N.E.R.D. Fly Or Die (Virgin) cd 16.98

N.E.R.D. In Search of... (Virgin France) cd 16.98
Finally available domestically (at a cheap price, for now anyway), this record should be of interest even to the folks who bought the import version, cos N.E.R.D. re-recorded their debut with a live band instead of all samples and pro-tools. It's actually not all that different, but the idea is interesting, and they supposedly decided to do it that way after working with No Doubt! N.E.R.D. (whose name stands for "noone ever really dies") also produce albums under the name the Neptunes. They've worked with Ol' Dirty Bastard, Mystikal ("Shake Ya Ass"), and Jay-Z. And 'Lapdance', the first track, does not disappoint. Funky, with super distorted synth-bass lines, cool gruff delivery that slips into old school soul falsetto, weird soaring fake strings and nasty female vocals. Unfortunately the rest of the record doesn't quite live up to the promise of the first track. Not to say it's a bad record, but the first track was such a knockout, we were just sort of hoping this would be the hip hop record of the year. But as it is, it's just a pretty decent soul/hip hop record, with cool staccato Timbaland-style rhythms throughout, simple rhymes, diva vocal choruses, and funky hiccuping bass. Not bad, but that first track destroys! Almost worth the price of admission.
RealAudio clip: "Lapdance"
RealAudio clip: "Things Are Getting Better"

N.I.L. s/t (Battle Kommand) cd 14.98
Brand new disc from Imperial, who for the last 12 or so years has been spewing a gorgeously grim and noxious black buzz under the banner of Krieg. As well as contributing his own black brand to BM super group Twilight (along with Wrest from Leviathan, Hildolf from Draugar and Blake from Nachtmystium) We were sort of just expecting more kvlt Kriegish blackness, which would have been fine, we dug the last Krieg big time, and in some ways, much of this does sound like a continuation of Krieg, but in other ways it's definitely a whole 'nother sort of blackened beast.
N.I.L is much more minimal and drone-y, augmenting the usual bass, guitar and drums with some seriously non-black metal instruments like mandolin and Tibetan Singing Bowl, creating slow moving black sonic blurs, reminding us much more of Xasthur than Krieg, each song basically a single riff, repeated mantra-like, smeared into hypnotic and mesmerizing, drawn out and murky doomic black dirges.
There are a few fast tracks, and those definitely sound more like Krieg, blasting and furious, swirling and chaotic, raw, primitive black metal brutality, but it's the slower tracks that make this record so weird and cool, from the haunting opening, wrapped in record crackle, a simple acoustic guitar weaving a mournful and melancholy dark folk melody, to the gorgeously fuzz drenched Burzumic plod of "Here I Found No Shelter" to the depressive miserablist strum of "Serpent Circle" to the gorgeous washed out Xasthur meets Katatonia style black epic that is "Negative Frequency Entity", and let's not forget a killer, and fairly straight, cover of Big Black's "Bad Houses", the only real difference being buzzier guitars, and the growled demonic vocals, but what a classic riff, malevolent and dramatic and so goddamn catchy, and yet somehow it meshes perfectly with the bleak black buzz of the rest of the record...
MPEG Stream: "Plague Doors Rusted Shut"
MPEG Stream: "Here I Found No Shelter"
MPEG Stream: "I Quenched My Thirst With Dust"

N.M.S. (NEPHLIM MODULATION SYSTEMS) Woe To Thee O Land Whose King Is A Child (Big Dada) cd 13.98
Big Jus of Company Flow and West Coast hip hop underground legend Orko the Sycotik Alien got together to record some of the most damaged, outer space, free form hip hop ever, but in the process, were so bombarded by news about Bush and the war that the record turned into a sort of protest letter, albeit, an abstract, psychotic, grinding, lurching one! This is maybe the ultimate in abstract hip hop, taking the unlikely sampling and unfunky beats of Anticon and the rapid-fire, tongue-twisting delivery of the modern crop of experimental hip hoppers to its logical extreme. Shimmery, finger picked guitars reverberate into a sitar-like mantra over spare, skittery beats while the flow is stumbling and drawled, stuttering and staccatto, dreamy jazzy pianos float beneath a super distorted slow motion breakbeat, protest chants are chopped and mixed into a thick mix of sweeping synths and crunchy galloping beats. Add in the wicked non-stop flow, dexterously weaving and bobbing, dodging bursts and beats, riding on waves of rumble and fuzz, and their RIGHT ON anti-Bush manifesto (there's even an ode to the pretzel that came so close, but ultimately failed to off the prez!) and you may just have the one of the most impotant underground hip hop records of the year. DEFINITELY for fans of Cloudead, Sage Francis, El-P, Cannibal Ox, Antipop Consortium and all that sort of stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Angels That Fell From Grace And Mixed With The Daughters Of Men"
MPEG Stream: "Aliens That Brought Art, Music, Science, Technology, And Religion To Earth"
MPEG Stream: "To Vary The Tone Or Intensity"

N.O.I.A. Unreleased Classics, '78-'82 (Ersatz Audio) cd 12.98
Well if it's "unreleased", how can it be a "classic"? While we're still scratching our heads about the title, the music of N.O.I.A. fits comfortably within that 'classic' new wave / electro sound from the early '80s that has undergone a surprisingly durable revival over the past four or five years. So forget all the bandwagon jumpers, check out the real deal from folks who were there when the wagon rolled around the first time and this stuff was really fresh and exciting. The scant information we've found about N.O.I.A. reveals they were -- or rather, are -- an Italian synth-pop group who formed in '78 but only signed to a record label in 1983, releasing several singles in '85 but nothing much since -- until now.
This album collects their earliest compositions -- all re-recorded by a reformed N.O.I.A. in 2000. Using pre-fab synths, N.O.I.A. shapes terse interlocking melodies with mechanical rhythms, ample arpeggiation, and vocoded vocals, drawing obvious comparisons to Devo, Kraftwerk, early Human League, and really early Front 242 (esp. 'No Comment' era). They're quite successful at it to boot. Try NOT to dance -- or smile -- to this stuff. Presented with pride on electro-darlings Adult.'s label, Ersatz Audio, who claim N.O.I.A. as a huge influence.
RealAudio clip: "Korowa Milk Bar"
RealAudio clip: "Hunger In The East"

N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton (Capitol) cd 12.98

NACHIKETA Good Night Persimmon (ESO) cd-r 4.98
Our (and perhaps your) introduction to the Bay Area artist Nachiketa comes in the form of a 52 minute instrumental track titled Good Night Persimmon. Nachiketa takes us through gentle, hushed passages that ebb and flow with string plucks, lulling drones and an occasional mist of staticky flutters. Calming loveliness.
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 1"

NACHTMYSTIUM Demise (Autopsy Kitchen) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We recently listed the newest release from midwestern black metallers Nachtmystium on Southern Lord a few weeks back, but we also managed to get just a few copies of the previous Nachtmystium cd, a wrist-slitting slab of ultra suicidal depressive, lo-fi black metal, suffocatingly bleak and buzzy, thrashy and chaotic. Mostly midtempo, with occasional stretches of blasting black metal, this is melancholic and miserable, grim and sorrowful, the riffs blurring into near-drones while distant melodies drift in the background and the drums sort of plod along contributing to the mesmerizing feel. A brutal mix of classic old school norwegian black metal (Immortal, Emperor, etc...) and more modern suicidal-drone black metal (Xasthur, Leviathan, etc...).
MPEG Stream: "Solitary Voyage"
MPEG Stream: "Scorpio Incarnate"

NACHTMYSTIUM Eulogy IV (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Southern Lord is turning into the go to guys for underground black metal. Scooping up super limited releases, slapping on their logo and giving some way too limited and thus mostly unheard weird black metal records some well deserved attention.
This is Southern Lord's reissue of Eulogy IV, from Chicago's Nachtmystium, who also happens to do time in a band called Twilight with Wrest from Leviathan (coming out soon on Southern Lord as well!). Nachtmystium plays the sort of black metal we just can't get enough of, that buzzy fuzzy midtempo grimness, similar to AQ faves Burzum, Woodtemple, Graveland and the like. Super distorted guitars fill the air with a suffocating black fog, while the drums churn underneath, gasping for breath, while the vocals howl and wail and growl. The cool thing about Nachtmystium is their weirdly traditional melodic sense. You'll have burst of black metal intensity, underpinned by a totally catchy NWOBHM guitar lead and an almost classic rock melody. Weird but totally effective. Dare we say toe tappingly catchy? I know, no black metal guy wants to hear anyone say that about his ultra grim black metal troop, but damn if the title track here isn't the catchiest black metal track ever! And without losing any brutality. That track in particular sounds a little like the Scorpions and The Steve Miller Band dipped in a huge viscous vat of roiling guitar fuzz and demonic rasp and broadcast from the classic rock station in hell!!!
Bonus tracks include three covers, an EARTH cover (a track from Earth's Pentastar performed live, including the Nachtmysticum singer's instruction to the audience to shut up and pay attention!), a Burzum cover and a Von cover, as well as a live track recorded last year.
LIMTED TO 1000 and numbered!
MPEG Stream: "My Vengeance"
MPEG Stream: "Charioteer (Temple Song) (Earth cover)"
MPEG Stream: "Stemmen Fra Tarnet (Burzum cover)"

NACHTMYSTIUM Instinct Decay (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
You don't often think of the word psychedelic when talking about black metal, but the latest (and we're late too, with this review) from USBM institution Nachtmystium is maybe the most psychedelic black metal record we've heard.
On first listen, this just sounds like a killer slab of thrashing blackness, buzzing downtuned riffs, demonic howls, blasting drums, but at some point, in almost every song, something really strange happens, and what was once a grim black blur, becomes a resplendent fuzzy soundscape of thick dreamy FX and blown out soft focus fuzz. Some tracks take off into endlessly rocking near-pop shimmer, like suddenly someone opened the recording studio door and M83 was recording next door, and the two sounds get all gloriously blurred and tangled. On other songs, the buzzing thrash falls to pieces into an abstract soundscape of strange FX and bits of crumbling sound. The core sound, a furious buzzing black metal, is surprisingly catchy too, with post rock arrangements, and plenty of space rock sensibility creeping into the more traditional grimness, but it's the lengthy outros and bridges in each song that make this record so bizarre and so cool. Can't imagine that some of this will go over too will with the ultra cult black metallers, but for those of us who like our metal twisted and tweaked and out of the ordinary, Nachtmystium's new sound totally hits the spot. A dense blissed out dreamy fuzziness impossibly wrapped around spikey crusty black metal buzz, culminating in the 6 minute final track, a slowly shifting black ambient space out, over slowly churning riffs and mesmerizing tribal drums. So good!
MPEG Stream: "A Seed For Suffering"
MPEG Stream: "Chosen By No One"

NADA SURF Let Go (Barsuk) cd 12.98
Not sure what it is about this record, but I (Andee) haven't been able to stop listening to it for weeks now. Some of you may remember Nada Surf from their big MTV hit 'Popular'. Not sure how a band goes from heavy rotation on MTV to being on indie label Barsuk, but whatever the reason, I sure can't complain, when the result is a record as catchy and dark and personal as this. And great! Did I say great?! This has to be one of my favorite pop records of recent memory. And the interesting thing is that it really is a POP record, not power pop, or noise pop, or any thing so specialised. If anything, it's most reminiscent of college rock circa 15 years ago. Which could be bad but in this case is most certainly not. Jangly and rocking, dark and melancholy, with really cool funny lyrics that at times are so banal and seemingly random, that they manage to carry the back breaking weight of their heartbreak and misery without the usual sap and schmaltz of most 'rock' lyrics. This record isn't weird or ground breaking or super challenging, just really really good. And ultimately, it comes down to the MUSIC, and how often you want/need to listen to it, and as I find myself throwing this on almost every day, I think that says it all.
RealAudio clip: "Blizzard of 77"
RealAudio clip: "Happy Kid"
RealAudio clip: "Fruit Fly"

NADA SURF Lucky (Barsuk) cd 13.98
It's always the records we love the most, and listen to the most, that are the hardest to describe. Hmmm. As we were writing that, we realized it sounded familiar and what do you know? That's almost exactly how we started our review of the last Nada Surf record. We've joked before, that instead of rambling on and and on and gushing like we often do, we should just write what we usually tell people in the store: "Just buy it. It's AWESOME!!!" But because some folks now do base their idea of a record's importance on the length of the review, we'll go ahead and try to explain exactly why Lucky is so awesome and why you should absolutely buy it, and most importantly why it's almost for sure our:
POP RECORD OF THE YEAR. Sure it's only February. But it was a done deal two songs in. And sure, we're hoping some record will be able to knock Lucky out of its top spot, but it seems very very unlikely.
And while even after probably 100 listens, Lucky doesn't seem quite as genius as it's predecessor The Weight Is A Gift, it gets a little closer every listen.
For those who somehow missed out on the whole Nada Surf phenomenon, they had a HUGE hit back in the nineties, "Popular", you'd know it if you heard it. And it got played enough to become one of THOSE songs you never wanted to hear again. But as with most one hit wonders, they ended up dropped and broke, another victim of the unforgiving major label machinery. They sort of just disappeared after that, almost completely, until years later they resurfaced with a brand new record, on a cool little indie label, and an almost entirely new sound. Lush and introspective, but super rocking at the same time, gorgeous vocal harmonies, amazing melodies, incredible hooks, and really funny, bittersweet lyrics. The next one was even better, another record of the week in fact. The Weight Is A Gift instantly became one of our favorite records of not just that year, but ever. Played to death, every song practically perfect. Heavy, dark, pretty, poppy, and so so so catchy.
A week or so ago, totally unexpected, Lucky showed up in the mail, and from the first song, we knew we'd end up loving this one too. But like almost all of our favorite pop records, it wasn't immediate. It took some listens for the songs to blossom, for the hooks to sink in, for the subtleties to reveal themselves. But as they did, and continue to do, the record just became that much deeper, the sound that much more complex. Instantly catchy throwaway pop has a very limited lifespan, but complicated, grown up pop music, deftly composed and executed, infused with soul and passion, humor and emotion, well, those are the kind of songs that stick. And this record is chock full of those sorts of songs. "Whose Authority" could have come straight off The Weight Is A Gift, with its incredible hook and chorus, then there's the churning minor key groove of "Weightless", dark and heavy, but shot through with pop sunlight, the sweet jangle of "I Like What You Say" with yet another impossibly catchy chorus, "The Fox" is the darkest and brooding of the bunch, but it too manages to remain catchy and pretty. It's hard to pick out songs, since like most great albums, it is an album, the songs working together as much as they work on their own. Fucking brilliant. Again. As much as we love all that crazy weird shit, sometimes nothing does it for us like perfect perfect pop.
MPEG Stream: "See These Bones"
MPEG Stream: "Whose Authority"
MPEG Stream: "Weightless"

NADA SURF The Weight Is A Gift (Barsuk) cd 13.98
You would think that the more you listen to a record, the easier it would be to write about, but for us sometimes the exact opposite seems to be true. The more a record seeps into your consciousness, the more it takes on all these ineffable qualities that are incredibly hard to describe in words. It's a rare record that can do that, but when it happens, it's all about feeling and emotion, the way the record affects you, makes you think, makes you feel, even if it just makes you want to jump around and sing along at the top of your lungs. Or drive with the stereo blasting, in a goosebumpy fume thinking sad thoughts. Or walk around in the fog and mist, just wandering aimlessly. Or just rock out and forget everything. And it's the record that can make you feel all of those things and then some that's even more rare. This is most definitely one of those records.
Being the sort of store we are, we get super obsessed with ultra weird records and bizarre niche genres, all of which we love to bits, be it drones or found sounds or sludge or power pop or black metal or whatever. But sometimes it takes a good ol' rock record to kick your ass and push all those buttons that without realizing it, have remained relatively un-pushed for years. 2003's Let Go, Nada Surf's first record since they were chewed up and spit out by the major label / MTV machine in the late nineties (after a huge hit in 1995) was a breath of fresh air at the time, a gorgeous indie rock record, full of impossibly catchy hooks, wry, bittersweet lyrics, perfect jangle guitar, just some of the best fucking songs we'd heard in ages. Songs that so far surpassed their former incarnation as a major label MTV rock band it was a little hard to believe it was the same band. A record so good in fact, that lots of metalheads and punk rockers we know even LOVED it. And around these parts it was one of the most listened to records of the last few years.
So we were super psyched when we heard there was a new Nada Surf on the horizon. On first listen though, it sounded just a bit too happy. But why wouldn't it, they had reinvented themselves, and were on a super hip indie label, and folks (the right folks this time) loved their band. Made sense that perhaps it would be a little less cynical and jaded, especially after the cathartic bile and vitriol of Let Go. But the more we listened, the more we realized, it was just as bitter and dark if not more so, just more self assured, better produced, songs that were even catchier, but in that way that classic songs are catchy, they take time to grow, and as they do, they become ultra personal, every song, and every favorite part having some direct correlation to your life, or some special meaning for everyone who listens. Each melody makes you want to sing along, or just close your eyes and think along in your head. We still thought the first record was better, until we went back and listened, and realized, that while the old record was still great, this new record took everything they were shooting for with the that one, and hit perfect bullseyes with every track on The Weight Is A Gift. Not a weak song anywhere, not a bit of filler. In fact some songs have so many killer parts, and so many hooks, any other band would more than likely turn every song here into two, or even three. All the parts are the stuff of classic indie rock, jangly guitars, sometimes roaring into a distorted big chorus fury, sometimes fading into a moody near ambient strum, simple basslines, drumming with fills as catchy as any of the songs' hooks (think Nirvana), gorgeous vocal harmonies, and really intense and clever and heartfelt lyrics, and most importantly, some of the catchiest songs ever. From dreamy, dreary slow building ballads, to full on rocking barnburners, to straight ahead sounding nineties style college rock, to more modern indie pop, Nada Surf while sounding totally unique, should definitely fit comfortably in your collections and in your ears, right alongside the Wrens, Yo La Tengo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sparklehorse, Interpol, Olivia Tremor Control, New Pornographers, Flaming Lips, Pavement, Now It's Overhead, and all the other modern indie 'classics'. But for us, there's something about Nada Surf that makes them stand out, even among such an elite indie crowd. Again, it's that impossible to describe something, so personal and intimate, even at their most rocking, that just hits us right in the heart. And the soul. The true test for us though as always, is how often you find yourself listening to something. Sure we've been loving all sorts of doom and drone and black metal, but we always find ourselves throwing this back on, again and again, all the time, every day. And loving it more and more every time.
MPEG Stream: "Concrete Bed"
MPEG Stream: "Do It Again"
MPEG Stream: "Always Love"

NADA SURF The Weight Is A Gift (Barsuk) 2cd 13.98
THIS DOUBLE CD VERSION IS OUT OF PRINT. SORRY. WE DO STILL STOCK THE SINGLE DISC VERSION, THOUGH.
You would think that the more you listen to a record, the easier it would be to write about, but for us sometimes the exact opposite seems to be true. The more a record seeps into your consciousness, the more it takes on all these ineffable qualities that are incredibly hard to describe in words. It's a rare record that can do that, but when it happens, it's all about feeling and emotion, the way the record affects you, makes you think, makes you feel, even if it just makes you want to jump around and sing along at the top of your lungs. Or drive with the stereo blasting, in a goosebumpy fume thinking sad thoughts. Or walk around in the fog and mist, just wandering aimlessly. Or just rock out and forget everything. And it's the record that can make you feel all of those things and then some that's even more rare. This is most definitely one of those records.
Being the sort of store we are, we get super obsessed with ultra weird records and bizarre niche genres, all of which we love to bits, be it drones or found sounds or sludge or power pop or black metal or whatever. But sometimes it takes a good ol' rock record to kick your ass and push all those buttons that without realizing it, have remained relatively un-pushed for years. 2003's Let Go, Nada Surf's first record since they were chewed up and spit out by the major label / MTV machine in the late nineties (after a huge hit in 1995) was a breath of fresh air at the time, a gorgeous indie rock record, full of impossibly catchy hooks, wry, bittersweet lyrics, perfect jangle guitar, just some of the best fucking songs we'd heard in ages. Songs that so far surpassed their former incarnation as a major label MTV rock band it was a little hard to believe it was the same band. A record so good in fact, that lots of metalheads and punk rockers we know even LOVED it. And around these parts it was one of the most listened to records of the last few years.
So we were super psyched when we heard there was a new Nada Surf on the horizon. On first listen though, it sounded just a bit too happy. But why wouldn't it, they had reinvented themselves, and were on a super hip indie label, and folks (the right folks this time) loved their band. Made sense that perhaps it would be a little less cynical and jaded, especially after the cathartic bile and vitriol of Let Go. But the more we listened, the more we realized, it was just as bitter and dark if not more so, just more self assured, better produced, songs that were even catchier, but in that way that classic songs are catchy, they take time to grow, and as they do, they become ultra personal, every song, and every favorite part having some direct correlation to your life, or some special meaning for everyone who listens. Each melody makes you want to sing along, or just close your eyes and think along in your head. We still thought the first record was better, until we went back and listened, and realized, that while the old record was still great, this new record took everything they were shooting for with the that one, and hit perfect bullseyes with every track on The Weight Is A Gift. Not a weak song anywhere, not a bit of filler. In fact some songs have so many killer parts, and so many hooks, any other band would more than likely turn every song here into two, or even three. All the parts are the stuff of classic indie rock, jangly guitars, sometimes roaring into a distorted big chorus fury, sometimes fading into a moody near ambient strum, simple basslines, drumming with fills as catchy as any of the songs' hooks (think Nirvana), gorgeous vocal harmonies, and really intense and clever and heartfelt lyrics, and most importantly, some of the catchiest songs ever. From dreamy, dreary slow building ballads, to full on rocking barnburners, to straight ahead sounding nineties style college rock, to more modern indie pop, Nada Surf while sounding totally unique, should definitely fit comfortably in your collections and in your ears, right alongside the Wrens, Yo La Tengo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sparklehorse, Interpol, Olivia Tremor Control, New Pornographers, Flaming Lips, Pavement, Now It's Overhead, and all the other modern indie 'classics'. But for us, there's something about Nada Surf that makes them stand out, even among such an elite indie crowd. Again, it's that impossible to describe something, so personal and intimate, even at their most rocking, that just hits us right in the heart. And the soul. The true test for us though as always, is how often you find yourself listening to something. Sure we've been loving all sorts of doom and drone and black metal, but we always find ourselves throwing this back on, again and again, all the time, every day. And loving it more and more every time.
Packaged with a cool die-cut cityscape sleeve with lyrics, and while supplies last a bonus disc including two unreleased tracks, a demo version of the opening track, and a Francoise Hardy cover!
MPEG Stream: "Concrete Bed"
MPEG Stream: "Do It Again"
MPEG Stream: "Always Love"

NADA SURF The Weight Is A Gift (Sonic Boom) lp 13.98
This all time aQ favorite and past Record of the Week now on vinyl!!!!
You would think that the more you listen to a record, the easier it would be to write about, but for us sometimes the exact opposite seems to be true. The more a record seeps into your consciousness, the more it takes on all these ineffable qualities that are incredibly hard to describe in words. It's a rare record that can do that, but when it happens, it's all about feeling and emotion, the way the record affects you, makes you think, makes you feel, even if it just makes you want to jump around and sing along at the top of your lungs. Or drive with the stereo blasting, in a goosebumpy fume thinking sad thoughts. Or walk around in the fog and mist, just wandering aimlessly. Or just rock out and forget everything. And it's the record that can make you feel all of those things and then some that's even more rare. This is most definitely one of those records.
Being the sort of store we are, we get super obsessed with ultra weird records and bizarre niche genres, all of which we love to bits, be it drones or found sounds or sludge or power pop or black metal or whatever. But sometimes it takes a good ol' rock record to kick your ass and push all those buttons that without realizing it, have remained relatively un-pushed for years. 2003's Let Go, Nada Surf's first record since they were chewed up and spit out by the major label / MTV machine in the late nineties (after a huge hit in 1995) was a breath of fresh air at the time, a gorgeous indie rock record, full of impossibly catchy hooks, wry, bittersweet lyrics, perfect jangle guitar, just some of the best fucking songs we'd heard in ages. Songs that so far surpassed their former incarnation as a major label MTV rock band it was a little hard to believe it was the same band. A record so good in fact, that lots of metalheads and punk rockers we know even LOVED it. And around these parts it was one of the most listened to records of the last few years.
So we were super psyched when we heard there was a new Nada Surf on the horizon. On first listen though, it sounded just a bit too happy. But why wouldn't it, they had reinvented themselves, and were on a super hip indie label, and folks (the right folks this time) loved their band. Made sense that perhaps it would be a little less cynical and jaded, especially after the cathartic bile and vitriol of Let Go. But the more we listened, the more we realized, it was just as bitter and dark if not more so, just more self assured, better produced, songs that were even catchier, but in that way that classic songs are catchy, they take time to grow, and as they do, they become ultra personal, every song, and every favorite part having some direct correlation to your life, or some special meaning for everyone who listens. Each melody makes you want to sing along, or just close your eyes and think along in your head. We still thought the first record was better, until we went back and listened, and realized, that while the old record was still great, this new record took everything they were shooting for with the that one, and hit perfect bullseyes with every track on The Weight Is A Gift. Not a weak song anywhere, not a bit of filler. In fact some songs have so many killer parts, and so many hooks, any other band would more than likely turn every song here into two, or even three. All the parts are the stuff of classic indie rock, jangly guitars, sometimes roaring into a distorted big chorus fury, sometimes fading into a moody near ambient strum, simple basslines, drumming with fills as catchy as any of the songs' hooks (think Nirvana), gorgeous vocal harmonies, and really intense and clever and heartfelt lyrics, and most importantly, some of the catchiest songs ever. From dreamy, dreary slow building ballads, to full on rocking barnburners, to straight ahead sounding nineties style college rock, to more modern indie pop, Nada Surf while sounding totally unique, should definitely fit comfortably in your collections and in your ears, right alongside the Wrens, Yo La Tengo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sparklehorse, Interpol, Olivia Tremor Control, New Pornographers, Flaming Lips, Pavement, Now It's Overhead, and all the other modern indie 'classics'. But for us, there's something about Nada Surf that makes them stand out, even among such an elite indie crowd. Again, it's that impossible to describe something, so personal and intimate, even at their most rocking, that just hits us right in the heart. And the soul. The true test for us though as always, is how often you find yourself listening to something. Sure we've been loving all sorts of doom and drone and black metal, but we always find ourselves throwing this back on, again and again, all the time, every day. And loving it more and more every time.
MPEG Stream: "Concrete Bed"
MPEG Stream: "Do It Again"
MPEG Stream: "Always Love"

NADJA Bliss Torn From Emptiness (Profound Lore) cd 14.98
We love Aidan Baker. That should be abundantly clear from a quick look at past reviews on the aQ list. The artist that can hold our attention, and can continue to push the boundaries of his or her sound, are few and far between, especially after 20, 30 or more releases. It helps in Aidan's case, that he has multiple outputs, Nadja for the heavy stuff, under his own name for the more abstract minimal stuff, as well as various other ensembles and collaborations. As much as we dig everything we've heard, our hearts belong to Nadja. Blending huge roiling waves of downtuned doom, and glistening blissful ambience, Nadja just might be the masters of this new wave of post-metal shoegaze blisscore or whatever you want to call it.
In addition to the steady stream of new releases, Baker has been picking older, long out of print classics, and not just re-issuing them, but also reworking them, after all, years later, given the opportunity, most folks might ant to make some changes to recordings they made years earlier. Frustrating for the true completists probably, but won't matter to most folks, as those cd-r's were limited enough that only a handful of folks actually got to hear them.
One of our favorite Nadja discs was always Bliss Torn From Emptiness, so we're super psyched to finally have it as a real cd, with better sound, and all new fancy artwork. We didn't play the two versions side by side, so we'd be hard pressed to point out any distinct differences, regardless, Bliss is a fucking massive, gorgeous, collection of dreamy Teutonic crush.
Unlike the more fluid washed out shimmer of later Nadja, Bliss finds the band lurching and pounding, almost industrial, with plenty of Godflesh going on. The drums, a staggering stuttering staccato, the guitars long streaks of blistering psych blur, gauzy clouds of whir and buzz, the whole song like some massive sonic beast, lumbering into the twilit night. The melody and mood intense and emotional, very cinematic, and very darkly dramatic.
As the record progresses (it's a three part suite), the rhythms smooth out a bit, slow down, lurch less and groove more, the atmospherics growing more shimmery and soft focus, with more stretches of tranquility, softly processed vocals, glimmering minimal drones, gauzy glitchery, while remaining really really heavy, the final part, after a looooong stretch of fuzzy warble and sun dappled drift, finishes off with a deafening supernova of sound, the guitars so white hot that they almost drown out the drums completely, a swirling chaotic soundscape, all end of the world psych blow out and bleary eyed solar eclipse shoegaze, a bit like playing ALL your M83 records at the same time and blasting them through loudspeakers mounted on satellites, showering the planet with brilliant blinding shards of glorious buzz.
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 2"

NADJA Bodycage (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We have a friend who has become so obsessed with the work of Nadja and its mainman Aidan Baker, that he spends way more time than is healthy trolling the internet looking of long lost 7"s and rare out of print cd-r's. It's easy to see why though. Baker's sonic explorations are as mesmerizing as they are ominous. A truly unique musical voice in a suddenly way too crowded microniche. Call it doom. Or drone. Or dirge. Or better yet deathdoomdronedirge. It's a sound we can't get enough of, the logical extension of our obsession with the drone. And while we still love to drift off to the soft shimmer of a distant rumble, when you imbue a drone with more power, and more volume, and more wattage it becomes something new, a fearsome sonic beast, whether it's a subtly snarling growl of grit and grime, or a massive undulating wave of black hole fury, a drone possessed of power becomes a glorious thing to behold. And no one has as deft a hand with the drone than Baker, and Nadja is the ultimate drone via rock band. Beyond the ultra minimalism of SUNNO))), way prettier than the filthy dirges of Moss or Monarch, Nadja are almost like some indie slowcore band but lit from within by some otherworldy source. Every track is suffused with a warm rich glow that is almost blinding, but at the same time warm and inviting. It's heavy, sure, but it's more just plain beautiful. Like staring into the sun until your eyes start playing tricks on you. Imagine listening to a sound so loud, so bright, that the synapses in your brain misfire, and your ear scrambles to make sense of this sound, and in doing so, forges all kinds of unlikely connections, subtle melodic threads, paints a lush sonic portrait. Now imagine a music that was played to already sound like that, before it even got to you. Just imagine what your mind and your ears would do with a sound like that. Some sort of unreachable aural nirvana suddenly within reach. That's the music of Nadja. It's like watching a sunset slowed down so each subtle shimmer stretches out forever, each ray of sunlight is tangled up with another, writhing in sparkling glistening knots, slowly unraveling, stretching, into endless streaks of gorgeous muted color. Imagine Jesu, but dosed to the gills on Prozac, a shiny happy Godfleshian dirge, or a My Bloody Valentine riff looped and repeated forever, underpinned by some Can drum loop at 16 rpm, or a Teenage Filmstars 45 played at 33. This is epic ultradoom metal, but with the metal replaced by soft billowy clouds of fuzzy distortion, the howling fury twisted into dreamlike tranquility, the blasting beats pulled apart and sprinkled here and there like percussive raindrops. This is as soft and pretty as a dirge-y drone can get while still retaining its inherent doomic mass. Utter and absolute loveliness drenched in a thick patina of crushing heaviness. Impossible but perfect.
MPEG Stream: "Autosomal"
MPEG Stream: "Clinodactyl"

NADJA Bodycage (Equation) 2lp 40.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our favorite slabs of crushing glacial dirgedoomdrone beauty, available on vinyl for a super limited time. Released by Equation Records, so you know it's super swank (they released gorgeous looking and sounding lps from Fear Falls Burning, Landing, Troum and Bunnybrains). Ultra thick vinyl, deluxe gatefold sleeve, sealed shut with a sticker, each copy hand numbered. Most on black vinyl, a handful on white, but DON'T ASK for colored vinyl, it's random, just cross your fingers and maybe you'll get lucky. Plus we all know black vinyl sounds better. And black vinyl is so much darker and more evil and... well, BLACKER!! Never understood why folks wanted their Xasthur or SUNNO))) or Boris on yellow or pink vinyl instead of BLACK. Anyway, limited to 300 copies, we got less than we asked for, so be quick, or be prepared to be disappointed...
We have a friend who has become so obsessed with the work of Nadja and its mainman Aidan Baker, that he spends way more time than is healthy trolling the internet looking of long lost 7"s and rare out of print cd-r's. It's easy to see why though. Baker's sonic explorations are as mesmerizing as they are ominous. A truly unique musical voice in a suddenly way too crowded microniche. Call it doom. Or drone. Or dirge. Or better yet deathdoomdronedirge. It's a sound we can't get enough of, the logical extension of our obsession with the drone. And while we still love to drift off to the soft shimmer of a distant rumble, when you imbue a drone with more power, and more volume, and more wattage it becomes something new, a fearsome sonic beast, whether it's a subtly snarling growl of grit and grime, or a massive undulating wave of black hole fury, a drone possessed of power becomes a glorious thing to behold. And no one has as deft a hand with the drone than Baker, and Nadja is the ultimate drone via rock band.
Beyond the ultra minimalism of SUNNO))), way prettier than the filthy dirges of Moss or Monarch, Nadja are almost like some indie slowcore band but lit from within by some otherworldy source. Every track is suffused with a warm rich glow that is almost blinding, but at the same time warm and inviting. It's heavy, sure, but it's more just plain beautiful. Like staring into the sun until your eyes start playing tricks on you. Imagine listening to a sound so loud, so bright, that the synapses in your brain misfire, and your ear scrambles to make sense of this sound, and in doing so, forges all kinds of unlikely connections, subtle melodic threads, paints a lush sonic portrait. Now imagine a music that was played to already sound like that, before it even got to you. Just imagine what your mind and your ears would do with a sound like that. Some sort of unreachable aural nirvana suddenly within reach. That's the music of Nadja. It's like watching a sunset slowed down so each subtle shimmer stretches out forever, each ray of sunlight is tangled up with another, writhing in sparkling glistening knots, slowly unraveling, stretching, into endless streaks of gorgeous muted color. Imagine Jesu, but dosed to the gills on Prozac, a shiny happy Godfleshian dirge, or a My Bloody Valentine riff looped and repeated forever, underpinned by some Can drum loop at 16 rpm, or a Teenage Filmstars 45 played at 33. This is epic ultradoom metal, but with the metal replaced by soft billowy clouds of fuzzy distortion, the howling fury twisted into dreamlike tranquility, the blasting beats pulled apart and sprinkled here and there like percussive raindrops. This is as soft and pretty as a dirge-y drone can get while still retaining its inherent doomic mass. Utter and absolute loveliness drenched in a thick patina of crushing heaviness. Impossible but perfect.
MPEG Stream: "Autosomal"
MPEG Stream: "Clinodactyl"

NADJA Corrasion (Foreshadow) cd 16.98
For a while, every band wanted to sound like SUNNO))), and the bands that didn't usually had side projects that did, each offering up their own take on the slow motion barely moving glacial doom drone we all love so much. But pretty soon, those massive slabs of barely shifting buzz, the huge chunks of rumble that sounded like nothing but a guitar leaned against an amp, started to soften, get more melodic, almost dreamy, and thus a new genre was born. Not sure what it's really called. Some sort of blown out bliss pop. Still heavy, the tempos still lugubrious and plodding, everything drenched in distortion and blurry shimmery fuzz, but the songs now had a melancholy pop center, a glimmery glowing core. At the forefront of this new sound there were two, Jesu of course, Justin Broadrick's post-Godflesh project, and Nadja, the doomy side of a Canadian crafter of drones by the name of Aidan Baker. There are plenty of comers, the Angelic Process, Gog, and a handful of others, but it seems to be a race between Baker and his Nadja, and Broadrick and his Jesu. Broadrick probably has Baker beat in terms of songs, Jesu is a bonafide pop group at this point, verses, choruses, and HOOKS everywhere, but in most other ways, Baker has the upper hand. Certainly in terms of sheer number of releases, but also, Baker works more with texture and timbre, creating songs, but only in the most abstract sense, riffs repeat, each one a gorgeous cyclical trudge through dense clouds of swirling buzz, vocals drift, another layer of sound, everything bathed in effervescent reverb, and sun dappled delay. The distortion thick and soft, not harsh or jagged, the rhythms pulsing and throbbing as much as pounding.
On Corrasion, very little has changed. Which is a good thing. More of what we already love. The record is rife with sonic subtleties though, enough so that Nadja obsessives will have much to explore and discover, and thus Corrasion is far from redundant, instead functioning as another integral piece in Baker's seemingly never ending sonic puzzle, and beyond that, it just sounds so goddamn good. Hard to imagine ever getting sick of these endless gorgeous metallic dronescapes.
And while pretty much any of these records would be perfect for the Nadja newbie, Corrasion might just be the perfect place to start...
MPEG Stream: "Base Fluid"
MPEG Stream: "You Are As Dust"
MPEG Stream: "Corrasion"

NADJA Guilted By The Sun (Elevation) cd 8.98
We didn't realize it when we first listed the Residual Echoes ep a short while back, but Elevation Records, the label that released that, and this here new Nadja ep, is co-run by professional hockey player Boyd Devereaux, who plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Wow. Story goes something like this: Hockey player into weird underground sounds, meets an ex-member of the Dirtbombs at a Dead Meadow gig. The Dirtbombs guy (let's call him Joe Greenwald) just so happened to also work for Warner Brothers. The two became fast friends and decided to start a label and voila! Elevation Records. Pretty cool. Well, we already told you all about the Residual Echoes ep (and if you missed that we still have a few in stock), so now let's talk about the new Nadja record...
A brand new 28 minute ep, from one of the originators of this new bred of blissful brutality, Canadian duo, Nadja, featuring AQ favorite, the crazy prolific Aidan Baker. While this ep starts off tranquil and drifty, it doesn't take long for things to get down to business, with a sudden onslaught of super corrosive downtuned sludge guitar and simple doomic plod. Now Nadja have always been heavy, but it's always been sort of shimmery and blown out, heavy in a drifting soft focus sort of way, but the opening track here sounds almost black metal, still with a sort of slow core pop heart, but wrapped in blackened buzz and super damaged crumbling distortion, seriously intense and ominous. Pretty amazing actually. The song fades out into a glimmering pool of distant buzz laced with dreamlike melodies, only to be clobbered by the second track, the most straight up riffy song Nadja has ever recorded wethinks, some wierd sort of slow motion stoner doom metal, but being Nadja, still wrapped in fuzzy sparkles and warm whir. All four tracks, minus brief interludes of whispery tranquility, are massive lumbering distorted dreamdoom beasts, that could definitely hold their own in a room full of hellboun heavies and devastating doomlords. While somehow managing to also sound pretty the whole damn time...
MPEG Stream: "Guilted"
MPEG Stream: "By"

NADJA Guilted By The Sun (Roadburn) lp 21.00
A drone bliss classic from AQ fave Aidan Baker (of Nadja) available on vinyl for a super limited time.
A brand new 28 minute ep, from one of the originators of this new bred of blissful brutality, Canadian duo, Nadja, featuring AQ favorite, the crazy prolific Aidan Baker. While this ep starts off tranquil and drifty, it doesn't take long for things to get down to business, with a sudden onslaught of super corrosive downtuned sludge guitar and simple doomic plod. Now Nadja have always been heavy, but it's always been sort of shimmery and blown out, heavy in a drifting soft focus sort of way, but the opening track here sounds almost black metal, still with a sort of slow core pop heart, but wrapped in blackened buzz and super damaged crumbling distortion, seriously intense and ominous. Pretty amazing actually. The song fades out into a glimmering pool of distant buzz laced with dreamlike melodies, only to be clobbered by the second track, the most straight up riffy song Nadja has ever recorded wethinks, some weird sort of slow motion stoner doom metal, but being Nadja, still wrapped in fuzzy sparkles and warm whir. All four tracks, minus brief interludes of whispery tranquility, are massive lumbering distorted dreamdoom beasts, that could definitely hold their own in a room full of hellbound heavies and devastating doomlords. While somehow managing to also sound pretty the whole damn time...
MPEG Stream: "Guilted"
MPEG Stream: "By"

NADJA Long Dark Twenties (Anthem) 7" 5.98
Folks who managed to catch Nadja performing live at aQuarius not too long ago, were treated to quite possibly the heaviest, catchiest, grooviest Nadja track yet. An awesome hook filled seventies rock style ultra jam, wrapped in thick clouds of billowing distortion and anchored by the crunch and pound of programmed beats, Aidan Baker's vocals a whispered croon, Leah Buckareff's bass throbbing and rumbling, but the main riff, SHIT, unbelievable, even after our ears stopped ringing, we were all humming that riff for days...
Well the funny thing we learned later, was that there song was in fact a cover. And an incredibly unlikely cover at that. The only obvious link between the original and the band covering it? Canada. The song, some of you might remember, is in fact from the Kids In The Hall movie Brain Candy, and proves that Nadja can turn hooky pop into hooky sludge-y doom. The chorus is an absolute killer, and similar to how Torche transform pop into skullcrushing hook filled heaviness, Nadja take that pop and wrap it all up in some of their distinctive blissed out fuzz and we're talking HIT. Well, a hit if there were actually some sort of blissdoomdronesludgepop chart. Which there should be. And there sort of is, in our heads, but anyway...
Even though this is one of FIVE Nadja releases on this week's list, and they're all pretty amazing, this one might just be the most essential of them all.
LIMITED of course. One sided vinyl, hand letterpressed covers, pressed on all sorts of different colors, including black, don't ask, you'll get what you get!

NADJA Radiance Of Shadows (Alien8) cd 14.98
As much as we love Aidan Baker's solo recordings, and we most definitely do, from gorgeous expansive minimal dronescapes to haunting melodic abstracts to dreamy deconstructed pop, it's all pretty genius, we have to admit that our hearts will always belong to Nadja. Everything we love about Baker, but presented in the form of a massive buzzed out doom. Even at its heaviest and most plodding, it glistens and glimmers, the melodies shimmering and ethereal, the heaviness washed out into a metallic blur.
Radiance Of Shadows is the latest offering from Nadja, a duo featuring Baker and his partner Leah Buckareff, and is shaping up to be at once the prettiest Nadjar release so far, and the heaviest.
Three 20+ minute tracks, each perfectly balanced between suffocating crush and hazy dreamy bliss. Most folks obviously focus on the heavy crushing riffage, but the magic of Nadja happens just as much if not moreso during the quiet parts, the rhythmic parts leading up to the bombastic climaxes. The build up is just as satisfying sonically as the pay off, the musical version of the whole journey / destination thing. But that said, the pay off is a massive and gloriously impossibly heavy crush, like being beaten to death with rays of sunshine or being suffocated under layer after layer of soft fuzzy concrete slabs.
Each track while hewing close to the Nadja sound we know and live is distinctly different, exploring all the various facets of the duo's dreamy metallic dronepop.
The opening track is a glistening slowcore crawl, a lush swirl of granular textures, and lurching crumbling riffage, but suspended in wide open space, languorous and woozy, with a strange staccato riff, that gradually blossoms into a blown out slow motion dream doom supernova, continually seesawing back and forth between the soft and the heavy, a hypnotic blown out two part doom symphony, wrapped around a dreamy slow motion pop core.
The second track is even dreamier and poppier, with hushed breathless vocals, buried in a swirling soft focus My Bloody Valentine / Galaxie 500 sun dappled blur, punctuated by heaving industrial metal riffing, like a softer prettier Godflesh.
The third track is maybe the strangest of the bunch, the quiet parts near silent, the heavy parts seriously and intensely punishing. The quiet parts are all haunting high end distant drones, glitched out minimal guitar strum, soft barely audible drumming, martial and machinelike, haunting near spoken vocals. The heavy parts pummeling and downtuned, but laced with haunting pianos, and some seriously aggressive growled death metal style vocals, roiling and furious, still plodding and slow, but within that plod, the various elements careening and crashing and threatening to crumble into jagged bits. The dynamic between the loud and the soft is super dramatic, culminating in a washed out buzzscape eventually dissipating and leaving that quiet, insistent melancholy strum.
The sound is so much more epic and massive, but warm and 'live' sounding. For the first time, it actually sounds like A BAND, more than a record constructed in a room by a guy (and a girl). Not sure if it's the songs, or the arrangements, the recording or all three, but whatever it is, made a sound we already thought perfect, even more perfect.
MPEG Stream: "Now I Become Death The Destroyer Of Worlds"
MPEG Stream: "I Have Tasted The Fire Inside Your Mouth"

NADJA Skin Turns To Glass (The End) cd 12.98
With some bands, you want something new and different every record, strange new sounds, that confound as much as confuse, pushing boundaries, and stretching the limit of that band's 'sound'. But some groups, you don't want to ever change. You want every record to be a continuation of the one before it, you long for some way to make every song, and every record, seemingly play forever. Each release, more like a movement in a massive symphony stretched out over multiple records and multiple years.
The key though, is to somehow, within this sonic stasis, to continue to evolve, however subtly. Sure the sound remains unchanged, the tone and timbre is consistent. But within these boundaries, the songs do in fact change and shift, and offer up new ideas, new landscapes of sound, new hooks, new angles with which to hear, varied and wonderfully assorted pieces of a bigger whole.
Such is the case with dreamdoom duo Nadja, who much like their mainman Aidan Baker, release records at an alarming rate, often topping one a month, and while it's been challenging to review each and every one, we have, and we've enjoyed all of them. But listening to this latest Nadja, we began to view the band, and their record differently. There was no point in approaching this record as if it was their first, or as if it was something completely new, that we'd never heard before. Because we have. It's quite similar to past Nadja releases, the sound they've created is so much their own, the guitar impossibly full and blown out, organic, but wreathed in digital fuzz, and it's no studio trick, they played right here in aQ, and even at a less than deafening (but still plenty loud, thank you!) volume, they managed to conjure up the same heaving heaviness, the same gauzy atmospheres, the buried thump of the drum machine. In fact, as I was writing this, someone came up and asked if this was Nadja. C'mon! Most doom bands, drone bands, heck non-pop bands in general, you'd be hard pressed to immediately recognize. But Nadja have transcended all the descriptors often flung at them, doom, shoegaze, drone, metalgaze, they all apply, but none so much more than simply the name Nadja.
So why buy this one? Or the two forthcoming releases? Or the 30 or 40 past releases? Well, if you're like us, we can't get enough of the sound of Nadja. And like we mentioned above, we HAVE figured out a way to make this sound go on forever. Each record, takes the dense blissed out buzz, the lurching doomic trudge, the gloriously effulgent majesty of Nadja, and stretches it out just a little bit further. Each time adding something crucial that wasn't there before. On Skin Turns to Glass, the songs are evenmore meditative and repetitive, looped endlessly, the riffs churning mantra-like, a buzzing slow motion hynorock, separated by spaced out stretches of glimmering ambience, and deep cavernous drones. Every Nadja record we're tempted to declare it the best yet, but we'd bet you if we went back to one of the first releases, we'd immediately think that it was in fact the best one. Such is the magic of Nadja, the sound they've created, the soundworld, each piece is as important as any other, the sound wouldn't be complete, in fact can naver be truly complete, until there are no more records, no more songs, no more pieces to add to the ever expanding puzzle. Hopefully that will never happen.
Includes an unlisted bonus track, nearly thirty minutes of shimmering doomic minimalism, droning dark bliss, that explodes in the last minute or so, in a flurry of incendiary white noise, a drum damaged blown out psychguitar metallic meltdown, that ends quite abruptly, leaving us to wait patiently for the next movement, coming soon...
MPEG Stream: "Sandskin"
MPEG Stream: "Skin Turns To Glass"

NADJA Thaumogenesis (aRCHIVE) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of two new releases from Mr. Aidan Baker. One under his own name, a gorgeously druggy twangy slab of slowcore, and this the latest from his slow motion sludge metal doom duo Nadja.
And it's a killer. One single 62 minute long track, bass, guitar and drum machine, all woven into a slowly undulating soundscape of blissy drone and monstrous pummel.
The disc begins with 5 minutes of glistening shimmer, a slowly shifting swirl of bleary eyed sound. before the hammer falls and the beast lurches forth. A lush, massive, lumbering dirge, but rife with dense layers of sound, nearly orchestral in it's depth, a cyclical main riff, downtuned and dripping with distortion, beneath that, a strange glimmering melodic sparkle, as if millions of tiny diamonds were sprinkled into the blackened tarpit sludge, beneath it, a simple machinelike rhythm pulses relentlessly, like some sort of robotic heartbeat. It's like some Frankensteinian collage of Godflesh, Jesu, SUNNO))) and old Swans. It's heavy and bleak and doomy, but like Jesu, the sound is imbued with a strange warmth, and emotional mystery, that makes this much more than an exercise in guitardrone.
And the sound is not static, it wavers and shifts, the melody subtly changing shape, all without the rhythm ever wavering.
About 20 minutes in, the wall of guitar drops away, leaving simple distorted strums to float weightless above a single drum hit, repeated over and over, strangely meditative and serene. Before building back up again, but instead of sounding metallic, it sounds lush and expansive, the guitars billowing and glowing, a mighty Ur-drone, alive and vibrant.
Almost halfway through, a totally amazing riff is introduced, a moaning minor key melody that soars over the swirling blackness below, and adds all sorts of tension, a lurching slow motion stoner rock almost, that gives away once again to a blissed out soundscape of soft fluttering tones and warm muted colors, before erupting into one final salvo, a blinding burst of white light from the mouth of infinity, a soul shearing wave of incandescent guitars and psychedelic overload. Like Merzbow filtered through M83 and played by Philip Jeck, a glorious blast of spectral majesty, radiant and absolutely breathtaking.
MPEG Stream: "Thaumogenesis (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Thaumogenesis (excerpt 2)"

NADJA Thaumogenesis (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
This is a super limited re-press of the long out of print Thaumogenesis record, released on aRCHIVE a while back. Only 500 copies, and supposedly the second and final re-press so don't miss out again...
Here's our review from when we first listed it:
The latest from Aidan Baker's slow motion sludge metal doom duo Nadja.
And it's a killer. One single 62 minute long track, bass, guitar and drum machine, all woven into a slowly undulating soundscape of blissy drone and monstrous pummel.
The disc begins with 5 minutes of glistening shimmer, a slowly shifting swirl of bleary eyed sound. before the hammer falls and the beast lurches forth. A lush, massive, lumbering dirge, but rife with dense layers of sound, nearly orchestral in it's depth, a cyclical main riff, downtuned and dripping with distortion, beneath that, a strange glimmering melodic sparkle, as if millions of tiny diamonds were sprinkled into the blackened tarpit sludge, beneath it, a simple machinelike rhythm pulses relentlessly, like some sort of robotic heartbeat. It's like some Frankensteinian collage of Godflesh, Jesu, SUNNO))) and old Swans. It's heavy and bleak and doomy, but like Jesu, the sound is imbued with a strange warmth, and emotional mystery, that makes this much more than an exercise in guitardrone.
And the sound is not static, it wavers and shifts, the melody subtly changing shape, all without the rhythm ever wavering. About 20 minutes in, the wall of guitar drops away, leaving simple distorted strums to float weightless above a single drum hit, repeated over and over, strangely meditative and serene. Before building back up again, but instead of sounding metallic, it sounds lush and expansive, the guitars billowing and glowing, a mighty Ur-drone, alive and vibrant.
Almost halfway through, a totally amazing riff is introduced, a moaning minor key melody that soars over the swirling blackness below, and adds all sorts of tension, a lurching slow motion stoner rock almost, that gives away once again to a blissed out soundscape of soft fluttering tones and warm muted colors, before erupting into one final salvo, a blinding burst of white light from the mouth of infinity, a soul shearing wave of incandescent guitars and psychedelic overload. Like Merzbow filtered through M83 and played by Philip Jeck, a glorious blast of spectral majesty, radiant and absolutely breathtaking.
MPEG Stream: "Thaumogenesis (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Thaumogenesis (excerpt 2)"

NADJA Thaumoradiance (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
Besides being one of FIVE, count 'em, FIVE new releases from the ever prolific Nadja on this week's list, Thaumoradiance also just so happens to be a companion to a previously released disc, Thaumogenesis, which has just been repressed and is also reviewed elsewhere on this list as part of the abovementioned four.
Being a companion release, it of course shares much sonically with its predecessor, a sound shared by most Nadja records in fact, but as we've mentioned before, Nadja have found a sound, and embodied it. Made it absolutely their own. The sound of Nadja is not something you'd easily confuse with their doombliss brethren. While they exist in a scene rife with bands creating similar music, a world of droning dirgey doomy metallic show gaze-y bliss, they also exist outside of it.
Thaumogenesis is gorgeous sounding, recorded live. Two tracks. The first, is the title track from an older Nadja record, reimagined, and begins as a slow core crawl, with hushed vocals, waaaaay off in the distance drum machine skitter, simple soft guitar strum, peppered with HUGE speaker melting walls of sound. Crumbling distortion, garbled vocals, throbbing bass, the cool thing here, is the weird digital skips and stutters, the heavy part always being preceded by some glitched out chunk chunk chunk, before the hammer falls. And the opener transforms surprisingly into a thick shimmery high end whirl, white noise washed out into dreamy feedback speckled glimmer.
The second, is an alternate version of "Thaumogenesis", and is just as gloriously blissed out and effulgent as the original version. Much of the track is spent glistening minimally, melodies and notes nothing but soft smears of sound, a washed out haze of barely there shimmer, but it's Nadja, so the heavy parts manage to be just as pretty, but suffused with blown out buzz, and a rainbow halo of crackle and buzz, whir and hum, the drums a monstrous pummel, the bass and guitar thick and superdistorted, but still shot through with dreamlike melodies, and wreathed in an warm unearthly glow. We describe the original as sounding like M83, Merzbow and Philip Jeck, if anything this version, is less Merzbow and more of the other two, eventually unwinding into a languorous fuzz infused drift, peppered with haunting FX drenched percussion, and dark whirling ambience. Haunting and lovely. Of course.
As with all aRCHIVE releases, the packaging is fantastic, similar to Thaumogenesis, a sort of 6 panel center gatefold, the cd affixed to the inner center panel, artwork by Seldon Hunt, and of course, LIMITED TO ONLY 600 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "Radiance Of Shadows"

NADJA Touched (Alien8 Recordings) cd 13.98
While not a 'new' record per se, Touched, by AQ dreamdoom faves Nadja is in fact their newest release, a collection of older tracks, from a long out of print cd-r, reworked and retooled into arguably one of the prettiest, heaviest, most blissed out doom records of recent memory.
Which makes sense when you consider the fact that Nadja mastermind Aidan Baker, spends the rest of his time creating gorgeous, fuzzy dark ambient soundscapes, all of which end up informing his more metallic alter ego, turning what could have been a run of the mill funereal downtuned trudge, into a mind bending, ear melting psychedelic drift.
Quite possibly the heaviest Nadja record yet, this is a serious slab of spaced out, acid fried, FX drenched doom, all wrapped in thick swirls of soft fuzz, and dense clouds of blurry buzz, a monstrous caveman plod through a thick, smeary sonic storm. It's like Godflesh wrapped in My Bloody Valentine filtered through some Wolf Eyes, or the Swans covered by the Jesus And Mary Chain, remixed by Tim Hecker. Or even Mogwai's Young Team run through a bank of effects pedals and played back at 16rpm. Heavy and pretty, punishing but strangely serene.
And then there are the vocals, soft and lilting and dreamy, fluttering and floating amidst the crash and cacophony, like mysterious spectres, an amazing juxtaposition of industrial throb and glistening shimmer, which ends up sounding almost more Jesu than Jesu.
The guitars are massive, but instead of sounding like the black tar rumble of impossibly downtuned strings, or the jagged crunch and black buzz of other purveyors of metallic slowmotion, Nadja transform their guitars into thick washes of textured sound, constantly pulsing and throbbing, changing shape and color, thick and dense and suffocating, like being submerged in some strange viscous liquid, warm and syrupy, heard from inside this strange sonic cocoon, the outside world becomes a buzzy blur, all the beats and vocals, when they finally make it to your ears, are dull murky plods, or distant wisps of melody.
Each track, at its center, contains a perfect little pop core, some gorgeously melancholy melody, a seriously sublimated hook, which is summarily stretched and twisted into long black stretches of blown out sound, an impossibly heavy slowcore, the poppiness, all but totally obscured by the coruscating sheets of sonic rumble and whir, the pumelling pound, and the gauzy swaths of dreamy shimmer. A never ending (we wish) trudge through epic landscapes of black beauty and bleak mystery.
Doom was never meant to sound this pretty, but we're sure as hell not complaining!
MPEG Stream: "Mutagen"
MPEG Stream: "Stays Demons"
MPEG Stream: "Incubation"

NADJA Trembled (Utech) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Managed to get 15 more of these direct from the band, but that's it. After these are gone, they are gone for good.
A quick look at the Aidan Baker / Nadja website reveals 100 or more recordings, most super limited cd-r's and almost all of them out of print. With that much recorded output, and of what we've heard all amazing, you'd think Baker and Nadja would be household names, at least among the drone-doom-death-dirge set. That day might fast be approaching with so many new, much more readily available releases. This list alone features THREE new Baker releases (two of course incredibly limited, DOH!): two separate Nadja's as well as a solo record.
This Nadja, released on the Utech cd-r label, is limited to 200 copies and comes in a cool stamped and numbered cardstock sleeve and is, guess what? Totally beautiful. The reason we love Nadja so much is that your every day run of the mill doomy sludge is somehow rendered, lovely, pretty, gorgeous even. The sound is thick and heavy and low, but it's suffused with some ineffable warmth, something that makes the sludge sound impossibly sun dappled. Could be the lilting melodies, the drifting disembodied vocals, the fuzzy blissed out production. Regardless, the sound of Nadja almost has more in common with My Bloody Valentine and M83 than SUNNO))) or Boris. It is definitely dirgey, but it's also subtly poppy and just so pretty. Nadja are so good at crafting that perfect otherworldly, drifting away, sinking to the bottom of a fuzz filled sea sort of sound, that we can never ever ever get enough of.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

NADJA Truth Becomes Death (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
Crashing waves of balls of yarn. That's one attempt to explain this band's sound... Along with bringing in the usual Earth, SUNNO))), and Boris comparisons. The Toronto based duo of Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, flute, piano, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass and vocals) are an "atmospheric doom" band whose slow moving, heavy and heavily distorted music definitely shares something with the likes of early Earth, but although they've done a split 3" with UK doom nasties Moss (among several previous underground releases) you can't really define them as being a "metal" band at all. Their gauzy, droney, doom-spelled-backwards music has a warm, melodic underpinning, somewhere within the billowing clouds of distortion that form the three long tracks found here. I guess it's something like the churchy, "funereal" doom of Finland's Skepticism, really, but even more calm, echoed and ambient. Melancholic but very pleasant, with both growled vocals and gentle singing hovering just beneath the surface, this music somehow suggests rays of pure white light shining down from on high to illuminate their low-end murk... and during the final third of the last track "Breakpoint" the heaviness drops away altogether for a quietly sung coda that could be from the most mellow and poetic of indie-pop albums. Nadja's music is definitely more abstract and altered than, say, Ocean (another sludge-dirge outfit reviewed elsewhere this list), and is so much more beautiful than the monochrome darkness dwelt in by many other doom bands. If you can imagine an ultra-distorted hybrid of Growing, Codeine and, uh, Ras Algethi you'd maybe come close to the sound of Nadja... Recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Bug / Golem"
MPEG Stream: "Breakpoint"

NADJA & FEAR FALLS BURNING We Have Departed The Circle Blissfully (Conspiracy) lp 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Our pals at Conspiracy Records, a label/distro based in Belgium, who in the past have brought us records by Boris, Jesu, Shora and more, are this year celebrating their 10 year anniversary. A decade of amazing music. From a bedroom based punk label, to one of Europe's most important and influential labels and distros, all we can say is HURRAY! And HUZZAH! It's always so exciting, when a bunch of folks get together to spread the word about great music, great WEIRD music, and survive, even thrive. Such is the case with Conspiracy. And as if that weren't already enough, just knowing that some great people were selling some amazing music, those sweeties at Conspiracy have decided to share the love with us. And you.
To celebrate their 10th anniversary, they've decided to do a super limited subscription series, 12 records over 12 months, each limited to somewhere between 200-500 copies, ONLY available to series subscribers. EXCEPT, they've decided to let AQ have 20 copies of each, we're the only store with copies of these subscriber only lps, and for a brief moment, we can offer them to you, our loyal AQ customers. Needless to say we are thrilled, as the series lineup reads like a who's who of AQ faves, as well as including a handful of lesser knowns. All pressed on super thick vinyl, and packaged in killer hand screened original art sleeves. But be warned, we only got 20 of each, and we will run out fast and we will not be able to get more. When we do run out, there is a chance you can still get more (or even subscribe to the series) from Conspiracy direct, but what that means is act fast and prepare to leave empty handed.
We couldn't have asked for a more mighty meeting of the drones. Nadja, a long time AQ fave who traffic in SUNNO)))-like dirge, but manage to infuse their glacial soundscapes with surprising warmth as well as all sorts of unlikely glisten and shimmer. Teamed up with Fear Falls Burning, who recently gave us a super limited lp called The Amplifier Drone, which was, as the title suggests, a disc of amp drone and rumble, distorted guitar smeared into dark ambient whir. So what happens when the two team up? Hard to explain exactly. It's definitely, dark and dirgey and droney. But it's also soft focused and moody, dreamy and dense, with strange melodies and drifting percussive elements hovering below the downtuned trudge. In fact, this isn't sludgey so much as it is dark and slow and lovely. Ominous and melancholy, the music here is a lugubrious, abstract, thoughtful journey, guitars distort and crumble, drift and flutter, the drums are a constant pound, but not heavy, just a sort of rhythmic demarcation off in the distance, and through the foggy murk, one can hear all sorts of sonic subtleties. The coolest part is that the main riff is constantly being shuffled and jogged, a skipping loping loop like quality, a hiccup that gives the rhythm and vibe a strange tweak, almost like the doom sludge version of a DJ rewind, the affect is just further disorientation, like someone keeps walking by and bumping the turntable, but somehow perfectly in time with the music. So dark and creepy and perfect.
Original artwork on deluxe hand silkscreened sleeves. The LP's are pressed on super thick 180 gram vinyl and housed in thick plastic sleeves.

NADJA & NETHERWORLD Magma To Ice (Fario) cd 16.98
Number five of five (!) on this week's list from uber prolific doomster Aidan Baker and his doombliss duo Nadja. Thankfully each release has something new to offer, so even if you have a whole shelf in your house dedicated to your Baker/Nadja collection, all four of these are definitely worth making a little extra space for.
This one especially, since if you're a fan of things dark and shimmery, dreamy and drone-y, then you're bound to be enthralled by the Netherworld tracks here, which help balance the loooong Nadja track at the end. Plus the two collaborate on a song as well, so there's lots of doomdreamdrift to be had.
The first three tracks are all Netherworld, and they do in fact sound like some strange Netherworld, all soft swells and muted chimes, gentle drifts of warm whir and distant shimmer, long slow tones, deep lush chordal smears, all very serene and sprawling, minimal, yet somehow epic and cinematic, sweeping soundscapes that evoke, wide open expanses of ice and snow, rolling hills, emptiness, an endless horizon. Soothing and meditative, a disembodied abstract new age, quite lovely for sure. And definitely reminiscent sonically of Thomas Koner, Lull, Biosphere and the like.
The Nadja track that closes the cd is a 19 minute crusher, but as heavy as it is, and as doomy, it manages to be more effulgent and incandescent, the guitars grinding and shooting off rainbow colored sparks, thick radiant swells of sound, that seem to stand still yet manage to convey inexorable forward momentum, in fact this track finds Nadja giving Sunroof! a run for their money. This is a seriously transcendent ur-drone, keening high end, sine waves, crumbling distortion, soaring, whirring, static buzz and fuzz and skree, all over a whirling undercurrent of throb and pulse. Truly one of the most intense and unique tracks we've heard from Nadja.
But before we get to this explosive coda, the two outfits team up for a transitional piece, which manages to perfectly meld the two aesthetics, and acts as a bridge between the serene contemplative drift of Netherworld, and the luminous roar of Nadja. A whirring slow building dronescape, deep resonant rumbles and soaring string like melodies, the layers of sound, thickening, gradually becoming more corrosive, more active, more volatile, until the sound is a roiling organic mass, a heaving sea of tangled tones, woven into a single whirling orb of sonic fire, threatening to engulf everything around it, which perfectly and almost seamlessly leads into Nadja's closing salvo.
Packaged in an oversized, 6 panel gatefold cardstock jacket, glossy and full color, the cd in its own plastic sleeve.
MPEG Stream: NETHERWORLD "Closing To A Winter Night"
MPEG Stream: NADJA & NETHERWORLD "Ice To Magma"
MPEG Stream: NADJA "Kriplyana (Melted And Refrozen Snow That Looks Blue In Early Morning"

NADJA / 5/5/2000 split (Accident Prone) lp + cd 15.98
This long in the works split matches up doombliss duo Nadja (this is one of FIVE new Nadja releases on this week's list! Yowza!) with ambient soundscapers 5/5/2000 (featuring aQ pal Nathan, from Creation Is Crucifixion, M. Kourie, Human Quena Orchestra, and Travis Ryan from Cattle Decapitation) and it proves to be a pretty potent and appropriate pairing.
Nadja start things off, and waste no time, no slow builds, no pretty simmering, it's straight into a big ol' lurching doom, the drums big and reverbed, the guitar offered up in swells, and allowed to drift off, leaving just the drums to pound away between bursts of crumbling distortion. Very industrial sounding, dark ambient, the drums locked into a loop, a distant keening high end hovering just above the rumbling whir, there is a build up, but the duo begin the build already in the thick of it. The guitars grow more and more fuzzed out, the sound becomes thicker and more distorted, the background becomes more chaotic, riffs seem to coalesce out of those abstract swells, strange harmonics drift into the picture, the recording sounds decayed and damaged, as if it was some unearthed archival slab of ancient doom bliss, until the last 4 or 5 minutes, when yet more buzz and distortion enter the fray, and while the drums remain constant, they seem to sink deeper and deeper beneath the blossoming swirl of blown out noise and warm dense fuzz, all the while the sound threatening to crumble or collapse, gloriously fractured post industrial doom bliss crawl for sure.
5/5/2000 reply with what might be their heaviest recording to date. A nearly 17 minute low end sprawl, groaning, coruscating distortion, rumbling and roiling, while beneath some sort of shimmery soundscape plays out. Delicate and dreamy, abstract melodies drifting and swirling, fuzzy and gauzy and blurred into soft focus streaks, until right near the end, when the soft tranquility is overtaken by a dense swell of layered guitar, grinding and buzzing, a blissed out, blown out blackened drone.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Each lp comes with a cd featuring the same music, as well as a printed cardstock insert.
MPEG Stream: NADJA "Spahn"
MPEG Stream: 5/5/2000 "Shadows In The Valley Of Death"

NADLER, MARISSA Australian Tour cd 2006 (Diagnosis...Don't!) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not only do the Grey Daturas kick up a serious noiserock ruckus, they also run their own cd-r label, the mysteriously titled Diagnosis... Don't! There are three new releases, and we managed to get a handful of each.
This is a super limited tour only cd-r from the sweet voiced folk chanteuse Marissa Nadler and features not only a handful of live tracks featuring Nadler accompanied by organ, but also features unreleased 4 track recordings, as well as outtakes from her two brilliant full lengths, Ballads Of Living And Dying and The Saga Of Mayflower May.
All the tracks here are gorgeous (of course), especially the live tracks, soft tangled steel string guitar and Nadler's dreamy vocals, all hovering above a thick soft wash of droning organ. The four track recordings are lovely too, extra lo-fi but thus super intimate, tape hiss and recording crackle making Nadler's already timeless music sound even more from some lost and mysterious past.
Super limited, already out of print, we got a bunch but they won't last. Packaged in cool handmade sleeves, a little hole in the textured paper cover through which another layer of colored paper is visible. Includes a photocopied insert as well.
MPEG Stream: "Flora Barone, Queen Of The Vaudeville Throne"
MPEG Stream: "Box Of Cedar"
MPEG Stream: "Famous Song"

NADLER, MARISSA Ballads Of The Living And Dying (Eclipse) cd 12.98
We've been loving this record for a while now and are only finally now getting around to reviewing it just in time for its release on cd (it was only on lp there for a while). This is a dark and langorous trip through a sonic world of bleak skies, neverending sorrow, lost love, death and dying and all sorts of somber miserablism. The music itself is lush and rich, a warm rainy soundscape of muted finger picked guitars, augmented by occasional banjo, eukele, and autoharp, all lashed together into a modern melding of classic Appalachia, psych folk and classic songcraft.
But it's Nadler's voice that is the most mesmerising part of Ballads Of The Dying, rich, velvety and throaty, completely captivating, and surprisingly reminiscent of Neko Case, but instead of the country wildcat Case, here's she's a rainsoaked and bedraggled innocent, seemingly beaten down but emanating an inner strength, a hidden power, that comes through in her powerful voice.
This is one of those records that seems pleasant enough on first listen, but as you dig deeper, the songs and stories unfold and you quickly find your self living and loving and crying and dying right along with Nadler and the characters she has populated her musical world with.
MPEG Stream: "Fifty Five Falls"
MPEG Stream: "Hay Tantos Muertos"

NADLER, MARISSA Ballads Of The Living And Dying (Eclipse) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been loving this record for a while now and are only finally now getting around to reviewing it just in time for its release on cd (it was only on lp there for a while). This is a dark and langorous trip through a sonic world of bleak skies, neverending sorrow, lost love, death and dying and all sorts of somber miserablism. The music itself is lush and rich, a warm rainy soundscape of muted finger picked guitars, augmented by occasional banjo, eukele, and autoharp, all lashed together into a modern melding of classic Appalachia, psych folk and classic songcraft.
But it's Nadler's voice that is the most mesmerising part of Ballads Of The Dying, rich, velvety and throaty, completely captivating, and surprisingly reminiscent of Neko Case, but instead of the country wildcat Case, here's she's a rainsoaked and bedraggled innocent, seemingly beaten down but emanating an inner strength, a hidden power, that comes through in her powerful voice.
This is one of those records that seems pleasant enough on first listen, but as you dig deeper, the songs and stories unfold and you quickly find your self living and loving and crying and dying right along with Nadler and the characters she has populated her musical world with.
MPEG Stream: "Fifty Five Falls"
MPEG Stream: "Hay Tantos Muertos"

NADLER, MARISSA Songs III: Bird On The Water (Peacefrog) cd 14.98
It feels like it's been awhile since we were graced with a proper new full length from Miss Nadler, and it's certainly welcome. Her haunting gothic folktales seem to get better and more fully realized with each release. Here, she is backed by a fuller sound courtesy of Philadelphia's Espers in full medieval chamber-folk mode making great use of reverberating Tibetan bells, harp and mandolin. But nothing overshadows her sophisticated fingerpicking and voice, which like an antiquated sparrow harkening from a time only experienced in past remembrances transports the listener through lovely gossamer shades of grey. The CD version includes a Leonard Cohen cover, a free sticker and a link to download 4 more unreleased tracks.
MPEG Stream: "Diamond Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Dying Breed"
MPEG Stream: "Bird on Your Grave"

NADLER, MARISSA The Saga Of Mayflower May (Eclipse) cd 14.98
To cry out "holy shit!" would probably be far too boorish and loud when speaking of this album, so instead we'll whisper an impassioned "my goodness!" Yes, this is another wonderful, deeply moving work from Ms Nadler! For those of you adored her last album Ballads Of The Dying even a fraction as much as we did (it was an AQ Record Of The Week back in December), you'll surely welcome this new one. As with its predecessor, The Saga Of Mayflower May is imbued with a sedate earthy beauty rooted in classic Appalachian folk songcraft. It's hard to believe this is a current release. It's strikingly so very out of step with the times in its earnest, clear tone seemingly untouched by modern hustle'n'bustle. In turn, Nadler's vocals bear a striking resemblance to those of Hope Sandoval, Neko Case and Vashti Bunyan. And much like those women, you can imagine her singing these songs aloud whether there's an audience present or not. The music flows from her -- singing just as much to and for herself. Although there is a palpable sorrowful weight to each of the songs, her performance still seems liltingly effortless like autumnal leaves drifting down from an elderly oak tree. From start to finish, this Saga is hauntingly gorgeous. The closing song "Horses And Their Kin" just might leave you in tears. Keep in mind, this is not the record to be playing while you're multi-taskin' and distracted. No, please do yourself and this album a well-deserved favor and set aside some quiet time (oh, at least about 35 minutes or so), and enjoy. Need we say more? Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Calico"
MPEG Stream: "Horses And Their Kin"

NADLER, MARISSA The Saga Of Mayflower May (Eclipse) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
To cry out "holy shit!" would probably be far too boorish and loud when speaking of this album, so instead we'll whisper an impassioned "my goodness!" Yes, this is another wonderful, deeply moving work from Ms Nadler! For those of you adored her last album Ballads Of The Dying even a fraction as much as we did (it was an AQ Record Of The Week back in December), you'll surely welcome this new one. As with its predecessor, The Saga Of Mayflower May is imbued with a sedate earthy beauty rooted in classic Appalachian folk songcraft. It's hard to believe this is a current release. It's strikingly so very out of step with the times in its earnest, clear tone seemingly untouched by modern hustle'n'bustle. In turn, Nadler's vocals bear a striking resemblance to those of Hope Sandoval, Neko Case and Vashti Bunyan. And much like those women, you can imagine her singing these songs aloud whether there's an audience present or not. The music flows from her -- singing just as much to and for herself. Although there is a palpable sorrowful weight to each of the songs, her performance still seems liltingly effortless like autumnal leaves drifting down from an elderly oak tree. From start to finish, this Saga is hauntingly gorgeous. The closing song "Horses And Their Kin" just might leave you in tears. Keep in mind, this is not the record to be playing while you're multi-taskin' and distracted. No, please do yourself and this album a well-deserved favor and set aside some quiet time (oh, at least about 35 minutes or so), and enjoy. Need we say more? Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Calico"
MPEG Stream: "Horses And Their Kin"

NAFTULE'S DREAM Job (Tzadik) cd 15.98
This dynamic twenty-first century klezmer ensemble incorporates jazz improv, guitar-hero mannerisms and hea