impassioned and emotional, raw and way up front, melodic and intense, howling and wailing, with multiple voices multitracked into a gorgeous wavery, fractured two part harmony, that ends up sounding like some sort of outsider gospel music. Totally inspirational, mind blowing, rocking, catchy, darkly mysterious... Easily one of our favorite records of the year so far!!
MPEG Stream: "Amen Dunes"
MPEG Stream: "Miami Beach"
MPEG Stream: "Fleshless Esta Mira Wife Of Space"
MPEG Stream: "Patagonian Domes"
MPEG Stream: "Breaker"

AMEN DUNES Dia (Locust) lp 17.98
When we first got this in, we were convinced it was some reissued lost psychedelic gem from the sixties or seventies. From the blurry red and black cover, the dearth of information, and heck it's on Locust, a label well known for killer reissues. So we threw it on, and we were still convinced, although we were blown away by its raw feral blown out psychedelic poppiness. Were there really bands making this sort of inspired and drug fueled racket 30 or 40 years ago? Perhaps, but Amen Dunes wasn't one of them. No, Amen Dunes is apparently the work of one man, a guy called Damon McMahon, who spent an extended stretch holed up in his house in the Catskills (although apparently now, he's holed up in his new house, in CHINA!) channeling some serious demons, and creating a brain melting, warped and distorted, fucked up and freaked out psychedelic classic.
There are definitely hints of the new wave of noise rock, all that shit gaze stuff, and lo-fi garage, Eat Skull, Psychedelic Horseshit, Wavves, Oh Sees, etc, but Amen Dunes' sound is much more old school, going all the way back to drugged out sonic visionaries like Roky Erickson and George Brigman and the like.
Super distorted, everything doused in reverb and delay and distortion, the recording super lo-fi, tape hiss all over the place, murky and muddy, and gloriously fuggy, the vocals slipping from feral shriek, to swoonsome moan, to almost Beach Boys like croon, but even at their most melodic, they remain a bit off kilter, slightly ominous, the rantings of some inspired lunatic right on the edge. The music is rough and raw, but catchy as hell, guitars buzz and jangle, detuned into bizarre Eastern sounding modalities or whipped up into a frenzied squall of Hendrixian freakout. The bass is a huge part of the sound too, rubbery and warm, thick and undulating, sometimes just offering up a layer of deep rumble, other times creating some truly haunting melodic counterpoint. The drums are simple and sporadic, a shuffling pound, a minimal skitter, a loose rickety framework for the Dunes' constantly-on-the-verge-of-collapse echo drenched drone pop, a sort of chilled out Dead C vibe permeates the proceedings as well, a way more damaged and even more druggy Velvets vibe too, all of this shit through with some old timey folkiness, it's a bit of a hodge podge, but it works.
The fractured looped psych drone weirdness of "Fleshless Esta Mira Wife Of Spades" is followed by the almost countryish "Patagonian Domes", before the woozy atonal Supreme Dicks worship of "By The Bridal", with some serious shades of Neutral Milk Hotel (we kid you not).
The rest of the record is equally as tripped out and all over the place, while managing to sound like an actual record, not just a collection of songs. "White Lace" is a gorgeous chunk of softly strummed murk, with super catchy vocals, layers of hiss and buzz, and a smattering of strange electronics, "Castles" is total Laurel Canyon country folk, but infused with just a little more pathos, the vocals a super gorgeous, on the verge of cracking wail, the hand claps, shakers and simple strumming underpinned by a warm wheezing organ. A handful of the songs sound almost Beatles-esque, super classic jangly pop, just barely psychedelic, with the guitars subtly warped, but the killer hooks totally intact, and then the record closes with "Breaker", maybe one of the most moving and intense tracks on the record, the musical accompaniment, minimal, simple softly strummed guitar, and some soft organ shimmer, but the vocals, so impassioned and emotional, raw and way up front, melodic and intense, howling and wailing, with multiple voices multitracked into a gorgeous wavery, fractured two part harmony, that ends up sounding like some sort of outsider gospel music. Totally inspirational, mind blowing, rocking, catchy, darkly mysterious... Easily one of our favorite records of the year so far!!
MPEG Stream: "Amen Dunes"
MPEG Stream: "Miami Beach"
MPEG Stream: "Fleshless Esta Mira Wife Of Space"
MPEG Stream: "Patagonian Domes"
MPEG Stream: "Breaker"

AMEN DUNES Through Donkey Jaw (Sacred Bones) cd 15.98
Newest record from Damon McMahon, aka Amen Dunes. His first record, Dia, we made a Record Of The Week, describing it as sounding like some lost psychedelic gem from the Sixties, and the second Amen Dunes record, Murder Dull Mind, was more of the same, gloriously haunting, outsider bedroom psych, channeling the spirit of Syd Barrett and Skip Spence, a mysterious otherworldly folk-pop artifact steeped in druggy atmosphere and loosed from traditional folk music tropes, resulting in haunting sonic ritualism that seemed to exist out of time.
This latest record is a logical extension of its two predecessors, and if anything, it seems to be the poppiest of the bunch. Right from the start, "Baba Yaga" had us expecting something WAY more far out, but instead, it's a gorgeous slab of soaring folk pop, all sun dappled and dreamy, with some surprisingly powerful vocals, all wound up in blurry shimmer, and what sounds like tangled strings or heavily effected harmonicas, either way, it might be the best proper 'song' McMahon has come up with yet. And much of the record follows suit, taking the early Pink Floydisms and mixing those up with some Byrds-y twang, some Grateful Dead jamminess, all blurred into a hazy chunk of lost Sixties folk pop. We can even hear some early Bee Gees, some Zombies, some truly gleefully twisted classic pop moments mixed in (check out "Not A Slave", which sounds like it could have been some alternate universe hit), which makes Through Donkey Jaw a surprisingly catchy record. And we have to say it definitely suits them (him?). Not sure if it was a conscious decision, or a natural progression, but this record is most definitely about songs first, that said, the sounds those songs are created with, are pretty impressive, a dead ringer for records of the era, but here and there some strange synth, or some odd bit of production will give it away as something more modern that it purports to be.
And there's still plenty of experimentalism going on, it's just more subtle, either whole non-song-tracks, or subtly woven in amidst the hooks and weirdly proper verse chorus verse arrangements. The vocals are woozy and laid back, wreathed in soft effects, but still much more of a driving force than on past records, the sound shifting easily from jangle pop to gloom folk, tripped out psychedelia to jammy psych rock without batting an eye, and managing to make it all hang together like a proper record.
The final track (a bonus track) is titled "Tomorrow Never Knows". Is it a cover of THAT song? It's actually hard to tell, but what we do know is that it's one of the most gloriously far out moments on the record, a dark brooding bit of rhythmic propulsive krautrock, laced with pounding piano, swirls of distorted guitar crunch, bleating horns, shards of feedback, wild tribal freakouts, after the otherwise song oriented psychedelic folk pop of the preceding thirteen tracks, it's a pretty unexpected, fantastic, and sonically unhinged finale.
MPEG Stream: "Baba Yaga"
MPEG Stream: "Lower Mind"
MPEG Stream: "Swim Up Behind Me"
MPEG Stream: "Tomorrow Never Knows"

AMEN DUNES Through Donkey Jaw (Sacred Bones) lp 15.98
NOW ON VINYL!
Newest record from Damon McMahon, aka Amen Dunes, whose first record, Dia, we made our Record Of The Week, describing it as sounding like some lost psychedelic gem from the sixties, and the second Amen Dunes record, Murder Dull Mind was more of the same, gloriously haunting, outsider bedroom psych, channeling the spirit of Syd Barrett and Skip Spence, a mysterious otherworldly folk pop steeped in druggy atmosphere and loosed from traditional folk music tropes, the result a haunting sonic ritualism that seemed to exist out of time. This latest record is a logical extension of its two predecessors, and if anything, it seems to be the poppiest of the bunch. Right frm the start, "Baba Yaga" which had us expecting something WAY more far out, but instead, it's a gorgeous slab of soaring folk pop, all sun dappled and dreamy, with some surprisingly powerful vocals, all wound up in burry shimmer, and what sounds like tangled strings or heavily effected harmonicas, either way, it might be the best proper 'song' McMahon has come up with yet. And much of the record follows suit, taking the early Pink Floydisms and mixing those up with some Byrds-y twang, some Grateful Dead jamminess, all blurred into a hazy chunk of lost sixties folk pop. We can even hear some early Bee Gees, some Zombies, some truly gleefully twisted classic pop moments mixed in (check out "Not A Slave", which sounds like it could have been some alternate universe hit), which makes Through Donkey Jaw a surprisingly catchy record. And we have to say it definitely suits them (him?). Not sure if it was a conscious decision, or a natural progression, but this record is most definitely about songs first, that said, the sounds those songs are created with, are pretty impressive, a dead ringer for records of the era, but here and there some strange synth, or some odd bit of production will give it a way as something more modern that it purports to be.
And there's still plenty of experimentalism going on, it's just more subtle, either whole non-song-tracks, or subtly woven in amidst the hooks and weirdly proper verser chorus verse arrangements. The vocals are woozy and laid back, wreathed in soft effects, but still much more of a driving force than on past records, the sound shifting easily from jangle pop to gloom folk, tripped out psychedelia to jammy psych rock without batting an eye, and managing to make it all hang together like a proper record.
The final track (a bonus track) is titled "Tomorrow Never Knows". Is it a cover of THAT song? It's actually hard to tell, but what we do know is that it's one of the most gloriously far out moments on the record, a dark brooding bit of rhythmic propulsive krautrock, laced with pounding piano, swirls of distorted guitar crunch, bleating horns, shards of feedback, wild tribal freakouts, after the otherwise song oriented psychedelic folk pop of the preceding thirteen tracks, it's a pretty unexpected, fantastic, and sonically unhinged finale.
Includes download card for mp3s of the whole album, which gets you the 2 extra tracks found on the cd version as well.
MPEG Stream: "Baba Yaga"
MPEG Stream: "Lower Mind"
MPEG Stream: "Swim Up Behind Me"
MPEG Stream: "Tomorrow Never Knows"

AMENTI SUNCROWN Zenith Pitch (World Serpent) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not your laptop processing from Mille Plateaux or 12K, Amenti Suncrown prefer the increasingly antiquated arsenal of multiple keyboards, samplers, and color flashing gadgets to achieve their dark ambient / electronic soundscapes. Aptly released by World Serpent, Amenti Suncrown reflects a number of the same ideas held by World Serpent staples Coil and Nurse With Wound, with an absurdist / sci-fi / occultist view of the seminal electronic synthesis created by Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler. For those of you current re-living New Wave through Adult, Fischerspooner, and The Faint, Amenti Suncrown will offer a slight detour back to the 'magick ov 23.'

AMLEE, ERIK Afternoon Dream (Mandragora / Fire Museum) cd 13.98
Earlier this year, we reviewed two volumes of dreamy psychedelic sitar improvisations from multi instrumentalist Erik Amlee. Two discs, both absolutely gorgeous, so gorgeous in fact that we could barely keep them in stock. So we were super excited to get our hands on this, the newest release from Amlee, an actual cd, not a cd-r, another set of improvisations, this time performed on both sitar and acoustic guitar, and again so lovely and tranquil, blissy and dreamy.
Deep swells of buzzing strings drift lazily, the acoustic guitar strumming along in the background, adding yet another layer of steel string buzz. Some of the tracks are totally loose and abstract, druggy expanses of slippery psychedelic sound, murky and fuzzy, like the jammiest spaciest parts of Spacemen 3 and Hawkwind stripped down into weird stoner acoustic ragas, all drone and shimmer, a buzzing swirl of warm drug den ambience and sunny afternoon sparkle, a seemingly impossible mix that sounds pretty much perfect together. Some of the other tracks are much more structured and guitar based, gorgeous little chunks of neo-Appalachia, but with all sorts of extra buzz, all nestled within a billowy fog of spacey FX. And still others are a glorious mix of the two, a dreamy collision of Eastern Raga and Western twang, a slithering squirming drone that buzzes and builds into thick squalls of resonating strings and swirling ambient hiss, all wrapped in a blown out, super distorted, reverb heavy sound thanks to some post-recording production. So great. The perfect balance of freaked out psychedelic raga bliss and shimmery lilting buzz and twang. SO RECOMMENDED!!
MPEG Stream: "Pulse Quickens"
MPEG Stream: "Entering The Mist"

AMLEE, ERIK Sitar (Mandragora) cd-r 11.98
We've been trying to list these Amlee discs for ages but we can never seem to keep enough in stock. Everytime we play them in the store, someone, sometimes several someones, always buys 'em. That's usually the truest barometer for how good a record is. And these discs are soooo good. Both of these discs feature Erik Amlee on sitar, the fact that Amlee is not a trained sitar player is part of what makes these discs so cool. The other being the totally bad ass drone and buzz of the sitar. We're beginning to think the sitar is the coolest instrument there is. It's like a guitar, but with way more buzzing and vibrating and droning. We can totally picture the heaviest metal band in the world with no guitars, just with electrified, amplified sitars. That's the same metal band that would have to have a Tuvan throat singer on lead vocals, but we digress. These lengthy improvisations are dense with buzzing overtones, haunting melodies, still very Eastern, as that's the nature of the instrument and its tuning, but also kind of spacey and blissed out, druggy and psychedelic. The whole thing is thick and soft and swoonsome, longform subtly shifting ragas, drowsy and fuzzy, all sepia toned and sun baked, rife with dizzyingly buzzy melodies and simple subtle percussion, and occasionaly electronic glitchery, but not so it's noticable, just adding more texture. And the recording is super casual and a bit lo-fi, you can hear shuffling feet, instrument buzz, every little nuance is just sort of captured and woven into the blurry dreamy sweetly torpid soundscape. So totally captivating. These records make the perfect late night listening, all thick and drifty and suffused with a soft rich glow that just sort of washes over you. Both volumes are equally amazing, and they're cheap too so there's no reason not to pick up the set!
MPEG Stream: "Awakening"
MPEG Stream: "Too Far Gone"

AMLEE, ERIK Sitar Vol. 2 (Mandragora) cd-r 11.98
We've been trying to list these Amlee discs for ages but we can never seem to keep enough in stock. Everytime we play them in the store, someone, sometimes several someones, always buys 'em. That's usually the truest barometer for how good a record is. And these discs are soooo good. Both of these discs feature Erik Amlee on sitar, the fact that Amlee is not a trained sitar player is part of what makes these discs so cool. The other being the totally bad ass drone and buzz of the sitar. We're beginning to think the sitar is the coolest instrument there is. It's like a guitar, but with way more buzzing and vibrating and droning. We can totally picture the heaviest metal band in the world with no guitars, just with electrified, amplified sitars. That's the same metal band that would have to have a Tuvan throat singer on lead vocals, but we digress. These lengthy improvisations are dense with buzzing overtones, haunting melodies, still very Eastern, as that's the nature of the instrument and its tuning, but also kind of spacey and blissed out, druggy and psychedelic. The whole thing is thick and soft and swoonsome, longform subtly shifting ragas, drowsy and fuzzy, all sepia toned and sun baked, rife with dizzyingly buzzy melodies and simple subtle percussion, and occasionaly electronic glitchery, but not so it's noticable, just adding more texture. And the recording is super casual and a bit lo-fi, you can hear shuffling feet, instrument buzz, every little nuance is just sort of captured and woven into the blurry dreamy sweetly torpid soundscape. So totally captivating. These records make the perfect late night listening, all thick and drifty and suffused with a soft rich glow that just sort of washes over you. Both volumes are equally amazing, and they're cheap too so there's no reason not to pick up the set!
MPEG Stream: "Baptized In Lotus Wine"
MPEG Stream: "Western Sun"

AMM AMMusic 1966 (ReR) cd 17.98

AMM At the Roundhouse (Anomalous) cd 14.98
British free improv pioneers AMM were recorded live in August 1972 at a festival in London called the International Carnival of Experimental Sound (its theme: Myth, Magic, Madness and Mysticism!). Now, over thirty years later, their set has been released for the first time ever as the debut in a cd series documenting the festival recordings! As ICES '72 featured over 300 performers from over 21 countries, we're bound to be in for some interesting surprises as this cd series unfolds. Starting off with AMM is a good solid choice, as they've certainly met the test of time, active and excellent even today. At this '72 show they consisted of just percussionist Eddie Prevost and saxophonist Lou Gare, along with what the press release accurately terms "their famous AMM silences". When not silent, they're VERY not silent however. Definitely more overtly "free jazz" than some of AMM's other, more meditative drone efforts. 47 minutes, one track.
MPEG Stream: "The Sound Of Indifference (excerpt)"

AMM Fine (Matchless) cd 17.98
AMM emerged from the first generation of UK free jazz musicians in the mid-60s, taking the notion of spontaneous improvisation well beyond any of the kind of restrictions that would locate their music within the realms of jazz, minimalism, rock, or Fluxus-based composition techniques. If there is any taxonomic space for AMM (beyond simply being AMM), it would have to be near John Cage's indeterminancy yet shaped by a collective understanding from a group that has been listening to each other quite intently for almost 40 years. While guitarist Keith Rowe and percussionist Eddie Prevost have been involved in AMM since the beginning, pianist John Tilbury began his tenure in the ensemble in the early '80s, superceding Lou Gare and Cornelius Cardew. Between Keith Rowe's growling guitar feedback and use of transistor radio hum, Prevost's scraped metals and bowed cymbals, and Tilbury's abstractions from prepared piano, AMM speaks between the borders of synethetic and acoustic to create their textually rich yet quietly mapped out music. "Fine" is their latest artifact created as the accompaniment for the dancer Fine Kwiatkowski. This album is one of AMM's quieter albums, utilizing space and volume very effectively throughout this gritty abstraction built from the tiniest application of electrical buzzings, grating motors, metallic clatter, shortwave modulations, steel string scrapings, and spartan clusters of notes from Tilbury's piano. Many talented artists have attempted to emulate them, but AMM remains in a class of its own, and this album is no exception.
RealAudio clip: "Part One"
RealAudio clip: "Part Six"

AMM Norwich (Matchless) cd 24.00

AMM The Inexhaustible Document (Matchless) cd 17.98

AMM The Nameless Uncarved Block (Matchless) cd 17.98

AMM Tunes Without Measure or End (Matchless) cd 17.98
The guys from the seminal UK "free improv" group AMM, whose pioneering and still unique sounds first turned people's heads way back in 1965, are of course still very much in the, um, avantgarde of avantgarde music making, both as individuals and as the still-potent AMM ensemble. Here's some recent proof of their talents, recorded live in Scotland, May 2000. The trio of Keith Rowe (guitar), John Tilbury (piano), and Eddie Prevost (percussion) play experimental, improvised music that's not jazz, not drone, not really anything other than "AMM music" (providing inspiration to many makers of abstract, adventurous music -- everyone from Jim O'Rourke to the Kammerflimmer Kollektief to SF's Thuja). Prevost's percussion provides a sparse but turbulent backdrop while sometimes venturing to the forefront in explosive eruptions, Tilbury's piano drops in abstract-yet-melodic fragments of noir-ish key-plink, and Rowe's guitar all the while quietly growls like a lion with indigestion or produces other equally un-guitarlike sounds. Despite the disc's title, what you get here are six "tunes", ending after 57 minutes and 15 seconds, the playing time of this cd. AMM fans (and folks unfamilar with AMM, but interested in checking them out) should find this album to be a worthwhile investment.
RealAudio clip: "Tune Four"

AMM / MERZBOW split (12") Fat Cat 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The latest in this high profile series of split 12"s. Merzbow is at his most melodic, coming up with an almost hummable bit of white noise. The AMM side is all rhythm, primarily beautifully meandering chimes and bells.

AMMAN / JOSH Places - Folio Series (Dynamophone) cd ep 9.98
The New York duo Amman / Josh (aka Josh Varnedore and Amman Abbasi) have composed these five soundscapes from the kind of richly resonant tones you wish would ring on endlessly.
These compositions took shape in New York, Arkansas and... Iceland! There definitely is a distinct sound to music created in the latter locale, and Places most certainly is quite reminiscent to the music of artists such as Sigur Ros and Mum who call that country home. Totally shimmering and mesmerizing. The third track "Leawood" will have you totally drifting off in daydreaminess. So it may come as a brief sad moment when it ends somewhat abruptly instead of gently fading out like the other tracks do. Fortunately the fourth number "Bayshore" will quickly sweep you away once more. This ep's 20 minute running time is all to fleeting, but fortunately Amman / Josh do have a full length in the works as we write this! By the way, you might recognize one fellow in this pair from his other lovely Dynamophone label release - The Abbasi Brothers' Something Like Nostalgia. As with that album, Places is steeped in the teachings of ambient masters Eno and Glass. Very nice, indeed!
MPEG Stream: "Leawood"
MPEG Stream: "Melting the Frozen Sea Within Us"

AMON DUDE s/t (Ikuisuus) 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.
It had to happen. That's right, someone naming a band Amon Dude. And it probably had to happen in Finland. Which it did. This one man band just so happens to be one of the guys from Avarus, so we were sort of expecting some damaged foresty krautrock what with the name and all, but nothing could be further from the truth. This is some super psychedelic, ultra freaked out, dense and damaged cartoonish splattery improvised noise rock weirdness. And that barely does this stuff justice.
A cacophony or heavily affected percussion, damaged electronics, primitive vocal experiments, a swirling sonic chaos, clattery and explosive, jagged and head spinning, a totally mind blowing brain melting WHAT-THE-FUCK freakout. Hard to even describe what's going on, as it changes pretty much every few seconds. Imagine Carl Stalling orchestrating the No Neck Blues Band after an all night crystal meth binge, or the soundtrack to a Bollywood movie played by Violent Onsen Geisha, or a Perrey And Kingsley recording session after having taken WAY too many drugs and having some sort of musical mental breakdown or maybe even Casiotone For the Painfully Demented and Damaged.
Whatever you call it, this is one weird and wacked and WAY OUT record. Fans of the weirdest of musics from the Finnish fringe will definitely want one of these, as will those of you looking for a party clearer, head spinner, lease breaker, or sonic palate cleanser.
SUPER LIMITED CD-R!!! We got a handful but they will probably be gone pretty fast, and once they are, that's it...
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

AMON DUDE & THE HOOPO / NUSLUX split (self-released) 7" 9.98
Lal Lal Lal sent us these, though technically it's private release not on that tiny Finnish label, the reason they had 'em being that Nuslux is a project of Roope from Lal Lal Lal, who's also in Maniacs Dream, Pylon, and Avarus. Meanwhile the Amon Dude (haha) is Arttu, also from Avarus, Anaksimandros, etc. It's limited, it's weird, it's vinyl, and it's Finnish. We only have a handful. What else need we say? Oh, what's it sound like? Well the Dude's side, "In Full Flight", is a live recording of their distorted, danceable (?) electronic shenanigans, while Nuslux jam on the flip, using mostly self-built analog instruments to make their "good-humored and chilled out" electronic minimalism. Basically if you liked that Lal Lal Lal festival cassette we listed not long ago, this is for you too.

AMORT / IVES split (Boue) cd 9.98
Latest from long time aQ fave one man ultra doom outfit, Amort, here expanded to a quartet, with extra members handling gong, keys, saxophone and extra guitar. Here teamed up with crusty black metal punks Ives.
Amort offer up a single 14 minute track, the begins with haunting female vocals, over deep reverberating piano, and rumbling low end drones, very ritualistic and choral, it's not until nearly 3 minutes in, that the song splinters into what sounds like some sort of abstract free jazz doom, the gong rippling out thick metallic waves of sound, the sax skronking and squeaking, all wrapped in thick whorls of rumble and thrum, a monstrous ominous slo-mo creep, until finally, the song proper kicks in after about 5 minutes, an impossibly glacial chunk of slow motion doom sludge, drumless, and surprisingly melodic, the melodies nearly pop, but the guitars oozing and blackened, the vocals a demonic gurgle, a strange combination for sure, this filthy downtuned evil sound, but the song itself almost happy, like some pop song slowed waaaaaaaay down and then filtered through Corrupted and Nortt and Bunkur, the prettiest, most melodic slab of ultradoom you'll ever hear. It does build, and get louder and louder, there are spidery guitar leads, and more piano, but the sound never gets any less melodic.
Ives are pretty much on the other end of the sonic spectrum entirely, spitting out blasting, thrashing crusty blackness, minor key riffing, furious pounding drumming, harsh vokills, sonically quite akin to the punkier Darkthrone sound, or classic Discharge, but for every bit of D-beat pound, the band unleash a blast of face melting black metal buzz, the sound lo-fi, but still heavy and frantic and frenzied, brutal and blasting, galloping and churning, crusty but plenty grim and black. Killer stuff from both bands, the Ives stuff is from an old cassette, so a little curious to hear more recent stuff, and Amort, well, we can never get enough of their/his gloriously abject slow motion piano pounding dismal doom...
MPEG Stream: AMORT "In Bed With Decay"
MPEG Stream: IVES "A Tangle Of Hair And Bone"
MPEG Stream: IVES "Feral"

ANAHITA Matricaria (Important) cd 14.98
It's been refreshing to see a new wave of female experimentalists emerge over the last few years. Grouper, Inca Ore, Avocet, there's something sweetly sinister about these female vocalists, like a siren's call from a distant sea. And thankfully Important records has answered this call, and brings forth a truly incredible new release from the female duo Anahita, the divine collaboration between Helena Espvall, distinguished cellist and member of the widely known Espers, and Tara Burke, also known as Fursaxa. Anahita, named after the Iranian goddess of fertility and water, together sculpt an absolutely gorgeous post-apocalyptic soundtrack, Eastern melodies bowed over layers of flute and secret hymns, deep drones emerging from cracks in the earth, the desert is still and bleak, but the air is filled with somber melody. Recorded straight to 4-track, Matrkaria was recorded between 2005 and 2008. Quiet, organic percussion sets the pace for desert dirges, and distant mirages appear and vanish all at once. Super beautiful and super bleak, Matrkaria is one of the most compelling and magical debuts we've heard in awhile. Think of a darker, dronier and more mystical Suarasma, not as rhythmic and much more transcendental and free-form. Take our advice and don't miss out on this incredible release from these two drone-folk priestesses!
MPEG Stream: "Pirin Planina"
MPEG Stream: "Chalice of Cypress"

ANAKRID A Monstrous Dose Of Poison (Black Horizons) lp 16.98
Brand new full length from this South Carolinian dronelord, a sprawling two track epic of haunting bleak minimalism, each sidelong track an oozing black expanse of layered drift and roiling blackness. A Monstrous Dose Of Poison is in fact of monstrous dose of poisonous sound, the A side a billowing cloud of high end skree and bowed metals, wrapped in effects and blurred into a swirl of deep rumbling thrum, a black ambience that pulse and pulsates, and splinters into stretches of muted crumble and crunch, before again stretching out into cinematic expanses of harrowing blackened atmospheric drifts, finally culminating in a strange coda of sci-fi gurgles and buried barely there percussion.
The flipside offers up a similar soundscape, a sort of second movement, this one a bit more symphonic sounding, the opening a massive keening swell, soaring string-like melodies, the sound darkly majestic, eventually crumbling into more of a roiling blackdrone churn, shot through with more of those soaring high end shimmers, the sound growing ever more dense and blurred, a muted buzz wrapped around buried pulse and muddy abstract rhythms, smeared into nothing more than rhythmic spectral swirls.
LIMITED TO 259 COPIES. Housed in a gorgeous, intensely full color, and ultra creepy, super glossy extra heavy jacket.

ANAKRID Banishment Rituals of The Disenlightened (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 16.98

ANAKRID + WARMTH s/t (Black Horizons) cassette 8.98
A sort of sonic addendum to the Anakrid lp reviewed nearby on this week's list, this finds Anakrid teaming up with another Black Horizons mainstay, Warmth, for a brief bit of droned out mesmer. A lush expanse of thick layered thrum, pulsing beneath a field of glistening high end glimmers and soft swirls of tinkling melody, that low level background hum building ominously to something much more sinister, a blurred black buzz, that swells into soft squalls of cacophonous crunch, before settling back into that deep rumbling drone. The various elements seeming to bleed into each other, becoming a heaving wall of slowly crumbling sounds, streaked with feedback and sine wave tones, and pocked with weird chittering barely there rhythms, eventually blossoming into a cloud of soft black swirls. The flipside plays out like a field recording of some futuristic industrial wasteland, all blurred greys and streaks of smeared hiss, a Wolf Eyes-ian landscape of apocalyptic drones and swirling low end hum, the sound rife with buried melodies and hushed tonal colors, everything infused with a sense of dread, an ominous foreboding in the form of multiple layers of lower register rumbles and blackened drones. Harrowing and haunting, and strangely lovely.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. Nice packaging too, black and red offset printed, metallic green cardstock 4 panel J-card, and silver stickered hi-bias chrome tapes.

ANAKSIMANDROS River Of Finland (Eclipse) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another installment in stumbling, chaotic, percussive, free folk weirdness from this Finnish troupe made up of members of Avarus, Kemialliset Ystevat and more. This is dark and shambling, playful and naive, reptetive and bizarre. Like No Neck Blues Band or Sunburned Hand if you took away all their guitars and drums and 'real' instruments, gave them a bunch of rattles and sticks and stones and noisemakers, and let them loose in the forest with nothing but a tape recorder. Primal and primitive. Caveman drum circles punctuated by strange strumming and otherworldly chords and melodies, as well as the occasional pagan ritual chanting / vocalising. Cool.

ANAKSIMANDROS, THE Life Is A Skullbow (Veglia) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Anaksimandros features members of Finland's wonderful Kemialliset Ystavat. Although the sound here is a bit removed from the gorgeous folk of KY. The title had us expecting some sort of noisy cross between Merzbow and Skullflower...and it's not all that far from being spot on. Although add in a little No Neck Blues Band hippie jam and some Dead C ambient roar and you'll be even closer. Noisy, clattery, kitchen sink tribalism, with thudding caveman beats, damaged guitar strumming, squealing feedback, ambient thrum, wheezing reeds, and fuzz and hiss and whirr galore.
Anyone into the No Neck Blues Band, the Dead C, Birchville Cat Motel, Skullflower and anyone who bought those recent Sunroof! / Vibracathedral Orchestra cd-rs will lose their shit over this. Vinyl only and extremely limited.

ANAL CUNT (A.C.) The Early Years: 1988-1991 (NG Records) 2cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Previously released as two seperate, hard to find cds ("Old Stuff Part 1" and "Old Stuff Part II") on two different labels. Now some crazy person at NG Records has gone and released this new version, compiling (as it says) the early works (i.e. demos, singles, and compilation appearances) of this notorious blurr-core, noise-metal, very un-pc band from Boston. Over 7000 "songs" to be found here, spread over two cds. That's mainly thanks to the presence here of the tracks from the infamous "5,643 Song EP"... Now for most reviews of A.C. discs, we'd simply pick the best song titles and leave it at that, 'cause offensive & funny song titles are what A.C. does best. But the material on here dates from back when A.C. didn't supply titles (or lyrics for that matter) for their "compositions". So that leaves us to make a case for the musical rather than humorous value (or musically humorous value) of these tracks. Oh boy...well for all you experimental jokers out there, the aforementioned "5,643 Song EP" features the songs playing at the same time! There's actually three hours of material compressed onto the original 7", and it took twenty hours for them to record it! Compares favorably to the Francisco Lopez disc we made record of the week last list... Then there's the "Unplugged EP" tracks, where A.C. takes their screaming metal chaos into the acoustic realm for some unique results. And, any fan of John Zorn or Masonna should really check out A.C. as well, on general principles... truly a classic band, American outsider improv "genius". If not musical genius, then comedy genius. Sure, you or I could have recorded more or less the same stuff on your parents' stereo much like these guys did for their first demo (disc one, track one), but you have to admit that you'd never record so much of it, for so many years, or play such crazy shows. We (Allan and Andee anyway--in fact, A.C. was the first interview Allan ever did for his old 'zine) love this band. For you collectors, note that there's material on these cds not found on the original singles and such. And for novices, we also recommend A.C.'s "Morbid Florist" ep and "Everyone Must Be Killed" album to start with... The cd booklet includes detailed liner notes about each track/release written by A.C. mastermind Seth Putnam. All hail!

ANALS Total Anal (Permanent) lp 16.98
Ah, France. Home to the sugary pop sounds of Phoenix and the stately elegance of Air... But scratch the surface to the French underground, and you're faced with the harsh realization that things may be way more fucked than you ever imagined. Festering like an open sore is the Anals, a nihilistic duo from Metz capable of whipping up an ungodly racket with only drums, synthesizers at their most basic functioning level, occasional guitars, anguished Frenchman vocals sung in English, and a whole FUCKLOAD of sheer, agonizing noise. After listening to these hateful miscreants, it makes total sense that they were shat forth from the same land that brought us the Marquis de Sade, Celine, and Gerard Depardieu.
Looking at the lyric sheet to Total Anal may be the deciding factor for just how much you can take from these guys. Those into pushing the limits of decency and comfort with bands like the Brainbombs or the Country Teasers, however, will probably find much to love with this one. The album begins with "Commando Of Love," a little ditty musing poetic on a love triangle set in a concentration camp. The song is comprised of a creepy, tense synth whir that is eventually met with pounding cave man drums and vocals that sound more exasperated than enraged. Like many of the other songs on the record, the melodies are almost perceived, as the songs are pretty much made up of earsplitting noise, carried forward by a relentless thump and cacophonous vocals. Other parts of the record sound like This Heat being beaten up and reinterpreted by a couple of French street thugs armed with sound generators and Six Finger Satellite records. The incessant drumming and unrestrained feedback make it feel like your heart might blow at any moment. Strangest of all, however, is on songs like "Vaginal Death Tunnel," where you realize that though this is noise rock with an emphasis on both the "noise" and the "rock," the Anals are creating music that somehow manages to fall within the approximation of a pop song structure, in the same way a group like the Dead C was able to achieve on some of their earlier records. Not that this would ever be mistaken for pop music...
Coming to us from the killer Chicago store/label Permanent Records, who introduced many of us to the glorious sounds of Cave, Total Anal also comes with a free download in a nod to the turntable deprived. Highly recommended listening for those who like things on the dirty side, in every imaginable way.
MPEG Stream: "Commando Of Love"
MPEG Stream: "Vaginal Death Tunnel"
MPEG Stream: "Love Lives In The Street"

ANATOMY OF HABIT s/t (self-released) lp 15.98
There was a zine produced by power electronic antagonist Mark Solotroff, back in the mid-'90s, called Rape Of The Angels. In one issue, he wrote rather poignantly about two new projects which then were mostly unknown - Brainbombs and Bodychoke, describing them as two sides of the same abject-rock coin with one side aligned with the bacchanalia of the Stooges and the other the melancholy of Joy Division. At the time, Solotroff's principal outlet for his power electronics was Intrinsic Action, which was shameless in appropriating Whitehouse's ultra-violent posturing and searing noise. But since, Solotroff has ventured into a whole host of projects with various aesthetic differences, but all of which maintain an axis of grime, sleaze, transgression, and violence. Anatomy Of Habit is Solotroff's first venture into an outright 'rock' context, after the punishing electronics of Bloodyminded and the bleak coldwave of A Vague Disquiet; and here, it all comes back around to Brainbombs and Bodychoke (although more Bodychoke than Brainbombs) with Anatomy Of Habit. Formed around Solotroff, drummer Dylan Posa (Brise-Glase, Cheer Accident), Greg Ratjczak (Winters In Osaka), Kenny Rasmusen, and Blake Edwards (Vertonen), the band is a steamroller of huge Swans / Neurosis riffs chugging out of crawling rhythms, and lots of bad vibes. Both sides of the wax are sprawling numbers that hypnotically build out of interlocking guitar and bass that steadily builds towards a distorted, crushing climax with dextrous turns toward powerdrone sludge. Solotroff, with his years of barking like William Bennett, has turned into quite a deft vocalist with his baritone in perpetual motion amidst the roiling noise-rock, coming across more like a cross between Jaz Coleman and Michael Gira. Well worth checking out.

ANBB (ALVA NOTO & BLIXA BARGELD) Mimikry (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98
This is a strange one for sure. A collaboration between Alva Noto, aka Carsten Nicolai, long running purveyor of Raster-Noton style click and bleep, and the legendary Blixa Bargeld, he of Einsturzende Neubauten and the Bad Seeds. And the first couple minutes won't dissuade you from that impression, a stretch of what sounds like layered screaming and sympathetic tones, a haunting, harrowing bit of dronemusic, that begins to glitch out, as Bargeld spoken vocals come in, now laid over a strange bit of high end staticky stutter, and a deep resonant rumble, before the sound shifts again, the screams returning, and Bargeld switching to moody croon, a burst of tripped out grind and crunch, some wistful piano, and a very balladic outro, sounds like the perfect intro to this collection of improvised abstraction and avant minimal soundscaping.
The second track sounds more like the Alva Noto we know and love, a clipped bit of minimal rhythm, wreathed in clouds of grit and static and hiss, and then the vocals come in, and it becomes much moreÉ musical, and moody, dramatic and intense, and as the record progresses, the sound definitely becomes less an unlikely collaboration, and more a meeting of like minded warped musical visionaries.
Bargeld is a chameleon, switching from strident bellow, to hushed whisper, to surprisingly melodic croon, and Nicolai is equally adept, alternately crafting austere minimal glitchscapes, swirling pop ambient shimmer and lush almost orchestral sounding avant pop. They even cover Harry Nilsson, and they manage to keep the spirit and mood of the original, while infusing it with all manner of thrum and hiss, crunch and skitter, and just as soon as we're in more familiarly pop territory, the record switches gears, and the two unfurl a droned out bit of cinematic drift, the layered vox creepy and ominous, the music a blur of hiss and crackle, stutter and drift. The rest of the record offers up more of the same, a sort of futuristic cabaret, glitched out balladry, minimal avant dronepop and skeletal industrial ambience, quite hard to succinctly describe, but the varied sounds here all manage to coalesce into a pretty fantastic bit of haunting avant minimal beauty, perfectly encapsulated in the string laden final track, all whispery vox, warm symphonic swells, rich mellifluous vocals, and tense dramatic minor key melodies, so gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "Fall"
MPEG Stream: "Once Again"
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground - Extended"

ANBB (ALVA NOTO & BLIXA BARGELD) Mimikry (Raster-Noton) 2x12" 25.00
This is a strange one for sure. A collaboration between Alva Noto, aka Carsten Nicolai, long running purveyor of Raster-Noton style click and bleep, and the legendary Blixa Bargeld, he of Einsturzende Neubauten and the Bad Seeds. And the first couple minutes won't dissuade you from that impression, a stretch of what sounds like layered screaming and sympathetic tones, a haunting, harrowing bit of dronemusic, that begins to glitch out, as Bargeld spoken vocals come in, now laid over a strange bit of high end staticky stutter, and a deep resonant rumble, before the sound shifts again, the screams returning, and Bargeld switching to moody croon, a burst of tripped out grind and crunch, some wistful piano, and a very balladic outro, sounds like the perfect intro to this collection of improvised abstraction and avant minimal soundscaping.
The second track sounds more like the Alva Noto we know and love, a clipped bit of minimal rhythm, wreathed in clouds of grit and static and hiss, and then the vocals come in, and it becomes much moreÉ musical, and moody, dramatic and intense, and as the record progresses, the sound definitely becomes less an unlikely collaboration, and more a meeting of like minded warped musical visionaries.
Bargeld is a chameleon, switching from strident bellow, to hushed whisper, to surprisingly melodic croon, and Nicolai is equally adept, alternately crafting austere minimal glitchscapes, swirling pop ambient shimmer and lush almost orchestral sounding avant pop. They even cover Harry Nilsson, and they manage to keep the spirit and mood of the original, while infusing it with all manner of thrum and hiss, crunch and skitter, and just as soon as we're in more familiarly pop territory, the record switches gears, and the two unfurl a droned out bit of cinematic drift, the layered vox creepy and ominous, the music a blur of hiss and crackle, stutter and drift. The rest of the record offers up more of the same, a sort of futuristic cabaret, glitched out balladry, minimal avant dronepop and skeletal industrial ambience, quite hard to succinctly describe, but the varied sounds here all manage to coalesce into a pretty fantastic bit of haunting avant minimal beauty, perfectly encapsulated in the string laden final track, all whispery vox, warm symphonic swells, rich mellifluous vocals, and tense dramatic minor key melodies, so gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "Fall"
MPEG Stream: "Once Again"
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground - Extended"

ANBB (ALVA NOTO & BLIXA BARGELD) Ret Marut Handshake (Raster-Noton) 12" 14.98

ANBB (ALVA NOTO & BLIXA BARGELD) Ret Marut Handshake (Raster-Noton) 12" 14.98

ANDEREGG, BRENDON Falling Air (Psych-O-Path) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "The Open"
MPEG Stream: "Street Lights"

ANDERSON, BRUCE Bresson (Petit Mal Music) 3" cd-r 5.98
A mighty fine collection of improvisorial acoustic guitar solos from Bruce Anderson of MX-80 fame. That said, Anderson's solo guitar work is miles away from the sharp, incessant cacophony of the mutant-punk of MX-80 from back in the day. It's more of a Loren Mazzacane Connors feel, but played on an acoustic guitar with classical tunings. Or perhaps as our regular customer Monte opined, "sounds like Derek Bailey, if he learned to play melodically." Yeah, that's it! Anyway, with the quiet, rather ascetic nature of these recordings, we're guessing that the reference in the title is to Robert Bresson, the new wave French film director. The dulcet plucks and slow deliberate pacing of Anderson's work would certainly make for a complementary soundtrack to any number of Bresson's films even with their noted lack of musical accompaniments. Lovely stuff, and limited to just 75 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Bresson"

ANDERSON, BRUCE The Inherent Beauty Of Hopelessness (self-released) cd 9.98
Bruce Anderson is best known as the guitarist / frontman for Bay Area seminal avant-punk band MX-80, whose records back in the early '80s situated themselves on the suitably angular Ralph Records - home to The Residents, Snake Finger, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Tuxedomoon, etc. This 2008 composition - possibly just released, possibly never distributed until now - is a long-form, multi-tracked acoustic guitar exploration. Upon first listen, Fahey, Loren Mazzacane Connors, and Tom Carter seem the obvious references for these lilting elliptical arrangements; but as the piece develops, Anderson is insistent on hitting purposefully sharp notes, which atonally register thanks to his panned stereo distribution of layered tracks. As result, The Inherent Beauty Of Hopelessness begins to mutate into a Jandekian aesthetic of warped raga-blues, as if the Jandek standard "European Jewel" found itself tempered and elongated into a quiet, 40-minute epic.
MPEG Stream: "The Inherent Beauty Of Hopelessness"

ANDERSON, LAURIE Big Science - 25th Anniversary Edition (Nonesuch) cd 15.98
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of this inimitable New York avant garde artist's landmark album, the fine folks at the Nonesuch label have remastered and reissued it... and it sounds as mysterious and beautiful as it did the first time around! The unforgettable eight minute long single "O Superman" made a surprise showing at number 2 on the U.K. pop charts back in 1981, and the album from which it came left its own indelible mark on many of us here.
The music and spoken word pieces that comprise the album were actually drawn from Anderson's expansive eight hour long performance art stage production United States Live (which was performed over the course of two evenings). Drawing on disparate elements and themes, commentaries and critiques about life in America, Anderson's Big Science is at once bold, imaginative and artful. Dryly humorous and chillingly bleak. Starkly minimal and deeply moving. Playful and cerebral. Thoughtful and thought provoking. Challenging and engaging.
Keep in mind, the short audio samples here really don't do the whole work justice. This album should be experienced in one complete distraction-free listening session. One of Cup's all time favorite albums, she recommends you stop what you are doing right now. Big Science beckons.
Oh yes, and we should mention that this special edition includes the haunting "O Superman" music video and a (unnecessary in our opinion) bonus track "Walk The Dog".
MPEG Stream: "From The Air"
MPEG Stream: "Big Science"

ANDUIN Abandoned In Sleep (SMTG Limited) lp + cd 16.98
Full length number two from Jonathan Lee, a member of big time aQ faves Souvenir's Young America, and the man behind Anduin, after two killer collaborations, one with Svarte Greiner (that track is included here!), the other with Jasper TX, which should definitely give you an idea of the sort of sound to expect from Anduin.
Dark and dreamy and dolorous, Anduin creates warm swirling rhythmic ambience, dark drones, and haunting soundscapes. Abandoned In Sleep includes many contributors either via sample contribution or live collaboration, Jasper TX again, Gareth Davis, Stephen Vitiello, Xela and a handful of others, but there's no doubt that Lee is the sonic alchemist here, taking sounds and samples, live performances, and pre-recorded works, and molding them into darkly gorgeous soundworks. Field recordings drift in and out of soft clouds of hushed shimmer, thick slabs of deep rumble are laid atop strange percussive pulses, warm whirring low end drifts beneath subtle horns, minimal rhythms skitter around slowly collapsing buzzscapes, long slow tones stretch out into disembodied harmonies, all bathed in a lush golden chordal wash, the harmonica makes an appearance, and helps turn a track into something distinctly Morricone-esque, huge subterranean drones are laced with the sound of footsteps, and creaking doors, distant machinery, and finally, horns moan and bleat in a field of delicate drones and muted rhythmic pulses.
The vinyl includes a cd, that features all the songs on the lp proper as well as three extra tracks, including the live collaboration with Svarte Greiner, all deep blackened shimmer, soft swells of feedback, dark rumbling pulsations, bleak and austere, laced with shards of high end melody, and softly grinding whirs.
Apparently, Abandoned In Sleep took the better part of a year to create, and listening to it now we can safely say it was well worth it!
MPEG Stream: "The Equal Of God"
MPEG Stream: "Content Of A Black Box"
MPEG Stream: "Into Abandon"

ANDUIN / JASPER TX The Bending Of Light (SMTG Limited) lp + cd 15.98
What a perfect record, two of our favorite crafters of elegant ambience together for the first time, weaving an entrancing sonic spell, a lush, slow burning, sprawling expanse of burnished soft focus dronemusic. Anduin, for those who don't already know, is the experimental ambient side project of Jonathan Lee who fronts aQ metallic post rock faves Souvenir's Young America, and of course Jasper TX, is the work of Dag Rosenqvist, whose sound is a gloriously murky drift, and whose debut I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You we made a Record Of The Week way back in 2006, and we've loved everything we've heard from him since.
The two mesh perfectly together, impossible to tell where one ends and another begins, and the resulting sound manages to not tip too far in either direction, instead, the duo have crafted a sublime collection of dark mystery, from thick, humid rumbles, to swirling layered bliss, to sun dappled dreamlike drift, to hushed minimal shimmer, to sizzling raga like buzz, to washed out woozy Pop Ambience, every track on The Bending Of Light is ripe for immersion, thick slow shifting fields of sound that just beg to envelop, perfect for listeners to get lost in, to let go, and to drift off on soft sonic clouds, sinking deeper and deeper into these sprawling soundscapes of warm deeeeep melodic warmth and woozy, bleary ambient blur. So so so nice. Fans of all things drifty and droney will be enthralled and entranced.
Pressed on extra thick vinyl, housed in thick silkscreened cardstock jackets, also includes a cd (not a cd-r) with the same music, only digital.
MPEG Stream: "A Beam Of Light Bends Back Upon Itself..."
MPEG Stream: "Everything Disappears In A Tunnel Of Light..."

ANENZEPHALIA Ephemeral Dawn (Tesco) cd 17.98
It's pretty difficult to avoid being forever obsessed with a band whose debut record we described as "quite possibly one of the scariest records we have ever heard." And we weren't kidding. We were barely even engaging in hyperbole. Noehaem by Anenzephalia is literally a collection of sounds as terrifying as is physically possible. The sonic representation of utter horror and hopelessness. But beautiful and entrancing in its absolute musical negativity. And thus we haven't avoided it, not in the least. We have remained obsessed. Waiting patiently for some new transmission from whatever hellish pit this band or person called Anenzephalia calls home. And finally our patience has been rewarded.
Not a new record, but archival recordings from 1992-1995, but just as gorgeously malevolent and hatefully dark as the records proper. For those of you who have yet to bear witness to the bleak abject sonic doom of Anenzephalia's Noehaem record, or either of the other two full lengths we've reviewed here in the past, the liner notes to Ephemeral Dawn should definitely set the tone:
Here the Dream Dies!
Dominated by obsession of power and lust, led by unwritten rules from clinical birth to clinical death.
Ask the epithet of God! It still is deception.
No ideology, no progress;
NO THING.
The world smothered in absurdity.
Then how about the booklet of photos, a crucifix, Sadam Hussein, a decomposed skull, a man being set on fire, the same crucifix invertedÉ as visually dark and creepy as the music inside.
And the music inside is indeed gloriously insidious. A world of crawling pitch black drones, of smeared slabs of grinding industrial whir, of disembodied voices, clouds of hiss, bits of warble and muted chimes, weird grit and abstract distortion, dense fields of clanging clattery machinery, machinelike rhythms, thick swarms of insect like static, robotic vocals, crumbling distorted melodies, murky black pools of delay drenched sound fragments, collaged voices and melodies, all churned into an unrecognizable black mass (pun intended), viscous and caustic, slow moving and glacialÉ
Black ambience is probably the neatest descriptor for the world Anenzephalia has conjured up from the dark, but in the act of conjuring these sonic spirits it becomes so much more than ambient music. There is some internal propulsion, sometimes rendered in actual beats, other times, in a subtle yet impossible to resist forward momentum, as if some dark force was dragging you to your doom.
A gorgeously dreary, and epically miserablist world of blackened industrial drones, muted martial beats, abstract shimmer and drift, corrosive grind and soft focus low end flutter, all woven into a divine end of the world threnody for the black hearted and soulless.
MPEG Stream: "Beneath The Shroud"
MPEG Stream: "Regime"
MPEG Stream: "Kachexie"

ANENZEPHALIA Live At Karlsruhe (Tesco) cd-r 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We described Anenzephalia's 2004 release Noehaem, as "quite possibly one of the scariest records we have ever heard", and it really was. Some sort of a imaginary soundtrack to a movie so scary no one could see it without dying of fright. Drones, and strings, and creaking ambience, some impossible mix of Ligeti and Lustmord. We'd been anxiously awaiting a new full length when we discovered this live cd-r. We ordered as many as we could, but only managed to get 10 copies. Which of course means these will be gone in a flash, but at least ten of you will get to partake in this dark and dangerous live action.
Live Anenzephalia is a much different beast. A much noisier beast. A glowing red eyed, hunchbacked black shape, hunkered down beneath a pile of electronics, unfurling coruscating clouds of noxious black fog and processed megaphone vocals. Streaks of white hot feedback, snippets of old speeches, grinding rhythmic distortion, disembodied voices, old folk songs, white noise, shortwave interference, buzzing glitched out electronics and super distorted buzz, all ground into one huge lumbering abstract blacknoisebeast.
Still pretty damn scary, but now extra noisy to boot!
Packaged in a weird shaped booklet, containing all kinds of creepy images, drawings and diagrams. Each disc is hand numbered on the cd.
SUPER LIMITED. ALREADY OUT OF PRINT. WE HAVE THE LAST 10 COPIES, SO ACT FAST...
MPEG Stream: "Life Penalty"
MPEG Stream: "Savak Chair"

ANENZEPHALIA Noehaem (Tesco) cd 17.98
This is quite possibly one of the scariest records we have ever heard. It's occasionally pretty, occasionally noisy, but always haunting and pregnant with the possibility of tragedy. Not sure how or why this particular record evokes such a strong reaction, but this most recent record by German ambient noise terrorists Anenzephalia pushes all of those buttons. Feeling like you're being followed, sensing you're about to die, knowing that there is nothing you can do about anything...powerful stuff.
First there are rumbling strings, reverberating in vast expanses of near silence. Like a twentieth century classical score to a horror movie, Lustmord plays Ligeti, with a dark sweeping romanticism tempered by slight unease. Soon, we're subsumed by a dense field of distorted crackle, over a simple militaristic clunk, like a mysterious stranger trudging up a flight of rickety stairs, while a super distorted voice buried in the shortwave struggles desperately to reach across from the other side. The record continues on in a similar fashion, a hair raising, lugubrious crawl through massive washes of low end throb, surrounded by a cracking field of interference, wth random distant clanks and clatter, all coalescing into a barely discernable rhythmic pulse, that mesmerises and leads you deeper. This sounds like the soundtrack to the scariest haunted house ever, but unlike normal 'haunted house records', Noehaem would have the neighborhood children having coronaries, soiling themselves, and sent soon afterwards to asylums to live out the rest of their catatonic days. This is some dark and doomy, creepy and dreary, and gorgeously frightening stuff.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"