JUDAS PRIEST British Steel (Columbia) cd 12.98
1980 Priest album remastered and tricked out with two bonus cuts (the patriotic and very lame "Red, White & Blue" and a live "Grinder"). But the original LP tracks are where the action is: bonafide metal classics like "Living After Midnight", the seemingly autobiographical "Metal Gods" (actually, no, it's about evil robots!), and everyone's favorite sing-along, "Breaking The Law".

JUDAS PRIEST Defenders of the Faith (Columbia) cd 12.98
"Rising from darkness where hell hath no mercy and the screams of vengeance echo on forever, only those who keep the faith shall escape the wrath of the Metallian...master of all metal." Don't provoke the Metallian, pick up this 1984 Judas Priest album in all its remastered glory and thrill to video-age classics like "Freewheel Burning" and "Love Bites". Includes, as all these remasters do, two bonus tracks, one live, one (weak-ass unfortunately) studio.

JUDAS PRIEST Hell Bent For Leather (Columbia / Legacy) cd 7.98
More Priest remastered reissues! Their new album, "Demolition" turned out to be a big piece of crap but that makes these old reissues even more necessary, as a reminder of their former glories in the days of Halford, particularily in the '70s. 1978's "Hell Bent For Leather" (UK title: "Killing Machine") has been a classic album since the day it was released, and nothing's going to change that. This has their great Fleetwood Mac cover "The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown)", that inspired further cover versions by both the Melvins and The Need. Includes two bonus tracks: a live "Riding on the Wind" and an unreleased studio recording called "Fight For Your Life".

JUDAS PRIEST Nostradamus (Epic) 2cd 17.98

JUDAS PRIEST Painkiller (Sony) cd 12.98
Supreme metal triumph. The last good (in fact, great) Judas Priest album, also happened to be their last with 'Metal God' Rob Halford at the mic. Originally released in 1990, "Painkiller" at the time seemed like the big Priest comeback, after a string of crap, commercial late-eighties releases ("Ram It Down", "Turbo"). But, it was SO good that the classic Priest line-up imploded soon thereafter. At least they went out with a bang (and never should have done anything else afterwards!). The proudly uber-metallic, melodic but mighty and punishing beast that is "Painkiller" influenced many a more recent metal band, with songs from this album even getting cover treatment from a host of younger outfits. Lyrically, it's totally over the top and cheesy (but cheesy in a good way, unlike "Turbo" et.al.) with song titles like "Leather Rebel" and "Metal Meltdown". The twin guitar attack of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing was at an all-time peak, spitting out riffs and trading off leads left and right. New drummer Scott Travis' double bass barrage also added to the band's firepower. Belongs in the book of "ultimate metal albums" for sure. It's actually hard to imagine any record being MORE metal than this one! Like the other discs in the JP reissue series, this is remastered and includes a couple of ok but non-essential unreleased bonus tracks. Allan remembers buying this on cassette at Sam The Record Man on Toronto's Yonge St., back in his college days, and it's one of the albums that helped forge his love of metal. We had to physically restrain him from making this reissue "record of the week". Well, no, not really, but he likes it a lot, and was excited about this cd.
RealAudio clip: "Painkiller"

JUDAS PRIEST Painkiller (Back On Black) 2lp 36.00
Had to get this in, reissued on lp, so you can proudly add the most metal metal ever made to your vinyl collection!
Supreme metal triumph. The last good (in fact, great) Judas Priest album, also happened to be their last with 'Metal God' Rob Halford at the mic (until of course their current, predictably disappointing, reunion). Originally released in 1990, Painkiller at the time seemed like the big Priest comeback, after a string of crap, commercial late-eighties releases (Ram It Down, Turbo). But, it was SO good that the classic Priest line-up imploded soon thereafter. At least they went out with a bang (and never should have done anything else afterwards!). The proudly uber-metallic, melodic but mighty and punishing beast that is Painkiller influenced many a more recent metal band, with songs from this album even getting cover treatment from a host of younger outfits. Lyrically, it's totally over the top and cheesy (but cheesy in a good way, unlike Turbo et. al.) with song titles like "Leather Rebel" and "Metal Meltdown". The twin guitar attack of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing was at an all-time peak, spitting out riffs and trading off leads left and right. New drummer Scott Travis' double bass barrage also added to the band's firepower. Belongs in the book of "ultimate metal albums" for sure. It's actually hard to imagine any record being MORE metal than this one!
Allan remembers buying this on cassette at Sam The Record Man on Toronto's Yonge Street, back in his college days, and it's one of the albums that helped forge his love of metal. We had to physically restrain him from making this reissue "record of the week". Well, no, not really, but he likes it a lot!
Includes two bonus tracks, too.

JUDAS PRIEST Point of Entry (Columbia) cd 12.98
1981 album remastered ("for speaker-splitting sound" it says on the cover sticker), w/ unreleased 2 bonus tracks ("Thunder Road" is the studio one, it's pretty good actually, by "Point of Entry" standards). C'mon, go hot rockin'!

JUDAS PRIEST Rocka Rolla (Koch) lp 22.00
BEST PRIEST ALBUM. On vinyl.

JUDAS PRIEST Sad Wings Of Destiny (Koch) cd 9.98
THE Judas Priest cd YOU MUST OWN. It's their second album, from 1976, and is one of the prototypical heavy metal albums of all time (along with earlier masterworks like "Paranoid" and "Machine Head" and later classics like "Killers" and "Master of Puppets"). When I (Allan) was in high school, I thought Priest sucked 'cause I'd only heard their commerical late '80s output like "Turbo" -- but someone played me a tape of some early Priest and I was blown away. They were heavy and psychedelic, not cheesy and leather-clad like latter-day Priest (not that there's anything wrong with that though). The majesty and drama of Queen, the doom-laden might of Sabbath, the speedy rockin' of Purple: Judas Priest blended all that into "Sad Wings", a cornerstone of heavy metal if there ever was one. This is one of those albums where pretty much every song is a classic: the epic "Victim of Changes", nightprowling rocker "The Ripper", "Genocide", "Island of Domination", more. Recommended! We're listing this 'cause of the recent reissues of some other Priest albums -- as long as we reviewed those, we figured we ought to also tell you about our all-time fave Priest disc too (the band doesn't own the rights to their first two albums, apparently, so this isn't in the same reissue series).
RealAudio clip: "Sad Wings of Destiny"
RealAudio clip: "Tyrant"

JUDAS PRIEST Screaming For Vengeance (Columbia) cd 12.98
Of the four newly reissued/remastered JP discs, this 1982 uber-classic and "British Steel" are the definite essentials. (Of course, there's eight others coming up in this welcome reissue program, just in time to light a fire under today's Priest to make their new disc "Demolition" live up to these old records). Fuck, this one's got "The Hellion/Electric Eye", the title track, "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" and more...including, as with the other three, 2 unreleased bonus tracks (and this time, the studio track isn't so bad).

JUDAS PRIEST Sin After Sin (Columbia / Legacy) cd 12.98
The one with their Joan Baez cover, "Diamonds And Rust". Plus the song Slayer later covered, "Dissident Aggressor". And "Sinner" and "Last Rose of Summer" and more. Early Priest rules, and this was their first album for Columbia, from '77 (and thus the earliest in this reissue series). While not the equal of its amazing predecessor, 1976's "Sad Wings Of Destiny", it's still essential. It comes remastered with the requisite two bonus tracks, that honestly haven't been all that worthwhile on any of the reissues we've checked out. But it's the actual albums that count, so if you don't have this one or the others, get 'em!

JUDAS PRIEST Stained Class (Columbia / Legacy) cd 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Another Priest classic! For some folks, this is THEE Priest platter. If you're any sort of metalhead, you'll have this 1978 album in your collection. "Exciter", "Invader", "Beyond The Realms of Death", "Saints In Hell", their cover of "Better By You, Better Than Me"...so many great songs. This disc is of course remastered and includes two bonus tracks, one live, one studio.
MPEG Stream: "Exciter"
MPEG Stream: "White Heat, Red Hot"

JUDAS PRIEST Unleashed In The East (Columbia / Legacy) cd 12.98
Known to fans as "Unleashed In The Studio", this is their 'live' album recorded in 1979 in Japan. Overdubbed or not, it's another essential metal artifact from the band that pioneered on-stage motorcycle riding. For once, the bonus tracks on this remaster make it a superior album to its previous incarnation, adding 4 "Hell Bent For Leather" era live cuts to your home 'concert' experience.

JUDD, ELMORE Insect Funk (Honest Jon's) cd 17.98

JUDD, F.C. Electronics Without Tears (Public Information) cd 19.98
A self-taught musician with a keen understanding of electronic circuits, F.C. Judd published the first of 11 books on the nascent field of electronic music in 1954. This was a few years before the BBC founded its Radiophonic Workshop, and documentation exists that Judd and the Workshop's Daphne Oram were in communication with each other. That said, Judd might have counted amongst the hundreds of amateur enthusiasts who tinkered in garages, basements, attics, and sheds throughout the UK (and beyond for that matter!); but his anonymity was not for a lack of trying, as he did publish those 11 books, founded the Amateur Tape Recording magazine (with a run from 1959-1967), and funded a couple of record labels, all in the pursuit of disseminating experimental tape music to a wider audience. Many of those singles did get bundled by Studio G for library use (and subsequently, one of those tracks made it onto the G-Spots compilation from the Studio G archives, curated by Trunk Records), and Judd did create the electronic sound design for the children's sci-fi puppet show Space Patrol in 1963.
Judd's late '50s / early '60s studio featured various oscillators, tape decks, and filters alongside a primitive drum machine and an experimental synthesizer, both of his own design; and he rendered an eerie array of vibrations and electronic plonk, coupled with a rough-cut / hand-spun approach to tape edits and loops. Judd varied from the spookily abstract paralleling (and predating) the sound design from the Forbidden Planet and Dr. Who soundtracks; and some delightfully playful electronic poptunes looking forward to Joe Meek's gleeful electronics as The Blue Men. Interspersed throughout the electronics and tape experiments, Judd offers up his own thoughts on the tracks themselves with a dry sense of humor tossing about explanatory definitions of basic musique concrete techniques and various electronic circuits. A fantastic and compelling document of the earliest and nearly forgotten pioneers of British electronic music, to which Judd himself said it best: "Musique Concrete is fascinating!"
MPEG Stream: "Suspended Motion"
MPEG Stream: "Tempotune"
MPEG Stream: "Space Links"
MPEG Stream: "Cheery Bye"

JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES Abraca A Tristeza (Vanguard Squad) cd 9.98
Bay Area band Judith And Holofernes take traditional Portuguese fado music and give it a gentle twist. Gracefully picked guitar flourishes are accompanied by male and female vocals that actually bring to mind those of Low's Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker (particularly on their last album The Great Destroyer). In fact, at times, Judith And Holofernes seem to be not so distant rural cousins of those somber slowcore faves. Pressing the comparisons even closer, electric guitar drones thicken the album's atmosphere and give the proceedings a bit more gravity. May we recommend that Abraca A Tristeza be listened to by candlelight? Yes! Enjoy these moody beauties as they glimmer in and out of the shadows.
MPEG Stream: "Euphoria Fades"
MPEG Stream: "Flattering Inaccuracy Of Memory"

JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES Abraca A Tristeza (Vanguard Squad) lp 9.98
Bay Area band Judith And Holofernes take traditional Portuguese fado music and give it a gentle twist. Gracefully picked guitar flourishes are accompanied by male and female vocals that actually bring to mind those of Low's Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker (particularly on their last album The Great Destroyer). In fact, at times, Judith And Holofernes seem to be not so distant rural cousins of those somber slowcore faves. Pressing the comparisons even closer, electric guitar drones thicken the album's atmosphere and give the proceedings a bit more gravity. May we recommend that Abraca A Tristeza be listened to by candlelight? Yes! Enjoy these moody beauties as they glimmer in and out of the shadows.
MPEG Stream: "Euphoria Fades"
MPEG Stream: "Flattering Inaccuracy Of Memory"

JUICEBOXX Journeyman From The Heartland / Thunder Zone Volume One (Ormolycka) 2 x cassette 8.98
Back in stock...
Not only does our pal Jason run the weirdo tape label Ormolycka label, responsible for a whole mess of awesome releases including jams from Lil Ugly Mane, Death Grips, Burqa Boyz, Pictureplane, M Ax Noi Mach and tons more, he also puts together amazing shows at the Sutro Baths, that happen in THE CAVE!!! Which is even more remarkable considering he lives in New York City! The 5th annual Oromolycka Cave show just happened this last weekend, and it was awesome, tons of folks showed up, there was free BBQ and the bands KILLED. It ended up being a wild hip hop cave show, with even M Ax Noi Mach doing some rapping, but it was Lil Ugly Mane that stole the show, the whole crowd singing along to every single line.
Here we have yet another rad/weird Ormolycka release, this one from Milwaukee rapper and energy drink entrepreneur (we kid you not) Juiceboxx, whose sound is like a whinier goofier version of Lil Ugly Mane, sped up soul samples, skittery beats, the vibe a little bit crunk, very Southern in places, all sorts of twisted samples, squelchy synths, and lots of that weird sports horn sound, EVERYwhere. Total party rap that's pretty fun, pretty silly, but definitely self aware and clever, hints of Eminem, Beastie Boys (all the usual white boy rapper touchstones), but Juiceboxx definitely has that outsider Ormolycka hip hop thing going on which makes this well worth checking out, and odds are you'll be blasting this big time, for what remains of Summer.
Comes in a cool old school double cassette case, with two different J card / covers for each album, one a Springsteen homage/pisstake (!!). And yeah, SUPER limited!

JUKEBOXER In the Food Chain (Absolutely Kosher) cd 13.98
With a bandname like that, you might be expecting a power pop trio or some other energetic upbeat combo, but no! This new addition to the ever-growing, wide-ranging Absolutely Kosher label family (Wrens, Xiu Xiu, Mountain Goats, Frog Eyes, Court & Spark et al) is a subdued, contemplative earthy ensemble. Their music suggests more so an antique wind-up musicbox than an electric jukebox. Quite akin to recent neo-folksters such as Joanna Newsom, Vetiver and Faun Fables. They make the kind of airy, enchanting music that draws you near, you'll want/need to lean in close to catch every hushed, chiming note and drifting seraphim vocal. So pretty!
MPEG Stream: "Terrestrial"
MPEG Stream: "House Burning Down"

JULES, MARSEN Nostalgia (Oktaf) cd 16.98
Classical inspired daydream electronic ambience crafted with an immaculate touch. Marsen Jules should be familiar to anyone who loves the blissed out sounds found on Kompakt's yearly Pop Ambient series, as he's had tracks featured on four of those collections. Nostalgia is rife with solemn undertones, making it the perfect soundtrack for broken hearts and tearful moments, surrendering to the intensity of the moment. It's music that would perfectly suit some 16mm gauzy Kodachrome film panning through the sky, city, and glimpses of old friends, lovers and faded memories. A record that makes us think of our favorite outings by Sylvain Chauveau, Gas, Biosphere, and Klimek.
Completely gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "A Moment Of Grace"
MPEG Stream: "Sleep My Brother, Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Sweet Longing"

JULIAN, DON Savage! On The Streets Or On The Sheets He's A Savage! Super Soul Soundtrack (OST) (Southbound) cd 15.98

JULIAN, PHIL Live Flux (The Tapeworm) cassette 9.98
Another list, another batch of tapes from UK label The Tapeworm! This one comes from a guy named Phil Julian, who despite apparently being quite active in the experimental music underground since the nineties, we had not previously heard of. But all it took was a few seconds of his Live Flux to convince us that that was definitely an egregious oversight on our part. Huge billowing clouds of low end rumble and buzzing metallic shimmer, all constructed from experiments with "unstable/chaotic systems", aka modular synths, contact mics, feedback etc. It's impossible to tell what the source is for these sounds, but it hardly matters, just sit back and let these thick sonic swells wash over you. Undulating, and softly pulsing swirls seem to coalesce into heaving walls of sound only to immediately dissipate into drifting clouds of sonic particles, before beginning to gather once again. The sound eventually settles into something much more serene, a sort of Niblockian stretch of layered tones, backed with all manner of incidental sound, voices, shuffling feet, pieces of wood on concrete, hard to say if these were purposeful or not, but they do add mysterious texture, to Julian's dronemusic, which even in its more serene state, begins again to build to something dense and intense. The flipside is more of the same, but the recording is more raw, wreathed in hiss, the sounds pulsing madly as well, as if tones were chosen that were just off enough that their overtones would collide and disagree, the results though are a wild chaotic cloud of hissing, throbbing soft noise, that for all of its noisiness and abrasion, still manages to be weirdly hypnotic.

JULIUS ANDROIDE Den Berdmte Robot-Apen (Go To Gate) cd 11.98

JULIUS, ORLANDO Super Afro Soul (Vampi Soul) 2cd 33.00

JULIUS, ORLANDO Super Afro Soul (Vampi Soul) 3lp 42.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

JULIUS, ORLANDO & HIS AFRO-SOUNDERS Orlando's Afro Ideas: 1969-72 (Ekosound) cd 16.98
Outside of Nigeria, most Nigerian artists from the golden era of Nigerian High Life live deep within the shadow of Fela Kuti. To be fair to Fela his output alone dwarfs all comers, and he was one of the founding fathers of the modern Nigerian sound. Orlando Julius, while not blessed with as large an oeuvre as Fela is as great an architect of the music. Julius cut his teeth playing in the early high life bands starting back in 1961. By the time Fela Kuti had returned from abroad with his head full of ideas, Orlando Julius had already started his band The Modern Aces and begun revolutionizing the stagnating music scene. It was his band that Fela looked to when he started his precursor to the Africa 70, Koola Lobitos. Now available for the first time outside of Nigeria are 9 tracks of soulful Nigerian high life recorded by Orlando Julius between 1969 and 1972. Includes historical sleeve notes by Miles Cleret.
MPEG Stream: "Home Sweet Home"
MPEG Stream: "Mura Sise"

JULIUS, ORLANDO & MODERN ACES Super Afro Soul (Afrostrut) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Classic mid-sixties Nigerian High Life from one of the best. Orlando Julius not only worked with Hugh Masekela, Lamont Dozier, and the Crusaders but gave James Brown the inspiration for "I Feel Good" (supposedly, may not be true but it's believable). This album has never before been released outside of Africa. A foot stomping great collection of funky high life.

JULIUS, ORLANDO & MODERN ACES Super Afro Soul (Afrostrut) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Classic mid-sixties Nigerian High Life from one of the best. Orlando Julius not only worked with Hugh Masekela, Lamont Dozier, and the Crusaders but gave James Brown the inspiration for "I Feel Good" (supposedly, may not be true but it's believable). This album has never before been released outside of Africa. A foot stomping great collection of funky high life.

JULY July & The Second July (Mason) cd 23.00

JULY s/t (Aftermath) cd 17.98
First cd issue of what is reportedly a highly sought after record of UK psychedelic rock. The singer's got a nice Skip Spence strain in his voice, and there's a lot of sitar on top of the more traditional instrumentation, and the winsome harmonies are sweet. Other than that, it's pretty good but not mindblowing so we're recommending it only to hardcore psych freaks who already have all the Kinks records, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental band reissues, etc. You know who you are.
RealAudio clip: "Jolly Mary"
RealAudio clip: "Hallo to Me"

JULY s/t (Rev-Ola) cd 17.98
July is one of a myriad of UK psych bands to come out of the paisley maelstrom of the post-Sgt. Pepper's London psych scene in the late sixties. One who would still remain a minor footnote if they had never made this brilliant and amazing debut album. It's a highly collectible psych artifact for good reason. It's awesome!!!!!!!! We've been playing it nearly non-stop since we got it, and it's pretty much an across the board store favorite.
Starting out years earlier as the Tomcats (amongst many other line-up changes and band names that defined the hectic scene back in the day) and influenced by the same wave of American R&B that bands like the Stones and Spencer Davis Group were, they soon realized the London scene was too crowded for them and headed off to the France and Spain for a couple of years to tighten their chops. When they came back in 1968, the sound and scene had changed once again from R&B to full on flowery acid-psych. Armed with good songs and well-rehearsed from touring, they quickly snagged a record deal and used the studio to augment their songs with all manner of gimmickry such as phasing, delays and tape-loops and far-out instrumentation of sitars, tablas, and African percussion.
The band quickly cut one of the finest examples of acid-y psych pop to come out of the era, an engaging mix of lysergic dreaminess and lo-fi garage rock urgency. The only thing was, none of the members really liked the result. (Unlike us!) Certain choices like the "ugly" cover art and band name (changed to July to coincide with the album's release?!) were taken out of the band's control, and some members felt the studio gimmickry being used was far too gimmicky. At the time when so many bands like The Pretty Things, Pink Floyd, and Kaleidoscope were making stronger inroads with the psych sound and scene, July couldn't figure out what it should do with itself, and cutting only one more single (featured here among the bonus tracks), called it a day. Tragic! Listening to this today, you can hear its influence through bands like Olivia Tremor Control, early Guided By Voices, and Jennifer Gentle. If you have loved UK pop-psych albums such as Tangerine Dream by Kaleidoscope, S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things, and Pink Floyd's Pipers at The Gates of Dawn, July's self-titled debut will be one more jewel in that acid pop crown. So totally recommended.
NB. another July album called The Second of July of previous unissued recordings from 1967 exists as well, and hopefully also will be reissued by Rev-Ola.
MPEG Stream: "Jolly Mary"
MPEG Stream: "I See"
MPEG Stream: "Friendly Man"

JULY s/t (Guerssen) lp 31.00
This all time aQ favorite is now available on vinyl!
July is one of a myriad of UK psych bands to come out of the paisley maelstrom of the post-Sgt. Pepper's London psych scene in the late sixties. One who would still remain a minor footnote if they had never made this brilliant and amazing debut album. It's a highly collectible psych artifact for good reason. It's awesome!!! We've been playing it nearly non-stop since we got it, and it's pretty much an across the board store favorite.
Starting out years earlier as the Tomcats (amongst many other line-up changes and band names that defined the hectic scene back in the day) and influenced by the same wave of American RnB that bands like the Stones and Spencer Davis Group were, they soon realized the London scene was too crowded for them and headed off to the France and Spain for a couple of years to tighten their chops. When they came back in 1968, the sound and scene had changed once again from RnB to full on flowery acid-psych. Armed with good songs and well-rehearsed from touring, they quickly snagged a record deal and used the studio to augment their songs with all manner of gimmickry such as phasing, delays and tape-loops and far-out instrumentation of sitars, tablas, and African percussion.
The band quickly cut one of the finest examples of acid-y psych pop to come out of the era, an engaging mix of lysergic dreaminess and lo-fi garage rock urgency. The only thing was, none of the members really liked the result (unlike us). Certain choices like the "ugly" cover art and band name (changed to July to coincide with the album's release?!) were taken out of the band's control, and some members felt the studio gimmickry being used was far too gimmicky. At the time when so many bands like The Pretty Things, Pink Floyd, and Kaleidoscope were making stronger inroads with the psych sound and scene, July couldn't figure out what it should do with itself, and cutting only one more single (featured here among the bonus tracks), called it a day. Tragic! Listening to this today, you can hear its influence through bands like Olivia Tremor Control, early Guided By Voices, and Jennifer Gentle. If you have loved UK pop-psych albums such as Tangerine Dream by Kaleidoscope, S.F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things, and Pink Floyd's Pipers at The Gates of Dawn, July's self-titled debut will be one more jewel in that acid pop crown. So totally recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Jolly Mary"
MPEG Stream: "I See"
MPEG Stream: "Friendly Man"

JUMA SULTAN'S ABORIGINAL MUSIC SOCIETY Whispers From The Archive (Porter) cd 14.98
Another incredible jazz artifact rescued from the abyss by the fine folks at Porter, this one comes courtesy of the enigmatic Juma Sultan, and his ever shifting musical collective The Aboriginal Music Society, who over the course of the sixties and seventies recorded literally THOUSANDS of hours of music, the group's sound as constantly in flux as its lineup, the sound a dizzying mix of Afro / spiritual / free jazz, even soul and RnB, all of which is covered here, this handful of tracks handpicked by Sultan, chronicling the groups' expansive body of work, beginning with the near 21 minute "AMS", which manages to capture the free sonic spirit of the group in a single, track, beginning with a dense rhythmic workout, that definitely foreshadows groups like No Neck Blues Band, Avarus and Sunburned Hand Of The Man, before slipping into a woozy, bass and piano driven groove, the bass warped and warbly, the piano lush and melancholic, until in swoop some soulful horns, the vibe very laid back and groovy, before transforming once again into a serious post-bop final movement, the drums growing more chaotic and propulsive, the piano wild and loose, the sound growing more and more free with out losing any of its soul or melody.
"Shake Your Money Maker" is all drums and percussion, fluttering flute and call and response vocals, a total drum and fife style jam, before slipping into the VERY funky "Darn My Socks", with some James Brown style vox, a funky-drummer beat, super raw and lo-fi, wah guitar and extra percussion adding to the songs fierce groove.
The rest of the record is split between two, two-part jams, "Sundance And The Hand Clapping", which is darkly groovy, with whirring organs, dense flurries of piano, and a driving metronomic beat, the second part letting loose with lots of flute, draped over groovy percussion, while "She Made Me Feel Like Glory" unfurls as a seriously heady chunk of spiritual jazz, all droned out and Eastern, hazy and hypnotic, bells and percussion, over slow smoldering grooves, culminating in the second part / final track, which adds vocals, and slowly builds from spare call and response vocal driven soulful jazz, to something much more loose and abstract, a final sprawl of explosive and prismatic ur-drone raga jazz blissout. AWESOME.
MPEG Stream: "AMS"
MPEG Stream: "Darn My Socks"
MPEG Stream: "She Made Me Feel Like Glory (Part I)"

JUMA SULTAN'S ABORIGINAL MUSIC SOCIETY Whispers From The Archive (Porter) 2lp 17.98
Another incredible jazz artifact rescued from the abyss by the fine folks at Porter, this one comes courtesy of the enigmatic Juma Sultan, and his ever shifting musical collective The Aboriginal Music Society, who over the course of the sixties and seventies recorded literally THOUSANDS of hours of music, the group's sound as constantly in flux as its lineup, the sound a dizzying mix of Afro / spiritual / free jazz, even soul and RnB, all of which is covered here, this handful of tracks handpicked by Sultan, chronicling the groups' expansive body of work, beginning with the near 21 minute "AMS", which manages to capture the free sonic spirit of the group in a single, track, beginning with a dense rhythmic workout, that definitely foreshadows groups like No Neck Blues Band, Avarus and Sunburned Hand Of The Man, before slipping into a woozy, bass and piano driven groove, the bass warped and warbly, the piano lush and melancholic, until in swoop some soulful horns, the vibe very laid back and groovy, before transforming once again into a serious post-bop final movement, the drums growing more chaotic and propulsive, the piano wild and loose, the sound growing more and more free with out losing any of its soul or melody.
"Shake Your Money Maker" is all drums and percussion, fluttering flute and call and response vocals, a total drum and fife style jam, before slipping into the VERY funky "Darn My Socks", with some James Brown style vox, a funky-drummer beat, super raw and lo-fi, wah guitar and extra percussion adding to the songs fierce groove.
The rest of the record is split between two, two-part jams, "Sundance And The Hand Clapping", which is darkly groovy, with whirring organs, dense flurries of piano, and a driving metronomic beat, the second part letting loose with lots of flute, draped over groovy percussion, while "She Made Me Feel Like Glory" unfurls as a seriously heady chunk of spiritual jazz, all droned out and Eastern, hazy and hypnotic, bells and percussion, over slow smoldering grooves, culminating in the second part / final track, which adds vocals, and slowly builds from spare call and response vocal driven soulful jazz, to something much more loose and abstract, a final sprawl of explosive and prismatic ur-drone raga jazz blissout. AWESOME.
MPEG Stream: "AMS"
MPEG Stream: "Darn My Socks"
MPEG Stream: "She Made Me Feel Like Glory (Part I)"

JUMALHAMARA Resignaatio (Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A few years back, we became particularly obsessed with a Finnish (sort of) black metal group called Jumalhamara. Now, we know, aQ becoming obsessed with a band from Finland is hardly big news, but this was something else.
As mentioned in our old review, a friend warned us off these guys, saying they were barely black metal and were way too wussy and jangly, but everything he said just made us want to hear it more. Besides, they were from Finland, they were called Jumalhamara AND they had a song called, "Discover The Pigtail", which ended up being as good as the title might lead you to believe. Probably better to just revisit what we said about that track last time:
"Discover The Pigtail" begins with glistening harmonics, which are soon joined by some strange off kilter drumming, tangled riffing and howled vocals, and those harmonics never go away, so even as the band slithers and sprawls, spewing out a sort of buzzy blackness, the glistening shimmer totally shines through, diluting the heaviness, turning what might be something raw and heavy into something way more bizarre and trippy, at times it almost sounds like two records playing simultaneously, they drift in an out of sync, all very dizzying and gloriously tweaked."
And listening to it again recently, we realized there were horns, and all sorts of other weirdness going on. Unfortunately, that record was only a 3 song ep, so it definitely left us wanting more.
Here we are 3 years later, and the band finally deliver their first proper full length in close to 14 years of existence. And how does it stack up? Well on first listen, it doesn't sound nearly as weird, in fact it sounds way heavier, and more black metal, but it doesn't take long, in fact within a few minutes of the opening track's 10+ minutes, the song reveals itself as way more than black metal, subtly at first, the riffs atonal and sort of off kilter, that feeling of two records playing at once returns, everything a little warped and twisted, and then suddenly the song fracture, and the band gets super intense and aggro, the song lurching and starting and stopping, before launching right back into it. Buzzing blackly on the surface, but all around the main riff, other guitars are moaning and pealing, and adding that weird second melody / other record vibe. And then it just gets weirder and weirder, gnarled vocals, operatic female singing, the guitars getting more and more angular, the sound blurring and smearing and becoming more dronelike. Twisted for sure, but definitely some of the most original and warped black metal we've heard in ages.
And don't worry (or maybe do!), it gets WAY weirder, and way less black. As the record unfurls, spidery blues guitars drift underneath groaned deep dramatic vocals, before being blasted by some crumbling crushing doom, only to blossom into some propulsive industrial flecked noise rock, laced with what again sound like horns.
After that it's a sonic tug of war between a sort of swampy gothicky almost Woven Hand sort of vibe, and noise drenched back metal weirdness, doomy slithery guitars wrap around martial snares, splintering into shrieked noisy blackened chaos, only to settle down into some moody meandery reverb drenched slowcore blues, big buzzy guitars and almost Harvey Milk like crooning.
The title track is a frenzied blast of black metal riffing howled vox, and some dense intricate mathy drumming, epic and majestic but never truly slipping into 'black metal' until the last minute, a frantic blast that leads directly into the album closer, a sprawling bit of epic weirdness, a relentless pounding cymbal crash keeps the tempo, guitars howl and grind and buzz, strange melodies tinkle and drift off, like someone playing bottles, the vocals alternatingly shrieked maniacally and bellowed defiantly, a frenzied stretch of blown out psychedelic noisedrone chaos, with super intense dramatic vocals that follow the guitars and the crashing cymbals to their final termination point.
Somehow these guys have managed to make a record that's crazy fucked up and twisted, but with a sonic dementia that's just subtle enough, that some unsuspecting true grim warriors might just get suckered into listening to this chunk of blackened what the fuck genius.
Gorgeous packaging too, matte finish digipak, with super striking artwork, and a booklet filled with lyrics, and weirdly old timey imagery.
MPEG Stream: "Ecstacy In Blood - A Ballad"
MPEG Stream: "Storm Is Coming"
MPEG Stream: "Haul"

JUMALHAMARA Slaughter The Messenger (Hammer-Of-Hate) cd ep 10.98
We've gotten to a really weird place in our music obsession, as evidenced by the fact that sometimes a recommendation against, is almost stronger than a recommendation FOR. Sounds weird but it's true. We have friends at other stores, who will tell us something is terrible, they hated it, but then will add "you might like it though." And the weird thing is, they're usually right (that we'll like it). We've developed such a taste for the bizarre, it's sometimes hard to tell if something is bad, or so fucked up it's genius.
However, one of those friends recommended against buying this very record, very vehemently in fact. Hard to recall, but it was something along the lines of it not being very metal and being all jangly and wussy. Fair enough. But they are from Finland, and they do have a song called "Discover The Pigtail"! Those two pieces of critical info were enough to overrule our friend's warning, and we're so glad they were.
This latest ep from Finnish black metal, psychedelic post rock horde Jumalhamara is AMAZING. Three songs, all on the long side, with a sound that is pretty difficult to pin down. It is easy to see why someone questing for serious black metal grimness might be disappointed. The record begins with the sound of children, laughing, playing, and what sounds like oinking pigs, a field recording of some village, until the band ROAR into action, pounding out a fierce blast of blackened buzz, grinding and intensely heavy, but it literally only lasts for about 10 seconds, then the band drifts off into some washed out hippy psych territory, all crooned reverbed vocals, lazy sun baked melodies, simple hand drums, slippery minimal bass, streaks of dubbed out distorted guitar, but for the most part, this is almost like some blackened Finnish Grateful Dead. Near the end there's even some fuzzy organ, the guitars get a bit heavier, the vocals moaning and chant-like, but it never really explodes, just gets thicker and more dense, while still seeming jammy and druggy. So awesome. Almost like a slightly heavier, way more fucked up black metal version of the recent Dead Man record.
"Discover The Pigtail" begins with glistening harmonics, which are soon joined by some strange off kilter drumming, tangled riffing and howled vocals, the cool thing about this track is that those harmonics never go away, so even as the band slithers and sprawls, spewing out a sort of buzzy blackness, the glistening shimmer totally shines through, diluting the heaviness, turning what might be something raw and heavy into something way more bizarre and trippy, at times it almost sounds like two records playing simultaneously, they drift in an out of sync, all very dizzying and gloriously tweaked.
The final track is the briefest of the bunch, and begins as a grinding gnarled and blackened doomic dirge, but not typically sludgy and murky, instead it's super dense and layered, the drums doing much more than pounding away, stumbling and skittering, beneath streaks of high end guitar, and chugging blown out riffage, the cymbals sizzling, the whole track recorded super hot and in the red, blasting and pounding and twisting until it fades out.
Definitely not really black metal, more like some sort of twisted doom-ed post rock avant psych, but still plenty heavy and really fucking great!
MPEG Stream: "The Swing"
MPEG Stream: "Discover The Pigtail"

JUMBLE Milo (Karaoke Kalk) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

JUNE BRIDES, THE Moon / Cloud (Slumberland) 7" 6.98

JUNE OF 44 Anahata (Quarterstick) cd 13.98
Veering drastically from their Slintishly Rodanic past, Anahata heads for Fugazi country, with new markedly off key vocals, and some pseudo-ethno percussion. Immersed in the insulated world of indie rock, where a pedigree is everything, and everyone is an ego stroking yesman, there is no one to tell JO44, that they are not breaking new ground, they are slowly becoming less and less unique, and that Doug Scharin is not Stewart Copeland. A lot of people I know like this record, but if June of 44 for you (like me) were merely one of many bands, trying desperately to fill the void left by the demise of Slint/Rodan/Bastro, then this record will surely disappoint. Oh yeah. their usually sublime packaging has been replaced by the bad-rock-band-collage normally reserved for bands like Foghat or UFO.

JUNE OF 44 Four Great Points (Quarterstick) cd 13.98
Taking up where The Anatomy of Sharks left off, Four Great Points is probably the best June of 44 yet. The singing and the songs are better, and toward the end of the record they wander further into (for them) unexplored territory, incorporating moog, samples, spoken word, and meandering soundscapes.

JUNE OF 44 Four Great Points (Quarterstick) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Taking up where The Anatomy of Sharks left off, Four Great Points is probably the best June of 44 yet. The singing and the songs are better, and toward the end of the record they wander further into (for them) unexplored territory, incorporating moog, samples, spoken word, and meandering soundscapes.

JUNE OF 44 In The Fishtank (Konkurrent) cd 10.98
Following the Tortoise/The Ex collaboration, here's the newest installment in Konkurrent's "Fishtank" series. Recorded in February 1999 while on tour in Europe, here are six exclusive tracks of June of 44's unique jazz/post-rock experiments. The liner notes suggest that this is the "missing link" between their albums "Four Great Points" and "Anahata".

JUNE OF 44 In The Fishtank (Konkurrent) lp 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Following the Tortoise/The Ex collaboration, here's the newest installment in Konkurrent's "Fishtank" series. Recorded in February 1999 while on tour in Europe, here are six exclusive tracks of June of 44's unique jazz/post-rock experiments. The liner notes suggest that this is the "missing link" between their albums "Four Great Points" and "Anahata".

JUNE OF 44 The Anatomy Of Sharks (Quarterstick) cd 8.98
New three-song ep from these post-rockers®. Maybe more experimental and stretched-out than before, with the drummer Doug Scharin bringing in some dub concepts from his band Him.

JUNE OF 44 The Anatomy Of Sharks (Quarterstick) 12" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
New three-song ep from these post-rockers®. Maybe more experimental and stretched-out than before, with the drummer Doug Scharin bringing in some dub concepts from his band Him.

JUNE OF 44 Tropics & Meridians (Quarterstick) cd 15.98

JUNEAU (Ba Da Bing!) cd 12.98
El Bobo at Revolver Distribution aptly describes the record thusly: "A primarily improvised series of musical events charted by two guitars and some drums that refreshingly doesn't suck for a change. Layers of droning noise and weaved interplay that drifts well between minimalist passages and soaring grand sound abstractions. A nice fill in the void between Dead C and the Ash Ra Temple." From Boston.

JUNIA WALKER ALLSTARS Dub Jusic (Walboomers) lp 14.98
New collection on this Dutch audiophile vinyl label of early eighties dub mixes by Junia Walker. Heavy rhythm tracks -- real drums, not electronic -- with LOTS of effects of the percussive variety run through excessive delay, occasional analogue synth blasts, train horns, etc. It's almost hard to say it, but there's too much effects-foolery going on here at times. None the less, it's a pretty decent record if you want some off the wall dubs.

JUNIOR BOYS Begone Dull Care (Domino) cd 14.98
While many have followed their lead, aping their electro fueled indie-pop, Junior Boys still have so much more class and sophistication than the wannabe masses that flood the scene with their watered down sounds these days.
Begone Dull Care is the Junior Boys' third album and while their songs have always been slow burners, this album is probably the slowest yet, with a bit of patience required to fully appreciate, but if you stick with it, the rewards are pretty damn great! It's tricky to make an album of electro-pop that isn't totally initially catchy or in your face, but Junior Boys have proven that they understand so well how to create an overall mood and sound that can take a few listens before the impact is truly felt! Always the perfect soundtrack for late nights and coming down sessions, enticingly sleek and so richly smooth. While so much of electro-pop these days is about flashing fluorescent colors as bright and obnoxiously as possible, Junior Boys remind us all that it's possible to create something much more fluid and composed while still being able to move bodies with such ease.
MPEG Stream: "Work"
MPEG Stream: "Hazel"
MPEG Stream: "Bits & Pieces"

JUNIOR BOYS Dead Horse (Domino) cd ep 6.98
We slipped this one in the cd player this morning, and started our day off right... with some 'get the blood flowing' remixes of Junior Boys' tracks. Hot Chip, Carl Craig, Kode 9, and Tensnake all take turns at flavoring the already infectious tracks from JB's latest album So This Is Goodbye ("In The Morning", "Like A Child", "Double Shadow" and "FM" respectively). But bringing Dead Horse to a cool down close sans beats is the cdep's highlight, Marsen Jules' remix of "FM" which opts for a lulling wash of hazy static and ethereal sighs. That cd-only track fits snugly (and snuggly!) between your Ovals and Panda Bears. Aaaah.
MPEG Stream: JUNIOR BOYS / KODE 9 "Double Shadow (Kode 9 Remix)"
MPEG Stream: JUNIOR BOYS / MARSEN JULES "FM (Marsen Jules Remix)"