GENERAL SMILEY & PAPA MICHIGAN Rub-A-Dub Style (Heartbeat) cd 14.98

GENERAL SURGERY Left Hand Pathology (Listenable) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "If These Walls Could Talk"
MPEG Stream: "Ambulance Chaser"
MPEG Stream: "Arterial Spray Obsession"

GENERAL SURGERY / THE COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINERS Split (Razorback) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GENESIS s/t (Guerssen) cd 23.00
No, not that Genesis. In fact several bands around the world in the '70s were named Genesis. This is the Colombian group who may just be running away with the title of Our Favorite Genesis! Founded by Humberto Monroy who was in another AQ favorite South American psych outfit, The Speakers, this is some breezy and beautiful psych-folk-rock with tasteful use of flutes, acoustic, electric and 12-string guitar and warm melt-in-your-ears vocals. With a pep and playfulness that hints at Tropicalia but with a much more laid back and sensual disposition, falling somewhere between the colorful psych-pop of Madrid's Agamenon and the dreamy acid-folk of Chile's Congregacion. For those that speak Spanish, the lyrics are very smart and impassioned, praising the farmers, the environment, natives and the lower classes. This was their 2nd album, originally released in 1974 and so very well standing the test of time. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Suenas, Quieres, Dices"
MPEG Stream: "Reconfortame"
MPEG Stream: "Manos De Hombre"

GENESIS Yakta Mama (Guerssen) cd 23.00
What an amazing time its been lately for anyone into '70s South American psych. For many of us here at AQ there was no region that delivered colorful psych-folk better then South America. Until recently so much of this amazing music remained unavailable but luckily the reissue craze has put the music of folks like Eduardo Mateo, Congregacion, Embrujo and Alceu Valenca into the limelight they all so deserve. A few lists back we gushed about the Columbian band Genesis and their great self titled record of breezy and mystical psych-folk-rock. Now we finally got our hands on another one, Yakta Mama which was originally released in 1975. And it's just as great if not even slightly more pleasing then that great self-titled offering.
These songs have truly stood the test of time, still glorious and lovely, letting us daydream in the subtle and majestic qualities of their melodies. In putting together these Genesis reissues, the Guerssen label found it impossible to track down any surviving members of the band. It's known that the leader and primary songwriter Humberto Monroy passed away many years ago after a heart attack, and while they for sure should have been one of the biggest names in all of Columbian music, most people there these days have no idea who they were. Here's hoping this reissue helps clue music lovers around the world into the simple beauty of a forgotten gem!
MPEG Stream: "Los Amantes Son Eternos"
MPEG Stream: "Canta Negro"
MPEG Stream: "Tu Y Tus Frutos"

GENGHIS BLUES (OST) (Six Degrees) cd 16.98
We had this before and sold many, but it was always difficult to re-stock 'cause it was being sold by the Tuva Foundation themselves, not a record label. But sad we are no more, because it's just been re-issued on San Francisco-based "world music" label Six Degrees (home of DJ Cheb I Sabbah and Bebel Gilberto!). For those of you new to this, Genghis Blues is the soundtrack to the fabulous documentary movie (of the same name). Blind San Francisco blues musician Paul Pena travels to Tuva (Central Asia) to compete in their national throat-singing competition, a skill in which he is entirely self-taught! A funny, touching movie, and of course blessed with some great music. Lots of blues, lots of throat singing and even throat singing blues, plus some Cuban son-esque tracks.
RealAudio clip: "Sunezin Yry"
RealAudio clip: "Kargyraa Moan "

GENGHIS TRON Board Up The House (Relapse) cd 14.98
It's generally a pretty bad idea to have a pun as a band name. Once in a while, if the band is pretty good, and you put some effort into it, eventually you can get used to it and forget it's a pun (Jucifer), sometimes you don't even realize it's a pun until you finally say it out loud (Vulture Club), sometimes it never gets any easier to say or type (Cream Abdul Babar), and once in a while, VERY rarely, it's actually a pun that makes sense, and suits the music, and thus is actually a perfect name for the band. That just so happens to be the case with Genghis Tron, who combine a punishing super complex grinding downtuned metallic onslaught (like a musical Genghis Khan) and tons of synths and video game sounds, and electronics and glitchery (like the video game Tron?), which is a chocolate-and-peanut-butter combo that is tough to beat.
We've always dug Genghis Tron, but something seems to have happened since the last record. The way we remember it, the old Genghis Tron wielded a non stop torrent of super spazzy buzzy synthgrind, we even described their sound as "synthcorespazzmetalfusion", but Board Up The House, while retaining plenty of spazz and buzz and grind, is a much more mysterious beast, much darker and dronier, with the gnarled blasts of hypergrind, peppered with awesome fuzzy synthy Gary Numan style new wave, all dour and moody, with crooned robotic vocals, tangled swaths of minor key synthdrone, Autechre like skitter, super spare minimal old school electro, some gorgeous washed out dreamy drift, and while some of those sounds end up tangled up with jagged shards of downtuned chug, or churning Neurosis-y sludge, or chaotic screamo freakouts, much of the time the band lets those sounds sprawl, creating gorgeous darkened soundscapes, very cinematic and epic, intense and majestic. It's like John Carpenter jamming with Pig Destroyer sometimes. Very few of the heavy songs make it to their ends without being awesomely complicated by the band's weirdo electronic proclivities, but somehow, instead of sounding like pointless genre hopping, or some infuriating ADD drive aggro rock band, the diverse parts are fused seamlessly, to the point where some soft synth shimmer couldn't sound more perfect than sandwiched between a wall of stumbling grind and a blast of hyperspeed Iron Maiden style guitar harmonies. And actually, the ratio of electronic weirdness and dark droned out synthscapes to full on mathgrind leans WAY more heavily toward the former this time around. And it definitely suits them.
The clincher is the 11 minute closer, "Relief", which is a gorgeous, post rocky dirge, all clean vocals and languorous riffing, the track builds to some serious chugging crescendos, and even offers up a few breathless skittery ambient interludes, but when the band lock into THE RIFF, the one they pound away at for the last 6 minutes, it's total drone-doom-kraut-groove nirvana, a loping seasick drum part, underpinning a slithery minor key riff, thick and relentless, glistening with harmonies, the various melodies slipping in and out of the churning groove, vocals and synths soaring in the background, another one of those parts we wish would go on for another 40 minutes, so much so that we've been driving everyone crazy by playing this track over and over and over.
Like we said above, we always dug this band, but even so we definitely weren't expecting a record this dense and epic and melodically mature. Fans of heavier stuff, of groups like Pelican, Conifer, Isis, Tides, Ice Bound Majesty, as well as dronerock combos like Pharaoh Overlord, Circle, Cave, might get WAY into this record, assuming they can dig some of the more manic freaked out stuff. And this just might be the disc to get Genghis Tron out of the synthspazzgrind ghetto. That is if they even want out.
WAY RECOMMENDED!!
MPEG Stream: "Board Up The House"
MPEG Stream: "Endless Teeth"
MPEG Stream: "Things Don't Look Good"

GENGHIS TRON Board Up The House Remixes Vol. 3 (Relapse) 12" 18.98

GENGHIS TRON Board Up The House Remixes Vol. 5: Remixed By Nadja + Tim Hecker + Dudes You Can Trust (Crucial Blast / Relapse) 12" 11.98
Now this is the one we've been waiting for!! The final installment in the 5 part Genghis Tron remix 12" series. For some reason we only ever reviewed the Temporary Residence 12" (each was on a different label), but there were other volumes on Lovepump United, Relapse and Anticon. We're predicting (hoping for) an eventual cd compilation release, but for now, this is the GT remix record not to miss. Nadja. Tim Hecker. Not sure who Dudes You Can Trust are, but they had us at Nadja and Tim Hecker.
Hecker's mix obliterates the original, in fact, if we didn't already know it was a remix, we probably would assume it was a proper new TH track. All warm and washed out and glistening and gauzy and sun dappled and woozy and blissy and dreamy, organic and shimmery, it's the sound that everyone shoots for, but only Tim Hecker seems to have perfected. The fact that there's a Genghis Tron track in there somewhere only makes it even cooler.
Dudes You Can Trust, which we just learned is actually one of the Genghis Tron guys, most definitely have a Nadja / Jesu vibe happening, the original track is stripped down and then bathed in dense shimmer, until most of the extraneous sounds peel back, leaving just a super minimal rumbly buzz, over a looped drum fill, before slipping into a brief stretch of lo-fi Ariel Pink like FM radio drift, and then finally a bit of glitchy minimal electro (!). Weird, but cool.
Nadja's remix takes up the whole of side 2, the first half of which is all minimal and drifty, with muted electronic bloops and bleeps, subtle effects, all very abstract and ambient, barring some barely there glitchy skitter.
Eventually, bits of the original jam burst through, a pounding howling metallic crunch, that sounds like it could have been looped or processed, but there's no time to figure it out for sure, as it quickly blisses out again into a haunting swirling whoosh of blissed out almost new wave shimmer, draped delicately over the remnants of the original track. So cool.
Needless to say, essential. LIMITED as all of the volumes are, this one is pressed on wicked red and green splatter vinyl!

GENGHIS TRON Cloak Of Love (Crucial Blast) cd ep 10.98
Aaaargh, a band name only an Andee could love... yes, Genghis Tron does rank right up there with, ahem, Corn On Macabre and Cream Abdul Babar, don't ya think? Actually Allan likes the name too. At least, it made him wonder, what does this band sound like? Well, first here's what the label says, then we'll critique:
"The debut EP from Poughkeepsie-based trio GENGHIS TRON. Cloak of Love is a virulent pop mutation that seamlessly splatters acrobatic shred and machine gun blastbeats across soaring synth pop anthems and electronic melodies. Five tracks of absurd brutalia and electro pop glory."
And it's true, some of this does sound like M83 being attacked by Discordance Axis. Some foofy '80s ish electro-dance beat will start up, only to be obliterated by a thunderous shitstorm of aggro axe shrapnel. But although they do make a successful effort at trying something new, Genghis Tron don't really strike quite as even a balance between their blastbeats and synthpop melodies as the description on the disc's obi might lead you to believe. A "virulent pop mutation"? Well it definitely leans heavier on the metal than the pop. Clearly they're more schooled and skilled in the latter. The "pop" elements, if there really are any, come in the form of brief keyboard noodles and retro-techno grooves, but actually that's more about instrumentation rather than style or structure. Alright, we don't wanna get totally sticky about the technicalities, but geez, the aforementioned obi description sure did raise our expectations. But then again, we should have known all that was too good to be true. So let's enjoy Genghis Tron for what they are. Less a true synthesis of synth-pop and metallic blasting than a spazzy collision of the two with the metallic stuff definitely getting the upper hand, the metal secure in crash helmets and seatbelts while the pop gets thrown from the vehicle, crushed on the roadway. But it does make for a spectacular crash, something that fans of The Locust and Mr. Bungle and Knodel and Melt Banana and Schizoid and Agoraphobic Nosebleed and The Daughters oughtta find rubberneckingly riveting. Depending on how you feel about such (diverse) bands, by the time the not-quite-13 minutes of music here are over, you'll either be pressing play again with a big smile on your face, or already have left the room, plotting the destruction of whomever was playing it to annoy you.
MPEG Stream: "Rock Candy"
MPEG Stream: "Laser Bitch"

GENGHIS TRON Dead Mountain Mouth (Crucial Blast) cd 14.98
Genghis Tron might have a joke name, but their music comes across as serious business. Not played for laughs, anyway. They blenderize genres like electro pop, grindcore, techno, screamo, and heavy metal into a delicious smoothie packed with blasting "boosts" and nutritious noise. Their name is still silly, but also fairly descriptive. The power and might of metal meets the computer age of music making! It's 100mph headspinning mayhem and sorta new wavey '80s synth pop sensibilities in collision, one or both of 'em subverting the other, it's not clear. Those of us here into The Locust and An Albatross and Horse The Band and the like were all thumbs up for GT's hyperkinetic debut ep Cloak Of Love and are equally stoked on Dead Mountain Mouth, which spreads their love all over ten tracks, a whole half-hour plus of gonzoid synthcorespazzmetalfusion. Very cool.
Note too, they have a few tracks on one of our recent Records Of The Week, the Drummachinegun compilation!
MPEG Stream: "Dead Mountain Mouth"
MPEG Stream: "Greek Beds"

GENGHIS TRON Remixed (Temporary Residence) 12" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
First in a series of remix 12"s, each being released on a different label, each with a different collection of uber cool remixers, all tackling various songs from recent aQ highlight, Genghis Tron's Board Up The House. Off to a pretty good start with volume one, just check out the remixers: Justin Broadrick from Jesu, Steve Moore of Zombi, Eluvium and of course Mr. Rob Crow of Pinback and Heavy Vegetable.
First up is Steve Moore and as we might have expected (and hoped), he gets all Goblin / Heldon on our asses, transforming the original into some awesomely creepy and cheesy eighties soundtrack, all murky sci -fi synths and old school drum machine pulse, haunting and cinematic, definitely evokes all sorts of gruesome and scary images and ideas, why isn't this guy scoring movies??? This may be a GT remix, but boy it sure just sound like Zombi. Who's complaining?
Broadrick steps up next and takes a clunky chunky rhythm and chops it up a bit, loops it into a strange mechanized lurch, wrapping the whole thing in thick streaks of Jesu like fuzz, taking the vocals and drenching them in effects and burying them in the mix, adds in some soaring strings, streaks of feedback, and we're definitely in some metal bliss territory, the second half gets a bit heavier, much more doomy and ominous, but still quite shimmery and dreamlike.
On the flipside, Rob Crow tries his hand at a GT remix, and his ends up being the most schizophrenic of the bunch, mangling it into super strange shapes, stripping away all the metal guitars, adding acoustic strumming, only to flip it around and have it all come crashing back down, draping the vocals over some weird bloopy electronics, pulling up the drums, turning it all tribal, before letting it explode back into some face melting crunch. It's almost like they pumped Crow full of caffeine and let him loose in the control room where he proceeded to go nuts with the faders while they were mixing, but it sound pretty excellent.
Finally, GT transformed into deep shimmering dark ambience, fuzzy and gauzy and washed out and expansive, hushed melodic blur, over deep soft swells, eventually building to something a bit heavier and blissier, almost sounding more like a Jesu mix than the Jesu mix, or maybe more of a soft Sunroof! Either way, quite nice.
Pressed on cool grey and gold swirled vinyl, and SUPER DUPER LIMITED. We only got a fraction of the copies we ordered, so these will probably be gone soon.

GENRICH, AX The Best Of... (ATM/BMG) cd 18.98
The 'best of' Guru Guru's psychedelic Krautrock guitar legend Ax Genrich. Includes 2 previously unreleased *live* Guru Guru tracks, plus all of Ax's 1975 "Highdelberg" super session record, and 2 tracks from his 1994 and 1995 amazing solo records. Freak out!

GENTLE RAIN Moody (Sunbeam) cd 16.98
Beatles covers and more done '70s synth-funk-soul-psych style.

GENTLE WAVES Swansong for You (Jeepster) cd 14.98
With Isobel from Belle & Sebastian, Gentle Waves is something you'll either avoid or drool over.

GENTLE WAVES, THE Falling From Grace (Jeepster) cd ep 8.98
The third cd release from former Belle & Sebastian-ian Isobel and co. opens with the title track of this EP sounding so familiar we'd swear it was a cover of an old ballad originaly sung by some French chanteuse a la Francoise Hardy. The only thing missing is a pretty la-la-la refrain. Breathless crooning, finger snaps, clarinet, double bass. Slow, pretty and destined for the next string of Volkswagon commercials.

GENTLE, JENNIFER AND KAWABATA MAKOTO The Wrong Cage (SillyBoy) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
With the sheer number of releases coming from the Kawabata Makoto / Acid Mothers Temple camp, we tend to get a little jaded. But the fact remains that if any of these discs was presented to us as being by a new band, we'd be pretty excited. Such is the case with this one, which IS a new band that we're not familiar with -- an Italian psych/pop outfit with the odd name of Jennifer Gentle -- simply teaming up with hairy Japanese acid guitar guru Kawabata for a fine display of out-there instrumental interaction. Recorded live this past year, this disc includes Kawabata-added versions of two JG songs, both sprawling 12 and 14 minute long psych epics w/ guitars, keys, electronic effects, drums, and bass all over the place. Between these two tracks you get six or so minutes of Kawabata scraping and droning away solo at his Indian sarongi, a nice if eerie respite from the energetic electric Pipes of Pan rituals he enacts with the Jennifer Gentle people. A collaboration not to be overlooked by AMT fans, or anyone into heavy, claustrophobic freakout jams of almost occult power. Now we're really curious to hear JG's prior recordings, if any!
RealAudio clip: "Couple In Bed By A Green Flashing Light"

GENTLEKIN, THE s/t (self-released) cd 12.98
Introducing a new warm and sunshiney combo from SF pop veteran Jon Fellman and co. Gentlekin spin retro psychedelic 60s style pop with soft male vocals much like the Posies or Go-Betweens. Lots of sweet and yes, ever so gentle harmonies and jingle-jangle guitars. Particularly tempting confections are the very first and very last songs ("Fair Weather" and "Something Changes Here"). Delightful!
MPEG Stream: "Fair Weather"
MPEG Stream: "Something Changes Here"

GENTLEMANS PISTOLS s/t (Candlelight) cd 14.98
Blimey, this is our favorite pure heavy rock n' roll album in a month of Sundays, pretty much, well since the Birds Of Avalon debut a few lists back anyway. '70s stylings to the max, fully indebted to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and the MC5. And paying those debts with freshly minted $100 bills. (If only, in a perfect world these guys would be raking it in like Wolfmother.) Signed to the Rise Above label over in England, home to Electric Wizard and Witchcraft and sundry other sterling stoner/doom outfits, this British band is indeed kinda Witchcrafty, if Witchcraft were more single-mindedly concerned about kicking out the jams... like a more cock-rock Witchcraft perhaps. Certainly Gentlemans Pistols are as much convincingly "out of time" as those Swedes, a bellbottomed retro-rockin' good time that ought to get your head to banging with such should-be car stereo staples as "Just A Fraction", "Widow Maker", and the MC5-ish high energy "Out Of The Eye" amongst the ten equally rad tracks on offer here. Gentlemans Pistols win us over with confident melodic vox, an abundance of catchy riffs, and a bit of clever... what's up with the song title "Parking Banshee"? They're sly ones, these guys, even when displaying some slightly cheesy, lemon-squeezin' rawk and roll lyrics that we suspect are halfway tongue in cheek, on the track "Heavy Pettin'" in particular, which is a slower, bluesy number a la Zep's "Dazed And Confused"... Definitely an album for Pentagram and Leaf Hound and even Raging Slab fans... Recommended, rockers!!
MPEG Stream: "Just A Fraction"
MPEG Stream: "Out Of The Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Widow Maker"

GENTLEMANS PISTOLS s/t (Rise Above) lp 29.00
Now on vinyl! A bit pricey as it's an import, but a killer record so for vinyl freeks it's probably worth it.
Blimey, this is our favorite pure heavy rock n' roll album in a month of Sundays, pretty much, well since the Birds Of Avalon debut a few lists back anyway. '70s stylings to the max, fully indebted to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and the MC5. And paying those debts with freshly minted $100 bills. (If only, in a perfect world these guys would be raking it in like Wolfmother.) Signed to the Rise Above label over in England, home to Electric Wizard and Witchcraft and sundry other sterling stoner/doom outfits, this British band is indeed kinda Witchcrafty, if Witchcraft were more single-mindedly concerned about kicking out the jams... like a more cock-rock Witchcraft perhaps. Certainly Gentlemans Pistols are as much convincingly "out of time" as those Swedes, a bellbottomed retro-rockin' good time that ought to get your head to banging with such should-be car stereo staples as "Just A Fraction", "Widow Maker", and the MC5-ish high energy "Out Of The Eye" amongst the ten equally rad tracks on offer here. Gentlemans Pistols win us over with confident melodic vox, an abundance of catchy riffs, and a bit of clever... what's up with the song title "Parking Banshee"? They're sly ones, these guys, even when displaying some slightly cheesy, lemon-squeezin' rawk and roll lyrics that we suspect are halfway tongue in cheek, on the track "Heavy Pettin'" in particular, which is a slower, bluesy number a la Zep's "Dazed And Confused"... Definitely an album for Pentagram and Leaf Hound and even Raging Slab fans... Recommended, rockers!!
MPEG Stream: "Just A Fraction"
MPEG Stream: "Out Of The Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Widow Maker"

GENTLEMANS PISTOLS The Lady (Rise Above) 7" 9.98

GENUINE ELECTRIC LATIN LOVE MACHINE Introducing The Neat Beat (Compulsive) cd 14.98
By now you're probably sick of hearing how much AQ adores DJ Jester -- the Filipino Fist, the Boca Burger Slingin' Travelling Turntablist. His bedroom turntablist debut River Walk Riots disc is still a bestseller here, a crazy and a super funky/funny ride through hip hop, classic rock, country, and just complete weirdness, where he incorporates samples of Richard Simmons, Iron Butterfly, the theme from S.W.A.T., Run DMC, Hank Williams, Black Sabbath, that Ofra Haza song, Aerosmith, James Brown... the list goes on.
Anyway, like Kid Koala did with Bullfrog, Jester has now released a disc with a band, Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine. It's loads of fun and a logical progression from the lo-fi River Walk Riots. Here the sound is much more hi-fi, the samples are fleshed out with upbeat and booty-shakin' rhythms, and the result is an honest to gosh party disc on the level of Milk Cult, Cat Five, and those Future Primitive live mixes. Yep it's that good. And I have to say the "Edgar" track with the sad sack Simpletext voice lamenting how lonely he is ("it sucks to be me") gets us every time! Very fun, worth a listen, say Windy and Andee.
RealAudio clip: "Hey That's My Truck"
RealAudio clip: "Looky Looky"
RealAudio clip: "Edgar"

GEORGE-EDWARDS GROUP, THE 38:38 (Galactic Zoo / Drag City) lp 16.98
We're always amazed that so much awesome and little known music from the sixties and seventies continues to be resurrected, and remain very worthy of its cult status. Case in point, this anachronistic synth-heavy psych gem from 1977 by the George-Edwards Group. While punk, disco, glam, bland FM radio, and heavy metal ruled the musical zeitgeist of the era, two multi-instrumentalist friends with a love of synthesizers, home-taping and melancholic spacey folk-pop made a mini-masterpiece in their Detroit, Michigan basement. Briefly mentioned in the Acid Archives book, it doesn't feel so much a late hippie-psych artifact, as it does a sublime and moody soft-rock epic that would have been huge on '70s AM radio in a parallel universe of our fantasies. Where instead of Bread, Chicago, and Seals & Croft, being played ad nauseum, music by Dreamies, Shuggie Otis, Fresh Maggots, Roger Rodier, Emmanuelle Parrenin, Collie Ryan, Biff Rose, Big Star, Scott Walker, Warlus, and of course, the George-Edwards Group would have scored our parallel universe childhood. Yet even that said though, 38:38 is much stranger than we can describe. Often the tracks with their multilayered Arp, Moog, and Mellotron drones and harmonies often sung in falsetto, sound like the less musically-damaged touchstones of what Ariel Pink recorded on his Doldrums album. And though the synthesizers are most prevalent, especially in sci-fi themed instrumental tracks like "Solar Flare" and "Magnetic Variation", other instrumentation like xylophones, autoharps, bells, piano and acoustic guitar play a big part in the compositions. One of our favorite tracks is "Floating Away", a druggy ballad with just acoustic guitar and what is purported to be recordings of ocean sounds, but sound like huge sheets of metal crashing in the background. Even the longest track, the instrumental "Hypertrain" is a kraut-y fuzzed electric guitar raga over drums that reminds a bit of Circle and Cave, while the second to the last track called "Some Fun" features maniacal laughter over a repetitive groove that adds an element of bad trip creepiness to the proceedings. One of the headiest records from the seventies we've heard in a while; those into druggy cyber-space folk-pop weirdness will be very satisfied with this. Solid!
Vinyl only, not sure if there's plans for a cd reissue too.

GEORGIE JAMES Places (Saddle Creek) cd 13.98
Something new on the label that brought us Bright Eyes, The Faint and Cursive! Georgie James is not a loner, it is the name of girl/boy duo John Davis and Laura Burhenn. The nearest comparison that we immediately thought of was: if Halifax boy band Sloan collaborated with Halifax girl band Jale this is what they'd sound like! Check out "Look Me Up" and the handclappy "Need Your Needs". Bright, buoyant, polished pop possibly inspired by The Kinks, Bread, The Raspberries and maybe the TV theme song from "WKRP". Sweet!
MPEG Stream: "Look Me Up"
MPEG Stream: "Need Your Needs"

GERALDINE FIBBERS Butch (Virgin) cd 15.98
Produced by Pell Mell's Steve Fisk, the new Fibbers record is heady mix of dark twang, screeching violin, and benefits especially from the experimental guitarwork of one of our favorite musicians, Nels Cline, who like Marc Ribot can go from improv skree to song-oriented work as displayed here, and still imbue his signature sound all over the record. Features one of the best covers of Can's "Yoo Doo Right" that we have ever heard.

GERBILS Are You Sleepy (Hidden Agenda etc.) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another fine Elephant 6 (Apples In Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power...) group. Their debut full length.

GERBILS, THE The Battle of Electricity (Orange Twin) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Mellow, lo-fi Elephant 6ers The Gerbils rollick along like a travelling band of musical mischief makers. If this quartet of Scott Spillane, John D'Azzo, Will Westbrook and Jeremy Barnes look and sound familiar, well it's probably 'cause they've spent a great deal of non-Gerbil time in the ranks of Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control. Not to mention the usual plethora of tuneful assistance from their E6 kin (for example, ex-OTC/Sunshine Fix's Bill Doss, Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes, ex-OTC/Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't's Pete Erchick). At times, "The Battle of Electricity" may make you think you're in the middle of a boisterous Greek wedding reception. At other times, a singalong in a backyard treehouse. Released on Jeff Mangum's Orange Twin label.
RealAudio clip: "The White Sky"

GERGIS, MARK & ALAN BISHOP Sumatran Folk Cinema (Sublime Frequencies) dvd 22.00
One of two new dvds from the always amazing Sublime Frequencies label, this one, like a visual version of those Sublime Frequencies "RadioŠ" compilations, where the compilers would flip through the radio stations in whatever country they were visiting, capturing little chunks of sound, radio plays, pop jams, folk music, etc. And while this is not quite as short-attention-span as those comps, it's generally the same idea, a sprawling, musical and visual collage of live shows, impromptu performances, local scenery, bits of television shows, nature footage, night markets, street scenes, all woven into a slightly psychedelic expanse of sights and sounds, with of course a KILLER soundtrack.
From live nightclub hip hop workouts (covering House Of Pain no less!), to casual jam sessions, seated around a coffee table, players smoking and relaxing on couches, to funky musical reviews, complete with a journeyman band and a sexy dancing and signing teen superstar frontwoman, to far out sci-fi monster movie clips, to strange performances from variety shows, homeless dudes rocking out on busted old Casio keyboards, lots and lots of birds, chirping and trilling over mysterious dronemusic , violin players weaving a cacophonous tuning-up din, gorgeous haunting classical music complete with the instructor correcting his students, sultry nightclub torch singing, amazing traditional folk music and costumed performances, incredible broken glass dancing, acoustic beach jams, complete with the sound of the surf, children playing, and best of all, just tons of footage of people, and places, playing music, hanging out, doing business, relaxing, dining, traveling, living their lives, all set to an incredibly varied selection of music, from folk to pop, to classical and anything in between.
Includes a bunch of extra footage, more amazing performances, extra footage of some of our favorite bands in the feature proper, as well as a a whole segment of trailers for other Sublime Frequencies dvds.

GERMAN German (DNT) cd-r 5.98
We know nothing about this release except that it's not German. And that it's an awesome slab of tripped out tribal psychedelia. Apparently there's a thumb piano being played but it's doused in FX so it sounds more like strange buzzing insectoid melodies, all wrapped around a propulsive tribal drum jam. No Neck and Sun Burned Hand are the obvious references, and anyone who likes either of those groups will no doubt dig this. Lots of buzz, and shimmering ambience, the drums are a continuous presence, a never ending, far out, outer space drum jam, not over the top, just steady, and subtly intricate, a solid framework for the various strange sonic goings on draped over the top. Thick swaths of flanged buzz drift over soft streaks of high end feedback, vocals are garbled and looped, all surrounding a core of trance-y disembodied skeletal krautrock. Killer stuff for sure. Too bad this is another one of those discs that has been sitting on our shelves for months. It -was- LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Now it's obviously out of print and gone gone gone. We have about 10 copies, and they won't last long, so act fast...
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"
MPEG Stream: "Three"

GERMAN OAK s/t (Radioactive) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Before we get way into it, let's just quickly mention that this record is AMAZING. Heavy and weird and dark and damaged. Allan and Andee have been in love with this record since they first heard it years ago. Andee considers it the best krautrock record EVER. We have been patiently waiting for someone to reissue it (the first cd reissue has been out of print for ages) and finally that day has come! So just buy it. Trust us. And it you need some more convincing, well, here we go:
1945. Amid ruin and rubble, German civilians cower as Allied bombs help bring an end to WWII. As citizens of a totalitarian nation whose mad leader launched a brutal war of aggression, and committed terrible crimes against humanity, they are both being punished and liberated... Flash forward twenty-five years to the early '70s. The youthful, idealistic offspring of the WWII generation are now of an age to wonder about and wrestle with what their parents did and experienced during the Hitler years. In the case of the krautrock band German Oak, the approach they took was to hole up in an abandoned air-raid shelter (the Luftschutzbunker), set up their gear and just roll. Let the music unfurl, channelling years of grief and anger and confusion and hope through guitar, drums, bass, organ, fuzz-organ/guitar and "noises." The band described it like this:
"As we played down there in the old bunker, suddenly a strange atmosphere began to work. The ghosts of the past whispered. There has been fear, desperation -- but also hope!"
Weird sure, and kinda hippy maybe, but what do you expect? It's 1972, five twenty-something German hippies are using music and sound to explore the emotions and tragedies and glories of the last three decades, particularly, the war that shaped their country and the lives of their parents. And indirectly their own lives as well. You can hear it in the music. Dark and frightening, ominous and rumbling. A huge cavernous space, giving everything the appropriate claustrophobic, underground feel, drums stumbling through the darkness, warm swells of guitar and organ billowing out like puffs of smoke. Almost ambient at times, pulsing and pounding at others. This is THE ultimate krautrock record. Super lo-fi but thick and heavy and lush in its own way. The sound of the bunker is definitely another instrument, a primitive caveman studio, adding a subterranean timbre to the creepy jams and abstract rhythms.
Originally released in 1972, only 213 records were pressed, all with handpainted covers. Only 11 copies sold at the time. Which is hard to believe listening to this. Or actually, maybe not that hard to believe. This is politically and personally charged stuff, the militaristic images, the song titles ("Raid Over Dusseldorf", "Down In The Bunker", "1945 - Out Of The Ashes", "Airalert") but mostly the music. So gorgeously spacy and ominous, throbbing and moody. A modern reference would obviously be the No Neck Blues Band (David Nuss of the NNBB is a massive fan) whose shambolic, skittery free-folk sound borders on the plagaristic when compared to this here record. But what the hell? If Sunn 0))) can make a career out of Earth worship, then hell, NNBB should be free to channel the spirit of the mighty German Oak. Krautrock expert Julian Cope, in a review of the first German Oak cd reissue said heard a lot of Funkadelic and "whiteboy funk" in German Oak's murky spaced out rhythms. We don't hear much "funk" but we do see what he's driving at. The early Funkadelic records were constructed from the same sort of skeletal rhythmic frameworks of stumbling, scrabbly, pulsing, throbbing groove. Sure there are plenty of wah guitars and thumping throbbing bass, but here the guitars are used for rhythm as much as melody and are swaddled in thick swirls of natural undeground reverb, and the melodies that do surface are muted and minor key, always slowly meandering, wandering into oblivion. Like Can or Faust if they were Hell's house band, playing last call forever, at the gates of damnation, forced to play on and on and on and on....
Our one complaint (it's always something) is that Radioactive chose to leave off 20+ minutes of bonus material that was included on that first cd reissue (released on Witch And Warlock in 1991 and now WAY out of print). We sort of understand why, as the four tracks found here properly represent the original vinyl pressing which had two songs per side. But even though that was the way it was originally released, it's still a bummer not to get the bonus tracks on this cd version. Especially since obviously pretty much no one has the original LP, so we had always known the German Oak record to be like it was on that Witch and Warlock cd, seven tracks not four, 60 minutes not 38. Furthermore, that old cd reissue was inexplicably sequenced with the bonus tracks FIRST which makes it seem like the first part of this record is missing now... And so we're disappointed that you won't get to hear tracks like the legendary (and perhaps now lost) "Swastika Rising", complete with its mysterious sonic dropouts (original tape damage? mastering mishap?). Or "The Third Reich" which sampled a Hitler rally speech to chilling effect. But what can you do? If only it was up to us and all reissues would include EVERY bonus track and all the original artwork and fans would never be forced to buy 3 or 4 or 5 different versions to get all the music they want to hear. So yeah, it's a drag that this re-issue isn't more complete, but even stripped down to its original length, this record still completely blows us away! Better get it now before they strip it down even fursther and put out a version with even fewer tracks!
MPEG Stream: "Down In The Bunker"
MPEG Stream: "Raid Over Dusseldorf"

GERMANO, LISA In the Maybe World (Young God) cd 14.98
Another breathtaking album from Ms. Lisa Germano. Few are capable of capturing in song the shadowy outer limits of total heartbreak and distressed frailty as she does. Her slightly unstable, velvety voice alone can cause your heart to unexpectedly find itself lodged in your throat. Add in the accompanying melancholic strings and willowy piano and you just might be reduced to a quivering puddle of tears. Deceptively potent. Wow. Need we say more?
MPEG Stream: "The Day"
MPEG Stream: "In The Maybe World"

GERMANO, LISA Lullaby For Liquid Pig (Artist Direct) cd 16.98
Finally, the long-awaited sixth album from Ms Lisa Germano has revealed itself after a five year silence, and it's so well worth the wait! Is she the female equivalent of kindred spirit Howe Gelb? Or perhaps is it vice versa? Both artists pour themselves so completely into their music, and in doing so bring light to the most intimate, strange, and darkest corners of the heart and mind. Gloriously spooky, rich and eccentric. Each word she sings and each off-kilter dusty musicbox melody that echoes around her voice pull back the covers to reveal raw hurts, half-healed heartaches and the scars of the past. Ghostly images blurred by tears and sleeplessness fully materialize and dissipate. The personae who inhabit Germano's songs always seems either right at the brink of emotional collapse or perhaps resurfacing from just such an unravelling, but there remains an ever-present glimmer of hope. Hers are deeply moving songs that linger with you long after the curtains close. At once, it's somehow both immensely soothing and unsettling... and absolutely gorgeous. She's joined by a stellar group of musicians too including Johnny Marr, Wendy Melvoin, Joey Waronker, and Neil Finn. Very very recommended.
MPEG Stream: "From A Shell"
MPEG Stream: "Lullaby For Liquid Pig"
MPEG Stream: "Candy"

GEROGERIGEGEGE None Friendly (Mink) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Album number 132 (or something close to that) from Japanese noise musician / sound artist Juntaro Yamanouchi. Gerogerigegege (loosely translated as simultaneous vomit-diarhhea, then the supposed sound of such a catastrophic gastrointestinal event) has gone through all sorts of sonic incarnations, noisy splatter punk, bombastic japanoise, experimental musique concrete, with some of those incarnations featuring the added bonus of mic-ed masturbating, courtesy of a geriatric 'public' masturbator befriended by Juntaro. On 'None Friendly' (actually recorded in 1987), he tackles THE DRONE and it's quite a listen. Deep and sonorous, lush and mesmerising. I was convinced it was a synthesizer until I noticed on the sleeve, that it specifically points out that there was 'No synthesizer used.' So what the sound source actually is remains a mystery although a source close to the man thinks it just may be a guitar tuner (?). But maybe it -is- processed masturbating. I mean, I hope it is. But either way, this is a fantastic record. One extended buzzing and humming, slowly developing hypnotic drone. Really great.

GEROGERIGEGEGE, THE Hell Driver (Dirter Promotions) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Of all the (in)famous Japanese noise bands, The Gerogerigegege might be the most extreme and unusual. Always super difficult, whether indulging in hardcore spazzrock or destroying piles of 45s in a concept-art conflagration, The Gerogerigegege are also notable for the often audible presence of a middle-aged masturbating man! The recordings on this new cd date from 1992 to 1996, and the material here ranges from what sounds like field recordings in a karaoke bar to near-ambient piano improv to live electronic drones n' tones. Strangely mellow and subdued but nonetheless intriguing.

GERONIMO s/t (Three.One.G) cd 14.98
It was sort of inevitable that this disc would end up being an aQ record of the week. But before we tell you the strange tale of how we got to this point, how we discovered this band and this disc, let's offer up a quick, succinct, three word description that might render the rest of this rambling review moot:
CAVEMAN THIS HEAT.
Sold? We would be. Imagine Man Is The Bastard transported back to the early seventies and let loose in This Heat's Cold Storage recording studio, or take the black hypno kraut noise of former aQ record of the week, Aluk Todolo and strip it down to its bare essence, a sound based almost entirely on rhythm. A pounding, Neanderthal groove, pelted with squelches, and laced with a strangled inhuman mewling, huge chunks of grinding minimalism and long swaths of dreamy shimmering bliss, an ultra intense slab of kraut-doom power violence for sure.
The weird thing is, the first time we hear Geronimo was several years ago, when Circle came to play some shows on the West Coast, and so I (Andee) was happily drafted to drive them around, roadie for them, all that stuff. So one of the shows was at Arthurfest in LA Circle were playing with SUNNO))), in a way-too-small seated theater, based on how many angry folks were turned away (as in HUNDREDS!). I spent the whole time, running back and forth, up and down the stairs, trying to sneak as many people into the show as possible, through the emergency exit, the backstage door, every time I went back out I would run into someone who wanted me to get them inside. While this was all going on, a band started playing, and they were AMAZING. A bunch of cholo looking dudes, handkerchief headbands, all sort of just standing there, behind huge racks of busted looking equipment, making the most unholy racket, a gorgeously destructive rib cage rattling pummel, eventually I had to stop running back and forth, cuz this band was totally sucking me in, and so I just sat down on the floor and let the band's vibrations wash over me, the floor literally shaking violently with every note.
Well, we later discovered they were called Geronimo, but no one knew anything about them, and the folks waiting for Circle and SUNNO))) didn't seem to get it or be that into it at all. We never got to talk to them in the chaos of getting Circle sorted. And eventually it sort of just slipped my mind.
So flash forward two years to the end of 2007, when we highlighted that No Skull Left Unturned comp a list or two back, collecting the various offshoots of Power Violence pioneers Man Is The Bastard. And we were particularly taken with the band Sleestak, a doomy math rock variant on MITB's bassy grind, and their sound reminded us of THAT band, the one that opened for Circle back in 2005. Then we sort of randomly stumbled across this here disc, and suddenly everything clicked, THIS was the band we saw and loved so much, and whaddayaknow, Geronimo just so happens to feature folks from both Man Is The Bastard and Sleestak. And it sounds even better than I remember, heavier, groovier, way more fucked up and WAY more freaked out. So here's a song by song breakdown of this devastating chunk of brutal beauty and monstrous minimalism:
The opener, the 18 minute "Firewater", is perfectly placed to test the listener's mettle, an endless epic stretch of looped high end klaxons and choked cymbal crashes, like a metal intro stretched into an entire song. All around this constant crunch and whine, whip flurries of electronic glitch and crunch, swaths of grinding crumbling analog buzz, while beneath it all a rumbling minimal bass line lopes lazily, until about half way through, when the track suddenly switches gears, and turns super abstract, minimal smears of drone and muted feedback, LOTS of space, and huge percussive crashes spread WAY out. It's like a super minimal abstract doom. But with bits of atonal keyboard and strangled vocals. Like the rhythm section of Khanate scoring a Dario Argento movie. That soaring high end from the beginning of the track returns, along with some speaker destroying analog buzz, still spaced out around long stretches of silence, finishing off with a brief burst of intense fury, distorted vocals, thick wall of crumbling distortion, If you survive the first track, then track two, "Headdress", is your reward, a short sharp shock of rhythmic groove, it's all about the drums, a simple, killer rhythm, the drums slightly distorted, locked into a relentless loop, while all around it, malfunctioning synths and skittering shards of glitch and skree soar and swoop, until it too shifts suddenly, into a mathy breakdown, another mesmerizingly minimal and hypnotic looped drum fill, pounding its way through a sky filled with creaks and groans and whirs and garbled grinding lo-fi squelch, finishing off with another furious blast, this time a spray of super distorted bass riffing, howled ultra effected vocals, and total drum destruction.
"Spiritwalker" offers up another side of Geronimo, the strange homemade electronics muted and smeared into much softer shapes, allowed to drift and shimmer, the drums a muffled pulse, lots of low end rumble and whir, darkly droning and cinematic, thick swells of minor key melodies, over a wasteland of glitch and buzz, slow motion tribal percussion, everything wrapped in a gauze-y haze of psychedelic textures, low end murk, and abstract FX, a gorgeous soundscape, of slow black krautrock ambience. "Medicine Man" is another brief chunk of abstract doom. A simple plodding rhythm, a thick grinding rumbling low end synth, huge blasts of effects-drenched crunch, and ominous spoken vocals and shrieked demonic howls,
And then there's "Facepeeler", which begins with a propulsive drum part, a serious metallic jam, huge bass riffs, shrieked maniacal vocals, and speaker shredding, super stereo panned effects, until suddenly the song slows down into a lurching doomic plod, the drums blown out and in the red, locked into another super simple, but completely intense and relentless slow motion rhythm, again, the sky full of FX, squealing and grinding and buzzing and screeching, but now sprawled over Geronimo's angular what-the-fuck minimal math doom, are some of the most fucked up and intense vocals ever, alternately growling, roaring, howling, whispering and mewling, it sounds a bit like an industrialized Wolf Eyes-ian Oxbow, until you realize that the vocals in question belong to one David Yow, of Jesus Lizard and Scratch Acid (if only Qui sounded this bad ass). The suddenly it begins to sound like some Jesus Lizard outtake, slowed down, pulled apart and run through a bank of rusted and duct taped effects. One of those songs that easily could have been stretched out to the length of a whole record. Abrasive and brutal and hateful and super intense and heavy as fuck, but somehow weirdly hooky, and impossibly catchy, it's almost like having your pain and pleasure centers swapped, so having that anvil dropped repeatedly on your head ends up feeling so so divine. Definitely the song we keep coming back to, and playing over and over and over and over...
Finally, the band finish things off with the uncharacteristically mellow "Prints Tie", wrapped around a fluid almost jazzy bassline, drifting keyboard melodies, and shuffling abstract percussion, the Neanderthal electronics are still present, but used much more sparingly, gorgeous and glimmering, a soft smeared minimal workout that almost sounds like a more lo-fi Necks. Super dreamy and darkly shimmery, and just pretty enough to almost make you forget the 47 minutes of glorious sonic punishment you just endured. Almost.
So so so recommended. The minute we threw this one, we knew, THIS WAS THE ONE. Definite contender for record of the year (and actually, since I got it in December, it WAS my record of the year for 2007, even having only had it less than a month!) Folks who dug the Aluk Todolo will for sure dig this too. Likewise if the idea of, say, Mammal doing This Heat songs sounds cool to you too. Basically anyone into brutal rhythms and abstract minimal heaviness NEEDS this...
MPEG Stream: "Headdress"
MPEG Stream: "Facepeeler"
MPEG Stream: "Spiritwalker"

GERRARD, LISA The Best Of Lisa Gerrard (4AD) cd 14.98
Here's one that perhaps need no introduction nor description... 'Tis quite impossible to sum up this grand dame's expansive career as one half of Dead Can Dance and film score composer (Whale Rider, Gladiator, etc) on one compact disc, but The Best Of Lisa Gerrard is an admirable attempt on 4AD's part. It offers the merest glimpse of the sweeping grandeur of her classical and world music steeped compositions, but such an enveloping one. Diehard fans (and there are legions of them!) probably own every one of these tracks already, but it serves as a great introduction for newcomers. Evocative and sumptuous.
MPEG Stream: "Sacrifice"
MPEG Stream: "The Host Of Seraphim"

GERRARD, LISA The Whale Rider (OST) (4AD) cd 14.98
Lisa Gerrard's soundtrack to the movie The Whale Rider glides and cascades gorgeously. So wonderfully moving regardless of whether or not you've seen the film. It's a finely composed, predominantly instrumental album but one that's laced quite effectively with her ethereal voice. With it's lustrous harp sounds and delicate piano melodies, it very easily could be found filed in the New Age section of some record stores simply towering over the rest of the flock. A soothing delight for any Dead Can Dance fan.
MPEG Stream: "Biking Home"
MPEG Stream: "Go Forward"

GERRARD, LISA & JEFF RONA A Thousand Roads (OST) (Wide Blue Sky) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More gorgeous worldly film score work from Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard! Following up her fine compositions for Whale Rider, Ms Gerrard joins Jeff Rona in scoring the soundtrack for A Thousand Roads. Needless to say, she's definitely found her (second?) calling. On its own without the film's visual accompaniment, the soundtrack's numerous diverse voices, woodwind and string arrangements and haunting drones make for a deeply moving 'of the earth' listening experience. Sure to please fans of her solo work as well as those of Dead Can Dance. Guests include John Trudell, R. Carlos Nakai, Ulali, Douglas Spotted Eagle, Primeaux & Mike.
MPEG Stream: "Coming To Barrow"
MPEG Stream: "A Healer's Life"

GERRARD, LISA / PATRICK CASSIDY Immortal Memory (4AD) cd 14.98
My goodness! When did Lisa Gerrard become Enya?
Just (sorta) kidding! Really though, there is a striking resemblance on Immortal Memory. Following her Whale Rider soundtrack, Ms Gerrard (Dead Can Dance) continues on her solo path of otherworldly aural elegance. Fans have undoubtedly already swooped in for their copy of this sumptuous, ethereal new collaboration with Irish composer Patrick Cassidy. Who'd like to wager that we'll be hearing her on the soundtrack to the next Peter Jackson film? Well, maybe the one after King Kong!
MPEG Stream: "Sailing To Byzantium"
MPEG Stream: "I Asked For Love"

GERRITT ...Sails The Seas Of Displacement (Dielectric) 12" 8.98
Some of you may know Gerritt as a noise musician, and some of you may know him as the guy behind the super cool Misanthropic Agenda label responsible for that amazing double disc of Merzbow remixes and the Merzbow Frog release. But here, on the latest orange 12" from our pal Drucifer's seemingly infallible Dielectric Records he is neither. While traces of his industiral noise side occasionally surface, this is a way more subtle and creepy beast. Percussive clatter sounding like pipe fights and rushing water, gurgling and bubbling, hissing static, and throbbing crunch are stretched and spread out over a dark and spare soundscape. Very haunting and disorienting. Creepy, squealing clanks and clunks, horroscapes of high-end creaks and indescribable knocks and bumps, coalesce into lugubrious non-rhythms, culminating in the epic final track that is more empty nothingness than anything requiring close listening and evoking dark musty hallways, lonely dirt paths, and all sorts of unspeakable darkness.

GERSCH, THE s/t (Tortuga Recordings) cd 12.98
A resurrected slab of blown out heaviness from this druggy sludgerock combo, featuring a current member of metallic post rock heavyweights Isis and the Red Sparowes. You won't hear much epic moodiness or brooding metal lope here though. Most folks compare the Gersch to bands like Sabbath, Sleep and Kyuss which is definitely fair, but if you ask us, we're hearing a whole lot more Amphetamine Reptile, like a total timewarp back to the good ol' Amrep days, you know, Halo Of Flies, the Cow Bullies, Lubricated Goat, Unsane, Surgery, Tar, Killdozer, the Cows, Boss Hog, Helmet, Vertigo, King Snake Roost and the rest...
What's weird is that the recording quality sounds genuinely old, almost as if it could have been recorded in the seventies, although the band sounds just a wee bit too metal to actually be from way back then. But the combination of Amrep style heaviness and that seventies production, makes for a deadly combo, and had us imagining the miraculous discovery of some lost tape from this weird band from 1971 called the Gersch, who were somehow channeling the spirit of Sabbath though a super chaotic metallic freaked out buzz. By now you should be able to tell whether this is your cup of tea or not. It most certainly is ours. A steaming hot cup of dense jagged guitars, convoluted mathy rhythms, chugging downtuned grooves, shouted and grunted vocals buried in the mix, massive slabs of rumbling low end, all stretched and twisted into churning, thrashing, pounding seventies-via-nineties metallic RAWK. Awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Listwish"
MPEG Stream: "Magnificent Desolation"
MPEG Stream: "Residue Three"

GERTY FARISH Tiny Band (Load) cd 9.99
It's as though Owen from Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and Alec Empire went through that teleport machine in The Fly and got fused body and soul. Insane, insistently catchy pop-punk ditties, with crack cocaine powered casiotones, overdriven guitars and vocals. This is the type of record that, when we play it in the store, people will invariably want to buy a copy or ask "Can you play this ______ cd?" (ie: "take this off") Highly recommended.

GESCOM ISS SA (Skam) cd ep 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
With Autechre's "Draft 7.30" being such a dodgy proposition, we've approached the concurrent single from their alter-ego Gescom with considerable trepidation. While it once appeared that Gescom was the more experimental venue for Sean Booth and Rob Brown, the roles may have reversed as "Draft 7.30" is clearly the more obtuse of the two constructions. "SS SA" isn't that far off from the IDM / electronica patterns of disjointed breakbeats and shimmering melodies found on Autechre's "AE5," and fortunately doesn't suffer from any of the problems that "Draft 7.30" did. Not their finest moment, but certainly worth checking into, if not for the music than for the crazy finish-fetish artwork within of spiralling chrome-plated exhaust pipes.
MPEG Stream: "ISS SA"

GESCOM ISS SA (Skam) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
With Autechre's "Draft 7.30" being such a dodgy proposition, we've approached the concurrent single from their alter-ego Gescom with considerable trepidation. While it once appeared that Gescom was the more experimental venue for Sean Booth and Rob Brown, the roles may have reversed as "Draft 7.30" is clearly the more obtuse of the two constructions. "SS SA" isn't that far off from the IDM / electronica patterns of disjointed breakbeats and shimmering melodies found on Autechre's "AE5," and fortunately doesn't suffer from any of the problems that "Draft 7.30" did. Not their finest moment, but certainly worth checking into, if not for the music than for the crazy finish-fetish artwork within of spiralling chrome-plated exhaust pipes.

GESCOM Keynell (Skam) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Nowadays, Autechre invokes the Gescom moniker whenever the IDM duo wants to experiment outside of their well-defined Autechre sound as in their contribution the "Absolute Zero" compilation and their collage friendly MiniDisc only release. Yet during the beginning of Autechre's career, the difference between Gescom and Autechre recordings weren't as discernable. I'm pretty sure that Gescom was credited as "authoring" one of the tracks on the first Autechre album "Incunabula." Regardless, Gescom has released a handful of exceptional singles (mostly on the Skam label out of Manchester) that are certainly worthy of the reverence that often follow the Autechre albums. As those singles are really hard to find now or flatly out of print, the CD reissue of their third EP "Keynell" is a welcome arrival.
Skam has also sadly retained the annoying package that housed the vinyl with the re-issue of the cd, which is just a sleeve of plastic bubble wrap. Oh well, the music inside more than makes up for it. "Keynell 1" lumbers through chopped string samples, which form a surprisingly catchy piece of understated melody to match the steady tumble of a wooden eletro beat. While most Autechre / Gescom pieces contain signature elements that easily qualify them as being by Autechre or Gescom, "Keynell 1" holds remarkable similarities to fellow IDM forefather, Aphex Twin -- especially from the "On" ep or the Phillip Glass collaboration. "Keynell 2" is a return to the Autechre sound, with sputtering mechanical rhythms, cybernetic flanges, and subtle afterhour rave melodies that have been synchronized into an unlikely groove. The third track is one of the Mancunian duo's more minimalist pieces, with the infinite repetition of a filtered hip-hop beat laced with an elegant, yet melancholic synth melody. During the five years that have passed since Gescom released "Keynell," 'intelligent dance music' has run the risk of self-parody, in losing the intelligent element of its name by stupidly searching out overly complex rhythms (i.e. Richie Devine, Otto Von Schirach) or wallowing in the irony of being dorky (i.e. Cex). There was a time when IDM was a viable musical form, and "Keynell" is one that era's highlights.
RealAudio clip: "Keynell 1"
RealAudio clip: "Keynell 3"

GESCOM Mini Disc (Or) cd 15.98

GESCOM Mini Disc (Or) minidisc 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Gescom is better known as Autechre and has released this collection of fractured sounds, skittering noises, and disjointed beats on minidisc so that the listener can reassemble the order of the tracks to meet his or her own whims. This was ONLY released on mini disc and is located behind the counter.

GESCOM Motor 1-4 (Source) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We have come across a few copies of this early single from Gescom (who is better known as Autechre). Gescom has always been the outlet for the more 'club friendly' sounds of Sean and Rob. This 1994 single is no exception... 303s noodle their way into straight up European electro and early-90s Warp style bleep techno.

GESCOM s/t (A1-D1) (Skam) cd 15.98

GESEWA / UTTER BASTARD Rising Sun Fuckers / Kusottare Yankee (Bloodbath) cd 9.98
As much as some of us love grind, we definitely don't get enough grind on the list. This split cd, released we think to coincide with a Japanese tour, features unknown to us until now Japanese grinders Gesewa, and SF grindlords Utter Bastard, who since have broken up, but who happen to feature aQ pal Roberto behind the kit.
Gesewa definitely hit the spot, the songs mostly clocking in at less than 30 seconds, aren't so much blazing fast, although there are bursts of extreme grind, instead, Gesewa are of the weirdo, pounding metallic what-the-fuck school of grind, sharing more in common with say Bathtub Shitter than Unholy Grave. Lurching start stop arrangements, plenty of D-beat pound, wild hysterical dueling vocals, one grunty and low, the other shrieky and high, the guitars downtuned and chuggy, plenty of buzz and chaotic noise drenched thrashing, pretty awesome stuff.
Utter Bastard are much more technical and heavy than their twisted and bizarre Japanese compatriots, and tend toward a more classical grind sound, pounding and relentless, the guitars frenzied and furious, the drums pounding and blasting, with mathy complex arrangements, but UB too offer up some bizarre dueling vocals, only here and there, but for the most part, they chug and churn, spewing out some seriously crusty classic American grind. Rad stuff for sure. Too bad they're no more.
Beautifully designed cd as well, super striking layout, with liner notes and lyrics inside.
MPEG Stream: GESEWA "Gesewa"
MPEG Stream: GESEWA "Eikounohibi"
MPEG Stream: GESEWA "Watarase Suicide"
MPEG Stream: UTTER BASTARD "Morning Broke"
MPEG Stream: UTTER BASTARD "Broke Down Man"