MOTION SICKNESS OF TIME TRAVEL Luminaries & Synastry (Digitalis) lp + cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Motion Sickness Of Time Travel is the spellbinding synth and voice project of Georgia's Rachel Evans. Up until late 2010, she had released a bunch of tiny edition cassettes and cd-rs through her Hooker Vision imprint, after which her work caught the attention of Digitalis, who released the highly acclaimed album Seeping Through The Veil Of The Unconscious. So acclaimed in fact, that all of three pressings of that album went out of print before we had a chance to wax poetic about the record on our list. It's easy to hear why Motion Sickness Of Time Travel would cause such a stir, as there's something to the easy quip that Rachel Evans is a synth version of Grouper. Evans deconstructs an ethereal pop down to hypnotic looping synth structures and her own whispering voice, all the edges are blurred and softened to a heavenly, glowing gaseousness. Her synth applications typically build from glistening arpeggios and sustained church organ tones, giving many of her arrangements a levitating, Kosmische touch considerably more vaporous in her psychedelic visions than the likes of Emeralds and Oneohtrix in her Cluster fixation. Yet, tracks like the aptly named "Day Glow" eagerly appropriate tone-bent melodies and acid-squelchiness from post-rave ambient engineers (think back to Future Sound Of London), suspended amongst the reverb glide of her breathy vocals. Then there's the oceanic and mysterious drone-waltz found on the lysergically titled "The Walls Were Dripping With Stars" which flickers with backmasked vocalizations and intermittently dubbed out whisperings. Luminaries & Synastry is a real gem; and if past performance is indicative of anything, this album will not be around terribly long. The lp comes with a cd of all the material found on the vinyl, plus a couple of a extra tracks.
MPEG Stream: "Late Day Sun Silhouettes"
MPEG Stream: "Day Glow"
MPEG Stream: "Like Dunes"

MOTION SICKNESS OF TIME TRAVEL s/t (Spectrum Spools) 2lp 30.00
Rachel Evans brings her humid, oozing synth explorations to Spectrum Spools, which has become quite the launching pad for a wide array of outsider electronics as curated through the judicious ear of Emeralds' John Elliott. The name of Evans' project is lifted from William S. Burroughs' novel The Soft Machine; and with her decentering, liminal drift of half-formed / half-dissolved constructions, she finds herself peering between the kudzu-encrusted fields of her native Lagrange, Georgia and the imagined soundscapes of a primordial Gondwanaland (time-travel for her seems to go backwards in time, not forwards). After close to a couple dozen releases (mostly in the micro-edition format), she's either gotten the doseage right on the Dramamine, or she's acclimated to the queasy side effects of jumping between time and space, as this eponymous record isn't nearly as woozy and narcotized as her previous work. "The Dream" starts out quite dark, with backward-masked slashes that parallel the thickets of razored noise from Current 93's early collage work; but she quickly escapes from these bad vibes into a lengthy daydream of shimmering ambience laced with bright, effervescent sequences and some rather Vangelis-like triumphant synth stabs. "The Center" spins around a latticework of crystalline sequences that blur into massive, oceanic pools of rippling sound, with her voice looped and smeared into an ethereal bliss. "Summer Of The Cat's Eye" is a mellow impressionist piece of synth jamminess akin to Tangerine Dream's wanderings across the keyboard. "One Perfect Moment" is very reverential of John Elliott's work in Emeralds and all of his solo projects, with a sequenced glissando streaming beneath the slow unfurling of bittersweet tonal chords and Evans' pleading vocal delivery. Easily, the most arresting track she's recorded to date, rounding out another fantastic album from Evans' Motion Sickness Of Time Travel.

MOTION SICKNESS OF TIME TRAVEL Seeping Through The Veil Of The Unconscious (Digitalis) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MOTIONS Introduction to ... /Their Own Way (Pseudonym Records) cd 14.98

MOTLEY CRUE Too Fast For Love (Motley / Eleven Seven) cd 14.98
Tommy Lee is the reason Andee got a cowbell back in the day!

MOTLEY CRUE Too Fast For Love (Motley / Eleven Seven) lp 21.00
Tommy Lee is the reason Andee first got a cowbell back in the day!

MOTOR Hyper Machine (Dim Mak) cd 13.98
Even if they hadn't called their new album Hyper Machine, we expect we'd still have ended up using both those words in our review of this, the latest blast of high energy EBM mechanoid mayhem from the over the top (and somewhat tongue in cheek?) techno duo known as Motor. Formerly on the Mute label, they've jumped ship for this release, which actually came out in Europe last year on the Shitkatapult label, under original title Metal Machine, with different cover art and a slightly altered tracklisting (3 more cuts on this one), just to be confusing we suppose, though exposure to their music is disorienting enough, automatically locking your body into mechanical robot rhythms and assaulting your ears with all manner of distorted zips and zaps, bleeps and blaps, relentlessly punishing beats and varispeed, pitch-shifting dronefuzz, as if every single knob on all their gear is constantly being turned, up and up and up. Mostly instrumental, their sonics seem derived both from video games AND industrial strength grinding tools, like a Teutonic Tron soundtrack. Imagine skweee gone "Sprockets". That's kinda what this sounds like. Nothing subtle about it. Unapologetically techno. None more techno!! In one track, an ominous voice says, "What's that you say? You say you don't like techno? Well ain't that a bitch." Well, we don't like ALL techno, but there's something about Motor that really can't be denied. Join the party! And of course if you liked Klunk and Unhuman, the previous Motor discs on Mute, you'll like this one too for sure.
While some techno knowitalls will probably hate us for saying this, if you were gonna buy just one "techno" record this year (outside of those in the Pop Ambient style on the Kompakt label that we love love love), then Motor's Hyper Machine is IT.
MPEG Stream: "Kick It"
MPEG Stream: "Schism"
MPEG Stream: "Death Rave"

MOTOR Klunk (Mute) cd 16.98
Normally the way to get me (Allan) to listen to, let alone like, a record *isn't* to tell me that it's got elements of techno, acid house, and/or Hi-NRG dance music to it. Comparisons to various '80s industrial/club culture icons like Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb are also not terribly enticing, either. Yet this album, with its stark, stylish black and white (and red) graphics and suggestively Kraftwerkian name and title somehow drew me in, and guess what? I ended up really digging it! (No, not dancing to it, though I'm sure people will.) The dozen, almost entirely instrumental tracks on Motor's full-length debut may be a species of techno/house music, but they're sufficiently raw and ominously droning to appeal to me as a pure listening experience... the relentless 4/4 energy here is simply brutal, and this disc is thick and heavy with machine beats and super-distorted synths, the kind that sound like dive-bombing Stukkas! Sure, it's Sprocketsy but ballsy too, this trans-Atlantic duo (one guy from Minneapolis, another from Paris) making the perfect in-my-imagination Euro techno ideal of computer-jerked motorik electro grooves, tranced-out tones, and video game gibbering...
OK, gotta cut this review short as everyone else here is making fun of what I'm listening to, doing robotic dance moves and making raver glow stick comments, but I know they're all secretly enjoying this as well -- AND I think they're getting their work done faster and more efficiently, too!
(Note: this isn't to be confused with another, different electronic outfit also named Motor who hail from Russia.)
MPEG Stream: "Black Powder"
MPEG Stream: "King Of USA"

MOTOR Unhuman (Novamute) cd 15.98
Klunk, the debut from the Sprocketsy electronic duo Motor, was the unexpected dancefloor hit last year here -- that is if AQ had a dancefloor and if you asked Allan what the hit was. Unexpected especially since Allan's not known for his love of club music. Now Motor are back with a new album, Unhuman, and it's got the same distorted techno beat buzz and bleep goin' on, from the jittering funk that is "Bleep #1" to the sinister, more song-y "Night Drive" to the power tool robotics of "Flashback" (other evocative titles include "Drug Punk", "20 Volts Of Steel", and "Sikk"). There's obvious Detroit and Kraftwerk influences, and certainly lots of folks have regurgitated sounds like these since the '80s, but Motor have a special knack for this all right. It's the rigid, relentless, crunching beats, and the synth sizzle... going and going and going... in fact it's hard to write this review as I'm trancing out as I type thisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisis....
Fresh off tour (including a stint opening for industrial icons Nitzer Ebb), these guys are proud of their live, "punk" energy. It's stressed that Motor are a real band not purely the product of a computer or a DJ spinning stuff. As a result they've perhaps incorporated more melody (and vocals, sometimes scarily processed) into the mix this time 'round, but the more machine-like, brutal aspects of the debut haven't been disposed of either, so Allan says thumbs up on this one as well. Definitely get this if you liked their debut as much as he did.
MPEG Stream: "Flashback"
MPEG Stream: "Night Drive"

MOTORHEAD Ace Of Spades (Metal-Is) cd 12.98

MOTORHEAD Bomber (Metal-Is) cd 12.98

MOTORMARK Chrome Tape (DHR) cd 15.98

MOTORPSYCHO Heavy Metal Fruit (Rune Grammofon) cd 17.98
Having been around for years and years (with the cult following to show for it), this Norwegian band now release their umpteeth album, however just their third for Rune Grammofon. Apparently we missed their vinyl-only 2nd one for the label, whoops, but we really liked their RG debut a couple years ago, Little Lucid Moments. And again, this is a similar hard-to-pin-down hybrid of trippy space rock, indie rock pop, and, as befits this disc's Blue-Oyster-Cult-lyric-derived title, even a little bit of metal. Maybe more than a little bit on the 13 minute opening track "Starhammer (Feat. The Electric Psalmon)", which goes through several musical mood-swings, at certain, most metallic points sounding a lot like Black Label Society, believe it or not, complete with big grungy riffs and harmonic pinch squeals a la Zakk Wylde, with vocals too that sound a bit Ozzy-esque, though elsewhere on that track (and album as a whole) they wander far out into abstract Pink Floydian space...
By the way that's not the longest song on here, either, the disc wrapping up in epic fashion with a 20 minute, 4 part suite entitled "Gullible's Travails". In between, there's some shorter songs, including the delicate piano lullaby "Close Your Eyes" and the rockin' roadhouse spaceout "The Bomb-Proof Roll And Beyond (For Arnie Hassle)", but their kitchen-sink-inclusive prog aesthetic is operative throughout, Motorpsycho utilizing Moogs and mellotrons, horn players borrowed from Jaga Jazzist, dreamy vocal choruses, and plenty of hard rock guitar. Occasionally they take some twists and turns we don't like quite so much as others, and also they're one of those bands we'd probably like even better if they didn't sing in English, but mostly Motorpsycho's arty indie/stoner rock meets cinematic synth sound, confusionally crammed with shimmering psychedelic jamming, edgy energetic rock riffage, and lovely laidback poppiness, is quite pleasing!
MPEG Stream: "Starhammer (Feat. The Electric Psalmon)"
MPEG Stream: "The Bomb-Proof Roll And Beyond (For Arnie Hassle)"
MPEG Stream: "W.B.A.T."

MOTORPSYCHO Heavy Metal Fruit (Rune Grammofon) 2lp 32.00
Having been around for years and years (with the cult following to show for it), this Norwegian band now release their umpteeth album, however just their third for Rune Grammofon. Apparently we missed their vinyl-only 2nd one for the label, whoops, but we really liked their RG debut a couple years ago, Little Lucid Moments. And again, this is a similar hard-to-pin-down hybrid of trippy space rock, indie rock pop, and, as befits this disc's Blue-Oyster-Cult-lyric-derived title, even a little bit of metal. Maybe more than a little bit on the 13 minute opening track "Starhammer (Feat. The Electric Psalmon)", which goes through several musical mood-swings, at certain, most metallic points sounding a lot like Black Label Society, believe it or not, complete with big grungy riffs and harmonic pinch squeals a la Zakk Wylde, with vocals too that sound a bit Ozzy-esque, though elsewhere on that track (and album as a whole) they wander far out into abstract Pink Floydian space...
By the way that's not the longest song on here, either, the disc wrapping up in epic fashion with a 20 minute, 4 part suite entitled "Gullible's Travails". In between, there's some shorter songs, including the delicate piano lullaby "Close Your Eyes" and the rockin' roadhouse spaceout "The Bomb-Proof Roll And Beyond (For Arnie Hassle)", but their kitchen-sink-inclusive prog aesthetic is operative throughout, Motorpsycho utilizing Moogs and mellotrons, horn players borrowed from Jaga Jazzist, dreamy vocal choruses, and plenty of hard rock guitar. Occasionally they take some twists and turns we don't like quite so much as others, and also they're one of those bands we'd probably like even better if they didn't sing in English, but mostly Motorpsycho's arty indie/stoner rock meets cinematic synth sound, confusionally crammed with shimmering psychedelic jamming, edgy energetic rock riffage, and lovely laidback poppiness, is quite pleasing!
MPEG Stream: "Starhammer (Feat. The Electric Psalmon)"
MPEG Stream: "The Bomb-Proof Roll And Beyond (For Arnie Hassle)"
MPEG Stream: "W.B.A.T."

MOTORPSYCHO Little Lucid Moments (Rune Grammofon) cd 17.98
Norwegian indie rock band Motorpsycho certainly have their fans. For years and years, several of our friends have been singing their praises, telling us to check 'em out. And some of what we've heard, we've liked. Poppy, psychy, sometimes sorta heavy, also rather quirky. But still, they never quite "clicked" with us. Until now. This new Motorpsycho album we're totally digging. (And no, it's not just 'cause it was released by Rune Grammofon, a label we usually like.)
Sparklingly melodic and super energetic and full of guitar guitar guitar... Motorpsycho really get pretty wild with the acid rock guitar soloing here, almost to Kawabata Makoto levels, whom we recall liked to say he played 'motorpsycho' guitar. Hmm. There's plenty of room for them to stretch out with the guitars and FX as this disc consists of four long songs (longest, 21:05, shortest 11:26). But they *are* ultimately pop songs, with vocals (in English) and hooks and all.
With that pop element going full bore too, they've (at last?) hit the sweet spot of successfully mixing '70s bombast with '90s college radio / indie rock. As long as you realize we mean this in a really good way, we'll go ahead and describe Little Lucid Moments as sounding sorta like the Foo Fighters gone prog. They've definitely got some little lucid Pink Floyd moments in there too, via Voivod perhaps, who themselves dabbled in the pop punk thing too...
As long as we're confusing things with seemingly random references to other artists, let's also cite Sloan -and- Circle as two more disparate bands this reminds us of, at times! Sloan for all the ambitious rockin' pop stuff here, while the spaced out guitars and motorik chuggery of "The Alchemyst" could easily be Circle or Motorpsycho's countryfolk Salvatore. And then in the track "She Left On The Sun Ship" it sounds like they're getting into the twisty, sinuous vein of rockin' post rockers Drive Like Jehu, with some little Champs-y licks thrown in too. Who else should we mention? 31Knots? Ok, another good prog-pop-indie blend. The Beach Boys? Yep, in the vocals sometimes. But all this successfully adds up to something cool that's uniquely Motorpsycho (and nothing like the gearhead garagabilly rock their name might imply).
So, it's taken a looong time but we're finally convinced. We're Motorpsycho fans. We know a guy in Holland (hi Frankco!) who will be very pleased. Now we'll have to go back and reconsider all the umpteen Motorpsycho records we'd been ignoring all this time...argh! No, that's a good thing. Always nice to have a not-so-new band to newly like... Highly, surprisingly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Suite: Little Lucid Moments"
MPEG Stream: "She Left On The Sun Ship"
MPEG Stream: "The Alchemyst"

MOTORPSYCHO + JAGA JAZZIST HORNS In The Fishtank 10 (Konkurrent) cd 11.98
Another installment in Konkurrent's In The Fishtank series. So far there's been collaborations from Tortoise with The Ex, Low with Dirty Three, Willard Grant Conspiracy with Telefunk as well as Sonic Youth, I.C.P. and The Ex. Individual efforts have included June Of 44. This time it was a Norwegian experimental get-together with Motorpsycho and the horn section from Jaga Jazzist. The results are an impressive slow groovin' jazzy postrock affair.
MPEG Stream: "Bombay Brassiere"

MOTORSPANDEX Torment Star (Full Contact / Ektro) 7" 7.98
We should probably let the band themselves begin this review, describing what to expect from the first side of this new 7" from the (maybe not so) mysterious Finnish outfit Motorspandex:
"Listening to Motorspandex's debut 7" can be a traumatizing experience: the very moment the needle touches the vinyl, black smoke begins to fill the room. You suddenly find it very hard to breathe, and realize, that the air pouring into your lungs is made out of crusty, rusty metal. A mechanized nightmare appears, veiled in nothing but motorized tight pants. It steps out of the smoke, grabs you by the throat, and enters your life forever."
We probably couldn't do much better ourselves, but we'll give it a go. Starting with the amazing cover, which features a photo of a pale, long haired, shirtless fella who looks suspiciously like Jussi from Circle, doing his best Dio, 'invisible oranges' pose, standing on an expanse of snow in front of a mighty mountain, the music inside fits almost perfectly with that majestic and very metal image. Sort of. Imagine classic eighties metal, some Motorhead, but played on clean guitars, with almost no distortion, then add in some super distorted monstrous growling vocals, and have the songs be super damaged and weird, shifting suddenly without warning, super dynamic, stop and starts, dizzyingly complex, but somehow striped down and simple at the same time. Not heavy so much as rocking and relentless. And it should come as no big surprise that Motorspandex seems to have a similar lineup as Krypt Axeripper, and Steel Mammoth, and thus, probably includes at least one (if not more) member of Finnish hypnorockers Circle. And you can actually hear it in Motorspandex, maybe more so than in those other "New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal" Circle satellites. Plenty of tripped out ambience, some clean, almost Comus-y folky vocals, wailing leads, but at its core, it does sound a bit like a sped up, metalled up Circle. Even the vocals almost sound like a more metal Mika. Plus some of the best song titles ever: "Frantic Slave", "Torment Star", "Tutankhamon Uranus", "Creepy Rabbit", "Steellicker"!
As if you didn't already figure it out, Motorspandex rule! Heavy and hooky, repetitive and metallic, mesmerizing and weird weird weird.

MOTT THE HOOPLE All The Young Dudes (Columbia) cd 11.98
Deluxe reish.

MOU, LIPS! Untree (Moar) cd 13.98
Mou, Lips! is the work of Andrea Gabriele formerly of the Italian project Tu m'; and here, Gabriele ventures into the digital headspace of pixel-point abstraction with smartly placed hints of a pop sweet tooth. His tone-bent digital errata and languid samples of intimately plucked classical guitar, blurting trumpets, maudlin French horns, and scratchy violins from old '78s return to some of the finer moments of post-pop electronica that Sonig and Mille Plateaux were championing many years ago. Untree is a quirky and playful album which lends itself to sounding like Terry Riley being redone by Lithops and / or Vladislav Delay.
MPEG Stream: "Non E Colpa Mia!"
MPEG Stream: "Untree"

MOUGHQUAL Sin-Sekai (Gooom) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MOULD, BOB Body Of Song (Yep Roc) cd 16.98
Geeeeez, somebody please take the studio gizmos away from Bob Mould right now! While we certainly can't frown upon anyone gettin' all excited about trying something new, we sure can't cheer on Mr. Mould's decision to actually include those wonky effected Cher-vocals on his records. To be totally blunt, they sound downright dumb... and they sounded dumb on his last album. Even if he's using them tongue-in-cheek (which we sorta suspected with the album's second song and its title "(Shine Your) Light Love Hope" that seemed to be a silly take on those 'as seen on tv' dance compilation tracks with their parenthetical titles), they stick out like the worst sore thumb. Body Of Song arrived without much fanfare, and so when it appeared the other day it was a genuine pleasant surprise. It seems we'd somehow wiped 2002's disappointment Modulate from our memory banks. After a couple of songs though our smiles turned to winces. Those painful memories came rushing back and were joined by new ones. Ugh. Fortunately Mould has toned down his previous penchant for bland rave-y techno. The songs without the 'special effects' come across as fond familiar ol' Bob, and they definitely kept this one from joining Modulate in the dumper. Approach with caution.`
MPEG Stream: "(Shine Your) Light Love Hope"
MPEG Stream: "Beating Heart The Prize"

MOULD, BOB District Line (Anti) cd 16.98

MOULD, BOB Modulate. (Red Ink) cd 16.98
An agonizing kick in the teeth to Husker Du fans everywhere. This is appalling. Pseudo-rave, cheezy, electronic dance music that perhaps only Stephin Merritt and his Future Bible Heroes can get away with... and we're not even goin' near those over-Cher-ified vocal effects. On this, his first new album since '98, it's apparent that he's been experimenting with new approaches to his music making. The problem is the technology he's chosen to incorporate doesn't complement his songwriting at all. Although there are a few glimmers of that distinctive Mould songwriting pen (check out "Comeonstrong"), they're soon lost in a mass of electronic clutter and distractions. Oh dear!
RealAudio clip: "180 Rain"
RealAudio clip: "Comeonstrong"

MOULDYCLIFF, PHIL Written On Water (ICR) cd 17.98
Phil Mouldycliff is a British artist who we discovered through his curatorial work on the Debris Field exhibition at the Bolton Art Museum, whereby Mouldycliff presented a series of environmental / field recordings from the likes of Loren Chasse, Colin Potter, Max Eastley, Keith Rowe, and others. In presenting Written On Water for Colin Potter's ICR label, Mouldycliff drew from his many sound installations and found-sound compositions which have never been presented on cd before. He is a very restrained artist, prefering the slow and methodical unveiling of sound and structure found in the likes of Morton Feldman or Andrew Chalk. On one track, distant squelched voices with the cadence of a news broadcast set well behind a quiet trickle of subaquatic plinks and a stately selection of piano clusters. Elsewhere, Mouldycliff turns to more of a painterly New Music sensibility with clusters of horns, flutes, and piano (which might all be synthesized) into occasionally playful bursts of energy. But, Written On Water is clearly at its best when the drone is the fundamental structure; and Mouldycliff's final offering, "The Spirit Of Place," is well worth the price of admission simply on the strength of the manipulated field recordings into a breathtaking gasp of guilded string vibration which recalls the best work that Ora had generated many years ago. Niblock and Eliane Radigue would also garner nods as well to that impressive conclusion.
MPEG Stream: "Stillness Of Chinese Jars"
MPEG Stream: "Kettleblack"
MPEG Stream: "Spirit Of Place"

MOULTON, TOM A Tom Moulton Mix (Soul Jazz) cd 23.00
Classic collection of legendary disco jams featuring producer Tom Moulton's golden touch with tracks by folks like Grace Jones, Isaac Hayes, Eddie Kendricks, BT Express, etc. Disco gold!

MOUNT ANALOG New Skin (Film Guerrero) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Harry Smith's Cats"
MPEG Stream: "Night Night"

MOUNT CARMEL Real Women (Siltbreeze) cd 13.98
Latest blast of psychedelic proto metal blues rock heaviness from these retro rockers, their second for Siltbreeze (which still seems like a weird home for these guys), which finds the band continuing to hone a sound that is disturbingly (and we mean that in a good way) indistinguishable from the real deal. We'd be hard pressed to pick these guys out of a name-that-tune style lineup with a batch of genuine seventies hard rock outfits. The sound, the songs, the vocals, the production, this is total hard/blues/southern rock nirvana for folks who dig shit like Humble Pie, Zeppelin, Cream, ZZ Top, Skynrd, Ten Years After and the like. And Jerusalem - as we mentioned in our review of the first MC, the singer sounds a whole lot like the guy from Jersualem.
And while you might imagine this Ohio combo must be tongue-in-cheeking it, nothing could be further from the truth, this is the real deal, or as real as it gets circa 2012. And while the usual Siltbreeze fanbase might find this a bit too, well, classic rock, for everybody else, this stuff is pretty tough to resist, slithery riffage, hard rocking grooves, hooks galore, killer leads, stoney jams and some serious psychedelic heaviness.
MPEG Stream: "Swaggs"
MPEG Stream: "Real Women"
MPEG Stream: "Oh Louisa"

MOUNT CARMEL Real Women (Siltbreeze) lp 14.98
Now available also on vinyl!!
Latest blast of psychedelic proto metal blues rock heaviness from these retro rockers, their second for Siltbreeze (which still seems like a weird home for these guys), which finds the band continuing to hone a sound that is disturbingly (and we mean that in a good way) indistinguishable from the real deal. We'd be hard pressed to pick these guys out of a name-that-tune style lineup with a batch of genuine seventies hard rock outfits. The sound, the songs, the vocals, the production, this is total hard/blues/southern rock nirvana for folks who dig shit like Humble Pie, Zeppelin, Cream, ZZ Top, Skynrd, Ten Years After and the like. And Jerusalem - as we mentioned in our review of the first MC, the singer sounds a whole lot like the guy from Jersualem.
And while you might imagine this Ohio combo must be tongue-in-cheeking it, nothing could be further from the truth, this is the real deal, or as real as it gets circa 2012. And while the usual Siltbreeze fanbase might find this a bit too, well, classic rock, for everybody else, this stuff is pretty tough to resist, slithery riffage, hard rocking grooves, hooks galore, killer leads, stoney jams and some serious psychedelic heaviness.
MPEG Stream: "Swaggs"
MPEG Stream: "Real Women"
MPEG Stream: "Oh Louisa"

MOUNT CARMEL s/t (Siltbreeze) cd 13.98
Blues rock sometimes gets a bad rap around aQ, one aQuarius employee in particular is fond of hurling the descriptor 'blues rock' as an epithet, used to describe lots of cheesy bar rock, and hokey dad rock, and all manner of stuff that sounds more suited for pubs or parking lots than the hallowed halls of aQ. But even that aQ-er will happily admit, that there's plenty of blues rock that does indeed kick heaps of ass, Blue Cheer, ZZ Top, Budgie, Captain Beyond, Moses, Juan De La Cruz, Leaf Hound, Jerusalem...
Gotta mention Jerusalem in the case of this new blues rockin' Siltbreeze band from Columbus Ohio, considering that the vocals here are a dead ringer for the Jerusalem dude, and there's of course Zeppelin-isms galore, it's that perfect mix of super distorted bluesy fuzz, and hooky pop, not to mention some killer psychedelic leads, and some awesome lazy vox that perfectly suit the band's serpentine sonic slither. Another band these guys totally remind us of are retro heavy rock revivalists The Want, whose only full length sounded like it could have in fact been a reissue of some lost seventies hard rock gem. Which is definitely the case here, the song writing, the guitar tone, the songs, definitely not of this time, cemented by the 11 minute final track, a live in the studio jam, all skittery rhythms, wild tangled fuzz guitar leads, throbbing bass, that totally sounds like it was lifted from some chunk of seventies vinyl. Further proving they're really the real blues rock deal, they even do a Ten Years After cover. Not sure how (or why) these guys ended up on Siltbreeze, but these jams definitely have us embracing the blues rock, BIG time.
MPEG Stream: "Livin Like I Wanna"
MPEG Stream: "Still Listening"
MPEG Stream: "ZZ Breakers"

MOUNT CARMEL s/t (Siltbreeze) lp 15.98
Blues rock sometimes gets a bad rap around aQ, one aQuarius employee in particular is fond of hurling the descriptor 'blues rock' as an epithet, used to describe lots of cheesy bar rock, and hokey dad rock, and all manner of stuff that sounds more suited for pubs or parking lots than the hallowed halls of aQ. But even that aQ-er will happily admit, that there's plenty of blues rock that does indeed kick heaps of ass, Blue Cheer, ZZ Top, Budgie, Captain Beyond, Moses, Juan De La Cruz, Leaf Hound, Jerusalem...
Gotta mention Jerusalem in the case of this new blues rockin' Siltbreeze band from Columbus Ohio, considering that the vocals here are a dead ringer for the Jerusalem dude, and there's of course Zeppelin-isms galore, it's that perfect mix of super distorted bluesy fuzz, and hooky pop, not to mention some killer psychedelic leads, and some awesome lazy vox that perfectly suit the band's serpentine sonic slither. Another band these guys totally remind us of are retro heavy rock revivalists The Want, whose only full length sounded like it could have in fact been a reissue of some lost seventies hard rock gem. Which is definitely the case here, the song writing, the guitar tone, the songs, definitely not of this time, cemented by the 11 minute final track, a live in the studio jam, all skittery rhythms, wild tangled fuzz guitar leads, throbbing bass, that totally sounds like it was lifted from some chunk of seventies vinyl. Further proving they're really the real blues rock deal, they even do a Ten Years After cover. Not sure how (or why) these guys ended up on Siltbreeze, but these jams definitely have us embracing the blues rock, BIG time.
MPEG Stream: "Livin Like I Wanna"
MPEG Stream: "Still Listening"
MPEG Stream: "ZZ Breakers"

MOUNT EERIE Black Wooden (Latitudes) cd 14.98
With a title like Black Wooden, we would have imagined that the latest installment in the limited edition Latitudes series, from Mount Eerie, aka Phil Elverum, would be sonically akin to his recent Wind's Poem record, which was a gorgeous hybrid of grim frosty buzzing black metal and dark droney folk, and while conceptually, Black Wooden is in fact related to Elverum's interest in black metal, as well as time spent in Norway, sonically, it has much more in common with the other, less black metal records in Mount Eerie's catalog. And while we were maybe a tad disappointed, once we got over it, we were treated to another fantastic collection of brooding, haunting, introspective, minimal folk, the title Black Wooden suddenly revealing itself to be almost literal, taking elements and perhaps themes of black metal music, and rendering them via wood, on mostly acoustic guitar. The sound hushed and harrowing, introspective but slightly ominous, reminding us immediately of Elverum's collaboration with Julie Doiron, from a few years back, Lost Wisdom, so perfectly dark, moody and melodic, the acoustic guitars, augmented by warm swells of spidery, desert-y twang, and thick swirling soft focus buzz, infusing a bit of that later era Earth-iness, minor key and mesmerizing, Elverum's voice fragile and intimate, sometimes switching to an about-to-crack falsetto, the whole sound just so urgent and personal and dark and emotionally frayed. It's hard to believe these songs were put together and quickly recorded on tour, in the hours before a gig, but they were, like all the Latitudes releases, created to let bands write and record quickly, although we'd imagine in many cases, it probably doesn't come together so cohesively or so powerfully.
MPEG Stream: "Black Wooden"
MPEG Stream: "If We Knew"

MOUNT EERIE Black Wooden (Latitudes) lp 16.98
With a title like Black Wooden, we would have imagined that the latest installment in the limited edition Latitudes series, from Mount Eerie, aka Phil Elverum, would be sonically akin to his recent Wind's Poem record, which was a gorgeous hybrid of grim frosty buzzing black metal and dark droney folk, and while conceptually, Black Wooden is in fact related to Elverum's interest in black metal, as well as time spent in Norway, sonically, it has much more in common with the other, less black metal records in Mount Eerie's catalog. And while we were maybe a tad disappointed, once we got over it, we were treated to another fantastic collection of brooding, haunting, introspective, minimal folk, the title Black Wooden suddenly revealing itself to be almost literal, taking elements and perhaps themes of black metal music, and rendering them via wood, on mostly acoustic guitar. The sound hushed and harrowing, introspective but slightly ominous, reminding us immediately of Elverum's collaboration with Julie Doiron, from a few years back, Lost Wisdom, so perfectly dark, moody and melodic, the acoustic guitars, augmented by warm swells of spidery, desert-y twang, and thick swirling soft focus buzz, infusing a bit of that later era Earth-iness, minor key and mesmerizing, Elverum's voice fragile and intimate, sometimes switching to an about-to-crack falsetto, the whole sound just so urgent and personal and dark and emotionally frayed. It's hard to believe these songs were put together and quickly recorded on tour, in the hours before a gig, but they were, like all the Latitudes releases, created to let bands write and record quickly, although we'd imagine in many cases, it probably doesn't come together so cohesively or so powerfully.
MPEG Stream: "Black Wooden"
MPEG Stream: "If We Knew"

MOUNT EERIE Fog Movies Live (P.W. Elverum & Sun) dvd-r 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We have just 3 copies of this, left over from Record Store Day. Never listed it. Only 100 copies made. It's movies of FOG. Yes. Perfect for Mt. Eerie's music. More specifically: it's Mount Eerie recorded live in the basement of City Hall, Anacortes, Washington, at What The Heck Fest, July 20th, 2007, "set to movies of the world looking slow and beautiful in bad weather".

MOUNT EERIE Wind's Poem (P.W. Elverum & Sun - Creators / Destroyers Of Music) cd 14.98
If there's one thing musicians, and heck, even fans of music hate, it's a dabbler. Someone well established in one arena who decides to dabble in some other sound or scene, often 'slumming', experimenting with a sound or style that they would never integrate into their actual sound. And no one hates dabblers more than metalheads, who came up with a new name for those dabblers, POSERS.
But without a little dabbling, music would remain stagnant, genres would go on forever unchanged, or more likely would die out because everything would have been done. The key is two fold, to dabble, or experiment respectfully, and to then incorporate those borrowed sounds into something new, and original, that while heavily indebted to the new sounds, is also firmly rooted in the original sound. It would make no sense for some punk band to just switch gears and come out with a country record (although it has happened), one would question that band's integrity for sure, how serious could they have been about punk if they could just chuck it for something else without a thought? It makes more sense for that band to infuse their punk with some twang, or add some slide guitar to the thrashing howl, and already, even just describing, it sounds way more interesting.
Needless to say, we were WAY skeptical when we heard that there was a Mount Eerie 'black metal' record in the works. We were never that into Mount Eerie, or the Microphones, it took the recent collaboration with Julie Dorion to win us over, and that record remains one of our favorites. But we had been reading about Mount Eerie mainman Phil Elverum discovering Xasthur and getting the black metal bug. Which is fine, that's sort of what this store is all about after all, but there's a difference between just digging black metal, and suddenly adding black metal to your dark bedroom folk. In theory it sounds like an intriguing combination, but we remained skeptical...
Which proved to be unnecessary, cuz wow, this is a strange and beautiful beast of a record. Right from the start, the title track explodes in a squall of thick corrosive buzz, where does a folky learn to kick up a sound like that? And since BM is not his first musical language, the result is truly unique and strange, there are some lurching strange arrangements, and then of course the black metal is peeled back to reveal some soulful crooning, and the hybrid is just as cool as we hoped it might be, a mournful sad boy Sebadoh like croon, buried amidst heaving walls of crumbling buzz, that explode into furious clouds of caustic crunch, only to recede once again, revealing those sad boy vocals again, and some strange plodding drums alongside a moaning minor key main melody, and the cool thing is, Elverum's distinct melodic style, immediately recognizable since we listened to Lost Wisdom so much, is perfectly fused with the buzzy blasts and blackened atmosphere. Really really cool. And that's only the first track.
As mentioned above, the key to successful dabbling is not abandoning your original sound, since theoretically, the music you make, you make because that's the sound you hear in your head, and your heart, and Elverum continues to craft gorgeous brooding dark folk, the second track, is a wheezing organ driven drone, with hushed angelic vocals, and a haunting deeeeep drone outro, which leads right into a gorgeous reverb drenched bit of mist shrouded drift, all spidery guitars, and warm whirring distant keyboards, and more crooned vocals, all subtly sinister and harrowing, but quite beautiful.
Fear not, that opener was not just a one shot. "The Hidden Stone" is another super distorted blast of blackened heaviness, and again, the magic here is that the buzz and fuzz is wrapped around distinctly UN-black metal melodies and song structures, the result sounds like a blackened Mount Eerie, lilting and sorrowful, but simultaneously distorted and blown out. And the record continues to strike the perfect balance between drifting, droney melodiousness and blackened buzzy crush, the best moments being when the two are fused, which thankfully is most of the time.
"The Mouth Of Sky" unleashes some incredibly cool, over saturated hyper distorted guitars and what sounds like processed cymbals, weaving them into a loping dark melody, the result is a super heavy, noise drenched, metallic shoegaze-y psychedelic blow out, the sort of track we wish was about 10 times longer. "(Something)" clocks in at a little over two minutes, and is obviously an experiment, but is one of our favorite tracks, a super strange, heavily panned, crunchy, distorted rhythmic, looped dronescape which gives way to a soft, shimmery, glistening dreamscape. "Lost Wisdom Pt. 2" is another killer blast of black folk buzz, about as frenzied as any of the blackness here gets, but divided into a strange lumbering tempo, which gives the whole song a sort of seasick vibe, lurching and lumbering and so EPIC, before all the distortion is stripped away, leaving just hushed vocals, a warm distant buzz, and some muted distortion, and the immediately recognizable melody from the original "Lost Wisdom", and finally the record finishes off with a long sprawling slow motion drone-folk drift, the bed of which is all warm organ and softly strummed acoustic guitar, interrupted only briefly before a slow motion explosion of super processed cymbal shimmer, leads into a gorgeous, outro of dark dreamy Neil Young-ness, finishing off like a Mount Eerie record should, haunting, resonant, mournful and melancholy.
Not sure what else to say. It should speak volumes that we were so skeptical and so cynical, and were actually not even all that interested in hearing this, and now here we are proclaiming it our Record Of The Week. We stand before you humbled, but happy, with ears full of this strange confusional sound. Which makes sense really, as lots of our favorite metal these days is some sort of hybrid, some strange mix, or twisted take, and while we will always love the primitive blasting raw buzz of true black metal, we'll never get tired of people pushing that sound, one of our FAVORITE sounds, in new, exciting and unlikely directions. And we definitely can't think of anything less likely than indie folk and black metal...
Incredible packaging, a fold out full color oversized accordion style matte finish booklet, with frosty forest images on one side, lyrics and liner notes on the other, the band name and album title in reflective gold metallic ink.
MPEG Stream: "Wind's Dark Poem"
MPEG Stream: "Through The Trees"
MPEG Stream: "The Mouth Of Sky"
MPEG Stream: "(Something)"

MOUNT EERIE Wind's Poem (P.W. Elverum & Sun - Creators / Destroyers Of Music) 2lp 24.00
If there's one thing musicians, and heck, even fans of music hate, it's a dabbler. Someone well established in one arena who decides to dabble in some other sound or scene, often 'slumming', experimenting with a sound or style that they would never integrate into their actual sound. And no one hates dabblers more than metalheads, who came up with a new name for those dabblers, POSERS.
But without a little dabbling, music would remain stagnant, genres would go on forever unchanged, or more likely would die out because everything would have been done. The key is two fold, to dabble, or experiment respectfully, and to then incorporate those borrowed sounds into something new, and original, that while heavily indebted to the new sounds, is also firmly rooted in the original sound. It would make no sense for some punk band to just switch gears and come out with a country record (although it has happened), one would question that band's integrity for sure, how serious could they have been about punk if they could just chuck it for something else without a thought? It makes more sense for that band to infuse their punk with some twang, or add some slide guitar to the thrashing howl, and already, even just describing, it sounds way more interesting.
Needless to say, we were WAY skeptical when we heard that there was a Mount Eerie 'black metal' record in the works. We were never that into Mount Eerie, or the Microphones, it took the recent collaboration with Julie Dorion to win us over, and that record remains one of our favorites. But we had been reading about Mount Eerie mainman Phil Elverum discovering Xasthur and getting the black metal bug. Which is fine, that's sort of what this store is all about after all, but there's a difference between just digging black metal, and suddenly adding black metal to your dark bedroom folk. In theory it sounds like an intriguing combination, but we remained skeptical...
Which proved to be unnecessary, cuz wow, this is a strange and beautiful beast of a record. Right from the start, the title track explodes in a squall of thick corrosive buzz, where does a folky learn to kick up a sound like that? And since BM is not his first musical language, the result is truly unique and strange, there are some lurching strange arrangements, and then of course the black metal is peeled back to reveal some soulful crooning, and the hybrid is just as cool as we hoped it might be, a mournful sad boy Sebadoh like croon, buried amidst heaving walls of crumbling buzz, that explode into furious clouds of caustic crunch, only to recede once again, revealing those sad boy vocals again, and some strange plodding drums alongside a moaning minor key main melody, and the cool thing is, Elverum's distinct melodic style, immediately recognizable since we listened to Lost Wisdom so much, is perfectly fused with the buzzy blasts and blackened atmosphere. Really really cool. And that's only the first track.
As mentioned above, the key to successful dabbling is not abandoning your original sound, since theoretically, the music you make, you make because that's the sound you hear in your head, and your heart, and Elverum continues to craft gorgeous brooding dark folk, the second track, is a wheezing organ driven drone, with hushed angelic vocals, and a haunting deeeeep drone outro, which leads right into a gorgeous reverb drenched bit of mist shrouded drift, all spidery guitars, and warm whirring distant keyboards, and more crooned vocals, all subtly sinister and harrowing, but quite beautiful.
Fear not, that opener was not just a one shot. "The Hidden Stone" is another super distorted blast of blackened heaviness, and again, the magic here is that the buzz and fuzz is wrapped around distinctly UN-black metal melodies and song structures, the result sounds like a blackened Mount Eerie, lilting and sorrowful, but simultaneously distorted and blown out. And the record continues to strike the perfect balance between drifting, droney melodiousness and blackened buzzy crush, the best moments being when the two are fused, which thankfully is most of the time.
"The Mouth Of Sky" unleashes some incredibly cool, over saturated hyper distorted guitars and what sounds like processed cymbals, weaving them into a loping dark melody, the result is a super heavy, noise drenched, metallic shoegaze-y psychedelic blow out, the sort of track we wish was about 10 times longer. "(Something)" clocks in at a little over two minutes, and is obviously an experiment, but is one of our favorite tracks, a super strange, heavily panned, crunchy, distorted rhythmic, looped dronescape which gives way to a soft, shimmery, glistening dreamscape. "Lost Wisdom Pt. 2" is another killer blast of black folk buzz, about as frenzied as any of the blackness here gets, but divided into a strange lumbering tempo, which gives the whole song a sort of seasick vibe, lurching and lumbering and so EPIC, before all the distortion is stripped away, leaving just hushed vocals, a warm distant buzz, and some muted distortion, and the immediately recognizable melody from the original "Lost Wisdom", and finally the record finishes off with a long sprawling slow motion drone-folk drift, the bed of which is all warm organ and softly strummed acoustic guitar, interrupted only briefly before a slow motion explosion of super processed cymbal shimmer, leads into a gorgeous, outro of dark dreamy Neil Young-ness, finishing off like a Mount Eerie record should, haunting, resonant, mournful and melancholy.
Not sure what else to say. It should speak volumes that we were so skeptical and so cynical, and were actually not even all that interested in hearing this, and now here we are proclaiming it our Record Of The Week. We stand before you humbled, but happy, with ears full of this strange confusional sound. Which makes sense really, as lots of our favorite metal these days is some sort of hybrid, some strange mix, or twisted take, and while we will always love the primitive blasting raw buzz of true black metal, we'll never get tired of people pushing that sound, one of our FAVORITE sounds, in new, exciting and unlikely directions. And we definitely can't think of anything less likely than indie folk and black metal...
Incredible packaging, a fold out full color oversized accordion style matte finish booklet, with frosty forest images on one side, lyrics and liner notes on the other, the band name and album title in reflective gold metallic ink.
MPEG Stream: "Wind's Dark Poem"
MPEG Stream: "Through The Trees"
MPEG Stream: "The Mouth Of Sky"
MPEG Stream: "(Something)"

MOUNT EERIE WITH JULIE DOIRON & FRED SQUIRE Lost Wisdom (P.W. Elverum & Sun, Destroyers & Releasers Of Music & Worlds) cd 12.98
Mount Eerie has always been a bit hit or miss for us, same with the Microphones, both musical projects of the quite prolific Phil Elverum. The sound tends towards a hushed downer bedroom folk, simple instrumentation, heartfelt lyrics, vocals almost whispered, but various record have twisted that sound into different shapes, especially in the Microphones, where Elverum would add bursts of distorted psychedelic rock, jagged guitars, or horns, or Stereolab style Moog buzz, but the thing with the Microphones was that the sound was always better than the songs it was wrapped around. With Mount Eerie, it seemed Elverum was exploring a more intimate side to his sound, his Sentridoh to the Microphones' Sebadoh. But even then, we were never totally taken with any of the Mount Eerie releases. At least until now.
Lost Wisdom is absolutely gorgeous. We're tempted to credit the addition of Eric's Trip's Julie Doiron, but while that's a HUGE part of it, the songs here are fantastic. Recorded beautifully, wonderfully arranged. At times it sounds like an acoustic Built To Spill covering the first Iron & Wine record, if that makes any sense. Acoustic guitars, some subtle distorted crunch, simple barely there percussion, it's mostly about the vocals, Elverum and Doiron creating amazing harmonies, each wandering off on their own here and there, before returning once again only to get all wrapped up in each others' melodies. Sweet and sorrowful and sad, dreamy and melancholy, Elverum slips from warm soft croon to fluttery falsetto, Doiron's voice is fantastic as always, so melodic and rich, but also raw and rough around the edges, passionate and the perfect foil to Elverum's sad boy swoon. And the songs are gorgeous. Minor key and strangely lush for being so stripped down. The opening title track is worth the price of admission alone, just listen to the sound sample, so dark and beautiful, so wistful and haunting, a strange arrangement, full of tension and release, and some gorgeously obtuse melodies, even some strange room clatter in the background that ends up sounding like as much a part of the song as any of the instruments. We've been playing this whole record like crazy, but that first track, wow, just might be one of our favorite songs of the year.
WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Lost Wisdom"
MPEG Stream: "Voice In Headphones"
MPEG Stream: "You Swan Go On"

MOUNT EERIE WITH JULIE DOIRON & FRED SQUIRE Lost Wisdom (P.W. Elverum & Sun, Destroyers & Releasers Of Music & Worlds) lp 16.98
One of our highlights from the last list (and oneof Andee's new favorite records) now available on vinyl:
Mount Eerie has always been a bit hit or miss for us, same with the Microphones, both musical projects of the quite prolific Phil Elverum. The sound tends towards a hushed downer bedroom folk, simple instrumentation, heartfelt lyrics, vocals almost whispered, but various record have twisted that sound into different shapes, especially in the Microphones, where Elverum would add bursts of distorted psychedelic rock, jagged guitars, or horns, or Stereolab style Moog buzz, but the thing with the Microphones was that the sound was always better than the songs it was wrapped around. With Mount Eerie, it seemed Elverum was exploring a more intimate side to his sound, his Sentridoh to the Microphones' Sebadoh. But even then, we were never totally taken with any of the Mount Eerie releases. At least until now.
Lost Wisdom is absolutely gorgeous. We're tempted to credit the addition of Eric's Trip's Julie Doiron, but while that's a HUGE part of it, the songs here are fantastic. Recorded beautifully, wonderfully arranged. At times it sounds like an acoustic Built To Spill covering the first Iron & Wine record, if that makes any sense. Acoustic guitars, some subtle distorted crunch, simple barely there percussion, it's mostly about the vocals, Elverum and Doiron creating amazing harmonies, each wandering off on their own here and there, before returning once again only to get all wrapped up in each others' melodies. Sweet and sorrowful and sad, dreamy and melancholy, Elverum slips from warm soft croon to fluttery falsetto, Doiron's voice is fantastic as always, so melodic and rich, but also raw and rough around the edges, passionate and the perfect foil to Elverum's sad boy swoon. And the songs are gorgeous. Minor key and strangely lush for being so stripped down. The opening title track is worth the price of admission alone, just listen to the sound sample, so dark and beautiful, so wistful and haunting, a strange arrangement, full of tension and release, and some gorgeously obtuse melodies, even some strange room clatter in the background that ends up sounding like as much a part of the song as any of the instruments. We've been playing this whole record like crazy, but that first track, wow, just might be one of our favorite songs of the year.
WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Lost Wisdom"
MPEG Stream: "Voice In Headphones"
MPEG Stream: "You Swan Go On"

MOUNT EVEREST TRIO Waves from Albert Ayler (Atavistic / Unheard Music Series) cd 14.98

MOUNT FLORIDA Storm (Matador) 12" 9.98
Languid, slightly epic electronica from Scottish duo trying to attain the dramatic intensity of Massive Attack. Mixed results. Boy/girl vocals. Portishead vibe. On Matador!

MOUNT FLORIDA Storm (Matador) cdep 10.98
Languid, slightly epic electronica from Scottish duo trying to attain the dramatic intensity of Massive Attack. Mixed results. Boy/girl vocals. Portishead vibe. On Matador!

MOUNT FUJI DOOM JAZZ CORPORATION Succubus (Ad Noiseam) cd 23.00

MOUNT FUJI DOOMJAZZ CORPORATION, THE Doomjazz Future Corpses! (Ad Noiseam) cd 17.98
Last year we reviewed a disc by the evocatively named Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, who we described as "equal parts DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, seventies horror movie soundtracks, late night jazz and super sluggish blown out trip hop" which is exactly what it sounded like. Long languid musical excursions through some dark rainy late night film noir wasteland, ghostly moaning horns, skittering minimal percussion, haunting strings, all tangled into super cinematic musical drama. Another band, who if there was any justice, would be the ones scoring big Hollywood thrillers instead of Danny Elfman...
Anyway, we recently learned that theÊKilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble had an alter ego, a more metallic dark side, called, appropriately enough TheÊMount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation, we were pretty much sold after just hearing the name, so evocative of some mysterious 'star chamber', holed up in a secret underground bunker, tucked in some cave in the mountains, where mysterious hooded figures work alchemical magic creating mysterious and monstrous 'doomjazz'...
Supposedly, this Kilimanjaro offshoot was meant to sound a bit like SUNNO))) or Earth, albeit run through with bits of jazziness and smoke-y ambience. Well, it's not quite that heavy, but it is a bit, definitely heavier and darker and more ominous than the KDJE mothership, a sort of drone-y dark ambient drift, long stretches of low tones and distant horns, of rumbling guitars and thick washes of swirling low end. Actually it sounds more likeÊKilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble with all the jazz sucked out, leaving nothing but a blackened husk, a skeletal landscape of bleak blissed out shimmer, and slow creeping nightmare melodies. In some ways it sounds like a jazzier, more ambient, less primitive and ritualistic version of the Taj Mahal Travellers... A couple tracks do rev up to a full on SUNNO)))-y dirge, with the guitars threatening to engulf the dark ambience beneath it, but they never truly explode into actual sludge drenched doom, instead, they sort of drift darkly, roiling like a sky full of thick black clouds... It is most definitely doomy though, just not in the traditional sense, the sounds here are more Lustmord, Nordvargr, Bohren und Der Club Of Gore, Cold Meat Industries, with some more melancholy melody mixed in, disembodied reverbed guitar, the occasional almost-jazzy creep, it's more a sort of ambient slow core, wait a minute, "slowcore ambient doom" might be exactly the descriptor we were searching for.Ê
Definitely recommended for fans of any of the above mentioned bands, or anyone intoÊslowcore ambient doom!
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "5"
MPEG Stream: "8"

MOUNT KIMBIE Carbonated (Hot Flush) cd 14.98

MOUNT KIMBIE Crooks & Lovers (Hot Flush) cd 17.98
Equal parts J Dilla, Flying Lotus and Actress, the full length debut of London-based "post-dubstep" duo Mount Kimbie is easily our new favorite night time listens. With stoned soul edits, heavenly string washes, wonky ping pong rhythms, underwater electronic atmospherics and an off-kilter but hazy production, Crooks and Lovers is all about the post-club come down. Chill and subdued, often dreamy and strange but super immersive and narcotically propulsive. The kind of sound that wraps around you, compels you along into its strange slippery rhythms, before finally lulling you into a beautifully warped hypnogogic sleep state. Highest Recommendation!
MPEG Stream: "Would Know"
MPEG Stream: "Before I Move Off"
MPEG Stream: "Carbonated"
MPEG Stream: "Mayor"

MOUNT KIMBIE Crooks & Lovers (Hot Flush) 2lp 23.00
NOW ON VINYL!!!
Equal parts J Dilla, Flying Lotus and Actress, the full length debut of London-based "post-dubstep" duo Mount Kimbie is easily our new favorite night time listens. With stoned soul edits, heavenly string washes, wonky ping pong rhythms, underwater electronic atmospherics and an off-kilter but hazy production, Crooks and Lovers is all about the post-club come down. Chill and subdued, often dreamy and strange but super immersive and narcotically propulsive. The kind of sound that wraps around you, compels you along into its strange slippery rhythms, before finally lulling you into a beautifully warped hypnogogic sleep state. Highest Recommendation!
MPEG Stream: "Would Know"
MPEG Stream: "Before I Move Off"
MPEG Stream: "Carbonated"
MPEG Stream: "Mayor"

MOUNT VERNON ASTRAL TEMPLE Musick That Destroys Itself (Eskaton) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Working under his Mount Vernon Arts Lab guise, Drew Mulholland had the good fortune to perform alongside Coil at the Megalithomania festival in London, thoroughly impressing them with his drug addled electronic psychedelia, so much so that Coil offered to put out an album. Mulholland showed his appreciation by referencing Coil's legendary dabbling in occult magick in his choice of the slightly altered mystical moniker Mount Vernon Astral Temple as well as within the music itself, producing Musick That Destroys Itself as ritualist pieces centered around occult numerology, which as far as we can tell has something to do with the palindrome of the date February 2, 2002, and a purported 'time machine' which exists in the Brompton cemetary(!). If you've dug Coil's recent experiments with analog synths or the tripped out, ring modulator work-outs of Acid Mother's Temple, Mount Vernon Astral Temple's cosmic jams of dense electronic percolations and gaping reverberations will definitely be the perfect soundtrack for your next pagan ritual or secret ceremony! Strictly limited to 1000 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Warner's Reverie (excerpt)"

MOUNT VICIOUS Don't Be A Baby, Come And Get It (Seismic Wave) cd 9.98
Mount Vicious certainly have a lot of fun. Their live shows feature (count 'em) three guitar players, one of whom (Conan) usually rips his shirt off and throws his guitar down to more easily interact with the crowd. The other two often play back to back, axe necks bobbing in unison. Really, with song titles like "Steroid Unicorn," "Wherewolf," and "We Enjoy Fucking (To This Music)" how can YOU not have fun listening (or maybe fucking?) to this music? Mount Vicious features Conan Neutron and Chris Bolig of local loudnicks Replicator and Alli Pheteplace of The Holy Kiss, both of which are now, sadly, defunct. Mount Vicious plays a more straightforward (a.k.a. fistpumping) brand of hard rock than either of those two outfits, well utilizing the technique of the harmonized guitar solo. Conan sounds surprisingly like a Misfits-era Glenn Danzig, with a little Mike Patton thrown in for good measure. Listen to this record at high volume.
MPEG Stream: "Da Proposition"
MPEG Stream: "Princess of the Brodeo"
MPEG Stream: "Steroid Unicorn"

MOUNTAIN BROTHERS Self: Vol. 1 (Pimpstrut) cd 14.98
The Mountain Brothers are a Philly trio of Chinese American descent. Signed to powerhouse hip hop label Columbia/Ruffhouse a while back (only to realize how hard it can suck being on a major label), this is their selfreleased debut full length. Here's an excerpt from Ollie Wang's review from the Bay Guardian: "Self: Vol. 1, nearly three years in the making, hardly sounds dated, providing a refreshing alternative to the monotonous commercial drone. A brotherhood from another hood, the M.B.s are a welcome sign that with hip-hop's maturity comes diversity."

MOUNTAIN BROTHERS Self: Vol. 1 (Pimpstrut) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Mountain Brothers are a Philly trio of Chinese American descent. Signed to powerhouse hip hop label Columbia/Ruffhouse a while back (only to realize how hard it can suck being on a major label), this is their selfreleased debut full length. Here's an excerpt from Ollie Wang's review from the Bay Guardian: "Self: Vol. 1, nearly three years in the making, hardly sounds dated, providing a refreshing alternative to the monotonous commercial drone. A brotherhood from another hood, the M.B.s are a welcome sign that with hip-hop's maturity comes diversity."

MOUNTAIN GOATS Come Come To The Sunset Tree (self-released) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is John Darnielle's wonderful home-spun alternate rendition of his latest album, The Sunset Tree, released on vinyl only. Taking into consideration the songs' rough-hewn state and the fact that there's also a studio recorded album consisting of most of these songs, some folks might refer to these recordings as demos. To that we utter a robust "Pshaw!" 'Cuz as with most every release in the history of Sir Darnielle, Come Come To The Sunset Tree stands as a finished work on its own merits. He recorded these eleven songs at his home in North Carolina, and he recorded the 4AD CD release version at Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, CA. Keep in mind, apart from the obvious differences in production, you'll also find additional distinctions between the LP and CD in their respective song selections and running orders. If you're a serious Mountain Goats fan, you'll no doubt need both versions! The bare bones intimacy of these home recordings brings back fond memories of his early releases. Wonderful! Each record is packaged in a one-of-a-kind handcrafted cover (festooned with photos, comic strip panels, colored construction paper, paint and felt tip markers). Ultra limited pressing of which we only got a handful and they're going very very fast, so don't you dare snooze on this one!