GUIDED BY VOICES Sunfish Holy Breakfast (Matador) cdep 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
10 songs priced as an EP.

GUIDED BY VOICES The Best of Jill Hives (Matador) cd single 9.98
You can never have too many Guided By Voices songs. So in that spirit, here's three more. The title track from the most recent album, which just happens to be one of Pollard's best, one unreleased original, all dreamy and strummy and sleepy, and a Cheap Trick cover! Good stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Free Of This World"

GUIDED BY VOICES The Electrifying Conclusion (Plexifilm) dvd 24.00

GUIDED BY VOICES The Official Ironman Rally Song (Matador) cdep 7.98
4 songs.

GUIDED BY VOICES The Who Went Home And Cried (Rockathon) dvd 18.98
A pretty dire film, unfortunately, with footage of the band both live and on someone's front porch. The sound quality is terrible and there's just no insight into the group. Save your money and instead rent our copy of Banks Tarver's *wonderful* GBV documentary Watch Me Jumpstart!

GUIDED BY VOICES Tigerbomb (Matador) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
6 songs.

GUIDED BY VOICES Under the Bushes, Under the Stars (Matador) cd 14.98

GUIDED BY VOICES Under the Bushes, Under the Stars (Matador) 2lp 13.98
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GUIDED BY VOICES Universal Truths and Cycles (Matador) cd 15.98
Allan just pointed out that the second song, "Skin Parade", on GBV's new album sounds just like "Cat Scratch Fever". That's a good thing! And you know, this is a good album. I keep waiting for Robert Pollard to start sucking, but he doesn't suck yet. He's writing songs by himself, he surrounds himself with powerful, bright musicians who animate his songs with punch and vitality. And his songs are strong and lovely -- each one tweaks the GBV shambolic power pop formula enough to not get boring; some piano here, some strings there, tenderness and crashing noise butted up against one another. A fine album. Buy without fear.
RealAudio clip: "Zap"
RealAudio clip: "Skin Parade"
RealAudio clip: "Christian"

GUIDED BY VOICES Universal Truths And Cycles / Beg For A Wheelbarrow (Fading Captain Series (#23)) 7" 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We're not gonna bother trying to convince you one way or the other about a new Guided By Voices release. Let alone 4 releases. By this time, after 10+ albums and 50 side projects and thousands of songs, you probably know whether Pollard and Co.'s lo-fi Beatles / Kinks / classic Brit-pop filtered through American indie rock schtick is your cup of tea or not. If you're anything like me (Andee), you find yourself ready to dismiss every new GBV project with cries of 'Quality Control!' but ultimately find yourself digging almost everything Pollard comes up with. These four 7"s are no different. Each single's A side is a track from their forth coming full length, while the B sides are all exclusive to these here 7"s. And they're all pretty darn good, with a couple gems even ranking up with some of the best GBV songs ever. Vinyl only. And limited of course.

GUIDED BY VOICES Vampire On Titus (Scat) cd 12.98

GUIDED BY VOICES Watch Me Jumpstart (Matador) video 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Surprisingly excellent, heartwarming and not-at-all-smarmy documentary about Guided By Voices, made by local filmmaker Banks Tarver, who has directed most of their video clips (also included here). Most hilarious are interviews with Pete, GBV's Manager For Life, and the episode where GBV disses the supremely dis-able Picasso Trigger.

GUIDED BY VOICES We Won't Apologize For The Human Race (Matador) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GUIDO Anidea (Punch Drunk) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's hard to put our finger on what exactly it is about this record from UK electronic / dubstep producer Guido that has us so obsessed, but all it took was a single listen, and we were hooked. We haven't been able to stop listening to it since.
The first three tracks are pretty much perfect, not quite dubstep, not quite electro, but super melodic, a little skittery, playful and weirdly soulful, The opener pairs a spare beat to a dreamy minor key melody, letting the song develop slowly, the notes sounding like pizzicato strings, the vibe spare and skeletal, but very cinematic, synth stabs surfacing in the background, while little melodic flurries swirl around that main melody and that stuttery beat. "Orchestral Lab" might be even catchier, with its main squelchy synth melody, totally irresistible, almost anthemic, and then when the track switches gears, and gets all moody and minor key, it sounds again like the weirdo synth soundtrack to some super dramatic sci-fi space opera, laced with soaring strings, and then some cool dubby dubstep bass counterpoint, giving it some groove and heft, but then it slips right back into that main melody. The third track "Woke Up Early" just seals the deal, beginning with a sputter of stumbling beats, before a woozy squiggly synth melody gets all tangled up in there, and some fizzing spacey swirls of hiss and shimmer, lurching along, sun dappled, a little psychedelic, a lot groovy, stuff like this is often to light for us, but this is so goddamn good. The only real bummer is, that these first three songs are so awesome, we've barely made any further headway onto the rest of the record. There are definitely worse problems, and giving the rest of the record a quick once over right now, reveals that there's most likely more favorite tracks to come, more ridiculous sonic obsessions, including a handful of vocal driven tracks that rule, fuzzy and buzzy and skittery and a little spacey, the vocals chopped up and wrapped around the lurching beats, the record closes with a fierce chunk of late night dubstep, driven by some seriously thick bass wobble, an ominous and dark bit of stutter step that pretty much matches the opening trio in terms of complete radness. And be sure to stick around, there's a secret track tucked away at the end.
Another new electronic favorite for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Anidea"
MPEG Stream: "Orchestral Lab"
RealAudio clip: "Woke Up Early"

GUILLOTINE KYODAI`ACDFW1`AQ Viva Guitar (Creativeman Disc) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japanese avant-rock duo Guillotine Kyodai enlist a who's who of underground Japanese experimental guitarists to play a kind of "pass it along" game: each track features two guitarists dueting on an initial theme, which mutates as it is passed from guitarist to guitarist. Axemen include members of Ground Zero, Boredoms, Melt Banana, Solmania, Optical*8, Altered States, Bondage Fruit, and Kirihito. Not only conceptually interesting, this is good listening and probably essential to anyone who owns more than two records by the bands listed above.

GUILTY CONNECTOR A Conspiracy of the Mankind (Planet-Mu) 7" 6.98

GUILTY CONNECTOR Beats, Noise, and Life (Planet Mu) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "New York Shibaki Terror Conversation (Culture Shock Mix)"
MPEG Stream: "Nishi - Ogi Punk Waste (Dedicated To Struggle For Pride)"

GUILTY CONNECTOR Cosmic Trigger / 2AM Visit (Ground Fault) cd 11.98
In his one-man wrecking crew Guilty Connector, Kohei "The Fast" Nakagawa arms himself with homebuilt effects boxes that he physically attacks with metal pipes(!). Having previously presented us with jet-engine 'covers' of Black Sabbath and The Ramones as well as successful outings alongside Birchville Cat Motel and Zeni Geva's Tabata, Kohei takes his volatile Utsu / Shibaki electronics to the Ground Fault label, who ranked this album a III (loud) using their intensity of scale they employ to grade their releases. III is a polite way to describe the volatility of Cosmic Trigger / 2AM Visit, as Kohei blasts out of the gates with volcanic noise eruptions with all of the violence heard in the pre-digital Merzbow recordings from the mid-'90s. Mechanical grindings, claustrophobic scapings, train-wreck rhythms, and drum-kit pummelling all give the impression that like Burmese and Aufgehoben, there might actually be a band underneath all of the noise and cacophony; but in fact, there's only Kohei The Fast! Cosmic Trigger / 2AM Visit also features a guest appearance from Schimpfluch's Sudden Infant for one the more dadaist recordings on this album with its spastic squiggles of reel-to-reel tape warble punctuated by head-splitting noise. Listen on headphones at your own risk, this one can be pretty damn painful.
MPEG Stream: "666 Koenji Awamori Trinken Massacre"
MPEG Stream: "Brighter Than 10,000 Cacophonous Suns"

GUILTY CONNECTOR First Noise Attack (MSBR) cd 9.98
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Guilty Connector is Tokyo's Kohei "Fast" Nakagawa, the one-man goliath of jet engine sonics. Not since Merzbow's "Rainbow Electronics" have you witnessed sheer power and unrelenting force. Remember the first time you put on Monde Bruits? If you miss the Golden Years of noise (circa 1991-1996), this'll certainly take you back...
RealAudio clip: "Scar"

GUILTY CONNECTOR Symptom Of The Universe (Sewer Records) cd-3 ep 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japan's one man, harsh electronic,metal machine wrecking crew returns with a 3" cd of 'covers', of Black Sabbath's 'Symptom Of The Universe' and the Ramones' 'Blitzkrieg Bop.' And while Kohei The Fast, the man behind GC, does play actual guitar, the bulk of his sound is made up of "UTSU electronics" and field recordings. You get a glimpse of those classic riffs before they are thrown melody first into the tree shredder, and what comes out the other side is a ear shredding, brain rattling, bone breaking wall of shrieking feedback, buzzing instrument hum and an avalance of white/pink noise. Japanoise fanatics are gonna need this!
RealAudio clip: "Symptom Of The Universe"

GUILTY CONNECTOR / BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Assholes Of The World and Hunt in Packs (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.
Unfortunately a split and not a collaboration, 'Assholes Of The World...' finds New Zealand's Campbell Kneale and Japan's Kohei 'The Fast' (aka Guilty Connector) joining forces in the elite brotherhood of noisy assholes! Kohei starts things off quite unlike the stuff we're used to hearing from him, a simple, static high register drone. But that doesn't last long. All sorts of speaker shredding intrusions pile up on what is now a howling air raid siren-like screech, and then immediately into a sort of Merzbow-ish rhythmic stutter. The second track is a 4 minute blast of hyperchaotic metallic noise. Like some sort of ACTUAL SONG buried under the rotting corpses of Merzbow and Masonna.
You might think Kneale would pull out the big guns and answer back with a mighty blast, but he instead shows some gentlemanly restraint, and offers up one of his most serene pieces yet. What sounds like a single strike of a bell, stretched out as far as it will go, slowly oscillating, sound waves spreading out forever. Subtle insect-like flutters and the SPAREST percussion imaginable, a tiny bit of clatter, a reverby thud every couple of minutes. Quite nice, and a surprisingly subtle rebutt to Guilty Connector's boot to the face.
RealAudio clip: GUILTY CONNECTOR "Mothers Bloated Corpse - Warning"
RealAudio clip: BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL "Seven Silver Lanterns"

GUILTY CONNECTOR UND TABATA s/t (Even Stilte Records) cd 17.98
Wow, an interesting collaboration here. Mitsuru Tabata you may know as K.K. Null's co-guitarist in Japanese heavies Zeni Geva, as well as being an early member of the Boredoms, among other bands on his lengthy resume. He's also a solo artist -- his 1999 album "Brainsville" became a big favorite around here, an excursion into "rural Eastern psych" guitar that demonstrated his obvious love of '70s krautrock head music (Kawabata Makoto isn't the only Japanese guy obsessed with that stuff!).
Meanwhile, Tokyo's Kohei "The Fast" Nakagawa has made quite a few uber-noisy recordings under the name Guilty Connector, brutal power electronics in a punky Merzbow vein, including a split with Birchville Cat Motel. Good harsh stuff.
So, what does a collaboration between these two sound like? Well apparently Tabata (a big record collector) had been mentoring his friend Kouhei's interest in dub and psychedelic music, and naturally enough the duo was soon inspired to do these recordings, which turned out much more abstract and noisy that Tabata's "Brainsville", although Kohei's noise antics are tempered by Tabata's melodic psych ideas. Instruments utilized primirarly include electric guitars, guitar-synth, effects (Tabata) and "UTSU electronics" (Kohei), plus everything from acoustic 12 string guitar to toy music boxes to theremins, percussion, contact mics, and electric heaters! Oh and tape loops, lots of tape loops. The tracks are dynamic and varied -- some pieces end up all spacey and droned-out, with howling layers of distortion, while others are full of blip and electro-acoustic glitch, with bell-like sounds and echoey electronics. Certainly Japanophile fans of Acid Mothers Temples' most erratic and eccentric stuff, the Boredoms Super Roots experiments, Boris with Keiji Haino, etc. should dig this. Boasting a nice cover painting by underground manga artist Imiri Sakebashira, this is a fine debut release for French label Even Stitle.
MPEG Stream: "Le Schiaue Esistono Ancora"
MPEG Stream: "Noise Goes The Weasel!"

GUILTY PARTY It Doesn't Hurt (Evil Eye) cd 13.98
The Guilty Party keep their music in the shadows of night, lacing it with a slight goth and cabaret edge. On this full length follow-up to their 2004 Five Songs debut ep, the Bay Area foursome's brooding drama is more defined and recalls that of early '90s Northeastern U.S. rock bands such as Come or Versus, or more recent likeminded Westcoasters such as Duchess or Whysall Lane. Woozy and intoxicated / intoxicating, their troubled torment ramps up sharply as the album progresses, not unlike a rapid unravelling of emotions and nerves. The spotlight is wisely centered on the powerful throaty vocals of Angelica Maze. The potency of her pipes totally hold its own next to the imposing swagger of the guitars and driving rhythm section. Together they pack quite a wallop. Check out the eighth track "Switch Away" in which the band injects a little Sonic Youth-y art/noise rock dissonance at the end. Very cool. Recorded and produced by SF rock maestro Doug Hilsinger (of the very like-minded but more rural Waycross and Enochestra, they of the 'Taking Tiger Mountain revisited' project) who's also been known to play a little drums and guitar with the band too.
MPEG Stream: "Switch Away"
MPEG Stream: "The Prom Song"

GUILTY PARTY, THE Five Songs (self-released) cd-r 6.98
Five Songs is the debut release of this Bay Area moody rock band. What you first notice when you put this EP on for a spin is the contrast between the low, druggy female voice and the high pitched slinking guitar. The vocals and guitars sit prominently atop a bed of slow-boil bass guitar and drums. Shadowy, smoldering and more than a little bit gothy. Mixed by Doug Hilsinger (Waycross, Enorchestra).
MPEG Stream: "View From A Closet"
MPEG Stream: "Hit You"

GUILTY SIMPSON Ode To The Ghetto (Stones Throw) cd 14.98

GUINEA WORMS Sorcererers Of Madness (4rd Year In A Row!) (Columbus Discount) 2lp 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We had never heard of these guys, which kinda makes sense seeing as up until now they've flown pretty far under the radar, having released a bunch of cd-r's and only one proper 7", but hell they're called the Guinea Worms, the record is brilliantly titled "Sorcererers Of Madness (4rd Year In A Row!), and yeah, you read that right, SORCERERERS, multiple 'er's, and 4RD, not 4th, plus they came highly recommended by a loyal longtime customer, who besides being a great guy with impeccable taste, also used to play in a certain band of spacelord motherfuckers, which makes any recommendation of his even more worthy of serious consideration. Plus c'mon, they're from Ohio and their first record is a massive 22 song double lp!! Did we mention they totally rule too???
But what do they sound like you're probably wondering by now? Well, sort of like a drunken and damaged, drugged out and demented, super noisy, stumbling, chaotic, metallic, garage rock combo, with awesomely ridiculous lyrics, delivered in a super distorted howl, over blown out fuzz drenched Stooges style riffery, pounding brickbat drumming and some wild psychedelic flourishes, but that's only part of their sound. These fuckers are seriously far out, goofy, ridiculous, and as likely to bust out with some heavy crunch and chug as some silly fuzzed out sing along, or some twisted drugged out blues dirge, the lyrics are totally and brilliantly dumb, reminding us just a bit of Breathilizor, but the sounds here are all over the map, every song totally different, "Drunk In Yr Uggs" is a "Hey Mickey" style call and response, but with a killer woozy bluesy main riff, and some awesome female vocal harmonies on the chorus, "Accidental Space Tourist" is all low slung drunken garage blues, "Lounge Waltz" is angular and twisted, as it lurches and lumbers, "Kick In The Door" is a fuzz drenched garage rockified country hoedown, "Come Here Baby" is a thick slab of psychedelic dirgery, "Afternoon Party" is total Hawkwind worship, but way more damaged and dumb, "Never Giving Up" is a killer slithery jam that gradually erupts into something much heavier and darker, the vocals definitely reminiscent of Nomeansno, but the music much more like some bastard mix of Liquorball and Warlock Pinchers (minus the hip hop), or Bunny Brains crossed with Brainbombs as reimagined by fellow Ohioans Guided By Voices? Tough to describe for sure, but then the coolest weirdest things usually are.
You definitely need to have a pretty high tolerance for goofball dumbshittery, cuz there's lots of that, all over the place, and yeah, normally that stuff might drive us nuts, but it just suits these guys, they're funny as fuck, and can thankfully back up their goofy puerile sense of humor with some serious chops. Our favorite jams are the fuzzy distorted psychedelic numbers, which do make up a pretty good chunk of the tracks here, but somehow, if you took those tracks on their own, it wouldn't be the same, the dumb songs would be more dumb, and the killer songs would be way less killer, but together, it's pretty goddamn perfect. Absolutely recommended. Especially if you dig stuff like Liquorball, Breathilizor, Bunny Brains, Faxed Head, Half Japanese, Happy Flowers and other purveyors of ridiculous and brilliant whatthefuck weirdness.
We're pretty sure we've got the last few copies they had at the label, so when they're gone, they're gone.
MPEG Stream: "Bugged"
MPEG Stream: "Drunk In Yr Uggs"
MPEG Stream: "Accidental Space Tourist"

GUIONNET, JEAN LUC & ERIC CORDIER Synapses, Synapses IV and Synapses V (Selektion) cd 16.98
French sound-artists and improvisers Jean Luc Guionnet and Eric Cordier have built a large interconnected sound sculpture constructed out of parts of stringed instruments (guitars, detuned piano, and cello), percussive elements and metal resonators... all suspended from the ceiling with various wires and instrument strings. As all of these elements are hinged from the same point on the ceiling, each action affects the whole system. So if Jean Luc scrapes one of the wires, the whole systems will shake and bang against each other, with pretty much unplanned results. So their improvisations with the Synapse device are a fusion of post-Einsturzende instrument building, No Neck Blues Band pipe fights, and the conceptual playfulness of "The Way Things Go" filmmakers Ficheli & Weiss.
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 2"

GUISHER Hide Your Cold Dome (self-released) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We weren't sure what to expect from a Scantily Clad side project, but it certainly wasn't this! But we like it. In fact we sort of LOVE it. Unlike the cosmic synth drone of Scantily Clad, Guisher specializes in a dizzying, short attention span collection of home brewed lo-fi cut and paste, slice and dice, collaged, sample heavy, hyper rhythmic loopscapes. Sped up soul samples, snippets of songs off the radio, are slathered in crumbling distortion, then assembled into strange stuttery beatscapes, waves of white noise swallow up the proceedings, only to spit out fragmented shards of pop on the other side.
The sound is awesomely raw and primitive, like some caveman Art Of Noise at times, but the structures and rhythms are often surprisingly complex, and downright groovy at times, while pulverizingly noisy at others. The sound is pretty fantastic, slipping from DJ Shadow like moody skitter to weird world music collage to barely there short wave static in the same track, only to weave some sort of analog assembled electronica on the next track, all lumbering rhythm surrounded by flurries of tangled melodies, and weird swooping backwards effects. And so it goes, a head spinning kitchen sink concoction, a blast of crunchy electric guitars, shards of yacht rock, blasts of static and slowed down voices one second, warm and warbly, shuffling sort-of-electronic woozy rhythmic groovescape the next. So great! And apparently all recorded while on prescription drugs, which definitely might explain everything...
SUPER SUPER LIMITED. ONLY 55 COPIES, partially because the packaging is so deluxe, an oversized photocopied booklet with tons of fold out pages, secret panels, a little multi paneled triangular booklet in the middle, and a foldout poster, all in a plastic bag, each one individually sewed shut with multi-colored thread.
MPEG Stream: "Cuddle Consent"
MPEG Stream: "Chewed Popcorn"
MPEG Stream: "Spine Bottom Dimples"

GUITAR Tokyo (Onitor) cd 15.98
We'd venture a guess that Guitar aka Michael Luckner is not a man of many words. He chose the name of the common musical instrument as his moniker, and makes uncommonly dreamy instrumental music from a broad palette of processed guitar sounds that offer a healthy nod to My Bloody Valentine. On his latest album which he's titled simply with the name of a major Japanese city, he's got Japanese vocalist Ayako Akashiba adding some honey-sweet murmurred vocals to three of the tracks. The music has a hazy translucence as if each track (vocals included) were painted in watercolor with a smattering of heavier brushstrokes applied with koto and programmed beats. Lovely!
MPEG Stream: "Red & White"
MPEG Stream: "Tokyo Memory"

GUITAR MAGAZINE / LEADERS split (Classic Bar Music) 7" 5.50

GUITAR ORGANISM (Nux Organization) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Kazuyuki K. Null with Fred Frith, Guy Lohnes, Ichino Agata & Jim O'Rourke.

GUITAR WOLF Golden Black (Narnack) cd 14.98
All hail Guitar Wolf! Bands from Japan often take their music to the extremest of extremes, and blisterin' brutes Guitar Wolf are a perfect example of this. While some bands of the same ilk occasionally hit the red on the volume and intensity meters, this rad Japanese trio consistently push things waaay further, frequently roaring right through the red into parts unknown. It's not hard to imagine their vocals and guitars literally tearing your stereo speakers to shreds, and their hammering rhythm section knocking all the fixtures right off your walls. Not always in tune nor in time, but shit, that hardly matters when you're having this kind of frenzied fun! This is a wild collection of twenty six tracks, both "greatest hits" from their albums as well as some rare, out-of-print or previously unreleased material from their past eighteen years of garage rawk mayhem. Yes, it fuckin' rules, but it's also bittersweet because it marks the close of the Guitar Wolf chapter that starred bassist Billy (aka Bass Wolf aka Hideaki Sekiguchi) who passed away earlier this year at the age of 38. News bulletin: Surviving members Toru and Seiji have chosen to go on, searching long and hard for a new bassist. The new Bass Wolf is nineteen year old UG!
MPEG Stream: "Roaring Blood"
MPEG Stream: "Summer Time Blues"

GUITAR WOLF Jet Generation (Matador) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Billed as "the loudest cd ever recorded"! Guitar Wolf, Bass Wolf and Drums Wolf don their leather and shades and kick out the jams for yet another blast of the distorted-all-to-hell garageabilly that this Japanese trio is known for. Only Guitar Wolf could get away with doing yet another version of "Summertime Blues"...

GUITAR WOLF Jet Generation (Matador) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Billed as "the loudest cd ever recorded"! Guitar Wolf, Bass Wolf and Drums Wolf don their leather and shades and kick out the jams for yet another blast of the distorted-all-to-hell garageabilly that this Japanese trio is known for. Only Guitar Wolf could get away with doing yet another version of "Summertime Blues"...

GUITAR WOLF Loverock (Narnack) cd 14.98
Japan's garagey Guitar Wolf dishes out more! more! more! punishing guitar frenzy. The recording on LOVEROCK sounds so much like the studio was blowing up everywhere while they tracked, it's a little scary, but it totally captures aurally what it's like to see them live. Like everything's blowing up all around you but it's ok because in the dusty wake of its destruction will be... a wild pack of Guitar Wolf. LOVEROCK! LOVEROCK!! LOVEROCK, 4ever!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Loverock"
MPEG Stream: "Demon Card"

GUITAR WOLF Red Idol (Narnack) dvd 16.98
Watch 'em comb their hair! And rock like mofos. Japanese greasy garage rock at its most unhinged and high-concept.

GUITAR WOLF Rock'N'Roll Etiquette (Narnack) cd 12.98
Ohmigod. This sounds like it was dubbed off a cassette tape a million times. And then mastered at, like, 11, man. Guitar Wolf's Rock'N'Roll Etiquette features a cover of "The Way I Walk" originally made famous by Robert Gordon and then covered again by The Cramps as an extra track not found on the Japanese version. Another machine-gun blast of Japanese garage-rock glory. Start your day off right! Listen to RRE with (or in place of) your first cup of coffee. Yeaoww!!!
MPEG Stream: "God-Speed-You"
MPEG Stream: "Toiletface"

GUITAR WOLF UFO Romantics (Narnack) cd 16.98
The first domestic release from garage greats Guitar Wolf since 1999. These sexy men from Japan can be commended for their stick-to-it-ive-ness, and consistency of style. Raw old school garage taken to an almost avant-garde level of noise and ridiculousness. This record is more of the same, really fast and punk. Released on Narnack, that same label that put out the Coachwhips album, this is their eighth full length record!! Bands so often go through different phases and genres, changing with the times, and that's fine and all but I'm happy to see Guitar Wolf hasn't changed. Playing their fucked up, feedback-filled, punked-out, hair-slicked-back garage rock n' roll.
RealAudio clip: "Fire Ball Red"
RealAudio clip: "After School Thunder"

GULAGGH Vorkuta (New Era Productions) cd 13.98
Most of you weird music obsessives should probably remember Dutch black ambient freaks Stalaggh, whose MO was creating harsh atonal drones and buzzes, hellish noise drenched soundscapes as backdrops for various vocalists, those vocalists all inmates at a local psychiatric hospital. Yup.
The results were chilling, and creepy, and pretty fucking demented and incredible. Those Stalaggh recordings made even the evilest black metal sound totally tame in comparison. Some seriously emotional, demented and damaged, psychological sonic terror.
Since then, the band has regrouped, now called Gulaggh, with a similar plan of attack, with one little twist, according to the band, Gulaggh will be about "the perversion and inversion of Classical music combined with the vocals of the mentally insane". Definitely sounds good. Or maybe good is not the right word. But like Stalaggh, it seemed like Gulaggh would be equally disturbing.
So here it is. One track, 45 minutes, of totally haunting, mysterious... music? Sound? Soundart? Hard to know how to classify this. The sound of a voice, reverbed, over a deep distant thrum, all wrapped in little bits of hiss and creak, long tones rumble and drone, and then the voices begin to surface, mewling and moaning, groaning and mumbling, all over an insidious low end thrum, horns bleat, various bits of percussion pound scrape, and still the various voices get louder, more and more frenzied, the overall vibe ever more terrifying. The sound does seem to get classical, but more like an orchestra tuning up, abstract tones and atonal bleats and blurps, and then things go fucking apeshit, with all the vocalists, shrieking and screaming and howling, pounding on walls, stomping on floors, the cries growing more and more anguished, then out of nowhere some random drumming comes in, just in the middle of this cacophony of howls and shrieks, building to a frantic climax, before the voices begin to fade, swirling screams, sounding more like kids on a playground, but still intense knowing these aren't kids and they aren't on the playground. The horns step it up, honking and skronking and bleating and moaning, the drums skittering to a halt, then it's a weird fade out, quite voices, humming and murmuring and squeaking beneath the slowly fading horns, streaks of feedback, and that commanding, authoritarian voice from the beginning returns, the track ending how it started.
Holy shit, definitely super intense, and squirm inducing, somewhere between abject black ambience, a horror movie soundtrack, an educational film, a field recording, and a smattering of stumbling musical experimentation. Freaky as all get out, but in it's harrowing miserablism, does lurk moments of beauty, bits of melody, but for the most part those are definitely overshadowed by the evil and misery and terror, that the maniacs in Gulaggh have somehow rendered into music. Or at least sound.
Reservedly recommended. Difficult listening of the highest order, but would definitely be right at home on your cd shelf next to the Conet Project, the Ghost Orchid EVP recordings, and other mysterious and challenging collections of sounds found and otherwise.
MPEG Stream: "Vorkuta (excerpt)"

GULTSKRA ARTIKLER Kasha Iz Topora (Miasmah Recordings) cd 15.98
A Russian fairytale about a man with an axe who makes "flying porridge"?? Huh? Supposedly that's what this gorgeous album is "about" though since it's mostly instrumental and/or in Russian it's hard to say for sure, in any case it's certainly creepy and bizarre enough to be the soundtrack to such a story, and makes for a fine follow-up to Gultskra Artikler's record for Lampse last year, Pofigistka. That one was one of the strangest and most "actively" melodic or songlike of that label's ambient treasures but went quite well with Jasper TX and Machinefabriek, just as this fits in with Gultskra's new Miasmah labelmates Elegi for instance.
Kasha Iz Topara iz over an hour long, one track flowing into the next, the whole thing a continuous crackling soundscape of darkly dreamy textures, creaking sound FX, ominous chords, fractured and folky guitar, glitchy electronics, and sinister strings... among other things... a mix of haunting cinematic instrumentation, old time Eastern European tradition, and mysterious field recordings. What's not to like?? Axeman, bring more flying porridge please. Definitely for fans of Finnish forest freaks Kemialliset Ystavat, the aforementioned Elegi, and Miasmah label head Svarte Greiner, amongst others.
MPEG Stream: "Po Derevne"
MPEG Stream: "Medicinski Rabonik"

GULTSKRA ARTIKLER Pofigistka (Lampse) cd 15.98
We've said it before (more than once) but it does bear repeating AGAIN, Lampse is the label of our dreams. Quite literally in fact. Not only have we been totally captivated by every release we've heard so far, each one a gorgeous glistening slab of ethereal ambience, each buried in or delicately obscured by thick layers of gauzy sound or record crackle or tape hiss or any manner of fuzz and buzz, but these Lampse releases are all the perfect drifting off music, late night, lights low, cool breeze, floating off to never never land, sinking into a deep warm blackness, the absolute perfect going to sleep music. Our bedtime listening has pretty much been exclusively Jasper TX, Machinefabriek and this dreamlike sonic document from the hard to pronounce Gultskra Artikler.
GA might be the strangest of the bunch, which is saying a lot. The songs are much more active, with more obvious instrumentation, lots of guitars, most rendered into weird little angular shapes, sometimes stretched into gauzy smears, strings everywhere, sometimes pizzicato, drenched in reverb, floating dreamily in a swirling black void, sometimes soaring in the distance, weaving emotional epic backdrops to the sounds in the foreground, lots of mysterious percussion, and wheezing keyboards, fuzzy synths, but where the other two Lampse records we've reviewed employ a serious arsenal of sonic detritus to give their sounds a melancholy soft focus patina, Gultskra Artikler utilize a series of subtle field recordings, low level conversations, clinking silverware, footsteps, wind and rain, as well as what sounds like haunting disembodied tape loops, all woven delicately into the already ephemeral fabric of each song. And the thing is these are actual songs, there are melodies, and refrains and riffs, buried rhythms and soft swells of sweet sound, all rendered in deep shadows and indistinct hues. Grainy sound worlds that creep and swirl, drift and hover, an alien pastoral folk music buried beneath dense whirls of thick fog, slow, sleepy stretches of abstract ambience stretched into songlike shapes and allowed to drift lazily amidst a haunting world of shrouded beauty...
So absolutely lovely!
MPEG Stream: "Fizik Dyadya Kolya"
MPEG Stream: "Siluet Kotlet"

GUM Vinyl Anthology (23five) 2cd 21.00
Philip Jeck. Janek Schaeffer. Otomo Yoshihide. Thomas Brinkman. Saule. These have been some of the recent crop of avant-turntablists whose praises we've sung in the recent past; yet the use of the turntable with experimental music is nothing as novel as the current infatuation would indicate. Turntablism could be traced back to John Cage's Imaginary Landscape (1939), but perhaps a better historical jumping off point for those artists' delirious collage work would be with the early work of Christian Marclay and Non, who both reconfigured the noise and disembodied cultural reference from skipping records in the late '70s. It was that environment of Industrial culture that spawned Gum -- the Australian avant-turntablist duo which began quite literally with a skipping Brian Eno record. While Gum's Andrew Curtis and Philip Samartzis shared a common interest in Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Whitehouse, their work centered upon the volatility of surface noise from cheap turntables that they rescued from thrift stores and junk shops. At the same time, Gum balanced their destructive pursuit of tumultuous noise and electrically charged static with a clinical disembodiment. Even when disco-grooves from the Bee-Gees or porno climaxes get mangled in their Frankensteinian aggregates of loops and layers, it's hardly funky or sexy... rather a wonderfully disturbing mess. Having only a couple of singles on RRR and Korm Plastics as well as two self-released LPs, Gum had remained a secret history within the prolific oeuvre of Australian sound art; and now, thanks to this Vinyl Anthology compendium which features the bulk of their recorded works, the ecstatic expressionism of Gum can now be rediscovered for what it really is: precocious genius.
MPEG Stream: "Sporadic Acts Of Violence"
MPEG Stream: "Injected by a Certain Amount of Charisma"
MPEG Stream: "Outfits for Agony"

GUM TAKES TOOTH Silent Cenotaph (Tigertrap) cd 14.98
This recent Record Of The Week, BACK IN STOCK!!
Imagine a band that sounded like a bastard mix of UK-via-Texas, multiple drummered noise rockers Shit And Shine, grinding bass and drum duo Lightning Bolt and legendary weirdo drug rock combo Butthole Surfers. Then imagine the sort of din such a band could and would kick up and mix in all manner of mangled and freaked out electronics. Finally, imagine all of that noise being conjured up essentially by a single drum kit. And thus you have UK duo Gum Takes Tooth, which is essentially a drummer, whose drums are wired up to a dizzying array of home brewed electronics and tone bent circuit boards, with a second member tweaking and fucking with the sound in real time. 43 minutes of electronic-ed drumming might not sound that appealing to some folks, but don't make the call until you get an earful of the sounds these two whip up. Sure at times it's raw and rhythmic, noisy and chaotic, but the sounds here are all over the map, from super charged This Heat style rhythmic workouts, to blasting almost grind metal like blow outs, minimal FX fueled ambient drifts, to tripped out sci-fi psychedelia, murky, meandering distorto slow-core to frenzied noise drenched prog and pretty much every conceivable stop inbetween. Add in some Merzbow style noise, a little Psychic Paramount drum heavy post rock heaviness, some world music like tribalism, and stir it all up, and voila.
Opener "Young Mustard" is a pretty good sampling of what these guys are capable of, offering up a wild frenzy of tribal drum pound, weird processed vox, swirling electronics and FX, which eventually explode into some seriously aggro Lightning Bolt style, blast beat driven, downtuned grind, only to blossom into some Six Finger Satellite like synth-drum craziness, before the whole thing devolves into a abstract stretch of minimal clatter, random bloops and bleeps, swirling electronics, all beginning a slow build, the tribal drums swooping back in, slowly goring more distorted and intense, until finally fracturing into what sounds a bit like the Ruins crossed with Man Is The Bastard, thick blown out buzz low tones, pounding drums, howled processed vox, all woven into a seriously crushing electro-dirge.
"Tankjott" is another good one, starting out with some rapid fire kick drums, some gurgly vox, some squiggly electronics, building to a lurching, stuttery groove, soon more electronics, and more of that heavy bass buzz swoop in, and it's some sort of metallic krautpsych groove, with all manner of buzzes, strange twisted vocals, electronic pulses, before exploding into another fried and buzz drenched rhythmic workout, sounding to us like a way more chaotic / noisy / electronic version of MITB offshoot Geronimo, definitely the heaviest track here, sounding almost metal, but via Hawkwind and This Heat and Melt Banana and all blurred into some impossibly mesmerizing electrometal krautgroove, WAY too short at 7+ minutes.
And in between those two tracks, plenty of hypnotic, cyclical, rhythmic noise, progged out heaviness, stuttery drum heavy buzz and psychedelic noise rock, usually all at the same time, "Strychnine Motive" probably the most traditionally song sounding, but it's really relative, while "The Earth's Mantle Colonised" takes that same sort of sound and trips it WAY out into some sort of psychedelic space rock, the vocals chopped and processed, plenty of spacey squiggles and weird chanted vocals, the whole thing still drum driven big time, "Nomad/Monad" sounds like some bastardized gamelan orchestra, or a punk rock electronic noise version of Konono No.1, all looped thumb piano like melodies, tangled up and barraged by all manner of strange sounds, and then finally, record closer "Hermaphrodite And Nourishment" which does in fact feature a member of Shit And Shine on second drum kit, and while we were expecting a super frenzied drum heavy blowout, instead, it might be the pretties song on the record, all moody and loping and melodic, laced with ringing Tibetan bowls, crooned softly distorted vocals, squalls of feedback, and the cool thing is it never really explodes or freaks out, instead, it's just gorgeously mesmerizing and hypnotic, droned out and tribal, the perfect sort of sonic come down at a record that spends much of its time at a serious musical fever pitch.
Probably one of our most exciting recent musical discoveries (thanks Jason P.!), and with every listen this record continues to confound and delight and reveal more of the weird shit that seems to constantly be going on just below the surface, and odds are if you like any/some/all of the above mentioned bands, imagine them all mashed together and distilled into some wildly and gloriously twisted hybrid, and we imagine you'll probably be as knocked out as we were.
MPEG Stream: "Tankjott"
MPEG Stream: "The Earth's Mantle Colonised"
MPEG Stream: "Young Mustard"
MPEG Stream: "Strychnine Motive"

GUMI, SHINJU Mixing A Ghost (Shadow) cd 15.98
Who cares who Shinju Gumi is? Whoever they are, they've got mixes by Kid Loco (same as on the "Press Play" comp), Solex, Tarwater, etc. Dubby pop triphop electronica...

GUNGE Feel It (Frantic) cd 17.98
'60s Cali teenage garage punk band, Gunge not Grunge! Pretty cool archival release.

GUNN, STEVE Onomato Disc (Onomato) 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.
Steve Gunn of GHQ and Magik Markers among others, offers up some truly dreamy drone-y ragas on this WAY out of print super limited cd-r, originally released early last year, and inexplicably unreviewed until now. Guitars, banjo, voice and sample, woven into thick hypnotic mesmerizing swaths of buzz and strum, like Fahey arranged by Niblock. But that's just the first track. The other three tracks slip from blissed out psychfolk drift, lazy smoke-y guitars slithering through wispy clouds of whir and shimmer, to abstract, avant Appalachia, all obtuse strum and pick, to soft acoustic folk music, with lots of space, and gorgeous little tangles of minor key melody.
Definitely will appeal to fans of Blackshaw, Rose, and other dronefolkers. Packaged in cool hand assembled sleeves, hand stamped, with a photocopied insert, and a phot pasted to the front. Originally limited to 90 copies, this is obviously WAY sold out, and these are thus the last copies ever...
MPEG Stream: "Young Subjects"
MPEG Stream: "For Tyrone Hill"

GUNN, STEVE / ILYAS AHMED Decline Of The Stiff / Ignored The End (Immune) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another one of the ultra limited Record Store Day releases, we got enough of this one to review for all the faraway folks who couldn't be here on the day. A killer split, one side longtime aQ fave Ilyas Ahmed, teamed up with Steve Gunn on the other.
Ahmed offers up some warm sun dappled Appalachia, lush strummed 12 string guitars, all minor key and melancholic, accompanied by wispy reverbed vox, plaintive and intimate, the sound hazy and hypnotic. Near the end, buzzing streaks of electric guitar swoop in, hushed swells and layered harmonies, turning the folkiness into something more moody and softly psychedelic.
Gunn counters with his own take on Appalachia, a stripped down bluesy vamp, a little bit bluegrass, a bit folky, warm overtones, lots of layered buzz, Gunn's vocals deeper and more gruff, swaddled in reverb and delay, the various spidery melodies seem to grow more tangled as the song progresses, a gorgeous chunk of bluesy psych folk for sure.
LIMITED TO 800 COPIES, only 200 on clear, which are the ones we have. Housed in a super swank jacket with original artwork by Ahmed.

GUNSHOP s/t (C.I.P.) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Gunshop is the work of Chicago noise artist Blake Edwards. This album (quite possibly his first) falls cleanly within the purist boundaries of noise culture and power electronics, with elements of Mego's computerized collage stutter introducing extended passages of whistling electronic squeals found on all of the Whitehouse albums (no William Bennett-esque nightmarish rants on Gunshop tho). What is surprising about this record is how it relies on the subtlety of sound rather than the all consuming control of the listening experience...

GUNSLINGERS Manifesto Zero (World In Sound) cd 23.00
Now this is what we're talkin' about. The return of France's Gunslingers, not too long after their amazing No More Invention album and the cd release of frontman Gregory Raimo's equally awesome solo endeavor as GR & Full-Blown Expansion. How does one go about describing a band like this? If you had to simplify things, you might call them a psychedelic punk band with krauty inclinations. It is also interesting to note that the rhythm section is comprised of dudes from black metal behemoths Diamatregon and weirdo occultic post rockers Aluk Todolo, not that this sounds anything like either. Gunslingers possess plenty of what we all know and love - crazy psych-surf riffing, a frantic rhythm section that manages to be both tight and sort of drunk sounding, and GR's unhinged vocals, which we accurately described as a cross between Johnny Rotten and Mark E. Smith, or better yet, the Trashmen's singer on the infamous "Surfing Bird". But the truth is, Gunslingers don't fit so easily into any categories. They are a crazy sounding bunch, capable of whipping up songs that are frenzied and totally demented, but also catchy and fun. And unlike many bands attempting this type of thing, Gunslingers avoid falling into the "retro" category, sounding, if anything, more like the true extension of the wild sounds of the late '60s/early '70s. So if this band HAD existed 40 years ago, you wouldn't be too surprised, but Gunslingers sound so self-aware that they seem to exist out of time, a quality we always appreciate.
The band kicks in right away with "The Spectre's Sinister Commandment," a firebreathing number that lurches forward menacingly with awesome sounding bass, melodic riffing, and some ride heavy drumming as GR's crazed vocals will make you wonder what the hell is going on in France these days. Without really letting up, Gunslingers go right into their strange world once again with "Coupe-George", a dense hurricane of fucked up biker psych mayhem heavy on the treble. "Stub Of Fortune" is another monster with super distorted guitars that seem to recall SST's glory days, all twisted, atonal, and jagged but strangely melodic at the same time. The album ends on a sort of upbeat note with the winding riffage of "Condor's Radiant Spawn", with the drums providing a super tight bounce that will make you feel like your heart will explode at any second. In a good way, of course.
Manifesto Zero is another highly welcome entry from a band we simply can't get enough of, which is why some of us will be heading down to the Hemlock tonight to check this shit out in the flesh if we can get done with the list in time! (That's right, they're on a US tour right now, go see 'em!!)
MPEG Stream: "The Spectre's Sinister Commandment"
MPEG Stream: "An Eye For A Knife"
MPEG Stream: "Condor's Radiant Spawn"

GUNSLINGERS Manifesto Zero (World In Sound) lp 28.00
Now this is what we're talkin' about. The return of France's Gunslingers, not too long after their amazing No More Invention album and the cd release of frontman Gregory Raimo's equally awesome solo endeavor as GR & Full-Blown Expansion. How does one go about describing a band like this? If you had to simplify things, you might call them a psychedelic punk band with krauty inclinations. It is also interesting to note that the rhythm section is comprised of dudes from black metal behemoths Diamatregon and weirdo occultic post rockers Aluk Todolo, not that this sounds anything like either. Gunslingers possess plenty of what we all know and love - crazy psych-surf riffing, a frantic rhythm section that manages to be both tight and sort of drunk sounding, and GR's unhinged vocals, which we accurately described as a cross between Johnny Rotten and Mark E. Smith, or better yet, the Trashmen's singer on the infamous "Surfing Bird". But the truth is, Gunslingers don't fit so easily into any categories. They are a crazy sounding bunch, capable of whipping up songs that are frenzied and totally demented, but also catchy and fun. And unlike many bands attempting this type of thing, Gunslingers avoid falling into the "retro" category, sounding, if anything, more like the true extension of the wild sounds of the late '60s/early '70s. So if this band HAD existed 40 years ago, you wouldn't be too surprised, but Gunslingers sound so self-aware that they seem to exist out of time, a quality we always appreciate.
The band kicks in right away with "The Spectre's Sinister Commandment," a firebreathing number that lurches forward menacingly with awesome sounding bass, melodic riffing, and some ride heavy drumming as GR's crazed vocals will make you wonder what the hell is going on in France these days. Without really letting up, Gunslingers go right into their strange world once again with "Coupe-George", a dense hurricane of fucked up biker psych mayhem heavy on the treble. "Stub Of Fortune" is another monster with super distorted guitars that seem to recall SST's glory days, all twisted, atonal, and jagged but strangely melodic at the same time. The album ends on a sort of upbeat note with the winding riffage of "Condor's Radiant Spawn", with the drums providing a super tight bounce that will make you feel like your heart will explode at any second. In a good way, of course.
Manifesto Zero is another highly welcome entry from a band we simply can't get enough of, which is why some of us will be heading down to the Hemlock tonight to check this shit out in the flesh if we can get done with the list in time! (That's right, they're on a US tour right now, go see 'em!!)