LANSING-DREIDEN The Dividing Island (Kemado) cd 14.98
At first we weren't sure what to make of this band, with their awkward name, their super spare black and white artwork, their well crafted mystery, a seemingly complete lack of any sort of pertinent information, no photos, no real liner notes, no mention of individual band members. All very alluring most certainly. We had heard them described as "dreamy space rock... with a psychedelic metal twist" which definitely sounds good. And as some sort of heavy metal / new wave hybrid, which as good as -that- sounds, it most definitely seems like something that would work better in theory than in practice. In actuality, Lansing-Dreiden are neither of those, and end up being way more interesting than any of that would have led us to believe.
Lansing-Dreiden are not just a band either, no, they're a sort of arts collective: musicians, sculptors, artists, writers, film makers, replete with the requisite gallery showings, Artforum writeups, film premiers and rock shows. The lines between each of these disciplines are so blurry they might as well not exist. Their vibe, both visually and sonically is warm and washed out, a gauzy soft focus shapshot of pop culture past, the sound on The Dividing Island is both dizzyingly bizarre and dreamily overwhelming, a pastiche of all sorts of disparate pop elements, loads of instantly recognizable hooks, sweet harmony vocals, squiggly synths, horns, soft whispery crooning, bi arena rock drums, jangling guitars, huge sheets of fuzzy reverb, hand claps, cheesy electronic drums, It's almost like it's 1985 and we're watching MTV in some alternate universe. This is definitely some sort of (old) new wave, no trace of metal to be found (well mostly, more on that in a minute), no space rock really either, although there is plenty of spaced out trippiness. But even with bits of spaciness, and some space rock swirl here and there, that stuff is just window dressing for L-D's passion, which seems to be cracked eighties pop. Lansing-Dreiden is some sort of weird musical time machine, skipping lazily from 1982 to 1985 to 1989 and back again. Where Ariel Pink took seventies AM radio, and turned it into his own disheveled, cracked demented pop vision, Lansing-Dreiden instead take eighties FM radio and classic eighties MTV and gives them their own warm and warped, precious and polished spin. Imagine a hip NY art rock band channeling everything you loved and loathed about ABC, Style Council, Talk Talk, Spandau Ballet, the Fixx, Kajagoogoo, Thompson Twins, Culture Club, Fun Boy Three, Naked Eyes, Psychedelic Furs, The Call, Modern English, etc. There are some moments where the band dips its toes into the more rollicking contemporary NY new wave redux sound of bands like Interpol and the Strokes, and there are stretches of moody near ambient post rock, but for the most part this is a dead ringer for some lost eighties 'classic'. Mix tapes, John Cusack, Say Anything, Breakfast Club, it's like our teenage years revisited, albeit with a slightly more twisted and sinister bent.
There may seemingly be nary a trace of any metal on The Dividing Island, but best stick around for the final track, metallically titled "Dethroning The Optimyth", quite possibly the greatest (only) song ever to mix eighties MTV pop and crushing death metal! As much as we dig the rest of the record, we almost wish the whole record sounded like "Dethroning The Optimyth", although to be totally honest, the thought of a whole album of eighties pop death metal is almost too much to bear! Pounding double bass drumming, and chugging downtuned riffs collide with soft sweetly swoony pop, soaring synthesizers, airy breathless vocals, like laying on your bed, beneath your Kiss and Slayer posters, listening to your favorite metal record while your sister is in the next room BLASTING the soundtrack to the Breakfast Club through your thin walls. SO weird but SO COOL!
Comes in a gorgeously designed black and white cardboard sleeve that opens like a gatefold, the inside a series of alternating black and white triangles, and then the gatefold opens again with two more triangular panels, one black and and one white, all very austere and mysterious looking.
MPEG Stream: "Dividing Island"
MPEG Stream: "Cement To Stone"
MPEG Stream: "A Line You Can Cross"
MPEG Stream: "Dethroning The Optimyth"

LANTERNA Desert Ocean (Jemez Mountain) cd 13.98
Hmmm, Desert Ocean... yes, exactly. The title of Lanterna's fifth full length hits the nail on the head for what this instrumental music evokes. If this were a film there'd be plenty of gradually panning shots of drifting dunes and undulating waves - in black and white of course and probably some in slow motion too. Sand and water as far as the eye can see. The glint of sunlight in the ripples. The haze of heat rising off in the distance. The mystery of what lurks beneath the surface of the ever-changing landscapes. Translation: Spartan guitarwork effected with long reverb, gently swaying tempos, a soft tap on a woodblock. Haunting and beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "Fog"
MPEG Stream: "Surf"

LANTERNA Sands (Badman) cd 13.98
Sands is mellow driving music or faux soundtrack, instrumental, spacious, with reverby guitar. Starts off a bit like what one could expect if the Edge (of U2) were to release a solo album of "infinite guitar" and then heads straight downhill from there. I swear more and more indie-post rockers out there are cutting tracks with the hopes of having some advertising agency pick it up for commercial use. Just put on "Fields" and listen. You can almost hear the announcer touting that with the freedom of America's lowest APR financing, there's no reason for anyone to pass up on the new 2003 Dodge Durango.
RealAudio clip: "Windward"
RealAudio clip: "Fields"

LANTLOS Agape (Lupus Lounge / Prophecy) cd 13.98
Record number three from these German post black metallers, the first we've reviewed on the aQ list, although they did merit mentions in our reviews of records by Alcest and Amesoeurs, which makes sense since that's usually who they get lumped in with (along with Farsot, whose new record is reviewed elsewhere on this weeks list), which to a certain degree makes sense, like those groups, Lantlos have more in common with the new strains of black metal, but unlike the sort of shimmery ethereal pop of those groups, Lantlos is simultaneously much heavier, and even LESS black metal. To our ears, Lantlos at this point sounds like a post rock band, albeit a very heavy one, and one with a distinctly black metal pedigree, but there are very few instances of blasting or buzzing, the vocals are definitely one the vokills side of the spectrum, but the music, is quite removed from black metal, slipping easily from abstract doomy plod, to dreamy, droney drift, from Neurosisy churn to soaring Godspeed like majesty, from moody, melodic almost Katatonia like doom pop, to skittery almost jazziness and back again. There's also the fact, that many of those sounds coexist in the same song, the lengthy tracks shifting constantly. And while here and there a bit of blasting buzz does pop up, in most cases it's in conjunction with some other sound that is distinctly NOT black metal, which if anything only makes it that much cooler.
These guys definitely get pegged as 'post black metal' but it might be more accurate to describe them as blackened post rock, or simple post metal, cuz they definitely sound like the sort of band that would find themselves sonically more at home alongside groups like Angel Eyes, the Ocean, Snowblood, Baroness, and all the other brooding slow build epic heavy post metal combos we dig so much. And hell, mixing in a little vokill rasp and some extra buzz, maybe a little bit of blast, can't hurt either.
MPEG Stream: "Intrauterin"
MPEG Stream: "Eribo - I Collect The Stars"

LAPLAND WALKS (JEROME CHEVEREAU, THIERRY GAULTIER, JEAN C. ROCHE) Lapland Walks (Balades En Laponie) (Sittelle) cd 17.98

LAPLANTINE, ANNE Nordheim (Gooom Disques) cd 15.98
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LAPORTE, JEAN-FRANCOIS Mantra (Metamkine) 3" cd 7.98
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When one of our friends told us about this little cd containing an experimental piece using the sounds of a Zamboni, we got very very excited. A Zamboni! (That's that unusual machine that resurfaces the ice in hockey rinks.) Upon hearing it, we were even more thrilled, 'cause it's an amazing 20 minute drone work! And practically everyone who works here has bought one by now...
This cute 3" cd, released through Metamkine's esteemed 'Cinema Pour L'Oreille' series of electro-acoustics and musique concrete, contains one track, "Mantra", which opens with a trio of motors starting up and emitting a gentle purr. As these engines warm up and shift through various perfunctory cycles, a wide spectrum of metallic vibrations slowly spins through the stereo field. While it would be nice to believe that these movements coincide with a Zamboni circling a really nice binaural microphone, it's more likely that Laporte exercised his artistic license with a judicious use of crossfading and stereo panning upon his field recordings. As the disc draws near its end, it sounds as if a screw or bolt is loosened by the vibrations and two pieces of metal begin a clamorous bell-ringing arrhythmia. When these motors finally are shut down, those pieces of metal still resonate for a beautifully sustained coda.
Back to the Zamboni issue: we'd been told by 'reliable' informants (Loren Chasse who heard about it from Ferarra Pan who heard it on Scot Jenerik's radio show) that the source material for Jean-Francois Laporte's "Mantra" was a Zamboni. As the liner-notes (all in French mind you) indicate that Laporte incorporated the sound of an air compressor from an ice-skating rink, it didn't rule out the possibility that indeed that air compressor could belong to a Zamboni, but it didn't actually say anything about Zambonis. (Are they even called Zambonis in France, anyway?) As you can tell, we Aquarians like the Zamboni and would really like to believe that the Zamboni was responsible for this album. Thus, we contacted the label, who merely sent us an English translation of the original liner notes, which again stated the source material to be an air compressor. Thus, we are left to ponder the quandary: is it or is it not a Zamboni?
Putting this grand existential question aside and the true origin of the source material out of sight for the moment, what's true is that Laporte has indeed sculpted one of the most compelling drone compositions that we've encountered in quite some time. For loyal readers of these lists, that's no idle comment as artists like Oragnum, Jonathan Coleclough, Mirror, John Duncan, and Francisco Lopez still rank highly for us in the pantheon of dronescapers. Not only as working model but also as a something of belief system, Jean-Francoise Laporte applies the ideals of the mantra to the urban landscape. To him, the hypnotic audio elements of refrigerators, motorcycle engines, and in this case the Zamboni / air compressor rise above their mundane properties to become something that can be meditated upon and hold transcendent properties.
A very, very nice recording, Zamboni or not. Even if you don't normally buy all the weird, droney experimental stuff we recommend, you might want to take a chance and try this out. After all, it's only 20 minutes out of your day and eight bucks. And, maybe it's a Zamboni!
RealAudio clip: "Mantra (Excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "Mantra (Excerpt 2)"
RealAudio clip: "Mantra (Excerpt 3)"

LAPORTE, JEAN-FRANCOIS Soundmatters (23five) cd 14.98
Those artists, musicians, misanthropes, and just plain weirdos who not only exist musically on the fringes but have planted their entire existence on the edge have long been the greatest inspirations of Aquarius Records. For proof, you could scroll through oddball recordings that have earned the honor of Aquarius Record Of The Week. There was the Finnish sound artist Terje Isungset who crafted not just one album, but two from untreated percussive instruments entirely made of ice. Hans Edler thrilled us with his 1970s transformation from teen idol into short-circuited electronic composer. The protracted ululations of the profoundly cracked Elizabeth Clare Prophet and the Church Universal and Triumphant were as transcendent as anything that Lamonte Young had to offer, yet also had that creepy cult of personality vibe to boot. And who could forget Kathy McGinty? But one of the earliest recordings that truly made our collective jaw drop was the 3" cd from French-Canadian composer Jean-Francois Laporte called Mantra. Here was a mighty fine 20 minute composition of delicious vibrations, rattles, mechanical hum, and industrial drones that came with a particularly alluring back story: the source material to Mantra was a Zamboni -- the unusual machine only found at hockey rinks responsible for resurfacing its ice.
The one catch to Laporte's Zamboni sourced masterpiece was that we could never verify that a Zamboni was the actual source material. We heard from 'reliable sources' that Mantra is the sound of a Zamboni; and we wanted so desperately to believe that this was the case, just because the Zamboni is such an amazing and eccentric beast of industrial engineering. Before this turns into a dialectic on epistemology, we here at Aquarius discovered that we had been duped by a couple of mischievous DJs on KPFA without the knowledge or consent of Jean-Francois Laporte. It turns out that Laporte used nothing but a common air-compressor in composing Mantra. This factual unveiling should not in any way take away from the splendor of that piece. Here's what we had to say about Mantra many moons ago:
"Mantra opens with a trio of motors starting up and emitting a gentle purr. As these engines warm up and shift through various perfunctory cycles, a wide spectrum of metallic vibrations slowly spins through the stereo field. After a marvelous set of transitions between drones, there is the rattling sound as if a screw or bolt had been loosened by the vibrations, with two pieces of metal beginning a clamorous bell-ringing arrhythmia. When these motors finally are shut down, those pieces of metal still resonate for a beautifully sustained coda."
That 3" cd came out almost a decade ago, became a classic, and went out of print. Thankfully, 23five Incorporated has rescued Mantra from the dustbin by issuing the first major compendium of Laporte's work in the form of Soundmatters. While we've already sung the praises of Mantra, the remainder of Soundmatters is well worth investigating on its own. The opening track "Electro-Prana" is a pristine set of field recordings of a wind that ripped through Montreal, when the city was silenced by a winter time blackout. It's a pure, chilling sound of whistling wind overtaking the urban landscape. The next piece is the only digitally rendered composition on Soundmatters, yet Laporte brings his intuitive expressionism to a series of spiraling drones that easily rival those of your favorite minimalist (e.g. Niblock, Chalk, Hafler Trio, Xenakis, etc.). For those of you who have had the pleasure of experiencing Laporte's live concerts, the third piece will certainly be familiar. He's built an instrument with a series of car horns and elongated trumpet bells attached to an air compressor with each of the valves controlled by foot pedals. This instrument can generate infinitely sustainable, blaring drones from each of the horns; and Laporte craftily layers these sounds for incredible, dynamic results. Well, for this recording, Laporte lugged this instrument into the hull of a giant cargo ship and recorded this composition using the massive reverb of that space and the results are simply jaw-dropping. Imagine the most Nordic bellow from a Wagner symphony stretched out into its melancholic, raw sound and allowed to decay in space and time. Wow!
Following this is the aforementioned Mantra; and then Soundmatters' final piece which explores a quiet, yet thoroughly rich harmonic tapestry produced by a quartet of saxophones that could be Laporte's imagined summit between Evan Parker and Morton Feldman with rasping breaths of sound breaking across a silent event horizon with the ghostly energy of subatomic particles flickering and dissolving in a cloud chamber before amassing into a delirious swarm of Tony Conrad-esque acoustic dissonance. It's all utterly magnificent and one of finest collections of 'serious' composition that we've come across.
MPEG Stream: "Electro-Prana"
MPEG Stream: "Boule qui roule..."
MPEG Stream: "Danse le ventre du dragon"
MPEG Stream: "Mantra"

LAPPETITES, THE Before The Libretto (Quecksilber) cd 15.98
Before the Libretto is like some sort of neo-futuristic pseudo-Pagan ritual in which these four women from four countries (Elaine Radigue (France), Kaffe Matthews (UK), Ryoko Kuwajima (Japan), and AGF (Germany) hold hands (or connect laptops) and invoke the forces of nature....but instead of the earth and wind and sea answering the call, a bunch of little aliens show up and start dancing a jig. No one knows what the hell is going on, but it's pretty awesome all the same. Part operatic play, part experimental poetry, glistening, organic, feminine, and weird. Ryoko Kuwajima sounds a bit like Tujiko Noriko....wafting in and out with spoken bits and scraps of private song. Whenever it strikes her fancy, while the others weave a playful prickly and peculiar musical bed for all of the strange vocalisations. Very hard to describe what's going on, totally alien sounding but at the same time, so inviting you just want to touch and fold and feel and try to figure out what the heck is going on. The sounds are gentle, but not soft, crunchy, but not hard, like diving into a swiming pool full of autumn leaves, then running through the forest naked. The separate parts sound a little like puzzle pieces forced into the wrong places, a curious hodgepodge of ill fitting pieces, but together thay have some strange poetry, it's what makes this all sound so charming. The parts and pieces and sonic fragments don't mesh, but somehow....that's what makes it work. The cover is quite striking as well, a creepy fleshy tongue flower that inspires lot of "hmms" and "eeews" from customers when it's in the 'Now Playing' slot on our counter. Highly recommended, a curious and curiously appealing record.
MPEG Stream: "My Within"
MPEG Stream: "Disaster"
MPEG Stream: "Funeral"

LAPSE / CHRIS LEO / OCTALAPSE Insound Tour Support No. 7 (Insound ) cd 9.98
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Three projects fronted by Chris Leo on one limited cd. His solo work features sonic guitars, bizarre samples, and loops. As The Lapse, Chris joins former Blonde Redhead member Toko, and closes this four track cd by hooking up with hip hop beatmeister Dalek as Octalapse.

LAPSE, THE Heaven Ain't Happenin' (Southern) cd 13.98
Angular yet catchy arrangements attempt to capture the loose, schizophrenic nature of this rock duo, composed of Chris from the Van Pelt and Toko, ex-Blonde Redhead. Kind of like Sonic Youth at practice when all of a sudden the electricity goes out. Simple, urgent, and intense but without the wall of feedback. It's good.

LARD FREE Gilbert Artman's Lard Free (Spalax) cd 14.98
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LARD FREE I'm Around Midnight (Spalax) cd 14.98
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LARD FREE III (Spalax) cd 14.98

LARD FREE Unnamed (Spalax) cd 15.98
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LARD FREE Unnamed (Captain Trip) cd 25.00

LARSEN HMKE (Important) cd 10.98
HMKE is a brief 4 track EP from the Italian post-rock collective Larsen, who earned a considerable amount of notoriety for their stunt in flying Michael Gira over to Italy to produce their record, all the while remaining hidden behind a curtain...supposedly. Last year, Larsen continued to be enigmatic with Play, an album of audio alchemy transforming Autechre's electronic melodies into hypnotic, drone-rock epics to amazing effect. Thanks to a poorly worded press-release from the label, it's sort of hard to tell if this is a precursor to an upcoming Lustmord / Larsen collaborative project; or if that collaboration is merely a one-off to appear sometime in the future. We'll shrug our shoulders and simply enjoy this fractured gem of dark, dark, dark drone-rock hypnosis, augmented by some choice remixes. The first track is a remix from the Norwegian audio-virologist Deathprod, who drags the already turgid sounds of Larsen into grim hum of blackened ice. Next up is a new track, which may or may not have something to do with that aforementioned Lustmord collaboration; it's a buzzing dirge of circling bass, guitar, and electronics caught in a downward spiral, much like their material on their earlier recordings. For the last two tracks, Larsen enlisted the remixing talents of dark ambient noodler Oragami Galaktika.
MPEG Stream: "M"
MPEG Stream: "H (Deathprod Mix)"

LARSEN La Fever Lit (Important) cd 14.98
Gone are the days when Larsen would hire Michael Gira to produce one of their claustrophobic albums under suspiciously odd circumstances. After 13 years in existence, the Italian post-rock collective has emerged as a champion of cinematic pop on La Fever Lit, sharing a sound that has more in common now a days with Sigur Ros than with the Swans. Sure, the band's sound on La Fever Lit persists in their hypnotizing arrangements for cyclical rhythms buttressing slow-burning crescendos of guitars and electronics, but the moodiness and abject urgency which marked their earlier recordings have been supplanted with an opulence, majesty, and a celebratory nature with occasional detours back into the bittersweet. On a handful of the tracks, Larsen's usually instrumental pieces have been augmented with vocals by Annie Anxiety, the one time member of Crass and contributor to Current 93, who presents herself as a detached diva singing torch songs of urban decay, which is well suited for Larsen's sweeping overtures.
MPEG Stream: "Tu Ark"
MPEG Stream: "Lefrak City Limits"

LARSEN LLL (Important) lp 27.00

LARSEN MUSM (Enterruption) 2lp 17.98

LARSEN Play (Important) cd 13.98
The first album from Italy's Larsen was shrouded in mystery, literally they would have had us believe, as it (Rever) came accompanied by the unlikely story that it was recorded with the band concealed behind a screen, producer Michael Gira never actually ever laying eyes on the bandmembers, as they played in concealment and he twiddled the knobs in the studio on his side of the screen. Probably not a true story, but a good one! This new disc comes with a (somewhat) more plausible narrative: apparently Larsen, in preparing for their next record, decided to improvise, just as an exercise, around a bunch of their favorite melodies from tracks by British glitchtronica masters Autechre. In doing so, they eventually came up with their own material, tracks that weren't literally "covers" or in any way direct interpretations of Autechre songs, but were nonetheless heavily influenced and inspired by Autechre's songwriting -- again, in terms of melodies, not the glitchy science of the Autechre duo's stuttering beats. But along with Autechre, their label also cites Einsturzende Neubauten, Six Organs of Admittance, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Godspeed You Black Emperor and Gira's Swans as possible influences, and those references seem equally likely to our ears, especially since Larsen's ritualistic, repetitive post-rock doesn't sound remotely like Autechre. Well wait a sec...it does...remotely. By casting such gentle "Autechre-ish" melodies in the context of such completely different instrumentation (guitar, drums, bass, harmonium, xylophone, accordion, keyboards, cello, violin...) and arrangement, Larsen's Play highlights just how melodic Autechre are, something perhaps obscured by the skittering electronic component of their own music. Autechre issues aside, Larsen sure do still sound mysterious. And Play perhaps surpasses what we thought was a pretty brilliant debut (an AQ record of the week, almost exactly three years ago). As with Rever, Play is a largely instrumental, slowly unfolding, mesmerizing, multi-part epic of both tranquility and power, anchored in hypnotic drum-grooves and bathed in delicate instrumental textures. However inspired, it's Larsen that has done the hard work here of constructing such a moody monument.
MPEG Stream: "C"
MPEG Stream: "E"

LARSEN Rever (Young God) cd 13.98
The story of how this record came to be is almost impossible to believe, yet Michael Gira (Angels of Light / Swans) seems like a reliable enough source that it could in fact be true. Beginning sometime last year, Gira started receiving a series of arcane CD-Rs from the Italian collective / hermetic cult that simply labeled themselves as Larsen. The music within was a diverse collection of sounds that in Gira's words included "a whispered song, accompanied by a distant accordion, as if playing in the next room, or a drone of unknown origin, or a short burst of percussive chaos -- sometimes just a single sound or noise, a scraping sound, as if someone were slowly etching a piece of rusted metal with a blade of some sort, or the sound of saliva working in the mouth." The last package that he received did not include a CD-R, but a handsome amount of money, a plane ticket to Italy, and a request for his presence to produce an album for Larsen. Intrigued by the music he had heard up until then, Gira took Larsen up on their offer. Once in Italy, Gira was never allowed to see the band who had situated themselves in the recording studio behind a screen. He described their actions as often emerging as if part of some ceremonial rite, but the liturgical music for these rites have all of the trappings of a band who are far more interested in Sonic Youth than the archetypes of ceremonial musics. Hypnotic, interlocking math rock grooves pulse from forceful minor-key guitar chords, counterpointed with accordions, trumpet blurts, mechanical tape whirrings, tectonic rumbles, and other incredibly rich textural elements. The resulting album is a stunning collection of tense musical constructions that have been gilded with a fragile sadness, recalling the likes of recent Unwound, Blonde Redhead, Ulan Bator (another exceptional band produced by Michael Gira), and bits of This Heat and fellow weirdo Italians the Starfuckers.
The one qualm with the album is on how the record ends. It has been a longstanding belief of mine that Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation" should have ended with the graceful haze of "Hyperstation" and done away with the unnecessary exclamation of "Eliminator, Jr." Similarly, Larsen ends "Rever" badly, as a beautifully repetitive groove simply cuts out, making you wonder if California is returning to the days of rolling blackouts. If only every record had one thing wrong with it instead of eighty-eleven problems, and in spite of that one misgiving, this is one of the best records we have heard in quite a while.
RealAudio clip: "Akin"
RealAudio clip: "Finger Number 6"
RealAudio clip: "Impro 2"
RealAudio clip: "Maya"
RealAudio clip: "Radial"

LARSEN Seies (Important) cd 14.98
Larsen is an enigmatic post-rock ensemble who have been responsible for some interesting conceptual projects all of which have been immaculately executed. For their highly acclaimed album Rever, the ensemble hired Michael Gira (Swans, Angels of Light) as the producer, but never allowed him to actually see the band as they played behind a curtain. Larsen followed this album with a breathtaking record reconstructing the melodic phrasing of Autechre through their own repetitive patterns for guitar, bass, vibraphone, accordion, and drums. Seies doesn't enjoy any of the conceptual agendas of the previous record; or rather if there are any concepts to the record, Larsen has shrouded them from their audience. The hymnal post-rock hypnosis from the previous records is certainly present, conjuring a spaghetti western swagger heard in the more bad-ass Morricone soundtracks. In these looping dirges, Larsen also call to mind the desolate soundtracks composed by Calla and some of the late period work of Swans; this is especially true for the tracks in which former Swans singer Jarboe appears! There's guest appearances a plenty on Seies as Current 93's cellist Julia Kent appears on some early tracks, and the dark ambient overlord Lustmord conjures his own black clouds on some of the later cuts.
MPEG Stream: "The Snow"
MPEG Stream: "Mother"
MPEG Stream: "Marzia"

LARSEN & NURSE WITH WOUND Erroneous: A Selection Of Errors (Important Records) cd 14.98
There's actually a third entity who makes an appearance on this collaborative record, certainly at the behest of Steven Stapleton. That would be Eberhard Kranemann (aka Fritz Muller) who had been an early member of both Neu! and Kraftwerk way back when, but had taken much more of a damaged freeform experimental approach during the next three decades. Nurse With Wound is represented by the longstanding coupling of Stapleton and Colin Potter, spinning a psychotropic cloud of disfigured tones and mangled rhythms. Larsen is the Italian occultish-leaning post-rock outfit with quite an interesting history behind them of Autechre covers and an odd and hardly believable story of once working with Michael Gira. That said, it's hard to really qualify this as a collaborative album, since the tracks at the front-end of the record really sound like Nurse With Wound and those in the latter half like Larsen.
The album opens with a Kranemann penned song of guitar scribbling very much on par with the NWW classic Chance Meeting On An Operating Table with an almost 23 Skidoo / Hula groove of electronic-bhangra with all of the distant screams and weirdo sounds you would expect from a wacked NWW tune. A more introspective, but kaleidoscopically dark ambient track follows. Again, this is a signature NWW production, harkening to A Sadness Of Things or Thunder Perfect Mind. As the tables turn towards Larsen's end of the spectrum, elliptical basslines, melodic bells, and propulsive drums move to the foreground, proceeding toward their trademarked layered builds and soaring crescendos.
MPEG Stream: "Tickety-Boo"
MPEG Stream: "Driftin' By"
MPEG Stream: "Call Me. Tell Me"

LARSEN & Z'EV In V. Tro (Important) cd 14.98

LARSEN AND FRIENDS Abeceda (Important) cd+dvd 22.00
The Italian darkly-bent post-rock ensemble Larsen gathered a handful of equally darkly clad eccentrics to join them in a live tribute to the work of the Czech vanguard artist Karel Teige, who had been noted for introducing the works of the major Surrealists to Prague in the early 1920s. One of Teige's projects was Abeceda (which translates as alphabet from the Czech), the multi-media collaboration with the poet Vitezslav Nezval that sought a poetic abstraction between cabaret and typography. It was this project in particular that had piqued the interest of Larsen. Being not all that familiar with the original work, it's hard to say how well Larsen's homage reflects the original, or if this follows in the footsteps of their Autechre covers album, which alchemized the IDM melodies of Autechre into their own interlocked port-rock hypnosis. But in many ways, Abeceda is often dominated by the presence of their most well-known guest, David Tibet of Current 93. When his inimitable voice joins the languid melodies and swelling crescendos of instrumental arpeggiations, it's hard not to consider this a Current 93 album especially given the unique phrasing and metaphors about sin, relational collapse, and death that are so common to Tibet's themes in Current 93. In addition to Tibet, Larsen have also invited Johann Johannsson, Julia Kent, and Baby Dee onto the stage to add their instrumental panache to the beautifully rendered mix.
MPEG Stream: "Abeceda 2"
MPEG Stream: "Abeceda 5"

LARVAL HAIRS Aedes Flashback (Monorail Trespassing) 2 x cassette 14.98
This sort of rarefied minimalism is not entirely expected from the likes of Monorail Trespassing, although the Larval Hairs project does live up to the high caliber releases which the label has been steadily releasing. Ades Flashback is a double cassette intended to be played at the same time on separate systems. While similarly minded excursions have been demonstrated throughout the sound-art world with multi-channel transmissions, there's something wholly unpretentious about Larval Hairs' production. Little more than two boom boxes are required, although we'd suggest taking those two boom boxes to one of those huge resonant concrete bunkers in the Headlands and seeing how everything bounces. Side A aggregates sinewaves, small swells from rapidly splashing saw-tooth waves, a soft extension of pink noise, and other synthesized oscillations that suggests the longform feedback works of Jason Kahn or a rougher version of Eliane Radigue's early minimalism. The corresponding Side C (which we're assuming is what's to go with Side A, although you could probably switch it all around and it would still sound really cool), contains similarly-minded elements tuned to slight different pitches. Side B broadcasts another series of synthesized tones which hit some skull-drilling harmonic convergences through ever slight oscillations and phase shifts. Side D takes a grittier approach to the synth pulse drone with grinding saw-tooth patterns situated just below the surface of rumbling vibrational tones. Both tapes are 45 minutes in length and are housed in a really nice double tape case, something we've not seen in ages. Limited to 100 copies and certainly recommended.

LAS MALAS AMISTADES Jardin Interior (Psych-o-path) cd 13.98
Wow! To be able to make music that is both charming and soulful is a feat few can meet. This collective from Bogota, Columbia have done just that. Crafting really colorful minimalist pop that totally hits its mark. Eighteen short 4-track recorded songs that all feel like tiny treasures you want to keep in your pocket for good luck. Their ability to keep intact the most satisfying elements of primitive song writing while allowing themselves to explore all kinds of different sounds and styles. Think tropicalia meets The Residents meets Young Marble Giants meets a Smithsonian Folkways record of the future. Excellent!
MPEG Stream: "Malo"
MPEG Stream: "Soy Feliz"

LAS MALAS AMISTADES Jardin Interior ( Honest Jon's) 3 x 7" 23.00
This great album now available on vinyl, a triple 7" set to be exact! Here's our review from when we listed the cd version:
Wow! To be able to make music that is both charming and soulful is a feat few can meet. This collective from Bogota, Columbia have done just that. Crafting really colorful minimalist pop that totally hits its mark. Eighteen short 4-track recorded songs that all feel like tiny treasures you want to keep in your pocket for good luck. Their ability to keep intact the most satisfying elements of primitive song writing while allowing themselves to explore all kinds of different sounds and styles. Think tropicalia meets The Residents meets Young Marble Giants meets a Smithsonian Folkways record of the future. Excellent!
MPEG Stream: "Malo"
MPEG Stream: "Soy Feliz"

LAS MALAS AMISTADES Patio Bonito (Honest Jons) cd 17.98
We listed this last year at an expensive import price ($25) but said it was well worth splurging on, because of its great music and beautiful packaging. Well thankfully Honest Jons has now got a better US distribution deal, and the price has come down a bit, so we're listing it again, in case you didn't actually splurge before, but were tempted.
A couple years ago we were swept off our feet by Jardin Interior, the debut full length by a collective of artists and musicians from Bogota, Columbia known as Las Malas Amistades. We've been hungry for more of their colorful DIY pop, which reminded many of us of some strange blend of Young Marble Giants and a great lost Smithsonian Folkways record. Their follow up does not disappoint one bit. While it's a little less eclectic and quirky than Jardin Interior it's still brimming with a unique charm that is all their own. This time the sounds had us thinking of early Devendra Banhart playing Congregation covers in a friend's bedroom. Channeling the best South American psych-pop of the past with a crafty and playful disposition and a great timeless quality, you could totally imagine this coming out in 1982 as easy as today, the sounds are classic and timeless.
MPEG Stream: "Dime Lo Que Suenas"
MPEG Stream: "Desinfiado"
MPEG Stream: "U"

LASCOWIEC Asgard Mysteries (Dark Hidden Productions) cd 8.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
We sold out of these pretty quick, so for those of you who may have missed out, here's another chance...
We've been meaning to review something from this SF duo for a while now, the mysteriously monickered Z.V.H. and V.J.C, who make up the equally mysterious Lascoviec (formerly Angkor Vat). But their demos disappeared before we had the chance, and we've yet to receive the forthcoming split with Hungarian black metal masters Marblebog, but thankfully, Dark Hidden Productions has compiled their first two demos, Gesamkunstwerk and Gunshots Ring Out Over Vinland Streets, both originally released in 2006, onto one cd, and added a few bonus tracks to sweeten the deal.
Lascoviec traffic in droning, hypnotic, trance like black metal buzz, the guitars long washed out streaks, the vocals a distorted croak, often sounding like another layer of static, the melodies are melancholy and sorrowful, some tracks have programmed drums, pounding away machine like under a buzzy blurry blanket of epic majestic chordal whir, others are harsh and chaotic, with the drums lost int he mix, leaving just a thick undulating sheet of acid riffing and tortured vokills. There are plenty of clean guitars, and tranquil folky interludes, but just as many grinding ultra raw blackened dirges, the guitars thick and viscous, the vocals more of a animalistic hiss, the drums a buried throb, here and there dreamy washes of synth surface, but far from being tranquil, they're fuzzy and distorted, and slightly ominous, with a definite Tim Hecker or Philip Jeck vibe. Elsewhere the band craft weird sort of new wave sounding reverbed guitar jam, but still subtly creepy and haunting. Swirls of strings build ominous tension before exploding into super sharp jagged shards of weirdly blown out clean guitar riffing over relentless blastbeats.
And that's sort of what's so amazing about these guys, their sound varies so dramatically, from record to record, but even from song to song, sort of like the EEE stuff, the texture and the production are as critical as the songs and the riff, some are muted and murky and bassy and lo fi, others are sharp and angular, the guitars sonically are all over the place, sometimes soft and subtle, sometimes downtuned and sludgy, sometimes buzzy and brittle, the drums more often than not are buried WAY down in the mix, but that just makes the songs sound freer, as if they could fall apart or drift away at any moment.
Grim and gorgeous, twisted and intense, dramatic and a bit fucked up, long sheets of buzzed out bliss butted up against short sharp raw blasts of true blurred blackness, often getting all tangled up within the same song. What's not to like, this is some seriously amazing shit. Buzzy and black enough for the grimmest of warriors, but tripped out enough for folks into freaky outsider blackness.
Fair warning: Lasoviec are on Dark Hidden Productions, a label with dubious political leanings, and with definite ties to the Pagan Front, the hub for all things NSBM, aka National Socialist Black Metal. Although the band seem to be more concerned with themes cosmic and spiritual, nature and mythology, there are definite racist implications, the link is undeniable, so regardless of the band's stance, the label's is clear, and thus, another instance where the listener has to decide if the music trumps the possible unpleasant politics.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"
MPEG Stream: "Borghild Darkened"
MPEG Stream: "Outro"

LASCOWIEC / MARBLEBOG / VERZIVATAR Deep Horizons Of Eternity (Turanian Honour) cd 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
We've been trying to get our hands on enough of these to list for ages, a killer 3 way split of obscure strangely melodic blackness, released on Hungarian label Turanian Honour, featuring long time aQ faves Marblebog, Bay Area depressive black metal duo Lascowiec and Verzivatar, another Hungarian horde we had never heard until now.
Lascowiec, whose killer demo compilation we raved about a while back (which we still have a small handful left), returns with four more tracks of washed out black beauty, darkly depressive and beautifully buzzy, the music of Lascowiec is a blurred and smeared minor key mystery, remove the distorted vokill croak, and you'd be left with a deep swirling shoegazey bit of soft focus buzz. The riffs are muted and muddy, lo-fi but still lush, locked into trancelike loops, woozy and warbly and hypnotic, about as pretty as black metal can sound without ceasing to be black or metal. Spidery tangled little melodies, wreathed in otherworldly effects, distorted but not harsh or jagged, more smoothed out and blissy, the vocals the grimmest element, but for the most part, it's the music that carries Lascowiec, gorgeously mournful, and hauntingly lovely buzzy blackness.
Marblebog offer up two songs, epic and majestic, melodic too, but with some super twisted way UP in the mix vocals, that transform an otherwise loping mysterious minor key dirge into something creeped out and harrowing. The main melody is gorgeous, almost power metal sounding, albeit slowed down and draped over a monotonous doomy drum plod, but those vocals, the perfect blend of harsh and hellish, brooding and pretty. Their second track is another strange blend, this time the guitars and drums are buried beneath thick swirling keyboards, and some fucked up demonic gurgled croaking vocals. Again, the effect is the same, a sort of woozy softly buzzing prettiness transformed into a fractured, Burzumic, off kilter depressive black dirge.
Finally Verzivatar deliver two tracks of fierce and frantic blasting blackness, but like the other two bands on the split, their sound is marked by an unlikely melodiousness, the riffs, frenetic and buzzy are also soaring and majestic, the vocals here too are weird, but less black metal, or really metal at all, more like a raspy punkish howl, or a strangled mewl. Gives Verzivatar a sort of crusty punkish vibe, reminding us a bit of French faerical black metal punks Nuit Noire. Definitely need to hear more from these guys.
All three bands offer up some seriously gorgeous melodic grimness, some surprisingly blissed out black metal buzz, unfortunately this is LIMITED TO 666 COPIES, and has been out for a while, so not sure we can get more. Each one is hand numbered, with a big full color booklet, liner notes, lyrics and the works.
MPEG Stream: LASCOWIEC "By Eight Hooves To Asgard"
MPEG Stream: MARBLEBOG "Rivers Of Eternity"
MPEG Stream: VERZIVATAR "Final Catharsis"

LAST ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC SPACE JAZZ & PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE, THE (MADLIB) Miles Away (Stones Throw) cd 17.98
Madlib is one prolific producer, one of our favorites actually, but there is something refreshing to hear his fine production techniques with a live jazz ensemble. Miles Away plays special tribute to all the cosmic jazz and groove we love from artists in the sixties and seventies, from John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, The Tribe's Phil Ranelin, Fred Walker, Roy Ayers, Larry Young, Woody Shaw, and Harry Whitaker amongst others. Basically, all of the cats who have inspired hip-hop over the last few decades. Lots of tribal percussion, piano, vibes and flutes in airy compositions that are as contemplative as they are grooving. Beautiful! Nicely packaged in a miniature lp style sleeve, too.
MPEG Stream: "One for The Monica Lingas Band"
MPEG Stream: "Tones For Larry Young"
MPEG Stream: "Mystic Voyage (For Roy Ayers)"

LAST EXIT Koln (Atavistic) cd 14.98
Brotzmann, Sharrock, Jackson and Laswell kick out the jams in Koln!

LAST HARD MEN, THE s/t (Spitfire) cd 17.98
This isn't new or anything, but how the hell did we miss this?!? And more importantly, how could this not be the best band ever? Jimmy Flemion from the Frogs on guitar and vocals, Jimmy Chamberlin from the Smashing Pumpkins on drums, Kim Deal of the Pixies / the Breeders and last but not least, Skid Row's Sebastian Bach on lead vocals. Sounds like a mess, and it is. Kind of. But in a really good way. The Last Hard Men are all over the sonic map. From grungy metallic rock numbers, to percussive reworkings of show tunes ("I Enjoy Being A Girl"), to Alice Cooper covers ("School's Out"), to totally majestic, and totally great rock ballads, to Scorpions covers ("In Search Of The Peace Of Mind"), to retardedly simple Frogs-like singalongs, to weird band personality interviews, and everything in between. When we first heard this, we weren't exactly sure what to think, but the more we hear these songs, the more they seep into our brain at all hours of the day. Some awesomely atrocious cover art adds to the overall weirdness (and may account for us never having noticed it when it came out in 2001).
MPEG Stream: "Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "Who Made You Do It"
MPEG Stream: "The Most Powerful Man In The World"
MPEG Stream: "If You Want To Rock, Go To The Quarry"

LAST OF THE BLACKSMITHS s/t (self-released) cd 9.98
The hospitable Bay Area country/folk stable grows and grows. There's such an awesome sense of kinship among the artists (think of sorta 'six degrees of Jolie Holland' - yes, she does make an appearance here on viola!). Garrett Pierce and Matt Bauer, the band's pals and terrific singer/songwriters in their own right, brought this in recently on the band's behalf, and we're glad they did. This self-titled, self-released album is quite an impressive debut. The Last Of The Blacksmiths' Americana sound which vacillates between woe begone twang and roots rock groove has much in common with the likes of Jason Molina, Jay Farrar and Will Oldham. Fans of those artists should definitely sit up and take notice.
MPEG Stream: "Knowing Me"
MPEG Stream: "Pushing Down"

LAST OF THE BLACKSMITHS Young Family Song (Vanguard Squad) cd ep 11.98
You might recall The Last Of The Blacksmiths' fine self-titled debut back in 2006. Despite this Bay Area band's name, The Last Of The Blacksmiths prove they're in no danger of extinction. They've stood strong for over two years and now have a sophomore cdep under their belt. If you've a hankering for some slow creeping soulful Americana, Young Family Song is for you. The band's brooding bleary folk-rock melancholia will bring you down in the best possible way. Steeped in hard liquor and salty tears, these are songs of slurred speech and blurred vision that cast a heady spell that linger long after this short ep is over.
MPEG Stream: "Autumn Vacation"
MPEG Stream: "Giving Up"

LAST OF THE JUANITAS Hawaii (Flapping Jet) cd 13.98
From San Diego comes indie rock's next big thing, Last of the Juanitas. People have been talking about this band for ages. Talking about how amazing their shows are, their records are. And there's definitely something to talk about here. Noisey, sloppy, super heavy indie rock, somewhere between Don Caballero, June of 44, A Minor Forest, Shellac and The Fucking Champs. One of this new breed of indie rock bands that aren't afraid of their metal (but still too scared to just come right out and BE A FUCKING METAL BAND, but that you can discuss at length with Andee or Allan some other time).

LAST OF THE JUANITAS Hawaii (Flapping Jet) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From San Diego comes indie rock's next big thing, Last of the Juanitas. People have been talking about this band for ages. Talking about how amazing their shows are, their records are. And there's definitely something to talk about here. Noisey, sloppy, super heavy indie rock, somewhere between Don Caballero, June of 44, A Minor Forest, Shellac and The Fucking Champs. One of this new breed of indie rock bands that aren't afraid of their metal (but still too scared to just come right out and BE A FUCKING METAL BAND, but that you can discuss at length with Andee or Allan some other time).

LAST OF THE JUANITAS In The Dirt (Wantage) cd 13.98

LAST OF THE JUANITAS Time's Up (Wantage USA) cd 14.98
People seem to get really worked up about this band, and it's kind of easy to see why. They're super heavy and noisy post rock with just enough metal to balance out the meandering noodly parts. Recorded loud and in your face, with drums all over the place, LOUD guitars and the vocals buried in the mix. Imagine Unwound, A Minor Forest, Bikini Kill and Shellac all mixed up with the results coming out sounding a little like the Oxes or Hella (or some other indie-metal combo) doing Le Tigre covers. Cool.
RealAudio clip: "Of Course, Nowadays, They Call It Stalking"
RealAudio clip: "Make You Cry"

LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA #4 zine 3.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Now the paragraph on the back of the promotional copy of Secret Name that I've got would have us believe that '...it is best to describe Low's approach as essentialism -- allowing each musical gesture to make maximum impact.' For me, 'it is best' to light oneself on fire if the alternative involves having to read this sort of thing about a band as fine as Low." That's right, folks, issue #4 of Last Plane to Jakarta is hot off the presses and we've got the "North American exclusive", as John Darnielle likes to tell us. Mountain Goats is Darnielle's musical outlet, and Last Plane to Jakarta is his forum for writing about other peoples music. Here he ruminates on Low (by way of Gary Numan and Lou Reed), Grim Reaper, Amorphis, Pantychrist (Justin Bond, Bob Ostertag and Otomo Yoshihide), and Suede. While AQ certainly champions an eclectic body of music, Last Plane's table of contents contains such a motley selection of why-the-heck-is-he-writing-about-THAT-record records that it's a bit disconcerting -- UNTIL you read the witty, passionate essays. It doesn't really matter whether you like the records he champions or not because just reading about them is a true pleasure. Highly recommended!

LAST PLANE TO JAKARTA #6 magazine 3.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Newest issue of John Darnielle's impossibly well-written music zine. It's quite fitting that all the essays are actually in the form of correspondence ("Letter to the Publicist at Touch and Go", "73 postcards to Prominent Surrealists, Most of Them Dead", etc), since Darnielle's writing style is so fucking personable, personal and appealing. Musical topics covered -- everything from Blonde Redhead to Meat Puppets, Biz Markie and the terrible Greek black metal band Rotting Christ, and finally an essay on Deicide in the form of a letter by a v-e-r-y depressed Florida metalhead. This is some of the best music writing I have ever seen.
AQ is the only North American retail outlet for Last Plane to Jakarta. There's a website now, too, at http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com. All writing on the website is exclusive to it (the zine and website do not overlap) and new stuff appears every week. For those who can't get enough of Darnielle's writing, some reviews penned by Allan can also be found at the brand new website NeuMu (http://neumu.net), a smart new music website started by Michael Goldberg of Addicted to Noise fame. The reviews section is called 44.1mhz and some of his topics are Low/Dirty 3, Destroyer, Roto, The Band, Steven R. Smith, and Susperia. Enjoy!

LAST POETS, THE The Last Poets/This Is Madness (Light In The Attic) 2cd 19.98
A double-cd release of The Last Poets' first two albums! Their 1970 self-titled debut broke out and made its own scene, forging a way for hip hop with politically charged, African-American enlightenments in syncopated rhythm. Fans of Sun Ra will notice similarities in vocal stylings, emotion and lyrical content, though in The Last Poets this treatment is much more fierce and raw than mystical and cool. 1971's This Is Madness got them a spot on President Nixon's Counter-Intelligence Programming lists. These street poets' use of graphic language (including the 'N' word used, oh, about five million times) pounds out their frustrations in the racial and social state of the country and at the time helped to extend their messages to a broader audience by way of its pure and utter rawness. Nicely packaged in the albums' original artwork, these albums are fierce documents of the group's seminal contribution to that time and still stir up some of the same emotions today.
MPEG Stream: "Wake Up, Niggers"
MPEG Stream: "New York, New York"

LAST SHADOW PUPPETS, THE The Age Of The Understatement (Domino) cd 14.98
Some records are worth it for just one track. Even if the rest of the record is amazing. It's that one moment of sonic perfection, that almost renders the rest of the songs, and all of the other music, an afterthought.
Which is the case with this, the debut from The Last Shadow Puppets, a barely disguised homage to the orchestral pop of the legendary Scott Walker. Which is precisely why the opening track, "The Age Of The Understatement" is so irresistible. The strings, soaring and dramatic, the shuffling militaristic snares, the main hook, a swirling cinematic, almost Morricone-ish chunk of moody continental classic pop music. Fuck Amy Winehouse, these guys should be doing the theme to the new Bond movie. This is mysterious, stuff, evoking, cobblestone streets, tweed overcoat, wandering lonely villages hands in pockets, head down against the cold wind, everything steely grey, winter skies, brooding clouds, fleeting shadows, little corner cafes, a missed rendezvous. Even the video taps into that, a lonely ice skater, tanks trundling through some winter landscape, the natty band members looking all sixties and mod, in overcoats and turtlenecks, astride the tanks, amidst soldiers, neon, empty concert halls, long Soviet looking hallways, huge empty town squares. Which makes it even more surprising to find out that the Puppets are in fact, Arctic Monkeys lead singer Alex Turner, a guy from Simian Mobile Disco, the guy from Final Fantasy and a member of UK pop band the Rascals.
It's not just that track either, the whole record is subtly over the top but perfect, dark, shimmery, chunky and rocking here and there, but more sort of brooding and mysterious, channeling the same sort of pomp and drama of classic Walker while giving it a slight modern tweak. The vocals are obvious, Turner's twang is so distinct, and he doesn't do much to disguise it, singing exactly how he would (and did) in the Arctic Monkeys, but it works, even in this new sonic landscape.
And even with the opening track being that good, the rest of the record holds up pretty well, introducing horns, vibraphone, sizzling synths, and all sorts of subtle sonic mystery into their dark string laden pop. Some tracks are sunshine-y and jangley, but even then, they are infused with a certain amount of foreboding. The more rocking tracks are thick with buzzing synths, and propulsive drumming, but those too, never lose their cinematic moodiness. And the strings, arranged by Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett, who would have thought he had it in him, it's really the defining sound of the record, they soar and shimmer, shooting out high end streaks here, unfurling moaning cello like drones there, swirling into little climactic frenzies or drifting into lush minor key backdrops.
Every song is a like a little glimpse of some mysterious cold war spy movie, starring some dashing mystery man, rife with chase scenes, assassins, spies, murder, love, loss and betrayal, all set to The Last Shadow Puppets' pitch perfect chamber pop.
MPEG Stream: "The Age Of The Understatement"
MPEG Stream: "Standing Next To Me"
MPEG Stream: "Calm Like you"

LAST STEP s/t (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
Not much is known about Last Step. Apparently it's the work of one guy in Canada who prefers to stay very anonymous, even when dealing with his label Planet Mu, as it's reported they don't even know who he is and when they've talked to him on the phone he uses a vocoder and has all royalty checks sent to him via the St. Bernadetta Synth Hospital. But then again, Last Step might be the work of Aaron Funk (aka Venetian Snares). Luckily, anonymity isn't the only intriguing thing about Last Step, as it's his use of vintage old-school analog equipment that has won us over. Think Wagon Christ, Giorgio Moroder & Afrika Bambaataa all locked in a room with their old gear and your start to get an idea of what kind of old-school flavored electronica Last Step is all about.
MPEG Stream: "Lives With Angels"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Powder"

LASWELL, BILL Carlos Santana Divine Light (Legacy) cd 17.98
Why does Mr. Laswell anger me so? Well, while there is no question he is a very talented man, perhaps it is his shameless genre-bandwagon jumping and his insidious cashing in on other people's accomplishments that irks me. Yes, I think that's it.

LASWELL, BILL Dub Chamber 3 (ROIR) cd 14.98
It's Laswell. It's dub. It's his 3047th album this year, with 943 on the way. What more do you need to know.

LASWELL, BILL Imaginary Cuba (BMG) cd 15.98
Oh, come on, Bill. Ry Cooder already did this with the Buena Vista Social Club AND without watering down the beauty of indigenous Cuban musics with tepid 'dub' basslines and generic 'ambience'. This is musical imperialism at its worst.

LASWELL, BILL Invisible Design (Tzadik) cd 15.98
The newest solo album by this shockingly prolific bass player/composer/ producer. The liner notes say this is a 'cd of black magic and spiritual passion.' It's more like a experimental record of studio fuckery involving multiple bass tracks and assorted Laswellisms.