KESEY, KEN The Acid Test (Acadia) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Recordings from/for one of Kesey's infamous Acid Tests.

KESSLER, MATT / HUELSING, ZACH Works Cited (Eye Rocket Books) zine 6.00
This isn't your typical zine. Works Cited isn't pages photocopied and stapled together, rather, each hand drawn and unique manilla envelope contains the hilarious contents of the filing cabinet of the fictional Wright Preparatory Academy. Each copy includes: a C grade essay detailing the difference between "true" and "false" metal, intercepted notes, journal entries, and lots more, mostly illustrated documents within which Kessler and Huelsing have woven a story line that deftly reveals the complexities and confusion of adolescence. When reading Works Cited, you feel almost like you could be reading the contents of your own school's filing cabinet. Thus, the authors have created a universal platitude which brings forth the resounding adult-to-youth promise: "You will look back and laugh." If you are lucky enough to snatch one of the limited-to-365 copies, we think you will laugh along...knowingly.

KEUHKOT Laskeutumisalusastia (Ektro) cd 14.98
As much as we think sometimes we have a real way with words, there's always somebody who totally puts us to shame, which is exactly why we're gonna start our review of this, the sixth and latest record from Finnish underground outsider rock weirdo one man band Keuhkot ('lungs' in Finnish), with a description written by Jussi of Circle, whose label Ektro released it:
"The sixth struggle album of Kake Puhuu. The combat noise and insect world music downpreaching book. Rawer than its precursors, this album strips it down to marrow and squeezes juice out of it. Keuhkot batters mindless attributes of humanity from insects' point of view by means of reverse pop music. The aim is towards backwoods motorism, meritocamping, real men, moose hunt madness and established global upstarts. The most bearded feminist of Finland, Keuhkot, kicks the real man's groin. Keuhkot makes its own ethnic fusion gadding from rhythmic highways to distorted sidepaths in a refreshed guitar oriented soundscape. You may call it freaky but according to Kake, pop music (including metal, of course) is a freaky industrialized illness that needs a vaccination Ð which is Keuhkot."
We definitely couldn't have said it better ourselves, but heck, why not give it a try? Longtime readers of the aQ list might remember Andee's harrowing and ultra personal private Keuhkot performance in an abandoned schoolhouse in the wilds of rural Finland (you can read more about it elsewhere on the aQ site, in one of the other Keuhkot reviews), and are quite possibly already fans of Kake Puhuu's twisted sonic world of primitive programmed drums, twisted percussion, weird samples, layered loops, warped and woozy synths, detuned guitars and warbled guttural vox, and how could you not be, Puhuu is like the underground electro minimal abstract noise rock Jandek of Finland, record after record of totally idiosyncratic, ultra personal, musical weirdness, that sonically is all over the map, be it twang flecked almost Western sounding folk, woozy crooned torch songs, junkyard percussion driven lo-fi dirge rock, stumbling hypno-prog, who knows how the heck to classify any of this, easiest to just say this is some sort of utterly singular, surreal Finnish psychedelia, equal parts the Residents, Tom Waits, Birthday Party, Cop Shoot Cop, and who knows what else, all filtered through that totally cracked Finnish sensibility that informs so much of the Finnish music we love. A little bit circusy, a LOT whatthefuck, droney, fuzzy, distorted, stumbly, we want to say this is the best Keuhkot yet, but we sort of love them all, cuz they're all great. We'd say it's the weirdest, but they're all pretty goddamn weird too. We will say the opening track "Kuuluisia Alkemisteja Vol 1", is one of the coolest jams we've heard in ages, all super blown out synth buzz, pulsing and undulating, laced with haunting disembodied vocals, but the sort of droned out abstract psych trip out we could listen to forever. Just check out the samples, and prepare yourself to be baffled and confused and totally transported to some seriously demented sonic otherworld, and Jussi did in fact say it best: Keuhkot kicks the real man's groin!
MPEG Stream: "Kuuluisia Alkemisteja Vol 2"
MPEG Stream: "Puhumatta Paras"
MPEG Stream: "Pinkki & Ruskee"
MPEG Stream: "Aikakauden Loppu"

KEUHKOT Minun Kay Saaliksi Bilharzialoista (Bad Vugum) cd 15.98
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Yet another notable export from the weird wide world of the Finnish underground. And again, courtesy of the mighty Bad Vugum.
If you were at the AQ 30th Anniversary party you may have seen Circle mainman Jussi spporting a Keuhkot shirt, as hey/they are huge fans. Kehkot is a maniacal one man band, that leaps stylistically all over the map from record to record.
'Minun...' starts out sounding like woodblock electronica, Autechre played on sticks and logs. But with ominous Darth Vader exhalations in the background. Eventually this mutates into some sort of psychotic calypso, sounding a bit like bizarre soundtrack music, albeit laced with strange Finnish mutterings. Really weird, and really great.

KEUHKOT Mita Otat Mukaan Muistoksi Sivistyksesta (Bad Vugum) cd 15.98
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KEUHKOT Mita Otat Mukaan Muistoksi Sivistyksesta (Bad Vugum) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KEUHKOT Peruskivi Francon Betonia (Ektro) cd 14.98
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Keuhkot (lungs in Finnish) is Kake Puhuu. A one man band /art installation / travelling circus / raving lunatic. Kake plays everything: basses, drums, flutes, kimbara, ud-luth (?), samples, sequences, recordings and vocals. As well as appearing multiple times in his videos and photos (which consist of wastelands and wild sculptural gardens inhabited by 4, 5 sometimes even 10 Kake Puhuus!) This is the first Keuhkot record on Jussi from Circle's Ektro label and it is pretty amazing. Some kind of wild junkyard gypsy music, equal parts Birthday Party, Pussy Galore, Cop Shoot Cop, The Three Tenors, Devo, Finnish folk, circus music, looped/sampled electronica, all with Kake's distinctive Tom Waits-ish growl over the top. Wild percussion, hypnotic rhythms, sinister bass loops, growled spoken word passages, crashing waves, rattling spray paint cans, calliope-like melodies, chanted vocals, and groovy almost-exotica, all taken in directions you would never expect. Weird and wonderful, bizarre and beautiful. Is there no end to the musical bounty Finland has to offer? We're beginning to think not.
RealAudio clip: "Pois Zagorasta"
RealAudio clip: "Syksyn Kirjasatoa"
RealAudio clip: "MaanKaytto (a. Suunittelu b. Toteutus)"

KEUHKOT Ruskea Aikakirja (Bad Vugum) cd 15.98
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KEUHKOT Toiminatatapoja Olioille (Ektro) cd 14.98
Probably the best way to describe the mad genius that is Keuhkot (Finnish for lungs) is to describe my bizarre, up close and personal encounter with Kake Puhuu aka Keuhkot, when I was visiting Finland a couple years ago. I was picked up by Jussi from Circle and Peltsi (formerly of Circle, now in Stalwart and Lee Miller) and we proceeded to drive for nearly an hour into the woods. An hour in the car is not ideal after 10 hours on a plane, but I put myself at the mercy of my Finnish hosts. We finally pulled up to a huge red schoolhouse in the middle of nowhere, surrounded on all sides by dense dark forest. We rang the doorbell and waited outside until a madly barking dog leapt out of the just opened door, being barely restrained by a small quiet Finnish man. We were hustled inside, into a large gymnasium, complete with wooden benches and chalkboards on the walls. We sat for quite a while, not entirely sure what was going on, when suddenly that same small man with the dog that we met at the front door, walked into the gymnasium with no shirt on. He proceeded to crawl around on the ground, turning on all sorts of switches, plugging in lots of strange looking devices, all manner of buzzing and hums began to emanate from these various devices. The man proceeded to then strap on this huge apparatus, covered in lights and microphones all on the ends of strange metal tentacles, he stood up, behind a huge wooden podium, grabbed a giant hammer and suddenly lurched into a blasting tribal pummel, shouted Finnish vocals, crazed percussion and freakout guitar. I suddenly realized that I was in fact witnessing a personal Keuhkot performance and proceeded to sit there dumbfounded, totally blown away, not only by the ridiculous spectacle, but the totally mesmerizing music as well. After about a half hour, he dropped everything and walked out. Maybe twenty minutes later, he returned with tea and biscuits, and we all sat having tea and desperately fending off the wildly barking and biscuit crazed hound we had experienced earlier. Woah. That definitely says a lot about Finland, and for sure gives you a glimpse into the brilliantly warped mind of Keuhkot. So while this new Keuhkot record might not be quite as visceral as a harrowing personal encounter, it's most definitely still a bit harrowing, and most certainly, completely and bizarrely brilliant. Much more subdued than his previous releases, Toimin... is a dark and dizzying expanse of alien synth melodies, simple industrial percussion, mumbled insistent vocals, fuzzy far off guitars, simple rock riffs re-imagined as some muted David Lynchian garage rock, a lo-fi horror movie Krautrock with simple hypnotically repeated motifs, beneath subtle shuffling percussion, and growled Finnish spoken word. The whole record is a slowly shifting moonlit world of fairy tales gone bad, demented nursery rhymes, sweet music slightly soured, haunting and ominous, but strangely playful and mysterious. Like a late night stroll on the moon, if the moon was a Finnish Raymond Chandler novel, with strange alien creatures packing heat, lurking in doorways, looking shifty and rootless, looking for whatever trouble they can find on the seedy side of the moon. Keuhkot is exactly what that would sound like.
MPEG Stream: "Presentaatio Raumanjuovassa"
MPEG Stream: "Ilmastonmuutos"
MPEG Stream: "Peshawar-Kandahar-Espoo-Kobenhavn"

KEVIN COSTNER SUICIDE PACT My Hand Holding A Still Photograph Of The Same Scene (Hooker Vision) cassette 8.98
That's a great name for this blustery dronemuzak project from Denver, Colorado. As much as we would like for the band to operate as the ambient technicians for some mountain-man cult of doomspeakers and nay-sayers akin to Elizabeth Clare Prophet's Church Universal And Triumphant, the name was spawned as a drunken joke that belies the introspective atmospherics and smoke-n-mirror melancholy which oozes from their bank of pedals. A contemplative drone wafts from the collective's floorcore alchemy for guitars that blossoms into a dissonant crescendo of wintery noise sounding like a lo-fi version of Tim Hecker or Lawrence English. As the noise deflates back to a subtle ambient smear, one of the Pact wrangles with the mechanisms of a tape deck alongside some pixel-shifted noises that would make one think of Oval's skipping cd constructions given over to the Starving Weirdo's kitchen sink approach to stoned transcendence. On the second half the the 64 minute tape (thank you for not just settling for 15 or 20 minutes!), the Pact eschews the guitars for a freak-folk amalgam of bells and Finnish-inspired clatter that morphs into a balefully cinematic conclusion to the tape with deeply resonant loops that speaks to the expansive land in which these gentlemen live, as some sort of cracked, lugubrious reinterpretation of Arthur Honegger's early 20th Century symphonic ode to railroads and trains in Pacific 231. Another great find from Hooker Vision. Limited to 100 copies.
MPEG Stream: "excerpt"

KEY Birch Skeletons, Skin Lanterns & Lake Of Stars (Handmade Birds) 3x10" box 48.00
Yet another strange release on the increasingly difficult to pin down Handmade Birds label, run by R. Loren of Pyramids, White Moth and Sailors with Wax Wings. In a matter of months, Handmade Birds has more releases than most labels have over the course of years! But hell, we're not complaining. So far we've had Blut Aus Nord's Mort, Celestiial's Desolate North, Evan Caminiti's When California Falls Into The Sea, His Name Is Alive's King Of Sweet (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), and about a million more on the way (Der Blutharsch, Human Quena Orchestra, The Rita, Crooked Necks, Swamp Horse, Servile Sect and more!!), but this one, this is odd even by Handmade Birds admittedly far out criteria. This is a triple 10" boxset reissue of three long out of print demo tapes from Finnish black folk weirdos Key, a duo consisting of Kaarna from drone outfit Somnivore and Rauta from outsider black metal horde Circle Of Ouroborus, and all the mentions of 'black' above could be a little misleading, as this is far from black, and not at all metal. It's more in keeping with the later Circle Of Ouroborus recordings, a sort of fractured folk, a jangly, gloomy folk pop, all clean guitars, and haunting atmospheres, the vocals plaintive and hushed one second, deep and dramatically crooned the next, the sound slipping easily from psychedelic folk, to haunting almost new wave, to creepy doomy ballads, to reverby proto punk, but all gloomy and moody and fantastically strange, sounding a lot at moments like some lost nineties New Zealand outfit, maybe a bit like the Moles, or some obscure band on Flying Nun or Xpressway, the melodies are lilting, the basslines gloomy and a little gothic, the songs minimal, but strangely catchy, and definitely haunting and otherworldly, fans of Finnish stuff like CoO and Dead Reptile Shrine will definitely dig, as will anyone into fractured freak folk, and outsider gloom pop.
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES, housed in a silver foil printed box, each of the three 10"s pressed on colored vinyl (white with black splatter, milky clear, ultra clear), each record in its own printed sleeve.

KEY OF SHAME s/t (Planam Kos) 2lp 38.00

KEYHOLE 12 July 2000 (Eclipse) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Very late one night in the summer of 2000, Kentuckian sound artist Keenan Lawler, metallurgist Eric Clark, and three members of the psychedelic-drone ensemble Pelt (Patrick Best, Mike Gangloff, and Jack Rose) ventured into a stone silo at a Franciscan monastery just north of Louisville. Bringing within them an arsenal of cymbals, gongs, bells, Tibetan singing bowls, bronze didgeridoos, Japanese flutes, and a lone banjo, these five musicians proceeded to improvise an extended drone that billows, swells, and recedes within the intrinsic reverberation of the silo's space. The result recalls similar acoustically based drones from Organum, Mirror, and the later work from AMM. Of course, it is stated that no electronics were used in this album's construction. The one minor drawback is that the mastering level on this vinyl only release is rather low, as if they were trying to mask out the competing cicada chorus. Just crank it up, and enjoy a fine drone album.

KEYS, CALVIN Shawn-Neeq (Black Jazz / Snow Dog Projects) cd 16.98
This classic album from 1971 was recently reissued on vinyl by Tompkins Square, and is now also available on cd as a Japanese import! Released originally on the LA-based Black Jazz label, Shawn-Neeq was soul-jazz guitarist Calvin Keys debut release after years being a member and session player in several famous jazz combos with the likes of Jimmy Smith, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and Jack McDuff.
Shawn-Neeq begins with the cosmic opening herald of "B.E." before launching into an understated groove backed by Fender Rhodes, bass, and flutes, some low-key horns, but the main space is left open for Key's travelling guitar lines that explore wildly while still keeping it all glued together. The title track delves into a softer focus of pretty balladry with lyrical flute and Rhodes keeping the momentum. The eight minute "Gee-Gee" brings a funkier vibe back into play and is probably our favorite track. Though it's hard to beat the closer, "B.K." which has a harder funk vibe and distorted Rhodes again that give the song a more acid-y psychedelic feel. This is an excellent slice of empowered soul jazz and we're psyched to see it available on vinyl once again! Recommended!
Calvin Keys lives in Oakland these days and we've heard he's playing out again in support of this reissue, unfortunately we missed his show at Yoshi's but hope to see him soon.
MPEG Stream: "B.E."
MPEG Stream: "Gee-Gee"
MPEG Stream: "B.K"

KEYS, CALVIN Shawn-Neeq (Black Jazz Records) lp 25.00
This classic album from 1971 has been lovingly reissued by Tompkins Square. Released originally on the LA-based Black Jazz label, Shawn-Neeq was soul-jazz guitarist Calvin Keys debut release after years being a member and session player in several famous jazz combos with the likes of Jimmy Smith, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and Jack McDuff.
Shawn-Neeq begins with the cosmic opening herald of "B.E." before launching into an understated groove backed by Fender Rhodes, bass, and flutes, some low-key horns, but the main space is left open for Key's travelling guitar lines that explore wildly while still keeping it all glued together. The title track delves into a softer focus of pretty balladry with lyrical flute and Rhodes keeping the momentum. The eight minute "Gee-Gee" brings a funkier vibe back into play and is probably our favorite track. Though it's hard to beat the closer, "B.K." which has a harder funk vibe and distorted Rhodes again that give the song a more acid-y psychedelic feel. This is an excellent slice of empowered soul jazz and we're psyched to see it available on vinyl once again! Recommended!
Calvin Keys lives in Oakland these days and we've heard he's playing out again in support of this reissue, unfortunately we missed his show at Yoshi's but hope to see him soon.
MPEG Stream: "B.E."
MPEG Stream: "Gee-Gee"
MPEG Stream: "B.K"

KG Adieu A L'electronique (Gooom) cd 15.98
We continue to wade through the shimmering technocolour world that is France's Gooom Records. First there was the amazing shoegazing electronic pop of M83, then the Autechre-ish fuzzy bliss of Mils, and the dreamy propulsive buzz of Purple Confusion. So next on the hit list is KG, who somehow manage to string all of that together into one glorious sonic bloodbath. The first track takes you on a quick guided tour of KG's soundworld, with some straight up techno that slowly unravels into ambient-ish electronica and is then subsumed by huge squalls of white noise, whirling eddies of sonic detritus while frail melodies struggle desperately to stay afloat. Like listening to M83 on the radio but then driving under a bridge and losing reception! Only better. The rest of the record is a melancholy sonic travelogue, from skittery electronica to almost-industrial clang and clatter, to throbbing techno to New Order-ish new wave, but always wrapped in bittersweet melody and thick warm swaths of synth fuzz. Fans of M83, Lali Puna, Postal Service, Dntel, Morr music and all that sort of stuff will definitely dig this.
MPEG Stream: "S.P.E.C.T.R.E. 01"
MPEG Stream: "S.P.E.C.T.R.E. 02"

KG The Greatest Hits (Gooom) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KG, THE Nature Morte (Fortune 4) cd 14.98
Kicking Giant may be long gone but its leader certainly isn't. Tae Wu is back musically under the moniker The KG. In recent years, you may be more familiar with his graphics than his sonic output, designing several striking album sleeves, posters, etc. Here he is assisted by many of his Olympia, WA co-horts (including Kento from IQU). Spartan and raw recordings not veering far from the dissonant Kicking Giant scope but with more blips and bleeps.

KGB MAN / ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER KGB Nights / Blue Drive (Catholic Tapes) 2 x cassette 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
KGB Man & Oneohtrix Point Never are both the work of Daniel Lopatin; however, neither of these tapes are marked as to what sound is to be ascribed to which project. Ultimately, it matters not; as everything that Lopatin has touched over the recent year has been golden.
So, here we've got two cassettes, each clocking in around 20 minutes in total length. The first OPN track (well at least on what was the first tape that we grabbed) is a cold undulating set of slightly modulated tones set on glacial cruise control; the flip side of this cassette (which might also be by OPN) continues in this sentiment with a more wash, blur, and synthetic shimmer, still wrangling all of those nostalgic images of a future once imagined but now abandoned. What appear to be the KGM Man tracks finds Lopatin in his subaqueous, sampledelica vein somewhat like those earlier Caretaker recordings but with Lopatin twisting and bending maudlin piano notes into seasick electronic flanges and slippery looped structures. His luminous synth melodies do occasionally flicker through these mutant constructs; and oh yeah, drum machines, you don't find that in OPN. A very nice touch!
Limited to 125 copies of which we only have 10 copies, never to restocked!!!

KHAN No Comprendo (Matador) cd 14.98
Heavy on the quirk and camp in a StereoTotal sort of way, but somewhat more sexed up and raucous. Some French girl vocals, some very Euro, Fred Schneider meets Jon Spencer vocals. Well actually, maybe that *is* Jon Spencer, 'cause he does sing on here, along with Diamanda Galas (!), Julee Cruise, Kid Congo Powers, Andre Williams, Hanin Elias (ATR), and Francoise Cactus of StereoTotal. Wow, what a crazy bunch of guests. So imagine the mixture of all those folks with a funked up spy movie soundtrack strutting along underneath.

KHAN Space Shanty (Esoteric Recordings) cd 21.00
Not sea shanty, but space shanty. Great title for a space rock record, right? And this 1972 album, newly reissued on cd with two bonus tracks, is definitely space rock - there's even a crazy looking space ship on the cover. But how come it's not called Space Shanties? There's eight tracks here after all, including the bonus ones. Anyway this is a classic, classic prog record, the first and only album from the UK's Khan, a band formed by guitarist Steve Hillage, just prior to his stint with those self-proclaimed "pot-head pixies" of the planet Gong. While Hillage is probably best known for playing in Gong after Khan passed on, he also had a successful post-Gong solo career as a prog rock guitar hero, and later found favor with the trance/techno/ambient crowd in the '80s and '90s. But you don't have to be down with The Orb or The Ozrics to enjoy this album! And actually, Aquarius customers just as likely might know Hillage from his appearance in an even earlier, college-daze outfit, the obscure but beloved heavy psych act Arzachel. Khan, while more polished and "pro", isn't that far off from Arzachel, really, at least in terms of the amount of psychedelic guitar action and organ jamming going on. Also, another ex-member of Arzachel appears in Khan, keyboardist Dave Stewart (not the Eurythmics fellow, but the guy who founded mathy proggers Egg, and later on played in Hatfield and the North).
So... in brief, Khan's a mixture of gentle, Pink Floydian atmospheres, Canterbury style organ burble, and hard rockish guitar power, with song titles like "Stranded (Effervescent Psychonovelty No.5)", "Mixed Up Man Of The Mountains", and "Stargazers". Being prog, the instrumental parts are paramount, but also look out for cool spacey lyrics like "Starstruck moonman looks so blind/You're still a slave within your mind". It's very of its era, that's for sure! Excessively prog, but in the best way. The songs are all longer than your typical pop single of course, though none break into the double digits minutes-wise. And, importantly, it's all very melodic, the singing expressing much majestic emotion, as does Hillage's searing acid rock guitar leads and the driving organ grooves of Stewart. At times we're reminded of Atomic Rooster, at others Van Der Graaf Generator, and at still others of Caravan... so a definite AQ prog recommendation, all right.
MPEG Stream: "Space Shanty (incl. The Cobalt Sequence and March Of The Sine Squadrons)"
MPEG Stream: "Driving To Amsterdam"

KHAN JAMAL CREATIVE ARTS ENSEMBLE, THE Drumdance To The Motherland (Eremite) cd 14.98
Whatever you do, don't let the godawful cover art fool you. This is not some crappy new age cd you'd buy in an art gallery in New Mexico, while picking up some healing crystals. This is some seriously demented, gloriously inspired outsider free jazz abstract psychedelic dub tribal weirdness. You'd never know from the cover though. A super cheesy crayon drawing of the band beneath some pyramids... ugh. Inside there's a bad ass photo of the band, killer afros, leather jackets, cravat, one guy holding a flute, leaning against a wall, looking ready to unleash some seriously cosmic musical might. Had that picture been on the cover you'd know exactly what you were getting into. Cuz this is indeed some seriously cosmic shit.
Released originally in 1973 in a run of 300 copies, this disc by vibraphonist Khan Jamal has become a jazz head free music freak holy grail. And it's easy to see why. A heady mix of vibes, marimba, clarinet, drums, glockenspiel, guitar, bass and percussion. But it's all about the drums. These four lengthy tracks are all about rhythm. If the opener doesn't totally blow your mind, there is something seriously wrong. A completely effect drenched burst of free jazz drum splatter, careening and echoing all over the place, horns bleating, reverberating into infinity, adding more tripped out percussive swirl to the already chaotic soundfield. Eventually the drums drift off, and the track morphs into some dizzying glockenspiel marimba jam, all tinkle and shimmer, still drifting in swirls of FX and random clatter. This track alone makes this disc essential. But it's only the beginning.
The second track is like a supercharged, blown out, extended version of the opener, just with more horns and a more obvious rhythm. A groovy free jazz drum jam, beneath skronking horns, shouting and hand clapping, reverb drenched horns, a total wild and wooly free for all, before the marimba comes in, and things coalesce into a slightly less abstract funky free jazz percussion blow out. So good.
Track three is the most subtle of the bunch, but that in no way means it's any less weird or tripped out. A droney bass line, some jazzy smokey guitar, all beneath a dense swirl of percussive shakers, wrapped in tons of FX, a sort of dubbed out ambient jazz. A slow mellow groove that sort of drifts and slithers, occasionally bits of freaky effects float by, but for the most part it's all late night mellowness, a slow stroll through a moonlit alley, or hold up in the dark corner of some alien jazz bar.
The final track takes the smokey moonlit ambience of track three and gives it the King Tubby treatment, Sounds are dubbed to kingdom come, melodies become distorted and crumble into pieces before they're sent careening into the ether, drums shuffle and stutter, occasionally being propelled dubwise, the whole thing sounding like some Wes Montgomery b-side produced by Lee Perry. A supreme, super laid back dub drenched free jazz freakout of the highest order.
In fact this whole disc is some sort of cosmic dub drenched free jazz from beyond. Some seriously Sun Ra meets King Tubby in the great hereafter shit. A divine jam session transmitted through some mysterious sound system and captured on tape.
Totally and completely mindblowing.
MPEG Stream: "Cosmic Echoes"
MPEG Stream: "Drum Dance"

KHAN JAMAL CREATIVE ARTS ENSEMBLE, THE Drumdance To The Motherland (EM) lp 22.00
Finally available on vinyl! We reviewed a cd reissue of this a while back (which is still available) and we can say that this vinyl version is an improvement in at least one respect, the cover art! Presumably the wild red, yellow and black abstact design on this sleeve is from the original. It's looks a lot better than the 'dancing people' art they used for cd edition, which was so bad it provided the hook to our review back then:
"Whatever you do, don't let the godawful cover art fool you. This is not some crappy new age cd you'd buy in an art gallery in New Mexico, while picking up some healing crystals. This is some seriously demented, gloriously inspired outsider free jazz abstract psychedelic dub tribal weirdness. You'd never know from the cover though. A super cheesy crayon drawing of the band beneath some pyramids... ugh. Inside there's a bad ass photo of the band, killer afros, leather jackets, cravat, one guy holding a flute, leaning against a wall, looking ready to unleash some seriously cosmic musical might. Had that picture been on the cover you'd know exactly what you were getting into. Cuz this is indeed some seriously cosmic shit."
We then went on to say...
Released originally in 1973 in a run of 300 copies, this disc by vibraphonist Khan Jamal has become a jazz head free music freak holy grail. And it's easy to see why. A heady mix of vibes, marimba, clarinet, drums, glockenspiel, guitar, bass and percussion. But it's all about the drums. These four lengthy tracks are all about rhythm. If the opener doesn't totally blow your mind, there is something seriously wrong. A completely effect drenched burst of free jazz drum splatter, careening and echoing all over the place, horns bleating, reverberating into infinity, adding more tripped out percussive swirl to the already chaotic soundfield. Eventually the drums drift off, and the track morphs into some dizzying glockenspiel marimba jam, all tinkle and shimmer, still drifting in swirls of FX and random clatter. This track alone makes this disc essential. But it's only the beginning.
The second track is like a supercharged, blown out, extended version of the opener, just with more horns and a more obvious rhythm. A groovy free jazz drum jam, beneath skronking horns, shouting and hand clapping, reverb drenched horns, a total wild and wooly free for all, before the marimba comes in, and things coalesce into a slightly less abstract funky free jazz percussion blow out. So good.
Track three is the most subtle of the bunch, but that in no way means it's any less weird or tripped out. A droney bass line, some jazzy smokey guitar, all beneath a dense swirl of percussive shakers, wrapped in tons of FX, a sort of dubbed out ambient jazz. A slow mellow groove that sort of drifts and slithers, occasionally bits of freaky effects float by, but for the most part it's all late night mellowness, a slow stroll through a moonlit alley, or hold up in the dark corner of some alien jazz bar.
The final track takes the smokey moonlit ambience of track three and gives it the King Tubby treatment, Sounds are dubbed to kingdom come, melodies become distorted and crumble into pieces before they're sent careening into the ether, drums shuffle and stutter, occasionally being propelled dubwise, the whole thing sounding like some Wes Montgomery b-side produced by Lee Perry. A supreme, super laid back dub drenched free jazz freakout of the highest order.
In fact this whole disc is some sort of cosmic dub drenched free jazz from beyond. Some seriously Sun Ra meets King Tubby in the great hereafter shit. A divine jam session transmitted through some mysterious sound system and captured on tape.
Totally and completely mindblowing.
MPEG Stream: "Cosmic Echoes"
MPEG Stream: "Drum Dance"

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

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

MPEG Stream: "Alap"

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

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

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

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

KHAN, USTAD ABDUL KARIM 1934-1935 (Important) cd 14.98
Recently released on vinyl by Mississippi Records, and made a Record Of The Week by us, this fantastic collection of 78s from legendary Indian classical vocalist Ustad Abdul Karim Khan is now available on cd (with different cover art for some reason). Compiled by Ian Nagoski (who also put together some of our favorite old timey 78's collections, including Brass Pins & Match Heads, Unheard Ofs & Forgotten Abouts and Black Mirror: Reflections In Global Musics, among others!), the sounds here are unlike anything you've ever heard, so haunting and mysterious, timeless and powerful, a collection of lush, spiritual ragas, which manage to be both simple and Spartan, yet simultaneously sonically dense and melodically complex, a soundworld both moving and mystical, emotional and utterly gorgeous. Khan was a huge influence on legendary minimalist composer La Monte Young, in fact the Mississippi lp liner notes offer up a quote from Young that basically sums it up better than we ever could: "When I first heard the recordings of Abdul Karim Khan I thought that perhaps it would be best if I gave up singing, got a cabin up in the mountains, stocked it with a record player and recordings of Abdul Karim Khan, and just listened for the rest of my life."
We can definitely understand his feelings, this is the sort of music, so powerful and so passionate, that it definitely puts most 'singers' to shame. The instrumentation is very traditional classical Indian, but it's the vocals that drive these songs, the instruments way down in the mix, Khan's intense and ecstatic vocals soaring and dramatic, so commanding yet still impossibly warm and mellifluous. We've seen descriptions of these recordings as being "not easy listening, but ultimately very rewarding", and while we definitely agree with the second half of the statement, these sounds, while complex and totally unlike most 'Western' music you've heard, are not at all difficult to listen to, just the opposite, after just a few seconds, you'll be whisked away, totally transported, as the sounds surround you, and seep into your spirit and soul, soft swirls of soothing sonorous, sonic spiritual bliss. The music here so utterly transcendent, so lush, warm and welcoming, yet at the same time, so strange and wondrous, Khan's voice sounding like it's bathed in divine light.
Ustad Abdul Karim Khan truly was a sonic shaman for the ages, delivering these divine musical messages to us, his willing supplicants. Incredible.
MPEG Stream: "Gujri Todi: "Beguna Guna Ga" (Drut)"
MPEG Stream: "Jhinjhoti Thumri: "Piya Bin Nahin Avata Chain" (Adatai)"
MPEG Stream: "Gujri Todi Tarana: "Dim Dara Dir Dir""
MPEG Stream: "Bhasant Khyal: "Ab Maine Man Dekheri" (Ektal)"

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

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

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

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

KHANATE Capture & Release (Hydra Head) cd 15.98
A new Khanate! 'Nuff said perhaps, as all you AQ doom customers surely know what that means! Ultra-depressive dirge metal from some of the best in the biz. Capture & Release, a two-song, 43 minute "ep" (maxi-ep? mini-lp? heck, it's a full-length, really!) is the third cd release from this NYC-based band, featuring Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))) on guitar and graphics, bassist James Plotkin of OLD, singer Alan Dubin (also from OLD), and drummer Tim Wyskida. By now, Khanate have really established a distinct style of extreme, slow, scary, art-metal. To the point that we're always citing them as a comparison when describing other bands. They're the standard by which anyone indulging in feedback-filled heaviness, anguished/evil vocalizations, creepy atmosphere, double digit song-lengths, and rumbling sub-sonics is judged -- like when we say Bunkur or Graves At Sea (reviewed on this list) are bands in the style of Khanate. So if would be easy to review Capture & Release if it were by *another* band -- we'd say it was a lot like Khanate and that'd be enough to recommend it to many of you! Of course, Khanate themselves can be compared to predecessors Corrupted and especially Eyehategod, godfathers of feedback sludge brutality. But Khanate's compositions are way more extended, dramatically ambitious, and clinically produced than EHG, and utilize "experimental" sonic textures and loud/soft dynamics in the manner of a post-rock band as well. This new disc really exemplified this approach, with the second, 25-minute track "Release" featuring lots of really quiet parts that make us think a hypothetical Khanate / Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore tour would be PERFECT. (We can dream, can't we?) Vocalist Alan Dubin makes the most of these "vulnerabilities" in the band's otherwise crushing sound barrage, with dark, cryptic, and psychologically suggestive rather than explicit lyrics wherein he seems to be inhabiting the role of the deviant antagonist from a Thomas Harris novel...but poetically enough that perhaps we can all relate, and indeed find release in their music.
MPEG Stream: "Capture"

KHANATE Capture & Release (Hydra Head) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The cd version of Capture & Release, the latest slab of slow motion harshness from the mighty Khanate, came out late last year, but this is the first time it's been available on vinyl (not counting the ultra limited picture disc version, now GONE and out of print so don't ask!). Wrapped, as always, in a striking Stephen O'Malley sleeve, this lp is probably also still limited (as they all seem to be) so as always better act fast!
A new Khanate! 'Nuff said perhaps, as all you AQ doom customers surely know what that means! Ultra-depressive dirge metal from some of the best in the biz. Capture & Release, a two-song, 43 minute "ep" (maxi-ep? mini-lp? heck, it's a full-length, really!) is the third cd release from this NYC-based band, featuring Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))) on guitar and graphics, bassist James Plotkin of OLD, singer Alan Dubin (also from OLD), and drummer Tim Wyskida. By now, Khanate have really established a distinct style of extreme, slow, scary, art-metal. To the point that we're always citing them as a comparison when describing other bands. They're the standard by which anyone indulging in feedback-filled heaviness, anguished/evil vocalizations, creepy atmosphere, double digit song-lengths, and rumbling sub-sonics is judged -- like when we say Bunkur or Graves At Sea (reviewed on this list) are bands in the style of Khanate. So if would be easy to review Capture & Release if it were by *another* band -- we'd say it was a lot like Khanate and that'd be enough to recommend it to many of you! Of course, Khanate themselves can be compared to predecessors Corrupted and especially Eyehategod, godfathers of feedback sludge brutality. But Khanate's compositions are way more extended, dramatically ambitious, and clinically produced than EHG, and utilize "experimental" sonic textures and loud/soft dynamics in the manner of a post-rock band as well. This new disc really exemplified this approach, with the second, 25-minute track "Release" featuring lots of really quiet parts that make us think a hypothetical Khanate / Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore tour would be PERFECT. (We can dream, can't we?) Vocalist Alan Dubin makes the most of these "vulnerabilities" in the band's otherwise crushing sound barrage, with dark, cryptic, and psychologically suggestive rather than explicit lyrics wherein he seems to be inhabiting the role of the deviant antagonist from a Thomas Harris novel...but poetically enough that perhaps we can all relate, and indeed find release in their music.
MPEG Stream: "Capture"

KHANATE Capture & Release (Trust No One) picture disc 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
ULTRA ULTRA ULTRA LIMITED picture disc version of the new Khanate album. Gorgeous artwork from Stephen O'Malley with a cool printed obi all in a hard plastic sleeve. We were only able to get 20 copies, and it is already out of print at the label. So act fast! Once these are gone, they are GONE.
A new Khanate! 'Nuff said perhaps, as all you AQ doom customers surely know what that means! Ultra-depressive dirge metal from some of the best in the biz. Capture & Release, a two-song, 43 minute "ep" (maxi-ep? mini-lp? heck, it's a full-length, really!) is the third cd release from this NYC-based band, featuring Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))) on guitar and graphics, bassist James Plotkin of OLD, singer Alan Dubin (also from OLD), and drummer Tim Wyskida. By now, Khanate have really established a distinct style of extreme, slow, scary, art-metal. To the point that we're always citing them as a comparison when describing other bands. They're the standard by which anyone indulging in feedback-filled heaviness, anguished/evil vocalizations, creepy atmosphere, double digit song-lengths, and rumbling sub-sonics is judged -- like when we say Bunkur or Graves At Sea (reviewed on this list) are bands in the style of Khanate. So if would be easy to review Capture & Release if it were by *another* band -- we'd say it was a lot like Khanate and that'd be enough to recommend it to many of you! Of course, Khanate themselves can be compared to predecessors Corrupted and especially Eyehategod, godfathers of feedback sludge brutality. But Khanate's compositions are way more extended, dramatically ambitious, and clinically produced than EHG, and utilize "experimental" sonic textures and loud/soft dynamics in the manner of a post-rock band as well. This new disc really exemplified this approach, with the second, 25-minute track "Release" featuring lots of really quiet parts that make us think a hypothetical Khanate / Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore tour would be PERFECT. (We can dream, can't we?) Vocalist Alan Dubin makes the most of these "vulnerabilities" in the band's otherwise crushing sound barrage, with dark, cryptic, and psychologically suggestive rather than explicit lyrics wherein he seems to be inhabiting the role of the deviant antagonist from a Thomas Harris novel...but poetically enough that perhaps we can all relate, and indeed find release in their music.
MPEG Stream: "Capture"

KHANATE Capture & Release / Dead & Live Aktions DVD 2005 (Daymare) cd + dvd 29.00
We figured that since we just got both of the Japanese deluxe Khanate reissues ("s/t" and "Things Viral", both with extra discs!) we oughta get a few of these back in, so in one fell swoop you can pretty much complete your Khanate collection. Still pricey, but cheaper than we had it before, and a great deal when you consider that at one point just the DVD portion (a DVD-R in fact) had been selling on eBay for close to $100!! Here's our earlier review of this massive slab of audio visual dooooom:
Wow, is this exciting! A killer Japanese import, that combines the most recent Khanate release, the lengthy two song Capture and Release, as well as the long out of print and going-for-way-too-much-on-eBay Dead & Live Aktions DVD 2005!! Woo Haa!!! If you missed out, now's your chance. Plus it's in an all new super swanky Japanese style mini gatefold sleeve with an obi and everything!
Here's what we had to say about the cd:
A new Khanate! 'Nuff said perhaps, as all you AQ doom customers surely know what that means! Ultra-depressive dirge metal from some of the best in the biz. Capture & Release, a two-song, 43 minute "ep" (maxi-ep? mini-lp? heck, it's a full-length, really!) is the third cd release from this NYC-based band, featuring Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))) on guitar and graphics, bassist James Plotkin of OLD, singer Alan Dubin (also from OLD), and drummer Tim Wyskida. By now, Khanate have really established a distinct style of extreme, slow, scary, art-metal. To the point that we're always citing them as a comparison when describing other bands. They're the standard by which anyone indulging in feedback-filled heaviness, anguished/evil vocalizations, creepy atmosphere, double digit song-lengths, and rumbling sub-sonics is judged -- like when we say Bunkur or Graves At Sea (reviewed on this list) are bands in the style of Khanate. So if would be easy to review Capture & Release if it were by *another* band -- we'd say it was a lot like Khanate and that'd be enough to recommend it to many of you! Of course, Khanate themselves can be compared to predecessors Corrupted and especially Eyehategod, godfathers of feedback sludge brutality. But Khanate's compositions are way more extended, dramatically ambitious, and clinically produced than EHG, and utilize "experimental" sonic textures and loud/soft dynamics in the manner of a post-rock band as well. This new disc really exemplified this approach, with the second, 25-minute track "Release" featuring lots of really quiet parts that make us think a hypothetical Khanate / Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore tour would be PERFECT. (We can dream, can't we?) Vocalist Alan Dubin makes the most of these "vulnerabilities" in the band's otherwise crushing sound barrage, with dark, cryptic, and psychologically suggestive rather than explicit lyrics wherein he seems to be inhabiting the role of the deviant antagonist from a Thomas Harris novel...but poetically enough that perhaps we can all relate, and indeed find release in their music.
And here's what we had to say about the DVD:
This captures (and limitedly releases, ha) angsty doom merchants Khanate in the live realm, sometime last year. If you've ever seen this band, you know that they don't exactly 'rock out', having a somewhat static stage presence, though vocalist Alan Dubin always puts on an impassioned performance. Fortunately for those of you who'll be lucky enough to watch this at home, this is a very 'arty' visual document -- the live video footage has been processed to be all the more grim and psychedelic. Cool to look at, while of course the music is murder-by-decibels, feedback-filled, downtuned DOOOOOOOM like you expect.
MPEG Stream: "Capture"

KHANATE Clean Hands Go Foul (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
Now available on cd! And we're happy to report that unlike what'd we'd heard on the unreliable internet, this DOES include the full half hour version the track on the original vinyl's B side, of "Every God Damn Thing", NOT a shorter edit. So, here's what we said when we reviewed the (now out of print) lp version:
Wait, what? Are we having a collective ultra-doom induced dream? A NEW Khanate record?? We'd practically been ready to slit our wrists (or should that be, ready to *stop* slitting our wrists?) when we heard that this sludgey supergroup (featuring members of SUNNO))) and Old) had split up a while back. But here's Hydra Head with a new, vinyl-only (for now, see below) Khanate release! Turns out, it's music they recorded back in 2005-2006 by James Ploktin, Stephen O'Malley and Tim Wyskida, with vocals apparently added later on by the inimitable Alan Dubin. And it's a pretty killer Khanate set, a fitting finale really, taking things to an extreme, emotional, and artistic level that they'd perhaps never reached before - or ever will again, seeing as how this is indeed their last album.
There's four tracks, "Wings From Spine", "Clean My Heart", "In That Corner", and "Every God Damn Thing". All of 'em claustrophobic and chaotic, but it's doomic slow-motion chaos, a ballet of percussive skitter, sculpted feedback, washes of grim drone, and crucially, insane wailing vokillz. Of course, with Khanate (and Dubin's new project Gnaw) a lot depends on how into his vocals you can get - and maybe you should be worried about your mental health if you get really into 'em! His misanthropic throat-peeling rants about, well, every Dubin-damned thing are perhaps an acquired taste, or affliction. We're fans though, yikes...
Musically, on Clean Hands we were struck by the lengthy semi-ambient stretches, seemingly improvised, that provide a disturbingly quiet yet creepy backdrop for Dubin's bloodcurdling extemporizations. The restrained rumble and clatter of these segments certainly build the tension, for the release that comes when the really heavy parts kick in, as of course they ultimately do. The thirty-plus minute "Every God Damn Thing", which takes up all of the B side, is especially hushed and ambient sounding, humming and hissing with fractured bits of amp buzz and jack/cord glitch, it's Khanate at their most Sinistri/Starfuckers-ish. Experimental, more than metal.
MPEG Stream: "Wings From Spine"
MPEG Stream: "Clean My Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Every God Damn Thing"

KHANATE Clean Hands Go Foul (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
FYI, if you didn't get this when we listed the limited edition version with bonus live dvd, the cd-only version is still available, and a bit cheaper too. Here's our review from before:
Wait, what? Are we having a collective ultra-doom induced dream? A NEW Khanate record?? We'd practically been ready to slit our wrists (or should that be, ready to *stop* slitting our wrists?) when we heard that this sludgey supergroup (featuring members of SUNNO))) and Old) had split up a while back. But here's Hydra Head with a new Khanate release! Turns out, it's music they recorded back in 2005-2006 by James Ploktin, Stephen O'Malley and Tim Wyskida, with vocals apparently added later on by the inimitable Alan Dubin. And it's a pretty killer Khanate set, a fitting finale really, taking things to an extreme, emotional, and artistic level that they'd perhaps never reached before - or ever will again, seeing as how this is indeed their last album.
There's four tracks, "Wings From Spine", "Clean My Heart", "In That Corner", and "Every God Damn Thing". All of 'em claustrophobic and chaotic, but it's doomic slow-motion chaos, a ballet of percussive skitter, sculpted feedback, washes of grim drone, and crucially, insane wailing vokillz. Of course, with Khanate (and Dubin's new project Gnaw) a lot depends on how into his vocals you can get - and maybe you should be worried about your mental health if you get really into 'em! His misanthropic throat-peeling rants about, well, every Dubin-damned thing are perhaps an acquired taste, or affliction. We're fans though, yikes...
Musically, on Clean Hands we were struck by the lengthy semi-ambient stretches, seemingly improvised, that provide a disturbingly quiet yet creepy backdrop for Dubin's bloodcurdling extemporizations. The restrained rumble and clatter of these segments certainly build the tension, for the release that comes when the really heavy parts kick in, as of course they ultimately do. The thirty-plus minute "Every God Damn Thing" is especially hushed and ambient sounding, humming and hissing with fractured bits of amp buzz and jack/cord glitch, it's Khanate at their most Sinistri/Starfuckers-ish. Experimental, more than metal.

KHANATE Clean Hands Go Foul (Hydra Head) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wait, what? Are we having a collective ultra-doom induced dream? A NEW Khanate record?? We'd practically been ready to slit our wrists (or should that be, ready to *stop* slitting our wrists?) when we heard that this sludgey supergroup (featuring members of SUNNO))) and Old) had split up a while back. But here's Hydra Head with a new, vinyl-only (for now, see below) Khanate release! Turns out, it's music they recorded back in 2005-2006 by James Ploktin, Stephen O'Malley and Tim Wyskida, with vocals apparently added later on by the inimitable Alan Dubin. And it's a pretty killer Khanate set, a fitting finale really, taking things to an extreme, emotional, and artistic level that they'd perhaps never reached before - or ever will again, seeing as how this is indeed their last album.
There's four tracks, "Wings From Spine", "Clean My Heart", "In That Corner", and "Every God Damn Thing". All of 'em claustrophobic and chaotic, but it's doomic slow-motion chaos, a ballet of percussive skitter, sculpted feedback, washes of grim drone, and crucially, insane wailing vokillz. Of course, with Khanate (and Dubin's new project Gnaw) a lot depends on how into his vocals you can get - and maybe you should be worried about your mental health if you get really into 'em! His misanthropic throat-peeling rants about, well, every Dubin-damned thing are perhaps an acquired taste, or affliction. We're fans though, yikes...
Musically, on Clean Hands we were struck by the lengthy semi-ambient stretches, seemingly improvised, that provide a disturbingly quiet yet creepy backdrop for Dubin's bloodcurdling extemporizations. The restrained rumble and clatter of these segments certainly build the tension, for the release that comes when the really heavy parts kick in, as of course they ultimately do. The thirty-plus minute "Every God Damn Thing", which takes up all of the B side, is especially hushed and ambient sounding, humming and hissing with fractured bits of amp buzz and jack/cord glitch, it's Khanate at their most Sinistri/Starfuckers-ish. Experimental, more than metal.
So, this here is the assuredly limited, swank domestic vinyl edition. Real nice O'Malley design, colored vinyl (the one we're looking at now is "caramel vanilla swirl", yum). Apparently, someday there's gonna be a domestic cd version too, with a bonus dvd, but on that "Every God Damn Thing" is given a major edit, shortened to, like, 8 minutes. Also rumored, a picture disc vinyl version (dunno if we'll see that) and a Japanese cd edition on Daymare which we think will include the full half-hour version of "EGDT" heard here... not sure when/if we'll ever have that though, either. Just fyi.

KHANATE Clean Hands Go Foul (Hydra Head) cd + dvd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on cd! And, while supplies last, with a limited bonus "End: Capture & Release" live in Chicago 2005 dvd (we only have a few, though - but after those are gone, we'll still have the cd-only version, for just $14.98). Good news, too, is that unlike what'd we'd heard on the unreliable internet, this DOES include the full half hour version the track on the original vinyl's B side, of "Every God Damn Thing", NOT a shorter edit. So, here's what we said when we reviewed the (now out of print) lp version:
Wait, what? Are we having a collective ultra-doom induced dream? A NEW Khanate record?? We'd practically been ready to slit our wrists (or should that be, ready to *stop* slitting our wrists?) when we heard that this sludgey supergroup (featuring members of SUNNO))) and Old) had split up a while back. But here's Hydra Head with a new, vinyl-only (for now, see below) Khanate release! Turns out, it's music they recorded back in 2005-2006 by James Ploktin, Stephen O'Malley and Tim Wyskida, with vocals apparently added later on by the inimitable Alan Dubin. And it's a pretty killer Khanate set, a fitting finale really, taking things to an extreme, emotional, and artistic level that they'd perhaps never reached before - or ever will again, seeing as how this is indeed their last album.
There's four tracks, "Wings From Spine", "Clean My Heart", "In That Corner", and "Every God Damn Thing". All of 'em claustrophobic and chaotic, but it's doomic slow-motion chaos, a ballet of percussive skitter, sculpted feedback, washes of grim drone, and crucially, insane wailing vokillz. Of course, with Khanate (and Dubin's new project Gnaw) a lot depends on how into his vocals you can get - and maybe you should be worried about your mental health if you get really into 'em! His misanthropic throat-peeling rants about, well, every Dubin-damned thing are perhaps an acquired taste, or affliction. We're fans though, yikes...
Musically, on Clean Hands we were struck by the lengthy semi-ambient stretches, seemingly improvised, that provide a disturbingly quiet yet creepy backdrop for Dubin's bloodcurdling extemporizations. The restrained rumble and clatter of these segments certainly build the tension, for the release that comes when the really heavy parts kick in, as of course they ultimately do. The thirty-plus minute "Every God Damn Thing", which takes up all of the B side, is especially hushed and ambient sounding, humming and hissing with fractured bits of amp buzz and jack/cord glitch, it's Khanate at their most Sinistri/Starfuckers-ish. Experimental, more than metal.
MPEG Stream: "Wings From Spine"
MPEG Stream: "Clean My Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Every God Damn Thing"

KHANATE Dead & Live Aktions DVD 2005 (Hydra Head) dvd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Just like Hydra Head's Live In Chicago DVD by Pelican that we (oh so briefly) had in stock last year, this is *super limited edition* release... we were only able to get 30 of them and half of those are already gone! So, Khanate fans, act fast and maybe you'll get one...we're sorry in advance if you don't.
This captures (and limitedly releases, ha) angsty doom merchants Khanate in the live realm, sometime last year. If you've ever seen this band, you know that they don't exactly 'rock out', having a somewhat static stage presence, though vocalist Alan Dubin always puts on an impassioned performance. Fortunately for those of you who'll be lucky enough to watch this at home, this is a very 'arty' visual document -- the live video footage has been processed to be all the more grim and psychedelic. Cool to look at, while of course the music is murder-by-decibels, feedback-filled, downtuned DOOOOOOOM like you expect. Nuff said, we expect these to be gone in less time that it takes to read this review....

KHANATE It's Cold When Birds Fall From The Sky (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Those heavier (and angstier) than thou sludge dooooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooom lordz Khanate may have called it quits, but thanks to the aptly named aRCHIVE label, their fans still have some lost, low-end transmissions from beyond the grave heading their way.
This one was previously released a while back by aRCHIVE in a 500 copy edition, and has now been remastered and repressed in an edition of 1000, with new layout, tri-fold cover, vellum obi -- all the expected excellent design for which both Khanate's Stephen O'Malley and the aRCHIVE label are known -- and comes sealed in one of those silvery metallic plastic "static shield" bags. Recorded live in the USA during Khanate's final tour in 2005, it features three long tracks, renditions of "Capture", "Release", and "Pieces Of Quiet". Each track is utterly agonized, distorted bass drones split by shrieks and silence, with drumming that gives this a perverse free jazz feel. As tombstones go, this (and also its companion, Live In Stockholm) is awful dense and heavy, cracked and crumbling.
SICK AND LIMITED! Buy now and/or cry later (either way).
MPEG Stream: "Capture"

KHANATE LIVE (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KHANATE Live In Stockholm (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Those heavier (and angstier) than thou sludge dooooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooom lordz Khanate may have called it quits, but thanks to the aptly named aRCHIVE label, their fans still have some lost, low-end transmissions from beyond the grave heading their way.
This one was previously released as a tour-only cd-r limited to fewer than 75 copies, but is now available (for the moment!) as a remastered cd pressing in an edition of 1000 copies, with new layout, tri-fold cover, vellum obi -- all the expected excellent design for which both Khanate's Stephen O'Malley and the aRCHIVE label are known -- and comes sealed in one of those silvery metallic plastic "static shield" bags. The three long tracks here, "Fields", "Pieces Of Quiet", and "Under Rotting Sky", were recorded live on tour in Sweden in 2004. The sound of wretched life, wretched death incarnate, extended trawls through ugly feedback and gorgeous shimmer, lumbering dirge catastrophe to the utter extreme that pretty much only Khanate has pushed it. We hope it was cathartic for them, and any listeners who didn't just run for cover, or curl up under the hot water in the bathtub with bleeding wrists...
SICK AND LIMITED! Buy now and/or cry later (either way).
MPEG Stream: "Under Rotting Sky"

KHANATE No Joy [remix] b/w Dead (Load) 12" 10.98
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DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. Khanate return with a two song teaser from our pals at Load to hold us all over until their upcoming Southern Lord full length. Khanate, for those who don't already know, are sloooooow and looooooow and heavy as fuck. Featuring two members of the late great O.L.D. (Alan Dubin, and James Plotkin), Stephen O'Malley from Sunn 0))) and Burning Witch and the drummer from Blind Idiot God, you get just what you'd expect with a pedigree like that. "Dead" is a black hole of crushing, oppressive doom metal. Trudging along at a glacial pace, decimating everything in their path, taking THE RIFF and slowing it way down, stretching it way out, laying a thick, rotting blanket of dismal sound over out heads, filling our ears with filth and muck, and slowly suffocating us. But it's soooo good. "No Joy" is a track from Khanate's first record, and here gets the remix treatment from James Plotkin. Still doomy, but way more spacious and spare, the guitar becomes less of an unstoppable force, and more of a tattered curtain, casting sinister shadows over the proceedings while the stripped down skeleton of the song is supported by a slow motion drum and bass cadence and tortured, demonic howls. Definitely the most evil thing on Load yet!

KHANATE s/t (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Khanate = slow, plodding, dark, distortion-filled, droney, dissonant DOOM, in the (sliced and bleeding) vein of Esoteric, Burning Witch, Corrupted, Earth, Boris, Eyehategod...5 looong tracks (56+ minutes total). And if you haven't heard, this new doom-metal band is a veritable supergroup of underground dirge-warriors. To start with, Khanate boasts the bass guitar and production of James Plotkin and the "vokills" of Alan Dubin (both former members of Earache avant-metal geniuses OLD, who happen to be one of Allan's all-time favorite bands!). Post-OLD, Plotkin of course went on to become a celebrated experimental-ambient guitarist (recently making a return to "metal" with his great glitch-grind Atomsmasher project), but this is the first we've heard from Dubin since Old's final "Formula" album back in '95. And in addition to these OLD dudes, also in Khanate: guitarist Stephen O'Malley, who you know from his bands SUNN0))) and Burning Witch (as well as for his album art/design for the likes of Emperor, Cathedral, Sigh, Warhorse, Solstice, and many others). Drummer Tim Wyskida is the only unknown (to us) but we're told was at one time a member of Blind Idiot God. Ok, so it's established that Khanate's membership ought to known what they're doing, but do they deliver? Indeed they do! They sound closer to O'Malley's bands than OLD, but Plotkin's presence highlights what we all know: doom-metal can be the HEAVIEST form of ambient music!
RealAudio clip: "Skin Coat"
RealAudio clip: "Under Rotting Sky"

KHANATE s/t (Daymare) 2cd 27.00
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AQ's favorite (and sadly now defunct) purveyors of ultra-doom black sludge get the super deluxe Japanese reissue treatment, this their debut, packaged in a super swank gatefold mini lp-style sleeve, gorgeously printed, with inserts, a Japanese obi, and most importantly a whole extra disc, and we're not talking just an extra track or two, we're talking 47 minutes, a whole 'nother album fer chrissakes, recorded live on WFMU, four looooooong tracks including a killer cover of the Earth classic "German Dental Work". Makes it worth buying all over again!!!
Here's what we had to say about this brutal masterpiece when it first came out way back when:
Khanate = slow, plodding, dark, distortion-filled, droney, dissonant DOOM, in the (sliced and bleeding) vein of Esoteric, Burning Witch, Corrupted, Earth, Boris, Eyehategod...5 looong tracks (56+ minutes total). And if you haven't heard, this doom-metal band is a veritable supergroup of underground dirge-warriors. To start with, Khanate boasts the bass guitar and production of James Plotkin and the "vokills" of Alan Dubin (both former members of Earache avant-metal geniuses OLD, who happen to be one of Allan's all-time favorite bands!). Post-OLD, Plotkin of course went on to become a celebrated experimental-ambient guitarist (recently making a return to "metal" with his great glitch-grind Atomsmasher project), but this is the first we've heard from Dubin since Old's final "Formula" album back in '95. And in addition to these OLD dudes, also in Khanate: guitarist Stephen O'Malley, who you know from his bands SUNNO))) and Burning Witch (as well as for his album art/design for the likes of Emperor, Cathedral, Sigh, Warhorse, Solstice, and many others). Drummer Tim Wyskida is the only unknown (to us) but we're told was at one time a member of Blind Idiot God. Ok, so it's established that Khanate's membership ought to known what they're doing, but do they deliver? Indeed they do! They sound closer to O'Malley's bands than OLD, but Plotkin's presence highlights what we all know: doom-metal can be the HEAVIEST form of ambient music!
RealAudio clip: "Skin Coat"
RealAudio clip: "Under Rotting Sky"

KHANATE s/t (Southern Lord) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl, which is just as heavy as the cd, which we described thusly on list #122:
Khanate = slow, plodding, dark, distortion-filled, droney, dissonant DOOM, in the (sliced and bleeding) vein of Esoteric, Burning Witch, Corrupted, Earth, Boris, Eyehategod...5 looong tracks (56+ minutes total). And if you haven't heard, this new doom-metal band is a veritable supergroup of underground dirge-warriors. To start with, Khanate boasts the bass guitar and production of James Plotkin and the "vokills" of Alan Dubin (both former members of Earache avant-metal geniuses OLD, who happen to be one of Allan's all-time favorite bands!). Post-OLD, Plotkin of course went on to become a celebrated experimental-ambient guitarist (recently making a return to "metal" with his great glitch-grind Atomsmasher project), but this is the first we've heard from Dubin since Old's final "Formula" album back in '95. And in addition to these OLD dudes, also in Khanate: guitarist Stephen O'Malley, who you know from his bands SUNN0))) and Burning Witch (as well as for his album art/design for the likes of Emperor, Cathedral, Sigh, Warhorse, Solstice, and many others). Drummer Tim Wyskida is the only unknown (to us) but we're told was at one time a member of Blind Idiot God. Ok, so it's established that Khanate's membership ought to known what they're doing, but do they deliver? Indeed they do! They sound closer to O'Malley's bands than OLD, but Plotkin's presence highlights what we all know: doom-metal can be the HEAVIEST form of ambient music!
RealAudio clip: "Skin Coat"
RealAudio clip: "Under Rotting Sky"

KHANATE Things Viral (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Extreme doom here folks. I mean, these four tracks (two of 'em approaching twenty minutes each) are slower and lower and uglier even than the tunes on Khanate's immense self-titled debut from two years ago! We're not saying this tops the debut (that would be difficult) but Things Viral takes the Khanate sound into a seldom-explored realm where signs of life and hope are few and far between. This is some sparse, slow, intensely creepy metal for sure. The plod of a drum, some glitchy amplifier feedback, a crushing guitar riff, bass drone...all the perfect accompaniment to the anguished rasp of vocalist Alan Dubin, who turns this record into his own personal let-it-all-out psycho-drama session. As soon as the first track "Commuted" starts, you can imagine the band, broken, bleeding, crawling across the floor of the studio, scrabbling at their instruments, Dubin clutching the microphone like it's his last link to a world of human emotion. It's harrowing, simply put. The ravings of a disturbed man put to music by Earth would be a decent description. Downer metal was never so down, and the clarity with which this was recorded belies the term sludge. Only for the brave -- leave the lights on when you listen to this, and make sure you have the suicide hotline number handy. Includes the track "Dead" previously released on vinyl only as the b-side to the "No Joy [remix]" 12".
MPEG Stream: "Commuted"
MPEG Stream: "Too Close Enough To Touch"