ISLAND Orakel (Vendlus) cd 13.98
It's been a while since we've heard from either Woburn House or Klabautamann, two German post rock / metal combos we dig big time, who both share various members, and count themselves as part of a loose musical collective. Some of those shared members also do time in another group called Island, who while hewing much closer to the sound of Klabautamann, mix in enough meandery post rock and minimal shimmer and skitter, that it's easy to make the Woburn House connection as well.
We've been meaning to list this for a while, as it came out last year, and is a collection of the band's first two demos, originally released in 2004 and 2005.
Island's sound is a bit tough to describe. Folks familiar with the two above mentioned bands might be able to suss it out generally, but Island are indeed a strange beast. Slipping from Opethy folk flecked epic metal, to dense convoluted math rock, to soft shimmery ambience, to lurching classic metal, to almost doom, each song here tends to stray into two or more of those sounds, but each definitely has a distinct mood.
Album opener "Journey Through The Jewel" sounds like classic melodic black metal, Opeth, Dissection, that sort of thing, with descending arpeggiated melodies, dense chugging riffs, and some fluttery folky breakdowns, where as the follow up "River Source", could almost be Polvo or Pitchblende if it weren't for the blackened vokills, the arrangement very nineties mathrock, with indie sounding melodies melded to cool arrangements and crunchy metallic riffing.
The record shifts fluidly from mathy to metal throughout, from hooky and almost poppy to convoluted and progressive, the vocals too, shift from clean croon to harsh howl, often pairing the harsh vocals with the more indie sounds and vice versa, the result is something that should definitely please fans of Woburn House and Klabautamann, as well as folks into the current crop of less grim, more poppy blackness, a la Amesoeurs, Alcest and the like.
MPEG Stream: "Journey Through The Jewel"
MPEG Stream: "River Source"
MPEG Stream: "Grund"

ISLAND Pictures (Laser's Edge) cd 13.98
Late '70s Swiss prog rarity, complete with Giger cover art. For fans of ELP.

ISLANDS Return To The Sea (Equator) cd 14.98
Montreal's The Unicorns return from the dead as Islands, a little sadder, and perhaps a little wiser. Their sound is more grown up and less lo-fi than the quirky rambunctious pop of The Unicorns, but just as eccentric and humorous as witnessed on such songs as "Don't call me Whitney, Bobby", and the bizarre indie hip-hop of "Where There's a Will, There's a Whalebone" featuring rhymes by Subtitle and Busdriver. More obsessed now with rebirth than death, the songs are longer, tighter and complex, full of hooks, melodies, and weird and innocent charm.
MPEG Stream: "Swans (Life After Death)"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby"

ISLANDS Return To The Sea (Equator) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Montreal's The Unicorns return from the dead as Islands, a little sadder, and perhaps a little wiser. Their sound is more grown up and less lo-fi than the quirky rambunctious pop of The Unicorns, but just as eccentric and humorous as witnessed on such songs as "Don't call me Whitney, Bobby", and the bizarre indie hip-hop of "Where There's a Will, There's a Whalebone" featuring rhymes by Subtitle and Busdriver. More obsessed now with rebirth than death, the songs are longer, tighter and complex, full of hooks, melodies, and weird and innocent charm.
MPEG Stream: "Swans (Life After Death)"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby"

ISO s/t (Alcohol) cd 17.98
Turtable/sampler artist Otomo Yoshihide and sampler/sine wave technician Sachiko M. (both from Ground Zero, and who are also recording as Filament) are joined by percussionist/electronics guy Ichiaku Yoshimitsu in this new, very original trio. I know we talk a lot about something we perhaps inaccurately refer to as "minimalism" around here, but this recording is HYPER minimal, alternating between near-inaudible rumble and glass-shattering sine wave squeal, interrupted only by the very, very occasional digital crapout. This, their second album, was mixed by the guy from The Homosexuals!

ISO s/t (live) (Sound Tectonics) cd 22.00
Really nice packaging here -- the all-white embossed digipack is utterly gorgeous and tactile and very appropriate for the Zen-like simplicity of Japanese trio ISO's music. ISO consist of Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, and Yoshimitsu Ichiraku, all of whom are probably familiar to followers of the Japanese underground improv avant garde, with Otomo of course being the best known. Unlike the mayhemic turntable/sampler cutups of his former outfit Ground Zero, or the free jazz with which he's also identified, here Otomo and co. concentrate on the minimalist soundscapes typical of the emergent "onkyo" genre. It's subtle, barely-there electronics and percussion, enhanced by the ambient sound of the place where this was recorded, outside in a 500-year old temple garden. Apparently the members of the trio were positioned where they couldn't see one another, and it's hard to understand how they were able to hear each other either, unless they were playing at volumes much louder than what seems appropriate for playback at home. Yet the centrally located stereo mic has captured a oneness of sound, a delicate performance that is truly beautiful, not boring. Less stark and harsh than his Filament duo with Sachiko M, but more minimal than his larger Cathode ensemble, ISO is one of our favorites of Otomo's many projects and we're happy to have this 40 minute live document!
MPEG Stream: "ISO live excerpt"

ISOLDE On Waving And Drowning (Penny Poppet) cd 27.00
Pretty much any avid reader of the AQ list should be familiar with Andrew Chalk, one of our favorite modern masters of the minimal drifting drone. A while back we received a cool little 3" cd in the mail from a mysterious group called Isolde, which we later discovered was in fact a duo, Andrew Chalk and his sonic foil Robin Barnes. And as you might expect, that disc quietly and completely blew us away. Dense swirls of shimmering sound, dark and ominous crystalline and delicate, some of the best and most interesting dronemusic we'd heard in a while for sure.
But a 3" cd is hardly enough, it just whetted our appetite for more. With drones, and dark ambience, you want the sounds to stretch out forever and ever (or as long as recording media will allow) so that brief twenty minutes while still glorious, only hinted at where these guys could takes us given enough time...
So finally, here we have the brand new full length from Chalk and Barnes, 3 tracks, 50 minutes, the shortest clocking in at 14 minutes, the longest 20. And everything we loved about the first one is present here as well, but as one might expect, with the extended track lengths, the sounds are allowed to stretch out, drift further, each song an epic minimal journey through a series of wondrous darkly dramatic otherworlds. But unlike the 3", On Waving And Drowning is not all whisper and shimmer, occasionally Isolde manage to build their intimate sonic events into massive squalls of crackling static, roiling black clouds of thick corrosive guitarnoise and thick wall-of-sound grrrrr, reminding us of Birchville Cat Motel quite a bit. But these eruptions are surrounded on all sides by massive expanses of soft focus tranquility. A subtly shifting tableau, small sounds and epic soundscapes gradually dissolving into each other, fading in and out, layer after layer of sound shifting and slithering, creeping and crawling, deep still pools of barely there sound, shards of blue tinted moonlight, distant flurries of washed out staticky hum. A stunningly rendered drone world of dreamy drift.
Totally gorgeous packaging. A maroon cardboard digisleeve, on thick textured paper, printed in metallic silver, inside the gatefold, a beautiful full color image affixed to the sleeve. Like the music, understated and divine.
MPEG Stream: "Junior And Infant At The Gate"
MPEG Stream: "The Place Where I Left You"

ISOLDE (ANDREW CHALK & ROBIN BARNES) All Things To Fall Like Marching Men (Penny Poppet) cd 24.00
A tape version of these recordings came and went in 2005, pressed in an edition of 30 copies. So, perhaps like most of you, we didn't even know this thing existed until Robin Barnes (one half of Isolde and proprietor of the Penny Poppet imprint) offered us this album. It's got a different title and different artwork, but we'll trust that it's the same set of recordings. The other half of Isolde should need no introduction. Andrew Chalk has long been at the very top of our list of favorite drone composers and sound artists for many, many years now. Big thick harmonic drones of the dark and sublime variety are what we have come to expect from Mr. Chalk; and the other recordings we had been able to acquire from the Isolde duo certainly delivered on that aesthetic. But this one is considerably different. Here, Barnes and Chalk augment their narcoleptic guitar picking with little more than the gilded halo of spring reverb and some uneasy sounds situated well into the distance. The two use plenty of space between their abstracted clusters of guitar pluckings, which only barely give hints to avant-blues strategies, even more abstracted than early Loren Loren Mazzacane Conners or the quieter Keiji Haino solo offerings. Vapor trails of sustained sound linger around these simple notes, occasionally merging in a placid drone more in keeping with Chalk's more well known sensibility. Somewhere in the distance, something bellows like a pack of wolves, which immediately makes us think Dead Raven Choir; then it percolates like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop or even like a snippet of EVP. This makes for a really excellent recording, although something of a detour for Chalk. Limited to a mere 300 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Inferred Melody"
MPEG Stream: "Walkabout"

ISOLDE (ANDREW CHALK AND ROBIN BARNES) You're Alone In Red Riding Picture (Penny Poppet) 3" cd 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the second release from the enigmatically titled duo Isolde, made up of AQ faves Andrew Chalk and Robin Barnes. Fans of Chalk and his work in Ora and Mirror will find much to love here. Two brief transmissions of chiming reverb drenched guitar, shimmering steel string buzz smoothed out into streaks of silver and grey, strange woodblock percussion scattered throughout like stones tossed into a tranquil pond. Hovering, haunting, reverberating, melodic fragments, tinkling plinks amidst an abstract swirl of ominous glimmers and muted glints of metallic resonance. So nice. Comes in miniature 3" jewel case, with gorgeous hand made inserts, and signed by both Barnes and Chalk. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES and we only got a handful!
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

ISOLE Forevermore (I Hate Records) cd 17.98

ISOLEE Rest (Playhouse) cd 16.98
Differences between techno and house do exist but have become a matter of semantics rather than aesthetics. But the differences are such that I can unequivocally state that I hate house music. I really hate house music.
There's a lot of electronica albums that walk tentatively on the border between techno and house. I had always assumed that the crossovers from techno into house could be chalked up to irony. But really it was just because some stupid knobtwiddler had bad taste. The Chain Reaction label- best described as heroin house - is one of those entities which dangerously walks on the tightrope between house and techno. Or rather if a Chain Reaction record sucks, it's because it's house.
I know this doesn't seem like sound critical analysis, but we all have our prejudices and this is one of mine.
Isolee - like Chain Reaction - balances itself on the razor thin line between house and techno, and unassumingly shows off a pop sensibility with weird arpeggiated abstractions that phase into seductive melodies. If the awkwardly funky bleep techno of the early Warp sound (LFO, Tricky Disco, Sweet Exorcist) continued as an established aesthetic instead of fading either into the minimalism of Sahko or the lowest common denominator of Euroclub hits, it would sound something like Isolee. It sounds almost as if Isolee is trying to make techno without MIDI sequencing, instead they're running live sample loops and drum machines straight to the mixer. All of the elements that should be aligned to a metacontextual rhythm are allowed to fall out of that rhythm from time to time. This little trick makes the synchronization of the melodies, basslines, and huge 909 drum cracks sound all the more impressive. A smart techno record that isn't too cerebral. If you don't know what I've been talking about, I don't blame you, but check out the sound sample anyway, you might like it!
RealAudio clip: "Beau Mot Plage"

ISOLEE We Are Monster (Playhouse) cd 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Enrico"
MPEG Stream: "Schrapnell"
MPEG Stream: "Today"

ISOLEE Well Spent Youth (Pampa Records) cd 16.98
Rajko Muller, aka Isolee, has been one of the leading forces in smart and infectious microhouse over the last decade. His ability to merge dance floor ready beats with nuanced production has made Isolee popular with both club kids and more heady avant types. Well, Spent Youth, is the long awaited follow up to We Are Monster, and Isolee sound as precise, icy and sexy as ever. With menacing and moody undertones, Isolee unleash minimal dancefloor grooves that radiate with repetition and restraint. We thought that Kompakt would be all over Isolee by now, as they really have perfected the sound that label has become synonymous with over the years. Phenomenally chilling!
MPEG Stream: "Paloma Triste"
MPEG Stream: "Hold On"

ISOLEE Well Spent Youth (Pampa Records) 2lp 22.00
NOW ON VINYL!
Rajko Muller, aka Isolee, has been one of the leading forces in smart and infectious microhouse over the last decade. His ability to merge dance floor ready beats with nuanced production has made Isolee popular with both club kids and more heady avant types. Well, Spent Youth, is the long awaited follow up to We Are Monster, and Isolee sound as precise, icy and sexy as ever. With menacing and moody undertones, Isolee unleash minimal dancefloor grooves that radiate with repetition and restraint. We thought that Kompakt would be all over Isolee by now, as they really have perfected the sound that label has become synonymous with over the years. Phenomenally chilling!
MPEG Stream: "Paloma Triste"
MPEG Stream: "Hold On"

ISOTOPE 217 Utonian Automatic (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98
It happens so infrequently, it needs to be mentioned. A customer of ours rather enthusiastically purchased this Isotope 217 record, the day it arrived at Aquarius. Within an hour, he had heard the horrid sounds of these post-rock 'greats' mimicking Chuck Mangione and sold the album back to us. It's that good. Really.

ISOTOPE 217 Utonian Automatic (Thrill Jockey) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It happens so infrequently, it needs to be mentioned. A customer of ours rather enthusiastically purchased this Isotope 217 record, the day it arrived at Aquarius. Within an hour, he had heard the horrid sounds of these post-rock 'greats' mimicking Chuck Mangione and sold the album back to us. It's that good. Really.

ISS Forget About The Girl (Web Of Mimicry) cd 13.98
Tim Smolens of Mr. Bunglesque rockers Estradasphere fronts this 60's "boy band" inspired outfit. Most obviously taking their style from the vocal harmonisations of the Beach Boys -- oh who am I fooling, this sucks major ass and I cannot say one good thing about it. Save yourself the embarrasment of owning this piece of crap.
RealAudio clip: "Mari"

ISUNGSET, TERJE Ice Concerts (All Ice) cd 19.98
The return of perhaps the world's only musician whose main instrument is in fact ICE. That's right, ice: fashioned into percussive instruments and horns. Listening to this, we're once again completely baffled by how ice can be made to sound so, well, musical. The sound is like a gamelan, or a xylophone, some notes deep and rich, others delicate tinkles. And then there's the horns, fashioned from ice, their sound can range from high pitched whistle to conch shell moan. We've yet to see a performance in person, but he sounds here are so fantastical, and so compelling, we're beginning to think a trip to colder climes is definitely in order.
This particular disc, one of two new ones from musician and ice sculptor Terje Isungset, is a document of the very first ice music tour, 29 concerts performed in Norway and Japan and Norway. And the liner notes cleverly point out that "No concerts were cancelled due to bad weather". Each track is from a different performance, the liner notes explain what instruments were played on each track, ice percussion, icefon, icehorn or simply ice, and who accompanied Isungset and on what, flute, trumpet, sampler, vocals. In addition, the weather conditions during the recording of each track are recorded: "3 degrees below zero, no wind, aurora borealis", "6 degrees below zero, clear sky, no wind". So cool.
While there are accompanists on most of the tracks (Supersilent's Arve Henriksen shows up on many of the tracks), some of them just ice instruments, most of the rest feature ethereal female vocals. The results are soft and shimmery, the tones rich and resonant, a sort of wintery new age drift, it's not difficult to imagine Bjork getting Isungset to play on her next record, many of the vocalists do affect a similarly Bjork-like coo. But whatever else is going on, it's the magic and the mystery of the ice, and it's impossible not to be wowed by these sounds. When we play it in the store, people literally will not believe this is the sound of ice. Check out the sound samples and you'll see what we mean.
Dreamy, delicate, soft and sleepy, and very very beautiful.
And like the two ice music releases before it, Ice Concerts also boasts some of the most amazing packaging we have ever seen. The booklet and tray card are semi-transparent vellum, printed images of ice, the bubbles trapped inside the ice, in gorgeous deep blues, the whole thing wrapped in a thick slip cover made from a thick foggy semi transparent textured plastic, the front with various sized circles cut out like little bubbles, the edge cut away to reveal the cd's spine, which is filled with water, with tiny bubbles drifting back and forth, and yes, we mean ACTUAL water, in a little custom made vial, so perfect it does indeed look like the cd tray is full of water, just waiting to be frozen and played! So awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Dolosaigi"
MPEG Stream: "Kveldssong For Blakken"
MPEG Stream: "Contemplations"

ISUNGSET, TERJE Iceman Is (All Ice) cd 16.98
Yet another mysterious disc of ice music, from the ice music master, Terje Isungset. What is ice music you ask? Well Isungset crafts actual musical instruments out of ice, yep, ICE instruments, all playable, from horns to vibraphones, the tones they create lustrous and surprisingly warm.
The instruments are beautiful, ice sculptures, glowing blue and white shapes that when struck, or blown, or rubbed, produce amazing sounds. Much of the music is percussive, the ice sounding like amuted gamelan, or a xylophone, the notes lustrous and deep. There are horns as well (although we won't even begin to question how someone can play an icehorn without getting their lips stuck), whose sounds range from alien cries, honking bleats, deep moans and every variation in between.
Where other Isungset discs have been super pretty, serene, and almost new age in their blissed out tranquility, Iceman Is, a reissue of the first Ice Music release, manages to create a sound a bit more dark and ominous. The vocals on other releases, which reminded us of Bjork, here are replaced by strange mewlings, creaking falsettos, haunting ghostlike whispers, drifting amid the ice chimes and cold ambience.
In fact minus the fact that this record is played primarily on ice instruments, it wouldn't be all that surprising to hear these sounds on some super limited cd-r, some strange band of Finnish folkies or mysterious Midwestern bedroom 4-trackers. Very percussive, tribal, primitive, abstract and free, the melodies are spare and spread out, every track seems to have a definite drone element, no matter how minimal, the ice percussion offers up dreamy underwater sounding rhythms, there are some electronics, but they blend in perfectly with the sounds of the ice, in fact there are some tradition instruments mixed in here and there, but so deftly, they also end up sounding dark and delicate and icy.
Too bad it will never be cold enough out here to get Isungset and his band here to play. Maybe we should get them to do a tour of walk in freezers! Anyway, another gorgeous disc of haunting music made with ice, the darkest of the bunch, which of course means WAY recommended.
And like the other three ice music releases, Iceman Is also boasts some of the most amazing packaging we have ever seen. The booklet and tray card are semi-transparent vellum, printed images of Isungset, behind icicles, playing the ice harp, in gorgeous deep blues, the whole thing wrapped in a thick slip cover made from a thick foggy semi transparent textured plastic, printed in silver metallic ink, the edge cut away to reveal the cd's spine, which is filled with water, with tiny bubbles drifting back and forth, and yes, we mean ACTUAL water, in a little custom made vial, so perfect it does indeed look like the cd tray is full of water, just waiting to be frozen and played! So awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Blue"
MPEG Stream: "Frozen"
MPEG Stream: "Iceman Is"

ISUNGSET, TERJE Igloo (All Ice) cd 19.98
Every year, in a remote part of Sweden, a group or artists and architects build a massive structure out of ice and snow, walls and arches and doorways and windows, a gorgeous glowing edifice that once completed becomes the famed Ice Hotel. A small complex of delicately crafted rooms, a bar, a chapel, every bit of which is made from ice. In some places the ice is extra thin, so light from the outside bursts through warm and brilliant, while elsewhere, the thick walls glow a burnished blue from the filtered sunlight or the soft pale moonlight. The beds are blocks of ice covered with animal pelts and arctic sleeping bags. The bar is ice, the glasses also ice, the only libations served are hard alcohol (vodka, etc.) due to the fact that they won't freeze. A totally amazing and overwhelming bit of adventurous lodging as well as being a piece of gorgeous conceptual art. In fact Andee and Heather had planned to have their wedding at the Ice Hotel, until both sides of the family refused, citing the idea of sleeping in a below zero room on a block of ice as a definite deal breaker.
Well, it gets even better: at the same time as the hotel is being planned and constructed, several of the same planners and ice artists are also designing and building musical instruments made entirely out of ice. Percussion, harps, and horns, all made from frozen water and little else. The sounds are muted and soft, strange and organic, haunting but imbued with a strange warmth totally unlike the cold and clinical sounds you might expect. All deftly intertwined with human voices, soft coos and trills, hushed and whispery, sounding not unlike a ghostlike gathering of disembodied, deconstructed Bjorks.
On Igloo, Isungset and and an assortment of performers, coax all manner of sounds from a strange phalanx of icy sound makers, ice harp, ice percussion, ice bass drum (!), iceofon, icehorn, all soft focused and dreamlike, all recorded live in the frosty interior of an igloo like ice-recording studio. From the icy scrape and shuffle of melted ice, to the deep resonant tones of the various frozen percussion instruments, sounding like vibes or chimes, sometimes even gongs, the overtones drifting and slowly fading. Dark dolorous melodies, warm and subdued, but impossibly resonant. After all, these are just chunks of ice! But obviously crafted with such care and precision to render them capable of making rich sonorous sound. Like some giant frosty thumb piano, a warm tumble of ghostlike notes, beneath the flittering flute-like sound of the icehorn, soft, delicate reedy melodies that sometimes morph into thick wheezes before dissipating back into gentle flutter. Beneath it all, thick and cavernous rumbles and whirs, deep and dense, layered with sonic subtleties, rich with tonal color, as if played on some giant cello made from ice (which we think is not far from the truth actually). Also present are a wide array of unobtrusive sonic events in and around each track, a tiny army of icicle percussion, clinking and clattering, chittering and scrabbling, a delicate crystalline backdrop for the warm wash and warble of the main ice instruments. And finally the vocals -- on first listen, at low volume, we almost didn't realize there were vocals at all, they tend toward the extremely abstract, strange little vocalizations as much about texture and timbre as tone and pitch, the sound perfectly blending into the icy landscape around them. Hints of Sigur Ros, Joan La Barbara, Sainkho Namchylak, but each voice unmoored, loosed from any sort of corporeal existence, left to flit and flicker ghostlike, almost like tiny droplets of water dripping delicately onto the already frozen landscape, allowed to seep into each and every melody, freezing into new and wonderful shapes.
At its most percussive, the music on Igloo sounds a bit like that breed of underground minimal free folk, sort of minimal and tribal, dreamy and slightly clattery, Finnish free folk ensembles Avarus and Anaksimandros definitely come to mind, while the strange underwater thumb piano sound reminds us of a much more minimal and abstract Konono No.1. For the most part though, Igloo is a dark dreamy drift, soft and meditative, warm and warbly, shimmering and sparkling and completely captivating.
And, it's mastered by AQ fave dronelord Deathprod!
Igloo also boasts some of the most amazing packaging we have ever seen. The booklet and tray card are semi-transparent vellum, printed images of ice in gorgeous deep blues, the whole thing wrapped in a thick slip cover made from a thick foggy semi transparent textured plastic, the front with strips cut out like icicles, the edge cut away to reveal the cd's spine, which is filled with water, with tiny bubbles drifting back and forth, and yes, we mean ACTUAL water, in a little custom made vial, so perfect it does indeed look like the cd tray is full of water, just waiting to be frozen and played! WOW!
MPEG Stream: "Igloo"
MPEG Stream: "Song"
MPEG Stream: "Morning"
MPEG Stream: "Floating"

ISUNGSET, TERJE Two Moons (All Ice) cd 19.98
We first discovered Isungset, via Andee's obsession with Sweden's Ice Hotel. Each year, artists, build an entire hotel, complete with bar and wedding chapel, entirely out of ice. The walls, the floors, the ceiling, even the beds are all made out of ice. The whole thing is lit by candles and firelight, or by the moon shining through the transparent walls.
Coinciding with said ice hotel is an annual festival, of food and music, art and celebration. One of the activities is creating actual playable instruments out of ice, various bits of percussion and frozen horns, that can be struck or blown, creating some truly haunting an beautiful sounds. The ice percussion sounds like a more muted vibraphone, deep and resonant, rich with subtle overtones, the low end is dark and expansive, the high end tinkles like chimes. The ice horns sound like blowing on jugs, as much breath as there is tone, sometimes the players sputter and buzz making strange and alien sounds.
The vocals play a much bigger part on Two Moons as they did on Isungset's earlier album Igloo, although the sounds is still predominantly the sound of ice being blown or struck or scraped. The foundation of each track is the ice percussion, weaving dense tangles of muted melody, that occasionally spread out into abstract fields of drifting low end notes, very dark and dreamy, moody and atmospheric, the horns surface here and there, sputtering sometimes, moaning loudly at other times, some tracks are peppered with little bursts of high end clatter, rattling like a handful of icicles, the vocals vary on each track, drifting from world music croon, to guttural grunts and growls, to strange haunting animal calls, to full on primitive war cry. Two Moons almost plays like a lost field recording of some long extinct Northern tribe, very ritualistic and primitive. The whole thing is recorded in some huge, all ice igloo like ice-recording studio, which lends the recording a massive amount of natural reverb, thick with shimmer and expansive room sound, the various tones drifting briefly weightless before settling back to the ground. So gorgeous.
And like Igloo before it, Two Moons also boasts some of the most amazing packaging EVER. The booklet and tray card are semi-transparent vellum, printed images of the moon and skeletal branches in gorgeous deep blues, the whole thing wrapped in a thick slip cover made from a thick foggy semi transparent textured plastic, the front with a hole cut out allowing the moon in the booklet to show through, the edge cut away to reveal the cd's spine, which is filled with water, with tiny bubbles drifting back and forth in a little custom made vial, so perfect it does indeed look like the cd tray is full of water, just waiting to be frozen and turned into ice instruments!
MPEG Stream: "Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Black Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Silent Blue"

ITAL TEK Cyclical (Planet Mu) cd 14.98

ITAL TEK Midnight Colour (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
We're beginning to think if it wasn't for Planet Mu, we wouldn't be hearing any dubstep at all... Can't really figure out why more labels aren't getting more of that stuff over here, hundreds, maybe thousands of killer 12"s, DJ mix tapes, proper albums, and only a trickle actually makes it over here, bit the folks at Planet Mu obviously have great taste (or at least taste a lot like ours) cuz the stuff they do put out is the cream of the crop: Starkey, Vex'd, Distance, Milanese, Legion Of Two, Boxcutter, Pinch, Virus Syndicate, MRK1 and now Ital Tek. Not sure how we missed the last Ital Tek record, cuz this one is a doozy, not super dark or sinister, instead this definitely falls somewhere closer to stuff like Clubroot, Ikonika, Zomby, Burial, Shackleton, warm and fuzzy, the beats low slung and laid back, the usual dubstep bass warble toned way down, still thick and fuzzy, just less warbly, disembodied female vocals adding a subtle soul element, some of the tracks are super lo-fi and 8-bit sounding, others are more new wavey and sound a bit John Carpenter-ish, while others are dark and skittery, and still others are haunting and nearly ambient, but Ital Tek's unique vibe is the thread that runs through all the tracks, a little washed out, a little eighties, dreamy and dubby, shimmery and skittery, the lighter side of dubstep, with just enough darkness to keep things interesting...
MPEG Stream: "Neon Arc"
MPEG Stream: "Trails"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Bow"

ITAL TEK Midnight Colour (Planet Mu) 2lp 17.98
NOW ON VINYL!
We're beginning to think if it wasn't for Planet Mu, we wouldn't be hearing any dubstep at all... Can't really figure out why more labels aren't getting more of that stuff over here, hundreds, maybe thousands of killer 12"s, DJ mix tapes, proper albums, and only a trickle actually makes it over here, bit the folks at Planet Mu obviously have great taste (or at least taste a lot like ours) cuz the stuff they do put out is the cream of the crop: Starkey, Vex'd, Distance, Milanese, Legion Of Two, Boxcutter, Pinch, Virus Syndicate, MRK1 and now Ital Tek. Not sure how we missed the last Ital Tek record, cuz this one is a doozy, not super dark or sinister, instead this definitely falls somewhere closer to stuff like Clubroot, Ikonika, Zomby, Burial, Shackleton, warm and fuzzy, the beats low slung and laid back, the usual dubstep bass warble toned way down, still thick and fuzzy, just less warbly, disembodied female vocals adding a subtle soul element, some of the tracks are super lo-fi and 8-bit sounding, others are more new wavey and sound a bit John Carpenter-ish, while others are dark and skittery, and still others are haunting and nearly ambient, but Ital Tek's unique vibe is the thread that runs through all the tracks, a little washed out, a little eighties, dreamy and dubby, shimmery and skittery, the lighter side of dubstep, with just enough darkness to keep things interesting...
MPEG Stream: "Neon Arc"
MPEG Stream: "Trails"
MPEG Stream: "Moon Bow"

ITALIAN HORN The Bells Of Spring (Dais) lp 16.98
We're huge fans of the Dais label, from the haunting industrial psychedelia of aTelecine, to the bloodletting gothpunk of Bestial Mouths, from the primitive American black metal of Lord Foul, to the experimental vocal rituals of Ghedalia Tazartes, and from the gothic neofolk of King Dude to the punishing noise rock of Twin Stumps, so we were expecting something similarly brutal / twisted / pummeling / heavy / fucked up from the strangely named Italian Horn. But what we definitely weren't expecting was Guided By Voices style lo-fi pop, but that's precisely what Italian Horn are all about, and really the cover art collage by none other than Robert Pollard should have been our first clue, but for whatever we were expecting, we have to say we're not at all disappointed, the Guided By Voices influence is indeed HUGE, but Italian Horn, definitely has a knack for short sharp blasts of woozy, softly psychedelic pop, opener "Bells Of Spring" unfurls warbly guitars, plenty of ooooh's and aaaah's, drapes them over a buried skeletal rhythm, and then croons over the top through and old distortion box, the result is wreathed in fuzz and hum and echo and delay, and let loose, where it hovers and drifts dreamily, a warm, sun dappled bit of fractured pop magic. Which is pretty much how the rest of the record unfolds, from the murky indie pop of "Comfortable Planes", with its caffeinated rhythm, and droned out distorted guitars, buried vox and keening melodies, or "Cambridge Factory", which melds a very Pollard-esque vocal line to some fuzz guitar and simple stumbling drumming, and then again wraps the whole thing in a dreamy druggy haze. However, besides having the best title of the bunch, "Witchcraft Recharge Center" might be our favorite song, with its weirdly distorted urgently strummed acoustic guitars, its buzzing squelchy streaks of sound, its keening vocal, and the weirdly super catchy bridge/chorus, all again buried beneath layer upon layer of grit and grime, which in no way disguises the pop dreaminess underneath.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Bells Of Spring"
MPEG Stream: "Cambridge Factory"
MPEG Stream: "Witchcraft Recharge Center"

ITAVAYLA Itavalta (Verdura) cd 14.98
Finland's Itavayla (sorry, we left out what are most certainly crucial umlauts over each "a" in their name because otherwise our database software will convert 'em into gibberish on our website) are a Circle-related project, featuring Circle's lead guitarist Janne Westerlund, and definitely have that Circle vibe to 'em... but imagine the repetitive, hypno-rock jams of Circle as played by ZZ Top in their '80s and '90s synthed-out, techno-blues rock style! Not to make this sound more high concept than it is, but Itavayla could be said to be an "Electro-Boogie-rock" version of Circle. Yessir. Their first, self-titled, album (which we'll have in stock soon too, and review when we do) -really- fits that description. This one, though, is a bit more varied. Going track by track: you've got a spacey, synthy soundscape called "Kristalliyo" to start things off, kinda in the mold of Zombi. Then, getting much more raucous, the second track, "Hyperborea", is a droney driving Hawkwind w/ talk box boogie + horn section Funhouse freakout. Track three "..." is a chaotic, electronic interlude that sets you up for track four's distorted sci-fi blues and ambient noise/drone mix ("Future Representation") which features some of the album's only vocals (highly treated ones at that), followed by the irresistable laid back groove of "Children Of Tomorrow", track five, replete with synthetic buzz-fuzz, harp blowing, and robotic handclaps. That one Kerry and Andee thought sounded like something from the soundtrack to a hypothetical combination porno/heist movie! And finally, "Good Men Going Down", the sixth track, is a lumbering stomper that brings the album to a dark and sudden end.
Imagine, if you will, something that blends together such things as the Magnum P.I. and Miami Vice themes, Neil Young's Trans, Trans Am, Circle (of course), Kitaro, Salvatore, Ram Jam, ZZ Top, Jonathan Kane, Groundhogs, Neu!, '80s synth soundtracks, and more. Weird and cool and recommended.
By the way...amazing band illustration on the cd itself!
MPEG Stream: "Kristalliyo"
MPEG Stream: "Children Of Tomorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Hyperborea"

ITAVAYLA s/t (Rikos Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Last list we highlighted a newer album, entitled Itavalta, by this Finnish band, and now we've got their equally recommended debut, available on either cd or LP (with the vinyl lacking the bonus remix track found on the cd, though). This four-song (+ remix) debut of theirs is the real reason that Circle guitarist Janne Westerlund told us that Itavayla is the "boogie rock band" he plays in. On their second disc, they took off on some other tangents beyond the barroom boogie blues. But here, that's what it's all about, sort of. Not what you'd think, though, or maybe it is. Remember, these guys are from Finland (land of weirdness) and feature a member of Circle. And sound a lot like Circle as a result, although Janne joined Itavayla -after- this recording, so they didn't get the idea from him. Circle channeling ZZ Top, that is. And we're talking ZZ Top from the '80s on, after they embraced technology and got all computerized and robotic. Thus the progged up arsenal of Roland and Yamaha synthesizers listed here, the synth-drum sounds, and even the robot voices (on "Future Boogie"). And, the minimalist, cyclic structure of these loooong hypnotic tracks (in the Circle style that we love) of repetitive slide guitar riffs, shuffling drums and honking keys.
The first track, "Black Diamond Express" appears to be built around a sampled voice (that guy can't be Finnish!) from an old time blues recording or something. Itavayla provide the backing, blending past and future both, which leads to the organ-riffed, electro-boogie overload of the next track, "Tesco". And on it goes, mesmerizing sci-fi, space age boogie blues from Finland, reaching a tranced-out peak with the 13+ minute "Jesus Kristus". So, crack open a cold Miller beer (or the Finnish equivalent, whatever that is) and kick back to these Circular, futuristic gutbucket grooves!! Seriously, Allan can't stop listening to it. Recommended.
Oh, and by the way, one of the main dudes in Itavayla is Randy Barracuda of skweee fame!
MPEG Stream: "Tesco"
MPEG Stream: "Black Diamond Express"

ITAVAYLA s/t (Rikos 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.
Last list we highlighted a newer album, entitled Itavalta, by this Finnish band, and now we've got their equally recommended debut, available on either cd or LP (with the vinyl lacking the bonus remix track found on the cd, though). This four-song (+ remix) debut of theirs is the real reason that Circle guitarist Janne Westerlund told us that Itavayla is the "boogie rock band" he plays in. On their second disc, they took off on some other tangents beyond the barroom boogie blues. But here, that's what it's all about, sort of. Not what you'd think, though, or maybe it is. Remember, these guys are from Finland (land of weirdness) and feature a member of Circle. And sound a lot like Circle as a result, although Janne joined Itavayla -after- this recording, so they didn't get the idea from him. Circle channeling ZZ Top, that is. And we're talking ZZ Top from the '80s on, after they embraced technology and got all computerized and robotic. Thus the progged up arsenal of Roland and Yamaha synthesizers listed here, the synth-drum sounds, and even the robot voices (on "Future Boogie"). And, the minimalist, cyclic structure of these loooong hypnotic tracks (in the Circle style that we love) of repetitive slide guitar riffs, shuffling drums and honking keys.
The first track, "Black Diamond Express" appears to be built around a sampled voice (that guy can't be Finnish!) from an old time blues recording or something. Itavayla provide the backing, blending past and future both, which leads to the organ-riffed, electro-boogie overload of the next track, "Tesco". And on it goes, mesmerizing sci-fi, space age boogie blues from Finland, reaching a tranced-out peak with the 13+ minute "Jesus Kristus". So, crack open a cold Miller beer (or the Finnish equivalent, whatever that is) and kick back to these Circular, futuristic gutbucket grooves!! Seriously, Allan can't stop listening to it. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Tesco"
MPEG Stream: "Black Diamond Express"

ITHACA A Game For All Who Know (Acme Gramophone) cd 15.98

ITHDABQUTH QLIPHOTH Funeral Spirit Of Holy, Holy And Holy Tranceformation (Tormented Whores Of Da'ath / Res Adversae Productions) cd ep 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The return of a new favorite, Russian black metal outfit Ithdabquth Qliphoth, deliver a 20 minute black okkult ritual, following up their Fyre Walk With Me full length which has been pretty much impossible to keep in stock. It seems this duo has shed a member and is now solely the work of the oddly named AL-LA-ShT-ORR, who is also responsible for the Cadaver Yelleth At Amber Tower cd reviewed elsewhere on this list (does this guy have a way with names or what!).
So how to follow up a confusional collection of far out fractured black metal weirdness and buzzing blown out black ambience? why with the even more oddly titled "Funeral Spirit Of Holy, Holy And Holy Tranceformation", a single twenty minute epic, which begins as a thick churning chunk of grinding low end, what could be super distorted martial drumming, or maybe just thick blackened static, whatever it is, it's intense and dense and in its fluctuations creates a sort of incidental rhythm. Eventually sampled vocals join the fray, as do little bursts of static, the track transformed into some industrial black creep. Soon soaring guitars drift in from the distance, offering washed out chordal buzz and keening feedback, the sound referencing groups like Wolf Eyes and Prurient especially, the pounding and buzzing soon gives way to a mysterious blown out dronescape, of stretched out high end tones, and downtuned rumble, before lurching into something more metallic about the halfway mark, a Burzumy doomic trudge, just crashing drums and WAY up in the mix voKILLS, all held together by a gloomy bass line, and some swirling background ambience, finally the guitars come crashing down, the drums explode into double kick, but instead of black and buzzy, it's moody and mournful like classic old school doom, majestic and epic before everything drops out, and suddenly it's a super minimal shimmer, all muted bass tones, deep reverberating low end, soft barely there chords, spare and abstract and hushed, the sampled voices return again, harmonics pluck out an atonal bell like melody, the rumbles seem to growl and grind, but still muffled and murky, the bells tolling ominously, the melancholy melody leading the song to its eventual end. So creepy and haunting, black and mysterious, otherworldly and magickal. All hail AL-LA-ShT-ORR and his unholy vessel Ithdabquth Qliphoth!!
MPEG Stream: "Funeral Spirit Of Holy, Holy And Holy Tranceformation (excerpt)"

ITHDABQUTH QLIPHOTH Fyre Walk With Me (Thou Shalt Kill!) cd 14.98
Black metal logos by their very nature are cryptic, for most impossible to read, a jumble of squiggles and spidery lines and upside down crosses, pentagrams, sharp angles and jagged edges. But once translated into actual letters, the magic is lost, it's usually BLOOD something, or DEMON something, or perhaps a very common word with wintery connotations, or some variation of the word forest. But what of the band with no 'logo', as their very name is an impossibly tangled web, whose letters have no right to be side by side, an unpronounceable jumble that somehow still manages to evoke mystery, to conjure up images of darkness and despair, even though we've never met anyone who knows how to actually pronounce it?
Such is the case with Russian duo Ithdabquth Qliphoth, who are another one of those bands who have long been aQ black metal favorites, but whose records we were never able to attain in enough abundance to review on the list. Until now.
But it's not just the name that makes these guys a mystery. Three long multi part songs, each an epic suite, with titles like "3 142 742 836 021 Times Hotter Than Earthly Fire", and "Your Fucking Creation Is Bleeding Away" or "Thy Omnislaying Revelation". And instead of names, the two band members are represented by strange Anthony Braxton like diagrams, many of the lyrics appear to be in Hebrew, and include shapes as well as words, and then the sound, at once raw and buzzing, furious and hateful, at the same time strangely melodic, the record begins with a jumble of samples, church organ, yodeling, the sound of terrified screams and the sound of fire, until the band lurch into action, a woozy midtempo black buzz, underpinned by a relentless double kick, strange processed inhuman vocals buried in the mix, all wreathed in a gauzy haze, even when the band switches gears and channels some classic Norwegian buzz, they still sound weirdly off kilter, a bit like Katatonia crossed with Immortal crossed with Burzum, but way more twisted. The melodies haunting and mournful, the guitars buzzy, but still dripping with effects, as if the whole record was being broadcast from within a fog filled cave.
The three song suites are just that, not single epic tracks, but each, three shorter tracks somehow linked, lyrically, thematically, hardly matters, they seem quite varied but do manage to flow into each other, from moody melancholia to blown out super distorted blackness, from weirdly melodic to harsh and raw, IQ take these opposing forces and tangle them up into something gloriously confusional. The opening track of the second suite, "Introduction To Burning Death" is a dramatic shift from the almost relentless onslaught of the opening salvo, a loping melodic metallic groove, that gives way to a half time, even more melodic breakdown, all epic and doomy, and almost dreamy, before shifting gears into a weirdly groovy, almost punky jam, that reminds us a bit of Khold, but super charged , with the relentless double kick drumming, and a harsh distorted ambience wrapped around the whole thing, By the third part of the second act (each act is numbered 0., 00. and 000. by the way) the band have returned to something much more gnarled and truly black, but still shot through with streaks of melody and melancholy. Which segues smoothly into the final 3 part suite, from furious epic black buzz, to grinding downtuned crunch, to soaring melodic blur, to crunchy chugging chaotic mathy pummel, to brief folky drift to warped doomy dirge, sounding almost like a black metal Paradise Lost for a moment, before ending everything with several minutes of crumbling distorted blackened drones, deep resonant tones, gurgled voices, strange percussive crunch, blurred rumbles and what almost sounds like some super distorted ping pong, all buried beneath layer after layer of smeared bleary black buzz.
Packaged in 6 panel black and white digipacks adorned with all manner of symbols and lyrics and mysterious liner notes. LIMITED TO 777 COPIES. Every one hand numbered in silver ink.
MPEG Stream: "Qliphothick Lesser Pentagram"
MPEG Stream: "Introduction To Burning Death / 3 142 742 836 021 Times Hotter Than Earthly Fire"

ITHI The Persistence Of Meaning (Utech) cd 14.98
One of three new releases on Utech this list, all collaborations of sorts, this one, the oddly named Ithi, is a duo from NY called Ithi, made up of Joshua Convey and Luke Krnkr. You might remember Convey from his Utech release Vacant Integument, which was a fantastic collection of hazy blown out psychedelia, thick shimmery guitarscapes AND processed harmonicas!
Not sure if there are any harmonicas employed in Ithi, but if there are, they must have run them through a million pedals, cuz right out of the gate, Ithi is a seriously noisy beast, a churning blackened maelstrom of tangled melodies, of thick slabs of buzz and rumble and hiss and skree, woven into some strangely rhythmic shapes, although those rhythms are almost completely subsumed by thick corrosive clouds of NOISE, although that noisy beginning is a bit misleading, cuz before long, the noise seems to fade a bit, and suddenly there's some pulsing electronics, some deep garbled crooning, the sound transformed into some strange sort of gloomy gothic electronic black noise. Or something. But once the vocals come in, everything changes, and the record blossoms into some sort of noisedrenched demonic electro-pop. Heavy on the noise.
The rest of the record is similarly twisted and off kilter, a dizzying, constantly shifting hybrid of black noise and post industrial crunch, or blurred ambient shimmer and depressive doom pop, or of austere synthwave and abstract electronic drift.
"Go Forth And Die" might be the 'hit' here, with its hazy buzz, murky low end melody, stumbly industrial rhythm, and creepy deep dramatic croon, like some lost eighties new wave jam reimagined by Wolf Eyes and Einsturzende Neubauten. But the sound is anything but static, slipping quickly into a super echoey bit of feedback laced murk, very soundtracky with lots of recorded-in-a-bunker reverb, then into a pulsing bit of glitched out thrum, before slipping into a strangely melodic bit of layered ambient dronemusic, that sounds more like Andrew Chalk or William Basinski (albeit much noisier), until finally, the record finishes off with the nineteen minute "From Caveman To Starflight", which begins a low slung and slithery, deep pulsing tones, muted rhythms, a little bit dubby, everything wreathed in some hazy space out buzz, there are even some blasts of super crunchy fuzzy synthbass buzz, making this almost sound in places like some sort of alien industrial dubstep, but the rhythms splinter, and seem to careen in all directions, the various buzzes and rumbles grow more and more intense, before finally exploding into a Technicolor psychedelic squall of glitched out grind and swirling streaks of crunchy electronics and tangled melodies, a heaving, but weirdly hypnotic blast of impossibly mesmerizing soft noise, that gradually grows more and more soft before fading out completely.
Super swank embossed jackets, with artwork and layout by Kevin Gan Yuen from SF blackmetal noise merchants Sutekh Hexen.
MPEG Stream: "Caterpillar Fantasies For Post Larval Life"
MPEG Stream: "Imagination Is The Ground For Being"
MPEG Stream: "Go Forth And Die"

ITHI Within (Land Of Decay) cassette 7.98
We raved about the first Ithi record, which came out on Utech a while back, a duo featuring Luke from sci-fi spacemetal dronelords Servile Sect, and Joshua Convey, whose Utech release was also a huge favorite around here. The two have returned with another fantastically tripped out slab of mesmerizing murk, thick corrosive synths, pulsing barebones programmed rhythms, guitars blurred into thick heaving swells, the vocals a buried croon, the result sounding like some sort of SUPER heavy lost cold wave classic. There's definitely a Suicide vibe for sure, a sort of grim swagger, but wedded to an almost Nadja/Jesu worthy wall of sound dronedoomdirge. We could listen to the opening track forever, a twisted cold wave krautrock spacedrone dirge that is as blackened and ominous as it is hypnotic and head nodding, with the rest of the record following suit, in many cases getting even more abstract and blown out, long stretches of blurred guitar drones, sprawled out over ribcage rattling bass pulses, the whole thing heaving and creeping and pulsing ominously. And in other cases, approaching the sort of crumbling slo-mo noise pop of Dead C offshoot Gate, but replacing the noise rock guitar and stumbling drum damage with sci-fi synths and alien drum programming. SO great!
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!

ITO, TEIJI Meshes: Music for Films and Theater (What Next Recordings) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Three interesting pieces composed by Teiji Ito, most notably his score for Maya Deren's seminal avant garde film "Meshes of the Afternoon", made in 1943 as a silent film and only graced with sound in 1959 after Deren had met Ito (they later married). I first saw the film ten years ago in school and everyone wanted the music -- thank goodness someone finally put out the soundtrack! Using flute, guitar, cello, Japanese mouth organ, koto, bells, drums, wooden xylophone, didjeridu, Indonesian bronze metallophone, shakers, kazoos, and duck calls, Ito conjures up an extremely evocative sonic world. Also contains his soundtrack to Deren's "The Very Eye of Night" and a theater work called "Savages". None of that trendy soundtrack-to-a-film-that-doesn't-exist-because-I-don't-know-how-to-write-real-songs bullshit here -- this is the real thing: soundtrack music that stands ably on its own.

ITO, TEIJI Tenno (Tzadik) cd 16.98

ITS ALL MEAT s/t (Hallucinations) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Canadian garage-psych from 1970, now in a legit cd reissue. Apparently a much sought-after collector fave.

IUVENES Triumph Of The Will (No Colours) cd ep 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MPEG Stream: "Glory To The War"
MPEG Stream: "Cuchulainn's War Chariot"

IVES, CHARLES Piano Pieces (Wergo) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

IVY In The Clear (Nettwerk) cd 13.98
Ivy return with their fourth album -- perhaps their darkest and most composed work to date. It definitely stands in stark contrast to their jingle-jangle beginnings. Over the years, they've both refined and expanded their scope, but their pop heart still maintains a solid beat. With its sleek melding of the softer side of disco and the washy guitars and wispy female vocals of shoegazer, the gently rolling third track "Keep Moving" is very reminiscent of Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls" (not a bad thing!), while other songs bring to mind Velocity Girl and Lush. Stick around for the final song "Feel So Free", a super pretty lulling duet with an uncharacteristically mellow-voiced Scott McCloud (ex-Girls Against Boys).
MPEG Stream: "Keep Moving"
MPEG Stream: "Feel So Free"

IVYTREE, THE The Sun Is The Lamp (Jewelled Antler) 3" cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The third of the first three entries in the series of 3"cd-r's from San Francisco's acclaimed Jewelled Antler collective of psychedelic/drone/avant/folks comes from The Ivytree, a solo project of one of the Jewelled Antler's chief protagonists, Glenn Donaldson (who can also be found in Thuja, The Blithe Sons, Knit Separates, The Birdtree, etc). Donaldson has publicly announced an affinity for creating different monikers to accompany the innumerable variations of his musical productions, so The Ivytree may be just one in a number of upcoming 'tree' projects from Donaldson. Certainly this little 18 minute cd-r has a lot in common with his previous 'tree disc, The Birdtree album, which has recently been reissued on the Last Visible Dog label and garnered high praise from us. Centered around a plaintive, elliptical finger-picking guitar technique which renders every note full of melancholia, "The Sun Is The Lamp" weaves in and out of harmonium drones, field recordings of birds, and Donaldson's evocative vocals. As strong as the best Richard Youngs projects that might be the closest comparison we can make, this is another fantastic recording from Jewelled Antler!
MPEG Stream: "The Withering Year"
MPEG Stream: "Lake Of Fire"

IVYTREE, THE Winged Leaves (Catsup Plate) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Welcome again to the idyllic, enigmatic folk realm of Jewelled Antler's Glenn Donaldson. The Ivytree is but one of his sonic guises (see also Blithe Sons, Skygreen Leopards, The Birdtree, Thuja). Often collaborating with his Jewelled Antler colleagues, this Ivytree release on Catsup Plate finds Glenn all by his lonesome, but of course there's no lack of all the (wonderful) ingredients you usually find on a Jewelled Antler / GD recording... field recordings, drones, lazy acoustic reveries, and his vocals, high and drifting, not to wake the sleepers but to find harmony in the clouds. Nature, as always, is a big element here, and it seems there's also a Biblical inspiration at the roots of the Ivytree (song titles include "Flood", "Book Of Job", "Churches" and "Clay Tablets"). Anyone already mood-pleased by Glenn's previous offerings, especially by the now-out-of-print Birdtree album or his duo with Donovan Quinn in Skygreen Leopards, will find the dozen songs and soundscapes here much to their liking. Lovely. And if you're new to JA/GD, as good a place to start as any!
Comes in a nice lil' brown cardboard digipack, with Glenn's magnificent, colorful, birdy collages on the cover, the disc itself, and also on a two-siced mini poster inside... I think he's making his music for these feathered, beaked, half-birds, half-men of his imagination and they're probably devoted fans likewise. Fortunately we get to hear it too.
MPEG Stream: "Winged Leaves"
MPEG Stream: "Emerald Green, Peacock Blue"

IVYTREE, THE / CHRIS SMITH Split Series 17 (Fat Cat) 12" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The most recent batch of Fat Cat 12"s couldn't be more perfectly AQ! There's the 'believe it or not' Konono No.1 / Dead C split (frustratingly, we're out of those already -- we didn't get our full order and now we have to wait for them to be repressed, argh!) and also this here slab of wax, featuring Jewelled Antler outfit The Ivytree and Australian guitarist Chris Smith. The Ivytree is the solo project of Glenn Donaldson, Jewelled Antler honcho and member of Thuja, Blither Sons, Skygreen Leopards, etc. These five tracks are delicate fragments of crystalline folk, reverb drenched acoustic guitar, warm whirring organs, tinkling chimes and shuffling percussion, and of course Donaldson's sweet falsetto croon. So gorgeous. Like a lazy summer afternoon, flowers blooming, leaves drifting lazily to the ground. grass swaying in the cool breeze, the forest whispering in the wind, with bits of melody drifting by as we lay in the shade letting the sun make random shapes, glowing a muted orange through are closed eyelids. Chris Smith has a whole different take on dreamy tranquility, choosing to instead find his special place using cascading sheets of distorted guitars, a slowly shifting smear of churning chords, roiling riffs and melodies crushed into thick sonic swirls.
MPEG Stream: IVYTREE "Raven's Son"
MPEG Stream: IVYTREE "Crescent-Shaped Snails"
MPEG Stream: CHRIS SMITH "Bird Proof"
MPEG Stream: CHRIS SMITH "Holding Tank (For Vice Criminals)"

IXION To The Void (Avantgarde) cd 13.98
Debut full length from these French atmospheric doomlords who weave a gorgeous dreamlike doom from lumbering slo-mo heaviness, majestic gloom pop moodiness and classical bombast, heavy on the synth and mournful melody, sounding at times like a doom version of Alcest / Amesoeurs, that sort of wistful indie pop sound, but here rendered in swaths of soaring swirling atmospheric synths, delicate hushed pointilist pianos,
and crushing, classic old school style melodic doom metal a la My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost. The sound is a deft balance between the chugging churning riffs, and the hazy dramatic synthy swirl, the vocals mostly growled and demonic, but occasionally cleanly crooned, hushed and emotional, and there are even horns, which add a haunting and stately elegance to the proceedings.
While this is definitely doom, and a somewhat classic strain at that, it's so melodic and so infused with a dour depressive moodiness, that it does seem to veer into distinctly gloom pop territory, which is not a bad thing at all, in fact it kind of transforms this into something much more interesting. The tracks almost orchestral and symphonic, the sound anguished and abject one minute, dark and dreamy the next, but always epic and dramatic and cinematic, like the soundtrack for some futuristic art film about outer space, the musical vibe evoking sweeping celestial vistas and the bleak blackened landscapes below.
MPEG Stream: "Beyond The Skies"
MPEG Stream: "The Plague"
MPEG Stream: "Leaving"

IXXI Assorted Armament (Sigilla Malae) cd 15.98

IXXI Elect Darkness (Candlelight) cd 12.98

IXXI s/t (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
Sure it's lame calling bands supergroups, but we haven't really thought of another word that has the same connotations. I mean, how would -you- describe a black metal band that featured members of Dimhymn, Ondskapt and Zavorash, and was recorded by one of the guys from Marduk? Exactly. So for now, we'll have to stick with super group. But since this is evil black metal, maybe we should try something like ultra-horde, or mega-kult... ummm, well, maybe not...
Anyway, it's pretty tough to fuck with a band with this sort of pedigree, and while the label describes this disc as "a dirty piece of Black 'N Roll" which had us fearing the worst, this is actually way more fierce and buzzing and black than that description might lead you to believe. The band photos don't help much either, the band all walking along the railroad tracks, or looking all tough in front of a barbed wire topped chain link fence, tank tops, bandannas, and even a ski mask in effect! But fuck it, it's all about the music, and the music here is pretty awesome. Mostly midtempo, downtuned chug, with raspy howled BM vocals, pounding drums, occasional flurries of double kick drum, massive throbbing bass, but all with a serious streak of classic eighties metal running through it all, huge sweeping epic melodies, reminding us a bit of maybe At The Gates or Dark Tranquility, even some punky stomp a la Turbonegro. And actually, the more we listen, it definitely has that Khold vibe, sort of groovy and thick, like a pop song blackened and buzzed... Minus the occasional too obvious movie sample, or brief spoken word part, this is pretty relentless and rocking, with haunting interludes of choral cathedral keyboards and monklike chants separating crushing slabs of hooky heaviness.
Also includes a video playable on your computer, that while pretty striking, looks like it was filmed with a camcorder and s single flashlight. Pretty cool.Ê
MPEG Stream: "Rewards Of Ignorant Wrath"
MPEG Stream: "The Holy Message Of Aum"
MPEG Stream: "The End Of DeGenerations"

IZITITIZ Lucky Bird (Sound@one) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another blast of abstract weirdness from the No Neck Blues Band orbit. Izititiz is a pretty tough listen, a sloppy, slippery collison of free jazz sputter and skronk, thick corrosive crunch, and abstract 20th century tuning-up orchestra splatter. Occasionally things settle into melodic little moments of deconstructed bop, or meandering tribal tranquility, but it's never long before things drift back into abstract chaos.
MPEG Stream: "Arenius I"
MPEG Stream: "Arenius II"

IZUMI, KIYOSHI (Rephlex) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Mr. Richard D. Aphex Twin James discovered this on his last jaunt to Japan, the weird, funky, out-there electronica of a guy who is reputed to have been an early member of none other than the Boredoms. Pretty darn great, and, the cd is packaged in a freaky octagonal jewel box! Very advanced.

IZUMI, KIYOSHI (Rephlex) 12" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Mr. Richard D. Aphex Twin James discovered this on his last jaunt to Japan, the weird, funky, out-there electronica of a guy who is reputed to have been an early member of none other than the Boredoms. Pretty darn great, and, the cd is packaged in a freaky octagonal jewel box! Very advanced.

IZUMI, KIYOSHI Orange Sunshine: Selected Works 1998 - 2000 (Childisc) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Kiyoshi Izumi may or may not have had anything to do with a really early incarnation of the Boredoms, although his previous outing for Rephlex a few years back made such claims. "Orange Sunshine" is Izumi's most recent collection and has nothing really to do with Rephlex or The Boredoms for that matter. Released on the twee electronica label Childisc, this is an album of playful Mego like glitches with none of those harsh artful concepts to get in the way. Just warm jubilant digitized collages.
RealAudio clip: "Ride To Prism"