MAWDRYN s/t (Universal Consciousness) cassette 8.98
The Universal Consciousness label returns with another batch of tapes, following the Moon Knight and Lord Time cassettes we reviewed a few lists back. There's another amazing Lord Time release, and this one the debut from this mysterious outsider ambient doom one man band (whose sole member also does time in Lightning Swords Of Death and Endless Blizzard). The label describes the sound as funereal and majestic and it most definitely is, the guitars soaring, epic and melodic, the drums minimal, super echoey, like this was recorded in some black cavern, the strange mix of off kilter percussion and the super mournful melodic guitars makes this sound almost psychedelic. Eventually the sound shifts into more classically doomy plod, but even then, the echoey drum pound is all dubbed out, and the guitars chug and churn, often unfurling long stretches of droney buzz, before slipping right back into those majestic melodies. The sound spends as much time drifting ominously as it does plodding and lumbering, those ambient stretches are hauntingly beautiful, not just your typical metal synth interludes, instead, it's a sort of blackened kosmische, lush and layered, infused with streaks of feedback, and grinding muted industrial thrum, all blurred into dark passages of sinister rumble and buzz, the sound of which seems to ooze into the doom proper, making the creep and crunch a bit more abstract and psychedelic, mysterious and otherworldly. This is the sort of rare 'doom', that could very well appeal to non metal folks into strange dark sounds and more abstract avant heaviness. And it may be a bit too out there for your typical metalhead, but if you like your doom twisted, tripped out and drone drenched, then this will definitely hit the spot.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in super deluxe, embossed, heavy textured metallic paper J-cards, each one hand numbered and sealed with a sticker.
MPEG Stream: "Undead"
MPEG Stream: "Terminus"

MAX, AGATHE This Silver String (Xeric) cd 16.98

MAXFIELD, RICHARD / HAROLD BUDD The Oak Of The Golden Dreams (New World Records) cd 15.98
A split release between Richard Maxfield and Harold Budd (known for his collaborations with Eno) showcasing their 1960's experiments in electronics and free jazz. Maxfield's work ranges from synthetic 60s concrete / electronic pieces to narrated poetry over uptempo Ornette Coleman style free jazz. Budd's "The Oak of the Golden Dreams" is the highlight - a gritty piece of Steve Reich / Angus MacLise inspired minimalism of persistantly droning chords and loopy flanging notes making the whole piece sound like an electronic bagpipe.

MAZK Sound Pressure Level (Or) cd 14.98
After years of silence, Zbigniew Karkowski (former Hafler Trio collaborator) joins Masami Akita (of Merzbow, who knows nothing about years of silence) for 55 minutes of signature Merzbow noise processed into heavy chugging pulses and brutal psycho-acoustic drones...not for the faint of heart.

MAZUREK, ROB Sweet & Vicious Like Frankenstein (Mego) cd 16.98

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Archeo MB 2 (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) 5cd 77.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, BUT THE DISCS ARE AVAILABLE AS INDIVIDUAL VOLUMES.
Looking back at the manic output of Maurizio Bianchi (MB) with dozens of private edition LPs and cassettes from 1979 - 1984, it is arguable that his catalogue of 'pre-apocalyptic' industrialisms is an aural diary of psychological distress on par with someone like Jandek. Bianchi's work reveals the existential crisis of a frustrated nihilist whose explorations of cultural, religious, and semiotic collapse brought him closer to God.
In 1984, Maurizio Bianchi released his last album and dropped out of sight. From what little contact he kept with his musical past, a myth circulated that he became a Jehovah's Witness, which appeared to be an absurd fate for this practitioner of negativity. However, this myth revealed itself as fact when he resurfaced in 1998 to release two ephemeral yet wholly uninteresting new age records filled with gilded spiritual imagery. At this time, Bianchi began remastering his earliest work and reissuing these albums through Alga Marghan. "Archeo MB 2" is the second set of reissues from the MB archives, collected as a 5cd set with the albums "Das Testament," "Endometrio," "Carcinosi," and "The Plain Truth," and "Armaghedon." Where the first set is a violent display of neurotic vibrations and deadly electronics, the second is relatively dreamy, albeit retaining the sonic qualities of erratic vertigo and shadowy hallucinations. His suffocating experiments with primitive synths, delay pedals, turntables, and tape machines collapsed in on themselves with an electrocuted obliteration of sound. Out of the ashes of such early albums as "Symphony for a Genocide" and "Neuro Habitat," Bianchi allowed for a structuralism with tentative rhythms and melodies to rise out of the blackened grit on the work found in "Archeo MB 2." Each of the albums found on this box set are available individually; however, the box set features extra artwork (including a really dorky photograph of Bianchi in a red sweater), and a handful of Bianchi's cryptic music critiques. Of all of the dronescapes, noise attacks, and electronic warbles that Aquarius has lavished with critical hyperbole, MB remains at the top of the list in terms of innovation and actualization of metaphor and intent.
RealAudio clip: "Carcinosi"
RealAudio clip: "The Plain Truth"

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Armaghedon (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"The end of parabolic absurdity..." is the final quote from the encyclopaedic set of MB (Maurizio Bianchi) reissues. "Armaghedon" was the soundtrack to a film produced / directed by Bianchi. Although Bianchi released this as one of his private edition LPs, "Armaghedon" found limited distribution; furthermore, the majority of the pressings were destroyed for "obscure reasons," leaving only about 100 copies in existance.
In Bianchi's take on the final epistomological battle of good and evil, the remnant material world is very cold place shivering beneath a thick ever growing chunk of ice with only slivers of heavenly light penetrating the frigid mass. In this metaphoric environment, Bianchi's electronics warble within the multiple delay attacks that dominate his preceeding albums, but with a coloring that resembles a glistening blue / green rather than the coal blacks / greys that came before. "Armaghedon" is also the only album to feature Bianchi's voice and could draw connections to the eerier drone work of Angus MacLise.

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Bacterie (Taalem) 3"-cdr 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There's a novel concept behind this 3"cd-r series released by Taalem: they make 'em to order and they keep 'em in print as long as people want 'em. Wow! Not limited?!? Who woulda thunk?! This French label has produced a couple dozen of these releases, with the first to come across our plate being by Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB). This Italian industrial pioneer had been in hibernation for well over a decade, after his initial infamy was solidified in the early '80s by his ghastly recordings of frozen power electronics augmented by nightmarish allegorical references to genocide, cancer, and Armageddon. Since 2003 or 2004, he's returned to this style of noise sculpting with extraordinary results and an equally impressive work ethic, releasing countless numbers of collaborations, MP3 only albums, and albums of all lengths and sizes. For Bacterie, he's crammed this 3" CD with an impressive blast of noxious vibrations blackened through densely layering and unwell intentions. He's returned to the form last heard on the Endometrio / Carcinosi diptych. Brilliant.
MPEG Stream: "Bacterie"

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Carcinosi (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If there is one MB record to own, it's "Carcinosi" - the synthesis of the divebomb synth squallor found on his early work like "Symphony for a Genocide" and the frigid drone exasperation of his finale "Armaghedon." Originally released in 1983 as a private edition of 400 copies, "Carcinosi" is part two of his dyptic of "bionic music" along side "Endometrio." The metaphors of cancer mutating within a technologized body parallel a text in which Bianchi refer to this work as a warning of another Auschwitz. Bianchi's "Carcinosi" masterfully actualizes his grim metaphors with a mesmeric carousel of dark fractures of muted noise and disorienting synthetic pulsations smothered in a heavily satuated wall of delay.

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Das Testament (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
MB (Maurizio Bianchi) originally released "Das Testament" as a private edition of 300 copies in 1983. Bianchi starts off this album with cold black chops of tape splices and gritty electronic squeals that discharge in a mass of delay. These bleak bursts of noise retain the raw negative energy of MB's first recordings, but gradually an accumulated drone engulfs the primitive musique conrete techniques with an oppressive numbness. Bianchi also included an 30 minute excerpt from his first and only MB concert. With his own abstract verbage, Bianchi describes this album as "knowledge culminating in a deconsecration of germinative interrelation - to remember reddish scientific thaw. External cyclotron frequency is washing the minaturization of wavemeter pestilence." Scientific thaw and wavemeter pestilence, indeed!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Endometrio (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Endometrio" was originally issued as a private edition of 400 copies in 1983 and presents what MB (Maurizio Bianchi) qualified as "bionic music" which shifted MB further from the contemporary industrial bruitism of SPK and Whitehouse. Though primitive electronics and tape synthesis, MB sets up a metaphoric arena for biological warfare on a microscopic level upon which "Endometrio" bares witness to millions of death rattles from bacteria massacred by viral panzer divisions. To anthropomorphize the basic life of these single-celled bodies is to elicit horrific apocalyptic metaphors, which he elaborated as "volatility of thalassochemistry removal to dishevel the faculty of reason's aggravation." Doom & gloom aside, this is the pinnacle of MB's obsessive mastery of electronic de-composition.

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Mectpyo Bacterium (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the liner notes, a smug Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB) included a quote from Genesis P-Orridge who described MB's early 80's industrial noise records as 'boring, meaningless, pathetic'. I'd agree with MB in claiming that Gen was jealous, as MB was able to construct brutal hallucinatory recordings of electronic noise that offer metaphors of microscopic anyeurisms which collapse the body from within. Bleak chilling drones that are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler's most neurotic, Nurse With Wound's most droning, and Whitehouse's least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with a more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he joined a monastary.
Some of my favourite 'noise' records that have been gratefully reissued, thus sparing me from shelling out the $120.00 that I've seen the vinyl editions of these records going for!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Mectpyo Box (E'Est) 10cd box 250.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Since around 2004, the Italian industrial composer Maurizio Bianchi has unleashed an impossible stream of recordings, often in collaboration with electronics musicians all over the world but unfortunately with spotty results. There are plenty of reasons why any label and / or artist would jump at the chance to release and / or record something, anything by Mr. Bianchi; and this 10cd boxset of his seminal recordings from the early '80s defines them all. This actually marks the second reissue campaign for these recordings, some of which originally appeared on Sterile Records and Broken Flag; but many of which had been self-published on Bianchi's own imprint. Bianchi - who simply recorded at the time as MB - had infamously been released through William Bennett's Come Organisation, who had recontextualized Bianchi's recordings of grim mechanoid drones with Nazi speeches spliced on top and changed his nom de plume to Leibstandarte SS MB... all without Bianchi's consent. Numerous cassettes, plenty of compilation appearances, and 10 lps marked this very prolific period in the early '80s for Bianchi, whereby he issued forth brutal, hallucinatory blasts of electronic noise and grinding rhythms of hand-cut tape noise and overblown synthetic distortion. These were the blackened, nihilist version of Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster, and Klaus Schulze as filtered through the industrial ethos of Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse.
But by 1984, Bianchi just stopped. There were innumerable rumors about his departure from the music community. Some said, he had become a monk. Some said, he was crippled in an accident. But the truth of the matter was that he dedicated himself to his faith as a Jehovah's Witness. His distance only heightened the mythology about this artist and increased the cultural cache of those early recordings. Hence, the necessity for this boxset.
Here, you will find those ten LPs - Symphony For A Genocide, Menses, Neuro Habitat / Moerter Under Uns, Regel, Mectpyo Bakterium, Das Testament, Endometrio, Carcinosi, The Plain Truth, and Armagheddon - each released with plenty of bonus tracks from any number of those various compilation tracks. And for those of you who had picked up the two 5lp anthologies of MB's work on Vinyl On Demand, we don't think there's any overlap between this box set and those collections.
The first records are violent display of neurotic vibrations and deadly electronics, the second is relatively dreamy, albeit retaining the sonic qualities of erratic vertigo and shadowy hallucinations. His suffocating experiments with primitive synths, delay pedals, turntables, and tape machines collapsed in on themselves with an electrocuted obliteration of sound. Out of the ashes of such early albums as Symphony for a Genocide and Neuro Habitat, Bianchi allowed for a structuralism with tentative rhythms and melodies to rise out of the blackened grit on the work found on Endometrio and The Plain Truth. Each of the albums found on this box set are available individually; however, the box set features additional artwork, plenty of bonus tracks not on the original lps (but still the same from the first reissue campaign), and a handful of Bianchi's cryptic music critiques. Of all of the dronescapes, noise attacks, and electronic warbles that Aquarius has lavished with critical hyperbole, MB remains at the top of the list in terms of innovation and actualization of metaphor and intent.
MPEG Stream: "Endometrio Secondo Ciclo"
MPEG Stream: "The Plain Truth : M.B. 55 T.D. 56"
MPEG Stream: "Symphony For A Genocide : Treblinka"
MPEG Stream: "Morder Unter Uns"

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Menses (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the liner notes, a smug Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB) included a quote from Genesis P-Orridge who described MB's early 80's industrial noise records as 'boring, meaningless, pathetic'. I'd agree with MB in claiming that Gen was jealous, as MB was able to construct brutal hallucinatory recordings of electronic noise that offer metaphors of microscopic anyeurisms which collapse the body from within. Bleak chilling drones that are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler's most neurotic, Nurse With Wound's most droning, and Whitehouse's least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with a more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he joined a monastary.
Some of my favourite 'noise' records that have been gratefully reissued, thus sparing me from shelling out the $120.00 that I've seen the vinyl editions of these records going for!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Nervo / Hydra (Kubitsuri Tapes) cd 15.98
Italian industrial pioneer Maurizio Bianchi released Nervo / Hydra as a private edition cassette back in 1981; and the tape was subsequently bootlegged a number of times always with the incorrect title "NH/HN." With Vinyl On Demand's thorough exhumation of Bianchi's impossible to find cassettes spanning a couple of 5lp boxsets, the material from Nervo / Hydra did get an official reissue and an impressive remastering job as well. As with most everything on Vinyl On Demand, however, those two MB boxsets went out of print, necessitating yet another reissue of Bianchi's work.
In 1981, Bianchi unleashed his first major work through Sterile Records in Symphony For A Genocide; and Nervo / Hydra churns through the trademarked MB carcinogenic electronics minus the death-march drum machine of that aforementioned album. Fibrillations of grimy electronics and electro-shock dronings crawl ominously through endlessly cycling variations, punctuated with frigid divebomb squeals and slabs of flickering melodies erupting from Bianchi's abused Korg synth. Expect deadly, corrosive atmospheres on this impressive album!
We must point out that the material on this cd was taken straight from the LP of one of those Vinyl On Demand boxsets, as the album pops and hisses with a few choice bits of vinyl crackle. It certainly sounds *way* better than the crappy bootlegs from the original cassette, and we always like a little crackle and hiss on our records anyway, but in case that sort of thing concerns you... Also, we have limited stock on this item.
MPEG Stream: "Nervo"

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Neuro Habitat (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the liner notes, a smug Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB) included a quote from Genesis P-Orridge who described MB's early 80's industrial noise records as 'boring, meaningless, pathetic'. I'd agree with MB in claiming that Gen was jealous, as MB was able to construct brutal hallucinatory recordings of electronic noise that offer metaphors of microscopic anyeurisms which collapse the body from within. Bleak chilling drones that are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler's most neurotic, Nurse With Wound's most droning, and Whitehouse's least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with a more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he joined a monastary.
Some of my favourite 'noise' records that have been gratefully reissued, thus sparing me from shelling out the $120.00 that I've seen the vinyl editions of these records going for!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Oirt Emo-Dne (Mirror Tapes) cassette 10.98
A reissue of a private cassette Maurizio Bianchi made in 1981, whose ghastly noises would become the foundation for Endometrio, one of Bianchi's undisputed masterpieces of grim powerdrone electronics. Endometrio was a self-released LP from 1982 that formed a diptych with Carcinosi, which explored Bianchi's self-described 'bionic' music, and which metaphorically described the encroachment of technology within the human body as a form of self-annihilation by way of cancer. The heavy drones of thick vibration seemed to be a magnification of cancerous cells growing within bone tissue. Yeah, Bianchi's work is fucking bleak.
Oitr Emo-Dne features many of those spectral vibrations, slumping drones, and frigid noises that would later form the monolithic wall of sound Bianchi would deliver on Endometrio; but this tape is far more composed than most of Bianchi's proper albums, which pretty much begin and end with rough edits and hardly anything as subtle as fade-out. Instead of a relentless torrent of sound, Bianchi allows his sounds to ebb and flow with various cracklings (possibly left over from his early turntable experiments as Sacher-Pelz), sounding very prescient of Nurse With Wound's Soliloquy For Lilith and especially the NWW track "No Longer His Dominant" with its arrangement for swelling low-end feedback. This tape is pretty limited itself, with just 216 copies of this edition, although the tape and the inserts are professional grade. An exceptional artifact of early '80s noise culture!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Regel (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the liner notes, a smug Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB) included a quote from Genesis P-Orridge who described MB's early 80's industrial noise records as 'boring, meaningless, pathetic'. I'd agree with MB in claiming that Gen was jealous, as MB was able to construct brutal hallucinatory recordings of electronic noise that offer metaphors of microscopic anyeurisms which collapse the body from within. Bleak chilling drones that are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler's most neurotic, Nurse With Wound's most droning, and Whitehouse's least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with a more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he joined a monastary.
Some of my favourite 'noise' records that have been gratefully reissued, thus sparing me from shelling out the $120.00 that I've seen the vinyl editions of these records going for!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Symphony for a Genocide (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the liner notes, a smug Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB) included a quote from Genesis P-Orridge who described MB's early 80's industrial noise records as 'boring, meaningless, pathetic'. I'd agree with MB in claiming that Gen was jealous, as MB was able to construct brutal hallucinatory recordings of electronic noise that offer metaphors of microscopic anyeurisms which collapse the body from within. Bleak chilling drones that are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler's most neurotic, Nurse With Wound's most droning, and Whitehouse's least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with a more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he joined a monastary.
Some of my favourite 'noise' records that have been gratefully reissued, thus sparing me from shelling out the $120.00 that I've seen the vinyl editions of these records going for!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Technology X (Mirror Tapes) cassette 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The entire MB back catalogue is a daunting encyclopedia of industrial noise, bleak abstraction, and internalized struggles with abjection and salvation. Bianchi has been known to recycle titles for considerably different compositions, with Symphony For A Genocide being truncated for a different work called SFAG. The same goes for Technology, as this was the name of a double cassette originally released in 1981 with several bootlegs to follow until an official 2cd set was made available through At War With False Noise in 2009. Technology X is an entirely different composition, although much of the same electronic gear was obviously used in both sets of recordings (and throughout all of the MB recordings in the early '80s for that matter). Similarly, the track titles are slightly different ("Techno-X" vs. "Techno" and "Logy-X" vs. "Logy"); at the same time, the tracks on Technology X are considerably more caustic than those tracks on the original Technology.
Bianchi has long been an obsessive composer and documentarian of his work, which emerged in birth pangs of Industrial Culture in 1980 through the first of many self-released cassettes. His neurotic drones, turgid noises, and bleak electronics recognized influences from the Kraut-electron-magicians of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream; but Bianchi was far more interested in revealing his own theories on the disintegration of the human mind, body, and soul through the encroachment of technological and informational warfare. Technology X, like the aforementioned SFAG album, is a very bleak undertaking of abstracted blorping electronics distorted and mangled through a number of effects giving the impression of a scorched battlefield rumbling with numerous panzer divisions, raked machine-gun fire, and various experimental weapons decimating whoever might be unfortunate enough not to have died in the first wave of dive-bombs and ballistic missiles. His compositions are known for their many turns and twists, moving from mind-wiping lazer shots to engine-revving accelerations of noise and into weirdly militant musical moments of atonal stabs on his synthesizer. It's altogether an exhilarating and claustrophobic recording; and one that's limited to a little over 200 copies. The cassette also comes with an MB / Technology X button!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) The Plain Truth (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Originally released in 1983 on Broken Flag (the malignant UK label which spawned Skullflower and Ramleh), "The Plain Truth" distances itself considerably from MB's preceeding electroshock bricolages, coming closest to the "Forbidden Planet" aesthetic of poetically bleak electronics. If one were to ask me to bet on when Maurzio Bianchi (MB) came to God, I'd put $100 on this record. Aside from the giveaway inscription "This record is dedicated to all the redeemed people," "The Plain Truth" has dropped the decomposition metaphors of sound / body from Bianchi's arsenal of sound and has left behind a swirling miasma of cosmic synth drones that one might find in Conrad Schnitzler's most mindwarping psychedelectronics. Regardless of the status of Bianchi's belief at the time of this recording, "The Plain Truth" is a fabulous piece of kaleidoscopic darkness.

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) The Plain Truth (Hot Records) lp 15.98

MB (MAURIZIO BIANCHI) / HUE / FHIEVEL Erimos (Digitalis) cd 11.98

MB (MAURIZIO BIANCHI) Symphony For A Genocide (Hospital Productions) cd 12.98
Hospital Recordings has just reissued the first proper M.B. album, which first came out on Sterile Records in 1981 and then again on CD on Alga Marghen in the mid '90s. They've redone the design, making it look more stripped down, lo-fi and punk rock with gritty scans of the Alga Marghen artwork and old school cut and paste liner notes (that unfortunately seem to be missing some of the original notes), but don't let the makeover fool you, this is still some of the most abject and brilliantly bleak dronemusic ever.
Symphony For A Genocide wasn't the first recording for the Italian Industrialist, as he did have some earlier recordings as Sacher-Pelz and the infamous Leibstandarte SS MB albums (on which Whitehouse's William Bennett dubbed various Nazi speeches on top of Bianchi's music without Bianchi's permission). Bianchi's work does come out of a transgressive mindset; but one that is uniformly misanthropic, nihilistic, and utterly black. On this album, MB construct brutal, hallucinatory blasts of electronic noise and grinding rhythms of hand-cut tape noise and overblown synthetic distortion. These, bleak chilling drones are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler at his most neurotic, Nurse With Wound at their most droning, and Whitehouse at their least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he declared himself a Jehovah's Witness and ceased making music until recently when he finally returned to the blackened ambience of old.
It should also be noted that the recordings of Symphony For A Genocide are drastically different from another set of recordings called SFAG (Symphony For A Genocide), which has also gotten the reissue treatment twice, adding extra confusion into the mix.
MPEG Stream: "Treblinka"
MPEG Stream: "Auschwitz"

MCBRIDE, BRIAN The Effective Disconnect (Kranky) cd 14.98
Brian McBride, for those who don't know, is one half of beloved slowcore drone drift soundscapers Stars Of The Lid, and based on the reviews on the aQuarius website, you might assume they were one of our all time favorite bands, and well, you would most definitely be correct. If there was indeed an official aQ pantheon, Stars Of The Lid would absolutely be included, their records, spanning the last two decades now, have without fail been absolutely breathtaking works of sublime ambient brilliance, from raw blurred 4 track shimmer, to the more orchestral and composed later releases, we can't think of a SOTL record that we didn't love.
The Effective Disorder is a score McBride recorded for a documentary film called Vanishing Of The Bees, and in the liner notes, McBride explains that he tried his best to compose music that was hopeful, striving to capture in music the "gloriousness of the bees", but that the result was more in keeping with his past works, pieces that tended toward the melancholy and lamentable, that dark and haunting and sweetly sorrowful. And we're not complaining one bit!
The Effective Disorder plays out like it could very well have been a new Stars Of The Lid records, lush and orchestrated, but still intimate and emotional. Separated into suites, the opening two parter mixes the muted sitar-like buzz of old SOTL soundscapes, with soaring strings, swirling streaks of minor key melody, and lots of space, the sounds unfurled in glacial swells, gorgeous harmonies left to gradually fade and drift into nothingness.
"Girl Nap" is about as close as The Effective Disorder comes to sunshiney, but even then it's just barely, sun dappled shimmer dissipates in a haze of hushed soft focus blur, peppered with far away reverbed piano, "Several Tries (In An Unelevated Style)" is another assemblage of longform tones, lushly layered, the overtones adding color and movement, "Supposed Essay On The Piano (B Major Piano Adagietto)" adds horns, the mournful brass moans giving the already sorrowful sound a funereal cast, but shot though with warm hints of hope.
The three part "Toil Theme" is brooding and ominous, haunting and delicate, another dreamscape of minor key swells, while "Beekeepers Vs Warfare Chemicals" drapes tinkling chimes over streaks of stings, and warm sun dappled melodies, the track gradually transforming into something much darker and depressive.
The brief closer, "Chamber Minuet" is the perfect coda, a brief recapitulation of the rest of the score, and of the two sides of McBride's composing style, beginning with a rough bit of low fidelity drift, gauzy and hushed, before it blossoms into a more traditional sounding string quartet, dramatic and majestic, only to slip right back into the opening ominous minimal drift. So lovely and captivating.
The music perhaps darker than the film makers intended, but for the purposes of pure listening, removed from the visuals, Stars Of The Lid fans will not be disappointed, nor will fans of dark brooding ambience.
MPEG Stream: "Melodrames Telegraphies (In B Major 7th) Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Girl Nap"
MPEG Stream: "Several Tries (In An Elevated Style)"
MPEG Stream: "Beekeepers Vs Warfare Chemicals"

MCBRIDE, BRIAN The Effective Disconnect (Kranky) lp 14.98
Brian McBride, for those who don't know, is one half of beloved slowcore drone drift soundscapers Stars Of The Lid, and based on the reviews on the aQuarius website, you might assume they were one of our all time favorite bands, and well, you would most definitely be correct. If there was indeed an official aQ pantheon, Stars Of The Lid would absolutely be included, their records, spanning the last two decades now, have without fail been absolutely breathtaking works of sublime ambient brilliance, from raw blurred 4 track shimmer, to the more orchestral and composed later releases, we can't think of a SOTL record that we didn't love.
The Effective Disorder is a score McBride recorded for a documentary film called Vanishing Of The Bees, and in the liner notes, McBride explains that he tried his best to compose music that was hopeful, striving to capture in music the "gloriousness of the bees", but that the result was more in keeping with his past works, pieces that tended toward the melancholy and lamentable, that dark and haunting and sweetly sorrowful. And we're not complaining one bit!
The Effective Disorder plays out like it could very well have been a new Stars Of The Lid records, lush and orchestrated, but still intimate and emotional. Separated into suites, the opening two parter mixes the muted sitar-like buzz of old SOTL soundscapes, with soaring strings, swirling streaks of minor key melody, and lots of space, the sounds unfurled in glacial swells, gorgeous harmonies left to gradually fade and drift into nothingness.
"Girl Nap" is about as close as The Effective Disorder comes to sunshiney, but even then it's just barely, sun dappled shimmer dissipates in a haze of hushed soft focus blur, peppered with far away reverbed piano, "Several Tries (In An Unelevated Style)" is another assemblage of longform tones, lushly layered, the overtones adding color and movement, "Supposed Essay On The Piano (B Major Piano Adagietto)" adds horns, the mournful brass moans giving the already sorrowful sound a funereal cast, but shot though with warm hints of hope.
The three part "Toil Theme" is brooding and ominous, haunting and delicate, another dreamscape of minor key swells, while "Beekeepers Vs Warfare Chemicals" drapes tinkling chimes over streaks of stings, and warm sun dappled melodies, the track gradually transforming into something much darker and depressive.
The brief closer, "Chamber Minuet" is the perfect coda, a brief recapitulation of the rest of the score, and of the two sides of McBride's composing style, beginning with a rough bit of low fidelity drift, gauzy and hushed, before it blossoms into a more traditional sounding string quartet, dramatic and majestic, only to slip right back into the opening ominous minimal drift. So lovely and captivating.
The music perhaps darker than the film makers intended, but for the purposes of pure listening, removed from the visuals, Stars Of The Lid fans will not be disappointed, nor will fans of dark brooding ambience.
MPEG Stream: "Melodrames Telegraphies (In B Major 7th) Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Girl Nap"
MPEG Stream: "Several Tries (In An Elevated Style)"
MPEG Stream: "Beekeepers Vs Warfare Chemicals"

MCBRIDE, BRIAN When The Detail Lost Its Freedom (Kranky) cd 14.98
Brian McBride is one half of AQ faves Stars Of The Lid, a group who specialized in somnambulent moonlit guitarscapes, dark and gorgeously lugubrious, and who more recently have begun to explore more lush and epic musical vistas. Some of our favorite late night dreamy drones have come from those Stars, so it's no surprise that McBride's first proper solo outing is just as mysterious and compelling. A lush series of swoonsome smears, warm chordal swells stretched into slow burning minor key sagas, minor key but still strangely hopeful sounding, sun dappled with the first rays of morning light after an endless night of darkness and despair. Each piece on When The Detail Lost Its Freedom is delicately assembled from minimal violins, gentle piano, moaning trumpets, haunting western guitar, drifting disembodied vocals, and warm reverb, all swirled into indistinct shapes, like opening your eyes first thing in the morning, a hazy blurry dreamlike world, so serene and peaceful. At times, it almost sounds like the most minimal of post rock, but slowed down to a drumless crawl, the occasional vocals definitely remind us of Low, a darkly romantic slowcore, but wherever McBride takes these songs, we're never far from slipping back into a doleful drift of melancholy moods and slow shifting shimmers. It's sort of like staring into a thick cloudy swirl of sound, dense and drifting, with the occasional melody or voice slowly emerging and taking shape before flickering and fading out, dissolving into the swells of surrounding sound. So lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Overture (For Other Halfs)"
MPEG Stream: "A Gathering To Lead Me When You're Gone"

MCCANN, SEAN Changes Are Staying (DNT) lp 12.98
After releasing dozens of tapes and tons of limited releases, Sean McCann delivers his gorgeous vinyl debut on local SF label, DNT. If Sean McCann is a new name to your list of weirdo dronesters, you better get hip quick, McCann is one of the most prolific ambient artists of recent years, and has delivered countless offerings of violin based, long-tone beauty on almost every home-spun tape label around. And even though "Chances Are Staying" is McCann's first attempt at vinyl glory, he's no newcomer to the soft-drifting world of string-based soundscaping.
What really draws us into McCann's music is his signature, ever-changing kaleidoscopic whirl, sounds and notes constantly shifting and swirling over crumbling layers of noise and grit, never a boring moment in an ocean of crashing color and melodic smear, so propelling yet immersive and entrancing. There's a refined quality to McCann's music that definitely reminds us of stuff on the Kompakt label, but that precision is offset by a weirdo playfulness that leaves each track unpredictable and completely fluid. It also reminds us of early Not Not Fun releases or maybe Ducktails. "Labyrinth" opens with a gauzy melodic passage, distant bells and chimes echo into a rhythmic lull, synthy washes and a deep low-end pulse guide you deeper into a gorgeous ambient headspace. Dry passages of violin stretch across the echoing beauty below, a buzzing drone builds into an epic flurry until suddenly the track is over and you're itching for more! "County Heirlooms" is another favorite, drum and bass set the rhythmic pulse as soaring strings and bellowing horns become tangled in a mess of field recordings, drones, and weirdo noise, so nice and quite unlike anything we've heard before. Somehow pleasant and very very strange all at once, like someone manipulating a Pharoah Sanders tape while a krautrock rhythm section rehearses next door.
So Rad! Super unique and super limited to 400 hand number copies, we got these straight from the label, pretty sure it'll be out of print in no time, so pick one up!

MCCANN, SEAN Flutter Oasis (Digitalis) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another crazy limited cassette release. This one from a name we'd never heard before, Sean McCann, but judging from this tape, we'll definitely want to be hearing more.
The sound is super distorted and in-the-red, lo-fi and warbly, like it was recorded on some old thrift store tape on a busted up tape recorder, the guitar being the focal point, but rendered in numerous un-guitar-like sounds and setting, simple strums are distorted to the point of complete collapse, strange effects make the tape sound like it's skipping, vocals howl and croon, everything super washed out.
Some tracks are warm and whirring and warbly, almost old timey sounding, everything shimmery and dreamlike, circus like melodies, kitchen sink percussion, and a soft focus patina of fuzz and buzz and whir, the tape continually slowing to a crawl, or skipping and hiccupping like the stop and record buttons getting pushed, others are dense and chaotic, but with the same sort of sun dappled summer dreaminess, the distortion and the tape drop outs as much, if not more of, a part of the sound than the actual instruments.
Noisy, but that sort of soft noise, dreamy, but not sleepy, instead a sort of druggy bleary eyed drift, think lo-fi folk or pop, via Merzbow, filtered through Philip Jeck and Tim Hecker, recorded by Faxed Head, and played back on a Dictaphone with dying batteries plugged into a massive P.A. with blown speakers. So cool.
LIMITED TO ONLY 50 COPIES!!! In beautiful silk screened sleeves, with a printed insert, each tape hand numbered.

MCCANN, SEAN Wind In Their Way (Monorail Trespassing) cassette 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
San Franciscan Sean McCann has produced a ton of material running the gamut between splattery feral pop, crusty noise, and dreamy droneworks; and despite our neighborly geographies, we've only managed to get a hold of a few of his recordings, most of which tend toward the micro-edition side of things. The fine folks at Foxy Digitalis have been showering this guy with praise; and now we can see why on this great cassette from the increasingly essential cassette label Monorail Trespassing. Wind In Their Way begins with a sweeping atmosphere of elongated drone, smoke, and shadow with an elegant violin emoting sad, sad melodies all bathed in reverb, looped back into those background sounds, and muddled nicely into the mix. Here, McCann seems to be paralleling what fellow Bay Area stringed conjurer Darwinsbitch had mustered on her impressive Ore album released earlier in 2009. This same direction continues on the second side of the album, with more shimmering tones that probably have their origins from a guitar, producing majestic swells of ambience not nearly as dark as those by Troum but just as ethereal, with those gauzy, flickering ghosts of sound woven in and out. Peter Wright and Machinefabriek even come to mind on this lovely, lovely, lovely piece. Limited to 125 copies!

MCFALL, CHRISTOPHER The City Of Almost (Sourdine) cd 14.98
Vacant lots. Empty storefronts. Warehouses pocked with shattered windows, rusted walls, and pigeon shit. These are haunts for Christopher McFall when he collects field recordings in and around his hometown of Kansas City. The area where McFall has a studio is one of the rundown areas of town, that once was a thriving nexus of commerce and culture, but for the most part has crumbled under neglect; and The City Of Almost is a well constructed album that wholly embody the grit, decay, murk, and dust of those crumbling spaces. His processed recordings amplify the melancholy of the space through his ominous looping techniques and the atmospheres of malaise which hang upon elongated drones raked with wind-swept textures and numerous passages of scraped objects distressed by the elements over the years. These moments of The City Of Almost do recall some of the earlier dystopic works from John Grzinich, Michael Northam, and the non Jewelled Antler sounds of Loren Chasse; but McFall furthers the theatrical and allegorical sense of neglect through a fortunate discovery of an stash of musty old records and a barely functioning turntable during his wanderings. Thus, the scratchiness of dust upon the needle and ghostly hints of a forgotten melody also work their way into McFall's work, with references to Philip Jeck being noted even as McFall slows everything down way further than Jeck ever did to match the turgid pacing of the album. We've heard a few pieces from McFall over the years, and this one is the strongest to date.
MPEG Stream: "Slow Containment"
MPEG Stream: "Requiem For Troost (Home)"
MPEG Stream: "All Parts Contained"

MCGREEVY, STEPHEN P. Electric Enigma (Irdial) 2cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the same label that brought us the truly disturbing Conet Project comes Stephen P. McGreevy's VLF recordings. With a knowledge of basic radio telescopics, a few choice geographical / atmospheric anomalies, and a good ear, McGreevy records the earth's electromagnetic signature generated through such phenomenon as the Alaskan Northern Lights. Delicate whistles streak over loud crackles, that bring to mind Id Battery's fascination with recorded fire, or John Duncan's shortwave radio experiments. Word of caution, one of our faithful customers complained that this created rather deleterious psychosomatic effects.

MCGUIRE, MARK A Young Person's Guide To Mark McGuire (Editions Mego) 2cd 23.00
As many of you probably know, Mark McGuire is the guitarist from Emeralds and has been recording boatloads of tapes and cd-rs both within Emeralds and of the solo variety. Many of these had been released in tiny editions of less than 100 copies, few of which probably travel beyond the Cuyahoga county lines and even fewer manage to end up west of the Rockies. It's been said that these small editions act as something of a musical diary for McGuire, but each of his recordings had been so fully realized that it's hard not to think of him as some ridiculous prodigy channeling the best lazer 'n' crystal Krautrock vibe from Manuel Gottsching, Achim Reichel, and Gunter Schickert.
A Young Person's Guide To Mark McGuire is the much-needed retrospective of a good chunk of those limited edition releases, offering further proof of McGuire's prodigy status. From the opening track on the first disc - 2008's "Dream Team" - all of the hallmarks of McGuire's soaring guitar techniques are present. This track is more in keeping with his 2010 Living With Yourself album on Editions Mego with its sorta-shoegazed blur of skyward gazing drones, that's almost jaunty in comparison to the melancholy that oozes from Emeralds. That's not to say that McGuire doesn't get moody elsewhere on this album ("Flight" and "The Path Lined With Colorful Stones" are excellent examples of this facet to his work). While McGuire is pretty keen on working through countless variations on layered melody and arpeggiated hypnosis, the breaks from that modus operandi are certainly intriguing. Take the Phillip Jeck like collage of operatic vocals and orchestral flares amidst a sea of low-end vibration on "Ghosts Around A Tree," and then there's the Vini Reilly / John Fahey interplay through the elliptically fingerpicked acoustic number "Sun Shining Through The Open Barn Door," that's about as aptly named as you could get.
A stunning anthology for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Dream Team"
MPEG Stream: "Flight "
MPEG Stream: "Sun Shining Through The Open Barn Door"
MPEG Stream: "Inside Where It's Warm"

MCGUIRE, MARK Get Lost (Editions Mego) cd 16.98
It's gonna be interesting to hear what Emeralds will sound like on their follow-up to the 2010 album Does It Look Like I'm Here? Since that album, two of the three members - John Elliott and Mark McGuire - have been super prolific in their own projects, all of which seem to be eschewing the post-noise melancholy which streamed through Emeralds' melodies of intertwined kosmische synth arpeggiation and stratospheric guitar loopings. Elliott's numerous solo and side projects have found him entertaining a new age ethos more and more, complete with a cosmically induced alter-ego. So far the music's still good for Elliott, but there could be some warning signs that he could take a nose-dive in the worst possible way. At least, his Spectrum Spools imprint seems to be keeping an edgier sensibility (especially those Bee Mask albums). Mark McGuire's own work has been one of a perpetually-stoned-in-summertime time-loop, where his brightly ringing guitar wraps itself into layered patterns upon which he builds cinematically charged ambient-pop crescendos. His album Living With Yourself certainly built from this template, and McGuire proves just how versatile that template can be on Get Lost. There's plenty of effervescent synths which noodle and blorp through rippling echo patterns, which takeover McGuire's proceedings on the aptly named "Firefly Constellations" but McGuire is at his best when employing guitar and loop station as on the urgent chime of "Another Dead End" furthered by Vini Reilly like flourishes that burst into an expressive solo mirroring something from early Guru Guru. The rest of the tracks settle into a warm groove as if bathed in late-summer sunlight, including the vocal number "Alma" which certainly looks to Animal Collective in its quadruple-tracked vocals but with an ear for Eno's melodies instead of Brian Wilson's. McGuire has never failed in delivering something lovely, and that's the case with Get Lost.
MPEG Stream: "Alma"
MPEG Stream: "Another Dead End"
MPEG Stream: "Firefly Constellations"

MCGUIRE, MARK Get Lost (Editions Mego) lp 22.00
It's gonna be interesting to hear what Emeralds will sound like on their follow-up to the 2010 album Does It Look Like I'm Here? Since that album, two of the three members - John Elliott and Mark McGuire - have been super prolific in their own projects, all of which seem to be eschewing the post-noise melancholy which streamed through Emeralds' melodies of intertwined kosmische synth arpeggiation and stratospheric guitar loopings. Elliott's numerous solo and side projects have found him entertaining a new age ethos more and more, complete with a cosmically induced alter-ego. So far the music's still good for Elliott, but there could be some warning signs that he could take a nose-dive in the worst possible way. At least, his Spectrum Spools imprint seems to be keeping an edgier sensibility (especially those Bee Mask albums). Mark McGuire's own work has been one of a perpetually-stoned-in-summertime time-loop, where his brightly ringing guitar wraps itself into layered patterns upon which he builds cinematically charged ambient-pop crescendos. His album Living With Yourself certainly built from this template, and McGuire proves just how versatile that template can be on Get Lost. There's plenty of effervescent synths which noodle and blorp through rippling echo patterns, which takeover McGuire's proceedings on the aptly named "Firefly Constellations" but McGuire is at his best when employing guitar and loop station as on the urgent chime of "Another Dead End" furthered by Vini Reilly like flourishes that burst into an expressive solo mirroring something from early Guru Guru. The rest of the tracks settle into a warm groove as if bathed in late-summer sunlight, including the vocal number "Alma" which certainly looks to Animal Collective in its quadruple-tracked vocals but with an ear for Eno's melodies instead of Brian Wilson's. McGuire has never failed in delivering something lovely, and that's the case with Get Lost.
MPEG Stream: "Alma"
MPEG Stream: "Another Dead End"
MPEG Stream: "Firefly Constellations"

MCGUIRE, MARK Invisible World (Cylindrical Habitat Modules) cassette 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The guitarist from Emeralds explores his psychedelic side on Invisible World. There's always been a kosmische aesthetic in the music of Emeralds, brought on by the spiraling interplay between synth and guitar, whose rapid fire arppeggios blur into trippy drones. Much of those same strategies are employed here on Invisible World, with McGuire channelling Michael Rother from Neu! 75. Some of the loops that McGuire lays down are a bit heavier than what you might find in Emeralds; but then he'll switch things up for something infinitely warmer and more summery, almost like Ducktails or something off an early Ariel Pink record. Recorded direct to tape, with all the hiss and roughness of the recording left as is. And as with all of the Emeralds related tape releases, this one is super limited. So limited in fact that it's already sold out from the label. These are the last and only copies we'll have, so act fast...

MCGUIRE, MARK Living With Yourself (Editions Mego) cd 16.98
NOW ON CD!!
Despite a solo discography that tallies well above 30 titles, Mark McGuire has quipped that Living With Yourself is, in his mind, his 'first' album, because it was the first album to emerge as a properly replicated cd and slab of vinyl without originally getting released first as a micro-edition tape or cd-r. Fair enough. McGuire is also the principle guitarist for Emeralds, who also has a discography with a boatload of releases; the man specializes in sustained flares of kosmische guitar arpeggiations recalling Manuel Gottsching and Achim Reichel. In both Emeralds and his solo work, he's at his best when his guitar seems to effortlessly transmit bittersweet, counterpoint melodies within his arching dronerock compositions. It takes Living With Yourself awhile to get to those epiphanous moments, after McGuire churns through a Takoma inspired acoustic guitar workout situated alongside home recordings of some family gathering with a cassette deck recording the affair. By the time, McGuire arrives at "Clouds Rolling In" a distant melancholy settles upon his Durutti Column like guitar lines that skitter in circles to build his impressionist atmosphere. Similarly moody tracks lead up through the album's conclusion, a straight-up, instrumental-rock number with his stratospheric guitar riffs buttressed by a drummer, edging much more into the cinematic Explosions In The Sky territory. Certainly not what we were expecting, but could this be the lead in for McGuire to start scoring movie soundtracks?

MCGUIRE, MARK Living With Yourself (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.
Despite a solo discography that tallies well above 30 titles, Mark McGuire has quipped that Living With Yourself is, in his mind, his 'first' album, because it was the first album to emerge as a properly replicated cd and slab of vinyl without originally getting released first as a micro-edition tape or cd-r. Fair enough. McGuire is also the principle guitarist for Emeralds, who also has a discography with a boatload of releases; the man specializes in sustained flares of kosmische guitar arpeggiations recalling Manuel Gottsching and Achim Reichel. In both Emeralds and his solo work, he's at his best when his guitar seems to effortlessly transmit bittersweet, counterpoint melodies within his arching dronerock compositions. It takes Living With Yourself awhile to get to those epiphanous moments, after McGuire churns through a Takoma inspired acoustic guitar workout situated alongside home recordings of some family gathering with a cassette deck recording the affair. By the time, McGuire arrives at "Clouds Rolling In" a distant melancholy settles upon his Durutti Column like guitar lines that skitter in circles to build his impressionist atmosphere. Similarly moody tracks lead up through the album's conclusion, a straight-up, instrumental-rock number with his stratospheric guitar riffs buttressed by a drummer, edging much more into the cinematic Explosions In The Sky territory. Certainly not what we were expecting, but could this be the lead in for McGuire to start scoring movie soundtracks?

MCGUIRE, MARK Off In The Distance (Cylindrical Habitat Modules) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yes, it's another solo album from Emeralds' guitarist Mark McGuire, and yes, it's totally awesome. Off In The Distance was originally a cassette that came out briefly back in 2008, but had been so beloved by the dudes who put out the tape that vinyl became a necessity. And it's a perfect format for McGuire's kosmische zoner jams, with all his continued allusions to Ash Ra Tempel, Gunter Schickert, Michael Rother, Popul Vuh, and Achim Reichel that stretch into grand movements of psychedelic melancholy. Slow-motion, aquatic bubblings of analog synths percolate upon an undulating bed of guitar drones muffling the growls from a distortion box. All the while, McGuire layers his signature elliptical guitar arpeggiated melodies that snap into locked grooves only to mutate effortlessly into doubles and triples of themselves, resulting in the passages of spaceship lift-off on a exploratory mission towards the heart of glowing nebulae. Towards the end of the first side, McGuire transitions into a particularly maudlin riff of intertwined and overlaid guitars, making some of us here think back to that incredible Dreamies album of symphonic psychedelic mope. Off In The Distance strikes that balance found in so much of the Emeralds / McGuire axis of music making, that of the inner-cosmonaut in pursuit of transcendence and/or tranquilization on one hand, and on the other, he channels something profoundly sad as McGuire's aware that such pursuits can only be fleeting at best. Undoubtedly beautiful stuff from McGuire. Limited to 500 copies.

MCGUIRE, MARK Things Fall Apart (Wagon) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Much like on his recent solo acoustic radio session lp, on Things Fall Apart, Emeralds member Mark McGuire once again ditches the effects (mostly), going it alone, sans his synthesizer compatriots, with just some hazy guitar strum, looped hypnotic melody, and away we go...
...Into some sort of ethereal washed out dreamscape of elliptical guitar figures, interwoven and overlapping, mesmerizing and hypnotic, slowly shifting, a gorgeous new age krautdrone drift, crystalline and delicate, it's a slow build, but eventually, the tracks grow more fierce, darker, and more dense, with some fuzzy psychedelic guitars adding extra buzz and filigree, ratcheting up the space rock vibe, but never letting loose completely.
Contemplative, sun-dappled tranquility is the order of the day here. Or rather the order of the cool breezy sun-setting Summery eve. Some aQ folks were hearing some Jerry Garcia, in his Zabriske Point solo guitar mode, others some krauty shimmery smoothness a la Michael Rother, both are equally applicable, Things Fall Apart is a soft focus prismatic drift of fluttery krautfolk and subtle spaced out avant Appalachia, broadcast through a gauzey veil of ephemeral shimmer. Lovely. And of course, EXTREMELY LIMITED.
MPEG Stream: "Things Fall Apart"
MPEG Stream: "Inside Where It's Warm"

MCGUIRE, MARK Tidings / Amethyst Waves (Weird Forest) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Previously listed on vinyl, now finally available on cd, another fantastic release from Mark McGuire, a member of psych synth drone aQ faves Emeralds, this a cd reissue of two loooong out of print cassettes, consisting of four long tracks, of processed and looped guitarmusic, a gloriously kosmiche hypnotic and repetitive space rock kraut drone, beginning with an odd, somewhat out of place sample, but as soon as the guitars kick in we're immediately transported to some strange other world of crystals and prisms, the sonic sunlight unfurling glorious sheets of color, stuttery looped tangles of spidery guitar gives way to thick swells of crumbling corrosive fuzz, warm and lush and billowy, a wall of metalgaze blur that soon shifts back into a dizzying swirl of looped and layered melodies, that shifts and undulates and morphs from muted blissful smears to straight up folky strum.
The second track is another gorgeous loopscape, chiming guitar harmonics, and short sharp bursts of static, simple subtle melodies underneath, almost poppy sounding, until it collapses into a soft swirling tangle of layered synths and dizzying serpentine melodies, only to again to return to something much more traditionally strummy, a simple moody guitar figure layered over electronic chitter that sounds a bit like crickets in the fading afternoon light.
Track three beings with flurry of chiming high end guitars, like fireflies, they swirl and flit, the almost-melodies constantly in motion, the sound growing ever more lush and complex and dense, so hypnotic, loop after loop laid atop the loops that came before, a lovely slow build, that eventually joins the twinkling looped melodies with subtle guitar strum, and washed out string-like swells, the whole thing growing more and more hazy and distorted and metallic, dissipating in a lovely tangle of decaying loops.
Finally, the record ends with some heavily delayed and looped minimal guitars, muffled and muted, chiming and percussive, very Reich / Riley sounding, again blossoming into lush latticeworks of overlapping melodies and overtones, it's not until near the end that the guitars begin to become effected, the guitars seemingly transforming into synths, a buzzy, fuzzy, but still fantastically mesmerizing finale.
MPEG Stream: "A Matter Of Time"
MPEG Stream: "The Passing Of The Road Chief"

MCGUIRE, MARK Tidings / Amethyst Waves (Weird Forest) 2lp 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of two 'new' releases from Mark McGuire, a member of psych synth drone aQ faves Emeralds (and there's actually a new Emeralds on this list too, Record Of The Week!!), this one, an lp reissue of two loooong out of print cassettes (cd version coming soon), consists of four long tracks, of processed and looped guitarmusic, a gloriously kosmiche hypnotic and repetitive space rock kraut drone, beginning with an odd, somewhat out of place sample, but as soon as the guitars kick in we're immediately transported to some strange other world of crystals and prisms, the sonic sunlight unfurling glorious sheets of color, stuttery looped tangles of spidery guitar gives way to thick swells of crumbling corrosive fuzz, warm and lush and billowy, a wall of metalgaze blur that soon shifts back into a dizzying swirl of looped and layered melodies, that shifts and undulates and morphs from muted blissful smears to straight up folky strum.
The second track is another gorgeous loopscape, chiming guitar harmonics, and short sharp bursts of static, simple subtle melodies underneath, almost poppy sounding, until it collapses into a soft swirling tangle of layered synths and dizzying serpentine melodies, only to again to return to something much more traditionally strummy, a simple moody guitar figure layered over electronic chitter that sounds a bit like crickets in the fading afternoon light.
Track three beings with flurry of chiming high end guitars, like fireflies, they swirl and flit, the almost-melodies constantly in motion, the sound growing ever more lush and complex and dense, so hypnotic, loop after loop laid atop the loops that came before, a lovely slow build, that eventually joins the twinkling looped melodies with subtle guitar strum, and washed out string-like swells, the whole thing growing more and more hazy and distorted and metallic, dissipating in a lovely tangle of decaying loops.
Finally, the record ends with some heavily delayed and looped minimal guitars, muffled and muted, chiming and percussive, very Reich / Riley sounding, again blossoming into lush latticeworks of overlapping melodies and overtones, it's not until near the end that the guitars begin to become effected, the guitars seemingly transforming into synths, a buzzy, fuzzy, but still fantastically mesmerizing finale.
Pressed on nice thick vinyl, housed in super deluxe Stoughton tip-on sleeves, and LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "A Matter Of Time"
MPEG Stream: "The Passing Of The Road Chief"

MCGUIRE, MARK VDSQ - Solo Acoustic Volume Two (Vin Du Select Qualitite) lp 21.00
There are those who might have doubts about an ACOUSTIC guitar record from cosmic zoner Mark McGuire, who has been honing his Achim Reichel / Gunter Schickert guitar arpeggiations in the soon to be legendary trio Emeralds. You might say to yourself, when has Emeralds ever used an acoustic guitar? Can he really play without tons of tripped out effects? Is he good enough without a battery of synths supporting him? Any and all doubts should be dispelled in listening to this record. Yeah, this is really pretty special. McGuire offers five lengthy pieces of psychedelic folk via an acoustic guitar, probably buttressed by a loop station on a few passages during these pieces. The brightly rendered guitar chiming from McGuire's acoustic guitar noticeably detours from the rounded tonal arcs of Emeralds psych-drone workouts; but the rhythmic locomotive aspects from some of the later Emeralds recordings are prominent throughout this album. The nearly sidelong "Burning Leaves" centers upon a rich and warmly clad elliptical strum that spins in a duet around some lovely melodic notes dotting about. As hypnotic as the piece is, it's also downright playful. Other tracks like "At First Sight" and especially "Second Thoughts" have much more of a downer, maudlin vibe that spills through the almost raga hypnosis of McGuire's fingerpicking. Great stuff that would certainly appeal to fans of James Blackshaw, Six Organs, and maybe even Vini Riley. Dare it be said, but had this been released sometime in 1970, this would probably have landed on Takoma!

MCHUGH, JONATHAN & MARK WASTELL Hydriotaphia (Confront) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
London's Mark Wastell has been privy to some rather unexpected (and unexpectedly great!) collaborations in recent years. Best known for his work with various quiet, AMM-inspired improvisers from the New London Silence community, he's turned recently to working with electronic musicians with a proclivity for tension, intensity, and blackened soundfields. There's the rather impressive Oceans Of Blood & Blood project that Wastell has instigated with Skull Defekts' Joachim Nordwall, and now there's this duet with Jonathan McHugh. A sound designer of the same name has worked on the Saw series of movies, but we're pretty sure these are not the same character even if there is some rather psychoacoustically challenging noises to be found on Hydrotaphia. With Wastell on his 32" gong that he's been using for many years now and McHugh on an Arp synth, the two begin to coax a series of low-end rumbles very much on par with the Deathprod / early Thomas Koner constructions, with McHugh gradually injecting small squiggles of electrical fizzes that eventually coalesce into a pure high-end tone that will certainly clear out any earwax if you happen to be listening on headphones. This rather bracing duality of low-end rumbles and high frequencies subsides after about ten minutes leaving more of those enveloping, icy surfaces of gong resonance. McHugh dials in a growling drone towards the end of the 45 minute composition, building into a gnarled set of tempestuous, electronic noise with a bleak feel that lends much more to the Dilloway / Michigan axis of American noisemongering. Quite impressive!
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

MCMILLEN, SHAWN DAVID Catfish (Tompkins Square) cd 13.98
Some super nice, unexpected sounds from Austin based soundsculpter Shawn David McMillen. While Tompkins Square is now releasing this on cd (the vinyl has been out a little longer courtesy of Emperor Jones) we mistakenly jumped to some conclusions before we even threw this one in, assuming McMillen to be another in a long line of finger picking Appalachian style Fahey disciples, and we have to admit we were a bit relieved to discover this was not actually the case. We can't deny that there have been some great releases in that style over the last few years but we've reached critical mass, especially when folks like James Blackshaw and Jack Rose have already raised the bar so high that most others can't really compete. McMillen on the other hand explores a more experimental approach to his playing which comes off sounding like a more subdued No Neck Blues Band at times which to our ears sounded damn fine. We were also reminded of the wandering explorations of Loren Chasse and the more delicate side of the Jeweled Antler family. What a nice surprise, excellent!
MPEG Stream: "Eat Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Quintanna's Head Dress"

MCMS 1997-2000 (Last Visible Dog) 3cd 16.98
Ever since we first heard the mysterious MCMS, sharing space with the equally mysterious Yermo on a cd-r released on Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomena cd-r label, we were hooked. Big time. Two absolutely stunning cd-r's followed. But as with most cd-r's they quickly went out of print and were seemingly lost forever. Well lucky for us, AQ pal Chris Moon who runs the Last Visible Dog label (and who just happens to be in MCMS) has stepped up and re-released on real cds both of those out of print discs, adding their half of the aforementioned split with Yermo as well as the tracks from their lathe cut lp on Eclipse (which was limited to 50 copies). Everything all in one convenient triple cd package. So what the hell does it sound like you ask? Imagine a weird, British style folk, loosely strummed acoustic guitars, warbly flute and urgently whispered vocals. Churning hyperdistorted guitars, random, 'free' percussion, sometimes just a simple plodding thud, all deteriorating into soft mumbly melodies and found sounds, mysterious and ambient. Dirty, gritty garage-y dirge/drone rock, Krautrock-ish rhythms filtered through a Dead C noiserock aesthetic that veers into noisy freakout territory, careening wildly from tuneless, Comus style pagan folk to chaotic free rock, to blissful dronescapes. A meandering soundscape of clatter and buzz, drone and thump, skree and whir, all very atmospheric. Moments of Sunroof! like lo-fi bliss disrupted by bursts of spastic percussive splatter and amp/instrument malfunction. Anyone into NZ noise rock (Dead C, Gate, etc), the current crop of free folk (Jewelled Antler, NNCK, Sunburned Hand, etc.) or just weird and wonderful, fucked up and noisy experimental free-folk-rock-noise-whatever definitely needs this. (Though, we wish Chris had come up with a different sort of package for these cds, he kept the cost down by eschewing a jewel box in favor of a three-pocket plastic sleeve, that's nice and slim but more or less ensures that all the discs will wind up with some minor cosmetic scratches on their playing surfaces. Nothing serious but still too bad.)
MPEG Stream: "Lemmy Kiliminster Getting Kicked Out Of Hawkind"
MPEG Stream: "MCMS Vs. Brain Damage"
MPEG Stream: "Prelude To The MCMS Album Of Love"
MPEG Stream: "Bruce Has Gone To The Great Bong In The Sky"

MCMS 3 (Last Visible Dog) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is dirge-y, dirty, grungy tribal FREEROCK. '3' starts off with churning hyperdistorted guitars, random, 'free' percussion, sometimes just a simple plodding thud, which all deteriorate into softly strummed guitars and found sounds, mysterious and ambient. The rest of the record is a meandering soundscape of clatter and buzz, drone and thump, skree and whir, all very atmospheric. Moments of Sunroof! like lo-fi bliss disrupted by bursts of spastic percussive splatter and amp/instrument malfunction.
RealAudio clip: "Lemmy Kiliminster Getting Kicked Out Of Hawkind"
RealAudio clip: "MCMS Vs. Brain Damage"

MCMS s/t (Last Visible Dog) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We totally loved the MCMS cd-r on Celebrate Psi Phenomena (a split with Yermo, now out of print), so we were pretty psyched for TWO new titles courtesy of our pals at Last Visible Dog. Starts off as weird, British style folk, loosely strummed acoustic guitars, warbly flute and urgently whispered vocals. This soon becomes a dirty, gritty garage-y dirge/drone rock workout. Krautrock-ish rhythms filtered through a Dead C noiserock aesthetic that veers into noisy freakout territory. The record continues on, careening wildly from tuneless, Comus style pagan folk to chaotic free rock, to blissful dronescapes. Good stuff.
RealAudio clip: "Prelude To The MCMS Album Of Love"
RealAudio clip: "Bruce Has Gone To The Gret Bong In The Sky"

MCNAIR, JAMIE Ocean Dictionaries (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) 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.
Another new name from Campbell Kneale's mighty Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label, and it's yet another winner. A hyperminimal dronescape of warm underwater tones, thick and slow moving, dreamy and surreal, muted melodies stretched into thick blankets of fuzzy warmth. The second half of the record sounds like a straight field recording, wind and footsteps and dogs barking and the faraway whir and hum of everyday life, lovely and serene.
RealAudio clip: "One"

MCPHEE, JOE & JOHN SNYDER Pieces of Light (Atavistic) cd 14.98