F-SPACE Continental 09.16.04 (Live) (Mobilization) cd 12.98

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

F.T.Y.K.P. Number Five magazine 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Awesome local black metal zine from the folks in Bone Awl. This is seriously grim, cult, underground shit. The name of the zine alone should give you your first clue, an acronym for Fall To Your Knees Pissing. Oof. Loads of amazing interviews, bleak and nihilistic and bizarre, including tons of bands you've never heard but probably need to! Bands featured include Pest (from Germany), Ashdautus, Goatlord, Nuit Noire, Vpaahsalbrox, Finnish black metallers Dead Reptile Shrine (the weirdest black metal band ever, whose records are out of print, but we are trying desperately to track down, even if it means re-releasing it ourselves!), Tudor from the Czech Republic, a bunch of record reviews and even a cool little Goatlord photocopied poster style insert!

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

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

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

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

F/I Space Mantra (Lexicon Devil) cd 15.98

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

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

FABOLOUS From Nothin' To Somethin' (Island Def Jam) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Return Of The Hustle"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Don't Go"

FABOLOUS Ghetto Fabolous (Desert Storm) cd 18.98
Fabolous follows in the footseps of Nelly, taking the big New York gangster commercial sound and flavoring it with a bit of the dirty south and striking gold. You can hear a bit of Jay-Z, Puffy and the like, but Fabolous just has that special something that pushes him over the top. It doesn't hurt that he's backed up by the mighty DJ Clue and gets help (production, singing, rapping) here and there from Ja Rule, DMX, the Neptunes, Lil' Mo, Timbaland, and more. Catchy and funky and fucking essential. Makes me wish I had a lowered Benz with dubs and a booming system. 'Can't deny it' is definitely the single of the year.
RealAudio clip: "Can't Deny It"

FABOLOUS Real Talk (Atlantic) cd 16.98
OK, so on that list we all make, of things we plan on doing but in all reality will probably never do, a seriously long list for most of us, and that for me (Andee) includes among other things, writing a novel, scuba diving and discovering a wrecked pirate ship, and doing the Death Valley ultramarathon, was to make a record, or even just a song, all DJ Shadow-style. Using my love and knowledge of weird music to craft a DJ-scape of unfathomable coolness and originality. All sorts of black metal, and weird seventies rock and anything else I could think of. One track I already had sort of outlined, at least in my head, was using a loop from Supertramp's "Crime Of The Century". I even have a scrathed up vinyl copy set aside to sample the appropriately dustry crackly loop. It would have been awesome. WOULD HAVE BEEN. If Fabolous hadn't beaten me to the punch. Grrr. But at least I know I was onto something, because it does sound just as great as I imagined it. And Fabolous' mush mouthed cough syrup flow on top just seals the deal. And that's only one track. The rest of the record is pretty wicked too, all simple and low slung, with big ol' booming beats that'll make your rims spin and all the neighborhood car alarms sing along.
MPEG Stream: "Breathe"

FABOLOUS Street Dreams (Elektra) cd 16.98

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

FABULOUS COUNTS, THE Jan Jan (DBK Works) cd 16.98
Hard and heavy funk from the Motor City! This reissue of the Counts' sole album on Cotillion is full of floor shakers and skirt blowers, played with effortless authority by a staggeringly tight and muscular band. The Fabulous Counts' sound is HUGE: dueling saxes trade off leads, while off-kilter guitar and popping Hammond organ provides the melodic bed, and it all gets anchored together by a supremely funky rhythm section made up of drums, conga and bass. The result is an album of hard-edged instrumental funk that mixes the slickness one would expect from a top shelf Detroit band in the '60s with more Southern soul and R&B flourishes (there's definitely some chicken pickin' and honkin' sax happening here) to create a sound that is at once totally raw and powerful but still maintains an almost military degree of precision. We're going to give drummer Andrew Gibson a lot of credit for this, as his ability to beat the ever-loving shit out of his kit without losing a hint of swing is remarkable; it gives the rest of the band the freedom to stretch out and pushes the whole thing to some remarkable, sweaty, and deeply funky heights.
Jan Jan contains a mix of tracks taken from the band's early 45s, a few originals and a number of covers (James Brown's "It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World," Sly Stone's "Sing A Simple Song" and a surprisingly great version of The Beatles' "Hey Jude" to name three). The tracks from the group's first two 45s are some of the standouts ("Jan Jan" and "Dirty Red" in particular), but the whole thing is solid. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "The Bite"
MPEG Stream: "Who's Making Love?"
MPEG Stream: "Girl From Kenya"

FABULOUS DIAMONDS Fabulous Diamonds II (Chapter Music) cd 16.98
Much has been made about the Dual 7"+ cd set that Fabulous Diamonds released a few years back through Nervous Jerk, a small Australian imprint which had the good fortune of also releasing an Animal Collective single. Dual did make an appearance here at Aquarius, although it arrived rather mysteriously (perhaps from the band, perhaps not) and vanished after just a single play of the disc on a busy Saturday afternoon. Yes, that's always a good sign when we don't have to ballyhoo the merits of a record, and the strength of the tunes speak for themselves. Woozy hypnosis from organ, sax, drums, monotone female vocals, and lots of delay patterning is what we can remember from back in 2007. The arrival of Fabulous Diamonds' II (whoops, somehow we missed their self-titled Siltbreeze LP in '08) jogged that memory to the forefront of our collective mind, and we're happy that at least we got hear those early tracks at least once. BUT, damn if Fabulous Diamonds haven't made a stellar album here with II.
This Melbourne duo - Nisa Venerosa (drums, voice) and Jarrod Zlatic (organ, effects) - channels a quasi-mystical hybrid of post-Terry Riley time-lag accumulation and the proto-electronica riffs of the Silver Apples through deliriously simple means. Venerosa lays down a slinky percussive groove without much in the way of variation what so ever, much like finest of motorik krautrock drummers (e.g. Jaki Liebezeit, Zappi Diermaier, etc.), and pairs it with Zlatic's spellbinding layers of interwoven phases, loops and moire patterns snatched from his arpeggiating mantras on organ and synthesizer. Venerosa's stoned lullabies are well suited in their simplicity and echoplex ooze to the Diamonds' hypnotic arrangements. On this album, three short tracks about three and half minutes each are bracketed by two lengthy hypno-zoner jams. Those untitled shorts are great on their own, with curiously catchy phrases of repetitive pop minimalism, but Fabulous Diamonds are clearly at their best when sprawling their rhythms and sounds over longer durations, when Zlatic's organs, electronics, and loops have plenty of time for a lunar trajectory around the dark side and back. Anyone with a passing fancy for the likes of Stereolab, Can, Pocahaunted, Aavikko, Shogun Kunitoki, and of course The Silver Apples would be well served with these Fabulous Diamonds. Excellent!
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "3"
MPEG Stream: "4"

FABULOUS DIAMONDS Fabulous Diamonds II (Siltbreeze) lp 15.98
Much has been made about the Dual 7"+ cd set that Fabulous Diamonds released a few years back through Nervous Jerk, a small Australian imprint which had the good fortune of also releasing an Animal Collective single. Dual did make an appearance here at Aquarius, although it arrived rather mysteriously (perhaps from the band, perhaps not) and vanished after just a single play of the disc on a busy Saturday afternoon. Yes, that's always a good sign when we don't have to ballyhoo the merits of a record, and the strength of the tunes speak for themselves. Woozy hypnosis from organ, sax, drums, monotone female vocals, and lots of delay patterning is what we can remember from back in 2007. The arrival of Fabulous Diamonds' II (whoops, somehow we missed their self-titled Siltbreeze LP in '08) jogged that memory to the forefront of our collective mind, and we're happy that at least we got hear those early tracks at least once. BUT, damn if Fabulous Diamonds haven't made a stellar album here with II.
This Melbourne duo - Nisa Venerosa (drums, voice) and Jarrod Zlatic (organ, effects) - channels a quasi-mystical hybrid of post-Terry Riley time-lag accumulation and the proto-electronica riffs of the Silver Apples through deliriously simple means. Venerosa lays down a slinky percussive groove without much in the way of variation what so ever, much like finest of motorik krautrock drummers (e.g. Jaki Liebezeit, Zappi Diermaier, etc.), and pairs it with Zlatic's spellbinding layers of interwoven phases, loops and moire patterns snatched from his arpeggiating mantras on organ and synthesizer. Venerosa's stoned lullabies are well suited in their simplicity and echoplex ooze to the Diamonds' hypnotic arrangements. On this album, three short tracks about three and half minutes each are bracketed by two lengthy hypno-zoner jams. Those untitled shorts are great on their own, with curiously catchy phrases of repetitive pop minimalism, but Fabulous Diamonds are clearly at their best when sprawling their rhythms and sounds over longer durations, when Zlatic's organs, electronics, and loops have plenty of time for a lunar trajectory around the dark side and back. Anyone with a passing fancy for the likes of Stereolab, Can, Pocahaunted, Aavikko, Shogun Kunitoki, and of course The Silver Apples would be well served with these Fabulous Diamonds. Excellent!
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "3"
MPEG Stream: "4"

FACEDOWNINSHIT Passing Times (Crimethinc. / Exutoire Records) cd 11.98

FACTORYMEN Yellow Eyes And The Sound Of Vomit (Richie Records) lp 17.98
Brand new batch of twisted noise pop malfunction from Steve Peffer, the mastermind behind fucked up noisemakers Homostupids. Fans of the 'Stupids stumbling lo-fi Neanderthal crush will find much to love here, but Factorymen takes the demented buzz and crunch of Homostupids, and fashions it into something a bit poppier, and weirdly enough, more electronic, creating some sort of knuckle dragging buzz drenched electro-pop, that takes the warped pop of folks like Ariel Pink and James Ferraro, and adds some Stooges-y swagger and some dirge rock guitar buzz, not to mention the whole thing sounds like it was recorded on a cassette that's been sitting the dashboard of a car for the last decade, all hiss and warble and plenty of Faxed Head like sonic drop outs, but all that only adds to the deliriously demented sound.
Tape speeds shift, the fidelity slips from muffled and murky to brittle and blown out, the songs are all over the map from garage-y pound to blurred hypnotic thump, to total eighties style FM radio cheese, to blurred blissy strangely sunshiney Breakfast Club pop, to rhythmic Butthole Surfers like mesmer, to downtuned synth laced space doom dirge, al woven into a druggy and lo-fi, synthy, outsider, electronic, psychedelic warped pop that almost sounds like a drug addled Stephin Merritt record on Not Not Fun or Olde English Spelling Bee, but with just enough crunch to keep the sound at least tangentially noise rocky. Bizarre and sorta brilliant, should most definitely appeal to fans of James Ferraro, Ariel Pink, Rusted Shut, Rangers, Pink Noise and other similarly twisted pop deconstructionists.
Includes a download of the whole record, as well as the previous Factorymen record, 25 tracks in all! The first FM record another batch of even more murky minimalist drug pop...
MPEG Stream: "Calling The Dentist"
MPEG Stream: "S E C"
MPEG Stream: "Our Secret Recipe"
MPEG Stream: "Johnny Is Really Ronnie"

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

FACTUMS A Primitive Future (Assophon) lp 16.98
After a record on Siltbreeze, one on Sacred Bones, one on Kill Shaman, and a whole mess of singles, none of which we managed to list somehow, comes this latest full length from Seattle's Factums, a soundtrack (or faux soundtrack perhaps), that takes their gloomy gothic post punk new wave sound and gets it all tangled up with much more soundtracky elements, and it's a pretty killer combo.
So yeah, that sort of post Joy Division, depressive modern retro new wave thing these guys do so well is fully intact, but on A Primitive Future, that sound is surrounded on all sides by experimental interludes, ambient mood music, drones and driftscapes, all appropriately haunting and mysterious and cinematic.
When the band rocks, it's fierce and feral, barked distorted vocals, creepy keyboards, buzzing angular guitars, chaotic drumming, krauty motorik rhythms, darkly new wave-y and dreamily doomy and depressive, but here the band spend much more time sprawling sonically, creating sounds to accompany sights (or so we're meant to believe): shimmering expanses of soft focus hiss over field recordings, haunting stretches of gauzy druggy drift, lo-fi rumbles beneath layers of shifting grit and grime, swirls of malfunctioning music box chimes, deep muted ambient whir, murky sci-fi psychedelic swirl, clouds of abstract deconstructed reverb and detuned guitar and on and on.
Not just another dose of cold wave post punk gloom (although there are moments, instead, a spaced out abstract creepy chunk of brooding, sci-fi, new wave, cinematic ambient doom drift.

FACTUMS Gilding The Lilies (Assophon) 2lp 21.00
Weirdo Seattle gloompunk artrock experimentalists Factums have always been tough to describe, and somehow it seems with each new record, they push their sound even further into indescribable sonic realms. Which bring us to this, a sprawling double lp called Gilding The Lilies, which seems to be a much expanded version of the 2010 tape of the same name on Night People. And like past records, it sometimes feels like you're listening to a compilation, 'cause the songs are so totally varied, and even within songs the sound is constantly shifting, from gloomy creep, to organ driven dirge, from gothy lo-fi electro, to gorgeous Eastern style buzz drenched ragas... it's fantastic, yet also fantastically confusing. But once immersed in Factums' twisted soundworld, the songs seem to make a sort of sense, fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle where all of the pieces are different shapes, but that can be assembled in any order to create an unlimited series of final images, if that makes any sense, and even if it doesn't, that almost seems more appropriate.
There was a time where these guys had a sort of Captured Tracks / Sacred Bones vibe going on, and while that does surface here and there, the group definitely seem to to have moved well beyond any sense of pop music, only dabbling here and there, while spending most of their music crafting strange soundscapes, and conjuring up mysterious sonic spirits. Dense drone out buzz is draped over skeletal percussion, everything wreathed in billows of low end warble, that warble shaped into propulsive pulsations and wedded to a lo-fi distorted sort-of-electro rhythm, over which a deep voice wreathed in a metallic shimmer croons dramatically, only to slip right back into some sitar like buzz, long layered tones, that are soon swallowed up by an undulating sine wave tone and laid out beneath a skittery jazzy drum beat, only to dissipate into a cloud of low end thrum, and rubbery electronic rhythms, surrounded by industrial crash and clatter, which then slips darkly into a rhythmic bit of buzzy drift, and, well you get the idea. Now imagine that constant meandering sonic exploration going on for wholly three more lp sides and you've got Gilding The Lilies, a fantastic head spinning sonic descent into some abstract alternate dimension soundworld, one you might find yourself in no hurry to escape...
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Another Place"
MPEG Stream: "Lady In The Sand"
MPEG Stream: "Gilding The Lillies"
MPEG Stream: "The Trap"

FACTUMS Roman Soldier (Captcha) 12" 15.98
Of all the recent groups channeling the spirit of cold wave and the gothic miserablism of Joy Division, Factums are by and far the absolute weirdest. Capable of whipping up incredible chunks of gloom pop, the instead, often opt for creating totally twisted gloomscapes, weird faux soundtracks, pulsing rhythmic expanses, a series of fantastically warped variants of a sound that is rapidly becoming played out. Which is why these guys remain mysterious, fascinating, and with every record, you really can't be sure what you'll get.
This one sided 12" (the B-side features and awesome etching) offers up three tracks of twisted low fidelity mystery, the first, a pulsing murky rhythm, laid beneath strange processed super rhythmic synths, all glitchy and squelchy, peppered with echo drenched vocal samples and stripped down percussion, eventually the sounds coalesce into a cool retro electro synthbuzz loopscape, super distorted, the sounds crumbling and completely in-the-red, a strange hypnotic lo-fi groove, crunchy and almost industrial sounding, laced with bits of heavy guitar buzz, all processed and clipped. Weird as fuck, but really really cool.
The 2 part second track is also weird, but in a totally different way, a creepy melancholy music box like soundscape, hazy and out of focus, mumbled vocals buried in the mix, the whole thing totally woozy and druggy, the second part introduces electronic rhythms, clouds of cymbal shimmer, strange reverbed guitar strum and warbly organ whir, a fantastically confounding dirgey, gauzey electro gloom music box ballad. Or something. Whatever it is, we dig it. A LOT!!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!

FAD GADGET The Best Of..... (Mute) 2cd 19.98
With Adult., The Faint, and Fisherspooner actively reclaiming the dark theatricality of '80s electro-pop, an anthology of Fad Gadget's work couldn't have had better timing. That said, it is quite difficult to comfortably classify Fad Gadget amongst the new wave legions including OMD, Human League, and Depeche Mode, as Frank Tovey (who was pretty much the sole proprietor of Fad Gadget) applied his pop sensibility towards a carnivalesque absurdity and a well versed understanding of historical Surrealism (Hugo Ball in particular). Most exemplary of this confluence of ideas and movements is Fad Gadget's purposefully heavy-handed mockery of jaded punks on "Collapsing New People" which featured Einsturzende Neubauten adding their industrial clamor to the Soft Cell-like, anthemic electro-pop. Driving home the point of the import of this track, this compliation features *three* versions of that song, along with a bunch of singles and b-sides. Disc one is the greatest hits portion of the program with tracks like "Insecticide" as a brutal piece of SPK-ish electronica butted right up against the synthetic cabaret of "Fireside Favourite." The second disc has a bunch of rarities and extraneous remixes, but isn't terribly neccessary. Definitely worthwhile for disc one...
RealAudio clip: "Collapsing New People"
RealAudio clip: "Insecticide"
RealAudio clip: "Lady Shave"

FAHEY, JOHN America (Takoma) cd 13.98

FAHEY, JOHN America (4 Men With Beards) 2lp 25.00
All right now. After a few unfortunate issues at the pressing plant (discovered, of course, after these beautiful, highly elaborate gatefold double lps were already on the market), we finally have the mind boggling 2009 edition of John Fahey's America. And man was it worth the wait. Originally released in 1971 as a single lp with only four songs, America wasn't heard as it was intended until 1998 when Takoma issued a cd version with all the tracks (NINE extra songs!), and even then, a few minutes had to be shaved off the song "Mark 1:15" because of cd time constraints. And while those few minutes seem to still be missing, 4 Men With Beards have have still really outdone themselves with this one, offering an appropriate package (limited to a scant 3000 hand numbered copies, by the way) for Fahey at his most epic!
America definitely ranks among Fahey's most thematic albums, which is saying a lot. Even with covers of songs by Skip James and the McGee Brothers, (not to mention an amazing interpretation of the third movement from Dvorak's Symphony #8), this album presents a powerful and unique vision that is pure John Fahey, and in doing so, he takes things further than usual with a couple of massive tracks stretching into the double digits. Some real mind blowers, for sure, and you'll probably be left wondering how anyone could maintain such an amazing and disciplined command of a steel string guitar. But hey, it's John Fahey after all, and chances are you've been waiting for this one for quite some time.
MPEG Stream: "Jesus Is A Dying Bedmaker"
MPEG Stream: "Knoxville Blues"
MPEG Stream: "Mark 1:15"

FAHEY, JOHN Blind Joe Death (Takoma) lp 13.98
Newly and nicely reissued on vinyl!! The debut John Fahey record, Blind Joe Death from 1964, with its beautifully minimal and mysterious original cover, is such a perfect record in so many ways. Everything we have ever praised Fahey for musically is present at the start (okay, maybe not his experiments with found recordings and tape manipulations, but everything else!). This is the true beginning of the Guitar Soli genre, with Fahey using open-tuned solo guitar improvisation to mine classical, folk, blues, pre-war popular and gospel idioms in a metaphysical hybrid of esoteric sound and spirit. Songs like "Transcendental Waterfall" and "In Christ There is No East and West" are deliriously mystical and beguiling, paving the long road of musical influence that still continues to inspire to this day. Fahey made many amazing records, but no collection is truly complete without this one.
Highest recommendation!

FAHEY, JOHN Days Have Gone By (Takoma) cd 16.98
Another welcome reissue from fingerpickin' folk guitarist John Fahey, who died earlier this year. We miss him, especially in light of the more current experimental guitarwork he was exhibiting. This album, however, was recorded in 1967 and contains his mostly traditional take on folk themes and even pseudo-"ragas". Ten seconds of listening to this and you'll recognize Fahey's signature style. Lovely.
RealAudio clip: "My Grandfather's Clock"
RealAudio clip: "A Raga Called Pat - Part One"

FAHEY, JOHN Death Chants, Breakdowns, and Military Marches (Takoma) cd 12.98
"John Fahey and many of his contemporaries and fans consider this disc to be his finest work. It contains both the 1963 and 1967 versions of Death Chants, Breakdowns, and Military Waltzes. The striking differences between the two point up the dramatic stylistic approaches Fahey was exploring during those few short years." (from the liner notes on the album). This is some of the loveliest solo guitar work and folksy fingerpicking that we've ever heard Fahey or anyone else do! Essential!

FAHEY, JOHN Georgia Stomps, Atlanta Struts (Table of the Elements) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Five fantastic solo guitar performances recorded live from a show in Atlanta in 1997. Powerful yet beautiful pseudo-improv Fahey-style avant-twang. The last few years have seen the coming of many imitators; recordings like this put them back in their place.

FAHEY, JOHN Great San Bernardino Birthday Party (Takoma) cd 16.98

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

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

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

FAHEY, JOHN How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life (Drag City) book 19.98
Wow. A whole book of "stories" from a man known not just for his inventive guitar prowess but for the, uh, imaginative liner notes he often provides his releases with. From true tales of an unusual musician's unusual life to possibly more fictional ancedotes, Fahey's style is a mixture of ranting and humor and surreal insight. In other words, a must-read! 191 pages, softbound.

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

FAHEY, JOHN Legend of Blind Joe Death (Takoma) cd 17.98

FAHEY, JOHN Live in Tasmania (Takoma) cd 15.98
Remastered, reissued 1980 live set from the inimitable John Fahey, the late great modern day legend of solo steel guitar playin'. We all miss the guy, so it's nice that these reissues keep a'comin'. As this disc's title indicates, this was indeed recorded live in Tasmania! Yep, Fahey was touring Down Under, and that means that not only did he feel obligated to do a version of "Waltzing Matilda" but you're also treated to a spoken word interlude given the title "Fahey Establishes Rapport With The Tasmanians - A Dissertation On 'Obscurity'". He gets a lot of laughs out of the crowd, being his usual charming self. Other tracks include "The Approaching Of The Disco Void" and "Steamboat Gwine 'Round de Bend". The whole show is enchanting, classic stuff. This reissue also boasts liner notes by Fahey fan Jim O'Rourke.
MPEG Stream: "On The Sunny Side Of The Ocean"
MPEG Stream: "Fahey Establishes Rapport With The Tasmanians..."
MPEG Stream: "Indian-Pacific R.R. Blues"

FAHEY, JOHN Of Rivers and Religion (Collector's Choice) cd 16.98
Newly issued on disc comes this John Fahey album from 1972. It was his first album for a major label and Fahey, one of the most genius guitarists of all time, wanted to bring in some musicians to augment his twanged out blues-based American style. The major label balked but finally relented and thus you'll hear dobro, mandolin, trumpet, clarinet, piano, double bass and other instruments on this record. While half the songs are classic Fahey solo excursions, the tracks with other musicians feature a New Orleans brass band sound. It's nice, but the New Orleans style is so pronounced on its own that I felt Fahey tended to get lost in that sound. Not the first Fahey record you should get (I'd give that nod to Death Chants), but certainly not a bad one.
RealAudio clip: "Funeral Song for Mississippi John Hurt"
RealAudio clip: "Lord Have Mercy"

FAHEY, JOHN Red Cross (Revenant) cd 17.98
"Red Cross, Disciple of Christ Today, by John Fahey, Guitar Evangelist." This is the last album by John Fahey before his death in 2001, and "guitar evangelist" seems like the perfect description of his legacy. With his acoustic guitar drenched in reverb, "Red Cross" sees Fahey traversing all his signature territory, condensing the entirety of American folk-blues tradition into a uniquely emotional and present instrumental language that also touches on eastern modalities and droning psychedelia. His talent for arranging classic compositions is represented by a version of Irving Berlin's "Remember" and a truly moving, beautiful take on the Gershwins' "Summertime" (I'm always a sucker for that song, but this version really blows me away). It's hard not to read into these tracks, knowing they were recorded so soon before Fahey's passing. The last, "hidden" track especially reverbrates with a kind of somber, distant contemplation, while many of the other tracks possess the joyful but calm exhuberance that comes with being at peace with fate. If there's anything to be learned from the touching liner notes by Cul De Sac's Glenn Jones, however, it's that Fahey was a man who truly lived for today, and if the album can be read as a reflection on the past or acceptance of the future it might just be by chance. But it doesn't seem to be by chance that the last album recorded by a guitar genius decades along in his career stands alongside his very best. Simultaneously uplifting in its gorgeousness and heartbreaking in its unintended function as a final farewell.
RealAudio clip: "Summertime"
RealAudio clip: "Red Cross, Disciple Of Christ Today"
RealAudio clip: "Charley Bradley's Ten-Sixty-Six Blues"

FAHEY, JOHN Red Cross (Revenant) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl!!
"Red Cross, Disciple of Christ Today, by John Fahey, Guitar Evangelist." This is the last album by John Fahey before his death in 2001, and "guitar evangelist" seems like the perfect description of his legacy. With his acoustic guitar drenched in reverb, "Red Cross" sees Fahey traversing all his signature territory, condensing the entirety of American folk-blues tradition into a uniquely emotional and present instrumental language that also touches on eastern modalities and droning psychedelia. His talent for arranging classic compositions is represented by a version of Irving Berlin's "Remember" and a truly moving, beautiful take on the Gershwins' "Summertime" (I'm always a sucker for that song, but this version really blows me away). It's hard not to read into these tracks, knowing they were recorded so soon before Fahey's passing. The last, "hidden" track especially reverbrates with a kind of somber, distant contemplation, while many of the other tracks possess the joyful but calm exhuberance that comes with being at peace with fate. If there's anything to be learned from the touching liner notes by Cul De Sac's Glenn Jones, however, it's that Fahey was a man who truly lived for today, and if the album can be read as a reflection on the past or acceptance of the future it might just be by chance. But it doesn't seem to be by chance that the last album recorded by a guitar genius decades along in his career stands alongside his very best. Simultaneously uplifting in its gorgeousness and heartbreaking in its unintended function as a final farewell.
RealAudio clip: "Summertime"
RealAudio clip: "Red Cross, Disciple Of Christ Today"
RealAudio clip: "Charley Bradley's Ten-Sixty-Six Blues"

FAHEY, JOHN Requia And Other Compositions For Guitar Solo (Vanguard) cd 12.98
Amazing!!! People often ask what Fahey record they should start with or totally need to have. It's so hard to answer that because so many of his albums could be 'the one'. My answer to this question changes almost every day but as Requia sits in front of me I find it hard to find a reason why this isn't "the one". Combines both his amazing fingerpicking stylings along with his early exploration of tape effects and outside explorations. Every time it's played this record makes me freeze and goosebumps start forming. This is spiritual music in all the right ways.

FAHEY, JOHN Sea Changes and Coelacanths: A Young Person's Guide To John Fahey (Table Of The Elements) 2cd 24.00
John Fahey hated hippies. Well, that's no surprise coming from a curmudgeonly genius that made his dislikes very well known. In a 1997 interview printed in one of the booklets in this 2cd anthology of recordings on the Table of Elements label, he says he hated playing for audiences who only wanted to hear him play his old stuff -- "I'm picking up more of an audience from younger people who have an open mind, who are more into experimentalism. I don't want to live in the past." Which explains the subtitle of this anthology: A Young Person's guide to John Fahey. Collecting the now out of print Table of The Elements releases, Womblife (1997), Georgia Stomps, Atlanta Struts, & Other Contemporary Dance Favorites (1998, recorded live) and the limited posthumously released suite, Hard Time Empty Bottle Blues (2003), this anthology sees Fahey at his most iconoclastic. Opening with "Sharks" from the Womblife album, produced and recorded by Jim O'Rourke, Fahey's dissonant and impressionist guitar work is more predatory than pastoral, eventually careening into cinematic textures of gamelan and sandy rain. The sea theme throughout Womblife is appropriate as it sounds like it was recorded deep in the ocean giving voice to the organic shape-shifting rhythms of its creatures. Only the 13 minute closer, "Juana" recalls Fahey's early self with solo acoustic guitar. The Second Disc compiles the live set from Georgia Stomps, and here he trades his acoustic for an electric (or amplified acoustic, we're not sure) and soaks it in reverb and chorus. Seeming to take cues from Loren Mazzacane Connors stark electric guitar work, Fahey builds upon his earlier delta-inspired acoustic pieces and takes them into sparse and charged new territories. Fans of Fahey's vast Takoma catalog may not like this anthology as much, but it is amazing to see an artist late in life continuing to take his sound to new worlds. We only wish the current wave of Fahey inspired string pickers could do as much. Highly Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Planaria"
MPEG Stream: "Hard Time Empty Bottle Blues II"
MPEG Stream: "Song For Sara"

FAHEY, JOHN The Best Of John Fahey: 1959-1977 (Takoma) cd 16.98
John Fahey revolutionized guitar folk. His immediately recognizable, simultaneously ethereal and earthy virtuosic guitar picking and compositions combined influences from the folk blues of Charley Patton to Indian ragas to classical music, and have had a vast influence on too many trad folk, neo-folk and psych artists to mention. If you have somehow managed to get by not owning any records by this guitar genius, you have a few good options of where to start, including The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death; Death Chants, Breakdowns, and Military Marches (Windy's fave); or conveniently, this newly reissued collection of tunes originally issued on a 1977 best-of lp. Hand picked by the man himself from the Takoma back catalogue, the cd issue includes three tracks not featured on the lp, including the epic "Fare Forward Voyagers." The selections tend toward the more upbeat numbers, so for a fuller idea of what Fahey's all about which includes his more melancholy and drone-oriented works, you're going to have to dig into his albums proper. Still, this is a fine way to get your feet wet and fall in love with John Fahey.
RealAudio clip: "Some Summer Day"
RealAudio clip: "Desperate Man Blues"

FAHEY, JOHN The Best Of Vol. 2: 1964-1983 (Takoma) cd 16.98
If you want to hear a guitar being played, you just can't do much better than to listen to John Fahey (RIP)! An American original who synthesized country, bluegrass, blues, classical, and more into an untaught ('primitive') and utterly accomplished style. A true John Fahey "Best Of" will have to extend to more than just two volumes, that's for sure. This one covers material recorded for his own Takoma label between 1964-1983 (the cover picture looks like it was taken near or beyond the latter date) and some of it is until now unreleased on cd (or unreleased, period!) stuff including the 13+ minute track "The Fahey Sampler", a medley performance previously only found on a rare Takoma compilation LP from 1971. Three tracks are taken from the 'lost' album Azalea City Memories (And Dreams Of Prince George's County) which may actually date to 1991, while the rest come from such LPs as Railroad, The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death, Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes, Old Fashioned Love, Live In Tasmania, John Fahey Visits Washington DC, Yes! Jesus Loves Me, and others. Compiled and with liner notes by Henry Kaiser. For Fahey fans, probably essential for the unreleased/rare tracks, and for anyone who'd like to hear an idiosyncratic genius of acoustic 'folk guitar' and beyond, quite recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Frisco Leaving Birmingham"
MPEG Stream: "Sligo Mud"
MPEG Stream: "The Approaching Of The Disco Void"

FAHEY, JOHN The Dance Of Death And Other Plantation Favorites (Takoma) cd 12.98
The legendary guitarist's third album (from 1964) reissued with four bonus cuts. 'Fahey's dark sound, quirky humor and moody slide work are all in evidence on this release' it says here, and it's true.

FAHEY, JOHN The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick (Water) cd 15.98
Ol' John Fahey, we just can't get enough of him...sadly he's gone now but every now and then we're blessed with a new reissue or, in this case, a rare live recording. The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick was taped at the Matrix in San Francisco at two shows back in 1968 and 1969 (and is now the earliest live Fahey album out). It draws on material from his albums of the period, including The Yellow Princess, Blind Joe Death and Requia among others. Eccentric genius fingerpicked guitar and wry, charmingly mild mannered on-stage commentary doesn't get much better than Fahey, now does it? And where else are you going to hear such great music alongside brief tracks with titles like "Fahey Blows His Nose"? Comes beautifully packaged, with liners written by Glenn Jones of Cul de Sac.
MPEG Stream: "When The Springtime Comes Again"
MPEG Stream: "When The Catfish Is In Bloom"

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