MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Mectpyo Bacterium (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the liner notes, a smug Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB) included a quote from Genesis P-Orridge who described MB's early 80's industrial noise records as 'boring, meaningless, pathetic'. I'd agree with MB in claiming that Gen was jealous, as MB was able to construct brutal hallucinatory recordings of electronic noise that offer metaphors of microscopic anyeurisms which collapse the body from within. Bleak chilling drones that are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler's most neurotic, Nurse With Wound's most droning, and Whitehouse's least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with a more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he joined a monastary.
Some of my favourite 'noise' records that have been gratefully reissued, thus sparing me from shelling out the $120.00 that I've seen the vinyl editions of these records going for!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Mectpyo Box (E'Est) 10cd box 250.00
Since around 2004, the Italian industrial composer Maurizio Bianchi has unleashed an impossible stream of recordings, often in collaboration with electronics musicians all over the world but unfortunately with spotty results. There are plenty of reasons why any label and / or artist would jump at the chance to release and / or record something, anything by Mr. Bianchi; and this 10cd boxset of his seminal recordings from the early '80s defines them all. This actually marks the second reissue campaign for these recordings, some of which originally appeared on Sterile Records and Broken Flag; but many of which had been self-published on Bianchi's own imprint. Bianchi - who simply recorded at the time as MB - had infamously been released through William Bennett's Come Organisation, who had recontextualized Bianchi's recordings of grim mechanoid drones with Nazi speeches spliced on top and changed his nom de plume to Leibstandarte SS MB... all without Bianchi's consent. Numerous cassettes, plenty of compilation appearances, and 10 lps marked this very prolific period in the early '80s for Bianchi, whereby he issued forth brutal, hallucinatory blasts of electronic noise and grinding rhythms of hand-cut tape noise and overblown synthetic distortion. These were the blackened, nihilist version of Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster, and Klaus Schulze as filtered through the industrial ethos of Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse.
But by 1984, Bianchi just stopped. There were innumerable rumors about his departure from the music community. Some said, he had become a monk. Some said, he was crippled in an accident. But the truth of the matter was that he dedicated himself to his faith as a Jehovah's Witness. His distance only heightened the mythology about this artist and increased the cultural cache of those early recordings. Hence, the necessity for this boxset.
Here, you will find those ten LPs - Symphony For A Genocide, Menses, Neuro Habitat / Moerter Under Uns, Regel, Mectpyo Bakterium, Das Testament, Endometrio, Carcinosi, The Plain Truth, and Armagheddon - each released with plenty of bonus tracks from any number of those various compilation tracks. And for those of you who had picked up the two 5lp anthologies of MB's work on Vinyl On Demand, we don't think there's any overlap between this box set and those collections.
The first records are violent display of neurotic vibrations and deadly electronics, the second is relatively dreamy, albeit retaining the sonic qualities of erratic vertigo and shadowy hallucinations. His suffocating experiments with primitive synths, delay pedals, turntables, and tape machines collapsed in on themselves with an electrocuted obliteration of sound. Out of the ashes of such early albums as Symphony for a Genocide and Neuro Habitat, Bianchi allowed for a structuralism with tentative rhythms and melodies to rise out of the blackened grit on the work found on Endometrio and The Plain Truth. Each of the albums found on this box set are available individually; however, the box set features additional artwork, plenty of bonus tracks not on the original lps (but still the same from the first reissue campaign), and a handful of Bianchi's cryptic music critiques. Of all of the dronescapes, noise attacks, and electronic warbles that Aquarius has lavished with critical hyperbole, MB remains at the top of the list in terms of innovation and actualization of metaphor and intent.
MPEG Stream: "Endometrio Secondo Ciclo"
MPEG Stream: "The Plain Truth : M.B. 55 T.D. 56"
MPEG Stream: "Symphony For A Genocide : Treblinka"
MPEG Stream: "Morder Unter Uns"

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Menses (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the liner notes, a smug Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB) included a quote from Genesis P-Orridge who described MB's early 80's industrial noise records as 'boring, meaningless, pathetic'. I'd agree with MB in claiming that Gen was jealous, as MB was able to construct brutal hallucinatory recordings of electronic noise that offer metaphors of microscopic anyeurisms which collapse the body from within. Bleak chilling drones that are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler's most neurotic, Nurse With Wound's most droning, and Whitehouse's least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with a more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he joined a monastary.
Some of my favourite 'noise' records that have been gratefully reissued, thus sparing me from shelling out the $120.00 that I've seen the vinyl editions of these records going for!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Neuro Habitat (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the liner notes, a smug Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB) included a quote from Genesis P-Orridge who described MB's early 80's industrial noise records as 'boring, meaningless, pathetic'. I'd agree with MB in claiming that Gen was jealous, as MB was able to construct brutal hallucinatory recordings of electronic noise that offer metaphors of microscopic anyeurisms which collapse the body from within. Bleak chilling drones that are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler's most neurotic, Nurse With Wound's most droning, and Whitehouse's least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with a more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he joined a monastary.
Some of my favourite 'noise' records that have been gratefully reissued, thus sparing me from shelling out the $120.00 that I've seen the vinyl editions of these records going for!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Regel (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the liner notes, a smug Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB) included a quote from Genesis P-Orridge who described MB's early 80's industrial noise records as 'boring, meaningless, pathetic'. I'd agree with MB in claiming that Gen was jealous, as MB was able to construct brutal hallucinatory recordings of electronic noise that offer metaphors of microscopic anyeurisms which collapse the body from within. Bleak chilling drones that are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler's most neurotic, Nurse With Wound's most droning, and Whitehouse's least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with a more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he joined a monastary.
Some of my favourite 'noise' records that have been gratefully reissued, thus sparing me from shelling out the $120.00 that I've seen the vinyl editions of these records going for!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Symphony for a Genocide (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the liner notes, a smug Maurizio Bianchi (aka MB) included a quote from Genesis P-Orridge who described MB's early 80's industrial noise records as 'boring, meaningless, pathetic'. I'd agree with MB in claiming that Gen was jealous, as MB was able to construct brutal hallucinatory recordings of electronic noise that offer metaphors of microscopic anyeurisms which collapse the body from within. Bleak chilling drones that are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler's most neurotic, Nurse With Wound's most droning, and Whitehouse's least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with a more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he joined a monastary.
Some of my favourite 'noise' records that have been gratefully reissued, thus sparing me from shelling out the $120.00 that I've seen the vinyl editions of these records going for!

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) The Plain Truth (EEs'T / Alga Marghan) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Originally released in 1983 on Broken Flag (the malignant UK label which spawned Skullflower and Ramleh), "The Plain Truth" distances itself considerably from MB's preceeding electroshock bricolages, coming closest to the "Forbidden Planet" aesthetic of poetically bleak electronics. If one were to ask me to bet on when Maurzio Bianchi (MB) came to God, I'd put $100 on this record. Aside from the giveaway inscription "This record is dedicated to all the redeemed people," "The Plain Truth" has dropped the decomposition metaphors of sound / body from Bianchi's arsenal of sound and has left behind a swirling miasma of cosmic synth drones that one might find in Conrad Schnitzler's most mindwarping psychedelectronics. Regardless of the status of Bianchi's belief at the time of this recording, "The Plain Truth" is a fabulous piece of kaleidoscopic darkness.

MB (MAURIZIO BIANCHI) / HUE / FHIEVEL Erimos (Digitalis) cd 11.98

MB (MAURIZIO BIANCHI) Symphony For A Genocide (Hospital Productions) cd 12.98
Hospital Recordings has just reissued the first proper M.B. album, which first came out on Sterile Records in 1981 and then again on CD on Alga Marghen in the mid '90s. They've redone the design, making it look more stripped down, lo-fi and punk rock with gritty scans of the Alga Marghen artwork and old school cut and paste liner notes (that unfortunately seem to be missing some of the original notes), but don't let the makeover fool you, this is still some of the most abject and brilliantly bleak dronemusic ever.
Symphony For A Genocide wasn't the first recording for the Italian Industrialist, as he did have some earlier recordings as Sacher-Pelz and the infamous Leibstandarte SS MB albums (on which Whitehouse's William Bennett dubbed various Nazi speeches on top of Bianchi's music without Bianchi's permission). Bianchi's work does come out of a transgressive mindset; but one that is uniformly misanthropic, nihilistic, and utterly black. On this album, MB construct brutal, hallucinatory blasts of electronic noise and grinding rhythms of hand-cut tape noise and overblown synthetic distortion. These, bleak chilling drones are reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler at his most neurotic, Nurse With Wound at their most droning, and Whitehouse at their least annoying. MB's very prolific career in the early 80's with more than a dozen records was cut short in 1984 at which time he declared himself a Jehovah's Witness and ceased making music until recently when he finally returned to the blackened ambience of old.
It should also be noted that the recordings of Symphony For A Genocide are drastically different from another set of recordings called SFAG (Symphony For A Genocide), which has also gotten the reissue treatment twice, adding extra confusion into the mix.
MPEG Stream: "Treblinka"
MPEG Stream: "Auschwitz"

MC HAWKING A Brief History Of Rhyme (Brash Recordings) cd 14.98

MC5 Are You Ready To Testify! The Live Bootleg Anthology (Sanctuary) 3cd 21.00

MC5 Back In The USA (Atlantic) cd 13.98

MC5 High Time (Rhino) cd 9.98

MC5 High Time (Total Energy) lp 15.98

MC5 Kick Out The Jams (Elektra) cd 10.98
Rock n' roll albums don't get too much more classic than this one!!

MC5 Motor City Is Burning (Trojan) cd 16.98
With so many retro rock bands out there these days attempting to recapture the magic and fury of the MC5, I think we must pay respect where it is due and remember how awesome and revolutionary this band was. Recorded live at various venues, Motor City Is Burning features one of very few known recordings of "Black To Comm", their infamous two chord blast, and the main inspiration for Spacemen 3's "Revolution". Featuring such classics as "Ramblin Rose", "Borderline" and of course "Kick Out the Jams", this album remains a rough, raw and significant sonic testament to the importance and legacy of the MC5. I don't usually like live records but this one conveys so much fucking energy and rock that it's a record that should be live.
RealAudio clip: "Black to Comm"
RealAudio clip: "Kick Out The Jams"

MC5 Starship - Live at the Sturgis Armory June 27, 1968 (Total Energy) cd 13.98
Pretty excellent early live MC5 show, remastered and with notes by former manager/White Panther leader/Total Energy label guy John Sinclair. Previously available as a Euro-boot called Black To Comm. Yep, that famed song's on here, as well as a bunch of the Five's other greats and covers of James Brown, Pharoah Sanders (!), and Little Richard...Nobody rocks like this anymore, it's true.

MCBAIN, JOHN The In-Flight Feature (Duna) cd 16.98
Former Monster Magnet guitarist, also of Wellwater Conspiracy.
MPEG Stream: "The Underwater Pornographer's Assistant"
MPEG Stream: "In Santiago Airspace"

MCBRIDE, BRIAN When The Detail Lost Its Freedom (Kranky) cd 14.98
Brian McBride is one half of AQ faves Stars Of The Lid, a group who specialized in somnambulent moonlit guitarscapes, dark and gorgeously lugubrious, and who more recently have begun to explore more lush and epic musical vistas. Some of our favorite late night dreamy drones have come from those Stars, so it's no surprise that McBride's first proper solo outing is just as mysterious and compelling. A lush series of swoonsome smears, warm chordal swells stretched into slow burning minor key sagas, minor key but still strangely hopeful sounding, sun dappled with the first rays of morning light after an endless night of darkness and despair. Each piece on When The Detail Lost Its Freedom is delicately assembled from minimal violins, gentle piano, moaning trumpets, haunting western guitar, drifting disembodied vocals, and warm reverb, all swirled into indistinct shapes, like opening your eyes first thing in the morning, a hazy blurry dreamlike world, so serene and peaceful. At times, it almost sounds like the most minimal of post rock, but slowed down to a drumless crawl, the occasional vocals definitely remind us of Low, a darkly romantic slowcore, but wherever McBride takes these songs, we're never far from slipping back into a doleful drift of melancholy moods and slow shifting shimmers. It's sort of like staring into a thick cloudy swirl of sound, dense and drifting, with the occasional melody or voice slowly emerging and taking shape before flickering and fading out, dissolving into the swells of surrounding sound. So lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Overture (For Other Halfs)"
MPEG Stream: "A Gathering To Lead Me When You're Gone"

MCCANN, SEAN Flutter Oasis (Digitalis) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another crazy limited cassette release. This one from a name we'd never heard before, Sean McCann, but judging from this tape, we'll definitely want to be hearing more.
The sound is super distorted and in-the-red, lo-fi and warbly, like it was recorded on some old thrift store tape on a busted up tape recorder, the guitar being the focal point, but rendered in numerous un-guitar-like sounds and setting, simple strums are distorted to the point of complete collapse, strange effects make the tape sound like it's skipping, vocals howl and croon, everything super washed out.
Some tracks are warm and whirring and warbly, almost old timey sounding, everything shimmery and dreamlike, circus like melodies, kitchen sink percussion, and a soft focus patina of fuzz and buzz and whir, the tape continually slowing to a crawl, or skipping and hiccupping like the stop and record buttons getting pushed, others are dense and chaotic, but with the same sort of sun dappled summer dreaminess, the distortion and the tape drop outs as much, if not more of, a part of the sound than the actual instruments.
Noisy, but that sort of soft noise, dreamy, but not sleepy, instead a sort of druggy bleary eyed drift, think lo-fi folk or pop, via Merzbow, filtered through Philip Jeck and Tim Hecker, recorded by Faxed Head, and played back on a Dictaphone with dying batteries plugged into a massive P.A. with blown speakers. So cool.
LIMITED TO ONLY 50 COPIES!!! In beautiful silk screened sleeves, with a printed insert, each tape hand numbered.

MCCANN, SEAN Wind In Their Way (Monorail Trespassing) cassette 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
San Franciscan Sean McCann has produced a ton of material running the gamut between splattery feral pop, crusty noise, and dreamy droneworks; and despite our neighborly geographies, we've only managed to get a hold of a few of his recordings, most of which tend toward the micro-edition side of things. The fine folks at Foxy Digitalis have been showering this guy with praise; and now we can see why on this great cassette from the increasingly essential cassette label Monorail Trespassing. Wind In Their Way begins with a sweeping atmosphere of elongated drone, smoke, and shadow with an elegant violin emoting sad, sad melodies all bathed in reverb, looped back into those background sounds, and muddled nicely into the mix. Here, McCann seems to be paralleling what fellow Bay Area stringed conjurer Darwinsbitch had mustered on her impressive Ore album released earlier in 2009. This same direction continues on the second side of the album, with more shimmering tones that probably have their origins from a guitar, producing majestic swells of ambience not nearly as dark as those by Troum but just as ethereal, with those gauzy, flickering ghosts of sound woven in and out. Peter Wright and Machinefabriek even come to mind on this lovely, lovely, lovely piece. Limited to 125 copies!

MCCARTHY The Best of Mccarthy: That's All Very Well But... (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
Tim Gane before he met Laetitia and formed Stereolab.

MCCARTHY, DAWN & BONNY BILLY Wai Notes (Sea Note) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wai notes is essentially the raw and super stripped down version of The Letting Go, the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album from 2006, compiled from the demos of that album. On that record he teamed up with Dawn McCarthy from Faun Fables who added back up vocals that sounded both sweet and haunting. But we have to say that these bedroom recordings do these songs more justice then the fully produced version that ended up being the album. We love hearing Will Oldham's classic voice as it's captured so intense and raw right onto what sounds like a 4-track cassette. It's the sparse and chilling side of Oldham's songs that made us fall in love with him all those years back. And we love the tape hiss that crackles so slightly throughout the recording adding such a scrumptious layer of warmth to the cozy and intimate words being sung alongside very minimal and bare acoustic guitar all accented by McCarthy's other worldly back-up's. So simple and stunning! Very limited so you know what that means....
MPEG Stream: "Then The Letting Go"
MPEG Stream: "Wai"

MCCARTNEY, PAUL AND WINGS Band on the Run: 25th Anniversary Edition (Capitol) 2cd box 15.98
You might have thought you'd never see a Paul McCartney record here at Aquarius, but you'd be very wrong. Hey, we carry Kix, Chicago, and John Prine, too, and if you think we're old fogeys for doing so, grow up! We've always said that a real music fan loves all kinds of music as long as it's good, and boy is this album killer (and, like, duh, the Beatles were really awesome too). It took the long lost Peruvian psychedelic group We All Together (themselves the subject of some great recent reissues) to really wake us up to McCartney again. From the epic Lennon-esque "Let Me Roll It" to the title track, "Band on the Run" features amazing songwriting and delivery, and it's beloved by all here at AQ. For the price of one disc you get a deluxe box with two cds within. The second disc "relives the period when the album was made and includes the voices of Paul and linda McCartney, Dustin Hoffman and the celebrities who appear on the cover. Running in excess of 50 minutes, the programme also includes previously unreleased version of some Band on the Run tracks."

MCCOMBS, CASS PREfection (Monitor) cd 14.98
On his sophomore outing PREfection, Mr. Cass McCombs proves he's no run of the mill singer/songwriter. Imagine the quirky pop of Robyn Hitchcock crossed with the swoonsome elegance of Rufus Wainwright and laced with the British melancholia of Morrissey, but then drench it all in cavernous cathedral reverb a la Neko Case or My Morning Jacket. Sound good to you? He's sure got quite a knack for crafting seemingly straightforward songs that your ears will like, but he's got a few tricks up his sleeve to boot. Check out the peppy retro British pop stylings (complete with organ!) of the second song, "Subtraction". It's a great kickstart-your-morning kind of tune, not unlike a gentler version of Iggy's "Lust For Life". The next number "Multiple Suns" is quite a bit darker and more brooding, but still wholly engaging. He saves his most unconventional track for last, "All Your Dreams May Come True". For the first few minutes it's a straightforward sensitive pop song but it eventually dissolves into a lengthy soundscape.
MPEG Stream: "Subtraction"
MPEG Stream: "All Your Dreams May Come True"

MCCOOK, TOMMY Blazing Horns / Tenor In Roots (Blood & Fire) cd 16.98

MCCOOK, TOMMY AND THE SUPERSONIC Top Secret (Beatville) cd 14.98

MCCULLOCH, BRUCE Drunk Baby Project (Drunk Baby) cd 16.98
Here it is, the second cd from this Kid In The Hall! If you were fortunate to see him on his one-man tour or check out his first cd Shame Based Man, then you know you're in for some of the blackest, most absurd humor. Frequently it's much more so than any of the stuff he did on the series. Some of the tales - addressing all the usual subjects, y'know, sex, religion, aliens and Bob Seger - he conveys in his unmistakable half-sung, over the top rock/blues delivery, on others it's in his supreme deadpan, while on another, well... let's just say you'll be hearing from a voice that sounds a lot like KITH fave Gavin. The music backing him comes courtesy of Craig Northey who also did the soundtrack for their movie Brain Candy and Brian Connelly of Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet (who wrote and performed the tv series' theme song) and more recently of Neko Case And Her Boyfriends. An in-store listen triggered many a groan specifically directed at the backing music, but taken together with the words it all makes perfect sense. There's a definite unsettling quality about it, but not in the way you might think. Composing a very eclectic array of tunes, these two follow McCulloch's twisted path quite closely and effectively, but it often falls in the super slick and radio-friendly department. On its own, you too might find it a bit painful to listen to, but maybe the discomfort's intentional... to make the listener squirm and cringe even little bit more. Listening to Bruce McCulloch is not always a belly laugh funny experience, it can be an amazingly dark, heartbreaking bullseye bummer. Such is the role of the comedian. Yes, it's funny 'cause it's true.
RealAudio clip: "Aliens"
RealAudio clip: "Never Trust"
RealAudio clip: "Sucra Poppa"

MCDANIELS, EUGENE Outlaw (Water) cd 14.98

MCDONALD, STEVEN GROUP This Is Not A Rebellion (Five Foot Two) cd ep 8.98
Sounds like Ol' McDonald's taken a turn away from his former feisty power pop self into a more straight-up rock guise. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. There are glimpses on this EP of the McDonald brothers' trademark vocal harmonies and non-stop kick-ass catchiness. It's hard not to draw comparisons to their past glories, especially considering that (as Redd Kross) they'd cornered the market on shining, well-crafted pop back in the late '80s / early '90s. You'd hope that some of that quality would've inevitably surfaced in other subsequent musical endeavors. However, it's been many moons since then, and it seems all that remains are those few faint glimmers. The magical chemistry is gone and these songs seem somewhat lackluster and a bit clunky. Maybe it was his bro' Jeff who wielded the mightier songwriting pen? To find out what he's been up to, check out his band Ze Malibu Kidz.

MCDOWELL, FRED s/t (Mississippi) lp 14.98
MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!!!!!
This reissue of Fred McDowell's 1966 second lp for the Arhoolie label is arguably one of the Mississippi delta bluesman's best outings. Discovered in the late fifties by Alan Lomax, McDowell has become since then and until his death in 1972, one of the more famous practitioners of the delta blues tradition. His most well known song, "You Got To Move", included here, was famously covered by the Rolling Stones, and his world-weary voice that ranges from drawling mumble to intense emphatic howls comes from a deep but humble spiritual core. Though he honed his craft at fish fries and dances, many of his songs were laments and spirituals about trying evils, redemption, and longing for love. Here on some tracks he is accompanied by close friends, Eli Green on second guitar, and his wife Anne on second voice. The track "I Wish I Was In Heaven Sittin' Down" was recorded with the Hunter's Chapel Spiritual Singers, whom Fred performed with often on Sunday Mornings. A fine and essential addition to the Mississippi Records catalog and your Mississippi Records collection!

MCDOWELL, MISSISSIPPI FRED Live at the Mayfair Hotel (Infinite Zero/Warner) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE. SORRY
Reissued by Henry Rollins' (major) label. Tried and true bluesman who named one of his albums I do not play no rock & roll. White underground rockers love getting verbal whupped like that. Makes 'em feel less guilty. Discuss.

MCDUFF, BROTHER JACK Gin & Orange (Dusty Groove) cd 14.98

MCGARRIGLE, KATE & ANNA Matapedia (Hannibal) cd 15.98
Lovely record by these folk-singing sisters (and NPR darlings).

MCGINTY, KATHY s/t (Hamburger Records) cd 11.98
BACK IN STOCK! If you missed out on this all-time AQ "comedy" fave before, now's your chance... here's what we said about it when it was first reissued on cd back in 2001, and we made it Record Of The Week:
FINALLY! We've been waiting ages for this to get reissued and the wait is now over! Easily one of the funniest, weirdest, most fucked up records ever. As I'm writing this, everyone else here is laughing hysterically while this plays in the store. In fact, I'm having trouble concentrating or even typing with this playing. It is so goddamn funny. But also kind of creepy and totally bizarre. But mostly very very funny! Originally released as a cd-r, later bootlegged by an unscrupulous LA record label, Kathy McGinty is now available as a professionally pressed cd (no longer a cd-r) with new liner notes and bonus material not included on the original cd-r release!! Here's what we had to say about the original:
You ever have that problem where you're in an internet sex chat room, and you make a date with some pervy girl for a phone sex session, and then when you call her up it's actually some jerk with a sampler loaded with a sexy female voice telling you things like "Taco Bell is sooo good?" Well if you did, chances are you're one of the crank call victims on this extremely funny and fucked up cd. We guarantee, if you hear this stuff you'll die laughing (unless you're a total prude, of course). It's really unbelievable how pathetic the guys are who attempt to carry on a phone sex chat with "Kathy McGinty", who is pretty obviously a recorded voice triggered by someone's Yamaha SU10 sampler. They don't seem to mind that she sounds like she's talking to them over a CB radio, or that most of what she says is absurd and nonsensical, like a random sound collage from a porno movie. Her Taco bell comment just gets a moan of agreement from the hapless caller.
A few of the callers figure it out, and then it gets even more pathetic as they continue to masturbate, being such geeks that they're turned on by the technical details of the joke (one guy asks, excitedly, about if the sampler is triggered by keyboard or mouse). But most of the guys are so clueless and horny that they're completely unfazed by Kathy's bizarre comments ("I think you might be racist", "I want to have your retarded babies", "I've got a pickle in my ass", "You know I'm only 12?", "I sell used cars", "Check out my hairy balls", "I'm all fucked up from huffing Scotch Guard", "I think I might be having a miscarriage") and limited vocabulary (she says "Yesssss!" the same way every time), or her deafeningly noisy, Merzbow-level obviously-looped screams of orgasmic ecstasy. We could go on, but we don't want to reveal too much. Just get this, it's the best crank call disc we've heard in a long time. You'll be playing it for everyone you know, except maybe your mom. Absurdly funny.
MPEG Stream: "Very Large Hands"
MPEG Stream: "OK, This Is A Recording"
MPEG Stream: "This Is Damien"
MPEG Stream: "I Look Like A Cock"
MPEG Stream: "How Many Fingers?"

MCGINTY, KATHY s/t (Hamburger Records) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY. REAL CD VERSION W/ BONUS TRACKS COMING SOON, HOWEVER!!
You ever have that problem where you're in an internet sex chat room, and you make a date with some pervy girl for a phone sex session, and then when you call her up it's actually some jerk with a sampler loaded with a sexy female voice telling you things like "Taco Bell is sooo good?" Well if you did, chances are you're one of the crank call victims on this extremely funny and fucked up cd-r. We guarantee, if you hear this stuff you'll die laughing (unless you're a total prude, of course). It's really unbelievable how pathetic the guys are who attempt to carry on a phone sex chat with "Kathy McGinty", who is pretty obviously a recorded voice triggered by someone's Yamaha SU10 sampler. They don't seem to mind that she sounds like she's talking to them over a CB radio, or that most of what she says is absurd and nonsensical, like a random sound collage from a porno movie. Her Taco bell comment just gets a moan of agreement from the hapless caller.
A few of the callers figure it out, and then it gets even more pathetic as they continue to masturbate, being such geeks that they're turned on by the technical details of the joke (one guy asks, excitedly, about if the sampler is triggered by keyboard or mouse). But most of the guys are so clueless and horny that they're completely unfazed by Kathy's bizarre comments ("I think you might be racist", "I want to have your retarded babies", "I've got a pickle in my ass") and limited vocabulary (she says "Yesssss!" the same way every time), or her deafeningly noisy, Merzbow-level obviously-looped screams of orgasmic ecstasy. We could go on, but we don't want to reveal too much. Just get this, it's the best crank call disc we've heard in a long time. You'll be playing it for everyone you know, except maybe your mom. Absurdly funny.
RealAudio clip: "I'm Jamming It In Deep, Baby"
RealAudio clip: "I'm Not A Child Molestor, But I'll Fuck You"

MCGONIGAL, MIKE 33 1/3 Series: Loveless (Continuum) book 9.95

MCGRATH AND THE KILLING MY LOBSTER ORCHESTRA, COLIN Allegro con Chutzpah (Killing My Lobster) cd 9.98
New cd from local orchestra/comedy troupe accompianists. The music here is actually quite good, heavy on the Klezmer, playful and energetic.

MCGREEVY, STEPHEN P. Auroral Chorus II: The Music of the Magnetosphere (SPM) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in stock! Last copies!
It's was a happy day at Aquarius when we heard about this release! American radio hobbyist Stephen P. McGreevy has dedicated himself to the documentation of earth's magnetosphere by using home built VLF radio receivers (whose schematics are readily available from McGreevy's website).
On Auroral Chorus II -- his second release after the acclaimed but sadly out of print Electric Enigma double cd set for Conet Project label Irdial -- McGreevy turns his charmingly enthused attention to the VLF phenomenon associated with the Aurora Borealis (aka the Northern Lights). Along with low buzzing hisses and crackles (not unlike those heard on records by hard disc editors like Fennesz and Pimmon), McGreevy's recievers have also picked up some beautiful choruses in which the magnetosphere resonates in beautiful wavering tones and whistling risers.
Furthermore, McGreevy shows off his technical savvy with some stereo recordings -- with two VLF receivers with antennae along the north / south axis and along the east / west axis!
As far as found sounds, McGreevy's VLF recordings are some of the more alien, yet most beautiful that we've ever encountered. So, if you missed "Electric Enigma" you now again have the chance to investigate these amazing sounds courtesy of McGreevy's fascinating obsession.
MPEG Stream: "track 7"
MPEG Stream: "track 10"

MCGREEVY, STEPHEN P. Electric Enigma (Irdial) 2cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the same label that brought us the truly disturbing Conet Project comes Stephen P. McGreevy's VLF recordings. With a knowledge of basic radio telescopics, a few choice geographical / atmospheric anomalies, and a good ear, McGreevy records the earth's electromagnetic signature generated through such phenomenon as the Alaskan Northern Lights. Delicate whistles streak over loud crackles, that bring to mind Id Battery's fascination with recorded fire, or John Duncan's shortwave radio experiments. Word of caution, one of our faithful customers complained that this created rather deleterious psychosomatic effects.

MCGREGOR, DION Dion McGregor Dreams Again (Tzadik) cd 16.98
How long would last if your roommate screamed his dreams out loud every night? Would you have the foresight to capture these disturbances on tape? Lucky for us back in the 1960's Dion McGregor's roommate stuck it out long enough to provide us with this aural document of one man's nocturnal pain and pleasure. Dion's dreams range from queeny dress up parties to drooling descriptions of large breasted women and cunnilingus contests. Equally disturbing as it is riveting.

MCGREGOR, DION The Further Somniloquies Of... (Torpor Vigil Industries) cd 15.98
Everybody's favorite sleeptalker is back and we're really fucking excited! Dreams Again, the previous release on Tzadik, is one of our most loved and consistently selling "spoken word" CDs, and with reason. Most of us who talk in our sleep tend to say maybe a couple words or phrases at best, often mumbled so quietly that it's hard to even catch the words they're saying -- if you even happen to be awake and close enough to hear it. Well imagine someone that regularly, throughout his entire life, recited entire dreams in a clear voice. And imagine every one of those dreams being the most ridiculous and surreal dreams imaginable. That's Dion McGregor. The story goes that in 1961 Dion McGregor -- a born again freeloader, chronic couch-surfer and quasi-successful song writer -- was discovered to be a verbose sleeptalker by the friend whose house he was currently crashing at. The friend, a director of porn films, attempted to jot down the dreams, but McGregor's speech was just too fast. With some mild coercion (free rent must have been involved) a mutual friend and song writer, Michael Barr, agreed to allow McGregor to sleep at his apartment in return for being allowed to record his dreams. Barr set up a microphone at the head of Dion's bed and for seven years recorded everything he could. Apparently Dion's vocalizations tended to begin just before waking in the morning, so there was a bit of predictability they could count on. Playing the tapes to the right people at the right time eventually resulted in an LP released on Decca in 1964 entitled the Dream World of Dion McGregor (and in 1999 Tzadik released a cd of additional material also recorded by Barr). While there must be enough tapes of McGregor's ramblings to cover several more volumes (Barr claims to have recorded upwards of 500 dreams), we'll have to settle for these 80 more minutes for the time being. Listening to these bizarre tales it's hard to believe that these are coming from a man who's genuinely asleep. The way McGregor recites them sounds almost conversational, describing the events he's undergoing. At the same time Mcgregor is both the director of his dreams: telling us to all get ready for the scavenger hunt (reciting off a myriad of strange objects that must be located), but also a participant: confessing to us that he'll never be able to locate said objects in such short time. And, it must be added, he almost invariably ends each transmission with horrified screaming. No matter how mild or whimsical a dream may be when it starts, it always seems to end in either tragedy or just plain shrieking madness. But the theory that McGregor made up and performed these monologues, fully conscious, is even harder to imagine. He would have had to have been quite a writer and a performer to achieve such results, and to allow it to remain archived in obscuity for eternity. No matter, even if these were faked they still add up to an impressive collection of the most fucked up, hilarious and down right amazing monologues this side of Kenneth Patchen. An absolute must for all lovers of the more disturbing aspects of the human psyche!
MPEG Stream: "The Scavenger Hunt"
MPEG Stream: "It's All Over Evelyn"

MCGUIRE, MARK VDSQ - Solo Acoustic Volume Two (Vin Du Select Qualitite) lp 21.00
There are those who might have doubts about an ACOUSTIC guitar record from cosmic zoner Mark McGuire, who has been honing his Achim Reichel / Gunter Schickert guitar arpeggiations in the soon to be legendary trio Emeralds. You might say to yourself, when has Emeralds ever used an acoustic guitar? Can he really play without tons of tripped out effects? Is he good enough without a battery of synths supporting him? Any and all doubts should be dispelled in listening to this record. Yeah, this is really pretty special. McGuire offers five lengthy pieces of psychedelic folk via an acoustic guitar, probably buttressed by a loop station on a few passages during these pieces. The brightly rendered guitar chiming from McGuire's acoustic guitar noticeably detours from the rounded tonal arcs of Emeralds psych-drone workouts; but the rhythmic locomotive aspects from some of the later Emeralds recordings are prominent throughout this album. The nearly sidelong "Burning Leaves" centers upon a rich and warmly clad elliptical strum that spins in a duet around some lovely melodic notes dotting about. As hypnotic as the piece is, it's also downright playful. Other tracks like "At First Sight" and especially "Second Thoughts" have much more of a downer, maudlin vibe that spills through the almost raga hypnosis of McGuire's fingerpicking. Great stuff that would certainly appeal to fans of James Blackshaw, Six Organs, and maybe even Vini Riley. Dare it be said, but had this been released sometime in 1970, this would probably have landed on Takoma!

MCLAUGHLIN, JOHN My Goal's Beyond (Knit Classics) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MCLEAN, BARTON AND PRISCILLA Electronic Landscapes (EM Records) cd 23.00
Back in print, back in stock!
More pioneering electronic music unearthed by Japan's EM Records (previous releases include discs by Barton Smith, David Rosenboom, and Noah Creshevsky). This time, it's Barton and Priscilla McLean. A husband and wife team, but no Sonny and Cher here!! This duo performed live as the "McLean Mix", and were responsible for a bunch of sought-after Folkways LPs in their time, including 1979's "Electro-Symphonic Landscapes" (all the tracks from which are found here). The cover of this cd is an adaptation of the cover of that LP, the artwork actually being the graphical score for Barton's "Song Of The Nahuatl" (it's interesting to note that while the McLeans worked together, they didn't collaborate compositionally it seems -- half the tracks here are by the Mr. and half by the Mrs.). The McLeans got their start together in electronic composition in academia, at the University of Indiana, South Bend, 'round about 1973, when the Music Department there brought in a huge EMS Synthi-100 synthesizer and Synthi-256 sequencer. Hours of tape-splicing creativity would ensue! That mega-synthesizer was later repossessed (!) so the McLeans turned to musique concrete techniques (bouncing steak knives on violin strings, metal bars on piano strings, that sort of thing) to source their sounds, combined with the output of what electronic equipment they were able to access. Much of this disc, tracks dating back to 1975, feature this sort of laborious processing of sound. And the results are fantastic! Reminds us a bit of the classic Forbidden Planet soundtrack by Louis and Bebe Barron, another husband and wife team who preceded the McLeans in the annals of electronic music... In addition to the vintage '70s stuff here, there's a couple tracks of some newer material from the digital age... which holds up quite well, actually! Keening drones, mysterious pulses, psychedelic bleepage -- yep, way better than Sonny n' Cher!
EM has graciously provided both English and Japanese liner notes, so the 22 page cd booklet makes good reading for anyone curious about the McLeans' musical methodology, as well as providing cool graphics and intriguing photos to ponder.
MPEG Stream: PRISCILLA MCLEAN "Voices Of The Invisible"
MPEG Stream: BARTON MCLEAN "Song Of The Nahuatl"

MCLUSKY The Difference Between Me And You Is That I'm Not On Fire (Too Pure) cd 13.98

MCMAHON, BRIAN 17 Volts (Crab Pot) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
(From Forced Exposure's update:) Out of nowhere comes the debut solo album by the founding member/songwriter from the Electric Eels, one of the primal CLE bands from the dawn of American punk & avant-heck (starting in about 1975 or so, as immortalized on their retrospective albums on Tinnitus and Homestead from'89/91). Inexplicably, this record has been produced by Tom Smith (including backing by members of To Live And Shave in LA), and it has been dubbed as an album of "deconstructed pop rock with noise." Whatever you might expect, this is one of the most shockingly fresh "rock" records of the year. The recording has a primitive buzz to it, electrified folk of organic purity, the bleeping electronic interludes are lo-key and perfectly attached & the lyrics/vocals explode in a Laughner-esque vibe of literary-burned vision. The best parts have that genius glow that just can't fake, a thoroughly welcome surprise not to be missed.

MCMILLEN, SHAWN DAVID Catfish (Tompkins Square) cd 13.98
Some super nice, unexpected sounds from Austin based soundsculpter Shawn David McMillen. While Tompkins Square is now releasing this on cd (the vinyl has been out a little longer courtesy of Emperor Jones) we mistakenly jumped to some conclusions before we even threw this one in, assuming McMillen to be another in a long line of finger picking Appalachian style Fahey disciples, and we have to admit we were a bit relieved to discover this was not actually the case. We can't deny that there have been some great releases in that style over the last few years but we've reached critical mass, especially when folks like James Blackshaw and Jack Rose have already raised the bar so high that most others can't really compete. McMillen on the other hand explores a more experimental approach to his playing which comes off sounding like a more subdued No Neck Blues Band at times which to our ears sounded damn fine. We were also reminded of the wandering explorations of Loren Chasse and the more delicate side of the Jeweled Antler family. What a nice surprise, excellent!
MPEG Stream: "Eat Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Quintanna's Head Dress"

MCMILLEN, SHAWN DAVID Catfish (Emperor Jones) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.Some surprising new sounds from this Austin based soundsculpter. While Tompkins Square is finally releasing this on cd (the nice vinyl has been out a little longer courtesy of Emperor Jones) we had already jumped to a few conclusions before we even heard a note. And boy were we way off the mark. We had assumed McMillen to be another in a long line of finger picking appalachin style Fahey disiples, what with being on Tompkins Square and all, and while we can't deny there have been some great records in that style over the last few years we have to say we were strating to reach our saturation point. Folks like James Blackshaw have raised the bar so high that it's not enough to just sit there and strum a guitar and try to sound like Fahey or Basho. McMillen though, explores a more experimental approach to his playing which comes off sounding like a more subdued No Neck Blues Band at times, which was not only surprising but also incredible satisfying. We were also reminded of the wandering explorations of Loren Chasse and the more delicate side of the Jeweled Antler family.
Definitely worth checking out.
MPEG Stream: "Eat Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Quintanna's Head Dress"

MCMS 1997-2000 (Last Visible Dog) 3cd 16.98
Ever since we first heard the mysterious MCMS, sharing space with the equally mysterious Yermo on a cd-r released on Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomena cd-r label, we were hooked. Big time. Two absolutely stunning cd-r's followed. But as with most cd-r's they quickly went out of print and were seemingly lost forever. Well lucky for us, AQ pal Chris Moon who runs the Last Visible Dog label (and who just happens to be in MCMS) has stepped up and re-released on real cds both of those out of print discs, adding their half of the aforementioned split with Yermo as well as the tracks from their lathe cut lp on Eclipse (which was limited to 50 copies). Everything all in one convenient triple cd package. So what the hell does it sound like you ask? Imagine a weird, British style folk, loosely strummed acoustic guitars, warbly flute and urgently whispered vocals. Churning hyperdistorted guitars, random, 'free' percussion, sometimes just a simple plodding thud, all deteriorating into soft mumbly melodies and found sounds, mysterious and ambient. Dirty, gritty garage-y dirge/drone rock, Krautrock-ish rhythms filtered through a Dead C noiserock aesthetic that veers into noisy freakout territory, careening wildly from tuneless, Comus style pagan folk to chaotic free rock, to blissful dronescapes. A meandering soundscape of clatter and buzz, drone and thump, skree and whir, all very atmospheric. Moments of Sunroof! like lo-fi bliss disrupted by bursts of spastic percussive splatter and amp/instrument malfunction. Anyone into NZ noise rock (Dead C, Gate, etc), the current crop of free folk (Jewelled Antler, NNCK, Sunburned Hand, etc.) or just weird and wonderful, fucked up and noisy experimental free-folk-rock-noise-whatever definitely needs this. (Though, we wish Chris had come up with a different sort of package for these cds, he kept the cost down by eschewing a jewel box in favor of a three-pocket plastic sleeve, that's nice and slim but more or less ensures that all the discs will wind up with some minor cosmetic scratches on their playing surfaces. Nothing serious but still too bad.)
MPEG Stream: "Lemmy Kiliminster Getting Kicked Out Of Hawkind"
MPEG Stream: "MCMS Vs. Brain Damage"
MPEG Stream: "Prelude To The MCMS Album Of Love"
MPEG Stream: "Bruce Has Gone To The Great Bong In The Sky"