KACIREK, SVEN The Palmin Sessions (Pingipung) cd 17.98
We completely flipped for Sven Kacirek's The Kenya Sessions, a record where Kacirek, a producer, drummer and percussionist, traveled to Kenya to record local musicians, in their homes and on the street, and then took those recordings and wove in his own. The result was a fantastic electronic / world music hybrid, so seamlessly executed it was often difficult to tell which was which.
The Palmin Sessions are from a few years earlier, but seems to employ the same method, with Kacirek playing real acoustic instruments, vibraphone, kalimba, drums, glockenspiel, as well as brushes, books, paper, film, doors and other unlikely sound making devices. And like The Kenya Sessions, these tracks are incredible, the fusing of real drums, and programmed electronics, all woven into songs lush and organic, sometimes dreamy and laid back, other times intense and super propulsive.
Opener "Heinrich & Helene" is the perfect example, with its warm, soft focus vibraphone melodies, all wreathed in little streaks of electronics, glitches, bloops and bleeps, all very subtle, total bliss out drift off minimal electronica, but then the drums begin to surface, gradually overtaking the hushed shimmer, the playing getting more and more busy, until they erupt in a fantastic squall of wild drummage, still surrounded by electronic blurs and smears, only to blink out, and revert to the opening hushed drift. Awesome.
And the rest of the record is just as good. Some tracks are a bit jazzy, others are almost house-y, still others sound like Kompakt style pop ambience, there are horns, tinkling chimes, occasional vocals, all the tracks based on rhythms, and Kacirek's playing in particular, while the production transforms all the sounds into washed out, dreamlike, ethereal skitterscapes, and warm, woozy, soft focus drifts of electronic shimmer.
MPEG Stream: "Heinrich & Helene"
MPEG Stream: "St. Charles Avenue"
MPEG Stream: "Glas"

KALEIDOSCOPE s/t (Shadoks) cd 17.98
Record Of The Week honorees Los Dug Dugs aren't the only vintage psych band from south of the border that we dig, of course. Here's another, recently reissued rarity as well. The Mexican Kaleidoscope, not to be confused with the UK Kaleidoscope (a huge AQ favorite) or the USA Kaleidoscope either. Actually this Kaleidoscope was only sorta from Mexico - while record was originally released there, the band had begun in Puerto Rico, and then later moved in on the Mexican scene, via a stopover in the Dominican Republic, where this album was recorded, in 1967. Interestingly, on the back cover of the cd booklet, there's a show poster for 'em (billed as The Kaleidoscopes) that says they're from here in San Francisco, psychedelic central at the time, a promoter's claim made probably just to help sell tickets. But they did sound like they *could* have been from 'Frisco all right.
Swirling organ and guitar fuzz dominate the uptempo numbers, like garagey, groovy opener "Hang Out", and there's plenty of organ and fuzz to be heard on the more melodic, moody likes of "Once Upon A Time There Was A World", a somber eight minute opus that one. Definitely killer psychedelic pop stuff for all you "Nuggets" fans, Kaleidoscope for sure fitting in with such acts as The Electric Prunes, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Question Mark & The Mysterians, The Lollipop Shoppe, and others of the era. They seemed to specialize in the wild and unhinged, there's even a song called "I'm Crazy".
The urgent and intense "Colours", with its stinging fuzz, burbling electronics, sudden horn-honks, and desperate vocals, is especially tripped-out. Crucial lines from the lyrics: "acid colors burn my brain / I'm just insane"! Also something about the singer's delivery on that track reminds us of Mexican-American punks The Plugz (of Repo Man soundtrack fame)... That's probably the number one nugget here, a classic, but all the tracks are pretty good. One song here, with the great title of "I'm Here, He's Gone, She's Cryin'", was written by their Venezuelan pals Ladies WC, the others all originals.
This is a nicely done, totally legit reissue (they even tracked down the original cover artist), with extensive liner notes, vintage photos, and cool full color artwork in the cd booklet. It also includes 3 bonus tracks: 2 bluesy ones from a Kaleidoscope offshoot (which may or many not date from the '60s, we wonder) and a live recording of Kaleidoscope in 1969, doing Donovan's "Season Of The Witch". Shadoks pronounce themselves pleased to put this out, and they should be.
MPEG Stream: "Hang Out"
MPEG Stream: "A Hole In My Life"
MPEG Stream: "Colours"

KAPLAN BROTHERS Nightbird (Erebus) cd 17.98

KARACA, CEM Kardaslar & Apalar (Guerssen) cd 17.98
Hopefully you already picked up the awesome collection of rare tracks by Turkish psych guitarist Erkin Koray that Sublime Frequencies recently released. If that put you in the mood for more vintage psych pop rock from Turkey, we've also just received this import disc of stuff by one of Koray's contemporaries, the late Cem Karaca, former member of Mogollar. His is a name that's certainly up there in the Anatolian rock pantheon, along with Erkin Koray, Baris Manco and Edip Akbayram.
Originally released in 1972, it compiled songs circa '69-'71, recorded for 45rpm singles by Karaca with his bands Kardaslar ("The Brothers") and Apaslar ("The Apaches"). The general tone of these tracks is towards the romantically, dramatically bombastic and orchestrated, with strings and horns and vocals that are almost operatic. He's like the Turkish Tom Jones at times... but there's some satisfying stabs of fuzz as well, and of course those irresistible Anatolian folk rhythms and melodies. While this disc isn't quite so killer as that Koray one, it's still pretty cool.
Cd booklet includes liner notes, photos, all that good stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Tatly Dillim"
MPEG Stream: "Zeyno"
MPEG Stream: "Kara Yylan"

KARACA, CEM Kardaslar & Apalar (Guerssen) lp 32.00
Now available as a vinyl reissue too.
Hopefully you already picked up the awesome collection of rare tracks by Turkish psych guitarist Erkin Koray that Sublime Frequencies recently released. If that put you in the mood for more vintage psych pop rock from Turkey, we've also just received this import disc of stuff by one of Koray's contemporaries, the late Cem Karaca, former member of Mogollar. His is a name that's certainly up there in the Anatolian rock pantheon, along with Erkin Koray, Baris Manco and Edip Akbayram.
Originally released in 1972, it compiled songs circa '69-'71, recorded for 45rpm singles by Karaca with his bands Kardaslar ("The Brothers") and Apaslar ("The Apaches"). The general tone of these tracks is towards the romantically, dramatically bombastic and orchestrated, with strings and horns and vocals that are almost operatic. He's like the Turkish Tom Jones at times... but there's some satisfying stabs of fuzz as well, and of course those irresistible Anatolian folk rhythms and melodies. While this disc isn't quite so killer as that Koray one, it's still pretty cool.
RealAudio clip: "Tatly Dillim"

KARACA, CEM & KARDASLAR Puskullu Moruk (Destur) 10" 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KARACA, CEM W/ KARDASLAR s/t (Turkuola) lp 33.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KARKI, BHARAT & PARTY International Music (EM Records) cd 17.98
It's on kick ass Japanese reissue label EM. It's a cd reissue of a 1978 Indian private press lp of far out and freaky Indian psychedelic funk. And it RULES! Really what else do you need to know?
One of our favorite EM releases in a while, every time we play this people flip out and need to figure out what the heck it is. And what it is, is a fantastical, dizzying collection of wild percussion, fluttery flutes, reverbed guitar jangle, chaotic drumming, heavy fuzzy bass, sexy grooves, wheezing organs, surf guitar twang, skronky horns, awesomely twisted Moogs, all wound up into totally off the hook seventies Indian party music, lots of influences from the US, from the Middle East, from Latin America, Eastern melodies wind around more traditional rock and pop, Indian folk music gets tweaked and twisted, old fashioned Indian pop gets a Joe Meek style kitchen sink makeover, guitars are distorted, processed, reverbed, melodies are playful and sunshiney one second, murky and mysterious the next, the sounds are festive and funky and so fun, definitely reminiscent of Dengue Fever's Cambodian pop, of some of the Sublime Frequencies collections, but somehow, more freaky and far out and psychedelic. We seriously can't stop listening to this. One of our favorite reissues this year so far...
MPEG Stream: "A Trip To Kathmandu"
MPEG Stream: "International Peace"
MPEG Stream: "Calcutta Calcutta"

KEBNEKAJSE II (Silence) cd 17.98
Swedish psychedelic hippy rock band's second album, from 1973, newly reissued on cd. While their first album was fun, zany hard rock taking off from the style of English and American acts of the day, with this release they matured, and got heavily into traditional Swedish folk music, with fiddles and so forth, sounding not unlike a prog band playing courtly square dance music for the rennaissance faire! But then, they also delve into what might be termed Afro-Swedish jazzrock too. A weird band, but quite lovely. If you liked the Trad, Gras Och Stenar reissue on Silence, you should check these guys out as well. Includes a live bonus track.
RealAudio clip: "Horgalaten"

KECAK GANDA SARI Kecak From Bali (Bridge) cd 15.98
We've had plenty of compilations that featured excerpts of Balinese Kecak performances, but never a recording of the complete Ramayana Monkey Chant, and it's pretty phenomenal! Recorded in 1987 by David Lewiston, who recorded most of the music featured on Nonesuch releases of Indonesian music, this release is not new but it's definitely a classic and totally worth checking out. An old fave indeed, Allan here first heard this 'round about the same time he first got into the Boredoms, and they're somehow linked in his mind, makes sense, 'cause we'd imagine Kecak like this could in fact have been an inspiration for some of the Boredoms' wilder stuff!
Those new to the sights and sounds of "Balinese Monkey Chants" might think that these performances and pieces are long passed on oral traditions and rituals from centuries ago, but in truth they are a modern cultural invention. They were created with the help of a Russian-born German artist named Walter Spies living in Bali between the World Wars, who was a strong advocate for the advancement of Balinese arts in order to appeal to the tourists who visited the island. Spies saw potential in the traditional Balinese trance rituals such as Sanghyang, a spirit communication usually during troubled times. One of the main features of these rituals was the Cak (pronounced chak) chorus, a group of males who chant in highly syncopated and precise rhythms. Spies thought that the Cak chorus would appeal to tourists if it could be made into an entertainment involving a story. So working with a Sanghyang group in the early nineteen thirties, they fashioned a drama from the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana, a story well known to the Balinese people and to many of the foreigners who frequented the island. Using dancers and performers to act out the main parts of dramatic adventures of Prince Rama and his wife Sita, her abduction by the evil Rawana and her rescue with the help of Hanuman and the King of The Monkeys, the role of the Cak Chorus became greatly transformed by not only expanding their variety of sounds by exploring the Balinese language abundant use of onomatopoeia to mimic gamelan rhythms, but also by integrating themselves into the action through choreographed waves of dramatically intense synchronized movements. Sitting in a large group of 5-6 semi-circles, the male chorus use their arms in unison to great effect, sometimes waving up or to the sides or forward while at other moments of the drama, the chorus representing the advancing armies of Rawana, half of the group will stand and lurch forward to display aggression while the other half lies back in surrender (James Cameron borrowed heavily from this for the Na'vi rituals in Avatar). While it is amazing to watch, it's also quite incredible to listen to as the waves of chanting hover between chaos and control in precise furies of sound. You'll hear what we mean about maybe influencing the Boredoms... If you don't have any Kecak in your collection, you don't know what you're missing!
MPEG Stream: "Introduction"
MPEG Stream: "Sita's Abduction"
MPEG Stream: "Interlude"

KELETIGUI ET SES TAMBOURINIS The Syliphone Years (Sterns Africa) 2cd 24.00

KELLY, R. Trapped In The Closet Chapters 13-22 (Jive) dvd 21.00

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Alkuharka (Fonal) cd 17.98
Although this came out just last year, we've been lacking this in our racks for some time now 'cause the label had sold through 'em all and needed to do a re-press. Well, now, thankfully for the legions of lovers of all this fabulous Finnish free-folk stuff, Fonal has put this gem back into circulation! So queue up if you missed it before. Here's the review we wrote on list #191 when it first came out:
The 18 tracks found here are a riotous festival of Finnish folk-psych. A pagan parade in a forest glade. Abstract, druggy, dark, delightful... We're always entranced by Kemialliset Ystavat's damaged improv folk mystery, and Alkuharka is yet another reason for us to keep saving our pennies in order to afford a trip to Finland (lucky Andee's been there once already). Anyone into anything along the lines of Tower Recordings, Thuja, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Six Organs Of Admittance, the whole Broken Face 'zine scene (to whom Kemialliset mainman Jan Anderzen used to contribute much art) will want/need this. Horns flutes guitars drones bells tapes voices feedback. Weezing buzzing bliss. With contributions from honorary Finns Dylan Nyoukis (Prick Decay) and Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel), Jan and company are the true underground krautrock heirs, making music so long haired that it's furrier than any Animal Collective. Music from the soundtrack to The Wickermoomin, perhaps?
MPEG Stream: "track 2"
MPEG Stream: "track 4"
MPEG Stream: "track 9"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Alkuharka (Beta-Lactam Ring) lp 24.00
One of our favorite slabs of freaky Finnish forest folk, now available on lp!! Pressed on thick vinyl in a deluxe jacket with a printed inner sleeve and all new artwork!
The 18 tracks found here are a riotous festival of Finnish folk-psych. A pagan parade in a forest glade. Abstract, druggy, dark, delightful... We're always entranced by Kemialliset Ystavat's damaged improv folk mystery, and Alkuharka is yet another reason for us to keep saving our pennies in order to afford a trip to Finland (lucky Andee's been there once already). Anyone into anything along the lines of Tower Recordings, Thuja, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Six Organs Of Admittance, the whole Broken Face 'zine scene (to whom Kemialliset mainman Jan Anderzen used to contribute much art) will want/need this. Horns flutes guitars drones bells tapes voices feedback. Wheezing buzzing bliss. With contributions from honorary Finns Dylan Nyoukis (Prick Decay) and Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel), Jan and company are the true underground krautrock heirs, making music so long haired that it's furrier than any Animal Collective. Music from the soundtrack to The Wickermoomin, perhaps?
MPEG Stream: "track 2"
MPEG Stream: "track 4"
MPEG Stream: "track 9"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Kellari Juniversumi (Fonal) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN PRINT! This long out of print AQ fave from these foresty free folk weirdos finally comes back into print on cd. Here's how much we love this disc, what we wrote back when it first floored us in 2002:
Hallelujah! More droning, buzzing, flickering folk-psych from Finland's mysterious Kemialliset Ystavat collective. Sure, we know who's in the band -- Broken Face 'zine artist/contributor Jan Anderzen, Fonal label head Sami Sanpakkila (Es, Kiila), and a host of other Finns -- but they still SOUND mysterious. The damaged four-track folk sound of NYC's Tower Recordings filtered through the forest ambience of AQ-fave improv-psych outfit Thuja might, MIGHT be an approximation of Kemialliset's sonic space. They inhabit that territory previously explored by the likes of Amon Duul, Ghost, Kalacakra, Toho Sara, Parson Sound, International Harvester, Amps For Christ, Six Organs Of Admittance, Algarnas Tradgard, etc. If any of these names bring a warm sensation to your frontal lobes, then you're likely already a Kemialliset fan even if you haven't yet heard 'em. Each track (there's 17 of 'em, spread over 47 minutes) is a psychedelic miniature constructed of drifting, chanting vocals, gentle melodies, and primitive rhythms, contrasting distorted electric guitar wash with pretty, chiming percussion, strings and woodwinds. Freaky and far-out yet mostly mellow and warm and cosy. Fucking lovely. Ah, Finland.
This repress comes with a new, colorfully illustrated 24 page booklet that you didn't get if you bought it before. Nice for the newcomers, a bit of a drag for those of us who already have the cd. But booklets are one thing, the music is another. If you've got this music, that alone should make you happy. And then there's this option: buy one for a friend, but keep the new booklet for yourself. A win-win scenario there.
MPEG Stream: "Kellari Juniversumi"
MPEG Stream: "Uruaurat"
MPEG Stream: "Kuuma Tomu"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Kellari Juniversumi (Beta-Lactam Ring) 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 AQ fave from these foresty free folk weirdos gets an ultra deluxe vinyl reissue thanks to Beta-Lactam Ring. Really gorgeous packaging and nice thick vinyl. Here's how much we love this record, from back when it was a cd:
Hallelujah! More droning, buzzing, flickering folk-psych from Finland's mysterious Kemialliset Ystavat collective. Sure, we know who's in the band -- Broken Face 'zine artist/contributor Jan Anderzen, Fonal label head Sami Sanpakkila (Es, Kiila), and a host of other Finns -- but they still SOUND mysterious. The damaged four-track folk sound of NYC's Tower Recordings filtered through the forest ambience of AQ-fave improv-psych outfit Thuja might, MIGHT be an approximation of Kemialliset's sonic space. They inhabit that territory previously explored by the likes of Amon Duul, Ghost, Kalacakra, Toho Sara, Parson Sound, International Harvester, Amps For Christ, Six Organs Of Admittance, Algarnas Tradgard, etc. If any of these names bring a warm sensation to your frontal lobes, then you're likely already a Kemialliset fan even if you haven't yet heard 'em. Each track (there's 17 of 'em, spread over 47 minutes) is a psychedelic miniature constructed of drifting, chanting vocals, gentle melodies, and primitive rhythms, contrasting distorted electric guitar wash with pretty, chiming percussion, strings and woodwinds. Freaky and far-out yet mostly mellow and warm and cosy. Fucking lovely. Ah, Finland.
MPEG Stream: "Kellari Juniversumi"
MPEG Stream: "Uruaurat"
MPEG Stream: "Kuuma Tomu"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Suurempi Pieni Palatsi (Alice In Wonder) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The hard to pronounce Kemialliset Ystavat play a mysterious, fucked up brand of psychedelic improv folk music -- fractured, fairytale sounds from the woods of Finland. Well, more likely a bedroom studio in Finland. But Kemialliset Ystavat seem like they belong in a forest, an old dark magical forest. This is their first full length cd, after several obscure and odd releases over the past few years (homemade cassettes, a one-sided LP for Fusetron, a 3" cd-r on Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers, a split 7" on Bad Vugum, etc.). Indeed, this disc actually consists of material originally released on a limited 7" last year, plus lots of bonus stuff.
It's primarily the work of one main band member, Jan Anderzen. He's helped by, among others, our friend Sami Sanpakkila (of Es, Kiila, Velvolino and Fonal Records). Maybe the closest comparison we could make would be to NYC's Tower Recordings. But Kemialliset Ystavat's damaged psych meanderings somehow capture an even more "authentic, exotic" mood of post-krautrock wonderment than that conjured by the New Yorkers, although we love them so.
After getting all those great sixties International Harvester, Trad Gras Och Stenar etc. reissues in, it's nice to know that their spirit of psychedelic exploration is still alive and well in Scandinavia, thirty years on!
RealAudio clip: "Hurja Taivas"
RealAudio clip: "Kuin Kaste Aamun"
RealAudio clip: "Nykyajan Tanssi"
RealAudio clip: "Katkennut Rauhanpiippu "

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Untitled (Fonal) cd 17.98
Finland's Kemialliset Ystavat (and Avarus, and Anaksimandros, and Uton, and Lau Nau, and Doktor Kettu, etc.) are often referred to as "forest-folk", implying some sort of quiet, gentle rustling mystery amidst the trees, and sometimes that's quite the case. But the first few tracks here, on Kemialliset's latest, would certainly scare off any friendly small animals -and- wake up the sleeping forest trolls. It's woozy woodsy cacophony unleashed. This be outsider "folk" at its most abstract and noisy and "free". But, by track four or five things have calmed down a bit, the sounds have gotten more organized. Some charismatic, long-haired, bearded guru has obviously taken charge of the previously wild music-makers, their pagan energy now channelled down paths previously trod unshod by the likes of Parson Sound and Amon Duul... more mellow and musical, still druggy and damaged. Track six, "Superhimmeli", comes off like something by cult '60s ESP tribe Cromagnon!! (Perhaps due to having the same keening horn cry as heard in Cromagnon's "Caledonia".) There's a hippy chant drone density to a lot of this that's VERY satisfying. It's like an ancient celebration underway, wooden space rock rituals, accompanied by electronic squiggles or birds atwitter, burbling and gurgling sounds in the margins... sunshiney yet strange, very strange. Fonal thinks this is one of their best yet and we wouldn't argue.
NB. There IS vinyl of this, but unfortunately the copies we got were damaged -- we're expecting replacements from Finland soon, though.
MPEG Stream: "Tulinen Kiihdytys"
MPEG Stream: "Superhimmeli"
MPEG Stream: "Himmeli Kutsuu Minua"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Varisevien Tanssi / Silmujen Marssi (Kevyt Nostalgia) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Awesome vinyl reissue of these two long out of print 3" cd-r's from one of our favorite Finnish outfits Kemialliset Ystavat, one originally released on UK noise-experimental label Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers, the other released by Finnish underground folk label Lal Lal Lal and originally packaged in a velvet sleeve designed to be used as a petting glove! Everything we love about KY is present here, gorgeously primitive / innocent / timeless Ur-folk, simple strummed guitars, outdoorsy lo fi recording, chant-like vocals, simple clattery percussion, dreamy hazy ritualistic soundscapes, delicate melancholy melodies, deliberate rhythmic stumble, subtle tape malfunction and home recorded production fuckery, loping late afternoon, staring at the sun rhythms, and occasional swirling swooping electronics. Fans of Kemialliset and all things Finnish (you know who you are) definitely need to pick this up. And all you folks who have been digging the Jewelled Antler stuff (Blithe Suns, Thuja, Ivytree, Child Readers, etc.) will find a whole new world of sonic forests and audio landscapes to explore and get lost in.

KENGE KENGE Introducing Kenge Kenge (World Music Network) cd 12.98
We've been hearing lots about the great benga music coming out of Kenya but haven't been able to get our hands on too much of it. Luckily, the group Kenge Kenge, because of their higher profile and the wider availability of the recordings, are serving as a pretty great introduction to this sound. It's a magical combination of instruments that creates this exhilarating, totally compelling and joyous sound. Unlike a lot of other African bands who have been gaining wide notoriety of late, there are no guitars here. Instead, kenge Kenge utilize a combination of flutes, horns, fiddles, percussion, sound box, gong and vocals. Totally upbeat with steady rhythms and a lush, organic delivery and such a wildly joyful and positive disposition. It's refreshing too, that while it's cleanly recorded it doesn't sound slick or overproduced at all. In fact in lots of ways it kind of reminds us of a more rootsy, less blown out and amplified version of AQ faves Konono No.1. Really good stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Kenge Kenge"
MPEG Stream: "Owang' Winyo"

KHAN, ALI AKBAR / SWAPAN CHAUDHURI / ALAM KHAN From Father To Son (Alam Madina) cd 13.98
Like that old saying, I may not know Indian music, but I know what I like. And to a certain extent that's true. I don't know much of the history of Indian music, but this record is dreamy, hypnotic, and quite lovely. Ali Akbar Khan runs a world famous Music college in San Rafael (outside of San Francisco) and has since 1967. Students come from all over the world to study. This record documents one of Khan's first performances with his son Alam, both playing the Sarode (sort of like a short sitar but not exactly) and accompanied by Swapan Chaudhuri (on tabla), also an instructor at the Ali Akbar Khan College Of Music. Part of why this recording is so beautiful and intense, and a lot of Indian classical music for that matter, is that it is composed on the spot, and it's quite gruelling for a student to be accompanying his teacher (or father) in front of a huge audience. The music here is shimmery and drone-y, weaving a warm web of vibrating strings. A meditative buzz that soothes and relaxes. This record is totally mesmerising. Recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Ragini Puriya Dhanasri"

KHAN, AMJAD ALI Sarod (Ocora Radio France) cd 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Alap"

KHAN, BADAR ALI Lost In Qawwali III (Birdman) cd 13.98
"Flowing with infectious rhythm, hypnotic percussion, mesmerizing repetition and spine-tingling vocal improvisation, Qawwali music has thrilled listeners since the 10th Century. One family -- the Khans of Pakistan --has dominated this vibrant musical form with an unbroken line of truly great male vocalists. As Qawwali music rides an unprecedented wave of worldwide popularity, the star vocalist of the next generation, the voice that will carry Qawwali music to a whole new level, has emerged to claim the musical baton of his storied family. At 33, Badar Ali Khan has already released 22 albums in his native Pakistan. Most recently, working with producer/arranger/composer Suresh 'Baba' Varma, Badar has leaped to the forefront of his art, becoming a Qawwali superstar with Baba Records' multimillion-selling album, Good Karma 1. Blending the traditional with the contemporary, the ethereal with erotic, Badar Ali Khan has succeeded in transforming this ancient artform into something totally modern, incredibly potent and powerfully intoxicating for today's young audiences."

KHAN, KHANSAHIB ABDUL KARIM s/t (Mississippi) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We usually start reviews of records released on Mississippi Records with a blaring announcement that looks a little like this:
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Cuz we know there are plenty of folks out there, that like us, are crazy obsessed with that label, and will buy ANYthing and EVERYthing they release. And we imagine those folks will no doubt buy this one as well, but for the folks who might not be quite so Mississippi obsessed, or who might have gotten in the habit of seeing that announcement and skipping on by, we didn't want anyone to miss out on this one, because this record just might be the one to suck you in and MAKE you that obsessed. Sure it's yet another incredible unearthed gem from the crazy music obsessives who run the impeccable Mississippi Records label, and as we hinted at above, pretty much everything they release is worth checking out, and yeah, they're all special in their own way, there's a bunch of others on this very list, but this one, this one is something else altogether, a collection of 78s from legendary Indian classical vocalist Khansahib Abdul Karim Khan, dense, lush, emotional and spiritual ragas, haunting and mystical and completely gorgeous. A huge influence of legendary minimalist composer La Monte Young, in fact the liner notes offer up a quote from Young that basically says it all: "When I first heard the recordings of Abdul Karim Khan I thought that perhaps it would be best if I gave up singing, got a cabin up in the mountains, stocked it with a record player and recordings of Abdul Karim Khan, and just listened for the rest of my life."
We can definitely understand his feelings, this is the sort of music, so powerful and so passionate, that it definitely puts most 'singers' to shame. The instrumentation is very traditional classical Indian, but it's the vocals that drive these songs, the instruments way down in the mix, Khan's gorgeous vocals soaring and dramatic, haunting and moving and utterly breathtaking. We've seen descriptions of these recordings as being "not easy listening, but ultimately very rewarding", and while we definitely agree with the second half of the statement, these sounds while complex and totally unlike most of the other music you've heard, are not at all difficult to listen to, just the opposite, after just a few seconds, you'll be whisked away, totally transported, as the sounds surround you, and seep into your spirit and soul. The music here so utterly transcendent, so lush, warm and welcoming, yet at the same time, so strange and wondrous, Khan's voice sounding like its bathed in divine light.
Khansahib Abdul Karim Khan truly was a sonic shaman for the ages, delivering these divine musical messages to us, his willing supplicants. Incredible.
Packaged in super thick full color old school tip-on jackets, with a big booklet packed with liner notes and photos.
MPEG Stream: "Pyare Nazar Nahin - Bilawal"
MPEG Stream: "Phagwa Brij Dekhanako - Basant Khayal Jalad Tritaal"
MPEG Stream: "Jamuna Ke Teer - Bhairavi Thumri"
MPEG Stream: "Jadu Bhareli Kaun - Gara Thumri"

KHAN, NUSRAT FATEH ALI Final Moment (Birdman) cd 13.98

KHAN, NUSRAT FATEH ALI The Final Studio Recordings (American) 2cd 21.00

KHAN, USTAD ALI AKBAR & USTAD VILAYAT KHAN Psychedelic Music Of India (Cherry Red) cd 17.98

KHAN, USTAD HAFIZULLAH Khalifa Kirana Gharana (Just Dreams) cd 17.98

MPEG Stream: "Saughand: Vilambit Ektal"
MPEG Stream: "Saughand: Drut Tintal"

KHAN, WAJAHAT Plays Indian Music For Sarod, Tabla and Tanpura (Koch) cd 14.98

KHORSHID, OMAR Guitar El Chark (Sublime Frequencies) 2lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A record like this is pretty much destined to be an aQ Record Of The Week. A super limited double lp, on Sublime Frequencies, featuring two whole lps of spaced out Arabic instrumental psychedelic surf rock and Eastern progressive beat, from legendary Arabic actor and musician Omar Khorshid, who is criminally unknown outside of the Middle East, especially considering his high profile, and the fact that this is some of the heaviest, buzziest, most rockingest stuff we've heard yet on Sublime Frequencies.
Born in Cairo, and widely considered to be the greatest guitarist in the Arab world, Khorshid became a ubiquitous presence in the Middle East, performing live, in televised concerts as an actor in films and on television, by the seventies he began working with a legendary Beirut composer, and his music became more and more avant and progressive, as did those who looked to him for inspiration, he helped introduce modern electronics, reverb, delay and other effects, pushing his sound way out, and creating something totally unique, and pretty fantastical.
On first listen, you can't help but be blown away. Wild tangled outer space synths, buzzy sitar like guitars, wild drumming, a strange sort of hypnotic buzzing Eastern style surf rock, which to these ears sounds like it was cooked up in a makeshift kitchen recording studio by an Arab Joe Meek. Fuzz guitar all over the place, almost like a Middle Eastern Ventures, propuslive, hypnotic, totally rocking, energetic and inspired, and seriously progressive, especially for the time.
His death was as dramatic as his life, after performing in 1977 at the Egyptian / Israeli summit at the White House, and being seated between Presidents Carter, Begin and Sadat, he was constantly harassed, enduring several assasination attempts and near constant surveillance, before being killed at age 36 in a mysterious car crash.
But his legacy lives on in his music, finally being exposed to a wider audience, a music at once original and forward thinking, exuberant, ebullient, fun and funky, wild and rocking and totally unique. Definitely one of our favorite Sublime Frequencies releases. Only on vinyl for now, and while it's likely there will be a cd version (which we'll also make a Record Of The Week when the time comes), we can never be 100 percent sure, so better grab one of these quick, espeically considering we only got 40 of these and most likely won't be able to get any more!

KIDUDE, BI Zanzibara 4 : The Diva of Zanzibari Music (Buda Musique) cd 15.98

KIILA Tuota Tuota (Fonal) cd 17.98
Of all the Finnish bands we love, and all the bands on Finnish label Fonal, Kiila might just be the most traditionally indie rock. But then that's really relative, since we're talking about Finland, and the fact that Kiila is made up of members of other, much more far out bands like Es, Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Anaksimadros. So you can figure that even though Kiila traffic in indie rock, it's unlike most indie rock you know.
Right off the bat the first track reminds us of a much more blissed out folkier Animal Collective, chiming guitars, delicate fingerpicking, softly tangled harmonies, reverbed abstract vocals, sunshine-y and dreamy, really quite lovely. The rest of the record is not so blissed out though, the second track is a fiddle laced bit of indie rocking, jangly guitars, propulsive drumming, lots of swirling drone-y organs, and much more traditional sounding vocals, in fact it almost reminds us a little of Wilco, albeit filtered through the cracked Finnish pop sensibility. The rest of the record continues in a simialr direction, channeling much of what we love about indie rock, but infusing it with plenty of twang, Finnish forest folkiness, and plenty of off kilter weirdness, whether it's thick sheets of undulating buzz, fluries of birdsong, streaks of tripped out effects or thick swells of rumbling low end crunch, those various elements are deftly woven into more traditional pop smithery.
A few tracks revisit the dreamy folkiness of the record opener, stripped down to just acoustic guitar, fiddle and voice, while others are almost entirely vocal harmony drive, and at least one is a gorgeous droned out synthscape, and another is a ramshackle horn flecked, chaotically percussive tripped out free jam.
The sounds are lush and beautiful, jangly and poppy, and just a little bit twisted and fractured, they may be the most 'traditional' sounding of all our Finnish faves, but that still means this is weirder and more awesomely abstract thatn 90 percent of music out there.
Gorgeous Fonal packaging as always, the cd in a full color 6 panel cardboard gatefold jacket, with a printed inner sleeve which includes liner notes and lyrics and cool printed Japanese style obi, the vinyl in a normal but quite colorful sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Viisi Hirvasta"
MPEG Stream: "Kevatlaulu"
MPEG Stream: "Portaissa"

KILLING JOKE s/t (2003) (Zuma) cd 14.98
It would be a considerable understatement to say this new Killing Joke album is a sobering listening experience -- it's a fierce, visceral, and bleak call to battle. It rocks and rages with echoes of their 1981 debut (and first self-titled) album's feel and spirit. Yes, genuinely punk, and yes, genuinely metal... although those stifling labels can't and won't adhere to this band. Frankly, very few artists today can capture the pure seething energy that this, Killing Joke's second self-titled album, has harnessed.
Jaz Coleman tears out of your speakers like a man possessed. His deeply inspired vocal performance delivers some of his most inhuman gutteral growls, anguished howls and demonic hisses. Birlliant. His lyrics, brutally direct, are steeped in immense disgust and despair, with hard-hitting political critiques -- cross-hairs unquestionably zeroing in on Bush, September 11th and America -- interestingly, a lot of the heavy duty ones are omitted from the liner notes.
Geordie Walker's thunderstorm of guitars drill and grind, at once both tightly clenched and loosely slung -- pelting your ears with metallic shards and sinewed debris. Original bassists Youth and Paul Raven consume any remaining air with glowering lines that boil and stew. With each song, the unrelenting roar of Killing Joke closes in around you.
Drummer Dave Grohl -- apparently not busy enough with Foo Fighters and Queens Of The Stone Age -- does an excellent job immersing himself in the Killing Joke realm, closely resembling the pummeling precision and tribal thrash of Martin Atkins. Hopefully Grohl's presence (his name is stickered prominently on the front of the cd) will draw younger audiences to this venerable band.
Unlike other bands from the past who've regrouped recently for one last hurrah or to cash in on the latest retro trends, it's clear Killing Joke have resurfaced because they truly have something vital to convey (just as they did back in 1990 with Extremities... dirt... etc). They don't churn out albums year after year to fulfill record contract obligations -- they make music with a piercing focus when they feel the need and when it is needed.
Andy Gill's production is beautiful and huge (but not too 'modern rock'), making for a generally accessible and current sounding album (although some of the tracks are overly long) -- one that should have hard music fans clambering.
If you were ever into Killing Joke, check out this album! If you're new, this is a pretty good place to start.
MPEG Stream: "Dark Forces"
MPEG Stream: "Total Invasion"
MPEG Stream: "Implant"

KIM JUNG MI Now (Lion) cd 14.98
All of you who loved Light In The Attic's career-spanning collection of music by Korean psych guitar maestro Shin Joong Hyun, that we recently made Record Of The Week, should be happy about this. It's an brand new official reissue, the first in a series, of Shin Joong Hyun related albums. As you perhaps recall, soothing psych-pop-folk singer Kim Jung Mi, backed by Shin Joong Hyun and his group The Men, appeared on that Beautiful Rivers And Mountains anthology with a song called "The Sun", which we said reminded us of Galaxie 500!
This 1973 full-length from Kim Jung Mi, as masterminded by Shin Joong Hyun, is also quite special. "The Sun" is just but one of the ten dreamily melodic tracks found here, including a four minute version of the song "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains" itself, a signature Shin Joong Hyun tune. Other titles include "Wind", "Blow Spring Breeze", "It's Raining", and "Lonely Heart", and although the lyrics are all in Korean, we get the idea that love and nature form much of the subject matter here (actually, the thick cd booklet provides English translations of the lyrics, along with EXTENSIVE, ultra-laudatory liner notes and lots of full-color photos of the sexy young chanteuse). In those liner notes, Shin Joong Hyun is quoted as having said: "There is no person who can sing Psychedelic music as well as Kim Joong Mi".
Kim Jung Mi's lovely voice will go straight to your heart, and the emotive music accompanying her is moodily lush, majestically melancholic... it's not really about hard-edged fuzz guitars, though they surface occasionally, as more often do propulsive psych "beat" grooves, but for the most part this album seems to hover on a higher, more heavenly pop plane of psychedelia than that suggests... The groovier stuff, though, reminds us of Serge Gainsbourg's Historie De Melody Nelson at times (on "Your Dream" especially). And it's no stretch that the liner notes call Kim Jung Mi the "Francoise Hardy of Korea". Recommended to any fan of the Forge Your Own Chains comp, in addition to those who already heard her on that Shin Joong Hyun collection. Gorgeous!
Comes nicely packaged in a miniature lp-style sleeve, with that aforementioned info/photo packed booklet. There's a vinyl version forthcoming as well, fyi.
MPEG Stream: "Wind"
MPEG Stream: "Your Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains"

KIM JUNG MI Now (Lion Productions) lp 21.00
Yay! Now reissued on nice thick vinyl too! Here's more or less what we said about this when the cd reish came out some weeks back...
All of you who loved Light In The Attic's career-spanning collection of music by Korean psych guitar maestro Shin Joong Hyun, that we recently made Record Of The Week, should be happy about this. It's an brand new official reissue, the first in a series, of Shin Joong Hyun related albums. As you perhaps recall, soothing psych-pop-folk singer Kim Jung Mi, backed by Shin Joong Hyun and his group The Men, appeared on that Beautiful Rivers And Mountains anthology with a song called "The Sun", which we said reminded us of Galaxie 500!
This 1973 full-length from Kim Jung Mi, as masterminded by Shin Joong Hyun, is also quite special. "The Sun" is just but one of the ten dreamily melodic tracks found here, including a four minute version of the song "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains" itself, a signature Shin Joong Hyun tune. Other titles include "Wind", "Blow Spring Breeze", "It's Raining", and "Lonely Heart", and although the lyrics are all in Korean, we get the idea that love and nature form much of the subject matter here. In the extensive liner notes, Shin Joong Hyun is quoted as having said: "There is no person who can sing Psychedelic music as well as Kim Joong Mi".
Kim Jung Mi's lovely voice will go straight to your heart, and the emotive music accompanying her is moodily lush, majestically melancholic... it's not really about hard-edged fuzz guitars, though they surface occasionally, as more often do propulsive psych "beat" grooves, but for the most part this album seems to hover on a higher, more heavenly pop plane of psychedelia than that suggests... The groovier stuff, though, reminds us of Serge Gainsbourg's Historie De Melody Nelson at times (on "Your Dream" especially). And it's no stretch that the liner notes call Kim Jung Mi the "Francoise Hardy of Korea". Recommended to any fan of the Forge Your Own Chains comp, in addition to those who already heard her on that Shin Joong Hyun collection. Gorgeous!
Comes nicely packaged, with obi, and large full-color 4-page insert with photos and those aforementioned liner notes.
MPEG Stream: "Wind"
MPEG Stream: "Your Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains"

KING, PETER Shango (Afrostrut) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Nigeria-born, London-schooled bandleader Peter King started his career in the '60s playing highlife and jazz before venturing into the James Brown inspired realms of afro-funk, of which "Shango" (named after the Yoruba god of thunder) is a prime example. These mostly instrumental tracks (there are some chanted vocal parts, often with a political message like "Freedom!") are super jazzy and groovy, with King's sax and flute joined by a bunch of other horns, percussion, and electric guitar/bass/drums. Recorded in 1974 but actually never released at the time, "Shango" was rediscovered when the Afrostrut label was putting together the excellent "Nigeria 70" compilation -- King's wife remembered the recording, and it turned out the tapes had actually been sitting beneath the bed of Peter King's son for who knows how many years! You'd think having something this funky under your bed would keep you up at night... Anyway, it's cool they found this, anyone into the soulful sounds of the "Nigeria 70" comp or all the other Afro-funk stuff that's been getting reissued recently will be glad to hear this.
RealAudio clip: "Mystery Tour"

KINGSLEY, GERSHON God Is A Moog (Reboot Stereophonic) 2cd 16.98
Reboot Stereophonic is a new label with a mission to rescue from flea-market obscurity rare recordings that take Jewish identity into some surprising musical directions. What better, then, than this for one of their first releases? God Is A Moog is a double disc compiling the religious-themed compositions of Moog maestro Gershon Kingsley, of Perrey-Kingsley and "Pop Corn" fame. File under: Exotica/New Age/Judaism. And Rock Opera.
Subtitled "The Electronic Prayers Of Gershon Kingsley", this mostly features music recorded circa 1968-1974, much of it never before released. Disc one starts with a five-song suite called "Maven On The Moog", featuring cantor Harold Orbach singing Yiddish traditional folk songs accompanied by Kingsley's space-age synth. Then it gets more far-out sound-wise with "The Jewish Experience" parts 1-5. As this collection progresses, you'll also hear wise words from the Torah gravely intoned over bleepy-bloopy Moog backing, a track with a Bruce Haack-style computerized voice ("I Have A Little Brain", made on Kingsley's Macintosh in 1999) as well as much in the way of over-the-top rock opera a la Hair or Godspell, which is simultaneously the best and worst stuff here, perhaps. Kingsley's Moog-laden rock opera efforts ("Shabbat For Today" and "The Fifth Cup") are to be found on the second disc, which has got the most groove and weirdness and inadvertent laffs of the two. Some of these songs are just SOOOO kitschy and, well, let's just be honest: bad. Not the music so much, but some of the lyrics and singing are really terrible (though of course very well-meant). But it's in that so bad it's good, or well not good but darn funny category. Wait 'til you hear the song about the extinct dinosaurs, or the one about the ten plagues. Maybe the word we should use isn't terrible, it's awesome. Awesomely absurd. And sincere, you've gotta give it that. Moog for Moog's sake fans might prefer disc one (and/or yearn for an instrumental version of all of this), but anyone into unfettered goofball expressions of spiritual feeling, and Vietnam-era pop-prog silliness should be quite entertained by these tracks.
Complete with its interesting and informative liner notes, this whole thing is definitely a cool and unusual addition to the discography of Moog-related recordings!
MPEG Stream: "The Jewish Experience Part 5"
MPEG Stream: "L'cho Adonoy"
MPEG Stream: "1984 - One, One Is One"

KIRALY, ERNO Phoenix: The Music of... (ReR) cd 15.98
Eastern European composer and instrument builder Kiraly combines old gypsy folk violin with modern tape music techniques, and more. Great collection.

KNIFE, THE Deep Cuts (Rabid / Mute) cd 15.98
This Swedish duo had all the cool kiddies' panties in a delirious knot at their recent totally sold-out show here in SF. Hot stuff! So needless to say, it's a more than perfect time for this reissue!
Last time we carried this cd, we had this brief summation: If you dig Miss Kittin or Adult., well here's The Knife! Electro-punky tunes with punchy female vocals seemingly very inspired by Debbie Harry / Blondie.
That having been said, we'll elaborate a bit: If you happened to start your love affair with The Knife with their Silent Shout album, it'll surely continue to burn hotter than the sun with Deep Cuts. This brother and sister team combine the detached chill of electro and techno with the engaging catchiness of pop with a childlike musicbox wonder. Ultra tweaked and strange. Includes a dvd!
MPEG Stream: "She's Having A Baby"
MPEG Stream: "You Make Me Like Charity"

KOES BERSAUDARA Koes Bersaudara 1967 (Sublime Frequencies) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another incredible archival discovery from Sublime Frequencies, this the first in a series of releases chronicling Indonesian popular music from the fifties through the seventies. Koes Bersaudara were a band of brothers, heavily influenced by the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, the Byrds, and this collection is the first ever reissue of two of their impossible to find recordings, most notably, To The So-Called "The Guilties", considered by music historians THEE Indonesian garage rock masterpiece. And it is fantastic, jangly guitars, soaring vocals, some awesome guitar playing, super catchy, very poppy, but with hints of darkness running though many of the songs, which is not surprising, considering how difficult it was to be a rock band in Indonesia at the time, especially one playing Western styled rock and roll. In fact at one point, the brothers were jailed for three months for performing Beatles covers. Another interesting fact, is that aQ faves Dara Puspita (whose PlusTapes reissues we carried a while back) were performing around the same time, and rumors were circulating about various power plays, the Koeswoyo brothers being perhaps considered too difficult to control, with their flagrant disdain for authority, not just covering the Beatles, but for writing songs about the leader that imprisoned them ("Poor Clown") and many songs chronicling their time in jail ("In Jail", "The Ballad Of Room 15")
Once out of jail, their old label didn't want to have anything to do with them, but as the climate became more conducive to the modern styles of music, they found a new home, and recorded To The So-Called "The Guilties", the first album in Indonesian history to challenge the ruling regime. Their story is so fantastic and inspiring, it's strange to hear this music, which on the surface seems so innocuous, knowing just how controversial it was and how much of a harbinger of change it would be for Indonesian music.
But for fans of classic '60s garage rock, regardless of the back story, this is some seriously good stuff, the power and energy of life surrounding the music only infusing it with a passion and energy that transforms it from simple rock and roll to something more. This reissue includes the To The So-Called "The Guilties" lp, a 10" recorded the same year, with a bonus compilation track, extensive liner notes, chronicling the history of the band, the recording of these albums, the producer, and the music scene in Indonesia at the time. Tons of photos too, all in a swank digipak, the nicest Sublime Frequencies packaging yet. WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Hari Ini (Today)"
MPEG Stream: "To The So-Called "The Guilties""
MPEG Stream: "Poor Clown"
MPEG Stream: "Balada Kamar 15 (The Ballad Of Room 15)"
MPEG Stream: "Djadikan Aku Domba Mu (Make Me Your Sheep)"

KOES PLUS Dheg Dheg Plas & Volume Two (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
Another release in the continuing series of archival releases of Indonesian popular music brought to us by the always awesome Sublime Frequencies, this one comes from Koes Plus, the "Beatles of Indonesia", perhaps the most beloved pop group ever in Indonesia, who began life as Koes Bersaudara, and whose music was collected on another recent Sublime Frequencies compilation, but for all the promise shown by the controversial Koes Bersaudara, who were jailed for covering the Beatles, it's when they streamlined their sound, and became Koes Plus that they EXPLODED, recording more than 40 albums throughout the seventies, even going so far as to record albums in specific styles catering to fans of different genres. And it all paid off. According to the liner notes, TODAY, there are Koes Plus fanclubs in nearly every city, there are more than 60 Koes Plus cover bands on the island of Java ALONE, there are multiple radio shows dedicated to the group's music, all that and they have remained relatively unheard and unknown outside of Indonesia.
This collection compiles their first two insanely rare albums, Dheg Dheg Plas and Volume Two, both fantastic examples of the group's mastery of Western pop music, the Beatles comparisons are definitely apt, but they did more than ape their heroes, these songs are fantastic, catchy and melodic, jangly and dreamy, vocal harmonies, intricate guitar playing, it's not just the Beatles they're indebted to either, the Byrds, the Bee Gees, and judging from "Pent Juri Hati (Heart Stealer)", even the Monks, it's a DEAD ringer, fuzzed out guitar, wild drumming, and howled vocals that sound JUST like the Monks, definitely the odd track out, but it hints at where these guys could have ended up had things been a bit different.
But for fans of classic garage rock, and sixties / seventies psychedelic pop, Indonesian music of all stripes, this stuff is really fantastic, it's still difficult to believe virtually no one outside of Indonesia has heard this stuff until now. Some folks have suggested that had these guys been based in the UK or the US during the sixties or seventies, they would have been one of the most popular bands in the world, and listening to them now it's not hard to believe.
Housed in a fancy 6 panel digipak, with a huge booklet, packed with liner notes and loads of rare photos.
MPEG Stream: "Kelelawar (The Bats)"
MPEG Stream: "Derita (Suffer)"
MPEG Stream: "Awan Hitam (The Black Cloud)"
MPEG Stream: "Tiba Tiba Aku Menangis (Suddenly I Cried)"
MPEG Stream: "Bergembira (Have Fun)"

KONG LAVRING Den 2den (Pan Records) cd 24.00

KONG LAVRING s/t (Pan Records) cd 24.00
After marvelling (if you're at all of our mindset) at the cover painting, which features some sort of dulcimer, an electric guitar, and an amplifier itself decorated with a painting of a dead tree and a sunset, the first thing that'll grab you about this 1977 Norwegian folk-rock reissue is that it's so superbly recorded -- crystal clear, not too slick or over produced, just simply sterling, live-in-your-room sound that belies this album's misty '70s origin. Though ordinarily we find dusty, crackly, low-fi recordings of long-lost folkesque psychedelia to be preferably evocative and mysterious, this just sounds *amazing*. So, your ears will rejoice at how great Kong Lavring sounds...and then, the songs. So good. Kong Lavring made a terrific mix of traditional Norwegian folk music and electric rock instrumentation, with the choppy bite of "Liti Kjersti" being a particularily stellar example of such. With both male and female vocals -- Viking style male choirs chanting it up, and lovely sweet female vocals, capable of exquisite unaccompanied beauty. Though never particularily popular (they made only two albums, of which this is the first), Kong Lavring could be considered a Norwegian version of Fairport Convention, to make a loose comparison. Also recommended for fans of Turid, Kebnekajse, Arbete Och Fritid, and other Scandinavian folk/rock outfits -- perhaps even those of the black metal variety like Storm. The aforementioned cover art suggests a lot to those of us enamoured of the '70s hippy folk vibe, and this disc is indeed as good as the cover portends.
MPEG Stream: "Liti Kjersti"
MPEG Stream: "Fagre Piker"

KONONO NO.1 Assume Crash Position (Crammed Discs) cd 16.98
From the very first notes of Assume Crash Position, we're immediately transported right back to Kinshasa in the Congo, a bustling town square, people going about their business, cars zooming past, children playing and shouting, people sitting at tables on the sidewalk drinking, eating, catching up, birds perched in the trees, chirping, just a regular bustling African city, except maybe for a certain group of musicians, creating their own soundtrack to daily life, conjuring up a gorgeous, rhythmic, hypnotic and strangely psychedelic racket, equal parts classic African folk music, High Life, and junkyard percussion. The musicians are wielding a strange array of hand built instruments, there's lots of rusted metal, car batteries, old cracked loudspeakers, various drums, and most notably, some fantastic looking, and even more fantastic sounding amplified thumb pianos. By now, regular readers of the aQ list most likely know we're talking about the truly amazing Konono No.1, quite possibly one of our favorite African ensembles ever, past or present. When we first hear them a few years ago, we were blown away, the super distorted thumb pianos spitting out clouds of rapid fire chiming notes, tangled melodies, all locked into super hypnotic drum driven grooves, call and response vocals, simultaneously festive and danceable, dark and mysterious, raw and feral, primitive and DIY, lush and melodic and like nothing we had ever heard before.
When we first threw on Assume Crash Position, our first thought, was that very little had changed, and to a certain degree that's true, all of the above mentioned elements are still present, the wild thumb pianos, still the focal point, their sound curious but so warm and sweetly melodic, the call and response vocals, the tribal percussion, the groovy rhythms, but from the first track it IS in fact evident that some things have changed. That opening track, "Wumbanzanga", is far more melodic, far more pretty and almost more like some of the other traditional African music we've heard in the past, with great female vocals, the vibe super festive, but those thumb piano melodies definitely add a distinctly Konono vibe. Then the next track, "Thin Legs" explodes in a frenzy of whistles and tribal drumming and vocals, that's it, but it too manages to be super melodic and totally effusively celebratory.
It's not until "Mama Na Bana" which opens with that Konono style stop start THRUMP THRUMP THRUMP, where the whole group locks in, before launching into classic Konono, it's really hard to describe, but those fuzzy buzzing metallic melodies wrapped around the repetitive rhythms and the super emotional vocals, the whole rest of the record is classic, albeit a bit more polished and melodic, Konono junkyard Congotronics...
Some of the highlights this time around include "Makembe", with its buzzing melodies, crooned vocals, and the sounds of kids playing and birds chirping, before there's a BIG crash, apparently the sound of a concrete wall collapsing, a wall the vocalist was moments earlier leaning against, and then the band launches into one of the best jams on the disc. Or the gorgeous closing lullaby of "Nakobala Lisusu Te", with muted thumb pianos, super tangled melodies, and a sweet soulful croon, so dreamy and blissful, the perfect way to unwind after a wild, sweaty, funky, groovy, Congotronic workout.
The packaging is cool too, with tons of photos of the local scrap yard / junkyard, where the band gather up most of the material they use to build their instruments, not to mention a shot of that collapsed wall that crumbled mid-song. As with past Konono's, utterly and absolutely wholeheartedly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Wumbanzanga"
MPEG Stream: "Thin Legs"
MPEG Stream: "Mama Na Bana"
MPEG Stream: "Makembe"

KONONO NO.1 Congotronics (Crammed Discs) cd 16.98
Back in stock! Probably the biggest "hit" record here at AQ of the past year. We're super excited that they'll be coming to San Francisco to play at the Jazz Fest in November, by the way! Here's our review of Congotronics from when we first listed it back in January:
So here it is! Hard to believe it's finally here -- some of us have been waiting forever for this record, or at least ever since we discovered a tiny, super compressed, thirty second long sound clip on the internet over a year ago. In all of half a minute, we became OBSESSED. Completely captivated by this band's totally alien, lush, organic 'world music' weirdness. We eventually tracked down a (great) live record by Konono No.1, which we listed here a few weeks back, and then after tons of internet sleuthing and a bunch of emails we finally managed to get in touch with someone at the Crammed label in Belgium who was willing to sell us this brand new studio album directly, since they are without US distribution. Phew! So was it worth it? Hell yeah! Anyone who heard that infamous sound sample (which was from this album), or who got to hear the live record, knows that this band is totally amazing, and indeed this record is beautiful, wild and wonderful, chaotic and festive, totally perplexing but completely mesmerizing. For those who missed out on the live record (which we've also just restocked!) or are new to the wonders of Konono No.1, here's the story: twenty five years ago, Konono formed in Kinshasa (the capital of Zaire), performing their own version of traditional Bazombo trance music, incorporating the then-unwanted distortions of their haphazard homemade sound system. They left the bush and settled in the capital where they were forced to compete with the harsh sounds of the city: cars, trains, buses, shouting, etc. So with very little to work with they fashioned pick-ups, microphones, loudspeakers and amplifiers from stuff they could find on the street -- old car batteries, pots and pans, magnets, even branches. Their main instrument is the likembe, a kind of thumb piano. Konono features three of 'em (bass, medium and treble) and the sound of the electrified and amplified likembe is what defines their sound. Accompanied by dancers and percussionists, the likembes wail and drone, buzz and moan, totally overblown and distorted, sounding a little like sixties fuzz guitars, turning a glorious high life jam into something much more strange and wonderful. Super rhythmic, and thick with the buzzing melodies of the likemebe's, Konono weave a massive sound. It's the wildest weirdest street party you've ever been to. Throbbing with energy and emotion, rambuctiously rollicking and totally infectious. Seven lengthy tracks that all sort of bleed and fuse into one epic world-psych jam. The African high life Hawkwind? So so great!
Check out this video clip:
http://www.crammed.be/craworld/movies/konono_promo.mov
MPEG Stream: "Lufuala Ndonga"
MPEG Stream: "Masikulu"

KONONO NO.1 Congotronics (Ache Records) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The vinyl version of AQ mega-fave Congotronics is BACK IN STOCK! Here's our review from way back when we first listed the cd:
Some of us have been waiting forever for this record, or at least ever since we discovered a tiny, super compressed, thirty second long sound clip on the internet over a year ago. In all of half a minute, we became OBSESSED. Completely captivated by this band's totally alien, lush, organic 'world music' weirdness. We eventually tracked down a (great) live record by Konono No.1, which we listed here a few weeks back, and then after tons of internet sleuthing and a bunch of emails we finally managed to get in touch with someone at the Crammed label in Belgium who was willing to sell us this brand new studio album directly, since they are without US distribution. Phew! So was it worth it? Hell yeah! Anyone who heard that infamous sound sample (which was from this album), or who got to hear the live record, knows that this band is totally amazing, and indeed this record is beautiful, wild and wonderful, chaotic and festive, totally perplexing but completely mesmerizing. For those who missed out on the live record (which we've also just restocked!) or are new to the wonders of Konono No.1, here's the story: twenty five years ago, Konono formed in Kinshasa, an area between Congo and Angola, performing their own version of traditional Bazombo trance music, incorporating the then-unwanted distortions of their haphazard homemade sound system. They left the bush and settled in the capital where they were forced to compete with the harsh sounds of the city: cars, trains, buses, shouting, etc. So with very little to work with they fashioned pick-ups, microphones, loudspeakers and amplifiers from stuff they could find on the street -- old car batteries, pots and pans, magnets, even branches. Their main instrument is the likembe, a kind of thumb piano. Konono features three of 'em (bass, medium and treble) and the sound of the electrified and amplified likembe is what defines their sound. Accompanied by dancers and percussionists, the likembes wail and drone, buzz and moan, totally overblown and distorted, sounding a little like sixties fuzz guitars, turning a glorious high life jam into something much more strange and wonderful. Super rhythmic, and thick with the buzzing melodies of the likemebe's, Konono weave a massive sound. It's the wildest weirdest street party you've ever been to. Throbbing with energy and emotion, rambunctiously rollicking and totally infectious. Seven lengthy tracks that all sort of bleed and fuse into one epic world-psych jam. The African high life Hawkwind? So so great!
Check out this video clip:
http://www.crammed.be/craworld/movies/konono_promo.mov
MPEG Stream: "Lufuala Ndonga"
MPEG Stream: "Masikulu"

KONONO NO.1 Live At Couleur Cafe (Crammed Discs) cd 12.98
Yay! These AQ faves -- everyone's faves -- from Kinshasa are back with another exciting dose of their "Congotronics". Chances are, especially if you're a regular AQ customer, that you know all about 'em already, and maybe even got to see them at one of the shows that (lucky for us!) they've played over the past couple years in San Francisco. Live is where it's at for them, a sweaty, joyous, unstoppable, never-ending groove heavily laced with the sound of their signature instrument: the DIY homebuilt electric amplified African thumb-piano (called a likembe). In the hands of Konono No.1, it produces a bright, burbling, somewhat distorted, almost-electronic-keyboard sort of sound that we immediately fell in love with way back when we first heard the band. But that of course is not all, there's plenty of percolating percussion underpinning the likembe melodies, over which they do exuberant vocal toasts and call-and-response chants. When they get going full-on, you'll want to turn it up LOUD and let the whole neighborhood enjoy the energetic density of Konono No.1.
Eight tracks, 52 minutes total, recorded live (sounding great!) in Belgium. Some songs you might recognize from versions on the previous two Konono discs (Lubuaku and Congotronics), others are previously unrecorded. All will get your body moving, guaranteed. This is dance music, nothin' but. At home alone, unwilling to dance? It'll still bring a mesmerized smile to your face for sure.
MPEG Stream: "A.E.I.O.U."
MPEG Stream: "Nsimba & Nzuzi"

KONONO NO.1 Lubuaku (Terp) cd 18.98
We have been totally obsessed with these guys (as have the rest of you judging from how many folks have called and emailed about them and already bought a ton of copies from us before this review even was written) for at least a year if not more and until now there hasn't been a thing (other than a minute long mp3 sample available on Crammed Discs' website) which has been taunting us with the promise of a full length from these guys. So until that fabled Crammed Discs release actually comes out we've got this little nugget to tide you over. And it's no small shakes neither. Though we only learned of them recently Konono No.1 have been around for some 25 years. Hailing from Kinshasa, Congo, Konono No.1 are true African punk rock. They are real D.I.Y. Not putting on shows and printing zines, no, how about building their own instruments from found scraps and dismantled machinery and retrofitting and electrifying traditional instruments! For instance the lead musician Mingiedi Mawangu has taken his likembe (thumb piano), rigged it up to pickups (self-built from hammered parts purloined from car starter motors) and amplified it with a custom built amplifier driven by a car battery, using microphones built out of copper wire and branches. How cool is that! And the sounds these instruments produce is amazing. The likembe, with its muted gentle melodic thrum, is turned into an overdriven buzzing melodic powerhouse that sounds like nothing you've ever heard. Well, sometimes it sounds a bit like some sort of psychedelic alien fuzz guitar, but mostly it just sounds amazing and bizarre. The songs are all very melodically similar and mesh into one massive hour long jam, with wild percussion, chanted vocals, and of course the wailing Likembe. So completely amazing. Every time we play this in the store, someone buys one. Immediately.
Seven extended tracks, recorded live and released on the Ex's label Terp.
MPEG Stream: "Ditshe Tshiekutala"
MPEG Stream: "Ku Hollande"

KONONO NO.1 / THE DEAD C Split Series 18 (Fat Cat) 12" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If there was ever a more unlikely split record, we sure can't think of one. But if there was ever a split we'd most like to see, it would be hard to do better than Konono No1 and the Dead C. Not sure if the two bands are a perfect fit, or just happen to satisfy our weirdly eclectic tastes, but this split 12" is fucking amazing. Two new tracks from Konono No 1, who if you are an avid reader of the AQ list are no doubt already familiar with ( we carry both their full lengths, their live record Lubuaku, as well as their studio album Congotronics). An African ensemble led by a trio of amplified Likembes (thumb pianos) and whose equipment is cobbled together from car parts, branches, batteries and other urban detritus. The sound is wild and joyful, rollicking and totally exuberant, the likembes sounding like some alien underwater psychedelic guitars. Wow. And then there's the Dead C. What can you say? One of the most important bands to ever come out of New Zealand. The masters and originators of the NZ free rock sound that has influenced hundreds of bands and been copied by hundreds more. The first 5 tracks are locked grooves, but skip past those (or not!) and you'll find three brand new tracks, 17 minutes of the Dead C in clattery chaotic rock mode, bursts of stumbling, distorted, propulsive free rock, like some lost Krautrock classic, played through crappy practice amps and on a beat up old drum kit, everything drenched in tape hiss and recorded in some cavernous space. Now if they had only managed to get Konono to record WITH the Dead C...
MPEG Stream: KONONO NO1 "Masikulu"
MPEG Stream: THE DEAD C "2"
MPEG Stream: THE DEAD C "3"

KOPERNIK s/t (Eastern Development) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This record is so goddamn beautiful. Hard to know how to describe it. It reminds me of the sonic equivalent of those time lapse films where you watch the seasons pass in a matter of minutes, sunrise, sunset, plants slowly unfurling and blossoming, before wilting and falling to the ground, snow and then rain and then sun, everything moving at an accelerated pace, but blending and merging into a completely mesmeric and hypnotic fugue. Sort of like that. The tag on the cd mentions Godspeed and the Rachel's, and while those are the easiest comparisons (Godspeed because it's so epic, and the Rachel's because it's sort of chamber music) they don't at all hint at the complexity and depth of this Kopernik record. Thick and throbbing, undulating bass is the foundation, cellos, and upright basses, double basses, bowed and plucked, create a viscous and dense bed of rumbling, pulsing low end over which delicate, glistening melodies are sprinkled. This is ambient music, but so rich with layer after layer of delicate sound, that form an impossibly complex and challenging and beautiful listen. While rooted in this bass heavy, epic classical ambience, these songs do stretch in all sorts of improbable directions. Gorgeously lush chamber music, with digital glitches and hiccups, reminscent of Oval's Diskont, but instead of sounding underwater it sounds like it's floating in midair. A medieval court music, sort of grand and pompous, but also a bit forboding, like a much more GRIM Penguin Cafe Orchestra with burbling bass and loping melodies. Dark and cinematic, suspenseful and harrowing noirscapes with thick walls of lower register thrum with heavily affected backward vocals. Lonely and desolate, but so sincere and emotional. A perfect late night record of soothing dreaminess and nocturnal mesmer, but unlike many similar records, it can stand up to serious listening, offering even more when time is taken to explore its rich mysteries.
MPEG Stream: "Ondoyany Et Divers"
MPEG Stream: "Theme For Grace"
MPEG Stream: "Man, Myth, And Magic"