CASINO, COTTON We Love Cotton (Sillyboy) cd 15.98
The adorable Acid Mothers Temple chanteuse steps out all on her own with this truly solo album (no guests, no sidemen). It's got a bold title, but hey, who doesn't love Cotton? Rather than try to demonstrate that she can match the mothership's psychedelic overload freakout intensity all by herself, she veers off into a more intimate, personal realm of J-pop inflected, melodic voice-and-synth tunesmithery. It's airy and breathy and embellished with the quietly burbling and swooshing sci-fi keyboard sounds she wields so effectively in AMT. Definitely very different from the general run of Acid Mothers side projects, that's for sure! Recommended, if you're in the mood for some gently psychedelic, spacy pop with a wistful feel and exotic ambience.
MPEG Stream: "Melt Down"
MPEG Stream: "Silence"

CAVO s/t (Shit Jam Records) 3"cd 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Six tracks in seventeen minutes from Japan's mysterious Cavo, who just happen to be labelmates of the amazing (and amazingly monickered) Bathtub Shitter, and feature a member of Corrupted! The first two tracks are a bit misleading, a hazy pagan ritual of gutteral almost-throat singing, temple bells and slow chants. Reminds us a bit of Ghost or Comus. But the ritual quickly grow in intensity until it's a chaotic swirl of tribal drums, shouted vocals, sludgy low end, repetitive riffs, and thick viscous ambience. Like a primitive mix of the Boredoms and Crash Worship. The tribal melee continues, interrupted briefly with one more ambient interlude, all low end rumble and groaning vocalisations, sounding like Keiji Haino with strep throat fronting Earth. Toward the end of the record the sludge coalesces into a weirdly catchy Viking style sing-a-long, lots of WOOOAH OOH OHHH's until things wind down in a truly creepy ritual of spoken female vocals, clapping, manic chanting, shouts, screams and whistles. Comus meets the Boredoms? The Wickerman performed by Corrupted? Boris covers the Incredible String Band? More amazing and baffling Japanese weirdness!
MPEG Stream: "Eti"
MPEG Stream: "Olammo"

CHARRED BELLS Broken Bells Breaks Vol. 2 (Shiranui) cd 19.98
Release from the Japanese label Shiranui, which has developed a rather unique variant of drum & bass, which employs spastic asynchronous breakbeats accompanied with austere modernist jazz overtones of bowed metal, stand-up bass, and muted horns. Not at all dissimilar to the early Spymania releases by Squarepusher, though more dissonant and less groove-based.

CHEN, SHINKI & His Friends (World Psychedelia Ltd.) cd 16.98
Dude from Speed Glue & Shinki goes solo circa '72 or so...great dumb Japanese stoner psych heaviness like his main band.

CHIE MUKAI Kokyu Improvisation (PSF) cd 17.98

CHIE, MUKAI & GARY SMITH Eight + (Paratactile) cd 23.00

CHIPFARM s/t (God Mountain) cd 19.98
Back in stock, another God Mountain release that many feared was out of print. Chipfarm was a weird East-West collaboration that combined the talents of downtown NYC musicians Zeena Parkins (electric harp) and Elliot Sharp (electric guitar) with Japanese avant-rock acts Optical*8 and Melt-Banana! They appear in various combinations throughout the disc, never all at once though. We know there's got to be a few Melt-Banana fans out there still looking for this, for the tracks in which M-B participate.

CHISATO YAMADA Fantastic World (PSF) cd 22.00
(From recent Forced Exposure update penned by the solemn J. Johnson): PSF debut by Chisato Yamada, the godfather of Tsugaru Jamisen (the traditional three-stringed folk instrument from the north of Japan -- also played by Zorn hero Michihiro Sato). Here Yamada's amazingly vibrant, percussive attack and spirit power are featured in two avant settings. Two tracks recorded late last year feature Keiji Haino on guitar and percussion, amply fulfilling Kan Mikami's prediction that these two masters would create create a fuckin' immense music if they ever met. The other three tracks are a suite for contemporary flute/percussion trio and tsugaru-jamisen, composed by Ken'ei Sasamori, recorded in 1978 and promptly lost for the next 17 years. Yamada is a true out-on-the-edge innovator, and these classic recordings prove that his experimental leanings have a long history. Yamada's age (he's now in his sixties) has only served to increase his unique power and authority. An essential, and too little known voice!

CHRISTINE 23 ONNA Acid Eater (MIDI Creative) cd 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of aQ's all-time steady-sellers is definitely the debut cd on Alchemy from Japanese super-psychedelic-space-synth instrumental groove outfit Christine 23 Onna, entitled Shiny Crystal Planet. It's been a big fave around here ever since we reviewed it on list #103 back in 2000. A duo featuring Maso Yamazaki (Masonna, Space Machine, Acid Eater) and Fusao Toda (Angel 'In Heavy Syrup), the wild analog electronics of Christine 23 Onna are a retro-delic delight. In 2002, as part of a special Maso Yamazaki "15th Anniversary Freakout Triplex" series (which also included a disc each from Masonna and Space Machine), Christine 23 Onna released their second album, Acid Eater (not to be confused with Maso's freakbeat garage band of the same name). It had ten new, energetic tracks with titles like "Acid Now!" and "Space Mondo Topless". We totally wanted to get some for the store, but had no luck at all finding import copies at any sort of reasonable wholesale price...
Well at long last we've finally got some -- and yeah, it's still pretty expensive. But that's Japanese imports for you. We trust that any fan of Shiny Crystal Planet cd would want this though, it's another monstrous onslaught of swirling '60s styled go-go disco and krautrocky kitsch, awash in FX, drenched in distortion, to the point that some of this is spaced-out enough to sound like Hawkwind and Klaus Schulze together playing funk at a LSD-party hosted by the Vampyros Lesbos and Austin Powers!! Or imagine taking tracks from one of the best old "library music" comps and running 'em all through a mad-scientist's laboratory full of synths! From fun and freaky dancefloor numbers to totally out there sci-fi soundtrackiness, we're lovin' this. Play it LOUD.
NB. We've also got the other two cds in the Freakout Triplex, and will be reviewing those soon too!
MPEG Stream: "Fantastico"
MPEG Stream: "Planet Unknown"
MPEG Stream: "Wild Private"

CHRISTINE 23 ONNA Shiny Crystal Planet (Alchemy) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Christine 23 Onna is a collaborative effort between Fusao Toda and Maso Yamazaki, better known as Masonna. While the presence of one of Japan's most frightening noisicians should be enough the scare away all of the too-hip-and-too-stoned kids who only care about 'rare grooves,' Christine 23 Onna's "Shiny Chrystal Planet" is actually a pretty damn funky record. Yeah, it's noisy, but in a swirling, synth-overload, super psychedelic way, not like Masonna's usual electronic scream-skree. And really uptempo breakbeats set the rhythmic backbone for some awesome trance-rock much like the latest grooves from their countrymen the Boredoms (a la "Super Are" and "Vision Creation Newsun)". The phase shifting fuzz guitar and cosmic space dusted synthesizers get jammy, but fortunately never too wanky. Those of you familiar with the '60s spy thrillers of Jerry Van Rooyen may recognize one of his tempestous songs covered by Christine 23 Onna (we think we do, anyways, although it's not credited as such...). Wild, spacey groov-adelia. All around great stuff! Amazing cover art recreating Ash Ra Temple's "New Age Of Earth"!
RealAudio clip: "Christine Hop #1"

CHRISTINE 23 ONNA Space Age Bachelor Pad Psychedelic Music (Insignificant) 12" 14.98
Fans of Japanese noise master Masonna might not be aware that he's fully into 70's cosmic rock music. This 12" is the proof, as "Maso" Yamazaki and friend pay homage to their krautrock faves of yore. There's even a track called "Space Hippie." Really great ambient/psych weirdness, and handsomely presented, from the colorful cover to the transparent blood-shot-cotton-candy colored vinyl, resplendent in a clear plastic sleeve.

CHRISTINE 23 ONNA Space Age Bachelor Pad Psychedelic Music (Insignificant) 12" 14.98
Fans of Japanese noise master Masonna might not be aware that he's fully into 70's cosmic rock music. This 12" is the proof, as "Maso" Yamazaki and friend pay homage to their krautrock faves of yore. There's even a track called "Space Hippie." Really great ambient/psych weirdness, and handsomely presented, from the colorful cover to the transparent blood-shot-cotton-candy colored vinyl, resplendent in a clear plastic sleeve.

CHURCH OF MISERY Boston Strangler (Kult Ov Nihilow) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Since we're listing the brand new Church Of Misery record, we thought we'd also mention that we managed to get a few more of this rarity back in stock, from the same label that brought us that new Boris 12"...
Cool 5 song collection from Japan's serial killer obsessed stoner sludge rockers Church Of Misery. The first four tracks were recorded over the last few years and of course concern all your favorites, the Boston Strangler, Ted Bundy, the Candy Man, and El Topo. Crunchy and fuzzed out loping stoner rock ala Fu Manchu, Nebula, Heavy Rocks-era Boris. Fucking great stuff. The fifth track is tagged on to track four and is ostensibly an improvisation, titled "Invocation Of My Demon Brother". Not sure if it's some sort of homage to Kenneth Anger, but to these ears it just sounds like more of that sweet sweet crushing tarpit sludge.
MPEG Stream: "Boston Strangler - Albert Deslavo"
MPEG Stream: "El Topo"

CHURCH OF MISERY Dennis Nilsen (Kult Of Nihilow) lp 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Okay stoner metal serial killer obsessives, you know who you are, even if you're loathe to admit it, time to rejoice as the masters of SKSR (serial killer stoner rock) return, Japan's Church Of Misery.
This ep focuses on UK killer Dennis Nilsen, a serial pedophile and killer, which prompted a conversation about what these guys would do when they ran out of killers to immortalize, but we were saddened to realize that it's pretty unlikely that will ever happen no matter how many records these guys put out.
But fuck it, you don't need to be obsessed with killers to dig this shit, just killer riffs. And the riffs as always are indeed killer. Huge bassy, sludgey, groovy, in fact the opening track on this 12" is so groovy it almost sounds like a more metal ZZ Top. Sabbathy to the Nth degree, lumbering rhythms that either plod or swing depending on the track, the vocals a growly croak buried way down in the mix, sounding not unlike Michael Gerald from Killdozer, super dynamic and stoned. Lots of break downs where just the bass and drums groove, before the riff swoops back in. Wild leads, lurching stop start bits,wild almost space rock outros, and of course, plenty of clips of Dennis Nilsen talking as well as various news reports. Technically this is a full length, even though the B-side is a single super extended stoner metal drug jam, and thus is only three tracks. Sabbath, Kyuss, Green Machine, Acrimony, Solar Anus, Ox, Bongzilla, if that stuff is your cup of THC laced tea, then you are definitely gonna want this.
Beautiful matte finish gatefold sleeves, and of course super limited, only 500 or 600 copies, and CoM records always go crazy fast.

CHURCH OF MISERY Early Works Compilation (Emetic Records) 2cd 13.98
Previously this was an import from the Japanese label Leafhound, sadly now defunct. But fortunately Emetic has just reissued it, domestically! Here's what we said about this essential anthology back when we first listed it in 2004:
Will the Japanese stoner sludge serial killer onslaught never end?? We sure hope not. We're finally able to list this double cd collection of old, rare, unreleased and out of print tracks from one of the heaviest bands in Japan. Corrupted may have the market cornered on sludge, and Boris definitely has the drone-dirge segment all sewn up, but that leaves Church Of Misery to duke it out with the equally brutal Green Machine for the groovy, druggy, sludge-y stonery BIG RIFF contingent. Early Works definitely helps the cause, with two discs bursting with splattery serial killer soundbites, plague-of-locusts riffery, skull crushing drumming, and a truly hellish howl of a lead vocalist. Plus unlike many of their metallic brethren, CoM can indeed SHRED, and whip out squiggly acid soaked leads at the drop of a hat, giving the proceedings a classic psych-rock / drug-rock feel, on top of the already suffocatingly heavy sludge already oozing from every crack. Disc one collects the long out of print split with sHEAVY, featuring odes to Manson, Charles Whiteman, and Jim Jones, as well as the Taste The Pain mini-album with songs about Dahmer, Graham Young, and Ed Gein, as well as an insane version of Iron Butterfly's "In A Gadda Da Vidda." Disc two collects lots of random compilation tracks including a Trouble cover, a Black Widow cover, a Death SS cover and an unreleased track. Church Of Misery are so amazing, it's too bad that their singleminded obsession with serial killers, and their continued use of serial killer soundbites keeps them from appealing to a wider audience. It is too bad, but who can argue? The music is strangely and perfectly suited to CoM's tales of murder and mayhem, victims and killers.
MPEG Stream: "Spahn Ranch (Charles Manson)"
MPEG Stream: "Room 213 (Jeffrey Dahmer)"

CHURCH OF MISERY Houses Of The Unholy (DIWPhalanx) dvd 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A killer live DVD from our favorite Japanese, serial killer obsessed, stoner groove doom lords, Church Of Misery. We've gone on and on in the past (and elsewhere on this list, their debut was just reissued) about how much we love these guys. Some impossible mix of Sabbath, Electric Wizard, Eyehategod, Antiseen and Boris. Heavy as fuck, groovy and spacey, blown out and super psychedelic. Live it's everything we would have hoped for. A band of crazy Japanese hippies in ripped concert shirts, bell bottoms, berets, dreadlocks, furry coats, big ol' silver rings on every finger, flying V's, on a tiny stage, heads banging, hair swirling, in a closet sized dark club, packed to the gills with a heaving, sweaty, head banging crowd. The sound is amazing. A truly MASSIVE guitar sound, huge blown out crumbling riffs, the band a whirlwind of lurching groove, and a bass player who wears his bass lower than anyone we've ever seen (even the Ramones!). SO low in fact, that the body of the bass is at shin level and he ends up sort of playing way up on the neck. Awesome! Three live shows filmed over the last two years, a handful of CoM classics as well as some free form freaked out space jams. Also included are videos for "Filth Bitch Boogie" and "I, Motherfucker" (best song title ever maybe), both look quite similar, filmed in creepy black and white, on fuzzy degraded film stock, haunting shots of two emotionless girls making out, dead bodies in forests, plenty of violence and gore (mostly perpetrated on the band themselves) and of course the band trudging through mysterious woods all very Sabbath-like. So cool.
Packaged in a blood red Japanese style DVD case. NTSC and ALL REGION!

CHURCH OF MISERY Live At Roadburn 2009 (Roadburn) cd 14.98
What do you get when you combine 4 hairy Japanese stoner dudes, an immense love of Black Sabbath, obsession with serial killers, and thee best heavy music festival that Europe has to offer? Church Of Misery Live At Roadburn 2009, of course!! Among our friends who regularly make the pilgrimage to Holland's annual Roadburn fest, the Japanese sludge merchants' several live performances there are legendary. Of course, the thing about Roadburn is they get bands to play who are great to begin with, and they tend to sound even better there... so for one to get singled out, gotta be amazing! Naturally, listening to this live album isn't the same as having been there. But it'll give you an idea, and any fan of CoM will be chuffed. 'Cause they did rip it up at Roadburn, and the recording is killer.
They do 8 songs, which tend to blend together here into one dope hazed, fuzzed out sludge fest, but actually represent two tracks from their most recent studio album Houses Of The Unholy, one from their 1998 debut ep Taste The Pain, one from 2001's Master of Brutality, three from 2004's The Second Coming, thus spanning their career quite nicely... and then they wind things up with their 11 minute long cover of "For Mad Man Only" [sic], a raving proto-metal classic from '71 by May Blitz also covered once upon a time by good ol' Fudge Tunnel, that's in fact how we first heard of May Blitz...
But anyway, yeah, CoM fans, get yourself to Roadburn next time they're playing, and in the meantime, jam out to this, sheer Sabbathoid stoner sludge, heeeaaavvvy and hairy and psychedelic, for sure! Also a good intro to this band for anyone uninitiated.
MPEG Stream: "I, Motherfucker"
MPEG Stream: "Shotgun Boogie"
MPEG Stream: "For Mad Man Only"

CHURCH OF MISERY Master of Brutality (DIWPhalanx) cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Long overdue reissue of the debut full-length from Japan's serial-killer fixated Japanese doom-mongers, Church Of Misery. And when we say 'fixated' we mean OBSESSED. Almost every song either starts with or contains some kind of a soundbite from the evening news regaling the most recent atrocities committed by some killer, or an actual tape of an infamous murderer's wild rants and messianic ramblings. Each song is about (or at least based on) a specific serial killer, "Killfornia (Ed Kemper)", "Ripping Into Pieces (Peter Sutcliffe)", "Master Of Brutality (John Wayne Gacy)". Some folks (like Allan) find the serial killer angle a bit cheesy, but it's actually weirdly and perfectly aligned with the band's peculiar brand of downer doom. And as far as we're concerned, when we're talking epic stoner doom, few bands can touch Church Of Misery. Super sludgy psychedelic doom metal a bit like a sloppy Sabbath, heavy on the groove, HUGE riffs, raspy voiced vocals way down in the mix, a lurching drug drenched crunch, with blown out psychedelic leads, lots of wah wah, spaced out stretches of Hawkwindy ambience, super distorted bass rumble, and pounding furious drum dirge pummel. They actually sound less like Sabbath than a cross between Antiseen and Electric Wizard, as there's a garage punk element to this as well. There's only two songs on here not dedicated by name to a serial killer: "Green River" ('cause they never caught the guy, we guess) and "Cities On Flame", a killer (pun intended) if incongruous Blue Oyster Cult cover.
Plus who can argue with the band's credo, printed in big bold letters on the back cover:
"We hate trend. We hate corporate attitude. We hate the word 'stoner'. Death to false stoners!! Let there be doom!!"
Anyone who digs the rockier side of Boris (Heavy Rocks, Pink) owes it to themselves to check out Church Of Misery's massive, downtuned and druggy, sludgy and spacey, grinding and groovy, downer drenched DOOOOOM!!!
MPEG Stream: "Killfornia (Ed Kemper)"
MPEG Stream: "Ripping Into Pieces (Peter Sutcliffe)"

CHURCH OF MISERY The Second Coming (DIWPhalanx) cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For all you Boris freaks and everyone who has been digging heavily on the recent Green Machine record, you may now prepare thyself for the return of Japan's stoner sludge, serial killer obsessed masters of crushing downtuned riffery Church Of Misery. Seven massive slabs of pounding, pummelling ultra heavy stoner groove. Crunchy and throbbing, pummelling and MASSIVELY HEAVY rock and roll. Fuzzed out, drugged out, super distorted and punishingly heavy. Quite possibly, you will have your stoner / doom metal credentials REVOKED if you don't pick this up. This time around, the subjects of CoM's worshipful sludge are Ted Bundy, Mark Essex, Andrei Chikatilo, Aileen Wuornos and more!
MPEG Stream: "I, Mother Fucker (Ted Bundy)"
MPEG Stream: "Soul Discharge (Mark Essex)"

CHURCH OF MISERY Vol. 1 (Emetic Records) cd 15.98

CIBO MATTO Viva! La Woman (Warner Mothers) cd 14.98
Pronounced 'chee-boh mot-toh'. 2 Japanese expatriates living in NY make a tasty and very fun racket (that you can dance to) with synthesizers, numerous recognizable or tantalizingly familiar samples, and lyrics solely about food: white pepper, beef jerky, etc.

CIRCLE / MARBLE SHEEP Live: Surface / Marble Zone 2 (Metamorphos) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Split cd from AQ faves Circle and Japan's Marble Sheep, recorded in 1996 (Circle) and 1989 (Marble Sheep) and released 1998. Circle contribute a stellar live set of their perfect cyclical drone rock including a haunting and breathtaking cover version of Hank Williams' "I Saw The Light". Marble Sheep pitch in 3 early tracks (2 live, one studio demo) of spacy psychedelic drone rock, more Ash Ra Tempel than Grateful Dead (the band they get compared to most these days). Essential for fans of Circle, Faust, Ash Ra Tempel and psych/krautrock in general. We've had these for a while but we've never had enough to list until now. But that doesn't mean we won't run out soon, so if you haven't picked this up already, don't dawdle!
RealAudio clip: CIRCLE "Brilliant Colours For Bright Ideas"
RealAudio clip: CIRCLE "I Saw the Light"
RealAudio clip: MARBLE SHEEP "Good Old Marble Sheep"

CLOTTED SYMMETRIC SEXUAL ORGAN (CSSO) Are You Excrements? (Morbid) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This underground Japanese band surprised and delighted us with this crazy fuzzed-out stoner-rock meets grind metal release. Clotted Symmetric Sexual Organ (let's just call 'em CSSO) really kick 'em out, wallowing in total wahwah-happy heavy psych guitar overdrive. It's wild and distorted and super-energetic, a blend of '60s garage, '70s hard rock, and '90s noise-thrash. Forget Acid Mothers Temple, this is the real Japanese freak-beat! Indeed, CSSO could learn Kawabata Makoto a thing or two about over-the-top motorpsycho guitar. Imagine AMT or High Rise with a garagey Guitar Wolf edge, going nuts with that style of psychedelic freakout, then breaking into a speedy grind part with blast beats and cookie monster vocals! It's like a weird, wonderful mix of The Groundhogs and Napalm Death or something. When CSSO's stoner/grind rock attack isn't going full-tilt they throw in spacey sections of shoegazing drone tones, trippy electronics, and other cosmic krautrock inspired soundz -- sometimes sheer, blissful noise. Then it's back to the catchy rockin' stuff, like Hendrix gone grind. Like AMT or the Boredoms, they can be quite playful and confounding -- for instance, one song features what might be the world's longest fade-in, it's two minutes before you can really hear anything at all!
Partially 'cause this was so unexpected (we thought they might be a good but generic grindcore band) but also because it's so great, this just totally blew us away. A new favorite in the long line of genre-bending, rule-defying bands from Japan (Boredoms, Melt Banana, Boris, et. al.), and thus highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Cosmic Super Strong Odure"
RealAudio clip: "Living Dead A Go Go"
RealAudio clip: "Are You Excrements?"

CLOTTED SYMMETRIC SEXUAL ORGAN (CSSO) Collection (From Beyond) cd 14.98
This Japanese psychedelic grind band's Are You Excrements? album was a surprise hit here at Aquarius when we reviewed it two years ago. And we're still eagerly waiting for a new album from 'em. But we did just get a few copies of this retrospective disc, the aptly titled Collection. It's a 45 track anthology of material predating Are You Excrements?, mostly from presumably rare split 7"s and comps circa 1993-2000. As such, this stuff is definitely more on the traditional grind metal than stoner/psych side of things, but is certainly still quite freaky and weird. Aficionados of the grind genre will be reminded of early Carcass, and indeed this disc includes a Carcass cover (the classic "Genital Grinder") along with equally appropriate covers of songs by General Surgery, Regurgitate, and Napalm Death. But imagine Carcass infected with a dose of silliness a la Boredoms -- or does anybody remember Exit-13? The disc closes with an alternate version of the song "Living Dead A Go Go" that appeared on Are You Excrements?, thereby bringing us amost up to date in CSSO-world. We wonder what the future holds.
MPEG Stream: "Nuclear Karate Man"
MPEG Stream: "Shake It Up Bokan"

COA Smell Me, Smell My Grandfather (Japan Overseas) cd 13.98
All female drums/bass duo from Japan who tend to rock out more than they prog out (i.e. closer to godheadSilo territory than Ruins). Super distorted bass, heavy drumming, very harsh vocals - it's no surprise that these girls cover an Unsane tune (or that they're named Eddie and Bill...?)

COPE, JULIAN Japrocksampler (Bloomsbury) book 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
FINALLY! REPRINTED AND BACK IN STOCK!
One of the best album covers ever, for the Flower Travellin' Band's 1970 debut LP Anywhere, a photo of that band as naked Japanese hippy freak outlaw bikers ridin' free, adorns the cover of this book. Good choice! If that doesn't look cool to you, you don't need this volume. If it does, then queue up! The subtitle: "How The Post-War Japanese Blew Their Minds On Rock 'N' Roll" is perfectly illustrated by that cover picture.
Let's back up, though. British author Julian Cope, originally best-known as something of a rock star (with The Teardrop Explodes in the '80s and his subsequent solo career) has also long been entertaining and informing us all as a writer, an expert on the heavy and the ancient: both the stone circles of Megalithic Europe, and the stoned rock n' roll of the psychedelic/progressive variety, yesterday and today. His happenin' website, Head Heritage (www.headheritage.co.uk) should be bookmarked by everyone who looks at OUR site. Way back when, over a decade ago, Julian Cope published a slim little paperback volume called the Krautrocksampler, one fan's obsessive, opinionated look back at the wondrous krautrock scene of the '70s. If you've got one, you're lucky, they're out of print and hard to come by these days, going for $$$ on eBay (er, anyone with a spare copy, please contact Allan at the store, he foolishly never bought it when we used to sell 'em and has regretted it ever since, maybe we can work out a deal...). Another reason to pick up this new Japrocksampler while you can!
It's about the same approximate dimensions as the Krautrocksampler, but thicker (over 300 pages!) and hardcover, with color plates depicting various rare album covers in the center of the book, and black and white graphics throughout. Nicely done, the paper stock and binding bringing back memories of a particular type of book we used to have in school.
And, as you have probably figured out, it's the Japanese '70s rock companion to Cope's krautrock treatise. But because the Japanese underground music scene of the same era is comparatively a lot more obscure over here in the West, Cope had to do a lot more in-depth research to give us all a real history lesson, starting off all the way back in the aftermath of WWII. Moving forward, he devotes much attention to the experimental composers of the sixties, like Toshi Ichiyanagi, and (for a time) his wife, Yoko Ono. All sorts of radical "actions" and conceptual sound art get their due. Other early chapters include include investigations of the homegrown "Eleki" scene (Japanese surf music, sort of) and the "Group Sounds" phenomenon (Japan's reaction to the British Invasion). Then Heavy Rock hits, with freaks and festivals, and Cope digs with utmost detail into the behind-the-music stories of such artists as cover stars Flower Travellin Band, Speed, Glue & Shinki, and, perhaps most crucially ('cause they're so mysterious and influential), Les Rallizes Denudes. In all cases, he reveals lots of stuff we didn't know. Regarding Les Rallizes, ferinstance, apparently their original bass player was involved in a JAL jetliner highjacking back in 1970, which lead to innocent Rallizes leader Takeshi Mizutani being trailed by CIA agents, which may help explain his legendary reclusiveness!
The Japrocksampler also provides plenty of info about important intersection between the avant-garde theater scene and rock n' roll in the early '70s, with a chapter on the brilliant J.A. Caesar. There's also pages and pages on the Taj Mahal Travellers, Far East Family Band, the Tokyo Kid Brothers, and much much more. It's exhaustive, impressively connecting all kinds of dots. Probably equally obsessed fanboys will have facts to check and nits to pick (we're thinking of our pal JW in particular) but really, where else are you gonna find all this info in English?? And so entertainingly written? Nowhere. Anyone who's read the Krautrocksampler, or visited Head Heritage, knows that Cope's got a knack for writing that's both enthused and erudite, a bit like Lester Bangs with footnotes. You don't even really have to know (or have heard) what he's talking about to fall under his spell, which is helpful 'cause the one big drawback to reading the Japrocksampler is the frustration most folks are gonna have trying to track down and listen to a lot of the music being discussed. We do our best to stock a good selection of '70s Japanese psych/prog/experimental reissues, whatever we can get by bands like the Taj Mahal Travellers and Flower Travellin' Band, but even we had to cry when looking over the section of the book devoted to lengthy reviews of Cope's top 50 favorite Japrock albums. Some we've got, others... someday we hope! Maybe this book will spur some more reissue action.
Can't come up with too many criticisms, other than that he slams some records we like (Foodbrain!), seemingly omits Flied Egg, and we guess we're not sure exactly how politically correct the term "Japrock" is, though it's not any worse than saying "krautrock" when you think about it...
Basically, this is a fascinating read for anyone curious about the effects of rock n' roll on the artsy underbelly of an "alien" culture. A must have if you're already into this stuff, of course, but also totally recommended if you're just a little bit curious about this "secret history" 'cause of being exposed to all the wild, freaky sounds currently being made in Japan by bands like the Boredoms, Boris, and Acid Mothers Temple.

CORNELIUS Drop (Matador) 12" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A decent single spun off from the last Cornelius album Point. This has three tracks: "Drop" from the aformentioned album, and two remixes of the same. The Kings of Convenience sweeten the already-Stereolabbish nature of the Cornelius original. It's kind of a surprise to see them doing a remix at all, since they're Sweden's answer to Belle & Sebastian. Herbert (a.k.a. Doctor Rockit) delivers a much more interesting remix, forcing the song to hiccup and stutter admirably.

CORNELIUS Drop (Matador) cd single 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A decent single spun off from the last Cornelius album Point. This has three tracks: "Drop" from the aformentioned album, and two remixes of the same. The Kings of Convenience sweeten the already-Stereolabbish nature of the Cornelius original. It's kind of a surprise to see them doing a remix at all, since they're Sweden's answer to Belle & Sebastian. Herbert (a.k.a. Doctor Rockit) delivers a much more interesting remix, forcing the song to hiccup and stutter admirably.
RealAudio clip: "Drop (Herbert remix)"

CORNELIUS Fantasma (Matador) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Both of SF's alternative weeklies have been praising this album high and low, so you can believe the hype, or not. The Aquarius staff thinks this recognizable-sample-heavy party record is merely okay, sounding kinda like a mediocre mixtape as opposed to a seamless whole. We recommend you take Cornelius' lead and get an Omoide Hatoba record instead (Cornelius' own label has released Hatoba stuff, and we feel that they fuck with a million different musical genres AND come out with a sound all their own, something Cornelius is trying not-so-successfully to do...)

CORNELIUS Fantasma (Matador) lp 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Both of SF's alternative weeklies have been praising this album high and low, so you can believe the hype, or not. The Aquarius staff thinks this recognizable-sample-heavy party record is merely okay, sounding kinda like a mediocre mixtape as opposed to a seamless whole. We recommend you take Cornelius' lead and get an Omoide Hatoba record instead (Cornelius' own label has released Hatoba stuff, and we feel that they fuck with a million different musical genres AND come out with a sound all their own, something Cornelius is trying not-so-successfully to do...)

CORNELIUS Five Point One (Matador) dvd + cd 14.98
A dvd and a cd packaged in super jewel case, this is the latest from our favorite Japanese genre-defying pop genius, Cornelius. The dvd features a video clip for every song off of Cornelius' last album, Point. This is cool for two reasons: 1) Point was an awesome album, and 2) if you've ever seen Cornelius live, you know that video art plays a big part in his show and it's great stuff. And when you're done with the visuals (including the bonus TV commercials), there's the whole 'nother extra audio cd featuring a dozen remixes of Point tracks done by fans!

CORNELIUS Point (Matador) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ah, Cornelius. Japanese soundmeister. Label impresario. Citizen of the world. Promoter of the bowlcut.
A cynic might predict that this album would be full of cutesy lounge music and tired samples... indeed that's what I (non-Cornelius fan) thought. But actually, I'm happy to report this record is kinda really good. Point begins quietly, admirably not screaming for attention, utilizing static to create anticipation. Then it slips effortlessly into a Stereolab-like groove, where the chiming sampled voices of the Stereolab women (that is them, right?) hover over organic, stumbling drums and precise guitar strumming. The entire album runs at this loping, kooky pace. Like the dearly departed Esquivel, Cornelius uses the voices only as sonic elements; the lyrics are relatively nonsensical. And once in a while you'll even hear an honest to gosh distorted guitar solo, or insane speedmetal riffing superimposed over the mellowness, or a sweet cover of "Brazil". (These changes in tone are not gimmicky -- they're worked in seamlessly well.)
This is a consistent, fine album, just don't expect the cut and paste theatrics of his previous record Fantasma. Buy it if you don't like the recent Stereolab albums, this will satisfy that craving quite handily.
RealAudio clip: "Point"
RealAudio clip: "Brazil"
RealAudio clip: "Smoke"

CORNELIUS Point (Matador) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ah, Cornelius. Japanese soundmeister. Label impresario. Citizen of the world. Promoter of the bowlcut.
A cynic might predict that this album would be full of cutesy lounge music and tired samples... indeed that's what I (non-Cornelius fan) thought. But actually, I'm happy to report this record is kinda really good. Point begins quietly, admirably not screaming for attention, utilizing static to create anticipation. Then it slips effortlessly into a Stereolab-like groove, where the chiming sampled voices of the Stereolab women (that is them, right?) hover over organic, stumbling drums and precise guitar strumming. The entire album runs at this loping, kooky pace. Like the dearly departed Esquivel, Cornelius uses the voices only as sonic elements; the lyrics are relatively nonsensical. And once in a while you'll even hear an honest to gosh distorted guitar solo, or insane speedmetal riffing superimposed over the mellowness, or a sweet cover of "Brazil". (These changes in tone are not gimmicky -- they're worked in seamlessly well.)
This is a consistent, fine album, just don't expect the cut and paste theatrics of his previous record Fantasma. Buy it if you don't like the recent Stereolab albums, this will satisfy that craving quite handily.

CORNELIUS Sensuous (Everloving) cd 14.98
If only Beck's last outing was as creative and colorful as this! Cornelius tends to take his time between albums but when they finally drop and sound this good and this meticulously crafted, we realize it's well worth the wait. With an uncanny ability to be both challenging and so damn catchy, Cornelius continues his streak with great pop record after great pop records, never afraid to explore new sounds while still making the whole sonic experience so fun to listen to. Picking up nicely where Point left off, this new record is perfectly titled as there is a breezy and brainy sensuality at play, and as always Cornelius effortlessly travels in all sorts of directions throughout the record, without ever losing cohesiveness. When other folks try the same sort of thing you usually just feel lost and bewildered by the haphazard musical confusion, but when Cornelius takes you from dreamy to rambunctious, blissed out to bumpin' and fractured to smoothed out, you just close your eyes and let yourself go, being carried away by colorful waves of sound headed for another engaging adventure in sound. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Beep It"
MPEG Stream: "Gum"
MPEG Stream: "Wataridori"

CORNELIUS Star Fruits Surf Rider (Matador) 12" 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Matador UK is acting like the English majors by releasing two singles of the same song when the six tracks on these two releases could easily fit on one piece of vinyl or one cd. Cheesy label tactics. But these tunes are so darn charming, capitalist manipulations soon fly away like air blown popcorn. On blue: a Damon Albarn remix and "Surf Rider Blue" (tres jungley!) and on green: "Ball In -Kick Off" (tres funky!) and "Star Fruits Green" (accoustic guitar with string orchestration).

CORNELIUS Star Fruits Surf Rider (Matador) cdep 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Matador UK is acting like the English majors by releasing two singles of the same song when the six tracks on these two releases could easily fit on one piece of vinyl or one cd. Cheesy label tactics. But these tunes are so darn charming, capitalist manipulations soon fly away like air blown popcorn. On blue: a Damon Albarn remix and "Surf Rider Blue" (tres jungley!) and on green: "Ball In -Kick Off" (tres funky!) and "Star Fruits Green" (accoustic guitar with string orchestration).

CORRUPTED El Mundo Frio (HG Fact) cd 28.00
Boris may be the drone dirge darlings right now, but we've always had a soft spot for their more obscure countrymen Corrupted. Where Boris revel in cartoonish imagery, seventies kitsch, eighties heavy metal, bell bottoms, double neck guitars, and balls out rock and roll, Corrupted lurk in the shadows, sullen and distanced, weary and wary, crusty and curmudgeonly, wrapped in mystery, each record printed in stark black and white, a Japanese band singing exclusively in Spanish strangely enough, who are obliquely political, and much more grim and gloomy than Boris at their droniest. Every record a massive plodding slab of depressive doom, epic and monstrously heavy, but with stretches of delicate beauty. Rumors have been floating around of a triple cd, single three hour song, Corrupted release, but until that truly materializes, El Mundo Frio will probably remain the heaviest, creepiest, most beautiful, epic, expansive slab of slowcore doom drone you will ever hear. Ever. One hour and twelve minutes. A cloud of shimmering drone underpins hazy, haunting piano and warm chordal swells, plucked harps and simple finger picked guitars. For almost ten minutes, Corrupted creep along dreamily, stepping lightly, drifting lazily through a stark ambient soundfield, before the heavens collapse and the sky begins to fall in huge crushing chunks, and massive stabs of super distorted guitars swell and crumble into an abstract pounding rhythm. Completely heavy, but strangely lovely at the same time. A lilting melody is hidden somewhere beneath all that buzz and rumble. Eventually the stabs slowly mutate into a creeping, loping post rock rhythm, with minor key strums, simple shuffling drumming and growled semi-spoken vocals, before the whole thing fades to almost nothingness, revisiting the delicate shimmer of the beginning of the record. The last twenty five minutes are mostly ambient with snatches of that hypnotic post rock, and a brief but furious explosion of soul crushing heaviness with the same vocals delivered now in a glass gargling gurgle, and then the track drifts off into ten plus minutes of barely there dreaminess, mostly single notes on the harp drifting like snow flakes against a black night sky. So lovely. Easily the most fully realized 'doom' or 'dirge' track ever wethinks. So emotionally charged, so effortlessly complex and yet so utterly and beautifully simple. Somehow it's the perfect blend of Boris's Flood (our favorite Boris!), the doleful slowcore of Low, the abstract dirge of Harvey Milk, the epic expansiveness of Godspeed You Black Emperor, the metallic post rock of Pelican, the downtuned ultradoom of Skepticism, and the majestic dreaminess of Growing.
Mighty expensive but well worth it. Comes packaged in an extravagant hardcover book style digipak, with a gorgeous booklet, lots of abstract black and white landscapes, printed on vellum and overlaid other images. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "El Mundo Frio"

CORRUPTED Llenandose de Gusanos (HG Fact) 2cd 26.00
Sadly, the legendary Japanese label HG Fact, longtime home to sludgelords Corrupted, closed up shop recently, rendering loads of amazing records gone for good, but Corrupted managed to acquire a handful of remaining copies of this otherwise out of print doom/sludge classic, and we got as many as we could from them - not many. So this is indeed available again, for what we're guessing will be a very, very limited time...
Here's our review from way back in 2000 when we first listed the all-time classic Llenandose de Gusanos, and in fact made it a Record Of The Week:
Japanese sludge-core doom merchants Corrupted return with this monumental effort. Their previous album consisted of one long, crushing song. Llenandose improves upon that by taking TWO full discs for two tracks. WARNING: if you already intend to purchase this incredible album, read no further. Your enjoyment will be enhanced by not knowing the precise musical details that we are about to reveal...Disc one begins not with the expected wall of brutalizing guitar, but with quiet, hypnotic piano playing. An eerie voice begins to croak softly in Spanish (did we mention that for some reason Corrupted's lyrics are always in that language?) but the music is almost pretty, lulling the listener into a stupor that sets them up for the eventual entry (after 25 minutes or so!) of a slow-moving but awesomely heavy guitar/drums dirge. Eventually the piano re-enters and the disc comes full circle. Beauty and depression co-exist on this disc like none other, it's like George Winston at 16 rpm with Burning Witch playing in the background (and diabolical whispers in your head).. Disc two is the "ambient" disc, and is also really well done, a creepy quiet grey wash of sound, the sound left in the world AFTER its destruction... One of the best releases of 1999. Fans of Esoteric, recent Neurosis, Sleep, Earth, Skullflower, etc. should bow down to Corrupted. Additional information for Japanese-music-o-philes: Corrupted's drummer Chew used to play in Omoide Hatoba.
And here's a 'customer review' (which just happens to back up our claims above), emailed to us by recent purchaser-of-Corrupted and classical music fan John Botz: "The Corrupted album (Llen...Lleandos...uh...something about 'Gusanos,' i.e. 'worms') absolutely kicks ass. It's hard to accurately describe just how far beyond my expectations this album is. I was totally willing to go with Andee's recommendation on this one, but I was half expecting the three main parts of the album to be: banal, new agey, minimalist piano followed by some fairly generic bongtar sludge riffs, followed by fifty minutes of gray-washed amp noise. Not Even, dudes! These guys have obviously had some classical training, and this album is further proof of how much more depth
ANY music acquires when there is some solid classical training behind it. The opening piano section, far from sounding like ambient/new age drivel, sounds like Rachmaninoff on codeine and muscle relaxers. The entry of the 'metal section,' with portentous feedback, makes a real impact, and the choral ambience of the keyboards at the end, added to the piano sound, sinister vocals, and distorted guitar makes for an even more ominous feeling at the apocalyptic conclusion of the first disc. Wow! But maybe disc two was the most pleasant surprise of all! This is genuinely atmospheric (and good) ambient drone, with enough variety and layering of sounds to keep one interested for the full 74 minutes. I kept thinking of the spacey, eth-eerie-al, sections of 2001: A Space Odyssey (one of my two favorite movies, by the way; and my favorite soundtrack: Kubrick's choice of Ligeti's otherworldly choral/orchestral music juxtaposed with the majesty of R. Strauss, the grace of J. Strauss, and the austerity of Khachaturian's adagio was truly an inspired stroke of genius). Perhaps the Corrupted is the REAL 'Soundtrack of the Apocalypse.' Anyway, your description was apt/excellent, and this album become one of my instant favorites, not just a curiosity. And, by the way, whoda thunk that the Spanish vocals would be so effective, adding an esoteric arcaneness to the album?"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt from disco primero"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt from disco segundo"

CORRUPTED Paso Inferior (Frigidity Discos) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japanese crust-sludge band, super slow, super heavy. Their new disc. Some facts: 1) they just toured the States. 2) their lyrics are all sung in Spanish. 3) the drummer used to be in Omoide Hatoba, Boredoms guitarist Yamamoto's weird jazz/pop project, but he quit when Omoide signed to a major. 4) this album features only one song, it's 40+ minutes long... Great vegging-out music for fans of Earth, Sleep, Eyehategod, Swans, etc.

CORRUPTED Paso Inferior (Frigidity Discos) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK ONCE AGAIN!!! LAST EVER COPIES DIRECT FROM THE LABEL!!!
A lot has changed since we first listed Paso Inferior nearly a decade ago. First, here's our very short review from way back then:
"Japanese crust-sludge band, super slow, super heavy. Their new disc. Some facts: 1) they just toured the States. 2) their lyrics are all sung in Spanish. 3) the drummer used to be in Omoide Hatoba, Boredoms guitarist Yamamoto's weird jazz/pop project, but he quit when Omoide signed to a major. 4) this album features only one song, it's 40+ minutes long... Great vegging-out music for fans of Earth, Sleep, Eyehategod, Swans, etc."
Well, all of that stuff still applies for sure, but this is not, as we initially thought, a vinyl reissue of the original cd. Instead this is a RE-recorded version of Paso Inferior, recorded in 2002, utilizing the same themes and melodies, but a whole new song, the A side sonically similar to the original, the B side, a droney blissed out drift, which is in fact an 'ambient version' of the original Paso Inferior!!
Since the original release, the group has released several more records, each slower and more epic than the last, even incorporating piano and acoustic guitar. And you can hear that in the reimagined Paso. Their appeal spread way beyond the punk rockers and hardcore kids who held them so beloved. Metalheads are Corrupted obsessed nowadays, as are the new breed of dronedirgedoom fanatics. But back in the Paso Inferior days, they were the underground kings of sludge, sharing splits with pretty much every power violence band that was up for it. A band that was spoken of in hushed reverent tones, but whose actual recorded output, included only a single full length, Paso Inferior.ĘThe spirit and power of the original are definitely present, but the sound is better, heavier, and weirdly pretty in that way only Corrupted seem to be able to pull off.
One sidelong doomsludge crawl, the guitars black and viscous, the track laced with squealing washed out feedback, the vocals a growled gurgle, the drums a loping lumbering pound, recent talk of a single 3 hour song don't seem at all far fetched when listening to the re-imagined Paso Inferior, there's something magical and mysterious about the music of Corrupted, no matter how slow or sludgey or stripped down, it never gets boring, it sucks you in and soothes your spirit, while it crashes and pummels, mesmerizing, hypnotic, so heavy, but weirdly transcendental.
The other half of the re-imagined Paso Inferior is another sidelong epic, this one dark and ambient, all shimmery drones, haunting melodies, mysterious voices, a dreamy drift rife with long tones, layered chords, but all muted and blurred and stretched into something more dark and lovely than grim and ominous, perfectly balancing the sludgey sprawl on the flipside.
All new artwork to go with the music, black on black, shiny on matte, the band logo and flames or drips or streaks of some kind, inside a printed insert, pressed on nice thick vinyl, and of course CRAZY limited. In fact this IS out of print now and we are very likely one of the only places with copies. Except maybe eBay. Which means, as always, these will go FAST. And once these LAST copies are gone, that's it.
MPEG Stream: "Paso Inferior Excerpt I"
MPEG Stream: "Paso Inferior Excerpt II"

CORRUPTED s/t (Third Culture) cdep 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
3 songs in 20 minutes of festering brutal heavy sludgecore 'sung' in Spanish by this band from Osaka. Features Chew, ex-Omoide Hatoba on tambor/drums.

CORRUPTED Se Hace Por Los Suenos Asesinos (HG Fact) cd 21.00
Sadly, the legendary Japanese label HG Fact, longtime home to sludgelords Corrupted, closed up shop recently, rendering loads of amazing records gone for good, but Corrupted managed to acquire a handful of remaining copies of this otherwise out of print doom/sludge classic, and we got as many as we could from them - not many. So this is indeed available again, for what we're guessing will be a very, very limited time...
Here's our review from way back in 2004 when we first listed Se Hace Por Los Suenos Asesinos (and back when Boris were still a doom/sludge band as well):
It's time.
Be afraid.
Very afraid.
Or if you're a typical AQ customer and love your rock music glacier slow, tarpit thick and skull crushingly heavy, well then, in that case there's nothing to be afraid of!
Everyone may quake and tremble when the mighty Boris unleash a new slab of black hole mega dense heaviosity. And rightfully so. Few can keep up when it comes to slow motion riffage, tectonic pummel and massive planet destroying rock. But there is another....one who came before....one who resurfaces occasionally....to remind the world that this sleeping behemoth can rise at anytime and raze all that dare proclaim themselves HEAVY. That beast...is known as... the Corrupted. One of the few bands in Japan, nay the WORLD, that can go toe to toe with Boris and hope to survive, perhaps even triumph. Some of you may remember Corrupted's massive two disc set Llenandose de Gusanos, from 3 or 4 years back, one disc of minimal drones, one disc of crushing sonic sludge (and piano). Maybe the finest document of death/doom/drone/sludge ever recorded - except perhaps for the rumoured-to-exist triple disc (!) SINGLE SONG (!!) Corrupted epic that has yet to surface. But for now, we'll have to be happy with this new 35 minute monster. The disc opens with a 17 minute ambient folk dirge, just acoustic guitar and harshly whispered/grunted vocals. In Spanish (as always) and rumblingly hypnotic. Like a ultra grim, creepily acoustic Neurosis, all stripped down and stretched out. Never imagined just a voice and an acoustic guitar could be so fucking scary, but for almost twenty minutes, the low end folk sludge stretches on seemingly forever, narcoticizing and mesmerizing, before the second track drops like a ton of lead Marshall stacks. Massively loud and perplexingly heavy, HUGE slabs of downtuned guitars pour molten riffs down your willing throat, filling you with black tar melodies, jagged limb smashing drumming, and bass so low it seems to loosen the earth's crust around you. The final track picks up the pace, to barely midtempo, but certainly a breakneck speed for a lumbering behemoth like the Corrupted. Drummer Chew (formerly of Omoide Hatoba) gets to go all Animal on this track, smashing everything within reach, the only thing keeping him behind the kit is the impenetratable wall of mile-thick ocean-deep sonic sludge, like pouring a bucket of hot molasses on a porcupine. Or dropping a sea anenome in a vat of hot glue, or like listening to Black Sabbath with your ears full of mud. Where Boris is channelling all sort of seventies rock, and stoner riffage, albeit through their own slow motion filter, Corrupted are just really fucking scary. A huge uncontainable, slithering, squirming, unstoppable, slow-motion, crusty metallic black hole.
MPEG Stream: "Track One (Se Hace...)"
MPEG Stream: "Rato Triste"

CORRUPTED / DISCORDANCE AXIS / 324 split (HG Fact) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Three-way split cd featuring a new seventeen minute long song from Japan's Spanish-speaking kings of doom, Corrupted! But that's not all. American "grindcore ninja commando team" Discordance Axis, who also rate highly in the international metalcore aristocracy, open things up with some of their drumgod Dave Witte fueled blasting, before (surprisingly) drifting into an almost-silent ambient piece! That sets things up nicely for the massive entry of Corrupted's track "Bloodscape", some HEAVY sludge as expected, but one with some also surprising "post-rock" style twists we won't reveal... A tough act to follow, but less-well-known Japanese quartet 324 acquits themselves well with three noisy, thrashy, pummelling songs, including a Crumbsuckers cover! (Hail to the old school!) Happily, we were able to get a bunch of this hard-to-find Japanese import, but judging by the way Corrupted fans are (in a word: rabid), we don't think these will last long...
RealAudio clip: CORRUPTED "Bloodscape"
RealAudio clip: 324 "Terminal Chamber"

CORRUPTED / NOOTHGRUSH (Reservoir) split cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
2 songs by Japan's kings of sludgemetal Corrupted, and 3 songs by Bay Area power violence doomsters Noothgrush. Like a chainsaw trapped in molasses or something...

COSMIC INVENTION Help Your Satori Mind (The Now Sound) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japanese heavy psych supergroup, with Masaki Batoh and other Ghosts, guitarist Michio Kurihara of White Heaven/Ghost, and ex-Subvert Blaze drummer Okano.

COSMOS Tears (Erstwhile) cd 14.98
Click, zap, bleep. Japanese miminalist electronic experimental music alert! The lovely cover art of this disc conceals some mighty difficult music. "Tears" consists of three long tracks from the duo of Sachiko M and Ami Yoshida. Sachiko M's "empty" tone generating sampler you've heard before, wreaking havoc (in a pure, Zen-like way) both solo and in collaboration with others, quite often with Otomo Yoshihide in such outfits as I.S.O., Filament, and Ground Zero. She's also a member of the electronic avant-pop trio Hoahio. In Cosmos, she's teamed up with Ami Yoshida, another Otomo collaborator, whose instrument is more ancient: her own voice. Of course, these are some quite abstract vocalizations indeed, rivaling the extremity of sound that Sachiko coaxes from the pulsing, piercing sine-waves of her electronics. Track one starts in with the fluttering, dog-whistle sampler sounds of Sachiko, in a strange duet with the kissy-kissy squeals and dying, whispery retching of Yoshida. Random machine bleeps punctuate the slowly unfolding action. It's like something's gone very very wrong in the hospital ward. The noise isn't enough to attract the doctors, however. By track two, you're wondering if Yoshida isn't actually employing a rubber balloon to make all her bizarre noises. But maybe that's Sachiko, who on this track is experimenting with contact mics. Track three was our favorite, with Sachiko's Ryoji Ikeda -like purrs and pulses coming to the fore, in a crinkly, calm cacophony of clicks and silence. Well, it might seem quiet, but try turning it up, we dare you.
RealAudio clip: "track 3"

COURTIS, ANLA / SEIICHI YAMAMOTO / YOSHIMI Live At Kanadian (Public Eyesore) cd 10.98
Yep, noisy!

CROW TONGUE Red Hand Mark (Hand / Eye) cd 14.98

CRYSTAL FIST FEAT. UNIVERSAL INDIANS Live at Liquid Room 2.22.1997 (Zero Gravity) cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We love pretty much everything on Japanese label Zero Gravity, including this recent disc. But unlike the abstract electronics found on most Zero Gravity releases, Crystal Fist's album is an electro-acoustic hippie jam that owes more to the No Neck Blues Band, Amon Duul, and the Taj Mahal Travellers than to Ryoji Ikeda. Featuring the stumbling, 'free' drumming of Merzbow's Masami Akita (here leaving his noise persona behind for his first love, psychedelic rock), this single thirty three minute piece is a druggy, spacey, hypnotic masterpiece, that starts as a murky, otherworldly soundscape; all chirping crickets and ambient murmur. The sound is soon bolstered by the drone of Huun Huur Tu -like faux throat singing, whirring feedback, and the hum of rumbling turntables and abused cd players. This pagan ritual reaches a fever pitch as various percussion elements are introduced, and Akita's style of brain-damaged-Jaki Leibezeit drumming builds a rickety framework around the whole ceremony.
What's amazing is that this sounds so much like it was recorded in the seventies....not in 1997. And it most certainly doesn't sound like turntables and cd players, it sounds more like rickety old amps, and bowed metal, and the vocalizations of lysergically enhanced druids. So recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Live At Liquid Room"

CULT JUNK CAFE (Gentle Giant Records) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japanese experimental/rock/jazz quintet last heard on Gentle Giant's "Miracle of Levitation" compilation. Otomo Yoshihide guests on most tracks - not on turntables, but on handmade guitar and six string bass. Fans of Otomo's Ground Zero outfit should like this.