HEMOPHILIAC John Zorn's 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 6 (Tzadik) cd 16.98
Good grief, it's become a running joke 'round these parts about John Zorn's never-ending 50th birthday sell-a-bration. I mean, of course he gets our best wishes and everything, but it seems like Tzadik's still gonna be releasing Zorn 50th Birthday cds when the man turns 60! Certainly it might take us that long to review all of 'em. But, that's no complaint, when we get to check out via compact disc shows we probably would have been stoked to see had we been in NYC during Zorn's month-long birthday concert happenins' in September 2003. Like this one, a rare recording from Hemophiliac, a trio made up of John Zorn (on sax), Mike Patton (voice) and Ikue Mori (laptop electronics). How's that for avant-cool? Crazed chaos ensues of course...squeals and squeeks and squalling squonk. Surely an endurance test for some, but sticking with it we're hearing some interestin' textures -- and even calm drones and beautiful sax lines -- alongside the exciting improv cartoon carnage dished out by these pros.
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HENDERSON, JOE Power To The People (Universe / Milestone) cd 16.98
Italian reissue of this 1969 album by tenor sax man Joe Henderson, or shall we say Joe Henderson and heavy friends: Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette... Very "jazz" indeed.

HENDRIX, ANDY & THE SKWAARMALAR MACHINE / SMOKEY EMERY split (Kiamesha Drive) cassette 5.98
Two simpatico noisescapers from Austin square off for this limited split cassette release. We're well familiar with Smokey Emery from his many releases on Holodeck, Indian Queen, and his own Kiamesha Drive imprints, but Andy Hendrix & the Skwaarmalar Machine are new to us. We can't imagine what a Skwaarmalar Machine would look like or how it operates, but the sounds contained on that side of the cassette are cavernously industrial sounding like a go-cart race slowed down for intense drama. The slowly throbbing rev of an echoing motor as it swerves and skids around a warehouse, speeding up to an intense climax then slowing down to a deep bass pendulous pulse. The Smokey Emery side is from four live edits and contain his trademark hazy murk of built up tape loops of infinitely recycled recordings. Using an arsenal of personal recording devices including cell phones, and digital video cameras, it's a rich cloud of tunneling drones containing smoldering pockets of murmurs and atmospheric rumbles that are sublime and at times quite terrifying.

HENGST, CLIFF AND SCOTT HEWICKER Good Times: Bad Trips (Gallery 16 Editions) book 25.00
Ever had a bad trip? And no, not just an "oh I'm freaking out man" sort of trip, we're talking the sort of trip that sticks with you forever. The first time, the worst time, the best worst time, sex, death, injury, mayhem and misery, well our very own Scott Hewicker and his partner Cliff Hengst have been collecting tales of these bad trips from a who's who of artists and musicians, friends and family, even AQ employees and have finally compiled them all into one volume, this here gorgeous hardcover book entitled Good Times: Bad Trips, and not only packed with stories, but with all sorts of original and found artwork to accompany these far our freaked out tales of drugs and debauchery.
The contributors include Devendra Banhart, local luminary John Dwyer, our very own Irwin Swirnoff and our very own Lauren Robertson, Martin Schmidt and Drew Daniel from Matmos, John Koch from Troll, Ezra Feinberg from Citay, Alexis Georgopoulos from Arp, Wayne Smith from Aero-Mic'd, Nathan Burazer from Tussle, Jack Hanley (of Jack Hanley Galleries) as well as loads of artists and writers like Chris Johanson, Shaun O'Dell, Keegan McHargue, Leslie Shows, Kevin Killian, Dodie Bellamy... the list goes on and on and on.
The thing is, it almost doesn't matter who wrote which story, so much so that the credits are tucked away, way in the back of the book, so the stories are just that, stories, removed from their authors, not overly writerly, instead conversational, like hanging out drinking and telling tales, where most bad trip stories actually get told. And these are some seriously demented stories. Some are super funny, some are really intense and brutal, some are so ridiculous they sound made up, others are more mundane, but resonate as experiences most of us have shared. It's an amazing read. A killer collection of short stories, all of them fascinating, tales of stolen jet skis, yellow food banquets, secret upper crust sex societies, deflowered virgins, brain loops, dead body mannequins, emergency room freakouts, smoking out with Lee Scratch Perry, football player rapists, midnight calls to Mom, industrial strength lasers, heart murmurs, talking crows, living nude books, grey music, naked hippies, sex with surrealists, skin rashes, mouths full of dough, Cher costumes, stolen Harry Potters, boom box kicking, fake pistols, guitar masturbating, mother meltdowns, Tesla coils and so so so much more.
Gorgeously designed and laid out, plus the book is jam packed with eye popping art, paintings, drawings, collages, photographs and ephemera, all suitably warped and trippy, beautiful and bizarre, collected, found or created by Hewicker and Hengst. And all housed in a super swank, full color 136 page hard cover book. Each one signed by the artists!! Absolutely recommended. And a limited run of only 1000 copies, so buy now or be prepared to sell a kidney or take out a second mortgage on your house to pick one up on eBay later...

HENKE, ROBERT Atom / Document (I/CM) cd 17.98

HENKE, ROBERT Indigo_Transform (I/CM) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Henke - software engineer for Ableton and one time Chain Reaction recording artist - had been approached by the Swedish installation artist Fredrik Wretman to use his track Indigo, which Henke had offered as a free download on his own website. This was a softened piece of nocturnal ambience that Henke had sourced from the drips of his own bathtub! Out of that original material, Henke stretched out a Brian Eno meets Thomas Koner driftscape of rumbling tones, sustained washes of dark, grey/blue sounds, and occasional interjections of the dripping water itself. While Henke did not feel it was appropriate for Wretman's installation to merely broadcast a stereo feed of Indigo, he recontextualized the composition through six-channels (i.e. three cds with different mixes, all in stereo); and as he instructed that those three cds would be started at different times, the loops of the cd would thus warrant a constantly evolving composition to match the rippling pools of water and light which Wretman had installed in the Fargfabrieken Gallery in Sweden. Yeah, this is pretty commonplace for a sound installation strategy; but the sounds that had come together for this re-re-composed stereo mix is pretty entrancing. Certainly for fans of Koner, the darker Brian Eno records, and Bass Communion.
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt"

HENKE, ROBERT Layering Buddha (Imbalance Computer Music) cd 16.98
We love the Buddha Machine, but we have to admit, we're still a tiny bit surprised at just how popular it became. For those of you who somehow missed the whole Buddha Machine hubub, basically, it's a small plastic soundmaker, with a tiny speaker, a volume knob, and an output jack, and it can store a handful of sounds. In Asia, it's used to store prayers and teachings of the Buddha, but the musicians in FM3 realized they could store their own little ambient loops on there, and thus we have the Buddha Machine.
We've barely been able to keep them 'em in stock. Most folks buy 2 or 3 (Brian Eno famously bought 8, Alan Bishop from the Sun City Girls bought 24!! -- not from us, unfortunately). It's the perfect gift. And you can use multiple machines to create super interesting sonic effects. And thus, we have Robert Henke's Layering Buddha. A project for which he used the built in inconsistency of each machine, and took the sounds, slowed them down to expose still more sonic nuances, and wove them together into lengthy textured drones. The results are fantastic. Fuzzy, whirring, gurgling expanses of muted murky sound. Drone fiends will love it for sure. The only drag is, that in no way can you tell that the sound source is a Buddha Machine. Had the record been called something different, and had no mention been made of the process, you'd just think this was a really gorgeous drone record. We almost would have preferred Henke had approached this project in the style of an installation. Like a thousand Buddha Boxes, all set up in some huge hall, recorded in some ingenious way, so the sounds overlapped and got all tangled up. A much more organic approach, staying more true to the spirit of the machine. That said, this is still a wonderful record. The looped dronescapes are dense with sonic detail, lots of fuzz and grit and lo-fi detritus, all wrapped in billowy clouds of warm whir, making Layering Buddha sound both lush and sort raw. Really cool.
Available as a cd in a digipak, or on vinyl, as five 7"s, pressed on grey vinyl, with gorgeous center labels, packaged in a beautiful cardboard box.
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HENKE, ROBERT Layering Buddha (Imbalance Computer Music) 5x7" 63.00
It's out of print, but we found we have ONE of these still in stock!
We love the Buddha Machine, but we have to admit, we're still a tiny bit surprised at just how popular it became. For those of you who somehow missed the whole Buddha Machine hubub, basically, it's a small plastic soundmaker, with a tiny speaker, a volume knob, and an output jack, and it can store a handful of sounds. In Asia, it's used to store prayers and teachings of the Buddha, but the musicians in FM3 realized they could store their own little ambient loops on there, and thus we have the Buddha Machine.
We've barely been able to keep them 'em in stock. Most folks buy 2 or 3 (Brian Eno famously bought 8, Alan Bishop from the Sun City Girls bought 24!! - not from us, unfortunately). It's the perfect gift. And you can use multiple machines to create super interesting sonic effects. And thus, we have Robert Henke's Layering Buddha. A project for which he used the built in inconsistency of each machine, and took the sounds, slowed them down to expose still more sonic nuances, and wove them together into lengthy textured drones. The results are fantastic. Fuzzy, whirring, gurgling expanses of muted murky sound. Drone fiends will love it for sure. The only drag is, that in no way can you tell that the sound source is a Buddha Machine. Had the record been called something different, and had no mention been made of the process, you'd just think this was a really gorgeous drone record. We almost would have preferred Henke had approached this project in the style of an installation. Like a thousand Buddha Boxes, all set up in some huge hall, recorded in some ingenious way, so the sounds overlapped and got all tangled up. A much more organic approach, staying more true to the spirit of the machine. That said, this is still a wonderful record. The looped dronescapes are dense with sonic detail, lots of fuzz and grit and lo-fi detritus, all wrapped in billowy clouds of warm whir, making Layering Buddha sound both lush and sort raw. Really cool.
Available as a cd in a digipak, or on vinyl, as five 7"s, pressed on grey vinyl, with gorgeous center labels, packaged in a beautiful cardboard box.
MPEG Stream: "Layer 001"
MPEG Stream: "Layer 002"
MPEG Stream: "Layer 003"

HENKE, ROBERT Piercing Music (Imbalance) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HENKE, ROBERT Signal To Noise (Imbalance Computer Music) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another gorgeous, gorgeous minimal drone record. Not sure what to say. Our drone thesaurus is darn near tapped out. Shimmering, rumbling, drifting, ethereal, dreamy, Signal To Noise is all of those and more. The first two tracks are composed and performed utilizing only an old Yamaha SY77 synthesizer, filtered, pitch shifted and processed into two lengthy smears of glacial sonic whir. The last track was composed using filtered noise and granular delays to emulate a thunderstorm. A barely there ambient crawl, like a lonely hike through the desert late at night, with the occasional crackle and boom of artificial thunder. Haunting and quite lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Signal To Noise II"

HENNIX, CATHERINE CHRISTER The Electric Harpsichord (Die Schachtel) cd + book 22.00
What else can we say about a recording that guitar great Glenn Branca describes as "A gigantic piece, a killer, a work which exists outside of style or genre. It is unbelievable. It creates blacks of sound that move in and out of each other to create the effects. It is a pure, perfect piece of music that resonates and resounds and creates a universe that it is impossible by other means. In our primitive and unenlightened culture, it becomes a work of transcendent power." Very little. Or more accurately, more of the same. A legendary yet relatively obscure document of modern minimalism, recorded in 1976, Hennix, who studied with Pandit Pran Nath and LaMonte Young, and recorded with Henry Flynt, crafted The Electric Harpsichord using just-intonated keyboards and time lag accumulators, a la Terry Riley, creating a lush layered expanse of raga like dronemusic, buzzing strangely melodic, rife with overtones and rhythmic fluctuations, dark and psychedelic, mesmerizing and hypnotic, a sound active and alive, organic, yet electronic, this is the sort of sound that a million floorcore wannabes strive for, but will never achieve, absolute blissed out, mind expanding, ur-drone, sonic transcendence for sure. Brief, at only 25 minutes, but the power and energy and depth of sound, makes it feel way longer. And of course, if you're like us, you'll just set your stereo to repeat, and drift off...
Second pressing, packaged in a nice mini white cardstock box, with a foil stamped cover, and an extensive booklet inside, featuring two poems by La Monte Young, a piece on the Electric Harpsichord written by Henry Flynt, and some very confusing liner notes from Hennix herself, an excerpt from "notes on the composite sine-wave drone over which The Electric Harpsichord is performed."
MPEG Stream: "The Electric Harpsichord (Excerpt)"

HENRIKSEN, ARVE Cartography (ECM) cd 17.98
Ooooh. Muted jazz trumpet. Breathy and gentle. Improvising melodically o'er shimmering background ambience... Well that's certainly part of what Supersilent's Arve Henriksen brings to this new "solo" album for the legendary German new music label ECM. But he's not really solo here, rather the bandleader of a (virtual?) ensemble that includes percussion, sampling, strings, double-bass, guitar, synth, field recordings, etc. Many folks are credited with sampling, programming, and "treatments", with vocals contributed by Trio Medieval and David Sylvian (whose fans will most likely enjoy this record). The twelve tracks here include much in the way of mysterious, somnolent electronic textures, crackling Philip Jeck style loopings, layered and effected spoken word interludes, and of course the gorgeous, feathery caresses of Henriksen's trumpet. It's all very moody, and certainly soundtrack-ready, a Scandinavian chill-out album that's part Miles Davis, part Portishead, part Djivan Gasparyan... Imagine an "easy listening" edition of Supersilent, a lot of the same sorts of sounds and glitchery but all on the mellow side. Also this would be easy to imagine, if you've heard any of Henriksen's previous lovely soundscapey solo discs on Rune Grammofon (which featured several of the same collaborators). And we'd recommend this too, for those who dig stuff on the Type and Miasmah labels.
MPEG Stream: "Poverty And Its Opposite"
MPEG Stream: "Assembly"

HENRIKSEN, ARVE Chiaroscuro (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
On his own, trumpeter for Norwegian "death-jazz" geniuses Supersilent Arve Henriksen seems like a big softie, blowing and singing wordless soundscapes that are eerily pretty and entrancing. Arve's 2001 solo debut Sakuteiki merged his haunting horn with minimal abstract electronics. Now he's back with his 2nd solo for Rune Grammofon, Chiaroscuro, on which Arve's breathy playing and ever-so-slightly Bjorkish singing are joined by the live sampling of Jan Bang and the drums and percussion of Audun Kleive. The results, yet again, are gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "Opening Image"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Silk"

HENRIKSEN, ARVE Sakuteiki (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
Henriksen is a member of AQ-faves Supersilent, the unclassifiable and brilliant Norwegian improvising outfit. On this, his debut solo album, he blends his gorgeous, haunting trumpet playing with the drone-ful production of electronicist Deathprod (aka Helge Sten, who is also a member of Supersilent) -- although the sleeve states that everything was recorded direct to 2-track with no effects added in post production. Wow. Seemingly inspired by a visit to a Japanese Zen garden (with track titles like "Beauty of Bamboos", "Peaceful -- Close To Cherry Trees", "Planting Trees Creating Beauty", and "Shrine"), Henrikson's album is austere, hushed, detailed, and beautiful. The far north meets the far east: keening shakuhachi-like horn calls, breathy melodies, some pulsing sub-sonics, rare electronic blips, and even on the track "White Gravel" what sounds like rubbing stones. It reminds us of the lovely, melancholic tones of Armenian duduk player Djivan Gasparyan, if he were performing in an environment created by an Arctic ambient-electronica artist like Biosphere. If you enjoyed the "glacial Miles Davis" moments (as we put it in our review) on the most recent Supersilent disc "5" -- the ambient-jazz stuff that might have had something to do with why ECM picked up Rune Grammofon for distribution -- then you'll love Henriksen's disc too. So nice.
RealAudio clip: "Procession Passing"
RealAudio clip: "White Gravel"
RealAudio clip: "Tsukubai - Washbasin"

HENRIKSEN, ARVE Strjon (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
Here's another set of moody abstract electro-acoustic soundscapes from Supersilent trumpeter Arve Henriksen, his third solo outing on the Rune Grammophon label, as lovely as the other two. In addition to his calm, melodic, breathy "glacial Miles Davis" horn playing, he also utilizes electronics and keyboards and wordless singing. Plus Supersilent bandmates Stale Storlokeen Helge "Deathprod" Sten (on production duties as well) contribute on keys and guitars respectively, adding to the overall mysterious drone-factor of this music, some of it very Supersilent-sounding (as you might expect with this lineup), some parts particularly reminiscent of the austere Arctic tranquility of Henriksen's solo debut on Rune G, Sakuteiki. Overall, there's an air of olden mystic ceremony, with tracks like "Glacier Descent" building to white-light shining bliss. Ominous relaxation... definitely for fans of Supersilent and Deathprod.
MPEG Stream: "Black Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Leaf And Rock"

HENRIKSSON, ORJAN as the side-scene of reality melted, we slowly realized that the surrounding chaos of molecules and atoms no longer made sense to us (Firework Edition) cd 14.98
Electro-acoustic composer Orjan Henriksson has found a good home for his debut album on the eccentric sound art label Firework Edition which has also released albums from Leif Elggren, Kent Tankred, Zbigniew Karkowski, and Mikael Stavostrand. His album ripples with a continuous repetition of strange midrange clicks that are not the average electronica glitch, but rather some amplified acoustic phenomenon (clipped wooden percussion, perhaps?) treated with elliptical delay effects. Henriksson does incorporate gentle patterns of granular synthesis, hissing washes, and theatrical drones into the background of his sputtering clicks to re-inforce the spectacle of this electronic productions. This is an alien sounding record, with very few references (Scandinavian composers Arne Nordheim and Rune Lindblad get a few nods). The mysteriously long title about atoms no longer making any sense is certainly an apt description of much of the gritty clatter found within Henriksson's semi-rhythmic collages. Bizarre.
RealAudio clip: "Track 3"
RealAudio clip: "Track 4"

HENRY & GLENN FOREVER (Cantankerous Titles) book 6.00
Like the best "slash" fiction, Kirk and Spock, Buffy and Spike, Ponch and Jon, this was another one that had to happen eventually, Henry Rollins of Black Flag and Glenn Danzig of Samhain, the Misfits and of course Danzig, reimagined as a loving couple, celebrating Christmas, giving each other backrubs, doing karaoke, hanging out in the bathroom, struggling with all the usual things regular couples struggle with, painting everything black, costume parties, going to Antiques Roadshow, shopping at target, arguing, having T.V. parties, breaking up, making up, shoes, Prop 8, pants that make me look fat, D&D, touring, Mr. T, abortion, toilet paper, puppet play-time, artificial insemination, and of course existential ennui.
All delivered in this little scrapbook collection of one panel one off cartoons, pithy and poingnat, filthy and funny, foul mouthed and baffling, pages of diaries, sketches, full on comix, postcards, notes from Henry to Glenn and from Glenn to Henry, it's sweet and sad, goofy and twisted, the best part might just be Henry & Glenn's neighbors, Hall & Oates, also a couple, but reimagined as overly friendly devil worshippers.
The art is amazing (some of it by our pal Tom Neely, who did art for that Melvins comic we carried a while back, and whose books and comix are amazing and you should buy them all!), and we have to say it's pretty ballsy to fuck with these two infamous badasses, in fact, we saw a picture online of some guy getting Rollins to sign his copy of this, and he looked so pissed. The perfect gift for every and any music nerd in your life, gay or straight, metal or punk, Hall or Oates, Henry or Glenn!

HENRY & GLENN FOREVER & EVER #1 (Cantankerous Titles) magazine 5.00
The return of everybody's favorite imaginary rock couple, Henry & Glenn, as in Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig, and more tales of the forbidden love that dare not speak it's name. Yep, just like the first issue, Henry & Glenn imagines a better world, where the forbidden gay love these two don't actually share (or do they?) is real, and they live together in a house with a partially finished sacrificial altar in the front yard, their next door neighbors the Satan worshipping duo Hall & Oates, and we are given a glimpse into H&G's daily lives, where we observe Henry as the responsible one, the one who does the housework and pays the bills, and worries what the city thinks about the above mentioned unfinished altar in the yard, while Glenn is the dreamer, the one always full of crazy ideas, oblivious to poor Henry and his desire for more. It's all pretty irreverent, and pretty gosh dang hilarious. And this time around, original artists Igloo Tornado (which includes aQ pal Tom Neely) bring in some guests, most notably, Ed Luce, who longtime readers of the aQ list will no doubt know as the man behind the awesome Wuvable Oaf comic, who here imagines H&G in couples therapy, which of course includes guest cameos from Kerry King of Slayer, Ian Mackaye of Fugazi and of course a demon kitty.
Neel does a cool back cover color comic, which features a striking likeness J Bennett of Decibel (and Ides Of Gemini), who bums out Glenn by showing him the original H&G - which is apparently (maybe) a true story? Benjamin Marra pit our couple against Leta Fjord and Hall And Oates get in on the demonic action. And the opening comic is mostly just a hilarious build up for a distinctly Danzig punchline, and of course there's more more more.
One of our favorite comics for sure, and as always, leaves us wanting to know what could happen next in the lives of our heroes, Henry & Glenn...

HENRY COW Concerts (ESD) 2cd 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HENRY COW Western Culture (East Side Digital) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Western Culture" was the final recording of Henry Cow and the end result of a tumultuous two year period of tour mishaps, line-up changes and general hardship amongst the group's many members. Formed in 1968, this legendary English group (which takes its name from the early 20th century pioneering American composer Henry Cowell) was the antidote to the mainstream progressive rock of Yes, Genesis, et al. Henry Cow's core members Chris Cutler, Fred Frith, Lindsey Cooper and Tim Hodgkinson have all since established themselves as major figures in avant rock and jazz. This album was recorded in 1978 and includes as a fifth member Anne-Marie Roelofs on trombone & violin, plus some assistance on a few tracks from Irene Schweizer (piano) and Georgie Born (bass). The tracks, all composed by Cooper, Hodgkinson, or both, are strikingly reminiscent of Frank Zappa's "Uncle Meat" with maybe a dash of King Crimson's "Lark's Tongue In Aspic" thrown in. Angular, sharp-as-pins melodic lines with lots of strange parallel voicings of instruments, complex arrangements and a really strange bias towards the higher frequency range (when I first heard the song "Industry" years ago I was sure that something had gone awry with the recording.) As a bonus to this reissue are three tracks which didn't make it to the original LP or previous CD issues of the album. One is an alternate version of the album track "Look Back", one is a brief half minute ditty and the other, "Viva Pa Ubu", is the only track on the disc with vocals.
RealAudio clip: "Industry"
RealAudio clip: "Falling Away"

HENRY FIAT'S OPEN SORE The Parallel Universe of (Coldfront) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Besides having an awesomely demented band name (who the hell is Henry Fiat?) Henry Fiat's Open Sore are so smoking hot and so ultra kick ass, it's amazing we're only now discovering them. I was going to describe them as the Hives meet the Mentors, which I still think is pretty apt, although the rest of the AQ staffers hear more straight ahead punk rock a la the Ramones. But if you're into that hypercharged Swedish guitar sound, this will definitely be right up your alley. Dressed in tattered mod suits and heads wrapped in black bandages, they look like the Mummies' scary older brothers. But no retro lo-fi garage rock here. This is fierce and furious, ass kicking 3 chord, bounce up and down punk rock and roll!
MPEG Stream: "Midlife Riot"
MPEG Stream: "Move And Walk"
MPEG Stream: "Proto-geek"

HENRY, PIERRE Antagonismes IV (Philips) cd 21.00
This is the first release of Henry's recent musique concrete composition "Antagonismes IV" (1996) which is the result of reworking one pre-existing composition according to the framework of another work. While Henry poetically states that "'Antagonismes' is a radiography, a sort of horn-in-the-eye of 'Intˇrieur/Extˇrieur' (which was a manner of ritual, an Imaginary corridor layout for the adventure of a secret ceremony)", it's not entirely clear what is a reworking of what. It ultimately doesn't matter, as Henry has produced another wonderful gem of manipulated electroacoustic string works, experimental tape constructions, and abstract electronic tonalities.
RealAudio clip: "Dualite"
RealAudio clip: "Psaltry"

HENRY, PIERRE Fragments Pour Artaud / Entite / Prisme (Philips) cd 21.00
Chapter 4.2 in the Philips reissue series of the musique concrete works of Pierre Henry features 3 pieces: "Fragments pour Artaud" (1970), "Entite" (1959), and "Prisme" (1973). "Fragments Pour Artaud" lives up to its name as an absurdist homage to Antonin Artaud, in jumpcutting through 13 interlocking segments of monotonous voices that have been manipulated into eeriely sputtering fluctuations of synthesized noise. Henry opens and closes this composition with the random plucks of an untuned steel-stringed instrument flapping against its soundboard. Quite obtuse, yet bombastically theatrical. "Entite" is a brief 6 minute piece for tape, with nonspecific grey sounds fluxing in and out of the audible range whilst generative metallic clatter and tape whirr pop throughout the stereo field. "Prisme" rounds out the collection as another investigation into the realm of possibilities for magnetic tape manipulation. These concrete sounds filtered through an arsenal of effects are quite typical for Henry and those at the INA-GRM institution, with the biggest difference being the advancement in technology and sound quality between 1959 and 1973.
All liner notes are in French.
RealAudio clip: "Mexique (from Fragments Pour Artaud)"
RealAudio clip: "Le Temple d'Emese (from Fragments Pour Artaud)"
RealAudio clip: "Entite"
RealAudio clip: "Prisme"

HENRY, PIERRE Futuristie (Philips) cd 21.00
Composed in 1980 as an homage to Luigi Russolo, author of the Futurist manifesto "The Art of Noise," Pierre Henry's "Futuristie" centered around the recreation of Russolo's "intonarumori." Henry designed similar looking noise intoners (which are odd shaped boxed with huge metal speakers sticking out their sides) based on the photographs of the objects, as the originals had long been dismantled. I've often wondered what these "intonarumori" would sound like, and what they were amplifying. All that any historian seems to say about Russolo's "intonarumori" is that they made noise. Come on, can't anybody do better than that? What kind of noise?
Anyway, I doubt that Pierre Henry knew either as the dense collage of sounds that he broadcast through those loudspeakers falls well within his musique concrete signature. Henry does claim a strong influence from Futurism, as a manifesto which promoted the removal of semiotic barriers between noise and music. His complex abstraction scrounges for the sounds of aluminum cans getting crushed, the clatter of wooden pegs falling, scraped metal wires, sporadic electronic bleeping, and layered rhythmic grunts and vocalisations sounding like a multi-dubbed Jaap Blonk. Henry certainly is following the spirit of Futurism, but if he is actually following its sonorous aesthetics, I guess we'll never know.
The liner notes are all in French, compounding the quandry.
RealAudio clip: "Bruiteurs 1"

HENRY, PIERRE Les Annees Cinquante (Philips) 2cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the fourth chapter in the continued archival project for musique concrete composer Pierre Henry, Philips presents this collection of Henry's earliest material from the 1950s, which had been previously issued on the long out of print Mantra 3CD set. The compositions (number 4.3, if you must know) within this set include "Microphone bien tempˇre" (1950-1952), "Concerto des ambiguites" (1950), "Musique sans titre" (1950), "Bidule en mi" (1950). "Spirale" (1955), "Voile d'orphˇe" (1953), "Spatiodynamisme" (1954), "Aut-voltage" (1956), and "Coexistence" (1958). These pieces, which are all based upon magnetic tape playback, splicing, and speed manipulation with various filters, reflect Henry's early mastery over his material despite the lack of dynamics from his equipment (which generated very little pure bass reflex at all)... disembodied vocals, metallic cymbals with variable attack, sustained organ, spring reverb manipulation, and any other obtuse sound that resonates within the mid-range timbres.
Liner notes are all in French.
RealAudio clip: "Etendu (from Concerto Des Ambiguites)"
RealAudio clip: "Spirale"

HENRY, PIERRE Mix 03.0 (Philips France) 4cd 55.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Are you a musique concrete connoiseur who already has the Pierre Henry box sets "Mix 01.0" and "Mix 02.0"? Then wethinks you'll have to pick this one up too! Again, a hefty helping of Henry's brilliant music. Contains 4 discs: "Variations Pour Une Porte Et Un Soupir / La Reine Verte", "Futuristie", "Antagonismes IV (nouvelle version)" and "Hugosymphonie / Gouttes d'eau". The first three discs are available separately (see nearby reviews) but the "Hugosymphonie" one is a bonus exclusive to this box. The two pieces on it are symphonic poems inspired by nature themes in the work of Victor Hugo, recorded in 1985. So, getting this handsome box is much cheaper than buying the discs individually, and it comes with more music too!

HENRY, PIERRE Pierres Reflechies / La Noire A Soixante / Gymkhana (Philips) cd 21.00
In the reissue campaign from Philips of Pierre Henry's work, his compositions "Pierres Reflechies," "La Noire A Soixante," and "Gymkhana" constitute the volume 4.1. "Pierre Reflechies" (1982) is a good example of Pierre Henry's current aesthetic with a greater emphasis on the dialogue between orchestral instruments and electronic synthesis. Here, Henry composes the orchestral elements through serial repetition of blurted notes, then disfigures them through a number of filters which resemble contemporary DSP techniques. For this piece, Henry has translated the work of Proust into sound and dedicated it to the other Pierre of musique concrete (Pierre Schaeffer, that is). "La Noire A Soixante" jumps back to 1961 and to a minimal application of Henry's electro-acoustic pings and reverberations. "Gymkhana" (1970) appears to be a 'remix' of the aforementioned "La Noire A Soixante" with acoustic instrumentation (sustained oboes and pointillist flutes) laid over the backing tape.
RealAudio clip: "Diaspre (from "Pierres Reflechies")"
RealAudio clip: "La Noire A Soixante"
RealAudio clip: "Gymkhana"

HENRY, PIERRE Variations Pour Une Porte Et Un Soupir / La Reine Verte (Philips) cd 21.00
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"Variations For a Door and a Sigh" may in fact be Pierre Henry's most well known piece, simply because it has become the unwitting self-parody / archetype of musique concrete as a solipsistic study by academic farts recording creaking doors and passing the results off as high art. Conceived and realized in 1963, this piece is an elaboration upon the individual colors of three distinct sounds: a sigh, a musical saw, and squeaking door. It appears that Henry's decision to limit his palette to only three sources was in direct opposition to near limitless sounds he had developed through the mutable techniques of musique concrete. To be fair, "Variations For a Door and a Sigh" wouldn't have received so many emulations and homages if there weren't something worthwhile in the recordings.
"La Reina Verte" is a 30 minute electronic / orchestral work also from 1963; it's an incomplete edit of the original 46 minute composition, but significantly longer than its previous inclusion on "Messe Pour Le Temps." His intent in combining the artificial sonorities of musique concrete with the timbres of orchestral instruments, was "not only in search of unwonted conceits, [but also] a lyrical or even a poetic counterpoint to the different forms of this spectacle."

HENRY, PIERRE, & MICHEL COLOMBIER Metamorphose: Messe Pour Le Temps Present (ffrr) cd 15.98
Pierre Henry's musique concrete gets the remix treatment, contributors include William Orbit, Fatboy Slim, Coldcut, Funki Porcini, Dimitri from Paris, and others.

HENSKE, JUDY & JERRY YESTER Farewell Aldebaran (Phoenix) cd 17.98
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One of the more amazing curios of the late sixties folk-rock era, this sole record by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester is a strange and heady amalgam of baroque pomp-rock, lilting folk-pop and experimental electronic weirdness. Henske is best known for a series of early folk-revival albums on Elektra, that featured her howling blues vocals and cabaret like wit. Yester, best known as a producer from an assorted array of folk and psychedelic bands including The Association, The Loving Spoonful, Tim Buckley (and more recently No Neck Blues Band!), made his debut as a musical artist and singer on this record. Originally released on Frank Zappa's Straight label (like those Alice Cooper albums we made Records Of The Week last time!), the album never did real well, but has always remained a cult treasure due to its genre-defying song styles and early psychedelic synthesizer experiments on the title track. Written in the voice of a dying star, Henske utilized an early vocoder device for the vocal tracks which also features Moogs and Theremins. Although it's the only track to feature that effect, it seems to fit right in with the rest, as no two songs are quite alike. That might make it a hit and miss listen for those craving consistency, but those who like the more unpredictable corners of sixties music, this cult gem is well worth it.
MPEG Stream: "Horses On A Stick"
MPEG Stream: "Charity"
MPEG Stream: "Farewell Aldebaran"

HENSKE, JUDY & JERRY YESTER Farewell Aldebaran (Radioactive) cd 17.98
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HENSKE, JUDY & JERRY YESTER Farewell Aldebaran (radioactive) cd 17.98
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HENSKE, JUDY & JERRY YESTER Farewell Aldebaran (Klimt) lp 24.00
Finally available (again) on vinyl.
One of the more amazing curios of the late sixties folk-rock era, this sole record by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester is a strange and heady amalgam of baroque pomp-rock, lilting folk-pop and experimental electronic weirdness. Henske is best known for a series of early folk-revival albums on Elektra, that featured her howling blues vocals and cabaret like wit. Yester, best known as a producer from an assorted array of folk and psychedelic bands including The Association, The Loving Spoonful, Tim Buckley (and more recently No Neck Blues Band!), made his debut as a musical artist and singer on this record. Originally released on Frank Zappa's Straight label (like those Alice Cooper albums we made Records Of The Week!), the album never did real well, but has always remained a cult treasure due to its genre-defying song styles and early psychedelic synthesizer experiments on the title track. Written in the voice of a dying star, Henske utilized an early vocoder device for the vocal tracks which also features Moogs and Theremins. Although it's the only track to feature that effect, it seems to fit right in with the rest, as no two songs are quite alike. That might make it a hit and miss listen for those craving consistency, but those who like the more unpredictable corners of sixties music, this cult gem is well worth it.
MPEG Stream: "Horses On A Stick"
MPEG Stream: "Charity"
MPEG Stream: "Farewell Aldebaran"

HEPTONES Fattie Fattie (Studio One) cd 14.98

HEPTONES Night Food (Harry Records) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HEPTONES Unreleased Night Food & Rare Black Ark Sessions (Auralux) cd 17.98
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HER SPACE HOLIDAY Let's Get Quiet, Vol. 1 (Mush) cd 6.98

HER SPACE HOLIDAY Manic Expressive (Tigerstyle) cd 14.98
Begins with a lovely string arrangement that will easily draw comparisons to recent Rachel's. Not a bad thing, but from there Her Space Holiday tracks a different much more... umm, intergalactic course. Mainman Marc Bianchi (formerly of Mohinder) certainly covers a lot of territory on "Manic Expressive". Electronic bleep'n'clickery floats in and out. Light drifting reverbed twang. Wispy choruses of soft shoegazer voices. A scattering of droll dialogue samples. Laid-back shuffling beats. And throughout, a swirling, frosty shimmer unifies it all.
RealAudio clip: "The Ringing In My Ears"

HER SPACE HOLIDAY The Past Presents The Future (Wichita) cd 14.98
Her Space Holiday's Marc Bianchi slathers his pop poetry with just enough peanut butter and honey that you can't taste...or um, hear...what a vulnerable sandwich he actually is. You can't see that he's making a sly bid for your heart and soul until you finish bopping your head along to the bedroom beats and the occassional spaceship-blippy quirk. Can't see the weight of the dangerous world on his aching shoulders until you open up the liner notes and read lines such as "push all your friends away with the cruel things that you said/if you need company you've got the voices in your head." He's like a depressed sunbather who can describe all the beauty of a physical situation without actually enjoying it himself. The music swells along, but Bianchi is always pulling his presence along in the undertow, sanding down his vocals so they share space democratically with the other instruments on the album.
It all comes off kind of like The Postal Service but without the huggable whine, or the spacier bits of the Field Mice without the wide-eyed clarity. "The Past Presents the Future" is not as musically offbeat as earlier H.S.H. efforts, "The Young Machines" or "Manic Expressive"; it is smoother, slightly more mature, and a bit more lyrically global, though it still mostly sticks with the sounds and methods that are tried and true for Bianchi. So...there are less chunks in the peanut butter, but still plenty of bees in the honey.
MPEG Stream: "Missed Medicine"
MPEG Stream: "The Good People Of Everywhere"

HERBALISER Very Mercenary (Ninjatune) cd 14.98

HERBALISER, THE Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ninja Tune) cd 16.98
I'm a fan of the Herbaliser, the Ninjatune duo whose mix of hip hop, trip hop and noir-ish beats is consistently really clever, listenable, and pretty much mistake-free. This new full length is really worth a listen. The record begins with a deep, velvet-voiced female diva crooning over a Tricky-like, dark breakbeat groove, and is accompanied by a veritable orchestra of trombone, violin, viola, cello, wurlitzer organ, flute, piccolo, "war drums", sax, Hohner clavinet... the list goes on. The next few tracks are excellent straightforward hip hop with guest vocalists including Rakaa Iriscience (Dilated Peoples), Blade, MF Doom, and more. The rhyming is tight, the instrumental backup is lighthearted, and the scratching is super seamlessly incorporated into the mix (something I wish happened on other records more often). The third strain represented here is instrumental interludes that are not filler and are genuinely cinematic -- these guys could seriously score a thriller or something. (And they get extra points for the "Taking of Pelham 123" sample!) The album continues to flit amongst the diva trip hop material, the great hip hop tracks, and the cinematic climaxes. Somehow the multiple personalities of the record don't seem as schizophrenic as they are inspired; maybe it's cos they're English, where hip hop isn't separated so much from dance music like it is in America (the Automator being the only American exception I can think of). Just extremely well executed! Recommended, especially for fans of stuff like Kruder and Dorkmeister, Tricky, underground hip hop in general, Kid Loco, etc.
RealAudio clip: "Something Wicked"
RealAudio clip: "Time 2 Build"

HERBALISER, THE Take London (Ninja Tune) 2cd 16.98

HERBERT Bodily Functions (K7) cd 17.98
Easily most accessible presentation from Matthew Herbert (aka Doctor Rockit, Wishmountain, Radioboy, etc.), Bodily Functions is a shuffling house homage to the jazz vocal standards from the '40s. Fans of Portishead and Lamb, who may be looking for a slight variation on ethereal / noir female vocalist fronted classy electronica, might want to check this out.

HERBERT Scale (Accidental / !k7) cd 17.98
There are a many sides to the busy and talented Matthew Herbert. Some people know him for his more experimental outings, like last years Plat Du Jour which was an excellent political record and statement against the corporate food industry using food, coke cans, apples crunching, pigs in shit, etc. as the source material for a very adventurous and successful outing. Others know him simply as Herbert, one of the most innovative 'house' producers of the last decade. And for others his name rings most familiar for his skilled remixes for the likes of Bjork, Jamie Lidell, Soft Pink Truth, Super Fury Animals, Harold Budd, etc. In many ways Scale feels like the follow up to Bodily Functions, his 2001 album which mixed warm recordings, danceable beats, creative arrangements, and the sultry vocals of Dani Siciliani. For Scale, Herbert went all out. Whether it was recording a drummer under water, an orchestra at Abbey Road or using the sounds from fuel pumps and coffins as source material, one can listen to this record and not know any of that and just revel in its totally pleasurable overall sound. With Siciliani singing as beautifully as ever, and melodies that are so irresistible, this is that sort of smart and seductive dance record that sadly is so rare to come by these days.
MPEG Stream: "Something Isn't Right"
MPEG Stream: "The Movers & The Shakers"
MPEG Stream: "Just Once"

HERBERT Secondhand Sounds (Peacefrog) 2cd 21.00
When Matthew Herbert, the lauded electronicist who has also recorded as Wishmountain and Doctor Rockit (and probably a few I don't even know about), releases music simply as "Herbert", then you know he's in his experimental house music guise. Therefore you must have a strong stomach for four-on-the-floor beats, even if he's one of the most careful and original practitioners of what in lesser hands could be really boring predictable rhythms. Think a lighter Mouse on Mars, or Matmos without the indie rock influence.
What we have here is a double cd of remixes Herbert has executed for other folks, and a few on himself too. Remixees include Mono, Moloko, Nils Petter Molvaer, Motorbass, Terra Deva, and lots more. Now, as much as I like Matthew Herbert's Doctor Rockit persona, where he displays his delightful penchant for sampling the sounds of everyday objects like crunchy apples, I also have to say that with all these remixes gathered here in one place, Herbert's formula becomes clear: [1] take a vocal snippet from the original song, [2] loop it "artistically", [3] add some tinny house beats, and [4] let the thing repeat itself for six minutes. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to gather the remixes in one place -- because you kind of don't want to know that the guy has a formula at all. However, there are lots of folks who just love this sound, represented by the audio clip we've included below (of Gainsbourg's "Bonnie & Clyde" for heavens sake!), and will like this. I'm just not one of them.
RealAudio clip: SERGE GAINSBOURG "Bonnie & Clyde"

HERBERT, MATTHEW Let's All Make Mistakes (Tresor) cd 22.00

HERBERT, MATTHEW Plat Du Jour (Accidental) cd 17.98

HERBERT, MATTHEW BIG BAND Goodbye Swingtime (Accidental) cd 16.98

HERBST9 Buried Under Time And Sand (Loki) cd 21.00

HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR Blue Songs (Moshi Moshi) 2cd 15.98
The debut by Hercules & Love Affair back in 2008 was an absolute game changer. Not since Daft Punk's Discovery had a dance record moved so many people into pure ecstasy. It helped usher in a new generation's appreciation of the magic that disco and house are capable of conjuring up. But most of all it transcended any genre, and became one of those records that just about any fan of good music would end up blasting nonstop.
So how do you follow up a debut as amazing as that? You take your time! No doubt Andrew Butler, the mastermind behind Hercules & Love Affair understood the kind of pressure riding on his sophomore outing, and he was smart not to rush it but instead take his time in crafting a new batch of songs. That's one of the things that often gets overlooked with Hercules & Love Affair, is that Andy Butler is an excellent songwriter. Sure he has immaculate and obscure taste in vintage disco, house, and techno but under all of that you can tell he is a student of good songs. The tracks on Blue Songs all carry an emotional weight, and it's the music that leads those emotions to moments of ecstatic release, and energizing empowerment.
A lot of the attention of the first Hercules album was due to the vocals that Antony contributed to several tracks, but he doesn't make an appearance on this outing. And in a way we're actually happy about that, not that we don't love those tracks with Antony, they were amazing, but it's nice for the world to see that Hercules can stand on their own feet and no matter who they collaborate with they are able to reach amazing heights together. This time out Kele Okereke, of Bloc Party fame lends his voice on a few of these tracks with awesome results. In recent years Kele has publicly embraced his sexuality and this seems like such the perfect vehicle to allow him to sing on dance minded tracks with a pride and freedom he's been yearning for. On other tracks Hercules members Kim Ann Foxman and Nomi take the mic with dynamic flare, and Mr. Butler sings some as well.
Blue Songs is a grower, and with each listen we get more and more into its grooves. No sophomore slump here, this is another great album!
We're happy we waited for this domestic release as it includes three bonus tracks as well as an entire extra disc of remixes of a couple songs from the album (cd version only).
MPEG Stream: "My House"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Songs"