HURL We Are Quite In This Room (My Pal God) cd 11.98
Intricate imploded almost-emo from Pittsburg.

HURL We Are Quite In This Room (My Pal God) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Intricate imploded almost-emo from Pittsburg.

HURLEY, DAVID Outer Nebula, Inner Nebula (Porter) cd 14.98
Now these are the sounds we've been waiting for! From reading our lists it may appear that we aren't big -modern- jazz enthusiasts as there usually aren't tons of newer jazz titles on our lists, but the truth is just not much of the newer sounds coming from the jazz underground really excite us, or maybe we're not hearing 'em. Of course there are some exceptions here and there and this album by Dave Hurley is a refreshing reminder of how alive, soulful and transcendent modern freeform jazz can be.
Channeling the sounds and spirit (and you'll note, the album cover look) of '70s cosmic and out jazz luminaries like Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Elvin Jones, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Steve Reid, Khan Jamal, etc., and with an understanding of how to craft a lush musical journey armed with a full palette of sounds that brilliantly touch on different areas with such a dynamic sonic scope. From majestic moments to full on freak outs and so much in between this is by far one of the most exciting and well crafted out-jazz records we've heard in such a long time. Hurley is a major player in the San Diego music scene and has appeared on records by folks like The Shining Path and Habitat Sound System (who also tapped into a warm and vintage '70s reggae sound on their debut). He's also one of the drummers in free-jazz legend Byard Lancaster's new ensemble. What makes this record so cool is that as well as the psychedelic jazz influences, there are some really intense and freakish moments that could be at home on some improv jam by Japanese psych bands like the Ruins, Boredoms, or Acid Mothers Temple. Hurley knows that it's not just about how loud you can skronk, but instead how much impact each sound has and what you draw from those sounds, and what those sounds can eventually evoke and illuminate. Too many in the modern free jazz scene rely on a one-trick pony philosophy of brute force that just doesn't have the soul and spirit to make it anything but noise. Thankfully, Hurley and his crack band understand how to to bring such fullness of sound and richness of delivery in creating music that is truly transcendent. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Deep Giant Squid"
MPEG Stream: "Shake The Noise Maker"
MPEG Stream: "The Anti Venom"

HURLEY, MICHAEL Ancestral Swamp (Gnomonsong) cd 13.98
New one from this old folkie. Nice.

HURLEY, MICHAEL Blue Hills (Mississippi) lp 14.98
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
After a seemingly endless streams of reissues, comes some brand new music from folk legend Michael Hurley. Recorded over the last few years, Blue Hills finds Hurley in mostly solo mode, accompanying himself on one side with electric piano and old pump organ, while on the other side it's just acoustic guitar, with a tiny bit of violin on one track. The results are pretty stellar, Hurley's voice is rough and worn, a little ragged, but it suits these melancholic compositions. "In The Morning", with its strange melody and haunting electric piano ends up sounding mysterious and otherworldly, the soundtrack to a big empty house on a grey rainy day. The pump organ tracks have a similar vibe, darkly emotional, wistful, mournful, the wheezing organ a perfect compliment to Hurley's countryish croon, which slips smoothly from whiskey soaked to a surprisingly smooth falsetto.
On the second side Hurley straps on an acoustic, and goes all back porch blues, down home country folk, and his voice sounds amazing, delicate, a little wounded, wrapped around simple crystalline melodies and folky fingerpicked guitar, add some buzz and hiss, and it could be some rediscovered old timey field recording. The record finishes off with Hurley re-doing one of his old songs, originally recorded in 1963, and although this was in fact recorded last year, it again sounds timeless, Hurley's falsetto floating dreamily over skeletal guitar melodies, and moaning violin. So nice.

HURLEY, MICHAEL Blueberry Wine (Locust) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HURLEY, MICHAEL Fatboy Spring (Mississippi) lp 14.98

HURLEY, MICHAEL Hi-Fi Snock Uptown (Mississippi) lp 14.98
MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT!! MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT!! MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT!!
As always, that's the text version of the siren and the flashing light, to get the attention of the legions of record nerds who need to know nothing but the fact that this right here is a brand new MISSISSIPPI RECORDS release. For the rest of you, Hi Fi Snock Uptown is the latest in Mississippi's ongoing Michael Hurley catalog reissue campaign, after Parsnip Snips and Armchair Boogie. Hi Fi Snock Uptown is from 1972, and unlike the previous two records, that were basically solo voice and guitar, this one features an expanded lineup, a band proper, with mandolin and piano and clavinet and pedal steel, it's still mostly stripped down and minimal, but the sound is a bit more lush, a little more fleshed out, which actually dramatically alters the feel of Hurley's music. Whereas the first two records were a sort of sweet back porch folk, classic Americana, the songs here are a bit more rock, they sound like early seventies FM radio, think Flying Burrito Brothers, Jim Croce, even the Eagles. The core sound is still folk, and some of these songs definitely rank amongst Hurley's best, and many of the tracks definitely have the feel of his earlier records, but it's exciting to hear Hurley take his songs and his sound somewhere new, without losing the essence of what made his songs so special on the first place.
Nice heavy vinyl. And cool cartoon cover art featuring Hurley's own strange comic book style 'wolves in the saloon' drawings.

HURLEY, MICHAEL Parsnip Snips (Mississippi 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.
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
The last Michael Hurley lp, Armchair Boogie, reissued on Mississippi was gone in a flash, so don't hesitate too long on this one. Originally released in 1995 on the Veracity label, Parsnip Snips features homemade archival recordings made between 1965-1972. Sunny and warm, like a long lazy summer weekday in the country with nothing to do but sit on a porch and strum a guitar, Hurley can conjure folk magic through the simplest of means with a down-home at-his-leisure delivery. This is how we like him best, when he's his most laid back spinning humorously surreal tales of love, loss and space-weevils!

HURLEY, MICHAEL & PALS Armchair Boogie (Mississippi) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
MISSISSIPPI ALERT! MISSISSIPPI ALERT! MISSISSIPPI ALERT!
This latest release from probably our favorite vinyl reissue label is a beautiful reissue of Armchair Boogie by the one and only folkie's folkie Michael Hurley! Released in 1971 this was Hurley's second album and it sure is a stunner!
Produced By Jesse Colin Young from the Youngbloods and originally released on his Raccoon imprint, this is a low key, occasionally strange piece of charmed backwoods Americana. Songs about werewolves, penguins and English Noblemen that display his keen songwriting abilities and dry humor, all wrapped around simple spare, sweet back porch folk.
It's an intimate, deep and vulnerable sounding ultra personal music, the kind of music that is better heard than described, better experienced for yourself, a music that on the surface seems simple, and surely is simple, but offers much to the listener, speaking to the heart, and the soul, as much as the mind.
If you were going to get one Michael Hurley album, this would most definitely be the one. After listening to this, it will make perfect sense why he has fascinated many of the later breed of folk songwriters including Cat Power, Devendra Banhart and Tara Jane O'Neil. On vinyl, the way it was meant to be!

HURLEY, MIKE First Songs (Smithsonian Folkways) lp 16.98
The consummate "folksinger's folksinger" Michael Hurley has had a long strange life on the influential fringe of American folk music. And as most marginal artists from the fifties and sixties folk revival, just like their early progenitors, Hurley has had much more influence and success in the latter half of his life than in the beginnings. Why, we know much more about Hurley's influence on and involvement with the freak-folk movement of the past decade, than his early beginnings as an East Village folkie in New York or his symbolic connection to Woody Guthrie (Hurley too was once a patient at the same Bellvue convalescent ward where Guthrie spent his last days). In fact, this first record from 1964 on Smithsonian Folkways when Hurley was just 23 years old was released just after he left Bellvue, and one can hear the strains of Guthrie's roaming influence on these ramshackle backporch ballads that sound much older than they are. Hurley's music wasn't politically motivated, but championed a rugged individualism well in tune with bouts of desperation, wry wit and visionary mythical brilliance. This insight has only made him grow as an artist who just keeps getting better and better. Highly Recommended!

HURT, MISSISSIPPI JOHN Blessed Be The Name: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings (Monk) lp 22.00
Mississippi John Hurt's lone recordings from his younger days get a nice looking vinyl reissue from the good people at Monk. The material here has been available numerous times throughout the years, but if you missed out, GET THIS NOW! Before his rediscovery in the 1960s, Hurt had recorded a mere 13 songs in New York and Memphis for Okeh after winning a talent contest. Then, like many of the original bluesmen, he faded into obscurity and continued to work the land as a sharecropper, playing music on the side. Hurt possessed an expert style of intricate fingerpicking and an easy going vocal delivery which made quite an impression on his audience in the '60s. The greatest thing about his work is how effortless it comes across, even though this is some pretty unbelievable and complex guitar playing, not to mention highly melodic. He doesn't sound like a man in a hurry or with too much to worry about, despite some of the lyrical content and the oppressive nature of being black and living in Mississippi (or anywhere in the Western world for that matter) during this time, and Hurt never seemed quite as bleak as some of the other Delta greats. This, of course, does nothing to diminish his power, and this one definitely gets our seal of approval.

HUSBANDS Daniel b/w You Need Hands (Blue Bus) 7" 3.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Stompin', rockin' new 45 rpm blast of grit and groove from the fabulous trio of Sarah, Sadie, and Nikki aka The Husbands, San Francisco's latest and most successful export in the marketplace of hot female retro garage bands that like to party with vampire zombies. Sides A & B are both raucous originals, fast and fun ones that you'll be flippin' over and over again.

HUSBANDS, THE Introducing the Sounds of... (Swami) cd 14.98
Finally! The debut album from local garage rock trio The Husbands -- a band that just happens to feature AQ's beloved Sadie Shaw on guitar, maracas and backup vocals. In fact it's all girls on this record, though they've got a boy playing added percussion on stage with 'em now. In addition to Sadie's fabulousness there's the authentic, so-appropriate voice of Sarah Reed -- sexily raspy from whiskey and cigarettes, but she still hits the notes, the girl can sing; and then there's the rhythmic pound of drummer Nikki Sloate. This fierce, all-attitude band is really into rockin', with a deep love for and knowledge of their '60s inspirations / source material. Half the songs are well chosen covers that get the rough 'n raw Husbands treatment -- tunes by Half Pint and the Fifths, The Barbarians, Carole King, even a punk-energized version of Bo Diddley's "Cadillac". Definitely a super-fun live band (go see 'em if you get the chance, which you probably will 'cause they're so hard workin') who've managed to capture their energy and attitude on this lil' round disc.
MPEG Stream: "Orphan Boy"
MPEG Stream: "Dirty Mouth"

HUSBANDS, THE Introducing the Sounds of... (Swami) lp 10.98
Finally! The debut album from local garage rock trio The Husbands -- a band that just happens to feature AQ's beloved Sadie Shaw on guitar, maracas and backup vocals. In fact it's all girls on this record, though they've got a boy playing added percussion on stage with 'em now. In addition to Sadie's fabulousness there's the authentic, so-appropriate voice of Sarah Reed -- sexily raspy from whiskey and cigarettes, but she still hits the notes, the girl can sing; and then there's the rhythmic pound of drummer Nikki Sloate. This fierce, all-attitude band is really into rockin', with a deep love for and knowledge of their '60s inspirations / source material. Half the songs are well chosen covers that get the rough 'n raw Husbands treatment -- tunes by Half Pint and the Fifths, The Barbarians, Carole King, even a punk-energized version of Bo Diddley's "Cadillac". Definitely a super-fun live band (go see 'em if you get the chance, which you probably will 'cause they're so hard workin') who've managed to capture their energy and attitude on this lil' round disc.

HUSBANDS, THE There's Nothing I'd Like More Than To See You Dead (Swami) cd 14.98
Wow, what a difference a few years make! Since their debut album in 2003, The Husbands have endured a seemingly non-stop revolving door on the drummer seat, finally lockin' in with Ms Casey Ward (of Weakling and The Lies) for this album. In that time the gals also spent a stretch expanding their vocal repertoire with awesome sassy results. The results are a much tighter, tuneful Husbands. Most notable is the occasionally very '60s girl group style singing which serves as a nice counterpart to their former predominantly snarky vocal cord shredding fury. That by no means is any indication that this SF garage rock trio has softened up. Sadie, Sarah and Casey will still kick your ass 'round the block with their music (and we'd bet they'd do so literally too if you wrong 'em!). All members share in multiple instrument duties and are joined by such guests as Dan Sartain, Russell Quan (of countless garage rawk combos), and Trans Am's Phil Manley. Seventeen short'n'sweet party-ready tunes (only one of which exceeds the three minute mark!).
MPEG Stream: "Tell Me Your Love Is Only Mine"
MPEG Stream: "Cut Me Loose"

HUSH ARBORS s/t (Ecstatic Peace) cd 11.98
In the past Keith Wood has released all kinds of material under the Hush Arbors moniker, so we had no idea what to expect from this new record on Ecstatic Peace. Turns out it's a seriously awesome album of psych folk psychosis! It really grew on us, the perfect album to play in the store. With a simple charm that totally hinges on catchy, rootsy guitar licks and soft, falsetto vocals that are ever-so effective in completely captivating. Slipping between quietly sung finger picked ballads and rowdy full-band jammers, these are the kind of songs that stay in your head longer than you'd like, but you don't mind because they're awesome. Wood and his partner, Leon Dufficy, have conjured a magical release that falls somewhere between a forested acoustic ritual and a boozed up, barn burning hoedown. Wood's somber songwriting is clever and touching, combining the tenderness of Neil Young with the atmospheric obscurity of Six Organs (Ben Chasny even makes an appearance on the second track!). Very cool! Complete with a beautifully collaged cover featuring a picture of the man himself. Needless to say, don't miss out, this is highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Follow Closely"
MPEG Stream: "Rue Hollow"

HUSH ARBORS s/t (Reissue) (Digitalis) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Long overdue reissue of the out of print debut from Hush Arbors, aka Keith Wood. These tracks are warm and rich, hazy and mysterious free folk explorations of the highest order, each track like some long lost artifact, buried beneath a hundred year old tree, in the middle of the forest, and only just discovered, dusted off and allowed to play...
Woozy warbly drones, thick and dense, rumble and whir over a delicate bed of foresty folk, dreamy and blissy and otherworldly. Wood's fragile falsetto soars high above, another soft swirly layer in the dense tapestry of Hush Arbors' sound. This is exactly what you would expect to hear stumbling upon a forest cathedral, a mighty structure of bent limb trees, thick foliage, a soft wet bed of leaves underfoot, dark but for occasional shafts of sunlight, somber with hushed reverence but so alive and infused with energy, warm and safe and beautiful. Some tracks are fragile dreamlike folk, reminding us a bit of the Skygreen Leopards, due in no small part to the sweet swoonsome oh so high vocals, while other tracks forego melody completely instead opting to drift lazily, wrapping the word in a wreath of sonic shimmer.
Packaged in a plastic sleeve with a cool gold metallic paper sleeve. Includes brief liner notes from Six Organs Of Admittance's Ben Chasny.
MPEG Stream: "Magic Wood"
MPEG Stream: "The Same Tree Forever"

HUSH ARBORS Since We Have Fallen (Harvest Recordings) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in stock for a split second. Managed to get a few more copies...
Quite possibly one of the nicest lp packages we have seen. Definitely top 10. Hard to even know how to describe it. You sort of have to hold int and unfold it and feel the texture and the heft. Wow. Thick textured cardstock, fastened all over with black rivets, the whole thing embossed and letterpressed with black ink, abstract designs and very classy looking calligraphy, the back is die cut about half way down, so it opens like a barn door, split down the middle, held shut by black string, once opened, it reveals the 180 gram lp nestled inside as well as still more embossed design and text. So gorgeous.
And the music is definitely deserving of such over the top extra attention. A reissue of a long out of print cd-r, Hush Arbors explore a dark murky side of their soul, a drifting cloudy otherworld of soft freefolk bliss, flecked with all manner of detuned guitars, warped melodies, creaking percussive clatter, shimmery effervescence, but with a definite ominous edge, a lo-fi Third eye Foundation recording for Siltbreeze maybe? But with more twang, and more shuffle, and more delicate dreaminess. So nice.
An essential dreamfolk / free folk / folknoise / dronetwang artifact beautifully preserved and offered up again for a very limited time.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Each copy hand numbered, we got a bunch but these definitely won't last.

HUSH ARBORS Under Bent Limb Trees (Digitalis) 2cd 21.00

MPEG Stream: "The Forest We've Been"
MPEG Stream: "Wooded Reel"

HUSH ARBORS Yankee Reality (Ecstatic Peace) cd 10.98
On their second outing as a fully realized band (as distinguished from Keith Wood's solo foresty folk experimentalism of their earlier Digitalis releases), Hush Arbors are quickly becoming the band to watch! Produced by J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., their combination of bucolic psych-rock and strong rootsy songs tread a similar path to many of the bands currently on the Sub Pop roster but thankfully avoid all the sensitive dude pitfalls many of those bands suffer. Mascis's presence is definitely felt in the shoegazey guitar work of the final track, "Devil Made You High" but it's Wood's strong falsetto delivery that moves the songs into all the right places. Like a more driving Six Organs, Yankee Reality is just as satisfying as their last self-titled release for Ecstatic Peace. Keep 'em coming!
MPEG Stream: "Day Before"
MPEG Stream: "Fast Asleep"
MPEG Stream: "Devil Made You High"

HUUN HUUR TU Ancestors Call (World Village) cd 21.00
Huun Huur Tu are probably the most famous musical export from Tuva, known to most for their unique style of throat singing, in which the singer sings multiple notes: a drone, and then whistle like overtones, enabling the singer to create harmonies and multiple melodies, it's quite fantastic, and unlike almost anything you've ever heard. We've often fantasized about a black metal band finding a throat singer for a vocalist. We've actually seen John Gossard (Weakling, Asunder, Dispirit) at a Huun Huur Tu performance, trying to figure out exactly how they do it.
But the music of Huun Huur Tu is much more than just throat singing. Formed in the early nineties, the group performs and preserves traditional Tuvan folk music, singing in the traditional style, but also performing on traditional instruments, hand drums called Tungurs, a long necked Tuvan lute, called a Doshpuluur, a bowed two string instrument called an Igil, and perhaps as distinctive as the vocals, the Khomus, which is a Tuvan Jew's Harp. The sound they create is incredible. The above mentioned performance had 500+ people absolutely enraptured. Four guys in traditional Tuvan garb, boots and headdresses and furs, with those gorgeous instruments, the band wove a sonic spell that was impossible to resist. A sound that was surprisingly loud and powerful as well.
Ancestor's Call is their latest collection, and reflects the various facets of the group's sound and of the Tuvan folk music they pay homage to, from gorgeous solo vocal ballads, to galloping grooves (the galloping rhythm meant indeed to be horselike), the vocals a deep raspy almost Popeye sounding croon, easily slipping into throat singing, that whistling tone soaring impossibly over that deep buzz, some of the vocal harmonies are incredible, 4 impossibly deep voices woven into a lush harmony that rivals ANY drone music you've ever heard, rich and thick and dense and layered and when they begin to add those throat singing overtones, it's totally mesmerizing. The band do incorporate more traditional Western instruments (flutes, acoustic guitars), but they're deftly woven those into the group's sound, and they only serve to add to the gorgeous textures, especially on "Odugen Taiga" which sounds like Tuvan new age, or some Tuvan group making a record for Root Strata, but that's quickly followed by the gorgeous monk like chanting vocals of "Prayer", and it's then, more than ever, that you can feel the true power of their voices. So haunting and intense and emotional.
Of all the group's records, this one seems more stately, and restrained, darker and more melancholy, heavier on the ballads, the focus on the voices, not just the throat singing, but the vocal and instrumental interplay, the more rollicking numbers taking a back seat to the darkly dreamy moodiness of Huun Huur Tu's incredible sound and the fantastic musical legacy of Tuva. Nice slipcover packaging as well.
MPEG Stream: "Mazhalyk-Ta"
MPEG Stream: "Kozhamyk"
MPEG Stream: "Orphan's Lament"
MPEG Stream: "Konguroi"

HUUN-HUUR-TU 60 Horses In My Head (Shanachie) cd 17.98

HUUN-HUUR-TU If I'd Been Born An Eagle (Shanachie) cd 17.98

HUXTABLES, THE s/t (self-released) cdr + dvdr + zine 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in stock!
A synopsis of this self-titled debut by The Huxtables themselves: "In the beginning, there were two sweaters, a drum sweater and a guitar sweater. We attempted to win but lost a battle of the bands at our high school. At that point, we finally became a real family. Of course the guitar and drums are the parents and the drawings, video, bass and keyboards are the kids, uncles and aunts. On this recording, half of its songs are from a small concrete closet in Washington DC. At one point the closet was storage space for an up-right bass. We finished the album in a kitchen in Boston while in a tussle with the police. What they did to us in that kitchen forced us to become a collective notion and stop being a band. New songs are being worked out and the collective's future album will be called The Mere Pressure Of My Hand." The Huxtables are two 17 year old boys from New York who make art and music that's noisy, naive, raw and a little bit silly. But awesome and fun!
MPEG Stream: "Dragonfly Society"
MPEG Stream: "Nothing Can Stop Us Now"

HUZUN s/t (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 11.98
The name Huzun might not ring a bell, but for folks tuned into the experimental music scene in New Zealand or who are avid collectors of micro edition cd-r releases, you might know the names behind Huzun: Andrew Scott and Tim Coster. Andrew Scott is one half of the duo Nest, along with Nigel Wright, whose Flotter record has been a HUGE hit around here, and who shared a collaborative release last year with Mr. Coster.
So for Huzun, Scott teams up with Coster once again, this time minus Wright, for a disc of super minimal metallic melodic dronemusic. A 35 minute slow crawl through murky expanses of subterranean low end, dense clouds of slowed down whale call-like melodies buried beneath grinding swells of soft whirring blur, like exploring some lost underground city by torchlight, what sounds like bats fluttering overhead, strange sounds off in the distance like the buzz of insects, all over a deep dark rumbling like some sort of machine buried beneath the city. Haunting and harrowing, minimal and mysterious, at the same time subtly melodic and darkly mesmerizing.
More essential listening for all you dronelords and ladies...
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

HWYL NOFIO Anatomy Of Distort (Hwyl Nofio) cd-r 16.98
Been waiting a long time for this one. The last two Hwyl Nofio's were and still are all time AQ faves, and judging from how many we sell, you all most likely feel the same! And a cd-r of Anatomy Of Distort has been on CONSTANT repeat play at home. Which makes sense since we described an earlier Hwyl record as being our "absolute favorite bliss out, late night, chill out record ever!". And Anatomy Of Distort takes HN's sound even farther in that direction, if that were even possible. All of the more traditional song like elements present on the first two records have been stripped away, leaving a ghostly trace, a wavering sonic imprint of some mysterious sound that once was, but that is slowly and purposefully revealing itself to us, bit by bit, slivers of sound slipping into our line of sight, distant melodies, slowly materializing at the farthest reaches of our perceptible sound field. Haunting, drifing clouds of lower register thrum,
faraway pizzicato melodies, percussion built from expansive empty room clatter, the thud of ghostly footprints, the creak and bump of rarely opened doors. Occasional slow motion monster piano plod, gorgeously suspenseful and dimly lit, over an ocean of reverberating, bowed metals, creating ominous smears of dark and indistinct sonic haze, all ocasionally engulfed in massive, warm washes of molten guitar feedback, at once fierce and full of fury, but somehow still completely dreamy and mesmerizing. It's always hard to not slip into hyperbole on the AQ list, but even harder when we're dealing with a record this good. Having said that, this is probably one of the most beautiful drone records you will hear this year. Ever maybe. So completely dense with hidden sounds and rich with sonic layers, totally blissful and perfect for drifting off, but complex enough to reward close scrutiny and active listening. Most certainly for fans of Jonathan Coleclough, Andrew Chalk, Deathprod, Total, Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunn 0 ))), Earth, Nurse With Wound, and folks who recently picked up recent releases by Unicorn, Lugosi, Birchville Cat Motel, BJ Nilsen, and Monos will NOT want to miss this. Packaged in an oversized, slimline style DVD case, with a nice photographic insert and LIMITED TO 250 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "The Life And Death Of Joseph Merrick"
MPEG Stream: "Red Herald"

HWYL NOFIO Hounded By Fury (Hwyl Nofio) cd 15.98
There are always gonna be special bands, the ones that hold a unique place in your heart. That band you heard when you were on a trip. The band you have loved since the first time you heard them. The band whose songs featured heavily on that mix tape. And then any variation of the 'first' band, the band whose show you were at the first time you got drunk, laid, high, the night you met 'the one', then there's the band whose songs are always stuck in your head, the first -any genre here- band you ever liked, the band that helped you make it through that breakup / rehab / depression / that tough time in your life. But then there's the sort of band you have that weird protective proprietary selfish love for. The band only you like. The band you don't want everyone else listening to. The band you discovered and only you truly love. You know what we mean. It's a rare band that can inspire that sort of love and dedication. Well, we're a little embarrassed to admit it, but we sort of felt that way about Hwyl Nofio. A friend in the UK turned us on to them years back, and from the moment we first laid ears on them, we were smitten, obsessed even. This mysterious outfit crafting these dark and ominous worlds of strange and beautiful sound. It was hard to not keep it all to ourselves, this dark cave of sound that we could explore and call our own. But we like to think we've outgrown that sort of stuff, since we get as much satisfaction from turning other folks on to new music as we do discovering it for ourselves. More so in most cases. But it definitely speaks to the power of Hwyl Nofio, and the effect of their murky and mysterious music has on our ears, and brains, and hearts and souls.
Hounded By Fury is record number four from this UK drone outfit. The band is mostly the work of one man, Steve Parry, who handles the bulk of the sound making, utilizing all manner of guitars: strummed, plucked, bowed, adapted and otherwise, ukulele, piano, organs: church and otherwise, viola, bass and electronics, while a series of guests add their two cents with saxophone, Chinese guzheng, acoustic guitar processing, imagined banjo (?) and midi fractal image converter (!). Recorded at various locations including an old church Hounded By Fury is a definitely a drone record at its heart, but it's what the band do with those drones that makes Hwyl Nofio so special.
The sound this time around is a bit more ominous than on past outings. There's more scraping and scrabbling steel strings, a sort of grinding industrial screech that surfaces in some form or another on many of the tracks, sometimes right up front, a keening high end wail, sometimes just another element in a multilayered droneworld, subtly blended into a slow sleepy swirl with thee rest of the sounds.
The opening track is the former, with steel strings singing as they are scraped and scratched, a shrill screech stretched taut over a warm reverberant low end, strange tinkling wooden chimes and twinkling music box melodies, while in the background a moaning mournful melody, strummed softly so that the strums blend together. From that point on, it's a slow journey through a nighttime world of slow burn jazz minimalism a la Bohren, buzzing raga like rumble, and abstract ambient flutter. Layers of bowed strings sit atop minimal pulsing rhythms, a minimal throb usually constructed from one or two notes, long sustaining tones are stretched out side by side, the overtones shimmering and shifting, the resulting soundfield like drifting along some alien river, staring at a sky full of different stars, a head full of strange and unrecognizable sounds. Bizarre disembodied jangle is stripped of melody, until it's just a warm ridged texture, atonal Jandekian guitar figures warped and twisted, slowed down and sped up, sprinkled with cymbal sizzle and muted reverb ricochets, all stretched and twisted into various forms of drone.
One of the most intense tracks is "Child Woman", a choral sounding minor key lament, deep dark strings and mournful melodies, almost traditional settled as it is amidst an album of abstract experimental drone music., but very emotional and cinematic. It seems like a turning point for the record too as the next few tracks sound downright sunny, bright colors replace the dark, guitars twang, a trippy tangled slow motion free folk, the melodies not so dour, but the sunshine soon dims as black clouds fill the sky and timestretched metallic reverberations fill our ears like a million alarm clocks going off at once and then slowed down into a wall of alien trills, the mood shift is further enforced by some super sharp atonal guitars, swooping dizzily about, sounding a bit like the guitars on the Butthole Surfers' Hairway To Steven record, sort of damaged and deranged. But then the record's coda brings us back to Hwyl's soft shimmer, the delicate drone, a haunting ghostlike swoon, fuzzy and gauzey, obscured by falling rain, a dreamy drift into the void, a slow sad slide into the bright white, the pitch black left far behind.
MPEG Stream: "Living In Shadows"
MPEG Stream: "Sanctify"
MPEG Stream: "Riding The Echoes Of A Strange Situation"

HWYL NOFIO Hymnal (Hwyl Nofio) cd 15.98
Here we go again. Another record that I am totally obsessed with, that I listen to like mad, that I try to get all my friends to buy, but that when it comes time to review, I can't figure out how to describe in words that do justice to just how great this record is. Since we first got this in, the second release from strangely named Hwyl Nofio, a UK collective fronted by AQ pal Steve Parry, I would just fumble with superlatives and end up spitiing out something like "I don't know. It's just great. Buy it!!!" But I figure I would try to do a little better than that for the list. While the mood is similar to the first record, there seems to be a more sort of 'rock' influence. Not rock like Van Halen, but rock in the sense that there are guitars (lots of em) and really identifiable instruments. Where the first album blurred the instrumentation into a dark and dreamy wash of subterranean rumble, Hymnal achieves the same basic effect but by keeping the edges a little more distinct. Not to say this won't appeal to your droning side becaue it certainly will. But it also just might appeal to your slow motion, instrumental slow-core side as well! A very dark and sinister record. Dreamy and hypnotic, but sort of aggressive and threatening at the same time. The entire record is a nightmarescape set on a foundation of rumbling, swelling, washes of thick warm low end shimmer. Basses, and guitars and organs and horns all settle into a cloying fog of glacial downtuned thrum, slowly shifting, melodic flourishes barely visible below the surface. While pianos and guitars supply abstract melodies, their notes dropped delicately one by one, creating a pointillist map of some haunting afterlife/ghost world. Equal parts Stars Of The Lid, Sunn 0))), Jonathan Coleclough, Maeor Tri, Starfuckers, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Labradford, Morton Feldman and all the music that frightens us when we're awake, and soothes us when we're not. Definitely one of the most beautiful, haunting and original records of the year!
MPEG Stream: "A Brutality Of Fact"
MPEG Stream: "All You Knew Were Doomed"
MPEG Stream: "Children Are"

HWYL NOFIO The Singers And Harp Players Are Dumb (Hwyl Nofio) cd 15.98
We heard about Hwyl-Nofio from AQ pal Kevin who does the amazing UK zine Salt (see elsewhere in this list) and finally managed to get our hands on a bunch. It's kind of a hard record to explain. But I've been listening to this almost every night when I go to bed, if that tells you anything. Dark and dreamy and cinematic. Somewhere between musique concrete, Stars Of The Lid, David Darling (solo cello) and drone ala Jonathan Coleclough, Troum or Mirror. Hwyl-Nofio is Steve Parry, and the records sound centers around his restrained, haunting piano, some times prepared, sometimes effected, but always simple and gorgeous. Dark slowly building somber bass swells cycle endlessly as melancholy piano hesitantly joins in. Warm washes of whispery rumble spread like thick rich fog, spilling from the speakers as distant high end notes twinkle and sparkle. Wheezing dissonance is laid beneath whirring church organs and keening guitars. Rumbling and bubbling low end floods your ears like molasses, while in the background, subtle clatter, plucked guitar and throbbing pulses. This has become my absolute favorite bliss out, late night, chill out record ever! So gorgeous and so good.
RealAudio clip: "Jerusalem Lane"
RealAudio clip: "Black River"
RealAudio clip: "Luminous Is An Autumn Sunset"
RealAudio clip: "Angel Tits"

HYADNINGAR The Weak Creation (Total Rust) cd 13.98
Yet ANOTHER amazing slab of extreme, gnarled grim blackness from the seemingly bottomless depths of the French underground, this time from a horde known as Hyadningar. The Weak Creation is the second full length from these evil wicked warriors, and finds the band whipping up serious storm of grim, technical, melodic black metal, a strange mix of Deathspell-ish complexity, epic soaring melodicism, dour depressive miserablism, and even a hint of Viking metal here and there.
That's a lot to cram into one sound, or one record, or even one band, but these guys pull it off, twisting those various sounds into something all their own, and then weaving them all together into some strange blackened patchwork. The first song veers from woozy clean guitars and soaring chantlike vocals, to lurching Burzum-y trudge, to haunting almost martial sounding breakdowns with tangled guitar harmonies, military snares, and haunting spoken word, but it all somehow flows, an expansive, complex bit of black metal chaos.
The vocals are frenzied and frayed, maniacal and feral, slipping from shriek to croak to howl, courtesy of Marquis, whose vokills might sound familiar from his time spent in Bethlehem, Funeralium and Ataraxie, and they perfectly compliment the twists and turns and ever shifting arrangements that make up these convoluted epics. Most of the songs here spend the majority of their time blasting along furiously, the guitars dense and jagged, the drumming impossibly mathy and complex, the melodies mournful and intricate, but the band continually mix things up, whether it's a sudden shift into a soaring melodic crooned breakdown, or a warped bit of folky flutter, or exploding into a totally epic almost psychedelic blast of heart-of-the-sun black majesty.
MPEG Stream: "The Beast Within"
MPEG Stream: "Templars Of The Black Sun"

HYATARI The Light Carriers (Codebreaker / Earache) cd 15.98
Dark, droney, dirgey metal...our favorite! Yep, this new band called Hyattari is an immediate AQ sludge/art metal fave, from West Virgina but sounding like they hail from the deeps of space, giving your ears a cold void embrace in the style of such bands as Skullflower, Halo, and Earth. Hyattari's music consists of uber-heavy sheets of low-end echoing riff-drone on bass and guitar that sound SO GOOD, joined (not even right away, but a little while into the record) by plodding, rigid, militaristic programmed percussion. It's sorta like Growing meets Godflesh! The seven tracks here (with doomy titles like "14,000,000,000 Years Ago", "Collapse", and "Harvesting Sod") pretty much slowly flow unbroken from one to the next, although within a few of the songs you'll find some sudden, short interludes of gentle melody. Haunting and lonely lulls in the sheer HEAVINESS that fills so much of this disc like glacial ice advancing over the globe during the last Ice Age. And it's mostly instrumental, with a small smattering of Neurosisy shouted/screamed vocals, augmented by sampled voices, buried in the massive mix like lost shortwave transmissions or ghostly EVP intercepts.
Besides the abovementioned, a few other artists that this reminds us of include: SUNNO))), Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Isis, Pelican, Cult Of Luna -- and the natural VLF radio recordings of Stephen P. McGreevy, 'cause this disc ends (though it doesn't seem like it ever should end, instead continuing on eternal and infinite like space itself) with a lengthy, mysterious field recording (maybe?) that might just be sferics or other electro-magnetic phenomena from the Earth's atmosphere. Very nice.
Originally self-released, and now wisely picked up by Earache's new avant/extreme Codebreaker imprint (run by the guy who used to do the now defunct Rage of Achilles label), The Light Carriers gets a big AQ recommendation to anyone into this sort of slow n' low majesty.
MPEG Stream: "The Light Carriers"
MPEG Stream: "14,000,000,000 Years Ago"

HYATARI They Will Surface (Caustic Eye) cd 15.98
It's been four years since we first encountered this drone-doom-doom-drone band from West Virginia's debut album The Light Carriers. And its heavy vibrations made such an impression on us, we'd been wondering when we'd heard from them again... of course, for these guys, whose music is sooooo sloooow and seemingly transmitted from the deeps of space, four years probably isn't a long time, not on the grand galactic scale. So we waited, and we're glad they've now at last resurfaced, with, uh, They Will Surface. Considering all the droney, dooooooomy music we sell, having more Hyatari here at AQ is a good thing. Really, it seems these guys should be just as popular as bands like Ufomammut, Atavist, Nadja... certainly if you like the likes of those, you should check out Hyatari!
This new disc picks up where the last one left off, pretty much. A musical 2001: The Space Odyssey monolith of epic, moody, synth sludge DIRGE, built from slabs of Earth/SUNNO)))/Skullflower style distortion and lumbering, crushingly heavy riffs, which seem to explode out of the near-stillness of their more ambient, drifty, spaced-out passages. And it's (mostly? all?) instrumental, so nothing so insignificant and small as a pesky human voice enters into the majestic, black-void-encompassing soundfield. But instead of the Godflesh-y programmed drum beats of the debut, this time around it sounds more like there's a physical being behind the drumkit, pounding away with the pulse of the cosmos. Although, no drummer is credited, so it's probably a machine. Heck, all of Hyatari might just be a machine. We imagine the depressed robot from Hitchhiker's Guide, but serious and scary and for some reason intent on playing ultra-heavy post rockish drone-doom!
MPEG Stream: "Mountain Lit With Fire"
MPEG Stream: "They Will Surface"

HYETAL Broadcast (Acme) cd 16.98
Up until now, we knew Hyetal as a Bristol based dubstepper, with killer jams on all sorts of labels from Punch Drunk to Planet Mu, his sound a soulful, tripped out variant of classic dubstep, but who here, on Broadcast, has ditched the whole dubplate / 12" single / dancefloor driven approach and crafted a record proper, one that plays out like some strange Eighties giallo soundtrack, equal parts Goblin, John Carpenter, witch housers Salem, and nineties IDM, not to mention some serious soul. Opener "Ritual" is the grimmest of the bunch, and the most witch house-y, total blackened synth heavy drag, the sounds distorted and crumbly, the beat a soporific creep, lots of buzz, and swirl, and some total Carpenter like soundtracky melodies, all minor key and haunting as hell. "Diamond Islands" continues the vibe, with a skittery abstract beat, some woozy, sinister synths, some big eighties drums, breathy vocals suspended over the swirling electronic backdrop, the vibe low slung and retro, but also weirdly abstract and futuristic.
"Phoenix" takes some swaggery dubstep, stirs in some 8 bit eighties video game sounds, and some cheesy soundtracky synths, into some total VHS dubstep new age soundtrack soul, while "Beach Scene" conjures up the exact opposite, some grimy chase through the gritty streets of some post apocalyptic wasteland. And weirdly enough, "The Chase" doesn't really evoke a chase, but is darkly tense, a pulsing new wave synthscape, that leads directly into "Searchlight", which takes Boards Of Canada style warm and washed out IDM, mixes in some weird eighties synths and some blooping bleeping video game music, not to mention some fragmented soul vox, for a dizzying bit of haunting skittery electro wave.
"Dimepiece" is all minimal and stripped down, with distant melodies, a churning propulsive melody, but with some awesome swaths of dubstep bas wobble, underpinning echo drenched disembodied female vox.
The record continues on, straddling the line between abstract dubstep, vintage Carpenter soundtrack, old school IDM, and dark minimal electro soul, finally finishing off with the haunting and gorgeously brooding "Black Black Black", a sort of post Portishead chunk of downtempo slither, sexy female vocals crooned over a Burial style slo-mo dubstep beat, all wound up with pulsing synths, and deep thick swells of haunting ambience, and draped with some chiming, lilting eighties pop melodies, only to fade out into nearly two minutes of crashing surf. So nice.
Note: the double 12" vinyl version only includes 5 of the 10 tracks found on the compact disc format.
MPEG Stream: "Ritual"
MPEG Stream: "The Chase"
MPEG Stream: "Black Black Black"

HYETAL Broadcast (Acme) 2x12" 17.98
Also in stock on vinyl, though be aware it doesn't have quite so many tracks as the cd version...
Up until now, we knew Hyetal as a Bristol based dubstepper, with killer jams on all sorts of labels from Punch Drunk to Planet Mu, his sound a soulful, tripped out variant of classic dubstep, but who here, on Broadcast, has ditched the whole dubplate / 12" single / dancefloor driven approach and crafted a record proper, one that plays out like some strange Eighties giallo soundtrack, equal parts Goblin, John Carpenter, witch housers Salem, and nineties IDM, not to mention some serious soul. Opener "Ritual" is the grimmest of the bunch, and the most witch house-y, total blackened synth heavy drag, the sounds distorted and crumbly, the beat a soporific creep, lots of buzz, and swirl, and some total Carpenter like soundtracky melodies, all minor key and haunting as hell. "Diamond Islands" continues the vibe, with a skittery abstract beat, some woozy, sinister synths, some big eighties drums, breathy vocals suspended over the swirling electronic backdrop, the vibe low slung and retro, but also weirdly abstract and futuristic.
"Phoenix" takes some swaggery dubstep, stirs in some 8 bit eighties video game sounds, and some cheesy soundtracky synths, into some total VHS dubstep new age soundtrack soul, while "Beach Scene" conjures up the exact opposite, some grimy chase through the gritty streets of some post apocalyptic wasteland. And weirdly enough, "The Chase" doesn't really evoke a chase, but is darkly tense, a pulsing new wave synthscape, that leads directly into "Searchlight", which takes Boards Of Canada style warm and washed out IDM, mixes in some weird eighties synths and some blooping bleeping video game music, not to mention some fragmented soul vox, for a dizzying bit of haunting skittery electro wave.
"Dimepiece" is all minimal and stripped down, with distant melodies, a churning propulsive melody, but with some awesome swaths of dubstep bas wobble, underpinning echo drenched disembodied female vox.
The record continues on, straddling the line between abstract dubstep, vintage Carpenter soundtrack, old school IDM, and dark minimal electro soul, finally finishing off with the haunting and gorgeously brooding "Black Black Black", a sort of post Portishead chunk of downtempo slither, sexy female vocals crooned over a Burial style slo-mo dubstep beat, all wound up with pulsing synths, and deep thick swells of haunting ambience, and draped with some chiming, lilting eighties pop melodies, only to fade out into nearly two minutes of crashing surf. So nice.
Note: the double 12" vinyl version only includes 5 of the 10 tracks found on the compact disc format.
MPEG Stream: "Ritual"
MPEG Stream: "The Chase"
MPEG Stream: "Black Black Black"

HYLOZOISTS Fin Du Monde (Boompa) cd 14.98
We weren't really sure to expect from this band. We were sort of taking a chance on the cool name, the striking cover and the sticker that explained that Hylozoists were in fact a 10 piece ensemble including vibraphones, double drums, organ, piano, strings, glockenspiel, flugelhorn, brass, pedal steel and more... Wow. How could we not be smitten already? Without even having heard it. Thankfully, it's just as cool as we hoped. Obvious points of reference are Stereolab, the Coctails, Neu!, Japancakes, Rachel's. Calexico, even Godspeed! You Black Emperor. Lilting dreamy chamber pop, lush and languorous, a little bit cocktail jazz, a little exotica, some krautrock groove, a bit of twang, some slow burning moodiness, some spaghetti Western campiness, some effervescent pop. A glorious and playful, propulsive indie-chamber-pop chamber epic postrock record for sure. Some sweet female vocals surface in the middle of the record, but for the most part this is all instrumental, and all dreamy and divine.
Featuring members of the Weakerthans, Broken Social Scene, Fembots and Final Fantasy.
MPEG Stream: "The Fifty Minute Hour"
MPEG Stream: "Elementary Particles"

HYMAN, DICK Moog (Varese Sarabande) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Reissue of this 60's classic of the (duh) Moog synth pop exotica genre so popular with today's youth. Nicely packaged with plenty of liner notes. "The Topless Dancers of Corfu" beckon...

HYPE WILLIAMS Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite, And Start Getting Reel (De Stijl) lp 19.98
Not to be confused with the infamous music video director, THIS Hype Williams is a Euro boy/girl duo who traffic in a woozy washed out, looped and loopy lysergic dubbed out witchy electronica, like How To Dress Well crossed with The Skaters, each track, a dizzying hypnoscape of cyclical rhythms, of layered melodies, and processed vox, a sound all syrupy and sludgey and seriously lo-fi, casio-core writ downtempo dancefloor drawl, chopped and screwed, and not all that far removed from Witch Housers like oOoOO or Salem, the same sort of cough syrup soaked electro dub, all skittery and shuffly, warped and warbly, everything dragging and druggy, sloe eyed and slithery, the bass is fuzzy and buzzy but is muted and blurred beneath robotic primitive rhythms, and hazy swirls of dreamlike melody, samples are manipulated, processed, stretched and reimagined, Sade becomes an icy chunk of electro murk (not here, but on another record, HW samples aQ fave Doug Blunt, AND half of Hype Williams calls himself D. Blunt, hmmmm), elsewhere the samples are not so easy to pick out, instead they're simply shards and streaks and fragments, all woven into HW's psychedelic skitter and bleary creepy crawl.
From ominous mysterious mumbly murk, to hazy, looped dreampop drift, from twisted chaotic collaged shuffle funk to Ariel Pink style alien FM radio groove pop, all the tracks here ooze and bleed and melt before your ears into one ever shifting organic assemblage of late night, under water, doped up, drift off, zombie funk...
MPEG Stream: "Rescue Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

HYPE WILLIAMS Kelly Price W8 Gain Vol II (Hyper Dub) 12" 12.98
Latest slab of psychedelic dancefloor drag / slo-mo soul / eighties synth wave weirdness from this European boy/girl duo (not to be confused with the hip hop video director), and it's more of what we loved about the other HW record, all hazy synths, and laid back handclap rhythms, fuzzy new wave basslines, and sultry vox. The opening track almost sounds like it could (should?) be on Italians Do It Better, that sort of Euro disco wave, the second track on the A side sounds like some lost instrumental version of one of Madonna's eighties B-sides, which leads right into the first track on the B-side which could have been modeled on Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time", some sort of alternate universe prom night slow dance ballad, but warped and tweaked and warbly, all cheesy synths and eighties drum machine and shopping mall Wurlitzers. The final track is really strange, the prettiest of the bunch, a dreamy lilting gamelan like melody, all murky and swirly and druggy, but then over the top there there are some super strange sampled vox, which change the vibe completely. Speaking of which, since there was no speed indicated on the label, we were listening to this at 33, and holy crap does it sound awesomely woozy and witch housey all slowed down...

HYPE WILLIAMS One Nation (Hippos In Tanks) lp 18.98
New mysterious lp from the equally mysterious duo, Hype Williams. Housed in a blank white 12" sleeve with a blank white label and white vinyl and no identifying information whatsoever, except for a sticker on the shrink wrap. Hell, it took us awhile to even figure out what speed it's supposed to play at and we're still not really sure. Crackly and hollowed out synth washes and bouncy but distant drum machines play in deceptively basic minimal-funk pitch-shifted arrangements that slowly wooze and morph into dreamy soul refractions. Hazy and murky like their witch-house contemporaries would be good descriptors, but it's much more of a hot muddled electro mess than spindly goth horror daydream. Dam-Funk on Nyquil, perhaps? Supposedly these songs have titles, but there is no listing, maybe if we slavishly followed the blogs, we might have a clue, but it's hard to tell where one track ends and another one starts. We don't even know which is side one or two. Hype Williams may revel in their particular brand of confounding prankishness and seem not to care if you are in on their joke or not, but if their output wasn't so curiously intriguing, we might have not given this a second thought. Truth be told, we can't stop trying to wrap our heads around it, so that's gotta be something, right?

HYPNOSIA Extreme Hatred (Hammerheart) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
High-octane, leather-clad thrash metal from a trio of young Swedes who really know what they're doing, old-school style. Everybody in Sweden must play in a metal band, for them to have this many good ones! 35 minutes of pure neck-sprain.

HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE Alyo / Flipside (Honest Jons) 10" 12.98

HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE s/t (Honest Jon's) cd 17.98
You don't see too many street music ensembles with this kind of pedigree. This Chicago-based 9 piece jazz group, who have spent years touring and honing their craft on street corners worldwide, at least when they're not backing Erykah Badu on a song or opening for the recently reunited Blur at Hyde Park, also features eight sons (from two different mothers) of legendary Chicago trumpeter and A.A.C.M. co-founder Philip Cohran on horns! 2 trombones, 4 trumpets, one sousaphone and a euphonium. The drummer is the only member not related to the jazz great. Formed over a decade ago, after a tragic murder of a younger brother brought the rest of the brood back to Chicago, the brothers united and have been performing and touring ever since. Three self-released and recorded cd-rs have been in circulation since 2004, but this is their first studio effort, afforded them by Alan Scholefield of Honest Jon's who first heard them outside his London Record Store. Not jazz exactly, what the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble play is a form of complex instrumental hip-hop, one player locking in on rhythmic loops and grooves while some orbit in and around the center and others keep the low end steady. There are no solos or "out" moments, the ensemble performs as a single interlocked unit. We bet this would be really amazing live! As a studio effort it sounds great, but like listening to any full on brass ensemble or marching band, there is minimal overall variation, so the sound tires out a bit after awhile. But still, you don't see horn ensembles like this too often, and with pieces by Moondog and Philip Cohran himself, this is still quite a worthwhile listen!
MPEG Stream: "Marcus Garvey"
MPEG Stream: "Jupiter"
MPEG Stream: "Hypnotic"

HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE s/t (Honest Jon's) 2lp 22.00
You don't see too many street music ensembles with this kind of pedigree. This Chicago-based 9 piece jazz group, who have spent years touring and honing their craft on street corners worldwide, at least when they're not backing Erykah Badu on a song or opening for the recently reunited Blur at Hyde Park, also features eight sons (from two different mothers) of legendary Chicago trumpeter and A.A.C.M. co-founder Philip Cohran on horns! 2 trombones, 4 trumpets, one sousaphone and a euphonium. The drummer is the only member not related to the jazz great. Formed over a decade ago, after a tragic murder of a younger brother brought the rest of the brood back to Chicago, the brothers united and have been performing and touring ever since. Three self-released and recorded cd-rs have been in circulation since 2004, but this is their first studio effort, afforded them by Alan Scholefield of Honest Jon's who first heard them outside his London Record Store. Not jazz exactly, what the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble play is a form of complex instrumental hip-hop, one player locking in on rhythmic loops and grooves while some orbit in and around the center and others keep the low end steady. There are no solos or "out" moments, the ensemble performs as a single interlocked unit. We bet this would be really amazing live! As a studio effort it sounds great, but like listening to any full on brass ensemble or marching band, there is minimal overall variation, so the sound tires out a bit after awhile. But still, you don't see horn ensembles like this too often, and with pieces by Moondog and Philip Cohran himself, this is still quite a worthwhile listen!
MPEG Stream: "Marcus Garvey"
MPEG Stream: "Jupiter"
MPEG Stream: "Hypnotic"

HYPOMANIE A City In Mono (Sun & Moon / Valse Sinistre) cd 13.98
Here's another band for all those folks freaking over the blissed out post black metal jangle pop of groups like Alcest, Amesoeurs, Les Discrets, Sleeping Peonies and all the rest. This Dutch one man band began life as something much more black and grim, but gradually shed all of that as the sound drifted toward something way more shoegazey and poppy.
And that's essentially what this is, a shoegaze record, a fuzzed out dream pop record, albeit one with buzzing brittle guitars, occasional squalls of frenzied fast picking, and once-in-a-while blast beats, and any of the elements that would normally go toward creating a grim black buzz, are transformed into a prismatic psychedelic shimmer, a fuzzy, a blissed out shoegaze buzz equal parts super sunny jangle pop and slow building instrumental crystalline post rock, soaring and epic and emotional, oozing with glistening melodic shimmer, wreathed in warm sonic swirls. If we had to pick one band to compare Hypomanie to, it would probably be Slowdive, a sort of blackened post rock Slowdive, but that same sort of wistful melancholia, and epic shoegazey swells, not to mention the occasional sweeping string like synths. There's also a huge Jesu vibe in the guitar tone and the epic crescendos (which also remind us of M83), and there's a strange looped vibe to many of the tracks, as if the songs were constructed and assembled, which gives the whole thing a dizzying, alien feel, which certainly suits the strange dreamlike sounds. And throughout the record, there are definitely some subtle hints of Hypomanie's black metal roots, in the buzzing guitars, the tremelo picking, the strange production, and here and there, the sound does actually explode into some serious black metal, like the closing bit of the opening track, which bursts into some furious soaring frenzied buzzing, anchored to some double kick driven blast beats, but even then it's all kaleidoscopic and dreamy, the blasting drums buried in the lush sonic swirl, a sound so epic and cinematic and fantastically grandiose. Gorgeous stuff for sure, and ANYone into the post black metal jangle pop usual suspects (mentioned above), will definitely dig this big time.
MPEG Stream: "You Never Gazed At The Clouds"
MPEG Stream: "She Couldn't Find A Flower, But There Was Snow"

HYPOTHERMIA Gratoner (Turannum) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A brand new three song 12" 50 minute ep from Swedish Black metal outfit Hypothermia, whose black metal, is both strangely not metal, and surprisingly not all that black. Much like German 'wooden metal' horde Varghkogargasmal, Hypothermia spend much of their time playing clean jangly guitar, or offering up meandering post rock jams, minor key guitar strum and simple propulsive drumming, sure there are howled vocals and thick swaths of buzzing blackened riffs now and again, but what is so intriguing about Hypothermia is that they manage to evoke the same sort of suicidal emotions and grim atmosphere, without resorting to typical black metal tropes.
Gratoner is three parts of the same song, side A has parts one and two, while side B has the "Repression" version. Truth be told, all three are quite similar, which in fact plays to Hypothermia's benefit, in that Gratoner plays like one long song, repetitive and cyclical, hypnotic and repetitive, which once drawn in, keeps the listener absolutely ensorcelled.
The core of the track is a loping clean guitar groove, a sort of post rock minor key figure, repeated over and over, alternating between fingerpicked and strummed, the drums too, a simple propulsive midtempo rhythm, all minor key and slightly melancholy, a few minutes into part one, an inhuman shriek surface, and soon after the song switches gears, the same loping jam now overlaid with fuzzy washed out distorted riffage, and the track slips back and forth, clean, distorted, clean, distorted, until part two, where the drums and guitar bliss out, weaving a minimal jangle scape, over which anguished vocals moan and wail, it's a strange combination, but quite compelling, the vocals drop out soon after, and almost the whole second half of the record is just that mesmerizing guitar and drums jam, all jangle and lope, sort of drifty and dreamy and moody, very subtly intense and hypnotic.
The flipside is quite similar, but much more time is spent in black buzz mode, the guitars a thick layer of prickly buzz, over that main riff the anchors all three versions, the track again slipping seamlessly from Burzumy midtempo buzz, to post rock bordering on krautrock groove, the vocals more prevalent, but still that main looping cyclical riff and rhythm keeps us totally enthralled, and could go on forever and ever and we'd keep listening. We're told that these songs may be reworked and added to for a later release, but we actually like them quite a bit how they are, minimal and stripped down, and totally and endlessly mesmerizing.
Pressed on 180 gram vinyl, in an incredibly thick full color gatefold sleeve. The cover and gatefold adorned with gorgeous images of caves and forests, trees, and leaves and lakes, the lp is housed in a printed 12" style inner sleeve (with a hole in the middle), and also contains a small poster of the cover.

HYPOTHERMIA Kaffe & Blod (Turannum) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Kim Carlsson seems to getting soft on us, or at least more melodic. Gone, it seems, are the days of ultra grim buzzing abject suicidal blackness, the sort of sonic filth he spewed in the early days of his group Hypothermia. But we're not complaining, not at all. In fact, even though we've witnessed the sort of consternation this shift has caused in some of our troo black customers, the rest of us are really digging Carlsson's somewhat surprising new trajectory. Most notably in his group Lifelover, who have basically transformed their black metal into a haunting epic doom pop, albeit one rife with demented weirdness (see the review of the new Lifelover elsewhere on this list), but lately more and more in his group Hypothermia, who were never the heaviest band to begin with, but they did buzz and howl with the Burzumic best of them, but record after record, the sound of Hypothermia has grown more and more skeletal, more jangly even, resulting in a shift almost completely away from black metal, and ending up as a sort of lo fi dark jangle post rock, just guitars and drums, the recording very 4track sounding, the guitars mostly clean, very little distortion, the arrangements spare and sprawling, bordering on Krautrock at times.
Carlsson's latest two track chunk of Hypothermic post post black metal comes in the form of Kaffe & Blod (translated to: you guessed it, Coffee And Blood). The title track, takes up a whole side, and for the first half is a loping meandering lazy lope, the guitars spidery and brittle, the drums simple and stripped down, plenty of jangle, the two instruments in a woozy dance, looped into a mesmerizing mantra like progression, that while shifting subtly, manages to entrance in its gorgeous and seemingly unending repetition. The second half does actually offer up some distorted guitar, and just in contrast to the opener it does sound like black metal, but once the track settles in, the sound reveals itself once again to be more of a jangly blackened indie pop, which should definitely hit the spot for folks into Alcest and Amesoeurs and the like. Epic and softly buzz, a little mathy, dark and emotional, but like the first track, no vocals, and a definite hypnotic looped element, ending with a reverby slowcore outro that wouldn't sound out of place on one of our favorite nineties Touch And Go records (Seam anyone?). Really strangely gorgeous.
The flipside, "Dagg" is a 14 minute improvised track, a bit darker, slower, a bit dirgier, the same stripped down lo-fi sound quality, the drums way up in the mix, the guitars clean, but unfurling dark minor key chords, and minimal moody jangle, and even more than the A side, "Dagg" sounds straight out of some nineties mope rock classic. Moody and mournful and meandering, skeletal but still haunting and catchy and mysteriously lovely.
The true black metal hordes might was well give up it seems. As there doesn't seem to be much hope for a return to utter grimness, but in it's own way the music of Hypothermia is still grim and depressive and dark and a bit black, just cloaked in lope and jangle instead of buzz and blast, which suits us just fine.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES! Pressed on super thick vinyl with heavy printed inner sleeves and striking black and white jackets.

HYPOTHERMIA Kold (Those Opposed) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There couldn't be a more appropriate name for this Swedish duo, as it's unlikely you'll ever hear anything colder or frostier. This is harsh and frostbitten, depressive and miserable black metal. Full length number two, after last year's Veins, Kold takes their monochromatic miserablism a step further, two tracks, two riffs, okay, maybe four at the most, one track twenty seven minutes long, the other nineteen, each one a loping midtempo buzz, the drums a relentless plod, the guitar a buzz so blurry and indistinct it almost sounds like a drone, and the vocals, well, you thought they were weird on Veins, they're even more strangled and bizarre here, somewhere between an Orcish death rattle and some sort of beast vomiting up its last meal, sometimes mumbling in a strange mewling grunt, other times a leather lunged glass throated growl, you can almost feel the blood and spittle. But it's the perfect compliment to the music. Hateful, sorrowful, suicidal, depressive, the sound of Kold is just that, so cold and lonely, emotional and intense. About three quarters of the way through the first track, the distorted guitar drops out leaving just a jangly clean guitar, drums and vocals, which is unexpected for sure, but ends up sounding strangely emotionally charged. Soon the vocals drop out too and it's just drums and clean guitar and it almost sounds like some outsider bedroom indie rock, before the buzz kicks back in and the track unwinds in a Burzumic blaze of frosty buzz.
The second track may be even weirder, a blown out buzzy riff, and even doomier rhythmic plod, and the vocals are completely unhinged, falsetto screams, what sounds like that weird breathing-in-backwards singing, growling and grunting and shrieking and wailing hysterically, all over a surprisingly lilting minor key dirge, buzzing and droning, epic yet surprisingly melodic, with another surprise right at the end, a three minute clean-guitar and drum coda, simple garage-y drumming, sort of shuffling and crashing beneath some truly moody jangly strum.
MPEG Stream: "Svag Fysisk Lusta"
MPEG Stream: "Svartade Passager"

HYPOTHERMIA Kold (Turannum) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This long out of print slab of frosty jangly depressive buzz, available again, now on vinyl for the first time, housed in a super fancy full color gatefold, with full color printed inner sleeves and a cool mini-poster, pressed on nice thick 180 gram vinyl too of course!!
There couldn't be a more appropriate name for this Swedish outfit, as it's unlikely you'll ever hear anything colder or frostier. This is harsh and frostbitten, depressive and miserable black metal for sure, predating the group's eventual shift to a sound more jangly and spacious, although within Kold's grimnity, lurk moments that certainly foreshadow that future shift.
Kold is full length number two from Hypothermia, after their Veins debut, and Kold takes Hypothermia's monochromatic miserablism a step further, two tracks, two riffs, okay, maybe four at the most, one track twenty seven minutes long, the other nineteen, each one a loping midtempo buzz, the drums a relentless plod, the guitar a buzz so blurry and indistinct it almost sounds like a drone, and the vocals, well, as anguished and tortured as they were on Veins, they're even more strangled and bizarre here, somewhere between an Orcish death rattle and some sort of beast vomiting up its last meal, sometimes mumbling in a strange mewling grunt, other times a leather lunged glass throated growl, you can almost feel the blood and spittle. But it's the perfect compliment to the music. Hateful, sorrowful, suicidal, depressive, the sound of Kold is just that, so cold and lonely, emotional and intense. About three quarters of the way through the first track, the distorted guitar drops out leaving just a jangly clean guitar, drums and vocals, which is definitely unexpected, but ends up sounding strangely emotionally charged. Soon the vocals drop out too and it's just drums and clean guitar and it almost sounds like some outsider bedroom indie rock, before the buzz kicks back in and the track unwinds in a Burzumic blaze of frosty buzz.
The second track may be even weirder, a blown out buzzy riff, and even doomier rhythmic plod, and the vocals are completely unhinged, falsetto screams, what sounds like that weird breathing-in-backwards singing, growling and grunting and shrieking and wailing hysterically, all over a surprisingly lilting minor key dirge, buzzing and droning, epic yet surprisingly melodic, with another surprise right at the end, a three minute clean-guitar and drum coda, simple garage-y drumming, sort of shuffling and crashing beneath some truly moody jangly strum.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Svag Fysisk Lusta"
MPEG Stream: "Svartade Passager"

HYPOTHERMIA Kold (Antihumanism) cassette 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There couldn't be a more appropriate name for this Swedish duo, as it's unlikely you'll ever hear anything colder or frostier. This is harsh and frostbitten, depressive and miserable black metal. Full length number two, after last year's Veins, Kold takes their monochromatic miserablism a step further, two tracks, two riffs, okay, maybe four at the most, one track twenty seven minutes long, the other nineteen, each one a loping midtempo buzz, the drums a relentless plod, the guitar a buzz so blurry and indistinct it almost sounds like a drone, and the vocals, well, you thought they were weird on Veins, they're even more strangled and bizarre here, somewhere between an Orcish death rattle and some sort of beast vomiting up its last meal, sometimes mumbling in a strange mewling grunt, other times a leather lunged glass throated growl, you can almost feel the blood and spittle. But it's the perfect compliment to the music. Hateful, sorrowful, suicidal, depressive, the sound of Kold is just that, so cold and lonely, emotional and intense. About three quarters of the way through the first track, the distorted guitar drops out leaving just a jangly clean guitar, drums and vocals, which is unexpected for sure, but ends up sounding strangely emotionally charged. Soon the vocals drop out too and it's just drums and clean guitar and it almost sounds like some outsider bedroom indie rock, before the buzz kicks back in and the track unwinds in a Burzumic blaze of frosty buzz.
The second track may be even weirder, a blown out buzzy riff, and even doomier rhythmic plod, and the vocals are completely unhinged, falsetto screams, what sounds like that weird breathing-in-backwards singing, growling and grunting and shrieking and wailing hysterically, all over a surprisingly lilting minor key dirge, buzzing and droning, epic yet surprisingly melodic, with another surprise right at the end, a three minute clean-guitar and drum coda, simple garage-y drumming, sort of shuffling and crashing beneath some truly moody jangly strum.
MPEG Stream: "Svag Fysisk Lusta"
MPEG Stream: "Svartade Passager"