M (Drag City) 7" 3.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
M is the work of Louisvillian Dave Pajo who's also played in Tortoise and Slint.

M 'M' The History - Pop Muzik The 25th Anniversary (Metro) cd 14.98
Pop! Pop! Pop Musik! Pop! Pop! Pop Musik! Hands up, who loves that single? Okay, now let's see who can name any other songs by M (aka Robin Scott)? Although he more than fits the definition of "one hit wonder", M also had a sizable body of work that unfortunately never reached as many ears as that single. But now we all get a second chance with this commemorative 25th anniversary compilation that reveals many more facets of M! The first half of this compilation is really strong, short blasts of catchy sort of punky commercial new wave but about halfway through veers dangerously into ultra cheesy, new wave/disco pap. But hell it's worth it for the first half alone. "Pop Musik" may be the only song you know by heart, but check out "M Factor", the just-as-good-B-side of "Pop Musik", "Modern Man" and a bunch of other little gems.
FYI: Actually Scott fostered a bit of a 'comeback' of sorts a couple of years ago when he produced Ex-Girl's last album and made a live guest appearance with them at SXSW (yes, performing *that* song... it was great!).
MPEG Stream: "M Factor"
MPEG Stream: "Smash The Mirror"

M'LUMBO Sacrifices To The Neon Gods: The Greatest Sacred Cargo Cult Television Theme Songs Of All Time (Mulatta Records) cd 16.98
For being released on the same label that brought us two albums of elephants playing instruments (the Thai Elephant Orchestra), an album of rapping by grade-schoolers (Da Hiphop Raskalz) and several other weird/wonderful projects, the idea of an album of avant-groovy cover versions of well-known television themes seems downright tame! Yet, downtown NYC hipster jazz/world/cassette culture/kitchen sink band M'Lumbo do manage to entertain and intrigue -- who could not help but enjoy unusual, out-there renditions of such familiar tunes as "Hawaii Five-O", "The Addams Family", "I Dream Of Jeannie", "I Love Lucy" and "Get Smart", among others?? It's exotica for the TV generation(s), coming across like a wild mix of Martin Denny and Afrobeat and John Zorn. And actually, most of the time you'd be hard pressed to identify the TV tune that they're using/abusing as a basis for each track of faux-ethnic improv, lost under electronics and samples and an abundance of percussion, and even what sound like the calls of jungle birds... in fact it's probably best if you try to listen *without* thinking about these songs being TV themes, or at least imagine that M'Lumbo's "cargo cult" conceit is true, and you're hearing the musical worship of classic cathode ray gods done by some musically freaky tribe of "savages" who just happen to have free cable and became addicted to old TV reruns.
MPEG Stream: "Mickey Mouse"
MPEG Stream: "The Alfred Hitchcock Theme"

M, SACHIKO Detect (Antifrost) 3"cd 9.98
Austere sine-wave tones, clicks and silence from Japanese experimentalist Sachiko M, known for her work solo and in the avant-pop trio Hoahio as well as with collaborators like Otomo Yoshihide (in Ground Zero, ISO, Filament, etc.). This cdep (in the irresistable 3" format) fits firmly into her ouvre of barely-there, barren electronic soundscapes of blips and non-blips. Is it zen art? is it conceptual bullshit? Depends on your tastes, but it seems quite lovely for those whose ears are attuned to such efforts. On the new, potentially interesting Greek label Antifrost.

M. KOURIE Dreams Of M. Kourie, the (Chrome Peeler) cd 12.98
The mysteriously titled record, The Dreams Of M. Kourie, is actually the work of local dronelord Nathan Berlinguette, who manned the bass in techgrind outfit Creation Is Crucifixion, as well as exploring spaced out dronescapes with his partner Travis Ryan (of Cattle Decapitation) in the now defunct 5/5/2000. We listed the 5/5/2000 reissue recently, a collection of newly discovered tapes of old old recordings, a haunting world of dronelike nihilism and inner space exploration. With The Dreams Of M. Kourie, Berlinguette takes up where 5/5/2000 left off, setting a course for the heart of a black hole, and taking the scenic sonic route to get there. This is the sound of stargazing, a blackened landscape of warm shimmer, that almost imperceptibly shifts and contorts, each new shape even more abstract and more black than the shape before, tracing a minimal path that simultaneously drifts beneath the sea, through subterranean caverns, amidst the vacuum of space and through the impossibility of alternate universes, the pieces and parts and sounds and arrangements are not in and of themselves mysterious, there are soft rumbles, and warm chordal swells, glistening abstract melodies, drifting gauzy shimmer, but the way they are put together, the way the sounds fall into one another, subtly mix, or rest atop one another, these are the things that turn sound into emotion, these are the aspects that are impossible to explain but precisely what make this journey special. Eyes closed, laying in tall grass, atop a lonely hill, a night as clear as glass, the air warm and humid, watching a million years of starlight shift and shimmer. So nice.
Packaged in a simple two panel black sleeve, printed in metallic gold ink.
MPEG Stream: "And Woke In Spring"
MPEG Stream: "The River"

M., SACHIKO Imaginary Soundtrack (Out One Disc) cd 21.00

M., SACHIKO Sine Wave Solo (Amoebic) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Frequent Otomo Yoshihide collaborator (Filament, I.S.O., Ground Zero) presents her first solo album, taking her lone instrument, the "100% Free Memory Sampler" to the outer limits of blistering sine wave manipulation. With these mere sine waves she produces a lot of variety - from tracks of piercing test tone torture to more serene, sparse blip-scapes. Impressive.

M., SACHIKO / KAFFE MATTHEWS / ANDREA NEUMANN In Case of Fire Take the Stairs (Improvised Music From Japan) cd 17.98
Recorded live in Japan on St. Patrick's Day of 2002, the line-up for this electronic / improvisation performance has Kaffe Matthews on sampler / laptop, Andrea Neumann on prepared piano, and Sachiko M using sinewaves and a contact microphone. Neumann's use of the piano is rather unconventional as she performs exclusively within the piano itself, scraping and plucking the strings with metal objects and motors, avoiding the keyboard altogether. Sachiko M, who has become a ubiquitous presence in the ever-growing field of electronic improvisation, is qualititatively active in her manipulation of her raw sinewaves. But Matthews has placed herself at the center of activity, controlling the tightly looped samples culled from her collaborators and building loose structures of pulses, clicks, and rhythms within this extended performance.
RealAudio clip: "Track 3"

M.B. (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) + NIMH Together's Symphony (Silentes) 4cd 73.00
There's not much reason to belabor the point on this one. Simply put, it's limited to 300 copies and we only have two of these boxsets kicking around. Needless to say, it's a fine example of Maurizio Bianchi's return to the glacial power electronics and sustained drone concussions that dominated his earliest experiments in the '70s and '80s. As for NIMH, that project is the work of Italian avant-guitarist Giuseppe Verticchio whose work in softened ambience has drawn comparisons to Steve Roach and Aidan Baker; and in working with Bianchi, he does offer some elegiac guitar and piano works to accompany Bianchi's hypnotic gray / black drones. If it's not out of print, it will be soon. We might be able to get a few more but it sems unlikely...
MPEG Stream: "Niddah"
MPEG Stream: "Recovered Memories"
MPEG Stream: "Back To Laudomia"

M.I.A. Arular (XL / Interscope) cd 15.98
Holy crap. This album rules. Ragga, hip-hop, dancehall, infused trashy electro party pop jams! Quelle mix.
A few months ago, some folks came in the store while on holiday from Germany asking if we had anything like "M.I.A.? You know this? It is all over tha place in Germany." I had to say no, not in this neck of the folktastic dronedom of San Francisco. But now it is here, XL at last bringing us the domestic release of M.I.A.'s debut album, Arular, which follows up a mix-tape on which she collaborated with Diplo and raised a lot of eyebrows -- apparently German eyebrows in particular!
Seriously though, you know you want to party!! No says you? You're too bummed out on Karl Rove taking over the whole damn place to party? Well, her lyrics are very politically leaning so you don't have to feel all guilty about having a good time. We've been spinning this non-stop ourselves, and selling it non-stop too. Lives up to the hype. ...Now on major label Interscope and thus more expensive than before.
MPEG Stream: "Pull Up The People"
MPEG Stream: "Galang"

M.I.A. Arular (XL) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Holy crap. This album rules. Ragga, hip-hop, dancehall, infused trashy electro party pop jams! Quelle mix.
A few months ago, some folks came in the store while on holiday from Germany asking if we had anything like "M.I.A.? You know this? It is all over tha place in Germany." I had to say no, not in this neck of the folktastic dronedom of San Francisco. But now it is here, XL at last bringing us the domestic release of M.I.A.'s debut album, Arular, which follows up a mix-tape on which she collaborated with Diplo and raised a lot of eyebrows -- apparently German eyebrows in particular!
Seriously though, you know you want to party!! No says you? You're too bummed out on Karl Rove taking over the whole damn place to party? Well, her lyrics are very politically leaning so you don't have to feel all guilty about having a good time. We've been spinning this non-stop ourselves, and selling it non-stop too. Lives up to the hype.
MPEG Stream: "Pull Up The People"
MPEG Stream: "Galang"

M.I.A. Kala (Interscope) cd 11.98
Holy shit this record is amazing!!! What a charged and dynamic follow up to one of the hottest debuts of the decade. It doesn't surprise us though, as we knew from the first time we heard M.I.A. that she had some special power inside of her. She is that rare world voice in music that we desperately need so much right now. It's incredible how she crosses lines and borders like very few other artists seem able to.
Kala is one of the few records that we sell to every kind of person and taste. Metalheads, indie rockers, pop kids, dance-heads, hip-hop aficionados, experimental music lovers.... they're all going crazy for the new M.I.A. and for great reason. It's one of the most kick ass, colorful and fully realized albums to come out in a long time.
She was denied entry to the States repeated times when making this record, so her initial plans to record the record with Timbaland were thrown out the window. But this countries' insane border policies ended up being a blessing in disguise, as it forced M.I.A. to look elsewhere for producers, so she traveled throughout Africa and India where she did lots of raw field recordings which all come to life in such exciting ways on Kala. In fact Kala is kind of like what we imagine might happen if Konono No.1 were transported to Bollywood. While we've recently been swept up by the mystical power and strength of some fierce women of the past like Selda and Betty Davis, we can't think of anyone in the modern day who better conjures up that kind of unique energy and spirit than M.I.A.
This is a record meant to be blasted LOUD. So next time you have folks over, no matter what sort of music they dig, don't worry it won't be awkward just throw on M.I.A. and every single one of them will dig it like crazy. Guaranteed.
Without a doubt a contender for record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Bird Flu"
MPEG Stream: "World Town"
MPEG Stream: "Paper Planes"

M.I.M.E.O. Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra (Perdition Plastics) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The debut of Keith Rowe's (AMM) improvised electronic ensemble that includes Fennesz, Pita (Mego), Phil Durrant, Jerome Noetinger (Metamkine), Richard Barrett, Justin Bennett, Cor Fuhler, Yannis Kyriakides, Gert-Jan Prins, and Thomas Lehn is a radical investigation into powerbook digital damage balanced with cacophonous guitar, violin, and piano.

M.R.K.1 Ready For Love (Planet Mu) 12" 8.98
We've long been complaining about the dearth of "grime" in the States, so we were psyched to discover that the folks at Planet Mu decided to do something about it. They've been reissuing UK grime releases for the states, but this latest batch of 12"s offers up some grime / jungle hybrids as well as their own twisted take on dubstep and grime. And it kills!
This is grime done commercial hiphop style, which is not a bad thing at all. We always talk about how grime should be all over the radio and MTV, well if that's gonna happen, it's probably gonna be M.R.K.1 aka Mark One. The first track on here is an absolute killer, like Kanye or the RZA with sped up soul samples over dizzying stuttery dubstep rhythms. The next track is slippery and slithery and grimy but weirdly convoluted and tangled up, super murky and dark, like Tricky or Portishead gone grime, and bass lines so low and heavy that even at low volume they threaten to blow your speakers.
The flipside features two groovy grimy instrumental shuffles, with alien synths, that speaker shredding low end, and wide open spaces just begging for some mad freestyle flows.

M.S.B.R. + KENGO LUCHI (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
Japanese noise, three live duets plus a solo track from each artist. M.S.B.R. does musique concrete/electronics, Kengo Luchi does "death folk" with anguished vocals a la Keiji Haino. Together, it's meandering no wave folk with electronic freakouts, not for the faint of heart.

M2 14id1610s (Ant-Zen) cd 17.98
Whatever this is called M2 or Squaremeter; this is the work of Panacea remixing a handful of electronic minimalism / post-techno from the Ant-Zen label. It follows aesthetically the path Panacea had been taking on the "Brasilia" album with ping-pong oscillations of sine-waves, digital glitchery, and an erratic machine-gun drum & bass kick popping up for a split second then deferring back to piercing tones. While 89% of this album came from Ant-Zen, this really could be another release from the damaged mind of Panacea. Do you think he has tinnitus?

M2 Sinecore (Mille Plateaux) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Our first encounter with Panacea's M2 was on his remix album of the Ant-Zen catalogue, where he transformed the Ant-Zen sound into an aggressive minimalism much closer to a steroid-pumped version of Raster clan's digital clickery. Now "Sinecore", much like the remix project, is an album of clinical tension. M2's cerebral metronomic structures clang with rhythmic sinewave modulations and rigid digital tones, yet a sputtering collage of mutant flanges and dadaist arrythmia disrupts the insistency of the pure tones and clicks.

M83 0078h (Gooom) cd 7.98
Check out the review of M83's full length Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts for the complete low down, but if a dreamy, drone-y fuzzy mix of the Orb, Boards Of Canada, Stereolab, New Order, and My Bloody Valentine sounds good to you, then not only should you pick up the M83 full length, you should also be aware of this 3 track ep, with one track from Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, a live track, and a remix by fellow dream poppers and Gooom labelmates Cyann And Ben as well as a secret hidden track, a brief angelic wash of fuzzy synth. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "0078h"

M83 0078h (Gooom) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now here on vinyl!
Check out the review of M83's full length Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts for the complete low down, but if a dreamy, drone-y fuzzy mix of the Orb, Boards Of Canada, Stereolab, New Order, and My Bloody Valentine sounds good to you, then not only should you pick up the M83 full length, you should also be aware of this 3 track ep, with one track from Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, a live track, and a remix by fellow dream poppers and Gooom labelmates Cyann And Ben as well as a secret hidden track, a brief angelic wash of fuzzy synth. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "0078h"

M83 America (Gooom) cd ep 9.98
We love M83. Here's how we described their import full length from a while back:
"A huge slab of fuzzy shoegazey electronica-flecked dream pop. We've been listening to this nonstop since it came in. Imagine the post rave swirl of the Orb, mix in the muted warmth of Boards Of Canada, the lalala Neu-worship of Stereolab, the catchy new wave of New Order, then wrap the whole thing in a thick shimmery distorted haze a la My Bloody Valentine and you'll be close. Now imagine that concoction as the soundtrack to the love scene in some super bizarre Anime. You know, the part where the girl is going into space because she can't live on earth because her tentacles keep killing cute little pandas, and her boyfriend is a giant panda, but they love each other so much her tears turn into jewels that the pandas can eat to make them invincible. It's that heartbreakingly good."
Wow, right? Well, as you can imagine we were super excited for more. And this ep just happens to have a lot more, three unreleased tracks, one of which is a massive 17 minute slab of fuzzy blissed out ambience. And a really cool video for the track "America" from their full length. Sounds great? Well take a second before you add this to your cart. M83's full length record, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, is being released domestically at the end of July with a bonus disc containing EVERYTHING on this ep, as well as two more unreleased tracks and another video! But of course that requires buying the whole album you already may own all over again. So if you haven't bought the M83 record for some crazy reason, wait until the full length domestic double disc comes out and then by all means pick it up. But if you already own the full length, and don't mind missing out on a track/video or two instead of buying it again, this is a good way to get another half hour of gorgeous bliss pop for a mere ten bucks. Up to you.
MPEG Stream: "America"
MPEG Stream: "Tsubasa"

M83 Before The Dawn Heals Us (Mute) cd 16.98
You'll be glad to know that M83 still basically sound like some strange and wonderful mix of My Bloody Valentine, the Orb, Boards Of Canada, Stereolab and New Order. And they most definitely are still the only band around making this sort of lush, fuzzed out, electronic bliss pop. But the new record takes a strange turn. Some around here think a not so advisable one. But we'll elaborate a bit and you make the call.
First, strap yourself in, and set the controls for the heart of... the eighties.
It starts with the ultra-cheesy cover art, a late night big city scape with the band name written in a thick white graffiti scrawl. If you didn't know M83 was a band you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was a Bacardi ad for some new drink.
And sonically it follows a similar time travelling path. Imagine the eighties is a big packet of Lick-Em-Aid, you know that weird colored sugar you'd eat as a kid. So after a year of listening to the first M83 record non stop, it's nice and wet, so go ahead and dip it into your packet of eighties Lick-Em-Aid and you've basically got Before The Dawn Heals Us. Where Dead Cities was almost timeless sounding in its seamless melding of eighties pop, anime soundtrack, modern electronica, nineties shoegaze and classic Krautrock, the new record is eighties through and through. Every song could be music for a montage from Gleaming The Cube or Pump Up The Volume or Back To The Future. When you close your eyes, you can almost visualize the credits rolling over garish splashes of pastel, listing all of the other songs on the 'soundtrack' by folks like Rick Springfield, Ray Parker Jr., Cyndi Lauper, etc. That said, this is still an amazing record. For every moment of cringeworthy fluff, there's three or four of utter pop brilliance. Totally alien snatches of shimmering synth, stuttering studio fuckery, the entire thing peppered with little sounds, electronic and organic, some barely noticeable, some completely defining the songs. Before The Dawn Heals Us sounds best when the band is going full bore, firing a warm beam of thick guitars and fuzzed out synths straight up into the starry sky, stretched out over a rigid framework of drum machine and pulsing bass, that gets so bombastic it almost sounds like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle Of Filth. On first listen the cheese factor was definitely too distracting, but on each listen, those bits of dated pop just sound like pieces of a glorious bigger picture. They may stick out at first but soon, you can't imagine the rest of the record without them. Which makes sense as soon as you spend some time with the record. The whole thing just sort of flows like some unearthed eighties arthouse soundtrack. A deliriously abstract, emotionally charged musical arc, with strange snippets of dialogue and spoken word moving the musical plot forward.
On its own this might not be the perfect record, but as the second part of M83's fuzzy, blissed out musical journey into the shimmery ether, it's an absolute masterpiece.
MPEG Stream: "Moon Child"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Save Us From The Flames"
MPEG Stream: "A Guitar And A Heart"

M83 Before The Dawn Heals Us (Gooom / Mute) 2lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL!!
You'll be glad to know that M83 still basically sound like some strange and wonderful mix of My Bloody Valentine, the Orb, Boards Of Canada, Stereolab and New Order. And they most definitely are still the only band around making this sort of lush, fuzzed out, electronic bliss pop. But the new record takes a strange turn. Some around here think a not so advisable one. But we'll elaborate a bit and you make the call.
First, strap yourself in, and set the controls for the heart of... the eighties.
It starts with the ultra-cheesy cover art, a late night big city scape with the band name written in a thick white graffiti scrawl. If you didn't know M83 was a band you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was a Bacardi ad for some new drink.
And sonically it follows a similar time travelling path. Imagine the eighties is a big packet of Lick-Em-Aid, you know that weird colored sugar you'd eat as a kid. So after a year of listening to the first M83 record non stop, it's nice and wet, so go ahead and dip it into your packet of eighties Lick-Em-Aid and you've basically got Before The Dawn Heals Us. Where Dead Cities was almost timeless sounding in its seamless melding of eighties pop, anime soundtrack, modern electronica, nineties shoegaze and classic Krautrock, the new record is eighties through and through. Every song could be music for a montage from Gleaming The Cube or Pump Up The Volume or Back To The Future. When you close your eyes, you can almost visualize the credits rolling over garish splashes of pastel, listing all of the other songs on the 'soundtrack' by folks like Rick Springfield, Ray Parker Jr., Cyndi Lauper, etc. That said, this is still an amazing record. For every moment of cringeworthy fluff, there's three or four of utter pop brilliance. Totally alien snatches of shimmering synth, stuttering studio fuckery, the entire thing peppered with little sounds, electronic and organic, some barely noticeable, some completely defining the songs. Before The Dawn Heals Us sounds best when the band is going full bore, firing a warm beam of thick guitars and fuzzed out synths straight up into the starry sky, stretched out over a rigid framework of drum machine and pulsing bass, that gets so bombastic it almost sounds like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle Of Filth. On first listen the cheese factor was definitely too distracting, but on each listen, those bits of dated pop just sound like pieces of a glorious bigger picture. They may stick out at first but soon, you can't imagine the rest of the record without them. Which makes sense as soon as you spend some time with the record. The whole thing just sort of flows like some unearthed eighties arthouse soundtrack. A deliriously abstract, emotionally charged musical arc, with strange snippets of dialogue and spoken word moving the musical plot forward.
On its own this might not be the perfect record, but as the second part of M83's fuzzy, blissed out musical journey into the shimmery ether, it's an absolute masterpiece.
MPEG Stream: "Moon Child"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Save Us From The Flames"
MPEG Stream: "A Guitar And A Heart"

M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (Mute) 2cd 16.98
This was easily one of our favorite records of last year. So we're super excited that Mute has decided to re-issue it, not only at a lower price, but with an extra disc of remixes, unreleased tracks and two videos!
We hadn't even heard of this band until a handful of customers started mentioning them, so we figured we'd best check it out, and guess what? Turned out to be pretty fucking amazing. A huge slab of fuzzy shoegazey electronica-flecked dream pop. We've been listening to this nonstop since it came in. Imagine the post rave swirl of the Orb, mix in the muted warmth of Boards Of Canada, the lalala Neu-worship of Stereolab, the catchy new wave of New Order, then wrap the whole thing in a thick shimmery distorted haze a la My Bloody Valentine and you'll be close. Now imagine that concoction as the soundtrack to the love scene in some super bizarre Anime. You know, the part where the girl is going into space because she can't live on earth because her tentacles keep killing cute little pandas, and her boyfriend is a giant panda, but they love each other so much her tears turn into jewels that the pandas can eat to make them invincible. It's that heartbreakingly good. This will totally hit the spot for electro geeks, shoegazers, pop kids, and everyone in between.
MPEG Stream: "Unrecorded"
MPEG Stream: "Run Into Flowers"
MPEG Stream: "In Church"

M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (Mute / Gooom) 2lp 17.98
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!
We hadn't even heard of this band until a handful of customers started mentioning them, so we figured we'd best check it out, and guess what? Turned out to be pretty fucking amazing. A huge slab of fuzzy shoegazey electronica-flecked dream pop. We've been listening to this nonstop since it came in. It's not really that new, but it's so good, we figured better late than never. Imagine the post rave swirl of the Orb, mix in the muted warmth of Boards Of Canada, the lalala Neu-worship of Stereolab, the catchy new wave of New Order, then wrap the whole thing in a thick shimmery distorted haze a la My Bloody Valentine and you'll be close. Now imagine that concoction as the soundtrack to the love scene in some super bizarre Anime. You know, the part where the girl is going into space because she can't live on earth because her tentacles keep killing cute little pandas, and her boyfriend is a giant panda, but they love each other so much her tears turn into jewels that the pandas can eat to make them invincible. It's that heartbreakingly good. This will totally hit the spot for electro geeks, shoegazers, pop kids, and everyone in between.
MPEG Stream: "Unrecorded"
MPEG Stream: "Run Into Flowers"
MPEG Stream: "In Church"

M83 Don't Save Us From The Flames (Gooom / Mute) cd ep 8.98
You probably already know if you like M83 by now. If you haven't heard them, go check out their brilliant debut Dead Cities RIGHT NOW. If you're already a fan of their fuzzed out My Bloody Valentine / Boards Of Canada dream pop bliss out then like us you can never get enough. This ep features "Don't Save Us From The Frames", probably the best track from their most recent album, Before The Dawn Heals Us -- a massively thick, multi layered psych pop confection with soaring harmony vocals and fuzzy synths all over the place. The reason to pick this up though (we'lll assume you already have the album) is the three unreleased tracks. "Until The Night Is Over" is a gorgeous eighties style ballad, with just enough fuzz and production fuckery to keep it interesting. Think Alan Parsons Project meets Air Supply meets the Flaming Lips. Then there are two remixes of "Don't Save Us...". The first is by Superpitcher, and he works some Kompakt magic, turning the original track into a stripped down, four on the floor, moody heroin house workout. The vocals soar unfettered over a simple pulsing rhythm and a relentlessly throbbing bassline. So good. Exactly how you dreamed a Gooom / Kompakt mashup should sound. The other remix is by Boom Bip, and is a shuffling, skittery IDM workout. A little like Autechre covering the Beach Boys. As always, so good!
MPEG Stream: "Don't Save Us From The Flames (Superpitcher)"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Save Us From The Flames (Boom Bip)"

M83 Run Into Flowers (Mute / Gooom) cd single 8.98
This is the single for possibly the best track on M83's breathtaking Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts album (about to get reissued with a bonus disc!), a hazy shimmery Stereolab meets My Bloody Valentine sun dappled, shoe gazing pop gem. Could it get any better? We definitely thought not, as exhausted as we are by the endless stream of remixes and remix albums. But what do ya know? The remixes on this single actually do twist the song into new and totally appealing shapes. Abstrakt Keal Agram turns the track into a hiccupping hip-hop-shoegaze mash up. Stuttering samples and bumping rhythms totally restructure the wispy original. The main reason to pick this up though is Jackson's Midnight Fuck remix, which takes the original and adds some simple electronica skitter, and morphs the whole thing into a Mike Inc. / Gas / Force Inc. blurry throbbing soundscape of fuzzy synths, etherial vocals, rumbling ambient murk and a propulsive 4/4 rhythm. The final track gets the remix treatment from fellow Gooomsters KG and it's the biggest blast of the bunch, a way rougher and noisier burst of distorted haze and supernovas of white noise static, with the vocals and melodies buried under a thick wash of grit and skree.
MPEG Stream: "Run Into Flowers (Midnight Fuck Remix By Jackson)"

M83 Saturdays = Youth (Mute) cd 14.98
Over the course of several records, M83 have virtually invented their own genre, we're not even sure what to call it, but it's some sort of gossamer, fuzzed out blissy dream pop, so much so that, the name M83 itself became an oft referenced descriptor when referring to bands of all stripes that borrowed bits of fuzz or buzz or bliss from M83's sonic palette.
The last record, Before The Dawn Heals Us, found the band shedding some of their more arty influences, much of the krautrock, some of the electronica, lots of the buzzy shoegaze, opting instead for some straight up eighties pop, replete with cheesy electronic drums, big choruses, super effected guitars, a gloriously retro chunk of sweetly dated pop, BUT, they balanced that with some seriously over the top fuzzed out bombast.
However, that record definitely hinted at what was to come, and now years later, the bombast is long gone, and if anything, the band has delved even further into our teenage years, and reinvented themselves as a band plucked right from MTV circa 1985, and we love it! This is total emo. Before there was emo. The soundtrack to hanging out in parking lots, crushes, love notes, first kisses, John Hughes movies, falling in love, break ups, mix tapes and all that stuff.
The sound of Saturday = Youth is that, the sound of Saturdays, no school, hanging out with friends, the sound of being young, your whole life ahead of you, but with every second feeling like it could be your last. So much angst, so much passion, so much hope, and so much fear. All perfectly represented by this collection of gloriously glistening sunshine-y pop and fuzzy synthy electro pop.
The record begins with melancholy piano and swoonsome synths, fluttery female vocals somewhere between Kate Bush and Elizabeth Fraser, an intro that quickly gives way to some straight up eighties style MTV pop, a la Tears For Fears, all wooshing and emotional and dramatic, but so awesome. Not sure if this would be quite as appealing to someone who hadn't grown up on this kind of stuff, but for those of us who did, it's pretty irresistible. The next song is all electronic drums, and super processed soaring female vocals, squiggly synths, electric piano, and more super dramatic soaring choruses.
Our favorite so far is probably "Graveyard Girl", with its Cranberries-esque intro, all big jangling guitars, and crooned vocals, the melody super sweet and melancholy, drifting over swooning synths and a relentless rhythm, this is perfect pop, harmonies and hooks, all filtered through that particular time. It helps that there's a video that pretty much perfectly captures the spirit of the song. With a cute gothy girl who visits the pet cemetery and leaves dog toys and kibble on gravestones, pining after the cute boy. Filmed all fuzzy and old, so it looks just like out memories feel. There's even a spoken word part in the middle, delivered by a young girl, talking about loneliness and love, it's pretty perfectly heart wrenching. And then the artwork, all fuzzed out photos of various teens, the jock, the goth girl, the cute guy, the hot girl, the nerd, the punk, all hanging out in some sun dappled park on a Saturday, killing time, being young.
The whole record is like that, so totally moving and jubilant and emotional and slightly cheesy but in a really good way. Whether they're channeling the electronic skitter of New Order, or the fluttery dramatic pop of Kate Bush, or the jangle rock bombast of the Hooters, it's the very best kind of retro. It all makes us feel either really really old, or secretly sort of young again. Or like we're in some awesome eighties teen movie. Regardless, we love it, and can't seem to stop listening to it...
MPEG Stream: "You, Appearing"
MPEG Stream: "Kim & Jessie"
MPEG Stream: "Skin Of The Night"
MPEG Stream: "Graveyard Girl"

M83 Slowly-Sitting (Gooom) 10" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
LIMITED LIMITED LIMITED!!!
OK, now that we've got that out of the way, we managed to get a dozen or so of these very limited, promotional only 10"s from AQ faves M83. And unlike the overlap between their singles and re-releases and imports, as far as we can tell these tracks are exclusive to this record. Two longish tracks of that perfect electronic bliss psych we've been freaking out over, although this time a bit heavier on the beat than the bliss (a decidedly steady techno-ish thump throughout), sounding quite a bit like New Order dipped in My Bloody Valentine. Nice.

M83 Teen Angst (Mute) cd 8.98
Single number two (or is it number three?) from the recent M83 record and damn if that record doesn't sound better and better as we re-examine it single by single. A perfect warm flush of gossamer dreaminess, lush buzzing synths and breathy otherworldly vocals. You should really already have the title track by now, if you don't, for chrissakes order yourself a copy of Before The Dawn Heals Us and then come on back. So it's the two bonus tracks that are the reason to pick this up. There's the exclusive-to-this-single track "Addicted To Self Mutilation", a slow burning soundscape of falsetto harmonies, like the Beach Boys on peyote, slipping and slithering over a simple electronic shuffle and a jagged buzz-guitar drone. Hard to figure how a band can come up with sonic leftovers WAY better than most bands' main courses! The other track is a reworking of "Teen Angst", by Montag, a fellow Gooom Records sonic alchemist, who was responsible for the soaring string arrangements on both of the M83 records (and whose lastest record we'll be reviewing soon!). Montag takes the lush and fuzzy original and strips it way down, leaving just a skeletal electronic rhythm, with ghostly traces of the original synths swirling amidst the hushed vocals and mournful minor key melodies, eventually allowing the whole thing to build to an intense and chaotic rhythmic frenzy that simply blinks out, leaving residual traces of synth and skitter floating through your head.
MPEG Stream: "Addicted To Self Mutilation"
MPEG Stream: "Teen Angst (Montag Remix)"

M87 Noctilucent Threnodies (Supernal) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not to be confused with the fuzzy shoegazey bliss of AQ faves M83, M87 are a mysterious dark ambient drone outfit on the same label as Benighted Leams, Contra Ignem Fatuum, Drudkh, and Meads Of Asphodel. That alone should have you pretty psyched to see what sort of weirdness these guys conjure up. We'd be tempted to say M87 are an anomaly in Supernal's predominantly black metal roster, but some of our favorite releases on Supernal were on the ambient side of things, the weird medieval drones of Dark Ages and the crumbling pummeling SUNNO)))-like dirge of Fall Of The Grey Winged One. M87 are a much blissier affair. An outer space drift that hovers and floats, wide open expanses of shimmering static hum and glistening effervescence. The liner notes proclaim "There are no keyboards or guitar synthesizers on this disc" so we can only assume this is ALL guitar, which makes it even more impressive. Released way back in 1999, and only now finally making it to the AQ list, M87 definitely explores similar sonic territory as Fennesz, Ambarchi, Tim Hecker, Dean Roberts and the like. The opening track is a thick static blur, like standing in the middle of a busy train station, the sound of the people, and the trains and the spaces cavernous reverb building into a massive swirling whir. This dense proto industrialism surfaces elsewhere on the record, each time, adding more to the mix, buried clangs, or muted melodies, but these caustic sonic clouds are just interludes, long ones granted, drifting darkly and offering an aggressive contrast to the rest of the record's serene and beautiful soundscapes. Warm, rich, dark, dreamlike, ominous, otherworldly, each track, like some exploration of a barren alien planet, or some mysterious abandoned city, a series of abstract isolationist drones, whose textures and melodies, which once existed, have now melted, spreading out into thick pools of shimmering sound, each offering a twisting distorted reflection of the haunting world beyond.
MPEG Stream: "Mu Cephel"
MPEG Stream: "M8 (Lagoon Nebula)"
MPEG Stream: "NGC 7358"

M:I:5 Massstab 1 : 5 (Profan) cd 13.98
Wolfgang Voigt's palette of techno structuralism shifts ever so slightly, but apparently enough to warrant lots of different names (including Gas, Mike Ink, Wassermann, All, Studio One, Love Inc, etc). M:I:5 bubbles with off kilter synthetic syncopations phasing against the 'monophunktrax' (that's what Voigt calls it), a sort of monochromatic shuffle of unchanging techno drum kick throbs. Despite the omnipresent beat, Voigt's minimalist aesthetic doesn't seem to be going for the dance friendly experience, unless you can imagine dancing the night away to bleak and hypnotic blackness. Recommended.

MAAL, BAABA Missing You (Mi Yeewnii) (Palm Pictures) cd 16.98
Though nothing is going to compare with his co-release with Mansour Seck, Djam Leelii (1984), this is certainly a much better album than his last release, Nomad Soul. Baaba Maal has turned away from the synth heavy world beat that he helped introduce and returned to an almost stripped down production which features his lilting voice, guitar, kora, bass, percussion and backing chorus. The heavy synths are replaced by lush production by Abbey Road old timer and Bends (Radiohead) producer John Leckie.
RealAudio clip: "mamadi"

MAAL, BAABA Nomad Soul (Island) cd 15.98
Senegalese vocalist's new album is very 'world beat', not as traditional as our longtime favorite record by him and Mansour Seck, titled Djam Leelii.

MABUKI, JUNKO Slave Of Love (Tiliqua) cd 26.00
What was meant to be a limited series, seems to be extended indefinitely, with a new disc on this week's list, and at least two more installments planned. And if anything, they just keep getting better, and more perverted! There's just too much sexy sound to stop now. Longtime readers of the aQ list will no doubt be familiar with the Erotic Oriental Sunshine series of archival releases from Tiliqua Records in Japan (who also released the Joakim Skogsberg, this week's Record Of The Week). Each disc in the series unearths a lost gem from a particular sexy chanteuse, lost examples of a strange, and distinctly Japanese artform, where studio bands would perform groovy tunes, exotica, lounge, new age, jazz, even sometimes sort of Morricone style soundtracks, while a starlet would coo and purr, groan and moan over the top.
Past installments have included sexy action heroine Ike Reiko, Japanese "Play Girl" Kuwabara Yukiko, seventies bondage / S&M queen Naomi Tani (who Mabuki is often compared to), legendary porn actress Taguchi Kumi, sexy Lolita, Petite M'Amie, aka Mari Keiko and the most recent disc (and the only one not out of print), which instead of focusing on a particular starlet, focused on the composer responsible for many of these releases, Masami Kawahara.
But this newest installment returns to the series' original pattern, collecting all the recorded works by a single actress/performer, in this case, S+M / bondage queen Mabuki Junko, who essentially took over when Naomi Tani retired. Mabuki was curvaceous and busty, and a spirited performer, writhing and squirming as she was restrained, tied up, whipped and spanked, finding fame starring in films with titles like All Women Are Whores. Her film career was brief, her musical career even more so, having released a single 7" and a single cassette. The cassette was part of a series called Yoru No Driver, designed for truckers, to keep them company on long lonely all night drives, and were thus sold primarily in gas stations and truck stops. Both are collected here, and both are as weird and wild, freaky and fucked up as all of the other installments. And in its own way, one of the weirder installments.
Playing more like some soap opera on tape, the music is exotic and groovy, somewhere between easy listening and light jazz, but with strange Eastern tinges. The music fading out, to play in the background, while Mabuki and her male 'co-star' deliver their lines. Growing more and more frenzied and feverish, until Mabuki begins to sob, and groan, and squeal, the sound of fabric tearing, the sound of tape being pulled from a roll, the sound of whipping, grunting, breathless grunts and howls, all bathed in reverb, and over a smooth jazzy backdrop.
Other tracks feature fuzzy flute, muted trumpets, string stabs, groovy guitars, some actual singing (most notably on the second track, which was the title song to one of Mabuki's films), steel string guitars, spacey synthesizers, shimmering harps, shuffling snares, what sounds like koto, xylophones, some tracks totally goofy and cheesy, others haunting and ominous, at least one a groovy string soaked disco groove, but most all of them featuring long stretches of soap opera drama, with Mabuki pleading and sobbing tearfully, eventually giving in, and losing herself in some sexy punishment. Weird weird weird, but as always pretty fascinating and of course way recommended for fans of wild and exotic sounds.
Packaged in a super deluxe Japanese miniature gatefold style cd sleeve, with a printed obi, sexy photos of Mabuki including the cover shot of her gagged with a scarf, and the gatefold phot showing Mabuki in an open robe trussed up with red cords, and extensive liner notes in English and Japanese including a biography of Mabuki, and notes on each track. ULTRA LIMITED!!! Like most of the releases in this series, this one is a one time only limited pressing of only 1000 copies, and is already SOLD OUT. There's a good chance once these are gone we will be unable to get more...
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"

MABUSES, THE Mabused! (self-released) cd 16.98
We'd been going through a sort of Shimmy Disc revival lately, digging out all of our old favorites, the first Gwar record, Bongwater, Dogbowl, Jellyfish Kiss... We had sort of forgotten how good all that stuff was. One of our favorites though was this little Brit pop gem by a band called The Mabuses. One of the most perfect slabs of clever hook filled pop ever. The track, "Kicking A Pigeon", has to be, all hyperbole aside, one of the greatest and most lyrically bizarre pop songs EVER. So much so that on hearing it, Allan went on a tear trying to track a copy down for himself (and fear not, Andee is trying to figure  out a way to reissue that record on tUMULt!). 
We were sort of just enjoying this pop flashback, when our pal Brian at WFMU emailed to inform us that not only were the Mabuses still in fact a band, they were playing shows AND had a brand new record. So we got in touch with the band and here it is, a glorious new record from one of our favoritest pop bands, The Mabuses. 
There's no point in comparing the sound of this record to the Shimmy Disc one, since most folks probably missed it entirely, but for those who remember, the sound is relatively unchanged, lush and slightly twee, jangly guitars, soft horns, strings, all very lush and classic sounding, with clever lyrics and dreamy vocal harmonies, but with some BITE too. Some songs are super washed out and dreamy, others are angular and propulsive. The sound borrows from much that came before, but manages to distill it all into something, that once you've been Mabused, can sound like no one else. Bits and pieces of bands like the High Llamas, Steely Dan, Robyn Hitchcock, Cardinal, Jellyfish, that classic Flying Nun sound... that should give you a rough idea...
Every song here is a pop gem, but "Byayaba" might be the new "Kicking A Pigeon", a super catchy riff, sharp edged and distorted, the vocals doubled and delivered in a commanding baritone, like a pissed off more punk rock Magnetic Fields, then there's the strange garden party strings and horns jam of "Garden Devils", the fuzzy slithery grind of "Russian Roulette" featuring Kramer on bass, the harpsichord pounding Jellyfish jam of "Seasider"... it's just all so good...
To be totally honest, on first listen we couldn't help but compare Mabused! to their self titled record on Shimmy Disc, but the more we listen, the more this disc has grown on us, unfolding like a garden full of strange and wonderful flowers, and now, it seems to be permanently stuck in our players. Total pop nirvana! So so recommended. 
Gorgeously packaged too, a super elaborate die cut digipak, with a massive fold out poster / lyric sheet.
MPEG Stream: "Dark Star"
MPEG Stream: "Seasider"
MPEG Stream: "Mirth"

MACE Circulations (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98
Circulations is an instrumental album in four sections, for four instruments: drums, guitar, harp and clarinet. And tape. Which we'll explain in a second. First though, let's just say: this is so GREAT. But it's been tough to review. 'Cause there's a lot of explaining to do. And it's the sort of thing where, yup, the construction of the music IS interesting, but reading about it sorta might make it sound like an academic exercise. Which it may be, in part. But our point is, that even if you don't know how it came about, academics aside it's a really really great listen! Like a crazy soundtrack, sort of (a lot of this would be perfect for some freaky '70s Italian horror/sci-fi/suspense flick). Sometimes bewilderingly dense, at others beautifully melodic and simple. There's a chaotic tangle of sounds but it's carefully crafted, moving through (and returning to) many moods.
You'll encounter moments of heavy distorto-percussion frenzy that sound not unlike Village of Savoonga, This Heat or Dead C. Passages of pretty melody carried by the harp or the clarinet. Intense, echoing drumscapes. Shimmering textures, loud stabs of skronk guitar, placid strings, stirring arpeggios, glitchy stutter. It's very dynamic indeed. Sometime simple and serene, sometimes seriously scrambled and spliced. A complex assemblage of sounds constantly morphing and mutating...
But let's give the background on this, 'cause we're sure that some of you will be intrigued. Basically, the deal here is that young French composer Pierre-Yves Mace (who has one other album out, on Tzadik), wrote out four solos for the four instruments (drums, guitar, harp, clarinet). The musicians in question recorded these solos. Then Mace took those recordings and created four processed tape-collage backing tracks to accompany each of the original individual solos, which were then slightly revised and performed again over the tapes that Mace created. Thus four movements, created in four stages, for Percussion/Tape, Guitar/Tape, Harp/Tape, and Clarinet/Tape. (It says "tape" here, so we will too, though we suspect a computer was involved at some point, not just old-fashioned cut and splice procedures.) The 'solo' instrument is the focus of each track, but you'll hear from all of 'em throughout the disc. Fortunately, Mace's talents extend beyond this disc's conceptual framework, however interesting. While it's fun to listen and try to pick out the sounds from each solo that have been processed and transposed and otherwise recontextualized in the taped accompaniment (you'll be cross referencing from one movement to another, looking for traces of a guitar lick or clarinet motif heard elsewhere), the end-result music is just as interesting and enjoyable without even thinking about how it was created.
It stands on its own as a highly-charged, detailed and often gorgeous instrumental piece of music, which could be a brilliant electro-acoustic improv session, kinda like Ground Zero or Supersilent or those Spring Heel Jack improv projects, that blend live instruments with live electronics and sampling (self-sampling in this case). But with a 20th (21st?) century classical feel. And it's definitely composed and purposeful. Very impressive. There's certainly been a few great releases lately from the Belgian label Sub Rosa (Tibetan Buddhist Rites, Mitchell Akiyama's Small Explosions That Are Yours To Keep) and now this. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "1st Movement For Percussion / Tape"
MPEG Stream: "4th Movement For Clarinet / Tape"

MACE, PIERRE-YVES Faux-Jumeaux (Tzadik) cd 15.98

MACEDA, JOSE Gongs and Bamboos (Tzadik) cd 16.98
When Tzadik says something like "one of the most original and underappreciated composers in contemporary music" it should be taken with more than one grain of salt, yet the presentation of Philipino composer Jose Maceda certainly holds up to such critical praise. Well versed in both the temple musics of Southeast Asia and the conceptually minded compositions of Varese and Xenakis, Maceda explores an interesting form of minimalism using very large ensembles performing upon Southeast Asian instruments. "Pagsamba," for example, is a massive composition for 100 bamboo flutes, 100 bamboo, 100 bamboo clappers, 100 wooden bars and beaters, 100 bamboo scrapes for 100 instrumentalists, 8 gongs with stopped sounds, 8 gongs with free sounds, 5 male vocal quintets, and 100 mixed vocals. Whew! In a score that seems rather open-ended and no apparent lyrics to the free-floating vocals, "Pagsamba" has more than a few similarities to "The Great Learning" by Cornelius Cardew. "Suling-Suling" is another piece of extended minimalism for a 30 member ensemble for flutes, bamboo buzzers, and flat gongs with a composition that again is somewhat open-ended. As the performance of "Suling-Suling" was done by the Mills Contemporary Ensemble, it has much more of that "stumbling down the stairs" feel. The final piece "Colors Without Rhythms" (as perfomed by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra) is a piece for intertwining percussion, vibraphone, harp, strings, woodwinds, etc... recalling Terry Riley's painterly "In C."

MACEO & ALL THE KING'S MEN Doing Their Own Thing (Fuel 2000) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Reissue of this classic soul/funk album. Escaping from under the thumb of Soul Brother No. 1, Mr. James Brown (a genius, but a tyrant), tenor saxophonist Maceo Parker formed a new group of equally fed-up ex-James Brown sidemen, including trumpeter Richard "Kush" Griffith, guitarist Jimmy "Chank" Nolen, and Maceo's drummer brother Melvin Parker. Of course, many of this crew, even Maceo, would be back with Brown within a few years, joining up with his equally incredible new band, The JB's... but briefly, anyway, All The King's Men struck out on their own, debuting with this disc in 1970. It wasn't a commerical success (some say 'cause a revengeful James Brown actually paid disc jockeys NOT to play it), but it is a fine slice of funk by some of the best in the business! Essential for any funkateer's collection.

MACGOWAN, SHANE, AND POPES The Snake (ZTT/Warner Bros) cd 16.98

MACGOWAN, SHANE, AND POPES The Snake (ZTT/Warner Bros) lp 14.98

MACHA Forget Tomorrow (Jetset) cd 15.98
It's been ages since we last heard from Macha (you might recall their glorious intricate ethno-infused pop albums, particularly the Cup fave See It Another Way). In the time that's passed since their last album, everyone and his grandmother seems to have hopped aboard the retro 80s disco-punk bandwagon. So when we took this new Macha album out for a spin, it was a little disconcerting to find that on the first track (also the title track) of their first releases in five years, it sure sounded like they too had bowed to the pressure/appeal of the '80s trend. It's a very Faint-ish, thumpin' highly danceable tune with high New Order-y synths and effected vocals -- fits in well with the current crowd of Killers and Franz Ferdinands. However we were pleased to discover that after that odd re-introduction (perhaps it's their 'single'?!), things fall back into more familiar sound. That is, coolly rhythmic and sultry songs interspersed with a few solemn atmospheric interludes. Each track is warmly populated with assorted Southeast Asian instruments (which oddly enough have become very much in vogue as of late as well).
MPEG Stream: "Forget Tomorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Calming Passengers"

MACHA / BEDHEAD Macha Love Bedhead (Jetset) cd 9.99
These two great bands have joined forces to offer up a collection of songs that could gracefully slip into a loveseat with Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out. Pretty organ tones, marimba, zither, and maracas. Warm and lovely. And yes to top it all off, a sweet sensitive guy with a pushbutton phone covers Cher's smash hit "Believe".

MACHINEFABRIEK Flotter (self-released) 3" cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not one, but TWO brand new records from the amazing Machinefabriek. This self released, single track, 22 minute mini-epic is a sweeping cinematic trawl through murky dreamy drones and blown out soft focus buzz. A slow building, constantly shifting, tidal like drift. Huge black swells wash over glimmering glistening shimmers, distant keening drones and a pulsing low end rumble. It's like some sort of Pop Ambient, slowed way down, the fuzzed out dreaminess becoming granular, each note, each layer, every element of the music becoming tiny visible microscopic musical molecules, madly vibrating in little clouds, wreathing the proceedings in an ever mutating swirl of ambient blur, like wisps of smoke, or little clouds of insects...
While beneath the surface lurks something dark, a melodic malevolence that permeates the whole disc, ominous, minor key, mournful, a washed out sorrow, a strange haunting creepiness, lending the track an air of sadness, of loss, but at the same time, the sound manages to be strangely warm and inviting, a little alluring, the soundtrack to some dark personal tragedy long forgotten, a sound that lulls you, pulls you under, and leads you off to some strange land, long after your eyes have closed and your spirit has been loosed. The whole track culminating in an ultra minimal coda of near silence, but close listening reveals all manner of barely audible filigree, lowercase buzz, muted crackle and gauzy melodic shadows...
Packaged in an oversized full color jacket, housed in a vinyl sleeve, and pressed on a cool black mini cd-r...
MPEG Stream: "Flotter (extract 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Flotter (extract 2)"

MACHINEFABRIEK Hapstaart (self-released) 3"cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wow! Another cd-r from Machinefabriek, who seems to be in some sort of competition with his sometime partner in sonic crime, Jasper TX, who seem to in the throes of trying to out release each other. But that is most definitely not a complaint. We're all winners in this contest. But for those of you keeping score, it's 6 to 5 Machinefabriek, but heck, that's only counting the ones we got here.
Anyway, we're just happy to have more Machinefabriek to listen to. This 20 minute 3" bucks the usual trend of most 3" cd-r's and instead of offering up one ultra long sprawling epic, splits his 20 minutes into 11 bite size pieces, which actually suits the sounds on Hapstaart as well.
Unlike the blissy gauzy ambience of his other releases, on Hapstaart, Rutger Zuydervelt, the man who is Machinefabriek, pushes his sounds to the extreme, ending up with a disc that has more in common with Ryoji Ikeda than it does any of his drone bliss peers. The whole disc seems to be based on a massive, barely audible low end thrum, that pulses and throbs subtly over the course of the 20 minutes, sometimes dipping to near silence, other times threatening to blow the speakers. Textures and layers are ultra minimal, with the volume turned waaaaaaaay up, you can hear these little drones twist and shimmer. The record is peppered with bits of crackle, of little pops, brief exhalations of hiss, or static, crumbling sine waves, intense streaks of jagged high end, but these intrusions are typically brief, fading out as fast as they appeared, only to leave the records active ultra low-end to slither almost silently on its way.
An awesome slab of microscopic sound. Headphones recommended!
MPEG Stream: "track 5"
MPEG Stream: "track 8"

MACHINEFABRIEK Huis (self-released) 3" cd-r 7.98
Once again, like clockwork, it's time for another short sweet blast of fuzzy sounds from our favorite sonic overachiever Machinefabriek. We recently made Weleer, a collection of long out of print self released Machinefabriek cd-r's record of the week, and it seems as if already, Mr. Machinefabriek Rutger Zuydervelt is already hard at work preparing for a second volume. 
For those of you not content to wait, this here latest gem is another 3" cd-r, but instead of one looooooong piece, this is 10 tracks crammed into less than 20 minutes -- but they all sort of play out as a single piece with different movements. One of the prettier, more delicate discs we've heard from Zuydervelt, Huis is heavy on the piano, always drenched in reverb, and often allowed to drift aimlessly over fuzzy backdrops. The best part of Huis, and maybe the most subtle, is the presence of extreme amounts of bass, huge rib cage rattling swells, throbbing barely audible tectonic shifts, adding a strange weight to the delicate soft focus drift. Steel string guitars fade in and out, sweet music box melodies, melodic fragments, glitchy and washed out. Compositionally, the most dramatic development is a strange stop start rhythmic remixing, each little snippet of warm fuzzy ambience, is chopped into strange rhythms, a slow motion pulse, almost like someone is pressing pause and play on your cd player creating weird throbbing abstract arrangements. Bizarre for sure, and at first it sounds like your cd player is on the fritz, but soon you get sucked into the subtle rhythm and the whole thing reveals itself as weirdly hypnotic and so lovely. 
Another sparkling sonic gem from the seemingly infallible Machinefabriek. And as always, crazy limited, we got a bunch but will probably sell out fast. So you know what that means...
MPEG Stream: "Welkom Thuis"
MPEG Stream: "Droog Water"

MACHINEFABRIEK Koploop (self-released) 3" cd-r 8.98
Another brief but fantastic little self released 3" cd-r from the ever prolific Machinefabriek, aka Rutger Zuydervelt. We won't go into too much detail, as  obviously fans already know they need this, and folks new to the gorgeous soft sounds of Machinefabriek could do worse than starting with this relatively cheap introduction. And as always, this is super limited, we only got a handful, and that might be all we can get. 
Once again utilizing a strange arsenal of sound making devices: memo recorders, mixing deck, effects pedals, guitar, banjo, organ, laptop as well as violin and cello (provided by guest musicians), Zuydervelt weaves a breathtaking world of tranquil ambience, all summery shimmer, warm summery warble, soft languorous drones that flow and pulse like the tides. Near the end it opens up and becomes some impossibly expansive soundworld, almost choral sounding, like some homespun piece by Arvo Part, the strings emerging near the end to flutter and flit, like butterflies after a rain storm. So lovely. 
Packaged in a mini 3" sleeve, strikingly designed, also includes an URL where you can download an alternate version of Koploop...
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

MACHINEFABRIEK Lenteliedjes (Type) 7" 7.98
This new series of 7"s from the Type label looks to be pretty amazing. Even just based on the first two releases. A new single from Paavohaarju reviewed elsewhere on this list, and this here single from former AQ Record of the Week honoree Machinefabriek. The Machinefabriek cd was released on a label called Lampse, who we have decided is our perfect label. Every release is somehow in some way distressed, whether it's electronic, or lilting pop, everything is buried in hiss, or record crackle, the sound is murky or blurry, everything has that foggy distant sepia toned vibe that we can never get enough of, like Jeck or Basinski or Tim Hecker, Machinefabriek creates a mysterious sound world that hovers like a dear memory or a hard to recall dream.
This 7" is a strange one, as each side is split into 4 distinct fragments, each dark and dreamy in their own way, but also quite brief and way too fleeting. It's almost like a sonic slideshow, with just a few moments to glimpse each image, each sound. Side A starts off with some sort of wheezing harmonium, a music box like melody, with a haunting low end lullaby lurking beneath, the next movement begins with chiming bell like melody, lilting and dreamlike, under a glaze of static and crackle, all beneath a warm swirl of synth buzz and disembodied spoken word, part three is all strummed steel string guitar swathed in rumbling melodic grit, quite sweet and sad, and finally a sort of redux of the first track with a warm wash of forced air, a whirring mournful melody. The second side begins with a jaunty ice cream truck melody bathed in gentle chimes, all over a gently buzzing drone, part two is a swirl of shimmering guitars and chirping birds, the guitar sounding quite a bit like the intro to the Smiths' "How Soon Is Now" only stretched way out, while above drifts more buzzing steel strings and random found sounds. This slowly gives way to a murky soundscape with distant percussion, all crumbling and dark, drifty and dreamy but strangely ominous, and finally a mysterious little coda of chiming acoustic guitar, simple percussive thud and barely there glitch. So nice.

MACHINEFABRIEK Machinefabriek's Stottermuziek (self-released) 3" cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Super limited, self released ep from one of our favorite proponents of what we've decided to call fuzzy dreamdrone soft noise. Well, actually, we only decided to call it that just now, but it does describe the sound of Machinefabriek perfectly, as well as his Lampse labelmates Jasper TX and Gultskra Artikler, all of whom traffic in similar droney drift...
On Stottermuziek, Machinefabriek explores similar territory as on his AQ record of the week Marjin from back in May. A dark dreamlike journey through a swirling soundworld of minimal whir and hum, shimmer and sparkle. Super soft shuffling swells of barely there sound, bits of hiss and whirring white noise surfacing here and there, strings woven into soft smears of sound, crumbling slightly distorted melodies drifting to and fro like some alien sonic tide, buzzing steel strings over a muted distant percussive throb, all delicately arranged into a gorgeous soft focus sonic landscape.
Packaged a bit like the Celebrate Psi Phenomenon releases in sleeves made from old wall paper, in little 3" plastic pouches with a sticker affixed to the front. And as with most things like this... VERY LIMITED!!!
MPEG Stream: "Donderwolk"
MPEG Stream: "Maris"