CAT POWER Moon Pix (Matador) cd 10.98
Perhaps her best (and definitely most beloved) full length to date, Chan Marshall's fourth album shows a definite maturation of her voice. This is not to say that there's not a distinct charm to hearing her voice crack on every other song, however, she is far more confident in her ability to generate the sad harmonies of her songs. Heavy on the beautiful heartbreak. As a bonus, Jim White and Mick Turner (both of the Dirty Three) are Chan's backing band on this album. Be prepared to get all misty-eyed.
MPEG Stream: "Metal Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Cross Bones Style"

SILVER APPLES s/t / Contact (MCA) cd 16.98
The first, self-titled Silver Apples lp, from 1968 is a brilliant, landmark recording of swirling, pulsating early psych/synth "rock", from the duo of Simeon (playing a self-built synth called "The Simeon") and Danny Taylor (drums), and comes highly, highly recommended by all here at AQ. The follow-up, Contact, from 1969, is also awesome. The major label that owns these records finally woke up and here is the result: both Silver Apples albums on one disc, complete with new liner notes by Simeon himself and diagrams of their instrumentation etc. An all time AQ favorite!
MPEG Stream: "Oscillations"
MPEG Stream: "Seagreen Serenades"

SOFT CELL The Bedsit Tapes (Some Bizarre) cd 23.00
We managed to miss this one when it was released a while back in 2005, but we figured we weren't the only ones to let this import cd slip through the cracks. The Bedsit Tapes is the officially released collection of the early demos, escapades, and excursions from the megawatt new wave pop stars Soft Cell. These DIY recordings date back to 1978 when David Ball was attending Leeds Polytechnic, where he made full use of a makeshift recording studio consisting of a couple of reel-to-reel tape decks and a mixing board. Upon wiring up a Korg synth and primitive drum machine, Ball started to make "weird little tunes," one of which caught the ear of fellow student Marc Almond who asked if he could use one of those songs for his performance art shows. The two began refining those electronic blorps and bleeps into arty synth-pop numbers, snarling with contemporary punk energy and technological primitivism. Almond already had developed a charismatic persona, which he jubilantly expressed upon the wide vistas of grandiose theatricality, from the crooning balladeering of "L.O.V.E. Feeling" to the switchblade slashes on the uber-ironic "Bleak Is My Favorite Cliche" to the ominous bark of "Occupational Hazard" and onto the fucked-up delirium of their frenzied cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid." Yeah, you heard us right: Soft Cell covered Sabbath!
Given the stripped down arrangements and trial-by-fire approach to the technology at hand, Soft Cell certainly benefited from Almond's larger than life persona. Such is what gave the 'pop' elements of Throbbing Gristle and Reproduction era Human League their iconic status, and it certainly set the stage for the anthemic '80s hits that Soft Cell would produce later on. While many ordinary Soft Cell fans might be put off by the roughness of these tracks, it's precisely that fucked atonality, that avant-punk electricity, that giddy nervousness, those warbled, sci-fi effects and those ominous drones which make us totally dig this collection. Anyone into the whole "Messthetics" scene, and/or the current revival of retro new wave electronica old and new, should also dig.
MPEG Stream: "L.O.V.E. Feelings"
MPEG Stream: "Science Fiction Stories"
MPEG Stream: "Paranoid"

PICCHIO DAL POZZO s/t (Goodfellas) cd 28.00
The prog-fiends at AQ (and everyone at AQ is a prog-fiend when it comes to Picchio Dal Pozzo) were stoked to find a new reissue had just come out of this awesome Italian prog album, and on vinyl now, too!!!
Here's what we said a while back about the previous, cd only reish:
Perhaps you're familiar with that kick ass Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word compilation? It's sure been a big seller hereabouts. One of the bands that compiler Andy Votel introduced us to via that collection was an Italian group by the name of Picchio Dal Pozzo. Their track "La Merta", in all its gently gorgeous glory of tinkling, buzzing, and wordless vocal "aaaah-aaaahhing", made us curious to hear more by them! Turns out "La Merta" was taken from this, their self-titled debut originally released in 1976 on the Grog label. And indeed it was indicative of the mellow and mysterious delights of this album, a work of cosmically spacey, jazz-inflected, psychedelic chamber-prog inspired by the Canterbury sounds of Robert Wyatt era Soft Machine (indeed, it bears a dedication to "Roberto Viatti" aka Robert Wyatt). They were probably into Terry Riley too. Yet nothing prepared us for track three, this record's ten-minute masterpiece, the suite entitled "Seppia" that freakin' blew our minds with its droning, throbbing, Magmoid, synth-sizzling heaviness. Wow! Have the Boredoms heard this?? So, a very nice record indeed, with at least one track that just takes things to another level entirely. Seriously, if you're like us you'll being playing that one over and over again. Instantly a new Italian prog fave here - half the AQ staff bought copies for themselves!
MPEG Stream: "La Merta"
MPEG Stream: "Seppia"
MPEG Stream: "La Bolla"

SLAVES, THE Grey Angel (Paradigms) cd 11.98
Record number two from this now defunct, vocal/synth psychedelic shoegaze duo, recorded back in 2009, and released not long after their Debacle cd-r, Ocean On Ocean. And like that record, on Grey Angel the Slaves again masterfully conjure up some sort of cosmic otherworld, a sound so expansive and epic, its hard to believe they're just a duo, layers of smoldering synths, swirling clouds of blurred effects, and the vocals, ethereal and angelic, like a deconstructed Slowdive, or My Bloody Valentine, slowed way down, and smeared into alien torch songs, the music roiling and full of motion, the lush raga like tones draped over a swirl of fractured melodies and vocal fragments, a darkly dour, melancholic rhythmless drift, all buzz and fuzz and rumble and whir, bleeding into one organic sonic swoon. On the tracks that hew closer to traditional songcraft, the melodies coalesce into something that almost sounds like some lost eighties synthwave creep, but the Slaves add wild squalls of psychedelic guitars, and reverb drenched vocal acrobatics, all of those disparate elements again woven into something impossibly lovely and dreamily mesmerizing.
A collection of melted pop songs, of deconstructed shoegaze, which occasionally, like on the cold wave poppy "Visions", definitely sounds like it could be some unearthed eighties synth pop gem, but of course spinning at the wrong speed, and not to mention the weirdly processed male vox, almost robotic, a weirdly (im)perfect foil for the gorgeous powerful soaring female vox. But of course, it doesn't take long for the band to slip back into something more abstract and tripped out, looping snipped vox over thick synth swells, all again as a backdrop to those gorgeous vocals.
"Ancestors" almost sounds like witch house, with all the rhythms stripped away, and the sounds super saturated, sonically coloring way outside the lines, haunting and dreamily ominous, the track growing more and more noisy and chaotic as it goes, culminating in the sweetly brooding slo-mo shoegaze dreamwave of the closer "Angel", which sounds like the sort of thing you'd expect to hear from Sleep Over or Still Corners, a totally gorgeous hazy, hushed dreamsynth ballad, that sounds a little bit like Zola Jesus on 4AD...
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "You Could Save Me"
MPEG Stream: "Dreamin'"
MPEG Stream: "Angel"

BLACK TRUTH RHYTHM BAND Ifetayo (Soundway) cd 16.98
The killer, groovy music from around the world, out of the past, just keeps on coming... and more often than not we have the fantastic Soundway label to thank for such vintage international reissue discoveries. Here's their latest, a rescuing of the sole release, circa 1976, from a group with the promising name of the Black Truth Rhythm Band. It's an album rife with soulful call-and-response chants, polyrhythmic percussion, some spacey synth, funky horns, whistling flute, and sprightly kalimba melodies... We'd have thought the BTRB were an Afrobeat band from West Africa, but it turns out they're from Trinidad, so this is Afro-centric funk with a bit of mellow Caribbean, calypso flavor as well. Though, Africa is their main thing, and and we're not just talking the jungle noises heard on the track "Kilimanjaro".
The BTRB has both a gentle touch, and deep, DEEP groove. So good, why the heck has it been out of print for so long? And why did they only make the one album?
The occasional synth squiggles remind us of the JB's, like James Brown getting down on "Blow Your Head", but the real big influence here was probably Fela Kuti - and BTRB leader Oluko Imo (bass, kalimba, conga, flute, percussion, lead vocals, whew!) indeed did get to record with Fela later on in the '80s.
This first-time reissue includes a bonus track on the cd version, while the 180 gram vinyl comes with a bonus 7" single, and includes a download code for the entire album as well. Damn fine stuff, highly recommended. Using those terms "killer" and "groovy" with regard to this album is NOT in any way hyperbole.
MPEG Stream: "Ifetayo"
MPEG Stream: "You People"
MPEG Stream: "Save D Musician"

SOULEYMAN, OMAR Leh Jani (Sham Palace) 2lp 27.00
As if the Sublime Frequencies label wasn't prolific enough, one of the SF head honchos, our pal Mark Gergis, has now launched his OWN similar label, Sham Palace. Which has chosen as its first release, this reissue of a classic recording from beloved Syrian singer Omar Souleyman, a single song 30 minutes long! Originally released as a cassette in Syria, this reissue finds that single sprawling Souleyman groove, an edit of which was included on Souleyman's Sublime Frequencies debut Highway To Hassake, presented in its entirety, taking up two sides of vinyl. It's a killer track recorded live in one take, to emulate the vibe of the actual performance, without the distractions of the recording studio, and like other Souleyman jams, it's a scorcher, his vocals in fine form, over a wild tangled background of stuttering, pounding programed beats, buzzing synths and incredible saz melodies (the guy who plays saz is a serious shredder!). It's difficult to imagine the band keeping up the intensity for 30 minutes, but they never flag, the sound effusive and celebratory, the sort of sound that would incite and instant dance party (believe us, we saw it happen here, hipster wallflowers could not resist!), it stands up as one of his best most certainly, which is saying something considering how great pretty much everything we've heard from him is.
That would be enough, but there's a whole second lp, with two more tracks, the first, a lengthy introduction wed to another groover, this one more laid back and swoonsome, the vibe is more late night wind down, the band still killing it, but all stretched out and languid, sultry and surprising serene, while impossibly retaining much of the usual energy. And then finishing off with an unreleased track, which returns things to their proper order, Souleyman and band kicking it up a notch and once again unfurling some incredible grooves, wild and funky, hypnotic and tranced out, totally mesmerizing and utterly irresistible.

V/A Music From Saharan Cellphones (Sahel Sounds) lp 14.98
How could anyone not be obsessed with this? We originally thought the title was just a catchy turn of phrase whipped up by MISSISSIPPI RECORDS, who originally put this out on cassette, but as we did some digging, we discovered that the title was in fact literal, this is indeed a collection of songs found on cellphone memory cards in the Saharan desert. It's not nearly as strange as it sounds once you realize that in Africa, much like in the US, people use cellphones for everything, including of course collecting and trading music, often swapping songs person to person via bluetooth. So here is a sort of best of, a collection of tracks which were super popular in the African mp3/cellphone network, but have essentially never been released commercially or really heard at all outside of these mp3 traders until now.
Obviously, anyone who's a fan of Sublime Frequencies, or Mississippi records is gonna go nuts for this stuff. The sound, besides reflecting a sort of African underground, also chronicles a new era of personal music production, with many of these tracks recorded in people's homes, on computers, using commercial software, synths, autotune and other things previously unavailable outside a proper studio. The sound is super varied: many tracks are classic sounding African music, with some of that desert blues vibe found on a lot of Sublime Frequencies releases, call and response vocals, warm buzzing melodies, simple skeletal rhythms, very hypnotic and mesmerizing, while others are far out takes on commercial pop, or Afro-hiphop, or African electro, all seemingly underpinned by classic African rhythms, but with way more modern elements woven in, some with super autotuned vocals, creating a strange soulful autotuned afro-pop hybrid that is pretty amazing, the record continues to slip back and forth from those classic sounds, to more modern takes on African music, some lush and layered, others super lo-fi, some obviously loose street jams (occasionally peppered with weird recording/cellphone storage/transfer glitches, which only adds to the sound), others are obviously meticulously composed and arranged, and those crazy autotuned vox continue to pop up throughout (obviously very popular with the mp3/cellphone music traders), and are definitely the strangest element.
And according to the label, since the original cassette release, most of the previously mysterious artists (the original tape featured very little in the way of artists and titles) have been tracked down and now get a majority of the royalties.
So totally recommended!
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two "
MPEG Stream: "Three"

V/A The Original Sound Of Cumbia: The History of Colombian Cumbia & Porro As Told By The Phonograph 1948-79 (Soundway) 2cd 24.00
It's tempting with records like this to just paraphrase the extensive liner notes, which in this case go into crazy details about, as the title suggests, the history of cumbia, and how that history has played out via the advent of the commercial phonograph, not to mention the introduction of new instruments, new genres, and the spread of the sound from its birthplace on the Caribbean coast to more central cities. Which would make sense, cuz to be honest, we knew very little about cumbia, at least in terms of its history and development, but at the same time, a quick Google search, and you'll have a wealth of different sources to learn more about cumbia and its history, and as interesting as that is (and it is, VERY), it's really for us all about the music, and the music here, two and a half hours of it, is so fantastic, and the idea that while sure, folks into Latin music and who already dig cumbia, will of course love this, it's the sort of comp that's perfect to expose this music to a whole new audience, one that might not have any experience with stuff like this at all, and who like us, might just be totally blown away by these sounds, energetic and passionate, melodic and moody, rhythmic and celebratory, the bands so tight, the musicians incredible, the songs very propulsive and percussion driven, the older tracks all about the accordion (more on that in the liner notes), with amazingly funky and soulful horn sections, melding cumbia to a fuller big band jazz sound, the songs groove and shimmy, pound and swing, the vocals too, so dramatic and emotional, all combined to create an incredible and expansive collection of music, which while at one time was a music mostly for the lower classes, eventually became a music for all the peoples of Columbia, and a point of great pride.
This collection was curated by Will Holland, who you may know as Quantic, whose awesome Addis To Axum: Music, Words & Arrangements Of Ethiopia record we reviewed way back in 2010, and who spent years in Columbia, learning the accordion, starting a band, and setting up a record studio, immersing himself in the culture to dig up the recorded history of Columbia and cumbia, via a treasure trove of rare 78's and 45's. We've been listening to this like crazy, and have found ourselves going a little cumbia crazy. Beautifully packaged, includes a massive 40 page booklet with tons of liner notes, and lots of amazing photos and images of old record sleeves.
MPEG Stream: GASTON (EL ISLENO) CON EL CONJUNTO DE JAIME SIMANCA "La Cumbia Esta Llamando"
MPEG Stream: CONJUNTO LOS RUMBEROS "Cumbia Del Puerto"
MPEG Stream: LUCHO PEREZ "Judith"
MPEG Stream: ALBERTO PACHECO Y SU CONJUNTO "Sembrando Cafe"
MPEG Stream: RAFAEL YEPES CRESPO CON SUS NEGROS DE LA REGION "Nubia En La Playa"
MPEG Stream: BALDOMERO URIELES CON EFRIAN BURGOS Y SU CONJUNTO "Amor Del Magdalena"

FENNESZ + SAKAMOTO Flumina (Touch) 2cd 19.98
It's fitting that the year closes with a breathtaking collaboration between Christian Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamato, as 2011 was a great year for both of them individually. This past summer Fennesz released Seven Stars, his first solo recording in almost three years. Sakamato not only teamed up with Alva Noto for perhaps their best collaboration yet, Summvs, but also hit the road with his legendary old band Yellow Magic Orchestra to rave reviews.
This is not the first time these two musical visionaries have collaborated, as they released a great ep back in 2005 that left us very hungry for them to come together again. With Flumina they have created one of the most patient, subdued, and beautiful records of the year. In fact, a few of us are already rearranging our end of year best of lists to make sure we include this, as the record has already seeped so deep into our subconscious, in just the few weeks its been out. Sakamoto's fragile piano playing and Fennesz' gauzy and blurry guitar sound glide in and out of each other to create a melancholic daydream of sound. Much like some of our favorite Harold Budd records and collaborations, these tracks really do sound as if they are unraveling slowly from the heavens. We've been going to sleep with one of the discs playing and then starting our day slowly with the the alternate disc, as its such a perfect record for the space between sleeping and dreaming.
We also really love that despite the use of their laptops, the record seems so minimally processed. This isn't about forced static or manipulative feedback, but instead a powerful restraint in sound that allows each note to leave such a lasting impact. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "0318"
MPEG Stream: "0314"
MPEG Stream: "0405"
MPEG Stream: "0411"

ROSKA Rinse: 15 (Rinse) cd 16.98
It's hard to keep up with this Rinse series, so much so that we just realized we actually haven't ever reviewed any of the mixes at all, even though they include some killer sets by folks like Skream, Skepta, Kisma, and more. But we couldn't let ourselves sleep on this one, as Roska has emerged as one of our absolute favorite artists in the UK electronic dance scene.
His debut full length is a record we still blast loud on repeat all the time, filled with soul and such high energy, blasting sounds. We can't think of a DJ we would like to hear more when we're out on the floor. And that's what this disc is all about, over an hour of dance floor intensity that mixes dub step, house, and UK garage. Along with his own tracks, he also remixes and mixes in tracks by Katy B, Magnetic Man, Ms. Dynamite, and a bunch of other dubstep and Garage names, many new to us completely.
What separates Roska from the flock is that the man undeniably has soul oozing from his body, as all the tracks he makes, selects, and remixes have a kinetic energy that even the stiffest of folks would be hard pressed not to move to. Roska stands as one of our favorite electronic musicians to emerge in the last few years, from the UK or otherwise, and this is just another record that further seals the deal. So damn good!
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 9 {Shy One}"
MPEG Stream: "Nexx (Roska Edit) {Zinc}"
MPEG Stream: "I Need Air (Redlight Remix) {Magnetic Man}"
MPEG Stream: "Squark VIP"

JACASZEK Glimmer (Ghostly International) cd 11.98
Norwegian label Miasmah has long been home to a stable of artists creating the sorts of sounds we can't ever seem to get enough of: dark, brooding, electronic flecked hauntological cinematic soundscapes, and late night mysterious classical infused dronemusic, artists like Elegi, Macus Fjellstrom, Gultskra Artikler, FNS, Kreng, Jasper TX, and of course Jacaszek, aka Polish electro-acoustic composer and soundscaper Michal Jacaszek, and while Jacaszek only made one record for Miasmah, it was such a perfect fit, that it was easy to imagine Jacaszek as emblematic of the label's sound. But here we are a few years later, and Jacaszek has already moved on to a new label, but thankfully taken that 'Miasmah' sound with him. And if anything, this new one is even more fully realized than Treny, which was already a unanimous aQ fave. And really how could it not be? Like Treny before it, Glimmer unfurls a ghostly world of blur and shadow, of hum and thrum and glitch and crackle. Operating in a darkened world not that far removed from the Caretaker or Philip Jeck or Demdike Stare, albeit with a bit more of a classical bent, Jacaszek conjures up haunting brooding soundworlds of lush shimmering strings, of echo drenched harpsichord, of woozy loops and hazy staticky record crackle, soft slow swells, that grow so distorted and intense, they slip easily into the red, transforming into something much more harrowing than the music of many of his sonic brethren. The sound threatening to collapse or explode, an urgent pulsing, nearly grinding buzz, that as quickly as it blossomed, seems to slip right back into languid expanses of soft focus drift. Horns and strings, acoustic guitars, all layered delicately into creaking faded stretched of hushed mesmer, an old timey chamber music, transmitted from the other side, much of the sound damaged and decayed as it crossed over, resulting in some darkly alien dronescaping, that slips easily from warped, looped murky moody ooze, to lush, almost pop flecked cinematic post classical drift, the sound at either end of that sonic spectrum flecked with bits of glitch, and audio detritus, the sound seeming to gradually fade and flake as the record spins, almost as if on the next play, it would sound even more washed out and hazy.
There are moments where the sound coalesce into something much more polished, and more traditionally musical, but even then, the music is underpinned by an ominous foreboding, wreathed in strange muted loops, and mysterious sonic fragments, as if being listened to through some sort of dusty old sonic veil, loveliness gradually darkening, shadows lengthening, melodies unwinding and growing subtly more menacing, the recording revealing more and more crackle, swirls of hiss like little dustdevils, all woven into some sort of otherworldly funereal threnody, dreamlike and lovely, but always on the verge of drawing the listener into the mysterious dark place from which these haunting sounds emanate...
MPEG Stream: "Goldengrove"
MPEG Stream: "Dare-Gale"
MPEG Stream: "Pod Swiatlo"
MPEG Stream: "Windhover"

JACASZEK Glimmer (Ghostly International) lp 17.98
Norwegian label Miasmah has long been home to a stable of artists creating the sorts of sounds we can't ever seem to get enough of: dark, brooding, electronic flecked hauntological cinematic soundscapes, and late night mysterious classical infused dronemusic, artists like Elegi, Macus Fjellstrom, Gultskra Artikler, FNS, Kreng, Jasper TX, and of course Jacaszek, aka Polish electro-acoustic composer and soundscaper Michal Jacaszek, and while Jacaszek only made one record for Miasmah, it was such a perfect fit, that it was easy to imagine Jacaszek as emblematic of the label's sound. But here we are a few years later, and Jacaszek has already moved on to a new label, but thankfully taken that 'Miasmah' sound with him. And if anything, this new one is even more fully realized than Treny, which was already a unanimous aQ fave. And really how could it not be? Like Treny before it, Glimmer unfurls a ghostly world of blur and shadow, of hum and thrum and glitch and crackle. Operating in a darkened world not that far removed from the Caretaker or Philip Jeck or Demdike Stare, albeit with a bit more of a classical bent, Jacaszek conjures up haunting brooding soundworlds of lush shimmering strings, of echo drenched harpsichord, of woozy loops and hazy staticky record crackle, soft slow swells, that grow so distorted and intense, they slip easily into the red, transforming into something much more harrowing than the music of many of his sonic brethren. The sound threatening to collapse or explode, an urgent pulsing, nearly grinding buzz, that as quickly as it blossomed, seems to slip right back into languid expanses of soft focus drift. Horns and strings, acoustic guitars, all layered delicately into creaking faded stretched of hushed mesmer, an old timey chamber music, transmitted from the other side, much of the sound damaged and decayed as it crossed over, resulting in some darkly alien dronescaping, that slips easily from warped, looped murky moody ooze, to lush, almost pop flecked cinematic post classical drift, the sound at either end of that sonic spectrum flecked with bits of glitch, and audio detritus, the sound seeming to gradually fade and flake as the record spins, almost as if on the next play, it would sound even more washed out and hazy.
There are moments where the sound coalesce into something much more polished, and more traditionally musical, but even then, the music is underpinned by an ominous foreboding, wreathed in strange muted loops, and mysterious sonic fragments, as if being listened to through some sort of dusty old sonic veil, loveliness gradually darkening, shadows lengthening, melodies unwinding and growing subtly more menacing, the recording revealing more and more crackle, swirls of hiss like little dustdevils, all woven into some sort of otherworldly funereal threnody, dreamlike and lovely, but always on the verge of drawing the listener into the mysterious dark place from which these haunting sounds emanate...
MPEG Stream: "Goldengrove"
MPEG Stream: "Dare-Gale"
MPEG Stream: "Pod Swiatlo"
MPEG Stream: "Windhover"

DIRTY PROJECTORS + BJORK Mount Wittenberg Orca (Domino) cd 13.98
Bjork has always thrived on collaboration, the list of folks she has worked with is pretty much a dream list of musicians and producers including Matmos, Konono No.1, Will Oldham, Zeena Parkins, Timbaland, Tricky, and tons more. But up until now she's never made an actual full album as a true collaboration, and while some of us had our doubts if the Dirty Projectors were worthy of this co-billing, it's actually a totally awesome match up.
Bjork's most resent album, Biophilia, is as dark as it is challenging yet so totally rewarding, but it's nice to get to enjoy a much more bright, colorful, and pop side of Bjork's magical presence. Dirty Projectors are all about bright colors, swirling melodies, and infectious pop, so they bring that element into these tracks, while Bjork guides them to create songs that feel like vocal miniatures from some awesome early Steve Reich or Philip Glass album. There is a feeling of bright eyed innocence and openness on this record that makes it one that we think could win over folks who have taken a little break from Bjork lately. Such a perfect record for a crisp winter day.
MPEG Stream: "On and Ever Onward"
MPEG Stream: "Sharing Orb"
MPEG Stream: "Beautiful Mother"

HAWTHORNE, MAYER How Do You Do (Universal Republic) cd 13.98
One of the most intoxicating male voices we've heard in so long belongs to Mayer Hawthorne. On How Do You Do, he makes the leap from the indie Stones Throw to the big time, now finding a home on Universal, but luckily his soulful music is not compromised one bit. In fact when we first heard Mayer Hawthorne a couple years ago we had a feeling he could get HUGE. Looks like maybe we were right.
His blue eyed soul shines nice and bright on this new outing and shows off both his ability to create such a seductive mood, while also his super strong song writing chops. Equally influenced by amazing singers like Al Green, Dusty Springfield, Otis Redding, Smokey Robinson as well as sweet sounding west coast pop like The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Herman's Hermits and The Louvin Spoonful, there's just no denying he creates make-out jams that sound so damn good, and thus he's amassed a pretty awesome list of bigtime fans which include Dam-Funk, Peanut Butter Wolf, and even Snoop Dogg who appears on "Can't Stop", a totally killer track on How Do You Do. Speaking of amazing guests, legendary psych-funk guitar god Dennis Coffey plays on two tracks as well.
The only thing we don't love about this record is the album cover and the marketing campaign that Universal has launched in support of it. We understand that they want to make him a huge star, but truthfully Hawthorne is so much more talented then what major labels like to push as the next big thing.
He is not just a pretty face and voice, he wrote and produced every track on the album, and his sense of arrangements and pop structure are so spot on. But like we we were always told, you can't judge books or records by their covers, cause what's inside is what really counts, and the songs on How Do You Do are pure proof.
MPEG Stream: "A Long Time"
MPEG Stream: "Can't Stop ( Feat. Snoop Dogg)"
MPEG Stream: "Stick Around"

JUSTICE Audio, Video, Disco (Vice) cd 14.98
Hot damn! No sophomore slump here, Justice return with a fucking cool follow up to their awesome debut from four years ago. Audio, Video, Disco finds the group pushing in a much proggier / poppier direction, in fact everytime we listen to this it sounds more and more like an amazing combination of Daft Punk and Rush, in the best possible way. A little less four on the floor and in your face than the debut, but with much better actual songwriting. In fact there are parts of this record that rival the ecstatic pop of folks we love like Cut Copy and Hot Chip, but instead of pulling from '80s pop bands for inspiration we get the feeling Justice has been listening to as much Emerson Lake and Palmer, King Crimson, and Queen as they have dance bangers since they released their debut. It serves them so well, as their sound now seems to have a more expansive reach, without losing the immediacy and intensity that made us first fall in love with them. There's even an awesome reference to the great CSNY song "Ohio" on here. But don't worry the record still packs a dynamite dance floor punch!
Super exciting to see a group who got tons of attention and popularity, not play it safe and make the same record twice but instead push themselves and come out with something different yet still totally rewarding.
MPEG Stream: "Canon"
MPEG Stream: "Horsepower"
MPEG Stream: "On'N'On"

DWARR Starting Over (Drag City) cd 14.98
Gotta give it up to the folks at Drag City, they're (weird) music lovers after our own hearts, all right. Not only did they reissue the eccentric 1986 outsider "doom" "metal" "masterpiece", Animals, by one-man-band Duane Warr aka Dwarr (an album that we at aQuarius had previously made a Record Of The Week, back when we were ordering an earlier, self-released cd version directly from Dwarr himself, we might add), they have now reissued that album's predecessor, 1984's privately pressed Starting Over - which, despite its title, was in fact Dwarr's debut. Thereby proving that they didn't just put out Animals for a lark! They're serious about their love for Dwarr, and really think people should hear his stuff - and people should, we agree. Maybe not all people, but certainly people who appreciate the finer things in, well, wacked out, downer DIY psychedelia, occasionally dosed with Eddie Van Halen style guitar shred. It's the '60s in the '80s, the dark sides of both decades distilled down to a unique, entertainingly demented essence. And not just entertaining, but truly affecting.
Now, we hope you already have Animals (go read our rave review of that right now, if you haven't!). If you do have it, we probably only need say you want this too. If you don't, well, while we would have to say Animals is the #1 best Dwarr, this one comes close, certainly possessing a similar vibe, and since it was the man's first album, there's no reason not to start with it if you wish to delve into the weird world of Dwarr. In fact, depending on your inclinations, this one might just be a bit more accessible, as it's not so overtly metallic, but perhaps even more sparse and psychedelic (if possible). Super slow but for the soloing. Black Sabbath is perhaps less of an influence on this one, than Pink Floyd... Or at least, rather than riff monsters like "Iron Man" and "Electric Funeral", this one takes its cues from the mellower, pot-wreathed Sabbath numbers like "Solitude" and "Planet Caravan". This is a gentler, folkier Dwarr, sort of. But definitely druggy and proggy (like Captain Beyond, circa Sufficiently Breathless), very odd and home-brewed, and certainly sometimes heavy too. Well, always "heavy", maaaann.
The songs are moody and melancholic, with hushed, woeful vocals. The production is lo-fi, of course, with tinny, trebly guitars indulging in widdly, effect-drenched soloing. Heck, there's a gnarly two-minute instrumental called "Christmas Shopping" that sounds like something Mick Barr might do, overdosed on cough syrup! Or anyone remember the '90s Mexican prog/psych band Humus? Probably not, but it totally could be them. And is that a genius song title or what? We also like "Lonely Ecstasy" as a title, that's another one here. Well, he's got a lot of interesting ideas, that Dwarr. And, as with Animals, this has an amazing piece of album cover artwork, to match the music in outsidery strangeness.
Along with Sabbath and Floyd, another "ordinary" comparison we could make would be to, maybe, solo Steve Hillage in the '70s. And Hendrix is a likely influence (Dwarr's vocals on "I've Been Thinking" kinda remind us of Jimi). Uli Jon Roth's solo stuff, too?? But given an even more eccentric, living-in-his-mother's-basement makeover. Then there's the pantheon of other outsiders we love, with whom Dwarr totally belongs... Michael Yonkers, Bobb Trimble, Todd Tamanend Clark, and more recently, and possibly more precisely too due to the doom metal element, Tony Tears.
Ok, enough said really. Either we've piqued your interest, or your life will stay sadly Dwarr-free. And again, if you're already a fan, you'll want this for sure!
Hmmm. Maybe 25 years from now Drag City will be reissuing Fastest albums too...
MPEG Stream: "Starting Over"
MPEG Stream: "Screams Of Terror"
MPEG Stream: "Christmas Shopping"

3 LEAFS Titular Lines (self-released) cd-r 6.98
3 Leafs have slowly become not only one of our favorite psychedelic bands in San Francisco, but maybe even worldwide. We've dug everything they've released so far, but it was with their last release, Eat The Earth, that we really realized something really special was being created via their approach to improv based spaced out psych. With Titular Lines, we get further proof that this is a group truly invested in the essence of psychedelic music making. Too many of their counterparts seem very connected to one specific moment or era of psych rock, but what makes 3 Leafs stand above the crowd is how they really are true aficionados of such a wide spanning range of mind melting sounds.
The record starts off with a warm and woozy jam that sounds like some amazing lost outtake from a Miles Davis recording circa Live-Evil / Bitches Brew. As the record continues it shifts, twists and turns into hypnotic spells of sound that take us on a magical ride through a landscape of sonic wonder, rife with moments that recall Ennio Morricone, the Necks, Ash Ra Temple, Magma, Blues Control, Parson Sound, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Ariel Kalma, Eternal Tapestry, Sun Araw, the Organisation, White Hills, and others. We love how there is patience and an elegant pacing to the music of 3 Leafs. While others want to hit you over the head with just how 'psych' and 'weird' they are, 3 Leafs allow their tracks to slowly evolve with layer upon layer, allowing you to more deeply feel the evolved feeling of these sounds. This group definitely has the ability to sound shimmering and majestic as well as raw and haunting. So many other psych bands right now are getting all kinds of wide spread praise and acclaim, but we feel 3 Leafs deserves just as much attention as this is psych made with a deeper understanding and a long lasting impact.
MPEG Stream: "Titular Lines"
MPEG Stream: "Coriolis Wind"
MPEG Stream: "The International Section"
MPEG Stream: "Where Do You Live Again?"

AYSHAY Warn U (Triangle) cd ep 12.98
The two most recent records put out by ultra hip experimental electronic label Triangle, finds that label continuing to push well past the 'witch house' genre ghetto that birthed them. To be fair, the first few proper releases on Triangle, Holy Other, Clams Casino, and Balam Acab, were already a sort of POST witch house strain anyway, with some of the WH tropes retained, but with those groups upping the production big time, and ditching much of the lo-fi drag that defined the best witch house, and in the process, inventing a new electronica. Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find the new record from SF electro weirdos Water Borders, a dizzying slab of Coil worshipping electronic what the fuck genius, and then there's this, the debut from Ayshay, which also incorporates a bit of Coil into the proceedings, but there seem to be no beats at all, at least initially, channeling some sort of Cocteau Twins ethereal drift, with some processed throat singing style vocals as a bass, the only beat a buried pulse, it's pretty compelling, and darkly haunting, and beautiful for sure. The second track offers up more of the same, channeling Grouper and stripping away all that low fidelity murk and instead creating a lush layered symphony of voices, subtly twisted and tweaked, another spectral vocal bliss out, and in fact, the third track is more of the same, it's like a three part vocal song suite that acts as a sort of introduction to the final 12 minute "Nguzunguzu Megamix", which is in fact the first track with beats, and while we may have been expecting some sort of skittery drag, or murky muted low end throb, it actually plays more like some lost Muslimgauze remix, all skittery Eastern percussion, multiple drums and rhythms all tangled up, some hand claps, some serious low end, all over those ethereal vox from the first few tracks, the sound constantly shifting, the beat growing more and more block rockin as the track progresses until it finally blossoms into some almost jungle near the end, the stutter and skitter (and some BIG bass booms), perfectly woven into that strange shimmery swirl of ghostly vox. And it's those last few minutes that are the sort of warped and weird, beat heavy mystery secret weapon that some cool DJ will unleash from his sonic arsenal at just the right time and just destroy the dancefloor. So good, getting tons of play here at AQ and appropriately just in time for the Halloween season...
MPEG Stream: "Warn-U"
MPEG Stream: "Nguzunguzu Megamix"

V/A Studio One: Classic Recordings 1963-80 (Soul Jazz) cd 19.98
This is the one. If you've never gotten a Studio One compilation or you have, but have been wondering which one to get next, the answer is right here. Soul Jazz pretty has pretty much selected the best, warmest and most memorable cuts by amazing reggae artists from Studio One spanning 1963-1980. We've been playing this almost non-stop in the store, as this really does represent some of the best music ever made. Studio One rivals Motown for being responsible for so much amazing and timeless music. All our favorites are here: Horace Andy, Marcia Griffith, The Heptones, Prince Jazzbo, as well as some stunning tracks by a few folks who had somehow slipped under our radar like Super & Sleepy, Michigan & Smiley, and Doreen Schaffer. It's got everything we love about the Studio One sound, from the super dubbed out, to song sizzling with sensual warmth. Every single track on this kills. This is a no brainer, an absolute must have.
MPEG Stream: HORACE ANDY "New Broom"
MPEG Stream: DUB SPECIALIST "Luanda"
MPEG Stream: MARCIA GRIFFITHS "Let Me Hold You Tight"
MPEG Stream: PRINCE JAZZBO "Rock For Dub"

BUDD, HAROLD In The Mist (Darla Records) cd 17.98
Forget about the Pop Ambient series, and other modern dreamy music makers, when it comes to simply stunning, calming and beautiful sounds it just doesn't get better then Harold Budd. Now 75 years old, and showing no signs of losing his immaculate touch, In The Mist is quickly becoming one of our favorite Budd records ever. This is how we like his music the best, just Budd and a piano, so stripped down and minimal, yet able to conjure up such a majestic and otherworldly soundworld. Slowly drifting and gliding with an ease and emotional warmth that allows you to tune out the noise of the outside world and return to a place of peaceful surrender. What makes Budd's music so special is that in any other hands the sounds would just be pleasant but not much more, but Budd has this amazing knack for masterful phrasing that injects soft melancholy and real bliss into his compositions.
It makes such great sense that in so many ways Harold Budd is an artist's music maker. We know so many great visual artists who play Budd's music in their studio as it really does give you a clean slate to work from, erasing the clutter and annoyances of everyday life and softly guiding you into places that are filled with spirit and soul. Beyond beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "The Foundry (For Mika Vainio)"
MPEG Stream: "Greek George"
MPEG Stream: "Haru Spring"
MPEG Stream: "The Art Of Mirrors (After Derek Jarman)"

LOW Long Division (Plain) lp 16.98
One of the most emotionally devastating and beautiful records of all time. We couldn't be more happy that this classic album by Low has finally been reissued on vinyl. It's an album really made to be listened to in the solitary refuge of your bedroom, so hopefully your turntable is in there. Produced by Shimmy Disc mastermind Kramer, and released in 1995, this will always be the way we hear the sound of Low when we close our eyes and think of all the times their music has been the soundtrack during times of heartache, confusion, and despair. The pinnacle and defining moment of slowcore, every single song on Long Division slowly creeps its way into your subconscious. No other bands could use such a minimalist approach and achieve such a heavy & haunting aura. Songs like "Violence", "Caroline", "Shame", and "Alone", are not only some of the best Low songs ever recorded, but they are simply some of the most emotionally impacting songs of the last two decades.Ê
Long Division is not a record you put on in the background or when you're just hanging out with friends, this is a record you listen to during moments of introspection, of soul searching, loneliness and sorrow yet they're also infused with a sense of hope. Music doesn't get more emotionally intense or elegant then this. A perfect album!

EUROPA La Ultima Emocion (Dark Entries) lp 15.98
We love how far and wide across the globe Dark Entries have been traveling to find us some of the best and most overlooked synth sounds of the early '80s. This time out they take us to Valencia, Spain in 1980 for the bright, DIY inspired synth pop of Europa. Originally released as a cassette, these songs now get their proper place on wax and goddamn is this a set of irresistible electro-pop perfection. Just goes to show that the UK wasn't the only place turning out amazing, catchy, synth pop bands, as this really stands at the same level of excellence as records by folks like Depeche Mode, OMD, and The Human League that were released around this time.
While most bands that surrounded them in Valencia were still trapped in over the top prog rock conventions, Europa took inspiration from punk and the burgeoning electronic scene and proved that you didn't need fancy, expensive equipment to make an awesome sounding record. They built their synths from scratch, and recorded this on a 4-track reel-to-reel, and it pretty much blows away what so many folks these days with so many more resources and endless plug-in's use when trying to capture this sort of sound. Some reissues are cooler in theory than in actual listening pleasure, but this one is all about pleasure! Anyone who loves great early synth-pop will want to jump on this right away. Viva Europa!
MPEG Stream: "Introduccion"
MPEG Stream: "Quien Soy Yo"
MPEG Stream: "Sentir Tu Cuerp"
MPEG Stream: "Europa"

CRONIN, MIKAL s/t (Trouble In Mind) cd 11.98
Yay, after a brief delay, last week's Record Of The Week is now available on cd!!! (And it's now a proper cd, not a cd-r like they pressed originally, though the packaging is fairly no-frills.)
Here's what we said: Up until now, SF garage popper Mikal Cronin seemed to exist mostly as sideman, his name usually following an ampersand, which in turn seemed to typically be preceeded by the name Ty Segall. Thus most of our experiences with Cronin had been the duo of Segall & Cronin, and everything we had heard we dug, a LOT, but it was hard to tell what exactly Cronin was bringing to the table, but listening to this now, seems the answer is EVERYTHING! And as much as we love Ty Segall, we're thinking that maybe much of that garage pop magic was coming from the other side of the ampersand, cuz WOW is this record totally great. Anyone at all into the SF garage pop scene, Thee Oh Sees, the Fresh & Onlys, Ty Segall, Bare Wires, etc, will go absolutely nuts for this. And if this record doesn't immediately catapult Cronin into the spotlight, then there's something very very wrong with the world. A perfect blend of sunshiney jangle, garagey fuzz, paisley pop and noisy psychedelia. And for all the warped fuzz and reverbed drunched lo fi crunch of his peers, it seems Cronin has much more of a pure pop heart. That pure pop is however gloriously corrupted by little bits of wild flute flecked freakouts, strange horns, noise rock jams, and whatever else struck Cronin's fancy it seems, yet whatever sonic weirdness Cronin adds to the mix, it never sound gratuitous, it always sounds like an organic part of the song and the sound, and without fail, the song is crazy catchy, and the sound is fantastically lush and psychedelic and utterly ruling.
The first track manages to sum it up pretty perfectly. Starting with some dreamy Beach Boys a cappella harmonies, then some big distorted guitar crunch, pounding drums, before slipping right into some dreamy almost folky jangle, acoustic guitar strum, fuzzy bass, sweet vocal harmonies and HOOKS FOR DAYS, like the best song the Fresh & Onlys never wrote, but a little bit more twisted and a little bit more Byrds / paisley pop, but with plenty of crunch and fuzz, a little bit proggy in its arrangement, and then out of nowhere, with about a minute left, the song explodes into a double time pounding psych rock blow out, complete with jagged guitar crunch and a wild flute freakout (coutresy of John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees). We've probably listened to that song 50 times since we got this in.
But once we dug deeper, we realized that pretty much every song here is an absolute gem, "Apathy" with it's start/stop acoustic strum, wild feedback, and total classic pop hooks (reminding us melodically of The Olivia Tremor Control actually), "Green And Blue", with it's thick crunch droned out guitar buzz, dirgey drumming, thick blown out wall of sound and wild tangle of psychguitar freakout, "Get Along", which is another acoustic guitar driven chunk of practically perfect dreampop, rife with sweet harmony vox and some cool tripped out backwards psych guitar melodies, "Slow Down", a lo-fi, organ driven ballad, all stretched out drones and fuzzy reverbed vox, "Gone", another crunchy, riff heavy rocker, that should have Thee Oh Sees fans frothing at the mouth. And so it goes, the perfect mix of modern garage pop and classic indie jangle, and some of THEE best songs EVER. This week's list is chock full of contenders for pop record of the year, but if any of the other ones are gonna come out on top, this is gonna be the one to beat.
MPEG Stream: "Is It Alright?"
MPEG Stream: "Green & Blue"
MPEG Stream: "Apathy"
MPEG Stream: "Get Along"

BLOOD ORANGE Coastal Grooves (Domino) cd 14.98
Devonte Hynes has been a man behind the musical scenes for several years now, producing and writing tracks for the likes of Basement Jaxx, Florence & The Machines and Solange Knowles. But we are super glad he's finally taking center stage with his own project, as he is one of the best and most evocative voices we've heard in a long time. Listening to Coastal Grooves really feels like a sleek and steamy night out on the town. Wandering from one dark seedy nightclub to another, and blasting through city streets in a fast car with the windows down. The songs range from slow burning sensual ravers to more indie rocking driving anthems. Imagine some awesome combination of Hercules & Love Affair, Grizzly Bear, Twin Shadow, and Bloc Party, and you begin to get a picture of the sorts of sounds Blood Orange create.
Their imagery and overall aura have a strong queer sensibility evoking the drama of drag queens and the underworld of after-hours cruising bars. For sure there is also a huge '80s influence ranging from Culture Club to Tears For Fears to Bow Wow Wow. But unlike many others mining from that era there is no wink or nod or irony in Blood Orange's sound, as these are heartfelt songs that move and sizzle.
MPEG Stream: "Sutphin Boulevard"
MPEG Stream: "S'Cooled"
MPEG Stream: "Champagne Coast"

TINARIWEN Tassili + 10:1 (Anti) cd 15.98
Tinariwen have proven to be one of the most dependable and consistently awesome bands on the planet. Each of their records are filled with such soulful desert blues. it was just a matter of time before their sounds began to reach a wider audience, without the group compromising one ounce of their musical integrity. On their debut outing for Anti, they continue to do what they do best. Meditative guitar playing, sweeping rhythms, hypnotic vocals, moments of chant and response, and an overall vibe that that keeps us under its spell from start to finish.
While this album marks the first time big name Western artists have joined them in collaboration, do not fear, if there wasn't a big sticker on the cover telling us this features members of TV On The Radio and The Dirty Brass Band, along with AQ fave guitarist Nels Cline (of Wilco), we really would have never known. That speaks so highly to the amount of respect Tinariwen has received from so many of today's musical finest, as these folks know and respect Tinariwen's sound and vision so much that they just add subtle touches that flow with their sound, instead of trying to inject their own ideas into the sound.
There is more of an acoustic , sparse and dusty feel to Tassili + 10:1 than their earlier records. Yet it keeps intact all the great elements that made us fall in love with them from the beginning. Another awesome outing from an incredible band!
MPEG Stream: "Imidiwan Ma Tennam"
MPEG Stream: "Tenidagh Hegh Djeredjere"
MPEG Stream: "Tenere Taqqim Tossam"
MPEG Stream: "Walla Illa"

HTRK Work (Work, Work) (Ghostly International) cd 12.98
It's a bleak world for HTRK, as tragedy and death has surrounded this outfit which has only been around for a couple of years. In 2010, the band's bassist Sean Stewart committed suicide and the producer of their haunted album Marry Me Tonight, Rowland S. Howard died of cancer a year earlier. All of these elements make a connection to The Birthday Party almost inevitable, especially given their historical mirroring in relocation from Melbourne to Berlin and the manifestation of the id through a very raw sound. But where The Birthday Party was an expression of violence, HTRK are in constant search of desire, occasionally finding it only to have it frustratingly fizzle out before anything ecstatic can be achieved. As a result, HTRK's sensual bleariness is in an emotional feedback loop that never can spiral beyond the longing for sex, love, a relationship, etc, without anything ever attained. HTRK's existential portraits of being trapped by one's own desires are in direct opposition to the hedonism found in most electronica. Here on Work (Work, Work), the band parallels some of the horror-affected reverberation of the flash-in-the-pan Witch House crowd; but instead of drawing on unremembered memories of the forgotten '80s, HTRK has profound pain to draw upon... and they want their audience to feel that too.
The band had been shifting their sound even before Stewart's death, with a greater reliance on electronics and subharmonic tones girding the spindly guitar work from Nigel Yang and the self-composed breathiness of Jonnine Standish. They were moving away from the rock trio and towards a miasma of voice, guitar, bass, and electronics with boundaries between these sounds far more permeable. The closest references to HTRK's sound would be Ike Yard and Dome, although HTRK are much more interested in building tension with their teasing melodicism through their droning electronics. The first track on the album features a weird collage that Stewart had made of late nite TV sex ads in Berlin amidst slow-motion sighs caught in a half-melodic drone and crawling drum machine pulse. "Eat Yr Heart" ramps a quarter-speed Giorgio Moroder sequence above heroin paced rhythm with Jonnine crooning a sultry melody counterpointed by breathy exhalations. Sexually charged yes, but more of a downward spiral into dejection rather than release. "Poison" is more in keeping with the bass and guitar structures found on Marry Me Tonight, with Sean Stewart's bass clearly present next to the twilight flickering drone-riffs from Yang. "Body Double" overhauls Suicide's classic sound of metallic synth / drum interplay with undulating melodies that stretch into a magnificent coda of cascading melancholy for what amounts to a masterful album. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Ice Eyes Eis"
MPEG Stream: "Eat Yr Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Poison"
MPEG Stream: "Body Double"

WILD FLAG s/t (Merge) cd 14.98
We've been beyond excited in anticipation of this one. Wild Flag is the super group of our wildest dreams. Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss from Sleater Kinney along with Mary Timony from Helium and Rebecca Cole from The Minders. A few of us got to see them live at a super small show last year at the Hemlock and we were blown away by their immediacy, passion and energy. In other words it reminded us so much of what it was like to see Sleater Kinney, one of the best live bands ever in our opinion.
Luckily the songs on this debut capture that live energy, and give us one of the most punchy, catchy and rocking albums of the year. Carrie Brownstein does seem like she's the leader of Wild Flag as her signature guitar and vocal stylings are felt on just about every song. And damn, what can't Carrie do? After Sleater Kinney called it quits she found herself the 'it' music writer, with her great thoughtful music column for NPR's website, and then she mastered television comedy, starring in Portlandia with Fred Armistead, pretty much the funniest TV show to emerge in the last several years. But there is no doubt she missed rocking out and being on stage, and with Wild Flag her and her badass bandmates have tapped into that golden sound of impassioned indie rock with punk spirit that Sleater Kinney perfected in the '90s. On songs like "Glass Tambourine", Mary Timony takes center stage, her vocals, and even more unique and recognizable guitar stylings have been a long favorite of ours. Overall the sound of Wild Flag takes from the more poppy and driving moments of Sleater Kinney albums like The Hot Rock, All Hands On The Bad One, and peppiest tracks from their swan song The Woods. Blast this one loud, and make sure to see them live if you have the chance!
MPEG Stream: "Romance"
MPEG Stream: "Future Crimes"
MPEG Stream: "Black Tiles"

COOL KIDS, THE When Fish Ride Bicycles (Green Label Sound) cd 13.98
Ever since we caught these guys opening for M.I.A. several years ago we knew there was something special about them. Let's be honest, the state of modern hip-hop leaves a lot to be desired, but damn The Cool Kids do it so right! Infusing the influence of '80s hip-hop glory, into more modern productions, yet never sounding like a tired throwback group, these kids make beats that hit and songs that stick.
When Fish Rides Bicycles finds them upping the intensity from their great debut, The Bake Sale. The album opens with such a banger and from that moment on the record keeps its energy and its focus sharp and charged. While some noncommercial hip-hop artists tend to shy away from big sick beats we love how The Cool Kids embrace those very same elements, yet it's how they incorporate them and the overall vibe of their tracks that makes them stand so far ahead of the pack. Of course the root of thier sound is the golden era of hip-hop, and we can hear awesome moments that remind us of Eric B & Rakim, Kool Moe Dee, KRS-1, and EPMD.
The Cool Kids also have a great understanding of the economy of sounds. They don't clutter their tracks and they also keep things so tight, with no silly interludes or throwaway tracks. Cool guest appearances too by folks like Mayer Hawthorne, Ghostface, and Bun B only add to the potent mix. An absolute contender for hip-hop album of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Rush Hour Traffic"
MPEG Stream: "Freak City"
MPEG Stream: "Swimsuits (Featuring Mayer Hawthorne)"

SOULEYMAN, OMAR Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
We're not sure how a live Omar Souleyman record differs from any of his other records, which were all essentially recorded live, but these shows are distinctive for one reason in particular, they all took place in the West, in front of audiences outside of the Middle East, who most likely had never seen anything like it. And we were lucky enough to see Souleyman perform here in San Francisco, and we were blown away. The sound was incredible, that tangled Eastern psychedelic sound that is already so propulsive and rhythmic and mesmerizing, but cranked through a MASSIVE sound system, and suddenly, it was as if that was how it was supposed to sound all along. And to see a whole sweaty throng of SF hipsters, from punks to metalheads, losing their shit, and dancing wildly to these weird and wonderful sounds, it was pretty inspiring. We couldn't help but wonder how Souleyman felt, performing in these big dance clubs, maybe it just seemed strange to us, cuz really we can't imagine any crowd, no matter how big or small resisting these incredible grooves. So here are a handful of live performances, from America, Australia, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the UK and Denmark, all of the tracks here finding Souleyman in fine form, the music lively and wildly chaotic, psychedelic and groovy.
One thing this live record does gives us the chance to focus on is Souleyman's keyboardist / percussionist, Rizan Sa'id, who when we saw Souleyman, almost stole the show. Sure Souleyman was the master of ceremonies, pacing the stage, clapping and singing, hyping the crowd, but then off to the side was Sa'id, going totally nuts on the keyboard, providing ALL of the music, a veritable one man band, playing wild melodies, looping rhythms, triggering big rib cage rattling beats, but the best part was his keyboard had little drum pads, and all of those flurries of Middle Eastern percussion, those are actually being played live, his hands a blur over the keyboard, unfurling wild rhythmic tangles. We literally could not take our eyes off him. On these tracks, those two are joined by an electric saz player, who adds another glorious layer of psychedelic buzz, and as you might imagine, this is incredible, and fantastic and totally and utterly transcendent. Fans will want this for sure, and it's definitely a perfect introduction to Souleyman's spiritual sonic magic, and by all means, if you get the chance to see this stuff live, you won't be sorry!!
MPEG Stream: "Mawai Hejaz"
MPEG Stream: "Gazula / Shift Al Mani"
MPEG Stream: "Lansob Sherek"

SUN ARAW Ancient Romans (Sun Ark Records) cd 14.98
For all the deserved attention and press the whole Los Angeles musical underground has been receiving in the last couple years, we still think that Sun Araw, aka Cameron Stallones, is perhaps the most unique musical visionary to come out of that scene. Beyond being so prolific, the quality of his proper records just gets increasingly better and better. On Patrol was one of our favorite albums of 2010, and with Ancient Romans, Sun Araw continues to move forward from that dubbed out blueprint and expand on what has become one of the most singular sounds of any new band of the last decade.
The moment the album starts, you immediately understand that you are at the beginning of a ceremony, some sort of stange sonic ritual, which requires the listener to open up to completely, wholly trusting in these sounds to carry you away. With dirty, hypnotic organs for the opening tones, setting the stage for the textured and layered dubbed out trip that will unfold over the next 80 minutes. More then almost any band we can think of, Sun Araw is a master of creating a unified vibe. The tracks on Ancient Romans just melt in and out of each other, you lose track of what song is playing, and instead just get lost deep in the fuzzed out grooves, and tripped out meditations. It's hard to explain when music feels this spiritual, it's just something you feel and trust. And with Sun Araw we get that feeling so intensely. It places you in some dusty, archaic temple that we could imagine was transported directly from Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain. Once inside the temple, you forget about the trivial details of the everyday, and instead leave your body and find yourself somewhere mystical, magical and totally transcendent. This is going to be a contender for record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Lucretius"
MPEG Stream: "Fit For Caesar"
MPEG Stream: "Crete"

DATE PALMS Honey Devash (Mexican Summer) lp 21.00
The Date Palms debut lp on Root Strata, Of Psalms (now sadly out of print) was one of our standout favorite records from last year. A blissful combo of Eastern drone classicism and hypnotic psych fluidity. Now the core Oakland-based duo of Gregg Kowalsky and Marielle Jakobsons follow their debut up with this stunning, no doubt limited, vinyl-only release on Mexican Summer (which comes with a download card).
Composed of two side-loooooong tracks, the structure of Honey Devash is set up in the form of two ragas as their basic foundation but open wide enough to allow a number of key compositional elements to play through. The title track is the morning raga stirring softly at first with slowly energizing phase shifts and bowed violin drones setting up the mood before the heavy bass riff bursts forth into a forward moving momentum aided by percussive elements and all sorts of sonic layering: oscillating bloops, arc-ing violin loops and modal electric piano phrases. Slowly-burning upward toward a white hot light, the gorgeously smoldering momentum breaks off into a purifying hypnotic cosmic bliss punctuated by spacy violin figures before a long slow fade.
The second side track, "Honey Dune" is the evening raga and it cools down with a wide drifting expansiveness lke the end of a long desert heat just before twilight. The mood is less propulsive, more contemplative but beautifully rich with added instrumentation of bass clarinet, tampura and cascading piano motifs. Melodically pretty and explorative, the track gives ample room for each instrument to stretch out and play yet remain tethered to a unifying whole by the grounation vibes of Trevor Montgomery's basslines.
Like some heady hybrid of spiritual Eastern jazz and rockish psych extrapolation, fans of Bruce Palmer, Dadawah, L. Shankar, Brightblack Morning Light, and Spacemen 3 should definitely scoop this up.
This is the perfect soundtrack for hot desert nights, staring at the stars. Sooooooo gooooooood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONGREGACION Viene... (Disco Es Cultura) lp 22.00
This all time aQ South American psych folk fave, available again, now on vinyl!!
A record we've listened to on so many roadtrips through windy terrain, sun soaked mountains, and pastoral horizons. The sole lp by this Chilean group, but what an absolute magical album they created. Much like his Tropicalia counterparts in Brazil like Caetano Veloso, and Gilberto Gil, the music and lyrics of Antonio Smith, the mastermind of Congregacion, made him a big enemy of the military dictatorship of his country. Ultimately he was forced to flee from Chile. Much like Veloso and Gil, he never let that oppressive regime take away his vision of beauty.
This record is swathed in the natural sounds of birds and wind, with dreamy acoustic textures, flutes, guitars, strings and such gorgeous romantic harmonies. The sounds on Viene ease out with such a soft glow. We can just imagine the band levitating on mountaintops as they commune with the universe. It's a record we're sure many modern day dreamy music makers like Devendra Banhart, Beach House, Samara Lubelski, and Jose Gonzalez either already cite as a major influence or should listen to asap. Simply stunning!
MPEG Stream: "Arrebol"
MPEG Stream: "Sintesis De La Exitancia"
MPEG Stream: "Cuantos Que No Tienen Y Merecen"

KLEYN, CAROL Love Has Made Me Stronger (Drag City) cd 14.98
Before there was Joanna Newsom, there was Carol Kleyn, a young hippie spirit with an ethereal songbird voice who wrote rapturous paeans to love and nature on her harp. So it makes sense then that Newsom's label, Drag City, would reissue this lovely private press recording from 1976. Studying at the University of Santa Barbara, Kleyn befriended Bobby Brown (the instrument builder who recorded the amazing old aQ fave The Enlightening Beam of Axonda) and she assisted him with his constructions and live performances. He gifted her the harp, and she began to learn to play and write her own songs, eventually opening for Gregg Allman. Instead of waiting to get a record deal, she decided to make a record on her own and released it on her own label. She recorded two other lps soon after, before devoting herself full time to her family.
Love has Made Me Stronger divides its compositions between harp and electric piano. Her tone is bright and the songs exude a sunny yet eccentric warm energy. Similar to the beautiful Collie Ryan and Connie Converse reissues we listed a while back, Carol Kleyn's debut is a much-needed positive ray of sunshine in these dark days.
MPEG Stream: "Baby Come Close"
MPEG Stream: "Street Song"
MPEG Stream: "Oo Like The Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "You Know I Love You"

MERRITT, STEPHIN Obscurities (Merge) cd 14.98
Oh the glory days. Remember when all our favorite bands were still sort of our own little secret that the larger mainstream world both didn't know about and could care less about. That's how it was almost two decades ago when The Magnetic Fields first hit the scene. Before getting the attention of NPR and culture vultures far and wide with the release of 69 Love Songs, Stephin Merritt was one of the most unsung songwriters of our generation. Whether it was with The Magnetic Fields or when he recorded under the monikers of The 6ths, Future Bible Heroes, or the Gothic Archies, he carved out a space as one of the most unique and versatile songwriters we had heard in ages.
Obscurities draws from this magical era. Taking rare and unreleased tracks dating back to his days on Merge in the mid-late '90s. And we have to admit, this record is really reminding us why we fell so hard in love with his songs in the first place. The poignant and wicked smart lyrics, the deadpan delivery, the range of song forms from lo-fi C86 inspired blasts to more delicate and introspective twee. And we must mention that this contains one of our favorite songs of all time. "I Don't Believe You" by The Magnetic Fields, and it's not the version that came out on their Nonesuch debut, I, but instead the version from the long out of print Merge 7", that a few of us here have probably played over and over more then any other song in the world. well worth the price of admission for that practically perfect chunk of lo-fi pop bliss!
While we still dig what Merritt has been doing in recent years, in fact we made the 2008 Magnetic Fields album Distortion a Record Of The Week, we have to admit this is the era that will always be most near and dear to our hearts and ears. Absolutely essential!
MPEG Stream: "I Don't Believe You (The Magnetic Fields)"
MPEG Stream: "Yet Another Girl (The 6ths)"
MPEG Stream: "Rats In The Garbage Of The Western World (The Magnetic Fields)"

WIDOWSPEAK s/t (Captured Tracks) cd 14.98
While we have been digging lots of weird and lo-fi pop that's come out in the last few years, there's been a shortage of the kind of dreamy and focused pure pop records that make us wanna swoon for days on end. Luckily that has changed with the debut full length from New York's Widowspeak. We were already pretty much sold when we first heard their 7" earlier in the summer, which featured one track from this record and a Chris Isaak cover(!), but we had no idea that this was going to be a band who would be responsible for maybe one of the best pop albums of the year, this their self-titled debut. From the opening moments of the records lead off track, "Puritan" to the album's closer, "Ghost Boy", it's a record we'll be listening to repeatedly for a long time to come.
Widowspeak take elements of Cat Power, Beach House, and Mazzy Star, but somehow put them together in a way that countless other bands, all of whom take those same points of inspiration, never seem able to reach. Waves of warmth, and an economical approach to songwriting come together to create songs that make us just want to sway and linger as we stare into the eyes of someone we love, sounds that conjur up the memory of the one that we wish was still by our side.
We also love how as bittersweet and love soaked the songs can be, there are still these awesome and surprising moments that totally rock out and show sound both urgent and passionate, again in a way that many others treading similar terrain are never able to quite capture either.
This is that rare record rife with musical moments that both give us goosebumps as well as inspiring much shimmying and shaking. We might just have ourselves a new favorite band!
MPEG Stream: "Puritan"
MPEG Stream: "Hard Times"
MPEG Stream: "Nightcrawlers"

AHMED, MAHMOUD Jeguol Naw Betwa (Mississippi) lp 14.98
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
You'll want to pay attention to this one, because this rare Mahmoud Ahmed, originally self-released in 1978, has never been reissued before in any form, cd or lp, and it's a KILLER! Recorded with The Ibex band forming funky circular rhythms of bass, guitars, horns, organ, and percussion around Ahmed's soulful and sultry vocals, the songs are upbeat yet heady, hypnotic and serpentine in a way that only Ethio-jazz can be. We've long been fans of Mahmoud Ahmed, waxing rapturously about his many contributions to the long-running Ethiopiques series and we've covered plenty of his back story in past reviews. But just when we thought his entire back catalog must have already been made available, turns out there are apparently new treasures to be found and this record is certainly worthy of that esteem. An awesome find that is truly magical and beguiling. Don't sleep on this one! Highest Recommendation!

PIKACYU-MAKOTO Om Sweet Home: We Are Shining Stars From The Darkside (Riot Season) cd 16.98
Acid Mothers Temple alert!! Afrirampo alert too! Fans of either/both of those bastions of underground Japanese trippy hippy psych rock weirdness, listen up! This new Riot Season release is one of thee best Acid Mothers Temple related recordings we've heard in a while (and we've heard a lot). AMT's bearded guitar guru Kawabata Makoto teams up here with an old pal, drummer Pikacyu from the avant all-girl group Afrirampo, for a delightfully demented duo session, the two of 'em egging each other on to ever-more ecstatic extremes of cosmic chaos... Frazzled fuzz and reverbed wall of sound guitar from Kawabata accompanies multiple layers of echoing overdubbed vocalizations (chipmunk one minute, chanting monk the next) from Pikacyu, who also moves things along with energetic abandon on the drums.
The 13 tracks here vary from lovely drone-outs to noisy but poppy songs to short, sharp skronkfests - the 25 second "Oscar No Hope" being this disc's shortest and skronkiest, while the likes of "Back To Your House Over The Rainbow" and "Birth Star" are MUCH longer and more epic. The propulsive, rhythmic latter number being a good example of how this disc at its wild and playful best sounds a bit like Circle meets Melt Banana, or Yoko Ono jamming with Faust, or a nuttier, more psychedelic Deerhoof... yeah, far out! Some of the time Pikacyu-Makoto come across like a (two person) "tribe" a la ESP classic Cromagnon, and there's definitely a big krautrock influence at play (as always with Kawabata, right?).
Even if you're not a dedicated AMT fan, we'd say this is one worth checking out!
First pressing limited to 1000 copies in special gatefold sleeve packaging.
MPEG Stream: "Birth Star"
MPEG Stream: "Wild Rise"
MPEG Stream: "OM Marijana FU pt.2"

SOFT METALS s/t (Captured Tracks) cd 13.98
Soft Metals have really upped the ante with their sophomore effort, as they have created one of the most sensual and seductive albums of the year. Female vocals that melt with an icy detachment, and Euro-synth stylings that walk the line between the dancefloor and somewhere darker and weirder. Like a lo-fi Goldfrapp adding vocals to a lost Goblin score, or Fever Ray hosting an after hours party at an alternate universe Studio 54, the album flows and comes together so perfectly, the music is just as important as the vocals and together they swirl, sway, and achieve absolute late night bliss. We've been playing this nonstop, a record that pleases so immediately, but that you want to keep around you as on repeated listens it delves and burrows even deeper into our subconscious...
MPEG Stream: "Psychic Driving"
MPEG Stream: "Eyes Closed"
MPEG Stream: "Always"

SIMONE, NINA Fodder On My Wings (Sunnyside) cd 17.98
We've long been advocates of the importance and reward of spending time with Nina Simone's proper albums. We're really glad there have been so many reissues of her records from the '60s and '70s, but truth be told she was one of those rare incredible artists who stayed true to her vision and made powerful music in all five decades that she shared her magical voice and musical wisdom with the world.
Recorded in Paris in 1982, Fodder On My Wings was an album not many of us were familiar with so we were thrilled Sunnyside brought it to our attention, as it's one smoking and satisfying record, with Nina on piano, harpsichord shaker, and tambourine backed by an awesome band with instrumentation that included congas, woodblock, timpani, etc. Unlike many of her earlier albums, Nina wrote and composed all but one track on this record. Singing in both French and English, her songs range from bittersweet, to empowering, to effervescent. Filled with rich grooves, entrancing piano, and that unmistakably wise and magical voice. A must have for any Nina Simone fan!
MPEG Stream: "I Sing Just To Know That I'm Alive"
MPEG Stream: "Vous Etes Seuls, Mais Je Desire Etre Avec Vous"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven Belongs To You"
MPEG Stream: "Il Y A Un Baume A Gilhead"

GILSON, JEF The Best Of... (Jazzman) cd 17.98
The last time we were this jazzed (sorry, couldn't help it!) about a jazz reissue of an artist we had very little or no knowledge of beforehand, was the great Lloyd Miller collection, A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz. So it makes perfect sense that Jazzman, the amazing label who brought us Lloyd Miller, is now introducing us to the musical world of Jef Gilson, a talented French musician, arranger, band leader, sound engineer, music teacher, label owner, and multi instrumentalist. The songs that make up this best of collection are some of the most irresistible, suave, soulful and surprising that we've heard in any form in such a long time.
Spanning a period from the early '60s into the '90s this shows so many different facets of Gilson's recording career. From bebop, to orchestral pop, to multi cultural intersections, to hypnotizing operatic excursions. This is forward thinking jazz, filled with exquisite playing but more importantly an endlessly creative and explorative mindset that has left every track on this collection feeling so fresh and alive all these years later. This is one of those records we would like Yo La Tengo to check out next time they were in the store, as we could really imagine Ira and Georgia at home in their living room reading and relaxing while the sounds of Jef Gilson provided the perfect ambience to a crisp fall morning.
80 minutes of music, 32 pages of in depth liner notes, this might just be a contender for reissue of the year! Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Up To The Light"
MPEG Stream: "Un Pas, Deux Pas, Cent Pas"
MPEG Stream: "Blue-Bizz"

SANDHY & MANDHY Para Castukis (Lion Productions) cd 14.98
Lion Productions once again dig deep into super obscure international psychedelia of the '60s and '70s to bring us this amazing gem. Sandhy & Mandhy were an Argentinian duo who hit the scene almost as fast as they disappeared. Recording only one album in 1967, and doing it in just three hours. With no grand hopes of fame and fortune, their label pressed a mere 110 copies for the group to have at gigs they played. Years later those copies would fetch crazy amounts of money. Which is not surprising once you hear the music, cuz it's so damn good.
Mixing both the dreamy and rocking elements of psychedelic pop, their sound was in a very similar vein and spirit to their contemporaries in nearby Brazil where the Tropicalia movement was just beginning. From moments of fuzz guitar to melt-worthy vocals, this is a record that covers a lot of ground, and does it so well. It really does sound like some awesome mix of Caetano Veloso and Os Mutantes.
Finally we all get to hear the magic of this album made over forty years ago. There are also five bonus tracks, that for some of us are reason enough to grab this, as their awesome lo-fi covers of The Doors and Marianne Faithfull/The Rolling Stones are pretty damn irresistible. We're totally digging this!
MPEG Stream: "Quisera Olivdarte"
MPEG Stream: "Lluvia"
MPEG Stream: "Barco De Cristal (Crystal Ship)"

SHUSHA Shusha / This Is The Day (BGO) cd 9.98
If Googoosh and Shirley Collins were somehow melded together into one incredible singer, you would have Shusha. Shusha was a Persian singer from the early seventies most famous for her debut album, Persian Love Songs and Mystical Chants from 1971. But her love of music extended beyond her native Iran towards the British folk of Shirley Collins and Sandy Denny and the American protest music of Dylan and Joan Baez. That is what inspired her on these two 1974 recordings, Shusha and This Is The Day. Reissued together for a very affordable price, these two albums of chamber folk-rock divide time between English-sung originals, covers and reworkings of traditional British songs and poems. No native songs here, the only inkling that we're given that Shusha is not English born is her woozy phrasing on some of the American covers such as Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" and the Elvis Presley social ballad, "In The Ghetto". But her singing really becomes transcendent on the British traditional material, where her range is allowed to soar around the song structures rather than being confined by them. This is an incredible discovery of two rare recordings by this amazing singer. Fans of Bridget St. John, Vashti Bunyan, and Joan Baez take note!
MPEG Stream: "Ariel"
MPEG Stream: "Wind of Keltia"
MPEG Stream: "South of The Great Sea"
MPEG Stream: "Bye Bye Johnny"

COLTRANE, ALICE Universal Consciousness / Lord of Lords (Impulse) cd 16.98
For all their majestic beauty, it can sometimes be forgotten that some of Alice Coltrane's greatest records posses an intensity and power that most noise bands these days only wish they could achieve. We can't tell you how happy we are that Impulse has reissued two of her most overlooked, and jaw dropping albums, Universal Consciousness and Lord Of Lords.
Here's what we said about these two records (now on one disc together) when we reviewed them on their own years back.
Universal Consciousness: Wow. Of the many recent Alice Coltrane reissues, we have to say this might be the best one yet. Recorded in 1971, the record swells with beauty and emotion. It is serene and drone-y, a state of suspended bliss and yearning that is colored with propulsive drumming courtesy Rashied Ali and Jack DeJohnette, tensely high-pitched violin from Joan Kalisch, shimmering bells, and of course Alice's manic improv on the harp and ocean-lulling notes on the organ.
This record is so incredibly unbelievably beautiful, there's not a track that fails to attain superlative heights. Fans of modern experimental work like Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunroof! should also definitely check this out.
Lord Of Lords: An incredibly spiritual album by Alice Coltrane from 1972. Her music reaches some of the most "Godly" moments on here, aptly named Lord of Lords. Highlights are her excerpt of Stravinsky's "Firebird" which she performed after a "ghostly visitation" by Stravinsky who offered Coltrane musical and spiritual advice and blessings, and her orchestral version of the gospel spiritual "Going Home". Further proof that Alice Coltrane was an artist who transcended genre, while we file her in jazz for convenience, she really was also a 20th century composer, a spiritual conjurer of musical magic!
MPEG Stream: "Universal Consciousness"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpts from The Firebird"
MPEG Stream: "Sita Ram"
MPEG Stream: "Going Home"

LEFT BANKE, THE Too (Sundazed) cd 16.98
Stereolab named a song after them, Belle & Sebastian and the Magnetic Fields have made careers of taking their influence from them, and we hope the Left Banke finally get the widespread love and attention they so deserve all these decades later. Born out of the orchestral pop strands of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", The Left Banke were the teenage pioneers of the Baroque Rock sound, marrying minor key melody with chamber pop arrangements of harpsichords, string sections and woodwinds. Though the sound ultimately took off more in Britain, The Left Banke were the sole innovators stateside giving them an edge as their two biggest (and sadly only) hits, "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina", propelled them towards a short-lived wider recognition. Sundazed has done a great service reissuing both of the bands records to show that they were much much more than just a two-hit band.
Too is the bands lesser known and last release from 1968 and while the band lost main songwriter and keyboardist Michael Brown for most of it (he returned to record the single, "Desiree" which baffingly didn't chart!), there is plenty to recommend it. Slightly more upbeat than the first album, the vocal harmonies (including the presence of Steven Talarico aka Aerosmith's Steven Tyler on backing vocals!) push the feel toward sunshine pop, sounding much closer to the Beach Boys than before. Yet the melancholy of Brown's contributions plus the beautiful but quirkily titled "Dark is The Bark" give the overall mood a complex prettiness. Lush orchestrations and studio wizardry (lots of backwards effects and psychish phasing) make this album just as gorgeous as the first, and we're glad its lost status is finally seeing some well-deserved light. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "There's Gonna Be A Storm"
MPEG Stream: "Nice To See You"
MPEG Stream: "In The Morning Light"

LEFT BANKE, THE Walk Away Renee / Pretty Ballerina (Sundazed) cd 16.98
Stereolab named a song after them, Belle & Sebastian and the Magnetic Fields have made careers of taking their influence from them, and we hope the Left Banke finally get the widespread love and attention they so deserve all these decades later. Born out of the orchestral pop strands of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", The Left Banke were the teenage pioneers of the Baroque Rock sound, marrying minor key melody with chamber pop arrangements of harpsichords, string sections and woodwinds. Though the sound ultimately took off more in Britain, The Left Banke were the sole innovators stateside giving them an edge as their two biggest (and sadly only) hits, "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina", propelled them towards a short-lived wider recognition. Sundazed has done a great service reissuing both of the bands records to show that they were much much more than just a two-hit band.
And that may be hard to gather from a debut record named after those two biggest hits, but Walk Away Renee / Pretty Ballerina from 1967 is one of the finest sixties pop albums ever! Fronted by vocalist Steve Martin-Caro and keyboardist/songwriter Michael Brown, The Left Banke were the more melancholy and introspective counterpoint to the Beach Boys sunny outgoing harmonies. We bring up the Beach Boys because both bands had further similarities. Both bands employed session musicians and both had managers who were also fathers of the main bandmembers that were subsequently fired when they started getting more successful. Further rifts occured right away when Brown, taking cues from Brian Wilson, didn't feel he had to to tour with the band, complicating band dynamics to the point of him leaving the band after this record, only to return to record one last single ("Desiree" featured on Too) that sadly didn't chart.
But band complications aside, this record is on par with the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle and Something Else by the Kinks. Seriously. Songs like "She May Call You Up Tonight", "Let Go Of You Girl", and "Barterers and Their Wives" show that their antiquated look and arrangements were far from a gimmick, but a means to get into some deeply complex and heartfelt songwriting. These records sound better than ever. Essential!
MPEG Stream: "Pretty Ballerina"
MPEG Stream: "I've Got Something On My Mind"
MPEG Stream: "Walk Away Renee"
MPEG Stream: "I Haven't Got The Nerve"

LITTLE DRAGON Ritual Union (Peacefrog) cd 15.98
Without a doubt one of the most creative and pleasurable groups making electronic tinged dance pop these days. What sets Little Dragon so far ahead of the crowd is that they are such innovative music makers as well as having the amazing talents of lead singer Yukimi Nagano, who really does have one of the most soulful and seductive voices around. Ritual Union is one of the most perfect electro pop albums of the year. The songs and sounds on the record let you go deep into you body. But it's not just a surface high that makes you shake it for a moment, but instead something you feel dig into you deeper and actually grab a hold of your spirit and soul. Like some of the best work that Herbert & Dani Siciliano made together, or if Prince in his prime teamed up with Lykke Li to make a record smart enough to want to spend intimate time with, yet fun enough to want to blast so loud when your friends are around. Colors, shapes and melody all swirling together into something so intoxicating, and so totally good for you. This is becoming our absolute summer jam!
MPEG Stream: "Brush The Heat"
MPEG Stream: "Ritual Union"
MPEG Stream: "Nightlight"

BALDWIN, MATT / NICO GEORIS Year Of The Dog (Psychic Arts) cd-r 7.98
After falling so deeply in love with Matt Baldwin's recent cd-r release, Imaginary Psychology, earlier this year, we knew that this bay area guitar wizard had really come into his own, exploring exciting new terrain in reaching epic psychedelic bliss.
This new outing finds Baldwin collaborating with multi-instrumentalist Nico Georgis, as they create two long form pieces that explore a more textured and layered sort of kosmische drift. The first track, "Year Of The Dog", finds Baldwin employing guitar, guitar-synth, as well as loops and delay, while Georis contributes clavinet, Wurlitzer piano, percussion, a Prophet 600, and a MicroKorg to create a meditative movement that's like some pulsating dreamscape conjured up by Robert Fripp, Michael Rother, Ash Ra Tempel, Manuel Gottsching, and/or John Cale. It taps into a sound that folks like Mark McGuire/Emeralds, White Rainbow, Bitchin Bajas, and Arp have been exploring, but with a much more organic and warm approach.
"Juan Carlos" is the other massive track here, an improv psych-jam, that features Juan Carlos Morales Tablada on congas and percussion. It starts with a slow build that immediately entrances as its sounds are both so connected to the earth, yet do such an amazing job of taking you to another dimension. In some ways the vibe makes us think of another one of our favorite cd-r releases from this year, Eat The Earth, by fellow San Francisco psych improv masters 3 Leafs.
Hand numbered and limited to 50 copies, this one is a no brainer. Don't miss out!
MPEG Stream: "Year Of The Dog"
MPEG Stream: "Juan Carlos"

TRIMBLE, BOBB The Crippled Dog Band (Yoga) cd 14.98
Wonders never cease. About four or five years ago, the Secretly Canadian label did a big favor to obscure music lovers everywhere and brought out deluxe, at long last legit reissues of the two rare private press albums that obscure DIY psych pop genius Bobb Trimble released in the early '80s. We love those two so much, we made both reissues Records Of The Week. Trimble's Iron Curtain Innocence (1980) and Harvest Of Dreams (1982) are timeless, cult artifacts, of which we said: "...you have just been handed the key to a secret realm, an alternate rock n' roll universe of dark despair, fragile hope, and gossamer beauty, a haunting personal soundworld that will always stay with you, within you...", and favorably compared to everyone from Lennon/McCartney to Pink Floyd to Roy Harper to Marc Bolan to Richard Youngs to Ariel Pink.
Well, we had no idea that those two albums weren't the entirely of Trimble's discography. But now, happily we learn that there was a THIRD even rarer Trimble lp, and it's just been reissued as well!!! And it too is a doozy.
Turns out that a year or two after Harvest Of Dreams was released into an uncaring world, the 20-something Trimble teamed up with a local Worcester, Massachusetts gang of teenagers (some of whom we think had been in the even younger group, The Kidds, who are heard on some songs on a song or two on Harvest Of Dreams) called The Crippled Dog Band, named after the three-legged dog seen on the cover of this album, presumably. Who doesn't love a three-legged dog? Together, they played shows - and, better yet, for us today - made an album, this one, in '84, which captures the outsider psych-pop brilliance of Trimble's songwriting in exuberant collision/collusion with youthful rock n' roll energy.
Yeah, compared to Trimble's two "solo" albums, this could be considered to be more rockin', more "punk", more band-like. And more '80s as well, if only 'cause of the sci-fi video arcade game sounds that appear here on the intro and outro tracks! The songs, while typically Trimble-poppy (and graced with his delicate, high and whispy vox) are also often loud and raucous and awash in feedback and FX. At times we're kinda reminded of The Dickies.
Most are in the 2-3 minute range, though they do a version of one of our favorite Trimble songs, "Armour Of The Shroud", that stretches out for over six minutes, as per the epic original that appeared on Harvest Of Dreams. They also do "Galilean Boy", a demo of which appeared as a bonus track on SC's reissue of HoD. The other "cover" here is a reinterpretation of The Beatles' "All Together Now", which Trimble and The Crippled Dog Band really make their own, converting it into a theme song of sorts, near the beginning of the album: "Singin' the Crippled Dog anthem / ruff ruff / ruff ruff!"
There's something so wonderfully charming about that, eh? And the teenage spark of Trimble's cohorts here is infectious, the band tearing it up, gritty garagey psych stomp style across much of this disc. Ferinstance, there's the distortodelic Eastern vibe of "Camel Song", and "Angel Eyes" is another that offers up some pretty heavy-duty, driving psych gunk for your earholes. And those are only a few of the punked up Pepperisms to be found on this delightful disc. Some songs are darker ("Undercovers Man"), others, pure fun ("Poker Game Of Life").
Apparently, the story goes, The Crippled Dog Band came to an end shortly after this was recorded, for whatever reason, and with no hope of selling 'em, almost all of original pressing of 500 lps was unceremoniously disposed of by Bobb in a dumpster! Good grief. Thankfully, the actual recordings weren't lost, and this reissue has finally arrived to allow The Crippled Dog Band to be heard again - it's certainly getting a lot of play here at AQ! Recommended, ruff ruff!!
MPEG Stream: "All Together Now"
MPEG Stream: "Live Wire "
MPEG Stream: "Angel Eyes"

BRILLIANT COLORS Again And Again (Slumberland) cd 10.98
We've been smitten with these local ladies ever since their first couple 7"s released a few years back. We predicted back then that they should/would end up on Slumberland, and we're happy that our prediction came true, as they really are a band that represents the best aspects of Slumberland's awesome legacy and reemergence as one of the best labels around to trust for indie-pop done right. On Again And Again, Brilliant Colors have created their most free flowing set of songs, each one capable of being a pull-away single, but each track leading right into another with such carefree ease. The kind of album you want blasting in your car as you take to the coast to soak up some sun and dip your feet into the sea. It's got a kind of driving breeze to it that makes for such infectious repeated listening. Still channeling the influence of greats gone by like The Shop Assistants, Heavenly, Velocity Girl and Black Tambourine, as well as groups like Tsunami, Veronica Lake, and Butterglory, but continuing to flex their own vision, and undeniable integrity.
There is such a cool DIY spirit to so much of what Brilliant Colors do. Their handmade flyers, the all-ages shows they play in super unique places, in fact the record release party for this album is going to be held in a tiny hair saloon just a few blocks from our shop. Even though their sound isn't "punk" you can tell that they've got a punk ethos, and that classic post-punk bands really helped influence their sound. If they lived in D.C. rather than SF, they no doubt would be on Dischord. We've been blasting this on repeat ever since it arrived in the store, as its become a major contender for our favorite summer album of the year!
MPEG Stream: "How Much Younger"
MPEG Stream: "Back To The Tricks"
MPEG Stream: "Telephone Stories"

V/A Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love: Motowns Mowest Story 1971-1973 (Light In The Attic / Mowest) cd 16.98
Out of all of Motown's small subsidiary labels, Mowest may have been the most stylistically diverse. Created as an outlet for Motown's West Coast based artists, its brief existence between 1971-1973 before Motown set up shop in Los Angeles full time, covered a fertile period of music-making that was freed from pre-defined genre constraints. Where else could the soulful exuberance of the Commodores, the slow proto-disco groove of Odyssey and The Sisters Love, the late-period vocal pop of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and the stoner hippie vibes of Lodi commingle together? As usual, Light In The Attic does a stellar job of highlighting the amazing aspects of this brief label, re-introducing to the world some of its lesser known artists such as The Nu Page, Suzee Ikeda, and G.C. Cameron, while showing the early career promise of Syreeta and Thelma Houston. This is a side of Motown at its most adventurous yet relaxed, letting the sunny soulful vibes wash over us like warm ocean waves. Super Recommended!
MPEG Stream: ODYSSEY "Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love"
MPEG Stream: THE SISTERS LOVE "Give MeYour Love"
MPEG Stream: FRANKIE VALLI &THE FOUR SEASONS "The Night"
MPEG Stream: LODI "I Hope I See It In My Lifetime"
MPEG Stream: THE NU PAGE "A Heart Is A House"

V/A Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love: Motowns Mowest Story 1971-1973 (Light In The Attic / Mowest) 2lp 26.00
Now also here on vinyl!!
Out of all of Motown's small subsidiary labels, Mowest may have been the most stylistically diverse. Created as an outlet for Motown's West Coast based artists, its brief existence between 1971-1973 before Motown set up shop in Los Angeles full time, covered a fertile period of music-making that was freed from pre-defined genre constraints. Where else could the soulful exuberance of the Commodores, the slow proto-disco groove of Odyssey and The Sisters Love, the late-period vocal pop of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and the stoner hippie vibes of Lodi commingle together? As usual, Light In The Attic does a stellar job of highlighting the amazing aspects of this brief label, re-introducing to the world some of its lesser known artists such as The Nu Page, Suzee Ikeda, and G.C. Cameron, while showing the early career promise of Syreeta and Thelma Houston. This is a side of Motown at its most adventurous yet relaxed, letting the sunny soulful vibes wash over us like warm ocean waves. Super Recommended!
MPEG Stream: ODYSSEY "Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love"
MPEG Stream: THE SISTERS LOVE "Give MeYour Love"
MPEG Stream: FRANKIE VALLI &THE FOUR SEASONS "The Night"
MPEG Stream: LODI "I Hope I See It In My Lifetime"
MPEG Stream: THE NU PAGE "A Heart Is A House"

YOU Time Code (Bureau B) cd 17.98
Ok, we'll assume you already just read our Record Of The Week review of You's newly reissued Electric Day album. That was this instrumental "Berlin School" of krautrock band's 1979 debut, followed up further into the Eighties by Time Code from '83. Great stuff, we like this one a lot too, you should get 'em both. And we're not just excited about these 'cause we're keen on obscure krautrock reissues (though we are). If You were a new band we'd be all over 'em too! And they really could be mistaken for a new, current band, as we alluded to in our Electric Day review. Where that one really really sounded like local fave SF synth groovers (and krautrock enthusiasts, of course) Jonas Reinhardt in their propulsive live formation, this one is even more electronic and atmospheric, some moments more like Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds, and Arp, to cite some other modern comparisons. That's 'cause by '83, You had parted ways with guitarist Uli Weber and drummer Harald Grosskopf, and slimmed down to the founding synths and sequencers core duo of Udo Hanten and Albin Meskes. So it's even a bit more retro-futuristically Eighties computery/mechanical, with percolating robot rhythms and shimmering synths and some extra sci-fi bleepage... but, it's really not all THAT different than their earlier incarnation, Hanten and Meske's machines doing a fine job of filling in for the humans no longer in the band. There's nine tracks here (or 11 if you get the compact disc, it's got two excellent bonus cuts, about an extra 10 minutes), nicely varied, some songs more pretty and placid, others droning further into deep space than before. They can be quite melodic, for instance "Future/Past" is one of those lovely lovelies that makes us think of our favorite Cluster jams (with sequencer patterns calculated to send you into a blissed out trance, getting into proto-Aphex Twin territory). And then they also bring the John Carpenter style suspense film disco grooves on the likes of "Live Line", too. So, like Electric Day, super recommended!
You will like You, if you are at all like us.
MPEG Stream: "Future-Past"
MPEG Stream: "Deep Range"
MPEG Stream: "Live Line"

ZOMBY Dedication (4AD) cd 14.98
Even ravers and bangers have to come down sometime. After releasing two of the most uptempo, neon bright and relentless electronic albums of the last few years, Zomby is ready to show off other sides of his sonic scope. If Where Were You In '92 was him swallowing the ecstasy, and One Foot Ahead Of The Other, was him peaking on the dance floor, then Dedication is the dramatic and elegant coming down.
Stepping away from manic blasts of color, Dedication finds Zomby in a much more eerie, haunting and sensual state of sound. It's a lot like a musical version of when you first meet someone who you are so in to, they're always the life of the party and so fun to be around, but then you actually get to know them and they show you some different sides of their personality and you end up loving their spirit and soul, whether they are jumping up and down or feeling reflective and melancholy.
Dedication is a record that will hopefully bring Zomby to a whole new audience, but those who loved those first two blasts of manic musical ecstasy that were those first two records, should really try to get past the shock of the slow down, and listen a few times and let the music here seep into their bones. We hear some of our favorite moments of Squarepusher, Autechre, and Aphex Twin records, doused in a sensibility that's so fluid and infectious. We're always so excited when an electronic musician we love makes it obvious that they are in it for the long haul, as their ability to craft shapes, sounds and feelings transcends any one momentary trend in the always flavor of the month electronic scene. Zomby is here to stay, and this album proves it!
MPEG Stream: "Witch Hunt"
MPEG Stream: "Things Fall Apart"
MPEG Stream: "Digital Rain"
MPEG Stream: "Mozaik"

RAMONES Road To Ruin (Sire) lp 14.98
While the debut Ramones album, gets much of the punk rock history glory, (as it should, cuz it really one of the greatest albums of all time!) we could still make a strong argument for Road To Ruin being our favorite Ramones album. Their fourth album, released in 1978, Road To Ruin is pretty much as good as pop music gets! Filled with classic Ramones blitzkrieg fast punk pop, as well as showing another side of themselves on their awesome cover of the Sonny & Cher classic "Needles & Pins". All we really have to say is that this is the album that inspired the Bad Brains to become a band, as they got their moniker from the song "Bad Brain". We love this record so much because besides the well known Ramones songs on here like "I Wanna Be Sedated", "I Wanted Everything", and "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" there are so many awesome songs that somehow never end up on any of the many different Ramones best-of collections. While they really are a band who have been immortalized on so many of those collections, all their records deserve individual attention. They really just didn't slip up that much, or ever actually. Not one throwaway song on Road To Ruin, it all rules!

SAICOS, LOS ÁDemolicion! The Complete Recordings (Munster) cd 17.98
We can't deny we've been quite smitten with so many bands in the last couple years who have blasted onto the scene playing inspired, raw, wild and blown out garage rock. But it may take going back to Peru to the years 1964-1966 to find the most riveting and TRUE origins of garage proto-punk, done to perfection. The first time we ever heard Los Saicos we couldn't believe our ears, this was the kind of garage sound we had always imagined in our mind. Gritty, spirited, and filled with charm and soul. And some pretty gnarly vocals for the time. It's not overstating the case to say they make other '60s dirty garage peddlers like The Sonics or The Monks seem kind of tame. This is the kind of blood, guts and charisma that helped create bands latter on like The Cramps, The Mono Men, The Coachwhips, and Davilla 666. With a primitive surf undertone, and an undeniable tough and cool sensibility they really do have a sound so many bands in the decades to follow tried (and continue to try) to emulate. Los Saicos are like the Peruvian version of a gang of bad kids from a Luis Bunuel film, forming a band and creating electric energy together amongst the harsh realities of the streets they roam.
We're so so so thankful Munster has given Los Saicos the proper reissue and long overdue respect they so deserve. If you like rock n roll in any form, you NEED THIS!
MPEG Stream: "Demolici—n"
MPEG Stream: "Te amo"
MPEG Stream: "Come On (Ven aqu’)"

SHABAZZ PALACES Black Up (Sub Pop) cd 14.98
We had been hearing about these guys for a while, super hyped underground hip hop from Seattle, the first hip hop release on Sub Pop, word was Shabazz palaces' sound was seriously fractured and fucked up, hip hop deconstructed into all new shapes, and when we finally got a listen, that proved to be actually pretty true, warped loops, shuffling abstract beats, bizarre production, thick and polished one second. murky and muddy the next, swirling effects, horns, soulful vox, sci-fi synths, all blurred into tangled smears of avant hip hop abstraction.
And the main rapper's flow was definitely recognizable, a voice we had heard before for sure, but it took someone else telling us to make the connection - it's the guy from Digable Planets! Never would have guessed, on first listen, SP couldn't be further removed from the jazz-hop of Digable Planets, but the more you get into Black Up, he more subtle jazziness reveals itself, but that jazziness is set amidst all manner of lurching lumbering, jagged stutter and abstract skitter, the sound futuristic and psychedelic, but rooted in classic hip hop, we hear hints of Sensational, Company Flow, Antipop Consortium, Cannibal Ox, this record would definitely sound right at home on Def Jux or WordSound, but for as weird as this is, there are definitely some serious hooks, and might even have the potential (however slim) to actually crossover, but for now, kick back, and let these woozy warped sounds wash over you, and luxuriate in what is probably the best hip hop record of the year...
The cd version comes in a super swank gold flecked black velvet sleeve, while the lp is in a cool black on black jacket and includes digital downloads of all the tracks.
MPEG Stream: "Free Press And Curl"
MPEG Stream: "An Echo From The Hosts That Profess Infinitum"
MPEG Stream: "Are You... Can You... Were You... (Felt)"
MPEG Stream: "A Treatease Dedicated To The Avian Airess From North East Nubis (1000 Questions, 1 Answer)"

QUEEN II (Hollywood Records) 2cd 21.00
As many records as we write about, we actually don't often get a lot of chances to write about some of our favorite bands. And as much as we love so many obscure, underground, and mysterious bands and sounds, we still have some big-name all-time favorites that will always be a part of our musical lives. Queen is one of those bands for many of us here. When we saw that Queen II had just been reissued along with a bonus disc, we knew it was a great excuse and opportunity to list one of our favorite records of all time from one of THEE greatest bands of all time.
Queen II really displays the range and versatility of Queen better then any other record. From their most magical, mystical and pastoral to their balls-to-the-wall anthemic chops and undeniable pop sensibilities. Somehow prog, glam, rock, metal, and pop all at the same time. Released in 1974, it doesn't contain many of Queen's hits usually included in best of collections, but most of these songs are as good as if not even better than some of the hits, and it's a record that proves what a unique vision Queen had in their prime. It's also such a true 'album', one that really needs to be listened to from start to finish. There are so many peaks and valleys, introspection erupting into ecstatic revelations that explode into psychedelic pop enchantment. It's a record that we know has made such a huge influence on such a wide range of bands and artists spanning the likes of The Smashing Pumpkins, Dungen, Blind Guardian, The Cult, Cheap Trick, Slough Feg, Foo Fighters, Jellyfish, Redd Kross, Citay, Zolar X, Dinosaur Jr, Hedwig & The Angry Inch, The Polyphonic Spree, Titan, Turbonegro, and on and on. If you don't own this, we hope/urge that you will! And heck, while you're at it, you probably oughta buy ALL the Queen records...
The bonus disc includes two BBC session tracks, a live track, an instrumental mix and a B side.
MPEG Stream: "Father To Son"
MPEG Stream: "Seven Seas Of Rhye"
MPEG Stream: "Nevermore"
MPEG Stream: "White Queen (As It Began) [Live]"

JUNIOR BOYS It's All True (Domino) cd 14.98
Over the last few years there has been no shortage of '80s inspired bands, creating electronic infused pop with an indie sensibility. But well before this retro explosion of bands boldly proclaiming their love for the '80s, Junior Boys hit the scene at a time when indie pop was in such desperate need of something more sensual danceable, an indie pop sound that did more than just flirt with the dance floor. What's given the group lasting power is that they aren't just about tapping into an era, or sound, or giving you ironic winks about the keyboards they are playing or the outfits they are wearing. While many continue to nail the strictly aesthetic side of '80s electro-pop, Junior Boys are one of the only groups who truly capture the romantic and emotional side of this often cheapened landscape. There is so much soul and substance in the songs they create, and Jeremy Greenspan has one of the smoothest and most seductive voices of any singer around.
It's All True continues their streak of great albums, filled with steaming movers, and sizzling slow burners. Imagine Aphex Twin getting a hold of George Michael and Boy George and helping them create their most understated and sexiest recordings ever. Or New Order reworking Japan's Gentleman Take Polaroids. As refreshing as Junior Boys were when they originally hit the scene, their continued earnestness and ability to craft songs that have an emotional weight to them is equally as refreshing in this moment in time when it all seems to be about irony and capturing just the surface of another moment in time. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Itchy Fingers"
MPEG Stream: "Playtime"
MPEG Stream: "Banana Ripple"

BAKER, AIDAN Still Life (Primary-Numbers) cd 15.98
Seems like the constant supply of Nadja / Aidan Baker releases has slowed down a bit. There was a time when a week wouldn't go by without a new releases from one or both. But if fewer releases means more like this new solo record, we're perfectly happy with the trade off.
As most Baker/Nadja fans know, Nadja records tend toward the bombastic and the metalgaze, seeing as that's what the duo is all about, but Baker's solo records are where he really gets to experiment. In the beginning it was mostly like a more minimal version of Nadja, the same sort of droned out drift, just with the volume and heft dialed way back. But then Baker began trying out new sounds, varied approaches, with different instrumentation, which brings us to Still Life, which just might be the prettiest, and maybe even best, solo record we've heard from Baker yet. Ostensibly his 'jazz' record, recorded using just piano, drums and upright bass, but this isn't like JAZZ jazz, this is like Necks jazz, droney and minimal, slow building and hypnotic, and Baker adds cool bits of weird production which only enhances the sound. Four loooong tracks, each one a dark miniature epic, the bass muted and minimal, the drums more like the skitter and sizzle of cymbals, while the piano plucks out the melancholic minor key melody, a repeated motif, that unfurls like a slowly mutating loop, it's not until about 9 minutes in that the rest of the drum kit comes into play, and even then it's just some barely there snare skitter, and the melody is wrapped in cool swooping effects, very subtle, but it makes the notes sound like they're swooping in. The first track leads directly into the second, almost as if they were two parts of a single song, this part though is even more spare, the chords on the piano, separated by long expanses of minimal drum shuffle and the slow decay of the bass. This track eventually builds a bit of momentum, the drums subtly more driving, the sound a woozy, mournful lope, definitely falling within the realms of 'doom jazz', Baker surprisingly adept on the kit, playing the rims, and unfurling busy little flurries, that manage to add texture without being distracting, and much like the first song, you never really want it to end.
Track three begins with a flurry of piano notes, all upper register, flecked with the occasional bass pulse, the piano getting more and more blurry, Baker subtly affecting the notes, blurring them, smearing them, transforming them into a sort of Lubomyr Melnyk style shimmer, all the while Baker underpins the proceedings with the wood-on-wood click and clatter of stick on drum shell, and at about 7 minutes in, the song shifts, and the low end swoops in, the drums coalesce into a proper rhythm, and the song becomes an ominous creep, all the while that initial flurry of piano plays on in the background, the vibe dark and drowsy and late night, the low end thrum and drums eventually fade out, leaving the song to end how it began with a swirling cloud of tinkling notes on the piano.
And finally, the record finishes off with another stretched out sprawl of hazy, droney hypno-jazz, again the piano offering melody and color, while the bass thrums and rumbles, and Baker keep simple time with stick on shell again, and so it goes, for nearly 14 minutes, an epic haunting minimal drone jazz drift equal parts the Necks, Bohren and Circle at their most murky and minimal. Gorgeous, haunting, beautiful stuff.
Fans of the Necks will definitely want this, as will anyone into dark, brooding minimalism and abstract doom jazz drift.
MPEG Stream: "Still Lives"
MPEG Stream: "Complex Iconographical Symbiology"

FAR EAST FAMILY BAND Tenkujin (Phoenix) cd 17.98
The wonderful flood of Japanese '70s psych rock reissues continues, something those folks who have yet to hear these previously hard-to-find gems (many "popularized" by megafan Julian Cope in his Japrocksampler book) can be quite glad of. The item under consideration here, a compact disc reissue of the final, 1977 release by hippie space travellers Far East Family Band, is another nifty one, though we'd probably recommend the other, earlier FEFB albums before this if you don't have those already. Fans looking to complete their collections, though, won't be disappointed - even though by this point keyboardist Kitaro had left the family / band (for eventual New Age stardom), on Tenkujin FEFB were still quite potent at making tripped out, synth-laden, New Age friendly psych. In other words still the kind of band where the same guy credited with operating a pile of synthesizers (Teisco 100F, Hillwood SY 1800, Combo, Basky, Rockyboard, Korg 700S, Mellotron, Yamaha, Solina String Ensemble) also plays the bamboo flute. And then there's all the guitars and other things as well that are part of their big wash of psychedelic sound.
The title track, with a driving, almost disco beat, and echoey, dubby FX, would fit in with a lot of late '70s kosmic krautrock, the Ashra, Michael Rother sort of stuff, heck it sound a bit like some bands today too, we're thinking Jonas Reinhardt and Maserati. Lots of burbling electronics and shimmering synth over propulsive percussion. FEFB's usual Pink Floydisms certainly come to the fore too, on the blissful, balladic likes of "Timeless Phase" and elsewhere... Make that blissful AND bombastic, the latter especially on the album-ending instrumental "Ascension".
Numbered, limited edition reissue in the usual Phoenix wallet sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Tenkujin"
MPEG Stream: "Timeless Phase"
MPEG Stream: "Ascension"

WELCH, GILLIAN The Harrow & The Harvest (Acony) cd 16.98
Geez, has it really been 8 years since Gillian Welch last captivated us with a new album? It's hard to believe we've gone on all this time without her darkly bittersweet country-folk songs applying a soothing balm to our troubled souls. But her return to recording couldn't have had better timing as her music, so rooted in Depression-era bluegrass and early country styles, gels so well with our currently dire economic times, offering a gothic and desperate vision of heartbreak, loss and courage that is instantly relatable, yet makes us feel less vulnerable to the harsh cruelties of living that her protagonists endure.
Besides the long gap in time, not much has changed in Welch's (and her musical partner David Rawlings) sound or approach and that is just fine! Keeping the arrangements as stark as ever, there is only acoustic guitar, banjo, harmonicas and some hand and knee slaps along with the couple's peerless vocal harmonies as they waver between fatalistic folk songs, gospel-tinged bluegrass, and murder ballads. This is one of Welch's best records in a discography that has never wavered far from stunning. And speaking of stunning, the cover designed by Baroness singer, John Dyer Baizley is a beautifully unique letterpress print on thick handmade paper stock. A video of how the cover was made can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Mz_imdISk.
Of course long-time fans will want to scoop this up, but if you are new to Welch's haunting and harrowing voice and vision, The Harrow and The Harvest is a good place to start. It's definitely as good as if not better than Time (the Revelator) and Hell Among The Yearlings (our other two favorites of hers), making this absolutely essential!!
MPEG Stream: "The Way It Goes"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Dagger"
MPEG Stream: "The Way The Whole Thing Ends"

DISKJOKKE Sagara (Smalltown Supersound) cd 16.98
Wow, what a change of direction for this long underrated electronic music maker. While past outings by Diskjokke were great examples of left-field beat driven techno, this outing finds Diskjokke exploring totally different territory. Commissioned by Norway's Oye's Festival, he packed his bags and headed to Indonesia to collaborate with Gamalan musicians and make not only the most ambitious record of his career, but his most satisfying and rewarding.
It would have been more expected and easy for Diskjokke to use the more rhythmic and percussive elements of Gamelan to make electro-dance-gamelan jams. But he didn't go the expected route, instead he flipped his entire music making past upside down, trading beats for drones and dance floors for bliss out sessions. There is a patience, subtly and warmth in these sounds that has made it one of our favorite languid explorations of the year. Such an awesome surprise!
MPEG Stream: "Golotrok"
MPEG Stream: "Naive"
MPEG Stream: "Mandena"

LA VAMPIRES GOES ITAL Streetwise (Not Not Fun) 12" 14.98
So interesting to see what new directions people take when faced with similar turning points. Out of the ashes of Pocahaunted, Bethany Cosentino embraced her love of pop and girl group garage glory, forming Best Coast. On the other hand, her former bandmate Amanda Brown went the other way, riffing off the layers of fractured/damaged sounds that Pocahaunted were creating into something more dubbed out and beat orientated. What's so cool is they both created such great music while taking utterly different paths.
LA Vampires seem to thrive on collaboration. Her record with Zola Jesus last year was a narcotic dubbed out slow burner and she also collaborated with Matrix Metals and shared a slice of vinyl with Psychic Reality. Ital is the new left-field dance project by former San Francisco resident Daniel McCormick (Mi Ami, Sex Worker). We were super excited when we heard McCormick was working on a new project focusing on weirdo electronic dance tracks. We knew he had such a great ear for the underworld of damaged dance sounds and damn does this collaboration between him and LA Vampires kill! Dubbed out, tripped out, swirling with infectious yet hazy melody and sensual rhythm. It's a 12" that merges the steaminess and sexiness of Throbbing Gristle's "Hot On The Heels Of Love" with the Chromatics "I Want Your Love." We've been playing this nonstop!

MULLER, JURGEN Science Of The Sea (Digitalis) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Final pressing!! It's taken a long while to get enough of these in stock to list, as they've flown out the door since we started stocking it back in June, and then our distributors kept being sold out of it. Makes a lot of sense that folks have been freaking out over this, as the sounds on Science Of The Sea are some of the most blissed out sounds we've ever heard.
Originally recorded in 1982 (there is debate over that, we will get to that later) by an oceanographer in Germany while living on a houseboat. The sounds on the album undoubtedly talk to the sounds and feeling of the sea. You not only feel like your floating but often that you are underwater yourself. With soft waves glowing in their ripple, as such warm shimmering sounds come gliding out of the grooves of this record. Imagine the right kind of new age bliss injected into the most pastoral & ethereal side of kosmiche glory and you begin to get a picture of what kind of beautiful sounds are found on this album.
While some doubt has been risen as to whether this really is a reissue of some obscure private press from 1982, or in fact the work of a modern artists, perhaps even Brad Rose, the man behind Digitalis. But who knows, and in the end who really cares, as its the music that matters, and the music on this album is beyond gorgeous!

BAD BRAINS Black Dots (Caroline) cd 15.98
In case you missed it on our mystery themed in-between list last week, something we reviewed just for that, for the first time...
It's pretty much acknowledged that Bad Brains are one of the most influential American bands of the 20th century, having blown the minds of every young hardcore band in the D.C. and New York scenes and beyond. Their sound went way further than just "punk" or "rock", blending jazz, fusion, and reggae into something that defies simple classification. While most people might be familiar with the group from their godly self-titled debut and after, Black Dots collects early material recorded at the then fledgling Inner Ear Studios from a session in 1979. The studio at that point was in owner/engineer Don Zientara's basement, with band members situated inside while H.R. did his thing in the backyard. It's easy to imagine how cramped things were, but between song banter reveals a band in good spirits as they tear the living fuck out of their early material. Bad Brains in '79 weren't as fast, distorted, and manic as they would become, but the chemistry is still totally unbelievable, sounding both loose and ridiculously tight at the same time. And even with modest recording gear the band sounds HUGE. This looser style works particularly well for their reggae numbers, always a point of contention with many fans. These recordings almost sound like some hyper charged group from the 60s taking things into new worlds. Not many bands could sound this bad ass while also sounding like they are having the most fun ever - but I guess if you wrote songs like "Pay To Cum", "Regulator", "Banned In D.C.", "Attitude" and everything else here, you'd also be having the best time ever. Loads of personality with this band (check out H.R.'s hilarious kiss off of "Bye, Celeste" at the end of "Red Bone In The City", their reworking of "God Save The Queen"), it's completely easy to see why they were such a force to be reckoned with. They were just different. Better. And again, completely bad ass. There's almost no point in going on with this review, sure you'll have some people who prefer what Bad Brians became, but others will tell you that music kind of doesn't get any better than this, stripped to its bare form. Whatever the case, it all leads to the same recommendation: ESSENTIAL.
MPEG Stream: "Don't Need It"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Bother Me"
MPEG Stream: "How Low Can A Punk Get?"

MAUS, JOHN We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves (Ribbon Music) cd 12.98
Love Is Real, the last record from warped lo-fi popsmith John Maus, is an all time aQ favorite, a dizzying trip into some alternate reality FM radio, where the Cure recorded on answering machines, OMD crafted pop hits on broken tape decks and malfunctioning 4 tracks, a cosmic beat laden dream pop drug trip that managed to be as catchy and irresistible as it was baffling and totally and insanely demented.
Needless to say, we were super excited to discover there was a new John Maus record, the strangely titled We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves, a record that got even stranger when we discovered there was a song called "Cop Killer" on it. Naturally we assumed it was a cover of Body Count's infamous banned jam, so we played that track first, and besides being surprised that it was in fact an original, we also ended up being totally blown away by what might be the sweetest, most dreamily twisted John Maus track EVER.
A broody, almost torch songy ballad, all woozy synths, and big eighties drums, Maus delivering the bizarrely provocative lyrics in his best warm velvety croon: "Cop killer, cop killer, Let's kill the cops tonight, kiiiiiiill them, cop killer, kill every cop in sight", and then the delirious refrain "Against the law" repeated over and over in a tangled storm of intense pulsing synths. The sound lush and explosive, thick and softly blown out, a serious shot across Ariel Pink's bow, a definite challenge for the warped lysergic lo-fi pop crown, a challenge that's gonna be tough to answer. Especially considering that the rest of the record, is just as good, if not as immediately catchy. But catchy it is. "Matter Of Fact" sounds like Maus channeling Devo through his cracked eighties FM pop filter, with some equally baffling lyrics ("Pussy is not the matter of fact"), and some gorgeous hazy synth ambience. "Streetlight" is total eighties new wave pop with the delay and echo effects cranked, the vocals careening wildly through dubbed out clouds of delay, while underneath synths pulse and rhythms groove. "Quantum Leap" is haunting and gorgeously gloomy, Maus the consummate crooner, his deep dramatic vocals bobbing atop thick bouncy basslines, handclap percussion, and lots of swirling sonic murk. "...And The Rain" is another darkly dramatic dream pop doom synth dirge, all rainy late night ambience, and again cloaked in thick swirls of soft focus distortion and blurred echoey shimmer, every track seeming to constantly grow more and more washed out and effects drenched, constantly on the verge of total collapse, but somehow, the more tripped out and damaged they sound, the more pretty and poppy and dreamy they become, a fantastically fractured collection of twisted outsider gloom pop that really has no equal. About as close to a perfect pop record as Maus is liable to get, assuming you like your pop buried in buzz and all blurry and druggy and woozy and warped. Which we most definitely DO.
MPEG Stream: "Cop Killer"
MPEG Stream: "Streetlight"
MPEG Stream: "Quantum Leap"
MPEG Stream: "...And The Rain"

FATHER'S CHILDREN Who's Gonna Save The World (Numero Group) cd 15.98
Damn, the Numero Group does it again! At this point we don't need to go on about what an amazing and trusted label NG is. As their Eccentric Soul, Cult Cargo, and Wayfaring Stranger series continue to offer up so much amazing music that might otherwise have gone unheard.
Gathering dust in some garage for the last three decades due to the worst side of the music industry, this deep hitting, politically charged soul record finally gets to see the light of day. Father's Children were from the nations capitol, and took the influence of groups like the Stylistics, the Delfonics and the Dramatics and doused those sounds with fiery social consciousness and a slow burning psychedelic undertone. Like early Earth Wind & Fire, crossed with Curtis Mayfield's less funk and more full on deep soul moments. It's a record that really encompasses the most lasting and satisfying sides of '70s soul. The kind of record you can imagine inspiring folks like Erykah Badu, The Roots, Common, and Lauryn Hill.
As always packed with endless love and care featuring amazing photos and the story of the group's history.
MPEG Stream: "Everybody's Got A Problem"
MPEG Stream: "Father's Children"
MPEG Stream: "Dirt And Grime"

SEGALL, TY Goodbye Bread (Drag City) cd 14.98
Album number four, from San Francisco's garage-pop mastermind Ty Segall. It wasn't that long ago when we talked about how much promise this young guy named Ty seemed to have, and now he's an internationally renowned force to be reckoned with, and this just happens to be his debut full length for Drag City. Segall has been climbing up the musical ladder the righteous way, not by hype or gimmicks, but by touring his ass off and releasing one great record after another.
Goodbye Bread, finds Ty continuing to really focus on being a songwriter who doesn't rely on feedback or distortion to create cool songs, but instead the skeletal core of these songs is where the real meat is stored. Many of these jams show a slower paced, more laid back and almost paisley psych-pop disposition. Sounding like a scrappy cross between Syd Barrett, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, and Roky Erikson, yet none of it feeling like a put on and all of it delivered with an understated ease. Not to worry, there are still wonderful moments of fuzz and distortion, maybe more than ever, but those moments accent the album instead of shape it.
Ty has found ways to stay raw and spirited without having to hide behind a simple means of recording and playing. He's more than proved his mettle as one of the most captivating and commanding songwriters around. And no matter if the songs are slow or fast (we love how the last ten seconds of "My Head Explodes" morphs into the guitar shredding intensity of an early '80s hardcore-punk song) they all stick in our heads like crazy. It's funny that this is the most sneering and agitated recording he has made. Taking advantage of a slower pace in songs to amplify the moments of tension and release. It sounds so corporate rock magazine of us to say, but this really does sound like an amazing combination of Kurt Cobain's aesthetic and introspection mixed with Jack White's musical prowess and garage rock roots appreciation. But damn, just because they were/are huge doesn't mean being compared to Nirvana and The White Stripes is a bad thing, in fact it's fucking rad! Once again, Ty hits the mark RIGHT ON.
MPEG Stream: "Goodbye Bread"
MPEG Stream: "California Commercial"
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Feel It"

TIED TO THE BRANCHES Light Of Day, It's OK (Amelia) cd-r ep 5.98
What an awesome new band from right here in San Francisco. Some of you might remember how much we raved about Marc Manning's self released cd-r from last year. A dark, doomy and rustic bedroom excursion that left such an impact on us. Tied To The Branches finds Manning teamed up with his longtime partner, Brad DerManouelian and Justin Wasterlain to create some of the most captivating and inpactful, sludgy and dreamy pop that we could imagine. The sound is like this awesome combination of slowcore legends Low if they added languid synths and drum machines into their mix, while playing interpretations of demos by The Cure, The Chills, Codeine, and The Clean. The songs have a drifty and dirgy disposition that evoke in us such a satisfying daydreamy shoegaze state of mind.
While there has been no shortage of shoegaze inspired bands as of late, so many of them are tapping much more into the polished and glossy side of the genre, so it's so nice to hear a group channeling some of that sound from a much more primitive and DIY ethic. In ways the songs make us think of Slowdive's Pygmalion recorded in a dark and dusty garage. It's one of those records we could see being a 'pop' favorite of folks who usually are into really dark and even metallic sounds, and it could be the weird and sludgy exception for folks who usually are into cleaner and more peppy lo-fi pop. The five songs on Light Of Day, It's OK, clock in at just under half an hour, and are all filled with such understated beauty and an undeniable integrity. So fucking good!
MPEG Stream: "Walls"
MPEG Stream: "Demons"
MPEG Stream: "Backwards"

NOVELLER Glacial Glow (Weird Forest) cd 13.98
For some reason, it has been frustratingly difficult to restock last year's outing by Noveller, Desert Fires, which is such a shame as it was truly one of the years best drifting and dreamy albums. Here's hoping that her new record, this one right here, Glacial Wave, will not suffer the same distribution problems, as she has again crafted another exquisite collection of some of the most substantial blissed out sounds you are liable to hear all year long.
It's been so nice to witness the evolution of Noveller's music, from her much noisier, harsh and slightly unfocused beginnings to the much more serene, spaced out and majestic tones and songs she's creating now. But we think that background in the noise scene has helped her create such a strong core and depth to these beautifully ethereal soundscapes. There is something both so mournful and harrowing about the sounds on Glacial Glow. Much like Grouper and Windy & Carl, Noveller has this amazing ability to create utterly haunting and mesmerizing moods in her music. We've been playing this as we go to sleep, as we wake up and actually at all hours in between as there's no better sounds for when we are feeling dazed and glazed. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Entering"
MPEG Stream: "Alone Star"
MPEG Stream: "Blue"

QLUSTER Fragen (Burreau B) cd 17.98
No, it's not a typo, that's a Q and not a C, but this is in fact a new recording featuring Roedelius of Cluster fame, alongside new sonic sidekick Onnen Block. Block has served as musical assistant and audio engineer for the Berlin Philharmonic, and has collaborated with the likes of Zeitkratzer and Christina Kubisch. Together these two have created a record that is so ominous and engaging in its tones and texture. It continues to blow us away, how even well into his '70s, Roedelius continues to create such compelling, thoughtful and dynamic music. What's equally inspiring is his openness to collaboration, this time working with someone forty years his junior. (Hopefully Cluster partner Dieter Moebius is cool with the "Q").
The sounds of Fragen evoke a sense of slight unease, with a beauty laying just beneath the surface yet still cloaked in a mysterious darkness. It's easy to make work that makes a listener feel either happy or sad, but Roedelius has shown over the years a mastery that transcends the black and white and moves boldly into something so much more fluid and wholly satisfying. A stunning outing, and without a doubt one of the best electronic albums of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Los geht's"
MPEG Stream: "Wurzelwelt"
MPEG Stream: "Haste Toene"

GALL, FRANCE Poupee De Son (Universal / Polydor) cd 16.98
While she sometimes gets overlooked, France Gall is one of French Pop's greatest treasures. She's been making great records from her beginnings way back in 1963 all the way to the present day. This collection draws from her early years ('63-'68) and demonstrates what French pop perfection and fun is all about. With many of these songs written and arranged by Serge Gainsbourg (of course), Gall displays an incredible talent at such a young age, evoking such playfulness, innocence, and smoking sensuality. These early years find her in full on ye-ye girl glory. Her poppiest and catchiest tracks for sure, but also showing the range in her delivery in some of her more slow and midtempo numbers which really floor us the most. These are songs with the same kind of undeniable charm that early works of Nancy Sinatra, Bridgett Bardot, and Francoise Hardy also exuded. An absolute must have for any fan of French pop, and well just great pop period!
MPEG Stream: "Poupee De Crie, Poupee De Son"
MPEG Stream: "Christiansen"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Pop"

BORIS Attention Please (Sargent House) cd 15.98
Ah, BORIS! The band that everybody loves (or if they don't love 'em, they probably love to hate 'em...). The Melvins-worshipping Japanese "heavy rock" band that started off in the '90s as an import-only cult fave, and eventually got picked up over here by Southern Lord. The next thing you know, they turned into an unstoppable juggernaut of super limited edition releases and unlikely collaborations, and got BIG. For a while, they were definitely a band that could do no wrong, combining that Melvins-y sludge, and equally Melvins-y weirdness, with their own, innate Japanese "WTF?" aesthetic... In addition they boast the presence of a female singer/guitar player, Wata, who is both cute and talented. And making themselves even more potent proposition, they also recruited noted psychedelic guitar whiz Michio Kurihara (Ghost, White Heaven, Stars) more or less permanently into their ranks.
Yet, in recent years, Boris has also been courting a backlash, the way we see it, as anything hyped to the skies usually does. Those aforementioned ridiculously limited editions have something to do with it... and what can come off as a too ironic attitude to everything... and when we've seen 'em live, well, memo to drummer Atsuo: the gong is cool, but the headset microphone maybe isn't so much.
So, we've been Boris fans for a long long time, and still are, but we'll confess to wondering if it could be said that Boris finally (?) "jumped the shark" with last year's BXI ep, wherein they, oddly enough, teamed up with rock star Ian Astbury of The Cult (who is presumably still "big in Japan"). That disc was probably the first Boris release in history that didn't merit highlight status on our list... but hey, nobody's perfect.
But now, as if rising to the challenge, and/or making said challenge all the harder for themselves, Boris are back with not one but TWO* new albums for new US label Sargent House.
There's Attention Please, which undoubtedly will get a lot of attention, and not just 'cause of the glamor shot of Wata on the cover. She also sings on all the tracks, to this is definitely one for all you Wata fanciers out there! The other one is called Heavy Rocks, not to be confused with the earlier Boris album, that's also titled Heavy Rocks. Huh, what's with that, Boris? Why give two totally different albums the same name? Obviously to invite comparison (and for the record, while we're definitely digging this new purple 2011 one, if we had to choose between 'em, we'd pick the original, orange 2002 Heavy Rocks). Naming an album Heavy Rocks in the first place is a bold move, having two of 'em is just silly. Or ironic. Or something. Brilliant, perhaps. Oh, and this Heavy Rocks features another guest appearance from Ian Astbury, doing backing vocals on the track "Riot Sugar". There's other guests on the album as well: Aaron Turner (Isis, Mamiffer) and Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer), and regular Boris collaborator Kurihara. Heavy friends for Heavy Rocks!
First up, let's talk about Attention Please. Of the two albums, possibly more interesting to us as it's really quite a departure for Boris, plus we've always found Wata to be their most appealing singer anyway. Her delicate vocals are accompanied by some of the band's softest, most mellow material yet. There's acoustic guitars, and electronica elements, and it's all really quite nice. At times dramatic, dancey, dreamy, and/or rockin', one thing it's not is sludgey. Not that it doesn't get loud and noisy at times - shoegazing explosion of "Spoon" could probably have gone on the accompanying Heavy Rocks just as easily. But for the most part, if you didn't know it was Boris, well you wouldn't know it was Boris! The nervously rhythmic "Tokyo Wonder Land", with its stabbing psychedelic guitar sizzle, and glitchy tic-tic-tics of drums and electronics, is the highlight here for us, but we're pretty into the whole disc. Utterly captivating. Wata and Boris sound like they're channelling every dreamy girl fronted band from the nineties and beyond: My Bloody Valentine, Blonde Redhead, Adult, Amp,ÊNoriko Tujiko, and even Grouper, and it works. Hopefully we'll hear more from this incarnation of Boris in the future, with Wata on the mic... we suspect we will! We think open minded Boris fans will indeed like this album - and it just might make 'em a lot of new fans too, who didn't have any idea Boris could or would sound like this.
Then, to Heavy Rocks (2011)... Drop the needle on track one, and you're greeted by a mean, heavy chugging riff, and it almost seems like, hey, they've gone full-on metal here, but that track, "Riot Sugar", becomes more of a howling psych stoner rock song, with hushed vocals. Off to a good start. The next track isn't nearly as heavy, it begins with some jangle, then a tangle of guitar soloing from Kurihara in his Quicksilver/Cippolina mode, there's also more of those hushed vox, and a general loud/soft songwriting dynamic, this track having echoes of both Nirvana and Can! Kinda sounds like something Kurihara's band Stars would do. Track three "GALAXIANS" is a more energetic, uptempo attack, lots of whoops and hollering going on, with thrashing drums, noisy guitar and electronic FX...
And so it goes, the album a mix of race-with-the-devil rockers and much moodier, shoegazey stuff. "Missing Pieces" is an example of the latter, a slow build from quiet ambience to almost Merzbowian jet-engine noise. The two final tracks are well worthy of mention, the penultimate, nearly 13 minute "Aileron" (greatly expanded, and of course heavied up, from the brief acoustic guitar version of the same track found on Attention Please), is another of the shoegazier pieces, super heavy, lumbering and lovely, reminding us a lot of Codeine, then after that there's "Czechoslovakia", at the very end of the album, a brief instrumental thrash metal number with electronic embellishments, sounds like something Circle would do in their NWOFHM mode, pretty killer, but of course we have to assume Boris sorta meant it as a joke, oh well, in any case it unfortunately fades out at 1:35, just as it's really gettin' good... if another five or ten minutes of this song as we imagine it actually existed, and were included here, that would definitely make Heavy Rocks even radder. Who knows, though, maybe it will continue on a forthcoming album entitled, Heavier Rocks?? (Our idea, but Boris you're welcome to it, sounds like something you'd do - well actually probably what Boris would do is release ANOTHER album also called Heavy Rocks.)
Anyway, to wrap up, these two new discs from Boris are both pretty darn good & satisfying overall. And both emblematic of the band's dabbling in an almost alt-pop, quasi-commercial (on their own terms, though!) direction, while staying HEAVY as they wanna be.
*There's actually a 3rd new Boris full-length as well, out in Japan only, the cleverly (?) titled New Album, which includes some of the same songs found on these two domestic US releases, though we'd imagine they're different recordings/versions, Boris being who they are (confusing!).
MPEG Stream: "Attention Please"
MPEG Stream: "Tokyo Wonder Land"
MPEG Stream: "Les Paul Custom '86"

BUDD, HAROLD Pavilion Of Dreams (Editions EG) cd 12.98
We've never listed this ambient, avante-garde masterpiece before and when we realized it was Harold Budd's 75th birthday last week, we figured it was the perfect time to honor the man, and the amazing dreamy sounds he has given us over the years.
While best known to some for his collaborations with Brian Eno, and Cocteau Twins, there is also the deep well to explore of his vast solo catalog. But for many, Pavilion Of Dreams originally released in 1978, ranks as one of his best, a perfect melding of 20th century composition and warm, weightless shimmery ambience, creating pieces fragile and prismatic, as if they were suspended in glistening, glimmering bubbles.
While piano is at the center of Pavilion Of Dreams, there is some of the most sensual and dreamy sax we've ever heard, played by Marion Brown, a wildly under-appreciated free jazz artist who played with everyone from John Coltrane to Anthony Braxton, as well as an extensive catalog of his own recordings that deserve to be explored.
The album opens with the 18 minute "Bismillahi 'Rrahmani 'Rrahim", a track that feels like a passage from one of Alice Coltrane's most majestic tracks taken to a new age inside a mystical castle looking over the ocean. Then there's the mezzo-soprano classical vocals of Lynda Richardson are featured in the second and third tracks of the album. Don't let them scare you away. Even if you are not usually a fan of opera or classical vocals, Budd uses them in such drifting and compelling ways. They would have been perfect for a chilling scene in a Stanley Kubrick film. The album closes with "Juno", one of the most perfect ambient daydreams of all time. We realized we've said the word 'dreamy' a ton of times in this review, and well the album is called Pavilion of Dreams, and even though the term dreamy is so often overused, this is a record that really does take you to another state of consciousness. We hear the influence of this recording on so many of our favorite artists like William Basinski, Circle (on Miljard), Colleen, Seefeel, Johan Johansson, Sigur Ros, The Knife, The Durutti Column, Michael Harrison, Koss, Klimek and more... Absolutely essential!
MPEG Stream: "Bismillahi 'Rrahmani 'Rrahim"
MPEG Stream: "Juno"
MPEG Stream: "Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord/Butterfly Sunday"

MOORE, THURSTON Demolished Thoughts (Matador / Ecstatic Peace) cd 13.98
We were just raving recently about Thurston Moore's beautiful solo acoustic guitar meditations record released on VDSQ a little while back, and now he follows it up with an album some of his most intimate and inviting songs yet. Demolished Thoughts demonstrates a side of Moore's songwriting that is often blurred in the layers and velocity of his long running group Sonic Youth, but loosed from that noise and bombast, these songs are revealed as perhaps some of the dreamiest you will hear all year. If you are like us, and ever daydreamed about what an entire record filled with songs that sound like the first six minutes of "The Diamond Sea" would sound like, then this is one of those amazing moments when a wish gets granted, and exceeds that far fetched fantasy.
With Samra Lubelski adding violin, Moore playing his acoustic with sensual perfection, and songs sprinkled with harp by Mary Lattimore, its an album that perfectly captures the drifting and pastoral side of Moore's musical vision, which has also been a more subtle part of his signature sound. Beck was at the helm of the production for this record, and we have to say we think we might be liking him more these days in that role than on his own records (check out Charlotte Gainsbourg's IRM, for more proof). In fact there are some elements of Demolished Thoughts, that echo Beck's downer masterpiece "Sea Change." What's so remarkable about this album is that alongside its elegance, Moore maintains his voice and vision to the core. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Benediction"
MPEG Stream: "Illuminine"
MPEG Stream: "Orchard Street"
MPEG Stream: "January"

TURNQUIST, ALEXANDER Hallway Of Mirrors (VHF) cd 13.98
The last record from Alexander Turnquist, the lovely and exquisite As The Twilight Crane Dreams In Color, was a fantastic surprise from this fairly new to us (but quite prolific) composer/guitarist. That record was a lush landscape of glimmering harmonics, and crystalline ambience, all woven around Turnquist's strange and inventive guitar playing. This new record seems to follow suit, with Turnquist again setting the foundation with impossibly dense little soft squalls of steel string tangle, lush with overtones and unlikely harmonics, it's like some avant Appalachia, a sound we wish would go on much longer than its way too brief 2 minutes. But then that feeling is washed away by the equally lovely title track which follows, a swirling, sweetly melodic guitarscape, again, a looped set of steel string tangles providing the anchor, creating a billowing cloud of washed out melody, not unlike pianist Lubomyr Melnyk, a rapid succession of notes somehow transformed into something tranquil and serene, the tangled melodies further tangled by vibes and violin, those two elements providing the melodic counterpoint, and some extra sonic pathos, adding a dark bit of tension, and a sweet melancholia. The sound is dense, while remaining ethereal and dreamlike, the repetition adding a drone element, that makes everything hypnotic and totally mesmerizing.
On "Spherical Aberrations" the trio apply the same methodology to chamber music, the vibes almost jazzy, the violin achingly melodic, all the while the guitar spinning impossible webs of melody and texture underneath.
The record's centerpiece would have to be the sprawling "Waiting At The Departure Gate", which take Turnquist's Reich/Riley compositional style and lets it spread out into a gorgeous layered epic, the guitars impossibly intricate and dense, eventually sounding nothing like guitars at all, instead like some sort of sound generator, while the vibes and violin weave magical melodies over the top, the sound stately and darkly romantic, Turnquist's guitarscapes constantly slipping from background texture to main melody and back again, before finishing off with a bit of minimal Appalachian folk drift. The record is bookended with another brief bit of harmonics heavy steel string tangle, that sounds like a way more avant experimental Michael Hedges. So fantastic. Turnquist is fast becoming one of our favorite modern composers/guitarists!
MPEG Stream: "Running Towards"
MPEG Stream: "Hallway Of Mirrors"
MPEG Stream: "Spherical Aberrations"

SEA AND CAKE, THE The Moonlight Butterfly (Thrill Jockey) cd 15.98
Over their last few releases, The Sea And Cake have added some pep and punch to their trademark breezy pop. While they continue with moments of higher energy on The Moonlight Butterfly, it's also an album that contains some of their most dreamy and seductive sounds yet. Sam Prekop's vocals continue to induce swoons like very few modern male vocalists can, and the layers of sounds that glide and shimmer alongside his voice have had us swaying side to side, reminding us why The Sea & Cake continues to be such an amazing band. Much like Stereolab, it's easy to take them for granted. Yet they never slip up, they never make a bad record, and they maintain a level of excellence that is so rare for bands that have been around as long as they have.
We last heard from Prekop, on his surprising experimental, electronic solo outing Old Punch Card, and perhaps it was that exploration that led to all the nice warm layers that really make this album sound so great on repeated listens. In fact the title track, is the most unexpected Sea and Cake song yet. An electronic composition that sounds like Aphex Twin playing Philip Glass, but somehow infusing it with the same breeziness and warmth that makes their sound so infectious. While we've been talking so much about Prekop, it's important to note just how amazing this permanent 'super group' is, as folks like Archer Prewitt and John McEntire continue to help shape the texture and architecture of Prekop's unique vision. Crazy to think that it's now almost 20 years since The Sea And Cake released their debut, and even crazier to think that we've loved everything they've done over these past two decades. If you've slept on their last few outings, we urge you to get back with them on this. One of the best pop albums of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Covers"
MPEG Stream: "The Moonlight Butterfly"
MPEG Stream: "Inn Keeping"

GROUP DOUEH Zayna Jumma (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another record from this incredible Saharan outfit, number four if you're keeping track, their first was an aQ Record Of The Week, and the other two might as well have been, wild guitar driven African folk, rhythmic and percussive, all very hypnotic and mesmerizing, trancelike for sure, with some incredible vocalizing, soulful and emotional, all wound into some of the most jubilant, energetic, emotional and original music we've ever heard.
Our first impulse this time around was to say that this was simply more of the same, but in fact, the sound has definitely changed, due in no small part to what seems to be an expanded lineup, as the elder Doueh has enlisted his next oldest sons, on synth and drum kit, and it's really the drums that are the big difference. The first track is immediately more propulsive, the production better than ever, the low end thick, the vocals way up in the mix, the drums so hypnotic, and of course the guitars, impossible tangles of super intricate melody, gnarled riffs, all woven into a sound that's surprisingly super rocking.
And actually 'super rocking' might just be the best way to describe the whole record. The aforementioned drums are powerful and ever present, and the guitars remain impossibly wild, wooly and wonderful, drenched in effects, wah and flanger, or some approximation, making the notes and riffs twist into fantastic new shapes, the keyboards adding all sorts of texture, and the newly added trio of female backup singers adds even more oomph, the choruses and call and response vocal harmonies so rich and lush.
There are a couple tracks that stand out, where the band set aside their new rocking-ness, and instead unfurl gorgeous hazily psychedelic expanses of guitar buzz, sounding more like a sitar, the melodies all tangled and interwoven, while the drums offer a deep resonant pulse, and the vocals wail passionately way down in the mix, cuz here it's about the crazy intricate dense guitar playing, which is incredible, so hypnotic and utterly mesmerizing.
The record finishes off with a lengthy jam that is definitely another of our favorites, sounding a bit more laid back than the rest of the record, less buzzy, and more warm and washed out, the guitars unfurling gorgeous little flurries of notes, the rhythms and main riff locked tight so that it almost sounds looped, and at times like the record must be skipping, those moments eventually blossoming into synth laden, softly droney stretches of strummy folk and sun dappled Afro-pop bliss, dreamy and so divine. Like all the records before, utterly fantastic, and totally recommended. We can only imagine how great it must be to see Group Doueh live, but thankfully, we won't need to imagine much longer, as this record coincides with their first US tour!!
MPEG Stream: "Zayna Jumma"
MPEG Stream: "Aziza"
MPEG Stream: "Wazan Doueh"

BEASTIE BOYS Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (Capitol) cd 17.98
There's nothing that welcomes summer quite like a brand new Beastie Boys record. And damn, once again they bring the goods with cleverness and charisma, undeniable skills, and high energy that's going to make us blast this loud at pretty much every gathering we'll have this summer and beyond. So cool to see how after all these years the Beastie Boys have really kept on top of their game, there really is not a bad album in their discography, and they're also so smart about taking their time between albums to make sure nothing is rushed or half baked.
It's been almost seven years since their last full length, To The 5 Boroughs, came out. During that time MCA (Adam Yauch) was diagnosed with cancer which he has since overcome and you can hear that feeling of ecstatic triumph in the sounds of these new supercharged Beastie Boys SONGS. It's really got everything we love about them, their rad MC skills, their attention to detail and impeccable taste in samples, a bit of old school punk rockin', and it's for sure one of the most gritty and thick recordings in their catalog, recalling some of the sounds of Check Your Head. They understand how to use the studio as an extension of their sound so damn well. Try to think of any other hip-hop groups from the late '80s who are still around, yet alone still making such fucking cool sounds.
MPEG Stream: "Nonstop Disco Powerpack"
MPEG Stream: "Too Many Rappers (Featuring Nas)"
MPEG Stream: "Here's A Little Something For You"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win (Featuing Santogold)"

ZOMBI Escape Velocity (Relapse) cd 15.98
Zombi must feel like Neurosis did back in the day. Returning after a few years with a brand new record, only to gaze out on a sea of bands who sounded just like them. And discovering that their sound, in their brief absence, had become an actual genre, and a ridiculously overpopulated one at that. But like Neurosis, Zombi return as royalty, their cinematic space psych and soundtracky synthscapes untouchable, even by the legions of wannabes, fellow Carpenter / Goblin worshippers all, Umberto, Applehead, Zander Harris, Gatekeeper, Dylan Ettinger, Nightsatan, Roll The Dice, Soft Metals and all the rest, as good as they may be, and as much as we dig all of them, still bow before this dynamic duo, whose epic stretches of spaced out synths are wrapped around REAL drums, propulsive and powerful, the sound a perfect hybrid of washed out retro-futuristic synth swirl, and churning kraut flecked post rock, the tracks extended trancelike epics, the pulsing synth bass looped and mesmerizing, peppered with warm melodic swells, the drums pounding out equally mesmerizing tribal rhythms. The opening title track here sounds almost too short at 7 minutes, and like it could erupt at any moment into a second, even more epic movement, but instead, remains locked tight, cyclical and hypnotically repetitive.
The next few tracks slip closer to the cosmic dancefloor, wild squalls of tangled synths, woozy, melancholy melodies, but again, the real drums make all the difference, on "Slow Oscillations" adding some awesome rapidfire fills and flecking the grooves with little bits of double kick filigree, while on "DE3" twisting up a classic disco rhythm into something a bit more fierce, anchoring the new age swirl, all building to a seriously epic sci-fi climax. "Shrunken Heads" is a minimal groover, the synth buzzy and distorted, but the rhythm more programmed sounding, a looped chase scene soundtrack, tense and intense and darkly propulsive.
"Time Of Troubles" finishes things off, beginning with a hazy cloud of softly swirling sun dappled synth shimmer, and then big ominous low end, the perfect ending, especially if Escape Velocity was actually an eighties soundtrack, you can almost imagine the credits rolling as the hero and his motley gang of intergalactic misfits walk off off into the alien sunset, the sound majestic, but minor key and a little bit melancholy, the drums adding a sort of kraut/post rock vibe, totally mesmerizing, and definitely making us wish the deliriously over the top cover art (replete with running naked women and, yes, a Delorean, gull wing doors wide open, on what appears to be the floor of a sauna floating in a blue sky) was in fact a real film, and this was the soundtrack!
MPEG Stream: "Escape Velocity"
MPEG Stream: "Slow Oscillations"
MPEG Stream: "Shrunken Heads"

PREFUSE 73 The Only She Chapters (Warp) cd 14.98
There was a time when it seemed like every month would see a new release by one of Scott Herren's projects. Whether as Savath & Savalas, Prefuse 73, Diamond Watch, Piano Overlord, Delarosa & Asora, etc. But it seems like he's allowed himself some breathing room and dedicated some real concentrated time and vision to craft this new Prefuse 73 album, which stands for sure as the most emotive and moody recording we've heard from him in ages. Without reading too much into the titles of these tracks like "The Only Valentine's Day Failure", "The Only Recollection Of Where Life Stopped", and "The Only Guitar To Die Alone" it's easy to believe that this may be the first true heartache/heartbreak record Herren has made so far. And while we're sorry if his heart has in fact been broken, we're happy with the intricate and witchy electronics that have been born out of that heartbreak.
The album finds Herren teaming up with some great haunting vocalists on a handful of the tracks including Zola Jesus, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, and what may possibly be the last recording that Trish Keenan of Broadcast did before her passing earlier this year. In fact we get the feeling that Herren may have been listening to the great collaboration that Broadcast and The Focus Group made together as this album also is made up of ghostly miniatures that float and sway casting a mystical spell in their wake. So nice to be reminded that Herren is still one of the most talented and creative electronic music makers around.
MPEG Stream: "The Only Valentine's Day Failure"
MPEG Stream: " The Only Direction In Concrete (featuring Zola Jesus)"
MPEG Stream: "The Only Trial Of 9000 Suns (featuring Trish Keenan)"
MPEG Stream: "The Only Lillies And Lilacs"

PETER, BJORN AND JOHN Gimme Some (Almost Gold / Startime Int'l) 2lp 24.00
Peter, Bjorn & John have redeemed themselves bigtime with this new outing! Their last album Living Thing, really sounded flat to our ears and was such a letdown after the thrilling pop they delivered on their breakout album Writer's Block. Well with Gimme Some, these Swedes have returned to the top of their game and it looks like this is going to be a major contender for pop record of the summer and maybe even the year! Ultra catchy melodies and hooks that hit hard, exuberant and energetic, and best of all no filler in the mix, this is what a perfect pop record should sound like. It's a record that has so much zest and an effortless vibe, while also containing some surprisingly rocking moments, and that certain charm that makes the way they craft songs so damn addictive. Who else can incorporate cowbell into one of the best pop songs of the year like they do on "Second Chance"?! This is proving to be one of those pop records like the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart debut or Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. We can't wait to blast this all summer long and beyond!
MPEG Stream: "Tomorrow Has To Wait"
MPEG Stream: "Second Chance"
MPEG Stream: "(Don't Let Them) Cool Off"

CRYSTAL STILTS In Love With Oblivion (Slumberland) lp 14.98
Most folks around here have been pretty obsessed with Crystal Stilts, since their self titled 2008 debut on Woodsist. But there's definitely a been holdout or two among us. Who, while appreciating that Crystal Stilts were a decent band, didn't necessarily understand what the fuss was all about. That all changes with In Love With Oblivion, and those folks are definitely gonna have to reassess their opinion on those older records too, cuz EVERYone here has gone totally nuts for this new record. Including the previous nonbelievers. Not sure what exactly it is, their sound hasn't changed so dramatically, but there's just something about this record that's totally magical. Dark and brooding, low slung slithery gloom pop, that while lumped in with the current crop of Sacred Bones / Captured Tracks outfits, to these ears are way more beholden to Aussie groups like the Celibate Rifles, the Lime Spiders, the Scientists, the Saints, Radio Birdman, even the Hoodoo Gurus, maybe especially the Hoodoo Gurus. Which is weird, cuz these guys are from Brooklyn. But they have that twangy surf guitar, the Fuzztones style wheezing garage rock organ, everything hazy and reverby, and of course the vox, that's what really does it, deep and dramatic, commanding and intense but still melodic. Opener "Sycamore Tree" is a perfect example, a dead ringer for some lost Celibate Rifles jam, a minimal woozy groove, the percussion a propulsive shuffle, the guitars thick with twang and reverb, the bass dense and driving, and the vocals, the sort of singing that would go on to define noise rock outfits from down under like Lubricated Goat and Kingsnakeroost, eyes closed it feels like being in some dingy club in Australia in the early eighties, packed in like sardines, the sound deafening, the crowd rapt and sweaty, moving to the music, total zoner gloom pop post punk bliss.
Then there's the other side of the band, like on "Through The Floor" where they channel classic girl group sounds, but add their own twist, those deep crooned vox, the whirring organ, lots of sweet back up harmonies, and of course plenty of buzz and reverb. And so it goes, the band switching from shimmery sixties jangle, to dark brooding eighties post punk gloom pop, often melding the two. And while we love both sides of the band, it's the darker side that we find the most mesmerizing. Like on "Alien Rivers", a creepy crawl, all thick undulating organs, shuffling snares, spidery guitars, the vocals especially heavy with reverb and echo, the sound droned out and druggy, divinely hypnotic. And there's the woozy groovy stomp of "Prometheus At Large", classic rock and roll wrapped in murk and grit and grime, a sort of classic fifties style pop transformed into something much more sinister. Elsewhere there's plenty of jangle and shimmer, shuffle and buzz, "Flying Into The Sun" sounds like a lo-fi indie pop Interpol, "Precarious Stair" sounds like some fantastic union of Thee Oh Sees and the Vivian Girls, but with those crooned post punk vox, all the songs buzzy and hooky and heavy in their own way, slipping easily from indie pop to new wave to indie jangle but always infused with the Stilts' dark brood, and fuzzy wall of sound reverby shimmer, and all held together by some impossibly great and catchy songs, and of course those fantastic vocals.
Definite contender for record of the year, and a new unanimous aQ fave for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Sycamore Tree"
MPEG Stream: "Through The Floor"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Sun"

CHANCHA VIA CIRCUITO Rio Arriba (ZZK) cd 16.98
When we first heard Chancha Via Circuito's debut a few years back, it was one of the those magical moments when a record by an unknown artist seemed to stop time and everything around us as we became completely emerged in their dubbed out, Latin American cumbia-inspired sounds.
With the follow up, Chancha Via Circuito prove that record number one was no fluke, as this album melts and sizzles with its own seductive flair. Sonically it's like some awesome mix of Twilight Circus Dub Sound System, Fauna, Kit Clayton, Massive Attack, Prince Far I, and Rainbow Arabia.
Mixing elements of cumbia, minimal techno, dub, and adding strains of traditional folk from the sprawling roads they've traveled near their home outside Buenos Aires, which has taken them across the border to Bolivia and beyond. Like one of our other favorite modern South American psychedelic music makers Las Malas Amistades, Chancha Via Circuito have this amazing ability to incorporate their surroundings and heritage and bring it into the future without compromising its integrity.
MPEG Stream: "Rio Arriba"
MPEG Stream: "JosŽ Larralde - Quimey NeuquŽn (Chancha Via Circuito remix)"
MPEG Stream: "Amelia"

BALDWIN, MATT Imaginary Psychology (self-released) cd-r 7.98
Man, Matt Baldwin just seems to get better and better, taking his already wonderful celestial spaced out guitar playing and constantly pushing his sound further and further out. This super limited self released outing finds Baldwin positioning one short track inbetween two epic 15 minute sprawls which evoke the spirit of Robert Fripp playing a Terry Riley composition or Michael Rother and Steve Reich teaming up for some hypnotic psychedelic kraut guitar drift. Exploring cosmic guitar explorations similar to folks like Mark McGuire and Phil Manley, this is such a wonderful record of truly tripped out and densely dreamy solo guitar. We could go on and on about how much we love this, but considering these are the very last copies left of this cd-r we should probably just say act super fast as we only have ten of these left!
MPEG Stream: "Lindsay And Her Duplicates"
MPEG Stream: "Imaginary Psychology"

BEE GEES 1st (Reprise) 2cd 25.00
What comes to mind when you think of The Bee Gees? Saturday Night Fever? Disco? White suits? 30 years of cheesy disco dancing to "Stayin' Alive"? The awesome(ly atrocious) film version of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? SNL's "Barry Gibb Talk Show"? Probably all of those things.
Which is too bad, 'cuz if it weren't for all that stuff, maybe you'd think instead of lush melancholy experimental pop music, incredible vocal harmonies, horns, strings, orchestras, mellotrons, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Zombies...
Some of you probably have no idea what the heck we're on about, but well before disco and Saturday Night Fever and all that, way back in 1967, the Bee Gees were crafting some of the loveliest, most compellingly mysterious pop music around. With a sound that borrowed from other bands of the time, most notably the aforementioned big three, the Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Zombies, but incorporated those influences into a sound that was distinctly their own. A sound at times gorgeously classic sounding, and at others surprisingly strange and dark and experimental.
The influence of the Beatles and the Beach Boys is undeniable. The song "Please Read Me" is incredibly Beach Boys-esque, and marks the first time the group would employ falsetto vocal harmonies, obviously influenced by Brian Wilson, and which would of course become their trademark. And the cover of 1st is by the artist Klaus Voorman, who of course also designed the Beatles' Revolver. But scratch a little below the surface, and there is so much more. A musical world of dreamlike, melancholy psychedelia.
"Holiday" is a brooding and moody dirge, with haunting organ swells, and pizzicato strings, with soft horns and simple percussion, and a gorgeous vocal melody, as well as a strange and impossibly catchy bridge with simple nonsense vocals. Then there's "Red Chair, Fade Away" a dreamy, rainbow hued blast of psychedelic pop, blissed out and trippy, with tons of layered production, fuzzy guitars, jazzy horns, fluttering flute, all wrapped in a stained glass production, peppered with circusy calliopes and soaring strings.
But two of the tracks on 1st really stand out. Lovely and catchy, but so dark and emotionally intense. The first is "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You", which begins with minor key strings over monk-like chanting background vocals, before the Strawberry Fields vocals kick in, over a shuffled rhythm and some deliriously fuzzy psych guitar, with the chanting vocals resurfacing throughout the song before it fades into a truly haunting outro, just those strings and some heavily reverbed drums that stumble into the darkness. The other is the amazingly monickered "New York Mining Disaster 1941" with it's haunting nearly a capella verses (backed up by barely audible guitar strumming WAY down in the mix), jangly guitars, throbbing simple percussion, the whole track mournful and melancholy, the minor key brightening briefly for the chorus before drifting baack into haunting melancholia. The track is laced with strange funereal strings, and again the vocals are just so beautiful, lush and dreamy.
The rest of the record is just as fantastic, every song a strange gem, it's difficult to pick which ones to mention, you'll of course recognize "To Love Somebody", which while not a huge hit for them (although it did crack the top 20), has become an international pop standard, and was originally a track the band wrote for Otis Redding, but their version is the best, so lush and rife with layer after layer of instrumentation, as well as some amazing melodic flourishes left off subsequent cover versions, then there's "Cucumber Castle" with its super dramatic strings, Spanish sounding trumpets, moaning cellos, and bizarre player piano background trills, all behind a main melody that is so unbelievably catchy... we could go on and on and on. Needless to say, it's difficult to not go all gushy and declare this as one of the all time greatest pop records. But what the heck, it is! Listen to this enough and you just may banish all thoughts of white suits and light up dancefloors from your head forever!
Gorgeously elaborate reissue, in a huge 8 panel digipak, full color with tons of amazing photos, a massive booklet also packed with photos, with lengthy liner notes, as well as notes on each track from the surviving members. The first disc contains the full version of the album, in both stereo AND mono, the second disc contains 9 alternate and early versions (including two dramatically different versions of "New York Mining Disaster 1941") as well as 5 unreleased tracks, most of which are as good as anything on the album proper!
MPEG Stream: "To Love Somebody"
MPEG Stream: "Holiday"
MPEG Stream: "New York Mining Disaster 1941"

PANDA BEAR Tomboy (Paw Tracks) cd 14.98
How do you follow up one of the most well received and influential albums of the last decade? Well if you're Panda Bear you just make another brilliant record that isn't afraid to veer from the formula of the previous album, the beloved Person Pitch, and create a new tapestry of trance inducing unrivaled pop bliss. While not as immediately catchy and in your face as Person Pitch, Tomboy displays a more nuanced and subtle approach to Panda Bear's production and songwriting, while still filled with such lush sound and so many golden hooks and dreamy melodies. There is almost a song cycle feeling to Tomboy, each song interconnected and unfurling with such a tranquil and hypnotic flow It's remarkable how Panda Bear is able to sing almost nonstop throughout this album, yet his voice really does still seem like another instrument, perfectly floating just above the sea of sound below, radiating a glowing sonic warmth throughout the album.
It would have been easy for Panda Bear to do another take at Beach Boys influenced psychedelia, and there is plenty of that still present, but we love how he took his time making this record and really created a new record with a new sound with its own singular vision. There are moments of course, that seem to follow in the considerable wake of Person Pitch, but there are so many new sounds and approaches which all serve to make Tomboy its own fantastic and hauntingly original beast, as potent and satisfying as his past glories. Maybe even moreso. So great!
MPEG Stream: "You Can Count On Me"
MPEG Stream: "Tomboy"
MPEG Stream: "Slow Motion"

GROUPER A I A: Alien Observer (Yellow Electric) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Just as ghostly and mystical as her music is, so is the availability of Grouper's records. One moment they're here, but before you can even blink they're out of print. Lately Liz Harris (Grouper) has been releasing her own recordings, but not pressing that many of them when she does. We know she doesn't do so out of a desire to keep things 'limited' but instead it's her humble nature which tends to keep her scope small, even when the truth is there are thousands of people across the globe who have become huge fans of her dreamlike sounds.
The first pressing of these two new Grouper lp's "A I A: Alien Observer" and "A I A: Dream Loss" went out of print so quickly we weren't even able to review them. The thing about these small pressings that bother us is that the only folks really winning, are the eBay speculators selling copies for ridiculous amounts, none of that money ends up in Grouper's hands. So we do hope that in the future she (and the labels she works with) will start pressing more copies as she is the one who deserves to reap the reward of her beautiful creation.
OK, now that our rant is out of the way, we should let you know that although this is a repressing we're not sure how many, if any, more of these we're going to be able to get. What we got, So before we start going on and on about the music you probably should just add this to your cart asap to better your chances of actually ending up with these.
Now on to what really matters - the music on these records. We've gushed and gushed about Grouper so much in the past, and we're going to do it once again because these lp's are utterly gorgeous! While Dragging A Dead Dear, found her starting to really embrace the idea of songs, we love how these lp's blur that focus once again. They're much more about mood, soft focus, hazy dreams, and ethereal exploration. Her voice swirling in and out, and every sound and tone she uses and manipulates with such a mastered ease. We've been listening to these records late at night and early in the morning and whenever we need to come down from the craziness of the world around us. Somehow whenever we play these lp's, everything else just fades away and for a little while all that matters is the soft narcotic rush we feel as the records spin. We can't imagine only getting one of these, as they really do work as companion pieces. Totally beautiful! And sadly, AGAIN, EXTREMELY LIMITED!!!!

GROUPER A I A: Dream Loss (Yellow Electric) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Just as ghostly and mystical as her music is, so is the availability of Grouper's records. One moment they're here, but before you can even blink they're out of print. Lately Liz Harris (Grouper) has been releasing her own recordings, but not pressing that many of them when she does. We know she doesn't do so out of a desire to keep things 'limited' but instead it's her humble nature which tends to keep her scope small, even when the truth is there are thousands of people across the globe who have become huge fans of her dreamlike sounds.
The first pressing of these two new Grouper lp's "A I A: Alien Observer" and "A I A: Dream Loss" went out of print so quickly we weren't even able to review them. The thing about these small pressings that bother us is that the only folks really winning, are the eBay speculators selling copies for ridiculous amounts, none of that money ends up in Grouper's hands. So we do hope that in the future she (and the labels she works with) will start pressing more copies as she is the one who deserves to reap the reward of her beautiful creation.
OK, now that our rant is out of the way, we should let you know that although this is a repressing we're not sure how many, if any, more of these we're going to be able to get. What we got, So before we start going on and on about the music you probably should just add this to your cart asap to better your chances of actually ending up with these.
Now on to what really matters - the music on these records. We've gushed and gushed about Grouper so much in the past, and we're going to do it once again because these lp's are utterly gorgeous! While Dragging A Dead Dear, found her starting to really embrace the idea of songs, we love how these lp's blur that focus once again. They're much more about mood, soft focus, hazy dreams, and ethereal exploration. Her voice swirling in and out, and every sound and tone she uses and manipulates with such a mastered ease. We've been listening to these records late at night and early in the morning and whenever we need to come down from the craziness of the world around us. Somehow whenever we play these lp's, everything else just fades away and for a little while all that matters is the soft narcotic rush we feel as the records spin. We can't imagine only getting one of these, as they really do work as companion pieces. Totally beautiful! And sadly, AGAIN, EXTREMELY LIMITED!!!!

CRYSTAL STILTS In Love With Oblivion (Slumberland) cd 10.98
Most folks around here have been pretty obsessed with Crystal Stilts, since their self titled 2008 debut on Woodsist. But there's definitely a been holdout or two among us. Who, while appreciating that Crystal Stilts were a decent band, didn't necessarily understand what the fuss was all about. That all changes with In Love With Oblivion, and those folks are definitely gonna have to reassess their opinion on those older records too, cuz EVERYone here has gone totally nuts for this new record. Including the previous nonbelievers. Not sure what exactly it is, their sound hasn't changed so dramatically, but there's just something about this record that's totally magical. Dark and brooding, low slung slithery gloom pop, that while lumped in with the current crop of Sacred Bones / Captured Tracks outfits, to these ears are way more beholden to Aussie groups like the Celibate Rifles, the Lime Spiders, the Scientists, the Saints, Radio Birdman, even the Hoodoo Gurus, maybe especially the Hoodoo Gurus. Which is weird, cuz these guys are from Brooklyn. But they have that twangy surf guitar, the Fuzztones style wheezing garage rock organ, everything hazy and reverby, and of course the vox, that's what really does it, deep and dramatic, commanding and intense but still melodic. Opener "Sycamore Tree" is a perfect example, a dead ringer for some lost Celibate Rifles jam, a minimal woozy groove, the percussion a propulsive shuffle, the guitars thick with twang and reverb, the bass dense and driving, and the vocals, the sort of singing that would go on to define noise rock outfits from down under like Lubricated Goat and Kingsnakeroost, eyes closed it feels like being in some dingy club in Australia in the early eighties, packed in like sardines, the sound deafening, the crowd rapt and sweaty, moving to the music, total zoner gloom pop post punk bliss.
Then there's the other side of the band, like on "Through The Floor" where they channel classic girl group sounds, but add their own twist, those deep crooned vox, the whirring organ, lots of sweet back up harmonies, and of course plenty of buzz and reverb. And so it goes, the band switching from shimmery sixties jangle, to dark brooding eighties post punk gloom pop, often melding the two. And while we love both sides of the band, it's the darker side that we find the most mesmerizing. Like on "Alien Rivers", a creepy crawl, all thick undulating organs, shuffling snares, spidery guitars, the vocals especially heavy with reverb and echo, the sound droned out and druggy, divinely hypnotic. And there's the woozy groovy stomp of "Prometheus At Large", classic rock and roll wrapped in murk and grit and grime, a sort of classic fifties style pop transformed into something much more sinister. Elsewhere there's plenty of jangle and shimmer, shuffle and buzz, "Flying Into The Sun" sounds like a lo-fi indie pop Interpol, "Precarious Stair" sounds like some fantastic union of Thee Oh Sees and the Vivian Girls, but with those crooned post punk vox, all the songs buzzy and hooky and heavy in their own way, slipping easily from indie pop to new wave to indie jangle but always infused with the Stilts' dark brood, and fuzzy wall of sound reverby shimmer, and all held together by some impossibly great and catchy songs, and of course those fantastic vocals.
Definite contender for record of the year, and a new unanimous aQ fave for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Sycamore Tree"
MPEG Stream: "Through The Floor"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Sun"

LOW C'mon (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
What's there to say about Low that hasn't been said before. Without a doubt one of the most inspiring, emotionally riveting and chill inducing bands of our generation. Their ability to capture mournful emotion and conjure up deep mystery in their songs has often been imitated but one rarely gets to that same satisfying bittersweet state of sound that they do. While the first half of their career found them as leaders of the slowcore movement, in recent years they haven't been afraid to play with their sound and speed things up a bit, and even rock out from time to time. But no matter how they allow new sounds and styles to enter their fold, they always sound like Low, and that is a very good thing indeed. C'mon introduces an almost twang like sensibility on several of the songs. But ultimately it's still about the way they can transform a four minute song into a meditation on sadness, longing, and despair. Like all of their records, C'mon takes a few listens to really start seeping in, but damn once it did we realized we have yet another great Low album that we'll be listening to for years to come.
MPEG Stream: "Try to Sleep "
MPEG Stream: "Especially Me"
MPEG Stream: "Witches "

ZOMES Earth Grid (Thrill Jockey) cd 15.98
Another gorgeous and mysterious collection of lo-fi, ritualistic, minimal, otherworldly psychedelia from Asa Osborn, aka Zomes, one time guitarist for legendary Baltimore hypno rockers Lungfish. And like his former bandmate, Daniel Higgs, the repetition and trancelike orchestrations of those Lungfish songs carried over to his new project. Higgs of course blossomed into a strangely inspiring psychedelic shaman, a wandering troubadour, as likely to perform a laughing solo as he is to do a whole set of solo jaw harp, Zomes became similarly shamanistic, with the minimal cyclical heavy rock of his former outfit transformed into something altogether more hushed and mediative, a series of miniature tone poems, simple melodies, spare arrangements, skeletal rhythms, each track, a simple, slow shifting soundscape of warm whirs, and muted thrum, of ethereal shimmer and bleary shuffle, of reverbed celestial drift and slo-mo kraut-drone dirgery, all the tracks woven deftly into a haunting alien songsuite, a hazy soundtrack to outer space drift and innerspace exploration.
Even more than Zomes' debut, Earth Grid manages the impossible task of being both even more simple and sparse, while being more rich and lush, and somehow more polished.
Earth Grid plays almost like a collection of fragments, each a glimpse into the ether, a peek behind the curtain, any of these songs could have been stretched out to sprawling trancelike raga lengths, but the economy in composition and instrumentation extends to song length too, with each impossibly catch sonic shard leaving us wanting more, at least until we're engulfed by the spirit and sound of the next brief bit of repetitive and meditative lumber and drift.
The record begins with "Openings", which is maybe the most 'rock' sounding Zomes track yet, and almost sounds like a Lunfish song slowed down to a crawl, the beat distorted and lumberingly propulsive, while the main melodies wheezes over a thick undulating buzz. "Pilgrim Traveler" is also drenched in buzz and fuzz (as is much of Earth Grid), and again harkens back to Lungfish, a woozy melody drifts over some thick lugubrious riffing (and it's strange what a similar melodic sense Higgs And Osborne have, must be all the years spent in a band together, cuz much of Earth Grid could easily be translated to Higgs' current sound).
"Melody, The Prism" is one of our favorites, a murky muddied beat, buried under some dark dreamy
low end thrum, a creeping, ominous krautrock lumber, but laced with sweet little melodic trills, but then there's "Stark Reality", a similarly gauzy rhythmic sprawl, and "Youth Of The Beast" which is Zomes at its doomiest, but interspersed amidst all this dark energy, there is plenty of light, dreamy, drifty, sun dappled kosmische folk drift, languid tangles of layered soft buzzing melody and lush expanses of blurred fuzz drenched krautdrone shimmer, at times sounding a bit like the cosmic alien folk of Amps For Christ, and at others, more of a sweetly serene, ethereal swirl, all washed out and spectral, and so fantastically dreamy.
Super striking minimal psychedelic cover art, geometric designs in white tape on a black background. The lp version includes a download coupon too...
MPEG Stream: "Openings"
MPEG Stream: "Pilgrim Traveler"
MPEG Stream: "Melody, The Prism"
MPEG Stream: "Bloodlines"
MPEG Stream: "Youth Of The Beast"

ELIZALDE, PETER Winter Playground Mystery (Riverman) cd 19.98
The crude cover painting is sorta psychedelic, and though this album dates from 1982, the breathless obi text claims this to be the work of an "unknown brilliant all original outsider loner singer songwriter who completely sounds trapped in 1972 not '82!!", so we kinda had to check it out, being big Bobb Trimble fans after all, who also fits that description. But, we were also a bit wary, 'cause while it's true that the reissue label Riverman, based in South Korea, HAS put out some pretty cool stuff - including the George-Edwards Group and Ted Lucas discs we've reviewed recently - they also have reissued a lot of things that, uh, we don't quite "get". They seem to have a thing for American '70s singer-songwriter soft rock, maybe it's more "exotic" for them than it is for us, but a lot of their catalog seems to consist of justly-forgotten thrift store mediocrities that we have a hard time understanding why collectors (in Korea or elsewhere) care about. But yeah, once in a while they nail it. So we're always curious about their reissues, hoping they'll come up with a really amazing, acid folk obscurity or something like that. Plus they sure look good in their mini-lp style sleeves, with beguiling blurbs on their obis - that, again, they rarely really live up to. However, guess what? Peter Elizalde's oddly titled Winter Playground Mystery, kinda actually does! There is certainly something "outsidery" about it, that's for sure. Your mileage may vary, indeed ours already has, some of us here are totally digging on this (enjoying it a bit ironically, maybe, but for reals too), others like Andee gave it the gong...
Here's the deal. While there's elements of psych and prog here, what this really is, is "yacht rock"! Outsider yacht rock, but yes, yacht rock. Even though it's from '82, the Berkeley-based Elizalde, an obviously talented multi-instrumentalist, was super into seventies soft rock and jazz fusion, and we figure exceedingly influenced by the likes of Todd Rundgren and Steely Dan. So, much of this is synth laden, sprightly '70s sounding AM radio pop, with, naturally, the occasional cheesy saxophone solo. And oh boy is it poppy, these songs sound like hits that never happened, y'know, totally like they should be familiar, and in fact soon will get stuck in your head... yet they're just a bit weird and warped at the same time. In part that's 'cause Elizalde has an ever so slightly strange singing voice, often oddly high and nasal, which might have to do with the fact that he grew up in Peru, perhaps that's a little trace of a Spanish accent we're hearing? Or more likely he was a big Al Jarreau fan. Besides that, this disc is also full of surprises. For instance, track 5, "Passion Play", an exuberantly uptempo, POP-PUNK song that we definitely weren't expecting, which would have opened the original lp's second side with a bang. Really cool though, especially with its slightly incongruous keyboard lines, like some sort of super happy new wave. The wild guitar soloing on this one is also pretty choice. Later on, the album's big finale, "Day Dreamer", is another stop-and-stare-at-your-stereo number. It's one of the catchiest cuts on the record, with high pitched Bee Gees style vocal harmonies, but Elizalde also cranks up the distortion on his guitar, and also indulges in some over the top synth soloing, turning the track into a burnin' jazz fusion freakout by the end of its rather proggy 7+ minutes! Wow.
Overall this album is an eccentric mix of goofy pop pleasures, synth shred, and moments of truly emotional beauty. We also wonder if the several songs with a lyrical focus on winter, are somehow part of an exercise in Beach Boys/Brian Wilson emulation, but just about the opposite season to summer?
Well, you'll either love this or hate it, if the AQ staff is anything to go by. Enough of us love it, though, to suggest you open your heart to it, those of us here who did are happier for it. If we're gonna listen to "yacht rock", this gets our boat afloat... Though Elizalde is no Bobb Trimble, this is still pretty cool, and catchy, and quirky, and equally kitschy.
MPEG Stream: "Winter Playground Mystery"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Reflexions (sic)"
MPEG Stream: "Passion Play"
MPEG Stream: "Day Dreamer"

RAVEONETTES, THE Raven In The Grave (Vice) cd 13.98
The Raveonettes have been on fire over the last several years. Their last two albums remain two of our favorite pop albums to come out last decade, and with their latest, Raven In The Grave, they've delivered another breathtaking and seductive set of songs that we've already been playing nonstop. This album finds the band exploring a grittier and darker vibe that really suits them surprisingly well. The songs are both dirgy and sexy, mysterious and catchy. Before the latest wave of girl group inspired lo-fi pop bands hit the scene, The Raveonettes laid some nice groundwork and offered up a blueprint for how to take those influences and incorporate them into a very modern sound. This album even has some really nice shoegaze undertones, that matched with the grit and grim and ominously dark production make for such a seductive listening experience. Like sleepwalking through deserted city streets on an extra dark night, these are perfect songs for dazed and glazed fever dreams. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "War In Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "Forget That You're Young"
MPEG Stream: "Evil Seeds"

ALPS, THE Easy Action (Mexican Summer) lp 21.00
Latest from these sunshiney new age krautfolk drifters, a trio featuring our very own Scott Hewicker, along with Jefre Cantu (Tarentel, Root Strata) and Alexis Georgopoulos (Arp), The Alps' Easy Action is record number five if you're keeping track, although it's not in fact exactly a proper full length, instead, it's a bit of a collaged inbetweener, a gorgeous, surprisingly noisy at times, druggy and deliriously delightful hodgepodge assembled from various sources, old tapes from past sessions, unused takes from their last record Le Voyage, a handful of new recordings, as well as various other sounds, all meticulously assembled in the studio into a pretty fantastic record.
As mentioned above, the sound here is not nearly as laid back and soft focus as Le Voyage. That record definitely found the band in full on meandering mode, the guitars were jangly, the rhythms subtle and minimal, when there were rhythms, the noise was kept to a minimum, it was all about tone and timbre, ambience and atmosphere, the propulsion seemingly an afterthought, the band happy to let the songs drift lazily, but if a rhythm did surface, the band would just let that rhythm guide them, until it eventually wound down, leaving the band to drift ever onward. But here, the sound is actually a bit fierce, and a little dark. The opener starts with a cloud of swirling textures and hushed effects, muted melodies, and little flecks of buzz and glitch, but it's not long before a black cloud of grinding distortion and hissing electronics threaten to swallow up the other sounds, the song is transformed into a swirling bit of soft noise chaos, culminating in a strange stuttery glitched out finale. Wow. As if that weren't enough, the second track too delivers some powerful drumming, laid over some tangled steel string guitar, and some buzzing psychedelic guitar, a guitar that gets wilder and noisier as the track progresses before everything drops out leaving just the guitar unwinding a swirling cloud of FX heavy freakout.
And so it goes, "Pink Orange" is more of a interlude, a looped bit of processed guitar, but then "For Isabel" drifts in with its seventies folk guitar, but then suddenly glitches out, as some strange bits of studio buzz swoop in, the gorgeous looped guitar figure wreathed in a cloud of hiss and buzz, and rapidly expanding crunch, good stuff for sure, just surprisingly intense.
"Loves Of A Blonde" is a sprawling bit of abstract droney drift, some steel string buzz, some muted percussion, more crunchy distorted guitar noise, a sort of abstract raga, underpinned by dark piano chords, everything wreathed in gristly bits of static, eventually, all the noise fading out, leaving just some sitar like buzz and some echoey piano, the prettiest stretch on the record thus far. The title track dabbles in some dub, adding a little reggae inflection to a loping slo-mo krautrock groove, the guitars warm and shimmery, the bass sinewy and melodic, but even here, the band lay a thick bit of crunchy, lo-fi guitar fuzz over the otherwise tranquil proceedings, which we quite like, and definitely adds a needed edge to the otherwise placid drift underneath.
The rest of the record unwinds similarly, with the band taking the more serene and melodic elements and fusing them to strange studio misfires, and random, but fantastic bits of noisiness, tinkling looped melodies, that seems to fluctuate wildly within a field of hyperactive static, transforming a shimmery sleepy loop into a mysterious bit of crumbling crunch. They take a break on the hushed and crystal clear solo guitar outing "Reflections For Peter Green", only to slip right back into it with the nearly 10 minute "Instant Light" which was previously released on the super limited Root Strata cd-r A Path Through The Sun), a track that builds slowly, lush steel string strums drifting beneath whirling bits of distant ambience, definitely channeling the spirit of Le Voyage, but the band pile on some lush, effulgent guitar buzz, and some keening layered guitardrones, filling the sky with warm sonic streaks, while underneath the sound continues to drift along melodically, a practically perfect balance between the dreamy old and the more abrasive new, before finishing off with a brief 2 minute swirl of whirling, swirling, blurred and smeared, echo drenched new age shimmer. So good. And a bit of a sonic surprise. Which has us wondering if their next proper studio full length will find the band incorporating some of this new found, more 'difficult' audio experimentation. We sure hope so!
Super limited, and packaged in a super elaborate fold out psychedelic pyramid sleeve, designed by artist Tauba Auerbach, that is easily one of the coolest things we've seen.
Includes a download code as well.
MPEG Stream: "Today & Tomorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Spray"
MPEG Stream: "Pink Orange"
MPEG Stream: "Easy Action"
MPEG Stream: "Until Tomorrow"

PETER, BJORN AND JOHN Gimme Some (Almost Gold / Startime Int'l) cd 13.98
Peter, Bjorn & John have redeemed themselves bigtime with this new outing! Their last album Living Thing, really sounded flat to our ears and was such a letdown after the thrilling pop they delivered on their breakout album Writer's Block. Well with Gimme Some, these Swedes have returned to the top of their game and it looks like this is going to be a major contender for pop record of the summer and maybe even the year! Ultra catchy melodies and hooks that hit hard, exuberant and energetic, and best of all no filler in the mix, this is what a perfect pop record should sound like. It's a record that has so much zest and an effortless vibe, while also containing some surprisingly rocking moments, and that certain charm that makes the way they craft songs so damn addictive. Who else can incorporate cowbell into one of the best pop songs of the year like they do on "Second Chance"?! This is proving to be one of those pop records like the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart debut or Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. We can't wait to blast this all summer long and beyond!
MPEG Stream: "Tomorrow Has To Wait"
MPEG Stream: "Second Chance"
MPEG Stream: "(Don't Let Them) Cool Off"

MAGICAL POWER MAKO Hapmoniym 1972-1975 (Bamboo) 5cd-box 62.00
Another '70s Japanese psych reissue treat from the folks at Bamboo. Actually this is the third time we've seen this released. First there was a set of five individual cds on the Japanese Mom 'n' Dad label in the early '90s, though those were almost impossible to obtain. Then, in 2004, the now-defunct MIO label out of Israel released 'em on slimline jewel-cased cds in a red box set. Now Bamboo has brought this amazing collection of private jams by psychedelic guru Magical Power Mako back into print, the five cds (each a single long track) packaged with a booklet in thin sleeves inside a cardboard box with new, poorly Photoshopped cover art, though featuring a suitably strange photo of, we assume, Mako himself.
We reviewed the MIO version, but didn't say a whole lot about it, 'cause "probably only people who've been looking for these five cds ever since they were first released in limited and expensive form in Japan...are likely to want to pay nearly $120 for this box set reissue, and they already know they want it and why, so we needn't go too far overboard with our description."
Well, that may be. But now it's quite a bit cheaper, isn't it? And it is a marvelous artifact of '70s psych weirdness, for a whole new generation (reared on Julian Cope's Japrocksampler?) to enjoy. The material that makes up Hapmoniym 1972-1975 was recorded while Mako was working on his second masterpiece for Polydor, Super Record (also reissued and raved about here recently). Mako's early work has often been compared to krautrock pioneers Faust, and this collection IS an incredible assemblage of sound experiments, collage pieces, tape manipulations and astral folk-psychedelia so epic and so out, that one might be so bold to state that Hapmoniym as a whole even surpasses the density and innovation of the mighty Faust Tapes! (Are we going overboard, yet?).
And, apparently MPM was only a wee sixteen years old on the earliest of these recordings, wow. We are especially fond of disc two, the part where it sounds like Jimi Hendrix jamming with a meowing cat. Also, Keiji Haino fans should take note, as he appears on the first disc, on what's possibly one of his most spaced out psychedelic trips ever.
When Mom 'n' Dad first brought this forth, these five volumes were billed as just the first third of a projected 15 disc set, chronicling ALL of the legendary MPM's unreleased studio stuff from the '70s. The remaining 10 discs, however, never materialized. MIO had intended to take up the torch and do two more box sets, but that never happened either, unfortunately. We wonder if those will ever see the light of day, or if they really even exist in the first place? In any case, great to have this back, and 5 discs is nothing to sneeze at, really! Should keep you and your stereo magically powered up for a long while....
A "collector's limited edition" of 1000 numbered copies.
MPEG Stream: "Hapmoniym Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Hapmoniym Part 2"

PARKS, VAN DYKE Song Cycle (Sundazed) lp 22.00
Decades before Sufjan Stevens was singing about the landscape of the the states, or Jim O'rourke was deconstructing pop, Van Dyke Parks was giving us all a crash course on orchestral avant-pop. Best known as Brian Wilson's collaborator on Smile, and decades later the producer and arranger of Rufus Wainwright's debut, Parks has made several challenging pop records of his own. Along with Discover America, this is for sure his landmark recording. A warped and thrilling affair exploring the southern California landscape. One moment he takes us to palm desert then laurel canyon blvd. and one moment you feel like you're in a musical on acid and then a psychedelic pop opus and then a folk song spiked with flowery colors and warped sensibilities. When Brian Wilson began hanging out with Van Dyke Parks, it's rumored they spent their nights doing amphetamines and Parks would read Wilson literature that he felt would touch his heart. Of course the more square side of the Beach Boys camp considered Parks an enemy, Mike Love in particular was totally intimidated by the intellectual and avant-minded nature of Parks. And well, any enemy of Mike Love is probably a friend of ours! But back to this record, it's for sure one of the most adventurous, ambitious, deranged, delightful albums of pop created in the last quarter century. And wow, how dapper a young Van Dyke Parks looks on the cover of this record. Eat your heart out Sufjan! Just thought we should get this on our site, at last...
MPEG Stream: "Palm Desert"
MPEG Stream: "All Golden"

CHATHAM, RHYS A Crimson Grail (Outdoor Version) (Nonesuch) cd 16.98
A Crimson Grail is one of our favorite massive guitar ensemble compositions of all time, and now getting to hear a different version of it, recorded outdoors at the Lincoln Center with 200 guitarists brings us back once again to the totally sublime beauty of the piece. The way Chatham is able to compose and conduct that army of guitarists to be both so subtle and explosive at just the right moments is a testament to his talent, and another reminder that he really his one of the most exciting and incredible composers around. There is a patience in this piece that really allows you to slowly enter the zone, until you have no choice but to follow wherever the shimmering sounds of all these guitars take you.Ê
We're also glad for this release 'cause the previous recording of this piece, on Table Of The Elements, seems to be out of print these days. And extra cool is that our pal and WFMU music director Brian Turner was one of the guitarists at this performance, we can only imagine what a chill inducing experience it would be to be a part of creating this sonic beauty!
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 3"

CRYSTALS, THE Da Doo Ron Ron: The Very Best Of The Crystals (Phil Spector Records / Legacy) cd 13.98
One of the flagship groups on the Philles Records label run by Phil Spector in the Sixties, The Crystals stand as one of the greatest girl groups of all time. When Spector and The Crystals joined forces, the results encompassed some of the strongest and most moving selections of Spector's production career. There is a reason so many, diverse bands have covered these songs, including Grizzly Bear and Hole. "He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)" stands as one of the most chilling pop songs of all time. Even the one of the most subversive of artistic minds, Kenneth Anger, knew the power of their pop prowess and included "He's A Rebel" on the soundtrack to his legendary short film Scorpio Rising.
It's been so awesome to get to highlight these reissued Phil Spector recordings (The Ronettes, etc.) over the last few lists, as this is hands down some of the best pop music ever made. And such perfect timing for this release as we hear The Crystals' influence on so many of today's 'it' bands like Hunx & His Punx and Dum Dum Girls. It's that rare kind of recording that both your mom, and the most experimental minded music loving obsessive will love so much, as there's no denying the greatness of The Crystals!
Features 18 remastered tracks, including one previously unreleased cut.
MPEG Stream: "He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)"
MPEG Stream: "Then He Kissed Me"
MPEG Stream: "He's A Rebel"

LOVE, DARLENE The Sound Of Love: The Very Best Of Darlene Love (Phil Spector / Legacy) cd 13.98
Here comes another one from the vaults displaying Phil Spector's production glory. But before we go giving Spector all the credit, there is no doubt that Darlene Love is one of the greatest singers of all time! Just ask folks like Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, Gene Autry, The Beach Boys, and Aretha Franklin who all employed her at one point for her vocal prowess. A founding member of The Blossoms, she would then meet Phil Spector in 1962. He was so in love with her voice that he even released some songs he recorded with her under The Crystals moniker, since he owned the name, even though none of the actual members of The Crystals were on the record. This collection brings remastered versions of seventeen of her classic tracks together on one disc, many of which could only be found on different compilations until now. Spector's wall of sound production only adds to the overall glory and power of Love's voice. Pop perfection!
MPEG Stream: "Run Run Runaway"
MPEG Stream: "That's When The Tears Start [Remastered Single Version]"
MPEG Stream: "My Heart Beat A Little Faster"
MPEG Stream: "Not Too Young To Get Married"

METAL MOUNTAINS Golden Trees (Amish) cd 14.98
Long before psych folk became the flavor of the month in the indie scene there was the Tower Recordings. A group responsible for some of our favorite drugged out psych-pop EVER, with such nice swirling textures, delivered with such a gorgeous touch. The members of Tower Recordings have forged pretty of remarkable solo careers of their own. Folks like P.G. Six, Samara Lubelski, Matt Valentine, etc.
Metal Mountains is a brand new project that reunites Tower Recordings members Samara Lubelski, Pat Gubler (P.G. Six) and Helen Rush. There is a real magic between them as this is one of the most beautiful and mournful sounding albums we have heard in ages. Delicate composition stripped away of any fat, yet stretched out so nice with haunting instrumentation and a minimalist approach to creating a songs that make you sway so softly as you float away from all that surrounds you. It's restrained and understated without being uptight. A soft tension blankets the warm, moody recordings and we are left with a stunning and sublime set of songs.
MPEG Stream: "Structures In The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "The Golden Trees That Shade Us"
MPEG Stream: "Prisms"

TAPE Revelationes (Hapna) cd 16.98
We knew after their breathtaking collaboration with Bill Wells last year that Tape were really reaching a zenith in their career. With a back catalog rich with so many beautiful records, it's so nice to see them continue to reveal subtle shifts in their sound and sonic scope. Revelations flows with such melancholic grace. Instrumental songs that are filled with rich tones and warm melody, taking you to some perfect place, evoking that feeling of staring out the window on a long drive, late at night when there is nothing left to say to the person in the seat beside you.
Other bands that have tried to create a sound like this end up falling so short, coming off as nothing more then post rock band with more moody intentions, but lacking the means or depth to make something really substantial. Tape exist on a totally different level, absolute masters of their craft. Nothing ever feels forced or contrived in their songs. There is an integrity in their compositions that allows you to sway back and forth and get lost in swirls of musical memory and long lost images of other times and places... An utterly gorgeous record.
MPEG Stream: "Dust And Light"
MPEG Stream: "Gone Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Byhalia"

DODOS No Color (French Kiss) cd 13.98
The Dodos continue to remain one of the most immediate and satisfying voices to rise above the crowded indie rock scene. With each subsequent record they've built on what came before, pushing it a little further every time, their sound becoming more fleshed out and fully realized, and the songs just getting better and better.
With their last outing, Time To Die, Dodos showed they could make a record that kept their frenetic energy but also really raised the bar on their songwriting capacity. On No Color, they've made an album that so perfectly melds their unique ability to sound so urgent while also being rife with such lush melodic layers, unique time changes, incredible guitar shredding, and powerful percussion, all of which really makes their songs sound like sonic marching orders to get through the mundane of the every day.
There is an epic nature to these tracks, as Dodos have the rare ability to make a four minute song sound so big and wide in scope, yet still remain grounded by an intimacy that shines through it all. It doesn't hurt that their pal Neko Case joined them on many of these songs. Alongside Pinback, they stand as one of the most substantial and engaging indie rock bands around!
MPEG Stream: "Black Night"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Try And Hide It"
MPEG Stream: "Good"

JUV s/t (Miasmah) cd 16.98
The Miasmah label has been on fire lately! Without a doubt they have become one of the most consistently dependable labels releasing layered, dark, haunting, droned out mysterious sounds. This time around the label has gone back to the '90s to unearth some amazing sounds that somehow never managed to get a proper widespread release. It makes sense that this Norwegian band's moniker means 'abyss'. The music makes the listener feel like they are floating around the charred remains of a civilization that has been doomed, yet there is still something so paralyzing and beautiful about the void and desolation.
It's so impressive that this was recorded between 1996-1998, a decade before the outburst of so many drone based recordings that we have constantly freaked out over. With a sound that is so haunted, nuanced, layered, and so perfectly executed, taking in the more ambient and creepy side of black metal and doom drone luminaries like Burzum, SUNNO))) and Paysage D'Hiver, the soundscape imagination of Philip Jeck, and the minimalist intensity of Tony Conrad and Deathprod.
Like the soundtrack to a horror movie that isn't as much about shock and awe as it is about casting a very real spell that shimmers with isolation and a beautiful kind of despair. As with most things on Miasmah, so very recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Los"
MPEG Stream: "Stue"
MPEG Stream: "Forvarsel"

ANIKA s/t (Stones Throw / Invada) cd 15.98
Here comes the sizzle! We have been totally seduced by this steamy, dubby delight of a record, which pairs the detached, sexy & haunting vocals of Anika with the production and musical mastermind of Geoff Barrow from Beak and Portishead. Together they make a perfect match in creating a hypnotic, sensual sound that invokes in the listener a dangerously dazed and drugged out state of mind. Anika's vocals are like Nico's, but paired with a stripped down post-punk sound. Or like Kim Gordon singing for The Slits. The music is so spot on in its classic minimalism transporting us right back to the early '80s, bands like ESG, Gang Of Four, and A Certain Ratio, but Anika and Barrow turn the sound into something much more detached, smoky and sensual. We also hear a hints of French cold-wave pioneers, like Ruth, and the way underrated dubbed out project of This Heat's Charles Bullen, Lifetones.
For all the records that have come out in the last couple years desperately trying to capture a cold wave, or now witch house sound, Anika stands well above that crowded scene as there is something so much more impactful and singular about her vision, that's just so entrancing and mesmerizing....
FYI, several of the tracks are interpretations of tunes by the likes of Yoko Ono, Bob Dylan, and Ray Davies!!
MPEG Stream: "Terry"
MPEG Stream: "I Go To Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "Sadness Hides The Sun"

SLAVES, THE Ocean On Ocean (Debacle) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We love bands whose music-making formula appears, on the surface, simple and intuitive, yet the sounds they create are huge, engulfing and seemingly complex. Using two synthesizers and echoing vocals, The Slaves inhabit a sound that is as lush and dense as it is mysterious and minimal. Their debut album, Ocean on Ocean, is the perfect showcase of a group that can conjure up bountiful sounds within a restrained approach. Honestly, we can't get enough of Ocean on Ocean, something about those enormous, dreamy, engulfing songscapes just leaves us wanting more. Their oozing brew of minimal pop melts and blurs with the melodic thickness of MBV's Loveless or early Slowdive, but surrenders to a contemplative mode that falls somewhere between Gregorian hymn and pagan ritual. The duo spin a radiant web of sustained vocals and heavy synth, each chord drawn out and smeared into a neon haze while indecipherable lyrics suggest longing, loss and submission to oblivion.Ê
"Seventeen" unfolds with a slow arching chord progression that grows and dissipates like a coastal tide. Female vocals creep into the oceanic haze while fluttering noise and cosmic wash hover in obscurity. And though the rhythm-less wash may appear to be aimless improv, a close listen reveals a defined structure beneath the veil of long tones and heavy atmospherics. And yes, The Slaves are heavy. And it's not a 'down-tuned guitars through a wall of amps' kind of heavy. It's more evident in the slow movement of the songs, and the visceral effects felt by each musical gesture. The duo have perfectly crafted a searing offering of 'soft doom', so gorgeous and mesmerizing we've had Ocean on Ocean on repeat for the past week. "Shadows" is another noteworthy track. We love the push and pull of heavy synth and whispery vocals, whirls of female voice echo into the night then dissipate into huge swells of HEAVY distorted synth. Crumbling low end amid ethereal dream chants, what else could we ask for?? One of our favorite records in recent memory and highly recommended!Ê
MPEG Stream: "Seventeen"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet High"

STEEL PULSE True Democracy (Rhino / Elektra) lp 14.98
Now available on vinyl, again!
At their prime, Steel Pulse were without a doubt the best reggae band to come out of the UK, with great songwriting skills, social consciousness and songs bursting with energy and packed with infectious hooks. They were such a huge influence on so many bands in the punk and new wave world, that they were often asked by bands like The Clash, The Police, The Stranglers and Generation X to go on tour with them. In fact, much of the Police's early sound is SO obviously influenced by the music of Steel Pulse. True Democracy is really one of those records that crosses genre lines, while very much a reggae record it's amazing how many people who thought they weren't into reggae at all, heard this record playing and couldn't resist getting caught tight in its irresistible grasp. It's a record that never loses its charm or its ability to sweep us of our feet as we always walk a little faster, feel a little more free, and move with more purpose whenever we have it blasting in our ears. Originally released in 1982 and it still sounds as fresh and vital as ever!
MPEG Stream: "Ravers"
MPEG Stream: "A Who Responsible?"
MPEG Stream: "Worth His Weight In Gold (Rally Round)"

BARWICK, JULIANNA Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty) lp 14.98
We knew it was only a matter of time before the ethereal magic of Julianna Barwick's music would capture the attention and imagination of the underground music scene. After two utterly gorgeous self released albums, Asthmatic Kitty wisely stepped up to sign her and release this brand new stunning set of songs, which finds Barwick's sound becoming even more pristine and dreamy. Alongside Grouper, Barwick really is doing wonders to channel the ethereal magic of 4AD's sound via Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, and Cocteau Twins. Magic Place wastes no time heading right for the sky, which is where Barwick's songs always reside. Daydream reflections, moon worship hymns, sun cycle observations, close your eyes and let these sounds take you wherever they may. Beyond beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "Envelop"
MPEG Stream: "Prizewinning"
MPEG Stream: "White Flag"

PAPERCUTS, THE Fading Parade (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
We've always appreciated the music of the Papercuts, but we still felt like they were capable of more. Not all the elements had come together, something seemed to be missing, something kept it their sounds from achieving greatness. Always lovely and lilting and dreamily folky, but with Fading Parade, they have finally made the record they always seemed capable of creating. Perhaps it was getting signed to Sub Pop, but the Papercuts have elevated their song writing and delivery into an entirely different league. The recording of the album is so perfect in capturing a warmth and seduction in their songs that we had never felt before. Jason Quever's vocals are some of the most smooth and dreamy male vocals we've heard in such a long time.
Not to keep pressing the Sub Pop connection but we can hear sonic and song comparisons to two of the labels best releases of the last decade, Chutes Too Narrow by the Shins and Teen Dream by Beach House. From their touring with Beach House this past year, we can tell that the Papercuts were able to really learn how to incorporate such rich and hypnotizing atmospheres into their songs. We also hear a touch of the elegance of The Clientele. This is an album that's both hazy and woozy, while also being catchy and emotional and immediate. We always love when a band we've been on the fence about, makes that huge leap and delivers a record that makes us all hardcore believers!
MPEG Stream: "Do You Really Wanna Know "
MPEG Stream: "Chills "
MPEG Stream: "Charades "

EMBRUJO s/t (Normal) cd 17.98
Yay, a new reissue of this old fave! Glad to have it back. Here's what we said when we raved about an earlier edition:
Wow! While Brazil gets most of the attention in terms of creating some of the best South American psychedelic music, we've recently been checking out the left coast of the continent, namely Chile, and have been digging some amazing stuff. Perhaps it's the epic geographical relationship of mountains and coast in close proximity that inspires such transcendent music or perhaps it's the constant political unrest of the period that cultivated a longing for the more earthy populace-empowered past. Smooth romantic harmonies, ancient flutes and dreamy textures of jungle and nature sounds are all key variables in the sound of great Chilean psych bands like El Congreso, Congregacion, Kissing Spell (featured on the Love Peace and Poetry Latin America comp), and that latter band's later incarnation, Embrujo. While Kissing Spell was more of a mellow psych-pop confection singing songs in English as was the trend of Latin groups seeking to become more commercially viable, the decision to become Embrujo stemmed from a revolutionary stance possibly inspired by the Brazilian Tropicalia movement both politically and sonically, to write songs almost entirely in Spanish and create a dynamic sound on their own terms upping the ante on their songwriting craft and musicianship. What they add to the equation is gr-ooo-ve, driven along by fuzzy organ, simmering guitar and funky drumming, building on the traditional Chilean sound with fluid changes, solid rhythms, and like Os Mutantes, occasional wackiness. Tight hook-laden arrangements, lyrical breaks and progressive interludes are what make this sole 1972 album fetch astronomical prices amongst collectors of private press recordings. Embrujo means "bewitched" in Spanish, and we are positive you too will be captured by its spell! Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Voy Hacia El Sol"
MPEG Stream: "Corre A Los Campos"
MPEG Stream: "Petilu"

V/A Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Combia And Descarga Sound Of Columbia 1962-72 (Soundway) cd 16.98
Once again Soundway continues to unearth amazing tracks from yet another overlooked international scene. This collection digs into the cumbia and descarga sounds out of Columbia in the '60s to early '70s that were being released on the Discos Fuentes label. Jose Maria 'Curro' Fuentes ran the label which would become Columbia's largest. In many ways he was like the Berry Gordy of Columbia, using his immaculate taste to curate an amazing roster of musicians. Sadly most of these artists never had their music heard or even released in other parts of the globe, so this release marks the first time most of these nineteen tracks have been released anywhere outside of Columbia. The raw recordings really serve the music so well as these aren't the kind of tracks you would want overproduced or with a shiny slick veneer. Instead the infectious rhythms within the songs emerge organically with such rich and warm grooves. With sunshine time hitting us in a big way the past week, this is becoming the perfect soundtrack to outdoor get togethers and rooftop afternoons. No denying how damn hot this is!
MPEG Stream: CANTINA Y SU COMBO "Santa Marta Cumbia"
MPEG Stream: CLODOMIRO MONTES Y EL SUPER COMBO CURRO "Puerto Rico Zumbando"
MPEG Stream: ORQUESTA SONORA CURRO "Patuleco"
MPEG Stream: ALEX ACOSTA Y SU ORQUESTA "Cumbia Del Monte"

BEE GEES 1st (Reprise) cd 8.98
Previously reissued as a super fancy and pricey expanded double cd, now available as a single disc at a nice price, and even without all the extra tracks and multiple mixes, this still remains an incredible and classic sixties pop record (heck we made the deluxe reissue a Record Of The Week!) that you oughta own...
What comes to mind when you think of The Bee Gees? Saturday Night Fever? Disco? White suits? 30 years of cheesy disco dancing to "Stayin' Alive"? The awesome(ly atrocious) film version of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? SNL's "Barry Gibb Talk Show"? Probably all of those things.
Which is too bad, 'cuz if it weren't for all that stuff, maybe you'd think instead of lush melancholy experimental pop music, incredible vocal harmonies, horns, strings, orchestras, mellotrons, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Zombies...
Some of you probably have no idea what the heck we're on about, but well before disco and Saturday Night Fever and all that, way back in 1967, the Bee Gees were crafting some of the loveliest, most compellingly mysterious pop music around. With a sound that borrowed from other bands of the time, most notably the aforementioned big three, the Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Zombies, but incorporated those influences into a sound that was distinctly their own. A sound at times gorgeously classic sounding, and at others surprisingly strange and dark and experimental.
The influence of the Beatles and the Beach Boys is undeniable. The song "Please Read Me" is incredibly Beach Boys-esque, and marks the first time the group would employ falsetto vocal harmonies, obviously influenced by Brian Wilson, and which would of course become their trademark. And the cover of 1st is by the artist Klaus Voorman, who of course also designed the Beatles' Revolver. But scratch a little below the surface, and there is so much more. A musical world of dreamlike, melancholy psychedelia.
"Holiday" is a brooding and moody dirge, with haunting organ swells, and pizzicato strings, with soft horns and simple percussion, and a gorgeous vocal melody, as well as a strange and impossibly catchy bridge with simple nonsense vocals. Then there's "Red Chair, Fade Away" a dreamy, rainbow hued blast of psychedelic pop, blissed out and trippy, with tons of layered production, fuzzy guitars, jazzy horns, fluttering flute, all wrapped in a stained glass production, peppered with circusy calliopes and soaring strings.
But two of the tracks on 1st really stand out. Lovely and catchy, but so dark and emotionally intense. The first is "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You", which begins with minor key strings over monk-like chanting background vocals, before the Strawberry Fields vocals kick in, over a shuffled rhythm and some deliriously fuzzy psych guitar, with the chanting vocals resurfacing throughout the song before it fades into a truly haunting outro, just those strings and some heavily reverbed drums that stumble into the darkness. The other is the amazingly monickered "New York Mining Disaster 1941" with it's haunting nearly a capella verses (backed up by barely audible guitar strumming WAY down in the mix), jangly guitars, throbbing simple percussion, the whole track mournful and melancholy, the minor key brightening briefly for the chorus before drifting back into haunting melancholia. The track is laced with strange funereal strings, and again the vocals are just so beautiful, lush and dreamy.
The rest of the record is just as fantastic, every song a strange gem, it's difficult to pick which ones to mention, you'll of course recognize "To Love Somebody", which while not a huge hit for them (although it did crack the top 20), has become an international pop standard, and was originally a track the band wrote for Otis Redding, but their version is better, so lush and rife with layer after layer of instrumentation, as well as some amazing melodic flourishes left off subsequent cover versions, then there's "Cucumber Castle" with its super dramatic strings, Spanish sounding trumpets, moaning cellos, and bizarre player piano background trills, all behind a main melody that is so unbelievably catchy... we could go on and on and on. Needless to say, it's difficult to not go all gushy and declare this as one of the all time greatest pop records. But what the heck, it is! Listen to this enough and you just may banish all thoughts of white suits and light up dancefloors from your head forever!
MPEG Stream: "To Love Somebody"
MPEG Stream: "Holiday"
MPEG Stream: "New York Mining Disaster 1941"

RONETTES, THE Be My Baby: The Very Best Of The Ronettes (Phil Spector Records / Legacy) cd 13.98
Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, Girls At Dawn, and on and on. So many of our favorite lo-fi garage pop bands of the last few years share one common bond, a deep love and appreciation for Phil Spector's production and the girl groups that he helped bring to life. When it comes to his production and THAT sound he perfected, it just doesn't get more classic than with The Ronettes. The 'Wall of Sound', the drenched reverb, the hypnotic warmth, the catchy melodies, the heartache and yearning.
Makes it extra heartbreaking and bittersweet to revisit these songs knowing all we do now about the troubling relationship that Phil Spector and Ronnie Spector had and of course the ongoing black cloud that haunts Spector's life. But no one can ever take away the amazing and revolutionary sounds he helped create with The Ronettes. These recordings really did help shape the landscape of so much of the best pop music that would follow over the next quarter century. From The Beach Boys to The Ramones, all of the greats have been influenced by the sounds of The Ronettes.
MPEG Stream: "I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine"
MPEG Stream: "Be My Baby"
MPEG Stream: "Walking In The Rain"
MPEG Stream: "Here I Sit"

BARWICK, JULIANNA Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty) cd 14.98
We knew it was only a matter of time before the ethereal magic of Julianna Barwick's music would capture the attention and imagination of the underground music scene. After two utterly gorgeous self released albums, Asthmatic Kitty wisely stepped up to sign her and release this brand new stunning set of songs, which finds Barwick's sound becoming even more pristine and dreamy. Alongside Grouper, Barwick really is doing wonders to channel the ethereal magic of 4AD's sound via Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, and Cocteau Twins. Magic Place wastes no time heading right for the sky, which is where Barwick's songs always reside. Daydream reflections, moon worship hymns, sun cycle observations, close your eyes and let these sounds take you wherever they may. Beyond beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "Envelop"
MPEG Stream: "Prizewinning"
MPEG Stream: "White Flag"

BELONG Common Era (Kranky) cd 14.98
There are certain sounds we can just never get enough of. Belong have always trafficked in one of those sounds, a blurred, bleary washed out droney, druggy drift, everything hazy and gauzy and pixelated, crumbling melodies, slow shifting textures, like old pop songs broadcast through broken transistor radios, or alien transmissions distorted by millions of miles of space and millions of years, every song some sort of dizzyingly smeared blown out, hushed and haunting dronescape, all thrum and shimmer, rumble and whir. It's a sound practiced by others for sure, but there is most definitely a pantheon, a royalty of sorts, and alongside Tim Hecker, Philip Jeck and few others, so too do sit Belong.
It's been maybe 5 years since their last proper full length, the gloriously abstract and distorted loveliness that was October Language, and since then, they've released a single 4 song ep, a record of covers, but of course utterly transformed, the very poppiness of the originals buried underneath layer upon layer of murk and grim and buzz and crunch, and again all stretched and blurred and smeared into these fantastical miniature epics, these avant pop flecked drones, warm and whirling and completely mesmerizing.
Looking back now, listening to Common Era, Belong's brand new full length, it's easy to say, that those covers were already hinting at a sonic shift, a move toward something more traditionally pop, a gradual approach to something more structured, more overtly pop, but the 'pop' of those songs is WAY removed from the pop found here, for Common Era has taken all that fantastic shoegaziness and shimmery ambience, and wrapped it around real and proper pop songs. Simple propulsive percussion, minimal guitar jangle, swaths of swirling keyboards, hushed breathy vox, everything reverbed and echoey and washed out, a sort of eighties style new wave minimal pop, but of course in the hands of Belong, it becomes something more ethereal, ghostly, ephemeral, druggy and dreamy.
Imagine My Bloody Valentine crossed with Tim Hecker crossed with Felt, maybe stir in some of Ariel Pink's idiosyncratic faux FM radio pop, and that's these perfect abstract, minimal chunks of lilting jangle, often buried in billowing clouds of warm swirling FX and softly distorted shimmer, but just as often, with much of the noisiness peeled back, leaving just some pure pop, and even then, it's muted and muddied, like it's being broadcast from some rift in time, a sort of blurred transmission from the past, pretty fantastic. Some of the tracks get downright spacey too, a sort of kraut flecked hypnorock, the takes the minimal repetitive psych of groups like Moon Duo or Wooden Shjips, and slathers on tons more echo and reverb, wreaths everything in blurred synth swirls, and fuzzy low end pulses, and lets the songs just sort of ooze and drift and hover, gradually becoming less and less pop, and more loose and abstract and woozy and washed out and dreamy. But ALL the tracks on Common Era never fully give up the pop. For all the droniness, and the minimal FX drenched soundscapery, this is essentially a gorgeous, albeit, strange and mysterious, pop record.
The funny thing is, since these guys are on Kranky, and their last few records were more minimal and droney and avant, this record will essentially be considered art, a sort of high brow minimalist pop music, or some sort of dronepop, and so, of course, all the folks who love everything Kranky, will no doubt dig this like crazy, as they should. But had this been a super limited cd-r, or been released on Not Not Fun or maybe Olde English Spelling Bee, this would be hailed as THEE lysergic lo-fi minimal bedroom pop jam of the year. WHICH IT IS. Too. In fact, Belong have managed to somehow make a record that's both a strange druggy lo-fi pop record, and a super abstract avant bit of poppy droney prettiness. And we LOVE it.
MPEG Stream: "Come See"
MPEG Stream: "Never Came Close"
MPEG Stream: "A Walk"

HARVEY, PJ Let England Shake (Vagrant / Island) cd 15.98
Over the last decade, PJ Harvey has proven to be one of the most versatile, unpredictable and unique artists around. From polished and poppy (Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea), to lo-fi (Uh Huh Her), to raw, intimate and devastating (White Chalk), along with an amazing ongoing collaboration with John Parish. So we had no idea which side of PJ Harvey would emerge on this long awaited new full length, and that's actually now part of the fun when anticipating a new record from her. There is no question it will be great, it's just a matter of what shape of great it will be.
Let England Shake is a song cycle about England that takes its cues from battle hymns and as always Harvey's lyrics are both cryptic and complex, without being overbearing. Alongside her longtime collaborators Flood, Mick Harvey and again John Parish, this is a record that sounds like it was made by a proper band, unlike the ultra personal presentation of White Chalk. But just like everything PJ Harvey has released over the years, its an album that reveals its intimacy and emotion upon repeated listens, an album that is already getting under our skin in the best of ways.
MPEG Stream: "Let England Shake"
MPEG Stream: "The Glorious Land"
MPEG Stream: "In The Dark Places"

BASINSKI, WILLIAM A Red Score In Tile (Streamline) cd 14.98
The tape loop that William Basinski sources on A Red Score In Tile, dates back to 1979 during that manic period in Basinski's life when he was cataloguing shortwave radio noises, bittersweet sounding moments in muzak's mood engineering, and various piano extracts - all of which ending up on tape loops in the way that a lot of people build photo collections of the events, people, and places around them. But beginning around 1998, Basinski began to transcribe those tape loops digitally, finding an immense source for his future compositions that all heavily incorporate the slow-motion, sleepwalking murkiness of those original tape loops to their fullest advantage within his elliptical hypnosis of emotive tone and drone.
He actualized A Red Score In Tile first in 2003 for a piece of vinyl issued by the Chalk / Heemann label Three Poplars; of course, it quickly went out of print. This new cd version is a slightly different mix (only in that the piece isn't split over two sides, tracking instead about 45 minutes or so).
But for that tape loop, we're told the sole source is a piano, but it could have easily come from some of the bleak incidental music that Lalo Schifrin composed on the Rhodes for Dirty Harry. It's also incredibly prescient of the blackened 'horror jazz' from Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. This loop might only be cycling through an endless repetition, but it really doesn't sound that way. An atmosphere of urban decay hangs upon these broken notes, amplified by the vaporous reverb that oozes in, through, above, and below Basinski's sound. Of course, Basinski's music has long spoken of the elegant corrosion of sound, spoken most concisely through his epic Disintegration Loops series. But where the physical act of disintegration mirrors that of the sound itself, the sonic decay of A Red Score In Tile is spellbindingly subtle, and might actually be a grand illusion sparked by Basinksi's part works and deft ability to make a simple tape loop sublime. As a result, A Red Score In Tile is a stunning disc, one that ranks very highly within Basinski's always impressive catalog of recordings. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "A Red Score In Tile"

RIDE Nowhere (Sire) cd 8.98
My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, Slowdive's Soulvaki, Mazzy Star's So Tonight That I Might See - there are just some records that stand especially tall amongst the pantheon of shoegaze's finest moments. Ride's album Nowhere belongs right there too, as one of our all time favorites, a truly perfect album from start to finish, that has most definitely stood the test of time. While Ride made some other cool records, they never were able to duplicate the genius of Nowhere. A record that soars and floats with such emotional honesty as well as that dazed 'n glazed vibe that has made it one of those records we've turned at so many different times in our lives. It came out in 1990 and really served as a perfect extension of what folks in the '80s like The Jesus & Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, The Durutti Column, Loop, and The Cure were doing, infusing that sound with an even deeper emotional quality as well as lots of psychedelic undertones, creating music that soared and floated with dreamy ease and driving force.
No matter how hyperbolic we get, we simply can't even get close to describing how much this record means to so many of us. We've turned to it in moments of despair, we've cranked it with windows down on endless drives with crushes and close friends, we've shacked up alone in our bedrooms with this playing during intense moments of loneliness, we've lain in beds with the ones we love lingering in ecstasy as it plays. It's a record that has and will continue to be such a constant source of pleasure for our ears and minds, hearts and souls.
Rhino recently reissued the vinyl and there have been rumors about a special deluxe double cd edition but those haven't yet surfaced here. But we were able to get our hands on the original Sire cd release of Nowhere at a special low price and if you don't have it YOU NEED THIS!
MPEG Stream: "Vapour Trail"
MPEG Stream: "In A Different Place"
MPEG Stream: "Seagull"

RIDE Nowhere (Rhino) lp 19.98
My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, Slowdive's Soulvaki, Mazzy Star's So Tonight That I Might See - there are just some records that stand especially tall in the pantheon of shoegaze's finest moments. Ride's album Nowhere belongs right there too, as one of our all time favorites, a truly perfect album from start to finish, that has most definitely stood the test of time. While Ride made some other cool records, they never were able to duplicate the genius of Nowhere. A record that soars and floats with such emotional honesty as well as that dazed 'n glazed vibe that has made it one of those records we've turned at so many different times in our lives. It came out in 1990 and really served as a perfect extension of what folks in the '80s like The Jesus & Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, The Durutti Column, Loop, and The Cure were doing, infusing that sound with an even deeper emotional quality as well as lots of psychedelic undertones, creating music that soared and floated with dreamy ease and driving force.
No matter how hyperbolic we get, we simply can't even get close to describing how much this record means to so many of us. We've turned to it in moments of despair, we've cranked it with windows down on endless drives with crushes and close friends, we've shacked up alone in our bedrooms with this playing during intense moments of loneliness, we've lain in beds with the ones we love lingering in ecstasy as it plays. It's a record that has and will continue to be such a constant source of pleasure for our ears and minds, hearts and souls.
Long out of print, we are SO stoked that Rhino has stepped up to reissue this classic on vinyl now! YOU NEED THIS! (There's also supposedly a special deluxe double cd edition on Rhino that includes a whole mess of bonus tracks, we haven't been able to get our hands on that yet, however.)

SONIC YOUTH Simon Werner A Disparu (SYR) lp 14.98
As much as we dig pretty much all the Sonic Youth records, from Evol to Sister, Daydream Nation to Dirty, even Rather Ripped and Murray Street, we definitely find ourselves a little partial to the group's SYR releases, various records that for whatever reason the band opted to release themselves, the sound usually well removed from the indie noise pop of their proper records, and focusing on collaborations, live performances, odds and ends, and even soundtracks.
Simon Werner A Disparu is a collection of music SY recorded last year for the latest film by French director Fabrice Gobert. The group approached it like any musician scoring a film, watching the rushes and dailies, and crafting their songs and sounds into cues that fit the action on screen. But when it came time to release those recordings separate from the film, the band decided to return to the studio and rework the various cues into SY songs, creating altered versions and new compositions by taking those various cues and the numerous sonic fragments employed for the score, and weaving them together, layering them on top of each other, pulling them apart and reconfiguring them, essentially transforming the score into what is now less a soundtrack, and more an actual Sonic Youth record. And a pretty great one at that.
Performed by classic SY lineup: Thurston, Kim, Lee, and Steve (with longtime SY collaborator Jim O'Rourke on one track), from the first track it's immediately recognizable as Sonic Youth, dark and mesmerizingly droney, shuffling rhythms, percussive guitar scrape and crunch, that gives way to a woozy loping slightly gnarled groove, rife with spidery guitar melodies and swirling guitar ambience. "Alice Et Simon" is up next and is classic Sonic Youth, it's almost impossible to keep from constantly expecting Thurston's vocals to come in any second, but they never do, instead the band weave a lush bit of softly atonal jangle and crystalline chordal shimmer. And so it goes, a series of instrumental SY jams, all propulsive motorik drumming, low slung bass thrum, and a gorgeously cacophonic symphony of angular guitars, from warm melodies to grinding crunch, chiming chords over warped melodic squiggles, all wreathed in plenty of crackle and buzz and the occasional strange effects.
The final track finds the band joined by Jim O'Rourke for a sprawling 13 minute epic, droney and krauty, the sound shifting from shuffling jangle to super melodic slow build moodiness, to full bore psychedelic chaos to abstract ambient free noise exploration, culminating in a gorgeous droned out hypno-kraut outro.
So good! And makes us want to see the movie now too!
MPEG Stream: "Theme De Jeremie"
MPEG Stream: "Alice Et Simon"
MPEG Stream: "Les Anges Au Piano"
MPEG Stream: "Chez Yves (Alice Et Clara)"

CUT COPY Zonoscope (Modular) cd 12.98
The last album from Australia's Cut Copy, In Ghost Color, is without a doubt one of our most listened to pop records of the last several years. It proved to have such amazing legs and grew on us so much so that even when we look back at the initial review we wrote, we would change it to speak more to what a perfect offering of uplifting, ecstatic pop it truly is. Zonoscope keeps our full on love for Cut Copy going super strong, as this album further proves these guys as some of the most skilled and talented folks around at crafting infectious and memorable pop that sticks in your head and seeps into your skin like crazy!
They take the blueprints of the Hacienda sound (Happy Mondays, New Order, etc.) and flesh it out with such a crisp and focused delivery that definitely taps into what folks like M83 have been moving towards in recent years. With nods to OMD, Erasure, Tears For Fears, Pet Shop Boys, even Men At Work on "Take Me Over" and of course New Order, CC have found a way to merge the romantic and dance minded side of '80s pop music glory into a sound that is so totally modern and refreshing. You can also tell they have a HUGE appreciation for the dynamic epic/huge pop sound that folks like ELO, Queen, and Cheap Trick were carving out in the '70s and have figured out how to inject a modern sensibility into that classic pop prowess.
Listening to Cut Copy is like being shot up with a rush of adrenaline and endless energy. All you want to do is jump and dance and run and accomplish all the things you have your heart set on. Not many folks are able to truly inspire that reaction with their music. Zonoscope is proving to be the greatest pop record so far in 2011 and we have a feeling at the end of the year we will still be saying the same thing.
MPEG Stream: "Need You Now"
MPEG Stream: "Pharaohs & Pyramids"
MPEG Stream: "Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat"

PSYCHIC REALITY Vibrant New Age (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98
We almost thought we would never get to list this. When we first got it Vibrant New Age in stock, it flew out the door and we were never able to get enough copies back in to review, depriving us of the opportunity to gush about how much we love this album. Luckily we were finally able to get our hands on a stack of these, a record that ranks near the top of the list of the awesome sounds Not Not Fun has been releasing over the last few years by folks like Sun Araw, Ducktails, Maria Minerva, and LA Vampires. After a slew of limited run cassettes, cd-r's as well as splits with LA Vampires and Sex Worker, Vibrant New Age finds Psychic Reality really taking her sound to the next level. Stuttered synths and analog electronics creating a sound that blasts with radiant color and a warped left-field pop sensibility. In fact the record sort of sounds like what it might be like to show up at a late night dance party only to discover a secret side room filled with smoke, candles, and languid bodies brushing up against each other creating magical sparks that bring about a shift of energy. Like our favorite parts of Gang Gang Dance and Peaking Lights, or how we daydream a collaboration between Fever Ray, Throbbing Gristle and Lizzy Mercier Descloux would sound. Intoxicating, intense and full of a haunting potency.
Jump on this fast, as we're not sure if we will be able to get more once this batch is gone.

TENNIS Cape Dory (Fat Possum) cd 14.98
Hot damn! The amazing girl group inspired sounds just keep on coming, and Tennis are serving them up in such an irresistible fashion. We knew very little about this Colorado husband/wife outfit before Cape Dory came our way, but once it hit our ears we jumped aboard their timeless yet fresh approach to bringing rich harmony and hooks into driving, melodic songs that are so so catchy. Alaina Moore's vocals are truly the driving force that makes Tennis rise to the top of the recent wave of like-minded bands, her voice is beyond warm, seductive and engaging. If you've been swept up by groups like Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, Aias, and Girls At Dawn, we promise you'll find Tennis to be your next fix. We are so addicted, and have a feeling we are going to be playing Tennis all year long!
PS. we were tempted to go even more overboard with the tennis cliches, but we still say this is one ace of a record!
MPEG Stream: "Take Me Somewhere"
MPEG Stream: "Marathon"
MPEG Stream: "Pigeon"

DEATH Spiritual Mental Physical (Drag City) cd 14.98
The rabid response to Drag City's monumental release of Death's For The Whole World To See - a lost classic if there ever was one - had people everywhere foaming at the mouth for MORE MORE MORE Death. It was really hard to believe that such a primal and emotive slab of heavy punkish rock n' roll could have gone UNRELEASED since its 1975 recording, nor that there could be even MORE in the vaults. Yet astonishingly, Drag City have once again come through with this awesome collection of demo tracks from these Detroit rockers - the brothers Hackney - recorded by the band in their practice space between 1974-1976, some of which served as preproduction for the album proper. The sound here is raw, upfront, and bullshit-free, and like FTWWTS, quite a revelation when one considers the state of rock music before punk exploded. While comparing these guys to Bad Brains may seem a bit cynical at first - ya know, both being all-black rock bands seeming to exist in a world of their own - it really is an apt comparison, especially if anyone is familiar (as they should be) with the Bad Brains' demo album Black Dots. Like those songs, the sound here is swinging and kinda loose without too much fuzz or distortion muddying things up. There are definite nods to the heavier sounds of the late '60s/early '70s (think Alice Cooper, Sabbath, etc.) AND the Beatles ("The Masks" shifting from mean power chords into a brilliant, scuzzed out appropriation of "Got To Get You Into My Life"), and throughout there is a surprising melodicism (check out the tuneful guitar workout of "The Change") and vocals that often rise into the manic screams we all loved from the album proper. The brothers seem to know exactly where to take things, which isn't surprising considering they had been jamming together since the '60s. The lyrics are also awesome, focusing on the state of the world and where things might be heading. There's also some in-the-practice space experimenting thrown in at the end, hinting at possible directions the band unfortunately never headed in before dissolving.
While this might not be For The Whole To See Pt. II, it is nonetheless an essential slab of proto-punk greatness by a band who is finally getting their due, and we couldn't be happier to have this in our dirty little hands. YEAH!
MPEG Stream: "Views"
MPEG Stream: "The Masks"
MPEG Stream: "The Change"

CHROMATICS IV: Night Drive Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Deluxe) (Italians Do It Better) cd 13.98
REPRESSED!!! Now including the "lost side" of unreleased tracks featured on the recent deluxe vinyl version.
Ooooh Ahhhhh! This one has been sizzling in our ears pretty much on endless repeat since it showed up at the store. Chromatics have undergone a pretty radical change from their early herky-jerky no-wave inspired beginnings, as showcased on the amazing and scene defining After Dark comp that we recently listed, and are still so in love with. Chromatics now have a sound that is much more sensual, subdued and spaced out. And we have to say we are loving this new direction. I definitely suits them so much more naturally than their noisier punky past.
With a sound much more rooted in early drugged out disco and '80s Euro-pop, Night Drive is sparse and melancholic enough to reel in folks whose taste usually falls on the darker end of the spectrum yet with songs so damn sexy and enticing that those of us with dance and pop leanings are seduced by their sound as well. With Ruth Radalet's vocals sounding like they are being delivered in a dark room filled with fog and smoke, there is such an intoxicating late night vibe that Chromatics tap into which feels so vacant and so sexy in the best possible way. They take on the daunting task of covering Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" and manage to make it their own, no small feat as that is a song with such deep meaning for so many of us. So damn good!
MPEG Stream: "Night Drive"
MPEG Stream: "The Killing Spree"
MPEG Stream: "Running Up That Hill"

WHITE FENCE Is Growing Faith (Woodsist) cd 13.98
We loved the White Fence record from last year, but nothing could have prepared us for what an amazing slice of warped '60s inspired psych pop they would conjure up on this mind blowing sophomore effort. Recorded with an analog warmth that melts and rocks and is so totally satisfying, overflowing with songs that rife with hooks and charisma galore, keeping us wanting more and more.
While influenced by the sounds of like Syd Barrett, Donovan, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, early Who, The Kinks or some track from a Nuggets compilation that would blow your mind, the secret to White Fence's greatness is that they don't just sound like a band from a different era, but they take some of those elements in creating such a warm and woozy vibe, with a set of songs that's had us under a spell we never want to get out from under. So damn good!
MPEG Stream: "And By Always"
MPEG Stream: "Growing Faith"
MPEG Stream: "Sticky Fruitman Has Faith"
MPEG Stream: "Your Last Friend Alive"

TWIN SHADOW Forget (Terrible) cd 10.98
Wow, this swooning, rich pop record has been seeping into our souls in such satisfying ways. The debut full length from Twin Shadow is one of the most emotionally brooding and satisfying albums we've heard in a long time. Makes perfect sense that Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear not only produced it, but also released it on his own label, Terrible. You can tell how Taylor would find a kindred spirit in the kind of music Twin Shadow makes, as it has the warmth and emotional richness that Grizzly Bear have become famous for. But Twin Shadow's music owes much more to the new romantics of the '80s, as it has us recalling folks like Talk Talk, The Smiths, Duran Duran, Japan, and later era OMD. George Lewis, Jr, who is the man behind Twin Shadow has such a memorable and seductive voice. While many of his peers have been tapping into the colder or kooky side of the '80s, he is able to get to the more fragile and heart stirring side of that decade's pop music. Some songs on the album even remind us of Richard Youngs' great pop outing, Beyond The Valley Of The Ultrahits. We have yet to play this once without someone in the store needing to know what they were hearing. It's that immediate and evocative and so damn good!
MPEG Stream: "Tyrant Destroyed"
MPEG Stream: "Tether Beat"
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Wait"

EL MICHELS AFFAIR Walk On By: A Tribute To Black Moses (Truth & Soul) cd 14.98
El Michels Affair and Budos Band should have some crazy battle of the amazing modern soul/funk bands sometime, because both groops are such heavy hot groovers in their own takes on instrumental soul/funk. Last time we heard from El Michels Affair they were interpreting the work of Wu Tang Clan in a way that was strong and soulful and not at all some sort of gimmick. They have returned, doing the same to the amazing music of Isaac Hayes, paying tribute to him by interpreting his songs (both his hits and more obscure tracks) in such a rich and free flowing way. They don't try to mimmick the originals, instead they really do inject a new vibe and energy into them, and they help remind us all that Isaac Hayes was much more than just Shaft, or a cartoon character on South Park, but in fact one of the most brilliant musical minds of our time. This sizzles and burns with such delight! Some parts remind us of the slinky grooves on that Xero soundtrack by Rockford Kabine.
MPEG Stream: "Walk On By"
MPEG Stream: "Hung Up On My Baby"
MPEG Stream: "Shaft"

SOFT MOON, THE s/t (Captured Tracks) cd 13.98
Ok, bear with us here... Might anybody remember Steve Trecasse? We're guessing the answer is no. He has been a small-time music producer, who worked at a time for MTV way back in the mid-to-late '80s. He was responsible for all of the music on the shortlived MTV gameshow Remote Control, but he also composed the theme song for the first incarnation of 120 Minutes. The show grew into a rather banal rehash of major label sponsored "alternative" music, but the early years had some genuine underground acts showcasing their videos. Live Skull, Swans, Sonic Youth, and Loop were some of the more atypical groups to get their videos on the air, alongside more conventional college rock favorites like The Sugarcubes, Love & Rockets, and They Might Be Giants. But that theme song hedged toward the darker, grittier sound through a throbbing electronic underbelly girding an air-raid siren guitar swarm which was not too far from a Skullflower (circa Birthdeath & Form Destroyer) / Sigue Sigue Sputnik / Joy Division hybrid as bafflingly awesome as that may seem. Another weird piece of trivia about that theme song was that it was performed by Trecasse with Doug Di Franco (who might just be Double Dee, turntablist Steinski's partner in crime) and Josh Braun (who seems to be the same dude who played keyboards in Circus Mort, which was Michael Gira's band before Swans). Anyway, that theme song proved to be more haunting and menacing than anything else that 120 Minutes dared to broadcast. It is a bit strange that a song that good, that dark, and that bleak would make it as a theme song for anything, much less for MTV. While that track is clearly something for somebody to dig up beyond an odd YouTube clip here or there, the fact remains that The Soft Moon has unintentionally arrived at this exact same psychic, sonic environment, nearly 25 years later, in an act of convoluted convergent evolution.
The Soft Moon is the post-punk / minimal wave project fronted by Oakland's wunderkid Luis Vasquez, whose eagerly awaited debut album is the perfect extension of his two teasing singles which emerged on Captured Tracks earlier in 2010. Guitars, bass, keyboards, drum machines, and a whispered vocal delivery all come together in a series of monochromatic, mechanical, and gloomy propulsions that fit within the current resurgence of Factory inspired alienation through sound. Amongst his death disco vibes and downer post-punk dirges, Vasquez has a knack for an icy noise quotient that glides through the springy basslines and taut rhythms. Layers drift throughout each song, building never as anything so garish as a solo, but more as a scabrous doppleganger of the songs arching mood. These are tonebent squalls of atonal screeches exhumed from a lo-fi murk and rinsed in pools of reverb, very much like those really early Skullflower recordings when Gary Mundy and Stefan Jaworzyn provided the twin guitar attack. Where Skullflower had a drug-fuelled nihilism at their core, The Soft Moon is more of an alchemist of gloom, doubling rhythms with staccato electronics and downtuned Killing Joke-ish basslines to what would have been a standard Goth plod. In many ways, it makes perfect sense that The Soft Moon has landed on Captured Tracks, as he's mining the same aesthetic surfaces of Blank Dogs, but where Blank Dogs holds back with a subtle irony, The Soft Moon fully embraces the gloom of this music; thus making this one of the best records of 2010 that everybody will be hearing in 2011. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Breathe The Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Circles"
MPEG Stream: "Out Of Time"
MPEG Stream: "Tiny Spiders"

BLUNT, DOUG HREAM Gentle Persuasion (self-released) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's pretty phenomenal that this record went from getting the suspicious side-eye when we first took it in on consignment, to becoming one of our favorite "WTF?" records of the year! When it first appeared, no one seemed to know where it came from (it had been brought in by Blunt himself, one day). And we weren't too sold on the cover, a generic photograph that looked like it was shot in the eighties, of this fellow Blunt, standing with a woman (a close friend of his, in a head to toe orange outfit that looks like it could have been prison garb, and who as it turns out, may no longer be alive) in front of a Mercedes parked in front of the mural on the side of the O'Farrell Theater on Polk street in San Francisco. Also, whenever there's a bunch of "ASCAP" logos plastered all over the front and back cover, our internal "uh-oh" meter goes way off.
So it just sat on our new arrivals shelf for a few weeks. But then a couple of folks (one of whom runs the Gloriette label, who have supplied us with some Ariel Pink and Nite Jewel records) started asking about it, because they had heard about this record, so we gave it a listen and were pretty surprised and rather blown away by what we were hearing. A lo-fi but breezy outsider funk, made with repetitive cheap-sounding keyboards loops and tones (the kind being currently exploited by Dam-Funk, Ariel Pink, and James Pants), strange metallic tropical guitar tones that sound more like steel drums and flute sounds than actual guitar, and sly, laid-back vocals and catchy, infectiously naive grooves that work their way into our heads and never let go. Everybody here ended up really really digging it.
We sold one copy immediately to someone in the store when playing it, and then when we tried to contact Blunt to get more copies, we discovered that somehow we'd neglected to get his contact info, d'oh! The cd had no contact information, and searches online only revealed that the title track, a raunchy but coded come-on to a sexy stranger, was included on a James Pants mix. This only piqued our interest further, as Blunt's skewed Caribbean inflected songs would obviously be simpatico with James Pants' more recent tropical themed output. We could also see folks into Ariel Pink and Dam-Funk getting WAY into this. So we thought maybe this record was a rare private press record from the eighties. It does seem to have a strange hard-to-pin-down-time-wise quality.
Thankfully, Blunt eventually came back in and we got more copies and found out that he had pressed vinyl copies too. He also told us that this record was recorded ten years ago in 2000, but that didn't diminish our new found love for this record's questionable mystery, as it still predates all of the artists mentioned above that it reminds us of, though we're pretty sure Blunt probably has never heard of any of them. It also has the left of center oddness of other outsider funk artists like Tonetta, or Wicked Witch, albeit way more toned down than either of those two. Not that it's completely off the wall weird, but it's one of those records that we went into with such hesitation and were pleasantly surprised that we then became totally enamored with its home-brewed charm.
The lp is 5 tracks, with extra shorter versions of the songs "Fly Guy" and "Gentle Persuasion" and comes housed in an old school white cut-out 12" sleeve. The cd version has two extra songs and instrumental versions of four of the tracks. Oh, and the vinyl has a gold star sticker that boldly proclaims "HIT!" We couldn't agree more!
MPEG Stream: "Fly Guy"
MPEG Stream: "Gentle Persuasion"
MPEG Stream: "Wiskey Man"

GROUPER Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (Grouper Records) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The THIRD repress of this exquisite album on vinyl. If you missed it the last two times, don't expect this one to last any longer! The only difference is the black & white artwork, but the musical content is the same. Here's what we said way back when...
Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill opens with an entirely characteristic yet coy swell of effected elemental smear, crumbling delicately yet forcefully, until giving way to what is, to date, and here is the coy part, Liz Harris' most songwriterly and structured album. As opposed to the rich swaths of drone that up until now defined her sound, Harris has shifted from the abstract towards a more distinct and figurative sound. True to the title, the record unfolds like a sort of mysterious and morbid fairytale, innocent in its clear and elegant melodies, yet creepy and highly abstract in its more droney and sublime interludes. For the most part, her guitar playing is laid bare, removed from the dense fog of effects that typically occlude them. And what we discover is actually a pretty strummy record, with plenty of clean guitar articulation though certainly the aroma of her previous tech heavy approach remains in what is relatively speaking still pretty effected. At times she even reverts back to the gorgeous icey crunchy string attack of some previous efforts. With so much space liberated in the absence of drones, we also get to hear her stunning voice. Furthermore, the occasional audible lyric creeps to the surface, one standout fragment being "Love Is Enormous," a somewhat shockingly affirmative sentiment from an otherwise darkly mysterious and abstract persona. From start to finish Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill lulls you into its graceful murmurings and hypnotic thrumming. An exquisite addition to an already compelling discography. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Disengaged"
MPEG Stream: "Heavy Water/ I'd Rather Be Sleeping"

MONTGOMERY, ROY / GROUPER split (Grouper Records) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We had a vinyl version of this split between ethereal bliss-scaper Liz Harris aka Grouper, and legendary NZ guitarist Roy Montgomery, a while back, but we got so few copies, and had such a rush on the ones we did get, that we never had a chance to review it, and thus it never even made it up onto the site. But now it's finally been reissued on cd, and with a bonus Roy Montgomery track to boot!
Roy's original track/side was a gorgeously epic bit of dreamy strum and steel string drift, titled "Fantasia On A Theme By Sandy Bull (Slight Return)", just that instantly recognizable guitar, a cloud of buzzing steel strings, a sort of blissed out Appalachia spread out over nearly 20 minutes, the sound slipping smoothly from that urgent strum, to something much more hushed and minimal, abstract and softly space-y, and over the course of the track, drifting between the two. Hypnotic and haunting and quite lovely.
His bonus track is a billowy cloud of chiming shimmering guitar, sweet melancholy melodies, piled atop a jangly strum, notes wreathed in delay and reverb and echo, the sound somehow both ethereal and propulsive, ghostly and insistent, the sounds hazy and gauzy and washed out, but subtly tense, with a sense of mystery and loss and longing, the aural equivalent of watching the world through rain slicked windows, in fact, Montgomery seems impossibly deft at creating the perfect rainy day soundtrack.
Grouper's half of the split begins with "Hollow Press", and the sound of whispering wind, for nearly two minutes, before ethereal effected vocals drift in, floating atop the swirling soft white noise, which leads directly into "Vessel", a haunting elegy of weirdly distorted guitar, unfurled in spidery tendrils, the vocals nearly free of effects, and sounding as angelic as ever, a gorgeous hushed lullaby. "Hold The Way" is another gentle bit of crystalline drift, a looped muted guitar figure, undulating softly beneath sweetly crooned vox, a dream pop slowed down and blurred into something much more ethereal and ephemeral. Finally, "Pulse" sends reverbed guitars drifting from speaker to speaker, the stereo field dizzyingly panned, softly psychedelic, slowly the wind returns, and guitar fading out leaving just the sound of wind, and a barking dog, a hazy outro of found sound, wiping away all the traces of the sounds that came before, like the surf smoothing out sand on the beach. So Lovely.
The new cd version is housed in a swank digipak, and is still most likely WAY too limited...
MPEG Stream: GROUPER "Hollow Press"
MPEG Stream: ROY MONTGOMERY "Vessel"
MPEG Stream: "Fantasia on a Theme by Sandy Bull (Slight Return)"

NO JOY Ghost Blonde (Mexican Summer) lp 24.00
These days noise pop bands are a dime a dozen. And we could count the number of shoegaze bands popping up on one hand, if that hand had about thousands fingers, and to be fair, it's a sound we love, and so in many cases, we can be less than discerning, we just love hearing those thick coruscating guitars, the soaring melodies, the lush walls of sound, spaced out and dreamy and fuzzy and buzzy and blissy. So what is it exactly that makes a band stand out from the pack? Songs, sure, you can't be a pop band of any stripe without songs. But it's more than that. Something ineffable. Songs sure, and the sound, of course, but just as importantly there are a handful of intangibles that all have to fall into place perfectly. Or at least perfectly IMperfectly. And more often than not, it's not something that can be created consciously. All a band can really do, is to follow their hearts, create the sound they hear in their heads, and try their best to realize that sound, to render that sound in all the glorious shades and colors and textures it needs to become more than just music, to transcend and become something magical, something special.
And that happens more than one might think, or expect, enough monkeys with typewriters as the saying goes, or in this case enough punk rock kids with guitars and a 4 track. Most recently it was the amazing record by Bay Area outfit Weekend, whose record captured everything we love about this sound, and now there's this, the debut full length from female fronted shoegaze noisepoppers No Joy, which moniker be damned, is about the most gloriously joyful record we've heard in ages.
In some ways, No Joy's Ghost Blonde is the perfect compliment to that Weekend record, a distinctly feminine variation of the same formula, the overall sound is more dreampoppy and hazy, the vocals ethereal and ephemeral and is the perfect counterpoint to the bands thick wall of sound, infusing clean guitar jangle, a distinctly nineties indie rock vibe, all wound into a pretty perfect chunk of pure pop JOY.
If you're anything like us, it should only take about the first 60 seconds of album opener "Mediumship" thick crunchy jangle guitar wrapped in a field of wild tangled feedback, the vocals drifty and pretty, and then when the song kicks in, we're totally transported, crunchy, fuzzy, hooky, heavy, shoegazey-y, plenty of ooooh's and aaaaah's, the sort of song you never want to end, and that you'll find yourself playing over and over and over. Which pretty much applies to every track here.
There are definitely some broodier moments, and some abstract psychedelic ambient drift, even some slightly atonal Sonic Youth inspired guitar tangle, but those elements are smoothly woven into the group's hazy, softly noisy, girl groupish, crunchy, jangly shoegazey dream pop bliss.
Definite contender for pop record of the year, and a record which will no doubt send lots of folks scrambling to redo their prematurely finished year end lists! Rightfully so!
MPEG Stream: "Mediumship"
MPEG Stream: "Heedless"
MPEG Stream: "Maggie Says I Love You"

FOREST SWORDS Dagger Paths (No Rain In Pop) cd 14.98
How could we NOT make a record described as 'drone-step' our Record Of The Week? Well, we couldn't. Not. We could not. So we did. We made the lp version of Dagger Paths, the full length debut of drone-steppers Forest Swords, our Record Of The Week back in March. And now it's been released on cd, with TWO bonus tracks to boot, so it seemed like a no brainer, another chance for folks who may have missed it the first time around, for the turntable-less, and for the folks who can't get enough drone-step, here it is again, aQ Record Of The Week, second time around...
It was only a matter of time. If Forest Swords hadn't done it, someone definitely would have, but hard to imagine it could have sounded as good as this. DRONESTEP. That's what they call it. A fusion of dark post-rock ambient drone music and skittery spaced out dubstep. Warm languid guitars, brooding atmospheres, and laid back downtempo grooves. In the wrong hands it definitely could have been lame, but Forest Swords nailed it, the result so organic and warm and mesmerizing, odds are the last thing you'll be thinking about is what to call it. Instead you can just sit back, and let these lush droned out grooves carry you off.
Had this not been on Olde English Spelling Bee, it certainly wouldn't have been out of place on some upstart dubstep 12" label, it definitely has the same sort of lugubrious soporific feel as Burial or Kode9, murky, washed out, muted, muddy and bass heavy, but instead of being sample based, guitars unwind, spidery melodies all tangled up in clouds of hazy reverb, vocals drift in and out all spectral and ethereal, in fact if anything, it's like some awesome, nineties slowcore jam, Codeine, or Seam, or someone like that, remixed by Portishead, transformed into a different kind of slowcore, a bleak, moonlit, forest dancefloor slowcore, everything bathed in dark blues and soft blacks, smokey and gauzy, the beats skeletal and minimal, the guitars chiming, glistening and glimmering, the bass, rumbling and throbbing, a rib cage rattling hum, samples woven into the mix, but doused in effects, so vocals becomes little swirling clouds of truncated melody, and melodies drift heavenward like wisps of grey smoke. Every track here is a smoldering late night blur, a bleary ear-ed slither and skitter through some soft focus soundscape, dreamlike and hypnotic.
The cd bonus tracks are more of the same, the first track a dense sprawl of thick swirling murky chordal thrum, distorted melodies, tripped out FE drenched dubby drums, reverbed guitars, clipped vocal samples, wheezing organs, low slung bass grooves and a little soulful crooning, while the second drapes some reverbed Morricone-ish twang over lazy shuffling drumming, bits of disembodied vocals drift by in clouds of echo and delay, the main melody so darkly melancholy, everything hazy and washed out and hypnotic, groovy and super cinematic.
So good. And gorgeously dark, otherworldly, warmly mysterious, and still damn close to being our favorite new record this year...
Matt's addendum: "Late to the party on this one, but glad I finally got there! This is some real dark beauty; tarnished and haunted hypnodub with Dead Man style guitar shit and minimal haunted vocals. Deep Dustbowl Dead Dreamz Vibez!"
MPEG Stream: "Miarches"
MPEG Stream: "Hoylake Misst"
MPEG Stream: "Rattling Cage"

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, THE Heart In Your Heartbreak (Slumberland) 7" 5.98
This gets us so excited for a new full length from Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, which we're hoping will grace our ears sometime MUCH sooner than later. These two songs are for sure up there with the band's most satisfying and addictive slabs of sweeping dream pop glory! "Heart In Your Heartbreak" sounds like a classic even the first time you hear it. Like the best of their songs it takes you to this place of carefree bliss, yet evokes memories filled with crashing waves, epic sunsets, and car-rides you hoped would last forever. The B side "The One", starts off with a rad Superchunk-like guitar riff and then mutates into a Creation records sort of sound which they have totally perfected and somehow made their very own.
Comes in a nice sturdy sleeve with beautiful cover art by Winston Chmielinski that was so immediately striking, it sent us in search of more of his work, realizing we had just discovered one of our new favorite artists!

DEMDIKE STARE Tryptych (Modern Love) 3cd 28.00
Finally, Demdike Stare's dark and dizzying, murky and mysterious hauntological black dub triptych, previously available via three separate slabs of vinyl, is now available on cd, gathered up into a single, nicely packaged triple disc set. And loaded with bonus tracks (nearly 40 minutes extra all told), which makes this pretty much a shoe-in for Record Of The Week...
Demdike Stare are one of the few bands who seem to be a unanimous aQ favorite, everyone here LOVES these guys, and judging on how many of the various lps we've sold, everyone out there does too. Which makes sense, when you consider, DS basically create a kind of black metal dubstep, or as we (and others) like to describe it, a blackened dub record on Chain Reaction. Either one should give you an idea of the sort of dark sonic energy these guys conjure up. Thick claustrophobic atmospheres, skeletal rhythms, thick throbbing bass, skittering dubbed out beats, disembodied voices, stuttering minimal sort-of-dubstep, looped and processed African folk music (??), swirling glitched out electronics, deeeep pulsing dronemusic, reverb drenched post-rock-via-techno skitter, all woven into a swirling organic mass of dub flecked blacktronica, dark and sinister and dubby, and weirdly house-y, sprawling and epic and creepy and so totally sweeping and cinematic.
The first disc, Forest Of Evil, was originally two sidelong tracks, the first starts out all deep shimmer, with a softly melodic buzz, spidery acoustic guitars, long stretches of billowy black ambience, bits of shuffly jazzy drift, peppered with thick shards of buzzy fractured dub bass and Kompakt style skitter, giving way to glistening late night techno, whirling pop ambient, and blissed out ethereal dronemusic, while the second is darkly dramatic, epic and majestic, like some lost Italian soundtrack, big drums, orchestral and ominous, looped samples, blurred melodic smears over deep pulsing bass, whirling clouds of cymbal shimmer, insectoid FX buzz, jumbled atonal melodies (hints of Bernard Herrmann), the vibe tense and haunting, with some dubstep bass buzz, that slowly dissolves into a Caretaker like outro, all layered strings wreathed in hiss and crackle, hazy and druggy and divine. The bonus track "Quiet Sky" conjures up just what the title implies, a quiet sky, but a dark, bruised midnight sky, flecked with stars, soft swirls of metallic shimmer like gauzy clouds, the song gradually developing a strange minimal hiccuppy rhythm, underpinning the deep melancholic swells, a strange almost industrial tinged bit of pop ambience.
The second disc, Liberation Through Hearing, is thematically related to the Book Of The Dead, and focuses on the space between death and rebirth. Rendered in greys and blacks, in buzz and rumble, beginning with some woozy late night Portishead style downtempo trip hop, low slung looped skitter and swell, lush swirls of cinematic strings, ghostly choirs, a softly lurching rhythmic stutter, a deep cavernous throb, sounding like a ghostly stripped down dubstep. Which gives way to heaving expanses of black tidal thrum, muted scrapings, all wound into hypnotic pulses of dark energy, laced with distant chiming melodies, a haunting, gauzey faded memory in sound, drawn from radios with dying batteries and gradually slowing turntables, a soft focus symphony of creaks and rumbles and blurred low end shimmer. The first half finishes with a swoonsome smear of looped ambience, like a field recording of an after hours nightclub captured in a temporal loop, warm and druggy and fuzzy, strangely hypnotic and rhythmic, totally trancelike, a creeped out wasteland soundscape, mysterious and chilling, which is eventually augmented by thick slabs of corrosive low end, and heavily reverbed industrial clatter, which eventually emerges into a strange sea of crackle and hum, of warbly rhythms, chiming bells and distorted crunch, sounding a bit like Jeck spinning Pole record, abstract and spaced out and hauntingly lovely.
The second half opens with thick streaks of ghostly mesmer, all washed out and slowly decaying, underpinned by thick swaths of dubstep style bass wobble, but muted and smoothed into soft smears of undulating blackness. Subtle skitter surfaces, as do distant voices, the sound getting more and more dubby, a bit like a Caretaker record on Chain Reaction, that sort of hazy abstract drift, but anchored to barely there beats, the buzz building to an intense coda, all the while wrapped in throbbing woofer punishing low end.
Some super stripped down rhythms are laid over a swirling ghostly backdrop of fragmented melodies and a buried house music thump, tangled and blurred strings wrap the proceedings in a veil of softened reverb and subtle echo, the almost Eastern sounding pulse and swell reminding us a bit of the late great Muslimgauze.
Finally, the record collapses into some sort of melancholic sonic reverie, a hushed ambient outro, a tranquil sea of soft swirling swells, clouds of echo and reverb, a dreamy darkness, a blackened bit of blurpop minimalism, laced with muted streaks of fuzz and hiss, but all gradually sinking into Demdike Stare's endless trancelike billowing blackness.
The bonus tracks on this one (3 of them, clocking in at nearly 20 minutes) continue the record's surreal sonic journey, spidery rhythms, and chiming melodies are looped and layered over a simple pulsing propulsive groove, the whole thing slightly warped and warbled, as if recorded onto an old piece of tape, and played back on some dusty old ramshackle tape player, ghostly, but surprisingly playful at first, before slipping into some seriously creepy, deeeeeep droning rumbles, wreathed in shimmering solar winds, softly billowing sheets of hiss and static, eventually shedding all of that, leaving just a thick morass of softly undulating low end, shot through with a slo-mo house music pulse, only to have the hiss and whir return, this time relegated to the background, until the track finishes surprisingly with what sounds like a bit of African style funkiness, before disappearing in a brief cloud of swirling hushed buzz.
Finally, the third disc, Voices Of Dust, unveils the Tryptych's final movement, opening with "Black Sun", a short stretch of some super minimal electronic dronemusic, all layered overtones and strange sonic shadings, which gives way to the chopped and looped and stuttery vocal driven "Hashshashin Chant" which takes tribal drums and traditional folk music vocals, and twists them all up, and tangles those elements with strange percussion, industrial buzz, the whole thing a dizzying chunk of hypno-electronic collaged psychedelic mashup weirdness, before slipping into the much murkier and minimal "Repository Of Light", which unfurls like some sort of Hawkwind-meets-Pole spaced out digi-dub drift. And so it goes, the sound flitting between impossibly realized miniature sound worlds, cinematic electronic ambience, ominously pulsing low end rumble, hazy glitchy dubbed out Jeckian smears, super blown out electronic big beat bombast, almost industrial sounding avant big band abstraction, roiling corrosive soft noise, bellowing foghorn-like melodies, warped and woozy scratchy old lp warblescapes and beyond.
The bonus tracks are the perfect, hazy, ghostly coda, the first, a warm, whispery bit of keening abstract melody and thick pulsing thrum, all very washed out and space-y and dreamlike, a constantly vibrating living thing, a throbbing organic expanse of minimal space drone psychedelic ambience, until finally, the whole disc is laid to rest with 9 minutes of heaving, glacial, metallic creep and creak, wreathed in record crackle, the final sounds unfurl like some old dusty Tim Hecker 45 spinning at 16rpm, mournful moaning melodies, buried rhythmic thumps, shimmery sitar like buzz, all hazy and smeared and lysergic and mysteriously murky, the perfect slipping-into-darkness, leaving-this-world-behind finale...
Gorgeously evocative, creepy and cinematic, abstract and otherworldly, druggy and dreamy, fantastically haunting and utterly spine tinglingly stunning. And thus, absolutely recommended.
Packaged in a super swank, oversized, hardcover book style digipak.
Matt's addendum: "Really feeling this collection of tunes these days. Love blasting this spooky dub-collage REAL loud in the shop! Thee neighbors get upset, but they need to chill cuz it has to be MASSIVE!"
MPEG Stream: "Forest Of Evil (Dusk)"
MPEG Stream: "Caged In Stammheim"
MPEG Stream: "Eurydice"
MPEG Stream: "Regolith"
MPEG Stream: "Hashashin Chant"
MPEG Stream: "Repository Of Light"
MPEG Stream: "Rain And Shame"

MAGICAL POWER MAKO Super Record (Phoenix) lp 24.00
Mako is truly one of the most masterful musical minds behind some of the best psychedelic sounds that came out of Japan in the '70s, a relatively unsung hero of that scene. While his project Magical Power Mako certainly produced other records that are noisier, weirder, more abstract and fucked up, there is no doubt that the 1975 album Super Record is his absolute tour de force! An album that left many of us stunned upon our first encounter with it. It's one of those records that exemplifies what you really want in a psychedelic record, filled with a wide range of textures and mystical sounds from across the globe that take you on a journey and make you forget where you are.
Super Record melts into an unforgettable washed out pastoral setting as it glides and floats through different terrain of dripping colors and hallucinatory smoke. Like the best psychedelic albums of this era, Super Record is an absolute start to finish experience, with different interludes laced with lute, harmonica, melodica, charged fuzzed out guitar all in a ceremonial tone which creates a mood and vibe that would be at home in a film by Jodorowsky or Antonioni.
Think of some mind melting combination of Ash Ra Temple, Bo Hansson, early '70s Pink Floyd, Jean-Claude Vannier, and a dash of The Incredible String Band and you start to get a picture of the kind of musical magic that is happening on Super Record. We also get the feeling that some of our favorite modern day psych music makers like The Alps, Blues Control, and Dungen have all been influenced by the brilliance of this album as well. Super and magical!
MPEG Stream: "Andromeda"
MPEG Stream: "Tundra"
MPEG Stream: "Silk Road"

TOKIMONSTA Midnight Menu (Listen Up / Art Union) cd 14.98
Been trying to list this for AGES, but our distributors were constantly out of stock, it's been out for a while, but we only just now actually got enough to review and list. Tokimonsta is a female beatmaker from Los Angeles, who was the first female to join Flying Lotus' crew, and whose sound is a warm and scratchy, sorta laid back, sweet and soulful electronica, she mixes old records, live instruments, plenty of effects and loops, and weaves them into swoonsome grooves that shift freely from pop ambient shimmer, to murky late night funk, to big beat crunch, often all together in different measures.
And while we tend to lean toward the dark and the ominous, there's something about Midnight Menu that's totally captivating, sure she occasionally dips into wicked dubstep, making it obvious that if she was so inclined she could rule the dubstep scene, all spiralling minor key synths over burbling synth buzz and a killer stuttery beat, or unfurls woozy washes of muted slo-mo soul that's moody and mysterious, but for the most part, her sound is sun dappled Sunday afternoons, and warm washed out expanses of hazy crackle drenched records spinning slowly over stripped down rhythms, there are a couple tracks with vocals, and sound like hip-hop/pop radio jams, but a little bit warped and twisted, eventually settling back into Tokimonsta's abstract dreamlike electronic sound world. We've all been digging this like crazy, and are psyched to finally get it listed.
Fans of Flying Lotus, Blue Daisy, Zomby, Mount Kimbie, J Dilla and others of a similar sonic stripe will dig this lots...
MPEG Stream: "Look-A-Like"
MPEG Stream: "Lucid Waking"
MPEG Stream: "Simple Reminder"
MPEG Stream: "Questing"
MPEG Stream: "Gamble"

CORTEZ, SCOTT Twin Radiant Flux (L-NE) cd 14.98
We've long championed the beautiful bliss of Lovesliescrushing, which was born in the early '90s as a deconstructed shoegaze project producing billowing masses of blown-out drift-drone on oversaturated 4-track recordings with bits of song smeared amidst the ethereal guitar and voice. It seems as though Lovesliescrushing's guitarist / principle sound sculptor Scott Cortez has been digging through the archives. First there was the Girl Echo Suns Veils boxset which issued some of the demos and alternate mixes from way back in the early '90s, and now he's gathered this collection of unreleased guitar drones recorded outside the context of LLC from 1997-1999. Robin Guthrie and Kevin Shields certainly loom large as the icons for Lovesliescrushing's guitarist Scott Cortez; but this work also looks forward to the guitar driven driftscaping produced by Fennesz and Tim Hecker (on Black Sea and Radio Amor especially).
Cortez opens the album with lovely ambient passages of smooth surfaces that whisper hints of an impressionist romantic underbelly. For those familiar with the most recent work from Cortez on Lovesliescrushing's restrained Crwth (Chorus Redux) or the split lp he did with Language Of Light, these amorphic tones will be instantly recognizable. But as the album progresses (and this becomes apparent by the 5th movement of Twin Radiant Flux), the smooth surfaces at first become disturbed in a series of darkened shimmers, slightly distorted passages, oceanic swells, and harmonic rumblings. Slipstreams of blurred noise which extend into the aforementioned Hecker / Fennesz territory act as a suitable crescendo, however subtle that might be, to this exceptional album!
MPEG Stream: "Part II"
MPEG Stream: "Part V"
MPEG Stream: "Part IX"

KAWACHI, KUNI & FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Love Suki Daikirai / Kirikyogen (Bamboo) cd 17.98
Newly reissued, now as a 2-on-1 with another, later album, we've previously listed a cd of Kirikyogen, organist/pianist Kuni Kawachi's 1970 recording with hard rockin' Japanese psych geniuses Flower Travellin' Band (which barely preceded those AQ faves debut on their own, Anywhere, also 1970). Kawachi came from sixties Group Sounds band The Happenings Four, and made a great decision in teaming up with the nascent FTB (who had started off as Yuya Uchida and the Flowers, another GS act) for Kirikyogen, especially since Flowers/FTB had recently recruited Joe Yamanaka, the inimitable vocalist whose trademark wail did much to make Flower Travellin' Band band stand out from the pack later on. With Joe on the mic, and guitarist Hideki Ishima coming into his own, Kirikyogen is very much Flower Travellin' Band, the prequel! Meanwhile, Kawachi's Hammond organ grumblings add a nice touch to the tracks here, which he also wrote, for the most part. In addition to Kawachi's organ, singer Joe plays his harmonica more than he did on later recordings, giving these recordings a bluesier sound. While we're not going to tell you this is anything near as great as FTB's Satori or even Made In Japan, it's got some great heavy psychedelic jams (like the title track, and "Works Composed Mainly By Human") that are certainly as good as anything they did for their first album. If anything, they are a lot closer to what ended up on Satori, albeit a great deal more primordial and lacking the taughtness of their later works. It should also be noted that Kirikyogen is about 1/2 heavy Hendrix-y grooves, 1/2 more acoustic-y (but lovely), not as heavy melodic material.
Also to be noted, as alluded to above, this cd reissue also includes Kawachi's 1972 follow-up Love Suki Daikirai, which is appears as the first 14 tracks here for some reason rather than being presented in chronological fashion. Love Suki Daikirai doesn't feature any FTB folks (and is thus automatically less rockin'), but does have Kimio Mizutani on guitars, whose solo album A Path Through Haze was also recently reissued by Bamboo and reviewed by us (and which happened to feature, yes, Kuni Kawachi on keyboards!). Much more gentle and meandering than its predecessor, this later album certainly has its beautiful and/or freaky moments, but Kirikyogen, #25 in Julian Copes "Japrocksampler" Top 50, is still the primary reason to pick this up.
MPEG Stream: "Kirikyogen"
MPEG Stream: "Works Composed Mainly By Human"
MPEG Stream: "The Cat"
MPEG Stream: "Like A Concert Of Angels"

MANGANYI, FOSTER NA TINTSUMI TA TILO Ndzi Teke Riendzo No.1 (Honest Jons) cd 17.98
A while ago we reviewed an incredible, and incredibly far out collection of strange electronic music from South Africa, the comp was called Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music from South Africa, and boy did the music live up to the promise of that title. We described the sound as being part Congotronics, part Nintendo, part Omar Souleyman, part karaoke, sounds pretty weird and amazing, and it was, a huge favorite around here. Some of the coolest, weirdest most damaged and deliriously fucked up 'dance' music we had maybe ever heard.
So now comes another missive from that same scene, this one a gospel record, Shangaan electro-gospel to be precise, which already sounds amazing. Plaintive, moody emotional heartfelt vocals draped over simple skeletal Casio keyboard rhythms, looped whirring accordion like textures, goofy lo-fi 8 bit video game music and a weird wheezy whistle (which is a hallmark of Shangaan, and tweets throughout all the tracks here), and a much more traditional sounding chorus of female vocalists, providing gorgeous harmonies to accompany the main vocal, and the strange tweeting, wheezing, skittering music underneath.
It sounds really strange, and definitely a little goofy, but the music is hauntingly beautiful and quite mesmerizing, and the more you listen, the more you become utterly mesmerized, the sounds lulling and soothing and transporting, transcending the limitations of the instrumentation (if those are truly limitations, we're not so sure!), and creating something moving, emotional and truly spiritual.
MPEG Stream: "Ndzi Teke Riendzo - I'm Taking A Journey"
MPEG Stream: "Amen - Amen"
MPEG Stream: "Tintsumi - The Angels"

ST. JOHN, BRIDGET Songs For The Gentle Man (4 Men With Beards) lp 17.98
You can't even begin to imagine how excited we got when we heard that these great Bridget St. John albums were finally going to be reissued on vinyl, and not at some ridiculous high price. Can't think of an artist who is more perfect for putting on the turntable during these cold days and nights, then the absolute warmth of Bridget St John.
Songs For The Gentle Man swept us so deep into her world the first time we heard and it still gives us new goosebumps every time we've heard it since.
For this record, she teamed up with producer Ron Geesin, whom she was introduced to by mutual friend John Peel (his record label Dandelion originally released this in '71). He actually co-wrote one side of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother as well as making lots of interesting, challenging records of his own. Geesin's production was such a perfect match for the breezy and beautiful sound of St. John's voice. The lush arrangements on this record will make you think of Vashti Bunyan more so then maybe any of St. John's albums. There is that same gentleness meets strength in her voice that listen after listen sinks deeper into our ears. We've got a feeling that Isobel Campbell might have been a big Bridget St. John fan as so many of these songs remind us of Campbell's contribution to early Belle & Sebastian records. Not a weak song in the whole bunch and her take on the Donovan penned "The Pebble and the Man" is pretty damn irresistible... as is this entire album. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "A Day A Way"
MPEG Stream: "The Pebble And The Man"

ST. JOHN, BRIDGET Thank You For... (4 Men With Beards) lp 17.98
You can't even begin to imagine how excited we got when we heard that these great Bridget St. John albums were finally going to be reissued on vinyl, and not at some ridiculous high price. Can't think of an artist who is more perfect for putting on the turntable during these cold days and nights, then the absolute warmth of Bridget St John.
Bridget St John was on the scene during the late '60s/early '70s and recorded just a handful of albums. A few of which were originally released on John Peel's Dandelion label. And wow what a great voice and presence she had! She had this great ability to be both delicate and breezy, recalling the best of her contemporaries like Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan while dipping her feet a bit more in carefree wind-in-her hair styling. Her voice also reminds us a lot of Marianne Faithfull and even at times Nico on a sunny day with a smile on her face. Some of the standout tracks on the record like "Fly High", "Lazarus" (which was her sort of hit), "Silver Coin", "Thank You For.." are the kinds of songs you know will be on every mix tape (ok...mix cd) that we make this year. So nice when songs recorded 34 years ago can still resonate so strongly in the present moment. Oh that's called timeless...and that's what this record is!
MPEG Stream: "Fly High"
MPEG Stream: "Thank You For..."

CHROMATICS Night Drive (Deluxe) (Italians Do It Better) 2lp 14.98
So stoked that this awesome album by the Chromatics is available on vinyl now and with a whole side filled with unreleased tracks.
Ooooh Ahhhhh! This one has been sizzling in our ears pretty much on endless repeat since it showed up at the store. Chromatics have undergone a pretty radical change from their early herky-jerky no-wave inspired beginnings, as showcased on the amazing and scene defining After Dark comp that we recently listed, and are still so in love with. Chromatics now have a sound that is much more sensual, subdued and spaced out. And we have to say we are loving this new direction. I definitely suits them so much more naturally than their noisier punky past.
With a sound much more rooted in early drugged out disco and '80s Euro-pop, Night Drive is sparse and melancholic enough to reel in folks whose taste usually falls on the darker end of the spectrum yet with songs so damn sexy and enticing that those of us with dance and pop leanings are seduced by their sound as well. With Ruth Radalet's vocals sounding like they are being delivered in a dark room filled with fog and smoke, there is such an intoxicating late night vibe that Chromatics tap into which feels so vacant and so sexy in the best possible way. They take on the daunting task of covering Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" and manage to make it their own, no small feat as that is a song with such deep meaning for so many of us. So damn good!
MPEG Stream: "Night Drive"
MPEG Stream: "The Killing Spree"
MPEG Stream: "Running Up That Hill"

DEAR, MATTHEW Black City (Ghostly International) cd 14.98
While we totally dug Matthew Dear's debut from several years ago, we just haven't gotten into his last few outings as much as we wanted to, but with Black City, he shows us why we fell for him in the first place. He merges elements of house, electro funk, and dark pop into such a compelling and unique sound, one as influenced by folks like Herbert and Swayzek as it is Gary Numan, early Nine Inch Nails and mid-era Cabaret Voltaire. While there has been no shortage of white guys doing their best Prince imitations in recent years, we love how Matthew Dear takes elements of Prince's sound yet totally injects his own voice and style in it, adding darker beats, sleeker rhythms and more hypnotic melodies, all without having to resort to a really forced high pitched vocal delivery, which so many others do and just comes off as beyond corny. Kind of like if Junior Boys started listening to lots more dirty techno or how that last James Pants record tapped into the same kind of unique hybrid of electronic left-field pop. Undeniably groovy and funky and so very good.
MPEG Stream: "Honey"
MPEG Stream: "Little People (Black City)"
MPEG Stream: "Monkey"

ELECTRIC WIZARD Black Masses (Rise Above) cd 42.00
What is it about this new Electric Wizard record? Don't get us wrong, we are longtime worshippers at the altar of the 'Wiz, but for some reason, this new one, has everyone around here freaking out, even the more non-metal folks, ESPECIALLY the non-metal folks. People who normally don't spend much time listening to witchy druggy demon conjuring sonic rituals, like those practiced by EW, suddenly can't get enough and play it EVERY day. We've tried to get to the bottom of it, cuz Black Masses doesn't seem that far removed from any of the other EW's, but it must be. Cuz it's cast some serious bongsmoke spell (smell?) over pretty much everyone here, which if anything is a good argument for the power of this slab of post Sabbathy psychedelic spaced out drugdoom heaviness.
Everything we love about Electric Wizard is in full effect here: the epic slabs of downtuned doomy crunch, the swirled clouds of lysergic effects, the crushing riffage, the thick pulsing bass, and of course EW high priest Just Oborn's wailing vox, all wound into druggy doomy trancelike jams, the vocals repeated mantralike, the guitars churning and roiling, totally hypnotic and mesmerizing, spaced out and impossibly catchy.
One difference this time around is the production. It's way less obviously heavy, less downtuned and sludgey, the low end is dialed way back, the sound much more raw and trebly and high end, which maybe makes it sound less metal and more psychedelic and garagey, although it definitely sounds like plenty of both to us. But perhaps that's the mysterious component that suddenly has everyone in its thrall.
The record is rife with the (un)usual sonic filigree, swirling winds, loads of effects, long drawn out dirgey drones, bizarre samples, voices, laughter, loops, film clips, all laced within long drawn out psychedelic space jams, the sort of freakouts that would sound just as at home on a Monster Magnet or Hawkwind record, but they always eventually find their way back to whatever satanic drug doom groove they had been exploring before they drifted off.
Heavy and doomy and druggy and psychedelic and seriously tripped out and apparently not just for metalheads anymore. A unanimous aQ fave for sure...
Housed in a fancy embossed slipcover! (Vinyl version sadly has not yet materialized here, we're hoping someday but dunno what's up...)
MPEG Stream: "Black Mass"
MPEG Stream: "Venus In Furs"
MPEG Stream: "Crypt Of Drugula"

HARDY, FRANCOISE The Vogue Years (Camden / BMG) 2cd 13.98
Two discs full to overflowing with fifty immaculate French-pop nuggets by one of our favorite chanteuses of all time, and at a really reasonable price to boot, this one is an absolute no brainer!
Compiling songs Hardy recorded during her years on the Vogue label in France in the 1960s this really shows why there is so much to love and adore about Hardy. The first disc begins with many of her most ye-ye and infectious tunes that you just can't help but feel so classy and sassy while listening to. And as the collection plays on, you see what a nice range of sound Hardy had developed, which would lead her to create her masterpiece, La Question at the onset of the '70s. Taking the influence of what folks like Phil Spector were doing with girl groups in terms of lush, warm and hypnotic production, but with such a singular and undeniably sexy voice that just stands miles ahead of the pack. From songs that make you want to get on a dance floor with a glass of champagne in your hands, to songs that are so perfect for rainy Sunday nights when all you have is time to pass, this is pretty much as perfect a collection of songs as you can get. In fact it was this very collection that made the biggest Hardy fanatics at AQ first fall in love with her, so we're so happy this is finally available for us to list. One of those records we feel safe in recommending to just about anyone who loves music!
MPEG Stream: "Je Pense A Lui"
MPEG Stream: "J'Suis D'Accord"
MPEG Stream: "Le Temps Des Souvenirs"
MPEG Stream: "Et Meme"
MPEG Stream: "Je T'aime"

DARK DAY Window (Dark Entries) lp 19.98
This former Record Of The Week is BACK IN PRINT!!!
So cool! And cold wavey. A wonderfully produced piece of vinyl to replace those crappy downloads which have been bouncing around the internet for the past five or six years. Dark Day was the project spearheaded by R.L. Crutcmicre Mori in the earliest incarnation of the seminal No Wave band DNA in the mid '70s. By 1979, Crutchfield was striking out on his own as Dark Day; and at first, this band was an intentional reversal of roles within the trad-rock band with two women playing guitars and drums and a man behind the keyboards. The ladies for that incarnation were Nancy Arlen of Mars and Nina Canal of Ut; and they managed a few gigs and one hell of a great single - "Hands In The Dark" - which appeared many years later on a Soul Jazz No Wave compilation and has been covered spectacularly by the Chromatics. Canal and Arlen weren't terribly interested in continuing in the project, leaving Crutchfield to find likeminded folks with whom to work. The second (and last) Dark Day record was recorded in 1982, with Crutchfield going into the studio with a bunch of cheap electronics and toy synthesizers with Bill Sack to flesh out the accompaniments on similar instruments. Their interlocking arpeggiations are punctuated with blooping electronics that are equal parts Trio and Kraftwerk with an underlying dread to the spiralling songs that detoured from Kraftwerk's utopian vision of man-machine hybrids and down a paranoid vision of man being at the mercy of his machines, no matter how innocent their intent. Dark Day's songs are insistent and catchy despite their utterly simple structures. "Metal Benders" and "Danger / Dance" are probably the closest thing to being 'hits' on the album as weird / anti-romantic variations of Young Marble Giants with whip crack rhythms and spectral pre-X-Files electronic whistling melodies. Coming out of the NYC No Wave scene helped craft Dark Day into a something other than neo-Romantic post-punk outfit with electronics. This was a wholly unique band, who never got the attention that many of their contemporaries. Kudos to Dark Entries once again on a splendid reissue!
MPEG Stream: "Window"
MPEG Stream: "The Metal Benders"
MPEG Stream: "Danger/Dancer "
MPEG Stream: "Don't Bother"

ELEVEN POND Bas Relief (Dark Entries) lp 19.98
BACK IN PRINT!!!
What a total gem! An amazing unearthed, ultra obscure album from way back in 1986. Hailing from Rochester, NY, Eleven Pond crafted super infectious dark pop with wonderful synth moments and song writing that has really held up over the years. Some of the production, and much of the overall sound reminds us a bit of Seventeen Seconds era Cure, where basslines lead the tracks and the guitars and synths add such a nice mood and texture. We're also reminded a lot of another obscure mid '80s band, For Against, who had the same ability to take Factory/4AD elements and influences and meld them so nicely with classic eighties American college rock, they kind of sounded like this amazing hybrid of Joy Division and R.E.M.
With new romantic vocals that totally tap into vintage Depeche Mode and New Order territory, we also hear echoes of other lesser known yet great bands of this era like Soul Merchants and Jet Black Factory. With so many new bands lately referencing that era and looking to similarly vintage sounds for inspiration, it's so refreshing to hear an actual relic from that period, too bad it sadly somehow slipped through the cracks, but now we can finally enjoy this set of songs, so worthy of much wider appreciation.
Limited to a pressing of 500, each copy has been silk screened and contains two Eleven Pond postcards as well as a sticker from Dark Entries, the label who mark this as their first release and who we have a pretty good feeling we're going to be hearing a lot more from in the future. Grab one while you can, as this is highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Tear & Cinnamon"
MPEG Stream: "Asterisk"
MPEG Stream: "Portugal"

PESTEG DRED Years Of Struggle Against The Lies, The Stupidity And The Cowardice (Dark Entries) lp 15.98
Martin Hall appears to be the figure who defined the Danish New Wave scene, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence that any of the projects he worked in found much traction outside of Denmark. Ballet Mecanique was one such project, And Then Again was another; of course, there were a couple of solo outings too. Pesteg Dred was a very short-lived project, as the trio that revolved around Hall got together in 1981 with electronics wrangler Per Hendrichsen and vocalist Inge Shannon. During one weekend, the three landed in a studio and banged out an album but didn't have the ability to pay the bill. So the tapes sat until Hall could negotiate something with the owners of the studio. A cassette of the material surfaced as a bonus with an art magazine in 1985, but otherwise, the recordings languished while all three members went onto other projects. We've never heard of any of Hall's other projects; but if any were half as good as Pesteg Dred, they'd be worth the price of admission.
The dark storm of post-punk had certainly come to Denmark, with Hall admitting an early infatuation with Cabaret Voltaire and A Certain Ratio (well, he did name one his later projects And Then Again after an A Certain Ratio tune); but The Pop Group and The Ex must have made a big impact as well. The band is essentially a mutant rhythm section of rumbling, discordant funk basslines and unschooled percussive fills that showcase way more fury than skill, with a series of weirdly skittered electronics flushed between the rhythms with murky modular sweeps, distorted drones, and delay-rippled bloop. Inge's vocals are a cold monotone bellow that aren't too far from Bettina Koster of Malaria, making a perfect fit for the darkly, cacophonous agit-punk of Pesteg Dred. The lengthy "Light, More Light" is very much in the vein of the best A Certain Ratio, with breakneck post-disco rhythm, neck-strangling basslines, jittery guitars, and even some atonal blurts from a trumpet. Death disco? You bet!
Dark Entries scores yet again with a really great re-discovery on Pested Dred.
MPEG Stream: "Salt"
MPEG Stream: "Cold Impressions Of Perhaps"
MPEG Stream: "Almost"

V/A Street And Gangland Rhythms: Beats And Improvisations From Six Boys In Trouble (Smithsonian Folkways) lp 16.98
Wow, what an amazing artifact! Smithsonian Folkways have just reissued this 1959 release of urban folk song recordings made by six 11 and 12 year-old youths from the Harlem projects. With only bongos and bottles to beat out percussive rhythms, the kids make rhyming songs, chants, and stories that relate to their experiences of rough street life and how they cope with them. An argument can be made that these recordings are the nascent beginnings of what would later become rap, but the song's basic forms sound much more rooted in early blues, call and response rhymes, and tribal African rhythms, in that they still have the feeling of being tied to an older tradition of folk music. That they are being made by kids with such exuberance and charm in the face of real hardship make these recordings truly special.

GIRLS Broken Dreams Club (True Panther) cd ep 9.98
For all the hype and publicity that has surrounded Girls, its easy to lose sight that why so many, including us have fallen so hard for these guys (Girls?), is that they write such earnest, endearing and moving songs that have a kind of pure emotional honesty that just doesn't come along in music that often.
We first heard a couple of these songs over a year ago when Girls performed very stripped down versions for the first time on Irwin's radio show Sleeves On Hearts on KUSF. And what makes Christopher Owens such an amazing songwriter is that his songs can be delivered totally bare bones or fleshed out with full production and both ways they still hit to the core. These new songs introduce a delightful twang and bittersweet elegance to the already wide scope of sonic terrain that Girls cover within their songs. Tracks like "Oh So Protective One" and "Broken Dreams Club" have a melancholic southwest charm that makes us think of some of our favorite Giant Sand records, or if Calexico teamed up with Elvis Costello in his prime. With beautiful horn arrangements, and a very talented cast of players, including one of our favorite and most unsung talents of San Francisco, Ara Anderson backing them up, this record finds Girls growing in such exciting ways.
There is still the exuberance and wide eyed wonder that made listening to their debut such a thrilling experience, but there is a depth and truth inside each of these songs that is just further proof that Girls are no of-the-moment fad, but instead a wildly talented band who will make beautiful and moving music for a long time to come! (And although this is an "ep", it's actually about 30 minutes long, longer than some Captured Tracks "full-lengths", haha.)
MPEG Stream: "Oh So Protective One"
MPEG Stream: "Alright"
MPEG Stream: "Broken Dreams Club"

GIRLS Broken Dreams Club (True Panther) 12" 10.98
For all the hype and publicity that has surrounded Girls, its easy to lose sight that why so many, including us have fallen so hard for these guys (Girls?), is that they write such earnest, endearing and moving songs that have a kind of pure emotional honesty that just doesn't come along in music that often.
We first heard a couple of these songs over a year ago when Girls performed very stripped down versions for the first time on Irwin's radio show Sleeves On Hearts on KUSF. And what makes Christopher Owens such an amazing songwriter is that his songs can be delivered totally bare bones or fleshed out with full production and both ways they still hit to the core. These new songs introduce a delightful twang and bittersweet elegance to the already wide scope of sonic terrain that Girls cover within their songs. Tracks like "Oh So Protective One" and "Broken Dreams Club" have a melancholic southwest charm that makes us think of some of our favorite Giant Sand records, or if Calexico teamed up with Elvis Costello in his prime. With beautiful horn arrangements, and a very talented cast of players, including one of our favorite and most unsung talents of San Francisco, Ara Anderson backing them up, this record finds Girls growing in such exciting ways.
There is still the exuberance and wide eyed wonder that made listening to their debut such a thrilling experience, but there is a depth and truth inside each of these songs that is just further proof that Girls are no of-the-moment fad, but instead a wildly talented band who will make beautiful and moving music for a long time to come! (And although this is an "ep", it's actually about 30 minutes long, longer than some Captured Tracks "full-lengths", haha.)
MPEG Stream: "Oh So Protective One"
MPEG Stream: "Alright"
MPEG Stream: "Broken Dreams Club"

JONES, REV. JOHNNY L. The Hurricane That Hit Atlanta (Dust-To-Digital) 2cd 26.00
It's hearing records like this that kind of make listening to any new rock n' roll, as lo-fi and garage-y as it may seem, just sound like total fluff. Today's rockers can't compare to the blasts of impassioned fire and raw righteous shouts of belief that come pouring with soul out of the body of Atlanta's Rev. Johnny L. Jones. For years he has been broadcasting his songs and sermons on WYZE in Atlanta, and Dust-To-Digital, who definitely have a knack for this sort of thing, knew that these were sounds that deserved a much wider audience. Because no matter what religious stripe you're are, or even those of us who don't believe in that higher being at all, you can't deny that this is music with 100 percent absolute conviction and raw power. This is total gospel rock n' roll, with the kind of early blues grit and hip shaking fuel that the best kind of soul music contains. Over this two disc collection there are over two dozen smoking songs as well as clips of sermons, guest soloists and some awesome short commercial clips that the Reverend delivers with the same kind of zealous urgency and single minded purpose.
We can think of so many of our favorite frontmen, like John Reis (Rocket From The Crypt), John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees), and Ian Svenious (The Make Up) who for sure would be sitting front and center, taking notes during any of Jones' services. We can't emphasize enough just how damn good this music is! And as always Dust-To-Digital does it right with handsome packaging and liner notes from the Reverend himself. We believe!
MPEG Stream: "Sit at the Welcome Table"
MPEG Stream: "I Feel Alright"
MPEG Stream: "I Don't Know What You Come to Do"
MPEG Stream: "Lose That Man"

STEREOLAB Not Music (Drag City) cd 14.98
There are some bigtime Stereolab fans in the aQ crew, so needless to say many of us were way bummed when we heard the band had announced they were taking an indefinite hiatus. Especially since their last album, Chemical Chords, was one of the most infectious and satisfying of their wonderful career. Well, luckily, before going on this hiatus (we're hoping it's really just a brief hiatus), they realized that there was too much great material recorded at the time of Chemical Chords, to not let some of those songs have their moment in the sun. Not Music, though, stands on its own as a totally swirling, seducing and engaging proper album from one of the most unique pop groops of the last quarter century.
Much like Chemical Chords, the record really starts to sink in after a few listens and then every song becomes a stand out single to our ears, and once again we find ourselves totally overtaken and completely smitten with a new set of Stereolab songs. The two remixes included are total stunners too, courtesy of Atlas Sound, and Emperor Machine. Don't stay away too long Stereolab, the world of music is a much brighter, smarter and more exciting place with you around!
MPEG Stream: "Everybody's Weird Except Me"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Sands (Emperor Machine Mix)"
MPEG Stream: "Leleklato Sugar"

JATOMA s/t (Kompakt) cd 16.98
Ah, Kompakt! The current kingdom of electronic music has produced another exceptional album from one of its citizens. There's not much to be said about Jatoma, as this Danish trio seems to be flaunting an air of mystery through a half-hearted attempt at anonymity. Regardless of their backstory, Jatoma are impressive magicians when it comes to their eccentric techno productions that recall the best of Four Tet, Matthew Herbert, and even Matmos from time to time.
With an opening sequence of sparkling digitalia on "Little Houseboat" that teases at a precious melodic phrase in the same way that Oval captured our imaginations with his impeccable Diskont 94 album, Jatoma is clearly onto something quite special. This becomes obvious when they push through a jumble of electronic squiggles and clockwork clicks into the soft whump of a techno pulse and accompanying bass groove that fleshes out just the first number on the very impressive debut. References to Animal Collective have been offered in comparison to Jatoma, but their sound relies less on lithium-addled bubblegum electronica and more on a chimerical synthesis of Pop Ambient dreaminess and the tech-house dramatics of build-and-release. It's no wonder that Kompakt signed them! "Durian" and "Bou" are both curious anthems with their auto-tuned, chill-wave melodies and warbled acid motifs fused onto thumped deep-house rhythms and hi-hat swing. While there are distinct tracks which stand on their own as the singles amongst the album, Jatoma take the time to subvert the iPod listening experience with very short interludes, codas, and intros of transitional squelches and tuned melodies that bridge the moods and atmospheres of Jatoma's varied tracks. Yup, it's an album that works best when listening from beginning to end!
Like many of the recent Kompakt releases, the vinyl comes the cd of the same material found within.
MPEG Stream: "Little Houseboat"
MPEG Stream: "Bou"
MPEG Stream: "Paper Lights"
MPEG Stream: "Permafrost"

LEE, DAVID JR. Evolution (Universal Sound) cd 19.98
From the mysterious black cover and gothic font, we initially thought that this was some new vinyl release by Amort or Striborg or any number of black metal hordes we see day in and day out. But no, this is in fact quite an awesome surprise, a beautiful early-seventies drum-centric spiritual jazz record by the unknown to us, David Lee Jr., and it's really quite killer! Right up there with the likes of Steve Reid, Rashied Ali, Roland P. Young or Khan Jamal!
Hailing from New Orleans and moving to New York where Lee played in Roy Ayer's Ubiquity for a few years, Evolution was recorded in 1974 and is Lee's only solo record originally released on his own Supernal records imprint (not to be confused with the black metal Supernal!). Centered around martial rhythms and syncopation with a left-field avant jazz sensibility and even some blazing psych rock and soul flourishes, the disc is 14 short tracks with the title track centerpiece being a 7 minute extended drum solo. There are even a couple of short vocal tracks, one of which should just be skipped over at the very end called "I Want Our Love To Always Last" (even the Soul Jazz site won't let you sample it). But other than that one misstep, this is a highly recommended album for fans of vintage beat-heavy seventies jazz from the likes of P. E. Hewitt, Lee Miller, or any of the cool cats we mentioned above!
MPEG Stream: "Revelation"
MPEG Stream: "Love Parable"
MPEG Stream: "Cosmopolitan"
MPEG Stream: "Second Line March"

TORSKE, BJORN Kokning (Smalltown Supersound) cd 17.98
Wow, 2010 really turned out to be an amazing year for electronic music. And not just one style or passing trend. We loved the resurgence of truly creative artists making such varied and dynamic sounds in the world of electronica, reminding us of those special times in the mid '90s when we really fell for this music so strongly to begin with.
From Demdike Stare and Pantha Du Prince to Luke Abbott and Actress, there has been so much awesome and varied and super unique sounds to get lost in during this year.
And now comes yet another major contender for electronic record of the year courtesy of Norway's Bjorn Torske. For all the attention his Norwegian peers like Prins Thomas and Lindstrom have received, we really hope this amazing album starts getting him the wide praise he so rightfully deserves. On Kokning, Torske demonstrates an amazing ability to create graceful and elegant sounds while also still allowing those sounds to be playful and exploratory. The album really does flow so perfectly from beginning to end, exploring many different sounds and soundscapes in the process. Like the electronica we will always love most, Torske is not just a one note artist, he can create the most tender and beautiful of songs while also traveling though left-field dancemusic brimming with African drum rhythms and ecstatic cosmic revelations. We're deeply addicted to this record right now and we've got a strong feeling you will be too!
MPEG Stream: "Kokning"
MPEG Stream: "Langt Fra Afrika"
MPEG Stream: "Versjon Wolfenstein"

BLUNT, DOUG HREAM Gentle Persuasion (self-released) cd 12.98
Finally, repressed and back in stock on cd!!
It's pretty phenomenal that this record went from getting the suspicious side-eye when we first took it in on consignment, to becoming one of our favorite "WTF?" records of the year! When it first appeared, no one seemed to know where it came from (it had been brought in by Blunt himself, one day). And we weren't too sold on the cover, a generic photograph that looked like it was shot in the eighties, of this fellow Blunt, standing with a woman (a close friend of his, in a head to toe orange outfit that looks like it could have been prison garb, and who as it turns out, may no longer be alive) in front of a Mercedes parked in front of the mural on the side of the O'Farrell Theater on Polk street in San Francisco. Also, whenever there's a bunch of "ASCAP" logos plastered all over the front and back cover, our internal "uh-oh" meter goes way off.
So it just sat on our new arrivals shelf for a few weeks. But then a couple of folks (one of whom runs the Gloriette label, who have supplied us with some Ariel Pink and Nite Jewel records) started asking about it, because they had heard about this record, so we gave it a listen and were pretty surprised and rather blown away by what we were hearing. A lo-fi but breezy outsider funk, made with repetitive cheap-sounding keyboards loops and tones (the kind being currently exploited by Dam-Funk, Ariel Pink, and James Pants), strange metallic tropical guitar tones that sound more like steel drums and flute sounds than actual guitar, and sly, laid-back vocals and catchy, infectiously naive grooves that work their way into our heads and never let go. Everybody here ended up really really digging it.
We sold one copy immediately to someone in the store when playing it, and then when we tried to contact Blunt to get more copies, we discovered that somehow we'd neglected to get his contact info, d'oh! The cd had no contact information, and searches online only revealed that the title track, a raunchy but coded come-on to a sexy stranger, was included on a James Pants mix. This only piqued our interest further, as Blunt's skewed Caribbean inflected songs would obviously be simpatico with James Pants' more recent tropical themed output. We could also see folks into Ariel Pink and Dam-Funk getting WAY into this. So we thought maybe this record was a rare private press record from the eighties. It does seem to have a strange hard-to-pin-down-time-wise quality.
Thankfully, Blunt eventually came back in and we got more copies and found out that he had pressed vinyl copies too. He also told us that this record was recorded ten years ago in 2000, but that didn't diminish our new found love for this record's questionable mystery, as it still predates all of the artists mentioned above that it reminds us of, though we're pretty sure Blunt probably has never heard of any of them. It also has the left of center oddness of other outsider funk artists like Tonetta, or Wicked Witch, albeit way more toned down than either of those two. Not that it's completely off the wall weird, but it's one of those records that we went into with such hesitation and were pleasantly surprised that we then became totally enamored with its home-brewed charm.
The lp is 5 tracks, with extra shorter versions of the songs "Fly Guy" and "Gentle Persuasion" and comes housed in an old school white cut-out 12" sleeve. The cd version has two extra songs and instrumental versions of four of the tracks. Oh, and the vinyl has a gold star sticker that boldly proclaims "HIT!" We couldn't agree more!
MPEG Stream: "Fly Guy"
MPEG Stream: "Gentle Persuasion"
MPEG Stream: "Wiskey Man"

SMITH, ELLIOTT An Introduction to... (Kill Rock Stars) cd 12.98
As the years pass after Elliott Smith's sad suicide, it's becoming more clear that his musical legacy will have the same impact and influence on future generations that Nick Drake's did a few decades before. He created such intimate and fragile songs that anyone with a heart (that's been broken) could relate to and find warmth, comfort and solace from. His songs have proven to be so practically perfect and seemingly timeless. He wasn't a part of any musical fad or trend. Instead he was one of those rare songwriting geniuses, the ones that only come along every few generations and craft songs that become the soundtrack to so many of our lives.
An Introduction To... is just that. A selection of his best songs spanning all his albums as well as a couple tracks from New Moon, the collection of B sides and demos during the era he was on Kill Rock Stars. We're sure the only problem the folks at KRS had with this collection was having to narrow it all down to fourteen tracks, as he did leave behind so many amazing songs. But we have to say they did an impeccable job choosing which songs and in what order to craft this ultimate ES mixtape.
There are also great liner notes written by Tape Op editor Larry Crane which gives a nice history and plenty of insight into the music of Elliott Smith. For any of our friends who somehow slept on his music in the past, we must INSIST this you at least pick this up, you'll soon be under his spell for sure, we can't imagine many lovers of music not finding so much beauty and richness in these stunning songs.
We miss you Elliott!
MPEG Stream: "Waltz #2 (XO)"
MPEG Stream: "The Biggest Lie"
MPEG Stream: "Happiness (Single Version)"
MPEG Stream: "Last Call"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Love Is A Stream (Type) cd 15.98
Before we blather on like we so often do, it seemed like it might be good to just toss out a first impression of Love Is A Stream, the fantastic new record from Root Strata label Head Honcho Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, his first for the type label. And heck, that first impression might be all you need:
Lovesliescrushing meets Flying Saucer Attack.
There. Hard to argue with that. Warped warbly, blurred shoegazey drift, long stretches of incendiary psychedelic guitar drone, streaks of soft noise, buried melodies, ethereal vocals, lush layered textures, dense and explosive, expansive and dreamily hazy, and in its own way, gorgeously heavy.
A new side of Cantu-Ledesma for sure, whose past records seemed to hover in a much more tranquil serene otherworld, unfurling hushed landscapes of whispery minimalism, of delicate crystalline shimmer, and of barely there soft focus ambient drift. Love Is A Stream is anything but, a fiery, fierce, yet ultimately lush and washed out series of bold shoegaze dreamnoise experiments, not so much pop songs swathed in distortion and effects, as carefully crafted sonic impressions, a series of gorgeous miniature epics, each a brief expanse of prismatic hypnogogic psychedelia, every one a unique a roiling concoction of fuzzpopbliss and murky melodic churn. On the surface, the record plays out like a series of textures, from warm whirling hum, to crumbling blown out white noise blur, to grinding muted pulse and throb, to gauzy bleary haze, to thick billowy low end rumble, to superdistorted effects-drenched synthnoise, and yeah, you're reading right, this is in fact a noisy record, but it's an artfully crafted, carefully sculpted noise. A thick, billowing, warm and gloriously enveloping melodic noise, like sinking into a swirling sea of burnished muted crush, a nearly overwhelming avalanche of whirling swirling crumbling throb and thrum, beneath it all lurk delicate melodies, tendrils of minor key guitar, ghostly voices, whirring synths, they rise to the surface here and there, but for the most part exist as shadowy impressions, infusing the noisy textures with a melodic core, a warm glowing sonic heart, which is what transforms these heaving slabs of shoegazey heaviness into something divine, and divinely dreamy.
There are brief moments, where the surface noise, and the distortion, and the walls of effects peel back, and we get to peek behind the curtain, which reveals the lush minimal underpinnings of the songs, a brief melodic smear here, a hushed little fragment of guitar there, but a glimpse is all we get, and really all we want, because it's how those bits of minimal songcraft interact with the intense sonic effulgence that is truly the magic that Cantu-Ledesma wields in conjuring up the sounds here. And like all magic, the joy is not in how it was done, but it how it makes us feel.
The lp version comes with a bonus cd, a collaboration with Type label mainman Xela, who took source material provided by Cantu-Ledesma, and fashioned his own bit of ambient dronemusic. Nearly 50 minutes of haunting drift, after a short burst of caustic super distorted crunch, Xela settles into a slow burning sprawl of washed out chordal shimmer, deep rumbling thrum and lush streaks of shoegazey buzz, a few moments as dense and psychedelic as the record proper, but for the most part, more of a chill out wind down coda, the perfect addendum to an already practically perfect record. Really quite lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Stained Glass Body"
MPEG Stream: "Loving Love"
MPEG Stream: "Mirrors Death"

CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE Love Is A Stream (Type) lp+cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Before we blather on like we so often do, it seemed like it might be good to just toss out a first impression of Love Is A Stream, the fantastic new record from Root Strata label Head Honcho Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, his first for the Type label. And heck, that first impression might be all you need:
Lovesliescrushing meets Flying Saucer Attack.
There. Hard to argue with that. Warped warbly, blurred shoegazey drift, long stretches of incendiary psychedelic guitar drone, streaks of soft noise, buried melodies, ethereal vocals, lush layered textures, dense and explosive, expansive and dreamily hazy, and in its own way, gorgeously heavy.
A new side of Cantu-Ledesma for sure, whose past records seemed to hover in a much more tranquil serene otherworld, unfurling hushed landscapes of whispery minimalism, of delicate crystalline shimmer, and of barely there soft focus ambient drift. Love Is A Stream is anything but, a fiery, fierce, yet ultimately lush and washed out series of bold shoegaze dreamnoise experiments, not so much pop songs swathed in distortion and effects, as carefully crafted sonic impressions, a series of gorgeous miniature epics, each a brief expanse of prismatic hypnogogic psychedelia, every one a unique a roiling concoction of fuzzpopbliss and murky melodic churn. On the surface, the record plays out like a series of textures, from warm whirling hum, to crumbling blown out white noise blur, to grinding muted pulse and throb, to gauzy bleary haze, to thick billowy low end rumble, to superdistorted effects-drenched synthnoise, and yeah, you're reading right, this is in fact a noisy record, but it's an artfully crafted, carefully sculpted noise. A thick, billowing, warm and gloriously enveloping melodic noise, like sinking into a swirling sea of burnished muted crush, a nearly overwhelming avalanche of whirling swirling crumbling throb and thrum, beneath it all lurk delicate melodies, tendrils of minor key guitar, ghostly voices, whirring synths, they rise to the surface here and there, but for the most part exist as shadowy impressions, infusing the noisy textures with a melodic core, a warm glowing sonic heart, which is what transforms these heaving slabs of shoegazey heaviness into something divine, and divinely dreamy.
There are brief moments, where the surface noise, and the distortion, and the walls of effects peel back, and we get to peek behind the curtain, which reveals the lush minimal underpinnings of the songs, a brief melodic smear here, a hushed little fragment of guitar there, but a glimpse is all we get, and really all we want, because it's how those bits of minimal songcraft interact with the intense sonic effulgence that is truly the magic that Cantu-Ledesma wields in conjuring up the sounds here. And like all magic, the joy is not in how it was done, but it how it makes us feel.
The lp version comes with a bonus cd, a collaboration with Type label mainman Xela, who took source material provided by Cantu-Ledesma, and fashioned his own bit of ambient dronemusic. Nearly 50 minutes of haunting drift, after a short burst of caustic super distorted crunch, Xela settles into a slow burning sprawl of washed out chordal shimmer, deep rumbling thrum and lush streaks of shoegazey buzz, a few moments as dense and psychedelic as the record proper, but for the most part, more of a chill out wind down coda, the perfect addendum to an already practically perfect record. Really quite lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Stained Glass Body"
MPEG Stream: "Body Within Body"
MPEG Stream: "River Like Spine"

GOLD PANDA Lucky Shiner (Ghostly International) cd 11.98
All it took was about 30 seconds, and we knew this was probably gonna become out favorite new electronica record, heck, maybe just our favorite new record period. The best way we can think to describe Gold Panda is like a more lo-fi DIY version of The Field, if that makes any sense. Where The Field take samples, and loops and layers them, rendering them almost unrecognizable, and creating lush house-y soundscapes, Gold Panda does something quite similar, but without the goal of disguising the source or the samples, a vocal loop is chopped up and processed and woven into a stuttering melody, over a simple looped beat, and warm whirling melodies, that looped sample makes the whole thing sound so playful, and at least on the opener, "You", whose sample is the word 'you' chopped and looped, that melody ends up sounding strangely Indian, like some electro raga, although over the course of the track, the tone and timbre and pitch changes, so it slips from Oval like shimmer, to skittery faux Indian raga, to loping super melodic playful trip hop.
And the whole record is like that, the construction of the tracks is obvious, the glitch and static and crackle and pop of the source records, are all part of the sound, the samples assembled to create rhythms, to fashion melodies, draped over whirring skeletal beats, woven into Philip Jeck like cracklescapes, gamelan like melodies are layered into a lush tangle of melodies and placed atop a sea of hiss and a spare stripped down beat, soft melodic swells are truncated and left to rise and fall, creating a woozy rhythm, the whole thing wrapped in playful chimes and clipped minimal beats, every track is playful and lovely and dreamy in its own way, not so dependent on the beat, as much as the arrangement of samples, which is inevitably perfect, and conjures up the perfect mood and atmosphere.
There are some definitely oddballs, the two minutes of folky acoustic guitar on "Parents", that manages to be quite pretty and sweet on its own, and fit with the rest of the more sample heavy tracks pretty perfectly, there's also the buzzy sitar laced "India Lately", which does chop up Indian ragas, sitars and tablas, and weaves those parts into a gorgeously shoegazy stretch of pop ambience, and finally, the record finishes off by revisiting "You", this time with strings and chimes, and a less manic arrangement, instead opting for something much more subdued and dreamlike.
So great! All this amazing electronica coming out lately, we can't get enough, but this one just might take the cake!
MPEG Stream: "You"
MPEG Stream: "Vanilla Minus"
MPEG Stream: "Snow & Taxis"

CRYSTAL STILTS Shake The Shackles (Slumberland) 7" 4.50
Unlike many of their lo-fi garage peers, Crystal Stilts are quite restrained when it comes to releasing records. They still have not released a full length since their amazing debut, Alight Of Night from way back in 2008, and we think it's wise they're taking this approach. The only thing we've heard from them since was the incredibly addictive single "Love Is A Wave" which they released as a 7" last year and now finally we get two more brand new songs to whet our hungry appetites for a new album by one of the bands we imagine will outlast so many in the crowded lo-fi crowd they share a scene with. The A side "Shake The Shackles" could be confused with one of our favorite Jeremy Jay songs as it finds the Stilts at their most melodic and inviting yet. The B side "Magnetic Moon" has that perfect dark pop gloom that they do better then almost anyone around. A no brainier for fans of the band, and if you're not a fan or missed the boat the first time around,we urge you to check out their records as they really are something special!

NAGAMATZU Sacred Islands Of The Mad (Dark Entries) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Something of a musical chameleon, Andrew Lagowski has popped up in a bunch unlikely places since the mid-'80s. He worked with Brian Lustmord on a couple of his seminal records (including the dark ambient classic Heresy and the brutalist industrial project Terror Against Terror), and shortly thereafter produced some thumping techno singles for the Warp-lookalike label GPR, only to produce an incredible series of paranoiac electro-acoustic work on Touch under his moniker SETI in the late '90s. Nagamatzu represents Lagowski's earliest recordings, dating back to 1986, and these sound nothing like anything that he's done since. This was his minimal wave / post-punk project, working with bassist Stephen Jarvis. Drum machines, claustrophobic electronics, horror-movie / newsreel samples, and a few droning licks on the guitar all work through these instrumental pieces, with most every track driven by Jarvis' low-slung melodies that come directly out of the Peter Hook and Simon Gallup schools of goth-inflected basslines. Not surprising, "Sacred Islands Of The Mad" comes across as an incredible collection of what could have been lost Joy Division or Cure demos minus the vocals. Every track is met with dour moods and melodies grafted onto comparatively uptempo rhythm tracks. There was an mp3 rip of the cassette posted by Mutantsounds a couple years back, and the remastering job that George Horn did on the recordings is a huge improvement on those pretty crappy sounding files. Yup, Dark Entries has delivered another kick-ass album from the farthest regions of '80s dark/minimal/cold wave.
MPEG Stream: "Lonesco"
MPEG Stream: "Watch & Waste"
MPEG Stream: "Magic"

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

SUPERCHUNK No Pocky For Kitty (Merge) cd 13.98
It's pretty much impossible to overestimate the importance of North Carolina's Superchunk on the indie rock landscape, by now most folks, even those with just the most fleeting interest in popular music, are probably familair with these scrappy punk pop indie rockers, heck, Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan was recently a special guest on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, which is about as mainstream as it gets. Yet even now, playing festivals, headlining huge shows, showing up on NPR, selling thousands and thousands of records, the band still SOUNDS the way they did when they were a little DIY rock band from Chapel Hill, and the music is just as energetic and fun and crazy catchy, which makes sense really, Superchunk definitely did it their way, 20 years and still going strong, van tour after van tour, sweaty club shows, lots of 7"s that many of us still treasure, and let's not forget, launching, and to this day still running, one of the coolest (and one of the most important) indie labels around, Merge Records.
But as they say, it's all about the music, and holy crap, does Superchunk make some of the catchiest, hookiest, most rocking, supercharged indie rock around. STILL. But if there was a pantheon for greatest indie rock records of all time, up there alongside Slint's Spiderland, Pavement's Slanted And Enchanted, Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary, Guided By Voices ' Bee Thousand, etc, we would most definitely have to include Superchunk's second and third albums, No Pocky For Kitty and On The Mouth.
While their 1990 self titled debut included the ALL TIME indie rock anthem "Slack Motherfucker", the band's first single and perhaps defining moment, everything great about Superchunk got even greater with No Pocky For Kitty. The sound tighter, more rocking, the songs EVEN CATCHIER. Every single track on No Pocky is an indie rock classic. The opening salvo of "Skip Steps 1 & 3", Seed Toss" and "Cast Iron" is pretty impossible to beat, the crunchy LOUD guitars, the pounding drums, Mac's high emotive vocals, and hooks, all over the goddamn place, so catchy it plays like a greatest hits more than an album proper. Jangly and bittersweet, gorgeous melodies, incredible lyrics, all of these songs destined for mixtapes for sure.
And remember when we said those first three songs were tough to beat? Well, that's only if you don't consider the rest of the record. Highlights include "Punch Me Harder" is a driving distorted rocker, with ridiculously hooky guitars, and a chorus that kills, and a verse that's just as catchy, and record closer "Throwing Things", which is just so perfect, midtempo and dreamy, with a keening main melody that will get stuck in your head forEVER.
Easily one of our favorite records ever, indie rock or otherwise!
MPEG Stream: "Skip Steps 1 & 3"
MPEG Stream: "Seed Toss"
MPEG Stream: "Cast Iron"
MPEG Stream: "Throwing Things"

SUPERCHUNK No Pocky For Kitty (Merge) lp 17.98
It's pretty much impossible to overestimate the importance of North Carolina's Superchunk on the indie rock landscape, by now most folks, even those with just the most fleeting interest in popular music, are probably familair with these scrappy punk pop indie rockers, heck, Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan was recently a special guest on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, which is about as mainstream as it gets. Yet even now, playing festivals, headlining huge shows, showing up on NPR, selling thousands and thousands of records, the band still SOUNDS the way they did when they were a little DIY rock band from Chapel Hill, and the music is just as energetic and fun and crazy catchy, which makes sense really, Superchunk definitely did it their way, 20 years and still going strong, van tour after van tour, sweaty club shows, lots of 7"s that many of us still treasure, and let's not forget, launching, and to this day still running, one of the coolest (and one of the most important) indie labels around, Merge Records.
But as they say, it's all about the music, and holy crap, does Superchunk make some of the catchiest, hookiest, most rocking, supercharged indie rock around. STILL. But if there was a pantheon for greatest indie rock records of all time, up there alongside Slint's Spiderland, Pavement's Slanted And Enchanted, Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary, Guided By Voices ' Bee Thousand, etc, we would most definitely have to include Superchunk's second and third albums, No Pocky For Kitty and On The Mouth.
While their 1990 self titled debut included the ALL TIME indie rock anthem "Slack Motherfucker", the band's first single and perhaps defining moment, everything great about Superchunk got even greater with No Pocky For Kitty. The sound tighter, more rocking, the songs EVEN CATCHIER. Every single track on No Pocky is an indie rock classic. The opening salvo of "Skip Steps 1 & 3", Seed Toss" and "Cast Iron" is pretty impossible to beat, the crunchy LOUD guitars, the pounding drums, Mac's high emotive vocals, and hooks, all over the goddamn place, so catchy it plays like a greatest hits more than an album proper. Jangly and bittersweet, gorgeous melodies, incredible lyrics, all of these songs destined for mixtapes for sure.
And remember when we said those first three songs were tough to beat? Well, that's only if you don't consider the rest of the record. Highlights include "Punch Me Harder" is a driving distorted rocker, with ridiculously hooky guitars, and a chorus that kills, and a verse that's just as catchy, and record closer "Throwing Things", which is just so perfect, midtempo and dreamy, with a keening main melody that will get stuck in your head forEVER.
Easily one of our favorite records ever, indie rock or otherwise!

MPEG Stream: "Skip Steps 1 & 3"
MPEG Stream: "Seed Toss"
MPEG Stream: "Cast Iron"
MPEG Stream: "Throwing Things"

AIAS A La Piscina (Captured Tracks) cd 13.98
While there is no shortage of rad girl group inspired garage pop coming out right now, Aias add some totally unique and spirited energy to the mix, definitely helping them stand out from the garage girl crowd: Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, Slumber Party, etc. Singing in their native Catalan, these three women from Spain show that it's still possible to breathe fresh life into a sound that's been around the block, a sound that can always sound so damn good when done so totally right. And Aias do it so right. With a naive charming quality that sounds a little like Shonen Knife covering the Ramones and The Ronettes, with every single song perfectly hitting the spot. The recording is so warm and minimal in the best way, like our favorite early recordings that came out on K, this is such a smart pop record that understands that stripping away the fat leaves you with just the good stuff. A new favorite pop record for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Tu Manes"
MPEG Stream: "Una Setmana Sencera"
MPEG Stream: "Moto"

AIAS A La Piscina (Captured Tracks) lp 16.98
Now here on vinyl as well!!
While there is no shortage of rad girl group inspired garage pop coming out right now, Aias add some totally unique and spirited energy to the mix, definitely helping them stand out from the garage girl crowd: Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, Slumber Party, etc. Singing in their native Catalan, these three women from Spain show that it's still possible to breathe fresh life into a sound that's been around the block, a sound that can always sound so damn good when done so totally right. And Aias do it so right. With a naive charming quality that sounds a little like Shonen Knife covering the Ramones and The Ronettes, with every single song perfectly hitting the spot. The recording is so warm and minimal in the best way, like our favorite early recordings that came out on K, this is such a smart pop record that understands that stripping away the fat leaves you with just the good stuff. A new favorite pop record for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Tu Manes"
MPEG Stream: "Una Setmana Sencera"
MPEG Stream: "Moto"

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN Write About Love (Matador) cd 13.98
For some of us, Belle And Sebastian are one of the only bands that have been a constant in our lives for the last fifteen years. So listening to them always takes on extra weight as we immediately are flooded with so many memories when we hear their delicate and exquisitely constructed bittersweet pop songs. Seeing them live just a couple weeks ago we were reminded just how many life defining and moment-capturing songs they've created over the years with an ease and breeze that so many have tried to emulate but always seem to come up short. During that live set we got to hear several of the songs that are on Write About Love for the first time and it made us very excited for the album.
Like all Belle And Sebastian albums, it's hard to write about this new one without spending tons of time with it as they really are a band who make records for the long haul. As all their records have left a mark on us even if at first we didn't think we were as in love with it as the one before.
Write About Love is a nice mixture of the slower side of the band as well as a few totally sugary and catchy songs that we have been humming non stop since we got this in. The record does make us miss Isobel Campbell, as a couple of the female led tracks just aren't as special as when they were being sung by her. But we know that so many of these songs will become totally ingrained in helping cue so many future memories of romance, friendships, lazy rainy days, and sun soaked adventures. (FYI, vinyl being repressed, probably back in stock next week.)
MPEG Stream: "I Want The World To Stop"
MPEG Stream: "I Didn't See It Coming"
MPEG Stream: "I'm Not Living In The Real World"
MPEG Stream: "Write About Love"

V/A Roots Of Chicha 2: Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru (Barbes) cd 15.98
W